Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Sorrow

I asked David Stringer to let me post this poem of his created in the aftermath of last week's events. Beautiful and prescient.

What is the Reason for Sorrow?

This week, they crossed over to the realm
of the Unmanifest, where nothing
is lost. Here is the illusory, tempting
us into blindness. We are never allowed

to see through the illusion, that this vesture
as a garment of skin is only a semblance
of a lesser inviting us into a Greater.
Farrah, Michael, and Ed shed their garments

this week. Veiled as they were in beauty,
song, and humor, the lesser gave
way to the greater. Few will see
into this great crossing. There is a loss

of sight, and this a far greater death. Opaque
to the light, the culture stares strident
into an abyss of darkness. Fooled
by the iciness of death, the luminosity

of greater life is lost. Quickly, send for Father
Abraham, and have him touch our tongue
with his tears of joy that we may weep
a proper weeping, and stop this infernal charade.

David Stringer
30 June 2009
Norcross, GA

Monday, June 22, 2009

True Worship

It is in love that religion exists and not in ceremony-in the pure and sincere love in the heart. Unless a man is pure in body and mind, his coming into a temple and worshipping Shiva is useless. The prayers of those who are pure in mind and body will be answered by Shiva, and those who are impure and yet try to teach religion to others will fail in the end. External worship is only a symbol of internal worship, but internal worship and purity are the real things. Without them, external worship would be of no avail.

- Vivekananda

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Two Weeks of Wisdom Academy

We have just completed two weeks of Wisdom Academy here at the Praxis Retreat and Learning Center. The first was focused on Theopoetics, the understanding that poetic symbol and metaphor are the convergence and coincidence of opposites--and where they meet is the creative new that is born from the tension between dualisms. Poetry is the major prophetic expression of that new coming into being. David and DaAnna Stringer led us conceptually and experientially through these fertile fields of thought and expression. The second week was devoted to the Keys to the Kingdom led by Ward Bauman. It was an in-depth exploration of the traditional "Sermon on the Mount" seen through the eyes of non-duality. Yeshua taught a profound experience of oneness which is a life beyond dogma into a Realm of consciousness that is unitive rather than separative. Our work was based on a new translation published by Praxis this year.

Below is my own poetic expression of the Lord's Prayer found in that "Sermon" based on the week's work:

O Beloved Source transcendent
your sacred Name we raise
and praise the One whose rule and realm
is home for us on earth as in the heavens.
You know our need
so let us feed today on heaven's bread,
and untie the knots and set us free from error's ways
as we release all who have wronged us.
Guide us from temptation's path
and free us from its evils,
for the Realm of strength and beauty
and all Reality is yours
both now and through the ages

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Very ordinary actions

It is quite possible to perform very ordinary actions with so high
an intention as to serve God therein better than in far more
important things done with a less pure intention.


... Jean N. Grou

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

O Abyss

O abyss, O eternal Godhead, O sea profound, what more could you
give me than yourself? You are the fire that burns without being
consumed; you consume in your heat all the soul's self-love; you
are the fire which takes away cold; with your light you illuminate
me so that I may know all your truth. Clothe me, clothe me with
yourself, eternal truth, so that I may run this mortal life with
true obedience, and with the light of your most holy faith.


... Catherine of Siena