December, 2015
And so, very soon now, we begin another year. Another cycle in the continuous circling of the Earth around the Sun. Another passage of the Body, Mind, and Soul through the Labyrinth of Life.
And as we end the latest of these rotations and begin again yet another, every thinking surely person must ask, “What is the point of this? Are we truly ‘just going round in circles,’ pretending that our elliptical course is a straight line actually getting us somewhere?”
I wrote the commentary below a few years ago, and I was re-reading it today as we celebrate in my house the passage and the experience of a wonderful Christmas, and as we await the New Year. In that previous commentary I asked:
Is there any kind of purpose or destination to this cycle that we call our life? Or are we lined up at the starting gate like horses at Churchill Downs, itching to race like mad to get to where we began—this time strangely and ironically calling that place the Finish Line?
Can I be the only one who will entertain such thoughts a few hours from now as I and a group of my friend and relatives stand holding our glasses, gaily—and with not a little bit of melancholy—counting down: “five…..four…..three…..two…..ONE!”, and then shouting “Happy New Year” as if seeking to convince each other that the endless passage of time is actually something to celebrate?
What will we be celebrating?, I’m asking myself today. Where are we going actually?, I wonder.
And then we will sing…
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and days of old lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
The sadness, the poignancy, of the song never fails to bring tears to my eyes—more so, I notice, with each passing year. I wondered this morning about the origin of this traditional New Year’s Eve song, and so I opened Wikipedia to find (and I knew this before, but had simply forgotten) that it is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns long ago (in 1788, to be specific) and set to the tune of a traditional folk song.
It’s well known in many countries, especially (but far from exclusively) in the English-speaking world; its traditional use being to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight. By extension, it is also sung at funerals, graduations and as a farewell or ending to other occasions.
The song’s Scots title may be translated into English literally as “old long since,” or more idiomatically, “long, long ago,””days gone by” or “old times.” Consequently “For auld lang syne,” as it appears in the first line of the chorus, is loosely translated as “for (the sake of) old times.”
For my own part, I’ve sung the song too many times, in the presence of too many dear, dear people, to be able to not cry…because too many of these dear, dear people have been forgot, in the sense that they are no longer a part of my present-moment life. And I wonder (my mind does these things to me), as I look into the faces of those who are here now, how long they will be part of my life, or if, on some future New Year’s Eve, I’ll be singing (and gently weeping) about them…
I don’t like it that so many present and pleasant experiences so fast turn into bitter-sweet memories…sweet because of their content, bitter because they are never to be visited again. I want no endings in this life! Really. Really. I want no endings. I’m tired of endings. Especially where people are concerned. I want people who have meant something to me to mean something to me always, and I want to be able to experience that meaning always—not as a memory, but as a here-and-now occurrence.
Perhaps that is the meaning of it all. Perhaps that is the purpose of this circular journey we are on. Perhaps it is all a journey to where we have already been, so that we may have, again and again and again, the experience that we are overjoyed to have: the experience of Who We Really Are—which is Love. Love Announced, Love Expressed, Love Sent and Received.
This thought fills me with a determination to make every moment that I now have with my Beloveds count.
I’ve made that resolution before, of course. And then I get right back into my Everyday, and somehow, someplace, somewhere, I lose touch with my determination to live life in such a way that Every. Single. Solitary. Moment. is filled with Love Announced, Love Expressed, Love Sent and Received.
But this morning (I wrote this part on a past New Year’s morning) I awoke with a startling idea. What if I sang Auld Lang Syne in my head every time I saw a person who is Now In My Life who is special to me? What if I started singing it quietly inside of myself every time I see them, every time I speak with them, every time I hug them or share space with them in any way?
What a marvelous idea!, I told myself. Yes, I will sing that song in my head, and pretend that it is some future New Year’s Eve and that the person in front of me is, for some reason, no longer there. Then I will blink back the soft and hopefully hidden misty eyes of my present moment melancholy and speak words to her, and use tones of voice with him, and share emotions with them that truly present, in the present, the fullness of my feelings for them.
And then I will smile and hold with deep inner joy and undisguised outward celebration the fact that this is not some sad future New Year’s Everything when they are gone, but that we are Right Here, Right Now.
And then I will smile a deeper smile, knowing that all those who have been in my Now Moment before will return to my present awareness and my present experience when I, myself, travel to The Other Side, celebrating my own Continuation Day, leaving my body and going Home.
There they will all be, waiting. There we will all hug and squeeze and touch and hold and smile and talk and dance with excitement and joy as we embrace, once again, the presence of each other (and the gift of each other, the presents of all those with whom we have intertwined our lives in Soul Love).
