Uradiance

I wonder why... the Prophet must come down from a mountain peak holding stone tablets of Law. I wonder why... the Prophet can't meander out of the valley like a stream holding ripening berries in her hand. I wonder why... we build our nation on pillars, steeples, sky-scrapers. I wonder why... it can't be built on gentle ever-returning curves of purple wine-stained hills at dawn. I wonder why... nations don't gather in a circle, as equals, sharing the roll of their hips in a harvest dance like a single rainbow serpent. I wonder why... we need hierarchies, pecking orders, politicians who prattle on about "American exceptionalism," about regaining our miserable "dominance" over the world. I wonder why... anyone has to dominate when berries taste so sweet just as they are, and even better when you share them in one cup like lovers on their wedding night. Danny Seidman photo, Valley of the Palouse River, SE Washington State

I love money. Anyone who says they don't like money is full of saintly shit. Someday we will live in a world without money , which will be beautiful. Until then, let us make peace with money. If you give me all that you have, I will give you all that I have.  But do we have enough trust? Our attitude toward money tells us much about our trust: in the nation, in each other, in ourselves.  When Jesus says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," he is teaching the law of abundance. When Jesus condemns the rich, he does not condemn their money but their lack of generosity.  In Matthew chapter 19, Jesus tells a rich young man to give everything away, not to make him poor but to make him happy. Through the law of abundance, when the rich man's wealth flows to others, abundance increases for all. Abundance flows through , not to . As the hand receives, it remains open to give, and the hand that is open to give is open to receive even more, pressed out and ...

What grace! The sound of nothing. What grace that this always already is. All I can offer in return is the empty bell  of my smile, the empty bowl of my heart ringing with the food of light. Bowing to you, my skull is also a bowl, my chest a bowl, my belly a bowl, my mother's womb a bowl, empty and full. Who is the striker of this music? The world has no cause. It simply happens without end or beginning for the sake of friendship. Gratitude to the bowl-masters, Karl Black and David Erentrout, who performed this healing sound meditation at Common Bread, Olympia WA, on 1/26/12, for the students at Evergreen College.

Who is the Dragon in you? Do you fear it, fight it, or dance with it? Is the Dragon a female or male? Dragons I have encountered are beautiful and dangerous, erotic and pure. Perhaps the dragon is simply the bliss we deny ourselves, rising like a fountain in the spine. I wish there were more dragons swimming around inside me. I like it when a dragon sings. I like it when a dragon flies through the night in my heart like a breathful of stars.  

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “America is not good because it is great, America is great because it is good.” The Newt Gingrich creed of “American Exceptionalism” twists this truth, making American greatness an entitlement. Gingrich assumes that, as God’s chosen people, our manifest destiny is world dominion. But the self-insulating arrogance of this creed only makes us mediocre, isolating us from global dialog. Inferior schools, collapsing infrastructure, exhausted soldiers, corporate serfdom, a growing gap between rich and poor, and a vulture economy that thrives on debt instead of creating real jobs or products, all belie imperial failure rather than greatness. Paralyzed by political corruption and insatiable consumerism, ours is the fate of all puffed-up oligarchies that live beyond their means on the sweat of Third World labor. But this isn’t the apocalypse. It’s only the collapse of empire, making way for a wiser, leaner lifestyle. We are called not t...

"I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:16). Say I Am with reverence and humility. I Am is both my name and God's. This name contains the human I , which is a momentary thought, and the divine Am , which is a boundless radiance in the heart. Speaking this name, I surrender to Am and become myself.

