Chapter 1.  The Beginning   

• The spiritual path is not about religions or doGreat Mysterya.  It is not about finding the one true way.  It is simply the wonder of our own beauty being revealed to ourselves.  Of discovering inner sources of power and guidance, and following the path our hearts show us.  It is about opening ourselves up to the amazing possibilities that life affords us.  For there is more here than we can possibly imagine and all will be greatly rewarded who venture within.

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Chapter 2.  The Vision   

• Ours is a great, holy, wondrous and noble race.  All power is given to us.  This truth is encoded deep within us for each of us to discover.  We are kings and queens with cosmic, royal bloodlines.  We have been born with great destinies to fulfil.  Our kingdom stretches as far as mortal eyes can see.  It contains mountains and oceans and great forests and the stars and the sun and moon.  It contains inner worlds where mystics and shamans have travelled and brought back tales of wonder.  We are greater than our thoughts can imagine and more beautiful than anything our eyes can behold.  But woe are we.  For ours is a kingdom in disarray.  A spell has been cast and our race, in mortal sleep, knows not its truth.  We have been tricked into believing a lie and we are paying greatly for it.  It has hardened our hearts, dimmed our senses and made us into something we do not understand.

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Chapter 3.  Honouring the Ancestors   

• Christ died for my sins.  Buddha became enlightened so I, too, could become enlightened.  Black Elk had visions so I could share his visions.  We are all one tribe.  We who live today receive the benefit of every spiritual act from every person who has ever lived.  The river of consciousness flows through the minds of all, past and present.  It is through this river that we lift each other up through acts of the spirit like kindness and prayer.  We are all joined.  Within our consciousness is contained the wisdom of the ancestors, learned on their own explorations.  They have left beacons for us to follow home.  We honour the ancestors by studying the paths they walked.  Their truths exist not only in books and oral traditions, but also in our consciousness.  They will speak in dreams and symbols.  Within us all truth is alive, waiting for us to discover.  The ancestors can help me discover a path that speaks to my heart.  I will follow this path with all my being.  We who are alive are the new torchbearers.  I will find my sacred song and sing its truth.  By kindling my flame, I become a flame of the Great Mystery.

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Chapter 4.  The First Gate   

• We live in a trance – overwhelmed by our never-ending thoughts – desires, worries, fears, regrets and hopes.  They distract our attention constantly.  We perceive our world not directly but through these images.  We live in a cocoon of our own making.  How to break out into the realm beyond?  I can let go of my mind and sink below the surface of my consciousness. Searching with the mind is like swimming on the surface – swim the whole ocean and I will find nothing. I sink to the place of stillness within.  I bathe in the Holy Presence.  With practice, this inner sanctuary becomes a refuge within my busy world.  I feel at peace.  From here the inner presence nourishes me with living waters. From here my prayers carry much power.  From here the voice speaks to me sweetly.  Helps me in my day-to-day affairs.  Tells me truths long forgotten by my race.

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Chapter 5.  The Book of Law   

• The Book of Law falls open.  Its pages are empty.  “What is real?” asks the voice of Truth to the spirits of all who have lived. Like the sound of a raging river, I hear the voices of millions, each proclaiming their truth – all different with many contradictions.   Silence fills the air and there is great expectation:  “As thou hast believed, so it is true.  Whatever you believe within, that you will see without.  All power belongs to those who believe.”

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Chapter 6.  The Temple Within   

• Tarry not, your temple is in disarray.  There is work to be done. A new temple must be built.  I will show you what to do.  A complete restructuring of my belief system is required.  I am called to build a temple with new, more powerful spiritual beliefs.  My old, limiting beliefs must be changed.  Every belief I possess about myself and my world must be re-examined in this new light.  Will it strengthen the temple?  Empower me?  Awaken within me my sacred song?  Assist me on my path?  All the beliefs that fail must be halved and quartered by the Warrior.  “Do you serve my master?”  Through countless generations of neglect, the stream of consciousness of our race has been polluted by fear, doubt and weakness.   Like leeches, they suck the life force from us.  Blind us from our true power and glory.  Deceiver.  You belong not in my temple.  I am prepared to deny my reality.  Turn heaven and earth upside down.  I need not accept what others have previously accepted.  My temple will be a strong vessel, able to withstand the most vigorous journeys, for I intend to explore vigorously through unknown waters both within and without.  Great and noble are the destinies of those who dare to follow this path

