Updated 06-02-10

The Book of

S niversal Spirit niversal Self US

An Eternal Brain Cell in the Infinite Mind of God Eternally Self-Aware of Itself Being Aware. This is Who We Are, Forever Shall Be, You and Me - For Eternity.

Communicated Through

AM

AMSWAY
So many religions. So many books. So many gurus. So little time. AMSWAY is Simple - Two Beliefs Plenty of Time

1. The Omnipresence of God

A God that is Present Everywhere At All Times Absent Nowhere at Anytime

AND

2. Our Awareness of Being Aware Eternally.

What we consider to be our soul is eternal and we, as spirits never die. Only our Human Body and our Human Self-Identity Dies The Real Us Never Dies

If You Accept These Two Beliefs,

2

and are ready to take Full Responsibility for what they mean, Then Come on in - Let Us Communicate.

AMSWAY INDEX Title

AMSWAY INDEX Updated 01-18-10 Introduction to AM and AMSWAY How I Came To Be Called AM If He Loved Me Why Did He Leave Me? The Two Propositions that AMSWAY rests upon Seven Beliefs of AMSWAY The Most Important Commandment Omnipresence of God Simplified The Name of God Angels of God Change The Engine of Life The Garden of Eden Give To Receive The Word Made Flesh A Viewing Point Gods Body The Three Thousand Eyes of Universal Self The Face of God Only One Person in the Room I Am No More the Face

Page

Missive

3 7 9 12 17 19 23 25 27 34 36 39 42 44 45 48 50 51 52

After Your Body Dies - Then What? Where Do I Begin My Spiritual Journey The Christ Cannot Be Born In You The Four Steps to Your Atonement Why We Are On Earth Growing Through the Eggshell of Our Consciousness Be - Do - Have Commitment God Desires the Conviction of Your Heart The Secret of Alchemy Changing Lead into gold Each Religion is A WAY Lucifer (The Light Bringer) Updated 12-15-09 Thinking and the Thought Train Updated 12-15-09 Just One More Time Letting Go The Dance of Relationship Eating and Drinking the Body of God The Gutter of Life One Choice in Life Two Options Obstacles Can Be your Best Friends Fear is a Friend We Call an Enemy Every Hero Has a Choice

54 62 64 67 72 76 79 85 86 87 92 95 99 102 106 110 114 115 116 122 126 129

Action-Waiting, Living the Process of Eternal Life Taking The Universe as Your Lover Affirmations of Inspiration Appreciation = Happiness Appreciation and the Fulfillment of your Life Journey Non-Appreciation + Greed = Bitterness Death is Part of Life Bad Things Do Not Happen to Good People Miracles Destiny Eternity - The Present Moment Truth IS - IT IS Truth is Both Absolute and Relative at the Same Time The Idolatry of the Special Day The Idolatry of the Holy Place The Idolatry of the Symbol, the Graven Image The Difficulty Explaining Truth Single Thoughts to Think About Health / Diet in Harmony with Omnipresence AMs First Forty-Day Fasting Journal A Letter on Fasting to a Seeker The Natural Human Diet

130 132 135 138 140 143 146 162 176 178 184 186 187 187 189 12 196 199

216 247 257

"THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF EATING" BY MILTON R. MILLS, M.D.

Gifts To AMSWAY Definitions Copyright and Disclaimer

272

273

Introduction To AM And AMSWAY

Many years ago the Universal Spirit told me the world would someday, within my present Earth lifetime, get to a point where fear of world calamity would prepare spirit-humans for a new way of seeing our relationship with God and the Universe. I was told that spirit-humans needed a few more years to get to a time where the pain and suffering of continuing in their daily habits, perceiving and acting in habitual ways, where the pain of doing the same things in the same way, thinking the same things in the same way would be worse than the pain of changing. The Universal Spirit told me that that time would be one of great fears. A time of great uncertainties. A time when there seems to be no way out of the situation spirit-humans have gotten themselves in - by their unspiritual thinking - by their unspiritual actions. That time is upon us. A period of great skepticism, corruption and violence has arrived. Most of the painful lessons that have moved us to change our wrongful ways of thinking and living have not been new lessons. It is at this point in most of our lives that we finally do what we knew for many years that we really should be doing. God is to be found in all circumstances and all situations. For years we were being gently instructed by the Universal Spirit reminding us of how we should do and think differently. However, once we learn what there is for us to learn in any experience - it is time for us to move onward into more spiritual harmony with the Universe and all that we perceive. If we do not change our ways of thinking and perceiving after the many gentle reminders, then the Universal Spirit will, if necessary, stomp on our head, shake us by the shoulders and with a firm and strong voice say to us, "What do I have to do to get you to do what you know you should do? Well, it is time. Even with all of our abilities to control the events around us - we are, as a species, moving closer and closer to what has been, for many years, called Armageddon - a whirlwind of pain and suffering as intense as in any movie we have ever produced. How far we go in living the movie of Armageddon is up to us. The word Armageddon is actually from the Greek meaning "to reveal" or a "revelation". God will be revealed. Do you want a gentle "revelation" or a painful "revelation" of the Truth of the Universal

Spirit? Our thoughts and actions will pre-destine our future - either in heaven or hell. If you want a cherry tree, you do not plant lemon seeds. Truly it is said, what you sow - you shall reap. Truth is simple. The difficulty living truth is in the mental and emotional baggage we bring to our application of truth. Living the truth takes dedication. Living the truth means being willing to die for truth. Living the truth does not mean that you must die for truth, just that you must be willing to die for it. Whatever reason or excuse you use to avoid living the truth becomes your Lucifer, your golden calf, your ticket to Armageddon. We are running out of excuses. We are running out of time because of the many reasons we use to put off what we know we should do. The only time we have to do anything is NOW. The NOW, the eternal ever-present moment, is the only time you have to put into practice the spiritual growth you claim to desire. You must do what you wish to do. You must Be what you wish to Be. Being is necessary to Become. To do what you wish to do, you must BE what you wish to be. Regardless of how small the step, how little you are doing what you wish to do, how little you are being what you wish to be each little step moves us closer to our conscious atonement or at-one-ment with the Universal Spirit. The Truth is simple. You must plant what you wish to receive. Be what you wish to be. The Universal Spirit stories and myths are expressions of great Truths. Each is a way to help up perceive our relationship with the Universe. At the core of the greatest myths lies the greatest truths or they could not be great myths. Every age has a myth for its place and time. A myth that uses the symbols, wears the clothes, and talks the talk of the age in which it finds expression. AMSWAY is a myth for our place. AMSWAY is a myth for our time. I am here to remind you of the Truth you already know. I am here to remind you of how important it is to live the Truth you already know. Before the big Educator of the Universe stomps on your head and with a mighty voice says "What do I have to do to get your attention!!!" BE THE TRUTH YOU ALREADY KNOW

HOW I CAME TO BE CALLED AM

I was born with the name of Jerry Wayne Goodenough. Later I was adopted and given the name of Arthur Mosley. When I was an actor, over thirty-five years ago, I used the name of Al Minetti. After a few years of using the name of Al Minetti, I had almost forgotten that my then current legal name was Arthur Mosley. I thought of myself as Al Minetti and had even built a history to go along with the name. Italians were the rage in the movies and I had built a history that gave me an Italian background and childhood. There is an old acting expression, "The actor can be so taken in by the character he or she is playing that he or she starts believing he or she is the character being performed". People in the acting profession seldom use their birth name so the IRS allowed us to have two names associated with one social security number. This was because our pay checks usually were made out in the name we were using professionally and not the name we were given at birth. I still have two social security cards with the same social security number. One says Arthur Mosley and the other one says Al Minetti. One day I was walking down the street in front of the Grand Central Terminal in New York City and all of a sudden I heard someone behind me say, "Arthur Mosley". I actually took a couple of additional steps before I realized the person was speaking to me. I turned around and it was someone from my home town in the Midwest whom I had not seen for at least ten years. Small world isn't it? I was shocked that it took me a minute to realize that he was speaking to me. After all, I was Al Minetti. Wasn't I? My first wife had died around that time and I decided I did not want to act anymore. I wanted to be as real as possible and acting was not a way I saw as helping me to be real. I decided I should start using the name of Arthur Mosley again. As I began to use the Arthur Mosley name again, I began to notice something fascinating. When someone would speak to me using the name Arthur Mosley, parts of me would respond and some other parts would not respond. When someone would use the name Al Minetti, other parts of me would respond and different parts of me would not respond. The fascinating part was that sometimes, parts of both the self-identity of Arthur Mosley and the self-Identity of Al Minetti would BOTH respond. Very

10

interesting how different parts of me would respond to each name and sometimes the same parts would respond to both names. I began to realize that even the name we use as a self-reference will have an influence on our personality and self-image. Al Minetti was an Italian lover. A suave and sexy Italian stud. Arthur Mosley was more intellectual and refined. Sort of the King Arthur type. Each name even had different ways of acting with other people and used different words in conversations. I began to feel fear. Fear that the name I would choose to use in the world would impact my personality and world-view even in ways I probably would not be aware. I would be conditioning my experience of life by the very name I called myself and the name others called me. The name they called me would influence the way they saw me and identified with me. It would influence how the rest of the world would even treat me. I asked God what name I should use going into the future. What name would be the best for my spiritual growth? After a couple of weeks, I had my answer. I was managing singers at the time and writing my own contracts. In the contracts, you signed your name in a couple of places but you signed your initials in ten, twenty and even more places. One day I was signing a contract and signing AM, AM, AM, AM, AM all through the contract. All of a sudden I realized that the initials, AM, were the same for both Arthur Mosley and Al Minetti. Sort of a synthesis of both identities. I had been using these initials for many years regardless of whether I referred to myself as Arthur Mosley or Al Minetti. I then looked up the definition of the word "am" in the dictionary. The dictionary said that "am was an English verb: Present tense, first person, singular form of the verb "be". "I am". What better to call myself but AM? One of the least limiting names I could have and one of the least limiting names to influence my self-identity. AND I did not even have to change my initials. All the contracts I had signed in the past would still have my current initials. I had asked God what I should call myself and the name was right in front of me. It seemed so right. Using the name AM definitely helped to integrate the Arthur and the Al of me. However, when I would go to speak with religious and spiritual groups, some found it difficult to call me AM because of the emotional and mental baggage they brought to identifying me with the name AM. They wanted to
11

call me Arthur, Al or even George - it was then easier for them to compartmentalize me in their minds and label me with an identity that they could live with. After all, the I AM is what they called God. Was I calling myself GOD? No, I was calling myself AM. We tend to want an identity that we can quantify and put into compartments. It is safer this way. A known identity is not a threat. We want to compartmentalize our self-identity and the identity we have of others. Everything in compartments and nobody is out of line. Safety and security in compartments. Am I Jerry, Arthur or Al? Am I some of them but not all of them? Am I all three or none of them? They are only labels that give me an idea of when other spirit-humans are referring or speaking to me. Therefore, just call me AM and let us be on our way.

12

If He Loved Me, Why Did He Leave Me?

When I was four years old I woke up and discovered my father had died during the night. No one could tell me the answer to one important question. If he loved me, why did he leave me? This was the only answer that had any meaning to me. Some told me that he went to Heaven. Someday I would see him again. To a four year old child, this had no meaning whatsoever. If he loved me, why did he leave me? I needed an answer. Some told me that God needed him. Well, how could God need him more than I needed him? Some said it was a mystery. In other words, they could not answer the only question that meant anything to a four year old child whose beloved father was gone and would not be coming back . I remember standing in my back yard, looking up at the universe and vowing to seek until I found the answers that no one could answer. The answers to, If he loved me, why did he leave me? What was this thing called life that I seemed to be living? I had to know and would pay any price to find out. Little did I know the prices that I would have to pay along my way. Within the next year after my father died, it was Christmas in Missouri. I was told that if I was a good boy and did not do bad things such as lie to my mother, Santa Claus would bring me nice presents. On Christmas Eve, I woke up and discovered it was after midnight. I wondered if Santa Claus had been at my house yet and left me any presents. It had been a year since my father died and I really needed some excitement. I very quietly peeked into the living room where the Christmas tree was. Lo and behold, I saw my mother and my aunt placing presents under the Christmas tree. Wow, my mother and my aunt were Santa Claus. All of a sudden I had a realization. My mother had lied to me. The only person I had left in the world that I felt I could unquestionably trust had lied to me. And not just once, but all year, every time she told me about Santa Claus. I realized then that even the most important person in the world to me
13

would lie to me thinking it was done through love for me and would bring me happiness. Now that my father was dead, the last thing I needed was the most important person left in the world to me to lie to me, even if it was meant in a loving way. I needed truth in my life. I lost my father. Truth was the only thing I had left to hang onto. These two experiences left me with these three lessons. One - Even if someone really, really loved me, this did not mean that they would not leave me. They might not have any choice in the decision to leave. They might not even know that they are going to leave, therefore they could let me know about it and at least have a chance to say goodbye. Two - The most important person in the world to me either could not tell me why my father left me if he loved me, or really did not know what death was about. Everybody eventually died, but there were a lot of different opinions of what death was or where we went after we died. There were so many different opinions. Everybody could not be right. To a four-year old child there were so many stories but none of them one of them answered the only question that mattered, If he loved me, why did he leave me, in a way that the four-year-old could understand between the tears of the pain of separation. How could I relate to a heaven after we die? How could I relate to reincarnation? How could I relate that even thought he would not tell me personally, that I would see him some day, after I die and go up in the sky? I was just beginning to live. How could I even begin to comprehend dying? There were so many stories. If everybody was right, then everybody was wrong. In other words, no one knew. They only thought they knew or hoped they knew. Three - Even the most important person in the world would lie to me and call it love. At the ripe old age of 5, I had already started walking my journey alone. Who could I trust to lead me in the way I should go? Years later, I woke up at the age of 21 and found my wife had died during the night. I finally accepted that I could never be like everybody else in the world. I could never be satisfied with what most of the world called
14

happiness, pleasure or fulfillment of earthly desires. I had lost my father and my pregnant wife, all by the ripe old age of 21. I needed to find answers that no one in the world seemed to have. Oh sure, there were a lot of different people, of different faiths, of different religions who said "they had found the way". But to me most of these people were hugging their faith because they did not want to really think about life and death. This was evident whenever I had conversations with them. They would stop having conversations with me if I brought up the subject of death in a way that it required staring death in the face. They wanted to have faith that a book, or a preacher, or a rabbi, or a mullah, or a guru, a scientist or a politician knew the way to peace, security and salvation. They wanted to believe that after they died, they would all have a family re-union in a place called heaven and live happily forever after. I traveled and studied religion after religion. I studied school of thought after school of thought. I looked around and it appeared to me that, other than mental comfort through mostly little-thinking faith, the only ones who really had the peace, security and salvation were the leaders of the religions or different schools of thought. Well, at least they had peace and security. They were supported by the body of believers in whatever faith they were preaching. Salvation was another story and not one of them could show me salvation unless I died for proof. Believe, believe, not what you see, but what we say. Most religious get-togethers were visited by desperate spirithumans feeling comfort socializing with other desperate spirit-humans. Desperate for some kind of answer that would comfort their fear of there being nothing after death, forever and ever. Even Jesus Christ is written to have said "all these things that I do, you can do also". Other than so-called healings by the faith-healers of different spiritual faiths, most of which can be explained by the power of the belief of the one who experienced the healing, no one is doing what Jesus said they could do - if they really believed. Most of the ones who were getting anything out of their faith were the ones who believed so much in their faith that they experienced a healing through the power of their belief - not through the power of any faith- healer. I believe some spirit-humans, through their intimacy with the Great Spirit, can effect a healing with another spirit-human. However, this usually only occurs when the person experiencing the healing is ready for the healing. If they are not ready for the healing, within a short time, they will be as sick as before the healing. They
15

will not change their thoughts and their way of living that contributed to the disease that was healed. Just like dieting, if you do not forever change your way of thinking and way of living, you will re-gain the weight and probably be heavier than before the diet. If there really was a healer like we think of when we think of a true spiritual healer, there would be hundreds of thousands of testimonies from people that were healed. Most leave the faith-healing gatherings and go home with the same illness or deformity they had before they went to the faith-healing gathering. Most who go to Lourdes for a healing leave in their wheelchairs, on their crutches or slumped over in sadness because whatever the healing they needed - wasn't delivered. Of course the VERY limited few that have some kind of healing are advertised by the religions that sponsor the healing gathering. They say, "See, we have the way. Just believe and be saved". Where are the true-believers that can walk on water? Where are the truebelievers that can heal the sick, raise the dead or calm the raging sea? What about preventing the suffering caused by Katrina by holding back the wind and sea from drowning little children and frail old persons? What about the suffering of the parent that just saw his or her child killed by a bomb sent by a believer of a different religion? For most of my earlier years, I was looking for someone like this to show me the way. Every time I thought I found an established way to look at living and eternal life, I was disappointed. Disappointed either in the people not practicing what they preached or disappointed the more I delved into the religion. I learned from all of them, but all of them were lacking the fullness of spirit I needed. It is interesting that whenever people have out-of-body experiences at the door of death, whatever spirit-people they see and communicate with is strongly influenced by what they believed, or fervently hoped, before the out-of-body experience. If they were Christian, they saw Jesus or someone from the Christian Bible. If they were Jewish, they saw Ezekiel or someone from the Torah. If they were Muslim, they saw Muhammad or someone from the Koran. If they are Scientologist, they probably see L. Ron Hubbard. They might see their dead loved ones, looking healthy and dressed in fine linens or bathed in holy light. They see whatever they can relate to in order for God to communicate what God wants to communicate to them at the time of their out-of-body experience. God will use whatever works to get God's message to the mind of the person needing the message.

16

I have been out of my body more than once. I was not near death when I had my out-of-body experiences. I was doing other things. Yes, we do live after our body is dead. Yes, we can see loved ones or special spiritual entities at times. We also may be out of our body and see no one. I was once out of my body and found myself flying through the galaxies and the cosmos enjoying the beautiful sights. However, God has other things for us to do rather than sit in Heaven, listen to harps and dine on holy grapes. There is an entire universe out there that needs our spiritual assistance. My body is over 60 and I now find myself playing the role of father to an 11-year-old spirit-boy. I have since found my answer to, If he loved me, why did he leave me. I would like to see and speak with the father I once had, but even if it never happens, I am eternally grateful that I had that great soul playing the role of my earthly-father for the four years I had him. I learned from his life with me and have learned from his separation from me. I was blessed with my earthly mother for 50 more years after my earthly father died. 36 hours after she died, she came to me in my bedroom and with a clear voice told me that she was wonderful, she felt no pain, I was right, she loved me..goodbye.. The Great Spirit has instructed me to use AMSWAY as a vehicle to communicate my way of viewing our relationship with the Infinite Intelligence we call God. To communicate what I have learned and what has helped me in my journey on this planet. Let us share the spiritual journey as much as we can. If we each learn just one thing from each other that helps us in our individual spiritual adventure - then we have given each other a priceless gift - a most holy gift. Please share with me your thoughts on my writings throughout AMSWAY. Who knows, you might just inspire me to write another missive that will be just what someone needs in their spiritual journey throughout eternity. That other spirit-person you help might just be me. The spirit called AM.

17

The Two Propositions of AMSWAY

A proposition is an idea or a concept which is offered for discussion. For AMSWAYs purposes, we must agree on two basic propositions in order for us to have any discussion of spirituality. I propose God is Omnipresent. I propose we spirit-humans are eternally aware of being aware. AMSWAY is based on these two propositions. I believe any discussion or thoughts on spiritual concepts must be grounded in and harmonize with these two propositions. Any thought or concept which cannot harmonize with these two propositions must be invalid, regardless of how attached we are to the thought or the concept. For example, Proposition number one. If we accept that God is Omnipresent, then it is logical that there is nothing but God and manifestations of God within God. You cannot have an Omnipresent God and the same God be absent from any place, at any time. You cannot have it both ways. One of the hardest propositions to take responsibility for wherever it leads us is the Omnipresence of God. Where does this leave our sense of individual self? If there is nothing but God, then what are we? God? We draw away from what seems like such an absurd possibility. We cannot be God, we are too small, too week, two fragile. If we are God, then how could there have been any of the holocausts that have been recorded over and over in history. If we are God, then why did so many Gods allow themselves to be marched into the gas chambers of Hitlers Final Solution? We cannot be God. Only God can be God. However, if God is Omnipresent, then what else are we but God? You have many cells which compose your body. Each cell is you but no one cell is the entire YOU. In similar fashion, the body of God has many cells. Each of the cells of Gods body is God but no one cell is the entire GOD. I wont go further right now in this essay but some answers to this Who Are We question are contained within this first book of AMSWAY. Another example is Proposition number 2. We are eternally aware of being aware. How can this be when what we think we are dies and returns to the dust of the Earth? Is there a spirit that lives on and someday we will arise from our earthly grave and spiritually be aware that we are no longer dead? The problem here is we think we are what we see in the mirror. We think we are what we think we are. We hurt our toe and we think this proves that are least part of us is the toe we just hurt. After all, we feel the pain, dont we? Well, we do seem to feel the pain. I run into a sharp object
18

and it definitely feels painful. However, does this mean that we are what feels the pain? Some answers to this are also contained in this first book of AMSWAY. Do we agree on the two propositions on AMSWAY? Then let us share this most incredible journey we find ourselves on. If we share just one thing with another that helps the other in his or her spiritual journey, then we have shared a most divine gift a most precious gift. I look forward to hearing from you and sharing together. Spirit of AM

19

Seven Beliefs of AMSWAY

AMSWAY is very simple. AMSWAY has only Seven Beliefs.

All our thoughts and actions must harmonize with these seven beliefs.

All other writings of AMSWAY are thoughts on understanding and living these seven beliefs in our daily life.

1. I BELIEVE in an Infinite, Omnipresent God. An Intelligence that is everywhere and all places. God is present wherever I am, and is also waiting for me when I get to the place I am going. God hears through all who hear. God sees through all who see. God feels through all who feel. God smells through all who smell. God thinks through all who think. God loves through all who love. God is Self-aware through all creation.

20

2. I BELIEVE if I want a cherry tree, I must plant cherry seeds. I must give to the universe exactly what I wish to receive from the universe. I have no right to expect from the universe what I am not willing to plant first. I must treat all of creation as I want all of creation to treat me.

3. I BELIEVE in the continuation of my awareness of existing in the universe after my body dies. This is a continuation of my awareness of being aware. It is not a continuation of my human-body-identity awareness.

4. I BELIEVE I am here for the contribution I can make to the rest of creation. All of creation exists for the part each has to play in the symphony of the universe. 5. I BELIEVE I am here to learn how to be a better contributor to the rest of creation. My spiritual education comes from my experiences and my thoughts about my experiences. If I stub my toe, I learn to watch where I place my feet. God does not punish - God educates.
21

6. I BELIEVE my appreciation of two great incredibles is the key to paradise. The first great incredible is THE EXISTENCE -- OF ANYTHING AT ALL. The second great incredible is MY AWARENESS -- OF ANYTHING AT ALL. Whenever I appreciate these two great incredibles, Everyday experience becomes divine experience. Every breath I take Every step I make Every thought I think Every drink I drink IS INCREDIBLE

7. THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT Love God With All My Heart Truly appreciate my awareness of being aware and my love of God will be my very being. Every act I make will be an act of worship.

PRAISE GOD That is it.

22

Very simple.

23

The Most Important Commandment

Of all the commandments in all the world's religions that ever existed, the most important and actually the only commandment necessary for spiritual growth is Love Thy God With All Your Heart.

However, if we think we can love God with all our heart because it is commanded of us, we are deeply mistaken. This love of God with all our heart will only be with all our heart and therefore worthy of God when it is a love given freely, given wholly without reservations or expectations. If you truly appreciate how incredible is your very existence, how incredible is your awareness of being aware, then tears of thankfulness and happiness should be rolling down your cheeks as you are reading these words. Truly appreciate your awareness of being aware and there is no room in your heart for hatred, bigotry, prejudice, jealously or greed. You will not intentionally hurt others. You will not steal from others. You will not have sex with another person's husband or wife. You may wish for more. You may try to get more of worldly things or worldly relationships. You may miss someone or something you have lost. However, truly appreciate the incredible miracle of your awareness of being aware and your heart will be filled with thankfulness. You will Love God with all your heart. Your entire being will vibrate with love for God. Each step you take and each act you make will be an act of praiseful worship. God is the source and the sustainer of your life. We do not need Ten Commandments. We do not need two commandments. In fact, we do not even need one commandment. To be thankful because it is a commandment is not to be truly thankful. True thankfulness is be a natural automatic response to our true appreciation of the gift of life. I only say there is one because most spirit-humans seem to need a commandment. God cannot really command thankfulness and appreciation. It is in our heart or it

24

is not in our heart. Thankfulness and appreciation either bubbles up from our innermost core of being or it is not true thankfulness. All we need is true appreciation of how incredible is our very awareness of being aware. Without this awareness of being aware - nothing else would matter. Appreciate your awareness of being aware and you will know the meaning of paradise. Truly appreciate your awareness of being aware and you will automatically Love Your God With All Your Heart. Your Love and Appreciation will move you from the depths of your very being to glorify God in each and every act you do.

25

Omnipresence Of God Simplified

Omnipresence means present everywhere - absent nowhere. GOD is in ALL places, at ALL times. There is no place that GOD is absent, at any time. GOD is THE ALL that is IN ALL AND IS ALL. While GOD in all, it is also true that all is in GOD. There is only GOD and cells or aspects of GOD within THE ALL that is GOD. There is only GOD and MANIFESTATIONS of GOD within THE ALL that is GOD. THE ALL or GOD, is Mind. The Universe is MENTAL - held in the Mind of THE ALL, of GOD. We are BRAIN CELLS of the INFINITE MIND OF GOD. GOD is Infinite, Living MIND. GOD is the moving, connective, intelligent force that both PERMEATES and IS the entire universe, both seen and unseen.

We live and move within THE ALL that is GOD.

GOD SEES through ALL who have eyes to see; GOD HEARS through ALL who have ears to hear; GOD SMELLS through all who have organs of smell; GOD TASTES through ALL who have organs of taste;
26

GOD HAS EMOTION through ALL who have emotion. GOD IS AWARE through ALL who are AWARE GOD FEELS through ALL who feel. GOD LIVES through ALL who live

IN TRUTH, GOD IS ALL THERE EVER WAS ALL THERE IS AND ALL THERE EVER WILL BE.

We are eternal points of view We are eternal viewing points Within the infinite mind of GOD We are eternally ONE WITH GOD.

Be careful why you do what you do. What you do to the least of ALL - you do unto GOD.

SIMPLE, ISN'T IT?

27

THE NAME OF GOD

What do we call God, the source and the sustainer of all that is both seen and unseen, both manifested and un-manifested? What name do we use to make sure God hears us and is pleased with the name we use when calling on God to hear us in the time of our need or the time of our worship? Some names spirit-humans have given to the Omnipresent Intelligence are God, Allah, Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah, Yahweh, El, El-Shaddai, Father, Mother, Father-Mother-God, Holy One, I AM, I AM THAT I AM, Immanuel, Jesus, King, Lord, Bhagwan, Ishvara, Parameshvara, Adi Purusha, Waheguru, Ek Onkar, Satnam, Nirankar, Shangdi, Shen of Shen, Great Spirit, Omnipresent One, Universal Spirit, AUM, Mazda, Ra, Odin, Zeus, Abba, Baal, Hadad, Creator. There are countless other names spirithumans have used since spirit-humans started thinking about a God. Just Islam alone has one hundred names of God. You can learn the first ninetynine names while you are alive on Earth and the one hundredth name of God you will learn after the death of your body. Ancient spirit-people and even some modern spirit-people believe that if you know the name of God or the name of a spirit, this gives you some power and control over God or the spirit. It is like the God or the spirit can ignore you but if you call his or her name, he or she will be tempted to turn around and give you some attention hopefully positive attention and not burn you alive just by looking at you. The more pleasing the name you use and the more respectful the way you used it could make the difference between God smiling at you or killing you right on the spot. This is why the name of God was so important and also why misusing the name of God was so unlucky for the one using the name of god in a negative way. A curse using the name of God meant that you were calling on God to fulfill the curse. Use the wrong name and the curse could back-fire and hit you instead. Spirit-humans would call on God, Ra, Satan, Beelzebub or The Great Pie In The Sky to give them an edge over other spirit-humans. Looking for an edge, an advantage over other spirit-humans seems just the spirit-human thing to do. We know that it is easy to ignore someone if they do not use our name but it is almost impossible to ignore them if they call our name. It is like our brain jumps to attention and says to us, Hey, someone is referring

28

to me. Our antennae go up and we become more alert to what follows the sound of our name. So it is natural that God would respond the same way. Some believe that when Moses asked the God of the Jews, Christians and the Moslems for his name, that God purposefully did not tell him. Instead God told Moses that he was I AM THAT I AM. In other words, Moses was not going to get the name of that God in order to have any influence or control of him. No way. Some have even named God the Big Lie in the Sky After You Die. I have a dear Chinese friend who loves my writings. However, all she has to do is come to the word God and the word God is like a brick wall to her. It is like a river is smoothly, happily streaming along and all of a sudden it comes to a dam and cannot flow further. She finds it almost impossible to get past the word God, regardless of how inspiring and informative the words that follow it. If she passes the word God, the word is still stuck in her awareness and is impacting the rest of her reading. She was raised in China and was taught from birth that God does not exist. She was taught that the concept of God, and different religions, were made to control the people. God and religion were invented to make the purveyors of the religions rich and basically subjugate or suppress the masses and keep them from reaching their full potential. She was taught that the word God was like a disease. Even to think the word God might bring harm and misfortune to you and your family because it would lead your mind into illusion and selfdeception. All the while, the preachers of the religion would be laughing all the way to the bank. Out of respect to her and the hundreds of millions of spirit-humans who were raised in similar circumstances I decided I would think of a different name to use whenever I was referring to the Omnipresent Source of all that is both manifested and un-manifested. I started using Great Spirit, Universal Spirit and Universal Self. I thought Universal Self was a good one because the initials of Universal Self are US. Since we are cells of Gods body, then God is the big US of which the little us are part. The small letters of Universal Spirit are us, and this is the term we use when we include ourselves in referencing a group of spirit-people. We say we are referring to us, and we are always including ourself in the "us" . Universal Self seemed perfect. Even she liked it. Universal Self and Universal Spirit is the BIG US that we are a part. All us, one and the same, whenever we

29

were speaking of other self-aware cells of God's Universal Body. When I think "I", it is the same as when you think "I". The awareness of being aware and the referencing of "I" is the same whichever one of "us" is thinking "I". However, I was raised Christian and whenever I called on the Universal Spirit to help me, I always used the word GOD. Never did I really use any other label to refer to Omnipresence when I spoke to it. The word and name God referenced none other than the Omnipresent source and sustainer of all creation. If I would have been raised Moslem, I would most likely use the word Allah whenever I needed God to save me from something life-threatening. Spirit-Humans from what we call India would usually use the name Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva or the supreme Cosmic Spirit called Brahman. Ancient Egyptians would have used the name Ra, or even Osiris if they wanted a good seat in the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians believed in one God. They gave the different aspects of God different labels and symbols but all these labels and symbols began as just references to different aspects of the Omnipresent God. These labels and symbols came to be considered the names of the aspects of God. What misled the ancient Egyptians is that they started believing that the different aspects and symbols of God had powers and intelligence of their own, separate from Omnipresent God. Then they started worshiping these aspects and symbols of God as gods in their own right. Another word for this is idolatry, or worship of a created image of a reality which is always beyond the image. The symbol or image is not and never can be that which it only refers to, points to or suggests. Look at all the different images of God that have been the cause of many wars and misunderstandings. Idolatry is worship of an image, a person, a place or a thing. Some religions have outlawed images but even they have what they call "sacred" objects or sacred "imageless" paintings which remind them of the Omnipresent One or remind them of different aspects of the Omnipresent One. Regardless of what you call God when you call on God to help you, the meaning in your heart is what counts. You are calling on the Intelligent force that is the source and the sustainer of all that we are aware and not aware.
30

In my writings, I use God or the Great Spirit more than anything else. Anything else does not feel right to me. I could say Wholly Spirit or Whole Spirit, but then I would get emails telling me that I misspelled Holy Spirit, when Wholly Spirit is more descriptive. I could say Essence of All, but then it seems to be getting too complicated and hung up on words. Actually, I like Essence of All, but it does not seem like a name..smile. As much as my Chinese spirit-human friend finds the word God a stumbling block to her spiritual growth, I find that NOT using the word God when I am calling on God to help me is almost impossible. Ah, the wonders and frustrations of cultural and familial conditioning. Let us see where this missive takes me from here. We have first and foremost, the Omnipresence of God. If god is Omnipresent, then there is no place nor space where God is absent. All that we see are manifestations of God within God - including what we think we are. Then we have the part of Omnipresence, or God, that we speak to in our prayers or call out to when we are in trouble. This is the part of God I call the Self-Awareness of Omnipresence. Your hair is not part of your self-awareness. Each strand of hair is composed of cells that are part of your body but are not part of your self-awareness. If you cut your hair, you would not feel anything other than the hands of the person cutting your hair and this same person pulling on your hair. Your hair would have absolutely no self-awareness that it is being cut. A rock traveling through space is part of the body of God but is not part of the Self-Awareness of God. If a rock is traveling through the air towards our head, the rock is not aware of where it is going nor of where it has come from. It is not even aware that it is not aware. God will be aware of the rock through our eyes, through the eyes of the one who threw it, or through the eyes of anyone who happens to see the rock traveling through the air, but God will not be aware of being the rock. Since God is Omnipresent, God sees through all who have eyes to see, hears through all who have hears to hear and feels through all who have the ability to feel. God's self-awareness is the totality of self-awareness through all who have self-awareness. God sees what all who have eyes to see are seeing at the same time.

