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AUM Trinity: Bullet Scars, Tattoos, and the Mystic Poet Rumi

A few days ago, I began reading some material by Deepak Chopra, you know, some of that goodness filled with some metaphysical reminders about abundance and how the Universe is Love, the kind of things that I look for in Life and enjoy writing about. On Saturday, I had a very Love enchanted day in variety of ways and just like the title reads: Bullet Scars, Tattoos, and Rumi.

But first:

I Love me some Rumi!

Rumi was one of the crazy Mystic Sufi cats who was all blissed out by Life Itself and seeking out God in everything.  The way that he addresses the Beloved in All Things is amazing to me and a great reminder that even in some of the Darker moments in which we may find ourselves, God and Love are All around, embracing us Always in All Ways, we need only take the time to see.

Now back to Saturday…

I was working one of my many jobs (5 and growing) and a woman walks up with a unique tattooed quote around a scar.  As I looked at it, I saw that “Rumi” followed the quote.  I was a little tickled because I had just been reflecting that morning on a line from Rumi:

There is a field out beyond right and wrong. I will meet you there.

And I thought it was pretty cool that this Lady had a Rumi tattoo.  As a tattoo lover myself, I have a unique relationship with my own tattoos and how they chronicle elements of my own Journey.  Tattoos are a spiritual medicine, a ritual that reminds me of where I have been, and are also a physical example of how one can heal and have beauty within the memory left behind, even if it comes with a scar.  This woman had a similar reminder for the scar that her Rumi tattoo surrounded was caused from a gunshot.  She did not go into detail about how she was shot but she did talk about how grateful she was to be alive.

“It is a reminder to appreciate every day…”

On Friday, just prior to meeting this woman, I Re-Tweeted Mixed Martial Artist and Former WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, who shared his own story of meeting a War Veteran and how it was a reminder to be grateful.  @fightbobby would tweet me, @jmaw808, and even shared: “How can someone Love with Hate in their Heart.”  I was stoked because earlier in the week I joked about getting tweets from a celebrity as I had received a RT from an up and coming singer, who I tweeted to keep following her dreams, or something along those lines…

To some I may be preachy, to others I have been called too idealistic but I have to say that there is nothing wrong with promoting Love.  If we look all around, we can see that there are so many reasons to welcome Love in All Its shapes and forms.  In my opinion, Love is our Truth and is a necessity that we can no longer afford to ignore.  I was pretty tickled at how the Universe gave me a few unique interactions with people I have never met before, not only in the stories that I shared, but also dancing in the beautiful eyes of two small twins, their beautiful babysitter, Jordan, a friend from college who has fought her own battles and overcome, and so many more.

It is a beautiful Life when one lets Beauty Be.

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AUM Trinity: Thai Walls

So in light of the fact that I do some Social Media Management and Strategy for different businesses and organizations, somehow I missed the mention of Starbucks Thai Wall drink craze…

A few weeks ago, while going to one of my Part-Time gigs, I asked my co-worker if she wanted something from Starbucks because one of my guilty pleasures is coffee.  She made some insane thing up that I thought was fake and too long to remember and she had to write it down for me but all I know it was iced, a flavored tea, and included Thai Walls.  I used to work at Starbucks many moons ago and still have some friends from those times who do work there.  Last night, was the first time I learned of the hatred towards Thai Walls when lil ole me ordered it myself to see what it was like…

“I hate those drinks.  Everybody gets that.  All because someone put it on their Twitter…”

I could feel the part of me, the innocent who had no idea, try to justify, try to fight the conformist element because I really had no idea that there was this Thai Walls trend to begin with.  As I watched that part within me writhe, albeit for approval from friends, who weren?t mad at me but more upset about their work, I could only smile and laugh for at the very least I was aware of it.  As I drank the drink, which I didn?t particularly enjoy, I wondered if I didn?t enjoy it because I truly did not, or because that other part of me wanted to punish myself. So often can we get trapped in the musings of others that we forget to enjoy our own stories, ya know?

In this day and age, I don?t really care if I?m labeled or if other people judge me.  I?ve lived too long to get wrapped up in that but it is easy to do so if one is tired or not conscious of the effect that others, their thoughts, and beliefs can have as we walk through our own lives.

Life is but a dream…

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Untitled

Life is a conversation with One-Self.  The more the reflections are gazed in so deeply that all the fragments split, the easier it is to realize that the Mirror is not a reflection, but something to move through in order to be Whole.

That is All.

Love.

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Aum Vol. 3: Empti-Ness

I am in the process of saying good-bye to a broken Mirror…

In recognizing the broken Mirrors, seeing the shattered reflections and putting those pieces together in my own Life, it seems to be there are no Mirrors, at least at this stage of the game, because I have gazed deep in All, and have found the Love in and for them.

