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May 2003
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May 1st 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Like a Light Turning On

(Spiritual enlightenment) ... means that very deeply you have ceased to look outside of yourself for confirmation and affirmation. You have ceased to look outside of yourself in order to find what is most important, in order to find out what is most true and what is most real.

When you stop constantly looking outside of yourself to find all of these things, you suddenly begin to discover what has been there all along, which is your own extraordinary, but usually untapped and undiscovered capacity to see, to feel, to perceive.

This experience is like a light turning on inside you. You recognize that that light is not different for anybody else. It's the source of awareness and perception itself.

And you realize that no individual exists there. There is nobody different, unique, or separate who resides there. It's only you, free from the need to be anybody other than who you have always been.

Andrew Cohen

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 2nd 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Beauty Transformed

We sometimes hear of people who have lost all their money or whose reputation has been ruined committing suicide. Those are extreme cases. Others, whenever a major loss of one kind or another occurs, just become deeply unhappy or make themselves ill. They cannot distinguish between their life and their life situation.

I recently read about a famous actress who died in her eighties. As her beauty started to fade and became ravaged by old age, she grew desperately unhappy and became a recluse. She, too, had identified with a condition: her external appearance. First, the condition gave her a happy sense of self, then an unhappy one.

If she had been able to connect with the formless and timeless life within, she could have watched and allowed the fading of her external form from a place of serenity and peace. Moreover, her external form would have become increasingly transparent to the light shining through from her ageless nature, so her beauty would not really have faded but simply become transformed into spiritual beauty. However, nobody told her that is possible.

Eckhart Tolle -- The Power of Now

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 3rd 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Reflected Light

If somebody points at the moon, a dullard will see only the finger.

Sufi wisdom

Always there have appeared individuals bearing the divine message of the presence of God within us and of the insubstantial nature of evil: Buddha of India; Lao-Tse of China; Jesus of Galilee. These and many others brought the light of truth to the people of their time, and always they have interpreted this light as the messenger, failing to see that what they were beholding as a person "out there" was the light of Truth within their own consciousness.

Joel S Goldsmith

To the disciple who was overly respectful the Master said, "Light is reflected on a wall. Why venerate the wall? Be attentive to the light."

Anthony de Mello

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 4th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Both Can Win

A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. Because,"he said,"I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

Source unknown

'Tis all a checker-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays.

Omar Khayyam

Humility is the Queen without whom none can checkmate the divine King.

St Teresa of Avila

Love is a game that two can play and both win.

Eva Gabor

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 5th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Every Moment is the Best

Do you know the story of Banzan? Before he became a great Zen master, he spent many years in the pursuit of enlightenment, but it eluded him.

Then one day, as he was walking in the marketplace, he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer. "Give me the best piece of meat you have," said the customer. And the butcher replied, "Every piece of meat I have is the best. There is no piece of meat here that is not the best."

Upon hearing this, Banzan became enlightened.

You see, when you accept what IS, every piece of meat -- every moment -- is the best. That is enlightenment.

Eckhart Tolle -- The Power of Now

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 6th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Adoption

A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

Source unknown

When you adopt a child, an idea, or a life-style, you adopt a responsibility. You have to nurture the child, you have to further and spread the idea, you have to conform to the life-style you have chosen.

Nathan P Wanzig

Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.

John Stuart Mill

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 7th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- A Paper Life

"When will I be Enlightened?"

"When you see," the Master said

"See what?"

"Trees and flowers and moon and stars."

"But I see these every day."

"No. What you see is paper trees, paper flowers, paper moons and paper stars. For you live not in reality but in your words and thoughts."

And for good measure, he added gently, "You live a paper life, alas, and will die a paper death."

Anthony de Mello

Many people are so imprisoned in their minds that the beauty of nature does not really exist for them. They might say, "What a pretty flower," but that's just a mechanical mental labeling. Because they are not still, not present, they don't truly see the flower, don't feel its essence, its holiness -- just as they don't know themselves, don't feel their own essence, their own holiness.

Eckhart Tolle -- The Power of Now

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 8th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- All Things Are One

All that any of us has here externally in multiplicity is intrinsically One. Here all blades of grass, wood, and stone, all things are One. This is the deepest depth.

Meister Eckhart

He is beingness, both to himself and to all. And in that way only is he separated from all that is created, in that he is unconditioned being. And in that he is both one and all, all things are one in him and all things have their being in him, as he is the being of all.

