Notes from Neale

Reflections from the text of the
CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD books…

The work goes on here in Europe, and it has been an exciting
journey. For those of you who do not know, I have been on the
Continent since September 14 sharing the principles of a New
Theology, and the messages of Conversations with God from
which they were derived, with audiences in Norway, Germany, Austria,
France, and The Netherlands. Em joined me here after the first week
of the tour — which will be my last extended trip in Europe.

I have spent many weeks at a time here nearly every year over the
past decade, but now my extended travel days are over, as I truly
wish to "retire" from so much "on the road" presentation and move
into different ways of making these messages available.

I am hoping that I can enlist all of you to join with me in that
effort, each of us doing whatever we can to bring the news of a New
Kind of God to humanity. I know that embracing this New Kind of God
will lead the way to creating a New Way of Life on the earth.

Folks everywhere are excited and inspired by the wonderful,
expansive, freedom-giving messages of Conversations with God,
and that was evident wherever we went. Over 1,200 people gathered in
the Concert Hall in Oslo for an evening that went from 6 p.m. until
10, exploring a new way to experience Divinity and a new way to
create Humanity. Some 600 more filled every seat in a hotel ballroom
in Bergen to listen to the same lecture — and well over 300 stayed
for the next two days for an extended spiritual renewal retreat.

Then, at a beautiful retreat site just outside of the tiny village
of Kisslegg in Bavaria, another 125 joined us for an even longer
event — a five-day intensive that ended last Sunday. This weekend
we present a lecture and offer a one-day program in Austria, and
then it is on to Paris.

I believe that "change" — particularly unexpected, unwanted change
— is rapidly becoming the biggest sociological event of the 21st
Century. Learning how to deal with it is going to be humanity’s
biggest challenge. (The challenge of the 20th Century was equality,
and creating it. The challenge of this century is going to be
change, and negotiating it with dignity, peace and grace — and
with the Self intact.)

What humanity does not have as we move forward in our evolution are
the tools with which to do so joyfully, painlessly, and
effortlessly. We need new equipment to confront the new conditions
of this new life in a new millennium. That is where the new
theology comes in.

What we need is a new knowledge of God. Not a new religion, but a
new theology. There is a big difference. A religion is a set of
doctrines and dogmas. It is, in essence, what someone else has told
us about God. The New Theology is based on evolutionary principles
that arise out of individual experiences of God, and that are
offered as invitations for further exploration, not as set-in-stone
"laws" or doctrines or rigid Statements of How It Is. Its dogma is
no dogma, its doctrine is no doctrine. It is the essence of freedom,
which it invites us to investigate as the true nature of God.

It states that God is an energy, not a "being" as we understand the
word — although that energy can take the form of any being it
wishes to emulate or create. It states that this energy, this
Essence, is best described in human language as pure intelligence
and pure love. That is, intelligence without limitation and love
without condition. Intelligence and love in its purest form, not
constrained in any manner whatsoever, and needing nothing, requiring
nothing, and demanding nothing of anyone or anything, but simply and
utterly at our complete disposal.

Finally, it states that there is no separation between this Essence
and Anything Else That Is, but rather, IS All That Is, manifested in
multiplicities of Form and Substance. It is the energy of life and
that which lives. It is both The Creator and The Created.

The concepts of this New Theology are enormous in their
implications, life-altering in their impact, and world-changing in
their scope and sweep. Should the invitation to embrace these
concepts be accepted by humanity, the day-to-day experience of all
sentient beings upon the earth would shift so dramatically as to
make the entire planet a paradise, and our movement from birth to
death nothing less than bliss.

The New Theology says this is what it was meant to be. What has
stopped life from being this is simply our misunderstanding.

Last week we continued our discussion of this New Theology, and our
article ended with this…

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?

This week, let’s look at that.

A State of Being — as I was just teaching at the retreat site near
Kisslegg in Germany — is something that we choose arbitrarily. It
is a product of Will Power. It is a choice we make, and something
that we create out of thin air.

We do this by making I AM statements. I am happy. I am content. I am
at peace. I am joyful. I am grateful. I am wonderful. I am wise. I
am patient. I am…whatever I want and choose to be.

Nothing is required from our Outer World, because States of Being
are Inner World experiences. Yet they can and do create Outer World
realities. More on this next week, as we continue our discussion of
the New Theology.

It is no different from the message that your heart sings every time
you look into the eyes of another with love. It is no different from
the message that your heart cries out when you see suffering
anywhere.

This is the message that you bring to the world, and that you would
leave with the world, when you are your True Self.

It is the message that I leave now with you, that you may remember
it once again, and share it with all those whose lives you touch.

Be kind to each other, and good.

