November 12, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Heart and Wings

Hazarat Inayat Khan mystic and musician

Hazarat Inayat Khan grew up and lived in India. He was a wonderful musician and had a spiritual teacher. In time, he began to study a path called Sufism. His spiritual teacher told him to take what he learned to the West and teach it to the people. So he and his brothers left India and went to Europe. They began meeting people and telling them about a philosophy that was a mysticism. He even came to America. He gave lectures coast to coast. The Sufi movement was called the Chisti order. The Chisti order is Westernized. Women are equal. There is studying, singing and the Universal dance.There are groups who practice healing and who do practices together.

Sufi Murshid brought Sufism to the West

” If one is able to expand oneself to the consciousness of another person, one’s consciousness becomes as large as two persons’. And so it can become as large as a thousand persons’ when one accustoms oneself to try and see what others think. It is the understanding of two points of view, the opposite points of view, that gives a fuller insight into life. The ” I ” and ” you ” only remain so long as we see ourselves, but when we rise above them or beyond them, the thought brings us nearer and nearer to God in the consciousness in which we all unite.” –Hazrat Inayat Khan

” The Soul of the whole of creation is one, the life behind all these ever-moving phantoms is one. Meditation on this truth and the awakening to it will harmonize the condition of the world.” —Hazrat Inayat Khan

” Holy One, All-powerful, The overcomer, The firm,

Free us and protect us from impressions of alienation, illusion, nonsense; And strengthen us in cooperation, friendship, discernment and wisdom, as we learn how to walk in balance on the earth.”

Sufism does not partake in politics or war. Hazrat Inayat Khan went back to India to visit and died. His son, Pir Valayat Khan took over leadership of the Chisti order. Pir passed away in France. Now Hazrat’s grandson Pir Zia is the leader and spiritual head of the order now. Sufi’s can trace themselves back to Zoroaster and Mohammed gave them mystical teachings. They sat on sofas in the inner circle and so with time they became Sufis. Sufi’s say that there is no God but that which is God.

The Sufi Heart and Wings

October 31, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Samhaim

Dragon Bridge

The Pagan Wheel of Life

For many a millennium, there were Goddesses and they were greatly revered. The Romans and Greeks had a large assortment of Goddesses who represented the feminine aspect in life. While there were warrior goddesses, most had other purposes. The Celtics gave us the triple goddesses, the maid, the mother and the crone. The only one I think needs explanation is the Crone. The Crone was the oldest of women, had lived her life and experienced many things. She taught the young ones. Christianity brought the first religion that had no female aspect. Although, I think Mary is the archetype of the Goddess in our time. But that is just my opinion.

The Pagan people were the Celts who lived in close accord with the land. They had many rituals to thank Mother Earth for harvests, the plantings, the birth of baby animals and for their own babies. They used herbs to heal and used many things the pharmaceutical companies use in our medicines and the same herbs to heal that are often used today. Chamomile, lavender, garlic and so on. What we call Halloween, they called Samhaim and the pagans believed that the veil between the worlds was the thinnest and therefore souls could cross over. Food was cooked for the ancestors and left for them to eat. Jack o lanterns were carved to look scary to keep bad spirits away.

Goddesses kept a balance between the male and the female, the yin and the yang. Women felt a connection to the goddesses and felt that they awakened and restored the natural power within them. There are many myths, symbols and archetypes that can fill you with a strong sense of being female.

The Goddess Hestia, transforms the mundane into the sacred. Our very homes become sacred and all of our activities become sacred and allows us to walk in radiance.

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote:

” A billion stars go spinning through the night.

Blazing high above your head.

But in you is the presence that will be.

When the stars are dead.”

” You were born together, and together you

Shall be forevermore…

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance

Between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup…

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let

Each one of you be alone…

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the Temple stand apart.

And the oak tree and the Cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”

——Kahlil Gibran

The triple goddess is maid, mother and crone.

Mother Teresa embodies the goddess Hestia. She the guardian of hearth and home. Mother Teresa daily practiced communion with the Divine through service to others and meditation. She always carried a silence within her.

” We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God. Together as a community as well as personally. To be alone with Divinity–not with our books, thoughts and momories but completely stripped of everything—to dwell lovingly in Its presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless. We cannot find God in noise or agitation… In silence we will find new energy and true unity. Silence gives us a new outlook on everything.”

—Mother Teresa

The female aspect of Divinity

The feminine energy

May the goddesses bring love and peace to all hearts

September 26, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Source of Joy

Experience love

” No one knows what makes the soul wake
up so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze has

blown the veil from the face of God.
A thousand new moons appear. Roses

open laughting. Hearts become perfect
rubies like those from Badakshan. The

body turns entirely spirit. Leaves
become branches in this wind. Why is

it now so easy to surrender, even for
those already surrendered? There’s no

answer to any of this. No one knows the source of joy. A poet breathes
into a reed flute, and the tip of every hair makes music. Shams sails

clown clods of dirt from the roof, and we take jobs as doorkeepers for him.

