Познание истины

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Alisa

For English version click here.

Познание истины

Я продолжаю заниматься Шагами к Знанию, которые часто призывают к познанию истины, к тому, чтобы испытывать истину, ощущать её всем телом и существом, ведь только так можно проникнуть в суть истины.

А что для меня истина? И зачем в неё вникать? Суть вопроса для меня скорее кроется в том, чтобы определить для себя: иду ли я по верному пути по жизни или нет, делаю ли я всё в моих силах, чтобы развиваться духовно и помогать другим развиваться, выйти на высший уровень эволюции и повысить вибрацию нашей планеты? А всё начинается с себя, надо осознано жить, жить так, чтобы вложить свой маленький вклад в развитие человечества. А для этого надо восстановить Знание внутри себя, следовать Знанию, и позволить Знании вести меня по жизни. Тогда истина откроется.

Я недавно вспоминала то время, когда я впервые приехала в Россию в 1981 г. Я приехала в Москву, чтобы совершенствовать мой русский язык после окончания университета в Сан-Антонио, Техас. В ту пору я вела дневник и на днях читала его заново. Запись за 25 февраля 1981 г. поразила меня. Я написала её после того, как ходила вечером в одном из парков Москвы и наблюдала за закатом.

“Лучи заходящего солнца накрывают снежные сугробы темно-розовой шалью” писала я в дневнике. Я сидела какое-то время на лавке и наблюдала за этой красотой, погружаясь в таинственность и тишину. Я писала о том, что с моего приезда в Россию, что-то изменилось в себе, жизнь стала и сложнее и проще, яснее одновременно. Как будто я смотрела в прозрачную воду озера и увидела свое истинное отражение, не жалкое, ничтожное, а что-то ценное. Я увидела, как судьба моя становилась ясным, перед мной появилась цель, а все лишнее отпадало. “Я хочу ответственности, хочу знания, хочу познавать мир, хочу испытывать жизнь и свое место в ней”, писала я дальше в дневнике. Мне тогда было 23 года.

Познание истины

Сегодня, тридцать три года спустя, я могу сказать, что судьба с мной распределилась именно так, как я тогда хотела. Я знала тогда, что хочу жить в России, что моя судьба здесь, и так и получилось. Я переехала жить в России навсегда и ни на минуту не жалею об этом. Я тут как раз продолжаю свое духовное развитие, делаю свой маленький вклад в общую картину. Начинаю познавать истину.

Я недавно узнала, что Райнер Марии Рильке, поэт, которого я открыла для себя будучи студенткой, тоже впервые посетил Россию, когда ему было 23 года и был глубоко затронут ей, называя его “своей духовной родиной”.

Он полюбил Россию и хотел переехать туда на постоянное жительство, но по какой-то причине, его мечта не сбылась. А в какой-то момент он начал писать стихи на русском языке.

Я, как и Рильке, тоже считаю Россию своей духовной родиной.

Я, как и Рильке, тоже была глубоко затронута Россией во время моей первой поездки сюда.

Я, как и Рильке, хотела переехать в Россию на постоянное жительство. А, в отличие от Рильке, моя мечта сбылась.

Тут я познаю истину.

Я, конечно, ни в коем случае пишу тут о Рильке, как будто я рядом с ним стою. Отнюдь! Он же великий немецкий поэт, а я простая гражданка Алиса. Просто мне очень по душе эти совпадения. И ещё одно совпадение – я тоже начала писать на русском языке, не стихи, конечно, но в каким-то образом можно называть это «поэзией». Неграмотно пишу, с чудными особенностями, но от чистого сердца и «с любовью к языку, которого может быть даже хорошо и не знаешь».

Может кто-нибудь когда-нибудь прочтет мои неуклюжие, сумбурные строки, и что-нибудь поймет.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

A Voice Louder Than Bombs

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Douglas

When I was eight years old, I spent a year in Birmingham, England. My family traveled to many places in England, Wales and Scotland. One of the places we visited was Coventry. I remember being in roughly the spot from which this photo was taken.

