The Path

By Richard Brian

Knowledge is not so much

The filling of a vessel

As the lighting of a fire

Understanding is not so much

The assembly of parts

As the wonderment of discovery

Wisdom is not so much

The union of fire and discovery

As the tranquility within the storm

Inspiration is not so much

The elation of epiphany

But to see life with new eyes

Enlightenment is not so much

The invigoration of the soul

But the realization of the unseen

The Path Lies Within

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462031207

Richard Brian

Living among an array of cultures Richard has learned everyone shares a unity in their separated beliefs that imprudently divide the peoples of the world. Through trials of culture, ego, and misunderstandings from human frailty Richard has grown to adopt the motto “Through Inspiration I Create Enlightenment”. All share the common follies of childhood, the pangs of learning life’s lessons as we grow, and even the most sacredly held scriptures in all cultures state the same thing and seek the same conclusion. “A link to something beyond all of us in a worldly condition, a link to The Devine.” By the state of being inspired, by connecting to The Devine that created one and all, one can share The Light of Enlightenment from The Source as one candle shares The Light of Enlightenment with another and never be diminished for having done so. If we live in this Virtue we can live in harmony, we can share the eternal and abundant light, and all can prosper in its Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom, Inspiration, and Enlightenment.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

The Light And The Void

North of The Path

Knowing Our Structure

Foundation of

The Path

Echoes of

Our Fathers

The Visionary

Life Path

Vibrations of Virtue

The Light of Virtue

The Life Path of Creation

Revealing Our Talents

Revealing Our Gifts

The Sound of

The Source

The Path of

The Triquetra

The Code of The Veil

Walking The Path

Glossary

Key Terms & Concepts

Introduction

I busied myself to think of a story, a story to rival those which had excited me to this task; One which would speak to the mysterious spark at the core of our creation and awaken the slumbering light within; One to make the reader disappear in deep deliberation, nourishing the soul on the subtle spark of inspiration, and fanning the flames of a moment’s insight into an inferno of enlightenment.

While laying in the solitude of a sleepless night meditating on these ambitious murmurings the moon’s silvery light; its instrument of illumination; like the feverish kiss of flint and steel, ignites a spark of divine inspiration in the dark recesses of my duplicitous mind. Rising to spend the night soaking the inspiration on my paintbrush of creativity I artistically stroke it to my tapestries until the morning’s light blots out the supernatural rays of Luna’s radiance dissolving my pathway of illumination and retransforming The Path of Enlightenment back into the blinding fog of sanity that veils my visions once again.

Make no mistake about it; it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Neither is it a measure of success to be at the summit of such a society. When you’re not in an inspired state of being the veil of the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth clouds your thoughts, skews your judgments, and makes you believe in that which is profane to the enlightened soul. Thus, this illuminated psychosis of a moment’s inspiration is the preferred passion I profess and my computer is the canvas upon which I’ve painted this work of The Source and our enlightening relationship with it; The Path.

EFFORT AND DIRECTION ARE NOT ENOUGH

WITHOUT PURPOSE AND VIRTUE

PURPOSE AND VIRTUE ARE NOT ENOUGH

WITHOUT INSPIRATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT

The devotee knelt to be initiated into discipleship, the Guru whispered the sacred Mantra into his ear warning him not to reveal it to anyone.

What will happen if I do?

Asked the devotee’

The Guru responded

Anyone you reveal the mantra to will be liberated from The Bondage of Ignorance and Suffering but you, you yourself will be excluded from discipleship and suffer damnation.

No sooner had he heard those words than the devotee rushed to the marketplace, collected a large crowd around him and repeated the sacred mantra for all to hear. The disciples later reported this to the Guru and demanded that the man be expelled from the monastery for his disobedience.

But the Guru smiled and said

He has no need of anything I can teach. His action has shown him to be a Guru in his own right.

The Light And The Void

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth………… And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness…

Many agree the only constant is change, but there is at least one other constant all can agree upon. Light, conceived in our psyche it’s experienced in the inception of ideas, eulogized in science and theology, and is personified as birth and rebirth. Not only is it a consistent commonality that all humanity agrees upon but all can experience its essence regardless of time, location, or ethnocentristic genesis. Thus, let us begin The Path with our first firm profound premise.

