My Spotless Mind

Matthew 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. 2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: 4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. 11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. 13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

What is this parable all about, for I have heard all manner of explanations of it? None of which, I hasten to add, have ever made much sense other than to be used by 'ministers' or 'pastors' to spiritually abuse and bully their flocks. I am sad to have to say there are more than several passages of Scripture that are used in this negative and abusive way. As another example please see my article entitled "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling - Oh really, is that so!?"

This is the general 'Christian' ministerial consensus of opinion on this parable. The virgins are always (metaphorically) the membership of the congregation or body of believers, not the ministry. The five wise virgins are those members who are always at 'church' every Sunday putting on their Sunday best, including their Sunday best behaviour and Sunday smiles and sit there without questioning a word the minister/pastor says. They believe everything he says and in reality follow him and his religion not The Lord Jesus Christ. In contrast, the five foolish virgins are those members who do question things, are lax in their attendance and may even be 'church' hoppers or very unfulfilled and find their Christian religious walk all a bit too tough and boring. They find the daily cleansing, struggling to 'get right with God', finding time for their quiet time, always getting ready for the next renewal, salvation by process and/or self-improvement, very hard work indeed, even stressful. They don't understand the apparent contradiction of Our Lord's words "Take my yoke upon you for it is light;" they find the yoke they are bearing unbelievably heavy. Then to compound their wretched Spiritual condition, along comes old Bible basher Joe the Pastor and gives his sermon on The Ten Virgins and these poor people are now down on their hands and knees under the weight of his man made yoke. Just to make sure, this minister tells them that unless they shape up and get with it (salvation by works) they are just like the five foolish virgins.

So, what is the real meaning of this parable? Well it is fairly easy to work out if you use the correct symbolism and study a little into the traditions of Jewish weddings. First and foremost The Bridegroom is Jesus Christ and His bride is the Church. Now this is where mainstream Christian teachers go wrong and place the Ten Virgins in this parable as the Church when they are not. In actual fact The Bride is not mentioned in this parable at all and it is not mentioned deliberately because Our Lord Jesus Christ was making a very different point entirely and in places a very mockingly sarcastic point too.

Even in the first century, Jewish weddings had bridesmaids and that is what these Ten Virgins are – bridesmaids. Now what is the role of a bridesmaid? Why, to look after and take care of the bride so she's ready for the wedding – who else? Who is the Bride – The Church that's who. So who are these Bridesmaids? Ah now we're getting to it!! The bridesmaids are ministers, pastors, elders and teachers; those responsible for looking after the after the bride. Again, who is the bride? The church of course and the bridesmaids or virgins as they're called here are supposed to be taking care of their flocks and protecting them in fresh green pastures. Which means feeding them with what; the Good News what else; the Good News of real salvation, grace and the coming Kingdom of God? Please see my two articles on the subject of Grace.

In Adam Clarke's commentary He says the oil for the lamps is Grace and he is correct with his analogy for without Grace it is impossible for The Light (Jesus Christ) to shine. The five wise virgins are ministers or pastors who understand Grace and it flows from them. Their flocks carry a light yoke so they are very strong and secure in faith. This in turn means because these congregations are grace (oil) filled The Light (Jesus Christ) shines from them continually. On the other hand we then have the five foolish virgins who are grace killers; they have no oil for their lamps - no grace, so their congregations are oppressed and down trodden. These congregations are very legalistic in nature or full of rules and regulations - The Ten Commandments and some, and all laid down with a big stick from the pulpit every Sunday. This means the lamps of these virgins - ministers and pastors (Pharisees) cannot shine because there is no grace in their teaching. The Light and/or the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has gone out of their teaching and possibly out of their lives altogether - their lamps have no oil.

One other thing, some people use this parable as metaphor for the saved and the unsaved i.e. the five wise virgins are saved and the unwise are not. This is a gross perversion of the use of this Scripture. How do we know that? Easy, all the virgins slept and this means all the virgins had metaphorically entered The Lord's Sabbath Rest - all the virgins were called by the Father to His Son so they were all without excuse.

Ok, last but not least we have the message of wisdom and foolishness in this parable whereby no symbolism is necessary. Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (teach a false graceless unjust message) 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened (no oil, no light). 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, (no wisdom and the teaching of a non-gospel) 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, (Man, who turns the worship of God into religion with all his rules, legalism and salvation by works) and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things. (Brackets mine)

Mark 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Salvation by works) 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

So there we have it, the wisdom of Grace versus the foolishness of men with their Graceless legalistic religion, vain traditions and rituals and salvation by works. The Pharisaical blasphemous interpretation of Scripture which puts True Believers into bondage and makes the lives of many of God's sons and daughters a living hell! I know I used to be one of them so I pray to The Lord Jesus Christ that they are all set free and soon.

In part two I will be dealing with verses 9 and 12 as they are also crucial to fully understanding this parable.

Charles Crosby.

As the falcon of death swoops down onto the bird (man) to release him from his bodily cage the bird screeches in sheer terror mentally as he is paralyzed by the grip of impending death. Wait, stop, is this how it is supposed to be when the bird of eternity is locked up in a fleshy little cage? We should be eagles of immortality feeling at ease in never-ending space. Unfortunately when a bird is long confined in a cage even if set free may still want to return, likewise when a man is so attached to his bodily cage desires to return even so after being set free by death. Caged and imprisoned for so long the bird has forgotten the freedom it had in the skies so also with the soul in man imprisoned in a body through many lives has lost his memory of home in the vastness of space.

Did you know that most people fear dying because they were told that it will be painful?
Why is man so stricken with horror and grief when he senses himself nearing or seeing death? When death arrives like a cruel tyrant it is very difficult for an individual to maintain a mental equilibrium when he feels his peace and harmony will be destroyed. It is not so hard for someone to give up an old overcoat when he has the chance of getting a new one, but because of deep attachments to their possessions, some people find it impossible to throw away even old used garments. Likewise, mundane people grieve when they are being ousted from their dearly loved bodies. Do you want to live with apprehensions? As long as you are alive you are not dead and when you die there is nothing to worry as it will be all over!

Spiritual masters tells us that when we die it is totally devoid of pain. When you go to sleep at night you do not feel any pain and when the last sleep finally comes there is no pain. As sleep expels the aches and pains of the hard worked day, death voluntarily releases us of all bodily pain and suffering. Death does not come as a punishment, but is the cessation of all of life's sorrows as a essential finish to our bodily confinement that our souls may depart this earthly realm and journey in a freer form to higher regions. The body may be buried or reduced to ashes in cremation but, the spirit will no longer be subjected to the torments of the body. Oh… what a relief, for the soul is now free in a body of light in the beauty and peace of the astral spheres with no more bills to pay or worries about getting injured or sick.

In breaking down the various steps of physical death, there are stages that occur in the body in this way. When the life force ebbs away from the muscles, the motor nerves becomes paralyzed and because of deterioration to the sensory nerves they are unable to reach the brain and because of paralysis the deteriorating man is unable to taste or smell. The optic nerves begin to fail and the dying man is unable to see and deafness sets in as the auditory nerves are cut off. The dying man will no longer be able to feel his body when the tactual nerves stop working. Do you remember when your arm or leg has gone to sleep? You can see that limb, but you could not move it and that is what happens to the dying man; he is aware of his dying body but because of paralysis he is powerless to move it. When all of man's organs become paralyzed, death is not yet complete even though the lungs, liver, and heart have stopped working as well as limbs. The dying man has no experience of pain during this slow-moving paralysis except for the lungs. This is the only organ that can cause pain in the form of suffocation, but this pain can only be felt mentally. There is definitely mental pain or terror for those who fear losing their physical body and who clutch to it in utter panic when life is ebbing away from the bodily frame and they resist unsuccessfully to keep on breathing. The majority of time even though man breathes constantly he is not conscious he is breathing as it is with the wise spiritual man throughout the death experience. When the lungs become paralyzed the spiritual man will not feel any suffocation because he realizes that the soul is not conditioned by breath. It is the opposite for the spiritually ignorant who thinks his life or soul depends upon his breath therefore it is he who will suffer the mental pain of suffocation. However even the advanced spiritual devotee dreads losing the mortal body and he temporarily forgets he is the immortal soul.

