NATURAL LIVING is the LIFESTYLE OF THE SPIRIT

Natural living connects the spirit to the reality of nature.
The seeker of truth is a spirit living in a human body.
The body is a tool of the spirit to express God.

PETE'S JOURNAL, AUGUST 2001

8-1-01
Continuing raw food diet. Feel better today.

Outer reality is where you work on those things that you do to maintain yourself in your daily life, things you do to purify your body, things you do to help and serve others, and perform, "random acts of kindness" when ever you can.

Inner reality is where you work on mental things which you do alone within yourself. Inner work involves mental purity, prayer, affirmations, meditation, visualization, thinking and study; this is where you really live.

Inner work can best be accomplished by finding a place where you can turn off the outer senses. A quiet place in peaceful surroundings where there is no noise or odors or other distractions. In such a place you can sit and close your eyes, withdrawn from the world of the outer senses, and explore your inner realm.

I usually start by taking a few deep breaths, then say The Lords Prayer, then ask that beings in all directions be Blessed. After this, I may just wait and watch the inner landscape; and/or calm the inner dialogue and emotions. In the latter case, I deal with what I am presented in thought or feeling. I forgive and ask forgiveness, send love and blessings, I pray for those that I know that need help and ask God and my Guardian Angels to assist them.

I sometimes say affirmations or meditate. Visualizations like visions are inner pictures. Most people visualize while daydreaming or reading. Inner visions are loaded with information and should be watched very closely. While working in the inner reality one must guard against worrying, speculating about the future, daydreaming, and going to sleep.

8-5-01
What are the characteristics of a natural man. One way of thinking about this is to picture what primitive man was like, and did, before he became self-conscious and had fire. Primitive men and women must have spent a lot of time in the open, most of their skin exposed to the elements: the wind (air), rain and sunshine.

They must have worked hard every day exercising all their muscles just to survive. They probably walked barefoot several miles every day. They probably ate standing up browsing as they walked, and squatted down to defecate. They only drank water and the only sweet they had besides fruit and berries was honey.

If they bathed at all it was probably in the flowing water of a river or stream during the heat of the day. They probably lived in communal groups and shared everything. They probably ate, in season, raw fresh fruits, nuts, berries, seeds, tubers, forerunners of modern vegetables, insects and grubs.

All but the last two items are on the menu of the modern day vegetarian. It's possible that they ate other things as well. Eventually, the conscious use of fire was mankind's original sin against nature.

It is my firm belief that God provided in nature everything that mankind (both primitive and modern) needs to be happy and healthy.

The only requirement to live naturally is a quiet place with a lot of fresh air and sunshine, exercise daily and walk barefoot directly on the ground, bath in the living waters of rivers and streams, eat sparingly of fresh raw fruits and vegetables in season, drink only water or fresh squeezed fruit juice, and use raw honey as the only sweetener. Living communally and sharing everything with others would be a benefit to many people.

The natural position for defecation is squatting down with the thighs against the chest. Squatting places the the proper tension on muscles, large intestine and colon for elimination. This is the position used in Japan and most other Asiatic countries today. When a person is eating the proper raw food diet their stool will have a slight rough grainy texture and be light yellow-brown in color. The stool will not have an unpleasant odor, and will float on water.

8-7-01
For the seeker
Living a natural life
Walking the path
Of mental and
Physical purity
With unconditional Love
For all living things
"All spiritual lights
Will light themselves."

8-8-01
Things in our environment that add to mental clutter: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, novels, movies, stage plays, modern music, sports events, many internet sites, crowds, casual visitors, small talk with strangers, chatty conversation, gossip, current events, politics, desire, guilt, worry and emotional disturbances of any kind.

It is better to replace these things than try to suppress them. I have been working to release all of these things and have been able to let go of about 90% of them. I still watch the news on TV and read an occasional newspaper or magazine that comes my way.

8-9-01
The following are ways a person can save money: Drive a small car, like a Geo Metro, which gets 40 to 50 miles to the gallon. Have the cars oil and filter changed at Wal-mart or change it yourself. Walk or ride a bike depending on your circumstances. Buy and wear good used clothing.

For winter heating use the local indigenous fuel: wood, coal, and in some areas of the country, natural gas. Use solar energy when possible. Wash dishes by hand, and dry clothes on a line. Grow your own food in the summer, and root cellar the surplus: plant a winter garden. Buy produce for winter storage; potatos, sweet potatos, onions, carrots cabbage, squash, and apples from local farmers or fruit stands in the fall and pay about a quarter of what the regular stores will charge later on in the winter.

Learn how to repair (within reason) everything you use: auto, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, electronics, appliances. Buy tools, hardware, kitchen ware, furniture, household and other goods at yard sales or second hand stores. Communicate by regular mail or e-mail, keep phone calls short. For entertainment, go on long walks in the woods, read, do computer research, watch a home video, garden, play with pets, maybe eat out once a week.

