Fly towards a secret sky

Sometimes, a word or two is all you need - if it is the right word or two.
That is precisely the function of poetry.

And it doesn't matter who "said it first".
As long as you recognise that word, those words, as a true expression of your soul, that's what it is: a true expression of your soul. You said it first, if only to yourself.

The words above - just the word or two that I needed to ignite my fire tonight - I found here.

And the one who said them "first" was one of the greatest poets of all time: Rumi.

He may have lived eight hundred years ago, but what is eight hundred years - what is eight thousand years - in the face of the never-changing, forever yearning human soul?
He might as well have written these words eight days ago.

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First, to let go of life.
In the end, to take a step without feet;
to regard this world as invisible,
and to disregard what appears to be the self.

In Its Image and Likeness?

(Originally posted here.)



Does nature with its terrestrial phenomena mirror a wider, cosmic (perhaps not necessarily physical) reality?

Or is it perhaps even the materialisation – a condensation, if you will – of the forces underlying the unceasing (re)creation of the world and their dynamics?

I have always, even as a child, detested the »animistic« view of the cosmos (our world included). I found nature »as is« (as IF we ever observed it »as is«... ;) interesting enough without men trying to read into »her«.

But even I – even then – had to wonder sometimes. I have noticed often enough that sometimes, rarely, there seem to be »signs in the skies« that for some reason cannot simply be dismissed as our »reading into« them. (It would take a long time and effort to describe some of them, so let me just mention the extraordinary aspect of the sky on January 25, 1938, and on August 23rd, 1939: the day of the signing of the Molotov-von Ribbentrop treaty.)

And now, I have come upon a website that claims the river Nile actually conforms to the shape of – the Milky Way.

TIME RIVERS

To be totally frank, I am not sure I subscribe to this theory.
But I got to give them - specifically, the author of the theory, Goro Adachi - credit for observation and »lateral« thinking.
Brainstorms seldom pass without yielding at least a single drop of valid and useful information.

And, after all, according to Sufi mystics, the entire world, with all its creatures, is nothing but a mirror created by God and observed by God's unblinking eye, to see the image of »Himself«.

»God created the world
because He wanted to see His image in the mirror.«

"You said I could knock"

I am very, very sad today.
I am not even sure why. I woke up feeling like this, and I cannot shake an odd feeling of dread - very uncharacteristic of me.

But whatever it is, I know the following "letter to God" did influence my state of mind, at least to some degree.
So did- perhaps even more - some of the replies to it.

A good friend brought to my attention the text, which was written by a friend of his.
It was posted on a public "Christian forum"; but since it is thereby a public text, I don't think reproducing it here will do any harm to anyone.

If it does, it won't be for any infringement of copyrights or any such nonsense.

Yesterday, after I had received the text and had not yet read it, a friend read it while I was working.

"So... how is it?" I asked her over my shoulder as I typed.
Silence.
"Haven't you read it?" I asked.
No reply.

I turned around and looked at her.
She was sitting there in perfect silence, staring at the screen, with a hand over her mouth; and huge tears were streaming down her cheeks.

I had never seen her react like that, so I was shocked, alarmed.

It turned out the text had touched a nerve.
So did some of the replies to it.

I don't know how you will react to it, but I do think it's worth reading.
So here it is, copied and pasted.
(Only the user name is omitted, for reasons of simple and possibly absurd piety - but you have the URL, so it's not a "secret".)

YOU SAID I COULD KNOCK

(This is a "letter" to God - not a provocation of any sort, so please, don't feel offended.
And please, do NOT read this if you are at all prone to doubt or sadness.
Also, I don't think I'll be back, so there is no need to reply - unless you're God, of course. :)


I have been knocking for seven months now, even after you took from me, one by one, every single source of my modest happiness on Earth.
Without notice you took out the sole light of my life, my reason for doing and being.
You were deaf to my prayers, even though I prayed as you told us to.
In a single sweeping gesture, you also took from me the basic sustenance for me to grieve in peace. Instead, you thought it would be profitable for me to add a new burden on my already broken back.

And yet, the more you oppressed me, the more I kept praying and counting on your help – BLINDLY counting on your providence.