31

A dragon fly has over 30,000 facets in its compound eye. It sees over 30,000 different aspects of what is in front of it at the same time. These aspects are slightly overlapping each other. When the 30,000 images are sent to the part of the dragon fly's brain that is responsible for interpreting what the fly is seeing, all 30,000 images are seen as one image. In the same way, God sees all that is seen by all that have eyes to see - AND God is seeing it all as ONE image - at the SAME moment. The problem with calling God by the name God, Allah, Jehoshaphat, or any of the names we call God is the tendency to feel we are speaking to some reality, some awareness OUTSIDE of ourselves. Like there is God and there is us. We hope God is hearing us and is listening to us and decides to do something to help us. All the time, it feels like there is us and there is God. God close to us, closer than we can imagine but still only close to us and not us. We are praying TO God. If God is Omnipresent, there is only US, the Universal Self. The One Self behind all selfs. Each of us has self-awareness and the totality of selfawareness of all who have self-awareness is the self-awareness of God. Therefore, I feel like we should give Gods' Self-Awareness the name of "Universal Self". However, just use the initials of the name Universal Self. The initials are US. However, do not say the name US like we do when we say the word us. Use the long vowel pronunciation of the letter U. It will sound like YOUSE. Say the letter U like it sounds when you say it alone. Then add the S like it sounds when we say the letter "s" by itself. "Youse". When we ask "What use is that object", the sound of the word "use" is the same sound of God's name when we spell it "US" Confusing yet? The profundity is in the simplicity - it is simply "US". The Self-Awareness of God is the big US of the little us. It is impossible to use the word us without including our self in the statement. Whenever we refer to "us", we are part of us and we cannot take our self out of us when we use the word us. Like the dragon fly with its 30,000 compound eye facets that sees one picture wherever it develops the picture, God has millions of trillions of "selfs" which are always part of the Self-awareness of Omnipresence - at each and every moment in the eternality of beingness. Since God is Omnipresent, we can never take either God or ourselves out of any consideration of who God is and who we are. We are US. We are wholly
32

a part of the Universal Self and we are part of the Universal Self-Awareness of God. When you speak of Omnipresence or the ALL that is both manifested and unmanifested, both visible and invisible, call it Omnipresence. When you speak to or refer to the universal Self-Awareness of God, call it US. This way, you are always included in the name. You are always included in the reference. You and God are together on this one. Remember, if God is Omnipresent, then you are forever included in the Omnipresent reality you call God. You cannot separate yourself in fact, therefore do not separate yourself in words. Just remember you are a self-aware cell of the body of God - you are not the WHOLE body of God. You are one with the MotherFather God, but not the Mother-Father. There is a Universal Intelligence, and a Universal Self-Awareness, that we are part of, live in, move in and is the source of our very being. We are brain cells of the Infinite Body of this Omnipresent Intelligence. We are part of the self-awareness of this Omnipresent Intelligence. We are the US of the Universal Self. What name do we use to make sure God hears us and is pleased with the name we use when calling on God to hear us in the time of our need or the time of our worship? Call this Omnipresent Intelligence ANY name that to you expresses your total mind, body and soulful intent to communicate with this Omnipresence, this Universal Self. Any name that is not limited in any way. Any name that does not conjur up images of a bearded man who pees behind a tree somewhere in a field in a galaxy far, far away. Call the Self-Awareness God whatever you want but be careful that you do not limit it with whatever name you use. Be careful that whatever you call God does not conjure up ANY image of God in your mind. The moment you have any image of God, you are committing idolatry. You are conjuring up an image that might be part of Omnipresence but can never BE Omnipresence.. You cannot limit God and still be referring to God. God is all images and yet NO image. Call the source of your reality and the source of your self-awareness whatever feels right to you. Just make sure that what you call God is referencing the Omnipresent God of which you are wholly a part. Any name is just a label of reference. Dont give any label of reference, or symbol, the
33

power it only symbolizes and references. Dont dance with idolatry. If you do, God help you you will need it. And don't tell others what to call God unless they ask you for your opinion. That is between God and them.

REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU CALL GOD, THERE IS NOTHING BUT GOD. THE SELF AWARENESS OF GOD IS

US

34

ANGELS OF GOD
Angels of God is another name for Gods messengers and emissaries. Angels are aspects of God. Some angels are created for specific tasks while others are created for eternity. Most drawings of angels have wings only because when spirit-humans first started thinking about angels, they could not imagine anything that could be flying or hovering above them that did not have wings. Snakes could not fly. Foxes could not fly. Alligators would not fly. However birds, bats, some insects and some squirrels flew and what made them different from other creatures that could not fly is they had wings. Only creatures with wings could fly. Therefore angels HAD to have wings. There are different classes of angels. Two examples of different angels for different purposes are some angels are messengers and some are protectors. The messenger angels act as conveyors of Gods desires to us. They can communicate to us in dreams or even can appear to us in our waking hours. We will either see them or perhaps just hear them. The message is what is important. How it is delivered to us is determined by what will work in each situation. Some protector angels are guards protecting the Throne of God, the Inner Santorum, the Holy of Holies from dangerous influences. One protector angel we have all heard of is Lucifer. Lucifer is the head protector angel. Before you are allowed more knowledge of the essence of Omnipresent God, Lucifer has to come and test you to check out the sincerity of your intentions. Are the intentions of your heart pure enough for the next level of understanding? Are you truly ready for the next classroom or grade in your spiritual education? Any time you have ever said, I have learned my lesson. I am ready. I will do better the next time. I will not slip into the errors of my past. The next time I am confronted by whoever and whatever, this is the improved way I will deal with it. The moment you say you have learned your lessons and will apply the lessons in future encounters, you have made a date with Lucifer. When you least expect it, you will turn a corner and Lucifer will be right in your face, saying, You
35

really mean it? You really have had a change of heart and really will do things differently now? Here is a test. Lets see how you will handle it How well you do what you said you were going to do will determine whether you are promoted to the next grade or have to redo the same grade for a while until you show your sincerity by passing more tests. Angels, the messenger and emissary aspect of God.

36

Change Is the Engine of Life

Did you know that if your life was not continuously changing the forms it is expressing, you would not exist? From you being born as a baby, to you being a teenager, to you being a young adult in your twenties, to you being a grandparent in your forties or fifties to you starting to see the old-age wrinkles and the lack of elasticity in your neck skin tissue, to your eventually old age and eventually the death of the very body you have been using. Your human form had to change or you would forever be a baby, forever be a teenager, forever be a young adult, forever be whatever you think you are right at this moment. The same goes for your ancestors. If their human forms had not changed and grown older, you would not have been born. Believe it or not, even your death gives you a fresh start to learn and do whatever the Universal Spirit desires of you. Our Universe and everything in it is continually changing, because our Universe is made of energy. Energy can only exist if it is in motion and changing. If energy stopped being in motion, our entire Universe and all Life would vanish. Our lives are also energy, and therefore they too must always be in motion and continue to change. You cannot stop the motion and change in your life, and nor would you want to. The changing nature of energy gives us Life. It causes Life to grow and causes us to grow. And yet when there is a big change of energy which affects our lives, we often label it as bad, and cause ourselves sorrow, pain, and suffering by resisting the change. But you always have a choice. In the Universe there is never just one way. You are never trapped with no way out, no matter what has occurred. There are two paths available to you in every circumstance and moment in your life. The two paths are the positive and the negative, and YOU are the one who chooses which path you will take. You have the power to transform negative change into positive, but you cannot do it by resisting the change. Resisting the change is focusing on the negative and it is choosing the negative path, which brings with it even more negativity, more pain, and misery. To transform the negative into positive, you must choose the positive path and command that this changing energy transforms into millions of blessings
37

that pour down on you and everyone involved. Command the changing energy to bring unlimited good and positivity. Know and believe in your heart that as you command it, it must be done. And then the day will come in the not too distant future, when you will look back and see all the blessings that were brought into this world through you and change. Remember, without change, without the death of someone thousands of years ago, you could not be here enjoying the faces of your children. If no one ever died, how long do you think it would be that there would be no more room for anyone else to be born? We would have ran out of room many, many years before you were born. In the same vein, the deaths of those we love in the present are a necessary part of the change needed to continue to bring blessings into the world. Since you are eternally aware of being aware, and everyone you ever met, whether you loved them or not, is also eternally aware of being aware, no one really died. They just went on their way onto another chapter in their eternal journey through the changes of the Universe. Learn from their death and they will smile as they go on their way. You think there is any such thing as what we want to worship as stability? Stability is change that is happening so gradually that is appears that there is no change at all. The changes of what we see as stability are ever so minute that we are not aware of the change until it has already happened. Just like your child or puppy that was ever so small. Oh where, oh where, did that little baby go? Even the Earth, in another 5 billion years or so, will cease to exist. The sun that is worshipped by so many on the beaches of the world will grow larger and larger until it engulfs the Earth. No amount of suntan lotion will protect you from that occasion. Changes. Without change, we have nothing. With change, all things are possible. The Illusion of Stability has its good aspects but stability is still an illusion of no-change. Since, sooner or later, all will change from what they are into what they will be, enjoy the comfort of the illusion of stability and smile in the face of change.

38

Change is the engine of life. Rev your engines sweet spirits, Steer carefully and enjoy the ride.

39

The Garden Of Eden

If you want a cherry tree, you must plant cherry seeds. You can't get a cherry tree by planting a lemon seed. Why? Simple truth. What you sow, you reap. Each thought you think is like a cherry seed. Each thought is planted into the totality of your consciousness. Your subconscious mind is like the fertile soil into which you would plant the cherry seed. Your emotions are like the trees that grow from the seeds you planted. Our emotional reactions are the fruit of thousands and thousands of thoughts. Seed-thoughts planted over the years. Thoughts nurtured and watered over the years. If we want a good orchard of cherry trees, we have to be willing to get our hands dirty. We have to get down on our knees in the dirt. We have to get muddy, scraped skin and insect bites. We have to pull weeds. We have to have patience to get through the frustration when some seeds don't grow. Many times we will get into bed tired, with aches and pains all over our body. These are some of the reasons most of us prefer to buy our cherries instead of growing our own. It takes the same kind of dedicated effort to plant beautiful thoughts, nurture beautiful thoughts and reap beautiful emotions as it does to get the cherry orchard. There is pain, frustration and work. There are also many delicious hot cherry pies to enjoy as the fruits of our dedicated labors. You can look forward to relaxing in the shade of your cherry trees and eating some fresh cherries by just reaching over your head and picking them. (I just thought of something. As much as I am using cherries for my example of truth, I hope you like cherries. If not, use your favorite fruit in place of cherries. I want you to enjoy the fruit of your labors.) What about the emotional trees in your life you do not want? What about the seeds of negative emotion that we seem to habitually plant. Simple. STOP WATERING THEM !!! Stop nourishing the negative seed-thoughts you don't like. Anytime you notice your mind hung up in a negative pattern of thinking, say one word two times. As soon as your notice yourself thinking negatively, say "CANCEL, CANCEL". Every time you say "CANCEL, CANCEL", you will notice a gap between your sentences of negative
40

thought. There will be a moment of silence before your mind returns to repeating the negative seed-thoughts. In the beginning this gap will be very tiny. You may find it difficult to even notice. However, it is there. Be open to it. Look for it. In this moment of silence, use effort and force-feed the righteous positive seed-thoughts you desire to grow into beautiful emotiontrees in your life. The negative seed-thoughts will keep trying to pick up where you interrupted them. Keep saying "CANCEL, CANCEL". The gaps between negative seed-thoughts will get bigger and bigger. Keep forcefeeding the positive seed-thoughts you desire. Your use of the words "CANCEL, CANCEL", and the effort required to plant the seed-thoughts you desire, in addition to refusing to water and nourish the trees of negative emotion you don't want in your life anymore will work. The key to success is sincere desire for the beautiful trees and the patience to grow the orchard. When you stop feeding the trees of negative emotion in your life, the negative trees will wither and die. They will struggle to live, but if you are persistent, they will eventually die. We have let our mind and thoughts run our mental and emotional show for so long that it takes a lot of time and effort to assert our mastership. We must truly desire the Truth that sets us free. Your emotions are expressions of your thoughts. You cannot have an emotion without the seed-thought to begin it. Even the thoughts that are subconscious will eventually show themselves to our consciousness. The thoughts, both subconscious and conscious will feed our emotional experience. To change your emotional experience of life, just change the seed-thoughts you are planting. It takes a few seasons to grow trees that bear fruit. HAVE PATIENCE. You will be rewarded along the way with glimpses of how your Truth-Tree is growing. It is like watching a cherry tree grow. If you stand and watch it 24 hours a day, you will not be aware of how it is growing each and every day. However , look at the cherry tree every week or two, and you will be able to notice some growth. It is the same with the growth of the emotional trees we want to experience. What seed-thoughts will you now choose to plant? In five years, will you be reaping cherries, lemons or a garden of weeds? Remember, if you do not consciously plant what you wish to reap, then you will most certainly reap what you do not wish to experience - like it or not. The choice is yours to make. You can think only one thought at a time. Will that seed-thought be a positive one or will it be a negative one?

41

Truth is simple. By simply not taking the effort to plant the seeds you want and nurturing them to maturity, you may reap a garden of weeds that will choke your appreciation of the miracle of your experience of life. If you want righteous emotions, plant righteous thoughts. If you want emotions of peace, plant seed-thoughts of peace - peaceful thoughts. If you want emotions of joyful appreciation, plant joyful appreciation thoughts. If you want emotions of divine ecstasy, simply plant seed-thoughts of wonderment at the miracle of your awareness of being aware - experiencing the incredible beauty of the universe. PLANT AND NURTURE THESE POSITIVE SEED-THOUGHTS AND YOU WILL REAP THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
GUARANTEED

42

The Word Made Flesh

God is first. The Word comes second. All things manifesting through the Word come third. God speaks. The essence of God is spoken through the Word. This means what is spoken is manifested God. God is Omnipresence. The first emanation of God is vibration. At certain degrees of vibration what we call physical reality appears. All things in the universe, from the human being to the bird, from the tree to the rays of light that nourish the tree, are different manifestations of God. The physical manifestation that we call our body is of the essence of God. Our body is the crystallized spirit of God. We are like the drops of water in the ocean. How can the drops of water know themselves to be the ocean? However, the ocean is nothing without the drops of water. Therefore, each drop of water is qualitatively the ocean. The essence of God is in the center of each atom of a grain of salt. The essence of God IS the center of the atom. If the essence of the atom is God, then God is the essence of all that exists in the universe. All creation has God as the essence of its being. So we are all God, visible as flesh; all are spirit and materialization of spirit. All matter is part of the larger entity that we call God. God is the macrocosm, we are the microcosm. Yet God is still the essence of the microcosm. We are a soul (spirit) that has a mind and a physical body. God is a soul (spirit) that has a spiritual mind and a physical body (manifested spirit). The difference is that we have cells that compose our body and God has a body of which we are cells. Every cell of our body is "us" but no one cell is our whole body. We are all cells of God's body but no one of us is the whole body of God. The soil of the Earth, the trees, the birds, and the bees, are all cells of God's body. God's soul is the moving, harmonious, intelligent force that is everywhere in the universe; that which we call the Holy Spirit. The word "holy" we get from the seventh to twelfth century Old English word "Hal" which means "whole". The word "spirit.' comes from the Latin word "spiritus", which means "breath". So we can better understand "the Holy Spirit" by saying "the Whole Spirit".

43

We are communing (sharing) with God whenever we eat or drink any of the cells that compose God's body: such as bread, wine, vegetables, water, and even when we breathe. In more ways than one we live on and in accordance with the "Word" of God. Cells serve different functions in our own body as do the cells of God's "body". Humans are brain cells in God's "mind". We are the receivers and transmitters of the essence of God. In this capacity we are either good conductors or good resistors of the energy of God. It is like God is an electrical current and we are the wires that carry that current to its destination. God wouldn't use a wire that could handle only 110 volts of electricity to carry 220 volts. This would be more energy than the 110 volt wire could handle, It would overload and burn up. If the wire burns up, then the wire is no longer any good to carry any current. If God continually gave people more energy or awareness than they could handle, then God would not have any more people to carry out God's plan for creation. We can start out as a wire able to handle small amounts of energy. As we learn from the mistakes we make, we evolve (grow) to be a bigger and bigger wire, able to handle larger and larger amounts of current. Our use to God is determined by the amount of energy or awareness we can handle at any one period in our life. We are helped or hindered in our potential by both our desires and our fears. We hold the "key" to our personal evolution. Each human can evolve, within his personal limitations, to a better understanding of the "Father in Heaven", the "Holy Spirit", the "Whole Spirit" or the "Whole Breath". This intimate understanding allows higher expressions of God's Self, in us, through us, and as us. Whatever we choose to call this understanding, it expresses a conscious intimate relationship with the source of our being while we are human. The more we are in tune with the essence of God, the more we know our self. The more we are in tune with the essence of God, the more complete can God's self manifest through us and as us. Since we can separate ourselves from God only in our own consciousness, we must strive to consciously be the "Word Made Flesh". Know that God is the essence of all reality and that we are all cells of God's body. God is the intelligence we call the "brain of the body''. We are all manifestations of the "Universal Self". Get in tune with the Brain (God) and know that YOU are the "Word Made Flesh".

44

A Viewing Point

We are points of reference in the Infinite Mind of God. We are reference points in the Infinite Mind of God. We are points of awareness in the Infinite Mind of God. We are points of view in the Infinite Mind of God. We are viewing points in the Infinite Mind of God. Since God is Omnipresent, nothing of God can ever be taken away or disappear. Since God is Omnipresent and Eternal, then each point of reference, each reference point, each point of awareness, each point of view and each viewing point within the Infinite Mind of God is Eternal. It is not the body-identity that is Eternal. It is our spiritual awareness of being aware as a viewing point and a point of view in the Infinite Mind of God that is eternal.

45

God's Body

God is the Infinite Intelligence that permeates the entire universe. All the physical things in the universe are different expressions of God's eternal essence. Each thing expresses a different aspect of God. We have cells that make up our body. Each cell is us, but no one cell is the whole us. Our brain continually attempts to send energy through our body to influence our cells and organs to do what our brain is instructing them to do. It is interesting that the body that tries to persuade through the body also made the body. The energy that goes through the body is the same energy that made the body and is the same energy that IS the body. We are cells of God's body. Each one of us is God, but no one of us is the Whole God. God is the brain of the body trying to persuade the cells of the God's body to do the will of God the brain. The Mother-Father-God is the Brain. The Son is the flesh of the body of the Mother-Father-God-Brain. The Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is the energy that goes from the Mother-Father-God-Brain to the different cells and organs of its body in an attempt to persuade the cells and the organs to do the will of the Mother-Father-God-Brain. Our brain can only attempt to persuade the cells and the organs of our body to do its' will. It cannot force them. When the cells and the organs start doing things that are not good for the body and are not really listening to the instructions of our brain, then the brain might try to kill the cells that are not listening. Kill them for the health of the entire body. The Mother-Father-God-Brain is the same. If we resist God too much and too long, either God use our resistance to do other things God needs to be done or will use our physical death for the glory of God. God will use our fears and hang-ups to do things that in the end we may not like but that will still contribute to the unfolding of the will of God. God might use our death and the way in which we died for the growth of countless other spirit-

46

humans still alive. We even learn valuable spiritual lessons through the way we die, or depart this Earthly world. If we are in so much emotional pain that we continue to lash out at other people, god will eventually use us to bring lessons to other spirit-humans that require the stimulation of some pain to move them in the direction that God desires. These spirit-humans that God uses to painfully stimulate other spirit-humans will eventually be educated in the error of their ways. However, before that time, God will still get the best use out of them that God can get. One way or the other, the will of God will find expression through us and as us. We are cells of the Infinite Body of God.

47

The Three Thousand Eyes of the Universal Self

For years now I have been telling spirit-people that God sees through all who eyes to see. I intellectualized this but I could not visualize how this was possible. I mean, if God seeing through my eyes, how can God be seeing through your eyes at the same time? How can God see through the billions of eyes on planet earth each moment of each day? Well, I had a vision the other day which showed me how this happens. The numbers I am now going to use are for explanation purposes. I did not really count the eyes but there were hundreds and hundreds of them. I found myself looking at 1,500 people coming towards me and was aware of all three thousand of the eyes looking at me at the same time. The spirit-people were coming towards me in a V formation. Sort of a letter V shaped wedge, with the point of the wedge coming directly towards me. One person was in front making the point of the V and the rest of the spirit-people spread out behind him or her in the shape of a V. I became aware of a dark cloud above the 1,500 people. I realized the cloud was the intelligence and the awareness of God, the Universal Self. I realized that this awareness cloud was aware of seeing me through all 3,000 eyes at the exact same time. It actually was watching me through all the eyes I saw in front of me. After the vision, I remembered the compound eye of the dragonfly. Each has many eyes or facets which make up the dragonfly eyes. Some estimate that each dragonfly eye has 30,000 elements known as facets or ommatidia. Each ommatidium stimulates one nerve and thus provides the brain with one picture element. The brain forms an image from these independent picture elements. Together, these thousands of facets or ommatidia produce a mosaic of "pictures" but how this visual mosaic is integrated in the insect brain is still not known. Dragonflies can thus see in all directions at the same time. My point here is we do not understand how the 30,000 images are integrated in the brain of the dragonfly. However, it seems logical that they basically see one integrated picture of what each of the facets are seeing. In the same way, God sees through billions of facets or different eyeballs at the same time and somehow all these billions of images are integrated in the mind of God so that at each moment, God sees the whole picture comprised of what all the eyes are seeing each and every moment.
48

Remember that trying to explain God with human terms is only helpful when we realize that no word or group of words can ever fully describe God. We can say God is like this, or God is like that. However, since God is Omnipresent, I believe the more we understand ourselves and the universe around us, the more we will understand God. God sees like the dragonfly but the reality of how and what God sees is beyond our human mind to fully grasp. I see us as personifications of God. We are the microcosm of which God is the macrocosm. God sees through all who have eyes to see at each and every moment. We are the eyes of the Universal Self.

49

The Face of God

What is a face? What is your face? Your face is the outer surface of your body. More exactly, your face is the part of your body from which your eyes are looking out at the world. Most of what is your body is under your skin. What we see as the outer surface is your skin and what we see as your face is just a VERY small part of the wholeness of you. When we accept the Omnipresence of God, then when we look and see the outer surface of anything that has eyes that God can see through, then we are seeing part of the face of God. No one can see the entire face of God. Even if you could stand outside of infinity, there are still parts of the face of God you could not see. Of course, since we can never encompass infinity, can never stand outside of infinity and look at it, no one can ever see the whole face of God. Remember, the next time someone smiles at you, you are seeing the smiling Face of God.

50

ONLY ONE PERSON IN THE ROOM

You want to know the real meaning of the Universal Self?

Imagine you are in a room.

There are 15 other spirit-people, both male and female, black and white, American Indian, Chinese and different ethnic mixtures.

There is, in reality, only one person in the room, the Universal Self, the One Reality, the "One Person". There is no "other" in the room.

There are many faces, but just one person - The Universal Self.

51

I AM NO MORE THE FACE

I see in the mirror, Than the muscles beneath it, Nor the bones beneath them.

I see THROUGH the face I see in the mirror I AM THE WITNESS of what I see in the mirror

Are you what you see in the mirror? Are you what you see when you look at your finger, foot or belly-button? Are you the eyes you see? Are you what disintegrates and become compost for new life forms after your physical body stops regenerating new cells? The see-er cannot see the see-er. The observer cannot observe the observer. The witness cannot witness the witness.

52

You cannot step out of your body and see yourself. You would only be seeing your body. You would only be seeing the outer surface of your body. You would not be seeing you. Who is "Do-ing" the "See-ing"? Are you the See-er or the Seen? You are the Witness - The Eternal Witness.

53

After Your Body Dies Then What?

What is going to happen after your body dies to this earthly experience? What book do you read and believe? What preacher, what priest, what rabbi, what imam, what religion, and what philosophy do you accept and follow to make sure you have the best possible experience after your body dies? Regardless of what you believe, there are only two possibilities. The moment after our physical body dies only one of two things can happen. Either there is something - OR there is nothing. Seem too simple? Stick with me for a few minutes. The first possibility is Nothing. Nothing happens. You are no longer you because you are not existing anywhere forever more. The light of your consciousness goes out. Your awareness of being aware ceases to exist. You do not even know your awareness of awareness ceases to exist. It just ceases. You are not scared. You are not worried. You are not even there. Complete nothingness. Can you imagine complete nothingness, the absence of awareness? Of course not. If you could, you would still be aware. The second possibility is Something. Something happens. What happens is you are aware of being aware without the physical body you see in the mirror. You will still be aware that you are aware somewhere. You may not know where but you are definitely somewhere. Do you live as if there is nothing? Do you live as if there is something? How do you know what to do when you do not even know if there is anything after your body dies? How do you know how to live your life? Which possibility do you gamble will be
54

true? Remember, when you get there or when you are no longer aware, it will be too late to change it. If there is something, then what can we do while we are alive in order to make it as good of an experience as possible? This moment, what we call the now, is all there is, all there ever has been and all there ever will be. There is only NOW. The eternal NOW constantly passing, but always NOW. The Now I was just speaking about is not longer the Now, but NOW is still Now. The past exists only as a memory in the NOW. The future is just a thought in the NOW. Whatever is going to work in the future has to work now. Until the future becomes now, it is still the future. Anything you do can be done only in the now. You cannot do anything in the future. The eternal now is the only place you can do anything If it does not work now, it cannot work when the future becomes now. If it works now, it will work when the future becomes now. This seems very logical. Who do you ask for the big secret of what do to make whatever it is as good as possible for you? Who do you believe? Simple. Ask any farmer and he or she will tell you the secret. I look around me and notice what is "Truth" regardless of what ANY human thinks or believes. One thing I notice is if you want to get cherry trees, you have to plant cherry seeds. If you plant lemon seeds, you will NEVER get a lemon tree. It doesnt matter what you believe, if you want a cherry tree, you plant cherry seeds. You do not plant apple seeds. If you plant lemon seeds, you will always get lemon trees. If you plant only one seed, you may not get a cherry tree. The one seed may die. It may never grow regardless of what you do for it and to it. You

55

need to plant many seeds, water them, and nurture them. You must get dirty, get scratched, fight off the bugs, and keep nurturing the seeds. Some will not grow. Some will grow. Keep nurturing the seeds. Sooner or later you will get the cherry tree. Keep planting, keep nurturing the seeds and the little plants that begin to grow and eventually you will get many cherry trees unless you planted apple seeds, then you will get apple trees never cherry trees. What happens if you do not plant anything? Simple, you will find yourself surrounded by weeds. Unless you can figure out something to do with the weeds, you will not have any apples or cherries to eat. It is simple. Whatever you wish to experience at some distant time in the future, you must plant the seed thoughts and the seed actions in the present. Whatever we were planting before we experienced the death of our physical body will carry over past the death experience. We will continue to reap what we sow. This educational process is as eternal as we are. What vanity for us to think we can escape the harmonizing, educational aspect of the universe. Do you want to be a doctor, you want to be a lawyer, or you want to be a surfer? There are seeds, or steps you must take to become anything you want to be or do. You must plant the action-seeds that will grow into the tree of life you wish to be experiencing. As long as you have a long enough life left, you will definitely reap the fruit of the seeds you planted. As long as you keep planting the seeds of the fruit you want to reap, it is a win-win situation regardless of whether there is anything after your body dies for you or nothing after your body dies.

56

Why is it a win-win situation? If there is nothing after your body dies, then if you are planting what you want to reap, and you live long enough, then you will be reaping the fruit of your planting while you are still alive as a human in this physical world. Even if there is nothing for you after your body dies, this seems like a winning situation to me. If there is something for you after your body dies, if you are still aware of being aware after your body dies, then it is logical that what you were planting before your body dies will have some influence on what you are experiencing after your body dies. How can it be any other way? Just because your body dies, does this mean the law of what you sow, you shall reap is no longer the law? Of course not, the law is the law. This also seems like a winning situation to me. What do you want to reap after your body dies? What do you want to be experiencing after your body dies? You want angels? You want harp music? You want 70 virgins? What do you want after you experience the physical death of your body? Keep it simple, no long shopping lists allowed. I want to keep it simple. I want only one thing. I want the compassion from God that the child wants from his or her mother and father. No matter how many times I screw up in living, I mean well. No matter what I do or fail to do, I ask only from God the acceptance of who I am, and the help to be all that I can be. If the child breaks a lamp, the child says to the parent, "Okay, mommy and daddy. I broke the lamp. I am sorry. I know I will be grounded for a while. But I mean well. I will try harder to do the right thing. You love me don't you? You unconditionally accept me, don't you? You do wish for me to fulfill my greatest potential, don't you? You will give me another chance, won't you?" The
57

loving Mother-Father-God says "Of course my child. You just need a little more educational experience and then you will do just fine". This is the kind of compassion I desire from God. I can handle anything God puts on my plate as long as this is the compassion I get from God. What must I do to get this from God? It is simple. In order to get this compassion, I must plant it first. I must sow it minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year and breath by breath. I must live this compassion not only to my child, but to all creatures of the Earth who feel. All creatures that would feel any compassion I extended to them. I must give to others what I wish to receive from others. I must give it to humans, birds, bees, lions, cows, any and all creatures that would feel the result of my compassion. I have no right to expect from God what I am not willing to give first. I have no right to expect from God what I am not willing to plant first into the soil of creation. The reality of an Omnipresent God means that when you look into the eyes of any creature, God is looking back at you. What you do to the least of all creatures, you do unto God. You want compassion from God? You must give God the compassion first. I can look into the eye of a cow and I sense an awareness of being aware to which I can relate, to which I can identify. I may not know how a cow perceives, but I am definitely aware that the cow feels pain, feels pleasure, feels fear, and feels excited anticipation. These are definitely feelings to which I can identify. If I am going toward a cow to kill it for dinner and look into the cows eyes as I am approaching it, I definitely can see the fear in the cows eyes. Once I see the fear, then if I still kill the cow, I am not showing the compassion I want from God.

58

This is why I have been a vegetarian for over 30 years. This is why I have been a vegan for over 10 years. This is why my 11 year old son has been a vegan since he was born into this Earthly experience. My compassion for animals that results in my being a vegan and not killing them and eating them is the compassion I want to reap after my body dies. It should work, because the law of what you sow, you reap, is the LAW. Remember, if you believe in the Omnipresence of God, then what you do to the least of creation, the least of the creatures that feel pain, pleasure, fear and excited anticipation YOU DO UNTO GOD. Be very, very careful why you do what you do. Be sure that the reasons you do what you do are reasons you could understand and accept if it was being done unto you. If someone believe they needed to kill me and eat me in order to survive, I could understand and accept this. Of course I would defend myself and kill them is necessary to survive. However, if someone wanted to kill me for lust or habit, I would not think much of them. I would still kill them if necessary, but I definitely would not understand and accept their reasoning. A God of compassion does not punish. A God capable of compassion educates. A God of compassion shows us the error of our ways in the only way we will understand and the only way we will truly know what we planted. We will only truly know what we did by having it done unto us. When we experience it happening to us, the experience may be wearing different clothes but the essence, the core of what was in our heart will be what returns to us to educate us. We may plant the seed, but until we eat the fruit, we really do not know what we planted. A God of compassion accepts us as we are and understands that we will finally see the eternal light of righteousness through lessons that will sometimes burn like the kitchen stove flame burns the

59

child who will not learn the truth of heat until actually touching and feeling the flame. A God of compassion knows we might only learn what we did to the animals by experiencing similar situations where we are the one who is scared, frightened and painfully put to death for a reason that we cannot understand. A God of compassion knows that sometimes in order to know the lack of compassion you showed TO others, you must be born into a situation that you experience the lack of compassion FROM others. In order to truly know what we did to someone, we must eventually have it done unto us. Until you have experienced both sides of the experience, you really do not know the experience. Do we really think that what we were planting before we physically die does not matter any longer to us? That all the years of planting will not continue to grow something? Whatever we were planting before we experienced the death of our physical body will carry over past the death experience. We will continue to reap what we plant. This educational process is as eternal as we are. What vanity for us to think we can escape the harmonizing, educational aspect of the universe. To summarize, whatever you wish to be experiencing after your body dies, you had better start planting the seeds now. Plant early and plant a lot of seeds so that your tree of compassion or whatever you desire has a chance to grow big and strong. I know there is more after your body dies. However, I cannot show you at least not yet. However, even if you believe that there is nothing after your body dies, and, when you start reaping the fruit of your seed-actions, then please remember me with a nice big fat juicy piece of fruit pie. Ummm, I can hardly wait.

60

God and you are together for eternity - forever and ever. God has as much time as you need for the educational experiences that will bring you to expressing your greatest potential for God. Do you really want to experience the same lessons over and over, life after life? You know what you dont like. How long will it take for you to accept that you cannot expect better treatment from others if you do not give it to them first?

Gamble on a win-win process. Plant the action-seeds you want to reap in ten years Dead or Alive - You Cannot Lose.

61

Where Do I Begin My Spiritual Journey

What Is My Next Step? Two of the Most Important Considerations Here and Now

Two of the most important considerations to accept as you begin the next step in your spiritual journey is the Here and the Now. Accepting these two considerations shows you right where you have to look for your next in your spiritual journey. There is only here and now. There is no there, there is only here. There is no then, there is only now (to the one contemplating the here and there and the now and then). Instead of asking what is wrong or what did I do wrong, only ask what can I do now. What you do now is more important than all you have ever done. You cannot change one part or parcel of what you have done but you can choose more wisely now and do what you know or think should be done here and now. You cannot do anything at any time other than now or at any place other than here. Right where you are, right now. Therefore you need to look right in front of you to see what the next step is for you to do. It might be to sleep, to read a book, to get a drink, to get some food, to call someone, to think about whatever thoughts pass through your mind without getting attached to any one thought or one thought chain. Perhaps it will mean picking up the paperclip that has been laying in front of you for two weeks already. You have been meaning to pick it up but just never got around to it. However, it is continuing to distract your thoughts over and over and over begging to be put away. Pick it up, put it away and it will never distract your thoughts again. Then do the next thing in front of you to do. Perhaps it is to put away a piece of paper that was under the paperclip. One time, not long ago, I lost my wallet and my house keys. Actually, I did not lose them. I just did not remember where I had last placed them. They
62

were somewhere in my house but even though I looked and looked for two weeks, I could not find them. One day, I gave up trying to find them using whatever powers I thought I had to help me find them. I said to God, I give up. I do not know where else to look. I have looked everywhere they could possibly be. After I gave up and said a little prayer, I said I guess I should practice what I preach. I looked behind me in my home office and saw a paperclip on a desk. I had been meaning to put the paper clip away for at least a couple of weeks but kept putting it off. I thought I might as well put it away. I went over, picked it up and put it in the paper clip dispenser. Then I said, Now what? I looked and under where the paper clip had been was a piece of paper that I had been meaning to file. I picked up the piece of paper and guess what? BOTH my keys and my wallet had been under the paper clip and the paper for the two weeks it had just taken me to put the paper clip and the piece of paper where they should go. There is always something in front of you that you can do - always. You may not think it is important. I definitely did not think my wallet and keys were under the paperclip. The paper clip seemed so minor a thing. It did not take up much room at all. The importance of any step might not be known until weeks later after you take the step. It might take weeks or months for you to realize the importance of something as simple as putting a paperclip away. Once you do what is in front of you to do, there will always be another thing in front of you that you can do. Just keep doing what is front of you to do and you will be on your way up the mountaintop of truth and righteousness - the eternal journey of spirituality. God puts in your heart the dreams for your future. Let God show you the steps here and now. These are two of the most important considerations in your spiritual journey: The here and the now. The here and the now is the only place and the only time you can do ANYTHING, ANYWHERE. You can never do anything at any other place or any other time. Your spiritual journey begins with the next step in the here and the now. Choose wisely because your choice will determine the next choice when the next step is in the here and now. And if your eyes are open, you will always see the next step in the here and the now even if it is just moving a simple paperclip. Do What Is In Front Of You To Do In The Here and In The Now The Here and the Now. Simple. Now Walk the Path Here and Now.

63

THE CHRIST CANNOT BE BORN IN YOU

The Christ cannot be born in you. The Christ has been with you, in you and working through you since time began and will continue to be with you, in you and working through you for all eternity. When you are first conscious of the Holy Spirit in you, you might think it was just born in you. What you call the birth is the moment that you first become aware of the Holy Spirit working through you. What is the Christ? Simple, the Christ is the intelligent energy radiating from the Source or God that both permeates and is expressing as the universe. The Christ is another name for the Holy Spirit, the first emanation of Omnipresent God. Remember, we are attempting to describe an Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent reality using finite symbols called words. We can only say- it is like this, it is like that. We can never say exactly what it is because no word can express or encompass infinity. Infinity is always one step ahead of any attempt to communicate it in words, pictures, symbols, images, similes, metaphors or approximations. Now that that is said, here a few attempts:

First is Omnipresence of God. Second is the first emanation of God - which is the Christ Third comes crystallized emanation you, me and everything that is manifested Omnnipresence.

