ALL OF LIFE IS A REMEMBERING OF GOD
Saturday, July 10th, 2010My dear friends…
A handful of people (the limit is 20) from all over the world are now in the final weeks of the CwG Spiritual Mentoring Program, a three-month, 36-lesson course in spiritual awakening based on the messages in the books of the Conversations with God cosmology.
The program includes highly personal and individual spiritual coaching calls between me and each participant. And so, this has been a time of some goodbyes (for now)-but of a renewed commitment by each participant to continue moving forward in their own spiritual growth.
Today I was reading parts of the final lesson, #36, in the course, and I was struck by the words that I found there. I would like to share a bit of this narrative with you, here, in the Weekly Bulletin.
All of Life is a Remembering of God. That is, All of Life is a process through which the countless parts of God become members once again of the OneBody that is God Itself. This is what is meant when CwG speaks of re-membering.
All of Life is a re-membering of God.
Why have the countless parts of God become separated from the OneBody of God? They have not. Separation from God is an illusion. The parts of God were simply Individuated. Individuation is not Separation, any more than one’s individual fingers are separated from the hand-or one’s hands are separated from the body.
Individuation does not mean Separation.
The single biggest mistake that humanity has ever made is teaching its offspring that “individuation” is the same as “separation.” This deep and colossal misunderstanding is what has allowed generation upon generation of parents to teach their children that while we are all “a part” of God, we are nevertheless “apart” from God.
Yet Conversations with God teaches us that that which is “a part” can never be “apart”-and this single teaching can change the world.
That which is a part can never be apart.
When the world understands this simple, elegant truth, everything about the way the earth’s most intelligent species (we presume) lives its collective lives will be altered forever. Societies will change. Religions will change. Governing will change. Commerce will change. Economics will change. Education will change. Politics will change. Art will change. Medicine will change. Science will change. Sports will change. Entertainment will change. Marriage will change. Sexuality will change. Parenting will change. Mores, standards, rules, regulations, guidelines, laws and instructions of every kind will change. Everything that we think, say, and do will change.
Waiting is Not Required
It is not necessary for you, as an individual member of our species, to have to postpone your movement to this place. You do not have to wait for humanity as a whole to arrive at this level of consciousness. You can move into-and come from-this awareness right now, this day.
Yet I am clear that it may not be easy for you to do so, given what all of us have been taught by our elders and told by our society and warned of by our religions and convinced of by our politicians. We have adopted and embraced a horrifying Cultural Story that we cannot seem to let go of. The Story we have been told goes something like this…
“We are born into a hostile world, run by a God who has things He wants us to do and things He wants us not to do, and will punish us with everlasting torture if we don’t get the two right.
“Our first experience in life is separation from our mother, the source of our life. This sets the tone and creates the context for our entire reality, which we experience to be one of separation from the Source of All Life.
“We are not only separate from All Life, but from everything else in Life. Everything that exists exists separate from us, and we are separate from everything else that exists. We do not want it this way, but this is the way it is. We wish it were otherwise, and, indeed, we strive for it to be otherwise.
“We seek to experience Oneness again with all things, and especially with each other. We may not know why, exactly, yet it seems almost instinctual. It feels like the natural thing to do. The only problem is, there does not seem to be enough of The Other to satisfy us. No matter what the Other Thing is that we want, we cannot seem to get enough of it.
“We cannot get enough love, we cannot get enough time, we cannot get money, we cannot get enough of whatever it is we think we need in order to be happy and fulfilled. The moment we think that we have enough, we decide that we want more.
“Since there is `not enough’ of whatever it is we think we need to be happy, we must `do stuff’ to get as much as we can get. Things are required of us to get everything, from God’s love to the natural bounty of Life. Simply `being alive’ is not enough. Therefore WE, like all of Life, are not enough.
“Because just `being’ isn’t sufficient, there’s stuff that we have to do. The ones who do the `right stuff’ get to have the things that they need to be happy. If you don’t do the right stuff in the right way, you don’t get to `win’. Thus, the competition begins. There’s `not enough’ out there, and so, we have to compete for it.
“We have to compete for everything, including God.
“This competition is tough. This is about our very survival. In this contest, only the fittest survive. Only to the victor go the spoils. If you are a loser, you live a hell on Earth, and after you die, if you are a loser in the competition for God, you experience hell again – this time forever.
“Death was actually created by God because our forebears made the wrong choices. Adam and Eve had everlasting life in the Garden of Eden, but then, Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and she and Adam were driven from the garden by an angry God, who sentenced them, and all their progeny forevermore, to death as The First Punishment. Henceforth, life in the body would be limited, and no longer everlasting, and so would the stuff of Life.
