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Beyond the Broken Gate
by Charles Graybar
Paperback: 370 pages
Publisher: Serenity Hill Press, Inc.; (March 25, 2003)
ISBN: 0974026522Soul Secrets: Five Principles That Will Change Your Life Forever.
A new book by corporate-executive-turned-spiritual-seeker Charles Graybar offers a wealth of inspiring insights on who we are, why we live and where we're going.Rolling Meadows, IL (July 2003)-It's hard to find meaning in a world like ours. The news brings distressing images of war, terrorism, crime, sickness, hunger. Unemployment rates are soaring, and with the cost of living so high, many people with jobs can barely make ends meet. We've replaced forests and acres of farmland with broiling pavement, honking horns, stressed-people rushing toward unfulfilling jobs. Even the most fortunate among us find themselves asking, "Is this all there is? What's the point of living when life is such a struggle? Why are we here? And what, if anything, can I do to make the world a better place?"
These questions have been asked since the beginning of time. And they all boil down to a single question: How should I live my life? Consultant, author and spiritual seeker Charles Graybar presents his take on this all-encompassing issue in his new book, Beyond The Broken Gate: An Ordinary Man's Extraordinary Journey In Learning Who We Are, Why We Live, And Where We're Going (Serenity Hill Press, 2003, ISBN 0-9740265-2-2, price).
In this deeply inspiring book, he shares his amazing life story and the lessons he's learned from it. By his late 30s, Graybar was senior vice president of a Fortune 100 company, a high-level position that brought him great financial success. Yet, his life felt bleak and pointless. Haunted by the painful mysteries of existence, he began desperately seeking answers. When he found them, Graybar was so profoundly affected that he quit his corporate job and devoted himself to writing and speaking about his spiritual insights.
Here is what happened: While experimenting with a self-designed combination of meditation techniques Graybar stumbled upon a portal of communication with an advanced soul that calls herself Kalista. In later visits to what he calls the "garden," he communicated with two other souls named Tresden (an "understudy" to Kalista) and Geradl (an ascended master with knowledge above and beyond that of the other two).
These three entities gave Graybar answers to the many spiritual questions about who and what we "are" as beings of awareness, as well as some fascinating glimpses into the nature of the Universe. They also provided a variety of pragmatic advice, ranging from ways to dramatically improve our day-to-day existence (no matter what starting point a person is coming from) to ways to improve our pathway as souls that live lifetime after lifetime of painful and unproductive cycles.
By integrating Kalista, Tresden and Geradl's insights into our lives, says Graybar, all people can learn to be happy, lose our fear of death and ultimately, walk a pathway of total and lasting peace, compassion and joy along our journey homeward as souls.
This is powerful stuff, indeed, and to fully understand it, Beyond The Broken Gate must be experienced firsthand. But are there any hard and fast guidelines the unenlightened can use to speed up the often aeons-long process of becoming, well, enlightened? Yes, says Graybar, citing the advice given to him by Kalista on making spiritual forward progress. These guidelines are excerpted below:
~ Don't waste energy. The only way to grow spiritually is to conserve your energy and focus it on spiritual learning. There are several activities that drain energy. They are useless endeavors and should be avoided. Anger, hatred, resentment, retaliation, retribution and all things like them are totally negative. They weigh the spirit down and are absolute impediments to moving onward. Each time you indulge in any of these feelings, imagine placing a ten-pound weight around your neck. That weight-and all the other weights that you add on by virtue of indulging in similar feelings-stay with you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Forever, even into the next lifetime, until you let go of those feelings.~ Practice compassion constantly. If there is a sure pathway to God, a highway back to the Source, that road would be paved with compassion. The act of laying that pavement is equivalent to integrating a compassionate lifestyle in your daily living. Start out with a reminder note to take on one act of compassion on the first day you begin your commitment to grow. Each day, add one more act of compassion to your commitment. Any act large or small will do. When you have arrived at twenty-five acts of compassion in one day you will have integrated compassion as a crucial element of your personal style. From there, the pathway homeward will be evident to you.