Another way to see it is First comes the Lake. Second comes the little stream of water leading away from the Lake. Third is the little pond that is both the creation of and fed by the little stream that is leading away from the Lake. The little pond is completely one with the lake and is totally all that the stream is, nothing more and nothing less.

64

A third way to see it is First is an electrical power station - God. Second comes the electricity or energy directed through electrical wires. Third comes the light bulb radiating the energy traveling through the electrical wire that comes from the source of the energy. We are the light bulbs. The light which we bring into the world is God, manifesting as the Holy Spirit or the Christ. The spirit-humans who say you have to allow the Christ to be born in you are implying that the Christ is not always in you, that it is somewhere else and you have to allow a seed to be planted and allow it to grow and sort of take over your mind and body. Or they are implying that the Christ is outside of your body and you have to open a door and let it in, and then allow it to take over your mind and body. Once we accept the truth of the Omnipresence of God, then all you have to do is understand that the Universal Intelligence that we call God is ALWAYS expressing through you and as you. You could not exist without this truth. If we accept the Omnipresence of God, then how could God or the Christ ever be somewhere else but in the most innermost core of your total existence? The word Holy Spirit actually means Whole Breath. Holy means Whole and Spirit, from the Latin Spiritus, means Breath. It is even written in one of the major religious books in the world that God made man in the image and likeness of God and then Breathed the breath of life into him. According to this story of the birth of man, which is accepted by Jews, Christians and Moslems, we cannot live at all without the breath of God. Then they somehow try to separate us from the breath of God. Our only choice in living is to either be open to the Christ, the emanation of God, expressing through creation and us, or to resist the Intelligent Energy and try to do things our way. However, regardless of whether we are open or resist, we cannot exist with this Intelligent Energy. We cannot even complain about God without God helping us move our lips.

65

The Christ is just a symbol to be used for the understanding and communication of how the Universe works through us. The problem with all symbols and all myths is the tendency of spirit-humans to begin to give to the symbol or the myth the power and the reality that the symbol or the myth only hints at. It is written that the spirit-human called Jesus told his followers that he must go, that he must leave them in order for the Holy Spirit to be with them. He did not want to leave but he understood that the spirit-humans at the time gave him the power that was Gods and they claimed he was the reality that even Jesus said was not his or him. Until his physical form left the earth, the spirit-humans could not get closer to knowing the essence of God that was already in them attempting to work through them. They made a God out of Jesus, and kept looking outside of themselves for salvation instead of within themselves where Jesus said God was to be found. Jesus was a Way-Shower of the reality of Omnipresent God. A spiritual way-shower is one who shows us the way to truly be as we already are The Sons and Daughters of God. We are the Sons and the Daughters of God. The Holy Spirit or the Christ does not have to be, and cannot be born into us, it is always in us attempting to express the will of Omnipresent God through us as us. We just have to get out of the way and do our best to ride the wave of the will of God By and For the Glory of God.

The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit God, You and I, and the Energy connecting and holding it all together.

66

THE FOUR STEPS TO YOUR ATONEMENT

The Union of God and You.

There are four steps to your enlightenment of your at-one-ment, or SelfConsciousness Unity with Omnipresence. One The sacrifice of whatever you hold most dear in this Earthly life you are experiencing. Two The cleansing of any impurities of your body and mind. Three The eating and drinking of only pure thoughts and pure foods. Not going back to the unclean things. Four Your Atonement your existential experience of your oneness with the Universal Self, the Omnipresence of God.

The first step is the sacrifice of whatever you hold most dear in this life other than your relationship with the Omnipresent Spirit you call God.. Be it mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, dog, cat, hair, even what you think is life itself your physical body. This is the most visceral sacrifice you can imagine. Visceral meaning as close as the blood of your body coursing through your veins. This does not mean that you HAVE to sacrifice what is most dear to you. This just means that you must be willing to sacrifice what is most dear to you. One example is the story of Abraham being told by God that he must kill his most beloved son in order to prove he did not love his son more than he loved God. With a heavy heart, he led his son onto a mountain, tied him to a sacrificial alter and raised his hand with a dagger in it to kill his son. I am sure his eyes were flowing with tears at that moment. Right as he was going to kill his son, an angel of God stopped him and told him that he was not to

67

harm his son. God just wanted to know that he truly loved God more than his son. Another example is the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was struggling with the desire of god that he willingly give up his earthly life and die on the cross. Jesus is written to have had the power to heal the sick and the maimed. He is written to have had the power to raise the dead. He is written to have had the power to change water into wine. He is written to have the power to calm the angry sea. Even when he was arrested, he had the power to put the ear back on of the arresting soldiers when one of the followers of Jesus raised his sword and cut it off. He had all this power and yet God was asking him to willingly submit to being arrested, tortured and be killed by being nailed on a cross. This was really asking a lot of him. However, he showed what true commitment to the will of God means. He showed that he did not put any of the powers and gifts God had given him in front of his love of God. He is written to have said, God, if you are willing, take this cup from me. However, if it is your will, then it is your will, not my will, but your will that will be done. I will do whatever you desire and I will do it wherever you desire I do it. We also have to be willing to sacrifice even our earthly life for the Glory of God. This does not mean that we HAVE to sacrifice our life We just have to be willing to do it. Be careful however, because once we say we are willing to sacrifice all we hold dear to us for the Glory of God, you have made a date with Lucifer, Gods purity tester. When you least expect it, desire it or want it, Lucifer will definitely come and pay you a visit. Lucifer will say, Oh Yeah? What about this? What about that? Are you truly willing to sacrifice it for the glory of God? Lets see what we shall see.

This is one time that the second step might help us in achieving the first step. This is because most of our attachments to what we call the physical are mental, sexual and food related.

The second step is the cleansing of any impurities of your body and mind. For you, the spirit, to truly see and hear the voice and will of god, your vehicle of perception, your body, needs to be a clean vehicle of spiritual communication.

68

This is accomplished through prayer and fasting. Fasting to cleanse the years and years of bad foods you have eaten from your body. Prayer to let go of the old dirty mental habits that are clouding your clear perception of spiritual communications of the Universal Spirit.

The third step is the eating and drinking of only pure thoughts and pure foods. Once you have cleansed, have purified your vehicle of perception, your mind and your body of unclean thoughts and substances, then you must not going back to the unclean things. You must continually feed your mind and your body with thoughts and foods that will glorify the Divine Omnipresent reality of God. You must be motivated by the all-consuming hunger and thirst for Knowledge of the Will of God and the awareness of how to express Gods Will at each and every moment of your existence.

The fourth step is your actual Atonement, your actual experience of your Oneness with the Universal Self and the Omnipresence of God. The time frame for achieving your Atonement is as different for different spirit-humans as there are, ever was and ever will be, different spirithumans. However, once you have sacrificed, fasted, prayed and walked the path of spiritual purity for a while, the time will come when you will cross the threshold of what seems to divide the finite from the Infinite. You will not even be aware that the next moment will be your At-One-Ment experience. You will all of a sudden find yourself experiencing what some religions have called Atonement, Enlightenment, Samadhi, Satori, the Christ Consciousness, or any of many other names for the same experience - Your self-realization of your Oneness with the Universal Self. Whatever you wish to call it, your at-one-ment experience is your realization of the non-dualistic nature of Omnipresence. It is a state of awareness in which you become aware of your oneness with the Universal Self as though you just woke up from sleeping and you awakened into being the consciousness of God looking through you - as you. You are, at that moment of your at-one-ment, aware that you are truly the ONE BEING, who is
69

EXISTING THROUGH you, BEING you, AS you. AT THE SAME MOMENT, you are aware of BEING the one, who is being lived through, by the BEING who is living through all that are BEING lived through. Another way to understand your relationship with God is to think of you as Being the Middle, the Interface, between God Infinite and God Finite, God the Source and Manifested God the Flesh. Sort of like you have your arms stretched straight out from each side of you. It is like the Energy of God, the Source, is coming into your body through your outstretched right arm and hand, traveling through the center of your body and the center of you, and leaving your body through your outstretched left arm and hand. We are like electrical wires and God is the electrical current flowing though us. We are intelligent electrical wires that can influence the direction of the electricity as it leaves us. We are like a fire hose directing water from the fire hydrant to whatever place God desires the water to go. The difference is we do not need the fireman because we are an intelligent hose that can influence the direction the water is going when it leaves us. That is about the closest I can come, right now, to explaining the NONDUALISTIC DUALITY of the Eternal Nature of our BEINGNESS. If you are totally confused with the above two paragraphs, then let me remind you that words can never fully express the nature of God. They will lead you to the doorway of the Infinite. However, to cross the threshold of the doorway of the Infinite to experience your Oneness with God, words, by their very nature of being by-products and tools of consciousness, cannot enter with you. All words, thoughts and ideas must be left, dropped, and released at the doorway, without any thought that they are even being released. It will be as if words never existed in the first place. If you are thinking about Oneness, then you are not experiencing the Oneness. You are either one in consciousness with the Universal Self or you are not. Words are by-products of consciousness, they are not consciousness. Once, when I was living this atonement experience, I remember that the moment I said to myself, This is incredible. I must check this out more, that the experience went away like it had never been real. But when I was living it, it was more real than anything around me seems to be real as I
70

write these words. When I lived it, I was the experience. As soon as I thought about it, the experience would disappear. It has always been the same. I live the experience. After living it, I have a memory of an experience so incredible that it still almost takes my breath away to think about it.

The Atonement is the Realization of the Universal Self as Your Self. You Are the Interface of God Infinite and God Finite The Universal Self the Oneness of US.
The UNION of God and You.

71

Why We Are On Earth

We are here for our contribution to the totality of creation. We are here to learn to be better contributors to the totality of creation. We learn to be better contributors by our experiences and the lessons we derive from our experiences. We can only truly know what we have done to another by having it done unto us. When we think we can learn by just observing and not having it done unto us, we are missing the awareness of the other side of our action to another. If we hit someone in the nose, unless we get hit in the nose for a similar reason we will not really know what we did. We will not really know what the other spirit-human felt when we hit them in the nose. Using the nose is just an example. Perhaps we will get hit in the back of the head for the same reason that we hit someone in the nose. Hitting in the nose and getting hit in the back of the head are just different ways the intention of the heart is passed from one to another. The core of the lesson we are receiving is just wearing different clothes than what the clothes worn by the action we did to someone else. In order to truly know what we have done to another, we must experience what the other felt when we did what we did to him or her. God does not punish God educates. When we do not like the way our education is being offered to us we call it punishment. God has tried to teach us in gentler ways but we either did not listen or just continued to put off applying the lesson. God then has to make our lesson stronger, heavier or more painful in order to get our attention. Spiritual truths that are true here and now - always true here and now - are eternal truths that we take with us when we depart this Earthly dimension because the Omnipresent essence of God is the same everywhere and every time. Remember - it is always here and it is always now wherever we are and whenever it is it is always here and it is always now. The truths that are true here and now will still be truth when the future becomes here and now regardless of where we find our self aware of being aware.

72

Every single part of the universe, regardless of how large or how small exists for its' contribution to the evolution of the universe. All parts exist for the benefit of the universe; the universe does not exist for the benefit of the parts that make it up. When we think something in the universe exists for our benefit, it is really only there to help us do what the universe desires of us. The universe gives birth to many times more entities than will ever survive. This is to insure that some will survive. Look at all the sperm that go after one egg. In some species, the mother lays 1,000 eggs to every 5 that survive. The bee collects more pollen than is necessary to fertilize the flowers to insure that some get fertilized. It is the same with people. Many people are born with similar potentials to insure that at least one of them fulfills his or her programming of potential. There is a genetic programming in every cell that continually tries to express its programming. It must find expression, even if the expression will be a perverted expression. Our genetic program continually attempts to do its' only function - express. An expression or manifestation of itself in the physical realm of existence. It is continually radiating impulses from the center of its being. As there is a program for each cell, there is a collective program for the whole body and there is a collective for the whole of spirit-humanity. Many spirit-people are born to be the builders of society, the sustainers of society, the painters of society, the clean-uppers of society, the questioners of society, the sages of society, the record-keepers of society, the catalysts of society, the healers of society, the mothers of society, and so on for every contribution that is needed for a society. Some architects can design skyscrapers. Some architects can design doorways. The grandness of the contribution is determined by what the spirit-person can handle in consciousness. As an analogy, some electrical wires can handle 110 volts of current. Put 220 volts through the wire and it will very quickly burn out. Once the wire is burned out, we cannot get any more use of the wire for carrying electrical current. We may be able to use the wire for a rope, but never for current again. God would not burn up everybody by giving them more than they could handle or God would run out of people to work through. This programming of potential impulse is responsible for a lot of our dreams and aspirations. At each moment the programming is trying to persuade us to

73

fulfill its' inherent potential. What impulse are you feeling? What impulse have you denied because you say you could never do such a thing? What recurring dream, either while asleep or awake have you pushed aside? Perhaps the day-dream is showing you what you could do. What would it hurt to give it a change and advance confidently in the direction of your dreams. If they come true, great. If you never try, they definitely will never come true. Some spirit-humans are in so much pain that the best God can get out of them is to use them to bring an education to another spirit-person who needs a little jump-start in their spiritual growth. However, the spirit-person who brought some pain in order to stimulate another spirit-human's growth will have to eventually be educated as to the error of their ways even though God used them for the best good God could get out of them at the time. Again, we are here for our contribution to the matrix of what is and what God desires to manifest. We are also here to learn to be better contributors to the matrix of what is and what God desires to manifest. Even our bodily death is a contribution to the desire of God. The way we experience the death of our Earthly body is also a lesson for our growth in ability to be a better contributor to creation and the unfolding of the desire of the Universal Spirit. The way we our Earthly body dies and how it affects our friends, family and even enemies also contributes to their growth in ability to contribute to creation. Everything in the Universe is here for the use and purpose of the Universe. The Universe is not here for us we are here for the Universe. Two examples of how even what we enjoy is not here for our enjoyment but feels good for the benefit of Omnipresence are: Food tastes good not for our gluttony but to make sure we eat it so we do not die of starvation. Sex feels good, not for us to party with a sex-partner or for our selfmasturbation but to make sure that spirit-humans will put up with each other long enough for more spirit-babies to be born to continue the spirit-human aspect of Omnipresence.

74

Then food tastes good to the spirit-baby so the spirit-babies live long enough to have sex, which feels good, to produce more spirit-babies for the purposes of Omnipresence. There is a DNA to the infinite as there is a DNA to our mortal form. The DNA of the infinite is eternal and will always be expressing the core purpose - the knowing of itself - infinite self-awareness. We are that existentialistic self-awareness - eternally evolving and eternally being that which is eternally being. We are Eternal Points of view and Eternal Viewing Points in the infinite Mind of God. We are Eternal Points of Reference and Eternal Reference Points in the Infinite Mind of God. We are here to learn, to gain wisdom through trial and error, to become greater and greater conductors of the Universal Intelligence and Energy of Omnipresence. We are here to become more and more aware of our oneness with Omnipresence. We are here By and For the Glory of God.

We Are Here To BE Conduits for the Self-Awareness of God, To BE Conduits for the Eternal Expression of the Desire of God, And to Learn to BE Better and Better Conduits Of the Glory of God.

75

Growing Through the Eggshell of Our Consciousness

The simplicity of truth is its profundity. The profundity of truth is its simplicity.

Very Simple

Applying this simplicity in our minute to minute living is where the struggle comes into play.

Our eternal spiritual growth reminds me of a chicken in the eggshell before it hatches into the new world of the barnyard. It feels very comfortable within the confines of it's world, it's life support system - it's eggshell consciousness. If you told it that once it breaks through the comfort of it's eggshell of awareness it would enjoy a greater world, the barnyard, other chickens, roosters, corn to eat - it would call you crazy. However, unless it does eventually break through the life support system that is the eggshell - it will surely die. If you help it break through, it will die because it did not gain the strength to survive by the effort expended breaking through the eggshell. It must break through the shell, destroy it and walk through the confines of the eggshell to experience more of what life has to offer the little chicken.

76

It is the same with our spiritual growth. Unless you are willing to struggle and grow through your present self-identity, are willing to challenge your cherished ideas, beliefs and thought patterns, and are willing to grow through a continuing rebirth of evolving self-awareness - you will not achieve the spiritual potential available to you during this lifetime your are presently experiencing. For you to grow spiritually to the highest degree possible to you in this lifetime on earth, to be the best of what you really are, a spirit in a material world, a spirit that God works through, a spirit in a world of infinite educational value to you in your spiritual journey requires your willingness to let who you THINK you are die. You are SPIRIT in a MENTALMATERIAL world. You do not have a spirit - you are a spirit who has a body. The matrix of identity that you have built since you were born into this Earth phase of your spiritual evolution is not you. Your relationship with the body that you think is you is very real. However, you are not the body (human) you think is you. You must desire spiritual growth enough that you are literally "willing to die for it". I am not saying you HAVE to die for spiritual growth. I am saying you must not hold what you call your "human life" as more important than your spiritual growth. You must not make your "human identity" your "false idol or your golden calf". You must love GOD, THE ALL IN ALL THAT IS ALL, more than what you call your "human life and your human relationships". Regardless of how young you are; Regardless of how healthy you are - each day you live brings you one day closer to experiencing the death of your body. What you see in the mirror is not the true "you", but the physical vehicle you are using for this part of your eternal journey through the cosmos. Since most of your experience on this earthly plane of existence has been through the sense organs of the human body, an illusion of "humanidentity" has become your sense of self-identity. Do not get attached to this illusion and believe that what you see is what you are. This belief and attachment to the human-identity gets in the way of spiritual self-knowledge. All I ask of you is that you are willing to completely immerse yourself in the spiritual-struggle. As long as you willingly struggle with whatever you encounter in your spiritual growth - then you will grow. The willingness to do the struggle, to walk the path, ensures your growth as sure as the struggle

77

of the chicken to break through the eggshell of it's consciousness ensures it the strength to continue to grow in the new world it will find itself. Your struggle, your growth-path will be unique to you - but our destination is the same for all of us - eternal awareness and direct experience of God. Look at your spirit-struggle as a grand adventure. It is the grandest adventure in the infinite cosmos. The only adventure for you that will never die. Only your self-illusion of human-identity will die. As long as you want spiritual growth as much as the thirsty person in the desert wants water - then let's go. Let us share the spiritual journey as much as we can. If we each learn just one thing from each other that helps us in our individual spiritual adventure - then we have given each other a priceless gift - a most holy gift.

78

BE - DO - HAVE
BE what you wish to Do. Do what you wish to HAVE. Then you will find that what you HAVE is what you are DO-ing and what you are BE-ing. The way to BE-come what you wish to BE-come is to BE that which you wish to BE-come. You cannot have something unless you are doing something to have something. Therefore you must first BE something in order to DO something, in order to HAVE something. Three simple steps to create what you want. However, this does necessarily mean these three steps will get you the house you want. It does not mean they will get you the lover you want. It does not mean that you will get any of the trappings of life that the TV commercials say will make your life a paradise on Earth. You might get all these things and even more, but this is not what it is all about. It is about being, doing and having what God has planted in your heart. It is BE-ing and DO-ing what you are here to BE and DO. Many are born to BE architects. Some can design doorways. Some can design the tallest skyscrapers. Whether you design doorways, small houses or skyscrapers depends on what you bring to the expression of the dream both mentally and emotionally. Both types of architects are needed but each must find their own individual expression of their dream of potential within the limitations of their own dream, their abilities and desires. We each have our unique leaning toward manifesting our individual contribution to the eternal manifestation of the Holy Spirits own desire for us. Within each cell of our body is a blueprint called our DNA. It tells the cell what its life purpose is to be whether it is to be a nose cell, a hair cell, a blood cell, a brain cell, and so on and so on. What we call our physical body is like a computer printout of this DNA. In the center of your consciousness, in the center of your heart there is a DNA dream trying to express itself in the material world, a seed trying to bear fruit into the real world. This DNA blueprint of potential has a strong influence on the possibilities of your contribution to the unfolding of Gods DNA, the universal manifestation of Gods desire. We feel this DNA of potential through the urges and the dreams we usually have been afraid to go after. At a young age, usually in our teenage years, we decided to put our dreams into a locked box, put this locked box containing our dreams into a safe place until a better time to open it and live the dreams in the box. We said we
79

would open the box later in life, after we finished school, after we got married, after we got the job we need in order to give us the time to go after what we really want in life, after our children grow up, after we put our years into the job we really did not like doing in order to retire with a pension when we would have more time to devote to our locked-up dream. No matter how long this locked box of our potential manifestation in this Earth dimension of our spiritual journey has been locked, cared for and kept in a safe place, we still feel the urges. Most are on their death bed thinking of what they never opened their locked dream-box and lived what they always said they would do in their life. They are sad they will never see the box open and experience the manifestation of their potential destiny, their potential contribution to the universal process that would fulfill their greatest desires and dreams. Now, as their soon-to-end Earth-life experience is making all too clear they will NEVER really live. Sure they had fun times, they love their children and grandchildren, they liked the retirement party after 20, 30 and 40 years on a job, but they NEVER really did what THEY really, really wanted to do. Before we find ourselves on our own death-bed, and while we still seem to have some time left of this Earthly part of our eternal spiritual journey, the only way to open the locked-box of our innermost dreams and desires is expressed in the following ways. BE DO-HAVE You cannot do what you are not already BE-ing. You must BE that which you wish to do. Do and Do and do and eventually you will have what you wish to have. Remember, what you wish to HAVE is really to BE DO-ing what you wish to BE and DO. However, since the NOW is the only time you can do or have anything, you must BE what you wish to BE right HERE and right NOW. BE as much as you can BE what you wish to BE each and every moment of your life and your little steps at BE-ing will BE-come bigger steps at BEing. Each time you BE, you are actually DO-ing what you wish to DO. The expression, in tiny, tiny steps, of this DO-ing might seem very minor or very small but you are DO-ing what you wish to DO. Like a lawyer graduating from Law School. When first graduating, they might call themselves a lawyer but it is by BE-ing a lawyer over many years that they finally BEcome the lawyer they dreamed of BE-coming.
80

BE, BE, BE. Then you will get BE-tter, BE-tter and BE-tter. Even the word BE-tter has the action BE as its foundation. BE-tter. The word BE-come has the word BE as its foundation. BE-come. A child wants to BE-come a great baseball player. He or he swings at the ball as a child, getting BE-tter and BE-tter at swinging at the ball and hitting the ball. Eventually the child BE-comes a respected baseball player. How did this happen to a child who was not a baseball player? Simple, the child played at BE-ing a baseball player. Actually the child was at each moment that he or she played at BEing a baseball player, in the childs very limited ability, a baseball player. Only by BE-ing and BE-ing and BE-ing a baseball player did the child get BE-tter and BE-tter and BE-tter. Only by BE-ing did the child DO and finally HAVE the recognition of BE-ing a great baseball player. In the BEing you BE-come. The only way to BE-come a basketball player is to BE a basketball player. Dribble, dribble, dribble. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Dribble, dribble, dribble. Shoot, shoot, shoot. BE, BE, BE. Be-come, BE-come, Be-come. The only way to have patience is to BE patient. You cannot have patience without BE-ing patient. Try it. Try to have patience without BE-ing patient. Impossible. The only way to BE-come a dentist is to BE a dentist. At what point of your study, education and practice do you actually BE-come a dentist? When the medical review board says so? They wont say you are a dentist until you already possess the knowledge and skills of a dentist. You dont BE-come a dentist on the day they say you are a dentist. You were a dentist the day you woke up to ask for their approval of your dental ability. Personally, I will probably wait until you get out of dental school and get the dental review boards seal of approval before I let you work on my teeth, but the principle is still the same. All they did is put a stamp of approval of what you already were of what you were already BE-ing. The only way to BE-come a good swimmer is to BE a swimmer. The only difference in treading water and swimming across the pool is in treading water, you are staying ni the same place. However, you are not drowning, therefore you are really swimming. Keep slowly attempting to move your body closer to the edge of the pool and when you get there, then you can say you swam to the edge of the pool.
81

You want to BE a good parent? BE the parent you wish you had. When you are BE-ing the parent, look into your childs eyes and ask yourself, Is my child seeing in front of him or her the parent that I would want to see if I was the child and not the parent? If the answer is yes, then you BE-ing the parent you wish you had. The child will be happy to help you BE-come a BE-tter parent. If your child sees you really trying to BE a BE-tter parent, you will be amazed at the ways the child will encourage you to BE BE-tter and BE-tter. You want to be a nicer person? BE a nice person and you will BE-come a nicer person. You cannot BE-come a nicer person without BE-ing a nice person, one little step at a time. Attract what you want in life by thinking it. What your thoughts are BE-ing will BE what your actions BE-come. You must plant the seeds you want to grow. Your thoughts create your future. Whatever you focus on you will get more of. Focus on BE-ing grateful and you will find you have more things for which to BE grateful. I do not want to BE overweight anymore is focusing on BE-ing overweight. Focus on BE-ing slimmer and you will be led to do the things that will make you slimmer. See yourself in the mirror BE-ing 2 ounces slimmer and your mind will attempt to help you get another 2 ounces slimmer. If you do not listen to it when it is trying to help you, then it will let you and even help you get fatter and fatter. It only wants to do what you want it to do. What you repeat more than other thoughts will tell it what you really want it to think more about. What your thoughts BE will determine what your thoughts BE-come. What your thoughts BE-come will determine what your actions BE-come. Everything has a frequency and frequencies harmonize and resonate Desire, BE-lieve and then expect it to happen. However, it will ony happen if you BE-lieve, BE and DO.

82

Feel it, see it, hear it, taste it, smell it. Energy flows where attention goes BE grateful to the point that tears of gratefulness stream down your cheeks and you will GET more understanding of what you have to BE grateful - you will HAVE more gratitude and you will BE more happy with life and living. Most misunderstand the meaning of what they want, truly want. Most of their wants are planted and conditioned by the media and advertisers. What are the innermost desires of your BE-ing? What is in your locked box of desire? This moment Is the Necessary Instant of Self-Awakening to BE As "you" Are. BE DO- HAVE - just three simple steps to create what you want. BE-lieve that you are and then Receive more of what you are. However, very often the first step, BE-lieve, can BE the most difficult one. And yet it is the greatest step you will ever take. When you master BE-lieving, you have mastered your life. To master BE-lieving, all you have to do is tip the balance of your thoughts, words, and actions, from Not BE-lieving to BE-lieving. The ONLY thing that can ever get in the way of manifesting what is in your locked box of DNA desire, of what you TRULY want, is having more thoughts of Not Believing', speaking more words of Not BE-lieving, and taking more actions of Not Believing, than you are of BElieving. Base the majority of your thoughts, words, and actions in BE-lieving, and the law of BE-ing must oBEy you. BE THAT which you wish to receive. Everything is energy, a field of energy. Like vibrations attract each other. Unlike vibration repel each other. You want your home to BE a certain way? Then go through Your home and write out all the things that irritate you. Then make a list of how you would

83

like them to BE. Then make the time to, one step at a time, make the irritations what you want them to BE. By picking up the piece of paper that is on the floor as you go up the stairs is part of the BE-ing that will make your home what you want it to BE. The temptation is to overlook the piece of paper. Stop immediately BE-ing and DO-ing that which you do not want your home to BE. STOP IMMEDIATELY AND BE AND DO WHAT YOU WANT YOUR HOME TO BE. Change your actions immediately and BE that which you wish to see manifest in your home. As you start to walk over the tiny piece of paper on the floor, pick the piece of paper up and on the way to your bed, when you pass a little trash can, throw it in and you look behind you where the piece of paper was. It is no longer there. You home is on the way to BE-ing that which you wish it to BE. Simple isnt it? Intellectual, financial, relational, physical, spiritual success focus on the tiniest steps of BE-ing these dreams and desires regardless of what is happening in your life. In the smallest steps imaginable, the largest habits form. Form the habits you want to have by BE-ing and Doing, in the smallest of steps that you most definitely CAN DO toward manifesting the LARGE RESULT of what you want to BE and DO. Remember, the smallest steps of DO-ing what you want to do is still DO-ing what you want to do. If you are BE-ing and DO-ing it in your mind, visualizing BE-ing and DO-ing, your mind BE-lieves you are DO-ing it and will find ways to manifest it in your actions and outward experience.. Consistent persistence in BE-ing that which you wish to BE is the only way to Do what you want to Do and the only way to HAVE what you want to HAVE. What else can I say? BE DO- HAVE SIMPLE

84

COMMITTMENT

This missive is very simple. Commitment means moving through a door of change through which you do not intend to return. Do not look back. Focus on moving forward. You thought about it and decided that you wanted to commit to whatever course of action or course of thinking you felt was worth the commitment. Do it. Enough said?

85

God Desires the Conviction of Your Heart

Since every spirit-human is free to satisfy his-her desires and to choose hisher endeavors, he-she is held accountable when he-she does not fulfill the tasks of which he-she is capable. It is your responsibility to turn good intentions into good deeds. Spirit-Humans performances of what he-she knows he-she should do must be perfect in order that he-she be worthy of reward. Similarly, every SpiritHuman must live his-her prayers. Innermost feelings and emotions are not substitutes for living the prayer which comes from your lips. If you do not live your prayer, you really have not prayed. You must live your life as an on-going prayer. If you dont believe there is a God who hears your prayers, then do not pray. If you do believe there is a god that hears your prayers, then do it Pray as if you really believe it by living your prayer. Your actions are what count. What you truly believe will be reflected in your actions.

86

THE SECRET OF ALCHEMY

Changing Lead Into Gold

Alchemy means to change a base metal into a precious metal. It means to change something plain and ordinary into something beautiful and incredible. The word derives from an old French and from the Arabic meaning the art of transformation. In the seventeenth century the name of the practice called alchemy was changed to chemistry. Alchemy, or the transmutation, the changing of one thing into a more special thing, comes from the ancient chemists and sorcerers. It meant two things. One was the material meaning of changing common metals into gold. The spiritual meaning was of achieving ultimate wisdom leading to immortality. What sprit-humans do not realize is first and foremost, alchemy was a spiritual discipline and the material aspects were metaphors for spiritual realities and transformations. The alchemical process is a spiritual process, not what we call a material process. The transmutation was referring to the alchemy of the mind, not of what we call ordinary matter. However, when we apply the secret of alchemy to our mind, what we call material changes also. Remember, the essence of everything we call physical matter is an manifestation of a spiritual reality. One way I explain the key to transmutation is with what I call the Two Incredibles. Truly comprehend the Two Incredibles and you will know and have the keys to transmutation of the ancient alchemists. The first incredible is the existence of ANYTHING at all. The existence of ANYTHING at all ANYWHERE in the perceived universe is truly BEYOND what the word Incredible can even express. It makes more sense that there is NOTHING at ALL. It makes more sense that there is nothing, never was anything and never will be anything. No God, No time, No space, no matter. Time and space alone are even beyond the ability of the word incredible to express. The second incredible is that you have had a chance to experience ANYTHING at ALL.

87

If you were not aware of existing, of being aware of being aware, you would not know of anything, and nothing, nothing at all would matter to you as you would not even exist to have anything matter. You would NOT EVEN KNOW you DID NOT KNOW. The second most incredible Miracle in the Universe is the simple fact that you are Aware of Being Aware. Truly appreciate your Awareness of Being Aware and you will know the secret of the Alchemists. There will be nothing that is common, ordinary and mundane. There will just be incredible upon incredible perceived through an incredible mind that is incredibly capable of the Awareness of Being Aware. Over 40 years ago I married. My wife became pregnant. We were so happy. One day after we were married two months, I woke up and found her dead in the bed next to me. She had died in her sleep of an overdose of drugs. She had a smile on her dead face, but how could I smile? I was devastated. How could I go on living with both my wife and the pregnancy being taken away from me in the twinkling of an eye. For two years I lived in hell. I cursed every thought and concept of a God, if there was even a God to curse. I looked at someone who had has 30 years of married life and a child or two and I said, Why them and not me? I was robbed. I was cheated. I was let down by everything I had considered God to be. Then one day, after two years of living in hell, I woke up and read about a young man on his way home from his wedding. On the way home, he and his wife were in a car accident. His wife was killed in the accident. He survived. All of a sudden, I had a realization that taught me the secret to alchemy, the key to paradise right here and right now. If I compared my life experience to the married couple of 30 years with the children and the wonderful grandchildren, yes, I was cheated. However, if I compared my life experience to the young man who lost his wife on his wedding day, I was truly blessed. I had two whole months more
88

than he did of the beauty of marriage. I even had a few days of the joy of expecting to have a baby and to be a father. I realized that what happens in life is neither good nor bad. It is what it is. Good and bad are points of view of what is. What I chose to compare my situation in life with, would determine whether I viewed my situation in life as a blessing or a curse. I would choose what to call my experience based on what I choose to compare my experience. Based on these thought of comparison, I will experience the emotions of blessings or curses, of heaven of hell. Whatever the situation is, we are the ones who choose what we compare it to. If you truly appreciate how incredible just the awareness of being aware is, then how can you curse life? Without the awareness of being aware, you would know of nothing. You would not even know that you did not know. Ugh, what a horrible thought. A friend of mine was paralyzed when he was 12 years old when he was bicycling and a car hit him. He was a quadriplegic for over 10 years. This means he did not have the use of either of his hands, arms or legs. In fact, the only thing he had the power to move was his eyeballs and his eyelids. After 10 years of therapy, he finally was able to walk again using crutches and leg braces. He wobbled and jerked side to side when he was walking but he was walking. One night we were having something to eat at a restaurant and I said to him, Johnny, what was the worst part of being paralyzed for ten years? The simplicity of his answer really surprised me. He said to me, The worse part of it was when I felt an itch and I could not scratch it. And I could not even tell anyone that I had an itch and beg them to scratch it. I had to just lie in the bed and suffer through waiting until the itch went away. Every time I tell this story, even now as I am writing this, I start to get one or more itches. Excuse me while I quickly scratch them. Whew, I just had five places on my body that were itching. What pleasure it just was to scratch them. Can you imagine going for ten years having to live through every itch in every place on your body imaginable? Wow, what a terrible thought.

89

Truly appreciate how incredible it is that you have the ability to scratch your itches and you will be well on your way to understanding the secrets of alchemy and being able to turn the key to the transmutation of all that you experience into a divine experience. I just had to scratch a few more times. Have you ever heard of Helen Keller? She was deaf and blind by the time before she was two years old. She actually graduated from Radcliff with a BA degree and wrote ten books. A little poem I say to myself every day helps me to keep this sense of appreciation in my mind is: They say the sky is a pretty blue. They say the sky is a pretty green. But what is blue, And what is green, To a child who has never seen?

To sum it up, here it is in a nutshell. Say it out loud as you read it. Every time you say it, you turn the key a little further in the lock opening your own transmutation or process of spiritual transformation.

90

I BELIEVE my appreciation of two great incredible is the key to paradise.

The first great incredible is THE EXISTENCE -- OF ANYTHING AT ALL.

