Better than a thousand
Useless words
Is a single word
❤That gives peace
The Dhammapada
Better than a thousand
Useless words
Is a single word
❤That gives peace
The Dhammapada
Some Thoughts on the Bible
What Christians call the Old Testament (OT) may be considered the seed of the New Testament (NT), the flower; they seem to differ widely, but yet there remains an essential link between them.
Jesus retained and referred to the OT, but he also reformed it. He brought out the inner meaning of its rules and regulations, he took its theories, and made them practical, just as he fulfilled the vision and dreams of its prophets.
The Master’s teachings can be fully understood and appreciated only by studying their relation to the OT (Matt 5:17).
The OT was Jesus’ textbook!
He quotes from it, he refers to it, he explains its meaning with a masterly ease.
The Talmud records a saying to the effect that “the world is saved by the breath of the school children,” adding that “even for the rebuilding of the Temple, schools must not be interrupted,” (“The Ancient Documents and the Modern Bible”).
Josephus, the famous Jewish historian writes, “ Our principle care of all is this; to educate our children well.”
Luke says that in Jesus’ day considerable attention was paid to education, for he refers to a group of teachers of the Law “which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea, and Jerusalem.”(“EDUCATION “ James Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible)
Jesus must have attended regularly a school in Nazareth, Beth-has-Sepher, meaning literally “The House of the Book,” the book in question being of course the OT.
The Talmud says of the book, “ Turn it, and turn it again, and meditate therein, for all things are in it.”
Every Jewish boy was expected to attend the Bible school up to the age of 12, and then he became a “ Ben hat-Torah,” literally, “Son of the Law” or to use the alternative Aramaic term, a “Bar Mitswah”—“ Son of the Commandment.”
Nerves are not the source of pain or pleasure. We suffer or enjoy in our dreams, but this pain or pleasure is not communicated through a nerve. A tooth which has been extracted sometimes aches again in belief, and the pain seems to be in its old place.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Close to the beach the waves pound the sand and toss me, but as I dive into the waters I enter a stillness in which I see the waves sparkle above me. As the light breaks through the surface, I'm awestruck by its power and beauty.—the living sea, the gentle light, the tranquility, and me, all are held in one grand order. In such an order there is a simplicity.
It illustrates for me the great spiritual fact I find in just being! Its power unifies even in the midst of racial, ethnic, religious, or cultural division:
" Let your communication be, Yea, Yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil" (Matt. 5:37)
It's fear that complicates everything by inflaming the human senses. But keep in mind a kick against a shell cannot hurt the pearl. Wisdom's strength lies in the clear reading and recognition of what is essential and immediately supplies constructive ideas.
Each idea clarifies and guides, never pushes or asserts pressure—in stillness it reveals, especially how to assimilate the concept of the changeless Essence within us, the practical truth of all that glorifies Life.
Prose poem by EMH
An excerpt from my latest poem, “Songs of Belonging”
Tell me, dearest, whom my soul loves,
Where are you around noon?
Our rest place is green … filled with flowers.
Expect a great harvest,
truly the rain and the light are sweet, and
pleasant for the eyes to behold.
O sun!
If we live many years and are glad …
remember there is darkness too…
Only the good man loves the right thinker and worker, and cannot worship him, for that would destroy this man’s character.
See life always in new and inspiring ways— know of the great possibilities that are waiting for you and walk toward them and welcome them ! See the larger picture and have time for it. What your thought and heart move is a beginning! Even little beginnings have strengths and move us forward…see within the eternal unfoldment of goodness.
Eva-Maria
Gott gibt die Nuesse
Aber er bricht sie nicht auf
Goethe
Translation from German into English by EMH
God provides the nuts 🌰 but He does not open them for you!
Goethe
Kindlein, liebt euch, und wenn das nicht gehen will,lasst wenigstens einander gelten.
Translation from German into English by EMH
Bruder und Schwesterlein (Children love each other), and if that is not possible, at least respect each other.
As touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
The Bible
I Thessalonians 4:9
Die Hauptsache ist, dass man eine Seele habe,
die das Wahre liebt und die es aufnimmt, wo sie es findet.
Most important is to love the Truth and that we know we have a soul that loves the Truth wherever we find it.
Goethe
Translation from German into English by EMH
🙏🙏🙏🕊🕊🕊🌹🌹🌹✍️
Nun bitte weiss, in der Dunkelheit bist du nicht allein ~~sehe die Lichter im Weltall.
Finde heraus wie sie deine Sterne sind.
Von den Nächten lernen wir das Licht zu lieben,
Es erinnert uns an Gute Zeiten!
Und bringt uns friedlich
dem Unsichtbaren näher.
Goethe
Please know
you are not alone
in the darkness …discover
the light of the Universe
and see your own star!
From the night
we learn to love the light,
it reminds us of better times!
And brings us peacefully nearer
to the things unseen.
Translation from German into English by EMH
Gratitude and humility:
This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not “for the loaves and fishes,” nor, like the Pharisee, with the arrogance of rank and display of scholarship, but … from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of [humility] …
--Mary Baker Eddy, from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 367—
Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
King James Version of the Bible
Deuteronomy 4:3
Step by step will those who trust Him find that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Jesus instructed
Whereby to heal.
He knew
The Christ,
God's ideal,
Ruled supreme
In him
And revealed
His forever unity with God—
God and His perfect man
As one in Love sealed!
"My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them,
and they
follow me."
Let us pause—be still—and pray
To hear the Christ
Speak
And feel the mighty strength
Of humility,
The power of kindness
And of constancy,
As a joyous
Gracious heart
Receives
A wholly loving God
And His Christ.
Man of My Time
You are still the one with the stone and the sling,
Man of my time. You were in the cockpit,
With the malevolent wings, the meridians of death,
—I have seen you—in the chariot of fire, at the gallows,
At the wheel of torture. I have seen you : it was you,
With your exact science set on extermination,
Without love, without Christ. You have killed again,
As always, as your fathers killed,
as the animals killed that saw you for the first time.
And this blood smells as on the day
When one brother told the other brother :
“Let us go into the fields.” And that echo, chill, tenacious,
Has reached down to you, within your day.
Forget, O sons, the clouds of blood
Risen from the earth, forget your fathers :
Their tombs sink down in ashes,
Black birds, the wind, cover their heart.
Salvatore Quasimodo
Translated from the Italian by Luciano Rebay
Written in the aftermath of the Second World War. Quasimodo experienced the disastrous bombings of Milan.
The reference is to the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible.
Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; King James Version of the Bible
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Any action begins with motive, where Jesus formed his estimate; and a correct motive leads to a correct act.
Yet if man is still the one with “
the stone and the sling” he lives and acts without love, without Christ.
Truth is affirmative, and confers harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this simple rule of Truth, which governs all reality. By the truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal the sick.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
418:20
A spiritual stillness within gives us an entrance to the prayer of love. Each of us, consciously or unconsciously, prays the prayer of love. In its stillness we feel a deep yearning ... to love, and to be loved. The response to this yearning is found in the Christ-consciousness, Jesus pointed to, “. . . behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). I understand that to mean, the kingdom of God is the consciousness of God as Love. When we are able to be conscious of God as Love … wherever we are … we’ll see the manifestations of Love everywhere, and a spiritual optimism will take hold of us to help us smile, especially at challenging times. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man" (Proverbs 27:19).
stranger to anxiety," and the Bible passage continues, “but in every thing by .... thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). And slowly, but steadily, we gain the conviction that something extraordinary is going on in our thought and life. It is a spiritual strengthening of thoughts, words, and deeds — a growing stronger in “a diviner sense of God”-- that says YES to Love and Life, a strength that grows out of our awareness of the fullness of pure Love —“and [our] cup runneth over . . .”
