February, 2014
“Sometimes you open a door, and you are the only one
who can go through it.” —Mooji
There are very few reasons these days that I am inspired to leave the inner sanctuary of silence—to speak, to be with others, or even to write something that in any way expresses an objective opinion. For quite a while now I have been trying in myriad ways to gently explain to those I know and love why I am less available for even the most casual of gatherings…
When we come to a place where we no longer believe everything the man-made mind comes up with and genuinely feel that there is almost nothing worth speaking about unless it is spoken from one’s true home in the Heart, well—it can make for a more confusing and inconsistent exchange with those who still expect us to show up the same way we have for perhaps decades.
I feel deeply aligned with an inner truth that says until I can merge the “inner” experience of I AM with the “outward” personality, what’s being offered feels not at all representative of the Truth of the I AM that is beginning to be experienced more of the time on the “inside”.
It is as if this experiencing of the I AM is only half baked—and to bring it to the potluck seems to cause only more hunger for those who have known me to be a certain way and to engage with them in a specific dance of personalities.
Never in my life did I imagine that I would search for, allow in, let alone find a “guru” or “teacher”. But for some of us a true, clear knowing arrives, and it says, “It’s time. Bring me that One who will take me all the way Home. Bring into my reality that One who already knows the Way.” The grace of a true teacher is that they do not ask you to leave behind anything you hold dear—Christ, Buddha, God or Goddess—but invite you to create a container large enough to hold it All: All images, concepts, mentors and guides that are reflections of pure Love. True teachers ask us to put limits on nothing. To realize that They are It, You are It, and It is All there is…
A short while ago I heard my teacher, Anthony Paul Moo-Young, affectionately called “Mooji”, describe his final teacher, Sri H. W. L. Poonja as “Friendly to All, Friends with none.” When I heard this, tears sprung to my eyes. My experience this last three years or so is that this is increasingly my own reality, and that it feels right, and that, in fact, trying to maintain friendships at this point in my life seems at cross-purposes to what I am being called to explore and to discover and to live in, and to live from.
The Grace that has called me inward to find That which does not change; to know happiness that is not dependent on circumstances; to establish a connection with God/Presence that can never again be lost is an inward pulling so strong that it cannot be explained to anyone who is not also experiencing it. And it can sometimes seem hurtful to others. But it’s not personal—it’s primordial.
primordial
1 ancient, earliest, first
2 instinctive, basic, primal, intuitive, inborn, innate, inherent
Personality was created secondary to this awareness, this Presence we Are and have always, always been and always, always shall Be.
Once this Calling comes, there is no turning one’s back on it, nor turning back from it. The only choice is to willingly Go Within. Once there, however, it becomes incredibly apparent what has been missing one’s whole life, or lifetimes. And nothing in the outer reality can hold a candle to this effortless harmony and happiness.
My teacher, Mooji, has said:
“Maybe for a while you’re not going to be good company for anybody. So don’t go looking for friends. You have to walk through the wilderness of your own self. Your attention must turn fully inside. Baptize your attention inside.
“If your desire for Freedom is True, Grace will come, and take you Home. Something has already called you to look inside, has pulled you out of the raging river and now you have chosen to look inside.
“But the world wants to see progress.
“First find the Self. Just stay quiet and rest in the Self. And be happy. The world won’t understand this kind of happiness. It will rub its eyes many times and stare at you. Yes, but where are all of your achievements, your worldly goods—where is your house? And you will answer: This is my House.”
For most people there will again come a time when one’s Being has merged Inner with Outer and the dance becomes more graceful and seamless, open and inclusive.
I write this and share this for those who are also called Inward and know the Ungraceful Grace of this passage of which I speak. But I can think of no greater gift to share with others than to Know Who We Really Are and to then, when moved to, speak and act from that place of Knowing.
For some, the path Home doesn’t perhaps include this kind of turning inward, this basking in the depth of stillness where one can listen and really hear… but for this one, it is the case. And if there are more out there experiencing the same, know that you are not alone.
If there were anything more important to me to share at this time, I don’t know what it would be. To recognize what already exists within us regardless of circumstances is what might return an insane society to one of sanity, and a violent society to one that lives in compassion and harmony with all forms of life, including the life form we’ve been given to inhabit.
May All Beings Know Peace
May All Beings Be Happy
May All Beings Be Free from Suffering
em claire
LIGHT
IS YOUR TRUE NATURE.
YOU CAN BE NO OTHER.
YOU EXIST OUTSIDE OF MIND,
YET INSIDE THE UNIVERSAL WOMB.
*
LEAVE THE MIND BEHIND
UNTIL YOU ARE SO SURE YOU ARE THE SUN
THAT YOU NAME YOURSELF AN
ETERNAL
RISING
DAWN
*
In a spiritually evolved society, should Freedom not be the highest value? Should people not be able to do exactly and precisely what they wish?
Conversations with God says that Freedom is the highest form of Divinity. Indeed, it is one definition of Divinity Itself. Should this not mean, then, that in a spiritually alive and awake and aware community of souls, business owners ought to be able to serve — and refuse to serve — anyone they wish?
Government coercion of individual action is only necessary in an un-evolved society, and is a demonstration of the inability of that society’s members to govern themselves. The question is: Is government coercion of individual action appropriate?
