The Bene Factor- 20th May 2007

IT is only through that of our Divine Benefactor of All, do we share the Grace of the Wellness of Being. Firstly it is to He that we give our most sincere gratitude to, and pledge to uphold and work for this wellness at all times, for all others as well.

Thanking a faceless, spiritless Universe, is tantamount to thanking a rubbish bin for its existence and for your own. It does not make sense. Without intelligent design and purpose, without a higher Will and motivation, could nothing but substance itself, create and sustain, let alone care that you are indeed thanking it?

Godlessness is an epidemic at present. One cannot say if materialism has given birth to it, or vice versa, but what can be observed is that without this fundamental first premise, men and women are become detached from the commonsense that follows.

Primary concepts are the rocks we build our temple on. They are more important than we know. We carry them also, upon our supernal person - day or night, these concepts follow us and determine the coordinates for all else to follow.

'The Secret'* expects not only wellness, but in many instances, abundance, and believes that this is but a Universal Law. Father God or any spirited Divinity, is not essential to their concept. There is no knowing intelligence which decides and wills that things be so - it is based on an automatic response that of itself is not moral necessarily, or wise.

It believes that the thoughts of a man or a woman are very powerful - as is so - and encourages them to be positive in general - which is of itself, very positive in the doing and the outcome....but then goes to the idea of some generic principle's action which will comply with our own will, want and imagining.

Meanwhile there are so many we leave out and unknowingly ignore. So many beings, loved ones, Angels and Gods, who all have and do contribute to our wellbeing. And yes (thank you Martin Luther King for saying it out loud), what of the nations of the world also, whose labor support the breakfast tables of the wealthy, and whose looms clack and cleave so that we might clothe ourselves?

The greater Secret in all of this is, of those souls and spirits we should thanking and working to give back to. The far bigger Secret speaks of such denial that refuses to acknowledge the Bene Factor, our benefactors - not forgetting either, those who labor in slavery, impoverished and compromised. God Bless them all.

Primary concepts tend not to be unique to the individual, for at that level they are shared in common with a bulk of others, who not only promulgate the same, but are actually linked by this community of thought together. This is nothing to do with core wisdom however, but more to those consciously accepted and affirmed precepts by which our life philosophy runs. And they are usually very simple.

Here is a useful list of examples (not to be read out loud) -

Father God exists.

Father God hears my prayers.

God exists.

God is Divine.

God is unknowable.

God is fair.

God is just.

God is indiscriminate.

God is unjust.

God does not exist.

There is only one life.

There are many lives.

All is good.

People are good.

People are not good.

The world is changing.

I am loved.

I am not loved.

I will never know.

I can never know.

I don't want to know.

The mysteries are mysterious.

The mysteries are there to be known one day.

I can know the mysteries in time.

I am a good person.

I am not a good person.

No one understands me.

People love me.

People do not love me.

People are crazy.

I love people.

I love animals.

I love children.

I love Angels.

I love power.

I love myself.

I want someone to love.

I want to be someone, someone wants to love.

I love eating.

I delight in cruelty.

I have great humor.

I am creative.

I hated school.

I loved school.

I could have done better.

I should have done better.

I want to do better.

I want to be better.

My mother loved me.

My father loved me.

My mother did not care for me.

My father did not care for me.

My mother loved my sister/brother more.

My father loved my sister/brother more.

My mother loved me the most.

My father loved me the most.

I loved my mother.

I loved my father.

My childhood was difficult.

My childhood was sweet.

My adolescence was difficult.

My adolescence was fun.

I want to grow old.

I do not want to grow old.

I prefer salty to sweet.

I like sweet things.

I want sex.

I do not want sex.

I need more sleep.

I do not want to sleep.

I am too fat.

I am too thin.

I am not bright or intelligent.

I am self conscious.

I am proud.

I am strong.

I am the best.

I am holy.

I am admired.

I am powerful.