Coventry Cathedral was built during the late 14th and early 15th centuries. It was destroyed during World War II in the Coventry blitz of 1940. Provost Richard Howard had the words “Father Forgive” inscribed on the wall behind the altar of the ruined building.

A voice louder than bombs

When architect Basil Spence (now Sir Basil Spence) designed the new cathedral, he insisted on keeping the ruins of the old cathedral as a garden of remembrance. I consider this an inspired decision. Hitler and the bombs are gone, the words “Father Forgive” are still here.

The new cathedral contains a large tapestry, created by Graham Sutherland, called “Christ in Glory.”
If you look carefully, there is a human figure standing between the feet of Christ in the tapestry.

I am sharing this with you because the image of this tapestry appeared in my mind’s eye while I was doing the practice of Step 75, “Today I will listen to my Self” of Steps to Knowledge. My original plan was to write a post on Step 76 today. But I felt an inclination to share this instead. Coventry is a place where the words “Father Forgive” ring out in a voice louder than bombs.

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Giordano Bruno, Prophet of the Greater Community

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Douglas

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was many things in his full, eventful life. He displayed a talent for memory as a child. He was an ordained Catholic priest and a member of the Dominican order. He was considered a scientist of that time. His instrumentation was inadequate to prove or disprove his thought experiments. He expressed his scientific and philosophical arguments in the form of literary dialogues.

The part of his life I find mysterious is his ideas about the universe. Nicolas de Cusa had suggested a hundred years or so earlier that the sun is but another star. In the early 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus showed that the earth and the other planets revolved around the sun.

Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community

Giordano Bruno put together a number of ideas. Suppose the sun is but another star. Suppose there are planets around our sun. Why should there not be planets around other stars as well? Our planet has intelligent life on it. People believe that is a good thing. Why should there not be intelligent life on the many other planets revolving around the other stars? Why should that not be a good thing too?

Giordano Bruno envisioned what the New Message from God refers to as the Greater Community of Worlds. Sometimes it is just called the Greater Community. It is a universe swarming and teeming with intelligent life. I therefore call him the prophet of the Greater Community, someone who considered the idea quite a bit before its time.

Nicolas de Cusa would not be proven right by scientific observation until the early 19th century. The first exoplanet (planet outside our solar system) was discovered in 1992. Since that time, there has been an explosion in the amount of exoplanet research. Many new methods of exoplanet detection have been developed. Many new exoplanets have been confirmed.
The NASA Kepler mission announced Wednesday (as in today, 26 February 2014) the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system. This brings us up to a total of 1,690 planets around 1,023 stars. All I know is that somewhere, Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community, is smiling.

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Another Force Of Nature Speaks

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Douglas

I have listened to the forest, where God is full of life of every shape and size. I have listened to the mountain, where God is full of ancient strength. I have listened to the river, where God is restless in these swelling and ebbing currents. I have listened to the ocean, where God has said with the voice of many waters, “I have work to do.”

Another force of nature speaks

Step 75, “Today I will listen to my Self” of Steps to Knowledge, adds a force of nature for me to hear. Not the feverish little clod of grievances and ailments complaining that the world will not turn on a dime to make it happy. This is the first time the term “Greater Self” is used to describe Knowledge. This Greater Self is united with the Teachers who were introduced in Step 22, “I am surrounded by the Teachers of God.” The Teachers have been mentioned in a number of steps between Step 22 and Step 75. This is the first time the term “Spiritual Family” is mentioned. This Greater Self is united with my Spiritual Family. I am asked to listen to my True Self today.

The point of the Step is to practice listening to that True Self, not so that I can get an answer about this or that today, but to prepare myself for the moment when that True Self offers a thought, an impression, an inclination or a direction. I recall when doing this Step that my True Self was another force of nature, like the ocean or a mountain. I prepare for the day when another force of nature speaks.

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I Feel The Truth Arising

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Alisa

Step 18 Today I Feel the Truth Arising is bringing up memories from the past.