Conversations with God tells us that in the highly evolved societies of sentient beings which exist in the Cosmos, there are no laws at all.
And yes, CWG tells us, there are such societies, and there are such beings, in the Universe. They simply do not exist on Earth. And so on Earth we have to pass laws that say that a person who owns a business has a perfect right to refuse to do business with anyone, for any reason whatsoever. In a free society, the sponsors of such laws assert, individuals should not have to forfeit their right to basic freedoms of choice and action simply by creating, opening, and, incidentally, funding a business. Not having to forfeit that right is what liberty means.
And entire societies — which are nothing more than bunches of individuals clumped together — have a corollary right to exercise their liberty to live as they wish, based on their mutual agreements, these folks assert. Therefore, nations that wish to make homosexuality a crime punishable by life imprisonment have a perfect right to do so, as long as the majority of the members of that society consent.
That should end all the hoo-hah over laws recently passed in Arizona (although vetoed by the governor there) and in Uganda. At least among the spiritually aware, the discussion is over.
Or is it?
What about when the majority of the members within a society consent to laws that impinge upon the freedom of individuals within that society?
That is, what about when the majority of the members within a society act in a way that is wrong? For that matter, what about when individuals choose to do things that hurt or damage the society? What about when individuals act in a way that is wrong? Does Freedom equal the “right” to be “wrong”?
What is “wrong,” anyway? Conversations with God says there is no such thing as Right and Wrong. It says there is only what works and what does not work, given what it is we are trying to do. That includes, presumably, “we” as individuals and “we” as a society. Yet what if “we” can’t agree on what it is “we” are trying to do?
It is “wrong” to drive 97 miles an hour on the way downtown? Well, that depends on whether what you are trying to do is buy a pair of new shoes at a department store, or buy some time on the way to the hospital as a woman in the passenger seat is giving birth.
Society has decided that “right” and “wrong” are contextual. That is, it all depends on the circumstances. In Florida it is perfectly okay to kill someone on the basis of your fear (real or imagined) that your life or personal safety is being threatened. You have a right to “stand your ground.” People there are soon going to be deciding whether this means you can pull out a gun and kill someone because he threw popcorn in your face during an argument in a movie theatre.
So, it is “right” or is it “wrong” if you are the owner of a business that serves the public to deny service to a member of that public simply because you choose to? Can a hotel owner refuse to rent a room to a person because of the color of his skin? Can a grocery store owner refuse to sell food to a person because she is gay? Should basic freedom allow people who own, and built up, a business the right to engage in that business with anyone they choose…and to refuse to do business with anyone they choose?
What if you are the owner of the last gas station before the desert in Arizona? Or of a diner in Alabama?
In the United States, the majority of the members of society have decided that no, you may not discriminate against customers simply because of their race or their gender. But what about their sexual orientation? What if their sexual orientation — and the behavior that proceeds from it — violates your most fundamental religious beliefs? Must you support their behavior and violate your own beliefs to protect their freedom? What about your freedom?
In Uganda, the majority of the members of society have decided that if two persons of the same gender hold hands and kiss in public, they may be sent to jail for life. People living there want the freedom to eliminate such behavior from their society, claiming that it damages the family and undermines the society itself. But what about the freedom of individuals who want to hold hands or offer a kiss to a person of the same gender?
Just what does “freedom” mean? Does it mean we have the right to act in any way we wish — as individuals or as a society — no matter who it may affect in a way with which they do not agree?
This is the great philosophical question that individuals and societies have been struggling to answer for thousands of years. The question, at its basis, comes down to this: If there is none, is it okay to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theatre? Is this not freedom of speech? Or must there be some controls on our exercise of freedom?
We have decided in human society (in most places and nations, at least) that the answer is yes. We have decided that actions are not acceptable under the banner of freedom if they are detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of other people.
Would the law passed by the legislature in Arizona, which would have permitted business owners to discriminate against anyone they wished by not serving anyone they chose, based on religious beliefs, have been detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of other people had it not been vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer, but been allowed to stand?
Is the law passed by the parliament in Uganda allowing the government to send homosexuals to prison for life detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of other people?
What spiritual “rule of thumb” applies here? Let’s have a discussion. Your views are invited below.
There is something that I have been struggling with for quite a few years now. I guess the best way to describe it is to say that I am afraid of my own success, my joy, my happiness. I KNOW all the teachings of Conversations With God are true because after I came to the teachings about fifteen years ago, my life, as I knew it at the time, changed. It was the only time I have been so close in alignment with my Soul/True Self. I was creating all that I desired at that time and I was soooooo at peace and tranquility with all. I miss this!
I KNOW I’m not disconnected from Spirit or my Soul, yet this is how I feel, and I can’t seem to reconnect. I can’t seem to MAKE MYSELF do the things that will enable me to “connect” again. I can’t get my ego to do the “work” to grow further. I can’t seem to commit to meditation, knowing full well how important and beneficial it is to my Soul, and I have found myself getting bored with the messages and teachings at my New Thought church. It’s like I’m sabotaging my own happiness.
