theosis

It is not that theology is obsolete, then, but that it still is, and for an unpredictable length of time, in the embryonic stage.” Emile Cailliet, “The Literary Mind and Religious Responsibility” (his emphasis). In Stanley Romaine Hopper (Ed.), Spiritual Problems in Contemporary Literature. New York: Harper, 1957.

While only half a century has gone by since Cailliet wrote those words, I sense the embryo stirring into birth. Theology is being born anew. The former “study of the theos” was just that: an objective study of, with the theos (God) as object under scrutiny. We fell into the fallacy of separation, that we are somehow standing outside the universe and “objectively” observing “it.” We somehow forgot or never understood that we ourselves are a wave in this mighty ocean with no circumference or measurable depth.

The new theology is not “theology” at all, but theosis, the deep knowing that we are identical with that which we continue opening to understand. When the “religions” begin to model and teach this, a new era of spirituality will blaze the land.

religious

Despite protestations to the contrary, everyone of us is religious, swears allegiance over and over to an object of worship. Whatever you attend to the most is your object of worship, what you idolize.

radiance

"The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26: 41) While I understand and see the validity of this statement, it is not the final word. What is flesh but the spirit embodying, flooding it with radiance and light so that the two are one? The flesh is as willing as the spirit is strong. Synthronicity is at play here: flesh and spirit "sit on each other's seat" simultaneously. Synthronous and synchronous, they move as one.

emergence

What is Christ if not a symbol of our own mythos, our own story, our own birth, trials, crucifixion, death, and rebirth, our own ascension to cosmic awareness and responsibility? We are Christs in the making, emerging from our chrysalis to meet all crisis.

our kin beyond all ken

Of all stories my heart has heard and sung I most cherish one. The one creating heavens and earth, the one hiding in plain view, the one within, our kin beyond all ken, born as a human, borning even now. This one floods our hearts with joy, even in our sadness. For what is sadness but the weight of the world, a weight released when opening to the radiance of the birthing of the one. The unborn has become the born. The light dispels the dark. Once again. And forever.

the Ertia of the Maker

Caught in the battle between the Maker and the Unmaker, I cast my lot with the Maker, with Ertia rather than Inertia. (Yes, yes, I know the need for both. No need to lecture me on that. I speak of wider realms.)

The Inertia of the Unmaker leads to the great harmonic hum, the background noise in which souls blend into forgetfulness, the tinnitus of the Cosmic Ear, where nerve has become nirvana. Spare me that! I choose the Maker, the one of creative endeavor, the one always advancing out of inert mud into fiery spirit.

The Maker and I are partners in this endeavor, this rising up beyond both mind and heart into unknown realms. If battle cry we have, it is but one: Beyond!

since both

Since both "external" objectivity and "internal" subjectivity rest upon fabrication, speak who the fabricator is without fabrication.

tossing God

God is no object, to be tossed aside like a spurned toy from one's childhood. God is a living breathing dynamic force, the pulsing of your heart, the fires of creative ecstasy, the surging power of your being. God cannot be tossed aside. The God that can be tossed is not the eternal God.

exile

God is not dead. We have exiled ourselves.

trinity

The Origin and Maintenance of this Universe? The Dark (Great Mystery) births the Light. The Light rejoices and the Light and Dark mutually Embrace. The Embrace gives birth to Love. The Dark, the Light, and Love: Holy Trinity.

depth

Just as there is a depth to the Bible which a literalist reading does not begin to comprehend, so it is with the Qur'an. The eye that sees the surface of the water does not begin to comprehend the denizens of its depths.

Wrestling with the Angel (Genesis 32: 24-32)

What does it mean to wrestle with the Angel? For certain, it means to not retreat into one’s secluded room of favored icons nailed to the walls. It means to risk one’s soul in standing firm, toe-to-toe, mirror image of the Angel, countering every move. Hopefully this grappling where one’s hip is put out of joint will turn into a tango of smooth embrace, where leading and following merge into strong content. No dead relaxation here though. The music and the dance can change at any time.

what jesus might have said

What Jesus might have said:
Sink or swim on your own, you buzzard vampires,
drinking my blood and eating my flesh!
Quit wearing my hand-me-downs,
weave your own no-seamed robe!
Stop snacking on your everlasting supper,
jump up on your own cross!
Claim your own sunship in the cosmos,
hope no one builds a religion around your ass!
Walk around the walls you’ve built
and horn blow those suckers down!
Let’s go! Get with it! If you want to follow me,
I went that ‘away!

wellspring

I bought this Bible in June, 1957 just prior to leaving for Parris Island boot camp. It went with me all through the Marines and is still with me. Well read, it speaks to me ever more deeply even now.

as souls of this world

As we consider the infinite number of worlds in the cosmos, each world governed by its inhabiting souls, we might wonder how we are doing here, with our world. As souls of this world, we are faced with darkness and division, confusion and hostility, with forces of annihilation. We are a relatively new world and the outcome remains uncertain. As souls of this world, we embody the Light. It is our true nature and is not only our means of protection but of transformative projection. As souls of this world, we radiate Light into this world. Light is not oofy-doofy fluffy-puffy. Light sends darkness scurrying.

