Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
A student asked his sage one day, “Can you tell me about the Way?”
Teacher replied with empty eyes, eyes that held all meanings, “it is in you but lies outside, it is simple but more complex than all of life, it is a puddle in which we can play and an ocean where we can drown.
To divide it is to destroy it but when you look at it you can sense endless parts.
Because of it all things rise and because of it all things fall. It is all and nothing, black and white, left and right, full and devoid of any, yet it contains not one paradox.
To name it is to taint it and pit it against itself. To know it is to touch it and to touch it is to begin to digest endlessness.
Age does not apply to it and neither does youth; time is a child it predates and its predating has no end.
It is not God but then it also is, it is not man but it also is, it is ‘what is not’ and it is ‘what is’.
Fools cry, “foolish nonsense!” when they hear it, ordinary men tune in and out of its melody, and the wisest of men spend the rest of life lose amid all of its immaculate fineries.
Like unto nothing and yet understood by beholding anything, it is the creator of logic and the destroyer of reason, the Father of understanding and the Mother of misunderstanding. Understand?”
The pupil replies, “I am lost”
Teacher replies, “That is a good start”.
Sunday, November 16th, 2008
I have included below the writing a copy of the Bible verses referenced so that those desirous of it can check my references. All quotes are taken from the KJV.
It is no small point of frustration for me that so many of those who read the Bible have no idea who the Bible says that Jesus is. Most everyone I know have covered Jesus with the cultural beliefs and social filters they have been taught by whatever version of Christianity they have been taught from the time that they were kids.
Because of this miss understanding of Jesus’ true identity a very narrow and harsh view of God has been accepted by the people who profess to understand Divinity better than all religions that have come before or after them. This would be a horrible event if it was limited only to them however no belief I have about anything effects only me; it effects all I come into contact with because as I believe God is so will I behave and so will I teach others to believe Divinity to be.
Today many Christians have an elitist attitude toward their fellow man. They think that those who do not think or believe exactly like they do are for sure going to hell. They see themselves as having the brightest light on the face of the earth and damn the rest who do not have it, or expect them to forsake all they have been taught of God and the universe by their cultures sages and gurus. They themselves [the Christians] however have to change nothing, they know it all and have nothing to learn from anyone else.
This is not the first time this has happened. Once long ago there was a group of people who was very blessed with a great deal of wisdom and insight into the ways of Divinity. They saw themselves as the elite and had not any need to learn from anyone else. One day a young teacher appeared who rocked their entire nation and challenged all that they had come to teach and believed. Enraged that such a young one should be so presumptuous as to teach them anything and that he would over turn the traditions of the fathers they took him out to a hill and crucified him. They people were the Jews and the ‘radical’ teacher was Jesus.
It is written, “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.” Ecclesiastes 4:13 We cannot have the idea that we know it all or that we alone hold the light of God, and become prideful thereby. Rather than pride those who have a most sure understanding of life and the Universe will also have a deep humility for they will see their own lack. If one possess pride and the idea that they know it all it is clear they know less than nothing.
The religion of Jesus, and Jesus himself has been horrible misrepresented. The God of the Bible is not a God of exacting rules and pointless obligations who demands we ask not questions of him lest we die. The way of God in the Bible is simple; to act justly, to love mercy, to visit and heal the suffering, to be humble always, and to remain in a constant state of spiritual and moral purity (Micah 6:8; James 1:27).
This is not the view most of those who believe in the God of Abraham have given to the world or have even allowed from themselves. They have lost God amid the rules, the reasons amid fear, and the deep things of God in the shallow bogs of external appearance and esteem of others.
They would force the will by power and fear rather than persuade the soul by wisdom and beauty. Why would they do this? Because they are devoid of wisdom and have never seen beauty. They succumb to peer pressures, spiritual hijacking, and fear techniques and they expect others to do the same. They label those who ask questions they cannot as threats and expel them as heretics and thus make the whole of religion seem incompatible with wisdom and mental freedom.
