Sunday, November 16, 2008

Praying to Love

Love!

Come, come and show me

how it is to See without seeing

the Soul of another

as

My Soul

Teach me how to

Trust You

For how I shall be clothed,

for where I shall eat and sleep

… for every Next Thing

show me how

You are Provision


Love!

Fill me with that ecstasy

unknown to the “outer” world

… which can do no harm

Show me how to stand with Courage

and still to Love

To speak my Peace

and still to Love

Show me how to BE my Peace

to be my Ease

Show me how Safe and Free are

One

Show me how You are Everything

And all

That is needed.

(I have been told

that I am already Yours …)


Take me!


Monday, October 13, 2008

Black Snake Moan

Black Snake Moan

Has anyone else seen this movie? Traveling on business, I wound up watching Showtime late at night in a Portland, Ore. hotel room and came across this film starring Christina Ricci and Samuel S. Jackson. The beginning had me wondering if I ought to just turn it off—it’s the tale of a sexually abused “pretty young thang” in the deep South whose boyfriend leaves for the army. She has been dependent on him for her sexual release (she is a fierce sex addict who breaks into hives if she doesn’t “get it”). When he leaves, she also loses his love and stability, and she goes on a hard to watch drinking-“getting it”-getting raped-(well, it would be rape if she were to object at all)-and-finally-beat-up binge. I winced the whole way through these opening scenes.

A local farmer and black man played by Sammy Jackson finds her at the edge of his driveway, after she’s been left half naked and for dead on his back road in the boonies. Jackson’s got his own demons he’s dealing with: mostly a wife who has left him after many years for his spiffed up younger brother. He has shunned help from local church members and friends after nearly killing his brother in a barroom brawl. And then he finds … this girl.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but what follows is a series of strange events that have you wondering if Jackson has found God or done gone batty. Suffice it to say, the story winds up as a tale of redemption for both characters. What I loved most about it was the way sexuality was put front and center with an initially muddy, but then sensible and loving demarcation between what healthy sexuality and unhealthy sexuality look like, what moral and immoral look like and, most importantly, feel like.

In the most unusual scene along these lines, Jackson’s character, Lazarus, takes Ricci’s character to a local blues bar where he leads a jam session on guitar. The mostly black crowd accepts this overly thin, beat up looking white girl into their midst, and proceed to “dirty dance” with her: men and women, women and women, all kinds of combinations (not quite going out on a limb with men and men, though). This is a very sexy scene in which, actually, no one has sex or even seems interested in actually having sex when all is said and done.

There were other things I loved. The way Christianity is in this film without adherence to the rigid constructions of religion, but as a faith which—when practiced gently—is essentially a faith of forgiveness and non-judgment. The way Jackson’s character boldly steps out into town after a while with his young charge ... and the way things actually turn out good, in the end, and not bad. I mean, in a film with blacks and whites and rape and sexuality, you keep expecting somebody to get killed, or at least wind up in a whole heap of trouble. And I, for one—while I appreciate some cinematic tension—really just want to see a happy ending. I have had my fill, at 40, of gratuitous fear and violence in movies. And I think happy endings are realistic, and happen quite a lot in real life.

This movie reminded me of the 1991 film starring Laura Dern and her mother, Diane Ladd, called "Rambling Rose." Rambling Rose was also set in the South, where a grounded kind of spirituality (Dern’s adopted family) meets young, out-of-control sexuality with some turbulence, but in the end, with Love, common sense, healing and salvation. I picked up the term "Creative Energy of the Universe," denoting God, from this film (adapted from the book by Calder Willingham).

The media around Black Snake Moan reminds me of the out-of-context way people responded to “Boxing Helena” (1993, directed by Jennifer Lynch) without grokking the deeper meaning of the film. The move poster for Black Snake Moan was completely at odds with the movie’s actual meaning and point, as were criticisms from feminist camps about its depiction of violence and sexuality. There are some films, like Boxing Helena, and many of Oliver Stone’s films that show violence or even exaggerated violence or fantasy, in order to illustrate a larger social comment about these issues. The content gets skewered (just because it's there) and the comment gets lost (because no one is listening).

Finally, it is also a treat to hear Samuel Jackson play the blues, which he does often in this film (and learned to do so for this film), although I’m not sure “Black Snake Moan” is my favorite song of all time, and certainly not my favorite song--or movie--title.

