The Scroll ©

By

W. Isaac Norris III

Many years ago, as a young man in the Service of my Country I was sent to Libya, a far Country in North Africa.  There, many thousands of miles away from my native home in Texas I learned to ride horses.

I was a member of a Western Riding Club.  Many times we took trails rides out to the edge of the Libyan Desert, where we bought and traded horses with the Nomadic Tribes of the desert.

About a month or so before I came back to the States, we took a trail ride out to meet a tribe of Bedouin.  As always we looked at the horses talked and traded with the men of the tribe. 

This time, I met an old man of the tribe that for some reason we connected on a plane I had never been on before.    He was old, how old?  I could not tell then, nor would I now from a distance of 30 or more years venture to guess.  We sat by the old man’s fire.  His name was Tala.  As we sat by the fire he honored me by allowing me to eat with him.  We had Cous Cous with vegetables and young camel meat.  Tala was a very good host.  His wife, of whom he had many, kept our bowl full as we ate from a community pot. Just Tala and I.  The Women were eating at a nearby fire from which they fulfilled Tala’s every wish.

As we sat and talked we shared many things, which isn’t normally shared with a stranger, especially one so much older and from another culture also.  As we talked a bond began to form between us.  It was if I was talking to the Grandfather that I had never known.  For hours we talked until finally he told me to wait and in a dialect I had never heard before he spoke to his eldest wife and she to the youngest.  Then from the depths of their tent, The youngest brought out a beautifully carve teak chest about the size of a students notebook.  The color of ancient brandy yet polished to a high gleam.  From his tunic he withdrew a gold key on a gold chain with which he unlocked the chest.  From the Chest he took out a scroll, which he told me, had belonged to his Father.  Since he had no male children he asked me to take it and give it to my eldest male child when I neared the end of my trail as he was nearing his.  I thanked him and we talked for only a little longer when he said he was tired and wished to rest. 

I left him and joined the rest of the trail riders who were wondering how I had managed to get to meet the Chief of the Entire Bedouin Nation.  I had no idea whom I was talking to, I was having too much fun I guess.  He was very interesting.  I never told anyone of the scroll.  When I unrolled it.  It was about two feet long and twelve inches wide.  I couldn’t read it as it was in “Arabic”.

I put the scroll away when we returned from our trail ride.  For many years I carried It around from country to country, state to state and city to city.  Things went from bad to worse.  It seemed that no matter how bad things got they could always get worse.  One marriage, two, three, then four, from woman to woman, jail to prison I went.  At times it seemed as if the golden ring was just within reach and I would fall off the pony, no gold ring and no pony either.

Years and years of this it went on, until one day my young son of four or five was digging through some old boxes as young boys do, when I saw him pull out this old white scroll still tied with the same camel skin string.  I don’t know what made me do it, but I grabbed the scroll and my son.  I didn’t know why but I just had to hug him.  I felt more Love for him than at any time in his life and I always loved that boy, still do.

I took the scroll from him. At this time we lived a few miles from a large University which had a world renown language department.  I made an appointment with the Professor of Arabic Studies.

When I showed him the scroll he became all excited and wanted to buy the scroll.  When I refused he said it was only an old inventory list, but that it was from an era he was studying at this time.  I think he thought I just fell off the cabbage truck.  I thank him and said, ”no thanks”, then I left.  On the way out I met an  Arabic  lady in the hall.  I asked her directions about how to get out of the University, I  was lost.  I thought she was looking at me strangely and she did look familiar.  As we spoke she asked if I had ever been in Libya. I said why yes.  Then she asked if I had ever met an old Bedouin there named Tala. 

From the shocked look on my face, she could tell I had.  It was Tala’s youngest wife.  We went to coffee together and she ask me if it was her husband’s scroll I was trying to get translated.  When I said it was.   She said she would be happy to translate it for me.  She suggested we go to her apartment where it was quieter and more private.  So, away to her apartment we went.

It was in a quiet part of the city away from the hustle and bustle of the University and the party part of town.  Her apartment was in a quiet unassuming building.  The inside was something else though, as you walked in it was as if you had walled into a Bedouin Tent.  Fabric hung from the walls and ceiling giving the impression of a tent.  There were Persian rugs on the floor with pillows all around.  As I walked into the room my feet sank into the carpet.  It was totally luxurious.

Her name was Talaha.  She told me that the day after her husband had passed on the scroll to me and I had departed that he had died in his sleep, very peacefully with no pain.

