A Higher Meditation - Joel S. Goldsmith

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all I'm offering is the truth nothing more this is Joel in

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Portland and we are still in the midst of the second Portland

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series the subject tonight is a higher

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meditation and the thought for this came from note in uh my

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notebook how can we look upon a flower without letting the thought

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wander gently back of the flower to the Divine influence that could give us such

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beauty of form and color such perfume and

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Grace is it possible to view the Grandeur of mountains valleys and seas

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without thought going back of the visible to the

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[Music]

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invisible students pay particular attention to this entire

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real you have some uh deep ideas for

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study

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love to understand the source of these flowers trees oceans

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mountains is to better enjoy and love the outer symbols just as to know and understand

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the mind and soul of an artist gives greater appreciation of joy

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of realization in his work before me sits a tiny carved Ivory

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figure and at once there flashes into my thought the Invisible Man Who C this bit

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of grace and beauty and even further to the beauty of soul and purity

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of mind that guided and gave skill to the fingers of the artist

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feeling something of his love for his subject sensing something of his

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affection for the piece of ivory itself so carefully

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selected I feel more the life Beauty art and skill which is shown forth in this

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tiny figure and so understanding God even a

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little I am better able to discern ear the life love the joy he has embodied in

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man and the universe and so I am enabled better to

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understand and to love all creation because of this my own life and

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love expand and become more pure joyous and understanding

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this step that we are taking tonight in higher

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meditation will make clearer to you the fact

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that the infinite way leads us into a higher dimension of life we

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live in a higher dimension of life we live not so

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much in the world of effect as in the world of

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cause we find our good not in effects not in things not in

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persons nor in places but in the cause of all that

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exists and the more we understand cause God

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Spirit the more enjoyment we get out of all effect out of all persons and

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things we understand them better love them

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more now you will see here this beautiful little Ivory

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carving that is on this desk and uh first of all let me tell you

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of the love invisible love that surrounds that

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peace to begin with it came to me as a gift from one of our students in rangon

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Burma who had what we would call a nice

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healing and um as a token of her

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appreciation knowing that I have a collection of little art

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objects gathered in many places in the world in my travels she brought back

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from Burma to me in Honolulu on Christmas Day

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day this little piece and so while sitting up here all

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that is visible of it is the Ivory

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figure actually now we know a little more about it and we can appreciate it

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more because now we know something of the invisible love that brought that to me and from me

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to you and I would like to

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know what in particular struck you as you saw or

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handled this piece would someone tell me of something that struck them about

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it the position of the hands all right

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Ser the Serene expression on its face very good

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what I'm waiting for yes the cause of the

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inspiration can't you just look at that figure and picture the man who carved

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it can you imagine what was in his heart in his mind as he selected that

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particular piece of ivory watch the grain of it the color of

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it the purity of it and then as he went to work on a little piece of ivory now

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remember that this entire figure is at most 2 in wide at the widest point

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and 2 and 3/4 in high at the highest and

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there is the full figure of man Seated on the

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Lotus the Buddha Seated on the Lotus now can you imagine what love probably for the

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subject of Buddha what love for the ivory what love for his Artistry and skill went into

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that that in that small space he could show what one lady saw

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uh the unusualness of the hands and another one the serenity of

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the face think of that on a tiny little piece of ivory the serenity of the face

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now to the world there is nothing sitting there but an ivory

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caring and yet to us here there is is now the love surrounding it that brought

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it here the evidence of the Christ in healing that is responsible for its

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being here there is not only the beauty of the

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hands and the serenity of the face but there is to us an actual

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awareness an actual feeling within us of the love that was in the heart and the soul

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and the mind of the man that did that piece now don't you

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see that because we know the love of the student who sent it and we know the love

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and uh whatever else you can perceive in the consciousness of the

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artist we can appreciate that visible figure the

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more we can appreciate it now much more than we saw at first when it was nothing

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more or less than a piece of carved Ivory well and so it is here here we

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have the branch of a little tree of plant and so far as the visible

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eye sees it's nothing more or less than that just a little Branch with some buds and

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a few colored flowers on it now I ask you to look at it

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again and

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uh as you look try to see

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into the invisible realm that surrounds this

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and try to understand what produced it

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the life the presence the power that which is summed up in the

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word nature just think of what was in

