When we learn to be kind—and this can sound strange—that is God learning to be kind to Himself.
When we learn to appreciate each other, that is God learning to appreciate Herself.
When we wake up to a love of all existence, with nothing left out, that is God—and this may sound strange—learning to love Itself.
When any sentient being awakens to the magnificence of creation, with all its dualities (as they exist in the mind) of day and night, good and bad, joyful and sad, right and wrong, on and on, that is God—the emptiness—waking up to the magnificence of Itself.
When you learn to fall in love with yourself, just as you are, that is God learning about love.
When you have compassion on all of existence, that is Existence Itself learning to have compassion, waking up to compassion for Itself.
When we delight in life being exactly as it is, with all its rights and wrongs, and victories and defeats, and comedies and tragedies, that is God being able to take delight in Itself. We "separate beings," when we wake up to our true identity, are the very means by which the infinite Existence is able to take joy and delight in Itself.
When a man awakens to the beauty and tenderness and courage of women, and forgives them for whatever story of cruelty or heartbreak he experienced, he is truly waking up to his reality as God Himself, which forgives and loves all things—through him.
When a woman awakens to the beauty and tenderness and courage of men, and forgives them for whatever story of cruelty or heartbreak she experienced, she is truly waking to her reality as Goddess Herself, which forgives and loves all things—through her.
When a Christian wakes up to loving Muslims and Hindus and Jews and Buddhists, and celebrating that those expressions of the divine also exist, he or she is waking up to being a true follower of Christ.
When a Jew wakes up to loving not only his own people but also all Palestinians, and wanting to see them too live in peace and security and abundance, then he has truly become one of the Chosen Ones.
When a Muslim wakes up to loving not only his own people but also all Jews, and wanting to see them too live in peace and security and abundance, then truly Allah is smiling on Himself once again, because Himself cannot be broken down into parts.
How can God love one part of itself and not another? It's not possible. When God truly wakes up to Herself—through you—the love for all of Herself is absolute. When that truly happens, nothing whatever is left out—it's not possible to leave anything out of that love.
When you wake up to the reality of your actual non-existence as a separate entity, because only God exists and there is no separation anywhere except in appearance, that is God waking up once again to Its true sublime Identity—through what we call "you."
When your heart breaks open in gratitude for having been here as whatever you were, that is God's heart breaking open in gratitude once again for the heartbreaking beauty of Itself.
You are the key, angel. If it happens at all, when it happens, it happens through you.
—jim sloman, for 10/03/02
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