hi friend, yesterday i bought a bumper sticker that says, all glittery and believable…”expect miracles” and i’d like to share about that today. here’s a way i think of that, in plain ol’ black and white:

the waterfall of life

the choice is ours: we can either get totally bummed out about anything–the sickening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the paradox of religious warfare annihilating the true purpose of religion that is supposed to help us transcend our human miseries, and endless other negatives, hardships, horrors, and agonizingly truthful facts about how hard life is today on planet Earth–or–we can direct our energies toward the amazingly stupendous positive things that happen a million, a kazillion times a day, and — expect, and even help to create, miracles!

i choose to expect miracles. with my actions and my thoughts i hope to create a few, too.

a few minutes ago i finished reading an article in this week’s New Yorker that totally bummed me out. it was about how plastics, from the simplest plastic containers we store our leftovers in, to the plastic tubing used for patients receiving transfusions, basically all plastics, this article said, leech poisonous, carcinogenic chemicals into our systems, and most particularly these contaminants are found, in horrifying concentrations, in younger children more than older people. Now THAT is a bummer. And the oil leak, dammit! THAT’s a bummer. And the economy giving people such hardships, THAT’s a bummer, and Aunt Sue just getting diagnosed with cancer: THAT’s a bummer. So….lordflea, how dare you say, “Expect a miracle, or more than one, even, when so much bad stuff is always happening all around us?”

Let’s look at this drawing again, shall we? And I’ll explain what it means to me, and how i apply the idea behind it to living my life. You may have a different view, but from my perspective all, and I mean ALL, even the horror, the cancer, the spills– is that of this journey we are on, and even though getting through some stuff may be tough, hard as it is, this journey we’re on all together is perfect, even when it appears to be we’re in hell, not Earth. Like I say, it’s all in our perspective. YOU may think you’re in hell, but I happen to think that heaven is right here, right now, on this beautiful world and in this human body i’ve been given (this time around).

Now take a look at the drawing again. This time, when you look at it, ask yourself what the waterfall in the center means to YOU. And what do the different people mean to YOU? And what do the different symbols, or glyphs, mean to YOU? Stare at this drawing for a moment. Breathe it in. Take a pause. Really jump into it. What does the waterfall mean, do you think?

la cascada de la vida

la cascada de la pura vida es la cancion verdada de mi corazon: “the waterful of pure life is the song of my heart.”

The waterfall “as life” is a metaphor i learned about from reading “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind,” by Susuki Roshi, who brought Tibetan Buddhism to the West back in the 60s and was the founder of Tassjara Zen Monastary in Carmel, California. Once upon a time I took a trip to see this great teacher, and, lo and behold, met him on the dusty road up to the monastary, because the little VW bug in which he was being chauffered had gotten a flat tire. And when I came along in my spiffy Triumph sportscar, my friend and I stopped to help repair the Roshi’s tire, and I had the enormous pleasure of meeting him. He would soon be dead, of cancer. And I remember seeing a greyish aura surrounding him when we met. We didn’t speak. We didn’t have to. I had read his words, and didn’t need to know anything from him. Just being in his presence satisfied me. I hope you feel the same way about this drawing I’ve done about the waterfall, thinking about it as Suzuki Roshi explained:

(my words, a paraphrase): We are all part of a vastness, which can be likened to the rushing water in a magnificent waterfall. When each one of approaches this waterfall, and makes a drinking bowl-shape out of our hands, we can easily capture some of the water in this waterfall, and even drink it. And it becomes part of us then. The water we’ve drunk is no different, and hasn’t changed one bit from the same water that continues to flow with the force of the waterfall…down the mountain sides, around the valleys, and into the sea, where it joins the oceans and travels virtually all around the world.

Each one of us humans is like an individual molecule of this water that is contained in the giant waterfall. The waterfall itself represents—well—you may use the word “God” or you may use the word “Spirit” or “the Divine” or even “Cosmic Consciousness.” Whichever word or idea you prefer, it doesn’t matter. The truth is that we are all connected. We humans, whether we’re black, blue, white, brown or purple–whether we worship in temples churches mosques or in the forest, we are all connected through our Spirits, through our Purpose here.

The drawing depicts this idea. The different folks surrounding the waterfall, old and young, white or people of color–we are all One. The different symbols of the world’s great religions: Chrisitianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. they may represent organized groups with various rules and varying promises: do this or you’ll go to hell, do that and you’ll be saved—but the truth is that we are all part of the same inscrutable waterfall of life. We may not yet be aware of it, but the Force flows through us, and connects us all. I know this because I experience it. And anyone else can too, if they take the time to … feel it.

And as goes the macrocosm, so goes the microcosm.

Yes, the world is connected by water. This planet should have been named “Water” in fact, i’m always writing in my stories. Imagine from space you see this planet for the first time. It’s BLUE….from the water that flows everywhere. There’s not that much dirt, desert, jungle, tundra, and other forms of terra firma on planet Earth. Like our bodies, our planet is mostly water. This is Truth.

So let’s all combine our waterfall-force energy and expect the miracle that is going to come from this tragedy of the Gulf oil spill. What it will be, i don’t know yet. But i do know that out of every grievance comes a healing, and an opportunity for growth. Something positive WILL come out of the Deepwater oil rig diasater. But please, until we discover what that miracle is, please send your positive-forceful-thought-seeds, whether you call that prayer, intent, or positive-thinking—toward the immediate and comprehensive solution of this tragedy that has beset our glorious garden planet…formerly known as Water (in the age before this one perhaps) but now called, affectionately, simply, Earth.

One more thought about this miracle stuff, how ’bout another waterfall! This time with more of US within the FORCE itself.

just let yourself feel THIS for a breath or two. AHhhhhhhhh. There always is a choice, how we view things. Even terrible catastrophes can have a purpose, if we just believe in, and expect miracles!

in the Light, lordflea