I Am...

I am a slower walker,

but I never look back.

~Abraham Lincoln

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We Cannot Be...

 

Raphael

We cannot be what we are not. 

Words without truth have no real resonance. 

The only real truth is the truth of the soul 

and if we can learn how to still the mechanics, 

the ‘baby’ can learn to express itself.

~O

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Observing The Machine's Resistance...

 

Observing the machine's resistance 

to the Creator's chisel, 

I think of Mervyn, 

speaking of the sculptor 

using his knife and hammer 

to uncover the Soul inside the marble. 

Something in me somehow is finding joy 

and ecstatic gratitude 

in the wrestling and carving, 

as I carry the faith 

that is indeed for my highest good.

~E

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Everyone Needs Companions...

 

Everyone needs companions. 

Whether he joins some formal group 

of those who knew Ouspensky 

or Gurdjieff or Nicoll is a different question. 

But the company of those 

who are struggling to travel by the same path, 

he does need. 

For these truths 

are too hard for a single man alone to crack. 

He has to find others 

with whom he can exchange experience and understanding, 

share experiments. 

Then if they can put together 

what they individually discover, 

they may create a sufficiently strong field of understanding 

to attract attention and help. 

So people must keep their eyes open for their fellows. 

They may find them 

in very unexpected places.

~Rodney Collin - Theory of Conscious Harmony

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There Is A Hypocrisy...

 

"There is a hypocrisy in all of us. 

We have an enemy in ourselves. 

But we also have an angel on the other side. 

There is one person who will never fail us, 

our Guardian Angel, 

if we make the habit of asking him for help. 

We must choose which side we want to go, 

which way we want to lean. 

If we choose right 

we choose by self-remembering. 

It is a very wise work, 

but we must understand it right."

~Rodney Collin - The Mirror of Light

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When Something Happens...

 

Antonio da Correggio

When something happens, 

like losing a loved one, 

or becoming ill, etc., 

it is a profound reminder that each breathe is a gift, 

we aren't in charge. 

Sometimes when our life is "going along nicely" 

we can easily forget that,

 just like the trees, the animals, etc., 

the length of our life isn't determined by us. 

In our case, 

even the quality of our consciousness isn't up to us, 

we can make efforts 

but whether or not the higher responds to us, 

is up to God.

~J

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Walk As If...

 

"Walk is if you are kissing the earth

with your feet."

~Ticht Nhat Hanh

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I Have Often Pondered...

 

I have often pondered 

why those moments of catharsis, 

of mystery and surprising revelations 

are so few and far between for me — 

 those moments 

where I have come to the limits of my resources, 

and there is no way forward 

but to set down all my efforts

 at the feet of the higher.

Those moments of grace 

and that marvelous sense of freedom 

which comes with new energy 

and surprising gifts of understanding, 

why is it that I cannot call on them at will, 

or summon up that necessary sense of surrender easily?

~J

Perhaps it is a miracle that they happen at all. 

Maybe they happen infrequently 

because they are completely out of our control, 

like the force of a great storm on ship. 

The storm happens when mother nature decries, 

not when we want them, too. 

All we can hope to do 

is to be present and be moved 

and in tune with the subtle forces of nature 

and the higher worlds.

~G

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The Academy…

The Academy, 

which has been and continues to be a gift. 

I can say that 

while the machine 

holds gratitude for this space and opportunity, 

it is not an overly emotional gratitude. 

This is because 

the equation of personal work 

and soul is complex.

I had no conception 

of what it meant to "work on myself" 

when I met the Academy and Mervyn. 

It is only after the long process (for me) 

of trying to Remember Myself, 

a struggle that is still ongoing, 

that I am able to begin 

to stand on the foundation 

of all that School and Work represents. 

This is where my thankfulness resides. 

Because it is the process of seeing myself 

in the eyes and I's of you, 

my fellow students, 

that I am able to begin 

to shed that which false in me 

and hopefully begin 

to be filled with that which higher.

~J

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I Am Struck ...

 

 

 I am struck by how much time 

is wasted by the machine 

in these states of constant wrestling the I's. 

HOW real the machine feels 

when the fight begins, 

how free once the real I 

has come to let go, give in. 

Those gorgeous paintings show how close 

we are to the heartbeat of the beloved -  

if we stop fighting 

we take in the Divine love. 

I pray for this reminder, 

exhale, and feel the embrace.

~K

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If Love is to Be a Blessing...

 

I love is 

to be 

a blessing

and not 

a misery,

it must be used

for something 

we never want

to lose.

 - Mervyn Brady

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There is a Difference Between Love and the Object Loved

 

There is a difference between love and the object loved.

One is a state that can be preserved,

while the other can manifest in many ways.

Can love endure the changes?

This is the question.

Give me the State of Love any day

above an object

or a 

person.

 - Mervyn Brady

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Develop a Relationship With Something that is Higher

 

We have to develop a relationship with something that is higher because that is what reaches the soul. We cannot reach the higher part of ourselves with mere intellect. We cannot approach the subject of love with mere intellect. We cannot approach the subject of awakening with the intellect, because the intellect belongs to the body.

                                                                    - Mervyn Brady

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