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Archive for March, 2009

The Golden Key

Posted in Good Morning, tagged on March 31, 2009| Leave a Comment »

            Study and research are well in their own time and place, but no amount of either will get you out of a concrete difficulty. Nothing but practical work in your own consciousness will do that.

 
Scientific prayer is the Golden Key to harmony and happiness. You need take no one’s word for it, and you should not. Simply try it for yourself, and see.
 
Whoever you are, wherever you may be, the Golden Key to harmony is in your hand now. This is because it is God who works, and not you, and so your particular limitations or weaknesses are of no account in the process. You are only the channel through which the divine action takes place, and your part is first to get yourself out of the way.
 
The actual method of working is simplicity itself. All that you have to do is this: Stop thinking about the difficulty, whatever it is, and think about God instead. This is the complete rule, and if only you will do this, the trouble, whatever it is, will presently disappear. It may be big or little, it may concern health, finance, a lawsuit, a quarrel, an accident, or anything else conceivable; but whatever it is, just stop thinking about it, and think of God instead—that is all you have to do.
 
The thing could not be simpler, could it? And yet it never fails to work when given a fair trial.
 
…With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

If asked to choose the one thing that should be shared with the world, the Golden Key would be it. For it unlocks the door to the path that leads into the Eden God gave us. It also unlocks the infinite power and love of God for use in this world. In order to use this key, we must do some of the most difficult things imaginable. We must get ourselves out of the way.

This means believing in God, accepting that God’s will has dominion in out lives instead of our own and it means following God’s plan for our lives. These are not easy things for humans to do. However, it is not the most difficult. That title belongs to the requirement that we understand and accept that reality starts within and is reflected without. Once we have mastered these things, we have turned the key and entered the Garden. Then we must continue the practices above in order to live daily in our Eden.

Turning the key,

Z gardener

 

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God Is Principle

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

God Is Principle

            The seventh main aspect of God is Principle, and this is probably the one that is least understood. What does the word principle mean?

 
Consider a few generally accepted principles. “Water seeks its own level.” This is a principle. It is not only the course taken by a particular drop of water in a particular locality. It is true of all water everywhere. “The angles of any triangle always add up to 180 degrees.” It makes no matter what kind of triangle one may consider; as long as it is a triangle, this principle holds. These principles were true a billion years ago and they will be true a billion years hence.
 
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever (Hebrews 13:8).
 
Prayer is answered because God is principle, eternally manifest in the same way. When we pray rightly we bring ourselves into harmony with His Law of Being. Prayer does not ask God to change the laws for our temporary convenience, but it tunes us in, so to speak, with divine Principle; if God were to make exceptions because we were in great difficulties (which, because of His nature, He could never do) we should never know where we stood. If the law of gravity were occasionally suspended without notice, say, because a very important man had fallen off a roof, you know what would happen to the world.
 
Each of the seven main aspects is a distinct quality like the elements in chemistry. A chemical element, as you know, is just itself and nothing else. Oxygen is an element because there is nothing in it but oxygen. Water on the other hand is a compound, a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. There are many attributes of God, such as wisdom, beauty, joy, and so forth, but they are compounds made up of two or more of the seven main aspects. Wisdom, for example, is the perfect balance of Intelligence and Love.
 
Beauty is the perfect balance of Life, Truth, and Love. In any true work of art, you will find that these three aspects are balanced. There are many such relationships and interdependencies —“Thou canst not pluck a flower without the trembling of a star.”

This simply means that we can count on God to be the same every day. It also means the love of God never changes and that God’s promises are always kept. This is how we can know with total faith that our lives will be fulfilled when we follow God’s will. If God were not principle, chaos would rule. This is always true, anywhere and at any time. So in sunlight or shadow, mirth or misery, hope or fear, God is ever present and stands waiting in the Garden for us. It is God’s hope that we live together in that garden today.

Plucking flowers,

Z gardener

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God Is Spirit

Posted in Good Morning, tagged on March 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

            The sixth main aspect of God is Spirit. We know that God is Spirit but what does that mean? Spirit is that which cannot be destroyed or damaged. It is the opposite of matter. Matter wears out, but Spirit does not because Spirit is substance. Herbert Spencer defines substance as that which is not subject to discord or decay. Webster says, “that which underlies all outward manifestation…real, unchanging essence or nature…that in which qualities inhere…that which constitutes anything that is.” All this can only apply to spiritual things.

