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No Martyrs Please

NEW ARTICLE!
When I was fourteen, a missionary visited my school and gave a little talk. Although I can’t remember what she said, I do remember being impressed with her as a person. I couldn’t put it into words but there was something special about her. It might have been the calm look in her eyes even though, from what she said, her life was far from calm. Certainly, I recognised a very unselfish attitude and she seemed happy without trying to convince anyone that she was.

After the talk, a student that I didn’t know approached me.

“I think you are going to be a missionary,” she said unapologetically.

I was surprised both by her comment and by her bothering to tell me. At that age, I was shy and introverted. There was nothing for her to gain by telling me but nor was she trying to hurt me.

“No,” I said, “I don’t think so.”

It seemed to me that even if one did want to be a missionary, it wasn’t the sort of thing that one would admit to. Although the girl didn’t appear to have any intention of repeating the conversation, I was well aware that the teenage world can be brutal.

“I saw the look in your eyes when the missionary was talking,” shrugged the girl by way of explanation. “I was watching you.”

I must have been so absorbed in the missionary’s talk that I didn’t notice her watching. What the girl said was surprising and thought-provoking but it wasn’t frightening. However, the next thing she said was frightening.
Continue reading “No Martyrs Please”

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We Are Here For God

Like many other things in life, dancing seems to revolve around strengthening one’s ego. I prefer to think of it as letting a little piece of life come through us, together with another person who is gracious enough to want to share a little piece of life with us. It could be something pure. Or powerful. Or happy. Is it possible that the purity, power or happiness could simply express itself through a trained body and mind without the ego and its never-ending problems? Continue reading “We Are Here For God”

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Peace

Although simple, peace is a highly evolved state of consciousness. It cannot live side-by-side with the ego. We choose one or the other. Peace is the predominant quality of spiritual advancement. The unassuming quality of peace wins the day when it comes to the soul’s progression. To choose peace means that we give up the rantings and ravings, demands and hurts, wants and cravings of the personal mind. The personal self feeds off injustices, imagined injustices, complaining, conflict, excitement, drama, and all the goings-on of normal human life. At some point, when we have suffered enough or have enough wisdom, we tire of the whole thing. We sincerely prefer peace. Continue reading “Peace”

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Heartache

The first step in healing is to take responsibility.
The second step in healing is to realise that there are other ways of getting what we want.

(This article was originally published September 2015. The video is new.)

Heartache
Much of our heartache in life comes not from other people but from our expectations of other people and what we feel they should bring into our lives. If our heartaches were truly caused by other people, we would have little power to heal our hurt. Healing would primarily be left to the passage of time and, even then, the big heartaches could easily be reignited. The often unrecognised factors which have brought about our heartache will be based on a myriad of beliefs ranging from reasonable to downright ridiculous. However, this makes no difference at all to the pain we feel because our pain is not coming from our mind but from our heart. It’s no point arguing with the heart. It doesn’t help to talk reason. The heart doesn’t even hear. It doesn’t know that language. It is instinctive – for good and bad. Whereas the mind will try and patiently think through the reasonableness of any situation, the heart is powerless to do so. The heart is all feeling and it flows from a great line of experiences and expectations both remembered and forgotten. Continue reading “Heartache”

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Principles To Live By

The Eleven Principles of Metapsychiatry

  1. Thou shalt have no other interests before the good of God, which is spiritual blessedness.

The vast majority of people live their life with innumerable interests before spiritual good and that accounts for the unhappiness that the vast majority of people feel at their most honest soul level. Good relationships, material abundance, fulfilling work, enjoyable and enthralling interests, and glowing health are not excluded by having our undivided attention on the spiritual path. They are an accompaniment to it. For the sincere seeker, qualities such as peace, assurance, gratitude, love, and spiritual good are always of primary and supreme importance. Continue reading “Principles To Live By”

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Not As It Seems

How can we see things as they really are? Thought is very powerful and the underlying intention is everything.

How can we see things as they really are? It’s important, don’t you think? For example, honesty can seem like meanness when, really, it may be love. Niceness can seem loving when, really, it may not be at all. People can wish us dead and still be polite to us and people can, sometimes, seem harsh when, in fact, they would give their life for us. The behaviour of a person does not necessarily correspond with their underlying intention. If we can’t see people clearly, we can end up trusting people and situations that are not in our best interest and dismissing people and situations which would make our life better and happier. It is not just in regards little things but if we understand the far reaching and powerful effect of thought, we realise that it can even be a life and death matter. Thought is very powerful and the underlying intention is everything. Continue reading “Not As It Seems”

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Walking through the Dark Places

It is our deepest hurts which have the power to help and heal us. What else carries an internal fire big enough to force us forwards? What else has the momentum to wake us up? What else has enough pain to make us long for something better? What else will drive us into the waiting arms of that beautiful, invisible life-force which yearns to help us? What else will teach us to feel the love which has no betrayal; the love which seeks only good? Naturally, most of us feel uncomfortable with intense emotion. We do not know how to deal with fear, sadness, and anger and so we repress them. Continue reading “Walking through the Dark Places”