Thursday, December 13, 2012

Doug And The Angels

A Message About the Child and the Angel

The Original Goodness

As William Samuel tells us:

"The final discipline involves

the correct apprehension of Identity
and passing that clear perception
along to our world as quickly as we can."

So, I shall--- I am passing along this email sent to me from Doug. It is so lovely--I asked him if I could share it with you:

Subject: The Earliest Known Reference to Contradistinction and the Child

Sandy

Here's a writing from about 1500 that captures elements of both contradistinction and the Child, here called the Angel.

This writing has been with me 20 years and is probably one of the most important few paragraphs I've found along the way. Interesting that almost 20 years later I would run across Bill Samuel's writings that more fully elaborate the motivation of these paragraphs.

In particular, this passage (interesting term isn't it...), acknowledges the fact of joy and sorrow as well as Joy and Sorrow, a full embrace of all of Life.

In just a few paragraphs, it captures not only the Finding, but the Way that reveals the Finding and the Angel almost as side effects and not the goal. Of all these things, it's the Way, the activity of the Child, that seems to have the strongest energy. Who knows where it leads...

Thanks for sharing your song on the blog. I love singing along or at least humming a few bars. I also listen to all the RF Hay audios you and he make.

Doug

Attached: Excerpt by Fra Giovanni from book titled The Original Goodness:

----and it is within our reach, as the medieval monk Fra Giovanni testifies in words that are perfect for meditation:

There is nothing I can give you which you do not have, but there is much that while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven. No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in ths present instant. Take peace.

The gloom of the world is but a shadow behind it, yet within reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see, and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look.

Life is so generous a gift, but we judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or hard; remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, the angel’s hand is there, the gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys too, be not content with them as joys. They too conceal diviner gifts.

And so at this time I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings but with profound esteem and the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

If you would like further guidance in understanding any of William Samuel's work based on Self discovery - you are welcome to contact me, Sandy Jones -- samuelandfriends@gmail.com - Ojai, California -