the white parasol

Dear Son, Love Dad (© 2007 Trevor Dobson))

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:21:00 +0000

A vision for David (his son on heroin, at present in rehab).

"Dear David,

Within God, the cord becomes stronger and whiter, for all to see that it shall not be broken until the time of God’s own choosing, then with a gentle sleep you pass from mortality to immortality. Until that day, let no unclean thing or addiction break the cord. Be assured in strength.”

“I hope this - what I have written down - will be an inspiration to whoever has an ear to Listen.” Trevor Dobson.

“The spirit will quicken your imagination and create a concern in your heart from which you cannot escape. When this happens it is almost certain that you are being guided. No matter how dark the situation and no matter how gloomy the outlook, it is always right to see God.

The Christian (spiritual) life is not a fight ending in eternal rest. The ‘Rest’ begins now. When you become a Christian you enter the same kind of rest that God is enjoying. He sees the beginning and the end and is disturbed by nothing in-between. He knows that all will end in victory.

Drop your anchor into the depths of his be-assuring revelation, and rest in His rest.

Be sure he knows everything we feel, because Christ has worn our flesh.

As Christ’s life and love flow like a stream through us to others we experience more of his abundant life for ourselves.

Prayer . . . . makes us spiritually fit. . . .

The Holy Spirit is ours to keep. Power is available to you at every second and every minute of every day.

When trouble comes, a redeeming process begins in the heart, and in the mind, a process which is designed to instil God’s peace into every part of our being.

It will leave us with a deposit of moral and spiritual inoculation against everything that happens in the future, so we should welcome our hurts. They may hurt deeply at the time, but they save us from greater hurts in the future.

There are two ways of speaking the truth; you can simply speak the bare, harsh truth, or speak the truth in Christ which is much motivated by love, that honours Christ’s character and name.

The problems we face can be tools in His hands to polish and refine, so ourselves will shine in the likeness of His Son.

Another way to become more like Him, is to soak our minds in the world of God (saturation and concentration).

Worry and fear has a way of drawing trouble towards it, just like iron is drawn towards a magnet.

God’s grace can forgive, cleanse and renew the worst of sinners and make them fit for the service of God…(empowerment).

All God requires is your consent and co-operation.

Revival begins in the most unlikely places. He comes to a certain place or person not because they are holy, but to make them holy.

God will always equip us, who regard the beast as an evil influence and fail to see him as an evil intelligence. The Bible shows him as one who opposes, deceives, persecutes, blasphemes and tempts. . . of a destructive and aggressive personality.

God seldom uses anyone as a warrior until he puts that person through the test of suffering and adversity. Jesus began his ministry in the wilderness of temptation.

When we get hurt, our natural and sinful reaction is to hurt the person who hurts us. Christ’s attitude, however, is to transfer the whole matter into God’s hands. This was how Jesus was able to allow himself to feel hurt, without allowing the hurt to develop into a root of bitterness. In facing criticism, we must remember that some criticism is just and necessary, if so, we must listen and profit from it.

Our critics may be the very hammers of God moulding us into shape.

Joy is a mark of spiritual maturity and comes about in proportion to how deeply we relate to God and Christ.

When we get rid of inner conflicts and wrong attitudes to life, we will almost automatically burst into joy. Joy comes in, only to flow out, and in the flowing it is increased.

The mystery of love would never have been understood, had not Jesus come to show it to us.

May we learn to love and accept people who need Jesus and to know that Jesus loves them.

Cultivate an eye that finds God in ordinary things.

Do not focus so much on what may lie ahead that you miss what God is doing in your ordinary moments.

Realise that you are awakening, and ask God to help you adjust to this.

Remember, you are not just a body, but body, mind and spirit and if you are to develop as a “whole” being – all these three need to awaken together.

For God dwells alone with each one of us, no longer doubt that He is near, and does speak to us in the silence of our hearts.

Remember God wants us back even more than we could possibly want to be back. In truth God can scarcely bear to be without us.

No, it is not yours to open buds in blossom. Try shaking it, strike it, it is beyond your power to make it blossom; your touch spoils it. You tear its petals to pieces but no colours appear and no perfume comes out. It is not for you to open the bud into blossom. He who can open the bud does it simply. At God’s breath the flower spreads its wings and flutters in the wind; colours flash out like diamonds. The perfume betrays a sweet secret. He who can open the bud does it so simply, when the time is right.

When Jesus asked Peter “do you love me?” He added nothing else. What He said was enough. Do you love me? Can you allow my love to touch you in your weakness, set you free and empower you there?

Thereafter the only power Peter had was Jesus’s love for him. He told and retold the story of his own unfaithfulness and how Jesus had touched him. When he proclaimed the Gospel of grace, he preached from his weakness, the power of God. This is what will convert us, and the people around us. If they see the love of Christ has touched us.

The first step toward a new beginning begins with accepting where you are and exposing your poverty and emptiness to the love that is everything. Don’t try to feel anything, think anything or do anything. With all the good will in the world you cannot make anything happen. Don’t force prayer. Simply relax in the presence of God you half believe in and ask Him for His touch.

No one can function long in a helping profession without feeling its impact.

Home is that sacred space, external or internal where we don’t have to be afraid, where we have hospitality and love.

To those of us that are in flight, who are afraid to turn around lest we run into ourselves, Jesus says “You have a home – I am your home – claim me as your home, you will find it to be the intimate place where I have found my home. It is right where you are, in your innermost being. In your heart.”

