Ripples in Time

What if everyone in the world, every single one of us - all seven billion of us - on the Earth stopped whatever we are doing at this very moment - took a deep breath and said, "I am Love"; what if that happened?  What if every soldier, every prime minister, every child, every businessman, every mother, every teacher, every rabbi, every imam, priest, yogi, every rich man, every poor woman - what if everyone said, "I am Love," all in unison, all around the world, right now?

Then, what if everyone looked at the person next to them, and said to that person, "You are love, too."  and then, they would realize that I and you, we, are all love.  In that one moment, or maybe two moments, the whole world would know the truth, finally.

Why doesn't everyone know that they are made of love, for love, to love and in that love is the most wonderful, creative, adventure, and it is why we're all here.  There are universes upon universes in the eyes of your neighbor.  Your shadow self is in the eyes of your enemy.  Who you really think you are is all around you in your life right now.  The terrible economic crisis that's slowly debilitating Europe and soon to come to a town near you, is symptomatic of our global spiritual impoverishment.  There's no use pointing fingers at Enron, or Wall Street, or the U.S. government, or even multi-national corporations who are indeed sucking the planet dry, it's too late for all that.

It's time now - right now - to put down your newspaper - and pick up the phone and call someone, anyone, and tell them in whatever why you can that you love them.  In that single gesture, you are acknowledging that you are love because you do, act out, of your own nature.  If you rob someone, it's because you think you are poor, and you are - you are poor in self love and the knowledge that you have the power in you to attract everything you need.  If you give to someone, it's because you think you have more than enough and you have the faith in your ability to attract more, even more than the amount you gave.  You see?

So, right now, say to yourself, preferably out loud, "I am love."  Then, say to the next person you see - even if you don't say it out loud - but say it intentionally and strongly in your mind as you direct it at him, "You are love, too."  In those two moments, you will have sent a message deep into your mind, that will help bring forth who you really are, who that other person really is, who we all really are. It might just come back to you in some unexpected way.  The more love we accept and affirm that we have, the more we will see it out there, projected out on the movie screen of your life.

The problem with the world is that too many people forgot who they are.  They forgot that the person who strikes them, lashes out in anger, or terrorizes them in some way, is acknowledging that they don't have love in them. They have a love deficiency.  The way to treat a love deficiency, is to love.  (However, enabling is not love, and how to treat people in the criminal system is another story, but love needs to be part of their healing.)

There's a story told by Ronald Rolheiser in his book, The Holy Longing, which so beautifully portrays this idea.  I quote: "One day the Buddha, badly overweight, was sitting under a tree.  A young solder, trim and handsome, came along, looked at the Buddha, and said, 'You look like a pig!'  The Buddha replied,  'Well, you look like God!'  'Why would you say that?' asked the rather surprised young soldier. 'Well,' replied the Buddha, 'We see what's inside us.  I think about God all day and when I look out that is what I see.  You, obviously must think about other things'..."

So, right now - deep breath - and say to yourself ....
"I am love," "Soy el amor," "Я - любовь," "أنا أحب," "Jag älskar," "Είμαι αγάπη," "Ako pag-ibig," "Ich bin Liebe," "Je suis l'amour," "Tá mé grá,""אני אוהב," "Ja uwielbiam," " EU sunt iubirea," " Mimi ni upendo," "Yr wyf yn gariad," "Ja sam ljubav," "我爱," " Já jsem láska," "Mwen renmen," "मु३ो प्रेम," " Ég er ást," "IO sono amore," "من عاشق .".....

.... and that doesn't even include all the languages of the Native peoples of the Americas.  At our core, in our hearts, we all want to be loved and to love, everything else is just what we do while we're waiting for love to arrive within us, around us.  But, we can give it a little nudge by first loving ourselves and then allowing that love to spill out into our immediate surroundings and letting it spread out like ripples from a pebble thrown in the lake.  If we all do it, our ripples would all connect.

And, what if we did it every day as often as we remembered? That would be amazing!

Thank you for loving yourself and the whole world.  It's a beautiful place and life is a wonderful adventure - especially when it's spring and we're all in love - with love.


Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing (New York: Doubleday, 1999), pp. 239 - 240.

"Lift Up Your Hearts"

The lead conductor of the angelic realm, looking down at Earth from on high, sang to all of life now languishing on the smoking planet, 


"O, people, O blessed ones, who still have yet to know who you really are, 'Lift Up Your Hearts. Lift up your eyes, your ears, your voice and all of heaven will hear the song of your hearts.' "


Softly, in a muffled whimper, the people who heard, sang back, "We lift them up to the Lord."


