THE INCLUSIVITY OF ALL THE FAITHS WILL BRING TRUE ACCOUNTABILITY. AS WE EMBRACE WITH INCLUSIVITY ALL THE FAITHS, WE AT LAST SHED GUILT, AND AT LAST EMBRACE ACCOUNTABILITY: FOR OURSELVES, AND FOR OUR PLANET. THIS IS THE SACRED AND SPIRITUAL TRUTH WE MUST AWAKEN TO, THAT ALL IS ONE, AND THAT THE PROFOUND REALITY OF THAT ONENESS IS THAT THE ONENESS PERMEATES EVERYTHING. WE ARE ONE WITH EACH OTHER AND WITH ALL THE WORLD AND WITH ALL THE UNIVERSE HERE AND NOW, AND FOR EVER. INDEED, TIME TOO IS ENTANGLED UTTERLY IN THE ONENESS OF THE UNIVERSE. THUS THE SPIRITUAL TRUTH OF NOW AND INDEED OF ALWAYS IS THAT WE MUST LIVE ENTIRELY INCLUSIVELY. WE MST EASE FROM OUR SOULS AND OUR LIVES, FROM OUT THOUGHTS AND OUR ACTIONS ALL VESTIGES OF THE ANCIENT AND ATAVISTIC PREVAILING INSTINCTS OF EXCLUSIVITY. WE ARE AWAKENING TO THIS: AT LAST. AND WITH THIS AWAKENING, SO SHALL COME OUR SPIRITUAL HEALING OF OURSELVES, OF EACH OTHER, OF OUR COMMUNITIES AND OF OUR MOTHER EARTH, OUR HOLY GAIA.THE INCLUSIVITY OF ALL THE FAITHS WILL BRING TRUE ACCOUNTABILITY
Two hands are clasped together in prayer. The deep blackness of space is beyond the hands. The hands are in prayer, but the sense of the prayer being universal and cosmic in scope is impossible to ignore. The hands in prayer have become ONE, and the hands in prayer have become ONE with the very Heavens.
The new ways of spirituality can in one sense mean an end to those profound feelings of religious guilt that can afflict so many. In other words, the artificial doctrinal guilt that religions so often imposed on their adherents can be dissipated in moments, as those adherents become free of the stranglehold of doctrine and theology. But that does not mean that the new ways of spirituality negate all guilt. The key to the new ways of spirituality is that there is embedded in our consciousness and our souls the profound sense of spiritual and actual responsibility. We are responsible for what we think, and for what we do and thereby for what we are. We may be free of an artificial guilt imposed from outside of us, but because the new way recognises our responsibility, that responsibility we thereby have for ourselves and for each other, and for the whole of the world around us, social and environmental, becomes immense. When we get things wrong, as indeed we shall, then there might be some other word for it, but guilt will still play its part.
Exclusivity, whether political, social, personal or spiritual, has been and still is the fault line in human affairs. The great tragedy of our human story, our slow spiritual pilgrimage to ONENESS with each other and with the ALL, has been the corrosive tendency of our world’s religions – organisations and people who should have known better – to invariably define themselves in opposition to other religions and faiths. Indeed, even within religions, that exclusivity continues to corrode and hold back our spiritual advancement. For even within religions there are sects and factions, each seemingly as much at each other’s throats as they are with regards to the adherents of entirely different faiths and religions. Our spiritual journey is not dependent upon how we define ourselves, our spiritual journey is defined by our inclusivity, and by how we behave towards others. There is not certainty with regards to doctrine. There cannot be. The spiritual Truth of the Cosmos is too infinite and eternal for us, with our three-dimension-conditioned languages to describe or define. But with regards to how we behave towards each other: that can be clear for all. Our spiritual awakening, the sacred and ultimately mystical journey we all must at some point take, can never happen if we are locked in the corrosive ‘death’ of exclusivity. ALL is ONE, and we must live that in our hearts, in our minds, and in everything we say and do, if we are to embark at last upon the sacred pilgrimage. ONENESS transcendent is what we must live. ONENESS with each other and with each other’s faiths. ONENESS with our planet, with our Mother Earth, our Holy Gaia and all of the flora and fauna of our Mother Earth. When we can rejoice in all the holy ways of others, can we look the spiritual founders of our faiths in the eye. This is the great moment in human history that we are painfully moving towards: when we can live the ONENESS of ALL and be with each other in the ONENESS of ALL. That is our spiritual destiny, that is the one true path – that embraces all the paths – that will open up our future as true pilgrims upon the sacred way to the eternal infinite. We are on the threshold. The Light and Love of the eternal infinite is close. Embrace it, as we embrace each other. Embrace it, only when indeed we have embraced each other.
