Group meeting update: our next book

Well, we recently finished our “Search for God, Book II,” and “Experiments in a Search for God,” and then enjoyed the first half of a DVD called “Reincarnation” by John van Auken, a popular A.R.E. speaker. We’ll watch the last half on Monday (10/12). Then it’s time to begin our new book, which was unanimously, and quickly, selected by attendees at our recent meeting (miracle of miracles! Hee hee!). So... on Monday, October 19... 2009... we will be starting... our new book... (this part is called suspense building)... something different but very much in the be-here-now zone... a book... called... (drum roll)... “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle!

New and used copies can be bought on Amazon (or elsewhere). Here’s a link: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61)
You don’t need a book to attend meetings. See the column at right, under “About Us,” for meeting location.

Hope to see you soon! And remember: just Breathe.

A story about a man, a bull, and a new age, by Agnes Sanford

[The following is taken from Agnes Sanford’s book “The Healing Light,” first released in 1947 and still available today in paperback (see below for purchasing options).]

A certain engineer was once surveying in a field when a bull charged his party with lowered head and thundering hoofs. There was no tree to climb. There was no fence to jump. So the engineer stood his ground, filled his mind with the love of God and projected it to the bull.

“I am God’s man and you are God’s bull,” he thought in silence. “God made both of us, and in the name of Jesus Christ I say that there is nothing but loving-kindness between us.”

The bull stopped abruptly. For a moment he looked about uncertainly, as if confused. Then he wandered off and lay down peacefully under a bush. And all that day as the men prospected in the field he grazed quietly behind them, as if he enjoyed their presence.

“Will you tell me what you did to that bull!” asked a farm boy who was holding the rod for the surveyor. “That was a mad bull if I ever saw one. Will you tell me what you did to him?” (“I can believe every story in [your] book except the one about the bull,” a lady once said to me. But the engineer was my brother, and the story is true.)

The farm boy had seen, for the first time, the working of that force that will eventually take the place of bombs and shells upon this earth. For as soon as enough people are able to use the power of love in such a way as to create thereby a perfect self-defense, wars will be outmoded. When one can obtain justice and right and friendly cooperation without money and without price, without bloodshed and without pain, it will no longer be sensible to fight for them.

“If an armed burglar broke into your house with intent to kill,” the old question goes, “what would you do? Fight him, or lie still and let him kill your wife or child?”

Silly old question. One would do neither. One would project into the burglar’s mind the love of God, by seeing him as a child of God and asking God to bless him. And if one were strong enough in faith and love, the burglar’s mind would change. He would leave the family unharmed and go away.

“But hardly anyone can do that!” the answer comes.

Obviously. For if we could, we would not need to resort to war in order to defend ourselves. And we had best learn to do it, for until we do, we must suffer. Until we know the method of love and brotherhood, our choice of weak non-resistance or self-defense is only a choice of evils.

A new age is being born. The day has come when love-power, at the command of ministers and surveyors and children and everyone, is sufficient to change hearts here and there in the world about them.

This is the beginning of a new order. It is the dawning of a new day!

He gently slapped my chest over the heart.

"Your heart's desire shall be fulfilled."

Sri Yukteswar seldom indulged in riddles; I was bewildered. He struck gently on my chest above the heart.

My body became immovably rooted; breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by some huge magnet. Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage, and streamed out like a fluid piercing light from my every pore. The flesh was as though dead, yet in my intense awareness I knew that never before had I been fully alive. My sense of identity was no longer narrowly confined to a body, but embraced the circumambient atoms. People on distant streets seemed to be moving gently over my own remote periphery. The roots of plants and trees appeared through a dim transparency of the soil; I discerned the inward flow of their sap.

The whole vicinity lay bare before me. My ordinary frontal vision was now changed to a vast spherical sight, simultaneously all-perceptive. Through the back of my head I saw men strolling far down Rai Ghat Road, and noticed also a white cow who was leisurely approaching. When she reached the space in front of the open ashram gate, I observed her with my two physical eyes. As she passed by, behind the brick wall, I saw her clearly still.

All objects within my panoramic gaze trembled and vibrated like quick motion pictures. My body, Master's, the pillared courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and sunshine, occasionally became violently agitated, until all melted into a luminescent sea; even as sugar crystals, thrown into a glass of water, dissolve after being shaken. The unifying light alternated with materializations of form, the metamorphoses revealing the law of cause and effect in creation.

