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VASILYOK: Tale of the Golden Pine

Written down by Anna Zubkova, M.A.

Edited and translated from Russian by Dr.Vladimir Antonov. Corrector of English translation Keenan Murphy. 

       Our story begins with a seed.        Yes-yes! With a usual pine seed!       Have you ever seen such a seed? It is small, with one transparent golden wing. Many of such seeds ripen in a mother-cone. Many cones grow every year on their mother-pine!        When the seeds are mature, the mother-cone lifts its scales, and then these seeds fly around for new pines to be born and to grow.        … So, one day, the wind blew — and our little seed flew, catching the airflow with its little wing.        “How beautiful and great is the world!” — the seed thought. — “How light and spacious! And I — can fly!”       “No, it is I that can fly,” — said the wind which carried the seed. — “I am carrying you! You have only one wing, so you yourself cannot fly like a bird or a butterfly.”        "Thank you!” — the seed responded. — “I am very grateful to you! I like to fly!”       “But this is not your destiny — to fly. You must sprout; you can become a wonderful pine! Choose a place where you would like to become a pine tree! And when you grow up, I will fly to visit you and play in your branches, so that you do not get bored.”        “Here! I like this high sandy bank of the river! Here, when I grow up, I will see the whole Earth!”       “Well, maybe not the whole Earth! The Earth — it is much more than you can see! But that place is really good,” — the wind agreed.         And, with these words, the wind gently lowered its seed into a small pit on the favored site and, creating a light vortex, sprinkled it with soil.        “Thank you!…” — the seed almost inaudibly whispered goodbye. — “Oh, how tired I am today! Oh, how much I want to sleep!…”        So, the seed slept and nestled by the soil, until a small root and sprout had appeared.        And then our pine was born in the light above the ground.        Have you ever seen newborn pines?       They are not much more than little blades. They have a thin thread-like green stem. And at the top, there are several tiny soft and tender needles sticking up.        Our pine had five of them!        It spread them joyously: “I was born! I am now — a pine!”       … As time went on, our pine grew. It was lucky: it was not washed away by rain, and it received sufficient sunlight, heat, and moisture.        It could feel the flow of life inside of itself: “Wow — I am really growing up!”.        After a few years, the tree could already stand conspicuously on the bank of the river.        As time went on…        Birds began to sing on the branches of the pine. The pine gladly listened to their songs.        The wind often visited it, when flying on this bank of the river.        In winter, the snow wrapped it up. In summer, a pleasant heat warmed its body and juices — to help it grow faster!       Yes, it wanted to become stronger and, even more so, it wanted — to caress with its branches the blue sky with white clouds!        It grew up faster and faster every year, growing new fluffy branches. Soon its trunk became slender and strong, covered with an orange-golden crust.        By the banks of the river, kids often came to play from a nearby village. They would undress and jump into the water and have fun, splashing and swimming…        Sometimes the pine also wanted, like them, to have fun, laugh, run on the sand, and flop into the river… But the pine did not know how to run… So it learned to be happy for others, along with them. And when happy children’s voices and laughter filled the air above the river — the pine was happy too, sending them waves of happy love with each of its needles…        But one day, an event happened that made the pine realize that not all people are the same…       … Some older guys came to the shore. It was cold, and they decided to make a campfire… But they were too lazy to collect dry branches and fallen tree trunks… So, they decided to cut our pine and make a campfire out of it…        “It is quite large and resinous, it will burn bright!” — said one of them.        The pine trembled…       Suddenly a little boy, who often came here to the beach to swim, shielded the pine with his body: “Do not touch it, it is — living, it will feel pain! If you want, I’ll gather dry branches for you! Look how many dry branches are in this forest! And you can go along the beach and collect pieces of driftwood… I can collect it for you, if you want! Just do not hurt this pine!…”        The older boys laughed, and pushed him so that he fell: “Don’t bother us, Vasilyok! Get out! Look at him: a tree will feel pain! You talk like a little girl!”         But the boy named Vasilyok (the pine now knew the name of its little friend) rose from the ground and again shielded the pine: “Do not touch it! It is — alive!”        So much strength and courage was in his words that the older boys retreated.        To not show their defeat, they told Vasilyok to bring them firewood. And they continued to mock him…        Vasilyok, not paying attention to the ridicule, was glad that he was able to save the pine…       … Time ran by unnoticed. The pine grew and became stronger. Vasilyok also grew. He often came to it on the shore. He would sit with his back touching its warm from sunlight trunk, and dream of something good.        Or he would just listen to the silence.        And our pine would melt with happiness at such moments and try not to disturb him.        It would also listen to the transparent silence.       And the silence — would surround both the pine, and Vasilyok, and would cover the sandy beach, and was inside the distant forest…        The water of the river would gurgle softly in the silence, without disturbing it, but decorating it…       The river would carry its water somewhere far, far away — where there was neither the pine, nor Vasilyok… But when they were immersed in the river’s quietness and swam down with the river’s water, it would seem that the distant lands and unknown worlds were here, nearby…        And the soft golden Light of Someone infinitely Great and Good — became visible in the silence…        … As time went on…       Vasilyok now often came to the beach with a girl with golden braids. The girl, too, had grown and become slim and beautiful. The pine now knew that the name of the girl was Olga.        Vasilyok and Olga made dates for themselves near our pine. And the pine saw how big and true love gradually flared within them.        The pine was not jealous. It loved them both and rejoiced together with them over the beautiful miracle of love.        … Everything was good…       But once, on a hot and sultry summer day, Olga bathed in the river. But blue-black storm-clouds began to form in the sky on all sides. Lightning was flashing, and rolls of thunder were getting closer.       The pine worried… It always felt uneasy when flares occurred between the sky and earth, and when thunder shook the area around. But here Olga had decided to go for a swim!…        The pine had never left its seat above the river. But it had seen more than once, how lightning during heavy storms struck into the water, and one time even saw how lightning struck a lone tree on the other side of the river, and how the tree caught fire…        The pine worried and tried to wave its branches in the wind. It was trying to warn Olga: “The thunderstorm is coming, lightning will strike!”        By this time, Vasilyok had already run ashore: “Olga! What are you doing?! The storm is starting! Let’s run home quickly!”        While Olga was dressing on the shore, the rain began to start. And the lightning strikes and thunder were getting closer and closer… There had never before been such a severe thunderstorm in the hundred years of our pine’s life…         The pine suddenly felt that the lightning could now strike those whom it loved so much. It straightened up its branches — and they caught the deadly flame! Vasilyok threw himself on the sand, covering Olga. The crown of the pine blazed up…        “Oh how I would like to be born in human body — to love like these people…” — the pine had time to think, before the flame engulfed it whole…        It plunged into the Light — the Light of that Infinitely Great and Good One… * * *       

       Later Vasilyok and Olga got married. On the spot where our pine was growing, which had saved them from the lightning, they planted a new pine. The new tree was now already green, and it was stretching up to the sun.        In the family of Vasilyok and Olga, a daughter was born.       But that is for another story: the story not about the pine, but about a girl with amber-golden eyes, who was a bit similar to our pine, and a little bit — to Olga, and a little bit — to Vasilyok. And, of course, it is also a story about love.        After all, it is love that unites souls and leads them to the Perfection! 

http://spiritual-work-with-children-en.blogspot.com/

[path-of-heart]

The Tenth Parable: About Pride, Humility, and Ability to Dissolve Oneself and Merge with Tao

       Lao Tse kept travelling.       Now He often stayed in the villages or towns to which Huang Di pointed. His fame of a healer and wise man grew and spread…        Huang Di taught His Disciple:        “Don’t reveal the great secrets to the unworthy!       “Besides, You shouldn’t rejoice too much because of the glory that surrounds Your abilities now! Don’t forget that You’ve learnt all that You can do now through the communication with Me, thanks to Me!        “Only great humility and great love allow obtaining the Great Power, Which is the same as the Power of Tao!       “A disciple should never lose the impeccable humility! This is the key to the great victory over oneself; this is the basis of the correct achievements in the transformation of the soul!        “You can’t be half agreeing with Tao: this will cause a dangerous breakdown.       “If one starts presenting one’s will as the Will of Tao, that person stands on the path that leads to the downfall, which will absorb silently all previous achievements of a soul.        “Only complete humility before the Supreme Will is the cure for this deadly disease — pride.       “The proud and selfish are ‘heavy’: they drown in their own vices, which entangle them with their ‘weight’. So they lose a major battle of life!        “On the contrary, the humble and selfless are ‘light’. Thanks to this, nothing in their lives can be a serious obstacle for them! They can quickly achieve the transparency of the body and subtlety of the soul.        “Sadness and anger are companions of pride.        “Peace and joy are companions of the perfect humility.        “In the state of the great peace, accept the inevitable!        “Everything in the world of matter is under control of the One Who lives in the Mergence with Tao.        “This Person has no desires different from the Will of Tao or opinions different from the opinions of the Great Te.       “There are many people who only heard about wise and helpful things, but never made of them the foundation of their lives. In spite of this, they consider themselves as men of knowledge and are proud, thinking that they have no equals… See how ridiculous their pride is in the Light of the Truth!        “Proud people with the vicious minds tend to see defects of others and condemn everything around. Yet they don’t notice their own imperfections!        “On the contrary, truly intelligent people, seeing defects of others, will eliminate the same bad qualities in themselves, as if they were looking in the mirror placed before them by Tao.        “It’s possible to help others only if they strive for the self-transformation.        “It makes sense to speak to those who are willing to hear.        “You shouldn’t interfere in the destinies of people who rejected the recommendations of Tao.        “The wise look at all creatures from the position of Tao, that is, with the eyes full of love.        “The wise acts, maintaining the Mergence with Tao inside Its Great Calm.       “The actions of the wise are perfect because they come from Tao. That is why, the reproaches of vicious people don’t affect the wise.        “The wise are immune to hatred and condemnation! Such emotions can’t touch them since they live in Tao!        “Even bodies of the wise can be hurt only if there is the Will of Tao for this.        “To help people to understand is a hard and thankless task, but it serves for the good of Tao.       “Even if only 9 people out of 9000 really hear and understand You, and if only 1 of those 9 can accomplish what he or she heard — even in this case, the benefit will be great! It is so since this 1 will achieve more than 9000 taken together.”

* * *

       Once Huang Di said:        “Now it is the time for You to return to a life of solitude. Go to the mountains…”        “But, Huang Di, so many more people still need my help!”        “Well, do as You wish…”       … Lao Tse directed His donkey to the valley, to that place where the next village was seen in a distance… He began to submerge himself into meditation but noticed that the donkey changed route by itself and started climbing the hill slowly.        Lao Tse asked Huang Di:        “Why don’t You approve My desire to help people? You Yourself recently has advised Me to do so!”       “There are different ways and possibilities of helping people. I am, for example, doing this right now, too. And not only for You. I can help a lot of people at the same time, because I have the Great Power of Tao in Its totality.        “One shouldn’t oppose oneself to Tao even in the smallest things! It is important to learn to feel the Will of Tao always!        “Total submission of the developed human mind to the Will of Tao is one of the points of education.       “If You completely cut off Your ability to think — I will laugh at you since I don’t need fools! But if Your mind puts up resistance to My Will — then I will step aside and wait until You finally start wanting to merge with Me again…”        “Do we need to find the ‘golden mean’?”       “Yes. Only following carefully the ‘golden mean’, You can remain on the Path to Tao! On this background — I teach You to feel every nuance of the Will of Tao and Te!        “Now for You the time has arrived to become fully connected with My Great Power!       “Yet in order to attain the Full Mergence, You should master the ability to dissolve yourself. You should learn to disappear in the boundless Ocean of Tao!        “Just as a drop, falling into the large volume of water, loses its boundaries and becomes the inseparable part of this water, just as a river, flowing into the ocean, loses its current and shores — so the soul should be able to lose completely its individuality and separateness, merging with Tao, so that only one united Love, united Wisdom, and united Power remain!        “You’ve learned to be in the state of dissolution in Me.        “But now You should go deeper — in comparison with Your usual perception of Me!       “I — by Myself — have laid the Path from man’s developed spiritual heart to the Abode of Tao! Having passed it, You will be able to live forever in the Mergence with the Subtlest!        “Feel what I am! All that is not I — is like a dress on My Limitless Universal Body of Consciousness!        “Feel My Universal Greatness and Power!        “The slightest movement of My Arms can change worlds! But when there is no immediate need, I maintain the Great Peace.        “Tao exists in the state of the Great Peace.        “It is only by the Will of Tao that a movement begins from Its Abode — movement that creates a new reality.        “This movement is the Creative Divine Fire of the Great Te. They have Power to create or destroy parts of the universe, as well as to control and direct everything that exists.        “Thus I rule over everything, remaining in the Mergence with the Transparent Calm of the Ocean of Tao, Which lies in the depths, deeper than the Creative Flame.        “Regardless of whether I have a material body or not, I always feel the entire Absolute with Myself.       “My body — when I create it — is like a little finger on one of My numerous Hands. I can act with that ‘finger’, however it doesn’t limit My self-perception to such a small piece of the universe.         “You, too, can gradually expand Your self-perception inside this world and inside the subtlest worlds — embracing with yourself as a soul, consisting of love and peace, increasing volumes of the multidimensional universe.        “At first, you won’t be fully merged with the Divine Power. But gaining more and more experience of life in the Mergence with Tao, You should grow in Love and Wisdom! Through this, You will gradually obtain more and more possibilities to manifest the Great Power of Tao.        “Be One with the Infinite Transparent and Subtlest State of Primordial Tao!        “Don’t cross the boundaries of the Ocean of Tao, even when entering the shell of Your body!”

