When I was in Junior High and High School I was an avid sports player and fan. From a young age I had player-cards from my favorite New York Yankees baseball team that came from buying bubble gum (I didn’t care about the flat square gum, only the cards that had pictures and stats of the players): Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and more all adorned the inside of my bedroom door. And football—my team was the Green Bay Packers with Bart Starr, Jim Taylor and Ray Nitschke. Then for years I was not interested in sports—and now I enjoy a good football game on television.

Whether you care for sports or not there are lessons we can draw from those who play—as we can from anyone who practices an art, skill, trade or craft at a high level. Even in the top echelon of players and best teams there are always fumbles, dropped passes and missed tackles. There is no such thing, even amongst legends of the game, as those who make every play. The lesson we can learn and apply to our spiritual efforts—that we, as do they, aim for perfection, but we understand that spiritually we will drop passes of inner direction coming from God, we can fail to tackle and contain ignorance, and we can fumble away our spiritual connection with God.

Watching the players coming to the sidelines after making one of these mistakes we see them communicate with their coach. My football coach would occasionally grab my facemask (that would be called a foul if done on the field!) and talk in a forceful voice inches away to make sure he had my full attention and that my mind was not wandering when he was giving me his wisdom (Mother could do the same in her own way!). Coaches are foremost—good teachers. They encourage full effort, to have excellent concentration, and to help you to make good choices in split seconds. So, there is a learning moment with the coach on the sidelines, then he encourages you to shake off a bad play and get focused on the next. All good lessons for being on the spiritual playing field.

Thirdly, sports demand individual effort, but they are also team endeavors. There is a balance in these concepts and one understands that firstly the individual player is responsible to fully participate. That he or she is also part of a team effort in which victory comes from everyone making their best and brightest contribution, and that the coach is essential for directing the strategy and teaching tactics of the game.

As aspirants, we too must take responsibility for making our best effort, to recognize the value and synergy from being on a team of devotees (“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” Matt 18:20), and the guru-coach helps us to make superlative individual and collective effort and is ever directing us toward being victorious—that we might all become one with God and help lift this world into higher consciousness.  

On this holiday (holy day) of Thanksgiving, we are brought to mind to give thanks for all those things God gives to us; our health, prosperity and all good things. It is interesting to read in the life of Jesus when the great Galilean Master is about to raise his dear friend Lazarus from the dead:

^{John 11: 41} Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

⁴² And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

Jesus thanked God before the fact, because he intuitively knew what God was going to do. There is a great principle being demonstrated in his thanksgiving, which puts the individual into right relationship with his Creator. It is one thing to give thanks for what has been given, but to give thanks for that which is to come opens the floodgates for grace to flow to you.

When you have challenges of health, prosperity and in relationships, inwardly commune with your infinite Beloved giving thanks, knowing He knows all that you need and His great love and desire for your good to come to you is even now doing so. Giving thanks is an affirmation for what is even now coming to you in multifarious ways.

When he approached the tomb of Lazarus, the description of the Master is the shortest sentence in the entire Bible, “Jesus wept.” He felt his grief, the grief of those around him, and tears poured from him. He inwardly petitioned his heavenly Father, “Can nothing be done?” And then he knew God was to do something tremendous. A man lying dead for four days, and God would work a miracle. Jesus knew God had heard his heart’s cry, and he wanted others to know that what is to happen is coming from God, not himself. So, he spoke out his thanksgiving to his Heavenly Father for what was to come.

When in need of healing, God may heal you directly through grace, He may also send to you the right people or circumstances to enact healing, or He may give you strength and perspective to endure what must be gone through. And this is true for prosperity and broken relationships as well. It is also the way in which you achieve God-realization—God, even now, sending you all you need in the present, and for what is to come.

When giving thanks you feel a loving relationship with God. It is grace that is coming into your body giving it all that is needed for healing, that all material prosperity is flowing to you in unknown and delightful ways, that relationships are being healed in you and in others—it all comes from the exhaustless storehouse of He who creates vast universes. While His Presence is beyond the scope of the puny little human mind to encompass, He also comes in personal, loving and tender ways to each person and all parts of His creation.

