Invite and Give Thanks...

An important verification has been occurring recently and I wanted to take this time to share it with you. Everyday I work on changing my life so that everything points to self-remembering and the desire to awaken. But recently it has been exceptionally powerful, as I feel desire swell in me and as the lower tries to use its force to consume me. But there is reward and growth in not allowing ourselves to be consumed. I try to focus all this energy towards something higher and remember that it can be powerful nutrients to grow my soul, or if not used correctly can be the chains that hold me down. The reward that I have felt is a feeling of lightness and purity. A sense of largeness and peace. I feel this energy approach and no longer run away but instead invite it and give thanks and focus it unto God.

~J

academyofeuropeanarts.com

The secret becomes known...

It is the Human that suffers, the MAN or Soul does not. There is a part of each one of us which is impervious to the maladies of this World. And when we connect with it, what is revealed to us is a taste of heaven. A higher world where the sufferings of this plane do not exist.

What a motivation to wish to reach there?.

The Gods have not abandoned us. Each one of you can taste Consciousness or the ability to manifest without the confines of the body and it's Laws. Each one of you also knows about suffering; no one is spared. But it is not what we bear or what we suffer, it is how we live it that counts.

We are each given this soup called life, and it is what we make of it that ultimately allows us to become free from it. Some may conclude that suicide may do it, only to find that destroying the prison does not lead to escape. There is an endless supply of prisons.

Others think praying and begging will suffice...it wont

Others think denying their desires and passions will do it...it wont.

Others think they read a book or two and become an authority. they are not.

Others vainly think they are "Special", they are not.

The secret becomes known to the Man who first sees and understands that he is not the body but what resides inside it, and slowly he makes plans. Perfects his wisdom, and practises his art. He sees that anywhere he mistakes the Body for the Soul he will stumble and may have to start again.

~Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Open Meeting Los Angeles, CA Sunday, September 4, 2011

 

In Search of the Miraculous?

The Los Angeles Center

 of

The Academy of European Arts and Culture 

invites you to attend an introductory meeting on 

 

Sunday, September 4, 2011

12pm – 2pm

This will be an excellent opportunity to learn more 

about what the Academy offers.

To RSVP and location in Santa Monica, CA

losangeles@academyofeuropeanarts.com

or

1.866.312.7922

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

I Have Come to Realize.....

I have come to realize that it is repetition 

in any way shape or form that helps put us to sleep. 

We should therefore try and instigate change,

however slight,

every day. 

Whether it be the way one starts a letter,
or the way one drives/travels to work. 

It could be (consciously) drinking juice 

when we want coffee. 

Maybe even greeting one's friends and
associates with a "bonjour" 

instead of a "what's happening!?/how are you".
All of these exercises imply small change 

in the way that we go about our daily lives.

But the point is that the change is intentional and can create
moments that are ever increasingly more conscious.

~O

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Do Not Absent Yourself....

Some piercing words from Meher Baba....

Do Not Absent Yourself

He who has eyes but does not see,
He who has ears but does not hear,
He who has a tongue but does not speak,
He can see Me as I should be seen, and can
       Know Me as I should be known.

This does not mean that you should become inactive.  On the contrary it means that you should be constantly alert towards the expressive Beauty of the All-pervading Beloved.   On this Hafiz has said, 

"If you want your Beloved to be present, do not absent yourself for one moment from His Presence." 

The Perfect Master is in everything, and is the Centre of everything.  Everyone and every thing is therefore equidistant from Him.  Though, owing to our own limitations, He appears outwardly to be present at only one place at a time, He is on every plane of consciousness at one and the same time.  To see Him as He is, is to see God.

So beware, lest when the divine Beloved knocks at the door of your heart, He finds you absent.

~M 

academyofeuropeanarts.com

I will tell you a secret....

I will tell you a secret....

I have some faces in my life that all I have to do 

is remember them and it changes my state.

The more people you have in your life 

to love internally, the more fuel one has. 

Then there are the giants in our lives 

and only they can "Reach the Parts no one else can. 

Keep these close to you 

and value them as you would great pearls. 

You will need them to fuel you in the higher worlds later. 

That is why it is so important to begin to Love now, 

and as a person keeps their jewels in a special box, 

we all should have a special "Love Box" 

that can be opened with all our loves in it. 

~Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Words...

Words

Words...

This strange medium humans use to share their I's...

This unusual agent that can lift someone or bring him down...

Words...

Are they not only elimination of our being?

Is it possible to read what is happening inside 

when we look at someones words?

Strange tool used by God and the Devil to communicate their thoughts...

