banner  
 
 
home books e-books audio books recent titles with blogs
   
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The ego mind is like “Hanging on to the tail of a wild horse”

Posted on 21 September 2017, 16:58

During our conversations with the spirit of Stephen the Martyr, he often used picturesque language. Here he sees our clinging to our egotistic minds, swept by currents of emotion and unreason, as clinging to the tail of a wild horse, and afraid to let go.

One can see this in what follows:

Olive: We would like you to tell us more about Jesus Christ - his life and his teachings.

Stephen: That is a little like asking a thirsty donkey to drink!

The message that our Lord brought is, as was our Lord himself, simplicity in itself. He shows that we can live the life that we have been given by the grace of the Father, for the purposes of the Father, and unseparated.

You have spoken of fear [your fear of “dying to self”] but really your fear can be seen in quite another light. Nearly always we conceive of fear as a physical fear of a hurt or of extreme discomfort and confusion.

The real fear that we have is the fear that we would have, if I may jest, if we were to hang on to the tail of a wild horse and were afraid to let it go. For in truth, what we fear are not the perils but the ultimate safety. We must let go of the tail.

The message and the words he continues to give you are that you do not grasp for something that is passing at great speed. No more is what you must grasp moving at a greater speed than would be the rock of safety if you were rushing in a fast-flowing river.

He says to you “Fear not, reach out and grasp my hand in the rush and the perils of life that you are passing along, and the path that you are following.” There is stability in the rock of security that will intercede for you against the current, that by yourselves you cannot resist.

He says to you that you must reach out and grasp what is firm, and let go what would propel you along into further uncertainty - for what you have now is your uncertainty, what you grasp for is your security.

Always we conceive that we must surrender but in fact we do what is the opposite of surrender when we grasp this purity.

The purpose of your lives, of your path, is to teach you, and for you to learn what is secure and what is perilous. The message of our Lord is that you should abandon this oneness with yourself that does not enable you to reach out and grasp what is whole.

Each of these things that he bade you to give up and let go of are the things that are the momentum of the journey; the fear that you have is the fear of security and of peace, if you would but hear and feel. 

The Lord would say “Stop! Hold! For I am the Rock, I am your salvation; join with me that you might cease to be swept into journeys of uncertainty.” 

This then is the message of the Lord: how you should stop; how you should reach out. There are words sufficient.

We often lose from our sight and our hearts the reasons for the words.

[These words about the Christ need to be read alongside Stephen’s words about Creation, and the purpose of our life on Earth. Christ, the anointing Spirit is inseparable from this earthly life. “Letting go of the tail of the horse”, salvation, is the acceptance of the Love behind the Christ of the present moment, the experiences we receive from God, from the Source.

…. Sometimes our thoughts, desires, fears and hates go round and round in our heads at night, keeping us awake,  like a squirrel in a cage, going round and round, but going nowhere. These thoughts are at the back of our minds while we are awake.  Our rock of safety arrives when we forget the squirrel cage and pray for the well-being of others.  Our self-centredness is sacrificed, and we begin to experience love that is Christ.]

27. Jesus our Saviour.

Olive: Stephen, I would like a deeper meaning for the words, “Jesus our Saviour.”

Stephen: Look then not for deep mysteries such as that the sacrifice of one body would have saved us all. The example, and pointing out what we know, is what will save us. An example was shown to us that the limits we place ourselves in our minds, conscious minds, do not apply when we think of the Whole.

An example of the messages that Jesus gave to us whilst he was with body was a time when some of his friends wished him to prove to others conclusively his relationship with God and the power that he would possess, by the grace of God.

If it were a conversation in this company, we might say, “Come along now, show these marvels, show them here.” And Jesus answered at that time: “If you would see the power of God, then choose anybody other than yourself you would wish to die at this moment. This I will perform for you.” Of course the choice was not made but a great lesson was taught to those who heard.

Those who were witnesses at this time saw that the saving of men was a saving of their thoughts and their minds. They would fear [the actual truth] that they are not separate, that they are together, that they are one, irrespective of the things that they would do to one another. It is never from real choice but only our mind would simulate a necessity for these actions.

The saving that our Lord gave was to show us that our minds often lead us to actions that are not of us [of our real selves] and it is these actions that we must deny. These are thoughts that of necessity we must deny.

Put it like this: we can listen to the words and stories. Some of these stories are real, some imagined and some are concocted to give an example but all were true of the Whole.

The saving is the saving of slavery to your own minds, the release of bondage to imagined ills and wrongs, desires that are not within you but are created by the environment, by the desires or imagined desires. The protection of what you have is a false desire for it can neither support you, nor love you, nor comfort you in itself. It becomes a support and comfort only when you have imagined it to be so and therein comes the bondage.