Thank you, Lord, for giving me awareness of Your Presence, for in that deep connection with You I have everything that You are. I live in the prime simplicity of Your Being—I am merged in You and You in me. And through Your all-powerful Presence You may fulfill Your will for me and for this world. I give You thanks, not because You require it, but because it puts me in right relationship with You, because it helps open the inner floodgates of Your power, intelligence and love. You create all that is and all that is to come, and for what You give, I offer You my most humble and loving gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to you, and may every moment of every day be filled with gratitude for the greatest gift of all, the living Presence of our Infinite Beloved.     

It has been very interesting reviewing Mother’s talks as we have been going through her transcripts from the 1980s. In thinking back over Mother’s life there are definite hallmarks that stand out—taking incarnation on Christmas Day 1904, meeting Master 1925, Mother being made minister and Yogacharya 1948 and 1951, Master leaving the body 1952, Mother attaining Nirvikalpa Samadhi and meeting Papa and going to Anandashram 1954 and 1957, returning to India 1967, attaining Sahaja Samadhi 1970 and going to India again 1978, and then traveling to South Sea Islands, Australia and New Zealand in 1981, and entering into what I have called a second Mystical Crucifixion, then there was her Mahasamadhi at the beginning of 1991. These broad-brush strokes of Mother’s life give a wide-angle view of a life lived in service to God and Guru.

One may also look at significant moments in Mother’s life, the fine-brush strokes in her life-portrait. Such as when she came to Service one Sunday and said that God had revealed to her the famous “missing link” in Darwin’s evolution idea—the missing link being there is no evidence for an evolutionary transition between lower species and humans. Mother said that God showed her this link from animal to human occurs in the astral realm, and cannot be explained by simple genetic jumps. Or, when Mother stood up—as Elizabeth Haich had said to Mother—and proclaimed, “I am that I am!” And the wonderful experience Mother had in doing this significant action that freed her once and for all from thinking she was insignificant. Then there was the moment when Mother confirmed with the fully-realized master, Swami Ramdas, the revelation that God had given her—the scriptures are, in reality, the story of every man’s evolution from the human to the divine. As Swami Satchidananda commented, it was a moment of great truth!

Every life may be seen from its broad strokes all the way down to its micro-moments of decisions, actions and revelations. Mother’s life took many unexpected turns, to both herself and those around her. God’s will can seem so inscrutable at the time, and it may take the perspective of generations to appreciate what is being accomplished. Jesus’ life looked like a disaster at its end: he was horribly killed, disciples fled in every direction. To the Sadducees and Romans it was only a tiny blip at the time, and then for hundreds of years small groups of followers met in secret; all but one of the twelve disciples were killed for their beliefs. Jesus life and death did not look like much at the time, much less did it have the appearance of being a world-changing event.

And those micro-moment decisions, how they can affect so many. Master returned to India in 1935, then he considered not coming back to America. He wrote to Rajasi that he was “in a fix,” if it was not for Rajasi and a few others Master would not return. And how we have all benefited from the fact that God prompted Master to continue his work here! And when Papa left hearth and home to follow God’s will by becoming a sannyasin, and when Mataji left her home to be with Papa amidst storms of criticism—so many decisions made in the moment upon which the world turns—and we are thus benefited.

I remember being at the Van Gough museum in Amsterdam. A guide explained how his pictures are made up of so many tiny dots. When you stand close to the painting, you see many, many fine colored points that do not really make sense. Then, as you take steps away from the picture those dots begin to coalesce into flowers, rivers, trees, reflections in water—it all comes together into a beautiful portrait. Who could have known this when seeing only tiny strokes of color up close? In this way we may see our lives as so many little actions and decisions throughout the day. Those little decisions may seem insignificant on their own, but without those tiny dots of action there would be no larger picture when we step back to see what has been created.

God has taken me on many adventures in this life, some of which have been inexplicable at the time, even contrary to what I thought should have happened. Yet, from the perspective of a few steps removed those decisions, actions and revelations create pictures that illumine His plan. Even those things I thought were mistakes at the time all add up to something beautiful for God. When mistakes equal learning, and learning produces growth, then even what does harm in the moment can be made to serve a higher good in the end—those crazy dots not only make the picture interesting, but the darkly shadows makes the brightness all the more brilliant.