~ Practice forgiveness actively. This is one of the simpler and most productive spiritual practices that people have the most difficulty with. Everyone living an incarnate life is there to learn. Learning involves making mistakes. And even if someone harmed you purposefully, maliciously, thoughtlessly-that too is a mistake and needs to be treated that way. Each time you recognize that you are carrying a grudge or have refused to forgive someone for a perceived wrong, add yet another ten pound weight around your neck. Plan on carrying it with you always, until you afford that person complete and unqualified forgiveness for being human. For making mistakes during their learning as you too have made mistakes. For every person you forgive, you can take two ten pound weights off. When you forgive yourself for something you have done, take four weights off.
~ Release completely your fascination and any obsession with "things," especially money. There is nothing wrong, at all, with having money or things. Only in the foolish belief that they matter. Remember, you're not leaving this life with those things and there are no ATM machines in the reality that comes after this one. There are, however, reconciliations and reflections upon the actions you took and the lessons you either learned or failed to learn. When this life is over, that is the only "bankbook" that you will carry with you. And it is that bankbook that will determine what life you lead next time and what "assets" you will go forward with. All that you will ever truly own is what you learn and what you have done.
~ Remember always that everyone you know, see, hear of, think about or even imagine is, was and always will be part of the same Source from which you also derived. That Source is pure, perfect and constructed of absolute love and incomprehensible light energy. That means that every person is so constructed as well. This being the case, you have to accept that there are no evil people. There are no bad people. Only people acting badly. People acting evilly. At one time or another, we all have done things that we regret. Therefore, look beyond the overt actions of people that offend you and accept that deep within them they too are inexorably connected to God in the identical way that you are. They will need to face their actions and reconcile them in the same format that all souls do. For that, we should have compassion for what they have done and wish for them as speedy a path to enlightenment as possible.
If these guidelines seem light years removed from the harsh realities you see around you every day-not to mention every time you look in the mirror-you're not alone. Most of us tend to believe that such a life path is reserved for the saints. But it's within the grasp of all of us, says Graybar . . . and the rewards of following this path are rich beyond imagining.
"All that you seek-everything, all of it; it is there for you to claim," writes Graybar. "I promise you. It lies just beyond the broken gate that we somehow convince ourselves that we, as unredeemable souls that have erred, that have made a few mistakes, are. But the reality is, just beyond the surface that defines our minor imperfections as human beings, you will find absolute, immeasurable and unending beauty, everlasting love and ceaseless compassion, that we derived from. Every one of us, no exceptions. It doesn't matter what you've done or not done, with your life thus far. Only what you choose to do going forward."
Book Description
Beyond the Broken Gate, An Ordinary Man's Extraordinary Journey In Learning Who We Are, Why We Live And Where We're Going.Author Charles Graybar was a fixture in corporate America as a senior executive of a Fortune 100 corporation and sitting member on several boards of directors. As he he reached his early 40's, despite his financial success and accumulation of material "things" he became aware that his life felt tremendously empty. In 1993 while experimenting with a combination of meditation and hybrid contemplation techniques Charles Graybar stumbled across an unprecedented gateway in perception; a state of awareness where he was able to communicate with some form of advanced spiritual entity that he was unable to identify at first. His early training in physics made it nearly impossible to accept what had occured. Over time though, he learned that his discovery was, in fact, real.
Beyond the Broken Gate is a chronicle of Graybar's experiences over the past 10 years and the enlightenment he received from the advanced spiritual entities on questions such as, why we live, what purpose there is in God's allowing suffering to occur, what we're meant to do with our lives and where we're going when we leave this state of awareness.
About The Author:
Charles Graybar started out studying physics and the other core sciences at a young age. In his early 20s he shifted his focus and began a career in the media industry. By his late 30s he had become senior vice president for CapitalCities/ABC and served on several boards of directors. Having completed his professional endeavors, Charles Graybar now considers the tremendous changes he has made in his life. "I made a rather dynamic transformation from a hard-charging Fortune 100 senior executive to a guy that explores spirituality, raises horses and writes books for a living." Besides writing about his spiritual investigations and tending to his horses, Graybar also consults to boards of directors and speaks to groups about his spiritual insights and life transformation.
