~ It Acts Like Love ~

It acts like love---music,
it reaches toward the face, touches it, and tries to let you know
His promise: that all will be okay.

It acts like love---music, and
tells the feet, "You do not have to be so burdened."

My body is covered with wounds
this world made,

but I still longed to kiss Him, even when God said,

"Could you also kiss the hand that caused
each scar,

for you will not find me until
you do."

It does that---music---helps us
to forgive.

From Love Poems From God
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Rabia (717-801 AD), sometimes called Rabia of Basra or Rabia al Basri, was born to a poor family in Basra in what is now Iraq. Her parents died of famine and she was sold into slavery.

The story is told that her master one night woke up and saw a light shining above her head while she was praying. Stunned, he freed her the next morning.

Rabia chose a solitary life of prayer, living much of her life in desert seclusion.

Her fame as a holy woman spread and people began to journey to her retreat, to ask advice, to study, to learn.

Today she is greatly revered by devout Muslims and mystics throughout the world.

Forgiveness of sins

Tashlich is a ritual that traditionally takes place on the first day of Rosh HaShanah. Jews traditionally go to the ocean or a stream to pray and throw bread crumbs into the water. Symbolically, the fish devour their sins. Occasionally, people ask what kind of bread          crumbs should be thrown. 
Here are a suggestions for bread for specific sins and misbehaviors:

For ordinary sins - White Bread

For erotic sins - French Bread

For particularly dark sins - Pumpernickel

For complex sins - Multi-Grain

For twisted sins - Pretzels

For tasteless sins -Rice Cakes

For sins committed in haste - Matzoh

For sins of chutzpah - Fresh Bread

For substance abuse - Stoned Wheat

For use of heavy drugs - Poppy Seed

For petty larceny - Stollen

For committing auto theft - Caraway

For ill-temperedness - Sourdough

For silliness, eccentricity - Nut Bread

For not giving full value - Shortbread

For jingoism, chauvinism - Yankee Doodles

For excessive irony - Rye Bread

For unnecessary chances - Hero Bread

For telling bad jokes/puns - Corn Bread

For war-mongering - Kaiser Rolls

For dressing immodestly - Tarts

For causing injury to others -Tortes

For lechery and promiscuity - Hot Buns

For promiscuity with gentiles - Hot Cross Buns

For racist attitudes - Crackers

For sophisticated racism - Ritz Crackers

For being holier than thou - Bagels

For abrasiveness - Grits

For dropping in without notice - Popovers

For over-eating - Stuffing

For impetuosity - Quick Bread

For indecent photography - Cheesecake

For raising your voice too often - Challah

For pride and egotism - Puff Pastry

For being overly smothering - Angel Food Cake

For laziness - Any long loaf

For trashing the environment – Dumplings


Thanks to Slim Russell and Ellen Sokolow for posting this on the Sacred Fire Community listserv.

Oneness

"Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness." 

~~Woody Allen

And, of course, there’s the Dalai Lama’s reply to what kind of hot dog he wanted in NYC: “Make me One with everything.”

So, what should we understand about "Oneness"?

There is a common thread of unity that runs through the teachings of the great thinkers. Seldom will you find a respected teacher who teaches duality when it comes to our approach to the Divine.


It’s hard to escape duality here on this lovely blue-green planet with its seemingly built-in dual modes of heat-cold, night-day, good-evil, male-female, pain-pleasure, health-illness, and birth-death. Duality is all-pervasive; it is present in everything around us. 

But it’s the split between mind and body that delays the healing process and perpetuates our journey in duality. It’s a constant discipline to live in a non-dual state of mind where we experience the Unity that I believe exists on some ‘levels’. Perhaps in the higher, finer spiritual realms, things are more harmonious.

Some teachers refer to the Earth as a school house where we chose (past tense) to come to learn our remaining ‘lessons’ that will lead us to more ‘graduated’ level, maybe to Perfection. Jesus and the Ascended Masters teach us that we can achieve Perfection while in this very embodiment, right now. All it takes is continual awareness of the energy flowing non-stop from the Higher realms. I understand that if we’re unaware of It, or could care less about it, then it still flows, but doesn’t stick to us.

St. Germain says:

“The easy way to see and feel Perfection is to qualify every thought and feeling going forth with Perfection.”

Jesus says (through St. Paul):

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.     1 Thessalonians 5:16-18


And in Jesus' own words:

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

I've always thought that it's almost an insult to God to think of myself as striving toward perfection. Ah, the good nuns of my childhood only taught what they themselves were led to believe. And the messages of being humble and striving for perfection are, on the surface, dualistically opposite.