She asks me if I had not had the scroll translated before this.  I said no, that being so young I had no idea what it was and still didn’t.  She looked at me with a sad look and told me I had untold riches with me all this time.  I asked her what was it a map to a buried treasure or a gold mine.  She laughed and said no far better for I had been given the secret of happiness, how to have everything in the world I could ever want.

I looked at her as if she were crazy.  She said truly, what she said was the truth and she began to translate the scroll.  This is what it said

My child it does not matter in life where you are.  All that matters is that you know where you wish to go.  You may start from where ever you are to go to where you wish to be.  The important thing is to start from where you are and be willing to take total responsibility for where you are now.  To realize that only you and no one else brought you to where you are today.

Know that the world is yours if only you have the willingness to start on the path to securing it .  That is the first step

1.                                    Be willing to take responsibility for where you are and how you arrived there.  Realize only you brought you here and only you can take you out of here.  That all you have to do is take the first step and be willing to go to where your happiness lies.  THAT IS ALL…JUST BE WILLING TO BE WILLING.

This will start you on a journey that you will never find an end to, but then it is such a great journey, you will never want it to end and it never will.   Take the first step and be willing to be willing. That is it the first step.

     Then know that Love is all you need to get everything you want.  Notice I said everything not anything you want.  For if I said anything, then I would be limiting you and there are no limits.  You can go anywhere, do anything, be  anyone you wish to be.  The second step then know there are no limits, but know what and where you wish to go and be.  For with out direction it is like taking a trip and not having a map.  You may go, but you never know when you have arrived.  So that is step number two.

2.                                    Know where you are going and what you want to find when you get there.  Know who you want to be.  Remember after being willing to be willing you must change your thinking.  I don’t mean just thinking positive thoughts.  I mean change your thinking.  Watch each thought  that enters your head and don’t allow negative thoughts of any kind to enter.  If a negative thought does enter, change the negative thought to a good one.  JUST CHANGE YOUR THINKING AND YOU WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

This then is the secret of Life.  It is so simple yet will be the hardest thing you will ever do in your life.  Do this and you to will be chief of your own tribe as I am.

          I sat there stunned it was so simple yet could that be all there was to Life just then I looked at Talaha and I could see in her smile that yes that is all there is to life.

As I sat there looking at her in stunned silence.  She told me even tho this is the secret of life and that is all there is She handed me another scroll.  She told me Tala had wanted me to have this also.  He had however grown quiet tired and I had left the next morning before he realized we were gone.  He had given her the scroll and a mission to deliver it to me.  It took her many years and serendipity but here it was finally delivered.

I began to read the new scroll in rapt attention a new way of life unfolded before me.  It was called “THE ROYAL ROAD OF RICHES’.

THE

       ROYAL

                ROAD

                          OF

                           RICHES

ROYAL ROAD OF RICHES

Introduction

Have you ever known you were destined for something? I have known all of my life I was bound for greatness and great wealth.  Do I have greatness and great wealth?  In my mind I do.  At this time I am a legend in my own mind. I see it everywhere I go.  It is in my dreams, my daydreams my night dreams that is all I can think of most of the time.  I know there is more.

This attitude has taken me through being shot, four divorces, a stroke, several major surgeries and two heart attacks.   I still believe the cloud has a silver lining. Each and every day I know I am closer and closer to my city of Gold, my El Dorado. 

I have discovered that heaven is not in the here after, but in the here and now.  Hell is here now also if I allow it to be.  All I have to do is change my mind and the way I see the things that happen to me.  It is not what happens to me, but my attitude toward what happens.  Every thing is a blessing or a curse.  It is only in the way I perceive any event.  I can triumph or be devastated.  It is always my choice. 

Any time I can step back when events occur and say to myself “Now isn’t that interesting”.  In that first moment I make the choice to be a winner or a loser and I am a winner.

The mind is a peculiar thing to behold.  You can live totally in the memories of the past or the fears of the future.  Now the past is gone I can’t change them but I can chose how to look at them or whether or not to look at them at all.  The future is here and I can choose to fear it or I can choose to live in the here and now and be in the gift of the moment.  That is why it is called the present, for it is a gift to us.

We create all that happens to us by the thoughts we have.  Have good thoughts and have a good life.  Have bad and sad thoughts and have a sad and bad life.  It really is that simple.

