The Pestilence of Stress & the Strife Therein- 26th October 2008

THERE are no platitudes for stress, because stress by its nature is implacable - it does not have a resting place to suppose a better day, it does not of itself know how to calm and quell; it is simply, quite simply, an energetic activity that is ongoing and with vigor.

The power and principle of stress, as is experienced within an individual, is quite real and not just mentally enamored. As just mentioned, it pertains to an action of fervent energy building - the same that is entailed in practically all day to day actions performed within the world. If we apply ourselves to anything it takes a momentum of sorts to make a beginning and then sustain it onto a phase of continuance. This period of ongoing requires a veritable 'steamship' of self-powering resource - it requires an energetic vigor with very real life within it, to go on. 

This action of energy is quite different to the initial energy drawn in to begin whatever project or movement we are concerned with. If we have an idea or a passion which provokes a very change within ourselves or the world at large, this 'inspiration' literally inspires (as in the meaning of drawing in) a vitality that is connected to many higher realms. It is as though this vitality has come from the clearest wellspring of hope and design. It never lasts for very long, for this is not its purpose, but rather becomes the great precursor to important tasks and thoughts –

• to realizations and affirmations;

• epiphany and repentance that facilitates true change;

• to Art and Philosophy and all else in between;

• to the insights of charity and the renewal of love;

• the first breath and the last breath - the beginning of all journeys near and far.

Then there is a different form of vitality (amongst many others) that is, if you could picture it, quite close to the Earth by proximity and beats on like the artificial heart of any pump station. There is a repetitive and ongoing action which is continuously enduring and never stops; whorling and recharging, a power station of the finest kind that labors on with a measured and persistent thrum - ad infinitum!

And when we have passed the first threshold from beginning into continuing, and when our first heavenly inspired vitality has been with us and evaporated too, if we are successful in maintaining a key into that action of continuance, then it is to the machine-room of the enduring energy we will have a signature key to and an ability to draw from its supply thereby.

This is something that some elderly folk find difficult to do. You can see this by their thinking and speaking. They can get an initial idea but then lose it very quickly. They cannot tap into the second phase of the sustaining energy for ongoing application. It is indeed difficult enough to do this, to motivate one foot after another. Whereas contrary to their plight, young children can draw from this energetic reservoir continuously; not only are they breathing in the first inhalations of mystery and imagination but they are adept and synchronizing themselves with the energy of persistence as well.

You might ask, well why can't we all have the energy of a child and go to this 'powerhouse' and be fueled thus similarly. Well you can and do, however an aging body can of itself tire from excessive energy, and longterm actually cause weaknesses in our ability to further do so. Young children have the physical stamina to host excessive energy; and largely, they also cry a lot. They can expire what is not needed or becoming stressful, by loudly shouting or crying. They might also run everywhere.

Whatever the expression, a healthy child needs to take up this energetic ration and learn to make it work for them with persistent behavior to follow. This action will last throughout life in a great many ways. It is the working engine of habit also. For example: at the end of the night when you are tired you might need to brush your teeth to clean them. This requires the action of intentionally going to get the toothbrush and performing the cleaning for however many moments it might take to do this effectively.

At the end of the day we are often tired and the very last thing we actually 'want' to do is clean anything for any amount of time; particularly at night when our energy is in deficit in general anyway. Now the idea of cleaning our teeth is not a new one to us and there is not the 'aha' experience that contains all of the divine reasoning behind it. When the idea comes upon us that it is time to fetch the toothbrush we are not inspired by a wondrous or excited thought of what this will mean for ourselves and the world. If we were that would become a different kind of vitality to follow - but it is not something that you can produce insincerely or synthetically. 

Heavenly vitality requires real life to be infused with it also. Now you could actually sit and contemplate something inspiring about the practice or of teeth or of brushing and this would discount what point is being made here ... but let us discuss an ordinary night with an ordinary dull involvement in these few minutes we have planned.

The very first time we leapt from the inspired brushing into the applied practice of persistent work with it (i.e. night after night performing the task without the inspiration) we earned, as it were, a key for that task, into the energetic reservoir so named above. We can synchronize ourselves for that time, for what is required with the motion and the action and the energy of that reservoir to draw from our continuing practice.

