Hi Destination Unknown.

“When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the slightest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like, against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.” — Hsin Hsin Ming

Re: the above, I would definitely agree, with the caveat that the “love” referenced is Divine Love. I make that particular clarification b/c there is a world of difference between human and Divine love. Human love can be generally described as being conditional, whereas Divine Love is unconditional. Having made this distinction, the rest of the quote makes perfect sense. Divine Love is impersonal, and in the final analysis, is synonymous with Truth. Spiritual detachment, the opposite virtue to the mind passion, attachment, is necessary, because It assures Soul’s freedom. Soul, of Itself, can do very little to help or “save the world” of Its own accord, but as a pure vehicle for Divine Spirit, It can “move worlds”. If God and Divine Spirit are impersonal forces, Soul too, must develop this same quality. The principle being “Thy Will, not mine be done.”

How is it possible to have no preferences? We automatically dislike pain and prefer well-being or the absence of pain. It is built-in.

When Soul sets Its feet upon the spiritual path, there is no turning back. That isn’t to say Its journey will proceed in a straight line toward God, on the contrary, Soul’s movement toward God is characterised by one step forward, one step back, two steps forward, one back, and so on. A breakthrough occurs and It may make a significant advance, and so on. The pace at which Soul advances, is Soul’s business alone.

Since every Soul is unique, Its movement toward God will reflect Its unique approach to God, b/c Its understanding is different to the next person’s. It’s experience may be similar to the next Soul but It will understand and react differently. This is known as the Golden Contract, an agreement between God and Soul, that Soul alone is privy to. There is a saying, “God created Soul and threw away the mould”. Every Soul is created of “the same substance” – for purposes of illustration – Soul is created out of the substance of Divine Spirit, in effect it is an individuation of Divine Spirit, or a unit or spark of God. Since the conditions at the moment of Its creation, differ, no two Souls can possibly be alike. A Master artist will never recreate a masterpiece, he will create a unique creation every time.

In the human realm, obviously, we avoid pain as much as possible, but cannot avoid a certain amount of it. By and large, it is the more difficult experiences that bring the greatest growth, so our experience usually becomes that which is most necessary for Soul’s benefit. Since we live in a dual world, it stands to reason that we must experience a certain amount of pain. It is understood, however, that Soul is generally not given more pain than It can endure.

You may feel that you are not clinging to the past but reaching for something. But Krishnamurti said, “if I reach for something, it is still the past, from memory. How is this past to be dissolved? Because otherwise I am still living in the field of time that is man-made.”

Memories do exist, yet remain as something akin to dead images in a file, which come alive once our attention is placed on them. William Blake referred to these images as being contained in “the Halls of Los”, in his famous poem, “Jerusalem”. Soul, of Itself, lives in the present moment. The decisions we make today solidify into tomorrow’s conditions. Blake also wrote, “What was once imagined is now real”. Where we put our attention is where we go.

I take it to be saying, if there is ANY STORY WHATSOEVER, You will never touch spirit. You are confined to live in the man-made world of time.

Ok, keeping in mind that in spiritual matters, there is always the issue of semantics, and as Nico noted, we are all in the position of trying to articulate that, which to some degree, is not able to be articulated, especially as we all have different reference points, are at different points in our unfoldment, have differing abilities to express ourselves, and so on, but here I would have to disagree. Once again, Soul, of Itself, lives in the present moment, and in a realm known as the Soul Plane. However, human beings, encumbered as we are with the psychic bodies, ie; the physical, astral, causal, mental and etheric (the causal, mental and etheric are very different realms, but can essentially be described as divisions or regions of the Mental Plane). Therefore, while Soul is in “the lower worlds”, ie; the psychic or dual realms, It must wear the coverings known as the physical, astral, causal, mental and etheric bodies, for the reason that without them, Soul has no way to express Itself, ie; It is disembodied. It may be able to express Itself on the Soul Plane and beyond, but not on the mental plane, for example. To do so, It needs a mental body, if you get my drift.