As we embrace with inclusivity
All the faiths,
We at last shed guilt,
And at last embrace accountability:
For ourselves,
And for our planet.
***
PHYSICIST AND MYSTIC DELVE DEEP: INTO THE DEEPEST TRUTHS
We see a person standing upon the edge of the world, upon the edge of reason, staring upwards at the cosmos with its stars and galaxies. This person both wonders and learns from what is seen. Merged into the starlit otherness of what is being seen is a luminescent portrayal of the atomic and molecular structure of all of creation. This is science and this is mysticism. This is the interconnectedness of both.
What is the difference between trusting a psychic about the world, and trusting a scientist who tells us what weird flickers on a monitor screen mean? One key difference is that what the scientist does is repeatable and can be corroborated by others. But there is an important point that can be made here, and that is – leaving aside the psychic, but focussing instead on the mystic – we can see that both the mystic and the physicist are delving deep into the realms of mystery and indeed of uncertainty: the mystic delving into the realms of mind, the physicist into the realms of matter. Both touch all but unimaginable dimensions. Our pursuit of science, the knowledge of creation that it gives us, does not necessarily take us further from the wisdom and inner realisations of the spiritual, mystical and sacred way. We have chosen to let it do so to us, and so perhaps by default we have slipped almost unconsciously into a materialistic and spirituality-defying mindset that has begun to define us and define our world. But this is a travesty of what science has been offering us. In the last few hundred years we have not proved that the spiritual, the mystical and sacred ways are without foundation. Instead, for those who will open their minds and their souls, we have found extraordinary truths within the very heart of all matter, within the very heart of the vast cosmos itself. One of the great tragedies of our time is that we have seen science and religion become all but divorced from each other. The one seems to negate the other. Certainly, the claims of theology and the literal claims of our holy scriptures can appear to be at odds with all that we have discovered about the world, and the universe and about how they work. But this seeming ‘divorce’ is only there when our spirituality is bound up with rigid and obsolete theologies. The true spiritual, mystical and sacred path for us as spiritual entities, is only enhanced and accelerated by what we actually learn through science. The scientific revolution is also a spiritual revolution of the sacred awakening of the human soul. The scientific revolution has enabled us to grasp more clearly our ONENESS with each other and indeed our ONENESS with the environment, with our beautiful Mother Earth, our Holy Gaia. The scientific revolution did not bring to an end humanity’s spiritual journey, it was instead a vital stage in humanity’s spiritual and sacred journey towards the living ONENESS of and with the ALL. The scientific revolution was and is a vital part of our destiny, a vital part in our search for spiritual meaning for ourselves as individuals, for ourselves as humanity, and for ourselves as spiritual pilgrims searching for the stars. The greatest and most profound spiritual Truths are not to be found only in our individual quests, they are to be found in everything, and that includes everything about how everything works and evolves and unfolds on both are planet and out there in the stars. And we are part of that unfoldment. Part of the spiritual awakening of the entire universe.
The physicist and the mystic delve deep;
Observing and affecting what is observed.
Both are deep into the uncertainty
Of the deepest truths.
***
THE RHYTHMS OF THE STARS, AND THE RHYTHMS OF OUR MOTHER EARTH
Suspended in the velvet blackness of space, our precious Mother Earth, our Gaia, is a beacon of life and hope and conscious purpose in the Cosmic emptiness. Its beauty is staggering. It is a jewel set amidst the stars and other planets. It is our physical, and for the time being our spiritual, home. We are connected to Her, we belong to Her, in so many ways we are Her.
