An Interesting Happening...

 

ShamPow20

An interesting happening has entered my life recently. 

As many of you know 

my personal interests in an active life and training 

started after living the first half of my life 

caring little for my body. 

I've experimented and utilized 

many different training systems, 

forms of exercise, sport and activity.  

Recently the desire to move better 

became an aim since having felt my body slowdown 

in the last couple of years. 

It will be 50 in July.

It seems C influence has sent into my life 

a form of training without heavy weights 

or anything traditional. 

It focuses on the nervous system 

and utilizes extreme isometrics, 

holding positions for a long time 

and using all of your might 

to pull yourself deeper into positions. 

It hurts a lot and is quite difficult. 

So, the point is, after having held these positions 

last Thursday there was an increase in vitality, 

perception, connection from my nervous system to the world. 

My plan was to not attend the meeting here in Vallarta 

because mu son was with me 

and no help to babysit. 

We happened to be close to the meeting site 

ten minutes before it started and my heart wanted to go. 

So, listening to that, 

what now is understood 

to be the voice of my consciousness 

springing from the heart, we went. 

And there it was the best meeting we've had yet. 

Very high states, 

the original moderator was an hour late, 

and we explored many questions and angles 

in the work related to new students. 

It was a verification 

that when we heed the call to serve, 

the table is set and will be fed by the Gods.

Secondarily, the suffering of the body 

in that exercise woke something up in my system. 

Kundalini yoga does the same, 

where we go past our limits and endure pain. 

Rodney also documents it, and Gurdjieff - 

the holding of arms out for extended time 

to master pain in service to something higher is a form of payment. 

~O

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Mysticism - Raising The Sails

Rembrandt - Ship at Sea

Mysticism starts with the raising of the Sails 

and the Gods provide the Wind.

To go into the open Sea is different 

than rowing around the shore.

I sensed the limitations of rowing versus 

the Sail and started to overcome the criticism 

of others that in applying the Sails I was slothful 

and lazy. The criticism kept me rowing for many years.

I started to understand that to "Know" truths 

by a simple glance of the Soul was a Mode of 

Knowledge and Understanding far above 

the Human Mind. The Mind in its turn seeks 

after Truths by reasoning and will not tend 

to acknowledge the Superhuman Mode or 

Mystical Mode, or even their existence.

~Mervyn Brady - 

Extract from email to his students: "Mysticism Part 3" 

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Do Not Be Afraid...

 

Annie Stegg Gerard 

“Do not be afraid; our fate

Cannot be taken from us; 

it is a gift.”

~Dante Alighieri, Inferno

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Socrates Comes To My Mind ...

 

Carol Pearson

Socrates comes to my mind during this meeting. 

Known for his questions, 

he questioned himself and others 

so much of the time. 

And the way I have read him in recent times, 

it seems he never took for granted 

that he knew the slightest thing. 

His wisdom came from that he really understood 

that he didn’t know 

and could hold that higher unknown state. 

In this moment that helps me. 

It’s almost like I have to be come empty 

of all I know and come into this moment 

and wait and See and observe. 

This keeps the work practical 

and not too theoretical. 

What do I understand in this very moment? 

It always seems to be to come back to the state 

and BE and be humble 

to open up for something to Be revealed 

if it wants to be revealed and understood. 

It seems a bit mysterious. 

Waiting and observing the moment 

seems the key for the delicious higher understandings 

that come and I get out of the way with my ordinary self.

~S

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The Gift

Nicholas Roerich - Mother Of The World 

Our Union is Like this:

You feel cold

So I reach for a blanket 

To cover your shivering feet.

A hunger comes into your body

So I run to my garden 

And start digging potatoes

You ask for a few words of comfort and guidance,

I quickly kneel at your side offering you

The whole book 

As a gift.

You ache with loneliness one night

So much you weep

I say 

Here is a rope

Tie it around me,

Hafiz 

will be your companion 

For life.

Hafiz

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The Fourth Way...