Be kind to yourself, and good, as well.

Understand that these two do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Be generous with each other, and share.

Be generous with yourself, as well.

Know that only as you share with yourself can you share with
another. For you cannot give to another what you do not have.

Be gentle with each other, and true.

Be gentle with yourself, and true, as well.

To thine own self be true, and it follows as the day the night, thou
canst not then be false to any man.

Remember always that betrayal of yourself in order not to betray
another is betrayal nonetheless. It is the highest betrayal.

Remember always that love is freedom. You need no other word to
define it. You need no other thought to comprehend it. you need no
other action to express it.

Your search for the true definition of love is over. Now the only
question will be whether you can give this gift of love, to yourself
and to another, even as I have given it to you.

All systems, agreements, decisions and choices that express freedom
express God. For God is freedom, and freedom is love, expressed.

Remember always that yours is a world of Illusion, that nothing you
see is real, and that you may use The Illusion to bring you a grand
experience of the Ultimate Reality. Indeed, that is what you have
come here to do.

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Notes from Neale

The CwG Reader

I get a lot of email from people every day, and many postings as
well on my two websites, and a great deal of that communication is
from people who are not happy in their life. As I read their
heartfelt outpourings, I become very clear that every day on the
spiritual path offers an invitation and a challenge.

The invitation is to step up to the next level of self-exploration,
self-creation and self-fulfillment, and the challenge is to `weather
the storm’ that is in front of us right now from which that
invitation arises, and to keep coming back to the invitation itself,
to continue to focus on the invitation, and embrace it.

That is not always easy. In fact, it rarely is. And so we can’t help
but wonder sometimes, "When will this be over? When will this
`trial by fire’ be done??? Why can’t life be easy???"

Those are fair questions, and all of us have asked them. Some of us
have had to ask them more than others.

There appear to be at least two schools of thought on that within
the so-called New Age community. One thought is that life becomes
easy when we stop resisting "what is." We are encouraged to simply
stand in what’s happening Right Here, Right Now without resistance,
judgment or condemnation, knowing at some level that whatever is
going on is Perfect for us in our evolutionary process or it
wouldn’t be happening. (This is, loosely, the Byron Katie/Loving
What Is school of thought).

A second idea is that we need do nothing in any given moment but
listen to our feelings about things, and if we feel good about what
is going on, move toward that, and if we feel not so good about what
is going on, move away from that. (This might be called, loosely,
the Abraham/Esther & Jerry Hicks school of thought.)

None of us want life to be a constant struggle. Yet what makes
it a struggle when it is one? That is the question. Is it our
resistance to what is now going on? Or is it our failure to follow
our feelings about what is going on? AND…are our feelings
created by the resistance, or do they exist apart from that?

This is another way of saying, is it the exterior event that is
affecting us so negatively, or is it what our Mind is doing
with the exterior event?

Perhaps more to the point in this discussion…Does it even matter?

When you’ve just about "had enough," it may feel as though it
doesn’t matter. If I have a raging backache, I have a raging
backache, and telling me that it’s all the result of my thoughts
doesn’t make we want to endure the backache one bit longer than if I
know it was caused by my having lifted something wrong. A backache
is a backache, no matter what caused it.

There comes a time when the cause of something becomes unimportant.
We just want it to stop. Analyzing why it began can
often be only more aggravating…

One thing is sure about this thing called The Spiritual Path. It is
infinitely more arduous than just bumping along —
"doop-de-doop-de-doo…" — on the road of life without any thought
of the "soul" and its "journey" or the "meaning and purpose" of our
life or, for that matter, our very reason for being on the planet.

When we step off onto the Spiritual Path we confront
obstacles almost immediately. If it seems as though there were fewer
obstacles in life before, it’s probably because there were…precisely
because we were not on the path where the obstacles are found.
There’s no obstacle on the path that takes you nowhere…

Let me repeat that.

There’s no obstacle on the path that takes you nowhere.

That still does not make it any easier to take The Road Less
Traveled (which is, of course, the title of a marvelous book by M.
Scott Peck on this same general topic). That still doesn’t exactly
make you want to jump up and get started, with a cheerful, "Hey,
yeah, bring on those obstacles! Let’s hear it for crappy days and
difficult times!"

So what is the answer?

Well, I think the answer is two-fold. First, when you’re tired,
you’re tired. When you can’t run anymore, you can’t run anymore. So
I think the first thing you have to do is be good to yourself and
acknowledge that. Then, take a break as soon as you can. Whatever
that looks like in your life, take a break. Give yourself permission
to do that.

