HaMakom and Mensch-ism

"The Omnipresent" (literally, The Place) (Hebrew: המקום) Jewish tradition refers to God as "The Place" to signify that God is, so to speak, the address of all existence. -wikipedia

There is no gender designation, nor any anthropomorphism. It seems to me that men continue to create gods who demand shedding of blood at the hands of each other in order to divide creation into their own manageable parts. Why do we continue to accept their stories of war and conquest as "sacred scripture?"

It is time to, not only look at accepted scriptures with earth-loving eyes; it is also time to unveil our own sacred scriptures and accept them into a new canon and covenant. The ability to become fully human has been with homo sapiens for too many generations for our nations to continue acting as marauding animals, destroying all outside their own prides, packs, clans, cackles, etc.

Procreation of our own genetics is simply an animal instinct. Responsible compassion for our earth and all the resources herein, and the decision to bring more mouths to feed into the world only when the resources are abundantly available, are parts of the nature of full humanity. This is the difference between sacred sexuality and simple sex. 

Anything that dims the light of free will in homo sapiens: drugs, alcohol, fear, addictions, is a threat to each human and the whole of humanity by reducing us to our base animal instincts. So many conceive while in these states and gestate their young while in these states, that it is questionable that their young will ever be capable of having or exercising full free will. These homo sapiens can never reach the full potential of their humanity without free will, but with careful, compassionate, responsible care, they can continue in creating greater sacred energy with their lives.

We all live in the same "Place" when we share in responsible compassion for all around us. We are the authors of peace on earth when we accept the challenges of being parts of fully formed humanity. The Yiddish have a term for those who exhibit this full humanity, a real "mensch." Maybe we need to form a world religion of "Menschism."

Co-Creating Community of Responsible Compassion

Where does vomit and diarrhea fit into The Sacred Scriptures? It is so easy to talk about heroics that include blood caused by war and sacrifices of flesh to the gods, but nobody wants to talk about the heroics of carrying on with your responsibilities when your womb is bleeding every month to expel a readiness that was not, and may never be, needed. Nor do we discuss the chores that are still done when this same process has the woman doubled over with pain. We simply walk away or continue to call out, "When are you going to feel better and take care of your responsibilities?"

Physicians refuse to remove the offending organ unless the physician determines that it is diseased. They willingly remove a man's reproductive capability as soon as the man asks for the operation and pays the going price. Dis-ease is defined as that which makes a person feels discomfort. Why do we allow physicians to decide when our discomfort becomes dis-ease and when it is simply another burden we have to bear because our ancestors angered the wrong god?

Before paternity could be proven, a woman was grateful for any man who would support her and her offspring.Though she may have been forced to bear the offspring, at least she had some hope of help in feeding herself and her family.Childbearing was a bit more progressed than in the purely animal environment, but not by a large measure. The lucky children were born to people who wanted to protect their family seed in order that the children could take care of them as they weakened, and to continue their lineage. Sex-on-demand was the reward human males were to receive in exchange for resources given to the mother to support her life and to enable her to parent the offspring. Of course, that usually doesn't happen when babies are vomiting on the mother.

It seems to me not an accident that human males became more attentive to their children when birth control for women became readily available and effective. It also seems to me that men became more open to having themselves sterilized when DNA analysis began to prove paternity. All the religions in all the world, for all of human history didn't scare people, through promises of peace or punishment in the afterlife, into behaving with responsible compassion toward their own offspring or other vulnerable parts of the population.

The religious people had a back door of sacrifice to the gods in order to redeem themselves in their own minds and communities. The children were often the scapegoats in these efforts. The non-religious felt no sense of wrongdoing, unless and until, they got caught and the wrongdoing could be blamed on them. Neither really believed that training the children in responsible compassion, through parental example, was important until science changed our ability to hold each other accountable for our actions.

We are still animals in human skin. Sex without committed compassion connected to committed community is simply the satisfaction of animal instinct, like eating and eliminating our waste products from our bladders and bowels. The promise of  family levels of commitment comes from religions; but, in fact, the blood of our own families is still stronger incentive to care for the young than is the blood of the animals sacrificed to "God" or gods.

It takes many years of devotion and example to bring a child up to their full capacity for humanity. Responsible compassion must be modeled for our animal selves to trust in the power of passion of a community not of our own blood. So few people in today's society take the time to passionately and compassionately parent their own offspring; the commitment is even more rare in parenting the offspring of others. Is it any wonder the we still experience both  territorial alpha and scared, submissive animals in many of our social endeavors?

Even Heaven is seen as having only so many seats, so the tribes continue to fight for supremacy in their sacrifices to their "God." We reap what we sow on earth. When will we realize that we have to work at being each fully human here on earth, while we build a community committed to creation of heaven on earth with each other?

Until this time comes, it seems to me that abortion is more responsible than the abuse of the poor little homo sapiens who may never have any human teach them how to become fully human themselves.

Take Time To...

When will we stop waiting for the beginnings of salvation?
I believe the heavenly hereafter starts with our earthly nations.
We don't see The Sacred Spirit's manifestations that surround us;
Competition with others is all most seem to discuss.

I've seen how three-year-olds believe in including everyone;
Each also wants to control all the actions for their own fun.
We are told to have faith like that of children; with this I agree,
But we can't force people to see The Sacred Spirit that we see.

Explain yellow to a blind man; the sound of wind to the deaf;
Making "god" a father makes the abused child more bereft.
We should each testify to our own earthly sacred experience
This is the source of sacred scripture, from the beginning and since.

Yet we accept that there's only a limited number of manifestations
Of a power so immense and varied, it is the source of all creation.
The Sacred Spirit is all around us, and especially available to humans
Because free will, and not heredity, is that on which our spirits depend.

We can choose lives that are filled by depriving sisters and brothers,
Or we can blossom in the sharing of the talents of ourselves and others.
We continue to point to the failed patterns of the "sacred" past,
And repeat the same behaviors, though our choices are so vast.

Instead of standing in the streets inviting strangers to our tables,
We are hiding provisions and weapons in our storage stables.
Any path based on fear will never be a true path to peace;
It's time that the "god" of blood lust and war, we finally release.

Are we happy to go backward, where humans were more afraid?
Are do we want to make of all humanity our neighbors, instead?
With hearts to help neighbors, we listen to voices of division.
Based on their immature fears, we make our uninformed decisions.

I've never met a person on earth who had nothing good to teach me,
Even if it was only how, from his or her way of life, to be free.
I've often gone away simply scratching my head in disbelief
That some of the person's behaviors, he/she saw no reason to cease.

In choosing a band of buddies, I prefer those who live in big tents;
I believe that inclusion of all is the mission for which humans are meant.
We have so many ways to perceive and to communicate our perceptions,
Why accept the authority of any one group's acceptance or rejections?

The rich tapestry of life on earth is a pleasure to watch unfold and change.
Even death, if we accept it as new life will, our perceptions, rearrange.
If we see each life on earth as part of the universal life complete,
There will be no reason in humans, for a limited afterlife, to compete.

Does a tree that dies and feeds the soil ask what other lives it will nurture?
Why are we humans so fixated on our individual eternal futures?
It's enough to know that whatever sacred energy that we sow on earth
Is, in eternity, a source of continuing The Sacred Spirit's rebirth.

I know there are many on earth who have been afraid of me,
But there are also many who seem to see The Sacred Spirit that I see.
To some, I am a saint; to some I am anathema or an enemy;
I attempt to make amends, but the balance is left to eternity.

My energy blended with all the eternal energy manifested on the earth,
If balanced as positive, will feed into other positive manifestations' birth.
If what I have contributed balances out as negative energy,
In the best case, my influence will eventually cease to be.

Some have had such powerful positive lives that they still radiate
Energy that inflames the passions of those who wish, them, to emulate.
I would love to radiate such a powerful positive that I will live forever,
Not in one person or plant, but in many life-affirming endeavors.

We call people prophets who walk directly through history
And predict new answers that aren't accepted as probabilities.
Prophets aren't sent to tell humanity what has already transpired;
They are sent to tell humans the possibilities they haven't tried.

There are many who have given their lives over to instruct humans
On the ways that the universe needs us combined as eternal friends.
Perhaps we really don't want to combine all sacred spiritual energy
Because we envision, without conflict, earth will be interest free.

It would be nice if we would try peace on earth as an experiment;
It seems that this would give us a glimpse of the eternal firmament.
There's excitement in watching new growth, as there is in conquest.
It only takes humans slowing down to put peace to the test.