We get so into ourselves, the words we speak, the plans and projects we conceive, that we become immune to the glory of creation. We barely notice the cloud passing over the moon, or the dewdrops clinging to the rose-leaf, the ice on the pond comes and goes, we take up every leaf as fast as it falls, we miss the experience of awe, reverence and wonder around us. Our world is full of God’s grace and is revealed in spirit.

To be alive is to be broken. And to be broken is to stand in need of grace. Honesty keeps us in touch with our neediness and the truth that we are saved sinners.

There is a beautiful honesty to those who don’t have to wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are. When a person is truly honest, it is impossible to insult them. Personally, there’s nothing to insult, their inner honesty has set them free. You must be convinced of this, trust it, nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.

When we accept ourselves for what we are, we stop our hunger for power and the acceptance of others. We are no longer pre-occupied with being powerful or popular. We no longer fear criticism because we accept the reality of our human limitations. Simply be being true to ourselves (in Christ) brings lasting peace. We become grateful for the gift of live and we learn to love and respect ourselves. To know that God accepts me as I am is a tremendous help in becoming a better, more enlightened person.

As we glance up in our hour of need, don’t be astonished to see the eyes of Christ open with wonder, deep with understanding, gentle with compassion, full of amazing grace, instead of universal disgrace.

We believe in God’s grace in theory, but somehow we cannot apply it to our everyday lives. The truth is that we do not/ cannot earn God’s acceptance. Yet he gives it to us willingly, freely, no matter what we have done.

My deepest awareness of myself is that I am loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.

Paul writes in Ephesians: “It is by Grace that you have been saved by faith. Not by anything on your own, but by a gift from God. Not by anything you have done so that nobody can take the credit. Remember you are accepted by that which is greater than you. Do not intend anything. Just accept that you are accepted.”

The gospel was written for the bedraggled, beat-up and burnt-out. It is for the burdened, the poor, the weak, the sinful with faults and limitations, the bent and bruised who feel their lives are a disappointment to God. It is for anyone who has grown weary and discouraged on the way.

What a transformation we encounter when we focus on god. Time spent with God always produces results. Remember God is a God of beauty as well as a God of pure power.

Youth is not a period of time. It is a state of mind, a result of will, a quality of the imagination, a victory of courage over timidity, a taste for adventure over the love of comfort. A man doesn’t grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideals. Years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideals wrinkles his soul. You will remain young as long as you are open to what is beautiful, good and great, receptive to nature and God. If one day you become bitter, gnawed out by despair, then may God have mercy on your old man’s soul.

Although spiritual progress comes from God, we are the ones who carry it out. He supplies the power, but we supply the willingness. God gives grace to the humble. God guides everyone who wants to be guided.

As we allow our roots to go down deep into Christ (or me, the Earth), we begin to flower into the beautiful kind of person God intended us to be. Conscience is the capacity within us to decide what is right and what is wrong, but what it decides is largely determined by the training it has received (re the nurturing of the spirit). Some people have little or no conscience, because their parents too no trouble to train them, but others have an over-sensitive one because their parents made excessive demands. When God designed us in the beginning he made us with the awful power of choice, with the possibility that we might go astray and break our own hearts as well as His. Yet parents take the same risk when they bring a child into this world. The child may go astray and crush their lives as well as their own. But parents assume that awful risk. Why? Because they determine that they will do their best for their child and make the child’s problems their own. Before God made us, He was determined to do his best for us and to make our problems His very own (Joshua 24-15).

It is not easy or enough to point out other people’s sins to them; they must be led to point them out for themselves, then and only then are they on the road to getting rid of them. As we live our lives on the level of faith, we have all the fullness of God to draw upon. That fullness is reviving and regenerates us, work and witness spring from infinite resources from within us. The more we give, the more we have to give. Note, not “have to” as in “must” but “have to” as in “are able to give”.

When God designed you he made you – allowed you – to have an awful power of choice. In heroin you made a wrong choice. This vision came to me as a message to you directly; more than this - there is nothing more I can say on this situation. Love Dad.”

Visualization for the Self (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:24:00 +0000

Imagine a pearl, deep inside you, of pure, white light, smooth and shining, brilliant and clear, a thing of beauty – it is your beauty within, it is you, your true self.

Focus on it, absorb it, visualize its shape, colour, size, brightness, imagine it as big or small as you wish. Talk to it, sing to it, speak to it in any way you feel you want to, express any emotions you want to, acknowledge your love and appreciation of it.

Know/realize it is always safe, in its own space, deeply within. Give it colour, space,shape, form, sound.

Come back when you feel ready, leaving the pearl in its safe, secret, sacred place. Clothe it with bones, blood vessels, muscles, organs etc., finally package it in its final “envelope” – your skin. Know everything is in place around the inner you; the you is intact, protected, safe, out of harm. . . .and always shining.

The Fig Leaf (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:55:00 +0000

I was having a chat with someone the other night on gmail pop-up and she mentioned something being about a figment of our imagination. As in, do we exist at all or are we just a figment of our own imaginations?

Then I wrote that perhaps that what the fig-leaf means in the Garden of Eden in Genesis: perhaps the fig leaf represents the figment or the self-delusion of who we think that we are. If that is the nature of the 'beast' perhaps then the 'beast' is represented in the snake. That, in nature, we are a delusion of self. We do not know who we are.

The apple of knowledge gave us seemingly the delusion of thinking that we 'know' everything. And yet we don't and still think that we do.

That might explain it anyway!

