Faith

AI Gemini Generated Image

"If the soul is all we have, maybe faith is its fuel...

a quiet trust in the Divine and the Unknown." 

~C

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It Is Easy...

 

It is easy to sit up and take notice,

What is difficult 

is getting up and taking action.

~Honore de Balzac

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I Have Been Digging...

I have been digging in the dirt 

looking for a real, nasty root 

from a thorny vine that went unnoticed 

and unaddressed for years. 

The vine tangles between the branches 

of a thick bushy plant 

and was hard to get to. 

With patience and physical labor, 

I did not lose energy over the challenge. 

It was a natural unfolding 

of removing bits and pieces in the way. 

I see how deeply and intertwined 

things can feel too much of a challenge. 

At first, I could not see clearly 

what was going on in the mess of things 

hiding my vision to see. 

I had to twist and turn my body 

into many different angles. 

This I verified is a way forward for me.

~M

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

Rumpelstiltskin: Sharing our Inner World

Rumplestiltskin by Anne Anderson (1935)

Recently, a student shared a beautiful interpretation 

of the story of Rumpelstiltskin in a global meeting. 

The realization was this: 

Rumpelstiltskin possessed knowledge that he did not want to share. 

Yet, when that knowledge was finally brought to light, 

it helped the miller's daughter convert ordinary straw into gold. 

In the language of the Work, by sharing the realizations 

of our inner world, we provide the 'shock' others need to help 

them transform the coarse straw of their daily impressions 

into the gold of higher consciousness.

The story also serves as a stark warning about hoarding knowledge. 

Rumpelstiltskin represents the danger of not 'eliminating' 

or sharing our inner work. When his secret is finally named, 

his resistance causes him to violently split in two. 

This is what happens to a machine that refuses to share its light: 

we become divided. One half attempts to serve the Work, 

while the isolated, mechanical half tears the inner world apart.

~T

Start By Doing...

 

“Start by doing what is necessary, 

then what is possible, 

and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

~ St. Francis Of Assisi

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The Feeling...

 

Ronit Ashkenazi

The feeling, desire, willingness, courage, 

all need to work together to fill that moment 

when laziness of the machine is about me. 

Shakespeare pointed us in the direction 

of using perhaps some wit - 

and similar to question, 

I can think of it as to play with the I's. 

For instance: This ‘I’ feels real- why? 

It has a very certain point of view. 

Where did that come from? 

Investigate and it falls away quickly 

or if not quickly, 

more questions are helpful 

to see if it is a rooted I 

and where the root began.

~M

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

The Change is In You

AI Gemini Generated Image

"There is no Change in God.

The Change is in you.

Plead to God. 

Wake up at the middle of the night.

Get up and prostrate yourself twice.

Need, need, need!

Put your face on the ground,

and rain down tears;

'Lord, if you don't want the Prophets and

Saints to remain like a knocker on the door,

now that you have shown me 

the great man [Mervyn Brady],

Open up my yes through him.'

Happy is he who sees me [God],

and happy is he who sees 

him who has seem me."

~Sham Tabrizi 

You Were Talking...

 

You were talking about “wearing” this string of pearls, 

rather than keeping them in a box. 

How these realizations or pearls of wisdom 

we have verified need to be kept close to our heart and head, 

so that we don't have to search for them 

when we need them. 

(Or this is what I took from your comments.) 

I think this is related to the idea of "having a longer thought." 

Staying with our realizations and verifications 

until they have gone really deeply inside, 

perhaps as part of revealing 

who we are becoming in a very real way. 

Then of course 

they become part of our very being, 

and we can draw upon them 

in a natural way when we need them. 

I think part of Mervyn's fear 

that we might lose the Work 

was about this. 

It is not sufficient for the head 

to make an important connection. 

I must also bring it into all my centers, 

explore it, see how it manifests, 

and make it truly and completely my own. 

Then it will be mine 

and it will inform who I am becoming in the richest sense.

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

If You Think...

 

AI Generated 

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, 

try sleeping with a mosquito.” 

~Dalai Lama XIV

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Little Alchemists

 

AI Gemini Generated Image

In a recent meeting, two students shared 

profound examples of transforming life 

friction into a higher offering. 

One student utilized Sensing to anchor 

her physical carriage, allowing the friction 

to pass through her without creating a leak. 

The other rushed to her piano, utilizing the 

Moving Center to digest the energy of the moment, 

sensing the keys beneath her fingertips to stay present. 

Regardless of the method, this transformation 

is an absolute necessity in our system. 

It is the process of 'refining Hydrogens', 

transforming the raw friction of life into 

the high-octane food that feeds the soul.

~T

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

You Were Talking...

 

You were talking about 

“wearing” this string of pearls, 

rather than keeping them in a box. 

How these realizations or pearls of wisdom 

we have verified 

need to be kept close to our heart and head, 

so that we don't have to search for them 

when we need them. 

(Or this is what I took from your comments.) 

I think this is related to the idea 

of "having a longer thought." 

Staying with our realizations and verifications 

until they have gone really deeply inside, 

perhaps as part of revealing 

who we are becoming in a very real way. 

