Stay Awake - Live Fully

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!


RUDYARD KIPLING    1865-1936

Beauty in the World

Heavenletter #3725 Published on: February 5, 2011


God said:

There is so much glory in the extant world. Music, art, nature, sunlight, stars. Keep your eyes and ears on the beauty of the world. There is enough of it. There is enough to last you a lifetime or more.


For what is the privilege of seeing even one night of stars worth? One dawn, one setting sun. The sun on a lake. Stars on a lake. Love in eyes.


You are so surrounded in beauty that you may be spoiled.


One blade of grass. One tree. One hill, one dale.


Keep your pulse on the beauty of the Universe.


I created beauty. And, you, human beings, have continued to create it right along with Me. Why would you create anything else?


Why would you deplore anything when there is such radiance in the world to be in awe of?


How important are inconveniences when there is sky above and ground below?


Perhaps your attention has been caught on dust in the house and news on television. Go outside then. Fortunate is a person who lives outside where there is more to see, and vision is greater. Outside, you can even spend a day twirling and looking at a dandelion. When there is such a hardy thing as a dandelion, all must be right with the world.


Consider that the world is a feast spread out before you. You can take anything you want. Everyone can even take the same thing. Who would choose trash?


Every day you have that choice of what to take from the world. Take beauty. Take joy. Take love. Leave whatever doesn’t please you. There is enough glory to go around.


It must be that sometimes you get focused on what is not right with the world, and you forget everything else. You don’t see the forest for the trees. The trees may be the details to life that you find tiresome. Never mind inconveniences. Never mind even conveniences. What is a dishwasher next to bright summer rain? Get out of the house. Kiss the air that greets you outside. All the world is a park, beloveds. Didn’t you know that?


Let Us have not even one moment of grumbling. No grumbling out loud or even under your breath. How can you grumble when there is creation everywhere? Let the glory of life be your focus. Forget about price tags and a broken floor tile. Step up to the life you always wanted. I am telling you that you have it. It is all here. Claim it. Derail everything that you do not claim. Do not mutter about it.


Embrace creation. It is for you. Look up at the sun. Look up at the stars. You have had enough attention on where your feet have trodden. You have carried enough burdens up and down the stairs. Look up through the skylight. Look up and light up the world. Let your gaze light up the world.


Love life. You can. Why don’t you? How can you not be eager to get up in the morning? Throw off the covers. Leap out of bed. Greet the day as this great guest that it is. Have a wonderful day. Have a wondrous day. Make the day wondrous for all.


And, if today, clouds cover the sun, then you be the sun. You be the light of day. Be the daybreak. Be the sun coming up over the horizon. Be the bright sun. Light up the world. Let the world be seen in all its shining glory. What are you waiting for? Get up and greet the day as you have never greeted it before. Bless the world today, and you have blessed it.

Christ's message is for all

"Have faith in God. The Lord is our God. Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The love of God manifests in the love of man." This is the central teaching of Jesus.

Christ's message has always been: "Love thy neighbour as thyself". He said: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within thee. His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Be not anxious. Seek ye first His Kingdom. Everything will be added unto thee". He was the way, the truth and the light, for all men to follow.

Christmas is a state of spiritual awakening. To realize the Kingdom of Heaven within yourself, to hold communion with the Lord in the chambers of your heart, to regain your lost divinity, to attain Christ-consciousness or cosmic consciousness, to love all, to include all in the warm embrace of your love is real Christmas.

Realize the spirit of Christ. Walk in the footprints of Christ. Dive deep into the heart of Jesus. Ever seek to express, in your daily life, love, joy and peace. Imbibe Christ's message of love and sacrifice. Manifest the latent Christ within you. Follow the Sermon on the Mount. Attain God-consciousness. Live in the spirit of Christ's teachings. Annihilate this little self-arrogating personality and melt yourself in Christ or the Universal Soul. This is real Christmas.

Real Christmas never comes and goes. It is eternal. Feel the spirit of Christmas not only on one day, but throughout the year. Every day is a Christmas day for a real follower of Christ, for a thirsting aspirant. May you all walk the path that Jesus laid out! May you all be living embodiments of the Sermon on the Mount! May you realize the Kingdom of God within you here and now!

By SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA's writing of LORD JESUS http://www.dlshq.org/saints/jesus.htm

One Love For All

This most wonderful gift of Divine Love is still available to each of us. I believe every declared Saint had it. I also believe we can each gain the same graces the Saint's were bestowed with and become Saints as well.

The Spirit of Gertrude excerpts from Book

It must be observed here, that the soul is purified from the stain of sin principally in two manners : first, by the bitterness of penance, which is represented under the figure of a bath; and secondly, by the sweet embrace of Divine love, which is figured by the garden.



JESUS CHRIST once appeared to the Saint, and, showing her His Heart, said to her: " My beloved, give Me your heart:" and as she presented it to Him with profound respect, it seemed to her that He united it to His by a canal which reached to the ground, through which He poured forth abundantly the effusions of His infinite grace, saying to her : " Henceforth I shall use your heart as a canal through which I will pour forth the impetuous torrents of mercy and consolation which flow from My loving Heart on all those who shall dispose themselves to receive it, by having recourse to you with humility and confidence."


Two angels of the choir of Seraphim then presented her to the Holy Spirit, who penetrated the three powers of her soul. At the first Kyrie eleison, He illuminated her reason with the glorious light of Divine knowledge, that she might always know His will perfectly. At the second Kyrie eleiscn, He strengthened the irascible* part of her soul to resist all the machinations of her enemies, and to conquer every evil. At the last Kyrie eleison, He inflamed her love, that she might love God with her whole heart, with her whole soul, and with her whole strength.

Saint Gertrude gains the grace of Divine Love

I have been on a mission. A mission from God. I am seeking to connect the dots between the special graces I have received with the bestowal of God's Divine Love and the paths and practices of the Church declared Saints.

This information just arrived. How exciting. It has been said so many ways but it is the same truth. Hidden in plain sight. The wonderful mystical gift of God's Divine Love. Saint Gertrude understands this special grace much the same as I. There is a difference she notes between the ordinary love and this special bestowal of love from God's Divine Heart. The most Sacred Heart. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door will be opened.

Just below is an excerpt from the book Spirit of St. Gertude and following it is the book online.


SPIRIT OF SAINT GERTRUDE
CHAPTER X.
OF A MYSTIC TUBE BY WHICH WE MAY DRAW EVERY GRACE FROM THE HEART OF JESUS.


The Lord appeared to St. Gertrude, full of sweetness and grace, breathing forth a holy vivifying odour, and pouring forth from the august throne of His glory the influences of His love for the sweet Feast of His Nativity.

Then, the Saint having prayed Him to enrich all who had been recommended to her prayers with special grace, He said to her : " I have given to each a tube of pure gold; of which such is the virtue, that by it they may draw forth all they need from my Sacred Heart." By this mystic tube she understood that good will by which men may acquire all the spiritual riches which are in heaven and on earth. For example: if any one, burning with the fire of pure and holy desires, endeavours to give God as much thanks and praise, and as many testimonies of service and fidelity as certain of His saints have rendered to Him, the infinite goodness of God regards this good will as if it had really been effected. But this tube becomes more brilliant than gold when men thank God for having given them so noble and elevated a will, that they might have acquired infinitely greater advantages by it than the whole world could bestow. She knew, also, that all her sisters who surrounded Jesus Christ received Divine grace by similar tubes. Some appeared to receive it directly from the Heart of Jesus Christ, others from His Hands; but the further from His Heart they drew these graces, the more difficulty they had in obtaining them; whereas those who drew them from His Divine Heart obtained them more easily, more sweetly, and more abundantly. Those who drew directly from His Sacred Heart represented those persons who conform themselves entirely to the Divine will, who desire above all things that this will should be accomplished in them, both in regard to spirituals and temporals. And these persons touch the Heart of God so powerfully, and render it so favourable to them at the time that God has determined, that they receive the torrent of Divine sweetness with as much abundance and pleasure as they have abandoned themselves perfectly to His holy will. But those who endeavoured to draw their graces from the other members of the Body of Jesus Christ, represent those persons who endeavour to acquire virtue according to their natural inclinations; and the fear and difficulty they experience is proportionate to the extent to which they have relied on their own judgment, and have failed to abandon themselves to Divine Providence.

