When I saw the play, "Equus", the disturbing, riveting play by Peter Shaffer about a schizophrenic young boy who adores, deifies, and worships horses, I was struck by one of the closing lines that the psychiatrist delivers. I paraphrase: most of us settle for pale substitutes of life and of direct experience of our religion. "This man rode his diety naked and licked the sweat from the neck of his God".
Now THAT's the sort of religios experience I want to be having every day! I want to be so totally connected to my spiritual core, so incredibly alive that I'm literally making love to creation, to this glorious sensual world, this body that I live in every second
I don't want to be crazy, mind you, just totally immersed in the fullness of experience. If I'm gonna BE the bride of Christ, then dammit, give the the whole shebang, wedding night fun and all!
The voice of my beloved; behold! he cometh.
The Osage say:
"This great power [Wa-kon-da] resides in the air, the blue sky, the coulds, the stars, the sun, the moon, and the earth [including all living things] ... Sometimes the Osage speak of a tree, a rock or a prominent hill as Wa-kon-da, but when asked if his people had a great number of Wa-kon-das he would reply, 'Not so; there is bu one God and His presence is in all things and is everywhere. We say a tree is Wa-kon-da because in it also Wa-kon-da resides.'"
Being a massage therapist, I come into contact with the mystical more often than most people. When you spend your time immersed in the energetic fields of other people, close to their wide-open souls, your world-view gets changed, softened, made holy, whether you want it to our not. It becomes impossible to demonize other people, these bodies housing souls of pure light. "Luminous beings are we" says Yoda in one of the Star Wars movies, and I believe it to be true.
Magic is all around to be seen, felt, experienced. Open your eyes and see what you see.
"By ignoring the sacred dimension of health, we create profanity and treat people as mechanical things, without soul or meaning. As many modern medical writers point out, we need to reintegrate healing and spirit, to realize that healing is a sacred task that involves the well-being of ourselves, our families and community, and the Earth itself." -Kenneth Cohen from his book Honoring the Medicine
Where have we gone wrong? How have we come to our present state of affairs where neighbors rarely even know each other anymore, where we each feel separate, alone, unattached, unconnected?
How can we reconnect? How can we begin to see again that we are all members of one human family, that no one is truly alone, that no one is truly different, no one is an island, that what happens to one, happens to all?
For me, following my heart and with it the inner knowledge that there truly is one breath, one enervating Force flowing through and binding everything together is a start.
The Force be with you.
And also with you.
2 comments:
This post is one of the most beautiful descriptions of spirituality I have ever read.
'This man rode his deity naked and licked the sweat from the neck of his God' ....utterly breathtaking words!
Reading this today is a gift of joy. Thank you.
And the more our world shrinks due to advancements in technology and communications, we will continue to find ways to connect electronically at the cost of connecting in person.
That's one of the reasons BPI is so important to me—reconnecting with friends on a very intense level.
I'm also happy that through the blogosphere, you and I are remaining in regular contact, which we typically don't do throughout the year.
Your blog is truly becoming a work of art, sweetie. I always feel good after visiting.
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