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  • God and ‘Justice’ and ‘Pay Back’ time

    (Part 1 of a 5-part series)

    Because Conversations with God says that “there’s no such thing as Right and Wrong,” people often ask me: “Is there no ‘justice’ in God’s Kingdom?” As I have understood the messages of CWG, the answer is “no.” Not the way we understand it.

    Yet to fully answer this question we have to, first of all, define what we mean by “God’s Kingdom.” In the truest sense (which is the only sense in which I prefer to speak), everything in existence is God’s Kingdom—and that includes, of course, life on Earth. Which would mean that there is “no justice” on Earth.

    There are many people who would agree with that. They would say that the “justice” we see meted out on Earth is all too often not real “justice” at all, but the result of a process that can be influenced (if not manipulated) by The System. No one would seriously argue, for instance, that on this planet the fabulously wealthy experience, on balance, a difference kind of justice than the terribly poor—to offer but one obvious example. And there are more.

    Yet it is precisely those who yearn for justice on Earth, and cannot find it, who experience at least some small solace through knowing or thinking that there will be Justice in Heaven. It is very difficult to me to explain to them that there will be none. Not in the way that “justice” is understood on Earth. Not in any way, actually.

    For “justice” to be part of the “system” of things in Heaven there would have to be some “laws” to be broken—and someone to be injured by the breaking of them. Neither exists in Paradise. Now there are those who say, “Yes, but both exist on Earth! The System of Justice in Heaven relates to the system of life on Earth, not life in Heaven. Life is Heaven is the reward for living righteously on Earth. And life in Hell is the punishment for not doing so. It’s the ‘payback’ for those who have caused others pain and suffering.”

    But what, I would ask, of the person who has caused pain and suffering to no one at all? Will the person who was kind, caring, compassionate, understanding, generous, forgiving, and loving unfailingly with everyone automatically receive the reward of Heaven?

    Not necessarily, some would say. Not unless that person believed in God in the “right” way. If he or she did not, then no amount of kindness or goodness, compassion or love that they displayed while here on Earth will matter one way or the other. They are still going to Hell, because they have offended God.

    And so, some say, there is a System of Justice in Heaven that has nothing to do with whether one hurts or injures another on Earth. It has to do with whether one hurts or injures God, who lives in Heaven, but keeps tabs on what is happening on Earth and makes sure that “justice is served” one way or the other, now or after death.

    Some say the amount of “punishment” that is meted out by God in Heaven depends on the severity of the “sins” one has committed on Earth. Small sins—something like spiritual misdemeanors—are punishable by a limited amount of suffering imposed by God, in a place that some call Purgatory. But Really Big Sins are punishable by everlasting damnation in Hell.

    And some say that not believing in God in the Right Way is one of the Really Big Sins. In fact, some say, it is the Biggest.

    One can commit no greater offense against God. Even a repentant murderer can get into heaven, clerics routinely tell prisoners on Death Row. But a repentant murderer who does not believe in God in the Right Way has no chance whatsoever. So this is the biggest offense.

    This is how some religions have it structured; this is the doctrine some have taught. And we will talk more about all of this in Part 2 of this series, in the next entry here.

  • PARENTS ASK COURT TO NOT ALLOW
    DAUGHTER TO CHOOSE DEATH

    Of course, her name would be “Grace.”

    She has had the grace to place before the human race, once again, the question of What God Wants.

    SungEun Grace Lee, who is known by everyone as Grace, is 28 years old. She cannot move from the neck down, the result of an incurable tumor in her brain stem. She cannot even breathe on her own, and is hooked up to a machine to receive oxygen. She cannot eat on her own and is on a feeding tube.

    In other words, Grace Lee, 28, is lying in a bed at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., fully conscious and completely alert, with all of her cognitive skills, but with none of her bodily functions under her control. She is not even able to speak clearly. This, for a person who was a financial manager for Bank of America, and was in training for the New York City Marathon last year.

    Grace Lee does not choose to live this way. And she knows, she has been told, that the tumor destroying her brain is going to kill her. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

    Should Grace be able to ask that all life support systems be turned off, so that she might end, if and when she wishes to, what she feels is a living hell?

    Her parents feel that the answer should be no.

    Grace asked the doctors at the hospital to turn off her life support. After determining that the woman was completely mentally competent, the medical staff prepared to do so.

    They were stopped last week.

