You have come here to work out an individual plan for your own salvation. Yet salvation does not mean saving yourself from the snares of the devil. There is no such thing as the devil, and hell does not exist. You are saving yourself from the oblivion of non-realization.
You cannot lose in this battle. You cannot fail. Thus it is not a battle at all, but simply a process.
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 knowledge, 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 aggregate 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. [...] There is nothing to do but to be.
Be what?
Whatever you want to be. Happy. Sad. Weak. Strong. Joyful. Vengeful. Insightful. Blind. Good. Bad. Male. Female. You name it. I mean that literally. You name it. [...]
So, in seeking to be Me, the soul has a grand job ahead of it; an enormous menu of beingness from which to choose. And that is what it is doing in this moment now.
Choosing states of being.
Yes — and then producing the right and perfect conditions within which to create the experience of that. It is therefore true that nothing happens to you or through you that is not for your own highest good.
The first question in any interactive process with another is: now Who Am I, and Who Do I Want to Be, in relationship to that?
Often you do not remember Who You Are, and do not know Who You Want to Be until you try out a few ways of being. That is why honoring your truest feelings is so important.
If your first feeling is a negative feeling, simply having the feeling is frequently all that is needed to step away from it. It is when you have the anger, have the upset, have the disgust, have the rage, own the feeling of wanting to “hurt back,” that you can disown these first feelings as “not Who You Want to Be.”
The Master is one who has lived through enough such experiences to know in advance what her final choices are. She does not need to “try out” anything. She’s worn these clothes before and knows they do not fit; they are not “her.” And since a Master’s life is devoted to the constant realization of Self as one knows oneself to be, such ill-fitting feelings would never be entertained.
You cannot hold in “you,” because you are as boundless as the Universe. Yet you can create a concept about your boundless self by imagining, and then accepting, boundaries.
In a sense, this is the only way you can know yourself as anything in particular.
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.
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.
Learn what is the soul’s desire, and go with that. Go with the soul.
You are not on this planet to produce anything with your body. You are on this planet to produce something with your soul. Your body is simply and merely the tool of your soul. Your mind is the power that makes the body go. So what you have here is a power tool, used in the creation of the soul’s desire. [...]
The function of the soul is to indicate its desire, not impose it.
The function of the mind is to choose from its alternatives.
The function of the body is to act out that choice.
When body, mind, and soul create together, in harmony and in unity, God is made flesh.
Then does the soul know itself in its own experience. Then do the heavens rejoice.
It's easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange.
The function of the soul is to indicate its desire, not impose it.
The function of the mind is to choose from its alternatives.
The function of the body is to act out that choice.
When body, mind, and soul create together, in harmony and in unity, God is made flesh.
[The soul] sees the whole “life thing” differently — 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 and 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. [...]
There just seems to be something vaguely blasphemous about [seeking to be God].
Isn’t it interesting that you find nothing blasphemous about seeking to be like the devil, but seeking to be like God offends you—
Now wait a 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.
There’s nothing “wrong” with anything. “Wrong” is a relative term, indicating the opposite of that which you call “right.” Yet, what is “right”? Can you be truly objective in these matters? Or are “right” and “wrong” simply descriptions overlaid on events and circumstances by you, out of your decision about them?
And what, pray tell, forms the basis of your decision? Your own experience! No. In most cases, you’ve chosen to accept someone else’s decision. Someone who came before you and, presumably, knows better. Very few of your daily decisions about what is “right” and “wrong” are being made by you, based on your understanding.
This is especially true on important matters. In fact, the more important the matter, the less likely are you to listen to your own experience, and the more ready you seem to be to make someone else’s ideas your own.
This explains why you’ve given up virtually total control over certain areas of your life, and certain questions that arise within the human experience.
These areas and questions very often include the subjects most vital to your soul: the nature of God; the nature of true morality; the question of ultimate reality; the issues of life and death surrounding war, medicine, abortion, euthanasia, the whole sum and substance of personal values, structures, judgments. These most of you have abrogated, assigned to others. You don’t want to make your own decisions about them.
“Someone else decide! I’ll go along, I’ll go along!” you shout. “Someone else just tell me what’s right and wrong!”
This is why, by the way, human religions are so popular. It almost doesn’t matter what the belief system is, as long as it’s firm, consistent, clear in its expectation of the follower, and rigid. Given those characteristics, you can find people who believe in almost anything. The strangest behavior and belief can be — has been — attributed to God. It’s God’s way, they say. God’s word.
And there are those who will accept that. Gladly. Because, you see, it eliminates the need to think.
Now, let’s think about killing. Can there ever be a justifiable reason for killing anything? Think about it. You’ll find you need no outside authority to give you direction, no higher source to supply you with answers. If you think about it, if you look to see what you feel about it, the answers will be obvious to you, and you will act accordingly. This is called acting on your own authority.
