Sunday, April 23, 2017


Excerpt from a talk 

by: William Samuel



. the experience of illumination comes on as stillness, out of quietness. It comes from the absence of effort. It has never never been reached while one is gnashing his teeth, trying with might and mane to crash the gates of light. Even longing for the experience is baneful and I can say without equivocation that the written or spoken instructions of teachers who go out of their way to create the desire for illumination should all be put aside. Light blooms in the gentle conversation, in the quiet moment, in the happy atmosphere where enthusiasm prevails. Light blooms in the experience of being love. Light blooms from giving to others. Breakthroughs occur… the breakthroughs that we call light, occur spontaneously and gently in proportion to the honest stand that we take, acknowledging light to be the already fact of this identity right here, right now, already. And then, I think it isn’t enough to have the experience and then be contented to talk about it or write about it. We live the new life as it comes to us. We live it and the new revelation is perpetuated and expanded only by this living of it, which you see, is really to give it. The new revelation is extended and perpetuated only by forsaking the previous views and living the new view that the light allows.
Just a simple example. This action that I’m engaged in here, of writing and talking to those who’ve come so far, has neither motive nor human purpose behind it. It is just my own doing. It is guileless and it is heartfelt. It is the action that light has just indicated for me to do and I do it as irresistibly as yon mockingbird’s urge over there to shake the boughs and sing.
I have been asked about this matter of reaction, why the truth sometimes seems to be followed by a period of upheaval and torment and foment in one’s personal affairs. The absolute statement, or a statement being as nearly in as absolute as a statement can be, is somewhat like a chord that is sounded in perfect pitch. Now, the chord does nothing positively or negatively for those who are in tune, but it produces a discordant resonance in those who are out of tune and of course, out of that discord comes the knowledge of which strings to tighten or which ones to loosen. Now, the aim in our self-to-self writing is to sound the proper pitch, to make the absolute statement as best we can, not to get anyone to agree with it, whether it’s correct or incorrect…that’s beside the point…we simply make the sound, make the statement as best we can.
Now, those who come here are those who usually…well, I’ll put it like this, in the form of an analogy…those who come here are hoping to find the proper note, to hear the proper pitch, which often is not, they discern very uncomfortably out of the dissonance that what is said here produces. Now, even though the discomfort is unconsciously beneficial to the unwary, or to those who have come here expecting the truth to be like oil on troubled water, well then, the jolt is disillusioning and our temptation is to argue with whatever makes us uncomfortable. So, the chord sounded by way of a letter or a book or impersonal tape leaves less room for personal reactions, right?...
****************



Saturday, April 22, 2017

    

SUFFERING
 by: Rose Burrows

    Suffering, pain and anguish bring all together in the heart.  When we observe others... brother, sister, mother, father, son, daughter... friend or foe... in deep sorrow, the heart opens to a universal language called love and we become our brother's keeper.  Their pain moves us beyond ourselves to an unselfish love; their pain becomes our pain and we would do anything in our power to comfort them.   The petty judgements (lies) that have caused division melt away and only love (Truth) remains.  The pain of others awakens the Mother (Love) in us, it puts us in touch with our heart and soul. In that moment where love is pure there is no enemy, the heart is all-inclusive.  Love begets love.


Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.



The Contradistinction called Death

(by William Samuel)
An understanding of the "principle of contradistinction" allows for the unraveling of a number of mysteries and the tying together of loose ends of metaphysical truth.  While our understanding of this principle is not a prerequisite for arrival, it helps us comprehend why we are already there.  Also, it is a means by which the enigma of 'death' can be comprehended "this side of the grave."  So I will use it in the following discussion of Life's contradistinction, called "death."

When we see the corn pulled in the Fall and watch the stalks turn brown in the Winter wind, we do not think of the death of "corn."  Rather, we consider corn in its totality and know that Winter is not the time of growing.  When Summer comes we see the corn standing tall again in the sunshine, swaying in an August wind.  It is corn from the harvest of the year before that is still growing green-in another row, perhaps; in another corner of the field.

So, what is this matter of 'death'?  What is the much ado over it?  Why is it an '"enemy"?  We end the enemy by no longer judging it to be an enemy.  We end the appearances of certain other things by ending the judgments that called those appearances bad.
The statement "the last enemy to be destroyed" labels the appearances as an enemy.  But listen, listen:  it is one thing to see the valuelessness and powerlessness of death and call it a dream.  It is quite another to look on the event and see it as neither enemy nor friend.

When we stop limiting awareness to just the "tangible" purview of Eternity and admit to the possibility of the intangible (as the other half), we no longer see things as beginning and ending, as having birth and death.

In the Winter when the kernel of corn is stored in a bag in the seed house, the full being of corn is there yet.  Tangibly speaking, it is in miniature compared to the Summer way of looking at corn, but it is all there.  If we had an internal way, a Winter way of introspectively looking within the kernel, we would find the corn right there as before, without having come to an end.

In much the same way, the human view of existence is a half-view, an incomplete, male or female view, a rich or poor, right or wrong, good or evil, dead of alive view...but the a half view, nonetheless; only a partial view.  Uninhibited, unlimited, unbound awareness is a complete view, a whole view, a Winter and Summer view combined.  Awareness views "as a tree in paradise wherein the leaves do not fall in Winter of Summer." (Thomas)

There seems to be an internal and external view of the kernel of corn-a Summer and Winter view.  Humanity is geared to the Summer view exclusively--the external view, the good-bad, male-female, real-unreal, relative-absolute, dead or alive perspective.

There is another perspective: the whole view, the centered view, the transcendent view.  This is the perspective of uninhibited, unpossessed, uncontained Infinite AWARENESS-I!  Who says we are bound to the male outlook or the female outlook because "we were born that way?  Who says we see everything as either good or bad because that is the nature of the beast?  Who says Identity is either enlightened or unenlightened, expanded or unexpanded, developed or undeveloped, awake or sleeping?  Who is twisting our arm and making us continue those beliefs?  Not God, not Reality, not Wholeness, not Allness, not Awareness!