And to those with whom we have made mistakes, we will say, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” as those who have made mistakes with us will say the same. And we won’t even feel a need to forgive them, nor will they feel a need to forgive us, for it will not matter to either of us what has been done, as we will deeply understand what wounds in ourselves and the other could cause such experiences—and, filled with compassion, once again we will deeply love.
And to those with whom our only sadness has been their departure from our lives, we will say, “My God, how good…how very, very, very good…to see you again.”
And we will have spoken rightly. For it will be “God” that we are seeing again. The Divinity in everyone—including ourselves—will be apparent to us then as the miracle and the mystery of Life reveals itself to us once we are free of our limited human perspective.
And so today, knowing this, I actively and joyously choose to see God in everyone right now. Not just in some Future Now, but in this Now. And I’ll sing Auld Lang Syne not just this coming New Year’s Eve, but every New Eve and every New Morn that my present life on Earth still brings me. I will make this very minute New Year’s Eve all year long, in my heart and in my mind.
And I’ll drink from—and share—a cup of kindness now, knowing that these are the days of Auld Lang Syne.
Happy New Year everyone. Happy, happy life.
This is the time of year when many people around the world celebrate an experience in their lives that is important to them — and to celebrate it in a way that honors the message of that experience.
I am speaking, of course, of the experience we call “Christmas,” as it lives in our hearts.
For many of us that message is not limited to the essence of a specific religious doctrine — hallowed and holy as that is to billions — but transcends all religions, all believe systems, all spiritual paradigms . . . driving to the core of the human condition and the human experience, and hoping to heal both.
Both have needed healing — and are in need of healing now more than ever.
And amidst so much news that is not so wonderful this year, there is good news as well. While messages of anger and divisiveness and of righteousness generating terrorism are being sent to our world, the Christmas message of love also appears to be reaching people and working its magic. It seems in recent years to be having a real effect on our world.
People of high position are saying things which no one would have dreamt, ten years ago, that persons in those places would say:
A Pope boldly challenges an entire planet with a question: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”
A black man is elected President of the United States…twice…and he boldly declares the combating of growing inequality and the lack of upward mobility to be the “defining challenge of our time.”
An ultra-conservative Republican former U.S. Vice President boldly defends gay marriage, saying “freedom means freedom for everyone. People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want.”
In that same country, one state after the other moves to legalize same sex marriage . . . as people everywhere come to the conclusion — belatedly, but at last — that all human beings who love each other and choose to spend their lives together should be accorded the right to visit each other in the hospital, to pass their estate on to each other, and to claim other common and fair-minded legal protections and prerogatives of the married state, with their gender having no bearing whatsoever on that status.
Government, humans seem to be saying, should not be enforcing specific religious doctrine.
There are those who do not agree with these economic and social viewpoints and developments — indeed, some who disagree may be reading this now — but one thing seems apparent: we are searching, as a culture, more earnestly today than ever before to find a way to create a global community where our differences do not have to create divisions, our contrasts do not have to generate conflicts, and the variations in our beliefs do not have to produce violence in our lives.
Even as others are working against this goal, millions across the globe are beginning to earnestly seek to really create “peace on Earth, and goodwill to men, women, and children everywhere.”
The message at the heart of all the world’s great religions is beginning to be separated from each religion’s specific dogma, and is being reduced to its simplest form — inviting humanity to address at last the simplest question: Can we all just find a way to love each other?
The answer is, yes. We can find a way to love each other. We can find a way to live with each other that demonstrates love. And we can find a way to create fairness and equality with each other, regardless of the color of our skin, our gender, or our sexual orientation.
We can find a way to be kind to each other and tolerant of each other, regardless of differences in our political or spiritual beliefs.
We are capable — as a species, and as individuals — to love without condition. This is what the man whose birth we celebrate at this time of year showed us. That man was graced to live in such a way that the possibility of Divinity expressing through Humanity can never again be denied. Jesus did it, and we can, too. He encouraged us to. He invited us to. And he told us not to be afraid to, or to be wary of even trying. “Why are you so amazed?”, he asked. “These things are more shall you do also.”
The message of this season is that we are all given that grace. We are all imbued with the ability to demonstrate Divinity through our Humanity. Jesus devoted his life to showing us that possibility, but he is not the only one to have done so.
Others, both before and after him . . . others, both male and female . . . others, both dark skinned and light, Eastern and Western, known and unknown . . .have likewise used their lives to show us all our true identity . . .
. . . by demonstrating TO us all our highest possibility.
