Awareness writings by William Samuel (1924-1996), American mystic, author of A Guide To Awareness And Tranquillity

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About the author
William Samuel, (September 2, 1924-May 22, 1996)

Mystic, Writer, Teacher of Truth and Self-Discovery

William Samuel taught and wrote from his beloved hills of Mountain Brook, Alabama, for over 40 years. William was a brilliant and prophetic spiritual teacher who taught and lectured on the subject of metaphysics based upon the Absolute, or as referred to today, non-duality.

He was a prolific writer of truth, science, religion, and spiritual awakening. William Samuel's work continues to illumine many, as he has the ability to share those ideas which are nearly impossible to put to words. His message on Awareness and the Here and Now has been shining a light of wisdom and providing those much needed answers to the perennial questions for thousands of seekers who have studied his simple, yet profound and liberating message of Truth.

William Samuel was known as the "teacher's teacher" perhaps because so many teachers come to study with him. There was an inordinate number of philosophers, theologians, and members of the academe among those who would seek his help and guidence toward Self-Realzation and greater understanding.

He was a humble and authentic mystic who could communicate in ways that allowed those who listned to find ever growing insights toward genuine Self-discovery. It seemed to William that he would get the most earnest and dedicated students of Truth. Among them were quite a number of Taoists and Buddhists who had found William's message and came to study--even some who were called Masters.

Many have gone from his study to become authors, writers and teachers of Truth, as William's work gave them the clear insight, understanding and unbound knowing they had been searching for. In some marvelous way his story has been found by the metaphysical and scientific elite of all the word--at least by a few. He said "When it is told perfectly, my whole world will hear."

Although, Mr. Samuel did not embrace the idea of being called a teacher, saying "I've been telling my own story--how it happened and what it has allowed me to understand--for over 30 years. That is not the same as being a teacher."

It becomes very clear in these later days that William was a master teacher who has found a way to communicate honestly and clearly his insights on the Absolute and true and honest way to live the premises of the metaphysical understanding and practices of non-Duality.

You can read a longer version of his biography as our website:

williamsamuel.com

One of my favorite quotes from William, which describes his delightful and clear understanding of the Truth goes like this:

"Every teacher, book, writer, practitioner, sage, guru or peanut vendor, by whatever name, title or label they go by, is an aspect of the Awareness (Identity) "we" are. We take the book from the shelf most likely to render a specific service at a given moment. Exactly so, we have appeared to go to the philosophy, teacher, church, friend, stranger or peanut vendor that has unfolded as sufficient for the moment--but that philosophy, teacher, church, friend or stranger is WITHIN the awareness WE are. So is the peanut vendor. We are forever looking at our Self.".....William Samuel

Sandy Jones-- Literary Executor of William Samuel

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WILLIAM SAMUEL (1924-1996) OFFICIAL SITE (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.COM/) Writer, teacher in the study of Reality, the Absolute, metaphysics. William Samuel charts a course that leads to self discovery, peace and tranquillity.

Home (https://williamsamuel.com) About (https://williamsamuel.com/about/) Books Etc (https://williamsamuel.com/books/) Journal Posts (https://williamsamuel.com/blog/) Archive – Free PDFs (https://williamsamuel.com/archive-free-pdfs/) Contact (https://williamsamuel.com/contact/)

Legendary American Mystic

Through William Samuel's gift of communication, you will be shown the way back to your Self, your own heart, insights and revelations. BOOKS BY WILLIAM SAMUEL (/BOOKS/)

Tender, childlike simplicity and honesty are the hallmarks of Reality’s Tranquillity -You will find the nearly effortless practice of the tender precepts shared throughout William Samuel's work will open the door to a tangible, practical, down to earth bedrock, unfluctuating Tranquility such that nothing the world has to offer can prevail against it!  

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WILLIAM SAMUEL (1924-1996) (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.COM/ABOUT/) William Samuel's work is based on Awareness and Selfdiscovery. The  appreciation for his brilliant message continues to grow. The Light of Truth that shines through William's words remains ageless, simple, clear. The premise of his teaching is that there exists a gentle, direct experience of the Presence, Awareness, Self-Knowing Truth--and it is available to each of us. Through William's gift of communication, you will be shown the way back to your Self, your own heart, trusting your insights and revelations as you begin living the sweet gentle presence of genuine understanding.  Mr. Samuel imparts, in everyday words, the same wisdom of the great enlighten ones. This website is dedicated to carefree, joyful, triumphant Child within each of us. Learn More about William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/about/) ".....We are the Wisdom of Isness Now. We are the knowing of Mind Now. We are the Life that God is NOW--and there is no wait. There is nothing that must be accomplished first. There is no laborious path to travel. There are no mysterious exercises to perform, no rituals to be observed, no daily lesson to be faithful to, no

external authority to which we must be obedient before Identity is Identity, before God is God, before All is ALL-before Life IS, before awareness is aware, before I am.... " -  William Samuel Notes From Lollygog

BOOK REVIEW OF: THE CHILD WITHIN US LIVES! (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.COM/BOOKS/) (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.COM/BOO KS/) Flabbergasted and Joyful by David Bradley Swanson September 29, 2016 Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase "I really don't understand how Samuel's writing makes me feel like this. The first time I encountered him was through the 2+2=Reality (https://williamsamuel.com/books/) pamphlet. I'm smiling with the memory of it. This feeling is so warm, fuzzy and bubbly and silly! Somehow it shines through. The Child Samuel speaks of is somehow alive between the lines of his writing. Much of it is good writing, although some of it is all over the place and even convoluted at times. But this doesn't matter at all. Samuel's writing unties all my knots. If I stick with it, the effect diminishes, and I have to admit this feeling is not really "on tap" for me. It's not something that is at my disposal. But go a couple months without looking at Samuel's writing, and come back to it,

and there it is again! No other book of this type -- books for seekers -- have done this for me, at least not to this extent. And Samuel himself is aware of it, amazingly. Again and again he reminds the reader to read from the Heart, to squint at the words, to jiggle them around until you know their essence as your own. But again, how is it possible for someone to write this way? "

THIS IS IT (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.COM/THIS-ISIT/) “It is a moment of relief from the world’s heaviness. It is an instant of recognition, a weightless surveillance of the scene. It is a flawless moment that lets us say ‘Hey, this is a fine minute, I feel alright!’ That’s it. The goodness and lightness are it. It’s no big event to the intellect. Yet its recognition and acknowledgement is the most brimming understanding anyone will ever acquire— and the heart knows this is so. Suddenly everything is a all right.” -William Samuel Read: On Meeting William Samuel -by John Bailey -Author -

Already On Holy Ground (https://williamsamuel.com/this-is-it/)

ALL-NESS (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.COM/BLOG/) Review by John Lamenzo November 17, 2014 at 8:03am · Amazon I recently came into contact with the writings of an American 'hidden one' who as I discovered is not hidden at all. I speak of William Samuel. I just completed my first reading of 'Awareness and Tranquility (https://williamsamuel.com/books/)' ...absolutely riveting! William Samuel, as I discovered, sat with Ramana Maharshi in 1942, the first American to do so. For those interested in unadulterated, 'core-splitting honest' non-duality, Samuel's work ranks as some of the best I have encountered. I'd like to thank Sandy Jones for her stewardship of Samuel's work, and our wonderful conversations. I strongly suggest that those seriously interested in 'ALL-ness', spend some quiet time with William Samuel. - John Lamenzo  

JOURNAL POSTS (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.CO M/BLOG/) Short selections and heartfelt understanding

ABOUT SANDY JONES (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.CO M/ABOUT/) Steward for William's work

BOOKS BY WILLIAM SAMUEL Learn more about books and talks by Bill and where to find them.

Books Etc by William Samuel (/books)

JOURNAL POSTS Short selections and heartfelt understanding

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WILLIAM SAMUEL (1924-1996) OFFICIAL SITE (HTTPS://WILLIAMSAMUEL.COM/) Writer, teacher in the study of Reality, the Absolute, metaphysics. William Samuel charts a course that leads to self discovery, peace and tranquillity.

Home (https://williamsamuel.com) About (https://williamsamuel.com/about/) Books Etc (https://williamsamuel.com/books/) Journal Posts (https://williamsamuel.com/blog/) Archive – Free PDFs (https://williamsamuel.com/archive-free-pdfs/) Contact (https://williamsamuel.com/contact/)

Archive – Free PDFs If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated.

  Many years ago, William Samuel would sit at his typewriter putting his insights and wisdom to words. He would publish these notes quarterly and send them by postal mail to his long list of those who were interested. Now, with the help of Aimee Davies and my daughter Alexa Bliss, I am delighted to be able to share these Quarterly Journal Notes once again. You will see that the messages speak to the heart, they are timeless, honest and truly liberating.  These PDFs are available here and can be downloaded if you like.  Please enjoy these gifts to you. I will be adding more as we go along. Woodsong Journal Notes  Archives  1960's - 1990's  

About Healing by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AboutHealing-by-William-Samuel.pdf)

About Liberation by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AboutLiberation-by-William-Samuel.pdf)

Return to Simplicity by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Returnto-Simplicity-by-William-Samuel.pdf)

About Problems by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AboutProblems-by-William-Samuel.pdf)

About Guilt by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/About-Guilt-by-William-Samuel.pdf) (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AboutProblems-by-William-Samuel.pdf)

Awareness & Life are One by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/Awareness-Life-are-One-by-WilliamSamuel.pdf)

Here and Now by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Hereand-Now-by-William-Samuel-.pdf)

Contradistinction by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/Contradistinction-by-WilliamSamuel.pdf)   Isness is Infinite by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Isnessis-Infinite-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Disentanglement from Judgement by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/Disentanglement-from-Judgement-byWilliam-Samuel.pdf)   Identity and Simplicity by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Identityand-Simplicity-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Identity is Awareness by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Identityis-Awareness-by-William-Samuel.pdf)  

Law and Love by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Lawand-Love-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Meditative Writing by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/Meditative-Writing-by-WilliamSamuel.pdf)   Inner Fear by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/Inner-Fear-by-William-Samuel-.pdf)   Living the Light by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Livingthe-Light-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Metaphysical Self-Righteousness by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/Metaphysical-Self-Righteousness-byWilliam-Samuel.pdf)   New-Think by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/New-Think-by-William-Samuel.pdf) (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/LoveHeals-by-William-Samuel.pdf)  

Love Heals by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/Love-Heals-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Ritual and Myth by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ritualand-Myth-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Seasons Joy by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/Seasons-Joy-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Spirit Within by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/Spirit-Within-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Study With A Gentle Touch by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/StudyWith-A-Gentle-Touch-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Surrender by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/Surrender-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   The Door to Light by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TheDoor-to-Light-by-William-Samuel.pdf)  

The Grandest Gift by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TheGrandest-Gift-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   The Healing View by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TheHealing-View-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Laws and Big Government-by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Lawsand-Big-Government-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   The Honest Action by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TheHonest-Action-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   The Inner Guide by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TheInner-Guide-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   The Living Teacher By William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TheLiving-Teacher-By-William-Samuel.pdf)  

The Teacher Illustration by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TheTeacher-Illustration-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   The Way by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/07/The-Way-by-William-Samuel-.pdf)   Truth about Identity by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Truthabout-Identity-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Upheavel by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/07/Upheavel-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   Hereness and Nowness Reality by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Hereand-Now-by-William-Samuel.pdf)   About China, Deific Solipsism (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/07/About-China-Deific-Solipsism.pdf)   Melody of the Woodcutter and the King by William Samuel -PDF (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Melodyof-the-Woodcutter-and-the-King-by-William-Samuel-PDF-.pdf)  

No Mystery In Christ -by William Samuel  (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NoMystery-In-Christ.pdf)   Two Plus Two Equals Reality - by William Samuel  PDF (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/TwoPlus-Two-Equals-Reality-2-PDF.pdf)   Isness Being Made Plain by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IsnessBeing-Made-Plain-William-Samuel.pdf)   Shortages Floods World - by William Samuel (https://williamsamuel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/11/Shortages-Floods-World-WilliamSamuel.pdf)

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel

Feb. ’79 About China, Deific Solipsism, Helping Others                     By William Samuel  During the Korea war the U.S. found itself fighting the Chinese. I was in the army at that time. I was also in the army during WWII when we had trained the combat against the Japanese where I observed the Oriental soldier in action, fighting along side him. When the Korean “police action” began I fully expected to be brought forth where my knowledge of the Oriental could be utilized.  After all there were only a few hundred American infantry men who had lived with Chinese units and fought side by side with them against the Japanese. I lived in the field with the Chinese soldier for more than three years--and that’s a lot of experience most difficult to come by.  When the Chinese entered the Korean war against the United States, my experience was not made use of at all by the U.S.  Not on the scale it could have been.  Yes, I was called on to command troops against the Chinese, but in no time did our government query anyone I know of who really knew how the Chinese soldier fought in the field.  So, my expertise went unused except as I could use it on a small scale of an infantry company commander fighting in the bloody triangle of that war’s last days, Pork Chop Hill was part of the triangle of conflict.  The Korean veteran and the Korean war is forgotten today, except as the first war the United States couldn’t win. The men who fought in that conflict remember it very well.  I came home from that war and circumstances brought me off active duty and put me into the reserve where I was called back to active duty again for only a brief period when it looked as if an invasion of Cuba was in store. I was a Major by that time, or a Lt. Col.,  I don’t remember, but I was to be a Battalion commander --infantry man with fixed bayonets again. Someday I should write of those staging days in Orlando Florida--and the wonderful sense of calm I felt then---aware finally of what warfare is, and means, and accomplishes over the short period.   Some years after that, after having lived its principles and proven their validity, I wrote and published A Guide To Awareness and Tranquillity.  Young people and Metaphysical idealists have asked me the same question over and over; how could you be a soldier and abide by these principles?  My reply was always the same--It was difficult. Combat and family have been the two most difficult experiences in my life--and difficulty surely teaches wisdom in ways nothing else does.  Wisdom may come humanly via the touch

of Grace for some--but it came the hard way for me---out of awful warfare, inner and outer, outer and inner.  Well now, as I say, what I learned came to be put in a book--and then another and another--and into essays--and into lectures and a few classes here and there--and into many personal visits folks have made here to Alabama. And by and large I have been able to communicate my gleening of my recognition of Selfhood so these “others” would be spared the combat, inner and outer, that seem otherwise necessary before the shell is cracked an the chrysalis emerges.   As the Seminal idea has emerged into conscious recognition, I became aware that what I  call my country is not a separate entity separate and apart from the functioning awareness I am.  “Out there” isn’t concerned about my expertise until I am concerned with “out there’s” meaning to me--because it is my picture of me so to speak--not separate from the living Awareness that sees it.  And this is the same for my government too--a fact that dawned so slowly for me. Despite Lao Tse’s many mentions of Tao’s influence not only within oneself, but in the family, the neighborhood, the village, the nation, the world and he didn’t even stop there--within the Universe said Lao Tse, my bright mirrored Self - image telling it to me honestly from out the wisdom of the East.   Well, so what? What is this all about? Just a simple point that the government and its affaires are not outside Awareness either, therefore we can’t just become aware of Self from a single point of view--but as the Universe as it appears to the point of view as well.  Let me explain what I mean. Once before I had much knowledge that would have been immensely helpful to this government of mine had they but taken the time to ask me about it.  Whatever efforts I made to offer my services fell on deaf ears--and to make matters worse I was back into physical combat again with everything appearing to indicate that I had really learned nothing at all for all my study and knowledge of the “absolute” and all that stuff.  It was surely the same feeling I presently hear from so many who have become confused by all the teaching everywhere, where each is calling his way the only way--or else it is all organized into a system that is so complicated and scientific as to be beyond the intellectual capacities of anyone, even the wizards who muttered and peeped them up in the first place. Why doesn’t my metaphysics work for me now? Where has my hope and enthusiasm gone now? Why is my body so old and alone in the world now? Why isn’t my government taking care of the sick and elderly now? Why are my savings of a life time losing their value everyday and nothing I do seems to help anymore?  Nothing seems to work........... ................Then, everyone’s last hope Samuel arrives on the scene  and most are able to hear through the threats of doom and gloom  and find, actually FIND, the Self-secure One who is Life itself  within which  there is no shortage 

nor threat  nor even shadow of turning..... But, after I published, no longer concerned with the “out there” as anything but an indivisible scene within this single Awareness being I, lo, “out there” government came to me, asking my opinion of Chinese communism that appears so threateningly on the scene--and I was able to make the helpful statements to myself that were impossible when the inside/outside dualism existed.  Have I said that so the gentle point is clear? It isn’t complicated.  Yes it is a meaningful point to everyone, because as appearances go, everyone looks to the outside for some part of his personal well being---people want other people to buy their product or supply their need.  People look to others for their leadership. And what we are saying here is that we find “others” tending the village and the universe capably when we end the foolishness of separating awareness into external and internal as though these two were actually two different things. We find our GOVERNMENT and our WORLD pursuing the same course we set for ourselves. Awareness includes both the singular point of view of one as well as many. It also surveys the government of the many and finds that government the property of Mind, not man.  

If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts
 in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information.
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Excerpt from

The Awareness of Self-Discovery by William Samuel

CHAPTER 16 A Conversation About Guilt "Mr Samuel, it seems to me that in the final analysis, the solipsistic metaphysics of the Absolute tells me that I am the cause of the discord on the scene. This means that I am taking on the sins of the world—that I am responsible for every heinous act ever committed that I have ever been aware of. I don't like this at all." The Christian Christ has been pictured as one who was willing to accept this appearance of guilt, and then do something about it; but be that as it may, who says that the expanding view of a society in upheaval is a bad view or a guilty view to be disliked? Who says it is heinous to see our former landmarks being left behind? We view without judgment because awareness doesn't judge. Society judges. As we look out into the world "tumult," we are merely seeing misconceptions tumbling or not tumbling into the piles of unimportant dust they are. We have seen fit not to continue giving them a power they do not have, but this doesn't mean it is bad or that we are guilty of the sights we see. As awareness, we are not responsible for any appearing. Awareness is the seeing of Deity, and it is our good pleasure to be the seeing that DEITY (ISNESS) is "responsible" for. Just as we come to stop holding others guilty for what it appears they are doing to themselves or society, neither do we hold ourselves guilty for being their creators. Awareness is no creator. Awareness beholds a kingdom which is forever finished. When did "Eternity" begin? Really, even the use of the term "finished kingdom" can be misleading. What had no beginning cannot be finished.

"Well, as I understand it, Mr. Samuel, solipsism says that by my act of putting off the old man, the misidentification, I am looking out at my own opposites as they do battle with one another and this appears to be my world in turmoil for which I am guilty!" Not so! We would like to be the Creator, a Shakespeare who writes and enacts all the wondrous events appearing as history, but as AWARENESS-IDENTITY we cannot take credit for aught. We let the old man bury the old man—and he is certainly doing a thorough job of ending the fiction he began. But that one is not our identity. That one is not awareness. Awareness, here and now perceiving these words, is not guilty of personal judgments or fragmented purviews of Isness without the knowledge that they are only fragments. "But we must put away the former concepts and it is this action that appears to be my world in turmoil and isn't this the most awful guilt of all?" Listen carefully: The events of history as they are apparently unfolding in the arena of tangibility are both (1) the human dream ending and (2) perfect ISNESS disclosing Itself to Itself. The sights and sounds on an historic scale would be appearing whether we were engaged in this study or not. Events in the world will continue to go on unfolding as the appearances of people reacting to human pendulum swings one way of the other, but as WE put of the belief of misidentification, we are able to perceive events as they are and for what they represent. Furthermore, we are able to stop being personal reactors and become "passers-by." If events are the appearing of a personal dream ending, the dreamer is their cause and has the same control as the dreamidentity in the dream has over the events of the dream. On the other hand, events that are the divine Isness unfolding to Itself are "going on" regardless of a dreamer's personal actions (or reactions) and his awakening appears as an ability to endure the events without judgment, without blinding involvement and without being disturbed. "Now I see. All that has been accomplished by becoming so intellectually involved is the now I know why 'all things work together for good to them that love God.'"

Yes, and we can see that the appearance of a human awakening going on is only half the scene, for which we are not guilty! There is a greater Scene being all scenes. A LETTER CONCERNING GUILT AND FORGIVENESS Listen with the Heart, John; Considering the human scene alone, the "wages of sin is death." "Sin" is "guilt". Semanticists can rationalize until hell freezes over, but "sin" still winds up being "guilt" — and guilt, sin. Their "effect" appears to grind the spirit and body to dust-and "death". The seekers of truth finally wind up facing the greatest guilt of all—the most heinous "sin" imaginable: What is it? The belief that, since nothing is external to awareness, then one is guilty of every botched appearance in his world—guilty of wars, pestilences, murders, governments, pollution, over-population—to infinity. Notice, I just said facing this greatest guilt of all—not guilty of it. In this particular aspect of experience (or "cycle" if you want to call it that) it is imperative to see the absurdity of this "final" onslaught of the old nature. It is the "equal and opposite" claim of the same ego which earlier tries to be God, using the same pretense—i.e., that everything is included WITHIN me! — that "me" still the old impostor. This particular aspect of guilt presents itself via any avenue it is given to enter—it says many things:"My life is a failure—I am ignorant—my family doesn't love me—my friends are leaving— I have hurt this one or that one—I have broken up this or that..."—all of which is only the other end of the playing-at-being-God swing of the pendulum. THE EXTENT OF GUILT The extent of mortal guilt—that is, the belief and acceptance of it—is horrendous. The pressures of guilt are used in every way—even to teaching—even in our casual conversations. Indeed, guilt is the veritable food of the "old man."

The lids that are popping off throughout the world are mankind's attempts to find an escape from the constant pressures of imposed and accepted guilt. Why, even the television commercials teach, sell, make their points by way of adding to our guilt: "Why aren't you wearing your seat belt?"—"Are you giving your family orange juice every day?" The body appears to break down in our attempts (subconscious) to justify the guilt we accept from every hand and ultimate "death" appears the consequence. There is no guilt outside the acceptance of it! God is not guilty of doing God in. There is no Identity but the One and that One is not guilty. Guilt exists in the superimposed ego-world which has already served its purpose for you. (Its purpose is to bring us to perceive the ONE and "learn" via its contradistinctions just what the one is.) The ONE is not guilty of sin, sickness or death. The One is not lethargic. The One does not need to be boosted up by bourbon nor propped by pills—and does not develop a dependence on them. The guilt that would tear the body apart is the final "is not"—and now you do not need more contradistinctions to battle with. So what to do? Look in the mirror and see that one INNOCENT. Look in the mirror and FORGIVE that one of everything. You can do it because that one is not guilty. That one has never had a mind of its own except in its own belief. But "belief" is just belief—a powerless notion, incapable of doing anything to anything. What can two plus two equals five do to the perfect principle of arithmetic? What can "is not an oak tree" do to the pine tree? Not a blamed thing, and you know it! A lie is a zero. A big lie is the same zero. A belief in guilt is a zero, incapable of bundling up the nerves, incapable of preventing AWARENESS from doing whatever it seems sensible to do. Do you understand this? You can, in the twinkling of an eye—and find the RELEASE, the PEACE that letting go the burden of guilt will bring. We do "forgive sins"—by "forgiving" guilt—and you will find yourself quite able to take up your bed and walk wherever you want to!

Walk straight to the mirror first and forgive yourself. Thank the Ineffable HERENESS for its forgiveness of guilt by its preclusion of guilt. ...then, watch what happens in the minutes, days, weeks ahead! ———————— Dear John, This letter comes as a simple "proof" that you have not been forsaken —a few words from me and my pines on this side of the hill. A grand harmony reigns. While the humanist declares there is no God but mankind himself, I know better. What I have found exists above and beyond the concepts of people. Its articulation, however, is apparently limited to human words and human philosophic attempts. ———————————————————————————————————— ———————————————————————————————————— —————————————————————We are not guilty of ignorance. We are not guilty of having created our trials and tribulations. While it seems so—and much of the religious education of the world hangs this albatross around our neck—"'tain't true, 'tain't so!" The dreamer dreams because the dreamer is the dream. To say that the dreamer is responsible for the dream is the subtle birth of guilt—a pseudo-guilt that has never been justified. We are not guilty of a botched experience because of our failure to "know the Truth" or to be honest or any other such thing. Every "trial and tribulation" of personal experience has worked to prove our uprightness to us—all events of a natural, normal and happy, happy awakening. That awakening is even now going on, and you are my opportunity to tell myself so—even as I am yourself telling you. ———————————————————————————————————— ———————————————————————————————————— —————————————————————-

All is well because All is. IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SAY "THERE IS NO GUILT" There is more to having done with the appearances of "guilt" than simply saying there isn't any. There is even more to it than understanding that there is no guilt. It is not enough to declare with grand metaphysical flourish that "guilt implies sin and a sinner, which are impossible because God is ALL." Oh yes, this is true—God is ALL and this holy ALLness precludes the guilt of wrongdoing—but until such time as we stop enacting the role of a guilty sinner by virtue of believing ourselves to be a sinner, then that identification is stuck with the appearances of its beliefs—the sense of guilt being the most unbearable, hence paradoxically most likely to shake us from the belief of the imposter. In short, the appearances of guilt remain on the scene until we stop holding ourselves or anyone else guilty. Of what? Of anything short of the absolute perfection they are! It is one thing to say there is no guilt. It is another to ACT in accord. ———————— There is a monumental joy to be discovered when we release others from any obligation we think they owe us. I did not find myself "free" until I first freed others of any responsibility for my own happiness; until I stopped expecting them to conform to patterns I or humanity had established as proper, normal, correct, polite, expected, etc. I simply let all this go upon discerning the light: in the words of Jesus" ...forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Of course, this does not mean that we become remiss in what appears to be our responsibility toward others. ———————— Dear Mary,

Listen to these words of hope: From out the depths of depression and feeling of guilt, from out the sense of personal worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness and despair; from out this nearly unendurable darkness seemingly void of Love always comes the birth of the Christ Truth within! Always! Without fail! Inevitably! GUILT AND IDENTITY Thank you for your letter which I hasten to answer. The very fact that you are concerned enough to be "seeking" is enough for me to tell you —and very positively—that you shall find every answer to the "enigma of life." For a time, they will appear to come to you from books, classes, tapes, conversations with others and letters such as this, but I assure you that each and every one is coming from within your own Selfhood; from your own desire to know the Truth you be. In the play, Lady Macbeth feels a great sense of hopelessness and guilt for having killed the king. You will remember that she tries to wash the blood from her hands and fails. For one to believe any feeling of guilt to be real (no matter what the supposed cause) may be compared to an actress playing the role of Lady Macbeth and completely forgetting her real identity. Her true Identity is not a guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth, but a happy and devoted actress. We have a greater Identity too. Aware of this fact, we are able to go on playing whatever role seems to be our part on the human stage, ever mindful that "things are not as they appear." Let us leave "guilt" with the old man" whom we are not. ———————— On the stage, no matter how heinous the sin, it has nothing to do with the genuine Identity. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Oh, but we remain wary, wary not to use this as an excuse to condone our own dishonesty or to attack the appearances of dishonesty in others. ISNESS IS THE VALUE AND THE POWER An all-pervading Reality exists everywhere, being everything. The charging horseman with raised sword only thunders across a powerless stage. The blood he seeks and mayhap draws is but the enactment of a line or two of fiction, a parody on Truth. On the stage we walk wherever seems best and say the line that reveals the play's harmless beauty—but we remain steadfastly aware that Truth and its enactment are already one and inseparable; that Reality of God is the Value and possesses the Power. The Light that Love is lets us see the scene as an undisturbing event that best suits the moment. And what is the moment? Another aspect of Reality's Love coming to light!

!

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel 1970s HELP! Anyone familiar with the new generation personal computer knows about the "HELP" key at the top of the console. Get confused, do something wrong, a problem arises, and one goes to the HELP key immediately. The screen lights up with instructions saying exactly what to do to get rid of the problem. It's nice to have something that helpful at the tips of one’s fingers. But what do we do in our daily affairs when our calculations go awry, when a problem bears down, or when we feel adrift? Is there a metaphysical HELP key that will light the screen when the daily discipline of life gets heavy? "Will you answer that question for me, William? Will you tell me in simple words exactly how you handle a problem?" Dear Reader, there is no set way to solve a problem. But there IS a HELP key that we resort to immediately. I call it the "RETURN TO THE BEGINNING" key. When a problem occurs, one ALWAYS takes a moment from the thought of the difficulty to CONSIDER THE BEGINNING, the SOURCE of life. Not the source of the problem, but of LIFE. That is, we BEGIN with GOD, with PERFECTION. We hit the RETURN TO THE BEGINNING key. "Blessed is he who has found the beginning and stays there." We have heard these words before. The human way inevitably hangs on to the problem, searching for possible courses of action with never a turn from the error. But it is necessary to make the turn away, if only for a moment, to consider the perfect Source of all things. So it is, we "start with Perfection" within which there is no problem, no anguish, no fear—naught but the absolute perfection of God. We take this "mental stance," focusing attention on Godhead Itself, the Something Wonderful which stands right here and now being everything—whether we understand it or not, whether we agree or not! With Source in mind, we ask what our relationship to Source, God, is. We find that our interface with God is right here as this very LIFE. Without God, there would be no "consciousness" here. "But where does the problem come from?" FEELINGS seem to have to do with the body that ails; with the psyche that is afraid; with the mental attitude of the sufferer. LIFE is untouched. LIFE goes right on being LIFE whether there is a disquieting problem or not. Anguish is felt by the "me-sense" who considers himself the OWNER of Life, the possessor of Life, Awareness. What is Awareness, Life? THAT is the identity made in the image and likeness of God originally, the one who was given the garden of beauty to enjoy all the days of his life. Then this Life/awareness-I-am is God's Self-awareness, God's Self-observation, God's Self-knowing going on, and I am in God's hands. God is the CONTROL of this Life I am. And here I rest. And here I am freed from the possessor's claims of imbalance and

imperfection. It is helpful to sit down and begin to write along these lines. Writing about "whatsoever things are good" and real and tender and beautiful, is a way to keep stayed on the Perfection that is the FACT, no matter what the seeming. I turn to see a flower blooming and I consider its gift to the world of things. Or, I catch sight of a butterfly winging past, and write a line about the light through the wings of a yellow butterfly. I write as best I can—without thought of who will read it because I do not let people read such things. It isn't the words that matter, but the fact that I am sitting still and considering the BEAUTY of God's goodness, INSTEAD OF THE PROBLEM! I make this small turn away from my problem and God makes a giant turn toward this awareness-I-am. I make one small step toward God and God runs a hundred steps toward me, dashing into my inmost Selfhood to obliterate the old consciousness of the problem. Why does it work this way? Because the awareness of Me ORIGINALLY was to be the BEHOLDER of God's allness. Because this life/awareness I am IS God's LIFE/AWARENESS in action. It works this way because I have put down for a moment the possessor-me, the imposter, the liar, the one of few days and full of trouble. When I "return" to the Identity I rightfully am, THIS awareness of good, I-Awareness find the Image of God, the Eye that I am, PURE and PERFECT. While this may very well appear to be a healing to the old sense of myself—and I am surely glad to have the body put aside its grief—I EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR THE PERFECT IDENTITY WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN LESS THAN IT WAS MADE BY GOD. Suppose one awakens in the morning with a feeling of "something wrong"—not an uncommon way to greet the day after a night's fitful sleep. What to do? I shuck the feeling just enough to acknowledge that Godhead, Truth, Principle is present. I mentally affirm that God-Mind is the all of all; that there is no other Mind in all existence but the divine Mind. Then I acknowledge that this awareness-l-am, this consciousness of being that presently writes and reads these words, is the FUNCTIONING of God-Mind. All of this is to mentally reaffirm my rightful Identity—who I really am. This is done quickly, in the twinkling of an eye. I do this countless times during the day, every day, but it seems especially important on this morning we are speculating about, because the sense of all-rightness seems missing—or threatened—with the feeling that something is amiss. Very often, this is all I do to have an end to the feeling. The sense waywardness is dismissed completely, or, the sting is gone out of it so that it isn't a worrisome grind within. Now, if the feeling continues uncomfortably, I keep the correct sense Identity present and ask how Perfect Mind could be mindful of such a feeling of disquiet. I ASK the question, remembering the admonition, "Ask and it shall be answered unto you." I go on about my business quietly, as mindful of the pure perfection of All-Mind as I can be,

and I lose myself in the activity at hand. I go about my business expectantly, staying as mindful as possible of Overmind and Its infinite perfection. When next I might happen to think of the discomfort, I may well wonder when it disappeared. Or, if it is still a part of the tangible experience, there will be a clear indication of its "cause" and what footsteps to take regarding it. Or, among the near infinite possibilities for the appearance of anything, it all may have been the NECESSARY disquiet we create for ourself when we have gotten caught up in the world again, without a thought for the Ineffable Presence behind it—somewhat like the discomfort a flower along the riverbank might feel if, for a silly reason, it forgot to drink the water at its roots, and, for that reason, became thirsty. The disquiet of spiritual thirst is the Divine Discontent reminding us of the Real—and reminding us to LIVE the Equation, the balance. It is insisting that we open ourselves and drink of It again. We HEED, and stop withering in the sunshine. Oh, it is difficult to say, "What I do" in this or that situation because it is done almost without thought and without prescribed or definite procedure, without a formula. But the continuing RETURN TO THE BEGINNING is done again and again and again. And it is followed with the EXPECTANCY of good and good and good, expected and expected, even as I look at the good ALREADY at hand, already everywhere in everything, in EVERYTHING, in whatever and whatever is seen and felt— a necessary part of the Equation, the Mystery, for those capable of understanding it. Return to the beginning. It is the HELP key on the console of thought. We begin the day with it. We end the day with it. We use it as often as seems necessary—and many, many times because we are there already. Oh my friend it is possible to return to the beginning and stay there! We don't forget this. We never let it go. Ever! With love, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel March 1970 ABOUT LIBERATION Liberation is found within the Light that reveals we are not bound. Listen again: Our liberation is found upon the recognition that we are not bound. We are freed in the proportion that we accept the freedom we are and let go the belief of an identity that is not free. The liberation of Self is the view that sees Self as Self is. The liberation of mankind is the view that sees him guiltless, that does not hold him guilty of being bound, and then ACTS in accord with that view. Our freedom lies in the discovery that Identity is the divine awareness of Isness-- God's SELF-awareness about God's business of self-discovery, self-appreciation and self-satisfaction. The world's liberation lies within OUR release of our view of the world's guilt, seeing it for the guiltless and "perfect vessel" it is. Viewing ourselves and our world as bound and in need of liberating is the view that has produced the agony. More of the same only aggravates the mistaken viewpoint and prolongs the self-inflicted punishment. The awakening to God's perfection as ALL (and already all) is like the butterfly's immediate emergence into the light of a new dimension without an overlong wrestling with the cocoon. To wrestle too long is to wear away the wings. IDENTITY IS OMNISCIENCE Consider God, Mind, Allness being Self-aware. THAT awareness is the only awareness! That awareness is the sum total of intelligence. It is OMNISCIENCE itself. That awareness is the awareness that reads these words. The AWARENESS that reads these words is the identity we are. We do not use intelligence. We ARE Intelligence and should act AS it. The appearances of those who use intelligence and those who act as it are the same but the events of their experience differ greatly. Two thousand, five hundred years ago, the father of Taoism wrote, "These two kinds of observers look alike but differ in the insight of their observations." Who are we to USE intelligence? God? Mortals who exist as something in addition to ALL? Neither. We are Mind's omniscience in action--God's infinitely intelligent action and not a smart or dumb personality's action (or reaction. *** A writing exercise that is immensely helpful is as follows: We write the question we may be wondering about at the moment. Obviously, the question is written from the standpoint of the pseudo-identity--that limited, mortal, human sense of self that does not know the answer or it wouldn't be asking the question. (As appearances go, this is the mortal role we have been stuck with for a long time, isn't it?)

Now, in the "mind's eye" we assume the real Identity, the role we are actually being-Omniscience itself; INFINITE INTELLIGENCE itself--and write the answer that comes to us from this position as God's own intelligence. This appears to be a schizophrenic game to the old nature of us but you will literally "change your mind" (from mind to Mind) when the ANSWERS begin to find their way into conscious awareness and onto your paper! After all, haven't we been told many times that we are Intelligence? Haven't we heard that there is only one Mind? Can there be more than one awareness? Can we not see that the real schizophrenia lies in our attempt to be an ignorant mortal who does NOT know the answer? Is not this the one who has done all the suffering? Then what is wrong with attempting to be our REAL Identity for a change? Most especially when it yields such astounding results in time -- grand answers presenting themselves for every question propounded! Nothing is wrong with it, as you will see. Herein lies the "secret" of meditative writing and the clear indication as to why such an exercise is only another false hope unless practiced from the standpoint of being INTELLIGENCE BEING, and not one who is trying to get there by "reading the lesson" or performing any other "spiritual exercise." Naturally, to play the role of OMNISCIENCE and answer our own questions, is denounced by intellectuality as egomanical megalomania of the first magnitude. It bellows, belittles and screams the absurdity (and simplicity) of it. But the Heart knows otherwise. The Heart of us intuitively recognizes that there is a point beyond which the Real cannot continue to make intellectual sense, else the Illimitable would be limited to the science of intellectuality. Listen softly: In the performance of this simple and rewarding exercise, at least during the time we are writing from the standpoint of OMNISCIENCE ITSELF, we are ACTUALLY ACTING from the position of the real Identity (Wisdom!) and not the mortal fraud. As we begin to recon from the position of INFINITE WISDOM-OUR-HERE-AND-NOWIDENTITY-BEING-ENACTED (by answering our own questions) we are beginning to LIVE Identity in more than lip service. "Comprehendest thou this?" Ponder deeply. Do not let these words go until you have put them to a repeated test. This action taken can prove to be your most significant action yet in this experience of Selfdiscovery. ABOUT FINITENESS AND INFINITY "Finiteness" is not the opposite of Infinity in the absolute sense even though we have long been schooled to consider them opposite ends of a dualism. Infinity is all-inclusive and does not preclude or exclude its lessor "dimensions" any more than the sphere excludes the point, line or plane. In every case, the more expansive dimension includes the lessor to infinity. It is the essence of mortal vanity to believe that "mortal mind" can perceive tangible form (matter) but that Mind (infinite Wisdom, the totality of INTELLIGENCE, Omniscience ITSELF) cannot! What kind of nuttiness is it that thinks "I can see a material tree" but Omniscience cannot?!

Mathematics points out that the accurate measure of form requires a point in “concurrent time and space” from which the measure is made. What is the "human" purview but a view from a point in time and space? It is a view limited for the purpose of perceiving form. Is not infinite Wisdom entitled to such a measure of its own qualities and attributes. Notice that we would also call the colors of the spectrum "finite" in that each one is less than the whole of light. If they are less than the whole they are not infinite and, therefore, finite-yet they may very well be "eternal" if this is the Infinite Light we are talking about--and it is. Here is the interesting paradox of eternal finiteness! That is, eternal "colors"-- a clear (?) instance of infinity and finiteness existing side by side. I no longer battle the appearances of form (matter) calling it unreal. Form is merely the points view of Infinity's spectrum of qualities and attributes. I asked myself "How wise is Wisdom and how intelligent is Intelligence? The honest answer is found to be INFINITELY wise and INFINITELY intelligent. Certainly this includes the Lights ability to see its colors, or the Sphere's ability to see its infinity of points from a point. To the same extent that we awaken to the greater Identity-we-are, we find awareness no longer limited to a mere point in time and space. INSIGHT is a matter of an "expanding" awareness. To LIVE as simple awareness is to find our viewpoint expanding. Reader, if this seems to be alot of stuffy, metaphysical intellectualism, it is. Let me remind you again that the comprehension of these points is not at all necessary in order to BE the Identity we are already. It is enough to see that the "material body" simply represents the means by which the most limited aspect of FORM is observed--and the body responds perfectly in whatever way Omniscience requires for the undistorted perception of Its own Qualities and Attributes. We LIVE the role of omniscience and find that we have dominion over the body--its vision, hearing, motor capabilities, etc.-- and that the body ever responds to the requirements of Omniscience, not the other way around. The body does not have the ability to lead awareness around by the nose, liver, nerves, ears or anything else, as we are finding out. *** Listen to these words that were sent to me in a recent letter: The statement ‘Nothing has been read once until it has been read twelve times’ is certainly true. I especially have found this to be so as I re-read the Lollygog writings or "Awareness and Tranquility." It never ceases to amaze me. I will re-read something I thought I completely understood, thinking the words themselves were completely self-explanatory. They are not. It is so apparent as I write this that the words really are not the communicators, just as you have said. This was graphically brought home to me while I was re-reading one of the back issues of "Lollygog" this morning. (Vol. I, No. 11, page 3). You wrote, "We ask, 'What does infinity know of itself?' It knows its own qualities and characteristics. How? Specifically (as well as universally)--each distinctly delineated from all others, the consequent appearing of "form." I don't recall what this meant to me at the previous readings but this morning it was a veritable Satori. I saw so clearly, "Why, THIS is the warp and woof of FORM. There IS Form because of God's exclusivity as each and every characteristic and quality "It knows

Itself to be." Deity's knowledge of Itself as "specifics" ARE the forms we see (the forms we be). FORM, then, is the natural consequences of the "specifics" God knows God to be. You have probably written this in several different ways in your writings but just NOW is the first time I was "turned on" to it. I know this revelation will not stop here, but will go on and on expanding itself to itself ad infinitum. (From Glory to Glory) How sweet it is! (borrowed with permission from Jackie Gleason). “...your message is "getting through" and is doing its perfect Work. I am REALLY seeing the 'no value' of form or Form..." "It is a Beautiful Trip...this journey into the Infinite Inward... through this ever expanding Vista that ONLINESS is...Your letters and writings ARE ‘doing their thing.’" *** Once upon an afternoon while we were drifting down the river on Lollygog, I pointed out a fig tree. One of the lady guests said, "Fig tree? That can't be a fig tree!" and I said, "Well it is. Why do you think it isn't?" Said she, "Surely the leaves must be bigger than that!" Like Sarah said to Abraham: God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. Amen from Lollygog, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel November 1970 AN ASSORTMENT OF CONCLUDING NOTES There is no question that something "comes through" as the consequence of talking face to face (Eye to I) to groups, even as it does during the Eye to I visits here in Mountain Brook or in the letter exchanges. Even though Truth is ever "here" where one is (there is no "there" where one is not) something happens when one makes the EFFORT to find Himself. Those who "come to Me" are always "helped" when they come of their own free will and accord. The evidences of that help are not always so apparent when I go out stumping like a motormouthed traveling evangelist. *** REAL Self-discovery begins when we are finally brought to that place where Truth means more to us than all else—and when our actions coincide. I am reminded of the story of the 100 sheep, one of which went astray from the flock—from the ordinary. One hundred of us may shout that Truth is more important to US than all else on earth, but only one in that hundred pays the price and puts his hands where the Hand is, and his feet where the Foot is, and is REALLY willing to "make the two one." One is only playing games with a personal concept of Truth until he is willing to surrender everything for it—including the dollars and the time and the effort to BE it. *** There is neither a personal nor an impersonal Identity. There is just IDENTITY—the One— being all there is to the appearance of both the personal and impersonal. We hang in there steadfastly with Identity—the All, the Alone, the One—and identify as the Life-Awareness of THAT one, allowing our actions "here on the human scene" to fall naturally into place. This has us acting with grace—free, natural, unbound, unworried, unhurried, without personal condemnation or guilt. This ends our struggle with personality—with what is personal and what is supposed to be impersonal. We do what appears to be the proper thing to do at the moment, without lingering thought for the pocket-book, the clock, or what propriety (society) dictates. I have learned this: Very often the letters to me containing the greatest of anguish come from those who allow the most meager excuses to prevent the end of those wails – a wife or a mother, a husband or a brother, an old automobile, a job or 100 miles of space, or dollars. Oh, especially dollars! How we yield ourselves servants to obey the financial institution with its threats of starvation unless we do thus and so. There are not enough dollars on earth to purchase a glimmer of Light and there is no real consciousness of Light until one, IN FACT, values the Truth more highly than his last dollar. The metaphysician has a harder time learning this lesson than a bell-strung camel in Arabia.