So, Your Mystical Mama says: Thumbs up for Black Snake Moan … Parental Cautions: Lot of sexuality, and disturbing sexuality, at the beginning of this film and some violence. No one actually dies, as far as I can now recall—and many are healed.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Encounter with Ma & Pa Forgiveness

A while back, I had the excellent fortune of meeting with forgiveness authors Jerry Jampolsky and Diane Cirincione (they are married.) Jampolsky is famous for the book "Love is Letting Go of Fear" and he and Diane have now authored quite a few books together--as well as serving as mentors to various centers, based on forgiveness and related ideas, around the world.

They gave me their full, sunlit attention. I felt bathed in love and interest. And when I left they plied my hands full of their books, each of which they had signed especially for me.

It got me thinking about forgiveness, of course. First, there's that word, to Fore-give. To me that means that I give my gift to you before you give anything to me. Perhaps I feel that you have damaged me in some way in the past ... you have abused, or are now merely irritating me.

Rather than wait for you to help me feel better, I give you the gift of helping myself to feel better. I could wait forever for you to help me feel better, actually. And on the day I die, the jury might still be out.

But if I give you the gift of:

Hey, you are just a human being.


We all make mistakes.


Maybe I have not seen this correctly.


Maybe there is something good inside of you after all.


We are all in the same boat.


What can I enjoy about you now?

Then I have given myself my peace of mind back ... and I have given you the freedom (at least in my presence) to do the same.

We are afraid to fore-give, because the implication is that if we give something, we end up with less of something. How about less misery and suffering?

I think that's the idea the good old Bible was trying to turn around with: "To give is to receive." When we give up our grievance, when we give our forgiveness, my goodness, do we ever feel a whole lot better! Let the receiving begin!

When my grandmother was getting ready to pass away, I read her some short passages out of the Jampolsky/Cirincione books. She said,

"The hardest person to forgive is yourself."

Oh yes. Isn't that they key?

So here is my Fore-gift to you:


You are just a human being, my friend.


We all make mistakes.


Isn't it wonderful that we are all in this same damn leaky and imperfect boat,


Together?



Now,


Where's the luau?


With love,

From your Mystical Mama

Thursday, July 31, 2008

A Good Idea

"You must stop thinking about yourself,

And think of something far greater."


--Sydney Banks, author of The Missing Link, Dear Liza, The Enlightened Gardener

Inspired/Founder of ... Three Principles psychology

See www.lonepinepublishing.com & "Self Help"

Sunday, June 29, 2008

One Day You Will Awaken

One day you will awaken

And find the Master alive

Inside of you

Closer than hands and feet,

Nearer than breathing


Then,

You will bend

To anoint your very own feet with oil

Full of humility,

Utterly harmless,

Realizing Power,

Ecstatic with passionate love

For every object in consciousness


Tender, Amazed

At your own magnificence

Partially dissolved in the Unified Field

You will rush to

Press your money

Into the hands of strangers

Who will say,

“God bless you!”


And you will arch your brow,

Smiling,

You who are

Now

Utterly Complete ...

Needing no

Such thing

Monday, May 19, 2008

Yes!

I believe in you!

And I have come to believe in you

As a matter

Of believing in My Self ...

Because at some point,

My dear, dear and darling friend,

You and I

Are One

and the same.



... and my believing in you is an act of & for my own glorious, magnificent, most radiant

survival!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

"The New Physics" or, Time is On Our Side?

Of course, I have no idea about physics--much less any kind of "new" physics ... God forbid! But I do have this hunch.

My hunch is that there is ground point, a common intersection between the spiritual mystics (or mysticism) and the science of physics. Actually, the physicists are behind on this one. For if they understood deeply how reality is created, they would be mystics themselves!

The point of connection is in the very basis, or creation of manifestation itself.

Somehow, folks like Jesus and Sydney Banks and Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle look at "reality" not from the stance of being "in time," but from the stance of Origin, as in origin of Time. The mistake we make is in thinking that time "started" at some point, in the "past."

Whereas, I think these "people" (and they do not always see themselves as such!) see that time is always starting Now. There is no other time, only memory of past creation, which creates the illusion of time. Via memory, we create time.

Therefore, they see that there is no "time," no real "space" and no "matter." Everything is being created Now--and somehow, from within our Selves ... or as part of ourselves. (I get lost here ... Again, just a novice! No questions, please!)

Author and philosopher/Theosopher Sydney Banks has said that the universe is a "giant ball of energy." Perhaps there is no time--just this "ball" that manifests differently, according to our Thoughts, or God's Thoughts or Both. Like the sun, with its infinite rays ... all these rays simultaneously outmanifesting Now. Perhaps we perceive time and "reality" just based on where "we" (individualized consciousness) are localized--mentally, perceptually--in this "ball."

