Mainstay
Daily
I recite the Prayer of Repentance,
asking
God’s forgiveness for my sins
though
I long ago became convinced
that
God’s pardon has always been there,
our
trespasses being indelibly woven
into
the fabric of our fate and being.
So
why were we assigned this prayer?
Perhaps,
for the blessing inherent
in
reciting a prayer composed
by
the Avatar of the age; perhaps,
to
be blessed by the intimacy of communion;
to
be blessed for our daring attempts
to
align our souls with our Maker
rather
than with our selves;
to
be blessed by our efforts to regain
sure
footing through a contrite heart.
O
child of God, sin (and its forgiveness)
is a mainstay of
God’s interplay with His creation.
When
You pray
The
hope of heaven and the fear of hell –
a
carrot-and-stick approach
to
our trek from darkness to Light,
the
great Mystery luring us nearer
to
the Truth than our mind and senses
can
take us in their fixation
upon
this outward, illusory realm.
Our
past impressions (per Meher),
are
the present obstacles
barring
our way from the surrender
of
a one-pointed reliance
wholly
and solely upon God.
And
with true surrender
comes
the Real knowledge
that
our most egregious blasphemy
is
the one great Truth –
that
neither God, nor anything other
than
God, exists outside of Who we are.
O
child, when you pray to God,
you are praying to your
Self.
A
significant dream
Who
is God hiding from in this masquerade?
From
us, but who are we? We seem to be
God
on the roam, detached from the Source.
It’s
all a pretense, a puppet show,
a
storybook read to drum up romance
and
valor, heartache and grief;
playthings
to imitate the Real;
to
stir up a child’s wonder.
O
child of God! Christ the King,
the
Avatars and Saints,
Sadgurus
and Perfect Ones –
their
stories, parables, examples and games
hint
at and further hide the wordless Truth.
Throughout
the green countryside
the
white horse roams in the illusion
and
exhilaration of freedom
but
then dutifully returns each evening
to
the quiet, settled comfort of His stable.
O
child of God, existence (said Meher)
is a significant dream
pointing to the One Reality.
A
matter of actuality
Each
drop soul treads its particular path;
impossible
for each to judge fairly
their
fellow wayfarer’s
choice
of pace and direction.
Divorced
from God’s perspective,
the
drop soul sees only
diversity
and multiplicity
and
is veiled from the Oneness.
The
Creator, by contrast, sees only Truth
and
recognizes the perfection
in
every atom of His Creation
with
no existent comparison available –
everything
in every moment being perfect
just
the way it is, just the way it is.
O
child of God, Truth is not a matter of comparison
but of actuality, clarity
and insight.
(painting by Mark Hodges)