Nelson Mandela showed us such an aspect, forgiving those who jailed him for 27 years, stopping a nation from falling into tumult, and bringing the invitation of reconciliation to our wider wounded world.
Mother Teresa showed us such an aspect, creating with the power of her love a worldwide movement offering a multitude of free services to the poorest of the poor.
Yes, many — many, other than Jesus — have demonstrated Divinity through their Humanity. So let’s use this moment to renew our clarity: Divinity can be expressed by all of us — and it does not have to involve what we call world-impacting events.
Indeed, Divinity often is best expressed in the smallest of ways . . .
. . . in the thoughts we think, in the things we say, in the choices we make, in the actions we take every hour of every day.
Each of us brings Divinity to Humanity through the simple device of how we are being with each other. Our entire species evolves one kindness at a time. Thus, everything we DO is a “world-impacting event.”
The wonder of this time of year is that is “brings on” just such kindness — just such evidence of our ability to express Divinity as Humanity. That’s what makes the celebration at this time of year so magical!
Christmas seems to “bring on” a change in how people are with each other. A change in the energy of Life Itself. You can actually feel it in the air. It’s so common an experience that there are even song lyrics that describe it.
“City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style…in the air there’s a feeling of Christmas…”
That feeling is not something we’re making up. It’s not our imagination. You can feel Christmas in the air.
We call that feeling Love.
And it’s what makes this time of year not only “magical,” but important. Because at this time of year we are reminded of who we are at our basis . . . and that reminder returns us to ourselves.
To our TRUE selves.
Who we are at the core of ourselves is, of course, LOVE.
I know that may sound a bit simplistic . . . maybe even a little — what’s a word…? — “syrup-y” — but Love IS our basic component.
As wonderful Tomaseen Foley say in his Celtic Christmas program that he produces in various cities across the U.S. each December, “we are all indescribably and incomprehensively loved by God” — and that love is the stuff which fills our hearts and our souls, creating the foundation of our being.
Christmas reminds us of that, allowing us — giving us permission — to express the feeling easily. We say to everyone: “Merry Christmas!” We tell perfect strangers that we hope they “have a happy holiday.” We sit down with loved ones and break bread together — again — the way we used to.
Family again.
We share gifts with each other, and it doesn’t even matter what they are, for it is in the giving of them and in the receiving of them — whatever they are — that our love for each other is announced and declared, demonstrated and embraced, once more.
Now the trick after tomorrow is going to be to keep it flowing; to keep it “in the air.”
The question is: How can we do that? Is it even possible?
I’ve been told that, yes, it is. We simply have to decide to. M. Scott Peck wrote something remarkable in his book, The Road Less Traveled. He said, “Love is not a reaction, it’s a decision.”
Can that be true? What if love is not my response to something that YOU are doing, but my choice regarding what I MYSELF am doing?
What if true love is not “predicated” on how you are being with me, but on how I am being with you — regardless of how you are being with me?
Whoa. Wouldn’t THAT be a fascinating thing…
The question I’ve been looking really closely at this Christmas season is this: Is it possible for human beings to just BE loving?
Is it possible for people to simply decide to set aside their differences, get past their “bad” moments with one another, and just “BE” a certain way?
My memory tells me that yes, not only is it possible, it can happen with a simple decision.
Let me tell you a story from my childhood . . .
I lived in a home filled with raised voices and lots of bickering and arguing between my parents.
Now and then there were even down and dirty, drag out fights. I mean, words that hurt, doors that slammed, and even a not kind gesture or two.
Once, my mom plopped a pile of mashed potatoes on my Dad’s head at the dinner table. Once, my Dad tore up, in a fit of anger, a fancy dress that he had purchased for my Mom.
Mom and Dad loved each other fiercely. And I think that adjective is not misplaced.
So we learned to live — my brother and I — in a household that was forever on edge, always on the brink of some kind of explosion…
. . . except at Christmas time.
Every year, at Christmas, things seemed to inexplicably settle down.
Now, as an adult, I am sure that Mom and Dad just decided: “We’re not going to ruin Christmas by arguing and fighting and throwing things around the house. We’re just not.”
And you could see this decision work. To this day I can recall, as tensions would begin to mount, and just before you could expect my father to raise his voice, Mom would say . . . “Alex, it’s Christmas.”
And Dad would just blink, and — just like that — he’d shift his energy and say nothing.
It worked in reverse as well. If it looked as if Mom was just about ready to let someone have it — not just my Dad, but even one of us boys — my Dad would say, “Okay, Anne, okay….c’mon. It’s Christmas.” And the air would clear as if by magic.