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Chapter 7.  Building the Temple     

• In building my temple, I draw from many sources.  I drink deeply from the well of my ancestors.  I choose the finest beliefs I can find.  Beliefs that speak to my heart.  I feel no restraint in borrowing, adding or deleting from one system to the next. Do I believe it?  It doesn’t matter!  Do I choose to believe it!  My beliefs are chosen from within, not imposed from without. Daily, like eating and bathing, I focus and meditate upon the things I wish to believe.  Imagine them to be true.  And use simple affirmations.  To imprint these onto my consciousness in much the same way as the times table.  I know that any thought or concept which is fed and nourished through repetition will take hold within me.  “Think not of results, just do.”  So said a Russian mystic. I labour to claim this reality.  Until my beliefs become a living, flaming reality.  Remember, this is not a path for the sluggard.  Much is required before anything is gained.  But I persist because there is no way for the temple to built but for one stone upon another

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Chapter 8.  Coming home  

• I see myself just as I am.  I have spent my life trying to be something else.  To be more successful, better looking, smarter. I let go of that.   I pull up a chair and get acquainted with the me that exists right now.   I am enough!  I am beautiful as I am.  This is a wonderful and courageous step.    Knowing and accepting myself without illusion takes a big burden off my shoulders.  I can relax and enjoy myself.  I become more tolerant of myself and others.   I am able to delight in uniqueness.  I come home to life as well.  Things are what they are.  I let go and allow life to just happen, instead of trying to orchestrate it.  I appreciate everything just for what it is.  I’ve tried to make believe life is something it is not – some utopia where every dream is fulfilled.  Life is happy and sad.  Life is joy and grief.  Life is health and sickness.  Life is excitement and boredom. Life is having friends and being lonely.  Life is achieving your goals and failing at your goals.  Life is being confused and being sure.  Life is what it is and if I look at it beyond my illusion of what I think it should be, I find within its diversity, tremendous beauty and goodness.  Friendship, a brilliant blue sky, making love, sunsets, acts of kindness, the beach, trees, a good movie, delicious food, a hot bath, beautiful music.  Maybe there’s no caviar but there’s always a hot bowl of soup and it will nourish me.  I let go of any bitterness, disappointment, anxiety or frustration and let the sun warm my bones.  Wake up!  Life is spilling out abundantly.  Come home and enjoy it.   

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Chapter 9.  Carry thyself with dignity  

• Behold thyself in glory.  Love thyself as I love you.  In this way you honour me.  It is my duty to love myself deeply, totally, unconditionally. To see my dignity and nobility.   To see myself as something of great worth.  To do less is to deny the task for which I was born.  Look at the flowering tree.  I do not examine its flaws – this flower is beautiful, this one so- so.  I appreciate it for what it is.  Am I less than this tree?  What is this neurotic self-examination that makes me feel ashamed, not good enough, unworthy, inferior.  Am I not as beautiful as any star in the galaxy?  As unique as a storm?  As brilliant and radiant as the dawn of a new day?  Of course I am!  I am beautiful, special and unique.  I see it clearly, not with intellect or reason but with depth and assurance.  Is that the tree smiling back at me as if to say “What took you so long?”  Have I been initiated into a secret?   