What would Jesus think of this? One day Jesus decided to go to a city to teach but the inhabitants rejected him. Enraged his disciples asked if they should call fire down from God upon them to consume them in their ignorance and blindness. Jesus immediately corrected them saying they were motivated not by the spirit and wisdom of God but of evil, and that his job was a job of healing and salvation, not death and condemnation. (Matthew 9:10-13,Luke 9:51-56, John 3:16-17)
I think Christians have altogether miss out on the point of Jesus’ ministry. They view all who are different than they as evil and ignorant sinners and yet these are the ones who Jesus ate and drank with. He sat among them and taught not those who where in the temple, for they thought they knew it all, but those who knew their need and had a heart that hungered for God. Matthew 9:10-13
We have reverted back to the spiritual blindness and pride that griped the Jews shortly before the killed Jesus. We are so sure that we know everything that we have no room in us to learn, we are so full of ourselves there is no more room for wisdom. I think that what Jesus said of the Pharisees of old could be said of most today, that even though they are sure they are going to heaven they will never enter there and by their horrible example are turning others away from the glorious reunion of the Human and Divine (Matthew 23:13).
It is my souls deepest desire to have mankind forsake the traditions, personal opinions and cultural biases and share all the wonders of wisdom and beauty that God has ever blessed anyone with. There is no group who is more fearful of doing this than my sweet Christian brothers.
When I speak of moving beyond cultural ideas of God and into a direct and undivided experience with Divinity they fear for my soul; and when they find I critically and mercilessly dissect the tenets of every faith, even the Christian one I was brought up with, they keep me at length lest I somehow
contaminate them. This does not bother me for as humans we should not need the approval, or fear the rejection of the entire world; what bothers me however is the narrow and hatful mindsets they have toward those of other faiths, even other branches of their own faith.
I always walk away astonished at how those who read a book that says, ‘Judge not lest you be judged’ can pass judgment upon entire nations of people, not one of whom they have met. They condemn men who have changed the earth and bettered the world like Buddha, Gandhi, men who were more than likely twice the spiritual creatures they are. Their eyes are so full of self that they cannot see their own deficits.
It is common to see Christians casting about wrath and eternal suffering like they are handing out kit-kats. They do this apparently unaware of what they Bible says about judgment. The Bible says that only those who come to know any truth can be judged by that truth (James 4:17), it is not until light comes into the human heart and reveals an evil or misunderstanding about life that the human is responsible or held accountable for this evil (John 9:41). Thus only those who have the chance to know a thing and reject it are held accountable for it; when in ignorance God winks at that fault and does not condemn the life (Acts 17:30).
When you add this to the fact that God will judge ever man based upon all the personal, social, and religious influences they have encountered (Psalms 87:6). Thus a Buddhist monk that has never known God will be judged only by the truths of the universe that they understood. The Native American whose grand parents and great grandparents were slaughtered by “Christians” and never seen one who truly reflected the love of God, they will be judged accordingly and mercifully; how can one be killed for saying a thing is crooked when all they have seen is crooked things? People will all be judged according to what they know and by what they have done, and there is no way any of us can know either of these, the judgment of Humanity is in the hands of Divinity not faulty prejudiced mortals.
I think that it is this narrow and small view of God that pains me more than anything else; especially when it is not what the Bible teaches about God. Yes Jesus said the way was narrow but Jesus never said how high, and this statement must also be compared with what the psalmist said, “He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.” Did you catch that, God brought him into a spacious area, a roomy garden and God did so out of compassion.
When I say that humanity should forsake all religious systems, talk cross table to all faiths, sciences, and philosophies, and make Truth the only spiritual system again I am met with a great fear hesitancy from Christians (in fact people from many faiths). I do not understand, if ones really believes that what system they are following is true why should they fear to follow truth alone?
