Unceasing Prayer

An amber radiance seeped through the late fall foilage diffusing an incandescent awe among nature's artistry unnoticed by those few who awakened to embrace her in an early morning run or walk. 


Quiet light, rich rivers of harvest hues gently swaying, coursing, resonating with an invisible presence swept the canvas of space in which it was immersed in breathtaking gasps of being and beauty.

Cathedrals of time and space lingered effervescently among the vibrant colors of light surging in the mystical morning prayer.  Whispered before and within as it swayed gladly, freely in its unknowing, the morning prayer was its surrender to a calling of which it was unaware and yet fully engaged.

Ecstatically, the magical essence danced in the blurring misty vibrance of joyous being in which it surged, exhaling its own expanding self.  


Yet still, like blind mice, the morning visitors saw not the cosmic prayer through which they ran, racing away from and as much as into the breath of life, lingering invisibly in the beauty and wisdom, an open window to eternity, waiting endlessly to be seen.

Embracing Holiness

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, 

when the kingdom of God  should come, 

he answered them and said, 

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. 

Neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there! 

for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:20-21 

'If your leaders say, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the 

birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' 

then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within 

you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be 

known,and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. 

But if you do not know yourselves, 

then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."  

Gospel of Thomas

"We just need one more thing," he said, announcing a last minute run to the store.  Everything necessary for a weekend celebration had already been purchased.  The pumpkin and apple pies were baked.  The house was scrubbed, laundry done, beds made. Everything was in order for our company. Then he remembered something and we needed to run out for just one more thing.  The spell of joy had been cast, the anticipation was knit into the very air in preparation for the great day of thanks with a large family and some dear friends.  But, now, we had to go out in the rain, the cold, the dark for one more thing.  

I begged not to go, but finally relented, at their insistence.

"We just have to run into Wal-Mart for something," he said.

"Batteries," I hoped, feeling that anything else wasn't worth the effort.  Lately, I'd surrendered almost completely to all these little unforseen, unexpected things because I've found the divine speaks through them.  So, I threw on my oversized fisherman's sweater and hopped into the back seat of the car.  My daughter, who was still an amateur behind the wheel, needed additional driving guidance from her father. So, I was exiled to the backseat where I would be less stricken by the inevitable near death experiences of her close encounters with the strange kind on the road. 

The bright lights of the mega shopping complex were blinding as I stepped in out of the dark rainy night.  Strangely, there were few shoppers there, but the store sales and management staff were engaged in a kind of frenzied ritual, pulling large pallets, tightly wrapped in plastic, bursting with toys and other Christmas shopping "stuff."  They were drunk with the excitement, almost how one would imagine Santa's elves might be delighting at loading the sleigh.

It wasn't so much the orgy of materialism that was about to erupt the next night, on the eve of Black Friday, midnight of our national day of thanks, it was the surreal strangeness of it all that sruck me.  Then, I realized how disgusted I was by it all.  I knew that any  minute they were going to start to play the Christmas hymns, Silent Night, etc. over the loud speakers to "get shoppers in the mood." 

This isn't about Wal-Mart or any other mega shopping complex, rather it is about us.  We have missed the mark, we are charging like sheep into the wrong pasture, one of a pack of wolves in sheep's clothing and not heeding the direction of our beloved Great Shepherd. 

We know we've defamed these two holidays with our gluttony and materialism. In fact why don't we all be honest and admit it that we are feeding the Antichrist when we pretend to celebrate the birth of the Sacred Child who urged us to surrender our love of riches as we search for (and find) the kingdom of God through the narrow gate? And, that's especially the case when we shop in greed, seeking the best bargains to over consume.  You don't need me to tell you that any kind of materialism is swimming upstream from the HOLY, especially when half the world's population is in poverty.

However, that's not even the point really.  It's not so much about what we are doing as much as about what we're not doing.  The point is we really would rather be searching for that kingdom within, that is also all around us.  But, how? Where is it?  What is it? And, without understanding, we return to our old madness. 