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Chapter 10.  Bind thy wounds  

• If you have no scars, no bitter regrets or humiliating failures, then what kind of life have you been living?  You are not of my tribe and belong not at my table.  I sup with those whose battle scars cover their bodies and am proud to have lived gloriously through all that life has offered.  Those that have bound their wounds and moved on.  Life is an epic odyssey.  Battles won and lost.  Opportunities missed and seized.  Fortune and misfortune both ours to experience.   But what of my faults and inadequacies?  I resolve to love them as part of who I am.  I am beautiful because of them.  They are part of my uniqueness, like markings on a wild animal.  They give me flavour.  Make me real.  Wounds heal when I forgive myself and others for our humanness.  I allow myself and others to make mistakes, miss opportunities, and make foolish decisions.  I recognise and accept my vulnerability and fragility.  My quirks and idiosyncrasies – all part of who I am.  I am beautiful and special because of my humanness – in fact, this is where my true beauty lies.  I do not complain each time I am wounded.  I see the gifts that wounds bring.  They spur me, change me, and give me compassion.  And besides, wounds heal.

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Chapter 11.  And if the wounds cannot be bound   

• And if the wounds cannot be bound – bleed, bleed for me.   For this, too, is holy.  If the wound will not heal, then let it soak the earth in its pain and sorrow.  Let your pain become an offering, a cleansing.  Offer it joyously.  Everyone must at one time or another carry a burden.  No one is immune.  It is the law of our being.  And some carry greater burdens than others – this too is law.  Ours is not to understand but to walk the path we find ourselves upon.  If we have done everything we can – prayed for guidance, listened sincerely and followed – purified ourselves of self-pity, depression, anger and resentment – and our path leads further into the valley of sorrow, then lift the cup to your lips and drink.  “Not my will but thine.”  Venture ahead fearlessly, knowing there are gifts and treasures on this path too.  We feel the suffering of others deep within us.  We see thousands worse off than ourselves.  We see we are blessed.  I see the world anew through my pain. Released from self- absorption, simple things bless me deeply. I wonder why I ever worried about such trivial things in the past.  But if the unhealed wound is tainted with bitterness and pity, then indeed we walk through the path of hell and all beautiful things are hidden from us.  But always there is a way out, and always the path is through ourselves.  Great is the mystery that shows us the path to the light

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Chapter 12.  Judge thyself not  

• The Great Mystery never judges me.  It supports, nourishes, loves and accepts me totally.  And it encourages me to do the same.  “Love thyself as I love you.”  And it is not just me that the Great Mystery loves.  It comforts everyone, even the most wicked.  Such is its love.  None will be punished except those who punish themselves.  All is forgiven when you forgive yourself.  One thing only is asked of us: that we love and accept ourselves as the universe has loved and accepted us.  That is all.  I resolve to renounce all guilt and remorse for all mistakes, past and future.  I do my best.  No more is asked. Sometimes I will make bad decisions.  Sometimes consequences will result which will hurt others.  I am human.  But I will not pay too much heed to these things.  I will offer a silent prayer and move on.  There is no point in regret or self-recrimination.  For no matter how dire the consequences I imagine, the sun will still shine.  Rivers will still run.  The tree will produce fruit. The ocean tides will ebb.  When I allow myself to be human and let go of my harsh judgements, I flower and bloom.  My eyes are opened to my worth.  Talents and gifts I never knew I had, begin to reveal themselves.  Every part of me bathes in the warm glow of love and acceptance.  Strengths, abilities, weaknesses and inadequacies.  All things become new.  No regret or shame.  A life nourished from within.  As the day accepts the sun and the night accepts the moon, so I accept myself.  And so I become complete and whole.