When I ask the above question I always get answers like, “You will be decived!” and my obvious reply is , “how do you know you are not already?”. It is not until that one steps outside of all religious system and philosophical dogma of any kind that they can make a true estimation of what is real and what is false. Besides what is more powerful truth or lies, light or dark, Divinity or the “Devil”? If you are truly loving truth alone and truly seeking truth how could you find a lie; especially when the Bible itself says, ” Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” Matthew 7:7.
When I talk about having one system of truth many get all nervous and cry, “One world religion!” and mark me as a antichrist or something. I ask if all of the earth was suddenly enraptured by a great spiritual experience (second coming, universal enlightenment, etc) and all suddenly knew personally the highest level of wisdom and followed it; would that not be one spiritual system? Would that then be dangerous? Of course it would not be. What it boils down to is that most humans are addicted to being completely and totally right about everything and refuse to expose themselves to anything that might prove themselves to be wrong.
As I have studied I have come to hold the Belief that there is only Divine force that rules all things. The commonality of the basic tenets and the universal powers of Good and Evil and how they behave in all cultures seen to show a single way. This is not a ethnocentric, or a culturally prejudice dogma, this is an objective way that is the same no matter where you go on earth. Compassion, peace, beauty, truth, kindness, hope, respect of body, mercy, justice, virtue, these are all basic energies in every religion and I believe these energies are all manifestations of one way; the way Divinity behaves in the human sphere.
I am not the first to think this, Chinese, Hindu, Taoist, and other sages from many cultures have came up with the same idea. To most Christians however this sounds repugnant, like it is heresy. They say, “Jesus is the only way to God!” or “Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. They try to make Jesus, and by consequence the God of the Bible, out to be some small things that hid in the middle east while the rest of the world fell off into eternal desolation! To me this idea is sickening, as it is to any who think rationally, but most who have grew up in a Christian culture have been so dogmatized that they do not see the horror of this concept.
A God that hid in the desert and saves only those who say, I AM or Jesus, is in fact the farthest thing from what the Bible teaches. The fact that so many believe that the God of the Bible is some exclusive club owner only show how ignorant they are of what the Bible says about God and Jesus.
To begin with who does the Bible say that Jesus was? Most want to keep him locked away in the pages of the Bible as a lone Messiah sent to the Jews but that is not what the Bible says. John 1:1-4 says that Jesus was the “Logos”, which means the intelligent principle that controls and guides all things in the universe. There it is said that he is not just some small mortal or angel, Jesus is Highest God whose spiritual substance was placed inside a real mortal man. The writer of John says that Jesus is God in the highest sense, the creative force without which nothing was ever made. Would that not mean that Jesus himself was never made and is a part of the Eternal mind?
This idea is echoed also all throughout the writings of Paul and in the letter to the Hebrews (which is also attributed to Paul). Paul says that Jesus is the exact image of the hidden eternal God, the force by which Divinity brought all things into existence, and the writer of Hebrews even has the Father calling Jesus God! (Colossians 1:14-19; Hebrews 1:1-14). While the writer of Revelation says that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the start and the finish of all creation (Revelation 1:8-17).
The idea that the Messiah is the eternal God is found not only in the new testament it is found also in the Old Testament. The prophet Micah said that the child born in Bethlehem would be a being whose goings have been from eternity past, on in other words a being without a beginning (Matthew 2:6; applies this to Jesus).
The prophet Isaiah also says that the child born of a Virgin would be called, “God with Us” and this is applied to Jesus by the writer of Matthew (Matthew 1:23). Isaiah even goes a step farther and applies the titles “Almighty God”, and the “Everlasting Father” to the Messiah, things which Christian people usually only think of as applying to the ‘Father’.