God has, in recent years, certainly led me on a journey that is much different than I would have thought beforehand. He took me on a proposed circumambulation around North America, only to be interrupted by illness. Then, after this delay, on around the continent; not so much to see people, although this too is part of the journey, but majorly to see nature’s and manmade cathedrals. Now He has us traveling to the Southwest’s desert, seemingly away from you. He does not have me seek out people-connections, but seems intent upon Nature’s Cathedrals and most of all to be inwardly communing with Him.

Now, this inward communion can and does take place anywhere and everywhere; so why does He bring me here? It is a mystery. Outwardly I can sit to read a book, but I spend an hour lifted up in Him and barely read a page! He draws me unto Himself, I merge into His Being, and through Him with all of you. Those are the dots, and through the dots He is painting His masterpiece.

Oh Ram, Oh Lord, You alone know the ins and outs of Your plan, You alone can know what You are creating and why. I know that You only do good. So, in being in You, Your will brings about the highest good for all. Meanwhile, each dot, each moment is lived in You and is keeping Your will—that is what I know.    

Anyone who has seen a corpse I think must be struck by not just the absence of the signs of life, such as breathing and movement, but something subtler—it is the lack of life-energy and an indefinable finality. There is Newton’s maxim for conservation of energy[i], that energy cannot be gained or lost, it simply changes form. So, the body’s elements return to its source, From dust to dust, a few dollars’ worth of chemicals. But what of the life-force for one such as Newton, his ambition, intelligence and feeling-nature? Those undefinables we call soul? If they are simply products of biochemical reactions then they die with the chemistry-set of the body. However, if consciousness is more than body, the soul higher than electrical stimulations to neurons, if art and poetry is anything other than aberrations, and the pursuit of mathematics and science more than accidents of nature without design, then we must admit there is also more to religion than a philosophy driven by the fear of death, or the desire to control others through issuing an “opiate to the masses.”

Any thinking, sensitive soul knows that within the sensate being is something beyond adaptations to surviving a hostile environment. Religious expression through art, literature and song lifts the soul above grubby nature, offers sublimity of experience that can make one soar as on wings of angels. Where is there any survival need in such beautiful visions, to spend one’s life in reflection, being in service to humanity, or in the ultimate journey to realize God? There is a driving force in life to challenge the physical limits of consciousness; what happens to this drive when the body is no more?

If someone wedded to the body says, “I only know this body, this world, if there is more why do I not know it?” You might as well ask the mud worm what lies beyond its murky world, and he takes his own incomprehension of anything more as proof there is nothing more to the world than watery or dry soil. Or if you ask the fish about the sky, he might shudder with fear that sky is death and responds by swimming into deeper depths at the mere thought of airy vastness. And ask someone who’s world is his patch of earth about celebrating life by rising in a hot air balloon to see the curvature of the earth—and going further, all the way to the edge when blue sky turns black and reveals vast galaxies beyond—and he simply looks at you as if you are mad. Each one, the mud worm, fish, or earth-bound man is conditioned by his experience to think his world is all, and there is no other—or what is beyond is something to be feared.

However, the spiritual-adventurer chafes at artificially imposed limits. Just as a race horse gets his blood up looking at the racecourse, so does an aspirant for higher truth yearn to run the course, is straining to burst the bounds of his sense-shackles. Oh, to defy gravity that glues feet to earth, to rise above mundane matters and soar upon those angel’s wings! To go further than even what the poet paints in words, the artist seeks to invoke on canvas, to even go beyond the heights that song can inspire! And where does this energy, this power of mind, heart and spirit to transcend go when death claims its share? Soul cannot be created or destroyed, but only changes form.

To know what soul without body is does not require final death. This is the secret of religion. Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed were explorers of what worm, fish and man knew not. They claimed this truth not just for themselves, but that we all have the capacity to go beyond where no man has gone. Man cannot know this ultimate Truth, because man is no longer man when he realizes he is more than body, more than mud or water. The power of quest transforms man into overarching Soul, free of the limits of body, name, sex or vocation; he or she is changed into something new. That power does not simply disappear—just the opposite—it becomes immortalized.

