There are certain Laws that govern one's progress along the Path to real Freedom: these are Timeless Truths whose Principles regulate the possibility of rebirth through the transformation of one's being. Of course these Laws may be disputed (by those so willing), but the outcome of resisting or refusing their authority breeds not just suffering, but to the soul's corruption which, in turn, leads to its own gradual destruction for its choice to live outside of God's harmony.

Many of these Timeless Laws are evidential, even to an "unenlightened" eye. For instance it is clear to most of us that the branch depends upon the vine for its life, or that a house divided cannot stand. We witness there is a season to all things, and that in order for a new form to rise out of it, a seed must abide alone in the dark and die. Who would contest that Love is its own reward.

These Eternal Laws rule everything under the sun as well as the universe that gives birth to the countless golden suns that pulsate its heart. Such manifestations of Truth in life are not too hard to see if one will only look. But there are many Laws whose demonstration may not be seen. The eye cannot catch hold of them anymore than one can see the sweet tones of a bird song drifting on the breezes across a high mountain valley. Which brings us to the point of this paper:

Some things in life must be heard to be known.

This is why, if we wish to know God's Life in us, we must learn what it means to listen. Ponder the higher logic of the invisible laws that follow. Listen to the silent truths they tell individually and as a whole. Soon you will hear the sound of the Truth that sets you free.

No one is teachable who will not listen.

No one will listen who thinks he has no reason to hear.

No one cares to hear what does not immediately serve his imagined sense of self worth.

No one who values nothing other than himself has any reason to listen.

No one who is sure he doesn't need to listen ever learns what he would not hear.

No one who has chosen not to listen ever knows that he missed the opportunity to hear the sound of God's voice.

No one who goes through life not hearing God's voice ever realizes that what he never heard is God's instruction: be still, be silent, and I will teach you of my Ways.

No one who lives outside of God's Ways knows that he lives in the isolated temporality in which he does, or that he might have been taught the Way to Life Forever... if only he had taken the time to learn how to listen.

Man, as God imagined, is as eternal in nature as is God's thought of him so being. The life of this eternal person is the Christ, whose Living Light is to this, our immortal soul, as is blood to our physical body.

When a person has come to know a true love for the Christ, this love is more something he is held by, and not something that he holds of himself within himself. So that true love of Christ occurs only in the awakening soul who has been claimed by Christ; for it is not the soul that loves directly -- as her power is only to reflect Light; but it is Christ Himself that loves in this willing soul. And mark that this love is never a boastful love; it is a secret love, a tender love. It has no more ambition than does the sun that gently warms the soul without shouting, "I am the light by which you live, that sustains you here on earth." So if you meet those along the Way who would push or otherwise press upon you how great is their love for Christ -- and why you should feel as they do -- you may know with fair certainty the following truth: Their love is less the love of Christ, and more the love of themselves in their mistaken belief that it is they who love.

The true Christian knows that if he has Christ in his or her heart that Christ is not "his" -- but it is he who belongs to the Christ; so that there is no pride (of "ownership") in a true Christian. Such pride is a secret vanity and often becomes the seed of a spiritual sickness that gives rise to unholy prejudice.

To be in the Christ (hence to live as a true Christian, and not to be a self-deceived hypocrite) requires self-realization; for the Christ is our innermost nature and the Celestial Core of Real Life.

The only way to really be "like" Christ... * is for one to be Christed*; and our fledgling wish to be Christed is the same as the Christ Life beginning to express Its (nature of) Light through our own.

Just as any actual healing takes place factually after some injury has occurred, so is it true that one's "salvation", the true spiritual rebirth of the soul, can only come to those who become conscious of their own un-regenerated state of self. In addition and necessarily so... it is a false Christianity that offers one comfort before it urges him to confront the fact of his own unseen corrupted nature.

The true individual is not someone who is defined by the changing characteristics of each passing moment, but is he who sees these movements within himself defined by his permanent character in the Living Light, in the eternal Christ.

