In Issue 76, we printed excerpts from Hugh Prather’s There Is a Place Where You Are Not Alone. I wrote, “He writes about love, and the power of forgiveness, and his heart is a quiet pool in which you see his love reflected. What can I say? It shines.”
A Book of Games/a course in spiritual play (Doubleday, 1981) is his newest book and, once again, we’re thankful for permission to reprint these excerpts.
In his introduction to A Book of Games, Gerald G. Jampolsky, a psychiatrist and director of The Center for Attitudinal Healing in Tiburon, California, writes:
“The games of the world are legion, and they all have one characteristic in common: the results are inevitably distressing, if not tragic. Money, romance, respect, influence, even the games of idleness and isolation, all offer a trophy that begins to tarnish the moment we claim it. In the end, no one is left a winner.
“Here are games of a different sort. Each leads to the removal of some block of our awareness of love and thereby promotes our recognition that we are not alone in life. And as these blocks melt in consistent but joyous play, we begin to sense that we already possess what we all desire most deeply: the peace of God.”
I’ve seen lots of spiritual how-to books — some simply foolish, some tortuously foolish. I’ve followed advice — subjected my soul to aerobic terrors, run up and down the hill of Self only to discover I didn’t know top from bottom. I’ve pretended to play someone else’s game, in the name of improvement — worst game of all.
Hugh Prather reminds me I don’t need to work up a sweat, unless it makes me truly happy. My perspiration-soaked ego doesn’t believe it; maybe yours doesn’t either. Here’s something for your ego to do: pick up this book.
— Ed.
As you know, there have been rumors of late that a new Master, called by some “the Master of Play,” is now traveling the land. It was recently reported that he was engaged in handing out a small book of games. The philosophy it contains is said to be very simple: Happiness leaves nothing undone. If you are happy, you cannot fail to hear the Song of God. If you are happy, you have no interest in darkening your mind with grievances against anyone, and so you are naturally kind and consistently fair. And how could you not be free of the world’s countless addictions if within you felt a deep contentment? You would not pass by anyone in need nor fail to be in the right place at the right time. Can joy and peace ever be out of place? Joy is in the giving of the abundance of joy. And so, by being happy, you are all you ever need be: loving, just, pure, and compassionate. And your every step is guided and blessed by the Song of God.
It is said that as this new Master has traveled about, he has met with surprisingly little resistance. Yet if his teaching is true, then he who is happy is also harmless. And since harm is unthinkable for him, how could he think of being harmed? He simply goes quietly about his work, and yet, it is reported by those who claim to have seen him that his voice and comfort remain with whoever has recognized him.
The little book that the Master gives to anyone who might like to read his teaching is said to contain a single course of study. Perhaps it would be more in keeping with his teaching to describe it as a course of play, since the course itself is nothing more than a series of games. If the one receiving it agrees to play along, the Master himself will create any illusion necessary to set up a game. Often he allows you to believe that you are back in your daily routine, with everything the same, except that now your single purpose for anything you do is to play the game he has assigned you that day.
For example, it is quite possible that you have already met the Master, and he is the one who gave you this book. However, so that you really will believe you are back in your daily routine, he is allowing you to think that you obtained the book under quite different circumstances and that now you are just reading about it. Please do not try to determine which is true, because you may have already agreed to play.
As you begin your course of games, it is very important to remember that whenever you have a question of procedure, no matter how small you consider it, simply pause and ask it of the Master. Be assured that your answer will be in the next quiet thought you have. You may try this right now if you wish. Be still a moment and ask which game is to be the first you will play. You will be told how to select it.
Something may have happened just now that distressed you. Certainly the Master of Play will not allow anyone in his care to remain distressed. He wants you to be happy because the key to his being such a great Master is his recognition that enlightenment and gentleness of thought are exactly the same. Therefore, let us review what may have occurred.
It is possible you heard two answers after you asked. If so, perhaps you wondered which was the Master’s voice, and this question may have distressed you. Here is a simple test. One of your thoughts included instructions as to what to do now. That was the Master’s voice coming to you as your own thinking. The other thought, if there was one, suggested a reason for you to be anxious, but it offered no clear instructions. In one way or another, the Master always tells you, “Do this, for it will please you most,” whereas the voice of playlessness counsels conflicting considerations but never points clearly in a direction. Please know that you do not have to spend one moment in fear or conflict. Simply forget what you heard that confused you and follow the voice of peace. Remember also that what you are to do may very well be something you consider to be only mental.