When the light enters

The darkness departs

No one can enter a lit room with a flashlight that shines or emits darkness and thereby block the light of day in the same manner that a flashlight divides the darkness of the night. There is either light or the absence of light, and the absence of all spectrums of light is called darkness; but real darkness is actually nothingness; true darkness is a Void. The Void is the personification of the absence of vibration, light, and all matter on which substance resonates.

The etiquette of The Light is to emit

&

The etiquette of The Void; vacuum

The ubiquitous precept comparing Light and Dark to Right and Wrong is a concept our egos compare and contrast for greater moral understanding. The emptiness of The Void’s vacuum forcefully removes free will; volition, by sucking in what it can; One becomes lost in the darkness of immoral behavior that draws one in. The Light behaves like benevolence in that it radiates and bathes one in its glory; The Light lights the way and is warm and inviting. With the many similarities between Light and Right and Dark and Wrong one can understand why humanity the world over makes these universal comparisons. However, we note that apart from the proverbialized comparisons the conflict we tend to assign to The Light and The Void is just that; a proverb for greater understanding of what we call benevolence versus malevolence.

No intrinsic benevolence or malevolence lies within The Light or The Void. The Light does not duel with the darkness it simply ‘is’ and where The Light ‘is’ the emptiness of The Void ‘is not’. So also, the darkness does not duel with the light, but it exists when and where the light does not. As we postulated in the beginning there isn’t a ‘darkness flashlight’ that will divide The Light, thus one will never witness The Void or The Light pressing against one another in a duel of fates for supremacy. Although this a storyline portrayed in literature and cinematography the world over it is just not so. These two concepts are in opposition but they are not in the conflict we so often assign to them. They are symbiotic, synergistic, and they hold and illuminate the universe.

To look at these ideas from a new perspective, we observe the idea of six ‘Eastern’ elements of earth, fire, wind, water, wood, and metal as it compares to the ‘Western’ idea of the Periodic Table of Elements. The elements; Eastern or Western, don’t compete. They complement one another with the eternal transformations of their root elements. Composed of gasses air transforms into water as hydrogen bonds with oxygen. Hydrogen and oxygen become a portion of wood when the tree absorbs the liquid. The wood is burnt by fire separating the carbon from the hydrogen and oxygen, and the elements re-separate into a gas to return to the atmosphere.

As it is with one element so too is it with all elements. The changing constant is solid, liquid, or gas but all of the root elements continually bond and break their bonds in an intelligent dance between that which they compose; earth, fire, wind, water, wood, and metal, and that which they are at their core; atoms; vibration. Matter takes on a different form with each transformation, yet it remains unchanged at its core element.

There is one distinctive difference between Light and Dark, and the elements which constantly recombine; The Light doesn’t transform its root element with The Void. The Void and its darkness is absent of matter in any form and therefore possesses nothing to mix with The Light or the transforming elements that fill its empty but expansive vessel. Therefore, looking at the play of imposing light and soft shadows of darkness that create alluring spectrums of brilliance on a wondrous work of art, we observe there is something profoundly different happening between The Light and The Dark verses the other root elements.

A grape needs the light and dark

As well as the wet and dry to grow

If it was always light or dark, always wet or dry

The grape would fall into disease

And would never see its fruition

So too is it with a person, or a society………

The Light of Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo was the thinker’s thinker and the polymath’s polymath. Humanity’s greatest advancements in mechanics, technology, and socio-ethnocentristic ideologies have been spawned from the re-discoveries of this man. Modern society can confidently proclaim that without this polymath; and the minds that built upon his work, the world as we know it would look more akin to the 14th Century in which he resided; earthbound, infantile, and devoid of social and technological enlightenment.

One only has to gaze upon the multitude of relics such as the Pyramids at Giza, the Antikythera Mechanism, the Baghdad Battery, or experience the genius of The Mayan Calendar to comprehend that humanity has undergone many Re-Births or Re-Enlightenments. Thus, when Leonardo’s Light is placed against these relics one can see that these inventions were The Light of their societies and that Leonardo’s Light was the rebirth of The Light of the Greco-Roman civilizations; such as Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and other Stoics. One may take the next step to see these individuals and others like them were key in the rebirth of the Greco-Roman civilizations as they recovered from the collapse of the Expansive Minoan Empire. But…

Why do societies continue to give birth to such intelligence and die back out?