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Chapter 13.  Prayer  

• The spiritual path is a path of prayer.  Prayer is food for the soul and the universe.  Prayer connects us, humbles us, strengthens us, enlightens us and makes us one with the Great Mystery.    
• The Prayer of the Holy Presence .  A prayer of moment-to-moment worship with the Great Mystery.  One needs to spend time with the Holy One.   Like any relationship, it must be built and nurtured.  It needs familiarity.  Trust.  Quiet, special time together.  This goes beyond thoughts and concepts.  Losing oneself in the presence.  Letting anxieties and concerns melt away as I am transcended and uplifted.   
• Prayer of Praise and Gratitude .  The more I thank and praise, the more beauty I perceive.  As if praise washes and cleanses my eyes so more is revealed.   This prayer is a door into the path of beauty.     
• Prayer of Love and Acceptance.  I start with myself.  I love and accept myself totally, for I know that until I can do this, I cannot truly love another, not even the Great Mystery.  When I put myself down, I ridicule the work of the Great Mystery. Next I accept and love my fellow brothers and sisters – even (especially) those most annoying and repugnant to me.  How deep is our love if we cannot love the violator as well as the violated?   Do not both urgently need love and healing?  There is no enemy, there is only ignorance.  There is no one to hate, only many to love.  Does the Great Mystery love this person?  Always the answer is yes.  Should I do less?   Then I love and accept my life, imperfect as it may be.  For it is the one I have been given.  My life is sacred, special and holy.  It is a great honour to have this experience of life.   And finally, I love and accept the Great Mystery.   
• The Prayer of Request .  An important and relevant prayer.  It is the Father’s good pleasure to give me the things I desire. “Whatsoever ye pray for and ask for, believing ye have received it, ye will receive it.”  When I want the Great Mystery to bring something into my life, I create that image in my mind.  I spend time each day claiming it as mine already.  I do not hope or plead.  I simply create the images in my mind and live the experience of having it – with feeling and intensity for several moments at a time.  Believe that it has already happened.  Then I just let go of it.   Let the Great Mystery work with these images.  The power at work here is greater than my understanding.   

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Chapter 14.  Fire Keeping    

• Deep within each of us is a flame that burns, and that flame is the spark of the Holy One.  In some it burns strongly, in others it is barely distinguishable, but always it is there.  With love and acceptance this flame grows.  We can help others to kindle this flame by seeing the good in them, even if they do not see it in themselves.  These are the fire keepers and great is their calling.  Great is their glory.

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Chapter 15. The Darkness.    

• You must rededicate and re devote yourself again and again after the inevitable lapses and periods of dullness and inactivity. You will fail again and again.  You will stumble and fall hundreds, even thousands of times.  Before any real growth and stability appears you will despair, lose faith, get discouraged, doubt, feel sorry for yourself, and wonder if anything will happen.  Does this mean you have lost your path?  No, not at all – this IS the path.  A Spiritual Journal can help to chart our progress (attempts, half starts, periods of activity and slackness) and discover ebbs and flows.  Understand that there is an ebb and a flow of consciousness.  The inner journey flows with tides just as real as the oceans.  The Holy Spirit will fill me and I will live in full and dazzling awareness of its existence.  Then just as unexpectedly, the awareness will leave.  To suddenly return again.  I know and understand the tides.  When the darkness comes, I have a lamp and oil and wait for the light to return.  I am at peace in the dark, having sailed these waters before.  Spiritual practices during the darkness are necessary parts of the path and they strengthen our inner being immensely.  If I wish to venture into deep waters, then I must learn to swim, not just with the current, but against the tide as well.  This is not a journey for the timid or frail.  So have an infinite amount of compassion for yourself.  Pick yourself up again and again.  Everything is as it should be.

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Chapter 16.  Details  

• Cooking, paying bills, going to bed, talking to a friend on the phone, going to the store, ironing a shirt.  A life is full of details.  Mundane details.  Yet it is in these details that the fabric of life is revealed.  The fabric a whole and yet each thread a part of the whole.  I love and rejoice in the parts because I love the whole.  Brother Lawrence, the Christian Mystic who attained his spirituality through devotion to his duties as a cook in the monastery, said, “God does not measure the size of a deed but the amount of love that goes in it.”  His every act was a prayer.  Nothing is ordinary unless the most beautiful gem is ordinary.  Unless the brilliant colours of the sunset are ordinary.  Must every star be the brightest?  Every flower, the most beautiful?  If so, where is the contrast, the divergence of hues?  A bird, a stone, the wind, the human being- each of us has our own reality, yet we are all one family.  Each living and non-living thing is intimately connected with each other thing. Each has its own song to sing.  Each fulfils a purpose.  Everything has a destiny.  Everything is part of the tapestry.  Every movement we make, no matter how insignificant we think it is, is a tiny thread of the whole.  Each of us participates in our own way.  Each of us adds to the tapestry.  Each of us weaves.  Together with the sun and moon and every living thing, we make the patterns, and so the Mystery unfolds.