    Her father, whose name is Man Ho Lee, is pastor of Antioch Missionary Church in Flushing, N.Y.  He and his wife, Jin Ah Lee, are devastated by Grace’s decision. And not just on a personal level, which would be understandable enough, but on a spiritual level as well—which to them may be equally, if not more, important.

    The Lee’s believe that if their daughter ends her own life at will, she will be condemned by God to everlasting torture in hell.

    They raced to court to halt the doctors at the hospital from removing Grace from life support. They begged the court to declare Grace incompetent and to appoint Rev. Lee as her guardian—with the authority to make all medical decisions for her. The court declined to do so. The Lee’s then rushed to an appeals court to ask for a reversal.

    The story about all of this, first reported this week in the New York Daily News, then repeated on Internet blogs around the world, has captured the attention of thousands, many of whom grapple with the question: What does God want in cases such as this?

    As a legal matter, the case has now been closed. The Daily News reported that a state appeals court ruled on Friday, Oct 6 that Grace’s parents cannot stop her from making her own decision about her life and death.

    (To read more of the news report, click on these words: New York Daily News.)

    The key theological point in this situation was clearly laid out in the court documents filed by Grace’s parents. “The removal of the respirator and/or the feeding tube is considered suicide,” the New York Daily News reported that their motion said. “A person who commits suicide is condemned in the next life to burn in Hell forever. Obviously, this could not be (Lee’s) intention.”

    Yet while the legal matter has now apparently been settled, the theological question remains in the minds and hearts of many. The Lees are not the only ones who feel that suicide is against the will of God, punishable by unmitigated torment, agony, and suffering inflicted by Divine Mandate and administered in hell by Satan. But is this true?

    Conversations with God says no. Its message is, in fact, just the opposite. It says that nothing could be further from the truth. God is, CWG says, the ultimate in Understanding, Compassion, and Love, and would never condemn or punish anyone—for anything.

    First, God has no need to, because God cannot be hurt or damaged, angered or injured, in any way. Second, there is no such place as hell, so there is no “location” in the Afterlife where endless sadistic persecution and torture takes place. Third, God’s understanding of how and why a person would chose to terminate their own life is far too vast, too comprehensive, too completely “aware,” to allow God to determine that somehow a soul deserves an eternity of suffering in response to its simple wish to have interminable suffering end.

    God has given every sentient being in the Multiverse (science is now telling us that there is more than one universe) the gift of Free Will. This is not the freedom to do what God says “or else” (which would, obviously, not be Free Will at all)—but is, in fact, a true Free Will…to do whatever one chooses—for whatever reasons one uses to justify one’s choice.

    CWG offers the observation that “nobody does anything inappropriate, given their model of the world.” Even those people who have been judged to be mentally unstable (perhaps especially those human beings) fall within this parameter.

    It is completely and compassionately understandable that Mr. and Mrs. Lee would or could feel their own fear that God will punish Grace mercilessly, ruthlessly, pitilessly, heartlessly, brutally, and unendingly if she tells her doctors to turn off life support and allow her to die naturally, the result of her own physical illness. This is, after all, what they have been taught. It is what they believe deep within their hearts. But God will not do this.

    I would give anything to help Mr. and Mrs. Lee know that God will not do this.

    When I appeared on The Today Show a number of years ago, Matt Lauer asked me, if I truly feel that I’ve talked to God, what God’s Message to the World is. He asked me if I could put it in one paragraph. “We’ve got just 30 seconds left” in the interview, he explained.

    I told him that I didn’t need even one paragraph, that I could put it in five words. He blinked and said, “Okay, ladies and gentlemen, from Neale Donald Walsch…God’s message to the world in five words.” The red light on the camera trained on me lit. And I delivered that message…

    You’ve got me all wrong.

  • Handling life’s problems
    with sweet subtlety

    I have come across a wonderful book that is ten years old, but whose subject—and treatment of it—is as fresh as this morning’s first breeze.

    Awake Mind, Open Heart, by Cynthia Kneen, is a review of the basic points of Buddhist and Shambhala teachings and philosophy, offering a remarkably insightful explanation and right-there-in-front-of-your-face usage of a structure of reasoning called threefold logic.

    This analytical tool, as Cynthia tells us, can be extremely powerful in approaching everyday problems, challenges, and circumstances. It can, as the book’s Introduction declares, “help you in conducting your work, talking to your kids, thinking through what’s puzzling you, negotiating with your car mechanic, or anything.”