What are the metaphysics of life and death? Death transitions our soul from the physical body to an astral one and then the astral body transfers to the beautiful luminous astral world. Why is death considered a counterfeit sleep? Because now you are dreaming you are alive and then you will be dreaming that you are dead. Men of Self-realization know that mortal consciousness is a physiological mental experience. God is dreaming through us and our own nightmares are added into God's dreams making everything hypnotically real. For example, when you go to the movie theater and look at the beam of light, is there anything real in that beam? Yet when you look at the screen you become involved in the emotion and you begin to cry or laugh there is nothing in that light, right?

When you see the hero die in a motion picture, he has not really been killed. It is the same with man acting out a role in the cosmic movie of life. The killer and the slain hero on the screen are just the electric shadows of two forms. The falcon of death and the villain on the movie screen are alike, they kill no one! Do not misinterpret this philosophy with false reasoning thinking we should kill all our enemies. The souls of your enemies are also immortal. Furthermore, it is the same thing with creation. You and I are floating and it is God's ideas floating in a beam of light. It is incredible how we think we are so real. When the dreamer finally wakes up he realizes that all of his experiences were a mixture of various ideas in the dreamers mind. All motions of consciousness are on the screen of the mind and all of our mystifying and sweetened material entanglements keep us dreaming to make us forget our immortal consciousness. It does not matter how devastating our dreams are, the dreamer is never hurt by the circumstances of his dreams; he always finds himself safe after the dream experience. Similarly, the human-dreamer may be almost scared to death with the experiences of his dream-life, but as he is awakened in spirit he finds himself to be safe and sound.

Worldly men have no idea what the soul is or how it comes and goes into the physical body. Those who fear the cycles of life and death and what these experiences will hold, will have this explained over and over until they get the point. Unless men overcome these fears, repeat incarnation is in order until knowledge is gained on how to overcome them. Do not ever seek death; only a coward is afraid of learning life's lessons.

Those who in despair have surrendered their faith in God and the memory of their immortal nature and die in terror, take with them into their next incarnation a depressing pattern of weakness and fear. The astral blueprint they have created will attract similar calamities to themselves. However, the hero even though he loses the death battle but departs with dignity, finds his way back to his oneness with Omnipresent spirit and at death drowsiness will overtake him into a state of peaceful slumber; when he awakens from his much needed sleep of death from all the hard trials of his life, he finds himself aware of a new astral body and enjoys all of the beauties of the astral world encased in tissues of light forgetting the troubles of past earthly life.

Always remember that the totality of a human life is man's preparation for his final examination at the time of death and when one finds himself at death's gate, he will be reviewing in a blaze all of his habits and desires of his whole life. So quickly, he will be overwhelmed by one desire or feeling which will be in accordance with his life's character. He might have feelings predominantly happy for doing good deeds or guilty for doing evil actions or a feeling of being predominantly worldly for all of his material actions. The dominating feeling will determine where and which particular region of the astral world he will be directed to, and similarly after that to another appropriate incarnation back on earth. At the last moment of a man's life his thoughts will determine what his status is in the hereafter. If spiritual development is not deeply implanted, the severe pain of illness or the nearness of death sparks great fear. Death is freedom and the greatest happiness from all the agonies and suffering of the flesh. For exact details of the astral world, read chapter 43 in the book titled "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda, a spiritual classic, which explains this in detail.

My Name is Mary Magdalene, Jesus' friend on earth and a contributor of money to his ministry on earth. Today I have a message for everyone who wants to read it.

Very few people come to heaven and write accounts of it. Very few people live in heaven for 2000 years and have the experience of living in heaven write something to the world. Today Dormias is typing my words but I am the writer sitting to him giving him dictation. Do you think that is possible? Wasn't it my good friend Jesus said. " with man this may be impossible but with God all things are possible." I am a vision on earth sitting next to Dormias and telling him a story, so before you judge me or him, have a listen to what I have to say for a few pages.

I am not sure about you, but did you ever consider a life of one perfect day after another would get boring and frustrating? Have you ever tried to consider how you would cope if pain and hurt was removed from your life? What about struggles and failures and missing the mark? What would life be like with no tears, no failure, no grind of day to day working for an existence, no stress, no anxiety,and no fear? Could you live in that world? How would you cope?

Dormias wondered this as a human until he asked Jesus more about heaven. The concept he had heard in sermons kind of sounded boring and frustrating and he couldn't live with what people were saying about heaven so he had to ask Jesus for more information. Before he knew he was an angel born onto earth to live as a human for forty years before he knew he had this former life in heaven, the concept of heaven he had heard preached just didn't turn him on.

Fortunately since eight years of age he had a good line to Jesus and could ask questions. And when the time came for this question my beloved Jesus started to give him images and thoughts about heaven and what it was really like.

Today much of this is new to him; today I am going to paint you a picture.

Heaven is not full of people standing in the throne room singing to God each day.

Heaven is not a place where no sadness exists

Heaven is a place where people there can cry tears of sadness and tears of joy and ecstasy.

Heaven is not a place where people float on clouds and shoot arrows at each other or whatever that image humans have of it.

Heaven is very competitive. Let me tell you about a guy I know in heaven. A guy that most of you readers would know if I said his name, yet few Christians would accept that he is here if I said his name, so for the sake of unbelief and lack of theology and the heart of God in Christians and their doctrines I will not say his name.

There was this major world rock star that ended up here a number of years ago. He arrived and fell in love with the place. He saw the birds had brighter colours, that the grass was alive and sprang back when you stepped on it. He walked the roads and paths of heaven and took in the music and the love of the people and his mind was blown away. Never had he ever conceived heaven was like this and in his life he had not done much thinking of heaven.

A major rock star on earth, both a singer and a musician it wasn't very long before he was getting a bit bored. He loved the music but for quite a while he hadn't had any guitar in his hands and though he sang to the songs, he was a creative person and yearned to create. Jesus noticed this urge in him one day and sent an angel to escort him to a session where angels and humans were laying down some live tracks as a new song in the recording studios.

When he entered this place he knew what was going on but the technology blew his socks off. The microphone was responsive and knew the song you are to play and knew your mind and the way you wanted it sang. It wasn't on for the intake of breath, there were no technicians to hook it in, and there were no wires. It just was there as a prop for you to sing into until a musician was comfortable just to sing then it was taken away and the room itself did the job of capturing the audio.

He watched musicians play and singers sing and wept at the sound and the quality of the playbacks. There was no mixing desk, there was no one with a desk with all the inputs making the music come together, the room did it.

There were no amplifiers in the room hooked up to the guitars, the room just played the music that was being strummed on the instruments and an unseen mixer was mixing it all together.

The whole room could hear the sound and each musician was so happy and so relaxed. There was no stress or pressure in the room but lots of love and sometimes they would stop playing and simply worship the Lord in the middle and then continue and do another take. Gone was the usual stress and pressure of big budgets and time as time in this place was eternity and you could do ten thousand takes if you liked, all they were doing were doing praise and worship and experimenting and playing different variations and having a laugh.

He was pumped. An angel after about six hours showed him the sheet music of his rhythm guitar piece of the performance and gestured him to sit down and the angel left the room and didn't come back for what seemed like hours.

He had such fun and was so soaked with God's anointing and peaceful presence the feeling left him higher and more at peace then any of the known drugs on earth had ever made him feel in his entire life. Not only was he playing the best free flowing music to God he had ever played, but he was higher than he had ever been before in the process.