We stop identifying as half the pendulum's swing, as half of All.  Awareness (Identity) is COMPLETE.  We stop thinking of ourselves as male, female, good, bad, enlightened, unenlightened, awake or sleeping.  We do not have to think in that sense at all.  We simply look--watch--behold--be: and find our former view of Life with its apparent contradistinction (death) appearing in new perspective.
     
And so, our valiant Heart
Just keeps on singing Its Love Song
Its mournful passages and its joyful ones
All within the Symphony of Life
And there is no death
Only Love that God Is!

Love from my heart to your heart (One Heart)

Rose Burrows

Friday, April 14, 2017



lunagirl.com

Love Letters from North Montgomery Street - Spring 2002
by: Sandy Jones

It is easy to love what we love.  However, it is the things we do not love that need to be loved.  I have found my way out of many 'difficult circumstances' through the power of love.  I know it works.  loving our life when it is all rosy and peaches n'dream...that is good, that is grand, we would always live in gratitude for the good things.  But, we must, even more so, live in gratitude and love when situations seem to threaten us.  Those are the times when working with our attitude, our inner soul, Child Self, is most essential.  We can change the scene by changing our attitude.  Love really does conquer all things.  We can change the scene by changing our attitude.  Love really does conquer all things that appear 'out to get us'.  Honest It does.  I have seen it work many times in my life.  One must try love, even if you think you cannot do it.  If you can't find a place to start, then start here.  "Well, I sure love me for even trying to love my way out of this.  I sure love my courage, my devotion to God and my grace.  I love the deep integrity of my heart that leads me and speaks to me of love as an option."  The voice is God and praise God we hear this voice.  Can you love it all, no matter what it appears to be?  Yes!  Love it all because deep in your soul you know, from the bottom of your heart, as naive or as silly as it may sound, you know love will fix it all, love is the answer.  We decide to love .  It is our choice which attitude we use to negotiate our lives.  Our attitude is what shapes our world.  Our attitude is what we can choose, even if we cannot chose our circumstances.  The Power is most certainly within each of us.

Our attitude is a vibration, it is an energy, and we can align ourselves with love and light at its highest vibration or we can be of lesser character and allow the low vibrations to envelope us.  We hold the power of choice.

As you change your energy through gratitude for all things, just the way they are...as you change your attitude to one of love for life just the way it is, good and bad situations alike, then you will see your world change as you left your own sight.  The sights you witness become filled with light and love  Miracles do happen.

Our study is not one of intellectual meta-
physics.  All the words we read should bring us back to the peace that everything is all right just the way it is. A rejoicing heart is the answer, not a complex erudite, rote understanding of words.  Words won't help in our time of need  What does help is the real work that is 'asked of us, that we assert our heart, the heart that is tenderly true to God and to Its Self, our heart that can muster the strength and bravery to choose the attitude of love.

During the hard times these are the times when love needs to be used, when love needs to be put into action, acted on and lived.

Now we see the power is here within us.  Live an attitude of love, even with all the commotion, uneasiness, difficulties.  Choose love, and love works, it is most powerful.

With Bouquets of Sunshine and Tulips,

Love, Sandy Jones

********

Thank you so much Sandy Jones.  I was so amazed to come across this, like a sweet delicacy to soothe the soul.  The Child Heart whispering its delicate treats in the ear of those who will but listen!  1982 ...fancy that!

Rose Burrows

Monday, April 10, 2017



lunagirl image



Vignettes on Love


(Transcript from audio tape of a talk given by William Samuel)

Awareness, Life, Consciousness really mean the same thing. When one says “I am alive” he means “I am aware”. If one says “I am consciousness” he really means I am Awareness. When one says “I am alive”… or “living” he means that he’s being aware or conscious, so the terms mean the same. So, as I speak of Awareness, I speak of life. And, as I speak of Awareness, I have reference to that intangible essence which listens to these words. I have reference to that ineffable Isness wherein the images of Awareness are discerned. I have reference to the very identity you are. Have we ever been conscious of anything that was not included within this awareness that is right here? Have we ever said ’you’ to another without really addressing some object of perception that appeared within and as this Awareness that is aware right now? Think just a moment, have we seen a sight, have we ever heard a sound that did not come to us as this present consciousness? What is the smell of a rose, of the taste of a berry, of the feel of a rock if it isn’t Awareness? It’s Awareness functioning, isn’t it? It’s Awareness being Itself. Aren’t all of the arts and sciences, the figures and events of history with all of their stories, aren’t every sprig of grass, every star in the heavens, everyone included in and as this Awareness right here right now being identity? Yes, of course, you know this is so.

This is a simple, even though very seldom perceived, fact of existence and it’s for this reason that we’ve heard the statement that we live alone. We live alone as an all-inclusive Awareness, an all-inclusive Awareness of existence, of being. You see, the friends, relatives, trees, mountains and the throngs of humanity who keep us company and all that we see gathered here together this morning are actually aspects of this Awareness we are. They are images… images, objects of perception, ideas within this Consciousness I am, within this Awareness right here, right now. And friends, we are concerned with this single Awareness alone and only. This is the only One. Blessed are the solitary for they shall find the kingdom of heaven. We are concerned with this single, alone and only solitary Awareness being identity right here, right now, and not another one.

On the grass here in the sunshine I close my eyes and I gently be myself. Do it with me now. I close my eyes and I just gently be myself . Now, thoughts come; thoughts come, they say “I live as awareness.” They say “I am Awareness,” they say “Awareness is my very being and my function. Functioning Awareness am I. I see and feel and hear… seeing, hearing feeling am I…thinking am I… thoughts am I… right here, right now… Natural, unhurried, unworried, majestic, effortless being. Isn’t that what’s going on?