As metaphysicians, at one time or another, we have all fallen into that trapping intellectual crevasse that has us proclaiming, "After all, I know my supply is not a matter of dollars but of GOD," while we still go on attaching more value to the dollars than to the Light. No wonder the enlightened of all ages have been ready and willing to forsake the "ninety and nine" for that rare one who goes searching away from the crowd, willing to surrender EVERYTHING for the Light. *** This work has been remarkably successful in solving problems pertaining to "supply." But I have found "Supply" (like the subject of "love" or "meditative writing") takes more to "communicate" than the written words alone; or, for that matter, the written and spoken words together which, by themselves, may seem more hurtful than helpful. So far as my (Bill's) part goes (concerning those who come to me with supply problems) I do not seem to perceive the tangible "healing" until all three major aspects of supply are covered and understood. Metaphysics touches only one of these three, turns a deaf ear to another and doesn't even appear conscious of the third. For myself, it was necessary to understand and live all three aspects of the matter before the appearance of "lack" yielded and dominion was found to be here as Identity and not out there with the financial institution. We covered one of these three areas in our recent talks in Carmel-by-the-Sea, another in Hollywood, and if you could but read my mail, you would see that the tangible "results" have been astounding. Inasmuch as all "problems" are actually a matter of "lack" in one way or another, a complete and understandable coverage of "Supply" is called for--and is the basis for a book we are presently at work on. *** A NOTE TO PRACTITIONERS When someone comes to me with a problem, physical, emotional, monetary or whatever else, there seem to be two ways to see the problem solved, both stemming from the same predicate—that predicate, of course, being the fact of God's ALLNESS, hence, PRECLUSION of all problems, no matter what the appearance. But, beyond that predicate, there appears to be one pathway that touches the intellect, another that touches the Heart. The "healing" often comes when the intellectual aspect has been understood—and, indeed, this is important. On the other hand, when the Heart is touched, the healing always happens, oftentimes without an intellectual understanding of what has taken place. But, it seems to me, the bloom of the Heart appears to fade unless it is shored up by the complete understanding of all that has transpired within Caesar's arena. So, it seems wise to travel to the place where the "healing" has made itself tangibly plain and then onward until both the Heart and intellect comprehend all that has transpired. I haven't said this well, but the essence is here. It appears that the intellectual "cure" alone is

not permanent; neither is the Heart's alone. The intellectual "correction" becomes permanent (on the human scene of things) when I continue until the Heart has been touched and love FELT. On the other hand, the instantaneous Heart "cure" should be followed, gently, gently, until the intellect is brought to accept the reasons for all that has appeared to happen. (This is not making a dualistic tangle of things, but living the actions that judgeless awareness allows me to see I should live. Here in the realm of “people, places and things” that living includes a natural and happy balance twixt Heart and intellect.) IT IS LOVE THAT DOES THE WORK. We can rationalize on this point all we like but ultimately it is found that Love does the work—simple, credulous, honest, tender love— giving and receiving love—the love that Identity is, not the love a possessor of Awareness is supposed to perform or have performed for him. Sooner or later we come to admit this and stop denying love, stop withholding love, stop trying to make a dualism of love, one spiritual and esoteric, the other human, mundane, married or unmarried. We find that love (Love) is being every manifestation of love from the guileless embrace of children to the gossamer, lilting lift of butterflies awing, from the warm feel of a lover's touch to the singing heart and release of tears between simple friends. It is Love, love, that does the work. Love and love alone. Love is the fire of Spirit, the flame that warms the earth and melts the coldest appearances. And love, I remind you, is not restricted to or by the institution of marriage! Infinite God is limitless love. The DOMINION lies with LOVE, not with the institution that is supposed to be its regulator. ABOUT EMPLOYMENT Awareness cannot be unemployed. Awareness cannot be without all that is necessary for its perfect operation. "Life" is Mind's Self-action in automatic existence. This knowledge, intellectually accepted and Heart believed, works in Caesar's arena as a continuing, fulfilling and rewarding activity made amply apparent by whatever means best suits the unfolding moment. There is only one Government in all existence: God. Not God's. GOD. Maybe you'd rather use the word Truth, Reality, Isness or Being rather than God, but whatever denotes the single, only INEFFABLE-in-all-Existence also denotes the only real government in existence—a perfect government "wherein there is nothing that maketh a lie." The ACTION of this government is life, awareness, consciousness the very awareness even now reading these words. There is no other action actually going on. Every appearance of human action ultimately serves to do naught but DELINEATE the immortal fact that this Life-I-am (the life YOU are) is the action of Mind about the business of knowing Itself—and knowing Itself unlimitedly, beyond all doubt, beyond intellectuality. Mind and its activity are one Mind being unlimitedly Self-aware. THAT is the awareness reading these words. THIS is the life that God IS. This is the Life immortal, the awareness "ever about the Father's business." ***

Exactly so, there is only one IDENTITY in all existence: Infinite Being being infinitely Selfaware. That Self-awareness is the consciousness reading these words; yet, this awareness is infinitely MORE than the perusal of finite form, trees clouds, signs and symbols, ink marks on a sheet of paper. The survey of measurable form (things) is Being's knowledge of Its myriad qualities and attributes, certainly within the capability of INFINITE Mind's action of knowing Itself. Oh, but unlimited Mind knows Itself in its "parts," its qualities and attributes, as well as in its wholeness. (Would not an unlimitedly wise tennis ball know its own qualities and attributes? "I am round. I am hollow. I am fuzzy. I am bouncy, etc." And would it not also know itself in its completeness? "I am a complete and perfect tennis ball, by gosh!"?) What is wrong with BOTH parcels of knowledge? Is this an indication of duality, and if so, why? Isn't it the height of human egotism to believe that "mortal mind" can see a chunk of matter called "tree" or "flower" or "little girl" but that INFINITE Mind cannot? Consciousness that cannot see form (or a dream or anything that can be thought of) is not INFINITE Consciousness, but limited consciousness, hence, not Consciousness at all. *** The Identity-I-am (you are) is the Deific awareness of Deity, therefore I am unlimited wisdom ITSELF, unlimited intelligence ITSELF--unlimited, unbound, without restraints, restrictions. Please note: Any label attached to Me (the divine I or Us) could not possibly define Me, for how can the indefinable be defined? The label would be a restriction not pertaining to Me but only to a concept of Me. So, listen, listen: To whatever extent I appear to be the Honest One to "you," then whatever you think I SHOULD be, that, UNBOUND Honesty will NOT be! Whatever label "you" place on Me, unbound Me will be seen to be NOT THAT! Whatever the limit--and labels are limits--Identity CANNOT be JUST that, since infinite Identity transcends limits, even while including them all--even those diametrically opposing one another, always to the great mystification of intellectuality. The "opposing" limits ever have to do with the qualities and attributes, not the Whole. To intellectuality, the ultimate mystery is simplicity, wherein the dominion of Identity is hidden in its obviousness. *** ABOUT PROBLEMS What appear to be human problems are much like examination questions on the blackboard-question which, via inversion and paradox (as ever a question must be) serve to delineate a pre-existing Principle wherein the answer precludes the question. Our knowledge of the Principle is the means by which the examination is passed and the blackboard erased. To hang in there and contend with the question is to never end the examination. Somewhere along the line, we are FORCED to leave the land of Nod, the pigsties of the far country and "return" to the Principle wherein no real problem exists OUTSIDE THE PARADOXICAL DELINEATION of the REAL, which constitutes the reason for the question. At this point, the age-old question arises: "If all is Mind and Its INFINITE Self-Awareness, then why the appearance of the examination in the first place? Why the appearing of contradistinctory human problems from which we must find our answers in an ALL and

ONLY pre-existing Perfection wherein there cannot be the slightest possibility of a problem? Why the seeming? Why the paradox? Why the inversion?" Reader, can you answer this? It CAN be answered! It has been. And "you" must 'ere the "seeming" ends its noxious seeming. Many who attended the recent Carmel and Hollywood work felt the answer to this primal question clear down to the soles of their feet and were amazed to find themselves KNOWING the answer, BEING the answer. Always, the question answered, the problem on the blackboard is erased and we are free to walk outside into the sunshine of a cloudless day. *** A consciousness of the universal awakening is coming soon because it has been perceived already. The night's sleep is nearly ended and a final restlessness is upon the world. We are (and have been) given an opportunity to live this experience until we live it perfectly--that is, until we understand it fully! Now, the time grows short. Reincarnation? REincarnation presumes that life has been incarnate in the first place. It has never REALLY been, even though it seems so. Furthermore, it will continue to seem so until it is understood to appear only for the simple, simple reason that we may KNOW the impossibility of Life IN matter, and know it beyond all intellectual question. That is, AS THE INFINITE WISDOM THAT AWARENESS IS. Do we really believe it possible to unlimitedly (infinitely) know what Identity IS until we have attempted to live what it is NOT? Living the contradistinctory "is nots" has forever delineated the "IS" and made it plain beyond the limits of limiting intellectualism. The mortality of humanhood has ever been the perfect and precise delineation of immortal Being, not an enemy at all. So understood, the "sting of death" is removed "and the second death will have no power." The "first death" (the Bible speaks of) continues to be the surrender, this side of the grave, of the ego--that fatherless, would-be recipient, possessor, director, dictator, regulator and opinionated judge of awareness-life. *** THE ILLUSTRATION OF THE MOUNTAINEER An illustration born during the seminar just past may well be repeated here. It makes a subtle metaphysical point--subtle, but one that must be finally comprehended if we are to ever intellectually understand the reason for the tares midst the wheat, the mysteries, the paradoxes; and why it is best to leave the tares alone rather than attempt to pull them up, correct or manipulate them. NOTE: The point to be held in mind during this illustration is (1) that Identity is awareness, the same awareness reading these words; and (2) that Awareness is the UNLIMITED knowing, action, wisdom or intelligence of Mind. We are concerning ourselves here with just how infinite is INFINITE (alone, only, all, unchallenged) awareness. Once upon a time a man lived in the hills of the southland where the sky was very blue, the clouds very white, the grass sweet and green, the water crystal clear and cool, the trees with

lofty crowns and the squirrels with bushy tails. He was asked, "Do you know what beauty is?" "Of course," he answered. "I am living in the midst of it. Beauty is everywhere around me in the blue sky, the clouds, the grass, water, trees and bushy-tailed squirrels." "You are correct," the questioner said, "but do you know this unlimitedly, infinitely, beyond all doubt and all restriction? Do you know beyond intellectuality?" "Yes," answered the mountaineer. But DID he? Did he yet know completely? Did he know infinitely? He certainly thought so. "After all," said he, "I am the unlimited wisdom that Mind is! At least that is what my study of Truth has told me." Well, it happened that one day our happy mountaineer went over the top of his beloved hills and dropped down into an industrial valley on the other side. There he found himself face to face with is-not blue sky, is-not white cloud, is- not green grass, is-not peaceful and quiet, isnot loving and serene, is-not self- sufficient, is-not satisfied. There he was faced with mystery upon mystery. "Why the unhappiness?" he asked. "Why the riots? Why the awful struggle to survive?" and even as he asked himself these things he tried vainly to make out in the mad maze of the is-not world of contradistinctions. Because it seemed the thing to do, he tried very hard to fit in and correct the situation he was faced with, but to what avail? Every machine he invented only made matters worse; every cure he found finally became another crutch; every advancement in one direction was ultimately found to be a retrenchment in another. Every victory was hollow. No matter what he tried to do, he found the valley closing in from every direction. The clock clicked ceaselessly and time took its inexorable toll. Death dangled before him. So, one day he gave up the struggle and returned to the mountains. Like the prodigal of old, he "went home" again. Now reader, I ask you: THIS time, how did the same blue sky look to our friend? Where before he had seen blue sky and intellectually called it "beauty," this time it looked bluer than blue, more beautiful than ever before. This time he knew BEYOND intellectuality what "blue sky" IS because he had seen (and attempted to live) what blue sky IS NOT, Now he knew on both sides of intellectuality. Now he knew INFINITELY, because unbound awareness does know infinitely! This time how did the clouds look? The green grass? Whiter than before! Greener and lovelier than before! Oh, this time he didn't just call the trees beautiful; this time he ran to embrace them. This time he felt them and shouted aloud! This time he ran into the stream with his shoes on, laughed and cried and scooped up cool water in his hands! This time he talked to the squirrels! This time their tails seemed bushier than before. Yes, the same beauty; the same sky, the same clouds, the same grass, water, trees and mountains but now Awareness was unlimitedly, infinitely aware CONSCIOUSLY, having consciously looked on the illusion of all that “infinite” beauty is-not. Does not INFINITE intelligence know what beauty is NOT as well as what beauty IS? Doesn't intelligence know that "hand" is not "foot"? That "oak is not pine"? Would it be

INFINITE if it were limited only to a knowledge of what IS? It would not! Oh, but the "what IS" is the REAL, the "wheat" --and the "is nots" are the "tares" that serve only to DELINEATE the IS beyond, beyond, beyond mere intellectualism. The "is-nots" are the means by which "form" is made apparent, the "way" an infinite awareness sees on all sides of Being's qualities and attributes. The fictitious is-not-beauty only delineates Beauty, even as is-not-love (called hate) tells us what love really is; even as is-not-oak outlines pine. Reader, at last, at last we are coming to comprehend WHY "the two are one, the above as the below..." As appearances go, the Carmel, San Mateo and Hollywood talks were successful. Always, the "reward" for so great an effort is to hear just one person say, "Now I see! Now I understand!" or to see one "healing" or to witness the weight of one “is-not” roll from a single back. During the past two months there have been many such events and I have seen the bright eyes of new comprehension everywhere. In addition, I have seen sunshine, mountains and tall trees. I have seen smiles and felt love. I have heard the gentle laughter of Joy and seen the color of Light through the prism of Joy's tears. Now I'm back in the quiet of my trees, not soon to roam so far nor so long. Least ways, not physically nor publically. According to the world, the Light, of Love is too bright to look at, the Truth too irrational to be understood. To the best of my ability, my living actions are in accord with the Light I see the Single Self to be--very often NOT in accord with what makes sense to the world. "I" have been "given" an immense Light to see and I have seen it to a monumental degree. This Light lies so far beyond human attempts to find words for It that these NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG seem a mockery, an act of feeble, futile, farcical foolishness--like trying to sound a Symphony in words, like trying to reach out and touch the stars, like attempting to rearrange a perfect Arrangement, like wiping tears from one eye only to make tears in another. Who is Bill Samuel to think he can say what can't be said? Yet, the wonder of this Light-Isee-I-be seems to be in the wonders it works in the affairs of my "others." Many who appear to understand nothing I say (or do) still see and feel the wonders, the miracles, the "signs following" and believe them, despite my inabilities to "say it like it is." Anyone who studies these ideas earnestly will find themselves one day doing everything I have done--and much more. My predilection with stillness and quietness and my deep love for "those whom the Father hath given me"--and those are the ones who have come to me-are such that I cannot longer be unfaithful to the moods, the states of mind and the simple actions that appear to have brought me to see this Light-being-I. Even as the illimitable Light cannot be confined to the peeping, tinkling words that pretend to tell of it, neither can that same illimitable Light that Identity is be bound to schedules, a body, the modes and mores of a fictitious society, nor brought to defend old views or infinitesimal points of metaphysical philosophy--not when there is so much more to be discovered, understood and lived. So now I announce the discontinuance of these NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG on any kind of a regularly scheduled basis. They will just come as they come--from out the Heart rather than from any sense of human urgency to meet a time table. They may on occasion (as in the past) be accompanied by special papers called VIGNETTES. Or they may not. For the present subscriptions, I will attempt to give full measure. If this arrangement is not satisfactory to you, you may have the remaining portion of your

subscription refunded--or have one of the new books THE AWARENESS OF SELFDISCOVERY in lieu of that refund provided the remainder of the subscription is enough to cover the cost of the book. As nutty as it may seem to "me" from a financial standpoint, I am accepting no more new subscriptions. I cannot do less than I ask others to do--and that, to run with the Heart wherever it leads. At the moment it seems important for me to hurry on with the meditative correspondence and to the work of helping those who ask me for it--and to the remaining things I have been given to try and write while there is yet time to write them. It is a beautiful, colorful Fall here in Alabama. Dark clouds gather in the South harboring the first storm of one season ebbing, another approaching. Leaves hang tremulously on limbs. I think they look at the ground and know. Oh, but it is not the leaf that lives, but the tree! The Tree of Life lives through the cold winds and winter. Only the leaf’s viewpoint falls away. To identify as the leaf is to be born in one season and die in another. To identify as Life is to see the leaf fall away, if needs it must, but to see it fall without regard or regret, knowing Springtime brings another crown of flowing, fluid viewpoints--views of a Single Tree of Eternal Life "whose leaves do not fall in winter or summer." Winter, after all, is the "is not" Spring--the means by which the eternal Spring of Light is known beyond all doubt. Godspeed and unending love, Bill Samuel

If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel

December 1968 AWARENESS, LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS ARE ONE A monumentally helpful point for metaphysicians to “get straight” is the simple, basic and very gentle fact that awareness—consciousness—is God's action not the personal tool of an ego. In our work here, awareness, consciousness and life (Life) are synonymous terms. Awareness is the action of God, the activity of Mind, the life that God is. Indeed, the consciousness presently reading these words, that perceives the Winter scene outside, that hears the rustle of pots and pans in the kitchen and gathers in the evergreen thoughts and feelings of the coming season, is the living that God is, the awareness that Mind is, the all and only perceiving of Deity going on. This consciousness right here and now is the life divine that never ends—the awareness of God. There are not two awareness’s, one that belongs to Bill, Liz, Lynn or world, and another somewhere afar off, marvelous and mysterious, that belongs to God. All there is to "mortal mind" is the now-to-be-discarded notion that the consciousness reading this essay belongs to a finite personality with a responsibility for “his” experience. Consciousness, awareness, “seeing”, “perceiving”—or whatever else it may have been called—is GOD'S responsibility and God's consciousness in action. Conscious of what? Of all there is to be conscious of: the infinity of all that God, Reality, is. THIS life we are is God's own Self-appraisal, God's Self-seeing, Self-knowing, Self-being. Reader, listen softly: Awareness and life are one. Relax for a moment and admit the simple, gentle Fact that All is all, hence the consciousness that even now surveys this printed page is the goal of the sages from time immemorial, the LIVING that God is, the Life Divine that neither begins nor ends. See this! Comprehend this! Admit this. Rest here and find the old fears vanishing like the morning mist before the sunshine. -

Our heritage is the life that God is. Who could want more? Who needs more? What a delight to discover that this seeing, this hearing, this feeling, this visioning, this listening, this delighting HERE AND NOW is the all and only action of God being God. What can happen to this consciousness, the life-I am, the awareness I am? Naught but what can happen to God. And what can happen to Singleness, Omnipotence, Purity, Perfection? Nothing, nothing! I tell you the seeing of these words is God's ETERNAL Self-witnessing IN ACTION, already here, already now. No wait. No struggle. No suffering. No testing or waiting through the pendulum's dark swing in order to find a measure of relief at the other end. The struggle has only to do with the fruitful but not necessarily easy, task of letting go the old view of oneself as a possessor of life, as the grand custodian and manipulator of experience. EXAMPLE Look outside at the sleeping tree there. Who sees the tree? Bill or Deity? Does a body do the seeing or does AWARENESS, CONSCIOUSNESS, LIFE see it? What sees the tree? Consciousness? — or a body-centered custodian of consciousness? Where is the tree? 57 feet 6 inches removed from a body-oriented big wheel container of awareness, a judge who likes or dislikes what he sees? – or is the tree within awareness? Is the seeing of the tree the

activity of a separate-from-the-things-I-see recipient-of-life, a so-many-year old male or female, a pump filled organism who looks out through bloodshot eyes and answers to the name of Bill?—or could it be that it is DEITY being the “seeing”? Indeed, isn't it just possible that ISNESS, REALITY, GOD, is the seer “seeing” and being the seen? Could it just be that “seeing” ITSELF is the identity “we” are? Could we be Life ITSELF rather than the recipient of it? Indeed we can! We are! But lordy, lordy, what this does to the old theological concept of a bestowing God. What this does to the old theological view of a man born in sin, a- recipient of Life--or to the oft expressed metaphysical view that Self ignorance, via its own effort, must lift itself up to Wisdom. We awaken to find the great gulf twixt God and man has gone. God is no longer remote. We are no longer a fawning, cringing recipient of Life worshiping a non-existent Bestower. This life right here is IT. THIS living, THIS seeing, THIS being is the IT which GOD is BEING ''closer than breathing", even as the prophet said. Reader, there is nothing difficult nor abstruse about this view of the universe. We shall all grow into such a view—the world shall—and it is coming rapidly. It comes gently and easily if we lower the walls and relinquish the old concept. It comes with a wall cracking, bud bursting blast if we insist on continuing with the wall building ego role of yore--a role that may seem personally delightful but has been a near-fiction from the first: a role apparently calculated only to give us the present wherewithal to sneak with authority and be effectively about the Father's business of removing the restrictions and tending the New Garden that Now is. We awaken with joy to find that it really has been the Father's pleasure to give the kingdom to us. We find Mind's action of Self-appraisal to be our Identity. Mind knows Itself as Itself, and this life we are is that knowing going on! "Seest thou this?" If so, it is time to "be'est us this" and begin to live the Millennium it is our heritage to be. ******** ECCLESIASTICISM AND IDENTITY During the final days already in progress the dissolution of all that stands between ourselves and a full knowledge of the Truth will come. The Light is already here. New ideas are coming into common focus and old landmarks are being taken away. Cherished notions, oft the pillars of society, are crumbling with the shifting sand they stand on. Everything that appears to hold mankind in bondage will finally give way. Freedom will out. The New Light is irresistible because it is God's Light, God's Self-appraisal, God's Selfrevelation going on, and already the only real fact. As usual, the very institutions whose first purpose was to tend the New Vine of Life as it broke forth into the Garden are now busily trying to confine that infinite vine to their narrow plots, pruning every new limb and burning every seed the vine produces. Even as in days of yore, ecclesiastical pomposity would attempt to regulate and administer the Light rather than be the Light—and like dogs in the manger, neither eat the oats nor let the oxen eat. Those who would labor for love of the Vine, rather than for the plot within which it grows, oft find themselves alienated by the body of laws developed through the years to regulate the conduct of the gardeners-- the Vine itself having long been lost sight of by the walls of human regulation and the caretakers of the plot. However, as appearances go, those walls are coming down too, cracked asunder by the same Vine they would hold to a 5000, 2000 or 60 year old position. In lighter vein, all of this reminds me of the palatial house filled with church officials who were constantly giving their poor gardener the devil. Half of them objected when the

gardener turned the water sprinkler on and the other half objected when he turned it off. Furthermore, those who wanted him to turn it on objected to the way he did it and those who did not want him to turn it on objected to the way he didn't do it. All the while, the poor gardener—and the disorganized neighbors— went on enjoying the flowers. But, as you might suspect, that hardest working one of all was finally tossed out, or harassed into quitting, I don't remember which, and at last report the Church's garden was not doing so well. The free public garden out along the edge of the woodland, however, has never been so lovely—and no walls have ever been built there to be removed. The Garden is the very consciousness that reads these words. Who or what can hold it in bondage? ********* ABOUT CHRISTMAS The Christmas season commemorates our own awakening, birth of the Christ Truth within, arrival of our own identity. The Christmas season marks the prodigals return from the land of husks. This is the time when the fires of the hearth are rekindled—the time for coming home. Coming home to what? To consciousness, to Identity, to the heritage promised us from the beginning, to the Love we are, to the carefree Child we are, to warmth and tenderness, simplicity and gentleness—to the happiness that REALITY is! Reader, if I could give you the gift of childlikeness, I would. But this is our nature already— and this is the only nature that comes to see, accept and live the Real. Intellectuality decries the season, anxious to have it over. But childlikeness sees the sparkle of silver tassels all year. Childlikeness listens to the laughter of angels every minute. Childlikeness tastes the sweet sugarplums of Simplicity right here, right now —and feels the gentle Love of Christmas forever! Happy Holidays, William Samuel

If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel August 1969 CONTRADISTINCTION IN THE LIGHT OF ABSOLUTE AWARENESS A question we have all asked at one time or another has come to me again, this time in terms more interesting than usual. I am asked, "Why, why do you persist in quoting or paraphrasing ANYTHING that comes from that overrated mixture of half-baked farce, fable and Hebrew history called the Holy Bible—a book written by the superstitious representatives of a small band of primitive nomads? I wonder also why you quote from ______’s book whose absolute statements among the dualistic are so few they can be counted on half the fingers of a maimed hand in a mitten?" I am seldom asked such picturesque questions. As appearances go, the garden in my backyard requires clods of earth, leaves grown brown, ungainly stems and, sometimes, even thorns in order to bloom the blossoms. Those blossoms appear only lovelier in contradistinction. When I walk through that garden I see the flowers, not the dead leaves; my Ruby picks a blossom for her hair, not a barren stem; the humming bird takes his nectar from the bloom, not the thorn. As I see it, it is a hungry butterfly that avoids the garden just because of the clods. Tangibility requires contradistinction. Who can see a white bear standing on an iceberg in the midst of a snowstorm? The varying intensities of light, be they called color, shading or shadow, serve, if nothing else, to make form apparent. A new measure of peace is discovered when we grow to see that shadows serve a purpose and are not evil. *** Infinite Awareness (Intelligence, Wisdom) is not limited. The unenlightened absolutist's dictum that only what IS can be known is a happy notion to latch onto for a time but it is finally found to be a half-truth that would (if it could) preclude both the possibility of Infinite wisdom and the perception of form. The “form” of the “tree” is made apparent (tangible) by Wisdom's knowledge that the tree is not the meadow, the tree is not the hillside or the sky, or any OTHER form but THAT form. Wisdom knows that the tangible "hand" is not the intangible "foot." The superimposition of the "world" with its agony intrudes with the personal attachments of values to the forms and the contradistinctions that make them tangible. "This is good, that is bad; I want, I don't want; I like, I hate; good and evil; real and unreal" — THESE are the chains that appear to bind; THESE are the chains that expanding awareness discerns by the uncomfortable contradistinctions that make them apparent, and made apparent in order to be

loosed and let go. This is what is being demanded of us at this moment of lifting, soaring, moon landing Self-awareness which, like the cicadae on yon loblolly pine, having lifted itself from the darkness of the earth now let’s go the shell of a lessor identity. Soon it flies in the Light and sings, only the empty husk split in travail. How else but by contradistinction can Infinite Knowing KNOW what Isness IS? Listen, listen: a child may LIVE "childlikeness" but the child does not KNOW what "childlikeness" is until, by contradistinction, he has lived the adulthood that childlikeness IS NOT, renounced it and become again as a child. As only the former pauper can really joy in unexpected riches, so unbound Knowing lives its childlikeness again—but this time knows what it is and sings the uninhibited Song of Love. The world is not something to be overcome in the sense of sanctimoniously trying to change everything. It is something to be understood, appreciated and lived to the fullest. This is the action we are engaged in at the moment, reader. This is what we are doing in the study of these ideas—and the reward for the doing is New Light wherein an eternal Perfection already at hand reveals another aspect of IDENTITY, the Alone Selfhood that ALL is—Grand Holy Infinity which is I—and which is being all images, tangible or intangible. *** The world is full of philosophies that are neither practical nor relevant to the daily experience, incapable of being put to practice and their honesty proven. THIS philosophy of ABSOLUTE AWARENESS is eminently practical and immediately provable. It begs to be taken out of the arena of speculation and comparison and put to the test—that its fruits may become tangible in the apparent world of your daily affairs. "Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it...All nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land." Now, for those like myself who have searched for the "something to DO" I offer the following which has been helpful. It is only an outline—to be put to use in your own way: A WAY TO BEGIN THE DAY First, consider the way an ordinary day begins: One stirs. There is an awakening consciousness of pillow and bed—finite "things." Slowly, one thinks of window, chair, door, dog, shower, breakfast, coffee—all limited, finite things. Thought wanders to the coming events of the day: business perhaps, or family, or special chores—again limited images, finite forms, events in time. As you see, thought begins by moving out of quietness into the arena of people, places and things; out of an undelineated stillness into the frantic tangle of limitation, measure, action and reaction. It is as though the conscious experience were forever heading into increasing numbers; into multiplicity. We awaken in the morning and, if we follow the patterns of old, thought moves immediately into a disorganized world where unexpected actions occur; where generally unpredictable reactions spawn unexpected consequences and we find ourselves the fallen victims of finiteness. Now, reader, consider this beginning day in another light. We awaken. Again there is a

consciousness of pillow and bed. And again, out of old habit we see the window to be closed, the door to be opened and think of the coffee to be started—all finite things. Ah, but THIS time, right here, right now, we determine to turn thought in the other direction. 100 degrees AWAY from the rush toward finiteness. For a brief time we lie still and consciously bring ourselves to consider single INFINITY, the allness of Isness. We lie still and think of the Infinity that Being is. This time we ponder WHOLENESS, SINGLENES, ONENESS, HARMONY, PERFECTION. During these moments we may ask, "How infinite is INFINITY? What can circumscribe INFINITY? What can bind or limit Infinity? How all is ALL?" We ask and answer these questions for ourselves. We consider the ONENESS of Being. How total it is! How complete! No limitation here. No finiteness here. UNBOUND Being being all. Mayhap we ask, "What is being this consciousness that appears to be lying here and contemplating?" BEING, GOD, PERFECTION is being this awareness, isn’t it? Indeed. Therefore, PERFECTION is conscious. PERFECTION is awake. Perfection is LIFE, perfectly alive and vital! What does Infinity know of Itself? Is not the knowing of unbound Infinity unbound also? Of course. Its unbound, unlimited "knowing" is infinitely operative as THIS consciousness-I-am, right here, right now! What is wisdom? Is it not Infinity's knowledge of Itself? Deity’s SELF- knowledge? This conscious awareness is that knowledge in action! Consciousness, UNBOUND, UNLIMITED, INFINITE. THIS consciousness presently considering these things is infinite Wisdom in eternal operation. We ask, "WHAT does Infinity know of Itself?" It knows its own qualities and characteristics. How? Specifically (as well as universally)— each distinctly delineated from all others, the consequent appearing of "form." So it is, we find the morning's contemplation of Infinity soon leads us to perceive the same "things" as before—home, family, business and affairs; but now these "things" are no longer disorganized obstacles lying in wait to trip us or spring an unexpected disaster. Instead, they are the clearly delineated and—discerned qualities and characteristics that HARMONY, GOD, ISNESS is being—AND THIS LIFE WE ARE IS GOD'S AWARENESS OF IT ALL! Notice, it is the same morning, the same bed, the same home. It is the same conscious awareness, the same “Identity” but the views are different. To the old view, out of pure habit and without a thought of Isness, moves immediately into a world of disorganized images primary to it. It moves relentlessly. Inexorably toward multiplicity and complexity into an ever-proliferating concern with a jungle through which one, if he is to survive, must tread a cautious, defensive path. But the view that breaks the old habit and begins the day with a (gentle) happy consideration of a perfect INFINITY is like the prodigal’s rush to his Father’s Kingdom—like coming home where the basis for harmony lies; where ISNESS is put FIRST and found to be the ordered substance of "things" and those "things" of perception seen in their proper

perspective. This is the view that comes in from the threatening storm of intellectuality and rests with calm, assurance in the shelter of Simplicity all the day long—all the day long. This is the view that sees the pitfalls for what they are and does not have to fall in them to learn their lessons. But, if we should stumble and fall, this is the view that allows us to be quickly on our way again, blessed by the experience; BLESSED by the experience? *** Try this, read. Try this and see what new sparkle it will begin to add to your day. Then, when you have proven it (and you can prove it this very day) .... Tell others! Love and Light, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel June 1969 DISENTANGLEMENT FROM JUDGMENT (The Expert on Elm Trees) From its infancy, humanity has been reared to judge everything it sees. Every object of perception has been placed somewhere along a humanly determined scale of good and bad, valuable and not valuable, desirable and undesirable. The daily affairs of the world are based on the computation of these man-made values. Mortal happiness revolves around the personal ability to manipulate a private or public experience that accords with the "good," the "valuable" and the "desirable," at the same time having as little truck as possible with the bad, valueless and undesirable. The REAL Value, of course, ever remains the Primordial Isness being this Identity-I-am (one is) and the values placed in "things" NOT the Primordial will be seen to be removed and should be, else the illusion of a false set of values will continue its appearing and we will go on playing slave to it—playing slave to our own belief in a flat earth. How does one see the end of a "nothing claiming to be something" except as a nothing becoming recognized as a nothing? With regard to the militant destruction of our institutions and the riot of pleasure seeking youth, it is for those who know that ISNESS is the authority to not be swept along by the fear gripping others. We are comforters only to the extent that we ourselves are not afraid. QUESTION: Considering the viciousness of the militants, how will we keep from being caught up in the fear to sweep the country? Surely the most practical way is not to become entangled in a meticulous attention to the world’s problems. Too much concern for the details has us lose sight of the single thread, the simple seed. Intellectuality is carried away with the wordy descriptions of the leaves and limbs, the bark and roots, but fails to see the simple picture of the whole tree in its singleness. The story is told of the great scholar who spent years studying the elm, that stately tree that shades many a lawn in these southern hills. This grand expert on elm trees had read every scientific report known to exist on the subject. He had traveled the world over to study in its libraries and learned institutions. He had labored long and hard to determine such things as the chemical composition of the elm’s bark and heartwood. He had studied and pondered the electro-photosynthesis of the elm’s leaves. He knew the tensile strengths of its elastic and non-elastic fibrous elements, of its reactions to nitrogen laden water. He even knew how the tree reacted to the urine of passing mongrels. Oh, he studied until he had become the most learned authority on elm trees in all the world and perhaps the universe. Then, one day this scientific expert went out to the woodland to gaze upon the object of all his study only to find out when he got into the woods where many trees abounded, he couldn’t tell an elm tree from a scrub oak. In his concern for detail he had overlooked the

simplicity of the whole. So it is that human intelligence, the product of habitual evaluation, walks its weary way along the puckish paths of intricate, and mostly unnecessary, comparison. It picks, shovels and digs a crooked path through tons (and tomes) of detailed information only to overlook the childlike simplicity of Singleness. There is a sequel to the story of the expert on elm trees. A group of children found him in the woods sobbing hysterically, his head pressed against a Mississippi magnolia. When they discovered the cause of his grief they took him to their swing which was attached to the limb of an elegant elm. Again, as is often the case for us all, it was simple, uncluttered childhood that led the expert directly to the object of his search. The point is simple. It is to maintain our perspective. It is to be balanced in our perusal of detail, NOT following multiplicity to infinity thereby losing a sense of the whole. The "big picture" is ever what the moment demands, and the moment—a perfect NOW— demands the passing of false values, revealing the REAL, the BASIC, the PRIMORDIAL, that has been and always will be the underlying, overlying REALITY of all that appears. And finally, I have found for myself that the return to uncluttered, uninhibited childlikeness and honesty is the DIRECT route to the Light of Illumination wherein no shadows of fear are possible. *** MORE ABOUT WORDS, ABOUT SILENCE AND ABOUT SIMPLICITY Reader, I say again, we find a new measure of immediate peace when we end the excessive struggle with words—either ours or the other fellow’s. How many times have we listened to the faltering words of children as they poured out their hearts? Didn’t we understand all that was necessary to understand? Of course, we did! We heard through the stutters, the wrong tenses, the misplaced syntax and the mispronounced words. We heard straight through to the simple, honest, tender HEART. It is the Heart that gives utterance to the words we see and hear in the first place. So, as you read these NOTES, sit easy and look at the paragraphs and pages in their completeness, in their singleness, in their totality; then, listen to the Heart. It is the Heart that instructs, not the words. The Heart goes beyond words and cannot be fooled. "Behold, I give thee a wise and understanding heart." *** In the study of words pertaining to the Truth, it isn’t the specific fact that is written on the page (or listened to in the class or on the tape). Most often it is the feeling or the overall "mood" into which we relax after reading or listening to the words. It is the atmosphere the words only seem to evoke. Indeed, it is the open mood, that gentle feeling of contemplative softness which is the teacher—not necessarily the individual word nor the specific detail on the page—that allows us to perceive the honest picture of Identity. Whatever leads us to the Silence of the Self leads us also to the Light—to the Light we already are in fact.

When I was a boy living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I often made long afternoon pilgrimages into the back-country bayou land, a veritable swamp but a wonder filled place for a boy. It grew water cypress and huge oaks, festooned with flowing moss that I likened to the hair of a lovely dream lady. A railroad skirted the back edge of the swamp marking the usual limit of my penetration. There I had a special place to watch the evening phenomenon of the flowing moss on the live oaks as its color changed in the setting sun from gray to green to nearly yellow, and then, for a short moment, turn to a deep red along its edges as though it were on fire; thence to a dark gray again and nearly black as the sun dropped below the horizon. Oh, but there was another wonder to delight a boy on those late afternoon journeys. It began when the New Orleans to Mobile train came thundering out of the sun and roared past my vantage point shaking the ground and splitting the air with its hissing steam, pounding wheels and rushing wind. How I tingled with excitement as that metal monster thundered by. Then, when it had passed and its last sounds had clicked away in the East, there followed a silence so still and so soft, so lonely and holy that I could never bring myself to be the first to break it. It was a childish game, I suppose, but I would sit there in the deep silence of the growing twilight until a gull or a killdeer winging its way would break the silence and tell me to go home while there was light enough to find the way. If I were a teacher at a great university and it fell my lot to give a lecture on Silence, I would want a long freight train on its way to Mobile to come roaring through the lecture hall. From that point on there would be no more need for words. Virtually the same lesson in Silence was repeated for me in China many years later; and with this second lesson I learned that many of the pages of Truth we read (and write) are freight train pages, intended only to make the sounds that follow stand still and soft—like great Mississippi oaks, covered with magic moss and glowing in the setting sun. *** Now listen softly. Wisdom comes out of warm quietness and simplicity, not from the bombast of overpowering words and hard talk. Knowledge comes out of simple tenderness and childlikeness. We let weighted concern go! Frustration and fear have no authority! They cannot alter the Identity being us. We let go the struggle to define the infinitesimal. We end the battle to outline the relationships of an endless microcosm—foolish task! We come home to Awareness. We return to simplicity, to the warm tenderness and inescapable effortlessness of the Already-Identity Awareness is, right here, right now reading these words! Reader, this is not to pinch the nose until it is blue. This is not to laboriously ponder the mysterious paradoxes as though Wisdom depended on that. This is to joy in letting go the thinker, and find yourselves the THINKING of Isness. Given the choice of examining an abstruse philosophical flower of countless variations of color, or a simple unnamed weed blooming with a single, frail blossom, we take the weed every time. Its simplicity tells us everything we need to know. Like a child, simplicity and silence lead us straight to the elm tree—every time. Sending you Happiness, William Samuel If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel January 1969 HERE AND NOW The New Year is here and now; and this here-and-now is perfect, as many who study with us ultimately comprehend. All we are actually concerned with is this here and now. The Christian era began with the words, “The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What is this but the statement that Heaven, Harmony, Perfection are here and now the Fact? Consider this "here" and "now" a moment: When do we read these words? When do we look across the way and see a familiar face? Or any face? When do we see children scampering with their toys? NOW is the "time" that "seeing" takes place. "Seeing" is NOW. When do we hear the sounds of children at play? When do we hear the voices of friends, the sounds coming from the television, the rustle of leaves underfoot? NOW. Hearing is ever NOW. When do we catch the smell of breakfast bacon frying or feel the touch of a hand? NOW is the time of all tangible experience, isn't it? Tangibility is NOW— not yesterday, not tomorrow, not even the next moment, but NOW. (And where is the tangible "demonstration" so many are looking for? In the tangible NOW of THIS experience.) Reader, WHERE is this conscious experience going on? Where do we do all this seeing and listening and experiencing? Not somewhere else—but HERE. And not another time, but NOW. The tangible aspect of conscious awareness is ever HERE and NOW. Listen gently: the here and now are present as this consciousness reading these words. This is the here-and-now-consciousness that individual Identity is! And this is the only one we are ever concerned with. This is the one we "put in order". This is the eye from which we remove the beam. Actually, we have never been concerned with another conscious awareness. Even when we think we have been confronted with “another” experience of son, daughter, husband, wife, friend, partner, associate, leader, national figure, potentate, king, Christ Jesus or the Hosts of Heaven, earth and the Universe, the knowledge of these figures and the consciousness of their actions are always THIS conscious awareness even now examining these words! They are everyone included "within" and "as" this here and now consciousness that says, "I am!" Who can deny that consciousness lives forever as itself, here and now the eternal moment and infinite place of all that we call "our own" Identity-Experience? "But Mr. Samuel, my here-and-now is so limited. The here is infinitely more than a point in space and the now is so much more than a moment in time, despite education's declaration to the contrary. Illumined consciousness reveals

("Illumined consciousness" is simply unbound, uninhibited, childlike awareness freed of personal possessorship) an expanding consciousness— an expanding hereness and nowness such that we find the strictures of space-time losing their grip and letting us go. Youth reappears tangibly! Loves blooms anew. Consequently, simple honesty demands that we come in from a disproportionate time in the boondocks of the not-here and not-now, from the agonizing world of fear we create for ourselves by the too long sojourns into the past or the future. Notice that even these sojourns are now-experiences because the resurrection and reliving of memories is done in the now. We make plans and calculations in the now. We dream in the now. We have missed many tangible wonders in our here and now while wrestling with intangible dreams of a not-now or worrying about events that are not-here. Enlightened philosophy often speaks of finding the beginning and staying there. The beginning for us is this present here and now awareness. "Take no thought for the morrow," said the one called Jesus. Sufficient unto this day, this NOW....let/us get the beam out of THIS eye, this here and now awareness I am, THEN shall we see clearly.... Perfection is even NOW spread over the face of the land.... Beloved, NOW are we the Awareness of Mind. Coming home to the here and now "it doeth not yet appear what we shall be" but we "see" unfolding consciousness AS IT IS (because we ARE unfolding consciousness) and not as it appears in the dream of a not-here, not-now. Our activity at Lollygog begins with a "coming home" from the far country of not-here and not-now. We "return" to the fact of this here and now awareness ITSELF that presently includes these words. We end the tortuous meanderings of the prodigal and leave the pig sties of his far country. We make a personal discovery of the present consciousness being Identity. This is where we stay. Said Jesus, "Blest is he who shall stand at the beginning, and he shall know the end and shall not taste death." Said Laotse, "The Sage is the one who has found the beginning and then does not wander from the ways of the ancients." Here is the "Secret Place". This NOW is the Shekinah. This here and now consciousness is the Holy of Holies into which nothing enters to make a lie. Oh, but the action of "remaining" here is not the lethargic task one might think. For myself, I became aware quickly and painfully of the old nature's reluctance to give up the ghost. I was sorely shocked at the tenacity of old habit and the lingering smell of smoke. I had to bring myself back time and again to that place which, in actuality, Awareness had never left. I had to bring attention back repeatedly to the conscious recognition of a perfect awareness, the real and ONLY fact of new. Reader, I write these words so that during the coming NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG we may study and write together from a common ground—the absolute totality and aloneness of this single, simple and perfect Awareness-we-are. You shall find that an honest, selfless examination of this Awareness discloses perfection already at hand, merely awaiting our acknowledgement and honest action in accordance. ****** MEDITATIVE WRITING, DISCUSSION AND PRACTICAL EXERCISE #1: The metaphysical world is correctly suspicious of "spiritual exercises," due, no doubt, to the

ineffectiveness of most such exercises and to the ritualistic and/or mysterious practices that surround them. Even though organized metaphysics is deeply suspicious of spiritual exercises, it contains many of them, most of which are zealously guarded from the "profane". Mankind has protected his innermost "secrets" with such efficiency he no longer remembers what he has hidden—or where. Signs and symbols are everywhere apparent as religions, secret societies and mystical movements but the Principle that these Rituals originally represented has been lost sight of entirely, over-looked in the veneration of the mumbo jumbo or in the worship of the one who promulgated it. The simple act of reading (the Truth) is a "spiritual exercise"—witness the "daily readings" or "getting the lesson". The act of writing the Truth (to whatever ability we can) is also a "spiritual exercise", once a carefully guarded secret of many religious organizations around the world. Individual "enlightenment" is ever the human aim of such exercises—and by "enlightenment" we mean that mystical experience wherein the "breakthrough" occurs— or, better, the breakout into that Light wherein one discovers the Single Selfhood that All is. Mystics have long known that writing is singularly effective in bringing one to that inner atmosphere of selflessness wherein Illumination inevitably blossoms, the obvious purpose of any spiritual exercise, be it religious, mystical, meditative, occult, heathen or otherwise. Furthermore, meditative writing ultimately carries one beyond mere Illumination to its very Basis— that Love, the poets have called the "mysterious Rapture", the Holy experience of unbound, uninhibited Love spoken of by Jesus, John and all who have found it; an event that neither the world nor the intellectual aspect of metaphysics knows anything about—but awaits everyone. These are the talents that much of churchdom has buried via secrecy and symbolism only to find itself in these last days acquiring the title of "wicked and slothful servant", a dead thing "to be cast....into outer darkness". But in actuality Truth is not buried and, indeed, could not be. Wisdom is not about the business of hiding itself from itself. Isness is not playing hide-and-seek with all it knows Itself to be but the fraud we play at being certainly appears to be doing these senseless things. The old nature would have us thinking in terms of signs and symbols only, hiding the Truth from the "profane" or from those who "do not understand" or "are not ready". Admittedly, so far as the old nature goes, this is often the only sensible thing to do. Just as we have, so the world has discovered the folly of going off halfcocked, talking when it should be listening or rolling its gems under the wheels of steamrollers. This does not gainsay the fact that Truth does not need protecting however. It is not my intention here to question the propriety or impropriety of a public discussion of Truth. I wish only to indicate that the appearance of a spiritual exercise or practice as being helpful in the arrival of "understanding" lies in the fallacious belief that there exists a separate selfhood that does NOT understand. The only effective spiritual exercise is the one that ends the belief of such a separated selfhood – and, secret or not, I intend to reveal one to you during the coming months of our study together. I call it "meditative writing" and as it is practiced here in Mountain Brook it is a powerfully effective bubble popping, fiction fighting, dream ender – an exercise that WORKS! We begin to unbind our here-and-now the instant we consider thoughts, ideas and "things" in the light of the Infinite. Writing is a helpful way to find out what we really think. Anyone

who can read can do meditative writing. No action I know of is more effective or easier to perform. No special skill is required, no penchant for words necessary, no especial background or education. Children can (and do) perform this exercise with astounding results because the absence of education is often a boon. The thoughts that come forth from such writing seldom have to do with the specialized jargon of a particular field but come, rather, in a simple, understood language immediately applicable to our present experience. Now reader, get yourself a notebook and mark it "private". The things you will be writing in it will be for yourself alone and will be no one else's business. Reread the first selection in this issue of NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG, then write your own answers to the following questions: 1. Does this Awareness-being-I exclude aught that is real, true and perfect? How do I KNOW? 2. Does this Awareness-being-I include the evidence of the Joy, Happiness, Wisdom and Perfection that ISNESS is? How do I KNOW? 3. If the evidence of Perfection seems absent, to whom does it appear "absent" -----to the awareness reading these words, or to the judge of it? 4. Who am I—Awareness or the judge of it? Write and Rewrite your answers until You are satisfied they are your best. With kindest regards, William Samuel Ps. additional “homework” – begin writing your own definitions for the words you use. Do not write a single word in your notebook unless you KNOW that you KNOW what is means to you. You will be surprised to find that writing your own heartfelt meanings will reveal how often we are fooling ourselves using words that mean virtually nothing to us – next, it sends up within ourselves to search for and find meanings.

