Listen

It's not true that God speaks only to a chosen few. Only a few choose to listen.

Sweetness

Don't seek to enjoy life, but to experience it.  There is wisdom in bitter fruit, and sweetness in wisdom.

Understanding Oneness

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The Teacher said,


In order to understand Oneness, you must learn a new way of visualizing yourself in relation to God.  You say to yourself, "How can I be one with God?  God is infinite and I am limited; God is everywhere and I am only here." You can accept yourself as a part of God; yet God as the infinite unbounded Oneness has no parts.  In God there is no great or small, no here nor there; for those are dualistic concepts that cannot describe attributes of Oneness. Indeed Oneness has no attributes, because attributes exist only for purposes of comparing one thing with another.  All That Is comprehends all attributes and therefore has none.


What is here is everywhere.  You draw a circle around yourself and say, "The part of the Universe that is within this circle is me; the rest is not me," even though God is both inside and outside. With this limited image of yourself, it is no wonder that you cannot understand Oneness.


It can be shown mathematically that every point outside a circle corresponds to a unique point inside the circle.  This means that there is just as much infinity within the circle as without.  But you say, "I can easily measure the distance across my little circle -- I can never measure the distance to infinity outside it." This is purely because of the limitations on your own artificial conceptions of distance and time.  It is quite easy to define time and distance in such a way that the distance from any point outside the circle to its perimeter is equal to the distance from the perimeter to the corresponding point on the inside.  Then the depth of the Universe within equals the infinite breadth without.  You can no more plumb the depths within you by limited ego-based thinking than you can travel to the end of the outside Universe.  The journey would be endless in either direction. 


Only by abandoning time and distance altogether can you realize Oneness.  If every point outside your little circle equals a point on the inside, then it is only a matter of perspective whether what you consider to be "yourself" is on the inside or the outside. Try to visualize yourself being the outside rather than the inside; your own being extending without limit in all directions.  Then expand yourself even more to include the infinity within the circle.  Now the circle that is the limitation that your ego placed on your being can be seen as artificial and unnecessary, and dissolves back into nothingness.  What remains is you, and also is God, and All That Is.  This is Oneness.   

Love or Attachment?

It's easy to mindfully distinguish love from attachment.  Love unselfishly desires the happiness of others.  Attachment desires the attention of others to gratify one's own perceived needs.  Ego is not capable of love, but ego is all about attachment.  Spirit knows that it is Love and, being aware of its Oneness with All That Is, understands the futility of attachment. When you allow yourself to be controlled by ego, you find yourself grasping at objects of desire whether they are people, things, or ideas. The more of your consciousness that you devote to Spirit, the more you will manifest unconditional Love. The two forms of consciousness cannot exist simultaneously, though sometimes we vacillate so rapidly between Love and attachment that we find it difficult to distinguish between them, and even believe that they are two names for the same thing.  We can escape this confusion by being aware of their very different consequences.  Attachment is associated with anxiety, fear, jealousy, and discomfort; Love is associated with calmness, confidence, generosity and bliss.  To focus on Love is to dwell in Spirit and, therefore, in harmony with All That Is. 

Ego and the News

Contemporary spiritual teachers advise against paying too much attention to the news media because they appeal pruriently to the ego, which is obsessed with self-preservation yet drawn paradoxically to the adrenaline rush of danger.  Maybe the co-existence of those two factors explains the popularity of horror and violence in entertainment media -- we are able to feel the physical/emotional reaction without being in any real danger.  The simulation of imminent danger also promotes ego's agenda to focus consciousness on personal survival rather than on Oneness. I wouldn't discount either the grotesque satisfaction ego draws from the experience of remaining safe while watching others endure hideous suffering.

You Will Call, I Will Answer

Harvard Law professor William Stuntz discusses his impending death. He describes his feelings about issues that most of us are not forced to confront on a daily basis. His thoughts deserve a place in your consciousness.


You Will Call, I Will Answer

Surrender

Surrendering the belief in good and evil means it is no longer necessary to look for the good in evil people or circumstances. Surrendering personal will means abandoning the need to impose your own conceptions of good and evil on your surroundings. Acceptance of the Universe as it is allows you to surrender to the Spirit within and let God's will manifest through you; and ultimately to dissolve that ego-imposed sense of separation that denies you access to Oneness with All that Is.‏