The Bible tells us to “be ye renewed by the renewing of your mind.”  Over and over the scriptures tells.  As you believe in your heart so it is.  It is done unto you as you believe. If you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains.  Are there any mountains in your life you wish to move?  Join me on the Royal Road to Riches and find out how to move these mountains.

ROYAL

ROAD

OF

 RICHES

CHAPTER ONE

START WHERE YOU ARE

The first thing we have to do is start.  We do that by taking a good hard look at where we are right now.  Be honest with your evaluation.  It doesn’t matter where we are or where we think we are.  It is never as bad as we think it is 

The great thing about the mind is the way it multiplies things.  It will take the smallest item and the next thing you know it is Mount Everest.  Likewise it can take the plainest guy or girl in the world and to you they can be the handsomest or the most beautiful if you think they are.  We see what our mind wants us to see at all times.  If you don’t believe it go to a nightclub at closing time and watch just how much prettier people appear than when we first saw then as we first arrived.  No we aren’t crazy we are just so amazingly creative.  We create every thing around us. 

The first lesson in “ A Course in Miracles’ tells us “Nothing I see…means anything.”  The second lesson tells us “I have given everything I see…all the meaning it has for me.”

Does this mean nothing is real.  It means it is only as real as we think it is.  We give the meaning to all we see, feel and experience.  We create our own heaven or hell, right here, right now.  We are never punished for our transgressions, we are always punished by our transgressions.  Everything starts with a thought, our thought.

The Royal Road of Riches is not a destination, it is a journey, it is an experience, a process.  This can be joy or not, it is our choice.  But you say your life is not joy.  So, make another choice, choose again and do what is necessary to get what you believe to be joy into your life.

Is that man or woman treating you bad, why are you allowing it to happen.  You say you have no choice, yes you do you always have a choice.  Sure it may be rough for a while if you leave, but think of the peace of not having that other one around.  Wouldn’t that peace be worth leaving, even if that was all you got? 

Don’t even think of changing that other person.  We have no control over others, only over our own actions. We can not change them we can change ourselves.  Take responsibility for where you are, you brought yourself to this point in life.  Once we leave home then we can no longer blame others.   Not our parents, not our mates or partners, not our brothers or sisters.  No one is to blame.  Look at ourselves for we and we alone brought us to this point in life.  Think about it.  Who has always been there each and every time.  You moved for a new start and all the old problems kept popping up.  What was the common denominator.  That’s right we were.  There we were each and every time.    

If there was less than a good life with your parents, even abuse  GET OVER IT.  There is good news.  If you were abused, you will never abuse another. You know how it felt and you will never do that to another human being .  Whatever mistakes you saw your parents make you will never make those in your own life.  You have your own mistakes to make, why waste time making those of your parents all over again?  This is not to say you won’t make mistakes.  You will, just not the ones you saw your parents make.

You have a chance to have everything you have ever wanted.  Did you hear, I said everything you wanted not just anything.  If I said anything I would be limiting you and there are no limits on you.  You are an unlimited, highly creative being.  There is nothing you can not  do, be or become.  Live in this new sense of freedom.

Your life is yours to live any way you want to.  Oh, you have responsibilities now, well whose choice was it to have those responsibilities.  If they aren’t yours then leave them to who they belong to.  If they are yours take care of them and your time will come.  When do you start?

CHAPTER TWO

START NOW

So we start where we are and we start now this very instant by making a conscious decision that our life is going to change and we are going to change it.  No one is going to change it for us.  We have to do this for ourselves.  If someone else could change us where would our freedom, our liberty, our choice be?  It wouldn’t, we would be automatons or robots, which many of us have allowed ourselves to become. 

That can and will change this very minute.  Say right this very minute,  I am free, no one controls me and I control no one.  I live my life and I release all those around me to live their lives. 

There, didn’t that feel good?

If you are in a dangerous position or place in life. Protect yourself and your children if they are a part of this.  If not, protect yourself,   take the first chance you have and run to freedom.  If you have children get them out of there.  There are always places you can go to seek help.  If you are in a small town or community , take every penny you can lay your hands on and get out of there to a larger city where there are agencies to assist you.  Be very careful, you can do it I know you can.

Yes, it may seem hard at first but the more you think about it the easier it will come.  From this moment on you are free.  Doesn’t that feel good.  Close your eyes and imagine or pretend how good that feels to be free.  Never again in bondage to anyone.  You can do it.  I believe in you. I know you are greater than you think you are.

You are numero uno.  You are number one.