Thus the Bible paints of picture of Jesus that is transcendent; Jesus is not just a being that people must blindly surrender their will to, nor is his name some life saving incantation that all must speak in order to reconnect to the Eternal Mind. Biblically Jesus is the Eternal God, the source of all wisdom truth and peace; it is not with clarity one can see why he says of himself that he is the only way to God, it is not some dogmatic statement, it is because he sees himself as the Eternal Wisdom which has called to all humanity through out all of time, trying to bring them back into the relationship that humanity severed.
When you grasp this it makes the religion of Christ much more logical because the claims Jesus makes about being the exclusive path to God is not some arbitrary creed, it is only because he is the author of all wisdom, beauty, peace, and hope that wisdom has ever had; He is God, He the Path that leads unto Himself.
Thus if “God is Love”, as 1 John 4:8 says, then every where you see true compassion and selflessness pouring through the human, there is a human that has touched God. Wherever you see a deep, pure, and true soul there is a soul that has touched “Jesus”, has touched God. Where you see a spiritual wisdom that is a Divine Ray pouring from the one source to the multitude of finite, mortal moons. (James 1:17; Psalms 145;15-16; Galatians 5:16-23 – wherever you see a soul producing this fruit, there is a branch who has connected again to the trunk).
The Bible says that there is one God over all flesh, one Divine mind who has made all humanity from the same miry clay, and whom all humanity moves through and finds their being in (Ephesians 4:6, Malachi 2:10; Acts 17:24-29). This means that we all come from One Source, that we all have One father, and that we all are just one family that has lost its way and is trying to get home.
Paul affirms this again in Romans where he talks about those outside of the Jewish system realizing God in the world without them, realizing God by the divine image they still had inside. He teaches that the God of the Hebrews is not an exclusive God but the God of all Humanity that has appeared to each and every member of humanity and given them a chance to know him in a way that was personal and understandable to them (Romans 1:19-21; 2:13-15; 3:29 and Titus 2:11-12).
When one understands this the Bible and all the information it contains is no longer the exclusive property of one sect, system, or culture; even though it is set in a very specific cultural tone (Jewish). It is the spiritual property of all minds, people, and times and should be portrayed in that way. It is no longer a book that is crying out at every other religion on the earth and casting them as being in total error rather it says, “You have heard much of my voice already; let me further your understanding”. If only those who claimed to know it really did then the world could lighten with new compassion. If we all could see that each of us have parts of the Infinite truth that others do not and share how much better our world would be.
The Bible says that no human should call another human common or unclean (Acts 10:28) yet this is what those who claim to know the Bible do. What does this mean? It means that as always humans are blind to their own evils and guilty of the crimes that they accuse every one else of. Those Christian who point at a peaceful Buddhist, a deep and wise Hindu priest, or a devout and truth Muslim and say, “You know not God and are damned to hell”, they are in fact the ones who are devoid of understanding and know not the Love of which the founder of their faith said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:35
People find it hard to understand me because the cannot grasp the way I believe; they see it as being confusing and complex, a hodge podge of different faiths and differing opinions. Nothing in fact could be further from the truth; my religion is Truth. I care not for the boxes or the limits imposed by culture or tradition. I care not for illogical dogmas founded upon unstudied ideas which disagree with the books from which they are supposed to come. My way is not complex it is ultimately simple.
I have no name because I cannot define myself in a way you could understand. To say I am ‘this’ would instantly cause me not to be ‘that’, I am as the system I follow and the God I believe in, beyond all one sided and cultural terms, unable to be totally expressed, and completely in love with Truth alone. And is this not what Jesus said God desired? Jesus said that the system of the Jews does lead to salvation but it is not the will of God to turn all into Jews, he wants people who follow Divinity alone and who worship in Spirit and Truth (John 4:19-24).
Do I think the Bible is a revelation of God? Without question. Do I think that is contains all that God has revealed or all useful truth? Absolutely not. Truth is as big as God and I want to find every drop that has ever touch any human mind everywhere. I know that others think this is unsafe and dangerous but I am not in this life to gain your approval, nor do I care for it. I must follow where the Truth leads.