The words of these two explicit gospels point to a spiritual kingdom, which brings us into communion with the holy, where we are transformed into beings of light and love.  These are ancient words that are meaningless unless we translate them into ideas which we can comprehend.  The "kingdom" to which the child will lead us is both an altered state as much as it is another dimension.  That child also taught us that we need to give up our addictions - all of them - including those things that bind us and those things we bind to us.

The sad news is that as much as we'd like to enter it, our attachments to stuff, blocks our passage through the narrow gate. We just can't seem to get over our materialism addiction because we're hooked by the media, the traditions, our culture and even our own lack of confidence in ourselves to step outside that foolish fold.  

Throughout the Gospels and all Orthodox, Gnostic and other mystical writings we are challenged to see things differently, to renew our vision, to lift the veils by which this world blinds us, to be "born again" so we will have "eyes to see" that deeper, radiantly authentic "other" dimension which reveals another world, a "kingdom" of light, and love which we all seek and search for among the dark things of this life. 

Worship is not in the rehearsed and well worn act of chanting or praying five or a hundred times a day. Rather it is entering into that kingdom within - which is also spread out among us - that exists for us all to see on another dimension, perhaps a fifth dimension or a 27th dimension, but it is clearly not here in our heavily materialistic third dimension. For those who are able to live in the kingdom, they are those who are "in the world, but not of it."

So, how do we even begin to shift dimensional gears?  Yes, the first may be in thanksgiving, but it may also mean detaching from the materialism around us.  We've become gluttonous and we have to stop.  Just stop.  Don't feed the Wal-Mart machine or cut down our evergreen forests.  That is not how we enter the narrow gate.  Even Santa couldn't get through it. Maybe America needs to do a 12-Step approach to ending her addictions.  The first step is to ask for help, and my guess is heaven is happy to help.

That's a beginning.  Then, we will feel within us a sense of gratefulness, of thankfulness, for what we don't have.  Yes.  We will be thankful that we aren't rich, that we don't have enough to eat, that we are poor,  BECAUSE then we can be filled by the holy when there is an empty vessel into which it can flow.  Then, we will be blessed with what is real and everlasting, which is an inexplicable joy that scents everything around us and within us with the fragrance of heaven.  


While there's more, so much more about the parabolic journey to that gem of great price within us, buried deeply and waiting quietly in the midst of the dark soil of our lives and being, changing our direction and wanting to find it, wanting to enter the kingdom, wanting to leave all this insanity behind - that's at least a good beginning, an important first step, on the heels of which Advent now follows.

This is our moment .... by Michael Moore

Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?

                                   ...a proposal from Michael Moore

Friends,

This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:

We Envision:

[1] a truly free, democratic, and just society;


[2] where we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus;


[3] where people are encouraged to take personal and collective responsibility and participate in decision making;


[4] where we learn to live in harmony and embrace principles of toleration and respect for diversity and the differing views of others;


[5] where we secure the civil and human rights of all from violation by tyrannical forces and unjust governments;


[6] where political and economic institutions work to benefit all, not just the privileged few;


[7] where we provide full and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow and flourish as human beings;


[8] where we value human needs over monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective democracy is impossible;


[9] where we work together to protect the global environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and clean air, water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.


The next step will be to develop a specific list of goals and demands. As one of the millions of people who are participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, I would like to respectfully offer my suggestions of what we can all get behind now to wrestle the control of our country out of the hands of the 1% and place it squarely with the 99% majority.


Here is what I will propose to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:

10 Things We Want
A Proposal for Occupy Wall Street
Submitted by Michael Moore


1. Eradicate the Bush tax cuts for the rich and institute new taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on corporations, including a tax on all trading on Wall Street (where they currently pay 0%).


2. Assess a penalty tax on any corporation that moves American jobs to other countries when that company is already making profits in America. Our jobs are the most important national treasure and they cannot be removed from the country simply because someone wants to make more money.