[to be continued]

http://parables-of-masters-en.blogspot.com/2012/12/foreword.html

[path-of-heart]

The Ninth Parable: Pearls of Wisdom are the Seeds that Can Sprout

      Lao Tse began explaining to the recovering young man the laws according to which everything in the Under-Heavenly World lives.        He told him:       “Tao is the First Cause of the existence of the Earth and of all creatures that inhabit all worlds — tangible and intangible. All this is created by Tao and develops according to the Will of Tao…         “Yin and yang live in harmony, and their mutual attraction can be called love. This love is the greatest motive force in all that exists.       “Te permeate with Their Light and embrace with Their Love the entire Creation. They maintain order and control all events. Yet They don’t intervene in all of them.        “The destiny of every person is created by him or her through the thoughts and actions of that person. The destiny of every person is the result of the manifestation of his or her free will.        “The Great Te carry out destinies, creating educational situations for incarnate people.       “The first direct contact with the Immortal Te, the first immersions into Their Love and Bliss overwhelm the soul by the great miracle of Touching the Divine!        “But after this, a seeker can move to the Perfection only through a long series of one’s own efforts.       “It’s not possible to reach that place where The Great Te come from by the common roads! The real Path is hidden from the eyes of fussy people and inaccessible for those with impure thoughts.        “And only the one who is full of love, unshakable during the difficulties, moderate in desires — has a chance to walk this Path fast!        “The Heavenly, Which is hidden from the ordinary eyes, is not a half of the world, but much more!       “Tao manifests Its Will in everything that exists. But only those people who dedicate their lives to the cognition of this — are capable of cognition of Tao.        “This process should be started with the comprehension of the difference between good and evil — as Tao understands them. Such comprehension will become the guidance in life and allow avoiding many mistakes and losses.        “The Path to Tao can’t be found through searching in the material world.        “And it is very important on what you will spend your life.        “Have you ever thought about what will happen to you when your life in this body comes to the end?”       “Yes, when I was sick, I thought about this. When I almost died, it seemed to me that I had glanced at the worlds where the souls live without bodies, where our ancestors live… I realized how important it is to find the meaning of life in order not to waste the years of our lives on the Earth on idle concerns or amusements.”        … When the young man fully recovered, Lao Tse taught him special techniques that allowed developing the energy of consciousness.        He said:       “A human body has seven main chakras-cavities. They are like vessels, in which vital energies are accumulated and then directed to the different parts of the body.        “These cavities, as well as channels, through which energy flows, should be clean and bright. In this case, a human body will be healthy.        “Learn to move yourself as soul between these seven main cavities. And look with the soul from each one of them like out of windows — both forward and backward.”        … When the young man mastered this, Lao Tse showed him the next exercises:       “The energies inside and outside of our bodies can be perceived like air-light. If you inhale and exhale this air-light through your arms, legs, trunk, and head — you can make everything inside your body pure and filled with the radiant light. Then both the soul and the body will obtain purity and strength.        “The inner purity changes a person and gives him or her health and longevity, among other things.”       … The young man was an able disciple and learned quickly how to control of the movement of the consciousness. From that moment, he could easily direct the flows of consciousness — like streams and rivers of light — and make them pass through his body.        Then Lao Tse explained to him new methods:       “Have you ever observed the apparent motion of the Sun around the Earth? This is an illusion. But it can, by analogy, help you to learn to rotate your energy through the orbit around and then inside the body, filling it with light.        “Place your body properly and let the glowing light rise behind your body and fall in front of it.        “Do this until the whole space around and within your body becomes filled with the light and starts emitting the light.”       … Then Lao Tse taught His first disciple the most important: to expand as the spiritual heart, building inside it a huge Heavenly Palace — in order to be able to invite Huang Di and other Te into it. * * *       Many people from the surrounding villages got to know about the wise man and came to listen to the conversations of Lao Tse and to learn from Him the miraculous methods of healing bodies and souls.        He often asked questions to His audience — and people began to think before getting a ready answer. For example, He asked:        “Why do we consider some events as evil, others — as good, and to some of them we remain indifferent?”        “Have you thought about what should motivate people to behave in a good way?”       “Everyone has heard that man doesn’t need only food for the body, but also the nutrition for the soul. What kind of food feeds the soul?”       … At first, Lao Tse always taught to understand the ethical laws of Tao. Then He offered the meditative techniques that helped to master these ethical laws:        “Changes begin from the inner. When one changes the state inside oneself, changes start happening in one’s life and around that person.        “The equilibrium and peace of mind are achieved through submerging the consciousness into the spiritual heart.       “The usefulness of the inner calm is great! When it’s achieved, no anxiety from the material world can shake the inner peace of a seeker! No noise, discords, or talks can perturb the silence attained inside!       “Those who are capable of learning transmute calm — into power, misfortunes — into lessons, fortunes — into the mastered steps of development on the Path.        “Joyful harmony and bright serenity are obtained by those who accumulate virtues, and not earthly gold.        “Happiness is a property of the soul dwelling in its abode — the spiritual heart, where only love can be born!        “Grief can’t penetrate into the spiritual heart since that place is already occupied by love!       “If one has chosen for oneself the way of love and mastered it — that person withstands any difficult situation, without loosing the Essence. This Essence can be perceived only in the purity of the spiritual heart!       “Those who know about the true meaning of life won’t engage in the meaningless and useless. Such people consider as useful only those things that bring good, as it is understood by Tao and Te!”        … Soon the small shack on the outskirts of the village turned into a place where people gathered, coming from distant and from nearby lands and looking for the answers to their questions, as well as for the healing of souls and bodies.        The old parents of the healed young man now took care of the guests who came to Lao Tse. Their lives became filled with joyful labor, and their old age was lit up with love and gratitude of many people, as well as of Tao and Te… * * *        But the time arrived for the lessons of Lao Tse to come to an end, and He had to leave His transformed disciple.        The young man learned to perceive the Great Te and listen to Their advice!        And he began — as he could — to do what Lao Tse did, helping people.        Yet he was really sad, seeing his Master off:        “I still know very little and can’t do many things! How then can I help others?”        But Lao Tse said:       “You’ve learned everything that you need now. In due time, you will get to know all that I know and, perhaps, even more. After all, now you know the way to learn all this. You can do this most successfully through helping others. All secret knowledge will be revealed to you by the Great Te when you are ready to understand it correctly and use it properly!        “Don’t deviate from the Truth in your life: follow the principles of good and justice — and Tao will guard your peace! And your actions will be guided by wise Te!”        “Huang Di used to tell me this:        ‘We should learn to feel Oneness with everything, trying to see situations through the eyes of Tao and Te.       ‘Then, in particular, You will feel everyone You meet as clearly as You feel yourself. You will see their thoughts and understand their desires and abilities.        ‘Moreover, You’ll know the attitude of Tao towards this person and see what good You can do for him or her.       ‘It will be clear for You if You should help this concrete human being in his or her good intentions — or simply allow that person to do foolish acts and let that one create one’s own destiny.        ‘This is how people’s destinies are formed. Destiny “follows behind” the thoughts and actions of each one.        ‘There are no accidental significant encounters in life! Through these encounters, the Will of Tao comes to people.’”        … And Lao Tse continued His way on His donkey.

[to be continued]

http://parables-of-masters-en.blogspot.com/2012/12/foreword.html

[path-of-heart]

The Eighth Parable: Huang Di’s Lessons of Healing

This time Huang Di stopped Lao Tse on the way to a village. He pointed to the poor and rickety old shack on the outskirts of a settlement and said: “Today we will spend the night here.” “Why? We’ve always shunned villages, keeping the solitude, since the calm life with Tao shouldn’t be perturbed with the vainly of a worldly life!” “That which was good for a certain period of time not necessarily will be good always! It is wrong to be too attached to certain rules — either in a meditation or in Your daily life! “Ask the owner to let You stay overnight in this house — and you will know the reason why You and I came here. It is time to change something in Your life: now You can start learning to help people.” Lao Tse knocked on the door, but there was no  response. Only after a long period of silence, He heard shuffling footsteps, and a haggard old man opened the door. Lao Tse came in and saw a woman — evidently the wife of that old man — sitting at the bedside of a sick young man. Lao Tse guessed that this young man was their son and that he was seriously ill. The old man said: “He is our only hope and support in our old age… But now he is dying! We prayed to all gods, whom we know; we evoked the spirits of our ancestors; we gave all our savings to the healers, but no one could help… “Could it be that Heaven finally heard our prayers — and You came to save him?” … Lao Tse did not expect such a reception and such a course of events… He called Huang Di for help and got His answer: “Give him My drink, and immerse yourself in meditation: I’ll teach You how to heal this young man…” Lao Tse took from His bag a vessel with a potion made of mountain herbs, which Huang Di taught him how to prepare, gave it to the parents and told them to give some of it to the young man from time to time. The old thanked the guest as if the miracle already had happened! “What can we do for You, holy traveler?” “Now I will ask Huang Di to help Me with the healing. If you take care of my donkey, that will be enough…” And Lao Tse dived into the meditation of Mergence with Huang Di… Yet instead of direct instructions on how to cure the sick man, Lao Tse again saw the pictures from His past… And the material world disappeared completely from His perception…

* * *

       They were again present during the lesson in the room for conversations. “Why Lu isn’t with us today?” — Huang Di asked. “His wife fell ill, and he stayed with her,” — one of the disciples replied. “But if he’d come here, You would have helped him to learn how to heal her. What will happen to her now?” — another asked. “Will You help his wife, Huang Di?” — a third disciple said. “I will, but not right now… All events — troubles and joys — don’t come in one’s life by chance, but in accordance with the Will of Tao and by means of Te! They can teach a lot of things to the one who is willing to learn. “Until man learns lessons from all these situations, it will be very difficult to help him or her… “Lu knew a lot about the Supreme, and it was his right to make this choice. The consequences of this choice will form his future destiny. “As long as one person is attached to another rather than to the Infinite Tao, this person should stay among the worldly, in the circle of births and deaths… “On the other hand, to find the real Immortality, tenderness, care, and the help to other beings — one should obtain another Base: Divine Primordial Tao. “If now any of you manages to convince Lu that his love for Tao should be stronger than his love for his wife, and even if he follows this advice and leaves the worldly because of the external indication, but not because of the internal choice of the soul, then the similar situations will repeat again and again in his life. “It is wrong to pull people to Tao! Each flower blooms in its own time! And the fruits also appear when they should! “Tao patiently waits for the time when each soul blooms! “… And now we can practice our healing abilities.” Huang Di pointed with His Arm of Consciousness to a shepherd that fell from the mountain and injured his legs severely. “Let’s visit this place all together!” — Huang Di said. And in a moment — by Huang Di’s Power — they were carried to the place in the mountains where the body of the shepherd was. Huang Di approached the moaning man and passed His hand over him. The shepherd became quiet… “Is he dead?” — one of the disciples asked. “Not at all! Look closely: he has simply fainted. The soul left the body for some time, but this is not death. He won’t feel any pain now. “Look at his body with the consciousnesses and find the places of fractures and other injuries.” … Huang Di observed how His disciples joined the broken bones… When it was done, He said: “Observe now that a body has numerous energy channels, through which vital energy flows. Connect these channels in the sites of injuries,   using your arms of the souls in the sites of injuries. Repair so that the energies can flow freely in all channels.” … Huang Di kept explaining while His disciples were working, and half an hour later, the shepherd stood on his feet! He started looking anxiously for his flock and became slightly scared after seeing the strangers. But when one of the disciples pointed to the herd of goats, he calmed down, thanked with a bow and went away… “Huang Di, why have You made it so that he couldn’t remember the miracle of healing?” “It wouldn’t have helped him. He wouldn’t have become better due to this, since his mind isn’t capable of understanding how he was healed. “This lesson was useful for you rather than for him. “You saw the possibilities of using the Power of Te during the healing. “At the same time, you should remember that it can’t be done without the consent of Tao!” … They came back to the room for conversations in the same miraculous way.

* * *

       Here they met Lu, who was waiting for them… Feeling himself guilty and sad, he fell at the feet of Huang Di. “Huang Di, help me! My wife is very ill, no remedies could help her! Save her if possible!” “Get up, Lu! You are still my disciple, so behave with dignity, please!” Lu, wiping his eyes, stood up and made an effort to calm down his emotions. Finally, he managed to do so and, being in the deep inner silence, bowed before Huang Di. “That’s better… “Love for individual creatures is truly beautiful, Lu. “But it should be developed into the Divine infinite Love, devoid of human attachments and conventionalities! “This kind of Love knows no barriers! Its possibilities are enormous! “Besides, as you’ve heard many times, the death of the body doesn’t mean that someone parts from you or that someone’s life ends. Now you can really understand this…” “Yes, Huang Di! While I was waiting for You here, I understood a lot…” “Yes, you’ve learned a lot, and it is — good! But you missed the lesson of healing, Lu, and we all have to repeat it for you again.” Huang Di addressed all His disciples: “Look, we don’t need to be close to the body of a patient to heal that person… We can just — being merged with the Light-Power of The Great Te — bring, from below, the Arm of Consciousness close to the body of that person… “Look, here is the wife of Lu… “Act attentively! Now we can cast out all the energies affected by the disease from her body and replace them with Light. “There is the Will of Tao for this…”

* * *

       At this point, Lao Tse realized that now He was again in the room with the sick young man… “Now do the same by yourself” — He heard the approving voice of Huang Di. — “When I say ‘yourself’, I means that You — as a spiritual heart with gentle arms — should feel the Infinite Divine Power that flows and works through You. Don’t worry: I will help You to understand what to do and how…” Lao Tse began working. Half an hour later the young man opened his eyes and uttered his first words. … After that, his parents started believing in the existence of miracles; they were not capable of something more yet. But love-reverence for Tao and gratitude to Huang Di and Lao Tse — from that moment on — always filled and lit up their lives. … The next morning, Lao Tse wanted to leave the house where He healed a person for the first time, but Huang Di stopped Him: “Through you, Te prolonged life of this young man in his body. Now You should teach him something I taught You. This is especially important for him! If not, he will become a debtor of Tao and Te.” … Thus Lao Tse found His first disciple.

