THE PRESENCE IN FORM "... a still voice that speaks..." July 5, 2019

AS MINDING-MIND DISAPPEARS
< 
AWARENESS IN/OF/AS SOUL REMAINS…
THE AUTHENTIC CONDITION OF BEING
 SINCE BEFORE TIME
=
THE PRESENCE IN FORM*
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1:43 AM-7/5/19

*ARE YOU ONE IN WHOM GOD HAS MORE AND MORE SWAY?”
Douglas Steere
 (Well-Known Quaker…who visited our Highschool Quaker Boarding-School in mid-1960’s
 and asked us the above question…
...these type questions are known as Queries…
Quakers use “Queries”
rather than rules, regulations & dogma
found in many religions
https://scattergood.org/

It does not require many words to speak the truth.
Chief Joseph

New dispensations may await us;
the Kingdom may come in ways we never dreamed of;
the beyond may be more momentous
than we have ever expected,
but always and everywhere
'the within' determines 'the beyond,'
and character is destiny. 
​
― Rufus Matthew Jones,  Quaker
The Inner Life

For the forest, the shared purpose is life itself, existence;
everything extraneous stripped away by its necessity.
Perhaps the goal of the spiritual life
is to strip away everything frivolous as well,
to pare it all back to the necessity of connection with the other.
If we worship in the sincere presence
of that power that takes away
our forever-unmet need of things superfluous,
we enter the real ecology of the meeting,
​where all is web.” 
― James W. Hood, 
​The Ecology of Quaker Meeting

No clear impressions,
either from above or from without,
can be received by a mind turbid with excitement and agitated by a crowd of distractions.
The stillness needed
for the clear shining of light within
​ is incompatible with hurry.

~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
http://www.quakercenter.org/quaker-quote-archive/

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Read More Below Afternoon Photos
for additional Sunrise Photos
​and 
The Right Use of Energy –
J. Krishnamurti

AFTERNOON

All Quaker Quotes below from:
http://www.quakercenter.org/quaker-quote-archive/

No clear impressions,
either from above or from without,
can be received by a mind
turbid with excitement and agitated
​ by a crowd of distractions.

The stillness needed
for the clear shining of light within
is incompatible with hurry.
~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

The want of faith in the word and power of God within,
and the neglect of hearing the still, small voice thereof,
is the ground and cause of all
ignorance, errors, darkness,
​and confusion among men,
of all sects and sorts of religion
upon the face of the whole earth.
~ William Shewen, 1631-1695
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Men are too apt to let their heads outrun their hearts,
and their notions exceed their obedience,
and their passions support their conceits,
instead of a daily cross,
a constant watch,
and a holy practice.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

​Nothing does reason more right,
than the coolness of those who offer it,
for truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders,
than from the arguments of its opposers.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Look not out, but within…
Remember it is a still voice that speaks to us in this day,
and that it is not to be heard in the noises and hurries of the mind;
but it is distinctly understood in a retired frame.
~ William Penn, 1644-1718
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Art thou in darkness?
mind it not, for if thou do it will fill thee more,
but stand still and act not,
and wait in patience
till light arise out of darkness
​ to lead thee.
~ James Nayler, 1616-1660
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Inner silence,
calming the agitations of our hearts and minds,
letting go of all that is stubborn and grasping,
is essentially an expression of the love of truth.
To be dispassionate,
not to let one’s own needs or prejudices or emotions color one’s actions,
is essentially to put truth before everything else.
To love truth in this way is to love God,
who is Truth.
Thus the practice of inner silence
​ is the same as the love of God.
~ Dan Seeger, 1934-
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Now thou must die in the silence,
to the fleshly wisdom, knowledge, reason, and understanding;
so thou comest to feel that which brings thee to wait upon God;
(thou must die from the other,)
that brings thee to feel the power of an endless life,
​and come to possess it.
~ George Fox, 1624-1691
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Nothing, I believe,
​ can really teach us the nature and meaning of inspiration
but personal experience of it.
That we may all have such experience
if we will but attend to the divine influences in our own hearts,
is the cardinal doctrine of Quakerism.
~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

​But as there is a keeping back,
and quietly waiting,
and a keeping out of willing or running, and haste,
the spirit arises purely and stilly in the heart,
and gives perfect evidence and full testimony of itself;
so that there needs to be
no doubting nor questioning of its motion;
for it shows forth itself
​with full assurance of its own will.
~ Francis Howgill, 1618-1688
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Words may help and silence may help,
but the one thing needful is that the heart
should turn to its Maker
as the needle turns to the pole.
For this we must be still.

~ Caroline Stephen, 1834-1909
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Only the inner vision of God,
only the God-blindedness of unreservedly dedicated souls,
only the utterly humble ones
can bow and break the raging pride
​of a power-mad world.
~ Thomas Kelly, 1893-1941
[full context of this Quaker Quote]

Read More Below
for additional Sunrise Photos
​and 
The Right Use of Energy –
J. Krishnamurti

​​The Right Use of Energy – J. Krishnamurti

What is this energy which we all have? 
This energy is thinking, feeling;
it is interest, enthusiasm, greed, passion,
lust, ambition, hate. 
Painting pictures, inventing machines, building bridges,
making roads, cultivating the fields, playing games,
writing poems, singing, dancing,
going to the temple, worshipping--
these are all expressions of energy;
and energy also creates illusion, mischief, misery.  ​

The very finest and the most destructive qualities
are equally the expressions of human energy. 
But, you see, the process of controlling or disciplining this energy,
letting it out in one direction and restricting it in another,
becomes merely a social convenience;
the mind is shaped according to the pattern of a particular culture,
​ and thereby its energy is gradually dissipated.

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So, our problem is, can this energy,
which in one degree or another we all possess, be increased,
given greater vitality—and if so, to do what? 
What is energy for? 
Is it the purpose of energy to make war? 
Is it to invent jet planes and innumerable other machines,
to pursue some guru,
to pass examinations,
to have children,
to worry endlessly over this problem and that?

Or can energy be used in a different way
so that all our activities
have significance in relation to something
​which transcends them all?

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Surely, if the human mind, which is capable of such astonishing energy, is not seeking reality or God, then every expression of its energy becomes a means of destruction and misery. ​

To seek reality requires immense energy;
and, if man is not doing that,
he dissipates his energy in ways which create mischief
and therefore society has to control him. 

Now, is it possible to liberate energy in seeking God or truth and,
in the process of discovering what is true,
to be a citizen who understands the fundamental issues of life
and whom society cannot destroy? 
Are you following this,
​ or is it a little bit too complex?

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You see,
​ man is energy, and if man does not seek truth,
this energy becomes destructive;
therefore society controls and shapes the individual,
which smothers this energy. 
​
That is what has happened to the majority
of grown-up people all over the world. 
And perhaps you have noticed another interesting and very simple fact: 
that the moment you really want to do something,
​you have the energy to do it.

What happens when you are keen to play a game? 
You immediately have energy, have you not? 
And that very energy becomes the means of controlling itself,
​ so you don’t need outside discipline. ​

In the search for reality, energy creates its own discipline.
  The man who is seeing reality spontaneously
becomes the right kind of citizen,
which is not according to the pattern
of any particular society or government.

​- J. Krishnamurti
From Think on These Things, Chapter 24
https://o-meditation.com/2019/07/05/the-right-use-of-energy-j-krishnamurti/

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