Cultivating Inner Life

...just a few days ago I bought a small e-book by Henry Thomas Hamblin "The Life of the Spirit". ...really powerful little book! What insight this wise man had! ...I am going to share a chapter from this book with You! I have read it over and over again ...and each time I get new insight! So, here it is:

"There is a deep inner truth which is sometimes hinted at, but is never clearly and plainly expressed in words. It is a truth that is too deep for words or finite definitions. It has sometimes been spoken of as "achievement without effort." The secret was known to Lao Tsze, and today it is engaging some of our greatest minds. But they will never solve it through the intellect, but they may do so through intuition. Intuition belongs to the same order as this so-called "achievement without effort". It no doubt belongs to the world of four dimensions, or rather the consciousness of four or many dimensions. It belongs to the same order as those "happenings" that we call miracles. What it really is is so far beyond us as to make our brain reel if we attempt to understand it intellectually.

Although we cannot understand it, we can, however, know it, inwardly. By intuition, or an inward spiritual revelation, we can know and make contact with that which is entirely beyond the greatest human intellect. For instance, a simple unlearned person can know God and commune with Him inwardly through prayer, but what human intellect, no matter how profound, can understand Him? It is the same with the secret of effortless achievement, we may know how to use it and enjoy it, but we can never understand it intellectually.

There is an inner Divine Order which is the Reality and is always present. Everything that is not Reality has to disappear in the face of Reality. As soon as we leave off striving and resisting, becoming sufficiently quiet and receptive, the Divine Order appears. It is the Reality and must appear as soon as we become quiet enough. "In quietness ...shall be your strength." "Be still and know that I am God."

There is an inner realm of quietness to which, when we are sufficiently advanced, we may penetrate. The one who wrote or dictated the 91st Psalm knew all about it. But this inner secret place of calm is not only a place of safety, it also causes things to come to pass, in what we may truthfully call a miraculous manner. By miraculous we mean transcending ordinary physical and natural law.

In order to make use of this unknown law or power, we have first to give up all effort, especially mental effort. When we are surrounded by every possible difficulty, trouble, complication and confusion, if we give up our hopeless, fatiguing, wearying efforts, and sit down quietly and be still, thinking and knowing only God, letting everything else go, utterly and completely, then absolute stillness comes to the soul, and the peace which passeth all understanding possesses our minds.

All that we have to do is just to become quite still and know God. We have not to do anything else. All that is necessary is to let go so completely that our mind becomes as placid as a motionless lake. Just as when a lake is quite still it reflects perfectly the surrounding beauty of hill and sky, so also does our mind, when perfectly calm, reflect the beauty, harmony, perfection and order of the Divine. When we become completely still, our mind becomes attuned to the Infinite Mind, after which nothing else matters.

It does not matter how complicated our troubles may be, nor how many or difficult our tasks, if we become quiet, as already described, the whole of our life and work becomes perfectly adjusted. Whatever is discordant "passes in music out of sight". Whatever is complicated becomes simple. Whatever is obscure becomes plain. Whatever seems impossible becomes easy of achievement. No matter how great one's responsibilities, life becomes almost as easy as "falling off a log."

How demoralizing! the uninitiated may say. It would be, no doubt, if the uninitiated could get within a hundred miles of it. But there is no fear of such a thing coming to pass. What we are speaking about has only, apparently, been known, in the past, to the most advanced souls of the race and there is even now no danger of beginners ever being able to use it. It is probably the most difficult thing in the spiritual life to enter the inner stillness in which we make actual contact with God. By the time that we can practice this most difficult art we are incapable of being demoralized by it. The scepter of power is not given to the uninitiated, neither are the mysteries of the Kingdom of God revealed unto the neophyte. Apart from this it is so difficult, in one sense, to find this inner place of calm, and become sufficiently quiet to be attuned to it, that all who are not sufficiently advanced would far rather go on toiling and struggling, even though hopelessly, rather than attempt it.