The Master will tell you when you have completed your course of study. He will even tell you whether you need take it at all. In other words, only read as much of this book as makes you happy. Happiness is the voice of the Master. Simply by reading to this point you are now assured that the Master goes with you from this time on.
And so, my fellow playmate, on behalf of the Master of Play, who I, like you, have also met, I wish you a light heart and a gentle vision. Let all your games allow you to sing, and let everything your thought touches turn to music.
Secret Agent
A Reality Game
Peace is your only purpose now. It is the gift offered you in everything that will occur. Each sight and happening can have no other reason but this.
Whenever you have a moment today, think to yourself a thought like this one: “I will not pause to correct, impress, argue, resist, appease, or oppose. In all my encounters today, let me choose the way of peace.”
Today’s game can be used in any encounter, chance meeting, or ongoing relationship, whether internal or external. Please elaborate on it in any way that pleases you, but remember to keep clear the purpose of the game.
Game
You are now a secret agent from a foreign kingdom. The mission your king has personally commissioned to you is as clearly defined as was that of the famous seductresses of the First and Second World Wars whose objectives were to obtain military secrets. To this end, they could say or do anything. Your objective, however, is not to get but only to have. You are to have peace with whomever you encounter. To this end, you can say or do anything. In fact, you are not to be concerned at all with your behavior or with how another acts toward you. Nor are you to distinguish between external encounters and ones that take place only in what you think of as your mind. A recalled encounter or one anticipated or one invented are all equal in importance to “actual” meetings between you and anyone else.
Should someone choose to gossip in your presence or do anything else you might formerly have disapproved of, your instructions are to not denounce him in your mind. Your objective is not to make him conform to judgments of what is “proper” behavior, but only to ensure that there be an actual feeling of harmlessness and gentle caring between you. Likewise, you have no interest in achieving verbal agreement with anyone, knowing that harmony is not held within appearances.
Each time you succeed in allowing even an instant of goodwill between you and another, your duty will be to report this back to your king. This you will do by means of a mental transmitting device which has already been installed. The code phrase you are to use is: “Thank you.”
Names
A Word Game
Names, terms, categories, and other designations are used by your ego to maintain in you a sense of isolation. This is only one of thousands of “proofs” it has for separation. Your ego reasons that since “your” name is different than the names you give to others, you must be separate from them. Assuming this is true, it follows that what you think does not affect them, and you remain unchanged by their feelings and thoughts. This is not a happy way to look at life. It results in loneliness, depression, and a sense of insignificance concerning whatever you think and do, all of which is actually unfounded. You can safely dismiss all evidence given to you by your ego in support of division and separation, and today’s game will help you see that you do in fact have this freedom of choice.
Game
Today, replace all names with only one. Whatever you see or think of, give it gladly your single name. You may use a word that you already understand and love, or you may choose one from these: God. Love. Light. I. One. Peace. Please do not neglect to include yourself in all you name as one with you.
If you believe you are alone and very small, the only place to get what you lack is from what is not you. And if what is not you refuses to cooperate, as it always does to some extent, then you find yourself at war. That is why no external struggle ever succeeds. The premise that you are separate has not been questioned. Stillness automatically questions and rejects that premise.
Friends And Strangers
A Word Game
How much of the world do you react to and how much do you see? Whatever you react to is from your past and is not in the present situation. Therefore, you do not see it, you only remember it. Whatever you react to, you are controlled by, and to be controlled by anything is not to be free. To react to everything is to be in pain continually. To love is to free all you see from how you remember it. Now and love are the same.
Game
You are going to do something for your friends today that they will love. You are going to see them as strangers. Nor will strangers themselves be left out of your kindness, for they will become old friends. Simply see every friend as a stranger and every stranger as a friend.
Pretend that you have heard that this friend has undergone a complete personality transplant. Or pretend that he has been possessed by an angel. He looks familiar, but don’t you be fooled. See how many new things you can recognize about him. Just click them off in your mind and notice your delight at each new discovery. For, remember, he is totally different within. This is a game, but what you are seeing is not self-delusion.
And with each stranger you meet today, say to yourself, “There walks my lifelong friend. I know everything there is to know about him.” Remember his birth, his childhood, the pains and disappointments he has had, and also the momentary highs and cresting victories. And then recall that underlying all these turnings of fate has been the steady emergence of his lovely Self, a Mind precisely like your own. This stranger has indeed gone through everything you have. You do in fact know him. All that is true of you is true of him. You can love him without hesitation.