Knowledge is...(© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:39:00 +0000

Knowledge has to be within as well as without.
You could learn, for example, all about astronomy, assimilating the information like a parrot, to repeat from memory, but you may not necessarily understand it.

True knowledge is an understanding of your knowledge, a deep inner knowing that is brought out with learning experiences and teachings.

True knowledge never ends. It is infinite, unending, eternal and opens us up to the wonder of knowledge. Each day brings us knowledge – new understandings, new awakenings, new awarenesses.

Be aware and awake to knowledge.

What Prayer Is (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:35:00 +0000

Prayer is the language of the Universe, the language of the cosmos. It is the simplest, yet the most profound language that there is. Prayer unites us to Heaven and Earth. The Divine spark within us enables us to pray – otherwise prayer would be impossible. Were it not for our God-connection within, we would be mute and dumb. We would have no means of connecting to the Source of the Universe.

Language enables us to communicate with one another in our ‘mother-tonge’ and in languages that we may learn, but prayer is set aside from this concept; it is not restricted by the languages of our many differing multi-cultures. Prayer is an ‘omni-language’ – we can pray in English, French, Russian and in any language. Prayer is totally and absolutely Universal and uniting.

Prayer is the instructive and intuitive language that we are born with, and it is always ‘for the use of’, whether we use it daily or rarely, or never! It has no grammar, no format, can be utilised in all situations, can be silent or spoken, short or lengthy, one word or many. It can be used at any time, in any place; it can be forgotten or remembered, it can be poetry or prose, have the ‘shush’ factor or the ‘shout’ factor; it can be single or collective, personal or public.

Prayer is so many things. It is all things and everything and our lives are the richer for it. Prayer is a miracle language, freely given to each and every sould, it is our God contact, our Divine out-reach, it is our sacred ‘life-line’.

Prayer is Power, Peace and Positive. ‘Pray without ceasing, pray’.

A Beautiful Prayer (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:31:00 +0000

I asked God to take away my habit.
God said “No”. “It is not for me to take it away, but for you to give it up”.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.
God said “No”. “His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary”.

I asked God to grant me patience.
God said “No”. “Patience is a by product of tribulations, it isn’t granted, it is learned”.

I asked God to give me happiness.
God said “No”. “I give you blessings; happiness is up to you”.

I asked God to spare me pain.
God said “No”. “Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me”.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.
God said “No”. “You must grow on your own! But I will prune you to make you fruitful”.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.
God said “No”. “I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things”.

I asked God to help me love others as much as He loves me.
God said “Aaah, finally you have the idea”.

(From Lyn, Ann’s American friend)

Sacred Tools(© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:28:00 +0000

Sacred tools are important, wonderful, helpful helpers and assistants but tools are simply that.

Tools for the use of.

For the highest good of.

They should never become of such a strong focus that the original intent/focus is diminished. It is possible for us to sometimes be unaware that our focus on the tool is so intense, that this ‘over-focus’ in itself diminishes the higher focus of intent.

Like ritual, tools are a great help, but we must guard against ‘getting lost’ in tools or rituals; tools should never take ‘centre-stage’.

Perhaps the most sacred of tools are the ones that are inherent within us; the heart and the mind. When heart and mind work synergistically and sincerely, harmoniously and holistically, with wholeness and holiness, our system becomes aware of its connection to the ‘entire environment’ – the universe.

It is a profound – the most profound – connection, superceding and surpassing all other connections. This recognition of the high vibrational energy of pure love, also gives rise to the knowledge that each one of us is love in every situation.

Love is the purest, deepest, kindest supreme emotion. This Divine Love, Love Unconditional never judges us, just enfolds us, ‘holds us’ for eternity.

The joy of this realisation, the awareness of this concept is the highest blessing we can receive.

The Ultimate Blessing, the blessing of blessings, the Blessing of the Divine.

All sacred tools need to be respected and used with this heart/mind loving connection; to enable us to use our sacred tools to the best of their potential power.

Intent with love is paramount!

Love (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Love is living, giving, radiating,
it is transformational and "sense-ational”;
it is powerful and potent, but pure and gentle;
it is universal and eternal;
it is complete, has no beginning, no ending;
it simply “is”.
Unconditional love surpasses all other vibrations.
It is the Love of the Divine.
Love is the most blessed, most sacred of gifts. . . a gift for you, for me, for all.
Love, love, love, love is all you need.

Channelling Thoughts of Ann (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:15:00 +0000

These are some of the channelled thoughts that have occurred most prolifically during the past ten years or so:

Ann, I give you poise. Live a life of poise.
Ann, strive for poise, live in poise and balance.
It is as gentle as Reiki, gentle, but potently powerful.
Live in poise and balance, I place it upon you.
Amen.

(Dictionary definition of “poise” is to carry, support in equilibrium, to be balanced. To have equilibrium, dignity and assurance of manner.)

An emotion, feeling, truth that I feel deep within. The blessing of blessings is to be exalted and humbled. Exaltation and humility work hand in hand, side by side (and are also so fundamental to the essence of Reiki, the core of Reiki teaching).

No one is “better than” anyone else. As soon as you are “better than” another the ego is in control, and not the higher self, which is the highest part of ourself, the highest part of our being, the highest part and yet the humblest. Yes, the humblest, because it has nothing but love in it.

The higher self of humility

The self most high

The self most exalted

The higher self of nothing but love

Exalted and Humbled, with love, love most high.

“Humblest” = “Hum-blessed”.

As soon as we class ourselves “better than”. . . . we are denying our Divine Essence.