And lest you neo-Taoists disapprove with insistence that the light and dark interflow, I speak of the Light which illuminates all disapproval: the Light beyond both light and dark. This is not a philosophical issue. This is Life.

As souls of this world, we are called into action. The action is simple and powerful. We continue our action every moment with every breath. We embody Light.

lab coat fetus

The spiritual world surrounds and gives birth to the material world. Trying to prove or disprove the existence of the spiritual from the realm of the material is like a fetus trying to prove or disprove the existence of its mother.

in tune

Prayer is getting ourselves in tune. Becoming attuned requires some degree of dropping off or letting go, how much depending on the amount of barnacles we have accumulated on our soul's core intimacy.

cups of water

Any thought form claiming to be the exclusive truth has not opened to the awareness that the cup does not change the nature of the water.

freaking jesus

What's the big hangup about our Source assuming human form? We ourselves are continuously making the external internal and the internal external. If we can do it, surely the universe can do the same.

the tail wagging the dog

If we allow 0 to represent quality and 6 to represent quantity, we have 0 with a tail on it, and in this quantitative time, where quantity rules over quality, of 666, we live in the time of the unholy trinity of the tail wagging the dog.

666 is not only the sign of the ascendance of the tail (quantity) but of uniformity. And as that seer and visionary, Rene' Guenon, points out: uniformity is not unity. Uniformity is the ruthless advance of "the reign of quantity" which leads ever onward to greater separation. Replaceable parts is the order of the day and humans are nothing but parts.

This quantitative world is accelerating and making the earth over into its own image as it goes. This juggernaut will destroy itself as it gets so far from Quality it can only implode. Thus the end of this Kali Yuga, a brief pause, and the cosmic cycle begins again but newly.

opening to the powers of our Origin

If we hold together as a species, where are we headed? Some say safe in the arms of Jesus, but I don’t think Jesus wants any babies to hold nor to be Entertainer on an eternal ship cruise. I think we are headed toward ongoing expanded awareness of ourselves as our Origin embodying. In God language, that is God godding. In other words, we open to and act from Christ Consciousness. We may prove ourselves worthy yet of earthly and cosmic stewardship by opening to the powers of our Origin.

no more than one can bear

"God will not give us more than we can bear." While that is generally taken to mean that God will not load this donkey down with more burdens than can be borne, it means much more than that.

As fedele d'amore of our Source, we are not donkeys, but open conduits of spiritual energy. We will not conduct more spiritual energy than we can withstand. "God will not give us more than we can bear."

When our lives are little and small, our aperture for conductance constricted, we will not be given much spiritual juice. And at a time when it feels as if we need it the most! For ourselves.

It doesn't work that way. We are in partnership with our Maker. This is a two-way street. We make our Maker as our Maker makes us. Our Maker looks to be borne and cannot be born without womb room.

The lover, one in love, is capacious, wide open, roomy, free while remarkably attentive to the one loved. The open-hearted lover can bear much. Radiant energy flows through. No more than one can bear.

upper room

They slammed me up beside the head with the Bible and its underlined bookmarked step-by-step guide to salvation and I thought, "No, this is not it. They don't know what 'believing in Jesus' means." Or if they did, it certainly wasn't coming across in their hard drive to put this sinner over the salvation goal line for yet another Jesus touchdown.

For me, “believing in Jesus” means opening to that portal between the dualistic world and the realm of the nondual. Within that portal, that antechamber, that “upper room,” or more accurately, through that portal move the energies of Christ. A confluence of energies occurs, his and mine, so that there is no mine and his. No theological hair splitting. No affirmation of creed. No denominational diatribes. Confluence. Flow. To the horror of some, I also meet Buddha, Lao Tzu, and others there. We converse, commune, share.

the underlying transcendent

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55: 8-9)

If you wish to open to God and you have a pre-ordained understanding of God, you are opening to your pre-ordained understanding and not to God.

If you equate God with love, then you are opening to love. If awareness, then awareness. If energetic power, then energetic power. You are opening to your own equation and not to God.

Opening to love, awareness, and energetic power is mighty fine. Just don't think you are opening to God. You are opening to you.

