Vain pursuit of justice

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." 

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) 

Gandhi, an Indian (under English law) lawyer and well acquainted with the rational application of legalistic justice, fell in love with the Gospel, especially Christ's call for unconditional love, of both enemy and neighbor, and unconditional and unsolicited forgiveness of each other. Sadly, and unfortunately for the world, the Christian prejudice of South Africa against dark-skinned folks blocked his path to the Church, then.

Gandhi was as spiritual as he was knowledgeable about the law, plumbed the depths of all the great religions and surfaced with his remarkable and well known comment in reference to Exodus 21:23, 24, the Hebrew law, given to Moses c 1440 - 1400 BC. He knew well that all laws trace back to Exodus and the even older Code of Hammurabi. Basically, according to the Hebrew law, which is extremely nuanced, anyone who breaks one of the Ten Commandments is put to death. Period. No jury; no trial.

But, there's more to this. Nothing in life is born in a vacuum. What was the already established precedent for this kind of Exodus' cruel, dispassionate, merciless, punitive legislation? Well, the Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian (some say Sumerian) law code, dating back to about 1772 BC is even less forgiving. One of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world, the code - or law - was enacted by the sixth Babylonian (Sumerian) king, Hammurabi. It was scripted onto large extant clay tablets and consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" with justice graded on social status, of slave versus free man.

That was the state of things when Jesus began his ministry. The very idea of forgiveness was an idea completely new and unusual for the primitive, more primal, sense of justice, which demanded revenge, blood for blood, in the world, then.


"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." John 8:7

When we consider the enormity of the crime against humanity that is Syria, and the heinous criminality that occurred in Aurora, Colorado, Friday, it is next to impossible and even inconceivable that we could even consider talking about forgiveness.  But, we must. 

Something is so very wrong in our world, today.  You would be blind not to see it.  This is systemic, part of a larger matrix.  We are all woven into this global fabric and nothing happens in one place that doesn't effect the overall tone, color and dynamic of the whole.  

Bashar al-Assad's oppressive dictatorial regime in Syria is affecting the entire world, infecting the virtual water of the world, spiritually.  We are all affected and yet there has always been so much oppression everywhere in a million different manifestations, everywhere also.  Where do we begin to unpack this enormous elephant in the living room of the world?

We start with ourselves.  The universe, the world, the country, the community, the family is comprised of individuals.  When we can be totally honest with ourselves, maybe we can start to put down our accusatory stones.  Who hasn't sinned?  Sin is the offensive deed which twists us, poisons us until it disconnects us from our true self which is always in communion with God, whether or not we know it.  

When - for whatever reason, but often through some form of abuse - one is distanced from one's own center, one's own soul, which was wedged away and out of our consciousness, we begin to create, unintentionally, a kind of pseudo self - a mask - ego - that we pretend to ourselves is our self.  But, it isn't.  It's a mask.  Sadly, we don't know this.  And, even sadder, the whole world is an accomplice to this.  The television, media, films, videos, everything is heavily invested in our conforming to an externalized, idealized "image."  (how's that for graven image?) 

We wear it for all the world to see hoping that somehow it matches the picture which "out there" has been defined as acceptable, attractive and correct.  I think we convince ourselves it is our real self, we even may think we have found our self, but we haven't.  We've only created more distance from ourselves and so we begin to do whatever we can - and we do amazingly awful, inauthentic things - to convince the world "out there" that we are good, real, giving, caring, loving, ingenious, creative, wealthy, whatever. 

What we have done is created a pseudo self, or, in other words, an ego.  This ego is THE joker of mankind. The ego runs the global greed, oppression and control machine that has completely got us all in its cruel, death grip.  Whether or not we want to think that there is an even larger, potent, power of evil than that Jungian collective unconscious, I don't know.  That's beyond my point here.

But, that "joker" is hell bent on killing us off.  Period.  That's its point.  It does it insidiously by separating us from each other, as it is separated from its authentic self, but it doesn't even know it.  It is a liar, a thief, a killer, a trickster.  And, it's a loner.  Looks like a perfect profile of a Narcissistic psycho-sociopath.  Hello Hitler!

So, we might look at this hideous evil and our natural instinct is to push it out of our midst.  And, we should on one level, but we should also not on another.  If we are a society that says it supports life and goodness, then to kill is not who we are and so anything that would cause us to be less than who we authentically are has changed us and controlled us, and in a sense wins if we do what it does, which is kill.

This joker's mask was first created when he somehow was split off from his authentic self.  We don't know when that happened or how it happened, but it happened. It was caused by some kind of real or perceived condemnation, criticism, cruelty of some kind, that caused the person to hide from his real self, which he perceived was the cause of the cruel treatment.  The split began then, perhaps it was only a tiny crack, but it began, and along with the possibility of some inherited chemical imbalances or whatever, continued to deepen and widen until this person was in full pursuit of an adequate mask to be himself.  