The Book of Privy Counselling

I am the one source of all; the evolution of all comes from me. I am beginningless, unborn, the Lord of the worlds. I am the soul which dwells in the heart of all things. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all that lives. I am the seed of all things that are; and no being that moves or moves not can ever be without me.

Bhagavad Gita

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 9th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Best Sermons

That is not the best sermon which makes the hearers go away talking to one another, and praising the speaker, but which makes them go away thoughtful and serious, and hastening to be alone.

Gilbert Burnet

Whenever a man listens to what another says, the more significant the utterance, the more complete the listener's response, and the greater his difficulty in realising what is happening to him. He will be aware of an intensification of his feelings as well as a multiplicity of thoughts which he cannot force into a pattern. The greater the sermon the less listeners will be inclined to talk about its exact effects on them. People are generally bored by sermons they understand too easily and are moved by those they do not fully understand.

R E C Browne

The average man's idea of a good sermon is one that goes over his head – and hits one of his neighbours.

Journeyman Barber

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 10th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Developing Presence Power

The best indicator or your level of consciousness is how you deal with life's challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious. You can use a challenge to awaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into even deeper sleep. The dream of ordinary unconsciousness then turns into a nightmare....

Those challenges are your tests. Only the way in which you deal with them will show you and others where you are at as far as your state of consciousness is concerned, not how long you can sit with your eyes closed or what visions you see.

So it is essential to bring more consciousness into your life in ordinary situations when everything is going relatively smoothly. In this way, you grow in presence power. It generates an energy field in you and around you of a high vibrational frequency. No unconsciousness, no negativity, no discord or violence can enter that field and survive, just as darkness cannot survive in the presence of light.

Eckhart Tolle -- The Power of Now

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 11th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Becoming Conscious

Stay present and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware ... as "the one who observes," the silent watcher. This is the power of the Now, the power of your own conscious presence....

When you become conscious of Being, what is really happening is that Being becomes conscious of itself. When Being becomes conscious of itself -- that's presence. Since Being, consciousness, and life are synonymous, we could say that presence means consciousness becoming conscious of itself, or life attaining self-consciousness. But don't get attached to the words, and don't make an effort to understand this. There is nothing that you need to understand before you can become present.

Eckhart Tolle -- The Power of Now

You see, the "me" observer thinks it is an "I," a subject observer. The "me" is usurping the subjectivity of "I," and that is bondage. When you realize that no "me" can be a subject, that "me" can only be an object, has always been an object, will never be any thing more than an object, as a body-mind mechanism, and that the only subject is the "I" which is Consciousness, that in itself is enlightenment or awakening.

Ramesh Balsekar -- Consciousness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 12th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- One With God

I and the Father are One.

John 10:30

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one:

John 17:22-23

There's a beautiful Sufi story in which one of the Sufis cried out in public, "I am God!" and he was stoned to death by the pious crowd.

That night, one of the persons who had stoned him had a dream. In that dream he saw God welcoming the dead Sufi with open arms. So the stone-thrower asks God, "You sent the Pharaoh into hell because he said, 'I am God.' The Sufi said the same thing but you're welcoming him to heaven."

God replied, "When the Pharaoh said, 'I am God,' he was thinking of himself. When this Sufi said, 'I am God,' he was thinking of Me."

Ramesh Balsekar

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 13th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- A Flash of Vision

Whosever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.

John 4:14

Where all the subtle channels of he body meet, like spokes in the centre of a wheel, there he moves in the heart and transforms his own form into many. Upon OM, Atman, your Self, place your meditation. Glory unto you in your far-away journey beyond darkness!

Mundaka Upanishad

He comes to the thought of those who know Him beyond thought, not to those who imagine He can be attained by thought. He is unknown to the learned and known to the simple. He is seen in nature in the wonder of a flash of lightning. He comes to the soul in the wonder of a flash of vision.

Kena Upanishad

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 14th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Like His Mercy

The sermon has dimensions – height, depth, and breadth. The people who do the listening are sometimes painfully aware of a fourth dimension – length.

Charles R Brown

Two elderly sisters were most devout and regular attenders at the kirk every Sunday morning. The minister was a fine God-fearing man whose only fault, if it is a fault, was that his sermons were never less than fifty minutes. On one particular Sunday he excelled himself by continuing for over the hour, and was still going strong, when one of the sisters (very deaf) turned to the other and asked in a loud voice: "Is he no feenished yet?" To which the other replied: "Aye, he's feenished, but he canna stop!"