Someone once told me that this fear is probably due to my deep down feeling of not being worthy of all I deserve and can have. She said, “It scares you to think that you CAN have the material things, money, joy, happiness etc…” She also said, “You wonder what would happen to you if you did get it all.” So I guess my question is, “How do I make myself get over this fear, because frankly I’m tired of not having it all!”… Carrie
Dear Carrie… The way I see it, fear of success is quite different from feeling unworthy of success, so the first thing to do is to get clear. Which is it? Do you agree with your friend that you feel unworthy? Look deeply into your Sponsoring Thoughts about success and happiness. The fact that you had deep peace and tranquility and desires fulfilled fifteen years ago makes me wonder if either of these two scenarios are true. If you harbor either of these fears now, logic implies that something would have had to trigger them after your time of deep joy, peace and success. Is this the case? Can you trace the roots of your fears to anything specific that happened? If you can identify what that was, then you can begin to heal it. Remember, what you resist persists and what you look at deeply ceases to have its illusory form.
It may help you to know that I, too, sometimes feel that the teachings at New Thought churches can become, shall we say, redundant. Many of them seem to be stuck in what I call “Law of Attraction 101.” As Neale would say, this is child’s play. Please don’t make yourself wrong if this is how you feel too! Remember, feelings are the language of the soul and they are there to guide you. As a student of Conversations With God, you may realize, as I do, that the CWG messages go waaaaaay further than what Science of Mind or Unity teach. Remember, the people who founded those churches lived roughly a hundred years ago. Back then, they were ahead of their time, but now they are actually behind the times. I think that’s why New Thought ministers are constantly looking to current New Thought authors such as Neale, whose teachings go into infinitely more detail about Life and how it works. Please don’t get me wrong: I love my church and am very grateful for it. I also realize they are filling a great need because so many people are just beginning to embrace these larger understandings about God and Life.
I suspect, dear Carrie, that these feelings you’ve been experiencing are perfect messages from your soul which is trying to remind you (literally to “re-mind” you) that there is more—much more—to be understood about life, the understanding of which would change everything for you. I think you may simply be hungry for your mind to catch up with your soul’s knowing of how things really are, and once your information is more complete, you will again find yourself in the same place you were fifteen years ago when you first discovered CWG.
I would ask you which books in the Conversations With God Cosmology you have read and if you missed any, please read them right away, in the order in which they were written. You might even want to strongly consider going back to Book 1 and reading all of them straight through the list. I promise you, since you are different now than you were fifteen years ago, you will have many new “aha” moments!
At the risk of making this column too long, I am including the list here for you, along with an explanation of each book. If, after reading all of these, you still have fears or questions, please feel free to email me again. I think, though, you will begin manifesting more joy, peace and success into your life automatically as you move once again—and this time, thoroughly—through the material.
Blesséd be, Carrie!
THE CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD COSMOLOGY:
CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD Book 1
The First Installment of an extraordinary trilogy, Conversations with God marks Neale Donald Walsch’s initial dialogue with God. This book discusses personal issues such as prosperity, relationships and the nature of spiritual truth—with God providing clear, understandable answers. Further than the author’s conversation with God, you’ll realize that your own understanding and your own conversation with God is the true subject matter of this unforgettable text.
CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD Book 2
The second book of the extraordinary Conversations with God trilogy by Neale Donald Walsch deals with global issues such as education, politics and human sexuality.
CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD Book 3
This third book in the Conversations with God trilogy by Neale Donald Walsch is about more universal issues such as the nature of the soul, space and time, and highly evolved societies. Many consider this the completion of the basic text and a superb segue into the next part of the series.
FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD
The essence of the message lies at the heart of faith—the sacred place in every person, where we stand alone with God. Each of us must forge our own unique relationship with God, a God who is everywhere and speaks to us in all we do. It is up to us to stop and listen. It is up to us to respond—to begin the conversation. And a conversation is the first step—just as in any relationship—in establishing trust, in building friendship, in creating communion. Largely autobiographical, in Friendship with God, Neale shares the next part of his journey, and leads us to deepen and strengthen our own bonds with God.
COMMUNION WITH GOD
Now God reaches out again…offering you wholeness…communion. Now you will know the God who believes in you. You have come here to learn, through your own experience, that God resides within you. You have come to have a meeting with the Creator—a Creator who is within you and all around you. And in order to do so, you must look beyond the Ten Illusions of Humans.
THE NEW REVELATIONS
When you recognize these illusions, you can change the way you think. When you accept that they are only illusions, you can change what you believe. And when you live without them, you can change the world.
TOMORROW’S GOD
Purporting to be the dictation of a direct conversation with God, it places before humankind an unexpected prediction that our species will create a new God in the very near future. Gone will be the histrionics, requirements and commandments, judgments and punishments of Yesterday’s God. Tomorrow’s God describes in detail the character and characteristics of a future Deity whose only emotion is total love for all of humanity and life itself, and whose agenda includes no other objective than to empower life to produce more life, more abundantly and more gloriously in each moment. Striking in its theology and expansive in its cosmology, Tomorrow’s God offers the world a path out of its unremitting despair and a just-in-time detour on what many see as a journey to self-destruction.
WHAT GOD WANTS
Be Careful. This book is dangerous. It explores with startling freshness the most important question you could ever ask, and offers with breathtaking courage the most extraordinary answer you could ever imagine. That answer is so theologically revolutionary and so spiritually empowering that it could change the course of human history. If embraced it most certainly will change your life.