[to be continued]

http://parables-of-masters-en.blogspot.com/2012/12/foreword.html

[path-of-heart]

The Seventh Parable: Trials Will not Cease until the Very End of the Path

       Time passed by. Daily meditations became a usual work for Lao Tse.        Nevertheless, at some point He noticed that His ceaseless efforts did not bring Him the same joy and satisfaction…        On top of that, the weather had changed: the rain had been falling for several days already…        Even the donkey did not like the gusty wind with the rain and the clay, which became slippery under its hooves.       The cold penetrated the body of Lao Tse wearing wet clothes, and the nights spent under the open sky did not give Him any rest.        It was harder and harder to meditate, although He tried His best.       Lao Tse could not understand what Huang Di wanted from Him. And when He asked Huang Di about this situation — the silence was the only answer…        Lao Tse tried to overcome fatigue, but…        Finally, Huang Di said:        “So, are You tired of all this? Do You want to go back to your old life and forget about the Path to Tao?”        “No! Of course, no! But why is everything so bad?…”       “The fatigue or the diseases of the body hinder the spiritual work. It’s necessary to maintain the body’s energies in good conditions.        “Find a house and take a rest! After that, We will discuss all Your problems.”        … Suddenly, the weary travelers saw an old abandoned house.       Lao Tse came in and looked around. It was dry and quiet. The dampness and the wind did not enter here; only the steady sound of rain was heard through the walls, which were damaged in some places.        A large pile of fresh hay was in the corner. Anyhow, Lao Tse got a warm bed, and the donkey — a good supper under the roof…        “Thank You, Huang Di!”        “I accept Your gratitude. And answering Your question, I will say that it was just a little test.”        “But I thought all tests were over a long time ago since I am totally with You!”       “Testing doesn’t cease until the very end of the Path. A possibility to fall, to abandon further efforts or to make a wrong choice is also a part of God’s ‘hardening’, which the soul must pass in order to achieve the Divine Perfection!        “Well, now take a rest!”        … The donkey began eating its supper.        Lao Tse also ate some rice flatbread that He had with Him and fell asleep.       He dreamed about the space of the Blissful Light, in Which He was soaring like a bird and resting as a soul. Meantime, His body also restored its strengths… * * *        Closer to the morning, Lao Tse saw himself among His friends during one of the lessons of Huang Di.        They met again in the room for conversations.        Huang Di said to His disciples:       “Today we will talk about some important aspects and conditions of mastering the stages of the Path. It will be useful both for you and for your future students.        “Routine and monotony of spiritual exercises and of efforts directed to the service can hide Me from a seeker. This is similar to the situation when gray thick clouds hide the light of the sun for a very long time…        “But even in such situations one should never forget that all spiritual efforts can produce the correct results only if they are made by the soul that persistently transforms itself into Love!        “I don’t come to those who don’t love Me!       “And that one who forgets about love will embrace only… the dead emptiness in the meditations. That person won’t get satisfaction from such a spiritual work and may even consider as wrong the methods and the very formulation of the Purpose and tasks of the spiritual efforts…       “The problem in such cases is rooted in the loss of love for Tao. If one loses this state of love even for a moment, then That Sacredness Which, as it seemed before, was almost in the hands becomes imperceptible.        “’I’ of the soul and the Infinity of Tao can merge in the indissoluble Unity. But the only way to achieve this is love!        “Therefore, one needs to return again and again to the state of love for Tao, especially in difficult situations.        “As the result, the state of Mergence with Tao may become habitual.       “On the way to that state, one should learn not to oppose oneself to the Will of Tao in anything: either in large issues or in small!       “After that, on the next big stage of the perfection, man has to learn to live coming out from the Infinity of Tao. But this, too, can’t be archived immediately.        “Initially, each soul is evolving as an individual soul. This is necessary for its qualitative development and the quantitative growth .        “And only if the soul becomes very large and obtains all Divine qualities — it can completely dissolve itself in My Transparent Calm!        “At the beginning, those who explore Tao come to the Abode of Tao — as guests. The Great Te, on the contrary, come and disappear in Tao, for They return to Their common Home! This means that They have become the Hosts since They have learned how to be in Unity with Tao all the time! They can also come from the Abode of Tao to act in the material world.       “Let Me add that until a human body hasn’t obtained the perfect and total Divine Calm of Tao, it can suffer because of the influence of adverse factors.        “The destruction and the death of a body — by themselves — don’t harm a soul. So don’t be afraid of the death of the body.        “Yet bodies are given to us so that we can grow and develop ourselves in them. That is why, we should make effort to keep them healthy and strong. One should eliminate the fatigue and the illnesses! Don’t surrender to them!        “A material body is necessary for a person to walk the spiritual Path. Therefore, a body should be treated with care, as some sort of dress given to me by Tao for my entire life on the Earth.” * * *        At that moment Lao Tse woke up. The joy because of the gained understanding overfilled Him!        The sun was shining outside and the water drops were sparkling on the wet leaves.        Lao Tse washed His body under a small waterfall flowing from a mountain ledge.       He perceived himself truly awakened and began to wash himself, like with water, with the streams of the Light of Love coming from the Heavenly Source. Sparkling streams, which gave Bliss, were flowing and flowing through His body and around it…        Lao Tse realized once again that the Great Te are always ready to help abundantly those who seek purification!       The Divine Light of Love pervaded both the body and the soul, and Lao Tse felt the unquenchable desire to give this Light to all living beings, including all the people, who live without knowing about this great Light of all Te! These Te are always ready to help with the healing and the transformation of the bodies and of the souls and to open the great Path of the cognition of Tao!        Lao Tse saw a peach tree in bloom. Its flowers opened themselves to the sunlight and were giving their beauty and fragrance to everyone. Lao Tse felt himself like a similar tree, which just yesterday stood bare and was absorbing with its roots the moisture from the depths, but today bloomed with fragrant flowers!        He used this image as the basis for a new meditation: He stepped into the depths of the Light-Fire, already known by Him, dissolved himself in It and began to ascend, being this Light-Fire, to His own body and pass through it.        The streams of life-giving Divine Love were flowing inside and were opening in the chakras, like buds full of bliss and purity.        A minute later the energy channels of the body became filled with this radiance. Lao Tse felt like the spring and the fragrance flowed into every corner of His body! Now the Light-Fire ran freely inside all energy channels.        Lao Tse felt himself filled with the Light — and this Light was radiating irrepressibly out of His body!       It seemed incredible, but not the young body of Lao Tse acquired lightness, youthful flexibility, and mobility — and started radiating the Light so that the halo of Love-Bliss covered all the space around!        Huang Di praised His disciple:        “Well done! You’ve demonstrated Your creativity and come really close to mastering the meditation ‘Tree’.       “You can see now how all living beings on the Earth get the life strength from Tao, like growing plants. This meditation should be started from the Sea of Light-Fire or from the Ocean of the Great Calm of Tao. And as You master it, You will feel all beings of the Under-Heavenly World as branches of the great Divine Tree.         “By mastering this meditation, You will be able to restore the work of the internal organs of Your body and make them function harmoniously. You also will be able to heal other people.        “Still You need to remember that energies, which flow inside the bodies of different people, are not equal in the levels of their subtlety, but correspond to the state of the soul that lives in that body.        “If the level of subtlety of these energies inside the body corresponds with the Transparent Calm of Tao, then the matter of that body will change gradually as well.        “When all chakras and main meridians are purified and all three dantyans are developed and refined — You can fill completely even the smallest energy channels of Your body, using that image of a tree. In that case, the Divine Power of Tao will permeate the entire body from inside, saturating its flesh with the Divine state.       “And after a while, the matter of this body will become totally Divine. Such a body then will obtain the immortality, and the owner of this body — all the qualities of Tao: Love, Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence!        “Thus Tao gets the possibility to act through our bodies in the material world in the most effective way.        “However, to achieve this, You still need to work hard.”

[path-of-heart]

The Second Parable: Build the Heavenly Palace in Your Spiritual Heart!

       Lao Tse was walking down the path slowly.        Invisible for strangers, His Teacher Huang Di was near Him all the time.        None of the casual passers-by could hear Their conversation.        And no one who observed Them could note anything unusual.        Lao Tse gradually was recovering His ability to see and hear His Master.        “How do You come here from the Abode of Tao?” — asked Lao Tse.        “This is easy!” — Huang Di laughed in response. — “This is much easier than to come in the Abode of Tao!”        Huang Di continued with a smile:       “Love unites so firmly that even the death of a body cannot break this union! All that we love — is securely stored in the memory of the soul!        “I remember You! And now You try to remember about the life with Me in Your past incarnation. Try to remember the Universal Home where All Those Who have cognized Tao obtain the Oneness!        “Anyone who at least once has entered into this Mergence in the Abode of All the Perfects retains this skill forever. And one day this memory will awaken the soul and call it again to stand on the Path leading to the Mergence with Tao and to the consolidation of this Mergence! Just as a river rushes to the sea, so such a soul, after being born again in the material world and matured there, rushes to the Boundless of Tao! These souls are looking for the Oneness, in which they find their Ultimate Happiness! And if we took all the pleasures of the material world and put them on a scale, they wouldn’t be able to match with this Greatest Happiness!        “The wise choose the Jewel of the Mergence with Tao! The wise prefers this Happiness to all the pleasures of the material world!”        “Could You recreate Your body — so I could embrace You?” — Lao Tse asked.        “I can do everything! But for You it will be better to embrace Me without Our bodies.       Do this by the arms of the consciousness, of the soul! I’m not going to indulge You with the ‘miracles for the babies’! Soon You will recall everything, and the events that You now perceive as miracles will be Your usual knowledge and style of life.        “Meanwhile embrace Me tightly, My beloved!”        … Great Huang Di, in His Transparent Appearance, stretched out His Arms to embrace Lao Tse.        … Keenness of this touch of the Souls was much stronger than similar embraces with embodied people…        Now the Teacher and His Disciple merged as Souls.        Anyone who has experienced this — understands the importance of such an event.        And those who have not experienced it yet — can do this some day…        … Huang Di continued His lesson:        “Now recall what you should do to stay firmly in the Heavenly Palace, which You should create in Your middle dantyan. There — You can always see and feel Me!       “Always remember that the innumerable multitude of the material objects and the sequences of the events are just the outward manifestations of life. A human mind wanders from one external object or event to another. It looks at the past or dreams about the future… Still it’s possible to subdue the mind and to teach it to be in calm! For this, one needs to switch one’s attention from the external to the internal…         “This is possible when the mind is immersed in the middle dantyan, or, which is the same structure, in the chakra anahata.        “Then in that chakra, one can clear the space and create the Heavenly Palace of the soul. Only after this the Infinite Divine Consciousness called Tao can live there by the Part of Itself.        “In other words, the Heavenly Palace for Tao should be built in the vast depths of the human developed spiritual heart!        “And then one also can live in the inner chambers of this Palace — without grieving because of misfortunes and without rejoicing because of successes, but knowing the Base of everything — Tao!        “If You invite Me to this home, then I come there from My Home — the Abode of Tao. And I’ll come to You again and again until You yourself can come to My Home and settle in it forever! This is the Infinite Divine Home of all Te! There — all They are One, and this Unity is called Tao!        “So Your spiritual heart can become a home for Te, Tao, and You yourself!”       … Now Lao Tse began to submerge Himself in His spiritual heart consciously, and not spontaneously, as it had happened before during His contacts with Huang Di, when the emotions overfilled Him and the entire soul turned into love.        Yet at that moment, this area in His chest was not large and transparent enough…        Huang Di continued:       “Feel the arms of the soul, that is, the arms of the spiritual heart, which are consubstantial with it. You can use these arms to clean this space so that You can invite Me!        “You haven’t cleaned here for a long time. That is why, the inner chambers of the soul became like a house in which no one have lived for long time…”        … Huang Di left His disciple for a while, and Lao Tse began cleaning His inner chambers.        Soon they became like a crystal glass room shining like a diamond in the light!        “You worked well to be able to invite Me!” — Huang Di said manifesting Himself once again.        Then He continued:        “At the beginning, the spiritual heart may occupy little space. But the one who strives to merge with Tao should deepen it and then expand it again and again, trying to make it as infinite as Tao!        “Expand Your Heavenly Palace by the arms of the consciousness so that it can be decent to invite Me in it and You can contain as much of Me as possible!”        … Lao Tse pushed the transparent wall of His Heavenly Palace by His arms of the consciousness, and, oh wonder! — it yielded and moved easily towards the infinity… He did the same with all other walls, then with the floor, and then with the ceiling… He repeated this again and again, and soon the Freedom, the Expanse, the Light, and the Bliss were all around!…        “Now, this is truly the Heavenly Palace! — Huang Di said with approval. — “You’ve done it in a very short time, but You shouldn’t forget that for Your students it will be much more difficult. Some of them will need months for this work, if not years. Now I just have helped You to recall what You knew in Your former life on the Earth. That is why, it was possible to do all this so quickly and easily.”        “What should I do now? How should I live?”        “You should live with Me, recalling and studying further the Great Path!”        “And right now — where should I go?”       “Now — turn to the left. There You will buy for yourself a white donkey. Then You should gather writing instruments and set out on a journey. We have a lot of work to do!”        And in fact, having turned to the left, Lao Tse found a road leading to a market. He reached it and found Himself in the midst of bustle and hubbub of that place. But, surprisingly, all this did not disturb the peace that reigned in the Heavenly Palace of Lao Tse.        Feeling the presence of Huang Di, He was walking among people who were bargaining.        Soon He saw a man selling a donkey, but Huang Di said:        “Not this one! Keep going!”       … Lao Tse wondered at His new feelings: He spoke with the Immortal so easily as with an incarnate person! And He perceived the presence and the words of Huang Di even more clearly than the noise of the market!…        Finally, They found a cute white donkey.        Lao Tse began bargaining with a seller… and lost the sensation of the presence of Huang Di…        At last, the donkey was bought.       “You overpaid! The former owner was cruel to this kind animal and didn’t deserve such a payment!” — Lao Tse heard suddenly. — “Well, for the first one of our concerted actions, it is not bad…”        … Being guided by Huang Di, Lao Tse quickly finished all His affairs and disposed of His property. Then He gathered writing instruments and some food for the road.

http://parables-of-masters-en.blogspot.ru/2012/12/the-first-parable.html

[path-of-heart]

The First Parable: Let the Ant Pass!

