Notes From Woodsong (1973) By William Samuel
About Shortages, Catastrophes, Floods, Crime, Grits
And A World Generally Going Mad
If we expect the end of human problems, global problems, problems in
nature or from cosmic reaches, the end begins here and now with the
Awareness viewing these words. One does not arrive at the end of
catastrophes, shortages, wars-personal or global-while waiting for
others to discover the truth with us. No! If we wait for others to
discover and live the truth with us, we wait in vain past the
midnight hour. ALONE, all alone, we begin right here and do the job
for our world ourself! As Awareness, we do this ourself.
The Millennial Peace begins with YOU reader. The heralded Era lies
in you hands of comprehension-not a government's, not in many
working in organizational concert. The onus is yours to act on here
and now! So, we get at it!……not we, but I. "I" get busy and return
to the beginning. I return to the primal Christ light that observes
and understands the perfection before it. I do. Not my others.
Others see this example perhaps and as an added thing may go and do
likewise. But, the perception of others perceiving and beginning to
live the Truth comes as intellectual confirmation and really isn't
important, for even when we see the world still destroying beliefs
and dreams of misplaced value, we understand THAT appearance too-and
understand why it is good. Not bad-good!
The tangible Millennium yet to be seen in space-time awaits ones
UNDERSTANDING what is before the eyes. There is no need to change
Anything but there is the divine command to UNDERSTAND everything.
Were does that start if not HERE as I-awareness? With others? No.
With I. We, as the wisdom and comprehension of God, look for the
perfect reason undergirding every appearance. "EVERY appearance?
Aren't some of them illusion and dream?" EVERY APPEARANCE. The dream
has its reason for appearing too, else how would one know gentle
dreamlessness?
There are those who come to us asking. What do we tell them? That
THIS Awareness reading these words is the Christ life, finally come
to set all things straight.
"Even the affairs of the world?"
ESPECIALLY the affairs of the world!
"How?"
By understanding appearances within Awareness and the perfect reason
for their existence. We end the fixation with personal affairs to
tend the world scene, the WHOLE scene! The grand librarian LaoTse
wrote, "Understand the All, the Whole, and that alone…Be the stream
of the UNIVERSE--- the sage takes care of ALL men and abandons no
one. He takes care of ALL things and abandons NOTHING." "This," he
said, "is called 'Following the Light.'"
Again, that keeper of words who wrote so few, said, "Understand
Virtue (perfection) in yourself and Virtue will be real…comprehend
virtue in the universe and virtue will be everywhere!" Who is to do
this if not this one whom you call I? Someone else? There is no one
else. Someone out there? There are none out there. ALL are within
This Awareness being I.
"The world is a perfect vessel that cannot be improved."
Yes, yes-but how this flouts the scientific, judgmental opinion that
sees everything going straight to hell! How many times LaoTse must
have been asked, "If all is perfect, master, then what are we to
DO?" His answer again and again, "Non-action is All-action."
That "inscrutable answer" can be comprehended now. Listen softly.
The attempt to balance, heal, secure or correct the world scene is
shadow play-sheer foolishness that has become so futile a child can
see its headlong plunge into chaos, carnage. BUT TO COMPREHEND WHY
THE SCENE BEFORE THE EYES IS PERFECT JUST AS IT IS is to BEHOLD the
scene healed, balanced, righted and secure. Immediately! NOW!
Without wait and without effort; without the horrendous human
struggle that avails nothing but disquiet.
We comprehend, we understand, we know. This is the non-action that
is ALL action. This is the wisdom that appears to the eye as the
healing of the nations. We want the Millennial Peace that brings the
end of sin, sickness, disease and death? Then we BE it! Nothing less
will do. We BE it consciously! We gird up our loins and BE it-then
DO what that being demands! These words are just such a doing.
The attempt to heal a situation, personal or worldwide, is primarily
the old sense of self at work. Ah, but to UNDERSTAND old-self at
work is Self at work, Self's comprehension of Self. To UNDERSTAND
personal or worldwide inequities is Self's comprehension of Self.