If you can’t do it right this minute (There could be a variety of
reasons why this might be so: You’re part of a plan that also
involves someone else, people in another place or space are counting
on you, etc., etc.), plan to do it very soon. Tell yourself you’re
going to "put up with" whatever is going on for just a tiny bit
longer…but be sure that you can see, right now, the "light at the
end of the tunnel" — and make certain you don’t go past that
stopping point. Tell yourself, "that far, and no further."

Doing this will give you a sense that this IS going to stop, that
there IS an "end in sight" — and that can do a world of good.

Then, when you’ve had a break and you’re emotionally rested, move
back into the process (that’s what this all is, by the way…it’s a
process) with a new perspective about what is going on, who
is causing it, and why. Elevate your thought about the occurrences
at hand. Think a new thought, a higher thought, a more positive and
affirmative thought.

This is what Esther and Jerry always advise. The exterior situation
of the moment may not change, but your idea about it can. Then, by
changing your idea about it, you can often actually change the
exterior situation. This is because the Interior affects the
Exterior.

Above all, try not to throw the baby out with the bath water. That
is, don’t jettison everything and everyone in the space because the
space hasn’t felt good. Recognize the part you have played in the
space not feeling good (don’t "beat yourself up" about it, just
recognize it) and then quietly and gently recommit to your continued
growth, through movement along that Spiritual Path, with love and
compassion for yourself and for all those who are equally struggling
as they walk the path with you.

And ask for God’s help. By all means, do that. Do not try to do all
this without God. Ask God to be with you, to walk with you, to stand
by you, especially through all the nearest upcoming moments as you
shift back into meeting and facing the next obstacles that your path
of choice will place before you.

And finally, know that it will — yes, it really and truly will —
all get easier. That was a question I asked God, you may remember,
in my conversations. "Will it ever get any easier?" I asked
plaintively, and God answered, "Yes, oh, yes, my child. I promise
you, it will get easier."

In the meantime, know that I love you — and that you are loved
also by God and by Life Itself. You are so admired for having taken
this journey, for having committed to this path. All the angels in
all the heavens are cheering for you now, rousing now to send you
all of their best energies.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = =

This week’s offering: The other side of goals-Part II

I have been looking at an important question. Probably the most
important question of my or anyone else’s life:

What lies on the other side of goals?

Believe it or not, this is a question that no one ever asked me,
ever — much less answered. IS it "more of the same," just Bigger
and Better? I hope not. There’s got to be more to life than just
chasing after the carrot — however big or important the carrot may
be.

So let’s discuss that today. But first, I’ve got to tell you about
Edmonton…

I’m in Calgary today, writing this. I flew in from Edmonton
yesterday, following a wonderful evening program there Saturday
night. It was the biggest crowd we’ve had at any of our stops on
this Canadian tour, and the program could easily have gone on for
another two hours. That’s how much interest there was in the room.

The New Spirituality is catching on in our world, and people are
showing up in larger and larger numbers every day as we provide
opportunities to explore its dimenions.

Now, let me tell you about Edmonton, the city. This is BOOM TOWN,
Canada. The real thing. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The
economy there is taking off like a skyrocket. Everywhere you look
there are Help Wanted and Now Hiring signs. I mean, everywhere. On
the way in from the airport we must have seen 50 of them, at
virtually every third place of business. Downtown, same thing.

Businesses are hiring, hiring, hiring. There are more jobs, of every
kind, than there are people to fill them. As a result, out-of-work
folks from everywhere else in Canada are streaming into Edmonton
daily — and still they can’t seem to fill the void.

Canada invites and welcomes immigrants with open arms, I was told by
a Canadian. So, if you live in the States or elsewhere and can’t
find work…run, don’t walk, to Edmonton.

Let me give you an example of just what I’m talking about here. At
the Ramada Inn where we stayed, the front desk clerk we worked with
had just been hired a week earlier. We asked for the bellman to help
us in getting our bags to our room and they said, "Sorry, we don’t
have any bellmen to do that." Got to our room a little hungry after
traveling, so called Room Service for a quick sandwich. "Sorry, we
don’t have Room Service up and running just now. Not enough
personnel."

It’s not that the Ramada does not want to provide these basic hotel
services, it’s just that the labor pool is being tapped and drained
severely. Here’s what’s happening: every able-bodied man is going
"up north" to work in the oil fields, where they can earn big money.
Alberta — the province where Edmonton lies — has been going
through a huge oil boom. So much so that last year the Provincial
Government (similar to State Governments in the U.S.) gave every
taxpayer a check for $400, returning its revenue surplus to the
people!