You may live your life in an effort to avoid lies, protect what you have been taught, accept all that your culture teaches at face value if you wish; that is your right. However it is my right to live in an effort to find truth, to discover what should be taught, and to critically examine all information that comes to me. After all which do you think that Divinity would prefer, thoughtless, inherited, and fear service, or service which is full of thought, personally sought out, and which flows from a mind which has seen the Total Beauty of Divinity and bows out of complete freedom and deep awareness?
Let us let God and Truth out of our boxes and seek the beauty that lies beyond the walls; a beauty which all eyes can see.
>
>
>
>
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. Luke 9:51-56
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:16-17
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matthew 9:10-13
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Matthew 23:13
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. Matthew 7:1-5
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17
Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. John 9:41
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Acts 17:30
The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah. Psalm 87:6
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1:1-4
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last Revelation 1:8-17
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; Colossians 1:14-19
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:1-3
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Micah 5:2
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Matthew 2:6
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14
compare
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew 1:23
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. Isaiah 9:6-7
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17
The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145:15-16
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:16-23
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:6
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Malachi 2:10
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. Acts 17:24-29
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:19-21
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another, Romans 2:13-15
Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also… Romans 3:29
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world Titus 2:11-12
And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Acts 10:28
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:19-24
Saturday, October 11th, 2008
They who search for truth must know first that the road is long. Second they must know that the experience of the journey slides between two ends of a spectrum; rapture at one end and a longing for death at the other. Thirdly, that focus is needed at every moment lest some transient joy steal away from your goal. Finally, they must know that the road never ends; the light only gets brighter.
Fantasy and Illusion may lead to pleasure but they will never lead you pure grasp of reality. Reality is found by digging in reality just as gold is found by digging in a gold mine; it is possible to find gold in a coal mine but how much effort have you put forth in carrying what is not gold in order to produce, by accident no less, the bit of gold you have?
Infinite, beautiful, inspiring, hidden, manifest, now = reality
Tigers pounce when goats would faint. Bats move fluidly where hawks would lose there way. Water gives life while hydrochloric acid consumes all and dissipates.
What are we in essence? Children of Divinity.
Who is Divinity? More than anyone has ever known.
Why are so many so certain? Because they ask so little.
What is the best way through life? Compassion and selflessness.
What is visible is obvious to all and a morality and a power so vast that we must call it Divinity is as a nose upon the face.
Balance, union of unlikes to form a harmonious whole, transience, cause and effect, dependent and independent existence of each and every thing; these too are obvious.
Easier is the path of one who refuses to look at alternate maps, clearer is the steps of those who do, and blessed are those who do not forsake the walking of the Way.
I can see the stream should that be enough? Perhaps but I so long to see where the river of living began and what indeed is its ultimate destination.
It is so important for us to know the truth of Divinity and I do not think that the Divine does not comes to each of us personally to tell us this, I think that we have forgotten how to look and have piled a mountain of lusts and illusions upon our ears.
Grant me a tune so I can swoon through out celestial ages,
to the hymn of the maker, the song of the Raker, who has planted the seed of Existence.
Come now, come quick, I feel soul sick for none around me can grasp but thee,
the root and the cause, the fount of of me that prompts what is able to be seen.
Be bold and be brave, not a sheep or a slave, but a child of the OmniDivine.
Flame upon flame is the Purest of names that has never come out of a mortal fount, but I do not care I long to dive in there and burn away my dear impurities.
For who retains infectious remains when they might have celestial remedies.
I cannot tell you the meaning of what I see but I can share with you words in hopes that you might glimpse as a ghost, a drop of what I have tasted.
Books are good, and forms must be but it is experience and substance that matter.
Ink on a page are known to the sage as maps but to the fool as a Divine letter.
The symbols are meaningless they are but ladders and if our souls would but heed and climb, they would eat of feast of holy light and peace which expressions cannot define.