We said just now that to be quiet and still, simply sitting and resting passively in the Divine Light and Presence, letting everything go, is Probably the most difficult thing in the spiritual life. It is difficult because we feel that something must be done. We feel that if we do not pray or strive for this, that or the other, or for this loved one or that person, and so on, they will suffer, or something will go wrong. We have to give up this finite idea entirely. Nothing of the kind is necessary. All that we have to do is to let go completely and know God. All sorts of cares and anxieties may claw at us, attempting to gain our attention, and numberless fears assail us, but they must all be brushed aside, everything must be let go, until at last we are perfectly quiet and still in the Divine Presence. When once we are able to relax in this way and be quite still and free, and severed from everything, then the miraculous can happen, and the apparently impossible be brought to pass.

The spiritual life is one long series of paradoxes, and this is one of them. The most difficult thing in the world is to be still, yet it makes life simple and easy. It removes all its care, solves all its problems, takes away all its fears, relaxes all its strain. BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.

APPENDIX

It should be pointed out to beginners that the "quietness" which is spoken of in the forgoing chapter is not a negative passivity, but is the result of a reaching up to God. To sink down into a negative, passive state is to descend to the astral plane, and this is accompanied by certain dangers. This wrong "Quietness" must be avoided at all costs. In prayer and meditation the heart and mind must be lifted up until a point of contact with the Divine is reached, and then the "quietness" should be practiced. This is being still and knowing God. The negative form, on the other hand, is being still and contacting Hades. The stillness of the Inner Presence is not stagnation, but is the stillness of unimpeded activity. Example, a wheel, when revolved rapidly, appears to be motionless."

...I know quite a few of us have experienced supernatural peace filling us when we take the Bible and start reading it ...from anywhere ...our minds become calm and quiet and we start hearing "the voice of God" ...and even if we do not "hear" specific guidance, we just get the sense that all is well and all is in the hands of our loving God ...and we have no need to worry nor fret nor fear! Isn't this amazing how the Bible has such power ...though it makes sense as Bible is God speaking to us ...when we read the Bible or meditate upon a Scripture, we are communing with God ...we are starting to think like He thinks ...and this makes it so much easier for Him to lead us and guide us ...into the good things He has got ready for us!

...I wish You all much Love and many blessings and great success,

Eve

Why Not Try Dancing?

Often we merely exist in a world that was meant for living. Frequently we let the world revolve around us, when we should be part of the motion. Too many times we sit when we should be dancing. It is easy to watch from the stands, cheering for a winning team, when we could be one of the players.

Fear, lack of motivation, and anxiousness suffocates us and puts out the fire, stifling our willingness to embrace all of life that is available to us. We watch the picture play out on a real life screen, placing ourselves in the scenes merely by wishful thinking, not by motivational endeavors. Our theater seats have become too comfortable.

How many times have you watched others do what you long to do?

How many times have you desired to venture out where other people have traveled?

How many times have you wished to see more, do more, and become more than you are?

There is always risk. There are always the jitters and nervous stress that precedes anything unknown. An eagle does not fly, reaching heights of grandeur, if he does not leave the nest. No, to reach heights of grandeur, one must step forward, reach out and leave the spot that is comfortable. It is leaving the secure for the unknown that has enabled man to fly, to break the sound barrier and to walk on the moon.

It was with determination and repeated attempts after denials and rejections that great novels have been published. It is with training and hard work, after defeats, that records have been broken. After conquering an endeavor, new goals have been set for others to achieve.

Often, a step out results in the next step being a step backwards and people tend to fear regression when they experience motion. Not all falling away or pruning is failure. Sometimes it is when one has trimmed off the nonessentials, clipped the mistakes, looked at situations from other angles, that growth is speedy and branches out with a new vigor. Yes, sometimes even regression can be progression.

When we slow down and make a change we are often able to reach our goals even quicker, for it is then we are able to see more clearly. To conquer, you must risk defeat. To gain, one must risk loss. To achieve, one has to realize there is failure; defeat, loss and failure or not in and of themselves the end. No - quitting is the end. To quit, in essence, is to stop living.

To just exist in a world where there is great potential would be like dying a slow agonizing death, if life to you simply means breathing and not enthusiastically participating. Why not try dancing? Maybe you've never danced before and at first you'll miss a few steps - that's okay; you're working on forward motion, not perfection!

