Hypothetical consolamentum: guest pass to Paradise?

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1106222/13366779

LEARNER full text (2024)

PeaceWorld or death

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1106222/13381922

APPRENTI texte integral (2024)

Le monde paisible ou la mort

Transcript

WORLD WAR COVID
From WeaponWorld to PeaceWorld
Learner, begin

- HYPOTHETICAL CONSOLAMENTUM 

Recited during the Middle Ages in the Langue d’Oc (now Southwestern France) by an itinerant pair of Cathar perfecti attending a deathwatch; much the way similar, itinerant believers recited verses from The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Egyptian Book of the Dead as well; and no doubt many more such texts silenced since: dozens, or hundreds, oral and written, in as many towns destroyed and languages silenced. 

This poem is my own inspiration (or a signal picked up from the antennae of my nervous system?).  I dedicate it to Dad who passed away before I could recite it to him; to all those who confront the uncertainties of life and death with no solid spiritual shield, who must die once again before they can use it…

NOTE: The bridge verses repeated below are boilerplate formulae. Or perhaps the favorite chant of this particular pair of perfecti. There are almost as many custom formulas as there were attendees. Those are often complicated meditation breathing formulas, brought down from many generations ago. Once the formula's rhythm settles into a comfortable chant, it will be repeated that way from then on.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Have no fear any longer, 

For you are Saved. 

Christ will shoulder your Karmic burden, 

No matter how crushing it may seem to you. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Close your eyes and be at ease. 

Die calmly, sweetly, 

Relax in peace this last time. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Let your soul release from your fading body, 

With confidence, joy and hope; 

As if to your wedding, 

As Christ taught us. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

You bailed out from myriad bodies before this one.

During countless death agonies, 

Lifetimes of misery and anguish 

Shaped your destiny up to this day. 

You will soon be free from all that. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

The next time your soul sheds its dying body,

Like a rider tumbles off his stumbling horse, 

Your disembodied soul will drift through space and time 

Until you tire of its drudgery, vacuum and silence. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Pass in review all the stars in heaven, like a jaded tourist,

Witness galaxies cohere, spin up and die in splendor.

Or just recall birdsong and the heady breath of plants,

From one sunrise to the next. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

You may cross the path of Daemons, Angels and Monsters;

Reflections of your desire, hope and fear.

You may touch and be touched by them,

For good or ill. 

It’s your choice.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Linger for a while on Earth, 

Haunt old homes, places familiar and strange, 

Go visit former children and lovers,

Let your spectral approach give them goose bumps.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Suffer loneliness and loss over and over again,

For as long as you can bear it. 

You will soon tire of this, Oh Nobly Born. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times 

Oh Nobly Born.

Sooner or later,  with growing impatience 

Your soul will yearn for the next carnal life

As urgently as the need to piss.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

You will tumble back into life,

Falling backwards into it,

Like a rock finds its depth, like cold water its flow,

Into the dimly lit clarity of life

Irresistibly.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Once your soul begins to yearn for its next life, 

You will delay your return,

To review a host of conceptions 

In keen appraisal of a worthy rebirth into the world. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Seek the psychic beacons 

Of Mary's Immaculate Conception and Jesus’ Resurrection.

Divine beacons on both ends

Of the only well lit path 

On a lifeless plain, mournful, carnal and gray, 

The lair of furtive couplings and sad deaths.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Ignore the tidal pull so seductive 

Of Karma, fear, desire and familiarity 

That will con you to seek rebirth 

In a mortal infant, in a family setting, among familiars, 

And back onto the Wheel of Desire and Death. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Give up your family, your friends, your cherished households, 

All your favorite habits and  things;

To take up His Cross instead. 

Be reborn unto His Spirit, 

And into His flesh. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Recall His many parables 

That make no sense in other interpretations, 

But perfect sense in this one. 

Grab hold of His lifeline,

Relive His sacred Life 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

For God is merciful, 

Even to the merciless, 

Even to the wicked,

Even to you and us. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Review and repent your many sins 

In the perfect clarity of His Lifetime and Agony. 

How you will wish you had  submitted  to God  — 

So harshly will your conscience torment you. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

You will pass in review your many betrayals. 

Throughout His Lifetime, for thirty some years, 

For each of your sins you will repent a hundredfold, 

And find in each of your good deeds, 

A dab of balm for your sin-flayed soul. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Those wincing recalls will let you  proclaim His Word with conviction

Since you see the world through His eyes with divine clarity, 

Now that the beam has been removed from yours. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Have faith when they crowd in to betray you. 

Bow your head for His crown of thorns, 

Thankful for this distraction from your utter lack of worth. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Your pains are almost over.

His mercy may even spare you His final torment.

That would be so like Him and His loving ways. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

His endless afternoon Agony, 

The last twinge of your ceaseless torment; 

His Calvary, up Mount Golgotha,

The last stumbling steps of your Everest to Heaven.  

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

No more roulette rebirths for you

On the Karma Wheel of Desire and Death,

No more for you, endless rebirths

On faultless Karma autopilot.

Your soul's fate is in your own pilot hands, now.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

You will accompany Him instead 

Straight to Heaven that evening,

Along with the trusting thief, Dismas.

There, you will find God waiting for you:

His only Son and His companions: welcome prodigals. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

There you will find all the others

Who have torn themselves from the Wheel of Desire and Death, 

And opted for His Cross instead. 

Your friends will rejoin you, 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Sooner or later, after one more death or many, 

They will precede or follow you along this path. 

Jesus promised to prepare rooms for us in Heaven,

And Return to bring us back with Him. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Don’t worry about space and time, 

Before and after, singularity and multiplicity, 

Or which soul wraps what body. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Have just a little faith,

Just a shred of hope, Oh Nobly Born, 

For you are Saved. 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

No-one can take this from you now,

None can talk you down or extract it from you

Not by force or by sentiment,

No more so than by lying or persuasion.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Tell mortals exactly what they want to hear;

It won’t matter.

You will die in any case and thus be free

Perfectly, miraculously free, 

To opt for the Cross and Paradise,

Else wrack yourself once again on the Wheel.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

You could choose to come back here

Or be nicely asked to, 

To help your brethren find the Way,

Carry lost lambs back to God,

Oh Bodhisattva.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Or you may yearn for another return

To the good old days of desire and ignorance:

To the next tough lesson, 

The next chance to redo things the hard way; 

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Or just cringe before Christ's fated Agony and yours,

Or your unfitness for this honor;

And submit, once again, to the Wheel.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

You are perfectly free to choose

Karma would be glad to receive you again

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Great the Father, Great the Son, and Great the Holy Ghost,

The good conscience Comforter Jesus left us pending His Return.

It is through Them that we are Saved 

Who choose to be,

Who look and see, 

Who listen and hear.

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

Drop your fear, Oh Nobly Born. 

Even though everything that lives must die,

And so on, over and over again;

Yet we are all reborn and saved,

Just as soon as we choose to be,

Who are ready and willing, 

As promised.

Breathe deeply,  breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born 

(The reciting perfecti have left the room…

Repeat alone 

Matthew 6-9, the Lord’s Prayer

Pending their return).

Breathe deeply, breathe softly three times, 

Oh Nobly Born.

IN FRENCH

…

 COMMENTS? markmulligan @ comcast.net