Holy nights

Sunset tonight marks the beginning of Islam's holy month of Ramadan. Also known as the month of the Qur'an, Ramadan is the month during which Muhammad* (c. 570 – c. 8 June 632) had his first encounter with angel Gabriel in the cave, Hira. 


Islamic scholars assert that at age 40, Muhammad, who had often retreated into the desert caves to pray, received his first of many revelations from God through the angel. His messages were not well received at first. Finally, three years later, despite much public ridicule, he started preaching these revelations publicly. Today Islam is the second largest religion in the world with 1.62 billion followers, comprising about 23 percent of the world's population.


Muhammad's primary and overarching message is "God is One," and only complete "surrender" to God is acceptable to God, adding also that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God.


That first experience in the cave launched a six-month period of daily meetings with angel Gabriel during which he was given messages from the angel to mankind.  

Hira Cave in the Jabal al-Nur mountain, only 3 km. 

from Mecca -  3.5 m long and 1.6 m wide)

The initial rationale for these additional visionary messages was to right some of the Christian Church's errors, which had begun centuries earlier with the suppression of much of the early Christian teachings, the Gnostic gospels and other now lost teachings of the followers of James, rather than Paul, and the final cementing-in-stone of the Roman-sanctioned deviation from the early church at the Council of Nicea in AD 325.  Soon after the fall of the Roman Empire, c. AD 402, western Europe began its decent into the dark ages, a time of raw and bloody prejudice, fear, poverty and corruption on all levels of civilization, including the church.    


Perhaps it was into that dark dismal state of world spiritual poverty, a kind of proverbial Platonic cave, that the angel wanted to reignite the light of spiritual wisdom and restart the mission Jesus had begun and taught in His early teachings, much of which was in the Christian canon but was in greater clarity in the suppressed gospels which would later surface in an Arab desert at Nag Hammadi.

Fast forward 16 centuries and the world still sleeps in darkness, fear, prejudice, corruption and poverty even while the divine light is flickering among us like an Aurora Borealis. Students of Christianity and Islam may find some beautiful similarities as well as some obvious discrepancies between the Gospel and the Qur'an. Human visions or experiences of the divine are filtered through our cloudy and often limited spiritual perception, yet - despite our opaque vision - some of the presence and revelation of the divine in the living grace of God comes through. 


We have to sift and seek discernment and wisdom through all these pearls of wisdom.  The Qur'an, the Gospel, the Torah, the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita ( a 700–verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata) and other texts and legends of divine revelation all contain some of the truth. My hope is that we would look at what we share, rather than the differences, what separates and divides our common humanity. I think God is at the center of the wheel of humanity and it is there where I look for God.


Islam's contribution to the world's understanding of God's truth through Muhammad's visions offers an important message for the world today. God is One. We are all part of God. God is love, mercy, charity and power. In prayer - said at least five times a day - we enter into that submission to God, that awareness of the centrality of God in our lives - God and God alone is all that is real and everlasting.


As a friend to a large Muslim family, we often engage in conversations of sharing between our two faiths.  I come from Christianity, enfolding in many respects all various streams of that ancient beauty - despite her historical flaws - and in the spirit of Christ, the transformed Jesus, who called us to love our neighbors as we would love ourselves. Today I am entering into a time of sharing Ramadan with my friends.  How can I understand their passion for Allah unless I also walk with them through their holiest time, their time of remembering who they are in the universality of God's self revelation among us?  


As a Christian, I also say that God is One, that God is all merciful, all loving, all giving, all powerful and that only by complete submission to God, who is in everything and creator of everything,  can I know God. There is no other way. And, in these things I completely share with my Muslim friends their love and submission to God. We can leave all the other details in the wake of the love we share for God. I hope one day they will participate with open hearts and minds in Christian holy days.  I wish we could all learn from each other while retaining our own unique spiritual pathways to God.


But, until then, on this new moon, this beginning of the holy month, all of us who say we love God might join together to remember what we share with one another and put the plough to work loosening the drought-hardened soil of prejudice, and plant new seeds, seeds of life and love and mutuality where fear and greed had stifled what God has planted and always wanted for His people:  brotherhood.
_____________

* Peace be upon him.
**^ "Executive Summary". The Future of the Global Muslim Population. Pew Research Center. Retrieved 22 December 2011.