Joyously, energized with an abounding new hope for his creation, the great One chimed in now with all the angelic realm, 


"I am with you now and always, even as I have always been with you, since the beginning."


A stillness .... then, in a long, great exhale, they responded in the wake of the great One's song, merging heaven and earth in a great cosmic dance of reunion, so long awaited, so long sought after, so long prayed for.  


The weary ones, the hungry, the outcast, the old, the young, the sick, all those who have suffered for their unguarded, open-hearted natures which too often left them vulnerable to the spiritual buzzards who soared the skies searching the earth to feed their voracious appetites on human souls, all those huddled and poor, tossed across the ocean to an unknown, English-speaking land with the faint hope life could be better than the constant fear of terrorism - the terrorism of their own religion, of their own governments, of their own family - they all heard the great One in their hearts. 


In every language and through - even despite - every religious lens or the loud sirens and screams from another car bombing - through all the noise around them and the groaning masses among which they too found themselves, they heard.  The great One, along with the great masses of angels gathered together, sang softly into each heart, "I am with you .... now and always.....lift up your hearts."


These precious dear ones, among whom you too are counted, could hear the great One's voice because all else in this dying world had been silenced or taken away from them.  There were no more ambitions, no more vain dreams for power, greed, conquest - not anything. All that was stripped away until all they had was each other and they stood together, empty of anything but the single thing that held them together - their common humanity and shared hope.  In their hunger and their poverty, they came to this moment with only their complete surrender to the great creator of life itself.  


Like a dying starfish on the ocean shore, they waiting for the great One's help. Even in their waiting, they held a faint whisper of hope that somehow they could and would survive. They all knew on an even deeper level that each had prayed, even despite a blind and weak faith, they had prayed to the great One to save the world, to end the wars, remove the lies that penetrated the hearts and minds of even the best among them.  They thought the great One might not have heard their prayers, but they waited anyway.


The great One was always there, always listening, always loving and longing for their voices, gathered together as one, to ascend, and on this beautiful, perfect morning, they heard the angels finally.  They heard the cosmic invitation to lift up their hearts, and they tried and they lifted.  In their last reach in hope, they sang back, together, in each own's language and culture and religion .... "We lift them up to the Lord, the ever living God."


For millenia, upon millenia, the great One had waited for this moment when they would give up the lies of the buzzard king.  When they finally fully realized they had been deceived, in that most sacred, eternal moment of awareness, they all awakened and heard the great One's eternal call.  


First, faintly, then growing stronger and stronger in their reply, they sang back, crescendoing throughout the cosmos, "We lift them up to you, holy, ever living God." In each wave of song, their hearts rose, uplifting and dancing among the stars with the angels and the great One, until they were fully restored, with new flesh and bone, new hearts of power and greatness. 


Then, together with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, they praised the great One, singing,


"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts, Heaven and Earth are full of your glory. Glory be to you, O Lord Most High." 

After a time in heaven, where they were fully renewed and restored, they returned to the barren planet, mere rubble now from the wars between the buzzards and men.  They returned, now powerful, loving creators, living in the dignity of grace given to them by grace from the great One,  the land, misted with a light healing greening balm, grew a beautiful, florid cover, and deer and rabbits emerged from the new bushes..... and then they saw the new Earth... and they felt all around them the presence of the great One.  They, now conscious and aware of the presence in and around them, returned to start again, to live again in this mortal dimension within the great heart beat of the immortal One.

Profound Stillness

Peace is more than an intention, or a wish, or a prayer. It is more than antiwar protests, long eloquent speeches or articles, even books. It is so much more than even that calm between storms. It is not a liberal Democrat’s political position promulgated in Congress like an anti-missile launch. It is not political, economical, social - not earthly at all. It is not something we do. It is not an action of any kind. It is in the breath between words, in that moment when we stop talking, even stop thinking, and allow the angels space to breathe for us.

Peace is that profound stillness, infinitely fertile power which removes all barriers to the divine presence and gently holds you. It is an infinite and deeply saturated moment infused with love and the presence of God.

Peace, like so many beautiful spiritual attitudes, 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 reinterpreted 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.

Peacemakers throughout these long dark centuries have, through deep prayer (as in Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Jesus, Buddha, and so many others in recent times), discovered a great calm, an endless ocean of 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. It has its own intelligence and being and comes on the wings of grace when it wills, when the climate is right.

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 grown. They can make the workplace 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 workplace, 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, detoxify 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 prepare for peace, and wait, peace will surely come.

Peace I leave with you, 

my peace I give unto you: 

not as the world gives, give I unto you. 

Let not your heart be troubled, 

neither let it be afraid. 

- John 14:27

Shadow of Death

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 

He leadeth me beside the still waters. 