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operation on a

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seed think of what is in operation in a seed in the

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[Music] soil that would appear

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outwardly as Buds and Blossoms and leaves of such beautiful shape and

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color try if you can to look through this Branch back of

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of it as it were into the invisible realm and see the operation of an

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intelligence and of a love that could appear to us in This

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Magnificent form as you do

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that you will begin to see that this

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branch in and of itself is nothing just like that figure in and of of itself is

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nothing until you begin to perceive the miracle of that which produced it of

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that which is really the life of it the love of it the soul of it that which

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gives unto it its color Grace form perfume

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usefulness now as we learn to look look upon every figure

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whether of art or whether of Nature and not spend too much

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time in admiring or valuing it but immediately get into the

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background and try to perceive something of the nature of the cause of it of that

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inspiration that appears here outwardly as form beauty

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color usefulness so forth you know all the qualities that are here in this plant

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and in this figure

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now we who study this message of the infinite way

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are those who have come to appreciate that there is always more

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than meets the eye there is always something deeper

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grander more wonderful that is in the realm of the

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invisible and that whatever that presence or power is in the

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invisible is that which is made manifest to us as the visible Inseparable and

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indivisible don't think for a moment that the soul and the mind and

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skill of the artist isn't right there in

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the figure it's appearing to us as this carving not something separate and apart

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from it it's all there and don't think for a minute that the activity the life

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and love of nature is something separate and apart from this plant it isn't the

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life of this plant the substance the reality of it is formed here as the

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color grace and beauty of the

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plant it is only

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through entering this fourth dimension of life this realm of the invisible

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that we begin to perceive a law at work and a law which is

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love and then to understand that all that appears is the form and

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activity of that which is invisible and we find then

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why the Master's teaching is so clear on the I have me

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that the world knows not or I have water if you'd ask me I could give you water

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invisible surely but this invisible water would spring up into W of eternal

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life and so we learn from these experiences from these

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illustrations that the master was taking us back to the invisible Realm

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that which no man has ever seen heard tasted touched or smelled with the physical senses but which any man May

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perceive with his inner spiritual faculties and there learn not only of

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the realities but of the cause of all that exists and thereby bring out

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Harmony you see it is only in proportion as we see these object objects as

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something in and of themselves that we can come into

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accident that we can come into disease that we can come into lack and

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limitation because we see them separate and apart from the substance that

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brought them into expression once however you learn this

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idea of perceiving that the visible is

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but the appearing in form as form of that which

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caused it created it gave it life animation Beauty then you will see that

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because the form is inseparable and indivisible from its cause that even the

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form is eternal there is our great

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lesson we have even in this Modern Age

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deaths whether you call it passing on or call it dying as a little moment to the

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world they are deaths and why because we have accepted the belief

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that this form that you see is me and is my life and it is separate and the part

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from the universal life which gave it its expression its form color figure all

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that it has even its intelligence and uh compassion and life and love all of

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those things that are embodied as me we see them as separate and apart from their source and therefore we say why in

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three score years and 10 they'll be all worn out and die whereas the moment we begin to

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perceive this this invisible

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Essence that is actually the life law principle cause substance

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activity of my individual life then my individual life and that universality

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become one and it becomes Immortal and eternal and it's impossible even for the

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form to dis appear or die

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now our great question is how do we

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attain that Consciousness which realizes the

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immortality and the infinite nature of its own being your being and mine since

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we know that we are infinite being if Infinity is the measure of our cause

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and we've learned that one of these ways is meditation and meditation has never been

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an easy subject to learn to understand in the oxidal world and in these days

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even less so in the Oriental world because they have drifted away from the original understanding of the meaning of

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meditation and so we are going to

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meditate now on a higher plane than we have done

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before I am going to ask you to instead of closing your eyes fully close them

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about 3/4 leave a slit there that you can see through and look up here at this

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uh Branch at these leaves the Buds and

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Flowers and as you meditate and now close your eyes about

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3/4 just leave enough room to see this and uh don't think of persons and

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don't think of problems don't think of anything in this outer world we want to

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go now into the fourth dimension into the invisible Realm

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we want to go into that which the world can neither see here taste touch nor

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smell with its physical senses and so in looking at

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this try in your mind to visualize the forces of

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nature that operated to bring this forth remember first of all the

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seed planted in the ground just a seed nothing but a seed and planted where in

