Eden, the City of the Soul

God utters me like a word containing
 a partial thought of himself.
                                  --Thomas Merton,
                             New Seeds of Contemplation

Time means nothing.
Eternity is not an everlasting flux of time,
but time is a short parenthesis in a long period.
                                  --Richard Bach

Consider what you have just done for yourself:

• You have explored your secular and spiritual sides.
• You have taken a deep, soul-searching look at your life
• You have worked with supportive human beings
• You have gained insights into yourself and others.
• You have a good sense of the meaning and value of intention.
• You know the practical use of affirmation.

Consider how this might apply to our wonderful species. What is our story—told and listened to with love and compassion? What do our species’ acres of diamonds look like? What resources of talent and temperament do we share? What are our human passions? What is our will?

What are our human passions? Today, in terms of our human story, is a time of great upheaval and change. While science on the one hand seeks that source in the external universe, Buddhism seeks it in the inner realms beyond mind and thought. This, to me, is and always has been the work of soul; so let us explore the deep measure of soul.

How deep are the dimensions of soul? How many stories about soul are there today? It is time we let our imaginations get boggled by The Great Mystery … once again. We are certainly the most diverse, creative species this Earth has ever created. Through finding out our spiritual nature, we can align our lives to the Life that is The Source of all Being. We must know, moreover, that the Universe is more than just a Body of planets, gas and space: it is also a Mind that connects with thoughts, a Soul with a passion, and a Spirit that breathes its Being into all.

It is pure awareness. It is Love. We go beyond body and mind to soul. We go beyond body, mind, and soul to spirit. Love is not an abstract concept. We need love to live. Experience love, feel joy, and every cell of your body knows it.

Love’s wondrous, universal power leads me to offer you the following:

The ancient wisdom of our wonderful species tells us that when we choose to develop our lives on a web of love, we will know joy that few can imagine.

Our own Homecoming:

We know our bodies are holographic fragments of the body of the Creation, our minds are holographic fragments of the mind of the Creation, our spirit is a holographic fragment of the spirit of the Creation, and soul we put aside a few centuries ago is a holographic fragment of soul of the Creation. It is time to reopen the dialog with our souls. The emotion of soul is love. The Godhead wants us to use our gifts of body, mind, soul and spirit to join It in the very act of Creation, itself.

Our agile minds have had a hunger for knowledge ever since our Source gave us Its fruit. Our place in the world is an important part of this flow. We are to use this knowledge for the good of the Universe—by starting at home with ourselves and all other life forms as caught up in the flow of life as we. Einstein said that every point in the Universe is at the exact center of its universe. Ego fundamentally disagrees with this statement because ego thinking proclaims but one center of the universe, itself. I pointed out earlier that ego is exclusionary and separatist. Therefore, if my ego is the center of the Universe, yours cannot be quite so central.

It sees each soul it encounters as the exact center of its universe. Its ability to love without condition makes possible the recognition of soul-centered universes, all of which have equal value in the Universe that is the Creation, Itself.

Ultimately our divine potential leads us to become collaborators in creation, authors of volumes in encyclopedias of universal experience that lead us to our Source. Creator and Its passionate intention to be became Father-God and Mother-Goddess, and the Universe was born.

Genesis 3, reprise:

The Creator and Its passionate intention to be became Father-God and Mother-Goddess, and the Universe was born. It needed to know Itself, so it made woman and man. It made them different but equal. It saw that this was good and It placed them in a lovely garden with all that they would need.

In the center of the garden It placed tree whose fruit contained all knowledge and It sent the divine servant, the serpent, to invite Its children to partake of this fruit, knowing the immediate consequences. Having eaten of the fruit the woman and the man began to play with the resources of the garden. They made mistakes and their childish use of knowledge made them believe that they were bad. Thus their ego was born.

In their ego’s self-punishment the woman and the man banished themselves from the garden, so The Creator placed a spinning, shining beacon over the entrance, and a cherub at either side to wait for their return. The beacon would give all of Its children's children a light to be seen from over the horizon to call them back, and the cherubim would be doorkeepers to welcome them back.

The Creator sent beings, called angels, to subtly, gently guide his children through danger and past death, back to the garden of light, life, and love with the knowledge of why It had created them. After many, many years, Creator’s children felt Its love, compassion and forgiveness, and they raised their heads from their labors, the woman in childbearing and the man in the fields. And they saw the light on the horizon calling them.

They picked up their beds and followed the light. They saw the shining beacon and the smiling faces of the welcoming committee of cherubim. They walked through the great, open gate and saw in the beauty of the garden what they had overlooked before—a Universal City and on every rooftop a stairway to the stars.

They had come home … they knew their journey had just begun.