Note: For those of you who get all shook up at God language, "God" equals that which both underlies and transcends existence. Call it what you will. By whatever name you give it, the underlying transcendent is the underlying transcendent.

bear with me

"Bear ye one another's burdens" -- Galatians 6:2

What the heck does that mean? On the physical plane it's simple enough. I help carry that stuff you are lugging around. What does it mean in the mental, interpersonal, and energetic realms? It means I lay aside my blabber and listen to your words, a trail of small packets conveying your anxiety, your fear, your anger. I for a short while become you. I take on your burden, your existential trembling under the weight of whatever oppresses you. I truly under stand, stand under the burden that we share.

this whole sectarian thing

Each religious group, political group, and religious-political group is firmly embedded in a set of images it holds as THE TRUTH. Each set of images is different from the other sets of images. Each individual within each of those groups holds a slightly or largely different set of images from the other individuals within the group. Each one has THE TRUTH.

This can lead to hilarity (a cosmic sense of humor is needed) and to tragedy (war and hatred and conflict).

When we let go of these images we so heartily defend, we follow the example of Jesus who emptied himself and became as nothing (Philippians 2:7). This has been called opening to Christ Consciousness. When we open to Christ Consciousness, we are in right and good relationship with all that exists.

We become as nothing. Zero. The circle with no circumference whose center is everywhere. We are born out of imagery into the boundless immediacy of Now.

radiance of being

We have crucified and have been crucified enough. We put the cross away with our other holy relics. We put nothing on the wall for there are no walls. We are out here now, infinity in all directions. If you need a symbol, make it an empty tomb, then leave that behind. Forget insurrection and its recognition of hierarchy. Open to resurrection: the continuous arising of life in all its newness. Blossoming outward in all directions and all directions home. We are out here now and nothing can contain us.

the story of the debt repayment plan

By violating their rules of mortgage, Adam and Eve went into deep and unpayable debt. Thrown out of their home, neither they nor their landlord were happy. The landlord worked out a debt payment plan. It was a little peculiar, but not entirely unheard of. He said I will become homeless too, suffer as you suffer, and then get killed. Not to worry, I will die but I will not die. What is our part in this? asked Adam and Eve's descendants who had inherited the massive debt. Believe that I did this and all is forgiven, slate wiped clean, said the landlord. That's all? they asked. Well, you might try to be loving to everybody, said the landlord.

felt experience

I am hesitant in writing this because it touches on the sacredness at the core of my being. It can be so easily misunderstood, ridiculed, reviled. Yet I feel the need to speak it. Do with it as you will.

Each of us has a felt experience of life. We may not even be able to articulate it, but we operate from this felt experience at our core. Yes, there are many cognitive and emotional overlays, perhaps more easily identifiable and accessible, but it is the felt experience of our very being that determines, that is, our stance toward life. One could call it our core experience.

My felt experience is direct and personal contact with the cosmos, particularly in the person of Jesus. This has little or nothing to do with christianity. Nor am I referring to the Jesus of "doyouknowjesusasyourpersonallordandsavior."

I am referring to a cosmic being I met long ago who has shown me much and still has much to teach, depending on my capacity and openness of heart.

My felt experience is as a cosmic citizen which goes far beyond yet is inclusive of the physical, emotional, mental, and interpersonal realms. I experience all as energetic being, no separation. I have no fear of death because death-and-life are part of a larger process. That may be more information than you want, yet I felt the urge to speak it and here it is.

a global spirituality

No matter how much some may respond with denunciation, anger, and fear, humans will continue to be religious, will continue opening to spiritual realms. We need a global spirituality that is inclusive of all religions. The common denominator here is lovingkindness. The so-called "mystics" of each religion have never had a problem with this, recognizing each other's hearts immediately.

the path of no path

Put your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. -- Exodus 3: 5

At some point on our spiritual path, we must go barefoot.

Whatever art one practices, one starts out with form. One con-forms to the methods of others. At some point, however, the form becomes a con. One is caught within the form and advances no further.

In the martial arts, going beyond the form one has practiced all these years is sometimes called becoming a white belt again. As T.S. Eliot put it: "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." One now opens with true beginner's mind.

Whatever philosophy, whatever theology, whatever guides for living, whatever rules of order one has been following must be thrown aside. These shoes must be taken from our feet. The training wheels are removed.

We no longer follow a path. We are the path.

Why do many of us not do this? Why do we keep our shoes, our training wheels on?

Meister Eckhart explains: "No one is so foolish as not to desire wisdom. Why then do we not become wise? Much is necessary for this. The most important thing is that one go beyond and transcend all things and the cause of all things, and one begins to find this irksome."

The Meister makes me laugh. We find it irksome. It is our irkiness that keeps us bound to form.

We find it much easier to keep bouncing on our same old pogo stick. And everyone says, isn't s/he a good __________? (secular humanist, christian, jew, buddhist, taoist, new ager, atheist, agnostic, muslim, hindu . . .)

As we keep following our path, we will eventually be required to take off our shoes. For the place on which we stand is holy ground.

