Well, I have a hundred
questions. A thousand. A million. And the problem is, I sometimes
don't know where to begin.
Just
list the questions. Just start somewhere. Go ahead, right
now. Make a list of the questions that occur to you.
Okay. Some of them are
going to seem pretty simple, pretty plebeian.
Stop
making judgments against yourself. Just list them.
Right. Well, here are
the ones that occur to me now.
1. When will my life finally take off? What does it
take to "get it together," and achieve even a modicum of success? Can the
struggle ever end?
2. When will I learn
enough about relationships to be able to have them go smoothly? Is there
any way to be happy in relationships? Must they always be constantly
challenging?
3. Why can't I ever
seem to attract enough money in my life? Am I destined to be scrimping and
scraping for the rest of my life? What is blocking me from realizing my
full potential in this regard?
4. Why can't I do what
I really want to do with my life and still make a
living?
5. How can I solve
some of the health problems I face? I have been the victim of enough
chronic problems to last a lifetime. Why am I having them all
now?
6. What is the karmic
lesson I'm supposed to be learning here? What am I trying to
master?
7. is there such a
thing as reincarnation? How many past lives have I had? What was I in
them? Is "karmic debt" a reality?
8. I sometimes feel
very psychic. Is there such a thing as "being psychic"? Am I that? Are
people who claim to be psychic "trafficking with the devil"?
9. Is it okay to take
money for doing good? If I choose to do healing work in the world- God's
work- can I do that and become financially abundant, too? Or are the two
mutually exclusive?
10. Is sex okay?
C'mon- what is the real story behind this human experience? Is sex purely
for procreation, as some religions say? Is true holiness and enlightenment
achieved through denial- or transmutation- of the sexual energy? Is it
okay to have sex without love? Is just the physical sensation of it okay
enough as a reason?
11. Why did you make
sex so good, so spectacular, so powerful a human experience if all we are
to do is stay away from it as much as we can? What gives? For that matter,
why are all fun things either "immoral, illegal, or
fattening"?
12. Is there life on
other planets? Have we been visited by it? Are we being observed now? Will
we see evidence- irrevocable and indisputable- of extraterrestrial life in
our lifetime? Does each form of life have its own God? Are you the God of
It All?
13. Will utopia ever
come to the planet Earth? Will God ever show Himself to Earth's people, as
promised? Is there such a thing as the Second Coming? Will there ever be
an End of the World- or an apocalypse, as prophesied in the Bible? Is
there a one true religion? If so, which one?
These are just a few
of my questions. As I said, I have a hundred more. Some of these questions
embarrass me- they seem so sophomoric. But answer them, please- one at a
time- and let's "talk" about them.
Good. Now we're getting to it. Don't apologize for these
questions. These are the questions men and women have been asking for
hundreds of years. If the questions were so silly, they wouldn't be asked
over and over again by each succeeding generation. So let's go to question
one.
I
have established Laws in the universe that make it possible for you to
have-
to create- exactly what you choose. These Laws cannot be
violated, nor can they be ignored. You are following these Laws right now,
even as you read this. You cannot not follow the Law, for these are the
ways things work. You cannot step aside from this; you cannot operate
outside of it.
Every
minute of your life you have been operating inside of it- and
everything you have ever experienced you have thusly
created.
You
are in a partnership with God. We share an eternal covenant. My promise to
you is to always give you what you ask. Your promise is to ask; to
understand the process of the asking and the answering. I've already
explained this process to you once. I'll do so again, so that you clearly
understand it.
You
are a three-fold being. You consist of body, mind, and
spirit. You could also call these the physical, the
non-physical, and the meta-physical. This is the Holy
Trinity, and it has been called by many names.
That
which you are, I am. I am manifested as Three-in-One. Some of your
theologians have called this Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Your
psychiatrists have recognized this triumvirate and called it conscious,
subconscious, and superconscious.
Your
philosophers have called itthe id, the ego, and the super
ego.
Science
calls this energy, matter, and antimatter.