Photo: Aurora Borealis

Glorious sunshine

Mine eyes have seen the glory 

of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage 

where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning 

of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

 - Julia Ward Howe (The Battle Hymn of the Republic)

The recent summer heat here in Oregon was nothing compared to the blistering unbearable heat and humidity that had caused dozens of deaths on the East coast.  But, it was still hot.  As I headed down the interstate to Eugene to pick up my daughter from a summer archaeological dig off in the desert somewhere, I was acutely aware that it was the kind of heat wave that was going to make the two hour trip a bit uncomfortable.  


About half way there, I noticed the sun seemed to be dancing, spinning actually, to the west and seemed brighter than usual.  Since I'm no stranger to this long drive, I have often watched the sun slip behind heavy rain clouds in the Willamette Valley or rise up over the Cascades, playfully engaging me in a kind of peek and boo game. Watching the weather change over the vast and beautiful valley always made the drive a spiritual experience of full immersion in Mother Nature's moody display.

But, on this particular late afternoon drive, there was something very different about the sun.  He seemed to want to tell me something.  I know that must sound strange, but that was what I felt.  There was a power to the sun's overly bright and spinning nature that day.  I recalled that I read somewhere there was a storm on the sun which was expected to last through 2013 and that until then the solar flares would be increasing.  


That must be it, then, I thought.  But, there was something else I sensed, a kind of message inherent in the solar dancing I witnessed.  I wanted to discuss this with someone, but how do you say to someone, "Did you notice the sun's recent dancing lately?  Didn't it seem brighter and more passionate than usual?"  Right!  So, I kept my thoughts to myself but wondered about them anyway.

Then, yesterday, I woke with a sense that I needed to pay attention to something.  There was almost a sense of dread in my heart.  I stumbled around in the kitchen making coffee and wondering about that sense of foreboding I was feeling. I attempted to knock it off, and then I heard in my head .... "The lord is my shepherd ... "  

"OK, where is this going - or, rather, where is this coming from?" I wondered and then I stopped and asked?  
"Is that you, Lord?"

"Yes," came the quick response.  "I am that I am, of Moses. I am the good shepherd and my people - all people of the Earth - are my flock.."  

"Didn't Jesus say that he was the good shepherd?" I wondered aloud inwardly.

"Yes, you're right, he did" was the reply.

"So, in Psalm 23, who is the great shepherd?" 

"It is I," He said, softly, kindly and quickly.

Then, I realized Jesus had been completely transformed by God's Self via the Holy Spirit, and in that total transformation, Jesus had become the Christ, and had consequently merged with to become that great I, also.  
"So, You were speaking through Jesus?"

"Yes.  Try to recall the rest of the Psalm because this is very important for you - and everyone - right now.  It's imperative that all of you recall it.  It was written by David for his own struggles with a cruel king, who was downright insane, and those in his camp who questioned his spontaneity - were even jealous - of his freedom from cruel oppressive power. They hated him for his joy as they - all those who are enslaved - will hate all of you, any of you, who are free and living in joy, who are living in the awareness and power of the Light, whether or not you can actually see it, but are led, inspired and compelled by it."

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.

Slowly the words to this beautiful old Psalm began to emerge out of my childhood memory, like old tree branches rising out of a muddy pond.  They came in a random order - as maybe memories can. First came - probably the most famous line, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death " ... I thought about the beautiful Willamette Valley and the brilliant fireball in the sky that was so hot I could barely breathe. Were we, are we, in that shadow of death these days? I wondered. The failing economy, the wars, the overpopulation - not pretty thoughts, for sure, but are we?  I wondered to myself.

"Yes, but....thou are with me.... with us,"  I thought, as I slipped into sneakers to head out for a walk to reflect on these verses as they came to me, one by one, and then slowly reassemble the entire psalm.  As I did this, the conversation ensued and then I felt comforted.  As I walked, I slipped into the comfort of a spiritual encounter, a Spirit-filled-led reflection that took me down the new path, I'd discovered recently.  That path then wound up Sexton Mountain.  I found myself releasing the heavy thoughts I'd woken up with and gradually basking in that sense of comfort the Psalm had given me, along with the presence that spoke and interpreted it in my head.

Then, oddly, as I continued on the way up that mountain, the lyrics to the old civil war Battle Hymn of the Republic began to percolate up out of the memory swamp.


"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."  


I listened to the words and the song as it entertained my mind.  I wondered why I was hearing this, again, as I did with the Psalm.  I hadn't yet made any connections, just yet.  I was just listening ...  


