September 18, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE: Realize that understanding is everything.
Some troubled people sought help from a wise man. He instructed, "Never do anything with a problem except to try to understand it. Don't try to win over anyone, don't angrily defend yourself, don't fear the situation. You CAN understand, so pour all your energies into this aim. An understood problem is NO problem. Understanding is the highest form of action you can perform. It makes you comfortable."
"I try to follow the footprints of men like Christ, but stumble." "Never follow anyone's footprints. That is imitation, not devotion. Nature never duplicates a path. Listen to the wisdom of men like Christ, then make your own footprints. That is precisely what every authentic teacher urges." (Vernon Howard)
PICTURE: SuperWisdom Notebooks
The journey to Truth is like the journey of a train up a mountain. Time and time again, the train passes through tunnels and exits into sunlight. The tracks are on a slight incline at all times. What this means is that every time the train passes through a dark tunnel, it always exits on the other side on a slightly higher level.
INSPIRATION: SuperWisdom Notebooks
In this teaching we are going straight to the source of self- reliance. We don't have to, and don't want to, go to other people. For they are relying on other people who are in turn relying on others for the answers. So to know, we have to know from the Source itself.
KNOWLEDGE: Tom Russell
Let's not overlook the simple power of sincerity. It is a magnet that draws to you the insights you need for real change to occur. With a sincere wish to change you'll find that the right books and perhaps the right lectures begin to appear. However, it is your own ascending thoughts from your very own essence that are the most valuable of all. What YOU know from yourself is more meaningful than all the books and lectures in the world. The Spirit gives life to knowledge and you LIVE what you KNOW.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ VERNON HOWARD QUOTE: Mystic Path to Cosmic Power
We start by realizing that our deeper self already knows and understands. Like a powerful underground spring seeking to burst above ground, so do life-principles seek to break through our hardened attitudes. As we permit the breakthrough, things that have puzzled us for years clear up. We see why everything happened to us the way it did.
PICTURE: Tom Russell
There was once a man who spent his entire life living deep in a dark, shaded jungle. One day he finds his way to the edge of the jungle where there is open sky and clear light. But not knowing what the light is, never having experienced it before, he feels great reluctance and fear in taking that final step out of the jungle and into the light.
Though the light dawns gradually, there is a point where we step into the light with powerful finality. Fear of the light is not your fear and when you see this you step into the light.
INSPIRATION: Walt Whitman
Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, no birth, identity, form - no object in the world, nor life, nor any visible thing; appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain. Ample are time and space - ample the fields of Nature.
CHALLENGE: SuperWisdom Notebooks
1. Always remember that if the old nature doesn't have enemies it will create them. It must have something to fight.
2. What the false self fears above all is peace breaking out.
3. When you are spiritually whole, your thoughts are purified. The mind is on your side instead of being against you.
EXERCISE: SuperWIsdom Notebooks
Remember the letters WUN. They stand for Wake Up Now. Place your secret letters someplace where you will see them often. Let it be a reminder to you to drop all racing thoughts and come back to yourself right now. You can and must practice this a thousand times. Let WUN be your secret code to remind yourself to cancel time and walk into the light.
KNOWLEDGE: J. Krishnamurti
It is only through awareness of what is true from moment to moment that there is discovery of the timeless, the eternal. Without self-knowledge, the eternal cannot be. When we do not know ourselves, the eternal becomes a mere word, a symbol, a speculation, a dogma, a belief, an illusion to which the mind can escape. But if one begins to understand the "me" in all its various activities from day to day, then in that very understanding, without any effort, the nameless, the timeless comes into being.
August 28, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE: Esoteric Mind Power
Whenever you meet a problem or a crisis, take it completely upon your own shoulders. Do not try to share it with others, which cannot succeed anyway. If you dilute the intensity of the problem by spreading it around, you also dilute your power for understanding and removing it.
PICTURE: SuperWisdom Notebooks
Picture a stream full of trash. If you stop throwing trash in the stream, eventually the trash is cleared away by the flow of nature itself.
INSPIRATION: SuperWisdom Notebooks
1. Spiritual growth is the ascendance into higher and higher feelings, spiritual feelings.
2. This new feeling keeps you in place. You don't have to keep it in place. It keeps you going, you don't have to keep it going.