I thank You for this feeling you place within me,
this profound emotion that You honour me with,
You honour me with the Blessing to share and give out to others.
Amen.

Womb-Man (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:51:00 +0000

There is but a "b" which links Woman into Man and then disappears.
Nice to consider this "B" though.
It is like She. "She" contains both "he" and "she".
Mother and Father both contain "her" and "he".
"Mot" means "word" and "Fat" means "corpulent" or "big" or "yield" (as in the fat of the land) so we could have a new definition: "Wordfat".

In a series of articles that I am going to publish under the "Womb-Man" lable, I would like to investigate those apparent differences and drives which often fuel feminism or at least drive a wedge between the sexes. Sometimes in fun, other times in more serious contexts.

The topics will all be entitled with "B" as in "Boobs et al" (about plastic surgery), "Belligerance"(as in wars and who makes them), "Bastard" (how can anyone be that anyway?), "Babies" (the ultimate sex driver) and so on. I shall see how it goes. . .

The Power of Not Quite There Yet (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Eckhart Tolle’s book on “The Power of Now” is very good and very powerful. But it is very hard to grasp some things and even with a genuine aspiration to do so, we still fall on our feet of clay. Well, I do. Sometimes I can have really spiritual moments, even days and grasp the ungraspable but to be such a guru or approaching that level as a norm is quite beyond me.

Happily, I really do not think that it is necessary to feel inadequate or incapable when life’s material presence intervenes and drags us back down again; when we feel like we have totally missed the point so we might as well give up.

There are many saints who have grappled with the struggle between what I want and what God wants or what we think God wants. Those normal, everyday feelings when we feel anger, bitterness, jealousy, desire, selfishness (and witness these things from others and actually enjoy them) and plain can’t be bothered will keep intervening because it is normal and human. Our addictions to whatever substances, our cravings for certain circumstances for a bit of a jolly, a bit of respite are part of who we are. Whether ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in whoever’s perspective they are part of who we are. And most saints were not aware that they were saints, remember; this title was given many years after their death, after deep consideration of their lives by other people, many years beyond their life.

I really do find the company of people with acknowledged and embraced shortcomings and vices far more comfortable and even elevating than the company of people who seem to have no vices at all. The reason for this is that they are more likely to accept you as you are, with your vice or shortcoming. To be with someone who seems to have conquered all desire, all attachments to this world whilst you struggle on can be daunting. I am not saying it can’t be elevating and create aspirations but after a good read through a chapter of The Power of Now, I would still like to pour out some wine and have a cigarette to reflect on it. Well, I haven’t got very far with letting go then have I?

Probably not.

But I do believe that a very practical way of moving forward at all, is to live from where we are right now. We cannot possibly start from anywhere else can we? As the Irish man said to you when you asked the way from here to there: “well, if you want to go there, I wouldn’t start from here!”. But where else can we start from? Indeed, do we want to go anywhere at all?

Realisation over the years of times of grace, enlightenment, some visions, signs, dreams, ponderings and changing perspectives within the context of the very hard reality of every day life and how I fall short most times, including creating very difficult circumstances within that context, actually helps me just try to be content with who I am right now, in the present reality including what I think it is, which might, indeed, be wrong. But it is all I have. And I shall start from here even if I get stuck.

Like any multi-faceted stone, a diamond, some facets are highly polished and some are very rough and dull but they each make up the whole. We are like a diamond; there is a desire to live through the highly polished facets and appear to be all that way. But outsiders will see those other facets too, even if we refuse to and that is arrogance. I know all about arrogance, selfishness, cowardice, haughtiness, lack of compassion as I have them all in huge measure. That’s a lot to come to terms with but maybe whilst I am doing that, I will leave other people’s shortcomings alone. Perhaps by trying to address the huge plank in my own eye, I shall not endeavour to take out the splinter in someone else’s. And a diamond is for ever, remember.

It’s a start anyway. The power of being not quite there is quite substantial, in itself.

What is politics about? (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:26:00 +0000

Politics is about anything other than the truth.

It can't ever be about the truth because where ever you have two people you have the beginning of the deceit; where you have three, you have the beginning of siding with the one most able to press your own buttons. The truth gets lost in the interests of self-interest.

If there is a politician who is capable of standing up impartially for the truth, then their party will get rid of them as they are of no use to party-interests and narrow national interests.

So those who are left are the ones who will act in self-interest, party-interest and national interest, in that order.

There are always people looking for a podium upon which to place their particular inadequacy or "chip on their shoulder", so that they can 'become' "something important". Clubs with members and political parties are good places to do this as you can practise on all kinds of people, press buttons, get alliances, build walls (not bridges) and generally give yourself a reason to live. Which means that they are sad people; politicians who get 'somewhere' in national politics are the cream of the notoriously inadequate with good suits on and vulgar salaries.

Don't be deceived by their education, intelligence or presentational skills.

A fool is a fool. An educated fool is still a fool. (I think it was Oscar Wilde that said this).

Channellings (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmitt)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:47:00 +0000

These writings are “channellings” – mind thoughts that come into the conscious mind with a profound resonance, yet they have a subconscious origin; they ultimately find expression via the written or verbal word.

They are an expression of Universal Knowledge and intelligence, vibrations given from the universe, and are a culmination of many words and phrases that at some point have made an impact on my own mind processes.

I share them with an open mind and heart and pass them on, so that in the reading of these passages of prose, others may find stimulation, support, comfort, encouragement. They are shared with the wish that your own awarenesses may be enhanced, awarenesses that are endemic within everyone’s inner core; they simply, patiently await that time of awakening. Perhaps these few words may be in some way that special catalyst.

