pio's place

A GLIMPSE

2009-08-31T10:48:00.001-07:00

August 4, 2009
Thassos

A GLIMPSE

There are worlds within this world
where the completed ones live.
If they were to glimpse you in a field
or amongst a grove of ancient trees
you would be an ethereal breath,
a fleeting shadow,
with no more substance than wind.
And a lover would turn to their lover and whisper
“I think I saw a ghostly one.
It must have been a mortal being
in a body of shadows.
I don’t think it saw us for God’s sleep
was heavily on it
and it stared at our pure beauty
with blind eyes.”

THIS AMAZING TIME

2009-05-15T03:45:00.000-07:00

This is an incredibly exciting time. There is a huge shift going on. It is on a scale too big for us to grasp. We can just catch glimmers of it. It is bigger than the shift from the ancient world into the Christian era; it is bigger than the shift from medieval times to the awakening of the age of discovery and the renaissance; it is bigger than the industrial revolution and birth of modernism. It is the awakening of mankind’s consciousness that the seers and prophets of all religions have dreamt of and longed for. It is happening, right now, all over the world, like the first signs of spring in the sweet swelling buds. It is happening as one soul at a time wakes up to the miracle of existence, to the multi leveled reality of their being, to the supreme gift Life is. It is a quiet revolution of consciousness getting clear. It is Love on the move.

It is unconditional, expansive Love happening within and beyond all faith systems, stirring people open into the luminous awareness all religions point to, moving people’s experience beyond the mental limits of symbols and ideologies into the vast, living Substance of Life’s ultimate realities. People are finding, in a rich variety of ways, how Life freely happens in them as their spiritual centers open. They are learning to live the quiet revolution of the freely given Love that alone can open them. And as they do, the world is changing, one priceless soul at a time.

You are most certainly part of this revolutionary shift, for the providence of the Divine has led you to these words, this little rivulet of thought: one visionary stream amongst millions of living streams of truth and kindness that flow through millions of open hearted people all over this world every day.

Let me sing to you, dearly beloved, you are fantastic! The Great Love loves you endlessly. Through your simple surrender, through your upturned palms and open arms, let Love illuminate you more and more as you learn to love what the God of Life loves: stars, sun and moon, the blooming trees and singing birds, seas and fish, fields animals and mountains… your own mysterious and precious soul, and each person you know or meet.

Connect: take time to listen deeply to each other with that complete acceptance each one of us longs to know. Make time to taste the mystery of your friend, your lover, a child… and be known, just as you are awakening to know. Require a more expansive knowing in courageous honestly. Make much time to be with the children no matter what the cost: play with them, learn from them, get down to their level and let them lift you into their innate innocent wonder. They are our God-given teachers in this awakening. Their spirit is the door to the life of Love that is our rightful state.

Plant gardens as a celebration of Life: learn to love simple, basic things. Get your hands dirty. Love water. Love soil. Love seeds and bless them. Learn how blessing through words and hands actually makes things grow bigger. Love the animals. Watch your dog carefully. Learn from his awareness, his joy, his simplicity, his savoring of sunlight and sensitivity to the wind, his response to every rustle in the bush. Watch a cat: play with its free playfulness, rest into its open awareness, and move with its simple, silent grace.

And bless each other: you are designed for this. How powerful the words, “I love and accept you just as you are,” or, “Don’t worry, the Great Love loves you with limitless Love,” can be when whispered from your heart. Practice letting Love and the breath of Life move through your entire energetic systems in a rich diversity of ways — don’t confine Love to rigid, socially “approved” or ritualistic structures. Break the molds and let real Love in open honesty flow. Love is a creative happening, and creativity means freshness and freedom. So open wide in the Spirit’s freshness and freedom to be fully aware and alive in the free happening of Love.

2009-03-30T08:12:00.001-07:00

Coming Out in God

I stand in the mingling currents
of countless rivers.
I shout until the winds of every quarter
swirl together to carry my words
nowhere.
The enemy is everywhere, present
in all forms and no forms.
The time is dire
because it is not dire.
There should be a crises —
but who can define it?

There are millions of people all over the world who have had experiences of the Divine Presence, of inner Light, of pure Love in their lives whether through spiritual openings or near death experiences or religious epiphanies and if you are one you need to come out of the closet, to move beyond petty fears of what “people might think” and be very natural and open about the reality of the Divine dimension of reality. The world needs this, right now! The paradigm of materialism is over, it is a failed world view because it just plain isn’t in harmony with Life’s multi dimensional realities. It is therefore blinding, ultimately destructive — and must end now!

There are many dimensions to Life and they are discovered through expanding awareness, not through technology. We need a wide scale awakening to a whole new way of perceiving the Universe and thus our place in it. We need a radical shift in prevalent values away from more and more stuff to more and more inner lightness of being, more open receptivity to the free gifts of Life. We need to awaken our childlike wonder and joy in what is: to find happiness in just waking up in the morning, no matter what the weather or how your body feels, to be incredibly thankful for bird song, for food to eat, for the sound of a child’s voice and the presence of those who are important to our lives. We need time to open our hearts wide to all that Life is actually about: developing soul richness, deep, loving relationships, fearless honesty, creative freedom, social harmony with the Earth and compassionate care. We need to be set free from the tyranny of debt and consumerism and the only way we can be set free is by waking up from materialism, one soul at a time.

If you know that what I’m writing about is true, then naturalize your knowing. Bring the subject of the Divine dimensions up. Ask meaningful questions that shatter the status quo. Cry out for honest inquiry instead of the prevalent influences of diversion and escapism. Learn about the freedom and wisdom of spiritual Love. Give your self to what naturally opens you. Talk about what you know in your guts is true. If you don’t relate to what I’m saying I can only say, be open, look into things. The Universe is much more mysterious and wondrous than any of us can dream or imagine. Change is on us. Will you change or be a spiritual dinosaur resisting reality until this failed system crushes your hopes and possible you?

The very worst thing that can happen to us now is for the economy to recover and us to pick up where we left off: numb with over stimulation, driving big gas guzzling cars, supporting mega corporate take overs with our purchases, listening to and exporting violent rap, hiding away in tribalistic spiritual groups that refuse to look at their own limitations, ogling at soulless porn which confuses innocent sexual energy with dark, degrading attitudes and language —until the oceans inundate New York City and Copenhagen, Buenos Ares and Sydney and take us all down. We are in this together and every one of us counts. Do your part. Wake up, open up, and start thinking and taking about what is really important to human happiness. We need big change, now! Break out of the spell someone else is selling you. It is, after all, your own soul that is being sold out.

Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T15:30:00.003-08:00

In honor of this historic inauguration day I am breaking with my principle of staying out of the political arena in order to concentrate on the issues of the human heart which I believe are foundational to the establishment of a compassionate world. I rejoice with America on this hugely historic day and the renewed sense of community and Love I see cleansing the general spiritual atmosphere. It is a shame that many draw back from this opportunity to emerge into the Light of good will and make a positive contribution. As one who has been profoundly affected by the events of the last 7 years I feel a sense of relief today... but also a sadness at the dark underbelly of negativity that snares so many sincere souls around the world. I write this in response to a very negative facebook response to my jubilation.

Please, let us beware of the trap of paranoiac attitudes that attach to unsubstantial information regarding conspiracy theories. Remember, we see the world not as it is, but to a great degree, as we are. There is only one thing that forever gives us the power to prevail against tyranny and it isn't fearful negativity. It is the Love, hope and courage of common people banding together in creative innovation for the good of all. If you are concerned about this world please, become a positive influence for change. We can each do it in our own unique way.

The Mystery of Existence

2009-01-06T09:57:00.002-08:00

The Holy Grail of explorative physics right now is to discover the common ground of all existence and to discover its actual nature. Working from the known towards the unknown under the constraints of scientific tools and rules is an exciting and laborious process. The scientist can speculate, but not write a paper of discovery until theories become proven, repeatable facts. My question is, it may not be possible because the rules that limit science may rule out the only way which the ultimate answer can be found.

What is the common ground of all existence, really? Common sense can answer that easily. It is existence itself. All that exists share this together, the fact that each thing exists in existence. Can existence be limited to any aspect within it? No, existence includes all that actually exists all at once. All that exists shares this fact of existence with all else that exists. You can say existence is within all that exists and all that exists exists within existence. But what is existence? To discover that would be to discover the ground of everything.

Think about the fact of your own existence. All right, you exist. Probably you don’t have any immediate sense of wonder or surprise about this. It is a very familiar reality. The mind tends to become dulled to that which is familiar to it. One of the traditional functions of artists and mystics is to call humanity back to a fresh awareness and appreciation of that which the mind becomes dulled to through over familiarity, conditioned filters of beliefs, etc. Now, just for a moment put your attention on your body instead of your mind. Feel your presence within your body. Feel your feet. Wiggle your toes. Now move your awareness up your legs. Feel them. Feel yourself inside them. Now your torso, your sexual area, stomach, heart, lungs. Now your arms and hands. Now your face and entire head. Once you take this little tour of awareness simply feel your entire body at once. Feel yourself inside this body, experiencing it just as it now is.

You are, the one experiencing your body. You are the one experiencing the thinking of your mind. You are the one experiencing all your feelings and experiences. You are the one experiencing your beliefs about yourself, the world and your experiences, past and present. You are the one experiencing your hopes and projections about the future. You are the existent one experiencing it all.

Who is this one? Are you a “feeling of self?” Think of yourself and feel what happens in your body. Do you feel a tension? Where? Or perhaps you feel a certain quality that you say, this is me. Who is the one experiencing this sense of self? Is it the one who exists?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to step out of all you experience as yourself and experience the essence of Existence that you are, nakedly, purely, without any coloring of emotion, thought, memory or belief? People for countless centuries, from all cultures and every religion have stated they have had this experience. They have experienced within them the naked essence of existence itself and everyone of them has said something like, it is bliss, it is Light, it is pure Being, it is harmony, it is oneness, it is Divinely perfect, it is Holy, it makes sense of everything, it is what we call Love.

If this journey of discovering for yourself what is ultimately real draws you feel free to explore The Inner Healing Center, a free on-line spiritual festival composed of many spiritual tools to inspire and guide you in your own journey of discovering what the top physicists in the world aspire to know: the actual nature of the common ground of all existence, the naked, pure nature of Existence itself that you and I and all beings are, and that, far beyond all of us, is the Pure Ground of every known and unknown aspects of an infinite, multi dimensional Universe of wonder and beauty.

WAKING UP

2008-11-18T05:25:00.002-08:00

What if the purpose of life is to become more aware and loving? What if it is just that simple, and that these two things, when carried beyond death, are worth more than all the passing riches of earth?

What if the purpose of life is to wake up every morning with a burst of gratitude for the sun in the sky, for bird song, for a rooster’s crow or a cloud passing by? What if the purpose of life is to open your heart with the same simplicity as you would open a window and pour out songs of love towards the open sky and into the earth? What if these simple acts charged the spiritual atmosphere of your home with Love and Life?

What if we are designed by powers that are utterly free to be spiritual receivers and transmitters and Love is the one message? What if our highest calling is to allow the warmth, Light and sounds of Love to spread through us into the collective mind of mankind in order to soak the spiritual matrix of the world with beauty and goodness?

What if every little act of kindness, every word of soothing Love, every expression of gratitude passed on to a child is worth 10,000,0000,0000 times a Ferrari and not only affects this child but children in Africa, South America, and Asia as well? How would that affect your priorities today?

What if we are corporately creating a matrix of thought, values and feelings that are completely out of harmony with the sublime powers of the Universe and that are like a collective hypnotic spell we all accept as true just because it becomes so familiar to our minds? What if Love and beauty really do hold everything together, right down to the molecular level and beyond? What if, as thousands of near death experiences are saying, we will realize at the moment of death, as surely as the sun shines, that the American dream of increasing material prosperity was the wrong dream, but that only Love matters, and that we need to purposefully change our priorities to make space for it if we want to discover and fulfill the real meaning of our existence?

What if ultimate reality really is utterly free and breathtakingly beautiful? What if we are all dancing blind on a sea of laughter?

God is Freedom

2008-09-30T11:00:00.002-07:00

I do a lot of questioning, and asking questions. Sometimes, it is really good to exercise what you most deeply know is true by just simply saying it. Others do not have to agree. That is not the point. What is realized through consciousness cannot be reasoned or argued for with others, because it is not about mind and logic, but about waking up in Light and awareness. My point here is just to air out what I know is true in a world of countless opinions about everything. I differ between an opinion and a gut level knowing that emerges out of your most luminous experiences, your most wakeful states. Here is some of my knowing that brings great joy to every cell of my body and synapse of my mind.

God is complete and perfect freedom. And God is Love. God’s will is Love. Love is the meaning and guiding principle of Life. Love always gives freedom. There is no real Love without freedom and no real freedom without Love.

This is very good news.

God is free and has given us freedom. We are free to pursue Love, Light, lightness of being, joy, harmony, wholeness, blessings, healing, release. We are free to share all this beauty with others, to see them open and find release and freedom in Love. We are free because God is free.

This is very good news.

