Let The Dream Go

Let Go
21-Mar-10 LL

Let go those old books written by sages,
and new books written by the blind and forgetful. 
Let go your own crippled notions.
There is no room to carry all that on this leg of the journey.
The pablum fed on in your early years has already been digested.
Leave off regurgitation
lest you become more ill still.
You are not a baby any more.
Toss aside that worry crutch.
Burn the fear!
What is true will remain and what is not will fall away.
Fill yourself with resolve to move forward now;
Dine solely on the solid food of real Men.
Eat your own experience for sustenance.
Be brave, would be Warrior;
the time for false starts is over.
The locked doors you have been banging on all these years
will open -
when you do not use brute force on them.
They cannot be opened by your head brain.
Be smart.
BE and they will open.
Just BE.
Empty that huge cranium,
clean it out; scrape and sweep away the crusty clutter.
Make room for your life.
Leave the comforting whirr, whirr, whirring in that cavernous illusory maze
you believe to be the “Be All and End All”.
Live out loud.
Live in the open.
Step into your body complete,
Open to your senses,
Full of so much more interesting adventures
Than those habitual escape routes dreaming can conjure
BE
 ©2011 ~ Laura Lopez

Conversation With God

for the collective consciousness

http://www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/2010/04/quantum-communication/

"When the Going Gets Tough...

The tough get going."

Is there a "tough guy" amongst the many parts of your self? Is it allowed to speak for you without consulting the rest of your Self? Are you constantly getting stuck paying for what it says and does?
Bravado and lip service won't do.  Real inner work takes a different kind of courage. Real inner strength is built up little by little; real inner strength is achieved through patience with everything ~ including this "tough guy" and your self. Listen to your "tough guy", find out who it is and what it wants. Does it want to be right or does it want to Be?

Know Your Self
Be Watchful
Be Listening
BE

LISTENING

One millionth ear,  all the rest ~ head brain;
What a sad recipe!
Listen from your body.
Listen with your entire cellular structure.
That space between the ears has another purpose.

Be Listening
There is more to the world than you.

BE

Songs of Kabir

"Into the looking-glass cavern
the dog goes running.
Seeing his own reflection,
he dies barking."

Be Listening Now, Stop "thinking" about it, Be Attentive to your inner life Now, it will all be over in a flash.
BE in the moments
BE

PEACE

"Love your tribe- make peace with the other tribes- integrate and widen the tribal boundaries until they disappear."- Evolvefest

Listen
Be Peace
BE

Easter Sunday ~ The Resurrection

  

Women at the Tomb & the Ascension Of Christ ~ 15th Century Painting Fr. Angelico 

When the women came to the tomb they saw the stone was moved away from the entrance and that it was empty and that Mary Magdalene looked into the tomb weeping and saw two angels sitting there who asked her why she was weeping. She told them she feared someone had taken Christ away; then she turned and saw a man she at first took to be a gardener standing there.

 He also asked her why she wept and then called her name, "Mary", and she knew he was Christ and reached for him but he told her not to touch him because he had not yet  ascended to his Father; he instructed her to go to his "brethren" and tell them,  "I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God." Mary went to the disciples and told them but they didn't believe her; later that evening Jesus appeared to them in a closed room where they were hiding from the authorities. He stood in their midst  and showed them his hands and side then he said, "Peace be unto you. as my Father sent me even so I send you". When he said this he "breathed" on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained." Thomas was not with them during this visitation and when he was told of it he did not believe Christ had come. He said he would only believe if he saw Jesus for himself and put his hands on the spots where the nails and sword had been driving into the body.

Ascention by Danny Hahlbohm

Be Peace

Be Love

Be Pure in Spirit

Be Blessed

BE

"There Once Was A King"

"Once upon a time there was a king." When we were children there was no need to know who the king in the fairy story was. It didn't matter whether he was called Shiladitya or Shaliban, whether he lived at Kashi or Kanauj. The thing that made a seven-year-old boy's heart go thump, thump with delight was this one sovereign truth, this reality of all realities: "Once there was a king."

~ Rabindranath Tagore

"Suffer the little children to come unto me." ~ Jesus Christ

The Empty Space

I'm  currently re- reading "The Empty Space, A Book About the Theater: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate" by Peter Brook. I found it again while unpacking some old books I brought back to Florida from my old storage space in New York recently .  Brook's thoughts suit me now during this long hiatus, in this chilly rain.  My favorite line in the book is at the beginning of Chapter One: Deadly in which Brook talks about what he calls "Deadly" theater. It reminds me of how things are, really. He says:

"I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theater to be engaged."