By exercising your ability to remember this instant, you will see clearly that all that is real is now, and all that is now is new, and all that is new is forever and forever.
Dreamer
A Reality Game
There is no problem that a quiet mind will not answer, because all problems arise from intense mental activity. Stillness permits a gentle correction of perception to occur. To see any light at all is to no longer see darkness. Any aspect of happiness, when chosen over mental pressure, will bring with it all happiness. And if one is happy, he is also kind.
In order to sustain a still mind, it is helpful to recognize what disturbs it. Your ego is a mental premise that you are only part of what you see, that you are one body among many. If this were true, it would indeed follow that everything else you see is potentially a threat. What was in your interest would not be fully in the interest of any other living thing, even though the conflict in interests might at times seem so mild as to almost disappear. Whenever you believe it will benefit you to identify with your ego, you throw your mind into opposition with everything else it experiences. This, of course, shatters your mental peace, and you are no longer happy or kind.
Why, then, would anyone choose to identify with his ego? Because the premise has already been accepted. If you are nothing but a body, then you are lacking. And if a lack exists, it is reasonable to fill it. If you believe you are alone and very small, the only place to get what you lack is from what is not you. And if what is not you refuses to cooperate, as it always does to some extent, then you find yourself at war. That is why no external struggle ever succeeds. The premise, that you are separate, has not been questioned. Stillness automatically questions and rejects that premise. You cannot be still without recognizing that you are all of what you see, and so you do in fact wish everything well.
How can stillness allow this change of perception? Because what is real is also obvious. If the mind is busy, it is attempting to overlook the obvious. There is no need to search. There is no need to ask, “What am I?” Nothing needs to be answered because there is no question about what is. Stillness allows you to see what is, which you cannot do when you are mentally striving, searching, confronting, taking, warring. It is safe to be happy. It is practical to trust. It is intelligent to love. It is not only dignified and honorable — it is glorious to be kind.
If you wish, today you may rule the world. Everyone, every event, everything will be subject to your will. To do this, only one thing is required of you: harmlessness, total and complete.
How does one attain such a powerful state? He need only refuse to be deceived any longer. What if you were already in control of everything? What if nothing, including the world, was outside your will? What if everything had always been up to you, and you had only forgotten this fact? Remembering it would then restore full power to you. You would not need to do anything to anyone in order to get it. No external intervention would be required. You would simply say, “I remember now; I am in control. How, then, do I want everything to be?”
In order to control something, it is not necessary to believe it is under your control, if you are willing to act as though it were. If someone made a barbell out of paper and asked you to try to lift it, even if you didn’t believe you could pick up something that looked so heavy, if you were willing to try, you would lift it quite easily. Today’s game is really a game of willingness. You are asked to be willing to remember one thought, and that thought only, throughout the day. You are not asked to believe it, but only to think as if you believed it. Thinking as if is something one frequently does in fantasies. Although he does not necessarily believe the premise, he allows himself to think what would follow from the premise if it were true. And this is actually what most of the games in this book request that you do. Today’s premise, however, may seem frightening to your ego because it knows that if you were to accept the idea fully, you would have no further use for an ego. Here, then, is the game.
Game
Today, remember this one thought: When you “woke” this morning, you did not wake at all, you only passed from one dream to another. This day, then, is still your dream. You are not now a lonely figure any more than the solitary body that was the focus of your attention was your actual identity in your dream last night. You were all the figures you saw because the entire dream was yours alone. Since everything that occurs is in your mind, you naturally wish for your mind a happy dream. And what you wish for your mind is what you wish for the dream world in which you live. As a dreamer, you cannot be happy unless the contents of your mind are happy. Therefore, wish the whole to be at peace. Suffer not at all one unforgiving thought.
Say to yourself, “Today, I am the dreamer of this dream. Everything is therefore as I wish it to be. How, then, do I wish it?” And now bless everyone you see, and everything. Today, no darkness is outside your reach, because nothing is outside of you today. You live the contents of your mind today, and only that. Today, there are no other minds.
So be still a moment, and forgive each thing within your mind. You wish a dream of love in which to move about, not a dream of angry judgments and of hate. Today, an entirely different goal is yours: You rule the world. And you will the world into a kingdom of light.
Certainly you have had ample proof that the world is full of “ways” that lead nowhere. Likewise, there are many forms of the one way that leads to certainty. The distinction between these two sets of ways is clear. One states, “The kingdom of God is within you.” The other always counsels some form of external search.