I am scared.

I am habitual.

I hate cleaning.

I love to organize.

I love books.

I love movies.

I love computers.

I do not like computers.

I feel peaceful.

I feel restless.

I always want more.

I am satisfied.

I am grateful.

I am wishing.

I am lonely.

I am selfish.

It is alright to be selfish.

That's just me.

I have a right to be me.

I am proud to be me.

I am not listening.

No one can convince me.

I cannot stand religion.

I cannot stand atheism.

I am a people person.

I am a patient person.

I will do what it takes.

I cannot be bothered.

I am lazy.

I like to cheat.

I like to steal.

I like to get more than I have paid for.

I need to be honest.

I need to lie.

I need to be fair.

I need to be happy.

I like singing.

I do not like singing.

I believe in Angels.

I do not believe in Angels.

I am a gardener.

I am no good in the garden.

I love nature.

I love the city.

I believe in Karma.

I think when you die you are dust only.

I think when I die I will go on.

I am afraid of heights.

I am afraid of women.

I am afraid of illness.

I am afraid of being wrong.

I am afraid of getting older.

I am afraid of losing my mind.

I am afraid of losing another person.

I have been disappointed.

I did not deserve my life.

I deserve more.

I am sad about the world's problems.

I am confused.

I cannot tell anyone how I feel.

God does not approve of me.

I am scared that God will cast me out.

I cannot stand violence.

I love color.

I am a good cook.

I love to do for others.

I love to be a mother.

I love to be a father.

I love to be a grandfather.

I love to be a grandmother.

I wish I was a mother.

I wish I was a father.

I do not want to be a mother.

I do not want to be a father.

I wish to be a grandmother

I wish to be a grandfather.

I wish for more children.

I do not wish to have children.

I am afraid to have children.

I love TV.

I love hobbies.

I love sport.

I love Church.

I love to kill.

I love to create.

I repent.

I have done nothing wrong.

I have faith.

You have to have faith.

I want faith.

I have no faith.

I am sincere.

It is all too hard.

I am dying.

I am afraid of pain.

I am afraid of death.

I am unhappy.

I am very happy.

Something is wrong.

I am never wrong.

You have to be positive.

You have to be wary.

I have to be on the look out.

There is a wisdom behind everything.

I understand spiritual things.

I do not understand mumbo jumbo.

I love the sunrise.

I am afraid of the dark.

I love the night.

I am afraid of being seen for who I am.

I am nervous.

I always laugh when I am nervous.

I cannot stand laughter.

I cannot tolerate loud noise.

I cannot tolerate bad smells.

I cannot tolerate off food.

I need to wash.

I need to wash constantly.

I can never wash enough.

You can never wash enough.

I want to be left alone.

I want to party.

I want to get high.

I want to get drunk.

It is OK to get high.

It is OK to get drunk.

It is not OK to get high.

It is not OK to get drunk.

It is not OK to eat meat.

I love eating meat.

It is not OK to be unkind.

I love being unkind.

I find sport in being critical.

I am smart when I am critical.

I belong to the University of the World.

Experience is everything.

Love and kindness are everything.

I am superstitious.

Knowledge is everything.

Reading through these primary concepts we immediately recognize what feels correct about ourselves and our self statements, and what does not. The issues they address are colorful and go further than simple negatives or positives, because they speak of very real qualities, virtues, conditions and precepts that will definitely lead on to very certain effects and further thinking thereon.

These concepts are not arguable, in the sense that they are subjective and personal to ourselves. They may not even be current with our very own consciousness, desire or thinking, but have been born from other folk who have impressed us with the same concepts or situations, from which they have naturally arisen.

"Man know thyself" begins very much with the reviewing of these concepts affecting our thinking, our behavior and our futures, so that we might later go on to learn of the greater man, and what that means in relation to the systems and conjunctures in which we are fixed.