It is when you act on the authority of others that you get yourself into trouble. Should states and nations use killing to achieve their political objectives? Should religions use killing to enforce their theological imperatives? Should societies use killing as a response to those who violate behavioral codes?
Is killing an appropriate political remedy, spiritual convincer, or societal problem solver?
Now, is killing something you can do if someone is trying to kill you? Would you use killing force to defend the life of a loved one? Someone you didn’t even know?
Is killing a proper form of defense against those who would kill if they are not in some other way stopped?
Is there a difference between killing and murder?
The state would have you believe that killing to complete a purely political agenda is perfectly defensible. In fact, the state needs you to take its word on this in order to exist as an entity of power.
Religions would have you believe that killing to spread and maintain knowledge of, and adherence to, their particular truth is perfectly defensible. In fact, religions require you to take their word on this in order to exist as an entity of power.
Society would have you believe that killing to punish those who commit certain offenses (these have changed through the years) is perfectly defensible. In fact, society must have you take its word for it in order to exist as an entity of power.
Do you believe these positions are correct? Have you taken another’s word for it? What does your Self have to say?
There is no “right” or “wrong” in these matters.
But by your decisions you paint a portrait of Who You Are.
Indeed, by their decisions your states and nations have already painted such pictures.
By their decisions your religions have created lasting, indelible impressions. By their decisions your societies have produced their self-portraits, too.
Are you pleased with these pictures? Are these the impressions you wish to make? Do these portraits represent Who You Are? Be careful of these questions. They may require you to think. Thinking is hard. Making value judgments is difficult. It places you at pure creation, because there are so many times you’ll have to say, “I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Yet still you’ll have to decide. And so you’ll have to choose. You’ll have to make an arbitrary choice.
Such a choice — a decision coming from no previous personal knowledge — is called pure creation. And the individual is aware, deeply aware, that in the making of such decisions is the Self created.
Most of you are not interested in such important work. Most of you would rather leave that to others. And so most of you are not self-created, but creatures of habit — other-created creatures.
People tend to live up to our expectations of them.
Something like that. I don’t like the word “expectations” here.
Expectations ruin relationships. Let’s say that people tend to see in themselves what we see in them. The grander our vision, the grander their willingness to access and display the part of them we have shown them.
Isn’t that how all truly blessed relationships work? Isn’t that part of the healing process — the process by which we give people permission to “let go” of every false thought they’ve ever had about themselves?
Desire is the beginning of all creation. It is first thought. It is a grand feeling within the soul. It is God, choosing what next to create. [...]
Often a person on what you call a spiritual path looks like he has renounced all earthly passion, all human desire. What he has done is understand it, see the illusion, and step aside from the passions that do not serve him — all the while loving the illusion for what it has brought to him: the chance to be wholly free.
Passion is the love of turning being into action. It fuels the engine of creation. It changes concept to experience.
Passion is the fire that drives us to express who we really are. Never deny passion, for that is to deny Who You Are and Who You Truly Want to Be.
The renunciate never denies passion — the renunciate simply denies attachment to results. Passion is a love of doing. Doing is being, experienced. Yet what is often created as part of doing? Expectation.
To live your life without expectation — without the need for specific results — that is freedom. That is Godliness. That is how I live.
You are not attached to results?
Absolutely not. My joy is in the creating, not in the aftermath. Renunciation is not a decision to deny action. Renunciation is a decision to deny a need for a particular result. There is a vast difference.
Could you explain what You mean by the statement, “Passion is the love of turning being into action”?
Beingness is the highest state of existence. It is the purest essence. It is the “now-not now,” the “all-not all,” the “always-never” aspect of God. Pure being is pure God-ing.
Yet it has never been enough for us to simply be. We have always yearned to experience What We Are — and that requires a whole other aspect of divinity, called doing.
Let us say that you are, at the core of your wonderful Self, that aspect of divinity called love. (This is, by the way, the Truth of you.) Now it is one thing to be love — and quite another thing to do something loving. The soul longs to do something about what it is, in order that it might know itself in its own experience. So it will seek to realize its highest idea through action.
This urge to do this is called passion. Kill passion and you kill God. Passion is God wanting to say “hi.”
But, you see, once God (or God-in-you) does that loving thing, God has realized Itself, and needs nothing more.
Man, on the other hand, often feels he needs a return on his investment. If we’re going to love somebody, fine — but we’d better get some love back. That sort of thing.
This is not passion. This is expectation.
This is the greatest source of man’s unhappiness. It is what separates man from God.
You can create Who You Are over and over again. Indeed, you do — every day. As things now stand, you do not always come up with the same answer, however. Given an identical outer experience, on day one you may choose to be patient, loving, and kind in relationship to it. On day two you may choose to be angry, ugly, and sad.
The Master is one who always comes up with the same answer — and that answer is always the highest choice.