Poets
speak of mind, heart, and soul. New Age thinkers refer to body, mind, and
spirit.
Your
time is divided into past, present, and future. Could this not be the same
as subconscious, conscious, and superconscious?
Space
is likewise divided into three: here, there, and the space
between.
It
is defining and describing this "space between" that becomes difficult,
elusive. The moment you begin defining or describing, the space you
describe becomes "here" or "there." Yet we know this "space
between" exists. It is what holds "here" and "there" in place- just as the
eternal now holds "before" and "after" in place.
These
three aspects of you are actually three energies. You might call them
thought, word, and action. All three put together produce a
result- which in your language and understanding is called a
feeling, or experience.
Your
soul (subconscious,
id, spirit, past, etc.) is the sum total of every feeling you've ever
had (created). Your awareness of some of these is called your memory.
When you have a memory, you are said to re-member. That is, to put back
together. To reassemble the parts.
When
you reassemble all of the parts of you, you will have re-membered Who You
Really Are.
The
process of creation starts with thought- an idea, conception,
visualization. Everything you see was once someone's idea. Nothing exists
in your world that did not first exist as pure
thought.
This
is true of the universe as well.
Thought
is
the first level of creation.
Next
comes the word. Everything you say is a thought expressed. It is
creative and sends forth creative energy into the universe. Words are more
dynamic (thus, some might say more creative) than thought, because words
are a different level of vibration from thought. They disrupt (change,
alter, affect) the universe with greater impact.
Words
are the second level of creation.
Next
comes action.
Actions
are words moving. Words are thoughts expressed. Thoughts are ideas formed.
Ideas are energies come together. Energies are forces released. Forces are
elements existent. Elements are particles of God, portions of All, the
stuff of everything.
The
beginning is God. The end is action. Action is God creating- or God
experienced.
Your
thought about yourself is that you are not good enough, not wondrous
enough, not sinless enough, to be a part of God, in partnership with God.
You have denied for so long Who You Are that you have forgotten Who
You Are.
This
has not occurred by coincidence; this is not happenstance. It is all part
of the divine plan- for you could not claim, create, experience- Who You
Are if you already were it. It was necessary first for you to release
(deny, forget) your connection to Me in order to fully experience it by
fully creating it- by calling it forth. For your grandest wish- and My
grandest desire- was for you to experience yourself as the part of Me you
are. You are therefore in the process of experiencing yourself by creating
yourself anew in every single moment. As am I. Through
you.
Do
you see the partnership? Do you grasp its implications? It is a holy
collaboration- truly, a holy communion.
Life
will "take off" for you, then, when you choose for it to. You have not so
chosen as yet. You have procrastinated, prolonged, protracted, protested.
Now it is time that you promulgated and produced what you have been
promised. To do this, you must believe the promise, and live it. You
must live the promise of God.
The
promise of God is that you are His son. Her offspring. Its likeness. His
equal.
Ah
... here is where you get hung up. You can accept "His son," "offspring,"
"likeness," but you recoil at being called "His equal." It is too much to
accept. Too much bigness, too much wonderment- too much
responsibility. For if you are God's equal, that means
nothing is being done to you- and all things are created by
you. There can be no more victims and no more villains- only
outcomes of your thought about a thing.
I
tell you this: all you see in your world is the outcome of your idea about
it.
Do
you want your life to truly "take off"? Then change your idea about it.
About you. Think, speak, and act as the God You
Are.
Of
course this will separate you from many- most- of your fellow men. They
will call you crazy. They will say you blaspheme. They will eventually
have enough of you, and they will attempt to crucify
you.
They
will do this not because they think you are living in a world of your own
illusions (most men are gracious enough to allow you your private
entertainments), but because, sooner or later, others will become
attracted to your truth- for the promises it holds for
them.
Here
is where your fellow men will interfere- for here is where you will begin
to threaten them. For your simple truth, simply lived, will offer more
beauty, more comfort, more peace, more joy, and more love of self and
others than anything your earthly fellows could
contrive.