Part of the step reads:

The truth must be fully experienced … It is an experience, and so it is something that is deeply felt. … Truth is something you will feel with your entire body, with your entire being.

This confirms for me my own experience with knowing the Truth so far.

I would like to share an entry from a diary I kept during my first trip to Russia in 1981. I went to Moscow to study Russian for a semester after graduating from university in San Antonio, Texas. This is what I wrote (reproduced verbatim) on February 25, 1981 after walking in one of Moscow’s snowy parks at sunset. I was 23 years old at the time.

The dusky pink sun as it set this evening mirrored my heart, that mystery, that deep hushed silence, the pink quiet, I was completely content just sitting and watching, drinking in the calm and feeling a quiet joy in just being alive. I can’t explain what has happened since I’ve come here, but things have changed. All of a sudden life is more complex, yet clearer and simpler. I am beginning to grasp, experience, and understand feelings and ideas that before were just vague dreams, distant and unrealized. Suddenly my destiny is beginning to take shape before my eyes, I am becoming aware of who I am and what I want out of life. No matter what happens, where I go, what I do, I am me, true to my own purpose, and the things that are dear to me, that make me tick, make my heart beat, make me aware, are the most important. All the other superfluous things in life seem to be falling away and I look into a crystal clear pool, see my reflection, see that I am, see that I am worthwhile. I want responsibility, I want knowledge, I want to find out, want to understand, want to experience.

I feel the truth arising

Thirty-three years later I can say I have manifested in my life the yearnings of my younger self. I feel the truth arising, but now I am conscious of its source, it comes from Knowledge, the Knowledge I am reclaiming as I take Steps to Knowledge.

I recently found out that a poet I discovered in university, Rainer Maria Rilke, and felt a resonance with also first travelled to Russia when he was 23 years old and was deeply affected by it, calling it his “spiritual motherland.”

The article quoted above goes on to say, “On returning from his first trip to Russia, full of deep impressions and planning to move there permanently (a dream that never came true), Rilke suddenly found himself writing poems in Russian.”

Like Rilke, I was deeply affected by my first trip to Russia and felt it was my spiritual homeland.

Like Rilke, I wanted to move to Russia permanently.

Like Rilke, I found myself writing in Russian, although not poetry and not immediately. I did not think I could write in Russian until a few years ago, but I write today in Russian with the same linguistic idiosyncracies as Rilke wrote his Russian poems.

Step 18 “Today I Feel the Truth Arising” ends with:

Throughout the day as well, without doubt or hesitation, pursue your true goal in life. From this true goal will come all of the important things that you will need to accomplish and the great power of vision and discernment that will allow you to find those individuals that you have come into the world to find.

I did not know of this Step thirty-three years ago, but there it amazingly was in my life. Today I am consciously reclaiming it.

Some people may not see the significance or value in the coincidental dates and ages, but I do and I like them, which is why I am sharing Rilke’s story along with my story on this particular day, February 25, 2014.

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Honeybees Holler Help!

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Douglas

Some of the poets who have appeared in this space have expressed a great fondness for bees. In the poem “The Force of Friendship,” Rumi wrote “The bee, through mystic inspiration, fills its rooms with honey.” In the poem “Last Night, As I Was Sleeping,” Antonio Machado dreamed of a beehive in his heart, where the golden bees made white combs and sweet honey from his past failures.

The movie “The Deadly Bees” was made during my childhood During my lifetime, much anxiety has been expressed over the spread of Africanized bees through South and Central America.

Honeybees holler help!

These days, honeybees in North America and Europe are having troubles. Apparently entire colonies of bees collapse as part of the normal course of events. 2006 was a particularly bad year for beekeepers. This isn’t just bad for beekeepers or honey lovers. This is bad for growers and eaters of the many different foods pollinated by honeybees, like you and me.

People seem to have recognized that this is a serious problem. I believe a lot of smart people are working on the problem. Many causes have been proposed, including pesticides, parasites, viruses, fungi, genetic factors, beekeeping practices and electromagnetic radiation.