God is free and gives all his creation freedom. All the angels of God are free in Light and Love. All glorified humans who are now in higher worlds are free in God’s Light and Love. We don’t understand God because we don’t understand the relationship of unconditional Love and spiritual freedom. God is free. God is freedom. God is Love.

God will not make decisions for us. God is not that way. God has given each of us free will and it is required of us to exercise free will in every aspect of our lives. God allows us to make our own choices and God is totally for us doing this. We get in bondage when we are afraid to do this, afraid of punishment for “making the wrong choice,” for “missing the will of God.” Fear is missing the will of God for the will, or purpose of God is Love and freedom. Fear is constriction. Love is expansion. Fear is regulation. Love is spontaneity and creativity. If we understood this difference clearly we would began to understand God and God’s ways.

God is free and gives us freedom to create heaven or hell, joy or misery, compassion or vengeance. It is always our choice. We are here to experience this.

Religion is a constriction of God’s free nature into forms in an effort to preserve them. You cannot preserve Love and freedom: you can only point to it, surrender into it and become it. To the degree that religion substitutes security for freedom, to that degree it misses God. Jesus taught we must transcend religion as he did, we must renew and transform, it, expand it into greater Love and Light. Only in this way can religion be a living communal form for human liberation. Only in this way can the beauty of God continually flood through it in freshness and freedom.

The only security in a mortal life is openness to the Divine Nature in the center of our being. All other security is an illusion for everything changes and all things will be lost to us in the end… except what we are in our core. This pure Light of Life will emerge into the freedom of God.

The caterpillar that seeks security is deluded. It is meant to die, melt down and emerge as a new creature. There is no security in being a caterpillar except in following the Life instinct within it to die and be reborn as a butterfly. All clinging to the caterpillar stage that moves against this free flow of the purpose of Life within it is born of fearful delusion.

Look at the birds. See how they function in spontaneity and freedom. Observe the free movement of wind, of fish, of animals. All elements move freely; all living things function in complete, spontaneous confidence. In everything is a natural peace, everything knows its true nature and ways, except for mankind. Our journey home is into a natural peace, a fully confident rest in the heart of our hearts, the essence of Life within which is the Light of consciousness. This Light is a free radiance. It is higher than all bodily densities, all pain, all pressures, all stress. It is what it is, Light, lightness of being, silent, observant, free. This is our foundation. To rediscover our essence is to get our foundation right.

Freedom is our foundational essence and right. Love is our way, for Love is the great harmony of free creatures.

God is Love. God is the Great Harmony of all. God is the essence of all. God is utterly and completely free. Those who resonate with God express Love and freedom. We can undo all our constrictions and grow in resonance with God. This is very good news.

CATS

2008-09-16T06:40:00.003-07:00

CATS

How do we know that cats are not in a state of constant contemplation, graceful, purring Buddhas, St. Francis with paws, always aware of the present moment, being all awareness itself aware? How do we know that every shimmy of grass, each turn of a leaf, every errant bird call doesn’t splash into their naked awareness like a stone into a unruffled pool, and that the ripples of sound and sight do not gurgle through them like laughing bubbles in a stream?

How do we know that when a cat lopes in lightness or meditatively meanders it doesn’t caress each tiny variation in the ground with tender soft paws, and listen to them, as a man should listen to wind with his skin, cherishing their touch with earth?

How do we know that when a cat stretches it doesn’t feel a slow rise of yoga-sweet pleasure as each muscle yields, elongates, swells open and breathes?

How do we know that when a cat purrs it doesn’t feel silver shivers of ecstasy humming through every red cell of its body, melting it into a life-renewing relaxation in the naked presence of Life —and isn’t it possible that it sometimes slips in a sweet euphoria of peace into God’s bliss heaven to play with the eternal in dreams?

How do we know that when a cat hunts it isn’t in a state of constant prayer, a keen and constant anticipation that at any moment the object of its longing may appear? And how do we know that when it crunches the skull of a mouse and tastes brain juice and blood it doesn’t feel the same thrills we feel when enchanted by the succulent creations of some three star chef?

How do we know that when a mother cat licks its baby’s ears it doesn’t feel love’s holy warmth flooding every cell of its maternal body; and how do we know that when a kitten licks itself clean it doesn’t feel the freedom of the sky moving in its naked skin?

How do we know that when kittens play they are not exultant as God’s pure whimsy and that every pounce, twist and twirl is not a divine form of cat laughter?

How do we who have hidden our most sensitive, dreaming hearts in shells of abstract knowledge and numbed our most awake awareness in fear of further pain know anything at all?

THE OPENING

2008-08-19T05:13:00.004-07:00

The Great Love, flowing smoothly,
opens the heart.
Words from sweet lips
convey the nature of Heaven.
Gently the Spirit soaks through.
The veils soften and grow thin.
The opening comes
from the Holy side.

For many resources to inspire and guide your unfolding growth please explore these sites:
Blake Steele Web Sites Index
One Fresh Minute: stress relief at office and home
The Wild Christ: the mysticism of the Aramaic Jesus
Inner Healing Exercises and Resources
Being Loved: audio recordings, galleries, writings and more

HEART DANCE

2008-08-10T03:33:00.002-07:00

I listen to your eyes
with my whole body
until your eyes open
as my whole body sings
with the beauty of your eyes
seeing my beauty in wonder.

THE SECRET LIFE OF BIRDS

2008-07-20T00:12:00.008-07:00

How do we know that birds aren’t singing with bubbling gurgles of joy warbling and trembling inside their bodies? How do we know that their little energetic systems aren’t alive and luminous with the ripples and cadence of song? How do we know that when they can’t contain it any more—because the ecstasy is so great—that they don’t dive and dip out of the trees or off of wires to soar?

How do we know they are not blithe and happy as they eat seeds by the road? How do we know that the robin isn’t perpetually cheerful because it savors the sensation of a worm wiggling down its throat into its belly? How do we know birds are not savoring the warmth of soft nests amongst twigs as snow falls on feathers? We who filter out Life with our bodies and left lob limited brains: how do we know anything?

How does a bird feel when it makes love: when feathers part and soft tissues touch? Is the ecstasy so filled with Light that their body feels like it flies with its wings folded? And does a bird know pain that drains its brain and flutters its body out to the edge of extinction as its orifice stretches thin, budging open to expel an egg?

And how do we know that birds do not grieve in song when they see their brothers or sisters in peril: when the cat pounces or shots ring? How do we know that when a bird friend falls and its eyes darken a black stone doesn’t weigh their hearts down so heavily that it strains their wing bones and feathers?

We who filter out oceans of brimming Life with our biological brains, we who dumb down and dampen our senses so we can darken and immure ourselves in abstract thought symbols, the supposed and seditious security of familiar emotions and endless chatter of words — how do we know anything real at all?