Beresford Craddock

It was a divine sermon. For it was like the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. And like his mercy, it seemed to endure for ever.

Henry Hawkins

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 15th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Finding a Certain Peace

Look at life carelessly. The only things worth being disappointed in or worrying about are in ourselves, not in externals. Take life as it comes and do what lies straight in front of you. It's only real carelessness about one's own will, and absolute hope and confidence in God's, that can teach one to believe that whatever is, is best. Don't you think this is the key to happiness in an apparently spoilt and disappointing life?

Edward Wilson

Even great sorrows can be survived; troubles which seem as if they must put an end to happiness for life fade with the lapse of time until it becomes almost impossible to remember their poignancy. But over and above these self-centred considerations is the fact that one's ego is no very large part of the world. The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life which is impossible to the pure egoist.

Bertrand Russell

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 16th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Closer Than Breathing

I am closer to you than yourself, than your soul, than your own breath. Why do you not see me? Why do you not hear me?

Ibn Al Arabi

I am thou and thou art I, and wheresoever thou art I am there, and I am sown in all; from wheresoever thou willest thou gatherest Me; and gathering Me thou gatherest Thyself.

The Gospel of Eve

O how may I ever express that secret world? O how can I say He is not like this, and He is like that? If I say that He is within me, the universe is ashamed: If I say that he is outside me, it is falsehood. He makes the inner and the outer worlds to be indivisibly one; The conscious and the unconscious, both are His footstools. He is neither mainifest manifest nor hidden, He is neither revealed nor un-revealed: There are no words to tell that which He is.

Kabir

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 17th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Above the Haze-Level

Worry is a peculiar thing. It is like a dust storm on a hot day. You can become confused and lose your way. I was in Wichita, Kansas, some time ago, when I had to fly to Cincinnati. A friend sent me in a private plane. When we were crossing the Mississippi River, the sky grew hazy. “We can’t see where we’re going,”I said to the pilot. He replied,”We’ll go up above the haze-level.”

“What’s the haze-level,” I asked. “Ground heat, dust, and smoke combine to form the haze-level. We’ll go up another thousand feet and get above it.” We did and emerged into an altogether different world, clear and beautiful. The pilot commented, ”Life is something like this, isn’t it? Down there they are groping in the haze. Up here, we have clarity and can see our way.

Next time you find yourself bogged down in anxiety and worry, say to yourself, “I will not be disturbed by this thing. I will focus on the present moment and take life a step at a time. I will rise in conscousness above the haze-level.” You will find that your worry has lost its power.

Norman Vincent Peale

The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when confidence has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.

Paul Tillich

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 18th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- What About the Ego?

Even after enlightenment happened, say, in the cases of Jesus or Buddha, their body-mind organism certainly carried on its functions both conscious and unconscious. For consciousness in that organism to happen, there had to be some ego identified with the body. If any of these people were called, they would turn and respond. So, the ego is certainly there.

The word ego has been much maligned. That is because we don't understand the word. Ego, identified with the body, is the working mind and it is necessary for the body to function. Vvhat is absent in the case of enlightenment is the thinking mind which never lives in the present moment.

The working mind always lives in the present moment and does whatever is necessary. The thinking mind always lives either in the past or the future.

You must really understand what you mean by the ego. Ego as the operating element, as the working mind, has to be there. It is only the ego as the thinking mind, thinking of the consequences, thinking as the doer, which is the cause of misery.

Ramesh Balsekar

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 19th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Honey of This Self.

There is just as much honey in the flowers this year as there ever was. The soil will produce abundantly when fertilized well with elbow grease and good sense.

Jacob Kindleberger

Life is the flower for which love is the honey.

Victor Marie Hugo

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best--" and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.

Alan Alexander Milne

This Self is the honey of all beings, and all beings are the honey of this Self.

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 20th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Secret Place

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalm 91

Radiant in His light, yet invisible in the secret place of the heart, the Spirit is the supreme abode wherein dwells all that moves and breathes and sees. Know Him as all that is, and all that is not, the end of love -- longing beyond understanding, the highest of all beings ...

Mundaka Upanishad

Fix thy mind on Me, give thy heart's love to me, consecrate all thy actions to My service, hold thine own self as nothing before me. To Me then shalt thou come. Truly I promise for thou art dear to Me.