The second great incredible is MY AWARENESS -- OF ANYTHING AT ALL.

Whenever I appreciate these two great incredibles, Everyday experience becomes divine experience.

Every breath I take Every step I make Every thought I think Every drink I drink

IS INCREDIBLE

91

EACH RELIGION IS A WAY

EACH RELIGION IS A WAY TO VIEW SPIRIT-HUMANITY'S RELATIONSHIP TO AND WITH GOD

There are universal laws and truths that are explained in different ways by different religions. When a person finds A WAY of viewing his or her relationship to and with THE UNIVERSE that works for him or her, then he or she usually insists that his or her religion is "THE WAY". In truth, his or her religion is only A WAY OF VIEWING his or her relationship to and with THE UNIVERSE that works for him or her. THE ALL IN ALL THAT IS ALL, what most religions call GOD, is like a pot of gold at the top of a mountain. Human beings are like mountain climbers trying to reach the top of the mountain. A person can start climbing the mountain from the north side. He or she can start climbing from the south side. He or she can try to reach the top of the mountain from the east side or the west side. Any direction we start to climb the mountain will eventually lead to the top. Some roads to the top of the mountain are more slippery than other roads. A few of the paths may be dead-ends. If we keep an open mind, we can even learn from the dead-ends. Some people may start out on the north side of the mountain and make it all the way to the top. Others may start out on the north side and have to finish the climb on the west side. This does not prove that either the north side or the west side was a BETTER WAY. The road or path by which the individual finally made it to the pot of gold on the top of the mountain was THE WAY THAT BEST SUITED HIM OR HER! Each religion is trying to get the same pot of gold at the top of the same mountain. The KEY to reaching the top of the mountain is SINCERE DESIRE SINCERELY desiring and intending to reach the top of the mountain. Every religion will help us find GOD if we really, really, really try to find GOD. A
92

person's climbing abilities will determine the path that is BEST FOR HIM OR HER. For example, if a person has only one arm or leg, or is blind, this would limit his or her choice of paths. This means that the best religion for each person will be determined by what HE OR SHE can relate to and/or bring to his or her experience of the religion. A religion is A WAY to help a human being grow spiritually. PHYSICAL PROTEIN is necessary for PHYSICAL GROWTH. Likewise, SPIRITUAL PROTEIN is necessary for SPIRITUAL GROWTH. Each religion is A DIFFERENT WAY to get this SPIRITUAL PROTEIN. Some people can get PHYSICAL PROTEIN by drinking milk. Others cannot drink milk. They get sick every time they drink it. This does not take away from the value of milk as A WAY to get PHYSICAL PROTEIN. This just means that milk can be A GOOD WAY, but NOT the ONLY WAY, and for some people - milk can be A BAD WAY to try to get the PHYSICAL PROTEIN that is necessary for human survival and PHYSICAL GROWTH. It is the same with different religions. One religion will help some people get closer to GOD. The same religion may make other people mentally sick. Each religion is A DIFFERENT WAY to get the SPIRITUAL PROTEIN that is necessary for SPIRITUAL GROWTH. Each person has to use the religion that WORKS FOR HIM OR HER. This will be determined by the thoughts that he or she brings to the religion.

IN CONCLUSION

EACH RELIGION IS: (1) A WAY to help humanity understand the spiritual laws of the UNIVERSE; (2) A WAY to help us work with these spiritual laws that will help us in our life on Earth; (3) A WAY to help us work with these spiritual laws that will help us when we leave our life on Earth;
93

(4) A WAY to help us communicate these spiritual laws and how to live our life in harmony with these spiritual laws to others in the family of spirit-humanity. Each religion attempts this communication using different words, symbols and rituals.

NO SINGLE RELIGION IS THE WAY. EACH RELIGION IS A DIFFERENT WAY TO HELP HUMANITY UNDERSTAND AND WORK WITH GOD

94

Lucifer

Latin for Light Bringer - Bringer of Light The Spiritual Grand Tester It is written, many, many years ago, that there existed a group of angels that had one purpose in existence. Their purpose in life was to protect the holy of holies, the throne of the most high, the Garden of Eden, from impurities entering. In these writings, when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, an angel was stationed at the gate to make sure they could not get back in and eat of the tree of eternal life and mess things up since they had already eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These angels still exist. They are not separate from God. They are aspects of God, parts of God's infinite body, which still do their one job a most important job. This job is to make sure that we do not get more spiritual knowledge than we can handle. People think the world is screwed up today. However, it would be many, many times more screwed up if it was not for these spiritual testers. The Head Tester has been called many names and had many images. Some call it the Devil, Satan, Beelzebub, Belial, Father of Lies, Old Serpent, Adversary, Power of Darkness, Tempter, Wicked One and the one I like the best of all Lucifer. Lucifer is Latin for the Light Bringer or the Light Bearer. Lucifer brings light into our spiritual journey when we need testing and spiritual lessons. Lucifer cannot do anything to us in which we do not agree to participate. We have to dance with the devil or the devil has no power over us. Lucifer cannot kill us. Lucifer can only scare us to death by getting us to believe he CAN kill us. One simple way to think of the Head Tester is the following:

95

Lucifer is like the product quality tester who waits at the end of an assembly line in a factory. If the final product is a toaster, this product quality tester's job is to make sure that the toaster does what it is being sent out into the world to do. This tester makes sure that the toast does not pop out and hit the ceiling. This tester makes sure that when the customer plugs it into an electrical socket that it does not electrocute the customer. This tester is there to make sure that the product can handle the job it is being sent out into the world to do. If the product fails the test, it is either worked on and given another chance or just taken apart and the parts used to make other products. Lucifer is God's Head Spiritual Quality Tester. The moment we say, I have learned my lesson, this is the way I am going to be from now on, we have made a date with Lucifer. We can be on guard as much as we want. However, when we least expect it, we will turn a corner in our journey and Lucifer will be there waiting for us saying, Are you sure? Try this and let's see how ready you are. Let us see how sincere you are? Right now as I write this, Lucifer is planting thoughts in my mind to get me to do something that I said I would not do again. Immediately upon hearing the thought, I have to say, "Get away from me Lucifer". The thoughts keep coming and I keep responding with "get away from me Lucifer". While I am responding this way, I also keep doing what I am doing, writing these thoughts, moving along as if the "thoughts" of Lucifer are a waste of time to even consider. As long as I keep saying "get away from me Lucifer" and inwardly let go of any attachment to what the thoughts are suggesting I do the thoughts diminish for now and I keep continuing on doing whatever I am doing that is in line with unfolding and uplifting spiritual thoughts and actions. It is only when we keep entertaining the "thoughts of Lucifer" that the thoughts get stronger and more seductive. Before you know it, we are doing just what we said we would not be doing. We do what we said we would not do while all along the way have thoughts popping into our thought stream
96

reminding us that we should not be doing this - but we continue anyway once the thoughts seem to take on a life of their own. We seem to just go along for the ride. We think all the thoughts we hear in our mind are our thoughts. This is not true. We have some of our thoughts, some other thoughts are Lucifer's and some other thoughts are the Holy Spirit. We think the most. Lucifer thinks second to us. The Holy Spirit doesn't say much but the thoughts come from the deepest core of our awareness. If you are very watchful of your thoughts, you will be amazed at how incredibly smart and slick some of the thoughts of Lucifer's are in getting us to think that it is our thoughts that we are hearing. In human school, the lessons come before the test. In Spiritual life, the lessons come when we fail the spiritual tests. If we pass the test, we may not even be aware that we had a test. If we fail the test, we will know it and probably know the moment we agreed to dance with Lucifer. If we pass the test, we will be granted more knowledge and the chance to have more intimacy with the Holy of Holies, the Universal Spirit we call God. We will be given more responsibility in unfolding the infinite plan of God. If we believe in an Omnipresent God, then there is nothing but God. There can be no power contrary to God if all is God. There can be no evil force within the Omnipresence of God. There can be only aspects of God, Manifestations of God within God. Everything that exists within the Omnipresence of God has a part to play or it would not be within the Omnipresence that is God. God cannot be against God. God cannot be having a spiritual war with God if God is Omnipresence - all there is, was and therefore ever will be. Spirit-humans tend to call this tester Satan or the Devil either because they do not like the lessons they keep getting dancing with Lucifer or because of some feeling they do like when they dance with Lucifer. Lucifer's dances can be very hormone producing and emotional. The hormones we feel when we are in a passionate embrace with a lover are almost chemically identical to Methadone, a derivative to Heroin. The hormone adrenaline is almost chemically identical to amphetamine or "speed" These two hormones are what some call the "spice of life". There
97

are some spirit-humans who are addicted to what in the drug addict world is called a speed-bomb. This can be a lethal combination of heroin, a downer, and amphetamine or "speed". A downer and an upper. Some spirit-humans say some of the best sex is after a fight. This is just another form of a speed bomb. The fight produces the "upper" and the passionate embrace after the fight produces the "heroin". Regardless of how sincere we are in "doing the right thing", these hormones can seduce even the most sincere seeker of the "Kingdom Of Heaven". These hormones are part of the tools that Lucifer uses to do his/her job. Don't blame the poor Devil for just doing his/her job. A job that Lucifer does so well. Lucifer, God's best product quality tester. The devil does not make you do it. You just choose to dance with the devil.

98

Thinking and the Thought Train

We think we think in words. However, Words are just codifications or symbols of thoughts already thought somewhere between our subconscious and our conscious mind. If you would hook yourself up to a lie detector machine, you would soon notice that the lie detector has a response to your thoughts a fraction of a second before you actually are having the thoughts in your stream of wordthought. This means you actually "thought" the thought before you were conscious of "thinking" the thought. This is how Lucifer, or God's spiritual tester, can influence our behavior. By skillfully planting just the right thought at the right moment, Lucifer can start a stream of thought that will just keep stimulating more and more of the same thoughts. These thoughts then lead to emotional responses that then feed more thoughts of the same nature. Watch your thoughts very closely whenever you are tempted to do what you know you should not be doing. Keep watching and you will become aware of little thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere which incredibly are just the right thoughts at just the right moment to have a good chance at moving you along the path of no return in the direction you do not spiritually want to go. Anytime you dance with these Luciferian thoughts all the way to the end of the music, to the point you said you would not go again, at that moment, listen for another thought. This will be the thought of the Holy Spirit reminding you that you should not have done what you just did. It also reminds you that you KNEW that you should not have been doing what you did while you were doing it. The thoughts of the Holy Spirit are very quiet and matter-of-fact. It states the truth and then shuts up. All you can do is acknowledge the truth and say to yourself, "Yes, I did it again. I will do better next temptation." At this point all you can do is forgive yourself for dancing with Lucifer and make another commitment to do the right thing the next time Lucifer comes calling with a test. The thoughts of Lucifer can come VERY quietly all the way to actually SCREAMING in an attempt to get you to fail the spiritual test. However, at different points during the test, you will be VERY aware that you are

99

starting to dance with Lucifer. At these points of awareness, you will know you can consciously say "NO" to Lucifer, or be very aware that you are choosing to dance more and more with Lucifer during the test. You can almost hear Lucifer laughing at you for your weakness in the face of Lucifer's cleverness. However, the more sincere your desire and commitment is to walk the spiritual right-path, the less Lucifer will be able to influence you to dance at all. We cannot have an emotion without a thought or a stream of thoughts leading up to and stimulating the emotion. It is never the "Devil that made you do it". It is always your choice to continue to entertain the thoughts that influence your emotions. Then your emotions stimulate more of the same thought that stimulated your emotions. The circle of thought, emotion, thought, and emotion just keeps turning faster and faster, the web of Lucifer's dance keeps getting tighter and tighter. We are the observer of our thoughts. It is like we are sitting in a rocking chair watching the stream of thought or the thought train parade in front of us. We choose which thought we will entertain. We choose which thought train we will get on and ride. Each train of thought is like a railroad train of many railroad cars. Between each car of the railroad train there is a space. Between each thought in OUR train of thought is a space. We will have numerous moments of awareness of the fact that we are on a train of thought we spiritually do not want to be on. At these moments of awareness, we will be aware of the gaps in our train of thought. At these moments, we need to force-feed between the gaps the spiritual thoughts we know to be true. Keep force-feeding these spiritual thoughts between the cars of your Lucifer thought train and you will influence your thought-train to start going in the direction you know it should spiritually be going. You must be diligent, watchful and sincere. When you do ride a thoughttrain to a station you did not want to go, always forgive yourself and recommit to do better next time. Be assured that there WILL be a next time. You must forgive yourself when you fail the test or the negative thoughttrain of guilt will be another way Lucifer wins. Keep striving and you will go further spiritually than you ever imagined and you will become aware of things you did not know even existed.

100

Just remember that you are not your thoughts - you have thoughts. Which thoughts you choose to dance with is the choice you have. It IS your choice. The devil does not make you do it. You just choose to dance with the devil.

101

Just One More Time

Just One More Day Just One More Piece Just One More, One More, One More Which of us has not said, many times in our lives, Just One More. I can handle it. I will do what I should do after just one more of what I know I should not do? We all have. The seduction is in the idea that we will do different tomorrow. Remember, tomorrow never comes. When what we called tomorrow does seem to come It Will Be Now not Tomorrow. And it will feel exactly like the day before when we said we would do what we should do Tomorrow. Lucifer loves to plant the thoughts in your mind of Just one more time, just one more piece, just one more day. Lucifer knows that it is easy for us to rationalize that it is okay to put off what you should be doing just one more time. We are very sincere when we say Just one more time. However, when the moment is here for you to follow through on your promise, the moment is the same as the last moment when you made the promise. It is never a different moment. It is never a different feeling in a different moment. It is the same decision, the same choice, and it feels like the same moment as the one when we said I will do it tomorrow. The only time we have to do anything is life is the present moment. We cannot do anything tomorrow, next week, next year or next lifetime. It is always Now. Now is all there is. Now is all there ever has been. Now is all there ever will be. We exist, move and have our beingness in the moment in the Now. Not every thought you think in your mind is YOUR thought. Lucifer plants words and sentences in our mind so carefully, so beautifully, that we are the one thinking the thoughts. You are not your thoughts. You are the one WATCHING your thoughts. You are the one watching your train of thought. You are the one who decides which car on which thought train to

102

hop on and ride. This is the value of silent meditation. You become aware of having thought and not BEING your thoughts. You are like a little consciousness sitting on a chair in the back of your mind watching everything that passes in front of your eyes, watching every thought that passes through in the front part of your mind and hearing everything that goes in your ears, You do not have to become attached to any of the visual, audio or mental thoughts passing in front of you. What we call thought seems to be both words and pictures. We do not actually think in words. We think in sort of picture emotions that we then put words to in order to store the thoughts in the library of our mind. Words are our codifier of experience. Words are how we store the experiences in the filing cabinet of our mind. Each word is like a brush-stroke on the canvas of our understanding. Until we SEE what each word represents or symbolizes, we do not understand. The more words we know, the more detailed and colorful is our picture of understanding. Perhaps we will see the beautiful girl or boy in our mind. Then we will have thoughts about the picture which will lead to more pictures, which will lead to more thoughts, and on and on. Perhaps we will see the alcoholic drink and then mentally taste the alcohol. Perhaps we will see the marijuana cigarette, and then actually feel ourselves inhaling the smoke. Perhaps we will see the video game and then actually feel ourselves playing the game. We cannot have an emotion without the thought, the picture first. We cannot even know what someone is talking about until we see what they are talking about. Lucifer gets in step with the train of thoughts we are thinking and gently adds a word here and there, adds a picture here and there. Lucifer adds just enough to gently move us in the direction that will keep us out of the Inner Sanctuary of Omnipresence. Just enough gentle nudging so that we will think it is our own thoughts and our own desire to do whatever we are referrencing when we say, Just one more time. The Omnipresence of God means that there is no part of your being from which God is absent. In truth, there is only God, but to understand the different aspects of God, we need to put labels on them. . The word Lucifer comes from the Latin Lux and Ferre meaning Light-Bringer or LightBearer. Lucifer is just a label for an aspect of Omnipresent God. Lucifer is
103

a most important aspect of Omnipresence. Lucifer is Gods spiritual quality tester. Since the aspect of Omnipresence that I call Lucifer is such an important aspect of the personality and omnipresent reality of God, Lucifer is aware of each and every thought you think. Lucifer can do nothing to you that you do not actively participate in. You have to dance with Lucifer for Lucifer to have any influence in your choices. Remember, it takes two to tango. You have to agree with Lucifer and agree to Just one more time. When one dances with Lucifer, and then feels he or she screwed up, then there is the tendency to blame it on Lucifer blame it on the Devil when it was our choice to do the dance. Lucifers only job is to test the sincerity of our heart intentions. Lucifer is an ancient angel of the highest rank whose sole purpose is to protect the inner sanctum of the Omnipresent Intelligence from impurities entering. Since we are one with God, all the Universal Power of God is available for us to use. Lucifers job is to make sure that we do not get our hands on more of the Omnipotence, the Universal Infinite Power of God, than we can handle. Anytime you say, with heart-felt conviction, I have learned my lesson. Next time I will treat this situation differently. Next time I will do what I know I should have done this time, you have made a date with Lucifer. Lucifer has to come to check out the sincerity of your heart-felt intentions. This is Lucifers job. Lucifer will come when you least suspect it. Lucifer will come when you have stopped thinking about changing your response next time Lucifer may come tonight, tomorrow, next week, even months from now. Lucifer will come more than once - until you pass the test more than once. Then, someday, somewhere, Lucifer will come again to check you out at least one more time. The next time you say, Just one more time, just one more bite, just one more piece, just one more toke, just one more stroke, just one more drink, just one more day, of anything you know you really should do differently, then just say one thing to yourself, NO, and move on. Keep saying no, no, no, until your thought train starts moving in the direction you want it to go. As long as your heart-intention is true, you thought train will begin moving in the direction that you know it should and that you truly want. One more time, one more piece, one more day, one more toke, one more smoke, one more drink, one more orgasm NO !!! Be the master not the
104

slave. Say to Lucifer, I have no desire to dance with you. Then think the thoughts you want to be the thought-train you want to ride. Lucifer will resist, but if your heart intention is pure, Lucifer will have less and less power. Lucifer will come back someday just to make sure your heartintention is still sincere. However, since God has many things for you to do the more you are able to handle them, Lucifer will not waste more time if your heart-intention is pure. Remember, it is only in the here and in the now than we can make our choice and live our choice. Tomorrow will never come, as it will always be now whenever it is and wherever you are. Regardless of how many times you put off doing what you know you should be doing. No matter how many times you say Just one more time. When it comes time for you to prove your sincerity of intention, it will feel the same as Now, because it will be Now, it will feel the same as Here because it will be Here. Walk the Spiritual Path of Righteousness. HERE AND NOW !!!

105

LETTING GO

ACTIVE NON-RESISTANCE

Letting go is not an action. It is the absence of action. It is the release of any effort whatsoever in the releasing. It is simply release. Do a little experiment. Rest your arm on a comfortable arm rest on a chair with arms. Tighten your fist as tight as you can tighten it. Now, let go of your fist. Did you let go or did you push your fingers open? Did you let go or did you use energy to open your hand ever so slightly? If you used any energy at all, then you did not let go. You pushed away. Most spirit-humans mistake pushing away to be a necessary part of letting go. It is a basic law of the Universe that force creates resistance. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Letting go is no effort without any action in order to have no action. It is a decision and then a relaxing into the decision - a letting go into the decision. For your brain to come to a better understanding of what letting go of a person, place or thing really means, Practice this exercise many times during the day.

106

Within a short amount of time, you should be able to let go of the energy needed to hold your fist tight without using any energy to push it away. Just decide to let go and then let go. The more you practice this, the more your brain will understand the principle and the easier it will be for you to let go of persons, places, things and especially habits. The hardest thing for a spirit-human to do is to do nothing. If you attempt to do nothing, you are doing something in order to do nothing. It won't work. Some say in order to break a habit, you have to get another habit going in the place of the habit you want to break. This will work. And this has its place in making your life more healthy and enjoyable. However, this is just replacing one habit or chain for another. Just release any and all attachment to any action or result. Truly LET GO, without action. When you accept life as it unfolds, offering no resistance, you become aware of the choices available in this moment. This doesn't mean giving up desires or becoming a victim, but discovering the freedom to respond creatively. The mind lives in the past and in the future. Your awareness, your body and the situation resides in the now. If you allow your inner defense system to do its thing in the present situation, it will show you the best course of action to deal with what is, even if it means do nothing. One time I was driving across an intersection. I was doing about 25 miles an hour. Out of the corner of my eye, on my left side, I saw another automobile coming straight towards me. It was doing at least 40 miles an hour. When I noticed it, it was about 20 feet from plowing directly into my door on my side of the car. Amazingly, I did not react at all. I seemed to be on automatic and just continued to drive at the exact same speed, in the exact same direction I was traveling when I spotted the car. All this time, I also noticed
107

the face on the other driver. I looked straight into her eyes. She looked VERY anxious. Her face looked like she was very scared. She appeared to be processing the situation at lightning speed. Within a fraction of a second, I saw her check out the speed of my car, the direction I was going and her awareness of my making no change in either my speed or my course of direction at all. I saw her almost instantly turn her steering wheel so that she drove around the back of my vehicle missing my car by perhaps a foot. Of course, missing me by a foot was as good as missing me by a mile. If I would have reacted in any way but total acceptance of the situation, we would have had a very serious accident. I probably would not be alive today to share this story with you. If we would have both tried to take evasive action, we were too close to one another for both of to decide on a course of action, apply it and then check the other person and see if our course of action was working or if the other person took a course of action that worked contrary to ours. We did not have enough time to take more than one course of action. Remember, she was doing at least 40 miles an hour coming directly straight at my door. In 20 feet she would have hit my door with the full front of her car, both of her headlights would have hit me at the same time. Another time I was on the big Island of Hawaii. There is a road that goes from Hilo, on one side of the island to Kona, directly across on the other side. This road is a two lane road straight across at least 10 miles of lava. It is a road cut into and composed of lave. Only two lanes, just enough for one car in each direction. One foot off either side of the road was the natural lava looking like it was fresh from a volcanic eruption. The road is also very hilly. Small hills, five or ten feet up and down, waving up and down over most of the course of ten miles of road. Ups and downs perhaps with twenty feet between the ups and the downs. I found myself driving behind a truck, with about a fifty-foot cargo bed in the back. It was doing about fifteen miles an hour. We must have been the only two vehicles going in our direction for a couple of miles both behind us and in front of us. Now one of my favorite things to do on this road was to drive fast, thirty-forty miles an hour, up and down, up and down the rolling pavement. I drove behind this truck for at least ten minutes becoming very impatient. I wanted to get in front of him and continue to enjoy riding the lava road. For the last ten minutes, there had been no car passing us going in the other direction. I finally decided to pass him by going into the road
108

reserved for oncoming traffic. I checked around him as good as I could and then in one quick motion, floored the accelerator and turned my wheel to the left to pass him. Well, remember the ups and downs of the road? As soon as my car got into the other lane, I saw, directly in front of me, perhaps ten feet in front of me, another car coming directly to me. I immediately realized that i was just ten feet from a very major head-on collision. There was not even time to think of alternative courses of action. Within a fraction of a second, I jerked my wheel to the right to get behind the truck. As soon as I got back into the other lane, the other car missed me by less than a foot. All this happened within one second from the time I started to turn my wheel to pass the truck and the time I got back behind the truck. In the car with me was the future mother of my currently 11 year old son. He would never have been born and I would have missed out on some of the best years of my life as a father. If I would have thought about what was just about to happen in either of the above scenarios, I would not have had time to decide of a various courses of action. Once I did react, there was no time to try something different. I saw, I accepted, I reacted. In the first, my reaction was one of no action. In the second situation my reaction was one of almost instant action. I lived because of my unconditional acceptance of what was and my instant awareness of my body and defense system telling me the best course of action in the situation. In martial arts, you must first unconditionally accept the situation as it is. You cannot change what is. It is what it is. How you respond to what is will determine what happens next. The more you resist it, the more you will be at the effect of it, and the less effectively you will see the best way to deal with it. Be aware of what is, accept what is, deal with what is from a state of acceptance - not a state of emotion. Letting go is simple. The difficulty in the application of the simplicity is determined by the mental and emotional baggage you bring to the application of the simplicity. Do the experiment. You will be glad you did.

109

THE DANCE OF RELATIONSHIP

EACH RELATIONSHIP IS A DANCE.

IF WE DO NOT LIKE THE DANCE OUR PARTNER IS DOING,

WE HAVE FOUR CHOICES

DANCE THE WAY OUR PARTNER WANTS ASK OUR PARTNER TO DANCE THE WAY WE WANT EACH COMPROMISE FOR THE RELATIONSHIP OR LEAVE THE DANCE

WITH A KISS

You would not want your partner to insist that you be anything that you are not Would you? Therefore how can you insist that your partner be anything they really do not want to be, or to do anything they really do not want to do? You might really, really ask them to with all the powers of persuasion you know but insist? Not right. I am not talking about taking out the trash, washing the dishes, making the bed, going to the department store while he or she looks for some clothes they like while we just sit patiently and wait, or other things that are just part
110

of the give and take of any relationship part of the willing compromise we all do for the health and the continuation of the relationship. The simple things that we get irritated about sometimes but are really no big thing when we look at the big picture of our total relationship. I am talking about big time things like wanting to date other people, going out more often with his or her friends drinking, playing cards or going to poetry readings that last late into the night and we end up having to eat dinner and go to sleep alone. I am talking about when our partner seems to be wasting their life on something they enjoy. I am talking about when our partner is not living up to the standards of success we believe they can achieve. They enjoy working at a computer store and you believe they can be the next Bill Gates. All of us change as we go through our experiences of life and sometimes we start on the relationship road with someone who is in step with who we are and what we like. However, either or both of us can react to the same future situations differently and actually grow in different directions. This does not mean they do not love us, they just have changed from who they were when our dance began and this is who they are now. Perhaps you have changed and you are the one who is doing a different dance than when your dance of relationship began. It is not always the other person. Look in the mirror and have a good talk with yourself. If your partner is not dancing the same dance of relationship you are, then you first ask your partner to get in step with the dance you are dancing. Tell them why you are unhappy and why you really, really wish they would get more in step with your desire of the dance. If they do not want to, then your second choice is to decide if you are willing to compromise and change your dance steps to the ones they want to dance. This is not selling out. Perhaps what you still enjoy about the dance just does not seem worth losing because of you not liking parts of who your partner has become. Sometimes three quarters, one-half or even one-quarter of a pie is better than no pie at all. You have to decide what you can compromise while still feeling you have not lost your integrity, your sense of your true self. Your third choice is to make a mutual deal both of you compromise. If you do this, I will do that. If you change here, I will change there. Both
111

compromise and both get something you want out of the relationship without ending the relationship. After all, a relationship is full of rewards. There are many things you are getting out of the relationship that are worth making a compromise for in order to keep the good parts you want arent there? If you cannot feel ok making a compromise on your own; If your partner does not feel ok making a compromise on his or her own; If both of you cant each compromise for the sake of the good in the relationship you both want to continue, then what is left? What is left is accept that the dance is no longer the dance you want. It is time to turn off the music and end the dance as it is. Get a divorce. Move in your own direction. They move in their own direction. Dance your own dance even if you are dancing alone. A dance is still a dance. End the relationship but do it with love and acceptance. Especially, end it with a kiss. If it has to end, end it with the acceptance and the compassion you wish the other would end it with you. Especially with a kiss He or She was special wasnt he or she? Release your partner with the same love and acceptance that you would want your partner to release you. Who knows, after being without each other for a while, both of you might just decide that a compromise is ok after all. You both might miss the parts of the relationship dance that brought both of you pleasure and comfort and you both decide the compromises are ok. You turn up the music and begin a new dance. However, you cannot end the dance with the thought in your mind and the hope in your heart that the other person will come to his or her senses, that he or she will realize the good thing they had with you and want to get together again to dance hand in hand into the beautiful sunset of your life here on Earth. Ending it is not ending it while expecting it to begin again in a few weeks or months. Ending is ending. Go through the door of change with the intention of never going back, never looking back at what. What was will never be again. Perhaps it never was what you thought it was. Perhaps it only appeared to be what you wanted it to be. However, you can occasionally look back with love at the beauty of what you had. Even if what you had was not really what you thought you had, you still experienced
112

a lot of beauty and enjoyment thinking what you thought. Whatever the relationship might be in the future will be what it is at that time. Perhaps it will be similar in appearance but it can NEVER be the same. Just the fact that you ended it and walked away will mean getting back together will never be the same. It will be what it is a new dance with some shared experiences from the past to give the new relationship more soulfulness. The bottom line is you must be complete within yourself before you can truly experience another. There is no soul mate to complete you it is within you that the completeness must be experienced. Nothing and no one outside of yourself can complete you. If you think they can, then what happens if their physical body dies before yours does? What happens to your completeness then? Your spiritual completeness is the child born from the intercourse, the integration, of the male and the female of the inner you. Think of a magnet with a positive pole and a negative pole. The two poles seem to be in opposition. However, stand back far enough that you can see the whole picture and you will see that what appeared to be polar opposites were in actuality just polarities of a singularity called the magnet. Your male aspect and your female aspect are but polarities of the singularity that is the real you. They are not two. Somewhere, deep in the core of you they are one. The more complete you are within yourself, the more you will be yourself with another and the more you will enjoy them being their own authentic self in the relationship dance. After all, wasnt the reason you wanted to dance with them in the first place the pleasure you received in both of you being authentic and not having to be anything you were not? What really turned you on was your belief of the authenticity of your relationship. In Truth, since God is Omnipresent, the only dance, the only relationship we ultimately have is with God. The different dance partners are just different relationships we have with the Universal Self. Each of them has their purpose in the eternal dance of our spiritual journey as you have your purpose in each of their spiritual journeys. Enjoy your dance with the Universal Self It is the only dance there is.

113

EATING THE BODY AND DRINKING THE BLOOD OF GOD

HAVING COMMUNION WITH THE GREAT SPIRIT

If we believe that God is Omnipresent, then the following is unavoidable Truth. Omnipresent means there is no place from which God is absent. Omnipresent means there is nothing but God and manifestations of God within God. Omnipresent means whenever we eat any part of Omnipresence, we are eating the Body of God. Omnipresent means whenever we drink the water which carries the lifeforce of the Earth, we are drinking the Blood of God.

WITH EVERY MORSEL OF FOOD ONE TAKES WITH EVERY DRINK OF WATER A DRINKER DRINKS YOU ARE EATING AND DRINKING THE BODY OF GOD

114

The Gutter of Life

If a person is in the gutter of life, he or she is there either because of their conscious choice to be there or because he or she has something to learn being in the gutter. If he or she did not want to be there and if there was not anything for him or her to learn from being in the gutter, he or she wouldn't be there. He or she would know what to do to leave the gutter. When we want to begin to look for growth, the only place we can start looking is right in front of us - in front of us either physically or mentally regardless of where we might be. This is why we should look at each moment as an opportunity for growth. We usually get what we look for. We can search the whole world for beauty; for respect; for love; for peace; for security, but if we do not carry it with us, we won't see it - even if it is right in front of us. We see the beauty that is a blade of grass the more we have beauty within us. Once the person in the gutter learns the lessons relevant for him or her in the gutter, he or she will do one of two things. He or she will rise above the gutter experience and move on with their life in other directions. Or, he or she will become a gutter preacher, staying in the gutter in order to help others learn what they need to learn to rise out of the gutter. There is no gutter in our life without a lesson for us to learn while we are in the gutter. Once we learn the lesson, or lessons, we will move on. Look at each moment of your gutter experience as an opportunity for growth and you will find it. Embrace the lesson with unconditional love and you will never be the same again. Neither will your gutter experience.

115

ONE CHOICE IN LIFE - TWO OPTIONS

OPENESS OR RESISTANCE TO THE INFINITE ENERGY OF OMNIPRESENCE THROUGH US AND AS US

When do we have a choice and when do we only 'think" we have a choice? How do we know when and what to accept concerning perceived realities in our lives? How do we know the difference between what we can change and what we cannot change? How do we lower our levels of frustration trying to discover these answers every moment that we are trying to deal with life while we continue to live life and pay our bills? At each moment in the process of living life as spirit-humans - we have one choice. One choice inherently implies that we have two courses of action. Left or Right. Back or Forward. Up or Down. The moment we choose one or the other - we negate the other choice. The next moment we can make another choice, but we can make only one choice at a time. When we seem to be doing two things at a time, it is like the computer seeming to do two or more things at the same time. If there is just one processor in the computer, what is really happening is that the computer does one thing. It can do only one thing at a time. Either the switch is open or it is closed. Either the bit is a 0 or the bit is a 1. Then it does another thing, either opening or closing a circuit, either reading or writing either a 0 or a 1. Then it does the first thing again. Then it repeats the second choice again. Over and over again, so quick that it appears to be doing more than one thing at a time. Our choosing what to do is like the computer. We continually do one choice and then the other, over and over. Each action that we started has some momentum of its' own to keep it going until we come back to it for a moment before we go back to the other choice. We go back and forth between choices so quickly, when we think we are doing more than one thing at a time, that we are not aware of the separation of the actions. We alternate between the two choices so quickly that they seem to be one action. Our subliminal awareness is capable of giving instructions to our body much faster than our conscious mind can conceive. Another example is of the juggler - juggling 3, 4, 5 or more balls at one time. It looks like the juggler is controlling all the balls at one time. However, the
116

juggler can affect the path of only one ball at a time. The juggler can choose only one course of action at one time. If the juggler chooses wisely, the balls seem to have a harmonious life of their own. If the juggler chooses badly, all the balls come falling down in disorder. The moment we are experiencing at any one moment cannot be changed. We cannot change the present. The present is what it is. The moment we act in the present, the present we choose to act upon has passed. We can influence our experiencing of the present only by adding to the present. You cannot take away from the present. You can only do things in the present that will influence the direction the present seems to be going. This is adding to the present, not changing the present. Of course, what we add in the present will have influence the direction our life seems to be going. But the present is what the present is - period. We can only attempt to persuade each moment of reality to lean in the direction of what we would like to be experiencing AS the present. We can't reverse the tides and flow of living, we can only hope to influence the direction of the flow of what we will experience. Since the present moment is unalterable reality, it is what is, the best way to look at it is to unconditionally accept whatever the reality is, while, at the seemingly same moment, you try to persuade the reality to be what you would like it to be. This is done by leaning the weight of our intention in the direction we wish our reality to go. This determined striving is to be done with the same kind of unconditional perseverance as the unconditional acceptance of WHAT IS. The more we can juggle the extremes of what seems to be two completely different actions, the better the singularity of living we will be aware of experiencing. At each moment we must try to persuade reality to evolve in the direction of our heart's desire, while at the seemingly same time, unconditionally accept what is. Most people go to one extreme or another and cop out on trying to balance the polarities. It does take conscious, dedicated effort. People either go to one extreme or the other and become a fanatic, or they never venture out very far on either extreme. They try to be secure in the safety of moderation. The problem with trying to live a safe life is that sooner or later, your body will die - regardless of how safe you led your life. He or she might not be able to acknowledge the dullness. To acknowledge the dullness might necessitate stepping out of safety occasionally. Everything is moderation - including moderation. Sometimes we have to go to the edge in order to appreciate the safety of the ground behind us and the beauty of the valley below us. Just don't fall off the edge.
117

In truth, we are all travelers at the edge. We are always living on the edge of our perception. We are always on the edge of the cliff of our awareness. To look at the flat land behind us and assume this means safety in the journey ahead of us is an illusion. It is at best as educated guess of what will be. The ground under our feet might look solid and the next moment we find we have fallen through the illusion of solidity and fallen into a rocky cave below. Since we cannot change the present, in order to get a future present more in line with what we would like to be experiencing, we must attempt to influence the flow of what is. Since the present is all we have, how can we enjoy the process of living while we try to get our hearth's desire without dying of frustration in the process? Simple to answer, but the answer can be difficult to apply in the beginning. The difficulty comes in out resistance to the simplicity of the answer. The answer cannot be expressed too often. It is to appreciate the incredible miracle of your awareness of being aware while at the seemingly same time attempting to persuade each moment of reality to lean in the direction of what we would like to be experiencing AS the present. The application of this simplicity is at first difficult. Then it progressively becomes easier until one day, you do the process right. It is like learning to drive a car. We struggle and struggle to turn the steering wheel correctly, use the break and the gas pedal at the seeming same time as we are attempting to steer the car so we do not run into people or other cars. Our driving, or juggling these actions called driving a car, becomes better and better. We relax more and more in the confidence of our juggling or driving ability. We get so good at driving that we even daydream occasionally while we are driving. However, we are not really aware that we have mixed daydreaming with driving until, one day, we almost hit something and realize we were just just daydreaming and not paying attention to our juggling. Some juggle steering the car, using the brake, using the gas pedal, looking in the mirror at our makeup or our hair, making a phone call and actually texting someone - all at the seemingly same time. Until, all of a sudden, what seemed to be harmonious activity in the present becomes disorganization and chaos. And here we thought we could do more than one thing at a time. Ouch
118

We all have one choice at all times. It is the same choice at each fork in the road of our journey. It is the same choice and the only choice we ever truly have. The choice is to be open or to resist the universal flow of the Energy of God through us and as us. We are like electrical wires and the Universal Spirit is like the electricity that runs through the wires. Some substances conduct electricity more efficiently than others. The substances that are not efficient conductors of electricity, we say have a resistance to the electricity. The substances that allow for a good flow of electricity put up very little resistance to the flow of electricity and allow the electricity to light up the world. The source or ground of our being is Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient God. Omnipresence, all place, Omnipotent, all power and Omniscient, all knowing. Omnipresent God is always attempting to flow though all of what we call the physical universe. The Omnipresent Energy is always attempting to flow through the manifestations of its essence. My point is that we should, with desire stemming from our appreciation of the awareness of being aware, become more and more open to the flow of this Infinite Intelligence. You have dreams and desires that God has placed in your heart. You have desires of giving to the rest of creation, more for giving than receiving. What more could you possibly ask for than the incredible fact of your awareness of being aware? Without it, you would have nothing. With it, all things are possible to you. In the giving, you will receive. No one should expect from the Universe what he or she is not willing to give first. Truly give, not negotiate. Ask God for direction in manifesting these dreams and desires. Try to do what you think has to be done, balanced with asking God, the source of your being, for a hint of the best direction to choose at any given time. A hint of what is the relevant thing to do, or look for, that is in the flow of your subjective growth. Allow the Infinite Intelligence to show you how to get there. After all, the Infinite Intelligence planted the dream in you and it knows the best way for you to get there. The frustrations you feel will dissipate, and less and less things will frustrate you the more you are open to the impulse of the Infinite Energy Source showing its desire for your direction.....