This is how we are, as Shakespear noticed, "All actors on a stage." All of us, acting on the stage of life - somnambulating. Some who know this also know the audience is God, the All, The Power, The Force. Here we are, we are born into this place. We come with (some say) a purpose, to right wrongs from past lives, to be good, to do right. Unfortunately we forget that soon after birth and are left feeling our way about the dark to find and reach the goal or goals. As I read Mr. Brook's little book, his words shine light in empty spaces in me. Shorn of all desire to be anything other than what I Am now, in this moment, and this moment, his intelligent words stream into this old house tickling ancient  ghosts who chortle at what they once were, as they glimpse their old carcasses in the internal mirror. No longer in deep mourning and regret and filled with all their clutter and clatter, it is very quiet in here, in this empty space. I look forward to the rest of the book, the "Holy, Rough, and Immediate", and wonder what news they will bring. So far this meal, being eaten again in a different time, eons away from where I was when I first read the book,  is so rich I must take it in small bites. Care filled Patience is required lest I forget My Self.

Remember
Be Peace
BE

SHIFTING

Shifting inside
Shifting outside
Shifting all around

Everything is in motion
Changing all the time
Nothing is still

Shifting inside
Shifting outside
Shifting all around

Can you feel it?
Are you awake?
Are you dancing?
Are you seeing?

Shifting inside
Shifting outside
Shifting all around

BEing
BE

When the Mourning Is Over

 

detail from painted shawl

How do we know when the worst part of the mourning is over after any loss?  For myself, I wake up one day and realize the crushing weight of longing for what is finished is gone. The sun is shining inside me even if it’s not shining outside; the world has not come to an end, and if it is, that’s okay.  I am in alignment again. The nagging sense of lonesomeness has been vanquished, swept away out of my internal world by sweet acceptance and understanding. Shattered confidence is (seemingly mysteriously) restored to its rightful place. My Heart has mended.  All people, places and things are recognized and known for what they really are… for what they really have been all along – including self.  Inner peace IS. Lady and Sir Denial, like Elvis, have indeed left the building. Huzzah! Monsieur Energy Sucker and his wife, Madame What If-If Only, have gone with them – all vanished into thin air. The only evidence left of their grim visitations - new lessons impressed indelibly on hard drive memory; lessons earned… if I have been diligent in my Work - lessons now one with my cellular structure. Some mistakes will never be repeated again. Some will. I Know this. Understanding of what that old adage, “Time heals all wounds”, means reigns again, more deeply this time as it is each time I Pay attention to the process. Grateful to know these truths in my Holy of Holies; my Dear Heart is glad of the healing balm.  Grace settles on me, a veil has been lifted and I Know the ancient Promise is made good. Not a single petty “iota” dares even think to speak of the dead in egoistic attempts at false rationalization. It is over and to “keep moving” forward in this clearer perception is Joy. I am off the sidelines and have been restored to sanity, free to Love without fear or stinginess.

“Ha, yes, for now!” some gloomy Gus snorts in an echo from a back room of the head brain.
“Yes, my dear this is a given”, I smile, “it always has been, but each time we know more, yes? You always forget that part of the observation. Perhaps it was inconvenient for you to remember; in any case, to keep moving forward is a Joy. This is my birthright.”

Be Peaceful
Be Kindness
Be Love
BE

WORK

The story below is from Meetings with Remarkable Men, from the chapter on Pogossian by G.I. Gurdjieff

“Pogossian was always occupied; he was always working at something. He never sat, as is said, with folded arms, and one never saw him lying down like his comrades reading diverting books, [today I am sure G would add playing on the computer and many other idle pastimes used in present day society to “kill” time] which gave nothing real. […]"

"I once asked him why he was such a fool as to not rest since no one would pay him anything for all these useless exercises."

“Yes indeed”, he replied, “for the present no one will pay me for these foolish antics of mine – as you and all those pickled in the same barrel of brine think they are – but in the future either you, yourself or your children will pay me for them. Joking apart, I do this because I like work, but I like it not with my nature, which is just as lazy as that of other people, and never wishes to do anything useful, I like to work with my common sense.”

“Please bear in mind”, he added, “that when I use the word ‘I’, you must understand it is not the whole of me, but only as my mind. I love work and have set myself the task of being able, through persistence, to accustom my whole nature to love it and not my reason alone.”

