Swami for Precedent

Precedential Plank Three
Pray It Forward And Practice Supply-Side Spirituality
“We’re not here to earn God’s love, we’re here to spend it.”

We believe in supply-side spirituality, so here is the spiritual bottom line: We are either feeding the wolf of love, or the wolf of fear. Good news. The human impulse toward love is stronger than it is to fear. Otherwise, these songs might have made the Top 40:

• All You Need is Fear
• Fear Is a Many-Splendored Thing
• She Fears You, Yeah Yeah Yeah

Life Is FUNdamentally Fun
Yes, the lines have been drawn between FUNdamentalism (accent on fun) and fundaMENTALism (accent on mental). Do we extend the Right to Laugh to everyone and pray for the happiness of all beings, or do we insist that only we are going to heaven, and everyone else can go to hell?

FundaMENTALism FUNdamentalism

• Heaven is above us vs. Heaven is where we make it.
• Our way is the One Way vs. One way? Do not enter.
• Frown upon laughing vs. Laugh upon frowning
• Armageddon & Judgment Day vs. Disarmageddon & Nonjudgment Day
• They stone you vs. they get stoned on their own.

Now the good news is, you can indeed teach an old dogma new tricks. In fact, you can even teach your dogma to heal! Each and every religion, no matter how dark its history, can be part of the Pluribus that adds up to Unum. My guru, Harry Cohen Baba, “the Garment Center Saint,” was Jewish, had a Hindu ashram, and prayed to Buddha and Jesus. He explained, “Listen, any of these could be right. So why put all your begs in one askit?”

“Blisskrieg” Declared: All Out Peace!
Here is more good news: God is bigger than religion. So, even when religion doesn’t work, prayer still does. You know the old saying, “Why throw the Baby Jesus out with the bathwater?” That is why we have launched a blisskrieg and declared “all out peace.” Yes, all of the inner peace we have been cultivating all these years, time to let it all out. This is the piecemeal approach to peace. A little peace here, a little peace there, and pretty soon you’ve got one big peace everywhere.

How to Create Disarmageddon Instead of Armageddon
Imagine, as Bucky Fuller maintained, that we are all passengers and crew on Spaceship Earth. Wouldn’t it make sense for all of us to pray for the success of our Mission? That is what the blisskrieg is, sending waves of love and light to elevate everyone everywhere. Even atheists can send out good vibes. So what if they don’t believe in God? God still believes in them. There is the Buddhist practice of tonglen,where you breathe in the pain of the world, and breathe out love. Just as trees take in carbon dioxide and re-oxygenate the air, our prayers can raise the esteem of people everywhere — and all this rising esteem will undoubtedly improve the atmosphere!

And if you feel like you don’t have a prayer, try these:

• May the light of loving laughter radiate out to illuminate darkness everywhere, especially those poorly lit corridors of power.
• May truth emerge from its hiding places, and healing balance be restored to every cell in the body politic.
• May every born feed-us enjoy the right to laugh, and may freedom ring in the sound of every child’s laughter.

But Seriously, Folks . . . What if we practiced the one fun fundamental all religions preach? What if we enrolled in a One-Step Program to experience Oneness? Step One? Actually practice the Golden Rule. One for all, and all for One. And once we’ve enrolled ourselves, let’s become enrolling stones and enroll all of our government and public institutions to follow the Golden Rule. No killing, no stealing, and no perjury. What if each corporation had to hire an ombuddhasman to make sure they’re doing everything by the Golden Rulebook? What do we have to lose? In other words, why not go for heaven on Earth — just for the hell of it?

Exerpted from Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction. Order your copy here