HOME WITH GOD: IN A LIFE THAT NEVER ENDS
This is the last book of the Conversations with God series. This is the book that readers of CWG have been waiting for…when Neale asks and receives answers around the experience of death and dying. The inspiring and poignant messages contained in this dialogue are life-changing and spirit-renewing.
CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD FOR TEENS
Adults are not the only ones searching deeply for answers to the major questions of life. Neale had another conversation—one in which he speaks to God about questions raised by teens around the globe. It’s a simple, clear, straight-to-the-point dialogue. The answers may challenge beliefs about God, money, sex, and love—about everything you may have been taught. Further, you’ll discover that it is not really the author’s conversation with God that matters. It’s your own conversation.
HAPPIER THAN GOD
Since the publication of his stunning worldwide bestseller Conversations with God (over two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list; now published in 37 languages), Neale has been telling readers that a new understanding of God can change lives and change the world. In this book, he expands on that theme by exploring how ordinary people can work in direct collaboration with God to transform their everyday lives into extraordinary experiences. This is not a book of spiritual theory; rather it provides a plan we can use to change our lives. Included are “17 Steps to being Happier Than God.” This is a plan that combines the best of the conceptual truths from his 9-book Conversations with God series with “The Process of Personal Creation” to turn those concepts into practical tools for altering life for the better—forever.
WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES CHANGE EVERYTHING
This book speaks to the heart of every person who has lost their bearings in the aftermath of a major life change and to those who would help them. A strikingly clear and useful text, it offers wonderful tools for healing and living, including a new psychological model of how to combine the “Mechanics of the Mind” with the “System of the Soul”.
(Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Life Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.
(If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to: Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)
An additional resource: The CWG Helping Outreach offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services. The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions. What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God. It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.
The gladiators stand in the tunnel surveying the crowd, awaiting their fate, hoping to have some control of the outcome. The crowd, that fickle crowd, will decide, in the end, the death or the glory of the gladiator.
Bones crunch, heads snap, bodies bleed, when body hits body at full speed. The gladiator rises, again and again, to meet the onslaught of his opponent. Sweating, cursing his body for not doing what he thought he had trained it to do in preparation for this day, this event. He’s done this before…fought for his life and his glory before, but today that crowd is different. It’s not on his side today.
He’s known this day would come for as long as he could remember. As a youth he knew his ability in the games of youth set him apart, but he could see what happened to those lesser bodies that succumbed to even minor injuries. Thumbs down. His physical presence was destined to raise him above his social circumstances, but he also knew he would one day pay the price.
When his tendon snapped, and his knee bent backward with the onslaught of the physical wall, he knew this would be the day he would pay that price. This was the thumbs down day he dreaded. This was the day his life, as he knew it, would end.
The crowd gasped. The crowd applauded his lifelong effort to survive and entertain them….and then the crowd turned their thumbs down and walked away, because, in their secret heart of hearts, this was exactly what they came to see…the falling of the best of the best. The mighty fallen.
Sound like a story of ancient Rome? It should, but it is also the same sad game being played out in arenas today, even though it is called something different. In America one of the the most violent incarnations is called Football.
Football is arena war. Football is using the young, raising them up, and then abandoning them when they can no longer entertain. Too many players with identities caught up exclusively in the sport. Football glorifies violence, just as does the military, and says that the positive things it instills, like teamwork and discipline, supersede the foundational premise of the game. This is the public relations lie. Domination, winner vs. loser, bragging rights…superiority. It is among the accepted ways of channeling testosterone when there is no war, and working testosterone into a frenzy of camaraderie when there is.
Beyond even that, sports, like football, (I am staying with one sport, knowing there are definitely others that can be mentioned!) say to the player and the watcher that the physical is more important than the mind and spirit of that player. When we identify with that scenario, the scenario of only the strong survive, might makes right, outward vs. inward, we play our part in the manipulation of the world paradigm. This paradigm says that the strong in any way (physical, wealth, mental) are entitled to dominate, and manipulate to get what they desire. In fact, the thought, in some religions is just that… they are chosen by God to have that entitlement.
This paradigm manipulates us into living externally…the right clothes, all you can eat to the detriment of your body, bigger, better, shinier, this vodka will get you the guy/girl, this beer is macho, this car…don’t stop to feel, think. If you did, you might not really see yourself in your own life any more.
I can no longer watch games of dominance with a passive eye. There is room for individualism even in the win-win model. A person can “win” by simply knowing that on this day their skill worked to give them their desired result. Others can know they did not lose, they merely had the opportunity to enjoy, use, and know their bodies, and the result of scoring the most points was not met. No shame, no dominations, but still knowing who you are as an individual even in the physical arena.
Surely humanity can accept and develop games and challenges that do not require mimicking war. Surely we can know ourselves as strong and capable without requiring certain physical jeopardy to do so. Surely we, as the observers, can do so without the desire to see blood and defeat…and surely we observers can extend an embrace rather than a thumbs down to those who did not meet their desired result.
The new Gladiator knows that he/she is valued for all they are. Valued for the perfection of body, valued for the openness of their hearts, and valued for their Spirit which knows only Love, and never even thinks about a thumbs down. Even when the game ends. Especially when the game ends.