This would go on from after Thanksgiving until just after New Year’s. Then, things would get back to normal. The household “truce” was over.
But I had actual proof in my own home that Peace on Earth, goodwill to men…and women…is a CHOICE.
That childhood experience left me with a burning question. I asked my Dad this question myself one year when I was around nine . . .
It was the day that the Christmas tree was taken down and dragged out of the house.
That was always a sad day for me, because, you see, I loved Christmas. I was a very sensitive child, and I loved everything about this time of year…the Christmas tree, the sparkling lights, and the wonderful feeling in the air. Even as I love it today.
But now it was that time again, that sad day when the tree was taken down, and Dad was carrying it through the house and out the back door to the yard, for its cold, cold wait to be taken away and forgotten.
And this particular year I was affected even more than usual. I don’t know why, I just was. And so I asked my Father on his way through the kitchen, tinsel falling off the tree behind him, a child’s innocent question:
“Daddy…how come, when the tree leaves the house, all the love goes with it?”
My Father stopped in his tracks, looked at me with an expression I’ll never forget, then said, as quietly as I ever heard him speak:
“I don’t know, son . . . I don’t know.”
I understand now that all my parents had to do to keep the love in the air was to make the same decision every day that they made when the Christmas tree went up.
So today I am inviting myself — and each of us — to embrace “the feeling of Christmas” . . . and then to decide inside that this Christmas is going to last all through next year.
And all through our lives.
There will be times, of course…there may be moments here and there…when this might not happen, I know. We’re all human, and we need to be careful not to hold ourselves to super-human standards. But we CAN make a decision at this time that all CAN be “calm,” and all CAN be “bright” . . . more of the time…much more of the time…if we make a decision to allow the feeling of Christmas to be “in the air”… Every. Single. Day.
And not leave the house when the tree leaves the house.
Merry Christmas my friends. God bless us, every one!
As regular visitors here know, I have been serializing here an updated version of a small booklet that I wrote a while ago addressing questions being asked by people all over the world. What is happening here? Why has the world gone insane?
I have added to my booklet a word-for-word copy of the statement I issued the day after the 9-11 attacks on the United States. I believe that many of the observations I made then remain meaningful and applicable today.
It is my desire that as many people as possible have an opportunity to absorb this material, so I will continue to excerpt it in this space until the entire document has been published here.
Those who do not wish to wait to finish the document as each new installment is posted here may access the document in full, downloading it at no cost here.
Here is the next installment:
A WORLD IN TURMOIL: How we can respond – Chapter Six
Now that we grasp at last why what is going on is going on, we are ready to pick up Tool #4: Changing Emotion.
Conversations with God tells us that emotions are things we are choosing. They are not foisted upon us, but rather, are selected by us. We can choose to experience whatever emotion we wish.
I know it doesn’t seem that way, but it is that way—and Masters know this.
Conversations with God says that everything begins with either Love or Fear. Every thought, every word, every action. Nothing opens us wider to the wonders of life than Love, and nothing paralyzes us faster than Fear.
Yet Fear is a fiction.
I want to say that again, because it is the basis of everything you need to understand as you move through your life, and everything you need to know as you seek to change Fear into Excitement.
Fear is a fiction.
It is not real. It is something you are making up in your Mind. It is a false emotion; a counterfeit feeling; a distortion, rooted in a deep misunderstanding. In truth, there is only one emotion, there is only one energy, there is only One Thing That Is.
“All things are One Thing,” says Conversations with God. “There is only One Thing, and all things are part of the One Thing That Is.”
Emotion is nothing more than energy in motion. Hence: E+motion. There is only one Energy, thus, there is only one Energy in Motion all the time.
The human word we have given for that one Emotion is Love. That is why Conversations with God says: “Love is all there is.”
If this is true (and it is), then Fear, as a separate emotion, does not exist. It may exist as an experience, but not as an emotion.
There is only one emotion
The experience of Fear is the emotion of Love, distorted. That is another important statement. It, too, deserves repeating.
The experience of Fear is the emotion of Love, distorted.
All Fear is an expression of Love.
Once you understand this, you will know how to deal with Fear—-because, ironically, you will no longer be afraid of it. It is your fear of Fear that gives Fear its power.
It is as U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt famously said: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
If you embrace Fear, if you welcome it and hold it close, it has no power. You literally love it to death.
This is, in short, how you are going to turn your Fear into Excitement. And this process is all a function of the Mind.
It is your Mind that turns Love into Fear, and it is your Mind that will turn Fear into Excitement. Your Mind can turn anything into anything! That is its magic. That is the Magic of the Mind.