Make everything you can yourself, this adds pleasure to your life; both in the making and using. When building, look for and buy used materials, and think wabi-sabi. In all your dealings with strangers be low key and reserved, remember who you are and your path. Always be fair but don't be afraid to say," no."

8-10-01
When a person is outside they should spend as much time with their skin exposed to the air and sunshine as possible. Decency dictates, that when people are around, men should wear shorts, and women shorts and a bra. However, as often as convenient, a person should seek a sanctuary and expose their whole body to the elements.

This private sunbathing place can be anywhere, a back porch, sheltered back yard, a mountain meadow, a private beach; but should be located in a secluded place so as not to offend other people (Not particularly for the others sake, but for your own "low profile.")

Exercise daily and walk a few miles. Work continually in your outer reality to purify your body by upgrading your diet to eating only raw fruits and vegetables and fast to remove the toxic wastes from your body. In the inner reality work to remove the mental clutter and break old habits of your cultural conditioning.

8-14-01
The seeker voluntarily excepts
The role of a supporting actor
Rather than that of a star.

8-20-01
I was doing some reading last night and came across this interesting quote.

"When your body dies, YOU do not die. The ultimate reality of what you are does not lie in your body, but in the spirit that continues to exist after you die. Most of you reading these words already believe that to be true."

"The real YOU, which is created in the image of GOD, is SPIRIT. It is that SPIRIT which is part of GOD, and which shares with HIM, HIS creative power. SPIRIT, which IS the reality of what you are, is alive and well right now, even though you seem to currently exist as your body. "

"Because SPIRIT is alive and well RIGHT NOW, and because it IS your source of creative power, your SPIRIT is active in this world, NOW. As such, it is your SPIRIT that determines what you experience, and what seems to happen to you."

"The physical world is controlled by the creative power of SPIRIT, and not the other way around. That awareness suddenly turns the world upside down, as you come to realize that everything in your life has its source in the creative power of your spirit. That awareness shall become for you a source of great peace and great joy."

"Your real nature is SPIRIT. And as SPIRIT you are free. SPIRIT lives without limitation. It is not limited by space or time. You could only say that SPIRIT exists everywhere, forever and ever, without beginning and without end. It is in this sense that we are created in the image of GOD, who likewise is SPIRIT. Soon, you begin to realize the implications of being SPIRIT, and of being totally free."

"In a word, the world, is a world of freedom. If you understood freedom in its entirety, freedom as it truly is, no further words would be necessary. You are free. That is all."

Today
Like every other day
I awake to face
Death
Eye to eye.

Today
Like every other day
I awake and know
That death
Is an illusion
For my Soul
Is immortal.
And free.

8-21-01
From the Song of God, The Bhagavad-Gita.

"Yudhisthira turned, and saw Dharma, the personification of duty and virtue, standing beside him in the form of a crane."

"The crane asked:"

"What is the road to heaven?"
"Truthfulness."

"How does a man find happiness?"
"Through right conduct."

"What must he subdue, in order to escape grief?"
"His mind."

"How does one reach true religion?"
"Not by argument.
Not by scriptures and doctrines; they cannot help.
The path to religion is trodden by the saints."

And the last question the crane asked:
"Of all the
World's wonders,
Which is the
Most wonderful?"

"Yudhisthira answered:"

"That a man,
Though he sees
Others dying
All around him,
Believes that
He himself
Will never die."

Aldous Huxley in his introduction to the Bhagavad-Gita translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood explains that a Perennial Philosophy threads its way through many of the worlds major religions.

"At the core of the Perennial Philosophy we find four fundamental doctrines."

"First: the phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness... the world of things and animals and men and even gods... is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be nonexistent."

"Second: human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the Knower with that which is known."

"Third: man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit."

"Forth: man's life on earth has only one end and purpose: To identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground."

The Goal In Life Is To Unite The Conscious Mind With The Soul.

8-24-01
When reading translations of ancient scrolls a person must view the information in context with the time it was written. For instance, consider an Essene scroll that was written 2000 years ago that says, " Bath from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet every day."

If that admonition were written today, we would expect a person to go in the bathroom and take a shower, or run a nice tub of hot water and get in and bath, every day. Only in the homes of the very rich would a room be set aside for bathing in ancient times.

In most cases water was probably drawn from a well and only used for a quick wash-up. For a complete bath, the most likely possibility would be a nearby lake, river or stream. During cold weather water may have been drawn from the communal well, heated, and poured over the bathers head by a second person.

The ancient Essenes submersed themselves completely in a pool of running water set aside for that purpose every morning at sunrise in summer and winter. Taking a bath today, compared to bathing in ancient times, are two very different exercises.