No one works for minium wage in Edmonton. If you own a business in
Edmonton and you tell someone you’ll hire them for minimum wage,
potential workers laugh at you and walk out. They can do better
anywhere. There is enormous competition for workers. I’ve never seen
anything quite like it; I’ve never been in a place where it was the
workers who had the upper hand in hiring situations. One can get a
job overnight. I mean, literally, you can drive into town and be
employed before you get to your motel room, where you were going to
stay until you found work. In fact, the motel itself will probably
hire you!

AND, if you have a high skill set, you can practically write your
own ticket in this town. So…I pass this on to you if you or
someone you know has just had a devil of a time finding employment.
If you don’t mind a place with a little Real Winter (possible snow
and cold many days late October through early March), a place with a
growing and vibrant New Spiritual community, a place with lots of
new cultural happenings and a sizzling young people’s atmosphere (a
drive down Whyte Avenue on a Saturday night is as good as being in
San Francisco), pack up and head on up the road! Edmonton is a great
place to be!

(And no, I do not work for the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce! I’m
just hugely impressed with what I saw there. This is Opportunity
City/Canada right now!)

Okay…

So now, to our question for the day. What lies on the other side of
goals?

As I was explaining the other day, I am in the blessed position (and
I really do "get" the blessing that I have received, believe me) of
having met or exceeded just about every goal I ever set in my life.
I have lived my Life Dream in every way.

Remember when we were young how we used to kid around and say, "When
I make my first million I’m going to…"? Well, I’ve made my first
million…and my second…and I’m working on my third. I have the
big house, the nice car, the "running money" to go into any store
and get just about anything I want. I’m not bragging about that,
just simply saying what is so. I also have worldwide recognition, a
life work that has brought me immense satisfaction, friends and
acquaintances in high places, entree just about anywhere, and a
travel schedule that has taken me to every corner of the globe. I
just don’t know what more, in terms of physical joys and comforts, I
could want. And I am deeply grateful. Humbly, deeply grateful.

(I may not seem very humble, judging from the way I’m flashing this
news all around in these last two blogs, but I promise you….I am
very humbly grateful to God. I’m sharing all of this here simply in
order to make a point.)

I’ve done it all and got it all — and now what?

I mean, really. Now what?

Do I just set new goals…so that I really can have Bigger, Better,
More? (I read a story in the newspaper here yesterday about a man
who made $85 million on the lottery, and he said his life goal now
is to parley that into a billion. He wants to be a billionaire
within ten years. And I thought as I read that…gosh, when is
enough enough? This guy’s 85 million makes my 2 million look like
chump change, and I think that I’ve reached the End of Striving for
physical things. What does he know that I don’t know? Or is it the
other way around…)

In addition to the fact that I’ve got all the physical "stuff" I
could ever want, I’ve also done just about everything I’ve ever
wanted to do (see my last blog for the rundown!). So I’m one of the
lucky ones. So now what? I’m still young. I’m not 79. I’m not 86.
I’m 63. So now what???

Now maybe I can get down to the Real Work that I came here to do.
Now maybe I can grow my soul. Now maybe I can experience Who I
Really Am. And now maybe I can understand that I did not have to do
all that other stuff first before I got to this. That understanding
is important to me, because it will stop me from thinking that there
is still more I have to do before I get about the business of my
spiritual evolution.

Why is it that I have always put my spirituality last? And what
would it take for me to put it first? Other people have done it.
Many other people have done it. And most of them have been people
who have accumulated much less in terms of physical "stuff" and
accomplished much less in terms of physical "doingness" than I.
Their focus was never on "doingness" to begin with! It was on
beingness.

My mother never "did" the raft of things that I have done, and never
gathered the things that I have gathered, yet she achieved more in
one week of her lifetime than I have achieved in the whole of mine.
She achieved goodness. I mean, she actually achieved that. And
compassion. And kindness. And patience. And givingness. She achieved
givingness. She demonstrated, every day of her life, what it was
like to give, what it was like to put happiness and peace and
comfort and understanding and joy into the lives of others, with
absolutely no thought, zero thought, of her own peace and comfort
and joy.

My mother achieved Unconditional Love as a State of Being in her
lifetime.

Now that’s an achievement. It makes whatever I may have done look
like Cub Scout stuff.

And my mother isn’t alone in this. Many people have been able to do
what my mother did. Or, to put it more accurately, they have been
able to be what my mother was being every day that I knew her:
caring, giving, loving, and selfless.

These are the qualities that will make a difference in how we feel
about our life on the last of our days. I am deeply aware, keenly
aware, of the people that I have hurt while undertaking my journey
– the journey that I have described in such detail here. Who cares
if I have achieved all these things if I am a slob, a manipulator,
an emotionally insensitive, utterly selfish, occasionally even
ruthless person who will do anything and hurt anybody to satisfy his
own desires? What difference will it make to my soul?