Facts
An Observation Game
Game
To truly see a fact is to identify the grounds for your peace and safety. It is to know why you can rest in trust. Real facts are a comfort. If the thought or thing you are looking at makes you sad, some interpretation is being made that is not correct. Whenever you see what is actually taking place, on any level of description, you cannot remain unhappy for long. Today, be as factual as you can, and the day will indeed be a good one. Say of all things, “Let me see this exactly as it is. Let me not distort it by judging it.”
Here are a few examples of easy-to-see facts:
Facts about money: 1. Money is little pieces of paper and round metal discs. That is hardly anything to be afraid of or to use for self-esteem. 2. Money buys things, but things represent experiences. What you want is always an experience. Money is not the only way to have it. 3. You are given what you need to do the work you are here to do.
Facts about relationships: 1. Feeling close to or distant from someone are not feelings that come from the proximity of that person’s body. 2. To try to force someone to be physically near you or to “communicate” with you is to oppose his will. And to oppose another’s will is to seek to separate yourself from him. 3. Whoever comes, God has sent. And God will send you whomever you need the instant you truly need him.
Facts about desires: 1. Body-oriented desires are only misinterpretations of your deep yearning for the Love that you already are. That is why you need not fear them or fight them. 2. To hide anything is to keep it. And tight is the grip of guilt. 3. When you no longer believe that you have something to fear from showing your desires to God, He will take them and reinterpret them in a way that will bless and bless and bless you and will never hurt you or anyone else again.
House Of Mirrors
A Reality Game
Probably you can remember a time when you stood in a mirrored dressing room or between two plate-glass store windows and noticed that with a reflecting surface behind you, the reflecting surface in front of you duplicated your image over and over, each time making it seem smaller and farther away. Mirrors can create the illusion that there are many of you, and each “you” is a different size, with distance or space between all.
In psychology a similar phenomenon is called “projection.” Here, however, what is seen is recognized as occurring entirely within the mind. One “projects” his thoughts, feelings, opinions onto another and believes they belong to the other and not to him. One of the more obvious instances of this occurs when one person verbally criticizes another.
Think of someone you have known long and well, and ask yourself what type of behavior in others does he denounce most often. He of course criticizes what he suspects is a fault in himself. And why doesn’t he recognize something so apparent? Because he has altered the form of his “fault” just enough to be able to deceive himself that its content is different from what he sees in others. For example, he may think it is a fault he has had but has no longer or one he longs to have but refuses to act out.
Jesus’ statement, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart,” is thought by many to be unreasonable or “hard.” To the contrary, it actually points to the quick and easy way for change to occur. You cannot free your mind simply by changing your behavior. In fact, devoting attention to behavior alone assures that there will be no change of thought. Yet if you are a mind, then in changing your mind you change everything.
Are you a body or a mind? If you are only a body, behavior means everything and thought means very little indeed. But who, having lost one limb or two or all or even more of his body than this, is any less himself than before? Is there any limit to the blessing he can bestow? Does God know him any less?
What you see in others is yourself. Do not be fooled today by your ego’s use of mirrors. What you see in the weather will not be the weather’s “mood” but yours. Your job, your government, your family will only mirror the motives you believe you yourself are capable of. The conversation you just overheard that you thought was about someone else was about you alone. Did it reflect how fallible you believe you are, or did you hear of the grandeur and beauty of life? Those same words could have been interpreted into a thousand conflicting meanings, and a thousand different egos would have done precisely that. But did you hear the truth? Pause now and listen once again. You have nothing to lose but a shabby self-image.
You are not small and suspect. But the first place you will see your magnificence is in the many mirrors that surround you. Do not be deceived by the outer ring of images, the second- and third-party conversations, the books and magazines, the news broadcasts, and the countless floating rumors. Own them all. They only pass before your eyes to bless you.
How can you change if you do not see and hear exactly what it is you no longer have any use for? Every time you dissociate yourself from the images of your mind that you see in another’s eyes, you lose a bright and joyous chance to step into light. Today make all the mirrors sing your praise. Know no other person or thing without love.
Game
You will appear to go about your life as usual today. But you should know that you will actually be moving in a specially designed house of mirrors. Having been built by the Master himself, this is of course no ordinary carnival sideshow. Yet all the rules of reflection that you are familiar with will apply and will be the basis of everything you experience today.
