Day 130f: Heaven’s not an UP thing … (September 06, 2019)
“I am an ordained lama of the Celtic Buddhist lineage, a multi-decade student of many great Tibetan Buddhist teachers. I am also an avid student of Brahmin, Hindu, Taoist, Wiccan, Animist and many other traditions; a daily practitioner of meditations both seated & moving. My earliest roots are embedded in Judeo-Christian mysticism and my most recent prayers would easily qualify as being modern-evangelical. And so it is that I have recently faced some folks remarking about what a ‘religious’ person I am. And my response to this is a simple one: That’s simply not true and pretty close to nonsense. Now calling me and any like me ‘religious’ is a very understandable mistake, and I appreciate that many of you mean the same as a compliment. And yet who I actually am has somewhere between very little and nothing at all to do with any standard definition of ‘religious.’ Now I don’t disparage anyone who is traditionally religious (as long as they don’t use their religion as an excuse to kill, subjugate, demean or otherwise harm any other sentient being, of course) but as for myself, it is not now nor will it ever be a label that in any way fits … And so it is that night pours over my desert; a deep night of the Soul – a night that came suddenly, in purple. And in the clear air of my heart, the stars drilled down out of the sky and came to rest there, reminding any thoughtful watcher that it is in the peaceful and higher places of the Self that the rare real religions are generated and the truest forms of the Soul grow manifest. When smaller men see nothing but bottomless infinity over their heads they have always had a driving and desperate urge to find some mythical celestial overlord to put in the way. Greater men & women, on the other heart, see only the Everything, and smile.” ~ inspired by Doug Ten Rose & Terry Pratchett
“The Kingdom of God is not coming in the future with events that can be observed, nor will anyone be able to say, ‘Look, there it is!’ For, in fact, the Kingdom of God is already here; it even now resides fully within you.” ~ via Jesus Christ (Luke 17:20-21)
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