In this the Master is imminently predictable. Conversely, the student is completely unpredictable. One can tell how one is doing on the road to mastery by simply noticing how predictably one makes the highest choice in responding or reacting to any situation.
Of course, this throws open the question, what choice is highest?
That is a question around which have revolved the philosophies and theologies of man since the beginning of time. If the question truly engages you, you are already on your way to mastery. For it is still true that most people continue to be engaged by another question altogether. Not, what is the highest choice, but, what is the most profitable? Or, how can I lose the least?
When life is lived from a standpoint of damage control or optimum advantage, the true benefit of life is forfeited. The opportunity is lost. The chance is missed. For a life lived thusly is a life lived from fear — and that life speaks a lie about you.
For you are not fear, you are love. Love that needs no protection, love that cannot be lost. Yet you will never know this in your experience if you continually answer the second question and not the first. For only a person who thinks there is something to gain or to lose asks the second question. And only a person who sees life in a different way; who sees Self as a higher being; who understands that winning or losing is not the test, but only loving or failing to love — only that person asks the first.
He who asks the second question says, “I am my body.” She who asks the first says, “I am my soul.” [...]
That is why Masters are imperturbable in the face of what others might call calamity. A Master blesses calamity, for the Master knows that from the seeds of disaster (and all experience) comes the growth of Self. And the Master’s second life purpose is always growth. For once one has fully Self realized, there is nothing left to do except be more of that.
Let’s be clear that “being at the spiritual game” means dedicating your whole mind, your whole body, your whole soul to the process of creating Self in the image and likeness of God. [...]
This is a day-to-day, hour-to-hour, moment-to-moment act of supreme
consciousness. It is a choosing and a re-choosing every instant. It is ongoing creation. Conscious creation. Creation with a purpose. It is using the tools of creation we have discussed, and using them with awareness and sublime intention.
That is “playing this spiritual game.”
In the same sense, God’s greatest moment is the moment you realize you need no God.
I know, I know… this is the antithesis of everything you’ve ever been taught. Yet your teachers have told you of an angry God, a jealous God, a God who needs to be needed. And that is not a God at all, but a neurotic substitute for that which would be a deity.
A true Master is not the one with the most students, but one who creates the most Masters.
A true leader is not the one with the most followers, but one who creates the most leaders.
A true king is not the one with the most subjects, but one who leads the most to royalty.
A true teacher is not the one with the most knowledge, but one who causes the most others to have knowledge.
And a true God is not One with the most servants, but One who serves the most, thereby making Gods of all others.
For this is both the goal and the glory of God: that His subjects shall be no more, and that all shall know God not as the unattainable, but as the unavoidable.
I would that you could this understand: your happy destiny is unavoidable. You cannot not be “saved.” There is no hell except not knowing this.
The work of the soul is to wake yourself up. The work of God is to wake everybody else up.
We do this by seeing others as Who They Are — by reminding them of Who They Are.
This you can do in two ways — by reminding them of Who They Are (very difficult, because they will not believe you), and by remembering Who You Are (much easier, because you do not need their belief, only your own).
Demonstrating this constantly ultimately reminds others of Who They Are, for they will see themselves in you.
Many Masters have been sent to the Earth to demonstrate Eternal Truth. Others, such as John the Baptist, have been sent as messengers, telling of the Truth in glowing terms, speaking of God with unmistakable clarity.
These special messengers have been gifted with extraordinary insight, and the very special power to see and receive Eternal Truth, plus the ability to communicate complex concepts in ways that can and will be understood by the masses. [...]
And so I have chosen you to be My messenger. You, and many others. For now, during these times immediately ahead, the world will need many trumpets to sound the clarion call. The world will need many voices to speak the words of truth and healing for which millions long. The world will need many hearts joined together in the work of the soul, and prepared to do the work of God.
Can you honestly claim that you are not aware of this?
No.
Can you honestly deny that this is why you came?
No.
Are you ready then, with this book, to decide and to declare your own Eternal Truth, and to announce and articulate the glory of Mine?
Must I include these last few exchanges in the book?
You don’t have to do anything. Remember, in our relationship you have no obligation. Only opportunity. Is this not the opportunity for which you have waited all your life? Have you not devoted your Self to this mission — and the proper preparation for it — from the earliest moments of youth?
Yes.
Then do not what you are obliged to do, but what you have an opportunity to do.
As to placing all this in our book, why would you not? Think you that I want you to be a messenger in secret?
No, I suppose not.
It takes great courage to announce oneself as a man of God. You understand, the world will much more readily accept you as virtually anything else — but a man of God? An actual messenger? Every one of My messengers has been defiled. Far from gaining glory, they have gained nothing but heartache.
Are you willing? Does your heart ache to tell the truth about Me? Are you willing to endure the ridicule of your fellow human beings? Are you prepared to give up glory on Earth for the greater glory of the soul fully realized?
I pressed pause on my Spotify app and sighed. Oh God, this monotony is torture.