Words...

Can you see in my words what is happening inside?

Do I have to do an extra effort?

Do these messengers realize everything 

that is going on inside my heart?

Will they give you the message of my soul?

Words...

I am trying to let them in, to show them what I am.

They can get inside and take a glimpse 

at what I feel, at what I have
become.

I want them to be transformed with me.

I want them to be LOVE.

I want them to bring what they have seen to you.

Words...

~H

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

In Search of The Miraculous...

In Search of The Miraculous

Today's subject of study in our Academy meeting was self-observation.  Towards the end of our meeting we started to share how when Present, we can be awake to the miraculous in our lives.  Some shared how the creation can speak to us and offer us a gift.  Some shared how it's possible to connect to the Higher and ask with intentionality for a Third force to enter …allowing us to experience Faith and Grace.  

In honor of our forefathers…Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Collin and Mervyn,  we propose an experiment.  Try to be Present and Awake to the possibility of the Miraculous in your life.  Perhaps it's a matter of asking the higher for a sign or for an intervention….or it can be as simple as witnessing the blossoming of a beautiful flower.   

~M

academyofeuropeanarts.com

A Brief Exchange On Change...

Student:
We shrink from change, yet is there anything that can come into being without it? What does nature hold more dearly to herself? Could you have a hot bath unless the firewood underwent some change ? Do you
not see that change in your self ? Is it of the same order and no less necessary to nature ?

Mervyn:
Look around you, if there was never any change you would be doomed to this picture of what you see. This is all you would see for an eternity. But alas change, the indicator of a higher presence; it changes our vistas and allows us to see the whole of creation!

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

Inner Will...

 

"Cinderella" ~ Sir John Everett Millais

Life normally thinks about will-power and judges a person on their will and ability to do. This of course is an illusion. We always think everybody else is doing and we are stuck in the mud. The machine has a will and so has the inner world and they are different and opposed. For a student, it is very important to protect the fragile inner will.

The story of Cinderella is the story of the conflict of these two wills. The ugly step sisters (Emotional and Instinctive Centers) give impossible tasks to Cinderella and criticize everything she does. Even when she does carry out the task they just make her do it again.

~Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com

A Web of Lights...

 Purity of Heart, Pompeo Batoni

A Web of Lights

Everything in life comes as a Gift from above. 

Each encounter comes for a reason; each relation is sacred.
What it is asked to us is to Be Present to each moment, 

to have eyes to see each detail and an open heart to feel 

and recognize each vibration, to live our lives fully 

and be thankful for each moment of life. 

In each moment, even in the most unexpected one, 

something important can come and in 

the energies we can find another opportunity for

Growth, 

Healing, 

Regeneration 

… Purification.

~A

academyofeuropeanarts.com

What is the Soul? Great Neck, Long Island - Saturday, August 27th

What is the Soul?

The Soul has been described as being the ‘connective tissue between the body and Spirit; the bridge between the personality/ego and the collective consciousness. When we learn how to bring our Souls into the world, we achieve a higher degree of Conscious Harmony within ourselves; a necessary step to living in Conscious Harmony with others and being of true service to everyone around us. 

 

How do we know what our Soul feels like?

 

How can we “awaken” and live as Souls on 

Earth within our human bodies?

 

What is the difference between our Soul and our Mind?

 

What excercises are available to us that 

directly teach us how to Be Present? 

 

Please join us  for an open discussion where we will explore the answers to these questions.

Saturday, August 27th

For location in Great Neck, Long Island and time:

longisland@academyofeuorpeanarts.com

or

866.312.7922

Bringing Light - New York City

~Bringing Light~

The Difference Between Cellular, Molecular and Electronic Levels

Please join us for an enlightened discussion about the lightness of being that is the Soul.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011, 7:00 PM

For more information about the Mid-town, Manhattan Location:

newyork@academyofeuropeanarts.com

or

866.312.7922

“I remember one day looking at a vineyard in California  and thinking that nothing much was happening here.  Then Higher Centers (my Soul) engaged and saw on a molecular level the sap being sucked up into the plants,  grapes being formed and bursting outward, swollen with juice.  I saw how on a much slower time, the whole place was  as busy in fact as Grand Central Station.Perhaps, just as one looks at a School  and might be forgiven for thinking  not much is happening. Whereas on a slower scale,  Souls are forming and growing?”

~ Mervyn Brady

Founder, The Academy of European Arts and Culture

Take Note and Move On...

It is useless to self-criminate, and wring your hands. 

