In previous posts I talked about “spreading our wings” and briefly how it had become a symbol of our transitions over the last seven years. I also posted about being baptized to the infinite expanse of heaven. I searched for a representation of these until I found this magnificent bird. It appears to be landing, its head down with its own commanding authority, its wings float upon the breath of the earth and are outstretched from one end of heaven to the other in a beautiful display.

The site’s picture could change in the future, and I wanted to put my thoughts down about this against that time.

Sunday (July 14) my wife and I went and hiked up to a waterfall. We had been there the week before with the kids and wanted to go by ourselves this time. On the way up We ran into a snake, but it was harmless and scurried off. The hike was enjoyable, the falls were beautiful. I took off my shoes and enjoyed the water. As the water flowed around me, I remembered that I had a desire to be rebaptized to the infinite expanse of heaven, and so I did, going under three times.

After we enjoyed the beauty there a while longer I put my shoes back on and we headed back down the trail. Shortly we ran into a group on their way to the falls. A boy and a young girl lead the way. They volunteered that they were from Jackson Missouri and asked us about the falls. We said they were close. I told them about it, that it was nice and cold, refreshing, and there was a place to swim and enjoy themselves. They seemed to anticipate arriving and moved on.

On the way home we stopped at an outdoor shop to view some knives sandals, etc. Then we tried an new coffee shop in the area and then made our way home, listening to an interesting talk by Caroline Myss. We had a great time.

“In order to inspire you, to move you beyond the tribal level of evolution, each one of you has to incarnate into a tribal system where you don’t fit, otherwise you will never take up your bed and walk. You’ve got to not fit. You will spend years trying to fit, but you’re not getting the real message. The real message is you should look at your tribe, embrace them and say thank you for being exactly the way you are, because I need to move on.” (Carolyn Myss, Energy Anatomy)

The tribal system is any group think. What you were born into, believe whether secular or religious, or any new group you attach yourself to. To gain energy and authority back you have to unplug your spiritual circuitry from the tribe, otherwise you will always move and advance at the pace of the tribe. Taking notice of this is why we’re born into a tribe in the first place.

When Jesus told Joseph that “they’re all wrong” that wasn’t a hyperbole then or now, and even people who wanted him to form a church wound up getting him killed. Though every one of them just knew they had Jesus in their heart.

Come to an understanding of Jesus and find yourself incompatible with every group or organization, large or small, including “Biblically-based Christians” who would love to use “the Word” as a way to exert their own manner of righteousness to control, manipulate, judge and not understand.

When Christ, the perfect manifestation of the Father appeared, he set the individual back on the throne that religion had stolen, and cast out religion to the pit in which it belonged. There were no boundaries, or religion, or lack of religion that prevented his attention. When asked “but who is my neighbor” he pointed to the Jews’ enemies–those they considered filthy apostates. When he summed up the final judgement, it had nothing to do with belief systems, or testimonies, only the way we treated the broken individual who came across our path or sought out to relieve their burdens. Religion must protect itself at all costs, even to the casting away family, than to tarnish their chosen system. Christ’s religion for all mankind was “I will suffer anything for you.”

—

I have been betrayed by enough “Christlike” people, that I know, at least on earth, what is real and what isn’t. I’ve also, on rare occasions felt true love from others and it has, basically nothing, in my experience, to do with religion.

—

Sometimes it’s non-religious people, maybe athiests that are the most God-like. Here’s a line from a silly movie I watched tonight that struck me:

“These mountains are the most beautiful on earth. Most church charity types talk about God…how they walk with God, how they found God…They talk at you instead of to you. And they never ask your opinion. And that’s all you do.”

The man he was talking to in this fictional movie was doing something to ease the suffering of for his fellow humans, the most God-like thing I can think of. And when such a person, even an athiest were to come to the gates of heaven, he would be admitted on the basis on Matthew 25:31-46.

Before we left a prayer was offered, a metaphor of us spreading our wings. Since our journey there have been many incidents some dramatic, some small, some in life, some in dreams that have followed this theme.

Before we left there was over and over an abundance of buzzards, a symbol of death and the eating of dead things.