119

Remember, we are always at a fork in the road of our universal journey. Anytime you need direction, Be still and ask, The first response you feel, Is your direction. Some will feel this direction as one choice being sweeter than another choice, One choice sweet, one choice sour or just plain tasteless. Some will feel this direction by one choice being more colorful than another, One choice full of color and the other choice shades of gray. Some will feel this direction as one path being warm and the other cool . Some will feel this direction as one path alive and the other path dead. Some will feel this direction by an inclination of the body to go in one direction even though the mind is saying take the easy path, not the steep one, the smooth path not the rocky one, the dry path, not the wet one. Some will feel this direction by the feeling that one of the choices is more open, more soulful than the other. Don't intentionally jump off the cliff, but don't be afraid to look over the edge. You just might find a ledge over the edge that you can safely jump on and take the next step in your universal journey of adventure. AT EACH MOMENT OF LIFE WE HAVE ONE CHOICE. A CHOICE OF JUST TWO OPTIONS. BEING OPEN TO THE UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE THAT IS GOD ATTEMPTING TO FLOW THROUGH US, AS US,
120

OR RESISTING THE IMPULSE OF THE UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE AND TRYING TO DO IT OUR WAY

LIKE AN ELECTRICAL SWITCH OPEN OR CLOSED WHICH WILL IT BE FOR YOU? WHICH CHOICE WILL YOU MAKE?

121

OBSTACLES CAN BE YOUR BEST FRIENDS.

Obstacles are not opposing you but are merely firm and gentle re-routers. It is important not to view that which stands in your way as your enemy. It can often be your best friend, sending you on a detour that takes you around what could have been your biggest stumbling block. You do not know what is around the corner in front of you but the Omnipresent Mind of God DOES know. It could be God sending you, not on a detour, but sending you in the direction, sending you to the location, sending you to the experience you were really supposed to be heading in the first place. God just used the thoughts and desires that got you out of the house in order to then use other detours to get you where God intended for you to go from the beginning. How many times in your life did you have an intense desire, a strong feeling that you really, really wanted or needed to go somewhere and do something then get there and find that the store was out of business, the business had closed early that day, the person did not live there anymore, you get to the baseball stadium that you bought tickets for over three months ago and it unexpectedly started raining, thunder and lightning? Anything and anytime you really, really wanted and really, really tried to go somewhere and do something and no matter how determined you were, you couldn't do it? For whatever reason, what you went there for was not possible that day. Then, after a few minutes of frustration, you decided to look around you for something else to do. You started to think since you were out already, and some distance from your home, was there any place or anything near you that you would like to see or like to do? Why waste all the energy and intention that got you to the place where you could not do what you thought you were going to do? Perhaps you saw an advertisement left on the closed door of something that looked interesting. Perhaps you were now only a few blocks from a new exhibit at a museum, a coffee shop, a special hardware store for that special screw you really needed to finish the project at home that has been unfinished for so long? Once you then proceeded to go in the new direction, go check out the new situation, you then proceeded to have a wonderful day, met a wonderful
122

person, learned a wonderful lesson or just bought that special screw you needed that you have not been able to find in the other hardware stores you have visited. Once I was in England and had not been able to visit a friend during my visit. My flight back to America was in a few hours and I received a phone call from him. I told him I really did not have enough time to meet him for lunch and get to the airport in time to catch my flight. He said his driver would most certainly be able to get me to the plane on time after we had a little lunch. I agreed and we had a wonderful lunch and time of sharing. Then I get in the car and it was like an experience form an old movie. The car was an old London taxi that had been re-finished and made to look like new. His driver was an old-time chauffeur with a ramrod straight back and a cigarette permanently jutting out at a ninety degree angle from his mouth. He must have been a chauffer to some important people in his past, who did not want to feel any of the road on which they were being driven, because he drove so slow and carefully that I was not aware of any bumps. When he made a right or left hand turn, I was not even aware of any turning movement. It was very surreal like not real. I was amazed at the cigarette in his mouth. He drove so carefully that the ash from his cigarette never fell off. He did not put the ash in the ashtray, the cigarette just kept dangling from his mouth while the cigarette kept burning and burning. All of a sudden I realized that the cigarette had reached the filter and had stopped burning. But the ash was still attached. To this day, I do not remember if he ever did take the cigarette from his mouth. The picture in my mind has it permanently jutting out from his mouth with two to three inches of ash firmly attached. I was utterly entranced by the steadiness and smoothness of his driving. I then started to realize that because of his incredible chauffeur driving skills that I was very close to getting at the airport late and missing my flight to America. I kept telling him to please speed up, but he acted like he was the only one in the car and either could not speed up or refused to go faster and risk bumping his passenger in the seat. What an obstacle to me he was becoming. I had a plane to catch and I could have ran faster than he was driving the car. No matter the strength or volume of my pleading, he just kept keeping on doing what he was doing. He looked like a robot with a covering of human skin.

123

I finally get to the airport and rush to the terminal only to find that I had just missed my flight. As I was standing at the closed boarding gate, I heard an announcement that the flight I had just missed had just ran off the runway during its take-off. Somehow, the tires on one side of the plane disintegrated, the plane fell to that side and the landing gear had broken through the bottom of the plane. I guess you can imagine my sense of wonderment and my sense of relief. I also am sure you can guess that I was ever so thankful for that old-time chauffeur who just would not listed to any attempt I had to move the obstacle, him, out of my way to catch my plane. If I had been on that plane, I might have taken a boat to America instead. I caught the next flight but have never forgotten that day when I met an immoveable obstacle and since I was riding in the car, I couldnt even go around it. I was living in it. The immoveable obstacle was definitely my best friend that day. Now, whenever I am frustrated by my lack of ability to move an obstacle in front of me, I get a very vivid picture in my mind of that chauffeur with the ramrod straight back, the stone face with the cigarette jutting ever so perfectly straight from his stone face, driving ever so carefully, ever so smoothly and how I had thanked God for that chauffeur, the obstacle that kept me from catching a plane destined for an accident. God uses whatever thoughts and whatever desires, whatever hang-ups we have in order to continually move us in the direction that God wants us to go. If God tried to tell you what you would learn or who the new person was that you were going to meet, you would not understand the relevance or the purpose. How could God tell you of the store that has the special item you have been searching and searching if you did not even know that the store existed? But you DID understand the thoughts and the emotions that were stimulating your motor of intention to get you where you thought you really, really wanted go to or experience. Take a moment when you think you are up against an obstacle in your path. Think a thought of gratitude, feel an emotion of gratitude, for anything that seems to be opposing you now. Regardless of our intentions, things in life happen for the glory of God. Trust God about that. As you are thinking and feeling this prayerful gratitude, you will get another feeling, another thought,
124

gently suggesting you go in another direction. Take this gentle voice and move in the direction it is suggesting. You will usually find that listening to this gentle voice was the right choice for the right experience for you right now in your eternal spiritual journey. If you look at an obstacle as an enemy, you will treat it as an enemy. You will be emotionally resisting it. Say to it, Hi Friend. Open your eyes and look around, open your heart and feel what it is telling you and you just might find that Obstacle WAS the best friend you ever had.

125

Fear is a Friend We Call an Enemy

Fear. Who has not been stopped cold in his or her tracks when fear of what might happen seemed to paralyze you. Who has not turned and ran from fear of what might happen even before the situation developed into what we feared? We have a defense system that has as its sole purpose in existence the duty to protect us from harm. It does this by showing us what might happen at some point in the future. It gives us not just one but sometimes many possible outcomes of a situation that we would not want to experience. It is truly one of our best friends and since we are afraid of what it shows us concerning possibilities, we fear it and do not want to entertain what it has brought us to consider. We call it an enemy. An enemy of our peace and equilibrium. How does this friend show us these possibilities? It alerts us of the unwanted possibilities in one of four ways. One is showing us still pictures in our mind. Two is by showing us full-color, 3-D movies in our mind. Three is by whispers or shouts that we hear in the confines of our mind. The fourth is just an uneasy feeling that something is not right. Any of the possibilities that it offers us for our consideration are just that possibilities. They may or they may not happen. Of course, if you jump off the edge of Niagara Falls, the image in your mind of your death when you get to the bottom of the falls will probably come true. Not necessarily true but most likely it will be just what you imagined. If you imagine that speaking your mind in any given situation will bring the wrath of others down upon you and cause them to do great bodily harm or bring you intense embarrassment to you, this too, might happen. Then again, it might not. You never really know until you try and you might be surprised at the respect and admiration you receive by being the one with the courage to speak up and tell the truth. Regardless of what you have feared in your life, I will wager that less than ten percent of what you feared ever happened to you. When the less than ten percent did happen, I will wager that less than ten percent of that ten percent
126

EVER was as bad as you feared it to be. If I am wrong and lose this wager, you probably are not alive what you feared DID really kill you. In that case, you would not be reading this anyway, would you? A good mental exercise is to ask yourself, What is the worst that can happen? And if that happened, then what might happen? And if that happened, then what? And so on and so on. If you run away from your fears, then you will not even be where you were when you ran from them. You will not be as close as you were to walking through your fears and seeing them for the paper tiger that they were. Who knows when you might get another opportunity to see the paper tiger for what it is just a possibility not a certainty. If you did the right thing running away from your fears, then why do you still wonder, What might have happened if only I had went forward through the curtain of fear and faced whatever the situation I found on the other side? In fact, part of the excitement in living is going through paper tiger after paper tiger and seeing that what you were shown, what you called a fear, was just a possibility that was meant to keep you on guard while you continued forward into the unknown of your future. Worry is just our expectation that all we fear is going to happen.

Remember, NINETY PERCENT of anything you have ever worried about NEVER HAPPENED. And when the ten percent that was left DID happen, NINETY PERCENT of the time it was NEVER AS BAD AS YOU FEARED IT TO BE. Are my percentages too low? Should the ninety percent be even higher?

127

Think about it and move excitedly into your glorious future while your automatic defense system is up and running doing its job of advising you in the only way it can by SHOWING you the possibilities.

Embrace your fear and find out It is not the enemy It is your FRIEND.

128

EVERY HERO HAS A CHOICE

To Embrace the Darkness OR To Be Consumed By It

The darkness is just what is beyond your immediate field of sight. The darkness is just what is beyond the ray of light from your flashlight. Since we are always on the edge of our perception, on the edge of our field of sight, the only way we can ever go is forward into the darkness. Even if we turned around, there will still be an edge to our perception, an edge of our field of sight. No matter which way you turn, no matter which direction you choose to walk, you are ALWAYS walking into the darkness. You know where you have been. However, life does not move backward. It is always forward. Which direction are you pointing if you turn around? You are pointing forward. The only way is forward. Forward is the unknown. The only direction that any accomplishment has come from has been forward. Since you can only go forward, even when you think you are going backward, you might s well embrace the darkness of the unknown. Any lack of embrace is just closing your eyes to the forward movement of the Universe. There is no hole deep enough nor door strong enough to prevent this forward movement. It will continue to move forward whether you look or not. You might as well hold your candle light as far into the darkness as you can. Then walk into it with open eyes knowing that it is the way of the Universe. Embrace the darkness and experience the greatest adventure in the Cosmos. YOUR LIFE

129

ACTION-WAITING

LIVING THE PROCESS OF ETERNAL LIFE

One time a friend and I were caught in a snowstorm in farming country in the Midwest and slid off the winding road into a snow-covered cornfield. I mean, really out in the country where houses might be a mile away from each other. The more we tried to get the car out of the snow-covered cornfield, the worse our situation became. Right when we gave up all hope of getting it out, and resigned ourselves to our fate of having to walk miles to find help, around the bend in the road came a tow truck. An honest to goodness tow truck. If we would have just sat there and waited in patience a few minutes longer, the truck with the chain would have come along anyway. All our struggles were for nothing but frustration. Nothing we did speeded up our rescue or the arrival of the tow truck. This is not to say we shouldn't have tried try to get ourselves out of the snow-covered cornfield. It means that our thoughts stimulated emotions which led to frustrations at not being able to do anything to change our situation. Wouldn't it be great to learn to feel when the Infinite Intelligence is telling us to have patience? Of course it would. We did not take even one moment to sit and pray to feel the direction of our rescue. Since we had plenty of gas and our car heater was working, we had no one waiting for us to arrive at any particular place at any particular time, we could have relaxed into a prayer-state of receptive inquiry of what we should do in our situation, but we didn't. We did not unconditionally accept our seemingly stuck situation while attempting our best to change the situation. Sure we tried and tried to change our situation but remember, the first proposition is, in all things, unconditional acceptance of what is has priority because what is - is. Very simple. Learning to subjectively balance the polarities of action/waiting, with unconditional acceptance of what is, is the key to evolving in understanding and communication with the transcendent/immanent intelligence of the universe. We had a very important spiritual lesson to learn on that day. It took us to be stranded in a snow-filled cornfield, miles and

130

miles away from any human life for us to be offered the lesson. It is like the Universe waited until we gave up before it sent the rescue truck. Life is a process. A process is a chain of events infinitely divided. An eternal process, without beginning and without end. We cannot experience an event as an event. We can only experience an event as a process. We can exist a whole lifetime and never live life since we are trying to live an event. We can go through the forest and never see the trees that are part of the process of going through the forest. Our physical body is an aggregation of individual events in harmony - a process in the eternal present. We can live life in the present only - the eternal present that is constantly passing while always being present. To understand the paradoxical statement of "the eternal present that is constantly passing" means to subjectively integrate the polarity of "the eternal present" with the awareness of the constant change of the manifestation of the universe. Conscious integration of what seems to be a contradiction involves our understanding that singularity is the essence of what seems to be the polarities of existence. This singularity is the essence of the reality of the NOW. We can experience the future only in our mind as a concept until it actually gets here and is the present. We must live in and for the present while balancing this polarity with the polarity of planning and living for the future. Since we can live only in the process of the present, our best choice is to embrace and appreciate the present we have first and foremost. Relax in the present, ask what should be our next thought, ask what should be our next step in the process of life, and be shown the next step in the process of being ourselves - even if it means to do nothing - just relax and just be what you are - part of the process. Truly desire to know the next step the Eternal Process wants of you, and the eternal process will let you know what your next step, or non-step, is to be.

131

Taking the Universe as Your Lover

The Yearning to be One With God

You yearn to be like Prometheus, to mount your white horse and fly through the sky of eternity. You yearn to be One with God. It is almost like the freedom of the universe and eternity is like a beckoning lover, promising an infinite union of fulfillment if you but step out over the precipice with the faith that you will be supported, not fall, not abused and not abandoned.....Your fear of the universal and infinite lover that is the intelligent and self-aware cosmos is held in check by your incessant mental dialogue. As long as your steady "current of words in your mind" is babbling away, you don't have to KISS THE SKY, WALK THE COLORFUL NEW ROUTE OF YOUR EVER-EVOLVING SELF-AWARENESS, GAZE INTO THE EMBRACING LIGHT OF YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT. You do know how to respond, your fear holds you back. Accept the universe as your lover.....It will be rocky at times, after all, it is a dynamic universe, but it will never let you down. Even if you don't see the universe holding you in its bosom, it is the source and sustenance of your very being.....It can never leave you, it is one with you.....and you are one with IT. The yin and the yang, the positive and the negative polarities of the infinite singularity that is the universe are always intercoursing. What we call the physical Universe is the baby of the intercourse of the Yin and the Yan, of the positive and the negative polarity of the universe. The fruit of the universal intercourse is all the physical manifestations that we see, feel, experience and ARE. The manifested universe is this orgasm in eternal expression. God even tells you when you ask about the never-ending current of words in your mind (security blanket of procrastination) that it will be there for you and be there with you. Just stop the mental chatter and embrace your Universal Lover. Open your mouth like the hungry baby birds awaiting the nourishment of the mother/father bird, swallow the tongue of Infinity as it fills you deeper and
132

deeper with awareness of Its wholeness, caress the tongue with your tongue, bear your chest, open your heart, your body, the totality of your selfness, open to it, accept it and be one with it. The universe is your lover. There are many faces of the feminine nature of the universe - but only one feminine aspect.....There are many faces of the masculine nature of the universe - but only one masculine aspect. The wholeness of the universe is dependent on this feminine and masculine polarity being one in the true androgyny of the cosmos. First, the Universe beckons you with open mouth, enticing you to open your mouth to receive it in a very sexual way.....Take it as your lover. Once you have received it with the total openness of a lover, then it can lead you through the colorful ways and by-ways of the garden-path it has prepared for you. Then, after you have opened to it and walked with it a while, it will lead you to your enlightenment. The third step cannot be taken before the first two. Nothing before it's time. Ah, the importance of the incessant words you hear, the words of a distant past, is very interesting. Instead of you hearing a present time voice answering you, a memory answers you. A memory because you really know the truth, you just have to be open and trust the unfolding of the truth within yourself, as yourself, as much as you can handle and appreciate at a time. Can you handle being the lover of God? Can you handle being the lover of the Universe? Ultimately, you really have no other choice. It is your lover, your sustainer, your everything. Without it, you are nothing, with it you are everything. Embrace it, kiss it, make love to it with the totality of your being. After all, it IS the totality of your being. Why try to keep any part away from IT? The result of our conscious union with Omnipresence is the birth of the New. The baby of our intercourse with God is the essence of Creation. Creation is the orgasm of the universe.

133

Be open to God, embrace God, become ONE with the Universal Self AND experience the ultimate fulfillment.

134

Affirmations Of Inspiration

As we go through our daily life, there are bombardments of negative suggestions being fed into our consciousness, both conscious consciousness and subliminal or unconscious consciousness - without our awareness of our brain recording the negative and unwanted suggestions. It can be a great help in our spiritual journey to use affirmations to balance out the negatives. Here are ten affirmations that you can print out. If you wish to have them in MP3 format to play on your computer, IPod or any MP3 player, just email me at am@amsway.org and I will send you the file. The MP3 affirmations can be put into repeat mode on your computer or your MP3 player. This way you can listen to them as long as you feel the need or the desire. You can then listen to them in the car, home, jogging or anywhere you wish to hear them. The important thing is to use them. Even if you do not have more than five minutes, use them - you will benefit. Listen to them while you are shaving, putting on your makeup, getting dressed, eating breakfast, driving to work or whenever you want to feed spiritually affirming thoughts into your consciousness. I believe at least 20 minutes daily, while you are getting dressed, before you go out into the world, is the minimum for the best results. Of course, it is optimally useful when you can put all thoughts from your mind and just concentrate on the affirmations. However, having them play in the background will definitely help you along your journey. Anytime you need a little uplift in spirits or a release from frustration, you need only play the MP3 instead of background music. If you repeat anything often enough, it will become part of you. This is the nature of habits. This is also why having background music and not being aware of the words in the music can be a very dangerous past-time. Positive songs will uplift you. Negative or "somebody broke my heart" songs can drag you into the depths of sorrow and heartbreak. These affirmations will help to balance the multitude of suggestions you hear throughout the day into a positive, spiritually filled direction. If I listen to them while I am getting dressed to go somewhere, I'm not really aware of it playing while I am dressing and preparing to leave, but I am aware of an uplift, a more peaceful and confident feeling that all is well.
135

Whatever I am leaving to do becomes more like an adventure after 20 minutes or so of playing the affirmations. Sometimes I am not consciously aware that it has been playing for an hour but this gives my subliminal mind a healthy dose of spirit affirming suggestions. It definitely helps balance out all the negatives we are confronted with day to day. It helps put our thoughts back on the positive spiritual track. When the mp3 is not convenient then just repeating the relative and relevant affirmations silently in my mind helps to center my thoughts in the proper perspective of appreciation, perseverance and patience. I try to get the fullest out of what is, while I appreciate what is, just for the miracle that it is anything at all. All this while I try to persuade what is to evolve into what I would like it to be. The affirmations are: 1. Every breath I take. Every step I make. Every thought I think - is incredible. 2. Timing, bide my time, the right moment shall come to pass at the right moment, and I shall always be aware of the right moment. 3. I believe God will make a way where there seems to be no way. 4. I believe I am always divinely guided. 5. I believe I will always take the right turn of the road. 6. I allow God to direct my communication with other beings. 7. I have infinite patience and understanding in my relations with all the children of the Universe. 8. I am aware at all times of all things relevant at the time. 9. I enrich the world with my continuous flow of constructive and creative ideas. 10. I am eternally grateful for every opportunity I have to serve God through all of creation.

136

These affirmations are a form of meditation. Nothing else is needed for the above affirmations to work but affirming them, and they will work for the rest of your life. The most important thing to remember about the affirmations is to persist in their use. Like exercising, learning a job, learning a song, even eating, keep it up and the accumulated effects will become noticeable. The more you center your thoughts, ground your thoughts in the spirit of the affirmations above, the more you will become aware of the feeling that you will come to know as the persuasive impulse of the Infinite Intelligence. It is similar to learning musical compositions. After a period of study and practice, you become aware of subtleties that only an "experienced ear" is sensitive enough to hear and receptive enough to perceive. In time, you will become more and more aware of the "feelings" that are the persuasive impulse of God, the Infinite Intelligence. When we ask God to help us choose righteously, let us remember to LISTEN for what God may by trying to get across to us. Choosing to get in tune with the Universe may just be the key to being aware of being aware as a point of reference in the Universe for eternity (eternal life).

137

Appreciation = Happiness

The only way that your life's journey can be fulfilling is to appreciate the process along the way. Appreciate being part of the universal process and at the same time appreciate that you are aware of being part of it. Who or what ever promised you, I or anyone, that we would live even for one minute? Once we have lived for two minutes, what a miracle it is. The way to enjoy the process without losing your ambition is simple but needs plenty of reaffirming. Appreciate the biggest miracle that you can think of - yourself. You are living in the best dream imaginable - the dream of life. Remember the MIRACLE of your eyesight. Spend five minutes a day walking around wherever you are with your eyes closed. Even when you run into something, do not open your eyes; act as if you no longer had the gift of vision. Repeat the following poem while you are walking around with your eyes closed. "They say the sky is a pretty blue; they say the grass is a pretty green. But what is blue and what is green.....to a person who has never seen?" Find your way to the bathroom with your eyes closed. When you really feel how much you are missing your gift of sight, just open your eyes and say a prayer of thankfulness for the incredible gift of sight. Remember the miracle of being able to taste whatever food you really relish. I know people who have lost the gift of taste. They have to eat but can no longer taste ANYTHING. Kind of unimaginable, isn't it? Some are born without feet, arms or legs. Remember Helen Keller? She was born blind, deaf, and unable to speak. Almost unimaginable isn't it? A friend of mine was paralyzed when he was 12 years old. The only thing he could move was his eyes. Even though he was paralyzed, he still could feel if someone touched his skin or if the wind blew across his hair. He just could not move any of his muscles other than his eye muscles. By the time he was 25 years old, he had regained the ability to walk with the aid of two crutches. Have you ever seen someone walk down the street with crutches and jerked from side to side always seeming like he or she was falling except for the two crutches they used to keep their balance? This was him. I asked him one day, "what was the worst thing about being paralyzed for 15 years?" You will never guess what he told me. He said, "The worst thing was having an itch and not being able to scratch it or even being able to tell someone where to scratch my itch". I get an itch myself every time I relate this story.

138

He couldn't move his muscles but he could feel an itch and he had to bear through the itch until it went away on its own. Talk about torture. Imagine your worst itch and never being able to scratch it - for ten years. Just try to ignore an itch and see how many itches seem to pop up all over your body. I used to complain when I stubbed my toe. Then I started being thankful that I had a toe to stub and eyes to see where I was going so I would not stub my toe again. I had a 95 year-old uncle once that I used to help dress, feed and clean. He told me once that that the older you get, paradise is a good bowel movement. Truly recognize and appreciate all the miracles that you already possess. Appreciate the miracle that you are. Know that your future contribution to the universe is in the musical field, the sports field, the political field, the restaurant and catering field or whatever field is in your heart. Know that everything that exists exists for the contribution it can make to the universal process. When you truly appreciate the miracle that you are and the miracles that you possess that make all dreams possible, then you will see your life's journey for the magnificent adventure that it is. When we see our life as the miraculous journey that it is, then we will desire to contribute to the universal source of our life that we call God through dedicating our life here on planet earth to that contribution. The moment we appreciate the miracle of our personal existence is, at his moment we are turning the key to the door of paradise itself.

APPRECIATION = The key to Happiness APPRECIATION = The key to Paradise

139

Appreciation and the Fulfillment of your Life Journey

The only way that your life's journey can be fulfilling is to appreciate the process along the way. I know you have heard the old saying, "It is not the destination, but the journey that matters." Appreciate being aware of being part of the eternal journey of the unfolding of the universe. Once we get to a destination, the destination is no longer a destination. Then what do we do? We still for a spell. Sooner or later, we start itching for a new destination. Once we get to the new destination. Perhaps we sit for a spell again. However, it is just a matter of time before we either get very bored or we decide on a new destination. What if we have problems getting to our new destination or what if we just never get there at all? The way to enjoy the journey without losing your ambition is simple but needs plenty of reaffirming. Appreciate the biggest miracle that you can think of - your awareness of being aware - yourself. You are living in the best dream imaginable - the dream of life. Who or what ever promised you, I or anyone, that we would be aware of being aware, even for one minute? Once we have lived for two minutes, miracle upon miracle it is. Shall I remind you of some miracles you take for granted every day? Remember the miracle of your eyesight. Spend five minutes a day walking around wherever you are with your eyes closed. Even when you run into something, do not open your eyes, act as if you no longer had the gift of vision. Remember this poem: "They say the sky is a pretty blue; They say the grass is a pretty green. But what is blue and what is green.....to a person who has never seen?" After you bump into a few objects, open your eyes and praise the Great Spirit for the miracle of sight. Do this a few times a week and your appreciation of the miracle of your eyesight will greatly enhance your appreciation of your journey. Some babies are born without feet, arms or legs. While you are walking around your home experiencing it without the gift of sight, imagine also if you had no legs.
140

How about the miracle of being able to taste food? I met a man once that had to have brain surgery after an accident and the part they took out was the part responsible for his being aware of the taste of food. I asked him how could he enjoy eating any longer? He said he didn't but he needed to eat to survive. Kind of unimaginable, isn't it? Even a boring meal tastes better than no taste at all. Have you even heard of Helen Keller? Born blind, deaf, and unable to speak. Almost unimaginable isn't it? Believe it or not, she actually wrote books. How did she ever even begin to comprehend what a book it, much less the paper on which it is written? Is it possible to imagine never having experienced any awareness at all? Impossible. To be aware of nothing requires you being aware of something or how else could you be aware of nothing? The absolute emptiness of nothingness is really beyond our comprehension since we need to use awareness to attempt imagining non-awareness. Ah, the miracle of the awareness of being aware. When you truly appreciate the miracle that you are aware of being aware and the other miracles that you possess that make all dreams possible, then you will see your life's journey for the magnificent adventure that it is. When we see our life as the miraculous journey that it is, At this point, our entire life becomes an act of worship, an action rooted in praiseful appreciation of the awareness of being aware. A smile of joy and a sense of adventure will be with us every day of the rest of our lives here on Earth. Truly recognize and appreciate all the miracles that you already are aware of possessing. Know that everything that exists, exists for the contribution it can make to the universal process - even you. When you truly appreciate the miracle that you are and the miracles that you possess that make all dreams possible, then you will see your life's journey for the magnificent adventure that it is. When we see our life as the miraculous journey that it is, and when we desire to contribute to the universal source of our life that we call God through dedicating our life here to that contribution, then we are opening the door of paradise itself.

141

Fulfillment is the appreciation of the journey Not any specific destination.

142

Non-Appreciation + Greed = Bitterness

I will start this communication with a little experience from my own life. When my Earth-Body was 21 years old, I had a wife. She was 21 years old also. She was pregnant. We were very excited. We were even talking about what we were going to do when the baby grew up. We were married for two months. Then one morning I leaned over to kiss her good morning and she was dead. I knew the moment I touched her that the life was no longer in her body. I feverously tried to revive her by pumping her heart and breathing into her lungs. However, what came out of her lungs was dead air. Of course the baby never lived either. For the next two years, I was a very bitter person. I felt that God and life cheated me. I felt robbed. I looked at two people who were married for 20 years and I felt how could there be a God when I had only two months of married life. I spent days, weeks and months walking around seeing the world through anger, pain and bitterness. Everybody had a better life than me. Then, one day, about two years after she died, I was reading the newspaper. The article was about a young boy and girl who were on their way home from their wedding and they had a car accident. The new wife was killed in the accident. Her husband lived through it. All of a sudden a major enlightenment swept over and through every cell of my body and every space of my consciousness. I realized why I was bitter for two years. When I compared my two months of married life to people who had twenty, thirty, forty or more years of married life, I was cheated. When I compared my two months of married life to the young couple on their way home from their wedding in which the wife was killed, I was truly blessed. I had a whole two months more than him. I realized at that moment that REALITY IS WHAT REALITY IS. What we choose to think about it will determine our experience of it. What we choose
143

as comparisons to what we consider our situation in life to be will determined whether we feel bitter or blessed. Reality is neither good nor bad. It just is. The mental and emotional baggage we bring to our encounter with reality will influence our perceptions of heaven and hell. What we choose to compare our experience to will determine whether we feel blessed or cursed. We choose the comparisons. We choose what the ideal is and then compare our perception of our life to the ideal we choose as desirable. The choice of comparisons is our choice and our choice alone. Whether we live in heaven or live in hell during our earthly journey will be largely determined by the comparisons we choose for ourselves. It is so simple. In fact it is so simple that our mind finds it almost impossible to accept and embrace this simplicity. We resist it in our greed for what we want life to be or what we want as our experience of life as earth-humans to be. How many babies never make it out of the womb alive? I do not mean abortions that the mother chooses. I mean the babies that just never make it to a live delivery. How many never have the experience of tasting an apple? How many never have the experience of their first romantic kiss? How many never know the love of a mother or the love of a father? How many do not have both of their parents alive through the first 20 years of their earthly life? How many never know what the gift of sight is? How many never know the joy of running across a meadow? How many never know the sound of a bird singing in the spring? How many never know the joy of marrying your true love? How many never have the love and the fights of a brother or a sister? How many children never see their tenth birthday? I could go on and on but you know what I mean. I was bitter because of the simple mathematical equation of unappreciation + greed = bitterness. I did not appreciate what I had experienced for the fullness of the miracle it truly was. I was greedy. I wanted more, more, more. I WANT MORE! This attitude is guaranteed to bring you bitterness.

144

Of course it would have been nice for me to have been married for many years. Perhaps 10 years or 20 years would have been nice. But would there ever been a good time to say goodbye to my wife? How about before the children started school? How about when the children drove their first car? How about when the children got married? How about when the children gave us our first grandchild? How about when the grandchildren started school for the first time? How about when the grandchildren had their first date? I could go on and on with this also and we would never come up with a good time to die. We would always want more and more and more. It is natural for us to want more of a special relationship. The only key to peace and blessing through an experience of loss of a loved one is first to appreciate the fact that you even had a minute to have had the experience of having the loved one in the first place. For each minute, each hour, each day, each week, each month and each year that you had the incredible blessing of even had the experience at all - say Praise God, Thank you God, I am truly blessed. Appreciate the incredible reality of your awareness of being aware. Appreciate the incredible reality that you had a chance to have experienced anything at all and you will know the key to Paradise. Every breath you take is one of breathing the air of paradise. Bitterness is a sin of attitude. The sin of non-appreciation. You want happiness the mathematical formula for paradise is even simpler than the one for unhappiness.

Unappreciation + Greed = Bitterness Appreciation = Happiness The choice is yours heaven or hell Right here on Earth. Simple.