What makes this house of mirrors different from one you may have seen at a county fair or a carnival is degree only. Here, everything about you will be reflected: your emotions, thoughts, words, behavior, as well as your bodily self-image. And, as in an ordinary house of mirrors, the image of each aspect of you will be repeated many times everywhere you look. Yet each time you see it, it will be exaggerated in some way as if by the curves of the mirrors into which you look.
In the usual house of mirrors, there is always a maze of mirrors through which you try to walk. If you become confused as to what you are seeing, you may very well bump into a surface, believing it to be a space. In today’s game, the Master will not do anything to trick you. You will only be able to trick yourself. But if you remember that everything you see will be a literal reflection of some aspect of you, you will not bump into yourself.
The clear sign that you have forgotten what you are looking at is that you will feel angry. If there is any question about this, ask yourself if you are willing to stand by for a moment and review the rules of the game. If you feel a resistance to giving yourself this moment of rest, you have indeed become angry. Yet there is an easy way out. It involves only three rules. Apply them quickly and you will again be able to walk gently through this day.
Rule One: Do not fight yourself. This, of course, means not only accepting your behavior, your moods, your thoughts, and so forth, but also accepting everything about everyone you do not think is yourself. Remember, today you are in a house of mirrors, and to “accept” means merely to see.
Rule Two: Wait and calmly look around. To wait is to be patient, but patience does not mean to endure. Patience is the same as comfort and a free mind. “Looking around” releases the focus of your mind from whatever it has locked onto. Simply allow yourself to think what you think, see what you see, do what you do. Your attention will move easily about, and if you are consistent you will begin to feel a certain liking for everything.
Rule Three: Think gently and be content. Your mind can smile. Did you know that? Try it right now and you will see. Amusement without mockery is divine. Laugh softly at yourself. Notice how everyone does the best he can. There is no one undeserving of a gentle pat and the light touch of your love.
By the end of the day, if you have played this game even a little while, you will know what you have won. Your gift will be one of the golden rules of happiness: acceptance does not ignore what is negative and hurtful; it responds to it with healing. A call for help does not deserve your attack. And anyone who slights you is only telling you of his bitter need. Respond with your desire to gratify and comfort him, not your desire that he feel an even greater void.
When you recognize that what you do not like is in you because you are choosing to hold it there, you will have released yourself. No longer are you a victim of the world you see. And in your freedom lies the freedom of every living thing.
Today, remember this one thought: When you “woke” this morning, you did not wake at all, you only passed from one dream to another.
Time-Savers
An Observation Game
Please add to today’s observation game as you wish. The rules will be explained, and certain examples in the form of experiments will be suggested, and, after that, other ways to apply the rules may occur to you. If that does not happen, it will not matter, because the experiments listed will be more than enough to ensure you a full play period.
One way that you sometimes make yourself unhappy is by thinking that the future is up to you. Your ego, believing that there are many directions in which you could walk, reasons that these must be anticipated and judged and one of them selected. Thinking that this mental procedure is always followed, your ego concludes that whatever you ended up doing was what you decided to do beforehand.
This assumption, that your actions follow your plans, leads inevitably to feelings of guilt over what you have done and anxiety over what you will do next. And all of that need not be.
As in its other beliefs, your ego is mistaken about what is occurring. You never decide beforehand because there is no beforehand. You always decide now because now is what time it is. Planning is only the ego’s decision to be anxious now.
Decisions are continuous. They are not occasional bursts of energy that propel you in a certain direction and then must be repeated before you will move again. Cause and effect are simultaneous, and all decisions are “spur-of-the-moment.” That is why it is never practical to “think ahead,” unless it is to set your overall purpose.
This way of looking at time is frightening to your ego, which refuses to question its assumption that planning determines what you do. If you need to make an appointment, you will make it now. Planning to make it does not do anything. Every step you may think is needed for you to take a trip — making reservations, buying tickets, packing bags, and so forth — if they really would be helpful, and helpful in that form, will occur when they occur. You will remember what is in your best interests to remember and forget what is in your best interests to forget, although what your ego judges would “look right” may not happen in that form. Remembering is not a function of anxiety. Forgetting is a decision made this instant. You will not be protected, and your way will not be made easier, by worrying about what to do.