And
that truth, adopted, would mean the end of their ways. It would mean the
end of hatred and fear and bigotry and war. The end of the condemning and
killing that has gone on in My name. The end of might-is-right. The
end of purchase-through-power. The end of loyalty and homage through fear.
The end of the world as they know it- and as you have created it
thus far.
So
be ready, kind soul. For you will be vilified and spat upon, called names,
and deserted, and finally they will accuse you, try you, and condemn you-
all in their own ways- from the moment you accept and adopt your holy
cause- the realization of Self.
Why,
then, do it?
Because
you are no longer concerned with the acceptance or approval of the world.
You are no longer satisfied with what that has brought you. You are no
longer pleased with what it has given others. You want the pain to stop,
the suffering to stop, the illusion to end. You have had enough of this
world as it presently is. You seek a newer world.
Seek
it no longer. Now, call it forth
Can you help me to
better understand how to do that?
Yes.
Go first to your Highest Thought about yourself. Imagine the you that you
would be if you lived that thought every day. Imagine what you would
think, do, and say, and how you would respond to what others do and
say.
Do
you see any difference between that projection and what you think, do, and
say now?
Yes. I see a great
deal of difference.
Good.
You should, since we know that right now you are not living your highest
vision of yourself. Now, having seen the differences between where you are
and where you want to be, begin to change- consciously change- your
thoughts, words, and actions to match your grandest
vision.
This
will require tremendous mental and physical effort. It will entail
constant, moment-to-moment monitoring of your every thought, word, and
deed. It will involve continued choice-making- consciously. This whole
process is a massive move to consciousness. What you will find out if you
undertake this challenge is that you've spent half your life
unconscious. That is to say, unaware on a conscious level of what
you are choosing in the way of thoughts, words, and deeds until you
experience the aftermath of them. Then, when you experience these results,
you deny that your thoughts, words, and deeds had anything to do with
them.
This
is a call to stop such unconscious living. It is a challenge to which your
soul has called you from the beginning of time.
That kind of continual
mental monitoring seems as though it might be terribly
exhausting-
It
could be, until it becomes second nature. In fact, it is your
second nature. It is your first nature to be unconditionally loving. It is
your second nature to choose to express your first nature, your true
nature, consciously.
Excuse me, but
wouldn't this kind of non-stop editing of everything I think, say, and do
"make Jack a dull boy"?
Never.
Different, yes. Dull, no. Was Jesus dull? I don't think so. Was the Buddha
boring to be around? People flocked, begged, to be in his presence. No one
who has attained mastery is dull. Unusual, perhaps. Extraordinary,
perhaps. But never dull.
So-
do you want your life to "take off"? Begin at once to imagine it the
way you want it to be- and move into that. Check every thought, word, and
action that does not fall into harmony with that. Move away from
those.
When
you have a thought that is not in alignment with your higher vision,
change to a new thought, then and there. When you say a thing that
is out of alignment with your grandest idea, make a note not to say
something like that again. When you do a thing that is misaligned with
your best intention, decide to make that the last time. And make it right
with whomever was involved if you can.
I've heard this before
and I've always railed against it, because it seems so dishonest. I mean,
if you're sick as a dog, you're not supposed to admit it. If you're broke
as a pauper, you're never supposed to say it. If you're upset as hell,
you're not supposed to show it. It reminds me of the joke about the three
people who were sent to hell. One was a Catholic, one was a Jew, one was a
New Ager. The devil said to the Catholic, sneeringly, "Well, how are you
enjoying the heat?" And the Catholic sniffled, "I'm offering it up." The
devil then asked the Jew, "And how are you enjoying the heat?" The
Jew said, "So what else could I
expect but more hell?" Finally, the devil approached the New Ager. "Heat?"
the New Ager asked, perspiring. "What heat?"
That's
a good joke. But I'm not talking about ignoring the problem, or pretending
it isn't there. I'm talking about noticing the circumstance, and then
telling your highest truth about it.