Okay, let’s get to some clarifications; let’s move to some deeper understandings.
I have said, “All Fear is an expression of Love.” How can this be possible? you may ask. How can this be true?
Well, let’s look at that.
If you did not love yourself, would you be afraid of anything happening to you?
If you did not love life, would you be afraid of losing it? (People who hate life—people who, for instance, are in abject misery or unremitting pain—are not afraid of losing life at all. In fact, they welcome it.)
If you did not love others, would you be afraid that they might fall into danger?
No. You would not care, you would not worry. Only Love causes you to be afraid. Absent Love, Fear is not.
So you can know with great certainty that if you are in fear, you are in love.
The trick is to not let the love that you feel turn into the fear that you are very able to experience. You can turn this trick by using the Mechanics of the Mind.
That famous acronym
So we begin with this clarity: Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. That is a famous acronym that everyone in the so-called New Age Community has heard over and over again. Yet my experience has been that very few spiritual teachers explain it fully.
Very few tell us what the false evidence is that is looking so real. This false evidence is so powerful that it produces a thought—a thought that is then made real.
I have said that your Mind can turn that which is not real into that which is real, and this is true.
Your Mind is able to do this because it does not deal with what is really real, it deals with what you think is real. Indeed, it tells you what to think. It does this all the time. It is supposed to do this. That is its function.
No one ever explained this to me in school. No one told me this in church. My parents never said anything about it to me at home. I never got this information anywhere.
Your Mind is telling you what to think, based on the evidence at hand.
I was raised knowing nothing of this not because the adults around me didn’t want to tell me about it, but because they didn’t know it themselves.
Unless you took a course in clinical psychology, you could spend an entire lifetime knowing nothing about the Mechanics of the Mind.
CWG has made it clear to me that we are all living in an Illusion. As I am fond of saying, we have fallen down the rabbit hole and the Mad Hatter is pouring tea into a cup with no bottom, all the while telling us that what is “so” is not so, and that what is “not so” is so.
And we believe him.
We believe him.
What we were not told by that rascal in the rabbit hole is that nothing we see is real. The “evidence” that is “false” is the appearance of things.
That’s it! That’s the false evidence that appears real.
When we look at something, we think we are seeing what we are looking at. Yet we are not seeing what we are looking at, we are seeing our interpretation of what we are looking at. This is why two people can look at the same thing and describe it in two entirely different ways.
(I’ll never forget how shocked I was when I read an article about myself in People magazine. In the story it said, “Walsch lives in a mansion on the outskirts of Ashland, in Southern Oregon.” I lived at the time in a three-bedroom home with a den on the lowest level and a two-car garage that I had converted into an office. The reporter and I were looking at the exact same house. I never thought of it as a “mansion.”)
We have been thrown into an environment (the Realm of the Physical) in which everything exists relationally. That is, things appear to be what they appear to be because of the relationship they hold to other things.
The only place where we can see things in their entirety, and thus Know Completely, is in the Realm of the Absolute. This realm can only be accessed by being there.
This is not as difficult as it sounds, for there is a part of us that IS there, all the time. We call that part of us The Soul.
Our job, then, is to access the Wisdom of the Soul. We can do this in any number of ways. Meditation is one of them. Prayer is another. Focus is a third. Stillness—that is, simply stopping what you are doing for only a moment and being quiet with yourself, is a fourth. And there are other ways, as well, to move into the awareness of the Soul.
That could be the subject of an entire booklet unto itself—or even a whole section of a major book. In fact, it is. The System of the Soul is described in considerable detail in When Everything Changes, Change Everything. So I am not going to go into that here, but rather, recommend that book to your reading.
I have been serializing here an updated version of a small booklet that I wrote a while ago addressing questions being asked by people all over the world. What is happening here? Why has the world gone insane?
I have added to my booklet a word-for-word copy of the statement I issued the day after the 9-11 attacks on the United States. I believe that many of the observations I made then remain meaningful and applicable today.
Now let me ask you a great question: Is it possible that what we are seeing on the Earth now is the rising up of elements within a Contextual Field that is presaging the coming of the Greatest Age of Man — an age when humans finally understand, embrace, adopt, and demonstrate their True Nature, their Real Identity, and their Actual Purpose?
Could it be that all that we have seen on our planet in the past 50 years is the out-picturing of a larger evolutionary patterning that evidences itself everywhere that Life Itself manifests?
If so, this would give us, at least, an understanding of why such things as we see and hear about on our computer screens every day are occurring. It would explain why so many citizens of one of the planet’s most powerful nations are seriously considering electing a leader who mirrors the lowest common denominators of human beings — fear and the anger that arises from it — rather than a leader who inspires the highest and the best within us.
