Label Yourself

How do you label yourself? Democrat, vegetarian, lawyer, fat, Catholic, older, student, intelligent, American, mother, etc? May I suggest instead --- God, One with God, Christ, son of God, daughter of God.

Saying You Are Sorry

It is important to say you are sorry, both for yourself and the person you are apologizing to. When you say you are sorry and it is heartfelt, you affirm that which is Real in you for you and the other person. You advance yourself on the path to God, because you acknowledge that you would do it a different way the next time, that the words or the act maybe came from a place of anger or bitterness or resentment or hurt and not from who you want to be and who you are. It takes humility, courage, and the willingness to be vulnerable to admit that to yourself and the other person, and when you are willing to do that, He is working through you.

Crux of the Issue

Here is the crux of the issue. God is either separate from you or not. There can be no partiality. You are One with Him and He is present and expressing through you without exception, or He is separate from you, maybe loving you and bestowing His goodness and favors on you when you turn to Him or act "good." There cannot be a scenario where sometimes you are One with Him and you move and have your Being in Him and sometimes you don't. But this is what the vast majority of people believe to be the case. God is One. What are the implications of this totality, this non partiality, this non randomness, for YOU?

Compassion

Compassion means seeing yourself in someone else's shoes. Compassion is the foundation of Love. As Love, we go further than seeing ourselves in their shoes. We see them as ourselves, as God.

Separation from God

It is not your actions or your thoughts or your experiences which make you believe you are separate from God. It is your self judgment and guilt around these things which creates the belief in separation. Someone might say that they could then murder or rape someone as long as they don't have self judgment or guilt. But if you had no self judgment or guilt, you would fully know your Oneness, and you would never come from actions or a view that was not Love. You would never hurt someone else as you realize that you would be doing this to yourself. When "evil" is committed, it is done by an individual who has tremendous self judgment, and they believe at some level that they are taking their anger and self judgment and "getting rid of it" by this act. This is false, as you cannot project away anything, for we are not separate, we are One. As God shared Himself to create us, we can only share --- we cannot project it on to a person or group to get rid of it. After the "evil" is committed, the perpetrator has tremendous guilt, even though it may be well hidden from their conscious mind, and this is the case with self judgment.

Letting Go of Anger

You can't truly forgive until you have recognized and released your anger. This does not have to be done to the face of the person you have the issue of forgiveness around. It would be best to not express yourself by blasting someone, as this only adds to the original issue. We do not have to release it to their face, because this is for you, not for them. Plus, we are not separate, we are One. Even if they are not physically present, and even if they are no longer on this earth, you can release the anger when you are by yourself.

Forgive Them Father ...

"Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." What does this statement that Jesus made on the cross tell us? It may appear that Jesus was imploring God to forgive the crucifiers, but God is Love, and Love looks past. Forgiveness was automatic. And Jesus had no need to "voice" something when his communion with God was wordless. That statement was said so that it would be recorded and we could learn from it. "For they know not what they do." All of the evil in this world is create by individuals who have an unknowing or ignorance of their Oneness with Him. What this tells us is that the words and actions of someone must be seen as separate from the true essence of who they are.

How You See Yourself

The world we see is a reflection of how we feel about ourselves. It is a composite of each of our individual self judgments. That is why the world's appearance is such a mess. Many people believe they have sinned against God, and it is this harsh self judgment which collectively gives the appearance of evil, hatred, chaos, greed, and all that is NOT God. Each of us has personal responsibility in this, because we are One. To change the appearance, change yourself, or rather change how you see yourself. When you know that you are His holy Son or Daughter, that you are One with Him, like Him in all respects, then the angels and all of Heaven will sing your praises. For you have become a vessel of Light through which He can bring His Light to others. When enough have done this, this world will truly reflect Heaven on earth. For His Kingdom has always been here --- it just needs to be revealed through your Light, His Light (one and the same).

The Hard Times

In everything and everyone we encounter, without interruption, God gives us signals which show us what we need to do to move closer to Him. This encompasses what we need to do in the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual areas. There are times when we go through difficult periods but we are able to see the ups and downs from a larger perspective of our full journey, and we know that the difficult period that we are in is temporary. As we learn to be aware of the signs He gives us and we follow these with joy, even if we don't understand them, our life moves with great ease, the difficult periods become fewer, and the most amazing doors open to us. However, when we are in a difficult period and unable to see this hard period from the larger perspective, we may have ignored and resisted the signs and paths He has presented to us. If we have resisted them, the signs become stronger --- He does not want us to go through a personal disaster for us to hear Him, but for some people this becomes the only way He can get their attention. It is never too late. We can always move on the path that He has illumined, although it may initially seem like a bad or scary choice, especially if you have been resisting everything up to that point. He will always provide the answers and the help. Life is meant to be easy and joyful --- we are the ones that make it difficult.