 

AI generated image

The Fourth Way:

Q. Can you tell me what one should aim at? I mean, what is possible to acquire through the work?

A. As a general answer—the only aim is change of being. The aim is to reach higher states of consciousness and to be able to work with higher centres. All the rest is for that, in order to achieve that. It is necessary to do a thousand things that seem to have no relation to it, but they are all necessary, because we live below the normal level. First we must reach the normal level, and second, we must try to develop new things and possibilities. No one can help you in this, only your own work and your own understanding. You must begin with understanding. These lectures and this system are to give understanding. The next step depends on your own efforts. Change of being can be achieved only if you remember all that was said and if you do not make exceptions for yourself and leave out things you do not like. If you do this, you will not have a right relation to what was said, and even if you try to remember it, it will change nothing.

I WISH TO REMIND YOU that this system is based on understanding. Understanding must occupy the first place in this system. The more you understand, the better the result of your work will be.

 

Q. Why cannot I understand the least thing when I think about it, but sometimes understanding suddenly comes?

 

A. 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.

~P.D. Ouspensky

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The Realization Came To Me...

 

AI generated image

The realization came to me last night, 

reading about this topic (undertaking new things)

in the work of Collin and Ouspensky, 

that to stay fresh and keep evolving in the work 

it’s necessary to activate one’s kings continually 

and in conjunction as often as possible. 

Making connections in the system 

and thinking about work ideas continually 

provides this stimulus. 

As does learning new things, 

ongoing investigation 

of the things that interest each of us. 

Crystallization and modern “depression” 

I suspect comes from the underuse of our centers - 

lack of new impressions, new challenges, 

new stimulation 

and the subsequent starvation of the Soul. 

Constant challenge to enter new environment 

with new aims 

keeps the long body of our Soul healthy. 

Pushes it out in front.

~O

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The Key to the Heart

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

"When the heart wakes, the world becomes a prayer.

Only God has the key to open the Heart."

Shams Tabrizi

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Sonnet 29 - Shakespeare

Sir Frank Dicksee - Romeo and Juliet

Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state [changes],

(Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth) and sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

William Shakespeare 

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The Truth is Now

Image by Schauhi via Pixabay

The truth is not to be found in the past, but NOW.

The past is really only useful to indicate to us how 

wrong we did everything. It is at best a reference to 

our impotency in the face of life. 

Of course, this impotency still exists even 

when one awakens, but what replaces it is a 

realistic appraisal of what is possible and what is not.

In this piece of the universe that was given 

to you to be your prison, there is no other place 

where you could be present right now. 

We forget this. This is the way it is. 

Your life is being lived right now, 

and you can be winning or losing every moment. 

When we are together like this, 

it makes it worthwhile and bearable.

It is far more valuable to study why one 

is awakening instead of studying why one went to sleep, 

especially when one has verified that one had to. 

Awakening is a far greater miracle than sleeping. 

Modern psychology is obsessed with the past. 

The work is now, yes, this very moment.

~Mervyn Brady

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True Self-Remembering

Image AI Generated

The work is not about a constant focus on me.

Observations are important but the 

constant concern about one self, 

one's hydrogens, and under which laws I am 

can be another form of identification, 

and therefore, sleep. 

Rodney Collin talks about the importance 

of larger works, larger visions, to create 

something to serve, to get out of the narrow ways 

of one’s own troubles. 

Do the impossible. Really let go. 

We have to peel ourselves like onions. 

We go deeper in understanding, being. 

But we can’t put back the onion skin we have removed. 

We can not act as if we have not changed. 

“A person can not remain what he is and 

at the same time develop into a new kind of person. 

The New can not be contained in the Old. 

The New must destroy the Old, 

taking from it what is necessary.” 

Rodney Collin - The Mark 

We can not remain a seed and become a tree. 

Mervyn emphasized the importance of letting go. 

We must let go. 

There is actually no choice or we are stuck. 

What is my third force in self remembering? 

What do I serve? 

We can live without fear, distress, 

if we truly stay present. 

Self-Remembering will become self preservation. 

“Self Remembering prevent us from ever becoming lost. 

It is a true compass.” Rodney Collin

~S

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In The Presence of God

William Blake - Oberon and Titania on a Lilythe

I was in the presence of God;

I was sent to earth;

My wings were taken;

My body entered matter;

My soul was caught by matter;

The earth sucked me down;

I came to rest.

I am inert;

Longing arises;

I gather my strength;

Will is born;

I receive and meditate;

I adore the Trinity;

I am in the presence of God.