"He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored"  


It was easy to understand - outside the politcal rhetoric around the Civil war, anti-slavery theology of that day - which clearly is what David must have faced as he wrote the Shepherd Psalm, but it was more - there was more that I sensed I was waiting for ..... but again, and again, the words were continuing ..."mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord"  ...

"The glory, the glory, what do you mean by the glory?"

No response.  The song just kept on playing in my head, louder and louder, crescendoing up to, "glory, glory hallelujah."

I had been walking almost mechanically drenched in thought.  As I rounded a bend on the walk, I made a quick decision to turn back rather than continue up and as I reeled around,  I gasped. Unaware, I'd climbed to the top of the mountain and saw the lovely town scattered across a few low rolling hills spread out below me.  It was beautiful, I thought, as the words .... glory, glory, hallelujah .... continued to ring boldly in my head as a kind of background track to what I saw before me.

"Again, I wondered about the words ... the glory.." and then I heard softly, underneath the raucous of music in my head ... "Didn't I call you up to the mountain the other day?"

I reflected on the Tiger Lilies post I'd written a few days ago.

"Yes."

"And, while you were in the valley, you saw my glory?"

Oh, My God, you are right.  I did.  I knew it wasn't really just the sun.  Was that You?

"Yes.  It was I. And, I am with you always, no matter what happens.  Now, go tell in the light what you hear in the dark.  Tell your people - all people - that I am with them and to seek me, not live in fear and control of those mere humans who abuse and seduce them, bleeding them, disempowering them.  Tell them to find the joy that no money or security can give them.  Only me, only my love.  I am their great Shepherd and I love them, more dearly than they could ever love each other. 

"Now, tell them.  Go, tell them that there is music in their hearts, in their minds and to listen very carefully to their own inner voice because I am there and I will speak to all of them.  Feel the joy, the love, the freedom.   In that hearing, they will find a love unlike any they could ever know, a love that will knit them together with each other and they will feel love in that cohesion.

Stand strong through the storm

Jesus said, "The Father's kingdom is like a person who has [good] seed. His enemy came during the night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The person did not let the workers pull up the weeds, but said to them, 'No, otherwise you might go to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be conspicuous, and will be pulled up and burned.
                                                          - Gospel of Thomas, #57

As things around us seem to spiral further into chaos, there is also a sweet calm, a gentle breeze softly spreading wisdom, enlightenment, love, peace across our world.  There are so many good people, kind people, generous, giving, loving people everywhere and in every religion. So many of you - us - are openhearted, loving your neighbors - even enemies - turning the other cheek, learning how to be patient as the tidal wave of this shifting age is cresting closer.  


So many of you have turned off and looked away from the violence in the media, on your televisions, confronted your addictions, listened and learned from your shadow selves. 


We have embraced our inner demons, our fears, our "issues," and are finding more peace in our lives. 


You are the precious wheat in this parable.  The seeds have been planted in your fertile souls and you labored year after year helping them to grow and today you are beautiful, radiant in your earnest intention to be more than you were or ever thought you could be.

But, there is so much greed, violence, oppression, manipulation, fear and control also around us.  Sadly, in your own pursuit of your better selves, you experienced so much pain from this darkening age.  You may also have felt alone.  Each and all of us have felt alone.  If there is one thing you need to know it is that you are not alone.  We're all in this together.  We're all dealing with a shifting sense of security. 


We may all wince at the falling stock market and listen to two very different campaign pitches and agree a little with one, and yet a little with the other, and wonder at what we don't know, what isn't being reported to us in our allegedly free press.  We all do this.  We all think the darkness is going to overcome us. We also may think that most people are like those hardened souls we see on television, in the news, and in our fear we tighten up our vigilance over our homes, cars and children.  But, that is a fallacy the dark forces would like us to believe in and thereby be crippled in fear.  Most of us are very good and kind people.  We can trust each other.  

I talk to "strangers" every day as if they are my best friends and I've discovered that most people are alike.We love our lives, our children, our spouses, our pets, our homes, our communities and wonder about the huge global changes occurring right before our eyes. We all worry and we all strive to be better.

As I consider what's going on, it seems we are finding a great chasm splitting our world, between the dark and the light. While I have called for less polarization politically - between "conservative and liberal," between Democrat and Republican, I continue to see a greater disparity among us. The bad are getting worse, and the good are getting even better. 


