Rumi and Shams- The Last Breath

I'll not put you in the heart or you'll be wounded.  I'll not keep you in the eye or you'll be lowly.  I'll give you a place in the spirit, not the eyes or the heart, so you'll be my companion at the last breath.

Reference~ Me and Rumi, William Chittick

Jesus FulFilling The Law

Jesus came to fulfill all that was said of him by the prophets.  St. Paul states that Jesus came to free us from the unbearable burden of the Law, which no human being could possibly carry, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law." (Gal. 3:13)
Jesus concern is not for the Law itself, but for the rights and the reverence due to God, and for the honor and respect due to God's children, all of which is the substance of the Law.  To God is is not the Law that is sacred, but the human soul.  So, the Law means nothing if the heart and soul of a human being is polluted by willfully entertaining evil thoughts and desires, and evil polluting against the interests of God and our fellow human beings.
Love is the basis for the whole Law and the prophets.  If you love properly, there is no need for written commandments.  Commandments are a substitute for people who have never learned how to love, and have to be told how to treat God and one another.
Jesus showed us how we should express that love.  Jesus loved everything alive, from God down to the simplest creature.  He had reverence for everything his Father created.  This was the model of love he set for all of us.

Reference~ A New Understanding of God's Son Jesus, Joseph Girzone

Fall Into The Fire

Your discourses with Him are limited if you are doing all the talking and none of the listening.  If you closed your mouth and opened your ears you would hear a faint voice telling you, fall into the fire Beloved and be burned!

Your Art

Your life is not a meaningless drop in the uncaring tides of history, but a work of art that you are ever in the process of creating.  Your art is not a frivolous decoration, it is a divine expression of all that is.
Honor your thoughts.  They are the brushes with which you paint the picture of your life.
Honor your feelings, knowing that they have the power to shape the images imprinted on the canvas of time.
Honor your imaginings.  They are the pigments that bring vibrancy and color to your soul's creations.
Honor the dreams that inhabit your night hours, and the symbols they leave as gifts on the doorstep of your waking.
Paint the image of your dreams, get the images out there, and detach yourself from the outcome of these actions.

Reference~ Fringe Dweller on the Night Shift by Monica Holy

The Remedy

Look for an opening in the Unseen for a remedy to your suffering.  There are no cures when your heart is tight.  The same cause of your suffering is the same cure for it.

This Too Will Pass

If I think back on how many times I have failed and if I never moved from that space, I would never get back up again and move forward.  Sometimes the ebb of life departs from me and darkness creeps into the corners of my mind.  I feel defeat!  When I am still a consciousness emerges out of the darkness- sometimes as light, sometimes as wind, sometimes as a voice reminding me I Am an eternal being- whispering, this too will pass, this too will pass.

My Letter To God

From Journal Entry 1/12/2012

Father,

I pray that you continue to guide me on my path.  I at times have doubts about what lies ahead for me, so please continue to give me faith.  My dream for myself is little in comparison  to your big dream for me.  As the dream unfolds give me strength and courage to conquer my obstacles.  I trust you are by my side even at times when I don't feel your presence.  I choose you over all things and desire to serve you.  Please give me your power to fulfill your dreams for me.

Love,

Me

P.S. Thank you for all your blessings you have bestowed on me.

The Mindless

My reason leaps out of my head in pursuit of its existence.  It stops to smell the flowers, splash in the puddles, and dance in the rain.  How else will it know what delights itself?  Books are for the mindful full of themselves.  They will teach you nothing of existence.  The mindless know the secrets of existence and they will act like fools in the pursuit of it.

Bring The Knife

What is it I must submit to?  You come to me with a knife wanting to cut out my heart.  You tell me to give all or nothing.  I do so foolishly blinded by love.  If you were to ask me to sit and wait a hundred years for your coming, I would not move from this spot.  I would remain faithful and obedient- patiently waiting for you to bring the knife.

My Acts of Worship

My acts of worship delivered me to God.  No man can take shortcuts to be with God.  Throw yourself as a Beggar at His feet.  Do this everyday of your life and on one of your days of worship He will send you your Beloved.  The Presence of the Seeker becomes the Sought.  God revealing himself behind the eyes of both.

I Am a Child

I am now seventy-four years old.  And yet I feel that I am an infant.  I feel clearly that in spite of all the changes I am a child.  My Guru told me; that child, which is you even now, is your real self.  Go back to that state of pure being, where the "I am" is still in its purity before it got contaminated with "this I am" or "that I am."  Your burden is of false self-identifications- abandon them all.  My Guru told me- "Trust me.  I tell you; you are divine.  Take it as the absolute truth.  Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too.  All comes from God.  Remember it always.  You are God, your will alone is done."  I did believe him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words.  I did not condition my mind by thinking: "I am God, I am wonderful, I am beyond."  I simply followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being "I am," and stay in it.  I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the "I am" in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state.  In it all disappeared- myself, my Guru, the life lived, the world around me.  Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.

Reference~ The Teachings of the Hindu Mystics, Andrew Harvey

The Sun That Dispels Our Darkness

I have realized the Lord of Love,
Who is the sun that dispels our darkness.
Those who realize him go beyond death;
No other way is there to immortality.

There is nothing higher than him, nothing other
Than him.  His infinity is beyond great
And small.  In his own glory rooted,
He stands and fills the cosmos.

He fills the cosmos, yet he transcends it.
Those who know him leave all separateness,
Sorrow, and death behind.  Those who know him not
Live but suffer.

The Lord of Love, omnipresent, dwelling
In the heart of every living creature,
All mercy, turns every face to himself.