For the realized aspirant the eternality of Soul is just as plain of a fact as for the astronaut when the sky turns from blue to black and the earth transforms from flatness into being round—Self-realization reveals the Soul as it has always been, will always be. The tiny limits of human perspective which seemed all-powerful before are now broken forever. Life is not only eternal, but beautiful beyond compare. Is no longer filled with sorrow and despair, but joyously blissful. Is not dark and obscure, but enlightened, full of inspiration, meaning and wisdom. What has always been will always be—and that “always” part is the Essence of not only individual Soul but is the Essence of all that is. It is as if life before was a dark dream, a life lived in a cavern of shadows, and is now awakened to a world of light and color.

In that realization we may joyously sing with St. Paul, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55) For we now know the greater Reality in which nothing is lost: though the body may return its dust to dust, the Soul returns to its eternal life in God.

[i] In physics, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant, it is said to be conserved over time. This law means that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it can only be transformed or transferred from one form to another.

It is inevitable that while living in a human body there will be pain and suffering, no matter how perfectly one lives. Swami Satchidanandaji told me that when Joel Goldsmith was at Anandashram, Swamiji had the opportunity to drive Joel to the train station. Swamiji took that opportunity to ask Joel a question that was on his mind. When you were speaking here at the Ashram, you did not touch on a theme you write about in your books, that is, if you think positive thoughts you will have perfect health. Why not? Joel said that he did not speak on that subject when he was in India, because people would inevitably ask him if that were true, what about Ramana Maharshi? Ramana Maharshi had the highest realization and also had many physical problems—such as walking completely bent over due to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Swamiji summed up Joel’s answer, saying, “Unproven theories.”

There is no doubt that thinking in a positive manner, following good health principles and eating the right foods will increase your chances of avoiding physical problems, but the fact is the body is subject to ailments and various problems occur in life, some of which comes from karma of the past and must be paid for. While you should do all that you know to lead a healthy lifestyle and avoid doing harm to yourself and others, nevertheless there will be times when pain and problems find their way to your doorstep. It is then you are faced with how you will deal with such problems.

There are some things you should definitely not do. A common association is made when problems come–you entertain the idea that things always go wrong, a pity-party of one ensues and makes a pig-pile of troubles that links difficulties from the past and projected problems from the future to make it seem intolerable to bear what is occurring in the present. The first thing to do is to disconnect remembrances from the past and anticipated horrors for the future, and simply stay focused on the here and now. Once it is narrowed down to the present, acknowledge that God is supplying everything you need to endure and even rise above the current situation. You may have to go through what God is giving you, but affirm it is God who is doing the giving and realize that His grace is with you.

There is a secret that saints have known through the ages, and that is shared passion. The passion of the Christ is all Jesus went through during the crucifixion (Passion: from Late Latin: passionem “suffering, enduring”)^[. As the story comes down to us, the crucifixion happened over three days. It is a story that condenses the different stages of the crucifixion in a way that is similar to the description of how God made all creation in six days. Each day is a stage or segment of creation—for how could there be anything that we call a day before the sun and earth came into being? Creation came in six stages, and the three days of the crucifixion are also three stages—one representing the physical, another the astral or energetic, and the third the idea or causal body. We too go through these stages, but one day, one year, or ten years or more may be required for each stage to be complete.

So, to get through these stages saints think, “I am sharing this feeling of being crucified with the Christ,” or, “I am on the battlefield with Arjuna and Krishna,” or, “I am in the night of testing with the Buddha,” and by putting the mind on a divine personality going through these experiences there is a link made between the human and the divine that allows grace to enter into the experience. This grace brings strength, even joy during the anguish and removes fear and isolation that so often comes with suffering.

Jesus did not ask for pain, in fact he asked, if possible, let this cup pass from me. Arjuna asked Krishna if it he could leave the field of battle, Mother Hamilton said she was no fool and did not ask for suffering, but in all cases they fulfilled divine will by staying the course as God directed them. And this leads to another important idea, that what we go through is not without meaning—there is purpose behind everything we are put through—that is especially true when you create a pure intention to seek God alone.

