when the knees hit the chin

When we make the temporal our temple, we have short-sheeted our cosmic bed.

trance end

A major trap in christianity is the worship of Jesus. One is then let off the hook as far as any major change in self. The way out of this glorified confinement is to BE LIKE  Jesus, a son or daughter of the cosmos in tune with and relying solely on the in-spire-ation of That-Which-Breathes-Us. To do so one must develop and allow great capacity. This requires going out of one's chatter-brain. It seems much easier to be a chatter-brained Jesus worshiper than to be a spiritual sibling of Jesus. All one has to do is keep attending the club and having confidence that one is saved (whatever that means). To live as an offspring of the Wellspring requires that one be totally lost. And to never ever be found again.

consciousness states

All theology and philosophy is a depiction of the theologian's or philosopher's state of consciousness. A particular state of consciousness is then adopted by its followers as the supreme or only state of consciousness worthy of opening into. If one's consciousness is then expanded, the experience is often called "salvation" or "enlightenment." Disillusion with a state of consciousness is called disenchantment and one seeks one's enchantment elsewhere.

the foot of the heart

IF we keep dreaming we are the way we are, we will remain as we are. AS we keep dreaming we are the way we are, we remain as we are. This has nothing to do with "advancing one's career" or "dreaming big." This is no motivational seminar. It has everything to do with soul.

It takes effort to keep dreaming the same dream of oneself, to keep wearing the same set of psychic clothes. Revving up and adding more serves only to decrease and weigh one down.

When you know who you are, you will laugh at how you tried to shape yourself. Wake up, my dear! The foot of the heart will not slip into that too small shoe.

possibles

"All things are possible with God." True. But with us individuals, possibility depends upon and takes shape through our latent predisposition and our capacity to receive. Who we are is an unfolding of a strand of the Web of Being from infinite eternity. Each strand proceeding from the infinite past has/is a fated disposition.

We move within the range of our predisposition. Capacity is capaciousness or room for possibility. Our capacity fluctuates with our mood and with our will. The will to be capacious is the willingness to be a servant of the Divine, the will to be of service. With this willingness comes all possibility.

a whup-ass loving heart

I like it that Jesus could whup anybody's ass but generally chose not to, becoming a servant instead. He could stand up on his hind legs though, go toe to toe with cunning intellectual bozos looking to make him stumble and fall. Jesus knew the spiritual equivalent of a body slam.

So you have this warrior dude who chose peace.

We have the same elements within us. We can easily be at war with ourselves, at war with our loved ones, at war with society. But that's sooo one-sided. We can also be peaceniks with fluttering hearts and little angel wings and tire tracks across our face where others (with our blessings)run over us. But that's sooo one-sided.

A flaming sword of fiery light at the core of a wide open heart: that's how I experience Jesus. No mild-mannered lamb led to slaughter. A loving heart with fierceness of intent. My role model.

My prayer and my practice are the same:
to be a whup-ass loving heart.

water game

We pour the water we are into ice trays.
We want a frame, to be held.
We get rigid.
We put our cubed self
into a glass of water.
Ah! we say.
Now I am both contained and free!
We happily forget the glass.
We take a sip of ourselves
via our metaphysical creed.
Oh, how good we taste!

tossing the baby

Literal christianity is a stumbling block. Mystical or depth christianity is another matter. To throw that baby out with the literal bathwater is an error and ultimately not possible. One may as well try to throw out the writings of Lao Tzu and the Tao because taoism exists. Or trash the Heart Sutra and the "body of transformation" because of buddhist sects. The baby concealed within the depths of christianity is transformational, an open door to regeneration and renewal. It has been clouded over with exclusivism and doctrinal rant. Poof! I blow away those obscurations and sink more deeply into the richness of christianity's deep meanings.

freed

"... permitting the soul thus to free itself from all the schemata of the world." Henry Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital

At some point, each of us will breath out and not breathe back in. This last outbreath is a prayer with no words, a returning of our breath to the one who breathes us. This is done with joy, with awe, and with a smile. We practice this with our outbreath now, preparing for the moment when we need our breath no longer.