3. Require that all Americans pay the same Social Security tax on all of their earnings (normally, the middle class pays about 6% of their income to Social Security; someone making $1 million a year pays about 0.6% (or 90% less than the average person). This law would simply make the rich pay what everyone else pays.


4. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, placing serious regulations on how business is conducted by Wall Street and the banks.


5. Investigate the Crash of 2008, and bring to justice those who committed any crimes.


6. Reorder our nation's spending priorities (including the ending of all foreign wars and their cost of over $2 billion a week). This will re-open libraries, reinstate band and art and civics classes in our schools, fix our roads and bridges and infrastructure, wire the entire country for 21st century internet, and support scientific research that improves our lives.


7. Join the rest of the free world and create a single-payer, free and universal health care system that covers allAmericans all of the time.


8. Immediately reduce carbon emissions that are destroying the planet and discover ways to live without the oil that will be depleted and gone by the end of this century.


9. Require corporations with more than 10,000 employees to restructure their board of directors so that 50% of its members are elected by the company’s workers. We can never have a real democracy as long as most people have no say in what happens at the place they spend most of their time: their job. (For any U.S. businesspeople freaking out at this idea because you think workers can't run a successful company: Germany has a law like this and it has helped to make Germany the world’s leading manufacturing exporter.)


10. We, the people, must pass three constitutional amendments that will go a long way toward fixing the core problems we now have. These include:

A. A constitutional amendment that fixes our broken electoral system by 
1) completely removing campaign contributions from the political process; 
2) requiring all elections to be publicly financed; 
3) moving election day to the weekend to increase voter turnout; 4) making all Americans registered voters at the moment of their birth; 5) banning computerized voting and requiring that all elections take place on paper ballots.


B. A constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not people and do not have the constitutional rights of citizens. This amendment should also state that the interests of the general public and society must always come before the interests of corporations.


C. A constitutional amendment that will act as a "second bill of rights" as proposed by President Frankin D. Roosevelt: that every American has a human right to employment, to health care, to a free and full education, to breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat safe food, and to be cared for with dignity and respect in their old age.

Let me know what you think. Occupy Wall Street enjoys the support of millions. It is a movement that cannot be stopped. Become part of it by sharing your thoughts with me or online (at OccupyWallSt.org). Get involved in (or start!) your own local Occupy movement. Make some noise. You don't have to pitch a tent in lower Manhattan to be an Occupier. You are one just by saying you are. This movement has no singular leader or spokesperson; every participant is a leader in their neighborhood, their school, their place of work. Each of you is a spokesperson to those whom you encounter. There are no dues to pay, no permission to seek in order to create an action.

We are but ten weeks old, yet we have already changed the national conversation. This is our moment, the one we've been hoping for, waiting for. If it's going to happen it has to happen now. Don't sit this one out. This is the real deal. This is it.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!


Yours,
Michael Moore

MMFlint@MichaelMoore.com
@MMFlint
MichaelMoore.com

We are One

You are a master number.  We all are because we are all, at our center, perfectly in tune with the Great Master. You are one with the Great One. You are the vessel through which the power of Love can be operative in our world.  Today, 11/11/11, is a trinity of the master number 11, a divine, powerfully creative, dynamic energy force for enlightenment.  


Today we can commit to changing, to healing, to bringing forth that which is within us, which is the intelligent creative power of Love sourcing itself from the Great Creator and Lover whose very self fills the cosmos with His Spirit.  You are home to that great spirit, as we all are.  At our center, we are all connected, and that connection is a connection to all that is.  And, all that is, is One completely unified intelligence.  Together we can heal all that is within us which blocks us from that center, which keeps us separate, disconnected - our memories of abuse, our fear, our sense of aloneness - so that we,   one by one, can heal and then resonate together as a perfect symphony.  We can heal ourselves and we can heal our world.  


Over the past couple of years writing Tiger Lilies the most beautiful prayer I've written about is the Hawaiian Ho'oponopono prayer of reconciliation.  


