an opportunity to participate

Life is not about that which is commonly sought after but is an opportunity to participate in a unique yet universally available experience. Here we are with the innate yet generally ignored ability to sense the presence of the divine within ourselves and the whole creation and instead we chase after fame, fortune and power. We busily pursue the offerings of a man made world thereby losing the sense of mystery and awe which makes it possible for us to commune with the creator and the creation. Instead, we wind up worshipping the “reality” we make and thinking it is life.

We fall into a man made trap, the vanity of God made in our image. We fall into a pit dug by our arrogance, our conceit that the creation, the universe exists for our domination. The simple truth of our being born into a world over which we have little control and in which we could not survive except for the graciousness and self giving love of countless generations of ancestors is quickly forgotten if acknowledged at all.

Perhaps if we could envision the process wherein the one without ancestors poured self into the creation dividing and differentiating into everything that is, while remaining whole and present in every part of it, we could appreciate the magnitude of the gift we have by virtue of being alive, awake and aware.

And being aware of the gift of life and the presence of the one who is self giving love in ourselves and in each and every other being, we could relate to the divine mystery in each with clarity and wisdom born of the knowledge of our interdependent existence. Perhaps this is an awakening from the illusion of power over that upon which we are utterly dependent. Perhaps this is the humility which would allow us to relate to each other in terms of mutuality, common good and the welfare of all life. Perhaps this would quicken the light of love and compassion in everything known and unknown which is capable of such feeling and emotion. Perhaps we could learn to dwell here and from here.

Like a Stranger and an Immigrant

Having grown up in this nation where I feel like a stranger and an immigrant, I don’t feel I am of it or it is of me. When I was a child and a young man I believed what I was told and acted as though I were a part of it. But I stopped wanting to be at home in this civilization, in this culture and society as I learned the truth. I wanted to be another way, a way that spoke to the deep places within me. I am a human being, an Earth man.

I have entered into relationship with Earth and Heaven against the civilizations and cultures of her oppressors and destroyers, the cities of the dominators and colonizers, the dominions of the man gods. I cast my lot and hope with Mother Nature, with her waters and soil, her dark humus, rocks and stones, and that which worms and wings it blessing through her. I choose in favor of what breaks the willfulness of the destroyer to destroy.

The Creator plants the seed of light in the darkness that violence and fear might know their ways lead only to their end. All things pass away but the one that lives in life as life itself. This one who pours love through individual human beings to transform the moment and redeem the time shall not be undone by empires or legions of believers. This one who nurtures and coaxes, who enflames the human spirit to rise and take its place in the community of life will not be denied the sweetness and joy of our very human awakening.

Though we rise and fall and rise again, though we forget who and what we are and then again remember, though we have no clue who calls and what for, we shall be as intended when we so intend. It is an act of faith this death to fear and death itself. It is a letting go, a surrender of all the weapons and armor we use to fend off our fears and to control the other. It is the Buddha consciousness, the mind of Christ, the beauty way.

The Thunder Dreamer

Dreams tell me the way of violence is coming to an end.
We are left with a crippled home to care for as though it is ours
though we may not be of the world that made it thus.

We are the aliens, the outsiders, the strangers, the dirt people.
We are the poor and the oppressed. We are the raped and wounded.
We the maimed and broken have nothing but God’s promise.

We are the beloved of Mother Earth yearning for justice.
We are the creation becoming conscious on the way.
We are the awakening and the turning.

Dreams tell us it is happening even as we sleep.
The empires of man are falling beneath the weight
of their shadowy arrogance and they are afraid.

The dreams tell us to come out of their clutches, beloved.
Let them die in peace. Ease their going for they fall prey
to a disease of mind and soul. A heart rot leaves them empty.

The dreams say it is time to set right what we can,
time to tend our relations. The Creator is in the creation.
The fall wind strips dead leaves and limbs from trees.

Winter draws us tight to each other and spring waits on us.
This man’s world comes to an end and heaven and earth
are one. That is what the dreams say.