It does not matter if you picture this energetic reservoir to be external (which in fact it is) or internal (which in fact is experienced also) or both. The point is to be able to differentiate between two modes of vitality utilized. One is temporal and connected with the highest of source, the other is persistent and its purpose is to supplicate ongoing activity. This secondary vitality is local and not particularly inspired other than by the initial beginning vitality that brought us to it. The first vitality is imbued with the very will of Father God and the driving life of the Holy Spirit within; whilst the secondary persistent vitality is connected to our own will's driving and the life we ourselves will motivate it with thereby.

Persistent energy can and does continue on after the heavenly purpose withdraws. Some folk live with just persistent energy alone at the closing of their life. And this persistent energy is repeating, of course, what has simply gone before. So you can find an individual who is incapable of retaining new thought or displaying much of an aware consciousness connecting with the world, still being able to stand and walk and eat etc., tapping into the persistent energy performing the tasks so known.

Stress itself is experienced at the point when there is too much persistent energy fueling work or a project and the individual is taking up too much commensurate with their activity. What can compound this is if the individual is exploring new ideas and is enthused about their work and is continuously drawing in the primary energy with their inspiration, followed quickly by more secondary energy to keep going the first part of the project.

In point of fact it is all good of course, and such activity is lively and succinct with project building - however, too much vitality is wearing to the individual concerned, and just a little too much can be an aggravant to the body or mind. It literally needs to be used, expired, evacuated, moderated, and the intensity brought to a level that is worked with evenly in a manageable way.

For these reasons we can see plainly that stress and the anxiety experienced in connection with it, can have quite good and normal roots in every day activity, and of itself is not sinister but quite simply symptomatic of an excessive vitality that needs either using or disbursing. Because the force is such that if you knew how to link objects to this perpetual motion of secondary energy you could power a motor car, or a train or a rocket, with the same force. It is no wonder therefore that an individual might feel the pressure of the same force as it circulates their system!

We can discharge excessive magnetism by washing our hands or putting them in the earth to dig the garden. The washing of the hands is interesting because a compulsive individual will use persistent secondary energy to perform that ritual in the first place, and that will then go on to cause more vitality to need evacuating. And you can see therefore the cycle that could be created. The washing of the feet holds a deeper mystery to it. However a good bath or swim in the sea will discharge excessive energy also. 

Tai chi and some martial arts will regulate it. Repetitive dance and sport will create more (being a persistent activity) and therefore are stressful activities. Unrehearsed dance and sport will release excess energy.

Folk who are drawing in too much of this S.E. (secondary energy) will have difficulty sleeping because of it. P.E. [primary] can cause this of course also, however P.E. is always enlivening and never deleterious. In a manner of speaking you can never have enough P.E. This is not to say you should go in search of it, but just to comment that it is health-giving. Individuals who experience P.E. thoughts and connections within the world have renewed connections on all levels within them because of it.

Another way of taking the momentum out of the S.E. is to simply stop doing whatever is causing it at intervals and give it a rest. It is a simple idea of course, but one rarely thought of by the hard working individual who is motivated so desperately to keep going. A very normal love of occupation can cause this excessive interplay and truly can be relieved by an hour's distraction. Of course this has to be self motivated, because if it is not then the individual will feel frustration at being taken from their occupation, and more energy will be amassing nonetheless, having not been utilized every moment.

We can also create new persistent behaviors that are useful to us and the world, and take up the energies there. We can examine what habits we might have that are not worthy of the energy they create, and should we wish to dissolve them altogether it truly helps to envision the cord that goes from ourselves to that reservoir of S.E. being severed - not with everything, but just specifically that habit we should like to modify or desist from.

One must be careful to be specific. And of course the more intent, conscious and inspired we are to change for the better, the more primary vitality will come to us to then bring us to the key for the secondary vitality to follow.

The Wellness of Life & the Well- 5th October 2008

THE meaning of the word (in true past tense), "validate", was to make incarnate: to become substantial in the world, in relation to, in the bearing of the truth. It was not given in the context of already having been so, but in the action of the validation having made it so.

