From "Edgar Cayce on Prophecy"

"Well, it seems that the New Age is coming about both because of--and in spite of--mankind! God doesn't really need man. Man needs God. But man can, by his own freewill, delay or hasten fulfillment of God's plan.

This is indicated plainly in the following message to a group seeking spiritual help: 'And so may ye, as seekers for divine guidance, be uplifted and thus may ye hasten the day when war will be no more."

Mr. Cayce was right, of course. We can hasten that day, or delay that day. But before you start knocking yourself for not doing your part in the hastening process, understand that whatever you do, this life is YOURS to live any way you see fit.

Still, Paramhansa Yogananda was right when he said,

"Noone wants eternal sorrow and misery, likewise, none wants temporary bliss. We all seek after blissful, conscious existence--Satchidanandam--that is the Hindu name for God."

We are seeking after something in this life. The something should be, but isn't apparent to us. We are attracted to light, sound and other energy sources. We are attracted to pleasurable experiences and repelled by things we do not find pleasurable. We seek to be immortal.

But we ARE light, we ARE an energy source, our natural existence IS a pleasurable one and we are ALREADY immortal!

What we don't seem to realize is that we are all searching for the way home, but simply chase after those things that remind us of home and what we REALLY are.

Perhaps this is where the absurdity of statements like "my truth" and "your truth" come from, from being lost so long that we each see home wherever we look.

We are children who have gone out playing, on a wild adventure. In that time of revelry, where only the moments of our playtime meant anything..we lost sight of home.

"This way", says Johnny.

"I remember this tree.", says Janie, but eventually the trail becomes colder and colder. Dim hints of recognition remain.

The religious paths have held the ball of yarn left behind to lead us back to that place where we come from. Still, we are NOT to rely on anyone for guidance but the spirit within us.

We are to become self-reliant.

This social change, as so many such changes before it, begins within us. Each is responsible for cultivating an understanding and awareness of what WE are. Not just what YOU are as an individual, but what WE are as a whole. Edgar Cayce, again, hits the nail square when asked this question:

"Will I live to see the war ended, and peace and happiness in America?"

His response:

"The peace and happiness must first be within the self. You will be living when the war is ended, but when peace will be established--that's something else."

So we DO have a responsibility to seek after spiritual understanding. Both a responsibility to ourselves, and to the rest of humanity. There WILL be change, sooner or later. I'd prefer sooner myself, how about you?

I'm rambling, of course, but it's just so difficult to express what the heart sees sometimes, particularly when the mind is in denial.

A friend once told me, back when I thought that I was perhaps a pantheist, to "Choose a tradition...any tradition." What she was telling me is what I am trying to say here:

It doesn't matter what your truths are or how they differ from mine. What matters is that we understand each other. We cannot begin down the path to unity by entertaining a dialogue based upon our differences. It is an absurd notion to say the least.

Within the threads of the various religious paths, there lies a truth. Once the differences and pageantry and rituals are stripped away, there is a basic Path that reveals itself.

1. Reduce desire
2. Focus on intuition
3. Reduce consumption
4. Foster love in your heart and mind.
5. Release the material things
6. Practice humility
7. Appreciate and learn from every moment

That path is the path of spiritual self-reliance. It is the path to God.

God is within you, and you have ALWAYS been able to have a one-on-one relationship with God. No special bathing ritual required, no special preamble required, no intermediary priest or Messiah required.

Just you, what is, and a love of Truth..the Truth of Love.

Here Edgar Cayce confirms this in answer to a question:

"What will the Aquarian Age mean to mankind as regards physical, and mental and spiritual development?"

"Think ye this might be answered in a word? These are as growths. What meant that awareness as just indicated? In the Piscean Age, in the center of same, we had entrance of Emmanuel or God among Men, see? What did that mean? The same will be meant by the full consciousness of the ability to communicate with or to be aware of the relationships to the Creative Forces, God, and the uses of the same in material environs.

Then, as to what these will be--only those who accept same will even become aware of what's going on about them!"

The book goes on to paraphrase:

"As the entrance of Emmanuel or God among men meant the salvation of mankind in the Piscean Age, so will the next great step be given man; the full consciousness that he can communicate with God!"

So here is what I suggest. Pick a tradition...any tradition. Find the path and walk it.

Soon enough we will meet at the end..when we are home again.

From then on, we surely will walk the same Path, the True Path. The only Path that ever was.

Love, light and life for you,

daf

I learned alot about myself and what is truly important during the time I was wondering if my best friend would live or die from the lymphoma that was eating his spine away. Wondering if I'd be left to feed and clothe 3 going on 4 children, the last yet to be born.

I learned that all of this..this that goes on in this "Mother Culture" or "Western Civilization", doesn't really matter. It's not important in the least, or in the grand scheme of life. What truly matters in the end, when we die, is how we lived our lives, and how we treat each other as fellow human beings, and how we treat the other beings that inhabit the earth with us.

What means the most in the end, is people and if we are gentle and loving to each other or not.