Understanding all of this is not unimportant. It is the first step toward changing it. You cannot create anew if you don’t understand the old. You can only react. Right now, we are reacting to events on Earth. What we need to do is create them anew. And this can only happen by creating ourselves anew.
What we are talking about here is transformation — and transformation begins at the outer edge of understanding. It is not the other way around. One does not Understand when one is Transformed. One is Transformed when one Understands.
Do you Understand?
This is where the Mind comes in on our evolutionary journey. It is in the Mind of humans where evolution occurs. The Soul is already evolved. It is the part of us that is the source of evolution, not the part of us that yearns to be evolved. What the Soul desires is the experience of what It already knows. It is the Mind that yearns to be evolved, and thus provide the Body with the information that will allow the Soul to experience its highest desire: the expression of Divinity in physical form. It is in this way that the Body, Mind and Soul work together to serve the ultimate purpose of Life Itself.
I could be wrong about all of this. But it feels to me that the Conversations with God material, from which this all emerges, is at least worth more deeply exploring. It is for this reason that I feel now, more than ever, that the booklet this material articulates, and that I was inspired by my Soul to produce, would be very helpful to read, and to share with others. Powerfully helpful.
It is my desire that as many people as possible have an opportunity to absorb this material, so I will continue to excerpt it in this space until the entire document has been published here.
Those who do not wish to wait to finish the document as each new installment is posted here may access the document in full, downloading it here at no cost.
Here is the next installment:
A WORLD IN TURMOIL: How we can respond – Chapter Five
The process that generates Functionality, Adaptability, and Sustainablity is governed by laws of the universe, many of which are easily observable and therefore universally known—such as the Law of Gravity, for instance, or the Laws of Relativity.
One of the laws that is perhaps not so universally known is the Law of Opposites, Tool #3 as offered in this booklet.
Spoken of at length in the Conversations with God dialogues, I often call it The Law Unknown, because even now, most people are not aware of it, unless they have read the CWG dialogues.
There, in Book 1, God says…
“As I’ve already explained, knowing something, and experiencing it, are two different things. Spirit longed to know Itself experientially (just as I did!). Conceptual awareness was not enough for you. So I devised a plan. It is the most extraordinary idea in all the universe—and the most spectacular collaboration. I say collaboration because all of you are in it with Me.
“Under the plan, you as pure spirit would enter the physical universe just created. This is because physicality is the only way to know experientially what you know conceptually. It is, in fact, the reason I created the physical cosmos to begin with—and the system of relativity, which governs it and all creation.
“Once in the physical universe, you, My spirit children, could experience what you know of yourself—but first, you had to come to know the opposite. To explain this simplistically, you cannot know yourself as tall unless and until you become aware of short. You cannot experience the part of yourself that you call fat unless you also come to know thin.
“Taken to ultimate logic, you cannot experience yourself as what you are until you’ve encountered what you are not.
“This is the secret behind the Theory of Relativity, and of all physical life. It is by that which you are not that you yourself are defined.”
In the book Happier Than God this effect was further explained. I want to offer a passage right now from that later text because it is a perfectly wonderful resource for personal growth and spiritual development, and I strongly commend it to your reading. You’ll see why after you finish this direct lift from Happier Than God…
The Law of Opposites is part of a larger system of cause-and-effect in the Universe. This system includes…
- The Energy of Attraction, which gives you power.
- The Law of Opposites, which gives you opportunity.
- The Gift of Wisdom, which gives you discernment.
- The Joy of Wonder, which gives you imagination.
- The Presence of Cycles, which gives you eternity.
How it all fits together
The Law of Opposites is the second of the five Great Principles of Life, which intersect and interact with the Basic Principles of Life. You might also call these the Foundational Principles and the Upper Principles.
The first set of principles applies to all forms of life everywhere, throughout the Universe, in all its manifestations, from so-called inanimate objects to those expressions of life that we call “sentient beings.”
The second set of principles applies to sentient beings only. That is, to life forms of elevated awareness, or what we might call self-consciousness.
Not all life forms, of course, are self-conscious. Not every manifestation of life is aware of itself. If a dog sees itself in a mirror, it does not know it is looking at itself, and so it may bark furiously. A kitten may paw at the glass.
A lion in the jungle does not self-analyze or self-reflect. It does not ask itself after it roars, “Gee, do you think I overacted there just a bit ? I wonder what the other lions will think…”
And what we refer to as inanimate objects (although this label is inaccurate, since everything, in fact, is moving) do not seem to possess a conscious awareness of themselves. Rocks don’t ponder their past. Trees are living things, but they don’t wonder what the future holds.
