New Vision - Current Issue

Editorial

Shangri-La


Each day I cycle from home to Bosham passing through leafy lanes and several villages adjoining the A259. As I turn into Bosham House there is a distinct change of atmosphere. Visitors have commented on the almost palpable sense of peace and tranquility that greets them. Many of us are sensitive to atmosphere whether it be in a holy place; a home or generated by a group of people meeting together. The quality or essence of the atmosphere often has a distinct perfume arising from the persons present and the reason for their meeting. In holy places the ground is invariably consecrated and all who enter its precincts find that they are drawn together, inspired, uplifted and refreshed. Undoubtedly such places elevate us beyond the limitations of personality, the pedestrian, the commonplace, to an altogether higher plane where we can breathe our native air once more. These places bring joy and happiness because they bring us back to ourselves, helping us to recall who we are and what is really important to us. They are, paradoxically, places of repose and yet they are the founts of dynamic activity. In such places everything is accomplished silently and mysteriously. We could say that they are the objective expressions of Shangri-la. This is a fictional place described in the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton. It is synonymous with an earthly paradise, a Himalayan utopia isolated from the outside world. The people of Shangri-la are blissfully happy and almost immortal, living far beyond the normal lifespan. As souls looking to the spirit within, we are those people and more for we immortal rather than ‘almost immortal’.

Bosham House News

· Woodland Walk Project

You will be pleased to hear that we now plan to repair and tarmac the drive between the entrance to Bosham House and the office. We are busy obtaining quotations and it is hoped that the work will go ahead in August when our regular classes are having a Summer break. It is because of your generosity that we are able to go ahead with this work. However, it will cost many thousands of pounds, so the Fund will remain open and your love offerings are very much appreciated.

· Paper envelope or plastic envelope? Your views would be appreciated.

Ever since its inception in October 1921 New Vision has been delivered in a paper envelope. However, many of you will be aware that a great many magazines today are delivered in a plastic covering. The principal advantage of this is if it rains the magazine will not get wet! Secondly, there may be savings on postage.

The Hamblin Spiritual Course
Written by Henry Thomas Hamblin

Excerpts from The Hamblin Spiritual Course
(The full lesson and entire Course can be found in
"The Way of the Practical Mystic – The Hamblin Course Book in Mysticism")

Reposing in the Inner Life

We need Divine Wisdom and the Holy Spirit. These can only be found in the Quiet Place.

By retiring into the quiet repose of the ‘Inner Life’, and by raising our thoughts and consciousness to a higher plane, we get in touch with spiritual things. We touch the super-consciousness. That is, we commune with that which is above human consciousness. We enter the realm of Truth, which is inscrutable, in that it cannot be either described or understood intellectually.

By meditating in the Quiet Place we come in touch with Divine Ideas. Divine Wisdom reveals to us the way we should go, and the Spirit gives us power to follow Truth, no matter where it may lead.

Meditating in the Quiet Place will set a poor habit-ridden soul free, at the same time helping him to build up good habits to take the place of those from which he is delivered. By meditating in this way we become saturated by Divine Power so that all the difficulties of life can be overcome, and the most searching and trying temptations withstood.

By meditating in the Quiet Place upon those thoughts which we desire to occupy our mind during the day, we make thought-control and thought-selection possible. People often say that they cannot control their thoughts. They could if they meditated upon Truth both night and morning, in the Quiet Place. It is only by such meditation in the Presence, that our secret thoughts can be cleansed, and the very source of our thinking be purified.

Readers' Letters

We continue to welcome your letters and emails. If you have a comment on an article or a suggestion to make, why not share your views with others. Please write to the editor at Bosham House, Main Road, Bosham, West Sussex PO18 8PJ or email elizabeth@thehamblinvision.org.uk

Dear Elizabeth!
I just wanted to write to say how much Dan and I enjoyed the fund-raising evening you hosted for IFAW UK. We found the talk by John Berry very interesting especially their work with elephants.

