Happy The Man...

 

Christina Carmel 

“Happy the man, and happy he alone,
he who can call today his own:
he who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

Be fair or foul, or rain or shine
the joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself, upon the past has power,
but what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.”

~Horace

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Maurice Nicoll Would Say...

 

Maurice Nicoll would say 

that we need to become aware 

that there is another world. 

For me 

that came as a deep sense of there being 

a missing aspect in my life, 

that I should be able to go higher, 

but I could not find the way. 

When I found Mervyn, this school, you all, 

this possibility of a higher life opened up for me. 

I SAW it in the energy around me in the school. 

But my ego had to be wrestled to the ground, 

so to speak, in order to free me to soar.

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

The Price of Presence

The Virgin from The Virgin and Child with 

Saint John and an Angel - Sandro Boticelli

Recently, in a morning meeting, I shared a memory of Mervyn:

He was at home, surrounded by loved ones 

who were having a disagreeable discussion. 

I can’t remember the topic. 

But the whole time, he was there, 

listening and lightly engaging in the conversation.

When we left, he turned to me and said:

“Do you think I wanted to be present 

in the middle of that conversation? 

I did not. But I had to. 

It’s the price to pay for our soul. 

We can’t pick and choose our moments of presence.”

Remember Yourself Always.

~T

Lost In Awe...

 

Jane Goodall 

1934-2025

“Lost in awe at the beauty around me, 

I must have slipped into a state of heightened awareness. 

It is hard – impossible really – 

to put into words the moment of truth 

that suddenly came upon me then. 

Even the mystics 

are unable to describe their brief flashes of spiritual ecstasy. 

It seemed to me, 

as I struggled afterward to recall the experience, 

the self was utterly absent: 

I and the chimpanzees, 

the earth and trees and air, 

seemed to merge, 

to become one with the spirit power of life itself. 

The air was filled with a feathered symphony, 

the evensong of birds. 

I heard new frequencies in their music 

and also in singing insects’ voices – 

notes so high and sweet, I was amazed. 

Never had I been so intensely aware of the shape, 

the color of the individual leaves, 

the varied patterns of the veins that made each one unique. 

Scents were clear as well, 

easily identifiable: fermenting, overripe fruit; 

waterlogged earth; cold, wet bark; 

the damp odor of chimpanzee hair, and yes, my own too. 

And the aromatic scent of young, 

crushed leaves was almost overpowering.

That afternoon, 

it had been as though an unseen hand 

had drawn back a curtain and, 

for the briefest moment, I had seen through such a window. 

In a flash of “outsight” 

I had known timelessness and quiet ecstasy, 

sensed a truth of which mainstream science 

is merely a small fraction. 

And I knew that the revelation 

would be with me for the rest of my life, 

imperfectly remembered yet always within. 

A source of strength on which 

I could draw when life seemed harsh or cruel or desperate.”

~ Jane Goodall

"Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey"

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One with God

Gemini AI Generated Image

The other morning in our mystical meeting, 

Stephanie played the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic.

While I was listening to it, I was very moved 

and had a very strong realization.

Being Jewish, I have been reciting the 

SHEMA every day for most of my life.

Sh’ma Yisre’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.

The meaning is:

"Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One."

I have always interpreted it that we should all listen 

and know that there is one God."

But listening to the song of the Lord’s Prayer, 

it entered me and for the first time I had a 

much deeper understanding. 

It was for me to hear that it wasn’t that there was one 

God but that I was to listen and be one with God.

Listen to the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic on Spotify

~P

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It Is Foolish...

 

“It is foolish to think 

that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.”

~St. Teresa of Avila

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Yes, It's A Process...

 

Eily Sayegh

Yes, it’s a process 

and maybe also grace to find something real! 

I keep realizing 

how the Academy is here to protect our souls. 

Mervyn said 

the soul does not know the ground rules of the creature. 

This is why we have our teachings. 

He asks us to exercise caution with creatures 

as we have a lot to lose. 

~S

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

On Understanding

 

Peter Oespensky - Image Credit to Whoever Credit is Due

"Understanding always comes that way—

you understand, and then 

you cease to understand. 

But if all attempts to understand 

something go wrong, 

try not to think about it 

but try to remember yourself, 

that is, to be emotional, 

and in time you will understand. 

Understanding does not become 

permanent at once; as in everything else 

there are many steps and you can 

understand something one day and 

not understand it the next day, 

for you may be more conscious 

in the same circumstances one day 

and more asleep the next. 

So many days may pass 

before it becomes your own."

Ospensky - The Fourth Way

We are reminded to listen to Mervyn's lecture on

Knowledge, Understanding and Being

which is in the video section of our archives at this link:

https://academylibrary.online/index.php/knowledge-understanding-and-being/

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Like The Morning Breeze...

 

Like The Morning Breeze

Like the morning breeze, 

if you bring to the morning good deeds,

The rose of our desire will open and bloom.

Go forward, 

and make advances down this road of love;

In forward motion, 

the pain is great.

To beg at the door of the Winehouse is a wonderful alchemy.

If you practice this, 

soon you will be converting dust into gold.

O heart, 

if only once you experience the light of purity,

Like a laughing candle, 

you can abandon the life you live in your head.

But if you are still yearning for cheap wine and a beautiful face,

Don’t go out looking for an enlightened job.

Hafiz, 

if you are listening to this good advice,

The road of Love and its enrichment 

are right around the curve.

~Muhammad Hafiz

Translated by Thomas Rain Crowe

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Maurice Nicoll...

 

Vincent Van Gogh

Maurice Nicoll would say that we need to become aware 

that there is another world. 

For me that came as a deep sense of there being 

a missing aspect in my life, 

that I should be able to go higher, 

but I could not find the way. 

