Only when we sacrifice ourselves into union with the Divine are we reborn from the Divine.

Once upon a time there was a puppet made of salt who had traveled a long time through dry and desert places until one evening he came to a sea which he had never before seen and didn't know what it was.  The puppet asked the sea: "Who are you?"  "I am the sea," it replied.  "But," the puppet insisted, "What is the sea?"  "I AM," was the answer.  "I don't understand," said the puppet made of salt.  The sea replied, "That's easy; touch me!"  The salt puppet timidly touched the sea with the tip of his toes.  At that moment he realized that the sea began to make itself vividly perceptible, but at the same time he noticed the tips of his toes had disappeared. "What have you done to me?" he cried to the sea.  "You have given a little of yourself to understand me," the sea replied.  

Slowly, the salt puppet began to walk into the sea with great solemnity as though he were about to perform the most important act of his life.  The further he moved along, the more he dissolved, but at the same time he had the impression that he knew more and more about the sea.  Again and again, the puppet asked, "What is the sea?" until the waves covered him completely.  Just before he was entirely dissolved by the sea, he exclaimed: "I exist!"

Hymns to the Beloved

The Divine cannot be known from the outside; only union brings about this sort of knowledge.  Classically, the term for this is "mysticism" - union with Ultimate Reality.  As this parable illustrates, we only know the Divine by sacrificing ourselves - through love - into union with the Beloved.  It is then that we realize that we are reborn - out of the seamless ocean of Divine Love - at each and every moment. Indeed, sacrifice-and-rebirth is a continual process. When this realization occurs, our perspective suddenly shifts.  For we then see that the spiritual journey is less about knowing God - the oceanic All - than about being known by - and embraced within - God, the All.  As Thomas Merton says, "Our knowledge of God is paradoxically a knowledge not of him  as the object of our scrutiny, but of ourselves  as utterly dependent on his saving and merciful knowledge of us."  Rabbi Abraham Heschel agrees when he writes: "To think of God is not to find Him as an object in our minds, but to find ourselves in Him . . . a perception of our being perceived.  The task is not to know the unknown but to be penetrated with it; not to know but to be known to Him, to expose ourselves to Him rather than Him to us." In this awareness is our transformation.

Photo: Gold Bluffs Beach, Redwood National Park, CA, August 2, 2011

The great world religions are like ships, and every sane person eventually jumps overboard into the lifeboat of poetry.

 

The 

Great religions are the

Ships,

Poets the life

Boats.

Every sane person I know has jumped

Overboard.

That is good for [the poetry] business

Isn't it

Hafiz?

Hafiz, 14th century

Photo: Trinidad Harbor, CA, July 31, 2011

You are not a single "you," but a Sky and an Ocean, a nine hundred times huge drowning place for all of your hundreds of you's

 

"You came from Non-existence into being.  How did that happen?  Tell me about it!  You were a little drunk when you arrived, so you can't remember exactly? I'll give you some hints.  Let your mind go, and be mindful.  Close your ears, and listen.  But maybe I shouldn't tell, if you're not ripe.  You're still in early Spring.  July hasn't happened yet in you. This world is a tree, and we are green, half-ripe fruit on it.  We hold tight to the limbs, because we know we're not ready to be taken into the palace.  When we mature and sweeten, we'll feel ashamed at having clung so clingingly.  To hold fast is a sure sign of unripeness . . . More needs to be said on this, but the Holy Spirit will tell it to you when I'm not here . . . You are not a single You, good Friend, you are a Sky and an Ocean, a tremendous YHUUUUUU, a nine hundred times huge drowning place for all your hundreds of you's.  What are these terms 'wakefulness' and 'sleep'?  Don't answer.  Let God answer.  Don't speak, so the Speakers can.  Not a word, so Sun-Light can say what has never been in a book, or said.  Don't try to put it into words, and the Spirit will do that through you, in spite of you, beside you, among you."

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Gold Bluffs Beach at sunset, Redwood National Park, CA, August 2, 2011

When the Ocean is searching for you, bring your talky business to an end!

 

"Inside me a hundred beings are putting their fingers to their lips and saying, 'That's enough for now.  Shhhhh.'  Silence is an ocean.  Speech is a river.  When the Ocean is searching for you, don't walk to the language-river.  Listen to the Ocean, and bring your talky business to an end.  Traditional words are just babbling in that Presence, and babbling is a substitute for sight.  When you sit down beside your Beloved, send the chaperones away! . . . When you are mature and with your love, the love-letters and matchmakers seem irritating.  You might read those letters, but only to teach beginners about love.  One who sees grows silent!"

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Sea stacks in the ocean at Trinidad State Beach, CA, July 31, 2011

We are Called to Be an Ocean of Silence Out of Which All Things Arise

I make the effort to maintain a ground of oceanic silence

out of which arises the multitude of phenomena of daily life.

I make the effort to see the Beloved in everyone and

to serve the Beloved through everyone (including the earth).

I often fail in these aspirations because I lose the balance

between separateness and unity,

get lost in my separateness

and feel afraid.

But I make the effort

(Ram Dass)

Photo: Sunset at Gold Bluffs Beach, Redwood National Park, CA, August 2, 2011