the great god

I did not make myself. The Great God did. I am not making myself. The Great God is.

If I try to make myself, a self-made man, I become a whirling drain-suck, taking all that is around "me" and turning it to my own ends. Look out! If I am a whirling drain-suck, you and all you love are fair game, raw materials for my self-making. Old America worshiped drain-sucks; its remnants still do.

I am called into being by Mystery: a loving, jovial, adventurous, and daring Mystery. He is friendly, forgiving, takes no prisoners -- I am either with him or left behind. He is always there though, laughing, smiling, dancing when I get off my butt and move again.

I love him. I love The Great God.

God's rosary

Each of the world's religions is a bead on a bracelet rosary worn around God's wrist.

the pulsing of the heart

There is only one Creative Impulse (rather, an impulsing, moving as It does in rhythmic pulse) producing abundant Life on earth, our solar system, the galaxies, the realms of the visible and the invisible. Without this Creative Impulsing, all would fall away, vanish, disappear.

Each society of humans across time and still today seeks to bag the Creative Impulsing in its own terms, for purposes of manipulation, adoration, and meaning. Little thought is given to the understanding that the Creative Impulsing deliberately looks to express Itself in the terms and form appropriate to and understandable by a given society.

Each grouping of people has its own religion, its own wine bag into which the wine of spirit is poured and flows, provided by the Creative Impulsing Itself. This is good. This is more than good; this is wondrous.

Perhaps the time has come for the humanimal to recognize this and stop standing in smug isolation from others. (This includes those standing in smug isolation from those they perceive standing in smug isolation.)

There is only one Creative Impulse and we, we all, are Its pulsing.

the supreme happiness

"It is he who has made us and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3) Whether you decide to call "he" she, thou, it, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, maker, that, mystery, origin, source, genetic flow, tao, evolutionary unfolding, or I'd-rather-not-think-about-it, you did not make yourself. You are, we are, him embodying. We are our source sourcing. He is closer than our very breath. When we know that, truly know that, when we know him, this is the Supreme Happiness.

all things to all men

"I am made all things to all men" (I Corinthians 9:22) does not mean that one is a gutless chameleon, shifting with whatever arises, but that one has and is a strong heartfelt core, strong enough to move with the vicissitudes of all forms of human consciousness while remaining immovable. This is the essence of all relationship arts: martial, healing, spiritual.

the unborn borning

What we do not seem to get is that we are the Unborn borning. An interflow. A mutual co-arising. We differentiate ourselves, proclaim our selves as individuals. We do not seem to realize that this proclamation is all in our heads. We cluck and peck amongst other chickens caught in the same peculiarity and proclaim ourselves as wise. Wise cluckers.

Now that we have differentiated ourselves, we have created the problem of individual mortality. Shall we live on in our differentiated fashion? We fret and moan. We have faith in yes we will. We have faith in no we won't. We have faith in don't know. Faith is a bridge to the unknown. When we realize we are the Unborn borning, we need no faith bridge. We are This Now. Not only is all in our heads, All is our head. No bounds.

The little separate self dies laughing.

now is the time

A difference in understanding of "the rapture" and of "the afterlife" I seem to have with some of my good Christian friends is based on the experiencing of space and time. Rather than experiencing time as stretched out in a long line, as if it were the substance of an old-fashioned taffy pull, with a Rapture coming in the future and Heaven and Hell also out there somewhere for each of us, I experience Now.

Now is the time and is always the time. Now is the space and is always the space. Now is eternity. Now is infinity in all "directions."

God is a sphere with no surface whose center is everywhere. Everywhere includes us. Each of us is a microcosm of the macrocosm, a minicosm of the maxicosm. Each of us is a centering of the cosmos, an energetic sphere with no bounds (except the ones we set).

The imagery of Indra's Net is also relevant here. As minicosms, the quality of our being affects the entire cosmos.

"The Net of Indra is a profound and subtle metaphor for the structure of reality. Imagine a vast net; at each crossing point there is a jewel; each jewel is perfectly clear and reflects all the other jewels in the net, the way two mirrors placed opposite each other will reflect an image ad infinitum. The jewel in this metaphor stands for an individual being, or an individual consciousness. Every jewel is intimately connected with all other jewels in the universe, and a change in one jewel means a change, however slight, in every other jewel." (Stephen Mitchell)

 Hell and Heaven are Now. The Rapture is Now. Jesus has always already returned. Jesus is here Now.

jesus must stay in his jesus box

I do not know why people have so much trouble with the idea of Jesus being married. Is he not often spoken of as the bridegroom and we are the bride? I suppose the trouble comes from having a set idea of Jesus, a form to which he must adhere. He must not venture outside the box in which we have placed him. I do not know if Jesus was married or not. We know very little about his personal life. But if he was, so what? Is the discomfort felt with the idea because marriage (and sexuality) are thought of as sin?

Some who love and appreciate Jesus seem to have their own idea of purity to which Jesus must adhere. He was often bumping into this with his disciples who wanted him to be a certain way.

If Jesus, as many believe and I am no exception, was a representation of the Divine, of God, on earth, are folk saying that the Creator of all life is asexual? That makes no sense to me. So I do not get alarmed if Jesus was married. Nor if he peed and pooped or belched and farted. It just makes me closer to him and him to me.

I deeply understand that folk who worship Jesus worship him as a spiritual being, as THE spiritual being, as one of unvarnished purity and perfection. But I go along with Meister Eckhart here: "If you want the kernel, you have to break the shell" and "Therefore I pray God that he may quit me of god."

hose and nozzle

We are nozzles on the hose of flow of Spirit into this world, the flow of the Life Force. We adjust the nozzle to various settings with which we spray all life around. The quality of spirit we bring into the world is determined by ourselves, by our nozzle settings if you will. We may even try to shut off the flow entirely by clamping down in misery and depression. Each of us has our favorite nozzle setting or settings. We call it "the way we are" as if our habit is our excuse. I pray to drop both nozzle and hose and flow directly out of and as the springing of the Wellspring.

clinging to jesus

If you are thinking about clinging to Jesus to effect your own sorry salvation, clinging like a barnacle to a boat that will take you to the other shore, forget it. You are still in kindergarten christianity -- christ-inanity! Do just like Jesus said: "Take up that cross and follow me!" Take up that cross and fling it down! Jesus no longer carried it around. Neither should you. You want to follow Jesus? He went that'away! Hurry and you might catch up.

christian

To be a Christ-ian does not mean to be a follower of Christ. It means to BE a Christ. All bread you eat is your own flesh. All wine you drink is your own blood. You are a child of the Father and you know it. You are an offspring of the Wellspring, forever springing.

The spirit you are now assumes this form, now that form, forever forming and unforming, unforming and forming. You are an embodying of the life force. The creature you create is nailed on the cross of space and time, hanging between heaven and earth, a tale of great suspense. That creature dies. The cross dies with it.

An empty tomb is left behind, the grave clothes neatly folded. Where are you now? Everywhere and no where. In particular. And at the heart of all particular is space, resonant and full and empty, no bounds. This space is the outbreathing of the Father, of the Mother. You are its offspring. You are a Christ.

everything you hold on to

Everything you hold on to is an idol -- a juju doll created by the necessities of your fear. No clinging! And especially no clinging to not clinging! We have enough religions. Pry those rigid fingers loose laughing and waving! I know. You think if you stay real still it will pass you by. You are safe. A safe: a rigid vault for storing valuables in airless doom. Throw your valuables into the air! If they don't come down, they are truly valuable. They have disappeared. Just as you.