Four years ago I had a bad throat and chest infection which turned out to be pneumonia. Since Christmas I have had two further infections, leaving me feeling rather down. However, upon picking-up the March/April issue of New Vision I came across an article called Spiritual Emergency by Harriet Lang. I found it very helpful and saw my problems in a different light. As Harriet says, ‘An illness can be a sign of deeply healing purification processes at work.’ So please thank Harriet for writing such a thought-provoking and inspiring article and I look forward to reading more of her work in future issues of New Vision.
Grace Grottick, Surrey

Dear Elizabeth and friends
Thank you for your friendly reminder of subscription renewal. New Vision is such a joy to receive. The articles are full of wisdom and insight, inspiring and uplifting. I could not possibly do without it. I trust you and all at Bosham House are well and happy.
Patricia Woods, Bedfordshire

Dear Elizabeth
How wonderful and heart-warming and healing to receive the May/June edition of New Vision, to read the pages written by different people from across the map. To be enabled to surrender each and every moment, to learn the lesson of letting go and letting our loving God do His Will within. Always a bright ray comes through when resting in the Spirit. Sending love.
Kay Woodburn, Cheltenham

Steering into Still Waters by MJ Bentley

Doesn’t the word ‘repose’ sound wonderful! I can almost feel myself sinking into a soft bed or a comfortable armchair - oh what bliss! ‘Inner life’, what is this? For me, it’s that ‘Place’ of absolute stillness. A friend once described it like this: ‘We’re caught up, cradled and absorbed into the Heart of Father Mother God, it takes your breath away and you want to stay for ever... but something deep inside compels you to return, to do more work.’

We can return anytime to this ‘Place’ of stillness, at-one-ment, but we have to allow ourselves time and space to do this. We have to practise; this does not necessarily mean struggling to meditate; the connection can be made in a flash. It is remembering that God is present in every moment, in every action and thought; it is a knowing awareness that God is the ever-living Spirit within. George Herbert says in his poem ‘The Elixir’:

‘Teach me, my God and King, In all things Thee to see, And what I do in anything To do it as for Thee. ’ Living life in this way is an attunement, we are practising the Presence of God.…

Soaring on Wings of Light by Astra Ferro

In my last article, In Tune with the Divine, I wrote about what it felt like to suddenly find your life curtailed for health reasons. I spoke about going through moments of isolation and how in those moments I became conscious of ‘something’ far greater, ‘something’ within which soars high and fills me with courage and hope. Interestingly, although the treatment for my condition has not yet started - I have been in a period of ‘nothingness’ - many people tell me I look well. In fact I feel well and have never felt so well within. There is such hope and faith within me that the physical form of treatment is only a manifestation of a healing that has taken place within. How did this happen? I did not consciously sit down and start working on myself. I have not meditated on this. I have though asked for, and received, distant spiritual healing. I believe in the power of healing through prayer. When a thought process of true light is projected through the ether from one person, or group to another, working with the purity and essence of spirit, then healing help is possible. It does of course always depend on whether the individual is receptive and open to the energy of light.

All healing starts within, sometimes with help from others, but inevitably we have to be open and receptive to inner knowledge and understand ourselves, our karma and our role in the life we find ourselves in...

The Razor’s Edge by Philip Pegler
How a visit to an Indian ashram revealed a family link with the literary past

When I see how my life has unfolded inevitably according to the circumstances of my family background, I cannot help but reflect upon the mysterious workings of destiny. I was born into a literary family and books and writing are in my blood while the world of books was all about me as I grew up.

Upon both sides of the family, I was surrounded by writers, publishers and booksellers. My grandfather on my mother’s side was pre-eminent as a publisher of many of the leading authors of his day and was also a children’s story-teller. Two of his sons followed in their father’s footsteps and yet another son – my youngest uncle - was a bookseller. His younger sister (my mother) opened her own successful bookshop and I have continued in the family tradition, working with my wife in the antiquarian book trade.

In 1944, the year before the end of the Second World War - and three years before I was born - a book was published in England, which by strange coincidence was to have considerable bearing on my own life. Entitled ‘The Razor’s Edge’, it was an inspiring novel about a young man’s quest for spiritual illumination in India.

The British author of this imaginative new work was William Somerset Maugham, one of the most popular and highly paid writers of his day. His publisher was my grandfather, Charles Seddon Evans, the highly regarded Managing Director of William Heinemann, an independent London publishing house then at the peak of its business fortunes.