 
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth
(John 4:24).
 
You are Spirit. Spirit cannot die and was never born. Your true self was never born and will never die. You are eternal, divine, unchanging Spirit, in your true nature. The whole universe is a spiritual creation but we see it in a limited way. You have sometimes seen a window made of fluted glass, and you know that if you look at the street through this window everything will be distorted.  Nevertheless, you know that the distortion arises from your seeing wrongly. Our false vision causes us to know ourselves only from a seeming birth to a seeming death; but this is illusion too. This distorted vision of Spirit is really what we know as “matter.” Eucken says, “Reality is an independent spiritual world, unconditioned by the apparent world of sense” – and this is substance.

It seems so hard to accept that true reality is spirit and the material reality we perceive is only a small part of  existence. Yet, the Bible affirms this truth time and again. Acceptance of this truth, however difficult, is the key to understanding our relationship with God and our universe. Once understood and believed, this truth reveals the true way of life that is in harmony with God and all creation. When put into practice, this truth gives us dominion over God’s creation and allows us to shape our reality. Once grasped, this radical truth will “set us free”.

Seeing clearly,

Z gardener

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God Is Soul

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

            The fifth main aspect of God is Soul. Soul is that aspect of God by virtue of which He is able to individualize Himself. The word individual means “undivided.” Most people seem to think it suggests separateness but actually individual means undivided, and God has the power of individualizing Himself without, so to speak, breaking Himself into parts.

 
You are really an individualization of God. Only God can individualize Himself in an infinite number of units of consciousness, and yet not be in any way separate because God is spirit. Matter cannot be individualized. It can only be divided. So your real self, the Christ within, the spiritual man, the I Am, or the divine spark, as it is variously called, is an individualization of God. You are the presence of God at the point where you are.
 
Man may very well be compared to an electric light bulb. The electric current is present in all parts of the circuit, but it shines forth, or one might say, figuratively, becomes self-conscious, in the bulb. So divine Mind becomes self-conscious in you.
 
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods? (John 10:34).
 
When you are called upon to perform some task or undertake some responsibility that seems too great for you, realize that you are one with God and the task will become “our business” instead of “my business.”


Yes, we are vessels of God’s consciousness in the physical realm. Our true nature is as an expression of God’s existence here. When we flip our spiritual switch to the “on” position, God’s will, character and consciousness flows through us. Then we become a light to the world and are filled with peace, joy and gladness. We also tap into the infinite power, love, intelligence and courage of God. It is then that all things become possible. It is then that we truly manifest God’s presence in the material world. It is when we understand that we are God’s consciousness, that we belong to God and that we are here to accomplish God’s will in the physical world, that we truly become Gods. At that moment of realization, we regain admittance into the Eden God created for his children.

Peace,

Z gardener

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God Is Intelligence

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »

 

            The fourth main aspect of God is Intelligence. When you clearly realize that this is an intelligent universe it will make a major difference in you life. In an intelligent universe there cannot be disharmony because all ideas must work together for the common good. Neither can there be any lack. An engine that has been intelligently designed does not have any unnecessary parts and neither are any essential parts lacking.

 
It is especially important to realize that God is Intelligence because it sometimes happens that when people outgrow the childish idea that God is just a magnified man, they go to the opposite extreme and think of God as a blind force, like gravity or electricity. This means that they have lost all sense of the Love and Fatherhood of God, and such an idea is very little better than a subtle form of atheism.
 
God is not a person in the usual sense of the word, but God has every quality of personality except its limitation. The human mind cannot imagine personality that is not limited, but this difficulty arises from the limitation of the human mind itself, and of course this does not affect the nature of God. The Bible says, in effect, whatever you think I am, that will I be to you; this means that if we attribute to God every quality of an infinite, intelligent, loving personality, God will be just that to us. So we may say that we believe in a personal God.
 
Children and young people respond very readily indeed to a prayer for expression of Intelligence through them. If you are interested in a young person at college, pray several times a week that Intelligence will manifest through him and you will be surprised to find how his progress in his studies will increase. Remember also the wonderful fact that when you work for a person the result will be with him for the rest of his life.
 