The paradox of this is that we first have to wear shoes to take them off. One conforms to form then becomes formless. The natural course of events is that the shoes will drop off by themselves, unless you bind them to your feet with your favorite form of duct tape.

mister zen and mister baptist

As a zen baptist, the zen part of me likes the mythos of no mythos, which is an expression of open relationship with all that is, and the baptist part of me likes the jesus mythos inviting opening to the consciousness of jesus, which is an expression of open relationship with all that is. Mister zen and mister baptist laugh and dance around.

is two! isn't either!

theism and a-theism
are two peas in a pod
dreaming dreams of disputation
with exultant confirmation

while the pod and mother plant
swaying in the cosmic wind
root more deeply
in the ground of being

what women will do for their men

At a night encampment on the way, the Lord encountered him and sought to kill him. So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched his legs with it saying, "You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!" And when He had let him alone, she added, "A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision." -- Exodus 4: 24-26

Let's get this out of the way first. Was Zipporah and her flint responsible for the naming of the Zippo lighter? I leave that an open question to be debated at zenbaptist training camps.

Though I was hurled by the universe into a Baptist family and my head held under the fountain of blood until I came up sputtering, attended church four times on Sunday, once on Wednesday, and every night of the summer revival meetings, I never heard a preacher preach on this section of the Book.

God, for no reason given, sought to murder Moses. While I'm not up for murder, I like that old testament god, Yahweh. He reminds me of us. Which among us has not had murder in our eyes?

Moses, as far as I can tell, had not done anything more than whine and complain to God about being sent to talk with people because he was so shy, but for heaven's sake! he was on the way to do what God said.

So here is God roaming through the night looking to kill Moses. And I guess he would have done so, being God and all, except that Moses' wife, Zipporah, said no way!

She knew that Yahweh had a thing about blood and blood sacrifices. So she sacrificed her son (sound familiar?) or at least the foreskin of his penis and daubed Moses' legs with its fresh blood. In other words, she claimed Moses. She put the sign of the blood on him and said, Back off, Yahweh, he's mine!

If I were a Baptist preacher, I could use this as a segue to the Passover and to the blood of Jesus and salvation, expound vigorously upon the theme, and then we would stand and sing "Are you washed in the blood?" And that would be fine. Then we would go home and eat fried chicken and drink sweet iced tea.

But I'm not a Baptist preacher. So I stick with admiration of Zipporah, her quick thinking, her ruthless yet skillful action, and her willingness to claim her own even to the point of standing up against God.

veil

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom -- Matthew 27:51

We continue to open on Earth today to a new mythos. All doors of all religions have opened wide and the secrets of the inner sanctums shared. We peer into each other's sacredness. We try each other's holy garments on for size and comfort of fit. We smile at the similarities expressing in different form.

The veil of the temple is rent, torn in two from top to bottom. The old way is gone. Something new is being born.

Since I am a Zen Baptist, I am looking at the transformation of Christianity. Many want to ditch it for reasons I comprehend (which is why I am no Christ-ian, but a Jesus-ian), but I see it as undergoing transformation.

I foresee that we will continue to develop our sense of individuality, of self (which hasn't existed all that long). Christianity will change, and is changing, from a dualistic stance with Jesus "up there" or "out there" to a nondual stance.

We are born of the cosmos. We are embodyings of the cosmos. We are the cosmos walking around. We can join or not join any religious group, but we do not have to make a church of this nor dress folk up in costumes and pretend they are holier. Nor not wear a costume and pretend we are holier.

We can just be ourselves. Citizens of the cosmos. Embodyings of a great mystery which cannot be fathomed.

No need to yip and yowl at each other. The veil of the temple is rent. We stand naked and open once again.

vomit

As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly. Proverbs 26:11

Now I know this is not the most appetizing text to bring to your attention on a Sunday morning just before you sink in up to your elbows in your plate of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, butter beans, sliced tomatoes, and hot buttered biscuits, chased down by gallons of sweet iced tea. But it's the truth and it needs to be talked about.

I've seen it happen. It's a typical dog action. And lest you cat lovers get too comfortable in your smugness, cats do it too.

We humans are also very good at it. Each of us has some aspect of ourselves that we know is poison to us. Our bodies and our souls are self-purgative. So every once in a while we will live in purge-atory. Whatever that poison is, and you full well know what I'm talking about, whatever that personal poison is within your heart, your soul, your mind, your body, every once in a while, you will throw it up. You will do all in your power to rid yourself of it and it will do all in its power to come out of you. It seems as if you are not its most comfortable host.

After we eject this vomitous poison, we feel much better. Relieved. It is usually at this point that we swear we will never go back to it again. We swear it to ourselves. We swear it to others.

What is this poison? Greed, Anger, Desire, Stupor, in all their forms. They all amount to giving ourselves pleasure, even though it is momentary, at the expense of any and all around us. At those moments, everyone and everything else can go to hell. We come first.

