The Pain Release Pages.

The following passage is extracted from The Simple Little Development Book and gives some other ways of dealing with emotional pain than suffering THROUGH it. Some people will find the tools mentioned herein easier to use than others. There is no right or wrong about this, but it does help if you are prepared to read and apply the ideas and methods with an open mind.  They are also best when used in conjunction with the ideas and practices contained in Personal Responsibility which may be accessed from the link at the bottom of this extract.  (There are some page references contained in this passage relating to earlier parts of The Simple Little Development Book. If these interest you and/or you would like to read the full book, it may be obtained by E-mailing me at the address at the end of this extract.)

 

 

THE SIMPLE LITTLE DEVELOPMENT BOOK.

 

Page 125 Chapter 15. THE BOTTOM LINE.

 

To sum up, we need to nurture ourselves, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually in order to be healthy, aware, loving and compassionate beings. We need to have a balanced diet and a reasonable amount of exercise to maintain a healthy physical body in which our Spiritual Being can continue its journey through this physical life. Our food and our thoughts make our bodies.

 

We need to be mentally active and alert and continually learning, to maintain our mental faculties at their best so that we can learn as much as possible from our life experiences in the shortest possible time to maximise the gain and minimise the pain in each lifetime. Lessons not learned tend to repeat themselves in our lives until we have learned them properly.

 

Good emotional health is another very important goal to strive for and possibly the hardest to achieve on this physical plane. This is especially true in our Western society where so much importance is placed in so many ways on physical and material values and on our emotional relationships while the Spiritual aspects are, to a large extent, ignored.

 

Our emotions are the source of ALL our spiritual learning on this physical plane and we can learn our lessons slowly or quickly from our emotional responses. The choice is ours, to be made by each of us individually and separately.

 

There is no right or wrong in what each person might choose in any particular situation, but once you become aware that you CAN choose what emotions you will allow to influence you and start acting accordingly, life becomes a lot less painful. When you come to the understanding that emotional pain is the result of holding on to something that, as a Spiritual Being, you don't need anyway, you are able to decide for yourself what emotions you will or will not hold on to and release anything which is painful.

 

The next few pages have some exercises and some alternative ways of looking at different situations. Please read through them with an open mind. Some people may feel extremely confronted or judgemental as they read the ideas which follow and believe that I am trying to belittle or invalidate emotions or experiences that they have had. This is not the case. All emotions and experiences are valid. It is how we view them and deal with them that determines how we learn and progress and how we relate to others. With this in mind, please read the next eight pages without judgement and, if they bring up some pain for you, read them again to see if you can determine why they brought up the pain.

 

Assume for a moment that you have been the victim of rape or sexual abuse. (I choose this type of trauma because it is one of the most invasive forms of emotional pain-causing experience that the average person is likely to come

 

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into contact with in their life. Statistics tell us that one in four women and one in seven men are likely to become 'victims' by their mid-twenties.) What would your feelings be:

(a) Toward your attacker?

(b) Toward yourself?

(c) Toward other people?

 

Most victims describe a mixture of feelings including rage, hate, fear, distrust, lowered self-esteem and GUILT. Now, why would you feel guilty about being a victim of a situation where your control over what happened to you was totally taken away from you? In it's simplest terms, rape is a sexual act in which one party (the rapee) was not allowed any choice about whether or not they wished to participate. (Like an army 'volunteer'.)

 

Or, to put it another way, and bearing in mind that we are spiritual beings presently (and temporarily) living in physical bodies, it is like someone using your car or your favourite cup or wearing your favourite dress without your permission. Very few people would feel guilty about these last three situations so why should anyone feel guilty about someone using their body without permission? If someone had a party in YOUR home (Yours - as in not your parents or anyone else's.) without your permission, would you feel guilty? There are many emotions that you might feel, but I doubt if guilt would be high on the list, so why would you feel guilty about someone having a party in your body without your permission?

 

Still another way of looking at it is to consider the idea that your body is the property of your Creator, on loan to you for the duration of your life to help in learning lessons. Any attack on that body then becomes an attack against the Creator, not against the Soul in the body and the perpetrator has to answer eventually to a higher power for their deeds.

