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THE SONG OF THE PHOENIX
(1) Step out of the sea of conflict; you are a child of peace.
(2) Seek peace, not the quiet earthly peace but the deep river which lies before your Father’s throne
(3) Peace is not subject to limitations.
(4) Know you this, that this world as a whole is a limitation. You are not your perfect self here. It is not your true home. You are only a pilgrim passing through for a season
(5) Peace does not lie in leaving the noise of the city or the nosey interference of the community. Peace lies in you.
(6) Like light shines in darkness no matter how thick, so does peace shine alive in you no matter where you are.
(7) We have got all things equally. Be at peace.
(8) Just as we all have the same number of hours in a day, so we have the same quantity and quality of everything else.
(9) No man is made greater than the other. No man is made lower than the other.
(10) Sit at the river bank and think. We are all the same.
(11) We were all made at one time, by one God, in one image.
(12) We were all given the same blessing, at the same time, by the same God. All men are equal.
(13) Wisdom is found within the river of peace, in its deepest place.
(14) The invitation to drink from that river is for all. None is more favoured then the other.
(15) The invitation to eat of the bread of life is for all.
(16) The man who drinks a mouthful is not poorer then he who drinks a bucket. They are both the same.
(17) The man who take a little bite is not less satisfied than he who eats a hundred bites.
(18) The man who casts a net and gathers plenty is not richer than the man who sits at the river bank with a line and catches a single fish. They are both the same.
(19) “He that gathered much hath nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating”. – Exodus 16:18
(20) Wealth is a relative word. Its meanly is not rigid nor is it subjective.
(21) “He that gathered much hath nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack”. There is a mystery behind these words which if you should find would open your eyes to the incredible balance that exist all around you, to the justice or the hand that bares the scale and to the peace, so deep, it passes all understanding.
(22) In the past the mystics avoided material matters and taught only that which would build the soul. So we had many wise men with perfect spiritual harmony and perfect material and physical disintegration. The wise men of the past were not very happy men, for they did not find the harmony of balance which existed all around them, and their protégés, the ones who followed their teachings lost harmony trying to pretend that the body and its needs do not mater and that the body could survive on the barest necessities. They were right. Yet so can the soul. This is the mystery behind the story of Lazarus and the rich man.
(23) For a perfect balance to occur the body must receive as much as the soul. The mind must be equally open to both the spiritual and material needs of the person. Only then can the hidden balance be activated.
(24) The hand that carries a tilted scale is unjust.
(25) In the presence of imbalance is the birth of disharmony. Be at peace.
(26) Poverty is often born of discontent.
(27) Discontent is not evil. Yet it can be used to produce evil thoughts.
(28) Discontent is only an indication that the cruse of oil has not yet been filled up to the expectation of the widow.
(29) The man who gathers much is not wealthier than the man who gathers little. Be at peace.
(30) Never assume that a man who has much is any richer than a man who has little. Wealth is relative.
(31) Poverty is sometimes a product of laziness. When laziness enters into discontent, the child born is poverty.
(32) Poverty is evil. It is a state of disharmony.
(33) Poverty is not the state of the man who gathers much, nor is it the state of the man who gathers little.
(34) Poverty occurs when the man who gathers does not have enough to cover his eating.
(35) A lion is not greedy because it eats more than a man can eat. Neither is a man greedy because he eats more than a child can eat. “…they gathered every man according to his eating”.
(36) Discontent is born when the three are forced to eat the same ration. The lion is aggrieved because its hunger is not quenched. The child is aggrieved because he is forced into gluttony. The man cannot reasonably be happy when all around him are unhappy. He cannot fill the lion’s hunger, nor can he decrease the child’s ration. Therefore it is wisdom for all to gather according to their eating.
(37) Poverty is born when a man who does not have according to his eating declines from gathering appropriately.
(38) When a man declines from gathering according to his eating, he became poor. This applies equally both to he who gathers more than his eating as to he when gathers less than his eating. As soon as the law of gathering according to a man’s eating is broken, lack sets in.
(39) So long as a man gathers more than or less than his eating, the law is broken and poverty is the result.
(40) Sometimes a man gathers less than his eating for sanctimonious reasons. He is like the mystics who feed the soul and starve the body. This is poverty born of ignorance.
(41) Poverty is not only having less than you need, it is also having more than you need. A man who works for more than his eating is a fool, he shall not became more satisfied than he was when he had enough. “…He who gathered much hath nothing over”.
(42) There is no need gathering more than you need. But be certain to gather as much as you need {need, not want} irrespective of how large the need is.
(43) Some times a man gathers less than his eating because he is unwilling to endure the work it takes to gather. Yet he is not content. He sits at his home in envy of others but is unwilling to work for his needs. This is poverty born of laziness. It is the worst kind of poverty.
(44) A wicked man is one who sits envying the ones who have, yet is unwilling to work had enough to fill his needs.
(45) Most times poverty comes as a subconscious adjustment to the limitations presented by the world. But you are not of the world –(John 15:19)
(46) Health, wealth and happiness are all with you. Do not be limited by what you see. Rise above the things you can see and feel and hear and smell and taste. Rise into the world that is truly yours, where limitations are unknown and all men are equal.
(47) Are you physically impaired? Are you financially limited? Are you emotionally defeated? Remember that these are all small obstacles to the phoenix who must rise above its funeral pyre to live again. Leave behind the things you can see or hear or feel. Rise into the realm of the unseen where faith is the only creative energy. There you must dwell, for there you belong.
(48) Live again oh phoenix of God. Do not be held back by the limitations of this world. You are a child of God. You can dictate your own happiness. Don’t be held down. Live again, and forever, sing the song of liberty from all manifestations of limitation.
(49) You are all by the river together. No one controls your happiness. Gather for yourself all that you need in all things. Be at peace. Be happy.
(50) In everything, person or place you have seen or met love, you have actually seen or met God smiling to you behind the curtain of that object. You have never in reality loved a person. God is love. Every time you love, it is God whom you are loving. And God is present in all things, all persons and in every place. This is why at death you are gathered up to wait for all the righteous and together as the church you are wedded to God. The bride and the Bridegroom.
Therefore, let the loss of a loved one, by death, desertion or quarrel, not blind you to the truth. You have never loved a person. It was always God within that person that you were responding to. So when at loss of love, look unto God. Sit calmly at that river and express your love in silence. God is love. And He is the love that shall never fail. Be at peace. Be happy. Be content. Rise above limitations. Be at rest.
THE END
THE SONG OF THE PHOENIX
By E. J. EL’FRANSIS
Written 13th January 2002
8:30 AM-10:15AM
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