This One is hard because it is so close to my own broken elements.  It also symbolizes the end of a Dream…

As I realized last night that I had completed a Dream cycle that began nearly three years ago, I sent Love to this Being and thanked God for filling me in so many ways.  I gave praise for realizing that though I enjoyed Rage, and Anger was fuel for so long, I had found and felt that fueling with Love is so much better for where I am at.

I would go to sleep and have a Dream where I was in a room filled with Mirrors and was throwing a baseball underhand at each until there were no more Mirrors.  It was telling because it ended with me taking the ball and lobbing at a book at the end of a row of 6 books.  It’s cover a deep Red.

What began as a Narrative Poem, led into my first work on Okay-Ness, then A Call to Love, The Tales of Mr. E, It’s Sequel, and Now Here, the sixth, AUM Vol. 1, which is going to go to print.  It is no coincidence that today, I made my last payment for the publication of this sixth book and the woman I spoke with was named Phoenix.

The Phoenix, a symbol of arising from the ashes to be reborn.  To break down all the Mirrors, to accept the reflections as my own and to see clearly why I am here, not to struggle, but to fly, the process from Death to Rebirth itself.  This has been a powerful Journey that I have been on.  I watched, listened, felt the pull intensify recently as this Mirror explained frustration at certain things but then cut me down for the same.  A contradiction?  A lack of seeing that what angered this Mirror was Its own reflection?  My own behavior from the past that kept me shackled becoming more and more apparent.

The Journey of each is unique.  But that Mirror no longer has anything that It can teach me.  Living like that only burns. The Buddha’s teachings have a beautifully applicable saying: Anger is like holding a hot coal in One’s hand with the intent at throwing it at another…

I feel Love, I feel sadness.  Love because I can finally accept this place within my own Being.  Sadness because it was the only Truth, the Me Against the World, that I knew for so long, not necessarily because it was True, but because it was the only reflection that I allowed.

I Love You.

I also said these words in a context to another Mirror, One that gave me balance.  That Mirror would say that our experience helped her to find herself.  I felt the same.  I am so grateful for that balancing Mirror.  Extremely happy that I no longer feel any anger or frustration over what occurred though at one time, I truly questioned what was happening in my Life.  But it was all of that made me realize that I had to choose Love.  It may sound cliche, but in choosing Love, that is the only Peace that I have ever consistently known, and my Life gets better and better each day because of that practice.

I was asked yesterday if I had a religion.  I believe Aloha ke Akua.  God is Love.  I guess if I had to say so, I believe in Love (see above about Love being the only thing that has helped me to be set free).

Love always protects. Always believes. Always hopes. Always endures.  Love never fails.

Nor does it end if we empty out all the other stuff.

THX to All my wonderful teachers, the Beautiful Mirrors!  It’s been quite the ride and I am excited to walk into whatever shall be next.

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AUM Vol. 3: Lines Blurring Into One

“Human Beings to a God, what’s a God to a King, what’s a King to God, what’s a God to a Non-Believer, who don’t believe a thing… No Church in the Wild.” ~ Frank Ocean on Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye West

I first heard Frank Ocean on an Odd Future Mixtape late last year.  The emotion that gets communicated through his voice and well all of the Odd Future, Golfwang Collective of artists is pure creativity and expression.

Hip-Hop, Rap, and shoot even R&B has at times been lumped into one category or another.  Whether it be Gangsta (Rap) or baby making music (R&B), whenever we lump something into one, it takes that one to go against the grain that makes us think, even if it’s just a slight bit different…

Listening to Channel Orange, Ocean’s new album, something just felt so free about it.  I like movies because it allows me to think and at times take a ride  But with music, it is like Truth in feeling and for me, as I have felt in Nature, and great momentary encounters along the Al-Oneness of this Journey that gives me the greatest reminders that I am not alone because I can feel the connection.

I have walked this Spiritual Path, seeing, finding, hearing Love and God in All, and in so doing, I feel free.  My usual process is to read, watch videos, or look at the background of Artists, to see where they’ve been.  To my surprise, I learned earlier that Frank Ocean openly expressed having had a same-sex love earlier in his Life, and I realized why the freedom was communicated right there.  He wasn’t afraid to share who he was with the world because he accepted all parts of him.

In the Hip-Hop World, it’s still pretty Alpha.  For Ocean to express himself without fear, was liberating not only to himself but gives a Voice to people who didn’t know if it was okay to be themselves, black, white, green, straight, gay, Asian, Martian, Comet, Cupid, Rudolph, whatever, however.

I relate to this because I am finding my own Freedom and Liberation through acceptance of this Spiritual Human+Being that I am and have always been but I did not want to share because I did not know how it would be received.