Sooner or later we ask ourselves, what in the world am I doing here?
In my case, I’ve had to wait until I did just about everything that
I ever wanted to "do" before I realized that none of this had
anything to do with why I came here. None of it was relevant. None
of it was why I inhabited a physical body, why I returned to the
Realm of the Relative from the Realm of the Absolute.

Only now, in my later years, have I understood that I am on a
Journey of the Soul, not a journey of the body — and that I could
have taken THAT journey without doing a damned thing. (Which would
have been nice to know a lot earlier, when I was doing one "damned"
thing after another.)

So now I want to embark, finally, on the journey that I came here to
take: a journey to Oneness, a journey to Wholeness and Completeness
and real, true, happiness. It is a journey that is taken through the
doorway of understanding and compassion and giving and forgiving and
sharing and caring and NOT caring a twit about what I get out of it,
but caring only about what I put into it and about what you get out
of it, so that through the gifts I give to you, I am revealed to
myself. I experience my Self as Who I Really Am.

This is what my mother did. This is what all saints do. And saviors,
too. For when we see what they have done we are in that moment saved
– rescued from any False Thought we may ever have had about Who ALL
of Us Really Are. My mother, and all saints, served as a model for
the rest of us, for those of us who are busy, busy, busy going about
our busy-ness and getting things "done."

My task here is to know who I am. To see it, to realize it, to
experience it, and to demonstrate it, so that the process of my
spiritual evolution may proceed. It is a joyous by-product of this
proces that others may see and realize who they are, and all the
world may be awakened.

I have not accomplished my task. I have barely begun.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I have become as a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not
parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not
seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in
iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail;
whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is
knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy
in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is
in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish
things. For now we see in a mirror, darkly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of
these is love.

And I have not learned this, nor demonstrated it. For love tells the
truth in all things, and speaks the truth as soon as it is known.
Love would never seek to have desires quenched at the expense of the
hearts of others. Yet this I have done…and more than once.

Yes, I have achieved some things in my life, and gathered much of
the "stuff" that many seek to gather. Yet now, in my 66th year, I
see that my journey has just begun.

I must set about learning, at last, to love. And I must set about
that journey now. For it is as the Buddha said:

The trouble is, you think you have time.
 

Has it been a good year for you? Have you experienced your soul
expanding, your heartspace increasing, your mind opening even more
to the wonders and the mysteries of life?

How is your relationship life going? Is your life purpose being
expressed in your daily activities? Are you in touch with your
deepest and highest self? And how are you doing with all the changes
in your life?

I am so deeply committed to bringing forward the messages of
Conversations with God in a helping way, in a way that can bring
real and vital new energy to your experience of life. That is why in
the 14 years since publication of the groundbreaking spiritual text
Conversations with God, I have presented an Annual Holiday Retreat
from Dec 28th to Jan 1st.

>From the beginning it has been our most popular and most attended
event each year. Once again this year we are offering this event
here in Ashland, Oregon.

In a very special mind-expanding, spirit-awakening 4 day
presentation, I will offer you the opportunity to truly celebrate
your life just as it has occurred, and then to recreate it anew in
the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about
Who You Are as you move into the New Year.

Wrapped in the soft and gentle poetry of my wife, Em Claire (www.emclairepoet.com),
this is a highly experiential event filled with personal sharings
and emotional healings, imbedded in deep discussions of the
Conversations with God material.

The wonderfully evocative and joyful musical artistry of recording
artists Cathy Bolton (www.cathybolton.com)
and Don Eaton (www.small-change.org)
will add to an inspiring and uplifting encounter with Self, with
God, and with Life that you are not likely to ever forget — and
that others have told us has changed their lives for the better.

The program ends with a very special Resolution Ritual in the final
moments of 2009, with participants publicly declaring their
intention for the 12 months ahead. Then we’ll usher in 2010 in grand
form with a traditional New Year’s Eve party.

You took the first step when you read Conversations with God.
Now, take the next step…

You already know
you if you want wish to be there.

If you do — if your soul is calling you to spend this very special
time with the Conversations with God material and with me
(something that you may have been promising yourself you would do
one day!), please contact Will Richardson at 352-442-2244. He’ll
answer any questions you may have.

NOTE: Not all events are sponsored by the ReCreation Foundation, but
because all of the events move forward the message of
Conversations with God, which is the mission of the Foundation,
the Foundation is pleased to inform you of them.

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Notes from Neale

The CwG Reader

Holiday Special

Last week I said that there were two schools of thought on how to
face the obstacles in life. One is the "Loving What Is" school of
thought, and the other is the "Watch What You Are Feeling and Always
Move Toward What Feels Good" school of thought.