But you just kept taking away from me and destroying everything that I had built over many years. Every single work I ever started was dedicated to you – surely you must have known that? I said so, quite openly. I always asked for your assistance and guidance. Every single thought I had was a prayer. When I walked down the street, when I shopped for groceries, when I stood admiring the majestic beauty of nature, when I hummed to music, when I worked... You were always WITH me.
Weren't you?

Ever since you allowed the world to start hitting me, ever since you turned your back on me, things have been going from bad to worse. And, most extraordinarily, you chose to take away from me – from us – even the one thing I was sure could never be taken away by anyone: our family's togetherness and pure love. No thief could ever take that from us, I thought.

And I was right. No thief could do that – but you chose to destroy even THAT.

I was shocked; and I could not understand what was happening. After all, it's not like you were punishing a petulant child who isn't grateful for what she's got: surely you heard all the beats of my grateful heart over the years? Every joy I had I dedicated to you; I only turned to you when I was happy and grateful; on the few occasions that I asked for your help when I was in great trouble you didn't seem to have heard me at all.

And yet, I kept praying and singing your praises. And I kept smiling, even though my life was crumbling inside and out. I never complained to anyone; I didn't want to spread misery or fear. I didn't want anyone's confidence in you wane because of my Job-like calvary.

But after taking out the life of my life, the only earthly joy of my heart, you took away even the possibility of comfort, of grieving in peace; you took away my meagre fortune, my sustenance, and my reputation, which I had so painstakingly built over the years, by which you effectively took away my future. There is very little left – only debts and heartache – and the prospect of living destitute in a joyless world, in effective slavery.

Most of all, by your relentless deafness to my pleas you not only broke my own strength, but also my ability to pray to you.

So, was I no good to you while I was successful and striving for happiness and singing your praises?
Would I be of more use to you as a pauper? As a homeless, hungry wretch, cleaning toilets for a pittance? As the laughing stock of everyone who has the time and the inclination to kick somebody who is down?

If that is so, I am sure YOU know the reasons. But I don't. And forgive me for not embracing your mysteriously devised »plan«. You should know that it won't make me a better person; I already was that »better person«. And apparently that wasn't good enough for you.

Yes, I have been weak.
Is there no place for the weak on your Earth?

And I have been far from perfect.
But so are other people. At least I was always aware of my mistakes and regretted them.

But I was also many other things: joyful, humble, grateful, hopeful. Compassionate. And generous - that too. (Do you remember my giving, God? Have you, mighty accountant, figured out why all those to whom I had lent money, when I had very little of it myself, ignored my reminder that, after more than a year, I'd like my money back – because I needed to pay my bills? Don't you, the All-knowing, know that I have nobody to turn to?)

All my life I walked in grateful confidence.

Did that displease you?
Was that not the prayer that you wanted to hear?

Is »please, don't hit me« the prayer that you would prefer?

If such were the case, then you wouldn't be much better – or much more - than a medieval potentate who has to be curried for favours and whose moods are to be feared.
Or like those Chinese deities that are supposedly jealous of man's happiness, so humans have to hide it from them.

If such were the case, you would be no God at all.

Once upon a time, I was afraid that I might die in my sleep because of the pain that would cause to my loved ones.
Today, that seems to be my only escape.

So, here's your chance, dear God. Tonight is the night. Do that thing you promised to do: open the door. Listen to my dying heart and grant me THE miracle – or else go pour some more fragrant oil into the vials of the »wicked« ones, the ones that don't want to know your face, who may even spit on your name - who never think of you at all, but live happy and fulfilled in heir ignorance of you; who sleep peacefully in their comfortable beds, anticipating nothing but another fruitful day and then a weekend with their loved ones – while I fear going to sleep because there is a good probability that I might wake up. Wake up... to yet another pile of bills that cannot be paid, to yet another 20 hours of hunger and heartache, of wondering: what did I do? WHAT, in God's name, did I ever do to anyone, except bring them joy and comfort and, yes, very palpable help? As for my many ill deeds, I have repented for them so often and so bitterly in the past – if you were listening, surely you should know that.

Do that miracle – or go add some more bliss to those who never think about you – or about other people – because they have no use for your paradise: they have their own paradise, right here and now.

Is this an ultimatum?

You tell me, Almighty.
You may live outside Time, but I don't, because you yourself placed me within Time.
You allow the bill collectors and the bank – and my empty stomach, which is such a wonderful complement to a heart broken by long months of grief and deceived hopes – to persecute me pitilessly, without any regard for my sadness and loneliness and, yes, poverty; now I can actually speak of poverty. I don't have the money to buy even a lottery ticket.