“They’ll lynch you in the South if you talk like that.” An Australian gent told me while I was on my Vision Quest.  Old sentiments die hard but we have to be who we are, truly, madly, deeply, always.

I was so afraid, so fearful before of pursuing the spiritual work and letting it fill my entire Life.  I had a hard time walking this Path because I wanted others to believe in it before I did, to do the work for me.  Ultimately healing my wound of spiritual disconnect and also in just Loving and being Okay with Life as it is, has always been my work, and my gift that I can share with others, who may also be afraid of ‘coming out’ spiritually.

I have felt conflict, I have struggled and in finally pushing out of the cocoon spiritually, letting myself be this cat with a different view and share it in all aspects of Life (a job, a bar, with whoever) because it is who I am and that sets me free.  Loving and letting that part of me Breathe, I am finally Okay with me, as I am, however am I along the Path.

Thank you Mr. Ocean for putting your Soul into your work and I commend you for your courageousness in Life.  You’ve inspired me to believe even more in what I’m doing and I hope that my words can inspire others out there because this work is also like Kid Cudi said: “For the kids just like me.”

“Your Love is my Scripture.” ~ Also from No Church in the Wild

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About a Braid

I have written Poems recounting

Journeys through thousands

Upon thousands of Lives

And their Millions and (wait for it)

THE MILLIONS

Of Experiences of Moments

That make up this

One… Long… Moment…

Of Existence

I have felt Angels

Seen Demons

Perhaps greater

Definitely scarier

Have I found

All That

Within

I have given

Crystals

Poetry

Words

More

Words

Containing

Energy

If you cannot

Feel my Soul poured

Into this Creation

You have not drank

From the Cup of Beloved

No, no,

Not that

Merely Forgotten

Is that the cup is full

Always

For

Always

In many ways

Because the Darkest of Nights

Are followed by the Brightest of Days

For, of, because of the Soul

And there it

Is weaved

As simply

And intricately

As a braid

A single Braid

Riches

All Around

Thank You…

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AUM Vol. 3: The Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)

“Blink, blink! Think, think!” ~Digable Planets

This week has been all about watching the waking dream.  The other night, my friend, a Cancer, and later about five other Cancers would talk to me about living a Life of Love, unbeknownst to one another.  My Venus, the planet governing Love in Astrology is in Cancer so I found it to be quite fascinating really.  This came right after a Police Car had passed to my left that day and I heard: Security is to walk into the unknown, where you will always be protected and served.

In many ways, we have it backwards with our logic but I digress…

Two fellow Geminis, who are born interestingly enough on the same day, would drop some comments that mirrored the deep recesses of my own mind, which for me, my Mercury, which rules the mind and thinking, is also in Gemini to couple my Gemini Sun, so needless to say, there’s alot of back and forth going on between my ears sometimes so to hear it from these two, quite amazing.  A Scorpio would very intensely come at me passionately with what he was doing, which of course, goes a bit with my own Scorpio moon, and well, so on and so forth.

Tonight, I thought about far I had come by taking care of my own healing and not making my role to take on the struggle of another person’s wound.  Chiron, the Wounded Healer in Mythology, deals with wounds in Astrology and in this life, my Chiron had to do with self-worth and neglect, themes my Inner Child really grappled with for a long time.  Most wounds stem back to the Inner Child, who struggles with self-worth, acceptance, Love, Faith, and/or other/all of the above.  Ultimately, the wound is the perceived duality that we are not One with God (you can say whatever works for you), but tending to and Loving the Inner Child is a great step in getting there.

As I was closing up shop at one of my PT gigs (I juggle four jobs, one FT, three PT, oh yeah and I do this writing sh!t too, ha!) and pondering this, the dream answered with a lad walking in the open door.  Our shop was closed entirely but I had the door open to let in some breeze while I finished a few things up and in walks ole boy, erm, young boy, eh, you get the picture.

So Dude rolls in and asks me if we were open for service.  I replied that we were closed and he walked away.  I was immediately hit by the fact that what I had thought, about how I had to take care of my own and not sacrifice it for another, brought a Mirror back to me, a dreamlike echo…  I could only laugh in amazement at all of this.  A few years back I told my former Mentor, I felt like I had something to offer that follows up where Joseph Campbell left off.  I didn’t know what that meant at the time and I dare not say I know exactly now but the studies of the dreams, learning their language and being able to teach and share such with others is definitely becoming a service I have to offer.  Even if is just done by leaving clues or brutal honesty.

Sometimes the only Path is to leave a trail behind that you blazed.  In many ways, it can be like that for each of us, our lives have just that potential.  But how many of us wonder off into the Wilderness eternally?

Aloha no.  And thank you for this Life.  It truly is a Gift no matter what may be going on.

“And I’m cool like dat, I’m cool like dat, I jive like dat, I funk like dat… We out!” ~ Digable Planets