In Presence...

In presence often when I'm outside, 

I find the trees, 

the leaves the flowers the grass wanting to be seen in my eye; 

they want to be seen by me. 

It's the most incredible feeling. 

It mirrors my soul that wants so much to be seen by God,  

and to be seen by others. 

Not as the clumsy machine that fumbles and does stupid things, 

but the real me.

~J

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Let Yourself Be...

JW Waterhouse

"Let yourself be silently drawn 

by the stronger pull of what You really want"

~Rumi

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Gratitude Unlocks...

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. 

It turns what we have into enough, and more. 

It turns denial into acceptance, 

chaos to order, confusion to clarity. 

It can turn a meal into a feast, 

a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. 

~Melody Beattie

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My Soul ...

My soul can find no staircase to Heaven 

unless it be through Earth's loveliness.

~Michelangelo Buonarroti 

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Such a Miracle...

Such a miracle — this Universe, this existence!

I can feel a hint of this vastness, 

this Divinity in my Soul, 

but have no words to describe. 

When we experience the Highest of States, 

we are graced with a glimpse of this Singularity, 

this Divine Oneness. 

Thank you for lifting me there so I may drink of the nectar of the Gods.

~E

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I Can Remember...

I can remember the first moment 

when I had an awakening 

and an awareness of something higher than myself.

I was 10 years old 

the snow was falling hard and I put on my snowsuit

and went outside in the dark 

and fell on my back to make a snow angel. 

I looked up at the night sky 

and a million stars 

twinkled my way 

while big beautiful flakes silently fell. 

Smoke was coming out of my mouth and nose 

and the crisp cold was refreshing and numbing at the same time.

The stillness and quiet penetrated deep into my being 

and I had a long moment of presence.  

I was connected to the Universe 

and everything was connected to me.

At that split second a vastness within myself 

opened and permeated everywhere.

My machine bowed to honor the entrance of my soul. 

I felt like I could stay there forever.

~P

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When We Aren't Remembering Ourselves...

When we aren't remembering ourselves we live in a narrow reality, 

partly conditioned by our sense perceptions 

and partly by the opinions we have borrowed. 

Our opinions, 

we fight for them because we believe them 

because they involve the ordinary feeling of ourselves. 

Maurice Nicoll describes that we need the help 

of transformative ideas to change our sense of reality.

~M

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A Man's Household...

"A man's household means 

all that is in the man himself—

not his body but his psychology— 

the household of all the different sides of himself. 

All the ideas, all the attitudes, 

that were the "father" or "mother" 

of his thoughts and views and opinions 

and all the relationships 

resulting from them must change in view of the sword 

which is the power of truth of a higher order. " 

~Maurice Nicoll, "The New Man"

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The "Sword of Truth"...

The "sword of truth" 
can create a very challenging time for our machine, 

even if our soul is strong and our heart willing.

~J

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To Have Courage...

To have courage for whatever comes in life - 

everything lies in that.

~St. Teresa of Avila

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I Am Trying to Develop Strategies...

Edward Burne-Jones

I am trying to develop strategies, 

using triggers and the like, 

to keep reminding myself to self-remember. 
This i itself is a good aim for me. 

For as I allow pauses, and slow the tempo of my life, 

something higher more easily enters. 

I've taken to opening up a book 

by a conscious being at random, 

for instance, and always I have an unplanned epiphany. 

And I have taken the annoyances, 

like an excessively barking dog 

and turned them into triggers to be more present. 
It's an ongoing process of remembering.

~J

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What I Have Observed...

What I have observed 

is the amount of attention 

that is being "used up" by the i's. 

Also the lack of aim...direction regarding my attention. 

If it is not directed it goes off on its own 

and is used by the lower centers.

However, in writing this it's also VERY easy 

to bring my attention to the higher, 

though staying and maintaining it is not so easy.

~M

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A New Way of Thinking...

A new way of thinking implies, to my understanding, 

a vastly deeper level of mind. 

We are usually at the mercy 

of a legion of small i's controlling our mechanics. 

A new way of thinking implies something deeper, 

higher, and more permanent directing the mind. 

Is that “something higher” 

our essence that is stirred into action 

via a heightened sense of awareness and self remembering…

that is, remembering our soul? 

The very act of remembering our soul 

seems to initiate the stirring of our essence into action 

and provide a higher direction to the mind, yes? 

The payment for this can seem exorbitant to these i's 

whose existence may indeed be threatened by this process of awakening. 

That payment appears as death to the ego.

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