Lest we forget

Plain Simple Love

by Marrion Pratt

Love answers.  Honest, gentle sweet everyday love is the healing balm of day-to-day encounters; the remedy for all ills.  Love is light in dark places; love is warmth that soothes pain, the Presence that still the anxious, fearful heart.  Love is the tension breaker, the match-maker.  Love is forgiveness, understanding, helpfulness and sharing.  Love is the smile that lifts a depression, depletes oppression, disarms aggression.  Love is energy for the wary, joy for the dreary, reassurance for the leery.  Love is the inspiration that loves the brush, the pen, the pencil to thoughts of beauty, hope and courage.  Love is the vision that sees and knows beyond the mundane,crass and craggy to the shores of bounty, harmony and limitless good.  Love is the signal that lifts the heart, lightens the eye, and sweetens the lips.  Love is strength and confidence, encouragement and assurance.  Love recognizes good.  Love is eloquence, grace and humility, freedom, success and ability.  Love is the setting for jewels in the sky, the radiance on high, the grassy knoll nearby.  Love is laughter heart to heart and eye to eye.  Love is listening, understanding and patience.  Love is gladness for another's good, sorrow at another's pain.  Love is warmth, comfort and sustaining strenngth.  Love is the multiplier of good, the diminisher of evil.  Love sees love and sgtrength.  Love sees love and widens all boundaries.  Love neutralizes bitterness, melts hatred, makes friends.  Love is the greatest story ever told, the greatest power ever known, the greatest light ever seen.  Love is life and banishes dying.  Love is generous and kind, open-faced and childlike.  Love is trusting, guiltless and innocent.  Love is grandeur, loftiness and near at hand.  Love is heaven in earth, the answer to questions.  love is God in man.

 

La Vie

 

La vie terrestre :

une étape de l'éternité

  Nous ne pouvons qu’admettre que 

nous ne venons pas a la vie sans baggages. Chaque etre humain voyant le jour herite bien sur d’un bagage Nous ne pouvons qu'admettre que nous ne venons pas à la vie sans bagages. Chaque être humain voyant le jour hérite bien sûr d'un bagage génétique, mais aussi et surtout d'un bagage qui lui est propre, contenant toutes ses richesses, ses expériences et blessures personnelles cumulées avant sa naissance. La question m'importe peu de savoir si nous ne faisons qu'un passage sur terre, ou si nous expérimentons de multiples vies, mais il est évident pour moi qu'il y a un avant, et un après. En fait, il y a un toujours, bien au delà de notre concept terrestre du temps. Rien de notre essence ne peut mourir. J'existe, bien au delà de ma vie présente. Et moins je m'identifie à la forme qui passe, plus j'existe intensément, intemporellement, au delà de tout ce qui peut m'arriver. Ce parfum d'éternité, cette béatitude, cette sensation profonde d'avoir toujours existé m'emplissent alors d'une paix incommensurable : la vie ne fait que se transformer, elle se métamorphose, mais ne meurt jamais.

                 (auteur inconnu)

La vie terrestre : 

une étape de l'éternité

Nous ne pouvons qu'admettre que nous ne venons pas à la vie sans bagages. Chaque être humain voyant le jour hérite bien sûr d'un bagage génétique, mais aussi et surtout d'un bagage qui lui est propre, contenant toutes ses richesses, ses expériences et blessures personnelles cumulées avant sa naissance. La question m'importe peu de savoir si nous ne faisons qu'un passage sur terre, ou si nous expérimentons de multiples vies, mais il est évident pour moi qu'il y a un avant, et un après. En fait, il y a un toujours, bien au delà de notre concept terrestre du temps. Rien de notre essence ne peut mourir. J'existe, bien au delà de ma vie présente. Et moins je m'identifie à la forme qui passe, plus j'existe intensément, intemporellement, au delà de tout ce qui peut m'arriver. Ce parfum d'éternité, cette béatitude, cette sensation profonde d'avoir toujours existé m'emplissent alors d'une paix incommensurable : la vie ne fait que se transformer, elle se métamorphose, mais ne meurt jama

On Love

(Kahlil Gibran)

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north winds
lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he
is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest
branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging
to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become
sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall ove do unto you that youmay know the secrets
of your heart, and in tht knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's
pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass
out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all
your laughter,
and weep, but not all your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Loves possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love,
if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire fut to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these
be your desires:
** To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody
to the night.
** To know the pain of too much tenderness.
** To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
** And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
** To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks
for another day of loving;
** To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's esctasy;
** To return home at eventide with gratitude;
** And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved
in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

 "Truth is within ourselves;

 it takes no rise
From outward things,

 whate'er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fulness;

 and around,wall upon wall, 

the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception - which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error:

 and to KNOW
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without."