“Further, I am really convinced that in the world no conscious work is ever wasted. Sooner or later someone must pay for it. Consequently, if I work now in this way, I achieve two of my aims. First I shall perhaps teach my nature not to be lazy, and secondly, I will provide for my old age. As you know, I cannot expect that when my parents die they will leave me an ample inheritance to suffice for the time when I will no longer have the strength to earn a living. I also work because the only real satisfaction in life is to work, not from compulsion but consciously; that is what distinguishes a man from a Karabakh ass, which also works day and night.”

"This reasoning of is has been fully justified by the facts. Although he spent his youth-the time most valuable to a man for securing his old age-in as it were, useless wanderings and never concerned himself with making money for his later life, and although he did not go into a serious business until the year 1908, he is now one of the richest men on earth. As for his honesty in earning his wealth, that cannot be questioned."

"He was right when he said no conscious labour is ever wasted. He did, indeed, work consciously and conscientiously, day and night, like an ox, all his life, in all circumstances and under all conditions."

"May God grant him now, at last, his well earned rest."

~~~

What is your relationship with your outer work  - whether at work outside the home or in the home? Is it just a job you do for money? Do you do chores while daydreaming about being done and what you will do when you are done? Do you know how much of your life is wasted in this kind of daydreaming, or are you aware that jobs and chores are a part of your life that can be quite fulfilling and satisfying - regardless of what the outer work is?

Most people have to work and often circumstances have led them to work at jobs they would not have normally chosen.  Most people would rather be elsewhere, which causes them to spend their days in intense habitual negativity at these “undesirable” jobs.  Time and energy are wasted; whole lifetimes of time and energy that could be claimed by using the jobs and chores for inner work, inner work, which will give you inner freedom, which will lead to freedom from negative circumstances and undesirable jobs, which are attracted by the habitual negativity. 

Do you have the sense that you are moving further away from your Hearts desire and what you really want in your life? The habitual negativity toward the job or chore keeps you from being  organically engaged and participating in your own life.  It is not the job, but the negativity and the negative attitudes in which you indulge day and night, day after day, week after week, month after month, which keep you from cherished aims and goals, it is not the job.

Inner work is not a part time occupation or a hobby. You will get no lasting results that way. So many people attend meetings, read the works of great teachers, profess to be 'interested' in inner work, but put many things ahead of the inner work. They talk a good game but when it comes to walking the talk, they are sadly lacking. It is clear who they are. I have even met so called teachers in the work who talk a good game. It is clear who they are too. Gurdjieff suggested we use everything for our inner Work. “Eat or be eaten.” he warned us. 

Ponder this: How can you look at each circumstance and situation in your daily work differently? How can one do this and become enlivened and more whole in oneself instead of  disappearing as time slips by? Think about this while sensing the soles of your feet for five minutes.  Be aware of your feet while thinking.

Interesting, no? It feels good to Be Alive and not just a talking head, eh?

 Strive for Being

Work consciously

Do no harm

Help God
BE

Teachers and Students (Part V)

“It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones.” 

~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 

"How do I live from my soul?" the snake asks. 

Lalo sighs; it is almost time.
"Turn Disrespect into Respect." Lalo replies as she cleans the Sacred Blade entrusted to her by her first friends in the woods. She sets her face, there is grim work ahead." 

  from Lalo the Snake Catcher: King Snake,the Last Chapter

                     

For some, true Being is unattainable, they cannot, will not give up illusion. As long as you hold to your selfishness, your insincerity and inner bias impede and eventually stop all inner work. You end up wandering in circles, descending. Even the "tricks" will be forgotten.

 

Lalo to King Snake:

"I am not fooled by your lies;

Neither the ones you tell me 

Nor the ones you tell yourself.

I See you quite well from Here.

Your lies soil the atmosphere."

   from Lalo the Snake Catcher: King Snake,the Last Chapter

 

Without honesty and sincerity, you cannot develop true Being. You cannot live in "theory", nothing real develops in there - in that devious head brain. Eventually anything you've managed to earn will drift away and become part of the illusion your cowardice prefers. Real possibility is eaten by the dream. Veils do fall back into unnatural place. It is Lawful. Your chance is running out. It is true that "you cannot sit between two stools". Your illusion cannot be in reality, reality cannot Be in your illusion. The Work is not a hobby and this School is not a country club. Choose.

 

Work

Live

BE Respect

BE Truth

BE Sincerity

BE

Teachers and Students (part III)

"No doubt there are things which pass the ordinary comprehension of man. There are things one can teach only by speaking or by acting; but there is a way of teaching (which is called Tawajjuh), and this way of teaching is without words. It is not external teaching, it is teaching in silence. For instance, how can man explain the spirit of sincerity, or the spirit of gratefulness? How can man explain the ultimate truth, the idea of God? Whenever it has been attempted, it has failed; it has made some confused, and it has made others give up their belief. It is not that the one who tried to explain did not understand, but that words are inadequate to explain the idea of God."...

"However, no one can give spiritual knowledge to another, for this is something that is within every heart. What the teacher can do is to kindle the light which is hidden in the heart of the disciple. If the light is not there, it is not the fault of the teacher."

"There is a verse by Hafiz in which he says, 'However great be the teacher, he is helpless with the one whose heart is closed.' Therefore, initiation means initiation on the part of the disciple and on the part of the teacher, a step forward on the part of both. On the part of the teacher, a step forward with the disciple in order that the pupil may be trusted and raised from his present condition. A step forward for the pupil because he opens his heart; he has no barrier anymore, nothing to hinder the teaching in whatever form it comes, in silence or in words, or in the observation of some deed or action on the part of the teacher."   ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

  "On this mystical path, courage, steadfastness and patience are what are most necessary; but also, trust in the teacher at whose hand initiation is taken and the understanding of the idea of discipline. In the East, where for thousands of years the path of discipleship has been understood, these things are regarded as most important and acceptable from the hand of the teacher. How few in the world know trust! What is necessary is not trusting another, even the teacher, but trusting oneself; and one is not capable of trusting oneself fully when one has not experienced in life how to trust another. Some will ask, 'But if we trusted and our trust was in vain, should we not be disappointed?' The answer is that we must trust for the sake of trust and not for the sake of a return and to see what fruit it brings. The utmost trust is the greatest power in the world. Lack of trust is weakness. Even if we have lost something by trusting, our power will be greater than if we had gained something without developing trust." ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

Be Good
BE Peaceable
BE Love
BE

Students and Teachers (part II)

"Also, there are no fixed rules to follow on this path. For every person there is a special rule. But there is one law which applies to everything in life: sincerity, which is the only thing that is asked by a teacher of a pupil, for truth is not the portion of the insincere.

Several initiations may be given to the pupil whom the teacher has taken in hand, but his progress depends upon the pupil himself. Just as parents are anxious, so the spiritual teacher is naturally anxious to see the advancement of his pupil. There is no reason for the teacher to keep any pupil back from success. For, as the happiness of the parents lies in the happiness of the child, so the satisfaction of the teacher lies in the advancement of the pupil." ~Hazrat Inayat Khan Volume X_2_2

Teachers and Students

~

'However great the teacher be, he is helpless with the one whose Heart is closed.' ~ Hafiz

