Posts
The question that you raise re choices, lifedesign, and the place of the deep unconscious (Soulmind) is arguably the most profound question ever raised in the history of philosophy. Too be completely honest and candid, its answer functions as a subset of a larger question: Does the suffering in our lives have any meaning, as in education, or is it just random, chaotic, and empty?
It seems that the answer that you choose for this larger question will form, or at least, greatly influence, the answer at which you arrive for the secondary inquiry. That is, if you have decided that the cosmos has meaning, this can imply that every event within it has meaning as well. If so, that meaning is not always evident,and might require much work to discover or to understand. It is, in essence, this embrace of meaning and Mind over emptiness and chilling void that marks the Enlightenment Tradition.
It is also true that the great mystical classics that you mention do not clearly teach the understanding about Soul-design and Soul-choices that we have discussed. Every mystical teaching is not taught in every mystical book, just as every text on mechanics does not include every one of the billions of mechanical facts in the world.
In the Way, we must use extrapolation and common sense to figure out the cosmos for ourselves. Unlike fundamentalism, the Way does not seek to answer every question for you, in the form of dogma carved in stone. It gives you the basic facts, and lets you fly solo from there. So, perhaps no two mystics have ever believed exactly alike re every microdetail of creation.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Prayer Request Hoaxes
NOTE: This note was written in response to a friend who revealed that a prayer-request had been a hoax.
Thanks for the technical legwork. Unfortunately, it was all unnecessary. For when a prayer-request comes to us, it is a test of our compassion for strangers. The critical question is not whether or not the strangers exist; the only critical factor is our response to people in need. No prayer is ever "wasted," since every time a person prays, or reaches deeply within, to Lovemind, her life is significantly improved. So, for that matter, is the shared life of the community, and the world. Your desire for technical accuracy is nevertheless appreciated, for it is one that is usually shared. And your feedback is received with gratitude.:)
There are many much more important factors in life than "doing things right," and the elicitation of compassion is one of these. If the story awakens compassion, then it has served its fullest purpose.:)
Thanks for the technical legwork. Unfortunately, it was all unnecessary. For when a prayer-request comes to us, it is a test of our compassion for strangers. The critical question is not whether or not the strangers exist; the only critical factor is our response to people in need. No prayer is ever "wasted," since every time a person prays, or reaches deeply within, to Lovemind, her life is significantly improved. So, for that matter, is the shared life of the community, and the world. Your desire for technical accuracy is nevertheless appreciated, for it is one that is usually shared. And your feedback is received with gratitude.:)
There are many much more important factors in life than "doing things right," and the elicitation of compassion is one of these. If the story awakens compassion, then it has served its fullest purpose.:)
Love and the Way
The idea that the cosmos is "indifferent" does not imply that it is malevolent. All the foolish anthropomorphisms about a personal God who is a "big daddy in the sky have been dropped and abandoned. It takes no rocket scientist to determine that "God" is not interventionistic." These are Pollyanna fairy-tales of only wishful thinking. God is no caring grandfather or father, no genie, and no Santa Claus. But, on the other hand, God is no psychotic Jehovah.
In fact, God is no external person at all. "God" is the very best that exists in all sentient minds throughout the galaxies. God is the sum total of all wisdom, and all Love, in all sentient hearts everywhere.
Clearly, this is by no means limited to the earth-- a kind of revived geocentrism. So, we start with the simple premise that mind does exist. This is experiential rather than theoretical for all of us.
The second part of our premise is that goodness, valuable and positive qualities, exist within mind. That, too, is largely experiential, and is also evident by non-biased observation. While mind or consciousness contains much of horror and nightmare, it would be lop-sided and biased to claim that it contained no goodness.
So, wehn you gather all the best of all the goodness from all the sentient minds in existence, you have "collected" God. That collection IS "God." This is the meaning of the mysterious declaration of mystics that, "God is Love."
This is not pantheism, which defines "God" as the sum total of the material cosmos. For it presents God, not as matter, but as Mind. (Still, this is not true dualism, for "matter" is also Mind, being dream only.) So, "God" is Mind, not cosmos. This Mind dreams the cosmos into bbeing, but does not become the cosmos any more than you become your nightdreams.
Further, God is not only Mind, but is exclusively all the positivity found in all Mind. God is all the Love, none of the fear. God is all the wisdom, none of the folly. God is only positivity, by definition. "God" is all the good stuff, as the etymology of the word suggests. All that is "outside" Godmind is nothing, or mere illusion.
Does this mean that hatred is unimportant? Just ignore it, and it will go away? No, for that is childish thinking too, just like "big daddy." The people of wisdom are the people of Love. Yes, a cosmos that is dream could well be a monstrosity in itself. A cosmos in which "evil" serves immediate improvement could be equally monstrous and psychotic. That is why the very CORE, the essence, the indispensable, is Love. That is why the center of all my teaching, and of the whole Enlightenment Tradition, is "agapology"-- the psychology of Love. Without Love, the whole philosophy unravels and falls apart. It could indeed be interpreted to be unloving or uncompassionate as a mere intellectual explanation. And, in history, it has been so misunderstood and distorted. So, that is why the philosophy of the Enlightenment Tradition must be received as an indivisible whole. Any recipe tastes bad if you leave out its most abundant ingredient; and the philosophy of the Enlightenment Tradition is indeed distorted if you accept it in part only. Without Love, it "tastes bad" to the sensitive heart, for it is literally "spoiled." If, for example, you accept the perfect balance of karma, or of Soul-choices, but without Love, you could imply a totally heartless and unfeeling view of the cosmos.
The average Protestant, Catholic, Jew, or Muslim would call me an "atheist," because I do not believe in her interpretation of "God," which I see as a silly and desperate fairy-tale. So, in our shared quest for truth (reality), we share very much in common.