Robert Browning

More about the church

Dear Jeanette:

After criticizing the church I don’t wish to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’.  I'd like to talk about some church experiences - good and bad..

One cannot deny that there is a feeling of reverence, of something sacred and peace in some of those old grandiose, imposing, palatial cathedrals and churches and even in some of the humble little chapels.  

My very first recollection of  experiencing the Child Heart is when I was I think about 9 years old and in boarding school.  I don’t recall what the particular religious celebration was but it was a day when the nuns kept the host that is deemed to be the living body of Christ ‘exposed’ (I believe was the term used) for 24 hours.  The sisters would take turns at keeping vigil through the night and the boarders were invited to participate.  I got up in the middle of the night and took my turn to go and sit ‘in adoration’ before the host.

In the quiet of the night I entered that little chapel with a veil covering my head and bowed before the holy host.  A deep feeling of peace and tranquillity filled my heart and soul.  Though I didn’t recognize it as such at the time, it was the first whispers from my Child Heart/Soul.  I am grateful to the church for this very special experience. God is every-where.  There is no place that God is not.

Another noteworthy memory is the Christmas  family tradition of going to an empty church together to see the beautiful manger set up at the front of the church and that was left empty during Advent, the baby Jesus figurine appearing in the cradle on Xmas day.  We went together when the church was empty and each of us got to hold the baby Jesus icon.  It was a special family Xmas tradition and it taught me reverence.

So, for whoever feels something in their Heart, I say follow your Heart but do not be brain-washed into thinking that the authority is theirs.   Do not be tricked into selling your soul ‘to the company store’!  The wisdom is in YOUR HEART!  The Heart does NOT need rules, let alone commandments or dogma. 

I also got my first wake-up call when I  was a young child.  I was in a children’s hospital (guess what?)  yes, having surgery on my leg.  I stayed there for about three months. (a long lonely stay at that period in my life).  I was bed ridden and on Sundays those who weren’t mobile had their beds rolled into a large ward for a Sunday service.

So there I was on a Sunday morning singing “Jesus loves me” with those poor little unfortunate souls that were going to hell.  The parish priest walked in in the middle of the service and had me removed since it was not an RC service.

Well, that set my young heart and mind in a tizzy!  What the heck was wrong with singing Jesus Loves me?  I couldn’t believe anyone would burn in hell for singing  Jesus Loves Me!  I think that is where my spiritual journey began!

One has to discern for themselves what is in their Heart.  That is where it all begins and that is where it all ends. 

God is everywhere.  There is no place that God is not.  So,  DO FOLLOW YOUR HEART!

First Steps

First Steps

When I first discovered William Samuel's message I knew it was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  I must say however that for me there were some stumbling blocks over old beliefs that I was never allowed to question, religious beliefs that I was indoctrinated with.  Though I DID question a lot of it I was shocked when I read that Jesus was not, literally, the one and only Son of God...third person of the Trinity.  To me, that was blasphemy!  I felt disappointed, let down and wasn't about to sell my soul "to the company store!"  

Bless his soul, William Samuel did not leave me hanging with this statement.  

 Here is what he had to say about that:

"I am not throwing "Christianity" out as such. But I AM certainly reinterpreting it in the light of the deep heartfelt and growing intuition I have that Jesus of Nazareth was not the "only" son of God that dies for our sins, but was a Jewish mystic, an ordinary man who had an extraordinary awakening to his own true nature.  I think he clearly saw the non-separation of God, himself, all people and animals and the whole universe and even the cosmos and everything in it.  But my deepest sense is that he saw himself as just like us, our brother, not our ruler.  He is for me an exemplar, not a pedestal dweller that we can keep comfortably above us to worship rather than beside us to walk the journey with.