When I found Mervyn, 

this school, you all, 

this possibility of a higher life opened up for me.

 I SAW it in the energy around me in the school. 

But my ego had to be wrestled to the ground, 

so to speak, in order to free me to soar.

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

Pregnant with a Soul

La Primavera - Sandro Botticelli

Mervyn used to say that we are 

pregnant with a Soul, how can it be? 

 Here Hafiz expands on the topic:

"My master once entered a phase

That whenever I would see him

He would say, 

“Hafiz, How did you ever become a pregnant woman?”

And I would reply,

“Dear Attar, you must be speaking the truth,

But all of what you say is a mystery to me.”….

And Attar replied….

“Though if you want to know the Truth

I can so clearly see that God has made love with you

And the whole universe is germinating

Inside your belly

And wonderful words,

Such enlightening words

Will take birth from you

and be cradled against thousands of hearts.”

I, even though a man, was pregnant with nothingness.

And out of this nothingness God was born.

~Hafiz

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Recently...

Briton Rivière

Recently, I did a workshop on dancing through fear.

I had two very strong realizations.

Following my fear, 

and allowing it to be with me and not stop me,

will lead me to growth and expansion. 

Then I felt my fear move to a higher vibration  

and it became just another emotion 

because I didn't identify with it.

That was so liberating.

~P

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

 

Our Goal...

 

“Our goal must be infinite, 

not the finite. 

The infinite is our homeland. 

Heaven has been waiting for us forever.”

~Carlo Acutis (soon to be a Saint)

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Resist!!!

 

A Water Baby - Herbert James Draper

As I go through my everyday routine 

struggling with the efforts to self remember 

I am reminded of Mervyn's words: 

"We must resist the urge to go back to sleep"

"Remember, Remember yourself, Always."

~T

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

I Am Thinking...

 

Mugur Kreiss

I am thinking 

that what helps me is the realization 

that Self-Remembering is at its best 

an act of prayer. 

And then I can truly feel it in eternity.

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

Self - Remembering...

Self-remembering is like a world without end! 

Mervyn emphasis 

to stay in a state connected to higher worlds, 

we need to love. 

Without love the work is not moving. 

I cannot stay and identify with the ordinary time. 

There is a need in my work to remember 

the universal brotherhood. 

They are here to help. 

Mervyn was always reminding us 

how much the gods are here, now. 

Let's connect again to our brothers and sisters, 

influence C, 

who guide and protect the Academy.

~S

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

Divine Loneliness Guiding Us Home

Gemini AI Generated Image

We often treat loneliness as a modern malady, 

a psychological flaw to be cured with distraction and noise. 

But, What if it is a sacred inheritance, 

purposefully embedded in our very essence?

My art teacher, once told me that loneliness was placed 

within us so that we would never stop searching for our 

divine union and complement. It is this loneliness that 

serves as the true driver of our awakening, a holy restlessness 

that prevents us from falling asleep in the comfortable but 

incomplete world of ordinary life.

Mervyn, once observed that this very feeling of loneliness 

is often what stops people in the awakening process. 

The ache becomes so acute, the void so terrifying, 

that we rush to fill it with anything that might numb the pain. 

“...But you," he said, "you have a school that walks with you, 

protecting each other's divine loneliness, allowing it to do 

its sacred work of pulling us ever forward, ever deeper.

Christ said, "The Son of Man has no shoulder to lay his head on."

This is not a cry of misery, but a statement of cosmic reality. 

It speaks to a state of being so completely united with the divine 

that it no longer fits into the ordinary forms of comfort and consolation. 

It is the ultimate acceptance of that sacred loneliness.

It is Divine Loneliness Guiding US Home

~T

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

 

To Be Yourself...

 

"To be yourself 

in a world 

that is constantly trying to make you something else 

is the greatest accomplishment."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A Call to Be Conscious

Gemini AI Generated Image

I wish to be conscious of myself. Yet, as I am at this moment, 

can I know myself, can I be conscious of myself? 

I cannot. I am too scattered. I feel nothing. 

But I see that I am asleep, and I see the symptoms of this sleep. 

I have forgotten the sense of my existence, I have forgotten myself. 

We do not realize how passive we are,

always pulled along by events, people and things.

We begin an activity with great interest, fully aware of our aim. 

But after a certain time, the impulse weakens, overcome by inertia.

We must become active in relation to our inertia, 

the passive work of our functions. If we wish to change, 

we must look for the new man in ourselves, the one who is hidden. 

This is the one who remembers, who has a force that can only be 

brought by our wish, our will, and must grow degree y degree.

The New Man - Jeanne de Salzmann

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What Helps Me...

 

What helps me 

is the realization that Self-Remembering

 is at its best an act of prayer. 

And then I can truly feel it in eternity.  

~J

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Patience Is...

 

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

~Aristotle

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I Love...

 

Pamela Groppe

 I love to re-member Mervyn’s words: 

“Presence is Consciousness Loving You into Existence.” 

To me that is remembering oneself in Eternity. 

To be Present 

and allow The One to Experience Itself through us. 

The other night I was having a Higher State, 

and I wrote this:

True rebellion 

is when the Divinity finds Joy in being You. 

When you realize 

the filament of light is finding joy in being you. 

That is when the Creator experience itself 

(The Creation) through you. 

That is Presence.

And that gives me a great feeling of Gratitude.

~C

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Aim in The Work

Gemini AI Generated Image

We can all understand what aim means in life. 

It gives us a direction. Without aim

we are aimless—going nowhere. 

The most general definition of what aim means

in the Work-sense is that it is to hear what the 

Work teaches and to do what it says. 

~from Psychological Commentaries 

on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 

by Maurice Nicoll

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