This musician found himself asking if he could get someone to play the guitar and he could have a go at singing the lead. As soon as he asked the angel entered the room a second later, smiled and picked up the guitar as though he's just been off having a meal out with mates and a long coffee and chat.

As there has to be no sleep in heaven he just spent two days in there and walked around and played the three guitars, lead, base and rhythm, sang the lead vocals and had goes at singing the backing vocals.

Then it came to time when the whole team left the studio and went to a yacht and sailed for two days listening and trying to vote on the best takes of the track. They voted all for the best three and then were told those three would be kept.

He was ecstatic and asked when would he hear the music played over the airwaves in heaven, and it was then that he got the biggest shock of his life, both in heaven so far and the life on earth.

"Oh only the very best tracks are played in heaven over the airwaves. Sometimes it might take your fifty attempts or a hundred for you to have one selected depending how good you are and how good your band and singers work together. These are the best three. These will be yours to play and listen to and share with your friends up here, and over time you'll grow closer and closer to Jesus and you'll play and sing better for him."

A stab of sadness impressed his heart and grew into hurt. Every song he recorded on earth was heard by millions of people and yet here in heaven his very best for two days might not even make it.

"It's okay my friend," the angel who gave up his guitar for him to play at first said. "We spent quite a while coming up with these lyrics and quite a while writing the music. In a year or so we will come back to this piece with you and we'll play again. Only the tracts with you are in the best three and this was our vote for your future. One day with enough practice and a closer walk with God we might get this one accepted. I wrote the rhythm part myself and I have been doing that for 4000 years. Our worship leader here wrote the lyrics and she has been here in heaven four hundred years praising the Lord and so these are good lyrics. But this is your first song my friend and you have to play with as much love and devotion to the Lord or sing with that passion to be as good as us, and so its going to take some real good and honest practice."

"Here's a recording of our bands last recording that plays in the courts of heaven. It has brought you to tears a number of times up here and taught you a lot about serving the King of Kings. It was written while you were living on earth and it was dedicated to you and your future up here. Now you are the newest member of our band and we will be doing all of our music with you"

He pressed the button and the song came on and once again the rock icon of the modern world was crying tears of happiness. This song was written for him and with him in mind. It blew his mind.

As he sipped a red wine with crackers and cheese, he mused to himself. "I wonder how many years before a song I contributed to makes it on the audio and I wonder if I could write one for my mother. She would love this place.

My people, this is Mary back. There are rewards in heaven. In heaven you will be doing what you always wanted to do on earth if you were given a chance and you will be doing it for the glory of God and the betterment of the faith of every person here.

That was over 20 years ago that story. Three songs have been recorded and played in heaven that he wrote the music for and played the music. He is excited as the last two have been in the last five years. It took ten years to reach the standard of heaven. It's like studying to be a doctor on earth, he had to learn and do a whole new sort of learning. He had to learn about playing in the Spirit. He had to learn to be less perfect and more trusting in his intuition and the Holy Spirit to lead him.

Oh he sails on yachts, he has spent time with me a few times, he likes to read and loves to hear teachings by some of the best teachers of the Bible up here.

Yes and he is inspired all day long as the praise and worship and other types of songs are piped in heaven, the very best songs in heaven by the very best musicians. He still plays guitar and sings, but he has taken an interest in the harp, one of heavens most anointed instruments and is learning to play really well.

Oh people, life in heaven isn't for all the Christians only. It's for you too. Check Jesus out in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and ask yourself wouldn't you like to compete and have fun in place like heaven under his perfect judgment and mercy?

No money isn't a reward up here…living the life of your wildest dreams is!

Check out more what Dormias Angelic says on www.EzineArticles.com and bookmark his homepage there. I will be helping him remember the heaven he used to live in and he will be bringing some Holy Spirit inspired teaching each week.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. (Hos 4:6)

As a minister of the Gospel, I have met, and have been introduced to, many a fine person. I myself, have been poor, rich(at times), having much, and having little. I have had all that I desired, and lost everything that I had worked for. I have been called a saint and a sinner. I have had no home, but now God has settled me. I have been cold, to the point of shivering, and have been alone, with no helper. I have known pleasure, and pain, sorrow and joy, hope and despair, hunger and filled. So I have learned over the years to be all things to all men. For I know the state of many, and how they feel toward all manner of life. I have had three heart attacks, and have been pronounced dead once. I have had cancer, but was cured by God. I have been ignorant, and wise. I have been blind, and with sight, I have been strong, but yet week. I was lost, but now I am saved. I have learned in my lifetime how to be bold, and humble. I have learned that for lack of knowledge many are destroyed, for as Paul stated, I have learned to be content in what ever state of life I am in.

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.(1Co 9:19-22)

For me, knowing much about anything, is a blessing from God. I know much about little, but am still learning, and have endured many hardships.
For in this, I can understand many, and communicate with knowledge.
For a man to teach faith, he must have faith. For a man to teach trust, he must have learned, to trust. For a man to teach patience, he must have patience.
For a man to receive forgiveness, he, himself, must learn to forgive.
For though I be free from all men,(Free in the body, and choice.) yet have I made myself servant(Servant in the Gospel.) unto all(That will listen.), that I might gain the more.(That I might gain those that are lost for Christ.)
To some, my life , is rich, to others, my life is poor. Its all a matter of whom you ask, and how they perceive me.
Jesus was poor, but had all thing, He was alone, but never without the Father. He was hungry, but not without substance. He gave all He had, to gain the world.

And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. I had to understand their ways, and laws, to insight them to learn about the Messiah. I had to learn, and come to love them as my brothers and sisters, though I was not of the House of Israel.
To them that are under the law, I had to learn the law, understanding why they have held onto their belief.
To them that are without law, being still under the judgment of God, to show them a better way, a better life and, a better covenant.
For I had to remember that at one time, I myself, was without law or obedience to no man. For at one time, we all worshiped devils and not God. This is fact and I lie not.

To the weak became I as weak, knowing how they feel, for at time, still today, I have known weakness, in body but not spirit. For as it is written, "The body is weak but the spirit is willing." I can climb the highest mountains, swim the deepest seas, fly threw the heavens as an eagle, but only in spirit. For what the spirit can do, the body is unable to preform. This is the lesson that mankind must learn before it is too late. For this body must die, but the spirit is eternal.

I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. To those that are learned, I myself, am also learned. To those that are rich, I also am rich(Not as this world considers richness.) To those that are poor, I myself am poor(Understanding their life, for at times I was poor.)
To those with infirmities, I have also been gravely ill, there-by understanding their hopelessness and despair.
For those of a different language, I have been given tools to communicate with them.
For by knowing death, I can sympathize with those that loose loved ones.
Though this spirit is held in this body of flesh, it can still become all things to all men, there-by understanding all.
Do I hate? Yes, but not as this world hates, for I am in the world, but not of the world.
Does God hate? Yes, but only unrighteousness and sin. Is there an easy way to become all thing to all men? No, for this action must come from the spirit, and not of the body. Though a man know all languages and manner of life, without guidance, from God, he is still a tinkling symbol and a house of glass.

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. (Rom 15:1)
I am a success to some, and a failure to others.
I may be nothing to man, but I am a Servant to God. For do I try to please men or God? I am made all things to all men, not to please them, but rather to inform them of the righteousness and forgiveness of God.
For I cannot compromise my position(as an adopted Son of the most High.) with God to please men. For within men is no righteousness to be found. Ars.

I was raised a devout Catholic, and Jesus was with me at all times. He was my trusted friend and seemed to be part of me, which, by the way, is an accurate definition of an alter ego! Part of me knew that He wasn't real, just an imaginary friend, but that part of me I never wanted to face. I would have been too lonely and lost without Jesus.