One is of cursings, the other of blessings. One is fearful in the world, condemns it and knows God stands ready to destroy it, the other sees God and stands in the light of noon day. One hopes if they are faithful, they can escape the torment of the wicked around them as well as their own wickedness, in the other is cast away all fear. One stands stiff and immovable, the other moves with alacrity, adjudicating, bending, adjusting or standing firm. One casts off, the other gathers in. One is scarcity, hoarding, cold, faint and frail, kicking against the pricks and denying life the other is abundance, consumption, vitality, heat, energy, light and life. The one restrains, contains, defines and rejects. Seventy-two being the correct number of them. To another, ideas and beings are eternal. The one has not enough food, money or salvation to go around, in another there is abundance, fullness, always enough and to spare. One is false but believes itself true, the other is genuine and unfeigned. One approaches God in fear and trembling the other has perfect love. For one, the sabbath is holy, for another all days are holy. One prepares one for the other, nothing having changed, but the inner man.

The following is a excerpt from Carl Jung’s autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections in chapter 2 “School Years”.

Several times my father had a serious talk with me. I was free to study anything I liked, he said, but if I wanted his advice I should keep away from theology. “Be anything you like except a theologian,” he said emphatically. By this time there was a tacit agreement between us that certain things could be said or done without comment. He had never taken me to task for cutting church as often as possible and for not going to communion any more. The farther away I was from church, the better I felt. The only things I missed were the organ and the choral music, but certainly not the “religious community.” The phrase meant nothing to me at all, for the habitual churchgoers struck me as being far less of a community than the “worldly” folk. The latter may have been less virtuous, but on the other hand they were much nicer people, with natural emotions, more sociable and cheerful, warmer-hearted and more sincere.

This reminded me of the movie Silver Linings Playbook. The families portrayed here were “less virtuous” than a religious community, but if a religious person could really perceive, they might see that these messy people were “much nicer people, with natural emotions, more sociable and cheerful, warmer-hearted and more sincere.”

The following is a excerpt from Carl Jung’s autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections in chapter 2 “School Years”.

One fine summer day that same year I came out of school at noon and went to the cathedral square. The sky was gloriously blue, the day one of radiant sunshine. The roof of the cathedral glittered, the sun sparkling from the new, brightly glazed tiles. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the sight, and thought:

“The world is beautiful and the church is beautiful, and God made all this and sits above it far away in the blue sky on a golden throne and…” Here came a great hole in my thoughts, and a choking sensation. I felt numbed, and knew only: “Don’t go on thinking now!Something terrible is coming, something I do not want to think, something I dare not even approach. Why not? Because I would be committing the most frightful of sins. What is the most terrible sin? Murder? No, it can’t be that. The most terrible sin is the sin against the Holy Ghost, which cannot be forgiven. Anyone who commits that sin is damned to hell for all eternity. That would be very sad for my parents, if their only son, to whom they are so attached, should be doomed to eternal damnation. I cannot do that to my parents. All I need do is not go on thinking.”

That was easier said than done. On my long walk home I tried to think all sorts of other things, but I found my thoughts returning again and again to the beautiful cathedral which I loved so much, and to God sitting on the throne–and then my thoughts would fly off again as if they had received a powerful electric shock. I kept repeating to myself: “Don’t think of it, just don’t think of it!” I reached home in a pretty worked-up state. My mother noticed that something was wrong, and asked, “What is the matter with you? Has something happened at school?” I was able to assure her, without lying, that nothing had happened at school. I did have the thought that it might help me if I could confess to my mother the real reason for my turmoil. But to do so I would have to do the very thing that seemed impossible: think my thought right to the end. The poor dear was utterly unsuspecting and could not possibly know that I was in terrible danger of committing the unforgivable sin and plunging myself into hell. I rejected the idea of confessing and tried to efface myself as much as possible. That night I slept badly; again and again the forbidden thought, which I did not yet know, tried to breakout, and I struggled desperately to fend it off. The next two days were sheer torture, and my mother was convinced that I was ill. But I resisted the temptation to confess, aided by the thought that it would cause my parents intense sorrow.

On the third night, however, the torment became so unbearable thatI no longer knew what to do. I awoke from a restless sleep just in time to catch myself thinking again about the cathedral and God. I had almost continued the thought! I felt my resistance weakening. Sweating with fear, I sat up in bed to shake off sleep. “Now it is coming, now–it’s serious! I must think. It must be thought out beforehand. Why should I think something I do not know? I don’t want to, by God, that’s sure. But who wants me to? Who wants to force me to think something I don’t know and don’t want to know?Where does this terrible will come from? And why should I be the one to be subjected to it? I was thinking praises of the Creator of this beautiful world, I was grateful to him for this immeasurable gift, so why should I have to think something inconceivably wicked? I don’t know what it is, I really don’t, for I cannot and must not come anywhere near this thought, for that would be to risk thinking it at once. I haven’t done this or wanted this, it has come on me like a bad dream. Where do such things come from? This has happened to me without my doing. Why? After all, I didn’t create myself, I came into the world the way God made me–that is, the way I was shaped by my parents. Or can it have been that my parents wanted something of this sort? But my good parents would never have had any thoughts like that. Nothing so atrocious would ever have occurred to them.”