Broken and bleedings are from me exceeding, flooding the moment inside but courage and realizations let me now that like all things they will subside and like a spring time bloom after a winterous doom, I shall root deep and climb to the bluest sky.
All of my life for one unhazy glimpse of the actual Substance and Mind of Divine;
I a small flower upon the endless vine, if I will choose to lose the gnarled brairs of wickedness and selfish dining.
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
Most often we spend all of our life creating or playing in the frames of another’s vision or lack thereof. Games, jobs, drugs, relationships, roles, and a million other pits of mind we repose in rather than climb.
Shall we not awake and begin to create a life of our own.
Most of us are not really alive, we are robots running according to the programs and fears given to us by our society and dear souls with the best, or worst, of intent.
Do you live your life, or do you accept the beliefs and norms of the circle you were born into without question? What about the circle where you have come to be since birth? We gather around books, forget their names and even their content, which we have been told are authority and bow before them with reverence as though we were speaking directly to the Maker of all time!
Don’t question this book or you will be a sinner.
Don’t question this book or you will be a fool.
Don’t question me, I am the king.
Don’t question me, I am the prophet.
Don’t question me, I am the lover.
Don’t question me, I am the one who gave you life.
Don’t question me, I am God
(or what is “called” God, a small box wherein Divinity is kept, lest Deos burst forth and change all humanity is, was, or has even been).
If thy book be holy, it will shine.
If thy book be fact, it will prove wise.
If thy rule be just thy throne is safe.
If thy vision is light, it will heal my eyes.
If you truly love me you won’t speak lies.
If you really want to birth my life, you will let it soar beyond what we both now know.
If you are really Divine, then you are big enough to see that worship is sweeter when coming from a fearless, willing, and courageously humble mind.
Empty fears and empty titles only have as much power as we shall give them, let us give them none from now own.
Do you really believe that you have a grasp on all that is? Can a water balloon contain the ocean? Can a man’s belly contain the sky? They who that thinks they are wise are indeed the greatest of fools. It is like an ant which climbs to the top of a mole hill and then believes that it is elevated. For every word you have read there are millions more penned, and for every word penned there is a million more truths which can not yet be expressed.
Who says they are old and wise? Were they here when Deity formed light? Then they have sat at the feet of mortals and are just a small as I.
Draw a 4 inch circle upon a page, now place your pen upon a point of the circle, and dab until you have made an inky dot. Imagine that you are that little dot and everything you know, have known, or can learn is contained in the bounds of that little dot. Is that little dot the whole circle you drew? Can it ever become the entire circle since it already represents all that you could ever know? No part of the whole is the whole.
It is like we look at life through microscopes. We see all that is through a tiny little hole, and we think what we see is the entire universe. We have let our tools, teachers, and rules blind us.
Words are just labels we affix to things. The substances, ways, and states of mind (or the absence thereof) they represent, these are what matters. How often though do we kill each other because we cannot agree on a “name”, while we are supposed to be representing and seeking the same substance? Is it infinite wisdom to kill the bodies which lets us learn? Is it infinite love to hate and judge? Is it unconditional compassion to make others fit our perceptions before we will accept or comfort them? We are blind and we all think we truly see. We are actually just looking at all there is through filters. Looking at the labels and not seeing the things and lessons they are meant to pump into our brains.
I know nothing and I am not wise; I seek wisdom and learn daily but forever it will be such. They who climb an infinite ladder will rise eternally. They who think they know, will never know.
We have great “models” we follow after and never take the time to “create” ourselves. We pay high dollar to get years and years of instruction only to learn many things and understand nothing. Pity it is to spend years learning about how the grapes taste and never eating one. Titles are meaningless. When it comes to explaining reality authoritatively all words and wit are to be subjected to extreme scrutiny. Many have possession of learned opinions, but can I not know all they know if I too read or hear their sources? And are not those who claim wisdom merely a person who says they know? Are they not just fellow dots upon the face of the endless circle?