Here in this lovely garden, the fragrance of flowers impinges itself on me, as me, as Awareness and I am those fragrances. The sounds of a distant hammer blows, the drone of a bee, present themselves as this Awareness, as me, and I am those sounds. Now, with the sounds, as they come, come thoughts and with thoughts feelings and with feelings, images, memories...Memories, yes, fragrances of yesteryear. Oh, I know again, I know again, as I sit here, that yesterday has gone nowhere. Nothing has been destroyed by time. Covered over, maybe, but not destroyed. All that stands between Awareness and the freshness of childhood is the habit of concern, a blanket of struggle, the pride of acquisition and human accomplishment, the deadening practice of being a custodian of life, a caretaker of life, the guardian of life. Never, never have I been that dead one, not really, not in truth, only in a half dream. I breathe deeply and the heart sings like the Child I am, like the Child I am.

All right now…refreshed…refreshed we can start again to try to tell it again, to tell it like it is, but I tell you, there are no words that are gentle enough. Oh, there are just no words that are soft enough but maybe there will be some sort of mysterious combination of them...maybe something…a magic combination that will be able to illicit the feeling that will be gentle enough to tell it like it is. Love is that feeling. All feeling is love. It is always Love that does the work or appears to be the work that’s done. Love is here, right now, as identity, right now.

Once upon a time there lived a workingman who detested coffee. He just didn’t like coffee at all and his wife didn’t know this because he had never told her. And it happened that she loved coffee very much and she took great delight in packing his lunch every day and filling up his thermos with hot coffee for him to take to work. Well, he always carried the box and the thermos to work but, being a very frugal man, he brought it home again with him in the evening with the thermos of coffee still untouched, you know. And then, in order to save a penny and because his wife loved coffee just about as much as he detested it, he would pour the coffee back into the family coffeepot when she wasn’t looking. Then, at night he was excused the evening coffee at dinner on the grounds that it kept him from sleeping. Well, one night, the wife dreamed that her husband was unfaithful to her. Of course she didn’t like it. The next night she had the same dream and she really didn’t like it but she said nothing. Well, a week or so later, the dream happened a third time and this time it caused much jealousy and much anguish and she finally decided that it was true. She said, “ well, it’s true, it must be true, the worm, that miserable worm is being unfaithful to me, otherwise I wouldn’t be having these dreams”. And so she set out to avenge herself and she did this by putting a pinch of arsenic in his coffee every morning until she killed herself and at the husband’s trial…of course, there had to be a trial, you see, but he was acquitted… he was found to be innocent and the judge said “It is always the same, always the same, those who believe the dream murder themselves. Those who believe the dream murder themselves.”