When you know there is meaning behind all your experiences, then you can endure so much more. When you feel that God and Guru have forgotten you, and they do not see your pain or suffering then you go down a spiral of despair. When God gives you a tremendous load, the bridge supporting that great weight may creak and groan, this only indicates the stress of what is being transported, not a lack of faith that it is exactly what God has asked you to do. In your deepest soul you feel that this is what has been given to you, it is His will and that you are privileged to be sharing the load that He must carry on a daily basis. For God is all that is, and therefore He is suffering all the pain that all creation experiences—He feels everything that every person goes through; He knows the reason for which everything occurs, and that it is fulfilling a high purpose.

Papa assures us that for everything that goes wrong we are brought closer to surrender. It is only when we come to that point of complete surrender that we enter into total union with the Infinite. So, suffering brings us to realization, and realization is the cure to suffering. It is not that Papa did not have problems physically, financially, and socially, but he surrendered everything that he was and he knew that all happened by the will of God, and therefore even suffering was God, and in that comprehension he realized that pain and bliss were the same and that was the end of real suffering—that is separation from God.

Every day God gives me a load to carry. If I did not do all that I have written here, it would be impossible for me to carry out His will. He has not abandoned any one of us, therefore He is with you, each step of the way. Feel His grace, even now, picking you up and helping you to put one foot in front of another. That even when the bridge carrying the heavy weight moans and groans, His grace is supporting you in doing His will; His strength is yours, His grace is flowing in your veins and sinuous and His wisdom is directing you. All is in His loving hands.

Travel Note: We have had the darshan of the Grand Canyon with its magnificent views, however it did not have the same depth of feeling that previous sites we have recently seen. Currently we have once again come to Vulture Peak—it has been three years since we were last here but it has always been a favorite spot for us on BLM land. Please keep Carla in your prayers, as she has a sinus infection and we are here in Surprise AZ at the walk-in clinic. We have little or no internet where we are camped, so I am using this opportunity to send this posting out. All blessings to you on your journey, and may you ever know that you are in His loving hands.

Amazing may very well be one of those overused words that gets thrown into too many conversations—or, on the other hand, everything in this creation is truly amazing because it is all made up of God-stuff, and therefore is extraordinary from its very inception to its eventual end. We have just been to Monument Valley on the Navaho’s Land in southern Utah and northern Arizona, and if anything deserves this special designation of amazing—it is here.

The floor of this extensive valley is made up of the most beautiful brown soil, with blue and green low growing shrubs stretching out as far as the eye can see. Like stalagmites, enormous Buttes jut up from the floor and gives rise to nature’s monuments—and in the process create natural cathedrals of great proportions. Why red rock is so much more pleasing than gray is a question I am not sure how to answer, but it makes these extraordinary landscape-shapes works of art sculpted by Divine Mother’s hands of wind and rain.

We drive upon the valley floor on a rough road as guests of the Navaho Nation—sympathetic to their notion that this land is sacred. We hike on a trail circumambulating a large butte and pass under polished cliffsides of amber, red and black—we are in simple awe of this projecting mass high above us. Then our gaze turns horizontal and looks out to the monuments scattered across the valley that in the far distance forms a continuous fortress wall. We note not only the visual beauty, but the feeling of purity and expanse. Every now and then we exhale deep sighs in acknowledgment of profound relaxation; our spirits response to what is clearly God’s country.

How do I describe the feeling-nature of this place? It is elusive, deep and healing—actually, in the end, it turns out it is indescribable. In an earlier posting I spoke of the rock and stone speaking to my soul; more than a poetic muse it is an underlying reality both then and now. For the earth speaks to us when we are quiet and listening; rocks, trees, and all nature vibrate with its own consciousness—and as with all creations of our one Creator, each part has the Divine Essence at its core. Equally, just as every human being has individual differences, so does every part of creation exhibit its own personality. In Monument Valley there is a special purity that speaks to the soul, a healing force of nature that is here.

Walking amongst these enormous monoliths there is a feeling-vibration of the eternal Spirit; relative to a man’s life these monuments are ageless, solid and unmoving. Although we know that ancient nature cannot truly embody eternity as Spirit does (for it comes and goes as does all creation), nevertheless these rock formations communicate a timelessness through their very core-essence. We feel blessed to partake of their spirit and are reminded of Jesus response when he was told to quiet those around him who were joyously singing God’s name, “If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:40) Does the Master not proclaim that stones also sing the name of God—perhaps even more readily than sophisticated Man?