I found this idea utterly absurd. Then I thought of my grandparents, whom I knew only from their portraits. They looked benevolent and dignified enough to repulse any idea that they might possibly be to blame. I mentally ran through the long procession of unknown ancestors until finally I arrived at Adam and Eve. And with them came the decisive thought: Adam and Eve were the first people;they had no parents, but were created directly by God, who intentionally made them as they were. They had no choice but to be exactly the way God had created them. Therefore they did not know how they could possibly be different. They were perfect creatures of God, for He creates only perfection, and yet they committed the first sin by doing what God did not want them to do. How was that possible? They could not have done it if God had not placed in them the possibility of doing it. That was clear, too, from the serpent, whom God had created before them, obviously so that it could induce Adam and Eve to sin. God in His omniscience had arranged everything so that the first parents would have to sin.

Therefore it was God’ s intention that they should sin. This thought liberated me instantly from my worst torment, since I now knew that God Himself had placed me in this situation. At first I did not know whether He intended me to commit my sin or not. I no longer thought of praying for illumination, since God had landed me in this fix without my willing it and had left me without any help. I was certain that I must search out His intention myself, and seek the way out alone. At this point another argument began. “What does God want? To act or not to act? I must find out what God wants with me, and I must find out right away.”

I was aware, of course, that according to conventional morality there was no question but that sin must be avoided. That was what I had been doing up to now, but I knew I could not go on doing it. My broken sleep and my spiritual distress had worn me out to such a point that fending off the thought was tying me into unbearable knots. This could not go on. At the same time, I could not yield before I understood what God’s will was and what He intended. For I was now certain that He was the author of this desperate problem. Oddly enough, I did not think for a moment that the devil might be playing a trick on me. The devil played little part in my mental world at that time, and in any case I regarded him as powerless compared with God. But from the moment I emerged from the mist and became conscious of myself, the unity, the greatness, and the superhuman majesty of God began to haunt my imagination. Hence there was no question in my mind but that God Himself was arranging a decisive test for me, and that everything depended on my understanding Him correctly. I knew, beyond a doubt, that I would ultimately be compelled to break down, to give way, but I did not want it to happen without my understanding it, since the salvation of my eternal soul was at stake.

“God knows that I cannot resist much longer, and He does not help me, although I am on the point of having to commit the unforgivable sin. In His omnipotence He could easily lift this compulsion from me, but evidently He is not going to. Can it be that He wishes to test my obedience by imposing on me the unusual task of doing something against my own moral judgment and against the teachings of my religion, and even against His own commandment, something I am resisting with all my strength because I fear eternal damnation? Is it possible that God wishes to see whether I am capable of obeyingHis will even though my faith and my reason raise before me the specters of death and hell? That might really be the answer! But these are merely my own thoughts. I may be mistaken. I dare not trust my own reasoning as far as that. I must think it all through once more.

“I thought it over again and arrived at the same conclusion. “Obviously God also desires me to show courage,” I thought. “If that is so and I go through with it, then He will give me His grace and illumination?

I gathered all my courage, as though I were about to leap forthwith into hell-fire, and let the thought come. I saw before me the cathedral, the blue sky. God sits on His golden throne, high above the world–and from under the throne an enormous turd falls upon the sparkling new roof, shatters it, and breaks the walls of the cathedral asunder.

So that was it! I felt an enormous, an indescribable relief. Instead of the expected damnation, grace had come upon me, and with it an unutterable bliss such as I had never known. I wept for happiness and gratitude. The wisdom and goodness of God had been revealed to me now that I had yielded to His inexorable command. It was as though I had experienced an illumination. A great many things I had not previously understood became clear to me. That was what my father had not understood, I thought; he had failed to experience the will of God, had opposed it for the best reasons and out of the deepest faith. And that was why he had never experienced the miracle of grace which heals all and makes all comprehensible. He had taken the Bible’s commandments as his guide; he believed in God as the Bible prescribed and as his forefathers had taught him. But he did not know the immediate living God who stands, omnipotent and free, above His Bible and His Church, who calls upon man to partake of His freedom, and can force him to renounce his own views and convictions in order to fulfill without reserve the command of God. In His trial of human courage God refuses to abide by traditions, no matter how sacred. In His omnipotence He will see to it that nothing really evil comes of such tests of courage. If one fulfills the will of God one can be sure of going the right way.

