Friday, July 6, 2018
RECOGNZE
Hi There !
So, some family
and friends
do Yoga.
I dare not.
I'd snap in two,
fall to the floor
a heap of parts.
In my own way,
though,
I do share
Yoga's practice of
"Namaste."
It's the Hindu greeting,
fingers pressed together
like a church steeple,
held at the heart
and then extended
toward the heart
of the other and saying
"Namaste,"
"The divine light in me
recognizes
the divine light in you."
God in me
recognizes
God in you.
You and I are sparked
into being,
sustained in being,
by God -
the divine light.
The deepest in me
and
the deepest in you
are divine.
At our core,
foundationally,
we are splendidly one
in God.
We grow out
uniquely and divinely
from there.
We are like a tree.
The same life branching out
so variously and magnificently.
"I am the vine, you are the branches."
John 15:5
The same and different.
One and yet unique.
Paradox
an apparent contradiction
that happily just isn't.
"Namaste."
God in me recognizes
all that in you - in us.
This "recognizing"
is way more than
notice and nod.
It is an expansive awareness
of our base and unity -
a divine recognition of itself
that we sense and express.
It is an acceptance and embrace
of our "us-ness" in God,
a loving and a living of it -
God happy to be us, and
"the feeling is mutual."
The divine in me recognizes
that every being is
"us"
in a singular, creative way.
More and more I try to greet
everyone and everything with
my own modified version of
"Namaste"
"The divine light in me recognize
the divine light in you."
Let me underscore
"...with my own modified version..."
Quite frankly,
greet children in the park,
or the crowd around you
at a Yankee game,
in the Hindu mode
of "Namaste"
and it might just get you
a black eye,
or a ride in The Paddy Wagon !!
Partly that's because we are at such
an embryonic stage of evolution,
of consciousness, of awareness
and of sharing divine recognition.
In our embryonic stage,
both soulful unity and real difference
scare us a bit to a bunch.
Sometimes we throw up walls,
push, punch, call the cops.
More often and operative, though,
it is simply a matter of finding
a culturally appropriate,
personally apt,
mode of expression
to say and show soulful recognition.
As we mature and mellow spiritually,
we find ourselves in God and God in us
in two basic ways.
The terrain of the first is a nothingness,
no need of thought or word,
the naked abandon of being in Being,
the enfoldment, the flowing into each other,
the "inter curro" of oneness.
We're darn lucky if that happens
every third Tuesday!
The more everyday experience of
God recognizing "Self in Other"
happens in our fusion with God present
in all people and all things -
loving, treasuring, serving,
sharing, caring for them
right out here on Main Street.
So, how do we deal with
this more common way
of divine recognition out here
on this street of everyday living?
We wake up.
We lighten up.
We let go.
We freely and fully flow
with God's recognition in us
and in the other.
We see self and God
in all,
one
with all.
Then we let that recognition
be expressed in the manner
best suited for the "Other Self."
So, we don't launch into
a metaphysical discourse
on divine oneness and recognition
with a ten year old.
We play checkers with the ten year old.
That allows for a "recognition"
in practice and personal experience.
Most folks would run for cover
if I walked up to them,
folded my hands at my heart
and then extended my hands
toward their hearts and said
"Namaste."
Culturally, socially, practically,
I find it best to express
"Namaste,"
not in the Hindu manner,
but through a smile, a hand shake,
a look of recognition and/or appreciation,
a wave, a greeting as simple as
"How's it going today?",
"Good to see you,"
"How's your baby
(new job, college, mother in law)?"
Often a simple "Hey!",
a high five, a hug does it.
Packed into whatever
the mode of connect
is God's recognition
and mine of
the divine in them,
and our union there.
Sometimes there doesn't seem
to be any awareness or response
on the part of the one greeted.
That's rather rare.
It's amazing how often people
in their own way gesture back,
recognizing the divine in me
and our union there.
Hardly ever would it be put
in those words,
but what those words mean does happen.
It's mostly quiet, subtle, understated,
and so, well,
delightfully divine!!
Soulful contact is made,
often in an indirect,
almost subconscious,
but real way,
Sensitivity and authenticity
are the keys here.
So, with people
of completely different
politics, religion, life style,
we go for a hike and a picnic supper.
That being together "speaks " together,
recognizes something good ( God ),
not fully, but we're on our way.
There's unspoken,
but real recognition and union.
When someone is boring us,
or boring into us,
we face that and keep at it
until we face, we recognize,
the divine in our discomfort or pain.
In these sort of situations,
when someone is hurting us,
returned recognition is often denied.
So, we just "love on 'em"!!
The best ever model of
"Namaste",
that I know is Francis of Assisi.
He lived a lie for years -
arrogant, selfish, abusive.
When he "woke up" to Reality,
he dropped his phoniness,
fashion fixation, selfishness.
He fell in Love, as "God is love."
He was "in" Love
with everyone and everything.
He delighted as the divine in him
recognized the divine in other and all.