    Within the text itself this logic form is utilized to explore a wide range of topics, including how to “settle down” with yourself, how to summon courage for your daily encounter with life, discovering greater wisdom, attaining dignity, seeing the world as friend, and what being a genuine leader is all about.

    I was particularly struck by a chapter titled A Joyful and Sad Heart, which, as it turns out, makes virtually the same point that is found in my own book, Happier Than God—that “happiness and sadness are not mutually exclusive.”

    The chapter describes “the unique experience of joy and sadness combined”—out of which arises “a pragmatic tenderness to appreciate and be sympathetic to your situation,” and to be “the basic goodness” in the particular situation that you are now facing…whatever it might be. It is sort of an Eastern version of Byron Katie’s central idea of “loving what is.”

    By means of illustration, the author tells of the word “hello,” and how it also means “goodbye.” Because everything is impermanent and nothing lasts, the author says we should really say “goodbye” when first shaking hands with someone. In this we see and feel both joy and sadness in the same moment. “Hello/goodbye, and I hope Hello again” is what might actually be said upon meeting someone, the book suggests. This is just one of many, many sweetly subtle treatments of life’s complexities.

    Cynthia Kneen (pronounced “neen”) is a senior student of Chogyam Trungpa who has taught meditation programs for more than 25 years. She is also a practicing management consultant who lives in Boulder, Colorado. Her book, published in 2002, is a testament to the power of courage and dignity in everyday life, and as exciting a read today as I’m sure it was ten years ago when first released.

    Highly recommended for its soft, gentle, almost sneak-up-on-you approach to some of life’s most challenging moments.

    From Marlow & Company, ISBN 1-56924-551-7

    (If there is a book, movie, music CD, etc. that you would like to recommend to our worldwide audience, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Review”)

  • Two questions to ask in every relationship

    I have a chance to take a good job offer in another city, but it means possibly having to end my relationship, because my lover and companion does not want to leave where we are now, for lots of reasons. His own good job is here, and also, his children. They are fully grown, but he does maintain a friendship relationship with them. I hate to lose this relationship, but I hate to lose this career opportunity, too. Any thoughts? Barbara M., Peoria, Illiinois

    Dear Barbara…CWG suggests that you ask yourself two questions regarding any relationship:
    1.Where am I going?
    2. Who’s going with me?

    In that order.

    “Where am I going?” implies that you must listen to yourself…to honor those “gut” feelings.  A simple way of doing this is to sit quietly for a moment.  Take a few deep breaths, then say, out loud:  “I am going to take the job.”

    Pay attention: what are the sensations in your body?

    Next, say, “I am going to stay where I am.”

    Pay attention:  what does your body say about this?

    This is important, because you should only decide things in relationships based on mutually decided goals…you should never dictate your life by what other people feel is “right” for you.  You must know, and stand in, your truth.  Which leads to the second question:

    Who’s going with me?  If your companion has the same goals for the relationship, he will follow–even if what he is following is your decision to stay. Or he may ask you to stay where you are, which is just as “fair” as you asking him if he will to go with you. Both actions are legitimate demonstrations that he has the same goals for the relationship as you do. So, it still means you must know where you are going, and why.  In other words, what part of your Divinity do you choose to express, staying or going?

    If, dear one, you would like to know more about what Conversations With God has to say about relationships, I would suggest you go to Book 1, Chapter 8. Just a snippet:

         You have no obligation in relationship, You have only opportunity.

         Opportunity, not obligation, is the cornerstone of religion, the basis of all spirituality. So long as you see it the other way around you will have missed the point.

         Relationship – your relationship to all things – was created as your perfect tool in the work of the soul. That is why relationships are sacred ground. It is why every personal relationship is holy. Never do anything in a relationship out of a sense of obligation. Do whatever you do out of a sense of the glorious opportunity your relationship affords you to decide, and to be, Who You Really Are….. long-term relationships do hold remarkable opportunities for mutual growth, mutual expression, and mutual fulfillment – and that has its own reward.

     Therese

    (Therese Wilson is the administrator of the global website at www.ChangingChange.net, which offers spiritual assistance from a team of Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less, and offering insight, suggestions, and companionship during moments of unbidden, unexpected, unwelcome change on the journey of life.  She may be contacted at Therese@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.)