He is the supreme Lord, who through his grace
Moves us to seek him in our own hearts.
He is the light that shines forever.

He is the inner Self of all,
Hidden like a little flame in the heart.
Only by the stilled mind can he be known.
Those who realize him become immortal.

Reference~ Teachings of the Hindu Mystics

Your Fullness

God concealed your fullness from me.  It was veiled from me until all my desires for you burned away.  What remained was pure.  Then I was able to see your beauty and my fullness in you.

My Grief

God has blessed me with this grief.  I carry it as gold.  It is worth more than diamonds.  When I cry out to Him in my grief it falls upon His ears like sweetness.  Then He grants me a glimpse of Eternity.  My grief is the key to His door.

Poem- A Good Man or Lover

Are you a good man or a lover?
A good man is obedient to God.
A lover is reckless- willing to risk humility amongst his peers and disgrace of his name.

A good man is bursting with pride for all his works.
A lover humbles himself as a beggar at the Beloved's door.

A good man wants a straight path to salvation.
A lover knows salvation only through his sufferings and heart's longings.

A good man preaches the Word of God boosting about how well versed he is.
A lover's silence speaks intimately with the Beloved.

A good man is knowledgeable in all matters of the Spirit.
A lover is transformed into his Beloved's spirit and finds eternal rest.

My Conversations with God on Beautiful Thoughts

You are My thought.
You are My word.
You are My heart.
You forget this.
You are deficient in Spirit.
You see yourself as a division.  You are part of a Whole.  You have forgotten out of ignorance and fear.  You have fallen from grace.  I have always remained with you.  I am not a phantom or a shadow.  I am here inside of you.  Be still and let us speak with our hearts so you may remember my love for you, and your love for me.  I thought you into existence.  You glorified My name because My thought of you was beautiful.  Think beautiful of yourself and you will be My beauty.  Think beautiful of the world and you will be beauty in the world.  This is my prayer for you Child.

~God

Loves Fury

The Lover calls out the Beloved's name.  The wind carries the Beloved's name to her ear.  It whispers loves mysteries and keeps the Beloved longing for more.  The Beloved replies to loves call.  God's messenger blows open the Lover's door demanding entry.  Its force pierces the Lover's heart.  It knocks him off his feet.  Instead of running in fear the Lover stands on his feet to face loves fury.

The Hidden Truth on the Books of the New Testament and Sacred Books Buried

Athanasius was head bishop in Alexandria for 46 years.  In 367, Athanasius wrote a famous Easter letter telling Christians what henceforth they could hear, teach, and discuss- and what to censor.  In the letter, Athanasius denounced “spiritual teachers,” declared original human thinking to be evil, he ordered Christians to reject all “illegitimate secret books” as “inventions of heretics full of evil teachings.”

What makes the letter famous is Athanasius set out a list of sacred books that, he declared, Christians could keep, a list that turned out to be the earliest known record we have of what would become’ and remains to this day- the church’s New Testament canon.  After listing the 22 books of the Old Testament, Athanasius added 27 books he called the only “genuine books of the New Testament.”  On his list was John’s Book of Revelation.  This book ignited controversial arguments within the church.  Athanasius added this book to serve his own agenda.  Athanasius interprets Revelation’s cosmic war as a vivid picture of his own crusade against heretics.

This letter was ordered to be copied onto the monastery wall at Nag Hammadi, someone- probably a monk resisting the order- took more than 50 sacred writings, packed and carefully sealed them into a six foot jar, and buried them for safe keeping near the cliff where they were discovered in 1945 and came to be known as the Gnostic gospels.

Athanasius died in May 373.  He had succeeded in persuading many Christians to accept his version of the canon as the only “authorized’ scriptures of the New Testament.  He also had enormously extended the authority, resources, and prestige of the Catholic clergy, having brought many Christian and monasteries under their supervision.

Reference~ Revelations by Elaine Pagels

Soul Migration

My soul migrates to a land near your heart.  The past, present, and future can not reach us there.  What is weaved into my heart bonds my heart to yours.  The mysteries of the artist that fashions us together remains a mystery.  I delight in His creation.  The passion and ecstasy my soul has been lost in can not compare to the human senses.  I grow in Spirit and find courage to endure what paralyzes my heart.  I embrace loves mysteries and in death I hope to find rest in you.

Dream- The Baptismal Hymn

From Journal Entry 6/28/2012

I am reading scripture and it is about the wedding day.  It reads, "He has put into the Being an ooing, an iiing, an uuing."

I was delighted when I read about these vowel sounds in the Gnostics and found root for their meaning.  The souls greatest desire is satisfied, the vowel sounds are the sacred names of God in sexual copulation (union).  The path that leads to the inner Self-realization of the Being is absolutely sexual.  Sex, the sexual force, is the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yew- the profoundly sacred name is related with the light of clairvoyance.  It is a mantric word related to clairvoyance.

Reference~ The Gnostic Bible, The Pistis Sopia Unveiled by Samael Weor 


The Baptismal Hymn

Yesseus
EO OU EO OUA
in truth truly
Yesseus Mazareus Yessedekeus
living water
child of the child
glorious name
in truth truly
eternal being
IIII
EEEE
EEEE
OOOO
UUUU
OOOO
AAAA
in truth truly
EI AAAA OOOO
being who sees the eternal realms
in truth truly
A
EE
EEE
IIII
UUUUUU
OOOOOOOO
being who exists forever
in truth truly
IEA AIO
in the heart
being who exists
U
forever and ever
you are what you are
you are who you are.