Make Your Heart Sing

Do only that which makes your heart sing, because when you stay centered in this, you are centered in Him. If there is a practice, ritual, or prayer which was making your heart sing but has become rote, drop it. We cannot become attached to any practice or specific prayer, even if it is one that "appears" to take you toward Him. Because ultimately all of these vehicles which take you toward Him are still things of this world, and what is of this world will pass away. When something has become rote, this is to be celebrated, because you have moved to the next level of recognition of your Oneness with Him, and He will bring you the next thing that will make your heart sing, increasing your joy to an even higher level.

What Profiteth a Man ...

What profiteth a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Where do you make compromises? Do you visit websites which are not good for you? Do you maintain your prayer and meditation time but eat foods which you know pollute the vessel that is His temple? Do you tell just a few little white lies, or do you think it is okay if the cashier makes a mistake and gives you an extra five dollars back? Do you remain silent when someone's reputation is being trashed? What profiteth a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? This is not meant for you to condemn yourself. Everyone is being presented this right now, for our time is short. You have to make a choice as to what you want, and if it is Heaven, you need to bring awareness to those times you are not meeting the standard that you know is required. The time for exceptions is over.

Truth

As we grow in our journey of remembrance back to God, our perspective and understanding expands. We move closer to what Truth is, not what we "think" Truth is. Remember, Truth is self evident. If it can be debated, that is not Truth --- that is people's perception of Truth. If we have our face right next to a tree, we think the bark is Truth, but everything changes when we take a few steps back, and it really changes when we are in the sky looking at the whole forest (this is not Truth either, but it is closer to it). Never assume you know or have Truth, because there is always a higher perspective to go to. We have Truth, and we are Truth, but we live in a world of illusion and duality that gives the appearance we are separate and not One with Him. As long as you walk this earth, in this dream, you cannot know the totality of your Being, the ultimate Truth of who you are. He is infinite --- there is always another level of deepening into the Oneness with Him. Recognizing that we do not have ultimate Truth leads us to humility, and ironically, this humility is the opening which allows God to get in and show us a higher perspective.

Our Belief System

You have to have the eyes to see and the ears to hear --- God's eyes and ears. Each of us has a belief system which distorts this. What we "see" and "hear" is altered or shaped by the prism of our belief system. If we step back from that belief system, then we can begin to truly see what is there. Humility is borne from the knowing that we cannot understand many things --- we have stepped back from our belief system. Humility then provides the opening for God to reveal Himself to us.

Real Forgiveness

You can't forgive when you are angry, can you? Well, you can't truly forgive. Forgiveness is not stuffing down the anger, the "proper" thing to do, so that you can be "generous" and "bestow" forgiveness to the other person. Neither person benefits from this false forgiveness. Forgiveness means to truly look past it, to truly be done with it. It releases both people. If you have anger over what happened, which is highly likely, the anger must be recognized, expressed (doesn't have to be to the face of the other person), and released. Then the God space within you opens up for true forgiveness. This is how you truly help yourself and the other person.

Truth Within The Bible

When you read something, you interpret what you read through the filter of your belief system. Your belief system is created by your unique set of experiences, thus everyone has a different belief system and interprets what they read in a different way. Similarly, when you write something, you are writing from this unique belief system. Even if you are restating someone's words or rehashing a story, you might change the tone or accentuate something --- it comes through the filter that is unique to you. The Bible has great seeds of Truth, but you have to take the words and the stories into your Being and your communion with God to understand the meaning. Remember that the Bible was translated from Aramaic to Greek and then to English and was edited by a council of men (and their egos) 300 years after the death of Christ. You are holy, for you are One with Him, and you have all of the answers and the meanings inside of you when you turn to Him. There is no intermediary person you have to go through to reach Him or to understand the truth of who you are.

Quickest way To God

The quickest way to God --- release all self judgment. The first step in this process is to become aware of your self judgment. For most this self judgment runs underneath the surface like a computer virus. You have "hidden" these thoughts, because you believe that they would literally kill you if they were revealed, to yourself, and to God. For you think that you have hidden knowledge of your "sins" from God by hiding them from your conscious mind. This is a very tangled web of illusion most people are operating under, but the Light of awareness dissolves these tangled webs immediately. If we allow ourselves to become aware of our constantly running program of self judgment, this awareness will begin to see it for what it is --- not of God and false. How do we start this? Realize that your judgment of others, individuals or groups, is always a projection of your self judgment. Pull that projection back in, feel the self judgment, and give it to Him. For when we give it to Him, we acknowledge that we don't want it any more, that it no longer serves a purpose for us, and that it is not who we are as His holy Son or Daughter.