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Before this, there was a very pregnant Nothing. You see, life always was... somewhere. All things of substance were brought about by thought. You see, mind is all there is. Why were bodies thought up? Why is it not enough for us to be a tree, a rock? Because thought desires movement, expression, discovery, challenges.Life should not be so easy that it is taken for granted and nothing learned. There should be difficulties to overcome. The biggest difficulty physical life had to overcome was inertia, just the sheer weight of itself. It had to develop energy on its own, with a self-sustaining momentum. Life had to be independent and yet able to connect to everything at any time for assistance. You see, Love would not abandon you, ever.
Thoughts without love have no substance in reality. They can but appear to play out in this place. Yet, this bubble, this planet is the limit of thoughts without love. Beyond this place, you cannot go without the True Fire of Love.
The material mind wrapped in a body cloth must be fed and kept warm... it thinks. Surely, it will freeze and be no more. But which fire is the Fire that truly nourishes and keeps you warm, the fire of the body that needs feeding perpetually or the Fire of the Spirit which when discovered thaws the frozen tundra?
Mankind's search for the truth has been intense. There were even times when man believed he could make it up and it would be true. But even the most persistent intellectuals finally come to realize that they did not create themselves, and that they know not how the universe was made. The truth is awe inspiring and must be experienced directly by each aspirant, each seeker, each troubled soul that walks this planet and asks "why" of anything.
I have no body now, so I will not speak of its limitations to you. I will speak beyond those limitations because they are truly self-imposed. You may go beyond limitation any time you truly desire it. The body is not a prison but merely a temporary teaching device.
In the last decade, A Course in Miracles was finally prepared for the world and distributed. The Voice that speaks as its Author is a familiar one to the western world and, by now, familiar to all the world in some form. Much confusion abounds about this personage called Jesus. Much has been made of his teachings. Jesus taught nothing more than what the old people taught. He taught love and forgiveness. Yet, he did one other important thing for the world, for those who would hear it. He created a way back to the truth from illusion.
Throughout these books, I have attempted to create a bridge between the concepts taught in A Course in Miracles and native teachings. A Course in Miracles and native practices are a direct path to experiences of Love, Truth and Spirit.
To step on this path, you must ask truly and desire wholeheartedly. You must put nothing before your desire for the truth and the desire for correction of all the errors in your thinking that have prevented you from knowing love.
I will endeavor to tell stories of times past, with relevance to present time. To aid you with your difficulty in attention, I will try to entertain you. I found my life very rewarding, very entertaining and very challenging, as I'm sure you do yours. I cannot ask you to tell me your story in these books, but I can tell you mine. Your life writes a story, and as you join this story, your life will join Spirit. You see, we are all part of the same story. We are all Spirit.
cheap hotels in GroningenThe First Elemental hotels BrusselFire was the first thing man sought for his comfort. Even before food was this thought of warmth. Always there was the sun, the fire in the sky. There were no people under this sun that were not indigenous. All people were native to their spot.
Natural curiosity widened territories, exchanged languages and promoted the trading of goods. In this trading, the secrets of fire, both of substance and Spirit were shared. Always there were conflicts between peoples, and always those conflicts were resolved. "How" was the question.
Glasgow hotelsThe first prayers were sung. Why? Because the early peoples knew that without feeling their words, they would have no effect. Even the guttural cries of children got more attention than the unfeeling complaints of grownups. There was something about true intent that delivered the message.
So fire is from where? How did it arrive? Lightning? Where did lightning come from? Nature, you say. What is nature? The friction of warm and cold winds on the earth produces static electricity, and pretty soon there's a discharge... lightning. That explains it?
To native peoples all over the world, all events were significant. The big problem was, who knew how to interpret them? Who could decipher the meaning in unusual events? Who could understand them and communicate their meaning?
Thus, the path of shamanism was born. Some took that place and learned. Sure... many better than others and some worse than many. There will always be a fool standing at a high place. The ones that come down from that high place live much longer than the ones that don't.
The Fire book is about the first of the four elementals--fire, earth, water, and air. It describes early native spirit to anyone who cares to listen. I will tell you of my journey and show you how to begin yours. Two people have been picked to record my journey because they picked the journey. They volunteered. They have gone to "high places" and come down. And now, I think they will live long lives and be helpful. Our journey is told, so that you may see your journey in it.
Barbara and John were given the task of writing these stories down because of their true intent, through the strength of the desire of their asking for their own journey. And within their asking was the only Real Question that must be answered and must be asked by each person on this journey called life.
To get down this path, we must, along the way, redefine words that are commonly used without meaning in the English language. (See the Glossary in the Water Book, Chapter 14). We will, hereto, give meaning to each word in question that we use, so that we may accomplish our journey together, for what is lacking in this world today is a reason to be here... meaning. Even native peoples who still carry on their ceremonies have begun to feel an emptiness within some of their traditions because the Old People are no longer available to demonstrate the meaning.
It is time this book be written for those who desire help with meaning in their lives. I will act as the Old Person for all the Old Ones who have walked on, the ones who have taught good lessons to all their children for so many generations past.
To go on this journey, you must slow down, for what truly empties life of meaning in this world is speed... busyness... distractions. Fears, all of them, weaken the soul and separate it from truth. I will take you on a journey that only the old people remember, but that the young people are crying out to have back in their lives. Patience is required. Meaning comes from steady attention.
Perhaps you will read these books in four days. If you do, I suggest you put them away and read them again later. Fire, Earth, Water, and Air Sheraton-Hotel Marseilleare the first four books.