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! …(Romans 11:33).

God is intelligence, and he gave us our intellect so that we would be empowered to create and to discern and understand the universe he created for us. When we use that intelligence to raise questions and ponder God’s mysteries, we are not turning from God but are in fact using a gift to seek fuller understanding, greater faith and closer communion. If we use that gift to deny or refuse God, then we are misusing the gift and will experience less understanding, an erosion of faith and alienation from God. Each gift given to us by God must be used wisely and for good purposes. Then we will find the answers and the peace and fulfillment we seek and that God wants us to have.

In discernment,

Z gardener

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God Is Love

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 24, 2009| 2 Comments »

The third main aspect of God is Love. God is not loving but Love itself, and it would probably be true to say that of all of the seven main aspects this is the most important one for us to practice. There is no condition that enough Love will not heal. The Bible deals with the nature of God, and as the Scripture develops, the idea of God becomes clearer until toward the end it says,

… God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him
1 (John 4:16).

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
(John 13:35).

Where there is fear there cannot be love. The best way to rid yourself of fear is to realize divine Love. If you love God more than you love your microbe, your sickness, your grievance, your lack, or your fear you will be healed. We have all heard many stories of exceptional people who were able to go among wild beasts in the jungle without being hurt, and there are many other histories on record of people who passed through extraordinary dangers of other kinds quite unscathed. To realize God as Love is the remedy for fear.

Divine Love never fails, but the important thing to realize is that divine Love must be in your own heart and cannot operate from outside, so to speak. When your prayers are not answered it must be bec ause you have not fulfilled the conditions of the law, and, ninety-nine times in a hundred, it is because you are lacking in a sense of love for all. Practice love every day and watch your thought, and watch your tongue, and watch your deed, that nothing contrary to love finds expression there.

The amount of love we have in our hearts will be demonstrated in our lives. Through God we have infinite power and capability. However, that power and capability will not flow into our life without love in our hearts. The love we experience in our hearts is the channel through which God’s power flows. The narrower the channel, the less God’s spirit runs through it. When we truly want some outcome in our lives, we must love enough to achieve that result. It is not our ability, looks, charm, discipline or intellect that answers prayers, but it is God’s love flowing through us. And while all the these attributes are desirable, they can all be turned into negativity without being guided by love. Love conquers all, sees all, overcomes all and knows all. When we grow love in our hearts and minds, sew love in our thoughts, words and deeds and show love to all we meet, we overcome fear, lack and loss. It is then that we truly express God’s power here in our Garden and claim the joy and gladness God intends for us.

Growing love’s garden

Z gardener

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God Is Truth

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The second main aspect of God is Truth. God is not truthful but Truth itself, and wherever there is Truth, there is God. There are many things that are relatively true at certain times and places only, but God is absolute Truth at all times and in all circumstances. As soon as we touch God, who is the Absolute, relative things disappear.

To know the truth about any condition heals it. Jesus said, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).

You should realize God as Truth when you want information on any subject, or if you suspect that you have to deal with deceit. If you believe that someone is trying to deceive you, claim that divine Truth dwells in the person concerned, and is expressed through him. If you realize this clearly enough he will then speak the truth. When you have to transact any important business such as signing a lease or a contract, spend a few minutes realizing divine Truth and if there is anything you should know it will come out. Of course people may have no desire to deceive you and yet for some reason you may not be given the whole story. I know of several cases where serious misunderstandings were prevented because somebody realized God as truth and so all the facts were brought out. I know also of cases where intentional dishonesty was frustrated in the same way.

We all strive to know the truth and follow it. When we put our selfish desires and limited understanding aside, and accept God’s truth and infinite understanding, then we can know the truth and follow it. It is through God’s spirit that we can fully comprehend and seek the truth. And, it through God’s love and grace, that the truth will make us free.

Living free,

Z gardener

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Your Dedication

Posted in Good Morning, tagged on March 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The way of Love, upon which you may step at any moment — at this moment if you like — requires no formal permit, has no entrance fee, and no conditions whatever. You need no expensive laboratory in which to train, because your own daily life, and your ordinary daily surroundings are your laboratory. You need no reference library, no professional training, no external acts of any kind. All you need is to begin steadfastly to reject from your mentality everything that is contrary to the law of love.