What is the dream, what is the dream? We’ve heard so much about the dream, the belief in dream of material existence. It is the simplicity of it that hides itself from us. If I could get this point past the intellect, the heart would grab it in a minute. The dream of material living is the belief that we are an ego, a big fat piece of cheese who is the owner of Awareness, that this very Awareness right here right now, that listens to these words, that sees these sites, that feels these feelings, belongs to an ego, belongs to one called Bill or Ruby or John or Jack. And then we act as though we are the guardians of it, the protectors of it. But pretty soon it isn’t the Awareness that is so important, it is the ego that’s doing the protecting that’s so all-far and important; and pretty soon we are defending that ego, we’re fighting to please that ego, that custodian, that pseudo-possessor of life and yet all the while, Life, Awareness, just goes on about its business of being aware. Right here, right now, isn’t Awareness just being aware? Isn’t it, right now, just about the business of hearing these sounds, seeing these sites? Just who is this big ego that says “this Awareness is mine?” That one is the fraud, that one is the fiction; that one is the one that we have done with. That one is the liar from the beginning. That one is without power, without authority. It’s never been anything but a belief and a belief is a belief. It’s a belief. It has no power; it has no authority. A belief is just a belief, but it doesn’t do anything to Awareness. Life goes right on living. Right now, right now, see this point, take this into the heart, right now...see and understand that Awareness Itself is identity. Life Itself is who and what I am. I see that some of you are seeing this right now. We live this single identity, refusing to be the custodian, the possessor, the old man, the liar on the scene judging his miserable mess. How do we live the single identity, how do we live it? By being conscious of the fact that this consciousness is God’s Self-Awareness about the business of being this Awareness I am. We awaken to the fact that we are not another and never have been and then we stop acting as another. We awaken to the fact that we are not the custodian, the possessor, the container of Awareness but that we are Awareness Itself, Life Itself, God’s living Itself and then we stop acting as the possessor, as the custodian. We begin to live as the single one, as the solitary, as the Only. We live One Awareness is All. Then we stand fast on this ground. We refuse to have two awarenesses on the scene. And then, bit-by-bit, precept upon precept and really with no conscious effort, we begin to find meanings, meanings behind the events that are transpiring all around us. Then, knowing the meanings, the reasons for the appearing may also be known and, of course, what to do about them. What to do about them then would have to be known. And we find ourselves living harmoniously in ways that we never dreamed of before. God really is Love, you know, but the Love is not out there separate and apart from me. It is here as this identity, as this Awareness I am. Love is not an action that I am to engage in first. Love is the identity I find myself to be. Then… then you see. Every action you see is automatically Love’s action and it is impossible to be unwise, unloved or unwanted.
The grand wonder is that Awareness is already aware. Awareness is already aware right here, right now. We didn’t have to do anything to make it what it is. We are it already. Awareness is the action of Mind. What is Mind if it isn’t to be aware, if it isn’t to know? And what is knowing but Awareness? Here we are, all the time we have been the living, the consciousness of Mind, the divine Mind. So, you see, the identity we are is already established. It is already pure and perfect, despite the belief that we hung like a veil over it, the belief that we were a recipient of Awareness. Why, we never will be the recipient. We’ve been it all the time and we are it right now, without wait, without struggle, without fighting, without clawing and scratching at the leg of God, trying to get to identity. Right here, right now, we can let go the belief of human possessorship, of the human receivership, to be the one we’ve always been and will always be.
What is Awareness if it isn’t the knowing mind? Awareness is knowing going on. Mind about the business of being mind is knowing or being aware, so therefore this Awareness right here, right now, this identity we are is wisdom, it’s Mind’s knowing. The identity I am is Infinite wisdom itself, right here, right now. You see, we don’t have to learn the truth. This is a notion to be discarded, absolutely, to be discarded. We’re not here now about the business of learning the truth. Whether we like it or not we are learning that we already are the Truth, that we already are Wisdom being wise. You know, there’s a hell of a difference. Why, just the knowledge of this fact speeds self-discovery. Just the knowledge of it. How, how does it speed self-discovery? It has us properly identified. You see, since I am wisdom, I am not one who is searching for wisdom. As wisdom, I am seeking and becoming aware of the many vistas of my self-identification. Now, as one attempting to try to get wise, as one attempting to try to learn the truth as though it is separate and apart from me, then I am falling into the intellectual outhouse of anguish and confusion and frustration. Now, either we will forsake that identification who is struggling to become wise or we’re going to watch ourselves attempting to live its absolute destruction. Let me say that again, we’re not struggling to put off the old man, we’re not struggling to put off the belief of a possessor, we’re about the business of letting go the belief that there is a possessor. There isn’t really one so therefore it’s only a belief, so we’re about the business of letting go the belief of a possessor, the belief of a mortal identity. This is to end the belief that beliefs are even going on. When we do this we find ourselves comprehending what appearances are. I can’t say it too many times, I guess, how important it is that we understand … that is, we don’t stop until we understand what the appearance is.
You ask me, how do we study. Well, with the gentle grace of Light about the business of examining itself. We study from the position of Intelligence already intelligent, from Wisdom already wise, from Awareness already aware, happily examining and being amazed by its infinite detail. We study by tangibly, practically, actually living the Light of ourself that has already been disclosed to us and, I suppose also by ending all reticence to surrender the uttermost farthing of the possessor of the former concept of ourself. We study by learning the lessons that come from living our Light enthusiastically, and of course, by doing what I’m doing right now, by telling the others that I am my own self-vision of the wonders that we found. Oh, I can tell you this...listen, we really study best by coming home to that native intuitive, heartfelt, wonderful Child, Child of God that we already are. 'I' means identity. 'I' means identity, not a suffering human concept of self. I let go the role of an awakening student. I end the identification of a gendered mortal learning this or that. I’m not even a member of the human race, I’m not one among many, working, striving, struggling, arriving at truth. As it’s put in the bible “Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little” I take the divine Awareness of God to be my identity. I am that. That is Me. And I don’t hesitate to say so. Right here, right now, I don’t hesitate to say so that I am the Awareness of God. Reminding myself, as often as necessary, that Awareness is who I am, Awareness is what I am, the why I am and that identity is not a human one, not a worldly one, not a sick, sinning, ignorant or quarrelling one, but the holy One, the whole One, the Perfect One. 
You know, we all know what we found. We know of the inner peace, the love, the insight and wonder of being that we have found Light to be, Truth to be. You all know what the Truth has meant to us over the years. All the hell, fire and damnation the world can muster cannot efface the grace that we felt. The challenges we face, like lions in the coliseum, may appear to tear the old nature apart… the old man… the belief apart but all that’s torn, all that can be is a concept that was never real, a belief that was never real. The grace of identity stands untouched, untroubled, singing and clapping its hands through the ages.  
It has been said that the discernment of identity is an uphill struggle but it isn’t really. You may have come here thinking that it was going to be an uphill struggle, but you see, we are what we are, whether it’s seen or not. And the simple knowledge of this fact is a great aid. Awareness is our identity and awareness is aware whether we struggle with it or not. The fact of Awareness functioning is ever effortless, it’s ever going about its business of seeing, hearing, feeling, including thoughts, all within itself, just as it’s about the business of listening to these words right now. I can tell you that much of the effort goes out of our daily struggle the very minute we extend the sense of identity from this body point from which we observe things...We see, the minute we extend it to Infinite Awareness doing the observing, unbound Awareness Itself.
Now, as this expanded identity, the body point is not excluded but it is seen as sort of the center, the center within an infinite identification that includes the universe within itself, that includes every grain of sand and every star and every blade of grass in the universe. So what do we do? We live this Child of God that we are already and we live it without effort and without struggle and most wonderfully, I can tell you that we live it without inhibitions. You see, this conscious Awareness being us, this Awareness that’s going on right here right now listening to these words, is Deity’s Self-awareness in action for which Deity, Isness, Reality, God, is responsible. The weight of the world, the weight of the entire world and all of its guilt, is lifted from our shoulders the very instant we stop trying to be an ego, protector, custodian, possessor of Awareness, the very minute we stop trying to be a personality, an ego, a bit phantom bugaboo protecting his flock from the outspoken teachings of somebody. Once upon a time I was invited most sincerely to go and visit a man’s group and then he came to visit me…
Well, the instant we stop trying to be an ego out to protect his images, out to protect his sense of possessions, the minute we stop trying to be one intent on healing, perfection…when Perfection stands tall and perfect, quite without need of healing, the instant we stop doing all of that we awaken to a whole new world.

Yesterday we had quite a talk about living judgelessly. It seemed the point was well understood. Now, I would like to make clear something that happens as we live judgelessly, something that some of you have already walked across. Incidentally, to live judgelessly means simply to live as Awareness itself, to perceive our identity to be just this Awareness and nothing else. I say nothing else… that includes the world, doesn’t it, because Awareness is the total function of Mind. So when we assume our real identity we are not losing anything, we are gaining a sense of infinity.