Self's comprehension of Self perceives the reasons for, thence the
END of, self and its inequities, individual or worldwide. This is
the 'way' of enlightenment. "This is called 'Following the Light.'"
This is the healing of the nations.
REFRESHING WATER CLOSE BY
If people give me smiles because I smile at them, I suspect there
are some who can give a cool drink of water too, should I need it.
Just as the tree along the river bank, I receive from within; I
receive from without-inside and outside the same.
I remember my first journey across a desert. When things began to
seem hopeless, when the first hints of anguish began to appear,
someone always appeared with water-cool, refreshing water-respite
from thirst and discouragement.
So it is, there is always an oasis near us-within/without us-being
all there is TO us. Sometimes that refreshing aspect of Selfhood
appears an inner glimmer along the pathway of inner search. But as
often as not, its confirmation comes as someone who, while appearing
'out there,' is PLAINLY another view of the Selfhood-I-Am, capable
of showing us the tangible water we thirst for-clear water, clean
water, undistorted and healing water.
QUESTIONS, ANSWERS AND FRAGMENTS
Words purporting to speak of the Absolute must be as honest as words
can be. If they are well done, they contain both the precision that
satisfies the intellect of us and the love that lets the Heart know
they have been LIVED as well as written. This requires a dedication
and intensity "the world" simply doesn't understand.
At least to this point in history, metaphysical writing is a
veritable miracle of obfuscation and intellectual hogwash that says
nothing in plain, simple words. The "metaphysics of the Absolute" is
fast becoming the world's new mysticism which allows one to read
whatever he likes into its interpretation. That sort of stuff
doesn't "wake the dreamer." It only makes the dream more
comfortable.
So, how to say what the Absolute discloses without the mystifying,
muddling mess of metaphysical language? That is what has me so long
at Woodsong. How to write what can't be written with words alone?
That's what has me wandering the back trails and fields. Not
searching for the Real but for ways to tell of it-for words that
sing to the Heart and say there is noting BUT the Real-either to be
seen or do the seeing.
Where are the ways to say such things? It is easier to count the
stars in the night sky than find them. But they exist-and there are
many of us with pen in hand.
"Bill, are you still prattling about a 'perfect world' now that it
is falling around our feet" Do you still maintain that 'God is all'
in the face of governments near collapse, crashing markets and
economic systems, warfare and greed, murder and madness everywhere?
Do you still insist there is nothing but GOOD going on even as we
are haunted by the specter of shortage at every turn?…Do you still
say there is no devil, discord, disease or death?…If you do, you are
as mad as a hatter."
Yes, Jack. Yes! I'm still singing the same song and my hat fits! I'm
still telling about a perfect universe for which you and I are the
AWARENESS. And I'm not stating personal opinions or beliefs I simply
wish were true. I'm telling of a perfection I KNOW about-a
perfection that stands tall and straight right in the middle of the
world's frustrations. Everyday more and more are finding It. I know.
There are hundreds of letters here telling me so.
"If one sees nothing but a perfect world, why DO or WRITE anything
at all?"
I don't write because I have an answer but because there's a song in
my Heart disclosing that I (you) AM the Answer.
I don't write to heal someone or some thing, nor to make the world
over. I write because there's a song in the Heart disclosing I AM
the world and all that's in it-even as "you" are.
We don't write to DO anything, but, like a child full of gladness,
we write to let the inside out and sing-to make the unsounded
Symphony HEARD.
By whom? Myself alone.
It isn't an "I" that sees perfection, but God who, as this Awareness
I-Identity am, sees naught but that God is. Everything. And it IS,
by God JUST AS IT IS, perfect!
"Some teach that the Absolute is not material, therefore not finite
in any sense of the word. I see material things all day long. Is
there any reality in them at all?"
Is there any arithmetic in the number? Is there any Symphony in the
printed note? Is there any tree in its shadow? We look for the
Principle behind the number. We listen for the Symphony being the
note. We look up from the shadows and find the Tree. What ever the
"thing" we see, it is ISNESS being made plain. We don't throw the
thing out a mental widow calling it "unreal" or "just a part of the
dream." We learn to acknowledge that Light which is being the sight,
sound or experience. We stop giving undue importance to the thing
and acknowledge the Ineffable Symphony for which things are either
chords or discords making the Symphony clear. But listen, listen:
The Symphony, and the notes, that make it known, are ONE Symphony!