And don't go pointing your finger at Brother or Sister Whoever. I'm talking about YOU, darling, and I include myself in that YOU. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Brother James, I saw you nudge Sister Mabel, winning your bet that I couldn't go for a month of Sundays without bringing up sin at least once. A pretty safe bet I would say. After all, this is a Baptist church. Zen Baptist.

Zen is a Japanese word derived from the Chinese chan, which was derived from the Sanskrit dhyana, which means meditation. Meditation means to be mindfully present and aware and to act upon that awareness.

When we return to our folly which we have vomited up at least once, swearing to ourselves never to go there again, we are meditating on our vomit. Sin, in this sense, is keeping your vomitous poisonous folly before your eyes and convincing yourself that it is not so bad, and so you start licking around its corners, its edges. As soon as that happens, you are a goner.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly. We fool ourselves, make fools of ourselves.

An old Zen story has it that a student asked a Zen master (Ichu) to write something of wisdom for him. Ichu wrote: Attention. The student said: Is that all? Ichu wrote: Attention! Attention! The student said: That doesn't seem very profound. So Ichu wrote: Attention! Attention! Attention!

I see I just woke up the back row.

The student, all frustrated now, no doubt expecting some long self-help book s/he could read, feel better, and toss away, said: What does attention mean?

Ichu said: Attention means attention!

The poison is called the dote. The cure is called the antidote. The antidote for our particular individual self-chosen poison is our attention.

As we meditate, keep our mind on, our awareness on our spiritual teachers, our spiritual teachings, and ask for the aid of our spiritual community (embodying and not), we will not be returning to our vomit.

Wherever our attention goes, we go.

Let's stand and sing "Revive Us Again!"

budo

This morning I was thinking of budo -- the way or path of the warrior. The essence of the warrior path is spirit. As Jesus said, have little or no concern for those who can kill the body, but look out for that which can kill your soul. He is speaking budo speak -- the path and code of warrior training.

As a Zen Baptist, I find this training reflected in Jesus' character and in all of Jesus' teachings. Jesus was and is one of the mightiest warriors who ever lived.

Please open your Bibles to Matthew 22. Find verses 36-40.

Lou Ellen, will you read that aloud?

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Thank you. One of the lawyers hanging around Jesus asked him this question, hoping to trap him in his answer. As usual, Jesus nailed him.

But look at this. Look at the question first. Apply it to yourself. You have a relatively short life to live. How should you live it? The question is of great importance, of much more importance than should you have the double-flapped frapping frappe' as your coffee of choice for the morning, or even which human, if any, you should choose to bunker with for life duration.

This is a budo question, a warrior question. And asked of a great warrior, one who could slice right through b.s. to bedrock.

The question had already been answered, in what the Christians call the Old Testament.

And that answer gives us the budo way, the path of warrior training. Love the Source that is birthing you right now with your whole being. With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Nothing held back. Nothing in reserve.

This is both the warrior's training goal and the warrior's training practice.

And this means to love all around you as yourself. So it means you have to love yourself too. And even first of all. Now you know that doesn't mean you are kissing yourself all over. Or constantly staring with moonstruck eyes into a mirror. An essential part of the practice is to know what love is.

Try this on for size. Love consists of unwavering awareness. Zanshin. Bare ass naked awareness with no thought of and no clinging to the one who is aware.

Then Jesus threw in the clincher.

He said that on these two principles (which are really one) and their practices "hang all the law and the prophets."

Humankind's entire system of jurisprudence, what is right according to law, and the teachings of the entire body of human visionary and intuitive awareness rest upon this budo code: the giving of our lives with love, nothing held back, nothing in reserve.

Let us sit for a moment in silent contemplation.

deem

"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time . . . " --Ephesians 5: 15,16

To deem means to mark something out, to make it out standing, to especially note it, to emphasize its characteristics.

In energetic language, which all spiritual language is, to deem means to claim a particular realm of energetic territory as one's own and as of importance. We can and do deem our prides, our irritations and hostilities, our lusts and desires, our jealousies, as rightful realms in which we have planted our flag of ownership and domination, a flag which impales our loving heart.

We deem it necessary to protect our little selves, to mark us out as special, to make us an exclamation point in a flatland horizon.

Our energetic or spiritual practice is to re-deem ourselves. To un-deem our demption traps and to allow the freedom and creativity of new deeming.

How do we do that? First of all, we have to decide to do it. If you love your stupor, your irritations, your greediness, you can just keep right on deeming them, creating yourself in their image. No one will stop you. Many will encourage you.

After deciding to deem differently, at least two steps are important for demption transformation. One is to turn completely away from the old deemings as soon as they arise. In many of the old re-demption practices, this is done by uttering a sharp emphatic sound.
Some Tibetans use Phat! Some of my Navajo friends use Pah! One of my sisters uses Pffftt! I used to use the F word (it was a holy F), but have since graduated from that.

