STEPPING AND LEAPING

There are multiple steps required to reach God –
Too many, actually –
So why not take a single leap –
Exclaim “God!” and, suddenly, be there.

God likes these kinds of surprises.

Of course, God counts all the steps you’ll actually need
In a single glance –
While you’re still reciting: “One Thousand Nineteen, One Thousand Twenty….”

Each step represents an increase in human consciousness –
That is, in the quality of soul, mind, and life experience –
And each takes a lot of work –
God appreciates that –
While whispering: “You know, there’s really a more direct way to achieve this.”

Counting may eventually get you there –
But leaping is daring and beautiful – reflecting the elegant thrill of dance.

God loves both daring and dance
Muttering: “Here, take my hand” –
“Watch this step” –
And sails through the overarching Universe –
Penetrating Time itself.

Suddenly, you’re there, that is, here!
Taking personal tea with God
In a long and intimate conversation
Between best of friends!

WHAT IF REALITY IS THE SAME AS GOD?

What if Reality is the same as God –
And we could trust that what we see is reality.

If so, then, to the extent we denigrate reality
By shading truth, ignoring beauty,
Or just being mean –
Wouldn’t that be a slap to God’s face?

If God also is the same as “the Good”?
Then not caring about what’s good
Would be equivalent to dismantling God –
In other words, the failure to reinforce loving kindness in our society
Would permit government officials to hurl migrant children into metallic cages
And, coldly or not, walk away.

God has been knocking at our door –
To the secret entranceway to our innermost self – i.e., to our “soul” –
God wants, most of all, to sit calmly in our heart’s chair –
And be enthroned, emblazoned with light, in our minds.

Yes, God has been calling for a new people –
And wants such people to be “real” –
As “real” as God is –
Not just a bunch of egos, actors, and manipulators.

God primarily wants “makers” – people who’ll make the world “work”
For everybody
Acknowledging that sufficient wealth is available for us all
To be satisfied –
Joyful –
And beautiful as well.

God says it’s time to re-arrange the ancient ideas still extant in the present
So that love takes first priority in human institutions –
And that all of us can feel free to ask what God wants –
Not just what God might, reluctantly, be willing to put up with –
Or what a religion, bearing Jesus’ name, might eventually come to accept –
And, certainly, not some kind of eternal unmediated capitalism.

Don’t be scared,
Don’t get angry –
You can trust God.

So let’s be naïve together – all at the same time –
And venture out into the night – under the distant flickering stars –
And say “yes!” to everything God loves,
Has loved, and wants us to continue loving in the future.

THE APPLE OF LIFE

The snake tricked us
Into eating an apple –
But the conversation wasn’t really about apples.

Instead, the snake whispered:
“Watch me shed my skin
And become something entirely new.”

The snake was happy
About its rebirth,
Viewing it as an exchange of realities –
Life and freedom in return for work and risk.

God never barred the tree of life from us –
We’re able to walk over any time, take a bite, and
Become fully “alive” –
But, after that first bite, each subsequent step needs to be in full reality –
Looking at God – “face to face” –
Letting our “ego-self” die!

Instead of doing that,
We decided to take a long slow route
Out of the Garden –
And around the world –
For thousands of generations –
Enswirled in brilliant denial dreams –

Destined to keep going
Until we get bored enough, spiritually, to wake up
And begin living in “true reality” –

Biting cleanly into the apple
Of life.

JESUS DID IT FIRST

After, spiritually, we’ve fallen fast asleep –
Suddenly, God will open a door
Where, apparently, there had been no door –
And, with a good-natured chuckle, surprise us back to life!

Inside God’s voice may be heard another – more distant voice –
We hear it by being able to glimpse a face
Behind the face of society’s accepted quotidian “God.”

At times, though, it can seem like we’re a leaf floating downstream – just being carried along –
Sometimes exhilarated, at other times, getting stuck –
No matter how fast we go, however, usually we’re pretty passive –
So that what seems to us like “action” – is more like being a stone flung up into the air.

Given this, how much work and courage would it really take
To become fully conscious and fully alive –
To even start such an effort?

It might be easier than you think!
First, just wake up –
And then wake yourself a second time to your highest state of “awakeness” –
Walk to the nearest window
And look out –
If you’re fully “awake” by that time – more than you’ve ever been before –
At that very moment, you’ll get hit “right in the puss” with joy –
Human beings’ natural state.

It takes only a single moment to pass into eternity
Where we come to “life” without passing through a womb –
Avatars call this “life beyond life” –
Jesus called it pretty much the same thing – “being born again” –
But no one has described, specifically, what it’s really like.

Jesus lived through these peak experiences many times –
Especially, and finally, when singing the 22nd Psalm on the cross –
“My God, my God, why ….”

A touch of joy in death – unimaginable –

But Jesus did it first.

SURFING

Human beings desire control in their lives –
Which is both a good, as well as a bad thing.

Actually, life is more like surfing –

If you go too far forward –
Or too far back –

You fall in.

It’s the same with our attempts at control –
Not enough, and life starts to fall apart,
Too much, and it can freeze up.

Western culture teaches that we should strive for as much control in our lives as possible
But this has led to embracing a “material” God.

It’s similar, isn’t it, to what Jesus said about the birds –
Which don’t have to worry about what they eat or wear.
Jesus knew people had to work –
But thought it just wasn’t the most important thing.

The paradox each of us needs to solve
Is how to become our “true self” –
The child that’s still able to play –
In the midst of a responsible adult life.

It is a lot like surfing, isn’t it –
Balance being the most important skill.

Playful as a child –
Responsible as an adult.

This takes a lot of practice
Like all other critical life skills.