Tag Archives: dying

WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED!

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“You must die before you die.”
                                    Rumi

It’s a race against time –
Like a river filling up,
Drowning you, and then leaving you behind.

We begin life swimming upstream –
Towards birth, towards an unfolding life, and, then, towards death –
Which comes like a wave –
Or an unfinished song.

There is physical life
And spiritual life –
But they don’t start at the same time
Or travel in the same direction.

The physical life starts out strong but over time winds down
Spiritual life may also get old quickly –
However, “dying” to discover the next life
Sometimes can be useful –
Getting born a second time before dying the first time –
Entering a spiritual world –
Eyes wide open –
Prepared for a birth into love and joy.

Life is such a surprise –
So unexpected –

Who would have guessed!

DROWNING IN GOD

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Each year, a few more people attend my blog
So that, suddenly, it starts filling up
And looks like I’m getting noticed.

Then, one day, everyone goes away –
Was it something I said?
This blog is whittling away my natural optimism –
Coming and going – chips flying.

My wife usually remembers to support me –
But one day I made a mistake in repeating an earlier blog –
How could she not notice?
Yet no one has that kind of memory.

I don’t sign the blog with my individual name
Because that’s unimportant –
Instead, I’m writing little notes to God
Who, I hope, appreciates the effort.

Writing, for me, is like being underwater
Then, suddenly surfacing –
Waiting for a bit, and then going back down,
Hoping to reach ecstasy before drowning –
Hoping it might be the same thing –
Drowning in God while dying in me.

UNCOVERING THE NUMINOUS LATER IN LIFE

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Everything both is, and is not, “numinous” –
Depending upon which set of eyes you’re looking through –
The trick is to remember which ones you’re using at any given moment
So, when “holy time” arrives, you can wake up out of your ordinary eyes.

Sometimes, God gently touches (or slaps) your face –
So you wake up
And, suddenly, everything becomes numinous.

One’s ego, however, never engages with the numinous
Because the ego, by nature, is trapped inside itself for its own protection
And so never “sees” God –
Which is why all the world religions, historically, have never been very effective.

Freedom provides a broad opening into the numinous –
– Freedom from self, from “God,” and from everything else –
Such freedom is so radical, it’s equivalent to dying –
And, then, dying a second time!

Permission granted –
Now you’re able to “see”
A single object – numinously!

But, one day, the whole world will open itself up to you in this same way –
An experience like going a trillion miles an hour
In pure silence.

THE EGO AS DOLL

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Certainly, a cherished doll – more loved than your own mother –
More than wife or husband –
More than life itself.

That’s a pretty heavy “doll,” isn’t it?

It’s something we’re prohibited from thinking about –
With a self-reflection ratio of zero/zero –
To date, no religious laws permit transcending that prohibition –
No direct commandments of God either.

That’s because, historically speaking,
There’s been nothing more dangerous than looking at one’s self
Eyes wide open
Since you can’t do it without the ego shriveling up and “dying.”

Jesus taught this lesson every day of his life – until the very end –
He knew his ego self had to “die” for him to “see” God –
So, during his life, he “died” over and over again.

Not for you or me –
But because he needed it himself –
And, needing it, he realized everyone else needed it too.

To die to one’s “ego self” –
Not on a tree –
Not to provoke Jewish leaders or Roman governors –

But simply because it’s the only way
To become one’s “true self.”

PEERING OUT OF TUNNELS

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Why worry about what one “looks like”
When peering through cloudbursts of love?

How give up one’s “self” in order to look through God’s eyes –
Or take a “perfect shot” without aiming –
In other words, how act in this world?

How will we achieve the spontaneity of no ego – like children do –
Or be impervious as a flower taking its own beauty for granted?

And why spend life peering out of tunnels
To see whether you’re loved or threatened?

What God is, is fearless – like water –
A being who’s no “thing” – but radiates love –
Without, however, being interested in the images created inside our heads –
As opposed to what we’re actually doing.

God appears wherever nothing else can be seen –
Beyond the self – even any “God” self –
That is, a selfless “self” who sees – but can’t be seen –
Because God never appears outside “spirit,”
That is, “love,” truth,” “justice,” or “beauty,”
And why the “you,” yearning to model yourself on God,
Are unafraid of dying –
Because there, you’re actually not there –
Even though, up to now, you’ve been busily completing a spiritual self
Inside time!

 

A WORLD OF SPLINTERED MINDS

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The poet “drowns” himself in beauty –
But this can never happen in the West – in the land of logical thinking.

The poet greets a flower on the dining room table
Which his wife placed there that morning – just before he arose.

The internet, on the other hand, never contains actual beauty
Because whatever’s there –
Isn’t real –
And, since only the real is vulnerable to dying, only the real can truly be beautiful.

So, wake up – put down your iPhone –
Beauty, as the essence of God, is waiting everywhere – just for you.

Like I said, wake up, little one –
Then, wake up again!
Because beauty resides only in that second awakening.

The poet has “drowned” himself in beauty –
But, unfortunately, he’s asleep – and completely unaware of it –
This kind of “waking sleep” constitutes normal quotidian activity –
A mental “mirror” reflecting infinite numbers of digital mirrors –
But never, ever, an actual flower!

So, this all-encompassing electronic world, completely empty of natural beauty,
Will always be a world of splintered minds.

THE SPLENDOR IS OVERWHELMING

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One day I awoke and discovered
A Persian carpet woven with flowers and other plants.

Another day, sitting quietly,
The soft browns of our oak furniture came into prime view.

One day, thinking about the prospect of dying –
Life itself, suddenly became much more intriguing.

On the day I finally gave up all my residual intensity –
Was when I began to hear tinkling bells,
Became aware of the quick movements of small birds,
And memories of the seashore suddenly reappeared.

The day I stopped counting –
Was the day I gave up trying to control my world
And also was the exact moment I stepped through doors of natural happiness
That only God is capable of flinging open.

God has been carefully watching us  – waiting for some indication
Of a recognition of God’s presence –

So, if your mind stops – even for one second –
And you’re able to take a good look

The splendor is overwhelming
And you’ll begin crying about everything you’ve missed in the past.

TEARS OF JOY

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Evangelical Christians talk about being “born again” –
As if it’s easy.

And that suffering and dying are nothing more than just saying the words
“Jesus Christ.”

But this is all a sham.

Suffering and dying are very difficult –
As Jesus so graphically demonstrated.

But that’s what it costs –

Dying, to make way for the birth
Of the kind of people God meant for all of us to be –

Pretty much everything in the ancient world had to be destroyed
To make room for that.

It’s the same for each one of us – it won’t be easy –
Giving up and
Starting all over again –

Arriving straight out of a spiritual womb
Into a sky we’ve never experienced before.

At birth, everyone starts crying,
You, your friends, the entire world – everyone –

Tears of joy.