the burninghand blog
May 4, 2024
"Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." -- Rumi
This is, it seems to me, to be a perfect way to follow up my last blog... "Jesus was / is trans!" It is not too late in any of our lives -- or in the life of our planet -- to change our minds! Admittedly, such changes are very difficult, especially as we get older: but it is not impossible! "Let the beauty we love be what we do" is a crash course in change. Every single one of us is a "victim" of our culture, religion, social status / social expectations and the time in which we live. But isn't this also true for everyone who has ever lived?
And yet... and yet... in every time... in every place... there have always been folks, even if just one or two, who stepped out of line... who somehow made the decision to be different... difference can be a logical choice: even if it requires great faith and even greater courage! Perhaps we simply need "permission" to apply our share of Sacred Imagination (the beginning point of everything)... Perhaps you can summon the personal courage to grab a piece of paper, and then proceed to write your own permission slip to begin the process of changing your mind... of changing your life to attune to the great minds and lives of saints and activists and become one yourself!
There are enough business men and women, there are enough "influencers", there are enough war merchants and soldiers, as there are enough of everyday workers... but what the world needs right now are audacious lovers, students of the mystic arts, creatives of beauty, and activists leading into alternatives that promise a way into a liveable future for the entire planet... Really and truly, why not you?
May 2, 2024
Jesus was / is trans!
(And there you were, perhaps, thinking that while the Son of God, he was / is also a "normal" human-male!) I'll write it once more: Jesus was / is trans! While there are a few stories in the Lives of the Saints about holy people nursing at the breasts of Jesus, that is not specifically what I am writing about... Rather, I am pondering the Great Feast of the TRANSfiguration...
Seriously, I am not trying to mess with you! Awakening to the depths of the heart-life requires our transformation... Many, many people are aghast at the number of folks coming out as "trans" this or "trans" that. Are they nuts? There are only two genders, right? (Scientically speaking, that "only two" is incorrect. But who cares about stupid scientists!) Responding from the deep heart-life, what does this matter, if a male identifies as a female, if a female identifies as male, and if by means of surgeries and hormone therapies, a person's physical appearance changes?
Did you catch the key word in that last sentence? No? Not sure? Here it is, person! Every human being, before any identification as either a female or a male is already and always a person! This never changes! This is what we always see when we look at another human being, or at least, that is what /whom we are supposed to see: a person! A boy cannot change into a non-person; a girl cannot change into a non-person: trans changes nothing of their essential, core, personhood!
Somehow, ultra-conservative folks choose to see gender first as the "be-all" of another human being: these base judgments translate into the choices to hate the brown immigrant begging for life and freedom at our borders or the terrifying spector of a tall black man walking through one's neighborhood. With ease, suddenly, everyone can be "trans"...
Why did Jesus decide to go "trans" when he climbed that mountain with a couple of fellow hikers? Similarly, why are "so many" folks suddenly "going trans"? Why it's enough to make someone choke on his coffee! For better or for worse, there is something in every human that can compel, sometimes out of the blue, a person to "hunger / need more": to climb a mountain, to peek behind a curtain, to find a new sexual partner, to learn to dance, to build a space ship, to wonder about "God", to learn to meditate: you name it, if given half-a-chance, we all will look for that "something more, something to touch our deepest hungers"...
From the depths of his always hungry, always breaking, human heart, Jesus tore down the walls of his consciousness, expanded his horizons into infinite loving possibilities: and his body followed right along with him: he transfigured into a being of pure light (or as the Sufis say, he "resurrected before the resurrection"). Amazed at the sight, his buddies wanted to sell tickets, heck, they could be rolling in the dough by the end of the week! Meanwhile, Jesus had something else in mind, "the kingdom of heaven is within you"... Can't you hear him say, "You saw me, now its your turn!"
This is what I believe: we are at an inflection point in our humanity, in our history: as persons we are being invited to walk, climb, slide, dive, chug, jump, whatever-but-into-our-collective-transfiguration! Very small-minded men (mostly) would have keep the systems in place that require wars, exploitation, oppression, racism, sexism, eco-destruction, etc. because they make trillions of dollars off all of it! They use their media to get you to hate / judge the trans boy or girl, because so long as you focus on someone or something to fear or to hate you will close your thinking mind down, you will shutter your expansive heart-possibilities, and they will use your body and mind for their profit, their privilege, and their power... We really have only one choice and that is to go trans... straight on into our transfiguration...