And I saw a vision of a gleaming white castle with a narrow footpath leading up to its great white gates. This walkway -- extending out from the gates as far as the eye could see -- was so worn that it appeared to the eye as a kind of cut-mark several feet deep. And when I asked a nearby angel as to the nature of this Bright Place -- and why the path leading up to it was so well-worn, she replied: "This Place is where humans who love the Living Light bring their hearts for Perpetual Safe Keeping."

For a moment I pondered the significance of such a Place, marveling at its power and promise. As the strength of this impression grew, I spoke out: "Isn't this something!" And I went on... "So many have come here to leave their love with the Divine that the ground itself has been worn away right up to the gates!"

After my comment I could feel the angel's attention fall upon me something like a breeze, and I looked up to see her smiling at me.

"The reason the Path is as worn as it is," she spoke as she looked away towards a person approaching the gates with empty hands, "is because most humans who find their Way here for the first time return time and time again."

She must have felt my confusion and anticipated my question because before I could even formulate what was racing through my mind she continued almost without pause.

"First they come and leave their hearts here in God's Good keeping, but then they return... only to take them back again." She smiled once more and then -- almost as an after-thought -- said what were to be her last words to me: "It seems that some people must make this journey a thousand times before they actually come to understand that here is where the heart belongs for Good."

With that the mystery of the well-worn Path was solved, but there was something else that happened in that moment. I can't be sure, but it seemed as though her smile turned into an unspoken question that moved from her eyes into my own. And that was when the vision ended.

We are, at our innermost core, instruments of the Divine...

And the Divine is the Absolute: the total potential realms of all that is Light and Dark.

We are unique creatures in the secret Essence of this unending expanse because not only are we the living instruments of all possible reflections along with their corresponding intonations, but we may know that we "sing " these colors; we may realize these Timeless Songs of Living Light have their secret origin in the very center of our being.

The Peace of God is the Song of all of His Spheres: It is the music they intone as they spin and spread themselves throughout His universe.

Each orb of cold, dark dense matter -- or radiant light-streaming sun pulsates to the rhythm of its own heart; each sounding out its unique song until these tones merge as variegated hues of light scribed upon the perfectly white pages of the Book of Life. All as one they sing the celestial notes of a harmony such as is heard only by Angels on High. Nevertheless, these same Eternal Chords sound in us... and therein call to us to lend ourselves to their transforming intonations.

Listen! The sounds of Love will make you their instrument and pour Peace through you like a breath of fresh air passes through the waiting flute. But don't try to sing! And fear not the presence of sharps and flats or even the passing tone of some sweet whole note of joy... For the One Who sings has composed this entire Symphony for you.

Just wake up. Open -up: let yourself be played!

We must not fear these wild pulsations of hope-filled feelings too deep to hold... for they have an accord with themselves, and their own path to follow.

These sometimes too strong stirrings of that unbearable wish for a compassion that can embrace all of creation must not be dampened simply because we don't understand the pressing of their presence in us. They are not asking us to know what they want: These forces are self-organizing.

They race and swirl and disrupt and digest all in their path because they are building something anew from themselves within us... so that we must turn them loose; let go of what we might hope to extract from them and, instead, allow them to exact their Celestial influences upon our soul.

These energies are the New Blood: they are stirrings of Spirit that speak to us in wild pulsations whose origins are the stars. We cannot know their native language anymore than our physical ears can hear the Intelligence inherent in the Light -- which is why we must allow their impressions to assemble within us without interference.

They seek to build a New Universe of infinite individual galaxies; and we -- each of us -- are their Deep Space. We are created for this eternal nurturing. In this way each of us is the whole, but only if we accept our part in this Revelation.

When it comes to the possibility of spiritual rebirth, it isn't that God does not will this for all of his earth-clad children. Quite the contrary: In this world of ours the goodness of God's Will is always active through his Son. What nullifies the birth of this eternal Life within us is that we have yet to learn how to ask and receive it. What is freely offered to us goes unaccepted because we haven't yet the heart to surrender ourselves for it. We cannot let go. Too many parts of us cling to their fleeting and altogether conditional sense of self - so that we remain willful and self-certain instead of being reborn a citizen of Heaven.