Right Work is to see it(friction), 

bear it, try to avoid it again, 

if you can, and remember it was not you 

-but what you are observing.

Friction does not go away, 

and yes, it is painful with hindsight to see
what could have been done, 

and how one could have avoided something. 

But the bottom line is, we do not have

the luxury of hindsight in the moment,
and our machines or even our Souls 

can only do what they can do.

Take Note, and move on......

~Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com

I won’t take no for an answer....

St. Catherine of Sienna (1347-1380)

 

“I won’t take no for an answer,”

God began to say to me when 

He opened His arms each night

wanting us to

dance.

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

 

 

 

To the flower...

To the flower that has opened and bloomed with the delight of life ...
who startled, encounters the sudden vastness of the space beyond 

... and trembling, diffuses her most precious scent.

My soul ... 

observing ...
wishes to pursue your scattered particles 

and taste each part of you.

Fear not your death o'flower ...
I will impress and stamp your seeds with the 

hallmark of you and insure you will live
forever in the realm you have just departed.

Where do the molecules of you float to?
Will you, through them, encounter the heaven of flowers? 

That place that has been added to for eons ... 

distilled and refined by time and distance ... 

I will be there to
smell your perfumed creation.
In it's final culmination, with the souls of all flowers, 

in delighting our
creator.

~Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Conscience....A Dialogue

Conscience....A Dialogue

F:

To me conscience is a moment of realization and understanding, where the heart knows what needs to be done. It is like a wise heart, with discernment of knowing truth of what is right or wrong in a particular situation. It happens when we develop trust in our own inner world, in our own past verifications and base our actions and decisions on the voice of that inner guidance.

S:  

Moments experiencing conscience are liberating to me. They can be moments free of fear, when compassion can enter towards myself and others.

F: 

I love the idea that we can practice obeying conscience. The more we listen to that voice and learn to distinguish it from the voice of our machine, the more we can direct our actions towards a higher right.

J:  

It's as though through presence, all contradictions melt away. If we allow ourselves to digest quietly, and to be open to the wisdom we have all around us, suddenly there is a moment when the contradictions disappear, and conscience emerges like a light beam through our buffers and "should do's."

F:  

I have verified that in the school, we awaken the soul to love; to project love towards ourselves and others and at the same time. If we do not bring conscience there, we can become "stupid saints". Truth and wisdom of the soul is like the noble night, protecting the sacred.

M:  

Rodney Collin wrote that the conscience is an "alarm clock." If we heed the bell, we are hearing our inner world. If we keep hitting the snooze button, we don’t awaken. Conscience wants to be heard in the most serious situations where the inner and outer worlds collide.

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

Begin It Now.....

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
  always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative ( and
  creation). There is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills
  countless ideals and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely
  commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur
  to help that one would never otherwise have occurred. 

A whole stream of events issues from the decision, 

raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents 

and meetings and material assistance which no man
  could have dreamed would have come his way. 

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. 

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
  Begin it now.

  ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

If we learn how to serve the state....

 "Love Leading the Pilgrim," Sir Edward Coley Burne Jones

Here is a man who through his art was conveying the same 'work' which we undertake today. That of aiming for the highest within us. To be present to the principle which heals and guides, which protects and serves, which gives and caresses. That which brings us back to ourselves, back to God. That principle is LOVE. It is by far the surest and safest route out of the dangers and darkness of life.

This picture is entitled 'Love Leading the Pilgrim'. We are all pilgrims when we enter this work, this school. We are searching for ourselves and we are searching for guidance. Here Sir Edward has painted the figure of Love, with Angel wings (yet the Angel chooses to walk like the man). Love is surrounded by hundreds of doves, symbolizing peace. His arrow is pointed up towards heaven and he is leading the cloaked pilgrim out of the brambles of life (which can wound and hurt) into clear space and higher ground.

This is what love can do and will do. If we learn how to serve the state.

~O

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

When I Started...

When I started on this path of self-remembrance, 

I was seduced into thinking that there would be less pain 

and that my life would be abundant with health, 

prosperity and happiness.

This is just imagination.

Life simply is… with its suffering and beauty. 

Staying open and in gratitude when life seems monotonous, 

painful or dark, is where the greatest spiritual leaps take place.

Our system of teaching reminds us that 

we are in the world but not of it. 

The goal is not to discard our human-ness. 

There is nothing wrong with enjoying earthly pleasures 

from food to sex, money or relationships. 

We just need to be fully conscious in the appreciation of them...

remembering our souls and holding all aspects of life as sacred. 

There is less drive to accumulate and our lives, 

then become a service or meditation to God. 

