Choices and Illusions: How Did I Get Where I Am, and How Do I Get Where I Want to Be?
It’s Never Too Late
Excerpt from Choices and Illusions
by Eldon Taylor
In my journey there came a point when I
hungered for more metaphysical information. I enrolled in a California
university, The University of Metaphysics, and by correspondence commenced a
study in metaphysical science. This was not the metaphysics of an upper
division philosophy course, as I expected; rather, it was a practical
metaphysics for living. I had worked for a long time, often doubling the
required number of exams in order to reach their designated bachelor’s level of
education in this unique form of metaphysical science when they sent me the
news. I was ready to advance, but to do so I must become an ordained minister.
This was
not a strictly academic environment, and I should have recognized that, but the
requirement blind-sided me. Still, I knew I was not worthy of being anyone’s
minister, including myself.
Weeks
passed, and one Sunday afternoon while reading spiritual materials, I
remembered a teaching from the school. I pulled out a binder in which I kept
many notes, and the letter from the university fell upon the floor. As I picked
it up, I knew immediately that I missed the lessons and all the joy and change
they had brought into my life. I sat back down in my recliner and held the
letter in my lap.
My
thoughts put me to sleep, and soon I was dreaming. This is the dream.
Once
upon a time a man looked to himself. He spoke to himself, “I desire to serve
God, but my life has been full of error. The example I have set is not that of
a cleric. People will only scoff and say, ‘Know ye them by the fruits of their
tree.’ Who am I, then, to speak for or of God?”
With
these words circling within his head, the troubled man lay down to rest. He
spoke to God. “Your will, not mine, be done.”
As
he drifted into sleep, pictures began appearing that told this story.
Once
there stood a tree—a tree of life, full of fruit. The limbs bent toward the
earth under the weight of the lush red cherries. The cherries danced in jubilee
with the breeze that bathed their tender skins and turned their fullness and
vivid color to face the Father, the Sun of the heavens.
With
the dew and the rain they would polish their beauty and drink of the earth; to
store within the energy and vitality of life taken from the soil through the
roots and fired with the spirit of the Sun radiating through the leaves of
their parent tree.
But
alas, not all of the children of the tree would mature into lush red fruit. Out
of an urge to experience and learn on his own, one turned away from the Father
and ignored the parental warnings. Charlie, as he was known by the others, kept
his life juices warm, daring the cold, the frost, the elements. He began to
fill with color and mature early.
Pivoting
on his base, he turned away from the Sun and took shade in the leaves. Daring
to fornicate with the world, Charlie refused to release the natural pesticides
within himself and took up affairs with the parasites.
Soon
his delicate skin was broken, and his fruit exposed. The fragrance attracted
the birds, and they too feasted on his flesh. Charlie lived off the flesh and
of the world. Passion, experience, and knowledge were his prize.
Then
one day the gardener came. Gently he took from the parent the pure and ripened
children, leaving only Charlie behind. Hanging alone, Charlie looked about him.
The fall nights were cold and lonely. His friends, the birds, were on wing,
abandoning him. His flesh had spoiled, and even the insects avoided him now.
His soul hung onto his tattered body. The elements he had once faced with a
thrill now threatened to snap him from the stem of life. Charlie was sad and
lonely. He had learned these things: knowledge is not necessarily wisdom;
experience is not always a kind teacher; and passion is sometimes a poison that
betrays whatever value there is to be had in experience and knowledge.
Charlie
looked up at the beautiful blue sky and the buoyant white billowy clouds
adrift, seemingly with nothing to do or a care in the world, lazily on sail
across the vast blue heavens. “They and the lilies of the field,” Charlie said
to himself.
“Dear
God,” he spoke aloud, “I have sinned. I have wasted the beauty of your flower
and turned my back on simple truth. In my pursuit of wisdom, I lost sight of
Your Great Form and indulged in physical illusions. I was lost. I alone am to
blame. I give my essence over to thee, Creator of all that is good within me
and all that could ever be love within me. For you are Eternal Love, and what
is best for me is also your way. That I should discover this so late in my life
is my most significant regret.
“I
have watched the caterpillar spin his cocoon and perch on the leaves above me
as a butterfly,” Charlie continued, “but I fear that this recognition has come
so late in my life that I will be unable to share this Beauty, this Truth, with
others.”
With
that Charlie lowered his head. Suddenly a squirrel jerked him from the limb and
scampered down the tree and across the meadow. The squirrel paused, examined
Charlie, and then as though rejecting him, dropped Charlie in the grass.
Charlie
rested there for a day or two, and then the snow came. Covered by the white
blanket, Charlie slept.
The
seasons passed as though in the twinkling of an eye. Charlie took root and grew
strong. From his branches came blossoms, followed by fruit more beautiful than
Charlie could ever remember beholding.
Charlie
praised and gave thanks to God!
The
lowly man in my dream raised his head from slumber. His prayer had been
answered. The Lord does not forsake man; man forsakes the Lord. Thy will, not
mine, be done; for, after all, in their eternal boundless beauty, they are one
and the same.
My life
has changed since this dream. Today many faces provide that warm fuzzy feeling
when I put my head on the pillow.
Eldon Taylor
Eldon Taylor has made a lifelong study of the
human mind and has earned doctoral degrees in psychology and metaphysics. He is
president of Progressive Awareness Research, an organization dedicated to
researching techniques for accessing the immense powers of the mind. For more
than 20 years, he has approached personal empowerment from the cornerstone
perspective of forgiveness, gratitude, service and respect for all life. To
contact Eldon in response to the story, you can reach him via his website:
www.innertalk.com. To get a copy of his new book Choices and Illusions, go to:
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