If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM BOOKS By William Samuel

The Awareness of Self Discovery William Samuel 


CHAPTER 2 The Hereness And Nowness of Reality I do not know of a better way to begin a discussion of the Truth than to call attention to the here and now of conscious awareness. Our "work" in the Absolute begins with the hereness and nowness of the conscious awareness presently reading these words. Awareness is self-evidently ALL-inclusive. Our "beginning" has to do with the perfect ALLNESS that ALL, GOD, ISNESS is! THE SINGLENESS OF HERE AND NOW AWARENESS This here-and-now is perfect. All we are actually concerned with is this here and now. The Christian era began with the words, "The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of heaven is at hand." What is this but the statement that Heaven, Harmony, Perfection are here and now the Fact? Consider this "here" and "now" a moment: When do we read these words? When do we look across the way and see a friendly face? Or any face? When do we see children scampering with their toys? NOW is the "time" that "seeing" takes place. Seeing is NOW. When do we hear the sounds of children at play? When do we hear the voices of friends, the sounds coming from the television, the rustle of leaves underfoot? NOW. Hearing is ever NOW. When do we catch the smell of breakfast bacon frying or feel the touch of a hand? NOW is the time of all tangible experience, isn't it? Tangibility is NOW—not yesterday, not tomorrow, not even the next moment, but NOW. (And where is the tangible "demonstration" so many are looking for? In the tangible now of this experience.) Now consider: where is this conscious experience going on? Where do we do all this seeing and listening and experiencing? Not somewhere else—but HERE. And not another time but NOW. The tangible aspect of conscious awareness is ever HERE and NOW. Listen again: the here and now are present as this consciousness reading these words. This is the here-and-now-consciousness that individual Identity is! And this is the only one we are ever concerned with. This is the one we "put in order." This is the eye from which we remove the beam. Actually we have never been concerned with another conscious awareness. Even when we think we have been confronted with "another" experience of son, daughter, husband, wife, friend, partner, associate, leader, national figure, potentate, king, Christ Jesus or the hosts of heaven, hell and the universe, the knowledge of these figures and the consciousness of their actions are always this conscious awareness even now examining these words! They are everyone included "within" and "as" this here and now consciousness that says, "I am!" Who can deny that consciousness lives forever as itself, here and now the eternal moment and infinite place of all that we call "our own" Identity-Experience? ————————

"But, Mr. Samuel, my here-and-now is so limited." The here is infinitely more than a point in space and the now is so much more than a moment in time, despite education's declaration to the contrary. Illumined consciousness reveals ("illumined consciousness" is simply unbound, uninhibited, childlike awareness freed of personal possessorship) an expanding consciousness—an expanding hereness and nowness such that we find the structures of space-time losing their grip and letting us go. Youth reappears tangibly! Love blooms anew. Consequently, simple honesty demands that we come in from a disproportionate time in the boondocks of the not-here and not-now, from the agonizing world of fear we create for ourselves by the too long sojourns into the past or the future. Notice that even these sojourns are nowexperiences because the resurrection and reliving of memories is done in the now. We make plans and calculations in the now. We dream in the now. We have missed many tangible wonders in our here and now while wrestling with the intangible dreams of a not-now or worrying about events that are not here. THE BEGINNING
 Enlightened philosophy often speaks of finding the beginning and staying there. The beginning for us is this present here and now awareness. "Take no thought for the morrow," said the one called Jesus. Sufficient unto this day, this NOW ... let us get the beam out of THIS eye, this here and now awareness I am, then shall we see clearly ... Perfection is even NOW spread over the face of the land ... Beloved, NOW are we the Awareness of Mind. Coming home to the here and now "it doth not yet appear what we shall be," but we "see" unfolding consciousness AS IT IS (because we are unfolding consciousness) and not as it appears in the dreams of a not-here, not-now. ———————— Our activity begins with a "coming home" from the far country of not-here and not-now. We "return" to the fact of this here and now awareness ITSELF that presently includes these words. We end the tortuous meanderings of the prodigal and leave the pig sties of his far country. We make a personal discovery of the present consciousness being Identity. This is where we stay. Said Jesus, "Blest is he who shall stand at the beginning, and he shall know the end and shall not taste death." Said Laotse, "The Sage is the one who has found the beginning and then does not wander from the ways of the ancients." Here is the "secret place." This NOW is the Shekinah. This here and now consciousness is the Holy of Holies in which nothing enters to make a lie. Oh, but the action of "remaining" here is not the lethargic task one might think. For myself, I became aware quickly and painfully of the old nature's reluctance to give up the ghost. I was sorely shocked at the tenacity of old habit and the lingering smell of smoke. I had to bring myself back time and again to that place where, in actuality, Awareness had never left. I had to bring attention back repeatedly to the conscious recognition of a perfect awareness, the real and only fact of now. THE NOW IS NEW Happy new Now, reader. This year, this day, this moment is new. The life that reads these words is God's consciousness of being—an eternal Identity about the business of Self-discovery, Selfcontemplation and consideration, Self-communion and enjoyment. Awareness is Mind's Selffunctioning, not the personal activity of one called Bill, Jack, Mary or Jane. Suppose we resolve to "begin" this New Now looking "with the eyes of God" at the majesty and wonder Isness-as-us is. Let us further resolve to let go, as persistently as we can, Bill's, Jack's, Mary's or Jane's view of things. To do so is to find ourselves letting go the "old man's" fears, frustrations and confusions. To do so is to find ourselves looking at a tangible harmony on the here-and-now-scene—a harmony we can see even when others won't. To do so is to live a deep

and abiding JOY that cannot be taken from us even if our personal opinions and their pleasures appear to be. ———————— The musician begins with the principle of music, not the discord. The mathematician begins with the principle of his science, not the error. WE BEGIN AS THE IMMACULATE, PRISTINE, PURE AND PERFECT IDENTITY WE ARE ALREADY, not the personal sense of things, not the world's ideas, opinions and judgments of things. We "begin" with God, the ALL that Isness is, and rejoice at the wonders this ever new view reveals. We LET that Mind be us which IS the awareness of the Christ Truth we are. ———————— Reader, I write these words so that during the coming pages we may study together from a common ground—the absolute totality and aloneness of this single, simple and perfect Awareness-we-are. You shall find that an honest selfless examination of Awareness discloses perfection already at hand, merely awaiting our acknowledgment and honest action in accordance. —————————————————————————————————————————— —————————————————————————————————————————— For additional study on this subject see A GUIDE TO AWARENESS AND TRANQUILLITY; Page 9 - 26; page 36, the selection Happiness is Here; Page 38, the selection About Books.

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel December 1971 The special significance of these NOTES will be obvious to those who have studied with me individually. Those who have not should read these words with the heart, not the intellect. Only the simplicity of heart—the open Child-Heart--really understands what words--or world events--are actually saying. It has been said that "in the Absolute" there is neither teacher nor student. Experience has shown me the following statement more nearly makes the point: THE HONEST TEACHER, STUDENT, LESSON--AND THAT WHICH MAKES THE LESSON PLAIN--ARE ALL THE SAME ONE--THE SINGLE AND ONLY CHRIST-SELFHOOD THAT IDENTITY IS, REVEALING SELF TO ITSELF; INFINITELY DISCLOSING US TO US. Webster: TEACH--"... to show HOW..." HOW TO SEE THE END OF WARFARE At the very season that symbolizes "Peace on earth, good will toward men," we hear of naught but war and rumors of war. Physical war; economic war; racial war; social, religious and institutional warfare; domestic and marital war. Under such apparent conditions, what can we DO to strengthen our intuitive knowing that Something majestic undergirds the human scene? What can we DO to gird up our faith in the general goodness of Being when, by every human measure, the fabric of mankind's society is being ripped apart in dispute, dissention, destruction, desolation, disease and death? I found a way for myself. I found it in SIMPLICITY. I found it in the soft meadow and whispering pine grove. I found it along the country road. I found it in a simple flower that blooms along the trail. I found it in the fallen log and the moss that grows on it. I found it in the songs of young people and in the eager eyes of the gray-haired young who have lived many years. Mostly, I guess, I found IT in the whisper of my heart. God's Nature is majestic. It shines from the laurel leaf and glistens on the frosted window pane. It sparkles in the wild bird's eye. It pulsates with the breathing seasons, a movement and a rest, a movement and a rest. Who can rest against the trunk of a tree without feeling it? Who can look UP through its branches without finding Wonder in the wonder of Nature? Yes, yes, it is important--or meaningful--to study and re-search the "Science of Christianity," but how prone the seeker of Truth to forget that one is the Truth he searches for. One IS the wonder. One IS the Answer. One IS "the Child of the Universe," the Fruit of Being--and so is all we survey. ************* The theoretical physicist lets others put his discoveries to work. So does the theoretical

"Absolutist," the Scientist, as well. He goes on and on AND ON with his inputting, never to the theoretical physicist lets others put his discoveries to work. Books may tell of the wonder of love; books may tell of the joy of giving; books may give facts about the majesty of Nature and of the processes by which the tangible maintains its Balance, but those books are just books unless one LOVES, unless one GIVES, unless one puts the new Precept into practice and lives AS the Light his Science reveals life is. "Giving" is LIVING the Love we are. Surely, much of the "magic of Christmas" comes from the simple joy of such giving--of TANGIBLE outputting. ************ "Science," by definition, is a research and study for "the orderly presentation of knowledge." But the Arts are the LIVING of that discovered Self-knowledge, not just the "absolute" profession that piously, pompously pontificates that "nothing ELSE could be lived REALLY!"; "Things are not as they APPEAR!"; or that "This is just a dream going on." Yes, the "Absolute Science" that reveals the validity of these statements is requisite, but so is Absolute ART--the here and now conscious LIVING the Light our Science discloses Identity to be. How does one live the Absolute? Oh, thousands of philosophic books, spanning all history, have failed to answer this question to the satisfaction of the seeking scientist or the professing purist. Yet, it can be answered. It has, but not in words alone. One lives the Absolute by acknowledging the Self-same life-"he"-is to be GOD-LIFE Itself, and then, then, then, acting in accord with the simplicity of this holy Fact. ************ The continual search and RE-search for the SCIENCE OF BEING is, by its nature, an inputting process. Reading books, listening to lectures and tapes is meaningful and necessary, but it is a gathering, getting action. Science (science) and its study is primarily an examining, receiving, inputting process, with hardly a thought about TANGIBLE giving. Among the most miserable patients practitioners have are not those new to metaphysics, but often the long-time “student of Science”—those who have been studying for years and years, only to find their crutch crumbling beneath them, failing to give comfort of old. There is a sentence I've heard a thousand variations of, it goes something like this: "Oh! How can this HAPPEN to me after all my years of faithful, devoted study?" The time has come for that one to begin his living-giving of his long study. The coldness of science/Science and the growing distrust thereof is directly related to the failure to maintain the balance between the inputting nature of study and the outputting of putting that study into living! This appears tangibly (the human scene) as a society unable to keep pace with its technology, very near the brink of being crushed by it. THIS is the imbalance behind the appearance of warfare and dispute! ************ Christmas time is Christ Truth time and the Christ Truth is SIMPLE. If it is simple and easily understood. It is not profound—except to the old nature of us. It is not mysterious

--except to the old-think of us. It is neither abstruse nor exclusively intellectual--except to the "old man" of us. We CAN live it! "My way is simple," said the One "He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity," said another. "I will make my words KNOWN unto you." "I am gentle and humblehearted." "My yoke is easy." "My load is light." Does this sound like scientific profundity to wrestle with and fight? Does this sound like mysterious paradoxes to intellectually struggle with? Does this sound like the mysticism of the "Psychic"?--of "levels" and "states and stages of consciousness"? Love says, "I am gentle..." Love is the Teacher and the Teacher is gentle love but do not be fooled by gentleness nor angry with it when you see and feel its sharpness in your affairs. Gentleness, like water, wears away the hardest, most cherished illusions. Gentleness leads one, often unwittingly, through the fiery furnace of self-destruction wherein Self is. It is the gentleness of Heart that eventually forces us to stand up like a man and FACE the lion-should we think strength lies with the lion rather than the Self. The Teacher who "shows HOW" is the one who knows there is neither teacher nor student and then acts as this knowledge allows him to act--which most certainly will appear tangibly as a teacher teaching. But THIS one knows what he is about. And THIS one knows the stone may very well curse the water that erodes it. This one knows that "error" lashes whatever pulls the props from under it--and that many flea at the lions first lunge cursing the Science (or Teacher) that insists they LIVE the Strength they are. The honest Teacher knows he is often the dark night by means of which the Light of Morning is FULLY comprehended and understood beyond intellectualism. To help make this point clear I've written a story about a little lightning bug named Elijah-'Lil 'Lijah, the luminous lepidopterous. Lepidopterous, I think, is the scientific name for a bug, and it is used here for those who insist on a scientific statement of bugs. 'Lijah wore a mantle of distress within himself; not an uncommon ailment. He wanted to know about himself. Who he was. Why he was. What he was. While his companions seemed content to flit here and there, concerned with naught but their flitting. 'Lijah was driven by his inner disquiet, a strange discontent, to ask questions of himself and of the universe wherein he flitted. Day after day, in the blazing light of the high sun, 'Lijah flitted from up-draft to down-draft, from East wind to West wind, searching for himself but finding few answers. "Who am I?" he asked again and again, bouncing from breeze to breeze. The sun was bright and hot; the quest long and wearisome. The more Elijah looked the less he found. The more he listened, the less he heard. The more he asked, the more confusing and conflicting the half-answers he heard. One day, excessively weighted by his mantle of yearning, filled with despair and exhausted, little luminous 'Lijah gave up the search. "It is useless," he said "It is hopeless. I have found many things but I have not found it ALL. With every question answered, ten more come to be asked. What is this stuff about me being OMNISCIENT? Anyway, who cares but me? I shall quit this foolish search forever."

Whereupon Elijah folded his wings in mid-flight and fell headlong into a big, black hole. The hole was as deep as his despair and as dark, as his anguish. The hole was as awful as his agony, as gruesome as the grind in his tummy. 'Lijah had thought he was unhappy before, but now his gloom knew no bounds! "Dear God, this is worse!" said he. "This is absolute hell. Death is preferable to this! What has this incessant searching brought me to? Cursed is the devil, God or man, who started me on such a quest! Self- discovery? Bah! Humbug!" Oh, but then it happened. IT happened! In that awful darkness Elijah blinked and found his fanny. Elijah found his blooming, blinking, ever-present rear end! He found the very Light he was! Oh, the brightness of himself! The strength and power of the ALL of himself! In one twinkle of a blink, thanks to the dark hole of no-light, luminous 'Lijah could SEE the yearned for Self of himself. "Great glory, I have FOUND myself! I am the Light of the world! The darkness of the great void has allowed me to see who and what I am, and, hallelujah, all the darkness of the universe cannot subdue the light of my own behinnie!" ************ Question: Was the darkness of the void good or evil? Was it something to be avoided? Was it something to disclaim the reality of? Was it something to argue and contend with take to court, punish, or deny the scientific absoluteness of? Or rather, did it not serve a purpose in the WHOLE (Infinite) scheme of things? And, once it had served its purpose, was not the fear gone out of the darkness and the grind gone out of the belly? Was not the darkness the means by which the Light became FULLY Self-evident beyond vicarious intel1ectualism? QUESTION: Are not the Symphony and the notes which make the Symphony clearly understood all one SYMPHONY? Are not the letters of the alphabet, no matter what word they spell OR MISSPELL, all one ALPHABET? Therefore, are not the Light and the "darkness" that makes the Light Self-evident ALL ONE LIGHT? Yes! Yes! The heart of the Child knows this is so. “In those days the day and the night shall be the same” said John. “In those days, there shall be no more warfare.” Jesus was asked, “WHEN shall we see the kingdom” Answered he, “When you make the two into a single ONE.” Peace and warfare, Light and darkness, are all one LIGHT made "plain upon the tables the power resides as LIGHT. The delineating darkness of density is not "bad." It serves its purpose to make Light fully comprehended. All the darkness of the universe cannot subdue the least twinkle of a firefly's butterbean. Little Elijah, luminous lepidopterous, gives his mantle to Us. ************ Christmas again! "The sweet season," as Walt Whitman said. But all time is Christmas time. The temporal day only marks the Christ-Light awakened to; not an historic Christ indwelling a finite body. The Light of Christ is the Truth of Identity, and Christmas marks our recognition of this fact. It is our own Holy day, Holiday Supreme -- indwelling Light being All, Light of all, each, everyone and everything.

The day itself is no more unique than any other day. Every Moment is Truth's Moment. Every Season marks the Christ in a special way. Every month, every week, every day, every minute. Take this moment for instance outside, a yellow leaf falls softly, silently. A little tree's gift to the earth. Spirit's reciprocity. Oh, but this is not to deny there is a very special happiness about the Holiday Season! It seems a time when a greater portion of our tangible selfhood begins to think of others; when we subdue the fictitious Ebenezer for a spell; when we take time to put twinkles on the branches of green cedars and in the eyes of Tiny Tims. This is the time we acknowledge and admit the twinkle in the gentle eyes of Agelessness. This, of all seasons, can be a time when our alone ones can be shown that "alone" means All One -- and "lonely" means Only. "It is a movement and a rest," said the Christmas Light. Yes, this is the season for coming home. This is the season of the Prodigal's return wherein he finds he has never been away. This is the time the family gathers around the hearth. Somehow, Heart and hearth go together. Somehow, laughter and tears go together. Somehow, warm embraces and runny, red noses are a part of the Holiday Scene. And while this is a time for that, it is always, always time for that. When is a twinkle out of season? When are the tender tears of Happiness out of style? When is Love not the Living Teacher on the Scene? And since when are "years" naught but the Child lived longer? So, while the trees rest and families come together again, we take special note of the Peace on earth this Whole, Holy NOW is. We know that the tassels and tinsel, the plum pudding and red noses are all for us, for Us. SPIRIT is the spirit of Christmas, and Spirit is the Us of us. Disputes and desolation are PEACE "made plain upon the tables." We LIVE them by their right name. The need for warfare's delineation is ENDED. We live the Christ-Light of Love we are and the Millennium continues. Love and peace from my Mountain Brook Meadow, Bill Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel

October 1969 Dear Friend, This starts another series of musings, bits and pieces, short essays and informal talks about the Awareness of the Absolute. The Absolute's Awareness happens to be the conscious identity presently reading these words. We have never been another. Therefore, these notes concern the IDENTITY you are—God's Self-same awareness which is "you," which is "I," which is the Only. These monthly letters are not intended to convey the notion there is someone here who thinks he can teach you something you need to know. No such motive lies behind these writings. As a matter of fact, preposterous as it sounds to the ordinary view of things, there is no motive for these words. I make statements of the Truth (as best I can) because it seems proper to do it and less than prudent to NOT do what comes as proper. In Truth there is but one story of Self-awareness being told. That story is your own – the here and now experience presently reading these words. Some of these entrees are intended to be gentle, some ponderous. Some are soft; others, mystical, philosophic, humorous, angry, vitriolic, caustic and may sometimes seem not to touch the Truth at all. But, Reader, there is more than a casual seed contained in every selection; more in the words than meets the eye—and to the best of my ability I will leave no stone unturned nor fail to use every literary means available to me to make the Seed of the Truth I have found I am apparent to the heart. Less enthusiastic metaphysical "instruction" is a waste of time. Once a lecturer told me of the awful fear he felt every time he stood before a large audience, "Eventually most public speakers get over this sort of thing," he said, "but I'm getting worse. If I do not get to the root of this problem soon, I will have to stop lecturing." Awareness is all that awareness includes. Talking to myself, I suggested that "he" look out and see his audience as the mirrored image of himself, he certainly had no need to stand there and quake in the harmless presence of himself. This was not just a gimmick to get over the fear of people, I told him, because the day we honestly perceive those who listen to us as aspects of the Self-I-am, we find them listening, understanding, comprehending and discovering what we are talking about. It is senseless human dishonesty and trepidation to expect anything less. Well, he saw the point intellectually. But more important, he perceived that a “healing” in the tangible scene at hand required that the newly perceived point be put to the test and LIVED, actually, tangibly, right where the problem appeared to be producing its fear. So he had a little card printed that he placed on the lectern. It said: "THIS EVENING I AM GIVING TH|S LECTURE TO MYSELF FOR MY OWN SELF-DELIGHT. SINCE I KNOW MY SUBJECT VERY WELL AMD ENJOY IT VERY MUCH, I WILL DAMNED WELL UNDERSTAND AND APPRECIATE WHAT I HAVE TO SAY. FURTHERMORE, I MAY EVEN BE OVERWHELMED

AND APPLAUD MYSELF VIGOROUSLY." Since that day he has been around the world talking to an ever proliferating and appreciative self-image. And we can all make the same trip. *** I am just back from Ataryland where I gave a series of talks to a happy group there at a lovely farm called Dayspring—green fields of grass surrounded by hardwood forests of hickory and towering white oak the likes of which are seldom seen anymore. For three days we talked at the lodge and walked the fields together—barefoot even! We sat on the grass or on the porch or under the trees, just Awareness being aware. And there is a pond there with a log across it and wild flowers blooming along the path that leads there... It was a grand experience of Love and Light—of awakenings—healings— discoveries. And why not? As simple, credulous Awareness, I was the Seeing of the Light I am. All the laughter was mine. The tears of Joy were mine. I was talking to myself and understanding. Thank you, Jean and Otto (and all the rest of you) for including "me" in your Experience. We will call it "The Dayspring Talks." *** Every sight we have ever seen has been seen within and as AWARENESS, Mind's action of Selfperception. Every sound we have ever heard has been heard within and as AWARENESS—the very consciousness that presently reads these words. Every "feeling" that has ever been felt has been another aspect of AWARENESS, Mind’s Self-awareness in action. "Identity" is awareness—not the ego who thinks life (awareness) is his personal possession and/or the gift of God. To believe we are the custodian of awareness has us identified as a potty piece of poppycock "of few days and full of trouble." Furthermore, it has us worshiping a bestowing god that doesn't even exist. Mind, you see, doesn't bestow its Self-awareness on "another." Mind IS its OWN awareness. Mind and its action are not two, but one. *** Nor is AWARENESS separate from the images within it, any more than the television screen is separate from the cowboys and commercials there. Therefore, we can see that our identification as awareness ITSELF is not a withdrawal from the world or from people or from anything. It is only a withdrawal from the valued opinions, notions, prejudices, etc. of them. To the contrary, this work appears as a revitalized interest in EVERYTHING THAT APPEARS AS CONSCIOUS IDENTITY (Awareness)—and that is everything! As we live childlike-awarenessbeing-effortlessly-aware, we find our daily experience EXPANDING into undreamed of new ACTION —plus the STRENGTH and MEANS necessary for that action. Sitting on a riverbank down in Alabama one day, I lived my newly discovered Identity as Awareness and whispered if to myself. I whispered so softly the reeds along side my feet could scarcely hear—yet that whisper was heard clean to the other bank." Reader, live Identity like a whisper. You will be heard around your whole world. Even around the Universe.

"Comprehendest thou this?" *** We begin every consideration from the standpoint of the ineffable, perfect ISNESS which is the first, last, single and only FACT of Being. We begin with THAT WHICH IS. We begin with REALITY. We begin with "God." We do not begin with the problem even though it is usually an apparent difficulty, a discontent or something adjudged incorrect (or not good enough) that has us scurrying after a knowledge of ISNESS. But from whence cometh the scurrier? Granting the onlyness of the "single and only primordial FACT," just who is this "we" who senses an apparent difficulty? Who is this one who makes the effort to begin every consideration from the standpoint of Isness? Really, just who is the one who asks the question from the position of one who doesn't know the answer? Where have we gotten the notion we are such an identity as that? And if we do not believe in such a selfhood apart from Perfection, why are we playing the role, pretending to be one in darkness looking for the Light? Those who are in earnest about this study must answer these questions and answer them to their own satisfaction. Get out your private notebooks. Begin from the standpoint of an already perfect Allness (just as you begin every mathematical consideration from the automatic position of a perfect principle of mathematics being the "answer" to every question concerning that principle.) Then, determine for yourself just where an ignorant, struggling identification fits into the picture of an omniscient and only Reality. I have found that starting with the error only perpetuates the belief of the error. I have found that starting with the claim, the agony, the fear, frustration, grief or threat of grief only has the one who would operate from such a position STUCK with that position—until the intellectual futility of it literally whips the misconception of Identity from the temple. "I" look away from the error long enough to re-establish conscious identification in and as the only ACTUAL (and possible) identity on the scene— Reality's Self-awareness ITSELF—and then, THEN, I am able to look on the "error" to see what it really is. I can assure you it is never, never what it appears to the misidentity, that ego-intellect who believes itself an entity apart from the One. Try it and see for yourself. *** This work is terribly disturbing to the ego-intellect of us—to "the old man." The instruction of the world appears intended to lift one up to the Light. This instruction, as any instruction of the "Absolute" SAYS otherwise even while it is apparently comprehended as a step by step study—here a little, there a little, line upon line, etc. Well, despite the appearing "growing consciousness" of Truth, the RESULT of this work is not a lifting up to the Light at all. It is a much more rapid stripping away of the mortal shell, leaving the Real exposed. It is an uncovering of the Light of IDENTITY which has been here as "us" all the while. It is the return of sensitivity in all its aspects. It is the CHILD uncovered again, stripped of all the intellectual veneers, its worldly vestures ripped away. Without question, this work appears to uncover the Child we are and we stand naked, exposed, defenseless, hyper-sensitive, our perception extremely acute again. But lo, many of us, aghast at the old-new sensitivity, pull the covers up again, put the veneer on again. Then, the intellect, by reason of its own ten thousand reasons for wanting to perpetuate itself, attacks that which would leave it so vulnerable and exposed. This appears especially true of the ego grown proud of

its accomplishments. I have seen many who could stand to bask in the pure Light of "reborn" Innocence for only the shortest time thence to return to the blanket heap and greasepaint again—then throw rocks at the mirror of themselves. I would tell those who have found the Child within, that pure, pristine, holy Child you are, to maintain your simple credulousness and sensitivity by LIVING your Childlikeness and Simplicity. Hold this grand AWARENESS close to the Heart because, in Truth, it IS the Heart. LOVE this love you have found yourself to be. See it in everyone and everything because the everyone and everything are but mirrored images of your Self. Do not worry about Identity being raw and sensitive in the face of the world. Its defenselessness is its strength, who would harm a child? Those who have the courage to REMAIN the newly revealed Child find that this is so. And to be the child does not mean a forsaking of a job or an organization necessarily, because the Child’s view of those activities is SHARP and PERCEPTIVE. The Child we are cannot be fooled. We see and enjoy the REAL, leaving the rest alone. Ego shed is Identity discovered. And this is so! Pure LOVE to you all from the back roads of Alabama, William Samuel

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THE CHILD WITHIN By William Samuel Autumn 1987 FROM A LETTER ABOUT INNER DISQUIET AND FEAR Sweet friend, Thank you for the card and the confidence in me that believes I might write something to lift your spirits. Please know that EVERYONE experiences the longing for an "external" Father to whom we may turn for comfort. I can't count the times I felt that way, nor the letters from ministers, practitioners and teachers confiding that they have such longings to the point of anguish. Inasmuch as INFINITE "Father/Mother/Child" cannot be confined to an "inside" or an "outside," there IS "Father" outside Awareness, as certainly as within Awareness. God is BOTH within and without, not merely one or the other. So, Miriam, go ahead and talk aloud to your Father, in any way you wish. Jesus did. The prophets did. I do. Many do. It feels very good to be the Child of God, allowing God (whatever "God" is) to know "my" thoughts and "needs" even before I speak. This human experience-in-time IS very much like a dream. When we awaken from the night dream, we awaken into the same world we were dreaming ABOUT, but then we see it through nondreaming eyes. Apparently it is much the same at the "death" of the flesh body. We might all be surprised to find that we do indeed "take it with us," just as we take the awake world into the sleeping world and vice versa. It is suggested in the religions of the world that whatever we leave still unresolved during our life-in-time will be unresolved "in the second heaven and earth." Whatever is unbound "here," will be unbound "there." This is why it seems so important (to me) to understand and unbind (forgive) every situation that comes to mind. I do not want to leave a single "enemy," a single unmended fence of human experience; I do not want to leave a single person who has been misled or given false hope by my words and actions. Sooner or later, everyone asks the question in your letter: "Will all this world and this Miriam disappear when I stop breathing?" Yes, I'd guess that Miriam's world will eventually disappear; but not the Awareness that asks that question. THAT is eternal, being the Awareness of God/Mind/Good, the Ineffable Godhead which is prior to all. Even the identity you assume is Miriam doesn't disappear, it seems to me. It doesn't disappear when you fall asleep and dream, does it? Does it disappear when you awaken and let the night's dream go? No, the singular Miriam POINT OF VIEW is still here, both ways. But, sooner or later, we UNDERSTAND that limiting, point-headed sense of Self and THANK it for the lessons it teaches. The me-sense is the delineation of Awareness. Awareness Itself is the God-sense of "the world." The "world" is the total of God's qualities and attributes as they appear separately, or "in time," filtered through the me-sense. Ah so, the Answer lies in comprehending the nature

of this Awareness that reads these words. Miriam, I have written all these things a thousand times before, with as many illustrations as are necessary to speak to the Heart and be understood there. There is a Child in you who understands all these things already. You write, "God is the 'I that I am' means nothing to me—words." That is about par for those who struggle with the metaphysical courses. But if that is restated as "God is the EYEAWARENESS that SEES this, my world," does that make more sense? It should. That's partly what Moses came to realize one day, after which he was soon leading himself and all his loved ones out of bondage. "I'm just not at peace," you write very honestly. Neither was Jesus, Miriam, all the way through his crucifixion. The more of Truth that is revealed to one, the greater is that one's anguish at the sights and sounds of the human condition. That anguish is sometimes the Mark that we are on target. But, despite the sights and sounds of the world that cause you anguish, there is a deep and abiding peace within yourself, Miriam Light, and there is no way to get there except through that eternal Child of yourself, all former beliefs surrendered— even the cherished beliefs that come from the study of Judaism or Pentecostalism or aught else! The Child of God is YOURSELF, awaiting Miriam's call to come forth and prove it is still right here. It amazes me how so many would rather suffer the torments of hell than surrender ANY of there beliefs and let the sweet Peace of the Child enter into the old belief's place-in-time-andspace. The ego's full cup of intellectualism leaves no room for the renewing Wine of God's Peace. It is necessary to pour out a few of the old notions, exactly as the Christ said. Miriam, the Child claps hands and laughs; It isn't afraid of doctors or hospitals or anything else. Father/Mother/God takes good care of this Child I am and you are. *** TROUBLE IN RIVER CITY So I see or hear something "terrible" about someone close to me. What is really going on? My "friend" is me, and there is nothing "terrible" happening here where I-Awareness am. There is nothing "terrible" happening with God, and God is here and everywhere, BEING this Awareness that has heard the news and all things else. What I heard via the senses was heard in linear time and space—external and after the Fact. Therefore, what I heard was an echo, a shadow in time, not the Reality Itself. The echo has no power over the Original Perfect which preceded it. I-Awareness hang in with the Original Perfect (Godhead) and know that the next echo in time can bring the "better" sound, more nearly resonating with the Original Perfect. I ANTICIPATE GOOD, the "better," in the space/time arena, confirming the underlying Godhead. I know the "gap" (time and space) which allowed the distortion to (seem to) enter this

Experience I Am is also the gap which allows the pure, perfect, non-moving, already present Light of the Real to shine through the old shadow (echo in time) with ANY POSSIBILITY, not just those that seem academically, logically, humanly most probable and most likely. The echo is not bad, but is calling attention to Something Greater. The echo is not valid or capable of causing trials and tribulations unless I believe the echo is real! I realize that I came out of my cocoon going through precisely the same struggle as my friend is faced with; only the names and events are different. We all struggle with the Discipline in time. I forgive and unbind him (myself). He (the perfect Image of Self) is not guilty of suffering and sin. He is not guilty of ignorance. Then, knowing this forgiveness, I go right on expecting confirmation of Good right here where I bodily am and right "there" where friend appears. There IS here. I know that as I was/am forgiven, so he is forgiven—and I LIVE this forgiveness. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." SABBATH! CONFIRMATION! I keep the Prior Light as holy. I give thanks--and do not labor over the Scene. I give thanks, knowing that confirmations never stop. How could that be? Because Awareness is looking at the qualities and attributes of God—and nothing else. With much love, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel

Isness Being Made Plain 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 cant’ 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 shadowworshiping 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 drempt 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 STRAIGHTAWAY 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 If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

irrepressible All-rightness which has been here all the while.
 
 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.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel April 1970 WE BEGIN AT THE TOP Isness is single, alone, total, all. Isness is Self-perceptive, Self-aware. What Isness perceives is what Isness knows itself to be—its own qualities, attributes and characteristics. Perceiving is life, and as we all know, life is the selfsame awareness presently reading these words. *** Isness is infinite. Isness's Self-perception is infinite also. That Self-perception is this awareness we are, the identity presently considering these words. Therefore, this awareness is infinite. Its infinity appears tangibly to itself as embodied (delineated) awareness everywhere aware. The appearance of life "out there" is the infinite appearing of this awareness-I-am, and I (Identity) am not separated from my own infinity. Whatever or whoever I appear to need, I am. My own infinite appearing treats me as I treat it. Someone has "departed"? I have gone nowhere! John is here as I. Walter is here as I. LIFE is HERE as this Identity I am. *** ABOUT OMNISCIENCE Consider: One identity is obviously present as the awareness reading this. This awareness is the functioning of ISNESS, That which is I. The single That is not multiple; this awareness self-evidently knows it is; therefore, I am the knowing, the awareness of That. The wisdom of Isness is the Identity I am. OMNISCIENCE is who and what Identity is. Omniscience is who and what I am. Reader, in the most direct way, the awareness that reads these words is the heralded

OMNISCIENCE we have heard so much about! We are not reading about something we hope to see one day in the future. We are not considering a goal that is arrived at when a Hebrew musician blows a golden trumpet—or when we finally "demonstrate” our ability to walk on water. We are the WISDOM of Isness NOW. We are the knowing of Mind NOW. We are the Life that God is NOW—and there is no wait. There is nothing that must be accomplished first. There is no laborious path to travel. There are no mysterious exercises to perform, no rituals to be observed, no daily lesson to be faithful to, no external authority to which we must be obedient BEFORE IDENTITY IS IDENTITY, before God is God, before All is ALL— before Life IS, before awareness is aware, before I am. There is naught to do but ACCLAIM the ONLY Identity, the legitimate Identity, and take it to be this one we are, right here, right NOW. Not later. NOW, ALREADY! THEN, there is to let go the assumption of old that fights for its survival as the struggling custodian of identity, awareness, life. There is to STOP trying to be that mythical protagonist who wrestles with himself, shouting requests for personal comfort to a life-bestowing god who doesn't exist. Gentle reader, do you see the vast difference between talking about "Infinite Wisdom" as if it were a God out there and IDENTIFYING AS God's infinite wisdom in action right here as I? Do you see that something must come along for each of us, somewhere at some time, to tell us in a way that can be understood that Omniscience is right here, right now, the AWARENESS we are, the LIFE we are, the CONSCIOUSNESS we are, the LIVING we are and that we are not another; that we are not an ignorant, struggling beset bag of bent, bumpy bones trying to crawl up the leg of God and become wise?! *** "If I am Omniscience, how come I don't understand Einstein's Theory of Relativity? Or the square root of eighty eight?" The Wisdom I am is not a matter of being a computer full of facts. Human wisdom demands an answer for every question—a knowledge of every "thing," but living Identity as Omniscience presents an harmonious experience wherein everything that needs to be known within the arena of tangibles is known precisely when it needs to be known. It yields a sufficiency of knowledge. We find ourselves knowing where to go to get the answer and who to ask. We find ourselves acting in a dimension considerably grander than that of a computer disgorging facts about tangibles while it knows nothing of the intangible substance that stands behind the appearance. Inasmuch as I am the Experience of Reality, I am the presence of whatever information this Experience suggests as necessary for the moment. In my daily affairs, this presents itself as an unworried doing of whatever comes to be done and a never ending disclosure of "new" information to make this Experience tangibly meaningful. ***

1. Mind knows what Mind is. 2. Mind knows what knowing is. Mind knows what Mind is. The "what Mind is" is precisely known (delineated) to Mind. Because it is delineated, it appears as "form" – the finite "things" of the universe. Things are not Mind ITSELF, but what Mind knows itself to be. They are the multiple qualities and attributes of Mind—finite, because "less" than the ALL of Mind. Now listen softly: Mind also knows what knowing is, and knows it specifically. The knowing of "knowing" is just as precisely delineated to Mind. The "form" of this delineation is the appearing of embodied, tangible life, awareness, animate and inanimate, knowing what is going on outside itself and within itself. Inner comprehension of these two points is the door opener to an understanding of humanity and a consequent new view of it. We have seen the advantages of seeing "things" as neither good nor bad but as just things being things. Now, in the same way, we see that the images of people are neither good nor bad, helpful or hurtful, but simply people being people. People are not this awareness itself but its delineated, non-destructive, non-disruptive qualities and attributes from which the awareness-I-am cannot be separated. Isness is ever the same substance appearing as an infinity of forms. The infinity of Isness's Self-awareness is the appearing of life everywhere aware. *** WHY THE APPEARANCE OF PROBLEMS? On the world scene, the answer precedes the problem. The problem and its question could not exist without a basic foundation to be questioned. Questions pertaining to music are based on the prior existence of that principle. The arithmetic problems given to school children are evidence of a principle of arithmetic to be questioned. Considering arithmetic, the problems, questions, enigmas, puzzlements are the means by which we become acquainted with the sundry aspects of the basic principle. It is the means by which "education" makes certain the school child understands the principle. The question is asked, the problem is presented, triggering our turn from the problem to the basic principle wherein all that the problem represents is understood. When the pupil finds the answer, he is actually finding the principle's exclusion of the problem via preclusion of a REAL problem's possibility. Mathematical mystery does not exist in the face of the principle known and understood and lived as only. Finally, the "student" indicates his understanding by articulating his comprehension of the principle. This articulation comes in the language of the question being understood and answered specifically at the very point of the problem. Until this is done the problem remains unanswered at the problem level. But upon the knowledge of what the problem represents, there is no more need of the problem and it vanishes into its native, contradistinctory

nothingness. It has, by way of dualistic opposition, or contradistinction, illuminated the underlying principle--and this was the only "reason" for the problem in the first place. We attempt to live a mortal existence only to KNOW the fullness and perfection of IMMORTAL Being. The entire human scene calls attention to the primordial Isness of the Godhead. It is for this reason that we turn from the personal difficulty to the ineffable Principle wherein (and as which) "the ten thousand things" and their interrelationships have their being. Here, within the knowledge of an ever-present Perfection, we live the Omniscience which precludes the possibility of a REAL problem. Then, LIVING the honest course of action this knowledge of Principle indicates, we find ourselves coming to understand the whys and wherefores of the APPEARING problem. The problem has been nothing other than the contradistinctory appearing of the Principle, the problem's absence. The quandry and its discomfort vanishes with the comprehension of what the quandry actually is—Perfection coming into view, here and now, on the tangible scene. In simple words, the quandries are what Principle in its unlimited knowing knows Principle IS NOT and could NEVER be. What is "darkness" but the tangible, delineated appearing of what Light knows it could never be? What is "death" but the tangible APPEARING of all that Life knows Life IS NOT? It has been helpful to me to discern, understand and danged well know that infinite Intelligence (the Omniscience I am) is not limited to a knowledge of Isness, even though Isness is all that is! The paradoxical fact is that INFINITE Intelligence also includes the knowledge of all that Isness is not and could never be--dream knowledge, fictitious, hypothetical knowledge of an obverse, negative and impossible ISNOTNESS. At every point the appearance of a human identity is the precise OPPOSITE of the real Selfhood. But omniscient Awareness is not fooled by this nether, dream world of diametric impossibilities. We discard the personal sense of self and its dualistic hodgepodge. *** Reader, these statements concerning "contradistinction" and "isnotness" sound complex. They are. They represent the intellectual ego-game that frightens so many from a genuine comprehension of metaphysics. But even this verbal profundity is naught more than another "problem" pointing its finger at the underlying, overlying REAL. The mysterious matter of "the mystic's paradox" is actually simple--so obvious and natural as to be hidden from the intellectual nature by its very simplicity. It is comprehended most speedily in those wonderful moments when we are BEING rather than trying. By way of simple illustration. When you spy your "hand" do you not also know it is not a "foot"? Pray tell, what can "is not a foot" do to "hand"? Nothing, nothing. Does not the knowledge of "is not foot" allow us to better apprehend HAND? Yes. Even so, the appearance of poverty, ill health, age or death are only powerless "is nots" pointing up a sufficiency of eternal well-being and eternal life, all of which are ALREADY the PRESENT fact of being. Simplicity--the wonder of All already all--remains the most absolute of human mysteries, ever an awful bug to the intellect. But the Heart knows. The Heart FEELS the rightness of it all. The Heart sings, "It is true! I AM the Light of the world! The One is Me! My very Self I see!" Sending you regards from a beautiful Spring in Mountain Brook, William Samuel If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel

July 1969 POTPOURRI Enlightenment did not begin for me until there was the recognition and acknowledgment of God’s absolute ALLNESS. The basis for this work—its very predicate—lies in the comprehension that ISNESS (Reality) is single, alone, only and all. Until this acknowledgment is made, no aspect of this work can be understood. Those who come to understand this teaching are those who make this concession for themselves without too much argument. Those who are most helped are those who go beyond the intellectual acceptance of these ideas to put them into some small practice. *** Those who consider themselves students of Truth should note this carefully. Our comprehension—that sudden Light of inner understanding everyone is familiar with to some extent—is not limited to the subject under discussion. As we study here, the Light that bursts through often does NOT pertain to the subject of the moment. The intelligence that Awareness is is INFINITE INTELLIGENCE ITSELF, unbound and alert, capable of perceiving in a multitude of areas, at many "levels of consciousness" at every moment. Intellectual training has taught us to limit attention to the subject being discussed and to pursue a single thought with singular intensity. While single-minded concentration is often demanded during the times we are getting the intellectual facts straight, to studiously limit ourselves at all times in the study of the Absolute is to make intellectual progress only— inputting progress made at the expense of the Heart. The Heart forever remains the outputting area from which the Light of the Absolute waits to burst into an unbound, fully opened consciousness. In our study it is to our advantage not to limit ourselves but to develop ever wider attitudes of awareness—especially inner listening. The books, letters, tapes, conversations or "classes" only serve to trigger the breakthroughs. These sparkling glimmers of comprehension, often as not, come as answers to questions asked years before—answers winging in on the strings of an open Heart. Spiritual enlightenment comes as we ease away from intellectual intensity to UNMUTE the Heart. The Heart sings for those who expect it to sing. The exploration of the moon and the other events transpiring in space are not external to the Awareness we are. Reader, the high, marvelous vistas of new worlds being explored are the tangible evidences of our own PRIOR enlightenments, the "proofs" of our FORMER insights, the afterglows of our revelations and Self- discoveries. (Herein, incidentally, exists the basis for all true "prophesy" and is the means by which we can say relative to space

matters, that many more astounding accomplishments are in store for the world. ***

CONCERNING MEDITATIVE WRITING During the months since I have begun to write about the advantages of writing our own highest concepts of Truth to ourselves ("meditative writing") I have been the happy recipient of letters from all parts of the country telling me that many others are discovering the advantages for themselves. When faced with a threat to one’s equanimity, it requires strength to sit down immediately and begin to write ones most positive precepts of the Real. This is no easy discipline (at the start.) Humanly speaking, it is easier to worry, fret, agonize and ache than to turn away from the agony and bring attention full around to the REAL wherein no agony exists and what presents itself as agony is seen for what it is. Nothing of a permanent nature can be accomplished by hanging in there with the appearance and doing battle with THAT. Those who have TRIED the writing exercise find that it accomplishes the turn from the seeming and puts our attention back on target. *** We write about the real; not the unreal. We write about what IS; not what seems. We write out from the position of REALITY, THE ONLY FACT OF ALL BEING, INCLUDING ALL THAT IS PRESENTLY SEEN, HEARD OR COMING TO MIND—and then, when it seems appropriate, we look out to see what this HONEST position allows us to see concerning an apparent problem or threat to our equanimity. We write from the standpoint of PERFECTION PRESENT, THE ONLY FACT. When this position is established to our satisfaction via our own words on the page, THEN, from THIS position we view the "seeming" if it still seems appropriate to do so, often to find the problem has vanished. ***

As the thought comes forth, as the feeling or view crystalizes, we search for the simple, tender, easily understood sentence and write it. We view what is written and say the words to ourselves as one who is listening to them for the first time. We listen to them as a child. Do they make sense? Are they clear? Are they explicit? Do they communicate? Do they honestly "make the outside as the inside"? Are we satisfied with the sentence? Does the child understand? Then we stay with that thought, adding before it or after it whatever the Heart indicates will paint the picture more precisely with vigor and feeling—or with tenderness—and always with honesty. Reader, do you realize that all the while this is going on this is the Awareness of Deity doing these things?! All the while this is literality the Voice of God declaring itself in the language that tells the story to those who appear to be our others. And do you realize that all this time you will have done no worrying, no fuming or fretting and there will have been no

consciousness of discomfort? There will have been no expenditure of energy of the usual sort. Instead, there will be a noticeable feeling of refreshment and uplift. There will be a measurable (tangible) return of vigor.... And when it is over, there will be something on the page to show for the effort. There will be words that will eventually surprise and delight you; not your ordinary words by a long sight; not the words of a human personality, but instruction of the Heart. *** Begin defining your terms. Determine what your words mean to you. Come up with your own HONEST meanings, not the memorized definitions of someone else. Do not be surprised to find that your meanings will (and should) change as your comprehension expands. A definition arrived at in the morning may very well be changed by evening— but you will have a conscious meaning for the words you are using and the empty babble will have begun to go out of your conversation. *** ABOUT LAW AND ABOUT LOVE Reckoning ourselves from the standpoint of Awareness, we begin the comprehension of whatever our subject matter—friends, family, world or affairs. Here, AS AWARENESS ITSELF, we come to understand, entertain ideas, feel, see, listen and sense. We let go, turn loose and forget for a (time that old personality called “me” and “you” who is supposed to be the one who is aware and conscious. For a time, we let go that one to simply BE life itself, not the one to whom life was supposedly given; not the one who professes to contain life and protect it. We come home to view the sights and sounds within awareness from the old-new standpoint of awareness ITSELF, life ITSELF. We do this and find the answers. We find a new view that is nothing like the befuddling mess of before. Suddenly (or slowly) we discover that it is the pseudo-recipient of life, the possessor of awareness, who is the fly in the ointment, the distorter on the scene, the idiot, the devil, the liar from the beginning. Even more, somewhere along the line we make the effort to determine where the possessor came from to find it has no father whatever—to find it is only an assumption we have been enacting as though it were a legitimate fact. This does not change awareness, you see. Awareness goes right on seeing the sights included within it. It goes on hearing sounds. It continues to find itself full of thoughts and ideas. It continues to "feel" the ebbing and flowing of emotions, but we find those emotions not ebbing and flowing so much as before. We find thoughts and ideas more uplifting and beneficent than before. We hear sounds we didn’t know existed while we were playing the role of personality-who-owns-and-directs-his-personal-awareness. Living as simple awareness itself, we see sights we never knew existed even though they were here all the while, overlooked in our mad ministrations for an impossible identity we never were in fact. Awareness is not bound by the conventions its would-be custodian is. As awareness itself we are able to see the custodian's inhibitions for what they pretend to be, both to him and to awareness. The dual view persists only until we have done with the custodian and the role he plays.

Those who have found it know that the comprehension of Bliss, Tranquility, Peace lies just beyond the boundaries of inflexible Law. The "science" of Divine Metaphysics has its inviolate place in the order of things by being the Order of Things, the harmonious regulator of the Deific “Qualities and Attributes”. —and it seems to me that we must all become intimately acquainted with this Science that we are—nonetheless, the ULTIMATE LIGHT of BEING transcends, yes, transcends the entire arena of gendered mentation as well as that body of Science that regulates it, and which, in fact, is what "gendered mentation" IS. (I can hear the protests already, but someone in the arena of "Western" metaphysics must ultimately make these points clear.) Reader, this need not be confounding to you. LOVE is the portal to "the Peace beyond understanding." The Bible records that it was LOVE that broke through and out of the inviolate Mosaic Law which produced what has come to be known as Christianity. The most cherished treasures of Christianity reveal that LOVE and Love alone breaks out of all else and discloses the "final" aspect of the Triune Principle. Deific LOVE is the “Holy Ghost”. — and it is this Love that lets Science (Law) be seen as what Science is. Buddha, LaoTse, Jesus, among many of the Enlightened, reveal that the final Light that Love is, blooms out of the prior "paths", those paths spoken of most often as "Service" and "Intelligence" (or Lawmetaphysics.) And so it is that the Illimitable Light that Love is, the Love that comes with rapturous Peace and Tranquility beneath its wings, blooms out of metaphysics. This is not to say that Science (Law) violated will not produce the consequences of erring conduct, nor that there is no place for the cause-effect application of metaphysical science. This is only to say as plainly as I can that the Enlightenment that comes with Peace as its handmaiden transcends all limitations and all boundaries. After all, can the Illimitable Ineffable be bound to a "science"? Must it not also include non-science? Can we say that the ILLIMITABLE Ineffable is limited to "infinity" only? Must it not also include the "finite"? Even classically, the "arts" are known to exist OUTSIDE science as the application of science—so, ISNESS, we see, includes art within itself as well as the science it is. "Comprehendest thou this?" If this sounds as if I am prepared to do battle with all the scientists of the world. It Is no such thing. This View includes all there is to all the sciences (and to all the arts) in all existence (and non-existence.) Rather, this is to say that metaphysics serves as the catapult into the "Way of Love" which Includes the Infinity of Science within itself just as the sphere includes an infinity of precisely measurable planes, yet "transcends" them all at the same time. Words cannot possibly get outside the boundaries of Scientific Metaphysics but they serve to build the catapult. The more nearly words tell of the Love that lies outside the precisely measured boundaries of Science, Wisdom, Law, the more gendered, thought screams in contemptuous disbelief. The old role we have played with such gusto for so long rears up in violent argument such that to avoid the conflict we would return to the hypnotizer's stage and clutch his familiar, comfortable entrapments that we feel at home with. I think we all dash back and forth between the two, swinging like a pendulum for a time, a time. But the view as unencumbered awareness brings its own strength. Freedom maintains its natural estate. Soon, more quickly than we would guess, the old view vanishes; the sojourns into fantasy land become less frequent and we find ourselves being called upon to bring this view to the attention of those still battling with the limitations and restrictions of

the custodial identification, that hypocritical, hypercritical judge of "correct" and "incorrect," "right" and "wrong," "good for you" and "not good for you," what Science is and what Science is not. Strong words? Yes—and hardly intended to make their progenitor popular. But then Truth is not running a popularity contest. As Jesus said, "Those who have ears to hear, let them hear..." It ever seems a matter of one in a thousand, two in ten thousand. Those who would say that these ideas are confusing to new students of metaphysics are saying, in effect, that those students prefer complexity to simplicity—and in most cases, our intellectual upbringing makes this woefully true. The Love that is our veritable Identity is supremely simple but in all this world, nothing is so profound and confusing to the intellect as Simplicity. This is why only the Chi|d-we-are understands it—and why it seems so ephemeral and difficult to be comprehended by the role we play as metaphysical philosophers and theologians. We say as Jesus said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to children" — to which I add "old theology's" lovely word, "Amen!" Love to you, from these hills of Alabama, William Samuel

If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel

Laws and Big Government

By William Samuel

Friday, June 2, 1995 What is the primary reason for big government? Population is certainly one of the problems, but not the main one. Government's growth is proportional to two things: population and the number of laws. Imagine a garden just hacked out of the jungle. That garden is the original 13 colonies just after we threw off the burden of England. We were a brand new nation and free of British tyranny. Not a single law existed. There wasn't a law book in the whole land. We were totally free. By definition, a law is a restriction of human conduct. Freedom, by definition, means the absence of human restrictions. Now, this new garden is on rich soil and there are others in the world who would gladly come and take our freedom from us. Realizing this, we quickly established the Declaration of Independence as the Law of our new land. This is the equivalent of putting a string around our garden to keep foreign armies out. A string isn't enough, so laws were passed allowing us to raise an army and navy for our common defense. This much law is the equivalent of a chain link fence around the garden. We live in this garden and make our living there. The cost of the army, navy, the president and all our representatives come from us, the people who live in the garden, from our produce and our labor there. All the offices for the politicians are located somewhere on the fence, built by us, paid for by us. The more laws we have, the thicker and taller grows our fence and the less sunshine hits the ground to grow our crops. We've had "lawmakers" for 200 years, so our fence has become a wall and grown so tall and thick that not enough sun hits the ground for the crops to grow as well as they did and it becomes more difficult to pay for the upkeep of the fence. Every time there is an injustice on the ground of the garden, some agency of government thinks the problem can be improved with more laws, more enforcement and more taxes, more expensive fence, more shadowy government. 40 years ago when I first wrote this over-simplified example of what's wrong with too much government, it would have cost too many government employees their jobs and their votes for a politician to advocate giving sunshine back to the garden by lessening the numbers of laws that were no longer necessary. Now, we hear people begging for government to become smaller and simplified. We hear of the desire for whole sections of the fence to be removed. Education, Labor and other entire programs could be eliminated, thus reducing the size of the government and reducing the demands made on us, the people who till the soil and run the factories.

When this country was new, the founding fathers and mothers had many discussions about the form our government should take. Benjamin Franklin wrote in his journal that he imagined that our representatives would spend an equal time each year removing old laws that were no longer necessary! He also imagined that these people would spend half their time making new laws and repealing old ones, spending the other half of their time at home where the problems could be determined. As a boy, I remember the great pride a politician took when his name became attached to a new law. Now, before we all perish under the weight of the laws and lawbooks, I'd love to see legislators become just as proud of the laws they eliminated and the problems that might be solved by giving freedom back to the people. Problems can be solved by removing the restrictions that old laws represent. For instance, old laws add 25% to the construction costs of all government buildings alone! Is it any wonder that many in the garden have grown paranoid and irrationally suspicious of a government that has a yearly budget over a trillion dollars? The shadow of the fence has grown to cover the entire garden now and only those things prosper that grow in subdued light, like greed, lust and rampant materialism. Nowadays, a business man can't move without breaking somebody's law. He needs legal advise to pay his taxes, for goodness sake. It seems to me now, in these late years of my life, just the elimination of governmental duplication of services would save us enormously. I remember that as a business man, I would no longer get through a city or county inspection than I'd be faced with the same inspection from the state or the federal government. Little did our founding fathers realize how many laws we'd accumulate at the city, county, state and federal levels during the next 200 years. The time has come to simply remove some of this old weight and let the sunshine of freedom in again. I remember the illustration of 30 years ago concluded that we must reduce the fence around the garden the same way we built it. If we didn't, we people in the garden would angrily tear the fence down. Isn't that what happened in the Oklahoma City bombing? Someone tried to blow a hole in the wall. I also remember that the hula hoop craze had just spread across the nation. In exactly the same way, the thought of reducing the numbers of laws on the law books could also "catch on." It is only the slightest shift of thinking that we realize that a law is a restriction of human conduct and that freedom is the absence of too much law, not the burial under tons of it. With a little encouragement from high places, it could become fashionable to attempt the solution of problems by the unique act of removing old laws instead of making more. Law unmakers are freedom restorers. The more laws we have, the larger our government grows. After all, those laws have to be enforced and regulated. We must have judges and lawyers, trials and prisons and enforcement people. William Samuel -- Woodsong, 1995 If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel 1970 A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE OF "LETTING" As of this writing, I see that I have written 42 pages in preparation of this month's NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG, none of which "hits the mark" as it should. How subtly we seem to fall from the grace of effortless BEING when we start trying to manufacture things, create things, as though we were the Creator—or when we struggle to make things fit a mental pattern chosen as the standard. So now, as an exercise I am sure seems contrary to the ordinary way of doing things, I throw 42 pages of hard work into the wastebasket and put another sheet of paper into the typewriter. This time, by a conscious act of relaxing, (Why? Because it has finally dawned as "the sensible thing to do.") I let go all notions of a theme or message or standard. I consciously END the human effort and "let." The sense of struggle departs at once and the awareness of many things begins to enter in— ideas, feelings, sights and sounds that were precluded by that insidiously well-rooted HABIT of trying to match a phantom standard for an essay. A squirrel scratches under a pine apparently finding plenty to eat in the pine straw. (There is a message on supply!) A steady succession of nuthatches and titmouse’s come to the bowl of sunflower seed just outside my window. (Few things in nature rival the sparkle in a wild bird's eyes.) Now, a new sense of joy presents itself to notice. (Joy is a matter of noticing joy!) If I were to try and put a finger on the "why" of the new delight, I suppose I could say it was the bird's or the squirrel's – or mine because of the letters from all parts of the world telling of "healings," of new Light, of grand releases, of freedom and grace—all aspects of the Self-I-am (of the Self WE are) coming to light and being discovered. Yes, that's it! There is not room enough in these pages to tell of the wonders related in the letters that have come here even this past month—humanly unbelievable letters of the miraculous. Reader, I do not think even for a minute that such letters of gratitude present themselves in this experience because of me or my words. Nothing could be further from the truth! The victory belongs to GOD, as God's Self-awareness in action. That action is the one YOU are—the awareness that reads these words. The victory belongs to God, to Isness, to Reality, to That Which Is, the ONLY on the scene as the single Selfhood-we-are. Where, in all of this wonder, has a mortal, a fallen selfhood apart from the All, entered the scene to interpose his fraudulent standard? It has NOT—unless we pretend that it has, then act the fraud's pretensions.

Finally, practicing what I preach, words begin to fall in place and another "Notes from Lollygog" is begun-"...not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." *** We teach by LIVING (practicing) the Light we know we are; THEN we see our mirrored Selfimage following suit. *** Every teacher, book, writer, practitioner, sage, guru or peanut vendor, by whatever name, title or label they go by, is an aspect of the Awareness (Identity) "we" are. We take the book from the shelf most likely to render a specific service at a given moment. Exactly so, we have appeared to go to the philosophy, teacher, church, friend, stranger or peanut vendor that has unfolded as sufficient for the moment—but that philosophy, teacher, church, friend or stranger is WITHIN the awareness WE are. So is the peanut vendor. We are forever looking at our Self. Now, listen softly: Just as one goes to the mirror in the house that is the cleanest, the least distorted and best illuminated, so we turn to that aspect of the SELF that tells it to us "like it is," without mental reservation, without the distortion of personal dirt, without the absence of Light, and for absolutely certain, without making something of ITSELF by belittling others. What is seen "out there" is a mirrored Self-image, but only an IMAGE. The awareness that is the LOOKING is the divine, pure and sinless Identity we are. To say this again: The image-form that appears at any given moment is only one of an infinite number of FORMS that may appear. The value is not in the image. (Nor is the power!) The value is forever in the AWARENESS -"you"- are who is the observing of the image. All that could be called Samuel, DoFlunky or What's His Face is only an infinitesimal aspect of the Self's tangible declaration—but tangibility is only part of it. There is the intangible That "which is above them all"—the Deific Selfhood which is being all there is to the external tangibility of "form" or to the internal intangibility of imagery. All that is called the belief and dream of a material existence enters the scene upon the assumption of an identity that limits itself to the body-image. THAT one sees all other images as separate and apart from itself. THAT one calls himself the OBSERVER and is continually fighting a battle with his OBSERVED. In the sad comedy of proliferating complication that follows, OBSERVING (the awareness that resides AS the center of it all) goes but barely noticed. However, observing awareness goes on BEING the Identity we are anyway, whether we are conscious of it or not, and all the trials and tribulations of the limited identity's experience serve to bring us to the consciousness of the GREATER Identity—the one that is real; the one

that has never been guilty of ignorance or wrong doing or anything else! *** At this point, reader, before we move into something else, let me give you a homework assignment—something to ponder, something to kick around and write about, the "answer" to which begins to tie many metaphysical enigmas together. Are the terms (and what they imply) "finite" and "infinite" necessarily opposite ends of a dualism, such that one is correct and the other incorrect? The metaphysical schools certainly tell us so and, as a consequence, there appears to be alot of people attempting to explain away a finiteness that just won't be explained away. Does the INFINITE necessarily exclude what appears to us as finite form? Consider this gently, if you will. I'd love to have your thoughts on the subject if you care to send them to me. I shall attempt the "answer" that has disclosed itself to me in the Notes next month-unless I forget. But don't let me. It is a point that has many meaningful applications in our daily affairs and one that leads to more light in other areas. *** So now you have read three long pages of subtle and deeply involved metaphysical philosophywords, words, a pastel of words. What are you going to DO with them? It would seem they can be enjoyed in either of two directions (or anywhere between)— (1) as words whose ideas are capable of striking a response within, therein verifying themselves— a response to which we then ACT. Or, (2) (as happens until the grand "turn around" takes place) they can be turned into arcane fuel for that insidiously tenacious game one plays in the attempt to be a smart human becoming a smarter human. Woe is that me! Reader, examine your intentions in all honesty—without self-beguilement—and see if you are finally willing to stop the tinkering with Truth in an attempt to have a happier HUMAN experience, to honestly surrender everything, everything, everything for its Glory. Remember that the hidden pearl of great price required that the farmer sell all he had to purchase it. The "all he had" is the price we are required to pay and that is the attempt to be a human along the road to awakening. We have never really been such a dream identity, so the price that seems so large only appears that way to the dreamer. The price paid is the blow that awakens him. Then it is seen that nothing has been lost (nor gained). Rather, the beguiling attachment to a phantom self-identification is surrendered AND A NEW DIMENSION OF SPECTACULAR LOVE IS AWAKENED TO! But the surrender is made first. The Chalice is washed of the vinegar to make room for the Fruit of the Vine. Our cup runneth over! If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel September 1970 A letter comes stating: “Where before I was blind – literally – now I can see!” Another says: "I know that everything I see is good—because now I can see it!" A phone call comes with the excited announcement, "I am walking again! I am walking again! Unaided! For the first time in 19 years!" And another tells me, "I have heard the sound of rain for the first time since I was a child." Why do I write these things? To remind you again that they happen! We are NOT bound to the past. We are NOT bound to the rules and regulations of the world—no matter how fatally rigid they are supposed to be. A letter of pure love arrives stating: "I have never known such joy, such completeness, such REASON for existing!" Here is one that says, "Light and Love have revealed Themselves as this One I am...." "As you told me to, I walked to the mirror and forgave myself.... the pain subsided the last examination disclosed that the tumor was gone the scheduled operation has been scrubbed." We are NOT bound to the cause and effect rules of the body-organization. "Love transcends the law" exactly as every "holy book” in the world has told us. LOVE transcends the law. LOVE. LOVE does the "good work." Another writes: "The world is more beautiful for me....I hear the song of birds all day....I hear and feel love again, the music of mankind, all sounds unnoticed before I see each color more vividly....my Heart expands to love all people, all life...." Love does the work. Love "heals." Love leads straightaway to the Light, It is the Light of Love that lights the Eye. Lovelight. And what is Love? Love is love. There is not a material love and a spiritual Love; there is just ONE love, the love we are and the love we live. There are no more two loves than there are two Minds. Love is Identity—the identity of the very awareness presently reading these words. Love is the That which is being I. Love is God. God is love. "You told me that no matter what the doctor told me, all I would REALLY be hearing was the Holy Symphony of perfect Being there was no cancer, no tumour.... and then, as he pressed my stomach there was a tremendous rumble, a beautiful Symphony of Perfect Being, just as you said!" I wrote back and said that wasn't exactly what I meant. Replied she, "It may have sounded like a rumbling stomach to them but it was the Holy Symphony of perfect Being to ME!”

Most often the pronouncements of our "out there" are alot of hot air. *** With permission, I share another letter with you, and the answer to it: Dear Bill, I am filled with a feeling of age and hopelessness. The world seems to be rushing past at an ever faster clip and I am unable to keep pace with it. I long for the old days when I could stay abreast of the times and even surge ahead a bit with extra effort. Now I am fortunate to seek out a meager existence among the youthful, energetic, fast-moving young people who have not yet tired of the awful pace" Dear Paul, Within the human view of things, the rat race quickens. The pendulum swings faster. The highs are higher and the lows lower at both ends of the action. But Paul, in all of this frantic activity, where has there been the least change in the purpose of it? Peace, contentment, happiness, tranquility, security has ever been the goal of human effort. To identify as a human is to identify as a hunter in Search of one goal after another. The hunter's search for happiness out in the thing-oriented boondocks is simply going more and more afield. Happiness is not to be found in that far country or anywhere else as though it were not present this instant. You suspect this. More, you know this. We come home to find what we have been looking for. We come home to the Real, and rest. Once the treasure has been found here as Identity, we are entitled to end the frenzied search and begin to perceive the universe from our new position. For a time, and at recurring times, this appears to be a view of "others" still rushing to and fro, swinging like senseless pendulums from one futile effort to the next. It is the old hunter's role in us that would regret being unable to join the search and take to the field again with those "who have not yet tired of the awful pace." Oh, but there is no need to maintain the pace! There is no need to follow the ebbing, flowing tide of man’s mad dash to ego-fulfillment, ever searching for what the very search precludes. We come home to the goal of their search and let the appearance of a dashing humanity go on about its not so merry way to upheaval and hell. Our tranquility is spied, recognized as the aim of their struggle, the goal of their search, the target of the hunt. You may very well expect that some will come asking about it, willing to listen to what you have to say. These are "the one in a thousand, two in ten thousand" who, as appearances go, are the only ones able to comprehend and find the peace that is ours. They hear again the words of a quieter time to which they gave no heed while anxious to perpetuate an impossible ego; but NOW, in what appears to them to be their awful frustration, they hear the same words of old—and listen to them. You know the words, Paul: "Come unto Me (Identity) all who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. My peace give I unto you. Rejoice! Rest! Be of good cheer...." This peace is quite beyond the hunter's understanding because it allows us to LET GO the hunter's drives and instincts that would have us trying to keep pace with the wild pendulum. It is beyond human comprehension because it allows us to be still and know—to be still and rest as the goal itself, as tranquility, as the pearl of great price, as the Shekinah, as the Christ to this conscious experience, as everything the hunters are beating themselves to death in search of. "Comprehendest thou this?"

So, Paul, should the "feeling of hopelessness" seem a part of the scene, we recognize it as the empty, powerless feeling it is—another aspect of the old hunter's instinct. Old habit that we can have done with. The smell of smoke. We are not hunters anymore. We have found a new identity, the goal of the frantic search. We have found the Alone One, the ALL-one, the Only, the Single Light which is the light of the scene. That one is ISNESS, LIGHT, the conscious awareness reading these words. That one is the Christ Truth who says, "Be of good cheer. All things whatsoever I have, give I unto thee. The Kingdom is AT HAND, right HERE, right NOW. I will never leave you nor forsake you..." Dear Paul—dear reader—where is any need for a feeling of hopelessness or helplessness in such activity as this? Herein we find the divine motives for God-directed balanced ACTION such that our doing is absolutely Self-fulfilling and Self-satisfying. *** We live one Awareness as all; stand fast on this ground; refuse to have two awareness’s on the scene; THEN—bit by bit, precept upon precept, and without a conscious effort—we find the MEANINGS of the events transpiring in the world. Knowing the meanings, the reasons for the appearing may also be known. Insofar as we may be "personally" concerned, the "what to do about them" is always known! We live this "single identity" refusing to be the "old man" on the scene agonizing over his miserable mess. How do we live the "single identity"? By being conscious of the fact that this consciousness is God's SELF-AWARENESS about the business of being this awareness I am. We awaken to the fact that we are not another, THEN STOP ACTING AS ANOTHER. God really is love, but the love God is is not out there, separate and apart from me. It is here AS this one I am. Love is not an action I am to engage in first; love is the Identity I find myself to be. Then, then, every action is automatically love's action—and it is not possible to be unloving, unwise or unwanted. ( Love to you from the trails between Alabama and California, William Samuel

If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel March 1969 The final break with the dream comes from gentleness and simplicity, not from the arcane world of intellectualism. The freeing "Illumination" comes from human arrogance put aside, let go, lost. Simple honesty LIVED lets the Light be seen. The time has come for the written or spoken statements of these final (absolute) facts also to be simple. They need no longer be protected by symbolism. The purity of Truth precludes pretension. Now, in telling the story, we need search for words simple enough, for illustrations gentle enough, for descriptive phrases soft enough to "tell it like it is". The Hereness and Nowness of Isness-already-the-perfect-All-of-all comes as a disappointment to the struggling nature of us ---that reflex so conditioned to "levels (after levels after levels) of understanding", to "states and stages" of erudition. The climber, after all, wonders why he has mental muscles if he is not to use them, not yet aware that the mental processes are used to live the Real, not acquire It. Identity already is what Identity is a point we reluctantly admit. Our "seminars" here in Mountain Brook or upon our infrequent trips are geared to this simplicity despite the countercharges. These talks, simple discussions in simple words, are pointed at those Hearts grown weary of the struggle to arrive at an Identity one is already. These are the only ones who get the message anyway. That nature of us still about the business of looking for hidden Truth will go on searching the cracks, crevasses and deep holes for the "strong meat" of the metaphysical maze until it is finally seen that Truth's onlyness makes itself plainly apparent to those who would see with the single eye of Honesty---the Eye that precludes not seeing and not knowing. Indeed, in these final days of ignorance's seeming, "there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed; there is nothing covered that shall remain uncovered". We say, as has been said before, "I thank thee, Father...for hiding these things from the learned and wise, and revealing them to the simple...such was thy choice". We say, even as the Galilean Prophet said before, (as a child) "I am gentle and humble-hearted". Then, we live this in fact, soon to awaken to a perpetual Joy of Childlikeness that knows what it knows and says what it says despite the proud protestations of the dreamer's role". *** The ego clamors for the "strong meat" that just "we advanced students" can understand. "Let us get on to the highest level", it says with intellectual pride. Oh, but reader, the subtlety of Truth's strong meat is its very childlike simplicity which forever excludes the ego's perception of it...even when it is dropped in its lap. Even when it smiles from a blossom or from the face of a child. ***

MORE ABOUT MEDITATIVE WRITING Tangibility is a matter of finally looking AT our concepts of perfection. The carpenter's dream of a unique house is naught but a dream until such time as he brings the tangible lumber and nails into the tangible scene wherein he looks AT the inner dream and sees its tangible manifestation. Those who study with me are expected to begin the simple exercise that allows them to look at their cherished concepts, in a tangible, practical way. That exercise is writing the simple act of writing the Truth. It isn't even necessary to write the Truth as it is. We begin by simply writing it as we consider it to be—our own highest concept of it. We find these words....our own words.... are a first step in seeing the "inner intangible" become the "outer tangible". --- to make the "Outside as the Inside" as Jesus put it. We are able to look at the tangible words that represent our concepts and are usually surprised to find what a lot of bunk we've been carrying around for something we thought we knew. Example: Consider "Health". Define this term for yourself in your private notebook. Write your most absolute statement for the word. You may be able to do this in a minute with just a few words or you may find yourself pondering this for days, writing and rewriting, before you are satisfied with your own highest meaning of the term. (But listen, listen: during the time you were actually writing your definition, you were not worrying about a thing. One cannot write the TRUTH as he perceives it and worry at the same moment, any more than one can look intently into the face of a smiling flower and worry while he is examining it!) So we see, that for a time at least, this simple exercise interrupts fear. The simple action of writing the TRUTH as we feel the Truth, absolutely precludes worry from that action. We cannot state the beauty of the Real via the undivided attention that writing requires and still feel the ugliness of unreality attempting to make itself believed. Reader, I do not ask that you take my word for this. Take pen in hand, write your own statement of TRUTH in your own choice of happy words, and see for yourself if you experience anxiety in the same moment you are pondering and writing. You will see that you cannot. But this is only an "added" benefit. It is important that we continue until we are satisfied we have written an honest meaning for the word whether it takes a single word or a page of words. We do not let go the defining until we are satisfied the statement says exactly what we feel. After all, shouldn't we know precisely what the term means to us? What business have we using it unless we do? Rest certain, as quickly as you find yourself satisfied with your statement of Truth, you will find yourself using the term and using it with more authority than ever before. *** Now that you have defined the term to your satisfaction, read these words to yourself as though you were reading them for the first time. Consider how you might say it all again but in simpler terms; how you might say it again with a softer sound. Listen to your words as a child listens and say it so the child-you-are will understand. Ask the questions the child would ask and answer them to the child's satisfaction. When that one (the Heart) understands,

you will have something! When that one smiles and says, "Now I see!" you will have found the words that communicate—words that our "others" will listen to and accept. These are the ideas that come from the inside and are made into the lumber and nail words of tangibility. These are the words that go on to do wondrous things in our daily experience, which, after all, is that place wherein we expect to see the perfection we are writing about. One thing more: These words are our own words; not the words of a spiritual leader, philosopher, textbook or bible of the world. These are not the words that have come forth from another but from within THIS Self I-Identity am. They come forth from our own Holy of Holies. And these are the words that work the wonders in our affairs! Consider for a moment whether it was your words or the words of another that, appeared to produce the tangible shoes you are wearing, the tangible home wherein you dwell, the tangible contract of your marriage. Your own words or the words of a book or a spiritual leader? Your words, reader. Your words! What appears to be the action on the stage of our daily affairs is the principle product of our own (most often careless) words. Our "purpose" with these gentle writing exercises is to begin the happy task of speaking from a new position of simple (absolute) honesty. Meanwhile, the "yea, yea, nay, nay" the bible speaks of makes good sense. Even as has been said, "That which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man", and so far as the tangible scene of daily affairs goes, this is surely true. We will have a great deal more to say about "meditative writing" in the future, especially at our seminars. At this time it has seemed wise to tell you that I have found the act of putting the Truth into "my own" words that come forth from within "me" to be a beneficent "first place to turn" and a "something to DO immediately" when worry, fear, frustration, grief, loneliness or any wayward feeling attempts to insert itself within this experience-I-am. Furthermore, this action is a constructive doing not a thought about doing something. It is an action, not a profession, not a dream. It is a walk in the garden of Truth wherein grows not one single bloom of worry or fear. It is a moments sojourn in the Temple "wherein nothing enters that makes a lie". Even as I have, you will find this to be a most rewarding activity if you will but put it to the test and TRY it. We must do this for ourselves....No one can do it for us. See you next month, William Samuel P.S. When the action of writing is limited to writing the Truth as best we can, this action then constitutes the act of meditation, contemplation and prayer all rolled up into one simple DOING – not a profession of it nor a good intention, nor even a dream of it – but a DOING it! Its effectiveness will quickly reveal itself to you. “Watch” and see. If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

THE MELODY OF THE WOODCUTTER AND THE KING By William Samuel Prologue There is a story to tell, but I am the only one here to tell it, and the only one to listen. There is a picture to paint, but I am the only one here with canvas and oil, the only one who will see it. There is a symphony to play, yet there is only one here to draw the bow. This One, the Alone One, is the only one here to listen. This is as it should be however, for it allows the picture to be painted, the symphony sounded, and the story told as it truly is. Then, if there seems an angry word in the telling, my listening will never hear it. If there seems a distorted scene, the seeing I AM, will understand it. Because, One Alone is here to listen to the symphony on this page, this One, the Only One understands his melody. The Meeting Atop my holy mountain, I looked up and out, sceptre in hand I looked round about and beheld a magnificent land. A happy land, a finished land of harmony. Thought I, this land is my kingdom, and I am the king thereof. In it I reign, in it I command and it’s done. In it I decree with absolute authority; and illusion yields itself to me, rendering reports of majesty and harmony, of tender beauty and simplicity. Then I looked down, unseen. At the forests edge a woodcutter stood chopping with his axe. Stroke after stroke he fought the forest and his axe glistened in the sun. “Father, how long must I labour?” I heard him shout. “How long must I contend, how long before I see Thee face to face? Before I put aside this axe and take Thy sceptre in its place? How long before I see your abundance, free to feast forever? Then the woodman fell to his knees to rest. Clutching the axe he whispered, “Father, show me what to do, show me how to stop this struggle and still the fear within. Show me how to quench the ‘come and go’ that ebb and flow between serenity and sadness. Show me Love again and laughter, let discord cease, that I may feel peace. Father there is no worth in me, show me Thyself, show me Thee!” Oh, those words of agony I’d heard before. The woodcutter’s anguish had been my own song of yore. Yea, this man is my son; I’ve found the prince. Let me greet him, let me comfort him. Let me quench his thirst and take away his axe. Let me remind him of his dominion and show him the land of his heritage. “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. It’s my joy to give him the kingdom.” From out the brightness of the morning sun I spoke to him, “I know thee who thou art. I am the One you asked for.” And he knew me as I knew him, division was discarded. We were one again. “Put away your axe,” I told him. “Rest beneath the tree. Listen to the soft sound that only comes from me. Once I cut wood as you, dear son, my hands were callous too. Torn by tribulation and toil, insufficiency and strife. But that was long ago as time goes, long long ago. Now I see a universe too beautiful to hurt and much too lovely to labour. Now I see a land filled with Love and laughter. Now I see children smiling in the sunshine, laughing in the Light. Because, the kingdom I speak of is a land without hunger, without labour and without strife.