Question all things. Learn millions of things from one. Do not let your learning become a “training” or your education become an indoctrination. Let not mortals to feed you buttery opinions, and sugary interpretations of fact. Endure the bitterness and salt of seeking and chewing through for yourself, and you will find the sweetest nectars of life.
Can you cure your pain by creating more?
Can you fix your reality by living in illusions?
Can you heal your mind by destroying it?
Can you find peace by constantly creating chaos?
Who can make you see if you gouge out your eyes?
Can you find your keys if you refuse to look; how then can you hope to find Divinity without a quest?
Hope, dig, bloom, shine, flow, and swoon to the beautiful cosmic law. Dance in flawless unity with the Maker’s music and you will dance in unity with the Maker.
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
I have been gone away for so long yet I am always here,
feeling, hurting, healing, strengthening, weakening,
rising, falling, dancing, weeping, crawling, freaking, soothing,
biting, praying, doubting, seeking, needing, wanting, living…..
being a human who wishes he was something more and nothing less.
I dig into awareness in a million ways and I dig into reality a million more, you know what I find? Shallowness is a death by degrees, and things which appear as angels in the dusky dawn are seen to be but demons and thieves when full light has come.
The boats on top of the ocean are tossed by every squall, while those immersed deeply in the waters are always grasped by perfect calm. How sad it is that most of humanity chooses to create ships when they could make submarines? Worse is that those who build the rickety rafts then turn to question why they are capsized by every violent storm.
Fairy tales, fictions, illusions, and harmful warmths are but empty charms which leads us blissfully into the gaping jaws of a violent destruction. We birds who see that the worm is really the tongue of a viper retain sweet life, and with true direction fly mid happiness into the gates above the stars.
Do we trade the opportunity for health to taste death? Do we sell the beauty of holiness for vile things which forever forbid us from being whole? Do we squander all that we might become, and all that might be, upon things which give us unique feelings and false hopes? The most delicate beauties conceal the darkest deaths. Avoid the nectars full of murder, the angels full rot, and the daisies where devils hide.
Ignorance, blindness, selfishness and unwillingness to learn are the monkeys which saddle us humans and drive us to our doom. No more for me thanks, you frothing little baboon, step off my back now I am done with you. Fangs of sloth and empty pleasure rise out of me, my bloody and swollen back has been offered wings.
Beyond, above, no excuse for the flaws in me, to the stars to the dreams I must go. I have glimpsed there the answers, my Crafter and the malice below. Climbing raises heart to light so pure, and the light cleans my dirty little bowl.
I have been here so long yet now I will go,
flying, fighting, focusing, removing, simplifying, hoping,
repenting, correcting, accepting, directing, peering, shutting,
growing, crying, pleading, questioning, finding, leaving…..
running like a leper full of hope through all the thorns to the cure which lies beyond.
Fearless.
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
First bind me to a stake,
my hands tied together over my head,
my feet lashed to the pole’s bottom.
Next place me in the heart of a desert till the angry sun therein brings boils,
My flesh cracking and all that I am cries for water.
Now take a small razor’s blade, rusty and worn,
and let it venture in vertical and horizontal patterns across my entire body till a grid of one inch squares form.
Following this take sand like salt and roll me in it until the small grains fill every fresh cut in my burned and blistered flesh.
My torture is far from complete.
After the salt has dried you carry me into a concrete room where the entrance and my view of nature is high lighted bars of harsh and unforgiving iron. There you tell me that the prison around me doesn’t have to be my home if I will only give you all I own. You leave me in the dark for days feeding me only bread and water as I consider my options.
A week passes and my wounds have set up infection, my whole being aches with hunger and stings with the suns poisoning. Smoothly you enter the room and beseech me to agree to your terms. My heart aches because my father and his father before him owned all that I now have but at least if I give it all away I will be free. Amid the rending of my soul I agree and force my burned and salted fingers to sign your blood note.