The point being, that Soul – should It maintain Its connection to Divine Spirit, is able to maintain Its state of consciousness at the spiritual level, ie; the Soul Plane. As I mentioned in my first post, this is easiest done by singing the word, HU, or some other charged word, or spiritual practice on a regular basis. Exercising the spiritual body brings awareness and understanding of the subtle worlds and our experiences there. Truly, a life without spiritual experiences, is a limited life at best.

You are confined to live in the man-made world of time.

If Soul is here, it is because It either has more to give, or further lessons to learn. There’s a saying that when Soul finally attains God-Realisation and earns Its place in the pure spiritual worlds, Its great love for others often compells It to return to the lower worlds in order to assist others on their journey back home to God.

Finally, although the physical (and the other psychic bodies are bound by the laws of their respective planes), Soul of Itself need not be so. Indeed, It is Soul’s destiny to be free, not to be the effect of the matter, energy, space, and time worlds. The objective therefore is, “to walk the earth, but to keep one’s heart in heaven”.

And just why should we depart from the world of time? Is it deficient?

The worlds of matter, energy, space and time, are known as God’s finished creation. The purpose of these worlds is to provide a theatre where Soul gains experience, until It is in a position to take command of Its destiny. Soul’s aim is to become more God-like, and this is what the theatre of life provides; experiences so that Soul is able to become predominantly cause, and less so, effect. It can be effect, but should be aware that It is being the effect of something. Most do not know that they are being the effect of one thing or another. We can see this when people become overly emotional about something. By and large, Soul has been given free will and is free to decide whether It wants to advance to a higher, lighter realm of existence or remain in this world. However, the important thing is to make that decision, and not be compelled by your karma to remain in this world.

In Spirit, D.

“I am even more than my consciousness, although that consciousness has a lot to do with my soul.”

Hi Nico. Re: your above statement, who would be asking the question above, posited in your post titled, “Connection” above, dated 19 September, if not Soul?

It is perfectly fine to frame it this way, of course, since we are used to using such terminology when referring to Soul, but is this not the mind or ego, referring to Soul?  I hope you will not think I am “splitting hairs” or being impertinent, I am making the point that there is a world of difference between the mind and the Soul. If we undertake a short analysis, the mind is a tool that belongs to a particular sphere or realm of existence we may term the mental plane, (just as the physical body is composed of physical matter and the emotional body is composed of the stuff of the Astral or Emotional Plane). These various bodies are taken on by Soul and worn as garments in order that Soul be able to enter a particular plane of existence so as to experience a cycle of experience ( a lifetime ). When said lifetime is complete, Soul discards the worn-out body or bodies, and returns to a lighter, finer world. Depending on Its karma, It then proceeds with Its spiritual education in a new body, be it on this physical plane, or one of the inner worlds.

The Law of Karma educates Soul in self-responsibility, until It advances to the Law of Love, a higher level of experience / existence.

Insofar as a spiritual exercise is concerned, I personally have been using and reommend the word, “HU” for close to 40 years. There are many historical references to the name, or syllable “HU”, especially in Rumi’s writings, and Hazrat Inayat Khan, a musician and Sufi who lived during the first half of the 20th Century, (in his book, “The Music of the Spheres”.) The foremost proponent of HU today, is Harold Klemp, the spiritual leader of Eckankar, the Path of Spiritual Freedom. He writes;

The secret name for God is known as HU ( pronounced same
as the word hue ), and is woven throughout all human languages and sounds
of nature. The HU is known as a Love song to God, and the bridge between
heaven and earth, and if sung with an attitude of love, brings a noticeable,
positive effect to the practitioner. All charged words sung in contemplation,
meditation, and prayer, are a variation of the HU. HU serves to focus all of
Soul’s energies and thus compels It forward on Its journey back home to God.

The Poet’s Journal

One cold and wintry morning
While walking out the door,
I noticed a poet’s journal
Lying on the floor.
Embossed with a rearing horse,
In finest leather bound,
I couldn’t resist a look,
And this what I found;

A compendium of cat tales,
Replete with dialogue.
Elephants and reindeers
And a smattering of dog.
The quaintest clutch of fables,
Imbued with subtle blends,
Dashed off by the poet
With dedications to his friends.