I glimpse into the purpose of the divine plan for why He has brought me here. Stone and rock, tree and shrub, bird and walking-creeping-crawling creatures all reveal that God is all in all, and that He wishes me to see and participate in the amazing mystery of all that He has created. Time and again He proves that not only is universal Spirit omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, but He also delights in the unique signatures He inscribes on every particle of space.

Today we have continued our journey-pilgrimage to Flagstaff, AZ. At 7,000 feet elevation we are surrounded in pine forests and on this black night, overhead shines a brilliant Milky Way. A photon emits from some distant star or galaxy and travels millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of years at 186,000 miles per second only to end its long, long journey in the retina of my eye–it registers in my brain as a distant point of light. Through the interaction of light and eye that distant star and I are joined. Oh, what a magnificent, amazing universe we participate in. God so delights in revealing His mystery in every life, every situation and in every soul. May He awaken the amazing in you so that you may feel your connection and oneness with all that He is.

Travel Note: At Monument Valley we stayed at Goulding’s R.V. Park and Resort. I thought that the Goulding’s had had an interesting history that you might like to read about it. It is a love story and a testament to tenacity and the surprising results that can happen when you are determined.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/765619619/Harry-and-Leone-Mike-Goulding-put-Utah-on-movie-map.html

It seems that within any one life we live many lifetimes; seemingly not only distinct chapters in a life, but entirely separate books. Abrupt changes, intense situations and altered consciousness can make for radical chapter or book endings and beginnings in an unfolding life. Returning to Canyonlands near Moab has brought about just such a recognition for me.

It was just three years ago that Rick, Judy, Carla and I were strolling amongst vast canyons here with fantastically shaped rocks—one stone looks like an immense whale, another called Cleopatra’s Chair (she would have to be hundreds of feet tall to fit in that chair), immense stone buttes called the Merrimac and the Monitor from Civil war fame, and wide cut canyons from the Colorado and Green Rivers backed by snow-clad mountains. Even if you are not generally a fan of rock and stone you cannot but be impressed with views such as from Dead Horse Canyon. Three years ago, unbeknownst to me at the time, I was extremely anemic and as I walked a very slight grade of a paved walk to view the Green River far below I found myself stopping every few steps to catch my breath—it finally dawned upon me that I should make a visit to the emergency room, the body was in trouble.

What seems another lifetime ago now I went through various medical procedures that removed what turned out to be stage 4 melanoma cancer from internal organs—part of my small intestines and a few months later some of my liver and all of my gallbladder were excised (I think they were having a two for one special that day at the University Hospital). If there were any more incisions made on my stomach area I could play a neat game of tic-tac-toe on the 8 and 11 inch scars left behind. Come forward a little over two and half years since the last operation and being cancer free—Carla and I walk up a three-mile path that is called “difficult” on the guide map to Delicate Arch. I spring up the rocky ascent like a gazelle (well, ok, at least in my mind I felt like a gazelle). Feeling full of life-energy it was a fun challenge to get to the top and then look down upon this amazing exhibit of nature’s art, a 60 foot high stone arch surveying a deep valley below. A lifetime of difference from the first pilgrimage here three years ago and today.

The concept of time is a strange one. Circumstances can make a desperate moment seem forever, and in happier situations time speeds up. In some chapters and books life can go by almost without knowing that time is making you flow downstream and gobbling up years, and other times are condensed—all compact and densely lived. Whether the plasticity of time appears slow or fast you have but one absolute measurement that is your polestar in life to keep your bearings and make you know who and what you are—to be consciously aware of your true Self.

It is knowing your true Self that grounds you to timeless truth, not simply swept up in the time-current of the moment. The seas of your life can be stormy, wind tossed with crashing waves all around you, or it can be just as prone to be open blue skies, placid and silky smooth. Whether you are in your ups or your downs there is a singular spiritual Presence that is ever the same—calm, pure, steady and always a comfort and a guide. Time and experience teach us the superior value of being in communion with this Presence as it proves itself to be our one, true, reliable friend and guide throughout all time.

