We all walk our own path on this earth
The choices we make…
To turn left instead of right
To work in one profession or another
To love this person or that one…
These determine the terrain of our journey
But never its destination
And…
We all walk our own path in eternity
The choices we make…
To live this life or that one
On this planet or another
With our soul mates or without…
These determine the elevation of our journey
But never its worth
You are an emanation of the universal consciousness
Or more simply:
You are a child of God
Of immeasurable worth
Both in life and in eternity
When you were born… does not matter
Into what circumstances… is inconsequential
The unfolding of your soul does not require
Ideal conditions
Rather, your unfoldment…
Is a natural consequence of your presence
Your willingness to be a witness
On this earth
In this body
Here
Now
So be here. Now.
Witness as much of this moment as you can
The weight of your body
The lightness of your breath
The substance of you surroundings
The pulse of the city
The hum of nature
The rough-hewn incandescence of humanity
Breathe
The present moment…
This moment… is a paradise
It is… a Garden of Eden
Here
Now
Breathe
To live here… now… in this moment
Look to Adam and Eve…
It's a tale that’s often
Reduced to something like…
There once was an Eden
A paradise on Earth
Until man (led astray by woman)
Disobeyed God
And then… boom…
Original sin… Punishment… Exile
No more paradise.
Hm.
In the Garden of Eden…
(as the story goes),
Adam and Eve,
“…were both naked,
the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed.”
So, FIRST:
To be in paradise: you must be naked
That is: you must become naked in your heart
Unhidden, vulnerable, open
You must give yourself over to the moment freely
There are no barriers in eternity
SECOND:
There is one tree from which you must not eat,
“The tree of the knowledge of good and evil”
Not, “the tree of knowledge”
For on this earth plane,
You will never know what God knows
God’s knowledge is
Beyond the fixed and definite grasp
Of the human mind
Eat from “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
And — just like Adam and Eve — you WILL “know”
The relentless, unceasing task
Of categorizing the world into a binary condition
Good or evil, positive or negative, right or wrong
A constant, exhausting moral bifurcation
That is the original sin
Not disobedience
But judgement
To wash away this sin, you must
Baptize your heart in the waters of non-judgement
Abandon the burden of being the arbiter… of anything
The THIRD essential element for paradise
Is found, “in the midst of the garden,”
After Adam and Eve are banished from Eden
God declares that, “The tree of life,”
Will be guarded by, “Cherubim and a flaming sword”
For “the tree of life” is the tree of ALL life,
To eat of its fruit is to dissolve your ego,
Your sense of separateness
To eat of its fruit is to recognize:
You… are of the universe,
Just as the fruit… is of the tree
To eat of its fruit is to “live forever”
Not eternally, but IN the eternal now
Whenever you feel the need
Return to the Garden in your mind
Consume your fill of this fruit
Naked and unashamed
Brave the cuts of the fiery blade
And the swooping terrors of celestial guardians
We all walk our own path
The choices we make…
To have an open heart
To abandon judgement
To breathe in the whole of life
These determine not the toil of our brief moments on earth
But the joy of an eternal now… in the kingdom of heaven