 

Many victims (And unfortunately, a lot of other people.) seem to feel that perhaps they may have done something to invite the attack. This is seldom true. In an 'IDEAL' world, we would all be able to dance naked in the streets without the slightest fear of anything untoward happening to us. We don't yet live in an ideal world.

 

Perhaps, with this in mind, we ought to give a little more thought to the way we dress and behave, where we go, when and with whom. Even so, I have never yet met a sexual assault victim who consciously and deliberately went and asked the perpetrator to attack them, so I see no reason for feeling guilty.

Now imagine that someone has stolen two dollars from you. How would you feel:     

             (a) Toward the thief?

             (b) Toward yourself?

             (c) Toward the world?

 

 

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For most people, there would be some anger toward the thief and perhaps also toward themselves for allowing the thief to get them in a position where the theft could take place. The emotions aroused however, would be unlikely to rule most people's lives for very long. The emotional impact would quite quickly fade into insignificance.

 

But there is no comparison between the two, I hear people say, and I have to agree that there is no comparison in the magnitude of the two events. What is important here though, as with everything else, is not the magnitude but the principle. It is just as dishonest to defraud someone of two dollars as it is to defraud them of $2 billion. The only difference lies in the amount taken. It may take more work, more planning and more lies to defraud someone of a larger amount, but the dishonesty is the same thing because it is NOT COMPLETE HONESTY. The scale of the crime committed is governed only by the imagination, ingenuity, skill and daring of the perpetrator. Sometimes, desperation also plays a part, as does the gullibility or naivety of the victim.

 

So it is with the emotions involved in the rape/sexual abuse and the two-dollar theft. The scale of the emotional impact is not the important thing here. The principle is the same whether somebody has used your cup or your car without your permission, had a wild party in your home without your permission or had a wild party in, or with, your body without your permission. All are invasions of what most people regard as their personal space. Spiritually speaking, they are items on loan to us for a while. We, however, tend to see them as POSSESSIONS.

 

What is important is whether we choose to feel pain about it, whether we hold on to the pain, how much pain we choose to hold and for how long. An attacker can do what he or she likes to a physical body, but they can only inflict pain on the Spirit within that body if the Spirit chooses to allow the pain to be inflicted. We live in a Physical world where, with our current understandings, we can do little to avoid physical pain. The same does NOT apply to emotional pain. In almost all cases of assault, rape, abuse, and other crimes which have a similar emotional impact, the physical hurts heal and disappear long before the emotional hurts. WHY?

 

I have been told by three different people now that during their experiences they felt that they weren't actually in their bodies, but were outside looking on, so to speak. They could see what was happening in great detail and 'knew' that pain was being felt by their body, but did not feel the pain themselves. One lady even said that she pitied her attacker because he felt so angry, alienated, frustrated and alone.

 

This, along with the many other stories of out-of-body experiences that I have heard, leads me to believe that we do have the ability to detach ourselves from anything which might cause emotional pain and simply be an observer. However, for many people in many situations, being able to do this might have the effect of reducing the impact of a lesson that they are there to learn

 

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and so only a few of us have developed this ability.

 

Rape is not about sex. Rape is about power and control and the inability to communicate. The same applies to a vast number of other acts of the type described as 'crimes against the person' committed by a very wide range of people. If the 'victims' of such events were able to understand and accept that the 'crime' had been committed against the physical vehicle in which they are currently travelling to learn spiritual lessons instead of against the Spiritual

 

Being that they really are, there would be no need for emotional pain. In fact, it would be possible to feel sadness or sorrow that another soul was so misguided as to think they could do you any real hurt or achieve any real or lasting gratification or satisfaction by such means.

 

If you are a female of the human species and you find yourself thinking, "Oh, he's a male. He wouldn't understand," may I ask you to pause for a moment and consider. Mostly, men and women have differing views on things because they have different lessons to learn or a need to understand differing sides of the same lessons. Regardless of whether a person has a penis, testicles and a prostate or a vagina, uterus, ovaries and breasts, emotional pain is still emotional pain and it hurts regardless of whether you are male or female. The sexes may have generally different ways of dealing with it, but it is still pain.

The (general) female perception that men don't have the same depth of feelings as women probably has most of its basis in the fact that men do not talk about it as much as women. BUT THEY STILL HURT, SOMETIMES A LOT. Why are male suicide rates higher than for females?