If
you're broke, you're broke. It's pointless to lie about it, and actually
debilitating to try to manufacture a story about it so as not to admit it.
Yet it's your thought about it- "Broke is bad," "This is horrible," "I'm a
bad person, because good people who work hard and really try never
go broke," etc.- that rules how you experience "broke-ness." It's your words about it- "I'm
broke," "I haven't a dime," "I don't have any money"- that dictates how
long you stay broke. It's your actions surrounding it- feeling
sorry for yourself, sitting around despondent, not trying to find a way
out because "What's the use, anyway?"- that create your long-term
reality.
The
first thing to understand about the universe is that no condition is
"good" or 'bad." It just is. So stop making value
judgments.
The
second thing to know is that all conditions are temporary. Nothing
stays the same, nothing remains static. Which way a thing changes
depends on you.
Excuse me, but I have
to interrupt you again here. What about the person who is sick, but has
the faith that will move mountains- and so thinks, says, and believes
he's going to get better ... only to die six weeks later. How does
that square with all this positive thinking, affirmative action
stuff?
That's
good. You're asking the tough questions. That's good. You're not simply
taking My word for any of this. There is a place, on down the line, when
you'll have to take My word for this- because eventually
you'll
find that we can discuss this thing forever, you and I- until there's
nothing left to do but to "try it or deny it." But we're not at that place
yet. So let's keep the dialogue going; let's keep
talking-
The
person who has the "faith to move mountains," and dies six weeks later,
has moved mountains for six weeks. That may have been enough for him. He
may have decided, on the last hour of the last day, "Okay, I've had
enough. I'm ready to go on now to another adventure." You may not have
known of that decision, because he may not have told you. The truth is, he
may have made that decision quite a bit earlier- days, weeks earlier- and
not have told you; not have told anyone.
You
have created a society in which it is very not okay to want to die- very
not okay to be very okay with death. Because you don't want to die, you
can't imag- ine anyone waiting to die- no matter what their
circumstances or Condition.
But
there are many situations in which death is preferable to life- which I
know you can imagine if you think about it for even a little bit. Yet,
these truths don't occur to you- they are not that self-evident- when you
are looking in the face someone else who is choosing to die. And the dying
person knows this. She can feel the level of acceptance in the room
regarding her decision.
Have
you ever noticed how many people wait until the room is empty before they
die? Some even have to tell their loved ones- "No, really, go. Get a bite
to eat." Or "Go, get some sleep. I'm fine. I'll see you in the morning."
And then, when the loyal guard leaves, so does the soul from the body of
the guarded.
If
they told their assembled relatives and friends, 'I just want to die,'
they would really hear it. 'Oh, you don't mean that,' or 'Now, don't talk
that way," or 'Hang in there,' or 'Please don't leave
me."
The
entire medical profession is trained to keep people alive, rather than
keeping people comfortable so
that they can die with dignity.
You
see, to a doctor or a nurse, death is failure. To a friend or relative,
death is disaster. Only to the soul is death a relief-a release.
The
greatest gift you can give the dying is to let them die in peace- not
thinking that they must "hang on," or continue to suffer, or worry about
you at this most crucial passage in their life.
So
this is very often what has happened in the case of the man who says he's
going to live, believes he's going to live, even prays to live: that at
the soul level, he has "changed his mind." It is time now to drop the body
to free the soul for other pursuits. When the soul makes this decision,
nothing the body does can change it. Nothing the mind thinks can alter it.
It is at the moment of death that we learn who, in the body-mind-soul
triumvirate, is running things.
All
your life you think you are your body. Some of the time you think you are
your mind. it is at the time of your death that you find out Who You
Really Are.
Now
there are also times when the body and the mind are just not listening
to the soul. This, too, creates the scenario you describe. The most
difficult thing for people to do is hear their own soul. (Notice that so
few do.)