Finally, and briefly, here's the "working-trans" for you: the "transubstantiation" of Jesus in the Eucharist: as Jesus went trans on the hill, so too, he goes trans in the Holy Eucharist: somehow, the appearance of bread and wine become his "elongation" through space and time and becomes his body and his blood: yes, as a method for forgiveness for our abundant follies, but much more importantly, for our steady growth into our the-kingdom-of-heaven-is-within-you-transfiguration: not for ourselves, but for all persons (every person) in loving service and the transformation of the entire Planet into the Peaceable Kingdom... How is it going for your activated-heart-life? Your transfiguration awaits!
[I should probably read over what I just wrote and look for clarity of thought, spelling errors, etc.
But I have dishes to wash and I'm late with my morning prayer / meditation... I hope to hear from you!]
May 1, 2024
May 1, 1933 the Catholic Worker paper, founded by Dorothy Day, began on the streets of New York City.
April 7, 1982 the Catholic Worker House in Salinas, California was founded by Robert Smith and a small cadre of volunteers serving sixty-five egg salad sandwiches to homeless folks on the Chinatown Streets (with a promise to return the next day...)
May 1, 2011 the Dorothy Day House of Peace opened in Salinas.
May 1, 2014 Michelle, Donovan, Devin, Rose of Sharon, and I receive the keys to our new House in River Falls, Wisconsin.
Catholic or not, the Catholic Worker Movement offers a philosophy of life, faith, and action that is essential for the 21st century... the point being, how are you living your Activated-Heart-Life?
April 30, 2024
It has taken me seventy years, but I think that I have, finally, written the truth. If you are curious, it is the section Now Read This on the Chop Wood page... "Heretic" wasn't the exact goal that I set for myself, but I suppose that it is my home and my resting place, willingly accepted, of course... It has been decades since I hammered my fists to a wall, bemoaning the fact that I have never been able to be like everyone else (of course, that is an exageration)... but that essential difference enabled my journey onto the streets of Salinas, and my meeting the Great Loves of my life... where and who would I be without all of the folks who somehow managed their way into "Dorothy's Place"?
Alcohol, drugs, addictions, mental illnesses, violence-galore, and the utter confusion and "lostness" of homelessness... Most people have no idea as to the "whys" of homelessness, just as they have no idea as to "how" to "solve" the homelessness problem... but I do! First, let's all stop raping kids: the overwhelming majority of the street homeless population were sexually abused while little children... Secondly, "pass no judgment" is of fundamental importance. At Dorothy's Place we only required "good behavior" and no violence, alcohol, or drugs in the building. Of course, that was every-day a challenge, but generally speaking, folks made courageous efforts to be there better selves... Every person was treated with respect and dignity: as if they were a celebrity!
Third, if collectively we are serious and have initiated a good-faith effort to implement the first and second point, we need to really understand that homeless folks simply need to be safe and able to sleep, to shower, to eat, and to pee and shit in peace: only with these basic human needs met could either you or I (or anyone) even begin to consider what we might be able to do with the rest of our lives: might we be able to drop alcohol, drugs, loneliness, fears, and the horrible conviction of being, not just unwanted, but to-the-core unloveable and never-ever-good-enough? Hope only rises from the sliver of possibilty of that any life / every life matters... Kindness can nudge folks in the direction of and proximity to possibilities...
Lastly, each of these three points are a matter of timing! Studies show that if someone is street homeless for even six months, it is very nearly impossible to stop their slide. Studies are also showing that the sum total of human knowledge also doubles about every six months. An interesting coincidence don't you think? This brings me and us to the real problem: not everyone matters. Homed folks quite easily step over or walk around the unhomed all the time. Everything is connected to everything else: the United States is the largest arms dealer in the world and we throw away the most food... our streets, schools, and homes are full of blood and yet we celebrate guns... Ends and means are seldom, if ever, questioned... Following our example Hamas can kill and steal nearly fifteen hundred people... Following our example Israel can justify the revenge-killing of, so far, some thirty-four thousand people, mostly women and children... Thousands of women, children, and men seek entrance at our borders, desperate for peace and hope for their kids, only to become pawns and victims to Christian political hate... Really, what is there for a homeless person to live for?
April 16, 2024
Gospel-Tao is a completely different -- radical-to-the-roots -- Way of Life: none of this "glory be" isolation from the mystic quest... "We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins, carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains. 93 percent stardust, with souls made of flames, we are all just stars that have people names." (Nikita Gill) While most religionists are theologically addicted to "sin", the mystic is most often very quietly going about the business of shedding one's cultural (socially constructed systems of conformity and control) addiction to ego consciousness...