Like many of Maugham’s works of fiction, this book - one of the most important and successful of his career - was thinly described autobiography. It was the outcome of a journey the author made to South India in October 1938 where he met one of the most outstanding spiritual masters of the twentieth century. This was Sri Ramana Maharshi, who is still revered the world over as a great sage in the Indian Vedic tradition.

Divine Adjustment by Michael Donnelly

Well over sixty years have gone by, but the day is still fresh in my memory when I boarded a large troopship moored alongside the Quay at Southampton. I was one of a contingent of young R.A.F. conscripts bound for an unknown destination, carrying our service kitbags on our shoulders..

On my embarkation leave, I had chosen to take only two books with me. One was a pocket-size Bible presented to me by a kindly neighbour, the other a copy of Hamblin’s ‘Divine adjustment’. These I hid in the bottom of the bag, hoping perhaps that they would bring me good fortune on my travels.

Uncertainty

Once on board ship, we were shown to our sleeping quarters, a low room packed from floor to ceiling with bunks designed to accommodate about fifty men. I chose a bunk just above floor level, well away from the entrance so as to be as inconspicuous as possible. There I lay down with my life jacket on and my kitbag at my feet as instructed. For some time we all lay quietly, in various states of apprehension, until the resonant voice of the Sergeant-in-charge announced that we were to be visited by an Air Vice-Marshall who was making a final inspection of the entire ship.

Although I could see nothing of his arrival I heard the hard sound of his footsteps on the bare floor of the corridor, then that of the sergeant standing to attention for a brief word with the visitor. The footsteps then continued up and down the rows of bunks, to stop at last at my bedside! The Air Vice-Marshall stooped to speak to me, whilst the others held their breaths. He wanted to reassure me, he said, that all would be well, that there was important work for me to do overseas and that my stay there would be an experience I would never forget. Having shaken my hand, he straightened up and walked swiftly out of the room, pausing only to salute our sergeant as he left...

Letter from Foundation Members, Ken and Audrey Williams, Hobart, Tasmania.

My very dearest Elizabeth

I was interested to read Stephanie Sorrell’s very good articles on Alzheimers in past editions. Anyone who has not lived on a full-time basis with someone suffering from memory loss can have no real idea of the problems, although of course each person is different. We live from day to day, or perhaps more from moment to moment. We share our thoughts and enjoy lots of loving hugs. We are fortunate in having a very good Alzheimer’s Support Group and I can also get some help in the house for shopping etc, at a reasonable fee, but this does not take care of the many other aspects of being a full-time carer for someone with memory loss. I have found, of course, that my best help is to hand over to a Higher Power. It takes a lot of faith in handling the small, everyday things of life. When I really feel that I cannot do another thing, I recall President Obama’s slogan ‘we can do it’, meaning my little self and my Higher God Self. It’s amazing how the work gets done without knowing it. Another thing I find helpful is not to expect anything from Ken. If he remembers to make his bed or bring in the morning paper that is an extra bonus, but if he does not, it is of no consequence. I haven’t expected it. Also, if everything falls apart, that’s okay. It is all only part of the human scene and will sort itself out in time. It is not important in the greater scheme of things.

So for now, Elizabeth, we send our dearest love to you and to all at Bosham House. The contribution you all make to humanity and the planet is enormous. We salute you all. I know that the real Ken would endorse this too. The real person is still there behind the mirage of temporary memory loss. In love and fellowship from Audrey and Ken Williams.

The Rest of My Life…The Best of My Life by Paul Janke.

Repose n. 1. a state of quiet restfulness; peace or tranquillity. 2. dignified calmness of manner; composure. ~vb. 3. to lie or lay down at rest. 4. (intr.) to lie when dead, as in a grave. [Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus]!

A definition, though useful, doesn’t often give us clues as how to achieve the described state. We intuitively recognise that repose is clearly a desirable condition, but our modern lifestyles tend to take us away from this blissful place of peace. I think, certainly for most of us, the days of withdrawing totally from the world in order to go and contemplate our navel on some remote mountaintop are not an option. We have to find a way of being in the world but not of the world. So how is it possible to find this place of restfulness and still live and function effectively in today’s world? Perhaps, as with all information, the best way of passing it on is by way of personal example. Several years ago challenging personal circumstances led me to re-examine my belief structures, and to make a conscious effort to retain only those that still serve me. Many of those beliefs were connected to employment, my self worth, my link with nature and my way of being in the world.