When you love somebody with your mind you build an image of what that somebody must be, for you love them.  You create a non-existent person and when that one which you would love disappoints you and acts differently from the image that you have created you suffer great hurt.

Jesus also, in many examples, showed us the way to be saved from this folly.

We often get an image that in some way the death of the body of Jesus in itself cleansed us yet we fail to see how he showed that the body itself was meaningless.

All should never regard this body as a possession.

Just as a gift that we should use and care for as we would a gift, not be in bondage to it and its imagined desires; to release us, to show us, that was the purpose, and that was the saving. If we would but accept it, the lesson.

Many, throughout our lives and before, have given us proof again and again of how these lessons were true and they themselves have been saved.

Michael: I recognize the truth of what you are saying, Stephen, and it speaks very much to my own thoughts. But speaking for myself, and I think also for others, although I recognize this and have recognized this, I do in fact inflict a tension upon myself and unhappiness.

Stephen: We are here to learn… how not to inflict unhappiness. There are many times when Michael is happy.

Michael: This is true, but there are too many times when Michael knows all that Stephen and the Father has taught, and feels it, or thinks he feels it, and yet he still feels tense, and afflicts himself with this tenseness, and Michael gets annoyed with himself for doing this.

Stephen. Then be saved, Michael.

Michael: I would like to be saved Stephen, but I am not fully. Might I meditate better? Might I.. what.. the better?.. that I don’t do this to myself?

Stephen: Michael is still looking for a mystery, for a key. Michael has all that it needs. We may search often by walking backwards so we look often where we have been, but never where we are going. Look around you often. Do not conceive of the things that might have been, as they should be, but as they are. Enjoy, feel and experience that, for all that is a gift to you; this moment now and all moments are yours. Are you unhappy now?

Michael: No, I am not.

Stephen: Why should you be thus happy? I ask this question because Michael asks this same question of himself and he analyses his happiness and sees no reason for it.

Michael: When I get influenza, or someone else gets a disease, this could be said to be the result of what I have inflicted upon myself. Is it the will of the Father that I suffer from a disease?

Stephen: It is the will, and part of the Whole that we experience all things without exception. It is a matter of the way we react to those experiences and the way we live; for our reactions and the way we act towards each other and to the circumstances are the way we learn.

You have confused in your mind what I spoke to you last time. I said that you are here and that you are doing the will of the Father. The plan of our lives, from the moment of our birth until the moment of our death, has a path, an inevitable path that will be followed. In that path there are many and varied experiences. The free will of man enables him to act and react to those experiences.

Inaction would not be satisfying to yourself and it would not teach you much. We might say that it would be easier for a child to remain in a cocoon and remain there continuing to be fed by its mother until the life is past and gone. But the child would learn little and life would be pointless for all must be experienced, all is experienced.

I am reminded once again that quite often it has been said among us by John that there is no good and no bad and I think at the time it was said that whether rain is good or bad depends on the point of view. In the news recently, in this country that has been without rain they would tell you that rain is good - and I have been aware of complaints that rain is not particularly good.  Again with your malady: Do you have the knowledge to say that your body did not need this malady?  For all things are needed. All experiences are necessary.

Michael: You said of Thomas’s cold, “This cold was well caught!”

Stephen: He learned of his cold and he had the experience. It was important. Did he suffer like a martyr? Or were others martyrs? These are the things. They are so simple that we must realise that there is not one thing that moves, one planet that revolves, that is not of the plan. The plan is for the experience and learning of all. Let us not wish that it were otherwise for we would be the losers.

1. Perhaps the train of thought is that the power of Divine Love was manifested indeed because they could not contemplate such a death, for they are not separate, but one.
The spiritual self would never kill, but the physical mind could certainly dream up reasons elsewhere Stephen affirms that it was not the physical body that rose from the dead, but the spiritual; that the resurrection shows Jesus still to live, with a spiritual body; that the loss of the physical body is of no consequence.


Paperback               Kindle


For more on Stephen go to www.thegroundoffaith.net/issues/2017-02


Read comments or post one of your own
 
translate this page
feature
“Life After Death – The Communicator” by Paul Beard – If the telephone rings, naturally the caller is expected to identify himself. In post-mortem communication, necessitating something far more complex than a telephone, it is not enough to seek the speakers identity. One needs to estimate also as far as is possible his present status and stature. This involves a number of factors, overlapping and hard to keep separate, each bringing its own kind of difficulty. Four such factors can readily be named. Read here
© White Crow Books | About us | Contact us | Privacy policy | Author submissions | Trade orders