By Kathleen Jacoby
Volume V  © May 5, 1991
Posted 03/01/02

The following is an excerpt from A Call To Prayer, written at the time of the Gulf War in November of 1990. This series began as I asked questions of the Presence I have felt all my life, whom I call "My friend, God." The message given then as we entered the Gulf War seems timely today as we face an uncertain future. This is one portion of a much larger body of work, and if you are interested in reading more, you may order the entire series from our website.

Simplification and The Way
In the act of simplification you carry so little baggage in the exterior world. You are not holding on to things that bind you and as you are freed of these restrictions, you are available to fill yourselves with Truth, The Way, and Light.

At the passage of life through death, there is a narrow portal and through this portal the rich man cannot carry his many belongings. But the one who has simplified and released attachments - whose baggage is light - may slip through this portal unafraid, unimpeded. The wealth of this one is carried inside and his substance is not temporal, nor can it be taken away. Here at this portal, the division is made - the accounts settled. For as one holds on to the things of the world, there is an unwillingness to part with that which has forged the illusion of wealth. As the steep trail cannot be taken with heavy baggage the one who cannot part with the past must return to the past to go through the consequences of the actions...to find the illusion in the choices made.

Possessions are a product of perception, For there may be one who lives with wealth but is unattached to the wealth as much as there may be one who has little but has put all emphasis and attachment to that which is owned. It is the perception that causes the blockage. Unconsciousness is only righted through the experiences of life whereby relinquishment to the false is willingly given. Ignorance is replaced with knowing, and the unity of life in simplicity for which the soul deeply yearns, is once again an opportunity.

The world is filled with snares that grasp the corresponding shards of desire born in the ego state. That which is unfulfilled goes through the stages of life and death until such time when the veil of separation is removed and the inner vision becomes more predominant than the exterior view.

The Quest
Unity and the unification of all life is the intended purpose of the life process; unity born of consciousness gained through the journey of living. To sit on the sidelines, pious and unfulfilled, is to forestall the necessary steps of growth which by their very nature may imply falling and rising up again. The state of innocence implies an unworked canvas. The artist of life needs to place the brush strokes as they emerge, and through the effort, the soul is not only birthed, but grows to set upon a journey towards wholeness.

This is the mandala - this is the quest for the Holy Grail - the is the maze, etc. of which each great teaching speaks. The journey of 1,000 steps begins with the first step - undaunted by the trials - holding always the standard bearer of the indwelling God. In the unfolding, the character is forged and good works can emerge. Take each trial as a gift and give to the giver your full attention in return. Be not faint hearted nor queezy in the face of uncertainty. Simplify all aspects of your living from eating to the acquisitive nature, and you shall have the provisions to help you on your way.

Reciprocal Utilization
All of life is bound by the law of reciprocal utilization. As you eat of all kingdoms, each is in essence converted to utilization by you. Each is participating in your works and effort. As you are consciously aware of this "hosting" on your part, you are more aware of the unity of all life. Life may give of its form, but the spark of its life force is merged and converted into a larger life force for reciprocal utilization. As you are aware consciously of this act; of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms finding their meeting ground in the human - there is a balanced action resulting. You, in respect to each for its sacrifice and contribution, honour the greater purpose of all. For as you on the life chain eat of all groups, Source receives all of you in the death process for the revitalization of life.

Respect For All Life
Your unconscious growing, killing and eating separates you from the consecrated act of partaking with all life to give back to all life. Without this humility in reception or respect and gratitude for the unifying force of communion with your food, your acts of eating are barbaric. This holds to any unconscious eating - whether you are vegetarian or not.

As you honour the soil so it may nourish the plants that they may impart full vital force in their ripened state, your reception will be of great benefit. Your actions need be loving to all your fellow inhabitants of this earth. For those of you who do eat flesh, honour the livestock, the fish, and fowl whom you ask to exchange their lives for the fulfillment of yours. Any link of unconsciousness breaks the full potential in reception.

As you are bitten by insects who eat of you to maintain their lives, you are acting as host to a life form you do not fully understand. Those which you call parasites are a reminder of your own place on the food chain where you are equally utilized. That which you seek to destroy as an annoyance and carrier of disease may indeed be the needed check to you who as humans have caused dis-ease to the earth. Who indeed is the parasite? All creation has a vital purpose. Remember this as you sit in judgment of any life form.

