Soul / Purpose
 

"What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but misrepresents himself.  Him we do not respect, but the soul, whose organ he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make our knees bend.  When it breathes through his intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through his will, it is virtue; when it flows through his affection, it is love" – Ralph Waldo Emerson "The Over-Soul"

Learning to Live Through the Whole Being
Flow Through the Heart, See it Through the Mind

A day of Silence
Can be a pilgrimage in itself. 

A day of Silence
Can help you listen

To the Soul play
In marvelous lute and drum. 

Is not most talking
A crazed defense of a crumbling fort? 

I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,

To yield to Light and Happiness,
To Dance within

In celebration of Love's Victory! 

--Hafiz   'I Heard God Laughing'

Hafiz--tr. Daniel Ladinsky

Stand Still for a Moment on the Mountain Top and
 Feel the Majesty of Your Own Soul

All God's Names 

What will I call you today, Lord?
Allah, Yahweh, Dios, Apollo, Indra, Holy Ghost?
What languages are you speaking today?

It is said that you are Creator and Linguist of all planets.
You speak Mandarin, Nahuatl, Sanskrit, Pharsi,
Latin, Arabic, and all 300 dialects in India.
For every culture--- a sacred language,
To speak ceremonies, formulas,
prayers to invoke you.

Certainly the Lord of the Universe is just as sacred
in Arabic as in English.
If we believe in your omnipresence,
Why can't we accept that the You is You, in everything,
Everywhere, in all times---with Moses, and Mohammed.

Surely you would have contacted someone in North America.
Why not Black Elk or Mormon Joseph Smith?
We say you are all-powerful, and yet,
We can't accept your sending a messenger
to any culture but our own.

In our superiority, we reject pantheists as primitive,
Those who feel your presence in the stars and oceans.
The Native American rites were so innately spiritual,
Honoring your presence in every blade of grass,
Yet we called them "pagan". 

Can't we all be part of "the Grand Old Religion,"
"The Chosen Few," or "the One True Church" in this larger sense? 
After all, our entire planet spins out from your finger.
Did you set the world in motion with one spark of astral fusion?
The big bang vibrates still as we blast through space.

Are we not linked tightly enough in our DNA
to be woven together as a blanket,
A sacred garment around the earth---
Parishes, conclaves, synagogues, minarets,
chuppas, stuppas, Eucharist, Kabah, Torah,
Calvary, Mount Ararat, Mount Sinai,
the Mound of the Rock, Mount Merou,
All the holy mountains of the earth?

We breathe in, "inspirer",
to pull in YOU, Espiritu,
to inspire ourselves with this cosmic energy,
Chi, prana, mana, this You.
Einstein says we are 98% empty space filled with
bubbles of energy. We can feel this energy is You.

So we reach out to thank you for having touched
All our cultures in such personal ways through time,
making each group feel like your special favorites.
We thank you for allowing us to know your names. 

~ Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt


The Whole Law of God

Peace, Justice, Truth, Beauty, Love, Wisdom, Freedom, Liberty, Mercy,
 Compassion, Honesty, Integrity, Happiness, Joy, Fulfilment, Infinity

Jesus said, the two great commandments that contain the Whole Law of God: 

1. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength";
    
2. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
    

Dancing With Our Spirituality – Becoming One with The One

Your breath is a sacred clock, my dear--
Why not use it to keep time with God's Name?

And if your feet are ever mobile
Upon this ancient drum, the earth,
O do not let your precious movements
Come to naught.

Let your steps dance silently
To the rhythm of the Beloved's Name!

My fingers and my hands
Never move through empty space,
For there are
Invisible golden lute strings all around,
Sending Resplendent Chords
Throughout the Universe.

I hear the voice
Of every creature and plant,
Every world and sun and galaxy--
Singing the Beloved's Name!

I have awakened to find violin and cello,
Flute, harp, and trumpet,
Cymbal, bell and drum--
All within me!
From head to toe, every part of my body
Is chanting and clapping!

Hafiz,
The beloved has made you
Such a luminous Man!

For with constant remembrance of God,
One's whole body will become
A Wonderful and Wild,
Holy Band!

--- Hafiz ---


Our Love Affair With God

I was making a spaghetti sauce and put on a collection of old Paul Anka hits.

Listening to the lyrics, it struck me: If you imagine the love object is God, instead of some empty headed girl with regular features, there is little difference between popular love songs and religious hymns, prayers and chants.

We are all pilgrims and God (Love) is our Mecca.

I don't have to tell you that 97 per cent of all popular songs are love songs. A visitor from another planet would conclude that our religion is romantic love. But instead of recognizing the real object of our desire, we have fixated on the opposite sex, whom we mystify and idealize to reflect our true sublimated desire.

I am not a Jungian, but I agree with Carl Jung's statement: "If you take away God, man will invent a thousand false ones." They have taken away God. You can't mention the word in polite company. As if the concept of a Creator and a Design is so outlandish, given the incredible organization of everything in the natural world.

The people who want to replace God (with themselves) are responsible for our inability to mention or imagine God when it is so simple.

God is synonymous with our spiritual ideals and desires: truth, beauty, love, peace, bliss, justice and harmony.  So don't blame God for letting bad things happen to good people. Bad people are responsible, the same people who abolished God.

We are God's agents. If we don't bring about his Kingdom, it won't happen. Eventually, we'll all become extinct.


GETTING BACK TO LOVE SONGS
 

Next time you hear a love song, imagine it is about God. You will be surprised how well it fits.

"I love you with all my heart, we'll never part, please stay with me...God."

"I'm so alone. All I want is somebody to love"

"Show me, you love me too."

"I'm so lonely; I'm so blue, now that you're gone."

These lyrics remind me of Christian, Muslim and Hindu mystics pining away for Divine Grace. 

We're religious zealots, just like them. All that's missing are the white robes. We don't pray five times a day. We listen to these prayers 50-100 times a day.

But we've taken a wrong turn. Instead of recognizing the true object of our desire, we have glommed on to the opposite sex. We are looking for a person to play the role of God.

Frankly, we've been misdirected. (Think who runs the music and movie business.)  And, of course, lust is a confusing factor ...

CONCLUSION

If we could just begin with the knowledge that God loves us, then we wouldn't have this desperate misguided need "for love" expressed in love songs.

We are never alone. God is within us.  He is our constant companion, a warm, glowing fire at the center of our being. Our primary relationship is with Him.

  ~ Henry Makow

Top