Whatever sound you use to expel your negative deeming, it is best if it is short and exclamatory. I find now that a simple brief exhalation of air will do.

The important second step is to turn your awareness immediately to what you now deem -- to lovingkindness, to good humor, to joy, to generosity, to live awareness of now. Your new deeming will be reinforced every time you do this.

Soon you will be singing the song I invite us to stand and sing now. Page 182 in your hymnals: "I Have Been Redeemed."

Come on now! Belt it out! Singing is another way of demption.

spirit

Please turn in your Bibles to John 4:24. Let's read it aloud.

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

Any notions we have of God are off the mark. They may help us aim in God's direction, but fall far short of encompassing God.

Father, Mother, Source, Creator, Maker, Origin, Friend and so on, are helpful as re-presentations of God, but what we are aiming at with these words is not contained within these words, not even and perhaps especially, since it contains so much baggage, the word God.

However, each of us planetary beings speaks a language and we must use what we have. If one wishes to measure the ocean and only has a teaspoon, that is what one uses.

"God is a Spirit." Spirit is life-force, is the energy that brings all into being and sustains it all. The life-force sustains us, is our sustenance. "God is my help in every need. God does my every hunger feed." The life-force (spirit) flows through us, keeps us, opens our awareness. When not enthralled by ourselves, we are pure life-force.

God is a spirit, is the life-force, and those "who worship him must worship him in spirit." Worship means to move in the same realm as. The life-force that we are is the life-force of God.

With our own self-will, we tend to bend and shape our life-force into peculiar forms. This is done out of fear and irritation and habit and is based on an adversarial approach to life.

In musical scale terms, I want the dough and the rays to fall on me, so I may go far in my lah-ti-dah ways.

When we open instead to the spirit of God, to the life-force of our Source, when we flow with the flow of the Flow, this is worship. No separate creature on knees, but a partner in the making.

Now we are worshiping in truth, in reality. We open in lovingkindness, freely giving and freely receiving the life-force energy that we are.

As a friend reminded me the other day, all language is metaphor. Then he left me with these words which sums it up quite well -- May the MetaPhorce be with you!

soul

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? -- Mark 8: 36-37

And, to keep the gender balance: For what shall it profit a woman, if she shall gain the whole world, and lose her own soul? Or what shall a woman give in exchange for her soul?

We live in the temporal world, the world of time, the temporary world, the world in which we are temps, and we live as souls, as microcosms of the macrocosm, as embodyings of our Source.

In this temporal world, we tend to drift and to trade away parts of our essence for things we want. We look for security. We look for peace. We look for happiness. If we can just get this kind of job. If we can just get this type of position. If we can just get this particular retirement plan. If we can just get that person to tie their lives in with ours. If we just had enough money. If we just lived somewhere else. We begin to live the life of the "just."

Meanwhile, almost entirely out of our notice, the soul of us slips away. Weakened, undernourished, neglected, the essence of us sends out alarm signals. We take that alarm as the need for more world sustenance and we begin to consume more of that which does not sustain us, does not feed our soul. We trade our birthright for a bowl of sugared corn.

What shall we give in exchange for our soul? A strangely worded question. Not what shall we get, but what shall we give. "I will give time to you and whatever you want me to do in exchange for my soul." In addition to being soul-numbing, this is a false bargaining position. Our soul is not our own. It is a gift to us from our Source. We are trying to barter something that is not ours.

The question also implies that when engaged in such transactions, we become brokers for our souls, pimps of our own prostitution. We become a third party, even more alienated.

No one can determine when one is exchanging soul for the temporary except oneself.

If I were going to get a tattoo, This Soul Not For Sale might be a good one.

Well, okey-dokey. I hope everyone has recovered from their Easter Resurrection hangover. That Monday after Easter Sunday can be tough. You are joyously resurrected and then find out that you are still here!

Let's stand and sing "Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies!"

gone

Gate gate paragate parasamgate!

Gone, gone beyond, totally gone beyond!

This is the essence of the Heart Sutra and of the Easter message.

When the women went out of loving compassion to the tomb in which Jesus's body lay, they found it empty. Jesus was gone, gone beyond, totally gone beyond!

I have often wondered why the Christian emblem was not the empty tomb instead of, or in addition to, the cross. Christian theology and preachings would move from suffering on the cross of existence (really, that gets so old after a while) to letting go, releasing, emptying ourselves of ourselves.

People would wear circles on their lapels as reminders of the practice of emptying. Rather than making the sign of the cross, one would make the sign of the circle. The empty circle.

No more wallowing in the agony of existence. The tomb, the old way we were, is empty. No clinging to that corpse, painting its face, and dressing it in finery. No matter how much we perfume it, it still stinks.