Now
it happens often that the souI makes a decision that it is time to leave
the body. The body and the mind- ever servants of the soul- hear this, and
the process of extrication begins. Yet the mind (ego) doesn't want to
accept. After all, this is the end of its existence. So it instructs the
body to resist death. This the body does gladly, since it too does not
want to die. The body and the mind (ego) receive great encouragement,
great praise for this from the outside world- the world of its creation.
So the strategy is confirmed.
Now
at this point everything depends on how badly the soul wants to leave. If
there is no great urgency here, the soul may say, "Alright, you win. I'll
stick around with you a little longer." But if the soul is very clear that
staying
does not serve its higher agenda- that there is no further way it can
evolve through this body- the soul is going to leave, and nothing
will stop it- nor should anything try to.
The
soul is very clear that its purpose is evolution. That is its sole
purpose- and its soul purpose. It is not concerned with the
achievements of the body or the development of the mind. These are all
meaningless to the soul.
The
soul is also clear that there is no great tragedy involved in leaving the
body. In many ways, the tragedy is being in the body. So you have
to understand, the soul sees this whole death thing differently. It, of
course, sees the whole "life thing" differently, too- and that is the
source of much of the frustration and anxiety one feels in one's life. The
frustration and anxiety comes from not listening to one's soul.
How can I best listen
to my soul? If the soul is the boss, really, how can I make sure I get
those memos from the front office?
The
first thing you might do is get clear about what the soul is after- and
stop making judgments about it.
I'm making judgments
about my own soul?
Constantly.
I just showed you how you judge yourself for wanting to die. You also
judge yourself for wanting to live- truly live. You judge yourself
for wanting to laugh, wanting to cry, wanting to win, wanting to lose- for
wanting to experience joy and love- especially do you judge
yourself for that.
I do?
Somewhere
you've come across the idea that to deny yourself joy is Godly-
that not to celebrate life is heavenly. Denial, you have told
yourself, is goodness.
Are you saying
it is bad?
It
is neither good nor bad, it is simply denial. If you feel good after
denying yourself, then in your world that is goodness. If you feel bad,
then it's badness. Most of the time, you can't decide. You deny yourself
this or that because you tell yourself you are supposed to. Then you say
that was a good thing to do- but wonder why you don't feel
good.
And
so the first thing to do is to stop making these judgments against
yourself. Learn what is the soul's desire, and go with that. Go with the
soul.
What
the soul is after is- the highest feeling of love you can imagine. This is
the soul's desire. This is its purpose. The soul is after the feeling. Not
the knowl- edge, but the feeling. It already has the knowledge, but
knowledge is conceptual. Feeling is experiential. The soul wants to feel
itself, and thus to know itself in its own
experience.
The
highest feeling is the experience of unity with All That Is. This is the
great return to Truth for which the soul yearns. This is the feeling of
perfect love.
Perfect
love is to feeling what perfect white is to color. Many think that white
is the absence of color. It is
not. It is the inclusion of all color. White is every other color that
exists, combined.
So,
too, is love not the absence of an emotion (hatred, anger, lust, jealousy,
covetousness), but the summation of all feeling. It is the sum total. The
aggre- gate amount. The everything.
Thus,
for the soul to experience perfect love, it must experience every human
feeling.
How
can I have compassion on that which I don't understand? How can I, forgive
in another that which I have never experienced in Myself? So we see both
the simplicity and the awesome magnitude of the soul's journey. We
understand at last what it is up to:
The
purpose of the human soul is to experience all of it- so that it can be
all of it.
How
can it be up if it has never been down, left if it has never been right?
How can it be warm if it knows not cold, good if it denies evil? Obviously
the soul cannot choose to be anything if there is nothing to choose
from. For the soul to experience its grandeur, it must know what
grandeur is. This it cannot do if there is nothing but grandeur. And
so the soul realizes that grandeur only exists in the space of that which
is not grand. The soul, therefore, never condemns that which is not
grand, but blesses- seeing in it a part of itself which
must exist for another part of itself to
manifest.
