SILLY, SUBLIME MAN

Posted on by

2

Diner Mystic left church behind,
But ended up coming back to sit with Jesus
Because, eventually, he came to understand Jesus
Was who they said he was –
A human being actually capable of “mirroring” God –
While living in a human/God duality.

Diner Mystic left the Church 40 years ago
And returned when he was able to say “Jesus Christ” –
Numbering himself among the others who are able to say this –
Including Mary Magdalene (the first), as well as the other Mary who Jesus taught spirituality,
His own mother Mary –
The women at the Cross –
His disciples –
And then, last but not least, Saul/Paul.

It took Diner Mystic a long time to arrive at this point –
And he apologizes for his tardiness –
But that was the path necessary for him “to say it real” –
He had to leave in order to come back –
He had to travel to the ends of the universe
To find his very own feet.

Silly, sublime man!

“LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME”

Posted on by

1

 “Mr. Personality” gets up onto the stage
And shouts: “Look at me, Look at me!”

This act verges on the hysterical –
A part he’s always wanted to play.

Someone living inside one’s personality has no imagination
Since they could actually be living inside a much larger Being.

For example, instead of “going small” –
Expressing oneself as a modified (but hopefully better) “self”
On some small stage or downtown square
One could go all the way.

Way past the gold-painted alters
Or soaring baroque spires –
All the way up to Heaven –
To God.

Instead of possessing a “personality”
One could decide to take up residence inside God’s body –
God’s illumined mind
Or God’s thrumming heart.

Then you would be able to say God’s truth
Through your own mouth –
Feel God’s love
Through your own human heart –
See far out to infinity and think about eternity
While engaged in singing God’s universal song –

It goes something like this ….

A NEW START

Posted on by

0

The self is nobody
And God is no one.

That’s a start!

God, was, is, a great idea
Coming into existence through a single flashing thought
On its way to becoming everything else.

This idea that eventually became everything
Met nobody – time after time –
And exchanging places in a magical spiritual marriage –
Repeatedly resulted in the birth of pure joy.

I’m working on another idea –
It runs through me only when I’m not looking:

Suddenly, I become a new person
Shining like Jesus or the Buddha
Born this very day.  

It looks like this!

GROWING YOUNGER WHILE GROWING OLDER

Posted on by

0

While still young, we become anxious to grow older
Modeling ourselves on nearby adults who seem successful –
Eventually, however, we become older ourselves – inside and out.

But this turns out to be not right!

Later on in our lives, some of us begin a struggle
To become free of our earlier-developed “mature” selves
While an even smaller number manage to actually accomplish it –
By becoming “children” again.

Growing older, at some point we find the need to start over – reversing direction –
Spiritually – getting younger year by year –
Until we achieve the stage Jesus might look over at us –
(Now, perhaps, grandfathers and grandmothers)
And say: “Let the little children come unto me.”

BOOKS ARE MY FRIENDS (For Laurel)

Posted on by

2

Books are my friends –
Accompanied by them I’ll never get bored
And if at times I get a bit “down,” a passing title will soon pick me up.

Books surround me with the most thoughtful people who ever lived –
Crowding around in my study
Their intrinsic seriousness and brilliance lifts my room sky high
Ready for long-distance visits to a future “me.”

If a book is empty and brings me down – I quickly put it down
And pick up another.

People without books remind me of deserts without water –
A mechanical kind of survival –
“Clank, clank, clank.”

Books are the sea we swim in
So as to relax by distant shores.

Books are magic pills we swallow
In order to change into someone else.

Books are dreams we can make real
By spending time inside them.

Books will make you an entirely new and different person
If you’re open to opening them.

ALWAYS FRESH

Posted on by

0

“I go back to where everything is nothing.”
                                                      Rumi

Along with Rumi, I want nothing – except freedom
And perhaps a friend to point the way to God for me
In place of all the religious “professionals” lining the way to nowhere
And flatterers complimenting us on things we already know.

