WORLD WAR COVID
From WeaponWorld to PeaceWorld
Learner, begin
- HYPOTHETICAL CONSOLAMENTUM
Recited during the Middle Ages in the Langue d’Oc (now Southwestern France) by an itinerant pair of Cathar perfecti attending a deathwatch, much the way similar, itinerant believers recited verses from The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Egyptian as well, and no doubt many more such texts silenced since: dozens, hundreds or thousands, oral and written, in as many towns destroyed and languages disappeared.
This poem is my own invention (or pickup from my nervous antennae). I dedicate it to my Dad who passed away before I could recite it to him, and to those who confront the uncertainties of life and death with no solid spiritual shield, and who must die once again before they can use it…
NOTE: The first two lines below are boilerplate formula. Or perhaps the favorite chant of this particular perfecti pair. There are almost as many custom formulas as there are attendees. They often have complicated meditation breathing formulas of their own, brought down from many generations ago. Anyway, this formula is negotiated to meet local needs. Once the formula rhythm settles down to comfortable, it will be repeated that way from then on.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Have no fear,
For you are Saved.
Christ will shoulder your Karmic burden,
No matter how bad it may seem to you.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Close your eyes and be at ease.
Die easily, sweetly,
Relax in peace this last time.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Let your soul release from your fading body,
With confidence, joy and hope;
As if to your wedding,
As Christ taught us.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
You have bailed out from myriad bodies before this one.
During countless death agonies,
Lifetimes of misery and anguish
Have shaped your destiny up to this day.
You are free from all that now.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
The next time your soul sheds its dying body,
Like a fighter pilot his burning plane,
Your disembodied soul will drift through space and time
Until you tire of its drudgery, hard vacuum and silence.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Pass all the stars in heaven in review, like a jaded tourist,
Witness galaxies cohere, spin up and die in splendor.
Or just recall birdsong and the heady breath of plants,
From sunrise to sunrise.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
You may cross the path of Daemons, Angels and Beasts;
Reflections of your desire, hope and fears.
You may touch and be touched by them,
For good or ill.
It’s your choice.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Linger for a while on Earth,
Haunt old homes, places familiar and strange,
Go visit former offspring and lovers,
Let your spectral approach give them goose bumps.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Suffer loss and loneliness over and over again,
For as long as you can bear it.
You will soon tire of this.
Sooner or later, with growing impatience
Your soul will yearn for the next carnal life
As urgently as the need to piss.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
You will tumble back into life,
Falling backwards into it,
The way a rock finds its depth and cold water its downward flow,
Into the dim clarity of life
Irresistibly.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Once your soul starts yearning for its next life,
You will defer your return to review a host of conceptions
In keen appraisal of a worthy rebirth into this world.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Seek the psychic beacons
Of Mary's Immaculate Conception and Jesus’ Resurrection.
Divine beacons on both ends
Of the only flare strobed heavy runway
On a lifeless plain mournful, carnal and gray,
The lair of furtive couplings and sad deaths.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Ignore the seductive tidal pull of Karma
Of fear, desire and familiarity
That will con you to seek rebirth
In a mortal infant, in a family setting, among familiars,
And back onto the Wheel of Desire and Death.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Give up your family, best friends, cherished households,
Give up your favorite things;
Take up His Cross instead.
Be reborn unto His Spirit and into His flesh.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Recall His many parables
That make no sense in other interpretations,
But perfect sense in this one.
Grab hold of His lifeline,
Relive His sacred Life
You could have lived had you held true faith.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
But God is merciful,
Even to the merciless,
Even to the wicked,
Even to you.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Review and repent your many sins
In the perfect clarity of His Lifetime and Agony.
How you will wish you had submitted to God!
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
How harshly your conscience will torment you !
You will pass in review your many betrayals.
Throughout His Lifetime, for thirty some years,
For each of your sins you will repent a hundredfold,
And find in each of your good deeds,
A dab of balm for your sin-flayed soul.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Those wincing recalls will let you proclaim His Words with conviction
Since you see the world through His eyes with divine clarity,
Now that the beam is removed from yours.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Have faith when they crowd in to betray and crucify you.
Bow your head for His crown of thorns,
Thankful for this distraction from your utter lack of worth.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Your pains are almost over.
His mercy may even spare you His final Torment.
That would be so like His loving ways.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
His endless afternoon Agony,
The last twinge of your eternal torment;
His Calvary up Golgotha,
The last stumbling steps of your Everest to Heaven.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
No more rebirths for you
On the Karma Wheel of Desire and Death,
No more for you,
Faultless rebirths on Karma's autopilot.
Your soul's fate is in your pilot hands, now.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Instead, you will accompany Him straight to Heaven that evening,
With the repentant thief, Dismas.
You will find God waiting for you:
His only Son and His companions: welcome prodigals.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
You will find there
Those who have torn themselves from the Wheel of Desire and Death,
And opted for His Cross.
Your friends will rejoin you,
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Sooner or later, after one death or one more or many,
They will precede or follow you along this path.
Jesus promised to prepare rooms for us in Heaven,
And return to take us back there.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Stop worrying about space and time,
Before and after, singularity and multiplicity,
And which soul enfolds what body.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Your pathetic faith blinds you to the fact
You could remove your eyes or your arm, should they offend you
Without much bother, so little do those things matter
In your fantasy life that seems so grave.
You cannot fathom the material world under the light of truth
Much less the spiritual one.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Have just a little faith,
Just a shred of hope,
For you are Saved.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
No-one can take this from you now,
None can talk you down or extract it from you
Not by force or by sentiment,
No more so than by lying or persuasion.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Tell them exactly what they want to hear;
It won’t matter.
You will die in any case and thus be free
Perfectly, miraculously free,
To opt for the Cross and Paradise,
Else wrack yourself once again on the Wheel.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
You could choose to come back
Or be nicely asked to,
To help your brethren find the Way,
Carry lost lambs back to God,
Oh Bodhisattva.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Or you may yearn for another return
To the good old days of desire and ignorance:
To the next tough lesson,
The next chance to redo things the hard way;
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Or cringe before Christ's fated Agony and yours,
Or your unfitness for this honor;
And submit, once again, to the Wheel.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
You are perfectly free to choose
Karma would be glad to receive you again.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Great the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,
The good conscience Comforter Jesus left us pending His Return.
It is through Them that we are Saved
Who choose to be,
Who look and see,
Who listen and hear.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
Drop your fear.
Even though everything that lives must die,
And so on over and over again;
Yet we are all reborn and saved,
Just as soon as we choose to be,
We, the ready and willing,
As promised.
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
(The reciting perfecti have left the room…
Repeat alone
Matthew 6-9, the Lord’s Prayer
Pending their return).
Breathe deeply,
Breathe softly in three long breaths, Oh Nobly Born.
...
COMMENTS? markmulligan @ comcast.net