Through it, together, we can share in our collective sorrow and offer a collective apology to our world for "those things we have done and those things we have left undone."  Together, we can ask forgiveness from each other.  Together, we can enter into a genuine feeling of grief. And, together, we can find our way out of that grief through seeking and offering forgiveness.  Forgiveness will begin the healing of ourselves and our world.  


And, as in a great collective Amen, together we can exhale in a great sigh of gratefulness for that forgiveness, for that healing, which closes the great wound, the ancient wound out of which we have all operated.  Now, cleansed, healed, restored and whole, together we can whisper into the endless Cosmos, into the very heart of God ..... Thank you ..... We love you.

Divinity on display

     

All that we behold and perceive 

by our senses bears undeniable witness 

to the existence of God - 

the stone and the clod, the plants 

and the trees, the living creatures, 

the heavens and the earth 

and the stars, the dry land 

and the ocean, the fire and the air, 

substance and accident.  

Indeed, we ourselves are the chief 

witnesses to Him. 

But, just as the bat sees only at night 

and cannot see in the daytime 

due to the weakness of its sight, 

which is dazzled by the full light of the sun, 
so also the human mind is too weak 
to behold the full glory 
of the Divine Majesty.

             -  al-Ghazzali

... just a comment on al-Ghazzali's eloquent thought....

We would agree that the human mind (i.e. our rational left-brain thinking machine) is too weak to behold God in the beautiful world in which we live.  In fact, it cannot behold God at all.  BUT, the human heart is not too weak.  The heart radiates an electrical power pulse that is many, many times stronger than that emitted by the brain.  All knowledge is NOT contained in the brain.  There is much memory in the heart - perhaps more than in the brain.  

The human heart CAN behold the full glory of the Divine Majesty spread out before us on this beautiful planet we share together.

The sad reality that so much of the environment has been exploited, abused, destroyed and violated by human beings, suggests that we have not been seeing the Divine Majesty perhaps because we have not been seeing with our hearts, but rather with our minds.

When we look through the lens of our hearts, we will see the soul of an animal, the light vibration emitted from a tree in the forest.  When we see the life in every living thing and being in our world, we will feel a love for it and in that love, we will feel God's presence, God's spirit, which spirals our hearts even closer to His Great Heart.

Photo of the bluffs overlooking the Columbia River Gorge, from Oregon facing Washington State.


Abu Hāmed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzālī (1058–1111), Persian (modern Iran) was  a Muslim theologian and mystic (Sufi). 

Heaven on Earth

"Thy Will be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven"*

Nehwey tzevyanach aykana d'bwashmaya aph b'arha

Your One desire then acts with ours,

as in light, so in all forms.

Let all wills move together in your vortex,

as stars and planets swirl through the sky.

Help us love beyond our ideals

and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.

As we find your love in ours,

let heaven and nature form a new creation.

Unite the crowd within in a vision

of passionate purpose: light mates with form.

Create in me a divine cooperation -

from many selves, one voice, one action.

Let your heart's fervent desire unite

heaven and earth through our harmony.

Your One desire then acts with ours,

as in all light, so in all forms.*

There's a beautiful scene in The Celestine Prophesy, in both the book and movie, in which Will is able to transcend the world, the third dimension.  He is able to appear and disappear, yet remain intact and whole. 

We would call that a miracle. It offers us a vision of what our ascension, our ability to transcend the lower, baser, heavier 3D in which we currently live and consider reality, might look like.  Our heavy 3-D world  is not ultimate reality.  It is only one reality and a rather heavy one with an oppressive spiritual atmosphere - one in which the ego prevails, causing separation, war and conflict, oppression and control, hatred and death, strife, jealousy, competition and violence. 

In this world we only barely get glimpses of real love.  Certainly within our 3-D world there are varying levels of density and luminosity, from the basest, darkest of an oppressive regime which tortures children and the light and love of those who selflessly give their lives to care for others. But, even among the most loving, few actually achieve the ascended state exemplified by Will's high love vibration that supercharges his physical body to the point that he vibrates out of the 3-D, into the fourth and fifth dimensions.