For anyone willing to see the truth of this secret self-centeredness, and the sorrow of the separate sense of existence it perpetuates, this unseen state of arrogance may be found running through many, if not all, of our prayers. Just see how the sense of "I" dominates our dialogues with God. With this finding in mind we must ask ourselves a spiritually telling question: "How many times need the word 'I' appear in any prayer of 'Thy will be done'?"

In the majority of our supplications to God a perpetual sense of "what I want" rests squarely above all that it requests. Virtually undetected by us is that this same petitioning nature sits there within us as a would-be ruler over the very relationship that it asks God to come in and be the King of! We are betrayed in the very core of ourselves by an imagined wealth of sincerity coupled with certainty. In these self-pleasing states of self are found ample amounts of selfish motive and its attendant means, neither of which (it turns out) can bring about the release of one drop of God's Good Grace.

What must be done spiritually is the undoing of our self, something that this earth-bound nature has neither the will nor the heart to do. And that is precisely the point. Once we can see that of ourselves "we can do nothing" because, in realty, we are nothing (as we imagine ourselves to be) then - empowered and rightly emboldened by this light of Higher self-understanding - we can agree to our nothingness, our poverty, before God. Here, in this conscious prostration, we have let go of the illusion of our will in favor of the reality of His Will to run our lives. This is the right request. It is the sacrifice that is the seed of spiritual rebirth. And it will be done.

Here is a great, but unseen, psychological Truth that once realized sets us upon the true spiritual path leading to Real Love and its Perfect Freedom:

What frightens us about others is what we want from them; and what we want (from others) is largely what we have imagined is in their power to either give to us, do to us, or withhold from us.

And so, whether we live with the fear of our love being rejected, or of being disrespected, or in the too fragile hope that someone won't injure us with a word, glance, or aggressive act... it is these same powers that we hope to gain from others -- or have over them -- that puts us in the fear of them... rendering us, in the end, feeling more powerless than we felt ourselves to be at the outset of our seeking.

Your task is to welcome this message and to want to understand it.

Ask God to show you its healing and liberating secrets about your own unknown self and its dark desires. Do this much and the Light of a new day will dawn when you will realize the divine nature of a Timeless Freedom that only Truth can loose.

Waiting for a shooting star on a pitch black night, or the touch of a cooling breeze on a hot summer's eve is no doubt part of the pleasure of that desired arrival...if not the greater part.

In waiting for what one longs to have envelop him, the anticipation of the coming is a special kind of awareness of what will come, so that in this kind of conscious attendance one is united with the spirit of what comes prior to its arrival.

In this awake and attentive state of self the actual moment of one's expectation fulfilled is but the realization of a fragrance whose subtle essence has risen up to pour itself out of his now flowering heart... a heart that is the source, the sender, and the receiver of what has been sent.

The usual, or sensual mind, is always seeking experience. Its primary source of this "food" needed to sustain itself is the unconscious chain of reaction that constitutes mechanical, associative thought.

The hunger this nature has for this food is that with each reaction there occurs within it a certain contraction that is both painful and pleasurable for it. Pleasurable because this contraction creates a momentary sense of self, a "false" self created from being in opposition to what it considers. The painful aspect of this contraction is that all such actions cut off, or isolate, the nature in experience of it -- which becomes a source of suffering for it -- in that this same nature also longs to reach a state of wholeness.

While experience may serve as the path to self-knowledge, still it remains the lesser half of the path to self-knowing. Self-knowing is not experiential. It has no one apart from itself. It does not take place in time.

Self-knowing requires risking the self that fears being no one; a "risk" that becomes an inevitable choice once the seeker sees that all pursuit of experience, whose root is secret self-confirmation, is powerless to bring an end to his sense of isolation and loneliness.

Following are 9 insights and instructions to help you begin placing your wish for true self-knowing over the experience-seeking sensual mind.

1. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time seeks forms of familiar stimulation (which it calls being industrious) so it never considers that what would be best for it would be to quietly explore its own self-induced desires.

2. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time is trying to hide from itself the fact of its own essential emptiness.

3. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time wants to be, and in its own agitated effort to become fails to see that for it to exist at all proves that Something already is.

4. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time will willingly pour itself into a thousand meaningless actions rather than see, once, the futility of its own pursuits.

5. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time excludes, by the limited field of its own perception the possibility that, in reality, there exists no time outside of its own point by point considerations, and therefore ... that there is no place to reach, no separate self to complete, and so ... nothing to do.

6. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time can't consider that the best use of its "time" would be to see into the unconscious movement of its own thought process as it creates not only the question of its own "best use", but also the self it needs to search for the answer to its question.

7. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time sees being alone and unoccupied as states having no value, to be avoided at all costs, because its only system of self-evaluation requires the ongoing presence of the opposites.

8. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time is a mind in pursuit of those sensations produced by time; i.e., the sense of running from one point to another (from thought to thought) for the sense of self that this movement of time creates.

9. The mind that asks what's the best use of my time seeks experience, and because of its own conditioned nature is unable to see that what it really wants is: the unexperienced -- a state of itself that cannot be sought.

We imagine the impossible for ourselves in order to temporarily look upon ourselves as doers of greatness and, when failing to achieve these imagined heights -- as must be the case with all things impossible -- then we are driven to embrace that self-pity and despair always attending the self not "good enough" to win the world it imagined.

But if we would work to do the possible, by conquering our own self-created, ego-centered imaginings, then would we discover that the Greatness to which we aspire lies not in the dream of doing something impossible, but in the Possibility we already are within what we are given to be in the moments of our tests and trials.

It is one of the great spiritual mysteries that there are times and aspects of self in and through which it is impossible to progress upward. But, even the smallest steps within what can be done in any given moment changes the fabric of time and self enough so that what was once impossible then becomes a possibility... But only when we're willing to challenge what we still imagine ourselves to be with what we're willing to work through to become.

And as to Life's Course,
Do hold this one thought:
We are made,
Each of us,
As much by what we will,
As by what we will not.

You wish, and then rush, to free yourself from your sorrows, but refuse to change the beliefs causing them...which is like jumping off the Ferris wheel onto the merry-go-round in the hopes of bringing an end to your dizziness.

Any attempt to protect yourself from emptiness only creates the illusion of it...along with an imaginary self that believes it can somehow outrun this unwanted nothing. Both illusions are filled with real-enough terror. Neither one can be slain any more than a shadow can be put to death by the knife.

To see the Truth of these truths is to let nothingness happen.

Allowing nothingness its life slays both the illusion of emptiness and the self so fearful of it. Then, Real Emptiness, and her beautiful sister, Fullness, appear to reveal themselves as being Celestial Twins that are never apart from one another.

Let nothingness happen.

The Nature of Awareness that holds within it the understanding of the opposites is neither a creation, character, nor captive of these opposites, but contains them. Finding this Nature within yourself is the same as finding its Freedom.

He is full of himself, filled with himself, believing the sensations he clings to is life itself.

But in his hands he holds nothing save a temporary agreement; a fleeting marriage of his own best ideas about himself confirmed for the moment by the world in which he seeks himself.

This unconscious union of ambition and condition, of desire and conforming circumstance, always creates a brief flash of light, as when flint meets stone. And when one or the other of these worlds crumble, as time insures they must do, his day turns to night; his wholeness seeps out, replaced by a gnawing emptiness. He can do nothing but watch as his mistaken fullness-of-self fades into unwanted feelings of self-futility.

This cycling of vanity with life-in-vain goes on and on until, one day, he begins to see the cost of his self-filling self. And in his awakening is born his first true wish to empty himself of this strange self love... for he no longer wishes to continue giving himself himself.

Here it begins. Now, in earnest, he commences the Good work of giving himself up.