PAIN ALL AROUND

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When a society
or a person
Does something bad –
Really Bad –

They quickly forget it –
so as to be able
to do it again –

As Americans, we think mostly about
how good we are –
(and getting better every day) –

But if, by accident,
we’re ever reminded of our bad,
we tend to “duck and weave,” arguing many
others have been much worse –

That’s why the old-time religions are right
about sin.

We love it so much that
We “marry” it –
And hold it close to our hearts

Where it inexorably bites us deep
Unto death

Satan sitting on our chest
God up in his sky

Pain all around.

O SPOILED ONES

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What if your ability to see “color”
Was contingent upon the presence of God –

Wouldn’t you want to immediately start a search for the Holy?

Or if you weren’t able to take pleasure in “eating”
Without first having the ability to say a heartfelt prayer of thanks –

Wouldn’t you want to start practicing with someone who already knew how to do it?

What if you couldn’t enjoy either “music” or “parties”
Without the active participation of God –

Wouldn’t you want to start sending out advance invitations on a regular basis?

O spoiled ones, you take all God’s gifts
For granted
And make life’s riches
Ordinary –

How could you!

FLYING STRAIGHT TO GOD

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Look for a subtle movement
Or a place of pure stillness –

God may be found in either place.

Your heart, on the other hand, is a boiler room
Banging out wants and fears –

Once in a lifetime, though, you may hear God’s distant call,
And, suddenly, your heart’ll leap out of your chest
And fly like a bird quickly disappearing into the deep blue sky –

Free at last!

This is the actual moment you become holy –
And fill with overflowing joy –

When your heart leaves your heart –
And starts flying straight to God.

“LIVING IN SIN” – AND DECIDING TO WALK BACK OUT OF IT

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Most of us, today, find ourselves “living in sin” because, at some point,
We misplaced our “true selves” –
Relinquishing what God gave us as our very own.

We were drawn to this path by our parents –
Who wished, initially, for us to survive, and then, later on, to thrive –
But, until the world, one day, becomes “God’s Kingdom” – once and for all –
That was probably the right call to make at that time.

So, we never made a conscious choice about exchanging our original true self
For a conventional adult ego –
The exchange that resulted in our losing “everything” truly meaningful to us.

The only possible cure is for us to admit the hard truth
That we actually have lost our true self, sometime or somewhere, during childhood,
And, now, don’t know how to find it again.

It’s a lie we’ll be able to recover our true self in one faith-soaked stroke –
Whether in this life or even in passing from this one to the next –
In truth, it may only be retrieved one step at a time –
The first one being the most important!

That first step by a true self,
Is like trying to put a tiny foot inside God’s huge shoe
And having faith it’ll fit.

At the heart of all religions is an implied promise to get your true self back –
It’s what we’re supposed to spend our entire lives accomplishing –
However, religion never comes out and says this openly
Because it would also mean, eventually, giving up on religion itself
And religion has way too much invested in us to ever reveal that!
So it doesn’t say anything –
And, instead, asserts that each individual needs religion in order to be “saved” –
Even though the promised salvation only begins after one’s life is over –
Or, perhaps, needs to be provided by someone else.

The truth is – all you actually need is God – and the heart of a courageous human being –
The truth is you can have everything – just for the asking –
That when you’re given a “green light” by God –
Which everyone who asks eventually receives –
You’ll be able to start walking – backwards – retracing all the steps taken by your false self –
Back through religion, society, parents, and even your physical birth –

Until you’re completely free (that is, “reborn,” in the language of Jesus) –
To the point where you no longer belong to anyone but God
And, of course, your true self – the “pearl” –
God provided us with originally – as our own individual and exclusive gift!

NOTHING ELSE LASTS

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The Quantum Theory, the General Theory of Relativity, and God
Are all intellectual constructs –

Sophisticated mental tools located inside our heads

Each pointing out and away from us –
And used to apprehend different types of reality –

However, the farthest reaching – “God” – may only be discerned by using both mind and spirit

In other words, God –
As well as the spiritual attributes of God – such as love, truth, justice, and beauty –
Are the only true reality –

Nothing else lasts.

CAMOUFLAGE PEOPLE

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Jesus, in the way he lived his life, demonstrated
Something truly amazing –
So, it’s surprising that, even after all these years, we still haven’t “gotten” it.

Big Religion, on the other hand, has acted like an enormous stuffed pillow
With extraordinary capacity to smother spirit –
And, even though it hasn’t been able to muffle Jesus’ radiant words entirely,
It has been effective at “re-interpreting” what he said –
For over 2000 years.

Quite a feat!

In spite of that, the Church never achieved complete ownership of Jesus –
Even though it’s been publicly displaying him,
Like a jeweled pendant for two millennia.

In contrast to these theological contortions, however –
Jesus has always been just another human being –
Teaching us how to love God –
Which, of course – is both very easy and very difficult.

