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Contents
Bartholomew
We are in the pine forest where many mushrooms grow. We find ourselves inside a giant Divine Spiritual Heart that has a form of hemisphere towering above the forest. Looking deeper, one can see that It comes from the Infinity of the Abode of the Primordial Consciousness! This is yet another Divine Teacher — a Representative of the Creator!
We take off our rucksacks, sit on old fallen trunks of trees, and rest a little. Then we ask Him to narrate about Himself.
“My last name on the Earth was Bartholomew. I was a Greek philosopher. I cognized God-the-Father. I lived in Greece in the 11-12th centuries AD. Though I lived in Greece, I was a Catholic. I went through the entire activity of the Catholic Church, yet I cognized God-the-Father — because I came to a direct contact with Jesus. And Jesus began to help Me and took Me to Himself.
“Jesus shows the Path to God-the-Father. Though learning from Jesus is as adequate as learning from any other Divine Teacher that you know.
“I know everything about you: even in the past I watched your work.”
“Tell us please about Yourself in more detail.”
“Well… Let people know how through love for Jesus one can cognize the Father.
“… I was born into a family of sincerely and deeply believing people. I was named after saint Bartholomew; My parents attached much importance to this. In My childish understanding, it was related to the lives of the Apostles — direct disciples of Jesus.
“I grew in a small Christian community. The members of this community regarded themselves keepers of the traditions of the first Christians, who learned the Gospel — the Teachings of Jesus — from Philip and Bartholomew at the time of Their apostolic service in Greece.
“In Greece, in Egypt, and in Syria throughout centuries there were schools and communities trying to preserve the true Christianity.
“Understand: when the Teachings of Jesus fell on the soil of those who formerly studied Plato and Aristotle — or of people with cruel habits and beliefs — it produced different sprouts. In one case, people developed love, respect for the Higher Truths, and hesychia; in the opposite case, this led to the Crusades and Inquisition… Unfortunately, the latter is more known to people…
“Those who studied formerly philosophy, i.e. people who inherited the culture of ancient Greece — they could not become Crusaders or support the Inquisition.
“On the ruins of antique spirituality, the Teachings of Jesus produced sprouts, which are not well known now.
“The traditions of Hesychasm, which were developed in small Christian communities and monasteries, remained after the separation into two branches — the eastern and the western ones: Orthodoxy and Catholicism. In the Catholic Church the memory about this has been almost lost. These are blank pages, not because nothing was written on them, but because everything was washed away, forgotten…
“I am trying to tell a bit about this…”
“Were You a monk?”
“No, I was a philosopher… I sought Truth, sought God. I studied both ancient philosophy and Christianity. In the beginning, I sought God with My mind.
“But when I realized that Truth is not hostility and disagreements of movements but love, then Jesus began to reveal Himself to Me. At this point, My ‘outer’ life ended and inner life began. It was a life of the consciousness aspiring to Jesus with love. It was a life of the open heart which converses with the Lord in a very direct way…
“I did not know meditative techniques and methods other than cordial prayer, which was known in the community where I lived. But untold love overfilled My heart when Jesus entered it! This Revelation of the True Love when the mind is silent is great, majestic, and staggering! The human heart expands so infinitely that it can contain the Lord! To live in this way is great bliss!
“Thus I cognized Him. It was My life with Him! He came — and it became the most important, it was the only important thing in My life! The questions which worried Me before — fell away now! Only Christ’s Heart remained, Which expanded more and more in My heart!
“My life became so simple that only Jesus remained in it… and then He took Me into Himself, into the Father…
“… Bring people into Me! I will give them Myself, will give them an opportunity to turn into giant spiritual hearts expanded in Calm! This is the most important thing! This is the foundation of the true spiritual work.
“As a skyscraper with a strong foundation reaches for the sky, even so a soul can reach unbelievable heights if it is founded on unbreakable Love and Calm!
“Your task is to kindle the hearts of people!
“One may say that you have achieved victory when on the international scale your books will be regarded as classics of philosophical and religious thought, and excerpts from them will be included in educational programs!
“The most important point is to teach people love! One has to develop the spiritual heart to fill it with love for all the living! Only thus one can transform the world on the Earth!
“You can fulfill this! And in this work We are all ‘at your service’!
“… I repeat the eternal truths in slightly different variations. Yet, in what words can one describe what is Eternity and Infinity? One can only cognize this personally. This is My Beingness, and it will never cease! I am Love!
“And remember that nothing in this world belongs to you — nothing but your love for Me! This is your treasure, and it belongs to you by right! All your treasures are your love! No one can take it away from you! Love cannot be stolen, taken away by power, cannot be sold or inherited. Love can only be given — sincerely and selflessly!
“Love has a remarkable quality: the more you give it to others, the more you have it.
“Yet love is a ‘free bird’: it lives and grows in freedom. Such human concepts as ‘I want’ and ‘mine’ are opposite to love, because they limit its freedom. All attempts to own love are doomed: love can be only received with gratitude, carefully and tenderly, as a great gift from the one who gives it to you.
“Love enters through the only gate — through the spiritual heart open to it! And then in such a heart arises a responsive wave of love going outside. Thus love lives and grows.”
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