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i was reviewing this weeks torah portion called Pinchas when a question arised. story is: hebrews are just before entering canaan. the moabite prostitutes have seduced many of the men. The lord is angry sending a plague as a punishment Ihebrew lord Zimri takes a prostitue publically in front of Moses. Pinchas picks up a spear and kills both the prostitute and zimri. The plague ends and Pinchas recives a reward of "Peace" I have always been against zealous actions of any kind. and am too concrete to see this message of Peace being an utcome of passion/zealous behavior. Any ideas to help.
yichel

[Rich Note: The Photo that goes with this caption can be seen on the blog.)

(Many Mansions Photo Image)

Many Mansions (C) RFHay 2005: Background: Ogden Utah, still heading north to Oregon on the "rode trip"; Haiku: In my Father's House are Many Mansions, some of brick and others straw.

THAT in me which is
Relatively Changeless is
The Knowledge I AM.

THAT in me which Is
Absolutely Changeless is
Awareness Itself.

[Rich Note: Using more poetic and/or metaphoric terms, one might substitute "The Ancient of Days" (signifying the Absolute One) for "Awareness Itself"; and "The Rock of Ages" (The Absolute One Manifest as the Supreme Identity of All Conscious Being) for the "Knowledge I AM."]

(C) 2007 RFHay

One's Catapillar
Nature must die to give birth
To the Butterfly.

(Rich Note: Something akin to transmuting "ego lead" into "Spiritual God" in this one.)

(C) 2007 RFHay

(Rich Note: The following caption goes with the "LOGOS" Abstract that is on the cover page of "Out of My Mind and Back to My Senses: The Object of Life Is to Find Out Who I AM Before Time Runs Out," and can be seen on my Gather, Eons, My Space, and Amazon Author "Hay Haiku of the Day" blogs.)

The Logos (C) 2006 RFHay; Background: A word is an external vibratory pattern of energy intended to express an inner idea or thought; Companion Haiku: The Living Word is the Knowledge I Am Conscious of Being.

"Pre-Conceptual,
Self-Shining, Aware-Presence"
Conscious as I Am.

[Rich Note: After "mucking around" on an "Athiests vs Religion" group site for the last several days, and getting repeatedly hammered for my "flow of consciousness" tendencies (which is why I started writing haiku in the first place), this haiku pointer, which was inspired this morning by a Sailor Bob Adamson quote of Dzogchen ("Non-conceptual, self-shinning, ever-fresh, presence-awareness, just this and nothing else"), is the Ultimate Answer (at least in my experience and 40 year search for Truth) to the Ulimate Question: Who Am I? -- an answer with which I believe Jesus would heartily concur.]

[Rich Note: Now, if that doesn't let the "Cat out of the Bag," I don't know what does!]

Sky Wave (C) 2005; Background: Taken during a "road trip" to the West Coast to drop off a car to my son Aaron.
Holy Cloud by Day
A Pillar of Fire by Night
Divine Comforter.

[Rich Note: This one, which obviously uses both Old and New Testament imagery, seems to have a "Trinitarian" quality that transcends (at least from my perspective) traditional East-West conceptual boundaries. RE: Father, Mother, Son; Sat, Chit, Ananda; Raja, Sattva, Tamus.]

Bonus Round:

Hell is in your Head
Heaven is in your Heart and
Love is Everywhere.

Meditation serves
To defragment the Field of
Awareness I Am.

[Rich Note: Two unrelated (except in the deepest sense) haiku that I came across while looking for today's offering in OOMM, I have choosen not to choose between.]

[Rich Note: My Eon's blog has an accompanying photo image.]

The human mind is
A mental house divided
By relative thought.

[Rich Note: A primary "in-sight" from which all else naturally follows ("If we seek within, we will find without").]

[Rich Note: Companion photo image on Eons blog.]

(C) 2007 RFHay

I Am the Aware
Presence of God more or less
Conscious of Being.

I Am the Father's
Divine Idea of Being
Consiously Aware.

[Rich Note: This "matched set" of haiku, which were recently pointed out by a new friend on EONS, comes as close to capturing the "Lightening of Absolute Truth" in the fragile "Glass Jars" that "Relative Human Words and Thought" truly are, as my "Last Sumari-Like Quest" for the "Perfect Haiku" has taken me; and that after almost 40 years of "Truth Seeking" and nearly 100,000 (how's that for obsessive compusive) haiku pointing to "Said Truth" in as distilled and essential a form as possible.]

[Rich Note: For present and future reference, "I am" denotes "me, myself and 'I as I think I am'"; "I Am" denotes "I as I Am" in Spirit and Truth; and "I AM" denotes the "I AM THAT I AM" (The One that spoke to Moses at the Burning Bush) as the LOGOS, Lord of All, the Great Central Sun/Son that reflects the previous two Images of Itself, in either still (I Am) or turbulent (I am) Mental Waters (Mirrors). Seen in this Light, it becomes rather evident that the "I Am" referenced in the above haiku has an Ultimate Potential to Manifest the Fullness of That Godhead Bodily as the "One I AM in All."]

(C) 2007 RFHay

(Rich Note: As I had added the haiku and background to the Introduction I posted here, I passed it along to the Spiritual Maturity site I also joined. Never leaving well enough alone however, I added the following expansion on "Christ as the One I AM in All" or, more traditionally, "Christ is All and in All (Col 3:11)

.RE: "..it ceases to be when one realizes that Christ, as the Aware-Presence I AM is the Consciousness and/or Mind of God, that is with me always, and in Whom I live, move and have my Being.

(Addendum)

To see how well this "conceptual shift" from Christ as a Historical Person (however Divine that Man might Be) to Christ as the "Mind of God" (which is consistant with Christ as the LOGOS -- Word, Thought, Idea; all of which imply a Divine Mind, and a conclusion Origen drew) works rather well in decyphering several otherwise "Mystical" Biblical verses. First consider the admonition to "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5)." Okay, so what mind was in Christ Jesus? Well, if only God can know God, and Jesus knew God, then it must have been the Mind or Consciousness of God "that was in Christ Jesus" knowing Itself;and That, my friend, is the Mind we are all asked to allow to Be in us. A similar example of this "decyphering key" used on "Mystical Scripture" relates to "...be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect (Mark 5:48)." Okay, if only God can be Perfect, and I (who presently think of myself as an imperfect state of human being, and, of course, "so it is with me") am asked to be Perfect, what I am really being asked to do is to allow God (Christ in me, as the Comforter, Holy Spirit or Presence of God) to Be Perfect in me and become my Identity (who I Am).

And no, I am not claiming that "the Wave is the Whole Ocean." But I am claiming that they are fundamentally One (and could never be otherwise except in thought or imagination) in Substance, Essence or Nature Substance.

(C) 2007 RFHay

I am one of those believers who is considered to be a Jew by Christians and a Christian by Jews. Oy. I am a practicing Jew, yes; and believe that HaShem is the Father of the God-head, the Elohim, and that Y'shua is the Son, part of the Elohim, as is the Spirt of God, the Ruach Kadosh. I attend a Messianic Synagogue on Saturday, not church on Sunday. I am looking forward to discussing our believes, and our Jewishness.

Just checking in. Is this group active? A bit of background: I work in Washington, DC at the headquarters of the US Catholic bishops. I'm also a professor of Theology and an ordained deacon in the Catholic church.

I look forward to interesting conversations!

Bill