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MIRROR OF LIGHT
Discusses how to overcome the feeling of separateness, become aware of other people's needs, and grow closer to God
89 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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February 9, 2016
Very positive book. This book reminded me of patterns one needs to break to become a better being. At the end it reveals itself as a Fourth Way book. One of underline themes is that life is about other people and is through this service or realization that you will come to have a better understanding of yourself.
Here are my personal cliff notes
Notes from The Mirror Of Light:
I wish the result of my weakness to become my own strength
The right way to help them is to tell them what they want, to give them confidence so that they will find for themselves what they must do. We will never know what people are if we do not observe what they say. If we think: 'I have to listen to them' we will never know. If we think: 'What are they trying to tell me?' then we will know.
The greatest happiness is acceptance. It is to be so humble that nothing that is said, no criticism or praise, can hurt us. To be able to accept everything with humility, that is the greatest happiness.
We cannot judge, for we do not know what is good or bad. If we make everything of others ours we will be happy; no one can take it from us because it will be ours, we will have made it ours. We will be able to do everything, for we will be near God.
We should never go to sleep until we have forgiven everybody, even our own temptations, even ourselves. We must always go to bed clean by forgiveness.
Forgiveness is humility. Where there is humility there is love. Where there is love there is no condemning, because we feel there is nothing to forgive.
When we talk with a person and do not know what to say, it is not the language in any sense that matters; it is not even experience of what he thinks or how he lives, but the real feelings we have for him that matter. Results will come when we have been open and giving of our real self. When we have felt a tremendous longing to help other people, no matter how, and then have forgotten ourselves, afterwards they may tell us that they have been helped, although we may not remember what we said and feel that we did nothing. Even if we do not understand someone, but think: 'This person needs something; what can I give him?' we have already given him love. And there is nothing that real love does not cure. We cannot tell what people need. We cannot know how we can help people. But if we give positiveness we will help in a way we will never know.
To ourselves we feel very important. We think: 'I want.' If we felt our real positions then things would come to us. We should let them be and not try to hold them. If we forget ourselves things will come to us. Self-importance is always binding us, hindering us in every thing. We must break the chain of our importance. He who thinks himself important has no importance;
he who thinks himself completely unimportant begins
to have importance. We should never remember that we are 'James' or 'John', only that we are 'we'. Then we will never be embarrassed, for embarrassment is false personality. We should be very careful not to be embarrassed, because it is vanity. It is imagination and an old habit.
Most of our fears come from vanity. We fear that others will find us stupid, that they will understand more than we do. We can understand anything, if we are willing to study.
Everyone has a mental picture of himself. When we see ourselves in a photograph or a mirror we say: 'I am really better than that!' We take ourselves very seriously. If we forgot ourselves a little we would have some knowledge.
Worry is the worst prejudice we have, because it comes from vanity. Bad temper is a compound of vanity and imagination. We get cross with circumstances because we cannot cope with them. We get cross when we do not want to make an effort to cope with them.
Vanity is our worst enemy. Vanity does nothing for the thing itself, but for the effect it will have on others. When we cease to think of ourselves, of what impression we give, then we will be free. When we are thinking of other people, not of ourselves, the rest will take care of itself. When we learn to listen to others and forget ourselves, then we already are something. We think that to forget ourselves means giving up something pleasant. We do not realize that to do so means entering into a new state of happiness.
The greatest happiness we can experience on this earth comes from humility so complete that nothing said to us or about us can make us react either with pleasure or with pain. When we accept whatever comes to us as an opportunity to learn, as an opportunity for being positive, then we will be really happy. When that point of humility is reached there is no longer 'I want', there is only 'we are'. This is self-remembering.
We are not here to do anything physically;
we have to develop our minds. That makes us grow spiritually. We must develop our minds, for the more developed the mind the more developed the conscience. If we use our minds there is nothing in this world that we cannot understand - if we have the will to discover it
We control our breathing by a clean mind. If our conscience is dirty we are disturbed and our breathing becomes disturbed.
The first step is to know that we are, that we have a mind. The second is to have a conscience, to acknowledge conscience. The third is to know our aim. The fourth is to know ourselves and to be humble. That is real self remembering. At first we can be guided, but after the first or second step we ourselves have to decide whether we will go up or down. For God has given us free will and even He Himself cannot compel us to go in any direction. We ourselves have to decide. We have constantly to make decisions because we lack will and a permanent centre of gravity. Our possibilities are the greatest assets we have. In order for them to be realized we must not strengthen our weaknesses.
Every action without will is negative. There is only one will; it is like a light that we must always follow;
The only thing that really belongs to us is our will.
