Peace is not stasis. Peace is not ‘doing nothing’. Peace is active, a dynamic.  We have a choice of two vectors, and only two. We can either do things to bring people together, or we can do things to cause people  to move apart. This is the core of what it means for us as human beings with free will. We can think of the idea of a moral compass. In other words what are our priorities? A clue is given in the words from the Bible ‘seek ye first the kingdom of heaven’. This is not someone trying to spoil our fun but to indicate how we can most fruitfully and successfully live together in harmony with each other.

The world of spirit which is outside space and time can affect the structure of atoms in our body influencing their force print. We can call it mind over matter. The BBC are very fond of training their interviewers to ask the question ‘ how does it feel?’ The problem is that feelings do not tell us the full story. Feelings are sensations interpreted by the brain and are mostly about the effect of interactions on ourselves not others. Going back to the adding and subtracting, if you spend your life desiring to add to the quality of other people’s life in whatever way you can,   you will not often go wrong.

If you believe in reincarnation you will understand the reason to interact with others and put right any wrongs you did to them in previous existences. The world is becoming a more forceful place and is thus deteriorating. There are frequent references in the Bible with an implication of reincarnation. It was common in the early church to believe that doctrine and it was at the Council of Constantinople in 300 AD  that references to reincarnation were expunged. It is worth looking into this

We may be attracted to someone for a number of reasons. Either we were great friends or we did something in a past life to them but that is a reason for meeting, establishing a relationship, and work out if there is anything to be done by way of reconciliation. We need to be alert with our senses in order to even recall and then cancel out or resolve whatever we did wrong though knowledge of the detail is not vital. If we pay off our karma then the initiator’s and the recipient’s lives both improved.

The working out of karma can be done indirectly. We do not have to meet the people concerned. You may utter a truth for example in writing or on a YouTube video that will help some overcome a particular problem that you may or may not have had a part in creating. The moral compass, the priorities, comprise a global template for you to base your actions on.

When we enter into this life we pick a path then our parents but we are not predestined to achieve one aim or another. It may be necessary to go to another planet and meet beings there and interact with them perhaps on another level. We may reincarnate as guides. With the existential base of the world becoming more rocky, it is more difficult to pay off karma.

When we meet in a particular configuration with a group of spiritually minded friends, we are more easily able to give each other clues to future actions and we can dynamically interact with the world even using another methodology. If you think back to Jesus, his death precipitated the change in dynamics and an enhanced role as in the case of the disciples. They spread the gospel in their own way.

We should not think in terms of benefiting from our own action. Praise elevates us in the eyes of others and this brings about hubris. We should not be deriving benefit on this mortal plane but making our profile more visible  in the other realms. Do our job and pay attention to the moral compass. People who are meant to see this as an example will surely do so.

To summarize, we cannot do nothing. We either work for good which is the coalescence into one consciousness or we work for evil, which is a dissemination of entropy. The way we treat other people in their presence and behind their back will have an effect which we will not see with our mortal eyes. No one gets away with ’nuffink, as a London East Ender would say.

This morning in our garden – A cotton Easter redolent with berries, part of nature’s abundance.

A morning breakfast in Wetherspoons

I arrange with my friend to meet for breakfast in Wetherspoons. We met at 9am and ordered a freedom breakfast and coffee and by the time I had helped myself to the coffee and moved towards my table the breakfast had already arrived. Talk about quick service!  For next time, I shall suggest we meet between about 9:30 at 10:00 a.m. The area by the front entrance changed into a nursery as more and more mothers bought their young children, prams, push chairs etc and it became too noisy. It’s not that I mind children, it’s that I am very sensitive to noise and if I’m going to concentrate on someone I need quiet.

Anyway I use this opportunity to discuss what is it that constitutes a meaningful conversation.  I don’t think you can jump stages in a conversation. If you cannot have a conversation and you want to talk in depth then wait until the conditions are right. A good topic can fail because of the lack of the right environment which in my case is peace and quiet and there is no compromise on this

We agreed between us that there were several stages:

# the first of which is to establish or self as a person worthy of being listened to. I admit that I go up to complete strangers in the street with one liners if only to get a smile on their face but we agreed for meaningful communication their needs to be a game plan which the above was the first part.