3. The more honest you are about yourself the better you feel. Honesty feels good.
4. The feeling of quietness and stillness is the only liberty, the only feeling you need.
CHALLENGE: J. Krishnamurti
As long as the mind thinks in terms of changing through time, of bringing about a revolution in the future, there is no transformation in the present.
EXERCISE: Tom Russell
The false self must grip a muscle to "exist." This is why learning to detect and release unnecessary tension is so constructive. By keeping your mind where your body is and practicing present moment awareness in the midst of daily life, minimum energy is expended to conduct everyday tasks and energy once restricted flows freely again.
You may just be walking to the mailbox. You are asleep, lost in thoughts about yourself and what's going to happen to you. Suddenly, you come awake. A marvelous exorcism occurs as Light replaces darkness. Which state feels better? Where do you really want to be?
The sudden flow of these higher feelings can never be sought directly. It comes indirectly, unexpectedly, as you increasingly know where you are both inwardly and outwardly.
KNOWLEDGE: Arthur Schopenhauer
Take another example - a roomful of guests in full dress, being received with great ceremony. You could almost believe that this is a noble and distinguished company; but, as a matter of fact, it is compulsion, pain and boredom who are the real guests. For where many are invited, it is a rabble - even if they all wear stars. Really good society is everywhere of necessity very small. In brilliant festivals and noisy entertainments, there is always, at bottom a sense of emptiness prevalent. A false tone is there.
August 21, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE: Esoteric Mind Power
A man came to a famous lecturer and asked to be taught the art of eloquent public speaking. Accepted, his first three lessons consisted of nothing but sitting silently and restfully in a chair. When the student objected to the unusual procedure, his teacher explained, "A babbling mind must produce a babbling speech. I am teaching you the eloquence of a quiet mind."
PICTURE:
A father and son were walking along a sea wall by the beach. The father was tall enough that he could see over the wall, but the boy was not. The father described to his son all the wonders that he saw - the endless water, the waves, the foam, everything. Finally the boy asked, "Lift me up father, so I can see too."
This is what you must ask of your spiritual Father. But YOU must ask it. It must be YOUR request. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION:
It has been said that to remember oneself one must have a sense of something superior to oneself. Self-Remembering is a lifting up of oneself to another set of influences. The idea of new influences and of coming in contact with them is the center of the Work. (Maurice Nicoll)
CHALLENGE:
1. So long as men praise you, you can only be sure that you are not yet on your own true path but on someone else's. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
2. When you see that you cannot think your way out, you will have made a very big breakthrough. God, Reality, Truth is without thought. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
EXERCISE:
The false self fears silence. Above all it wants you to claim this fear as your own possession. It seeks to trick you into believing that YOU are afraid of silence, when in fact it is the FALSE SELF that fears silence.
Quiet time is most important. If the mind is unruly simply turn to an awareness of your breathing. Never fear a noisy mind. With practice, the beautiful ring of silence will be the most precious sound on earth. Even one minute is very beneficial, for it's not the quantity of quiet time that matters but its quality. -- Tom Russell
KNOWLEDGE:
Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps THE greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody. That is the beauty of it. It has no technique and therefore no authority. When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy - if you are aware of all that in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation. So meditation can take place when you are sitting in a bus or walking in the woods full of light and shadows, or listening to the singing of birds or looking at the face of your wife or child. (J. Krishnamurti)
August 14, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE: "Treasury of Trueness"
A mature mind may meet many unexpected events but is not caught unaware by them. Not having a mind frozen with ego- demands of what should happen, he never fights the unexpected and is therefore able to handle it with calm intelligence. His inner resources are far superior to external events. He is like a man who owns a secret farm and who is therefore unconcerned when the grocery market runs out of food.
PICTURE:
You can live your life like a river. A river just flows. It doesn't worry about what will happen to it tomorrow. It just flows. That is how your life can be. VH added, "What a simple illustration this is, and how accurate." (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION:
William Shakespeare's statement, "To be or not to be," is composed of six words, five of which contain only two letters. This economy of language represents the idea that awakening is an essential process. The highest dimension of being occurs when one's self remembers TO BE. (4th Way Gurdjieff Literature)
CHALLENGE:
Learning is an extraordinary thing - to learn, not to accumulate knowledge. Accumulating knowledge is quite a different thing. What we call knowledge is comparatively easy; because that is a movement from the known to the known. But to learn is a movement from the known to the unknown - you learn only like that, do you not?....Learning is never accumulative. You cannot store up learning and then from that storehouse act. You learn as you are going along. Therefore, there is never a moment of retrogression or deterioration or decline. (J. Krishnamurti)
EXERCISE: More Please of Whatever I Need.
Spiritual intelligence advances by plateaus. Over and over again we must leave behind what we think we know and be a beginner on the next level. Two years, ten years, twenty years into the spiritual journey, will you be willing to let everything you think you know be replaced in favor of a completely new generation of ideas? Will be you willing to set aside any self-pictures of being an "advanced student" and be a beginner all over again? That is what the next plateau always requires. We cling to what we know in fear of the unknown. Eventually we learn (it took awhile) that the Unknown is our friend and teacher.
"More please of whatever I need" is a self-talk statement that helps us frequently request what is truly good for us -- not what keeps intact the settled self that "thinks it knows so many things." Spiritual intelligence is oneness with Life. It has no container and what is truly best for us are the challenging experiences that shatter the container.
Christ summed it up perfectly, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." (Mat 10:34) And, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." (Ezekiel 21:27) (Tom Russell)
KNOWLEDGE:
As you acquire more and more spiritual light, a wonderful thing will happen by a definite spiritual law. What will happen is that people who are in love with darkness will move away from you. They will want absolutely nothing to do with you. The torment of being unable to pull you back into the mud will be too great for them. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
August 7, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE: From: "The Power of Your Supermind"
Here is how to be relaxed and effortless in your relations with people: Never contrive to make a relationship either a close or a distant one. Do not permit your desires or ambitions to interfere with the natural flow of events. Let the relationship fall into its own place, spontaneously, for that is enjoyment. It is not your duty to determine the closeness of a relationship. Your only duty is to be a real person in it.
PICTURE: Sailing Home
Picture yourself sailing away from an old, dry and dusty village. When you're 20 miles out, you can still hear the calls from the inhabitants. They want you back. When you're 50 miles out something different begins to happen. Truth begins to notice you. And what Truth notices is that YOU DID NOT TURN BACK. You then begin to have a marvelous experience that happens for the next 50,000 miles. All the confusion and inner turmoil is still going on. But there's something else. There's a disappearing of tension and frustration and the entrance of a wonderful new feeling of inspiration and higherness. As you continue sailing you become purer and purer. But you take no credit at all for this for you know the purity is coming from a very high place. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION: Circle of Light
There is a circle of light deep inside you just waiting for you to put it first above everything else. Then it will grow and more and more you will take orders from this heavenly Source of Life within. You will see negativity the moment it starts to come your way and you will reject it, giving it absolutely no chance to enter your mind to cause pain and suffering. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
CHALLENGE: The Way of the Sincere Man
A lazy man gets nowhere because he snuggles down in what he calls his "faith" or "philosophy of life." The sincere man accepts nothing which he cannot feel is right for him; he verifies everything through individual thinking. -- Vernon Howard (Pathways to Perfect Living)
EXERCISE: I am Here.
Spinning thinking is persistent in its efforts to smother the
present. "I am Here" ends the spin and instantly reconnects
you with all that is real. There is no limit to how often you
can apply this self-talk statement with instant benefit.
Present moment living is the core principle for spiritual
growth. It is the mustard seed that Christ referred to that
is very small in the beginning but gradually develops to
massive strength and vitality. The higher you climb the more
thoroughly you know from moment to moment where you are and
what you are doing. Fifty times a day is not too often to
know that "I am Here." (Tom Russell)
KNOWLEDGE: The Path to Understanding
In the second half of the meeting VH explained that first, truth is in the memory. You hear a truth and it is stored in the memory. You're able to recall the truth but the truth, as of yet, does not have much power. But as you continue working, the truth that is in the memory is combined with feeling. Feeling joins the truth. Now you have Understanding. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
July 31, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE
Mental health loves the individual; it does not associate with crowds. The larger the quantity of people, the lower the quality of psychological soundness, which anyone with insight can observe in the massive audience, the overpopulated city, the crowded office. A poem by Robert Frost entitled THE ROAD NOT TAKEN tells about a choice which can be made between two roads. It was the less-traveled road which made a great difference. (Esoteric Mind Power)
PICTURE: Be a Light Unto Yourself
Picture this world surrounded by fog. Everyone is walking in a psychological fog. But you can be a bright lamp that is always lit. You can go anywhere and never be invaded by the fog. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION: Harmony with Growth
What you must do is allow yourself to be placed in ever increasing harmony with the laws of growth. God is the author of growth. You don't make yourself grow; you need only CONSENT to growth. As you grow what you find is that you're gradually transformed by God into what you've really wanted to be in your heart all along. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
CHALLENGE: Dare to Let Go
You see, a major mistake is that you are trying to attach yourself to something in an attempt to feel secure. You wish to attach yourself firmly to an organization, a person or money, but it never works. Security can never be found by attaching yourself to anything. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
EXERCISE: "Time to take the next step up."
Let's suppose that you've had a hectic and busy day at the office. You open the door to your car for the drive home. The mind is racing and the body is tired. Large pockets of your system want to doze in preoccupation. You pause and say to yourself, "Time to take the next step up!" You feel your hands on the wheel. You take a deep breath and release tension. You know where you are. When arriving home you are refreshed because "taking the next step up" always increases your energy and vitality.
Spiritual Power is found in the little things -- the dinner, the cup of tea, the phone call, the drive home, a visit with friends, the next breath. It's not just the big events that create significant learning opportunities. It is all the little things that we normally experience at a low grade of awareness. As you transform the simple experiences into learning opportunities your skill at transforming the more complex events rises accordingly.
This self-talk statement, used often, contains enormous power for self-transformation. But its power is not here on this page, it is only within its persistent application in the very heart of daily life. (Tom Russell)
KNOWLEDGE: The Power of Order
What comfort, what strength, what economy there is in ORDER - material order, intellectual order, moral order. To know where one is going and what one wishes - this is order; to keep one's word and one's engagements - again order; to have everything ready under one's hand, to be able to dispose of all one's forces, and to have all one's means of whatever kind under command - still order; to discipline one's habits, one's efforts, one's wishes; to organize one's life, to distribute one's time.all this belongs to and is included in the word ORDER. Order means light and peace, inward liberty and free command over oneself; order is power. (Henry Frederic Amiel)
July 24, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE:
Our first responsibility in life is toward our own inner awakening. Unless this is done, we are working in the wrong order. Half the world's grief is caused by irresponsible egotists who think they have a divine mission to be responsible for others. Only self-responsibility can develop that center from which genuine aid can radiate. Besides, there cannot be personal peace without personal responsibility.
(Quoted from "The Power of Your Supermind")
MENTAL PICTURE: Purpose
1. The astronomer looks out in different directions and everywhere he looks he sees countless stars and galaxies -- more than the mind can comprehend. Your purpose on earth is to make contact with the Creator of all of this.
2. Truth can be compared to Niagara Falls. It is limitless. It flows forever.
(SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION: Slow Down and Receive
Think of the times in the past when you have CONSCIOUSLY RECOGNIZED the appearance of Truth. You felt something different. You've had this experience many times. It is of great benefit to remember them.
Truth loves you. It is constantly sending its healing waves toward you. When you feel them, slow down. Take in as much as you can. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
CHALLENGE:
1. Any place inside yourself that you feel pain is a place where you are rejecting the entrance of Light.
2. It is pure intelligence to see that you are the cause of your anger and your agony, and no one else or nothing else.
(SuperWisdom Notebooks)
EXERCISE: Self-Talk for Spiritual Awakening
When you feel yourself drifting with the hypnosis of society, when the fog is thick and your thinking is scattered, pause and say in your heart, "I am awake and I am in charge!" This "I" is far higher than your usual "I". It is your True Self at the center of your Being.
