.People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered:
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives:
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some trueenemies:
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you:
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight:
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous:
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow:
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough:
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between YOU and GOD:
It was never between you and them anyway.
This poem was written by Mother Teresa and is engraved on the wall of her home for children in Calcutta
"The Law was planted in the Garden of the Brotherhood to enlighten the heart of man and to make straight before him all the ways of true righteousness, a humble spirit, an even temper, a freely compassionate nature, and eternal goodness and understanding and insight, and mighty wisdom which believes in all God's works and a confident trust in His many blessings and a spirit of knowledge in all things of the Great Order, loyal feelings toward all the Children of truth, a radiant purity which loathes everything impure, a discretion regarding all the hidden things of truth and secrets of inner knowledge."
The Essene Tree of Life represented fourteen positive
forces, seven of them heavenly or cosmic forces and
seven earthly or terrestrial forces. The Tree was
pictured as having seven roots reaching down into the
earth and seven branches extending up toward the
heavens, thus symbolizing man's relationship to both
earth and heaven.
Man was pictured in the center of the tree half-way
between heaven and earth.
The use of the number seven is an intregral part of the
Essene tradition which has been transmitted to Western
cultures in various outer ways, such as the seven days
of the week.
Each root and branch of the tree represented a different
force or power. The roots represented earthly forces and
powers, the Earthly Mother, the Angel of Earth, the
Angel of Life, the Angel of Joy, the Angel of the Sun,
the Angel of Water and the Angel of Air. The seven
branches represented cosmic powers, The Heavenly Father,
and his Angels of Eternal Life, Creative Work, Peace,
Power, Love, and Wisdom. These were the Essene angels of
the visible and invisible worlds.
....
Man, in the center of the Tree, was seen to be
surrounded as in a magnetic field, by all the forces, or
angels, of heaven and earth. He was pictured as in the
meditation posture, the upper half of his body above the
ground and the lower half in the earth. This indicated
that part of man is allied to the forces of heaven and
part to the forces of earth. ....
This position of man in the center of the Tree, with the
earthly forces below him and the heavenly forces above,
also corresponds to the position of the organs in the
physical body. The gastric and generative tracts in the
lower half of the body, being instruments of self-
preservation and self-perpetuation, belong to the
earthly forces. Whereas the lungs and brain, in the
upper half of the body, are the instruments of breathing
and thinking and thus connect man with the finer forces
of the universe.
Contact with the angelic forces represented by the Tree
of Life was the very essence of the daily life of the
Essenes. They knew that to be in harmony with these
forces they must make conscious effort to contact them.
The Essenes were spoken of by the ancient writers as an
extremely practical people. Their concepts were not just
theories; they knew exactly how to be continually aware
of the forces about them and how to absorb their power
and put them into action in their daily lives.
They had the deep wisdom to understand that these forces
were sources of energy, knowledge and harmony by which
man can transform his organism into a more and more
sensitive instrument to receive and consciously utilize
the forces. Furthermore, they considered that to put
himself into harmony with the forces of the Heavenly
Father and the Earthly Mother was man's most important
activity in life.
The characteristics of each one of the different forces
was very clear to them and they knew what the force
meant in each individual's life and how it should be
utilized.
They also understood the relationship between the
forces. They considered that each heavenly force has an
earthly force corresponding to it and each earthly force
a corresponding heavenly power. These corresponding
heavenly and earthly forces were placed on the Essene
Tree of Life diagonally across from each other, one
above and one below man. A line drawn between any two
corresponding forces consequently passed directly
through man in the center of the Tree.
The forces which correspond with each other, above and
below, are as follows:
The Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother
The Angel of Eternal Life and the Angel of Earth
The Angel of Creative Work and the Angel of Life
The Angel of Peace and the Angel of Joy
The Angel of Power and the Angel of the Sun
The Angel of Love and the Angel of Water
The Angel of Wisdom and the Angel of Air
These correlations showed the Essenes that when an
individual contacts any earthly force he is also in
touch with a certain heavenly power. This enabled them
to understand how necessary it is to be in perfect
harmony with each and every one of the forces and
angels, both in the visible and invisible worlds.
The symbolical Tree of Life made it clear to the people
how inseparably they are linked to all the forces,
cosmic and terrestrial, and it showed them what their
relationship is to each.
"I am grateful, Heavenly Father,
for Thou hast raised me to an eternal height
and I walk in the wonders of the plain.
"Thou gavest me guidance to reach Thine eternal
company from the depths of the earth.
Thou hast purified my body
to join the army of the angels of the earth
and my spirit to reach
The congregation of the heavenly angels.
"Thou gavest man eternity
to praise at dawn and dusk
Thy works and wonders
In joyful song."
From The "Thanksgiving Psalms" of the Dead Sea Scrolls
VI (iii. 19-36)
***********
The UNCONDITIONAL LOVE of one's Self, is the fountainhead
From which springs the UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for all others,
and for all creation.
We can not bestow on others
That which we do not possess ourselves
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