# Then we need to agree a subject matter with both are interested in the same topic.

# We have to establish if there is agreement in principle or there is diametric opposition,

# then we have to see if there’s any scope for moving on by introducing new facts (or should it be factors) and information.

During all this time we need to allow each other to speak and hopefully it will be an interjection rather than an interruption.

# Then hopefully having established the goodwill and the communality we can then move forward in both our understandings.

NB There must always be space to agree to differ. It would be so boring if everyone agreed with everyone else and at all times we need to show respect for the other party. Again the Christian would say that there is the mark of God within everyone but in most people it is occluded by what I call ‘overcoats’.  By this I mean the loss of innocence normally due to bad experiences, and people feeling the need to protect themselves. We know that the best form of defense is preemptive attack in such cases.

Do not take it personally.  It is a damage report.

I always say that you do not know what you know until you tell somebody and it is absolutely vital that the person has time to think and speak in other words if there is a moment of silence it is not because the person has run out of things to say, it’s because in the act of speaking, further truths are realised and the speaker needs time to digest it. In other words the situation requires respect, otherwise it might just as well be people talking to themselves.

With regard to Christianity and giving testimony, we would need to be sure that they understand that we are Christians and therefore are likely to have a view on whatever topic they raise if it has a moral element to it. I have always said that we need to be approachable but having said that, we should not be bland, as in the case of someone who does not stand up for things.

I don’t want to be a Christian bore but if someone has a need that I believe can be helped, through for example the words of Jesus, then I will speak accordingly. Someone said that we are judged not by what we say, but what we could have said. in other words what we did not say. Cowardice was not one of the qualities of Jesus or indeed his disciples so we need to show courage. “Be imitators of Christ”

The wife of my friend had had a particularly hard time with her Essex family who had rejected her out of hand because she converted to to Christianity. They ceased to have anything to do with her and didn’t even want her to attend the funeral of her mother. I wonder what sort of damage these people have had, what sort of bad model from for example their father to make them behave in such a way. I did not ask for too many details since that would have been a bit intrusive.

I proposed a close of the meeting when I could no longer hear myself think for the screaming and chattering of children. Next stop: Dorothy House Charity Shop to see what was on offer. While I was browsing, a man came in with something to offer. His voice was so full of good will and happiness it almost made me jump. He said to the assistant, ‘no need to  come out (of the shop), and I can even take it upstairs for you’. It is so refreshing, a breath of fresh air we could say, to hear a real community minded person recognizing the contribution of another and not just treating them as a shop assistant.

A frustrating ZOOM meeting

I had a regular Monday evening meeting with the Scientific and Medical Network under a new regime because the old presenter had departed. I did complain about the manner of the transfer but was basically told that most people were happy with it ,which I find strange at such an early juncture but never mind. We had a talk by someone who was convinced that he’d had past lives, apparently  as famous people.

He described some of them and through the way he spoke, I could tell that this was mainly imagination. If you as an American go to someone to tell you about their past lives which they are not necessarily skilled at doing they will tell you what you want to hear. One of the things that made me suspicious was that he said he went along to one therapist for a couple of sessions, and then went along to another therapist to see what they had to say. I have been involved in this discipline admittedly not deeply, for the last 50 years and I know that when you find a good channel, someone who  understands you, you don’t go around finding someone else.

From the organization point of view, the speaker was also playing the role of moderator. The speaker should not be the same person as the moderator. As a result I think most people were a bit confused. I did make some tactful comments about the reality of their experience and the way the meeting was run. However I decided against making another complaint because I don’t want to be known as someone who whinges all the time.

I guess that if most people get something out of it then these days that is a lot to be thankful for so I just left it. There was no closure for me. I just hope that as the new regime goes on,  people will get better at what they do.

Another trouble is that the person who has volunteered to be the moderator or coordinator can only be present on one out of every two Mondays which means that the continuity that we would reasonably expect cannot happen. This is especially true when something is developing a new chemistry because of the change of personnel.

To console myself, I went to light the wood-burning stove in the living room

———-  VIDEO SELECTION ———

Harry Vox – Why does Israel control Western Governments? A scholarly view on the whole Jewish situation