Showing results by narrator "Jim Wentland" in All Categories

Meister Eckhart, who has been called the "Father of German Thought", was a Dominican monk and one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle Ages. He was born about 1260 AD in Thuringia and died at Cologne 1327 AD. In 1295, he was Prior of the Dominicans at Erfurt and Vicar-General of Thuringia. In 1300, he was sent to the University of Paris, where he studied Aristotle and the Platonists and received the degree of Master of Arts. 

The little family of mystical treatises that is known to students as “the Cloud of Unknowing group” deserves more attention than it has hitherto received from English lovers of mysticism, for it represents the first expression in our own tongue of that great mystic tradition of the Christian Neoplatonists that gathered up, remade, and “salted with Christ's salt” all that was best in the spiritual wisdom of the ancient world. 

There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds. Mystics, Gnostics, and Theosophists all speak of a world of soul and spirit which for them is just as real as the world we see with our physical eyes and touch with our physical hands.

I AM obliged to use your words and modes of expression, but I must say at the beginning that they are wholly inadequate to convey spiritual truths. I long to help people who seem to be in the same mistaken conditions in which I once was, for man does not know himself. We will consider together something of the truth of being, the most essential and the first of all things. You are not the outward and visible form; this is the feeblest and the most distant likeness of your real self. I will explain by illustration.

We see, as they perhaps do not, that to many of them, this series of lessons will be as seed planted in fertile soil - which will in due time put forth sprouts, which will force their way gradually into the sunlight of consciousness where they will put forth leaves, blossom and fruit. Many of the fragments of truth which will be presented to you will not be recognized by you at this time; but in years to come, you will recognize the verity of the impressions which will be conveyed to you in these lessons.

The two absolutely necessary elements for your success of any kind are: 1) Desire and 2) Power. As for desire, we all possess it in healthy abundance. You and I want to advance ourselves in whatever areas we fancy and in the shortest time possible. We all wish for more prosperity and prestige in our businesses and professions. As perfectly normal individuals we want greater achievement and satisfaction in affairs of love and sex. Every person hopes to command respect and popularity from those around him. Most importantly, we ask for a future rich in comfort and security. 

Discover the ancient and secret system of workable magic, which, if we can learn to use it as did the native magicians of Polynesia and North Africa, bids fair to change the world.

We are all supremely interested in one subject. There is one thing that means more to us than all the other things in the world put together, and that is our search for God and the understanding of his nature. The aim of the metaphysical movement is to teach the practice of the presence of God.

For centuries, the Comanche thrived in a territory called Comancheria, which comprised parts of eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, Oklahoma, and some of northwest Texas. Before conflicts with white settlers began in earnest, it's been estimated that the tribe consisted of more than 40,000 members. While the Comanche are still a federally recognized nation today and live on a reservation in part of Oklahoma, they have remained a well-known tribe due to their 19th century notoriety.

People everywhere on earth are now realizing as never before that the well-being of this world rests with its inhabitants. It is no longer a religious dogma or a philosophical theory that the destiny of the race is in the hands of man. Humanity has built age after age only to find that its structures do not endure. They are faulty because the divine plan has not been consulted by the builder. Our Bible plainly teaches that God implanted in man executive ability to carry out all the creative plans of the Great Architect.

Today we are going to see the effect that our thoughts can have on our lives. What do you think life holds in store for you? Do you look forward to success and happiness? Is yesterday a happy memory? And what about today? Did you ever think that the only yesterday you can live over again is in your own mind, and the only tomorrow you can live is also in your own mind? Your yesterdays, then are but memories, and your tomorrows anticipations.

Every time I talk on this subject I begin with this. I have no gold brick to sell. This is no get-rich-quick scheme. I have nothing at all to sell to you. There are no secret doctrines that will tell you how to make a million in a month. While there is an exact science of gaining wealth, I will say in beginning that possibly none of you will ever prove it. Nevertheless, I will say that it is an exact law, a scientific and unfailing law. There is a law of perfect supply.

I have felt the unseen hand, been guided by it, and felt the kind but steady urge in the direction which it knew to be best, though my intellect failed to see the beauty of the road toward which the hand was directing me.

You will remember the story of Aladdin and his lamp; that when he rubbed his lamp and made a wish, then the genie would appear. Jesus said, "There is a light that lighteth every man's path". But he added, "If you put your light under a bushel, then no one can see it". It is this light which is the light of God and the light of life that is your light.

There is, in the universe, a spirit that is self-knowing, and a law that is not self-knowing, but self-propelling, which obeys spirit. We are self-knowing centers in a law that has no volition other than to obey our impulses. We are ignorant of this and consequently bring upon ourselves, through a direct act of law, all the experiences that we suffer. Should we completely change our mode of thinking, we would completely change our environment.

If you have reached that stage on your journey through life where the world without can offer you nothing that will stay your efforts to find that Kingdom, and you welcome any directions that will clearly point you there, then you are ready for these words, and they will be to you a quickening power that will hasten you on your way and perhaps will enable you speedily to reach the goal.

We are always attracting the love of others, or their criticism. We are drawing assistance and cooperation into the orbit of our personal experience, or else we are creating frustrations and disappointments. This is because we are always thinking. Mind is the most active thing in the universe. It works ceaselessly, fashioning thoughts into things.

Originally given as a popular lecture course, this little audiobook does not pretend to be a contribution to the formidable array of psychological literature. It is intended for those who have neither the time nor the training necessary to assimilate the standard works on the subject. This is for listeners who want to know its elements and to understand the principles on which our characters are formed and the means by which the process of thought is carried on, not so much from the scholastic point of view but in relation to the problems of everyday life.

There will be nothing said concerning metaphysical theories or philosophical hypotheses; instead, there will be a very strict adherence to the principles of psychology. These subjects, while highly important and interesting, belong to a different class of investigation, and are outside of the limits of the present inquiry. We shall not even enter into a discussion of the subject of "what is the mind"; instead, we shall confine our thought to the subject of "how does the mind work".

In the second half of the 19th century, the Euro-American citizenry of California carried out mass genocide against the Native population of their state, using the processes and mechanisms of democracy to secure land and resources for themselves and their private interests. The murder, rape, and enslavement of thousands of Native people were legitimized by notions of democracy - in this case mob rule.