Stuck and Frozen by Fear

January 30, 2016 Lemfel 4 Comments

When our running club scheduled a trail run, it sounded like fun. I suspected it would cover some rough ground, maybe even a stream or two, but this unsuspecting runner was totally unprepared for bogs or the possibility of being stuck and frozen by fear.

I was ready for a hard race, but when we came across the first bog, felt unsure how deep it was and whether I might lose my footing . I decided the best way to get through was to stop thinking and just keep moving. I followed two other runners and as we navigated the muddy mess we noticed movement in the mud. A large black snake began to surface but then disappeared back down into the bog. My speed picked up dramatically and next thing I knew the bog was behind me. Although wet, cold and covered in mud, it felt good to be back on dry terrain.

As we approached the last leg of the course, I was really looking forward to reaching the finish line when – you guessed it – another bog! I started through it but this one was larger and much deeper. Panic rose in my throat and I can still hear the sucking sound as I lifted each foot – not knowing if my shoe was still on.

Mired in mud up my calves, I got so rattled I stopped. Big mistake! I lost my nerve, stuck and frozen by fear in that bog.

It wasn’t the idea of snakes that got me but fear of falling in the oozing muck that clutched at my heart. I looked in vain for a way out while trying to block visions of TV cowboys meeting their demise in quicksand. Fellow runners tried to encourage me to stop worrying and just follow them. But I was stuck!

What finally helped me set my paralyzing fear aside and deal with the situation was remembering what the Lemurian Philosophy teaches about the power of positive thinking. To overcome my fear, I visualized crossing the finish line. This replaced worried thoughts about falling into the mud. I could stop thinking of myself and focus on the unselfish kindness of those runners who were also wet, cold and tired but cared enough to stop to help me.

With their support, I managed to get through that bog and finish the race. I surely was a muddy mess but I didn’t fall in. And I still had my shoes! Looking back on this experience, I realize my unfounded fear was paralyzing. Yet I was able to get past it and learn something. Now when I find myself in a difficult situation and there seems no way out, I can think back to how I overcame that muddy bog. It helps me to know I can work through a challenge and come out okay at the other end.

Lemurian Life

Finding the Lemurian Philosophy

January 23, 2016 Lemfel 3 Comments

When the pupil is ready, the teacher will come. – Chinese Proverb

There are almost as many ways of finding the Lemurian Philosophy as there are students.

Some children being born now are fifth-generation Lemurians. More people are enrolling with the Fellowship whose parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents were Lemurian students.

This is one way to become a Lemurian, but many come by different routes. Here are some students’ stories.

A young soldier on a battlefield heard a companion say, “Read this!” as he slipped a small booklet into his backpack. It was a Lemurian Fellowship brochure, Into the Sun.

A young soldier heard a companion say, “Read this!”as he slipped a small booklet into his backpack

Another student found a copy of Into the Sun as she was going through her father’s papers after his death.

A tourist in New Zealand found a book containing the Lemurian Fellowship’s address.

A young girl heard the word, “Lemurian” on the radio and knew she wanted to learn more about this intriguing concept. She searched many years before coming across the Lemurian Fellowship and enrolling. It seemed to her she had come home. She always felt completely in sync with the Philosophy and became one of its staunchest advocates.

A teenager enrolled and studied a few lessons, Then he left home and spent several years in another country working, experiencing, living. Tired and rather dispirited, he returned to the States and walked into a restaurant one morning. There, he saw a young woman studying what he recognized as a Lemurian lesson. He never saw her again, but that experience inspired him to get back in touch with the Fellowship. He completed his own study. He now lives not far from Fellowship headquarters and participates regularly as an enthusiastic member of the Lemurian Order.

Any of these events could have meant nothing, but in the case of these five people, they were the beginning of a great spiritual adventure that changed the course of their lives.

There’s a right time to connect with the Lemurian Fellowship, a time when we need and want what it has to offer, and are ready for it, whether or not we consciously realize it.

How we found the Lemurian Philosophy may have seemed a random series of events, but looking back, we could see the pieces falling into place. We had to be in the right place at the right time to connect, or sometimes, to reconnect with the Lemurian Work.