This great name of yours is upon me,
you who lack nothing,
you Self-Generated One,
who are close to me.
I see you,
you who are invisible to all.
Who can comprehend you?

Reference~ The Nag Hammadi Scriptures

 

The Gospel of Philip- The Bridal Chamber

One of the major themes of the Gospel of Philip is the reunification of the soul and spirit in a heavenly union that realizes the identification of the soul with its true self.  The author focuses upon the metaphor of marriage.  Marriage is a symbol of the fullness of the divine; it is a symbol of knowledge and truth.  The wedding chamber is for free men and virgins.  Heavenly marriage is also a symbol of chastity, since it is spiritual and not carnal.  This marriage is a mystery, and it belongs entirely to another dimension.  The union of the bride with her bridegroom leads to the restoration of the androgyny.  Through spiritual union male and female will become one, and there will no longer be male and female but rather a unique being.

Androgynous union repairs the damage of the separation of male and female, which occurred when the female element fell into matter, according to the myth of Sophia.  This separation led to death.  When Adam and Eve were joined to each other in paradise, they were in a condition of unity and knowledge.  Once they separated into two different beings, however, they fell into ignorance and death.  If she enters into him again and he embraces her, death will cease to be.  The separation of male and female was the beginning of death.  It is Christ who eliminates the separation.  Christ came to heal the separation that was from the beginning and reunite the two, in order to give life to those who died through separation and unite them.

 Reference~ The Nag Hammadi Scriptures

Poem- As Much

I will love myself
as much as you would love me.

I will be patient with myself
as much as you would be patient with me.

I will respect myself
as much as you would respect me.

I will educate myself in wisdom
as much as you would council wisdom in me.

I will carry dignity on my shoulders
as much as you would shoulder dignity upon me.

I will embrace my spirit
as much as you would embrace me.

My Letter To The Troops-No.5

 Dear Sir or Madam,

Do you label things in your life as good or bad?  Do you try to rationalize these things?  When your mind labels something as good or bad it is not accepting what is.  Because what is requires presence and behind the alertness of presence is a higher consciousness where everything is interconnected.  Since nothing created by God is neither good or bad, it just is and it is man that has fragmented creation with its words because of its emotional reaction to it.

So what would happen if you stopped labeling things as good or bad and just allowed things to be as they are?  By accepting and embracing every moment in your life, you begin to experience things as they are with no judgements.  And by not resisting what is, you are in fact aligning yourself with a higher intelligence that created all things out of love.  What better place is there to be but in the presence of the Divine when you are just 'being' and nothing else?  There is no other place to find God except in this sacred space of presence.

God Bless,

Madison Michelle

~Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands, or your own genuine solitude?  Freedom, or power over an entire nation?
A little while alone in your room will prove more valuable than anything else that could ever be given you. ~Rumi

My Mare

My mare runs wild in the wind,
She lowers her head and acknowledges me as a friend.

A rainbow of colors twinkling in her eyes,
we are old souls underneath the night sky.

I lay my head upon her bare neck,
a trust we share as the stars flicker-fleck.

Sleeping as soundly as a baby,
in the dewy grass laying next to my lady.

~Dedicated to Jill, my dear old friend, her passion for horses has created a sacred bond.

The Meaning of The Book of Revelation

Part 1- John’s Vision

The author of Revelation, John of Patmos, wrote the book in an ecstatic trance.  A divine being announces what is going to happen to bring on the end of time.  He believes the divine being is Jesus.  Jesus announces that God will make war on the evil powers that have taken over the world.

John sees a slaughtered lamb next to the throne of God.  Angels sound trumpets and the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse burst forth-one on a white, one on a red, one on a black, and one on a pale horse.  They bring death by sword, plague, and wild animals.
John then sees four angels standing at the four corners of the earth and placing seals on the foreheads of 144,000 men, the elite troop among God’s people- twelve thousand from each of Israel’s tribe.
John sees a fallen star fall from heaven, a being who “opens the shaft of the bottomless pit, from which giant locusts with human faces.  In heaven two signs appear in the sky: a woman pregnant cries out in labor about to give birth to a son- God’s messiah-  while a red dragon with seven heads paces in front of her, waiting to devour the infant.  The woman escapes, her child is caught up into heaven, and war breaks out in heaven.
The archangel Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels- they are thrown out of heaven and fall to earth.  The dragon, enraged, makes war on the woman and upon all her children who remain of earth.
The dragon calls forth two huge beasts as his allies.  One with seven heads and ten horns rises out of the sea.  The second makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, and cause all those who do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
As the cosmic war intensifies, John sees seven angels in heaven pour out upon earth a golden bowl of God’s wrath.
When the battle reaches its climax, Jesus appears as a divine warrior on a white horse to lead armies of angels into war.  Satan is thrown into a pit, the dragon chained, the beasts thrown into a lake of fire-while all humans remaining faithful to God come back to life and reign over the earth for a thousand years.  Then Jesus judges the whole world, and all those whom have worshipped other gods, committed murder, or illicit sexual acts are thrown into the lake of fire forever.  God’s faithful are invited to enter a new Jerusalem that descents from heaven and where Christ and his people reign for 1,000 years.

Part 2- War in Jerusalem 66 ce.

John probably witnessed the outbreak of war in Jerusalem in 66 ce.  Rome sent 60,000 troops to besiege Jerusalem, starve its inhabitants, and break the revolutionaries resistance.  Roman soldiers desecrated the Great Temple and burned it to the ground and left the inner city of Jerusalem in ruins.