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dirt plain dirt and out of that combination of a seed and plain dirt

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look what has sprung now what Miracle has wrought

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this what Miracle of invisible activity an activity that couldn't even be

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followed or seen with the most powerful microscope

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just think of this invisible life force that first touched the

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seed and broke it open and enabled little shots to take

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root in the ground and imagine the moisture from the

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soil going through those shoots and feeding it and then the minerals or other

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elements in the earth that were drawn into these little choots to feed

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them and watch the product as we next

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have an entire root system and then the shoots coming up

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above the

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ground and all the rest of the development of the plant on up into a Tre tree branches leaves buds flowers

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and every single bit of this visibility coming out of

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where the invisible all through an

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activity unseen to our senses unknown to us really

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humanly and then Marvel and if you like be a fool and say there is no

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God or otherwise look and say yes only

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God only the infinite invisible only the unknown and the

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unknowable could produce out of a tiny seed and a patch

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of dirt this

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beauty this color this form this

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grace and go from there to our little figure and try to visualize that

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artist sitting there with a blank piece of ivory or an ivory that he has first

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probably spent hours or days selecting for its color for its beauty for its

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Purity for its grain think of the love that went into

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that choice first of that piece of Ivory and

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then of the funling of it in his hand as he commences to perceive in his

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mind the form that is to appear in Ivory

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think of as you look at that figure think what love he must have had of this

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idea of Buddha hood

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remember he wasn't carving a man since Buddha isn't a man Buddha is Enlightenment Buddha is a

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state of divine Consciousness Buddha is what we of the

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oxident call the Christ the spirit of God in man the spiritual

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son and here is this artist pondering the idea of the Christ

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of a spiritual activity and wanting to bring it forth

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into form so as to give to

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others the Delight also of seeing that which symbolizes

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the invisible Christ that which shows forth invisible form the invisible

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qualities and activity of the Christ perhaps some of you have seen the

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Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and can see what I

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mean when I say that there is no such thing as Liberty in an outline form Li

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is a quality of being there was an

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artist filled probably heart overflowing with the idea of freedom

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Liberty Joy he had to give it expression in some form that you and I could enjoy what he

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was inwardly visualizing visioning enjoying and he wanted to share us to

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share that Joy but of course he couldn't take us into his inside that we might

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see what he was seeing and feeling in the name of Liberty and

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freedom and so he brought it forth in tangible form as the statue of a woman

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upholding a lamp with stars in her

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hair and there again you have the idea look at the Statue of Liberty but

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look through it and you see the miracle of love and of

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life that appears now outwardly as this great figure and so we do with this

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little one just imagine a man with a Divine ideal of Christ her wanting to

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share it with us in tangible form and he brings it

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forth as this figure sitting on the Lotus the Lotus you know is symbolic

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of spiritual Purity and spiritual Integrity therefore he has to give this

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figure a foundation and he is given it the Lotus

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Seated on the Lotus seated within its own spiritual integrity and impurity

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that's the idea that is conveyed to us from the invisible to the

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visible now all meditation should take this form all meditation should take you

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back from the realm of the visible to the realm of the

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invisible where you can ponder the Divine idea God way you can contemplate the Divine

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reality God where you can enjoy thrill within

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you to the idea of the great first

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cause where you can fill your Consciousness with a realization of the

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meaning of divine love a Divine love that appears outwardly in these infinite

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wonderful forms appears

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as the divine Grace Beauty

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grander this form of meditation may even look at a

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sunset a mountain Starry

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Sky looking at it and looking through

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it and again realizing

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Sky showeth forth his handiwork the Earth manifest his

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glory all of the invisible all of the love and the skill

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and the art and the beauty and the Integrity of the invisible appearing to

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us in wondrous visible form

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without this invisible there would be no visible and without the continued

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activity and without the continued Divine

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love there would be no continuity of This Magnificent creation

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called man and the universe we live by grace

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by grace Of An Invisible Presence an invisible power that is

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forever pouring itself out as creation as manifestation as expression just as

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this artist has poured himself out as this beautiful little figure just as

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Nature has poured itself out in this beautiful Branch flower Bud leaves

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this meditation May likewise look upon man woman child

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animal looking at them taking no note of their faults or

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failures look through them to their divine origin

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to all the forces of the invisible that join

