painful determination

The juxtaposition of spirit and matter brings peculiar situation. Such as pain. Matter pain does not affect spirit, perhaps its outer perimeter, but not its inner core. "Curse God and die!" said the folk surrounding Job. "Let your spirit be overwhelmed." "No way," said Job.

De-termination means marshaling all one's forces against termination. "This is not over." "This is not ended!"
The eternal Oh Yeah!?

The body suffers and the spirit hovers. Hovers over the face of the deep, refuses to be sucked in, brings life out of the pain itself.

An old meaning of suffer is allow, such as in "Suffer the little children to come unto me." Suffering is a delicate balance between allowing the pain while hovering above and beyond the pain and when possible sending one's blessings to the matter at the core of the pain.

This applies to both physical and mental pain.

the nerve of the monkey

"... for you are the temple of the living God" (2 Corinthians 6:16)

Hoo! Now there's a powerful statement! Startling! At the inner core of the temple is the Holy of Holies, the place where even the spit of sardonic humor evaporates, the site of the bone marrow of the cosmos, of the central nervous system and its core Nerve that no one dares or wishes to touch.

At one time It was hidden by a veil. The one priest / attendant / servant who went behind the veil to this awe full place risked his life each time. A rope was tied to one of his ankles in case he was struck dead so his body could be pulled out.

This holy fire burns at the core of us. We are too busy being monkeys to see or notice it, even though the veil of the temple has been split in two, torn apart, and all that is holy has been revealed -- in all cultures and traditions.

All secrets are out in the open. We are the temple of the living God, the springing of the Wellspring, the embodying of Spirit. And still we monkey around.

Now I'm all for the monkey. I'm an excellent monkey myself. But the monkey has his place. Reminds me of the story of the monkey and Buddha. As I recall, it goes something like this. The monkey was bragging of his prowess to Buddha. He told Buddha that since he was a magnificent leaper, he could leap beyond Buddha (who in this story was a manifestation of Spirit, of Awareness with a capital A).

Mister Awareness smiled and said okay, do it. But how will I know where you have leaped? You have to leave some sign. Mister Monkey said, I will take a piss at the exact spot of my landing. And zoom! Off he went in a mighty leap, passing through infinity after infinity, and landing at a pillar surrounded by vast nothing. He peed upon it and jumped back.

Well, how was that, Mister Awareness Dude? he swaggered. The Buddha held up his hand. At the base of one of his fingers was what looked and smelled suspiciously like fresh monkey piss.

We are not so great as we think we are. We are greater. Because at our core is the sacred altar, the altar of the Holy Fire. And no matter how much we piss around, It continues to Burn.

the spirit of the law

Just as the Unseen gives birth to the Apparent (Appearance), so Spirit gives birth to Law. Spirit has always been beyond and before Law. Law is derived from Spirit and thereby has, and always will have, second place.

We need and respect Law. We follow it as best we can, but we are ruled by Spirit and not Law. Law may be etched in stone, but as Moses showed when he threw the tablets of the Law to the ground, Law is breakable. And it is Spirit that breaks it up.

Somtimes Law sets itself up as a cross for crucifixion of Spirit. But the nails do not hold and no corpse is ever found. It is Law that is a corpse which must be continually revived, brought to life, vivified by Spirit.

Law uses force to enforce its will. Spirit uses nothing but Itself.

The perfect world would be where Law accurately reflected Spirit, but then Law would not be needed.