      The archivist of the imperial library called Lao Tse was walking along the road and thinking about what He had read that day. He was completely absorbed and was not looking at the road.        Suddenly He heard: “Let the ant pass!”       Lao Tse looked down — and saw that His foot was over a little ant hurrying to an anthill. He gently stepped over the insect and looked back to see who had spoken with Him. But… there was no one around!        “Is there someone here?”        “Yes!” — the Invisible One said.        “Who are You?”        “Your Teacher!”        “Are You the Immortal Who has cognized Tao?”        “Yes!”        “Why can’t I see You?”        “Because You are looking around only with the eyes of Your body and even forget to look under Your feet!”        “So how can I see You?”        “You need to look with the eyes of the heart: the spiritual heart!”        “But how?”        “Don´t hurry! Let’s start from the beginning. We were talking about the ant…”        “Does it matter?”       “Yes! Everything has its meaning and purpose! The life of every ant, worm, bird, and plant is not a “pointless accident”. They — just like You — are here according to the Will of Tao! Their lives also contribute to the development of the universe! And the one who hasn’t learned to respect lives of all incarnate creatures — won’t be able to take the next step in cognition of Tao.        “Many people on the Earth now have become insane, so to speak! Heartlessness predominates in the world: they kill animals, devastate bird nests, and catch all the fish from the lakes, rivers, and seas — to eat their flesh! They destroy trees, cutting and burning them without necessity! Senseless destruction of innocent creatures leads to the transformation of cruelty — into the ‘norm’! People have begun to consider those things that are harmful for them — as “useful”! And what is really useful ’doesn’t make any sense’ for them…        “Thus the Truth and the memory about Harmony, laid by Tao in the Law of Existence and Development of everything, are lost! Such behavior of people is contrary to their real interests, but they don’t know about this!…        “Yet people can correct their lives, following the principles of Love and Harmony!       “You, if You want to, can help them to get to know about the Law of Tao: about the principles according to which people should live in the universe. Anyone who knows this Law may find peace, joy, and harmony in life.        “Why did You choose me?”        “A lot of things from Your past life on the Earth connects us! Later on, I’ll remind You about the most important of them.        “The one who has already passed the entire Path can easily remember everything! You will need little time and effort for this!”        “Why was I born here again? Why don’t I remember the steps of the Path?”       “You have come into this incarnation with a special purpose. You have the Mission: You will help a large number of people to learn about the meaning of their lives and about how to live in a correct way! You and I will write a book about Tao and Te! Do You agree?”        “How can I say ’no’ to God?!”       “Quite easily! A lot of people do this, turning their eyes from the Heavenly. They look only at the benefits from the material life and thus become prisoners of material things…        “So, do You agree to help Me?”        “Yes! With great joy!”        “I’ll take You at Your word since it won’t be easy!”        “Let me see You! Tell me Your name!”        “My name is Huang Di. I am — forever — Your Teacher! And I had been Your Teacher for many centuries when You lived near Me incarnated in a body and learned from Me!        “And now I am ready again to be with You as long as You want it, even until the last breath of Your body!       “Together We can do a lot of useful things on the Earth! You will write a book — and My ancient Teachings will be heard again among the people of China! Your words, like arrows from the Abode of the Secret Knowledge, will be hitting destined targets for thousands of years!       “This doesn’t mean that the emperors and generals will begin to follow Our advice immediately. This doesn’t mean that the peasants, the officials, and the traders will change quickly their lives in accordance with the wise principles. But, nevertheless, those who will hear and understand — will get the possibility to find the Path of cognizing the Greatness of Tao — and walk this Path till the end!”        … Lao Tse was listening to Huang Di and was being born anew, so to say! That love which connects the Teacher with His disciple flooded His heart with Peace and Bliss. He saw the soft iridescent Light that, shining like the sun’s rays in the purest transparency of water, — took a shape of the Great Teacher Huang Di.        Lao Tse wanted to rush to the feet of the Master, but His ability to see Huang Di… left Him as suddenly as it appeared…        “Do not worry! it’s enough for today! We’ll continue tomorrow. Now take a rest…”

http://parables-of-masters-en.blogspot.ru/2012/12/the-first-parable.html

[path-of-heart]

Parables of Lao Tse

Written down by Anna Zubkova Edited by Vladimir Antonov

Translated from Russian by Anton Teplyy, Vladimir Antonov

Foreword

       Lao Tse was riding on a donkey. He was not in a hurry. He was riding and listening, and if the words came and formed into complete sentences, He wrote them down. Lao Tse had not chosen His way but had left this to God and the donkey. The Boundless Ocean of God surrounded Him and His donkey — and whispered to the sensitive animal where to go. The Heart of Lao Tse was filled with the Great Transparent Calm. He listened to this Calm since the Great Silence became filled with the words of Tao and Te* when necessary. In this way Lao Tse was learning Wisdom about the meaning of human life and about the laws according to which people can live without destroying the harmony of the terrestrial and the Heavenly, as well as about the steps of the stairway that lead “from the earth — to the Heaven”, that is, to the Divine, to the Primordial. He listened about the Great Love, under the Guidance of Which the interaction of yin and yang takes place,  about how Tao loves every being, about how Te nurses and nurtures all souls, about how to cognize Tao and how the person should live who wants to know all this on one’s own experience and achieve the  Supreme Ultimate: the state, in which there is only the Primordial Ocean That creates everything and includes entirely in Itself everyone who reaches It. This Living Ocean of the Subtlest Primordial Consciousness — is Tao. Lao Tse wrote down what He heard. Thus the book Tao Te Ching was forming gradually… … Long time ago Lao Tse had left His honorary position of an archivist, which used to bring Him the respect of the people and good income. Now He kept a solitary life, which allowed Him to be always with His Teacher — Huang Di. Although Lao Tse lived in the material world, He did not look at it, but at the Depths. He looked from the world of matter — into that Depth, from which all the material was manifested: into the world of the Divine Light and Great Transparent Calm. There His non-embodied Teacher and Friend  Huang Di was always waiting for Lao Tse. Lao Tse saw Huang Di not with the eyes of the body, but with the eyes of the soul — the loving eyes of the developed spiritual heart. Only that soul which has become Light-bringing Love and Transparent Calm is able to see Te and the subtlest and infinite Tao and communicate directly with Them. Sometimes Lao Tse saw the Face of His Teacher Huang Di. Sometimes He felt the presence of the Divine Master — as Love and Peace, which embraced the soul from outside and permeated everything inside. Sometimes Huang Di appeared as the Transparent Flow of Power rising from the Depths. Now They were always together: man with a name Lao Tse and the Representative of the Primordial Tao with a name Huang Di. For Lao Tse Huang Di was the closest Friend, the wisest Interlocutor, and the most important Teacher. Sometimes images from the past of China rose before Lao Tse, and He perceived Himself as a participant of those ancient events of His life on the Earth when He was a personal disciple of the Great Emperor Huang Di. Sometimes the words of the Revelations flowed like a river. Yet it also happened that throughout the day Lao Tse managed to write only one sentence. Nevertheless, this sentence gave Him the possibility to dive during several days into the meditations of Mergence with Te and Dissolution in Tao. Gradually, Lao Tse got accustomed to living always with Huang Di — in the indissoluble Unity with Him. Lao Tse was now looking at the world through the Eyes of Huang Di, assessing people and events — from His position. Sometimes They both stayed in silence… Sometimes questions gave way to answers in a living dialogue… They were and are always together: the Disciple and the Divine Master. … Do you want to know how all this began, continued and ended?

*  Tao in Chinese is the Primordial Consciousness (the synonyms of this word are the Creator, God-the-Father, Ish-vara, Allah). Te is the Holy Spirit (or Brahman). (See Tao Te Ching, under the editorship of Vladimir Antonov).

[to be continued]

http://parables-of-masters-en.blogspot.com/2012/12/foreword.html

[path-of-heart]

[path-of-heart]

To Dissolve in Love ( With English subtitles.)

[path-of-heart]

Thank You!

[path-of-heart]

[path-of-heart]

About Violence

Vladimir Antonov

Many years ago I had an occasion to observe the life of a young couple.

They got married in church and registered their marriage in the corresponding state agency...

Then she suddenly came down with a very strong flu and stayed in bed without strength.

However, he, because of his young age, wanted to have a lot of sex with her at any cost.

So he violated her despite the fact that she begged him not to do this!

She moaned: “Please, don’t do this! I feel so bad! I can die!”

Nevertheless, he, violating her again and again, repeated the same phrase: “Are you my wife or not?”

She did not die because of this nightmare, but she understood well how deeply ethically depraved her husband was and, after recovering, started torturing him by herself. She repeated her reproaches to him throughout the day, day after day, and asked him hundreds of times: “Don’t you want to become better? You must become better!”

Frequent repetition of the same requests and demands is called tiresomeness. It is manifested bioenergetically as a “suction” of energy from the person to whom the request or demand is addressed. This is one of the inadmissible forms of violence as well.

It is very difficult for victims of such tiresomeness to endure these situations. They instinctively want to tear themselves away! And if it is impossible, they can react with coarse acts of self-defense.

This is what happened to that husband several times. He, having got mad, began to break dishes by throwing them to the floor, flinging, against walls, glass jars with canned vegetables that his wife made and stored up for winter... Everything in the room turned into a stinking rubbish heap with fragments of glass...

Then he himself cleared up this mess and cried out of repentance. In spite of this, his wife did not stop being tiresome, and everything repeated itself again and again...

I believe that young families are often broken apart because of this exact reason...

I do not know whether that family lasted long. It became boring for me to communicate with them; besides, I did not know at that time how to help them. However, when I met this man years later, I got to know from him that he had become an “orthodox activist”*, which means that he did not become better...

I say so, because God constantly teaches us to look, first of all, at our own defects and fight against them instead of aggressively sermoning others!

Aggressiveness, violentness, and the emotional coarseness that accompanies the first two are qualities that are opposite to the qualities of our Creator, Who is the Subtlest One [12 and others], Who is Love (1 John 4:8)! That is why, the future destiny of people who have these qualities and who oppose themselves to God is “the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12).

... I will give you another example. A granny from a village went to some doctors. She started complaining that she had a nail in her head and asked them to remove it. The doctors did not believe her but finally did an X-ray and, in fact, found a huge nail in her brain!

“How did this happen?” they asked.

The granny told them that she was trying to persuade her adult son to stop drinking vodka. Instead of this, he, being drunk, hammered this nail in the top of her head...

I am not justifying the act of her son in any way, but I want to stress that there is no sense to fight against alcoholism with the help of tiresomeness, because the effect can be just the opposite!

The doctors dared not remove the nail from the head of this granny...

She probably kept bothering her son but this time also about the nail in her head...

... And no one explains to people in Russia that sexual violence of men towards their wives and violence-tiresomeness are manifestations of coarse ethical vices observed and disapproved by God and that it is desirable to get rid of these vices!

... And the newly married couple about whom I spoke of before called themselves “yogis”. Why? It was due to the simple fact that they practiced Hatha Yoga exercises.

I draw your attention to this, because I am sure that these kinds of exercises, if they add a feeling of superiority to one’s already present vices, often cause more harm than good... In other words, we should speak about the development of ego or the lower “I” in such people. In these cases, the term vainglory is used, which means vain and groundless glorification of oneself for imaginary virtues and achievements.

The truth is that spiritual development has to be started with the acquisition of general knowledge about the spiritual Path and with the study of ethical principles suggested to us by God.

Ethical purity is the first thing that God wants to see in us, and only to those who progress in this, does He opens the further Path to Him!

To practice different methods of self-development, such as Hatha Yoga or martial arts, is not bad on the early stages of ontogenesis! However, it is not bad only if such activity is accompanied with serious work on studying and mastering the ethical laws established for us by God [9,11-13, and others].

* * *

Violence, of course, is manifested not only in the sexual sphere or in the form of tiresomeness.

There exist justified forms of violence towards criminals, mentally ill people, and also children, when they act in a dangerous way for themselves and for others. Another example of justified violence is peace enforcement, when masses of aggressive primitives are compelled to peace.

However, there are opposite examples as well.

I learned this one from a TV program. A person with intellectual disability, who was recognized as such by doctors, was recruited by a military registration and enlistment office to participate in one of the recent wars. For successful murders, he even received a medal...

Soon the war was over, but he could not stop killing... He kept killing and killing until he was arrested...

... Other guys with intellectual disability, being accustomed to unrestricted violence on the same war, having come back to their military units, began to beat, without any external reason, other soldiers who had not participated in military operations...

They practiced beating and humiliating others for no other reason than for fun!...

Women of any age also often become victims of such amusements...

... Another interesting case that I once saw is the following: a mother walked her son on a leash with a collar, like a dog. What was it? Was it a cruel act of humiliation carried out by the mother? No. The fact was that her son was attacking all the passersby, like an angry dog. He burst to kick them or punch them... And if the mother began to pull him by the leash, he manifested his aggression by spitting at people... That is why he also had a muzzle on his face...

... The soviet invasion of Afghanistan is another example. During it, the presidential palace was assaulted, the palace in which, by the way, soviet doctors and nurses worked.