He couldn't find his way back to his real self. He must have been deeply hurting, deeply wounded, very alone, angry, frustrated and by the time he pounded rounds of gunfire all over a movie theater killing 12 people, he had become a monster beyond anything recognizable as a human being. 

So, now what?  Do we put him to death for his crime?  Justice would say yes and it might even give some of the family members of those who died last Friday a tiny piece of comfort. But he is only today's current scapegoat for the human race's outrageous and enormous dysfunction.  No one acts independently from their culture, time and personal history.  There is so much more to this that we may or may not ever understand. 

I think we should put this person under an intense psychological, spiritual and physical examination and look at his family of origin, even several generations back, his education, his life-long peer groups, friends, work mates and see what happened. 

If we simply throw him in jail, or kill him by lethal injection, we have simply thrown a big stone at him.  If we acknowledge that all of us, every single one of us has at least a tiny bit of evil in us because we are all drinking the same egoic, image-infused socially conditioned water as he drank.  We are all part of this big soup that is pretty toxic, spiritually and psychologically. We have to spiritually detox and collectively clean up our world, rid it of the kind of evil and oppression that is on the nightly news, every night.


If we were to simply try, judge, convict and sentence this joker, would it really bring justice?  Could anything bring back the lives of a little six-year-old, or a mother, or the other precious, innocent, souls that were in that theatre last Friday?  Nothing our justice system can do will bring them back.  So, there is no such thing as justice.  It's a mute point.  It is a little lie we tell ourselves.  It is an illusion.  It is not real and we need to stop pretending that it is.

Gandhi saw this.  He knew this.  He also knew the law - all the way back to the Code of Hammurabi.  He saw the wrongness of such an oppressive system.  Maybe it was necessary 4,000 years ago, but it's ridiculous now. We are ready as a world to take the next step, the step into the fullness of God who loves us unconditionally, who understands even the deepest, darkest, most recessed parts of our starving, broken, splintered souls and understands what happened over the course of our lives, what led to this heinous evil.  God is not like us.  God does not take an eye for an eye. Certainly, and thank God that God is so much bigger than that, so far beyond that.  Is there anything we can do to separate ourselves from God?  No.  St. Paul says NO!!**

We need to learn from this tragedy. We need to see where we too might be splintered away from our own inner authentic Self, the one that is eternally in communion with God, creation, the universe, or by whatever name you call our great creator. Whatever causes the first splinter is sin and we all are somewhat splintered, all in varying stages of distance from our core, where God is directly experienced in connection with ourselves.  Our true self is there, completely whole, and holy, unharmed and undiminished as vibrantly alive and radiant as ever, eternally in the arms of God, in communion with God and the entire cosmos.

Whatever caused us to separate from that authentic self was some kind of abuse, cruelty, evil and that was sin.  The subsequent sins are those selfish, inauthentic actions we took (or were inflicted on us) that led us further and further away from our original true self and which aided and abetted others' greater distancing and separations also.


This thing called sin has a lot of different names, so it's a good idea to look at what it really is. Among many things, it's victimizing, selfish, fearful, small, insecure, cut off from it's true self which will keep it cut off from others, starving spiritually. Also, because it's not in connection with it's true self, it becomes like a vampire, stealing the spiritual life of others through manipulation and control, even to the extent to use fear, domination, violence, fear and death.

The late M. Scott Peck, MD, psychotherapist and Christian, defined "evil" as narcissistic. (People of the Lie) So, when the media brings out the shrinks, scholars and religious people to discuss this joker, we have to remember, we are all one - whether or not we feel it or see it or like it - and so if one of us is infected with this pernicious evil, we all have it or at least are touched by it in varying degrees. This is something we all have to look at.

"How and in what way am I an enabler of evil?"  might be a good question for us to each ask ourselves.  And, be honest.  It's hard and it's not pretty, but the more authentic you are about it, the closer to God you get.  Do you really think we can take the risk of this happening again? Where and how will it happen again?  Because, it will.

So, put down the stone in your frightened little hand and look at all those in your life and love them with all your heart, love them so tenderly and fully and wholly that if there is a crack - and there probably is - somewhere from all that is happening on the media, films, videos, games - your love can begin to help heal the crack.  Only love is the healer and only by loving can we begin to heal our families, communities, country and world. 

__________________________________ 

**Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 -Romans 8:35-39

Summer surfing

Summertime and the livin' is easy.  The sun is out, the sand is warm, the wind is in your face and the surf is up. 


A beautiful cresting wall of water teases the serious surfer to ride her, to feel the motion of her vast intercontinental body of water beneath his small, seemingly solid, board on which the surfer clings with toes and heels using every muscle in his legs, stomach, shoulders, arms, neck, twisting, turning, leaning into every move she makes. 


Determined to ride her to the end, his concentration is focused with the strength of an Olympian, set to meet the great challenge as he races with her into the shallows where she suddenly breaks, laughing at him, "Ah, man, if you think you can really ride me, feel what I feel, go where I go, experience the ride of life, try again and again. Give me everything you've got, become one with me until one day you will experience what you were born to feel."


