Captives of our own imaginations,

we dream of fleeting pleasures

and long for deeper passions,

even as Life’s sweetness is

dripping from our lips.

Love alone of all things is sufficient unto itself.
It is its own end, its own merit, and its own satisfaction.
It seeks no cause beyond itself and needs no fruit outside of itself.
Its fruit is its use.

I love simply because I am love.
That is my deepest identity,
what I am created in and for.

Richard Rohr, ‘Radical Grace’

Do not expect the finite to be anything other than what it is.
This is the key to discovering your own innate freedom,
and your intimacy with the Infinite.

The finite world is steeped in tender, poignant beauty –
precisely because it is finite.

The Infinite is radiant with beauty –
precisely because it transcends the finite.

You yourself,

as much as anybody

in the entire universe,

deserve your love and affection.

- Buddha…

On the phenomenal plane
we seek pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

On the noumenal plane
we know the absence of both – which is Bliss.

Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei…

….Faith is not just another competing ideology. It is more a process than a conclusion, more a way of relating than a way of explaining, more a wrestling match than a classroom lesson. (Genesis 32:24-31).

from The Great Themes of Scripture

I wouldn’t coax the plant if I were you
Such watchful nurturing may do it harm.
Let the soil rest from so much digging
And wait until it’s dry before you water it.
The leaf’s inclined to find its own direction;
Give it a chance to seek the sunlight for itself.

Much growth is stunted by too much prodding,
Too eager tenderness.

The things we love we have to learn to leave alone.

Naomi long Madgett

There is a magazine called “What Is Enlightenment?” published quarterly. (It has since been renamed “EnlightenNext”). Like most, I spent many hours meditating on that question. Here’s the best response I have heard yet:

“Give up trying to figure out what “enlightenment” is.

It is enough simply to pay attention to Reality as it shows up, here and now.”

Love empties itself

Paradox

Question of the day:
How does one learn to hold the contradictions?

Jesus is giving us a win-win scenario, but what we always do with the gospel is make it into a win-lose. That’s the only way the dualistic mind can think. You’re either in or you’re out.

That’s why the world does not love us, because we don’t know how to include, how to forgive, how to pour mercy and compassion and patience upon events as God—thank God—does with us.

God’s grace plays the middle, expands the middle, redeems the middle, and if that’s not true, what hope is there? What hope is there if we don’t learn how to hold the contradictions?

from Holding the Tension: The Power of Paradox

From: Center for Action and Contemplation

Paradox

Question of the day:
What is it to fall into the mystery of God?

The human and the divine co-existing at the same time is real religion. This creates honest people. People who don’t waste time proving they’re right, superior, or saved.

They spend time on a journey falling deeper into the mystery of God where they feel safe enough, secure enough, and loved enough to admit such things.

That is how one gets into the mystery of freedom, and why this notion of freedom is so scary.

from Great Themes of Paul

Current mantra:
Lose my life, find my life

Richard Rohr