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together to bring about this visible expression of intelligence life

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love form

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Joy think of the qualities of that invisible that are embodied in in every

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individual just as looking at this plant think of all the qualities of the

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invisible moisture of the rain light and warmth of the

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sun minerals and substances of the earth that have been poured into this plant

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and now appear as this plant and then think of all the qualities of life

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and of love and of proof of joy and of

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compassion think of all of the great

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wisdom that God has embodied in every man woman child animal

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on the face of this globe God has embodied itself God has embodied its own

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qualiity an individual being you won't see this by looking at man woman or child's

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figure any more than you can perceive all that we have perceived in this Ivory figure all that we have perceived in

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this little branch of a plant you won't see all this by looking

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them in the face alone but by looking through them to the invisible cause then you you

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see all this Grandeur appearing and so it is if you look at man woman and

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child look them in the face look them in the body you won't see what I'm talking

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about but you look through them with all of the spiritual

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understanding that you can bring to bear and try to

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understand how God has embodied itself its qualities its activities its own

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being in every individual and that every individual is a

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presentation a witness an expression a formation of that infinite Divine

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itsself pouring itself out then see how great your love will

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grow for this universe and for its

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people and where that will come a deep compassion for those who know not their

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own identity Those whom we call the evil men and women of the

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world and we won't condemn them but we will be unable to understand the master

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as he says father forgive them they know not what they do let's not hold it

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against them it is their ignorance let's forgive them 70 *

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7 why don't you know that if every man on

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Earth knew what we know about these flowers and

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plants that no man or woman would ever let a day go by without having some

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little bud somewhere about them do you know that if every man or

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woman on earth knew what we know about this little ivory piece that no man or

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woman would ever permit themselves to go a day without looking on some form of

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artistic beauty or listening to some form of beautiful music they couldn't they couldn't if

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they realize the depth of the wisdom and the beauty of the infinite invisible

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that produced them it was Mohamad

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who said if I had two loaves of

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bread I would B one and buy higher sense

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for the soul Ah that's what I mean that's what I mean we would enter

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the fourth dimension of life where there are such

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Beauties harm Mones that the world knows nothing of I have meat the world knows

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nothing of I am the bread of life I have water that Springs up into life eternal

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oh I have Hidden Mysteries the moment I begin to perceive that which underlies

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all creation that which is the reality and that our ancient Hebrew friends

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called keeping the mind stayed on God leaning not onto thine own understanding

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but acknowledging him in all thy ways or what Paul later called pray

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without ceasing

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now meditation then has for its

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purpose the getting back to God and you rightly say we've never

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strayed from God oh but if we were only aware if we were only

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aware that we have never strayed from God we are all a part of humanity

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because we've accepted the belief that we've strayed apart from God and we are all a part of a truth

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study for the one purpose of getting consciously back to our Oneness with God

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to that place where we can say I live and move and have my being in

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God now here is the

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way that I have discovered of finding my way back to God of keeping my mind

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stayed on God of bridging over that terrible space from

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materiality to spirituality I found that because God is

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unknown to the human senses and God is unknowable to the human

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senses that the only way that I can bridge over that

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space is when I meditate first of all to let my

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thought Drift from the world and its cares and its

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problems to some of the beauties of the

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world everyone has something in their home every church has something in it

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that one could look at beautiful picture painted by somebody little piece of china wear

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that's been painted by somebody knickknack here or

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there and when nothing else a flower a plant the simplest plant

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a rubber plant will do a f anything that shows forth God's

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handiwork and then by first thinking upon them and

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then threw them back to the infinite

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invisible pondering the idea of how this activity formed itself and expressed

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itself through nature through the mind of a composer through the mind of a an artist

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sculptor gradually we find ourselves going deeper and deeper and deeper and

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one fine day we've done it we've actually found ourselves

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centered in God and then we're not thinking anymore our thoughts are being uh thought

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through us ideas are being thought through US impartations of the Soul become apparent

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to our awareness to our Consciousness then we find God revealing

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itself uttering the word that is quick and sharp and more powerful than a two-edged

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sword that word of God that uh separates the Red Sea when

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necessary that produces the Cloud by day and pillar by a fire by

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night that which produces the Miracles of our

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experience our meditations should carry us

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back through the visible to the invisible that is the

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fourth dimension those who live in the third dimension live only in the world world

