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| Prayer Gaz China -- a photo by Gary Finn |
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| Eva-Maria |
Value your journey----------
Not just the
goal or destination or to gain possession of things, but value the journey in
itself. Because along bare
stretches of open land, high hills to climb, potholes to avoid, and bridges to cross over turbulent rivers, all will reveal why the journey in
itself helps to reach our destination, either harmoniously, i.e., with insight and understanding, the sheer pleasure in serendipity and epiphany, or with an uncertainty, born of a perception of time. Then, the destination becomes the only value, e.g., seen in a rush for material goods -- and thus we misunderstand the value of our journey.
Let us not be
like the person who feels he is entitled to own the path he is traveling on,
and thus builds a house by the roadside at every stop. Over-powered by a desire to fence it
off, or build a tall wall around it, he keeps everybody out and at a distance. It’s as if he believes a certain
stretch of the earth just belongs to him.
Is that not what happens when we’re caught by the fever of greed to gain only material
successes? All we can think of is
our goal to possess, to own, to claim power and fame? And is it not more or less meant to
exclude from success our fellowmen?
Some people have a large amount of possession, others have little, and
most have almost none at all.
Is man really
the owner of success, i.e., of property, people, or things? Or does success becomes the owner of man?
But what happens
when we reverse these deceptive thought-processes?
Eventually we
will reach the understanding and with it the insight into true, lasting
success, where we would find no shortage, and no one could poorly be affected
by because when we reverse material things into thought, it is impossible what is needed could be limited or lost.
The idea of
success is not a thing but a thought.
It is a mental concept, and thus available to you, and I, and all, who
understand the journey of thought towards success. Then we realize that material thinking would have to abandon
its false notions, represented by material objects, and when this time arrives there will be no fear of loss, or lack of an idea. A true thought multiplies all the good we need, first within,
and then extends itself in tangible ways outwardly in our lives! And so we are lead wisely and
productively to lasting success.
How did the
great Master say it? “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay
up for yourselves treasures [i.e., noble and productive ideas] in heaven
[harmony], where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through nor steal.”
Should we not
be grateful on our journey for the fellowship of all those who are willing to
journey with us a certain distance, or all the way, until we have reached our
destination? And it would be their
destination, too? We should share
and be generous, without strife, greed, or jealousy. Not ignoring our values and to become ruthless, as it has
been said of too many success-stories.
And even erroneously believing we could claim that no one has helped us
on our journey, and all that just to save a false self-image.
All along on
the journey toward true success, we would not be burdened by a phony sense of
responsibility but by a desire that in whatever we succeed, it has to be a blessing for others too.
The law of
metaphysics is powerful beyond description: THOUGHT EXTERNALIZES ITSELF!
Mary Baker
Eddy clarifies it thus: “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good,
and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionally to
their occupancy of your thoughts.”
Then love and
success are intermingled, and are without simulation.
–--Eva-Maria
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| picture by E-M
Try to care for what is best in thought and action –
something that is good apart from the accident of your own lot.
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Is there any single occupation of
mind that you care about with passionate delight or even independent interest?
What sort of earth
or heaven would hold
any spiritual
wealth in it for souls pauperized by inaction?
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| photo by Gary Finn |
… but for us who have to struggle
for our wisdom, the higher life must be a region in which the affections are clad
with knowledge. …Nothing is feebler than the indolent rebellion of complaint; and to be roused into self-judgment is comparative activity.
--George Eliot,
passages from Daniel Deronda, pages 395, 399, 400—
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| where I spoke . . . Pittsburgh/PA -- a picture I took from the summit of a hill . . . very beautiful! |
With our spiritual
forward movement
our horizon is
constantly expanding as we advance.
–Eva-Maria
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| E-M |
Some say:
Or
And:
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| painting by E-M |
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| photo taken in Luzern/Switzerland by E-M |
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| photo taken in Scotland -- E-M |
Warmly,
Eva-Maria