     

  • Gay Teens Don’t Need Rehabilitation

    This past Monday, a dramatic step forward has been taken by the legislatures in California. As announced in the October 1, 2012, article of The Oakland Press, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB1172 into law, which officially banned a controversial therapy technique aimed at converting gay teenagers into straight individuals. As conversion therapy has been seen to mentally and emotionally destructive to teens, the new law prohibits all minors in the state of California from being exposed to future sexual orientation change efforts.

    What California has done speaks far louder than the Governor’s voice. California has showed us that teens don’t need to be “cured” of their displays of self-expression. In at least one part of our society, there IS an understanding that people can and should freely be themselves, without guilt or fear of being forced to change. There IS an acceptance of Who We Are, and there IS the freedom that allows us to demonstrate it. Instead of seeing gay teenagers as a “black sheep” to society, they are being recognized as human beings with a mind and a soul. Who’s to say that it has to stop there?  

    With this new law, we as teenagers are beginning to understand that it’s OK to express Who We Really Are. We know this as truth, and finally, society is catching up to this as well. As high and mighty organizations such as the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, the California Association of Marriage and Therapists, and the California Psychological Association have recognized the negative effects of forcing us to be someone besides our highest self, the laws of the land are changing and transforming into a more open environment.

    No matter if it is expression of sexual orientation, divine beliefs, or political policies, we as teens have more freedom and more ways to express ourselves than ever. We don’t need to be remedied of any single aspect of our highest selves. If you have ever felt the fear of simply “being yourself”, know that you have the freedom to be confident and be recognized for the joy of Who You Choose to Be. As our teenage years, and all of our years, are for the purpose of redefining Who We Are in the next grandest vision of the greatest version of ourselves, love to live your expression of the highest self.  

    (Lauren Rourk may be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • DEBATE WINNER DECLARED!

    A clear cut winner in the first Presidential Debate has been declared. It was neither Republican Mitt Romney nor Democrat Barack Obama.

    It was the American people.

    For the first time in 18 months of back-and-forth statements and claims, both candidates for the highest public office in the United States appeared on the same platform to explain directly to the American people their proposals and ideas for how they would run the country should they be the country’s president in 2013.

    The nation has waited for a very long time to hear from these gentlemen on topics ranging from taxes to the role of government, from health care to the U.S. economy. And while the format of two minutes to respond to complex questions continues to leave much to be desired (people have been complaining about such an abbreviated format election after election), moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS gave both candidates as much leeway as the rules would allow to state their case and make their point.

    People—especially those who call themselves “undecided”—thus had a real opportunity to hear more of what Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney had to say in direct interface with each other on the major points of domestic policy than they ever had before. They could “feel into” these leaders and get a real sense of who they believe is best qualified to lead their nation in the years just ahead.

    The wonder of the debate is that it could happen at all. The New Spirituality as articulated in the Conversations with God series of books says that the political process is a nation’s spirituality demonstrated. If this is true, and if the word “spirituality” can be understood to mean a person’s and a nation’s highest core values, then the United States has again demonstrated that its highest core value is in harmony with the highest value of The New Spirituality…which is freedom.

    High school political science students know that in still too many countries around the world such a level of freedom—the ability of a nation to present to its people opposing candidates for the country’s highest office and to let the people decide who they wish to elect—is unheard of. Yet if a nation’s people cannot select their leaders, how can the values they hold closest to them ever be reflected in their nation’s politics and policies?

    Now there are those who will say that the American political system is distorted, warped, and subject to every kind of abuse. And there seems little question that it is, for sure, in need of major reform, particularly as it relates to money flow, a badly outdated electoral college process which continues to be used to determine the winner of the most important election every four years, an organizing structure which continues to stubbornly be limited largely to a two-party system, etc. Still, and with these badly needed reforms notwithstanding, we saw in the debates something that would be completely out of the question in places such as Syria, where people feel they must take up arms in the street in order to participate at any level in the political process.

    Whatever the challenges, limitations, distortions and abuses of the system, at the end of the day people in the U.S.—and now, thankfully, more and more nations around the world—are able to declare with their votes the leader of their choice. The system is not perfect (indeed, it is far from it), but it is closer than any other process so far devised to empowering the highest spiritual values of a nation.