In fact, God is no external person at all. "God" is the very best that exists in all sentient minds throughout the galaxies. God is the sum total of all wisdom, and all Love, in all sentient hearts everywhere.
Clearly, this is by no means limited to the earth-- a kind of revived geocentrism. So, we start with the simple premise that mind does exist. This is experiential rather than theoretical for all of us.
The second part of our premise is that goodness, valuable and positive qualities, exist within mind. That, too, is largely experiential, and is also evident by non-biased observation. While mind or consciousness contains much of horror and nightmare, it would be lop-sided and biased to claim that it contained no goodness.
So, wehn you gather all the best of all the goodness from all the sentient minds in existence, you have "collected" God. That collection IS "God." This is the meaning of the mysterious declaration of mystics that, "God is Love."
This is not pantheism, which defines "God" as the sum total of the material cosmos. For it presents God, not as matter, but as Mind. (Still, this is not true dualism, for "matter" is also Mind, being dream only.) So, "God" is Mind, not cosmos. This Mind dreams the cosmos into bbeing, but does not become the cosmos any more than you become your nightdreams.
Further, God is not only Mind, but is exclusively all the positivity found in all Mind. God is all the Love, none of the fear. God is all the wisdom, none of the folly. God is only positivity, by definition. "God" is all the good stuff, as the etymology of the word suggests. All that is "outside" Godmind is nothing, or mere illusion.
Does this mean that hatred is unimportant? Just ignore it, and it will go away? No, for that is childish thinking too, just like "big daddy." The people of wisdom are the people of Love. Yes, a cosmos that is dream could well be a monstrosity in itself. A cosmos in which "evil" serves immediate improvement could be equally monstrous and psychotic. That is why the very CORE, the essence, the indispensable, is Love. That is why the center of all my teaching, and of the whole Enlightenment Tradition, is "agapology"-- the psychology of Love. Without Love, the whole philosophy unravels and falls apart. It could indeed be interpreted to be unloving or uncompassionate as a mere intellectual explanation. And, in history, it has been so misunderstood and distorted. So, that is why the philosophy of the Enlightenment Tradition must be received as an indivisible whole. Any recipe tastes bad if you leave out its most abundant ingredient; and the philosophy of the Enlightenment Tradition is indeed distorted if you accept it in part only. Without Love, it "tastes bad" to the sensitive heart, for it is literally "spoiled." If, for example, you accept the perfect balance of karma, or of Soul-choices, but without Love, you could imply a totally heartless and unfeeling view of the cosmos.
The average Protestant, Catholic, Jew, or Muslim would call me an "atheist," because I do not believe in her interpretation of "God," which I see as a silly and desperate fairy-tale. So, in our shared quest for truth (reality), we share very much in common.
THE CULT THAT SWALLOWED MY CHILDHOOD
Before I was four, my family made the most tragic error of this or any other life: They joined a humorless extremist rightwing "Christian" cult.
This was to ruin many of my most potentially joyful moments for years to come.
The cult stole from me, and probably from hundreds of thousands of others(it now numbers five million) essential components of a healthy, happy childhood. As in other cults, the ancient Hebrew text was favored that says, "Spare the rod, and spoil the child." Taken literally, this is a full approval of child-abuse. Cult-elders taught parents to be grimly aware of the need to remain always disciplinarian and hyperauthoritarian.
The cult soon convinced my family of many grim and bizarre ideas:
Santa Claus was a lie, so it was evil and dishonest to tell your kids that he existed. Christmas was an evil and pagan celebration. There went the irreplaceable childhood-memories of Christmas warmth and brightness. All money that an ordinary family would have spent on Christmas gifts was to be sent to the "Organization," to promote the "work of Jehovah." Most Christmas-seasons were experienced as deflated and rather dead. I felt as if there were a thick glass wall between me and the laughing, singing children.
Birthdays were also pagan and evil. So, that very special day came and went every year without much fuss, and often, even without notice. Your birthday was regarded seriously as "too much attention paid to a creature, rather than to the Creator." (Their god had serious problems with selfesteem!) The real motive? You guessed it! The money was to be sent to the Org, not wasted on kids.
Predictably, Halloween was evil, too. And when other kids were laughing, cutting (and dressing) up, collecting candy, I too was going from door-to-door. But I was dressed in a suit. (Parents in the cult expect their small children to dress, and act, like full-grown ministers.) I was trying to sell extremely boring religious propoganda. Training in this saleswork began at age six, and we were taught that "Jehovah God" would murder us and our families if we did not participate regularly in selling the ragsheets produced by the cult.
The idea that "god" was an unforgiving macho-monster in the sky removed what little joy might have remained in the heart. I lived in ceaseless, relentless fear of a psychotic god! He was "very soon" going to bring about "Armageddon"-- an agonizing bloodbath of mass-murder, slaughter, and massacre that would make Hitler's concentration-camps look like a Sunday picnic! This absurd god was apparently bored out of his gourd, for he had nothing better to do than to watch me, twenty-four seven! And, if I slipped from the cult, or ever said anything against it, it was sure and certain that he would murder me! For he was planning to murder the population of the whole world, except for cult-members!
When you were a cult-member, everything in your life centered, day and night, around the cult. So, you missed so many warm, tender, intimate moments of family-sharing enjoyed by the normal family.
Even playing with other kids was often prohibited, lest they contaminate my "pristine religion," polluting it with theirs. For when Jehovah murdered all the children in the world, what would happen to me if I were among them?
Very early, I learned the art of fleeing from this frustrating life. My haven was books. There, you were not always under the magnifying glass of an angry, vindictive "god" or "his appointed elders."
The life-denying, mind-numbing, joy-killing cult made me superaware of how important and healing is humor, and childlike play. Now, as a writer/teacher, I try to apply those lessons every day. But still, it cannot really be denied, I wish that I had known a normal childhood, and often wonder how much richer this life could have been!