You must build up by faithful daily exercise the true Love Consciousness. Love will heal you. Love will comfort you. Love will guide you. Love will illumine you. Love will redeem you from sin, sickness, and death, and lead you into your promised land.

Say to yourself: “My mind is made up; I have counted the cost; and I am resolved to attain the Goal by the path of Love. Others may pursue knowledge, or organize great enterprises for the benefit of humanity, or scale the austere heights of asceticism; but I have chosen the path of Love. My own heart is to be my workshop, my laboratory, my great enterprise, and love is to be my contribution to humanity.”

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God (Romans 8:28).

God has already given us everything we need to attain spiritual fulfillment and thereby, realize all the joy, peace and plenty that God created us to enjoy. Our part of the job is to accept God’s will for us through our commitment to faith, hope and love. Then when we accept that, we must dedicate ourselves to follow God’s will every moment of our lives. That means we must work each day to manifest love in every aspect of our existence. In thought, word and deed we must exemplify our faith in in world. Then, we will be healed, comforted, guided and illumined so that we will express God’s love in the world. Then, we will live in the Eden God gave us.

Peace,

Z gardener

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The Path of Love

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on March 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

All the old traditions tell us that there is more than one path to the great Goal. Just as there is more than one road up every great mountain, and yet all reads meet at the top, so in the spiritual quest there are several roads, all of which lead in due season to the one great End.

There is the path of knowledge. True knowledge of divine things is one of the appointed paths to attainment; but that path is by no means for everyone. And there is the pathway of action—of organized activity—and the world needs this too; but this again usually calls for a special gift, and special circumstances in which to apply it. And there are others.

The shortest and the easiest pathway of all is the pathway of Love. It is the one pathway that is open to all, irrespective of what their personal conditions or circumstances may be. For every man, everywhere, the true attainment awaits through the yoga of Love, for yoga means union and it is our union with God that makes the attainment possible.

There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment…(1 John 4:18).

…God is Love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16)

Sometimes popular culture reflects the wisdom of the Bible. Remember the words of John and Paul (the Beatles, not the disciples), “all you need is love”. In today’s scripture, John (the Apostle, not the Beatle) defines God as love and tells us perfect love eliminates fear. Thus, love is not only a state of being, it is God. And those who live in love also live in God and God lives in them. When we follow the path of love, we will inevitably attain oneness with God. Thus, all you need is love. So when we feel like shouting, “Help, I need someone”, turn to love and all our needs will be met.

One with love,

Z gardener

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Vital Faith

Posted in Good Morning, tagged on March 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Read Psalm 46.
Among all the beautiful and heart-searching prayers of the Bible there is none that surpasses the wonderful poem that we call the Forty Sixth Psalm.

It begins, as do nearly all the Bible prayers, with an expression of faith in God. This is extremely important in practice. You need to affirm constantly that you do believe in God, not merely as a vague abstract concept, but as a real, vivid, actual power in life, always available to be contacted in thought; never changing and never failing. The Psalm closes with a command and an affirmation.

Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. This is really the whole Bible in a nutshell. Be still, and know that I am God. This is the very last thing that we want to do when we are worried or anxious. The current of human thought is always hurrying us along to its own ends, and it seems much easier to swim with it by accepting difficulties, than to draw resolutely away from these things, and contemplate God, which is the one way out of trouble. Even in your prayers there is a time to cease active work and, “having done all, to stand” – to be still, and know that I am God.

How seldom we, as modern people, experience stillness. Yet, it is in those quiet times when we can truly know that God is. Amid all the overstimulation, hurrying about and meeting deadlines, God waits in the stillness for us. As we think, act and respond to the world we perceive, God waits in the quiet cool of the Garden he gave us. In the most frantic rush hour or lying sleepless in the dead of night, God awaits us in our refuge and stronghold. Prayer time, meditation or just sitting quietly in contemplation of God’s presence, power and peace, are all good ways to be still. Each day, let us make time to be still and know that God is.

Still, in the Garden,

Z gardener

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