The feeling of sadness arises and subsides in the space that is aware of it. If the feeling of sadness were not surrounded by a space, you would not be able to say, "I felt sad, then it subsided, now I feel sad again." Who was watching the sadness arise and depart? Is this space ever sad? The feeling of joy arises and subsides in the space that is aware of it. If the feeling of joy were not surrounded by a space, you would not be able to say, "I felt joyful, then it subsided, now I feel joyful again." Who was watching the joy arise and depart? Is this space ever joyful? There is a space in which sadness and joy come and go, yet which is neither joyful no sad. It is  eternally watching. It is everlasting life. Your birth happens here, your death happens here, and here you are, before and after. This space is ceaselessly expanding because it is unlimited by the phenomena that come and go within it. Therefor it is inconceivably blissful, with a bliss bey...

2012. From now on, any resistance is resistance to love. Love is the space in which everything is happening. Pain and pleasure, violence and gentleness, your birth and even your death, all waves in the ocean of love. What is there to defend, to compete with, to struggle against, to vanquish? Resistance is futile. The tidal wave is your heartbeat.

The most beautiful name is not a name 'of,' but an unstruck sound in the bell of the heart. Resonating in eternal silence, this nameless vibration births the universe. Each particle of your body is one of its frequencies. 'Adau bhagavan shabdha rasahih,' says a Vedic verse: 'In the beginning, God manifested as sound.' Because we are born from this beginningless Word, we can hear it in the intimacy of our center, when the mind stops chattering and the heart listens. Holy names and mantras have one purpose: to lead our awareness inward, from the mind to the heart, so that we may bathe in this infinitely subtle, original sound-current and be re-created. Let words of prayer dissolve into the song of silence. May the New Year bring you closer to the music of God.

The ancient goal of mystical mathematics was to circle the square, the enigma portrayed in Leonardo da Vinci's Vesuvian Man. We circle the square when our mission is to be who we are, and our goal is authentic Presence. I'm skeptical when I hear people gush about their goals for the New Year. And I'm really not interested when life coaches preach about the importance of goals and vision statements. What's your Three Year Vision Plan? Your Five Year Mission? Your Goal for Eternal Life? I have no idea. What my needs, my dreams, my concerns will be three years from now, I have no way of telling. I don't even know what tomorrow will bring. When delight dawns, will I even notice it if I'm working on my Five Year Plan? I am suspicious of goals. Goals separate me from who I am. They detach me from the felt texture of the life I am actually living. When I pursuing my ambition, am I present to you, to my own body, to the ground I walk on? If goals are so im...

When did I consent to play the victim? When did I consent to lack? When did I consent to the authority of my doubts? When did I consent to a government of memories? When did I consent to fear both pain and pleasure? When did I consent to this numbness in my chest? When did I consent to the proposition that my joy must be earned? When did I consent to regard this moment as less than a miracle? When did I consent to stop dancing? When did I consent to ignore the spring of sparkling beauty that bubbles up unbidden from my perfectly broken heart? Mural: Roman garden, 1st century

The Lance This is the lance that pierced his side, these are the nails by which he died, here a splinter of bloody wood, and here the cup that caught the blood: all idols, idols all. Here is the shroud and the winding sheet, these are his words, which priests repeat, a loaf of bread, a cup of wine to make a sacramental sign: all idols, idols all. Two thousand years have passed since he gave timely birth to eternity: this is the lance that pierced his side, these are the nails by which he died, here is the wedding, but where is the bride? All idols, idols all. The Grail You've visited the sacred shrine, and sipped the dizziness of wine. You've known both worlds, and all is frail: Within your heart's the holy grail. Ten thousand sins cannot conceal its pure and patient emptiness from Him who comes simply to bless your cup with nectar, not consign to melting fire a glass so dim, so fragile it's no more nor less than your capacity for Him.

There seem to be two in each one of us: a lower self and a higher Self, the I and the Am . I arise as a tiny wave on the ocean of Am . The peak of the wave is I, yet at its base, this wave is the whole ocean. As wave surrenders to sea, it becomes the sea. Yet the sea loves to play, and it becomes the wave. There is no conflict between the sea and the wave: they are one. Conflict arises only when the wave thinks that it is other than the sea. This thinking takes many forms, but no more deceptively than when it takes a "spiritual" form. The wave maintains its separation from the sea through "spiritual practices", or through proclaiming its unworthiness and sinfulness. When God hears us repeating mantras, God giggles. When God hears us confessing sins, God laughs uproariously. But when we are silent, God whispers from deep inside. Deep within, I hear the ocean murmur to the wave, "Just settle down." When the wave of I hearkens to the sea-voice,...