This was to ruin many of my most potentially joyful moments for years to come.
The cult stole from me, and probably from hundreds of thousands of others(it now numbers five million) essential components of a healthy, happy childhood. As in other cults, the ancient Hebrew text was favored that says, "Spare the rod, and spoil the child." Taken literally, this is a full approval of child-abuse. Cult-elders taught parents to be grimly aware of the need to remain always disciplinarian and hyperauthoritarian.
The cult soon convinced my family of many grim and bizarre ideas:
Santa Claus was a lie, so it was evil and dishonest to tell your kids that he existed. Christmas was an evil and pagan celebration. There went the irreplaceable childhood-memories of Christmas warmth and brightness. All money that an ordinary family would have spent on Christmas gifts was to be sent to the "Organization," to promote the "work of Jehovah." Most Christmas-seasons were experienced as deflated and rather dead. I felt as if there were a thick glass wall between me and the laughing, singing children.
Birthdays were also pagan and evil. So, that very special day came and went every year without much fuss, and often, even without notice. Your birthday was regarded seriously as "too much attention paid to a creature, rather than to the Creator." (Their god had serious problems with selfesteem!) The real motive? You guessed it! The money was to be sent to the Org, not wasted on kids.
Predictably, Halloween was evil, too. And when other kids were laughing, cutting (and dressing) up, collecting candy, I too was going from door-to-door. But I was dressed in a suit. (Parents in the cult expect their small children to dress, and act, like full-grown ministers.) I was trying to sell extremely boring religious propoganda. Training in this saleswork began at age six, and we were taught that "Jehovah God" would murder us and our families if we did not participate regularly in selling the ragsheets produced by the cult.
The idea that "god" was an unforgiving macho-monster in the sky removed what little joy might have remained in the heart. I lived in ceaseless, relentless fear of a psychotic god! He was "very soon" going to bring about "Armageddon"-- an agonizing bloodbath of mass-murder, slaughter, and massacre that would make Hitler's concentration-camps look like a Sunday picnic! This absurd god was apparently bored out of his gourd, for he had nothing better to do than to watch me, twenty-four seven! And, if I slipped from the cult, or ever said anything against it, it was sure and certain that he would murder me! For he was planning to murder the population of the whole world, except for cult-members!
When you were a cult-member, everything in your life centered, day and night, around the cult. So, you missed so many warm, tender, intimate moments of family-sharing enjoyed by the normal family.
Even playing with other kids was often prohibited, lest they contaminate my "pristine religion," polluting it with theirs. For when Jehovah murdered all the children in the world, what would happen to me if I were among them?
Very early, I learned the art of fleeing from this frustrating life. My haven was books. There, you were not always under the magnifying glass of an angry, vindictive "god" or "his appointed elders."
The life-denying, mind-numbing, joy-killing cult made me superaware of how important and healing is humor, and childlike play. Now, as a writer/teacher, I try to apply those lessons every day. But still, it cannot really be denied, I wish that I had known a normal childhood, and often wonder how much richer this life could have been!
The "Gifts" of Illness
The health of your "donkey" (body) is often challenged. It's already known that, in your mind, your real self, you are doing superbly. For this illness has given you the greatest gift that can ever be given to a human being: It has made you aware of your deep calling from, and to, the service of Love. Love is the most powerful healing-force in the whole cosmos.
I am sending Love as these words are written, and every day. Love fills your entire being, surrounds you and fills every cell of your body, every atom, with its bright healing Light.
This illness has granted another gift of immeasurable value: It has strengthened the Love between you and Sarah [pseudonym]. Even when that Love seems tested, and weak, it is growing always stronger. Enormous pressures make it enormously powerful!
To stay positive, and to welcome the healing energy into your body, it is important to focus on these two great and wonderful gifts. You have also unlocked Love in any number of hearts, which have been awakened to the desire for your fullest healing.
These are three of the greatest gifts in the cosmos, and you carry them within your heart every minute of every day. They also exercise a healing-effect, making you stronger through your own personal Love blending with the Love of others.
I am sending Love as these words are written, and every day. Love fills your entire being, surrounds you and fills every cell of your body, every atom, with its bright healing Light.
This illness has granted another gift of immeasurable value: It has strengthened the Love between you and Sarah [pseudonym]. Even when that Love seems tested, and weak, it is growing always stronger. Enormous pressures make it enormously powerful!
To stay positive, and to welcome the healing energy into your body, it is important to focus on these two great and wonderful gifts. You have also unlocked Love in any number of hearts, which have been awakened to the desire for your fullest healing.
These are three of the greatest gifts in the cosmos, and you carry them within your heart every minute of every day. They also exercise a healing-effect, making you stronger through your own personal Love blending with the Love of others.
The tm Cult
About thirty years ago, the tm people were usually quite sincere, kind, and intelligent.
But a lot has changed since then. During that time-period, the once-sincere group has grown into a shameful, money-grubbing cult. (It offers to "meditate the crime away" in major cities, but charges millions for the privilege. Its headquarters is in a small burg called Fairfield,Iowa, where, even in this tiny village, they have proved that they cannot stop all crime.:)
My advice is to run, not walk, away from this dangerous, mindcontrolling cult! You can easily study meditation without the aid of the cult, or its idolatrously worshipped guru! And you can use absolutely any phrase as your mantra. (We usually recommend a four-syllable mantra, such as, "I am at peace," or, I am Love, and..." or, "Does not matter," or, "God is Love and..."
The possibilities are literally endless! At any rate, the high prices that they charge for mantras "specifically designed for only you" is a fraud. (In one study, it was discovered that several members of an ashram shared a single mantra, even though they had been fed this line, this lie, about "receving a mantra designed for only you.")