I want nothing
And the freedom that goes along with it –
I also want a God who still desires being God
Along with a quotidian material world whirring into and out of existence.

I want a freedom that’s fully paid for –
And a love that arrives “out of the blue.”

Speaking of “blue,” I want a lot more of that –
Skies, oceans, robins’ eggs, and Van Gogh blues –
Along with the spectacular “yellows” I’d never seen before visiting Musée d’Orsay.

Nothing is absolutely the beginning of everything –
Nothing is a midnight diner – cars streaming by –
Nothing is music discerned through an almost-waking dream.

Nothing is a God who doesn’t need to be acknowledged as “God” –
Since God’s perpetually fresh!

NOT THE PICTURE BUT THE REAL BEING

Posted on by

0

Where is Jesus in this ancient religion called “Christianity?”
Certainly not in a silver medal hanging around one’s neck
Requiring people to nod when passing.

Jesus is not anybody who needs to be worshipped
Since, today, Jesus is you – and nobody else.

If you do decide to “become” him –
Open the doors of your soul and say, “please come in.” 

Jesus is not the world religion created by Paul and institutionalized by Constantine
At which all the good seats have already been taken –
Hypocrites being the first to rush in
Pretending, unconvincingly, like modern-day Evangelicals to be Jesus’ best friends.

When someone decided (who was that who decided?)
To merge the Roman Empire into the name and spirit of Jesus –
He (Jesus) quickly left by a side door – and has never been seen again.

Curators plaster museum walls with pictures of him
Framed with gold and precious jewels –
But Jesus, himself, is back out on the street – searching for God
All over again.

Birds see him
Cats turn their heads when passing
But only crazy people are willing to unembarrassedly acknowledge him in public –
When they see
Not the common-accepted picture – but the real human being!

WE DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT WORDS FOR GOD

Posted on by

2

We don’t have the right words for God
Since we no longer believe in a “God” who’s given up on being God –
We need the right words so that everyone can start believing again –
We’ll also need a few bright new metaphors for “love”
As well as an entirely fresh vocabulary for “God’s Kingdom on Earth.”

The problem with words is that they eventually become “stale”
Expressing past understandings of things
That are now no longer understandable. 

Who can believe in a “God” who’s mostly a cliché –
And who many fail to take seriously anymore?

Let’s throw over the old words
And start over
In order to fall in love with God again –
Preferably speechlessly.

Let the words for “love of God”
Be expressed primarily by sparkling eyes
As if falling in love for the first time!

ATTITUDE

Posted on by

1

                                                “They really enjoy the hate!”
                                                 A new student voter

He says nothing rational
This unloving unlovable mud creature
He lies like diarrhea
So what’s the attraction?

Some say it’s “attitude” –
Denying they agree with him on everything
They applaud the “performance.”

All these people traveling off the cliff together
Enjoying the hate –
Taking a deep cathartic plunge into an exhilaration of loathing.

TURNING AROUND IN A DRASTIC MANNER

Posted on by

2

In America, God, the real god, dies every minute –
Killed from opposing directions –
First, by those believing they no longer need God
Because they’re so smart and ambitious –
And, second, by those who worship an older, passé God
Who, since he’s obviously no longer as effective for them, get furious –
And want (and actually try) to pull down the temple on their own heads.

The first are Ivy Leaguers
The second small town Evangelicals.

America traditionally has been an open-hearted kind of place –
And Ivy Leaguers and small-town Evangelicals agree about this
But they’ve been looking in opposite directions – and for now can’t see one another –
And, presently, don’t even want to!

Our Founders designed an America open to the skies –
A free land where people could be themselves –
But freedom, alone, can’t do everything.

Americans also have to be inspired collectively to acquire the best human qualities –
While expressing a spirit of openness in their lives –
Along with an authentic concern for the “beaten down.”

America does make mistakes – really big mistakes –
But, usually, eventually, turns around after admitting them.


Yes, America can turn around – sometimes, even in a drastic manner!