    If you have a Top of the Page Story that you would like to submit, send it to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com
    Stories in this space seek to relate an event in the news of the day to The New Spirituality.
    Not all material submitted is accepted for publication, but we appreciate each submission.

     

  • France proposes banning words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ as part of gay marriage legalization

    Thank you, France, for demonstrating that, YES, our world IS evolving and moving towards a more loving and accepting society, breaking through the intolerant barriers of an Old Cultural Story which dictates in what form love is to be experienced and expressed and moving into a New Cultural Story where couples of all genders are free to experience and enjoy the rights and privileges afforded to ALL loving relationships.

    According to a recent article in The Telegraph, “France is set to ban the words “mother” and “father” from all official documents under new plans to legalize gay marriage,” giving equal adoption rights to homosexual and heterosexual couples.

    Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told France’s Catholic newspaper, La Croix, “Who is to say that a heterosexual couple will bring up a child better than a homosexual couple, that they will guarantee the best conditions for the child’s development?”

    As expected, this proposed law is being met with vehement resistance by members of the Catholic Church.  “Gay marriage would herald a complete breakdown in society,” Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the head of the French Catholic Church, told Christian’s RFC radio last week.  He is further quoted as saying, “This could have innumerable consequences. Afterward they will want to create couples with three or four members. And after that, perhaps one day the taboo of incest will fall.”

    Wow, is the suggestion really being made that the legalized union of two loving same-sex mutually consenting adults is one step shy of a parent engaging in sexual relations with their own child or brother or aunt?    And perhaps I’m confused, but isn’t it heterosexuals who have been historically, and still are even to this day, entering into multiple-partner relationships?  What does THAT type of irrational conjecture have to do with a same-sex partnership being afforded the opportunity to be a legally and socially recognized union?

    And just WHEN and HOW did God’s glorious gift of sex become a tool to be used to judge, control, manipulate, bring shame upon, and condemn?  Do we honestly imagine a God who created the possibility of deeply felt love to exist between two souls – whether that is a man and a man, a woman and a man, or a woman and a woman – only to then be judged and punished for simply being who they are?  What is it that we are actually afraid of here? 

    I applaud this bold step forward the country of France is proposing, a step that embraces the forward movement of The New Spirituality and celebrates everyone’s ability to enter freely and fully into a legally recognized union that supports at an equal level the depth of their love and the holy union of their souls.

     

  • Witnessing child abuse in a movie theatre

    On Friday, Sept. 21, I decided to go see End of Watch because I had read great reviews and I don’t feel I can honestly discuss violent films if I never see any.

    It was a 2 p.m. show and very few people were in the theater. Right before the film started, I was stunned to see a young mother bring a very small boy into the theater. He could not have been more than four or five years old.

    The film is rated “R” and all of the advertising for the film makes it very clear that the film is exceedingly violent and profane. Nevertheless, here is this little boy in this giant theater with digital sound being forced to watch intense violence and profanity from the very first frame of the film.

    After about ten minutes, during which there were numerous violent acts and F-bombs every other word on screen, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Not the film. The situation with the child.

    There was no way I could sit in that theater and watch the violence on screen, knowing this little boy was being, in my opinion, emotionally and mentally abused by his either clueless or narcissistic mother.

    So I got up and went to where the mother was sitting. I told her that such a small child should not be subjected to that kind of violence and profanity and that she should get him out of the theater. She just looked at me with a blank stare and turned away.

    And I walked out.

    Standing in the lobby, I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try to do something more. Anything.

    So I called the Child Protective Services hotline here in Portland on my cell phone.

    When I explained the situation, a very compassionate woman commiserated with me and said “Look, you’re right. No responsible parent would take a little child into a film like that, but, legally, there’s nothing we can do. I suggest you talk to the theater manager and let him know how upsetting this was to you. And thank you for caring enough to call.”

    I then sought out the theater manager, who was also very compassionate. He told me that he had a two-year-old son and could completely empathize with how I was feeling; however, he, too, was powerless to act unless the woman caused a disturbance.
    Of course, I understood. Legally, he was handcuffed, as was the lady at Child Protective Services. As was I. (Personally, I’m a huge fan of the Regal Cinema chain and their fantastic “Go Big or Go Home” campaign to encourage people to see films in theaters.)