I suppose that if I had been raised in another country, my imaginary friend would have been different depending on the culture, perhaps Krishna, but I was raised here, and my mother, as well as the priests who conducted catechism classes three times a week, made sure that I knew Jesus intimately. I was indoctrinated from the time I began breathing.

It was comforting having an imaginary friend, but one unusual day, when I was a bit older, I began to look at this whole question of religion, and how easy it is to fall into a relationship with an idea. I suppose we all romanticize in one way or another, but this Jesus or God fantasy became increasingly troubling for me, simply because I was never the type to believe anything without proving it true for myself, or at least after a couple of unusual experiences at age eighteen and nineteen.

There is great emptiness when we know that we just can't fake it any longer. It's as if we awaken from a pleasant dream and want to go back to sleep, but can't — the sun is up, and something quite sobering has entered our hearts. It all has to do with facing reality, which many can't do; they fortunately can remain in their warm and fuzzy world of illusions, but those who are forced to face reality, such as I was, well . . . they suffer.

Jesus held off the suffering for many years, and I would never have had the courage to go it alone if not for two amazing incidents — one in college, and one in Lake Erie. In college, I was reading a book that suggested I concentrate my mind for one minute without thinking. I tried it, as a lark, and was surprised that I was able to do it with no thoughts entering my mind whatsoever. It was a very unusual experience, and as I look back, the experience began to change something deep inside.

Not long after this, I nearly drowned in Lake Erie, going down for the proverbial third time when an incredible peace came over me. It was like nothing I had ever experienced, and nothing to do with Jesus or God; just a peace that I could best explain as a total release and an end to all concern and worry. It was a most beautiful thing, so beautiful that I can't describe it.

I was rescued, obviously, and after throwing up for a couple of hours on shore, my life, although moving along much as before, was altered. Something changed, and it has been changing ever since. I have never been able to explain exactly what I felt, or how I began to change, but I just didn't think the way I had before, or how my peers thought. I became a fish out of water and didn't know how to handle it, so I ignored the deep feelings and pretty much went on with life as normally as I could. However, deep inside, every belief that I had ever cherished began to break apart, like the shattering of thin glass.

Twenty-one years later, when through unusual circumstances I ended up in a Zen monastery, those feelings came rushing back. I was floored again, and what caused the feelings were similar circumstances to almost drowning – the mind, during a split moment in meditation, lost all of its content, all of its memories and planning, its thoughts and conclusions; there was only the emptiness, the same emptiness that I discovered when I nearly died in Lake Erie those many years ago.

Over the years, I have come to appreciate the freedom of meditation. Meditation involves no cramming of the mind with someone else's ideas, only an emptying of the mind where that certain wonderful freedom that I felt in Lake Erie can change one's consciousness. I don't know what that freedom is, although many have tried to explain it, label it with this word or that word, even built religions around it, but I prefer not to go there. I prefer to suffer with my unknowing.

But one thing I do know; that this suffering of mine involves an understanding of my predicament in what we call physical existence, and that eventually this special kind of suffering will lead to the end all of my suffering when I again touch that Reality that I have touched so many times before, both in life and in meditation, This I am convinced of in my heart.

And the heart is the most important place.

After being virtually ignored by Western civilization for centuries, there has been a huge surge of interest in Ayahuasca recently. There is a growing belief that it is a kind of 'medicine for our times', giving hope to people with 'incurable' diseases like cancer and HIV, drug addictions and inspiring answers to the big ecological problems of modern civilization.

Ayahuasca is not a drug, it is regarded as a gateway to another reality, a reality which co-exists with our physical world. From this reality an experience of the totality of inter-connectedness can be personally experienced. Ayahuasca is also known as La Purga (The Purge) due to it's powerful physical 'clearing' effect, but it is more than just physical clearing it is also an energetic clearing of personal history as well. It is never to be taken lightly and only under the supervision of a shaman who is well versed in the ways of the plant.

Spirituality is at the centre of the Ayahuasca experience. Purification and cleansing of body, mind, and spirit in a shamanic ceremony can be the beginning of a process of profound personal and spiritual discovery. This process can continue indefinitely even if one never drinks Ayahuasca again. One thing is sure, and that is that every person gets a unique experience. We believe that by seriously looking at the way Ayahuasca is used we can improve our life experience and benefit more from this medicine.
Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis). The two make a potent medicine which opens the doors to experiencing the energetic world which underlies the world of everyday. The vine is an inhibitor which contains harmala and harmaline among other alkaloids, and the leaf contains vision inducing alkaloids. As with all natural medicines, it is a mixture of many alkaloids that makes their unique properties. For example, Peyote, the cactus used by the North Native Americans, is said to contain 32 active alkaloids, so when one of those alkaloids, mescaline (LSD) is synthesised in a laboratory, contrary to popular opinion, the result is not at all the same.

Ayahuasca is a name derived from two Quechua words: aya means spirit, ancestor, deceased person, and huasca means vine or rope, hence it is known as vine of the dead or vine of the soul. It is also known by many other local names including yaje, caapi, natema, pinde, daime, mihi, & dapa. It plays a central role in the spiritual, religious and cultural traditions of the Indigenous and Mestizo (mixed blood) poeples of the upper Amazon, Orinoco plains and the Pacific coast of Colombia and Equador.
The plants are collected from the rainforest in a sacred way and it is said that a shaman can find plentiful sources of the vine by listening for the 'drumbeat' that emanates from them. The mixture is prepared by cutting the vines to cookable lengths, scraping and cleaning them, pounding them into a pulp, and then adding the chacruna leaves. The mixture is then boiled about twelve hours until it is a thick brown liquid.

To understand ayahuasca in the local context, one cannot avoid taking a look at the ecological environment, such as the rainforest, cultural environment and indigenous cultures. This has structured the cultural content of ayahuasca.

One of the more romantic stories takes place amongst the Shipibo people who live up the river in the heart of the jungle in the Peruvian Amazon.
This tale is centered around women, more so than men, as they look after the children and their health, whilst the men are out hunting and fishing. Men are more interested in plants that aid their inner spirits when hunting , whilst women are more interested in plants that will allow their children to grow.
There was one particular woman who was very interested in plants, who liked to pick the leaves of different plants. She would then crush the leaves into a pot and soak them in water over night. She would then take a bath every morning before sunrise (the way to find out about various plants and their effects is to bathe in them). She bathed in them every morning until she had a dream. In her dream a woman came and said, "why are you bathing every day?" She answered "I am doing this as I want you to teach me." The other woman said "You must seek out my uncle, his name is Kamarampi. I will show you where to find him". The woman led the other woman to her uncle. The uncle showed her how to mix the leaves of the chacruna, which was a bush she had taken leaves from to bathe in. He showed her how to prepare the brew of Ayahuasca, he told her to go and tell the people the knowledge of how to use the brew.

One of the many mysteries surrounding Ayahuasca is how the vine became to be used with the Chacruna leaves as although they both come from the same soil but always grow apart otherwise the ayahuasca winds around the Chacruna and kills it. No one knows this but we get a clue from how the shamans interact with the plant. Javier Arevalo a shaman from the Peruvian Amazon told us " that his grandfather and uncles used to sit around after taking ayahuasca and he said that ayahuasca was originally taken alone and in the visions they saw that chacruna was missing. Ayahuasca would say I am the doctor that gives the vision. His grandfather responded, how can we find this plant? The response in the vision was, you can find it by turning two corners. So they went around two corners and found a bush which attracted them which was chacruna i.e the ayahuasca showed them.

This is a fundamental principle, in the visions it is the spirit doctor of ayahuasca which tells them what is wrong with their patient, what medicine they need, or who has caused the illness or malaise.

Ayahuasca and the spirit of plants.

