Place of Refuge

Place of Refuge

19 March 2011

Dvinity and the Diva in You



Divinity is the 
                                  imperfection of God;
but it is still the
                              perfection of man.
(Hazrat Inayat Khan The Unity of Religious Ideals, page 119)

Divinity, according to Hazrat Inayat Khan,
is "God personified"
Divinity is the physical manifestaion
of the divine idea
held within the mind
of every man and woman.
"Divinity is reduced God and enlarged man."
Divinity in this equation is
the intersection point,
the intermediary, 
between God and humanity.
Divinity is of God but it is not God.



God is total
unutterable
all,
inconceivable
in words,
capable of conceiving us,
but we
are not capable of conceiving g-d.

The Divine is our route,
it is the nearest we can get
to conceiving the unknown and unknowable
g-d.
The Divine
is God Captive
in the Realm of Humans;
it is the seed planted and engendered there,
by the spark within each of us,
and when we open
our hearts
our mouths
our wombs
to produce our understanding of the 
divine,
we produce
divinity.

In reality, divinity is
the expansion of the human soul;
divinity is human nature
in God. . . . (Inayat Khan, p. 116)
Thus, there are as many deities as there are
perceptions of the divine.

And that is why
we should not,
we must not
chastise another,
              if her
              or his
divinity looks different from our own.
We are all responding to the same compulsion
to represent something sacred,
we who seek the divine are all listening
to the diva inside of us.



Each human carries the seed
of divinity within --

Some religious authorities have tried to recognize the divinity
of Christ while ignoring the divinity of humanity.  They
have tried to make Christ different from what
may be called human; but by doing so they have not been able to keep
the flame alight, for they have covered the main truth that religion
had to give to the world, which was that divinity resides in humanity,
that divinity is the outcome of humanity, and that
humanity is the flower in the heart of which
divinity was born as a seed.
 (Inayat Khan p. 118)
-- I fear these words as much as I see the absolute sense in them.
I know some people may read them and immediately
leave this blog and never return.
That's the risk I take
when I write these nutty entries.
And yet, I write these words here, these words that indicate both
the absolute humanness of Jesus
(who was also divine)
and the potential divinity
of each human.

And it is true.



When Jesus said that the only way to salvation 
is through him,
he didn't mean to deify him,
he meant to work
through him,
through the metaphor he offers
in the script he provided.
It is important to note
right now
that Jesus never wrote down words.
He acted.
His script was one of deed;
it shows us how we all should
act and do if we intend
to embody the divine that dwells
in each of us.

Do not worship Jesus,
worship is a passive act.
Rather,
if you find his story to be a story
that fits your perception of divinity,
well, then,
imitate him,
walk in his shoes,
for the argument Jesus poses
is the most convincing argument
for the end of violence.

Notably,
(and I've said this a few times already)
in our current world
people who do take Jesus' words and actions
literally and live then literally
suffer one of two fates:
* we kill those people, perceiving them to be dangerous
* we chastise and alienate those people, condemning them as ignorant.


The time has come
it is now
to stop killing and chastising
the lovers of peace and truth;
the time has come
to join them.

I am not lying.

I never lie.


We have had our second chances.



The time is now.


My charge is clear; my message, simple:
if we could all just stop this bullshit
and find the divine within ourselves,
and embody that divine, then
without a doubt,

Jesus would come
Jesus would be here.


In that sense, one may call man
a miniature God, and 
it is the development of humanity
which culminates in divinity; thus
Christ is the example of the culmination of humanity
(Inayat-Khan, p. 119)



2 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Well, I certainly agree with you. This is the basis for spiritual tolerance, which I believe is the greatest spiritual value there is. If everyone practiced it, how different the world would be!

PENolan said...

Sounds simple; seems impossible - but for me? It's nice to find a kindred spirit, Makropoulous