There are those who still think God is going to punish us for our sins and there are those who smile at that, and remember that our all-loving, all merciful creator does not punish. There is no hell, or burning place.  There is only a place of light, swelling into greater and greater light.  We have to live among those who don't understand this, who still lumber along in a dark age, reacting, and stealing soul-light from others because their old fear-based, externally focused world paradigm, steeped in a crime and punishment perspective, is cracking open threatening - they think - their very survival.  


They lunge outwardly at phantoms they cannot see, nor are there, but are rising up from within them, as only dark illusory, unconscious, unrealized memories can.  They are the sad victims of an ancient lie that has stalked mankind from forever.  They are who we all must love until they see this and calmly embrace their own inner child, their real Self who awaits them from within. They are everywhere, the seeds of hate and violence were planted in them by conveyors of that ancient lie and they, either in innocence or in well meaning, embraced the lie and are now afraid to let it go.  But, they must.  We all must open our hearts, love ourselves enough to step gingerly out there into our new vision for our world and our future, which awaits us so bright with promise.


The divine is calling us all to awaken to what is real and eternal, to a  place, a dimension of reality which is encountered within our own holy, sacred Self which is - and always has been - in perfect comm-union with God, Allah, or Divine Presence and which, who,  permeates the entire universe, pulsing with love, creative power, and life. 


We have to live alongside them, moving in the wind with them, but not just tolerate them, rather love them as much as possible and with dignity and grace and honest intention because that is who we are, not because that is what they deserve. We have to continue to walk the way of the cross, to use Christian language, carry on being who we know we want to be - people of love, of light, of wisdom, of power, in solidarity with all that is, reaching for a more beautiful age that is surfing alongside the tidal wave that will wash away the fear-based, oppressive powers that are co-mingling among us.

It's not going to be easy. We always knew this. You may feel alone.  Maybe you may think that you are suffering more than others, or hopefully you are thanking God every moment of every day that you have a roof over your head, food in the fridge, clothes and a job that pays the rent or the mortgage. You have to know that you are not alone.  We have to now, more than any other time in our history, stand together knowing that we are not alone - we have each other - and we can join forces with that knowledge - that we are all here and we are strong. 


If the dark forces have any consciousness at all - which I doubt - they would lead you to think that you are alone, and thereby diminish our collective power by alienating us from each other. It is trying to freeze us out, frighten us into submission, steal our light and life. Through fear our faith shrivels, and in that divided state, the goodness that we all are - and we all are good - will dim.  With the awareness that we are all together in this challenge to continue to have faith and believe in a better age, a more earth-friendly world, a more loving and empowering culture, it will grow until it spreads, like the morning sunshine, across our world.


We are all in this field together and we have to remember that a bright and beautiful new age is coming and it is full of all the promises we have believed in. No matter how hard it gets, remember that you are not alone. 


Have courage; keep on "keeping on," stand tall in your growing faith for the goodness, for the dignity of every one, because your own light cannot be dimmed and the goodness of your own soul which you have worked hard to evolve and grow up even among the weeds which are also sprouting in this violent, fear-based world, is indestructible, eternal and radiantly visible to those dear messengers from heaven who are here to help us, invisibly, as we continue onward.  Stay the course, with joy and peace and love.We are all together and with that awareness alone, we join our hearts, our minds, and our light.

Conscious Consumption

Conscious consumption is required of all responsible people. When we purchase anything - from kitty litter to hamburger - we have to think beyond our own immediate need and consider the source and the consequences of our purchase. As an American, we are aware that we live in a consumer-driven economy. Essentially, this means that every purchase is a vote for that corporation and all that corporation does to produce and promote its product. No longer can we be blind to what we purchase, where it comes from and how it impacts the larger world.


Each one of us is part of a larger community, stretching beyond our national borders. If we can e-mail someone in Africa, then we are well aware of their existence and their lives are then part of our lives.  Everyone is part of a larger whole. We are one breath, totally, all part of God's one breath. How can we eat well, knowing others are not eating at all. Consciousness, awareness open our hearts to the great compassion. The world needs that compassion right now. It's not enough to just pray, or wish, we must put our actions, our dollars, where our hearts are.


If we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, then as we feed ourselves, we must also feed our neighbors - and the whole world is now our neighbor.


This means we need to be responsible to educate ourselves as to where our products come from. And, we might want to learn as much as we can about what is being done to American grains as well as American livestock.  


This is a poignant piece - a bit of a wake up call.  