John was probably forcibly sent to the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.  He probably pleaded for God’s justice in his own anguish of the war.
John’s Book of Revelation then, vividly evokes the horror of the Jewish war against Rome.  He invokes the language of the classical prophets, who also sought to assure their people that what happens on earth in neither random nor meaningless, and that the moral complexity of the present world will be sorted out when divine justice sets everything straight and punishes evil.
By shifting scenes from earth to heaven and back, John intends to show how events on earth look from God’s perspective.  Because John offers his Revelation in the language of dreams and nightmares, language that is multivalent, countless people for thousands of years have been able to see their own conflicts, fears, and hopes reflected in his prophecies.  This battle continues to play itself out as those who continue to “follow the beast” and to those who flirt with “the whore” called Babylon.

Part 3- Decoding Revelation

*The sacrificial lamb- Jesus was slaughtered on the eve of Passover like a sacrificial lamb.

*The first horseman signifies war.
*The second horseman was permitted to take peace from earth, so that people would slaughter one another.
*The third horseman signifies hugely inflated prices for food- he carries a token (money).
The fourth horseman is Death. He brings plaques, famine, and wild animals.
*Dragon- Forces of evil.
*A woman birthing a child-Israel as a woman laboring in childbirth. The birthplace of Jesus Christ.  This leads up to the struggles that himself and followers of Jesus now face.
*Great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns- The Roman forces that killed Jesus.
*Caught up in heaven- Jesus escapes death while his mother fled into the wilderness.

The sun became black, the moon became like blood, and the stars fell to the earth, as the fig tree drops its fruit when shaken by a storm, until “the rulers of the earth, and the great men, rich and powerful, and everyone, slaves and free hid in caves, for the great day of God’s wrath has come.”  Some will be able to stand, since God sends four angels to protect the sea, earth, and trees, and certain people. An angel explains, “We have marked the slaves of God with a seal on their foreheads”, first 144,000 men-12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Reference~Revelations by Elaine Pagels

Prophetic Dream- My Armageddon

From Journal Entry 8/28/2011

There is a cloudy haze dancing in the sky.  The stars are splitting and dancing.  The cloud forms into a small round craft.  It lands and small headless fluorescent green aliens (12) come out.  They are no bigger than 2 feet tall.  They are depleted and thirsty from working on a hole in the ground.  A guy sprinkles water on their bodies.  Their bodies absorb the water and cool them down.  My daughter touched one of the aliens.  She was told there would be a mark on her.  There were people everywhere witnessing the event.  The crowd was calm.  A woman had the bible open to Revelation 9.  I said to her, "It is a shift in consciousness.  Things are speeding up now."  I got separated from my husband and I walked back home with my kids.  Lady was writing symbols on a piece of paper n and v.  She asked me what it meant.  I did not know.

Symbol Meanings:

Stars- Message from other realm. The coming of the influences from without to the influences from within.
Cloud- Collective unconsciousness judges the world, each soul reaps according to what he has sown, and the experience each has had in the world is now refined and made acceptable in the light of the Christ Pattern, by bringing these under control also during a period of trial.
Green- New growth, healing.
Bible- Spiritual laws, truth.
Shift- A shift into 4th dimension, no time as we know it.
Headless- One who can only approach God by losing one's mind.

Each man must come to his own Armageddon.  This is the awakening of man (the kundalini).  Revelation describes what forces are at play for the individual during the awakening and the integration of the spiritual influences into the human. The superconsciousness has come down and now has command over the entire emotional and physical nature of man.  As more and more individuals awaken this affects the entire consciousness of the human race and the planet.

There is great evidence on our planet of the awakening.  Some are choosing to awaken from the insanity of the human mind, while others are choosing to continue to live within their minds.  Those that are awakening are recognizing their inner worlds and consciously taking part in the creation process.  They are dissolving their illusions and fears and creating a world of beauty and truth.  Those who choose to remain ignorant of truth will be sentenced to hell for all of eternity.  They are creating destruction and they are a threat to humanity's survival.

This is my Armageddon, but this is true for everyone.  It was the truth when John wrote the book (after the death of Christ) and it will always be the truth for all of humanity.  John's mystical experience of his revelation will be in my next blog.

Note to reader~ My daughter has a birthmark on her cheek.  I was pregnant with her when I had my kundalini awakening.

Reference~ Edgar Cayce's Commentary on the Revelation

A Thousand Lovers

A thousand lovers are buried in my breast.  But only one lives in my heart.  His love revealed my soul.  My soul revealed his love.

Poem- The Essence of God

I have no name,
I am the witness.
I see all, feel all, and still
I am not that.
If you close your eyes,
you will get a glimpse of me.
A glimpse is all you will see,
for I am nothing and everything.
I am like water that can float a ship,
yet I run through your fingers.
If you try to measure me,
I am infinite.
If you try to touch me,
I am like a breeze on the summer air.
If you try to hear me,
I am the holler of the wind.
My essence can not be seen-
I am your creations and the master of your dreams.

Clear Water

In clear water
all the sentiments
settle on the bottom.
Stir up the water-
the water is then polluted,
unclear,
dirty.

Like our inner being-
the outside
stirs us up;
pollutes our mind,
our soul.
But this stirring up
is the driving force
to change.

Nature is a stern mother,
Mankind a stern father.
When we gather
these truths;
they mix with our being
and then like calm
clear water,
a truer reflection
of our being
reflects back at us.

Beg God to stir your up!
Only then will you
come to the end
of yourself
and dissolve
into Being.