The "W" in Christmas

A heart warming Christmas story

I had cut back on nonessential obligations - extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending.

Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas.

My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a 6 year old.

For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant."

I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then.

Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise. So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in 10 minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats.

As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song.

Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer.

So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title.

Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads.

Those in the front row - center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song.

As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love."

The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small, quiet girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down - totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W."

The audience of first through sixth graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W."

Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together.

A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen.

In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities.

For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:

"C H R I S T W A S L O V E"

And, I believe, He still is.

Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience.

Gentle Thoughts

About Now

A soothing song I sing to you.

Just Glowing

I thought of you.

OUTER GLOW = INNER KNOW

A ROOM WITH A VIEW



Morning Walk



What a view!

What view?

A view beyond.

Beyond what?

Beyond walls.

Beyond restraints.

Just to be able to see,

Makes one feel free.

Debra Clemente

Ignorance speaking

This video made me mad.
The makers of this video twist tales to breed fear and hatred.
I thought about ranting about it on the video site but instead chose to post it here.

Each one of us is first a spiritual being.
We are spiritual beings made in the image of God having a human "skin on" experience.
Sadly most of us are really unaware and out of touch with our true spiritual nature.
Dogma has managed to keep us all in line and out of touch with this touch stone.

When someone calls on spiritual help the spirits they attract are "like minded" to them.
If one is in a higher more realized spiritual state then they are assured to attract the energy of other spirits with higher vibrations whether the spiritual being has "skin on" or not. Hearing someone talk about Spirits may be spooky to another if they have not developed their innate spiritual abilities. There is so much more to life than we can see with our eyes. When one awakens to this realm, one's world expands in wondrous ways. Not scary at all. Actually it's very comforting. It's the unknown that's always the scariest in life.

Rest assured of this: Spirits are not the enemy. Not bad, evil or demonic.
That's just plain ignorance speaking.

Finders Seekers

Those with ears to hear, hear and those with eyes to see, see.

Forgive them, they know not what they do.

Seek and ye shall find.

Jesus was speaking directly to those heeding the true messages within his words. He realized that for the majority the true value of his statements would not register. Thus go in one ear and out the other. The information Jesus heralded as the "Good News" has never been meant to be secret knowledge it's just that it's value has gotten lost as error interpretations have been celebrated and taught by unknowing masses. One eventually finds whatever one is looking for. Look for peace, find peace. Look for God, find God. Find peace in God.

When one comes upon something of value, he may take no notice of it if he wasn't seeking it. Perhaps not even acknowledging it's existence. Yet one who comes upon the same thing (idea or object) and was in search of it, recognizes it's value thus treasuring what is found. The finder is delighted and shouts for joy in celebration and is anxious to share their joy with others. But unless the others were as well seeking for themselves what the finder has found they will not be able to recognize the value of the found as percieved by he seeker of such.

The joy in finding is mostly for the finder yet others will recognize the finders joy and though not percieving the value of the found will still benifit from the joy expressed and shared by the finder. The seeker/finder says "Look here, I found what I was seeking! I'm so happy! Don't you want this too? I want my happiness to be yours as well." He trys to tell in ways they can hear but their minds get in the way. They believe they know the way of the world and believe that such joy is not possible for them as yet. As it does not make sense to them they call it nonsense.

So as the seeker/finder observes the others continue to chase their tails and dig their own graves he refrains from judgement reminding himself, "they know not what they do." He who has found hopes that his continued and growing joy glows so brightly that others may take notice and ask how they as well can have such joy for themselves. Then as true seekers they will find.