The
job of the soul, of course, is to cause us to choose the grandeur- to
select the best of Who You Are- without condemning that which you do not
select.
This
is a big task, taking many lifetimes, for you are wont to rush to
judgment, to call a thing "wrong" or "bad" or "not enough," rather than to
bless what you do not choose.
You
do worse than condemn- you actually seek to do harm to that which you do
not choose. You seek to destroy it. If there is a person, place, or thing
with which you do not agree, you attack it. If there is a religion that
goes against yours, you make it wrong. If there is a thought that
contradicts yours, you ridicule it. If there is an idea other than yours,
you reject it. In this you err, for you create only half a universe. And
you cannot even understand your half when you have rejected out
of hand the other.
This is all very
profound- and I thank you. No one has ever said these things to me. At
least, not with such simplicity. And I am trying to understand. Really, I
am. Yet some of this is difficult to grapple with. You seem to be saying,
for instance, that we should love the "wrong" so that we can know the
"right." Are you saying we must embrace the devil, so to speak?
How
else do you heal him? Of course, a real devil does not exist- but I reply
to you in the idiom you choose.
Healing
is the process of accepting all,then choosing best. Do you understand
that? You cannot choose to be God if there is nothing else to choose
from.
Oops, hold it! Who
said anything about choosing to be God?
The
highest feeling is perfect love, is it not?
Yes, I should
think so.
And
can you find a better description of God?
No, I cannot.
Well,
your soul seeks the highest feeling. It seeks to experience- to be-
perfect love.
It
is perfect love- and it knows this. Yet it wishes to do
more than know it. It wishes to be it in its
experience.
Of
course you are seeking to be God! What else did you think you were up
to?
I don't know. I'm not
sure. I guess I just never thought of it that way. There just seems to be
something vaguely blasphemous about that.
Isn't
it interesting that you find nothing blasphemous about seeking to be like
the devil, but seeking to be Iike God offends you-
Now wait minute! Who's
seeking to be like the devil?
You
are! You all are! You've even created religions that tell you that
you are born in sin- that you are sinners at birth- in order to
convince yourselves of your own evil. Yet if I told you you are born of
God- that
you
are pure Gods and Goddesses at birth- pure love- you would reject
me.
All
your life you have spent convincing yourself that you are bad. Not only
that you are bad, but that the things you want are bad. Sex is bad, money
is bad, joy is bad, power is bad, having a lot is bad- a lot of
anything. Some of your religions have even got you believing that
dancing is bad, music is bad, celebrating life is
bad. Soon you'll agree that smiling is bad, laughing is bad, loving
is bad.
No,
no, my friend, you may not be very clear about many things, but about one
thing you are clear: you, and most of what you desire, are bad.
Having made this judgment about yourself, you have decided that your job
is to get better.
It's
okay, mind you. It's the same destination in any event- it's just that
there's a faster way, a shorter route, a quicker path.
Which is?
Acceptance
of Who and What You Are right now- and demonstration of that.
This
is what Jesus did. It is the path of the Buddha, the way of Krishna, the
walk of every Master who has appeared on the planet.
And
every Master has likewise had the same message: What I am, you are. What I
can do, you can do. These things, and more, shall you also do.
Yet
you have not listened. You have chosen instead the far more difficult path
of one who thinks he is the devil, one who imagines he is
evil.
You
say it is difficult to walk the path of Christ, to follow the teachings of
the Buddha, to hold the light of Krishna, to be a Master. Yet I tell you
this: it is far more difficult to deny Who You Are than to accept
it.
You
are goodness and mercy and compassion and understanding. You are peace and
joy and light. You are forgiveness and patience, strength and courage, a
helper in time of need, a comforter in time of sorrow, a healer in time of
injury, a teacher in times of confusion. You are the deepest wisdom and
the highest truth; the greatest peace and the grandest love. You are these
things. And in moments of your life you have known yourself as
these things.
Choose
now to know yourself as these things always.
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