The writings are mainly my own channellings, but also include “thought-full” words of other writers, ancient and modern. Together they make a “pot-pourri” of messages from the Universe, to enhace the awarenesses of each one of us, and help us to find our Truth. When we find our Truth, we have within us that Peace which “passeth all understanding”.

Many insights and channellings occur when the system is in trauma, even severe trauma. This is when the higher energies (e.g. Angel energies) bring gifts from the Universe to resurrect us, support us, confort us and re-align us on our spiritual path. Traumas are invaluable teachings, bringing profound lessons for our spirit. These circumstances and situations can help to raise our own vibrational level, bringing us the concept of “light at the end of the tunnel” and leaving with us (if we allow our awarenesses to expand) new facets of perception, new insights, new understandings and our vibrational frequencies become raised and uplifted.

It is then that we are able to recognise new truths about ourselves and our Universe, we begin to recognise the Divine within us, within each and every one of us, and we discover who we really are.

Traumas overwhelm us or eventually uplift us, it is always our choice, our free will is never compromised by the Universal energies. They simply, gently, powerfully, encourage, help and guide us to experience the joy of our own self-discovery.

Violence be-Gooded (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:36:00 +0000

Sounds a bit odd for a bit of spiritual development doesn’t it?

Violence as a word means: "physical force used to inflict injury or damage," from Anglo-Fr. and O.Fr. violence, from L. violentia "vehemence, impetuosity," from violentus "vehement, forcible," probably related to violare. Weakened sense of "improper treatment" is attested from 1596. (© 2001 Douglas Harper, www.etymonline.com.)

What about a violin? It is interesting to find that there is a relationship between the term 'violin' and the Roman Goddess of Exaltation or Victory. Does this mean that there is a link between violin and violence? It is equally amazing to discover that there is an etymological relationship between the stringed instruments and the device used to torture slaves. If exaltation or victory can be good in a peaceful sense, could the world ‘violence’ also have a positive outcome? Could it be a good violence or a bad violence depending on our actions? What about the violence in a storm? Is that good or bad or is it just a result, an effect of underlying causes? After a storm, all is calm and clean and, sometimes, after an outburst of personal anger there is calm because we have let go of the irritant. Why do we relate anger and violence so closely?

Our anger is directed internally and not always at our family and friends in an overt way. In a covert way, however, it might take hold and take charge. Do we lash out at others in a physical way because of the internal festering of anger?I

If we have to be constantly ‘nice’ to our family and friends we have to hide who we really are because who we really are, might have a great deal of anger and hurt so we masquerade our nice side to our nearest and dearest, mostly.

We are never allowed to bring the issues which anger us out into the open with our family and friends unless seeking approval for the same ‘views’ because this is not a ‘nice’ thing to do.

With our family and friends we have been conditioned to be ‘nice’ so, as we equate anger and violence with being ‘not nice’ we can be suppressed.

Our best friends and family can often (unwittingly) keep us in our untruthful state for all of our lives. Why? Because it suits us and them. If we do not have to face ourselves then we will not have to unearth our anger, and then work it out. Equally, therefore everyone is in on the collusion to remain hidden. But we act in ignorance.

We tend to choose ‘friends’ and ‘colleagues’ based on the lies holding our families together; our families continue the ongoing lie through conditioning from birth; we are given the ground rules and we are programmed.

There is enough guilt laid upon any one to stop any ‘untoward’ actions and overt violence within our social groups. To consolidate us, we might also choose our friends who will equally help us continue to live the lie. Why should we choose people as our friends who make us feel uncomfortable about ourselves?

Festering anger which will get worse with guilt about the underlying real way we feel about our family and ourselves, will come out in other ways. Ultimately, these ‘other ways’ will find us our enemies.

Why should this be? Our enemies will give us a reason and a rationale for being violent towards them in a justifiable way. They allow us to be violent (negatively). So we can vent our anger. (Vent is associated with ‘wind’ and wind is usually part of a storm, moving things on, changing the scene.)

Our enemies could be our best friends in disguise, because they have the power to bring out of us what and who we really are. Their views are probably accurate about us, because they have a better perspective of who we are and what we give out.

We are not concerned about hiding anything from them that might be construed as ‘not nice’ to our family and friends.

In fact, we can often get our family and friends to join us in this placing of the anger externally, because then they can vent their true feelings too.

So we direct all of our anger externally and create a ‘violent’ result. These violent emotions are directed elsewhere. Internally, in the known groups, we can agree to remain covert and we can pretend that everything is all right.

Yet could violence brought out in the healing atmosphere of love give a beautiful effect? In that the violence played out could become positive, not negative as in physical fighting and armed warfare. So ‘violence’, like ‘effect’, could be positive or negative. Is ‘violence’ the ‘cadence of ourselves? ( Cadence (music), a particular series of intervals or chords that ends a phrase, section, or piece of music. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence). Our vibrations at every level of our being will be making music.

How could it become positive? We would have to face our emotions and ourselves. We would have to let these powerful emotions overwhelm us, flow over us and be set free. Like a beautiful raging storm, these powerful emotions will wreak havoc but be set free on their way.

Love is not blind, it is clear sighted. We are blind in our conditioning, we cannot see clearly at all and we are too frightened to start clearing out the rubble because of what we might have to face inside ourselves.