Whether astrology works or not, and I suspect that it is all far more complicated than astrologers would have it; and is intimately linked with the ONENESS of the ALL, which transcends our human-based mathematics, geometry and logic. Our present being and our immediate and ultimate destinies are connected with everything, are in fact in a real, profound and universal sense EVERYTHING. Everything is connected and so everything affects everything else to a greater or lesser degree. At the same time, we must also take into account all the rhythms of Gaia, of the planet that is our home. Even if our planet Earth was mere dead geology, we will only thrive on it when we live as if it really is alive and in a real sense conscious. It is only a small step to understanding that it is indeed alive and conscious and deeply aware of us, and is deeply aware what we do to each other and what we do to our ‘it’ to our Gaia, to our Mother Earth. The spiritual awakening of humanity is undoubtedly occurring now in our time. We are so aware now of how we are all globally connected, and we are equally aware now of our responsibilities towards our environment, to all the plants and living creatures: to our Mother Earth, to our Holy Gaia. This is the sacred and mystical threshold of our Pilgrimage of the Ages: our recognising that we are responsible for our planet, and for all that dwell with us on our planet. Our spiritual unfoldment, the unfoldment of our ultimate spiritual destiny – that which gives true meaning to our existence – is found within our relationship with our Mother earth, and is revealed in this profoundly spiritual and sacred time when at last we reach out to our Mother Earth, not to grasp its treasures, but to become ONE with our Mother Earth and to be part of our Mother Earth’s, our planet’s, our Holy Gaia’s healing. Pointers to our spiritual destiny is to be found in our recognition at last of our responsibility towards our Mother Earth. And then will at last come the time when that recognition of culpability and responsibility will give way to that moment when we no longer seek to redress the balance with regards to how we despoiled our Mother Earth, doing so in order to save ourselves, but will instead address our culpability and responsibility out of LOVE for our Mother Earth, our Holy Gaia. True, wholesome, and holy change comes only through love. And many are already there, and over time more shall follow. Thus shall we and our beautiful planet be healed, and thus shall we truly be riding the sacred and mystical way to the stars that are our spiritual destiny. It is not just the environment and our planet that we must save. It is ourselves. And our salvation will come through our love for ALL – that ALL including our Mother Earth. Thus is our spiritual and ultimately sacred awakening and unfolding made manifest.
If we really are influenced
By the rhythms of the stars,
We must accept that also
We are influenced by the rhythms
Of our Mother Earth.
***
THE INSECURITIES OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM AND RACIAL BIGOTRY
We see the steeple of a beautiful Christian church, and the domes and minarets of a beautiful Islamic mosque. At the same time, we see a northern European couple and an African couple. These images represent the key divisions in our world: our divisions with regard to our religious observances, and our divisions with regard to how we identify racially. Yet, this is an image of peace and reconciliation. This is an image that shows that there is a deep unity in our lives that must always transcend our divisions.
The fundamentalist notion that only Christianity is correct, is a latter-day aspect of the notion that only the white European’s culture etc is any good. It is a lingering manifestation of that corrosive superiority complex that has contaminated the world for so long. And this is not unique to the Western world. It is a notion that at various times has infected nearly all the various peoples of our planet. Perhaps it is responsible for most of our ills. Certainly, it is an attitude that our religions, be they of the west or the east, the south or the north, must overcome within themselves. Likewise, all our various races and all our various colours of our skins. These are crucial issues, and the time has come now, in the twenty-first century to at last address them. This we have to do. At the most mundane of levels we are increasingly aware that we live in a global village. People of other faiths and races live in our neighbourhoods and indeed next door to us. And if we had our eyes half open, we would see that ‘they are good’. This is the great spiritual purpose of our time, to at last live the Truth that we are ONE with each other, that ALL is ONE. We can make no true spiritual progress unless we live by that Truth. Indeed, we can make no social or political progress unless we live by that Truth. Our planet, our Mother Earth is sacred and holy. We are not superior to our Mother Earth, we are ONE with our Mother Earth and must love Her and care for Her. Our sacred quest, humanity’s great spiritual pilgrimage is to take us past all the terrible doors of separation and exclusivity. Instead, our sacred quest, our great spiritual pilgrimage, is to take us through the doorway, the sacred portal of inclusivity, to where ALL belongs to ALL. This spiritual awakening is happening now. At times it is painful, but it is certainly happening. We are not this race, or that race: we are the Human Race. And likewise, we must cease to identify or validate our own faiths in terms of our opposition to their faiths. We cannot judge people by the colour of their skins, we must judge them by the lives they lead. Likewise, we cannot judge those of other religions by the beliefs they subscribe to, we must judge them by the lives they lead. It is said in the New Testament, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me’. But when someone of a very different faith, or of no faith at all, reaches out to someone in love and compassion, can we not say that Christ is within that person, regardless of their faith? Our sacred and spiritual way is not to be found in what we believe, it is to be found in the life we lead. This is the sacred and spiritual and profoundly mystical path for us all. It is a path that can never be defined, or even reviled, by the colour of our skin or the scripture we hold most dear. Our destiny, the true meaning of our lives here and now, is to be found in racial and religious inclusivity. ALL is ONE. That is the test of our times, and it is the great spiritual hope and promise of our time. ALL is ONE.