The second of the Great Principles of Life works in perfect harmony with the first principle, the Energy of Attraction. This second principle states that no sooner will you attract something into your reality than its exact opposite will also appear.
What is this now? What am I saying?
I am saying that the moment you choose anything—any outcome, object, or experience—its exact opposite will appear in some way.
It may show itself in some far distant quarter, or it may pop up right in front of your eyes, but it will be there, absolutely.
It is necessary for the “opposite” of whatever you are choosing to create with the Energy of Attraction to show up, for the reason that life cannot be experienced in a vacuum.
A context must be produced in which you may experience what you have chosen.
Because not many people know this, they can easily turn negative in their thinking just when the universe was preparing to place before them all that their hearts desired.
They do not see the appearance of the opposite as a sure and certain sign that they are on the right path, heading toward their chosen objective. Rather, they see it as an obstacle, a blockage.
They experience themselves to be up against the wall, when really they are standing in front of a doorway. Only discernment would allow them to know the difference. This is where the Gift of Wisdom comes in.
The Law of Opposites is based on the most important understanding in of all life:
“In the absence of that which you are not, that which you are is not.”
Fifteen words that will change your life
I know, I know, that’s not a very clear sentence. Yet those are 15 words that can wonderfully alter your entire day-to-day experience on this planet.
Let me clarify.
Let’s say, for the purposes of illustration, that you wish to experience yourself as “the light.” (Many people, by the way, have actually chosen this. They wish to be The Light—and thus to bring The Light—wherever they are, wherever they appear.)
Now let us imagine for the purposes of this illustration that there is nothing else around you but The Light—indeed, that there is nothing else in existence but The Light. This would make it impossible to experience yourself as The Light. You may “know” yourself as that, but you cannot “experience” yourself as that.
(There is a difference between knowing and experiencing, and it is experiencing what it knows itself to be for which the soul yearns.)
There is only one way to experience yourself as The Light, and that would be to find yourself in darkness. Yet remember, in this example there is no “darkness.” In this illustration, there is nothing but The Light. You, therefore, must create the darkness. You must call it forth. And you will.
This is the Law of Opposites, which gives you opportunity. Yet if you see the opposite not as opportunity but as opposition, you will see it not as something that empowers you, but as something that takes power away from you.
You will fall into negative thinking, not understanding that you, yourself, have used the Energy of Attraction to draw to you the darkness as well as the light (what you would call “negative,” as well as what you would call “positive,” outcomes) in order to fully experience the positive outcomes that you are creating.
There is power in opposites, and this is the intricate way in which attraction works with all the great principles of life. Those principles work in concert with each other; they function as a perfect mechanism—the Mechanism of Manifestation—like gears in a finely tuned watch.
What are we to do, then, when the Law of Opposites seems to be thwarting, rather than supporting, Personal Creation?
Understand exactly what is going on.
Endeavor to see the appearance of the “opposite” as your first indication that Personal Creation is working flawlessly. Remember that the first step in creating anything is creating a context within which it may be experienced. Do not resist the opposite of anything that you wish to experience. Instead, embrace it. Look right at it and see it for what it is.
What you resist, persists. That is because, by your continued attention to it in a negative way, you continue to place it there. You cannot resist something that is not there. When you resist something, you place it there. By focusing angry or frustrated energy on it, you actually give it more life.
This is why all great masters have urged us to “resist not evil.” Do not fight that which is opposite to your stated desire or your preferred outcome. Rather, relax into it.
I know that may sound strange, but I promise you, it works. Do not become rigid and tense, ready for a battle. Never oppose that which opposes you. Do not OPpose, COMpose.
Do you understand? Remember this little rule always: Do not oppose, compose.
Compose your original idea of how you want life to show up. And compose yourself while you’re at it. Come from a place of relaxed assurance that life is functioning perfectly. Yet do not confuse relaxation with acceptance.
“Resist not evil” does not mean that you should not try to change what it is that you do not choose. Changing something is not resisting something, it is merely choosing again. Change is not resistance, but alteration. To modify is not to resist, but rather, to continue Personal Creation.
Modification is creation. Resistance is the end of creation. It firmly holds the previous creation in place.
Do you see?
At every moment of difficulty and challenge in your life you have a choice: opposition or composition. To repeat: You can either oppose that which you are experiencing, or compose that which you chose.
Compose what you chose.
Now, thanks to the Law of Opposites, you have a context within which to experience it. And that is the greatest thing the universe could ever give you.
