From 2024 Spring/Summer Newsletter

    I was recently in a local restaurant having breakfast. There’s usually a group of senior gentlemen in there as well. I happened to overhear one man saying to another, “There’s one thing for certain in this life, no one gets out of it alive.” He also commented, “Hopefully you have a decent life; some people don’t.” Having a good vantage point from where I was sitting, I glanced over at the two men and saw clearly, they had no clue that a higher life exists. It is as if we are trapped in this life with nothing beyond it. It may have crossed their minds at some point in their earthly existence that there must be something else, but they didn’t follow through with the glimpse that truth had given them.
     Obviously, what the one gentleman said was true on the physical level, but on the spiritual level something else does exist. One of Vernon Howard’s favorite things to periodically remind us of was, “There Is a Way Out.” It is the title of one of the books he wrote. If human beings, if you personally realized this as an actual fact, you would know that something beyond this physical life exists. It is ludicrous to believe that God would have put us here on this earth with no way out or without any ability to realize that there is something beyond this life that can help and guide us.
     The problem with most people is they have become so hardened in their beliefs and conditioning by this world, they wouldn’t be able to recognize the truth if it was standing right in front of them. They fear you’re trying to take something away from them instead of giving them a ticket to eternal life. At the beginning of the book, Solved — The Mystery of Life there is a chapter entitled “The Eternal Creative Principle.” It’s from a talk Vernon Howard gave in which he explains everything. This talk, this writing, is a gift from heaven. If you and I could understand fully what is contained in those 5 pages our lives would completely change and be different forever and we would have a life that lasts forever.
     This is the most exciting discovery any human being can ever make. Vernon puts it this way, “That is what eternal life is all about, the knowing that when this physical body disappears, there’s life beyond that. Of course there is. There’s something that created this physical life and then allowed it to go away.”
     I could not say anything to the men in the restaurant. I know a little about the one man who made the comment about life on this earth. He’s a physically large man whose body is aging and he’s experiencing some physical difficulties. He is still very active for someone in his 70s. He’s been very successful on the earthly level, has a lot of money, has a family and is still married. He has a very quick mind, but he’s sarcastic, which is a sign of bitterness. In spite of all his success he is not happy. It’s written all over his face. In order to push his sadness away he keeps himself busy, so he doesn’t have to face his own emptiness. He could have something different just as all of us can. It’s very difficult to admit we currently don’t have the answer despite all our worldly achievements and successes.
     We can have a different fate if we so choose. I highly recommend everyone who reads this article get this book and especially read Chapter 1 in Solved — The Mystery of Life.
     No matter what your age may be, truth can breathe life into you. It can energize and inspire you. It can bring a freshness and vitality to you, even to those in advancing years. Our greatest obstacle is our unconscious love of negative states, negative thoughts and negative feelings. Vernon puts it this way, “Unhealthy attitudes lurk behind all personal tragedies.” This goes much deeper than we realize or presently understand.
     It's like a submarine lurking beneath the surface of the water waiting to launch a torpedo to sink us into despair or some other wrong reaction or dark state. The nature of the ego or false self is that of a saboteur. That’s its whole purpose. We’re so close to it and so used to being negative, we don’t see it. We’ve been so numbed to feeling bad that we have for all intents and purposes just given up. It’s a comatose ‘whatever’ attitude.
     I watched an interview of a man on TV who had written a book, the gist of which was to tear down anyone who had realized that something beyond or higher than thought exists. He believed that the development of the mind, the intellect was/is the pinnacle that a human being can reach. Any conclusion that a human being comes to can only be arrived at using the mind. Otherwise it is to be discounted or referred to as poppycock. While being interviewed you could see and feel the hostility oozing from him. He was evil because he discounted anything existing beyond this life, anything above the intellectual level.
     Vernon Howard states it this way: “The less you strain your mind, the more it contacts the Higher Power that works through you and for you.” The intellect can never find God, Truth or a Higher Power. It can acquire cosmic facts and information to help awaken essence. The mind is simply a tool God gave us to explore and investigate authentic facts and knowledge that can help awaken the true self within.
     In The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power Vernon Howard states it this way, “Here is where man makes his mistake when seeking contact with Higher Power: He seeks it through his limited mental faculties. It cannot be done. The conditioned human mind can think about, memorize, speculate, even believe, but it cannot penetrate spiritual skies. Something far greater than mere thought is needed in order to know.”
     How fantastic! Once we begin to realize or get an actual taste of the existence of a Higher Power, things start to change for us. It gives life new meaning. It gives it real purpose. You have something truly valuable and consequential to do with yourself. You have been given a clue as to what has been wrecking your life up until now. You are onto something of great significance.
     We can now roll up our sleeves and go to work. Ask yourself who or what feels bad? Why do I get disturbed or bothered so easily? Who has the problem? If I’m honest, I’m the one with the difficulty. My wrong thinking or my reaction is what is causing the trouble.
     By cleansing ourselves or purging ourselves of all things negative we make room for something else that will reveal itself to us. You can’t organize and put new things in your closet until you get rid of the junk, outdated, tattered and/or no longer useful things that are presently cluttering it up.
     The truth guarantees that something higher exists above all the nonsense, deception, ridiculousness and difficulties. All I have to do is to see through the hoax and see things as they actually are. God will take care of everything if we’ll let him. Simply love the truth we are hearing.
     Vernon Howard once put it this way, “Every day is a day of renewing and refreshing ourselves and our task must be a very vigilant one. Wide awake at every minute so that the lesson does not miss us; that’s the problem, it slips by us.” The only problem we really have is our negative reaction which results from our own lack of insight into human nature. If we truly want help we will get help.