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (Jesus of Nazareth) Jesus' statement has usually been taken as a claim to Christian superiority and exclusivism. Yet this statement is not only the essence of Christianity: it is the essence of Vedanta, and Buddhism, and all great spiritual paths. I Am IS the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to God except through the I Am . The I Am is the portal to God at the center of the soul. Then what is the Way, the Truth, and the Life? The Way is the spiritual practice taught by the Guru's initiation. The Truth is our own Being. The Life embodies that Being's fullest potential in the form of the Avatar for our inspiration and encouragement. The Avatar, the Guru and the Self are not three different paths. The Avatar, the Guru and the Self are three aspects of the same consciousness. We can practice service to the Guru and his method of meditation, while worshiping our...

Being truly present to your child is greater than any gift in a box under a tree. Even if you have nothing else to give, you can give Christmas presence. In hard economic times, especially if unemployed, parents can feel a sense of lack at Christmas time. The idea that we lack something is just that, an idea. We don't need to get rid of the idea, 'I lack.' We don't need to replace it with positive thinking, because the effort to think positively is just a reaction to lack, a subtler form of it. It is more graceful and simple just to see 'lack' as an idea, coming and going in the vast Presence that you are. This sense of 'lack' can be a Guru! It can challenge us to see through it. When we fearlessly see through the mirage of lack, material emptiness becomes spiritual emptiness: spacious, luminous, rich and full.

I celebrate Christmas to celebrate the incarnation of God in every human child. I celebrate Christmas because each of us is the Light that shines in darkness. I celebrate Christmas because Mary's child reminds me that there is no "original sin." There is only original innocence. I celebrate the Good News of the Gospel where Jesus not only said, "I am the light of the world" but " You are the light of the world;" where Jesus not only revealed God to us but revealed us to us. Did he not say, "Ye are all Gods"? In the words of St. Athanasius, who lived before the Council of Nicea forged chains of creed and dogma: "God is humanity fully alive." Holy Spirit and Holy Matter get married. Christmas is the fruit of their wedding. I am their only-begotten child. So are you. Let's feast! Not a particle of dust lacks the sparkle of God's wine. God's dough is rising in each seed of Winter wheat. Y...

To A Born Again Christian Who Thinks I Am Headed for Hell... "The Kingdom of the Father is spread all over the earth and men do not see it." (Gospel of Thomas, 113) 1. My dear friend, as you are concerned about my soul, I offer this reply. I offer it to all Evangelical Christians across this land who believe that religion can only take one form, a strictly limited one for sure, and intend to impose it upon the whole nation. I speak as a fellow Christian from a faith that grew right along side of yours, though you may not know much about it since the patriarchs of your tradition tried with great fervor and some success to stamp it out. I am a Quaker. The Quakers were one of the Non-Conformist churches of 17th century Europe who refused to embrace the creeds and confessions of Protestant orthodoxy. Quakers have no written creed. They profess that Christ is an Inward Light who dwells in every human heart, and the revelation of his Spirit is continuous. For Quakers, revelation...

What impoverished soul would read an exalted hymn like Genesis 1 as a science project from a biology lab? What desperation leads men to regard the profound psychological symbols of Adam and Eve as actual events? How did we mistake those sublime allegories of the mystical journey, the stories of Joseph and Moses, for history? Reading the Bible as history leads to war. Reading the Bible as symbol leads to wisdom. Some criticize the Bible as 'mere mythology.' That is no criticism. Scripture was intended as mythology. It may utilize some historical places and events, just as Shakespeare used bits of history in his plays; but Shakespeare's plays make no claim to be historically accurate, nor are they discredited because they didn't really happen. As the Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber, wrote: 'All great stories are true. Some actually happen, and some don't.' Creative authors have always transformed historical events into symbols of the soul, a...

