THE NEXT ROOM

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In the West, poetry has pretty much been “dying on the vine”
Because there’s simply no “juice” left –
Especially since there’s no longer any believable God to write for.

In ancient Islam, mysticism and poetry frequently were allied –
And in medieval Sufism, with Hafiz and Rumi,
You might even say that, for a time, they became the same thing.

Christianity, knocking through a couple millennia of violent materialism
And repressible crimes,
Has, unfortunately, over time, devolved into contemporary Evangelical/Republican paternalism.

Sufi poets, however, spent their time and spiritual energy searching for the “heart of humanity”
And found it in “Love” –
Which enabled them to dance and sing ecstatically.

Westerners might one day experience this too –

But from way over, in the next room.

EVERYTHING’S SPEEDING UP

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Crows never get tired of yelling up in the trees –
Or God of patiently waiting for us to wake up.

The green world just keeps coming, doesn’t it?
Nothing stops it –
Because it’s impossible to return holy gifts
No matter how much they’ve been devalued or ignored.

Life keeps unfolding like an infinite Persian carpet that’s continually being woven –
With bright colors, intricate birds, and a variety of blossoming flowers
That all keep changing –
But we – we always remain the same – at least that’s what we seem to want –

But can’t, really.

One day, we glance into a passing mirror
And we’re different –
While the people in our lives
Have also been changing places.

The older we grow, the faster it seems to go –
It’s almost frightening –
Hey, life – slow up – what’s the hurry?

Yet as momentum builds,
We attempt to hold onto images, scents, memories –
And a small group of people –

But then it starts going really fast –

We find ourselves traveling at ever-increasing speed towards a dark light –
So why, then, are we becoming more joyful?

Whatever’s out there is way beyond anyone’s control –
But, maybe, that’s why we’ve been so anxious to arrive.

LIVING WITHOUT A WHY –

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Is a spontaneous way to live –
Like small children.

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Is a “wayless” way –
With freedom to worship an unknown God.

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Is someone in love with Love –
Who’s able to recognize the mysticism in everyday life.

JESUS’ BEST KEPT SECRET

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In the East,
They paint images of water lilies
Rising up out of bottom mud
Through dark water
To a breezy surface –
Where they blossom in beauty.

Who could imagine such natural elegance rising up out of mud –
One of nature’s more ecstatic surprises.

In the West,
Jesus taught we could be “born again”
And then was hung up to die.

Repeatedly, though, throughout his life he rose up out of himself –
Flowering as a “new type” of human being.

People felt awe at this, and reacted according to their individual character –
Those bending towards hope, followed him with joy,
While those responding out of fear or anger, simply disappeared.

Through Jesus, the world was exposed to a paradox –
That is, whether it’s actually possible to extinguish a “next-stage” human spirit –

The authorities learned, in their attempt to kill off this late-Axial Age spiritual dimension,
That their best efforts ended up only certifying Jesus
As an evolutionarily new human paradigm.

In fact, this turned out to be a variation of an old, old story –
Winning by losing –

Jesus’ best kept secret.

THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF JESUS

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Jesus loved parties,
Weddings, and celebrations.

He loved eating and having amazing spiritual conversations with his friends.

This is one of his important “unwritten” messages –
That we should live our lives joyfully
Like children at a party.

The crucifixion wasn’t his real message –
That was the Romans talking.

Jesus’ own life was filled with joy –
Sending and receiving invitations –

But, for him, weddings
Were always the best.

ONLY IF YOUR HEART SAYS SO

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Is God “immanent” – within us?

Yes, if you allow it.

But is God imminent only for human beings?

Humans do have the best minds – but is that all that matters?
What about crickets, blue birds,
Stars bursting with ultraviolet light?

Really isn’t everything infused in some way with God?
Isn’t everything – being and nonbeing alike –
Holy?

By ignoring the omnipresence of the holy
We’re about to brush our blue-green earth
Off the table –
Mindlessly wasting its beauty.

Dear people, you need to think about changing your minds –
And start opening up to and valuing what’s really sacred!
Everything you see, feel, taste, touch, think,
And remember is Holy.

God is everywhere –

But only if your heart says so!

THE PARTY

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“God’s ground and the soul’s ground are one ground.” Meister Eckhart

In other words, God’s essence and the soul’s essence are the same to great mystics
And that’s why no one will ever know God who doesn’t first know herself –
Socrates was the first Westerner to understand this.

God spends her time coming to know her own evolving universal “self” –
Using humanity as a “compass” to stay on track.

Eckhart’s “ground” is where the holy hits “base” spiritually –
Beyond all concepts, languages, and belief systems.

This “ground” is where God and the true self
Are falling deeply in love –
Preparing to join in a beautiful marriage of God and humanity –
Known to Jesus, familiarly, as “God’s Kingdom” –

This is the party to which we’ve been invited from day one.

AREN’T “GOOD” AND “GOD” THE SAME?

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It’s important for human beings to love the “good” – by definition –
But what could be more good than God?

Think about the Holy as the “Ultimate Good”
And then you’ll have no trouble believing in “God.”

THE FREEDOM IN BEING “NOTHING”

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Should we view God as a dynamic “nothing”
Since, after all, everything originally came out of nothing?

And could there be anything with more freedom than nothing?

The same goes for our “true self” –
Take away our ego (or, in some cases, multiple egos)
And you’re left with the kind of freedom God perennially enjoys.

So, now you’re telling me –
That God and the true self might, in essence,
Be one?

THE GOD BEYOND “GOD”

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A true God and a true self can be experienced in much the same way
Since annihilating one’s ego leaves nothing behind.

Without such ego annihilation, God will only be experienced as a cartoon God
Projected onto the blank screen of a cartoon self.

In other words, a “true” God is found
Only beyond the God who we require to perform on a weekly basis
Distant from the farthest reach of the human mind –
Deep inside our wild heart –
Where Love, and nothing but Love, eternally resides.