nameless

Only a blind one can enter this room

let it be curtainless

flowerless

spotless

Only a naked one can dance in this dark

only a fearless one can embrace this light-ball

let her be speechless

let her be nameless

Light the fire on heart level my dear

— let it glow

we can’t do it otherwise

Go to that forest you feared

do not ask why just go

then come back to me

come back to me 

~Elif Sezen

I remember when I was curious and searched for the meaning of life…..

inquiry for today~ settle into the sunset and feel the awe of inner guidance through faith and trust…..

who’s truth?

Enlightenment is overrated. Of course, I may be saying this because I’m not enlightened. Or I may be saying it because I am enlightened. Which is why enlightenment is overrated. What really matters is how you treat other beings. My advice: Forget enlightenment, and work on being loving, just, and kind instead.

As the recent upheaval in the United Methodist Church over strengthening the ban against gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriage demonstrates, affirming God as the source of morality doesn’t tell us much. If you support gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriage, your God will affirm gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriage. If you oppose gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriage, your God will oppose them as well. Ultimately, it is your morality that determines God’s values, not God who determines your morality.

People falsify religions all the time; it’s just that the religions they falsify are religions other than their own. I take religion seriously for the same reason I take Shakespeare’s King Lear seriously: There is great beauty and truth in it. Read Qur’an, New Testament, Bhagavad Gita, and Torah as great literature rather than infallible revelation, and you will discover much wisdom in them. If, however, you find yourself moved to jihad, crusade, civil war among cousins, or occupying your neighbor’s backyard, read Shakespeare instead.

~Rabbi Rami Shapiro