Take time to smell and prune the roses and to comfort a crying baby,
Time to appreciate all effort that went into creating food that's savory,
Time to appreciate the sight, smell, touch, and taste of a lover or child;
We may realize the heavenly space is happening on earth all the while

How We Think of Jesus

What if Jesus was simply our big brother, sent to set an example?
Why do we have to believe in magic to see his life as ample?
Wouldn't it be more powerful to believe him human, like us?
We may then have more about our own behaviors to discuss.

I know I cannot follow in the steps of an unearthly god,
Even if he took on physical form, while on earth he trod.
But if a man's exemplary life was drawn from ancestors,
This is a way of teaching that most of humankind prefers.

We are, at our cores, animals who learn by following;
Only a few on earth can teach with what they sing.
That our exemplar was born by other means than we
Sets a bad example for our hopes of sacred eternity.

If humans are created as manifestations of The Sacred Spirit
Why do we shut down any avenues for each to hear it?
To test for any voice of the sacred, we should come to agree
That each human represents "God" to some minor degree?

No loving father demands the death of his own sacred son;
Even earlier animals protect the lives that they have begun.
Why have we decided that going backward in evolution
Is the best way to seek humanity's peaceful solution?

Free will to choose only oneself or the best for humanity
Is the great message that has come from humanity's religiosity.
I believe that Jesus, as a man from an observant Jewish family,
Sacrificed himself to his beliefs, for all his world to see.

Those who follow in his steps of non-violent persuasion
Continue to be the most valuable strength of any nation.
Non-violent resistance comes with patient sacrifice;
Immediate gratification of violence will never suffice.

People and societies who will not wait and carefully listen
Will never get the most carefully thought out decisions.
Sanctions against those wanting only excitable attention
Are subject to change, if sent to anonymous detention.

The greatest difference between human and other animals
Is the free will for which most full humans are grateful.
When we kill the frontal lobe with drugs and hatred
The results of procreation are animals that are spiritually naked.

Jesus, it seems to me, taught that it doesn't matter who are your parents;
You should look for The Sacred Spirit's message for why you're sent.
He lived in a way to give us ample personal ways to find our paths
To create a "heaven" that begins on earth, and will eternally last.

Hermeneutics and Heresy

I'm grinding turtle meat today with my mother's mixer
That i salvaged from the things my sisters scorned.
From the day she decided to embrace the sister
Of the dark side of religion, I've felt completely forlorn.

It really never mattered to me that i was an embarrassment,
As long as i could see her living by her stated beliefs.
I thought that shaming children was why parents are sent;
But religious rules were human relationships' thieves.

My mother was neglectful and an abusive parent,
She sacrificed her husband and children to a jealous God.
But she was told that purification was why she was sent,
And why, toward human perfection, she continued to prod.

She demanded that I and my sister take her homemaker place,
No matter that neither of us had been trained for the role.
Oldest sister was considered a victim and I was considered a disgrace;
Our older siblings were the only two our parents considered whole.

One was a oldest boy sibling, being bred to be a bullying patriarch;
We were punished for defying them and for following his example.
The other was a saintly parrot; we were to worship her every remark.
They denied that her defiance of the rules was more than ample.

There was no parenting energy left after the two heirs apparent;
At the age of four, I was thrown into my mother's parenthood role.
We children were left to find adults who weren't always absent.
A four-year-old could not reasonably guide their bodies or souls.

This inability didn't absolve me from the sin of corrupting them
My mother's spirit was broken and mine, apparently, was not.
I was the one my siblings thought to be their powerful friend;
My needs, as a vulnerable child, were by  all others, forgot.

For how many years I've felt the shame of not living up;
I was called stupid and sinful for my every childish mistake.
As my preparation for holy communion overflowed my cup,
This is when my heart and soul did completely break.

There was no hope left for me if my sins had killed baby Jesus.
My mothers had already rejected me as, on earth, hopeless.
Nobody would tell me how to turn back the killing apparatus;
There was apparently no path to my salvation we could discuss.

How cruel it is to put the death of Jesus on a naive child;
They believe, without question, what their parents tell them.
I have forever kept myself apart from trusting the religious mild,
To protect the vulnerable from those who say they are friends.