Perhaps we can look at violence as a tool to explain to us what is going on: that this is the music we are creating from our selves, then it would be plausible to learn of the relationship between a beautiful musical instrument, associated with the most sublime music on earth, and ‘violence’, associated with war and hurt.

If we are violins, our strings are being plucked by ourselves, family, friends, enemies and others. The music we create comes from these plucking fingers. Perhaps the cadence of our world today, is through us all being the instruments, (our strings being plucked by each other) and therein lies our delivered violence.

Violence, I believe, is just the vibrations that we produce from and to each other; our cadences or our vibrations are the resulting violence which spreads throughout the earth. Violence, therefore could be wholly harmonious and beautiful. Violence is merely our music.

What is the music that we are making on this good earth? What is our score? Note that the association between ‘score’ and settling differences in a ‘violent’ way is known; as is the association between a musical manuscript and ‘score’.

There are so many parallels that I cannot ignore. So I ponder on.

Prejudice (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:41:00 +0000

Let not prejudice blind us to truth and universal law.
Might we come back and be that which we have hated?
So let it all go.

Give it up.

Bid it farewell and give it to the light of Christ; it shall be taken away from you.

Then it is finished and we have only love.

Power of the Not Quite There Yet? (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:02:00 +0000

Can we ever really understand The Lord's Prayer? The truth is that we do not know what truth is so how can we know what foregiveness is? The Way forward is what then?

Perhaps the Power of the Not Quite There Yet (towards Eckhart Toll's "The Power of Now" that is).

Sometimes we feel and know that we are behaving in a way that is not true. Then we feel guilty so perhaps our conscience is telling us this and that is at least a power in itself. Not perfect and not in "the now", but a start maybe.

We cannot seem to overcome our behavioural ‘norms’ because it is too embarrassing to do something completely spontaneous, without prejudice and yet with a feeling of knowing it is the right thing. That is why we feel guilty.

Throughout a lifetime of going and being part of ‘our’ groups we become institutionalised or programmed and why not? It helps. It helps us to ‘function’ but it doesn’t help us to grow.

What if someone comes over to us (a stranger) and offers a welcome, or wants a welcome? That is nice. What if they are someone not like us, what if they are different to our ‘norms’ and they are the type of person to whom we feel a dislike, a prejudice? Do we discreetly snub or just ignore them? Or what if a stranger is not acknowledged and we feel that they are not our type of person so we won’t bother. Well, they are not like me, so it’s ok. But there is the guilt.

Over the years this gets compounded and, despite our inner knowing of disharmony – for no other reason than being confirmed in our behaviour and adhering to our ‘norms’ – we carry on. But there is the inner guilt.

Thinking of what people might think of us is the key dark hole. We stay there because at least we are accepted in this with others who think the same. Thinking and thoughts can control us and they do.

We will often not do something overtly different to our set of norms because we are too frightened to leave them aside. It is frightening to be exposed. To be left without our protection.

So thoughts rule us. The personal thoughts of what 'our' people are thinking about us can govern us and keep us within the boundaries.

These boundaries are our prejudices. We might argue that they are not ‘prejudices’ that they are ways of living and functioning and getting us through life and along our way.

But our true nature is nothing to do with our race, our nationality, our family, our friends, our politics with a small and a capital ‘p’ and our thoughts are from our ego and they are dangerous. That is why we carry guilt. Because we know our true nature deep down. It might be so deep that we do not recognise it for what it is so we just feel uncomfortable and carry on.

What is our true nature then?

Our true nature is to be free of all boundaries and restrictions and prejudices. This is the essence of life.

I cannot make this mean anything of sense without declaring a fundamental understanding of what life is – at least in as far as I can make sense of it, not in the comprehensive sense of knowing the whole universe and the ultimate meaning of life. But in order for me to make sense of what it is exactly that Christ was teaching and what other religions and/or spiritual directions tell us, I realise that we are one being, but that we must reincarnate on this earth and live out different lives, like an actor on a stage. And if life is but a stage (as Shakespeare famously said) then we can also say that a stage is life. In this way we take with us our prejudices and play out our lives but with the underlying divine direction to learn to rid ourselves of these, to let go. But our conscious mind or our ego doesn’t know that. It is a bit like being thrown a huge puzzle to put together but with lots of pieces missing. Or like the Irish joke that goes like this: When I asked the Irish man how to get from here to there, the Irish man replied that, if I wanted to go there, I had better not start from here then!

The thing is that we have to start from here. We have nowhere else to start from. But that joke is not as silly as it seems as it holds a deep truth.

Often, I have pondered the words of The Lord’s Prayer. Actually, it is a lifetime’s work to understand it. It is related to why we are here (again). It is not a set of words put together for ‘worship’, it is a key set of words put together for enabling us to grow and to understand why we are here; it is about asking for help in our current predicament – our life – whilst we are travelling this incarnation; this is the journey. I am not speaking about ‘the meaning of life’; I haven’t got a clue and I haven’t got much of a clue about ‘the meaning of this life or my life but as the universe is a huge place and there are billions of unexplained things going on and I have got just my one person, I reckon that if I start with ‘what is the meaning of my life?’ then, huge as it is, it is not as huge as trying to figure out the unfigurable. And perhaps it is as good a start as any.

Our Father, Who art in Heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name,

Thy Kingdom Come,

Thy Will be done on earth,

As it is in heaven.

God is in heaven, so we can reach him only by praying or meditating (they can be the same thing), by looking into ourselves and by contacting him for help from our deepest being, our soul. We can speak to him from our soul, not from our ego. This is because our soul has no barrier to him. Our ego does. Our ego uses logic and barriers whilst our soul uses knowing and love (that is why we feel guilty when we act from our ego and our soul is made unhappy).

