TO GLIMPSE TRANSCENDENCE IN THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. THE WORLD OUTSIDE US IS DEBATABLE, IS OFTEN BEYOND OUR REACH. BUT OUR WORLD WITHIN IS OURS, IS US, IS WHAT WE TAKE WHEN WE DEPART THIS WORLD. BOTH ARTIST AND MYSTIC BRING DEEP MEANING TO US AND TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF OUR PLACE ON OUR MOTHER EARTH, OUR PRECIOUS GAIA. BOTH ARTIST AND MYSTIC SEEK ONENESS, ACHIEVE A SORT OF HOLISTIC AWARENESS. THEY TOUCH THE INFINITE AND THEREBY BECOME ONE WITH EACH OTHER. THESE ARE DEEPLY SPIRITUAL MATTERS. THE MYSTICAL IS FOLDED DEEP WITHIN THE PURPOSE AND MEANING OF ART. IF ART DOES NOT SPEAK TO US, DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO RAISE OUR CONSCIOUSNESS AND AWARENESS IN SOME WAY, THEN WE MIGHT WANT TO SAY THAT IT IS NOT TRUE ART. TRUE ART, BECAUSE IT TOUCHES US DEEPLY WITH ITS MEANING, IS ALWAYS DEEPLY SPIRITUAL AND BECAUSE OF ITS EFFECT UPON US AND UPON OUR WORLD, IS ALSO DEEPLY MYSTICAL. THE MYSTIC, OF COURSE, ALL BUT BY DEFINITION IS DEEP IN THE SPIRITUAL AND MYSTICAL QUEST. ARTIST AND MYSTIC DO INDEED JOURNEY TOGETHER. WE ARE FOREVER PILGRIMS WHEN WE CONTEMPLATE ART, AND ALSO WHEN WE ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND THE CLUES THE MYSTIC MIGHT GIVE US. THERE IS PROFOUND SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT DEEP WITHIN OUR MINDS AND OUR SOULS AS WE CONTEMPLATE THE PURPOSE AND MEANING OF THE ARTIST’S MESSAGE.TO GLIMPSE TRANSCENDENCE IN THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
We see a figure with arms outstretched to the sea and the sky and the very heavens. The figure stands upon a seashore. Darkness is coming, but everything is alight with the radiance of the setting sun. This is our Mother Earth, our precious Gaia at her most sublime and sacred. Infinity is embraced in the figure’s outstretched arms. This is a figure who is transcendent in the spiritual quest. This is spirituality that transcends religion. Here, in the radiant light of the setting sun, the figure is deep in a profound spiritual awakening. How can we not love our Mother Earth, and our Mother Earth’s life-giving environment at such times of transcendent meaning? Thus, is the truth and the reality of the spiritual and mystical meaning of our lives, and our environment, and our Mother Earth, and our Gaia, and all of our Holy Cosmos given to us, to embrace us and spiritually awaken us. There is no religion in this transcendent vista of our Mother Earth and Her ability to speak to us. There is no exclusivity of exclusive religious paths. There is just the ONENESS of transcendence. In one mere sense She is outside of us. But in those sublime moments of transcendence, She is within; She is US. There is no OTHER on the spiritual quest that leads us into the mystical and sacred knowing of our ONENESS with the ALL, of our ONENESS with the Divine. And it is these moments of profound knowing, of profound spiritual awakening that we must become ONE with. Our holistic destiny is to be ONE with the ALL, and this is the very meaning of our sacred quest. It is not only all that we take with us when we die; it is the ALL that is US that we take with us into eternal life. And there lies the great healing of ourselves and our world: the spiritual unfoldment of US, into the eternal spiritual and sacred awakening of our ONENESS with the ALL.
The world outside us is debatable,
Is often beyond our reach.
But our world within is ours, is US,
Is what we take when we depart this world.
THE PAST BECOMES OUR FUTURE.
Against violent red flames we see people silhouetted in anger and lust. All our histories are lessons in our spiritual unfolding; if we would only take note. Karma is deep-set in our human stories. We are sacred, and yet we forget that we are ONE with each other. We are holy, and yet we do unholy things to each other and to ourselves. The spiritual quest, that is humanity’s journey, is fraught with perils. But if we learn from those perils, so shall we make our way closer to ONENESS with each other, and closer to God. We see this so often with regards to politics and our national lives. We see it too in our own personal lives. And of course we see it in our religious lives. All are equally corrosive if we allow them so to be. God encompasses ALL. And yet we allow our religions to claim a singular knowledge of God, and a singular right to direct the faithful in their pilgrimage towards God. There can be few things more unholy than a holy war. The spiritual quest, the true spiritual and mystical unfoldings of our soul journeys, should never be exclusive quests and journeys. We hardly enter the quest if we cannot live and breathe and make manifest the absolute and infinite and eternal inclusivity of our very being and of the very cosmos and of God. We all seek the holistic way, but the holistic way must forever embrace the ALL. We are pilgrims on our sacred journeys. Pilgrims can never be pilgrims if in their hearts and in their lives and in their souls, they still live and breathe separation. Our destiny is not to become separate from those we see and feel as separate. Our destiny is to lose all sense of separation, but instead to be ONE with ALL. That is our destiny, and within that holy and sacred destiny lies true healing: of our religious and spiritual lives, of our personal lives and of our social and political lives. And in that holy and sacred destiny lies the true PEACE OF GOD.