Now, the point I’d like to make has already been found out by many of you. You’ve mentioned it to me. The fact that, as we stop living as the possessor of awareness, as we stop living judgmentally, as we stop placing good and bad values on our images of Awareness, our ability to distinguish increases, it increases enormously. Now, listen, there’s a great difference between value judgments and distinctions. It’s a difference, however, that isn’t very easily understood until we actually get underway and begin living judgelessly. Then, and not until then, it becomes apparent just what the difference is. And then our actions follow suit. Now, to make this point very clear, let me say it again. The ability to distinguish increases as judgement ends. Distinguish what? Well, new sights that we’ve been unconscious of before. We hear new sounds that we’ve never consciously heard before. Last evening someone mentioned the sound of the wind blowing through my pines out there. Of course, this is a sound that’s always been with us. We became very conscious of it last night, the spring pine…Oh, but new feelings, we became conscious of feelings that we long thought had vanished through the years. But more than this, we find an ever growing new ability to distinguish things in areas that are generally recognized as not containing things to distinguish. An illustration I might use, or an analogy I might make is, it would be something like we had forever been looking at a bowl full of marbles and heretofore they had only been round. We would all agree, we would say they are all round but, as we live just a simple credulous childlike awareness, we see things that others don’t seem to see. Suddenly, we see that not only are they round, but they have different colors. This means that each of them is a little different. We see that perhaps the design is different. We perhaps see that they are different sizes. Now, the point I make here is that these are distinctions that we are beginning to perceive and we find that these are distinctions that others who do not…when I say others I mean only other aspects of ourself, other people… but it appears that they don’t see these things. So, I’m telling you again, to answer your question, Betty, yes, perception does become very clear, very acute and intuitive alertness develops. Inevitably, the wonder is how we could have been so darned dumb to have missed it all these years.

As our acuity develops, as the consequence of living judgeless awareness, we begin to find ourselves seeing things about things that we’ve never seen before. We find ourselves interested in things that we’ve never been interested in before. Oh, we have a broadened, widened sense of appreciation, no question about it. Right here…well, let me, for instance, read you something. Here is… if you will imagine this… a very lovely lady by the name of Catherine Nelson Davis was walking up a beach one day and in a state of wide open awareness, as poets often are, with that listening attitude that comes from being credulous childlike mind in action, and she looked down on the sand and she saw a feather, one feather. You know, you can look down on the sand nowadays and find all kinds of things like beer bottles and combs and old tires but here she was on a stretch of clean sand and she saw just a feather. Listen, listen to what she wrote:

One airspun pearl grey feather tipped with whiteness
Brings visions of the soar and lift of wings
Of fluent grace and sweeping arcs of seagulls
Of stately lyric beauty and compelling things
I see the crystal sea moon-washed with silver
And feel the cooling wetness of the sand
The sting of misty salt spray on my shoulders,
The lapping of the waves across my hand
One airspun pearl grey feather, fragile wonder
Once etched against the sky or on the shore
The pinion of a proud Majestic creature
As free as wanton winds to swirl, to roar
Can one dream dreams of loveliness and grace
Without a fleeting glimpse of heaven’s face

Well, all it was was a gray feather, and yet Awareness could see all of those things, as a consequence. And this is not unusual. You too will find yourself…in fact all of you are seeing more now than you’ve ever seen before. You know this is so. You know this is so. The Child we are is alert, sees every little thing that happens and notices every bit. To pick up a feather is just a feather to some but to this lady:

One airspun pearl grey feather tipped with whiteness
Brings visions of the roar and lift of wings
Of fluent grace and sweeping arcs of seagulls
Of stately lyric beauty and compelling things

Well, it may be just an ordinary view to some people but as she held that feather in her hand she could say:


I see the crystal sea moon-washed with silver
And feel the cooling wetness of the sand
The sting of misty salt spray on my shoulders,
The lapping of the waves across my hand
One airspun pearl grey feather, fragile wonder
Once etched against the sky or on the shore
The pinion of a proud Majestic creature
As free as wanton winds to swirl, to soar
Can one dream dreams of loveliness and grace
Without a fleeting glimpse of heaven’s face.

Of course we can all answer that for Kathryn. Of course not, we see heaven’s face and with much more than a fleeting glimpse.

You know that I’ve long ago given up on this business of trying to say everything so absolutely and having everything very profound.

We just say it like it comes to be said and if we’re honest about it then not only what we say is understood but what seems to be behind it is understood too. So I don’t know why I should, all of a sudden, want to read a poem, I don't do it very often.
I did the other day though. Maybe because I was a soldier this particular poem had significance to me. This was written by a soldier whose name we don’t know and he was a confederate soldier. And perhaps the most, as wars go, the most vicious war this country has ever suffered, a time when polarization burst into flame and, as appearances go, this is a new time of polarization. Listen to these words, not absolute words, just the simple words of a soldier:

I asked God for strength that I might achieve
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey
I asked for help that I might do greater things
I was given infirmity that I might do better things
I asked for riches that I might be happy
I was given poverty that I might be wise
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life
I was given life that I might enjoy all things
I got nothing that I asked for
Oh, but I got everything I had hoped for
Despite myself my prayers were answered
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

Words like that communicate too don’t they? Of course they do. They point to Love and I can echo those words, I am, among all men most richly blessed. I am, I am and I know I am. Oh, and I can tell you that with this blessing, that I can tell you how blessed you are, that you are blessed with perfection and purity and beauty and holiness beyond all belief…beyond all belief.

