To the World
To the world,
it is unwise
to be gentle,
meek,
for this leaves us
too vulnerable.
Yet,
wisdom knows
it is in vulnerability
that true intimacy,
true healing,
true meeting
can take place.
In laying ourselves
in that
which created us,
in the deepest trust,
without any idea
of what will show,
the most profound love
reaches the heart
of the soul
and quiets
the rational,
reasoning
resistor.
And then
our true birth
begins,
and from here
informs
the reasoning mind,
which to the world
can appear foolish,
radical,
as no self-esteem.
Yet,
in this profound
womb bathing
of divine love,
finding
the individual self
is the illusion.
There is no self
to esteem,
only love
to fill the vision
and correct
the lens.
Only love,
truth
to esteem.
To look
To look at anything naturally created—
other beings, trees, birds, animals,
a flower, rivers, oceans,
stars, the sun and moon—
and see
the sacred majesty
and beauty of mystery.
Can we let the awe well up
in our heart
to fill our eyes
and let distance between
fall away?
Can we let the illusion lay down
and know the other
through true recognition
that leaves us
miraculously speechless?
This is God’s EYE upon us
in love and awe
in recognition.
We are known in God
in whom there is
no shadow of turning.
If God were not to see us,
we would cease to be.
For the eye of God
is within each and every creature,
each and every.
God looking upon His creation
sees the eye of Himself
looking back.
God sees the eye of Himself
in every creature
through the eye of Himself
within every creature,
looking into
and through
the eye of Himself.
“When our eye is single,
our whole body is light.”
See every man
perfect in Christ.
See every face
as Jesus’ face in disguise,
whether distress, sadness, grieving,
beaten, outcast,
in deep love, compassion, joy,
humility, softly gazing.
And see no need to fix—
no one is broken,
whatever they present.
See the perfect beauty
and innocence of Christ,
the true nature.
And this seeing,
this love,
this recognition and oneness
will open
their recognition.
See all of creation
through the eye
of Christ’s heart
in you.
Walk through the fire
with all of creation
in the love and innocence
of Christ Jesus in you.
Let your eyes see deeper
than the deepest ocean
and your heart will widen
in the vastness
of ever-expansive
into the beginning
of every form,
from the innocence
of the beginningless God.
This love is greater and deeper
than friendship,
greater and deeper
than union.
It truly defies distance,
defies limits,
and diffuses accusations
or any mountain of illusions.
Laying our mind down
in this love alone
dissolves the idea
of any separation,
and rests the heart
to open the eye
to the only truth eternal—
divine love.
He enters the room
He enters the room (heart)
like a thief in the night,
and “leaves”
like a breeze
through the window
of your mind.
And day after day
into the night,
longing sends you diving
into every crevice
of every possible way
to recreate
His entrance,
until the heart knows
He never left.
The mind
just needed
to enter Him.
Sincerity,
devotion to inquiry
Sincerity, devotion to inquiry, and willingness to sit with mystery...
In the beginning of stepping on the journey, free will seems enormously important. Choosing forgiveness over resentment, truth over illusion, love over fear, a continual yes.
Somewhere along the way, there's a realization that "yes" was never a personal achievement. One can find oneself being carried.
This isn't being deprived of freedom. Rather, it is being lived from our deepest source, where the separate self is no longer experienced as the source of actions. It can appear from outside as surrender. Yet, from within, it is like the most complete freedom imaginable.
From union, it is, without even thinking about it, God as the life and the choosing in that life.
Rather than free will or free choice, it's an all-encompassing yes. To wait, to accompany, to unfold over "time". Even as it is non-linear... This is presence.
And the deeper simplicity is, the harder it can be to describe, especially attempting to describe what remains when the believed structures have fallen away. And more so, the experience of "love has no opposite" and "choiceless seeing". It may sound clear in just those few words. Yet the experience, ever-deepening to the most still point, from the most still point, carries us through infinite nuances.
In culture and life, we are trained to ask almost constantly, what is my takeaway from this? What is the lesson to be learned? What are practical applications?
Presence doesn't work this way.
We do not meet the sun and seek the lesson to be learned from the sun. Rather, in presence, we sit with and in the sun.
We cannot solve the voice of nature. We don't even seek to do so.
We can't solve the sound of silence. We listen.
And we don't master the beloved, that which brought all into being. Again, we don't even seek to do so.
Rather we remain in relationship with everything. Yet, simultaneously, it never feels like a you and a me.
We come to know so deeply and profoundly that love affects everything, cruelty affects everything, neglect affects everything, encouragement affects everything, presence affects everything, abandonment affects everything, words affect everything.
We come to understand beliefs can shape behavior. Yet something deeper exists.
Not everything that happens to us is because of our thoughts or beliefs.
Christ does not point the finger at suffering and say, you manifested this.
Even though our actions can bring consequences, he responds from that deeper still point.
There is a God, a real living God, as Christ Jesus said, Father, and incarnated being, one in Spirit.
And there is the potential for that which brought all to be to interrupt, suddenly enter our world of physical, of gravity.
Abraham was called unexpectedly.
Moses encounters the face of God unexpectedly.
Mary receives the Annunciation unexpectedly.
Paul is struck down unexpectedly.
Grace enters from beyond what is imagined.
What if our life is not merely the unfolding of our thoughts?
What if there are realities that come toward us?
What if grace can come toward us?
What if both blessing and burden sometimes arrive from beyond the plans of the self?
What if not everything we experience is planned by us prior to birth or after?
What if mystery knows it is better for us not to know everything?
And what if seeking to crack the code of everything blinds us to the ultimate freedom?
Behind your face
Behind your face
to the ground
that held you in your arm,
my eyes, walking along,
came upon the back of your head
reaching to the sky…And I saw you—
who was really there—
no glue of identity
no residue of
novel-page-turner…
Your legs bent,
showing the soles of
(your) shoes
that wore the path God took
to meet me here
and call me into Him again…
Stepping out gently
laying the soles of this path
into yours
Taking “my” voice, God said,
“Are you okay?
Do you need help?”
Lifting your head, joining
your eyes to mine,
God replied,
“Thank you, dear, I’m okay.
I need to get to work.”
My soles still standing on yours,
I took your hand
and we stood you up,
threw the bag and bottle
in the trash
And God found Himself
in the Silence of Love,
Dignity and Grace…
And we bowed
to the Beauty His Presence makes—
These next two poems go together. First is an early writing from the Journey. The second is the unfolding of the realization.
I Give Even
My Evaluation
"I give even my" evaluations of
myself, my judgments
of mind that measures
to You and hide all
of these things of self
in Your heart...
for to look at "myself"
is to be consumed
by "myself" —
to look at another and measure
is to feel all that is potentially in me.
To look at You, Love,
Love free of selfhood
Love ineffable
To look at another
through You
is to see them, as in this seeing
is only Love for Love's sake
that is pure
and free.
The Vanishing of Two
Love is the end of the seeker,
the vanishing of two.
Love is what remains
when there is no I.
The self cannot survive Love,
divine Love,
that knows nothing else.
For Love so real,
so intimate,
self dissolves.
Subject into object,
object into subject,
are so one.
The two die
into One,
unspeakable.