In the West there are lots of stories like 'Jack and the Beanstalk' reminding us that plants have spirit power, Alice in Wonderland explored this world too. There is a large body of knowledge of power plants even if the form has been adapted to fairy tales and 'domesticated', not to under rate the richness of Grimms' tales.

All the plants used in medicine today were known by our ancestors. McKenna suggested that the evolution from primates to humans was achieved when we left the tropical rain forest to inhabit the savannah regions. We learned to stand on two legs and consumed psychotropic mushrooms. Interaction of plant and animal, change of diet meant a change of consciousness. Goats have a habit of eating all kinds of herbs which is why in the Andes, you are not supposed to eat goat's milk or meat if you are having mental problems. In Lapland the reindeer eat the hallucinogenic mushrooms and the shamans drink their urine which has been "processed".

When a person drinks Ayahuasca, especially with a trusted shaman, there is a chance to learn and trust the plant. You discover that it works in its own way. It is a great moment getting to this point. Then there is the question of whether the plant trusts us, because it can be abused and used for getting the wrong kind of personal power. Without intention, vision, preparation, and a shaman, it is a drug not a healing medicine.

In the Amazonian world Ayahuasca, as indeed all plants, has a spirit which is angelic but also has human emotions projected like jealousy, vengefulness, wroth etc. When it is being prepared, the shaman has to watch over it at all the time to prevent bad spirits being introduced. The fire needs tending regularly throughout the 10 hours concoction and the shaman should diet during this time. It is said that the spirit of Ayahuasca is very jealous and that if the rules of its preparation are not respected it is resentful. We wonder if this is a cultural thing or would it happen to us Westerners as well. During our interviews we constantly found that the general rules about the working of Ayahuasca did not always match up with our own experiences. For example the addition of toe (bella dona) and tobacco to induce vomiting is supposed to make you have a clear head the next morning but we found sometimes it was the other way round. We found it hard to pin down which were the decisive factors.

Sexual abstinence is another thing which is emphasised yet this seems to be a very individual thing. It would seem though, on reflection, that the purpose and intentions of the shaman are among the more important factors, that he follows the diet during preparation and for the session. At all times he is placing his energy where the Ayahuasca is. This also means that not anyone can be present to watch the brewing process, their quality as people as well as whether they had dieted, practised abstinence or had a period, all have an influence. When we watched the shaman Javier Arevalo preparing, his wife would do the washing and shredding of the Ayahuasca. After it had boiled for a while, Javier lit a large mapacho (hand rolled jungle tobacco) and blew smoke over the top of the concoction. The two of us were invited to do this as well. When this is done you can feel a blast from the boiling Ayahuasca in your face. Later in the session, the shaman or the person who has blown the smoke, feels the return of this blast and passes it on to his clients.

It is also important that none of the clients watch the process of preparation. In particular, a woman passing by who was having her period, could leave a bad energy with the medicine. This is a vexed question, the origins of which seem to be traceable to Christian, Amazonian and countless other traditions.

Anthropologists call it taboo for want of a rational explanation, but as with all things of the primordial world, there are reasons inherited from ancestral times, which may have been forgotten. At the dawn of time, realities were very different from what they are today. Mythology may shed some light on the matter, but one thing is sure we don't really know! However it's reasonable to make the assumption that our ancestors were not frivolous.

We worked extensively with Javier Arevalo and we had many discussions on the role of the Amazonian shaman and the use of ayahuasca. Javier comes from Nuevo Progreso, a community of 50 families on the Rio Napo, Department of Loreto, Peru. Several generations of his family before him have been shamans and already at the age of 17, he knew this would be his future. However it was not until he was 20 when his father died from a 'virote' (a poisoned dart in the spiritual world) sent by a jealous brujo, (sorcerer) that he felt compelled to follow the arduous five-year apprenticeship to be a shaman.

Javier, what is the role of a shaman?
He learns everything about the rain forest and uses that knowledge to heal his people since they do not have money for Western style doctors. He uses Ayahuasca to discover in his visions, which plants will be effective for which illnesses.

How do you perceive this?
The sprits or plant doctors tell us. As they are pure, they are made happy when we are too, so we must diet in order to attract them. That means we should not eat salt, sugar or alcohol, and abstain from sex. The spirits come and say, for example they will cure in two months if the patient takes a particular plant. Then the shaman goes out to look for the plant.

It is said that every environments has the necessary plants to heal the people?
Yes, every plant has a spirit, the shaman goes into the forest as part of his apprenticeship and spends two years taking plants and roots. He takes Ayahuasca too and the spirit tells him what it cures. Then the shaman tries another plant, each time remembering which ailment is cured by what.

Does each shaman have to find it all out for himself or is there a body of knowledge handed down?
The maestro goes with the apprentice into the wilderness and gives him the different plants and it is like a test or trial to overcome. The maestro is usually a member of family. In my case both my grandfather and my uncle were maestros. You go off deep into the forest with your maestro and make a very simple shelter or 'tambo'. A shaman must not live in a big house, its just for sleeping and dieting.

How long do you have to diet the plant?
Just one day to know its process, the next day you move onto another. This is if you do not return to the city, you can get through a lot of plants. This is different from dieting a plant for a month say.

So does every condition or illness have a particular plant to remedy it or is it a spirit energy which comes through the plant which can cure many things?
One plant may cure lots of ailments. A particular plant has a spirit which can either heal or kill. As for example with another shaman (who we worked with earlier) , who had not dieted Ayahuasca correctly and poom! it caused fever and people caught colds.

So why would a plant kill or cure?
Because an hechicero (sorcerer) also learns from the plants. He may for example learn from dieting a plant which has spines or phlegm which could be good for certain things. But if he is bad no one can stop him and in the night 'ffoooo' he uses it for harm or to kill. These are the brujos who come back from the forest with eyes red like the huayruro (red beans with black spots). He is a bad shaman and we have to cure the people they harm.

Who would want to do such things?
There are some people who have a squabble with someone, and then they go off to see a brujo and say "this Senora talks too much and has insulted me, kill her and I'll pay you". They pay them and they do harm.

But the shaman who made us ill did not do it intentionally.
No, of ignorance. It was a shaman from the city not from the forest. He went away and left us to mop up the ill effects. He may have had a good teacher but does not diet, he is very fat! (People in the jungle are rarely fat.)
In addition he probably eats the day of the session and that is why he threw up himself!

How does this affect Westerners?
It doesn't matter, they will probably throw up and not have any vision because when he blows he has condiments on his breath. However, it matters much less if the clients have eaten or not stuck rigorously to the diet. The important thing is that the shaman diets.

Note: There is much discrepancy between shamans concerning the question of vomiting. Some say it is necessary for the body to rid itself of what ever is necessary and that if they are not sick they might get ill. (Ayahusaca is often referred to as La Purga.) Others say if you vomit you will not have such good vision and on no account should a shaman vomit.

Why and how did you become a shaman?
I never thought of being a shaman. I took Ayahuasca from 14 years old just to clean my stomach. Later my father said I heard you chanting, you are going to be a shaman. I don't want to I said. Later when I was 20 my father died from sorcery so then I wanted to learn in order to take vengeance. During my apprenticeship I had a change of heart and understood that God knew best in such situations.

Why did the brujo want to kill your father?
Because he was a curandero who had cured someone who had been harmed by the brujo. It happens because we curanderos undo the work of the brujos and they get angry with us. This is the famous spiritual battle between the brujos. When you cure you send the bad magic back to where it comes from and the brujos get their own dirty medicine back. This is why there is a fight between the good and the bad.

Howard tells story of his battle with one of Javier's assistants 3 weeks earlier.
(Javier laughs a lot and explains.) Well because he was not really a shaman, he works as a guide, he drinks liquor. Then when he takes Ayahuasca and chants icaros he is not pure and his doctors don't take any notice of him. The spirits start bothering (molesting) the people participating in the session. That is what happened to Howard. When I take Ayahuasca I talk to the doctors who give visions, I ask them to cure, I have dominion over them because I diet. If I don't, they make you crazy or annoy you.