“It is a land where no one cries, where fear is merely foolish fantasy, and where the shadow of death is swept aside by the light of understanding. This land is my land. I AM the King thereof. In it ‘I’ reign and illusion’s reign is ended. “Now that I have found you, dear heir to my throne, let me show you this kingdom which is your kingdom too. So you may reign as ‘I’. Come I persuaded, there is no cause to be weary and heavy-laden forever. The heaven I speak of is not far away, but close at hand. You merely perceive it not. The Way there is a sweet way without bramble or stumbling block. And there is no devil’s army to contend with along the way, nor a single night to dwell in the wilderness. Beloved, for only a little while shall we remember this measured moment that has a phantom felling oaks, knowing nothing of Identity.” Slowly the woodman lifted himself from the earth, and we walked thenceforth together. Down a narrow pathway strewn with flowers we walked arm in arm. At length he asked me “what do you mean when you say that your story is my story too?” Now listener, listen to the song I sing in answer. For soon, you will sound the same symphony to yourself. Even as now I sing this measure to myself alone. The King’s Story Once I cut wood with a borrowed axe and cleared my kindling from leased acres too. For me, just as you, each day was another sate to battle, another time to contend. Another wonder what good or evil would appear before the sunset. And just as you, my woodman, I could not comfort the weary, for echoing their agony. Oh, there were brief moments of respite, in meditation's frightened fortress. But I could not see the joy that was round about and the warm tears that love shed, too often turned bitter. In those moments of greatest agony, a wise man came from the darkest depths of the forest, to tell me things of comfort. He came with an ointment for my blisters, a sharpening stone for my axe. And while he was with me I put the blade aside to hear him tell of good and evil: of life and death; of the Messiah; mankind; and rest. Yes, we dreamt dreams together in the soft sweet shade of the oak. But when he left (when he left) I lifted the axe again. The borrowed blade had been lighter much too short a time. Then another wise one came to me, just as he came to you. He taught that the world is an illusion, a dreamer’s dream of mortality. “You are sleeping,” said he, “dreaming all the agony.” “Then if this is a dream” I answered, “awaken me. My children must eat, dream or not! I know no other way to feed them, I can find no easier lot.” But he could not awaken me, and I felled another tree. Finally a third sage came trying to teach that God is one source of supply. “Throw away your axe,” said he, “just be, just be!” But my children were hungry when he left too, and I cut another tree. Oh, weary son, so many came with so much to say, that I asked as you did too, “Lord, how do I know whom to listen to, and whom to follow? Which is the way to go, which way is the way to walk? First one comes, then another, a third and a fourth, and a fifth, arguing among themselves pointing out their own inaccuracies. Whom must I follow now, Father? Tell me directly, tell me in my Heart so I’ll understand.” But there was only silence. And in anguish I cried, “Father, show me Thyself, that I might know myself and who I am. Reveal Thyself, such that I may see beyond this mist (this miserable mist) to touch Thee. You see, I seek to see the pure principle and perfect law that pervades this atmosphere of consciousness. Yet the seeking brings peace only with an ebb and flow, like seasons that blow through oaks still standing to be cut.” Yea, my son, the countless systems of the sages merely lightens the load a moment. Every cordon of kindling collected cried the need for another, another and still another. Finally, just as you, this simplest prayer I cried, “It is Peace I ask for Father, Perfection I long to see. Yet, what I ask for must be the self-

same One that You Are in the action of being me. Could the distortion, the misery be a sharpening goad hastening the recognition of my honest-Identity? Oh, Holy Consciousness, come to me, but more tenderly. Lift the veil that hides Thee from me. It is my own veil, a vile veil I have woven myself.” Then it was beloved (then it was) face to face my Father appeared to me, exactly as I to you. Lo, face to face the Comforter stood before me, just as I stand before you now. “Tell me” the woodman implored, “tell me of that time?” I answered the woodman; “It was in the morning, in the Spring, in the month of planting, with birds awing. When the newness of everything is but an instant away. I had bent myself down, to drink from a pond, and there reflected in the water he was. In my own image and likeness he was. And nowhere could I see the old self at all, or needed to, or wanted to. From out the morning light the Messiah came to me. Softly, quietly with the tender touch of love. Oh, grand Light of Truth, that shone round about. Splendour beyond words, warmth, wonder, sweet sounds bathed and gossamer beings from an expanded heaven that included me and mine, and all things exactly as they are. The immaculately conceived, now effortlessly perceived. Incommunicable language of gentle words. Intimate symphony, without sound. Light of Love wherein no darkness dwells. Questions no longer, instead, instead a simple basking in the soft new sound of the Now that All Is. The ‘has been’ and ‘shall be’ were seen for what they are. Then, even as I to you, my Father said to me, I AM He whom thou hath asked for, the one you long to see. Thy Father I AM is the I THAT I AM and I show myself to thee, face to face, eternally. I knew him too, just as you knew me”. “My son”, I said to the woodman, “there is a mountain in my kingdom from which the universe may be surveyed as it really is. I will take you there, as my Father has taken me before. From this high place the ‘Gates of the Heart’ are flung open, the scales drop from the eyes, the land is seen in its wholeness. And the questions that were asked before remain silent. Look, even now it is before you, this instant its here! Tell me what you see dear one, tell me what you hear.” The woodman answered, “I see a high mountain with many plateaus and a great multitude walking up many paths that wind long distances toward the top. On each path a herald is proclaiming his way the only way; and on the many plateaus are many ministers shouting, Rest here! View this vista, the most beautiful of them all. Yet, there is no happiness there. They curse each other on the different paths, and stand on every plateau in condemnation of those above or below. On the higher plateaus, I hear judgements of those whose vision is not as wide; and from the highest plateaus, come the sermons of those who decry duality and deny it - in the day they deny, but in the night as I, they still cut wood in their jungle; they still search the crevices for sustenance; they still stagger through their thickets and slash. Tell me Father, which path must I follow? On which plateau may I rest?” “My son,” I answered the woodman, “to climb o’er the ground from plateau to plateau, is not the way to go. There is no path on the mountain that leads all the way to the top; nor a single place where a woodman may let go his axe; there is no plateau on any slope where one may stop contending with opposites. For to climb o’er the ground from goal to goal, creates the original two-ness – a climber and a goal.” “Then how, councillor?” the woodsman asked, “how can I climb the mountain, how may I reach the throne?” “Listen softly,” I said to the woodman, “listen gently with the Heart. THERE IS NO WAY THERE BUT TO BE THERE! This way soars above the ground, above the landmarks, above the plateaus. Swiftly, silently, immediately on wings of Love, this is how I shall take you there beloved, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, on the wings of the morning. Indeed the way there is to be there! Then need you not, at each plateau proclaimeth the goal for all, nor whisper longer those above or admonish the ones

below. You see, Love, Love is the key to the mystery. Love is the astrolabe of Light! Love alone sounds the melody heard at the immortal height. Love is the wing that lifts thee there, and there hands thee thy sceptre. Love has beckoned me, thy comforter, because you and I are One. You and I are Love. Immediately the measured moment ended, and we stood atop our timeless mountain.” “My son” I said, “Look with me from this high place. With the same eye that beheld the axe, now view the kingdom. Look to the east, the sun is risen, look to the west where morning due glistens. North, south, all you see here, is far as you envision here, is the kingdom I give you today. Now, lift up your eye and see the simple sparrow there. The soaring swallow, the sun, the stars, everything you see there, everything envisioned here, is your very own. Now, listen to the sounds, beloved, whispering wind, laughing children, distant notes proclaiming Now your standard. Sounds too, are my kingdom dear one, and I give you them all today! Next, with the inner eye, look at everything childlikeness allows. Envision the oceans, the sands, the multitudes, fair fields of fragrant flowers, oaks unsewn in future seasons. Distant mountains, higher yet than this, these too are yours my son. Yea, all you see here, is far as you envision here, is the kingdom you are this day. Listen, listen and hear, even now you are the only awareness that views this holy place. All you see, is the selfhood you be! You are this minute the holy witness of me. You have naught left to do but ‘gird up thy loins’ and accept thy rightful Identity! Now, deck thyself with majesty and excellency. Array thyself with glory and beauty. Thine own right hand holding Truth’s sceptre, hath saved thee. From this moment forth, view all things from the standpoint of perfection, because, thou alone art the King! Dominion is given you this day! Yea, I say Be the Single Selfhood and Reign! Reign king of all creation!” The woodman’s eyes had been opened before but now he’d opened his Heart. From out that place of knowing where is no sediment of stagnation, no darkness of reservation, no blindness of equivocation, came forth the honest sounds spoken only from the pinnacle of the mountain. “It is true! It is true! I AM the King. ‘I AM.’ The very words I whispered as tinkling cymbals from the slopes, the same sounds I prattled in pious selfrighteousness from the plateaus, and droned as far off dreams along the pathways of desire, are but spoken finally from the mountain that Childlikeness is. It is so! I AM the King! I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now it is the eye (I) that seeth Thee, O Mind being me. This is my kingdom, my kingdom is me. My very self I see, all perfect infinity. Why, I have never seen a sight nor heard a sound but my own. Yea, the people and things I see, are not separate nor apart from me. They appear dimly, as an impostor’s judgement of the king’s infinity. The plateaus and paths below, were my woodcutter interpretation of me. The woodcutter’s role is but the shadow of me. Oh, at last, at last I see the entire universe as its existence, as this awareness I be. Truly, it has been the Father’s pleasure to give the kingdom to me. How foolish I’ve been, writhing in the role of a woodcutter, unaware of Identity. I viewed the very Self I AM and judged it; and I named it, bought it, sold it, fought it; struggled to secure it, bowed down before it, and chopped it with an axe; measured it, weighed it, entombed it in time. Gave it the life and authority that all the time were mine. The borrowed axe was borrowed from myself. The acres leased were rented from myself. The wood was cut for me alone. Every tree in the forest is mine, and every forest in the land is Thine, One Awareness Being All I AM. Now I look across the valley and see a tree, it’s me! Because when do I see it but in the Awareness I be. And how? - Seeing is being me! The tree is an attribute of loveliness Deity knows Itself to be. Yea, God-Awareness is my activity. Faithful witness of harmony, honest witness of simplicity. Eternal action of Deity. Indeed, this Now Awareness is Identity! The impostor’s judgement, had been the impostor’s agony. Woodman, reigning new king, lifts his sceptre to speak: “I have sought Truth all my life, But lo, that, that I seek I AM. No exterior law roots me evermore to an effete clay. No season binds me anymore to await the day when worms deprive me of living beauty. I

AM the King! I AM the law of my holy kingdom. As I decree so it shall be. Exterior law is annulled. No law exists but God-me. Outside is inside, inside outside. Above and below the same. Having been lifted up I see my images lifted likewise, and drawn to me. Understood, as I understand, God’s-Self to be. The Millennium begins as I understand and acknowledge the perfection all ready round about. From this time forth, dear Father being me, I will reign with justice and dignity. I will speak to myself as the one authority. I will command without congresses or councils, without ministers, magistrates or armies. To see the world’s tribulation cease, I live the Child’s transcendent Peace. It is the counsel of alrightness I listen to, the finished kingdom I see. Revealing heaven right here, to this Awareness being me. Millennium Now! Is my final decree.” Epilogue The story has been told now, listener. Yet, only one is listening. The picture has been painted, but one alone has seen it. The one, who plays this symphony, understands its harmony. The one, who listens to its melody, is the softness and the sound. Indeed, the one who reads this, is the one who has written it. For Deity, It’s Self-Awareness, and all it perceives are One – Perfect Identity! This is your melody, dear woodcutter who is king. Reign with Childlikeness! Lift up your Heart and sing! The End

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel November 1968 ON METAPHYSICAL SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS The study of metaphysics makes pompous asses of us lest we are very wary, and how few of us are wary! How is this? Because the manipulative successes that accompany the least knowledge of truth tend to strengthen our self-view as a manipulator of experience, as an applier of truth, as an artist who exercises a technique of healing his world. How easy it is to look on the wonders of Reality revealing itself and credit oneself as the healer, the demonstrator, the one who gets results, the successful practitioner, etc. to infinity! Oh, how this arrogant misidentification, this personal view of ourself, hangs on, defending its proud position, its activity, its personal opinions and especially its words! How this one is offended by any threat to its authority. He drinks the New Wine only if he can make it fit his old bottle. Why, the old nature of us isn't happy until it can make the whole world conform to a personal view of "good." Pomposity plays at being GOD. Reader, our work here in Mt. Brook is clearly defined. It is not our job to call the attention of self-righteousness to what appears as an imperious church, teacher, practitioner, minister, priest or rabbi "out there." In this matter we have but one task and that is TO BE CERTAIN THAT WE DO NOT ASSUME SUCH A DEAD POSITION OURSELVES; that WE see the absurdity of such a selfhood apart from Perfection--and then, that we be very wary that we are honest in this matter, NOT MERELY PROFESSING THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SELFRIGHTEOUSNESS WHILE WE OPERATE OUR AFFAIRS AS SUCH AN IMPOSTER. This is the insidious hypocrisy of personality! The appearance of spiritual pomposity and arrogance is everywhere to be seen, within organizations and outside them. I suspect that such pride of personal viewpoint is much more a cause of the revolt within human organization than is the unfoldment of the true Identity which cannot be bound by them. As appearances go, many who break with their church are doing so because of an ego viewpoint they are as anxious to defend and argue about as the churches are to defend theirs. So, as in all matters, WE come home to OURSELF – the Self being I. We meticulously maintain the integrity of THIS consciousness-being-I. We find the center that is THIS one I am, making certain there is no hypocritical, self-righteous beam in THIS singleness—and we do all of this HERE as the one we call I, without regard for what anyone "out there" does or doesn't do, writes or doesn't write. It is enough that we put this house in order—which we do by steadfastly LIVING the ORDER being LIFE (awareness, consciousness). THEN, as WE be the honesty WE are, we find ourselves knowing what to do about the appearances of pomposity, arrogance and unconscious delusion coming from unwitting "dogooders" who would attempt to influence us by every devious trick at their disposal. For myself, I find that this is to leave them alone entirely. I am not responsible for the actions of

others nor for the "correction" of their actions. I am responsible for my own actions ONLY, ONLY. And so it should be for each of us. *** QUESTION: "Mr. Samuel, what do you do when someone comes to Mountain Book to argue with you about your views?" ANSWER: To the best of my ability, my actions coincide with my unfoldments and I defend neither. It is pointless to argue about what I am. I am here to tell what I have found and live-not make anyone believe it. Sometimes it is difficult to articulate in ways that preclude semantic difficulties so I make every effort to communicate without a hang-up on words. This means simple words and tender illustrations that speak to the Heart; but alas, alack, metaphysical pomposity condemns simplicity as "concessions, compromises, talking down"-as if the stilted jargon of the absolutist has anything to do with this Joy one is, this Lightbeing-I that I know about and tell of as best I can. "My" activity here is not to speculate, theorize nor intellectualize but to LIVE the revelations it has been my pleasure to discover. Principle defends its position by being itself, not arguing about something it is not. As I live my unfoldments, whatever mistakes I make become clearly apparent to me and I am the first to know and benefit thereby. Very often visitors come here wanting to be told what to do. I do not tell others what to do but I am happy to tell them what I did in similar circumstances--and what I am presently doing is plain to see. Whether they "go and do likewise" is not my responsibility; whether they agree or disagree makes absolutely "no nevermind"— But how this bugs our disposition to apply the Truth! "You really don't mean that!" The hell I don't, say I. The fruits of healing, tranquility, love and happiness are the validation of this position. Reader, we find "demonstrations" beyond the wildest dream experienced by those who tend to their OWN knitting, turning to the single selfhood that awareness is, LETTING GO THE ROLE OF A PERSONAL EGO TO BE VAUNTED UP AND DEFENDED. How refreshing it is to let GOD be this life we are and let the agony of defending a separate selfhood go its not so merry way to oblivion from whence it came. *** ABOUT HUMILITY Humility has all to do with NOT being the separate selfhood, the old man, the ego, the personality. To let that one go is not to loose the Identity but to find it. It is not a position of weakness but bedrock Omnipotence itself. And all one need do to find that this is true is to unmask the pompous liar and let it go. But the sundry systems (even the "absolute" ones) as they are practiced in the world, are very strong about correcting the liar's lies yet woefully weak about lowering the boom on the liar whose role we try so hard to play. This is understandable, because the systems to arrive at what cannot be arrived at are the liar's own creation, not designed to do him in but very well geared to do battle with what will. The applicatory systems apply themselves to everything short of pin pointing that false identification, the applicator. ***

ABOUT WORDS AND ACTION Personality has most to do with intellectualizing and intellectualizing is primarily a matter of words—not actions, just words. This afternoon I held a smooth stone in my hand that existed before a single word had ever been uttered. But this is really not so remarkable since there is hardly a grain of sand or drop of water anywhere that did not exist before words. Which is the most significant: the smooth stone or the words that describe it? *** Some years ago I was honored to be the first white student of a renowned teacher in India. For fourteen days a group of us sat at the feet of this "Master" during which time he spoke not one word—not so much as a grunt—until the final day when he bade us farewell and assured us we had learned much. And I had, much to my surprise. But it took months before the seeds of those silent days began to sprout one by one revealing— that there are indeed many things for which the uptight, recondite babble of books and teachers is more a hindrance than a help. Now this is not to say that words are worthless, but only to suggest that the occasion presents itself here and now to come down from the lofty towers of metaphysical theory and begin to put some of our precepts into wholehearted, honest action. There is no one reading this essay to whom the Truth has not been revealed many times and for whom the Truth needs only to be LIVED. Additional enlightenment and its tangible experience called "healing" comes with the LIVING—that gentle meadow of soft grass just beyond the wailing wall of words. Who built this wall? The same imposter whose role we play as a selfhood apart from God. *** ABOUT THE BOOK Imagine a great book of a hundred thousand pages into which is placed every word that has ever been written about the oceans of the world. Such a volume is not beyond belief because more words than that have been written on some subjects—God, for instance. But imagine yourself studying this great tome of erudition, pondering its passages, delighting in its gentle phrases, laughing with its humor and rolling with the ebb and flow of its most absolute disclosures of the tides. Imagine yourself year after year attending group discussions, listening to lectures, attending seminars and classes on the ideas contained within this authoritative volume until that day when you have finally prevailed on the entire world that THIS book, this holy bible of the sea, is the most reliable one ever written about the oceans (or metaphysics, or...) Imagine the day you find yourself having memorized every idea, every illustration, every line and word from the first to the last—and if given an opportunity you can recite them backward and eat a

peanut butter sandwich at the same time. Imagine the pride of such an accomplishment. What an authority we will have become in the eyes of the world! Think of the places we are bound to be called on to lecture and display our wisdom! Reader, I tell you that the least minnow swimming in the sea knows more of the REAL ocean than all this. The smallest sandpiper pecking in the wet sand knows more of the TANGIBLE ocean than the authority. The little boy running barefoot along the beach can laugh with more authority than the scholar—and this authority is his without philosophic systems or words--or effort. You see, somewhere along the line we are required to put down the big book and, like children, take a swim in the ocean. Can you see this? Then do not be dissuaded by unhappy purveyors of profundity who have only read about the ocean but never heard it or felt it. *** At Lollygog we tell the story of the traveler searching for the river. He studied his maps so intently that quite without realizing it he passed over the bridge into the wilderness beyond. Then there is the story of the bud who was listening so intently to all the babble from everywhere about how to bloom that it thought the bees were figments of its closed-bud darkness, and the blue sky an illusion. Only blossoms see the sky, dear Reader—and bees don't buzz around in buds. Kindest regards from Lollygog, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel 1970s Dear Lollygog and Woodsong friend, A strange and much too rare letter this will be. First, let me thank you for your patience. The silence from Woodsong has been long and deep, and you have been kind to me. Intuitively you have understood there was a significance to the past 40 months of withdrawal. Indeed, there was. There is much to share from out the thundering silence of more than three and a half years during which time I have flouted all reasonable or logical reaction -- neither answering telephone nor mail. Refusing even to acknowledge gifts! But now, as never before, I can--I will--repay your kindness ten-fold. Just as a pilgrimage to a mountain meadow has its gentle reward, so does the voluntary withdrawal from activities that feed and fatten a mistaken sense of identity. Either we, and the world we are, withdraw voluntarily from the world the ego constructs, or we in the world suffer whatever ego-dream is sufficient to end the dreaming. Humanity's ego-world awaits greater shakings yet, but like early fruit ready to give its seed to the earth and thereby live on, so can mankind – as many who read these words acknowledge the Song that motivates them— let go the ego-limb before the shaking. Reader, please, if possible, show this letter to any scientist you may know. In particular, mathematician, particle physicist, astronomer--and the more prestigious, the better. These words will interest him because of HIS interest in the relation between deterministic and nondeterministic phenomena (his terminology--so please don't think what follows will be difficult to understand!). Most of the statements that follow are mathematically precise, provable by the very quantumized mathematics on which the entire edifice of particle physics stands. Somewhere there is a theoretical physicist to help us sound this message. The world little heeds its prophets and mystics. If a scientist should tell of an attainable Perfection to be seen through another mode of looking at things, perhaps the reversing events ahead will not seem frightening to so many. "Old think" is bottom up. New-think is top down. Old-think begins with bits and pieces and tries to put them together. New-think begins with Wholeness, Oneness, Infinity, and from this HIGH position looks roundabout and begins to understand WHY the appearance of bits and pieces. Old-think begins with the problem, judges it "bad" and struggles to get rid of it. Its solutions, often as not, lead to more problems, more anguish, more agony--as five thousand years of history attest. New-think, beginning with the conscious acknowledgment of a here and now presence of an ineffable Principle being LIFE and all things, can look directly at the problem without fear. The absence of fear allows Life's intuitive wisdom to enter conscious awareness--from the intangible UNconsciousness to the tangible consciousness, so to speak. THEN we find ourselves knowing what to do, or not do, about the problem.

Old-think starts with the sense of a personal identity that must make its way through the awful maze of people, places and things it sees around itself. New-think begins with quite another sense of identity--a much expanded self-perception. It perceives conscious awareness ITSELF to be the only Identity. That is, it starts with the awareness that PERCEIVES, or is CONSCIOUS OF the people, places and things that appear to constitute all tangibility. This expanded sense of identity is not AMONG the trees, mountains, people and things of the world. Rather, the things it sees are WITHIN itself. Even the body that seems to be doing the seeing is WITHIN perception (awareness), not outside it, else there would be no recognition of a body called "me." Therefore, new-think understands WHY Identity is not at the mercy of things, thoughts, ideas or feelings perceived. Rather, things, thoughts, ideas, feelings, sticks, stones, mountains and bones owe their very perception to US – to I – to the Awareness of Being, LIFE. Old-think is primarily intellectual, being concerned with the bits and pieces, mole hills and mountains through which its primary misconstruction, the finite body-in-time-and-space, must make its way without getting its arse busted. Bottom up thinking MUST be intellectual. It SHOULD weigh and measure the finite by every means possible--with the scientific order that reason and logic demand. All this, lest the speck in space, through its mistaken application of free will, walks in front of a Greyhound bus. New-think is primarily heart-felt. It flows from out the childlike trust (or the direct knowledge afforded by a "cosmic experience) that a "Presence" is PRESENT, else the world with all its things couldn't or wouldn't exist in the first place--and that this Presence is presently being LIFE and its AWARENESS of the world. The heart's top-down view rests in the knowledge that an ineffable Presence is tending the universe with loving care, including the LIFE that observes it. Now, listen closely. Old-think examines new-think just as it examines and judges everything else. Interestedly curious at first, amused and bemused by Something it can't quite weigh and measure in its accustomed way. Then, when this Something doesn't yield to all the rules of intellectual order, common sense and logic, comes the time of doubts and sanguine suspicions. But, for good reason! The intellect's speck-in-space identification is threatened. An intellectual dilemma develops: "If I de-emphasize this concept of myself as a speck in time and space, I'm likely to be smashed by that Greyhound bus, those thirty nine women will alienate my husband's affections and this puddin' will make weighable, measurable speck-inspace-me a fatter speck in space." Much tangible evidence supports the intellect's concern with tangibility. For ALL of us, our bottom-up thinking concludes: "New-think is without much reason or logic. It is childish and naive escapism. Furthermore, it is destructive to the speck's ordered sense of things, disrespectful and disruptive of my organizational patterns. It is communistic or selfdestructive. Oh, but I will entertain the idea for a time because it is nice to have another hole in the sand to stick my head into when this nightmarish world gets too much. If it works only a little, it will be an assist in time of trouble. Besides, it's the in-thing to know a little metaphysics. It makes some pretty sophisticated arguments in the one-upsmanship game. At best, it will make this personal sense of myself more comfortable. But should I get too wild with it, it will utterly destroy this speck-in-space me. Haven't you noticed how cold, cruel, calculating and crazy metaphysicians become?" Reader, be certain: the intellect of us ultimately deems the Child-within a threat in every way.

For every point, the heart breaks through to make, the intellect's ego construction (it’s most prized, pampered, protected theory) is certain to counter with its equal and opposite. But (listen, listen), new-think understands all this and sees the BEAUTY and PERFECTION of argumentative ignorance. Intellect understands Heart only where it makes reasonable and logical sense to understand. Ultimately, Heart comprehends all there is to know of the intellect, including its reason for existing as a surveyor of tangibility. All that was ever meant by the Millennial Age, the Messianic Era or the Ultimate Enlightenment that ends worldly age, anguish and argument, is that time when the intellect finally ends its warfare against the Heart's absence of reason and logic. Only then will there be the conscious knowledge that Heart and Intellect are ONE AWARENESS, one consciousness of the Ineffable. Inasmuch as the world is not 'out there' but within us, the Messianic experience happens HERE as I first. THEN, I-Identity (a joyful COMBINATION of Heart and Intellect, a joining of top-down and bottom-up thinking) shall look roundabout and see the God-selfhood I AM enjoying the Millennial harvest of happiness, harmony, pure peace and laughter. Hear again: The intellect is to be UNDERSTOOD, not destroyed. Heart and Intellect are the two that are one. All preventing the conscious knowledge of this fact is the Intellect's absolutely backward conception of identity. It fights for that spurious speck-in-space spoofinfous as it once fought for its immovable flat earth in the center of the universe. To the intellect and its mountains of supporting evidence, the surrender of that conception seems like death itself. The Heart knows otherwise. The earth never was flat. Spoofinfous was never more than an inverted shadow which, like all shadows, leads directly to its source. Our inside intellectualism appears tangibly as the world's scientific community. All the Millennium awaits, or needs in order to be tangibly evident, is the intellectual misperception of LIFE, understood for the purpose the misperception serves, and GIVEN UP, SURRENDERED! The intellect looses nothing! It simply gives to the tree of LIFE, the power and authority it has given its shadow. I know--because I know--we will all make this surrender in tangibility's time because no misperception exists to be surrendered in Intangibility's timelessness. The inevitable Truth of Intangible Principle must ultimately appear TANGIBLY. Truth will OUT! One way or the other, it will out--either the voluntary surrender of the personal sense of self, or whatever events are cataclysmically sufficient to end the belief that any surrender is necessary! Paradoxical? Of course. INFINITY cannot be bound to a perpetual rationality--else Infinity would not be infinite. But neither can Infinity be bound to the total exclusion of finiteness--else it would not be ALL. Hence the paradox that confronts intellectualism. Physical scientists, theoretical and practical--listen: Timewise, it is up to you folks now. Your quantum calculations and the papers you have written from them ALREADY CONFIRM THESE STATEMENTS, and some of you know it. For the briefest moment, put aside your ego defense of a pure determinism. For just a moment, step back from your proliferating pandemonium of Bernoulli shifts, J-psi's, carrier particles and their accelerators--from your quarks, charmed quarks, colored and colorless quarks--and ANTI-quarks. For just the shortest time, rest from your work microscope, telescope, pencil and paper. Your complexity of numbers and names--and the array of tangible things grown from them--are shouting at you, calling you as the ten thousand things of nature have forever called mankind to view them in their WHOLENESS, their ONENESS, their ABSOLUTE simplicity and, thereby, find the comfort to Life for which they exist.

In these final years when errors must NECESSARILY give way to Fact, the scientific community, as the world-intellect itself, is called upon to stop and examine your WHOLE science for just a time and see if the two mathematical principles upon which all your vast endeavors are built have not ALREADY disclosed the necessity for a new mode of thinking that includes the surrender of (or devaluation of) a personal sense of identity. It has. You can see it has. Some of you know it has because I've talked to you. Humanity pays little heed to its mystics and prophets but it will follow its scientists to hell and back-and that is exactly where your inattention is leading. But you can just as certainly lead the world into the Millennial era with but one strong, courageous voice from your fraternity. *** The Message these words struggle so inadequately to convey is honest and true. Inner Light has proven it so to me. There is no way to make another believe and I do not know another to disbelieve. I no longer do battle with an ego, like one with bayonet fixed, slashes shadows on a battlefield. The service ego performs is UNDERSTOOD. Like yon shadow leads straightaway to my towering pine, so ego reveals egolessness and makes it plain. Science's long investigation of the shadow has finally, if it would but notice, touched down on the Tree. I have 'seen' and 'felt' the Millennial Experience and its boggling, stunning, unassailable childlike SIMPLICITY. Now I tell of it because it seems the happy, natural thing to do. Words alone can't tell of it, of course--but What motivates them can. I do Life's bidding, and that, as it has always been, is to answer the intellect's fearsome questions--with whatever word, illustration or act that allows intellectualism to lay down its cherished ego-identity and take to itself the God-identity which has been the only real identification all the while--even as the Child-Heart of us has known from the beginning. Thank you again for your many letters during my long, long absence, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel

Excerpt from "A Guide To Awareness and Tranquillity" 
 By William Samuel (first printed in 1964 with new printings available on Amazon) THERE IS NO MYSTERY IN CHRIST!
 If one hundred theologians were asked to define Christ, they would likely give a thousand different answers. Why are there so many opinions? Because theology echoes the myriad distortions that spring from the intellect.
 Once the intellect has been subdued sufficiently to allow the Heart to be heard, we begin to get the answers; and the Heart's messages are soothing and uncomplicated, nothing like the bedevilling bamboozlement of a befuddling intellect! So, how does the Heart interpret the Christ? As simple truth! As gentle, unpretentious truth. You can spell this word with a capital or not—it is the same truth which is the Christ! The Heart reveals that "Truth" and "Christ" are identical—meaning "the same one." The dictionary defines truth as "fact; that which is; conformity to reality." "I am the truth," said Jesus Himself. "Identity-I (and not the possessor of it) am the Truth, the fact of Reality." Identity is the Christ-Truth itself. This is much too simple and unsophisticated for human theology, of course. Man has a penchant for complicating the simple. He would have the Christ range from a very literal, bleeding body named Jesus of Nazareth, to a metaphysical mystery of transcending Light and Illumination, or both. The simplicity of "Christ" and simple, lowly, unpretentious, gentle "Truth" as synonymous terms is too naive a concept for intellectual churchdom. Erudition is steeped in the esoteric, ego-building disciplines of its man-hewn theological "mysteries." The world church makes Truth one thing and Christ another; but the fact is, simple Truth (truth) itself is everything meant by the term. The Christ proclaims: "I am the Truth. I, Truth, am come to take away the untruths of the world. Behold, I am with you always. I will never leave you nor forsake you." Indeed, the Christ-Truth is here—not far off, not something we must struggle up a long, rugged mountain to reach. Let us understand this here and now!

If we can comprehend and admit that the alphabet is here or that the principle of arithmetic is here, that the harmonious principle of music is here, or that Life, this NowAwareness-I-Am, is here—then we can surely rest, stop fighting it and admit, concede, surrender to the fact that the simple truth—the Christ-Truth—concerning our rightful Identity is right here, right now, present! Are you willing to make this simple admission? Or will you deny it? The only "second coming" Truth awaits is our individual acknowledgment of its presence as our very own Identity! ******************* The mathematical fact that two plus two is four is the Christ-Truth "come to heal" the hellish, devilish notion that two plus two is not four—which, as any student will tell you, is pure "sin" on an examination paper. The student laboring over a page of problems in which a mistake appears, uncovers and corrects that mistake with the simple truth of the problem. Christ is the tender within-ness that says, "This is correct; this is right; this is so; this is how it is!" Exactly as Jesus said, the truth does not come to destroy Reality's world of images, but to fulfill it; to point it out; to edify and clarify. Consequently, truth appears to destroy the impostor-ego and his misevaluations of Deity's Universe. (But who is that one? No one! No thing!) The truth of everything—even the small and inconsequential—is the Christ! It is this simple! The human mystery is gone out of it. ******************* THE CHRIST IS HERE
 Surely, the truth that is "with us always" and "withholds himself from no man" is not so arcane and difficult that only the Illumined Elect are "saved," as mysticism teaches! Surely, the truth that says "Come unto me all who are weary" doesn't withhold itself from all but those who have suffered long years of self-immolation or have died as intellectual churchdom has taught from its conception! The truth withholds itself from naught! It is not out there somewhere else, but here, ready and available to separate fact from fiction; present to awaken mankind from his prodigal-like peregrinations around his silly misjudgments of Identity. The Christ is here this instant to show us all truth. 
 ILLUMINATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT QUESTION: Where is the truth first discovered? ANSWER: With in oneself alone.

When one turns within himself to this secret place and listens to the Heart, something is soon felt as a warmth and excitement, as a joyful Presence. This simple stirring-within is the Christ-experience. It has been called "Enlightenment" and "illumination." But, how many times this simple, tender stirring of the Heart has been overlooked, unheeded, unheralded, unappreciated, even denied, because Truth was believed to be a blinding road-to-Damascus illumination. It is no such thing. "I come when thou least expect, as a thief in the night," the Christ declares. "Behold, I stand at the door. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. I come quickly. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am with you always. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, Christ shall give thee light." ******************* LIGHT
 Inevitably, the truth puts a new light on everything because Truth and Light are the same Christ. The truth of anything is the light that dispels the darkness (ignorance) concerning it. "I am the light," says the Christ-truth. Furthermore, "I am the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Does this sound as if the Christ were something far removed, nebulous and unattainable? Or that we must await its first or second coming? -William Samuel

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THE CHILD WITHIN By William Samuel Fall 1989 The Return to Primal Simplicity When one is in the “Truth Mode” and is ready to get down to something really meaningful, here is a primary thought to consider: When we were children, our mother or father showed us a ball for the first time. Later, we heard the name “ball” given to the object and thenceforth we knew its name. Informational knowledge was added. We saw the same ball, but now, the second time, an image of the ball comes to mind when we hear its name. Later, we are instructed in color. When thought-image of the ball comes to mind, we see the ball is a red ball. It is the same ball, but the third round of sensory input allows us to know the same ball better. Still later, we see a ball twice as large. The sight of the big ball lets us know that our familiar old ball is smaller. We look and see the red ball for the fourth time, and now, via the paradox of contradistinction, it is a small, red ball. The intellect is being sharpened. Later, at kindergarten, we learn about “round” and realize for the first time that our red ball in the toy box is round. Same ball the fifth time. And then, in another year, learning the fundamentals of geometry, we discover what a sphere is. Thinking back to childhood, we see in our mind’s eye that the ball in the box is also a sphere. Same ball, sixth time. As knowledge grows, we see things differently; but note, and here is the marvelous metaphysical point for those who want to get to the root of important things—the child-heart of us saw and responded to the original unnamed ball from the very beginning. It was only the connecting names and labels that the intellect of us has had to learn in the world—until in this present generation we are overloaded with information and can’t handle it all. But, listen, listen. The Whatever in us that comprehended the original ball for the first time is the same Whatever reading these words this minute. The Whatever hasn’t gone away nor changed. Awareness is still comprehending. The original Child of us is comprehension in the act of happening—and we are It, still here to enjoy the original unnamed scene in all its first clarity and joy. This morning, I picked up Chuang Tzu, looking for something to help me say these things. Here are some of his words: The mind of a perfect man is like a mirror. It grasps nothing ... It reflects but does not hold. Therefore, the perfect man can act without effort... Do not seek fame. Do not make plans. Do not be absorbed by activities. Do not think that you know. Be aware of all that is but dwell in the infinite.

Wander where there is no path. Be all that heaven gave you, but act as though you have received nothing. Be empty, that is all. We begin as a Child, then run the gamut of necessary intellectualism, learning the names and connecting avenues to gridlock. Then, in the blithe freedom of maturity, we return to the Child and to peace. Re-turning to the Child doesn’t mean we throw away the intellect; not after sharpening it for a lifetime! But we empty it. We let it go. The more we let it go, the more it is here to do our necessary bidding. The scholar doesn’t rail at repetition, realizing there are ten thousand things to know about the ball and thousands of ways to see it. When writing A Guide to Awareness and Tranquility, I had many illustrations to make certain metaphysical (meaning intellectual) points but the space to write only a few of them. To the untrained eye and ear, “ball, small ball, large ball, red ball,” or any discussion of “round ball” or “sphere” sounds like vain repetition, particularly to the impatient old nature that thinks it knows already. Yes, these are the days for quantum information and sensory overload. The great joy that metaphysical people have in listening to lectures and seminars comes from the depth of the original Subject—especially when the study takes them back, step by step, to the original, simple Child where everything begins and ends. When we are telling our Glimpses and Glimmers, some of our friends are hearing “red” for the first time and others are examining “sphere.” Some do not remember the thrill of seeing the unnamed ball and are hoping to return to the first innocence that saw it so perfectly. They will. We all will if we want to, because the Child is still alive, right here on the Scene. We let go the intellectual sorting and contending to get back to comprehending. That’s where the true teacher takes us. Incidentally, to the uninitiated, there is much repetition in metaphysical writing. When we reread a good book, it will be a new book each time. We may perceive “ball” on the first reading, but we may not see “sphere” until the tenth. That is why a book of worth has not been read until it has been read a dozen times. Meaningful books like the Bible, the Gita, the Upanishads or the Tao Te Ching can be read hundreds of times and grow better with each reading. *** When the friends had gathered at the evening fire, Han told them, “The best instruction takes us back to the innocent first views of the child who saw the necessary things before he was prejudiced and before he learned their names. This is true instruction and is called ‘The return to primal simplicity.’ The best instruction takes us back to pristine Awareness, to the beginning, to the child.” “What about metaphysical instruction?” asked the soldier. The old man’s eyes twinkled. “Metaphysics is that giant sphere of intellectual complexity with intricate designs in many colors painted on its multifaceted surface,” Han answered solemnly and sat down. “What does that mean?” the soldier wondered aloud. “Metaphysics is complicated and intricate, as opposed to small and simple,” Lee chortled.

“Yes,” said Han, “instruction is best when it is simple and childlike and as nearly whole as possible.” With much love, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel 1988 ABOUT RITUAL AND MYTH Looking for a fence to put around the yard, one begins to see fences everywhere. Looking for flowers in bloom, one begins to see flowers everywhere. Were they there before? They were but we hadn’t really noticed. Looking for good, one finds good. Was good here before we began the looking? If God is good and God is all—and this is a rare point of agreement with all shamans of every culture, then in the final analysis, there is naught but good to see. That is, in a very literal way, the place whereon we stand is holy ground. This is the alchemy of God at work. What good is this knowledge when the world appears to be crumbling around our feet? What good are such philosophic word games when one is filled with fear and has a grind in his gut? What good is the shaman’s ritual if it doesn’t work in an applicable, practical way right here in the world’s myth? It seems to me it is time for someone to say that if it doesn’t work, it isn’t helpful at all. The religions of the world are an abysmal failure at this juncture in human history. If they have taken the moral responsibility of the world on their shoulder, why aren’t they feeding the world’s hungry? Why haven’t they taught the young people about the immorality of greed and dishonesty? If the churches are doing their thing, why is evil so apparently out of control? As we shall soon see, everything that is happening is happening for good and predestined reason. We see the failure of churches precisely because we are destined to find success within, not out there in a church or a government of people as the final authority. Everything is displaced by the subjective, limitless Self-I-Am. We eventually recognize that the ego, the objective self, is the means to understand the Self. Then, we thank the ego for the service is has rendered and welcome the Self I Am. If, at no other time we do this finally at the moment of the release of the body. Just as a night dream is sloughed off, we awaken to the Child Self, made in the image of God, and see the things of Reality with undistorted vision—even as we awaken from the night’s dream to see a in clearer perspective the things that were dreamed about. But, meanwhile, there IS a ritual that works! There IS a way to behold the miraculous! What is this ritual? What is this Way? To look for good. To anticipate good. To expect good’s unfoldment in our linear experience, every step of the way. We look for it/It, and It discloses Itself. Try this out for yourself. Prove me now herewith. Why is the anticipation of SEEING good in the world a significant part of the Equation of

things? It all boils down to that, doesn’t it? We anticipate seeing good in the world because Good is the Fact. When the world is seen fully, we see good, right here as the world. Once we anticipated selling a house when we listed it for sale. The sale itself was anticipated to be the tangible proof which we expected. We get what we expect, even when it is NOT-good. Why? That is the nature of becoming. The tangible world is the linear appearing of our ALREADY arrival as the Goal—which appears as our becoming, as our seeing more and more, as our understanding more and more. The marvel of God is this allowance which lets us move directly in the directions of our beliefs, whatever they are, until they are not beliefs any longer. The marvel of God is that God appears in nature as good happening everywhere when we expect it everywhere. The marvel of God is that, whatever our beliefs, they are real to us and are capable of producing good in our experience—which appears to some of us as a progression from not-so-good to better, and from better to really great. Finally, I suppose that one day in time, we see Good in its entirety, which is God, beyond time. Good in the world is surely God’s appearing, to be understood. The “What does it matter what happens then?” is the futility that metaphysics leads to. There is a position BEYOND the “God is all” position of metaphysics. “Does it matter what happens then?” Yes. Events happen “in time.” Time is linear, event after event. Something PRECEDES events, and that is what we are coming to understand via linear time. My human choices are based on my highest concept of good at the moment. That concept is that “God,” whatever God is, is the basis for all good, however it appears. We move in the direction of our expectations and our rituals work to the extent we believe they will. Our expectations reinforce our beliefs—whatever they are. I have not dared to move myself up to that vaunted position that I am the Being of Godhead. I’m content to be the Awareness of Godhead, constantly looking for good to unfold linearly because it has already unfolded in timelessness. I have proven for myself that THIS is why I see Good unfolding everywhere that good people are about the business of helping one another. Is this too simple? Yes, too simple for the intellect; too simple for words such as these. But then, we knew God couldn’t be such a complicated mess that only the metaphysicians could become aware of goodness, Godness. Right? It is no myth that there is a grand GOOD overspreading everything. Behind the scene of humanhood is another Scene, greater, harmonious, joyous, undivided by dualisms, unseen by human eyes but sensed by the childlike spirit within. When, in the world, I become conscious of certain colors, I looked up from my heaviness and saw those colors everywhere. They had been here all the time but went unnoticed in my blindness. When I became conscious of love. I looked up from my hatred and fear and saw love

everywhere. It was here all the time, unnoticed in my arrogant blindness. When I became conscious of the Spirit of Good that exists above and beyond my ordinary vision, I looked up from my heaviness and blindness and saw good shining from every leaf of life, from every edge of form, from every sweet surface of things. It had been here all the while but went unnoticed in spiritual blindness. Spiritual blindness is no more than the unawareness that there is another Scene behind the myth of humanhood. It is the Original Scene that has been here from the beginning. It is good. It shows forth in the human experience as good appearing in our affairs, plus our seeing that good IS going on in our daily affairs already. I know that philosophers and pompous metaphysicians argue about the nature of good. They say human good can be evil and point to the misuse of drugs. They say that human good kills us and point out the excesses of overworking, overeating, and overdrinking that dull the wits and erode the sensibilities. No one can deny those appearances here in the world. But there is Good even behind those appearances— How does “God” appear in this world of people, places and things? As good unfolding in the human experience. As good in nature and the universe. We don’t see a physical God arriving on the scene saying, “Look at Me!” Rather, we see the unseen and unknowable God making Himself known to everyone as GOOD everywhere, awaiting our simple acknowledgement so that IT may be recognized in our experience. The metaphysicians ask, “Is it Godly that good must be acknowledged before it can appear in our affairs? What kind of God is so cruel as that?” Yes, it is Godly that good awaits our acceptance before we know it is present. It is natural and good that we should grow into the acceptance of what good really is and how it is to lift us to the joys of helping others who seem less fortunate. Yes, it is Godly that we acknowledge that nature of God before we can see God’s good. In the beginning, the old nature of us could never have accepted such a sweet Simplicity to be the Answer to all. Now that we know what good is NOT, we are finally ready to accept our heritage. ABOUT HEALING Thousands of books have been written about spiritual healing. Countless articles and essays attempt to throw light on one facet or another of this fascinating subject. Words can barely touch the hem of healing, but this paper can point to insights that have been especially meaningful to me and to those who have studied with me. Metaphysics develops its own areas of difficulty. Those places are peculiar and insidious— entrapping blindspots—where those with the best intentions can walk in endless circles. This is especially true for those of us who fancy ourselves on the high road—the “God is all” road—having left our organizations (for whatever reason) before we got the rudiments of metaphysics straight. (An interesting subject by itself—how our personal arrogance [the mesense again!] had us thinking we knew so much more than the churches were willing to teach, etc.) One of the great stumbling blocks concerns the concept of “demonstrations” and the need for

them as proofs of one’s progress. That concept begins legitimately enough (“By their fruits ye shall know them”), but ends as a stultifying entrapment wherein one circles forever if he isn’t careful, looking for one healing after another until, finally, in his last years of struggle, his metaphysics crumbles in the face of fear, frustration and guilt, as if all the years of study were in vain. “Why isn't my Truth working for me now?!” is the question then. As appearances go, most of us began our study of religious metaphysics in order to (1) enjoy a more harmonious human experience and (2) learn something about Truth along the way. The Truth simply doesn’t work that way, and unfortunately, metaphysical literature doesn’t try very hard to set the record straight. The adoration of God and the discernment of Truth which this love allows are our first step and only objective. The healings, demonstrations and confirmations are the “added things” along the way. Until we get this straight, we may just as well forget about healings. When the chips are finally placed on the table, as they must be for all of us, it will be the love for God that counts and not our ability to manipulate the human scene. “And though I could move mountains, and have not love, I am nothing,” said friend Paul. Love, and love alone, permits us to see and know the delicate distinction between the empty fulfillment of a human desire (sometimes called “demonstration”) and the grand confirmation that follows the knowledge that only God/good is happening. The words here are inadequate, but your heart is understanding something, isn’t it?! Read on, expectantly. The ability to manipulate the human scene from hell to breakfast is proof of nothing real— and is usually the glue that keeps one stuck in the wrong scene. Look at the wonders the hypnotist performs. Or the psychologist. How about the chemist? Hiroshima demonstrates the physicist’s ability to manipulate matter, but what have all the manipulative machinations of these practitioners led to? Often only more anguish to be re-manipulated—and a greater desire to do it. On the other hand, the least confirmation of good in our daily affairs is a mighty declaration to (by) the PRESENCE of God-at-hand. What’s more, this good is felt right here where we are—and right now. Kindest Regards, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel Winter 1985 This is the season of the Child. The Child, not children. The Child is eternal—and is all that's real of us. Christmas represents the rediscovery of that Immortal Child that indwells us all— the veritable Christ whom the season celebrates. In the natural way of the world, the Child of us is outgrown, buried in adultery (adulthood) and all but forgotten. When we get our metaphysics straight, we become aware of the Child again. If your view of truth is not disclosing the Child you are, then it's time to get busy and find someone who can tell you what to DO. We either return to the Child or die—said all the prophets and the Christ Himself. The unbound Awareness that reads these words is the Child! When the Truth, as the Truth IS, is disclosed to us, we are lifted from the human garbage and "reborn." We rediscover the Child-I-Am and find ourselves untouched by all the years of anguish and adulthood. Right here where we are, we FEEL new ENTHUSIASM, VIGOR and EXCITEMENT! We are filled AGAIN with Glimpses and Glimmers! If your metaphysics isn't doing this for you, you are cheating yourself, denying your Heritage—and these words are exactly the Christmas gift you need. My friend, the discovery of Identity, the Christ Child we are, is just the beginning of our work. There is much, much more to do. We are not here for nothing. We are not given glimpses and glimmers just to make us feel good. Those glimpses (to use the Bible's words) are "the word of God," the "living water," and if we are not getting them and FEELING them as we did in the first days of Truth's study, something is amiss. Our glimpses of Light are the only real measure of "progress," spiritual or otherwise. If one is without zest—lukewarm, as the prophet said—there is something we must do! What? Ask me. Ask. You will get an honest answer. *** We may not like the way the world looks nor how we feel, but everything in our subjective world is happening exactly as is necessary for our awakening and Self-discovery. How our view of the world goes NOW depends absolutely on our PROGRESS in continuing Selfexamination and BEING. If one is distressed and bewildered by the things happening in the world, there is more to see, perceive, understand and DO. The world's darkness—called evil—belongs to darkness and is not what it SEEMS. How could the cicadae know that the cold blackness of earth is only part of the plan? The worm’s struggle in the dark night of the cocoon is a distant dream to the butterfly winging its way in light. The many trials and tribulations that have allowed me to write these lines with AUTHORITY have not been bad—but GOOD, for the much light they have let me see and tell of. There is no way to forgive evil in the world short of UNDERSTANDING it. I am able to forgive evil, KNOWING it is the apparent outline (delineation) of sinless Being. Knowing

that, we know what next to do in the world. Yes, we "know the Truth" of appearances first, my friend, but listen, listen: after that, WE DO FOR THE APPEARING what the Truth allows us to do. We know "there is no starvation in Truth" first, but our job isn't finished until we send a tangible sack of beans to the appearance! "Why should I feed the dream?" asks the absolute metaphysician? Because the Christ gave food for the belly as well as food for the heart. *** The darkness the worm experiences is necessary for the butterfly's emergence. The darkness of the world's dream is necessary for the comprehension of dreamless Being. The belief of life in matter, obverse in every way to the Truth of Being, is, if it is at all, necessary for the conscious recognition of Immortal Being. Therefore, it isn't "bad." Lucifer, the fallen light from heaven, was/is God's angel attempting to duplicate God's heaven and earth and claim it as his own creation. The time comes for each of us to stop playing that role. We are able to stop when we realize the human situation may be humanly awful, but it isn't evil and it isn't bad. Ultimately we are forced to forgive ourselves for believing the delusion. THEN, what we give the delusion ENDS the delusion. THEN, we perceive the divine equation and live it gloriously. God forgives our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. If, as the Bible records, God can forgive all mankind for its vain imaginings (that is, if Absolute Light can forgive its own knowledge of shadows or supposititious opposites) then I can forgive the BELIEF of ego, body and world, history and genetic input, parents and children, and everyone and EVERYTHING—thence THANK them all for the inexorable service they have rendered every step of my way! Listen, listen: When I DID, everything became new and I was like a reborn Child of God. So can those who have suffered enough of the delusion and are willing to let God be all in all— and their me-sense the nothing it is. Those who do, find the true Identity—AWARENESS, the I-EYE of God, beholding and FEELING goodness everywhere—even when the tangible body appears to be falling apart; even when the world appears to be ending; even when our humanhood and body are growing old and helpless. "What of death?" someone asks. Now listen here: The cicada in the ground knows nothing of the cicada climbing the tree— and certainly nothing of the cicada winging and singing its way through the boughs—yet it is the same life appearing in sequential forms. The blind worm that spins a cocoon can’t see the butterfly's emergence nor its fluttering feasts of nectar, but it is the same life appearing sequentially. The difference to the cicada and worm is a new dimension of light/sight. If such wonders as these happen here "on earth" right before our eyes—a single small form of life emerging into new forms, its life uninterrupted by transition from one form to the next—

what unspeakable, unthinkable wonders are in store for us when we put down the pupa and awaken to the Grand Dimension of Fountainhead and Source!? LIFE is untouched by the sad sights and sounds of the human struggle. LIFE doesn't bemoan the cicada's struggle to leave the shell behind. Life doesn't sink in sadness because the worm stretches and strains in the cocoon. Life knows the cicada's song. Life has seen the butterfly winging. Life has tasted the nectar. Life has never been separate from its Source. Live lives eternally. Yes, yes. Everything is all right, my friend. Everything is all right. And, knowing that, we send the food we have to spare where it appears people are hungry. "Whatsoever you do for the least of these..." says the Christ Light of Christmas. Season’s Joy from me! William Samuel

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG 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.

