Random Acts of Kindness

I have just been reading an inspiring article in The Times newspaper with this title 'Random Acts of Kindness'. Out of a very depressing and worrying time, so many heart warming stories are emerging which truly do bring hope for the future. I was talking with a friend the other day about the second world war and how difficult it must have been living through the blitz, for example. My friend commented that people seemed, looking back on that time, to have coped rather better than some people are managing with yet another lockdown, especially in these gloomy winter days. My thought was that in the war people were not isolated from one another - they were indeed all in it together, in the same streets, clearing up together after bombing, and in the same queues for rationed goods, chatting together, with no social distancing. I think it is the isolation from our usual friendly social meetings; not being actually together physically, rather than talking by Zoom or Whats App, which is proving the challenge.

But the great thing is that people are finding ways around the isolation without
breaking the law! The 'Random Acts of Kindness' article tells the story of a young mother finding a bouquet of flowers on a park bench, with the note 'Hello stranger! If you find these flowers they were meant for you. Please take them home and enjoy them, you deserve it.' Of course this really made her day, and the article goes on to describe more about the local 'Kindness Project' which was behind this gesture and how it is growing and spreading to other towns - all the initiative of one individual wanting to cheer up her sister who had been working long hours as a hospital surgeon.

This article has made me start to think even more about the quality of kindness, called in Buddhist philosophy 'metta' and described as 'a strong wish for the welfare and happiness of others...an altruistic attitude of love and friendliness, as distinguished from mere amiability based on self-interest!' This quality of metta is inherent within White Eagle's teaching. In the Quiet Mind, for example, the second chapter is entitled 'The Master Soul is loving, gentle and kind', and a favourite saying of mine in this chapter highlights the quality of giving without any thought of return - like the gift of flowers for someone you do not even know:

'To love is to give the Christ spirit within without any thought of return. You are all so apt to think that you must have a return for your love, but the soul has to learn to give love. Love is an inward beauty which flows from the heart, from the life.'

And this Love is something we can all give because it costs nothing and we all have it within us.

 

The Perfect Plan

Remembrance time obviously brings to the forefront thoughts of death, and perhaps of our own mortality, and that of our loved ones. We see the sombre, black-clad mourners, and we struggle maybe with the long dark winter nights, and not much sunshine. This year, perhaps more than many, there are thoughts of death around almost all the time in the media stories, because of the pandemic.

Those of us who have found White Eagle are fortunate, because he is really clear in what he says about death. There are no 'maybe's'; he tells the truth that life continues after the death of the physical body, and actually the after life is much brighter and better than this earthly life!

In many of the talks he gave through Grace Cooke on Remembrance Sunday, he used the symbol of golden roses rather than red poppies. A golden rose brings a feeling of the sunfilled Garden of Communion in the heaven world - a place where we can meet our loved ones and feel their continuing love. Love is eternal. He has said so many times, 'Where there is love there is no separation' and in his way of meditation (through the spiritual use of the imagination), he helps us all experience this.

I find particularly comforting the description he gives of what death is actually like for the person going through this. In his 'Little Book of Comfort for the Bereaved', he says:

'In the spirit world there is the most perfect plan for the reception of every soul who leaves the physical body. A messenger is sent to welcome the newly released soul from the physical body, to welcome them into a world of peace and beauty, a spiritual beauty such as is hard for you to understand...If only people could have their vision clear enough to see the welcome being made ready, they would never be sad at death. They would be as happy as when a child is born into life on earth, indeed, more happy.' 

This little bedside book is full of very illuminating passages, and I highly recommend it! It certainly brings a ray of sunshine in these dark days.