Don't go back to sleep

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

- Rumi

Awaking to real life

                  

 "To another (disciple) He said, "Follow me."

But he (that disciple) said,

"Lord, let me first go and bury my father."

But He said to him,

"Leave the dead to bury their own dead;

but as for you,

go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

                                            Luke 9:60

We all know that the way of the world leads to death, but we may not have considered that throughout our lives we are sleep walking, not really living our lives, not really alive.  While that may sound like a heady statement, for just a moment let the thought drift into your heart.  Consider for only a moment what your heart feels as you consider that statement.

There is more to life than most of us know. Our real lives are waiting for us. For too many of us we are living a spiritually lifeless existence. Jesus calls us to awaken from our deep spiritual sleep; he calls us to this real life.

When he says, "leave the dead to bury their own dead," to a new disciple who has been made alive because he has discovered the kingdom of God within him, he is defining the whole essence of His mystical teaching.

This new consciousness is “the kingdom of God.” Jesus first awakens him and then recruits him to awaken others from their spiritual sleep or living death. He is now to teach that the inner kingdom is spiritual life both now and beyond this mortal life. His teaching is radically new to Judaism and life-giving to everyone. I suspect it still is. Since it is antithetical to dogmatic religion, it was hard for some to understand – then and now. Where before he was dead, as are so many of us who think we’re living but we’re just going through the motions, he is alive with new vitality, liberated from all those things in life that hold us prisoners.  So many of up are blindly on a daily treadmill, repeating empty routines day after day, immersed in and captivated by the ways of the world, really thinking we’re here to make money and succeed at the game of who-can-get-the-most-stuff, never knowing that our real life is quietly waiting for us.

Jesus’ calls this state of spiritual sleep “death.” In Jesus’ language, spiritual death is death. Now that this new disciple has awakened, he can see through the world’s illusion, dispelling its power over him. With that that new consciousness, he is set free of the world’s constraints and the burden of worry and anxiety. While this is only the first step toward enlightenment, it is an all important birth. It is that “born again” experience that is too often misinterpreted and misunderstood. This is a strong focal theme in the Gospel of John, in Gnostic scriptures and the Vedas.

Since our real life sleeps within us, when we awake and tap into it and live into it, we are freed from the limitations and opinions of others and revitalized as autonomous human beings, authentic and alive. We are no longer controlled by those who hold our strings. Rather, we claim our power, activate our divine autonomy and become aware of our ability to direct our life force within us. It feels like pure joy, a rich and palatable peace and buoyant with an equally indescribable joy. Mystics described this state as nothing less than ecstasy or bliss.

Within this new disciple is now the personal autonomy and freedom which has put him on the highway to real life. He will now drink from the river that springs up to eternal life.

As he seeks first the kingdom of God, he will discover that presence of peace and joy within him.

If we listen quietly and remain unmoved by the cacophony around us, we will also sense that presence.



God's presence and power fills the universe

                 (Whirlpool Galaxy, Hubble Photo)

The universe is filled with God's presence, according to scientists and prophets.  Scientists have identitifed a baseline electro-magnetic energy that is measurable and constant throughout the seemingly empty, endless space.  While Protestant theologian, Paul Tillich, called God the "ground of being," it seems that science and religion may be close to agreement. 

Yogis suggest that the cosmic life force, which is ultimate intelligence and "beinghood" and continues to create, is not that baseline electro-magnetic energy, rather it is contained within it.  They would say that "prana," which is not yet measurable scientifically, yet is obviously present, is contained within that baseline field of electro-magnetic energy.   So, it seems the ancients were ahead of modern science: God is everywhere and in everything and nothing can prevent God's presence.  While God is there, it is we are unaware because of we don't see, hear, feel God in our 3-D sensory bodies, which in our spiritual blindness we think is all there is.  We seem to think if we can't see it, touch it, hear it, it doesnt' exist.  We don't even realize how small we are in this amazingly multi-dimentional universe. 

When we expand our awareness, which may have just happened by reading the above paragraph, we open our minds to the possibility that there is a power "out there" and "in here" that we failed to notice.  We thought science had all the answers, and when we look at the spiritual writings through scientific lens, we cannot see, we cannot hear.  We are blind and we are deaf to the spirit.  But, if we realized that science is closing in, narrowing the field, it helps us frame in a new way where ultimate consciousness may be hiding. The yogis believe that the life force, prana, is contained in the air we breathe and as we fill our bodies with this invisible substance, we also increase in both consciousness and heal our bodies. 

The only barrier to receiving this life-giving energy, is in our own minds.  All our tensions, fears, anxiety, worry, judgment and self criticism, all our efforts to conform to the standards of this work, force our minds away from this sublte force back into the madness of the world, which is just a global war-game, a pitiful global soap opera, being played out on the global stage. 

