Definition of God
Is the first...
We consider the
Limitations of language
Which seem to leave
This question unanswerable..
A defined God is not God...
Yet...

Purpose of Christianity
Is the second...
The purpose of this
Tradition is the same
For all traditions..
Simply to awaken to
The Perennial Source
Of which Christianity
Is one expression...

Like a Salad Bowl
Is the third...
A blending implied
Of the disparate
Vegetables in the bowl..
Instead let us
Recognize the vegetables
As temporary colorations
of the Bowl...

Control and Guilt
Is the fourth...
This is the charge of
Many observers of
Exterior appearances
Of Christianity..
Appearances are of
Separation born from
Hardening cultural belief
Over the centuries...

Stemming Decline
Is the fifth...
Perhaps we need
To assess the decline
For the benefits
That seem possible..
The major question:
Does the decline
Provide a cleansing
Of the blinders
Hiding the Truth...?

( These are my thumbnail
responses to questions posed
for a group panel discussion.)

What is it
that we can say is
irreducible..?
This has been
science's quest over
the centuries:
to locate the illusive
irreducible..

Atoms in ancient times
seemed irreducible
followed eventually by
electrons..protons..quarks..
You know these names..
Names of matter
tinier and tinier..
irreducible

And the end
is not in sight for
searching in matter
for that which is
tinier
tiniest
irreducible..

It appears
we await a new day..
Perhaps soon
for recognition
that our focus
need be reversed:
inside not outside
is a non-location
infinite and
irreducible...

when art looks to objects
a tedium is experienced
despite displays rendering
temporary pleasures..

the displays portray
exterior as exterior
polishing the world
but retaining separation
as we wear again
dark cultural blinders..

let us become artists
and carry with us
our tools of expression
and yet more:  the lens
of Awareness as we
permit that Awareness
to absorb the tools
and the expression...

Subjectivity rising

it is the inward path of now..
a time in evolution apparently
to lift oneself from weighty
objectivity..and to understand
the fallacies and illusions
which have brought our
object fixation to a pause..
the knowing experience of
Oneness in each of us
which arrives with a noticing
of the sun illuminating itself
or the wave discovering the
ocean..this new morning
recognition is a blissful
remembering of who we
ever have been...

is understanding:
we take the shape of
all that we perceive..
our perceiving is
nothing more than
living as Awareness
and knowing that
all perceiving is
made of That...

freedom
we all seek..
searching for that
which will make us
free..
when not discovered
resignation reigns
and quiet desperation
begins new searching
until an Abruptness
in a moment
sets us free...

The appearances
in our hours
thoughts
perceptions
beg our attention
resist departing..

Moreover
one appearance released
replaces another
with the gap between
growing short..
and shorter..

Yet in the gaps
lurks the only happiness
we can know..

Abide...

what seems
as good luck or bad
dresses a teacher..
our smaller mind
when confounded by
the unexplained
drills down to locate
what must be there:
a cause and effect..
often 'tho..alas..
sorry..no luck..

then might dawn
the recognition:
what is happening
is all at once
right Now..
what is happening
halts the search in  
no time and place
and Lady Luck
smiles and
takes a bow...

If we are not clear
then we must search..
Clarity beacons from
beneath the search
to end the search..
But beliefs and culture
interfere.. claiming
progress lies ahead..
So we double down
again not recognizing
the search conceals
the clarity we seek...