A fifth book may be written later in which all the stops will be pulled out of all the conversations that all the old ones have ever had with all the young ones. The gentleness will be gone. The forthrightness will be present. Love always comes with a stern warning. It is this: "Don't stop loving! Don't even think about it! If you do, Love is lost to you, and you too will be lost in It somewhere, searching for an anchor point."
The Ocean of Love is so huge that you are sure to get lost without Guides. The Old Ones before you are your Guides, the Ones that know. How do you find One... ask everyone, everywhere, and listen endless hours to stories told? Few old ones remember why the stories were told. Even fewer remember how to tell them. Their lives have become too fragmented in this modern world. Their certainty is gone. Their bitterness is too apparent. So, I will act for the Old Ones long gone, without bitterness, with good attention, and with true intent. I will tell you all I know. Ah ho. Hinono
Nowadays, instead of buffalo, you've got cows... sweet, slow creatures, lots of heart, slow spirits, kinda' dull... not too risky to catch. Walk right up, hit 'em in the head. No wonder you don't feel good when you eat one. Took a lot of years to breed the fight out of them, like your house cats and dogs.- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |If you want a chicken, go right up to the shelf. Grab a bird. Squeeze its head off. Feel good. Try it. There they are in the cage--one, two three, four. Okay, ring its neck. Have one. Eat it. Not me! It's not like it's a bean. It's got wings. It can fly. Let it go, then try to catch it. Then eat it... if you can catch it. Then that chicken says, "Hah! I gave it my best! And my spirit's good! And when you catch me, you can have me. And I will love you like you will love me because we're even, equal! Thank you for not killing my spirit before you kill my body. I give you my body! I keep my spirit! That's love.
Now, I don't mean to spoil your trip to Moo-Burger or Kleen Plucky Chicken or any of what you call... "fast food." But I'll say this, you're not too fast to see your food's too slow to give you any fight. And so, you're dead before it is.
Now you say, "Only savages hunt." Yeah, I seen 'em. Thirty-aut-six-rifles with high-power scopes, wide-angle too, hunters sittin' high up, lookin' down, stayin' warm with battery-powered socks, drinkin' whiskey or beer... waitin', hidin', braggin'.
I seen them savages elsewhere too. They're all in the stock exchange. But they're all dead already... nickels and dimes looking for dollars.
I saw that shiny, yellow metal lots of times in the river. I'd pick it up and bite it, and say, Wow, that's soft. I never seen a rock that's soft like that and doesn't go all scruffy. And we carried it around until we got tired of carrying it around. We'd give it to somebody, and it goes to the chief and he says, "That's a perfect rock 'cause it's bright like the sun. It doesn't scruff, and we can hit it and hit it and hit it, and it's still the same color. Pretty stuff. I think we'll give it to Creator. It's perfect. Must be Creator's."
But long time later, somebody built a church and put a face in it with gold all around, like somehow that face isn't you and me. And no, we don't go collecting gold up into big piles like you do, 'cause we don't like to carry things that are really heavy. If I put something around my neck and walk a hundred miles, it'll be my own kid. That's love. You want to wear a necklace that weighs five pounds, looks beautiful, okay fine. Your kids are starving for love, while you're lookin' good... to yourself.
So, shop around. Find God. Find love. Go ahead. Keep shopping 'till you drop. Maybe dropping down will help you see your mistake. Maybe then the buffalo will come back and the cows will go away. Better yet, maybe those cows will breed with those buffalo and remember who they are too.
You know, I talk like this because my brothers all over, my native brothers, their hearts are split and they're bleeding to death with longing for Big Love to return to this place. They had a promise from Spirit that it would happen. They did. And they're waiting. But they're pretty miserable waiters 'cause they're still pissed off.
My brothers, I think love waits with a good heart. I know this test has been very long in your eyes. When the old ones die and the young ones come, and the young ones have young ones, and their young ones have young ones, the old ones still wait and wait and say, "When, Creator? When?"
But I tell you, if your heart is closed, so will your mind close, and you will forget to tell anyone what you're waiting for. So the young ones never get to be old like the old ones, and their children never grow up to be like the old ones either. There is no one to tell the stories anymore. All are children. All are at the mall... lookin' good.
Now, I think it's this way. Try it on and see if it fits. You're waiting for the white man to go away. He won't. You should be helping the white man to become native in his heart. You are all waiting for the same God to return, so that all you natives from all those different places--white, red, yellow and black, in the north, west, east and south can love each other back to abundance again and turn the buffalo loose in open land.
So what you waitin' for? Get tellin' them old stories, folks. Share yourselves. Share your lives. Share your families. Laugh about what we have done to this place because it's only temporary... unless you want it permanent. If you cannot laugh at foolishness, it will not go away. If you fight and are angry and withhold your love, you keep foolishness prisoner to fight and be angry with. If you died with the buffalo, be reborn for the buffalo. If you drink too much, dream more. Clean up, so Spirit can help you dream those buffalo back again. Don't flop down and die. Flop down and forgive. Your dreams of love will create anew and will heal the wounds lying deep in your bones that we are waiting to help you see. And when you see, you will cry for sure. And in the midst of that crying, if you do not get angry, you will see through the illusion of death and loss, and your dreams will turn powerful and will call the truth back to you. And it will come to pass. Abundance will be here again. So don't give up. Don't make yourselves sick, while proving that body is weaker than mind. Give your minds back to Spirit to cleanse, and you will see your healed mind is all there is for love to see itself with.
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