Tag Archives: power

“GOOD” AND “GOD”

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They’re the same – don’t you already know that?

Both demonstrate the moral excellence undergirding the universe
As an “ideal,” as the “perfect” –
In other words, as Jesus’ personal image of God.

It’s also what we want to discover for ourselves
And why we feel so ashamed or guilty
When we do begin thinking about it
Because we’ve neglected or generally refused to work very hard at this
Since moral excellence takes a lot of effort –
Especially since we have to get past all the pleasurable fantasies
That have been so comforting to us.

A direct experience of God is exhilarating –
While the same can also be said of the Good.

Actually, there isn’t any “Big Man in the Sky”
And it doesn’t have anything to do with “Power” –
In fact, it’s more like a “state of being”
That takes significant effort through extended conscious human thought.

In the West, Jewish prophets and rabbis put a lot of work into ethics and morality
And we’ve all been the beneficiaries of their efforts –
While in the East, for priests and gurus, the focus was primarily on Nature and Beauty
Which obviously are good – just not “perfect” –
Especially if it doesn’t result in any deep connection to ethics.

So, the ultimate of both God and the Good is Jesus’ view of “perfection,”
That is, universal moral excellence.

It’s what we “say” we want –
As if such “sounds” can actually issue forth
Out of our very own mouths.

INTEGRITY (from “integer” or “whole”)

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Integrity is the quality possessed by people “who do the right thing” –
A foundational moral virtue.

So don’t American political leaders need integrity now more than ever?
And shouldn’t this be an essential qualification for every political office?

Recently, everything’s become “just a show” –
With each of us making up our own reality
And emulating the subliminal cruelty hidden beneath media’s potent political lies.

The result has been –
A substantial number of Americans forgetting their sense of normal human decency –
Evangelical Christianity becoming the exact opposite of historical “Jesus” movements –
And many Republican politicians relinquishing ethics, morals,
And any sense of personal shame.

Was it just one man responsible for spoiling much of what’s decent in society?
Could just one bad apple have turned the entire American barrel rotten?
Can this now be fixed?

Integrity is the answer –
When America starts valuing character over money, power, and fame.

Our country would then become a true “Anti-Trump, Anti-White Nationalist Nation” –
With a people who pray to an alive God of Many Colors
Who has signaled the intention to come again and live among us –
As a people who demand scruples
By being “scrupulous.”

It would take just a few – especially at the beginning –
When a people worshipping a God of Many Colors
Decides, now, but also once again, to enter onto the world’s main stage!

THE LAST TRUE HUMAN BEINGS

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Jesus is coming through the fields
Looking for you.

Jesus is reading out names
Hoping to gain people’s attention.

Jesus bends to pick a bright flower
Awed by its beauty.

Jesus was never interested in wealth or power
But, instead, love and truth.

Jesus asks us to look directly at God
And, then, fall in love.

Jesus proved this love of God
Can be even more important than life itself.

Jesus rejected hypocrites
And all other self-important people.

Jesus loves neglected human beings –
People without money or power
The black and brown ones
Who he claims are “His” people
In the light of their suffering
And as being the last “true” human beings left on earth!

TALK ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF GOD

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Jesus and the Sufis believe God is “Love” –
And it’s hard to disagree –
But, for now, I want to speak about “Beauty.”

Older adjectives for God included “Power” or “Knowledge”
Especially in the more ancient patriarchal brands –

All these go low.

Presently, though, I prefer “Love” or “Truth” –
While, like I said, I want God to be experienced as “Beautiful”
With a “knock your socks off” look –
When we do take a look.

Can’t we agree that people dedicated to Beauty
Are God’s people –

People who bring live beauty into the world –
Who’re as natural as Nature –
And possess the openness of children.

Beauty is like the first appearance of Spring –
A “natural” gesture –
A spontaneous smile.

The most valuable, aching, type of beauty,
Is the kind that’s just on the verge of disappearing –
Like cherry blossoms – falling –
A kingfisher’s flash dive into the lake –
Or a kindly memory surfacing later on in a well-lived life.

In essence, Love “reflects” Beauty –
Truth “tells” it –
And the fundamental fairness of Justice “requires” it.

God’s eyelids blink out numerous metaphors of Beauty –
Heart-stopping, if you’re fortunate enough to see one.

Beauty is a dream waiting patiently for God’s entrance into the material world
Or waking up to one of God’s repeated emergences into Time –

Beauty is a “splash” of Life –

Revivifying, spontaneous, fresh!

“HERE I AM, READY OR NOT”

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Men invented the ego but kept it mostly to themselves –
Women thought this quite the magic show
Generally permissible to watch.

Men created masks for dancing round a fire –
Women hummed and pounded the earth with their fists
Which resulted in many children for the community.

Men invented writing but kept it to themselves
Women said: “alright” and retreated into kitchens with daughters
Resulting in men monopolizing societal memory
Which, in turn, encompassed gods, wealth, and power –
Thereby inheriting a “male heaven on earth.”

Someday, all these “men-as-Gods” will have to stop
And take a break – in order that women can stand up without fear
And show us what we’ve all been missing.

I pray the right woman, reading this – today –
Will stand up and say: “alright – I’ll do it” –
“If the world is now willing to accept a “woman-as-God” –
“Here I am – ready or not!”

