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  Author
Question & Answer (1996)
1.
Why did you write this book?
That’s an interesting story. I was completing another book and looking for
a title. Freefall to the Beloved, came through my mind, and I knew that
book was not yet written. Then the poems started coming through. It was
really an issue of getting out of the way, of honing my receptivity. I love
these poems. Each one is branded into my heart. I will always remember the
experience involved in each one of them, the state I was in. It was that
state that was the ground of the poem.
Back to your question, I wrote this book
because it was my passion. I had no choice. I wrote it to share what was
so inspiring to me.
2. Say more about the freefall. That’s an interesting
word.
And
a wonderful image. It is quite different than most of our functioning in
which we try so hard to hold onto control.
What I am discovering is that things go a lot easier when I follow
the flow, not knowing where it’s taking me. Certainly this is terrifying
much of the time. And yet it is only through this radical surrender that
we can fall into God, fall into Being.
3. Who or what is the Beloved?
It’s really two things that
are not separate: God and one’s true nature.
The word itself infers a certain orientation which I call that of the
lover. Because there is an Other one is longing for and loving, it is
dualistic at first glance. But as one experiences more and more states
of unity, that duality dissolves until there is only One.
4.
Is there a message in this book?
Every book has some kind of
message. If I were to put it in a few words, the message of Freefall would be: “Give yourself to love. You won’t be disappointed.”
Of course I am talking about a consuming, inspired, divine love.
I sometimes describe this book as the mystical
journey put into poetry. It is organized in sections, each one expressing
some part of the process: the longing, the struggles, the changes.
5.
Are you a mystic?
Let’s
say I am growing into that. I am growing into a mystical life, which is
a life claimed by love of the Divine. That’s a process, something that
unfolds and develops. It’s like the moth being drawn to the flame. The
closer one gets, the greater the draw.
Of course the progression is not smooth. There is resistance all along
the way. Yet I am continuously being drawn into a state of intimacy to
which my heart can only respond with the most radical surrender.
6. We
have the work of Rumi and Kabir and other great mystical poets. Do we
really need another?
Many others. We need a chorus of voices,
each one unique. I sometimes say we need an army of mystical poets. We
need as much love as possible helping stir peoples’ hearts, because we
need to wake up. We need to recognize the larger shape-shifting spirit
everywhere.
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