He restoreth my soul: 

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; 

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: 

Thou anointest my head with oil; 

my cup runneth over. 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: 

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.  

(Psalm 23, KJV)

Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross and in three days rose from the "dead," and continues to live eternally at the "right hand of the Father."  So, if that is true - if our faith is authentic - then it would logically follow that he is still alive in another state or dimension, one that we cannot "see" with our human eyes, but can feel or "see" with our inner eye. If that is what we believe, then it should not come as a surprise that Christ is talking to us today, as he always has throughout the ages to mystics and others, i.e. St. Theresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, Teresa "the little flower," just to name a few.  In these "last days," and exactly what that means remains to be clarified, it seems he is very much speaking to us, through modern prophets, mystics and just ordinary people all over the world, in every country and culture. The dark forces would keep us skeptical, doubting these people's witness, unbelieving of their messages that reveal their encounters with Christ.  But, if you have studied the ancient scriptures, many of the Gnostic scriptures (although  not all) and poured deeply over the Gospels, you will find the SAME message coming through.  Through my own study, several years ago I came across The Christ Letters.  At first, like many others, I was skeptical, until I really read them and saw that Christ was honestly and truly speaking to us, AGAIN. And, why wouldn't he?  Doesn't our world need him now as much as ever, if not moreso. So, this day, this Good Friday, when we kneel at the cross and remember his courage, his strong faith, his powerfully authentic Oneness with God, a bond so strong that death could not sever it, we may also remember that he taught us how to enter into that same bond with God, how to build a strong bond with God, one strong enough that when our mortal bodies have ceased breathing, our souls would remain connected to God and continue to live in truth, without illusion, eternally.  I believe that when that day comes, when we have "fought the good fight," we will indeed really see with our inner eye, Christ standing there before us with arms outstretched welcoming us into the light. So, on this Good Friday, I am sharing the following from The Christ Letters with you.  May you be cheered by this good news:  There is no death and God's love is sufficient to bring you through any trial, any "shadow of death," safely, completely and truly.  This is no fairy tale.  It's the real deal.

Dear Readers of Christ's Letters, Letter 3 Christ outlines to us the truth regarding his death on the cross, and what it really meant to humanity. He wasn't the 'sacrificial lamb' millions believe was led to the slaughter... He was simply the man who died because he knew and spoke the Truth of Existence.   "In the garden, there was a special boulder, shaped like a little cave. I liked to shelter in it from the wind. And so I sat and meditated and prayed, seeking a way into the exalted harmony I had enjoyed in the past. I knew that when I moved into attunement with the 'Father Love', my fears would dissolve and I would be in a state of total and absolute peaceful confidence again. As I felt the Power of Love move into me and possess my human consciousness, so did the strength to endure what lay ahead, possess my heart. I would be able to remain within the Love and give the Love to others to the very end. And so it was. I will not even attempt to re-enter into the trial and crucifixion state. It is of no consequence. When I finally died on the cross and my spirit withdrew from my tortured body, I was lifted into ineffable and radiant LIGHT. I was enclosed in the warmth and comfort of LOVE, such as I had never experienced before. I had a sensation of enveloping praise, a powerful assurance of work well done, of ecstasy in universal strength to continue the work, and joy and rapture which is far beyond any that the earthly condition can ever know. I moved into a new and wondrously beautiful way of life but I still descended in consciousness to remain in touch with the people I had left behind. I was able to show myself to those who were sufficiently sensitive to be able to see me. However, the story of Thomas who supposedly fingered my wounds is nonsense." - Christ Returns, Letter 3                 Many of you within the community may be aware of our dear friend and brother, Marco, in Italy. He is truly living within the light of Christ, for he and his friends have been inspired to walk into the heart of Vatican City and enlighten people to the Truth... the Truth about Christ. It is this Truth that the world so desperately needs to hear. The quote I have chosen for this week, and for this Easter period, is so important for the message we believe in, because it separates our Millennium Christ-given Truth from the beliefs of Christians. Without ideas like this, we would simply be another Christian sect, like the nearly 2000 Christian Churches estimated to be established today in the world. This quote is the message which the world needs to hear... That their view of Christ as the 'only begotten Son' is wrong. The true message of the Letters is of a man who attained the Christ Consciousness. The message of a spirit who freed himself from the chains of the ego. The message of a free spirit who wasn't sacrificed by his father in some cruel enactment of mercy, but the message of a free spirit who dared to live in alignment with Divine and to teach others from that standpoint. Christ... thank you for bringing your message to the world then as you have done in our time. Thank you for enlightening us to the Nature of Reality, and our place in it. Thank you for never giving up when the world acted as six-year-olds brawling over one toy action figure. Thank you for your unconditional love that your pour out for all. We owe you so much, and this Easter time shouldn't be a time to remember your crucifixion and fabled resurrection... but a time to remember what you have given the world in your teachings.     With love and light, Mark

Perfect as One

(Garden of Gethsemane)

What fear must have gripped his cosmic heart, what grief must have stung his sensitive longing at the betrayal of a friend, what very human thoughts must have dashed through his mind, this young man, barely 30, who knew his destiny, his pending tortured death, before his friends and followers?