The first has made its way into our considerations around these
things through the work (although not exclusively) of Byron Katie,
Eckhart Tolle, and others. The second approach has been placed into
our consciousness through the work (although, again, not
exclusively) of Esther and Jerry Hicks, as they bring through the
teachings of the Life Essence who invites us to refer to it by the
name Abraham.

I did not say last week which school of thought was, in my opinion
and through my observation, the most effective or the most useful or
the most beneficial to adopt and to embrace.

That is because I think, in the end, that they are both the same.
Esther and Jerry Hicks are teaching us to go with our good feelings.
That raises a fundamental question: What creates those good
feelings toward which we would move?

Byron Katie and the others are teaching that you can feel good about
anything by loving it just as it is. Thus, we move toward
what feels good by not moving at all; by not requiring
anything to be any different from what it is right now.

We can also adopt a more proactive definition of what Feels Good. We
can decide ahead of time. Instead of looking to see what
feels good as a Reaction to life, we can define what feels
good in advance…as an act of creation.

This deciding Ahead of Time is the process of a Master. Deciding
After The Fact is the process of a Student. Those who do not even
know, specifically, what Feels Good, because they are not paying any
attention to it at all, are neither Students nor Masters. They are
Participants only. They are participating in the creation of life,
individually and collectively, but they are not aware of, nor are
they experiencing, their own participation. That is, they literally
do not know what they are doing. Thus, they believe that life is
happening TO them, not THROUGH them.

These are human beings who are simply going through life without any
sense of what is going on, or why. They have no idea Who They Are,
Where They Are, Why They Are Where They Are, or What They Wish to Do
or Be Here. They are willing, but they are confused. They are good
persons, but they are having a bad time with Life. They do not have
the tools with which to negotiate Life happily and joyfully-much
less with which to create it that way.

They do not have the tools because they have not been given the
tools. There is no school that teaches what I am telling you here.
There is no program that offers it as a learning opportunity. The
only opportunity is Life Itself…and that is a tough way to learn.

In truth, we have nothing to learn, we have only to remember. But
this, too, is an acquired Awareness. It is acquired when we move
into full Consciousness with regard to Who We Really Are. And that
State of Consciousness is a product of what we are Being, not of
anything that we are Doing.

The problem has been that most humans are trying to DO their way to
Enlightenment. They are on the wrong path. "Wrong" not in the sense
of being "morally" or "spiritually" wrong, but wrong simply in the
sense that their path is not taking them where they say they want to
go. "Wrong" in the sense of it being non-functional. It is not
working.

Yet while the only opportunity to remember What Is So is Life
Itself, we can experience Life in a number of ways, some of which
bring us to Full Remembrance more quickly than others. The way of
the Student is the way of Observation. The Student observes what is
going on at all times. The Participant is too busy participating to
Observe.

I will speak next about this process of deciding Ahead of Time what
Feels Good. Then, the two schools of thought on how to face the
obstacles in life will come together, and we will see that there are
really no obstacles at all…only opportunities. When we see all
obstacles as opportunities, then we Observe that our Life is always
blessed. Ultimately we Observe that we are the ones doing the
blessing, because we, ourselves, are the ones who have produced the
Life’s Opportunities.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = =

This week’s offering: CwG says that what you resist persists.
Does this mean we should simply accept conditions in our lives
without attempting to change them? The surprising answer is no. This
commentary is taken from a blog that Neale wrote on May 5, 2007.

Conversations with God said is that what you resist persists. Often this
is misunderstood to mean that we should accept everything that
occurs or appears in our life without any attempt or determination
to change it. Yet that is not what it means.

It is perfectly okay, in spiritual terms, to seek to change any
circumstance, situation, or condition that arises in your life with
which you do not agree. Here is the key point around all of this:
Change is not resistance. To seek to alter a circumstance,
situation, or condition is not to resist it, but simply to re-shape
it into a form which is more pleasing to our eye.

Change is an act of creation. Resistance stops creation. That is the
difference.

Once this is understood, we see how it is possible for great people
such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa to
have done the work in the world that they have done. Closely
exploring these people’s lives makes it clear that they never
condemned anyone or anything. Judgment was not part of their
vocabulary. Bitterness was not part of their experience. And the use
of force was utterly outside of their cosmology. That is, they could
not imagine it as a useful energy of change.

All the spiritual teachers across time have encouraged us to "resist
not evil." This does not mean that we should never seek to create
new conditions in our lives or in the lives of others. This means,
simply, that we are most effective in bringing about change when we
use creative energy rather than condemning energy. Resistance to
anything actually places it there more firmly in our experience. You
cannot "resist" something that is not there. Therefore in the act of
resisting something places it there.