God had also created Adam and Eve in such a way that they had to think what they did not at all want to think. He had done that in order to find out whether they were obedient. And He could also demand something of me that I would have had to reject on traditional religious grounds. It was obedience which brought me grace, and after that experience I knew what God’s grace was. One must be utterly abandoned to God; nothing matters but fulfilling His will. Otherwise all is folly and meaninglessness. From that moment on, when I experienced grace, my true responsibility began. Why did God befoul His cathedral? That, for me, was a terrible thought. But then came the dim understanding that God could be something terrible. I had experienced a dark and terrible secret. It overshadowed my whole life, and I became deeply pensive.

The experience also had the effect of increasing my sense of inferiority. I am a devil or a swine, I thought; I am infinitely depraved. But then I began searching through the New Testament and read, with a certain satisfaction, about the Pharisee and the publican, and that reprobates are the chosen ones. It made a lasting impression on me that the unjust steward was praised, and that Peter, the waverer, was appointed the rock upon which the Church was built.

The greater my inferiority feelings became, the more incomprehensible did God’s grace appear to me. After all, I had never been sure of myself. When my mother once said to me, “You have always been a good boy, I simply could not grasp it. I a good boy? That was quite new to me. I often thought of myself as a corrupt and inferior person.

With the experience of God and the cathedral I at last had something tangible that was part of the great secret–as if I had always talked of stones falling from heaven and now had one in my pocket. But actually, it was a shaming experience. I had fallen into something bad, something evil and sinister, though at the same time it was a kind of distinction. Sometimes I had an overwhelming urge to speak, not about that, but only to hint that there were some curious things about me which no one knew of. I wanted to find out whether other people had undergone similar experiences. I never succeeded in discovering so much as a trace of them in others. Asa result, I had the feeling that I was either outlawed or elect, accursed or blessed.

The Kanji of Aikido are 合気道. The meanings of each character are

• 合 (ai): fit, suit, join
• 気 (ki): spirit, mind, air
• 道 (do): way, teachings

It can be translated “the way of unifying (with) life energy”, or “the way of harmonious spirit”.

I’ve had an interest in Aikido since my mid teens. I knew then, that the word was translated The Way of Harmony. More recently, reading Wikipedia I read that Ueshiba had what seemed like some sort of enlightenment experience. It wasn’t until last night, reading the book The Art of Peace: Teachings of the Founder of Aikido that it dawned on me, that The Way of Harmony was not simply a marital art, but it was Morihei’s connection and experience with the infinite. A “cosmic consciousness” experience as it is called by some, where, according to several accounts, the individual sees all creation as interconnected, interdependent, unified at a macro and micro level, that the source of all things was love and the manifestation of Eternal Life. The Way of Harmony isn’t a martial art, it’s a description of his experience, and how it applies to all things, martial arts being one instance of which Morihei had a special interest.

When I was in my teens, I had no way of mentally accepting that Morihei Ueshiba knew God and had a legitimate divine experience. However, in the decades since then I have found how the Christian God can be harmonized with the divine experiences of the East.

Many of these teachings could have come from Moses’ creation story, the martyr Stephen, Paul, the Revelation of John, the Book of Mormon or Christ himself.

 

The following are excerpts from the book The Art of Peace: Teachings of the Founder of Aikido.

“In particular, he was affected by this experience:

“As we neared Tungliao, we were trapped in a valley and showered with bullets. Miraculously, I could sense the direction of the projectiles—beams of light indicated their paths of flight—and I was able to dodge the bullets. The ability to sense an attack is what the ancient masters meant by anticipation. If one’s mind is steady and pure, one can instantly perceive an attack and avoid it—that, I realized, is the essence of aiki (the art of harmonization).

“Morihei returned to Ayabe a different person. He intensified his training, and in the spring of 1925, his life was transformed and his mission made clear. After meeting a challenge made by a kendo master—the swordsman gave up in defeat after failing to land a single blow—Morihei walked out into his garden to wipe the perspiration from his face.