That sounds a bit "out there," you might say, but consider the gospel report of the Upper Room appearance of Jesus?  and the empty tomb and the conversation between Mary Magdalene and the gardener, who she soon realizes is Jesus, her rabboni? What about Jesus' appearance on the Sea of Galilee during a storm, on which he walked?  And, to add to this are many accounts in other less documented "gospels" where Jesus would appear and disappear.  So, there is a precedent for this ability to transcend this 3-D reality, moving in and out of it.

Later in the gospels, Jesus tells us we too can do this and commissions us to do this. Mystics such as Padre Pio and many others have been able to do this.  So, it's not fiction.  It's real.  These mystics also live their lives in bliss. If Christianity could focus on the spiritual maturity and ascension Jesus taught us, the entire human race would have a break through in creating peace, healing the sick and healing the Earth on every level. 

Throughout the ages, we've blindly held the notion that when we die we will go to heaven or hell.  We think if we follow the rules and become perfect little puppets of the religious control masters, we will be rewarded with a pleasant afterlife in paradise. And, if we don't?  There's that other place. Maybe that "carrot" is what kept us all down, enslaved to living outside our own centers, doing what we we're told and living inauthentically. 

The inner pain of living enslaved to any outside ideology, government, religion or dictatorial person, is the greatest abuse, one that would be so unbearable that it would be natural for anyone (individually or collectively) to look forward to a beautiful afterlife, a heavenly paradise and temporally seek refuge in anything that would dim that inner pain. 

The perpetuation of such an oppressive, dark and spiritually dead system has kept us all stuck like glue in this 3-D existence.  We've also been brainwashed so well not to believe that there is anything else, other than all this.

This ancient closed system treats us and all of life as lifeless, inanimate objects, depriving us of our personal access to the divine and our own growth and experience as the powerful, magnificent beautiful, beings we were created to be.  It seems, by the high ratio of alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, violence everywhere, that both escapism is at an all time high and the frustration and anger with being trapped is at an all time high.  We know collectively that that old controlling system, that has permeated every other system in the world, has to go.  Time's up on that old trap.  Escapism isn't working anymore and the long repressed anger is exploding everywhere. 

The world is sick and tired of being enslaved and in that frustration is facing an enormous adversity, a never before seen problem and challenge. Can we look at it differently?  Rather than look out on the world stage and cry out in despair at what is happening, even if we can understand intellectually why it's happening, can we do something else?  Can we step onto the true path, to the truth of who we are individually and collectively?

It's not too late.  I think we can.  We can revisit some of the ancient wisdom and learn how to transcend these denser dimensions and ascend into the heightened, powerful, loving and creative beings we were meant to become.  We need to embrace this challenge, rather than try to rid ourselves of it.

Ancient Chinese wisdom calls problems/challenges "opportunities."  Oh, sure, you say when your house in going into foreclosure or your child is in the hospital or your boyfriend or husband is in the military in Afghanistan.  Yes.  It is to you that this message is most appropriate and most needed.  It is a gift that you are being challenged because without it your comfort level would keep you stuck in a place of complacency, acceptance of a mediocrity of living that - yes, is more comfortable - but terribly dim,  illusionary and unreal.

It is possible to experience heaven on earth.  It is possible to evolve spiritually into who you were always meant to be.  It is possible to convert every cell in your body into light cells, physical and metaphysical, simultaneously.  It is possible to live according to your own will, by your own choosing, your own self determination.  You have to know that you were always meant to be autonomous, to live without fear, and to trust your own innate instinct to love and live in love and be loved.  It is our natural a priori condition.  We can do it. And, when we choose to do it, little by little, we can become and experience our own ascended divinity while still in our bodies. 

And, maybe, that's heaven on earth.

* Prayers of the Cosmos, Neil Douglas-Klotz, p. 22 (Harper Collins, 1990)

Spiritual Evolution

Spiritual Evolution* 

We always have a choice to either keep our hearts open, despite what happens to us, or close down and react to what happens to us.  Whenever we react, we step out of our open heart and away from our precious power. When we realize who we really are -  magnificent beautiful and powerful beings of light, children of God - then the choice is clear, though not easy, nor painless. 

