We Must Make Efforts....

 

AI Generated Image

"I can never come to quietude 

if I do not sacrifice my agitation and my tensions. 

I cannot have a free attention 

if I do not sacrifice what keeps it enslaved. 

Everything I wish has to be paid for. 

If I wish to have a new state, 

I must sacrifice the old. 

We never get more than we give up. 

What we receive is proportional to what we sacrifice."

~Jeanne de Salzmann

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Knowledge Can Be Conveyed...

 

“Knowledge can be conveyed, 

but not wisdom. 

It can be found, 

it can be lived, 

it is possible to be carried by it, 

miracles can be performed with it, 

but it cannot be expressed in words and taught.”

~Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts 

When We Are Present...

 

When we are present,

the machine can try to take, 

or to keep the state. 

This is probably only natural,

but it can impede the longevity of the state. 

The observation is that we need to

leave the machine behind.

I have this new state since visiting Mexico.

 It appears to be permanent but

actually it moves in waves. 

When it first appeared, 

I could see that my mechanics

wanted and desired to be part of the experience, 

but they hindered me, 

in that when the state was less active or resting 

I found my mechanics longing

~O

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On Death...

 

https://pixabay.com/photos/autumn-fall-colorful-leaves-1804484/

Student: Tomorrow is my mother´s B-day. 

At the end of this month will be the third anniversary of her death.  

Somehow, her B-day is more painful to me than her death.  

Being present does not heal the pain of her death......

Mervyn: The pain of your Mums death will never go away. 

It is a gift from her to you to remind you not to die asleep.

Mervyn Brady - Unedited Text - 

Letter to a Student  - July 10th 2025 

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The Difference...

 

The difference between meditation and self-remembering 

is how many attentions you are maintaining. 

If you are in meditation and having 3 attentions, 

you are also self-remembering. 

For example, if you are focused on the tip of your nose, 

your third eye or a picture of a saint 

and also saying your mantra or prayer 

and thinking/feeling about the meaning of it, 

all at the same time, 

you are meditating and self-remembering. 

But if you are saying your mantra 

and your focus and mind are wandering, 

you are meditation but are far from self-remembering.  

So as Mervyn described, 

there are novices in prayer/meditation 

and more advanced practitioners.

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts 

Life...

Nik Helbig

 Life, when self-remembering, 

is a mediative practice. 

At yesterday's meeting there were shared numerous angles 

of how our inner world is with us taking in impressions, 

at seemingly random times. 

A knowing is joining from within and without, 

reaching out and inward. 

And the heart is humbled by the experience 

and enriched that there is this knowing 

and reciprocal feeding going on.

~M

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts 

Can People Be an Art Form?

AI Generated Image

Yes, they can.

The whole basis of Greek art was "The Gods became Men".

If you dig out an old book on Greek art you will see the Gods. 

What in fact you are looking at is statues of each body type. 

Show the group some pictures and they will see the body types.

We are like the piece of marble and through our own efforts. 

the efforts of others and the Gods we emerge out of the rock and 

become beautifully real. Just like Pinocchio.

It is beautiful to see how you are really emerging 

from the block of marble [of yourself]

A word of advice.

You are delicate now and growing. 

beware of Life people as they will not understand your process.

This beautiful emerging is for YOU only and your friends at the Academy. 

In time say 6 months then you can try humans.

Wait a little dont run out in the streets like Archimedes shouting Eurika .

Savour the you and allow yourself to experience the unfolding.

~Mervyn Brady - a minor edit

March 4th, 2025

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I Would Not...

 

Aaron Burden

" I would not want any other prayer 

than that which makes the virtues grow in me. 

If it should be accompanied by great temptations, 

dryness, and trials leaving me with greater humility, 

I would consider it a good prayer. 

That prayer is the best prayer that pleases God the most."

~St. Teresa of Ávila

We human beings have an idea of prayer.

God has another.

Sometimes we need to rethink how we feel about prayer.

We can't avoid because it's boring, 

fear it because it's difficult, 

torment ourselves because it's dry,

or expect to "feel good about it."

True prayer makes us grow in virtue.

If it's easy - but we're not growing in virtue - 

it's not good prayer.

Of course, joy in prayer is also a reality, and a gift!

But often, 

when God is drawn us to deeper prayer, 

or to purification,

He will remove consolation 

and allow us to enter a spiritual desert.

~Genieve Netherton, Discussion on the above quote

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I Remember Mervyn...

 

Paula Bandy

I remember Mervyn used to say 

think of someone you love and bring them to your presence. 

I remember often sitting at LA airport 

waiting to go on a business trip 

and I would be sitting in the lounge. 

In a state of presence, one by one 

I would bring the faces of students to my mind 

and hold them in the heart for a little while. 

It was inspired by Mervyn 

and even now living and departed students 

I often bring to the heart and it increases presence. 

It’s also a way to experience forgiveness and healing. 

~M

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts 

Awakening is Awakening

We do not go from sleep in a bed to extravagant party. We awake slowly. The difference is, in asleep everything is just I's, even us. As we awake our possibilities increase and our options are much more real. In sleep the body just shows the Soul an imaginary view of this world. The Soul sees the world according to the body. Awake the Souls looks out through the 5 senses and sees the world as IT IS.

When I awoke completely and saw the world the way IT IS. I was shocked and felt terribly alone. Also how could I find Love among Machines. Considering I knew that is what my Soul wished to do. How could I love the box knowing what was really inside it?

Watching you emerge reminds me of the huge task I had. To help Souls escape from the box, and as they do I am less and less alone.

I keep seeing your eyes and my love for you grows and grows. I am beginning to REMEMBER on a scale that is way beyond the reason and understanding.

I am so happy you are on the way home.

~Mervyn Brady - unedited text

March 10th, 2005

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From My Own Practice...

Arvind Gairola

From my own practice 

slowing the breath way down 

helps me to quiet my mind and remember myself. 

Then I continue to practice 

Long Slow Deep Breathing 

and add prayers/mantras to my practice. 

These prayers/mantras 

relating to the higher or to aid others, 

coming from the heart. 

When I have completed this practice, 

I often feel a sense of deep peace 

and connection to the Higher.

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts 

For Me...

 

For me, 

the giving up of my own efforts, 

the surrender to a higher help is key. 

When I can truly “cry out” in prayer for divine help, 

then I can hear the voice of the Beloved 

so clearly in my heart, 

and it keeps manifesting in moments in my life. 

But the longing has to be so strong 

that it erases all my own thoughts and scheming.

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts 

The Merchants of My Temple

 

"Jesus went into the temple of God 
and drove out all those who bought 
and sold in the temple." 
Matthew 21:12

Meister Eckhart interprets 
Christ's expulsion of the merchants 
from the temple as a symbolic 
clearing out of all thought processes 
that distract from the soul:
 memory, 

understanding, 

will, 

perception, 

imagination, 

any object of our desires, 
and whatever it is in which you 

wish to find yourself.

This prompts me to ask: 
Who are the merchants in my temple?
And where am I still searching for myself? 

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