Why do the proverbial ‘Intellectual Lights’ go on and off where as the elements merely transform?

True science will bolster true theology

&

True theology will bolster true science

Have you ever experienced a stupor of thought? A time when the answers to life’s challenges just wouldn’t come? Could this be the mind’s connection to The Void of darkness or is it more explicable as the mind’s disconnection from The Source of Enlightenment? Remember, true Darkness is a Void; only The Light has substance with which to connect our substance to; frequency to frequency, vibration to vibration, and Intelligence to intelligence.

Again, have you ever experienced a time when there was no need for queries, chin rubbing, or head scratching and brilliant ideas flowed like the thundering falls of Niagara? Could this be that one’s mind has connected with The Source of Enlightenment; The Source of Substance?

We can reason that when we experience a stupor of thought it is more likely a degree of disconnection from The Source of Enlightenment rather than a connection with the vacancy of The Void; or some form of darkness. And, it is more likely we have connected with The Source of Enlightenment when we experience enlightenment through the epiphany of a moment’s inspiration. Thus, as it is with an individual’s disposition of intellect so too is it with a society’s dissolution or rebirth of its intellect.

With these basic postulations and ego free observations could it be that individuals such as Leonardo understood how to connect with The Source of Enlightenment and because of such were able to harness this Enlightenment for others to build upon? Is not history littered with men and women like this in all lands? And when they go the way of the earth with its ever changing elements we are reminded that though their material forms have transformed The Light they attained from The Source that shines its illuminating rays on The Path does not. It is a Light we are obligated to keep lit. To keep it lit is to pass it on.

GU = Darkness

Ru = Light

Guru

An individual who leads from the darkness To The Light

An individual who passes on The Light

Rugu™

An individual who leads from The Light

To The darkness

An individual who does not pass on The Light

Just as we know The Light cannot come from The Void so too do we understand that their Light will not turn into The Void. Like a radio wave that constantly echoes out and away, sometimes The Light moves out of our ability to perceive it. Knowledge has a tendency to get lost in a myriad of manners but as you will see it is not the knowledge that separates from us it is we that separate from the knowledge.

Knowledge, understanding, wisdom, inspiration, and enlightenment are always precisely where the Masters attained it. It will continue shining for those who have eyes to see, speaking the truth for those who have ears to listen, and broadcasting for those who choose to connect with it. The enlightening illumination of The Light may turn off and on with our connection or disconnection causing ‘The Path’ to become obscured from time to time. However, like our rediscovery of the properties of the universe which have been existent for time immemorial, The Path is ever present even when you or society is lost without The Light of Knowledge.

The Path is ever present

Whether The Light reveals it or not

To relight one’s proverbial candle one need only feed them self on the subtle spark of inspiration, seek the virtuous illuminating connection with The Source, wait patiently for that flicker to spark it’s moment of brilliance, and fan the flames of a moment’s insight into an inferno of enlightenment. One may also share The Light of others as one candle shares its flame with another candle and remember that neither candle will be diminished for sharing The Light of Knowledge with another. Then, be the Guru that passes on the flame; it’s a circle; it’s a cycle.

Thus, we begin The Path being witness to the all encompassing analogy of The Light and The Void. We accept their opposition is absent of intrinsic conflict between them, we see how they differ from the matter that surrounds us, we understand that individuals and societies connect or disconnect, and we are wise to see how important it is to pass on The Light or remember from where we attained it.

We follow The Path by first thanking those Masters who have come before us with their commitment to connecting with The Source of Enlightenment… We thank them for following the etiquette of The Light by reemitting what they attained for the benefit of all… And we keep The Light of Knowledge burning bright by paying it forward and sharing The Light with others. This is The Way of The Path.

Now, read it again…

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth………… And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness…KJV

In the first act of creation; The Deity of The Bible, set the example for all to follow. To divide The Light from The Void, not by conflict between the two, but by creating that which simply Is; The Light. Moreover this Deity created by speaking it into existence; a profound idea we will build on.