The way to be alive is to help others to be alive.
The word 'difficult' should not exist in our vocabulary. Immediately it introduces imagination and limits us. Nothing is difficult. There is nothing difficult for the human being. Every possibility is in us, only we say: 'Oh, no, that is impossible!' To be transformed we must stop thinking of 'buts'. So many things in our lives are 'but - but - but'. If we stop saying 'but' we will be ourselves.
If we were wise we would not judge ourselves. We can judge nothing, because we are not complete. Only a complete being can judge. But we can measure. By measuring we can make comparisons, we can recognize, make contrasts, recognize polarity.
To be awake enough to give attention to the person we are talking to, this is the work. So often we notice only our own reactions; this is sleep. To be awake means to be aware of ourselves in others. We only notice in others what we have in ourselves. For example, if I see that someone else is lazy it is because I myself am lazy.
We should feel that there is no badness in others, only in ourselves; that they do wrong through ignorance or blindness. We can never accuse anyone else of being bad for we can never know the real reason why they do what appears to us as wrong.
If we measure and do not judge, others cannot judge us
To find truth we must first know our aim. To know our aim we must first know what we want - sincerely and simply know what we want. Without that, nothing is possible. It is not enough to know it one day and forget it the next. We must be able to express our aim in words, to fix it, to be sure of it. If our aim is vague it is not sure. If it is sure, we can always express it.
if we try to observe ourselves direct, we can see almost nothing, but if we observe someone else we can see more of ourselves reflected in him, and if we observe many people, really notice them, we will probably get a very good picture of ourselves indeed. We can have many illusions about ourselves and our motives, but if we see other people's reactions to us, our illusions will disappear and gradually we will see ourselves as we really are. And when that happens we will see that other people are just like ourselves and that we are just like other people - in fact, that we are all alike. Then we will no longer have the feeling of 'I', of separateness, either the proud feeling or the miserable feeling, both of which are only vanity.
There is one person who will never fail us, our Guardian Angel, if we make the habit of asking him for help. We must choose which side we want to go, which way we want to lean. If we choose right we choose by self-remembering. It is a very wise work, but we must understand it right.
We must connect earth and sky, live between earth and sky. When we pray, when we help others, then we connect earth and sky.
To laugh is not real, to cry is not real, but to smile is real. We should go through the work smiling. We are filled with the love of God when we feel happy. Happiness is the realization of the union of everything clean with God. Prayer makes us real, really clean. When we pray we are revealing our real selves, without hiding anything.
Here are my personal cliff notes
Notes from The Mirror Of Light:
I wish the result of my weakness to become my own strength
The right way to help them is to tell them what they want, to give them confidence so that they will find for themselves what they must do. We will never know what people are if we do not observe what they say. If we think: 'I have to listen to them' we will never know. If we think: 'What are they trying to tell me?' then we will know.
The greatest happiness is acceptance. It is to be so humble that nothing that is said, no criticism or praise, can hurt us. To be able to accept everything with humility, that is the greatest happiness.
We cannot judge, for we do not know what is good or bad. If we make everything of others ours we will be happy; no one can take it from us because it will be ours, we will have made it ours. We will be able to do everything, for we will be near God.
We should never go to sleep until we have forgiven everybody, even our own temptations, even ourselves. We must always go to bed clean by forgiveness.
Forgiveness is humility. Where there is humility there is love. Where there is love there is no condemning, because we feel there is nothing to forgive.
When we talk with a person and do not know what to say, it is not the language in any sense that matters; it is not even experience of what he thinks or how he lives, but the real feelings we have for him that matter. Results will come when we have been open and giving of our real self. When we have felt a tremendous longing to help other people, no matter how, and then have forgotten ourselves, afterwards they may tell us that they have been helped, although we may not remember what we said and feel that we did nothing. Even if we do not understand someone, but think: 'This person needs something; what can I give him?' we have already given him love. And there is nothing that real love does not cure. We cannot tell what people need. We cannot know how we can help people. But if we give positiveness we will help in a way we will never know.
To ourselves we feel very important. We think: 'I want.' If we felt our real positions then things would come to us. We should let them be and not try to hold them. If we forget ourselves things will come to us. Self-importance is always binding us, hindering us in every thing. We must break the chain of our importance. He who thinks himself important has no importance;
he who thinks himself completely unimportant begins
to have importance. We should never remember that we are 'James' or 'John', only that we are 'we'. Then we will never be embarrassed, for embarrassment is false personality. We should be very careful not to be embarrassed, because it is vanity. It is imagination and an old habit.