Power to Create

Power in the abstract is strength.  Simply, it is uninhibited intention. From a spiritual standpoint, we know that God is power and that real power is created or comprised of that mysterious substance called love.  I know that doesn't make sense when you look out into our world.  Those who seem to love the most are the poorest, most vulnerable, least effective and usually the most victimized.  I would love to write to you that it was otherwise, but you know as well as I know that those who love the most seem the most abused. Why?


I think it is complicated, twisted with spiraling terminology and layers of psychology. It seems the world's power brokers - who clearly was the church establishment and more recently are the big corporate interests with sophisticated psychological media campaigns - has interpreted and taught authentic power negatively to keep it out of reach of those who deserve it. In short, the world perceives love as weakness. The world seems to be running on a terrible misunderstanding. It may be like those who teach that money is evil or power is corrupt. They may even find scriptural support for their thesis in order to keep it all for themselves.  In our upside down reality, that is probably true. That, in other words, is the dark side of control or oppression.  Their selfish objective is to keep the power from the people so they can be made malleable, manipulated and controlled by those who have the carrots of life - the food, the funds, the everything.


In God's reality - which is the only reality - the reverse is true.  Money is a tool.  Power is the concentration of faith-infused intention allowing the ability to act. There is no judgment associated with either.  Second to that is the over riding prevailing truth that God loves us and wants us to prosper.  Period. This is so important I can't state it loud enough. God wants you to have an abundance of money and of power, to create and create and create.  Frustrated creation leads to impoverishment - poverty on every level of human experience - materially and spiritually.  It leads to diminished dreaming, sad hopes, or no hope, depression, limited outcomes, sabotaged efforts, psychological problems, strained relationships, even arguments and war.  Most of the world's problems, I think, come from frustrated creation.


What if everyone knew that they have the right to create with that incredible power God has planted alongside every dream they can create in their minds and imaginations?  What if every one of us were able to achieve everything we dreamed of, completely uninhibited?  WOW!!


So, why don't we?  What is inhibiting us?  I think there is a kind of poisoned apple seed buried within us, put there by those who would like to limit us, control us, steal our power from us a long time ago.  For some, it's an entire cultural religion that fuels that ancient concept of a cruel, punishing god,  For others, it was an alcoholic parent, a cruel, mean school teacher, a grandparent.  All of these people and authoritative forces have established strongholds in our minds that still limit and inhibit our freedom.  It's like a knife in your back in that place in your back that you can't reach which keeps you from running the Olympics.  You may know it's there or you may not.  You may remember the pain in your childhood or you may not.  You may even remember and you may even be able to say what happened and even realize that a poisoned apple seed was planted in your soul a long time ago that continues to seep poison into every thought or dream of yours. While you may know this, acknowledge this, you still may not be able to pull the knife out or mend the ancient wound in your soul from childhood abuse.


If you are reaching for a dream and not succeeding at it, this may be why. I think it is the case for all of us.  None of us have really over achieved our hearts' desire.  There is not an overabundance of love in the world.


Awareness may be the first step toward healing and abundant living.  This awareness can be in every breath you take. It is waking up consciously and intentionally to that power and remembering that it is your divine birthright.  You are allowed to have it. our Divine creator imbued it in you at conception and wants you to wake up to it, to receive it and to use it for healing, building a better life and world.


We may each of us have a lot to overcome, but we have to look toward the future, not the past, to find our lives with all the hope and determination we can dig up. We have to begin by dislodging that deeply imbedded old wiring - that proverbial poison apple seed - that's wedged deep into our psyche. I don't even know if we can do it ourselves, but I think that we can ask God to help us, heal our hearts, remove the knife in the back that we can't pull out.  I think we could ask God to remove the poison in our minds that inhibits us, that is still seeping into our spiritual drinking water.


Always remember you are loved and you are a free creative being.  Reach for your dreams knowing that God's love is all there is and God's love is absolutely unconditional. Love is the power and the power is love.  In love you will and can create and when you are creating, you are expanding in love and power.  When you feel judged, your ability to feel loved and to create is diminished if not sabotaged and squelched completely.


So, today, if you are feeling sad, limited, it is because that ancient poison apple is spewing into your beautiful soul a sour idea.  You can - and have the right and the power - to overide it.  Choose to remember that you are loved and that you have the right to create every dream you can imagine. Remember that and teach that to your deeper self and to everyone you know by being who you really are - a magnificent, unique, brilliant masterpiece who is capable of making something truly awesome. And hopefully together we can recreate the whole world, making it into something we can only barely imagine today.

Come to the Mountain

Stop trusting in man,

who has but a breath in his nostrils,

of what account is he?