A friend doesn't scare you and tell you, you will suffer in eternity
Because you broke a few of the tribal relationships rules.
A friend will take you aside and explain all the club's idiosyncrasies
And hand you, with no obligation, all the relationship's necessary tools.

But what of those who have been tortured and killed for hypocrisy,
The ones who believed that universal truth is her own reward?
Am I expected to live by what i think is Jesus-follower heresy?
My choices are isolation or falling on my own heretical sword?

Learning Life's Language; Seeing The Sacred Spirit

When we are small children we learn the languages of those on whom we depend for our physical well-being. We are taught that all parents, especially mothers "love" their children, even though reality says something entirely different. The` truth is just too terrible for many to contemplate, so they deny that it can be possible.

Many parents are actually destroying their children's spirits with anger, fear, and physical deprivation, but we insist that they are loving their children. Quite often, this is reinforced by the words of the parents. Words don't speak what is in the spirit nearly as loudly as do the other physical manifestations of responsible compassion, and lack thereof. Words are nothing more than physical vibrations of energy. We experience emotion, especially as pre-verbal (and pre-birth) infants,  more through the vibrations of tone and other actions rather than through words.

Many speak of hearing the voice of God actually speaking words to them. They say that they hear the voice of their father god or their mother goddess. It would be wonderful if we could record these sounds to hear how much these "voices" match the voices of earthly beings who, at some time, actually spoke with them.  It would seem that the voices would sound much like people who had made the person feel safe, or afraid, or ashamed, depending on one's perception of what a god does for and to people on earth.

Some people experience life and love through manifestations of energy that don't include voice. Do people born deaf "hear" God speaking in the same way as do those who can actually process sound waves? We can't know because we can't hear with another person's verbal processing parts of the brain.

I cannot "see" the same "face" or "hear" the same "voice" of God that my friend sees and hears because I have different photos in my head of what evokes feelings of safety, or fear, or shame. It is like we have learned two different languages. This is especially true when hearing of the god of the pre-Jesus sacred scriptures, the god of Jesus, and the god of The Holy Spirit. My siblings experience our deceased parents in much different manifestations than I do. My friends and family sense The Sacred Spirit in much different manifestations than I do.

In order for me to experience my children's or my husband's love, I don't have to hear them, see them, or physically feel them touching me, but their spirits are always with me. It is the same with all who have deeply loved me in this life, as well as those who have scorned me. Their spirits still live on in me. I can still "hear" their voices and "see" their faces, especially in my deepest meditative states. Their energy, once absorbed by me, can be diluted by other energy, but it never goes away completely. This inspires awe in me, and a great respect for the power in the spirit that is inherent in being a fully functioning human.

Being is simply that, continued energy. Doing is the expending of energy. If God is the Supreme Being, this says to me that this being is in everything until destroyed by misuse or irresponsible control tactics. Expending of energy can either create more energy through the process of synergy, or it can destroy energy that already exists.

Ancient scriptures seem to portray the Supreme Being as a Supreme Doing, making all sorts of things happen to humans because of their imperfect humanity. I suspect that early religions were of two types. There were those that sought to control with fear of earthly rulers, including shamans, soothsayers, and priests. This seems more animal than human to me.

These people seemed to "hear" and "see" a god or gods that looked and sounded suspiciously like their most scary selves.  They pretended to much knowledge that neither they, nor anyone else, could actually understand. The second type of scripture seems to be a more soothing set of scripts. Perhaps these "voices" and "faces" of god(s) were based on loving mothers, fathers, or nursemaids.

Somewhere along the line, people began to fight over who saw the true face and heard the true voice of The Supreme Being. This is very much like siblings arguing about who mama loves the most, without understanding that the spiritual bonding of real love is not physically measurable, neither is the synergy created by any two people the same as the synergy created by any two different people.Yet, we continue to argue, thousands of years after being assured that The Sacred Spirit is available in all creation, and that humans have the ability to choose to live in a way that encourages The Sacred Spirit's growth through synergy, or to kill each others' and their own sacred selves.

