In Every Breath...

“In every breath 

he is being born with the inhalation - 

becoming present - 

he is dying with exhalation - 

liberated.. 

He is present in the world 

but free from it.”

~J.G. Bennet

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Grace Is The Fuel We Need...

 

Francisco de Goya

"Grace is the fuel we need. 

There are 3 kinds of Grace. 

The first one is called simply "Grace." 

This comes as a direct result of your own efforts. 

When you try not to be identified, 

working with negativity etc., 

Grace is a dividend or reward for the various efforts. 

The second one is called "Sanctifying Grace" 

and comes to you from the efforts of others. 

Coming to meetings and hearing knowledge, 

accepting photographs from other Students 

and digesting their help and knowledge. 

The third one is most important 

because it comes directly from a Higher Source. 

It is called "Supernatural Grace." 

Supernatural because it does not come 

from the realms of nature but from above. 

It is essential that a true Student 

becomes familiar with the workings of this one."

~ Mervyn

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You Are Speaking...

 

Charles Haigh Wood

  

You are speaking of the practice 

of approaching a valued student 

for counseling, or mirroring, 

or feedback to better understand 

how to go ahead and approach another student 

with whom we may otherwise develop an account?

I think that we all need to help each other 

when called upon in this way, 

and if a response or conversation is done intentionally, 

no harm is done. 

The sort of gossip we are speaking of avoiding 

is much more careless, 

and often intends to do harm or self-justify. 

~J

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Grace...

 

Joe Garza

Grace, "my own efforts". 

'Sanctifying grace", the efforts of others. 

"Supernatural Grace", the Gods. 

I noticed in the Sacred Dances 

that the "Sanctifying Grace" 

of all our efforts 

carried my inner world up and out, 

gave me space 

between the waves of emotion to see more! 

What a gift. 

The gift of working together in harmony, 

seeing that we are all the same, 

we all struggle, daily, 

moment by moment sometimes - 

the urgency to know when that moment is, 

how I can become aware of the vibrations 

of the higher calling to me, 

asking me to transcend. 

Let go. 

Then when I do, 

it is pure joy, 

joy above emotion - 

Jesus on the sea.

Feeling that I AM in nature and nature is in me, 

no separation from creation. 

What a beautiful experience that is. 

And one by one 

to know that we all exist in that space, 

taking all the souls that participate 

up into the mist of the crashing waves, 

to begin again and again.

~C

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When You Doubt...

Sir James Dromgole Linton

When you doubt your power

You give power to your doubts.

~Honore de Balzac

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Friction Does Not Go Away...

 

Friction does not go away. 

What we can stop is the negativity. 

Mervyn’s friction never went away. 

But he used it.

Some negativity goes away 

because as false personality fades; 

so would many frictions and identifications. 

What’s left may be our natural friction, 

specific to our machine. 

So yes, if we are present 

we can accept the friction without becoming negative, 

but it doesn’t disappear altogether. 

Our attitude towards it changes.

~M

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We Must Attempt...

 

We must attempt to form habits 

that correspond to our aim to awaken 

and abandon those that add to our sleep.

Each of us has sufficient knowledge to awaken 

and yet we need to be reminded of what we know. 

Because we easily forget our aims, 

we need to arrange our life 

in such a way that it is conducive to self- remembering. 

Familiarizing ourselves 

with the beauty in our surroundings 

requires effort 

and indicates the value we place in ourselves.

We do not have much time left 

to accomplish our aims, 

and we cannot afford 

to squander it on self-deceit.

~G

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The Interior Castle...

Remedios Varo

The Interior Castle encompasses seven mansions. 

The outer room is for life people, 

or for when we are not being present, 

and each mansion increases in being 

with increased self-remembering, 

eventually going into higher states. 

The mansions also correspond to vocal prayer 

(just mouthing the words, without meaning), 

to higher forms of prayer 

(which we would call self-remembering), 

and then on to the prayer of union, 

ending with the highest innermost place where one is with God. 

If you have been in the school for some time, 

perhaps you have at least been for a visit 

into some of the inner rooms, 

at least for a moment - 

a very special moment.

~M

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I Have Observed ...

 

I have observed 

while reading Rodney Collin, 

that there is a similar feeling present, 

as when standing in front of a Rembrandt 

or a da Vinci painting. 

Difficult to articulate. 

There is a relationship occurring 

in the invisible space between me and the expression. 

It is quite powerful. 

If my intellect comes in to figure it out, 

it is lost. 

Although one piece of conscious work 

may evoke a different part - 

emotional, intellectual, etc. - 

the relationship exists 

possibly on the level of the Soul.

~M

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How Then...

 

Rodney Collin

How then shall each member learn to take part in harmony?

First, let each note sound clear and full. 

Pure in its tone, 

nor sharp nor flat from imitation, 

pretence or doubt. 

Let each type be himself, know his own nature, 

ring to the vibration God has given him. 

Let jovial heal, martial be brave, venusian loving; 

let moon be secret, mercury serviceable, saturn most deeply wise.

Let each craft fulfil itself — 

artist imagine, scientist deduce, leader bear all. 

Let each race refind its secrets, 

each creed its hidden mystery — 

Christian find Christ, Moslem Mahomet, 

Buddhist Gautama the Prince.

This is the first rule of harmony.

Second, let each note — 

remembering itself — listen for the chord. 

Hear its own sound, 

ringing with other sound struck simultaneously. 

Let Do hear itself sound with Mi and Sol. 

Let Mars hear his note ringing with Jupiter and Moon. 

Let priest hear his note blend with astronomer's and king's. 

Till, waking from single notes to wealth of chords, 

each learn to recognise their infinite variety, 

taste chord from chord, 

know the nature of those in which he sounds and why.

This is the second rule of harmony.

Third, let each note accept the key to come, 

follow the new tonic now revealed to it. 

Let each type yield to him who unites them all: 

all craft to the greater truth: 

all nations to Higher School: 

all creeds to the Not Yet Born. 

Each served as tonic in its day and age: 

each piped the tune once for all humanity. 

Now fall to other yet equal place — 

sounding the same, enter a higher key.

This is the third rule of harmony.

And fourth? Faith is the fourth. 

If note have not faith in the music to be played, 

in Composer, Conductor and Holy Symphony, what use? 

Without faith, each note's a pointless tedium. 

With faith, each note shall know that it is not, 

has no existence hut in the infinite music which evokes it. 

And knowing this, knows all, 

to the ultimate inspira­tion of the work.

This is the fourth rule of harmony.

And all this together is the key of harmony.

All this is freedom from violence and from strife, 

escape from crucifixion, 

the integration of heaven and hell.

And by all this, harmonious babe shall grow: 

shall form and move: and — 

when the planets conjoin again — be born.

HARMONIOUS BABE must grow in harmony. 

Its very cells, its assem­ bling organs, 

bones and flesh sing in the womb of time. 

And each man, woman, craft and creed that aspires 

to the future and to God 

is such a cell, such organ or such bone.

~Rodney Collin, The Herald of Harmony

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