~~~

"Initiation by a spiritual teacher means both a trust given by the teacher to the pupil, and a trust given by the pupil to the teacher. And the progress of the one who is initiated depends upon how much he gives himself to the teacher's guidance. One might give only a finger, another even a part of a finger, while a third would give his whole hand. That makes a great difference. A pupil says, 'Well, I will give a certain amount of my time and thought to your guidance, will that be enough?' Then the teacher says, 'Yes, if you think it is enough.' In reality, however, it is never enough. Then one might wonder if one would not be giving up one's own point of view in order to follow someone else's point of view; but actually, if one has a point of view, one never loses it. The point of view that one loses is not one's own. By looking at a thing from another person's point of view, one only enlarges one's own. Then, one has two points of view instead of one. If the thought of the pupil happens to be different from that of the teacher, then by taking the teacher's thought, his own is doubled. The pupil keeps his own point of view just the same, only now he has something for his vision from which to make his choice. The horizon of his thought is expanded. But the pupil who closes himself and says, 'I will guard my point of view or it will escape me,' will never derive any benefit from this attitude."

"The mystical path is the most subtle path to tread. The relationship between teacher and pupil is too subtle for words to express. Besides, the language of a mystical teacher is always elusive; you cannot, so to speak, pin him down as to his words. You cannot ask him to say clearly that something is so and so, or such and such. If a mystic does so, he is not a mystic, for a mystic cannot do this. The mystic may seem to be standing on the earth, but he is flying in the air. The air cannot be made into a rock, nor can the mystic be made into a gross entity. His 'yes' does not mean the same as the 'yes' of another, nor does his 'no' mean the same as the 'no' of others. The language of the mystic is not the language of words; it is the language of meaning. It is the greatest distress for a mystic to have to use the words of everyday language, which are not his words. He cannot express himself in these words. We find the same in the actions of the mystic. His outward actions will not express to everybody the meaning which is behind them, and that meaning may be much more important inwardly than the action is outwardly."