Almost every one who was inside was shot down.

After years, one of the commanders of the attackers shared his memories with obvious delight about the fact that even the floor in all the corridors of the building was completely covered by blood, and the bloody streams flowed everywhere...

... Hatred, cruelty, and admiration of himself for being the one who carried all this out are the qualities that can be seen in this man...

... According to the resolution of the Nuremberg Trials, the execution of a criminal order is considered a crime.

This is the evaluation of criminal acts from the perspective of reasonable people.

However, how God evaluates the actions of a person is much more important for everyone.

God is not somewhere “in the sky”, far away! God is under every molecule of our bodies, on the other side of the material world. He knows all our thoughts, observes all our emotions and acts, and on this ground makes His decisions on our future destinies.

In this case, it is not only about cruel violentness but about all criminal acts, including bribery, extortion, stealing, fraud, etc.

* * *

The process of evolution of souls takes place on the Earth. These souls are sent here by the Creator for their development.

However, people have freedom of will that allows them to choose their path in life.

There are those who develop qualities recommended by God, first of all, tenderness, care for others, and subtlety.

There are also others who cultivate aggressiveness, angerness, and violentness.

The first ones secure paradise for themselves after disincarnation and, at a later date, the next stages of cognition of God and Mergence with the Creator.

The lot of the second ones is hell, i.e. a life among similar coarse and cruel primitives, and possible future incarnations with very bad karma. For example, God may incarnate them as victims of primitives similar to them.

* * *

It is very important to understand that the qualities of souls can change under the influence of their upbringing.

In the case of children, such upbringing can start with the explanation — using language that is understandable for them at this age — that God exists and that He has sent all of us to live on the Earth so that we can learn to be as He wants us to be...

And then one can speak about a great number of things related to this topic.

For instance, we can teach them that they can rejoice by looking at living flowers and inhale their aroma with delight, but that we should not kill them unjustly by tearing them off.

We can teach them that we need to love birds, fish, and other kind animals and try to please these animals. We can also explain to them that only bad people, people-predators, kill animals for fun or to eat their bodies.

Additionally, we can teach them to attune to the beauty of nature, especially during sunrise and sunset, and to attentively listen to the subtlety and tenderness of spring voices of birds...

All this can predetermine the course of further favorable development of these souls.

The mastering of basic psychophysical exercises and functions of the spiritual heart can also be of great help for the correct development of the emotional sphere [10].

Now, in Russia (and in other countries as well), a lot of children, on the contrary, learn violence and cruelty through computer games... Thus adult “educators” program children to hell...

* * *

I want to draw your attention to the fact that deceitful politicians use such dangerous methods as “whitewashing history” of their own countries and misrepresenting crimes as acts of heroism.

Here are several examples:

... It was not that Napoleon Bonaparte attacked Russia! Till 1812, the Russian army unsuccessfully waged war on the territory of Eastern Europe against the mission carried out by Napoleon to liberate Europe from the “Holy Inquisition”. The Russian army was defeated by the French one, and its remaining integrants came back to Russia.

So, it is not surprising at all that Napoleon led his army after the Russians.

(You can read about how the Holy Spirit, Adler, evaluates the activity of Napoleon in the book [11]).

... Suvorov indeed was a marvelous commander, but his “crossing of the Alps” gives rise to doubts, to say the least.

There is such a phenomenon as weakening of intellect in old age.

That march was the last one for Suvorov, and he died three months after it due to old age.

The question is how many rations and ammunition could unmounted soldiers take with them in their backpacks, taking into account that they had to climb mountains.

The army indeed crossed a dangerous mountain range covered with snow, attacked by surprise a French detachment, and killed everyone there... However, the army then found itself encircled by the French army and without enough provisions and cartridges...

With great losses, the rest of that Russian army managed to break out of the encirclement and come back to Russia.

And the territory that was freed at such great cost was occupied by the French once again...

So, was the “crossing of the Alps” a heroic deed?

... Another example is the protected cruiser Varyag.

Nicholas II began war against Japan. Varyag was in the lead of a flotilla consisting of only 2 ships and was blocked inside a bay on the territory of Korea by a Japanese squadron. The Japanese showed their nobility towards Russian sailors, because they understood that it was not these Russians who were to be blamed for the beginning of war but their tsar! So they offered them to disembark and return to Russia.

The command of the Russian squadron, however, decided to start a suicidal fight (what for?) and, naturally, it was lost.

What was it? Can we really call this an act of heroism when both Russian and Japanese sailors had to be killed, crippled, and underwent terrible suffering from wounds?

... Nicolas II “contrived”, among other things, to begin and to lose two wars during his reign. As a result, there were millions of killed, wounded, and crippled people, and not only among soldiers but also among civilians, including women...

Grigori Rasputin tried to dissuade the tsar from beginning war against Germany. He even predicted that Russia would be defeated, but the tsar did not heed his warnings...

So, what attitude should we have towards such a monster?

It is surprising but the opinions of contemporary Russian diverge here! This tsar is even proclaimed saint by some!

In my opinion, however, he is one of the criminals of planetary scale.

By the way, let me say a few words about Germany. Ever since my childhood, I have heard from mass media the false information that it was Germany that started two world wars... In this way, all people in USSR, including some professional historians, became convinced of this, despite the fact that one could draw correct conclusions even from the article on this topic in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

Everything began from the murder of the presumptive heir of the Austrian throne by Serbian terrorists, which provoked the local conflict between Austria and orthodox Serbia. The Russian tsar intervened on the side of their orthodox brothers and began to threaten Austria with a war. Germany verbally stood up for Austria. Nicolas II was indignant at this, ordered a general mobilization, and then sent military guard units to fight against Germany. He sent them separately, by two columns that moved by different routes far away from one another. The German army easily defeated them one by one. Thus, the entire Russian guard was completely destroyed...

Afterwards, France and Great Britain entered into the war as the allies of Russia. They had to do this due to previous international treaties. That was “The Triple Entente” or the alliance of three countries that attacked Germany (later other countries joined the alliance).

The war lasted years. The German army seized a significant part of Russian territory. However, all the other countries of the Triple Entente defeated Germany and its allies. The peace Treaty of Versailles was concluded, and according to it, Germany had to, among other things, give back to Russia its land, and it fulfilled this.

Historians believe, and this is well-grounded, that the unfairness of the beginning and of the results of this war, including the Treaty of Versailles, predetermined to a significant degree the fact that a lot of people in Germany welcomed with enthusiasm the appeals of Adolf Hitler for the restoration of justice by defeating countries that offended them.

May no one try to see in my words the justification of fascism, which is militant ethnic intolerance.

But we need to understand that it is God Who controls the process of the incarnation of souls (of each soul) in certain bodies. That is why national differences that exist among incarnate people on the Earth are created by God. And negative attitudes towards certain people because of their nationality are the rejection of the actions of God, the opposition to Him, and the animosity against Him.

Another thing is the activity of harmful sects that appear because of the lack of true knowledge about God or as the manifestation of yearning for leadership of energetically strong and aggressive primitives (“devils in flesh”).

And no matter how strongly the members of such sects make themselves believe that God is with them and no matter how loud they shout this statement out, this does not change the attitude of God towards them in any way!

God Himself is Love (1 John 4:8) and gives Himself-Love only to those who come closer to Him by growing themselves as love!

Those who, on the contrary, follow the opposite path obtain for themselves a destiny of being far away from God (in the sense of the stages of the scale of multidimensionality), a destiny deprived of love and filled with suffering.

... I once received a letter from a man who considered himself Muslim. He wrote that he had read some of my books and that everything was very interesting to read... However, further in that letter, he stated that all this was not related to Muslims and that I must indicate that Muslims have another path, a special one...

He did not specify the details about his understanding of that path, but it was clear without this. Namely, he was a member of the sect in which the “internal jihad” — the “holy” war against all “infidels”, i.e. against all the people who were not in agreement with the conception of this sect — was violently preached. And the members had to “earn” paradise by killing such people, even using such tactics as suicidal bombings in the places where these “infidels” were gathered...

This sect has a great number of followers in different countries right now! So, how can we resist it? I believe that, first of all, we need, by all possible means, to spread the true knowledge about God, about the meaning of our lives, and about the methods of its realization among all people of our planet.

While doing this, we need to understand that the fundamental principles of the methodology of spiritual development are common for all people who were settled on the Earth and on the entire universe by One God. [11 and others]

... As for the Second World War, the point is that Germany started it in alliance with the USSR. Now it is not a secret for anyone that there existed the pact (and its secret supplementary protocol) signed by Molotov and Ribbentrop. According to this pact, all of Europe was divided by military means between the USSR and Germany. Finland, the Baltic countries, the significant parts of Poland, and Romania went to the USSR... It was Stalin who prepared Hitler for that war by providing him with strategic reserves of wheat, coal, metal, etc. The “Holodomor”, which inflicted so much suffering on millions of people in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and in some other parts of the country and which took an endless number of their lives, was caused by the fact that Stalin ordered to give all the harvest of wheat to Germany...

In a series of following events, the Soviet and German armies met in the midst of Poland, celebrated the joint victory over this country, and held a military festive joint parade...

In those years, it was popular to call the newborn babies Adolf (Adik, in short), but then... they were massively renamed Edik (Eduardo)...

... As a result of the Second World War, the fascism that arose in Germany and in some other countries was defeated.

However, it is appropriate to think over the following statement of the ancient Chinese Sage Lao-Tse: “The victory has to be celebrated with a funeral ceremony.” [4,11]…

... Another ambiguous figure is Vladimir Ulyanov (alias Lenin). Initially, God’s qualities were attributed to him: “Lenin is always living! Lenin is always with you, in affliction, in hope, and in joy! Lenin is in your destiny, in every happy day! Lenin is in you and in me!”, but then people started to hate him and damn him.

Let us not analyze his life, ideas, and acts in detail. I only want to stress that he was an atheist, and it is very difficult for an atheist to be a righteous person before God...

Nevertheless, I suggest taking into account the fact that he was against the criminal attack of Russia on Germany in the First World War, and he was undoubtedly right.

* * *

There is an opinion that the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament, in Christian terminology) is a holy book. However, what is the purpose of praising something or someone as holy? The purpose is to learn through the examples provided by things or people that are designated in this way.

But what does the Old Testament teach us?

It begins with an absolutely worthless fairy-tale about the “creation of the world”, and then another absurd fairy-tale about Adam and Eve follows...

Why do I call it absurd? Well, what does “Adam’s Rib” have to do with all this? Was it mentioned just to humiliate women? I cannot agree with such an approach!

Another thing is that one of the sons of Adam and Eve killed his brother Abel, for which he was banished from those lands. So he went to another land and found there a lot of women, from which he had a lot of children. Does this mean that Adam and Eve were not the first humans? So, why does no one notice this nonsense, speak about it aloud, or write about it?

Moreover, in the Old Testament, there are the instructions of Moses on whom to kill among people and for what reasons.

Another example is the story about the Israelites who left Egypt and roamed for forty years in the desert. The story also tells in detail about their perfidy during the murders of the inhabitants of the cities that were in their way.

The following question is pertinent: what did the followers of Moses eat during that long wandering? The answer is quite clear: they robbed all the villages that they found in their way!

(Of course, modern Jews do not bear responsibility for those crimes of their distant ancestors. Every person himself or herself is responsible before God for every ethically significant element of the life that he or she lived!)

And what about “the Ten Commandments”? Do you really think that what these commandments offer is enough for God?

By the way, have we paid attention to the fact that Moses was the first who violated the commandment “You shall not kill!”? And after that, very few people recalled this commandment, especially with regard to animals.

I do not think that reasonable people are ready to acknowledge this book as a Holy Textbook for their lives!

I believe that it has only historical significance.

... Now let us talk about the phenomenon that was named Christianity.

We spoke in detail about the beginning of this religious movement in the book [5]. So now I will only limit myself to the following thought: quite soon after the accomplishment of the great spiritual feats by Jesus and His Apostles, Christianity was turned into something completely different, although it maintained the same name. I mean the “Holy Inquisition”. In order to “whitewash” the history of Russia, Russian historians emphasized that the annihilation of heretics, including by burning them alive, took place only in Western Europe. But no, the same thing happened in Russia right up to the Lenin Revolution of 1917. (You can find more details about this in the relevant historical literature [5]).

Another fact is that the “conversion into Christianity” of the Russian population was not Christian at all but anti-Christian, inquisitorial, with horrible tortures and executions by burning people alive...

I had to present many times in literature the thought that the real Christianity does not consist in accepting baptism and then participating in rites but in the fulfillment of the great Teachings of Jesus Christ!

In my younger days of this life, when I conducted a spiritual search, I did not manage to find any organization among those which call themselves Christian where the Teachings of God, presented to us through Jesus Christ and His Apostles, were seriously studied! Therefore, God Himself offered me to make a literary analysis of these Teachings so that this analysis would be handy for studying. You can read about this in the books [9,11-13]. And because I was the first person who used this analysis for his own development, Jesus and other Holy Spirits helped me to cognize God in almost all His Manifestations (see [15,17-18] and our other books).

... To set all one’s hopes only upon the corporeal forms of activity in religious and semi-religious groups and organizations is a very dangerous phenomenon, because everyone can easily superimpose any ideology, including a criminal one, on such an activity!

And it is not by accident that the New Testament was hidden from the population of Russia for centuries after the “Christianization of Russia”. Why? Because people could find the Truth, which was not in the plans of their “pastors” who implanted only the practice of prayer and rites... What for? For material profit and for maintaining and strengthening their own social prestige.

But God wants something completely different from us! We can briefly formulate that He needs us to cleanse ourselves from the vices (defects) of the soul and then rush towards the Creator by loving Him!

* * *

There is such a phenomenon inside existing religious movements as “fundamentalism”. It manifests itself practically in the violent instilling of external religious attributes into the masses of believers. For example, it is imposed how they must dress their bodies, which indeed has no positive significance at all!

It is not important because one can directly communicate with God wearing any kind of clothes or even without clothes at all!

Thus, in some countries in which the most primitive sectarian Islam is spread, women do not even have a right to sunbathe and to swim in the sea or in other natural bodies of water. On the contrary, even in the strongest summer tropical heat, they have to dress their bodies in black shapeless garment that covers even their faces!

... And how did it happen that a male circumcision appeared? Does it have any positive meaning for the inhabitants of civilized cities and villages?

... A long time ago, one man who was respected in his neighborhood got sick with thrush. One of the typical symptoms of this very unpleasant disease is that the inflamed tissue of genitals (at the border between the skin and the mucous membrane) shrinks being pierced by the numerous hyphae of a pathogenic fungus. If one tries to stretch such skin, it breaks and forms small chaps, which causes sharp pain. This results in the inability to uncover the glans penis. In the case of women, the entrance into the vagina completely closes. Sex becomes impossible for the sick representatives of both sexes, and even urination becomes a painful act.

Seemingly, there were no methods of healing thrush in those times and in those lands.

So, that man decided to make a desperate move, i.e. to cut his foreskin off with a knife... Well done!

Since he was a respected person in a religious environment, people began to... imitate him!

Nevertheless, it was necessary to invent some theoretical ground for this innovation... So it was said that the foreskin should be “sacrificed to God”!

From that moment on, millions of boys among Jews and then Muslims had to undergo the “circumcision”.

How intellectually undeveloped must one be to believe that God needs... foreskins that have been cut off?

Instead of dedicating one’s foreskin to God, it would be correct to dedicate oneself as a soul to Him and one’s entire life! [14-15,17-18, and others]

And what about women? Primitive men wanted to make them suffer as well! So they started cutting off their clitorises! And they did not do this in their babyhood but in puberty and without any anesthesia!

This awful tradition is widespread even now in some of African countries...

* * *

Even at present, aggressive primitives inculcate into half-educated youth and weak-minded adults the idea that to violently compel people to follow stupid “religious” rules is the fulfillment of their duty before God... In this way, sects are formed whose world-view is based on hatred, violence, murders, etc.

... Why do I write about all this? Someone can exclaim that it is unpleasant to read such things!

However, I believe that it is useful for everyone to know about the existing evil. This is one of the lessons of psychology given to us so that we can learn to distinguish good and evil, so that we may not become, due to our ignorance, the victims of evil or, even worse, its adherents!

I would like to think that with this article I will manage to help many people to escape from the obscurantism about which I had to speak so much right now to my regret.

* * *

Let me provide several important statements of the Holy Spirits related to this topic [11]. These Revelations were written down by Larisa Vavulina in 2016.

The Path — Revelation from Babaji

You are on the right way! You will traverse the Path till its end!

However, maturing in God takes years, not moments!

Only the one who works hard can overcome the entire Path!

It is not time for those who are weak and can only pray to sink in God!

Develop tender power, love, and calm!

Become the boundless soul, and then you will be with Me!

I take your hand and lead the way

To the Primordial Depth, where Love and Calm are!

Only those who are pure souls

Will overcome the entire Path,

By aspiring to become Perfect

And sink in Me!

About Upbringing — Revelation from Pythagoras

I want to speak about the upbringing of children and adults as well.

An educator can achieve success only if he or she addresses the soul directly.

It is so because it is necessary to bring up a soul — the real essence of every person — and not the body.

To bring up means, among other things, to nourish with love! This is the food that the soul primarily needs for its correct growth!

The body also should be trained so that it can serve well to the needs of the soul.

It is important to understand for everyone that emotions serve as food for the growth of the soul.

Emotions are the states of the soul with which it unconsciously reacts to the external influences of the surrounding world or which it produces itself. Emotions arise and are maintained in special energy centers called chakras.

Thus, the warmth of love is born in the anahata chakra. This chakra is the most important. (You spoke a lot about chakras, their functions, and how to work with them in your books and films, that is why there is no sense to repeat this).

To maintain the purity and development of the chakras is the duty of every incarnate person.

And one more thing: life is simple and harmonious if there is love for God in it.

About the Straight Path — Revelation from Thoth the Atlantean

“How can I hear and understand You better?”

“No words are needed for the communication between pure and developed consciousnesses! Everything is clear without them!

“If the words are to be formed, I have to enter your body and visit your brain. However, for this, your mind has to be open and directed to Me, and your individual thinking has to be temporarily switched off. Otherwise, the precision of the perception of the information will be disturbed by you.

“I want to speak with everyone about the Straight Path to the Home of the Universal God!

“May all those who have started this Path know the fundamental rules of it:

— go always only forward till the end,

— never divert the attention from the main Goal of the Path,

— learn to separate that which is external from that which is internal and keep in mind that the external is ordered by the internal,

— be open for the cognition of the Primordial One,

— be loving and tender,

— be brave and resolute,

— be attentive and careful,

— be firm and patient,

— be humble,

— accept and fulfill the Supreme Will,

— aspire for the Mergence with the Primordial One and for the service to Him within your strengths.

Recommended Literature:

1. Akinfiev I.Y. — Vegetarianism from Biological Standpoint. Ekaterinoslav, 1914 (in Russian).

2. Antonov V.V. (ed.) — God Speaks. Textbook of Religion. “Polus”, Saint Petersburg, 2002 (in Russian).

3. Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Spiritual Heart: Path to the Creator (Poems-Meditations and Revelations). “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2007 (in Russian).

4. Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Tao Te Ching. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

5. Antonov V.V. — Spiritual Heart — Religion of Unity. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008

6. Antonov V.V. — How God Can Be Cognized. Autobiography of a Scientist Who Studied God. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

7. Antonov V.V. (ed.) — How God Can Be Cognized. Book 2. Autobiographies of God’s Disciples. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

8. Antonov V.V. — Sexology: Development and Regulation of the Reproductive Function. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

9. Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Forest Lectures on the Highest Yoga. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

10. Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Spiritual Work with Children. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

11. Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Classics of Spiritual Philosophy and the Present. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

12. Antonov V.V. — Ecopsychology. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

13. Antonov V.V. — The Teachings of Jesus Christ about the Meaning of Our Lives and about How We Can Realize It. “New Atlanteans”, 2013 (in Russian).

14. Antonov V.V. — Life for God. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2014.

15. Antonov V.V — Anatomy of God. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2014.

16. Antonov V.V — “Bubbles of Perception”. “New Atlanteans”, 2015.

17. Antonov V.V — God-centrism. “New Atlanteans”, 2015 (in Russian).

18. Antonov V.V — To Understand God. “New Atlanteans”, 2016 (in Russian).

19. Harmony through Vegetarianism. “Society for Vedic Culture”, Saint Petersburg, 1996 (in Russian).

20. Zubkova A.B. — Divine Parables. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

21. Zubkova A.B. — Divine Stories of Slavic Lands. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2013 (in Russian).

22. Zubkova A.B. — Dialogues with Pythagoras. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

23. Zubkova A.B. — Dobrynya. Bylinas. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

24. Zubkova A.B. — Book of the Born in the Light. Revelations of the Divine Atlanteans. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

25. Zubkova A.B. — Parables of Lao Tse. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2011.

26. Zubkova A.B. — Parables about the Elder Zosima. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2013.

27. Zubkova A.B. — Story about Knyaz Dmitry and Volhva. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2013 (in Russian).

28. Zubkova A.B. — Story about Princess Nesmeyana and Ivan. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2007.

29. Zubkova A.B. — Sufi Parables. “New Atlanteans”, 2014.

30. Zubkova A.B. — Lessons of Pythagoras. “New Atlanteans”, 2016.

31. Tatyana M. — On the Other Side of the Material World. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2012.

32. Teplyy A.B. (comp.) — Book of the Warrior of Spirit. “New Atlanteans”, Bancroft, 2008.

[path-of-heart]

This film-lecture describes the Teachings of Messiah of our days Sathya Sai Baba about the spiritual Path, where one can develop from the level of an ordinary human to the Divine level.

[path-of-heart]

The Tale of the Boy Who Could Do Magic

“I am not yet a magician, I am still learning,

but love enables us to perform true miracles.”

Evgeny Schwartz, from the filmscript of ”Zolushka”

“True miracles can be created only by a kind and loving heart!”

Sarkar

At the time of this tale, women wore long dresses and men frock coats and tails. People used to ride horses, because the first automobiles were only just being invented, and there was still no such thing as an airplane.

Then too, as always, there were rich and poor, clever and less clever people, kind folk and those who had forgotten about kindness.

And so it was that two very ordinary parents had an extraordinary little boy. This little boy was gifted with the ability to work miracles. But it took a while for this to be discovered.

His father was a wonderful children's doctor, his mother played the piano beautifully and gave music lessons.

For a long time, they dreamed of having children of their own, and then it finally happened.

When the mother of the future little miracle-worker found out that she was going to have a child, she felt like the luckiest woman in the world! The mysterious half-smile of contentment constantly playing on her face now made her even more beautiful, radiating a soft and barely perceptible glow of happiness!

The day finally arrived when the little miracle-worker came into the world, and it was on that very day, his mother believed, that he performed his first miracle.

His mother, you see, did not have any mother's milk, so of course she asked her husband straightaway to go and find a wet nurse, or at least buy some milk.

All the while she held the little baby to her breast so he wouldn't cry.

But then the little one began to suck, and the gentle touch of his lips was enough to make the milk flow!

Now some may say that this is no miracle at all; after all it is by no means the first time such a thing has happened.

Even his father, who had hurried home with a small bottle of breast milk for his newborn son and a list of women who said they would be wet nurses for the little one, teased his wife about it gently.

”Now didn't I tell you that this often happens at first, but you worried so much about it, my dear!”

The tiny one's mother, however, was convinced that it was a true miracle!

She, of course, did not yet know that her son would grow up to be a true miracle-worker.

The parents decided to call the little boy Daniel, but everyone usually just called him Dan.

The miracles seemed to happen for him just by themselves. If he wanted to do something kind, that's exactly what happened. At first, these were just little things, and he himself did not know how he managed to do them. But Dan knew that he really liked to do these things!

One day, for example, his mother broke her favorite cup and became upset. The little magic-maker did not want her to be distressed, so he held the three broken pieces of the cup together, and they stuck together again so well that you could not see any sign that it had been broken!

The parents wondered for a long time over these insignificant miracles that happened from time to time through their little son.

All sorts of other little miracles happened with him too. For example, his friends would find candies or coloring pencils in their pocket as if by magic, and a butterfly drawn on a piece of paper would become real and flutter away off the paper...

Usually the little children who were Dan's friends accepted these miracles as something completely normal, while the grown-ups thought they were magic tricks that Dan played to impress his friends.

As all these miracles were acts of kindness, none of the grown-ups got angry with him.

Everyone was always happy when they were with Dan!

Like a sunbeam, he lit up everything around with his love! Everyone around him — children, grown-ups, and even little animals — always felt very happy in his love. Even the flowers seemed to look prettier! Birds began to sing their springtime songs even in the fall, and they would show their trust by landing on his palm when he held out little scraps of bread! Cats and dogs would come and wrap themselves round his legs, their happiness knowing no bounds when he stroked them!

As for Dan, he was never sad and never cried. And if anyone around was despondent, he would always know how to cheer them up.

If his friends were having an argument, he made sure to restore harmony between them.

To begin with, Dan did not think that he was any different from his friends. Well, maybe just a little different!

For example, he was very surprised when he realized that not everyone could easily understand what another person was thinking.

It was then that the little miracle-worker realized that there was a Great Miracle-Worker-in-Chief that people sometimes called God. And the little miracle-worker really wanted to become at least a little like Him.

As time went on, Dan learned how to always feel His Presence around him.

If Dan looked up at the sky, he would see the Smile of the Great Miracle-Worker. Or to be more precise, he did not see it, but he felt as if the Great Miracle-Worker Himself was smiling at him through the heavens!

The light of the sun, as Dan felt it, was always filled with His Warmth, Gentleness, and Joy.

And the night stars seemed to be sparkles in His enormous Eyes, in which stories about distant wonderful worlds could be seen.

The gaze of the Great Miracle-Worker was always so loving!

Another thing that Dan could feel was His Magic Hands. They embraced him, supported him, and reached right through Dan's whole being, filling him with a state of bliss!

These Hands could also point out which way to go and what must be done.

And now as soon as Dan even thought about the Great Miracle-Worker, His Presence and Love made themselves felt!

Dan found it easy to follow the Advice and Instructions of the Great Miracle-Worker.

It was thanks to these that he began to understand that it is not just for wonderment and fun that true miracles are summoned up; they must also help people to recognize something very important in life, to overcome the bad within us, and to learn to do good.

And thus it was that Dan began to try to help people around him.

                                                         * * *

There was one boy who went to the same school as Dan, but he was only in first grade. He was made to stay home by his parents as a punishment until he could recognize all the letters of the alphabet. These were written on little cards lying in front him. But the little boy could not even bear to look at them!

There, outside, the sun was shining and his friends were out playing! But he was the only one in the whole class who didn't know the letters of the alphabet. For that he got poor grades. Many of the other boys and girls not only knew the alphabet by now, they could already read books!

Dan asked the parents if they would let him help the boy, and they said yes.

“You are the best student in school. It is so good of you to want to help him! Perhaps you will succeed in this. He has been in school for a whole year and he has not even mastered the alphabet yet!”

Dan went to the boy's room where he was met with surprise and delight.

“Why did they let you come to see me?”

“That was easy,” said Dan. “I said I would help you learn the letters of the alphabet!”

“Only a miracle-worker could do that,” replied the boy. “How I wish for a miracle like that to happen. Then I would be able to learn these lousy letters and go out to play!”

