A Quiet Place

Each one must make a quiet place

Within his heart, where he can go

To find himself, and for a space

Drink deeply where still waters flow.

by Inga Gilson Caldwell

I shall live beyond death.

I shall live beyond death, and I shall sing in your ears even after the vast sea-wave carries me back to the vast sea-depth.
I shall sit at your board though without a body, and I shall go with you to your fields, a spirit invisible.
I shall come to you at your fireside, a guest unseen.

Death changes nothing but the masks that cover our faces.
The woodsman shall be still a woodsman, the ploughman, a ploughman.
And he who sang his song to the wind shall sing it also to the moving spheres.


                                                   Extract from 'The Garden of the Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran

Camphill Prayers 5

Bread is not our food.

  What feeds us in the bread

Is God's eternal Word,

  His Spirit and His Life

____________________________

To Thee, oh higher life,

  Give thanks our life,

That our body, through Thy body,

  May be nourished.

_____________________________

May the deed become strength,

  May the light become wisdom,

May the word become goodness,

  When faithfully we serve the Spirit.

_____________________________

May our endeavour turn into strength,

  May the light we received shine on as wisdom,

May the word we have spoken engender goodness,

 When faithfully we serve the Spirit.

The Concern of Men

Gilgamesh, whither are you wandering?
Life, which you look for, you will never find.
For when the gods created man, they let
Death be his share, and withheld life
In their own hands.

Gilgamesh, fill your belly ---
Day and night make merry,
Let days be full of joy.
Dance and make music day and night,
And wear fresh clothes,
And wash your head and bathe.

Look at the child that is holding your hand,
And let your wife delight in your embrace.
These things alone are the concern of men

                          Taken from 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' - Mesopotamia

(Sent to me one birthday by my son Ashley)

A Celtic Prayer

The Invocation of Light

Kindle this little light on the earth-plane.

I dedicate it to the service of the Spirit.

I guard and cherish this light as a living symbol,

And an act of faith in the reality of the powers of light.

The Life that I Have.

The life that I have is all that I have,
And the life that I have is yours.
The love that I have of the life that I have,
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have,
Yet death will be but a pause,
For the peace of my years in the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

                                                                         by Leo Marks    

Leo Marks wrote, in 1989 :  
'By March 1944 agents were using codes printed on silk.  But if agents lost them they had to rely on poems they had memorised.  For security reasons, it was important that these poems were original compositions.  In all I wrote 28 poems for agents.  To me they are codes rather than poems.
Violette (for whom this poem was composed) was executed at Ravensbruck.  Many of the other agents for whom I wrote poems did not return from the field, and I resolved never to write another.'

                                      Violette Szabo GC  (b1921 - executed February 1945)


Today is the 70th. Anniversary of VE Day, which was celebrated just four days before my ninth birthday and which I remember for the street parties, but today I also remember, with sadness, the terrible loss of lives, civilian and military on all sides.

The Spirit of Immortal Life

It is true that the body is mortal, that it is under the power of death; but it is also the dwelling of Atman, the Spirit of immortal life.  The body, the house of the Spirit, is under the power of pleasure and pain; and if a man is ruled by his body then this man can never be free.  But when a man is in the joy of the Spirit, in the Spirit which is ever free, then this man is free from all bondage, the bondage of pleasure and pain.

The wind has not a body, nor lightning, nor thunder, nor clouds; but when those rise into the higher spheres then they find the body of light.  In the same way, when the soul is in silent quietness it arises and leaves the body, and reaching the Spirit Supreme finds there its body of light.  It is the land of infinite liberty where, beyond its mortal body, the Spirit of man is free.  There can he laugh and sing of his glory with ethereal women and friends.  He enjoys ethereal chariots and forgets the cart of his body on earth.  For as a beast is attached to a cart, so on earth the soul is attached to a body.

Know that when the eye looks into space it is the Spirit of man that sees; the eye is only the organ of sight.  When one says "I feel this perfume," it is the Spirit that feels; he uses the organ of smell.  When one says "I am speaking," it is the Spirit that speaks; the voice is the organ of speech.  When one says "I am hearing," it is the Spirit that hears; the ear is the organ of hearing.  And when one says "I think," it is the Spirit that thinks; the mind is the organ of thought.  It is because of the light of the Spirit that the human mind can see, and can think, and enjoy this world.

All the gods in the heaven of Brahman adore in contemplation their Infinite Spirit Supreme.  This is why they have all joy, and all the worlds and all desires.  And man who is on this earth finds and knows Atman, his own Self, has all his holy desires and all the worlds and all joy.

                                                                             
                                                                                 Extract from the Chandogya Upanishad.