So, when you are reading translations of ancient text, you must consider closely how people lived at that time, to gain any true understanding of the scripture.

8-26-01
It's funny (strange) how little bits of information come together like pieces in a puzzle. Years ago I read a book about Edgar Cayce in which he indicated that, "all cells in the human body have the potential of being self conscious."

A few weeks ago I received a newsletter from the Medical Doctor that is helping me with my mercury poisoning. He practices alternative medicine and often prescribes herbs and food supplements in his treatment. He wrote the following in his newsletter:

"One of the most exciting new areas of immune research and immune enhancement or balancing comes from the relative new area of study known as glycoscience. Without getting to technical, it is a new area of study of how certain essential [simple] sugars are needed and used by our cells to create a very intricate and necessary cellular "sign language" on the surface of the cell membrane, and used to communicate to other cells."

"This is vital for our immune system to function properly. What is being learned in this new area of study is that one very important factor causing the immune system to fail is poor or defective cellular communication."

The following excerpt is from an Essene Gospel of Peace, Book I in which Jesus outlines what a person should eat in certain seasons. All of the food items listed are alkaline forming and almost all contain a simple sugar.

" From the coming of the month of Jiar, eat barley; [maltose] from the month of Sivan, eat wheat, the most perfect among all of the seed-bearing herbs. And let your daily bread be made of wheat, that the Lord may take care of your bodies. From Tammuz, eat the sour grape, that your body may diminish, and that Satan may depart from it. In the month of Elul, gather the grape [levulose & fructose] that the juice may serve you as drink. In the month of Marcheshvan, gather the sweet grape, [dextrose, levulose, fructose] sweetened and dried by the angel of sunshine, that it may increase your bodies, for the angels of the Lord dwell in them."

"You should eat figs [dextrose, levulose, fructose] rich in juice in the months of Ab and Shebat, and what remain, let the angel of sunshine keep them for you. Eat them with the meat of almonds in all the months when the trees bear no fruit.[This is a natural worm medicine.]And the herbs which come after rain,[cellulose, galactose] these eat in the month of Thebet, that your blood may be cleansed of all your sins. And in the same month begin to eat also the milk [lactose] of your beasts, because for this did the Lord give the herbs of the fields to all the beasts which render milk, that they might with their milk feed man. So eat always from the table of God: the fruits of the trees, the grain and grasses of the field, the milk of beasts, and the honey of bees[sucrose].

All of these things lead me to believe that the original statement, "all cells in the human body have the potential of being self conscious," may be true.
It seems that in the Essene/raw food diet, Jesus is indicating what the body really wants is simple sugar.

"Yesterday it was said, thou shalt eat flesh and oil; because they supply certain things for the blood, without which man can not live; today it is proven otherwise." From: Oahspe Bible

Modern day scientist have determined, without a doubt, that the body can synthesize oil from simple sugar. I wonder about protein?

8-29-01
A couple of nights ago an old friend of ours came to visit and we got to talking about love. Is it an emotion? Does a person really feel love---like you feel anger. Or is it a knowing---like trust. We agreed that trust was a prerequisite of love and an attitude of willingness to love was required. But we really didn't reach a firm conclusion on a definition of love.

Juanita and I have been, "In love" for eighteen years. We continued talking about love after our friend went to bed. We decided that our love for each other was an intense caring for each other, a concern for the others welfare, based on long experience of trust, putting the other person first (always giving them the larger piece of pie:-) and working hard to insure their happiness.

Juanita makes me happy when I am with her and I am confident and at peace about our relationship when we are apart. And when we are together we are comfortable with each other. She says it is the same for her. No matter how difficult a day is I know that in the evening I will be with Juanita again and all will be well between us and with the world. She is my anchor in a reality of love and peace in this world. We share in the love of Almighty God and in the search for spiritual truth.

The next day I looked up that beautiful passage in the bible about love. (1 Corinthians, 13) "Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not envious, works no evil, knows not pride; is never rude, nor selfish. Love is slow to anger, imagines no mischief, rejoices not in iniquity, but delights in truth. Love bears all things, love defends all, love believes all, love hopes and endures, love never fails."

"For in truth abide these three: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love."

As for a definitive, one line or short paragraph definition for love, we found ourselves at a loss, but as Mister Antavaris said, "Love is love."

Although I cannot define love very well, I know in my heart that learning to love is the single most important lesson that we are to learn in our experience on earth. All is spirit... and that spirit is Love.

The nice thing about writing a journal like this, rather than a book, is that you can go back and update any section whenever you like. (11-2-04) I have been reading and excellent book written by Euell S. Andersen called The Secret of Secrets. Chapter 7 is titled, Loving and Being Loved, in which Mr. Andersen defines and and explains the different aspects of love, both earthly and Divine.
This book is one of the best I have ever read about the path of seeking union with God.

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