Excerpt From A Guide To Awareness and Tranquillity

By William Samuel

At the Beginning Is Awareness

It is foolish beyond measure to stand buffeted and blown by the world's vicissitudes when an undisturbable, unshakable Tranquility is as close as breathing.

There is a means by which one comes to make a practical, concrete discovery of this Tranquility for himself. He can lay hold on this Truth and take it unto himself-without struggle and without traveling the long road of intellectuality.

The following pages are all about this immediately available Tranquility. There is no educational, theological or metaphysical route to its doorstep. If there were, we would be the first to agree with the organizational dictum that states there are no short cuts to Truth. Indeed, there are no short cuts to the intellect's wisdom! It struggles for every miserable morsel it gets-and with all of its getting, ends with a straw dog. Certainly there is no short cut to the Tranquility about which we write. It is already here and now, the only fact of existence. Consequently, there is no path to it. As the prince was told concerning the kingdom of his heritage, "There is no way there, but to be there!"

The old idea that we journey from ignorance to enlightenment is the cornerstone which the builders have accepted and use to create their silly systems and imperious institutions. Peace and Perfection, already at hand, is the stone they have rejected.

*******************

QUESTION: Mr. Samuel, if it is true as you and so many others have said, that Perfection is the only fact of being, why is it that all of you turn right around and write books obviously intended to correct personal pictures of imperfection and ignorance? If Perfection is all, is it not a bit hypocritical to write something there could be no actual need for?

ANSWER: I asked this question of others many times, but now I know the answer. Listen softly and you will see, to write such a book as this is not a concession to the appearance of inharmony. I write simply because, at the moment, it seems to be a happy thing to do-like breathing. I have no motive. I have no intentions of trying to heal and make over a perfect universe. While I am here, it seems good to write of the Identity I have found. As appearances go, the words seem to help others discover their Identity.

However, whether I write or not, it is not up to me-but to the Isness being Me. I have no responsibility for the appearing process. I am in tow, so to speak, simply blooming and seeding in the summer sun. It makes no difference to the blossom whether or not it scatters its seed before Fall's frost or the wail of Winter's wind. Perfection is already perfect and Peace is already here. Whether I write a single page or not, green leaves will burst forth in the Spring and busy ants will trail along garden walls and over walkway stones, very much as usual. Clouds will still billow on hot summer afternoons and showers will refresh the air. It makes no difference, large or small, if more vain sounds have been written into print. The words I fail to find will be found by another, and when they are sounded they will say nothing that has not been said before. Words, sounded or not, written or not, the universe goes on being the universe; the earth still spins; the swallows still soar and sing, and the simple sparrows go on twittering. Any tome I might write-or read-would have no more authority in itself than yon sparrow's twit.

Does this sound as if I have a motive in mind? When the tree gives its leaves to the earth each Fall, does it have a purpose? Is it wrestling with itself or trying to correct its own picture of impoverished soil? No-the tree is just being a tree-and I am busy just being me.

*******************

TRANQUILLITY EXISTS BEYOND APPEARANCES

I do not go out into the world with the intention of changing it. I am not attempting to take the facts of life to people with argument or contention involved. Where the Truth is (and there is no place where it is not), all is true and perfect already, consequently, Truth has no mission. It is motiveless. Perfection has no need of healing. There is nothing you or I can do to make it more perfect. It has been said, "The world is a perfect vessel and cannot be improved. Whoever tries to alter it, spoils it; whoever tries to direct it, misleads it."

Yet, Truth can and does change the appearances of everything for each of us individually. To the human way of looking at things, the Truth about which we are writing appears to be the most momentous power in the Universe. To those who have found the Heart, the secret place within, this same power is understood to be the very presence of God-an ever-powerful peace and tranquility beyond belief.

Truth is the power one is-not the power one uses.

*******************

TRANQUILLITY AND WORLD PEACE DEPEND ON THE DISCOVERY OF REALITY

QUESTION:When, where and how do we start to discover Reality? How do we begin our search for Truth, Wisdom, the Absolute?

ANSWER: This now-awareness is the starting place. We begin with this here-and-now consciousness of existence called Life, Awareness, Consciousness.

The consciousness reading this page is an undeniable and inescapable now-fact. We call it "Awareness" and Awareness is present for the simple, self-evident reason that we are conscious-even as we are conscious of these words.

Let us define Awareness and have our meaning carefully understood. This is not a mystical term and there is nothing difficult to understand about it. As we refer to it here, Awareness is the simple consciousness of being. We are speaking of the conscious awareness that smells flowers, hears sounds, sees trees, bees and dogs scratching fleas-the selfsame Awareness (awareness) reading the words on this page.

This is the Awareness, Life, Consciousness of Being that is the starting place. Here is where we begin. Where else can we? And when else but now?

*******************

 

William Samuel & Friends
Literary Executor Sandy Jones
email us at sandy@williamsamuel.com