    I exited the theater and noticed a news van right out front from KGW, Channel 8, the NBC affiliate here in Portland. I called my wife Lauren to relay what had happened and, without me even telling her about the news van, she immediately said I should call our friend Sally Ramirez, who is the Assistant News Director at that very station. So I called Sally and explained the situation. She then called her reporter in the van (which was there to cover first-day sales of the new i-Phone) and, within a few minutes, I was doing a news interview about what had happened.

    And, a few days later, KGW aired both that interview and an extensive news story on the subject matter.

    Going forward, here are my thoughts:

    I do not believe in censorship. I’ve produced “R” rated movies myself.  I just don’t think that little children should be forced by their parents to experience the kind of violence and/or profanity and/or explicit sexuality in “R” rated films.

    Just because we can do something (like take a child to a film like that) doesn’t mean that we should.

    I would love to see more people get involved, so parents don’t subject their little children to a kind of violence/profanity/sexuality that they have no way of being able to process in a healthy way. If you see this kind of thing, and you don’t feel comfortable talking to the parent, talk to the theater manager. Maybe even tell him/her that you don’t want to sit in an “R” rated film with little children. And maybe even ask for a refund. If enough of us do that, the theater chains will definitely pay attention.

    I would hope that theaters would instruct their ticket sellers to at least caution a parent who is about to buy a ticket for an “R” rated movie for a small child. “Hey, there’s a lot of violence and profanity in this film. Are you sure you want to take your child in?” Just that could prevent some parents from proceeding. In fact, I’m told that some theater managers do, indeed, instruct their ticket sellers to do just that—to which I say, “Way to go!”

    I would love to see the “R” rating mean that no one under 12 or 13 can be admitted to that movie, even with an adult.

    What now?

    What can or should we do in situations like that?

    Was I out of line for confronting the mother?

    Was it none of my business?

    Should I have just shut up?

    What, if anything, do you suggest we do about little kids and “R” rated films?

    Please let me know what you think, and if this commentary resonates with you, please put this link on your Facebook and Twitter pages, and distribute it to your friends and whomever else you think should see it so we can get a national dialogue started.

    Children are so vulnerable and impressionable. They need and deserve our help.

    (Stephen Simon produced such films as Somewhere in Time (Christopher Reeve), What Dreams May Come (Robin Williams) and All The Right Moves (Tom Cruise). He produced and directed both Indigo and Conversations with God and co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle. He is also the author of The Force is With You and Bringing Back The Old Hollywood. He blogs regularly at his website, at www.TheOldHollywood.com)

    If you have a Guest Column that you would like to submit, send it to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com
    Not all material submitted is accepted for publication, but we appreciate each submission.

  • Losing hope of ever finding peace

    I’m 53 and I’m losing hope of ever finding peace in my life. It seems it has been nothing but a string of challenges, defeats, and losses since I was 25. After more than a quarter century of this, I am done. I don’t understand why my life has been life this. What have I done wrong? I try to follow all of the “teachings” (affirmations, medication, visualization, etc.), but it seems to get me nowhere. I need help, and a reason to even bother trying. — LJ, Denver, Colorado

    Dear L.J….There is likely nothing I can say that will make all of these feelings go away over night, but I am going to suggest a starting point that worked for me…change your way of viewing the events of your life.  They are, as much as they may seem to the contrary, not defeats and losses!

    Might there be another you could view these “challenges”?  Perhaps as “opportunities”?  Perhaps as things to be grateful for?  I get, L.J., that the last thing one usually feels in the middle of the drama of life is grateful, but taking a moment to see if there is some way any situation could be looked at through the eyes of gratitude does a couple of things for me…it makes me stop, in the moment, and stop participating in the drama, and it gives me the opportunity (there’s that word!) to decide how I feel about what is going on.  Not what other people think about it, not what I am told I should think about it, but how I think about the event.  Usually I become a little more clear about who I wish to be from that point forward.

    There is no formula, L.J, no “teaching” that will be the magic bullet, until you trust what you already know…that you have done nothing wrong.  I believe, as CWG states, that there are no mistakes, darling one.  No right or wrong.  Only what works and what doesn’t work.  Knowing what hasn’t worked in our lives is the only way to know what does…the light and dark, yin/yang of things you know.  When you know better, you do better.  “Knowing better” isn’t a solo journey of the mind, it must be accompanied on the path with body and soul.