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We end the fixation with personal affairs to tend the world scene, the WHOLE scene! The grand librarian Lao Tse 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 Lao Tse 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 !2

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.

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THE CHILD WITHIN By William Samuel Spring 1991 Spring is here! The azaleas are blooming and Woodsong’s many trees have yawned, stretched, rubbed their eyes and are in full bloom. Our bees are humming and the young weeds in the backyard are singing, "We shall overcome." (I lie still in the sunshine to listen to the morning sounds but the body’s physical anguishes interfere much the way blankets interfere with the wind. I try to listen through the blanket. For a moment the bird song is clear, but within another moment the bodily feelings close most things down. There is that feeling in the gut that grinds down the sensitivities and demands attention. It is ubiquitously present and never lessens except for the sweet times the Spirit is called for and comes to the fore. There is that Spirit within me. It isn’t restrained by the bodily senses. That is, it hears without need of ears. It sees without need of eyes. It feels and enjoys without need of skin and sensations. That is the joy one longs for. That is the place where peace and contentment lie. That indomitable Spirit is within myself. It is within Everyman.) The bursting bud is catalytic to the tree’s "normal" state before blooming. The swelling buds breaking open, peeling back, exposing naked petals to the light may very well seem painful to the tree should it compare one feeling to the other - one "normal," one "abnormal," one to be maintained, the other to be resisted and healed. (It is the quiet Spirit that brings up glimpses that may be written. I get up, go to the keyboard and try. The body fights back and it isn’t long until something grows tired and overcomes the thought that might have been written.) But the bud bursts anyway and the tree contains the strength to get through its ordeal - an agony soon to be seen in the new light as no real ordeal at all, but a normal aspect of its own unfoldment. (Then I pause, dose my eyes and rest on the arms of the chair in quietness, listening, awaiting the Spirit and its strength again. The sunshine felt good this morning. The stillness let me hear the birds for a time, hear the wind and gamer this little thought of the indomitable Spirit within each of us.) Truth is catalytic and cataclysmic to the world’s "normal" view of things. Upheaval and turmoil are often experienced when one turns "within" to the Real. But this upheaval relates only to the old view of things, not to the new. The strength to get through these periods of turmoil is built within us and we get through, despite our attempts not to bloom; despite our attempts, out of habit, to return to the old ways and despite our efforts to personalize everything. (Yesterday was one of those hard days when the heaviness was overpowering and nothing seemed to help. I gave up and went to bed early. Then, this morning after a stint in the

sunshine and hammock, my fingers are plunking the keys without resistance. What a difference a moment’s stillness can bring. Spirit within, come forth! Bring me up! Take me over! Lift me out of this binding confining scene where a body hesitates and reacts and grows tired so quickly. The little boy wants to run and clap hands. He yearns to examine things and hunt for arrows from yesteryear. Still, for all his yearning he thanks you for these moments when the fingers hit the right keys and the sorrow is subdued and the war perhaps comes to an end.) We bloom because we have already bloomed. We unfold in time because we have already unfolded in timelessness. We appear to catch afire because we are already the Flame that Light is - and all that is necessary for this "catching" will present itself in precisely the way it should, whatever we do or don’t do. With honest love, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel October 1968 WE STUDY WITH A GENTLE TOUCH "Mr. Samuel, I have been searching for Truth with all my strength but..." The struggle to understand is damning. Excessive effort is anathema to Truth. The very one who strives with might and main to crash the gates of comprehension is the one who will NEVER find the Feast within. Crumbs, mayhap. Here a "healing," there a "demonstration," line upon line, precept upon precept here a little, there a little, but never Wisdom ITSELF. Never Realization ITSELF. The one who struggles will ever be the struggling one. The one who climbs toward Truth will ever be the climber. The one who grits his teeth, juts his jaw or argues is the metaphysical masochist who beats his head against a wall—a self-constructed wall that exists because he would insist that an ignorant identity is his present identity. That pseudo-identity and the wall of ignorance are one. Listen softly. Listen gently: whatever wig-wagging gyrations the leaf on a tree may perform, it is the tree living the leaf and the leaf is nothing of itself. The tree is the leaf. The leaf needs naught but to be itself—which it is being already in fact, through no prowess of its own. Listen again: the bud on the bush closed within itself in darkness may think it is an identity capable of independent action. It may feel it is blooming itself through its own great effort, but when the bud opens into the light of day it looks roundabout with new amazement and declares, "BUSH am I, not bud! BUSH is being all I am. BUSH is this IDENTITY, not bud, not Bill, not Ruby, and bush is being ALL I am. As a bud I am nothing of myself, at all, at all! BUSH am I, neither suffering nor afraid." Reader, do you see this? Do you see the wisdom of letting go? Do you see the stifling, selfperpetuating arrogance of viewing oneself as a bud-identity struggling to "break through"? The effort to lift ignorance up to Wisdom merely perpetuates the belief of an identity in need of an uplift. We let go excessive effort. We sit easy. We rest in the already. My quest for Identity took me many places in the world and I have studied at the feet of many "enlightened" teachers. Each in his own way said the same thing—that "perfection is already spread over the whole face of the land but men perceive it not." "I have sought Truth all my life, but lo, that that I seek, I am!" "Not with a mighty effort but with gentleness and grace." "Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Dear reader, for whatever it is worth, I tell you that REALITY, PERFECTION, JOY, HARMONY, the already Isness that the SUPERNAL is, is being the present awareness reading these words. GOD is being the awareness-I-am, this life "we" are. GOD is the responsible one; not you, not me, not us. ISNESS is this AWARENESS being "us" and

Isness ALONE is responsible for it. We begin the break with "mortal mind?" the misidentification, the "old man," "the liar from the beginning" when we admit to the empty nothingness of an ego struggling to comprehend the Truth—and acknowledge the allness the exclusive ABSOLUTENESS of God. There is nothing unenlightened about the awareness reading these words, all there is to ignorance resides in and as a role we play as a taskmaster of awareness trying to force it to do the taskmaster’s bidding. Only that ignorant taskmaster needs a "breakthrough." But like bush is being blossom, so God is being this only Identity. We stop playing the idiot to joy as the wisdom Identity is—already! ABOUT STUDY AND PERSONAL JUDGMENT As all who study with us at Lollygog know, we suggest that reading be done with a tender touch. There is nothing so profound about Reality that we need be carried away with an intellectual struggle attempting to comprehend. Wisdom is being the same consciousness that reads these words and looks outside the window at the trees moving in the wind. How intellectually profound can one be while looking into the eyes of a child? While smelling the fragrance of a flower? While soaking up the warm sunshine along a trail leading to the river bank? What is this business of analyzing, comparing, evaluating and judging? Why the flood of words to get at Truth when Truth exists without words at all? Why the volumes of hot air and print when words are but symbols of Truth in the first place? I would tell the struggler to put his books down for a time and go out into the fresh air away from the paved streets and find a new pathway to walk, and there enjoy the now-moment. Let him take the thoughts that come from that experience—or the feelings if no thoughts come— and ponder them for a time rather than his books. As we walk, we look about ourselves intently. We look at the large things—the hills, the clouds, the houses and trees. We look at the small things—the flowers, leaves, bugs, pebbles, the twists and turns of the pathway and the rivulettes fallen twigs make in the stream. Reader, consider all these things as you walk, ride or dream, and consider just who says anything about them is either good or bad! Ask yourself where judgment enters the picture. So the old barn is about to fall down—is that bad? Wouldn’t it be strange if it didn’t fall, the way the foundation has rotted away? And is that bad? What is wrong with old wood returning to the earth? Who says anything is bad? Who says the world is coming to an end? Nothing is ending along this beautiful pathway except the foolish and unnecessary practice of judgment! And shouldn’t personal judgment end? — especially when we see how glorious the unjudging view of the world is? Yes, the turn from the "world" is a turn from judgment, comparison, analyzation and evaluation. The "return" to the Father’s house is a return to tender simplicity. Not a remote simplicity, but HERE! Right here, right now! "Comprehendest thou this?" We end the hassle with words and the struggle to understand. We stop battling with intellectuality. In this work we have no need for such things. There is only to be Awareness in this NOW. The Identity being consciousness is continually "experiencing" the constant awareness of Truth on earth despite all that has been written to the contrary. It is a matter of

letting go the judge who does NOT see perfection for making imperfection of it. It is a matter of letting go intellectuality. It is a matter of being HONEST and ending the attempt to be an imposter who judges everything and then reacts to those judgments as if THEY were the Authority! *** I would tell those who are weary of the struggle to take off their shoes and walk barefoot in a cool stream. I mean nothing symbolic here. I mean to take your leather shoes off your feet and put your pinkies into a real stream and get sand between the toes the way we did as children—the way we still do as children here at Lollygog. I would tell the weary to sit right there on the bank and watch the minnows darting upstream—then watch the circles grow from a pebble tossed at a floating leaf. I would say to consider that leaf a moment. It is just a leaf being a leaf. There is peace and tranquility there. It is not struggling to alter the scene around it. Neither are the reeds nearby. There is no sadness there whether we happen by or not—whether the wind blows or doesn’t. Reader, is this too simple and naive? Intellectuality certainly thinks so—but intellectuality has failed to bring Peace; intellectuality has failed to show us Tranquility. I tell you that this simple act of naivety, this inane and childish bit of silliness (as judged by the world) will sooth the troubled breast and open the doors of the Heart to arenas the intellect knows nothing about! We do this and then find our books saying more to us than ever before. Well, enough about this. To write or read of it is only that. Oh, but to DO it is to return to childlikeness wherein the spirit soars and the Heart sings a new song of zestfulness. Take a solitary stroll and see for yourself. Regards from my hills of Alabama, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel 1971 AFTER SURRENDER COMES EXPECTANCY! Ultimately we are all brought to a total surrender—often in anguish from physical or emotional pain. For most of us, this appears as the relentless "march of time" and the accelerating approach of "death." It seems that most of us are unwilling to surrender the aging, dying human until we have no choice remaining. The holy man, the prophet, the metaphysician is not exempt from the appearances of illness in his experience. As a matter of honest fact, the study of pure metaphysics may very well exacerbate the anguishes of time, if only to let us comprehend the trust we have, or don't have, in the many Truth words we've been professing to practice over the years. In surrender, we finally see the futility of trying to change the world and all things in it. But listen. Part of the grand Mystery is this: After the surrender, we can then confidently anticipate/expect —every day, every minute—that at any moment in time we will experience another confirmation that Good is not only going to happen but is already happening somewhere in our daily human experience. The paradox is that the confirmation sometimes appears as the very change we tried to effectuate unsuccessfully before. Good often appears "out there" as someone "else" being helped by our effort in their behalf. It may also appear "within" ourselves as the correction of our own personal problems or as the sense of our own body being brought back to vigor and happiness again. Change in the world is the delineation of changelessness, much as the darkness of night lets us see the stars and the light of day. Change happens in (and IS) what the world calls time. The quantum human experience is the delineation of timelessness or Eternity. As our personal time progresses, the enduring human experience becomes a closer depiction of God's timelessness. To say this another way: Before the surrender—that is, before the naughting of the human will and ego—we try to change things for the better. After the surrender, we discover the futility of trying to change things ourselves. Rather, we begin to understand the appearances of nature and bring ourselves to work in harmony with them. We still change the wheat into bread, but we work in harmony with the principles of chemistry and physics, mixing things properly and getting them in and out of the oven on time. Surrendered, and working in harmony with nature—which means little more than doing whatever we can to help others in need—we can then ANTICIPATE the mysterious Good of Godhead in our human affairs, realizing It is everpresent already, only awaiting our lawful expectancy. How important expectancy is! In the Gospel According to Thomas we hear Jesus saying, "Let your attitude be 'On what day will the angels and prophets come to us and give us what is ours?' ..." We EXPECT inner and outer events that will confirm the presence of God's good in our experience.

On the one hand, the experience-in-time contains quantum Good coming into focus. On the other, quantum stupidity and evil also appear in order that GOOD might be understood and its opposing shadow world dismissed. People often appear as the instrument for this rising and falling of both extremes. The more self-surrendered we are, the more likely that the unpleasant things—war, illness, direful situations—are distanced from us so we are not disturbed, but we are still positioned to help the oppressed. Equally, the more nearly surrendered (self-understood) we are, the more often the Good, the delightful, the marvelous, happen within our inmost circles of interest. While people appear to be the instruments for the appearance of Good, Godhead is the Source for all that is happening. We know that the divine Ego cannot be destroyed. I cannot be sure I've seen its shadowed opposite, the human ego, destroyed either. But I have seen ego, the me-sense, UNDERSTOOD for the PURPOSE it serves, and OVERCOME thereby. When I stopped trying to destroy "the old man," I understood the old man, the ego, and perceived God's marvelous plan. Kind Regards, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel Summer 1985 OPENING THE DOOR TO LIGHT My life in this tangible world has been full of wonderful events—miracles. It wasn't always. What has made the difference? Why do some of us perceive the wonders of Life and Light while others get trapped in the world, lost in the anguish of personal affairs? The question may well be, why do some people have “ears to hear” while others seem to know nothing about the Marvel of Life? We hear teachers saying, "Let those who have ears to hear, understand." Not everyone who listens understands. What makes the difference? Recently I was asked that question, so let me write again what made the difference for me. It is the same for everyone who does likewise. Somewhere along the long line of learning, I learned that there really is a "Reality" standing behind this human sense of things. This learning required humility and childlikeness. I was brought kicking and screaming into this humility, but I do not think it must be so hard for everyone. Childlikeness is necessary for us to believe there is something grander than the scene at hand, something greater than the awesome laws of nature that put the scene here. It takes a sense of childlikeness to see beyond society and its institutions as they have developed in time and space. It takes a still deepen sense of childlikeness to see that there is (and here is the marvel of marvels!) an attainable link between ourselves and the intuited greater Reality. Listen again. Somewhere along the line, I simply found myself with a childlike belief in "God"—in that "Something beyond." As simple as that. Mind you, I didn't know WHAT God is—and still don't—but I know that God IS. Listen, listen: One will never understand what he has not yet come to believe exists. This simple but wholehearted belief was a prerequisite before anything began to happen in my troubled affairs. I have never ceased being amazed at how many seekers, including priests and practitioners, finally admit that they aren't really certain of God's existence, much less God's allness! As for what made the difference for me next, I began to pay attention to those rare voices in the world that said there is a DOOR between this world (my view of things) and the Greater World where harmony and sufficiency prevail unchallenged. I began to listen carefully to those people. I read their words and put their ideas to the living test. I wanted to believe in Something Wonderful. I confess that my human experience was so filled with personal anguish and trouble (an entire world at war and me an infantry soldier in the middle of it) that I wanted to believe there was something better, something behind my many visions of anguish. Now I have seen that everyone goes through trouble of one kind or another in world time, most of which we make for ourselves. We all do this—if for no other reason than to grow older in time to see and understand what is happening to (as) ourselves and others. None of us are exempt the world's trial by fire, though it seems that time's "justice" is often meted out poorly. The worthy are clobbered while the bastards get away with murder—or so it seems. There is a perfect reason for this appearance, but that is another subject and is

addressed in the new book. In a marvelous way (written about earlier in A GUIDE TO AWARENESS AND TRANQUILLITY,) I learned to become a non-judgmental observer of the scene at hand and began to see that the door between myself and Equanimity is OPENED under certain circumstances. By that I mean that occasionally things happened in my affairs that were more than chance, more than fate, luck, happenstance and beyond the karmic laws of cause and effect. Things happened that were beyond every mathematics odd. But I had to recognize that first and admit they were happening to me and for me. Then (here, words become more difficult) I came to the slow realization that these marvelous events were very much concerned with (connected to) my own original childlikeness. They never happened when I was puffed up with any of the passions. They didn't happen when I was trying to make them: happen. They didn’t t happen by any personal design whatever. It finally became clear to me that these Glimpses of Light—momentary as they were—were "coming from" the Scene behind the scene. It took years to comprehend how these special events that I call Glimpses were related to my own ideas of (1) who I am, (2) my interface with Godhead and (3) what I was physically doing at that time in the world—or was to do or am yet to do. The bottom line here is simple and basic: The miraculous entered my affairs when I began to believe and see that the Miraculous EXISTED and is the REAL and is concerned with my own original childlike nature in time—pre—adult. Simple as that. Apparently this takes humility because I see an entire society in the shadow-world who, agnostic at best and knowing nothing whatever of humility and Childlikeness, has its head up its own darkness, looking for Light in that acrid void. I see their religious and/or scientific leaders extolling the virtues of pragmatic realism, saying in one way or another that nothing is certain about God because "God" can't be proven. Unfortunately, my world appears to be buying and living that half-truth. But, “Ah so, as old Han would say, the scientists are at least half right. God cannot be proven by man, but, listen, listen: God is proven because GODHEAD leaps to prove Itself in our affairs, hard pressed, shaken together and running over with proof after proof upon PROOF, but only for the simple and childlike among us. The clinical psychologist reads this and mutters, "Yes, it is God—proven to the gullible and weak-minded," but that is only how it seems to one who has not yet agreed to believe in the existence of an Ineffable and its interface with one's own childlikeness still alive within him. The humble and contrite heart can SEE and BE the open door between the Real and its shadow. How do I know? I can and I did and I am. If I can, anyone can. METAPHYSICAL NOTE: These words are linear in their presentation. Those who have discovered the omni-dimensional nature of awareness know why I make such linear concession to words. The REAL exists HERE, not just beyond a closed-door of mystery that one must somehow open with much study and effort. The Light of Life is here where childlike Awareness is, coming to us in Glimpses, here a little, there a little. But, until one walks through that door of Light, to live in the Light, there SEEMS to be a veil between himself and IT—between us and happiness, success, achievement, etc. I write the parallels and analogies that allow one to understand what we are trying so mightily to tell the world. We stop worrying about the academic dualism of the words themselves. Metaphysicians are often the last to rediscover the Child within themselves; that may well be the reason Jesus railed at the scholars as he did. Subjectivism is only part of the mystery. Simplicity and childlikeness are part of it too. Love from Alabama, William Samuel If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel December 1988 THE GRANDEST GIFT OF ALL Words are waiting to be strung in a new order, a new rhythm, a new sequence never written exactly this way before. Something soft and wonderful sings in the heart of us. Something NEW and inwardly different is happening this season. Read the words that follow and listen to them softly. Something marvelous will happen for you. Why not? This is the season of It. Everyone wants to know about It, but only It can tell of It. It is the authority. Everyone wants It and has been searching for It but we all overshoot the mark until we are ready to appreciate It. At first, we didn't know It when we had It. We still have It and don’t know it—because, to the undisciplined intellect, that limiting and arrogant half of us, It doesn't seem big enough or good enough. It doesn't fulfill the lofty intellect's expectations. Oh, but It is It anyway. Something happens and It walks onto the tangible Stage. It is a Wonder. It has been called many things, but names only disguise It. What is this Something that happens? We've all had intimations of It. We were born with It. Everyone experienced It somewhere along the line. We may not have recognized It when It happened, but in retrospect, we remember the exhilaration and the softness. We remember It. It shaped our lives whether we were conscious of it or not. It came when we were children, perhaps reading or listening to stories. We have been searching for It again, ever since. It happened at our mother's side as she worked in the garden, and we still find comfort in gardens. It happened in the mountains, and the mountains forever hold us in their arms. It happened while we frolicked with playful animals and we love animals to this day. This marvelous experience of It, early in our lives, has us searching for It again, the rest of our days. When IT happened, the Child of us was alive and well. The Child within us was lively, nimble and alert, clapping hands and laughing. Now, here we are, reaching out for that Same One IT again. What is It? Listen, listen: It is a tiny moment of sweet inner lightness and delight. It is a moment of relief from the world's heaviness. It is an instant of recognition and weightless surveillance of the scene. It is a flawless moment that lets us say, "Hey, this is a fine minute! I feel all right! I feel, good! I feel joy! Everything is all right!" That's It. That goodness and lightness is IT! That’s what It is. Unfortunately, It’s no big event to the intellect of us, yet its recognition and acknowledgment is the most brimming inner understanding anyone will ever acquire --and the heart of us knows this is so. It's the grandest thing one can imagine, because, in the midst of It, suddenly everything IS all right--including the universe and all therein, including our own most personal experiences and our interface with everyone. That's all right too. The Marvel of Marvels begins as a tiny, mustard-seed of sweet, innocent peace. The conscious perception of this is the Big Bang of the Future, awaiting the world. When we recognize It, and acknowledge It, It grows and grows. It comes back again, larger, and more apparent. It returns again and again, at other unexpected moments, still larger--until it grows into the Tree of Paradise wherein the angels play.

We have all needed someone in our personal life who recognizes It and says, "That’s it! This is IT!" The It I write about is the purpose of all the human disciplines. It is the objective of the philosophies, all the religions and secret societies intended to bring us to Light. When they are successful, they bring us to this tiny moment wherein we finally recognize It for what it is—peace, simple peace. The inner delight we feel, even as we read this, is It. Here It is! Right here as the awareness reading these words. It hasn't gone away, you see. It never left us nor forsook us. We are It. It is us. It is me and thee and everyone. And, It is still right here, a tiny moment of peace in the world, ready to explode into the New World and make all things new. Now, Woodsong friends, we can stop overshooting the mark. The mark has always been a simple peace within, a feeling of quietness, a moment of lucid light wherein we finally stop missing It and say aloud, in exultation, "This is it! This is really It, this moment of peace. Everything right now is all right. No bill collectors now. No sons and daughters fussing now. No one giving us the devil right now; no one berating us; nothing intruding on this holy moment. No guilt right now." Ah so, when visitors came to Woodsong looking for the mystical conclusion of a lifetime of searching, they found It, right here as themselves. Here It is. If I could write It, I'd give It to the world for an eternal Gift. But It can’t be given. It can’t be taken. It just is. It is the Pearl of great price. It is all that is real. It's here available and acceptable to everyone equally. When we are ready, finally ready to appreciate and acknowledge It, we let go a little, we relax a little, and, in a moment of giving up, in a moment of surrender of old ideas, in a moment of letting go some of the silly preconceived notions about What It is and where It is, here It is, pouring in on us and out of us with infinite blessings! Was It here all the while? Yes, yes. Why didn't we see It? What matter! It is here now! What a wonder It is, so close, so present, yet, unseen, unaccepted, but looked for and longed for, available in the twinkling of an eye, by letting go a moment, and acknowledging It with childlike gratitude. It is a relaxing, a soft and gentle look around the scene. It is a smile and a sigh of relief. It comes with healing and Peace on Its wings. Not a peace the world understands, but we understand because we feel it. We know it. We acknowledge it. We clap hands in a moment of freedom and thanksgiving—and Something synergistic happens. Hey, you didn't know It was this simple did you? Here It is. The heart of us already knows the truth in these words. The heart inside feels something stirring. That stirring is IT! You thought it was religious? You thought it was metaphysical? You thought it came with a knowledge of all wisdom? You thought everything would change and be healed? You thought it would be something else, but It is more likely what we don’t expect. It is always MORE THAN WE COULD HAVE IMAGINED! Intellectual expectations are good, but clinging to a personal idea of it caused us to miss the mark. We wanted the blinding Road to Damascus experience. Now, we are ready! It is the joy of all-rightness. It is the recognition that Life is Good and that Good is God. That God is good and that good is everywhere, whether we stop to see it or not. It is hidden in simplicity and clothed in childlikeness. It isn't recognized by the pompous and mighty. It isn’t seen by worldly merchants, the greedy, the envious, the rich, famous or powerful. It is seen by the child-heart of us—the heart that has had enough of the distorted world and is ready for better things. It is seen by the simple, the meek and mild-mannered. It is seen by the troubled because they are ready to put their troubles down. It is seen by any and all who are willing to admit Its presence, Its simplicity and nearness. It is within us right now, only awaiting our acknowledgment. If we bring It forth, we live. Joyful Living! William Samuel If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel

1969 THE HEALING VIEW Someone writes wondering about the appearance of ill children in the world. “Why should these innocents suffer so?” he asks. Reader, ponder the following points gently. Softly listen to the heart without allowing the intellect to enter in. (The declarations of the Absolute are seldom in accord with the opinions of the world. Neither do they coincide with the usual dictates of “common sense”). On the other hand, there is no limit, there is no limit at all, to the Heart's ability to perceive the Absolute and understand it.) CONCERNING CHILDREN: God is all; perfectly so; exclusively so. All is all. There is no imperfect child in all existence. There is one child only ----------- that one being THIS Identity we are who presently reads these words. THIS simple, credulous Child-Identity-is is infinitely perfect and perfectly INFINITE. (Do those "innocents" appear outside this Awareness-Identity-is, or WITHIN us? They most certainly are not separate nor apart from the consciousness that perceives them.) How is INFINITY seen? Via SELF-delineation, including specific, tangible form. "People" are the infinite Identity Awareness is, appearing in Self-delineated form. “As I be lifted up. . .” here, perceiving the REAL and UNBOUND Child I am, then my selfdelineated form of Awareness “out there” “. . . is lifted up likewise and drawn unto me.” This Identity we are is AWARENESS, the action of Mind, God. Its "Purpose" (OUR reason for being!) is to delineate ITSELF, Deity's SELF-Awareness in action. And this is our heritage! This is our inescapable Identity, ALREADY the only fact of Allness. All is already infinite. Infinity is already all. So “I” view “people”, regardless of their appearing, as GOD's AWARENESS GOING ABOUT GOD's BUSINESS OF BEING AWARE OF THE INFINITE QUALITIES, CHARACTERISTICS AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. Can my “others” be less than this?

Can “people,” the infinite delineation of Awareness, be less than perfectly Self-conscious? This is the view that allows “me” to see wonder and beauty where “others” still see things they speak of in terms of horror, frustration or dismay. This view sees the Child-I-am, either “here” or “there”, as not guilty---as not bound by the judgements of the world---as FREE, and freely about the Father's business of Self-awareness. This view does not condemn Self for a human determination of imperfection ---and, as appearances go, this view frees and “heals” the Child-I-am “out there”. Reader, the healing purview of the Absolute is not limited to the “healers” of the world, to the “practitioners” or metaphysicians. This is your heritage as well. You are yourSELF the perfect functioning of everyone you see--even as the one in the center of the house of mirrors is the substance and form of his countless images appearing as delineations of a single selfhood. To perceive the SELF-PERFECTION of the single one at the CENTER is to joy in the harmony, the beauty and the love of Perfection's “out there” as well as “here”. Be the faithful witness! Take up your Scepter and reign! The view of the image is ever here as I. “. . and as I be lifted up. ...” said the enlightened prophet from Galilee. FROM A CONVERSATION ASKING ABOUT “PEACE” AND WHETHER OR NOT THERE IS “THE NEED TO SUFFER” Tribulations are like shadows. A shadow (the no-light that makes the light apparent) serves to lift the gaze toward the light. When we get tired of bumping our shins, we look up. Therefore, the shadows of suffering have their due, serving to remind us again of the overhead Light within which there are no shadows at all. With the bloom of understanding comes our ability to stop fearing the shadow and this is enough. Yes, this is enough. In retrospect, we may give the shadow its contradistinctory due, but we are careful not to heap honor upon the agony nor love the suffering lest we would find ourselves stuck with the agony---senseless self-flagellation---a pitfall into which many an unwary metaphysician has stumbled. ********** The agony the world so longs to be relieved of is the normal, natural grind that causes the worm to spin a cocoon of itself. The worm's repose is the longed for freedom from its spinning. On the other hand, the Peace about which I speak is the Joy that follows the butterfly's final emergence into the sunshine and the discovery of Love therein. While there is a relationship between the peace of the worm and the peace of the butterfly, what does the worm know of the butterfly's freedom? Where are the words to tell the worm of the butterfly's love? The worm cannot know. Only the butterfly can. As seems wise to it, the worm defends its view against all others and speaks of the butterfly's peace as transcendent, mystical nonsense.

“You will see,” replies the butterfly, “You will see. . . And all these things that I do shall ye do also...” ********** Oh yes, the Absolute LIVED is cataclysmic! Truth is cataclysmic to a lie. Honesty is cataclysmic to dishonesty. The falling away of the dream is not a matter of human happiness any more than the cicadae's emergency from its shell is without a sundering, splitting, hellish strain to the shell. But not to us; to the shell. Enlightenment comes as the breaking away from the shell-like HABIT of mortality. Recall a past habit that you have overcome---perhaps smoking, an itch you were constantly trying to scratch with a cigarette that never quite scratched the itch. When finally, it was decided to END the habit, what happened to the itch? IT DID NOT GO AWAY, UNTIL FIRST ITS DEMANDS INCREASED, AND ITS BELLOWING FOR ATTENTION GREW LOUDER. Such is the cataclysmic reaction, that comes with enlightenment. Within the arena of human action, the only way from the itch of habit, to the no-itch of freedom, is to view oneself HONESTLY as the Infinite Identity incapable of itching or being bound. And, certainly, to live this Identity honestly is to not scratch the itch--which brings the old habit of personality screaming to be catered to again with new disturbances intended to bring us back to the habit-bound shell of mortality. But be of good cheer, dear friend. . . The death rattles of old habit are only temporary. The no-itch, no-scratch Peace just beyond the itch is Eternal! (The approaching Alabama chigger season has nothing to do with the above selection!) ********** ALWAYS our considerations begin at the top. We "start" with the contemplation of God as ALL. We begin with Wholeness, Singleness, Completeness, Purity and Perfection. We consider the unchallenged nature of the Infinite Absolute, of That which IS, ISNESS. Our deliberations NEVER start with the problem even though it may be, and often is, the appearance of a problem that forces our considerations from a dream world into the realm of honest. Our meditative writing practices begin the same way---with a concern for the Real, not the problem. Ever our meditative deliberations are written from the viewpoint of the Infinite from the THAT which is---from the cornerstone of ISNESS---and not from the position of a human writer engaged in an exercise intended to lift up that WRITER to another level of understanding. Even though the meditative writing practice certainly appears to do just this, it is not a human sense of self becoming enlightened, but the falling away of a mistaken concept of Identity that has never been real. It is not possible to ponder the Real from the high position of the Absolute without the concomitant loss of ones sense of the unreal. How can we be aware of ISNESS and is-notness at the same moment? Yet, it is often the apparent is-not-ness that triggers the Selfdelineation of Isness to be without fear of the triggering seeming.

We remain ever wary, however, not to fall in love with the triggers but to surrender the selfflagellating false assumption that there is even a seeming selfhood apart from God who must be purified, triggered and propelled into the Kingdom. Ultimately, we come home to simple honesty, acknowledge Isness as the unchallenged ALL, and admit that "there is no way there but to BE there! For those who are willing to stop catering to a personal sense of self, that time is NOW! ********** The laural is in bloom down by the back fence. The smell of spring is everywhere. Our bees are humming and the young weeds singing "We shall overcome." Kind Regards, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel February 1969 A COURSE OF ACTION IN THE MIDST OF TURMOIL The honest action of our daily experience appears to be a gentle middle ground, a delicate balance. Consider, for instance, the cautious balance between not yielding and not contending --- or not contending and not yielding. In the human scheme of things, the refusal to yield to something we have cone to perceive as a false authority is accompanied by the world's moral demand to do battle with that authority and set it straight—always for the benefit of others, of course. Such action is the product of education and has become the intuitive reflex of a society geared to "progress". But there is another course of action open to us wherein we quietly refuse to yield to any authority but the Divine, yet we remain careful (for our own peace and the benefit of the world) not to overstep that refusal to contend with the false authority. The world holds this course in contempt and even the world's metaphysicians, by and large, attempt to rectify appearances, but our tangible freedom in daily experience will never be found outside this delicate balance. No, we do not cow before the supposed power of signs and symbols that have no power; we do not act as floor mats nor yield ourselves servants to obey the appearances of the world but neither do we take those actions that constitute a battle with the world's authority. When this delicate point is perceived and lived (and lived!) our vision of war and rebellion is ended. BY WAY OF EXPLANATION A growing portion of my mail concerns itself with this matter, as is evident in the following quotes: (1) "My children (or grandchildren) have gone wild! They are anti-establishment, anti-adult, anti-social and contemptuous of nearly everything that is conventional. What am I to do?" (2) "My organization (school, business, church, body) is woefully caught up in the dictatorial emptiness of old thinking and would attempt to enslave me thereby. What am I to do, pull up stakes or battle for an improvement in my organization?". As appearances go, our response to the second question has given rise to the appearances that motivate the first. The answer to the one is the answer to the other—but that answer does not exist out there among the rebellious youth and their destructive actions, nor with the recalcitrant, dictatorial organization so many would like to see reorganized to fit a new pattern. It has altogether to do with THIS action the reader is right here---no one else and nowhere else. One does not have to "pull up stakes" or "battle for an improvement". There is yet another course of action, a barely seen center ground upon which one my stand and find himself having cleared up both situations at once. As THIS action—WE—stop the battles with organizations, THIS awareness sees the meaning behind the world's turmoil and sees it without fear or loss of equanimity. For me it has been helpful to learn the hard lesson that challenging the pseudo-powers of the

world does not mean a battle. To challenge the authority of a power that is not God is to stand firm on the single ground of God's omnipotence, therein discovering the powerlessness of the pseudo authority—and finding it in the first-hand language of my own experience. To battle with the pseudo-authority in either action or argument is to give it (in my own experience) the very power it does not possess outside my belief that it is a power to overcome, change, heal or paste in the mouth---as if there could be a power beside God! Even then, the battle is with belief---a personal determination that a power beside God exists capable of binding us and doing us in. The faltering heart, the swollen joints, the fractious groups and warring nations are the evidence of that fictitious belief. To see the end of the mischief "there", we end the contention with our own images "here". Do you see this? It is not the people in our world who must do this, reader. Rather, this consciousness that "includes" those people does it FIRST, then we see "others" doing likewise. We be the lifted up, pristine Awareness smiling at itself HERE and find ourselves living the Christ of our Self-perceived, Self-inclusive universe smiling back from the mirror. The images of perception, whether they be institutions, people or feelings, are not the masters of the consciousness (Life) reading these words. Rather, institutions, people, feelings have their apparent existence because ISNESS (God) is aware as this awareness we are. Dominion resides where THIS one exists. To be dictated by a false authority is to yield oneself servant thereof and to sleep enslaved. To let our own images lead us around by the nose just because "they say" thus and so, is as senseless as the television set that trembles in fear that one of its images will smash the picture tube. In our daily affairs, the unchallenged slave master appears most nearly successful in smashing society. Lest we be fooled and find ourselves adding to the pictures agony rather than seeing the naught of it, we awaken to the narrow pathway between the challenge of external authority that would bind us, and doing battle with it. The present rebellion of youth will stop its senseless destructiveness and come out from its subverting, perverting nastiness only as this awareness—being-I ends its own contention with its included images. Within the cause-effect arena of mental manipulation, the appearance of a society being ripped apart by freedom demanding youth is the inevitable consequence of our own effort to elevate a mistaken sense of Self up to a Perfection that is already All. The time is ripe to stand fast as the witness of the ALLNESS we know to be the Fact of existence. We pull in the nutty reins of contention here-as-I before our images appear to stop going off halfcocked in all directions out there. We live and act the Christ-Comforter we are to our own perception of existence first. We do not save our world by doing battle with it, tearing it down, burning it up, creating doubt or suspicion, undermining it, healing it, manipulating it or trying to resign from it. We "save" it by seeing it as it is, seeing ourselves as we are, and acknowledging GOD to be the basis for all that is, has been, or could be. WHERE THE AUTHORITY IS God, the reality being this single and only AWARENESS I AM, is the authority that blooms the bud, scatters the seed and flashes its Cosmic Light around the universe. This authority has never been vested in a human organization, be it a body with organs or a smother church. Furthermore, none of us has ever been unfaithful to this Divine Authority being Identity, nor "lapsed from the faith". How, in God's name, can Identity lapse from Itself.

Undoubtedly, organizations (even as the body) perform legitimate, worthwhile services, but those services are abrogated to whatever extent the organization enslaves its members or to whatever extent we claim a position of superiority for our own appearances for our own appearances of organization. Isness, not people, is the genuine authority for individual action. The consciousness that reads these words stands as its own self-evident proof, Deity's awareness of existence. Its relationship to Being is not governed by the man-made laws of any intermediary, no matter how correctly (Divinely) authorized it is or professes to be. The communion between Reality and this consciousness—we—are is not now, and has never been, routed through any external church, philosophy, system, leader, ritual or book to include the bible. Intercourse with Reality is DIRECT, as direct as ALLNESS is ever its own SAMENESS. Enlightenment, the "mysterious agreement", is between IS and AM, the single ONE, Self-evident to and as THIS Awareness—I—am. My proof of this fact is the Light I live as, and see enlightening my Experience. The "authority of the organization", whatever its appearing, resides in That being THIS consciousness. That which presents itself as intermediary—pope, church, institution, society, bible or canon of ancient law—exists powerlessly in "us" (Me) as images of this awareness-Iam. "SO WHAT DO I DO ABOUT MEMBERSHIP IN MY COLLEGE (OR CHURCH OR BUSINESS OR WORLD)? The golden Thread of the Absolute exists still. We know because we have found it. We feel, know and see the Fact of Singleness---evidence of God's ALLNESS. We who discern the Thread are come as the savior of our own appearing, the Christ to the Experience we are. As I see it now, it makes no difference whether we are inside an organization or outside it, provided we do not feel a sense of restriction. Even then, cutting ourselves away does not mean we will find the restriction gone. It is the sense of being an identity capable of being restricted that appears to me as a "me" bound by an ailing body, oppressive organization or a flat pocketbook. The axe at the root has to do with this one's position, not the "Church’s". Identity is a matter of SELF determination and in the end, no organization, not even the body, can prevent the discovery. Therefore, I do not presume to tell any of my own images whether they should join a church or leave one. We each follow what seems the Heart-directed course of action. For myself, I once thought the wisteria vine was the most beautiful of all the flowers in the garden. As a gardener, I worked with my wisteria to the exclusion of all else and awakened one day entangled, no longer free to follow the sunlight outside the shadows. For me (though not necessarily for "thee") it seemed wise to come out and be separate from that clinging vine because I could not speak of my own identity without violating the rules to which I had willingly agreed. So I cut myself away from the organizational rules and found the more distant purview of the wisteria lovelier than ever! And more: I found the beauty of the orchid! I found the larkspur, the rose, the dandelion and the wild woodland outside the boundry of the garden! Every flower in the garden is Me and I take my nectar from any book or blossom I see I be at the moment. Only those organizations that permit such freedom can survive. In all fairness I must point out again that my entanglement with the wisteria was not the

wisteria's fault. A vine is a vine—neither good, bad, right nor wrong— but who can make wisteria into heather or a dandelion into a rose? If there isn't enough shade beneath the pine, we sit under an oak. We don't cut down the pine or strip it of its limbs. Its shade may be quite enough for the tufted titmouse or the bushy tailed squirrel. Which is easier: to play the role of a big cheese contender doing impossible (and miserable) battle with everything, or to stop playing that role and rest in the happy Already? For myself, I prefer to let pine trees be pine trees and wisteria vines be wisteria vines. If, in blaming the vine for my own entanglement, I should succeed in pulling it up by the roots, what will I have to shew for it except a hernia, a sore back and the sight of a wrecked society ripped apart by excessive zealousness? God's Phoenix of ALREADY does not have to rise from the ruins of a shattered society. It will appear to, of course, but those who know the forthright way of the middle ground—of the ALREADY INFINITE—will not be troubled as the dream’s last soliloquy is sounded, as the curtain falls with a crash and the mortal arc lights give way to the Light of the Eternal, sunshine of the Real. See you next month, William Samuel

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THE CHILD WITHIN By William Samuel June 1987 SELF-AWARENESS, THE INNER GUIDE Everything absolutely everything happening in the world today, be it nature, science, psychology or whatever—can be understood metaphysically within the context of one thought-idea. That thought-idea can be expressed in words as: Mind Aware of Itself. 1. Mind, 2. Aware, 3. of Itself. The Triune Principle again. Nothing ELSE is happening. Everything that is going on right now--or has happened throughout the history of time, for any of us, individually or collectively, is some part of the thought-idea contained in those words. Mind Aware of Itself. This is true objectively and it is true subjectively. The entire human experience is Mind’s Self-examination happening. Everything in our world is within Mind; all is within Awareness. When I hear a lecture or read a book--the same. If the lecture is absurd or the book inspiring--the same. What we hear and see and read out there is but more grist for the mill, and we turn inward to the Child-weare, to Authority Itself as our Guide in exploring and understanding this people/places/events scene. Journal tending keeps one turning to the first Guide within himself, to his own inner Selfhood, the Child, the Self-I-Am. Journal tending begins as a self-to-self soliloquy. It proceeds to a Self-to-self Soliloquy as new glimpses begin to come. Finally, as old ideas are written again and again, each time refined, sharpened and re-proven, our journals become Self-to-Self Divine Soliloquys and we begin to GIVE our journal derived insights to those who come asking about them. All who persist in meditative journal tending eventually get to the center of things and REDISCOVER the Christ Selfhood who was and is the Original Child of us. "Sam, this sounds a little like the channeling I’ve been hearing about..." Yes, yes. There are truer strains of Being which everyman is capable of hearing within himself. We can hear other personalities within us just as we can hear them on the outside when we’re having coffee with friends. Journal tending eventually introduces us to an entire array of personality types within us, and we are all of them. But the Guide we want to reach (in prayer, meditation, self-induced catatonic states or whatever) is the REAL Selfhood within us, and there is no better way to get there than through one’s own undrugged and undeluded head. We are not trying to get through to someone else who lived at another time in history. We get through to the Self of Identity WE are NOW who stands on both sides of linear time. This is the Guide that tells us what to do with the words of books, ministers, saints, teachers, and channelers. "Are you saying that the person who goes into a trance and speaks with the voice of another person is self-deluded?"