The Place of Admonition
There are those of you who cannot hear words that cause you fear...that throw you into a sense of guilt or panic as you are asked to awaken in yourselves consciousness to the consequences of your actions. Yet, as a loving parent/creator, I, at times, need to remind you of the reasons behind perceived planetary failure. It is in the act of separating yourselves from the cause that you become angry, hurt or despondent over the effect. It is the cause/effect that requires your understanding, and for those of you who have difficulty hearing this you need understand that admonition is not judgment. It is a gentle reminder of your need to awaken to awareness of your part within the greater plan. All actions and perceived lack of actions have consequences.

Unconscious Acts of Separation
The great threat to society at large comes through the unconscious acts of separation. Through the media you are bombarded with messages of fear and hatred, anger and killing. Violence is a predominant theme played over and over again for mass consumption - and in the viewing, you are feeding fear - fueling a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. This is the world ego at work. Through your passivity you feed it and it inflames lower emotions. It does nothing to elevate the human spirit because it panders to the basest level of human emotion. When you partake of this form of media intrusion, you are under siege by an entrenched and insatiable mentality that renders you completely oblivious and unaware of the profound effect it has upon each one of you in interacting with life.

The most deplorable effect is the impact on children. The world view they are given holds out little hope for promise in their lives. You wonder why in the last thirty years there has been an increase in the use of drugs and alcohol - an increase in teenage suicide - and increase in the need to escape a reality that is oblivious to beauty, to goodness, to the inspiration necessary for great works.

As you re-ignite your sense of faith through prayer, you are filled with the power of Love that will open you again to the importance of values and ethics in your life. Through awareness of the debilitating effects of that which violates your sensibilities, you will become increasingly dedicated to introducing only that which is of benefit to the unfoldment of your being. Whether it is food, thought, associations or external stimulation - the criteria need be centered around the quality it offers you for the outworking of your self-expression.

The Need For Conscious Choices
Junk food, negative thoughts, destructive relationships, and time spent with life maiming visions lend to the depletion of your innate resources. It is only through CONSCIOUS participation in the choices you make that all areas of your life take on beneficial significance to yourselves and to life in general. As you deny your responsibility and complicity, you are feeding the forces of fear and separation. This leads to feelings of victimization and helplessness. As you are ignited to a sense of unity with all life - you will recognize the extent of your ability to respond and offer your part in contribution to the upliftment of the Whole. You will be empowered in the process because you have made a conscious choice to participate in the betterment of your life. As you do for yourself, it is done for all life, and it is the collective contributions that mark the quality of life universally.

You have been duped into believing that you have no significance...that your lone voice can make very little difference. Yet, what of those souls who on their own have walked into injustice and set about to right it? The calibre of a Mother Teresa is achieved through the beginning steps of participation in life around you as it matters. In the combining of individual voices, a chorus of responsibility and creativity is forged. In the playing of your part, the symphony of life is framed.

Add your voice to the reclamation of hope. Add your voice to a future for humanity. Add your voice for the sake of the children. Allow the light of creativity to once again shine into the dark corners where fear has held sway for too long a time.

This is a process that will help to create a true garden on earth - and each of you is an indispensable part - a necessary ingredient to the activation of that potential. You are not any one of you asked to carry responsibility for all of the plan. Find the portion of the plan that is akin to your abilities and make your contribution. There is no contribution too small. Every act of conscious participation adds to the collective body of light.

Conscious Eating
In relationship to eating, you need understand the purpose of food to the body. It is the fuel that renews and revitalizes the life source. The act of eating is a life altering event - a combination of the substance given by the sacrificing life for the renewal of the host body for life enhancement. This is part of an alchemical process that forms a continuing bond of the life source.

When you eat unconsciously of those substances that are impure and do not contain the vital life force, you are filling the body with bulk that has no sustenance. The renewal of the cells is a vital process. It is to this end that all food should be judged in choosing. You are being bombarded in the market with "junk" in the guise of food as you are being bombarded by the media with "junk" in the guise of information and entertainment.

Your unconscious acts of acquiescence lend power to that which is your own undoing. You are not helpless in the face of this - you are merely unaware of the importance of your choices and the role of food in your life.

