SOLI DEO GLORIA
Toward a Study of the Mind of Man
and the Heart of God
(Ideas For Study and Further Development)
by
M.T. Augustine
Copyright 2014 M.T. Augustine,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2139-1
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This is dedicated to the present and future generations of children;
some things never change, and are true at all times, and in all places.
Preface
This is not the kind of book I thought I would write when I began to think of being a writer; but apparently God had other plans; and perhaps He will not necessarily let you know what He intends right away. Eventually, yes, but perhaps not from the beginning; and in fact it is possible that what He has decided to do may never make rational sense to the mechanical mind; but could fit in perfectly, from the perspective of His Plans.
It’s the 4th of July weekend and all I really want to do is work on this little notebook and maybe make a dent what I want to express and explore. It’s great because in the summer so many people leave NYC for the weekend; NY is still crowded but somewhat less so and there is a holiday feel about the city; people are more relaxed and many seem quite happy. So, its fun to just walk about and do my shopping and with the laptop I can write anywhere; so it turns out to be the restaurants I frequent and coffee “shops”.
So, I’ve decided or in truth it has been decided, that initially it will be a small book about the great cities I have lived in or visited; and for the most part it has been cities; with some exceptions; and it will also include my thoughts on philosophy and theology and life in general. Fairly recently some of my relatives have made their transition and one realizes when this begins to happen, how quickly life really does go by. So I was thinking it would be good to write a record of my thoughts for perhaps the next generation, all around me, and perhaps such a work will help them achieve their own particular individual missions in life, whatever those may be, for everyone is here for a reason and has a particular mission which most likely will have originated in the Heart of God, the One Creator of All; part of our job is to discern our particular mission. So this notebook will include certain insights and recognitions and what I have come to think of perhaps as my own particular mission. It will focus my life in a kind of organized way, which will be nice for me and for some other people, and also give the children some idea of what I thought was important; one can learn a great deal in the course of several decades and as many writers have thought before, it is a good idea to pass it along; maybe someone can benefit; in fact, I know that if this little work is absorbed, then it might change some lives because it will touch on essentials to happiness, i.e., thoughts that are sine qua non to happiness. Then if a particular condition of existence beyond mind and intellect is arrived at, which some would call a condition or gift of Grace; then, the result of all this new experience is a consciousness of the state of Joy quite beyond mere words to express. Perhaps this is what we see when we look at certain sculptures left by artists who knew that there was a state of consciousness beyond the mind and intellect and perhaps this is what Beethoven experienced when he wrote the Ode to Joy!
All you have to do to solve any and all human problems which you may face is pray and absorb certain ideas, design or redesign your thought patterns. These are ideas which are available in many works by a multitude of authors, so it is necessary to read, especially New Thought Writers; and these works are available to everyone now that we have the internet. Of course it is sine qua non to talk to God; and this is far more important than simply reading books; but the books can help a great deal; the phrase that “we stand on the shoulders of giants” is quite true. One might wish to consider also reading the Bible, but is must be interpreted correctly, which seems to be the difficulty vis-à-vis Humanity; misinterpretations are rampant, and are believed in, and cause quite a bit of confusion. In any case, it is as Jesus said, “It is done unto you as you believe”; according to your belief.
People often seem to have such preconceived ideas about God and the various religions; they assume so much when a particular word is used; and perhaps assume one is using such a word as it might be commonly understood by one or another of the religious groups. If the author is not careful; some people can thereby easily miss the point he might be trying to make because of all the preconceived ideas with which they arrive at the reading of the material. So then, perhaps it is necessary often to start from the very beginning if one wishes to be clear; but even the beginning is rather controversial for a considerable numbers of people; could we all sometime just agree on when the world started?
So, hopefully the ideas here will have some clarity; writing is often a way for the writer to clarify things in his own mind; although from the perspective of a higher consciousness, what happens within the individual mind is not perhaps the ultimate criteria of judgment vis-à-vis what perhaps is currently called by some people, the “Now” or Being Consciousness; by definition, using a mind term, a state which observes the mind, often perhaps with considerable amusement.
Somewhere, perhaps in the works of Emmet Fox or Ernest Holmes or his brother Fenwick, or William Troward or Ralph Waldo Trine, or one of the other New Thought Writers; I came across the following idea and quote. The idea in the following paragraph is not original to me; I want to make that clear and perhaps people will remind me where it originated; but I loved the idea which I believe is so true. I have added a few words modifying somewhat the idea and the expression of the idea, in perhaps some slight degree; it is as follows:
“Grace shines like a silver sliver of light through the Universe; like an invisible, silent legion of Seraphim; on a Mission, undeterred by distance or darkness; intense and unstoppable; but God knows where His Grace is going; and at any moment you may be touched by Its Mysterious Power; and your world, and the lives of all the people around you, will in fact be changed, forever.”
Originally on the previous page, the title page for this little notebook, I had written what at first I had supposed would be the title of the book; toward a study of the mind of man and the mind of God. But today as I prayed it came to me that it was really all about the heart. The ancient Egyptians had a phrase; the intelligence of the heart which at the end of life was weighted next to a feather; this intelligence of the heart was at a higher level than that of the mind. The distinction is between the essentially mechanical thinking of the mind and the intelligence of the heart which is connected to higher consciousness and has direct access to Supernatural Power. These ideas are essentially what this little notebook will mostly explore, although I did not particularly set out to produce this kind of notebook. It started out as a travel notebook; but it just happened as my consciousness changed while I took notes on things that I was thinking about as I was traveling about the world.
Music is a huge part of my life; particularly the Sacred Music of Bach, Handel and rather recently, Tomas Luis de Victoria. I hope there is enough writing about music in the following pages; perhaps after the beginning of each subtitle; if not I’ll correct that at some other time.
This book is not only about physical traveling on this earth of ours, but also about traveling mentally as we grow and enlarge our philosophies of life; and the latter is probably the more important of the two, although the former can contribute in important ways to the growth of the mind; the latter can contribute toward entry into an area of higher consciousness and hence growth of the intelligence of the heart; which is really the main thing - to keep