No. But if Truth can suddenly begin flowing out of the preacher’s mouth--or the channeler’s—so can NOT-Truth. Such words are untested and untried and eventually come up short. We delude ourselves if we do not test these words. There are honest channelers, of course. Priests, practitioners, rabbis and ministers who pray within themselves are also channeling in the action called intercessory prayer, especially when they listen within themselves to the Christ-Self and then, as honestly as possible, find the words for what is disclosed, write them, put whatever has been disclosed to the test, and then give to others aloud what has been revealed, lived, and proven to be good and true in the world. There ARE times when we "speak out of the Spirit" and we hear the most amazing thoughts pouring out of our mouths. This is true for ministers or anyone else. I make the caution about testing our words to those who study with me because I view them to be teachers who are soon to publish. The things we publish for our public self should be tried and true! The true teacher teaches others how to do their own "channeling" straight through to the introduction of Self to self to Self. When people depend on an external channeler, rather than their OWN inner Guide, they end up with another deluding activity on their personal scene, little different from metaphysics and/or religion preached to them by someone else. That procedure hasn’t done the job either. Even journal tending can be (and will first try to be) self-deluding for a time. But our deluded self is the ego-self that we are to understand and overcome, step by step, line upon line--which is the inevitable reward of the journal. The bottom-up understanding of "channeling" will NEVER understand the top-down view of channeling. Going within to the Original Selfhood, the Perfect and Original Child-we-are, is the CORRECT procedure that we DO with our journal tending here on the people/places/things scene. THEN we look out in the world and see all sorts of delineating procedures, ceremonies, and rituals CONFIRMING our action. The old/new fad of channeling to other people in other times as we are presently hearing so much about, is called our attention to the importance of reaching the Selfhood WE are. With much love, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel December 1971 The special significance of these NOTES will be obvious to those who have studied with me individually. Those who have not should read these words with the heart, not the intellect. Only the simplicity of heart—the open Child-Heart--really understands what words--or world events-are actually saying. It has been said that "in the Absolute" there is neither teacher nor student. Experience has shown me the following statement more nearly makes the point: THE HONEST TEACHER, STUDENT, LESSON--AND THAT WHICH MAKES THE LESSON PLAIN--ARE ALL THE SAME ONE--THE SINGLE AND ONLY CHRIST-SELFHOOD THAT IDENTITY IS, REVEALING SELF TO ITSELF; INFINITELY DISCLOSING US TO US. Webster: TEACH--"... to show HOW..." HOW TO SEE THE END OF WARFARE At the very season that symbolizes "Peace on earth, good will toward men," we hear of naught but war and rumors of war. Physical war; economic war; racial war; social, religious and institutional warfare; domestic and marital war. Under such apparent conditions, what can we DO to strengthen our intuitive knowing that Something majestic undergirds the human scene? What can we DO to gird up our faith in the general goodness of Being when, by every human measure, the fabric of mankind's society is being ripped apart in dispute, dissension, destruction, desolation, disease and death?

I found a way for myself. I found it in SIMPLICITY. I found it in the soft meadow and whispering pine grove. I found it along the country road. I found it in a simple flower that blooms along the trail. I found it in the fallen log and the moss that grows on it. I found it in the songs of young people and in the eager eyes of the gray-haired young who have lived many years. Mostly, I guess, I found IT in the whisper of my heart.

God's Nature is majestic. It shines from the laurel leaf and glistens on the frosted window pane. It sparkles in the wild bird's eye. It pulsates with the breathing seasons, a movement and a rest, a movement and a rest. Who can rest against the trunk of a tree without feeling It? Who can look UP through its branches without finding Wonder in the wonder of Nature? Yes, yes, it is important--or meaningful--to study and re-search the "Science of Christianity," but how prone the seeker of

Truth to forget that one is the Truth he searches for. One IS the wonder. One IS the Answer. One IS "the Child of the Universe," the Fruit of Being--and so is all we survey. ************* The theoretical physicist lets others put his discoveries to work. So does the theoretical "Absolutist," the Scientist, as well. He goes on and on AND ON with his inputting, never to the theoretical physicist lets others put his discoveries to work. Books may tell of the wonder of love; books may tell of the joy of giving; books may give facts about the majesty of Nature and of the processes by which the tangible maintains Its Balance, but those books are just books unless one LOVES, unless one GIVES, unless one puts the new Precept into practice and lives AS the Light his Science reveals life is. "Giving" is LIVING the Love we are. Surely, much of the "magic of Christmas" comes from the simple joy of such giving--of TANGIBLE outputting. ************ "Science," by definition, is a research and study for "the orderly presentation of knowledge." But the Arts are the LIVING of that discovered Self-knowledge, not just the "absolute" profession that piously, pompously pontificates that "nothing ELSE could be lived REALLY!"; "Things are not as they APPEAR!"; or that "This is just a dream going on." Yes, the "Absolute Science" that reveals the validity of these statements is requisite, but so is Absolute ART--the here and now conscious LIVING the Light our Science discloses Identity to be. How does one live the Absolute? Oh, thousands of philosophic books, spanning all history, have failed to answer this question to the satisfaction of the seeking scientist or the professing purist. Yet, it can be answered. It has, but not in words alone. One lives the Absolute by acknowledging the Self-same life-"he"-is to be GOD- LIFE Itself, and then, then, then, acting in accord with the simplicity of this holy Fact. ************ The continual search and RE-search for the SCIENCE OF BEING is, by its nature, an inputting process. Reading books, listening to lectures and tapes is meaningful and necessary, but it is a gathering, getting action. Science (science) and its study is primarily an examining, receiving, inputting process, with hardly a thought about TANGIBLE giving. Among the most miserable patients practitioners have are not those new to metaphysics, but often the long-time “student of Science”—those who have been studying for years and years, only to find their crutch crumbling beneath them, failing to give comfort of old. There is a sentence I've heard a thousand variations of, it goes something like this: "Oh! How can this HAPPEN to me after all my years of faithful, devoted study?" The time has come for that one to begin his living-giving of his long study. The coldness of science/Science and the growing distrust thereof is directly related to the failure to maintain the balance between the inputting nature of study and the outputting of putting that

study into living! This appears tangibly (the human scene) as a society unable to keep pace with its technology, very near the brink of being crushed by it. THIS is the imbalance behind the appearance of warfare and dispute! ************ Christmas time is Christ Truth time and the Christ Truth is SIMPLE. If it is simple and easily understood. It is not profound—except to the old nature of us. It is not mysterious -except to the old-think of us. It is neither abstruse nor exclusively intellectual--except to the "old man" of us. We CAN live it! "My way is simple," said the One "He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity," said another. "I will make my words KNOWN unto you." "I am gentle and humblehearted." "My yoke is easy." "My load is light." Does this sound like scientific profundity to wrestle with and fight? Does this sound like mysterious paradoxes to intellectually struggle with? Does this sound like the mysticism of the "Psychic"?--of "levels" and "states and stages of consciousness"? Love says, "I am gentle..." Love is the Teacher and the Teacher is gentle love but do not be fooled by gentleness nor angry with it when you see and feel its sharpness in your affairs. Gentleness, like water, wears away the hardest, most cherished illusions. Gentleness leads one, often unwittingly, through the fiery furnace of self- destruction wherein Self is. It is the gentleness of Heart that eventually forces us to stand up like a man and FACE the lion--should we think strength lies with the lion rather than the Self. The Teacher who "shows HOW" is the one who knows there is neither teacher nor student and then acts as this knowledge allows him to act--which most certainly will appear tangibly as a teacher teaching. But THIS one knows what he is about. And THIS one knows the stone may very well curse the water that erodes it. This one knows that "error" lashes whatever pulls the props from under it--and that many flee at the lions first lunge cursing the Science (or Teacher) that insists they LIVE the Strength they are. The honest Teacher knows he is often the dark night by means of which the Light of Morning is FULLY comprehended and understood beyond intellectualism. To help make this point clear I've written a story about a little lightning bug named Elijah--'Lil 'Lijah, the luminous lepidopterous. Lepidopterous, I think, is the scientific name for a bug, and it is used here for those who insist on a scientific statement of bugs. 'Lijah wore a mantle of distress within himself; not an uncommon ailment. He wanted to know about himself. Who he was. Why he was. What he was. While his companions seemed content to flit here and there, concerned with naught but their flitting, 'Lijah was driven by his inner disquiet, a strange discontent, to ask questions of himself and of the universe wherein he flitted. Day after day, in the blazing light of the high sun, 'Lijah flitted from up-draft to down-draft, from

East wind to West wind, searching for himself but finding few answers. "Who am I?" he asked again and again, bouncing from breeze to breeze. The sun was bright and hot; the quest long and wearisome. The more Elijah looked the less he found. The more he listened, the less he heard. The more he asked, the more confusing and conflicting the half-answers he heard. One day, excessively weighted by his mantle of yearning, filled with despair and exhausted, little luminous 'Lijah gave up the search. "It is useless," he said "It is hopeless. I have found many things but I have not found it ALL. With every question answered, ten more come to be asked. What is this stuff about me being OMNISCIENT? Anyway, who cares but me? I shall quit this foolish search forever." Whereupon Elijah folded his wings in mid-flight and fell headlong into a big, black hole. The hole was as deep as his despair and as dark, as his anguish. The hole was as awful as his agony, as gruesome as the grind in his tummy. 'Lijah had thought he was unhappy before, but now his gloom knew no bounds! "Dear God, this is worse!" said he. "This is absolute hell. Death is preferable to this! What has this incessant searching brought me to? Cursed is the devil, God or man, who started me on such a quest! Self-discovery? Bah! Humbug!" Oh, but then it happened. IT happened! In that awful darkness Elijah blinked and found his fanny. Elijah found his blooming, blinking, ever-present rear end! He found the very Light he was! Oh, the brightness of himself! The strength and power of the ALL of himself! In one twinkle of a blink, thanks to the dark hole of no-light, luminous 'Lijah could SEE the yearned for Self of himself. "Great glory, I have FOUND myself! I am the Light of the world! The darkness of the great void has allowed me to see who and what I am, and, hallelujah, all the darkness of the universe cannot subdue the light of my own behinnie!" ************ Question: Was the darkness of the void good or evil? Was it something to be avoided? Was it something to disclaim the reality of? Was it something to argue and contend with take to court, punish, or deny the scientific absoluteness of? Or rather, did it not serve a purpose in the WHOLE (Infinite) scheme of things? And, once it had served its purpose, was not the fear gone out of the darkness and the grind gone out of the belly? Was not the darkness the means by which the Light became FULLY Self-evident beyond vicarious intellectualism? QUESTION: Are not the Symphony andthe notes which make the Symphony clearly understood all one SYMPHONY? Are not the letters of the alphabet, no matter what word they spell OR MISSPELL, all one ALPHABET? Therefore, are not the Light and the "darkness" that makes the Light Self-evident ALL ONE LIGHT? Yes! Yes! The heart of the Child knows this is so. “In those days the day and the night shall be the same” said John. “In those days, there shall be no more warfare.” Jesus was asked, “WHEN shall we see the kingdom” Answered he, “When you make the two into a single ONE.”

Peace and warfare, Light and darkness, are all one LIGHT made "plain upon the tables the power resides as LIGHT. The delineating darkness of density is not "bad." It serves its purpose to make Light fully comprehended. All the darkness of the universe cannot subdue the least twinkle of a firefly's butterbean. Little Elijah, luminous lepidopterous, gives his mantle to Us. ************ Christmas again! "The sweet season," as Walt Whitman said. But all time is Christmas time. The temporal day only marks the Christ-Light awakened to; not an historic Christ indwelling a finite body. The Light of Christ is the Truth of Identity, and Christmas marks our recognition of this fact. It is our own Holy day, Holiday Supreme--indwelling Light being All, Light of all, each, everyone and everything. The day itself is no more unique than any other day. Every Moment is Truth's Moment. Every Season marks the Christ in a special way. Every month, every week, every day, every minute. Take this moment for instance outside, a yellow leaf falls softly, silently. A little tree's gift to the earth. Spirit's reciprocity. Oh, but this is not to deny there is a very special happiness about the Holiday Season! It seems a time when a greater portion of our tangible selfhood begins to think of others; when we subdue the fictitious Ebenezer for a spell; when we take time to put twinkles on the branches of green cedars and in the eyes of Tiny Tims. This is the time we acknowledge and admit the twinkle in the gentle eyes of Agelessness. This, of all seasons, can be a time when our alone ones can be shown that "alone" means All One-- and "lonely" means Only. "It is a movement and a rest," said the Christmas Light. Yes, this is the season for coming home. This is the season of the Prodigal's return wherein he finds he has never been away. This is the time the family gathers around the hearth. Somehow, Heart and hearth go together. Somehow, laughter and tears go together. Somehow, warm embraces and runny, red noses are a part of the Holiday Scene. And while this is a time for that, it is always, always time for that. When is a twinkle out of season? When are the tender tears of Happiness out of style? When is Love not Living Teacher on the Scene? And since when are "years" naught but the Child lived longer? So, while the trees rest and families come together again, we take special note of the Peace on earth this Whole, Holy NOW is. We know that the tassels and tinsel, the plum pudding and red noses are all for us, for Us. SPIRIT is the spirit of Christmas, and Spirit is the Us of us. Disputes and desolation are PEACE "made plain upon the tables." We LIVE them by their right Name. The need for warfare's delineation is ENDED. We live the Christ-Light of Love we are, and the Millennium continues. Love and peace from my Mountain Brook Meadow, Bill Samuel If you have enjoyed these PDFs of Woodsong Journals and wish to support our efforts in keeping William Samuel's message available, your donations are very much appreciated. Visit williamsamuel.com for more information. © Sandy Jones, Literary Executor for William Samuel.

NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel November 1969 The Teacher Illustration It was a solemn dignified gathering of deeply concerned people assembled in near secret to learn the Truth. More than that. They were assembled, they believed, to hear the secrets of the universe. Indeed, at long last they were face to face with the Absolute, the Ultimate, finally to hear those gems of wisdom for which Prince and Pauper have struggled since the beginning of time. Reader, imagine the dignity of it all; the solemnity the air of expectancy that filled the air as The Teacher entered. An electrified hush descended. The room was like a cathedral. Every eye was upon The Teacher and there were those who saw his aura, there were those who saw the angels that hovered near. The teacher sat down and prepared to speak. The elect, with bated breath, leaned forward and prepared to catch the Teacher's every word. The time before he spoke seemed interminable, but finally the Teacher of Righteousness opened his mouth and taught them saying, "Today, I am wearing a set of fuzzy underwear." *** The honest philosophy, book, institution or "teacher" successfully communicates the Fact that GOD (Isness, Reality, the Ineffable) is the Value, not the teacher, church or philosophy. The Awareness that reads these words is the REAL. The Images it contains are simply images-without-value being images without value, despite their imposing titles and heralded labels. There is no infallible authority "out there?” Inevitably, every "teacher" who comes to "instruct" us is seen to be "a little lower than the angels"—that is, without more or less I importance than any other experience being this Now-I-am. "The Teacher" jolted his audience no doubt—the room must have echoed with dropped teeth and embarrassed chortles but the statement was no more oblique than many another we have heard. The gentle Galilean's message of pure love included the strong admonition, "He who does not hate his mother and father will not be able to be a disciple to Me"—meaning, of course, to see images as just images, none to be venerated more or less than another. A hard teaching? Not really. The devaluation of images lasts only for a time before the transcending Love appears wherein everyone and everything is apprehended in grand new Light and our sense of value begins to balance. It seems difficult for teachers and institutions to be honest in this matter of image value. There is nothing accurate about the ego that wants a following. It sees its "others" as ignorance to whom it can impart its much wisdom and years of learning. Can such a view really be honest? Can it tell the image-out-there of its pristine perfection and alreadywisdom? It cannot, even though it professes to with much Self-righteousness—and may even

believe it is doing so. When we start looking up to one out there as greater than Identity-here-as-Awareness, it might do us well to remember the illustration of the fuzzy underwear. God who lives this Life-here-as-I (identity) is the primal One. We stop delegating our Divine Authority when we stop giving images an undue value. *** Does this mean that we are not still to enjoy the flower, the mountain or the children who scamper up their slopes to pick them? Oh, no. We enjoy them more than ever. How could this be so? Because those sights and sounds that were despised before are seen to be quite something else—and enjoyed. Those things that we were fearful of before are found to be harmless— and enjoyed. And even those sights, sounds and feelings that were overly cherished are seen in a far lovelier light than our overvaluation and its consequent possessiveness would have allowed. *** A CONVERSATION ABOUT ILLUMINATION Is there really such an experience as cosmic consciousness or illumination? Yes. Isn't it a psychotic sort of thing, chemically induced perhaps? Many explanations have been made attempting to explain it. Could it be self-hypnosis? That has been suggested as a possible answer also. What do you think it is? A natural event, like a flower blooming. Does everyone have this experience? Sooner or later, I think. Then, why isn't it generally known? The event is seldom recognized for what it is.

What is it? As I said—a natural event like the bud bursting; like the cicadae emerging from the darkness. I understand it is a common event with you and trios a who study with you. It appears to be. If it is a natural event, as you say, why does it happen during the time people are studying with you? Perhaps this study represents that point at which the cicadae emerges from the darkness, or the time and place the buds are taken from the refrigerator and allowed to bloom in the warmth of Love. It might very well be because this work marks the end of the inputting and the start of the outputting. I don't understand. "Illumination" is a breakout into the Real where one has really been all the while. Circumstances or studies that reduce the density of the unreal facilitate the breakout which is a moment of consciously expanding awareness. I thought you said it was a natural event. The fiction is not natural. It is divinely natural to become aware of this Fact and begin to live the Real—which is to begin letting the fiction go. *** Question: What can I do about the appearance of turmoil in the world? It is inevitable that there appear to be the dissolution of all that stands between ourselves and a full knowledge of the Truth. Inasmuch as the world appears to reside within the awarenesswe-are, the dissolution that began within appears outwardly as the worlds search for freedom and the upheaval it brings. Our inner turmoil never ends until such time as we recon Identity as ALREADY arrived and end our attempt to lift an incorrect self-concept up to the Real. *** If we are to see the world scene disclose the underlying, overlying Harmony "that is even now spread over the whole face of the land, but men perceive it not", then we must MAKE this re-identification in fact and end the nonsense of acting out from the position of a sponge trying to soak up wisdom. To do what? To steadfastly reckon Self from the standpoint of Perfections. No other view will bring Peace so quickly to the human scene. The "final days" (and this is all that is significantly meant by those ominous words) will bring the world’s final enlightenment. It happens that these days are in progress already. The light is dawning because it is here already. New ideas are coming into focus and old landmarks are passing away. Cherished notions, some of them the very pillars of society, are being shaken to the roots. We are finding most of them built on foundations of sand. Institutions charged with the revelation of God, Truth, Reality, are found not to be giving freedom to their charges

but withholding it; not dispensing Light but darkness; not unbinding men, but shackling them; not seeking out the new Rays of Light and investigating them impartially, but, for conscious or unconscious reasons of self-preservation, doing everything in their power to keep new Light from being seen—for fear, say they, their present Light will be adulterated. As if the Truth needed protecting! So now, to answer this question still again from another direction. We come to see the Light which reveals that we are the Light. I have found that acting this Identity "on faith" first helped disclose the Light I am that removes every doubt. And this Light of Self-discovery blooms in illumination and insight -- fragile, fragrant, a flowery display of beauty and love divine. Sparks! Enthusiasm! Zest! Strength and youth flooding back! The bloom of Light Divine—the simple Love that is Identity, revealed. *** Somewhere along the line I have found it wise to pass along the rays of Light that have revealed themselves within (and as) this Experience I am. But, I have learned not to pass them along too quickly. It is one thing to have the scales fall from the intellectual perception of a point—and to shout from the rooftops about that! —but something else again to live the new point, allowing it to work its wonders within this experience—and then to tell of THAT. Or, it may be put like this: It is one thing to find the candle and the match in the darkness and shout in ecstasy—but quite another to LIGHT the candle and let that light indicate its own presence. Unfortunately, in most metaphysical circles the preaching begins with the discovery of the candle's actuality. Too soon, too soon, "What you hear in one ear," said Jesus in one of his lessor known statements, "when you hear it confirmed in your other ear THAT preach ye from the rooftops." Between the Light and the living of it, our eyes shine with enthusiasm but our discourse is best restrained to "Yea, Yea, Nay, Nay. " *** The Light of Illumination has been called the Flower of Inspiration. Many have found and are finding this Flower with Me. Those of you who have, listen softly lest you be dismayed. Listen, listen: the fragile flower fades and falls. It is not intended that we stand ON that Mountain forever— so it seems that the Zest diminishes, the Enthusiasm lags. Lest we are wary, we grieve the loss of the Light and wonder how it is that we cannot maintain the wonders of it. We are often filled with despair and think we are back where we started—or lower. Listen again: It happens that the fruit follows the blossom. It follows surely and certainly, but the flower falls first, even as with an apple tree. The fruit is not the wild spark of illumination, but a full-bodied, growing new experience filled with new Substance, sweet and pure. Inside this fruit are the seeds after our own kind, seeds for new ground, seeds that "go and do likewise," THESE are the ones our Father has given us, the ones we are faithful to until they scatter their own seed and care for their own.

What have I written, here? That the Fire is not always ablaze and when it is not we should not fall back into a fit of dejection longing for blaze after blaze—or for another bloom and yet another. We joy in the knowledge that the Vine is a mass of blossoms during its season—and they are everyone the Vine’s. Vine am I! Vine and I! We are not expecting the miracle of Light. We are the Miracle of Light. Kindest regards this month from the beautiful hills and pine trees of California, William Samuel

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THE CHILD WITHIN By William Samuel Spring 1989 Mind and thinking are two that are one, yet thinking is clearly subservient to Mind, within which it functions. Breath and breathing are two that are one, yet breathing is clearly subservient to breath, within which it functions effortlessly. If one equates breathing with thinking, he perceives that at any given moment, he is either exhaling or inhaling, and that, akin and alike, is the difference between male and female. Together, each includes the other and needs the other, whereas separately, they long to be fulfilled within the other, and they are separate only in any given moment of time. Mind (God) and thinking (man) are separate only in time, longing for the fulfillment of the other. We let go separateness and equally let go the given moment to be fulfilled in God. Thinking comes to rest in Mind where it has been all the while. It is the separate longing of thinking to be all that Mind is that has led to the inferior state wherein thinking is filled with guilt instead of Mind. We let go the longing to know what can't be known, and come to rest in Mind. We let thinking know what thinking is, then it knows as it is known. Thinking is not the whole of Mind but Mind is the whole of thinking. When thinking knows itself fully, the Tree of Life returns to rest in Mind. Never can thinking know all that God is but it knows most when it knows what thinking is. The attempt to know what God knows leads to frustration and woe but the attempt to rest in Mind leads straight to eternal life. How do I know this is so? If I rest in breathing, I breathe gently in and out, out and in, without taking thought and without suffering. If I take aim to make breathing equal to breath, I have two: exhaling and inhaling. I identify as one or the other and make a given moment in time. Identified as one or the other, I look for fulfillment in the other, rather than in Breath where I had fulfillment without anguish or suffering. But while looking for fulfillment in either exhaling or inhaling, I find myself in physical need, suffering or not suffering and all degrees between. Aren't mankind's anguishes wrapped up in gender wants and wishes, pains, joys and fulfillments that last an instant? Where is peace in that? Thinking is divided into two, then four, then eight, sixteen, thirty two, sixty four, one hundred and twenty eight and to gridlock and woe. So, I stop. I return to Source. I rest where I began. I find peace. I thank Godhead for God and I. I embrace my world and bless it. I hold it sacred for Godhead. *** A cosmology of the original exegesis: Before the Beginning, Beingness was. Beingness knows Itself fully and perfectly. Knowingness, therefore, is implanted within Beingness and Beingness within Knowingness. These two are one. These two are only. Being said to its own Self-Knowing, "Show me that I know I am. Or, prove to Me I know

what I am. Or, show Me that I am that I am." In that day, finite light came into being and that light became the measure of Light; time and space were born and Knowing came alive in The Discipline. The Discipline is the learning of Knowing, the "human experience" in time. Knowing, permeated by Being, is unable to see the entirety of Being without first knowing what Knowing is. Knowing looks out with its limited light at the qualities and attributes of Being. It looks out also at the qualities and attributes of Knowing. Looking out and looking in, listening out and listening in, speaking out and speaking in, feeling out and feeling in-sensing or living--is the Discipline in process. Living is knowing. Knowing is living. Knowing and Living are one Being, Self-known in Self- examination. Identity is this and there is no other Identity. Life is this and there is no other Life. Existence is this and there is no other existence. *** The Discipline is motivated by the desire to know the Self. Knowing, in process, is necessarily incomplete. Incomplete Knowing, (like inhaling or exhaling) seems separate from Being, and desires to be all that Being is. That desire is called the mist. Desire obfuscates, prolongs and educates the Discipline. All the while, limited light is merely the Image of Light. Limited light moves but the Light it measures doesn't move at all. The mist deprives Knowing of directly sensing Being. Sensing, therefore, does not see It, but sees only the qualities and attributes of It, often believing them to be It. The qualities and attributes are symbols of It and It is Self-known from the symbols. To understand the symbols is to understand the body, but the body is not in the symbols. To understand the body is to understand It, but It is not in the body. It has been this way since the beginning of time and It will be this way until the end of time. Time ends when the sensing body ends its sensing. Time is in It but It is not in time. To know It is to know Male and Female. Male and Female are in It and It is in Male and Female. These three are One. Male is Female and Female is Male. These two are one. Male is male and female is female and these two are two. These two are the symbols of the One. They exist in the One but the One is real and the symbols pass away. Male and Female are eternal. Identity is eternally that. The universe is a macrocosm of the Body and the body is a microcosm of the universe. The Body is in the body and the body is in the Body but only the Body is real. The Body has been called Soul and it is eternal. The body is neither real nor unreal. It is an image of the Body. The universe is neither real nor unreal. It is an image of the Body. The Image lives and the image perishes. Knowing lives; the known perishes. The Known is eternal. Paradox is real; simplicity is a paradox. Simplicity is called "the Child." The Child is eternal. The child becomes an adult in order to understand the Child. The adult perishes; the Child lives forever. Life is the Image of Being. The resurrection is the reemergence of the eternal Child of God from out the limits of limited light. The Universe is a macrocosm/microcosm of the body of Life/Being/Knowing.

*** Han said, "This is the order of the things as it has been shown to me. My history as a human picks up from there. My discipline is to learn the Real. The Real is the Child within. The Child re-emerges as I live the Discipline again and again. The Discipline is neither real nor unreal, but clearly it exists. The human experience is neither real nor unreal, but clearly it exists. What exists is necessary and for very good reason. The Discipline is to determine that. The Child of myself is REAL because it has found Me and I it. It is Me. I am It. I am the Child of God." Han said, "Then, I was shown the Great Equation." "The equation goes by many names. I am not the first to find it or learn its secrets. It has been spoken of since the beginning. It has been obvious from the beginning, seen by few and lived by fewer. It becomes obvious when it is lived but it must be lived before it is obvious and understood to be the Way." "The Equation is like a door I passed through in order to find what lies beyond the door. I did not know what was beyond until I went through the door. Being is on both sides of the door but Being is Self-known beyond the door. I do not know anyone who knows aught about It who has not been through the door. Many have been through the door who do not know they have passed through. None have passed through until they have been through it, top and bottom, heaven and earth, root and branch, first and last, male and female." What is meant by this? "We look at nature and find out. We look at ourselves and find what is meant by this. But, we live this before we know what is meant. We pass through the Door before we know what passing through the Door means. The door is called The Way. The Way is in It. It is in The Way. The Way strips us of the mist. We pass through the door and the mist lifts. NOW the Secret, the Equation, begins to disclose Itself. The Secret is It. It is the Secret. To It, there is no secret. To It there is no mist." Ordinary people live half the equation. (When they hear of the equation, they laugh at it and scoff at the one who told them) Superior people live half the equation. (When they hear of the equation, they abuse it, and believe they have always known it. They distrust the one who told them of it) Ignorant people live neither half of the equation. (They try to humiliate the one who tells them) Childlike people live the entire equation. (They love the one who tells them of it and honor that one exactly as that one honors them) These four kinds of people are myself and, from time to time, I am each of these, but the Childlike discover Life and are eternal. The Child has much to do. The Child has a mission. He looks roundabout Himself and lives The Equation, the Door, the Way. He shows Himself how to pass through the discipline to the door of Himself. He lives the equation as long as he looks roundabout. He gives to Himself and himself.

He gives his life to save himself. He saves himself by living the equation and telling of it to those who can hear. To whom does he tell of the Equation? To Images of Himself. Who are the Images of Himself? All who are willing to go through the Door. But The Child speaks of the Equation itself only to those who are living it, for they are the ones with ears to hear it." *** Smiling at the little group, Han said, "If these words are a mystery, one doesn't know the Equation even though he may be living it. But, if he is living the Equation, he will learn the mystery of these words and find them precise and true. These will live Life more abundantly. These are those ‘whom my Father hath given to me.’"

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NOTES FROM LOLLYGOG By William Samuel May 1970 THE TRUTH ABOUT IDENTITY WE DO NOT HAVE TO LEARN TRUTH! This is a notion to be discarded. Whether we like it or not, we are learning that we already ARE the Truth. There is a whale of a difference. Just the knowledge of this fact speeds Self-discovery. How? It has us properly identified. Since I am the Truth, I am not one who is searching FOR the Truth. AS the Truth, I am seeking, finding and becoming aware of the many vistas of my Self-identification. As one attempting to learn the Truth as if it were separate and apart from myself, I am forever falling into the intellectual outhouse of confusion and anguish. Either we will forsake that identification in time or watch ourselves attempt to live its destruction. That one is already swimming in polluted water. *** With that in mind, the following statements can be understood easily: It is not WHAT we read that matters so much as the knowledge of WHO reads; but if WHAT we read tells us honestly WHO reads, this is to be preferred to the WHAT that indicates (even by inference) that we are a struggling, imperfect, ignorant mortal identity searching for wisdom. However, once we know who reads, the WHAT can be seen for whatever value it may appear to have, even if it is written from the total absence of a knowledge of WHO really reads. The literature to be wary of is that which professes to be "absolute" while addressing itself to unawakened mortals. If we cannot find something to read that speaks to the Self as the Self is, then we should get busy and write it—and put it into our own understood language of simple honesty. *** We are not struggling to put off the old man. We are about the effortless business of letting go the BELIEF of an old man, a mortal identity. This is to end the belief that beliefs are really going on—and THEN to find ourselves comprehending what "appearances" are. God would be a sadist if ones saving grace depended on a detailed knowledge of metaphysics. What kind of God would require continual delving into the abstruse and arcane lore of mysticism or metaphysics as a passport to a Reality that is already ONLY and unchallenged? (Metaphysicians do not call metaphysics "mystical" but virtually everyone else on earth does. Even though we might not call it mysticism, its finer points apparently remain a big mystery to most metaphysicians. "When neither he who speaks nor he who

listens has any idea what is being said," said Voltaire, "that is metaphysics.") Reading metaphysical literature can be extremely worthwhile, but it is putting the cart before the horse if one thinks that arduous study is the final door opener to the ultimate wisdom. Academic study is and has ever been the intellect's conditioner—consideration of the bits and pieces of the whole; the measure of the parts; a concern for the relationships of characteristics – and all of this is necessary; all of this is an aspect of Wisdom—but the survey of the Whole and of the transcendent arena which lies above and beyond the fine points of metaphysics (or any other intellectual study) has to do with the HEART, not the processes of mentation. In the "outer" world the philosopher discovers and science rushes to confirm. In the inner world, intellect confirms the Heart's Self-discoveries. "Then why is the 'enlightened' literature of the world aimed toward the religious mystic and metaphysician?" Because the "metaphysical-mystical state of mind" (Huxley) is the least likely to slam the door in its face. By and large, the "introspective self-examination of metaphysics" (James) is most willing to grant the possibility of the HEART and its "super-experience of illumination." (Ouspensky) This "super-experience" seems to be little known, understood, acknowledged or admitted in Christian Science, but it is acknowledged by the rest of the metaphysical world, a world that surges ahead with new, expanding Light while organizational Christian Science still clutches "the first faint morning beams" and wonders why it is withering on the vine. Ordinary theology is generally unaware of the metaphysical solipsism that undergirds the genuine mysticism and metaphysics whose principle aim is to do more than make a human experience more comfortable. Likewise, the struggle with the detail of metaphysics, as though one were a student, precludes the conscious recognition of Identity, the experience usually called "illumination." This experience is the real aim of genuine "religious" instruction, especially metaphysics and mysticism, but it is not limited to their students. It has nothing to do with intellectual attainment. It has naught to do with who is worthy by any human standard, with who has studied what, with whom or how long ago. Rather, it has to do with GOD--it has to do with deific simplicity and godly gentleness. It has to do with honesty and guilelessness. Most of all it seems to me to have to do with simple, credulous childlikeness, willing to acknowledge the presence of a Light that stands on its own and for which there can be found no intellectual undergirding capable of satisfying the "supreme logic" of intellectualism, nor, I might add, capable of satisfying the monumental ego that the hard study of mysticism, et al, seems capable of producing. The intellect is incapable of opening the Heart. The Heart of the Child opens and intellect follows--filled in a twinkling with an immediate knowledge of detail a lifetime of study could never, never accomplish. *** Then how do we study? With the gentle grace of Light examining Itself. From the position of Intelligence already intelligent, happily examining and being amazed by its infinite detail.

We study by tangibly, practically, actually LIVING the Light of our Self that has already been disclosed and by ending our reticence to surrender the uttermost farthing of the former (more limited) concept of Self. We study by learning the lessons that come from living our Light enthusiastically--and by telling "others" of the wonders we have found. But we study best by returning to the native, intuitive, heartfelt Child we are. What Nicoll refers to as the "profundities of paradox" may titillate and inspire us, but the Child we are understands them. *** Gentle Reader, "I" means IDENTITY, not a suffering, human concept of Self. See these words as your own: I let go the role of an awakening student. I end the identification of gendered mortal learning this or that. I am not a member of the human race, a one among many, working, striving, struggling, straining, arriving at Truth line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. I am an identity INFINITELY greater, grander than that, and I am not ashamed to say so to my world of appearances even when the charges are that of vaingloriousness and selfdeluding insanity. I take the Divine Awareness of GOD to be "my" identity. I am THAT. THAT is "me" and I do not hesitate to SAY so to whomever may be interested. Furthermore, I LIVE this identification to the best of my ability, despite the fact this appears to be running upstream, contrary to the world's way of doing things. And I maintain this position to the best of my ability, reminding myself as often as necessary that AWARENESS is the WHO I am, the WHAT I am, the WHY I am—and that identity is not a human one, not a worldly one, not a sick, sinning, ignorant or quarreling one but the HOLY WHOLE SINGLE ONLY ONE, and THAT am I! *** We know what we have found. We know of the inner peace, the light, love, insight and wonder of Being we have found Truth to be. The Heart of the one who reads this knows what the Truth has meant over the years. All the hell-fire and damnation the "world" can muster cannot efface the Grace we have FELT. The challenges we face, like lions in the Colosseum, may appear to tear the old nature apart, but all that is torn, or can be, is a concept that was never real. The Grace of IDENTITY stands untouched, untroubled, singing.... *** It has been said that the discernment of Identity is an uphill struggle but it isn't really. We are what we are whether it is seen or not and the simple knowledge of this fact is an immense aid in our discernment. Awareness is our identity and awareness is aware whether we struggle

with it or not. The fact of awareness functioning is ever effortless, every going about its business of seeing, hearing, feeling and including thoughts all within itself just as it is about the business of seeing print on this page at the moment. Much of the effort goes out of our daily affairs the instant we expand our sense of identity from the body-point from which "things" are observed, to awareness doing the observing. As this expanded identity, the body-point is not excluded but seen as the central point within an infinite identification that includes all "body-points" within itself. This grander identity looks on human intellectuality and knows that it pertains only to the body-point and its relationships with all other images. It sees that the Intelligence beyond intellectuality is its own Self-knowledge of singleness, aloneness, wholeness, oneness. It sees that intellectuality can only know Isness indirectly, via qualities and attributes. But, identified as awareness, we know "God" directly as God's Self-awareness. As awareness, we know as God knows Himself to be. So we live this "child of God" that we are already, and we live it without effort, without struggle, and most wonderfully, without inhibitions. You see, this conscious awareness being "us" is Deity's Self-awareness in action, for which Deity alone is responsible. The weight of the world is lifted from our shoulders the instant we stop trying to be something of ourselves – a human personality, an ego, a phantom big cheese protecting his flock from the outspoken teachings of this one or that one, intent on healing Perfection when Perfection stands tall and perfect, quite without need of healing. To question the wisdom of this utter discard of personal, ego-responsibility is the natural reflex of the ego bent on self-preservation at all costs. But, in one way or the other, we are finally brought to gird up the loins and LET God be the Alone One on the Scene—even as God really IS the all one. Right here. Right now. Already! Kindest regards from Mountain Brook, William Samuel

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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel 2+2= REALITY By William Samuel 
 First printed 1958, Birmingham, Alabama

There is a simple and gentle Light within these pages that will change your life and make all things new. It can! It will! But it is a message only the Heart can find. Search with the Heart and you will find it.

With honest and straightforward simplicity, I am here to tell you that you can never be free of personal trials and tribulations until you make your own discovery of Reality, God. You will never find more than the most temporal, ephemeral happiness until you make a personal discovery of God, Isness —until you get off your soft sofa and actually make your own determination of Reality, of Truth, of Fact. You will never permanently rid yourself of the grind and grate in the pit of the stomach nor find yourself free of that feeling of impending doom until you make your own, individual determination of exactly what God is to you! Just what does the term 'God' mean to you, Reader? Prior conditioning need not deter you nor anyone else from making this personal determination. Often the mere mention of God brings the disillusioned dismissal, “Here's another of those God messages. I already know what it's going to say.” Similarly, the highly educated and sophisticated slam mental doors, having already erected countless defenses to protect their old and cherished opinions as to what God is. Yet, both those who disregard and those who build the most elaborate defenses are usually those suffering the greatest personal agonies. To plunk mental fingers into mental ears at the mere mention of God cannot alter Truth, but it does a superb job of gluing one to unnecessary fears, frustrations and anxieties. Let me say it another way: If you have tried everything else and are still periodically miserable, if you still contend with one problem after another, if you still have not yet solved the problem of fear and increasing pressure, and if you are really ready to stop suffering, it is time to do yourself a favor. Start now, this minute, to begin your own determination of what God, Reality, Truth is. One can never be happy nor self-satisfied until he does. One can never be free of trials and tribulations until he does. One can have no permanent sense of health or wealth until he does. No one will ever be free of personal fear or insecurity until he makes a determination for himself of just what God is to him. Who am I; who are you? Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Who or what is God? What is absolute reality? Reality is the most real thing in a person's life. The term, the very word itself, should, therefore, mean something real and tangible to one—more so than any other word. Obviously one's determination of Reality embraces much more than words; it includes the infinity of non-verbal

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feelings, sense perceptions and intuitive knowings. The word itself, then, brings to mind this vast meaning that is considerably greater than a mere definition. Thus, the academic sockdolager stating it is not possible to define infinite God by means of finite words becomes little more than a lame excuse to go on sleeping, to make no personal effort to define Reality at all. Reader, what do you know about Reality? Do you know what is real and what is not? Can you separate fact from fiction? Can you answer Pilate's old question, “What is truth?” Can you define God? These terms must mean something specific to you, Something concrete and understandable that expands as the light of understanding grows brighter. Well, the time has come to stop fooling around. It's time to get the answer—not from someone else, not someone else's version of the answer—your own answer, arrived at yourself from the depth of YOUR very own being. Here and now, you can begin this personal effort to determine just what Fact, Principle, Reality, Truth ITSELF is. In spite of all that mankind has been told for centuries, this is not an impossible task. It is not hard to do. It is not even an uphill struggle. It is the happiest thing you will ever undertake. As one divests himself of former beliefs and opinions and begins to arrive at his very own concept of God, through his own effort, from out the wisdom of his own heart, then God, Reality, Truth reveals Itself to that one—just as it has been said, “Seek and ye shall find.” Everyone, every single person on this earth can arrive at a precise understanding of God! How can this be so? Because God is uncomplicated and easily understood! When one lets go all the things they say about God and stops accepting them blindly as his own beliefs, God becomes remarkably apparent. And why not? What sort of God would it be that withholds Himself from all those who have not suffered enough, studied hard enough, searched diligently enough or prayed earnestly enough in just the right way? What sort of God would it be who absents Himself from those who have not been baptized in this or that fashion, or have not joined this organization or that one? What sort of Love would it be that withholds itself from half the population of the world because it is not Christian or Muslim, because it is not acquainted with this or that arcane, unprofaned wisdom; what sort of Love withholds itself from those not subscribing to this or that set of dogmas and beliefs, not honoring this or that ritual and that ceremony? Well, be assured, God does not withhold Himself from aught. God is right here, right now, closer than fingers and toes, closer than breathing. There is no distance nor separation between oneself and God, mentally or otherwise. You will find that God is all that is here, and “They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, saith the Lord.” God's simplicity is astounding. It is this very simplicity that the pompous intellect of mankind can neither see nor understand while struggling through its jungle of erudite beliefs. Let the beliefs go. Let what “they say” go. Drop all the old personal opinions no matter how near and dear they seem. You start anew, turning within to the heart. Then when you arrive at your own meaning of God, you happily find you are also discovering your own real Identity and its childlike simplicity. This is not a slow process of spiritual refinement over a hot fire of personal ordeals. You do not have to wade through thousands of volumes of ancient and occult lore, to join various and sundry organizations or practice their precepts with fanatical diligence. No need to spend years doing good deeds, here a little, there a little. You might very well DO some of these things; good works are not disparaged here. But you do them, ultimately, because you enjoy them and want to—indeed, because you cannot keep from it—not because some special favor is supposed to accrue from doing them, and not because you are afraid of what might happen if you do not.

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One simply does not have to delay his awakening from agony. He does not have to “put off the old man” bit by bit or “die to the self” a little every day or laboriously educate himself. One does not have to delay for any reason at all. He may drop the “old man” with all his trials and tribulations here and now if he chooses and immediately experience a joy and tranquillity beyond belief—all of this as easily and quickly as awakening from a daydream. Reader, how easily can you withdraw from your own mental fantasy in a land of make-believe? Who snaps you out of your wool-gathering but you yourself? When one begins to answer these questions for himself, extraordinary things start happening in his experience. Trials and tribulations slip away, one after the other. Even the most persistent pressures lose their power to disturb. One finds oneself seeing old concepts in a new and lovelier light. Suddenly, health, wealth, and happiness appear where they seemed absent before. Freedom and tranquillity blossom forth in business; love permeates every nook and cranny of experience; untoward conditions of every kind vanish like the morning mist—all because you have begun a personal determination of exactly what Truth means to you. But let me pause a moment, lest this be misleading. The joyful occurrences in one's experience are not the GOALS at all. They are the “added things” that come from a personal determination of what God is—and they all have to do with Reality, with one’s real Identity, with who, and what God is, with who and what “I” am. Answer the question “What is Truth?” for yourself; let the attention remain here, and then, as the answer begins to occur, you will enjoy the seeming changes that take place in your day to day living quite as something “extra,” as “signs following”--yet not half so wonderful as the recognition of your honest Identity.