“Suddenly the earth trembled. Golden vapor welled up from the ground and engulfed me. I felt transformed into a golden image, and my body seemed as light as a feather. I could understand the speech of the birds. All at once I understood the nature of creation: the Way of a Warrior is to manifest divine love, a spirit that embraces and nurtures all things. Tears of gratitude and joy streamed down my cheeks. I saw the entire earth as my home, and the sun, moon, and stars as my intimate friends. All attachment to material things vanished.

“‘I am the universe!’ Morihei proclaimed; he felt that he had been summoned to serve as a messenger for Miroku Bosatsu, the golden buddha-to-come, who will bring heaven down to earth.”

—

“One day [in the mid-1930’s] a group of army sharp-shooters visited the dojo to observe a demonstration by Ueshiba Sensei. After the demonstration, Sensei suddenly announced, ‘Bullets cannot touch me.’ This was a direct provocation, and the marksmen immediately challenged him to prove it at their home firing range. Sensei agreed and a date was set. Sensei put his fingerprint on a document absolving the marksmen of all responsibility if he was shot and killed. Sensei’s wife pleaded with him not to go, and even I, who had witnessed Sensei’s amazing feats many times, thought that he was going too far this time—I told another disciple, ‘Time to start planning Sensei’s funeral.’ Sensei assured all of us: ‘Do not worry. They will never be able to hit me.’ He proceeded to the firing range in a surprisingly lighthearted mood. When we reached the firing range, we found that not one but six marksmen would be taking aim at Sensei. As Sensei positioned himself as a human target, twenty-five meters from the firing line, I wondered how he could possibly escape from that distance against so many shooters. ‘Ready, aim, fire!’ went the command. There was a loud explosion, a swirl of smoke, and suddenly one of the marksmen went flying. Morihei was standing behind the shooters, laughing. All of us were totally stunned and bewildered. We asked him to perform the miracle again, and he agreed. The scene was repeated—the shots, the explosion of noise and smoke, a flying marksman, and Sensei standing behind the shooters. Even though I had tried to keep my eyes glued on Sensei’s form, I could not discern anything. On the way home, I asked him, ‘How did you do that?’ He told me: ‘The actual bullets are preceded by a golden beam of light. Although they seem to fire in unison, there is always one bullet that is first, and that is the beam of light I avoided. I then leaped ninja style to bridge the distance and throw the marksman who had fired the first shot.’ Then he added, cryptically, ‘In truth, my purpose on earth is not fully accomplished yet so nothing can harm me. Once my task is completed, then it will be time to go, but until then I’m perfectly safe.’ This is how he explained it to me, but quite honestly I still cannot understand what he did that day.

“Through this instructive tale, Morihei shows us that the spiritual can defeat the material, even against the most overwhelming, seemingly impossible, odds. Armed with modern and efficient weapons of destruction, the arrogant military marksmen were still no match for one who was functioning on a higher, more spiritual level. It also shows that Morihei was well aware that he had a definite mission as prophet of the Art of Peace. (The Japanese word I have translated as ‘prophet’ is amakudaru, which also means ‘incarnation’ and ‘avatar.’ Morihei often used that term when referring to himself.) The war years from 1931 (date of the Manchurian Incident in China, which Onisaburo called ‘the beginning of hell’) to 1945 were very trying for Morihei. His guru Onisaburo was thrown into jail in 1935 by a government afraid of his dangerous pacifist and egalitarian ideas. Morihei himself avoided arrest, thanks to his contacts in the military and police establishments, but he remained under surveillance since he was considered ‘soft’ by extremists. They did not like his stance that ‘Bushido is not learning how to die. Bushido is learning how to live, how to protect and foster life. Even in war, the taking of human life is to be avoided as much as possible. It is always a sin to kill. Give your opponents every chance to make peace.’ Morihei disliked teaching lethal techniques to members of the military and police academies, and he was dismayed when techniques he had taught showed up in military hand-to-hand combat manuals without his permission and without reference to aiki, disarming an attack nonviolently. The violence of war sickened Morihei. A disciple whose duties included giving Morihei a nightly massage became alarmed at how much thinner Morihei grew as the war dragged on. Morihei’s life was guided by visions. In December of 1940, Morihei had this vision: Around two o’clock in the morning as I was performing ritual purification, I suddenly forgot every martial art I had ever learned. All of the techniques handed down from my teachers appeared completely anew. Now they were vehicles for the cultivation of life, knowledge, virtue, and good sense, not devices to throw and pin people. In 1942, an inner voice said to Morihei, ‘You are the one who must assume the mantle of the Prophet of Peace and teach human beings to live with creative courage. This is your calling, your privilege, your task. Go to the country, build a shrine dedicated to the Great Spirit of Peace and Harmony, and prepare yourself to be a guiding light for a new era.’ Morihei moved to Iwama, in Ibaraki Prefecture, to train, pray, and farm. Around this time, he began calling his teaching Aikido, which can be interpreted as ‘The Art of Peace.’