It is so important to not only review our day, but to go through these primary concepts and work to review them also. You might feel some of them impinge upon you even though you do not agree with them. Bring them out from the dark and consider them. By accepting and rejecting and self reflecting we are becoming stronger in ourselves.

An entire book could be written on what it means to hold just one of those concepts about a person. We begin each day with them, repeating them over and over in our psyche. They determine many of our decisions before our working ego can grapple with the moment at hand. We rest and rely on such 'truisms', without them necessarily being unchangeable. They appear to hold some biblical importance, but really are secondary to our active consciousness and true deciding. They each have their gremlins that are in constant argument with one another.

However it is helpful to cite those ones which we are encumbered by, and those which are assisting us - and then also to know that we are truly none of the above, for this reason:

True goodness is not done by rote. Our godly selves, our reverential selves - all of those primary concepts above are definitely affecting them, but when we look to thought and action in the moment it really requires a conscious exchange.

For example: if I help a brother, which is preferable? -

• That I should help him because my repetitive concepts steer me

• or that because of the need, because it is right, because it is something I choose to do in that very moment, it is something I consciously decide.

There is a difference. 

Believing in something because you have always done so is just not enough. It becomes lukewarm at best. There can be no true conviction if it is just repetition.

Especially that which is good about ourselves, needs to be lively and executed with verve, with intention, rather than a fit in profile. Even positive affirmations cannot be delivered with a momentary vitality unless they have the grit of understanding within them, and gratitude to Grace for their existence.

Grace is very personal. It is not compelled - for were it merely a compulsion it would be just another law. It is personal. It is personal to the receiver, personal to the situation, and always with intelligence.

The gods make decisions all the time. They are not compelled or robotic servants to our lives. When Christ acts, He does so, not to merely fill a profile of Himself. And nor should we. The very reason why so many folk think that Christ loved because He had to, by definition of Himself, is because they live the profile of the primary concept, rather than so living in the momentary self themselves.

Living in the moment is not encouraging one to merely live for the moment alone. What it requires moreover, is a reasoning that is ever weighing a situation or a motive, without and within, and questioning what is correct at that very time to do, truly deciding for oneself, without merely going to the preconceived text of who we are.

For each of us clothe ourselves in these simple statements, but they are in fact quite dead within their own nature. Their time has gone when first thought or uttered; and impressed upon us though they be, they are but shrieking ghosts.

Man know thyself within each living moment. For it is within the present we only have ourselves to know, and it is there our strength and glory lives.

Perhaps some of the concepts above have been good to us, and some have undoubtedly weighed upon us most heavily, but all in all, there is only one we need to hold to, and that is:

It is only through that of our Divine Benefactor of All, do we share the Grace of the Wellness of Being - and for this we are ever grateful.

Amen.

*[Comments on the book: The Secret]

Projecting Forth- 13th May 2007

TIMES traveled before used to be very different. For example: if a man or woman set out on a very long journey, either with animal transport or across the sea, they could not picture where it was that they were going, and had no means of being prepared.

The experience for them was surprising, at least, and although there might have been expectations, there was no real prior knowledge of landscapes and cultures, unless they had been there before.

Nowadays we have movies, photographs and many ambassadors from all the continents. Cultures are blended and architecture itself testifies to a historical metamorphosis rather than a style. Generally however, the world is a familiar place.

It could be said that men and women are thinking more than ever before. They may not go far with their reasoning on any one subject, but their speed of thinking and range is considerable. 

With the seasons themselves, we have begun to lose our instincts; and it is true as well to say, that we are diminished in those peculiar knowings that would forecast the time of a birth, or death, or storm coming in. The thinking has overrun these kinds of instincts and does not listen very much to the clock of the Sun or impulse of the Stars.

Some instincts are stronger, yet different. They are imbued with thought and yet remain intact and with purpose. The affection and nurture of one another as babies, friends, in family, in relationship - these instincts of love in action have triumphed those aspects that are still in want and wane.

