Saturday, August 31, 2013

Our Birth

Arthur Hughes


Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
The Soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting
And cometh from afar,
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.


~William Wordsworth



Friday, August 30, 2013

No Precepts

Edward Reginald Frampton


I repeatI lay down no precepts. When I release the tide of Truth which I have come to give, men's daily lives will be the living precept. The words I have not spoken will come to life in them.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Talent

 
Edmond Francois Aman-Jean


When I saw this image of the Angel walking so closely to the man I
thought of all of us and how we walk together on this path holding
our particular musical instrument (talent). A few flowers are
blooming beautifully in the field in the forefront and behind them
is a small harvest maybe enough food for the cold winter months
ahead? What I understand and love in this image is the closeness
and loving guidance the Angel shows the man as he goes forward
connecting his art with the golden and blue sky enveloping the
scene in a gentle caress.


Monday, August 26, 2013

Eons

Rembrandt


We are taught to measure in years and months from our birth, yet my soul is always young ... and remains so ... regardless of the creatures concept of time. My soul feels that it belongs to the ages and eons, rather than to the mortal life of the creature.

 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Moment of Surrender

Edward Burne-Jones


In one moment of surrender we are elevated to a world others rarely visit. In such a subtle way these moments come to us, gifts for our previous payments ... We are privileged to receive divine grace, to feel the quickening of the soul, to taste Love.... How quickly we forget it all, how quickly we give it away for earthly pursuits....

Friday, August 23, 2013

Love



Sandro Botticelli

Love is from the infinite, and will remain until eternity.
The seeker of love escapes the chains of birth and death.
Tomorrow, when resurrection comes,
The heart that is not in love will fail the test.

~Rumi


Thursday, August 22, 2013

George Frederic Watts


Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment, not working with the eye without the ear, and but in purged judgement trusting neither? Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.

Monday, August 19, 2013

"Judge not lest..."

George Frederick Watts


“Judge not lest…” are words of advice that point to the use of
scale and relativity in an ever orienting present moment,
the elusive spiritual Now.

 

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Natural Action of the Soul


Jacopo Bassano


Love has its own understandings, though many of these may not
be translatable into the language of the intellectual centre.
And when we talk about conscious love we are talking
about the natural action of the soul, the soul is love, that is
what at a certain level, it is and does. And the highest form of
Self Remembering is love.

~J


Saturday, August 17, 2013

Simple

Edward Burne-Jones


The aim of the Work is straightforward and simple.  You are here, that is, your soul is present ---- or you are asleep. 

 
~Mervyn J. Brady




Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Search



We start searching ... searching answers to questions
... searching the meaning of Life ... Self
Remembering ... searching The Truth ... searching God.
And when we find IT ... when we awake ... we will have
to face a reality never seen before, the gums from our
eyes are removed, we will go through dark nights again
and again ... and yet, after the nights, the light of
the Divine days will come again.
Agonies and ecstasies ..... we will marvel in the
highest Realms .... we will experience the Spirit ...
the Union .... we will become Part of The One...


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Sanctuary

Leonardo da Vinci


There is this sanctuary in us in our hearts and it cannot be seen or known by the machine unless there is preparation for the event and the machine can learn to live with what has been born within.

 

Soft Whisper

Joseph Noel Paton


Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.

~Soren Kierkegaard

Monday, August 12, 2013

I am LOVE



Simeon Solomon


I am LOVE and I want to be Born

Sometimes I need and wish to retreat defeated back to
the warm confines of the body where I am reduced to
merely peer through the eyes

Lovers come close and yet do not see
the beauty BEING inside

Sometimes a glance from a stranger fills me with hope


~Mervyn J. Brady



Sunday, August 11, 2013

The stars...

John William Waterhouse


The stars glide tirelessly through the seas of the universe, singing and expressing all kinds of praise to their Creator, every note of their songs expresse entire universes of sentiments. Some are condensed like water droplets falling on the different planets and of these universes we have been formed. In some ways you could say we are the result of the expression of stars, but these clothes create an illusion: we believe that we are separate from our origin.


~E


 


Saturday, August 10, 2013

Change

Pieter Bruegel


It seems that almost any change with which we are confronted presents a test or challenge to our Being, be they the events of our play or the growth of our Inner World. The machine has to respond, as it will try to understand even what it cannot.
It is the Soul and our Being that then helps the machine through the transition.

~J




Thursday, August 8, 2013

Esoteric School



We are not a school of history or art, but a school
that uses them in connection with an aim.
We normally learn in a structured way with a
beginning and an end. This is not the case in a true esoteric school.

You see part of my job as a Teacher is to show you how to
navigate life. Remember, it is designed to keep the Soul asleep.

Otherwise we would have Buddhas on every corner.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Don't Fear Anything


Peter Paul Rubens


Don't fear anything
I want you to be nothing because I'll be everything.
Don't be restless for what you can or cannot do
I am the one that wants and can do everything.
I want what you don't want.
I can do what you can't, it is not up to you to choose
But to abandon yourself.
I fulfill everything that you lack
I walk in front of you
No road nor state of being is vile or humiliating if it is about following the will of God

Let yourself be guided

That is enough

Come on...


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Death and Birth

Ford Madox Brown


Letting go is like "Death and Birth"
We are facing a small scale of this act everyday for the machine, things we feel are so important that take hold in us for a long time and can't let go...but then, when we find a way of accepting and understanding, a little Death comes. Then there is space for Birth with Grace. Birth and Death are the same.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Soul Space

Remedios Varo


The comfort in the repetition of a musical theme can allow the soul to enter as it finds a resting place among the familiar melody.  When variations on the theme present themselves, the soul is able to keep the melody but also find newness in the harmonies.  Riding the theme and its variations is a way to allow the soul space to dance.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Invisible

Rembrandt


I once shared with Mervyn my observations of being present with a Rembrandt ... sharing that it was as if there was something "alive" coming through the canvas and paint ... as if Rembrandt was able to capture the DNA, the Soul and Spirit of a moment.  The knowledge and understanding Mervyn pierced me with was that the difference between a Master and a great painter is that a Master is able to paint "the space" between themselves, the canvas and the object they are painting. I'm still digesting this angle ... they are able to paint the "invisible"?

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Dancing

Anonymous


Dancing with the devil - for the most part, is dancing with our machine.
There is scale here - most of the time from our point of view, we don't know why, how or what needs to be done. We see injustice and our machines point blame and judge.
But once in awhile, I see the hand of something higher moving and I know that this is meant to happen.
Usually it's after I see how my inner world has learned and grown from denying force, but sometimes it's getting a glimpse into a greater truth.


~J





Friday, August 2, 2013

Magic Talisman

John William Waterhouse


Rodney Collin and Ouspensky speak of "Self remembering" as
being the "magic talisman" that should be carried into ALL
circumstances. Self remembering goes deep and eventually
becomes our "true self" our "real being". Imagine being present
at all times and in all circumstances, allowing the heart,
unhindered, to flow with mind and brave body carrying out
our souls true desires?