Jesus said, "Judge not, and neither condemn." He did not say,
"Change not, and neither alter." Change is good. Indeed,
Conversations with God tells us that change is the nature of
life. It goes further, it tells us that the words "life" and "God"
are interchangeable. If, then, change is the nature of life, then
change is the nature of God. Indeed, the text of CwG tells us this
directly. It says, "God is change."

God, the material tells us, is a process. That process is
Life Itself. And the life is change in process. It is the movement
of atoms and molecules, the vibration of energy, the constant
shifting of The Essence to create in physical form what is been
conceived at the level of pure creation.

Resistance is the act of trying to stop something. Change is the act
of seeking to modify it. There is an enormous difference.

Therefore, when confronted with any outward experience that is not
welcome in your reality, do not push back from it but rather, move
into it. Embrace it in its totality. Love it in its perfection. Then
simply use the process of creation to re-shape it in a form which
more perfectly represents Who You Are and Who You Choose to Be.

This may take time. One should not expect instant results. Instant
results are possible, but one should not expect them. Rather, be
satisfied with the process that is taking place, allowing yourself
to move with the energy as the energy moves with you, re-creating
itself and re-creating you in one motion. Have patience. Have
understanding. Have awareness. Come from a place of Total
Consciousness about what is occurring and your life will be an
experience of peace and quiet joy — one might call it deep inner
serenity — during all the moments of your time on earth.

This is a great promise of God. This is a great reward to those who
are Attentive. Therefore, pay attention. Notice the moment. Peer
deeply into each occurrence. Do not be confused by the illusion. And
resist not evil, for "nothing is evil, lest thinking make it so."
Seek gently to simply change what does not speak to you of Who You
Are.

NOTE: Not all events are sponsored by the ReCreation Foundation, but
because all of the events move forward the message of
Conversations with God, which is the mission of the Foundation,
the Foundation is pleased to inform you of them.

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Notes from Neale

The CwG Reader

Last week we asked the question, How does one "be" what one wishes
to "be", how does one adopt a State of Being, through Intentioned
Choice?

In that last letter we said, "Using this avenue, One uses the Mind
to instruct the Mind to ignore or override the Mind.
What one actually ignores or overrides is the Mind’s constant
chatter, its constant judgments (arising from Past Data), its old
conditioning. The Mind tells the Mind what to think, how to feel,
and when and where to do this. This approach requires commitment and
discipline — the marks of every true spiritual master and every
serious student of spiritual mastery."

I want to take a closer look at this today…

"Spiritual Mastery" is a big phrase, and it is heard a lot in
certain circles these days. Yet what is this thing called Spiritual
Mastery? To me, it is the ability to focus one’s thoughts on the
eternal wisdom of the soul at a time when one is tempted to focus
thoughts on the conditioning of the mind.

This certainly does, as I indicted last week, require commitment and
discipline. It requires a commitment from ourselves to ourselves, to
notice whenever we have fallen prey to the temptation to recede into
the Past or project into the Future. This is the territory of the
Mind. The Soul does not go there, because for the Soul there is no
such thing as the past or the future. There is only Now.

The Buddha shared with us the essence of Spiritual Mastery before
the time of Christ. He said, "Do not pursue the past; do not loose
yourself in the future. The past no longer is. The future has not
yet come. Looking deeply at life as it is in the very here and now,
you dwell in stability and freedom."

This is an ancient teaching, and all persons who have experienced
what we call "enlightenment" teach the same thing even today. There
is nothing new about this process of mastery, or enlightenment —
but there are some new and important and wonderful and clarifying
articulations of this age-old wisdom. It is all about what Eckhart
Tolle calls The Power of Now. It is all about what Byron
Katie terms Loving What Is.

So the commitment is a determined decision, a choice, an intention,
to look closely at every single important thought or feeling that
comes into our experience; to stop and think twice
about what you’re thinking about.

Often when "bad" things happen to us, or bad feelings come over us,
well meaning friends say to us, "Don’t give it a second thought."
Actually, I am suggesting just the opposite. Think again.
Think again about that which you are thinking again. Because
the negative thought you are having now about something that is
going on in your life is a "thinking again" of a thought you’ve had
before. It is a calling up of Old Data — what is called Judged
Past Data in the wonderful new CwG book When Everything Changes,
Change Everything.

So if you find yourself in a "negative space" about something, think
about what your thoughts are showing you right now. Make the
commitment right now to do that — to think about what you are
thinking about — whenever you feel less than totally joyful,
totally peaceful, totally content. THEN…

…apply the discipline of refocusing. This is a discipline. It is
an art. It is Akido of the Mind. And about THAT we will talk next
week! Make a wonderful seven days.

