| Spirit Soul Believe |
| The power of love will bring peace |
On this day of your life, I believe God wants you to know…
…that life is about your soul, not about your body and
not about your mind.
Most people work hard to keep the body happy. Then
they seek to stimulate their mind. Then…if there is time…
they look after their soul. Yet the most beneficial priority
has it just the other way around.
When was the last time you paid attention to your soul?
Love, Your Friend….
Neal Donald Walsh
My dear friends…
The so-sudden-it-was-shocking death of actress Natasha Richardson last week brought to the forefront of my consciousness a quickly-arising awareness of the shortness of life for all of us-and the abruptness with which it can be cut off, totally without warning, totally without expectation. Death is, it turns out, just a snap of the finger away, and if we think not, all we have to do is look around.
What that brings up for me is a renewed awareness of the sacred gift and the unspeakable treasure that is physical life, and a renewed determination to live what remains of my own life to the fullest, and with my highest focus on the purpose of life itself, as I have come to understand it.
Conversations with God made it clear to me that life does, indeed, have a purpose beyond “get the guy-get the girl-get the car-get the job-get the house-get the spouse-get the kids-get the promotion-get the bigger house-get the newer car-get the office in the corner-get the grandkids-get the gray hair-get the retirement party-get the sickness-and get the heck out.
Yet the purpose of life may not be what we think it is. I, for one, was surprised on two levels when I had my conversation with God. First, I was surprised to hear that my life had nothing to do with me. Second, I was surprised to hear that it had very little to do with what I physically accomplished and everything to do with what I spiritually accomplished.
I am clear that I am a spiritual being have a physical experience, and that the purpose of this experience is to allow that which is Divine to know and express Itself in me, through me, as me. I am God, godding, and my purpose here is both sacred and divine. It is the purpose of my soul, not of my body. As my friend Dr. Ilchi Lee has so often said, my body is not who I am, it is something I have.
I gave myself a physical body so that I might have an instrument with which to complete my soul’s agenda-which is to experience myself as who I truly am. Natasha Richardson’s shocking death reminded me again of how limited is the time I have in which to do this. Even if I have 20 or 30 more years (an optimistic assessment), that still seems like very little time.
Yet this much I know…I cannot die against my will, nor at a time that is not of my choosing. This, too, is worth remembering in the aftermath of Ms. Richardson’s death. In the book HOME WITH GOD in a Life That Never Ends we are told…
The timing and the circumstances of death are always perfect.
I believe that. But how does the parent of a child who has been raped, mutilated and murdered call the circumstances of such a death “perfect”? How do people who saw their loved one perish on 9/11 accept such a death as “perfect”?
You are asking an awful lot here. This is stretching credibility of most people to the absolute limit.
I have already said that the elegance of life’s design is like that of a snowflake. It seems almost too perfect to be believed, too good to be true. Yet I tell you this: Comfort for the bereaved will be found in the sure knowledge of the certain perfection of God.
God is perfect, always and eternally. Now there is only one thing left for you to understand: who and what “God” is.
I have told you over and over again in our conversations, and I will tell you here and now, once more, and finally:
GOD and LIFE are one and the same.
Therefore when I say that “God is perfect,” I am saying that Life is perfect. And it is. The “system” rests in perfect balance with itself.
All things happen in their perfect timing and in their perfect way. It is not always possible to see this, to perceive this, from the extremely narrow perspective of human experience. That is a limitation of the physical world. It is a limitation that can, however, be overcome.
Many “prophets” and “sages” have overcome this limitation of perception by choosing a different perspective, by looking at life a new way. Alas, their messages are often ignored. Their insights are frequently belittled. Often, they themselves are condemned. And so the blind continue to lead the blind, because you will not listen to those who can see.
Therefore, let those who have ears to hear, listen:
Imperfection is impossible in the Kingdom of God.
Yes, but what about here on earth?
“Here on earth” IS the Kingdom of God. There is no place that exists that is not part of that kingdom.
….End of book excerpt…
I really want to talk more about this, so be sure to open our next issue of the Bulletin. Until next week, travel well, be safe, and live fully.
Love and Hugs,
Neale.
P.S. Em and I presented an incredibly powerful program at the Mile Hi Church in Denver last weekend-When Everything Changes, Change Everything. The impact in the room was palpable and real. People were affected in a powerful way. We will both be in Los Angeles on April 23rd with the same program, in which we will present a deep exploration of the Mechanics of the Mind and the System of the Soul, from the newest CwG book. Em will also be presenting her soul-awakening poetry, and I will be offering participants an opportunity to each have their own conversation with God right then and there, in the room.
If you’re anywhere in the Los Angeles area-or, for that matter, can drive or fly in-don’t miss this program. We believe it could change the way you experience change forever-and thus, change your life!
(See Calendar of Events, below, for more information.)
Further explorations of the Conversations with God material from the author
Neale Donald Walsch through the years has given hundreds of talks and written scores of articles revolving around the messages he received in his Conversations with God. Now, every seven days, we will present in this space a transcript or reprint of those presentations. We invite you to Copy and Save each one of them, creating a personal a collection of contemporary and uplifting spiritual thought which you may reference at any time. We hope you will find this a constant source of insight and inspiration.