Equally, in the shifting world of ethereal visions there was never any question of actually proving something as having permanently existed or been in place. Because on the one hand, all things that are, to some degree were before; and on the other, their merit lay in the present and in the future, and substantially were given grace by them, and the past itself was but a shape-changer anyway.

This is interesting because we can examine the progression of thoughts today which stream in and around the notion of validation. Unlike the root beginnings of this concept, 'to validate' actually nowadays implies the very opposite, namely, that we seek to prove that something or some truth pre-exists our inquiry, that we might also then go on to maintain its worth. We use this concept to test the value of something, or going forth with this something, need to ascertain its worth before we commit to doing so.

However in the old-world mind this would not be possible. For an individual to come to validation it was given to be an ongoing process, one which only began with the idea and could only be made so through the effort of the incarnating, the working, and the assumption of that which we wish to validate being made so.

To add to this, there is also a modern idea that all reality is only so because we in our thinking make it so. But what this concept leaves out is the very process by which active participation, striving, drive, fervor and personal investment through effort, need be a part of the frame that this occurs. Some fancy that the Universe does indeed revolve around their meager imaginings, however the millions of varieties of plant-life alone, discounts this theory.

Wherever we are in the Cosmos, or in time within the World, there is always the distinction between that which we can immediately see around us in our existence, as it stands on that given day, and that which is beyond us in a place we are not at, just at present. And so there is the immediate realm and the faraway realm.

And this positioning can relate to:

• where we are today, and other countries,

• to the light-filled Etheric World that neighbors us here so closely,

• to our internal bodily world that carries our Spirit,

• to our thoughts here and our thoughts there,

• to the realms traveled when we sleep to our waking consciousness

• to the starry expanses beyond

• to our past memories that still shadow us and our selective recollection

• to our Imagination's travails and our own mind's sobriety

• from our desires to our reality

• from our wisdoms as distinct from our practical application.

From wherever we might stand in the Heavens, in contrast to that which is there in magnitude about us, there is the faraway realm and the immediate - that which we cannot readily see or comprehend in that moment, and that which we can.

So in the past tense comprehended, the word 'validate' meant to draw something from the faraway realms into the immediate, and thereby it would incarnate becoming now made substantial.

Were that this principle did not exist we would be fixed and given to the deathly state of inertia. This is an extremely important and fundamental principle to contemplate, in its action and what it does mean to us. Materialism brought a danger that was not hitherto known before within the spirit of Man. For with materialism came many, many concepts of isolation that divorced both the individual and their world from spiritual investment and withdrawals therefrom.

Materialism itself is not just an economic agenda whereby the amassing of physical wealth becomes the people's main goal. Materialism in the mindset of the world is like a fungus that lives on the dead thoughts which come from hairless skulls. It is the disease of atheism and the sterile concepts that follow. It is the hardened heart and the passionless mind - eventually the suicide of Mankind - a terrible condition where the human soul no longer feels the existence of the faraway realm and its breeze upon his skin, its call of possibilities and the size of his future in wait about him - but rather intends to go on as if the immediate realm is all that is and ever was. This becomes a disaster to the principle, when Man himself cordons off all lively possibilities that would otherwise be coming to him from further than where he immediately stands.

Positive thinking quite often tries to coerce the physical world rather than draw from the faraway realm the substance it lacks. Primarily this might appear to be a moot point but it is not. Positive thinking in materialism is dangerous - it is but a spiritual half-truth. Materialism itself negates any possibility of success in that its structure is closed off from the life giving, future building properties that would have and could have come to it from outside itself.

And not only is materialism confining, but the many other symptoms that fall under its influence all have the attribute of closing off from that which is not immediately there. Greed requires isolation from that which it would steal from. Wealth precludes the poor. Capitalism ignores need and compassion. The castle draws its doors but the empire soon forgets who feeds it, and is destined to die of starvation thereby.

The closer you are to the gateway where the new life is streaming from, the stronger you be in your existence in the here and now.

A man who lays his hand to the field has a far stronger connection and pathway to health than the man who eats cereal from a box. The more distanced physical life becomes from its parent reality - from the future-providing other-realms - the weaker it becomes in endurance.