We think we "travel" in time, when really we just project infinite pictures--experience all this via the physical, via the senses, and then believe we have experienced something "real."

"Reality" ... always different for everyone.

But is it all just made up?

Are "miracles" simply the result of understanding True Physics? I believe a miracle, a healing, intuition and ESP represent not "breaks" or transgressions of the laws of physics, but are simply the result of insight into True Physics, and the nature of creation (from the formless into form--Now, always Now).

So then, are there really "other people" or are we all One, in this energy that encompasses All Life?

All the mystics speak of Oneness. I felt this oneness, once, for an entire week ... and still in tiny glimpses now, from "time" to "time."

One energy, one universe, one time.

Now.

Hmmmmmmm ...

With Love from your

Nearly Mystical Mama

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Bright Ideas & Pet Peeves

Please steal these ideas!

Green China: an online and regular retail company that imports eco-friendly, sustainable items from China: organics, vegan, free-range-fair-trade-indigenous and climate-friendly doodads and whoosits. (Perhaps this already exists?)

A company that creates community between such companies here and like minded folks in China ... a company that makes "eco" hip in China and "China-eco" hip here. As a half-Chinese, eco-minded woman, why does China have to represent everything smoggy, exploited, endangered and lead filled? China is so fantastic--so sensual and maximally flavored and colored. There's so much there to "export" that doesn't have to be toxic.

Once, in China, I had a conversation at a dinner party with a Chinese businessman, a Shanghai resident, who told me that everyone in Shanghai wanted a car. Okay, I get this. We can't tell people what they should or shouldn't want, given that we all have wanted (and mostly have) these things, here, as Americans. But if we do indeed lead the way in what is "hip," and desirable, can we start putting something else out there?

I said, "Oh, jeez," (having just toured the city) "that would be a nightmare. You don't want everyone here to have a car."

And of course, he responded, "But everyone in the States has a car. You have a car, no?"

"Well, yes, I do have a car." I was trying to think fast. "But this is a big city. You know, in New York, a lot of people actually don't have cars."

"Really?"

"Oh, yes, really. In fact, Woody Allen doesn't even know how to drive, I don't think."

"Hmmmm." He said. He was fascinated, I could tell. He was thinking.

Finally, he asked, "Who is Woody Allen?"



More Bright Ideas to come ... (I hope)

With Love,

from your Mystical Mama

Friday, January 18, 2008

A Real Question for James Lipton

If I were James Lipton at the Actor’s Studio, I would ask my celebrities this question:

“If the whole world were like a high school, then celebrities would be the athletes and cheerleaders of the world, the uber-popular kids …

"What has the experience of celebrity done for your personhood? Have you used celebrity to your advantage in less than savoury ways? Has celebrity used you to its advantage in less than savoury ways?

"Have you discovered a way—within celebrity—to be grounded and kind? Have you discovered valueless-ness in what, before, seemed valuable to you?

"… Have you found a new value—a silence, a richness, a wonder within?—that goes beyond fame, adventure, wealth and power? … Or have you become lost in the roiling waves of the world’s fantastical projections?

… or maybe you are somewhere in between?

Enlighten us!”


(and, of course, enquiring minds want to know ... )

Monday, January 14, 2008

Clarity

It is becoming more and more clear to me that we live with nothing but our thoughts. "I want," "I need"--thoughts of non-completion (incompleteness? Help me here ... ). "I love this." "I love you." Ahhhh, now here are some thoughts to rest in, to fall into ...

"I am fine."

"You are fine."

"This is fine."

What can we do about any of it, anyway? Really?

Life goes on despite our decisions and worries and concerns. Mostly having very little--if anything!--to do with any kind of plan or picture of what we thought life would be like. It's just going, flowing. It is stuck in traffic. It is wife leaving us for another man. It is husband being judgmental. It is mother-in-law being worried. It is child throwing tantrum, becoming drug addict.

It is all these "terrible" things.

When we no longer care (or rather, when we care deeply about our peace of mind instead) the judgment begins to slow down ... and then it stops. And then we realize, oh, You are Me. Hey, great, it's fantastic that you are:

boring me with details
having an affair
not going to pay me the money you borrowed

What do I care when I am in love with Life
and Life

has started

to love

me

back!




( ... the view beyond my judgment is
just
so much
better

and I can't even imagine
what lies
beyond
That!)