I have listened to what Life says, and I will tell you a few truths as
I have them recorded. Not only have I heard, but I am the voice as well
as the sender of the voice. Not only am I the messenger, but I am also
bid to be the executor of the message.
Life desires to get acquainted with you and what concerns you, and
I would be pleased to have you know Life. As you are a stranger to
yourself, therefore I will introduce yourself in me to yourself in me.
There are so many of you in me that I can scarcely count you. There is
you who have sinned and you who have sainted; you the judge passing
sentence on you the convict.
Come, all of you in me, and get acquainted with each other. Really you
ought to like each other. Here you, shake hands with yourself! Love
each other! As there is really only one of you, and when the different
fragments of yourself shall have become united, you shall know Life.
Come! I will show you how to get at one with yourself. You are myself,
you know; that accounts for my interest in you. You become a unit by
sacrificing the different selves in you. Spare nothing. The Christ in
you must be sacrificed with the evil in you. I feel your reasoning
self say, it is unreasonable that in order to live one must sacrifice
self. I cannot help you any, for this is the law. It is reasonable
also, and the only unreasonableness about it is your reason.
The smith stands at his forge. Fragments of iron he welds into a
bar. Each piece he passes through the cleansing fire before he can
amalgamate them into the oneness of the bar. No fragment is spared this
ordeal, else it would not unite. The fragment is lost--it has been
absorbed by the bar.
Of what service think you was the tiny strength of the isolated
fragment? But behold! Its own strength it has sacrificed, but it has
inherited the power of the bar. It is performing miracles.
Of what use is your reason in separateness? Reason is a part of you,
and though it is important, it is only a small part of Life. You use
reason in placing your food into your mouth instead of into your ear,
but reason did not make the food, ear, or mouth; nor did it make
anything else. Suppose your nose, which is an important factor on your
face, should say there is no liver, because it nosed and found it not.
Does that prove that the nose knows? When your liver gets in such a
state that the nose knows about it, your liver will be out of business
as a liver. Yes, sacrifice is the law of Life.
I see the doubter of yourself doubt. You wonder why it is that I should
be more favored than you. Why don’t Life talk to me? you say. So you
believe that I lie when I say that I hear Life. Well, you are right. I
have lied, and it being true proves that what I said is true, and it in
turn proves that I did not lie.
The waste which your body throws off, because your body cannot use it,
has become a lie, yet is not less truth than the stuff which your body
absorbed and is truth. The waste makes the absorption possible. If you
would spare your body the effort of separating and discarding the waste
and reserving the life force from the food it ate, your body would be
spared life, as it is nourished by the very thing you spared it of.
Skepticism, lying, evil, falsehood, and pain are a part and necessary
to life, just as the waste is a part of the food that has performed its
service. And the work of separating the unpleasant from the pleasant,
the lies from the truth, the evil from the good, the pain from the
pleasure, is the food which life lives upon, and with which it could
not dispense. It is true, I have not heard Life. Life does not talk to
the ear, thus I could not hear. I saw the voice--No, that is a lie too!
I did not see it; I felt it in my heart. No! I did not do that either.
Let me see, what did I do? Well, I don’t know what I did do, nor do
I know how I came by Life’s message, but I know it is the message of
Life, and I am satisfied. Oh, I have it! I know now! I know! I know!
Your scrutinizing self has somewhat confused me. What was it you said
that you said? Was it not something about Life and a message? Let’s
see, you had a message I believe, and were telling about it, and I was
skeptical, and did not believe a word you said, and I embarrassed you
by asking questions, and you could not explain how you came by Life’s
message. Tell us again, please. What did you say Life’s message was?
Get together? That’s funny! I am wrong, I know I am. If you look at me
like that I shall go mad, I know I will. Let me think! You have me all
befuddled. Oh, yes, you were trying to clarify to me the clearness of
Life, and the Life which is not to be made clear. That which can be
revealed in a vision, and the unvisionable you are trying to visionize.
You were trying to reasonize Life, the what that can and the what that
cannot be reasoned.
You were trying to cram the universe into a pint measure. Time, love,
sacrifice, happiness, wisdom, God, and what not, you were trying to
measure with the toy foot-rule of reason which I gave you. You failed!
You are discouraged and doubt, and are angry! Now I can see you laugh
at me, mock me! I see you pity me. Why should you laugh at me, why
should I be pitied? What have I done to be mocked? Say, am I foolish?
What! Ha! ha! You did not say anything about Life to me? You say that
it was I who was telling you about Life and its message. Really you are
mistaken; it could not have been I. Who is “I”? There was once an I,
but “I” is no more. It is you who lives in the house where I used to
live, and you are so large that it fills me all. There is no room for
“I” in there. In the whole of my being I feel you. It laughs when you
laugh. It cries with you. It feels your pain. It loafs and sins with
you. It saints when you saint; it reasons for you. So you see, it was
not I who was talking, because there is no more I; I has moved and has
taken apartments in Life. It was you talking to yourself; you laughing
at yourself; you mocking yourself; you angry with yourself--and all
because you could not explain. And why should you? What is there to
explain? Is it then not all clear?
Hark! and listen to what Life says. Life is talking now, talking
through all its being, to all of yourself. How the grass smiles at you,
and the moon, and the stars, how they look at you! How all the animals,
the birds, and everything in Life wishes to get at one with you! And
you understand them not; you are listening for a voice to be heard
with ears. You are waiting for a vision to be seen with eyes; you are
waiting for something to be smelled and sensed.
Life is all around you. It is in you and you find it not. Don’t you
know me? It is “I,” Life!
I am everywhere. I have no limitations. In the depths and on the
heights, I am! The winds take me in their breezes and in their gales;
the sunlight in its shadows and in its brightness. I am in the song
of the birds. The lowing of the kine and the roar of the wild beasts,
I am. I glisten in the dew, and the spark of the diamond radiates me.
The whisperings of the tree and brook, the thunders of the storm, the
mighty rush of waters--all are mine.
I am the Life of the forests; the Life of the seas: I am the sea and
the forest. I am the Life of the insects: I am the insects. I am the
life of the deserts: I am the desert. I am the life of the quadruped
and the biped: I am the quadruped and the biped. I am the life of the
good and the evil: I am the good and the evil--all are included in me.
I am the best of that which is good and the worst of that which is
bad--and that is good.
By seeking you will not find me. When you have forsaken me I am with
you. Come unto me, you weaklings, and I will give you strength; you
weary ones, and I will give you rest. Come you perturbed ones, and I
will give you peace. And to you who are little children I will give
wisdom. To love and to serve; to let Life live through you, from
everlasting to everlasting.
This is the message of Life.