And so it is that the flux is hard but the flow is good. It feels like a time of great change, yet in so many respects it is not. Only so much can be varied, and it is simply because of the speed and variety of thinking that folk feel like the circumstances of the world also are changing; perhaps beyond their control.

However, intrinsically, substantially, fundamentally and remarkably, there is no major change in the universal law, the range of colors and light, the difficulties between differing realms, the constant of renewal and the grace of eternal life - these things have not changed.

The virtues (each one of them) and their supplement to our invigored souls - curiosity, joviality and congeniality - are still all here. 'Life' in organism, life in fruit, in blood, in sprout and in spirit - Life is ever strong and stronger, in obvious and exuberant manifest.

Warmth is warm, cool is cool, hot is hot and soft is soft - these have not changed. Light is light; touch, smell, sight, day, night, are still the same.

We are here, present now within our selves - in the same spot we always are, in familiar reckoning. And you do know yourself - do not let anyone tell you that you don't, because this above all else you know.

You might not have figured out the contest of details of those things outside your domain, and you may be blighted by the constant thinking or paradigms, current in the now around you - but you do know your quiet self: that feeling of self, being simply and perfectly right here. For a moment just you can hush the details and go to self; and it is plain and clear that you are still here. 

Countless frames of circumstance have greeted you and gone, yet you are here. Worlds have tumbled and been reborn, and you are here. Families have swapped roles, as you have as well - a diminished king, a weather-worn pauper, a hapless criminal, a pain racked cripple... oh dear! You are still here.

Some things do not change. Your Arterial Self's connection with Father God - that one connection that is faster and stronger than all - is still there and shall remain. And from this you will always know your sense of self - in that quiet knowing that is not impressive and sophisticated, in that humble knowing that is not assuming or ingratiating, in that joyous knowing that is the root of certainty and the profound.

We say this because of the epidemic of fear that is eroding the psyche at present, within the World. And in whatever way it is expressing itself, it in itself and of itself, is creating but one outcome - more fear.

If we begin to forget the true constants that are good and most permanent, then we become unstable within ourselves and ready to believe anything. However, you can know that much of the cause of most personal disruption, is of losing consciousness of that good.

Fear would have you believe that bad outcomes can eventuate before they happen. Commonsense can tell you this too, but without the fear. Commonsense will give you a decent plan for a positive outcome as well. Fear only tells you of negative projections.

This epidemic of fear can unravel the self-composure of a man. It is generally unconscious because the population is projecting it, on the whole. With demonic cliché it struts and moans and broadcasts itself with a lascivious overture. It spreads myths like: "we don't know", "you don't know", "you can never know", and so forth, causing the very confusion, it maintains you are suffering.

If you ever watch a professional person trying to remedy a problem before them, you will notice the overwhelming calm they exact their trade with. If you saw a hysterical surgeon, or a confused and stressed out architect, you would be necessarily, concerned.

The overwrought and 'dunno' attitude has no place amongst people who are actually being useful. Certainly you do not see fear glaze their being and freeze their activity. They have to go into their project with a reasonable expectation of success in outcome. We are all the same - the alternative is simply too difficult. 

So if the media or a neighbor is making noise enough to unstable you, or project more fear, you can remedy part of this by simply remembering some of the above - forewarned, forearmed and cherishing your self-peace.

There will be those things you can definitely make a positive contribution to that would not be the same without you. But in order to be effective within the World, particularly at present, it is so much better to work from a place of calm, than of disruption to your discernment.

Fear protests our abilities in general and afflicts our root differentials; whereas projecting out from our true selves and returning to our true selves, enables us all the more.

I adhere to the Constant,

And love all that is lovable.

I move out from that one sphere,

Yet my spirit stays spherical.

And as one to another,

I know you well,

Through He that knows all.

There is calm at this center,

Being central to naught.

I revoke all protesters,

My permission has knots now secure.