- Isaiah 2:22

We all worry too much.  It is almost compulsive, habitual, even addictive.  Somehow we have to stop because whatever it is we're worrying about just doesn't matter.  None of it matters at all. All the worries, all the fears, all the what ifs, all of it is just a mirage in the sands of time.  None of it matters. because none of it is real, really.  And, while we're worrying we're missing the whole reason we're here, the gorgeous experience of being alive.  

The whole world is engaged in a huge planetary drama which we take so seriously - seriously enough to kill one another over different viewpoints or borders and boundaries and stuff.  To really experience this, I think we need to step off the world stage for awhile.  I think we need to go inside our minds and go up to the holy mountain where we can and will encounter what is real, real in time and real in eternity. It is right here, right now, but we can't see or feel or experience it because we're so busy worrying.

We are being called to come to the holy mountain, where we will encounter the great presence that is spread out across the Earth, Who is in everything, knows everything and is of an unimaginable intelligence and awesome love and power.  This great presence is not just a force or another inanimate scientific energy wave.  This great presence is beyond quantum physics, more approachable and relational than religions ever told us.  The great presence is knowable.  We can hear the voice of this presence in our minds when we step outside the mind swamp in which so many of us are so fully immersed that we can't listen to the quiet between thoughts. 

Whether you are a rational scientist or a mystic, despite what faith or culture or clan from which you draw your identity, it doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, what you've done or left undone, how much you have or don't have. None of that matters.  All that matters is that you step outside all of it, even for just one imaginal moment and consider that there is an everywhere presence here that is knowable.  The ancients had all kinds of names and descriptions of that presence, who we most commonly call God.

We are all so busy planning our lives, writing our stories, painting our life canvases, marrying and raising children, working or going to school, reaching for some kind of understanding about what's going on in Washington that we might forget to consider the authentic reality of God who is really out there, in here, everywhere, but who speaks to you in your mind if you listen.  You hear God all the time, but you don't know it.  

Recently in meditation I asked God to reveal Himself.  In seconds something in my inner mind said to me that I was going to hear a voice and then I did.  I will never forget what God said to me that day, but there it was - there God was - right there with me in my mind.  More recently, my daughter graduated, we moved - again - and in the busyness of everything never did I forget what God said to me.  It was simple and it was profound; it was powerful and as strong as it was gentle.  What is most important is the news - yes, The News - that God is real and is just as Jesus describes God in the Gospel of Thomas.  He is there, everywhere. In the following quote from the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus, who was filled and completed with God's presence, makes a bold declaration and elsewhere encourages and teaches us how to enter into that same state with God. 

"The (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you ... seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring, where no moth comes to eat and no worm destroys."
77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."

We are vessels into which God communicates His power, wisdom and spirit and with whom God relates.  This is life. This is the life Jesus spoke about.  It is the ecstasy of Rumi.  It is the wisdom of Moses and love of Krishna.  It is the experience of life. Nothing else matters.  As St. Thomas Aquinas said after such an encounter with God, "It is all straw."

I think we waste so much of our time wandering in the wasteland of this toxic culture we've all contributed to constructing.  I wonder what it would be like if one by one we started stepping away from it all and began climbing up the Holy Mountain in our minds where we might wait patiently, reverently and prayerfully to meet God.  

"Canticles of the Heart" has been published

Finally, Canticles of the Heart, has been published and is available on Amazon. 


Many of you may be familiar with some of these short reflections, but this is a version you can take to the beach or the coffee shop or on a plane.

It is a collection of reflections inspired to help us transform our turbulent world with love.  It draws from the essence of all the world's great religions and spiritual traditions to reveal the common ground shared by our entire global human family.

Each canticle is a love song to the human race, offering a divine wisdom to catalyze healing at all levels of human life - from individuals struggling for a sense of dignity and direction in their personal lives to those surmounting political, economic, or personal exploitation and oppression anywhere in the world.

Drawing from the beautiful love poetry of Rumi, the heart of the Torah, and the mystical theology of St. John of the Cross, each one whispers to the human heart in ways the ancients understood.  Each expressed the power of the heart to raise the level of human experience to a new place, an inner place of magnificence, radiance and creative potential.  The collection supports the relationship between human and divine and invites readers to taste the sweetness of life in all.

For ordering information see: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&ie=UTF8&field-author=Victoria%20Kearns 

... or for more information, you can e-mail me at www.tigerlilieslife@gmail.com

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