"The teacher, therefore, tests his pupil continually. He tells him and he does not tell him, for everything must come in its right time. Divine knowledge has never been taught in words, nor will it ever be so taught. The work of a mystical teacher is not to teach, but to tune, to tune the pupil so that he may become the instrument of God. For the mystical teacher is not the player of the instrument; he is the tuner. When he has tuned it, he gives it into the hands of the Player whose instrument it is to play. The duty of the mystical teacher is his service as a tuner."

"Dispute with a spiritual teacher is never any good, for the pupil may be speaking one language, while the teacher speaks another; and when there is no common language, then how can the dispute be profitable? Therefore, in the path of mysticism, there is no dispute."
...continue reading

~~~~

There is much more to this chapter written by Hazrat Inayat Khan, in which he discusses the valuation, respect and attitude necessary in the student for a viable relationship with his/her spiritual guide.  No teacher will carry a false student for very long. It is better to ask the student to leave.

False students are thieves, they steal energy, time and more from the teacher and other students and muck up the atmosphere; slowing and sometimes even stopping growth for everyone. Their selfishness affects the Whole world in ways they cannot fathom. 


BE Real
BE Peacable
BE Loving
BEhave
BE

"Oh Crist Mass Tree"

He thinks he understands.
He thinks with his head brain.
She believes she knows.
The voices in her head tell her so.
He thinks he is wise.
He's just learned a few tricks.
 All
Blind pain bodies.
Dictating, orchestrating
In illusion.

What is the duty of a real friend?
What is the greatest Gift you can give?

BE LOVE
BE Happy Holy Days
BE

Compassion Exercise

Ray Palmer's initial presentation of his philosophy and teaching, i.e.: the comic book name and having levels where you are given titles [exchanging one illusion for another for a short time for those who do not follow through with more intensive, longer lasting studies], etc. can be a bit off putting for some of the more dogmatic practitioners of "better ways" out there, however, one could, for higher purposes, intentionally take the attitude of  allowing.

In my estimation, whatever succeeds in getting the habitually negative to learn that it is actually possible to shift attitude by intentionally changing a thought pattern and to become positive, and to actually experience the benefits of that internal shift...  is a 'good thing." Yes? It is a glimpse, a taste... verification that it is possible to change... however minute. Glimpses are good!

Yes, yes, Palmer's Avatar method is not the Work. Listen, I am grateful that so many people who have a wish to be better human beings and who have not found the work, have found other ways to get a few steps ahead. Perhaps these ways will lead to the way each was meant to reach.

I know I made a lot of stops on my way to the Gurdjieff work. One path led to the next. The proliferation of all the New New New Age groups that are popping up everywhere now and the hordes of people flocking to recently empty churches, synagogues, mosques and temples are proof positive that humanity is feeling a real need for something higher than the next line of Gucci's now. It is happening now. All those who begin a sincere search, regardless of where they begin -  do help themselves, the planet and God. Every drop helps.

I've chosen to post this particular  'lesson' today because I believe it would be helpful for the earth if as many people as possible to try it during the next couple of  months, whoever you are, wherever you are at whatever level of enlightenment you are.  For those who are new to this kind of inner work, feel free to write in with your observations, and comments.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Honesty with yourself leads to compassion for others." Ray Palmer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Instructions for the Avatar Times Compassion Exercise:"

"This exercise can be done anywhere that people congregate (airports, malls, parks, beaches, etc.). It should be done on strangers, unobtrusively, from some distance. Try to do all five steps on the same person.

Step 1  With attention on the person, repeat to yourself: "Just like me, this person is seeking some happiness for his/her life."

Step 2  With attention on the person, repeat to yourself: "Just like me, this person is trying to avoid suffering in his/her life."

Step 3  With attention on the person, repeat to yourself: "Just like me, this person has known sadness, loneliness, and despair."

Step 4  With attention on the person, repeat to yourself: "Just like me, this person is seeking to fulfill his/her needs."

Step 5  With attention on the person, repeat to yourself: "Just like me, this person is learning about life."

OPEN your HEART, OPEN your MIND, LISTEN

BE Compassionate
Be Compassion
BE Love
BE

TOO MUCH TALKING

There's a whole lot of talking going on.
Too  much talking.
They say yes, they say no.

Others concur,
They disagree.

Hugging
Fighting
Hugging
 