Keep reading, keep growing, keep loving, but please keep away from this silly cult.:)
But a lot has changed since then. During that time-period, the once-sincere group has grown into a shameful, money-grubbing cult. (It offers to "meditate the crime away" in major cities, but charges millions for the privilege. Its headquarters is in a small burg called Fairfield,Iowa, where, even in this tiny village, they have proved that they cannot stop all crime.:)
My advice is to run, not walk, away from this dangerous, mindcontrolling cult! You can easily study meditation without the aid of the cult, or its idolatrously worshipped guru! And you can use absolutely any phrase as your mantra. (We usually recommend a four-syllable mantra, such as, "I am at peace," or, I am Love, and..." or, "Does not matter," or, "God is Love and..."
The possibilities are literally endless! At any rate, the high prices that they charge for mantras "specifically designed for only you" is a fraud. (In one study, it was discovered that several members of an ashram shared a single mantra, even though they had been fed this line, this lie, about "receving a mantra designed for only you.")
Keep reading, keep growing, keep loving, but please keep away from this silly cult.:)
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Mysticism: Notes
It is the wee hours of the morn, and everyone with a trace of common sense is soundly asleep. I've been giving some serious thought to our shared predicament as human beings-- the "existential crisis," i suppose you could call it.
I felt a call from the deeper Mind-- you would probably say, "imagination"-- to come into the office and write you a letter. This was a compelling pull of Love.
All the things that I believe-- about pre-existence of the Soul, about polybiography, about Mind and world, about God as supreme Unconscious--these are not just cheap, shallow ideas that came off the top of some "new ager's" head. It was not all made up by some yuppie who was looking for something to do on a boring Sunday afternoon. These teachings represent a very profound, ancient, and venerable philosophy. It has a few names, but I call it the "Enlightenment Tradition," or,
"Love-tradition."
It is also called the "Way of Love," "psychonautics," the "Way of Mind," and,most commonly, mysticism. Please do not let this word turn you off. It is abused regularly by religious leaders, scientists, and journalists, who should all know better. In fact, the only ones who use it correctly are academic scholars of religion and history, and mystics themselves.
What is a "mystic"? She is a person who has discovered that Mind is more real than matter. She has also found that Mind has several levels, including a "collective Unconscious," and a Core that is indivisible and perfect, traditionally called "Spirit," or "God."
So, she has completely, absolutely rejected the childish image of God as a "big daddy in the sky," a fairy-tale knight who gallops into your life and makes everything "okay." She knows that the only God is Love. God has never been the "ultimate extraterrestrial," some person "out there." God is "in here." God is not loving grandfather, Santa Claus, or genie.
This Way is not a religion. In fact, its major adherents were usually hunted and even murdered by the orthodox of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
This philosophy was born in the crucible of agonizing pain, horrific, utter anxiety. It was created by men and women who felt backed into a corner, squeezed mercilessly by a relentless universe. They were forced into the position that I (and probably you) have found ourselves in: Figure things out, or just go nuts! (That is, at any rate, how the discovery happened to me.)
Mysticism grew out of an ocean of blood, sweat, and tears. Its founders and proponents were people exactly like us-- those caught in the merciless tines of what seemed to be a blind, deaf, and uncaring cosmos.
Either the cosmos has meaning, or it does not. To live in a cosmos without any meaning was unacceptable to the sages, teachers, and masters of the Enlightenment Tradition. Did they have to come up with some very "strange"-sounding ideas? You bet that they did!
But it was better than going mad! These were sensitive, intelligent people who never gave up hope that the cosmos did have meaning. For some reason, they humbly concluded, they were just not seeing (able to see) that meaning. They were forced, often by horror, to think, not only "outside the box," but outside the familiar cosmos as we have always known it.
Here's just a simple example: As a part of their philosophy, they said that nothing existed but "Mind" or energy, sometimes organized into patterns. They made the most outrageous claim that could ever be imagined in your wildest, craziest dreams: They claimed that the whole "material" world existed only because that is the way that we perceive or interpret it. And finally, they also concluded that the entire cosmos was a dream-state within a great Mind. "Solid matter" did not really exist. Ultimately, that is, in "truth" (reality), there was no material cosmos.
Physicists, who were no-nonsense, hard-nosed, skeptical, materialistic, and scientific, had a ball, that lasted for centuries, laughing at these crazy mystics. In the twenty-first century, they are no longer laughing.
Why? Because of research in quantum physics, also called "ultramicroparticle physics." For we have known for a long time that everything is made of atoms. Atoms are made of neutrons, protons, and electrons. These are called "microparticles."
But when we started to ask the final question, "What are these microparticles made of?" we discovered an amazing, astonishing truth: There was never anything solid within the atom. Atoms are made up of "bundles" or "packets" of force called "quanta." Matter was a kind of mythology or "illusion," as the mystics had always claimed! The entire "material cosmos was energy, after all!
If the mystics had been right in such an outrageous, mind-blowing claim, might they not be right about other things as well?
When I first heard the word "mystic," probably as a teen, I just carelessly dismissed it as some kind of satanic or demonic "thing," although I had zero education or exposure.
Now that I've read fifty, and written twelve, books about the subject, I feel that I have a basis to be able to talk rationally and meaningfully about it. In fact, it is the greatest pleasure in the world to help people sort through the billions of haystacks to find the precious platinum "needle" of reality (truth). For, in the end, it all comes down to that single, simple question: What is real? With that, comes a secondary: Is anything ABSOLUTELY real?
Please take a couple of minutes of your valuable time to check out our website, at: loveministries.org
There, you can access, free, all of my books. You can also download them, free. (If you like real books, you can also order them.) Hang in there! The "fires" of hell are not to torment, but to burn away all the excess dross, leaving only the nonflammable Jewel!