If we were tuned in to the subtle energy of God, the Spirit of God, we would seek only His love, only His spirit, only His life-giving life force.  We would want to fill our bodies, as we fill our gas tanks, with His life force energy. If we did that, we would see everything differently, we would feel whole and beautiful, radiant and alive, full of joy and peace and love.  Little religious differences, political-ethnic-socio-economic diversity would make our lives more interesting.  We would welcome the stranger with arms and heart wide open.  We would wonder with love and curiousity, how does this life force energy, which is the One God whose substance we are all made of, inform other cultures.  How does a different religion acknowledge this awesome presence?  Rather than fear, we would operate out of love.  We would embrace, not wall off each other. 

I have often thought that materialism is a way of walling off each other from each other.  It is like building castles and moats to keep the enemy, the other, out. Intentional poverty is a form of universal openness to God and each other.  When we are wholly dependent on God, we open our hearts in ways we don't usually when we are balancing our check books, talking to the realtors, bankers, employers, and trying to catch a deal here there and everywhere, even in our relationships.  It is an entirely different way of life, a way of life that we do choose. 

Perhaps we once defaulted in our decision, following the dictates of our dominate culture without discernment. Now, however, we have a choice, if only because we know we have a choice.  And, that choice is between radical honesty and openness before God, ourselves with ourselves, and each other. We can choose to either invite the life force to flow through us, or block it by choosing wealth, power and the accumulation of material things instead, which usually leads to forms of classism and prejudice. 

We have that choice in every thing we say and do.  It is our "a priori" condition; it is our "fundamental option," to quote some beautiful Roman Catholic moral theology.  And, while we think we have free will, it seems that our only choice really is this one.  Who do we choose?  Do we choose materialism or a relationship with the divine and each other, union with God and each other?  That is our only choice.  We make it in every word we speak, every dream we dream, every thought we think, every smile we either return or refuse.  Jesus said you could not do both.  You had to choose.  Materialism and spirituality are like oil and water. You can not choose materialism and spirituality because you would worship one over the other. 

Sadly, our world has made the lesser choice, but each of us can make up our minds for ourselves and make the choice to be open to life - open to each other, open to whatever happens, living in an attitude of radical openness, allowing life to happen, unclenching the fists, releasing the need to control and let the chips fall as they may while knowing that the power of that life force energy is there, always there, and it is life itself. 

If we align ourselves with that truth and that power, our lives will bloom like the beautiful trees that breathe in that life force energy, freely, without fear, panic or anxiety. Making the choice to put spirituality and God ahead of materialism, especially during these difficult economic times, is a very real, visceral, leap of faith.  It is asking for your trust, your faith, and then for your patience as you struggle against the darker forces which will tempt you, challenge you, shake your cage of fear.  But, if you make this choice, this better one, you may feel some of the tension the shifting of world priorities will cause you, but once it is made, you will enter into the power of God and you will feel His love and you will feel a peace and joy unlike anything this materialistic age could offer you.

Setting the table for peace

Peace is more than an intention, wish or prayer.  It is more than anti-war protests, long eloquent speeches or articles, even books.  It is so much more than a cease fire between nations. It is not a liberal Democrat's political position promulgated in Congress like an anti-missile launch.  It is not political, economic, social, or earthly at all. It is not something we do.  It is not an action of any kind.

Peace is that profoundly still calm, infinitely fertile power which removes all barriers to the divine presence and gently holds you.  It is an infinite and deeply saturated moment of God-presence. 

"My peace I leave with you. 
Not as the world giveth, give I unto you."

Peace, like so many beautiful spiritual attitudes and platitudes, has long eluded us.  As the many centuries-long dark night of our collective soul clouded over Earth's civilizations, each in its own way, re-interpreted these ancient ideas, in less and less depth, until they became social action statements, political platitudes, nice Sunday-School ideas, but not the cutting edge, opening into ultimate truth and reality, essential truths they really are.

Peace-makers throughout these long dark centuries of this Kali Yuga, have through deep prayer (as in Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Jesus, Buddha, and so many others) have discovered this great pervasive stillness.  It is beyond understanding, beyond words.  It is beyond intellectual description or understanding.  It is ineffable BECAUSE it resides in and emerges from the heart, which has its own language, often realized through the arts. It radiates itself, as love radiates itself.  Words may be able to frame it, a bit, but they are not it.  It also cannot be legislated, because it is free and comes of its own free will.

Peace grows in a unique soil, lives and flourishes in a fertile climate.  Like a precious rare flower, it will not grow in an acidic oil slick, or a chemically infused, toxic environment.  It grows in a gentle valley, a sacred place, where it is honored and welcomed.  It is a place where the heart is cherished above the hardness of the brain.  It is a place of unsurpassed patience, of endless compassion, of resonant music and light, gentle and allowing.  It grows where it is seeded and then nourished.  It cannot be bought or sold or controlled or enslaved.  It is eternally alive and powerful in its ability to bring all who enter into its gentle, radiant stillness, deeper into the throne room of God, into  the real holy of holies within the human soul, into the authentic presence of God, whom we can meet in this climate of peace.