Life is a ride on the great wave of time/space.  It is the greatest experience of existence and yet the greatest challenge. It's interesting that in the Gospel of Mark Jesus is described as being asleep in the back of the boat as the disciples are tossed mercilessly about by a storm on the lake.  When, finally, he awakens, he rebukes the wind, calming the storm, and says to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:39)


Recently, I was speaking with someone who was very discouraged with his job search. While he manages a national retail store, he is challenged by a micromanaging power hierarchy and earns what he considers to be very low pay for all his efforts.  He sounded frustrated with his search for a more meaningful livelihood.  I completely understand how he feels.  I'm sure we all do.  We all have reached for something that we dearly wanted and found it illusive.  


In the past, we were able to reach for, work hard, use all the wiles in our command and attain what we sought.  He told me about times when he was successful at almost everything he ever pursued.  He had earned a lot of money, yet he lost it when the economy nosedived.  


"Why?" he asked, rhetorically, observing back then, he also was an atheist.  


"Why now," he said, "when I believe in God, is this happening?"


It seemed to him it should be the reverse.  I wanted to respond, but instead, remained soberly attentive, respectful of his angst.  Who hasn't been where he is right now?


"Don't you know that God chasens the ones he loves?  And, anyone who calls on Him and declares his open heart to Him, will be brought into the fold, but that means he may be chased by God, until he's caught," I wanted to say. 


It certainly seems God doesn't have a lot of interest in supporting and endorsing the collective illusion we call life on planet Earth.  In fact, God has other plans, those which we don't see, nor do we yet understand, which may call for the dissolving of our terrible illusion which is leading us further away from the necessary introspection where we would experience the great encounter. Those of us who have been challenged by God's ways, do see it, albeit dimly through a glass darkly, but we do know - at the very least - that something's up.  The divine surf is up and we have only one choice:  ride it or die.


Instead, I told him to give up and enjoy the summer.  Mother nature only takes a two-month vacation and if you miss it, you have to wait another year for her return.  In my heart, I wanted to go to the beach with a bottle of baby oil and a big lush towel and feel the heartbeat of the earth and listen to the waves as Lake Erie rhythmically washed ashore on the Hamburg beach.  I wanted to take our sailboat out into the lake until I couldn't see the Canadian or U.S. shores and watch the water breathing, rising and falling, heaving her heavy body as she moved in a slow dance with the motion of life beneath and above her.  


I wanted to feel the radiance of the sun on my face and even the burn on my shoulders.  I wanted to let the sails softly carry me on a long run on the lake. In a way, I was tired of sailing into the storms of life.  I dearly wanted a respite. 


Like the young man I spoke with, I'm in no mood to fight with the lake in an attempt to cross her. I've done that. I've sailed across to a Canadian town, using only a compass and a map, thrilled by the challenge of having faced Lake Erie's eight-foot waves, darkening skies, and our rain-slicked sails.  I loved the challenge.  It called up everything in me, all my strength.  I even broke a rib once trimming the main sail in a storm with my husband at the helm. I didn't even know I'd broken it until the next day when I couldn't move my arm.  But, it was worth it.  It was so well worth it.  Any sacrifice would have been worth the challenge of the ride in the wind and the rain.


I thought about this man's angst and I thought about my own angst over the economy, the future - my future and our human family's future.  I had been worrying.  Who isn't?


But, I've come to realize that life is like that Gospel storm on the lake, and Jesus - or the great divine parent who really, really is there - is in the back of the boat. We can trust that.  We have to trust that and if we're unwilling to enter into the great power of such a trust, we will continue to be thrown around, tossed.  Will the boat sink?  Will life throw us overboard? I don't want to find out.  


We have only two choices:  ride it or fight it.  If we fight life, we won't be able to master the ocean and we'll drown. Only fools would do that.  But, we all do it until we encounter the unbeatable, unmatchable power. Watch the news.  There are a lot of people drowning.  


Those who survive are those who trust God, the great divine, the "universe," whomever or whatever and by any name you call it ("A rose by any name would smell as sweet," Shakespeare said). They are those who have surrendered their will to "God's" will, which clearly means to ride with life, not against it, also a concept in the I Ching.  When we become wise enough to realize we are not in control of our lives, or nature, we will begin to surrender and in our surrendering, we will learn to ride because we will ride.  


It's then, when we surrender the helm to God, that we find our boat is able to navigate the storms.  While it will still challenge everything we've got in us, only then will we feel the power of the ocean below our feet, in our sails and then we will know we are alive and enter into a kind of joyousness we can't even imagine now. And, I suppose, when the wave breaks in the shallows then we'll be washed onto the shore to rest in the sun while the tide softly withdraws, giving us respite until she returns to carry us out again, into the vast mystery of her universal tidal ride.

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.