    So, I would ask you to look at your life through the lens of what did work.  You are obviously on a spiritual path or you would not be in this space today.  Is it possible that you would not be on this journey if you hadn’t experienced your life just as it unfolded?  Can you now consider that you might be able to change your mind about things going forward?  I hope so, because it has been my experience that when I see the joy in the past, and I am grateful for all that is my now…my future unfolds in astonishing ways!  Even in the middle of what others might see as horrible, I am calm, and, yes, happy with exactly where I am.  (Well, I can’t lie!  I am usually calm, etc.!  Believe me, I do still have my moments, but they are far fewer.)

    If, L.J., you would like to have more of a discussion about this, with more people than just me, see the information below.

    Therese

    (Therese Wilson is the administrator of the global website at www.ChangingChange.net, which offers spiritual assistance from a team of Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less, and offering insight, suggestions, and companionship during moments of unbidden, unexpected, unwelcome change on the journey of life.  She may be contacted at Therese@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.)

     

  • There’s nothing you have to do

    Question to Neale: Conversations with God says, “There’s nothing you have to do.” What does this mean? If this is telling us what I think it is, why bother working for a better world? Why bother even being a “nice person”? And if, as you say in What God Wants, the truth is that God wants nothing at all, why not just break all the rules, live a completely hedonistic life, and let the devil take the hindmost? This whole message leaves me frustrated. – AG, Minneapolis, Minn.

    Dear AG: You ask a good question. Yet the statement, “There’s nothing you have to do” should bring you the greatest joy, and not a moment of frustration, because it is God’s greatest gift: Freedom. The statement does not mean there is nothing you will do in your life, it means that there nothing you have to do. In other words, nothing that you are required to do.

    God does not require us to do certain things, or to avoid doing certain things, in order to “get into heaven.” That notion reflects an elementary (perhaps even a primitive) understanding of God and Life.

    The God of Ultimate Reality requires, commands, and demands nothing. Why would God, when God is and has everything? What God desires is simply to experience Godself in all its glory. So God created Physical Life as an out-picturing, or expression, of Itself, giving Itself total Free Will to manifest Itself in any way that any of its countless aspects might choose to, using a simple formula: the higher and grander the choice, the higher and grander the experience.

    The opportunity, then, that is placed before Human Beings (who are one out-picturing of God) is to express ourselves in each golden moment of Now in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever we held about Who We Are. The greater our vision, the grander our possibilities, to which there no limits.

    Thus, the only reason to do or not do anything is not to “please God” or to avoid “displeasing God,” but rather, to express God and to experience God in the next grandest way possible, given the level of Consciousness of each manifestation of Divine Energy that exists in the Physical Realm.

    The answer to the question, “Why bother?” is, therefore: We do, or not do, a thing in order to express and experience, and thus to know and fulfill, Who We Choose to Be.

    Or, as CWG says; “Every act is an act of Self-Definition.”

    Put simply, humanity is in the process of re-creating itself in every moment. Anthropologists might call this process “evolution.” It is the process by which all living things evolve. The reason for doing any particular thing, then, is to evolve—and to demonstrate and experience the level to which one has evolved.

    We can help each other in this process. Indeed, that is what all Great Teachers have done from the beginning of time.

    And now, we are coming to see that we are all  “teachers,” in that humans have developed the technology for everyone now to see each other fully, openly, transparently. By using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and, for that matter, the Internet as a whole—including this Internet Newspaper, The Global Conversation—we place ourselves (perhaps unwittingly) in the space of Teacher. That is, we are teaching others whether we know it or not.

    Other people are watching us. How are we living our lives? How we are using these technologies? Are we using Facebook, Twitter, etc., to tell each other what we had for breakfast, and how frustrated we are that we missed our hairdressing appointment? Or are we using these technologies to share with each other what we have learned and what we have chosen to demonstrate regarding what it means to live our lives as human expressions of the Divine?

    What are you using your life for? And how would you choose to behave and experience your humanity if you felt that you didn’t have to do anything in particular to pass God’s “judgment”? Now that is true freedom. And that is what is meant by on Earth, as it is in Heaven.

    Can we create heaven on earth right now? Yes. Are we doing so? No. We are creating a hell on earth. And that, quite remarkably, is our own collective decision.

    It doesn’t have to be this way. You can choose differently, right now, this day, in your life. And if everyone did this, we could and would change the world.

    May God’s blessings flow to you, and through to, to everyone whose life you  touch, both now and even forevermore.

    — Neale Donald Walsch