posted March 23, 2007 03:49 PM         

This just came to me and I wanted to share with you all this book through my eyes. There are so many wonder-filled tid-bits in this book so if you haven't read it, do!

So without further adieu...

~~~
Chapter 1
P 6-10

11. ..."Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great river.

12. "The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.

13. "Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.

14. "But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.'

15. "The other creatures laughed and said 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!'

16. "But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.

17. "Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.

18. "And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!'

19. "And the one carried in the current said, 'I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.'

20. "But they cried the more, 'Saviour!' all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Saviour."
~~~
Chapter 1
P 15
"And the Master said unto the silence, 'In the path of our happiness shall we find the learning for which we have chosen this lifetime…"
~~~
Chapter 3
P 39

"…So I quit being the Messiah, and if I sound a little defensive, it's maybe because I am still a little defensive. Better that than keeping the job and hating it. A good messiah hates nothing and is free to walk any path he wants to walk…"
~~~
Chapter 4
P 46

"Learning
Is finding out
what you already know.
Doing is demonstrating that
you know it.
Teaching is reminding others
that they know just as well as you.
You are all learners,
doers, teachers."
~~~
Chapter 4
P 48

"You
teach best
what you most need
to learn."
~~~

Chapter 4
P 49

"Your friends
will know you better
in the first minute you meet
than
your acquaintences
will know you in
a thousand
years."
~~~

Chapter 4
P 51

"You are led
through your lifetime
by the inner learning creature,
the playful spiritual being
that is your real self.
Don’t turn away
from possible futures
before you're certain you don’t have
anything to learn from them.
You're aways free
to change your mind and
choose a different future, or
a different
past."
~~~

Chapter 5
P 57

"There is
no such thing as a problem
without a gift for you
in its hands.
You seek problems
because you need
their gifts."
~~~

Chapter 6
P 65

"The bond
that links your true family
is not one of blood, but
of respect and joy in
each other's life.
Rarely do members
of one family grow up
under the same
roof."
~~~

Chapter 6
P 68

"Why does everybody hate my pan-bread? NOBODY LIKES MY PAN-BREAD! Why is that, Ascended Master?"
"Well." he grinned, "-and I'm speaking as God, now - I'd say you believe that it's good and that therefore it does taste good to you. Try it without deeply believing what you believe and it's sort of like… a fire… after a flood… in a flourmill, don't you think?..."
~~~

Chapter 7
P 75

"Argue
for your limitations,
and sure enough,
they're
yours."
~~~