Since I began serializing here an updated version of a small booklet that I wrote a while ago addressing questions being asked by people all over the world, the mass killing in San Bernardino took place. And now we have, in the U.S., a presidential candidate calling for all Muslims to be barred from entering the United States until, to quote his statement, “our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” I have added to my booklet a word-for-word copy of the statement I issued the day after the 9-11 attacks on the United States.
I feel that now, more than ever, this booklet would be very helpful to read and to share with others. It is my desire that as many people as possible have an opportunity to read this material, so I will continue to excerpt it in this space until the entire document has been published here.
Those who do not wish to wait to finish the document as each new installment is posted here may access the document in full, downloading it here at no cost.
Here is the next installment:
A WORLD IN TURMOIL: How we can respond – Chapter Four
I am going to assume now that you have made the choice to live your life as a Spiritual Being having a body, rather than a Bodily Being having no spirit. I am going to guess that you have picked up this first tool and used it to maximum effectiveness. I base this assumption on the fact that you have continued reading.
We can now pick and use the second tool, the Basic Principles of Life, allowing ourselves to understand the mechanics of the events of our times—the turmoil in the world today, as well as the events to follow in the months and years ahead.
We can now speak about the Process and its Product. The Process of life, I mean, and the Product of your life and mine.
As a spiritual being I have come to understand that there is, indeed, a process taking place on this planet which I inhabit. And it is not a random process, but an organized one, a methodical one, a logical, coherent, consistent, and efficient one.
Life on earth is not simply a series of unrelated, disconnected occurrences. It is a quite deliberate sequencing of events, having a Cause and Effect relationship, and characterized by Function and Purpose.
This is true of the events of 2011, and of all that has ever occurred, is occurring now, or ever will occur.
All of physical life follows a basic formula.
It is what Conversations with God calls The Basic Principles of Life: Functionality, Adaptability, Sustainability. All of Life exhibits these principles. All of life demonstrates them.
All of life, without exception.
Indeed, the ubiquitous nature of these principles is what renders Life Itself eternal. Life goes on and on, without end—as does everything in life—precisely because life is functional, adaptable, and sustainable.
Explaining the principles
Everything in Life is functional. That is, it works. It does something, and it does it efficiently. Life is continually doing something. It is energy in constant motion.
Everywhere you look—everywhere—you will see motion. The biggest elements of life and the tiniest particles are all in motion. Nothing stands still. Nothing.
Were something to stand still, life would end. Yet Life cannot end. It is incapable of doing this. For the doing of this would be the doing of nothing. It would be the absence of doing. And such an absence cannot and does not exist.
Think about this. Try it out for yourself. Try out the theory. Go ahead. Try to “do nothing.” You cannot. Even the doing of nothing is the doing of something. You can be perfectly still, and still, that is what you are doing. Nothing does nothing. Always remember that. It is a key and fundamental and foundational principle of Life…
Nothing Does Nothing
Are you clear? Is this understandable? I hope it is, because if you understand this, you understand the events occurring all around us, and those that will occur in our future, and what all of this means.
Life does what it does in reaction to what it just did. It is the Mother of all Chain Reactions.
What I am saying here is that Life has a built-in mechanism that keeps itself going.
Now…let me tell you how that mechanism operates.
Should the movement of life…or, more correctly, the ability of life to be moving…ever be threatened in any way, for any reason whatsoever, Life will immediately adapt. It will move in a different way. It will move in a different direction, or at a different speed, or with a different vibration, in order to maintain its equilibrium.
As a result of this adaptation Life renders itself sustainable. When Life “senses” that it is no longer sustainable functioning in a particular way, Life will stop functioning in that way and adapt its functioning to the condition that its previous functioning has created.
Think of a top. It keeps spinning, it maintains its balance, through the mechanism of its own motion. When it runs out of spin, it topples over.
Life is a top that never runs out of spin.
It is an energy that supplies energy to itself. It does this through the process of adaptation.
When Life begins to feel its own topple it changes its energy, alters its vibration, revamps its pattern of distribution, puts in some kind of adaptation that guarantees the continuity of Life Itself.
Death is a dramatic example of just such an adaptation.
Did you catch that? I just said a mouthful there. I said that death is an adaptation that guarantees the continuation of life.
Life guarantees its continuance by changing its form.
I need to repeat that. You need to really get it.
Life guarantees its continuance by changing its form
Now you understand the events in our world and why they have occurred. Now you understand the turmoil on this planet and what that is about. Now you understand future events that will occur, as well as the cycles in your own life, and what they have produced, and will continue to produce. Now you understand The Process and The Product.