My sense more and more is that he came to tell us that we are ALL ONE in the "Christ", the annointed one, the cherished one, the dearly beloved son and daughter of God.  We are ALL that Reality of Universal Christ-Consciousness.  That consciousness is the essence that is inherent in each of us.

One of the words he used the most in his teachings, that preceded almost every teaching he gave, was the imperative, "LOOK".  He seemed to often say, "Look!  Behold!  The kingdom of God is like...." Then he would proceed to tell a story, give an analogy, make a comparison from some everyday, ordinary example.  I model my own teaching method on his in that respect because he is first and foremost my Sat-guru, my "ground" or primary teacher.

Like him, I want to de-mystify and make accessible, the "kingdom of God" that dwells already in our deepest heart of heart...and that has been there all along! "

It took a while to get comfortable with this information.  William Samuel does not make statements that one cannot test and prove for themselves. 

 

I did work with it and and I tested it for myself.  I am so happy to say that I would never have published these words had I not confirmed them for myself.

                        

 

 Looking for Good

William Samuel

There is no more Godly activity then looking for good in people.  People, after all, are made in the image and likeness of God.  To see good in others is to see God in them.  To see God in something is the reason we're present in/as this experience.

A great power begins to accumulate around us as we do this.  The person we are seeing good in is helped by that observation as surely as if we had taken them in our arms and washed them clean of trials and anguish.  But in the process we are blessed with a strange and wonderful--I don't know what to call it--power or authority or effluvium or charisma or something very special.  One does not have to work very long at this to find it is so--and most wonderful for the doing.  But it takes the doing.  Not the talking about it and speculating about it--analyzing and judging it.  Just the doing.  We look for the good in everyone and are blessed by the looking.

From the Scientific Point of View

Albert Einstein

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." 

 

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the source of all true art and all science.  He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me.  That means nothing.  People like us, who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and  future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. 

 

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt.

He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

 

 "A human being is part of a whole called by us,

"universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and

not  everything that can be counted counts."

" (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it."

 

Listening with the Heart

What does it mean to listen with the Heart?  How do you listen with the heart?

It means to clear your mind of judgement, analysis and preconceived ideas, dogma or propaganda and to listen in anticipation and in confidence as an innocent child would trust and listen to his parents. 

 "Unless you become like a child you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."  (The bible)

The Heart's language is - to borrow Forest Gump's words: "like a box of chocolates!"  There are no spoken words.  It is more like an angelic symphony without sound!  

The truth is not reserved for the elite, the scholars, the sophisticated.  You are not precluded from knowing the Truth because you are not a Rhode scholar, or because of your social or your financial status.  If you are a "newbie" and know nothing about metaphysics you can still listen with your Heart.

When my grandchildren were very young I did an exercise with them at bedtime that gave them the experience of knowing that love comes from within.  I think that is a good place to start to know the truth imprinted in your heart.  The little booklet is entitled: "The Little Love Light" and it was published by Blurb.  It is now available through Pay Pal.

Many moons ago I went for a walk in the forest with four friends.  I approached the forest with an open heart, in anticipation of something good.  Upon entering the forest I immediately felt magic in the air. I do not have the words to describe the scene.  It was like opening the door to a magic kingdom.  It was so electrifying .  How could anyone miss it?  I expected my friends to be equally amazed.  I expected them to fall on their knees in exultation as typical emotional french people do but they kept on gabbing.  It just took my breath away.  I felt a peace so deep ...it was to me a cathedral of love. 

"Peace already reigns over the world but men see it not".  Why?  Because they listen to the words of others.  They are led by doctrine, dogma and the rules of others whose aim is to be in control of others.  You are not likely to find the treasures of your heart if you are blinded by dogma.  Some "so-called teachers may have good intentions of saving you from hell.  They are not acquainted with the real message that is buried in their very own heart. 

Listening to your Heart is the highway to heaven.  It will not "manifest" everything your heart desires.  It will not fill your pockets with gold.  It will take you to the higher ground of love and peace in your heart and the truth in your very own soul.  

To be cut off from the Heart's wisdom is like seeing the world in one dimension.  It is like being the tree's shadow that tries to mimic the tree.  However, it can only rise at midday and die every night while the tree lives on.

A Soldier's Prayer

 I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey....

I asked for health, 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 power, that I might have the praise of men,

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God....

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 -

but everything that I had hoped for,

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among all men most richly blessed.