Live the Good Life! Live the God Life!

divine atmosphere

I hold it as a truth, that a divine atmosphere surrounds our earth, — an aroma emitted from the world of spirit, CELESTIAL FOOTPRINTS in which dwell the great truths and secrets of the universe, - a great world that pours down viches upon us, as the sun pours down heat; and as, without the sun, this world would be hut a formless wilderness, so without this spirit-sun would it be barren of thought or beauty. Above us and around us exists a spiritual atmosphere, more subtle than the natural one. As the latter is the supporter of physical life, so the former is of psychal. We absorb the delicate magnetic aroma from all substances, through the medium of the air, as well as the comparatively coarse oxygen ; so all of our soul-life comes from this spirit atmosphere, — all thought, all feeling, all appreciation of truth and beauty. Man is the apex of earth-creation, and the basis of all heavenly life, the foundation of all spiritual existence. Starring thus in a middle plane as the highest thing of earth and the lowest of heaven, he holds magnetic relationship to both. — T. T. Watts.


Excerpts from Plain guide to spiritualism: a hand-book
for SKEPTICS, INQUIRERS, CLERGYMEN, BELIEVERS, LECTURERS, MEDIUMS, EDITORS, AND ALL WHO NEED A THOROUGH GUIDE TO THE PHENOMENA, SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION AND REFORMS OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM.  By Uriah Clark,  Published 1863

What's up

with the UP Church?
For starters a noted American actress is the founder and minister. Playing an angel in a television series during the week and standing at her pulpit each Sunday morning she works to awaken people to the wonderful spiritual forces watching over and available to each of us.  I'm pretty sure you are familiar with her voice as she is a celebrated vocal artist as well. I'm talking about Reverend Dr. Della Reese Lett. I find her story very interesting but, I find message and mission of the UP Church even more riveting as it is in line with my own experience of truth.

I have posted their mission statement and belief's below.

Understanding Principles for Better Living 

(the UP Church)

We teach to fill that spiritual hunger of those who are unhappy with the way they are living their lives, and need to reacquaint themselves with God’s principles for achieving the Good Life, which is the God Promised Life.

At Understanding Principles for Better Living (the UP Church), we do not attempt to teach you what to think, but rather how to think on a higher level.

And that level of thinking will immune you from the doubt and fear that causes us not to see the best in ourselves and others; immune us from magnifying our mistakes; immune us from procrastination, and immunes us from failure.

Immunizing ourselves from negative thinking and actions, allows the God qualities of confidence, diligence, compassion, forgiveness, and most importantly Love to fill our lives. This is how we achieve a healthy spiritual outlook…eliminate the negative and hold on to the positive.

WE BELIEVE that it is God's will that every individual on the face of this earth should live a happy, healthy and prosperous life.


...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:10
It is fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Luke 12:32

WE BELIEVE that such a life is within reach of each of us and the way to it's attainment begins with the realization that the Kingdom of God is within us, waiting for us to bring it into expression.


You won't be able to say it has begun here in this place or in that part of the country for the Kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:21 (Living Bible)


WE BELIEVE that we can bring this kingdom forth by practicing the universal spiritual principles passed down through the ages and taught by our Way-shower, Jesus Christ.


I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
John 8:12

WE BELIEVE that with Jesus our experiences are the reflections of our beliefs and therefore the key to happy and successful living is the right thinking followed by the right action.


As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
Prov. 23:7 (Phil. 4:8)

WE BELIEVE with Jesus that the basis for right thinking is Love — Love of God and all that is good in our fellowmen and in ourselves.


...Love the lord, your God, with all your heart soul and mind...
Matt. 22:37
...Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.
Matt. 19:19

WE BELIEVE that learning to listen to the whispering of the,

still small voice within us will ensure that we are guided into right action

In everything you do put God first and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.

Prov. 3:6 (Living Bible)

WE BELIEVE that the time has come to make available to all men everywhere a teaching that will enable them to provide for themselves by learning to release the divine potential within them.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all theses things shall be added unto you.

Matt. 6:33

If we love one another, God dwells in us.

He that dwells in love dwells in God.
Because I love my sisters and my brothers I dwell in God.
My love keeps no score of right and wrong.

A head thing

"We can't fear the past.

Fear is a future thing.

And since the future's

all in our heads,

fear must be

a head thing."

Tom Payne- Career Development Expert

Changing Worldviews

I am so excited to come upon a blog where the blog author and I each share such a deep passion for exploring the same topics.
CHANGING WORLDVIEWS the author states:
"AN ATTEMPT IS BEING MADE TO ELUCIDATE MY VIEWS ON DIFFERENT SUBJECTS MAINLY PERTAINING TO SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, PSYCHOLOGY, WELL BEING ETC."

