Dr Sir John Whitman Ray Anniversary Message
2006
Hello everyone.
At this time it is the late evening of the 5th of May. It has been my custom over the last 5 years to send out an email on the anniversary of Dr John Whitman Ray's death on April 21, 2001. While I am surprised at letting this day go by unnoticed this year and not honouring the dead I cannot also help but notice that our true focus must be on honouring the living.
The dead have made their contribution and have moved on to newer pastures while we remain to continue the work on this plane. It is often said in the Bible, such as in Exodus 20:12 to, "honour thy mother and father that thy days be long on the earth," from which we may perhaps either conclude that we should seek our days to be long or to set about honouring our mother and father. The Bible does not differentiate between a living parent and a dead one and certainly Dr Ray taught us, with our List, to make whatever efforts can be made in either case.
The way I see this is that our primary obligation in life is to make hay while the sun shines, a reflection of the Law of Economy you might say. While we're at it, let's not limit ourselves to mum and dad, the most recent source of our genes, but extend the honour to every soul we have the grace to meet (with whom we share varying degrees of genetic or other relationship).
Thus while our acquaintances and forebears live is our best and easiest opportunity to hack down the buttressed trunks of our pride and make peace and seek to see life through their eyes. This is the pain John spoke of in experiencing and overcoming our resistance to alternate points of view. This opens our capacity to reach a true harmony with another individual and eventually humbly see beyond the separation we have created and which in turn sets the stage for us to experience unity with another soul and eventually all souls.
Dr Ray partially defined God as "the summation of all intelligence". If we would say that our desire is to know God then we had better start with knowing each of his manifold manifestations and their quirky ways if we would not chase our own tail indefinitely.
I am reminded also of John's warning not to attach measures of specialness to certain individuals and thereby perpetuate our sense of separation from everyone else. We are all here or not here for a very good reason, even if we don't fully understand what that reason is or perceive our specific karmic duties to each other. On the one hand I wish to honour Dr Ray as a gifted individual who has helped innumerable people, but on the other hand I wish to remind everyone of the easier-said-than-done need for each of us to make an effort to go against our self-centred flow and begin to restore peace by progressively honouring everyone within our reach. Whether or not our days are long, let them at least not be wasted.
This need not be an act of capitulation, at least not to the other individuals concerned. Often it is an act of internal capitulation, a willingness to let go of attachment to our perspective, what we feel is right, just, fair, beneficial, normal, or necessary. Can we at least trust that another person sees it the way they see it, know that this is substantially reactive programming and be ok with them being where they are without having to attach a judgement to it? They are, after all, their own responsibility and we've got our own chestnuts to roast. Seeing an alternate viewpoint need not be a compromise of one's principles, although often this may be how we feel. Could God really have built an earth too small to fit all our egos?
On behalf of Dr Ray, I thank everyone for all your efforts at whatever level it may be for your support of Body Electronics and the true principles that lead to the freedom of the human mind from bondage. Some are copying tapes, transcribing them, making them, listening to them, writing, teaching, holding points, praying, decreeing, meditating, talking to or helping someone in need, listening, reading, learning how to love someone, standing up for something, changing themselves, allowing themselves to cry, wiping their tears away and getting on with it, working on their List, preparing for service, thanking someone, or just being here…
We all have our part to play. Blessings to those who are in the game and loving it.
In Love, Light and Perfection
"I AM"
Graham Bennett