“The war came to a conclusion on August 15, 1945. Japan was in ruins, and the populace despondent, but Morihei was optimistic: ‘Instead of foolishly waging war, hereafter we will wage peace, the true purpose of Aikido. We will train to prevent war, to abolish nuclear weapons, to protect the environment, and to serve society.’ He told his handful of remaining students, ‘One day, this art will be practiced by people all over the world!’”

—

“A wrestler from Nepal came to see Morihei, and the master said, ‘Try to lift me.’ The wrestler could not budge Morihei and requested the secret of this technique. ‘I am one with the universe. Who can lift that?’”

—

“Aikido is the Way of Harmony. It brings together people of all races and manifests the original form of all things. The universe has a single source, and from that core all things emerged in a cosmic pattern. At the end of WWII, it become clear that the world needed to be purified of filth and degradation, and that is why Aikido emerged. In order to eliminate war, deception, greed, and hatred, the gods of peace and harmony manifested their powers. All of us in this world are members of the same family, and we should work together to make discord and war disappear from our midst. Without Love, our nation, the world, and the universe will be destroyed. Love generates heat and light. Those two elements are actualized in physical form as Aikido. As the last aspect of creation, human beings came into existence as an actualization of all higher powers. Human beings represent all of creation and we must bring the divine plan to fruition. The purpose of education is to open your spirit. Modern education has forgotten this. The entire universe is a huge open book, full of miraculous things, and that is where true learning must be sought. In that spirit, take responsibility, train hard, develop yourselves, bloom in this world, and bear fruit.”

—

“In general, Japanese martial artists tend to be conservative politically, often right-wing, even fascist in some extreme cases, but Morihei proclaimed Aikido to be the source of true democracy and real freedom. He told a member of the Japanese Communist Party, ‘I am a communist myself.’ ‘You are?’ the startled comrade asked. ‘Yes, but my communist party is the one formed by the gods, not human beings. It is the communism of seeing all of humanity as comrades, as true equals, with equal access to the world’s spiritual treasures.’”

—

Morihei was asked if his miraculous powers were due to spirit possession:

“No. The divine spirit is always present within me—and you too, if you delve deeply inside—so I am just obeying its commands and letting the awesome power of nature flow through me.”

—

“One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.”

“If you have life in you, you have access to the secrets of the ages, for the truth of the universe resides in each and every human being.”

“As soon as you concern yourself with the “good” and “bad” of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter. Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weakens and defeats you.”

“Each and every master, regardless of the era or place, heard the call and attained harmony with heaven and earth. There are many paths leading to the peak of Mount Fuji, but the goal is the same. There are many methods of reaching the top, and they all bring us to the heights. There is no need to battle with each other—we are all brothers and sisters who should walk the Path together, hand in hand. Keep to your Path, and nothing else will matter. When you lose your desire for things that do not matter, you will be free.”

“The Art of Peace is a form of prayer that generates light and heat. Forget about your little self, detach yourself from objects, and you will radiate light and warmth. Light is wisdom; warmth is compassion.”

“We can no longer rely on the external teachings of Buddha, Confucius, or Christ. The era of organized religion controlling every aspect of life is over. No single religion has all the answers. Construction of shrine and temple buildings is not enough. Establish yourself as a living buddha image. We all should be transformed into goddesses of compassion or victorious buddhas…..The divine is not something high above us. It is in heaven, it is in earth, it is inside us….You cannot see or touch the divine with your gross senses. The divine is within you, not somewhere else. Unite yourself to the divine, and you will be able to perceive gods wherever you are, but do not try to grasp or cling to them….The divine does not like to be shut up in a building. The divine likes to be out in the open. It is right here in this very body. Each one of us is a miniature universe, a living shrine.”