So if the shaman cannot control himself, then the spirits get out of hand?
If you can't dominate the spirits of the jungle you are nobody, instead of curing they run away or take no notice of you.

So the control of the spirits is fundamental?
Spirits are like angels. God withstood 40 days of hunger and temptation by the devil and was resurrected. That's what we have to do too.

This is Christianity, but your (Javier's) people were practicing long before the missionaries came. Is it possible to separate the Christian from the wisdom of the jungle?

No, no, they work together. But it has nothing to do with going to a church. You learn all this in the wilderness. The spirits there are the angels of each plant to which you add your will to heal the client. This is the will of Christ.

Where does the power of the shaman end and the spirits begin?

The shaman receives the power from the jungle, he doesn't have any power of his own that he doesn't get from the forest.

When I look at you by day I see just a normal young man, when you wear your clothes and move into the ayahuasca space you become different, a different presence, you become larger…

(Javier laughs!) The medicine is not in the body, the body can wear clothes for example, and you see that by day. But at night you don't see my body, you see my spirit which receives the medicine which transforms me through the vision. I have to be pure so as to be a receptacle of the spirit of the medicine. It is essential too for a shaman to be happy, the shaman laughs at everything, because a happy heart is what cures. He can't have a long face or fight with his wife and children.

You started off with a desire for revenge, what changed you into a shaman?
My grandfather saw that my heart was bitter and he told me that it would not get me anywhere. My heart was still hard and wanted to kill! Bit by bit through taking the very plants that I had intended to use for revenge, the spirits told me it was wrong to kill and my heart softened.

Many of us are learning the lesson with money. Either we are tight to make the two ends meet or we have an uneasy relationship with prosperity.

Wealth itself is a neutral issue. It is not either good or bad. We ourselves create the meaning and its role. Its scope can be very narrow and limited or wide and very significant. Anyhow, it is all up to us. It has nothing to do with the energy called money or anybody else except us. We create our own reality – the energy is happy to provide us whatever we wish for.

Therefore prosperity and abundance are at our reach. We can make it to happen. Actually nothing can keep as apart from it - if we only allow it ourselves. And this is the big if. It is not the circumstances or the economical situation. Not the job or anything else in our outside reality. There is no one else to deal with but us.

Can you see yourself already living in prosperity? Wait – stop for a while and really consider the previous point. This is important if you are going to make it to happen. Are you able to visualise yourself living in abundance?

The only thing that keeps us separated from abundance is our own beliefs. We don't feel that we are worth the wealth. We undermine ourselves and simply don't believe it is possible to realise. Maybe we have had some bad experiences in the past and thus we are reluctant to try again. It did not happen then why could this time be any different? Or we regard anything even closely related to business or money somehow unrelated or impure when talking about spirituality and higher purpose of life. We want to associate ourselves only with unselfishness and spiritually uplifting issues - not with the material reality.

What are all the above? They are our beliefs and associations that we have created ourselves. We believe so – not the wealth or the money. Nothing has any meaning except the one we create for it. Our reality is relative. This means that we can decide to use money for our own selfish purposes or use it as a tool to build a better future for all of us. Actually have you ever considered the possibility that the most spiritually evolved persons should also be the wealthiest? This is not so outstanding claim as it first might sound like. Who would be better servant for humanity than a prosperous and humble multibillionaire that uses his / her wealth for unselfish purposes? Not even talking about how these people would run their businesses…

Can you now see yourself surrounded by wealth and abundance?

Common misunderstanding about wealth is that is difficult to gain. Or that one has to work hard to earn it. Who says so? Money doesn't care if you don't. Actually abundance is our natural state of being. There has been previous Golden Eras when gold was widely available for everyone who needed it. Lack and limitations are our own creations. We are meant to be living among abundance if we only allow ourselves. Some of us are very harsh and hard on ourselves. Our previous hardship has taken its toll and subconsciously we blame ourselves for the difficulties. We think that we have earned to be poor and to suffer. It is a lesson that we have to learn. In another words suffering by being poor is a thing that we need. Once again – if you believe so but certainly you do not have to.

Can you see all your friends surrounded by prosperity and wealth?

Wealth is energy like anything else. If you take good care of it and let it flow it will keep coming and become stronger. But if you use it for your selfish purposes and block the sharing of wealth it will drain. Life is economical. It gives for those who appreciate and cherish it. We do not own anything, rather being only humble housekeepers that take care of the resources and gifts provided to us. In another words we must feel to be worth the wealth. Be responsible and joyous about it. We must appreciate and use it wisely.

And finally the secret of prosperity. How to become wealthy? Simply by being one. First forgive yourself. Forgive yourself any hardship or shortcomings in the past. This is important in order to clear any old luggage out of the way. Secondly, love yourself. Love yourself from all of your heart so that you fill up with unconditional love so and it starts to spill over and finally you radiate pure love. Wealth loves to be around kind and harmonious people. You feel that you're worth the wealth and it is a natural part of your reality. Beauty and wealth are as natural for you as any other part of your reality. And then the most important issue when you have now successfully prepared the ground for your prosperity: you know that you are wealthy. You must know this deep in your mind, bottom of your heart and solid as a rock in your behavior. You must be wealthy. How does a wealthy person think, talk and act? This is the way you manifest your reality. A wealthy person do not worry about unpaid bills or low balance in the bank account. He knows that there is nothing to worry about. He / she is wealthy and everything is going to be alright. This does not mean that one should start to spend like a millionaire and take up new loans and so on. It simply means that since we create our own reality by our own actions, talks, and thoughts and these have to be in line with the desire of prosperity. We KNOW, FEEL and ACT with confidence that the wealth is on its way. Nothing can stop as from gaining it. We are creators and thus nothing can stop our prosperity but us. Just do it – you already are.

A call for action in Unity

Imagine ...

And the world would be One...

To all:

This message seeks to unite. In that capacity it means to transcends all restricted understandings of our spiritual heritage and applications of it. It has all to do about the One Spirit that Unites us all, whether we are aware of It, or not. It seeks to bring us soon into a gentler, kinder, probable future.

Recent Remote viewing sessions from teams of Remote Viewers from the Academy have shown a proximate probable future that we feel should be communicated. It is not our habit to spoon-feed a constant litany of horrific end-of-times scenarios as many remote viewers have done. We see no need to add to the general addiction to fear which has grappled mankind lately. If you feel that this message is about fear, then please read it again and again. This is not about events, judgment, but about the panacea to erase fear, and suffering. You all carry this Infinite Force within. NOW is the time to manifest it.

However, because of the imbalance between fear and love, man and nature, humankind and its Creator, male and female energies, great corrections are taking place on very High energy planes and very sub-conscious planes. These are attempts to rebalance The ALL that need to happen. The One is the Fulcrum or vertical pole of the Tree of Life symbolized by the Cross, the Ankh and so many other powerful symbols. Nothing can remain eternally in a state of imbalance, for the One Unified Field of Energy brings automatically all back to perfect balance and then inverts the movement so that Creation as a unbalancing act can happen again and again within Eternity.

This message is different from prior ones. Because of the scope of events which we are seeing in our global probable future lens, I am going to ask you to do a very simple thing. So simple, yet so powerful and important, that it carries in it the seed to change this whole planet's consciousness.

I am going to ask you, I would like you to enter, morning and evening all around this planet, in a state of total communion with the One Unified Field which we all represent and are parts of.

This will become our answer to 9/11 and to the fear cloud which has since engulfed much of our awareness and dulled our hearts and minds.

