FINALE - The Gates of Hell

FINALE

The Gates of Hell
(no scenery, no actors, no lines, no action)

CURTAIN

Dramatis Personae

Playing the role of Ego through the ages:

• The subtle serpent (Our Iago who planted the first seeds of all Evil-envy & fear.)
• Pharaoh
• Judas
• The Devil, and all aliases
• Mine enemies which gather round about (beautifully described by Psalmists)
• Death

Has played the Roles well, and served true purpose: to be overcome. A Phantom, only existing, only “on stage” when the True Self is not present.

Playing the Role of The True Self:

• The Awake
• The Alive
• The Arisen
• The AdamEve
  

Playing the Role of Enmity between the Ego and True Self:

• The Light (aka Life, Love--can be used interchangeably with Attention and Awareness)
• Christ
• Savior
• The Rose, by all other names

Costumes by The World, Flesh and All Else, LLC

ENCORE

Voice: (whispers from behind the psych and teasers)

psst...there's only One of us...remember?

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!

The Sword / Heavy Metal

FADE IN

(silence)

* * *


The Sword / Heavy Metal
(For George Romero)


Lay down to sleep when awake,


Die when you’re alive.


Never rising from the bed, evil works to hide.


Callow slumber walks night-days; Gold film upon the eyes.


Chant "Lead mmmm Barium" [Take five!]


Now.


Will you.


Arrive.




--Marty Kummetz
--2007


* * *

(silence,... still)

FADE OUT

Asphyxiation from Layers of Suffering, Light

Asphyxiation from Layers of Suffering.

Hear now of the true Suffering of Jesus.

He was the one we elected at the beginning, to lead us out of the darkness we were sure to become lost in—waiting outside the perimeter of living, until the appropriate time, or more precisely, when Now had achieved a specific quality, and we became hopelessly lost—to enter in, and rescue us.

The whole of his lifetime he never lost consciousness, he never fell asleep. While this, at first, sounds blissfully wonderful, it really is not. For the Joy in being awake is in the awakening. One who is awake cannot wake up, and only the dead can rise from the dead. Similarly, we can not experience the relief and pleasure of coming home, until we have left home. Jesus, in the entirety of his lifetime never experienced what we, in the dark hours of our lifetime can. Yet, did this ever stop his work?

Did he mope? Drown in self-pity?

No.

He did not even envy this of us. To put envy (the seed of all evil,) away from oneself, and to not covet is the greatest triumph in living. It requires the power of Life, (synonymous with Light and Love--Awareness, which was what he was entirely—Awake.) Thus, all his actions were of love, and accomplished Love.

It is rather bold to say that Jesus was benefiting himself at the same time he benefited us, yet two things to consider. Love benefits all, or it is not love. Secondly, if Love only benefited another, why would we, in our humanity, ever choose to imitate it? (The Divine was poured into fleshy, human vessels. Jesus demonstrated how we can live Divinely, even in our human form.)

So, we can see just how he suffered, and, for his own benefit, as well as ours—so blessedly simultaneously. And this is why he said of his impending death on the cross, “Now will the Son of Man be glorified.” Finally, finally, would he have the opportunity to experience what we have always had throughout our lifetime, thus crying out, as we first did in our sleep, “My God, My God, Why hast thou Forsaken me?”

How hauntingly appropriate this is, for in his own lament, Jesus was answering, and at the same time, the answer to ours. This was also the Lamentation of God, for, in our sleep, as we felt forsaken by God, God was forsaken by us.

More amazing, is the physical suffering of Jesus. Pain and agony!—beating!—nails through one's wrists!?! Or, even if just roped up and hung—having precious, life-giving breath slowly denied--c'mon! Add to it, these components of his Passion—betrayal, denial, isolation, humiliation, all this cruelty inflicted on him, was suffering on top of suffering, on top of suffering, and this cannot be taken from him.

I know I could not have borne it. I'd have cracked, told them whatever they wanted to hear, retracted, or most probably, fled. I'd have broke, or blended into obscurity and anonymity—cowardice--at even the mere possibility of crucifixion. Even in my darkest hours, I've still had friends and family to see me through.

Jesus was not the first ever to be hung on a cross. He would have seen it before, as crucifixion was the preferred form of execution in that day, and always, intentionally, well displayed. Yet he accepted it willingly. With complete awareness, he lived toward this the whole of his lifetime.
Amazing.


--Marty Kummetz (firescarecrow)
--April 10, 2009

* * *

Hope is now gone...

...for in Faith (certainty of outcome) are we healed. In Faith it is accomplished, in Faith do we Live (Love.)

Breathe and experience this. Right Now Here, for Life's sake, please.

* * *

Light

Love remains,

Now here's some Grace:

It's Eternal, not forevermore,

Love conquers

Time


and



Space.


--Marty Kummetz
--December, 2008