Ponder this well. :)

The Double & Mr. Triple- 14th September 2008

THE model for our best selves lives beside us, nemesis to our fault filled Double; and this conscript of conscience knows only the righteous response in every distinction.

There are aspects to a man or woman that are not soft or compliable. Gentleness and understanding are not key words to our Double's double, for in absolute mirror to all wrongdoing, this character animate is fixed in response; almost, as it were, the rarefied Double of the future, contesting the one of the present in all of his mean mishap.

From time to time you will meet with sensationally judgmental people who demonstrate the jurisprudence of this ambassador for all things right. If you listen to them in their stern affirmations of goodness, you might begin to see a glimmer of the way in which our Double's double maintains and deliberates.

It has been said before that all karmic rebound a man ensues, is instigated by his own inner (and outer) workings, rather than being an external law which is impersonal to his longings. Karma is indeed kind. When individuals suffer the learnings of their self-made karma, as sad as it temporarily is, there are great virtues bestowed upon them, reparatory to their hardship.

Appearances in the very short term may alarmingly seem as perilous as a world without sun, but each man, woman and child is much stronger than we anticipate, and never truly fails to perpetually resurrect, enspirited, enlivened and stronger, along their own evolutionary pathways they travel.

And every human being (including a Master) errs throughout their lives, with judgments and actions being less than our 'better self' would have; regardless of these choices being 'doubly' bad or destructive in some way, but just by the very demerit of them not actually being good enough. And what we find is that not only does our Double's Double (who we could affectionately call now "Mr. Triple") moderate what the heart already knows between the tensions of the outer circumstance, but it also has a voice in determining that of our own karmic rebound following shortly after.

Yes, like the schoolmaster who keeps the class back because of their misdemeanors, like the avant-garde educator that dismisses the action with a fine or a penance, Mr. Triple has both the deciding and the consequence within his means.

Knowing wrong from right is actually not that difficult. Understanding wrong from right within given situations can be a little more complicated. However we all sense that we are called to be perfect at all times, whether or not we comply. And with that sense there is also the modicum of possibility, i.e. that we can in fact be perfect, that it is attainable.

Further to this we now have the distinction from Christ brought before us as well - that of love. We mention this because it is vital to understanding the differences between 'right' behavior and right itself. 

Hitherto there were many lifetimes in which an individual would be cautioned by the remonstrations of Mr. Triple and abide them wholeheartedly. As said before, there are elements especially to correct behavior, that are uncomplicated and even a comfort to uphold. We have had those lifetimes where we have all been 'model' citizens and enacted only what we should have and should do without a selfish thought to ourselves, without taking what is not ours to take, without speaking (nay demanding) out of turn, without criminal intent or cold dismissal.

These lifetimes brought to us an innate strength that now feels the weight of Mr. Triple all the more. It was not so much a compliance but an ability to navigate the errors put before us and come out clean every time. Pure hearts and minds are blessed indeed. With such a nature you can travel just about anywhere universally and become accepted. 

However, it has only been a relatively short time now whereupon the egoic development of Mankind in general, has accelerated in such a way as to endeavor to consciously learn and understand more that it has ever before. It is one thing to do right because you inherently know it is right - or at the very least not wrong - but it is another level of understanding to be able to comprehend why.

Western intelligence of course would not agree with that, for it is usually bethought that thinking always precedes knowing. But it does not - remarkably, it never has. At times it does appear so however.

There is a phenomenon whereby our clear thinking can be inhibited by our thoughts revisiting certain situations where we have done wrong. This might be a very small embarrassment, to a moral detention - it could be flashbacks suffered by a soldier or as simple as just a civil regret. Once again, we all know the experience of our recall returning over and over again to something we wish we had not done or said, and experiencing a worsening of the grief for that which we have been party to, without resolution, without cessation, without an end to wishing otherwise.

And when our wills rise up to meet with such a memory, they feel stifled, abandoned and inadequate. For something the will cannot do is act retrogressively. It is just like us trying to put fire back into the burning log with our bare hands - it hurts and it does not work.

Not one thing demoralizes a man more than this experience. To understand this of many, is to experience sympathy for such difficulties. It can render the strongest man a cripple. It can prove more power to the Devil than any other human condition. When the will is in retrograde, the individual becomes paralyzed in day to day combinings.