Having a German father and a mother from the Black Country meant that a powerful work ethic was deeply ingrained in my psyche, and I dutifully followed the family dynamic and social ideology of the time, notably that you had to work hard for a living and that your worth was based on your occupation. Having worked studiously at school I went on to become a trainee management accountant and rose through the corporate ranks to the heady position of company accountant before being made redundant about sixteen years ago. I wasn’t sorry to be made redundant, though it did have a surprisingly deleterious effect on my fragile male ego (I still believed my worth was measured by my professional status). In fact, I was somewhat relieved, as my health had started to suffer from the stress of the job. To say I had never felt happy in the role of accountant is an understatement – I hated most of my days at the office and had it not been for some wonderful people I met along the way, it would have been unbearable.

For Want of a Pen by Mary Spain

I wonder if I may share a story? It started when Elizabeth kindly invited me to write an article for this issue on the theme, 'Reposing in the Inner Life'. I was touched by this suggestion. Touched, but at the same time anxious. I was anxious that I should provide her with an article that would both justify her invitation and appeal to her readers. What would I write about?

As my daily meditation means so much to me, I decided to write about the support, (both literal and figurative) provided by my meditation chair. On countless occasions, just sitting there quietly, I have been provided with the flash of insight needed to answer a question or solve a problem. The chair was inherited from my mother, and is underpinned, in its sagging old age, by a pouffe that came from my grandmother. It's a vital participant in my life.

The following day I put all thoughts of the article to one side as I was planning to visit a friend at The Royal Marsden Hospital. On reaching the ward I discovered that my friend already had a visitor. I urged them both not to worry. I would go away for a while and come back. Where could I wait? The hospital cafe provided the perfect solution to my problem.

I bought a cappuccino, and settled myself at one of the tables. After sitting there for a few minutes, I began to wish that I'd brought a pen. Thoughts for the article were whirring through my head and, although I had a notebook in my bag, I had foolishly forgotten a pen. Then I glanced at the table alongside mine. The two women sitting there had a pen placed on the table between them. Neither of them seemed anxious to use it, they were far too involved in their conversation. Inactive and ignored, the pen dominated my attention. Finally, feeling a little awkward, I rose to my feet. ‘Excuse me,’ I said to one of the women, ‘but I have half-an-hour to wait before visiting a patient. I have paper but no pen. Had I a pen, I could do some work. I wonder could I possibly borrow yours? You can have it back the moment you need it?’

Life’s Little Secret by Martha Lyn.

The forest glade resounded with bird song. The sweet scent of new mown hay from the neighbouring fields permeated the soft summer air. Shafts of sun slanted through the trees, tingeing them with glowing life.

The sprite-like child, humming and dancing her way along the wooded path, stopped suddenly. She lifted her head, limned with light, and gazed into the sun-shafts. She listened intently, still as a frightened fawn.

Then she picked her careful way over to a fallen tree, clambered a bit noisily upon it and settled herself for a long wait. This was the very place she had seen them before. Would they come back again after she had unwittingly put them to flight yesterday?

Time would tell. She settled herself comfortably against her favourite branch and rested.

Time passed. A lone bumble bee, heavy with pollen, droned along the forest floor. The early summer-green foliage, sparkling with late afternoon sunshine, whispered in the light breeze. Muted bird song completed the spell. Her head drooped. She drifted away.

When she woke, the slanting sun rays spoke of the passing of time.

She started, looked at her watch, and clambered down, disappointed. If they had come, she had missed them. But she was conscious of having been somewhere very special, beyond her ability to recall.

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak by Stephen Lacy

When I was considerably younger than I am today, I used to think I was lucky; fortunate not to often get het up, upset or worried like individuals I noticed around me. Then I met the real world – the demanding boss, the troublesome colleague, the awkward neighbour – and I realised I could get as emotional as the next person. I do feel irritated when things go wrong; I do get angry when people are inconsiderate; I do find myself nervous in unfamiliar social situations.