We direct him to send his kingdom. We do not ask him to. We tell him to.

We direct him that we want his Will to be done on the earth, just like it is in heaven. Which implies that at the moment his Will is not being done here in its entirety, unlike in heaven where it is being done.

Give us this day our daily bread.

We direct him to give us what we need to progress through this life, day by day. Which implies that we need to be aware of the present, of the now, to understand the lesson or the food for thought as well as having the material food we need.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

This is one of the most puzzling lines of the prayer. If you read it in the way that you ask for forgiveness, just like you (obviously) forgive those who ‘trespass’ against you, you can almost believe that you just about forgive anyone, anything and therefore you will be sure to be forgiven. But I do not think that it means this.

If you read it in the way that we are asking God to forgive us in exactly the same way that we forgive others, we might realise that this ‘forgiveness’ is a bit baffling. We rarely forgive, that is why. Which means that if we rarely forgive then we ask God rarely to forgive us. That is what we are asking. But why would we ask that? Why wouldn’t we ask to be forgiven anyway, even though we might not forgive?

True forgiveness is to live your life in such a way that absolutely no grudge, prejudice or injustice affects the way that you feel at your deepest level and in the way that you behave towards people. That you feel constantly at one with everything around you – not because everything is good, but because everything is not good.

So how on earth do we get out of this one?

Chronologically speaking, there is no true differentiation between all of the great religions of the world. Buddhism was around long before Christ came to earth. What Buddhism teaches is to find awareness and that re-incarnations allow us to go through all of the lessons that we need in order to achieve this. When Christ came there was no contradiction, just a move forward because he actually provided a way out of continuous re-incarnations to achieve the ultimate. His sacrifice on earth was to take upon himself all of those guilts that we feel and enact out of human nature; living in Sin is living without God, that is all. His way was to give us heaven sent Grace to enable us to find our way forward beyond the constant karma and re-incarnation as Buddhism teaches by giving us a direct and unconditional foregiveness from God.

In a Buddhist depiction there is an analogy about receiving something (a package) from someone else that we do not want; perhaps it is hate or jealousy or anger. Buddhism teaches us to send this package back to its sender with love, so that we do not carry this and so that the sender will work out those issues his or her self. In Christ’s New way the story changes somewhat: Christ teaches us to take the package upon ourselves and then let it go upwards to the Divine, to God. In this way, both parties are relieved of the burden and both experience foregiveness as the sin is taken away. This does not contradict Buddhism, it merely takes us all on to a different way forward with the Christ himself intervening on our behalfs. He is giving us a way out and a way forward.

And lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from Evil.

Still pondering these! Well, I am only human you see.

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:49:00 +0000

During the years of walking a rocky path during my son’s illness I began to notice magpies. Actually it goes back to just before then; two turtle doves used to live in a tree in our house’s garden and they would come back every year. One year, the year before we left that house, they went away and magpies came instead, but I didn’t especially notice them then, just wondered why the turtle doves had gone away and magpies had replaced them.

Often, I would notice just one on its own, in a field, by a roadside, flying into or out of a tree – according to where I happened to glance.

So I would think, oh there we are then, more sorrow.

Please let me have two magpies Lord, I would think.

But often, it would be one.

That is to say I would look up, or around or over there and I would see one magpie.

When I was in St. James’ Hospital looking after my son, his window overlooked a building with a nice clock tower façade near the St. James’ Church on the grounds.

Often, I would see one magpie standing on that tower and I would think to myself: oh sorrow, I know this.

I would think of the Mary Statue in the small church of Notre Dame in Mechelen, Belgium which displays St. Mary in such great sorrow. In her heart are seven, full sized swords; it is such a powerful image that I have never forgotten it and have it with me always. It depicts the greatest sorrow and suffering of earth life and the betrayal of her and her son. Sorrow, such great sorrow.
So I recognised this sorrow and sought solace with Mary.

Then one day, I went to Mass in the St. James’ Church – as I did when possible. The sermon was about Sorrow. Joy comes out of Sorrow. It was from St. John’s gospel "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." (John 16.20). The priest, Kelvin, pointed out that we actually have no idea what ‘joy’ means; that joy is a level of being and of feeling that is beyond earthly perceived happiness. Joy is reached only through suffering and sorrow and it is a profound feeling far beyond this worldly perception of ‘joy’.

It was speaking to me of course. I went back to the hospital room and sat down in my usual chair by the window. I looked up at the clock tower and I saw two magpies.

Earth logic would call that ‘co-incidence’ but spiritual logic tells me that the co incidents of many years of pondering, wondering and searching were answered to me that very day.

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:51:00 +0000

What is the truth about truth?

We spend so much time deluding ourselves and others that it is no wonder that we haven’t a clue what ‘truth’ is.

We have our own truths. We have our family sanctioned ‘truths’, our social ’truths’, our group ‘truths’. But how do we know what ‘truth’ is?

We are more deluded than truthful. We are programmed and ultimately prejudiced and through these narrow definers we spout our ‘truths’.

Our nationality, our town, our family, our origins can give us our ‘truths’. Are these ‘home truths’ then?

These are delusions of what and who we are. We are not free to see and to hear because we are deluded.

The truth is that we do not know what truth is. If we can convince ourselves of this truth, then we can open the way to move forward.

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:14:00 +0000

What does this mean?