 

Please understand that I am not saying that you should simply forget it, or that you are stupid for having whatever feelings you may have about any given situation or experience. Far from it. What I am saying is that there are other ways of looking at these things and other ways of dealing with them, that you CAN let the pain go and move on. No-one's life has to come to a halt because someone else has done something to them that they did not like. It is possible to go on and be stronger for the experience. It is also possible to be a source of inspiration for others by letting them see how you have dealt with your pain, profited by learning and growing stronger from the experience and then got on with your life.

 

It is perfectly OK to cry, feel sad, angry, hurt, used, abused, soiled, guilty or anything else that you might choose to feel and I would strongly defend your right to do so. For most people, these feelings need to be recognised and experienced before it is possible to move on. There is absolutely no point in trying to bypass the priorities of any healing process, especially an emotional

healing, because the odds are that you will have to come back and do it all again in the correct order of priority. The methods and ideas I am giving here will only work when the individual is ready to move on, just as a horse will drink when it feels thirsty. However, it does not hurt to be aware of these things before you are ready to use them just as it does the horse no harm to

 

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know that the water is there before it feels the urge to drink.

 

It does need to be recognised though, that all of the emotions mentioned above and many more which may be experienced are ‘NEGATIVE’ emotions.

They do not build anything. They are more likely to eat away and destroy than to contribute to growth and improvement. You are far more likely to have health problems, physical or mental, while you are experiencing such emotions and it is difficult to move forward while you are carrying such a burden. The sooner you can leave all negative emotions from any given experience behind and start thinking and feeling love, peace, trust and goodwill to all, the sooner you will be able to resume control of your life and stop reacting to outside stimuli. 

 

All negative emotions are energy drains. They deplete energy, where positive emotions build and replenish energy. We ALL have a choice about what we will allow in our lives, whether positive or negative. People who have a lot of love in their lives usually also have a lot of energy. Hate, anger, resentment etc. can drain energy at a remarkable rate and people who have high levels of these emotions are often tired and are more likely to have health problems. Love builds self-esteem – negative emotions destroy it. Love attracts love – negative emotions repel it. The choice is there for each of us. Personally, I choose Love – with all its benefits. 

 

For those of you who are survivors of such treatment and feel that this is easier said than done, I too am a survivor. What I am NOT is a 'VICTIM'. I have come to love who and what I am. I have learned to treasure the experiences that I survived as very valuable lessons in my Spiritual development because they have contributed to my being the person that I am today.

 

Similarly, I bear no malice toward the perpetrator although I must admit that, in my case, there was no physical violence, only dire warnings of what my parents might do to both of us if they found out, which is a form of violence in itself. Instead, I was seduced and won over with rewards and promises of how good it would feel - softly, softly catchee monkey instead of the 'Big stick' approach - but it still worked and I lost my 'innocence' to someone more than three times my age while being used by that person for their own personal gratification without, I suspect, a lot of concern about what the thoughts or feelings of a twelve/thirteen-year-old boy might be.

 

Today, I even feel thankful for the experiences of those times, not only because they have helped me to become the person that I am now, but also because they have given me an understanding of at least some of what others go through who have survived similar occurrences in their lives. Consequently, I have even been able to help some of these people come to terms with their emotions and most of them have, unknowingly, in some way helped me to understand mine.

 

Although I have chosen two extremes as examples for the ideas which I have just put forward, these same ideas can be applied to any experience with any level of emotional impact in any life IF the person concerned will just allow their application. The principles work just as well with grief and many other emotions as they do with those mentioned in the above examples. The only limiting factor is the ability of the person concerned to understand and accept that they do not have to live with the pain and that they CAN let it go.

 

For a number of years now, I have been using a visualisation exercise to help take the ‘Sting’ out of situations in people’s lives from which they are still

 

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holding some emotional pain. The technique works as well with past or present events and, in almost ten years, there has only been one occasion when the person I took through the exercise failed to notice any difference in how they felt about the event afterward. Because it is so simple and has proved so effective, I will pass it on to you now exactly as I would word it if I were speaking to you face-to-face.