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of height width and depth in other words the world of form and they are

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completely cut off from the essence or substance or law or life or activity of

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that which appears outwardly as for

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as we start out from the basis of God the

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cause God the reality the substance and

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law then we see that all effect whether appearing as thing or man all effect is

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but the showing forth of that infinite being

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God all individual being you and me all individual form animal vegetable

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mineral is but the invisible God life pouring itself forth into expression

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embodying its infinite qualities nature and character and

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therefore all of this Earth is the Lord and the fullness

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thereof all of it is God appearing as a universe as

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man all of it is Immortal all of it is eternal all of it is yours and mine the

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cattle on a thousand hills mine son all that I have is

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thine and again I am ever with thee I will never leave thee nor forsake thee

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now now that we've touched the invisible realm we can understand why how true how

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could the love of that artist ever be separate and

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apart from that which it created how can the skill how can the purity of soul and

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mind of that artist ever be separate from the form it created how can the

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greatness the Grandeur of nature ever be separate or apart from this for form and

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how can God the father and mother principle of our being ever be separate

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and apart from our individual being how can we be separated from God how can we

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be separated from good I and the father are one thou seest me thou seest the

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father that sent me thou see is that Ivory you're also looking at the State

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of Consciousness that evolved it you look at this plant and you're looking at the divine nature that formed it they

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are one Inseparable and indivisible and I am the father are one

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and all that the father ha is mine God has embodied its qualities character and

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nature into my very being my being is eternal and Immortal and when I say mine

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I mean yours because mine is yours as yours is mine because it's all God

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appearing the one life the one

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Soul now you see the depth of the meaning of

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meditation meditation is not just an abstraction meditation is not an occult

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practice for some mysterious purpose meditation is the getting back

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into God meditation is a process through

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which we keep our mind stayed on God and the things of

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God meditation is an activity of our Consciousness opening to us the infinite

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invisible so that it declares itself within our own being reveals itself as

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the health Harmony and wholeness of our being

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meditation is the art of divine appreciation meditation is the art

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through which we learn to rightly appreciate each other and all the

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products of nature of man and of Art and of music of literature and of scripture

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meditation gives us an appreciation of the outer form because it gives us an

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understanding of the Divine love that produced the outer

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form you know that when you know the author of a book that makes the book more valuable

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to you more enjoyable more understandable when you know the composer of a piece of music that makes

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the music much more enjoyable when you know the painter of a picture the sculptor certainly once you know the

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mind and soul that produced the good you can appreciate more the good

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itself and so it is with all of us oh if we could only know

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God oh if we could only taste or Touch One Drop of God if we could have an

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infinitesimal grasp on the Divine reality we call God how wonderful all

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creation would appear to be and it is meditation that carries us back

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meditation that permits us to go right through the object or person back to its

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Creative Source or principle and then knowing it come back to the world again

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the infinite way will open to you a new dimension of life because no

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longer will you be

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limited to time or space to height width or

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depth because instantly your mind your soul will jump from the

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appearance from the three-dimensional form to the fourth

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dimension of its origin of its cause of its

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source that's the fourth dimension Spirit

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God the ability not to be dependent on things which do appear

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whether as person or thing or place not to be dependent upon them not to overly

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love them not to hate them not to fear them why because if you look through

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them you'll find that in every case the source is God and whatever appears to be

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evil in the world of appearance represents but our

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misperception of the ca

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when you hear I will never leave you nor forsake take you won't you please

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remember our little figure and remember that the love and the

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Artistry the skill the purity of soul and devotion

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all the arst cannot be removed from that figure you cannot do it as long as that

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figure shows forth Beauty Grace form

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Serenity of Faith don't you know that the very mind

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and soul of the artist is there oh yes and so it is with us that which

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formed us will never leave us nor forsake

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us that which formed us is in US its very qualities are still here

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to enjoy the life of the soul to enjoy soul faculties that is the

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higher wisdom that wisdom which is above book learning it becomes necessary to get

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back into the consciousness of Soul into the consciousness of God

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God and this is one way this particular form of meditation is one way that I

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have found to do it instead of just sitting still and trying to blank the

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mind or think nothing or make a jump all the way from humanhood to god try to go

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back through some visible form to the causative principle The Life and so

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then come forward again and see the perfect creation bless you thank you bless you

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