The NoMind Festival

2008-07-14T11:06:00.003-07:00

I have just experienced another Angsbacka NoMind Festival in Sweden. It is a week in Paradise with a flow of blessing upon blessing as so many hearts open to reveal the secret beauty of the world. Workshop leaders come from all over Europe and the world. There are around 50 workshops a day with lots of music, dance, incredible organic food, and best of all, countless loving encounters with a rich variety of beautiful souls who shine with the Divine glow of Love, and hold in their sparkling eyes the mystery that is revealed in awe and creates a deeper awe.

I know in my body and bones that one day the world will be like this, for what is happening here is just Life in us, unbound, realized, revered, and surrendered to: the Light we are, the way we are designed to be and know. In this is wonder, achingly tender Love: opening, opening, deeper into the warm receptivity, the bestowal, the flush and flow, the flowering.

God is Love in action: blessing upon blessing... this silent shock of beauty, this silver shiver, always so far beyond words, yet somehow pouring through our Love-infused, child-like attempts to paint the wind with words.

The festival is called NoMind because in all its rich diversity the secured intention is to move beyond concepts and all mental facsimiles into the immediacy of Life as awareness, Life as the awakened urge towards Loving harmony, Life as a free flowing creative happening in the eternal Now. As mental veils part and old, primal fears melt away the naked Spirit shines in the bright Ocean of Love. We are inwardly embraced and sensitized to the rich flavors of the sky, the green earth, healthy food, each human word and glance as Life becomes what Love makes it, a wedding feast of awareness, a celebration of breath, a huge, wild and kind awakening.

A NOTE FROM THE FESTIVAL:
So many opening hearts. And, the shining of the mystery. Bright, open eyes revealing the unutterable beauty, the hint, the glimpse, the shine of Divine Beauty, the call in. I longed to dive into so many eyes. If I could only be more receptive, emptier of all need, even the slightest stir of insecure ego, then, I think I could slip into these eyes and pass beyond the silver stream, the golden flow, the opening curtains into the ultimate freedom, our home.

The Ecstasy of Trees

2008-06-23T06:47:00.003-07:00

(On the incredibly innocent beauty of Being…)

A TREE BRIGHT BROAD AND SHIMMERING

A tree bright broad and shimmering,
pudged wide with thoughts tree slothly slow,
gnarled feet of brown, specked head of blue,
splash what’s quickly quaint and true
that shakes to mold a meek man free,
who drinks with mouthing cell the milk
of Life that squirts like windy silk.

How do we know that trees are not aware of the wind shimmering them, shaking and shivering their delicate twigs, their laughing leaves?
How do we know that they are not ecstatic and happy when the lightest breeze caresses them, or a bird sings in their limbs?

Trees are, like all things, made entirely of energy. And trees are aware. There is a self-regulating communication existent within every living organism. Trees are composed of energy fields existent within living awareness. Isn’t it wholly possible then that the wind-roused trembling of tree leaves and twigs, the spontaneous shaking of branches is an ecstatic thing in the same way that the human body, when fully alive and delicately caressed, trembles in ecstasy?

We have perceived life through the veils of our own desensitized sensitivities, afraid to be too wide open, to be fully sensitive and aware, afraid of “too much pleasure” that might embarrass us, or worse, make us vulnerable to the cynical, pain-sourced scorn of others. How strange to be embarrassed about being too happy, too pleasure-filled.

Is it actually more accurate to perceive life through abstract mental thought ruminations than directly through our capacity for fully alive and awakened sensitivities? That we are capable of perceiving Life through super alive and purified sense conveyance is fantastically true. But most of us are not experiencing Life this wide open and joyous way: rather we gaze through dense sensory filters meant to restrict bodily (and soul) pleasure as we listen to the chatter of habitual mental recollections about the little we perceive and call this an accurate experience of what is real. Are we sure? Are we willing to bet our blooming lives that this is an accurate perception of reality?

Why do most people have a sense that something big and important is missing from their lives? The marketers take advantage of this and convince our mind through repetition (until it seems familiar and thus true) that what is missing is this product or that. But what if what our deep soul longs for is a primal state of being super alive, open, sensitive, clean, clear, whole, harmonious, full of wonder, inspired by Love? What if we are instinctively longing to be ecstatically joyful, creatively imaginative, and peacefully attuned to the beauty and mystery of what we thought we understood but have not ever really known?

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy … at the coming of the Lord.
(from Psalms)

This Universe is stranger than we can conceive. Quantum physics has been pointing to it, but the ramifications have yet to pierce through our mental veils of social conditioning. The facts of Life point to this: that the Universe is reflecting our own state of mind back to us, and that if our perception radically changed, Life would respond in kind. For example, if we began to perceive trees as unique beings, who (though their rate of perception is on a vastly different frequency than ours), are capable of a range of fluctuating energy qualities — everything from what we, in human terms, would call sadness to ecstatic joy — trees would come alive to us in new ways. It would be as if they (and we) were awakened from a deep drowse, a solemn sleep. Not that trees would become cartoon caricatures of themselves, popping open their newly found eyes and suddenly smiling, but rather we would sense the poignant mood of the trees and how the silent conveyance of energy qualities has always been the primal language of God’s countless creatures.

A DOO DAH DAY

Today, the trees seem ecstatically happy.
Perhaps it is as the psalmist foretold —
they are clapping, they are swaying,
they shimmy and clang!
They feel God…
If they could pull up their roots
they’d dance on them — I’m sure of it!
because when I feel God —
all fresh and lissome,
frolicking in green —
my spirit shimmies, like those trees,
in an inspirational breath,
and I want to dance from the essential urge
bursting from my core!
To throw back my head and howl,
like those trees surge back:
clattering and trembling,
ecstatic and shimmering,
rattling with sky in the wind!

It is a shocking and stunning, fun and far reaching reality that if our perception changes, Life responds. What a mind-blow to discover and become! Even now, right as we are, the wisdom that is inherent in each tree’s way of being can be conveyed to us through a kind of inherent intuition we might call telepathic knowing. And this open-hearted knowing is a true communion. Simply stand before a tree and breathe slowly, deeply, with the intention to move from mind veil to pure, open sensation. See the tree as if you have never seen a tree before. Pretend you have just been dropped on this planet from a place where there are no trees. Caress it with your eyes. See this astonishment emergent from earth: feel through the air with your skin until a state of wonder comes upon you. At some point, if you are ready, you will shift from mind filter to pure energy awareness and experience the tree itself, unfiltered, fresh, alive and real.