I felt a call from the deeper Mind-- you would probably say, "imagination"-- to come into the office and write you a letter. This was a compelling pull of Love.
All the things that I believe-- about pre-existence of the Soul, about polybiography, about Mind and world, about God as supreme Unconscious--these are not just cheap, shallow ideas that came off the top of some "new ager's" head. It was not all made up by some yuppie who was looking for something to do on a boring Sunday afternoon. These teachings represent a very profound, ancient, and venerable philosophy. It has a few names, but I call it the "Enlightenment Tradition," or,
"Love-tradition."
It is also called the "Way of Love," "psychonautics," the "Way of Mind," and,most commonly, mysticism. Please do not let this word turn you off. It is abused regularly by religious leaders, scientists, and journalists, who should all know better. In fact, the only ones who use it correctly are academic scholars of religion and history, and mystics themselves.
What is a "mystic"? She is a person who has discovered that Mind is more real than matter. She has also found that Mind has several levels, including a "collective Unconscious," and a Core that is indivisible and perfect, traditionally called "Spirit," or "God."
So, she has completely, absolutely rejected the childish image of God as a "big daddy in the sky," a fairy-tale knight who gallops into your life and makes everything "okay." She knows that the only God is Love. God has never been the "ultimate extraterrestrial," some person "out there." God is "in here." God is not loving grandfather, Santa Claus, or genie.
This Way is not a religion. In fact, its major adherents were usually hunted and even murdered by the orthodox of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
This philosophy was born in the crucible of agonizing pain, horrific, utter anxiety. It was created by men and women who felt backed into a corner, squeezed mercilessly by a relentless universe. They were forced into the position that I (and probably you) have found ourselves in: Figure things out, or just go nuts! (That is, at any rate, how the discovery happened to me.)
Mysticism grew out of an ocean of blood, sweat, and tears. Its founders and proponents were people exactly like us-- those caught in the merciless tines of what seemed to be a blind, deaf, and uncaring cosmos.
Either the cosmos has meaning, or it does not. To live in a cosmos without any meaning was unacceptable to the sages, teachers, and masters of the Enlightenment Tradition. Did they have to come up with some very "strange"-sounding ideas? You bet that they did!
But it was better than going mad! These were sensitive, intelligent people who never gave up hope that the cosmos did have meaning. For some reason, they humbly concluded, they were just not seeing (able to see) that meaning. They were forced, often by horror, to think, not only "outside the box," but outside the familiar cosmos as we have always known it.
Here's just a simple example: As a part of their philosophy, they said that nothing existed but "Mind" or energy, sometimes organized into patterns. They made the most outrageous claim that could ever be imagined in your wildest, craziest dreams: They claimed that the whole "material" world existed only because that is the way that we perceive or interpret it. And finally, they also concluded that the entire cosmos was a dream-state within a great Mind. "Solid matter" did not really exist. Ultimately, that is, in "truth" (reality), there was no material cosmos.
Physicists, who were no-nonsense, hard-nosed, skeptical, materialistic, and scientific, had a ball, that lasted for centuries, laughing at these crazy mystics. In the twenty-first century, they are no longer laughing.
Why? Because of research in quantum physics, also called "ultramicroparticle physics." For we have known for a long time that everything is made of atoms. Atoms are made of neutrons, protons, and electrons. These are called "microparticles."
But when we started to ask the final question, "What are these microparticles made of?" we discovered an amazing, astonishing truth: There was never anything solid within the atom. Atoms are made up of "bundles" or "packets" of force called "quanta." Matter was a kind of mythology or "illusion," as the mystics had always claimed! The entire "material cosmos was energy, after all!
If the mystics had been right in such an outrageous, mind-blowing claim, might they not be right about other things as well?
When I first heard the word "mystic," probably as a teen, I just carelessly dismissed it as some kind of satanic or demonic "thing," although I had zero education or exposure.
Now that I've read fifty, and written twelve, books about the subject, I feel that I have a basis to be able to talk rationally and meaningfully about it. In fact, it is the greatest pleasure in the world to help people sort through the billions of haystacks to find the precious platinum "needle" of reality (truth). For, in the end, it all comes down to that single, simple question: What is real? With that, comes a secondary: Is anything ABSOLUTELY real?
Please take a couple of minutes of your valuable time to check out our website, at: loveministries.org
There, you can access, free, all of my books. You can also download them, free. (If you like real books, you can also order them.) Hang in there! The "fires" of hell are not to torment, but to burn away all the excess dross, leaving only the nonflammable Jewel!
Giving Up on the World
Meditating a little earlier. It is now 12:19 am, and the wee hours of the morning are particularly sweet when it comes to inner exploration. As has happened in every meditation during the last few days, your case arose in mind again.
It is not at all certain that everything that was revealed by the unconscious Mind can be fully explained here, but an attempt will be made:
Love tests everyone, but certain people, for whom It has a special task, are "purified by fire." This is a state of mind that older Christian writers called "purgatory," which means "purgation" or purification.
Love wants you to learn a very important and valuable lesson, and to take it into yourself, and make it one with your inner mind, so that the lesson will be yours forever. That lesson is that there is no hope in the world. There is no wisdom there, no future, no answers, no solutions. The one who truly knows this spiritual jewel is very rare. Almost everyone has more faith in the scientific, social, economic, or political structures than they have in Love. Love wants to demonstrate to you the absolute uselessness of the world so that you will take the only alternative path available: You will turn to your inner mind for answers. For it is there, and there alone, that God dwells, as Love.
We have all had to learn, the hard way, that God is no genie, here to serve us; God is not Santa Claus, here to fill our wish-list; God is no knight in white armour who will gallop in to save us at the last minute; God is no Pollyanna being whose job is to make sure that we live "happily ever after." We all learn, with wisdom, to dismiss such attractive fairy-tale images of God.