A poem I wrote a while back:

Catch

I live in the testing grounds for the "marketplace"
The Advertising Industry.
I live in a place where I am minority.
Minority not of any physical descriptors.
I am minority because I have awoken
to the reality of the illusion of the culture I was born into.
The culture that denies that humans are animals
subject to the laws of nature.

Interdependent upon the Mother,

Just like all the other animals.

Those who surrounds me,
they spoon the media blitz
into their bloated mouths,
numbed souls,
broken bodies,
with both hands.

The party,
the endless consumption.
The mindless middle – like a drug they cannot get enough.
Debased,
degraded,
desperate to hope
the next “big thing”
will fill up the vast holes inside their existence

It used to cause me anxiety - their blindness.

Now,
I turn my back on the highway,
look at my flowers
noting the beauty of
A Painted Lady butterfly collecting nectar on top a pink zinnia.

I throw the ball
and watch the sun
gleam off her back
as she springs
to catch
the golden orb

My dog is radiant.

I am hibernating until
Winter thaws.

Lx,

I was so sorry to hear about your friend. If {{*}} is a hug without risk..then there you are.

You're not alone my friend. Not alone..in your weariness, in your searching for the signs..in finding the stepping stones to keep on keeping on. Just reading that WE are not alone in this longing and this awakening that sends us restlessly like lunatics, searching among the mad and sleeping for a fellow lunatic...lifts my spirits considerably. How about you?

Nothing could be closer than everything you dream of and long for my friend. Just keep going..we'll get there faster now that the company is fine.

Here's a poem about the time AFTER. My wish for the children of the Aquarian Age:

I know where the right wind blows
Fragrant scenes from across the sea
I know where the right ones grow
Took a scent on the breeze to enlighten me
I know where the desert wakens
To the pulse of a something passing through the trees
I've been where a childhood's known
Been to where the widow weeps peacefully.

I know where the wild ones grow
Arrow-straight past the promised possibilities
I know where the meadow's laughter
Meets the river's rambling revelry
I know where the done days done
Where the soul sleeps a whole lot better
And where everyone belongs
Twilight bringing them together
To share the day's events remembered
With the fading fireside's final embers.

I know summer's fires remind me
Of the passing possibilities to lose
I know of the painful places
Walked a mile in whoever's shoes
Left my heart behind a thousand ways
Behind in a thousand pieces...places
But I know where the wild thorn grows
I know where the right ones grow
Folded in the arms of the standing bramble
Safe from the savages and their concrete illusions
Sunny wonders born of innocence and unity
In another time
In a different place
A better way of celebrating life
Which feeds the warmth of childhood recollections
Makes them strong.
Keeps them safe and full of wonder
The wonder of the innocent remains
The only truest mantra ever uttered
I know where the hearts are guarded
I know where the garden's tended carefully
I know where the future started
Took a trip to the past to enlighten me.

Be well sister, we're on our way. And the load has been lightened considerably by your fine company.

daf

Oh that's nice, and I look forward to it indeed.

This song too:

So you speak to me of sadness
And the coming of the winter
Fear that is within you now
It seems to never end
And the dreams that have escaped you
And the hope that youve forgotten
You tell me that you need me now
You want to be my friend

And you wonder where were going
Wheres the rhyme and wheres the reason
And its you cannot accept
It is here we must begin
To seek the wisdom of the children
And the graceful way of flowers in the wind

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day

Like the music of the mountains
And the colours of the rainbow
Theyre a promise of the future
And a blessing for today
Though the cities start to crumble
And the towers fall around us
The sun is slowly fading
And its colder than the sea

It is written from the desert
To the mountains they shall lead us
By the hand and by the heart
They will comfort you and me
In their innocence and trusting
They will teach us to be free

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day

And the song that I am singing
Is a prayer to non believers
Come and stand beside us
We can find a better way

Words and music by John Denver

"I throw the ball
and watch the sun
gleam off her back
as she springs
to catch
the golden orb"

Very nice.

Now this is right up my alley... Cayce!

I resonate very much with his stuff as well as most of what you have shared here.

As for the path thing, that's the kind of stuff I say to people who try to push their path or beliefs onto me. I too look for the Universal truths that all religions teach. Thanks for breaking them down for us Daf... good thread.

I don't follow any specific path. If there were a Unitarian church in my town I might check it out, but I've never been to a church that I really enjoyed or felt comfortable in. My church is nature and coming here, as well as sharing spiritual things and connecting with others.

Finding the Unitarian Fellowship was the best thing we ever did. It's a place I feel comfortable taking the children, and they are very welcoming. Our "minister" is a Buddhist. And their son is a devout Athiest which they were so proud of when he decided that resonated with him.

It's actually been a very healing experience to go there, helped scab over some spiritual wounds I got early on in life, due to my "religious" upbringing.

Lovely poems too guys!

I envy those with the gift of prose... I have trouble putting my thoughts into words let along making poetry out of them.