 

Pick a situation in your life which still has some emotional sting for you, but don't tell me what the situation is. I do not need to know now, but if you want to talk about it later I will be happy to listen. When you have chosen a situation, form it into a 'Video clip' in your mind, keeping it as short and to the point as you can without leaving out any important aspects of it. Now, run the video clip through in your mind and be aware of how you feel about it. Notice any feelings that re-living the experience may bring up for you, but don't dwell on them.

 

When you have finished running the video clip through in your mind and you have noted any effects that it may have had on you, the next step is to run the video clip again, but this time run it in fast forward, like a Keystone Cops or Charlie Chaplin movie and do not concern yourself with how you feel about what you are seeing. Simply allow the video to run through at a substantially quicker rate than the first time.

 

Next, you run the video clip through again at normal speed, but with everything coloured burnt orange. If you have trouble seeing the burnt orange colour, colour the 'screen' on which you are seeing the images burnt orange and then run the video. Some people have trouble achieving the burnt orange colour even with the choice of methods above and, for these people, I suggest that they simply carry the thought of the burnt orange colour in their mind while they are running the video.

 

The last step in this exercise is to run the video clip again at normal speed and normal colour and again be aware of how you feel about what you are seeing. Notice any changes from the way you felt during the first run-through of the video. As mentioned earlier, I have only encountered one person who did not notice a significant reduction in the emotional impact in nearly ten years of giving this exercise to a great many people. This is not to say that it WILL work for you, but the odds seem to be pretty strongly in your favour that it will. (The one exception said that the pain was too recent and too fresh to be able to let it go. That was her choice. It is neither right nor wrong, but it was what she wanted at that time. She apparently still had something to learn from it.)

 

Another method for taking the sting out of an emotional pain is to see the situation as a picture or photograph and include all the main elements in it. When you have the picture or photograph complete, put a frame around it and be aware of how you feel as you look at it. Now change the frame, either by changing some details of the existing frame or by completely replacing it with

 

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another frame. When you have changed the frame to your satisfaction, look again at the picture or photo and again be aware of how you feel about it. Most people notice that any feelings of pain are much reduced. This method has not been as successful over the years as the previous one, but I include it here because it is quicker and easier and it has had significant results for many people.

 

In essence, experiencing emotional pain is no different from picking up what you thought was a cool iron bar and suddenly discovering it is hot when it burns you. With the iron bar, it is the heat, which you did not expect or you would probably not have picked it up, that causes the injury. With emotional pain, it is the fact of not having your expectations met that causes the pain. If you had been able to see that your expectations would not be met, you would probably have thought differently about getting into that situation in the first place. With the iron bar, when you suddenly find that it is burning you, what do you do? Most people would drop the bar. This would stop any further injury, especially if cold water was run over the injured area or ice packs applied to it to take the heat out of it and allow healing to begin.

 

Would it not be a good idea to do the same thing when you have an emotional injury? Let go of the cause of the pain - your expectations that some-one else would behave in a certain way or that a situation would work out in a certain way - and allow the healing to begin. I am NOT saying that this is easy - for some, it is very hard because of their up-bringing and/or social conditioning.

 

However, it is a choice that only the individual concerned can make. It is what is called "Crunch Time". Do you let go of the person or situation of whom/which you had the expectations, learn the lessons and allow the healing to begin? Or, do you hold on to the PERCEIVED cause of the pain, allow the injury and the pain to get worse and thus prolong the healing process? (I have written the word "perceived" in capital letters because, in spite of the very common belief that something or some-one else causes our emotional pain, it is really the person EXPERIENCING the pain who is the cause of it. If they chose not to feel pain but to simply learn from the experience and let it go, there would be NO pain.)

 

There is one more thought about all this emotional pain stuff that I would like to share with you. If you are still experiencing emotional pain about some past event, then the person/people involved in that event with you is/are still, to some extent, controlling your life. Whether you like it or not and whether you can see it or not, those persons are still pushing your buttons and pulling your strings, even though it may be many years since the events took place. What is more, this state of affairs will continue to exist while ever you hold on to the negative/painful feelings associated with the event.

 

Now, we come to the question; do you really want to allow these persons to run your life for you? They have been doing just that to a greater or lesser degree for whatever time has elapsed since the event and to whatever degree

 

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you are holding pain about that situation. Furthermore, they will continue to do so until you let go of the pain. Which would you rather have, the pain or control of your life?

 

If you choose the pain, then skip the next three paragraphs, but if you would rather have control of your life and your emotions/thoughts, then please read on.

