Seeds of Suffering

Seeds of Suffering

suffering
seems unexplainable
and raises the old question:
why the divine allowing..

but hidden
at the source of spiritual ways
is a remedy..
yet the profound simplicity is
such that seekers shy away..

mistaken identity informs:
we believe we are a portion
not the whole..and this alone 
seeds our suffering..

the seed disapproves of 
how it is right now..and
plans an escape to distract..
such is life lived as portion..

the seed suffers
until it finds the glitch 
which impedes the
healing it seeks..

diving into the suffering
reveals our wholeness 
and roots out the belief 
in life lived as portion..


RS on suffering..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=220&v=Y3yFV7F5pls

Baptism

Baptism

Questions...
1.  What is your understanding of the Bible as metaphor?
2.  How is "water" used as metaphor in the Bible and elsewhere?
3.  What is a "baptism of fire?"
4.  How about a "Wall" as metaphor?

Lectionary:  Luke 3:15-22 New International Version (NIV)

15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with[a] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 
21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Did You Know?
In Christianity, baptism is the sacrament of admission to the church, symbolized by the pouring or sprinkling of water on the head or by immersion in water. The ceremony is usually accompanied by the words “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” In the doctrine originated by St. Paul, it signifies the wiping away of past sins and the rebirth of the individual into a new life. Judaism practiced ritual purification by immersion, and the Gospels report that John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Baptism was an important ritual in the early church by the first century ce, and infant baptism appeared c. 200 ce. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant churches practice infant baptism. The Anabaptist reformers insisted on adult baptism after a confession of faith; modern Baptists and the Disciples of Christ also practice adult baptism.


bap·​tism | \ˈbap-ˌti-zəm,  especially Southern ˈbab-\
Definition of baptism 
1a : a Christian sacrament marked by ritual use of water and admitting the recipient to the Christian community
b : a non-Christian rite using water for ritual purification
c Christian Science : purification by or submergence in Spirit
2 : an act, experience, or ordeal by which one is purified, sanctified, initiated, or named

Epiphany

Epiphany

the story of epiphany 

in Christian lore casts the 

 dilemma of Herod pained

by intense insecurity..

 with men from the East

he deceitfully seeks help 
in his search to end

 unrelenting unease..

he lives in separation

believing peace and ease

must be located somewhere

 in his kingdom of places..

this fellow sufferer

like most in our culture

 search in geography to

calm throbbing desires..

to find..or not..that the

satisfaction we seek is

available immediately when

we call off our search...  

Waiting for the Wise Men

Waiting for the Wise Men

 worried 
holders of power
use their wile
their walls and wire to

separate and discourage..

we are waiting  

 each of us..to

waken as wise..

and to know that

wile and wall and wire

cannot separate

the knowing of grace
which when known 
lights another
path home...

Bulletproof

Bulletproof

How is it 
that we can make an argument
bulletproof..

We might say that if the argument
addresses both sides of a question
and demonstrates affiliation with both
and points out that diminishing one side
diminishes the other..

However..note that when all is said
in accordance with the advice
there remain two sides of what is
perceived as reality..

So..to be truly bulletproof
the argument itself must dissolve
in the silence from which it arose..
Silence speaking alone is bulletproof...

On the outside looking in

On the outside looking In

that is where we seem to be

most of us..most of the time..

and in some moments

feel a pull

and approach the inside..

but a fear overtakes

and we wing away..

we retreat to our
place in the matrix
upheld by beliefs
and the appearances
so convincing in our
life on the outside..

if questioning does
not insist..we make
the outside as comfortable
as possible..and live
our lives..soothing as
we are able the outside
desperation..

on a more hopeful note:
we might take a
longer look at an
inside invitation..and
recognize home... 

What are Objects?

What are objects?

a silly question many will say
an interruption to things of importance..
the chair is the chair..now on to my
daily schedule..uninterrupted please..
however..after much searching to 
satisfy desires..pausing with the question
might be finally reconsidered..finding that
an inbred belief in objects can be rattled
with attention to experience..telling of the 
frailty of of such belief..
we experience in wholes..not in chairs
claiming their independence..
the chair reconsidered shows up as
perception temporarily..then perceiving..
a walking back to the Reality which 
has been quietly waiting for
recognition..
those objects we knew before the question 
now appear as they always appeared
but somehow now..satisfying the desires
we had painfully pursued...



RS:  There Are No Objects..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLMEgLjYJPI