Chapter 14- Reaching for the Stars: Meditation

Meditation – Grace

Grace – the first and highest Law

Of our Father’s Kingdom

Here on Earth.

A thing so totally pervasive

As to be almost unseen.

For in truth, what seed have I planted

That has not blossomed beyond belief?

As you sow, so shall ye reap …

Reap the seed of Karma’s bonds?

Never, no!

Rather shape hedge, cut flowers

Shade near young Oak,

From our seeds seedlings and acorns

Have grown,

It cannot be otherwise,

He decreed.

And even when pruning comes

Those doomed parts make way for greater growth

Toward the light,

‘tis Grace too

For naught is lost

Not even death

But transformed be

To Mother Earth

Who too is soon to bloom.

He whose faith is diminutive

As the mustard seed

Has the greatest faith of all

Thru Grace.

Then plant and speak and send the seeds,

The thoughts, the arrows swift

While Grace abounds.

Chapter 14- Reaching for the Stars, Exercise 2

Exercise 2

• Make a careful list of all of your certainties.
• Create a poem or song around these certainties.
• Create also a prayer, which gives thanks for these certainties.
• Recall them every morning upon waking, and just before slumber for an entire month.

Chapter 14- Reaching for the Stars, Exercise 1

Exercise 1

Tools required:

• A Questionnaire
• A conversational partner

Concluding a conversation, ask the person you have been in dialogue with if they would attempt to answer some questions you might have for them.

Prepare the questionnaire ahead of time – you may choose the samples below, or work from your own – and do not, by any accounts react in a discouraging way to the fellow you are probing, no matter what answer is given! When people answer something candidly, they do so in good faith, and so we must endeavour to remove criticism from our hearts and minds before and after any pertinent discourse, else do not ask them for their honesty, as this is a betrayal of confidence.

After the questionnaire has been fulfilled, compare your own thoughts with answers you may have guessed for them, privately. Ponder your accuracy or inaccuracies in this matter.

Thank the participant.

Sample Questionnaire 1

• During our conversation did I appear to be attentive?
• What was the most interesting thing I mentioned (if anything)?
• What was the most striking thing that came to your mind that you shared with me?
• What was the most striking thing that came to your mind that you did not share with me?
• Were you at ease in my presence?
• Was anything left unsaid that should have been said?
• During our dialogue did you feel:
• present, in the moment
• distant, distracted into thought elsewhere
• Eternal Grace
• something else?
• Do you have any questions you should like to ask me, in return, before we conclude?

Sample Questionnaire 2

• During our conversation, could you feel the Presence of Christ?
• What, if anything, did He say to You?
• Did you hear Him speak to you through me at all? What was it that was said?
• If you had a question to ask Him today, what would that be?
• Do you perceive Him to be:
• present, in the moment
• distant, some place elsewhere
• in Eternal Grace
• somewhere else?
• Before we conclude, do you have any thing you feel should be said from Him to me, that you could speak of?

Chapter 14- Reaching for the Stars: Recommended, Part 2

The flying of kites and banners and flags announces manifestation! 
The kite says: “We reach heavenward, but our string is held tight”, the banner says: “We want the world to know of us”;
whilst the flag says: “I am”.

There are many ways aside from yelling that we may announce our firm presence within the world – and amongst some of these ways, there can be return benefits that help us to re-establish our place and position as we go. One of these ways is through the flag or the banner.

A banner can be something exposed to the elements outside, but it can also, in this context, be a material depiction affirming a reality we want reinforced within this world. 

In other words, a banner can be considered also as perhaps a framed poem, or single word, a symbol or a photograph which is displayed … showed for the purpose of reaffirming, reasserting, the reality it represents. 

It is not an invocation as such, because that would imply that it is something of the future which we wish to call in - something which is not already present. Rather than that, it is moreover something of an existing reality for which we wish to proclaim, recreate or make permanent. 

One can therefore ask themselves what it is that they seek to further and perpetuate. All visual hangings imbibe their surroundings with a certain presence (and ‘broadcast’ this presence permanently). It is suggested that we take a careful note of our residence in this regard and ask ourselves if the pictures and banners are representative of our chosen selves utterly – and keep this in mind for future choosings as well. Also, we can consciously regard the banners of others quite carefully within their homes and workplaces, asking ourselves for some quick discernment along the way.

The flying of kites offers us a happy insight through the physical practice itself, of our relationship to both the solid ground beneath us and to the depths of the sky above us. Rarely do we perceive the sheer height that there is, vaulted above, simply because the atmosphere is too constricting to permit a direct sensation of this wonderful expanse – however, and accordingly we do not gauge either, just how high we can reach when assisted by the winds and a little cloth sail! 

Part of the process of discernment begins in finding out what it is that we are not, what it is that we do not know – that we may begin to ask the relevant questions and pursuits to recover the deficits once recognised. Esoterically we work out from strengths all of the time, and the ability for self-review (even if it is a harsh critique) is a strength to be exercised. Our manifold talents embrace the prospect of yet further development and do not despise ideas or yearnings for improvement. The inherent nature of Life-universal is creative – it aspirates upon improvement, not static.

We can help navigate our kite, but are reliant upon the winds which uphold them. There is only so much skill a kite-flyer may rely upon, before he realises that the factors beyond are too vast and too great to predict more than a moment to moment judgement – and as alarming as this may be, it is something which is joyful to admit to. For we are not responsible for the winds, and we are not controlling the length and breadth of the skies, and we have no more than a little thin string connecting us to what is up there!

Meeting Faith halfway: Knowledge is the ego’s wisdom, whereas wisdom is the soul’s knowing; and what we cannot know within the ego, but rather in the soul, requires Faith for us to maintain consciously. 

The egoic consciousness may suspect that there is more to be known that it already has experienced … that the soul indicates this, and whispers of its view. For we are often curious about something, yet have no real basis to feel or believe ourselves so; we are encouraged by the soul’s perspective continually, yet do not have the language to translate or transcribe. Certain events needs be played out and experiences made quite real, before we can grasp with clarity just what it was that originally hearkened us from the inner vantage. And it has required a measure of faith to facilitate the leaping from this innate wisdom to acquired and experienced knowledge.

Intelligence can only explore territory upon its own level. Science and intellectualism alone cannot find that which it cannot provide the means to identify. Yet the life which preceded all intelligence, and that which encapsulates its knowing cannot be comprehended by it – at least not in its complete and magnificent form. This is why some sciences of the world are destined to bring less than half-truths into their thinking – as conformative to their rationalisations as they may be, they will be incomplete if confined to that level alone.

The wearing of glasses (sunglasses or optical lenses) has a direct affect upon our thinking, and our reviewing processes. Firstly in this, it becomes an act of deliberation to put on a pair of eyewear and adjust our viewing, and secondly, whenever we change over from our own eyes’ focus to a modified view, we are corrupting the exchange which the eyes truly ‘sense’ in the reality passing before them – and for what lies in between. However, and having said this, this intervention is regarded by the thinking processes as something of a ‘wakeup’ – the effects are not of confusion, but of a sharper clarity. Folk who wear reading glasses will know the overall feeling of concentration being enhanced and of readiness, when they first put their spectacles on. The very same applies also for sunshades as well. 

(We do not recommend that you use focus altering lenses if you do not need them. As an alternative coloured spectacles with true-to-life refraction can be useful also.)

Chapter 14- Reaching for the Stars: Recommended

Activities Recommended:

• Walking with a walking stick
• Flying kites & banners & flags
• Meeting Faith halfway
• The wearing of glasses

Walking with a walking stick used to be a preferred way of trekking, or taking a nature walk; being not only so wonderfully useful for steadying, shying and probing, but also as an aid to enhance the relationship the individual has to his or her surroundings.

Via the stick, there becomes a correspondence between the hand and the earth beneath us: the forces which emanate out through the fingers are directed specifically into a rod which carries them through to the ground. (This will occur via metal or wood.) This staff not only conducts itself the one way, but receives into it also immediate emanations from the ground up as well, which are translated and read by the sensitivities connected to the hand.*

The effect is twofold and results in our bonding with our environment in a way which is more informed and well focused. Our own egoic forces are somewhat constrained and channelled thus, being directed through the rod and are involved with the stern reality beneath the feet. This is especially helpful for people who are ‘wandering’ within their thinking, having difficulty being aware of the reality begging around them; and of course for finding one’s way on bushwalks!

*Note: The forces as described are not examples of the entire output of egoic emanatory efforts, but relating to those meridians which express themselves through dynamic effort and out into the world through the fingertips themselves.