One Name Is Better Than Two

The name Beloved is a shell, and buried deep within the Beloved is the face of the Lover.  The Beloved is only the veil.  That is why one name is better than two, Beloved.

The Story of Sapphire and Arion: Arion's Madness

Heaps of shame was Arion's baggage.  Sapphire's image played as a mirage in the desert of his roamings.  No one understood his madness.  He was mocked and ridiculed by his peers.  Their voices fell deaf on his ear.  He sketched her image in the likeness of a jewel out of his heart's longings.  Arion heard the wind whisper her name and saw her reflection in the glow of the moon.  What was their destiny?  Where would fate lead the Lovers? He found himself drowning in a world only he could understand.  She was his world; the stars, the sun, and the moon were adorned for the two Lovers.

Die Your Own Death

He who remains a stranger in this world and wanders, restless as the moon at night, will find peace.  Man is as lightning, born to die, not to seek permanence in the house of suffering.  Do not settle down to rest here, where everything perishes; you will only regret it later.  But if you die your own death in this life, tearing yourself away from the world which is a demon with the face of an angel, you will share eternal life.  You are your fate; your death, your life.  Good will be joined to good, evil to evil.  The echo shouts your secret from the mountain-tops, revealing only what you confided yourself.

Reference~ The Story of Layla and Majnun by Nizami

Balm for My Heart

My heart aches.  Soothe my heart God with your balm.  Man's bitterness towards me exhausts me.  I need rest.  My heart can't bare man's harsh words against you.  They are like beasts foaming at the mouth.  They delight in my anguish.  My days are long.  The night offers some relief when I am free from this body.

Kahlil Gibran and May Ziadah in Love

May Ziadah was a regular contributor to leading newspapers and periodicals of her age.  Her work as a reviewer of new literary work introduced her to Kahlil Gibran, whose influence on her thought and style can be seen everywhere in her works.  Although the two had only known each other through correspondence, a fascinating literary and love relationship came to exist between them:  they seemed to have achieved a harmony and understanding rare even among people who are more intimately connected.

Her home was in Cairo, her interest and passion was in the Woman’s Emancipation Movement.  Her real achievement has been in the art of the essay.  She is the most significant woman essayist in the Arabic literature of the first half of the 20^th century.

Kahlil and May were both Lebanese writers living in different parts of the world.  They knew one another solely from the letters they exchanged and from each other’s work; they never met except in their imaginations and dreams, through the roaming of their spirits in search of eternal reality and of each other as kindred souls.

The love letters between Kahlil and May began in 1912 and continued right up to Kahlil’s death in 1931.  At first the letters took the form of literary correspondence.  The relationship changed from mutual admiration to a firm friendship, than to the final admission of love.  Kahlil and May were united in a Sufi yearning and striving towards the “God Self.”  The “Blue Flame,” which Kahlil used as the symbol of God in man, also became the symbol of his eternal love for May.  The two lovers joined in a spiritual procession towards the Blue Flame, the eternal flame of reality.  For him love needed no words to express itself because it was a serene hymn heard through the silence of the night; the mist and essence of all things.

Kahlil felt that man’s only path to self-realization lay in Love.  In his first book, The Madman, the only sane person able to remove his masks and look reality straight in the face is considered a madman by his fellows.  In May he found in one person the incarnation of everything that his soul yearned for. The sketches and drawings on the sides of many of his letters to her show how much at ease he felt with her, and how near to him she was.

~Great Pain is great purification.

  Reference~Gibran Love Letters

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen- Crazy Man

I am a crazy man who has come here.  Very few people have the real obsession I have.  This total craziness of a fool is developing in a few people.  God has provided this explanation.  He has said, "One who perceives Me with complete trust will be a fool in this world.  He will appear to be completely crazy.  Such a person has only one obsession.  He is crazy for divine wisdom, he is crazy for Me."  Such a person gives up the experiences of the world and falls into this craziness.

Only if one becomes such a fool will God become the physician who supports and assists him.  Only God can take care of a person with this obsession.  The world, hell, and Satan can take care of intellectual craziness.

Bawa lived that of which he spoke.  He treated all lives as his own life and his own life proved the reality that a human being can be annihilated in God.  He served the wisdom that arises from intimacy with the Divine, to people of all races, classes, and religions without distinction.  He died on December 8, 1986.

~Man lives within God; God lives within man.

Reference~ To Die Before Death The Sufi Way of Life

Detachment

Detachment serves the birth of God in the soul.  True detachment is nothing other than for the spirit to stand as immovable against whatever may chance to it of joy and sorrow, honor, shame, and disgrace, as a mountain of lead stands before a breath of wind.  This capacity to bring God to birth invests individuality with huge creativity; it is the deepest longing of the human heart.

Reference~ Meister Eckhart, Selections from His Essential Writings

The Story of Sapphire and Arion:Sapphire's Demons

Sapphire's demons pressed sorely on her.  They terrorized and tortured her at night.  She would twist about in her bed but Sapphire was powerless over them.  They wanted to steal her Light.  Sapphire was in such anguish she would cry out to God.  The demons mocked her and laughed cruelly at her attempts to free herself.  Sapphire's faith in God angered the beasts even more.  They pressed upon her harder. 
She sang praises to the Lord and glorified His name until the demons darkness dimmed to a point of light.  Exhausted from the battle- she knew this was one victory but many more demons would come for her Light.  Her battle wasn't over. It had just begun.