Even if judgment and worry, which are what planning is, could determine the future, they are based on another equally absurd assumption: that you are more intelligent now than you will be when the time comes for the decision to be made. Even your ego will admit that this is a fallacy, when it observes, time and again, that you are not doing what you “decided” beforehand. As it watches you “change your mind,” it will concede that you are better informed than you were and must therefore decide again. It will either assign this interpretation to your actions, or it will tell you that you are crazy.
Please know that all of this confusion need not be yours. If you will trust the present, you can safely neglect the future. The following little experiments will show you that you decide all things now, and your ego decides nothing in advance. In fact, your ego must wait for something to happen and then look back and assign a shabby motive. This is the actual attraction of guilt. Your ego can use the feeling of guilt as “proof” that it, and not your Self, was the motivator of what occurred. And that is why all looking back will never teach you anything you can use.
Game
Allow this thought to accompany each of the experiments you do:
I live in this instant only. There will never be a time when it is not now.
Experiment: While you are talking to someone today, mentally pause in the middle of a sentence and ask yourself if you know how the sentence is going to end.
Experiment: The next time you find yourself fantasizing about the outcome of an unresolved situation, begin mentally listing some of the ways you would “like” for it to turn out. After you have thought of a fair number of these, notice how many of them indicate opposing wishes. Does your ego really know what it wants?
Experiment: You will need a food timer or an alarm clock for this experiment. In as much detail as you can, describe to yourself exactly what you will be doing in five minutes. Include your mood as well as your actions. Then set the alarm and go about your day as usual.
Experiment: The next several mornings when you wake, observe when you “decide” to get out of bed and then observe when you in fact do get out of bed. You will see that there will be unpredictable variations in the time that passes between your “decision” to get up and your action. Sometimes you will act almost immediately; sometimes it will be several minutes or even longer before you arise; other times you will simply find yourself up and will not remember “deciding” at all. Your ego is having to guess at when you will get up.
All of the above experiments — and you may think of others to try — indicate one very freeing fact: your life is not in advance of you. You are not pushing a cart; you are riding one. This means that you may not only trust your life as a whole, you may also trust every instant of it. It really is safe to be happy now.
Epilogue
Here are a few final suggestions, which, if you will follow them, will show you that this book has not presented you with just one more impossible dream. Certainly you have had ample proof that the world is full of “ways” that lead nowhere. Likewise, there are many forms of the one way that leads to certainty. The distinction between these two sets of ways is clear. One states, “The kingdom of God is within you.” The other always counsels some form of external search.
But knowing that is not enough. If your resolve is weak, the results will be disappointing. Far more than knowing the way is needed. It must be followed or else nothing has really changed. Here then are some general rules of how to effectively implement the ideas presented in this book.
Begin your day by setting sharply in your mind your purpose for living. This cannot be overemphasized because a purposeless day, a day in which you wait for something to happen to you and then look back and ask yourself what it meant, has no chance of succeeding on any level.
Only an instant or two is needed, although more can be effectively used. Duration is not the goal; clarity is. It is good if this quiet time comes just after you wake, but if, because of your situation, that is not feasible, then give yourself this moment’s headstart as soon as is practical.
A second general rule is to not fear starting your day over whenever you find you have lost your way. Once again, only a moment can be sufficient. Remind yourself of what your purpose is and Who is there to take your hand. Ask for His help and then continue on in gentle contentment.
The third rule follows from the first two. Before you sleep, release yourself from any burdens you carry. Let all awareness settle out of your mind, and thank Love for Its gifts, which are eternal. Remember that your dreams do not have to be conceded to your ego. Pause a moment before you lie down, and see clearly the mental tone you wish to carry through the night. If you wake during the night and find you do not like how you feel, try again for dreams of forgiveness and of love. Remember here, as during the day, a little gain is preferable to none at all.
If you sincerely want to walk in peace and know the presence of Love, then no matter what the approach you use, it will succeed to some degree, and you will be instructed quite specifically as to how to improve on the part you will be asked to play in bringing rest to the world. Therefore, apply all that you know to this instant. It does not matter what you do not know. And each time you forget, try again. This simple and direct approach will take you much further than you ever dreamed possible.
Arise With Me
O You who came in winter and who left Among the lilies, stay with me and fill My eyes with glory, and my heart with love That smiles forever on the world You saw, And that You loved as You would have me love. For with this vision I will look on You, And recognize my Savior in all things I did not understand. Now is the world Reborn in me because I share Your Love. Now in my healed and holy mind there dawns The memory of God. And now I rise To Him in all the loveliness I knew When I was first created one with You.
© Copyright 1981 Hugh Prather