There is quite a bit of content to explore.
Here are a few of the posts that I want to share now.

The mind is so objective and restlessly outwardly looking that it does never see inside itself.

We all need to listen our voice of ‘inner self’ or the ‘soul’ as it guides us especially through our bad and difficult phase of life.

The purpose of life is to learn lessons and grow spiritually, while traveling along the road. In 53 years of my journey, I have learnt 20 important lessons.

Keep it to yourself.

Don't talk about your dreams and desires to others. No one else can see the unique vision that you so sharply hold in mind and thus knowingly or unknowingly they will throw seeds of doubt about. If you then consider and ponder the opposing ideas, seeds of doubt will be planted in the most fertile soil of your mind. Each time you consider these "weed seed" ideas you water them and allow them to sprout. If left to flourish, weed seed will suck the life out of the seeds of your most positive and wonderful dreams.

Perhaps this is why we have been told to keep our wishes a secret: Tell know one the wish you make as you blow out the candles of your birthday cake or toss a coin into a well or fountain. Your secret can only be safe with you. Keeping your wishes secret allows them to flourish in the sacred garden of your mind.

Your wishes and dreams for yourself are yours. Keep them safe and hold them dear. They are so very valuable to you and as you shower the soil of your mind with sunny thoughts of all that is good ,you are feeding your most wonderful secret dreams and empowering them to shoot up out of the rich soil of your mind and flower gloriously for all to behold.

It's a matter of perspective really

Exceptional Excerpts from Emerson

Excerpts from Compensation from Essays: First Series (1841)
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will, or against his will, he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a thread-ball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains in the thrower's bag. Or, rather, it is a harpoon hurled at the whale, unwinding, as it flies, a coil of cord in the boat, and if the harpoon is not good, or not well thrown, it will go nigh to cut the steersman in twain, or to sink the boat.     

-
There is no penalty to virtue; no penalty to wisdom; they are proper additions of being. In a virtuous action, I properly _am_; in a virtuous act, I add to the world; I plant into deserts conquered from Chaos and Nothing, and see the darkness receding on the limits of the horizon. There can be no excess to love; none to knowledge; none to beauty, when these attributes are considered in the purest sense. The soul refuses limits, and always affirms an Optimism, never a Pessimism.

-
His life is a progress, and not a station. His instinct is trust. Our instinct uses "more" and "less" in application to man, of the _presence of the soul_, and not of its absence; the brave man is greater than the coward; the true, the benevolent, the wise, is more a man, and not less, than the fool and knave. There is no tax on the good of virtue; for that is the incoming of God himself, or absolute existence, without any comparative. Material good has its tax, and if it came without desert or sweat, has no root in me, and the next wind will blow it away. But all the good of nature is the soul's, and may be had, if paid for in nature's lawful coin, that is, by labor which the heart and the head allow. I no longer wish to meet a good I do not earn, for example, to find a pot of buried gold, knowing that it brings with it new burdens. I do not wish more external goods, -- neither possessions, nor honors, nor powers, nor persons. The gain is apparent; the tax is certain. But there is no tax on the knowledge that the compensation exists, and that it is not desirable to dig up treasure. Herein I rejoice with a serene eternal peace. I contract the boundaries of possible mischief. I learn the wisdom of St. Bernard, -- "Nothing can work me damage except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault."

In the nature of the soul is the compensation for the inequalities of condition. The radical tragedy of nature seems to be the distinction of More and Less. How can Less not feel the pain; how not feel indignation or malevolence towards More? Look at those who have less faculty, and one feels sad, and knows not well what to make of it. He almost shuns their eye; he fears they will upbraid God. What should they do? It seems a great injustice. But see the facts nearly, and these mountainous inequalities vanish. Love reduces them, as the sun melts the iceberg in the sea. The heart and soul of all men being one, this bitterness of _His_ and _Mine_ ceases. His is mine. I am my brother, and my brother is me. If I feel overshadowed and outdone by great neighbours, I can yet love; I can still receive; and he that loveth maketh his own the grandeur he loves. Thereby I make the discovery that my brother is my guardian, acting for me with the friendliest designs, and the estate I so admired and envied is my own. It is the nature of the soul to appropriate all things. Jesus and Shakspeare are fragments of the soul, and by love I conquer and incorporate them in my own conscious domain. His virtue, -- is not that mine? His wit, -- if it cannot be made mine, it is not wit.