As spiritually evolving human beings, we can accept the perceived negative stuff as opportunities to remain in our power, keep our hearts open, and allow that love to flow into the heart of whomever we feel is less than loving.  Each time we do that, I believe our heart space expands and increases in light and power.

When I was a child in grammar school, our science teacher said that the human being was a fait accompli, evolutionarily completed.  He also said that our instincts were gone, eliminated by our rationality which has over ruled and eliminated them.  Nothing could be further from the truth, I have since realized.

In a sense, he was saying our rational mind had suppressed and silenced our innate primal instinctual nature, our most primitive mind.  That was a long time ago when science and religion were still at war.  Today, science and religion are best friends and in fact are walking hand in hand down the hall of our modern enlightened school house.

There was a time, and is still active among us, when we were all controlled by a collective attitude of judgment, condemnation, dogmatic cohesion which forced us all into conformity with the rules of religion or culture or government or parental mandates. 

Why?  Just as any parent tells his child not to run into the street, not because he wants to be mean and deprive the child of the thrill of chasing the passing cars, but to protect him.  Early religion was originally meant to protect us.  But, in that effort it did its job too well and became a harsh legalistic system which kept us enslaved, dependent, childlike, closed, looking for affirmation and permission from outside our own innate wisdom.  That natural, instinctual wisdom flows from a deep inner well which is connected to a powerful, underground life source of wisdom from the Great Creator, who feeds our divinity with His fluid spiritual wisdom.  In a closed state, we cannot access this life source and in order to evolve spiritually, we need to.  We must.

Depending on the degree of pain or punishment we experienced by our parents, our religious institution or our culture to enforce their particular protective paradigm, we remain at varying levels of liberation or "individuation" from that domineering status quo.  Our necessary liberation from it would allow us to awaken from our fear-created cocoons of childlike dependence. If we remained in that closed-down state we would remain closed off from that radiant interior well of spiritual life and power.

The first step in our awakening into our evolving spiritual empowerment and enlightenment, is to realize that we are indeed closed down, fearfully kept small, closed, cut off, alone, spiritually silenced and diminished by all that controls and silences us unconsciously, keeping us dependent and powerless.  It is time for us to grow up.

In that first realization many emotions may flood your being. You may feel angry, sad, overwhelmed, anxious or grief-stricken.  If you allow the tears to flow, the anger to be metted out through exercise and the sadness to be spilled out in a journal, you may in fact begin to shake off the long spiritually sleepy years.  You may discover you are not alone. In that moment, there may be a fleeting sense another is with you, perhaps comforting you, offering you a bit of peace as a faint new rainbow crests on your inner horizon after a life-long "dark night of the soul." 

At first there's this dim awareness that everything you knew just might not be right afterall and that thought opens you up to the possibility of a paradigm shift.  You just have no idea how gorgeous it all is, just yet. You may try prayer or meditation and something kind of feels right about it, something feels good and you find yourself drawn to living a more authentic life, one of more intentional love toward yourself and others.

So, you begin to pray or meditate a little, read odd writings, meet interesting and courageous people, all of which and whom help you along your newfound spiritual quest down that rambling inner road less traveled.  That dusty path will lead you to and through the narrow gate that leads you to a secret garden where everything real and lasting is.  In the dawning of this new awareness, you become more empowered, loving and REAL.

So, at first the process is slow - the initial awakening which breaks through our darkened state of enslavement to all that was taught us - then it begins to move a bit more quickly until, as the picture above beautiful illustrates, we begin to expand our heart centers until we become the magnificent mighty creative beings of power, love and light we were meant to be.

You might enjoy Adeon's beautiful "Rainbow Warrior" series on his website: http://adeon.com.au

May the light of God's love and peace and wisdom enlighten and empower your beautiful magnificent heart.  Always and forever.

*borrowed from: http://adeon.com.au/awaken-the-rainbow-warrior/vol2-spiritual-evolution/