glossary post

the following was going to be in the glossary on the blesstheworld.com website where no-one would ever see it... but we thought it too controversial... so we put it in this blog for the edification of the multitudes!!!

god ~ the consciousness of the animating force of the universe (see prana on blesstheworld.com glossary).

do not confuse this consciousness with the christian god. he is an aspect of god like pan or diana or other greek and roman gods, like the multitude of hindu or buddhist dieties, the native american gods, or the gods of any culture. the christian and hebrew and muslim god (it is all the same aspect) has been having his fifteen minutes of fame and will one day be relegated to antiquity. do not believe the illusion. do not believe the pr. do not let religion keep you from an experience of god.

an aspect of god makes god more tangible to the masses and any aspect of god is valid for veneration. some are more elevated than others. many are more elevated than the christian god. but the idea of an aspect of god as being mistaken for god may be what makes atheists atheists, a small-minded logic. atheists do not believe the christian god is god thus there must be no god! as written in my blog (search below on atheism), atheism is a vocabulary problem. atheists believe in god, they just call it a chair or the wind or love. without god, their asses would be sitting on the floor in a stuffy place without the best of human relationships. but they would know they were right!

god does not have a chosen people. god does not promise land. god is neither a ruler nor a realtor. god does not lord over people. god does not command or damn. god is not vengeful or judgmental. those are all human traits. man created god in his own image and likeness. and the different aspects of god reflect the variations of human consciousness. see joseph campbell, hero with a thousand faces.

god is the consciousness of the animating force of the universe. words will not explain it further. have the experience instead. http://blesstheworld.com

poetry

i would not like a bad review of my work and i wouldnt print a bad review of someone elses work without reason... even good reviews of my work have left me feeling poorly because the reviewer missed the mark or was weak in his analysis...

but i have to say something.

and it isnt sour grapes!

i entered the competetion for the 2006 john ciardi prize for poetry with my book eating God. i didnt expect to win. and i didnt! the literary community will not seriously consider poetry about god unless you are a long-dead sufi like rumi or hafiz. contemporary poetry about god is relegated to the greeting card category.

my poetry about god, however, is about some down-and-dirty sex. im not sure how that gets missed... but we arent the most literate country...

anyway, as a consolation prize to entering the competetion ~ and also to make the winning poet think people actually buy and read poetry ~ all the losers receive a copy of the winning book. mine arrived in the mail yesterday.

richard wilbur loved it.

maxine kumin loved it.

x j kennedy loved it.

and the judge who selected it, mark jarman, loved it (of course).

i hated it.

i hated everything about it.

i wont go into detail regarding why i hated it ~ i would hate to read something so pointedly negative about my work ~ but i just didnt find the breath others found. (the reviews were so wonderful they were printed twice ~ once before the title page and again on the back cover ~ just in case a reader isnt quite sure how wonderful the book is... i read the reviews twice and had a difficult time even with them, the list of titles and references... the words seeminly without heart... not heard because there was nothing to hear).

my work, of course, is all heart!

my dear friend steve sanford died (someone who definitely deserves a blog entry ~ when i can get through it) and at his funeral, my poetry was read. i should have had a table set up selling books, the response was so wonderful. it was no john ciardi prize with copies going to the losers, it was better. it was alive. and it was heard. and it was a winner! nah nah nah!

my poetry: http://royanthonyshabla.com

whirlwind in a teapot

i have been chastised for not blogging in a month... my life is so facinating everyone wants the vicarious thrill of being in my aura ~even if its only online!

i gave a reading from eating god at busters in culver city last monday night. it was great. my short films were playing in the garden as people arrived. between two and ten minutes each, the films were a good expression of my artwork and people loved them. the actress ingez rameau and i alternated reading poems from my book. she was perfect and i was very lucky to work with her. there was flute music, handmade chocolate, wine, and much conversation ~everyone staying later than expected. my hostess tina was wonderful and i will definitely stage a performance there again.

the pottery show in pasadena was last weekend and it was grueling. the pack-in was a nightmare because of parking problems extrordinaire and i considered not doing the show again. i hadnt slept much for a few days (did you get an email from me at 4am?) and doing even the easiest show would tire someone fresh. but i sold some decent pots and visited with some friends. and signed up for next year.

tomorrow i will go to palm springs for the day. bob and i are going to the modernism show opening in the evening then driving back. before the opening, i will sell some pots to a shop there and look around for deals and wonderful things... but every dealer will have been through the town for the last couple days so im not sure there will be much. nevertheless its always a nice but long day.