You'll begin to feel the formation of a unifying new power as you employ these words. You'll know with increasing clarity that the "I" you are speaking from is backed up by the entire Universe. Your absence caused the chaos; your return dissolves it. You are back, aware, alive and present. "I am awake and I am in charge!" (Tom Russell)
KNOWLEDGE: The Reversal
Human beings have made the false choice to live from the outer to the inner. They spend all their time frantically trying to get a feeling of life from "out there." But "out there" is a lifeless stage production featuring characters with no real existence. So no matter how much you get, it will not satisfy you. You'll constantly search for more.
The right part of you, though presently small and timid, can grow into a spiritual giant of immense strength and wisdom. But you must allow it to do so by seeing how you are constantly doing the very thing that blocks its growth - turning to the outside for fulfillment instead of inward. A reversal must take place where you begin to live from the inner to the outer. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
July 17, 2002
Welcome to the more than 700 NEW subscribers for this week's broadcast. For brevity and clarity, each SuperWisdom E-zine follows a consistent format of a Vernon Howard quote, a mental picture, an inspiration, a challenge, an insight exercise and a knowledge nugget. This format helps to coordinate your inner powers for breakthrough insights.
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE
"No doubt it is wrong to become dependent upon a teacher. How can this error be avoided?
"An authentic teacher makes self-reliance a part of his program. A man who really knows is like one of those powerful ships that patrol icy seas. Having immense strength in his prow, the ship breaks through an ice field, making a trail of open water for other ships to follow. But there is something else. A man of real knowledge does not aim to make followers out of his listeners. He shows them how to become icebreakers themselves." (There is a Way Out)
MENTAL PICTURE: The Wise Runner
There was a large marathon held in a big city. Hundreds of runners turned out for the event. One of the runners was different from all the rest. He was calm and collected, very relaxed. The other runners saw this and asked him how he could be so relaxed when the race was about to start. They knew that if they could equal his relaxation, it would give them a great advantage.
The wise runner replied, "Oh, that's simple to explain. You see, I'm relaxed and alert because I am not in your race. I like to run. I enjoy the scenery. But I run for my own enjoyment. I'm not in this race at all." (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION: More Light
All you have to do is want more of the little feeling of rightness and trueness that you occasionally have. You know what I'm speaking of, VH said. You have felt it, though you can't describe it. Want more of the Truth and you will have it. Your desire for more is all God asks for. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
CHALLENGE: Independence
Truth says that you need not, and must not, conform to or follow any other mind on earth. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
Exercise: Release the Power of the Present
Silent self-talk statements are a vital part of the spiritual quest. They activate insights by reminding us to absorb the lesson immediately at hand. Here is a self-talk statement that you can employ many times during your day: "I don't have to strain; all I have to do is know Truth is there."
Truth is a quiet and vibrant river flowing through the present moment. Strain is the space between where you are and where your mind has unnecessarily drifted. It is like a stretched rubber band. Return to the present and the strain is gone.
As you practice this self-talk statement you will more and more feel the PLEASANT INTELLIGENCE of the present moment. You can use this statement on the phone, in the kitchen, in conversation, walking, driving, everywhere! Truth is always there and simply looks for a PAUSE to release its healing power. (Tom Russell)
KNOWLEDGE: Understanding - The Path to Truth
Space means energy. When there is no space, your energy is very limited . . .When there is that space and emptiness and, therefore, immense energy - energy is passion, love, compassion and intelligence - then there is that truth which is most holy, most sacred, that which man has sought from time immemorial. That truth does not lie in any temple, in any mosque, in any church. And it has no path to it except through one's own understanding of oneself, inquiring, studying, learning. Then there is that which is eternal. (J. Krishnamurti)
July 10, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE:
From the day of your birth society imposed upon you its fixed description of the world. Society said it was a world where you must fight, where you must be liked and accepted and so on. Through thought and speech and action you repeated this description until it hardened into the only world you knew. You were then stuck with this illusory and punishing world. CEASE TO REPEAT THE DESCRIPTION. That will make the false world fall away, to reveal the real. (From "There is a Way Out")
PICTURE: The Silent Castle
Truth is like a giant castle - safe, secure and at peace. But we think we have to stand on the castle walls, fighting all the surrounding enemies. Why don't you just realize the complete safety of the castle and join the magnificent feast being served at center court. Silence is what the Castle is all about. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION: Receiving the Living Truth
Collecting facts about the higher life from books, tapes and lectures is a vital and necessary part of the spiritual journey. But this collection is not an end in itself. It is a means by which a calm and powerful Light is activated within. This central Light transmits the knowledge of God directly to your apprehension. You receive the living Truth firsthand, and not through any other person, book or organization on earth. (Tom Russell)
CHALLENGE: The Man Who Feared Getting Healthy
Once upon a time there was a man who was ill. In his town there happened to be a library stocked with all kinds of books on health. The man could go there anytime he wished and study to get well. But the man was lazy. He said to himself, "Well, I will take the afternoon off and go tomorrow."