——-Rumi, translated by Robert Bly

We can never give all of our love away.

Rumi’s words

My One Desire

September 7, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Path of the Heart

The meaning of Namaste

Of all the paths to God, there is one called the path of the heart. The thing of primary importance is to seek God in the heart of mankind. There are three ways of seeking God in the heart of mankind.

The first way of seeking is to recognize the divine in everyone; then to be considerate towards every person with whom we come in contact in our thought, speech and action. The second way is to think of the feelings of someone who is not with one at the moment. Humans often think of those who are present but often neglect to feel for someone who is out of sight. The third way of seeking the Divine is to recognize in one’s own feeling the feeling of God, to realize every impulse of love that rises in one’s heart as a direction from God, to realize that love is a divine spark in one’s heart, and to blow on that spark until a flame may rise to illuminate the path of one’s life.

And Rumi said

“All that comes from God is for all souls. If they are worthy, they deserve it; it is their reward; if they are unworthy, they are the more entitled to it. Verily, blessing is for every soul; for every soul, whatever be his faith, or belief , belongs to God.” —excerpted from Hazarat Inayat Khan

“The heart is a receptacle on earth of the divine spirit, and when it holds the divine Spirit, it soars heavenward; the wings picture its rising. The crescent in the heart symbolizes responsiveness. The crescent is a symbol of responsiveness because it grows fuller as the moon grows fuller by responding more and more to the sun as it progresses. The light one sees in the crescent is the light of the sun. As it gets more light with its increasing response, so it becomes fuller of the light of the sun. The star in the heart of the crescent represents the divine spark which is reflected in the human heart as love, and which helps the crescent towards its fullness.”—-excerpted from The Unity of Religious Ideals.

The Heart and Wings

The living thing in the heart is love. It may come forth as kindness, as friendship, as sympathy, as tolerance, as forgiveness, but in whatever form this living water rises from the heart, it proves the heart to be a divine spring. True religion lies in the opening of the heart, in widening the outlook, and in living that religion which is the one religion.

God and the god ideal may be explained as the sun and the light. As there are times when the sun becomes covered by materialism. But if for a moment the cloud covers the sun, that does not mean that the sun is lost; and so the God-ideal may seem to have disappeared in the reign of materialism, yet God is there just the same. The condition of the world is like the ever rising and falling of waves. Sometimes it seems to rise and sometimes to fall, but as with every rising and falling wave the sea is the same, so, with all its changes, life is the same. Thus we can’t give up on this world because the God-ideal is ever present and ever changing.

The Carribean Ocean Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio

Waves in ocean Photo and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2013

August 28, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

We Must Finish Fulfilling Dr. KIng’s Dream

Fifty years after Dr. King spoke of his dream. We haven’t been able to fulfill everything but we have President Barak Obama. The first man of color to lead the Western Word.

We need to keep working for the dream. Dr. King was a great man in my eyes and I am a white woman. Color is nothing, ethics and morals are the ideals worth discussing. Don’t let color continue to tear us apart.

Maya Angelou and President Obama wanting peace

” Love is non-violent” —–Travis Smiley; PBS

August 28, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Big Heart

War destroys the childhoods of children.

” Big heart,
wide as a watermelon,
but wise as birth,
there is so much abundance
in the people I have
Max, Lois, Joe, Louise,
Joan, Marie, Dawn, Arlene,
Father Dunne,
and all in their short lives
give to me repeatedly,
in the way the sea
places its many fingers on the shore,
again and again
and they know me,
they help me unravel,
they listen with ears made of conch shells,
they speak back with the wind of the best region.
They are my staff.
They comfort me.

They hear how
the artery of my soul has been severed
and soul is spurting out upon them,
bleeding on them,
messing up their clothes,
dirtying their shoes
And God is filling me.
though there are times of doubt
as hollow as the Grand Canyon,
still God filling me
He is giving me the thoughts of dogs,
the spider in its intricate web,
the sun
in all its amazement,
and a slain ram
that is the glory,
the mystery of great cost,
and my heart,
which is very big,
I promise it is very large,
a monster of sorts,
takes it all in—–
as in comes he fury of love.”
——–Anne Sexton, feminist writer and poet

Bass Museum sculpture Photo and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio; 2013

Bass Museum sculpture; South Beach, Florida
Photograph taken and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio; 2013

August 21, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Man Who Was Buddha

Sitting in meditation

Buddha was a mortal being, He was a young prince who left his life of ease and a hefty inheritance. He wanted to find his own way in life. He began the journey of his life. A journey that would take him to enlightenment. His human heart and mind was as vulnerable as yours and mine. He gave up everything to find what his life lacked. I am sure in monetary terms, he lacked nothing.

Buddha is now considered an icon of peace and harmony, yet his mortal life was filled with all types of turmoil and love and loss. His journey changed the world forever,the truths he found along the way still influence people all around the world. He went from vagabond monk to an enlightenment for the world. Enlightenment has led many to find themselves and the true meaning of life.

