A Gardener, A Traveler, and Friends on the Beach

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

AHA! I could've had a V-8! [konk on head!]
Now, one would not say “I could have had a V-8!” if one is sitting there drinking a V-8. This might illustrate a Beauty and Joy of the Resurrection!

To truly understand this, to really experience (know, I Know that my Redeemer Lives,) the significance of the empty tomb, we need to go back two dark days.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Mark 15:37-38

Now, the purpose of a curtain, (also a veil,) is to conceal. Also to block out light.

So now we Awaken, and Rise to Truth--
The Holy of Holies is...empty.

A precious few knew this truth, and either misunderstood, or concealed this truth, out of fear, ignorance, or both.

General Pompey, intruding on this Holy place, baffled to find that it did not contain a terrible God, backing such a troublesome and formidable people such as Israel. (Yet, they possessed power. Where was it?)

The High Priest, entering the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement. (Hmm...didn't the High Priest serve a one year term?)

One High Priest in particular, who rent his garments. (He did not do this as a reaction to blasphemy—he knew he was confronting “Truth.” It was merely inconvenient for him.)

Now Christ, “The High Priest,” reveals the truth to us.

The Divine, the Most High does not dwell in a house of stone!

This is why King David heard the voice of God telling him to build a temple, that he was tired of a tent in the desert. Why? A temple could hold more people!

This is where the presence of God truly is!

This Revelation does beg the question, why would the Truth be concealed in the first place, and by God who gave us the plans for the temple, including a veil over the Holy of Holies?

Why? More in a future post, but for now-- from the death of Jesus—he breathed out his last—to his Resurrection, absent from the tomb, he revealed Truth to us. Living requires breathing in as well as breathing out. Continuously. To know truth, we need to allow ourself to “not know” it for a moment.

An empty tomb, much like an empty Holy of Holies, puts God in his proper home. (Which, incidently, is where God always dwelt—we simply were not “Awake” to this, which, also, is another way of saying that we were not present in the House of God.)

Now we are, and how liberating this is. For we can know (experience) the true presence of God, at any time, in any place—It is only as far away as our next breath—which is within us, and all others.

Breathe. Seriously, go ahead, right now.

Inhale...Exhale...Inhale...
(Live...Die...Live...)

Can you take a new breath unless you've let out the breath?

We can always hope for the next breath, but is there any doubt, or lack of faith to the one we are presently taking? Experience Life (which is synonymous with Light and Love.) And this, in its essential nature, just is. Therefore, only One. Therefore Eternal.

Namaste. I love this Sanskrit word. This Greeting, borrowed from another Tradition, which means “The Spirit in me recognizes the Spirit in You.” How about that for “an Holy kiss” with which to greet one another? Not, a spirit in me, or the spirit of me, but The Spirit In.

There is only Spirit. All else is but garments.

So sadly funny, some who might argue in a literal “7 days of Creation,” as if that matters all that much, and yet do not take this literally, which really does matter:

“What soever you do to the least of these, my brothers, that you do unto me.”

“The first Commandment is this: Love the lord your God with all your mind, all your heart, all your strength, and all your soul, and the next is like it, love your neighbor as your self.”

Hence, we have the Golden Rule.

Now a rule is a Law, and this one, like gravity, cannot be broken, or disobeyed. What we do unto others, (deed, word, and thought—most importantly thought,) we do unto ourself.

I have no poem for today. Any words of mine would be foolishly inept.

Perhaps this is better.

This Psalm usually evokes images of a pastoral, bucolic setting or place. But, now, read with a new and different light, might we discover the true magnitude of what this poem says of God, ourself, and others—whether a gardener, a stranger walking with us, or friends on the beach.

How lovely is thy dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yea, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at thy altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in thy house,
ever singing thy praise!

--Psalm 84:1-4

Christ is Risen! Alleluia! Aha-leluia!

Namaste! And Happy Easter!