We all come from the same sacred spark of life which contains male, female, stone, sand, stars, and all other physical forms that make up the universe. Whether or not we each become black holes destroying this energy is greatly up to each of us. Each act we commit, including our words, either grows or destroys the synergy of the life we impact. What we hear others say and what we see others do become parts of our own spirits, what some refer to as god in us. With each thing we do, we should ask ourselves whether we are manifesting a sacred image and likeness of The Sacred Spirit of humanity or are we creating a black hole that consumes The Sacred Spirit's eternal, divine energy.

The manifestations of The Sacred Spirit that I prefer to welcome into my heart and home are fueled by the look in the eyes, the touch of a cheek, the sweet smiles, the words, and the lilting laughter of my beloveds. I don't need any other voices or faces of god in this earthly manifestation of my physical energy. Even Jesus had twelve buddies to keep him happy on earth. Just as my body continues because of the work of those who feed, clothe, and shelter me, so do they enable The Sacred Spirit to continue in my earthly physical form. I trust that these spirits will continue to be one with my universal spirit and those of all others in eternity.

Spiritual Specks

The Sacred Spirit is in how I feel when compassion touches me.
How is it that I'm frightened when one's love is what it seems to be?
Will I ever get over the feeling of not being good enough,
And the opinions of the religious majority's ability to rebuff?

I am incapable of double think; this has been made clear to me.
I cannot believe that some are born only to suffer in eternity.
I don't believe that life is a gift that we give our children;
In fact, I spent my motherhood apologizing to them.

I don't believe the creative force demands anything of us,
But the universe's future is something we must discuss.
Emphasis on individual pleasing of a jealous god
Is destroying humanity, and the earth's shared sod.

If we are born as humans, we can be taught to choose,
By which actions we all prosper and by which we all lose.
The focus on eternal salvation of the individual
Denies that all truly human life must be communal.

Each generation is meant to take us closer to unity;
This, I believe, is our human life on earth's destiny.
Those who pull us back because their fear of change
Maybelieve that control of eternity is in their domain.

Physical manifestations of spirit contain specks of eternity,
And there are no other "faces" of the spirits we can see.
How many Sacred Spirit "faces" live in the oceans?
Are we to limit ourselves to others' defined devotions?

My sacred human partner sleeping next to me today
Will continue to be part of every loving word I say.
It matters not who else may have experienced him
As someone less that a loving partner and a friend.

There are no universal manifestations of life
That aren't filled with celebration and sacrifice.
When any people, community, or generation
Dictates the manifestations; this is desecration.

Why is a person who sees god in a butterfly
Called a heretic and condemned to die?
Why is a couple who have come to their capacity
Told, as parents, their options for control aren't free?

Why is an innocent child told her sins killed Baby Jesus,
And told she was an abomination by those she should trust?
How can a church who, godly authority continues to claim,
Have, as a part of their canon, that eight-year-olds bear adult blame?

The authority of the church sent my older brother to hell
And my retired military uncle, who killed himself, as well.
This authority allowed priests with virgin blood on their hands
To continue administering the sacraments, as the church demands.

The state and palace that is now referred to as The Holy See
Is as far from the ways of Jesus as anything on earth could be.
The organization that is referred to as the "Christian" religion
Has been divided by mostly hierarchical, canonical divisions.

With expansion of small groups, who got together to follow Jesus,
The core of responsible compassion, taught by Jesus, ceased.
Christianity became a a plank in pursuing political power,
So rights and privileges, on the leaders, would be showered.

The individual, eternal voices who embrace The Sacred Spirit
Must sing louder and longer, so the whole of creation can hear it.
Each individual who hears this voice of unity must do the same,
So that, The Sacred Spirit in universal humanity, we can reclaim.

We must never again give one human voice infallibility;
The body of The Sacred Spirit demands community.
Continued use of the concept of individual divine distinction
Promises to lead to humanity's eternal, universal extinction.

When will we, as humans, reach the purpose of evolution
To admit that there are no individual or societal solutions?
Are we, as animals, condemned to repeat our failures,
Or will we come to addressing a universal, eternal cure?

It is clear, ever since the discovery that the earth is round,
Pretending there are boundaries, isn't theory that is sound.
What we do to one continent or area is automatically sent
To another section of the universe's many quadrants.

We will never understand all the mysteries of our universe;
Making the most of who we are and where we are given birth
Is The Sacred Spirit nudging us to upwardly move, on earth;
The unity of sacred spiritual gifts give humanity almighty worth.