To seek the future,
We must understand the past.
But when our understanding is blighted
With hatred and anger,
Our past becomes our future.
ARTIST & MYSTIC JOURNEY TOGETHER, BOTH TOUCHING THE MYSTIC INFINITE OF THEMSELVES
We see an artist deep in his work that is his part in all our planet’s creation. He is deep in a form of meditation that transcends the mere physical, that allows him to touch the infinite. We also see a bearded mystic. He too is deep in his spiritual quest, seeking his spiritual awakening that will see him transcend into the heavens, into ONENESS with the universe and the cosmos, and with God. Both artist and mystic bring deep meaning to us and to our understanding of our place on our Mother Earth, our precious Gaia. Both artist and mystic seek oneness, achieve a sort of holistic awareness. They touch the infinite and thereby become ONE with each other. These are deeply spiritual matters. The mystical is folded deep within the purpose and meaning of art. If art does not speak to us, does not attempt to raise our consciousness and awareness in some way, then we might want to say that it is not true art. True art, because it touches us deeply with its meaning, is always deeply spiritual and because of its effect upon us and upon our world, is also deeply mystical. The mystic, of course, all but by definition is deep in the spiritual and mystical quest. Artist and mystic do indeed journey together. We are forever pilgrims when we contemplate art, and also when we attempt to understand the clues the mystic might give us. There is profound spiritual unfoldment deep within our minds and our souls as we contemplate the purpose and meaning of the artist’s message. When we contemplate an artist’s offering, somewhere deep in our hearts and our souls, our own mystical and spiritual journey is being awakened. Our churches and temples are sacred places. Perhaps we can understand that our concert halls and art galleries are equally sacred. For there does not have to be reverential hush for the inner sanctums of ourselves to be opened to the infinite.
Artist and mystic journey together:
Both delving deep within themselves:
Both transcending themselves;
Both thereby touching the infinite.
WE COME OF AGE, BATHED IN THE SACRED SPIRIT AND BEAUTY
OF OUR PLANET, OUR GAIA.
A landscape is bathed in golden sunlight. We see a hillside and trees. All are suffused with the golden sunlight of our sun, that is the spiritual and holy gift of our star. We feel the warmth of love and we experience the truth that all of our Mother Earth, our precious Gaia, is sacred to us and indeed is sacred to the heavens. We feel also just how vital is our Earth’s environment to us as humanity and indeed to all of God’s creation. We abuse it at our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual peril. This is our sacred home, and it is here, blessed by Gaia and the sun that our spiritual awakening unfolds. We live on a beautiful Mother Earth, nurtured by the bounty of She we call Gaia. There can be no wonder as to why we humans were drawn to a sense of the spiritual and of the sacred. For our Mother Earth is incomparably beautiful and nurtures us as we incarnate. No wonder, too, that we attempted to systematize into religion and creed, our sense of the spirit and sacredness in our planet, indeed in the environment our planet offers us. But now we must transcend religion and creed, now we must seek the very source of that which is sacred: our universe, our planet, and ourselves. Our spiritual quest must see us transcend the mere rules of our creeds, and live the sacred flame, the eternal spirit that is each one of us. Our destiny is the stars themselves. But only if those stars are aflame and are mystically bright within our minds and hearts.
This coming time marks our coming of age.
Once we were petitioners of God.
Now, at last,
We enter into partnership with God.
THE NEVER-ENDING MOMENT OF THE FIRST MOMENT OF CREATION
We see a distant galaxy in the depths of starlit space. Here is the mystery of creation and existence. Here are the heavens, and in the galaxy itself, no doubt here is life. Here, so far from us, are all the spiritual aspirations of evolving and unfolding consciousnesses. Here are planets, earths, other people’s Gaias. Here in a billion places, are billions of spiritual awakenings, here are sacred religious sites, and beautiful sacred places. Here are a billion spiritual quests, here are a billion environments being threatened and being healed. Here are billions of links and paths of love. Here are ourselves, in all our various phases of spiritual unfoldment. We are ONE with all of creation, ONE with the mystical, spiritual meaning of all God’s pilgrims. And ONE too with all the infinite varieties of flora and fauna that are nurtured by all the beautiful earths, and that also contribute to the beauty and sacredness of those planets. Here in the deepest realms of infinity and eternity, is our transcendent spiritual destiny.
The first moment of Creation
Is a never-ending moment.
The creation is forever unfolding,
And we are deep in that unfoldment.