Sometimes the anticipation of what lies ahead is more gripping and unbearable than the actual event itself.  The mind can possess your heart in a way that even the heart can't recognize its own oppressor.

Yet, even then, in his own darkest moment, as he wept in the garden before his arrest, he prayed for his friends.  In those moments, as they slept away the wine of their last supper together, he thought of them, "those whom God had given" him, he said.  His fears for them, his deepest concerns for them, was that the "cunning one," the  anti-christ would trick them, steal away their faith, their hope, their love and their very souls.  

He lived and breathed in perfect communion, "as One," he said, with our creator.  He, like Adam, the first man, walked this garden of life, in perfect intimacy with our creator.  His journey here was to open our hearts and our minds, our souls, to the truth that our creator made us out of love and for love, a truth that had been stolen from us by the lies of the anti-christ force that had taken the whole world captive.  He came to free the world from that prison, in which it languished fearfully captivated by a lie.

His message is simple really.  There is no difficult theological underpinnings to this knowledge.  We are made of God, in God's image, to create, to evolve into our adult spiritual selves, and the only way to do that is with God's love, which is the ultimate wisdom.  Wisdom knows that love is the rocket fuel for our souls - not an ordinary wisdom, not an ordinary love, but a wisdom from the most loving source, that opens us into our divine nature to be the ultimate beings of love and creation.

His last prayer, offered to God, in this garden, is recorded in the Gospel of John, Chapter 17*.

"Father, the hour has come,

Glorify your son so that your son may glorify you

as you have given him authority over all flesh

So he may give life everlasting to all you have given him.

And, this is the life everlasting

so that they may know you, the only true god

and he whom you sent,Yeshua the anointed.

I glorified you on earth

by completing the work you gave me to do 

and now glorify me, father, with yourself,

with the glory I had with you before the world was.

I made your name known to the people

whom you gave me from the world.

They were yours and you gave them to me

and they have kept your word.

Now they know that all you gave me comes from you.

Because the words you gave me I gave them.
And they accepted them,

and they knew the truth that I came from you

and believed that you sent me.

I ask for their sake

I am asking not for the sake of the world

but for the ones whom you gave me

because they are yours.

And all that is mine is yours and yours is mine

and I am glorified in them

And I am no longer in the world

but they are in the world

and I am coming to you.

Holy father, keep them in your name

which you gave me

so they may be one as we are one

When I was with them,

through your name I kept those whom you gave me.

I guarded them and not one of them was lost

except the son of perdition

so that the scripture be fulfilled.

Now, I am coming to you

and these things I say in the world 

so my elation be fulfilled in them.

I gave them your word and the world hated them

since they are not of the world

as I am not of the world.

I do not ask you to take them from the world

but to keep them from the cunning one.

They are not of this world as I am not of this world.

Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word** is truth

As you sent me into the world so I sent them

into the world.

And for them I sanctify myself 

so that they also be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask for them alone

but for those believing in me through their word

that we may all be one

as you, father, are in me and I in you,

that the world may believe that you sent me.

The glory you gave me I give them

so they may be one as we are one,

I in them and you in me

so they may be made perfect as one,

so the world may know that you sent me

and loved them just as you loved me.

Father, where I am I want the ones you gave me 

also to be with me and see my glory,

which you gave me since you loved me

before the foundation of the world.

.

Just father, the world did not know who you were,

but I knew you

and these ones knew that you had sent me

I made your name known to them 

and I shall make it known

so the love with which you loved me

maybe in them and I in them.

*   Translated from the Greek, in which the original Gospel of John was written, by Willis Barnstone.  (The Gnostic Bible, edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer, p.90  92)


**  From the Greek "logos" is often translated as "word," and represents the masculine principle of wisdom governing the universe, which is "scientific logic," according to Deacon Thaddeus Pijacki. In Hebrew, wisdom is often personified as Sophia in the feminine principle. Her mystical  "wisdom is an inner understanding that transcends logic and allows meaning to surface for love, courage, beauty, suffering, new life and other abstract realities beyond explanation by Logic," Dr. Pijacki  wrote.