Bhagavad Gita

I am a lamp to you who behold Me I am a mirror to you who perceive Me I am a door to you who knock at Me. I am a way to you, a wayfarer. You have Me for a couch; rest then upon Me. The Acts of John

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 21st 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Yoga of Adoration

O holy yoga of adoration, melting all fears All places the false self could hide to save itself To find the heart of the child behind the door of scars That golden room where all things blaze.

Andrew Harvey

Deep in the wine vault of my love I drank, and when I came out on this open meadow I knew nothing at all ...

St John of the Cross

When you are intoxicated with divine love, you see God in all beings.

Sri Ramakrishna

When the soul is plunged in the fire of divine love, like iron, it first loses its blackness, and then growing into white heat it becomes like unto the fire itself. And lastly, it grows liquid, and, losing its nature, is transmuted into an utterly different quality of being. And as the difference between iron that is cold and iron that is hot, so is the difference between soul and soul, between the tepid soul and the soul made incandescent by divine love.

Richard of St Victor

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 22nd 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- A Tidy Income

A newly ordained preacher and his young wife were talking about being more considerate of each other. The good wife promised that she would stop being so critical of his sleep-inducing sermons. He, in return, promised to honour her privacy and stop looking through her dresser drawers.

The preacher was true to his word, and never looked through his wife's dresser drawers; the good wife was never openly critical of her husband's sermons; and their marriage progressed smoothly.

After 50 years, their children gave a great party to celebrate the golden anniversary of the preacher and his wife. Many people came to congratulate the happy couple, and brought lovely gifts.

That evening, as they were putting the gifts away, the preacher saw that his wife had left one dresser drawer slightly open. He tried as hard as he could to withstand the temptation, but he finally opened the drawer and looked inside. There he found 3 eggs, and about $10,000, in bills of varied denominations. He was greatly puzzled by this, and went to question his wife.

"Oh," she said. "Well, you remember when we spoke of being more considerate with each other all those years ago?"

The preacher, feeling profoundly guilty, answered "yes."

"Well," she continued, "I promised to stop criticizing your boring sermons, but every time you gave a sermon that was a real snoozer, I put an egg into that drawer."

The preacher smiled. "Well, that's not so bad. 50 years of sermons and only 3 eggs! But what about all that money?"

His wife quietly responded, "Every time I got a dozen eggs, I sold them."

Source unknown

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 23rd 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Use of Concepts

The best that has been said or written about honey are mere concepts -- the taste of honey is its reality.

PSS

Whether Maharaj said it or Buddha said it or Christ said it, whatever they said is a concept, make no mistake.

I believe the best explanation of the value of concepts, is that given by Ramana Maharshi. He said, "A concept is useful only so long as you use it as you would a thorn to dig out another thorn which is embedded in your foot. Then, when the embedded thorn is removed, you throw both thorns away." That is all a concept is good for; to remove an obstructing concept.

When the understanding happens, these words and concepts are discarded. If you hold on to them, these words and concepts become like cancer. They gnaw at your insides.

Ramesh Balsekar

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 24th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Getting Rid of the Rust

Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.

Tryon Edwards

No grand inquisitor has in readiness such terrible tortures as has anxiety and no spy knows how to attack more artfully the man he suspects, choosing the instant when he is weakest; nor knows how to lay traps where he will be caught and ensnared as anxiety knows how, and no sharp-witted judge knows how to interrogate, to examine the accused, as anxiety does, which never lets him escape...

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

Mirth is God's medicine; everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety -- all the rust of life -- ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth.

Orison Swett Marden

All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice; Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell, Come ye before him and rejoice.

William Kethe

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 25th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Adoring Love

He held me to his chest and taught me a sweet science. Instantly I yielded all I had -- keeping nothing and promised then to be his bride.

I gave my soul to him and all the things I owned were his: I have no flock to tend nor any other trade and my one ministry is love,

If I arn no longer seen following sheep about the hills, say that I am lost, that wandering in love I let myself be lost and then was won.

St John of the Cross

My sky and my earth cannot contain Me, but I am contained entirely in the heart of the one who adores Me.

Hadith

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 26th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Catching the Image Eternal Light! Eternal Light! How pure the soul must be, When, placed within Thy searching sight, It shrinks not, but with calm delight Can live, and look on Thee. Thomas Binney The eye is not strong enough to look at the brilliant sun; But you can watch its light reflected in water. Pure Being is too bright to behold, yet it can be seen reflected in the mirror of this world. For Non-Being is set opposite of Being, and catches its image in every moment. Mahmoud Shabistari Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance! And transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation. St Clare of Assisi

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 27th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Great Stone Face

The Great Stone Face was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness, formed on the steep side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as , when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of a human face, with all its original divinity intact.