Great strides are not made without a few stumbles, a few missteps. A person can not dance to a song without feeling the beat; so move with the music. Make life a song! Life is ever moving; you decide the direction. Are you moving forward or is the world revolving around you? Life can not be lived to completeness when you are not part of the motion.

Forward motion does not necessarily mean vigorous activity or boisterous verbal proclamations. It can be doing big things in small ways. It can be doing significant activities in a quiet unassuming manner. It can be making great strides doing for other people and taking no credit.

Look at the way Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks lived their lives; they made a difference in this world. They were mild-mannered soft spoken people who did not seek notoriety for themselves. They did, though, take giant steps forward that made a difference in so many other people's lives, for generations to come. Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks danced to the tune of a dedicated life, in steps taken for others, to make a better life for so many people. Their music will live on in history books.

Most of us will not be recorded in history books, we will not win the Nobel Peace Prize, or perhaps even have our name recognized, but we can dance to the music of life and make a difference for ourselves and other people in this world.

Are you letting the world revolve around you, watching others make a difference?

Do you just exist in a world that is made for living?

Why not get out of your theater seats and join in the motion - try dancing to the music of life. You can make a difference; play your own special tune, dance your own special dance!

When your day on this earth has ended, let it be said "You Made a Difference," you lived life and "You Danced Your Own Special Dance!"

Betty King

Betty King is the author of two books, It Takes Two Mountains to Make a Valley, and But - It Was in the Valley's I Grew. She is also a Life Style and Devotional newspaper columnist and freelance writer and speaker. Her writings can be found in several Chicken Soup books. Her website is www.bettyking.net

Get Rid of Fear!

...just read As A Man Thinketh Meditation ...and here, I'll share it with You too:

"Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and she who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts herself at every step." As A Man Thinketh

I've heard it said that we're born with only a few fears – like the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears we learn along the way. Like the fear of failure, the fear of rejection - even a fear of success. I believe our greatest enemy in life is fear, because fear keeps us from doing many of those things we would like to do that would make our life more complete and more enjoyable.

Doubt is the first cousin of fear and precedes it. We weren't born with doubt. Our habit of doubt has grown throughout our life. If we dwell on a doubt and give in to it, it then grows into fear. In his epistle, the ancient writer James reminds us that doubt makes us ineffective, "a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as the wave of the sea that is tossed and driven by the wind; and every decision you then make will be uncertain, as you turn first this way, and then that."

If most of our fears and all of our doubts are learned along the way, then we can "unlearn" them by becoming masters of our thoughts. I once heard Zig Ziglar quote Mark Twain when he said, "True courage is not the absence of fear, it's the mastery of fear." The people who live the life of their dreams have just as many fears as those who live miserable, unfulfilled lives - they have just learned to master their fears instead of allowing their fears to master them.

Norman Vincent Peale, writing in You Can If You Think You Can, provides us with a prescription for mastering fear and doubt. "You can cancel out fear with faith. For there is no force in this world more powerful than faith. The most amazing things can happen as a result of it...There are two massive thought forces competing for control of the mind: fear and faith, and faith is stronger, much stronger. Hold that thought of faith's greater power until you believe it, for it can be the difference between success and failure."

And that's worth thinking about.

By Vic Johnson from www.asamanthinketh.net

...and a here one of my favourite quotes by Rev. Bill Winston:

“You don’t see things as they are. You see things as YOU are. That is why you need to make sure that you’ve got the right picture inside of you, so you can make the right judgement of what you see.”

Blessings and success to You all,

Eve

The Power of the Right Thought!

Wallace D. Wattles said in the beginning of last century: "A person's way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things. To do things in a way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think. To think what you want to think is to think truth regardless of appearances. Every person has the natural and inherent power to think what he wants to think, but it requires far more effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by appearances. To think according to appearances is easy. To think truth regardless of appearances is laborious and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work a person has to perform.

„There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth is contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a corresponding form in the mind which observes it. This can only be prevented by holding the thought of the truth.

„It requires power to think health when surrounded by the appearances of disease, or to think riches when in the midst of the appearances of poverty. But, he who acquires this power becomes a master mind. He can conquer fate; he can have what he wants."