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Chapter 17.  The Awakened Heart  

• The awakened heart exists in one whose boundaries between self and others have been expanded.  My heart expands to embrace others.   And so I help because I want to.  To lend a hand, an ear, give some time, concern, money – whatever seems appropriate.  As I lose myself momentarily in service to others, I am nourished and find a nurturing inner peace.  I let my heart breathe and beat for more than just myself.  I become the vehicle through which the Great Mystery showers gifts upon others, because so many gifts have been showered upon me.  I need not join any organisation, just follow my heart and do good.  One step at a time.  The heart opens slowly and sweetly like a flower emerging from a tight, hard bud.  Sometimes when I practice service, I do it as an act of worship.  I lose myself in worship of the Great Mystery.  “As ye have done to the least of my brethren ye have done unto me.”  Every act of kindness becomes a prayer.  Whatever good I do, I do not expect any praise or benefit.  I am only a warrior serving my king.  When I strive, I feel anxious, not in tune.  When I let go, do what I am called to do and allow things to be what they are, I feel empowered, free, and alive.  Sometimes I am called to action.  Sometimes I am not.  Not all crosses are mine to bear.  I have not come to save the world and solve every social problem.  It is enough to save myself and maybe make a good hot cup of tea for my fellow brothers and sisters along the way.  Anything more is folly and conceit.  I embrace action but renounce striving.  I will do my best and let the universe take care of the rest.  I can of myself do nothing unless the Great Mystery works through me.  The Great Mystery has within it rhythms and cycles beyond what any of us can understand.  The tides ebb and flow.  The moon grows full and wanes.  So it is with the affairs of men and nations.  I allow these things to be and simply follow my heart wherever it leads me. I am never called to strive or worry or concern myself with consequence.  A greater one than me looks after these things.  I am the branch and the Great Mystery is the tree.  I am a vehicle by which the source nourishes and spills out abundantly to its people.    

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Chapter 18.  The Warrior and the Sacred Song   

• Each of us has a gift, a talent to give back to the world.  It may be small or large, it does not matter.  The sacred song is our own unique gift, our purpose, and each of us was born to discover and share it with the world.  The sacred song can only be brought to life when the awakened heart weds the warrior’s spirit.  Only we can sing our sacred song.  If we do not awaken it, it is lost to the world forever.  We need the warrior’s spirit within us.  The world cries out for warriors.  Gentle, kind and loving.  But warriors nonetheless.  Men and women who are not afraid to follow their vision.  To be different.  To risk all for the sake of something great.  And to do this takes immense bravery.  Brave, not through arrogance, but through humility and trust.  The warrior approaches each task with a quiet confidence.  Confidence because the voice within is an ally: it guides and directs him.  Confidence because the power of the whole universe will come to his aid if he is rightfully aligned.  Is this a sacred task?  Will it nourish the people?  The warrior goes into battle well prepared.  His armour is his beliefs.  Powerful beliefs about himself and his relationship to the Great Mystery, created through discipline and training.  And in his right hand is a sword unsheathed – dynamic will, fulfilling the vision of the inner voice.  For the warrior fights not just for himself, but also for the greatest good of all.  He fights to birth the vision and he fights to win.  It is his duty to win.  The warrior knows the trickery of the enemy.  The power of laziness, fear, doubt, confusion, feelings of inadequacy and a host of other demons to which the polluted waters of our race have given birth.  He knows these enemies must be defeated. He stalks them with ingenuity and cunning.  Gets to know their ways and habits and then quietly but effectively surmounts them one by one.  True warriorship will take place within us when we shed our weakness and awaken to the act that we come from a long lineage of great ones, and we agree to take our place amongst them.  We are the carriers of the torch of consciousness.  We are creators of the future.  The warrior’s spirit exists in one who has dedicated himself to the path.  The spirit of the warrior is one of resolve and determination.  It drives through and over all obstacles.  It is a commitment to follow the vision whatever the vision may be and wherever it may lead.  To be genuine in each moment of our life.  To be honest with ourselves.  To respect the path we have chosen and follow it through to completion.  This is how the sacred song is birthed.  How our destinies are fulfilled. Each of us adding in our own way.  Each of us an integral part of the whole.  Each of us the Mystery unfolding.

