Each of us is born out of the blissful self-loss of both God and Goddess.

Today, on my birthday, I find myself reflecting on what an amazing thing it is to be born.  Most astonishing for me is the fact that NONE of us is ever planned; the particularity of our own unique existence is ALWAYS a surprise, both to our parents and to the Universe at large.  Of course, our mother and father may have decided in a generalized way that they wanted to have a child, but they could never have conceived the idea of US.  After all, they had no way of knowing what we would be like - our gender, our personality type, our calling in life, our gifts, our challenges, our physical appearance.  Like ruddy alpenglow appearing suddenly on a mountain peak, each of us arrived - unexpectedly - in all of our glorious uniqueness!  Here, it is important to note that we were conceived NOT when our parents remained in full control of their faculties, but - ideally, at least - when both LOST themselves in blissful abandon, in a sort of "little death,"  as the French would say. Similarly, the Creator - appearing in a two-sided unity as God - the Great Beyond, Father Sky - and the Goddess, the Immanent One, Mother Earth - may have planned in a general way to create a world brimming full with creatures.  However, in order to give birth, they had to LOSE themselves, emptying out their essences in blissful ecstasy, thus enabling each creature to be born in the ensuing silence of love. We might say, in fact, that we experience GOD'S self-loss in the sky-like absorption that occurs in our awareness during meditation practice, and we encounter the GODDESS' self-loss in the seamless flow of planetary events that has no beginning and no end, a process that seems to occur all by itself, like an orchestra playing with no players! Significantly, both God and Goddess apparently experience endless SURPRISE at the multitude of various of beings that emerge out of their mutual self-loss.  And it is this surprise that is the goal of of the cosmos and the ultimate purpose of the birth of each one of us here on Earth.

Photo: Alpenglow, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012