A call came on the phone, and it was a lady who told me that she had been paralyzed and that she was frightened and so we were talking. And in the course of the conversation, all of sudden the lady became very excited and almost hysterical and so I paused a minute and she shouted "keep talking, keep talking, please keep talking, because I can move my legs, I can move my legs" and so I kept talking and, well, I got a letter from her yesterday and she says "I'm getting along fine, I'm getting along fine and I'm coming to Mountain Brook. Well, I don't often tell stories like that but I tell it this time because I know full well what seemed to do the work, what seemed to do it. I can tell you that Love does the work. Love does its good work. You see, God is Love and God is all and I know that I’m not separate nor apart from that All so I’m love too. And I know that the voice that I talk to, or the one that calls me or the one I see, as I see you right now, you're not separate nor apart from me. I’m love and that makes you love too. Love is all that’s real of me of mine, it’s all I’ve ever been or could be. It’s all I’ve ever seen or could see. Love, just gentle simple love. Love am I, I’m love and so are you.

And you know, of all the messages that might be delivered there is really just one message. I don’t care whose philosophy it is or where it comes from or how it’s clothed or how it’s ritualized or anything else or whether that message is human or whether it’s a tree. There is really just one message and that’s love.

What about the story of identity, what about Light? What about supply or health or wealth? Well, the only message is about love. God is all and God is Love. And I tell you I have nothing else to say. Because I have found the Love that is the Identity I am. Love is this Me who says ‘My’. Love is the Light that is being Me. Love is the supply and the health I am and the wealth I Am.

Oh, but somebody says, what about children, what about life? I say Love, pure Love, I don’t care what it looks like, Love is the Child Eternal. Love is Me and I Am the Child . And I guess I shock an awful lot of people because they say, well, surely you make a distinction between human and divine love. I don’t, I don’t do any such thing. Love is love and love is Love… indivisible. There is only one, One Love. There are not two loves anymore than there are two identities. Love, indivisible, one, whole, holy, Me.

Someone says, what about time and space? Let One be the Love Love Is. That is, let one know it, recognize It and live it and that Love will know all that can be known of space. And Love knows there is no time but Love. But this isn’t good enough, you see, people say, tell me about gender, tell me about the mysteries. Tell me why I feel, and so forth. Love, all Love, nothing but Love. I am my own little boy and little girl. I am my own scuffed knees, and dirty feet, I’m my own grass in my shoes and rocks and I’m my own dirt in my ears, my own runny nose and tears and I’m my own bright eyes and excitement. And I’m also my own fear if I am afraid. You folks know that I spend much time out among the trees, as much as I can, out in the woods. I am my own back roads and trail. I’m my own riverbanks and fields and campsites. I’ m my own hawk that soars above and I am my own mountain. And I’m my own sweat and dirt and tired legs and I love Love. I’m my own cool stream of water and firewood and lonesome campfire.

Love, the Love that God Is, the God Love, that is all I am… is my sleeping bag and night sounds. Love is my Lollygog tied there to a tree and that’s a River of Love she floats in. I love Love. I’m not separate from my sights and sounds. We are one, one whole total Love am I and Love does the work. Love does the work. I know Love does the work.

I know the lady will forgive me for reading these words….This comes from a lady who, as the world would say, was blind. Listen to these:

Oh Bill, it’s so marvelous, I’m driving my car, seeing all the beautiful dirty dusty places that need cleaning in my life, in my house, once more able to see the steps and so able to work in the garden. I’m almost caught up with the chores and then I’ll get out the paints and really be able to express my Joy. One more thing, I know that anything I see is good because I can see it. What does that work, as appearances go, is Love, nothing but Love. Love does the work.

It seems to be the popular sport for the kids nowadays to talk about their destructiveness and their blindness but I would like to read you the words to one of their songs. You ought to listen to some of those lyrics. You know, the kids we listen to are just the youthful appearing of this very Awareness we are. But, listen to these words:


Come sing a song of Joy
For Peace shall come, my brother
Sing, sing a song of Joy
For men shall love each other
That day will dawn just as sure
as hearts that are pure are hearts set free
No man must stand alone
with hands held out before him
Reach out and take them in yours
This love that endures forevermore
Then sing a song of Joy
for love and understanding

It is the intellectual nature of us that denies the simplicity of reality, yet wherever the Light has been found, in whatever period or culture and regardless of the former beliefs of those within whom this Light is bloomed, or upon whom it is shown, the words that tell of it, the words that tell of this Light invariably speak of its availability, of its tenderness and of its transcending simplicity. Enlightment reveals that the real appears a mystery only to the sophisticated or dishonest nature of us, withheld from those who would search for it outside the childlike essence of his own being.

Now, to those who struggle for their divinity in the diverse places that conditioned thinking dictates, those bewitching webs of erudition that titillate the personal ego rather than dismiss it, the Light remains forever a mystery. Oh, but It comes, it comes, the Light comes in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over and put into the lap of those who are willing to let go the vaunted sense of self, to act the simple Child of God that we are, in fact, already. Ultimately, we see. Sooner or later we see because we're forced to see. The Light of the inexpressible demands only the sacrifice of the phantom role that we play, the mistaken sense of Self, but the surrender of anything less than that is the dream of darkness perpetuated.

Well, now, I have just said this in my words, listen to these words with your Heart and hear them as your own.

We’ve all heard the story of the Phoenix. The phoenix is not a mythical bird, it is not. It soars and sings. Even now a new phoenix wings its way in the sun. His message is a simple story, a warm and gentle story of joy here for the taking, right here, right now. ‘Fly with me’, the phoenix sings, ‘fly with me.’ Flames burn the ancient nest and the old order vanishes. Come with me to my mountaintop from whence the kingdom may be surveyed as it is, where a warm west wind sweeps the mist away and the heart soon sings its merry melody. Yes, the phoenix flies but mankind looks in other directions searching the crevices for sustenance. Well, who looks up and finds me? Those who find Light to be the sufficiency they are already.