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Chapter 19.  The Path of Power  

• Come let us tap into a source of power infinitely more reliable than any you have known before.  All power comes from the Great Mystery.   To walk the path of power, this truth must be as real to us as the sun at noon.  It is possible to draw to ourselves whatever we desire.  It is possible to become great in whatever our calling.  It is possible to be as the mighty ones of old. We can do this because we can draw directly from the great cosmic reservoirs.  Understand the Great Paradox.  The Path of Power involves becoming less, not more.  Less of me, the ego.  More of the Great Mystery.  When I quieten my mind and remain in stillness and feel this power, I feel renewed and empowered.  To do this is to drink from the living waters.  Here is the source of all power.  Here is the source of my being.  And here too, is my centre – not only mine but the centre of all centres.  And in this holy centre, which existed before time itself, I live and move and have my being.  Within me flow the living waters.  Within me exist the laws and secrets.  Within me is the source of all power.  Within me lives the Holy Presence.  Within me, everything.  As my consciousness expands, my whole being changes and I vibrate at a higher frequency.  Inner truths are perceived.  Veils are lifted.  I see with new eyes.  It is through my deepening awareness that the gates of power are opened to me.  Power is like a river.  One is either aligned with it or not.  Swimming with the current or against it.  To recognising the Great Mystery as the source of all things and to align ourselves with it, is to have access to this power. We will find it indeed brings us all we desire.  If we rely solely on our own means, what little we have will be taken away.  The amount of energy we receive from the great cosmic reservoir is limited solely by our capacity for realisation.  

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Chapter 20.  Walking the Path of Beauty  

• It is our sacred duty to awaken beauty in our lives.  To let it fill our hearts and minds.  In this way, we help to purify the consciousness of our race.  The first step is when we accept life totally and unconditionally.  Like a lover or an old friend, it has been with me through ups and downs.  One day I wake up and realise I love it.  Pain, heartaches and all.  I allow life to be what it is.  Life becomes my lover, spouse, companion.  When we expect life to always please us, we live an illusion.  It is neurotic too need to be happy, fulfilled, stimulated every hour of every day.  We shun anything unpleasant.  Flee from these experiences instead of accepting them as part of life.  In so doing, we unconsciously reject life.  Wait for something better than what is happening right now, when in fact all around us the miracle is unfolding.  For every desire we fulfil, new desires rush to take their place.  This was Buddha’s great realisation.  Everything in life is transitory.  Feel the tenderness and fragility of it all.  This makes it all the more precious.  For every moment is unique.  It can be appreciated only once and only now.  Let us kiss our lover each moment.   Let us accept it totally.  Everything is perfect in being what it is.  When I fully accept this, I walk the path of beauty.  When I cease my judging, criticising, comparing, I see that all things have their place.  Even failure, sickness, misfortune play their part.  In the grand scheme of the universe unfolding, all things are as they should be.  Not so much as a hair is out of place in the universe.  All things are unfolding in their special way.  I have nothing to be concerned with or complain about.  On the contrary, I have much to celebrate. The present moment is always alive with infinite treasures. Life is spilling out at us in abundance.  Children playing.  Birds singing.  Colours.  Flowers blooming.  Wind in the branches.  Ants crawling.  Night and day.  Poetry.  Music. Making love.  Friendship. Travelling.  Eating.  The universe is celebrating.  Let us celebrate with it.  A child sees everything as wondrous.  Walking the path of beauty means living moment to glorious moment, letting everything be new and exciting again.  Let us also see the beauty in one another’s hearts.  For every act of cruelty or deception, ordinary people perform a thousand acts of kindness.  As you see beauty, praise it.  Give thanks for it.  Fill your mind with it.  It will multiply and pour back a hundredfold.  Open your heart and mind with continual practice.  This will bring bountiful fruit.  Like William Blake, we too will see God in a blade of grass and eternity in a grain of sand.  Walking the path of beauty means worshipping at the temple of ourselves.  Celebrating ourselves as beings glorious as the sun.  As tender and innocent as newborn babes.  As powerful as a raging river.  Mysterious.  Sacred.  Holy.  This is who we are.

