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  #1762 - Friday, April 9, 2004 - Editor: Gloria  

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. 
Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818), letter to John Adams, 1774

Psalm 122 

I rejoiced when I heard them announce,

    “The time of warfare is past.

No more will brother hate brother

    or violence have its way.

No more will they drown out God’s silence

    and shut their hearts to his song.”

Pray for peace in the cities

    and harmony among the races.

May peace come to live on our streets

    and justice within our walls.

With all my heart I will pray

    that peace comes to live among us.

For the sake of all earth’s people,

    I will do my utmost for peace.

(Translation by Stephen Mitchell)

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  In the words of Jesus   Whoever loves God must also love his brother
(1 John 4: 20-21). Therefore, I say to you all:

Feed the hungry.
Give drink to the thirsty.
Clothe the naked.

Shelter the homeless.
Visit the sick.
Visit the imprisoned.
Bury the dead.

Counsel the doubtful,
Instruct the ignorant,
Admonish the sinner,
Forgive injuries,
Bear wrong patiently,
Pray for the living,
Pray for the dead.
.
Love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you; do good to those
who hate you. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him
something to drink. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good
(Rom. 12:17-21). Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult. Return a
blessing instead.

Get rid of all bitterness, all passion and anger, harsh words, slander
and malice of every kind. In place of these, be kind to one another,
compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you. Do
nothing to sadden the Holy Spirit with whom you will be sealed for your day
of redemption (Eph. 4:29-32).

Rather, encourage one another. Live in
harmony and peace with one another, and the God of love and peace will be
with you (2 Cor. 13:11). All of you should be like-minded, sympathetic, loving
toward one another, kindly disposed, and humble (1 Pet. 3:8).
.
Jesus said to His disciples:
"You shall love the Lord your God
with your whole heart,
with your whole soul,
and with your whole mind.
This is the greatest and first commandment.

The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments the whole law is based, and the prophets as
well (Matt. 22:37-40). If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a
liar. One who has no love for his brother whom he sees cannot love God
whom he does not see.

'Come! You have my Father's blessing! Inherit the kingdom
prepared for you. For

I was hungry and you gave me food;
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink;
I was a stranger and you welcomed me;
I was naked and you clothed me;
I was ill and you comforted me;
I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Then the just will ask Him, 'Lord, when did we do such things to
you?' And the Son of Man will answer them: 'I assure you, as often you did
any of these things for the least of my brothers, you did it for me.'      

The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is
"look under foot." You are always nearer the divine and
the true sources of your power than you think. The lure
of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great
opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own
place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every
place is the center of the world.

~John Burroughs  

by Gill Eardly ~ Allspirit Inspiration

From: 'Absolute Consciousness'
Ramana Maharshi

There is only one state, that is consciousness, or
awareness or existence.

Consciousness is indeed always with us.
There is no moment when the Self as consciousness
does not exist.

This consciousness is the eternal being
and the only being.
You cannot deny your own existence.
That existence is consciousness, the Self.

Only when the ever-present consciousness is
realised will it be permanent.

The Self is
pure consciousness.
No one can ever be away from the Self.
There is no duality in the state of
pure consciousness. Truly speaking,
pure consciousness is indivisible,
it is without parts.
It has no shape, no within and without.
There is no -right' no 'left' for it.

Pure consciousness, which is the heart,
includes all, and nothing is outside or
apart from it.
That is the ultimate truth.



gill
Allspirit Website:
http://www.allspirit.co.uk  

---

    POEM   I lived in the first century of world wars.
Most mornings I would be more or less insane.
The news would pour out of various devices
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories,
Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen.
I would call my friends on other devices;
They would be more or less mad for similar reasons.
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
In the day I would be reminded of those men and women,
Brave, setting up signals across vast distances,
considering a nameless way of living, of almost unimagined values.
As the lights darkened, as the lights of night brightened,
We would try to imagine them, try to find each other,
To construct peace, to make love, to reconcile
Waking with sleeping, ourselves with each other,
Ourselves with ourselves. We would try by any means
To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves,
To let go the means, to wake.   I lived in the first century of these wars.   Muriel Rukeyser  
 

---

  Al Larus   "Return"   http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Return.htm
 

---

  The Three Answers:
Go Anywhere.
"Do" Nothing.
Love Everybody.


"He: Remember 'Love Everybody' does not mean take an
action just to please them. It only means to be clear
so My Love can shine from your heart and touch their
hearts. If you care for a sick woman with no thought,
it is My Love that she will feel. If there is any
resentment on your part, My Love will have a harder
time touching her - that's all. Just stay as clear as
you can.


You are hanging onto a tangled rope. Untangle the
entanglements by letting go of the end of the rope.
Let it go to whatever shape it falls to naturally.
Every twist by you makes it harder to unravel. If you
let go, the rope will still exist, it just won't be
tangled. The energy used to keep the rope twisted will
be freed.


You had no thought before or after you tended the sick
woman, but many thoughts before and after you parked
in his driveway, or left a note or a gift. These are
the efforts that tangle. Just let them go. Let my
Kingdom be and you will be a part of it.


There is no place to go, nothing to do, nobody to be
with..... There is only Love."



From personal journal, "Easter Dialogue."

By Amrita Nadi ~ Daily Dharma  

---

   A Zen story   

Tetsugen, a devotee of Zen in Japan, decided to publish the sutras,
which at that  time were available only in Chinese. The books were to
be printed with wood  blocks in an edition of seven thousand copies, a
tremendous undertaking.  Tetsugen began by traveling and collecting
donations for this purpose. A few  sympathizers would give him a
hundred pieces of gold, but most of the time he  received only small
coins. He thanked each donor with equal gratitude. After ten  years
Tetsugen had enough money to begin his task.   

It happened that at that time the Uji River overflowed. Famine
followed. Tetsugen  took the funds he had collected for the books and
spent them to save others from  starvation. Then he began again his
work of collecting.   

Several years afterwards an epidemic spread over the country.
Tetsugen again  gave away what he had collected, to help his people.    For a third time he started his work, and after twenty years his wish
was fulfilled.  The printing blocks which produced the first edition of
sutras can be seen today in  the Obaku monastery in Kyoto.   

The Japanese tell their children that Tetsugen made three sets of
sutras, and that  the first two invisible sets surpass even the last.         

---

 

  Prayer for the Great Family  

On the Beach At Night Alone

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