Then of course they become part of our very being, 

and we can draw upon them 

in a natural way when we need them. 

I think part of Mervyn's fear 

that we might lose the Work was about this. 

It is not sufficient for the head 

to make an important connection. 

I must also bring it into all my centers, 

explore it, see how it manifests, 

and make it truly and completely my own. 

Then it will be mine 

and it will inform who I am becoming in the richest sense.

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

One Reason...

 

Diane Leonard

One reason 

why it is so important 

to find our real selves

is that no one can hurt us. 

No one knows who we are.

Others can sec the outside 

but not the inside, 

the real self.

We must be individual, 

to make our souls strong. 

Your soul can make mine stronger, 

mine can make yours stronger.

Twenty strong people could change the world - 

pure, good, strong individuals. 

There could be peace, 

always peace and harmony 

if there were only twenty men 

who understood and practiced harmony.

~Rodney Collin, The Mirror of Light

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Evolution of Faith

AI - Gemini - Generated

"When I first came to this school 

Mervyn told me that faith was not required 

and this suited me as I had none 

that I could discern. 

The only requirement from him was to 

practice the exercise of 'Divided Attention'. 

This I was willing to do as I could 

verify it for myself and at that point in my life was not

willing to take anyone's word on 

what they called faith or belief. 

As the practice continued and I learned 

more from the teachings it led me to love/grace 

(mystical tradition) and I experienced states 

which connected to higher realizations, 

experiences happened because of the 

increase in knowledge, being and understanding. 

It created a stronger ability to withstand life 

and hold on to the state of self-remembering 

and in that state other mystical things can happen and 

we begin again at higher levels of consciousness 

as we proceed up the ladder of evolution, in my experience." 

~B

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

Mervyn Reminded Us...

 

AI Generated

Mervyn reminded us often during meetings 

about the importance of crystallizing in our verifications. 

I see him gesturing with his hands in front of his chest 

as he mimes stringing single pearls onto a string, 

each one a verification.

Listening to Mervyn 

I remember being drawn to the image of a pearl. 

Mervyn described the great rarity 

of a single pearl's miraculous existence. 

It seemed impossible 

that what he described 

could be a pearl's path to creation, 

the irritation inside the oyster 

of many single grains of sand. 

I knew I would be home 

looking this image up later 

and departed easily from the I'd 

of my lunar fascination 

with facts and science 

because Mervyn was guiding the conversation 

along to the pearl's relevance to awakening 

and mechanical friction.

Why is the string of the necklace in my attention 

now after all these years?

The string must be strong and flexible 

and can be seen as the essential vehicle 

for the collection of verifications. 

It can be worn, 

and that distinguishes it from loose pearls 

in a collection box or bag. 

In this way it can be described as sacred 

because without these verifications 

Mervyn saw another path 

where we could lose the work.

Over time I understood that concepts can be verified. 

It starts with the question: 

How can I verify this? 

Then the journey begins. 

Life and the play 

provide answers in their own time.

Perhaps it is this questioning 

that is the invisible, yet essential, 

rigor required that strengthens the string, 

our being.

~M

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts

Dark Night Of The Soul...

 

 

Nicole Haimar

“Dark Night of the Soul

On a dark night,

Kindled in love with yearnings

—oh, happy chance!—

I went forth without being observed,

My house being now at rest.

In darkness and secure,

By the secret ladder, disguised

—oh, happy chance!—

In darkness and in concealment,

My house being now at rest.

In the happy night,

In secret, when none saw me,

Nor I beheld aught,

Without light or guide,

save that which burned in my heart.

This light guided me

More surely than the light of noonday

To the place where he (well I knew who!)

was awaiting me—

A place where none appeared.

Oh, night that guided me,

Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,

Oh, night that joined

Beloved with lover,

Lover transformed in the Beloved!

Upon my flowery breast,

Kept wholly for himself alone,

There he stayed sleeping,

and I caressed him,

And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

The breeze blew from the turret

As I parted his locks;

With his gentle hand

he wounded my neck

And caused all my senses to be suspended.

I remained, lost in oblivion;

My face I reclined on the Beloved.

All ceased and I abandoned myself,

Leaving my cares

forgotten among the lilies.”

― St. John of the Cross

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On The Detour...

 

On the detour of seeking "perfection," 

there was a time in my life 

when I carried around inside myself 

a sense of shame that I was imperfect, 

that I made mistakes, 

that I couldn't get everything "just right." 

A very wise woman one day said to me 

"What right have YOU to be perfect?" 

And I thought about that deeply 

and how even my highest heroes had imperfections, 

and YES, those very flaws 

were what made them unique, human, personal. 

It was a Kairos moment for me. 

Giving up the HUBRIS 

of thinking I could be perfect. 

And yet there is something "perfect" 

which is willing to make its home in us, 

to grace us with miraculous happenings, 

if we can simply get these silly notions of "perfection" 

out of the way, 

that illusion that we can control everything (or ANYTHING!).

~J

https://linktr.ee/academyofeuropeanarts