“Yet God will give us back our everlasting life if we never again break His rules. God’s love is unconditional, it is only God’s rewards which are not. God loves us even as He condemns us to everlasting damnation. It hurts Him more than it hurts us, because He really wants us to return home, but He can’t do anything about it if we misbehave. The choice is ours.
“The trick is, therefore, to not misbehave. We need to live a good life. We must strive to do so. In order to do so, we have to know the truth about what God wants and does not want from us. We cannot please God, we cannot avoid offending Him, if we do not know Right from Wrong. So we have to know the Truth about that.
“The Truth is simple to understand and easy to know. All we have to do is listen to the prophets, the teachers, the sages, and the Source and Founder of our religion. If there is more than one religion, and therefore, more than one Source and Founder, then we have to make sure to pick the Right One. Picking the Wrong One could result is us being a Loser.
“When we pick the Right One, we are superior, we are better than our peers, because we have The Truth on our side. This state of being “Better” allows us to claim most of the other prizes in the contest without actually contesting them. We get to declare ourselves the Winner in the competition before the competition begins. It is out of this awareness that we give ourselves all the advantages, and write the Rules of Life in such a way that certain others find it nearly impossible to win the really big prizes.
“We do not do this out of meanness, but simply in order to ensure that our victory is guaranteed-as rightly it should be, since it is those of our religion, of our nationality, of our race, of our gender, of our political persuasion, who know The Truth, and therefore deserve to be Winners.
“Because we deserve to win, we have a right to threaten others, to fight with them, and to kill them if necessary, in order to produce this result.
“There may be another way to live, another thing that God has in mind, another, larger Truth, but if there is, we don’t know it. In fact, it is not clear whether we are even supposed to know it. It is possible that we are not supposed to even try to know it, much less to truly know and understand God. To try is to be presumptuous, and to declare that you have actually done so is to blaspheme.
“God is the Unknown Knower, the Ummoved Mover, the Great Unseen. Therefore, we cannot know the truth that we are required to know in order to meet the conditions that we are required to meet in order to receive the love that we are required to receive in order to avoid the condemnation that we are seeking to avoid in order to have the everlasting life that we had before any of this started.
“Our ignorance is unfortunate, but should not be problematical. All we need do is take what we think we DO know-our Cultural Story-on faith, and proceed accordingly. This we have tried to do, each according to his or her own beliefs, out of which we have produced the life that we are now living, and the reality on Earth that we are creating.”
This is how most of the human race has it constructed. You each have your minor variations, but this is, in essence, how you live your lives, justify your choices, and rationalize your outcomes.
Some of you do not accept all of this, yet all of you accept some of it. And you accept these statements as the Operating Reality not because they reflect your innermost wisdom, but because someone else has told you that they are true.
At some level, you have had to make yourself believe them.
This is called Make Believe.
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Participants in the Spiritual Mentoring Program are then invited to join in “undoing” this self-destructive game of make believe, by working individually within themselves to unravel the cultural story that has been running their lives.
I want to extend the same invitation to those of you here, reading this Weekly Bulletin.
Love and Hugs,
Neale.
P.S. Persons interested in learning more about the CwG Spiritual Mentoring Program may do so here:
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/index.php?p=Doc&c=mentor
OUR NEXT CwG SPIRITUAL RENEWAL RETREAT
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A VERY SPECIAL EVENT WITH NEALE LATER THIS MONTH
Have you checked this out?
On July 29th a handful of people will gather in a small town in Southern Oregon to consider their lives within a new context. They will be together for three days and the evening before, and when they emerge they will hold the tools with which to engage every circumstance in life that has ever vexed them, challenged them, or frustrated them into thinking that life was out of their control-including the most vexing experience of all: CHANGE.
The process in which these people will engage includes courageous emotional exploration, personal examination, and spiritual healing. It is rooted in the life-altering messages of the Conversations with God series of books, including the remarkable WECCE Technology, from the book When Everything Changes, Change Everything. Facilitating this retreat will be Neale Donald Walsch, the author of those books, whose work has changed the lives of millions around the world.
The principle tool used in the program described above is Soulogic, the name given by Neale to a method of deep inquiry that he was inspired to develop for himself, and that for many people has produced swift and astonishing insight into their soul’s agenda-and into previously unconsidered possibilities surrounding another soul’s purpose. This, in turn, has led to deep healing of damaging emotional injuries, and to entirely new ways of dealing with the events and the effects of everyday life.
The retreat concludes with an opportunity for every person in the room to have their own conversation with God. If you are ready, willing, and able to do something spontaneous for your soul, you will know right now why you saw this notice here. For more information, follow this link…
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/index.php?p=Doc&c=classes2
A VERY SPECIAL OFFER
The audio versions of Conversations with God Books 1 – 3, and What God Wants are available only through the CwG Foundation for a very special price. The dialogue is read by Neale Donald Walsch and God’s answers – wise, witty and often stunning are heard through the voices of Ellen Burstyn and Edward Asner. complete and unabridged.