 

To err is human, to forgive divine, but for there to be a need to forgive there must first be a judgement that someone has done wrong. I try not to judge in the first place because, by not judging, the need for forgiveness never arises.

 

Also, I don't KNOW if God judges or not, but if he does, he would have to do a better job than me because he has access to all sides of the story where I have only my story to make judgement on. Also, from where I stand at this moment, I am not able to know with any degree of certainty what lessons I may be able to learn from any given experience or what Karma I may have in relation to such an experience. This raises further doubts about any judgements.

 

With this in mind, may I suggest that you go back and re-read the story on Pages 12 - 14 about the elderly gentleman and the horses? This story is all about acceptance of what IS, about not making judgements of what appears to have happened and about getting on with your life rather than becoming bogged down in emotional quagmires. If someone steals something precious from you, it is not the end of the world. You CAN go on without it and probably function better for not having the emotional baggage that you associated with the stolen object --- IF YOU LET IT GO.

 

You can only be in control of your life if you refuse to carry pain or negativity about any event anywhere, any time. Then, and only then, will past events stop causing you to react in past, painful ways, allowing you to be your own person. It is NOT easy in our Western society, but it CAN be done if you want it strongly enough. Freedom is complete non-attachment to anything except the Divine Creator. This means letting go of ALL earthly and material things, not necessarily removing them from your life, but releasing any bond you may have to them and this includes emotional pain as an 'Earthly' thing.

 

Many therapists and counsellors hold on to the belief that the only way out of the pain is through it. I do not accept that this is the only way or even the best way. Because of my own personal experiences, I am absolutely certain that there is another, far easier way. LOVE. Total, unconditional, non-judgemental love.

 

If we ‘love’ our children with cuddles, hugs and kisses to ease and soothe their aches and pains, both internal and external, physical and emotional, why can't we do the same for ourselves? Why not 'cuddle', 'hug' and love ourselves? Why not see the experience as a lesson, a hurdle on the path to

 

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unconditional loving? And why not love the person or people who helped you have this experience from which you can learn so much? Those people I know who have done this all say that this process has left them far stronger, more confident, more loving, more caring, more compassionate AND MORE PEACEFUL.

 

For many people, just considering this approach to dealing with emotional pain would be a quantum leap, but all through this book I have asked that you keep (and use) an open mind. This is one of those times when your open mind may be at it's most useful. The simple fact that you may have been treated in a way that you would not have chosen if you had been allowed a (conscious) choice does NOT mean that your usefulness to yourself or to society in general has ended. Indeed, if you take the view that in every adversity, there are the seeds of an equal or greater opportunity, then your usefulness may very well be just starting.

 

"Things seem to turn out best for those who are able to make the best of way things turn out." In a great many cases, the hardest part of all to overcome is the damage to self-esteem, even though the only thing that may have changed is the person's own view of themselves.

 

Another common result of many emotional pain situations is lack of trust. You take risks every time you eat, drink or take a breath of air, not to mention walking on the street, driving on the road, (or off of it) getting on a train, bus, 'plane or boat or indeed almost any activity you care to name. I don't know of anybody who has refused ever to eat again because they got diarrhoea from something they ate or to get in a car again after a vehicle accident. All of life is a risk because we can NOT predict the outcome of anything with absolute certainty, yet very few of us choose not to live any more because of all these uncertainties. They are a part of living and we tend to ignore them and get on with life. It may sound a little simplistic, but why can't most of us deal with our emotional setbacks and relationship risks the same way? “So that didn't work. I'll try something else.” One of the cardinal rules of riding a bicycle (and horses too, so I am told) is, if you fall off, get straight back on. Is it not possible that the same approach could work with life if it 'throws us off'?

 

This does not mean that you should rush blindly out to do it all over again. What I am suggesting is that it may be better to CAUTIOUSLY involve yourself in life again instead of sitting the next one out. And the next -- and the next -- and the...

 

Life can be a 'spectator sport', but I am firmly convinced that those people who participate joyfully and enthusiastically have more fun than the spectators.

 

I would also like to remind you of what I said earlier on Page 127, about the physical wounds healing and disappearing before the emotional ones. WHY?

