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Post by Admin on Dec 19, 2012 12:50:46 GMT
"Once upon a time there was a city called Weakland. It was called Weakland because that was the nature of its citizens. Everyone was weak, wishy-washy, un-strong. And because their character, their nature, their psychology was feeble, they acted it out. They lived out their weakness, and that meant that one weakling exploited and hurt and took advantage of another weakling. The result, of course, was enormous and never-ending suffering in all the people of Weakland.
However, there was one man who lived there who was also very weak, but there was something different about him, and I want you to de- velop this difference in yourself. He always had a question mark in his mind. He wanted to know things. 'What's this all about?' And he carried this out in his normal daily affairs. He was interested in science and in nature, what makes the world turn, and so on.
So, we’ll call him Mr. Question Mark because this was always going on in this man — why, how, when, who, where? He wanted to know. He wanted answers. And as he continued to live in Weakland, his questioning spirit turned more and more toward the very condition I just described to you.
He wanted to know why everything was so dark, depressed and everyone had a sense of futility about their lives. Even the most wealthy people in town had a vacant look on their faces, as if there were some deep dissatisfaction inside of them, which there was.
And Mr. Question Mark himself wondered why he was so quarrelsome, why he had so much suppressed hostility in him. Because he hurt. He hurt very badly, just as you do. You hurt very badly all the time, don’t you? Well, I want you to activate a question mark inside of you, which will lead you to the answer."
from a talk given 3/25/1990 Vernon Howard's Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 29, talk 710, track 5
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Post by Admin on Dec 20, 2012 11:12:37 GMT
"Suppose you were given a one-man airplane to use in any way you like. But you did not understand the powers of an airplane; you were unaware that it could carry you across the sky. But still, wanting to make some use of it, you hitched it to a horse and drove it around. Because of your limited awareness of its use, your actual use was also limited. But after studying the machine for a while you discover its motor, propeller and other items of power. So you unhitch the horse and drive the airplane around on the ground with its own power. This is an advanced use, but still far from making the most of its intended purpose. So you study some more and you discover that the air- plane has wings for a practical purpose; you see the possibilities of rising above the earth to soar aloft. With this new knowledge you go into action. Finally, you fly. By discovering the full capacities of that airplane, it carries you to whatever destina- tions you desire. [Mental Picture 58]
A man's mind is like that. The power is there all right, blocked only by lack of awareness that it is there. Persistent self-study reveals power that _is_ already there. Your very awareness is your power for full flight."
Psycho-Pictography, p. 187
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Post by Admin on Dec 23, 2012 11:20:42 GMT
"You need not strain and struggle to understand higher truths, you need only realize that you don't understand. When you don't know something, and stick with that unknowing, there is no conflict. And there is also the opening for understanding something higher. Conflict,pain, strain, falling downhill occurs when you don't under- stand something about life, but pretend that you do, grab your own solutions and call them higher answers.
Now, look at the amazing state of not knowing what to do with your- self and leaving it at that. When you don't know how to straighten out your life, when you have no idea of how to push away the worries of past and future, when you don't know that and stay with that, a fantastically marvelous miracle occurs. And here it is: What happens when you don't know and simply say, "I don't know," what happens is a falling away of falseness, of ridiculous effort, of vanity, of pretense. When you are simply all alone with the fact that you don't know what to do about that difficulty, when you're all alone with that and don't fight to grab your own answer, the miracle occurs. A spiritual change starts.
What happens is the dissolving of the mental self that all your life has said, 'I know what to do. I know where to go. I know who to talk to to lighten the pain I feel.'"
from a talk given 9/16/1990 Vernon Howard's Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 30, talk 734, track 4
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Post by Admin on Dec 30, 2012 11:07:32 GMT
"THE REQUEST Throngs of visitors came to a Spiritual Temple to make their requests. They asked for blessings or favors or for a prosperous future. Each was told, 'You have come to the wrong place.' Finally, one visitor requested, 'I'm looking for someone who won't tolerate my stupidity which pretends it is intelligence.' He was told, 'You have come to the right place.' That visitor learned to escape his personal hell. So can anyone else. It all depends upon the kind of request."
Freedom from a Life of Hell, # 76
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Post by Admin on Dec 31, 2012 11:19:26 GMT
"CONTROL OF LIFE
For a man to win control of his life he must first lose the illusion of already having control. This requires steadfast self-examination, for everyone has a pocket of resistance which never wants to admit lack of control. A man or woman may even publicly confess to an uncommanded life, but secret vanities persist in their claim of having personal power. We fear that a total admission might make other people think less of us, or that we might think less of ourselves.
Our self-examination must reach the point where we are willing to let go of the pretence of having control over particular habits or life in general. We may do it timidly at first, but we finally let go because we now see it as right action and the only action possible.
By seeing that we cannot do anything, doing becomes possible, but it is not our personal power. It is Cosmic Action."