"A well known woman practitioner-writer-teacher- has told me
countless times I had better 'get busy and know the Truth.' That's
what I thought I had been doing but evidentially not. After all
these years in the practice I'm not certain of anything anymore and
am feeling quite guilty about it. Precisely what IS the primary
difference between 'enlightened thinking' (knowing the Truth) and
the ordinary thinking one is engaged in during the day?"
The "ordinary" thinking of the world begins its calculations from
the position of a humanity with a problem, sinful and struggling,
attempting to achieve a degree of wisdom. It begins from the
position of an ignorant mortal, born in sin, attempting via an
uncounted number of pathways to arrive at a "unitive knowledge of
Reality."
On the other hand, the "philosophy of the Absolute" when correctly
stated and understood aright begins its statement from the position
that Reality, God, is All-absolutely all in All and All is well. The
Absolute "begins" with a real Perfection very much PRESENT-then,
from that position EXPLAINS THE SCENE AT HAND, allowing the Heart to
tell us what to DO about it.
The difference between "enlightened thinking" and the ordinary sort
is precisely WHICH starting point gives rise to our thoughts. Is God
really ALL? Is Allness, God, actually omnipotent or is there another
power outside Allness struggling to get back in? Is God really the
omniscient, all and only Mind, or is there another mind, sinful and
ignorant, struggling, striving and straining to educate itself? Is
God really omnipresent or is there another place OUTSIDE Allness and
Onlyness with in which Omnipresence is absent and sin, sickness and
death present? Ordinary thinking (frequently called "mortal mind")
begins at the bottom with the multiplicity of sense data before it
and from here struggles to climb up to God. Enlightened thinking
begins at the top AS God, AS Singleness, AS Allness, AS Omnipotence,
Omniscience, Omnipresence, and from THERE looks roundabout at ITSELF
with gladness and signing and twinkle in its Eye!!
Now, listen carefully; listen softly: Both positions view the same
Scene! The same mighty mountains and snow flowers are present to
both views-the same children are tumbling in the same green fields
and examining the same crawly things-the same events appear to
happen "but only God can understand God," as the bibles of the world
so elegantly confirm, and "no man can understand the ways of God."
As the top position, one looks, understands and knows. FROM the
bottom, one looks into the face of a proliferating multiplicity to
be smothered by it and ultimately forced to change perspective. AS
the ALL and ONLY, one looks, and understands, is troubled for a
time, then marvels and reigns! From the bottom, one casts his lot
with the leaves and shadows of a far country.
Ah, but-as the TOP, even the leaves and shadows and mistakes are
UNDERSTOOD for the grand purpose they serve. From the top, our
choosing first one position, then the other, is understood. We are
without GUILT and it is all "good"-even the husks and tares; even
the Hatter's madness.
"What does the Absolute have to say about the present energy
crisis?"
There is no ENERGY crisis HERE. All that is ever "here" for anyone
is AWARENESS, LIFE-and awareness is the functioning, the activity,
the energy of MIND. Isn't it?! Mind, God, is All. Consequently, the
awareness that reads these words is the only Energy around and It
isn't in short supply. Is it?!
"I understand awareness to be the energy of Mind but what is the
short supply of oil, electricity and gasoline for my home and
business all about?"
Oil, electricity, atomic power and all the forms of energy are the
"out there" appearances that make the "in here" Energy that
AWARENESS is apparent-just as the notes of the Symphony make the
Symphony apparent. Just as the colors of the spectrum make white
light apparent. Colors are subservient to Light. The images of
energy are subservient to the Awareness that comprehends them and
whose Energy they make plain. Oil is the EVIDENCE of energy, not
Energy ITSELF. It is the shadow, not the Tree it points to. One
doesn't hit the panic button when the Tree's shadow grows weak. He
knows the Tree is still there, untouched and unaffected by the
shadow's wanderings. But, if one has been worshiping the shadow,
glorifying the shadow, buying and selling the shadow as though
SHADOW were the Value rather than Tree, then the shadow's shortage
is certain to become one's necessary concern.