It wasn't always sentimental and sweet.
Often it was sweaty and smelly.
He sought out, embraced and cared for
the rejects and lepers of his day.
He washed them, fed them,
spent time and self on them.
Messy and divine.
He recognized God in them
and his union there.
Francis found God
in all of creation.
The divine in him recognized
the divine in them
and their foundational oneness.
He sang with the birds,
was on a first name basis with
"Brother Sun," "Sister Moon."
He got excited about every form of being.
His example invites our excitement
at recognizing the divine in "things" -
a sunrise, a dandelion, a poem, our supper,
a pillow, an airplane, the internet, a novel,
our lawnmower, a painting, an ice cream cone,
a quiet meadow...
It never stops and we don't have to either.
Our everyday spiritual life is
mixing it up with everyone
and everything,
as the divine light in us
recognize and connects
with the divine light in them.
They may or may not respond,
but we get to recognize union,
and be there, be one in/with God
at the center of
every person, place and thing.
More and more we find ourselves
in the midst of God and
God in our midst.
This is the mystical life
out here on Main Street.
We are are filled
with wonder and gratitude,
all wrapped up in God
present in all around us
and within us.
It might be a friend.
It might be the fibers of a new coat.
It might be a symphony.
It might be our supper.
It might be The Eucharist.
It might be holding a baby.
It might be supporting the fourteen year old
shattered at his parents impending divorce.
It might be the digital pulsations
that get this blog from me to you.
The joy is that what might be can be.
It's a wonderful Trinity -
Them
Us
God
three ways of being one.
Definitely a higher math.
What a recognition.
Before we go,
a word of welcome to
our newest participation
from Croatia.
"Amaste."
"The divine light in me recognizes
the divine light in you."
John Frank
*****
If you're up for more, here it is.
If not, see you next week.
*****
OUTTAKES
Reference to Francis:
"He sought out, embraced,
cared for the rejects and
lepers of his day."
( this issue of "frankly speaking" )
Some of the Rejects and Lepers of Today:
- the thousands in Africa being dumped
in the desert to die because
they want to migrate to Europe
- the many more thousands drowning
as the try to migrate
from northern Africa to Europe
-the 700,000 Rohingya men,
women and children escaping
ethnic cleansing in Myanmar and
living in squalor in Bangladesh
- those migrants walled off from
their children at our border
and where are those children?
- right now, according to the
United Nations Refugee Agency,
there is the highest level
of displacement in the world
on record - 68.5 million
forced from home,
25.4 million refugees,
half of them under 18 years old
- it's a huge issue with many elements,
and no simple, quick fixes.
- are we concerned and requiring
our religious and government leaders
to address remedy rather than
just reject and exclude?
- "I was a stranger, and you welcomed me."
Jesus
Matthew 25:35
-"When an alien resides with you in your land,
you shall not oppress the alien.
The alien who resides with you shall be to you
as a citizen among you; you shall love the alien
as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt:
I am the Lord your God."
Leviticus 19:35
- Does the divine light in us recognize the divine light
in these millions of suffering people,
recognize it enough that we will do all possible
so that the need is addressed and worked on,
even if it means we might have to
significantly modify our level
of economic advantage
and our life of privilege???
*****
- "Recognizing" the divine
in another
when it's hard to see it:
How about that pesky neighbor
who parks his "shuttle car"
(the one he uses to get
to the station work days),
that junker 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva,
right in front of your house
not in his own driveway.
Can we come up with
the clarity and openness
to see the divine in him
and our oneness with him there
and have him over
for a beer once in a while?
*****
Rather than sit home
and stew about the world order,
o.k., "disorder,"
we want to recognize the divine
in all sorts of people
out there,
whether they do or not.
We want to be one
with them in God's Love,
praying for them :
- Valimir Putin, Xi-Jinping,
Donald Trump,
the world's power brokers
- The media merchants polluting
minds and spirits with trivia,
distraction, shallowness,
"Unreality" shows
- The folks responsible for hate radio
and those duped by them
- Religious leaders attempting
to build shrines
to institutional success
- Gangs, cartels, terrorists, all abusers
- Some corporate and political leaders
favoring the few,
forgetting the common good,
raping Mother Nature.
- All the children of the world
as they start to bud and blossom
- College students and young adults
trying to figure out themselves,
life and purpose
- Those working to build
relationships and families
-"Forty Somethings" trying
to re-calibrate their lives
and relationships
- The elderly as we decline so as to ascend.
*****
God in Us and Us in God:
- " Do you not know that you are
a temple of God and that
the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
I Corinthians 3:16
- " For we are the temple of the living God."
II Corinthians 6:16
*****
A Touch of Theology
Pantheism: The understanding/belief
that God and the universe can be equated;
that God is the universe.
Panentheism:The understanding/belief that
all is in God, that the divine
interpenetrates all aspects
of the universe and transcends it.
Panentheism is
the theological understanding
operative in this blog.
*******************************************************************************
"frankly speaking "
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*****