All the local inhabitants of the adjacent valley had a kind of familiarity with the Great Stone Face, although some possessed the gift of distinguishing this grand natural phenomenon more perfectly than many of their neighbors. They also knew of the old legend that had been handed down that said one day a great soul would come to the valley who would bear the very likeness of this rocky countenance

In the twilight hours, when the toil of the day was over, a certain young man, named Ernest, who lived on the opposite slope, would gaze at the Great Stone Face, until he began to imagine that those vast features recognized him, and gave him a smile of kindness and encouragement, responsive to his own look of veneration. This relaxing contemplation each evening soon developed into Ernest's settled practice.

A number of visitors came to the valley over the years, whom Ernest hoped would be the fulfilment of the prophecy, but to his disappointment none of them bore any likeness to the Great Stone Face.

By the time Ernest became an old man, he had gained a reputation for a deep and unaccountable wisdom (for he'd had little formal education) and it had become his custom, on fine evenings, to speak briefly to those who sought his insight and counsel at a little open-air chapel near his cottage.

On these occasions, Ernest would speak, giving the people of what was in his heart and mind. His words had power, because they accorded with his thoughts; and his thoughts had reality and depth, because they harmonized with the life which he had always lived. It was no mere breath that this preacher uttered; they were the words of life, because a life of good deeds and holy love was melted into them.

Then, one evening, the gathered people suddenly saw that it was Ernest who had fulfilled the prophesy and indeed bore a true likeness to the Great Stone Face, though Ernest himself never acknowledged the fact and went on hoping that a better and wiser man than he would one day appear in the valley.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 28th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Silence Without, Stillness Within

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. . . . Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego.

Jean Arp

Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and during its life span is surrounded by silence. Silence enables the sound to be. It is an intrinsic but unmanifested part of every sound, every musical note, every song, every word.

The Unmanifested is present in this world as silence. This is why it has been said that nothing in this world is so like God as silence. All you have to do is pay attention to it. Even during a conversation, become conscious of the gaps between words, the brief silent intervals between sentences.

As you do that, the dimension of stillness grows within you. You cannot pay attention to silence without simultaneously becoming still within. Silence without, stillness within. You have entered the Unmanifested.

Eckhart Tolle

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 29th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Freedom From Anxiety

It's not the experience of today that drives people mad -- it's remorse or bitterness for something which happened yesterday, and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.

Source unknown

I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time.

Charles Schulz (Peanuts Cartoon)

This bewilderment -- this confusion as to who we are and what we should do - is the most painful thing about anxiety. But the positive and hopeful side is that just as anxiety destroys our self-awareness, so awareness of ourselves can destroy anxiety. That is to say, the stronger our consciousness of ourselves, the more we can take a stand against and overcome anxiety.

Rollo May

If what we have we receive as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety.

Richard Foster

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 30th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Don't Fight a Fiction

The ego is the identified consciousness. When the impersonal Consciousness identifies itself with the personal organism, the ego arises. The ego itself has no indepent existence. It is merely a reflection of the Consciousness which has created the ego by identifying itself.

Therefore to say, "Kill the ego, fight the ego" is rubbish. What is the ego? It is the individual expression of the same impersonal Consciousness. The impersonal Consciousness has created ego which then is turning towards its source. Why fight ego?

Merely witness the antics of the ego. When the ego does sornething, it is the same ego mind that says, "It shouldn't be done." Once the understanding is that you don't fight the ego, you merely witness it, the ego is no longer an obstruction, an enemy The ego is just a fiction. Why should you fight a fiction?

Ramesh Balsekar

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

May 31st 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Modern Sermons

"Great Sermons" ninety-nine times in a hundred are nuisances. They are like steeples without any bells in them; things stuck up high in the air, serving for ornament, attracting observation, but sheltering nobody, warning nobody, helping nobody.

Henry Ward Beecher

One may sometimes attend church for a year, and hear excellent discourses on international peace, on industrial justice, on civil liberties, sex relations, social ethics in every phase; but rarely or never a word to help one's poor little soul in its effort to enter into commerce with the Eternal.

Vida D Scudder

Complaining that modern sermons tended to be too secular in tone, Margot Asquith remarked, "It would be as surprising to hear God mentioned in one of them as to find a fox in a bus."

David Cecil

The road to hell is littered with the manuscripts of church sermons written late on Saturday.

Alan Harris