 

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The main lesson for all of us to learn is that whatever we think we are IS what we WILL be. If someone thinks they are an adventurous person, then they will be. A person who likes being resourceful and inventive will find opportunities everywhere to use those abilities. The owners of 'victim' mentalities will find themselves being 'victimised' again and again. Someone who thinks they are poor in whatever way they may choose to see themselves as being 'poor' will attract that kind of poverty simply because they are looking for it within or around themselves all the time.

 

AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP - AS YOU SMOKE, SO SHALL YOU REEK - AS YOU THINK, SO SHALL YOU BE.    The rest is up to you.

 

The trick about all this is that each individual person has to want to change more than they want to remain the same. Each person must make their own decisions about whether to change or not and what changes they want to make, if any. If you want to bake a different cake, you need to use a different recipe. If you want a different life, you need to make different choices. Personal responsibility is of paramount importance here. If you want to be more 'in charge' of your life, you need to be actively making choices about your directions and goals.

 

I am not saying that all of this will be easy or that you will achieve everything you set out to do. Life has a way of throwing surprises at us as part of our learning, but if you get one of these surprises and you miss out on what you had hoped to achieve or it appears that you may have to put that plan on hold for a while, try not to look on it as the end of all your dreams.

 

Would it not be better in such a situation to say, "Well, that does not appear to be working for me at this time? Is there something else that I can try?" rather than to throw your hands in the air and go into overwhelm? Most people have a fair bit of 'survivor' in them and they tend to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and start all over again. Sometimes it does appear difficult to know just where to start, but at such times the 'drowning man' reflex of clutching at straws often comes to the rescue and what appears to be a 'straw' can often be just what is needed to get going again. One of the truest sayings ever said is, "While there is life, there is hope." The light at the end of the tunnel is NOT always an approaching train.

 

While ever you keep doing the same things you are likely to get the same results. If you want different results, you need to try different methods and ideas. It may take a bit of research to find a recipe that gives results that you like, but the effort is always worth it, especially if you prefer the sweet smell of success to the bitter taste of defeat.

 

One of the really good things about change is that it is like exploring new territory. You never really know what you might find until you go there and, although it can sometimes be hard going, the sense of achievement on arriving at your goal is a real reward. Like all voyages of exploration, there will be many new discoveries to be made along the way and it helps a great deal

 

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if, like a small child, you can maintain a sense of wonder rather than being judgmental about what you see and feel as you chart the new territories of change in yourself.

 

Each life is a day in school, but more than that. It is for LIVING and it is also a journey through experiences, many and varied, all of which have something to teach us if we will but take the time from our daily rushing about to sit and observe what the lessons might be.

 

Two people might not see the same lessons in a given situation but, regardless of the differences, they are equally valid for each. There is no right or wrong in these differing perceptions. Each has it's own contribution to make to our individual and collective learning and development and to the over-all progress of everything that is, wherever and whatever it is.

 

Hopefully, as time and experience go on, we will learn tolerance of these differences and then acceptance of them and eventually to treasure them because each has it's own little part to add to the overall tapestry of Human learning and understanding. The more of these little bits we include in our individual tapestries, the richer and more meaningful each will become and thus also the sum of all of them.

 

In the course of my travels over the last fifty years or so, I have met a LOT of different people from widely varying backgrounds and environments. A surprising number of these people have told me that something that I have said to them or done for them has helped them to be more at peace with their world. This has been a source of much pleasure, satisfaction and encouragement to me, but at the same time I have had a feeling that I could do more to help more people than just those whom I actually meet face to face. So was born the urge to write this book.

 

I must give thanks to all the people who have played a part in my life and learning, however large or small that part may seem to them or to me, for they have all helped me in some measure to gather the information and ideas in this book. This includes the writers, publishers, actors, etc. of the many books, movies, plays, poems, songs and other works which I have read, seen or heard during my life to date, for all have contributed something toward shaping the person I am today.

 

Especially, I would like to gives thanks to three very wonderful ladies among the many hundreds I have met: my mother for her views and teachings in my early life, my wife with whom I shared many years full of learning and love as well as two wonderful sons and my current partner who has been so wonderfully supportive of me during the writing of this book and all my other endeavours since we got together. Thank you, Ladies.