Vernon Howard added, "What you need to see is that you are afraid to get healthy. Remember this, for it is a major key." (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
EXERCISE: Seven of the Most Powerful Words on Earth
When an obnoxious and aggressive world displays its nuttiness just say to yourself, "I have nothing to say to that." The world cries, "Give me your agreement or your disagreement but whatever you do, don't ignore me!"
Intelligently notice both outer and inner darkness then quietly ignore it. Switch your attention back to the present moment with this powerful self-talk statement. You have higher things to think about and darkness's anguish is not your concern. Every "success" darkness has is based on convincing you that its anguish is your concern. It wants you involved with it, fighting it, trying to help it. Dare to reply instead, "I have nothing to say to that!"
As Vernon Howard said once, "The resistance to the disturbance IS the disturbance." Work with this exercise this week. Notice how good you start to feel as you cease throwing fuel on the initial disturbances - all those tiny little outer and inner fires that are very insignificant until you react to them. (Tom Russell)
KNOWLEDGE: Rich Thoughts for Inner Growth
Vernon Howard began the talk by placing special emphasis on the following three words: GO BEYOND YOURSELF. He said they were the entire secret of success. Then he gave us what he said is an enormous thought: HIGHER ENERGY ACTS THROUGH YOU.
When you raise your hand, the same energy that allowed you to raise your hand is the very same energy that created Mars, this galaxy, the entire Universe. There are not two or more Gods. There is only One, and the same energy that animates your body is the same energy that created and sustains the entire Universe.
He concluded by saying there is something we must understand deeply: There is a mind that thinks, and there is a mind that KNOWS. The mind that thinks must not interfere with the mind that KNOWS. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
July 3, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE: Question: "I always come back to the question of what I should do to break through. Is there some simple rule to remember?" Answer: "Say YES to whatever aids self-discovery; say NO to whatever hinders it." From: "Mystic Path to Cosmic Power"
PICTURE: Your Power of Choice Picture yourself walking down a rocky trail. Your hand reaches out to pick sour fruit from a tree. Right while your hand is in mid-air, you stop and lower your hand to your side. This is what you must do thousands of times if you're going to change. You must stop yourself BEFORE you pick the fruit of a sour reaction. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION: The Spiritual Victory You need not fight the world. You have been doing that all these years and it has obviously failed. You need only understand the world. Understand it completely and in that understanding is the victory. The Spiritual Victory is definite and guaranteed. It will come about. There really does come a time after much hard work where you exclaim, "This is it! Finally I have found it!" In brief, VH continued, in this higher state you will feel great!
CHALLENGE: The Ultimate Goal of Egotism Most people have no intention whatever of making it out of the prison. They like the arrangement they have set up for themselves. The prison of egotism is one in which the person guarantees himself all the enemies in the world. Everyone, or anyone who thwarts the ego's desires, becomes an enemy. This constant opposition is what keeps people enslaved, which is what egotism wants. The goal of egotism is to keep itself attached to as many parts of a human being as possible.
EXERCISE: The Supreme Question VH gave a special exercise to look at any thought, any possible activity, etc, and ask, "Will this raise me above my present level or not?" He added that this was a tall order, and therefore from it you can have tall rewards. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
KNOWLEDGE: Negative Emotions I remember when I once had to deal with some insane people, who were wholly under the power of negative emotions and negative thinking, how the slightest movement I made was always interpreted in favor of their negative ideas from which they instantly deduced all sorts of things that were partly true. A person in negative emotions always notices very quickly what you have neglected but takes no cognizance of what you have done. In this respect his negative emotions give him a certain cognition, often very deep and subtle and YET ALWAYS WRONG. From: "Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky" by Maurice Nicoll
June 26, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE:
Separate yourself from the ways of the world. The world lives in fear. You need not live in fear. The world lives in pretense of being unafraid. You must not join this pretense. The world offers cures for fear. You must see that the cures are offered by the fearful. Separate yourself from the ways of the world, then fifty tons of worldly fear can fall and you will not feel an ounce.