This week’s offering: Reflections on the question “Who am I?” in an essay written just before Spring of 2005, on March 6 of that year.
And so, it all turns out to be very simple. Who am I? What am I doing here? When am I going to do it? Where am I going? Why?
These are life’s Essential Questions. Who, what, when, where, and why?
In my own version I like to expand the fourth question to: Where am I going, and who is going with me?
In the next several installments of this series, we’ll take a look at all of these questions, and more. Let’s take a look at the first of them now.
There is scarcely a person on this planet who has not asked of him- or herself at least once in their lifetime: Who am I? I’ve asked it over and over since I was seven. I remember thinking about it many nights in my childhood bedroom. And I recall lying on my back on the second-story porch off of that bedroom, gazing at the stars, wondering about my place in All Of It.
I felt so small then. Even now I feel small when looking at the cosmos. Who doesn’t? But now the feeling is different. I may feel small, but I don’t feel separate. I don’t feel apart from the way I did then.
A lot of things have changed since the days of my most earnest questioning. I don’t ask those kinds of questions anymore. Today, I ask other questions. How can I give to others what I have been given? What would it take for all of us to experience the End of Separation? What role can I play in bringing that about?
My questioning about much of life ended when my conversations with God began. Now all I want to know is how I can share with others the answers I have received in a way that they will “get” them. I would like to change the world’s ideas about Life, and about who we are. And I would like to change the world’s ideas about God.
What a shift in my reality! Even a few years ago I would not have thought of such a thing. Now I can hardly keep my mind off of it! I guess that’s how it is when you’re given an enormous treasure. All you want to do is share it.
The thing is, I see suffering all over the place, and I know that hardly any of it is necessary. None of it is necessary, in fact, but I understand that I and others would have to reach an extraordinarily high level of consciousness to experience that. But we do not have to reach such a level to get to the point were most of life’s sufferings become a thing of the past. That state of being is within reach of all of us. All we have to do is step into Who We Really Are.
So the question Who am I? is not an idle one. How you answer the question will determine how you live the rest of your life. It will determine the quality of your life.
Here’s the answer I have found: I am not who I thought I was. I am not my body. My body is mine, not me. The “me” that I am lives with my body, and uses my body as a tool. The “me” that I am lives not even inside my body, but surrounds my body, encasing it.
This allows the MeThat I Am to look with my “eyeless eyes” at my own body, at my own self, and actually begin to detach from its experience. Or, to put this more accurately, to have the experience, but to have a different experience of the experience.
This is what I call the Creative, rather than the Reactive, experience. In truth, I should be able to detach from the reactive experience of my own body almost as easily as I am able to detach from the reactive experience of yours. In actuality, I am not there yet-but some days and some moments I feel am very close.
When your body reacts to something-say, a pain, or a feeling of sadness-my body cannot have that same reactive experience. I can imagine the experience that you are having, and I can create something in my body that is perhaps very similar, but I cannot have the same reactive experience that you are having. You can tell me all you want about how you are suffering with the headache you are having, and I cannot suffer it. You can describe in minute detail all the sadness you are feeling, and I cannot feel it. I can feel my own sadness at the sadness that you are feeling, but I cannot feel yours.
You do not have to feel yours, either. Neither do you have to suffer. That is the extraordinary insight that came to me with the news of who I am. The truth is, my body’s responses to the events it is experiencing are reactive because I allow them to be. Sometimes, when I stand by in consciousness and “watch” my body react in certain ways to certain circumstance or events, I step in there and literally change my mind about how I want to experience that. In that moment I become a creator rather than a reactor. In that moment I become Who I Really Am.
Who IS this that is changing my mind? That is the question that every thinking person must ask. I thought I was my mind. Now here “I” am, changing it! Who is the “I” that is changing the “me” that I am experiencing?
Asking this question gets us very close to the Prime Inquiry-and the Prime Answer.
You are the Umoved Mover. You are the Unwatched Watcher. You are the One Who Has Made You the Way You Are-and the One who will continue to make you the way you are every single moment of your life-both in your present body, and beyond.
You are YOU, and your body is not YOU. Nor, for that matter, is your mind, because it is YOU who are changing your mind! So this YOU that you are exists outside of “you.” It exists outside of your body, and it exists outside of your mind. The YouThatYouAre is pure consciousness. It is awareness. You are a bundle of awareness. A gathering of energy that is aware of Itself.
So that’s the news you can take from all this. The real YOU is out of your mind!
Who You Are is not who you may have thought you were. And Who You Are is separate from nothing.
Hugs and love….
Neal Donald Walsh
NOTE: The Weekly Bulletin is sent free of charge to anyone who asks for it. It is a publication of the ReCreation Foundation, a non-profit organization undertaking the work of sharing the message of Conversations with God with the world. That message is that the purpose of life is to recreate ourselves anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever we held about Who We Are.
The CwG Weekly Bulletin is prepared by Neale Donald Walsch, m.Claire, Geek Squared, LEP Graduates and other friends.