-Rodney Collin

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Lending a Pen to Our Soul

 

Art Work by Kerin Galloway

"There is a private chamber in the soul

That knows a great secret

Of which no tongue can speak.

Your existence, O love my dear,

Has been sealed and marked

“Too sacred,” “too sacred” by the Beloved-

To ever end!"

~Hafiz

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Thoughts on Death

AI Generated Image

For all its technological achievements, Western Society has

very little understanding of death, or what happens in or after death.

Death does not mean annihilation and loss. 

People die as unprepared for death as they are unprepared for life. 

They serve only the great machinery of nature and 

not the desires or wishes of the Gods. 

The subject of death and dying must be opened up. 

Appreciation for life often comes as knowledge of 

one's death emerges, then one is ravaged by regret. 

We are not condemned to go out empty-handed at death 

to meet the great unknown. 

We can begin to prepare for the experience now. 

Death is a mirror in which the whole experience of life is reflected. 

My greatest wish is to live and die without regret.

Mervyn Brady - 

Extract from email to his students dated Tuesday, Sept. 8th, 1998.

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Reach for Love, Always!

Remembering You Today and Always, Mervyn.

I think for Mervyn, 

Self Remembering was distilled to one clear aim:

Reach for Love (higher Love) always.

He reached straight into each of our hearts.

Reaching for Love requires a desire and courage

deep beyond our ordinary self, to the Real in us.

If we can be so bold to follow a true desire 

to the source, its origin is the Divine.

Reaching for Love is guaranteed to bring unbearable friction

and rip apart the tightly woven fabric of our ordinary lives.

But keep going anyway.

The Path of the Heart is self-correcting.

What we need to see will be revealed and

Divine guidance arrives when we are ready to listen.

Even in our most desperate hours,

how can we be lost or forgotten on the Path of the Heart?

With A Universe of Gratitude and Love to Our Teacher.

~ J

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Harmonizing Energy

AI Gemini Generated Image

In this work, we do not force the energy.

We learn to listen to it,

guide it,

and harmonize with its movement.

Through a gentle [divided] attention,

breath,

and posture,

we open a space for the body and mind to reconnect.

We use this practice to return to ourselves, 

with presence, simplicity, and inner calm.

~G

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Love Much Outwardly

 

The Source of Inspiration by Constant Montald (1907)

We were designed to love, not to be loved. 

That is why if an enemy hates you, and 

you love him (you are in a state of love,).

The stronger the enemy is, the stronger 

the love can become. You see, that is very 

different from what we think of as love — meeting 

someone and holding hands and living in a 

cottage ’til we are old.

Love pours out of us. That's the next revelation. 

It doesn't flow into us. We think, "I need love." 

No, you don't! You need TO love. 

We have to fix the notion that 

"there is something in me that needs love." 

You might need emotions; you might need 

somebody to tell you that you are nice 

or something. But the strongest love is 

the one that flows outward. 

And if you can let it flow outward, 

no matter what happens, 

then that fountain will never stop flowing.

To look at this another way, 

the denser the energy we burn, 

the more mechanical or human we are. 

The lighter the energy we burn, 

the more conscious, awake, or closer 

to God we become. So one of the exercises 

we must learn, if we are sincere with our work, 

is to love much outwardly. 

To not concern ourselves with what the 

machine wants or needs to make it feel better, 

because this is usually short-lived and temporal. 

But to try and love consciously. 

To express love, to give love, to radiate love.

That's the highest level that a man or woman 

can reach on this earth. That's what makes us 

more like God. 

It is our love that dictates our divinity...

Mervyn Brady

~ Excerpts from messages to his students

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We Are Like Radios...

 

AI Generated Image

We are like radios. 

The moment we are negative 

we may tune in to the accumulated negativeness of someone,

perhaps thousands of miles distant, 

who has been negative for years. 

There are many, many different wave-lengths, 

but there is always someone 

who has the same wave-length 

as our own, 

whom we affect and who affects us if we let him.

That is one reason why 

it is so necessary to guard against being negative, 

in order not to collect 

the negativeness of other people 

and add it to our own. 

And think of the responsibility 

if we send negativeness to someone else. 

It might be someone who 

is just getting out of a negative state

and whom we push back again by our negativeness.

~Rodney Collin - The Mirror of Light

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