Why necessary? Comfortable as the shadow, the Tree-I-am remains
unseen and unlived. Discomfort FORCES and end to the shadow's reign
and the false values we've given it.
For a moment, consider the world's love of the sundry shadows that
fall across its face. Does it contain a thought of the Tree at all?
All the years of weighing and measuring, the shadows, buying and
selling the shadows, possessing, struggling for and lusting after
the shadows hasn't allowed the world even to understand the SHADOWS,
much less find the Tree. What do the sciences of the world know of
this very world they measure? Only that less and less is certain,
and every "answer" turns into a dozen new questions yet to be
answered. The shadow-study institutions move ever deeper into their
own maze of multiplicity, birthing more shadow studies to ask still
more question, to measure the reach of tectonic plates, ponder the
problems of polarity and search for Black Holes in the sky already
dark with night. Ever, the measure of shadows rises no higher than
the ground they fall on.
Finally, humanity has arrived at the "point in time" when its
shadow-study and shadow-worshiping confusions have it allocating,
rationing, fighting over and finally destroying the very sand
foundation on which the sciences or mortal thinking stand.
Where does it go from here? One day soon, soon, to GIVE UP in its
self-imposed agony for the split second of reflection and REST-the
Sabbatical rest that lets one say, as God, "Behold, everything is
good!" And, by dang, here is the Tree that has been here since all
Eternity! Yes, yes. Identity is "Tree," not a shadow-limb trembling
before a shortage of shadow-leaves.
Consider again. From the position of shadow-as-most-important, the
human sciences can go no higher than themselves, whether they are
political, religious, economic or whatever. Oh, but from the
standpoint of TREE ACKNOWLEDGED, the shadow can finally be
understood in its entirety! THEN mankind will discover things about
the sticks and stones, flowers and bones, of nature never dreamt
before-and will know the difference between shadow-fact and
non-fact. Identified as Tree, one can tell the wheat from the tare.
Be assured: Both the present shortage of shadows and the abundance
of shadows labeled "shortage" lead STRAIGHTWAY to the Tree of
Identity called LIFE. Life is where the action is. Life is what the
"energy" is.
The days ahead are certain to contain a mighty storm that casts new
shadow atop the old, from strange directions, as the lightening
rages roundabout. We will see many shadows come and go, human values
change, human ideals altered, icons smashed. BUT IT WILL ALL BE
HAPPENING "OUT THERE" WITH THE SHADOW-VALUES. We choose to hang in
here as the Tree of Light and Life, letting the shadows take care of
themselves.
Lo, once the Tree is found, there is hardly a concern for the
shadows that led us there-except to thank them.
Metaphysicians are not surprised by the strange and foreboding
events happening in the world today. The present international
drama, as well as every individual experience, is Truth
appearing-and every bit of it is good, whether it seems so or not.
One is prone to view his own personal experience in one light and
the events happening in the world in another. Only the metaphysical
(solipsistic) outlook recognizes how closely related the personal
scene and world scene actually are. Only the metaphysical outlook
discloses (to the thinking, rational mind) the wonders that are ours
with the realization that both scenes live and move and have their
being within the awareness that takes note of them. Within this
realization, the personal scene and world scene are seen to be ONE
scene-the Scene new-seen! Furthermore, the top-down metaphysical
view makes a logical explanation to both the heart and intellect of
us as to how and why this is so. In rare moments it even explains
how everything happening is Good-beyond-human-good, no mater how
awful it seems to the old nature of us.
The paradox so difficult for most to understand and believe is this:
Circumstances, personal and global, will continue as persistently,
forcefully, and sometimes chaotically as is necessary to disclose
the perfect scene already at hand. Events, however they seem to us,
individually as a personal experience or collectively as
international affairs, are the intellectual appearing of the
irrepressible All-rightness which has been here all the while.
Notes From Woodsong William Samuel |