Today, with the Internet, websites, and social media, finding the Lemurian Philosophy is easier. But there’s still a right time. People drive by our sign for years, and then one day they drive up the hill to ask what the Lemurian Fellowship is all about.

Personal Development

Transform Your Life (A Soldier’s Story)

January 16, 2016 Lemfel 6 Comments

Soldier's Story 1 — In the Army as a young man.

At nineteen, I left college to join the army. My knowledge of war ranked right up there with my knowledge of space flight, but no problem for a teenager. At first, the physical activity and camaraderie were a little like going out for football, while death seemed remote, unreal. But as basic training progressed I became uneasy.

Taught to kill an enemy, it seemed clear I was not so much a person as a set of skills with but one purpose. If I was going to take life, or lose mine, what was the purpose of life?

One day during training a thunderstorm came up. As I enjoyed the lightning, high winds and hail, the big military machine around me shuddered to a halt – helicopters grounded, trucks pulled off roads, men running for shelter, everything stopped – and I felt the first joy I’d known in months. Something was mightier than the military, and it started me thinking about God.

I read about philosophy and religion – interesting, but vague. I wanted a way to use the ideas presented. So I turned to the spiritual teaching of the Lemurian Philosophy my parents studied and I grew up with. Since the Lemurian Fellowship offered a money back guarantee, I enrolled. It made sense – practical instruction on spiritual principles that can transform your life. There were fascinating facts about ancient civilizations, universal laws, God’s Plan for humanity, and God’s helpers – advanced beings we know as Angels and Masters. When I had trouble understanding or using a principle, I could write the Lemurian Fellowship.

These universal laws quickly began proving themselves. I could see their effects on people and relationships around me and I could make them work for me. It felt good. I started looking outward and life became interesting again. I fully intended to honor my commitment to the government, but I found that knowing how to live in accordance with God’s laws is more important than what we do in life. Instead of pushing to be a warrior, I decided to make the best of whatever lay ahead, learn from it and try to get out alive.

With basic training over, we were off to the war zone. It was strange to board a passenger jet as though going on vacation, and twenty-one hours later see the plane’s lights extinguished as the dark airfield came into view. From a midnight landing in the sand, we were rushed into armored vehicles for a wild ride to the base, which brought the first pangs of fear.

The next 18 months brought a new appreciation for the Lemurian Philosophy. Studying whenever I could built inner peace that allowed me to accept and even look forward to whatever came. Though my job working on tall radio towers put me in mortal danger, worries dissolved. I could empathize with the suffering of the people as well as fellow soldiers drowning their fear in alcohol and drugs.

Soldier's Story 3 — Building inner peace knowing another purpose awaits.

I was sure my life wouldn’t end there and another purpose awaited me, but I wasn’t foolhardy about it. When others seemed almost paralyzed by fears, my own were fleeting. I was too busy trying to understand myself, improve my actions, looking toward a brighter tomorrow.

[Another brighter purpose did lie ahead. The author later became President of the Lemurian Fellowship.]

Lemurian Life

Bucking Family Tradition Was Best

January 15, 2016 Lemfel 4 Comments

Nursing wasn’t my first career choice but I decided to try it at a college where my grandmother went and my grandfather had taught. Since medicine is the family tradition, to say they were proud and excited is an understatement, and since they were important to me, this felt good. But medicine wasn’t a burning desire, just a natural choice. And the next year, I found my true calling. By this time, I’d studied the Lemurian Philosophy longer than I’d been in nursing school and I wanted to devote my life to others through the Lemurian Program.

After months of agonizing, I wrote my grandparents that I would leave school. They were clearly disappointed. My grandmother called with questions from my grandfather. When I asked to speak to him, she said she would relay my answers. Several letters and calls from her brought more questions. It was strange and intimidating, but knowing they were having a hard time with my decision and were concerned about me, I answered as best I could.