It is likely that a significant majority (?) of Americans are / sometimes "Christian", those who identify as turning to Jesus as a Wisdom Teacher are, in comparison, few in number. Faith, for most, is sort of like an Easter Egg without the hunt... but identification is like an interior consciousness-explosion... both are accents upon belief, but only one is rEvolutionary... So I ask you what is the core "wisdom" of Jesus? The answer is a humble intimacy with gospel-tao: the Kingdom of Heaven is within you... our living is the mystic-door to identification... Identification is the slow work of ridding our consciousness of our ideas of separation: we are not separate from anything in the universe... empty-mind is a meditation practice that extends through our skin into life and into everyone / and everything we encounter...
More, "Empty yourself of everything, let the mind become still. The ten thousand things rise and fall while the self watches their return. They grow and flourisn and then return to the source. Returning to the source is stillness which is the way of nature." (Tao Te Ching) This is a mystic-correspondence with Jesus' the kingdom of heaven is within you... Coherence is the quantum way of saying the same thing: since no one is somehow separate from anyone else, "I was hungry and you fed me" is the practical "policy" of conscious-coherence, while "I was hungry and you did not feed me" is the egoic-consciousness that sees only separation, feeds upon it, justifies it, and implements it even as an article of faith!
Meanwhile, the sound of rain upon our roof is presenting itself as an opportunity to surrender into a stillness... in silent simplicity...
April 15, 2024
Wars-wars-wars... I continue sick in grief... grief does not make me better than anyone else, that much is for sure... but, though I have, throughout my life, pondered my very deep emotions-empathy for all those for whom to live means little more than suffering: there has proven to be no relief from my solidarity-suffering... no kidding, but I know with an intimate surety exactly why the Suffering Servant had no choice but to die in his evident solidarity with all of those who continue to live as the suffering poor: victims of violence, injustice, exploitation, and with every creature ever created... Every pain is the pain of this Suffering Servant... he may be "resurrected", but only into a resurrection of endless suffering: after all, he is the revelation of infinite Love... "one-and-done" is a theologians gaffe... We sad little humans (at least those living in adoration of the Unholy Trinity of Profits, Privilege, and Power) continue our sad little chant for his on-going crucifixion... by our silence, by our complicity, by our taxes, and by our votes...
We've no choice but to resist by loving as much as we can, as much as our courage will allow...
April 6, 2024
Greetings Friends,
My heart has been so heavy in recent months with the endless horrors of war that it has been difficult to write... nevertheless, I am going to try once more. Gospel-Tao is the root idea, or experiential philosophy, that deeply motivates my life / mind / heart. For years I struggled with my passions from the "either / or" perspective, but in my Thomas Merton studies, I've come to realize that, beyond the sectarian divides, there is an "earthy wholeness" to spirituality as it is lived, not necessarily as it is preached in the "one size fits all" churches. I look forward to exploring with you the heart-mysticism that is gospel-tao...
An essential aspect of gospel-tao is the Gandhian trinity of Truth, Nonviolence, and Simplicity... Can't you imagine how things would be so different if political, religious, economic, and cultural leaders and influencers were to sincerely practice truth, nonviolence, and simplicity? And yet, despite the fact that truth, nonviolence, and simplicity were at the heart of both the teachings of Jesus and of Lao Tzu, neither America nor China, nor most believers / followers, are particularly interested in this Gandhian trinity...
How can that be?
While the core teaching of Jesus was the kingdom of heaven is within you, similarly, Lao Tzu presented the case for the humble, simple, natural human being in tune with the Mystery of both Life and Things: inter-abiding as with every human and with the Invisible Way... this core teaching has been marginalized through the pile-on of theologies and justifications for not doing the kingdom of heaven: not-doing presents the non-way of an easy-way of worship and of not-doing-in-a-vapid-circle-of-endless-repeat... When belief became a legitimate substitute for lives of awakened intention, "correct belief" not only became fighting words, but worse, excuses for living lives of incredible meanness and dullness...
Tao is most often translated into English as "way", although Red Pine has made a case for "dark-moon-mother-rebirth": Te is understood to be "the way" or practice of and into the experience of Tao. Jesus identifies himself as Way as did his early followers, leaving little doubt that he and they were practicing the kingdom... The Beatitudes of both Matthew and Luke, along with the well-known parable of the "last judgment" (I was hungry and you fed me... or not) again indicate Way as both intentional practice and, as it were, a doorway into the kingdom of heaven life...
When the Anti-Trinity of Profits-Privilege-Power became the hidden "meaning" of both Gospel and Tao, we all have all suffered the horrible consequences and likewise confront a global future of horrible becoming horrific... Seeing this is to wonder with Dorothy Day as to how to bring about a true revolution of heart: if in fact Dorothy Day were here now she would, no doubt, ask why not cultivate a mass conversion into awakened intention and practice?
Indeed, what if?
So here is another "definition" of the Blessed Trinity: What if? Why not? What Next?