The Importance of Energy Exchange in Food
Food preparation and choice is as essential as thought choice for the care and nurturance of your whole being. As you eat foods that have no living component, you clog your system because it is not designed to process anything other than corresponding living elements. An electrical charge takes place when the corresponding components come together that recharge life. By eating manufactured food you function with less efficiency and less ease. The cumulative effect of continuous eating of these non-foods is decay and disease of the body. The funnel of life force is constricted. When an artery is blocked, a trickle of the intended vibrant flow is available. You are no longer fully operational.

As with all other acts of faith, when you turn your attention to that which will spiritualize and revitalize your body, your body will respond lovingly to your efforts. As you re-orient your diet to life giving foods, the body is renewed. The key to this is timing. There is a great deal of forgiveness given you by the body as you overload it with things that are not life replenishing. However, if you allow the process to go beyond a certain point, the damage is unalterable and you are forced to experience the physical consequences because you have gone against natural law. This does not imply that you cannot gain an inner sense of Love in your understanding, but beyond certain points, the consequences of action are unalterable.

What is being offered to you is a series of guidelines to enable you to reclaim the quality of life that was your intended birthright. This reclamation process involves self-discipline and willingness to alter life threatening habits.

Centers of Light
The body is comprised of multi-dimensional centers of light - all radiating or pulsating from a central point outward/inward in a circular/spiraling fashion. The housing of the centers of light is the physical body frame. The vitality emanating from the body is dependent on the calibre and quality of what is put into the body. The purpose of eating is to renew and restore the body to full and vibrant health. It is not to overload or tax the system by stressing it to digest what is undigestible.

The function of the mind is to discern between the many incoming stimuli that are introduced to it. The purpose of clarifying and purifying the mind is to be discerning of that which is life enhancing and that which is life depleting. Every thought and cellular response within the body sets off an electrical charge - the intention of which is to blend the converging elements so that the whole body becomes light. Disruption in one area taxes the reserves of another.

As you clear out the distressing elements - the whole body will again function in harmony. Make no mistake. You cannot be fully operational if you disregard any area of need because each area of lack pulls energy reserves from healthy centers - and you are stressing the system.

The Role of Prayer and Self-Discipline
Understand that any area of beginning is a start. It is a worthy effort that will lead you to the next step. Here is where your prayers are essential. You need all the inner strength possible to overcome a debilitating habit that is fueled by the messages in the world. You need pray for the courage and inner stamina to re-educate your palate and your taste to that which is life enhancing and renewing. Pray to be relieved of the misconception that if you simplify your habits you are being denied of something good - for this is one of the greatest misconceptions perpetuated by the world ego.

There is a great deal of self-discipline required in the process of retrieval. If you understand the personal reward and sense of full well-being that comes from your realignment to life, you will joyously turn your attention to that which enriches you. As good as something may taste, if it does not allow for the renewal of the living light within you, it is a poison to the system and the ultimate denial of good.

The Importance of Eating Mature Food
In the life process, each living thing has its own developmental cycle and life force. When you eat food that has been taken in infancy, you disrupt the life enhancing flow of energy that must be achieved through the maturing process. When you eat of vegetables that are picked before they are ripe - you are eating of something that has been aborted.

There is an alchemical (life enhancing and energy exchanging) process that must be allowed to complete itself for the full vitality of any life form. Anything eaten prior to the full ripening of its nature cannot impart the necessary electrical/chemical charge that sparks full life exchange. The purpose for which it was intended has been denied. You may not want to hear this. It is not economically palatable and it is not "easy". Yet, you are killing yourselves through your need to have convenience.

You would be horrified at the idea of bringing babies into the world to live before they are ready to be born, yet you base your mass consumption of fruit and vegetables on aborted stock so that there will be shelf life. The necessity of interchange between the life giving elements in the vine or tree combined with sun at the ripening stage is a process that cannot be reproduced in laboratories or on store shelves.

Benefits of Growing Your Own Food
You are asked to grow food - to have communal gardens where you can eat of whole food so that you give to your body the life enriching interchange necessary for quality of life and for the necessary honour and gratitude to those life forms that exchange their lives for the fulfillment of yours. If you cannot do this because of where you live, find outlets that have grown their produce with integrity in soil that has been honoured with life giving elements.

To abort life in the name of convenience is to miss the blessing of life's created purpose. You must remember that unconsciousness is the fodder in which perversion is born. You need become conscious about the meaning and importance of food and the life renewing process that is inherent in the interchange to all life forms.