Yes, no, yes, no... maybe.

Bargaining.

A whole lot of talking,
In head brains,
In heart brains.
Too much talking.

Does anyone really hear anything?
Do you know what is really meant?

No...

Filters, filters, everywhere,
Nothing is under~stood.

Filters in the brains,
Filters on the Heart,

Brains on automatic pilot.

Can you hear your cells
Whispering deeper down?
There are the roots of desire.

Do you know how to listen?

Somewhere in those unseen places,
In that deep darkness,
Lives the truth of who you were,
Who you really are,

Who you can be.

There, lie the real gems and secrets,
The treasures you yearn for.

If only you could Hear
In purer states of being,
In true honesty.

Perhaps a wiggling free
From the

Ordinary
Mundane
Hamster wheel
existence

You mistake for living

Could begin,

Opening doors to

Freedom from that deadening mechanicality.

If only...


BE at Peace
BE PEACE
BE

GOSSIP Revisited

I originally posted this topic on 2 September 2009 under the Title: Gossip.

I re-post it today as a reminder that, more often than not, what we say in gossip to our friends and neighbors does permanent harm to everyone concerned.

Gossip is manipulation.
Gossiping damages and halts  your progress and growth.
It can even end your inner work permanently.

Repairing this error is extremely difficult and many do not make it.

Worse yet, this lack of spiritual self control on your part also seriously damages the possibilities for the awakening of those you are gossiping to if they believe  your gossip.

Even if they do not - you have planted negative seeds, which feed their own stories and fears - making their journeys more difficult.

You alienate them from what could save them.

This is especially true when these people are just beginning to know for themselves that they sincerely wish for something higher.

Nothing created in negativity produces anything useful - except very hard lessons (if you can See and Hear) in what comes from intentionally directed negativity for your own selfish ends.


You banish yourself and your listener(s) to illusion.

You are stealing their opportunities to enter into a true spiritual realm of study.

... and giving in to your ego impulses to gossip takes from you what you have worked so hard to earn.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

From the Movie: Doubt  

After being accused of heinous acts, a priest, Father Brendan Flynn, tells the following story to his congregation:

"A man was gossiping with a friend about a man he hardly knew." Father Flynn looks into the eyes of the congregation sitting before him as he speaks, his intense gaze lingering on the faces of his two accusers. "I know none of you have ever done this." People squirm in their seats.

 Father Flynn continues: "That night he had a dream. A great hand appeared over him and pointed a finger down at him. He was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day he went to confession. He got the old parish priest and told him the whole thing."

"Is gossiping a sin?" he asked the old man. "Was that the hand of Almighty God pointing a finger at me? Should I be asking your absolution Father? Father, tell me, have I done something wrong?"

"Yes!", the old priest answered. "Yes! You ignorantly badly brought up man! You've born false witness against your neighbor! You played fast and loose with [her] reputation and you should be heartily ashamed!"


"The man said he was sorry and asked forgiveness."

"Not so fast," said the old priest. "I want you to go home, take a pillow off your bed, take it up to the roof, cut it open with a knife and return here to me."

"So, the man went home, took a pillow off his bed, got a knife from the kitchen, took them up to the roof, and stabbed and cut the pillow open. Then he went back to the priest and told him he'd done what he asked."

"Did you gut the pillow with a knife?" the old priest asked."

"Yes, Father."

"And what was the result?" he asked."

"Feathers." he replied."

"Feathers." the priest repeated nodding his head up and down, yes"

"Feathers everywhere, Father." the man said, not yet getting the point."

The priest then told him: " Now, I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind."

"Well," said the man, "it can't be done, I don't know where they went. They flew all over"

"And that," said the priest, "is GOSSIP!!"
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

If you can take this story into your heart with the appropriate attitude, be you the one who gossips or the one who is "innocently" listening to the gossip, or both, live with it for awhile. You will come to truly understand what it means on a higher level through higher consciousness. If you do that sincerely and are honest with yourself before God, you will be freed from that which causes you to gossip. It is difficult, but the Freedom you earn is worth it in the end.

I once heard, when I was a very young gossip fiend, that gossip kills. As I delved deeper and deeper into inner work in the following years, I discovered it was a lawful truth. Gossip kills.

Know that I Love You,

BE At Peace

Do No more Harm to yourself or to others

EVERYTHING IS Sacred

BE

I AM