Esoteric Encyclopedia of Eternal Knowledge, p. 40
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Post by Admin on Jan 2, 2013 11:31:44 GMT
"BANISH LABORIOUS THINKING
Mere intellectual consent to rightness is not enough. The intellect is only part of our cosmic nature, and it takes the whole man to be a right man. Wholeness is rightness itself. It is easy to men- tally and verbally agree with a statement such as, 'Each man must rescue himself.' But few people act as if they believe it. Most men and women want to make their own problems while expecting others to unmake them. Intellectual consent to rightness is like standing at a window to welcome a visitor but not opening the door to let him in. Only an active welcome counts."
Esoteric Encyclopedia of Eternal Knowledge, p. 21
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Post by Admin on Jan 3, 2013 16:17:15 GMT
"You yourself are your greatest adventure in life, so let's get on with it. Imagine yourself in darkness. How many don’t need to imagine it? All right, the darkness is there. You can feel it. You can feel that you’re at the mercy of whatever it might want to do to you.
Now, here is the good news already. Listen to this. You are not that darkness you fear. You say, 'I am miserable.' It's part of darkness, misery, right? 'I am miserable. I am confused. I’ve been betrayed. I don’t know which way to turn. You're talking about an imaginary self.
You - real you - never have existed as ignorance and darkness. It is there. It is not you. Why do you persist in putting ‘I’ in front of all your statements and woe and defeat. Why do you do that? Because you don’t understand what we’re talking about right now."
from a talk given 9/1/1991 Vernon Howard's Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 32, talk 784, track 4
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Post by Admin on Jan 4, 2013 11:28:50 GMT
"NEW CLUE The average person is contemptuous toward anyone he cannot deceive or manipulate. Ignore this fact at your own peril. Let it be a new clue for your daily safety. Quietly observe a man who tries to exploit you. Watch how he gives himself away when you finally refuse him. Coming out into the open, he snarls at you like a cornered weasel. Think this is too strong against human beings? You have not even seen the start of human horror. Your sight is strength."
SOLVED The Mystery of Life, p. 200
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Post by Admin on Jan 5, 2013 16:31:16 GMT
"You don't have to put up with it anymore. Not one day longer. What is it you can give up? Feeling victimized, a noisy mind, unpleasant people, nightmare conditions, and all else bad. Success requires that you turn in the right direction, which is to build a spirit that wants to know what life is really all about. Don't turn toward grief or gloom. _You don't have to put up with it anymore so don't put up with it anymore._"
50 Ways To Get Help From God, # 3
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2013 11:18:58 GMT
"A chief feature of false life is that it cannot stand alone, but frantically demands allies to support its false positions."
1500 Ways to Escape the Human Jungle, # 67
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Post by Admin on Jan 8, 2013 12:00:40 GMT
"Said someone, 'I am trying to understand what is meant by an awakened man. What does he do?' Answer: 'Think of what an awakened man does not do. He does not go around causing confusion and heartache while calling it social reform, as sleeping men do. He does not spread gloom and nervousness as others do. Few people know and appreciate his contribution, for only a whole mind can understand another whole mind.'"
700 Inspiring Guides To A New Life, # 248
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2013 12:01:18 GMT
"Man is hypnotized. His entire life is one great nightmare, which he takes for reality. One of his handy sleeping pills is his blithe assumption that he is not asleep, that he is a perfectly conscious human being.
In spite of the repeated disasters occurring in his nightmare, he still insists he is awake. He goes through life like a sleepwalker, bumping into one painful object after another, but never letting the shock wake him up.
This is what the mystics have been trying to get over to humanity for centuries."
The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power, Chap. 2, p. 28
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Post by Admin on Jan 11, 2013 12:34:39 GMT
"Don’t go around saying how religious you are and how nice you are and how close you are to spiritual principles. You’re trying to pardon yourself, you’re trying to make something work that can never work. You’re using the mind to try to free the mind, which is only frustration."
The Cosmic Governor's Pardon Shocking Facts That Will Save Anyone - Audio CD, track 3
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Post by Admin on Jan 23, 2013 11:35:11 GMT
"Understand with your whole being, you have nothing to do but be happy. That means you have nothing to do but be content. That means that you have nothing to do but live in this higher sunshine. Look, let the world go by, let it do anything it wants. You’re not going to be carried away by it, it has nothing to give you, nothing. You've had their insanity, you’ve lived in this madness of competi- tion. Goodbye world. What an experience to live right in the world of commerce, of families, of traffic, to live right in the middle of it, driving that car right down the freeway, the noisy freeway and live in another world at the same time. And this other world understands perfectly why that man in the car next to you shook his fist at someone in front of him, why there’s all that smog, why there all these nervous people in the car."
Questions and Answers DVD # 36, talk 2
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Post by Admin on Jan 26, 2013 14:23:31 GMT
"Mental health is this: _A man must see that his life is pain and sorrow and fear, and at the same time he must have his first glimpse that it need not remain that way._"
Pathways to Perfect Living, p. 67
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