We say this because some folk hold onto their regrets quite consciously, whilst others impose such disappointments on others. Neither mindset nor behavior is helpful to anyone.

If we can know of our Double's existence - i.e. that it is enough to be a reminder of that which we have done that needs be corrected - whilst at the same time know of Mr. Triple, who of himself will take care of the ensuing karma and constant directioning - then it is enough to have faith that between those two the heart will judge best and not be required to constantly self reprobate or demean what is to be, simply by what was undone.

To be stalked by such thoughts of self-failure often is most apparent in the men and women who do not concede their own ill behavior to others. These ghosts of reproof are ever before their mind's eye, whilst their will continues to work backwards, realizing them to be ineffectual in the present, and equally as handicapped in the past for remaking history. They might even fantasize on differing outcomes historically - to rewrite with their imagination what their will cannot in truth create, but this just compounds the grief and accusation all the more.

We are strong enough beings to put an end to unfruitful conjecture and self-condemnation. We really can work consciously to remind ourselves when we are visited by such impulses to self deprecate, that it is merely unproductive nonsense that is confounding our wills in the present work at hand. Forgiveness is a splendid word, and it really does imply putting an end to a cycle to begin anew.

Forgive others their inadequacies, forgive yourself yours. Know that you will very possibly err in the future, and pray hard that it won't be with such error that causes inconsolable regret. Pray for those who labor with their sadnesses amassed, that they come to know the lightness of their spirit and the smiling face of God upon their being. And know also that you are forever and a day, in good and great company.

On Giving Thanks- 1st May 2008

TIME was, time before, when the term 'giving thanks' had something of a different meaning to what it has today.

In the early Christian tradition (where the phrase was entirely born from), it referred to finding something latent or left, and then exposing its goodness, going on to put it to good use or display.

Expressions of gratitude to our Father and to the Heavens and to Christ, are of course, worthy affirmations of the strengths we have and our ability to acknowledge them and give all honor and glory over to a higher source.

Gratitude is of itself, a preliminary to moving forward into further spheres or opportunities in that which we are grateful for. Heaven itself can be further enabled in respect to that which we thoughtfully engrace.

There is however, a situation for example, whereby you have found something put away, that has not been used for some while, and you see its purpose or its function or some way it can bring help or cheer to yourself or another, and you take whatever it is and then do something positive with it. This is the original meaning of that phrase - to give thanks.

Occultly speaking it is always good to use what one has or to pass it on. As milk itself may sour (in a very short period really), the early Christian Fathers acknowledged that the whole philosophy of earthly abundance became a discredit to God and to self. 

Religion set about to invest in a higher providence of course, and cynical minds have attributed this to being a mere placebo for the poor - for those who had no choice but to live day to day on the very meager portionings they would have.

But more than this underlay a deep and treasured philosophy. Born of the prayer for daily bread, the concept was that it is good to look about ourselves and rediscover that which we can make eminently useful. And this can apply to material items, or to self. Much like the Phoenix having risen, much like the whole of the resurrection principle, redeeming of itself has a magical quality that revalues and transforms, that which is given thanks for.

Sometimes (particularly in times of hardship), resourcefulness must seek out that which is already there within our reach, not that which we would fancifully hearken for.

Too often folk are dissuaded from finding the treasures that they do have by believing that they are deplete - and not remembering to give thanks for what they do have (i.e. finding it and putting it to use).

It is understandable in material conditions, which are never ever perfect or comfortable, or safe for that matter, that we should all wish for a more solid ground to stand upon. And this World is being fabricated now, in all of the strivings from each man and child - it is truly being forged for the future.

 Yet as Saint Francis went and collected the single bricks, one here and one there, to build his most magnificent of monasteries, in this way, the only way available, can we also fossick and forage our way to our own temples of design and good purpose.

"It is good to give thanks" reminds us to be active as well as inwardly grateful. To look fervently for those virtues ourselves and others have to offer, or find that which has been commissioned to uselessness and redeem its purpose, and by this action feel the acceleration within this activity of the momentic force that does build Humanity's future.