GOD IS FREEDOM

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God is not power or any variant of power –
Instead, God is freedom –
Because without freedom, there’d be no point to power –
Which is why the weakest and most vulnerable human being on earth
Is more godly than the most powerful –
Provided, of course, that she’s also more free.

Each individual human being is born free –
And then goes on to develop into a “someone” or “something” –
Usually an ego playing out a role –
But, in spite of reaching worldly success, fame, or riches
If one lacks freedom, then such goals will amount to “nothing” – in any true spiritual sense.

So, given that we’re born free
And life’s ultimate goal is to return to that original freedom –
Letting go of our roles in order to become a holy “nobody”
Is how, finally, we’ll be able to achieve total freedom –
Maybe even becoming as free as God is free.

Freedom is the precondition to any spiritual gifts –
Whether love, truth, justice, or beauty –
Because, without freedom, none of these is possible.

Ultimate freedom, of course, comes with freedom from the terrors of death –
Because if one is free to die, certainly one will also be free to live.

Jesus understood this – along, of course, with everything else!

IS THIS SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND?

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God may be more like a quality, a mode, or a channel – like spontaneity or freedom –
Than a person or thing.

God also has no ascertainable “size” (like a universe or multi-universes)
And certainly doesn’t have the kind of “power” allegedly possessed by comic book heroes –
God is actually more like “love” or “truth” or “justice” or “beauty.”

God also is not a number – no matter how infinite –
Instead, God is a word that anybody can say.

 Nor is God an ancient idea, even if once brilliant but now frozen in space –
Rather, God is always moving – like wind or water –
In other words, God is always a surprise to human beings.

One can’t “swear” by God, much less even know for certain God exists,
Yet it would be a mistake to give up on God
By adopting some substitute – like science, technology, or some political ideology.

Invisible, God, nevertheless, is always present.

God knows what we want and, more importantly, what we need –
And is happy to provide us with the latter – whether we’re ready or not.

God takes our hand, and gently, kisses it.

God gives us a lifetime of gifts which, invariably, we forget receiving.

Here’s one of God’s gifts – right now:
Close your eyes and turn around three times – then open up your eyes again –
Everything you see from that moment on – and for the rest of your life –
Is a gift from God!

Is this so difficult to understand?

LETTING GO

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“To be empty of all created things is to be full of God, and to be full of created things is to be empty of God.” Meister Eckhart

We need to achieve a radical detachment from our “ego self”
In order to attain the kind of freedom we’ll need
To “find” God, much less to “be with” God –
That is, a detachment from “power” of every kind, type, and form –
Whether political, financial, celebrity, or personal.

Human beings, by nature, originally were (and still largely are) weak and vulnerable
However, it’s only those capable of acknowledging their weakness and vulnerability
Who’ll be permitted to approach closer to God.

If we let ourselves (that is, our egos) go – that is to say, if we can give up our false selves –
We’ll end up being able to let everything else go also.

More – we’ll not only permit all that to go –
We’ll also be able to let all our traditional “Gods” go too.

To achieve purity of spirit – we need to “want” nothing, “know” nothing, and “have” nothing –
Giving us the freedom to become aware of a numinous “True God”
Who lives “way out” beyond all the standard church and temple gods –
Just like our “true self” can be found only way out – far beyond our tiny ego-self.

GOD IS SPIRIT

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People imagine a cartoon God
Because, too much of their time, they are living cartoon lives.

If true reality ever touched them
They might simply disappear.

Historically, it was easier to believe in a cartoon god
As a “drum major” for cartoon selves – that is, for our “egos”–
Rather than engage in an earnest search for a “real” God.

Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed all taught God was “spirit,”
And, given that a “true self” also is spirit –
And in the same sense –
There always existed a possibility of ecstatic “marriage” between the two.

If we believe God is a material God acting in a material world –
Then that is a complete misunderstanding of who God is – and what the world is.

Instead, God is “love,”
And that’s how we meet God – in love relationships.

God is “truth,”
Another good way to meet God – when we have the courage to tell the truth.

God is “justice” –
We encounter God each time we take a just action.

Finally, God is “beauty” –
So appreciating the beauty in our lives is another excellent way to experience God.

God, and our relationship to God, really, have nothing to do with “egos”
Or materialistic searches for “wealth,” “power,” or “notoriety” –

Instead, God is spirit and only spirit –

And that’s what the “true self” is too.

OUT HERE WITH THE BIRDS

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America’s future doesn’t lie in wealth or power –

Instead, it’s a proof text
Demonstrating how different kinds of people
Can live in relative peace with one another –

If this works in America
It’ll work everywhere else on earth –
And provide solid evidence that reasonable laws
Can substitute for blood, cultural, or racial ties.

America’s future doesn’t lie in religious cults, no matter how ancient, popular, or patriotic–
But in a country purified of violence and materialism.

Until recently, Americans have been living a wrong idea –
That we have somehow been “chosen” –
An idea that, repeatedly, brought destruction upon earlier civilizations.

Really, it’s the “everydayness” of America that’s so great!

Recently, however, we’ve gotten somewhat off track –
And have found ourselves lost out in the grass –
But, maybe, that’s not so bad –

Actually, it’s really sort of peaceful
Out here with the birds.