My growing understanding of cosmic principles already enabled me to handle the situation with my grandparents in a kinder, less emotional way than I would have otherwise. While I was sorry to disappoint them, I knew the decision was right for me. My philosophy confirmed that we must each decide the right path for us in life, not follow a path just because of tradition or others’ desires. And there was more to it:

When you follow a path truly right for you, make your own decision based on your best understanding, it can help loved ones.

When I first read this concept, I was intrigued but had no experience seeing how it worked. Soon, this crisis with my grandparents demonstrated its truth.

Just then my grandmother’s appendix was removed so she couldn’t care for the house, cook, or do laundry. She asked if I would come for two weeks to help. Wondering how this would work out with the strain in our relationship, I went.

During my stay, little was said about my career change until one morning my grandfather asked me out for the day. He wanted to show me the hospital where he consulted, and take me to lunch. During those precious hours alone with this man who had always inspired admiration and a little intimidation, he explained how proud he had been of my following the family tradition.

After I explained why I changed course, he said he was very proud of my strength and maturity in not giving in to a couple of older, more traditional people who were thinking more of themselves than me. I didn’t completely agree, knowing they were concerned with what was best for me, but I appreciated his saying this. It was a great day, and I had a similar talk with my grandmother, coming away feeling much closer to both of them. I am so grateful for the guidance of the Lemurian Philosophy that helped me work things out with my grandparents in a way truly best for all of us.

Ancient Wisdom

Folk Sayings Echo Ancient Wisdom

January 9, 2016 Lemfel 4 Comments

The Great Pyramid and the Sphinx

What is wisdom save a collection of platitudes? Nonetheless, they embody the concentrated experience of the race, and the man who orders his life according to their teaching cannot go far wrong.– Norman Douglas

Doesn’t the wisdom in folk sayings make you feel better? They reaffirm truths we believe in. We like how they capture so much in a few words, laugh at their humor, respond to their poetry. A few minutes with the world’s best maxims is like a refreshing dip in a quiet pool after a hectic day.

And what could fit more naturally into the Twitter generation’s lifestyle than these short, punchy one-liners? Our craving for catchy sound bites and concise bumper stickers can be soothingly satisfied with a collection of the world’s timeless adages.

Even better is the luxury of time to focus on them, digging beneath their obvious observation to the deeper truths they hint at. Truth has many layers, and proverbs that withstand the test of time hold an element of it. There’s more to them than meets the eye.

The same truth echoes through different times and places. Christ said, “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” The Bulgarians: “If you can’t serve, you can’t rule.” And in Yemen, “The master of the people is their servant.”

As you sift through these wise words, you realize the most perceptive can be traced to the unusual human beings who uttered them. Some originators are lost in antiquity, so many proverbs are anonymous, or identified only as Chinese, Latin, biblical. But names like Aesop, Socrates, Confucius, Christ, Shakespeare, Lincoln, Franklin, Gandhi, Twain, the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa crop up enough to make you suspect some wise and learned individuals originated most of these treasures.

Whatever their origin, we are grateful for these pithy reminders of what’s good, beautiful, and lasting in our collective experience of the last several millennia. Lemurian students find the wisdom in folk sayings echoes some of the ancient wisdom we study in the Lemurian Philosophy and help us affirm connections we know exist among people everywhere, even when you discover these apparently clear and concise statements of universal truth can be interpreted very differently.

During high school study hall I dug into a dictionary looking for more obscure sayings. A French one, “a bon chat, bon rat,” translated as, “To the good cat, the good rat.” I thought this meant something like “The early bird gets the worm.” But later, I had a chance to try “a bon chat, bon rat`” on a French speaker. He responded immediately, “Oh yes: ‘The cart before the horse’!” (Maybe it was my accent.)

It’s true that any two of us may find a different meaning or a new moral, because we each have a unique experience background. And that’s where we really start to learn from others.

It’s interesting and just plain fun to talk over these sayings together, compare our own experiences with the truths they convey, drawing closer in our understanding of each other. You will find them scattered through these blog articles and related to the universal principles they encode. We hope you enjoy this mental and spiritual recreation as much as we do. Send us one of your favorite quotes!