I am indifferent to all the persuasions,

But seek to know that which is good.

I pledge to care and be worthy,

To be able, useful and kind,

To sit at the lap of Mother Wisdom,

Heeding her observations of Time.

At the feet of my Father, our Father,

I'm able with His Word and His nod.

I'm inclined by the grace of this Life I'm enabled,

By the strength of His Sun I will shine.

When the play has abandoned its forum,

When the trees have been drawn to the ground,

If my time and all time is abandoned,

I shall still be the Jewel in the Crown.

Fishes & Loaves- 6th May 2007

AS soul proprietors we all know just how difficult it is not to mortgage ourselves into the vagaries of self abandonment, giving up the freehold of Spirit for the tenancy of this World.

And it is somewhat true, that negotiating any lifetime requires a mask and a gluepot (an old expression); meaning that the fabric of earthly living is short-lived and by all appearances ever changing, with an inevitable death.

The question that was raised tonight was: "Why do we incarnate at all?" "What is the benefit and purpose for ourselves and the Spiritual Worlds?"

There are two types of Purpose - one is where the kernel of its truth and benefit is there right from the very start and does invigorate the spirited soul who drives it.

The second, is that Purpose that is as yet unrealized until the fulfillment of duty and action has been complete. It is a Purpose which is spirit in the making, unresolved as to outcome, but imagined in the Divine Mind and incorporated there before its play.

Such Purpose could be attributed to the incarnation of the Cosmos as known through the higher Gods, and the extraordinary drive around which the Physical Worlds have been manifested. We can consider what it means for the 'higher' life to be entitled in Matter, and what possible benefit this could bring.

In order for something, for anything to exist, it must have its place within the whole, within the frame. Things, whether they be widgets or new planets, must have a place for their nature to be incorporated; and within that place a solid fit. If one digit of a widget was out of place, for example, then the entire fit would become maligned very quickly and obsolete. 

Place and purpose are prerequisite to existence. Furthermore this Purpose needs be conducive to the whole (must fit also), and cannot stand apart from its environment else the environment would dissolve its place in rapid transit.

This principle cannot translate into the social context, where the world of ideas and paradigm can preexist existence itself, seemingly, but is more to the point of a veritable truth underpinning consequence; i.e. existence requires substantiation from a place and purpose outside of itself in order to be, and this existence needs be in concordance with that which parents it.

Now having said that, one could see very clearly that parentage is going to determine much of the ongoing status of that which is to follow. Life remaining faithful to the Life from which it is born of - that which substantiates its being - is rightfully coherent to the Nature that enables it.

However and having said that, there can be just one very small anomaly in this divine principle of precedence, and that is that life can become static through its own self fulfilling repetition. 

In other words, this requirement of 'fitting in' to a wonderful operating system such as it is, with the highest of Holies and the best Parentage one could hope for, this evolving and perfecting routine is also held in place with a uniform expectation and outcome.

If you ever thought that Karma has a tight grip, just try the slap of the Almighty! 

Now on the whole this is of course, the highest Grace to become ennobled by; and if choosing, there really is no choice, because the ways of God really are the only way. And more than that, there is no better place to be, sustained by the Heavens and protected in their hold. But (and it is a very small 'but') in the scheme of things, it could become, by stagnation, undone.

The physical existence is not anarchical or complacent; it was not, interestingly enough, born of the same either. There was no physical system that preceded it, and the Space and Purpose from which it began, took on attributes of increase - of multiplying - which hitherto had not occurred before. It is now known as the "Fishes and Loaves" principle of need and multiplication. And it is extraordinary.

Formerly, for example, there was (and is) a system whereby the enlightened/advanced beings within the Spiritual Worlds could be graded from the highest to the lowest, in a natural sequence. If you were to pictorially view this, you would see the being who is most advanced at the top and then all the others in their placing, coming in one beneath the other in a gradient that only affords a single plane to each. The positioning might shift from time to time, but the gradient is always there - from the highest to the lowest - you can see it.