I make no claim to know which cause or group of causes is the most important factor. All I know is that the collapse of large numbers of bee colonies is the bees’ way of crying out “Help!” I hope that we remember how much we need the bees. I hope we are not too hard on the bees.

I recently had a thought that every species on earth needs a human spokesperson, a human advocate, a human singer of that species. Who hears the honeybees holler help? I’m not taking on Apis mellifera, the honeybee, at least not today, but it would be a good thing if someone did.

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I Have Signed An Armistice With My Errors

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Douglas

The peace of Step 74, “Peace abides with me today” of Steps to Knowledge isn’t a peace that comes out of nowhere for no reason. It is a peace that results from the willingness to learn from one’s errors. This willingness was asserted in Step 73, “I will allow my errors to teach me.”

It is as if I have signed an armistice with my errors

Oh, but this armistice is not like the Armistice of Compiegne in November of 1918, where one side humbled the other side. Neither is this armistice like the Korean Armistice Agreement in July of 1953, in which both sides are still at war in every way except killing people and breaking things. This is closer to an actual peace treaty, where the two parties not only agree to end violent hostilities, but declare a mutual desire to get along.

I have signed an armistice with my errors. What are the terms of this armistice? The Armistice at Compiegne was based on Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points.” There are a mere eleven points which describe my responsibilities. Here’s my part of the deal.

I will not justify my errors.
I will not forget my errors.
I will learn from my errors.
I will do what must be done that was not done before.
I will avoid what must be avoided that was not avoided before.
I will contemplate how these errors could be recognized in advance.
I will consider the signs that preceded them, and how these warnings might be recognized in the future.
I will allow my errors to teach me.
I will not deny my errors.
I will not bear false witness against my errors.
I will not call my errors by other names.

And what will my errors do? They will cease to haunt and oppress me. They will cease to confront me with the pain I have caused myself and others. They will offer me instruction as to avoid repeating error in the future. They will give up their secrets.

I have signed an armistice with my errors.

* * *

Я желаю слышать истину

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Alisa

Touch Drawing by Deborah Koff-Chapin

For English version click here.

Я желаю слышать истину, поэтому я занимаюсь Шагами к Знанию.

Шаг 17 “Сегодня я хочу слышать истину” уверяет меня, что истина – вещь полезная, она полностью на моей стороне. Однако, в тексте Шага и есть оговорка о том, что эта истина может быть шокирующей и может разрушить мои планы и замыслы. Я готова испытывать шок, хотя никакого шока я пока не испытываю. Я даже готова к тому, чтобы разрушались мои планы и замысли, хотя пока ничего не разрушалось. Это значит, что я не слышу истину, что ли?

Но я не падаю духом, ведь дальше в тексте говорится: “Развивая способность слышать и желание слышать, ты приобретешь то, чего ты ищешь”. Я ищу истину и готова принять её в любой форме. Заявление несколько самонадеянное, кто-то скажет. Может быть, но я готова пойти на риск.

Я помню, как будучи студенткой в университете, я открыла для себя Фридриха Ницше и очень увлекалась им.

Может быть он говорил следующее, а может быть и нет, не важно, эта цитата всё-таки блестяще подходит к этому Шагу: «Иногда люди не хотят слышать правду, потому что они не хотят разрушить свои иллюзии».

Я желаю слышать истину

Я желаю слышать истину, я не боюсь того, что мои иллюзии будут разрушены.

В моих записях по этому шагу я писала: я чувствую, что готова рисковать и готова слышать истину, которая отличается от моих предубежденных соображений. Я глубоко убеждена, что какова бы ни была истина, она лучше всего, не ущербной, а только полезной.

В тот день, когда я занималась этим шагом, слова песни Роллинг Стоунз сразу пришли в голову: ты не всегда можешь получить того, что хочешь, но если постараться ты можешь получить как раз того, в чем нуждаешься.

Я желаю слышать истину, для меня это является постоянной нуждой.