Exercise…

Sit in a quiet room with dim light.

Visualize a small wooden box in your hands. It is smooth and well finished. It has a hint of hickory wood smell to it and when you open it its covered with red velvet. Inside, you see little slots, little cubby holes to put things into. Take the concerns of your day and put them one by one into the box. Visualize your family members and gently tuck them into one of the red velveteen slots. Visualize the concerns you have with work or school. Carefully place those concerns into another slot. Visualize the event, or that thing, that is presently causing you stress or discontent. Graciously put it into the box. Allow your present concerns over all worldly matters to dissipate as you choose to temporarily let them go and set them aside. Close the box and put it down. As you look back up you find yourself sitting on a beach at sunset. You can hear the lap of gentle waves. You can feel the cool grit of the sand as you look out over the waters at the beauty of an awe-inspiring sunset. You marvel how the light seamlessly melts one color into another with reds turning into pinks and afternoon yellows that flow into the evening’s oranges, blues, and purples that cast long shadows in the evening’s dimming light. The sun slowly goes over the horizon revealing the night’s splendor of millions of stars. Constellations of light that flicker and form patters in the cloak of night which covers you like a warm blanket and a soft pillow that relaxes your body as you breathe out a relaxing breath and allow yourself to continue to meditate until your body goes quiet and your mind feels at rest.

Visualize a dark room, there’s no light, and we observe that where there is no light the darkness naturally prevails. Ignite a single candle in the center of the room, mount it on a tall candle stick, and withdrawal to the outer wall. Stare into the heart of the flame and slowly walk toward the candle. Observe the closer you get to the candle there appears to be additional light. Now, look in the opposite direction of the light and walk toward the darkness. Notice there appears to be additional darkness. Neither point of view alters the candle itself. Therefore the amount of light or darkness that is actually in the room never changes even though your eyes tell your mind that the amount of light has increased or decreased. What changes is only our perceptions based on whether we face the light or the darkness.

Ask yourself…

How do I face the light or the darkness in my daily life?

How do I face the light or the darkness in my relationships?

How do I face the light or the darkness in my ?

Ask yourself…

How do my choices of looking negatively on these matters affect my perceptions of these matters?

How do my choices of looking positively on these matters affect my perceptions of these matters?

How does looking at a matter from all perspectives alter my understanding of what is really happening?

Ask yourself…

Does understanding a matter from all perspectives serve me?

Perspectives are like being lost, one may face any direction and perceive it as north, but no matter what one perceives as north, north will be what it is despite one’s perspective of it. Thus, the light or darkness one perceives in their life may not always be to the degree that what one thinks it to be. It may just be dark because one is looking at the situation’s dark aspects, or it may be light because one is only focusing on the situation’s lighter aspects. One begins all perspectives by letting go of their own conclusions, adopting a neutral ego free position, and viewing an item or situation from all directions so one may rightly judge what it truly is.

North of The Path

Knowledge is not so much The filling of a vessel

As the lighting of a fire

Understanding is not so much The assembly of parts

As the wonderment of discovery

Wisdom is not so much the union of

Fire and discovery

As the tranquility within the storm

Inspiration is not so much The elation of epiphany

But to see life with new eyes

Enlightenment is not so much The invigoration of the soul

But the realization of the unseen

How many times did you just absolutely know that you were precisely correct about something only to find out later that you had to go back to correct the error? Have we not all experienced concluding that we can’t come to an accurate conclusion after we thought we knew the right answer? Then there are those other times when you have no way to deduce the right answer, no education or logical proof to support your conclusions, and no other earthly way of knowing what the right answer is. Yet, without guessing, you know the right answer and time proves you right. This idea of connecting with that inner compass that will point us in the right direction so we may instinctively know the correct answer is The Way of The Path.

North is the cardinal direction from which all other directions are derived. When one is seeking ‘True North’ in their day to day lives one should remember that North is exactly where and what it is independent of our perspectives of ‘where we think it is’ or ‘where we think it should be’. Thus, we must find a means and a way to find True North independent of the opinions of it.

By yourself, and with no outside assistance, point in the direction where you think north is. Remembering the direction in which you pointed obtain a compass and see if north is in