Here it should be added that this gradient is not a harmful thing, it merely is a truth of its own keeping. If I held a race, and at the end of that race there was but a very small door to go through, then there would be no doubt as to who managed to get through first, second, third and so forth. There also would be no 'ties' in place, just a single succession of winning places. And so the grading of development finds its levels similarly and obviously, giving one place to one station at any one time.

Yet with the Material World in its system, all men within it can and do arrive at the same stations simultaneously and together. This in itself, as said before, is extraordinary and innovative, and has ramifications for the Spiritual Worlds without also.

Returning to the concept of Space, Purpose and Continuum - we found earlier that Space and Purpose are generally limited to propagating more of the same. We found that the element of repetition is intrinsic to this system, in a positive way, of course.

But now there is another aspect to Cosmic Life that is introduced - and it is not a defiance of Space, but an expansion of it. It does not involve going against the nature of the divine Purpose at the heart of that Space, but rather multiplies its possibilities.

Here is a project and plan of vast proportions - and how quickly we can see the hopes for the many becoming realized as were never before allowed or allocated for previously.

Through Christ, the realization of a divine actuary has been incorporated (through His Being, which is at the pinnacle of this gradient aforementioned, in Supreme development and success), circumventing the one way, small door principle, and replacing it with a charity of the highest, that no longer is the ladder to Heaven with single rungs and constant formation, it is a whole. And added to this, the codicil that Men can acquire on behalf of other Men also, that learning and development is infectious, and improvement can be and is collective.

Fishes and loaves, fishes and loaves.... 

Birth, Death & Tea- 29th April 2007

LIGHT lives in the Water, and when the water in our fluids courses our veins and our membranes it is permeated with that light; and this light does feed us and then expire.

It is the light within the water, traveled and contained, that feeds the plant. Flowers kept in the water of a clear glass vase, will remain fresher longer than those that are in an opaque container.

As a tonic, drink the water of the early sun. Take a clear glass or jug with water in it, out into the sunrise; leave it in the new day's sun for an hour or two, and then drink it. 

There are good properties within that light that will nourish you. This remedy is especially good for the frail, who do not get to go outdoors themselves. It does not have to be in direct light to be absorbing the day's light and ethers - just outside in the open air.

There are of course, pathways to energies everywhere. Undeniably so. But today we will speak of something more than a pulse and vitality, something which is inherent to life within itself and moves more freely (and elusively) than any energized pathway might be able.

To begin we can consider that water itself is but condensed light, in altered but exact form. Water as we know, by nature is utterly Divine. It is the host for all organic life and the carrier of future life to come as well. By this we are saying that not only is water current (great pun!), but it has present within it values of yet unrealized properties as well. 

Blind underwater creatures that live in the darkened depths of the deepest oceans, experience both light and sight through the water around them.

The fetus in the mother's womb is not yet incarnate or conscious there, but does experience an awareness in that place - and that awareness is the very experience of being held and suspended in pure light, as the fluidic sac is just that. 

And some of you, just by the mention of this, will now go back to their earliest of memories and be able to say "Yes, that experience of being suspended in light, pure light, I remember that".

You know when folk speak of near death experiences and they are standing in a tunnel of light, it is often that they are actually in the chamber of their own heart experiencing the light there, as it (when at rest) is drawing in the light from the soul; and they are at that point of either returning to a pulse or vacating out. But that is indeed where they are standing. They may have lifted up and out of their bodies temporarily, they may have flown once around the Earth and back again. But when that decision to live was in play, that place where they stand is most central to their self within the World and the life lived around it - it is in the heart.

And believe it now or no, it is extremely helpful to know where you are. There are times when things can appear so far away like that, and yet be more intimately closer than we know.

