Thursday, December 15

JF took me to Stewart Park again today; a bit over fifty degrees, unseasonably warm for Ithaca.  Saw many seagulls huddled on a pile of driftwood twenty or so feet from shore, the hills hazy and blue in the distance...  

Diana wrote.  She still has a few pages to do, end pages, the author page, the Table of Contents - but the covers and spine are done.

Monday, December 19

An e-mail from my friend Patrice:

“This morning, as I was waking up, I was thinking about people and Christmas and I noticed that I had been smelling a fragrance, (not typical for my house or bedroom), for about 5 minutes. It was very similar to the scent I smelled in your kitchen, but lighter and not quite as sweet. I continued to smell it, and I sniffed at everything around me, thinking it might be a lingering laundry scent (but I use unscented soap), or whatever. Nothing had this scent, and I continued to smell the fragrance. Then it gently dissipated after another 5 minutes or so.”

She then went on to say that she had an unexpected phone call right after this newest experience of supernatural fragrances, with very good news.  I immediately wrote back: “It sounds like Our Lady to me.”

Wednesday, December 21

More e-mails and questions from my student in Trinidad.  Today I finally found time to answer him.  In response to his last e-mail I began with: “First: see all your recent struggles and joys in your relationships as ego, and then they will become a part of your spiritual practice.”

In his last e-mail he had asked me:  "So, you never become conscious of mankind as though they are yourself?!"  We had been discussing quotes by Paul Brunton, where Brunton stated that we never lose our individuality.  This concept of Oneness yet individuality can be intellectually difficult to grasp.

I  responded:  “Of course, the mystical is difficult to describe, find words for - and the mystical experiences are - well, mystical.  No, I still knew who I was - although yes I felt "united" with all of humanity in a larger sense; I felt a part of humanity as though we were all one, but still I retained my own identity and sense of Self.
In the Highest Mystical Experiences - there are no other beings. We are standing in two Flames, that of our own soul and that of God.

In the lesser mystical experiences we can experience a sympathetic unity with all other sentient beings.

 
Let me explain further, give a specific example ...

One afternoon I was alone in the Church, kneeling before Christ's statue. I now cannot remember all I was thinking, but I do remember that at one point I was apologizing for all that I had done to offend God. Suddenly I was thrown into a Higher Consciousness, and at that moment I realised that in some way I was also responsible for all the horrid things done throughout history, by all sentient beings - because in some way humanity is one Entity. I cannot explain this, nor how I Knew it, but there it was - and I could indistinctly see all the teeming masses of humanity surrounding me, humanity throughout time as we know it. And I began to cry. And the more I cried, for all of us, for all that we all had done to offend God - the more Love I felt surrounding and filling me ... I was kneeling in a Cloud of Love. And even though I was crying in my deep grief for all humanity, for myself, for all our various errors and offenses - it was no longer grief, even though it was the deepest sadness I had ever felt. The Love surrounding and filling me more or less erased the profound sadness, in fact my memory is more of the Love than the Grief.
And this experience is way above and beyond my usual, every day clairsentience or clairaudience or clairvoyance ...  

Yet even so: throughout this experience, I always knew who I was, who I am.”

Friday, December 30

An e-mail from Diana.  She is still working on the Table of Contents, on the alignments, or spacings.  She reminded me that after she had initially designed the Table of Contents I had then added on a few new stories.  “It threw my spacing off, which was already tight despite the fact that the Table of Contents takes up a whopping six pages.”  She ended with: “Think of it as a very fine surgery.”

M. is out of town for two weeks, and tonight I had dinner with Sam and Martha.  Sam and I decided to begin a new series of articles on Paul Brunton quotes.

Saturday, December 31 New Year’s Eve

Another surprisingly warm day for Ithaca at this time of year, over fifty degrees; sunny.  JF took me to do some needed errands; we walked a bit outside, in spite of my injured ankle.  Went to Mass with Laurel, the lit Christmas trees still surrounding the altar, a small field of poinsettias.  Met Chris briefly afterwards.   Then dinner with Kathy, had a simple yet enjoyable meal.  We exhausted all possible topics of conversation and she eventually brought me back home.  An e-mail from Diana : she is still working on the Table of Contents.  As the clock struck midnight I was praying to Our Lady, for Her Intentions, bathed in Radiant Light and Peace ...  Now I am reminded of many years ago, when I was hands-on healing Carolyn’s injured back.  At one point she said: “I wish everyone could feel this Energy.”  And what Carolyn was feeling that evening could be nothing compared to what I was feeling tonight ...  it was as though Our Lady had thrown a soft blanket of deep, Divinely Burning Love and Light over and around me - while at the same time standing within me, in all Her unearthly Radiance ...