145

Death Is Part Of Life

What shall I write about death? Shall I write about the living? Life is for living or we would not be alive. Sometimes someone dies so that another might live and grow. How can we say death is a bad thing until we experience it ourselves? Since life is good, good just for the fact that is exists at all, and since death is an unavoidable fact of life how can we say death is bad? Bad for who or whom? Bad for the person who died or bad for those still living? Only one of two things can happen after the experience we call death. The first possibility is that our awareness of being aware goes out like a light-bulb when you pull the plug. NOTHING! It doesn't matter what we believed or feared would happen because we won't know it anyway. After our physical body dies how can we be disappointed or fearful of something that we won't be aware of? The second possibility is our awareness of existing with or without what we call a body continues for another minute, five minutes, an hour perhaps a week. If our awareness of being aware goes on for even a minute after what is called physical death what person can tell me it ever has to end? The more medical science learns, the less sure they are of the exact moment of death. To them, when the body ceases to breathe, when the blood ceases to flow and the brain waves cease to wave this is the moment that the death of the body in front of them is certain. Medical science has advanced to where they can snatch people from death that years ago would have been impossible. On the operating table, people who were clinically dead and who have revived after a few minutes have told the doctors what the doctors were doing to try to save them while they were unconscious. The patient tells the doctor that he or she was watching the entire procedure from above the operating table, with perfect awareness but unable to communicate with the doctors. Soldiers have told about being aware of being outside their bodies after being wounded and thought dead. My 89 year-old mother returned to me 36 hours after she died to tell me that she felt no pain, it was wonderful, do not worry, I love you and goodbye. Her voice materialized out of the air in my bedroom around 3 in the morning calling my name. The hair stood
146

up on my arms because the reality of it was unquestionable. Her physical body was not present but her voice was loud and clear. There have been many different experiences, explained many different ways but all very similar in essence. However, all very aware of being out of their body and usually very happy about this fact once they adjusted to the new experience. Some who were revived were so happy that they did not to return to their body. Some were informed that their mission was not finished and they had to return to their body. Many people have had similar experiences but have never spoke about the experience because they feared other people would call them crazy. To me, this means that death is just another illusion. An illusion is anything that is not exactly what it appears to be. Ah, our wonderful but limited abilities of sense; seeing, heating, touching, tasting and smelling. Don't forget, a dog can hear sounds that we cannot. What about all kinds of things we are not aware of that we do not even know we aren't aware. A lot of things exist regardless of whether we are aware of their existence or not. All things are changing even as we look at them but we are not aware of the changes as they happen. Look at your dishes, walls, shoes, desk all are changing as we look at them. Some call it disintegrating but it is just energy changing its physical form. God, or Energy is singular in essence but infinite is its' potential forms or manifestations. Every molecule of everything that exists is just God in one of God's infinite manifestations. Once we accept the omnipresence of God, all things are God, or Infinite Intelligence, Yahweh, Jehova, Allah or whatever you wish to name this nameless essence of existence that we see and experience as the universe. The essence does not die, only the forms the essence is manifesting through are eternally changing. Now is death the end of our awareness of being aware or is there more than what we see before we get there? Most of us would like to think we can exist for eternity if we can keep able to move around and exist with some pleasure in existence. Just to escape thinking about the unknown possibilities of after death experience or after-death non-experience, some of us choose to believe in something that others have told us heaven, hell, re-incarnation, nirvana the dissolving of our self in the to eternal self. It is interesting that in the innermost depths of every human's consciousness there seems to be a voice that says There Is More.

147

What if there is more? If there is, what is life for? Life is for living, of course, even the gurus have to eat food at some point or another or die from lack of interaction with life. Life is also for growing spiritually, realizing the eternal spiritual truths that we already know but just are not conscious that we already know. The efforts needed to for us to learn to survive in the physical universe has hidden these truths from our awareness. Do not be mad at our machine that we call a body. It only did its' job and it did its' job very well. Our machine does its' job so well that we think we are our machine and not the spirit inside the machine. Nobody can really teach us these truths. All anyone can do is to tickle our self-growth. We can memorize something, but memorizing is not learning. We can learn from what we memorized. Our thoughts of what we memorized will tickle our self-growth. The spirit which we truly are, the part of us that is aware of being aware, is here in this life to learn Truth. Truth is, always has been Truth and always will be Truth. It just comes in different packages. Sometimes the package blinds us to the Truth. However, if we keep looking and are willing to accept the Truth, whatever the truth might be, then we shall find the Truth and this knowledge will set us free. What is Truth? You will know the Truth because nothing can discredit or invalidate the truth. However, we can never be aware of more of the Truth than we can handle. This must be or we would have a tendency to selfdestruct very quickly. Mis-use the Truth and a price must be paid no exceptions. What seems to be exceptions are just illusions of perception. Truth is Truth, truth is Law, God is the Law and God cannot break the Law. Ignorance of the Law is not a valid excuse. The Law must work Truth. People may seem to get away with breaking the Law of Balance in the Universe, but we usually never get to see the secret prices they are paying or will eventually be paying for breaking the Law of Truth. What you sow, you eventually will reap. Death does not break this Law of Truth. Spiritually we are here to grow in our awareness of eternal Truths. Physically we are here to evolution of the physical manifestation of God. We may seem to be a really small insignificant part of an incomprehensibly large universe. However, we are as important to the evolution of the universe as the smallest molecule is to the evolution of our physical body. Remember, our body is made up of billions of smaller lives that

148

altogether make up our body. There is an infinite idea in God's mind to forever keep perfecting creation. We think we have a choice in life. Our only choice is to accept or resist every experience that life brings us. Accept every experience as a growth experience. If anything in the universe stops growing, it seems to remain static or starts to ungrow. Static is only an illusion and death is just another part of growth. All things change but the essence of all things does not change. God, the Essence of all things doesn't change. Only god's physical manifestations change in their eternal evolution. There is only thing in this universe that can upset us. That one thing is IDEA. Only the ideas, the thoughts we have about any happening or any thing can upset us. Our thoughts upset up determined by what we think about the person or thing. The judgments we make about the happening determine our pleasure or pain. What is the difference between a good experience and a bad experience. It is the same happening hooked at from different perspectives and/or locations. What is pain to one person can be to another person pleasure. Death does not have to be painful. There are documented cases of painless death. I woke up 36 years ago and found my wife dead. Dead with a smile on her face. If her death had been painful, she would not have had a smile on her face. Of course, death seems to painful sometimes. However, don't forget that as long as you do feel pain, you are not dead. The actual moment of complete separation of the spirit from the body cannot be specified. However, at the moment of separation, we no longer have connection with the body-vehicle that feels pain. Many years ago I was in a car accident. I was thrown across the back seat so violently that I knocked the door open and was hurled onto the shoulder of the highway. I was amazed at feeling no pain through all this activity. I did not feel any pain until I started to look for the pain. Our body has a defense mechanism that is utterly amazing. It will defend us from even now it is defending us if it knows we cannot consciously handle the awareness. If we do not wish to remember something, it will do its' job and will do it beautifully. We won't even be aware of having forgotten what we wanted to forget. However, we only forget consciously. The energy that is the memory is still within us and energy is being used to keep that energy buried from our conscious awareness. All that energy used in keeping painful memories buried, when all we have to do is be able to look at any

149

experience we ever had and have it be alright that the experience happened or did not happen. We cannot change the experience. It is what it was. However, change our judgments about the experience and accept that it happened and the holding energy will dissipate because the energy that is the memory will not have to be kept from your conscious thoughts any longer. Truth is. The experience was. The memory of the experience is. The Truth seems to hurt, but the hurt shall pass as we can accept the truth of what was and accept it to be or not to be. Once we truly appreciate the incredible reality that all LIFE truly is, the acceptance of that experience which we still hold painful judgments against will set us free from it forever more. Our body has like a circuit breaker or ultra modern fuse box controlling the amount of pain, whether mental, physical or emotional pain, that it will allow us to experience. Some of us can take more pain than others. Some of us can take less pain than others. However, all of us can sometimes take more pain that than we normally think we could handle. God will not give us an experience we cannot handle. A pain, whether physical, emotional or mental is a warning signal from our defense mechanism saying Please stop, I can't take much more. You, or something, is doing something contra-survival. We can build up a tolerance of pain and accept more. However, either we choose to grow or sooner or later life will jolt us if necessary to try to get us to grow. If we ask why we hurt emotionally, as why and really want to know the True answer, keep asking why and we will get the answer. Seek and you shall find is the Law. Don't say pain is Love. Love knows no pain but does know affinity and empathy. We will know when we find and accept the truth with Love, because the pain will dissipate, will go away and never return. Never return unless we start running the wow is me judgment games in our mind again. Perhaps we will create an idea that brings us pain because we want the stimulation f the pain. Sometimes when a loved one dies, we keep running thoughts in our minds that bring us pain because the feeling of the pain seems to still connect us to the loved one who died. All things come to pass in life. Even what we perceive life to be. The things we call good as well and the things we call bad. All things come to pass. We must be willing to let things pass when it is time to pass. The Dead Sea is dead even though it receives fresh water every day. However, it is dead

150

because it does not let the water go out the other end of the Sea. It holds on to life and the life suffocates. If we were able to hold onto a breath forever, we would die very quickly because we need to constantly breathe in new air and let out the old air to survive to continue growth and living. All is in a continual, eternal state of transition. This is Truth. Stop this transition and there is no more of whatever we stopped. When the time is ready for any manifestation in the physical universe of the consciousness of god to pass, no power on earth can stop it from passing. We can either accept it or resist it. It is still going to pass. We may think we have stopped it, but like the shifting of the earth's plates, an earthquake will eventually show us that is has been continually transitioning even when we thought it was static. It is the same in reverse. Until the time is right for something to pass, no power in the physical universe can force it to pass. Hitler found this out as did many countless others who thought they could play God with the Universe. Any time anything in life seems to upset us, to find the answer why and get rid of the upset feeling we only need to look within ourselves. Our upsetness is showing us where to look to find the Truth That will Set Us Free. If someone says something that I am upset about, they have actually showed me what I must think upon to find out the true source of the upsetness which is within me. If we believed that what they said was not true, and it was not true, then we would not be upset unless we choose to be upset for one reason or another. The choice is ours. We may think that what they said or did was not the right thing to do or say, but whether we are upset or not is determined by the thoughts we choose to entertain concerning the words or the deed. We cannot have an emotion without a thought preceding it. An emotion is an effect of a train of thoughts. We cannot control each thought we surely can influence the direction our thought will wander. If we are upset from some loved one dying, usually our upsetness is from resisting. We resist letting go of anything, especially anything from which we get pleasure. This is understandable but understanding why we are resisting and accepting the reality that is, will dissipate the pain. Missing a loved one is not the same as resisting their passing and feeling great upsetness of the way of the universe.

151

Sometimes pain is just from a game we run in our minds because we are bored. Something seems to be preferred to nothing. In this case, pain can be a powerful stimulant. When someone we love dies, it can feel like a big piece of our body and soul was just cut out of us with a jagged, rusty knife. The only way out of this pain is through it, facing the reality of the loss until we can accept it with love and appreciation that we were given a chance to have ever known the loved one at all. If we must say it meant anything either good or bad, and romanticize the IS-NESS of reality, we might as well say it happened for the good of our personal evolution and for the good of the personal evolution of the spirit which we experienced as our loved one whether it looks that way or not. Any other thoughts will not be conducive to our learning the spiritual good that was the essence of the experience. If we look for growth in all experience, we will find it and in time all experiences will be looked at with child-like wonder. We have only lost our child-like wonder because of all the experiences we have had since we were 5 or 6 years old and we tend to see more and more things through the memory of previous experience. We filter things through the images of all our past encounters. This is natural for our earth-body. It must compare present experience with former experiences. It must filter present experience through former experience or it would not have time to get on with the process of growing and learning. If every time we used a fork to eat our food we had to learn to use it as a new experience and not filter it through our past experiences of using a fork, we would never finish our dinner. One way to help grow through the pain of a loved one passing from this Earth-plane of experience is to take a photo or an object that is associated with the loved one. A photo seems best, but any personal object, even the loved ones false teeth will work. We will use the photo in this example. Take the photo and talk to the person in the photo. Tell your loved one that you really, really do not want to let them go but you know you have to. Say I don't want to let you go my love, but I know I have to. You are gone from this Earthly part of my existence so I must let you pass and get on with the process of living the life I still have to live. So be it, my loved one. I now let you pass......I must let you pass. I will never lose my wonderful memory of experiencing life with you, but I shall lovingly let you pass into whatever your existence is now. I shall get on with the process of living my life and

152

learn how everything works out for the best even if I do not think it is for the best. Saying these things to your loved one who has died will hurt at first. In fact, you will be wracked with almost uncontrollable sobbing and pain. It will hurt for perhaps a little while or perhaps a long while. It depends on the degree of our resistance. It took me two years after my wife died before I could even smile for more than a moment or two. As I write this, I am still learning from experiencing her and her death. My memory now of experiencing the spirit of my first wife is now one of beauty and thankfulness. Thankfulness that I had the opportunity experience what I experienced with my loved one. There was something she had to learn through her experience of death. A special thing she had to learn or else she would not have died a 22 year-old. When I found her dead, she had one of the nicest smiles that I had ever seen here have. Seeing that smile I knew death did not have to be painful and may even be a wonderful experience. Sometimes we are so close to the trees that we cannot see the whole forest. If the happening was not necessary in the evolution of myself, my loved one and the universe, it wouldn't be happening. I am in no hurry to die. I love living in this Earthly-plane of existence. However, I now do not fear the death process. I just pray I do not have to experience much pain in the process prior to my actual experience of death. The loved one who died would want to be happy and to go and enjoy living. That is, they would want us to go on, live, grow and be happy if they loved us. If there is anyway they would be aware of our crying and suffering over their death, after a minute or two, their spiritual-heart would feel like it was breaking watching us suffer. If they want us to suffer, then we have no business suffering at all. I believe my wife loved me with the passion I loved her. We had our fights but we usually grew them when we faced them and didn't try to reject or resist the problem that was the source of the fight. I presume your loved one loved you with the passion you loved him or her. So he or she would want you to be happy right? Of course.

153

The pain is within ourselves, because we are unwilling to accept the experience as part of living on this Earthly-plane and choosing to learn and grow through it. Of course we liked the experiences before the loved one's death while we still had them in the physical Earth-realm. Even the arguments were experienced in the physical earth-realm. However, death is a final, absolute parting of the physical relationship as we knew it. The more beautiful our memories, the more difficult it is to let go. We have only two choices. We choose to accept it or to resist it as a growth experience. To resist it guarantees pain. Accepting it offers a path to peace. The more we embrace it as an opportunity for growth, the more we will find the spiritual essence of the experience that will set us free from the suffering. We all have a divine mission in this Earth-plane of our existence. This divine mission might be cleaning toilets or leading the country in which we find ourselves living. Even the person living in the gutter has a divine mission. They can either resist or accept the working out of their divine mission. If there was not something for them to learn in the gutter, they would not be in the gutter. They would be somewhere else. They will stay in the gutter until they learn whatever they have to learn what there is for them to learn in the gutter. Once they learn what there is for them to learn, they will either leave the gutter or stay in the gutter helping others rise out of the gutter. Regardless of what path we walk looking for the Truth, we must walk it alone. Alone with God. We must experience each step ourselves. No one can experience our steps with us. They can only share journeying with us. They cannot share our intimate experience of the journey. We think we can share our experiences but we can only share experiencing. Neither of us can feel exactly what the other one is feeling. We can only assume that our feeling is similar to the other person's feeling. We all know how difficult is to explain our feeling with words. Unless the other one has had similar experiences to ours, how can we give them our feeling of our experience? Truth is in all experiences. Truth is in all things. Truth can be learned from all experiences. When what was relevant to be learned, has been learned, we will then move onto another phase of our spiritual journey. The experience is the vehicle of and for Truth. The experience is a manifestation of Truth. As soon as we learn from a problem, it will never be the same problem again. As we keep learning, in time, we will not see ourselves as having any more problems. We will see all an opportunities for growth. We will look upon

154

every experience a part of the spiritual learning process and see the beauty of life manifesting as the learning experience. Things are bad only when we do not learn. Bad only because we will have to continue to go through more and more of the same until we learn what there is for us to learn through the experience. It is our choice. Choose to learn or not learn. This is the only choice we have. Be open to learning or resist learning. Choose to learn immersed in a feeling of all the love you ever dreamed of having. Feel this feeling because it is already true. If we must romanticize the IS-NESS OF REALITY, then let us call it PURE, ABSOLUTE LOVE BECAUSE IT IS OF GOD IT IS GOD. We will pay a price for not learning from our experiences. We may think we are getting by paying a cheaper price, or if we put the learning off long enough we might feel we won't have to pay the price. However, this is an illusion. We will pay a price even for not paying a price. There is a price for every experience in life. We all have just 24 hours a day to spend on life regardless of how rich or how poor we may think we are. Once we spend any minute on anything that is important or not important to us, once surely as we spend it, the minute is spent. There are no exchanges. There are no refunds. That minute, that moment of our life in this Earth-plane has passed. It is gone forever. We can still learn from the memory but the moment has passed, whether we like it or not. Say we decide not to pay the price of accepting an experience as a growth experience. The price we will pay in the long run is ulcers, psychosomatic illnesses, a loved one that rejects us. The vehicles the price comes in are as many as there are possibilities in the universe. We either pay the price as soon as possible or the price we pay later on will be many times heavier and harder to grow through. Growth in the earlier stages is like a chicken that breaks out of its' shell Once out of the shell, it is free. To stay in the shell is to live a limited life to say the least. To stay in the shell will actually kill the chicken. Either decision will bring different results. Once out of the shell, the rewards are infinitely greater than if stayed in the shell. Once we break out of the shell, once we see and accept the Truth, we will never want to return to the shell again. Breaking out of the shell quickly
155

definitely requires more discipline and desire for growth than staying in the shell. We think staying in our shell is the safest thing we can do, all things as we see them considered. But in the long run that price is like a charge account. Either you pay it off as soon as possible or it almost always increases in the amount you eventually have to pay. The price builds up so slowly that we don't think any concern even if we are aware enough to notice the price building up. Then one day, sooner or later, we either have to pay the price of breaking out of the shell or ending up paying the price of bankruptcy. When we grow to the awareness that all happenings are working out for the good of the evolution of the universe when our consciousness is aware of this fact when we accept this awareness as the truth that is then we are truly free. You could spend all the money in the universe and not find Truth. You do not have to give up anything to find truth. It just has to be alright for us to have or not have anything in the Universe, whether we would like it to be or not. If it is, so be it. If it is not, so be it. It is perfectly alright. Lean the weight of your influence in the direction you would like your life to go. However, regardless of the results of your leaning, appreciate the fact that you have a chance to do anything at all and you will know the joy and the blessing of your existence. Of course we must try to achieve our dreams, intentions and desires. Our dreams, intentions and desires are what give us a sense of direction in fulfilling our diving mission on whatever plane of existence we find ourselves. We are players on a stage. Our bodies and physical lives are used to better Creation, regardless of what we would think would better Creation. In fact, sometimes life has other plans for us regardless of what we think, want or desire. It is only an illusion that we can choose what experiences life will bring us. Our only choice is to grow, to learn. Once we learn from an experience, Life does not have to bring that experience to us again. If we do not learn, Life will keep trying to teach us. Our growth experiences will be relevant to our individual lever of awareness. Sometimes we are the vehicle life uses to get someone else to

156

grow. However, if we look into the experience we will see potentials for our own growth also. We learn through the experience we call death, both our death and the death of others. Learning is Eternal. We cannot ever become the god that is the source and sustainer of our existence, the infinite body in which we live, move and have our being. Therefore we will never stop learning. God will always be at least one step ahead of us. Perhaps after our experience of death, we will pay a price for not learning things in this experience of life prior to our death experience. Like I said, only one of two things can possibility happen after the experience we call death. One is NOTHING Dead Gone forever into oblivion, into nothingness, not aware of not being aware. If this happens, nothing matters anyway to the dead person. We must let the person go. There is nothing we can do to bring him or her back to life. We must let them go or live in different levels of misery. If death is the end of our existence, then nothing is worth being unhappy while we still live. We will only be alive once so enjoy it as much as you can. Get drunk, get somebody else, use any crutch to get through the rest of your life that helps. However, the second possibility is there is a continuation of us being aware of individually existing somewhere. If this is the case, we had better learn all we can. Learning will cost a price, but so will not learning cost a price. Just do not do anything to anybody that you couldn't handle if it was being done to you. This is because of the Universal Law of Return. The energy we send out will return to us. If you hit someone in the nose, this does not necessarily mean that someone will hit you in the nose. But sometime, sooner or later, without fail, life might hit you in the head with a ball bat. The fist and the ball bat are just vehicles to carry the energy to its destination someone else's nose or your head. All of creation is just a vehicle for God to express God. The energy we send out will return. Don't deceive yourself. When what we do to another doesn't come back the exact way we did it, it will return. The essence of what and why we did something will come back. This is the way the universe educates us. It does not punish It educates. If there is any possible chance that this life is part of learning process for eternity, we had better choose to grow and accept nature to be whatever nature is. Sure, have dreams, intentions and desires. They are directional

157

finders leading to fulfillment of our divine potential as co-creators in the infinite mind of God. If an experience is not relevant to our growth, it would not be happening. Something else would be happening until something else is relevant. Never forget that all we really have is God and our awareness. No person can experience our pleasures or our pain for us Not mother, father, sister, brother, husband, wife or child. God and awareness of being aware are all we really have. Anything in the physical universe can be taken out of our awareness without even a moments notice. We must be thankful that we have had a chance to experience anything and anywhere. The more this thankfulness fills us, the more we will be able to everything to be or not to be. Once this thankfulness for being aware of being aware fills our very being-ness, we will enjoy life because we will not depend on life to anything but existing for our happiness. Happy that we exist in any form or fashion. Everything has its place. Even a cockroach has its place. It is doing it's divine mission. It is one of God's best energy transformers. It takes many different forms of energy and defecates the energy as a simpler form of energy. To have the building blocks of life, life must be broken down into small building blocks. The only thing that can upset me is my thought about what has happened, what is happening or what may happen in the future. We can change our life by changing our thoughts. One day or perhaps a thousand days from now, with the appreciation of being aware of being aware, our life will be more beautiful than we could imagine because we will be living life itself. What is more incredible than living life itself? However, it will take time, patience and a willingness to experience things we may not want to experience. Learn especially from these unwanted experiences. They hold the greatest potential for self-growth. Anything we resist becomes permanent as long as we resist it. What we fear comes upon us. To fear anything means there is something to be learned through what we fear. The principles of the Universe are very simple. Their profundity is in their simplicity. The principles of driving an automobile are very simple: Step
158

one, Step two, Step three, Step four, Step five Now Drive. Very simple but not necessarily easy to do. Even writing a letter was not easy for us before we even learned how to print at 3, 4 or 5 years of age. Most of us could not do anything until we were at least a few weeks old. Even then, we learned by experience, by trial and error. We were non-professionals in everything at one time or another in our life. We learn other things the same way. Keep trying. Do anything often enough and long enough and it will become part of us. It will become a habit. Our computer-like mind and our machine-like body produce nothing better than what we feed it physically, mentally and emotionally. You feed it fifty negative thoughts and only twenty positive thoughts, it will assume the negative way is the way you want and it will help lead you to negative experiences. It can do only the job it was made to do, which is to serve you. It lives on the instructions you feed it. Feed it fifty positive thoughts and only 20 negative thoughts and it will strive to lead you towards positive experiences. If we program self-destructive thoughts, sooner or later we will act in selfdestructive ways, in spite of our efforts to be constructive. Every thought is recorded whether we think it is recorded or not. When we speak, we think the thought before we speak it. Then when we say the thought it is recorded again. Double jeopardy or double beauty. It is determined by our thoughts. Of course, if someone sticks us with a pin, we will be upset the moment it happens, but then it has passed and except for the lingering pain, the upsetness has passed also. What thoughts we choose to entertain will determine how long the mental upsetness stays with us. Listen to songs that sound beautiful but have painful messages can be injurious to our health. Every painful emotion is recorded in the present moment as you listen to the song. Painful emotion songs such as She broke my heart and I don't know how I will live without her, or singing about the lack of something you desire in your life such as I need the love of a natural man will strongly influence how you view and experience life. Feed pain or lack into your computer brain and it will feed on it and produce more of the same in your life. Repeat something often enough and long enough and it will become part of you. What is repeated the most will become the most dominant part of our physical and mental experience.

159

Through all this, your spiritual reality will not give up trying to inspire us. There is a voice that keeps trying to say to us There is More, Know that there is More. Each hears this voice in our own individual way. We are so conditioned by this Earthly-plane of experience that we are afraid to take a chance on letting go in order to get. Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God and All Things Will be Added Unto you. The Kingdom of God is within the innermost center of your very being. It has never been anywhere else. You only sought it outside of yourself. We can change by addition. We can negate nothing in our life that has already past. We can only change by thinking the thoughts we want to be in our mind and our life. At first, it will seem to just get harder and harder. But if you keep on keeping on, it will start getting easier and easier. Don't forget it also will sooner or later become a habit. The day will come that it even seems too easy and you will wonder why more spirit-people do not see things the way you do. You have heard of higher levels of awareness. However, until you experience them, you know them not. You know only what you have experienced. Be open to even greater experience. The price you pay will be only a fraction of the value you will experience. It is God's pleasure to give you the Kingdom of Heaven. You just have to accept it. If and when you think you have failed to do what you know or feel you should do, forgive yourself and know that you will do and think the right thing the next opportunity you have. As many times as you stumble, forgive yourself one more time, get up and press on. What matters is your sincere desire for the Kingdom of Heaven and sooner or later you will receive it. You will find it has always been in you, around you and always with you. Life.....Just the fact that life exists at all and that you have had a chance to experience it at all. To experience life in and through any of its' infinite manifestations is the most incredible thing I can think of. Death is a part of life. How can it be anything else but good. We may not like it but we could not exist on this earthly-plane without it. We can think anything about it we choose but IT STILL IS. It is the is-ness of Reality. God is singular in Essence, but infinite in It's Divine Manifestations. If we must call the ISNESS OF REALITY anything, LET US CALL IT GOOD.

160

Bad Things DO NOT Happen to Good People

Good is in the center of every single thing that appears to be negative. If we can know that good is all there is, including in a negative situation, then we will see a negative situation transform into the good that it always was. But there is no bad in the Universe; it is just our inability to see things from the value of the perspective of God from the point of view of Omnipresence and the Universal Self. Good is in the center of every experience that appears to be negative. If we understand the value of anything that happens, then we know the good that it offers. Just because we do not like it does not make it bad. The word or concept bad is a value judgment based on our limited point of view or our selfish desire of what we prefer to be experiencing. Most people do not see the good because they label something as bad, and then, of course, that becomes their reality. Most of what we call bad is because we are labeling it bad because we do not like it and either do not see, or want to see the value it offers us spiritually. It is our inability to see things from the perspective of the Universal Self, the Universal Spirit or God that contributes to our labeling anything as bad. Once we accept the first two propositions of AMSWAY, there is only good in the universe. The first proposition is the belief in the Omnipresence of God. A God that is self-aware throughout creation. An omnipresent reality means there is no room for anything else, regardless of what name you wish to give it. There is only God and manifestations of God, or expressions of God within God. The second proposition is the continuation of our awareness of being aware after the death of our earthly body. Some might call this continuation of the awareness of being aware a continuation of our self-consciousness. Consciousness of the continuation of the self we are referencing when we say I. Not the continuation of what we see in the mirror and what we think is us. Most of what we think is us is not us at all. The true us does not die. What we see in the mirror and what we call our human self dies, disintegrates, and becomes part of the building blocks for new expressions of earth life. The true self of us, the real I is the soul, the spirit that is eternal.

161

There have been a lot of sorrowful and seemingly tragic and senseless experiences spirit-people have had. Parents, children boyfriends, girlfriends, raped, tortured or and killed. Perhaps all three in one experience - raped, tortured AND killed. We must remember that if there is anything for body after our earthly body dies, then no one has ever been really killed. Only our loved ones body was killed. The spirit that they truly were and are was not killed. A belief in an Omnipresent God, that is self-aware through the manifestations of God that we call physical reality, means that God was with, and in, each one that was tortured and killed. We have compassion. Therefore an Omnipresent God has compassion. If an Omnipresent God did not have compassion, then we could not have compassion since we totally live, move and have our entire existence within this Omnipresent God. How could a compassionate God allow a seemingly innocent child to be tortured and killed? There must be some very important lessons to be learned through the experience both for the child that experienced the torturous death and the loved ones the child left behind. What lessons could possibly be worth the death of the child? The lessons have to do with the education of the spirit that was experiencing through the body of the child and education of the spirits who were experiencing through the bodies of the ones left behind on earth. Remember, if there is anything after our body dies, then we are the spirits that go on. We do not have a soul. We do not have a spirit within us. We are the soul that has a body. We are the spirit looking and experiencing through what we call the physical body. Think about it. If there is a soul, then when the body dies the body disintegrates and literally becomes food for other creatures and becomes one with the earth again to become part of new life forms. If there is a soul, then it goes on somewhere. Where do WE go? Do we ride piggyback on our soul? Of course not, we must be the soul that continues. If we are not the soul that continues, then our soul would go on and we would not. Are you following me? We are not the face we see in the mirror, nor are we the flesh under the face, nor are we the bones under the flesh. We are the witness of what we see in the mirror. We are the soul experiencing through what we call the physical body on what we call Earth. The body is our vehicle of communication. The body is our vehicle of transportation. Our body is what we use to contribute to

162

the rest of creation. Our body is what we use to learn to be better contributors to the rest of creation. We learn through trial and error. Some of the trials and some of the errors can be very painful. Which one of us has not had many learning experiences that were painful only because we did not apply the lessons what they were offered to us in less painful ways? God tried to teach us in more gentle ways. However, for whatever reason, we continued to do what we knew we should not have continued to do. We put off applying the lesson and doing what we knew we should do until the pain of not applying the lesson was so great that we decided not to continue doing what we knew we should have stopped doing long ago. Whew, that was a long sentence. However, re-read it until you get it. It is the reason for most of what we call painful lessons. The spirits in the young children and the spirits in the bodies of their parents are eternal spirits. Spirits do not have an age. Spirits just have different levels of awareness, understanding, acceptance and ability to apply universal laws and principles. Spirits just have different levels of potential for manifesting the Glory of God based on what they can handle. What they can handle as spiritual beings expressing the Glory of Infinite God is determined by what lessons they have learned and apply in their daily living. In order to truly know what we did to someone, we must eventually have it done unto us. Until you have tasted both sides of the situation, you really do not know the situation. I will give you a few examples of what seemingly innocent spirit-humans are doing to creation that would warrant some VERY painful lessons from a God of compassion. Many years ago, I watched a seal cub hunt. Hunters were rounding up baby seals with beautiful white fur for the purpose of making coats out of their skin and fur. These hunters did not hunt with a gun. This would have messed up the potential saleable value of the seal coats. No, they killed the baby seals by hitting their heads with a big club until they died. One seal hunt in particular, I remember watching a baby seal being killed by a hunter. After it was dead, the mother seal came over to it and looked down at her baby. All of a sudden, the mother seal raised her head as far up to the sky as she could and let out the most heart-wrenching wailing sound that I have ever heard. If you have ever seen a mother in the Middle East who just picked up her dead baby who was just killed by a bomb, and listened to her wails of pain, this mother seal sounded just like that spirit-human mother. If I would have closed my eyes and
163

did not know the wailing was coming from the mother seal, I would have sworn to you that it was human not animal. The painful emotion the mother seal was expressing was coming from her core of whatever consciousness she possessed. The pain she was feeling was from a senseless killing of her baby. She could not understand that her baby died so that some human could look good and keep warm in her dead babys skin and fur. No one was even going to eat the meat. They actually skinned the baby seal right there on the ice. What a sight for the mother seal to see. What heartbreak she must have felt. She cannot think in words like we do, but there was no lack of pain in the wailing painfulness of what I heard her express. The ones who purchase and wear the furs of these baby seals are they innocent of their deaths and are they innocent of causing the terrible suffering of the baby seals mother? One way or another, sooner or later, they will have to learn what they truly did in order to make money or to stroke their vanity. Another example is I was eating a snack once while reading the newspaper. The article I was reading at the time was about a man in Africa who was raising dogs to kill and make coats out of their skin. The dogs were the type of dogs who do not have fur, they have hair. The hair is like ours. If we did not brush our hair, our hair would get matted from the little hair that we lose day to day. This is why what we call shed-less dogs get matted hair if their hair is not washed and brushed regularly. They were poodles, Maltese, Afghans, Dalmatians, Greyhounds, Terriers, Shih Tzus, some sheep dogs, and others. Well, I had a beautiful toy poodle at the time. He was part of my family, if you know what I mean. As I was reading the article, I noticed that he was next to me, looking up at me begging me to give him some of my snack. Get the picture? I looked at him, looked back at the article, looked back at him and said to him, They would not do that to you, would they? Of course they would have. He had a beautiful curly black coat of hair. How could they do that to him? He was so sweet and so smart you know just what I mean, dont you? My poodle was family. He was almost like my child. He definitely was my friend. Are the ones who wear these coats innocent of the slaughter of the dogs that went into making their coat? Even the wool industry is not without blood. The wool industry is arm and arm with the slaughterhouse industry. Even wearing wool is contributing to the painful and fearful slaughter of millions of sheep yearly.

164

Another example is the slaughtering of the billions of animals each year for food for spirit-humans. I have been a vegetarian for over 30 years. I am over 60 now. I have been a vegan since my son was born 11 years ago. He has been a vegan since he was born. He is a star basketball player, an X-Box live gamer who is rated 334 in the United States and Canada on at least one of the games he plays. He has an A- average in an International School he attends. He hardly ever gets sick. He just gets stomach aches and headaches when he has overdosed on junk food usually when I am not watching him. Have you ever seen a slaughter house and the slaughtering process? The slaughtering industry will try to tell you that they humanely kill the livestock. Some religions actually want us to believe they especially kill the animals humanely. They hang them up by their legs, slit their throat and allow them to bleed to death. This is killing humanely? Before the animals are killed, they smell the death in the slaughterhouse. They animals waiting their turn for the killing knife or the killing bolt, or the killing shot of electricity hear the other animals right before and during the killing process. They are scared. They are VERY scared. Some even try to eat through their leg bones to escape the chains holding them. What fear are we sowing to these billions of animals YEARLY because of our lust for the taste of their flesh? Do you realize that even if the body goes into shock, it normally takes four to five minutes for the brain to become irreversibly damaged? The animal is aware while this brain death process is occurring. They might be in shock and cannot feel the pain any longer but what is going on in their mind? What would be going on in your mind during this few minutes after someone cut your throat? Most people I speak to will not even watch a slaughterhouse video. They pull back and say they could not watch it. However, they will go out and have a steak, a roast chicken or a lobster. Are we turning away from the pain and suffering we are giving to billions of creatures YEARLY because we only have to look at it in a sanitized plastic container in the grocery store. Are we turning away from the pain and suffering we are causing because of the good aromas of the cooking flesh with the delicious herbs and seasoning we smell coming out of the kitchen? I feel the same way about smelling a potato cooking with garlic and onions. At least I do not give the potato pain and suffering before I start cooking it. Have you ever heard a lobster scream when it was put into the boiling water alive to prepare it for the enjoyment of some spirit-human at a table out of sight and out of sound of the killing field? One time I was watching some people spear-fishing. I remember one of them spearing a fish and holding it out of the water at the end of the spear. The fish did not look like it liked it at all. It was violently struggling to get away. Later
165

that day, a friend of mine asked me to go to the fish store and pick up some shrimp for her. I loved eating shrimp and said I would be happy to go for her. Well, I got to the store and it actually took me a couple of hours to leave the store. Within a few minutes after I entered the store I started feeling very uncomfortable. I looked at all the fish in the fish cases and one thing was unavoidable. They all had eyes. I felt all the dead eyes staring at me. I do not know how a fish thinks. I know they do not think in words. However, they do act like they have some intelligence and sense of self awareness. I do know that if I try to catch one for dinner, it tries to swim away as quickly as possible. Sort of like a very fearful burst of energy to get away from injury. I remembered earlier in the day the image of the fish struggling to no avail to get off the spear and get back into the water to live. Again, I do not know what is in the mind of a fish. However, I do know that if I am attempting to catch the fish, and the fish looks at me through its eyes, that it probably sees and feels what I would see and feel if someone was trying to catch me for a reason I did not know. I would look at them and feel fear and do my best to get away just like the fish. How many billions of fish are killed each year, for the taste of their flesh? Some say they eat the fish for health reasons. Fish are not necessary for human health. I am one of the healthiest 60-year old spirit-humans I have ever met. I can still outrun any of my sons classmates. I definitely can do more pushups than most of them. I do not need fish to be healthy. I eat mostly healthy nonanimal foods, including flax seeds which give me good sources of what people think they need fish to get such as the Omega Oils. I can eat over 450 different fruits, seeds, nuts roots, vegetables, grains, leaves and other things without ever causing pain that God has given me the awareness giving to another feeling creature. Some say carrots scream when I pull them out of the ground. This is just an excuse to not think that a cow feels more of what we feel as pain than a carrot feels. A carrot does not have a central nervous system that enables it to feel what we call pain. What about the wars in the name of God? Remember, one persons freedom fighter is another persons terrorist. Look at all the pain and suffering caused by the endless wars in the history of the human species. The ones who plan and fight the wars and the ones who go along with their government and do not protest the wars are equally guilty of the pain and suffering caused by the war machines.