Instead, God is the deepest Love within our nature. God is the sum of all the Love in the hearts of all sentient beings everywhere among the galaxies. This Love lies so deeply within the Unconscious that most people do not know that It even exists. In order to discover this Love, to tap into Its great Power, we must first give up completely any fairy-tale images of God as a "big daddy in the sky." We must also be forced to give up on the "world." It cannot give satisfying answers.
God does perform miracles, through Love. But they do not come because we beg and plead. They increase with the intensity of our Love. Everything in our worlds-- yours and mine, and those of all people-- is designed to get us to go within, to look inward, for this secret, deeply hidden Love.
This Love is deeply concerned with our spirituality. In fact, you could say, our spirituality is ALL that It cares about! Since that is so, It is concerned very little with the items, objects, and events of this world. It will do, or allow, anything to shake us loose from "faith" in ourselves, or in normal intellectual solutions. This Love wants us to abandon all "faith" in the world. Love is the only healing energy in the cosmos, and everything that God (Love) allows is designed to shake us awake to that fact.
The huge mountain of challenges that you have received recently is a special calling to become a very special kind of being. This outer world is worthless, and it is not your home. Your "home" is the "inner world" of your own mind. And it is here, not above the clouds, not among the galaxies, that God dwells as Love.
Love can never be harsh or cruel. But Its techniques and methods can seem so to our human understanding. When you take a puppy to the vet, for his own good, all that he knows is that he is going to be stuck with a needle. An act of great kindness (a hshot might cost a hundred bucks) is seen, within his limited perception, as an act of harsh cruelty.
Take another example: A third-grader is terrified to take a math test at school, for she has not studied. She screams and cries-- real tears. Her pain and agony are truly real and genuine. Despite this, her loving mother still forces her to go to school. She hates her mother, and believes that her mother really hates her. But her mother's only motive is Love. It is just a Love beyond the comprehension of the little girl.
You will no doubt agree that human consciousness is limited, in more than one way. If you know this, then you can be open to the fact that we might misinterpret reality. That admission is only realistic. Like the pup, and the little girl, a limited view of Love can make it seem like indifference, or even hate.
Losing my vision was the worst thing that ever happened to me. My entire being rebelled against it. I threw away God, and all that God stood for. But, in time, I came to believe that God was a vast, immense Love much greater than the ancient middle eastern deity called "Jehovah" or "Yahweh," who was the wargod of a minor tribal group. The closing of the outer eyes opened the inner in-sight, and forged a personal and deep relationship with the God of Love.
Love "flipped the script" of the entire cosmos, and allowed me to extract what "good" could be extracted from the situation. Many people say that they would rather die than to go blind. I can see why. But I also have come to see what nuggets of gold are buried within the "mud" of harmful, hurtful events.
As human beings, we find it very difficult to shake the old assumptions--believed by all our ancestors-- that death is "bad." This is an example of how what seems to be "bad" can really be good. Early Christians, closer to the Master Jesus, saw death as a release and liberation. They made it an art to escape entanglement with this world, so that, in the end, they did not cling to it. They saw this life as a launch-pad for eternity.
Love wants all of us to awaken to this same profound realization-- that the world is empty, hollow, hopeless, and void. Love then directs us to the real answers inside ourselves.
Sorry, I know that this sounds disjointed and rambling, but it was hard to keep up with the Flow of words pouring through the mind. It is hoped that you can find something of value in these words. You are going to find more of God within yourself during the next five months than you have during the last five thousand years. I think of you with fondness every day, and with very much Love.
It is not at all certain that everything that was revealed by the unconscious Mind can be fully explained here, but an attempt will be made:
Love tests everyone, but certain people, for whom It has a special task, are "purified by fire." This is a state of mind that older Christian writers called "purgatory," which means "purgation" or purification.
Love wants you to learn a very important and valuable lesson, and to take it into yourself, and make it one with your inner mind, so that the lesson will be yours forever. That lesson is that there is no hope in the world. There is no wisdom there, no future, no answers, no solutions. The one who truly knows this spiritual jewel is very rare. Almost everyone has more faith in the scientific, social, economic, or political structures than they have in Love. Love wants to demonstrate to you the absolute uselessness of the world so that you will take the only alternative path available: You will turn to your inner mind for answers. For it is there, and there alone, that God dwells, as Love.
We have all had to learn, the hard way, that God is no genie, here to serve us; God is not Santa Claus, here to fill our wish-list; God is no knight in white armour who will gallop in to save us at the last minute; God is no Pollyanna being whose job is to make sure that we live "happily ever after." We all learn, with wisdom, to dismiss such attractive fairy-tale images of God.
Instead, God is the deepest Love within our nature. God is the sum of all the Love in the hearts of all sentient beings everywhere among the galaxies. This Love lies so deeply within the Unconscious that most people do not know that It even exists. In order to discover this Love, to tap into Its great Power, we must first give up completely any fairy-tale images of God as a "big daddy in the sky." We must also be forced to give up on the "world." It cannot give satisfying answers.
God does perform miracles, through Love. But they do not come because we beg and plead. They increase with the intensity of our Love. Everything in our worlds-- yours and mine, and those of all people-- is designed to get us to go within, to look inward, for this secret, deeply hidden Love.
This Love is deeply concerned with our spirituality. In fact, you could say, our spirituality is ALL that It cares about! Since that is so, It is concerned very little with the items, objects, and events of this world. It will do, or allow, anything to shake us loose from "faith" in ourselves, or in normal intellectual solutions. This Love wants us to abandon all "faith" in the world. Love is the only healing energy in the cosmos, and everything that God (Love) allows is designed to shake us awake to that fact.