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Did you know that there is a new book that identifies the 25 most important messages of the 9-installment Conversations with God series? It then offers practical suggestions on how to apply each message in every day life. Powerful and inspirational reading. To see the first seven chapters and hear a one chapter sample of the audio book, click here.
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(This is Part IX of an extended series on being part of the change, rather than simply observing the change, that is occurring on our planet right now.)
What the world needs today is a new form of spirituality, one that will allow us to express our impulse toward the Divine in a way that does not make others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.
This would eliminate all of the religious conflict in the world—and as we have already stated in previous installments here, religious conflict is the greatest obstacle to peace on our planet today.
Now if you agree with this purpose, if you feel aligned with the effort to help create the space of possibility for a New Spirituality to emerge upon the earth, you will be very happy to know that there is a well organized group already working toward this goal.
That group is called Humanity’s Team, and it has established local Teams in cities, towns, and villages in over 30 countries.
HT is focused very much on creating and providing opportunities for people all over the world who may be searching for, and yearning for, an alternative form of spiritual expression—who are tired of the conflicts and the sense of superiority and the doctrines of judgment and damnation that are built into many of today’s religions.
Among its other activities, HT sponsors a wide variety of activities, all revolving around the kinds of messages found in Conversations with God. Information on the work and activities of Humanity’s Team may be obtained by going to www.HumanitysTeam.org
Within Humanity’s Team’s Twelve Spheres of Life initiative, in the sphere of Spirituality, there is something you can do right now: Become involved with the Evolution Revolution.
Do you have nine minutes to give to our world?
It will take you approximately eight or nineminutes to read what I have written elsewhere on this website. I know that seems like a lot of time, but over the course of your life you will see it as really very little. Go to the blue box on the right hand side of this newspaper’s Home Page and you can learn all about it.
So the point here is that there is at last an answer to the question, “What can I do?” There is already in place a group of people who have read CwG and asked the same question, who share with you the desire to place that message into the world, who agree with you on the desirability of doing that, and who will support you in moving forward your own agenda.
I am running for Congress because I believe America has gone off the democratic rails. A toxic brew of shrinking civil liberties, expanded corporate influence and domestic surveillance is poisoning our democracy.
We are currently in the process of dismantling the most basic social contract between the American people and our government, as “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” has transitioned before our eyes into ” a government of a few of the people, by a few of the people, and for a few of the people.” A purpose of American progress is to expand the democratic franchise, not constrict it. Yet today, that franchise is being narrowed for everyone.
That’s the bad news, but there is good news as well: we can change this!
But we must do so quickly, for the trajectory of corporatism is already wreaking havoc on our environment, our economy and even our food supply. When banks, oil companies, chemical companies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, food companies, military manufacturers and prison builders are able to influence our lawmakers so disproportionately to the influence wielded by average citizens, we have a problem. Let us not be the first generation to wimp out on the work necessary to protect and foster our democracy.
Politics isn’t something that only a few people should relate to. There should be no “political class” or “political elite” in America. In the words of President Eisenhower, “politics should be the part time profession of every American.” The fact that it has in some ways become a spectator sport is unhealthy for our democracy, and I hope you will join with me in changing that. Let’s all of us — not just those of us “interested in politics” — now awaken to both the perils and opportunities of this time, and the responsibility of each of us to be good stewards of our democracy.
A stale, inside-the-box conversation is inadequate to the challenges that we face now. Other candidates in the race will offer their ideas in this election as well, of course. But while the political status quo addresses the symptoms of our deeper problems, it’s time to address the disease itself. Treating the effects of a problem is not the same as treating its cause.
The undue influence of money on our politics is the issue underlying all other issues, and we need a national movement supporting a Constitutional Amendment outlawing the undue influence of money on our politics. If elected, I will work with those in and outside Congress who are working on this already– for I feel, as many people do, that getting money out of politics is the greatest moral challenge of our generation.
I hope you will get involved in the campaign. Please visit our website at www.marianneforcongress.com, sign up for email updates, attend our upcoming events, become a volunteer, spread the word to your friends, and donate what you can to support a campaign that is doing all we can do to provide a genuine alternative to the political status quo. This is not simply a good idea. I believe that it is critical.
Please join us.
All my best,
Marianne
Noticing that its application is “inconsistent and unequal,” Jay Inslee has decided to oppose the death penalty.
Mr. Inslee is not the first person to come to this conclusion. Indeed, people have been pointing this out for many years. He is also not the first person to decide that he opposes the death penalty because of it. But he is the first person to come to this conclusion and to reach this decision who happens to be the governor of one of the United States.
As a result, that State — Washington — has, effective February 11, stopped using its governing authority to kill people in an execution chamber…at least for the next three years. By executive order, Mr. Inslee has imposed a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty as long as he is in office. His current term expires in 1016.
Why would anybody in the United States — particularly anybody in a position of political power whose ability to hold onto that power depends upon the approval of voters — oppose the death penalty, which has been an American institution for so many years?
“There are too many flaws in the system,” Mr. Inslee is quoted in media reports as saying, adding that when the ultimate decision is death “there is too much at stake to accept an imperfect system.”
Um….uh….do you think?
The mystery is not why one courageous person would risk his political future by doing what is obviously right — but why every governor in the nation is not doing the same thing.