Purchase any three of the books described below for the price of two.
http://www.cwg.org/main.php?p=store?=storeaudio
Conversations with God Book 1
The First Installment of an extraordinary trilogy, Conversations with God marks Neale Donald Walsch’s initial dialogue with God. This book discusses personal issues such as prosperity, relationships and the nature of spiritual truth – with God providing clear, understandable answers. Further than the author’s conversation with God, you’ll realize that your own understanding and your own conversation with God is the true subject matter of this unforgettable text. This includes all of CwG Book 1 – unabridged – 8 CD’s in all.
Conversations with God Book 2
The Second Installment of an extraordinary trilogy, Conversations with God marks Neale Donald Walsch’s dialogue with God. This book discusses man’s relationship to the earth and all that is of this world. This includes all of CwG Book 2 – unabridged – 8 CD’s in all.
Conversations with God Book 3
This third book in the Conversations with God trilogy by Neale Donald Walsch is about more universal issues such as the nature of the soul, space and time, and highly evolved societies. Filled with marvelous insights, Neale resumes his six-year-long interior dialogue in this fascinating exploration of life, the universe, and our relationship with God, asking God questions which every person asks her or himself. God’s answers – wise, witty and often stunning are heard through the voices of Ellen Burstyn and Edward Asner in an inspired performance.” This includes all of CwG Book 3 – Unabridged – 8 CDs in all.
What God Wants
Read by Neale Donald Walsch, unabridged. “Be Careful. This book is dangerous. It explores with startling freshness the most important question you could ever ask, and offers with breathtaking courage the most extraordinary answer you could ever imagine.
That answer is so theologically revolutionary and so spiritually empowering that it could change the course of human history. If embraced, it most certainly will change your life.”
http://www.cwg.org/main.php?p=store?=storeaudio
The CwG Reader
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: An essay written by Neale in February, 2005 in which Relationship’s Two Essential Questions are defined and explored.
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When we are young we imagine that life is going to last forever. As we get older we see clearly that we have a limited number of years here. Our time in this body is not infinite. Time itself is infinite, and We are, too-but our time in this particular body is not. This, then, is the Gift. This, then, is the Treaure. Time in this body is the Treasure of Treasures.
At some point during that time we realize that each moment is golden. We see that every second is meant for something-or, at the very least, can be used for something that is quite good. That is, in fact, extraordinary. Each second can be used for the molding and the creating and the experiencing of The Self in its Next Grandest Version.
We do not have to continue replaying the versions of the past. We do not have to be who we always were. We do not have to continue as we have been, acting as we have been, believing what we have been, accepting what we have been, becoming what we have been. We do not have to remain the same. Not from year to year, not from month to month, not even from week to week or day to day. Not even, truth be told, from second to second.
The great secret of life is that we can change ourselves and change our lives in a second. We can engage in the process of Self Creation from moment to moment. In fact, we are doing so, whether we want to be or not. This is happening. It is not a question of whether it is going on, it is merely a question of whether we know it is going on, and of whether we are watching it or causing it.
As we get older and begin to understand all of this more profoundly, we feel moved to make some important inquiries. We begin to ask what I call The Essential Questions.
As an old newspaper hack (read that, professional reporter) I immediately recognize the golden formula of all journalists as they sit down to write a story. There are five questions that every newspaper reporter must ask, and that every newspaper story should answer: Who, What, When, Where, Why?
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?
In my own version I like to expand the fourth question, but even my expansion still falls within the five W’s: Where am I going, and who is going with me?
These are the two Primary Questions in All Relationships. It is vitally important to ask and answer them in the right order. That is, in the order that works; in the order that is functional. If you ask those two questions in reverse order, what results is dysfunctionality. Yet most people ask them in exactly that way. Who is going with me? Now, where am I going?
No wonder people get off track. No wonder people wake up at 45 or 50 and look into the mirror, trying to figure out what happened to their lives. Yet it’s easy to understand how these two got switched around. Most people are desperately afraid of being alone. They would rather be lost than alone. So they lose their way, but at least they have company.
Once we confront our challenge with being alone, once we solve the problem we have with the idea of no one being alongside of us-which we can only do when we answer the first Essential Question, Who am I?-then we are free at last to ask the Primary Questions in All Relationships in the functional order: Where am I going? Who is going with me?
This changes everything. And the irony of this is that we are, from that point on, hardly ever alone. And that is because we have become such dynamic beings-wholly alive, fully self-expressed, completely confident, and totally secure in who we are-that everyone wants to be around us, including a whole host of people who could qualify as that Significant Other for whom we had formerly been searching so desperately that we were willing to give up our very sense of who we are in order to find him or her.