Buddha’s enlightenment was a literal awakening to the fact that you can share in the depths of your own primordial awareness today just as Buddha did during his life. Buddha’s teachings after becoming enlightened engage all the aspects of people’s lives. ” Whoever sees me sees the teaching.” –Buddha. After his enlightenment, he was raised to the rank of immortal. Buddha literally became the truth.

August 14, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Peace Begins at Home

Costa Rica; Acrylic paint
by Barbara Mattio 2011

Many people talk about peace, write about peace, sing about peace and march about peace. This is all very wonderful, however, how does it actually start? What is the germ of peace that gets planted that makes people want to work for peace?

I believe that the desire for peace is within our souls at birth and it is a desire that cell memory carries. Every cell of every organ is imprinted with peace. I am not going to address those people like Hitler or Ted Bundy. That is another discussion.

As we grow into childhood and adulthood, we develop thoughts. Some thoughts are good and some are not so good. Some are evil even. Thoughts have energy and as we “think” the good thoughts go out into the Universe and bring good energy and vibrations. Evil ones or bad ones work the same. This is why affirmations and positive thinking are so important.

If I tell myself that I am stupid or ugly every day, I will begin to believe it. That negativity will effect myself and everything around me. So it is vital to watch your thoughts. If you have a negative one, replace it with a positive one. Practicing gratitude everyday is also creating positive thoughts. Thoughts go out into this world and can affect nature, plants, trees, animals, insects, even our water. Studies have been done and the results are remarkable. You may want to look at my blogs from last year.

Once we begin to watch our thoughts and keep them positive as much as possible, then the cell memories have the ability to grow and thrive. Peace begins to fill us and as we are filled, peace emanates from our beings and people can feel the peace when they are around us. The opposite is also true. As we feel positive about people and life, we begin to feel like doing things that help others. Perhaps volunteer work. Perhaps joining a Peace organization. You begin to bring peace to others and your actions and words bring peace in your life. The ripple starts with you and moves outward until neighborhoods, cities, counties and countries feel more peaceful. Now if half of the people on our planet would start with positive thoughts, can you imagine the difference this would make in the world?

Try it. Creating peace is free and feels wonderful.

July 31, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Planet Earth

Good choices for our planet, effect all of us.

” I love the beautiful world I live in.” The earth is our very wise and amazingly loving mother. She provides everything we need and things we just want. For instance, a diamond engagement ring.

There is water, food, air, companionship. We have millions of species of plants and animals. Mother Earth responds well to our love for her.

If we would be willing to do this we would save the life of our planet

We have treated this planet terribly in the past decades. We are using up our valuable resources without plans to replenish what we have stolen from our Mother.

If we continue to trash the planet, there will be a dead planet and a population of dead plants, animals and fish. Oh by the way, we human beings will be dead too.

We need to focus our thinking on taking care of, respecting and loving our Mother. I spend time imagining our planet as she used to be. Lush, fertile and ripe with all kinds of animals, plants and food. I imagine a clear clean environment where people don’t have to check the weather reports to see what the condition of the air is. I have breathing issues. More days every year are bad for sensitive people to go out. This is scary for us and for our planet.

Penguins in Antartica

We have the power to heal Mother Earth and the power to stop raping her of her resources. The problem is … do we want to stop? Or will we only stop when we have killed this amazing planet. That is my fear. Taking the planets gifts brings much money to the people to live for money. Every day, many millions of people give back the resources and love this planet. It isn’t enough, but if we keep working on it, we may just loose enough selfishness to see how important our choices are for us and for our great grandchildren. We can love Mother Earth enough to stop killing her. We are capable of helping her to heal herself. We just have to want to. Do You?

The beauty of breaking waves

It is up to all of the children of Mother Earth to face reality and love her and begin to protect her.

July 24, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Poems to Soothe the Heart

Praying hands that mean so much to God

Many scholars feel that Rumi is the greatest poet the world has every known. I think they are quite possibly right. But I do love the poems of many gifted poets. I would like to share a couple of them with you today.

We Point to the New Moon

“This time when you and I sit here, two figures
with one soul, we’re a garden,
with plants and birdsong moving through us like rain.

The stars come out. We’re out
of ourselves, but collected. We point
to the new moon, its discipline and slender joy.

We don’t listen to stories
full of frustrated anger. We feed
on laughter and a tenderness
we hear around us.
when we’re together.

And even more incredible, sitting here in Konya,
we’er this moment in Khorasan and Iraq.
We have these forms in time.
and another in the elsewhere
that’s made of this closeness.”
—-Rumi

Midnight Question

“Near midnight, in disarray, you come asking,
“is it still like this, my love,
when your‘re old?”

Who would refuse to answer?
The same was heard
before the creation of the universe,
“Am I not your Lord?”

Whatever’s poured then must be drunk.
It may be pure soul, merely grape-wine,
or some combination, but say Yes,

as I have many times,
as we all once did in unison
outside time and space.

Never regret that answer!
—Hafiz

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.” —Rumi