~S

academyofeuropeanarts.com

How Miraculous the Universe is...

Dear All,

I was sitting in my living room and was looking at 

the fresh flowers someone had placed by the window.
I was enjoying them so much, when suddenly 

I saw the flowers alive and
growing.

How startled the flower had reached its maximum growth 

and transform or died right in front of my eyes.
It had transformed from a flower to a scent.

It reminded me of when we die. 

One moment a man, and the next 

a Soul wafting towards Heaven.
How miraculous the universe is...

If only we are there to see it

Love,

Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

Ave Maria

Song: Ave Maria

featuring Emily Richards, David Robinson, and Wolf Sebastion

artwork by scarramuzza



academyofeuropeanarts.com 

The Lamb and the Wolf, they must lie down together....

There is a story about a shepherd boy who was asked
by the wise man to carry holy oil in a container
through the House of God.
When he had finished his task, the Wise man
commended him for not spilling the oil.
"What did you see in the House of God?" said the elder.
The boy replied, "Nothing, sir,
I was busy taking care to not spill the oil."
The wise man asked him to do it again,
"But this time while you walk with the oil, open
your eyes to all that is around you.
Your surroundings are as important as the oil."

This story reminded me of our journey as Students.
The Work encourages us to focus on
self-remembering which is the holy oil.
However, we must divide our attention between
our inner and outer worlds.
The Lamb and the Wolf
must lie down together.

~L


academyofeuropeanarts.com

Gratitude to Unknown Instructors...

  W(illiam) B(utler) Yeats (1865-1939). Irish poet and playwright.

 

Gratitude To Unknown Instructors...

 

What they undertook to do

They brought to pass;

All things hang like a drop of dew

Upon a blade of grass


academyofeuropeanarts.com 

 

The Vineyard...

I remember one day looking at a vineyard in California 

and thinking that nothing much was happening here. 

Then Higher Centers (my Soul) engaged and saw on a
molecular level the sap being sucked up into the plants, 

grapes being formed and bursting outward, swollen with juice. 

I saw how on a much slower time, the whole place was 

as busy in fact as Grand Central Station.
Perhaps, just as one looks at a School 

and might be forgiven for thinking 

not much is happening.

Whereas on a slower scale, 

Souls are forming and
growing?

~Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore ... dated 1692

The following words were shared by a student at the end of our meeting This piece was found in old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore ... dated 1692. Being written over 300 years ago, it is one example on how we have not changed overtime, for it's message is timeless ... and it speaks to the inner world.

~M
_____________________________

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant ... they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements, as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is. Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere the world is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Specially do not feign affection. Neither be crucial about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune, but do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born from fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have the right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be in peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its shame, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be careful.

Strive to be happy.

academyofeuropeanarts.com

A Beauty in Me Grows Stronger...

I was fortunate to be blessed by a State yesterday

that brought me to a place that is no part of the machine. 

I cannot and will not let the machine be any
part of this world when it shines within me.

Afterwards, I could feel the I's asking,

"So what did you learn or gain from that?"

It was then that I realized how far away the
creature is from the realm of the soul.

It cannot soar with the soul and will try 

with all it's might to bring a higher experience 

down to the level of I"s and logic. 

I know I can put my faith in this place.

For each time that I am visited, a beauty in me grows stronger.

~C

academyofeuropeanarts.com

One Thing is Clear...

Mosaic detail~Divine Providence ~R.C.

One thing is clear. We must all go on. To new revelations, to new
  understanding, to new tasks, new responsibilities. I know that this
  going forward may often look strange and shocking at the time....But
  we must do it. We must be melted down and remade, over and over
  again. We must pray that crystallization does not over take us. 

~Rodney Collin

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

What Shines Through Us...What is Behind Us..

..........Everything makes sense and is connected by the speed of the Soul. At such moments an exhilaration of realizations pour in, and one knows the Teachers are near. It is the arrival of the "Wise Silence".
It shows me the Soul is not an organ of man, but what drives and animates his organs.
What shines through us at moments like these is not us, but WHAT is behind us. That huge Sanctuary that feeds all of us, and IS the collective US.

It is the past and future.

Love,

Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com 

This Moment will have been Worthwhile...

We have stopped for a moment
to encounter each other,
to meet, to love, to share.
This is a precious moment, but transient.
It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
If we share with caring,
lightheartedness, and love
we will create abundance and joy for each other.
And then this moment will have been worthwhile.

J

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Tomorrow is a new day......

"Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could;  some blunders and absurdities crept in

forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day.

You shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be

encumbered with your old mistakes and nonsense."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Chicago - Open Forum

 

Letting Go of Ourselves and Surrendering to God

Letting go and surrender are key parts of this path we are on.

They can all be easily taken by our lower-selves and manipulated.

How do you apply these principles into your spiritual path

without letting the lower-self take part of these too? 

 

Please join us for an enlightened conversation!

Monday, August 8, 2011, 7:30 PM

Bon Bon Sandwiches LLC

2333 West North Avenue, Chicago, IL

 

There is no charge for this event

For more information:

chicago@academyofeuropeanarts.com

or

866.312.7922

When, In Our Stilness...

The Rays of the Sun

shine through the clouds

illuminating the mountains below

and the lake which lies beneath.

Each moment the pattern changes

as the gentle wind

moves the clouds through the sky

creating a new painting,

a new moment in time,

a new glimpse of eternity.

When, in our stillness,

we observe such wonders,

yet still hear the beat of our own hearts

we become mini-gods,

for though we are separate from the sun,

the clouds and mountains above the lake

we become one with all of creation

when we quietly sit in our stillness.

~G

academyofeuropeanarts.com

A Great Gift...

This life and especially this Work, are a great gift. 

We must ask questions within ourselves each day. 

If the questions leave us, how can we begin to live in the answer?
The desire to work with what the Gods have dealt us 

requires much patience and effort. 

Like onions we slowly peel to the cores of our true selves;

Then daily, momentarily, continue
the good battle.

~C

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Then, You Can Comprehend God...

Dear All,
I recently came across a writing from the Egyptian Philosopher 

Hermes. (Not to be confused with the Greek one). He was the 

biggest source of insperation to Ficino who was in the service 

of Cosimo Medici. The passage shows that he who wrote

it was very familiar with the workings and manifestations of a fully 

"Self Realized" Soul. 

~Mervyn

Think that for you too, nothing is impossible; 

deem that you too are immortal, and that you are able to grasp 

all things in your thought, to knowevery craft and every science; 

find your home in the haunts of every living creature; 

make yourself higher than all heights and lower than all depths;

bring together in yourself all opposites of quality, heat and cold,
dryness and fluidity; think that you are everywhere at once, 

on land and sea, in heaven. 

Think that you are not begotten, that you are in the womb, that
you are young, that you are old, that you have died, that you are in the
world beyond the grave, grasp in your thought all this at once, all times
and in all places, all substances and qualities and magnitudes, together;
THEN
You can apprehend GOD

~Hermes

Know the Map, Walk the Walk....

There is a difference between
knowing the walk and walking the walk. 

What is the use of a map when you are already in the place? 
Perhaps the map is a souvenir from your past journeys

and adventures through the inner world?
We can use it to show others how to get here, so they

understand the short cuts and the cul-de-sacs.
It can show us the challenges ahead and
why sometimes we get stuck going in circles.

Know the map, yet "Do" the walk. It is the only way.
 We should not mistake our aim; the map is only a tool.
It is a very valuable tool yet it is not our aim.
There is nothing to understand. 
There is nothing to think about;
 just Be and observe without judgments.
We all become reminders of the existence of souls;
just a smile might do it.

~R

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Serve Your Soul and Your Wish to Live...

"To be Awake, does not mean - Machine Perfect..it means AWAKE!
That one will see things as they Really are, not as in a dream.
And the Angel must survive and prevail here....
Perhaps you felt that when you Awaken,
you willhave no more mechanics-
You always will. But you can make them in their lunacy.
Serve your Soul, and your wish TO LIVE!"

 ~Mervyn

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Abandonment To Divine Providence...

Abandonment To Divine Providence

The present moment is always overflowing 

with immeasurable riches, far more than you are able to hold. 

Your faith will measure it out to you: 

as you believe so you will receive. 

Love, too is also a measure. 

The more you love, the more you will want 

and the more you will get. 

Every moment the will of God is stretched out before us 

like a vast ocean which the desiresof our hearts can never empty, 

but more and more of it will be ours as our
souls grow in faith, in trust and in love.

~Jean-Pierre De Caussade


academyofeuropeanarts.com

Realize Presence...

In order to love I need to ask for direction.

Within that, asking through prayer and presence, 

my small will can grow and begin to recognize what a huge entity is above it -- 

around, surrounding, all pervading.

In order to have unity we have to realize this presence...this great love outside of time.

It is not us as individuals. My machine separates ideas, etc.  

The soul begins to reconcile, bring divisions together.

Love seems to be the sealing agent.

~C

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