Such, also, is the natural history of calamity. The changes which break up at short intervals the prosperity of men are advertisements of a nature whose law is growth. Every soul is by this intrinsic necessity quitting its whole system of things, its friends, and home, and laws, and faith, as the shell-fish crawls out of its beautiful but stony case, because it no longer admits of its growth, and slowly forms a new house. In proportion to the vigor of the individual, these revolutions are frequent, until in some happier mind they are incessant, and all worldly relations hang very loosely about him, becoming, as it were, a transparent fluid membrane through which the living form is seen, and not, as in most men, an indurated heterogeneous fabric of many dates, and of no settled character in which the man is imprisoned. Then there can be enlargement, and the man of to-day scarcely recognizes the man of yesterday. And such should be the outward biography of man in time, a putting off of dead circumstances day by day, as he renews his raiment day by day. But to us, in our lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not cooperating with the divine expansion, this growth comes by shocks.

The mystery's

Man is, in truth,
born in the sin
of ignorance,
but with a capacity
 for understanding.



Freemasonry is not a material thing:

it is a science of the soul;

it is not a creed or doctrine

but a universal expression

of the Divine Wisdom.


Manly P. Hall

The mystery's of freemasonry intrigue me. The little which I know has wet my appetite to learn more. This is the most interesting reading I have come upon to date. I have copied a paragraph below from the website indicated and highlighted certain phrases which ring especially true to my experience. This following is an excerpt from the foreword of  the book THE LOST KEYS OF FREEMASONRY or The Secret of Hiram Abiff by Manly P. Hall.

Man is Parsifal searching for the Sacred Cup; Sir Launfal adventuring for the Holy Grail. Life is a divine adventure, a splendid quest Language falls. Words are mere cyphers, and who can read the riddle? These words we use, what are they but vain shadows of form and sense? We strive to clothe our highest thought with verbal trappings that our brother may see and understand; and when we would describe a saint he sees a demon; and when we would present a wise man he beholds a fool. "Fie upon you," he cries; "thou, too, art a fool." So wisdom drapes her truth with symbolism, and covers her insight with allegory. Creeds, rituals, poems are parables and symbols. The ignorant take them literally and build for themselves prison houses of words and with bitter speech and bitterer taunt denounce those who will not join them in the dungeon. Before the rapt vision of the seer, dogma and ceremony, legend and trope dissolve and fade, and he sees behind the fact the truth, behind the symbol the Reality. Through the shadow shines ever the Perfect Light. What is a Mason? He is a man who in his heart has been duly and truly prepared, has been found worthy and well qualified, has been admitted to the fraternity of builders, been invested with certain passwords and signs by which he may be enabled to work and receive wages as a Master Mason, and travel in foreign lands in search of that which was lost - The Word. Down through the misty vistas of the ages rings a clarion declaration and although the very heavens echo to the reverberations, but few hear and fewer understand: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Here then is the eternal paradox. The Word is lost yet it is ever with us. The light that illumines the distant horizon shines in our hearts. "Thou wouldist not seek me hadst thou not found me." We travel afar only to find that which we hunger for at home. And as Victor Hugo says: "The thirst for the Infinite proves infinity." That which we seek lives in our souls. This, the unspeakable truth, the unutterable perfection, the author has set before us in these pages. Not a Mason himself, he has read the deeper meaning of the ritual. Not having assumed the formal obligations, he calls upon all mankind to enter into the holy of holies. Not initiated into the physical craft, he declares the secret doctrine that all may hear. With vivid allegory and profound philosophical disquisition he expounds the sublime teachings of Freemasonry, older than all religions, as universal as human aspiration. It is well. Blessed are the eyes that see, and the ears that hear, and the heart that understands.

http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/the_lost_key_of_freemasonry.htm

FOREWORD By REYNOLD E. BLIGHT, 33 degree, K. T.