(Psalm 23).
Proud words are arrogant, intolerant and savagely ignorant of the great fundamental truths—simplicity, humility and ordinary human decency!
Sich ins Einfache retten! Und: Man muss sich einzurichten wissen!
Goethe
One is saved in simplicity! And: one must have the wisdom to manage oneself!
Translated by EMH
A spiritual stillness within gives us an entrance to the prayer of love. Each of us, consciously or unconsciously, prays the prayer of love. In its stillness we feel a deep yearning ... to love, and to be loved. The response to this yearning is found in the Christ-consciousness, Jesus pointed to, “. . . behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
There is never a risk in trusting God with the outcome of all issues, small and great... "A deep sincerity is sure of success, for God takes care of it." (Miscellany 203)
The Lord thy God in the midst of you is mighty.
As the 18th-century poet William Blake observed, "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." In divine metaphysics, the real beauty and substance of a tree, dog, cat, woman, or man lies entirely beyond all sensual impressions, or material appearences. Likewise, Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature," and added that nature's elements “all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect.”
According to an old story, a lord of ancient China once asked his physician, a member of a family of healers, which of them was the most skilled in the art:
The physician, whose reputation was such that his name become synonymous with medical science in China, replied, « My eldest brother sees the presence of sickness and removes it before it takes shape, so his name does not get out of the house.
My elder brother cures sickness when it is still extremely minute, so his name does not get out of the neighborhood.
As fo me, I puncture veins, prescribe potions, and massage skin, so from time to time my name gets out and heard among the lords. »
The Common Bond, in it the author shares the story of a man who lived long before Jesus. The man was a Roman, named Terence—who was raised to a class and nationality whose boast was, “I am a Roman; the world belongs to me.” This young man was the first to affirm the principle of a common kinship when he wrote, “I am a man; nothing that concerns mankind is alien to me.”
A spiritual understanding of the Scriptures restores their original tongue in the language of Spirit, that primordial standard of Truth.
In Bible times, prophecy included, but wasn't limited to, foretelling what would happen in the future. A prophet was a divine messenger, teaching God's Word, interpreting His will, and communicating His guidance to the people. The Scriptures also record the many healing works of the prophets. They were spiritually fitted to see through the appearances of limitation, conflict, danger, disease, even death—and to restore health and harmony.
The prophet Elias (or Elijah), who lived in Israel around the ninth century BC, challenged idol worship during times when the Israelites struggled with deprivation and rebelliousness, and preached worship of the one God. He triumphed over persecution and despair. His spiritual insight alleviated acute shortages and raised the dead.
Ignorance
Proud words are arrogant, intolerant and savagely ignorant of the great fundamental truths—simplicity, humility and ordinary human decency!
The Bible advises, “Be careful for nothing,” that is, “Be a stranger to anxiety," and the Bible passage continues, “but in every thing by .... thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). And slowly, but steadily, we gain the conviction that something extraordinary is going on in our thought and life. It is a spiritual strengthening of thoughts, words, and deeds — a growing stronger in “a diviner sense of God”-- that says YES to Love and Life, a strength that grows out of our awareness of the fullness of pure Love —“and [our] cup runneth over . . .”
(Psalm 23).
When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a very small package.
Some of us do simple things in a complicated way— others do complicated things easily!
How does the poet , T. S . Eliot, say it? “Quick now, here, now, always— A condition of complete swift simplicity.....All manner of things shall be well.”
A spiritual stillness within gives us an entrance to the prayer of love. Each of us, consciously or unconsciously, prays the prayer of love. In its stillness we feel a deep yearning ... to love, and to be loved. The response to this yearning is found in the Christ-consciousness, Jesus pointed to, “. . . behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
I understand that to mean, the kingdom of God is the consciousness of God as Love. When we are able to be conscious of God as Love … wherever we are … we’ll see the manifestations of Love everywhere, and a spiritual optimism will take hold of us to help us smile, especially at challenging times.