Most of our fears come from vanity. We fear that others will find us stupid, that they will understand more than we do. We can understand anything, if we are willing to study.
Everyone has a mental picture of himself. When we see ourselves in a photograph or a mirror we say: 'I am really better than that!' We take ourselves very seriously. If we forgot ourselves a little we would have some knowledge.
Worry is the worst prejudice we have, because it comes from vanity. Bad temper is a compound of vanity and imagination. We get cross with circumstances because we cannot cope with them. We get cross when we do not want to make an effort to cope with them.
Vanity is our worst enemy. Vanity does nothing for the thing itself, but for the effect it will have on others. When we cease to think of ourselves, of what impression we give, then we will be free. When we are thinking of other people, not of ourselves, the rest will take care of itself. When we learn to listen to others and forget ourselves, then we already are something. We think that to forget ourselves means giving up something pleasant. We do not realize that to do so means entering into a new state of happiness.
The greatest happiness we can experience on this earth comes from humility so complete that nothing said to us or about us can make us react either with pleasure or with pain. When we accept whatever comes to us as an opportunity to learn, as an opportunity for being positive, then we will be really happy. When that point of humility is reached there is no longer 'I want', there is only 'we are'. This is self-remembering.
We are not here to do anything physically;
we have to develop our minds. That makes us grow spiritually. We must develop our minds, for the more developed the mind the more developed the conscience. If we use our minds there is nothing in this world that we cannot understand - if we have the will to discover it
We control our breathing by a clean mind. If our conscience is dirty we are disturbed and our breathing becomes disturbed.
The first step is to know that we are, that we have a mind. The second is to have a conscience, to acknowledge conscience. The third is to know our aim. The fourth is to know ourselves and to be humble. That is real self remembering. At first we can be guided, but after the first or second step we ourselves have to decide whether we will go up or down. For God has given us free will and even He Himself cannot compel us to go in any direction. We ourselves have to decide. We have constantly to make decisions because we lack will and a permanent centre of gravity. Our possibilities are the greatest assets we have. In order for them to be realized we must not strengthen our weaknesses.
Every action without will is negative. There is only one will; it is like a light that we must always follow;
The only thing that really belongs to us is our will.
The way to be alive is to help others to be alive.
The word 'difficult' should not exist in our vocabulary. Immediately it introduces imagination and limits us. Nothing is difficult. There is nothing difficult for the human being. Every possibility is in us, only we say: 'Oh, no, that is impossible!' To be transformed we must stop thinking of 'buts'. So many things in our lives are 'but - but - but'. If we stop saying 'but' we will be ourselves.
If we were wise we would not judge ourselves. We can judge nothing, because we are not complete. Only a complete being can judge. But we can measure. By measuring we can make comparisons, we can recognize, make contrasts, recognize polarity.
To be awake enough to give attention to the person we are talking to, this is the work. So often we notice only our own reactions; this is sleep. To be awake means to be aware of ourselves in others. We only notice in others what we have in ourselves. For example, if I see that someone else is lazy it is because I myself am lazy.
We should feel that there is no badness in others, only in ourselves; that they do wrong through ignorance or blindness. We can never accuse anyone else of being bad for we can never know the real reason why they do what appears to us as wrong.
If we measure and do not judge, others cannot judge us
To find truth we must first know our aim. To know our aim we must first know what we want - sincerely and simply know what we want. Without that, nothing is possible. It is not enough to know it one day and forget it the next. We must be able to express our aim in words, to fix it, to be sure of it. If our aim is vague it is not sure. If it is sure, we can always express it.
if we try to observe ourselves direct, we can see almost nothing, but if we observe someone else we can see more of ourselves reflected in him, and if we observe many people, really notice them, we will probably get a very good picture of ourselves indeed. We can have many illusions about ourselves and our motives, but if we see other people's reactions to us, our illusions will disappear and gradually we will see ourselves as we really are. And when that happens we will see that other people are just like ourselves and that we are just like other people - in fact, that we are all alike. Then we will no longer have the feeling of 'I', of separateness, either the proud feeling or the miserable feeling, both of which are only vanity.
There is one person who will never fail us, our Guardian Angel, if we make the habit of asking him for help. We must choose which side we want to go, which way we want to lean. If we choose right we choose by self-remembering. It is a very wise work, but we must understand it right.
We must connect earth and sky, live between earth and sky. When we pray, when we help others, then we connect earth and sky.
To laugh is not real, to cry is not real, but to smile is real. We should go through the work smiling. We are filled with the love of God when we feel happy. Happiness is the realization of the union of everything clean with God. Prayer makes us real, really clean. When we pray we are revealing our real selves, without hiding anything.
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