This experience described, now that you do know it, can help you navigate such an event far better. And it should be said also, that when the heart is at rest in between all beats, the light of the soul is naturally drawn in and then travels the bloods thus permeated. So when the heart is at rest in those first moments of death, it is as active as usual and technically not 'dead' at all; with the all important light forces of the soul still pouring in as before.

So you may picture yourself as just aware now of that place - your consciousness having traveled there and the light streaming in upon you. Within the rays are moving pictures that are moving rapidly, which are living memories of the soul moving amongst this light in prismatic form. You may or may not be able to see this procession of memories at this time, but you will feel them nonetheless and from this feel very wise. For they are your soul's own memories and the pictures are yours alone; and the wisdom is yours also, and very lovely.

You will not find consciousness in the ethernet of the brain. It is not in a dry spark - it is rather conveyed through the soul's light within the fluids. It moves where it is needed to go, and the fluidic system provides for this light to be contained, and made substantial and accessible. The light pre-exists the bodily condition as always, and lives outside of it for the most part as well. It is drawn in by the many levels of consciousness within the individual; and with each breath we draw, we incarnate ourselves all the more.

So the man that has just deceased has gone to the chamber of his own heart - to the very entrance there into Eternity - and stood at that gateway contemplating his leaving. However the light forces of his own soul are streaming towards him, still in a living current, yet the rivers of him also are bleeding out as he expires into the world.

Here too is a then significant picture of our Christ and His bleeding out into the World. When His own Soul rayed into that body for the last time, and the fluids were drawn to air and into the ground and the light, His Light began to permeate the soil.... and all matter was altered and transformed, from that day on.

And, this is precisely how the water in the Communion Cup can be the conveyor and the blood of Christ - for by the humble prayers we make when we call to Him, His Soul answers us and the Light of His Soul rays into that water to be then received into us.

But you must never try this with the soul of another human being. Mixing and mingling happen ordinarily and naturally, light to light and so forth. But the action that occurs within the Communion Cup is entirely different to what might be if one were to try to do the same with another being or soul in this vein.

When the victims of the black arts have their blood drunk by those who would take their light forces into themselves, or when a lover would covet the soul of their partner in a kiss, there is a sublime resistance on behalf of the soulic forces to become a part of any nature which is not natural to their own. It simply does not work. The light does of itself contain a certain vitality which is separate though not distinct, and this vitality is mistaken for the value of the soul by those aggressors who would requisite that which is not theirs to have.

However debilitating it is to be deplete in such vitality for a very short while, the victim of a would-be soul-stealing, is actually never at risk of it occurring in this way. The black arts, as usual, are mistaken. (They are so often mistaken, but that is pretty much the whole of their problem.)

Conversely there will be those people who would love to share some of their own light around and water you constantly with it; convinced that their light is the light of the World, and driven by a purpose to share it thusly. Now before I go on I must say that this problem is completely distinct from the man who serves those around him without pride or prejudice. No, in this is meant the man who sincerely, singularly and diffidently seeks to change others around him to his way of being, irrespective of whether or not they wish this for themselves - the forceful man who believes he is commissioned to make up the world's mind with his own.

If you are around a person like this and find them to be depleting in their company, it is very useful to have a vessel of water with you and this will alleviate the difficulty you might be experiencing with them. Do not drink the water after you have parted company, tip it out. And it goes without saying, that if they are particularly difficult and opinionated to be around, do not take beverages whilst in their proximity. For in the short term such influences are taken on by the body of fluids around you, and it is their intention also that they be absorbed into your interests and mind. Better to go and have a drink away from them (you can always excuse yourself to the bathroom and sip water there). This is of course, applicable only to those overbearingly forceful folk who willfully wish you to commit to their ways and ideas.

However, and having said that, the sharing of refreshments with good company and companionship is ever delightful in the sharing of aspect and forging community. Thus the pouring and sharing of tea is a reverential act with holy consequence - with or without the sugar!