It means a realisation. To accept themselves exactly as they are.

The human condition means that we are prone to 'falling' or 'failing'.

The Saints became aware of their fallings, failings and human condition.
So they accepted them in the light of being aware.
Being aware enabled them to journey on their paths.

Then they understood many fallings and failings and grew in spirit and in light.
By standing under the fallings and failings they drew on God.
Then they overcame some fallings and failings.
By coming over their fallings and failings through the Light.
But they still fell and failed sometimes or often.
And they could recognise this.

And they remained in the human condition and so could forgive us our fallings and failings very readily.

Recognise you as you are. Accept you as you are. God does.

Allow yourself to be and do not blame yourself and load on the guilt about your shortcomings.
We can grow with them, through them and by standing under them.
Sometimes, we can overcome them, but not always.

Do not force it.

Just be aware.

Just become more aware, in time.

Don't rush.

There is all the time in the world.

The Saints know that.

The Saints did not know that they were Saints either.

So you don't have to be a Saint.

You can be an informed sinner and lose the guilt!

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:03:00 +0000

We expect a high standard of living by earning a lot of money and paying low taxes.

We demand this high standard of living so the Home Office and the Foreign Office must act accordingly or we will not vote 'them' in again.

The Home Office must flex its muscles and put emphasis on excluding immigrants;
The Foreign Office must make sure that we get the trade and industry needed to support our lifestyles. To do this, national interest takes precedence over international and environmental interests and over the injustices enacted on the peoples of other countries.

So the Foreign Office declares war on a people whose land or resource is required; there is death, devastation, dissidents and a lot of refugees fleeing.

Some of whom become immigrants.

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:57:00 +0000

Contemporary Life
Immigrants in Britain: a statement.

Well, they have no right here have they?
They are taking our jobs, our social security, our houses, our schools, our communities.

They cause us all the problems of a country which is too full: crime, lack of resources.

If they were not here, we wouldn't have so many problems. They are to blame.

A Reflection on this.

Well, the thing is that we are not seeing clearly.
We are looking for someone to blame for the hurt and anger inside of us, inside you, inside me.
The hurt and the anger inside comes from our prejudices, our conditioning.
Therefore, we cannot see clearly. We cannot understand.

People will move, migrate to another place if they believe that they can achieve a better quality of life for themselves and for their families as would you and I.
They are merely seeking to improve their lot. So are you and I.

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:51:00 +0000

Well, life would be good if it were not for:

the weather;
the taxes;
the neighbours;
the crime;
the immigrants;
the murderers;
the drug pushers;
the paedophiles;
the religious groups;
the atheists;
the radicals;
the extremists;
the politicians;
the terrorists;
the others;
the housing estates;
this house;
this car;
this child's sickness;

this living hell.

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:46:00 +0000

The Lie.

Who is my neighbour?

S/he who makes me feel comfortable;
S/he who sees the world as I do;
S/he who rejects what I reject;
S/he who finds injustice where I find it;
S/he who believes in what I believe in;
S/he who allows me to stay where I am.

Where are you?
What do you believe in?
Where do you find injustice?
What do you reject?
How do you see the world?
What makes you feel comfortable?

Are you free?

The Truth.

Who is my neighbour?

S/he who makes me feel uncomfortable;
S/he who sees the world as I do not;
S/he who does not reject what I reject;
S/he who finds injustice where I do not find it;
S/he who believes in what I do not believe in;
S/he who does not allow me to stay where I am.

Am I not free?

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:42:00 +0000

What do we want to see?

We want to see things in the perspective of the conditioning and the lies.

Why do we want this?

Because we are too frightened to go outside of the pre-conditioning and the programming.

Why are we too frightened to go outside of the pre-conditioning and the programming?

Because we will be in an unknown place and we will not have any crutches from the world to lean on.

We will not have our boundaries in which we feel comfortable.

We will not have our family to tell us we are ok for as long as we follow their lead.

We will not have our friends to tell us we are ok for as long as we fit in their group.

We will not fit in the group.

The group will reject me.

We will be in a foreign place, all alone.

But we in the foreign place, all alone can meet each other if we look and we see.

And then we can be alone, all one together and others will join.

noreply@blogger.com (edb) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:39:00 +0000

What keeps us living the lie?

The conditioning.

Who conditions us?

Our parents.
Our family.
Our school.
Our church.
Our community.
Our friends.
Our colleagues.
Our upbringing.
Our politics.
Our perspectives.
Our self-interest.
Our prejudices come from these.
We do not see without the pre-conditioning of looking at things in a certain way.
We see only what we think we should see.
So we cannot see at all.

the white parasol

Dear Son, Love Dad (© 2007 Trevor Dobson))

Visualization for the Self (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

The Fig Leaf (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

Knowledge is...(© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

What Prayer Is (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

A Beautiful Prayer (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

Sacred Tools(© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

Love (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

Channelling Thoughts of Ann (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmit)

Womb-Man (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

The Power of Not Quite There Yet (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

What is politics about? (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

Channellings (© 2008 “Mrs. Overall” – Ann Emmitt)

Violence be-Gooded (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

Prejudice (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

Power of the Not Quite There Yet? (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

A Magpie story (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

What is Truth? (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

A Saint is A Sinner Who Falls A Hundred Times a Day (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

Western Values (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

Immigrants in Britain (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

Life would be good if only...(© 2008 Eileen Baker)

Who is my neighbour? (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

What do we want to see? (© 2008 Eileen Baker)

What keeps us living the lie? (© 2008 Eileen Baker)