“I will help you,” said Dan. “It's very simple to learn to read. The letters themselves are magical and they can create miracles.”

Dan set out the little cards in a fan shape.

“Choose any three cards, and lay them out in front of you.”

After a little bit of magic, this is what happened. The chosen letters came together as the word “cat”. And a shining picture of a cat appeared in the air. It seemed to be alive! It gently waved its fluffy tail, gave a long stretch, and then — meowed!

The two boys did the same thing again and made the word “dog”, and a happy little pup jumped up and gave a playful bark!

All of a sudden, the tiresome chore of learning the letters had turned into an amusing game!

Dan explained to his friend how different combinations of letters could make up a word or even several words, and every time they tried it, a magical moving picture appeared.

That very same day the little boy learned to recognize all the letters! Realizing how magical they were, he soon became very keen to learn how to read!

From that time on, whenever he read a story, he would always see the magic pictures that no one else could see.

The boy grew up to become an artist, doing illustrations for story books and even for alphabet books, so that all children would learn to love reading!

                                                           * * *

One day Dan caught sight of three brothers with slingshots shooting stones at a young crow. They had already damaged the little bird's wing. Now it was unable to fly, and could only try to hop away, nursing its painful wing.

Dan rushed to the rescue, standing between the brothers and the little bird.

The boys lowered their catapults.

“Why are you stopping us from playing our hunting game?!” the eldest brother said.

“You hurt the little bird's wing,” said Dan. "It's in pain, can't you see that? When your father uses the strap on you, that hurts too, doesn't it? Then you shout ‘stop!’.

“Now this little bird is suffering just the same, but for absolutely no reason. After all, the bird hasn't done anything wrong to you.”

“How did you know that our father hits us with a strap? Who has been telling tales?” The eldest brother put his fists up, ready to give a punch.

“You just remembered it yourself, and Sam too!” said Dan, pointing to the youngest of the three.

“How do you know what someone else is thinking?” the boys asked in surprise, their anger now forgotten.

“Well, I just know!”

“Okay, prove it!”

“Alright then, think about what you would like your slingshots to turn into, and I'll guess the answer!”

In a flash, instead of a catapult each of the boys was now holding a lollipop, which was the idea that came into their heads.

The boys were so amazed that they did not know what to say.

Dan gave a smile.

“It's easy,” he said. “If you do something good, it will make you happy.

“But if you think about something bad or do something bad, then you allow sadness and pain to come into your life.

“So please don't play with slingshots anymore!”

With those words, Dan picked up the injured crow and set off home, the little bird nestling up to him trustingly.

Dan tried to heal the little bird's wing by running his hand over it, in the same way as he made his mother's or school friends' headaches disappear. However, the wing did not heal. The pain passed, but the wing was not restored.

“It seems that there is still a lot I do not know about healing,” Dan said. “I will take you to my father, he is a doctor. Do not be afraid!

“By the way, what shall we call you?”

“Kraa-ra!” squawked the crow.

“Alright then, Klara!” said Dan, with a smile.

                                                      * * *

Dan's father was always busy with his work and had very little spare time. When he was not out on his rounds visiting sick children, he read books about various illnesses and how to treat them. Or else he himself would write articles on what he had discovered about how to prevent and treat children's ailments.

Dan always tried not to disturb him with trivial things. But he also knew that his father was always ready to give help and support when it was needed.

He knocked on the door of his father's study.

“Come in, Dan!”

“Father, this is Klara! She needs your help!”

When his father had finished bandaging up Klara's wing, Dan asked him: “Do you think Klara could stay with us for a while, until she gets better?”

“Sure, I don't mind, but let's ask your mother if she agrees.”

“Father, there's something else I want to ask you,” said Dan. “You know Sam, Pete, and Phil? Well, their father hits them with the strap, and very hard. That could make them fearful and cruel towards the weak. Do you think you could have a word with him?”

“Aha, now I get it!” said Dan's father. “When I was treating those boys, I could never understand how they could beat each other up so badly.

“Alright, I will try to make their father understand what the consequences can be when he hits them with the strap.”

“Thank you, father!” said Dan. “Now I'm going to show Klara to mother!”

                                                    * * *

Mother also agreed to let Dan keep Klara at home.

As for Klara, even when she got better, she did not want to leave her new home.

And so it was that this young crow became another member of the family. In fact, it didn't take her long to learn how to say words in the language of humans.

She was a great help to Dan in the little displays that he put on for children and grown-ups quite often now. She would delight in picking little wish-notes out of a hat, fetching different objects for Dan, showing off her ability to say human-language words at the right time, and in many other things besides this. She soon became everyone's favorite!

One day, the family gathered for breakfast as usual. Klara always used to have breakfast with them too.

Later, when Dan was at school, Klara had lots of spare time when she could fly around town and hang out with the other birds.

No one stopped her from doing whatever she wanted, but what she enjoyed more than anything else was to spend time with Dan, because she learned a lot from him! She was smart and talented and really liked to learn!

Sometimes, after she had enjoyed the breakfast she had been given, Klara would ask for a little bit more. Crows, you see, have a habit of hoarding supplies of food, and Klara still had this strong habit.

Sometimes, too, Klara would fly off with the extra food she had been given and, it seems, shared it with someone else.

On this occasion Klara asked Dan's mother if she could have a large slice of bread and cheese.

“Why do you want that much?” his mother asked in a kindly voice. “It might make you fat, and then you will find it hard to fly!” she teased, holding out the bread and cheese.

“Need it!” Klara assured her in humans' language.

Then, fixing the bread and cheese more comfortably in her beak, she flew out of the window.

Ten minutes later Klara came back and asked for more.

This time Dan, too, was surprised. He decided that he would have enough time before going to school to find out why this extra food was important to Klara.

He picked up the lunch bag that his mother had made up so carefully and put it in his school bag, saying that he would go for a little walk before class.

Klara was already waiting for him on a branch just above the porch.

                                                         * * *

Klara flew ahead, showing him which way to go.

Soon they found themselves by a derelict warehouse where the roof had collapsed in several places.

Dan went inside and found a boy about the same age as him.

At first the boy was afraid, but seeing Klara, he asked:

“Is this tame crow yours?”

“Yes,” said Dan. “Her name is Klara, and mine is Daniel, but everyone usually just calls me Dan.”

“My name is Tom. You know something? Klara has brought me two slices of bread and cheese today! I wanted to share them with her, but she declined. That's when I understood that she is tame. How do you train her?”

“Well, she's very smart, she teaches herself everything, and she loves to do what I ask her!”

“Yes, of caws, of caws!” Klara cawed. “Klara, of caws!”

“Gee, she even knows how to talk!”

Daniel gave his lunch bag to Tom and promised to stop by again later that day after class.

Later that afternoon Tom told Dan all about himself.

Tom used to live in an orphanage because he had neither a mother nor a father. But two weeks earlier he ran away and never wanted to go back to the orphanage again. The new head turned out to be very grumpy, and life at the orphanage became terrible.

At first, Tom explained, he enjoyed his new-found freedom. He had settled in the basement of the derelict warehouse and set up his own place to live!

He proudly showed them the table, wardrobe, and bed that he had made out of wooden boxes.

However, he didn't like stealing or begging, because it was more likely that someone would find him and send him back to the orphanage. And that was the very thing that Tom feared most of all!

From that day on, Dan began to stop by at Tom's place every day after school.

The two boys quickly became friends, and Dan offered to have Tom come and live at his house.

“I think mother and father would agree,” he said.

“Just ask them first,” Tom replied. “I don't want to intrude!”

So Dan promised to have a word with his parents.

In the event, however, things turned out differently.

                                                         * * *

It was early spring, and ice floes were still floating in the cold, dark water under the bridge.

On the bridge stood a woman, alone.

Dan immediately knew what the woman was thinking. She felt unhappy and unneeded, and wanted to put an end to her life by throwing herself into the river.

Dan hurried up to her and softly touched her hand.

The woman gave a shudder, because she was already saying goodbye to everything here down on Earth.

“This must be the Angel of the Lord intervening!” she thought.

The eyes of the unknown boy shone so brightly, as if light was pouring out of them.

“What do you want, little boy?”

“I have something very important to tell you. Actually, I need your help!”

“You need my help?”

“Yes. Well, not me exactly, but my friend! Please come with me, ma'am, and I'll tell you all about it as we walk along!”

Dan took the woman's hand. His touch felt so warm in her hand that the warmth seemed to pour straight into her heart.

After the moments of utter despair that she had been going through, this surge of happiness almost brought tears to her eyes.

Dan pretended not to notice her emotions and squeezed her hand even more tightly as he began to tell her about Tom.

“Well it's like this, ma'am,” he said. “He is an orphan. He was living in an orphanage, and now he has run away. He does not want to go back there, because he was treated very badly! Tom wanted to run away forever from this miserable world in which he felt alone, unhappy, unneeded, and unloved. He told me that he wants to run somewhere far, far away, but he doesn't know exactly where.”

“As a matter of fact,” said the woman, “I wanted to run away too.”

“Yes, ma'am, and that's exactly why you can understand him! Maybe you will find a way to love him, and he will find a way to love you!

“You can make a world full of happiness for him, and in doing that for him, you will become happy too!

“If somewhere is cold, that's where you need to light a fire to make things warm! And if you find that there is no kindness and love somewhere, that's where you need to do kind things and give love! I'm sure you can see that, ma'am.”

“Yes, I can,” she said. “But what if I can't make it work? Suppose he doesn't like me?”

“Let's at least try!” said Dan. “Now I guess you are feeling better than you did a little while ago standing on that bridge, right?”

At that point they arrived at the basement where Tom lived.

“Better wait here for a moment,” said Dan, as he went in. “I need to go and warn him.”

“Well it's like this, Tom,” Dan explained. “There's a woman I found standing on the bridge. She is alone too, just like you. She also wanted to run away, see? In fact, she wanted to run away from here forever, she wanted to die. But you could help her! My parents did agree to let you come and live with us, but this woman needs you more. She really needs a son!”

“Is she poor, or sick?” asked Tom. “Well I can work! They taught us at the orphanage. I will take care of her!”

The woman, who couldn't wait outside any longer, heard what Tom had said.

“And I will look after you too, my boy,” she said, tears welling up inside her. I will try to be a good mother! I have a big house...

“Perhaps you will forgive me if something turns out different than you would like?”

                                                        * * *

That day Dan was feeling especially happy about what he had managed to do!

The Miracle-Worker-in-Chief spoke to him.

“Well done, my boy! Today you have understood something very important! You can help souls find happiness, love, and wisdom, uniting them in such a way that they themselves can begin to do good to one another!

“It is from this unity in the emotions of love that souls find happiness!

“But the most important miracle will take place if you can succeed in uniting them with Me!

“If a person loves God and feels My reciprocal Love, this person will discover a greater happiness, which is more wonderful than any miracle!”

When Dan returned home, his mother was surprised.

“Where is Tom?” she asked. “I have prepared a room for him, and the table is set for dinner.”

Dan told her about everything that had happened.

“I am pleased that everything has turned out so well for him!” she said. “But I am a little sad that I could not help.

“As for you, my son, you have grown up so much!”

“I had another idea, mom,” said Dan. “In that orphanage there are many more children and their life there is not very happy. We cannot take them all in at our house, but if you were to begin to teach music and singing there, we could hold concerts in town, and then many of the children might find foster parents of their own!

“Oh Daniel,” said his mother. “What a good idea that is!”

And that is exactly what Dan's mother did. Not long after, very many things changed at the orphanage. Even the head, delighted by his new teacher, became a much more kindly person. And the music concerts that they gave resulted in the most magical encounters that Dan had ever dreamed about.

                                                           * * *

One day, father called Dan into his study to talk about something important.

“There's something I want to ask you, son,” he said. “A new family has moved to town and they have a sick little girl. She is unable to walk after a serious injury she received four years ago. It might be possible for her to have a complicated operation, but the little girl is so weak that it would be too much for her.

“At the moment I don't know what I can do to help her. This is the saddest patient I have ever had.

“If you were to make friends with her, maybe my treatment would become more effective.”

“Does she still have her legs after the accident?”

“Yes, but she doesn't have any feeling in them and she cannot move them. It is what we, doctors, call a spinal injury.

“Anyway, the thing is, if you were to make friends with her and teach her to be joyous at least a little bit... Her name is Eliza, and she likes to read books with pictures.”

The next day, Dan picked out the most beautiful of his books of illustrated stories and set off to see the new family in town. It was summertime, and the weather was beautiful.

Dan rang the bell at the gate of the house with a plain brick garden wall. The gatekeeper opened the gate and, when his little visitor told him why he had come, led Dan through a garden with tall trees and neatly kept flower beds to the beautiful large house.

The lady of the house, Eliza's mother, opened the door.

“My name is Daniel,” said Dan, introducing himself. “My father is the children's doctor who is treating your daughter Eliza. I have come to play with her.”

“Very nice to meet you, Dan,” she said. “But unfortunately we don't allow her visitors. She is a very sensitive little girl and very seriously ill. When she sees healthy children, she sometimes spends the next several days crying or remaining withdrawn, so we try to protect her from these stressful episodes.

“Even in her specially adapted wheelchair, she refuses point blank to be taken round town to choose new toys or clothes. She feels embarrassed that she is not like all the other children and cannot run around and play.

“That is why we moved here and bought this house with the garden. But even though no one can see her, she doesn't like to go out into the garden very much.

“We just open the windows so that she can breathe the fresh air and admire the beautiful trees.”

“Okay then, but please give her this book!” said Dan, holding out his present.

“Thank you!” said Eliza's mother. “Eliza will be very pleased! She loves reading! And what lovely pictures! You are a very kind young man! Would you like some tea and cake?”

“Thank you, but no thanks. I'll say goodbye then.”