I now know that it's not impossible to make this commitment to ourselves to burst through the veils of the ‘outer world’ and live in this en-Lightened world of the Spirit. We carry an awareness of our Higher Divine Self (actually, the Christ) that is always immediately above us during our day of waiting for traffic lights, walking in the woods, sitting in staff meetings, or cooking dinner. 


I forget mine often, but when I do recall this Presence, I immediately feel a surge of heightened energy that is filled with indescribable Love and Peace. This Light that we can direct downward through the crown (top of the head) is always available to us. 

This “Magic Presence” looks like this:

http://www.saintgermainfoundation.org/body2.htm


We need only be 'conscious' of this Presence and desire it wholeheartedly.      


There is a story of a Buddhist disciple who asked his/her teacher how they should proceed along the path of enlightenment. The teacher said:

“Come to me when you desire wisdom like a man whose hair is on fire desires water.”

A new kind of thought

Lately, I catch myself having a new kind of thought: “How would that thought look in print, going out to, who knows? thousands? hundreds? or the ten or so people who check in on this blog?”  So I jot it down anyway -- happy at least that I’m writing again. I must have 10-12 blank notebooks (I buy them to feed a fetish I have about having blank notebooks around), only two of them filled, and the rest -- partially filled. Now, with this blog, I can read stuff I’ve written - or copied/quoted from what others have written - and scroll its contents. 

Is writing a spiritual exercise? It may be if the in-spir-ation comes from the spirit. What then is the “spirit”?

Some dictionary definitions:

• The vital principle or animating force within living beings 

• A supernatural being or essence: The soul, considered as   departing from the body of a person at death 

• Incorporeal consciousness (consciousness is important here); 

• any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings

• The part of a human associated with the mind, will, and feelings (all very important in spiritual practices like meditation)

• a fundamental emotional and activating principle determining one's character

But the one that I like is:

“The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. (The Greek word is pneuma)  So, inspiration means to have spirit breathed into one. And so, on some level, to be inspired to do something creative is to be infused with spirit. 

From Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 

        And so I continue on my search for “The Spirit” and to pursue any inspiration to write.

Five simple rules for happiness

1. Free your heart from hatred.

2.  Free your mind from worries.

3.  Live simply.

4.  Give more.

5.  Expect less.

                                   --Anon.

THE FISH AND I WILL CHAT

Once 

In a while

The fish and I will chat

In the silent

Language:

We look

Into each other’s eyes and smile,

And they often

Say,

“Hey Hafiz

We see you know the joy of 

Our existence,

We see you have discovered how meditation

Can free you from land,

Mind, debts, alimony–the 

Whole works,

And like

Us

Let you carouse all day 

In

God.”

From: “The Gift”

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Hafiz' ecstatic poetry

Hafiz, a Sufi poet, expressed in poetry love for the divine, and the intoxicating oneness of union with it.  Along with many Sufi masters, he uses wine as the symbol for love. The intoxication that results from both is why it is such a fitting comparison. Hafiz spoke out about the hypocrisy and deceit that exists in society, and was more outspoken in pointing this out than many poets similar to him. He lived in south-central Iran in the 1300’s A.D.

I Will Hire You as a Minstrel

Take one of my tears,

Throw it into the ocean

And watch the salt in the wounds

Of this earth and men begin to disappear.

Take one of my tears

And cradle it in your palm.

Mount a great white camel

And carry my love into every desert,

Paying homage to every Prophet

Who has ever walked in our world.

O take one of my tears

And stop weeping only for sadness,

For there is so much More to this life

Than you now understand.

Take one of my tears

And become like the Happy One,

O like the Happy One --

Who now lives Forever

Within me.

When a drop from my Emerald Sea

Touches your soul's mouth,

It will dissolve everything but your Joy

And an Eternal Wonder.

Then,

The Beloved will gladly hire you

As His minstrel

To go traveling about this world,

Letting everyone upon this earth

Hear

The Beautiful Names of God

Resound in a thousand chords!

Hafiz himself is singing tonight

In Resplendent Glory,

For the cup in my heart

Has revealed the Beloved's Face,

And I have His oath in writing

That He will never again depart.

0 Hafiz, take one of your tears,

For you are weeping like a golden candle-

Throw one tear into the Ocean of your own verse

And let the wounds

Of every lover of God who kneels in prayer

And comes close to your words

Begin, right now,

To disappear.

From: "I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz" 
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky