With Malice Toward None...

John Everett Millais

“With malice toward none, 

with charity for all, 

with firmness in the right 

as God gives us to see the right, 

let us strive on to finish the work we are in...” 

~ Abraham Lincoln

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In My Own Play...

 

D Shannon

 In my own play 

recently has come the experience 

of the third class of negative emotion 

that Ouspenksy outlines, 

those that we cannot stop, 

only observe when they come. 

It's helping me to understand better 

the second conscious shock - 

of the transformation of negative emotions 

because in these states the soul is aflame. 

And any leak or egoism 

will only serve to give expression to one's anguish. 

And then down we go. 

In these cases, 

it's becoming apparent 

that the only value in these states 

is the ultimate valuation and trust in God 

and all his servants. 

For what else could our sufferings 

be propelling us toward 

if the first shock is maintained. 

And so in ultimate friction and cleaved heart 

the smile and comfort of our father 

can overtake me 

and these pains 

can be transmuted into acceptance and grace, 

lightening the load of our creator, 

as Gurdjieff hints at in his writings.

~O

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I Planted Wildflowers...

 

I planted wildflowers yesterday 

around various places 

in front of the house and corners. 

Seeds can be like words - 

they have to take root on prepared ground.

~C

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When In A Lower State...

 

When in a lower state, 

well, then there's the attraction, 

pull of the lower forces. 

When in a better place 

(literally, a better place inside) 

then there's the attraction of the finer Hydrogens. 

Mysterious, yet very logical. 

What do I value? 

Life and its merry-go-round of nothingness 

OR the work, the Higher, my path to becoming. 

Trust in The Work is everything. 

We have to be present to enter into it, 

to have it enter into us. 

It needs that finer, 

empty space where I can stand in Attention.

~M

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We Shall Not...

 

We shall not cease from exploration,

and the end of all our exploring 

will be to arrive where we started 

and know the place for the first time.

~T.S. Eliot

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Lately, Similar I's Have Been Circulating...

 

ER Hughes

 Lately, similar I's have been circulating in my work - 

about freedom from the perspective of the Soul. 

Living from that place 

is one of the later steps on the way. 

There are many laws we'll never be free of 

and many that we do have the capacity to avoid - 

namely all of those 

which govern the world exclusive to man. 

Feminine Dominance, Inner Considering, 

Mechanical Goodness, Unnecessary Suffering, 

Identification, aimless imagination, and more. 

My body never will stop producing I's, 

giving them more merit than they are worth 

is where we can plunge in Hydrogens. 

On the way we are guaranteed phases of abundance 

and phases of famine with regard to our Hydrogens. 

Yet the good student stays to the middle, 

each moment each breath 

to ignore the Is inside of me that don't matter. 

Presence breeds H12 

and I'm beginning to see what our teacher understood 

about the power of that Hydrogen - 

it can be magnetic, 

attracting more of the same from life 

if I am able to get out of the way and value it.

~O

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I Have Entered...

 

I have entered that state of discomfort, 

when all the tasks disappear, 

and suddenly there I am - quiet, 

but wanting SO to fill the moment up with activity. 

I guess that may be that state of nothingness 

of which you and Bennett’s student speak. 

Scary, but I am trying to hold with it, 

and invite the higher in. 

It helps! 

It really changes the triad. 

~J

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The Other Day...

 

Rebekah May 

The other day I was driving to work. 

I had an emotional fight happening in my chest/gut. 

G was sitting next to me. 

We saw a young man all of a sudden, 

walking towards us, beaming, 

holding a newborn child. 

It hit my heart so suddenly - 

the light on the father’s face. 

G said, "Look, it is a newborn, 

he has to support his head". 

And I felt that presence uplift me, 

of that importance of Supporting the Love, 

the utter beauty and vulnerability of it. 

~C

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Keep Your Face...

 

Keep your face

always towards the sunshine -

and the shadows 

will fall behind you.

~Walt Whitman

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I Have Observed...

 

Vincent Van Gogh

I have observed, 

at least in our culture, 

that we have little real suffering. 

Most of it is unnecessary. 

When real suffering enters, 

it feels. different; 

creates a shock of sorts. 

When one is working on oneself, 

the idea is to use this energy (suffering) to be present. 

If you are identified, 

you are not present.

~M

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In This Landscape...

 

In this landscape of my life 

which I "stand in" 

(such a beautiful way of expressing it!), 

I can also let go 

so that I can fly into the miraculous with you 

all balancing both sides. 

I become whole again. 

It seems too easy to ignore the one or the other, 

and then I fragment. 

But as with the woodwinds in the Ravel, 

when I am fully HERE, 

such riches can unfold. 

And I cannot do this without you,

my sisters and brothers in the work. 

~J

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I Can Think...

 

 I can think of this time as a big garden, 

and draw a circle of Presence around myself 

and go into that circle, 

within it put all of my imaginary picture of things, 

people, events, past, present, etc. 

Look at it like a big painting, 

or a garden I am designing and use, 

"Intentional Imagination" to plan it - 

be a conscious gardener of my own inner landscape. 

I can see now that my inner world 

has to stretch out into that time 

and 'Ask for the gift", 

for perhaps those beautiful 

"WIND INSTRUMENTS" TO PLAY. 

Then maybe Self-remembering 

can be there in the imagined future, 

like the soul writing some sheet music. 

It seems more kind and reasonable 

than being in imagination about it all.

~C

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Demand Not...

Marie Spartali Spillman

“Demand not that things happen as you wish, 

but wish them to happen as they do, 

and you will go on well.” 

~Epictetus

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