 

Last, but far from least, I give the most thanks to my Creator for allowing me to have the experiences that I have had, to reach the understanding that I now

 

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have, to achieve the peace and the happiness that is my life at this moment, for the love that is in me and around me and for affording me the opportunity to share these things with other people. In all of this, His help has been the most important ingredient. Without it, there would have been nothing to share and no-one to share it with, nor indeed any me to gather it all. THANK YOU, WHO-EVER YOU ARE.

 

I hope that what I have shared with you in TRUTH, SIMPLICITY AND LOVE has been of some help and encouragement to you. If it has, then my efforts have been worthwhile. It has given me great pleasure to share the contents of this book with you although the understandings and ideas contained here-in belong to the Universe; they are not mine. It has simply been my privilege to have been able to gather them, put them together in some semblance of order and present them to you in the form of this book. If you feel the need to give thanks for having the chance to access any or all of the contents of this book, may I suggest that you give those thanks to your creator for putting this material in the way of someone who could and would do their best to pass it on to other seekers of truth, wisdom, understanding and eternal love.

 

I would like to suggest that the best form of thanks that you could possibly give would be to share what you have found with others, helping them to discover themselves and encouraging them to help others in turn. The ripple effect that this is capable of generating has the potential to eventually lift this world of ours to as yet un-dreamed-of heights of Spiritual Development, understanding and LOVE. Perhaps even PEACE ON EARTH, GOODWILL TO ALL MEN AND WOMEN.

 

May the (God) force be with you. (With thanks to George Lucas, Luke Skywalker and Co. and the scriptwriters for giving us that vital addition to our language.) I do not consider myself to be a religious person and there are very few things that I would say I am sure of on this physical plane. One of those very few things that I am sure of is that there is a far greater power than any of us who is ready, willing and able to give us all the answers and help we could ever wish for.

 

There have been many times in the course of writing this book when I was not sure of what to say or how best to say it. On those occasions when I blundered on, I mostly had to come back and change it. When I stopped and listened, for some reason, it seemed to come out right, just as if some-one was waiting for me to be quiet so that they could get a few words in. Thank you, Some-one.

 

I have not the slightest doubt that this same help is available to all who would ask for it in a humble, loving and respectful manner. I have never gone down on bended knees to ask. It has always been more along the lines of, "I don't know what to do here, Boss. Please, when you have a spare moment, would you show me the next step?" He always has, so far. But, you DO have to learn to LISTEN for it. If you stop and be quiet for a few moments, and pay

 

Page 137   THE BOTTOM LINE.

attention closely, you just might hear a small, still voice within. That's Him. I could be wrong (I dimly remember it happening once or twice before), but I think that the 'Big Feller" has come to the end of what he wanted me to write, in this book at least. The energy is no less. If anything it is more, but there seems to be no more words coming with it. So, while still respecting the rights of others to be as they might choose to be and do as they might choose to do,

BE YOUR OWN PERSON, NOT WHO OTHERS WANT YOU TO BE, NOR

WHO YOU THINK OTHERS WANT YOU TO BE. NEITHER IS YOU AND

BEING YOUR OWN PERSON IS WHAT YOU DO BEST ANYWAY, IF

YOU WILL BUT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE, AND DO, JUST THAT.

ENJOY YOUR JOURNEY THROUGH YOUR LIFE AND TREASURE YOUR

EXPERIENCES AND YOUR RELATIONSHIPS, JOYOUS OR OTHERWISE.

FROM THEM, YOU LEARN.

AMEN.

 

. R. D. Plant 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truths quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, for they too have their story.

 

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

 

Keep interested in your own career, however humble: it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery and deceit. But, do not let this blind you to what virtue there may be. Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism.

 

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

 

Take kindly the council of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune, but do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

 

You are a child of the Universe; no less than the tress and the stars, you have a right to be here. And, whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should.

 

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you perceive Him to be and, whatever your labours and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.

 

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.

 

( I am told that this writing was discovered in the rear rooms of a church in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., in 1694. The author is supposedly unknown but whoever he or she was has given us an extremely good encapsulated recipe for living our lives which is still just as valid today as it was when written all those years ago.)

 

 

 

Further Reading: (The information and ideas in this extract are a vital part of the whole process for releasing emotional pain described above.)

http://www.homestead.com/spiritualdevelopmentpage/personalresponsibility.html

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