the last month has been a busy hectic whirlwind of art, friends and guests, spiritual healing, feng shui, travel... and ocassionally sleep... i separated from the blessings center and in this time of an over-full schedule, i am grateful for the extra quiet and easiness. there was interest in my house but the buyers had some bad advice and i have no interest in being involved in that karma. i will be in the bay area next week to teach the feng shui workshop i am teaching twice this weekend in la. after that, i go to dallas.

i will try to be better about documenting my life for you. wait til i update you on the handmade book!

for info about all my work: http://royanthonyshabla.com

dear god

my daughter is six years old and doesnt believe in god. she does a father proud. not because of her beliefs (which are different than mine) but because of her consideration of her beliefs. she doesnt blindly accept the notion of god without consideration... she is even prepared to go against the conformity of her peers: she asked every child on the playground if he believed in god and each said he did. that didnt sway her from her conviction. and she made no attempt to sway the other children. she just let it be. what a blessing to the world, tolerance! she told me she doesnt believe in god because hes dead. i couldnt be more proud! my baby is an existentialist! and shes not even a teenager yet! the idea of atheism is interesting though. an atheist is someone who defines god in his own terms and then denies the application of those terms. an atheist considers himself logical and yet the defining of and then denying god is illogical. it is an ego-centrical closed circuit with crossed wires. i think atheism is really a vocabulary problem. the definition atheists give to god is too small. and a small field yields a small harvest. the definition atheists ascribe to god is akin to a teapot in the sky or the historical moses. neither is a practical definition of god and so is very easy to deny. in reality, atheists do believe in god just as they believe in the chair they sit on because the chair they sit on is god (my definition). the car they drive is god ~ they must believe in it because it certainly takes them to the "im superior because i dont believe in god" meetings. the leaves changing color in autumn, the laugh of a baby... im so damn syrupy! everything is god! everything. so only a complete denial of existence, a complete denial of self, would allow for the validity of atheism. and atheists are too arrogant to deny themselves... so obviously god exists! and as for my daughter, well shes the best existence there is!

celebration

in honor of rumi's 800th birthday, i re-read my book eating God. i expected to be unfazed, unimpressed. i expected to regret the plainess of the language, the simpleness of the idea. i expected to find errors. but what i was greeted with was an epiphany of hope and joy and clarity that completely enchanted me. it is a celebration! and i am delighted to be the utter fool who wrote it! my dear friend patrick who lives in portland visited this weekend. the front cover of eating God showcases his evocative painting of a buddhist monk in meditation and i am blessed to be able to use it there. patrick was in town for the funeral of another artist ~not me~ someone he hadnt seen in twenty years. her husband told patrick that his work had meant so much to them all this time... well of course he had to come for the funeral. it was nice to have him for a quick visit, exchange ideas and support, and live. the weather was beautiful but i never expect anything else!

to purchase my book eating God: http://royanthonyshabla.com

save yourself

yesterday at the seventh day adventist vegan restaurant the romanian woman who cooks guessed my age as 28. i told her she was right. she said she knew it was true because she had a son who was 28 so she saw what that looked like everyday. she also said i was calm. with the recent full moon and eclipses and retrograde planets going direct, nobody seems calm. my students and clients have been downright crazy. maybe its a lifetime of meditation (i have clients who have been with me for years and still cant find their way to a class); maybe its my diet (if you dont eat things with an asshole, maybe you wont be one); maybe its my spiritual healing work (which has saved my life and others on many ocassions) ~ but i always hear from people about the calmness around me (people dont comment as much specifically about youthfulness because they just assume im young). so heres my philosophy: if you want your life to change, change yourself. if you want to be calmer, younger, brighter DO SOMETHING about it. if you are crazy, read my book eating God. if you arent crazy, read my book eating God. if you want to improve yourself in any way, read my book eating God. if your body doesnt feel right, change your diet and exercise patterns (eat something green for godssake, do a little yoga) ~ these pertain to the body. if your mind doesnt feel right, get into a meditation class (or play chess or do crosswords) ~ these pertain to the mind. if your life doesnt feel right, work on releasing your karma (through spiritual remedies and healing work, meditation, feng shui, etc etc etc) ~ this pertains to your life. this pertains more to your life than anything else. this is the purpose of your life. start now. today. its never too late to be fabulous. its never too late to be 28!

for my spiritual books, meditation classes, and spiritual remedies: http://blesstheworld.com