Whether it be one life or many lives we live, there is but one great lesson to learn; to be in a state of Self-realization that slips the grasp of time and space and weds us to the Eternal. There is something here in these ancient towers of stone, a multibillion-year-old earth that speaks to the listening soul. It tells of ages gone and ages yet to come, it vibrates a deep sympathy to a quiet soul, it teaches us to measure time in a completely different manner than humans normally do, and it hints at a quiet understanding that all is well. How quickly a human life must seem to these ancient sentinels, how fleeting are our concerns and worries. These ancient ones teach us patience and perspective, they demonstrate that great beauty rises from their midst and then crumbles back into its source once again; and in all these comings and goings that span hundreds of thousands of years these stalwart ones whisper, “All is well, all is well.”

Travel Note: We are encamped on the Colorado River in a valley—so our internet comes and goes, and even at the best times of day it is not strong. So, we will not be broadcasting today, but hope to do so soon—we will be with you in Spirit. Next, we plan to have the darshan of Monument Valley located on the Utah-Arizona border on Navaho land. It will be our first time in the Four Corners area, so we are looking forward to the next adventures Ram has on the itinerary. One thing is certain, Moab and its surrounding area is a favorite for both of us.

God was talking to me yesterday morning—I have the most interesting conversations with Him—He was speaking of dragons. In the East dragons are seen as powerful portents of good luck. However, in the West dragons are pictured as greedy, hold up in the base of mountains jealously guarding their gold—both in East and West dragons are generally thought of being snake-like with the ability to fly. These polar-opposite associations of good and bad dragons in the East and the West reflect the changing imagery of snakes from the Old to the New Testaments.

In the Old Testament the snake is subtle and a source of temptation; the cause of the fall of mankind and the eviction of man and woman from the Garden of Eden. The dragon in the West is greedy, sitting alone on a pile of gold and if anyone challenges his riches he defends his keep with angry fire. Symbolically this snake-dragon of the West represents the lower forces in man: greed, lust and wrath. The dragon does nothing productive with his gold but only miserly sits on it. His fire is an aggressively destructive response to his greed. There is nothing good, nothing redeeming about this dragon.

St. George subdues his dragon; he does not kill it but is pictured with his spear projecting up from the mouth of the dragon. This has important meaning. St. George has mastered the lower forces of lust, greed and anger; the spear represents the spine and the lower energies are channeled upward to the higher centers. In the New Testament Jesus refers to the serpent as wise and that it must be lifted up, even as Moses did in the wilderness (John 3-14)—St. George has accomplished this difficult task.

In the East the dragon is in the positive, elevated state with the power to give boons to the deserving supplicant. The dragon’s ability to fly means it has uplifting power, and it has mastery over water, which symbolizes consciousness. We see the dragon in festive array during New Year celebrations being paraded down the street with the idea of bringing good luck for the new year.

However, once we understand the symbolic meaning of the dragon, we know it is not a mythical being to pray to or petition for good things but represents an active power inside of us that can act for good or for ill, depending upon how we direct our thoughts and life-energy. With pure intention we focus on lifting this powerful force up the spine—raising us into realms divine. What an opportunity we have in this lifetime to not simply grovel deep in the base of the mountain, sitting in the dark full of greed, lust and anger, but that we might take wing and fly amongst angelic stars of heavenly consciousness in the bliss of our heavenly kingdom.

I bow to the Divine Mind that has so taught me about these universal symbols—unfolding their meaning so that we might all learn to soar.  

Travel Note: We are currently encamped near Moab, next to the Colorado River with over a hundred feet of a sheer wall of red stone rising out of the other side of the river. The days sunny, the nights cool. We will explore Arches National Park, Canyonlands, and nearby is Red Rock canyons where most of John Wayne movies were filmed, along with Indiana Jones and many other movies. Three years ago we were here and it was discovered that I was bleeding internally, so anemic the doctor wondered how I managed to walk in the door of the emergency room—not carried in! It was the beginning of quite a medical journey. It is interesting to note I have only positive associations with Moab, the medical past seems to be another lifetime ago now. Perhaps the dragon found me worthy and has blessed me. Surely, we are blessed by the Infinite, both within and without.