Your Wine

You enter my abode and bring your wine.  Your music beats like a drum.  Only the Heart in tune hears.  I become drunk and foolish.  Lost in this love play of longing when your absent and great pleasure when your near.  My door will remain open for all of Eternity.  Just bring your wine my Friend.

My Letter To The Troops- No.4

From Journal Entry 7/31/2012

Dear Sir or Madam,

When I discovered Rumi I knew I had found a treasure.  Rumi describes the vast regions of the heart that one must explore when one is on the path to Divine Love.  There is madness, elation, and revelation on the journey.  At times one feels deep despair, utter hopelessness, and other times pure ectasy.  Rumi has found a way into Love and through his writing he leaves the reader with a glimpse of Eternity.
Like Rumi, I have fallen in love with Love.  It is my sincere hope that other pilgrims of Love will stay on the path to Divine Love.  Only love can dissolve the hate in this world.  Love never dies, it transforms the world around you.

God Bless,

Madison Meadows

P.S.  Enclosed is Rumi's Parable, The Serpent

   A wise man was riding by at the moment when a serpent entered the mouth of a sleeping man.  The horseman saw it, hurried to try to scare the serpent away, but it was too late.  His vast intelligence revealed to him what he had to do: he gave the sleeper several fierce blows with a club, which made him wake up and run away and hide under a tree.  Rotten apples from the tree lay on the ground; the horseman cried out, “Eat them at once!” and gave the man so many apples to eat that they tumble out of his mouth.

   Why are you attacking me like this?”  the unfortunate man kept howling.  “What did I do to you?  If you have a fatal grudge against me, strike me once with your sword and kill me!  How terrible was the moment I came into your sight!  Happy is the man who has never seen your face!”

   Every time the man went on to pronounce a new curse, the horseman went on beating him, saying, “Keep running!”  Blows rained down on the man and he ran and ran, sometimes falling on the ground.  He was exhausted, worn out; his face and feet were covered with a thousand wounds.  Until nightfall, the horseman made him run in all directions, until at last a vomiting possessed him, caused by bile from the apples he had eaten.  Everything he had eaten, good or bad, spewed out of his mouth, including the serpent.  When he saw the serpent leap out of his body, he fell to his knees before the holy man; his sufferings abandoned him the moment he grasped the full horror of the long black snake.

   “How could I have known it?” he gasped to the horseman.  “You are the Gabriel of Divine Mercy!  I was dead; you gave me back life.  You looked after me as mothers do their children.  Happy is the man who sees your face or who appears suddenly before your house!  Don’t punish me for what I said; it was my madness speaking!  If I had known anything of what you were up to, how could I have said such stupid words?”

   The horseman replied, “If I had given you any idea of the danger you were in, you would have died of a heart attack; if I had described the characteristics of the snake, terror would have made you faint and die.  Didn’t Mohammed say, “If I described openly the enemy in your souls, even the hearts of the brave would be shattered.”  Shattered in this way, a person would not continue on his Path or bother about any work and in his heart neither perseverance in prayer would remain, nor any strength in his body for fasting and ritual prayer.  He would become helpless like a mouse before a cat; he would grow crazed like a lamb stalked by a wolf.  No power to complete his plans would remain in him.  This is why I took care of you without saying anything.  If I had spoken to you about the snake, you wouldn’t have been able to eat what you had to, and so you wouldn’t have been able to vomit it out.  I heard your insults and continued doing what I had to do:  I prayed continually under my breath, ‘Lord save this man!’  I did not have permission to speak of the reason for what I was doing, and it was not in my power to abandon you.  Because of the grief in my heart, I said continually what the Prophet said at the battle of Ohod when he was wounded, ‘Guide my people, Lord; they know nothing.’”

   The man who had been saved from so much misery fell to his knees and cried out to the horseman, “You are my joy, my good luck, my treasure; God will reward you as you deserve!  The poor being I am cannot know how to thank you.  God will thank you, my guide:  I do not have the power to do so.”

   I have told this parable to illustrate the “enmity” of the wise and to show that their “poison” is the satisfaction of the soul.

Reference~ Teachings of Rumi by Andrew Harvey

A Jar of Grief

A jar of grief and sorrow contains my heart.  Enemy of mine please pick up my jar and break it!  I want presence!  I want to soar to great heights.  Don't let this world trap me with its illusions.  Set my heart free and it will grow wings and soar beyond this world.

Love's Alchemy

What draws my heart nearer to yours?  Is it this longing for you that goes unsatisfied?  This longing rises up in my chest as heat.  It consumes me.  God's love is like a furnace.  It burns all the impurities away and the hidden jewel is then revealed.  That is what this longing is doing to me.  Your love is alchemy to my heart.

Your Embrace

You embrace my Spirit
even as my words sting your Heart.
You are a willing victim
and I a hopeless fool.
Your mystery is the doing
behind my words.
You remain hidden, but in secret
it is the hiding that is drawing me in.
My Spirit knows no way around you,
so in revolt it moves through you.
I embrace your Spirit
even as your silence stings my Heart.

My Encounter with Urfa Man

From Journal Entry March 8, 2008

I was in a state of half asleep and half awake.  Something came and laid on top of me.  It was human like.  Appeared to have a big head with a prominent chin and no mouth.  I asked it what it wanted and if it was good or bad.  I got no reply.  I know it meant me harm because it felt heavy and dark.  I started singing 'Amazing Grace.'

My son had a fever that reached 105 that night.  I too had a fever. When there is sickness the veil between the visible and invisible is thin. Encounters with other beings is of a greater possibility and psychic attacks can occur.