Peace seekers can create the right climate in which it can be seeded and grow.  They can make the work place or home an intentional, uncluttered gentle garden for love, acceptance, unconditional compassion, infinite patience, filled with much beauty. They can make it a place that honors each and every one that lives, works or enters it.  The spiritual light and love in that garden can be enhanced by the objects placed within it.  Light attracts more light.  Color brings life to a dead space.  Soft music, Baroque, Classical, sweet Irish ballads, some ancient chanting, played softly, in an atmosphere of positive aromatic essences - lavender and jasmine and rosemary, for example, all will help to create an invitation to peace.  

Peace is like the proverbial bird of paradise.  It comes at our invitation when the climate is right.  The right climate is the invitation.  It is also invited intentionally by us through prayer and the stillness of meditation.

Peace is waiting for an invitation. As you look around your home, your office, your work place, see how it does - or doesn't - invite peace.  Then, if, in your heart of hearts, you truly want to raise the spirituality of this place, detox it, get rid of the old stuff, paint the walls, bring in plants and fountains, a lead-free scented candle.  Set aside time each day to sit quietly in that atmosphere, just being, not doing, and pray or sit in quiet reflection or meditation.  If we set the table for peace, and wait for peace (1 Corinthians 13), peace will surely come.

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted
among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth."
Psalm 46:10

Peace

God the "compassionating one"

Compassion on earth .... drop whatever you're doing and listen to this beautiful talk by Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is the planner of the proposed Islamic community center near ground zero. This is truly beautiful and exactly what the world needs to hear right now. I now understand that his community center is an effort to offer Islam's answer. You will be glad that you took the few minutes to listen to him. The link to the video follows the article, written by Imam Rauf, and published by CNN, which I'm sharing here. 

Victoria

 

Imam Rauf: What's right with Islam www.cnn.com

"To hold high the lamp of freedom, hope and 

friendship is America's greatest gift to the world."

                              --Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

(CNN) -- The world wants to like America. The guiding values that Thomas Jefferson articulated so eloquently -- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- resonate strongly around the world, transcending countless superficial and cultural differences, not because these are American values, but because they are universal values, embedded in the human heart.
 
Americans must outgrow the unbecoming arrogance that leads us to assert that America somehow owns a monopoly on goodness and truth -- a belief that leads some to view the world as but a stage on which to play out the great historical drama: the United States of America versus the Powers of Evil.  

The language of good versus evil is precisely the language of the fundamentalists whose worldview we oppose. Once we define as evil those who counter us, we lose the moral high ground and begin to descend an exceedingly slippery ethical slope.

Sufis teach that we first must battle and destroy the evil within ourselves by shining upon it the good within, and then we learn to battle the evil in others by helping their higher selves gain control of their lower selves.
 
To battle the evil of others by responding in kind and exhibiting equally violent aggressive behavior is to flout the very ethic of our religious traditions; it is also to violate the Geneva conventions, international law, the United Nations, world opinion, and even our own Bill of Rights. If we truly believe that God is on our side, rather than making sure that we are on God's side, we slip into the illusion that sees no measure as too extreme -- a delusion that captivates every extremist heart.

We have two powerful tools with which to bridge the chasm separating the United States from the Muslim world: faith in the basic goodness of humanity and trust in the power of sincerity and dialogue to overcome differences with our fellow human beings.

This faith and this trust are taught by all the Abrahamic traditions. They define the Abrahamic ethic, which lies at the core of our American Declaration of Independence, and America needs to rely more heavily on them, as do our fellow actors on the stage of history.

What's right with America and what's right with Islam have a lot in common. At their highest levels, both worldviews reflect an enlightened recognition that all of humankind shares a common Creator -- that we are, indeed, brothers and sisters.
 
In 1883, when Emma Lazarus wrote the words that celebrate the beautiful lady who stands so resolutely in New York's harbor, she was not imagining an isolationist empire-nation bent only on pursuing its own unilateral vision for the world.

Rather, she had in mind a nation resting securely on its foundations of democracy, freedom, and human rights, of which Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and the other great fathers and mothers of this nation dreamed.

It is humanity's dream -- rich with hope and idealism for a troubled world -- that the great lady in the harbor symbolizes. To hold high the lamp of freedom, hope, and friendship is America's greatest gift to the world -- and its sacred responsibility. 

 As I sailed into New York on the cold wintry morning of Wednesday, December 22, 1965, on the Italian SS Michelangelo, I beheld the Statue of Liberty and wondered what America had in store for me.

Little did I realize then that I was to discover the riches of my faith tradition in this land. Like many immigrants from Muslim lands, I discovered my Islam in America.

I therefore entertain a wish, shared by my reading of my noble scripture, the Quran, regarding all religions, including Judaism and Christianity -- the very same wish entertained by all who have taken part in interfaith dialogue across the ages.




For the video, please go to CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/12/rauf.islam.compassion/index.html?hpt=C2