CHAPTER THREE

YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE!!!

I cannot repeat this enough YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  If you get nothing from this book, get this, YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.

YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE. YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE

YES, YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.

There is nothing you can’t do.  If you can think and feel it, you can do it.  If you can think and feel it, you are it.

At this time it is in the invisible where all things begin.  All things begin with a thought, even the largest building began with a thought.  If you desire it, it is from God.  God sends us nothing that is not from him.  If it harms no one or anything and benefits you, it is yours, and it is from God.  This is a very great power we have.  It is our responsibility to use this power for good.  We are so powerfully creative, there is nothing we can not bring to pass if we only believe. 

This is the secret to it all we must believe in the one that created us to be  so  creatively powerful, GOD.  Most of all we must believe in ourselves. God has done for us all he will ever do.  He created us perfect.  He gave us at birth all we would ever need.  There is no original sin.  It is learned, we teach our children all those things they should not do by all of our nos.  If we taught more yes’s we wold have more pleasant children and a better, more positive world

The Key is to believe in you.

CHAPTER FOUR

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Yes the key is to BELIEVE IN YOURSELVE.  If you don’t do it, who will?  No one wants you to succeed like you do.  Do you think Bill Gates has self-doubts? YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  Remember this always. YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.  There is no one else on earth like you.  You are an individual.  You were created for a special purpose.  There is a job only you can do; no one else can do this job for it is yours alone.  It may be to give birth, raise and educate the next President of the United States or the next Dali Lama.  It may be to BE the next President or the next Dali Lama.  Who better than you or me.?  WE are the best there is, there are none better than us.

There are no small jobs, only small thinkers.  What ever you are doing, do it to the very best of your ability.  If you are making the bed, do it the very best you can.  Even something as simple as making the bed. Do it the best you can.  It is a life principle.  Anything you do comes back to you.  Do something Half – way and you get a half-way life.  It is true anything worth doing is worth doing right and doing right the first time or at least doing to the best of your ability.  You have to believe in yourself. 

There is a saying “that in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king”.  Be a King for the world is blind, believe in yourself and know you are greater than you think you are.   There are a lot of blind people out there.  Meaning even though you may not be an expert don’t worry very few people are experts and anything you know is more than they know.  Don’t rip off anyone but don’t let the “I’m not an expert” excuse stop you, nobody are experts when they first start.  They just do it and learn as they go.  JUST DO IT.  Believe in yourself for YOU ARE  GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.   I don’t even know you and I know YOU ARE GREATER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE. 

Believe in yourself.  The one thing consistent in all of the miracles of Christ was he told each and every person “it is done unto you as you believe”.  I am telling each and every one of you “It is done unto you as you believe”.

Christ also ask the question “Would you be healed?’  I also ask you now , today  “ Would you be healed?”

  Just Do It and Do It Now. Whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you are right.

Who am I to preach to you.  I am someone that had the worst attitude in the world and everything you can imagine happened to me. Divorces, I was shot in the chest, experienced stroke, heart attacks, no money.  You name it and it happened to me.  Been there, done that.  No more.  My life is great.  Wonderful relationships, travel, the good life and it is getting better. 

The Secret is If I help you then I’ll be helped.  Whatever I do and think about for others will be true for me.  So I want the best for you now and always. 

I don’t want to give you a hand out.  I want to give you a hand up.  I want to teach you that you do not need to depend on anyone, but yourself.  The helping hand you need is on the end of your wrist.

Every day brings us a new start and you can do it. 

This is your hand book to a new life.  Together we will build it.  I am with you every step of the way.

RULES OF THE ROAD

I.                  Start where you are…

II.              Start now

III.         Believe in your self

IV.          You are greater than you think you are.

I am traveling this Royal Road of Riches and you can too. 

You ask how can I get started?  If you are reading this  you have started.  Make a conscious decision that you are going to walk the Royal Road of Riches and from where you are right now the path will always appear beneath you feet.  There is no right or wrong ways to do it.  There is only your way to do it.  It is your path and yours alone.  God will guide you if you allow him and even if you don’t consciously follow him he will still move you in the direction He wants you to go.  The power is within. It is in you to do whatever you want to do, Just do it.  Remember the secret is don’t hurt or deprive another.  There is no lack in this world, we just have not been taught how to accept our good.  The World doesn’t owe us anything, however the Universe owes us everything.  Accept it today for it is ours.