I will ask you to open your heart in perfect abandon and trust, and invite within your being a force of pure unrestricted love which lies now deeply entombed within it. It has never left you, but you have, for the most part and for eons, not been aware of its presence. Please, call upon It to pervade your awareness, your total being, and chase away all illusions of fear. Bathe in its loving embrace. It is only through opening your heart to its magnificent presence that you will experience within and project then without the Divine Feminine force which has been called so often the Holy Spirit, Christ (anointed one in ancient Greek), bindu point, The Great Spirit, Shakti, Ruach Hakodesh, Cosmic Consciousness, Shekinah, Sakinah etc... You do not need to name It unless you feel more comfortable doing so. This is the Real Power of total unconditional Love. It is the quality of total acceptance of who we are and have become, and the Divine aspect totally void of judgment.

If you stop only for a small moment your daily activities, and accept unconditionally the Messiah within, the savior within, you will then totally perceive and feel that the Messiah (savior) is within each and every one of you. You are each connected to the savior, as it is you, deep within your heart: your soul. It is the loving Self of Oneness waiting to be recognized and invited.

In the time of our exile from our inner Divine Self we thought that we could not be the Divine Savior, that only one Savior could have been or be it. We waited for It on the outside, and the pain of separation became evermore greater. There is no one external Savior. We are all It. We are all the Divine Sons of The One (Father/Spirit Source of ALL Life) - each and every one of us. It is only by unconditionally inviting this realization within and touching that vibration of Divinity within our hearts that we become aware of being the Divine Son, and that the Divine Child and the Divine Source (Divine Father) are but One. All you need is to open your heart to the Savior within and invite it in. It will answer your call. It has been in exile from yourself, and you from It, far too long. The separation has been too painful and the suffering is now so extreme that only by dulling our awareness have we been able to survive, one day at a time. Our hearts have lost their softness and have hardened. We long for the memory of what our souls have once known, Love, Peace, brotherhood, in Divine Oneness. The Messiah has died in utter suffering billions of times nailed to the Tree of Life which has embraced fear and separation. As the Divine Unconditional Loving Eternal One Source hiding in each soul, sHe died over and over again as so many human beings lived and then departed in pain and exile from the realization and experience of Oneness in the Kingdom of One. sHe can but only be reborn in Its full Glory as your Savior in the womb of your Loving Hearts, as you feel and live the way of One.

The only sin there can be is in the perception of separation and fear. It is that perception which kills the awakening of the Oneness within.

We have searched for real Love and real Peace outside of ourselves, but have found naught but sorrow and insecurity.

How we have forgotten that we carried Its seed and Holy presence within!

How barren our souls have become, how silent our awareness!

We have witnessed the effects of separating from this Divine One Heart within, disconnecting from one another, all of us, brothers and sisters, children of the same One Godly Energy, and begat a dark cloud of fear - a stone-like dark clouded energy covering our Inner Self and not allowing for the Light of The Divine presence to shine through and forth.

As this cloud of fear overcame us, we have tended to deny our Divine Origin and brotherhood, our undeniable right to all be happy and free from any fear and anxiety. We forgot that were born out of Love, and that we all can only but come back to It, sooner or later, without exception.

In the hells we created, we tried to burn the fire of Love. But no water nor fire can burn our inner Essence for It will always resurge from the deeper recesses of our souls, as It is our Eternal Self, the part that never changes nor dies: The Fulcrum of the swinging polarities.

It is only through inviting and embracing the Unconditional Divine Feminine Love dwelling within us that we can rejoin the Father of Divine Light within the heavens of our Sub-conscious realms: the inner Kingdom. And, as we enter the Divine Feminine Presence of the Loving energy, we can then bring down the magnificent powerful Light of the Father in our common Heavens in a final Union of Oneness, as we all realize that we were, are, and will always remain the Eternal One Energy of loving embrace and Oneness.

In order to do so, we have to crucify our pain of separateness and die in the notion of fear and separation, by embracing the totality of the Tree of Creation, which is the tree of Life.

As we are voluntarily nailed to the Tree of Creation, we must invite the death of its imbalanced state of being when fear rules over love. It is only by OUR decision to kill ourselves from this old painful perception of fear/separation, that we can then be Divinely reborn into the new Creation: The New Earth (outside reality) and the New Heaven (inside reality). The key is to STOP, go within, and unconditionally embrace Love over separation, and accept that the ones that are not ready yet are still ALL The One and should be forgiven for they "do not know what they are doing."

It is only through the active decision to unconditionally embrace the Divine Feminine aspect of annointed Unconditional Love, who we all carry inside, that we can, each and every one, go through the realization that we are each the Fulcrum, the balancing Zero point, and that we can then invert the polarities in the Final rebirth of Love, after having died in and killed the old world system of fear.

Within the irony of time, we are running out of time to awaken and apply this universal Divine Gift which we all carry, equally so, adults, children, rich, poor, people of all colors, all creed or not, all magnificent individuation of The One.

Within the irony of timed manifestations, dis-eases and imbalance always starts at the level of the outer energetic bodies and inner recesses of our sub-conscious realms before it finally expresses itself in painful manifestation in the physical and sensory conscious realm. Much major rebalancing and restructuring, is already occurring in the energetically and sub-conscious Higher worlds, for the Fulcrum of One needs to keep balancing the imbalances if they become too acute. We all have the power to help this process of redemption, before it touches the boundary of our physical and conscious reality. We all have the power to save our world.

As the Asian tsunami and the latest earth-movements and energy releases have hinted lately, the "ring of fire" in the Pacific rim is being activated, and the tectonic plates of our Mother Earth are being restructured. We have remote viewed probable futures which strongly pointed out that if we do not accept our Loving Unity soon, much fracture will be shown manifesting our dis-connected state from the state of Union in Oneness. Tremendous rumblings will be felt throughout the One Unified Field. Please let us avoid such painful re-alignment!

All we need to do is so simple: Re-member all the pieces that we form in the Unity of the Being of The One. Do it not out of fear, for it will negate it, but out of a deep yearning for Limitless and Unconditional Love. Cry and laugh all you can at the same time.

I hope that you realize how important this is and ask for your help in helping save your selves by spreading this message quickly and inviting Love within.

I would like to finish by quoting an excerpt from a book by Goldie Knight "The unseen World" (2003), which a student sent me a couple of days ago:

What is the Christ? (Christ is the English translation of the Greek word Χριστός (Christos), which literally means The Anointed One)

The (real) Christos (anointed one) is a place in consciousness where you become aware of who and what you are. When you become aware of the presence within, you awaken from a deep sleep. You become aware of the beauty around you. Things that once seemed a burden are no longer a burden. You become aware that nothing is yours and yours alone. You are aware that all things and all people belong to God. You know you are his child and you see that if you are a child of God, all others are children of God.

You know in your heart that even your children are not yours. If you are a child of God so are the ones you have called yours. Then you begin to release your hold on them and give them back to God. You trust God to take care of them, whereas in the past you have tried to mold them to your way, or tried to take over their responsibilities. You realize that instead of helping them you have retarded them. You also realize that they too must see their mistakes. Instead of taking over, you speak to the Christ within them and you pour out impersonal love; this is true Christ love. You become aware of why your love must become impersonal. You realize that it is not possible to love all people in a personal way; you love all because all are One.

You begin to speak to God as you would to your dearest friend. You speak to him knowing he is within and not in a far off place You feel warmth from within that you have not felt before. You tell him you have given up the struggle. You feel your troubles take wings and fly away. At last you are free. You have come to that place in consciousness where the anointed (Christos) dwells, that heavenly place that belongs to all, and you know that at long last you have come home. You stand serene and look back over the far country that you have roamed and struggled and wonder why it took you so long to come home. Then you will know the meaning of the words: "You cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven except through the Christ."

In Love of Oneness

Gerald O'Donnell

In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.

Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.