  (Head of the Southern Baptists Declares Yoga a Threat to Christianity, Oct. 7, 2010)   "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Glorify God in your body." (1 Corinthians, chapter 6) This is the essence of Yoga.   "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and strength, and mind ." (Luke 10:27)  Jesus declared this law from the Jewish Torah to be the great commandment. But it is also the definition of Yoga. Yoga is the alignment of body, breath, mind and soul (Atman) in divine wholeness. Jesus declares that Yoga is the essence of God's law. Jesus is not only a Buddha. He is a Master Yogi.

I am astonished at the divine humility! Buddha said, "I am just an ordinary man who is awake." Jesus said, "These things which I do, you shall do also, yes, even greater things than these!" Mohammad was known for his humble patience and declared that no man, not even the greatest prophet, could be equated with the Divine. Krishna removed his royal crown and became a playmate to the cow herders of Vrindavan. Because of this divine humility, modern seekers are tempted to say, "See, they are just like us!" But where would we be without them? I would be lost without the love of Christ, the compassion of the Buddha, the grace-filled music of Lord Krishna's flute. On the other hand, it is undeniable that these avatars came to show us who we really are, revealing the divinity that illuminates the human heart. Saint Athanasius, one of the earliest Christian theologians, said, "God became human so that humanit...

Many people today are buzzing about the "Rapture" and the "Second Coming" of Christ. When will these events happen? 2012? Tomorrow? We need to get clear about what these symbols of the "End Time" really mean. The "End Time" comes whenever we wake up. "Rapture" is not an event in time and space. It is the expansion of individual mind into Christ-Mind: "For we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16). When this expansion of awareness happens collectively, to a sufficient threshold of the population, then a planetary transformation can occur in historical time. "Second Coming" is not a physical re-appearance of Jesus. It is the awakening of Christ-Consciousness in humanity: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27) If we are to solve conflicts on this planet, we must move from the literal interpretation of these mythic symbols, to an understanding of their spiritual meaning. As rational adults, ...

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." ~John 14:6 I Am is the ancient name of God revealed to Moses in Exodus, chapter 3, when God called from the burning bush. Moses asked God for the most personal and intimate name of the divine. God said, "I Am I Am. That is my eternal name." When Jesus spoke of the I Am , he was not glorifying his own unique personality. He was glorifying the I Am, the divine spark, in each of us. Your I Am is the way. Your I Am is the truth. Your I Am is the life. Enter the kingdom of God through the portal I Am at the center of your heart. Jesus said. "I Am the light" (John 8:12). But he also said, "You are the light" (Matthew 5:14). You and Jesus each have your own I , but the I in Jesus and the I in you are luminous out-flowings of one Am . Am is Christ Consciousness, anointing you and Jesus together. That is what the Greek word, chrism , mean...

The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent carry it away by force! (Matthew 11:12) These are the words of Jesus. The kingdom must be taken violently, by storm. What could this possibly mean? We can understand Jesus' words in the context of the practice of Yoga, especially the practice of Sudarshan Kriya.* Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is within you (Luke 17) . Therefor, we know that when the violent carry it away, Jesus depicts no physical pillage, no conquest of an earthly kingdom. The verse must describe an inward passion, a movement of attention to seize a new state of consciousness. Jesus uses the Greek verb harpazzo : to carry away by force. It means to seize, rob, even to sexually seduce. This verb also describes a mighty wind transporting objects utterly helpless to resist. The Old Testament uses the same image of whirlwind (in Hebrew, galgal ) to describe how the Lord carries away prophets like Ezekiel and Elijah in a breath of ...