166

In a war, if you kill a soldier that has children; do you really think the children of the dead soldier will understand why you killed their father? To the child, even the parent who we call a terrorist is not a terrorist he or she is the childs father or mother. This child is going to grow up with a hatred of you and dream of getting back at you for taking their parent away from them. They will grow up and blow up a bus with your children on it and the revenge cycle will continue. What about the things we put in front of our love of God? What about the people we put before God? Perhaps God has to take some of these things and these people from us in order for us to realize that God must be number one in our life. Most of the religions that have ever existed have all said, Not your will but Gods will be done. Submission to the will of God is what God asks of us. Not as other spirit-human tells us we should submit, but as our heart tells us we should submit. Even humans who mean well have their own agenda and their own opinion of the right way to love and do the will of God. But which one can tell you how you uniquely should do the will of God. Which one of those people really knows the will of God for YOU? Which one should you listen to when he or she tells you that you should do unto another what you would not want done unto you? The greatest religions all say we should love our God with all our heart and all our soul. What are YOU putting in front of what you know you should be doing for the Glory of God? What about the pain and suffering to mother earth? Cutting down rain forests and taking away the living space of untold numbers of creatures. The way we as a species are raping the earth leads me to believe it is only a matter of time before the earth regurgitates us in order to survive. What about the starving children around the world? How often do you leave the dinner table so stuffed you feel your stomach will burst? Perhaps you should have eaten a little less and somehow got involved in feeding the starving children. What about the thousands of children that die daily because of not having fresh water to drink? How much drinking water do you waste in the shower and then do nothing to help these children get some safe water to drink? Remember, if you believe in the Omnipresence of God, then what you do to the least of creation, YOU DO UNTO GOD. Be very, very careful why you do what you do. Be sure that the reasons you do what you do are reasons you
167

could understand and accept if it was being done unto you. If someone believed they needed to kill me and eat me in order to survive and be healthy, I could understand and accept this. Of course I would defend myself and kill them if necessary to survive. However, if someone wanted to kill me for the lust of the taste of my flesh or the enjoyment of hunting me and killing me, I would not think much of them. I would still kill them if necessary, but I definitely would not understand and accept their reasoning. If what you do to the least of all you do unto God, then most of the seemingly unjustified spirit-human suffering seems to have a simple purpose. It is a spiritual education. It is simple. I must give it to others what I wish to receive from others. I must give it to humans, birds, bees, lions, cows, even mother earth - any and all of creation that would feel the result of my compassion. I have no right to expect from God what I am not willing to give first. I have no right to expect from God what I am not willing to plant first into the soil of creation. A lot of spirit-humans say that God is punishing people for sins committed. A God of compassion does not punish. A God capable of compassion educates. A God of compassion shows us the error of our ways in the only way we will understand and the only way we will truly know what we planted. We will only truly know what we did by having it done unto us. When we experience it happening to us, the experience may be wearing different clothes but the essence, the core of what was in our heart will be what returns to us to educate us. We may plant the seed, but until we eat the fruit, we really do not know what we planted. A God of compassion accepts us as we are and understands that we will finally see the eternal light of righteousness through lessons that will sometimes burn like the kitchen stove flame burns the child who will not learn the truth of heat until actually touching and feeling the flame. You tell your child to be careful of the hot stove. However, until the child one day burns his or herself on the hot stove or the hot flame coming from the kitchen range, he or she will not really know what you were warning them about. After getting burned, hopefully the child will think twice in the future about the warnings you give them that are based on your experience of getting burned or hurt. A God of compassion knows we might only learn what we did to the animals by experiencing similar situations where we are the one who is scared, frightened and painfully put to death for reasons that we cannot understand.

168

How can we really know, in a spiritual sense, what that seal mother was feeling watching her seal baby being clubbed to death, unless something similar happens to us? Remember, the spirit that you are never dies. Only the physical vehicle that you are presently using is what dies. No one can ever kill you. They can only kill your body. No one can ever kill the spirit that you are experiencing as your mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, friend or lover. They only kill the body. Even if the death of your loved one, is a painful and tortuous one for their body, the spirit that was living through the body of the loved one had a lesson to learn through the way he or she died and also had a lesson to learn through the actual death. There can be no other answer if God is an Omnipresent and compassionate God. All those who were close to the loved one who was injured or killed also had spiritual lessons offered to them through the experience. There are no chance encounters. There are no chance births. There are no chance deaths. There are no chance relationships. Not if you believe in an Omnipresent, compassionate God. Omnipresent means this God is living through all creation, therefore this Omnipresent God feels all the pain and the suffering that any creatures experience. Since we live, move and have our very being within Omnipresent God, what we feel - God feels. How can we learn the suffering we cause other living, breathing, feeling creatures, the manifestations of Omnipresent God, if we do not experience a little of it ourselves? Even your own injury or death has lessons for you to learn. What is important is that you learn through the death experience what is uniquely there for you to learn. You really wouldn't want to repeat the same lesson again - would you? Do you want your children, and your grandchildren, to have to learn the lessons in the same painful way that you seem to need to have the lessons done unto you? Perhaps you should be a better living example of the compassion you want God and the world to give you and to your children. Remember, God has all eternity and the entire universe to use to teach you what you need to learn to be the best co-creator you can be. Again, I will ask you, you really do not want to experience the same lessons over and over - DO YOU?

169

A compassionate God does not punish. A compassionate God educates. We may not like the education. However, which one of us is really doing all that we really know we should be doing for the Glory of God? Sometimes a compassionate God has to kick us in the head to get our attention. Sometimes a compassionate God has to grab us by our shoulders, shake us and yell in a loud voice, What Do I Have to Do to Get Your Attention? Sometimes a compassionate God has to take away our eyes for us to truly see. That would not be a bad as we think since we will have other eyes someday and somewhere in a future body. Until then, do what you know you should be doing, and do it NOW. It just might prolong your present earthly life or the life of a loved one. What you do unto the least of all, you do unto God. Be very, very careful why you do what you do. You will be educated if you were not doing it for the reasons you would understand if it was being done unto you. Perhaps you will be born into a family that has no food and you will look at the humans who have plenty and wonder why they are not sharing some with you. Perhaps you will be born in a society that kills and tortures their citizens and you will look at the rest of the world and wonder why they are not helping you. A different example of how something that happens to us that we really, really would not want to happen might just be one of the best things to ever happen to us is something I experienced a couple of days ago. The other night I met a 42year old man who six months ago was having a wonderful time on an ATV, an All Terrain Vehicle. You know the ones you see on TV that are being used offroad and you see people driving up hills and down hills, over rocks and through creeks, up and down sand dunes a small four-wheel motorcycle without windows or doors. Looks like fun, doesnt it? Well, he was having a great time and all of a sudden, a chain across his path he did not see caught him in his throat. Picture him being caught on the neck by the chain and yanked off his ATV. I know you have seen this happen in cartoons. The only difference was this was reality. This was not funny. When the chain caught him, it cut off the blood supply to part of his brain and he had a stroke. He also broke some bones in his neck and back. They thought he was going to die. However, they fused the bones and saved his life. I met him in his new vehicle a wheelchair. He cannot move his neck even an inch in either direction side to side. For him to see you, you almost have to get directly in front of him. I told him that in the greatest tragedy, there is a great treasure, if you are but open to see it. He told me that he has not found the treasure yet. I asked him if he ever heard of Helen Keller, who was blind, deaf and could not speak. He said yes. I asked him would he trade his paralysis if all he had to do was trade

170

places with her. He did not hesitate a second in saying no. I at least started him on the road to thankfulness again. I have not had a chance to speak more with him yet on finding his treasure in his tragedy. However, I am reminded of all the spirit-humans who become fighters for the underprivileged, for the handicapped, for those with cancer, polio and all the other seemingly bad things that can and do happen to spirithumans. A lot of your greatest advocates in helping these sick and crippled people have only joined the cause because of themselves or a loved one either having been raped, been killed, been crippled or somehow experienced what we would not want to either experience or have our loved ones experience. Because of the tragedy, they dedicated their lives to helping prevent anyone else from ever having to suffer the pain that they suffer. If your child was raped and killed, and if you can help prevent it from happening to some other child, it will help you in your journey of acceptance. If you can help prevent another child from being paralyzed, it will help you in your journey of acceptance. If you or your child got deathly sick or died from drinking unsafe water and you can help prevent another child from starving to death or dying from drinking dirty water, it will help you in your journey. This young 42-year old man is a lawyer. Perhaps he will decide to bring his legal expertise to the task of help other handicapped individuals live a better life through fighting for their right to live a better life and for protecting their legal rights. I dont know how to inspire him yet, other than when I helped him see how fortunate he still is, but I look forward to walking some of his journey with him and getting him to think on these things. I can help him find the treasures in his present wheelchair, fused neck, left-sided paralyzed body experience as soon as he is ready to look, find, accept and embrace the treasures. How many lawyers would dedicate their lives to helping paralyzed people unless they or their children became paralyzed? Perhaps they would send some money to some charities, some self-help organizations. However, the life of a lawyer does not leave much time for pursuits other than making money and spending it on rest and relaxation. Most of us do not have a passion for helping others unless we have experienced the pain and suffering they are experiencing. If the lawyer has a passion for helping others in similar situations, then what that lawyer can accomplish is more than money can purchase. Others may help and get paid for it, but they will not be doing it from the depths of their being. They will care for the people they are helping but without the salary, they would get a different job. If you feel the pain of the other, then he or she will
171

want to be helping from the depths of their being and the money will just help him or her live his or her passion. It will become one of his or her reasons for living, for getting out of bed and greeting the day with appreciation that he or she has found a purpose greater than him or her. It will be a purpose that will come from the gratitude in his or her heart that he or she has the opportunity to serve others through his or her personal understanding and experience of what they are going through every day of their lives. Even if he gets more bodily movement through intense physical therapy, he will never have the healthy, strong and flexible body he had six months ago. But someday, his body will die and he will be free of the restrictions of his paralyzed body. The spirit that he is within the body he has now will eventually be set free. He, the spirit, then will go wherever he needs to go, to experience whatever he needs to experience, and to learn whatever he needs to learn at that time. Hopefully, he will learn all he possibly can learn from this experience and glorify God through his present situation so that he will not have to ever experience something like this again. All happens for a reason and if there is no reason for it to happen, it will not happen. You cannot believe in both an Omnipresent God and chance. I told a friend this story last night and he told me how he was recently in Sedona, Arizona, on a motorcycle traveling at high rates of speed up and down the steep hills. He said he was having such a great time that it was worth whatever might have happened. I wonder how he would have felt if he had an accident and ended up in a wheelchair like the lawyer. I wonder if he would have then told me that ending up in a wheelchair was worth the few minutes of pleasure speeding up and down the mountains on the motorcycle with the wind blowing through his hair. I really doubt he would have said it was worth it. Some of our greatest thrills are the experiences that could have killed us but we came through unscathed. If we believe in an Omnipresent God, then all has a purpose, even if we not like or understand the purpose. Live your life thanking God for all you have and pray for God to show you how all that you experience has a divine purpose whether it is to educate you to the error of your ways or offer you an opportunity to glorify God in a way only you can Glorify God Truly appreciate that you are aware of being aware. Truly appreciate that you have had a chance to experience anything, anywhere and you will begin to see the working of God in all that you have and all that you do.

172

Remember, even the paralyzed lawyer I met the other night would not trade places with Helen Keller even if it meant having all his other physical strength, movement and health back. And do not pity Helen Keller. She even wrote books describing how grateful to God she was for what God had given her. Any loved one you have lost. Any loved one that has died and left you with only memories. Remember, the spirit that was truly them did not die and they are not dead. The spirit that was playing the role of your loved one is eternally learning and still living for the Glory of God. They do not want you to be sad or to be unhappy that they are no longer with you. Appreciate the time you had with them and appreciate that you can still remember experiencing them. This will make your life lighter and easier to continue. This will allow them to continue on their journey wherever it will take them with lightness and happiness. I woke up when my body was 21 and found my pregnant wife dead in bed next to me. We had been married for two months. For two years after finding her dead, I lived in intense emotional pain. For two years I lived cursing any and all the Gods I could think of. I would look at someone who had 20 years of married life and say I was robbed, I was cheated, it was not right. Why me? Why me? Then one day, two years later, I woke up and read about a young man on his way home with his new wife from his wedding. They were involved in a car accident. He lived, but she died. All of a sudden I realized that compared to one who had 20 years of married life, yes I was robbed. However, compared to him, I have a long time. I had two who months more than he did of experiencing the happiness of being married to one I loved. Some babies never make it out of the chute, are never born. I had two months with my new wife. Since we all eventually die, sooner or later, what did I have to complain about? I had the marriage experience and some never even get that. He never even got home from his wedding. Her death taught me the secret of alchemy, the secret of turning lead into gold. The secret is the attitude we bring to each and every act, the attitude we bring to each and every experience we have that will determine whether we find a curse or a blessing within the experience. It is beyond incredible that we have even had a chance to experience ANYTHING. Truly appreciate that we have had a chance to experience ANYTHING and we will be well on our way to finding the treasure in the midst of tragedy. Once we find the treasure, it is no longer a tragedy.

173

Bad things do not happen to good people. People just resist seeing the Glory of God working out in each and every thing that happens. In their resistance, they find their pain. In their acceptance, they find their blessing. Which will you choose to look for? Will you call it bad and find more of bad? Or will you pray for the lesson that will lead you to the treasure of seeing the Glory of God working in your life, both through you and your loved ones? Will you call it a curse or will you call it a blessing? Whichever you choose to call it, you will most surely find it.

174

Miracles

What we call miracles, such as restoring sight to the blind, are an expression of a person's conscious intimate relationship with God. For example, an occasional healing may take place according to the faith of those affected by it. For a person to be a daily "healer" that brings sight to the blind, that person must have a deeper understanding of God and God's laws to apply that ability than the "'average" person has. He or she has to be "in tune" with the cosmic symphony. Even a surgeon who performs a heart transplant would be called a miracle worker by the person who received the transplant if the patient didn't know of the science of surgery. The patient would say that the surgeon performed a "miracle". The untrained person can not do a heart transplant. After years of professional preparation to be a "vehicle" for higher levels of God's expression through him or her, the surgical miracle of transplanting a heart form one body to another body can be accomplished. However, the better the surgeon understands the mechanics of that part of God's manifestation (the human body), the better he or she can be used by God to perform the miracle of heart transplantation. A lot of diseases are caused by stresses both conscious and subconscious. The body uses a lot of energy both generating the stress and in keeping the stress under control. However, the underlying emotion will find an outlet somewhere. This outlet is usually a physical ailment. At the moment in consciousness when the person releases the attachment to the cause of the stressful emotion, energy is no longer needed to keep the emotion and stress hidden or in check. With the release of this energy block in consciousness the disease is no longer needed as an outlet for the stress. Therefore a healing takes place. It is the body's natural state of reality to forever be attempting to heal itself. It doesn't always succeed but it sure does an incredible job most of the time. Sometimes a person is just ready for a healing to take place spontaneously. If the time is right in consciousness for a person to have a spontaneous healing, a butterfly flitting past the line of sight of the person might be just the catalyst that releases the healing.

175

What we call miracles are just the universal laws working in ways we do not perceive. The more we are in tune with the universal symphony, the more we are open to, and will receive, miracles in our lives.

176

Destiny

Every person is born with a destiny of potential. You notice I said destiny of potential instead of potential destiny. We have choices which have an influence on the life's path that we will find ourselves experiencing. As an example, a lot of people are born to be architects. Some will eventually build Empire State buildings. Some will design doorways. Whether a person can design skyscrapers or doorways will be determined by what he or she can handle in consciousness. The great thing about being a human is that we can start out able to design doorways, and after years of study, practice, patience and the desire that is great enough to sustain the years of study, practice, making mistakes and correcting them, we can eventually hope to someday design a skyscraper that won't come tumbling down on our heads. Same with arranging music. A person's ability to arrange can evolve from very simple, unpolished arrangements to the more detailed, masterful arrangements that a full symphony would use in their playing. What is your inner desire? Recognition? Fame? Money to do and go where you want? What if you don't get any of these things? Would you still appreciate the miracle that you had a chance to see and smell the flowers along the way? Would you like to know the best way to accomplish all this and still enjoy the process? Then pay heed to the following words and deny their righteousness if you can. People do one of two things while living. They either serve or they perform a service. The difference is this: Some people work at a job for security, for an apartment, for the weekend, for the status, for the prestige, for the titles, for a car or any other possession imaginable. These people are performing a service to the universe for what they can get out of it. Their happiness is dependent on getting what they are working for. What about people that work, or serve, for the pleasure of doing? They do not consider their work a burden because they are doing what fulfills their inner prompter. I used to hear a saying, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all things shall be added unto you". I have now come to understand this in the
177

following way. Our dreams and desires give us an idea of what we are in potential. Dreams and desires are God's directional signals showing us, each in our own way, what we potentially can express as a contribution to this process that we call life. Seek to manifest inner dream, learn all that you can possibly can about it. Don't worry about the roof over your head of the food for your stomach. You will sleep and you will eat. The important thing is not to compromise learning all you can that will enable you to materialize your dream. Keep sincerely dedicated and sooner or later one thing is certain. You will know more about your chosen desire, vocation, job or whatever you want to call it than 90% of the rest of the people. This is certain because only about 10% of humanity are doing what they love. The rest are doing what they are doing for something other than the pleasure of doing what they are doing. When you have more knowledge that the 90% of the people, guess what happens? The 90% will come knocking at your door. The 90% in your field that are there trying to get something out of the field other than the pleasure of serving in that particular field will beg you to tell them what you know. They will lay gold bricks at your door for you to grace them with your knowledge. They won't want to learn what you know the way you learned it because they are not doing what they are doing for love of serving the universe in that particular field. Show me a person in the world that knows more than 90% of the people in his or her chosen profession that can't get money. Of course they can. But what about the people who are working for money? Do they ever have enough? Of course not. You want respect? You want recognition? You want fame? You want fortune? Then do not turn your back on the world you have been in for all these years. Use your mind to plan your journey but do not insist to God that your road has to go the way that your ego insists it should. Don't limit your future by insisting on it being a certain way. Times change, situations change. As your vision of the future will change over the years, sometimes drastically, the same your present vision of the future must be flexible. Just keep your mind's eye focused on the light you have seen for these many years. The beacon far in front of you that has kept you going all these years. You may feel you have been on the road of your life's dream for many years. Have patience, if you are really on the right path, sooner or later, you will see the fruit of your efforts. Have patience and know that when you are ready, you will see the fulfillment of your dreams.

178

Until then, hope that you do not do too much too soon, it may burn you. It you try and put 220 volts of electrical current through a wire that can handle only 110 volts, what happens? It burns up after a minute or two. You as a human can do what the wire cannot do. You can, by study, desire, application and patience, grow in ability to handle bigger currents and bigger forces. Some wires can handle 1,000,000 volts. That's one million volts of electricity flowing through it. A wire cannot grow in ability to handle larger amounts of current, but you can. The more current you are capable of handling, the more humbleness you must have. Without humbleness, people have a tendency to get burned. The person with the power and the ones around him or her get burned. Anytime your ego starts to puff up it's chest with pride of accomplishment, remind it that except by the grace of God, you cannot even breathe, much less think. We are each an individualized expression of the infinite, omnipresent intelligence that is the source of all reality. God is all reality, expressing as reality. The ego likes to think that it is God and can do ANYTHING it sets out to do. The ego will sometimes destroy us rather than acknowledge it is an illusion. The ego is a tool that thinks it is the carpenter. We are the carpenter that uses the tool of ego. We see our dream through a dark glass. You know of your inner potential by dreams and thoughts that give you an idea of your potential destiny. You have only ideas and dreams. You have the dreams and the ideas necessary to keep your energies focused in the proper direction, even if the direction sometimes seems to be going differently from what your ego insisted should be happening. How many times have you had a thought you should go to a certain place for a certain event to happen and when you got there you couldn't do what you thought you were to do? Then you decided you would look around and see what you could do since you were there. As soon as your ego got out of the away of insisting on choosing the reason that you had arrived at the place your thoughts led you to, you then proceeded to learn something or even meet someone and had a wonderful experience. How many times have you reluctantly went somewhere and once you got there and did what you did once you got there, or once you met someone you met going there, praised God that you went even though you had to be dragged kicking and screaming all along the way to there?

179

One time when I was very addicted to cigarettes, about two in the morning I went to the bathroom and when I flushed the toilet I accidentally dropped my cigarettes in the toilet. Well, I could not wait until the morning to get more cigarettes, especially since I was looking at my cigarettes in the toilet water. I just had to have a cigarette at that moment. I reluctantly got dressed and went down to the corner store to get a pack. On the corner where the store was, I saw a bum that had mental problems going around in circles constantly. I watched him going around and around in a circle for about a hour. In the watching and my reflecting on his circling, my insights about life and myself were astounding. And all this because of my addiction to cigarettes and "accidentally" dropping them in the toilet. I actually forgot for the hour that I went down to get some cigarettes. There was no luck or accident involved. The spiritual process moved the experience along. Use your inner light as a directional finder. At every junction of your journey, you have a choice of two paths. One will feel colorful and the other will feel dim. One will feel sweet and the other will feel sour. One will feel open and the other will feel empty. One will feel peaceful and the other one will feel abrasive. Guess which way you should go? Go in the direction you feel is right. Go with the first feeling, not the feeling you manufactured after thinking about it for a while. Go with dedicated intensity and an open mind as to what you will discover along the way. Your inner prompter will always give you a sense of direction. It knows best what is the next relevant thing for you to do. Doesn't it sound a trifle egotistical to think that your conscious thoughts about what is the best thing for you to do even knows the whole picture. What happens if you consciously try to direct each movement necessary to drive your car? Once you learned enough that your driving was on semi-automatic, you actually drove. When the conscious mind tells the body where it wants to go and then allows the body to get you there, the body usually does a better job of it. Give the body a good set of clear instructions, then get out of the way so it can serve you as it was intended. How can our conscious mind know all that is relevant for us to do? Leave breathing up to the conscious mind and sooner or later it would forget to breathe. Our conscious mind is for analyzing and instructing. It programs the computer that runs the servomechanism that we call our body.

180

Seeking for money only, for status only, for recognition only, means that our happiness is dependent on achieving these things and then we had better work our butt off to try and insure that we keep them. Serve the universe grateful that you have the potential to be a vehicle for expressing one million volts of universal energy through you, humbly, and you will get more from the universe than even you could bargain for. And we know you can be a good bargainer. Seek fulfillment for the selfish ego motive of getting things and you are destined for frustration, even if you get the millions. Seek ye for the joy of doing and you will be rewarded more than you could ever imagine. All of us have the urge to serve the universal life force that gave us life, sustains our life, and that is the only force that can insure us eternal life. A lot of potentially great people sell out to the trinkets of the material world. They sell out to illusions of vanity. It is so easy to forget that all that you have is thanks to the labors of your fellow humans. The car you drive, the speakers you listen to your music through, the pen you write with, the paper you write on, the material for your teeth, the telephone and the telephone line you use to speak to someone across a distance of a thousand miles, all this is for your use thanks to the other travelers on this little planet of ours. I know that they need your money for their products so that they can get what they need and want. Most of what we call modern day reality is dependent on all of us working together for the benefit of all of us. The people on social security today are the ones we have to thank for laying the telephone llines and building the companies that produce all the nice toys that we enjoy. There is nothing wrong in using these toys along our life's journey. Consider them bonuses. Just know that the toys are not the reason you are being so blessed in life. They are like icing on a cake. As an example, you serve enough people through music and they will shower you with all the trinkets that you desire. You want money for travel, for houses, for relaxation? You want fame, fortune, recognition and respect? Learn all that you can that helps you to serve others through the way that you want to contribute. Serve them for the pleasure that you get out of serving them and you won't be able to stop them giving you fame, recognition, respect and money. A song can inspire a person or drag a person to the depths of hell. A song is the most powerful vehicle for moving people emotionally that you can imagine. Know that you are a vehicle for God to express through and you will gradually be able to handle the power that will be part and parcel of the success that you desire.
181

The way to enjoy the process without losing your ambition is simple but needs plenty of reaffirming. Appreciate the biggest miracle that you can think of - yourself. You are living in the best dream imaginable - the dream of life. Remember, the MIRACLE of your eyesight. spend five minutes a day walking around wherever you are with your eyes closed. Even when you run into something, do not open your eyes, act as if you no longer had the gift of vision. Remember this poem: "They say the sky is a pretty blue; They say the grass is a pretty green. But what is blue and what is green.....to a person who has never seen?" Remember the miracle of being able to taste whatever food you really relish. I know people who have lost the gift of taste. They have to eat but can no longer taste ANYTHING. Kind of unimaginable, isn't it? Some are born without feet, arms or legs. Remember Helen Keller. Born blind, deaf, and unable to speak. Again unimaginable isn't it? And yet, she actually wrote a book. It is called "My Religion" Truly recognize and appreciate all the miracles that you already possess. Know that your future contribution to the universe is in whatever field you feel in your heart. Know that everything that exists exists for the contribution it can make to the universal process. When you truly appreciate the miracle that you are and the miracles that you possess that make all dreams possible, then you will see your life's journey for the magnificent adventure that it is. When we see our life as the miraculous journey that it is, and when we desire to contribute to the universal source of our life that we call God through dedicating our life here to that contribution, then we are turning the key to the door of paradise itself. We are fulfilling our destiny.

182

Eternity - The Present Moment

Eternity. The eternal present. The present is what it is. The eternal NOW is what is. It has always been NOW and it will always be NOW. Now can never be anything other than NOW. The past can be experienced in the NOW only in memory - a picture or mental movie of a past experience. The past cannot affect us. Only our thoughts about the mental movie can affect us. The future can be experienced in the NOW only as a projection in the NOW. The future we project in the NOW is not the NOW. We can experience emotions in the NOW concerning the projection of the future we make in the NOW, but the future can never be NOW until it is NOW - Then it is NOW and not the future. The moment we are experiencing cannot be changed. We cannot change the present. The present is what it is. The moment we act upon the present, in the present, the present we choose to act upon has passed. We can influence our experiencing of the present, when the future becomes the present, only by adding to the present. We cannot negate the present. You cannot take away from the present. You can only do things in the present that will influence the direction the present goes. We can only attempt to persuade each moment of reality to lean in the direction of what we would like to be experiencing AS the present. We can't reverse the tides and flows of existential reality; we can only hope to influence the direction of the flow of what we will experience. Since the present moment is unalterable reality, the best way to look at it is to unconditionally accept whatever the reality is, while you try and persuade the reality to be what you would like it to be. This is done be leaning the weight of our intention in the direction we wish our reality to go. This determined striving is to be done with the same kind of unconditional perseverance as the acceptance of the present moment is unconditionally accepted. The unconditional acceptance of the present situation is easy once we appreciate the incredibleness of the awareness of being aware. The appreciation of the awareness of being aware is done, and can only be done,

183

in the present. I cannot stress this appreciation enough. If you were not aware of being aware, then nothing else would matter. Since you are aware of being aware, everything else you experience in the flow of life is like icing on the cake of life. The Now, which is all there is, is Eternity. The Eternal NOW. It is forever and ever.

184

TRUTH IS

IT IS

Truth. What is Truth? To try to put absolute Truth into words is like trying to put the Pacific Ocean into a bottle. It is impossible. The moment I say Truth is anything, I limit Truth. The following two words express Truth in the simplest, least limiting way: IT IS.....IT IS, and That is IT. You are, I am, God is, Life is, IT IS. At any moment in the process of reality, whatever is the reality - IS THE REALITY. IT IS. It cannot be anything else but what IT IS. At the next moment the reality may be something else, but the present moment is ALL THAT IS. When the next moment is experienced as the present, IT will be what IS. Until something else IS, then what IS is what IS. To say something is good or bad is to have a point of view of what IS. The same rain storm helps one farmer and hurts another. Is the rain storm good? Is the rain storm bad? It all depends on the point of view. Usually our point of view is conditioned and limited by the mental and emotional baggage we bring to our encounter with what IS. Reality is what IS.....Reality is Truth - Reality is not what we THINK it is. It is what it is. What we call it is something else. TRUTH IS.....IT IS AND THAT IS IT.

185

Truth is Both Absolute and Relative at the Same Time.

Absolute from an Omnipresent Point of View and Relative from Our Point of View. However, the Relative is totally within the Absolute. We arise from and live within the Absolute. Therefore, the Relative is a point of view, a viewing point of the Absolute within the Absolute. Relatively speaking, we are the Absolute. The Macrocosm, or the whole Universe is but an expression of the Microcosm, the essence. There is nothing in the Universe that is not within the smallest. Without the smallest, there would not be the largest.

186

IDOLATRY OF THE HOLIDAY THE SPECIAL DAY

The Disrespect of the Holy Moment

The word Holiday means Holy-Day. In truth, what day is not Holy? What hour is not Holy? What minute is not Holy? What second is not Holy? What moment is not Holy? The moment we say any day is more special than the day we are living, we are disrespecting the day we are living. The moment we call any hour, any minute, any second, any moment more special that the hour, minute, second, moment we are experiencing, we are committing Idolatry. We are saying that some other moment is more special than the moment that we are living, the moment that we are experiencing. There is and never has been any day, any hour, any minute, any second, any moment more special than the one we are living at the moment The Holy Moment. The Holy Now is the only moment that we can experience anything. It is the most special moment in our eternal existence.

TODAY is the ONLY Holy-Day TODAY is the Eternal Holy-Day

THIS Moment is the only moment That IS Ever was And ever will be.

187

This moment is when we are ONE with GOD.

This moment is Eternity. DON'T DISRESPECT IT.

By Saying some other moment is more special more Holy Than the day and the moment you are experiencing, You are committing Idolatry of the Special Day.

188

IDOLATRY OF HOLY PLACE

Look at all the blood that has been shed because of the idolatrous worship of a particular piece of land that is called " Sacred" because one of a religions revered religious teachers or prophets walked there many years ago in the long distant past. Since God is Omnipresent, what place or part is not sacred? To say any piece or part of the Earth is more sacred than any other piece or part is idolatry. How much blood will be shed someday over the Temple Mount and the Third Temple of the Jews, which will mark the Second Coming of Christ, which is to be built on the same spot on the Temple Mount where the Islamic al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are situated? Have you ever heard of the Crusades? Remember the Crusades during the period of 1095 until well towards the end of the seventeenth century - all blessed by the Church of Rome? Killing in the name of God for "Special" Land where their "Messiah" walked, talked, died and was resurrected. What about the "Crusades " of the Muslims? Islam is expansionist and must conquer the whole world to express Allahs perfect will on this planet.

The first "Christian Crusade" began in 1095

460 years after the first Christian city was overrun by Muslim armies 457 years after Jerusalem was conquered by Muslim armies 453 years after Egypt was taken by Muslim armies 443 after Muslims first plundered Italy

189

427 years after Muslim armies first laid siege to the Christian capital of Constantinople 380 years after Spain was conquered by Muslim armies 363 years after France was first attacked by Muslim armies 249 years after Rome itself was sacked by a Muslim army, and only after centuries of church burnings, killings, enslavement and forced conversions of Christians.

By the time the Crusades finally began, Muslim armies had conquered twothirds of the Christian world. Killing in the name of God to make all the land of the Earth sacred under the rule of Allah. Non-Muslims today cannot enter Mecca because they are spiritually unclean and would defile the Sacred Land. During the five prayers daily, all Muslims face Mecca. If in Mecca, all praying Muslims face the Kaaba or "House of God". God is not to be found in one building and not another. The Universe is the "House of the Omnipresent God". The Israelis, under the command of Moses and then his successor, Joshua, conquered and destroyed entire cities on their way to the Promised Land killing every man, woman and child and taking all their possessions for their own. All in the name of a special "place" called the "Promised Land" given to them by their God. The Jews, the Christians and the Moslems have lost many children to the idolatry of the "Holy Land". Since God is Omnipresent, what part of any land is not Holy? Since God is Omnipresent, there is no place and no image that is more Holy than any other place or image. To say any place is more holy than some other place is

190

to say the Omnipresent God is either not at the less than holy place or only a little bit there.

Oh, the blood that has been shed from the Idolatry of Holy Place.

191

IDOLATRY OF THE SYMBOL

Symbols and icons of any faith, of any religion are man-made objects that refer to a power or an idea. The symbols or the icons are never the reality they are only referencing or being used to attempt to communicate the reality to others.. Words, numbers and man-made religious works of art are symbols. They only symbolize what is being referenced. A word or number is never what it is claiming to represent. For example, the number 7 is a very powerful symbol for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Of course, the visible number "7" is not the seven items it is being used to communicate. It has nothing in it of the "7" it is being used to reference. In and of itself, it is less than "0". It is nothing but what we say it is. In Judaism and Christianity, there are the seven days of creation, and in Christianity seven deadly sins and seven cardinal virtues. In Judaism, the Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, is considered a sacred day, and seven is also a key number in Jewish mysticism. There are approximately twenty-five references made to the number seven in the Qur'an the sacred text of Muslims. These references usually concern the seven heavens, the seven periods of creation, seven groups of things, or seven individuals, such as the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. An allusion made to the number seven in the Qur'an typically includes references to God as the all-powerful creator. Thus, the number seven is directly linked to the power of the divine and has great symbolic value as an expression of Muslim belief and the miracles of God. Even when the Muslims perform the tawaf or circumambulation around the Kaaba in Mecca, they walk around it seven times. Whether you are Jewish, Christian or Muslim, you might feel lucky if your home has seven sides and unlucky if it doesnt. If you think having a coin with seven sides or having seven sides to your home will give you more luck than the one that does not have these symbols, then you are guilty of idolatry - giving a symbol power that it cannot and does not have within itself to give

192

The Christian cross symbolizes the blood of the son of God sacrificed for the sins of humanity. I am sure there are some Christians who would treat someone who spit on or defiled the Christian cross very UnChristian. They might even kill them. I have known some Christians who felt they were in for some terribly unlucky times because they lost one of their special crosses.