You didn't care to preserve and protect a happy, grateful heart who considered herself RICH because she walked bathed in your Light and Grace – or so she thought.
Finish me off, then.
But, considering my recent past experience with your favours, even that might be too much to ask from you. Perhaps all the good pious people, sitting pretty in their comfy chairs, who IN YOUR NAME promise nothing but brimstone to those who take their own life, are right, after all. Perhaps you would like me to do that, so that you can have yet more fun with me, from here to eternity.

Or perhaps there is no YOU.
Not here, not in eternity.

I am not going to even comment on it, as I believe it's been formulated well enough for anyone - anyone with a heart and a mind and a minimal experience of the world - to understand.
In fact, it's one of the best formulated outcries to God that I've ever read. It is angry, yes, and not a little childlike, and extremely sad, but even in its anger it's not stupid "God-bashing", it is not shallow sulking; and even deep in the abyss of her pain, the author remains sensitive to other people, the readers.

What dumbfounded me were some of the replies - but please, note that I only read the first page.
And here's why I couldn't, didn't want to, go on reading the replies: with the exception of a sentence or two (which I thought were really good and, I hope, helpful to "Job" - especially the one of being "in construction", that was really good), they sound as if people simply did not read past the first three or four sentences.

They did not read it - or else, how could they reply like that?
Why reply at all, then?
She explicitly said she did not need any replies - and yet, some people apparently could not resist the temptation to offer their... oh, what was it - "well-rounded knowledge"...?

I am speechless.
And depressed.

I knew people in general had difficulty listening to other people.
Reading doesn't seem to come much easier to them.

And yet... if people who consider themselves to be followers of Christ cannot be bothered to really lend their ear to their "neighbour's" pleas ... who will listen?

If you are going to read it, then please read it: do not extrapolate, do not compare, do not scoff, do not judge. Take it seriously on both the emotional AND the intellectual level.

The "Jobs" of this world deserve nothing less.

And pray to God you never become one yourself.

The Shortest Drama Ever Told

You may have read the "post" below on a different blog. But we find it irresistible, so we just had to repost it here. (Consider it "syndication".)
And yes, we DO have the explicit permission of the author.

The Shortest Drama Ever Told

Have you ever noticed, when people discuss or are encouraged (think Oprah) to "pursue" their »wildest dreams«, that the latter mostly turn out to be a beautiful car, a vacation in Hawaii (or insert the location of you choice), perhaps »even« a new home...?

It's poignant, of course, that people have such low standards in matter of »dreams«.

So, what follows is the shortest nail-biter you'll ever read.

FAUST, PhD

ACT I, SCENE I

FAUST: I'd give anything to have my wildest dreams fulfilled!

A flash of dark light appears.

DEVIL: Anything?

FAUST: Anything.

DEVIL: I can fulfill your wildest dreams, and beyond. And I shall, if you give me your most prized possession.

FAUST: My Blackberry?!

DEVIL: I was thinking more in the line of your soul. But I see now that, in your case, the Blackberry would probably be a wiser choice...

OK, that was NOT the version I was talking about!
My evil twin wrote the exchange above.
Here is the original one:

FAUST, PhD

ACT I, SCENE I

FAUST: I'd give anything to have my wildest dreams fulfilled!

A flash of dark light appears.

DEVIL: Anything?

FAUST: Anything.

DEVIL: I can fulfill your wildest dreams, and beyond. And I shall, if you give me your most prized possession.

FAUST: You name it.

DEVIL: You know what it is - you name it.

FAUST: And what if you can't deliver?

DEVIL: Do you have any idea of who I am? The »impossible« does not exist, not in my realm.

FAUST: That's because your dreams aren't wild enough.

DEVIL: Alright. I'll hand you over my power. I'll hand you my very self.

FAUST: It's a deal.

DEVIL: What is it that you want?

FAUST: Make me God.

A flash of dark light reappears.
We never find out what happens next.

The Silent Light

Nothing really changes today;
nothing ends, nothing begins.
No more than every single day (and night), of course.

But many do feel this is somehow a "crucial" date. Those same people are very often the ones who procrastinate, wait, hesitate, dream - dream big, even - but never get around to really getting what they really want.