The State of Texas, for instance, reportedly leads the nation in putting people to death — and by some accounts and appearances the largest number of that state’s residents seem to be proud of that. “Texas justice,” some have been known to call it.
Yet not only justice, but “equal justice under the law” is the primary responsibility of any government, Washington’s governor asserts, then adds that in death penalty cases he is “not convinced equal justice is being served.”
Mr. Inslee is quoted in press accounts as observing that the use of the death penalty in his state has been so unequally applied that it was even “sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred.”
That kind of disparity is, of course, unconscionable, and Mr. Inslee has realized this. Fortunately, there is no other state in America where the death penalty is or has ever been unequally applied.
Um….well….maybe it has…but just once in a while, just now and then…so what does it matter? Well, it doesn’t seem to matter, as few governors or state legislatures in the United States have done what Mr. Inslee has just done, which is to simply announce: that’s enough. No more state-sponsored killing on my watch.
While 32 states in the U.S. still authorize the death penalty, Maryland became the most recent state, prior to Washington, to end executions when it repealed its death penalty law outright in 2013.
Two years earlier Gov. John Kitzhaber put a moratorium on all executions in Oregon. And eight years prior to that, in 2003, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted all death penalties to life sentences.
But, as noted above, many states in America still kill people as a means of punishment — and they do not always do it mercifully.
Much news was made just a few weeks ago when the State of Ohio was widely accused of having badly botched the execution of a man convicted of murder named Dennis McGuire by using a lethal injection made up of a combination of chemicals that had never been tried before.
According to one journalist who witnessed the execution, the condemned man “struggled, made guttural noises, gasped for air and choked” before succumbing to a new, two-drug execution method.
In an online story about the execution, the Guardian newspaper news article said “Eyewitnesses in the death chamber reported that it took up to 26 minutes for McGuire to die, making it the longest execution in Ohio in modern times.“
The Guardian story went on to say that “the prisoner was seen to be gasping for air for up to 14 minutes in a procedure that one observer, Lawrence Hummer, described in the Guardian as horrendous and inhumane.”
Some medical experts had warned the state that the “death cocktail” would cause slow oxygen starvation, resulting in not just death for the criminal, but prolonged suffering, amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.
The state refused to listen to those opinions, or to the appeal of the criminal to at least postpone the execution until the injection had been tried on animals. It went ahead with the procedure, and the result, as described above, made headlines around the world.
At least one family member of the person the criminal had murdered appeared by press accounts to be not particularly concerned with reports of Mr. McGuire’s alleged suffering, reportedly saying to the media that the person Mr. McGuire was convicted of killing was also not spared suffering.
The spiritual question raised by all of this, of course, is whether the highest or grandest spiritual value to which humanity can aspire in cases such as this is “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
Billions of humans embrace this notion of justice — many, if not most, of them declaring that it is a concise articulation of God’s Law. God, these believers declare, imposes just this kind of justice on all human beings at the moment of their death.
In your belief system, is this true? And where do you stand on the death penalty, regardless of what you believe about God?
I recently met a woman who I believe wanted a close friendship with me. I have moved to a new community and was keen to meet people and have accepted her generous offer a few times to drive me to venues I would have problems getting to on my own, for which I have thanked her and was grateful for her kindness. Over the course of our newly developing friendship, I found I have no rapport with her no matter how much I tried. In fact, I found her behaviour disturbing. For example, she would yell out, cursing at people legally overtaking her and others while in traffic, and even more disturbing was that she would call me everyday leaving the same monotonous message each day. I returned her calls a couple of times letting her know that I was okay and there was no need for her to be calling everyday. Then, there’ll be the same message, the same dialog the next day and the next and the next. I have a feeling she probably had been drinking when she called, so I stopped returning her calls. In line with CWG messages, how would I handle this situation? What would you propose I do? Also, meeting people like her is not new to me. I seem to attract people with such “weird” personalities into my life quite often. What do I need to change in my personality so that I don’t attract such people anymore? Thank you and best wishes… Gail
Dear Gail… Although I do believe in the Law of Attraction, I think it’s a bit of a New Thought trap to think that there is something inherently wrong in our personalities when we attract strange people into our lives. While it may be true that there is something your soul wants to move through in these circumstances, it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong!
Please remember, the Law of Opposites exists to give us choice points. To paraphrase a foundational tenet from Conversations With God, “In the absence of that which I am not, that which I am, is not.” In other words, we can only define ourselves by being aware of something different than us that we can use as a benchmark.
You ask what CWG would recommend in regard to your relationship with the woman who you suspect was drinking and with whom you don’t want to associate anymore. I would invite you to look at the Five Levels of Truth Telling from CWG Book Two, as well as one of the 17 steps to being Happier Than God: “Speak your truth as soon as you know it but soothe your words with peace.” The four levels of truth telling that would apply here are, “Tell your truth about yourself to yourself,” “Tell your truth about yourself to another,” “Tell your truth about another to yourself” and “Tell your truth about another to that other.” I find the fourth level to be the hardest one, because confronting someone with my truth about them feels very uncomfortable. When I am brave enough to do it, I prefer to write down my thoughts and deliver my truth that way, so that I don’t end up stumbling over words, or worse, not being impeccable with my word. It helps to tell the other, “I could be wrong, but this is how it looks to me, and this is how I feel about it.” When we put the onus on ourself in this way, it helps us seem less judgmental of the other.