Chapter 8
P 79-83

..."Your question, Richard, was that even in your brilliant times you have never been able to figure out why we are here."
I remembered. "And the movie was my answer."
"Yes."
"Oh."
"You don’t understand", he said.
"No."
"That was a good movie", he said, "but the world's best movie is still an illusion, is it not? The pictures aren't even moving; they only appear to move. Changing light that seems to move across a flat screen set up in the dark?"
"…The other people, any people anywhere who go to any movie show, why are they there, when it is only illusions?"
"Well, it's entertainment", I said.
"Fun. That's right. One."
"Could be educational."
"Good. It us always that. Learning. Two."
"Fantasy, escape."
"That's fun, too. One."
"Technical reasons. To see how a film is made."
"Learning. Two."
"Escape from boredom…"
"Escape, you said that."
"Social. To be with friends". I said.
"Reason for going, but not for seeing the film, That's fun, anyway. One."
"Whatever I came up with fit his two fingers; people see films for fun or learning or for both together."
"And a movie is like a lifetime, Don, is that right?"
"Yes."
"Then why would anybody choose a bad lifetime, a horror movie?"
"They not only come to the horror movie for fun, they know it is going to be a horror movie when they walk in", he said.
"But why?..."
"Do you like horror films?"
"No."
"Do you ever see them?"
"No."
"But some people spend a lot of money and time to see horror, or soap-opera problems that to other people are dull and boring?..." He left the question for me to answer.
"Yes."
"You don't have to see their films and they don't have to see yours. That is called 'freedom'."
"But why would anybody want to be horrified? Or bored?"
"Because they think they deserve it for horrifying somebody else, or they like the excitement of horrification, or that boring is the way they think films have to be. Can you believe that lots of people for reasons that are very sound to them enjoy believing that they are helpless in their own films? No, you can't."
..."Until you understand that, you will wonder why some people are unhappy. They are unhappy because they have chosen to be unhappy, and, Richard, that is all right!"
"Hm."
"We are game-playing, fun-having creatures, we are the otters of the universe. We cannot die, we cannot hurt ourselves any more that illusions of the screen can be hurt. But we can believe we're hurt. But we're hurt, in whatever agonizing detail we want. We can believe we’re victims, killed and killing, shuddered around by good luck and bad luck."
"Many lifetimes?" I asked.
"How many movies have you seen?"
"Oh."
"Films about living on this planet, about living on other planets; anything that's got space and time is all movie and all illusion," he said. "But for a while we can learn a huge amount and have a lot of fun with our illusions, can we not?"
"How far do you want to take this movie thing, Don?"
"How far do you want? You saw the film tonight partly because I wanted to see it. Lots of people choose lifetimes because they enjoy doing things together. The actors in the film tonight have played together in other films - before of after depends on which film you've seen first, or you can see them at the same time on different screens. We buy tickets to these films, paying admission by agreeing to believe in the reality of space and the reality of time… Neither one is true, but anyone who dosen't want to pay that price cannot appear on this planet, or in any space-time system at all."
"Are there some people who don't have any lifetimes at all in space-time?"
"Are there some people who never go to movies?"
"I see. They get their learning in different ways?"
"Right you are," he said, pleased with me. "Space-time is a fairly primitive school. But a lot of people stay with the illusion even if it is boring, and they don't want the lights turned on early."
"Who writes these movies, Don?"
"Isn't it strange how much we know if only we ask ourselves instead of somebody else? Who writes these movies, Richard?"
"We do," I said.
"Who acts?"
"Us."
"Who's the cameraman, the projectionist, the theater manager, the ticket-taker, the distributor, and who watches them all happen? Who is free to walk out in the middle, any time, change the plot whenever, who is free to see the same film over and over again?"
"Let me guess," I said. "Anybody who wants to?"
"Is that enough freedom for you?" he said.
"And is that why movies are so popular? That we instinctively know they are a parallel of our own lifetimes?"
"Maybe so... maybe not. Dosen't matter much, does it? What's the projector?"
"Mind," I said. "No. Imagination. It's our imagination, no matter what you say."
"What's the film?" he asked.
"Got me."
"Whatever we give our consent to put into our imagination?"
"Maybe so, Don."
"You can hold a reel of film in your hands," he said, "and it’s all finished and complete - beginning, middle, end are all there that same second, the same millionths of a second. The film exists beyond the time that it records, and if you know what the movie is, you know generally what's going to happen before you walk into the theater: there's going to be battles and excitement, winners and losers, romance, disaster; you know that's all going to be there. But in order to get caught up and swept away in it, in order to enjoy it to its most, you have to put it in a projector and let it go though the lens minute by minute… any illusion requires space and time to be experienced. So you pay your nickle and you get your ticket and you settle down and forget what's going on outside the theater and the movie begins for you."
"And nobody's really hurt? That's just tomato-sauce blood?"
"No, it's blood alright," he said. "But it might as well be tomato sauce for the effect it has on our real life..."
"And reality?"
"Reality is divinely indifferent, Richard. A mother dosen't care what part her child plats in his games; one day bad-guy, next day good-guy. The Is dosen't even know about our illusions and games. It only knows Itself, and us in its likeness, perfect and finished."
"I'm not sure I want to be perfect and finished. Talk about boredom…"
~~~

Chapter 10
P 90-91

"A cloud does not know
why it moves in just such a
direction and at such
a speed,
it feels an impulsion...this is
the place to go now. But the sky knows
the reasons and the patterns
behind all clouds,
and you will know, too, when
you lift yourself high enough
to see beyond
horizons."
~~~

Chapter 11
P 92

"You are
never given a wish
without also being given the
power to make it true.
You may
have to work for it,
however."
~~~

Chapter 11
P 96

..."Nothing good is a miracle, nothing lovely is a dream."
"The world is a dream, you say, and it's lovely, sometimes. Sunset. Clouds. Sky."
"No. The image is a dream. The beauty is real. Can you see the difference?"
~~~

Chapter 11
P 97

"The world
is your exercise-book, the pages
in which you do your sums. It is not reality,
although you can express reality
there if you wish.
You are also
free to write nonsense,
or lies, or to tear
the pages."
~~~

Chapter 13
P 104

"Your
conscience is
the measure of the
honesty of your selfishness.
Listen to it
carefully."
~~~

Chapter 13
P 109

"Listen," he said, "it's important. We are all. Free. To do. Whatever. We want. To do."
~~~

Chapter 14
P 110

"Every person,
all the events of your life
are there because you have
drawn them there.
What you choose
to do with them is
up to you."
~~~

Chapter 14
P 113

..."This world is your imagination, have you forgotten? Where your thinking is, there is your experience; As a man thinks, so is he; That which I feared is come upon me; Think and grow rich: Creative visualization for fun and profit; How to find friends by being who you are."...
~~~

Chapter 15
P 116

"The
truth you
speak has no past
and no future.
It is, and that's all it
needs to be."
~~~

Chapter 15
P 121

"Here is
a test to find
whether your mission on earth
is finished:
If you're alive
it isn't."
~~~

Chapter 18
P 132

"Don't be
dismayed at good-byes.
a farewell is necessary before
you can meet
again.
And meeting
again, after moments or
lifetimes, is certain for
those who are
friends."
~~~

Chapter 19
P 134

"The mark
of your ignorance is the depth
of your belief in injustice
and tragedy.
What the caterpillar
calls the end of the world,
the master calls a
butterfly."
~~~

Whew, that was a lot of typing

*edited later to fix el typos!

posted March 24, 2007 01:29 AM         

love him.

posted March 24, 2007 09:18 PM         

Chapter 5
P 57

"There is
no such thing as a problem
without a gift for you
in its hands.
You seek problems
because you need
their gifts."
~~~

Thanks for posting that Hexxie!!!!!