What a pity it would be if all men used different yardsticks

  I speak of the thousand and one lures of the senses, of the tragic sense of involvement in the world of maya that becomes a winding of circumstances upon the staff of a man’s being, erecting a prison house that cuts him off from the light and air of God’s wondrous mercy….

  What a pity it would be if all men used different yardsticks; yet this is exactly what they do when it comes to the things of the Spirit.  Each one sets his own standard of divine or human values, especially of those which are difficult to measure by human means.  I advocate then that in order to effect a greater soul freedom and a greater emancipation of one's personal energies the individual enter into the higher consciousness of the Christ and its magnificent yet altogether dominant influences for God-good….

  The root of human bitterness is man’s worst enemy, choking out the fruit of individual possibilities while destroying the lives of multitudes by its viciousness.  I therefore advocate a willing surrender of those self-satisfying actions that are hurtful to others as well as to the self.  I recommend instead the cultivation of the consciousness as though it were a great open temple beholding in the dome of heavenly manifestation its wondrous opportunity for expansion that is so beautifully governed by cosmic Law….

  Let those who can hear and understand the beauty of simplicity, of mutual trust, of consecration, of mystery revealed share in the joy that you are and that I AM.  For out of the fount of our oneness in the pursuit of His knowledge shall we correctly offer the perfume of victory unto all.   Joy be with you always in the service of the living flame.     

    -Confucius:  Pearls of Wisdom 15:16

from Prayer & Meditation, 1978


photo by V. Vickland