Do you know what you really want?
I don't.
Well... I do, it's just that it cannot be expressed by words. Certainly not ordinary words.

But words - ordinary words, used in an ordinary fashion, forever misunderstood - are overrated anyway.

Besides, I know what you want, even if you don't.

I know that because you are a human - as am I.
And you are, conservatively speaking, half-divine - as am I.

Here is what you really want:


EVERYTHING.


Are you ready to let go of all the familiar systems of thought, to let go of your seeming freedom - and take on a YOKE?
An inexorable, 24/7, perennial, liberating yoke?
Are you ready to assume full responsibility for your own life path?

I bet you're hearing the ca-CHEEEENG! of the $$$ machine... ;)

I can't say I blame you: it is usually at this point that the clincher - BUY this and live happily ever after! (But wait! There's more!!!) - comes.

But you couldn't be more wrong.
What I am giving you has been generously offered by others, which is why I can offer it to you, free of charge.

It is a very simple, unwrapped gift: an URL, leading to a book (free of charge).

How many times have you heard about "books that can change your life?"
(And that's not counting Oprah's Book Club.)

I know I am a cynic about that. The fact is that any book can change your life - if you are ready. Even books that are totally trivial can accomplish that. Because it's all about the right word falling in the right place at the right time.

The thing is... most words, especially book-words, do not fall in the right place at the right time because the "place" and the "time" - meaning YOU - simply aren't ready.

But if you are serious about taking control of your own Being, this book takes your wish seriously. VERY seriously. So seriously, in fact, that you'll be compelled to think - and rethink - your own seriousness, your wishes for your life.

If you are a "New Year resolutions" person, you may want to skip it altogether.

But if you are ready to go, it will show you exactly where to go and how to walk.
In that sense this book absolutely does have the power to change your life: as radically as you ever thought possible - probably even more so.

There are no shortcuts. If you jump lessons, it simply won't work. It's as simple as that.

But if you take your own wish to "change" seriously, and proceed as it tells you to,
your life will start changing - for good - the moment you take the path.

In fact, if you are serious, you will probably have to postpone the reading and practice of this book, and get another one first. The other one is also free of charge - but you'll have to find it yourself. Just to prove to YOURSELF that you are at least moderately interested. (And if you are, finding it will be a piece of cake.)

Also, the book contains certain errors - and, regardless of what you may hear, they were probably introduced on purpose. Those who are serious, will take time to correct them for themselves.

Last but not least: you absolutely do NOT have to abandon your religion (assuming that it's a religion based on the simple precept "do unto others what you would want done to yourself"). In fact, it may well enhance your practice of your religion.

However, it is NOT suitable for dogmatic minds.
(There's nothing inherently wrong with being a dogmatic mind - except that you limit the access of the Light, of the Spirit, of God... whatever you call it, to you.)

You will see what I mean when the book is through with you.

So... Godspeed!
And don't forget to dream BIG.
No, that's not big enough - I meant BIG.

BEYOND.

Beyond anything you thought possible.

Here's looking at you, kid

What do you see in the mirror?

Do you like it?

Does your heart hum with joy when you look at yourself?


If it doesn't, it's safe to assume you aren't looking in the right mirror...



HERE is the right mirror:

Do you see?

No?

Look closer...

You don't see anything yet?

How about now?

Are you saying:

"Yes, it's very beautiful, but that's not me"?

Step back.

Step back as far as you can...


and have a look

at YOURSELF:

(click on the image!)

Amazing, huh?

(What is it?!)

Oh, so your science teacher thinks it's all hogwash...? 


Well, YOU think again.

You are God in oblivion.


You are God who's forgotten her own power -

you are God who is afraid of her own power.

(You think you've heard this one before?

Was it here, perhaps?
And HERE is the man who said it.)

It is not blasphemy.
Don't let anyone tell you that.



God is you.


Nothing happy, beautiful, magnificent you can think of is against God,

because it is God who is thinking it.

We'll be back soon.

Meanwhile...

take a look at this fabric for your new gown!

Spread it over your screen 

and have a good look at it.

(And then compare it with that science teacher's sense of fashion... :)

Or read this:

OR you can visit some more of your sisters and brothers in the glorious Hall of Mirrors.
(Who are the authors and/or copyright holders of all the telescope images on this page.)