Sonnets, songs and stanzas,
Filled with human wants,
Jostled with odes to girlfriends
And budding debutantes.
From the pile-up of love affairs,
Through refrains of sad remorse,
The poet never wavered
In plotting true love’s course.

And the parables and metaphors
Of every shape and kind,
Accounts of dreams and visions
And cures for the blind!
Secrets that shake and rend
The ground the grass grows on,
However high or low the road,
The poet’s quest goes goes on.

There were words that had no meaning,
Or meaning I understood.
There were colours I had no name for
And rued I ever would.
There were places I swore I’d been to,
And days without an end,
There were nights of conversation
And laughter with the Friend…

‘Twas a warm and sultry afternoon,
When I finally raised my head,
And late at night when I returned
To lay down in my bed.
What was it about the poet’s words
That so beguiled my mind?
I knew the truth of all he spoke
And saw myself in every line!

The title was meant to be “The Angel of Light”, but no matter.

The Hardened Heart

Life brings strength and youth,
then takes it away and returns
weakness and old age.

It takes power and trades
it for helplessness and infirmity.

It takes freedom and gives back
slavery. Man, once the lord of life,
becomes its victim.

Only love, can enter and
open the hardened heart.

Only love, like the tiny tendril,
first finds the crack in the boulder,
then grows and grows until
finally splitting stone in two!

So it is with the human heart
and love; love will open the most
hardened of hearts!

Sunday, 27 10 2024

Thank you, siljan. The poem is a series of shorter aphorisms, tanka, passages written earlier that address survival issues, spiritual, psychic and physical largely imposed on myself and my family for about the last four years. I have not had much psychic space to address poetry for some time. I have turned a corner personally, however, with the aforementioned conditions taking a sudden and dramatic turn. This was the passing of my father, last week at the age of 90. I will spare you the horrid details of my trials, other than saying a sibling and spouse were involved, the wayward daughter and ostensibly favourite child of my father (my father and I were “cut from dfferent cloths” and were never able to see eye to eye). This sibling + spouse convinced my father his best interests were to leave the family and sequestered him in an Aged Care Home at an unknown location, proceeded to play on my father’s disorder of the mind induced paranoid delusions and attempted to evict myself, my wife and three children from the family home, (after being gifted a home by her parents at age 35, and then losing it, through selfish bloodymindedness). Needless to say, their actions impelled me to defend my family leading inevitably to a Supreme Court case, (I am currently waiting on the Judge’s decision). However, with my father’s passing, the entire proceedings have taken on a different complexion. I have provided an independent expert medical report which confirmed all of my assertions re: my father’s state of mind, health, motivations etc. Yep, there is a sizable estate involved which I was mysteriously “written out of”, and so another battle awaits, but I am expecting the best, as my medical report will now become a part of the evidence and so, my momentum continues while that of the other side, diminishes. Horrible, horrible stuff, but these are the challenges that we must all eventually tackle, like it or not.

Days before our Supreme Court Hearing in May, I met with my father in the dream state and was able to clear with him. In spite of my emotions, I was able to tell him I loved him. With all the onus on me until now, the other individuals involved have up until now been able to avoid scrutiny, but that has now changed and so they will now have to account for their actions. The personal cost, monetary and otherwise, (over a million dollars of the family’s money with more than half of that amount incurred by myself, money which I neither have and now owe) well, that’s all part of the price it seems, and as the saying goes, if it doesn’t kill you, will make you stronger. So this from Shakespeare in honour of my father;

Fear no more the heat of the sun,
Nor the furious winter rages.
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages.
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney sweepers, turn to dust.

Fear no more the frown of the great,
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke;
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak.
The scepter, learning physic must,
All follow this and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning flash,
Nor the all-drenched thunder stone.
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan.
All lover’s young, all lovers must,
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

falling on deaf ears;
the heart trying to explain itself
to the mind

sublime;
give me the fresh mountain air
with the kite soaring high above
over a hundred promises
of heaven!