Just as I am writing these words, I am very much aware of a telephone conversation in an adjoining room. I cannot hear the words but I’m half listening to the tone of voice of my wife as she is talking to someone we are fond of who is having a bad time of things just now. So I’m naturally concerned. It’s distracting my mind. I feel uneasy, unsettled, even anxious.

We get so immersed in the hectic daily round that we forget those past occasions – perhaps infrequent and brief ones – when we actually felt content with life, and there was a sense of inner peace. Only when we concentrate hard do we vaguely recall having had that state of mind – when the stress of everyday life was forgotten, when we were becalmed in what had been a stormy sea, and when we sensed a harmony with everything around. Those were the times when we felt we had found refuge and protection from the conflicting and unsettling pulls of what was going on around us.

A Space For Transformation by Josephine Chia

On a daily basis, we are inundated with numerous sense-stimuli. In the last ten years, the world has gone into accelerated growth in information, technology, visual and sound impact. There are many good functions of our modernisation, ease of travel, communication and living. However this does mean that the quiet space is more and more difficult to find.

Mental Space

Those of us who do not live in cities are lucky in that we can escape to the countryside to find physical space. Places unspoilt by human hands - natural forests, rolling downs, meadows, sand dunes, mountains or sea still hold the energy of peace and tranquillity. Being in these areas, we are shut off momentarily from the cacophony of projected noise and enforced sense-stimuli which tend to bring forth an adrenaline rush within ourselves, creating tension. Here, as the saying goes, we can ‘hear ourselves think’. This is physical space generating a mental space within us. Free from the tyranny of having to react to the bombardment to our senses, we can enjoy the gentler responses of our senses to beautiful sunsets, trees, flowers, birds, sky and sea. In these circumstances, adrenaline is released into the lympathic system and our muscles lose their tight grip and our bodies loosen and relax. This is when we become in touch with ourselves and where we develop the ability to be aware of our thoughts, our emotions and our breath.

You can find out more about Josephine’s work through her website : www.josephinechia.com or email jchia@btinternet.com

The Path and the Goal by Eileen Williams

How far along the Path leading to spiritual consciousness are you? Do you know? Do you need to know? Does it matter? I ask these questions of you as I have asked them of myself over many years. We have signposts of course, if we are aware of them, and stumbling blocks to make us realize we have gone too far off the desired Path.

About twenty five years ago I made a rash decision to join a crowd of hardy ramblers who were to walk the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire. They were an ardent, experienced group wielding sticks and they moved stridently up and down the hills whilst I moved more slowly yet seemingly ever quickly back through them until I was walking last with another puffing lady, a beginner like myself. We struggled in vain to catch-up but eventually the others disappeared from sight and we were left alone.

‘Be Still and Know that I am God’ Psalms 46:10 by Florrie Collins

In our journey along the spiritual path, we immerse ourselves in the lessons of the great masters. We pore over tomes of teachings and try to apply them in our lives. But the short Bible passage – ‘Be still and know that I am God’ - seems to cut through the myriads of teachings and lessons and to get right to the heart of the matter. We are told, simply yet forcefully, to be still.

What does it mean to be still? Stillness, quiet, silence: these are respected practices in almost all religions and spiritual paths. It is said the the practice of silence is the key to the all the treasures of the spiritual kingdom. When we're able to abide in stillness, to stop the stream of chatter that clutters our minds, we open ourselves to a whole new realm.

Sometimes this stillness overtakes us with no effort on our part. Stepping into a forest, we may suddenly feel that we are part of a vast oneness. The chatter of birds, the whisper of the wind, the tinkling of a creek are separate sounds, yet part of a single wholeness. For a moment, we leave behind the mountains of petty details that usually consume us, and become a part of this wondrous unity. But in this Bible passage, ‘be still’ has another meaning; it means to yield or surrender.

Contemplation – The New Life Awaiting Us by Michael Lewin.

There was a time when I filled-up my life with activity. Everything seemed so important, everything needed my attention - or so I thought. Everything on my self-composed list had to be completed and within a specified time frame. Then, when finished I would write another list to engage more fully with the activity of doing. This process preoccupied me for many years until one day I realized that perhaps this pragmatism that drove me was a restrained form of enslavement, a subtle mode of distraction that kept me away from a deeper presence, a more real sense of being in the world. Those days of ‘ busyness’ are so far away now that it seems like I’m almost talking about another person, for I am committed and dedicated to another existence now - following a spiritual path one that simplifies my life by involving me in doing ‘more and more of less and less’. A path that allows me time and space to explore deep, spiritual questions, ones that might awaken within me the underlying truth of my existence.