An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being. The sharply etched global outlines faded somewhat at the farthest edges; there I could see a mellow radiance, ever-undiminished. It was indescribably subtle; the planetary pictures were formed of a grosser light.

The divine dispersion of rays poured from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and again I saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of transparent flame. By rhythmic reversion, sextillion worlds passed into diaphanous luster; fire became firmament.

I cognized the center of the empyrean as a point of intuitive perception in my heart. Irradiating splendor issued from my nucleus to every part of the universal structure. Blissful amrita , the nectar of immortality, pulsed through me with a quicksilverlike fluidity. The creative voice of God I heard resounding as Aum , ^14-1 the vibration of the Cosmic Motor.

Suddenly the breath returned to my lungs. With a disappointment almost unbearable, I realized that my infinite immensity was lost. Once more I was limited to the humiliating cage of a body, not easily accommodative to the Spirit. Like a prodigal child, I had run away from my macrocosmic home and imprisoned myself in a narrow microcosm.

My guru was standing motionless before me; I started to drop at his holy feet in gratitude for the experience in cosmic consciousness which I had long passionately sought. He held me upright, and spoke calmly, unpretentiously.

"You must not get overdrunk with ecstasy. Much work yet remains for you in the world. Come; let us sweep the balcony floor; then we shall walk by the Ganges."

The Way of The Cross - Tolle

There are many accounts of people who say they have found God through their deep suffering, and there is the Christian expression "the way of the cross," which I suppose points to the same thing.

We are concerned with nothing else here.

Strictly speaking, they did not find God through their suffering, because suffering implies resistance. They found God through surrender, through total acceptance of what is, into which they were forced by their intense suffering. They must have realized on some level that their pain was self-created.

How do you equate surrender with finding God?

Since resistance is inseparable from the mind, relinquishment of resistance -- surrender -- is the end of the mind as your master, the impostor pretending to be "you," the false god. All judgment and all negativity dissolve. The realm of Being, which had been obscured by the mind, then opens up. Suddenly a great stillness arises within you, an unfathomable sense of peace. And within that peace, there is great joy. And within that joy, there is love. And at the innermost core, there is the sacred, the immeasurable, That which cannot be named.
...

"The Power of Now" - Eckhart Tolle

List of Universal Laws

List of universal Laws as compiled by

Bruce McArthur in his book

Your Life

(in the order in which they are presented in his book)

• Like Begets like
• As you sow so shall you reap
• The spirit of your actions multiplies the results
• Like attracts like
• Opposites repel
• As you seek, you attract and are attracted to that which will fulfill your search
• As you seek, you repel and are repelled by that which will not fulfill your search
• For every effect there is a cause
• There is nothing by chance
• Nothing happens by chance; there is a purpose to everything that happens
• As thought and purpose and aim and desire are set in motion by minds, their effect is as a condition that is
• Know the truth and the truth shall make you free
• God is
• As you honor, respect, and love your own unique individuality, so you honor, respect, and love the individuality of others
• Your true needs, wants, desires, hopes, dreams, wishes and their fulfillment are as important as those of any other soul in existence
• You must first 'save' self if you would 'save' another
• As you put the God within first in your life, so you manifest the God you are
• As you become master of your lower self, so all things, conditions, and elements become subject unto you
• Spirit is the life, mind is the builder, physical is the result
• Life is the experience of your choices
• If you will be my people, I will be your God
• Seek first the Spirit within and all things shall be added you have need of
• Seek first the Spirit within and you will find
• Ask the Spirit, with faith, and you will receive
• Knock, with faith in Spirit, and the door will be opened
• All exchanges balance
• As you believe, so it becomes for you
• Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith
• Love transforms
• True giving manifests love
• As you give so it is measured to you again
• As you give you gain in understanding

Thanks to Edgar Cayce Australia… http://www.cayce.egympie.com.au

... much appreciated, mates!

Let go and fall ...

Let go and fall into the river. Let the river of life sweep you beyond all aid from old and worn concepts. I will support you. Trust me. As you swim from an old consciousness, blind to higher realities beyond your physical world, trust that I will guide you with care and love into a new stream of consciousness. I will open a new world before you. Can you trust me enough to let go of the known, and swim in an unknown current?