Is there not a region of Love, where the Sovereignty is illuminated nothing, Where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost,

Where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body?

In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolves, that dissolves in God.

Rabia of Basra (c.717-801) most popular and influential female Islamic saint and central figure in the Sufi tradition

"In a surprise announcement this morning, it was revealed that the Meek have inherited the Earth. The actual change of ownership itself happened three weeks ago, but the spokesperson for the Meek was too shy to contact the press. After much polite cajoling from fellow Meek Persons, the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy has finally come to pass.

A representative for the Meek gave us these comments - "As you know, the Earth was promised to us almost 2000 years ago by Jesus Christ himself, during his famous Sermon on the Mount. We have been blessed for all that time, which was quite nice, but simply had to wait for the momentous event itself. The Earth and all it contains now belong to us. By Divine Command, we Meek have absolute domination over the planet. We hope you don't mind."

— Adrian Barnett, 1999

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

Given our modern day usage of the word "meek" as signifying weakness, spinelessness, and an inability to stand up for oneself, it is no wonder many cringe when they hear this beatitude. Yet we should take note that the two people who are called "meek" in the Bible are profoundly strong, courageous, and full of conviction. They are Moses (Numbers 12:3) and Jesus himself (Matthew 11:29). This should raise some questions about what meekness means in the Bible in contrast to how we might understand it today.

The Greek word for meek "praus" can be defined as gentle, self-controlled, unpretentious, without malice or desire for revenge. It actually has its root in the idea of taming a horse. A meek horse does not lose any strength, but its strength and will is submitted to its master.

Jesus also taught us meekness when he taught us to pray, "Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done" instead of my Kingdom come and my will be done. Notice that meekness in this passage primarily has to do with a person's relationship to God, not to others. In the same way Moses and Jesus were strong in their convictions, but totally submitted to God's will.

We cannot really come to know Christ if we are not meek; if we do not have a sense of our own poverty in spirit, and if we do not have a sense of our own sinfulness. We have to see our need and be humble before God and be open to receive from Him.

Meekness is seeing ourselves for who we are in light of who God is. Meekness and humility go hand in hand. Meekness is not expecting something because we feel like God owes it to us. Therefore, when God gives us a blessing, we are surprised, joyfully so, that God has seen fit to honour those who deserve no honour. Meekness knows who we are in Christ. It is an attitude towards God in light of our poverty through sin, and in light of His provision of grace. Meekness is an attitude, not primarily toward others, but toward God. If we are meek before God, we can be bold in His service. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

If it is primarily an attitude toward others, then we will bend at any stronger will. It is not compromise; it is an attitude toward God, which bends to His will. Meekness or humbleness of mind towards God sets one free to forget ones' self, and stand for Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 11:28-30, where Jesus calls himself meek, He invites those who follow him to cast their burdens upon him and He will give them complete rest. This is an invitation to enter into Christ's bearing of our brokenness that we might participate in his holiness. By the Spirit we can take upon ourselves Christ's very likeness. We exchange our will for Jesus' ability to do the will of the Father. Pray for one another and ask that the Holy Spirit would enable us to develop this strong trust in Christ. Pray that as our lives are yoked to Christ, we would experience God's rest as a reality in the present and know the assurance of God's promise of a "new heaven and a new earth" that awaits us in the future!

The "meek" shall inherit it all! Meekness is a godly trait to possess. It is also a fruit of the Spirit. As we perform our daily tasks, we should stop to ask ourselves: "Do I possess this supernatural quality? Am I poised to inherit the earth?"

© 2007 Avis Ward of AWard Consulting, LLC

I saw a video on GodTube.com (the new 'Christian' version of YouTube.com) the other day.

It featured what was to me an overweight, arrogant, ill mannered American guy ordering some food at a restaurant (footage for his 'Christian' video cast).

He never once used the word 'Please' or 'Thank You' (Something even my 5 year old daughter knows to do).

And, as I watched more I was reminded of the old saying: People would much rather SEE a sermon than HEAR one any day.

Am I the only one that thinks there is an epidemic of arrogance in the 'Christian' community these days?

• So many Christians are arrogant in their judgments.


• Pastors are arrogant in their treatment of people.


• Leaders in positions of trust, responsibility and power are way too arrogant.


• Believers are often arrogant in their witnessing.

And so I ask myself... is it just a cultural thing?

Could it be that people in Australia or the UK think saying Please and Thank You are still important but my American brothers and sisters don't?

But then I realize that I know many American believers that, like me, cringe at the abysmal lack of good manners in so many church circles.

Several months ago I sat at a restaurant with a bunch of believers.

The waitress that was taking our orders was pleasant, hard working and friendly - obviously doing her best to please and serve and yet not a single person besides myself used the words please or thank you even once when ordering their food.

Stop and ask yourself; Would Jesus act that way?

Before you dismiss this as just the unimportant ramblings of a grumpy Australian, please consider that perhaps the lack of manners that seems to pervade so much of the Christian community is actually a symptom of a much deeper problem.

Could it be that, in reality, people just don't know Jesus the way they claim they do?

Oh sure they might DRESS like believers, SING like believers and QUOTE the Bible like believers but no matter which way you look at it - Ill manners is NOT a fruit of the Spirit - Never has been and never will be.

I have been a believer for over 30 years now and in that time I have watched the word 'Christian' lose much of it's meaning and respect.

For so many people a word that used to mean 'Look at my life and you'll see a dramatic difference' has become a codeword for arrogance and flakiness.

It breaks my heart.

I believe it must break God's heart too.

In closing, thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to read this. I appreciate it.

And - if you happen to be a Christian in business - please remember to watch your manners!

Intuition is immediate and instinctive perception of a truth; or direct understanding without reasoning. Whether we want it to or not, it does take a place in our decision making process. Many times intuition is considered in hind sight, after we reap different results than anticipated. This article is a result of my intuition in an effort to help others learn to identify and trust in their own.

Trusting my intuition has never been in the forefront of the decision making process. In fact, it has never really included at all. It certainly should have been. On three recent and separate occasions decisions were necessary that would have a significant affect on my future. They did, and the affect was opposite as anticipated yet not unknown.

In hindsight it is clear that the voice inside me was incorrectly identified to be fear. The decisions revolved around getting out of my comfort zone. After each decision was made, the voice instructed otherwise. Sometimes it would say no, absolutely not, other times it would say this is not the time. Concluding that it was fear I ignored it and forward anyway.

The results of these decisions were significantly different than desired. They were not surprising though. When I thought back, I realized I had known in advance. This was the third time in a week that intuition clearly played a role. It is time to realize that although it can be fear, the majority of time it is intuition guiding us.

Listening to intuition is difficult because it is hard to believe, especially when getting out of your comfort zone is already creating anxiety and fear. It presents itself at unexpected times, not always immediately. For instance, Thursday after finishing a short paragraph teaching me how to handle a certain situation my intuition voiced agreement that I should follow the suggestion. The suggestion was to hold until more experience in this arena was gained.

A task was planned for Friday that involved this particular topic. Of course, I moved forward with the logical decision to do the task and by Friday afternoon, finally listened to my intuition. Of course, it took a really bad experience before wising up. They say the third time is the charm and this was it.

I began to think over when intuition presented itself in my mind. It arrived in many different forms such as songs, conversations, dreams, and journaling. There are probably many other ways not yet known to me. Now that am finally listening I have learned to let the decision rest and allow intuition a chance to come forth.

In today's fast paced world everything seems to be required yesterday; letting an important decision rest is opposite what is usually done and expected. The waiting can increase anxiety further, especially for life changing decisions. Somehow that is never really a problem, it always works out.

Allowing intuition a more involved role in decision making has resulted in better and much simpler ways of accomplishing things. When make a choice, let it rest for a bit and give your intuition time to come forth. You will be amazed at how it will help you.