THE OOZE OF TREES

The trees draw Life from the earth
up their patient centers,
slowly up their majestic wooden bodies,
from earth, from dark roots, from the wet
and fecund, from the dampness and rottenness
of sweet mother earth, slowly rising,
each tree, slowly ecstatic in the rise of Life,
slowly drawing upward their juice,
their wet ooze into air,
into wind, and freshness, into Light,
into bird song and freedom,
into God.

See what just one tree has to teach you about patience, perseverance, generous self-giving, gentleness — and maybe even ecstasy. We can perceive their symbolic meaning and messages as well, even as we more deeply enjoy their energetic presence and company, And why not thank them for their long history of partnership with mankind: turning the poisons we exhale into life-giving oxygen, meeting so many of our shelter, food, heating and art-making needs.

We can wake up right now, if we want to enough to act on the potential these words convey, and experience for ourselves the language of trees, sense their vital energy and even current moods. Just be very quiet, and feel. Don’t be afraid to sense life directly, to move beyond the conditioned filters of your mind. You can do it because you are human and have wired right inside of you God-given sensitivities and capacities to be fully alive. So alive that you just must overflow with the blessing to others, and inspire as you are being inspired.

Why not be inspired and thus be an inspiration? Why not be blessed and thus be a blessing? Why not bless those you love with your celebration of awakening? And why not bless the trees with your hands and heart even as they bless you with their branches and leaves?

What if on the next windy day you felt a subtle thrill pass through your soul, body and bones because you were happy and child-like enough to accept the freely wild and waving ecstasy of trees? What if you were fully and freely alive?

THE MINISTRY OF TREES

Trees gift a shimmering voice
to the free blow of wind.
From rough roots dark water oozes,
flooding thickened trunks
branches, twigs and stems,
bleeding flat to brighten
translucent leaves.
And as wind-blown twigs tremble
leaves shimmy and clatter
spewing oxygen bursting
mist into free air
freshening sky-birthed breath
to soak into bodily cells,
until your brain dimples and dazzles
with laughing bright Light of Life.

SPIRIT IN OUR NAKED CENTER

2008-06-12T05:51:00.007-07:00

A new time is upon us:
a time of spirit in our naked center,
land in our circumference:
feet deep in earth, heart in open sky.

In this time of extreme urbanization, when the dream time of merchants which so forms our collective consciousness draws us to the edge of a precipice—will it take the rising roar of waves beating down city streets, filling gutted department stores with foam to wake us up from a truncated vision of what is real, this materialistic spell? Will it take the extinction of the polar bear, or the walrus, or the robin or the bee before we awake to realize the supreme peace and Life-presence inherent in the quick of every cell in our bodies?

Our economies are driven by the myth that mankind’s most natural state is an ache of constant need; that the true nature of man is a ravenous consumer. Is it possible that this belief acutely enhances perpetual, restless, human unhappiness? Could it be that this perception, expressed through the artistry and endless repetition of the advertiser’s barrage spills over into bleak, grieving pain passing itself on: the blind longing for an unknown, missed cohesion in Light, grinding out more pain, inflicting our children through dangerous, degrading words, the harsh slap, the snapped and sapped issuance of loving awareness, plunging adolescents into needless alienation and densities of soul?

I am convinced that what is essential to creating a more just and beautiful world is staring us right in the face, reflected in the Light of our eyes, but our minds are mesmerized by a illusionary worldview propagated by merchants. We are so used to a consummeristic way of beholding life we assume it is “normal”. You need a better this. Life will be better with a better that. What you now have is just not good enough. More and more is obviously better and better. Of course, don’t we all know that this is just how civilization must advance: new inventions driven by human nature’s inherent thirst for something more? But is it? Can we safely assume that we need more and more and more to be happy, that we, by nature, are bereft and bored and need lots and lots of things to stimulate us into happiness?

As long as we believe the lie that who we essentially are in our most naked essence is not enough, that our inherently natural, unbent nature is not relaxed and open, fluid, creative and harmonious, but rather wounded, tense, constricted and in constant need, we will continue in our mutually created and increasingly dangerous dream. We will continue to act out a cultural conditioning foreign to the actual nature of our essential existence at the expense of the Earth and future generations. And we will never discover the profuse and free nature of Life itself as it can be, unburdened from mental illusions, pouring as Love and liberty through our open energetic beings.

Click here to read the rest of this article. Scroll down to Spirit in Our Center in index on left.

Our Secret Inner Call

2008-05-14T05:51:00.004-07:00

Our secret inner call to new beginnings is super intelligent and already knows much about our destiny and journey to it. This call echoes down from what seems to be dark places: a radiant river streaming out of shadows. A new beginning is change. A new beginning is growth, and we often fear it. But Life happening in us must be newness; it must be growth. Look at each living thing in their upsurge, in their movement towards the fulfillment of their potential, and you see a flow of change happening. You behold the inexplicable wonder of transformation. A lowly worm dies into a free flying moth; a hard shelled seed dissolves to let the fragrant flower hidden in its potential arch up and splay open.

Life is Light—you can see this Light in any eye, animal or human—for the miracle of Life issues as gleaming streams from the Ocean of Light. And it is this radiance of Life that calls us, forever beckons us to grow, to risk what we are to become what we shall be. But more authentically, to unfold into what we forever are, the eternal pattern of our actual being, the luminous children of Life.

Did we come here merely to contribute to the gross national product of our particular country? Have we blindly pushed through our mother’s thighs in order to be programmed by the business community to consume, dispose of and die? Are we here with instincts to strive, to overcome suffering, to grow by learning, to develop character through it all and then be extinguished? It is possible, but not probable. I say not probable because it is humanity’s brightest spirits, most loving hearts, those with the greatest passion to know truth and be true that have said not so, there is so much more. It is these awakened ones who have expressed in countless ways worlds of higher awareness within our world and the mysterious paths of consciousness that follow Life’s river to its pure source. It is the true Lovers of Life who have said and sung that Life’s deepest mysteries only open by Love and for Love for they issue out of Love. If these Love-filled and luminous souls have lied then who can we possibly trust?

It is the opened ones who have sung, shouted and sighed we are here for more than a materialistic worldview can ever envision because we are more. Beyond the consciousness spells of human conditioning, beyond the limits of our waking and our dreaming is the Universe as it is, forever more glorious than our mental facsimiles, our theories, our mathematical patterns, projections and paradigms, for the Universe issues out of the infinite. It is a many-storied building made of consciousness and our sciences of technology and tools can explore only a limited number of floors. But the open heart can sense more, for the heart is the portal to a shining pool, a radiant river, and the ocean that is our living water’s home. And it is this radiance that forever calls us to grow from darkness to Light, from cultural limitations towards the mysterious and beautiful.