* * *

I Believe In All That Has Never Yet Been Spoken by Rainer Maria Rilke

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Douglas

This poem was written sometime in late 1899, shortly after Rilke’s first trip to Russia. It is part of the book “The Book of Hours.” The Book of Hours is more commonly called “Rilke’s Book of Hours” to distinguish it from the Christian devotional book of the 16th Century. After writing the group of poems containing this poem, Rilke wrote in his journal “I have begun my life.”

Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy are the translators of this rendering. I haven’t heard of either of them until recently. Translating Rilke isn’t the main occupation for either of them, but their three Rilke translation collaborations have been warmly received. I believe they are (or are becoming) to Rilke what Coleman Barks is to Rumi; beloved late 20th-early 21st Century interpreters.

All that has never yet been spoken

Here is the poem in the original German.

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

Does the title need work? The German version has a title “Alles noch nie Gesagte” (All that has not yet been said). Barrows and Macy took poetic license with the second line, changing “most pious feelings” to “what waits within me.” It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if the title of this poem was “I believe in what waits within me.” But most people know this poem by its first line.

Why am I sharing this poem with you now? Because the bit about “what no one dared to wish for” got me. What is it that no one dared to wish for? A new message from God, that’s what.

A fellow student wrote something yesterday which provides an exclamation point:

“Show me the prayers of humankind and I will show you a New Message from God; show me the fate of a spiritual people and I will show you God’s Prophecy; show me the promise of intelligent life and I will show you God’s blessing; show me purpose, meaning and direction and I will show you a Time of Revelation. Such is upon us. Such is the power of our prayer and of our existence.”

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I Desire To Hear The Truth

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Alisa

Touch Drawing by Deborah Koff-Chapin

I desire to hear the truth, which is one of my strong motivations for practicing Steps to Knowledge.

I own a set of Soul Cards with haunting, thought-provoking touch drawings by Deborah Koff-Chapin. The one I share here speaks to my desire to hear the truth and now I know why I am drawn to these cards and this artist.

Step 17. Today I Want to Hear the Truth assures me that the truth is utterly beneficial to me. However, it does qualify this statement by suggesting that at first it might by quite shocking and disappointing to my other plans and goals. I am ready to be shocked, although nothing shocking has occurred so far. I am even ready to be disappointed, to be shown the error of my plans and goals, but I have not been disappointed so far. Does this mean I am not hearing the truth? I will not be discouraged though, for the Step goes on to say, “Developing the ability to hear and the desire to hear will yield to you that which you seek.” I seek the truth and am not afraid of what it might be. Rather a bold and presumptious statement, someone may be thinking. Perhaps, but I’m willing to take the risk.

I remember discovering Friedrich Nietzsche back in university and finding myself very intrigued by what he wrote. He may or may not have said the following, but someone did, and it fits perfectly with this Step.

“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”

This does not apply to me though. I desire to hear the truth and am not going to fret over my destroyed illusions.

I Desire to Hear theTruth

My notes for this step say, “I feel as though I am ready to take the risk and ready for a truth that does not fit my preconceived conceptions. I am certain deep within that whatever the truth may be it cannot be detrimental, only beneficial.”

And the day I did this Step, the words of a Rolling Stones’ song came immediately to mind about how “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might just get what you need.”

I desire to hear the truth, this is an ongoing need for me.

* * *

Mystery of Ascension

A great mystery / Is my true self that I bring / From my ancient home

Monthly Archives: February 2014

Познание истины

Познание истины

Познание истины

A Voice Louder Than Bombs

A voice louder than bombs

Giordano Bruno, Prophet of the Greater Community

Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community

Another Force Of Nature Speaks

Another force of nature speaks

I Feel The Truth Arising

I feel the truth arising

Honeybees Holler Help!

Honeybees holler help!

I Have Signed An Armistice With My Errors

It is as if I have signed an armistice with my errors

Я желаю слышать истину

Я желаю слышать истину

I Believe In All That Has Never Yet Been Spoken by Rainer Maria Rilke

All that has never yet been spoken

I Desire To Hear The Truth

I Desire to Hear theTruth