As for wealth, the universe is already mine. The universe is already ours. It was the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom; isn’t this so? As for myself, as far as dollars go, at least all I have ever had have been turned loose quickly, in order to write another page or to tell a story in another place. I have found that to be a hoard of dollars in this activity is to be a dry well. This doesn’t mean that one isn’t to have dollars, it is to say that to be a hoard of dollars… But I can assure you of this, that in this study you will find your supply becoming ample without a need to worry about your obligations. You just might as well expect it because it is as inevitable as the fruit that follows the bloom as the seed that follows the fruit.

One of the first delights …sooner or later we let that go. We find it isn’t what ‘they’ say that matters half so much as finding out what we believe right here as our self, here as I. You see, our actions on the daily scene, our action in the world, our actions from the time we get up until we go to sleep are determined by what we inwardly believe, what we inwardly believe ourselves and if those actions appear to be producing an experience of unsatisfying proportions, if those actions appear to not be producing the sustenance that's necessary nor the happiness well then reading 25 more books isn’t the answer, we had best determine what our inner beliefs really are, determine what they are, look at them, examine and put them in order. Now, we don’t need as much help to do this as we first suspect. You see, it’s really only necessary to examine what we believe and I can tell you that the very shock of the sight will usually start our putting them into order. You see, all of us have an inward honesty built in. There is an inner guide that is absolutely perfect. What is it? It is an already established identity. No one can tell us about that so well as we can tell our self. Well, how does one examine one’s self-concepts. There are many ways but reading isn’t one of those ways really because reading is a continual surveillance of other ideas, what other people think. Of course I realize that those other people are here as I too and this is why we read. And if one will read slowly and contemplatively then reading is great but so often we don’t. Meditation, you see is a sitting still and letting one’s own come forth and reveal itself. And writing is precisely that same action except it winds up in tangible words so that they can be examined and looked at.

Well about this habit of thinking, ‘well, I must read someone else’s words, someone else’s books” this is of course good. Especially those of us who have had our reading restricted to official and approved publications, you see, we are understandably prone to do a lot of catching up. But yet, how many do we know who have read everything on the face of the earth, every new book that comes along and they still haven’t enough spiritual perspicacity to pour water out of a boot. And by the same token, what of those folks who have never read a word, are they doomed to some sort of eternal damnation just because they don’t know about this or that spiritual concept or this or that belief? There should be a happy balance between reading and meditative writing, or contemplative writing or just between reading and meditation or between reading and then going out looking at the Beauty that Isness Is. There has to be a balance between inputting and outputting.

Listen, what is the purpose of human activity? What is real and genuine purpose of this grand and glorious rat race that we see the whole world engaged in if it isn’t ultimately to get into a position or to get into a recognized position within which we are able to help our sense of a greater selfhood, that is to help others. What is all the worry and the work and the education and business activity and the schooling and the personal relationships with books and teachers and hard knocks, trials and tribulations and health and so forth…what is it all about if isn’t to ultimately be able to help…help our sense of a greater self, that is our loved one out there. Are we to forever go on growing personal roots…you see, are we to go on forever developing our stands and our branches. Are we to forever go on getting sustenance and acquiring sustenance and growing bigger and bigger without ever giving, without ever blooming…without ever reversing the process? Isn’t it true that every spiritual concept that has ever been presented speaks of a grand reversal.

Don’t you think that there must ultimately be a time when all of our acquiring is to yield itself as a means by which we are to start giving our inner essence to the world? I can tell you that the time arrives to bloom. The time comes when we find ourselves in a position to render love and devotion to our stranger, to our sense of a greater self. The time comes when we are called on to help others and I mean to help others with the physical substance of our being which we have scrupulously accumulated over so long a time and this is the real giving. It is an aspect, at least, of the real giving that comes home to us tenfold, hard pressed, shaken together and running over.

Now, this time to bloom doesn’t happen to every member of the family at the same time. Those who are along the way of blooming must not stand in the way of other blossoms, nor should we try to get a young bud to open before its appointed time. We do, here is I, as comes to us to do, here is I, running with the Heart and this doing is evermore and more an outpouring of love for our greater selfhood, for those the Father has given us to do something for. And each of us, oh, I can tell you that we are given someone to do something for. Never a day goes by but what there is not someone-- we are given someone to do something for-- to do something for. Finally, somewhere along the line, we awaken and then do that something, to bask in the joy of the doing, usually to forget it very quickly. But somewhere along the line we are given someone to do something for. We do it, we bask in the Joy of the doing and then recognize the fact that this is to be a continuing way of life and when this recognition dawns we are given more and more to do for and in the process of doing for them our means to do grows. As we give the Light we are I can assure you more and more Light floods in to reveal Itself and disclose itself, to pass through this minute limited in time and space here and now to go on out to an Infinite out there. It would appear…I can only say this in tangible words or in finite or relative terms, but it does appear that the Light comes from an Infinite Source and goes to its own infinity out there, flowing through this point in time and space that we call this here and now.

To never give is to never really enjoy the process of supply. It’s to never see what sufficiency really is. You see, there is a time when we input, a time for growth, a time for intellectual attainment, a time for recognizing the reasons for the appearances, just like there is a time for the new seed in the ground to grow, a time for its roots to accumulate, a time for its branches to grow bigger, a time for more leaves to develop. But you show me the tree that never blooms, that never finally reaches that point where it gives of itself and I’ll show you a tree that’s soon cut down.

There is a saying that when the prize is big enough the path to it is not a narrow trail but a mission. The prize of this activity is bigger than any prize the world can offer. There has never been such a prize. There has never been a greater reward for the finding. This search, this activity yields the discovery of the Self. This prize is Love. This prize is the conscious discovery of light and love and inspiration and enthusiasm and sparkle and youth. Our reward is the discovery of the goal for which we have been searching so long. Our prize is the Light we are, the Love we are, the freedom and wonder and excitement we are.