Fasting & Sacrifice
Fasting is a way of taking your attention away from the world. By consciously participating in time dedicated to awareness of the need to look only to your spiritual source for sustenance, you are trusting in the renewing power of Source and relieving the body of stress forged by unconscious eating habits or patterns. Healing can take place as you give the body a rest from the constant process of digestion. To be a spiritual warrior or pilgrim on the path of meaning involves a level of self-discipline that requires sacrifice. Without giving up of something that has perceived value, there is no gain. Life is a constant series of exchanges. Life is exchanged for life in the process of eating.

What Price Glory?
In the physical world, there is a desire for what appears to be the path of attainment, and as disillusionment sets in, the real path becomes evident. It calls for a struggle to move beyond what appears to be glamorous, powerful, and exciting in favor of something that requires adherence to a narrower guideline. Yet, in this process of refining...in the mythic journey through life with all its intendant tests and resting spots, there is a never failing quenching of your thirst. The world desires are unquenchable. They lead you from one stimulating experience to the next, but a point is reached where the results feel hollow and empty, because they were manufactured from illusion.

Source is endless and expanding. There is no "old age" with the eternal quest. The continuous journey of unfoldment brings you a level of character and depth that few attain. This is the road to eternal youth and eternal life. Yet it is available to any one and everyone. All that is required is turning attention to the inner voice that yearns for something beyond the momentary fulfillment of the latest "fix" offered by the world.

Requirements for Conscious Living
The requirements of a conscious life are the same as those for any profession that requires dedication and consistent endeavor. The athlete, the musician, and the skilled surgeon offer examples of the type of effort required for a full and conscious life. None of these roles have been achieved successfully without dedication and relentless effort in the refinement necessary to produce the skills each demonstrates in their chosen field.

The Benefits of Sacrifice
Nothing in life is gained without sacrifice. The law of cause and effect involves an exchange of energy that implies choice, and through choice, consequence. When the sacrifice is for ennobling the spirit, it is the most satisfying experience you will ever encounter. As you give up the lesser desire for the greater good, an inner quality is forged and each time you give up a momentary pleasure or limitation in your life for a life enriching experience, the quality is deepened until it forges within you a core of goodness from which to draw upon.

There is no higher pursuit in your lives than the ennobling of the soul. As you ennoble yourselves, you will ennoble others. Generosity of spirit begins to filter through all areas of your life and with each choice, as you reach to the highest and noblest, irrevocable good is attained within your being.

Unconsciousness is Uncomfortable
There can be no area of your life where you will feel comfort in unconsciousness. You need understand the reasons why your choice of thoughts is so essential to your well-being; why the food you choose to eat is either life giving or life debilitating; why the information you allow to filter through your system adds to the collective good or panders to the basest human emotions; why the quality of your companionship reflects you. None of these things are spoken about with judgment. There is no judgment in this. You will judge yourselves. You will know when you feel "good" about what you have done, what you have eaten, what you have chosen. And you will be equally aware of your unrest, your disappointment, avoidance and excuses for what you don't feel good about.

In the long run, it does not matter what anyone else thinks of you. It matters what you think of yourself.

Guidelines are for Life Enhancement
The guidelines for living are given to help you to choose Life. Life is not static, dull or boring. It is enhancing in a way where the gains are not lost after the "high" wares off. It is not agitating as is momentary euphoria that is followed by the need for more or an overwhelming dissatisfaction in what you have. The path of Life is ultimately satisfying...but it requires your self-discipline and your dedication to that which is the best, the highest and noblest within yourselves.

An Invitation Is Extended
In this series of thoughts, more has been unsaid than said. This is intentional. Utilize your own inner resources to find your way to healthier and more vibrant living. Become conscious participators in life through life enhancing choices. Allow questions that have been raised to lead you to your own journey to discovery.

You will choose your time. You will measure your level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with what the world offers. It is your option to come sooner or later - but each of you is designed and has the potential of coming home. Once in this space, you will never see the world as the same and you will find your lives unfolding as you were divinely intended - portraying your portion of the plan in full consciousness - full participation - in order that this beautiful planet earth can glow with the beauty of One Life Force moving in concert. Prayer is a significant link to this calling. That is why you are called to prayer and that is why this work is being written.