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Excerpts from Once
a man has achieved the impossible, it is no longer
impossible.
Once a man has stood up, straight and tall, he cannot ever forget it,
however low he must stoop. Once a man has loved, a light has
been
lit within him, and all the shadowy things find it the more difficult
to cluster about him. Every time he binds himself to
something by
Love, one of the chains he has forged of dull hatred is snapped
asunder, with the ease of a child snapping a strand from a spider's web."Meditations on Love" by R. John Francis Knutson Compiled from The Rosicrucian Digest CONTENTS The Way of Manifestation A Pattern for Progress The Lesson of Music Underlying Life Action Three Choices The Way of Understanding Intolerance Love and Psychology Heart Force Perception Being Achievement _________ The Way of Manifestation By Frater R. John Francis Knutson
[From The Rosicrucian Digest December 1940]
LOVE is so evident in everything, the question is not so much to
isolate it as to discover if there is aught else in our surroundings. All creation, God, is Love. For Love is the basic creator. Nor is that all, for Love is, as well, the created. Love is Change and Growth, a continual unfoldment, even as the petals of a rose unfold. It is of infinite capacity; too deep to be plumbed, too vast to be known. There is but one way to discover all that is Love, and that lies in being Love. Silence is the best language for Love, for silence reaches further through the space about us, with a wider, subtler range than sound. For the Lover, for the Loved, silence can say much. --From "Meditations on Love." _________ A Pattern for Progress By Frater R. John Francis Knutson [From The Rosicrucian Digest January 1941] REMOVAL clarifies the pattern. The composer of symphonic music creates first the basic themes, and, in later time, adds the further framework. The master of chess sees his board simply as a pattern of arrested motion, and from that pattern plans his moves. The true artist visualizes the outlines of his pictures before he puts brush to canvas, and works out the details as he progresses. Living is even so. Each man, consciously or no, builds his life on some pattern that he takes for his own. Is it not for us consciously to choose a pattern--one around which we can best build our personal framework? And certainly Love is the best of foundations, the most unselfishly personal outlook that we can assume. Jesus the Christ could find no better philosophy than Love. Nor does such exist. --From "Meditations on Love." _________ The Lesson of Music By Frater R. John Francis Knutson [From The Rosicrucian Digest June 1941] MUSIC,
the unworded language, has had so many varied definitions: the
emotion of numbers--the architecture of sound--emotion and beauty
expressed in essence--love in search of a word--at least. Music
is of Love, and is a vibration that can arouse an inner stirring in the
meanest.
Music consists of vibration in air, in orderly waves. That distinguishes it from the chaotic clang. The musical note is a tonic with certain overtones, leaving out, not allowing or causing extraneous sound-vibrations to exist in its field. Its quality of restraint is the cause of its harmoniousness, and of its ability to blend variously with others of its kind. It is important for all of us to learn that art, since to make the best use of the infinity of possibility within us, we must be able to leave out of our actions that which is best lacking, in keeping with the instance. Love is even so; with infinity within itself, but manifesting only that which is best manifested. --From "Meditations on Love." _________ Underlying Life By Frater R. John Francis Knutson [From The Rosicrucian Digest April 1942] LIFE is the
result of Love.
And Life would inevitably cause the manifestation of Love, else only chaos could follow. For Love is Power, and reacts with Life; Love is the motivation and the result--that which underlies and permeates all living. That which underlies and interpenetrates all Being is God. Is not God Love? Love is the manifesting of God; that which transfixes and transfigures Being, purifies and elevates it into true Light. To align oneself with Love is to be aligned, in attunement with God--and after long cycles of selfless, purified aspiration, be God--God-in-Man. And this is the Christ Spirit--the Holy Ghost, as Theology names it. --From "Meditations on Love." _________ Action By Frater R. John Francis Knutson
[From The Rosicrucian Digest September 1941] THERE
is a true saying: "The artist paints best with a loaded
brush." Even so with the composer; he composes best when at his
instrument, setting down notes. Drawing lines, even idly, will
suggest ideas to the designer. The best way to do anything is to begin. Trite, assuredly, but of the essence of Truth. To make the final decision that spurs into action, to begin, is to set in motion the forces capable of completing the act. For the beginning is the seed, wherein the end is already envisioned. No end is possible without a beginning, and even the poorest commencement holds at least possibility--more than the disorder of Nothing. Learn to love one person, one thing, at least. Love unselfishly, wholly, but with balance. For in that beginning lies the end, where Love encompasses all--is All. --From "Meditations on Love." _________ Three Choices By Frater R. John Francis Knutson
[From The Rosicrucian Digest October 1941] BIND me with the gentle chains of Love! For the bonds of Love are the freedom to come and go, that hold the more inevitably for their elastic tolerance. The heart is the central Focus of Force, that directs the never-ending flow of Power. The chosen thought, the chosen companion, the chosen way--these three, ingrained in the structure of the heart by trial, give the colour of individuality to each being. These are the three assumptions which determine the nature of one's duties, privileges. The chosen thought gives the power of the heart, the chosen companion the beauty of the heart, the chosen way the good of the heart. These a soul-personality must find through repeated sievings of itself. While one must be ready for the choice, yet there are often occasions when the follies will divert, blunt the acting of the intention. But they cannot halt; they can only retard it. For the Movement of Good is inevitable. The chains of Love, meshed to the Heart-Wheel, are all-powerful. --From "Meditations on Love." _________ The Way of Understanding By Frater R. John Francis Knutson
