This is the first book of the Little Book Open Series. It explores the need to change our direction. What is real in our lives and what is false? Where is our civilization headed? Towards a new dark age of ignorance and superstition? Or towards a new Renaissance of truth, mercy and equality? And what is required to change our course?
Excerpt:
The Search
I am on a quest, a search for a new beginning. For I have grown distrustful of the old beginning and what we have made of it. When the Renaissance was young there was a hopeful expectation of the value of the human soul. The arts and the sciences flourished. Education was the chief aim of the people. In it we started to realize that magnificent splendor which existed within. We actually admitted that we were beautiful and we were allowed to express our thoughts, to have our dream's dance among the heavens. By our honesty in searching for truth we established ourselves as a people.
But we threw away this treasure in our search for wealth, for power, for a chance to dominate and destroy. We had a glimpse of our true nature and of our own importance, but we blocked our view of it. Blinded by that light, we hid ourselves, denying everything that we saw. “Life is not important" we would lie. Then we followed with "Everything is cause and effect in a random occurrence," "I can say and do anything I want as long as it's for my benefit," and "The only thing that's important is the flow of money; who gets it, who keeps it, and who's denied it."
We join groups of corroborators and develop power pools of special interests, each with their own secret language and hidden agenda. We've returned to the medieval practice of re-dividing the world back into kingdoms and class structures; all in an attempt to hide from that awful and hideous truth that God loves us.
I have written this book because I am weary of the half-truths and compromises that have surrounded this day of age. I have no interest and want no part in the various dogmas and sales pitches that are currently being thrust upon us. I am searching for a reason for being here, an importance that does not come in a pill or a plaque. I am searching for a new beginning for beginnings are free and are open for discovery. But most of all, I am searching for reality, for the full truth with no compromises. With no hiding and no pretending I want to know what is and what is not, to face it fully. For I am convinced that this is the start of a new age and a new way of thinking. Let the old age die and let there be no mourners.
For all of my life I wanted to know the nature of things, to see them as they really were. And through the course of my studies I had taken philosophy courses, physic courses, and had done much research into understanding what things were and why they reacted the way they did. And the more I learned about the complexities of these various subjects, the more I also realized that there's a simplicity that's holding it all together. And I started to search for this simplicity with great intensity.
It may sound strange, but the simpler ideas are the harder ones to generate and the hardest ones to accept. And it isn't because we enjoy the more complicated theories, but that we are reluctant to give up facts that we believe to be true. For example, it was only 530 years ago when most (not all) people accepted the fact that the Earth was flat. This was only 27 generations ago. And it was accepted as fact even though it generally didn't make any sense. For example, if we were on an earth that's like a table, what was the table on? Since there were oceans, why didn't all of the water run off? And how did the stars stay in the sky?
But if the people of 27 generations ago had looked closer at the surrounding details, the curvature of the moon as the shadow of the lunar night moved over its face, the movements of the weather, water as it's drained from a round container, they would have had some insight to the spinning of the Earth. But it wasn't obvious, and they didn't want to give up something that was. They did not want to surrender the concepts of up and down. It was tied to their very belief in God; up was towards heaven and down was towards hell. And without knowing it they restricted themselves.
They lived in the world that they had created: flat, limited, and small. They didn't sail on the oceans because they feared they would fall off the edge. It wasn't until they sailed past their horizons that they found the true size of the world and a whole future unfolded that they never dreamt of.
I am asking the same thing of you. This is an exploratory trip, over the edge perhaps, but honestly trying to look at what is and why.
Where have we limited ourselves? What have we lost over the centuries? As we review the course of history we find that most of the limitations were self-imposed. People were trapped either by customs, attitudes, or uncaring and unfeeling hearts. Unable and unwilling to change their circumstances to the good, they embraced that which was killing them and taught their children to do the same.
Traditions grew up, dictating social behaviors in increasingly regimental order. Superstitions and dogmas replaced individual thoughts. They lived lives of increasing restraint, indeed their lives were filled with increasing compromise for the facts did not support their superstitions and dogmas, and they had to suppress truth rather than admit that they lived a lie.
We have the dogmas of the courts, of the banks, of the news and entertainment communities. We have the superstitions of Wall Street, of politics, of the elite. We have complicated our lives to the point where it’s impossible to make a living or to secure a heritage. We have robbed the next generation of their futures by regulating their viewpoints out of existence. Drowned in a sea of details, we have lost our own worth. What we need is another reawakening, a Renaissance II, a change resulting from a discovery of our own importance, of who we are and what we are. This is a discovery of greater treasure and opportunity than anything that was uncovered by the first Renaissance. A future worth having.
What are we substituting for reality? Are we substituting material processions for character? Are we substituting a business career for love? Are we substituting politics for integrity? And what do we gain when we substitute such? What do we have when we face death?
Have you faced death? Have you considered it to the depths of your heart? No one does until it's your time. And then, sadly, it's too late. Those things, which were the most important, become not important at all and those things that we took for granted becomes the most precious of all.
Before it's too late, how can we find life again? How can we find that part of our lives, which is the most precious? Take the following case, a commander of the Syrian Army. Here was an honorable man, a man of valor, who discovered that he was dying of a horrible skin disease. All his wealth, all his authority and respect was brought to naught. And in his panic he went searching for a man that, he was told, was a prophet of God. The commander brought great wealth with him and he planned to barter for his health. He didn't expect to get something for nothing. He did expect a ceremony, like the one where two military leaders meet in the battlefield, and the greater one sues the lesser one for peace. And while there's some loss, at least there's life. The wealth and the fame were not as important as right here, right now.
Instead, there was nothing. The prophet didn't want his money, he didn't want to sue for peace, and he didn't even come out to see him. Instead a strange thing happened. The prophet's servant instructed the man that he should take a bath seven times in the river at the base of a nearby lake. Here he had a bad skin disease and this servant told him to take a bath! No pomp, no ceremony, no declarations, no peace treaties, there was nothing the commander had that the prophet wanted; his life was insignificant.
In his rage he left to go home and that would have been the end of the story except that the commander's servant persuaded him by saying, "Wouldn't you have done a great task if it meant your healing? Why not do a simple task?" Well, he did it and was healed. In fact, he just dipped himself; he didn't even scrub. But he did according to the saying of the man from God, for you see, life is not a barter, it's a gift. That was more than 2800 years ago when Naaman went to see Elisha, but the miracle is still in force. A miracle acted upon and not rejected by disbelief is available for our use today. - II Kings Chapter 5 Christian Bible
This book contains the seven baths and I am asking you to dip consecutively into each one. You would not have gotten this book if you were not searching. And although you may not have Naaman's disease, the lack of worth, the lack of purpose will kill you just as certain as Naaman's disease if it's not cured. As you read the following chapters you have to get actual understanding, not just the "knowing" of things. You have to get completely in the water, or there's no benefit.
This is a book of seven insights, an entirely new view of the world. Each insight describes a different aspect of ourselves, who we are and what we are. Through these insights we start to see our value, our reasons for existing. This is a new understanding, a complete reassessment of what is important and what is not.
This is a book of seven gifts for we have not been abandoned here in this world and left defenseless. Every species has its gifts that make it unique and provides its strengths. We have our gifts too that are different than any others. We can accomplish our dreams, we can succeed in life. We are important. We do have a purpose.
This is a book of seven healings so we can be made whole. Some of us know the healing that we need, other of us only know that we hurt. We cannot identify our problems; we only know that something is wrong, something is missing. More than anything else we need healing.