Christmas 2000

With the following gifts of words we send warm wishes from our "Home Farm Family" to all of you and your loved ones. May you have an inspired holiday season and an exciting year of fulfillment to come.

At this time of the year I often find myself a little more reflective, meditative, softened by the "glow" of what we call the "holiday season". It usually starts around Thanksgiving when I recall with great fondness the Home Farm Thanksgiving dinners we shared together. And then it continues well through the Christmas holiday and into the New Year. It is a time for remembering friends, family, encounters shared and lessons learned. I would like to share Howard Thurman's "Blessings At Year End" as a way of saying thanks to you all for giving me cause to remember.

I remember with gratitude
the fruits of the labors of others, which I have shared
as a part of the normal experience of daily living.

I remember the beautiful things that I have seen, heard, and felt-
some, as a result of definite seeking on my part,
and many that came unheralded into my path,
warming my heart and rejoicing my spirit.

I remember the moments of distress that proved to be groundless
and those that taught me profoundly
about the evilness of evil
and the goodness of good.

I remember the new people I have met,
from whom I have caught glimpses of the meaning of my own life
and the true character of human dignity.

I remember the dreams that haunted me during the year,
keeping me ever mindful of goals and hopes that I did not realize
but from which I drew inspiration to sustain my life
and keep steady my purpose.

I remember the awareness of the spirit
that sought me out in my aloneness
and gave to me a sense of assurance
that undercut my despair and confirmed my life
with new courage and abiding hope.

-Jody Dalton, 2000

Vitvan's teachings have deep roots in the Eastern religions. Vitvan's teacher was an oriental, and one can find correlations in Vitan's teachings with many of the publications of Eastern religions now being distributed in this country, and around the world. It seems to me that Buddhism, with its emphasis on practice and compassion, is particularly close to his teachings.

I have read several books written by the Dalai Lama, who not only writes about Tibetan Buddhism, but also seems to exhibit a remarkable wisdom that has universal application. I would like to share with you a few excerpts from his book, Ocean of Wisdom, Guidelines for Living, published in 1989 by Clear Light Publishers.

I maintain that every major religion of the world-Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism-has similar ideals of love, the same goal of benefiting humanity through spiritual practice, and the same effect of making their followers into better human beings. All religions teach moral precepts for perfecting the functions of mind, body, and speech. All teach us not to lie steal or take others' lives, and so on. The common goal of all moral precepts laid down by the great teachers of humanity is unselfishness. The great teachers wanted to lead their followers away from paths of negative deeds caused by ignorance and to introduce them to paths of goodness.

All religions agree upon the necessity to control the undisciplined mind that harbors selfishness and other roots of trouble. And each, in its own way, teaches a path leading to a spiritual state that is peaceful, disciplined, ethical, and wise, thus helping living beings to avoid misery and gain happiness. It is for those reasons that I have always believed all religions, essentially, have the same message. Therefore, there is a great need to promote better understanding, leading to the development of reciprocal respect for one another's faith. I also believe, for obvious reasons, that religion itself has much to offer in the achievement of peace.

To maintain wisdom, it is necessary to have inner strength. Without inner development, sometimes we may not retain self-confidence and courage. If we lose these things, life will be difficult. The impossible can be possible with willpower.

So my true religion is kindness. if you practice kindness as you live, no matter if you are learned or not learned, whether you believe in the next life or not, whether you believe in God or Buddha or some other religion, in day-to-day life you have to be a kind person. With this motivation, it doesn't matter whether you are a practitioner or a lawyer or politician, administrator, worker, or engineer. Whatever your profession or field you carry your work as a professional. In the meantime, deep down you are a kind person. This is something useful in daily life.

In this season when Christianity celebrates the birth 2000 years ago of one who taught his followers to practice love and compassion, I am intrigued that a non-Christian so clearly reflects the universal nature of these qualities.

-Bill Coffman, Christmas 2000

One of my favorite books is called "A Grateful Heart." It is a selection of blessings ranging 'from Buddha to the Beatles' for the evening meal. Among its many wonderful entries is this, written by Daphne Rose Kingma.

It is love that fashions us into the fullness of our being-not our looks, not our work, not our wants, not our achievements, not our parents, not our status, not our dreams. These all are the fodder and the filler, the navigating fuels of our lives; but it is love: who we love, how we love, why we love, and that we love which ultimately shapes us.
It is love, before all and after all, in the beginning and in the end, that creates us. Today, remembering this, let yourself acknowledge and remember the moments, events, and people who bring you, even momentarily, into a true experience of love, and allow the rest, the inescapable mundanities of life, like a cloud, to very quietly drift away.

-Susan Wetmore, 2000

I chose this year to spend the Thanksgiving season with my Home Farm family. To choose once more to spread my wings and have a "safe" place for healing was a very decisive decision. The Sschool of the Natural Order has been so very supportive of my past year of great healing-cards, letters, telephone calls, nightly 8:00 (11:00 my time) meditation-all gave me a sound healing base.
I am so thankful for the seeds that have been planted over the past 20+ years and that were forced into bloom this year. My whole being is swathed in rays of gratitude and thanksgiving for all aspects of my journey that has been such a special part of my life this year. My cup runneth over with gratitude and contentment.
As the great teacher said, "It is through pain, tears, and heartache that the nature of our soul, spirit, and strength is given to us."

As you can see I am full-my cup runneth over with feelings and emotions-as though the rose colored glasses have just been prescribed and life is much sharper, finer, and more detailed.

This rare special gift-wrapped in such unusual packaging. The gift? … pain, heartache, tears, loneliness, sadness, packagedin a steroid, chemotherapy, bald head, energyless frame-but

Happy Holiday Time!
-J. J. Kessler, 2000

This year has been an extremely difficult and challenging one for me. The death of my mother, our cat and our dog, along with our only child going off to college, has left me overwhelmed at times with grief, emptiness and loneliness. I am very grateful for the friends and acquaintances that have expressed their empathy and support. I have been trying to cope and help myself by consciously focusing my energy, deep breathing, praying and repeating positive affirmations. I have also been asking myself and "the field" what I am supposed to be learning from all this.
The strongest message that I am hearing is "who is Jane without being a caretaker?" I have been a caretaker for as long as I can remember and this role (and identity) has dominated my life for nearly 50 years. So this year Christmas has a special significance for me. It calls for starting new holiday traditions since my mom is gone, and it calls for the "birth" of aspects of myself that have lain dormant for a very long time. I hope, as my good friend Susan put it, that this next year will be a time of self-discovery. I have a hunch that it will take me longer than a year!
My wish for the holidays and the new year is that we can all look forward to the lessons that await us, appreciating and gaining strength from the support and wisdom of those around us. I hope you enjoy a holiday filled with warmth, meaning and love.

-Jane Murray, 2000

Hello, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all out there,
This is a different experience for me this year since I am not at Home Farm, for the first time. I am in the beautiful Pacific Northwest at Lewis and Clark College. It is beautiful here and I am having a wonderful time. I have met some great new friends whom I hope to introduce to you when they come to Home Farm. When my friends and I begin to talk of home, everyone always wants to hear about Home Farm. They think it's fascinating that I grew up in such a remote place and lived in a small community like Home Farm.
This is the time of year, especially, when our thoughts drift longingly towards home, and for me, to the Farm. I am reminded of what the Farm is like from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I can see the tables in the Main House set for Thanksgiving with the fine, white linen tablecloths, china, wineglasses, and silverware. The beautiful white tables adorned with nuts and squash, or dried flowers and juniper bows. I can't picture not spending this year at the Farm; to me it will always be someplace special and irreplaceable.
And the memories of Home Farm at Christmas, going out in the hills to find the perfect Christmas tree, going home and having the inevitable fight to get it to stand up on its own, and listening to Christmas songs while decorating. Then after decorating the tree, going out and sledding on the roads of the Farm, and getting so cold that I can't feel my fingers, toes, or my nose, then going inside the Main House and drinking hot cocoa. I can't think of a better way to spend Christmas than at Home Farm with all those I love. The best Christmas memories for me are of being at Home Farm and having a wonderfully cozy Christmas vacation. When I close my eyes, I can see and smell the wood smoke, see everyone at home, and see all of Home Farm swathed in white. The icicles hanging from the trees and buildings, and waking
up the morning after a snow storm to a world of white so dazzling that you almost can't open your eyes when you first go outside.
My wish for everyone this year at Christmas is for you to be able to spend it with all those you hold dear. That is the true meaning and spirit of Christmas. That is the gift that I hope everyone gets this year, the gift of home and those you love. Being away has made me realize that all I really want this year is to spend Christmas with those I love. May the next year be as wonderful and as full of excitement and wonder for you all as it has been for me!
Merry Christmas and the best New Year ever,

-Cassandra Lydon, 2000

For a number of years I have been reading the little jewels from Deng Ming-Dao's book 365 Tao Daily Meditations. They always speak to me and I treasure them in my life.
When we began talking about this year's Christmas message and the new millenium theme of "beginnings" was offered as a suggestion, I knew just what I wanted to share:

In the beginning, all things are hopeful. We prepare ourselves to start anew. Though we may be intent on the magnificent journey ahead, all things are contained in this first moment: our optimism, our faith, our resolution, our innocence.
In order to start, we must make a decision. This decision is a commitment to daily self-cultivation. We must make a strong connection to our inner selves. Outside matters are superfluous. Alone and naked, we negotiate all of life's travails. Therefore, we alone must make something of ourselves, transforming ourselves into the instruments for experiencing the deepest spiritual essence of life.
Once we make our decision, all things will come to us. Auspicious signs are not a superstition, but a confirmation. They are a response. It is said that if one chooses to pray to a rock with enough devotion, even that rock will come alive. In the same way, once we choose to commit ourselves to spiritual practice, even the mountains and valleys will reverberate to the sound of our purpose.

My heart is made full each day of the year as I connect with each of you "out there" in our extended family of the Field we call the School of the Natural Order.

Love and blessings to all,
-Val Taylor, 2000

The three kings struggle across the burning sands, oriented to the star, searching for a Special One, somewhere 'out there,' easily confused by Herod's advice…

From Kabir…

My body and my mind are in depression because you are not with me.
How much I love you and want you in my house!
When I hear people describe me as your bride I look sideways ashamed,
because I know that far inside us we have never met.
Then what is this love of mine?
I don't really care about food, I don't really care about sleep, I am restless
indoors and outdoors.
The bride wants her lover as much as a thirsty man wants water.
And how will I find someone who will take a message to the Guest from me?
How restless Kabir is all the time!
How much he wants to see the Guest!

The shepherds tending their flocks heard the angels sing, saw the star and immediately went to see the special one-no journey, no search, no political intrigue…

From Kabir…

I have been thinking of the difference between water
And the waves on it. Rising,
Water's still water, falling back,
it is water, will you give me a hint
how to tell them apart?

Because someone has made up the word
"wave," do I have to distinguish it
from water?

There is a Secret One inside us;
the planets in all the galaxies
pass through his hand like beads.

That is a string of beads one should look at with
luminous eyes?

At Christmas I often look 'out there' to see if my practice is taking me closer to the Light, to the baby Christ in the manger. I feel as if I have been wandering with the three kings. But, paradoxically, when I stop and look within, for the moment I am a shepherd, filled with the immediacy of love and discovery, all distinctions and differences gone.

Kabir again…

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly -
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

-Jim Dalton, 2000

Although millennia of mentalized projections about Saviors, gods, heaven worlds, & healers clog our minds, the simple truth about Xmas is that it celebrates that Great Being who is the Source of our little lives, the Gift Bearer, Hearth Warmer, and First Cause of all action on our planet, He Whom within which we live, move, and have our being, the Sun. Sol. Yes, that STAR in the sky over our heads every day-the one we see, but don't really see.

The truth is so simple, dare I say it, so Bright, so Shining, that our opacity to it is stunning! Any good old pagan ("one from the countryside") intuited this obvious verity. But when mankind began to develop mentally, we became so charmed by our newfound use of symbols and mental picturings, that we began to totally believe that the virtual reality in our noggins was the true Reality.

Now watch your mind in action. Are you still reaching for some abstraction, some anthropomorphized Savior image (a daddy or mummy figure)? or, one even more disengaged from Reality, like some exaggerated Buddhist or Qabbalistic abstraction in a sanitized mental universe far, far away? Look up. That's Kether over your head. This is Malkuth under your feet. It's not going backwards to remove the scales from your eyes and embrace what the average archaic person felt.

In the non-aristotelian period we will not only recover 'some' of primitive man's sense of Nature; we will also become consciously unified with Nature as the energy-world. We will also recover the organism-as-a-whole consciousness and Mind governing and directing it."

-Vitvan, Conscious Abstracting Lesson 11 (1949)

 

As one sun can shine through a multiplicity of windows, so one Self manifests through a multiplicity of individualized energy systems…so, each window could say for its respective self: "The sun is my individual self." But we who could see the one manifesting sun shining through a multiplicity of windows would smile indulgently; so, in non-identity we will smile indulgently with those who still think that the Self is individual.

Upon this fact that the Self is not individual, is going to rest all of that integration, unity and oneness which will eventuate in the non-aristotelian age

-Vitvan, Conscious Abstracting Lesson 10 (1949)

Billions of years ago a great roiling auric egg of Consciousness-in-Activity flung out pieces of Itself, like a king appointing his court, and they became the planets, organs within the Logoic body, not sitting alone in empty space, but partners in a living circulatory system of field forces. The immense radiatory power of this almighty Lord is carried within the bodies of his offspring, the planets, still seething hot in their hell-cores. And in the interface between Mother Planet and Father Star, Life was born, a safe zone where Fire did not consume all, but stirred up a moderate molecular movement that warmed and nourished. That wiggliness of Life is the undulant S-format of wave-frequencies, the eternal serpent who lives in the water.

Your "configuration," your body, your flesh, your very existence embodied is this wiggliness captured in a form midway between the Malkuth of Mother Stone, and the Kether of all-consuming Father Fire. You are the seedling of a Star. Your parents, & their parents, and the whole DNA lineage traces back to the House of Sol. You live still on His largesse, the inheritors of His ongoing fortune and the carriers of His warmth and vibrant love.

Some say this is looking backwards into animism. Yes it is, in the best sense of the word, tracing our family tree back to That which up to this very day, in this very moment, in our every breath, animates us, and gives us vitality; this is tracing back to our One great common forbear, far back beyond any fairy tale gods in their gardens of Eden, or Aarru, or Woo-hoo, or Hoop-la. We, my friends, are the spawn of stars.

If He could speak, He might say:

"I AM not merely an inanimate ball of plasma as seen by your squinty little objectifying pocket-calculator brains, but the Avatar of the very Divine breaking upon your heads. I am the Whitehole Outpouring of the Ineffable, a window into the Empyrean. Every atom and scintilla of light in your bloodbody flows down the River of Time from Me. I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Vine. Give up all your false gods, your idols in the mind. All of them base their symbolism on Me and bask in My reflected glory. Consider these symbolic expressions:

The Cross, X- most ancient symbol of Radiance, starburst, of life bursting out of the seed. X marks the spot: here be Truth. Savior on a cross-The X in Man, the Life in YOU, not death, but Life in all its warm fuzzy flowing honeyed, flowering radiance. Santa Claus-one of my favorites. A big fat round red fellow flying in the sky. North pole-center of sky, source of all. Reindeer-planet companions, or zodiac. The Gift Giver, carrier of the Cornucopia. Xmas tree-with its lights, is the Yggdrasil Tree of Cosmos, our family tree with our relatives, the other Star Beings. Christos- (from the Greek Xristos, from the Sumerian "potent with Life-Giving.") Magi built the word upon the X, to show the speiremic seed of this everlasting resurrecting force, which raises the flowers in springtime, and everyone to the remembrance of their Father which art in Heaven

To all My sons and daughters of whatever color, race, species, phylum, kingdom, rock or stone, all children of Fire, flesh of My flesh, I love you ALL."

Have a Merry Xmas
-Jim Woolsey, 2000
(jwoolsey55@hotmail.com)

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for … but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

-Author unknown

Joy and happiness to you. May your prayers be answered.

-Carol and Parker Damon, 2000

 

As my skis cut through soft fluffy snow
so early in the season
like opening the soft folds of the Mother's skin,
I reflect on cascading memories;
memories that describe who I am
now and then.
Now and Zen.
Until a voice cautions
to Be Here NOW!
And I awake from reverie
to notice invisible traps of buried logs,
changes in grade;
hanging limbs covered in laces of ice.
A wonderland of an early winter
an icy landscape keeping me in and out
of attention.
As my body adjusts to upward spiraling,
my mind becomes free once more to soar
and explore psychic space.
I get to know more of my many 'selves'.
Maybe even resolve old hurts and value-given conflicts.
And now and Zen
I gaze at fantastic scenes unfolding in slow motion.
Or the rush of space unfolding at speed
as I rush downward, at times
Helter skelter, a full tilt boogie
rock and roll pace just following the pull
of an urgent gravity
drawing me into some abyss or
calm equilibrium of balanced quiet
and movement like a pendulum moving
to steady state.
Stopping just short of collision with my truck.
I wake up again and giving thanks to the Triple Powers
of this awesome natural experience drive off;
enriched, taught, healed and tired.

Happy Holidaze!
-John B. Free, 2000

Last year at this time most of us were concerned with what Y2K might portend. Having survived the changing of all the digits on our calendar, we can now look forward to the incremental passing of the present millenium. However, functionally speaking, we must live it not one year at a time, but one moment at a time, as always.
Of course, looking at a new millenium, a new year, or even a new week or day can give us impetus for a new beginning. But we need not wait for that. Right this instant is as good a time to begin as any. "Today is the first day of the rest of your life," is more than just a popular cliché. Our ever-moving attention is constantly focusing on the future or the past. But it need not be so. We can, probably with less than Herculean effort, begin to live consciously in the here-now. The trick is to sustain that awareness, which requires nothing more nor less than returning our focus to the present moment over and over again until all the moments coalesce into an eternity of here-now awareness.
Vitvan used to chuckle and sing these words from an old hymn to his students, "My yoke is easy, my burden is light, / I've found it so, I've found it so." My wish for all of us this year is that we may discover that simple joy by practicing living in the consciousness of the present moment and attending to the task at hand.

-Marj Coffman, 2000

Dear Friends of the School,

After some months of draught, we have just been blessed with a week of snow. The mountains for miles around are swathed in white gowns, and even the pinyon pines have heavy decoration. Even though it has gone down to 10 and 12 degrees at night, some of the small chipmunks and birds are still not going to bed for the winter.

May I offer you some Christmas thoughts, as gathered in the book 1000 Beautiful Things by Marjorie Barrows.

Above the mountain's crest,
The star against the blue
Blossomed; and on the breast
Of darkness, hemlock knew
The gentle weight of whiteness,
The easy wind's soft sound
That sifted the silver lightness
Across the drifted ground.

Huddled within the grey
Barn's warm and weathered walls,
The calves were restless; hay
Was sweet in the bedded stalls,
But the horses whinnied, shaking
Their halters, seeing the star
Through the small window, breaking
Over the mountain's bar.

Like an opening flower, gold
Upon the heaven's deep
Clear cobalt, as of old.
The drowsy mother-sheep
Her lamb nuzzling her side,
Lay on the dusky straw;
The lamb tottered and cried
Toward the window, when it saw
The great star lifting slowly
Over the snowy sod,
Over all creatures lowly,
As over the Lamb of God
It burned once on a blowing
Night … and the lamb was still,
Watching that brilliance growing
Over the wintry hill.
Happy Holidays to all,

- Dorothy Damon, 2000

 

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