Continuing our discussion of Big Self/Little Self, launched here in
the Bulletin a few weeks ago…

I am not for one minute suggesting that we abandon the Little Self.
It is not my idea that unless we are being the Big Self in every
single moment that we have somehow lost sight of our "mission" or
"failed" in living our purpose. And I think it’s important to
understand that.

Life is a question of balance, and if it was not spiritually
appropriate or spiritually useful or, may I say, spiritually
necessary for us to live as the Little Self, we would not be
given the opportunity by life to do so.

My point is that living as the Little Self has a purpose. We
came here to live as the Little Self AND the Big Self. It is
the experience of the Little Self that creates a context within
which all of the awareness, wisdom, understandings, and knowing of
the Big Self may be experienced in us and through us.

It is for this reason that living as the Little Self provides us
with so much joy. If it were not meant to be part of our earthly
experience — and an important part — it would not ever have been
made to be nearly as wonderful. So my lesson in life since I have
embarked upon this headlong drive to achieve enlightenment (my God,
is that what I’m trying to do?!?!) has been to welcome every aspect
of the Little Self into my experience; to embrace every impact and
effect of the Little Self as portion of my reality; to explore every
nuance of the Little Self as part of my journey.

Part of this process has been for me to learn more and more about
the Five Natural Emotions. These were first talked to me by my
wonderful master teacher Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. These emotions
are given to us as tools. They are part of the life of the Little
Self. If we use them in the manner in which they were intended to be
used, they can be extraordinary devices leading us to profound
awareness. If they are suppressed, and therefore not used as they
were intended to be used, they become enemies of the mind, poison in
the pond of consciousness, and obstacles that we will find ourselves
fighting to overcome every day of our lives.

I will be explaining all of this in my next blog. For now, for
today, allow yourself to welcome with open arms all of the wondrous,
delightful, frustrating, annoying, uplifting, inspiring, deflating,
disappointing, and elevating experiences of the Little Self. Watch
your Little Self today. Watch to see what he or she gravitates to,
pushes back from, seeks more of, wants less to do with, and plunges
enthusiastically into. Observe its preferences. Witness its process.
And bless its journey, knowing that without the ups and downs of its
sometimes difficult traveling, the Big Self could not be reached.

Has it been a good year for you? Have you experienced your soul
expanding, your heartspace increasing, your mind opening even more
to the wonders and the mysteries of life?

How is your relationship life going? Is your life purpose being
expressed in your daily activities? Are you in touch with your
deepest and highest self? And how are you doing with all the changes
in your life?

I am so deeply committed to bringing forward the messages of
Conversations with God in a helping way, in a way that can bring
real and vital new energy to your experience of life. That is why in
the 14 years since publication of the groundbreaking spiritual text
Conversations with God, I have presented an Annual Holiday Retreat
from Dec 28th to Jan 1st.

>From the beginning it has been our most popular and most attended
event each year. Once again this year we are offering this event
here in Ashland, Oregon.

In a very special mind-expanding, spirit-awakening 4 day
presentation, I will offer you the opportunity to truly celebrate
your life just as it has occurred, and then to recreate it anew in
the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about
Who You Are as you move into the New Year.

Wrapped in the soft and gentle poetry of my wife, Em Claire (www.emclairepoet.com),
this is a highly experiential event filled with personal sharings
and emotional healings, imbedded in deep discussions of the
Conversations with God material.

The wonderfully evocative and joyful musical artistry of recording
artists Cathy Bolton (www.cathybolton.com)
and Don Eaton (www.small-change.org)
will add to an inspiring and uplifting encounter with Self, with
God, and with Life that you are not likely to ever forget — and
that others have told us has changed their lives for the better.

The program ends with a very special Resolution Ritual in the final
moments of 2009, with participants publicly declaring their
intention for the 12 months ahead. Then we’ll usher in 2010 in grand
form with a traditional New Year’s Eve party.

You took the first step when you read Conversations with God.
Now, take the next step…

You already know
you if you want wish to be there.

If you do — if your soul is calling you to spend this very special
time with the Conversations with God material and with me
(something that you may have been promising yourself you would do
one day!), please contact Will Richardson at 352-442-2244. He’ll
answer any questions you may have.

NOTE: Not all events are sponsored by the ReCreation Foundation, but
because all of the events move forward the message of
Conversations with God, which is the mission of the Foundation,
the Foundation is pleased to inform you of them.

Current Bulletin

CwG Home Page

Life Education Program

CwG Online Store

Last Weeks Bulletin

If you enjoy this FREE bulletin, and feel that you get great value
from it, please consider making a donation to help us continue to
offer services like this. The CwG Foundation is a non-profit
organization and any donation amount is greatly appreciated.