Now, of course, you don’t have to do any of these things, Gail. You can simply allow yourself to gradually and organically drift away from the relationship. Sometimes that’s the easiest way out, but just know it can leave things feeling unresolved, and that’s why I think CWG invites us to do more than that.
I feel your discomfort around this. It may help to know that we all have people who show up in our lives who are not easy to deal with, to say the least. It doesn’t mean we are being or doing anything wrong. It’s just what’s happening, so it is of course, perfect! There’s a very good reason CWG says that life begins at the end of our comfort zone. Every uncomfortable situation is an opportunity to choose to be more than we have ever been—to “step up to the plate” and seize the opportunity to re-create ourselves anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever we held about who we are. And, interestingly, the more we do that, the fewer “weird personalities” and the more kindred spirits we begin to attract into our lives!
From my experience of working with you in the CWG Online School, Gail, I would bet that you will handle all of this in the most beautiful way possible, because that’s the type of person I have come to know you to be.
In all things, give thanks.
(Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Life Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.
(If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to: Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)
An additional resource: The CWG Helping Outreach offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services. The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions. What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God. It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.
I wonder if any of us are truly aware of how often we moralize and judge not only ourselves but others during the course of a normal day. I am currently taking a free class online on moralities of everyday existence that is offered by Yale (yes, the Ivy League school– but you get no credits or grades for the class.) The first week of class reminded me just how careful we have to be to avoid moralizing and judging the events in our daily lives.
Let me give you an example from my daily life. I am a paramedic. Invariably, at some point during the course of any given day, a call comes in to respond to such and such an address for a patient with flu-like symptoms. A groan often accompanies this summons and it’s exacerbated when you get to the residence and find five apparently capable drivers and three cars parked in the driveway. “This,” we think to ourselves while in the patient’s presence and say aloud when the call is over, “is why our health care costs are so out of control! Anyone of those people could have taken that person to the hospital!”
What we DON’T know is that one of the driver’s has a suspended license for a DUI, one has no car insurance because she can’t afford it, one has three kids sleeping upstairs that are going to be getting up from their nap soon and two of them are also sick and don’t want anyone by mommy/daddy, one just took some cold medicine that makes her drowsy and the fifth’s car isn’t inspected or registered because he couldn’t afford to do it last month when it expired. (As an aside, I recently suffered from a bout with the flu and I have never been as sick as I was for that nine days and there were times when I wanted to call an ambulance to come take me to the hospital.)
How many times have you been standing in line and watched someone pay for steaks with food stamps and thought “How fair is that? I’m eating hamburger helper and you’re eating steaks on food stamps!” Of course, what we don’t know is that the steaks are for the man’s son, who has terminal cancer and this is to be the last meal they have as a family before he goes out of state for experimental treatments that still only give him a 2% chance of survival.
Or here’s one I hear often when someone sees a woman with lots of kids that are apparently very close in age. “Keep your legs closed so I don’t have to support another of your brats!” Of course, what we don’t know is that the woman has taken custody of her sisters kids (which were born in between her own kids) because her sister is fighting a drug addiction and is in rehab and the woman doesn’t want the kids to get stuck in the system.
But what about the smaller moral decisions and judgments we make every day? Are you eating meat? Do you know if the animal who sacrificed their life for your food was treated humanely during its existence? Does it matter?
Are you vegetarian or vegan? Are you eating all organic foods that were harvested by people who were paid a fair wage? What happens to all the migrant workers if everyone buys only foods that were harvested for a fair wage?
Did you flip someone off while driving down the road today because you got cut off or someone didn’t use his turn signal? Maybe you didn’t flip him off but called him a nasty name or even thought what a horrible driver he was. Would it change your mind about him if you knew he just found out his wife was taken to the hospital after a serious car accident and wasn’t expected to survive?
In the area I live in, we have had 22 people die of heroin overdoses in the last two weeks because the heroin is laced with fentanyl. I’ve seen stories about it posted on Facebook and local news websites. Comments range from “Good! One less addict to worry about!” to “And we’re supposed to care about these people why?”
Do you catch yourself judging how your siblings are raising their children and think that you could do a better job? Do you find yourself looking at the clerk in the store and thinking that he needs to find a better barber? Do you overhear your waitress talking about her wife and leave her a smaller tip because you don’t agree with the “gay lifestyle”? Do you see a stray cat running around your neighborhood and think “Someone else is probably feeding it…”? Do you think that the person who is talking in line behind you, who is obviously the opposite party affiliation than you, is a stupid moron for what he believes? Do you speak up when someone in the break room makes an off-color or racist or sexist or homophobic comment or joke? Do you constantly buy pre-packaged meals so you don’t have to cook despite the amount of plastic and cardboard that goes into making just one of those meals and is going to end up in our rapidly filling landfills? Are you more pleasant with someone you know who shares many of your beliefs than you are with someone who thinks your beliefs are a joke? Did you notice that many of these questions are judgmental and moralizing? Or do you think that only the “other side” (or, in other words, someone else besides you) does that kind of thing?