To love Life as it is we must love the ever new. I do not mean to imply an unsettled, uprooted existence. No, one can grow, unfold and stretch out no matter where they live, no matter in what circumstances, for no one or no circumstance can hinder our freedom to form new intentions and make new commitments. Even if our body is in a prison we can still inwardly unfold and grow. Whether in bad jobs, bad marriages, bad political systems, we are free to make this choice, I will open my heart right down to the core of me, that pure Light of Life I am; I will face the emotional pain that feeds the defense patterns of my inner programming that has limited me and thus become free of my fear of what lies in my own deep heart. I will know the harmonious nature that holds together quarks, molecules and star fields. I will learn how to relax wide open to Life in the moment Life is happening. I will allow Life to happen in me, to freely pour out of me in all its beauty and ceaseless Being.

Many changes are happening in the world. The Earth is calling us and will continue to call us to wake up from social conditioning and every other form of mental spell, in order to fall into the primal Life-force, into the mystery and miracle of Existence and learn its highest, wisest ways. And through the Earth it is God Who is calling. I mean God beyond religious story, custom and divisive limitations in our own minds. God as the Great Universal Love that encompasses the 100 million galaxies; God as the Great Wisdom who has so finely tuned all elements so as to create and sustain biological life ; God as the Great free flowing freedom within which all free creatures function for their good or harm; God as Universal Source: not tribal, but limitless, not exclusive but wrapping luminous arms of Life around all living creatures; God as the super alive Ocean of Existence itself and its ultimate fulfillment and meaning.

For many resources to inspire and guide your unfolding growths please explore these sites:
Blake Steele Web Sites Index
One Fresh Minute: stress relief at office and home
The Wild Christ: the mysticism of the Aramaic Jesus
Inner Healing Exercises and Resources
Being Loved: audio recordings, galleries, writings and more

A Passionate Call for Revolutionary Change

2008-05-11T07:47:00.016-07:00

"We need a new economic system - one that is embedded in the care of all people and also in the care of the Earth and all of life upon it."
Presentation Sustainable Living Group, Ireland

I passionately agree with this statement, and also recognize that due to the inbuilt inertia of the familiar and fear of radical change a new economic system can only come from a tremendous shift of perception. Humans must "wake up" and embrace realities that will inevitably cause huge personal and social shifts. Our addiction to the familiar and fear of the new must be recognized and rejected out of a sense of deep moral necessity. I believe that once it dawns on us that we really are in a rapidly accelerating world-wide crisis, once the spell of denial is broken, needful human changes will accelerate. But will it be too late to prevent wide scale suffering and irreplaceable loss? That we will see.

The business community is the servant (or should I say slave) of profit. If the average person is unthinking and allowing the business community to manipulate social thought and feelings through clever advertising then the business community will not initiate radical change. But when enough people stand up and say, "No more!" no more repression of Earth friendly technology, no more social manipulation by powerful international corporations for the sake of their own profit no matter what the cost to mankind, no more false dreams of ever increasing material abundance for all through mindless consumerism, NO MORE! We demand non polluting, renewable, inexpensive energy production; we demand and require to restructure our laws so we are free to build the super inexpensive, energy efficient homes now possible out of natural materials that are freely available so everyone can have their own warm, human nest. We require access to the earth, to have our hands in the soil, that each of us can have our own garden full of singing birds and honey bees and grow our own organic food. And we demand this because we have woken up and recovered our passionate love of Life. We are now awake and recognize we are part of a miraculous, interdependent web of Creation.

We require more leisure time to study the wise ways of Life inherent in Nature and recover our sense of the miracle of existence. We require time to express the natural creative instincts that arise from Light-filled, Life inspired, Love bloomed hearts. We require freedom and peace of mind to deepen our meaningful relationships to the Divine Oneness of Life, to each other, to our own eternal, pilgrim souls, and to create beauty for ourselves, our communities and our children who trust us with their future.

It is time for change, for waking up, for shifts regarding where we place our attention and what we value. The transformation of the planet can only comes through the transformation of each one of us.

These are dangerous and exciting times. Will we continue to sleep in the mental/emotional spells created by the business world to drive its unsustainable economic systems, or will we return to that which is deepest, highest and most real within us, the Light of Life, the Love of Life, the reverence for the miracle of all existence?

We do not “have Life” in us. We are Life. We are the Light we see in our own eyes. This is our essence. And Life is, by its own nature creative, harmonious, playful, peaceful, joyful, and nourishing of more Life. Life is a miracle beyond comprehension because it is limitless in spiritual dimensions waiting for our discovery.

Everyday over 350,000 souls die and arise through the sky into higher dimensions of consciousness. Everyday around 400,000 souls come down to this earth to be born. All this movement of Life goes on in realms that our mortal body/mind systems cannot perceive, test or prove. But those who have left their bodies and entered super alive states of consciousness are telling us this over and over again. Read any of the Near Death Experiences sites. NDE, NDE Research Foundation. Read the spiritual mystics of the ages, the awakened ones. Read the awakened poets and writers. Get your attention off dangerous, status quo ways and put your attention on waking up to the larger picture and truer perspective. We must each embrace our own responsibility to do so and our changing lives and the crises of our times will inspire others to enact the same.

Imagine This

2008-05-02T06:00:00.002-07:00

Imagine a world where: all religions realized their founders and visionaries were ultimately pointing beyond tribal concerns to a greater reality, a Oneness of all humanity in Love and freedom as the supreme goal of their visions and dreams.

Imagine a world where the Universe is understood as an open, multidimensional system, and that the Spiritual world is as alive and real to our minds as the realms we perceive with our bodily senses.

Imagine a world where our miraculous human body is seen as the physical expression of higher and more refined levels of energy and awareness that open into realms of inexpressible beauty, harmony, health and Light.

Imagine a world where the dominant paradigm is of service in Love and growth through mutual support for the greater good of all.

Imagine a world where being forgiving and kind to yourself and others is the first rule of healthy existence.

Imagine a world where happiness is understood as the natural results of seeking to contribute to a beautiful environment and the happiness of others in all that we do.

Imagine a world of self -governing local communities that lovingly support all members and trade with other communities in a win/win situation for the greater happiness and welfare of all.

Imagine a world of clean, free energy that is usable on small, local scales, therefore disbanding huge, polluting industries and dysfunctional urbane living isolated from the harmony and beauty of the natural world.

Imagine a world where skilled craftsmanship is highly valued because of the human spirit that is held in it through prolonged attention.

Imagine a world where living simply is widely loved because it frees the mind and heart of non-essential clutter to be available to develop and enjoy deep, meaningful relationships.

Imagine a world where family is a unit of lasting love, mutual support and joyful celebration linked through mutual love and respect to other family units.

