Notes from Neale

The CwG Reader

We have been discussing here A New Theology, and last week we said
that The New Theology tells us that it is possible to "know God."
This is a departure from most present-day theologies on the earth,
which teach just the opposite. It is not possible to truly or
fully know God, they say — and, indeed, some even assert that it
is against the Will of God that we do so…and so, we ought not even
try, but simply accept what we have been taught and told about God
on faith.

Yet is it a "sin" to seek to know God? Is it an offense against God
to question what we have been told about God? Is it blasphemy,
heresy, apostasy to offer a new understanding of God…simply to
offer it, as an invitation to explore what we might now fully
understand?

No. The answer is no, it is not a sin, it is not an offense against
God, to question what we think we understand about God, or to even
offer a new understanding. Yet from where would a new understanding
come? If knowledge of God is possible, from where would such
knowledge arise?

Well, as it turns out, it would arise from the most surprising
place: You.

This is, at least, what The New Theology teaches. Its foundational
premise is that God is not in any way separate from anything that
Is. God is, according to this idea, the Creator and the Created. The
Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and the End.

God exists in, as, and through All Things. Life is the expression of
God Itself. All of physicality is an expression of Divinity. This
would include You. Therefore, to know God, know yourself.

And then, once having come to know yourself, recreate your Self anew
in every golden moment of Now, in the next grandest version of the
greatest vision ever you held about who you are. This is said to be
the purpose of all of Life.

Life exists for God to know Itself. And God comes to know Itself
through You, knowing Your Self — and then expressing Your
Self as Who You Really Are.

Let’s explore that a bit further. God, it has been said by nearly
every religion, is Divine Love, personified. If that is true (and it
is), and if it is also true that You and God are One (and it is),
then YOU are Divine Love, personified. The only difference is, you
may not know it. When you know it, you become Divine. You become
Divinity Expressed.

So, the fastest way to know God is to know Love, and the fastest way
to know Love is to BE Love. If you want to know something, BE it. It
is from a state of Pure Being that Knowing and Experiencing arises.

Often, we think that we must experience something before we can "be"
it. Yet in life it is really just the other way around. What you
decide to be, you experience. And "being" is an arbitrary decision.

To illustrate: you can decide to "be" the thing called "happy" no
matter what is going on around you. Happiness is not dependent on
outer events, but on inner. This is something that every Master
knows — and that every student seeks to experience.

Yet what the Master knows, the Master experiences, and what the
student seeks to experience, the student cannot know, for knowing
must come before experiencing, not after, and being must come before
knowing.

That may be, right there, the most important statement and the most
clear cut explanation of The New Theology. What I said was:

What the Master knows, the Master experiences, and what the
student seeks to experience, the student cannot know, for knowing
must come before experiencing, not after, and being must come before
knowing.

Seek, therefore, a State of Being, first, and all ways, and Knowing
and Experiencing will inevitably follow. Yet how to seek a State of
Being?

Who do I want to be today? Who do I want to be right now? Do
I want to be Big Neale or Little Neale? Do I want to experience
myself in the space of Creation or Reaction? Do I choose this moment
to be about the Dance or the Drama?

I don’t want to simplify things here, because this is a very complex
experience we are having, this thing we call our "life", but when
one gets right down to it, that is the question. Who do I want to be
right now?

Conversations with God says that every act is an act of self
definition. That puts things rather simply, and even a little
bluntly. It makes it very clear that every single thing we think,
do, and say defines and recreates who we are. Now the only question
is, do we want to decide who we are beforehand, or do
we want to find out who we are afterward?

I mean, in the space of any event or moment, do we want to
experience our Selves as an Afterthought, or a Forethought? As a
Creation, or a Reaction? Which?

Then, following the making of that choice, what do we wish to
experience of ourselves? Do we wish to experience ourselves being
Big or Little? We can make either selection, whether we are coming
from Creation OR Reaction. We can CREATE ourselves as the Big Us, or
we can REACT in a way that demonstrates our Big Us. And the same for
the Little Us.

The Big Us has no attachments, no fears, no needs, no requirements
of anyone or anything, and no thought but love, peace, joy,
forgiveness, compassion, and caring. (Yes, you can have "caring"
without "attachment.") The Little Us lives in doubt, hesitation,
fear, nervousness, sadness, disappointment, anger, and
self-absorbtion.

The Big Us is not concerned about the Self at all, because it knows
that the Self does not even exist. Not as a Separate Entity with
separate needs and a worry about its survival and happiness. The
Little Us is only concerned about the Self because it thinks
that the Self actually exists as a thing apart and separate from the
Whole. It believes that the Self has needs and requirements and that
it somehow might not survive.

Not surviving is not possible, but this is something that the Little
Self does not know. Every day is a journey, and the difference is
that the Big Self knows where it is going and the Little Self does
not. It has no idea where it is headed or what it is doing, and so
it goes around in circles, facing the same problems and encountering
the same feelings every day — usually sadness and disapppointment,
followed by resignation and then, even bitterness and rage.

The Big Self has a Larger Agenda and the Little Self thinks that
life is about this afternoon’s appointment or tomorrow’s deadline or
the weekend’s opportunity for at least a tiny bit of fun in this
life…

The Big Self wants to do nothing but dance and the Little Self seeks
only the drama. When the problem is solved, the Little Self does not
know what to do. So it goes out and creates another problem. The Big
Self sees nothing as a problem, and cannot get into a "drama"
if it wanted to.

The movement from Little Self to Big Self can be made in the blink
of an eye — and, the trick is staying there.

I want to explore this business of Big Self/Little Self this week,
examining the whole concept further, and much more deeply. I’ll
enjoy being with you in the discussion.

Oh, and remind me to tell you about Farfur.

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