Quoted from "Esoteric Mind Power"
PICTURE: False Fronts
Picture a movie set. From a distance the fake homes and businesses look real and substantial. But when you walk through the front doors you walk into nothingness. It is a front, an illusion. Nothing real is backing them up. This is society. This is that cruel man, that angry woman. They are all false fronts. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
INSPIRATION: The Miracle of Self-Transformation
As you travel the true spiritual trail, the periods of sunshine become longer and longer and the stretches of darkness where you are preoccupied become less and less. Especially while you are alone - you will notice something different happening to you. This is the miracle of self- transformation. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
CHALLENGE: Don't Fear Life's Open Highway
You can have the open highway of life. You can be out there driving with no obstacles at all, only the wide-open road for you to enjoy. But you fear this now. You fear it because you presently know only the traffic life. And your great fear is, "What will happen to me if I become happy, if I live the open life of the free and happy highway?" (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
EXERCISE: Conscious Dining
One way to increase your intelligence is to stay awake while you eat. Simple as it sounds, there is far more to this than appears on the surface. Do not let yourself be carried away by your old nature that wants to use the dinner to escape. Stay awake as the dinner arrives, and stay awake all during the meal. Be aware of your fork lifting from the table. Taste the food. Use it as an experience in spiritual growth. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
KNOWLEDGE: The Spiritual Journey
There are three phrases a spiritual traveler passes through:
1. The collection of information and ideas, and there is a great assortment of materials in this area.
2. The personal experimentation with what he collects.
3. The direct inspiration and instruction from the ORIGINATOR of all inspiration and instruction. (SuperWisdom Notebooks)
June 19, 2002
VERNON HOWARD QUOTE: Safety Signal
You possess a secret weapon which can be developed for strong personal security. It is a sensing that something is wrong. On past occasions you have been with certain people when the feeling arose that everything was not quite right. Even though you could not put it into words, you felt uneasy. Release fully this feeling of natural protection. Give alert attention when it rings a friendly warning signal in your mind.
From: "50 Ways to See Through People"
PICTURE: A Clear View
It is like a jigsaw puzzle. If you get ten of the pieces in place, then you can begin to get an idea of the entire picture. If you can collect ten powerful truths in you at one time, then that becomes a mighty magnet that attracts higher sources of help. (SWN)
INSPIRATION: Pure Excitement
You can have the excitement of knowing that when you wake up in the morning you will learn more about God. You will know a Truth today that was hidden from you yesterday - hidden from you by your own unawareness of its presence. (SWN)
CHALLENGE: Relearning
We must RELEARN the way our minds work. Following this rarely traveled path leads one through many shocks and humiliations. But it is the only true path. No other path works. Study your mind so thoroughly that you relearn EVERYTHING, yes EVERYTHING about it. (SWN)
EXERCISE: Intelligent Self-Questioning
Here is an exercise you can use with great benefit. Ask, "What did I just say?" Then ask more questions. "Why did I say that? What was my real motive?" Learn to talk consciously. As you do so the day will come when you rise above the exercise. Then you are always conscious of your speech. You always say and do the right things since you are awake and conscious at all times. (SWN)
KNOWLEDGE: The Three Stages
There are three stages that a person on the path passes through:
1. I know what I want. 2. I don't know what I want. 3. I really know what I want.
When you reach stage two, you now place yourself in a position where another voice can reach you. Before this, your dazed demands prevented you from hearing anything higher than your neurotic nature. In stage three, you REALLY know what you want. And what you want is more of the clean feelings that come from the higher places. (SWN)
June 12, 2002
"Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized.In the first, it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer.