Imagine a world where giving loving attention to children and playing with them is a top priority for all.

Imagine a world where effective education and joyful play is one and the same thing.

Imagine a world where the gift of sexual ecstasy is seen as a pure mirror of a deeper tenderness and ecstasy of spirit and is never repressed in fear nor exploited for profit.

Imagine a world where when young people sexually awaken they are never shamed or isolated but rather celebrated by family and friends and given wisdom about how physical ecstasy can unite with a deeper, instinctual opening to God as the pure bliss of Light, Love and endless beauty.

Imagine a world where the making of beauty for the joy of others is as natural a part of daily life as eating or breathing.

Imagine a world where developing artistic expressions of Love and wisdom for the good of all are highly respected and sought after trades.

Imagine a world of community wisdom gathering circles, where every perspective is carefully represented, from the creative, playful artists, to the women and children, to those concerned with economy and communal integrity—and mutual decisions are made as all perspectives are honored and a sense of wisdom and balance illuminates every heart.

Imagine such a harmonious world of beauty and joy. If you can, then simply desire such a world, right here, right now and hold this ideal in your heart as a sign of personal health and you will naturally find yourself part of the immergence of a new world of human happiness and beauty as the old order crumbles and passes away. Never underestimate the power of vision, desire and imagination, nor of the human will united to the wisdom of the Great Love that has conceived this bountiful and beautiful Universe and is for us all in every way.

Bringing Sex and Everything Home

2008-04-28T03:58:00.005-07:00

Everybody is looking for God’s Love and doesn’t know it. This was the first revelation of my spiritual awakening: Everyone is looking for God’s Love in the wrong ways, turning everything upside down.

And everyone is looking for pure energy, for the pure essence of everything, for a clean flow of experiecing Life as it really is because this is happiness. Many people are looking for it in sex, because the flow of ecstasy is a pure state of being. It is inherently innocent and joyous and the body’s energetic system knows this is true. The tragedy is they surround that pure flow with darkness. In truth, the darkness feeds on the pure, ecstatic energy; it draws sustenance from the pure Life flow in sex through the delusions of the soul, the twisting influences. So the innocent purity of the ecstatic flow cannot carry over into experiencing the innocent purity, or sacredness of all existence.

To bring sexual energy home to its pure Source is to melt away the attachments, the soulless lust, guilt, shame, shamelessness, and all the rest. To rediscover pure Being at the core of our Being is to be cleansed, to allow the twisted things to become untwisted, all our reversed energies turned back straight. Then our own inner world gets turned right side up, and the world appears as it really is, upside down, with its priorities and most of its beliefs just the opposite of how things really are. This is why Jesus’ first call was “Turn things around, heaven is here.” Turn things around. The way up is down. The way down is up.

Let’s get our heads clear, our hearts open, our innocent energies restored. The realms of pure happiness are right here, in the sky, in the beautiful earth, in the wind, in the trees, in the grass and flowers, in the innocent animals and free-flying birds, in the pure energies of our bodies, in the eyes of our lovers, friends and all the mysterious souls we shall meet.

A Blessing

2008-04-06T12:31:00.003-07:00

Words can move us, bore us, bounce us, be us; words can uplift, cast down, spangle, sparkle, twirl us round. Words can color or drain, bring laughter, tears, dagger with pain. Words can conceal, confuse, color or confess. May these words open and bless...

A BLESSING:

May you be sparkling with inspiration, creative, playful, laughing, insightful and above all, flowing with the Love that makes stars burn and flowers unfold, birds sing and fish swirl. May your life grow more open, aware and filled with the wonder and beauty of Life in the great adventure of Love.

So may it be, from the center of all Being to the center of your Being. Yes!

Christ is Risen

2008-03-23T00:02:00.002-07:00

Christ is risen. The Light of Existence has triumphed over all illusions, all deception, all ill will, all maliciousness. The Light of Love has pierced through all energies of fear, all holding back. The Light of joy has overcome all grief, all habits of bondage, all self created patterns of misery. Christ has triumphed, and Christ is in us, in us all. In every human who exists, for God is the Light of Existence. In every animal, every insect, every leaf, every flower. The Light of Existence is Love, and this Love has broken through, risen up, overcome, able to transform us all.

Be riddled with Light. Let a trillion little beams of Light pierce all that resists Light within you. Let all karmic darkness be riddled with Light. Let all attached negative energies be riddled with Light. Let all your hopes and desires be riddled with Light. Let all emotional energies be riddled with Light.

Sing out, shout, "Christ has risen in my being." Let it flow through you. Let your natural inner confidence arise. It is there. It will awaken. You can do it. Christ is innocent, pure Existence, flowing with Love, radiant with beauty, alive forever… forever free. Christ is in you. In the highest heights and lowest depths, in your center and circumference. Christ is you. Your truest true, your absolute Being. Be riddled with Light.

Happy Easter everyone, everyday, through all your journey, all the way home.

The Two Trees

2008-03-10T02:29:00.006-07:00

There is a tree of Life inside of us. It is our body/mind energetic system. When our body/mind system is freeflowing with the Breath of Life, the Life-giving Spirit radiating out of the Ultimate Oneness of Existence, then we experience inner harmony, unity, wholeness, inspiration, natural creativity, and that supreme
goodness we call Holy Love.

There is also a tree of knowing good and evil. This is our dualistically developed mind. Our miraculous mind is meant to be such a fantastic tool, a beautiful servant of the unifying spiritual energies of Life. But when our consciousness becomes ignorantly fixated on mental workings and lost in its symbolic facimilies and sense-limited reasoning, it becomes a tyrannical master, denying and repressing our deeper Being of pure consciousness, pure essence of Existence, pure Life.

We are born with a natural sense of the Unity of existence, but are soon schooled in the ways of dualistic thinking and trained to fixate on the workings of our minds. Of course, energetic dualism is an inherent reality of Life. We are taught to not touch a hot stove because we will be burned. We feel ice and know that if it is on our skin too long it too can burn us. Dualistic perception is necessary to deal with Life as it is. It is only a problem if it becomes all we know, our dominant way of perception. Our mind is perfectly able to simultaneously perceive both the dualistic and unified nature of Life. And if our mind/body system was trained in harmony with reality, we would hold both ways of perception in a marvous creative relationship and be bursting with Life.

All energy, at its Source, is utterly Pure before it is influenced by mental/emotional interpretations or suffers energetic reversals in our body/mind system. What I mean is, for example, if we come to believe that feeling sexual energy is dangerous or wrong the pure, innocent flow of sexual energy that the body instinctively knows is beautiful, healthy and good is then resisted and repressed in our body/mind system. This repression strengthens our ability to deny and deaden it even as it sends a very confusing signal through our entire energetic system. Every cell in the body knows that feeling purely good is a sign of health and feeling bad a sign of sickness. But now the energetic message is given that feeling good is not good. So perhaps feeling bad is now good. To confuse our energetic system is to create inner sickness and stress. And sickness and stress are what deadens and kills our body.