Truth is always timely. Sometimes it doesn’t appear why certain things break into consciousness but in time it becomes clear. Reasons present themselves and we see why living intuitively is so important. Well now, when something comes for us to do we should sit loose and do it even when the reasons are not clear. The Heart isn’t fooled, we sit loose and we make ourselves a clear channel for identity, the identity we are, to express itself uninhibitedly.

In the human scheme if things it isn’t easy to point fingers at sacred cows, we are all prone to believe that those cows have horns and the cows out there, the sacred cows out there believe that they have horns and they sure try to use them. You see, even when we manage to prick the hide of some angelic sacred cow, that old religion maybe has hovering over us, the rush of the escaping hot air is likely to sear us and, if doesn’t, the canvas balloon may crush us in its collapse but the matter of iconoclasm should be understood.

Now, it is not my intention here to be an iconoclast in the eyes of the world, but you see I couldn’t care less about what I look like to an ‘out there’. However, it is not possible to tell of my joy without telling how that joy grew in the face of my own false beliefs when they were seen for their emptiness, that is, as my joy grew in proportion to the collapse of my own false idols, my own sacred cows out there. Really, all I can do is tell what has happened in this experience and what is still happening, and surely as appearances go, I began as the cringing willing and obedient servant to the ordinary views that the world presented, to the ordinary ideas of the world and its institutions. And now, in retrospect, it is apparent to me that I did have to divest myself of many false views in order to better see the real view. Ever-clearer concepts appeared. They appeared as the smashing of some idols and the turning away of some others. And always, I must say that always, ultimately, there seemed to present itself a reply from the idol, a rebuttal of sorts, sometimes sharp, sometimes hard, sometimes easy but always a response and all I can do is say that the old nature of us, the old nature of us, the old man, the old sense of self, doesn’t take its annihilation lightly. It battles for its life but it’s only a belief and a belief does not really have any power. On the human scene it’s our belief in the belief that gives it its power.

Of the misconceptions that prevail none towers so high or any higher than the Himalayan sacred cow, which is the institution of human marriage, the appointed guardian, protector of love. Those who have found identity to be Love Itself had best talk softly and carry a big stick because even the light of love shining from their eyes will appear to someone somewhere in that institution that is here for the appointed task of protecting love; it will appear to someone somewhere as a threat to their idea of love and even when it is accepted here and there it will not be long before the world’s guardian angel of love will view it as a threat to its existence. Of all the creeping things that creepeth upon the earth that mankind does not have dominion over at all, it has to be that institution of marriage which leads everyone around by the nose, bowing and scraping and having to do thus and so. Now, this institution has managed to include many new things within its protective aura, such as home, children, and so forth. How often we see the words home and marriage all run together as though they were inseparable when the fact is they touch one another but they are not the same, else, you see, single folks and children could have no home without marriage. There is a human institution of marriage, which stands guard over the most limited imaginable aspect of human love. It guards, what does it guard? In fact it really stands to guard nothing but the orgasm, the human orgasm, but you see, love is infinitely more than that, more than that, ever ever more than that.

Now listen, listen, these statements are not to be construed as an attack on the institution of marriage, as though that institution shouldn’t exist because it most certainly should exist, it serves its purpose. But this is to say that we must, each of us, clearly understand that that institution, just like every other institution that appears anywhere within the spectrum of Awareness, is included within Awareness and is not an institution to which we must bow and scrape. The dominion here is with Awareness that perceives the institution of marriage. Now, this is not to say again, that marriage is to be overthrown, that there is no place for marriage or that one is not to be married or that if one is married that that’s wrong or that if one is not married that that’s wrong. It is not to say that at all. It is to say that the institution of marriage has grown to be a grand sacred cow that leads many of us around by the nose, dictatorial, asserting, forcing our actions in one way or the other when the fact is that Love, here as I, has dominion and while the institution serves its purpose it is subservient to the Awareness that Love Is and not the other way around. Oh, but these statements, these statements made by anyone provoke the institution into a position of defense, into a position of defending itself, into a fear of its existence and so these statements, we find, appear to a time to aggravate the personal situation. So it is wise most often, on the scene, to limit our knowing, so far as talking about it goes, to a yay yay and a nay nay because surely, too many words can be woven into a crown of thorns.

In the vignette that you have just heard, an iconoclastic statement was made, or what the world would call an iconoclastic statement was made relative to marriage. Then it was followed by an explanation, that hopefully, made intellectual sense. I know it made sense to the Heart. Now, if you felt any qualms within yourself with the first statements of the vignette, if you felt wronged, felt a sense of inner disquiet or discomfort or shock or amazement or anything of a so-called negative nature, if you felt that before the explanation, then you are able to perceive tangibly, by means of that vignette you have been made able to perceive tangibly the strength of an institution’s power given it by one’s belief that the institution is the authority rather than that for which the institution came into being. The comprehension of the secret is a matter of understanding and not of words. I have the greatest secrets to announce but all I can do is utter feeble words that are in the ballpark and then await the growth of a simple credulous uncluttered childlike awareness to comprehend them. Einstein disclosed the secrets of relativity, many years ago and had to use the language of mathematics but the statements were so strange, so abstruse, so revolutionary and difficult to prove beyond theory that mankind is still struggling to comprehend all he said. His language had to await the growth of metaphysicians capable of comprehending the full significance of his words. Now, I’ve been given certain things to understand and it seems that I must lift my own comprehension of these things to an ability to find the words to say it by creating the sundry atmospheres that will permit a door opening, first one door, then another, then another until I see myself capable of understanding what I say. While that may sound mystical in content, it really isn’t.

One will not really understand all there is to understand about the matter of supply, the matter of sufficiency, until he understands about Love, until he has come to understand an identity that is Love Itself. It is the identity that Love is that understands the nature of sufficiency and has the strength to live it. While the intellect may understand…. end of tape.

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You are welcome to contact me, Rose Burrows:
dozenrosesca&yahoo.ca