Jesus told us not to try to live like him but, instead, to be like him –
To embrace, whenever possible, truth, justice, and beauty –
And always be vulnerable
To love.

Without his extraordinary example, how will we ever escape all the crazy ideas
We are so constantly fashioning about ourselves –
Faster than eye can follow –
Instantly creating and re-creating a “self” in order to meet worldly expectations.

Camouflage people –
We assiduously avoid any reality
That might turn out to be our actual lives.

IT’S THE SAME OLD STORY

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It’s the same old story –

We need to change –
But change requires internal freedom –
So, instead, we make a futile attempt to change ourselves
By changing others.

But this never works.

So,
Since we can’t change in that way –
Or find the guilty party because the “crime” was committed so long ago –
We believe we might one day be saved –
By somebody else.

It’s the same old story –

We’ve lost all true meaning in our lives –
Can’t find it – even under our fingernails –
Nor can we buy it, join it,
Drive it,
Or even, marry it.

We believe,
If we ever encounter true meaning,
Face to face,
Our ego might suddenly “blow up” and disappear forever –

So, instead, we postpone any true meaning –
And try, for awhile,
To get along without it.

WHAT ARE MEN SO AFRAID OF?

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“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” 12 Mathew 32

The religious traditions that exclude women from a central role vis-à-vis God flagrantly sin against the Holy Spirit. By imposing strictures against women’s relationship with God, especially in preaching and teaching, men, in direct opposition to Jesus’ admonition, are forcefully diminishing the Holy Spirit by restricting it to one half of the human race – since the Holy Spirit is, of course, freely available to all human beings, not just to a single sex, and, certainly – not just to males.

So, what is it that men have been so afraid of? Is it that women’s natural love of nature implies they might also have the potential to be more intimate with God as well? And is that why men, so very long ago, felt an urgent need to manufacture a male “exemplar” God to prima facie exclude all images of women from the godhead? Or might it have been an even deeper fear – that God might actually possess strong feminine aspects?

There’s also been a lack of “inwardness” in our postmodern lives. It’s far easier to project human intelligence “outward” into science and technology, finance and politics, than “inward” where thinking inevitably has to confront emotions and feelings. Ironically, the outward “male” path is easier to follow than the inward “female” one because it’s so difficult for one’s rational thinking to sort out one’s emotions and feelings – especially when we become so “attached” to the latter. However, that’s where most of the “juice” in human life resides – along with an ability to get “real things done.”

Here’s the problem: in men’s traditional approach to religion, “spirit” has not been taken very seriously, while materialism has been avidly worshipped. As a result, the spiritual visions of Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed have, over time, become transformed by the religious institutions established in their name into a kind of ersatz spirituality – shading into frequently violence-tinged “spiritual materialism.” This has created the kind of spiritual imbalance that, one day, might flip humanity into a final tragic cycle of self-destruction.

The “hard” male-dominant social structures that have created this spiritual imbalance – i.e., the world’s vast, almost child-like, yet extraordinarily expensive military organizations, the constantly morphing multinational corporations, and the West’s “sacred” capitalist economic structures – by common consensus have now gone too far and are currently threatening humanity’s very existence.

In light of all of this, isn’t it time – even past time – to think about spiritually starting all over again – and modestly and respectfully requesting women’s help?

CHURCH LIKE A MUSEUM

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Jesus had this idea
That, one day, we might become complete human beings
Instead of remaining, in some part, human animals –

That we might set aside our materialistic desires and fantasies
And live in “reality,” that is, in spirit.

To Jesus – spirit was God,
And the reason we’re prevented from seeing God, face-to-face,
Without dying,
Is the very real danger of seeing ourselves.

In light of this, Jesus preached death to artificial selves
And the rebirth of our true self –

The “pearl” –

After he died, Church officials rushed to designate him as “God” –
But, of course, by then, he was no longer able to stop that from happening.

His finest gift to us was the validation of an active, open, loving human spirit –
While his successors spent their time constructing a spiritual/materialistic empire.

Everything they did, at least in part, led away from God –

So, today, we attend church, reverentially, like entering a museum.

EVERYTHING IN ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE

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The trouble with costume parties –
Especially Halloween ones –
Is that we already wear costumes every day.

For us, the world’s a stage –
With set pieces –
Produced for family, work, and friends.

We always play “ourselves” of course,
But, as director, we’re
Capable, at a moment’s notice,
Of changing script, actors, location,
And even meaning.

We do this faster than eye can follow –
Faster than memory encodes –
And it’s a seamless entertainment –
Performed for an audience of one.

We find ourselves living inside our own movie –
A production of hope, pathos and tragedy –

But we can never touch it
Since nothing produced in this manner will ever be fully real.

Instead, we hold life close, like a secret deck of cards,
And postpone true reality
Until the moment after death –

So, for now, everything can appear – so far as the world’s concerned – to be
In its rightful place.