I was shocked when on the radio show coasttocoast am, a guest had a reference to such a being with no mouth.  Linda Howe describes the being as having haunting black eyes, and sunken chin with no mouth. 

The Gobekli Tepe site in Turkey is an excavated site, carbon dated 12,000 years old and contains 30 acres of pillar circles with  around 250 pillars, each weighing 7-10 tons.  With bizarre carved creatures on the pillars, one sculpture retrieved from the site is a creature with no mouth labeled as Urfa Man. 

Reference~ www.coasttocoastam.com/gebeklitepe

Twin Souls

It sometimes happens that a man and a woman meet and instantly recognize the other half of themselves behind the eyes of each other. The eyes have been rightly called "the windows of the soul." Even their voices are familiar to each other's ears, like a remembered chord of music. These are two who immediately sense the unalterable fact that they have been- are- and must always be One; even though they might have fought against their fate for centuries and struggled in vain to escape their linked destiny. Almost at the first moment they meet and gaze upon each other their spirits rush together in joyful recognition, ignoring all convention and custom, all social rules of behavior, driven by an inner knowing too overwhelming to be denied. Inexplicably, often without a word being spoken, they know that only through each other can they hope to find wholeness- only when they're together can they both be Complete in every way.
Somehow, they feel Immortal, and they are, for this level of love can bestow the beginning knowledge of the attainment of several centuries longevity in the same flesh body on the Earth plane. A man and woman who are soul mates hardly need to speak the words "I love you," knowing as surely as they do that they must belong to each other. No man can break the tie between Twin Souls, not even themselves. Nor can any energy in the Universe. The force that created them is all powerful and indestructible.
This kind of instant magnetic attraction is often called "love at first sight," which is no accident of fate, but very real. The crossing of their paths has been predestined on a Higher Level of Awareness. Certain spiritual energies are at work to bring about their meeting. Even when the Soul Mate is at last discovered, there are often many complications and testings of worthiness which cause temporary pain. Only in continually and consistently practicing tolerance and forgiveness can the hurt be alleviated. Only the heart knows how to lead you into Union with the soul of the one you love.

Reference~ Love Signs by Linda Goodman

Gibran- My Favorite Lines

~The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not feel lonely.
~The significance of man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.
~A traveller am I and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul.
~I long for eternity because there I shall meet my unwritten poems and my unpainted pictures.
~Art is a step from nature toward the Infinite.
~What might I say of a man who is torn between two women:  one weaving the hours of his waking out of his dreams; the other forming his dreams from the hours of his wakefulness?

Reference~The Collected Works of Kahlil Gibran & Gibran Love Letters

Poem- This Body

Have mercy soul-
for this body aches because of separation.
You are wise-
this body is stupefied by its desires.
It is in constant anguish.
This soul sails to heights,
where dreams are the reality-
And plays childlike in endless wonder.
This body painfully walks towards death,
and fears the unknown-
While this soul lives to create the unknown,
and rewrite the known.

My Letter To The Troops- No.3

From Journal Entry June 30, 2012

Dear Sir or Madam,

Ask yourself do you trust God?  Do you think by being faithful to your wife, God will reward you? Or by going to church every Sunday, God will keep your family safe?  This God you've created is a make believe God that you like because He makes your world feel safe and there are no uncertainties.
But what about when uncertainties do happen?  What then?  Is God punishing you when you find out your wife is dying of cancer or when your child dies in a car accident?  Your logic mind says, I've said my prayers everyday and given money to the church, why me?   These things are only suppose to happen to bad people.
We want a rational God to suit our needs.  In truth we don't trust God.  If we did we'd surrender our need to understand the horrific events in our lives.  We would instead have faith that God has a purpose behind them.  It is hard to surrender our will to His.  But when you do you open the door for divine revelation and experience God firsthand.  And the first encounter with God will drown away all doubt.  You've made a giant leap from knowledge of God to the experience of God.  And that, my friend, is the hardest step to take on your spiritual journey.
Will you plunge into the darkness of uncertainties to get to God as He really is?  Or will you let fear rule your life with a false security net?

God Bless,

Madison Michelle

No Greater

Your eyes reflect back to me an image of myself I have yet to attain.  In this glance is eternity where love flows from a never ending source.  The only desire is to be in you.  There is no greater desire and no greater pleasure.

The Mystical Meaning of the Story of Job

In the story of Job, Yahweh asks Satan to consider how "perfect and upright" Job is and how he "turns away from evil." Satan replies, "Does Job not fear you for a reason? You have blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth your hand now and touch all he has, and he will curse you to your face." In other words we don't honor God because we love our Creator but because we fear losing our material riches and comforts if we offend Him. It is our wealth and physical well-being that matters to us, not our loving, mutually considerate relationship with God.
To this accusation Yahweh instructs Satan to test Job to see if this is so. Job endures the dreadful tests without cursing Yahweh. Afterwards, Job tries to explain Yahweh's reasons. Job wanted to put Yahweh on trial for his unrighteous acts against a righteous man. Yahweh than demands Job search his heart for deeper answers to His question, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?" (Job 38:1-7) Job drops to his knees realizing the unquestionable greatness of God. He is reminding Job that a godly part of us was with God when he laid the foundations of the Earth. We have always been a part of God, and always will be.
The message is that heaven has a design and plan for greater than what can be shown to any human being. All that is within the vast scope of creation has a purpose known to God. Job falling to his knees symbolizes the mystical act of surrender we all must make in order to trust God's plan for us.
Job's life represents our desire to have God's reward, our goodness with goodness and punish only those who deserve it. Job teaches us the power of humility and the power of endurance. Job's endurance test is a test of the soul's mystical capacity: Can it endure an encounter with God? Enduring a revelation of the divine plan and accepting it builds strength of soul. A mystical experience fills your soul with undeniable proof that you are intimately known by an omniscient God.