Michael J. Roads

from
Talking with Nature: Sharing the Energies and Spirit of Trees, Plants, Birds, and Earth

Amazon book description
(I haven't read it yet, but it sounds great!)

The Boy Who Saw True (Update)

[Take two, update:]

Well, I finally read it. (Thanks Evelyn!) Definitely a fun book.

---

1885: A school-aged boy starts a diary. Not just any boy, but one who can see auras, and who can see and converse with non-physical beings. Of course, no-one around him can do anything of the sort…

Along the way, alternating with his insightful and endearing observations of all the people he encounters -- the servants, the local vicar, his annoying sister, etc. -- he casually mentions such things as conversations with his (dead) grandfather and seeing a gnome in a tree. These non-physical interactions eventually culminate in a few bits of fuller discourse with some more evolved “guides”.

---

To those for whom these concepts are new, this book may provide a good launching platform for further exploration into the realities beyond what meets the physical eye. For those who have already started down that path, it is nonetheless a fun jaunt, and a bit of a reminder of who we really are.

For This Reader, one of the strongest impressions was just how aggravating his parents were, especially his mother! I was full of pity for the poor kid. – And as a whole, what a strange and twisted culture! Such strict conformity to such arbitrary and absurd rules. Good thing we don’t do that here! ;)

I was also struck by the contrast: here is an obviously highly-evolved soul, for some reason “enslaved” under this spiritually-retarded parent. Constant struggle.

I find it resonating with my own experience. Not that I have the same level of ability as the main character, but it’s that split: on the surface, the struggle with the day-to-day pain and trivia of life; but at the same time, some deeper stream beneath.

It is as if some wise man-of-the-world were to spend a few minutes aimlessly doodling, perhaps while sitting on the toilet… a quick break, before getting back to the “real world”…

On Amazon:

The Boy Who Saw True
paperback $10.85
"44 Used and new from $7.00"
[A little drilldown shows used paperbacks as low as $2.50 + shipping, also with several in the $4-5$ range]

Naked Through The Gate

"Some people who have come to me have been disappointed to discover that I have no supernatural powers to transmit, no magic wand to wave, no extraordinary knowledge to dispense which can make them instantly wise, loving, and happy. 'Who, then, are you?' they ask. 'What's your secret?' My secret can be summed up in one word: Selflessness. Selflessness is the Truth. Selflessness is the Way. Selflessness is the Fruit. In reality, there is no 'you' nor 'I' nor any 'self' whatsoever. There is only Consciousness Itself—the One True God—which is what we are. All that is necessary is to Realize This, because to Realize This is Wisdom, to Live This is Love, to Be This is Happiness. So, if you really want to know my secret, look to your 'self'. In finding the source of your 'self', you will find Consciousness Itself, and nothing else. Then, you, too, will be free of your self and all its sufferings."

- Joel Morwood

http://www.centerforsacredsciences.org/practices.html

Since the Center was founded in 1987, Joel Morwood has served as the spiritual director and primary teacher for our community of practitioners. Joel's first book, Naked Through the Gate, tells the story of his own spiritual path, culminating in Gnosis, or Awakening, in 1983.

I hit upon this site and this book a few years ago. Both are very much worthy of your perusal. It is a real-life chronicle of the journey of a man of our age, and our culture, into enlightenment.

There is much to be learned here.

It was during that period also that a wonderful thing became clear to me: There are living masters among us.

Not just one or two, but many. The magic of the internet now makes them easy to find, and easy to reference. Even among those who are no longer in the physical, many have written books which are still in print. – And most of these books are either written in, or available as translation in, modern English.

What? I don’t need to read Sanskrit or Greek? -- No, you don’t. You just need to be an honest seeker.

-- Which, of course, you are.

The Boy Who Saw True

This book gets mentioned a lot in the group. Nobody has really said much about what it actually is yet, but the one comment I recall that Patty made was that it's hard to get. Actually, it's not! Check out Amazon:
The Boy Who Saw True
paperback $10.85
"44 Used and new from $7.00"
(A little drilldown shows used paperbacks as low as $2.50 + shipping, also with several in the $4-5$ range)

From the little I could glean via the reviews and the little bit of preview provided, it seems like a quirky and entertaining real-life diary of a young boy from Victorian times, who is psychically gifted...

Maybe one of yous-guys who has actually read it could add your comments?