There is a prevalent stereotype of Christianity, just as there is a stereotype of Islam and a stereotype of the New Age. According to this stereotype, "Christian" means "conservative, bigoted, and pro-war." But people who revel in such stereotypes often need to examine the qualities they project onto others. Stereotyping is itself a form of bigotry, and form of violence. The truth is, many Christians are liberal, anti-war, multi-cultural, and deeply pluralistic in their acceptance of other religious paths. Their churches host gatherings for Yoga, Vipassana, Sufi dance, and Earth-centered spirituality. Their progressive vision is nourished by the Bible's call to social justice, mercy, and awe. Taken literally of course, the Bible can be absurd and violent - just like life. But progressive Christians do not always read the scriptures literally. They read through the lens and language of symbolism, as mystics have read scripture in all religions. The Bible tel...

It is not a coincidence that Jesus used exactly the same word for Spirit and Breath, pneuma . So did all great teachers. In the Hebrew Bible, the divine Spirit-Breath is ruach , in Sufism, ruh . In Yoga it is called prana , in Taoism, chi . To be truly alive, said Jesus, we must be born of the Spirit (John 4). Born of the Spirit literally means born of the Breath. Not born again once on some particular day, but born again and again with every breath. This breath, now, is a New Creation.   We think we are 24 or 64. We think we are young or elderly. But when thinking dissolves into breathing, we are never one breath old. This breath is ageless. This breath is eternal life, even if it is your last breath. Inhale. Something marvelous sparkles inside, cleansing, healing each cell of your body. Exhale. Ancient love pours out to renew the world. Let this very breath be your sacrament. Breathing is the subtlest act of worship. This is not a belief, but a practice....

He said, "Follow me." He never said, "Worship me." Christ cannot be the object of worship, only the subject. An un-created radiance deeper in me than I, Christ is pure subjectivity itself. For awhile, I may love the human form of one who embodies the Christ, such as Jesus or Krishna or Guru. But I cannot love Christ, for Christ is that in me who loves. Christ is too near, too intimate to be worshiped. Let the form of Christ be crucified, then resurrected as consciousness. When seeking becomes centering, and centering becomes radiance, then the Christ within us will illuminate the earth. This is why Jesus called us not to worship in a temple or on a holy hill, but rather, "the true worshiper shall worship in Spirit and in Truth" (John 4:23). Reverse the direction of worship. Let worship flow from inside out. Your worship is not a limited self seeking God above, but a limitless Self shining forth, pouring your healing breath upon the earth from ...

The Rapture is this breath. The Last Judgment is the day I drop my judgments. The Second Coming is a thrush's song, awakening my heart to the green earth... I envy Christian fundamentalists who believe the rapture will occur at exactly 6 PM on May 21: or any specific date and hour. I envy them because, when the time comes and absolutely nothing happens, they will have a wondrous moment of disillusionment, of freedom from all hope, and it will be an opportunity for enlightenment! The rapture is merely the intimation of personal transcendence projected onto the screen of world history. Many people think they need a cosmic event, bigger than life, to give them an excuse to drop their fears and worries. But those who have real faith know that the present moment, lived deeply enough, is the end of time. The rapture can be this very breath. When the hour strikes and nothing happens, fundamentalists will become intensely aware of a deeper...

Don't make this complicated. A vast space encircles all your problems. A stillness enfolds every battle. In the words of Hildegarde, "God hugs you." You are not the problems, worried thoughts, or battles swirling  in the mind, like clouds in the vast sky. You are the sky itself. You are all-enfolding space, self-effulgent, ever-sparkling, unspeakably blissful. The space of God's love seems far away when your thoughts drift into the past or future, because past and future are just your thoughts. Your Christhood is now. The Divine is nearer than your next breath. You are anointed with eternity, wherever you go. It glistens like dew on your crown, and shines from your eyes, healing all who meet your gaze. Whatever else happens is a footnote, a mirage, appearing and disappearing in the blue expanse of pure awareness.