[From The Rosicrucian Digest February 1943] IS LOVE best likened to Night or Day, Light or Darkness--I do not know. Perhaps it were best likened to the Sun, which causes both. To know Love needs no great depth in a person, but to understand it--though but a little.... While we must strive toward the understanding of all else, Love carries with it its own understanding. Even to know Love is to begin, to step a little way along the path of Understanding. For Love is a Sun of Light, which makes clear all things. All seekers tread the Path, the straight, but high and arduous way to the Heart--the central Sun of Being, wherein lies all understanding. Is the altitude chill? The Sun shall warm. Is the height dizzying? The depth of being shall steady. Is the Light blinding? Yet by it shall you discover yourself. --From "Meditations on Love." _________ Intolerance From "Meditations on Love"
By R. John Francis Knutson [From The Rosicrucian Digest December 1943]
Intolerance has no place where love is truly seated. For Love,
when manifesting imperfectly, tends to believe that all the inner
beauty it perceives in the beloved is already
objectively manifest. This is a form of desireful thinking and
intolerance, no more than a type of hate in its essence, which distorts
all that comes into its range of perception. Intolerance is more
than mere resistance to change. It is a condition of
crystallization, where only that which is accepted, and has been, is
seen in anything approaching clarity, and all else is violently
misinterpreted. Intolerance reads "license" where liberty has set
her foot, sees "foolishness" when sincerity stands up, and smells
"heresy" in the sharp scent of opposition. Verily, it is a rank
weed, that smothers all about it, and prevents flowering plants from
blooming on the ground in which it has its roots. _________Love is nourishment for all beauty and creativeness, but too finely textured for intolerance to ingest. Even as intolerance keeps Love from entering, so does it wilt away where Love is, and finds no foothold. Love then. Leave the gloom and mustiness of so rude a shelter as bigotry, and set foot on firm earth. Turn your face to the heavens and feel the freshness of the rain. LOVE AND PSYCHOLOGY [From The Rosicrucian Digest February 1946]
Man has attempted, recently, to unburden himself of the seeming weight of responsibility which intelligently guided emotion entails. And abnormal psychology is the result. Foolish inhibitions and the natural emotional feelings, intensified, have been both thrown, willy-nilly, into the subconscious and a general nervous explosion has been the result. Love, and the power it has, cannot be withstood. Man will perhaps learn this truth and act accordingly. For Love is a perfect thing and will manifest in him to the degree to which he will allow it. Man must tend himself as a garden, so that he may flower with his true beauty. --R. John Francis Knutson, from Meditations on Love. Heart Force [From The Rosicrucian Digest October 1946]
Our blood is the protean tissue which is diffused through our entire being, giving to our bodies the color of its existence. The supple litheness of our body, its flexibility in movement, is due to the fluid it contains, is derived from the blood. The adaptability of man to the variations in his physical environment lies in the ability of the blood to change, and to so change the constituency of the entire body. And it is the power of the heart that distributes the blood in a man's body. That which resists a blow, feels more of the impact: the blood of man bestows upon the flesh the givingness that yields to a blow, so that it suffers the less. And in the liquid compassion of blood lies the ability to mend, when damage has been inflicted. And the subtler, gradual blow of autointoxication is offset, and made as nothing by the blood. In it is the power of rebuilding. And it is the heart which pumps ceaselessly, that the blood may create anew that which wears away. It is the blood which contains the emotion and instinct of man--racial and individual; it is the blood which gives of itself when it is necessary, and removes that which is no longer needed. And it is the center of Love from which the ceaseless flow derives. We must conform to existence before we can change it. We must master what is, before we can create that which should be. The key is: change must come from within. Love is acceptance, knowledge, and power. From Meditations on Love--R. John Francis Knutson, F.R.C. PERCEPTION [From The Rosicrucian Digest April 1948]
A "labor of love." We have heard this phrase used more than once,
and alas, only too often it is used with an inflection of gentle
derision. Or, otherwise, it is bandied about in an advertising
sense, implying that everyone should flock about to see this thing,
into which a man has poured his heart. What is a "labor of love"? It is something a man has done, not so much with the idea of a return in money or fame, but from the sheer joy of working at something loved, of doing that with which his heart feels in harmony. Something, perhaps, that the rest of the world has but little interest in, but that somehow strikes deep in his being, in which he, at least, has an abiding interest. By R. J. Francis Knutson, from Meditations on Love BEING [From The Rosicrucian Digest June 1950]
Am I but a flute for the wind to blow through, having no breath of my
own? And even so, I shall make him sing in his passing, and the
song shall be of my being; I will live therein. For the flute that I am may pass away, but the song I am will remain forever.
Am I a single cloud, a thing of mist for the wind to harry and hasten about? And even so, I shall make him mould me to forms innumerable, and I shall be each shape. For I remain myself, whatever form I need to be. And when the sun is bright upon me, I shall raise water from the plenteous seas, and in later time release it to a thirsty earth. I shall be glorious in the sunset, until darkness permeates the upper air. And behold, the sun has not forgotten me; I shall wait his sure rising in a new dawn, more wonderful than ever. --By R. J. Francis Knutson, from Meditations on Love _________ Achievement [From The Rosicrucian Digest January 1952] For Love is Light, with all its quiet power, and all its calm, intensely personal pervasiveness, all its impartial givingness. Through it all shadows are dissipated, shown for what they really are--nothingness--a section of being where one's sight is not as clear as it should rightfully be. And each time a man loves something, he achieves the impossible; he does something that, a moment before, he had not dreamed himself capable of doing. --By R. J. Francis Knutson, from Meditations
on Love
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