You smile softly and motion to the guard who carries the keys to come over. A wave of elation passes through me, the hope and nearness of freedom becomes as the breath of God and for a moment my spirit soars! It is quickly pulled from the sky however by the heavy blow of a club and a sinister laugh as the guard tapes my eyes open.
“You promised me freedom!” I scream, but my screams are not answered with apologies but with more screams which are flowing from the hallway that leads to my cell. As they draw closer I realize that they are the mingled cries of my wife, my son and my daughter. They are being dragged to join me in my hell.
As they enter the room they are all nude, bruises cover their body and tears stream down their face. My soul feels like it is going to be crushed under the weight of sorrow and pain that presses upon it, but that fate is far too sweet to arrive.
Next enter three big gruff men. They each stink of alcohol and wear a smile that betrays their love for evil. Undressing, they each have their way with my son, my daughter and my wife in turn, forcing me to watch them do to them acts too filthy to ever be named by men.
Once they have finished they smugly dress and I think them to be leaving but they are not. Their steps turn not to the doors but to my battered and shamed family which lays strewn upon the prison floor. Each man grabs a victim and guiding them over to me they slit their throat so that the only bath that I have been given for almost two weeks comes from the warm blood of my lovelies. Laughing they leave.
My souls twists and psyche is bent beyond breaking point. For what seems like an eternity I weep and snarl wildly at the shadows which play around my room and within my head. Beyond vengeance, beyond sorrow, unable to die, and unable to live I remain strapped to a pole in the depths of some heartless pit of hell, fed now by tubes lest my life slip into the bliss of death.
One day the doors open and I feel a hand undo my bonds. I am placed into a wheel chair, could it be that I am being given freedom? My heart starts to hope though I know it should not.
I am wheeled into a room which is filled with all my friends and relatives. They no longer speak a language I can understand or wear cloths which I am familiar with. Where I hoped would be smiles only frowns and icy coldness fill their faces. I feel lips near my ear whisper, “They know what you did to your family. Even if you could now speak with them how could they ever forgive such a blood thirsty savage.” It is too much and my heart breaks, my souls begins to fade and I feel life escape me.
“Wake up!”, a voice cries. A current of electricity surges through my body lifting me off the floors. Gasping I again find consciousness but not a drop of mercy. I am now standing before a man in a black hood bearing a large cleaver. He forces me down into a kneeling position, my head resting upon a block of oak.
I hear a voice speak, I am told it is a request to all present, friends, family, townsfolk or passerby, to give any reason why I should not die. Silence is all that returns. My history and name have been twisted till all hate me unfairly for crimes never committed and being what I never was.
There upon a block of lumber I wait for the blade to fall. No dignity, no freedom, no comfort, no friends, nothing to comfort me but the horrific memories of my family’s demise and the promise of death. I hear a grunt and it ends.
Let all who read this know the pain I feel in my heart for those “True Americans” who lived here before any European arrived. Those sweet and wise Native American souls who endured a type of EVERY ACT I mentioned above at the hands of greedy, uncivilized savages, who professed to know God and possess honor.
Our county was not built by an adherence to God’s law or love. Our country was built by theft, lies and the lust of power hungry unfeeling men who crossed oceans in search of mercy and tolerance but refused to give those very things to the people on the other side.
From the deepest part of my soul I pour out an apology which I hope some dear Native American might find. It changes not the past but perhaps it will help all of us in the present to build a better future. Mercy, love and justice are the only methods any should employ and are the first to be lost when selfishness awakens. Evil lies not in any plot of land but in the hearts of men. As long as there are fools who love lack of virtue and lust there will be no escape from intolerance, persecution, misery or any other vice of man.
–for an alternative history and a rending of your soul find and view 500 nations–
500 Nations Documentary