The gatekeeper led Dan back, and the metal gate closed behind him with a harsh grating noise.

Dan spent the whole evening thinking about what he should do next.

“Such a beautiful house,” he thought, “but it's like a prison. What should I do and how can I help Eliza if they won't even let me see her? And what would I myself do if I was unable to walk?”

All evening Dan tried to think of a solution to the situation.

Then Klara, the crow, flew in through the open window. She flew around Dan's room several times before landing opposite the boy, giving him a wily, mysterious look.

“Maybe I could try to learn how to fly!” thought Dan, admiring Klara.

Klara fluffed up the feathers on her head and neck, tilted her head engagingly, and approvingly said, “Great! Ca-a-aw!”

Dan smiled. “You like that idea?”

Well, Dan's first attempts to copy the way Klara took off, by flapping his arms up and down, were not a resounding success.

However, he was convinced that he would be able to learn to fly.

All night long Dan dreamed of himself flying. In his dreams it was easy. He just gave a little push, and before he knew it, his body was soaring weightlessly through the air! He didn't even have to wave his arms about! All he had to do was to create an intention to take off, to build up some speed, and to turn to any direction, and this would just happen!

When Dan woke up, still before dawn, he found he could do exactly as he had done in his dreams. Now he could fly! What a discovery that was! It turned out to be as simple as that!

                                                          * * *

The next day Dan and Klara set off for the house where Eliza lived. Dan was walking so as not to dismay passers-by, but he was overwhelmed with the feeling of joy that he could, indeed, fly. And Klara would fly on ahead and then keep flying back to him.

When they reached the house, Dan said: “We need to find out where Eliza's room is.”

Klara flew round the whole house looking through the windows. Then she landed on the sill of an open window, giving a quiet, low-pitched squawk to let Dan know that she had found the room!

Eliza was reclining in bed, holding an open book. It was the very same book that her mother had brought up to her the previous day. It was a very beautiful book, and the stories were so interesting and enchanting that Eliza was oblivious to everything, absorbed in the world of her story-book characters.

And how wonderful that was — a world where all difficulties could be overcome, and the adventures always turned out well in the end!

At that point, Eliza turned over the last page and reached the end of the book.

“If only I could stay in that magic world forever!” she mused.

Just then the crow landed on the window sill and squawked to someone outside. “Ca- aw!”

Then it turned to greet Eliza and introduce herself. “Caw! Caw! Klar-ra!”

“This is magic!” Eliza thought to herself.

And then more magic things happened. After Klara a boy appeared on the window sill flying up out of nowhere.

“Hello, Eliza!” he said. “My name is Dan, and I'm the doctor's son. And this is my friend Klara,” he said, pointing at her. “Do you mind if we come in?”

“You are in already,” Eliza said in amazement, pinching her arm to see if she was dreaming.

Then she remembered her manners, adding: “Was it you who gave me this book as a present? It is very interesting! Thank you!”

Dan made himself comfortable on the window sill and gave a chuckle.

“Do you mind if I call you Eliza, and you can call me Dan, and then we can be friends?”

“Well, you see, I'm not like other children,” said Eliza. “I'm not well. I can't walk. You'll find me boring.”

“I'm not like other children either!” said Dan. “I can do magic, although I do not know very much yet. So I think we could be friends!”

“And do you think you can cure me?”

“I don't know,” said Dan. “I haven't had much success curing illnesses yet. But I want to give it a try. In any case, my father really wants to make you better too, but neither of us can do that without your help and without the help of the Chief Magician.”

“The Chief Magician — who is that?”

“God. He is the One Who created everything here — you, me, the trees, the sea, the flowers, the mountains, the stars — absolutely everything!”

“Well, I say my prayers every day, but it doesn't help. I suppose He cannot hear me. Or maybe I do not deserve to have my prayers answered?”

“No, that's impossible!” said Dan. “He can hear and understand everything! He answers everyone's prayers, but we need to learn to understand His answers! Don't you know, Eliza, that He is the Miracle-Worker-in-Chief? Have you never felt His Gaze, or the Touch of His Magic Hands? Have you never felt His Breath fanning cool air in the heat, or warmth in the cold? Have you never felt His Fatherly Care? He can chide us for our mistakes and help us to understand how to put them right! We always have something to learn from Him! In times of trouble or danger He always stands behind us, saying 'Do not be afraid, for I am with you!'

“Have you never felt any of this?”

“No, never,” said Eliza sadly, and a little irritated.

Then suddenly a Wave of Light swept over her!

“Oh yes, now I remember!” she said. “I saw Him when... well, when all that bad stuff happened to me. He told me that my parents would die of grief if my body did not come back to life. And there's something else He told me too, but then I couldn't remember exactly what it was. Yes, what you are telling me is true! That's great! How could I have forgotten?

“And what about you, what other magic things can you do?” she asked.

“Well, I'm still learning from Him at the moment,” Dan replied.

“You are learning from God? You can talk to God? You can ask Him something, and He will hear you and answer?”

“Of course!” said Dan. “And so can you! We are all His children! He has granted us wonderful opportunities which we can learn to make use of! And we can help each other to learn!”

“Oh there's no way I can do anything to help anyone,” Eliza said. “And as for helping me, there's no one who can do that.”

“What do you mean?” asked Dan. “You have already helped me. You have taught me how to fly!”

“Me? I taught you how to fly?”

“Of course!” replied Dan. “Yesterday I spent the whole evening wondering what life would be like for me if I could not walk. And now I have learned to fly thanks to you and Klara!”

“Show me, then!”

Dan suspended himself in mid-air, then had a little fly round the room, stopping alongside Eliza's bed.

“Do you think I could do that?” asked Eliza.

“Let's give it a try!” said Dan.

But Eliza was not able to take off, however much she wanted to.

“Nothing ever works for me when I try it,” she sighed sadly.

“Don't say that!” said Dan. “Do you think things always work for me at the first attempt? We have to learn — that's exactly what we're here for!”

Klara flew up to the bed and perched on the headboard to join in the conversation.

“Caw, caw, caw, caw,” she squawked. “Again, again, try again!”

“Did she just tell me something?” Eliza asked.

“Yes,” said Dan. “She explained that learning is always a gradual process. Young birds have wings, but even they have to learn to fly.”

“Do you think she will mind if I stroke her?” asked Eliza.

“Ca-aw!” murmured Klara, hopping closer to let Eliza stroke her neck.

                                                          * * *

By now, Dan was going to see Eliza almost every day. She had told her parents about Dan, and seeing the change that had come about in their daughter, they were very pleased that Dan had become friends with her.

“Eliza,” Dan said, one day. “I have been trying very hard to think of a way of curing you. But a great deal will depend on you yourself. I know that I have to teach you to shine and smile with the spiritual heart. When love blossoms in our hearts like a beautiful flower, that is when God settles in them and rejoices. From that heart He smiles on other beings! And that is when you, too, smile and rejoice together with Him! For then in your heart you begin to live, to live with Him! It is an amazing feeling when you and God are together!

“Let's try something,” Dan continued. “Let's imagine that inside each of us shines a little sun, and its rays can touch everything, but in a very subtle and gentle way.”

“Like what happens to you, do you mean?” asked Eliza.

“It's great that you can see that!” said Dan. “That means it will work for you, too!”

And indeed, Eliza was able to feel the love and warmth of the little sun within her, and she was suffused in the Wave of His Happiness and Joy.

“This is awesome!” she said.

“And now try to shine your light on everyone around you. Shine it on Klara, on me, on your mother, on your father.

“But mother and father are not here!” Eliza protested.

“That doesn't matter,” replied Dan. “The rays from your little sun will send this love over any distance!”

Eliza began to try, and she succeeded!

“Not long ago,” Dan explained, “I realized that no matter how much magic I did for others, the true miracles began only when each of them discovered within themselves this ability to give love. It is like giving and receiving presents. It is nice to receive presents, but when you give presents to others, that is even nicer!”

“But it has been a long time since I gave anyone presents,” Eliza pointed out.

“Then we must do something about that!” said Dan. “Listen, I have an idea: let's hold a birthday party for you! You will give presents to your guests, you will smile at everyone and shine your light on them with the sun from your spiritual heart! And these toys here, perhaps you could give them as presents?”

“But my birthday was three months ago!”

“That was not your real birthday!” said Dan. “That was just an ordinary day ten years from the day that you came into the world in this body. We will hold a real celebration to honor your return to life and to joy! You will give out gifts and happiness to the other people!”

“Great!” said Eliza. “I like that idea! But who shall we invite? I don't know anyone here except you!”

“We shall invite children from poor families who have not been to a birthday party for a long time,” said Dan. “Are you happy to give them your toys? Are you sure you won't regret giving them away?”

“Of course not!” Eliza said.

“That's wonderful then! I will talk with your parents, and you must do the same! We will get everything organized!”

                                                          * * *

Dan decided not to delay talking to Eliza's parents, and did so that very day.

“Could you give Eliza a horse for her birthday — a real horse? I will teach her how to ride. I will sit behind her and keep hold of her. I will be very careful, and she will be able to see and learn so many interesting things!”

Eliza's parents were taken aback by this suggestion.

“No, Daniel!” they said. “That is very dangerous. Suppose something happens to make her condition worse.”

“On the contrary, it will help to cure her!” said Dan. “Why not ask my father?”

“Alright,” they conceded. “We will give it some thought!”

“But don't tell her anything about this beforehand,” Dan asked, as if they had actually agreed. “Let it be a surprise!”

It did not take Eliza's parents long to make up their minds. The transformation in their daughter since her friendship with Dan had been so great that they decided to take the risk. They asked the doctor, Dan's father, and he agreed that it would benefit the little girl.

And so the party began.

At first, the children who had been invited were a little shy of the new surroundings and of the fact that Eliza could not walk.

But Dan very quickly entertained everyone with magic tricks, and by guessing what people were wishing or thinking. And Klara was such a great help that any sign of shyness or awkwardness all but disappeared.

Then there was tea with birthday cake and candies.

After that, Eliza invited everyone to choose whichever toy they liked as a present. However, one little girl chose not a doll, but a book — the very book Dan had given Eliza.

“Can I have this?” she asked.

Eliza was a little hesitant, because that book meant so much to her. But then she lit up with an affectionate smile from the heart.

“Of course!” she said. “Please take it!”

“You managed to do it! This was the best present that you have given out of all of them!” Dan whispered in Eliza's ear.

At that point her father took Eliza by the hand, and everyone went out into the garden.

Waiting there was a white horse, their gift to Eliza.

Everyone took turns to have a ride, with Dan taking the horse by the bridle. Everyone was so happy!

And happiest of all was Eliza, for now she could go everywhere with Dan!

That evening Eliza's parents gave each other a hug. Mother wiped tears of joy from her eyes. It had been four years since they had seen their daughter so happy!

                                                       * * *

From that day on, Eliza's life changed dramatically. Dan taught her to ride horseback. Each time they rode a little further, sitting astride the horse together with Eliza in front, and Dan behind giving her a little support.

Eliza saw the forest, the river and two lakes close to the town. She became stronger and suntanned, learning to enjoy the sunshine, the trill of the birds, the beauty of the morning, and the calm of the evening.

Dan's father made arrangements for the girl to have the operation. Her health had improved markedly, and now it was considered that everything would pass off well.

The day before she was due to go to the hospital for the operation, Dan and Eliza set off on a horse ride.

As usual, Klara accompanied the youngsters, flying along in front.

They came to a clearing of daisies and bluebells.

“Please pick some of these flowers for me!” said Eliza.

“No, Eliza!” said Dan. “Each of these flowers has only one stem connected to the root which gives it life. I don't want to pick them, for then they will die.”

Eliza blushed with shame.

“Oh, I didn't think about that,” she said. “I'm sorry! I have seen and read about people giving flowers, and I thought it was okay.”

“Yes, that's what lots of people think,” Dan replied. “But we should not pick them just to give someone a gift. Unfortunately, when people are in good health, rich, and everything is going well for them in life, they stop feeling the misfortune of others and the pain of other living beings. They give a small coin to beggars on the way to church, thinking that they have done a good deed. Then they carry on with their lives, without reflecting upon the fact that the good which each person can contribute to the world amounts to much more than a small coin!

“When you get better and all your sadness and difficulties are a thing of the distant past, you will never be like that, Eliza, will you?”

“I will try not to, Dan!” she replied.

“There's something I want to tell you,” she said. “Today I dreamed that the two of us were flying. Does that perhaps mean that I will not survive the operation?”

“How can you say such a thing? You have already learned how to be brave. Give me your hand, now we will fly together!”

This time it worked for Dan. He was strong enough to enable both of them to take to the air together, so they took off and soared up over the clearing, over the trees, and over the lake.

Then they returned home slowly, aware that the Great Miracle-Worker Who had given them the miracle of that day was always with them, and that together with Him, any miracles were within their powers!

                                                         * * *

And so now we will bring to an end our story about the boy who could do magic. Eliza had her operation, and she was subsequently restored to full health and able to walk again.

When they became adults, Eliza became Dan's wife and assistant in his amazing magic performances with which they travelled the world. For Dan never stopped learning, and he became a true Miracle Worker. It was their love that constantly helped them to perform true Great Divine Miracles and teach other deserving people to do the same!

Narrated by Sarkar

and written down by Anna Zubkova

Editor of the Russian version Vladimir Antonov

Translated from Russian into English by Reg Edwards

[path-of-heart]

Laya Yoga is one of the directions of Yoga. This term indicates a set goal: the dissolution of oneself (as a consciousness) in the Harmony of the Absolute.

In this film we talk about the principles and methods of Laya Yoga.

[path-of-heart]

This film will fill you with the state of spring. You will see the awakening of nature: first green leaves, blossoming flowers, displaying birds, the beauty of sunrises and sunsets. The film describes also how to merge meditatively with all this beauty. Duration: 80 min.