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Chapter 21.  The Journey into Now  

• Here is home.  Right here where I am, in this moment, regardless of where I am or what I am feeling.  Each day, the journey takes me deeper into unknown territory.  I am a nomad.  We are all nomads.  There is no stability here.  No permanence. Nothing to grasp and hang onto.  I cannot make life stand still.  Everything is moving, changing, becoming something else.  I can coax it.  Try to direct it in the ways I want it to go.  And I do these things and sometimes very successfully.  But just when I think I’ve got everything sorted out and co- operating with me, off it goes, full of twists and turns, absurd reversals, outrageous surprises, crises, things you could never imagine and it won’t stop.  Home is movement, constant movement.  If I wish to be comfortable in my home, I had best embrace the journey, pack my bags and travel lightly.  I rid myself of excess baggage.  I resolve too lose my life in order to find it again.  With the smell of the open air and the wind at my back, I discover that I am at the very centre of the universe.  And the pulsating, ever present Now reveals itself to me.  Joyously letting go.  Now becomes alive, radiant, all encompassing.  Nothing is needed when I lose myself in its presence.  Desires, worries, what are these?  How feeble and pitiful.  They scurry away frantically, in shame.  They know they possess no glory like what is present.  Even thoughts themselves seem subdued and timid.  A fusion of one hundred million sensations all packed into the instant.  The dance of Shiva.  Colours, sounds, events.  Frame by frame the universe unfolds.  Now puts everything on a pedestal.  Worships it.  Proclaims it more holy than all.  I celebrate this day, this moment.  Needing nothing, wanting nothing.  Everything contained within myself this very second.  And suddenly I see it clearly.  The kingdom is here this very instant.  The kingdom I have sought so diligently is none other than my awakened consciousness.  I have been at the steps of the kingdom all my life and knew it not.  Contained in every second.  Contained in every person.  Our mortal eyes see it not, so preoccupied are we by day to day affairs, but spiritual senses, once awakened, fly to it like a bird to a nest. One enters the kingdom not through truths or teachings but moment-to- moment surrendering to the Mystery.

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Chapter 22.  All and Everything  

• I am the prism by which all is perceived.  I need not change, make myself better or more beautiful – I have merely to behold myself as beautiful and it will be so.  Ugly, it is so.   Wondrous, it is so.  Unworthy, it is so.  All exists within.  So it has been and will be forever more.  And so I choose to behold myself and my life through the vision the Great Mystery has shown me.  I will behold my life as glorious in sickness as well as health.  In despair and in hope.  In sadness and happiness.  This will be my gift.  This is my sacred song.  To behold the wonder and glory – and to proclaim it loud and clear for all to hear.  There is no greater honour than to honour myself.  My life.  All I can see and touch.  Every person I meet.  Each day becomes my miracle, simply because I live within the Great Mystery.  The Great Mystery is there in all I do and experience.  Each day becomes a tribute and a prayer and worship.  Always together.  Always one.  Holy art thou, Mysterious One.  

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