The huge mountain of challenges that you have received recently is a special calling to become a very special kind of being. This outer world is worthless, and it is not your home. Your "home" is the "inner world" of your own mind. And it is here, not above the clouds, not among the galaxies, that God dwells as Love.
Love can never be harsh or cruel. But Its techniques and methods can seem so to our human understanding. When you take a puppy to the vet, for his own good, all that he knows is that he is going to be stuck with a needle. An act of great kindness (a hshot might cost a hundred bucks) is seen, within his limited perception, as an act of harsh cruelty.
Take another example: A third-grader is terrified to take a math test at school, for she has not studied. She screams and cries-- real tears. Her pain and agony are truly real and genuine. Despite this, her loving mother still forces her to go to school. She hates her mother, and believes that her mother really hates her. But her mother's only motive is Love. It is just a Love beyond the comprehension of the little girl.
You will no doubt agree that human consciousness is limited, in more than one way. If you know this, then you can be open to the fact that we might misinterpret reality. That admission is only realistic. Like the pup, and the little girl, a limited view of Love can make it seem like indifference, or even hate.
Losing my vision was the worst thing that ever happened to me. My entire being rebelled against it. I threw away God, and all that God stood for. But, in time, I came to believe that God was a vast, immense Love much greater than the ancient middle eastern deity called "Jehovah" or "Yahweh," who was the wargod of a minor tribal group. The closing of the outer eyes opened the inner in-sight, and forged a personal and deep relationship with the God of Love.
Love "flipped the script" of the entire cosmos, and allowed me to extract what "good" could be extracted from the situation. Many people say that they would rather die than to go blind. I can see why. But I also have come to see what nuggets of gold are buried within the "mud" of harmful, hurtful events.
As human beings, we find it very difficult to shake the old assumptions--believed by all our ancestors-- that death is "bad." This is an example of how what seems to be "bad" can really be good. Early Christians, closer to the Master Jesus, saw death as a release and liberation. They made it an art to escape entanglement with this world, so that, in the end, they did not cling to it. They saw this life as a launch-pad for eternity.
Love wants all of us to awaken to this same profound realization-- that the world is empty, hollow, hopeless, and void. Love then directs us to the real answers inside ourselves.
Sorry, I know that this sounds disjointed and rambling, but it was hard to keep up with the Flow of words pouring through the mind. It is hoped that you can find something of value in these words. You are going to find more of God within yourself during the next five months than you have during the last five thousand years. I think of you with fondness every day, and with very much Love.
Life, Challenges, and Death
I'm going to take a chance, and send this note to you anyway, just in case it can help you in your moment of most unyielding, blackest darkness: As an empath, I was crushed and shattered by the awful, hideous intensity and gravity of the nightmarish, ghastly agony that you are now going through. This little note is straight from the heart. No philosophy. Just real concern.
What I want is to minimize your suffering. For when you and I met, a miraculous thing happened-- Love. On the conscious level of mind, you and I are strangers. But at much deeper levels, we are much more than that. We are brothers, or what might be much closer an ddeeper-- we are friends.
We are united by our chosen friendship-- not artificially by religion or politics. Spiritual (or, inner) freedom is absolutely sacred. In the most important questions of life, one adult should never control, or even influence, another. In fact, in the midst of those crucial questions, a wise person should not allow herself to be influenced even by groups, organizations, or societies.
Each person is absolutely free to make any choice that she considers best. That would be, of course,the path that minimizes interior pain. For if you cannot maximize joy, the very least that you can do out of Love for yourself is attempt to minimize inevitable pain.
At a deep unconscious level of the Mind called the "Soul," we decide the moment of our birth. All of the major events of our lives are "contracted," pre-arranged, or predesigned by that same deep level of Mind.
I have never been, or pretended to be, your "guru," your teacher, or anything like that. Nor do I ever want to be seen in any such capacity. I am not a priest, I am not an elder, I am not any kind of formal minister. I believe in no organization or organized, orthodox church.
The very best and most productive life is led by each of us when we make our own personal spiritual decisions without allowing anyone else to influence us in any way.
I try to "move beyond this world," every day, in meditation. But what I had in mind was more of a steady and lasting state. As you know, especially if you have seen my novel, I believe that this life is only a tiny part of a greater life. The "good news" is that, if I am wrong, there is nothing to lose anyway.
But if right, things change: These ideas agree with those of the greatest luminaries in the history of spirituality. There is very much to be gained in loving yourself so much. You want to spare your bodymind all the pain that you possibly can.
What I'm trying not to say, so clumsily, is that the human mind has real limits in terms of what it can bear. I do not believe that we are wise to push ourselves beyond those limits. Of course, this requires a lot of transcendence of normal limits. For it goes against the most immense biopressures that say, "material life is all there is."
But I just do not buy that. The process of nde's demonstrates with clarity that the mind continues indefinitely, perhaps even eternally.
With a sad smile, I reflect on how much simpler my life would be at this moment if I simply forgot the whole thing. I could just say, "It's not my problem." But it's not that simple; every human problem is my problem.
Let me apologize in advance for the lack of clarity that is involved in a communication such as this. But I think that you know that this must be so.
People can be helped from a distance, by focusing the mind on Love, and then, on the person. A lot of this depends on the sender, and much also depends on the receiver. But please know that, through Love, I send to you the best of mindforces, the best of energies of strength so that you might choose to remain within, and endure, your test as long as your free will directs you to do so. I've been thinking about you all day, and will no doubt do so all night as well. You cannot just drop someone else's pain and pretend that it does not exist.
It's already getting late, and there is not a lot more to say. In fact, it's wondered whether there is anything left at all to say. Just know that sincere Lovenergy is being sent your way.
What I want is to minimize your suffering. For when you and I met, a miraculous thing happened-- Love. On the conscious level of mind, you and I are strangers. But at much deeper levels, we are much more than that. We are brothers, or what might be much closer an ddeeper-- we are friends.