Fundamentalists who think
Only their own religions are true,
Are as insecure as racists who think
Only their own ethnic groups have worth.
***
WE MUST CLEANSE THE PHYSICAL AND THE MENTAL ENVIRONMENT
A deeply spiritual woman, calm and perhaps at peace, except for her eyes, that express sadness and horror as she contemplates what we have done to our beautiful Planet Earth, to our Gaia. She stares out from the sands of a beach that is littered with all the detritus of our so-called civilised lives. The beach is filthy with all our discarded stuff. This is a deeply spiritual woman who knows what must be done, but whose eyes betray her doubts as to whether humanity will actually do what must be done.
Our awareness at last of what we have done to our planet, to our precious Mother Earth, to our Holy Gaia, and our awareness at last that we are responsible for this, and must make ourselves responsible for healing our environment, for creating the possibilities for our natural environment to flourish and be healed, is a vital moment in humanity’s spiritual journey, in humanity’s sacred pilgrimage to ONENESS with ALL. We cannot always peer into our souls. We cannot always sense the state of anyone’s soul; by peering at his or her face: though often we do carry the spiritual state of ourselves on our face and do carry the truth of our souls deep in our eyes. But our environment, the state of our sacred Mother Earth displays the state of our collective souls in full view. And too often what we see in terms of our environment, and thereby in terms of our inner spiritual selves, is not good. Sir Christopher Wren was laid to rest on 5 March 1723 in the south-east corner of the crypt of St Paul's cathedral in London which he designed and built. The Latin inscription on a plain stone plaque in the crypt ends with a profound statement which translates as follows: ‘Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you’. Reader, if you seek a monument to the spiritual state of humanity, we would say, ‘look around you’. Our Mother Earth, our Holy Gaia, OUR HOME has been despoiled. She is the living, or we might say ‘dying’ proof of what we spiritual pilgrims have become. We are nothing except scavengers on the face of our planet, unless we accept our spiritual and sacred duty towards each other and towards our Mother Earth. Sadly, we imagine that we are better off if we pursue material gain at almost any cost. But if the inmost secrets of our souls revealed in what we are doing to our Mother Earth, then we must become self-aware at last, and must seek not only reconciliation with each other and with the flora and fauna of our once beautiful Mother Earth, but must also seek some sort of redemption. What we truly are is revealed in the state of our lands and seas. If we seek to heal ourselves, then we must seek to heal our Mother Earth’s environment. If we seek to give spiritual meaning to our lives, then we must accept that our Mother Earth, our Holy Gaia, is sacred, and must be ONE with our spiritual meaning, that indeed the stare of our planet is a profound and spiritually significant manifestation of the actual state of our souls. Our sacred and spiritual quest is forever a moral quest. Every test requires us to leave light and healing in our wake, not darkness and despoilation. ‘Man and woman, know thyself’, is what we have always been told. So this is the truth of us at this time in our sacred pilgrimage: Man and woman, look upon your Mother Earth, upon your beaches and seas, upon your fields and your mountains: and know thyself, and hang your heads in shame.
It is not only the physical environment
That must be cleansed.
It is also the environment of mind,
Which is linked,
And which is US
***