Nope. We follow the example of Jesus. We transcend, trance end. "He is not here. He is risen." Gone, gone beyond, totally gone beyond.

And we do not come back or maintain residuals. It's like Mr. Buddha said, when you get to the other shore, you don't hoist your boat up on your shoulders and carry it with you. It served its purpose. Leave it, let it go.

One old Zen dude said it this way: "The bee does not return to its abandoned hive." Nor did Jesus, our example in this matter, return to the tomb.

Gone! Gone beyond! Totally gone beyond!

in the midst of pain is birth

"Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him." -- Mark 15: 6-14

This is the time of year when we recognize that we have a habit of killing the best in ourselves and setting free the criminal we are.

Every morning upon awakening and every moment of the day each of us decides what aspect of ourselves we shall release into the world at large.

And sometimes we release a monster.

We may paint the monster with a pretty face, but we know and all around us know what lurks beneath.

We refuse to crucify the monster. Nor can we. S/he won't go up on that cross. But the best of us is crucified all the time. What sense does this make? Are we so perverted?

Nope. The monster runs loose because it has not learned lovingkindness. Lovingkindness is a sacrifice, an outbreathing, a giving of all one is and has. "No attachment," say the Zen dudes and dudesses. "Detachment," say the Christian mystic monks.

The monster in us is attached to everything, Velcroed and SuperGlued to our pet grievances, our old wounds, our accustomed ways of self-serving being in the world. We can't peel that sucker off long enough to nail him.

The best in us dies every day for the monster's sake. Look carefully at that sentence. It is a two-edged sword.

The best in us is the best in us because it gives freely of itself. Only when the seed falls into the ground and dies does it bear fruit.

"Be dead. Be thoroughly dead." says the Zen monk Bunan. "Die before you die," say the Sufi. John of the Cross calls it the dark night of the soul.

This is a hard teaching. If you do not understand it, let it go. But rest assured, the path of one who follows spirit, the life force, is to die many times and to be resurrected each and every time.

And there is a good old Baptist song to sing with all of this. Turn in your hymnal to page 292 and let's stand and sing: Revive Us Again!

Suffering

Alright, all you Bible thumpers, settle down!

You aren't going to like what I have to say today. Be that as it may, I press on (with only a small amount of irony). Cosmic eye roll.

I was sitting quietly opening to this full moon morning and, of a sudden, I knew I was going to talk about suffering. The first intent was to deliver a sweet little sermon on "Suffer the children to come unto me" which you would have dearly enjoyed, with no suffering on your part at all.

Then this nailed me right between the eyes and deep into my heart:

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.”- Isaiah 53:3-4

Uh oh. This doesn't sound too happy. Yet there is something really good buried in there. Perhaps not what you might think at first.

I don't want to get too theological on you here, but this passage from Isaiah, generally thought to have been written about 700 B.C., is considered to be a prophecy about Jesus. It certainly seems to fit.

There are two very different mindsets in that passage. One is of judgment and condemnation. The other is of compassion and lovingkindness. And you don't need me to preach a sermon on those differences. If you don't understand that by now, you need a brain surgeon. Or a heart transplant.

Now I'm not one to wallow around in the suffering of Jesus. Comprehend it as best you can, yes. Dwell in and on it, no.
You have your own suffering to attend to.

And finally I have arrived at my point.
Follow the example of Jesus.
Embody fully as a human with no evasion.

Take up your infirmities. Carry your sorrows. Notice that those are both positive actions, requiring you to stand on your feet and move.

Take up those places where you are not firm. Ask for a doggie bag, for a carry out. You may not get rid of them but they are not to stop you.

Carry your sorrows in your arms with great compassion.
And move on.

That reminds me, both Jesus and Buddha are associated with a tree and each dealt with suffering. But that's some gold ore for mining in the future.

It's such a beautiful day!
And Mrs. Stewart has invited us over to her house for lunch!
Please stand and let us sing a few verses of "Heavenly Sunshine."

the state of whoa

Okay, I'm going to try to get us out of here early today. I know some of you want to drive up to Atlanta to hear the Jubilee Singers Of The Dancing Holy Spirit. That reminds me, I want to preach some Sunday soon on King David dancing in the streets. Now there's a story!

Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 6:5. Will someone stand up and read that?

"Woe is me! for I am undone."

Thank you, Brother Endelrod.

Have you ever had everything put together nicely, running along so smoothly, everything just humming, and then, blam!, it all falls or flies apart, blown into smithereens, and you are left sitting in the ashes of the aftermath, wondering what the hell and why in heaven's name? Congratulations, you have just become undone.

"The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley," said Mister Burns, in his To A Mouse. He captures the undone feeling well in his opening lines: "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie."

Being undone is a state we hate. And even though we don't want to hear it, it is a state to be valued.

