Loving God from India, Europe, and the whole wide world

Close to God

One may have never heard the sacred name 'Christ'
and be closer to God
than any priest
or
nun.


St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

I Just Laugh

If I told you the
truth
about God
you might think
I was an Idiot.

If I lied to you about the Beautiful One
you might parade me through the streets saying,
"This guy's a genius!"

This world has its pants on backwards.
Most carry their values and knowledge in a
jug
what has a big opening in the bottom.

What to do?
With a clear grasp of the situation,
when asked to explain the Universe,
I just laugh.

Kabir  (c1440-1518)

What is Grace

What is grace? I asked God.

"All that happens," He replied.

"All that happens."

And then he added, when I looked perplexed:

"Could not lovers
say
that every moment in the arms
of their Beloved
was
Grace?

Existence is my arms,
though I well understand how the
heart
can turn away
from me

Until the heart
calms,
wakes up to the ease
and wisdom
that let's it know."


St. Teressa   (1515-1582)

A Hundred Objects close by


I know a cure for sadness:
Let your hands touch something
that makes your
eyes
shine

I bet there are a hundred object close by
that can do that.

Look at beauty's gift to us--
her power is so great she enlivens the
Earth, the Sky, our
Soul.




Mira (c 1498-1550)

Wherever you may look


Wisdom is so
kind and wise
that
wherever you may
look
you can learn something
about God.

Why
would not the
omnipresent
teach that
way?


St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

Wring Out my Clothes


Such love does the
sky
now
pour

that whenever I stand in a field

I have to
wring out my clothes
when I get
home.

St. Francis (1182-1226)

There are twelve poets.
The book is divine,
in a meaning deeper than usually
used iwith
that word.

Oh, yeah,

Hafiz (c13320-1389):

Two Giant Fat People

God
and
I
have become like two

giant
fat
people

living in a tiny boat

We keep
bumping into
each
other
and

l
a
u
g
h
i
n
g

That's a nice taste,
write a few of your own

They'll be perfect

if you think not
read the above poens
again

with your mind calm
and your heart
giggling

it's all
waiting inside
gurgling up
weather we
know it
or not

and the weather is
always
what it is:
God saying:
Hello
and
Wake up
(and maybe: treat the world
just
a tiny
bit
better,
who knows?

You listen.
what do YOU hear?

All from this book,
which you might love:








And not from here,
also amazing,
and there is only one Hafiz
in today's offering
he wrote thousands

Open our hearts to love: the sin of the idea of original sin

Let's say sin is this,
"missing the mark,"
as translation
and what's the mark?

love.

sin is that which takes us away from loving God, ourselves,
nature and others

any order is fine, that's another sin, dividing and splitting into levels,
but we'll pass that by for now

and think about the idea of
original sin

people being born "bad"

which is nonsense

look at babies
no bad
pure love

the idea of original sin is a sin
against babies
and against what we really are underneath all our conditioning

it's a control trip really

and that's the way it always is:
you can have love
or control

to see everyone as good and innocent at their core,
this is an idea with much less power to shame, and bully
and get people to cowtow before God

as if that's what God
wants
shamed and self-hating people
on their knees repentant for the sin of being alive

hooey to that:
hell is always in the moment,
when we are out of love
with now
with the joy of life
with ourselves
and others
and nature
and God

any order

and we can be in love
or we can be condemning
but not both

the sin of original sin tries to turn us into human
beings haters

bad idea
bad loving
bad living
bad medicine

and if we don't say bad:
lets  just say, not so useful

good

Where is God?

In this remarkable book:

What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing

A formerly homeless 

wise man

is annoyed at people who go to 

Bible study all the time

and

never get around to a

"Bible Do"

He asks:

"Mr. Ron, all those white folks

be invitin us

to their Bible Studies.

How come

none of 'ems
invitin
us to their Bible doins?"

Then,
like Rumi,
Who sung, roughly,
that he
looked for God
in the Mosque
and couldn't find Him
looked in the synagoge
couldn't find Him
looked in the Church,
still couldn't find
Him
then he
looked in His hearrt
and there He was
All Along

This wise formerly homeless man,
named Denver
says:
"Everybody's looking for
God
everywhere on the outside.
He ain't in no
book,
He ain't in no
preacher
He ain't in nothing or no out
outside.
You got to go inside
'cause that's where
God
is --
in the
deepest place
inside you."