Life itself is a constant creative happening. I have learned that the way to work with all energies is lovingly and creatively. Energy is meant to flow positively and freely. Every point of frozen energy is a point of negativity and inner sickness. Health is free flowing positive energy. But, and this is critical to understand, energy can only flow freely in a healthy way when it is guided by Unconditional Love. Unconditional Love is the high Law of existence. Only this Love can guide free flowing energy into harmonious expressions that give Life, peace and freedom for all beings. When Unconditional Love guides all body/mind energies in the ways of caring for yourself and others, inspiring yourself and others, honoring yourself and others, giving everyone freedom to grow at their own rate, then all energies become pure servants of the highest principle of Life, all energies become straight, clear, free flowing and harmonious. All energies find their balance and natural creative instinct to express the beauty and goodness of Life. This is the Feast of Life, the Wedding Feast of opposites, the return home to the Eternal Tree of Life within and all its Life-giving fruits of beauty and peace.

Waiting for God's Children

2008-03-02T09:20:00.002-08:00

The whole Creation eagerly waits for God’s children to be born…
St. Paul

If this is true, why would Creation long for God’s children? Is a child of God a member of a certain religion? Does a child of God have just the right dogma or ritual, tradition or moral attitude to make Creation itself long for their presence in the world? What is so special about a child of God that would make the stars, the sun and moon, every bird and fish, dog and bear, even the rocks and rivulets, trees and toads long in every fiber of their instinctive beings for God’s children to be born? Scripture says, “God is Light…” Is it Light then? Are God’s children full of a primal Light and lightness of Being all Creation sighs for?

We are part of Creation. Our “human nature” is simply nature in a human form. As part of Creation are we longing for God’s child in us to emerge out of the shadows of our hearts? Do we sigh for a natural freedom of being along with the innocent animals and the chemically burdened sky? If so, why don’t we arise and shine? Why can’t we radiate Life like happy people we admire? What holds us back? Is it because even as we long for Light we also fear its radiance?

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? Maurice Freehill

Our best songs celebrate joy, Love, beauty… those qualities we have long ascribed to the Light. Our joyous, jump up and down Gospel music celebrates the freedom of Light manifested into the world as Love. Why would we sing of Light, work for Light, long for Light and yet secretly fear it? Perhaps because this kind of Light, the Light of what is whole and real, exposes all that makes us conflicted and phony. What if those whom the crickets are nightly calling, are souls who for the love of Light have faced their repressed traumatic pain, their secret fear of guilt and embarrassment so that they too might sing songs of Love in the dark?

I believe that to free the Divine child within us is to bubble with Life’s joy… to laugh so hard at times our whole body aches. I believe it means that instead of repressing our energies we recover the innocence nature of our being and guide our energies in the ways of fearless Love. This is the way we come to passionately love being fully here, sensual, alive, vibrant with God’s Life-force flowing as freely through us as wind through the trees.

This is the way to be a blessing, when God's own energetic Love streams through our open energetic system to bless animals, plants, the patient trees. We are the ones we are waiting for, just on the other side of pain's shadows and the projections we make on others. Just behind the passing clouds of culturally "normalized" misinterpretations lies a reality longing for our Love filled embrace, our awakening, our coming home to the unbroken fabric of all that is real.

Poems

2008-03-01T05:46:00.003-08:00

WHO IS TEACHING THIS THING WRONGLY?

"And they shall return to God
with everlasting joy upon their heads..."
Where is the artesian laughter,
the dancing feet,
the flashing light of freedom
in the eyes?
There is no joy
in a boring God.
Where is the God
that all little children
would spontaneously love?
Let's return
to that One.

THIS POETRY IS NOT YOU

This poetry is not You,
nor any image.
The Bible is not You,
nor any holy book.
The saints are not You,
nor any compassionate deed.
This longing is not You,
nor any answer.
The light in a lover's eyes
is not You,
nor is this body You,
or any truth--
yet You clothe Yourself
with all these
at Your pleasure,
then laughingly
divest Yourself
of all things
to run naked
into garments of sunlight
through invisible snow.

REGARDING THE LAST AND BEST
REFUGE FROM GOD

Should Church be a place
to hide from the naked Heavens,
a place of refuge
from encounters with the world of Spirit?
Why don't church goers meet angels?
If a profound spiritual awakening
should happen to a certain church member:
an opening of the eyes of the soul
to see spiritual halos, departed saints,
angels and devils, and the glory of God
hovering like fire above the altar--
would the congregation be a safe place to share it?
Or would there be murmurs of fear,
anxiety about delusions, hallucinations,
gastric distress, nervous breakdowns?
then castigation or an unspoken distancing.
I think God is too creative and free
for almost all religion:
that is why the seed shell must crack,
the old wine skin burst!
*
One day, the poetry of God
and religion will be one...
The fields will be singing;
the sky, angel packed.

In Memorium

2008-02-03T10:35:00.001-08:00

John O'Donahue has died, taking sudden flight in his sleep, slipping over the thresholds, through the horizens, giddy, shocked, light as air, a poet found in Poetry, wild eyes full of Light, heart stunned by beauty. He drank whiskey. He loved women. There is a special place for poets at God's table amidst the riotess uproar of heaven's laughter.

John Moriarty died last May, that Beethoven of intellect, that hermit wielding his pencil amidst a pile of books, that gargantuan face, that heart tender as an infant's lips.

Two of Ireland's vast voices, two dancers of thought, two warriors of delectible words, forging hope through that imperceptible shift of perspective that lets trees rattle reinterpretations in the sound of their leaves, that makes bird song mystery, that seduces the Universe to burst with sudden meaning.

With their passing their work shall expand and gain new impetus. It will seem richer, more urgent and real. This is the work of those angels that stir the deep waters of the heart. Are we made poorer or richer by their passing? How would they have us interpret that? Lyrically I suppose.

Update

2008-01-14T07:18:00.000-08:00

I am on an old farm in Sweden. My computer has crashed, so I will not be updating my sites for a while, but there is so much already posted to explore that it seems ok.

I am currently doing workshops on how to heal and bless with your hands and will be going to Ireland in May to do workshops there and see about settling in the Green Isle for a while and sinking into its poetic heritage of Life-filled beauty.

So much Love to you in your journey. May we each find in our own unique way how Love is the answer to every vital question, the healing balm for every wound.