My new life of simplicity led me to explore and discover many avenues of personal growth that have brought me numerous spiritual gifts, which I still cherish today and for this I am enormously grateful. Please enjoy a browse - www.michaellewin.org .

All We Do Makes A Difference by Rosemary Wilkie

We are living and trying to manage our personal lives in a maelstrom of international and national events - political, environmental and economic.

Things happen. According to our personal situation we tend to take sides, argue and criticise. This lack of goodwill and cooperation blocks creativity and veils the way forward to a fairer world. It paralyses our thinking and paves the way to social unrest, environmental disasters and economic instability.

Incompatibility between old accepted ways and the new demanding to be heard creates tension, which we find uncomfortable. But it is from this point of tension that new solutions can emerge (as we have seen in politics recently). A crisis is an opportunity to let go of outgrown social conditioning, to grow in understanding and evolve new ways to live together harmoniously.

The human race is facing huge challenges to ensure the survival of all living species, including our own, and a lot of serious thinking is needed, yet trivial thoughts dominate our lives: I shouldn’t have said that…Did I lock the door? Does he love me? Can I afford it? Will they or won’t they? Should I take an umbrella? That inner voice goes on and on interminably, until most of us believe that voice is us. It is not, and to free ourselves from its domination we must become conscious that it is not. www.rosemarywilkie.co.uk

Finding ‘That Place’ in Stillness by Fif Hugenholtz

Where is ‘that Place’ and how do we access it, experience it? Not with our minds! Because ‘that Place’ is beyond our active minds and emotions, waiting to function in us. Everything we need to know is in this Place, this state of consciousness, because the information is already part of us; in fact in this dimension we are this information at the same time of being able to receive it.

One of the ways to find ‘that place’ is by starting with slowing down our breathing and being still, by focusing on feeling the silence within, by being in the Now. Our mind is stilled and this allows us to be taken through a ‘portal’ into a different state of consciousness, a different dimension, referred to as the fourth dimension. Here the mind becomes an avenue of awareness through which we can receive impartations from God by listening to that ‘still small voice’.

When we sit in stillness and listen to that ‘still small voice’, we give ourselves up to the transition which takes place in our consciousness, as in this place a higher level of consciousness is experienced, which changes our perception of reality. We are released from the conditioned mind of opposites, which is the reason of all conflict - the impostor pretending to be us – because we can’t listen and think at the same time. Our mind becomes empty and this ‘still small voice’ will rush in. http://people.aapt.net.au/~fhugenholtz .

Perfect Rest is the Wellspring of Activity by Jennifer Dunkley.

Jennifer was born into a home where both parents were philosophers. Therefore she grew up with ideas not normally taught in mainstream schools or religions. Sometimes the lessons were hard, such as when she had been naughty and announced that she hadn't chosen to be born into that household, she was calmly advised that in the real sense, she had!

To repose in the inner life seems at first to be so easy, but is actually much harder to achieve. The harder we try, the more this reposing eludes us! Perhaps the secret is to stop trying so hard. As demonstrated in the martial arts, you do not try to push against or fight off your attacker, but go with the motion. Let him come at you and with minimum energy on your part he will soon find himself prostrate!

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have an ‘enlightening experience’ or a flash of Direct Knowing but we can all work towards it gently and calmly and may obtain glimpses of what we seek. ‘What you think, you create. What you create, you become. What you become, you express. What you express, you experience. What you experience, you are. What you are, you think. As you think so you will be.’

Many of the great artists, poets, architects and musicians tried to illustrate these ‘glimpses’ in their masterpieces. William Wordsworth’s poem about daffodils that starts, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud…’, describes the incredible inner beauty of these vivid yellow flowers, wanting to give expression to their exquisite form… ‘Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.’

Each issue of New Vision also features a good book reviews section

If you have enjoyed these excerpts, please telephone/email Bosham House for a full copy of the magazine. This is available through membership or by donation.
Tel. 01243 572109 email: office@thehamblinvision.org.uk