Perhaps some of the most subconscious moralizing and judging we do is with ourselves. How many times have we said about something we did, “That was stupid!” or “I’m such an idiot!” or “How could I be so naive?” How many times have we judged what we have done as “less than” what it should have been or even as a complete failure? How many times have we said that we “really screwed up” on that one? How many times have we belittled or diminished our contribution to the co-creative process of life? It is a habit we are taught young (“we’re all sinners worthy of death”, “there’s nothing we can do to get into God’s good graces and it’s only his mercy that allows us to live”, “we’re born with original sin on our souls”, etc.) often by religion and it’s a habit that is very difficult to break.
I’d be willing to bet that there are those who are saying “So what? As long as I don’t voice my thoughts or hurt someone else’s feelings with what I’m thinking, no harm done!”
But God and science tell us energy is neither created nor destroyed: it simply changes form! So your thoughts are energy that you’re putting out into the world and that energy, if it’s judgmental or moralizing, is helping to co-create the reality in which all of us live.
It takes being completely aware and in the moment at all times to catch yourself doing the moralizing and judging that the vast majority 0f us do without a second thought. Take the time before you think a thought or speak it aloud to ask “What would Love do?” or, even simpler for some, “Is this how I would want to be treated or thought of?”
Try, for one hour, to pay attention to every thought that comes into your head. See how many of them are truly judgmental or moralizing and figure out what you can replace that thought with. Sometimes a simple “Bless you” is more than enough.
The end result of judgment is condemnation. Human beings feel the need to judge others as a means of justifying their own moral compass. I understand how deeply ingrained this process is in all of us. From the earliest age, we are taught this distorted truth. I am not entirely sure why we don’t trust the moral compasses of our individual children to be expressed and experimented with on their own, yet my eyes see that most of the time we do not.
I do wish, believe, and hope that as we evolve as a species we will begin to trust that our children are here on a soul journey of their own and they are fully capable of determining what their own belief system is.
Kahlil Gibran wrote:
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.”
My thoughts today are on the drug-related death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Much has been said by media and fans as well as others who are comfortable expressing their comments in media articles. The expressions are as wide and diverse as you would imagine on this very difficult-to-understand topic.
There are those who say we should sympathize with Philip’s losing battle with addiction and those who say fooey on addiction, he was a degenerate druggie who got what he deserved. Whatever your take on this is, I feel it is important to dialogue about it. The thing I notice is that for every opinion, there seems to be a lack of willingness to expand our individual perspective about drugs and addiction.
I get that drug use is not easy for the non-user to understand. I don’t ask those people to offer up any sympathy or expect any helping hand from them. But why is the judgment and condemnation necessary? Why make it personal? What is it that causes someone who believes that addicts are just morally corrupt degenerates to stoop to name-calling and viciousness?
These very same people who look down on the heroin user may have more sympathy for an alcoholic or person who smokes cigarettes. There is literally no difference. More people die today from prescription drug overdoses than of illegal narcotics. Alcohol is the single most offensive chemical to the human race, and it is legal!
Just to remind you, CwG Book 1,
“And if you’ve ever taken alcohol into your body, you have very little will to live. The body was not meant to intake alcohol. It impairs the mind.” Alcohol, prescription or illegal drugs (yes, pot included.) God, although with no judgment, clearly tells us the path to self-awareness is through keeping a clear and unimpaired mind.”
It is my vision that someday our best chances for ridding humanity from the scourge of addiction will be the understanding of the root cause of addiction.
I believe that the book Communion with God could offer us the way to make my vision a reality. When our children are gently guided to their own truths instead of us ushering down the data that was passed down to us by our elders, maybe then we can start making some inroads.
Genetics seems to play some role in addiction, as does environment and the sheer addictiveness of some drugs. But what is really going on is that the majority of humans have no understanding of who they are, what they are here for, or where we are from. We have made it up that we are here to learn something, or to do something. But what is always missing is the part where we BE something. Most people never even hear this concept.
I take the road of weeping the drug-related death of Mr. Hoffman. I believe that he chose this departure time and method. Not because he was selfish, or uncaring. He chose this because humanity needed the exposure that he could give to the disease of addiction. Some say, “How could he leave those 3 children behind without a father?” I can see how they would say that, from the limited perspective of the mind; yet the soul knows the bigger picture. The soul understands that time is only a construct of the human condition. I also believe that the co-creation cannot be understood by the mind.
The human mind looks at someone who is sad and sees something “wrong.” The Soul looks at sadness with joy, for it is truly the physical expression for love. Yes, some will carry painful baggage away from this human event. Yet others will carry life experience away that otherwise could not have been had.
I am going to close this blog with food for thought. The following conversation from CwG, Book 2, caused me to think deeply about events that occur and what they may mean to me and society as a whole. I would really enjoy having a dialogue about this:
“God: There is only one of you, but you are much larger than you think!
Neale: So when the “me” that exists now” changes something he doesn’t like about his “future,” the “me” that exists in the “future” no longer has that as part of his experience?
God: Essentially yes. The whole mosaic changes. But he never loses the experience he’s given himself. He’s just relieved and happy that “you” don’t have to go through that.”
(Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and auriculotherapist. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, recovery coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery. Kevin has a passion for holistic living, personal awareness training, and physical meditation. You can visit his website Life After Addicton for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)