Stay Home Mentally By Vernon Howard
Ponder the power called ATTENTION. You are reading this page right now because of this power. Notice how often people steal your attention with idle remarks and excited exclamations. They don't care if they interrupt and bother you. It is the same as if they tried to pull you off an upward path. Learn to remain with your own mind and its higher aims. Sustained attention is power to live as you wish to live. Use it.
Brighten Your Inner World From the SuperWisdom Notebooks -- January 8, 1984
I'm sure you've had the experience of walking along on a cloudy day. It is gloomy and misty; the sun isn't shining. Suddenly the sun breaks through and you feel its warmth and freshness. You feel it as something you didn't feel before. How many of you have had this experience in your inner work? Don't you want more of that?
Realize that nothing is stronger than Truth. Your real nature is stronger than anything. All you have to do is align yourself with it. You may be at work or walking down the hall and all of the sudden you feel the sun break through to brighten and permeate your entire being. It comes to you in spite of all obstacles!
Yield yourself to this experience. Love the sun more than you want to be angry at the office. Be willing to give up having your own way with all its present torments and thrills. Not wanting egotism and vanity invites this rare and beautiful experience. The first glimpse of the sun will win your heart and your life forever.
"Religion needs other people, but you can be spiritual all alone. Be spiritual by placing Truth above all else." Vernon Howard
Three Diamonds from the SuperWisdom Notebooks
1. One of the many rewards along the spiritual path is that you will no longer fear silence. While talking with someone, when the conversation goes silent, you will not get nervous and anxiously feel that you must say something to keep the chatter going.
2. VH said that it is a very rare human being who will do the following: Be very observant of self-harm the moment it occurs.
3. The voyage of Columbus 500 years ago had success BECAUSE THEY KEPT GOING!
"The flame of Life within IS contentment. It IS happiness. It IS wisdom. We don't have to make ourselves content, happy or wise. We simply draw near to the flame, blend with it and let it release what is already present, like a seed that recognizes fertile ground and releases the code that sprouts new life." -- Tom Russell
June 5, 2002
"At the boundary, life blossoms." James Gleick -- Scientist
The Difference Between Thought and Awareness By Vernon Howard from "Mystic Path to Cosmic Power"
Spiritual awareness and human thought are two entirely different things. We must never forget this. The human mind can begin the quest, but it cannot make the actual discovery of Reality. The human mind can raise the sail in order to begin the voyage, but, having done that, it can only (and need only) rest and let the winds of Reality carry it to port.
Now, while living on this earth, we need both spiritual awareness and human thought. The human mind, which consists of memorized data, is useful for remembering how to tend the garden, or figure finances, or greet someone in the morning. But awareness is far above mechanical memory; it is Reality itself.
"In the very process of using the mind, of thinking clearly, reasoning critically and sanely, one discovers for oneself the limitations of thought." J. Krishnamurti
Three Diamonds from the SuperWisdom Notebooks
1. As you grow, the time will come when spiritual truths come so fast that you can't catch them all. Have you had this experience? If you haven't, work hard and you will. There is more water in the spiritual oasis than you can possibly drink.
2. Ever since you were a little child you have floated downstream with the river of this world. Now, today, this morning, go against the river. Swim against the current of your normal river of thoughts, moods and feelings. This is a perfect parallel to what you must do.
3. Watch yourself talk. Be aware of what you're saying. This is more therapeutic than a thousand visits to a psychologist. Simply at all times be aware of what you're saying inwardly and outwardly. (VH referred to this exercise as "speech teach" and often discussed its value and practice.)
Wisdom from Gurdjieff From: "Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of G. & O." by Maurice Nicoll
On one occasion Gurdjieff was speaking of aim. He asked people round him what was their aim. People said different things - such as that they wished always to be happy or to do good to others and so on. Someone said: "I wish for self-mastery." Gurdjieff said at once that this was a real aim. "This," he said in so many words, "is something the work is about. This I can teach you if you are willing to go through all the difficulties that must be overcome to attain it. Real Will is possible because it exists in Man. It is Master. But Man is cut off from it."
Wisdom from "Mystic Masters Speak" By Vernon Howard
Q. Most of us are so timid about changing our ways, even our unhappy ways. We wonder what will happen to us if we dare to go against the lashing waves of social custom to launch out on our own voyage.
A. You have no business with consequences; you are to tell the truth. (Samuel Johnson)