ABOUT AGNOSTICISM Recently I met a young man who called himself an agnostic. He said, “I am completely disinterested in God. I have no proof that a God exists, and the idea of some super-Being watching over me and the world is somehow rather ludicrous in light of the world situation. Besides that,” he continued, “the blatant hypocrisy of 'religious men' is enough to turn my stomach.” This statement rather sums up the opinions of many frustrated people, young and old alike. “And another thing,” he added, “how can anything ever be understood when even the oldest religious leaders, with years of study behind them, are at loggerheads with one another and apparently unable to solve the world's problems? All these things suggest to me that God is the invention of frustrated people wishing for something above and beyond themselves to solve all their problems. “ Many hold these ideas in this day and time. The ranks of the disillusioned are growing in number, and they come especially from the disenchanted within the religious organizations of the world. People are wondering increasingly about the correctness of their particular brands of religion. Old ideas once accepted as fact seem foolish and superstitious in light of the world's new technological dimension. The break with old theological concepts seems, to these people, to be a break with God. The arguments against old practices become their arguments against the existence of what they term 'God'. It must be pointed out that these are not valid arguments against the existence of God but are, rather, arguments against old concepts of God, old ideas about God and old practices that pervade all organized religions today.

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I am yet to meet an agnostic or atheist who cannot accept the existence and presence of God once we agree on just what Reality is. Usually, atheists deny and agnostics doubt the actuality of God as they understand and define God. They are quite right, because God as they define Him could not possibly exist. But God as God is, is neither doubted nor denied by a single man on this earth and never has been. God, as God is, is accepted without question, even without resistance, by everyone because God is the very basis of being, the fact of real existence. Why, God is Life itself. Show me an atheist who will deny he is alive! The doubters and deniers are invariably throwing rocks at their own misconceptions of God, at the usual definitions of God, or at the generally accepted idea of what God can do. I am quick to agree that the popular idea of God is incorrect and that such a God does not exist—and never has. But God, as God is, does exist as a very present Reality and as the undeniable basis of Existence. Truth, Reality, Fact exists. This is all that really does exist right here, right now. The agnostic is not questioning Fact; he is questioning a misstatement about Fact. The misstatement has nothing to do with Fact at all, just as the incorrect statement 2 plus 2 is 5 has nothing to do with the fact of arithmetic. A man is blind who breaks with Fact itself and doubts its existence just because an individual or an organization makes a misstatement in the name of Fact. You no longer need be concerned with the many misstatements of others. You can determine what Fact is to yourself and stay there. As you do this you find yourself less concerned about what is not Fact and much more concerned with the Infinite Fact of Perfect Being ITSELF.

ABOUT SCIENCE AND RELIGION Much has been said about the incompatibility of science and religion. While there may often be a difference between science and the beliefs about God as they are professed by the many human organizations, there is no argument between God as God is and anything. Absolute Reality is the basis for the existence of 'things'—and science is the study of 'things'. Science now remarkably indicates the holistic singleness and absolute perfection of existence. Scientists are finally discovering the truths that some philosophies have expounded for thousands of years. This lag exists simply because science starts with the appearance of 'things' and works back to the reality which is their basis. The scientist is somewhat like a mathematician who starts with a group of numbers on a piece of paper. While they are only numbers at first, the astute mathematician eventually comes to understand the underlying perfect principle which the numbers are manifestations of. Obviously, the fastest discoveries concerning numbers are made by those who start first with the principle itself. Knowledge of the principle is automatic knowledge of the numbers, which exist only to manifest the principle. In this so-called human experience, those who concern themselves with reality as reality is find themselves with a magnificently all-embracing knowledge of 'things'. On the other hand, starting with the multitude of 'things', one can hope for only a smattering of knowledge in a few fields of human concern. Commencing with the Principle of all Being and living out from there, one finds oneself with knowledge basic to every 'thing' in all fields of human endeavor he needs to know about. This knowledge comes without years of study in the universities and without pondering innumerable tomes of human erudition. History is filled with instances of those who almost overnight acquired the wisdom and perspicacity their contemporaries spent years struggling for. “Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine IS not mine, but HIS that

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sent me. If any man do His will he shall know of the doctrine….” (John 7:14-17). The American translation says: “How is it that this man knows his letters when he has never gone to school?” In effect Jesus says knowledge does not come from the man and his attempts to arrive at truth. Rather it belongs to Truth (the Father) itself, which is the basis for all knowledge. A young woman I know was concerned about her lack of formal education. Because her activities required close contact with people of extensive formal education and training, she frequently felt ill at ease and unable to converse as well as she thought was acceptable or expected. She attended a lecture on Reality one evening during which time the little 'click' of honest understanding occurred (which always happens when the personal sense of self is lost sight of for a moment). Since that time, even her closest associates have been astonished at her new poise, grace and acumen. She cannot be fooled! She knows what IS and what ISN'T! She knows the Reality that is her Identity. Indeed she knows who and what she is! With this new understanding came, quite as an “added thing,” a joy of living that is an inspiration to see. Happiness follows her around like a puppy at her feet.

THE LUMP OF GOLD ILLUSTRATION Still concerning science and its observation of 'things', the following is an interesting point to ponder. Suppose a lump of gold sits on the table before you. What do you see? Do you see gold itself or do you see a group of qualities and attributes which you have chosen to name 'gold'? You see 'yellow', but is there any gold in 'yellow'? No. 'Yellow' appears because gold is, and instead of there being any gold in 'yellow', 'yellow' is 'in' gold—or, more accurately, 'yellow' exists because gold itself is. You also see the 'form', of gold, but there is no gold in 'form' either. 'Form' exists because gold is. So it is with all the qualities and attributes of the lump of gold on the table. What you see exists because something called gold is, but you do not see the basic, primordial isness itself. The qualities, characteristics, and attributes, in toto, are the grouping named gold—and they are all of gold you ever see and feel, measure and weigh—yet, they are not gold itself. They exist because gold itself is. Using Biblical language, one might say that yellow “lives and moves and has its being” because gold is. Yellow will exist just as long as gold is; it is as perfect in every way as gold is in being gold. Gold might very well say, “Yellow is my color in which I am well pleased.” And gold, speaking as yellow, might say, “I and my basis in being are one, yet gold is greater than I.” Gold is the substance and the being of all the qualities and attributes of gold. “Gold doeth the works.” Gold is the 'value'. So it is that awareness never sees primordial Being itself but sees qualities and attributes thereof. Likewise, one never sees the principle of arithmetic itself; rather, one sees the signs and symbols which are the principle made manifest, but are not the principle. There is no audible sound in the principle of music, yet we hear its melody through the application of its laws. The melody is not the principle itself, yet the melody exists because there is a principle. Principle is first as all. It is alone, single and pure. Obviously, so long as science is concerned with the tangible 'thing', it is not concerned with Being itself, but only with measurable qualities and attributes of Being. But Being (Isness Itself) is the Reality, the Fact. It is the Alone One beside which there is none other, outside of which nothing exists, and because of which all its qualities and attributes have their being.

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Everyone hopes to experience the absence of lack, limitation, pressure and fear. Everyone wants to experience an inner peace and tranquillity. There is a way to do it, dear reader, but there is only one door to enter by. It has all to do with determining what is Fact and what is fiction about oneself and Realty. Vague ideas are not enough. It is innate and natural to want to know Fact from fiction, but for too long someone else's word has been considered Fact and the determination of ultimate Reality has been left to the physicists and philosophers. For centuries mankind has been accepting mankind's answers to these questions. “My minister says this—my church says that—the Bible, as interpreted by someone else, says—the university says—they say...” The keystone question is, Who am I?—MY identity. Only that one who asks, “Who am I?” can answer it. No one can take someone else's answer. No one can take humanity's answer or theology's answer or philosophy's answer or the universities' answer alone. No one can take the churches' answer nor even the Bible's answer alone. One must arrive at this understanding for oneself from within oneself, from the 'secret place' within consciousness, from the Holy of Holies within one's own heart to which he alone has the key. An old teacher from the Orient said to his students, “I can point to the moon and describe it to you in minute detail, but you must see it for yourself and look at it with your own eyes.” A teacher explains the alphabet but the student alone must comprehend it. For a time he learns mechanically and academically; then suddenly something clicks, something blossoms within and the student really knows the alphabet and what it is. It is an awakening, a breaking through, a deep within thing. Suddenly he knows it and he knows that he knows it. This awakening is very personal. When it happens one often says, “Why, that's crystal clear! Now I understand!” The softer sound of poetry records such an illumination as follows: It is true! It is true! I am the King! I am! —the very words I whispered as tinkling cymbals from the slopes, the same sounds I prattled in pious self-righteousness from the plateaus, and droned as far-off dreams along the pathways of desire— ah, but spoken finally from the Mountain that Childlikeness is. It is so! I am the King! I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear but now it is the Eye that seeth Thee, oh Mind being Me! This is MY Kingdom! My Kingdom is ME! My very Self I see, all perfect infinity !

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Just as you learned the alphabet for yourself while a teacher only pointed the way, now you must discern and understand Reality for yourself; otherwise Truth, Reality, That which Is, will remain an academic, impersonal, abstruse and nebulous nothing to you; fact will forever remain just what a teacher, preacher, leader, church or book tells you. This is not enough to experience the peace of heart you hope for, nor see that perfection you are already. Ask yourself this basic question right now: WHO AM I? Do you know? If you do, you know you know it and those around you know you know it too. Your experience is a tranquillity into which “nothing that worketh or maketh a lie ever enters.” These words are intended to help one discover the heaven, the peace and tranquillity that are right here on earth—to find that all he could ever hope to have is right here, right now where he is—to know that it all has to do with determining what fiction is and what fact is concerning God and oneself.

THE ARITHMETIC ILLUSTRATION There is a remarkable and magnificent similarity between what is termed God (Fact, Reality, Truth) and the principle of mathematics. Entire philosophic systems have been built around this likeness. Nearly 2,600 years ago the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras said that no concept more nearly approached Divinity then the principle of arithmetic. He pointed out that early every quality attributed to God was clearly expressed for all to see and understand in the simplest fact of arithmetic. Indeed, there is inherent in nature a revealed as well as a hidden harmony that reflects itself under the image of simple mathematical laws. This similarity aids in understanding more clearly who and what God actually is. It paints a picture considerably more accurate than humanity's anthropomorphic concept. Reader, the arithmetic illustration will help you understand Absolute Reality in such a manner as to free you from all your troubles which are the seeming consequence of ignorance concerning Reality, God. Examine these parallels. God is spiritual and not material. The principle of arithmetic is not material either. It cannot be seen or weighed on a scale. It cannot be felt or picked up by the hand. God is omnipresent. You can understand the all-presence of God by contemplating the omnipresence of arithmetic. The principle of arithmetic is everywhere, isn't it? Two plus two is four right where you are this minute. So is everything concerning the principle of arithmetic. It is all at the top of Mount Everest and under the waters of the sea. If one were on the moon or at the bottom of a well, the principle of arithmetic would be there too. There is no place in the universe one can go to escape the principle. It is everywhere, every bit, perfectly present; nowhere is it the least bit absent. I am sure you cannot imagine a place where addition is present but subtraction is absent or where everything is present except the number five or where two plus two is four and a half. Just as one can easily understand that the entire principle of arithmetic is perfectly present everywhere, so can one comprehend the omnipresent perfection of God. Can you imagine a personal situation so frustrating that two plus two is four would not be present there? God, Reality, Fact, Principle is present too, no matter where you are nor how terrible the seeming situation. “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or wither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take

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the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” (Psalms 139:7-10). The arithmetic illustration is a means by which one is able to comprehend the continuing PRSENCE OF PERFECTION everywhere. Consider a few more interesting parallels. Two plus two is four; this is a simple fact of arithmetic. Two plus two is four—not five, not three, not four and one-tenth, not three and ninety-nine onehundredths. Two plus two is four and nothing else. The perfect fact exists. The principle proclaims only the correct statement that two plus two equals four. Any other answer, no matter how close, is not the correct answer nor is it contained within the principle and has no existence at all so far as this perfect principle is concerned. Now can anyone doubt the accuracy of the principle? The schoolboy who finds a mistake on his school paper knows the mistake is not in the principle itself. He does not blame arithmetic for the error. The error exists outside the principle; yet the principle, when understood as it is, serves to correct the mis-worked problem. It is because principle exists as an immutably perfect fact that one is able to enjoy the facts it embodies. Exactly so, Reality is what Reality is, absolute Truth. It is perfect, harmonious Fact in which there is nothing “that worketh or maketh a lie.” The schoolboy does not blame arithmetic for the errors on his paper, nor does the pianist blame Beethoven if she errs at the piano. So why blame God, the perfect Principle of Being, for the untoward events of life? Consider Eternity in the light of arithmetic. When did the principle of arithmetic begin? Ponder this a moment and you will see clearly that it had no beginning at all. It has always existed as itself. It is as eternal as existence. And when will it end? What can happen to alter or destroy the principle of arithmetic? Does it get sick? Can it be maimed or crippled? Can it be killed in a war? Can an atom bomb destroy it? If this entire planet were blown to dust by hydrogen weapons, would the principle of arithmetic be affected at all? No. It would still exist untouched and perfect as ever. Two plus two would still be four. It would not be bent in the least. In exactly this way the Principle of all existence (called God) is eternal, without beginning and without end, indestructible and continuous in being, no matter what the tortured meanderings of human activity. And since the principle continues, so continues all that principle is. As long as there is a principle of arithmetic, addition, subtraction and everything else arithmetic is, continues. Well, God (Divine Principle, Reality) continues also; hence, all that God is continues. God, the substance and essence of all that is, remains perfect, unabated and untouched—everywhere present, nowhere absent. Arithmetic is perfect, single, completeness. It is shown forth, made tangible or apparent, by the various signs and symbols of arithmetic. Consider numbers for a minute. They exist because the principle of arithmetic exists. If there were no principle there would be no numbers. Because the principle is infinite, there is an infinity of numbers. We might say that numbers “live and move and have their being” in the principle of arithmetic because the principle is. The numbers are as eternal and immaterial, as indestructible and perfect as the principle. They are because principle is and for no other reason. So long as there is a principle, there will be the perfect signs and symbols that manifest it. Even though there is an infinity of numbers, each of them is separate and distinct from the others. 3 is

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3 and not 4. 4 is 4, distinctly individual and separate from 5. Yet the numbers in and of themselves are nothing. The value is the principle itself. The importance is principle itself. The primordial substance is principle, and the numbers are principle manifest as numbers. In or of themselves, numbers are just numbers being principle's self-evidence. No number can exist outside the perfect principle. No number has a mind or will of its own to do what it chooses. No single number or group of them can be anything other than exactly what they are, which is Principle manifest as that particular aspect of principle. There is no life, truth, intelligence and substance in the numeral itself. The principle is all the life, truth, intelligence and substance there is. The numerals are what they are already, without having to do anything to get that way... without having to worry about sustenance and supply, food or money to stay that way. There is no separation at all between principle and numbers. It is all principle being itself. Well, so what? How does this illustration relate practically to this daily experience? “What good does all this business do me?” you ask. All the people, places and things one sees, including the body called mine, me, Bill, or Anne, are all, like numbers, being what they are (actually) because a principle of Reality exists—call it a Principle of Existence, Being, Consciousness, God or whatever you like. The name is not important, but the fact of Being is. It is not possible to deny that Being is. The mere fact that one is aware of existing is obvious proof that something exists; so, if something, anything, exists, then there is Existence—there is Being—there is the fact of Being. Since there is something being, there is reality concerning what is being. It is this Reality, this Principle of Being that is called God. Reality is God. God is what is. God is the Principle of all being. Now, (note the following carefully, for it is the very heart of this presentation) awareness is being aware of these words, hence awareness is being. Just as God is the principle of all being, even so God is the principle of this very awareness aware of these words, right here, right now—this very awareness called Bill, Rachel, John or Betty. Consider Awareness at this very instant. This same Awareness that reads these words may also look about and see a table or a chair, a bouquet there, or a little boy. If might look across the way and see a tree, a mountain, a star or a galaxy. Indeed, this Awareness, right here, right now, just might look up and see the Universe! Now I ask you, have you ever been separate from this Awareness? No indeed. Everything you see, have ever seen or ever will see comes as this very Awareness that sees these words. Is this not so? Why, this Awareness is life itself. When one says, “I am alive,” does he not mean, “I am aware”? Reader, do you see that you live forever alone with this Awareness? Have you ever been outside this Awareness? Every sight you have ever seen, every sound you have ever heard, every touch, every fragrance, every thought has always come to you as this awareness that is aware here and now. You have never seen a sight but your own sight which Awareness indicates is a book or a boy or a little blue flower. You have never heard a sound but your very own Awareness—and (listen carefully) you alone have decided for yourself whether you liked it or did not like it, whether it was good or evil. Indeed, you have never judged a thing 'out there' at all. You have been sitting in judgment of this total, allinclusive alone and only Awareness which is your life itself.

No, you have never been outside Awareness at all. The book, the bouquet, the tree, the soaring swallow are within this Awareness, not outside it. Just as the principle of arithmetic is the power, importance, and substance of all the numbers, exactly so this very awareness is the common

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denominator, the substance of all it perceives. The day will soon come when this Fact of Being smites all mankind with its beauty and truth. The perception of this single, simple Truth leaves one never again at the mercy of 'external' things. The objects of perception are seen and clearly understood to live and move and have their being, not as a power or importance of themselves—not as something out there—but as PRINCIPLE, REALITY, LIFE, BEING, GOD ITSELF manifest as what is seen. This recognition gives the glory to God where it rightfully belongs. The oneness and allness of God is self-evidently the fact of this Awareness which has forever been alone and All to everyone. Yes, the key is the singleness and all-inclusiveness of this very Awareness. This Awareness of existence, that is right here, right now, is divine! It is God's Awareness, not 'mine'. A man fraught with fear and consternation came to the author with a terrible tale of tribulation. He wanted someone to do something about all his troubles. After a few moments of simple, light-hearted conversation relative to the Reality that is rather than the sorrow that seems, the man said, “I see! I understand! God is all that is here. God is this very Awareness I am.” He left and fearlessly set about doing all that was necessary to appear happy and prosperous. Many months later he told me that nothing had upset his equanimity since the day of that conversation. The tangible 'universe' is the total of the objects of perception, and they are all perceived within this Awareness. One of these objects is this body called 'me' and 'mine'. Just who is this 'me'? This body is no more than any other object of perception within Infinite Awareness, yet the claim is that this particular body called 'me' contains Awareness within it. Is this not what mankind believes? “I am aware,” he says. “I have a mind of my own that is aware. This is my awareness and I want it to show me abundant dollars, happiness, or something else.” This 'me' who contains awareness is an impossible impostor and a liar from the beginning. It is no more possible to imprison the Divine Awareness of Infinite Being and confine it within an object of its perception than it is possible to confine the alphabet to the letter A or jam the infinity of arithmetic into one number. All there is to 'mankind', to the old man who needs to be put off, is the belief that this Awareness here and now reading these words is confined within a body—that is beholden to a body— that it is the servant of a body—that it is the function of the body's brain or a personal mind. To accept such a state of affairs as fact is the cause of mankind's troubles. It is like attempting to look at Infinity through a knot-hole, like looking at the infinity of arithmetic through a single number called 'me'. To accept such a state of affairs as fact would seemingly reverse Reality; it makes a multiplicity of singleness and brings space and time into being with beginning, end, birth, death and duality ad infinitum. Suppose the infinity of arithmetic could be confined within one number, say the number 7. Suddenly number 7 says, “I am aware. I am alive. I have a mind of my own. I am 'here', located in a 'place' that follows number 6 and precedes number 8. Rank, sequence, beginning and end are established. I look about me, outside and around me, and see an infinite universe. To all appearances, since I consider myself only a number, I am just one of countless numbers. Some are greater than I and some are less than I. Limited in space, I am finite and measurable. All I see is likewise measurable, limited and finite with a beginning and end. But I see magnificent order in my universe and that is what I call God. God certainly seems 'out there' and far from me way down here. Since I am just this one number, limited in time and space, I am separate and apart from all I see. I am here and 'things' are there, a measurable distance away, and I am always stuck to 'here' and 'now'. I 'need' this or that to help me sustain my place in existence or to go here and there. I am incomplete. I am 'more' or 'less' than

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that. This is 'good'. That is 'bad'. I'm really quite miserable and wish God would do something about it.” Well now, isn't this ridiculous? The principle of arithmetic cannot be stuffed into a number. The number is 'in' the principle. The number has no mind of its own and only the principle is being anything at all. There is no beginning or end to any of the numerals because a beginingless and endless principle is continually being ALL it is, including an infinity of perfect numbers. Just as the confined or limited view of arithmetic is a distortion, exactly so the confined and limited view of Reality is a distortion. Just as it is impossible to put the principle of arithmetic into a single number (or into all of them together), it is not actually possible to confine this alone Awareness to a single finite body. The view of the universe via a possessed, imprisoned Awareness is called the 'human experience' and it is fraught with endless perplexities. To end the perplexities, one stops believing himself a separate ego who is aware. One identifies as AWARENESS ITSELF. This one will discover himself unconfined, uncontaminated, unfettered and free. This one will discover that the only Awareness going on is God's Awareness of being all God is. As time goes, some years ago I talked to a man who said he was terribly depressed about his personal affairs. He had tried everything he knew to help himself, including psychoanalysis and drugs. Despite everything, he had fallen such a victim of despair he could go on no longer. He told me there was nothing left but to give God a chance. It was his last resort. He was visibly shocked when told God could not correct a problem, because so far as God was concerned there was no problem to correct. He was even more shaken when informed that the only place the problem and its depression existed was in his own belief that God was some sort of a servant intended to do his personal bidding. “If you want to get rid of your problem,” he was told, “then get rid of the belief that you are a personality who could have a problem.” This struck him exactly as it always strikes the pompous 'old man' with a problem—as sheer idiocy, as absolute insanity, as nothing but unadulterated escapism! But his heart told him otherwise. Deep within, the “still small voice” whispered, “It is so! It is true!” So, he set about as his heart told him and determined to forget the problem as best he could and ascertain for himself just what Reality really is. Reality very quickly excluded his despondency and his problem. It always does. Another fact that lies at the root of the world's major religions, as they were originally conceived, is the allness of God. Indeed, the allness, hence oneness of God was the heart and soul of original Christianity before mankind began to interpret it for himself—before the 'separate mind' rearranged things to continue a place for itself. The fact is that God (Principle) is all that is. God is the only reality. God is the only power and presence. Beside God there is nothing else at all. God is total and alone. God is one. There is not God and 'me'. There is not God and the world, universe, heaven, hell, devil, or anything else. There is God alone! Mankind is willing to agree that God's sphere of influence includes the universe entire. He will even concede intellectually that God is everywhere, but he is not so ready to admit that God, Fact, Reality, Principle is all of all—that God is the being of existence itself—that Divine Principle itself is being all there is to this universe—that people and things, as objects of perception, are nothing in and of themselves, but God is being all there is to people and things—that the value and importance is not in the object perceived but is in God, the reality, the fact which is being all there is to the object and to the perception of it.

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The reason for mankind's hesitancy is obvious. “If I give God ALL the power and the glory, there is none left for ME,” he says. “If God is everything, I am NOTHING. This is self-destruction. It eliminates ME.” Yes, it eliminates the seeming 'me'. It puts off the 'old man', the “liar from the beginning.” It gets rid of the 'me' who suffers all the agonies mankind is heir to, including limitation and lack, sickness and sin, fear, loneliness, old age and death. It gets rid of the 'me' who judges everything Awareness beholds, but (Listen, Listen) it does not get rid of this Awareness that beholds. It does not stop the consciousness of the rose, the mountain, the little boy nor the perception of these words right here. It does not get rid of the Awareness that is being all I am, nor does it get rid of the objects of perception. It only eliminates the 'me' and the distorting lens through which I see darkly. These are hard statements says the 'me', fighting for its very existence. The arithmetic illustration can make them crystal clear. Everything within the sphere of the principle of arithmetic is the principle itself. Addition and subtraction are nothing in or of themselves. They are what they are because principle is. The numbers, signs and symbols of arithmetic are nothing in or of themselves. They are what they are because principle IS. The numbers, signs and symbols exist because the principle Is. More correctly, principle is being all there is to addition and subtraction, digits and numbers. Anyone can readily understand that principle is the primordial substance throughout the totality of arithmetic. Exactly so, God is the substance of the universe! How prone one is to look at 'things' and attach values to them: “I like this and I do not like that. This is worth more or less than that.” So far as Fact is concerned, (and there is nothing but Fact, remember) there is no real value, power, nor importance in any 'thing'. GOD is the Reality. God, Fact, Reality, Truth is the value, power and importance. 'Things' are just what they are—'things', ideas and objects within Awareness—but without power to help or harm. Most surely, this action of making your own personal discovery of God, Truth, the I-Identity, renders an astounding experience the very day it begins. Dear Reader, you will find yourself amazed from hour to hour, even from minute to minute. Your trials and tribulations begin to fall away in clusters. What seemed an ominous, even insurmountable problem is seen to be no problem at all. Health is found where sickness seemed—love where loneliness lingered—tranquillity and tenderness where temptation and tears had seemed. It is somewhat like becoming aware of the perfect principle of life in which there are no mistakes at all, thereby, effortlessly leaving the panic of the problems and joying in (and as) the consciousness of principle itself, wherein one is totally aware the 'answers' exist. It seems a little like turning from the problem to Fact, in which there is nothing to turn from nor be afraid of. A businessman of my close acquaintance was informed by a representative of the government that he had been (inadvertently) violating a federal law for quite some time. The payments and penalties due the government amounted to several thousand dollars, enough to bring about the dissolution of his business and the loss of his home as well. In the face of what certainly seemed a problem of major proportions, the businessman steadfastly stood his ground. “This single Awareness, is self-evidently all I am,” he said. “This Awareness is all to me. God is being all there is to this very Awareness. All that can be seen is God's own perception of God. Reality perceives Reality. It seems a little silly to think Perfection can disturb Perfection. The government representative is within this Awareness I am, just as everything else that is seen. The government and its representatives are within Awareness like the letters are 'in' the alphabet. The letters can do nothing

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to destroy the tranquillity of the alphabet. How can this man do anything to harm the Awareness I am?” He stood his ground in the face of the hydra-headed monster to find out shortly that the amount of the money involved was only half as much—then a fourth as much—then, low and behold, the government had made a mistake and there had been no violation at all! There is actually no imperfection on this earth. There is actually no problem to be solved. There is actually nothing to be overcome or healed. There is actually no separate little ego with a mind of its own to be awakened, eliminated or put off. It cannot be denied there seems to be much to contend with and correct. But to whom does it seem this way? Always to the one who thinks he is something of himself, to the one who thinks he has a mind of his own and that Awareness belongs to his personal mind, to the one who would make a servant of Awareness and have it report just what he wants to see and hear and feel. Then, that imprisoner of Awareness, called 'mortal man', is either happy or unhappy depending on how nearly 'his' Awareness shows 'him' what 'he' wants to see. All the while Awareness goes right on being aware. All the while Awareness goes right on just being what it is, consciousness being perfectly aware of existence. All the while Awareness constantly beholds the perfection of Existence and nothing else. The one in such great misery is that one to whom Awareness reports and who judges the reports of Awareness that come to 'him'. The one who is elated or despondent, well supplied or in poverty, is the one who, judging the reports of 'his senses', either likes them or dislikes them. The one with the problem is always the one who considers himself a personality with a mind of his own that is aware— that is, who consciously or unconsciously believes himself to be the grand custodian and possessor of Awareness (Life). Well, I have news for you. Awareness cannot be possessed. Awareness does not belong to a single man or woman. Awareness is not the servant of anybody or anything. Awareness 'belongs' to the Divine Mind, Infinite Consciousness, Reality, God, just as 'yellow' belongs to gold, just as the numerals belong to arithmetic. You are this very Awareness itself. You are not a mortal being who contains an awareness. You are the Divine Awareness, itself! Can you imagine what this means? You no longer have any responsibility as a person to see this or experience that! You no longer have to judge anything that you see or hear as Awareness! You have no personal responsibility at all. You have but to be a faithful witness, a faithful Awareness, and not the enslaved Awareness of Bill or John or Mary. In fact, you are this already, without effort, because Awareness is God's activity, God's own knowledge of Itself, Reality's Awareness of being what It is. All there is to Bill or Mary or John is the belief that they are something that can contain, possess, imprison, or make a servant and slave of God's Awareness of being, of God's knowledge of existing. Since the Awareness of Being is God's activity, Awareness cannot be possessed, made a servant, or contained within a body, an object of perception. This eliminates the possibility that something exists that can contain Awareness, even in belief. Does this not put Bill and Mary and John in their proper perspective? They have no power, importance, nor authority of their own at all. GOD, REALITY, TRUTH is being exactly what they are. God's Awareness of being God includes what is called Bill or Mary or John, just as it includes 'beauty' and 'love'—just as gold includes yellow—just as arithmetic includes numbers. Are you not aware of being right now? Of course you are. You are aware of these words. Is not this very Awareness all inclusive to you? Have you ever been outside it? Have you ever seen a sight that did not come to you as this very Awareness? Certainly not. Does not this Awareness include the mountains, the oceans, the microcosm and the macrocosm, the Pleiades and all the galaxies? This Awareness really is alone and all to you, is it not? Honesty, total honesty, will not allow you to answer otherwise. The Awareness that reads this book is infinite. It is alone. It is all. It is the Divine

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Awareness of Existence. It is God's knowledge of Himself. It is God's knowledge of being God. It does not belong to 'another'. It is not contained nor possessed by 'another'. It is not beholden to 'another' called Bill or Mary or John. This Awareness, this very Awareness, that is aware right here, right now, is God's Awareness of being all that God is. The 'responsibility' is God's. The 'burden' is God's. This Awareness is free. Awareness has never really been bound to a body called Bill, Mary of John, nor judged by any of their judgments, nor limited by these limitations. Awareness says to those who are weary and heavy laden, “Leave the separate sense of self and return to me and I will give you rest.” Awareness has just gone right on being aware. You, dear Reader, are AWARENESS. You are not a big tub of ego with a personal name that has had Awareness reporting to it! The “Awareness” spoken of here is Life, the very activity that is reading these words. It is now seen and understood as God's Awareness of God, That Which Is. And is it not true that this Awareness has never reported anything that was good or bad? Sit easy for a moment and mull this over. Awareness Itself passes no judgment on the things seen or on the situations experienced. Awareness is just being aware, is it not? Awareness sees the mountains, the stars, the trees. It is Bill, Mary or John (who profess to possess Awareness) who makes the judgment. It is always Bill, Mary or John who likes or dislikes what Awareness reports. And it is always Bill, Mary and John who suffer the agony of hell when things do nothing to please them—and nothing pleases for long. Reader, your 'salvation' is simple and easy. It is to come out and be separate from Bill, Mary or whatever you call yourself. It is to cease identifying as an enslaver of God, as a possessor of Infinite Awareness. It is to start right now and identify correctly as Awareness itself. There is no yourself, myself or any other self but God. God is being this Awareness. This is who and what you are. You are not a miserable, suffering mortal, so you can stop acting like one. God, Perfection Itself, is being 'you.' I have known those who have seen and understood this Light instantaneously. Their problems, consternations and fears were shed as quickly and easily as one takes off his coat. These were the ones who were humbly ready, willing and eager to let God be all that God already is, leaving no place for an ego that puffs itself up and claims to have an awareness of its own. Likewise, I have known those who were reluctant to give up the 'old man', the imprisoner of Awareness. They were the ones who attempted to use Principle that they might 'heal' this, 'correct' that, or to see more 'good' things. All the while they still had Awareness reporting to the mortal mess they identified themselves as. Such as these, like Jacob of old, fight an awful battle with themselves. The personal sense of self, called Bill, Mary or John, is the 'old bottle', and 'old man' who must be 'put off' but who does not want to be put off. He fights furiously and leaves no stone unturned to prove he is a reality; he fights until he is honestly lost sight of in the allness of God, there to be seen as an impossibility. Thus ends the dream as the old man and “the place thereof shall know him no more.” No untoward or miserable situation can present itself to God. Misery appears to the one who attempts to make a slave of God's own Awareness of Being. Such a slave-master is not possible. You can, therefore, stop attempting to play a dream role and end the karmic suffering that seems to result from such foolishness. How quickly? Right now! Awareness itself is what you are. It is all you are. It includes all you have ever been aware of from the countless grains of sand to the galaxies, from the most abstruse philosophical speculation to the simple sparrow on the sidewalk. This Awareness (Life) cannot be possessed by a 'body' it includes. You do not attempt to jam the whole of arithmetic into one of its numbers nor cram the alphabet into one of its letters, because it is not possible. Neither is it possible to stuff the totality of Life into a particular body the 'old man' is identified as.

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Awareness itself goes right on being aware of the happiness and resplendent joy of Being. GOD, REALITY, is being this Being! Let the old man go. That is not your Identity. Be Awareness, the faithful witness ONLY! Relax and let GOD be what you are already! It has been your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom entire—Your very Being!

A FINAL WORD There is a saying in the East that nothing has been read once until it has been read twelve times. May I suggest that you begin to reread this booklet at once. Do not put it aside until you have captured its message. There is a simple and gentle Light within these pages that will change your life and make all things new. It can! It will! But it is a message only the Heart can find. Search with the Heart and you will find it.

This gift is from William Samuel and Friends and Butterfly Publishing House. We have audio CDs, DVDs and other books by William Samuel; they are listed on our website: www.williamsamuel.com Books by William Samuel: The Child Within Us Lives! A Synthesis of Science, religion and Metaphysics A Guide To Awareness And Tranquillity The Awareness Of Self-Discovery 2+2=Reality Mr. Samuel’s books are also available through most book stores.
 


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NOTES FROM WOODSONG By William Samuel 1980 UPHEAVAL The world is awash in pseudo-metaphysical, mystical, psychic hogwash. Fountains are spewing sheep dip and people are lining up to drink the stuff. Truth is put aside while people argue about the church's mismanagement of money, or worry about changes to a rule book, or nitpick, gossip and spread rumors of the sexual misbehavior of their practitioners. Petty disputes of all kinds are raging in the metaphysical world where judgmentalism is at its peak, from malpractice suits against practitioners to the moral lives of its board members. Jousting with shadows rages everywhere while the Light is ignored. If California slides into the ocean, it will not happen for the reasons geologists suspect. It will sink from the pure dead weight of accumulating ideologies--pseudo-metaphysical muck piling up on the beaches, mystical mishmosh and psychic hocus pocus filling the valleys. The entire country may be blown away by the noisome pestilence of California's semi-psychologists and metaphysical messiahs, mystic montebanks and charlatans selling their nostrums, building their snake oil tax shelters, accumulating the world's wealth even while denying it--then calling for the manipulation of dream-stuff as the only proof of attainment! "Heal me!" the world cries in a nightmare. In answer comes a hoard of hypocrites attempting to heal the complaints of the dream; whited sepulchers and opportunists who, for a fee, pour a balm over the dream's sores but do nothing at all to awaken the dreamer. As much of this pestilence arises from the camp of those proclaiming "GOD is ALL!" as from the fornicators who are consciously trying to rape the earth. THE "MESS IN BOSTON" A friend visited here at Woodsong recently--former teacher and practitioner of Christian Science, then a Goldsmithian, now a leader of his own dedicated following in the hills of California. "What in the world is going on in Boston?" asked he. "In fact, what is happening to the whole metaphysical world? It is falling apart. It's just terrible!" It is not terrible at all. It is happening exactly as it should, I answered after he told me what was "going on." "But people are getting sidetracked," he said. "They are spending more time gossiping than with study and searching. Besides that, my people have become so cold and arrogant." No doubt about it. There is much arrogance, coldness and unwitting blindness in the metaphysical world. Especially among Christian Scientists. Much that ails the Boston church-and all churchdom--lies in the subtle intrusion of self-righteousness—an arrogance that, like

haughtiness, one clearly sees in others but seldom finds in himself. But there is nothing wrong with the arrogance of metaphysics! It is simply part of the whole, like the thorn is part of the rose, or fragrance part of the hyacinth. Even the gentlest intellectual study breeds an arrogance undiscernible to itself. Where is the flower that notices its own fragrance or the blind cave fish that spies its neon in the dark water? Arrogance permeates the high places of all intellectualism, whether it is a metaphysical religion or a corporate public service. Arrogance is often intellectualism’s first line of defense. We do not have to quarrel with this nor worry about it any more than we need condemn the pine for its pollen. Rather, we "understand what is before our eyes" and call it by its right name. The arrogance of intellectualism is somewhat the Zen of it--so complicating and confusing to the human sense of self it sometimes goads one into a discovery of the divine sense of Self. So, who wants to fuss about that? Every organization that exists in the universe is selfprotective—from the least little bluet blooming in the meadow to the wheeling stars. Human organizations are no different. The vituperative self-defense of an intellectual elitism that claims to be the only legitimate statement of Truth should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever struggled to defend a cherished opinion, right or wrong. The elitism of mortal mind clearly delineates the universality and inevitability of the only Mind, God--and like the shadow inevitably leads straightaway to the tree, so intellectuality, in whatever guise it presents itself, finally leads to the discovery of the Heart! Thence, the Divine Balance is struck between the heart and the intellect. Awareness IS this perfect balance, even NOW--but an intellectualism that keeps eyes glued to its own shadows, trying to Heal them, is intellectualisms natural defense. Heartless and arrogant, but natural. It is the LIGHT, not the candle. The Office of Light created the candle, not the other way around. MESSAGE, not messenger! We tend the candle as the LIGHT reveals, not necessarily as the candle demands—but we don’t lose sight of the Light in the process. A messenger of old said, The Light that is Me is greater than I. The Light that is Life is also greater than Mrs. Eddy or "her" organization. But that organization has a perfect right to exist JUST AS IT IS within the all-inclusiveness of Awareness. It needs no revision or correction. Nor does Religious Science, Unity, Roman Catholicism or the foot washing branch of Southern Conservatism. Truth's Self-awareness sees no need to make the world over. Only to UNDERSTAND "what is before the eyes." Awareness sees intellectualism lifted to its veritable peak in "the metaphysics of the Absolute." But without the heart it is as nothing, nothing. Without the heart, intellectualism flounders like Sophia, attempting to limit Illimitability to the restraints of scientific reason and logic. Her “wasted effort”, according to that Christian cosmology of the first century, became the material world. Indeed, the more one struggles to overcome illusion, the more he is stuck with it. And the anguish of THAT leads to the Heart too! My visitor had once had a lengthy argument with his church. It ended in his withdrawal. Some of his students left when he did, and others followed over the years. "Why have YOU never encouraged anyone to leave the organization?" he asked me.

I do not tell the fall leaves when they should leave the tree nor on which side of the trail to fall. I do not tell people what I think they should do or not do. At the most, I am entitled to tell my own story only. I know that story and can tell of it with authority. If Light could find "me" in the midst of mortal combat, it will find "others" even if they are stuck fast in the candle's wax. For thirty years I've watched the intellectualists, the absolutists, withdraw from churchdom, then, out of their pique with the organization, encourage others to withdraw likewise, ready or not. Soon, they became leaders of their own personal following and, more often than not, were twice as dictatorial as "the church" they left. Whatever the brand of intellectual absoluteness, its fruitage has been little more than a game of semantic upsmanship. I'm yet to see the grand absolutist whose "demonstrations" --or JOY-- could equal his OWN when he was still a child in metaphysics. With the Heart, we STAY children, and our world stays full of wonders! *** "BUT WHAT AM I TO DO ABOUT ALL OF THE CRAZY NEW PHILOSOPHIES THAT ARE COMPETING WITH MINE?" asked my friend from California. "I am a teacher and a minister and I hate to see my flock getting sidetracked with all the psychic mess that's going on." (Clearly, he didn't hear me say I could give no advice.) A "Han Story" came to mind. Han told of two provinces that were separated by Chan, the mighty mountain. One province, the lower, was dark--filled with smoke and clouds. Little grew there and its people were unhappy. The upper province was full of light and love. While only a few lived in the upper province, they were happy and prosperous. It was a garden. But the mighty Chan stood between the provinces and there was no known pathway over it. Stories and folklore among the people of darkness told of hidden trails that crossed Chan but no one knew where they were. No one was certain any pathway existed at all. They were not absolutely certain a province of Light existed. "There is no scientific evidence to support its existence," said the astronomers. "There is no reasonable or logical evidence to support its existence," said the philosophers. "To many of us, the entire idea of a province of Light sounds like the invention of a suffering humanity. A psychological opiate, so to speak." There arose a group of ministers in the dark province. They told all who listened of the upper province and its beauty. None of them had seen the kingdom of Light but "our ancient literature speaks of it with authority and we accept its existence on our faith in the ancient literature." Some claimed to have had a vision of it in the night. One minister with a large following told his believers that they could be very still and listen. Their meditation, when done exactly as he instructed, would allow them to hear birds singing in the Kingdom of Light. Another teacher said that when one held his head at a certain angle at a certain time each day, then inhaled slowly in exactly the prescribed manner, he would catch fragrances of flowers blooming. He developed a program of study which, for a price, he offered the faithful so they too could enjoy the sweet fragrance of Light's hyacinths.

Still another teacher arose in the lower province. He prepared and sold a potion which would, he averred, allow one to fly in spirit, free of his body, thence for a time to see sights so strange that, surely, many were from the Kingdom of Light. Soon, all the dark province was agog, seething with marvelous procedures on every street corner arid in every home. There was much commentary and argument about them. Bewilderment and wonderment prevailed as to which way was the best. There were experimenters who dared many methods and told of their studies. Their words became another philosophy, another ideology, each with a following of its own and each stranger than the one before. With multiplicity came complexity. Confusion grew apace in the province of darkness. So did misery. I ended the story. My minister friend sat quietly, looking at me. Finally he said, "I understand the story but I don't see how it applies to my question. It alludes to some of the problems we have today but it gives no answers. People are smothered with new ideologies, theories and disciplines. Many are turning to the magic potions that will kill them. But your story gives no answer." I agreed it didn't. There is another Han story that mentions the two provinces, I told him. In this story, the great mountain, Chan, speaks to Han saying, "Children playing with abandon often find the lone pathway across my face. It is a narrow pathway, one child wide, yet as many children who play and dream here may walk across my face into the sunshine of Light." My minister friend was thoughtful again. "It's beginning to sound a little like your simplicity and childlikeness theme." There is one more mention in a third Han story, I said. The third note of a chord. I don't remember it all, but the part that comes to mind has Han telling of an old mute who lived in the dark province. Without a tongue, he couldn't talk of the many philosophies and teachings, so he had no friends except children. Children understand men who keep silent, and don't think them strange. The old mute watched the children playing and dreaming with abandon. He saw them as they found the pathway over the face of the mountain. He watched them as they ran laughing into the sunlight. One day the mute visited the village. There, wherever he looked, he saw a suffering people trying in vain to follow the strange, complex instructions of their teachers. Those who were meditating, those who were tilting their head and those who were drinking the magic potion were all closing their eyes for a time, but when they opened them, the scene of darkness was unchanged. They were still in the darkness of the lower province. There were no smiles on their faces. There was no laughter. Only the children's eyes twinkled because they spent their mornings playing on the mountain's face. "The time has come to ACT," the mute thought. He walked to the village square and, with a piece of charcoal, wrote these words on a wall: IN THE MORNING I SHALL SKIP ACROSS CHAN’S FACE INTO THE SUNSHINE OF LIGHT. When morning broke, the old man began his playful journey. Because the trail was only one child wide, he walked alone. Because he never looked back, he never knew who or how many

were following, if any at all. And because he could speak no words, he led the way from darkness to light in silence. Han said, "Whoever thinks he can lead a single soul to Light has already condemned his world. But whoever sees the Light as all, therefore no one guilty of darkness, guides the ten thousand galaxies on their courses." Light and love from the hills of Alabama, William Samuel

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