"Yeah, yeah," you might say, "you preachers are always putting a positive spin on things. If you stepped in dog poop, you'd praise God for reminding you to watch your step! We Americans worship progress, no offense intended, preacher. And having things fall apart, being undone as you say, is not progress."

Well, I beg to differ. Life goes on in a certain rhythm. For things to fall together, they have to fall apart.

Sometimes we need some woe, some whoa! We start galloping away in enthusiastic disregard for anything but our own singular vision of What Should Be. As a result, as someone has said, we should all over ourselves. A woeful state, any way you look at it.

When we get that way, the universe in its wonderfulness allows us to become undone. A fresh start opens.

We may sit for a while in our ashes and scrape our wounds with pot shards (like Job), but if we have any grit at all, we eventually get up and go on, totally undone.

Some of my Zen friends say that emptiness is a highly creative place to be. The ancient Chinese referred to this zone of emptiness out of which all arises as wu or wu chi. The Japanese call it ku. Combining the two, I call it wu chi ku. When we are in the undone place, we can dance the wu chi ku.

Wups! Looks like I am headed toward the King David sermon!

Please stand up and we will sing the song of the undone: Just As I Am, Without One Plea. Just the first and last verse and then you are outta here!

You Are The Light Of The World

Thank you for inviting me back.

Open your Bibles to Matthew 5:14. What does it say?

The first sentence says "Ye are the light of the world." What does that mean? It certainly does not mean that we can run around all prancey-dancey acting as if we are somebody. As soon as we start doing that, we immediately fall into darkness. This is one way all us Bible-thumpers get a bad name. And rightly so.

If you start getting the big head over this, you have lost it. The "ye" (I like that Shakespearean King James English) refers to everyone, not just to some select group. These words, "ye are the light of the world," are attributed to Jesus who is talking to "the multitudes."

We are each and all the light of the world. Yep, even that bozo you have grown to love to hate.

We are all material (matter-real) manifestations of Light. I capitalize Light because, in the cosmic scheme of things, we live in a dim sub-luminary world which is lit only by the continuous grace and Light of our Source.

Our sun itself, that radiant orb of light and heat, is but one of billions of light spheres called into being by the Big Outbreathing which called all this into existence. Some of our physicists who evidently had an adolescent male state of mind called the out breathing a Big Bang, but we all know that banging and love-making are not the same. Wups, I see some of the deacons getting uncomfortable, so let's move on.

My point is that love is light, that love and light are the same. The light of awareness comes only through love. We have to love something to really see it. You know how that goes. You say, I don't see what he sees in her, or she in him. That's because you are not in a loving place with him or her. Love is not blind. Infatuation is, but love is not.

We see by the light of love. If we are not embodyings of love, we are not embodyings of light.

Joanna Macy has written some good books. One of them is World as Lover, World as Self. The title alone reminds me that before we can love others (see them in good light), we must love ourselves, let the light shine through our whole being. Then and only then are we the light of the world.

Zen Baptist Bible Reader

Since I am in what is sometimes called the advancing years and sometimes the declining (no wonder we Geezers get confused), I am looking to give back to the community what I can before I kick the bucket, throw in the towel, buy the farm, fall into grave disorder. The "what I can" part is my take on various realms. I'm already giving my comments on the application of martial art principles to daily life, on the Gospel of Thomas, and on the Bhagavad Gita, so why not dive in and start a blog on the Bible? After all, I cut my eye teeth on it, having grown up as a Baptist in the deep South. (The Zen part, of course, came later.)

So despite and even because of the heaps of excrement thrown these days at folk who follow the teachings of holy books, here I go!

Okay you Baptists (and all you individuals who make up the nearly 7 billion religions -- one for each person -- in the world), turn in your Bibles to Micah 6:8.

This is a verse that brought me much comfort during my existential angst back-of-hand-to-brow years. I had pretty much soured on all churches, but still derived some understandings and some heart glow from this verse in Micah. The latter part of that verse: "what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" rang my chimes.

I read that and thought, okay, I can do this or at least keep at it as a spiritual practice. All that is required is to do justly (heck, I learned that in the scouts -- Scout Law: A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.), to love mercy (that's a deep one, I'm still understanding what that means), and to walk humbly with thy God.

That latter one snags a lot of people who think of God as some kind of floaty creature out there who doesn't have the sense of a billy goat in heat and has screwed up the world something terrible. It didn't take me long to realize that what that ("God") means is my source, our Source (whether you capitalize It or not). The Great Mystery, The Big Hoohah, The Eternal Mother, Father. The One Who Breathes Us, The Original Kin.

And it doesn't say I have to walk humbly with people. I am only required to walk humbly with God. The rest takes care of itself.

So close your Bibles, all you Baptists. Time to go to all day singing and dinner on the grounds!