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    Simple Gold: Musings of Mind and Spirit
    Simple Gold: Musings of Mind and Spirit
    Simple Gold: Musings of Mind and Spirit
    Ebook120 pages36 minutes

    Simple Gold: Musings of Mind and Spirit

    By J. Michaels

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    About this ebook

    Gold has always symbolized material riches. It is a simple element that somehow exceeds its intrinsic value. Its pursuit has become, for many, the primary goal of life. What is it that attracts us so about money and the material things it can buy? Is our fear assuaged by the perceived safety from a rainy day or do we believe that enough things will somehow fill the emptiness inside? I would hazard to guess that no amount of money has ever made anyone happy, ever. True happiness comes from finding our center, that place deep within each of us that cries out to be filled, a place that has been empty and found wanting since the beginning of time. No? Then ask yourself why a world founded on materiality is so screwed up and why the coveting of wealth so often lays waste to lives, compassion, and families in the pursuit of such things?
    The happiest people I know are those who treasure love, peace, and freedom over the chains imposed by the ownership of material things. These truly fortunate few are filled and made happy by the knowledge of a divine presence within, a presence that offers riches that satisfy the soul. They know that everything here is nothing in eternity. They, my friends, are the truly happy ones.
    So let us abandon our search for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the quest for the fountain of youth, or enlightenment in a capsule. Let us put aside these shallow offerings and pursue instead the divine life: the life that makes pale and lifeless the pursuit of simple gold. Join me here as we un-wrap celestial gifts, not of gold coins, but of joy and freedom.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherResource Publications
    Release dateJan 15, 2010
    ISBN9781621897217
    Simple Gold: Musings of Mind and Spirit
    Author

    J. Michaels

    J. Michaels is a longtime student of the human adventure. His writing challenges popular beliefs and expresses both the profane and the profound in a unique storytelling style, as evidenced in the Musings of Mind and Spirit poetry series. His novella, Treasure of the Mind, is a unique blend of prose and poetry based on the murder of his son. Reach him at j@overnightpoet.com or see his work at www.overnightpoet.com.

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      Book preview

      Simple Gold - J. Michaels

      Simple Gold

      Musings of Mind and Spirit

      J. Michaels

      2008.Resource_logo.pdf

      Simple gold

      Musings of Mind and Spirit

      Copyright © 2010 J. Michaels. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Resource Publications

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      ISBN 13: 978-1-60899-355-0

      EISBN 13: 978-1-62189-721-7

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      Dedicated to those who, despite the obvious,

      insist on the divine reality

      Preface

      Life is very simple. It originates from one Source from which it never leaves. It is fortified by an undeniable presence and an eternal property. It is freely given, sustained, and appreciated from its ever-beginning to its never-end. It is whole, free, peaceful, eternal, and joyous. It is also invisible; blinded to sight by the eyes, deafened from hearing by the ears, and obfuscated to the mind by perception. It is the greatest of gifts and tragedies. The nature of the gift is obvious, unless you happen to be a normal human being. The tragedy is that we don’t know that it rests, extended, just beyond out grasp.

      A few millennia ago, a rather significant event occurred. Call it The Fall, The Big Bang, or The Great Separation, or call it simply, the beginning of time. It was followed by another major event. Let’s call that one The Great Forget. As our souls departed the eternal life in favor of an individuated and finite existence, it soon became obvious that we had screwed up royally! That realization was so overwhelming, so devastating, that we did what we do best in the material world, we forgot. When anything gets to be too much for us, we deny it. Either that or we project the guilt, fear, or rage associated with the event onto someone else; a brother turned convenient scapegoat. Having now adopted our universal coping strategy, one that seems to work both on the micro and macro levels, we were positioned to accept the grandest delusion ever perpetrated; that of denying our own Source, the One we left in regret and guilt so profound that we were unable to bear the acceptance of its apparent loss.

      And so here we are, in a world we made as alternative; a tawdry substitute and separated from the Source of all there is. And the truly sad part is that we have been doing it for so long that we now faithfully, despite all of its rather formidable drawbacks, defend it to our dying breath. At the risk of appearing disparaging, let’s take a look at what we have traded for the divine life described above. But where do we start? Do we start with the wars that have plagued us since civilization began? Or do

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