We are united by our chosen friendship-- not artificially by religion or politics. Spiritual (or, inner) freedom is absolutely sacred. In the most important questions of life, one adult should never control, or even influence, another. In fact, in the midst of those crucial questions, a wise person should not allow herself to be influenced even by groups, organizations, or societies.
Each person is absolutely free to make any choice that she considers best. That would be, of course,the path that minimizes interior pain. For if you cannot maximize joy, the very least that you can do out of Love for yourself is attempt to minimize inevitable pain.
At a deep unconscious level of the Mind called the "Soul," we decide the moment of our birth. All of the major events of our lives are "contracted," pre-arranged, or predesigned by that same deep level of Mind.
I have never been, or pretended to be, your "guru," your teacher, or anything like that. Nor do I ever want to be seen in any such capacity. I am not a priest, I am not an elder, I am not any kind of formal minister. I believe in no organization or organized, orthodox church.
The very best and most productive life is led by each of us when we make our own personal spiritual decisions without allowing anyone else to influence us in any way.
I try to "move beyond this world," every day, in meditation. But what I had in mind was more of a steady and lasting state. As you know, especially if you have seen my novel, I believe that this life is only a tiny part of a greater life. The "good news" is that, if I am wrong, there is nothing to lose anyway.
But if right, things change: These ideas agree with those of the greatest luminaries in the history of spirituality. There is very much to be gained in loving yourself so much. You want to spare your bodymind all the pain that you possibly can.
What I'm trying not to say, so clumsily, is that the human mind has real limits in terms of what it can bear. I do not believe that we are wise to push ourselves beyond those limits. Of course, this requires a lot of transcendence of normal limits. For it goes against the most immense biopressures that say, "material life is all there is."
But I just do not buy that. The process of nde's demonstrates with clarity that the mind continues indefinitely, perhaps even eternally.
With a sad smile, I reflect on how much simpler my life would be at this moment if I simply forgot the whole thing. I could just say, "It's not my problem." But it's not that simple; every human problem is my problem.
Let me apologize in advance for the lack of clarity that is involved in a communication such as this. But I think that you know that this must be so.
People can be helped from a distance, by focusing the mind on Love, and then, on the person. A lot of this depends on the sender, and much also depends on the receiver. But please know that, through Love, I send to you the best of mindforces, the best of energies of strength so that you might choose to remain within, and endure, your test as long as your free will directs you to do so. I've been thinking about you all day, and will no doubt do so all night as well. You cannot just drop someone else's pain and pretend that it does not exist.
It's already getting late, and there is not a lot more to say. In fact, it's wondered whether there is anything left at all to say. Just know that sincere Lovenergy is being sent your way.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Life-suggestions
I know that it seems as if some things from the past cannot ever be retrieved. But you would be amazed what can be repaired! You just have to put some effort into it. If you add a little Love to the recipe, then Goddess is on your side, for Goddess is Love! That's a winning combination that just cannot be beat! Believe me!:)
Re healing the past: Have you thought about writing a letter to your dad? A letter is very fine, for you can write it several times, rewrite, and rewrite, until it says exactly what you want. You cannot do this in normal conversation, or over the phone.
If you fill the letter with sweetness, kindness, courtesy, and tenderness, this will be very therapeutic (healing) for you, and it will also help to heal your father's heart. It's a real win-win!
The only way to know whether someone REALLY cares for you is to watch her/his behavior. Do not listen to words; words are cheap, and lies are very easy. If a person really loves you, she/he should SHOW it. How? By doing, and saying, kind and supportive things. By being there for you when you need help. By sharing all that he/she has with you, holding nothing back. By working hard actually to change his/her personality--not just making hollow promises (remember, those are just words.)
Falling very deeply in Love can happen more than once during a lifetime. But it will go nowhere if the Love is not reflected right back at you!
You might believe that another would never love you. But I sense (intuition again) that you are a very sweet person, with many good qualities and characteristics. When you are happy and at peace, you can give very much Love. And you are the only one on the whole planet who can give YOUR SPECIAL Love! Someone, somewhere will consider themselves very, very blessed to receive your Love,and will never take It, or you, for granted. NEVER allow yourself to be "abused," by being ignored or neglected. Do not ever put up with verbal or emotional abuse, and never for a moment with any kind of physical abuse! You are worth much more than that! Try always to love yourself, and that will make it easier for others to love you!
Re healing the past: Have you thought about writing a letter to your dad? A letter is very fine, for you can write it several times, rewrite, and rewrite, until it says exactly what you want. You cannot do this in normal conversation, or over the phone.
If you fill the letter with sweetness, kindness, courtesy, and tenderness, this will be very therapeutic (healing) for you, and it will also help to heal your father's heart. It's a real win-win!
The only way to know whether someone REALLY cares for you is to watch her/his behavior. Do not listen to words; words are cheap, and lies are very easy. If a person really loves you, she/he should SHOW it. How? By doing, and saying, kind and supportive things. By being there for you when you need help. By sharing all that he/she has with you, holding nothing back. By working hard actually to change his/her personality--not just making hollow promises (remember, those are just words.)
Falling very deeply in Love can happen more than once during a lifetime. But it will go nowhere if the Love is not reflected right back at you!
You might believe that another would never love you. But I sense (intuition again) that you are a very sweet person, with many good qualities and characteristics. When you are happy and at peace, you can give very much Love. And you are the only one on the whole planet who can give YOUR SPECIAL Love! Someone, somewhere will consider themselves very, very blessed to receive your Love,and will never take It, or you, for granted. NEVER allow yourself to be "abused," by being ignored or neglected. Do not ever put up with verbal or emotional abuse, and never for a moment with any kind of physical abuse! You are worth much more than that! Try always to love yourself, and that will make it easier for others to love you!
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