References~ Christ the Power and the Passion & Entering the Castle by Caroline Myss

Winter

I feel a remoteness that exist when your not present.  A quietude that divides my nights and days.  They stretch themselves out and my soul lingers in this space.  I am deaf to your voice as Winter is after Fall and Summer has left as a guest.  Sadness settles in and takes root in my heart.  He claims to be a friend of my soul and that He is writing love poems on my heart to help me through this long Winter.  He reassures me He will leave when Spring comes and that with Her arrival there are endless possibilities.

Rumi- The Soul of Reality

How marvelous a lover is, for he gathers power, grows, and fills with vibrant energy from the image of his Beloved.  This should not surprise you; think of how much perpetual strength the image of Layla fed Majnun.
Since the image of what is after all a transient beloved possesses so great a power to embolden the lover, why are you surprised that the Image of the Eternal Beloved should stream strength into the Lover, both here in this world and in the Invisible?  That Image is not "Imagination" at all; it is the Soul of Reality.

Reference~ Teachings of Rumi by Andrew Harvey

The Demands of Divine Love

Divine love demands servanthood.  It will drag a man through the trenches of death and annihilate self.  The boundless and vast landscape of divine love bares no resemblance of self.  It is the executioner and one must submit to its demands before one can sail its ocean.

My Letter To The Troops- No. 2

From Journal Entry 5/27/2012

Dear Sir or Madam,

Each man has in his life moments that forever change him.  These "little wonders" cause him to reflect on his life and God.  He begins to ask whether or not God exist.
Man knows he has had a "little wonder" when at that moment it's as if time has stopped and everything is surreal.  It can be the birth of a baby, surviving an accident, the loss of a loved one, or any traumatic event.  And in that moment of "little wonder" your perception of reality is forever changed. Your world has just gotten bigger.
You began to reflect on your life searching for its meaning.  Asking yourself does everything in my life have meaning?  You think about whether or not there is a greater consciousness behind the events in your life.  You began to reflect on your childhood and your relationship with God.  You have grown up with the image of a God fearing God. 
Now your an adult and you want a loving God that understands your burdens and struggles.  What you long for is a friendship with God.  So what is the best way to began a friendship with Him?  By getting to know your own soul; your getting to know God.
Praying to God and speaking to Him as a friend breaks down those boundaries as a domineering father.  It allows you to be real.  You can be real  because your speaking from your heart.  And that's what God longs for is your heart.
Tell Him your burdens, disappointments, and longings.  When you devote a dialogue with God everyday, essentially you are maturing in spirit; building a lasting relationship with God.  By remaining steadfast in your prayers, you open yourself up to God's grace.

God Bless,

Madison Michelle

Your Treasure

You unlocked the vault to your treasures.  This was only done after you slayed your dragon.  Letting you gaze at your priceless treasure and unveiling your value.

The Seasons of Friendship

Don't let to much time go by between our visits.  The message of this heart could be lost.  The seasons of our friendship vary in taste.  The love between us blossoms only in your presence.

Poem- Dear Friend

It's been a long journey
   Dear Friend
I have traveled
   this ancient road
for thousands of years

Longing for you
   in my heart

A piece of me broken

The Universe inside
   speaking to me

God gently reminding me
   of a sacred place
Where two old friends meet
   to become one soul.

My Letter To The Troops- No. 1

When my church asked if anyone wanted to write letters to the troops, I felt God calling me out to write letters of encouragement and support to the men and women who bravely serve and protect our freedom.  This is the first of what I hope many more letters to come.

From Journal entry 5/13/12

Dear Sir or Madam,                                              

I wasn't sure how to open this letter since I have not met you face to face.  I thought then I should introduce myself, but then I feel as if we're not strangers.  We are all human beings with the same longings in our heart.  And what is it our heart longs for, but truth and purpose to etch its way from our soul into our lives that long to express our inner world.
When you are thousands of miles away from your family the grief and heartache must be more than a man can bare.  There is great beauty in grief when it's accompanied by love.  The essence of a man's soul expands to the likeness of his love when given freely.  No man can avoid this grief or escape it.  Grief will darken your days and rob your nights.  What is a man to do when his grief leaves him naked?  Embrace grief for only love survives death.
Don't diminish your world because of your grief.  There is a harvest to be reaped in your grief, and it will feed those who travel the same road in the barren desert that all pilgrims of longings and truth must travel through.

God bless,

Madison Michelle

A Hidden Wholeness

God is everywhere, the divine qualities of love, mercy, compassion, justice, and all the other attributes ascribed to God expand infinitely throughout creation.  Objects "out there" or feelings "in here" eventually meld into one state of being that lies beyond the limits of space-time, in a realm of infinite possibilities.

How can two realities (inner and outer) that are opposites turn out to be the same?  Realizing that "that" is the state of pure consciousness, while "this" is the visible universe.  A hidden wholeness underlies all of creation, ultimately it is this invisible wholeness that matters most.  There is only one reality that is permanent.  This means that at some point the inner and outer worlds must meet.  What makes life worth living is love, trust, faith, beauty, awe, wonder, compassion, truth, the arts, morality, and the mind itself.

~Who looks outside, dreams; who looks within, awakens.- Carl Jung

Reference~ War of the World Views, Deepak Chopra