The Star of David symbolizes the Jewish trust in God. I am sure there are some Jews who would treat someone who spit on or defiled the Star of David is a very painful way. They might even kill them. I have met some Jews who felt like they were in for some terribly unlucky times because they lost a Star of David.

The following symbol is Arabic for Allah. It undoubtedly has a very powerful effect on any Muslim gazing on it. I am sure there are some Muslims who would treat someone who spit on or defiled this Arabic symbol very harshly. They might even kill them. I have met some Muslims who felt they were in for some terribly unlucky times if they spilled some liquid and stained this symbol. For them the Arabic symbol for Allah has become a religious work of art.

The symbol called the swastika is derived from the Sanskrit svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on personsa and things to denote good luck. Sort of like a lucky charm. In Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism the swastika is a sacred symbol. I sure you would find some who would kiss it for good luck. Because of Hitler, the swastika became a symbol of hate, anti-Semitism, violence, death and murder.

193

The swastika. Same symbol, different spirit-humans giving the symbol different meanings to some the symbol of a good life, to others the symbol of death. Some even think a clockwise swastika is a Nazi swastika,

meaning hate and death while the counter clockwise swastika has the ancient meaning of life and good-luck. Right pointing arms is a bad luck symbol. Left pointing arms is a good luck symbol. Some spirit-humans will actually believe this and start collecting the swastika they want so as to get more of the power the swastikas have. What about those who swear that the Christian Cross, the Star of David, the Yin Yang symbol, the little vial of holy water from Our Lady of Lourdes, water blessed by the Mary, the mother of Jesus in a visit she made to a little girl in the 1800's in Lourdes, France, or even the lucky rabbit foot they wear around their neck - What about those that say these symbols have brought them good luck or even healed them or loved ones of cancer? What about the ones healed in faith Healing revival tents across America? Well, more than 99% of the pilgrims to Our Lady of Lourdes who drank or even bathed in the "Holy Water' went back home without any healing of their ailments whatsoever. Most of the ones in the wheelchairs went home in the same wheelchairs they arrived that they thought they would not need any longer. Doctors have given patients sugar pills and told them it was powerful medicine. Guess what? Some of them improved or even had their own healing experience. What about the one who was healed sitting in a sunny yard and watched a butterfly pass their face and the symbolism of the butterfly that used to be a caterpillar started a healing process in their body. Sounds like all of this can be explained by the power of belief. The power of belief and Faith has been known to cause chemical changes in the brain and caused the brain to produce hormones and chemical changes in the body that have a healing or a pain-reducing effect on the believer. The one common denominator seems to be the belief or the faith that the healing is or will be forthcoming. It is the belief in the power of the symbol, the lucky charm or the Holy Person to effect the healing. Only Omnipresent God exists and there is only one Universal Self or Holy Spirit. It is this Universal Self that is the cause behind every healing - not the icon or the "Holy Water". It is the same with voodoo, Satan worship and rituals calling

194

up demons to do the bidding of the spirit-human who wants power over another. Lucifer laughs at these spirit-people while giving them just enough to have them think that there is a power other than Omnipresent God and the Universal Spirit that each of us is expressing. Read my missive of Lucifer, which is Latin for Light Bringer for more info. Suffice it here to say that Lucifer is God's product quality tester and is the aspect of God that tests spirit-humans and makes sure none of them of impure heart can enter the Inner Sanctum of the Holy of Holies. Lucifer guards the throne of God from any impurities entering by testing the heart-felt sincerity of the spirit-humans who wish to gain access. Remember, the moment the symbol seems to be and have what it only represents or symbolizes, we are committing idolatry. We are giving to the created image, the mental image, the symbol, the icon or the charm - the specialness, sacredness, holiness or even the demon qualities of which it only is supposed to remind us. Omnipresent God does not care if a symbol referencing the Universal Self is damaged, stained, lost or defiled. This doesnt hurt or upset God in the slightest. God does care if you worship the symbol. The symbol is not God. Only God is God. The defiling, and the deification of these symbols and images is only in the minds of those who have made the symbols into more than they are just symbols and references. God is the essence of all that is both manifested and un-manifested, both clean and what we call dirty. Omnipresent God is even the essence of the dirt on our shoes. Remember, what comes out of the other end of the cow is very good fertilizer for new life forms to manifest and grow. Know that every symbol and every image is just a small part of the infinitely manifested "Face of God". What we see as manifested, physical form is just the outer expression, or "Face" of the Universal Spirit. Spirit-people see your face. Are they seeing even 1% of what is really you? Of course not, they are seeing only the outer face of your inner reality, an outer face that is constantly changing and never remaining the same. Everywhere you look you are seeing the "Face of God", but you can never "see" the essence of the face you see. When one worships the beautiful painted face of the high fashion model, she is looking out at you thinking how sillly you are to make so much of her "face". If you are in a man's body, she will pucker her

195

painted lips and be in wonderment that she can wield so much power over you by the image she projects or the image you have or her. When the male body-builder flexes his enormous muscles and the female and even the male admirers are fantasizing being in bed with him, he laughs at the power these temporary muscles have obver you. Lucifer laughs also when you worship any part of the "Face of God", and lose contact with the essence, the Universal Spirit behind all "Faces". There is nothing wrong with any symbol if it helps focus you on what is really important. Just do not get hung up in the symbol and give it the power or the praise it does not have nor deserve. Be careful to avoid falling into the spiritual trap of the Idolatry of the Symbol. It can literally KILL you (or I should say kill your body since you are eternal). Still, even though you are eternal, someone killing your body could definitely ruin your day.

196

The Difficulty in Explaining Truth

To attempt to communicate truth we have to speak in paradoxes. A paradox is an apparently self-contradictory statement, the underlying meaning, or singularity of which is revealed only by careful scrutiny. We have to speak of the polarities of truth in order to communicate the singularity of Truth. We have to say Truth is like this, Truth is like that. God is like this. God is like that. God is a bodiless body. God is all things yet no thing. Truth is a singularity that can only be discussed using polarities of Truth which are, in truth, just two expressions of the singularity which is Truth. All physical reality in the universe is the result of seemingly opposing forces in a balance. It is like a dance of opposites. The sun exists because of the balance of the forces attempting to blow it up and the forces pulling it together. A rock is the equalization of the internal forces and the external forces of its' molecular properties. When we walk down the street, we accomplish the Truth called walking by continually balancing two opposing actions. We balance the extreme of falling with the extreme of standing straight up. We do this while leaning forward so as to be continually falling and catching oneself, seemingly at the same time. To explain the Truth of how to walk to someone, we would have to say that they would have to do two opposing actions at the seemingly same time. An intellectual impossibility, or paradox, but the "truth" of walking is when we marry the opposing actions, or "truths", so that they seem to be a singularity. The opposing actions can be thought of as polarities of a singularity. The north and south poles of a magnet are polarities of a singularity. The singularity is the magnet. Hot and cold are but polarities of a singularity called temperature. To breathe is a balance of two opposing actions. To inhale and never exhale is to die. To exhale and never inhale is to die. To live as a human being, we must balance the opposing actions of breathing in and breathing out. Truth cannot be put into, or expressed by limited words. It is like trying to put infinity into a milk bottle. It wont fit.

197

The better we can handle the two extremes or the two polarities of a singularity, the greater our understanding of the singularity or the "truth". Most people cannot handle balancing extremes so they live a safe but limited life. The better we can balance our physical nature with our spiritual nature, while remaining true to each, the more full our experiencing of life. The above paragraphs were to show you examples of how understanding "truth" is the result of subjectively integrating polarities. I can tell you how to walk. However, you will never really understand walking until you do the walking yourself by balancing standing up with falling down while leaning slightly forward. Same with learning spiritual truths and living by them.. I can tell you that they are there but you must learn the subjective application yourself. We can speak of God and our relationship to and with God through analogies and metaphors. God is like this. God is like that. Words by their very nature are limited. We cannot encompass or express infinity with finite or limited symbols. Words symbolize subjective concepts or material things or actions. Words are not the things they symbolically attempt to communicate. The moment we call God anything, we limit God. God is without limits. I can tell you God is all things yet no thing. I can say God is a bodyless body. For you to understand God, the better you can integrate the two "opposing" concepts, the better you understand God. The better you understand the polarities of God, the greater your understanding of the singularity that is God. This is where organized religion has the tendency to blind itself. A religion is a way to view our relationship to and with "Reality". It uses word, picture and icon symbols to attempt this communication. When the followers of the religion start to consider the symbols the "Reality", then they lose sight of the spiritual essence of which the religion is only an attempt to communicate with symbols. Most religious fighting and disagreement is all about the symbols used in each religion. The religions get hung up in one or another of the polarities of the expression of Truth. Body, mind and spiritual growth comes when we learn to subjectively balance the polarity of action with no action. To actively wait on God to show us the way. To actively strive to direct our life towards the goal we
198

desire, while at the seemingly same time waiting on God to show us what to do. Embrace the polarities of the Universe. Dance with the polarities of the Universe. In time you will come to know all the polarities are but expressions of the one Great Singularity called God. There, communicating Truth was not so difficult - was it?

199

Single Thoughts to Think About

All ideologies are conceptual. It is conceptual thinking Thinking the conceptual world, Not the world that is.

-------

Reality itself, just simply what is. It cannot be reduced to anything. It is self-existing.

-------

Ninety percent of what we ever fear Never happens to us. When the remaining ten percent does happen Ninety percent of the time It is never as bad as what we feared.

200

-------

We all need to do just one thing to make the world a better place Just make the spot where you are standing A nice place to be next to.

-------

BE The Child You Are, Which IS the Child you were. We are ALL the child we were. The only difference is in how we apply the wisdom gained through MANY years of experience Our Wisdom has come at a very high price. NEVER separate your inner sense of being from the eternal child you truly are. Be the child you are Enjoyed through the
wisdom of your years.

201

-------

The greatest miracle in the universe Is the existence of ANYTHING at all. The second greatest miracle in the universe Is that YOU have had a moment in eternity To have experienced ANYTHING at all.

-------

We are either The effect of manipulation Or we manipulate.

Therefore manipulate as you would wish to be manipulated.

Make it a win-win situation For both of you If You Must manipulate at all.

-------

202

I Think Therefore I Think I am

Just because I Think I am Doesn't Mean I am

I Might Only THINK I am.

--------

The older you get, Paradise Is a good bowel movement

-------

EVERY HERO HAS A CHOICE To Embrace the Darkness OR To Be Consumed By It.

-------

203

Have you ever had a toothache? Did it hurt a lot? Do you have a toothache now? Do you appreciate the LACK of pain At this very moment?

Appreciate the lack of pain and know the secret to Paradise. Right Here and Right Now.

-------

If God is Omnipresent Then God HEARS through ALL who have ears to hear God SEES through ALL who have eyes to see God TASTES through ALL who taste God FEELS through ALL who feel. What you do to the least of ALL You do unto God.

-------

204

Death is part of life. Without Death There would be no one To live life. If Death is necessary to Live Then Death must be good. Embrace Death as a friend and perhaps you will see it smile. Just do not rush into it.

-------

Discipline without freedom Is like a boat WITH a fixed rudder. Regardless of what is in front of you. The boat can go in only one direction, If a wall is in front of you, you will hit it.

-------

205

Freedom without discipline Is like a boat WITHOUT a rudder. You are the slave of the currents and the tides. You might not even get to the wall. Freedom and Discipline You cannot have one without the other

-------

WHAT IS - IS -

What we call Good and Bad Are points of view of WHAT IS Just because we do not like WHAT IS Does not make WHAT IS either Good or Bad. It Just IS WHAT IS.

-------

206

There is no place God is absent. If there is no place God is absent Then what is there But God and manifestations of God within God?

-------

Each thought you think Is like a car in a train of thoughts. Between each car is a space.

Fill the space between each car With the thoughts You want to think,

And your train of thoughts will follow

-------

207

Each relationship is a dance. If we do not like the dance Our partner is doing, We have four choices. Dance the way our partner wants. Ask our partner to dance the way we want. Each of you compromise for the relationship. OR LEAVE THE DANCE WITH A KISS.

The most important is the Kiss. Don't disrespect the value you had received from the dance before the music changed. If moving on is the choice you make Then Bless what you had and move on.

-------

Anytime you need direction. Be still and ask The first response you feel Is your direction

208

-------

Each thought you think Is like a car in a train of thoughts. Between each car is a space.

Fill the space between each car With the thoughts You want to think,

And your train of thoughts will follow

-------

At each moment we have a choice Of at least two directions. Only one direction will feel light. The rest will feel heavy.

FOLLOW THE LIGHT-PATH.

-------

209

At each moment of life We have a choice of just two options. Being open to the Universal Intelligent of the Great Spirit flowing through us and as us, OR Resisting the impulse of the Universal Self and Trying to do it our way.

Either way, one way or the other The Universal Intelligence will use us for IT'S purpose.

-------

One guiding principle to living is to Be That Which you wish to receive. You cannot expect what You are not willing to give FIRST.

-------

210

Each relationship is a dance. If we do not like the dance Our partner is doing, We have four choices. Dance the way our partner wants. Ask our partner to dance the way we want. Each of you compromise for the relationship. OR LEAVE THE DANCE WITH A KISS.

The most important is the Kiss. Don't disrespect the value you had received from the dance before the music changed. If moving on is the choice you make Then Bless what you had and move on.

-------

Commitment means moving through a door of change through which you do not intend to return.

211

-------

The name Lucifer Is Latin for Bringer of Light. When we do not like what Lucifer does To help enlighten us, We call Lucifer the Devil or we call Lucifer evil.. Lucifer is the Great spirit's tester Of the purity of our intentions. Only when oue intentions are pure Will we be given more spiritual knowledge. Remember, you choose to dance with Lucifer, The Devil does NOT make you dance.

-------

At each moment we have a choice Of at least two directions. Only one will taste sweet. The rest will taste sweet-less

FOLLOW THE SWEET-PATH.

212

-------

Be the Child you ARE Enjoyed through the Wisdom of your years.

Be the child you WERE And you WILL BE the child you ARE.

See each moment with the Open-Eyed wonder of the child Seen through the window of Experience.

-------

One Guiding principle To Child-Raising.

BE the parent YOU Wish you had.

-------

213

The Great Spirit is Omnipresence. The Great Spirit is Infinite Mind. There is no place that the Great Spirit is absent. With every morsel of food one takes, With every drink of water a drinker drinks, You are eating the body And drinking the blood of God. This is truly Holy Communion With the source and substance of ALL.

-------

If you were not aware of existing You would now of NOTHING and NOTHING would matter. The most incredible miracle in the universe is the simple fact that you believe you exist. Truly appreciate his fact and you will know The secret of the Alchemists And the key to Paradise. Right Here and Right Now

214

-------

BE - DO - HAVE BE what you wish to Do. Do what you wish to HAVE. Then you will find that what you HAVE is what you are DO-ing and what you are BE-ing..

-------

An Eternal Brain Cell in the Infinite Mind of God Eternally Self-Aware of Itself Being Aware. This is Who We Are, Forever Shall Be, You and Me - For Eternity.

-------

Truly appreciate your Awareness of Being Aware and you will automatically Love God With All Your Heart.

-------

215

If you were not aware of existing You would now of NOTHING and NOTHING would matter. The most incredible miracle in the universe is the simple fact that you believe you exist. Truly appreciate his fact and you will know The secret of the Alchemists And the key to Paradise. Right Here and Right Now.

-------

I am no more the face I see in the mirror, Than the muscles beneath it, Nor the bones beneath them. I am the witness of what I see in the mirror.

216

AMs First 40-Day Water-Only Fasting Journal

DAY 1 May 21, 1997 185 Pounds Well, I have decided to have a couple of days of my fruit, fruit juice, and protein powder and colon conditioner beverage to help ease my transition.

DAY 2

Will I follow through tomorrow on the water-only fast?

DAY 3

Water tastes good. A friend came by the house to watch some movies and actually brought vegetarian Mexican food for him and his wife to enjoy during the movies. I can't believe he would bring the food knowing I am starting this fast. Perhaps the temptation is good.

I drank a lot of juice tonight and found myself having 5 tablespoons of hummus and sticking my finger into the jar of strawberry preserves a few times. I rationalized that the hummus and strawberry preserve is almost liquid right? Ha-ha, Ha-ha. What games we play on ourselves to rationalize doing what we strongly desire to do. At least the juice was heavily fortified with colon conditioner to help scrub the hummus and preserve out of my body.

DAY 4

217

Meditated for 40 minutes felt good. My tongue is beginning to noticeably develop a white velvety coating. The tongue is one of the body's main organs of toxic elimination during a fast. On a prolonged fast, they say it takes about 25 days for your tongue to become clear and pink. This is a sign that the body has detoxified most of what it had to deal with. I have never went on a 25 day fast before, so I don't know. But on my last 15 day fast, I did notice my tongue starting to clear from the sides in towards the middle. This fast is supposed to be longer than 25 days, so we will see what happens.

Well, today has been just water and colon conditioner. I also had about onecup of coffee also to see what it would do to my alertness. Coffee has to go starting tomorrow. Starting tomorrow I will be pure in my fast. My dear friend is coming by the house again tonight. This time to watch Babylon 5 and a movie or two on my 60' television with surround sound. I may be getting rid of the TV in a few days so we want to get as much enjoyment out of it as possible. Once the TV goes, it will be missed. It was nice to have experienced it at least once. I wonder if he will be bringing food again. Even if he does, I will not have juice as a crutch.

He not only brought food, I was in his truck waiting for him to come out of a restaurant with food to go for him and his wife to eat at my house while watching the movies. Wow..Temptations.

On the way home with the food, I was actually holding the bag smelling the food, I took deep inhalations of the molecular emanations of the hot food. It smelled delicious.

During the movie, I had one-half tablespoon of the sauce from one of the different foodstuffs he brought. I also had a teaspoon of soy sauce (wow, was it ever salty). It was good, but not worth enough for me to break my fast. I figure that if I can take a one-half tablespoon taste and not break my
218

fast then the whole process was a good exercise in the fasting journey. I don't really miss it, even now some hours later. This is good.

I almost had sex a few minutes ago but it is not conducive to the fast it is only an escape and it debilitates your physical and psychic energy during the fast.

I am going to do a different type of meditation in bed before sleeping. See ya later..

DAY 5

I have slept for about 14 hours. I don't want to get up. The thought of getting up without the prospect of food for energy and oral pleasure is not inspiring. However, this fasting experience is for spirit, so- I'm up. I have so much work to do. I am not supposed to work. I am told to relax, meditate and contemplate. Most other people who go through a long fasting experience will have to continue living their daily life interacting with the rest of the world doing work I shall also.

It is time to go to sleep again. I did great today. Except a few minutes ago. I told myself that I could have just a one-half tablespoon of ice cream. After all, it is liquid. Well, one lick led to another and I was like a ravenous animal. I ended up eating about 6 heaping tablespoons of various flavors of ice cream. I must say it was absolutely delicious. However, it was not the way to do a fast. Now my stomach feels funny. I actually preferred the way it felt before the ice cream. I just drank a lot of water mixed with colon conditioner. I refuse to feel guilty since it was my choice to eat the ice cream. My desire for spiritual growth through this fast is pure enough that I will succeed. Tomorrow is another day now is a new beginning. I can never say that I don't understand what other seekers go through in following
219

through with a strict water fast. I think the most tempting attraction eating the ice cream is the fact that after this fast, for at least one year, I am going to be completely vegan. I will not eat any animal products of any kind. This means no dairy, no ice cream and no pizza. To some people, no ice cream and no pizza (with cheese) is hell on earth. We will see.

Another reason for the strong temptation is just the fact that I expect to not eat for at least 40 days. The thought itself is enough to get almost any one to eat as much of anything possible before the final bite of food. Play take-away with anything and you increase the urge to have more and more of it. This is a natural feeling. Deprivation when we have not been used to depriving ourselves takes a lot of desire for growth. It is about two hours since I backslid into the ice cream. My head feels like a headache is coming. My head feels congested. My stomach is arguing. I belch up a nasty taste. So much for a moments pleasure in fast-breaking.

DAY 6

I got awoken after less than 6 hours sleep. What will this day bring?

It is 12 hours later, at night. I have done some work today. There is still so much to do. Meditated and did some spiritual reading also.

I feel very adamant about not wanting any more rationalized taste treats during this fast.

220

I have a very bad headache. It has been building very slowly over the last few hours. I have taken some headache pills to help. I would rather not take any pills, but I will allow myself this headache pill crutch for the moment.

DAY 7

Well, I stayed in bed for 16 hours. I did not have the initiative to get up. If I had to go to a client, I would have got out of bed.

I took longer to get going today, but, now it is 5:30 the next morning. I have been up for 13 hours doing work. My body is aching, but my mind is very alert ready to continue work. I must lay down for a while. Rest is important. Work will still be there later today. It is now the morning of the 8th day. I stuck my nose in a mustard jar last night and took about twenty deep inhalations. It smelled fantastic, but I had no problem closing the lid without physically tasting any. It seems that the deep inhalations satisfy the brain somewhat in that it seems to think I had some good flavor. After all, most of our taste is through the nose, not in our mouth. I followed up the deep inhalations with a lot of water and it seems like I am not deprived of the pleasure of food. A few good inhalations and a lot of water will do wonders sometimes.

DAY 8 and 9 (1 AM after midnight of day 9)

Well, I slept for about 6 hours. Made it through the time pretty good. I say this is day 8 and 9 because after I got up yesterday (day 8) after 6 hours sleep, I stayed up all night, took a shower in the morning of day 9, went to see some clients, and literally kept going all day and through the evening of day 9. It is now after midnight of day 9 and I still have so much energy that I find it hard to believe. It is like the body finds energy that you couldn't even buy for good money when you are not fasting. I wonder how I will feel
221

tomorrow. I really don't even want to go to bed now, even after being up for over 31 hours. I really should try to sleep, I am sure my body would appreciate it.

I am not really hungry, haven't been since day 5. There is a certain feeling in my stomach that I never have when I am eating, but it is not hunger. Food doesn't really interest me very much. The purpose of this fast is of such great importance that the purpose will empower me to continue on to whatever I am to experience.

I haven't meditated for about 48 hours and I feel bad about this, but I shall get back with it.

DAY 10 - 7 PM

I am just getting up from a 16-hour sleep. Praise God I have the opportunity to sleep like this occasionally.

Dreams are a mirror of the soul that we are. During this sleep I had incredible dreams. Some of a spiritual nature that gives me knowledge and answers in story form that is needed for my spiritual growth. These, of course, I cannot put here in this journal. One, because they are subjective, only relevant to my growth and me. Two, because they had to be shown in a story form, a story that I was an involved participant, I was an integral part of the dream story. They cannot be told in written, sentence structure. They were too full of various dynamics. Many things were sometimes happening all around me at one time. What can be told are the lessons I distill from the dreams. These lessons will be part of what I speak and write about in my spiritual discussions and writings.

222

Another part of my dream I can share on paper. It is most incredible. I notice this happening in my dreams only the more I get into long fasts. During the dream I find myself in a situation where there is much good food. Perhaps I am a huge cafeteria; a huge wedding ceremony; a huge banquet. I mean huge feeding hundreds of people. If I leave the main dining area, the rooms I come into are the kitchen or the main preparation area. In other words, no matter what room I go into, I am confronted with food of incredible sight and smell. During this dream I am very aware that I am fasting. I even keep reminding myself of the fact that I am fasting. However, eventually during the dream, I take a sip or a nibble of something. This sip or nibble leads to another sip or nibble. During this time in my dream, I am fighting with myself about the fact that this constitutes breaking my fast. I rationalize that a sip is no big thing. Eventually, I am eating whatever I can get my hands on. All the food I am eating is very real. I feel substance and taste incredible flavors. All this time I am looking around me to see if anyone is catching me breaking my fast; I am very cognizant of my fasting situation. At this point during the dream, I am full of food. I wake up thinking I have broke my fast and might as well continue eating. Then I realize it was a dream and feel relieved.

During this last dream, I was even aware of the amount of days I have been fasting. When I finished stuffing myself, I asked myself does this mean that I am now back at day one if I continue the fast, or am I on day 10 with one day of eating.

One reason I love to dream during a fast is because I have the opportunity to eat at banquets made for kings.

The spiritual lessons come through my thoughts during my temptation process during the dreams and my reflection upon the dream after I awake.

Bon Appetite.

223

1:00 AM

I had a great meditation a few hours ago. Saw some great educational programs on TV. Spoke with my mother and a few other people on the telephone. Now I cannot stay in bed any longer. My body is now aching from being in bed for almost 24 hours. I am going to get up to take a shower and do some computer and paper work. I feel a little weak.

I have decided to put the time of each of these observations in this journal as I write it. This will help to keep a sense of the flow of time in this fast. I consider day 1 to start after I wake up the first time since I last ate. For example, if I last ate at 3 AM and went to bed for 10 hours, waking up at 1 PM, day one would start at 1 PM and with the sunrise and complete at 1 PM the following day. Technically, fasting is the absence of any food. However, I don't consider eating a big meal and then sleeping for ten hours a fast. Therefore I consider the fast to start after I awake after my last meal. If I started the fast at 1 PM, then at the following 1:00 AM, I am not into the second day, I am still into the first day. I would probably consider the following sunrise to be the beginning of my second day. On a long fast the few hours difference between 1 AM and sunrise does not make much of a difference. On a short fast of say three days, then these few hours would make a big difference.

2:15 AM

I am going to bed again. I feel weak.

DAY 11 7:30 AM 170 Pounds

224

I am getting up to go into NYC for some errands. I feel okay. I have a couple of slightly painful bumps on the roof of my mouth. This is part of the detoxifying process. They should go away in a few days. Amazingly, I haven't had any headaches since a week ago.

12 NOON

I am going back to bed.

8:30 PM

I am out of bed. I feel a little weak. Perhaps with a shower and some meditation I will get some energy to do some work.

I am drinking about a gallon of distilled water daily. It taste delicious.

10:30 PM

I meditated for an hour then slept for an hour.

1:00 AM

225

I watched a little TV, did a little work. Now, I might sleep some more.

DAY 12 9:00 am

Well, I did not sleep. I felt a knot in my stomach for about 5 hours. I watched some TV and then got up and ran some errands. Now I am going out to do one more errand. It is at a bakery/cafe that a friend owns and it will be interesting to be around all that food that I can have as much of without even asking, without even paying. The smells will be interesting.

The knot in my stomach has subsided some. I feel better than earlier.

11:00 AM

Well, I just returned from the bakery/cafe that my friend owns. It was an incredible experience. I walked into the area where the baking was going on and the smells were unbelievable. I walked around the front retail area and looked at the 100 different kinds of cakes and cookies. It was breakfast time, a very busy time on Sunday so the smells were all around me. I went into their walk-in refrigerator in the basement and surveyed all the hundreds of things that no one would see if I took a nibble. After about 10 minutes in the bakery and retail area I actually felt like I was on a drug. I was so high from the smells. I felt like I was in paradise. I stayed for about an hour. I did not have even a lick of food. I left feeling very empowered. If I live through this fast, I shall definitely return there.

I napped on and off through the day.

226

9:30 PM

I am going to do some more work and make some important phone calls.

DAY 13 - 9:00 AM

I have done enough work. I am going to sleep for a while.

4:00 PM

I got up around 11:30 AM, meditated for 45 minutes, then decided to go back to sleep. I will now see what work I can accomplish. I have phone calls to make and paperwork to sort through. I might have a big computer job later this week, I have to talk with the client.

DAY 14 5:30 AM

I have done enough work for a while. I am going to go to sleep. I expect to be getting a lot of phone calls later today and will be woken up numerous times as usual. Since I work out of my home - this is what I have to expect. It is a lot better than having to go to an office every day during this long fast. Thank god I have this opportunity. It is sometimes getting more difficult to go up two flights of stairs. Sometimes, but not all the time.

I don't understand why I have felt very debilitated the last few days. My last 15 day fast, I had enormous energy to do work, and hardly ever wanted to go
227

to bed once I woke up. It took about 30-60 minutes longer to really wake up but once I was up, I had a clear mind and kept busy.

Perhaps I need a colonic to clean out my lower bowel. A colonic is like an enema but much more intensive and deeply penetrating into the lower colon. It really cleans out the toxic material that has not been eliminated during a long fast when the bowels practically shut down since there is no new food to help the old food along. Since I have not had an evacuation for over a week, the toxins must really be building up down there. Oh, well, let's see how I feel later.

3:00 PM

I feel a little better. I might do the colonic tomorrow.

DAY 15 6 AM

Wow, now I feel just like I thought I should feel. I have been more productive since I got up than I have almost this entire fast. I have no problem going up the two flights of stairs as many times as I need to. I don't want to go to sleep. My mind is super clear. There must have been a detoxifying process going on the last few days that sapped my energy. Now - I FEEL GREAT!

I suppose I should lie down for a while. The body could probably use some rest from all the work I have accomplished this waking period.

228

I will still do the colonic in a day or two. I am sure it is needed. In the past fasts, after the colonic, I felt pounds lighter and my mind seemed clearer.

I REPEAT I FEEL INCREDIBLE. I haven't even had a headache since day five when I had the six heaping tablespoons of ice cream.

4:30 PM

I don't want to get up yet but I must. I have to get up tomorrow morning about 7 AM and go into Manhattan for a long day of work. I must get to bed early tonight so as to be as rested and have as much energy as possible tomorrow.

My mouth has the funniest taste in it. I have had this taste for a few days now, but not as intense as today. Not the usual morning wake-up taste. An icky taste. Must be full of toxins. After all, the tongue is one of the body's main organs of toxic elimination. As I said before, the coating of the tongue on a fast is a sign of the detoxification process. I am going to brush my mouth, teeth and tongue and see if it helps.

Well, I just brushed and my mouth definitely feels cleaner, the taste is largely diminished and the toothpaste tastes delicious. Daily brushing of the teeth, gums, tongue and roof of your mouth is recommended.

When I woke up a little while ago, I really just wanted to go back to sleep. However, I lay in bed for about 30-30 minutes, got up and washed my face, brushed, and now as I am typing this, I am starting to feel alert, energized and ready to do some work. It just takes a little longer to get the energy

229

moving through your body during a prolonged fast - but it is there and available.

7:00 PM

I just took a blood sugar level test. One that diabetics use to keep track of how much insulin they need. I tested a 71. Below 60 would be considered the beginning of low blood sugar. This means that after 16 days of a waterfast that I don't have low blood sugar levels. This is incredible. I am sure that most of our learned doctors would tell me that this is almost impossible, especially since I am still doing work. I even just moved some furniture around in the living room about an hour ago. I feel fortified and empowered by this result.

My mouth feels like it has cotton in it again. The taste I had when I woke up is not as pronounced. The good brushing was what is needed every day. The cotton feeling and funny taste is normal during detoxification.

12:40 AM

I am going to bed now. I have to get up around 7 AM. I have been very busy. I just took my blood sugar again and it was only 43. This is low. I am assuming it is because I have done a lot of work. I must check it again after I had had a chance to rest. I still feel good.

DAY 16 - 7:30 AM

230

I had so much energy lazy night that I couldn't fall asleep until about 3:30 AM. I woke up at 6:30 AM. Three hours sleep. I feel alert. Now my day begins. I have to go into Manhattan and a few other errands. I probably won't have much trouble falling asleep tonight. I feel a little week like I could use some more rest. We will see what the day has in store.

11:00 PM

Well, it is now over 15 hours since I got up this morning. I was out running around until around 4 PM and have been doing paperwork and phone calls since then. I am calling it quits for today. I think I have done enough for day 17 of the fast. The energy levels that I remember from my last 15 day fast have returned. This is very encouraging. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

DAY 17 7 AM

Unbelievable - I fell asleep about 12:30 AM this morning and I have been awake since 6:30 AM. I am not tired. I am going to get up and get back into work. Perhaps I can accomplish a lot again today. There is no telling when my energy level will drop again and I will feel debilitated. This energy level reminds me of the latter part of my last 15-day fast. It is great.

9:30 PM

Well, I have been working all day having been up for over 14 hours. I am going to go to bed and read and relax now. Tomorrow is another day. Of course, I know that tomorrow is promised to no one, but I shall take it as it comes.

231

I feel good but tired..

DAY 18 4:00 PM

I almost got up hours earlier, but I did not feel as good as I wanted to and so thought that some more sleep would help. After all, it is Saturday, the day a lot of people rest almost as much as Sunday. After all, the last few days, I have been getting up very early and working for 12 to 15 hours a day. And this is without eating.

DAY 19, SUNDAY - 6:30 AM

I think I might go lie down for a while. I feel good, but I don't want to push it.

4:30 PM

I work up about 11:30 AM. I finally did my colonic. I was getting very concerned about toxic buildup in my colon. I should have done the colonic a week ago, but I searched and searched and could not find my colonic equipment. The last few days, I have had gas and flatulence. This is a sign of something fermenting inside my colon. This morning I started to feel very desperate and concerned that I would hurt my body unless I had a colonic VERY SOON. As I went into meditation this morning, I said during the meditation I wanted to be shown where the equipment was located. Within five minutes of meditating, I all of a sudden got a flash picture in my mind showing me where it was located. It was amazing. I was so excited that I

232

wanted to stop the meditation and see if my vision was right. I resisted this impulse and after the meditation was finished I went to the place that I saw it in my vision. I thought I would have to look for the container that it was shown to me to be in. However, as soon as I was halfway down the basement steps, there it was right in front of. I had looked in the area many times but never saw it I did the colonic and I was amazed and gratified to see all the stuff that came out of me. It was at least a half-gallon of stuff that should not stay in me during a fast. I feel so much better now, both psychologically and physically. The way I found the equipment and the way I feel now is inspiring me to continue on this spiritual fast.

DAY 20, MONDAY - 10 PM I slept for about 11 hours today, from about 5:00 AM to about 4:00 PM. I am now going to lie back down and sleep until tomorrow morning. After my colonic yesterday, I had a very busy day and need the extra rest.

DAY 21, TUESDAY - 6:30 AM I just got out of bed and have a lot to do today. I feel pretty good. I have had a long day, it is 10:00 PM and I have worked in the home-office for about 7 hours and then went out to do things for another 5 hours. I am going to sleep.

DAY 22, WEDNESDAY - 3:30 PM I got up this morning about 8:00 AM and meditated. I have been working since then. I feel pretty good.

233

12:00 MIDNIGHT It is now midnight. I have been up and working a long time. I think I am going to bed. Other than exhausted from over 13 hours of work, I feel fine.

DAY 25, SATURDAY - 11:45 PM

Well, it seems like I have not entered anything in this journal for three days. I have been very busy at times and at other times, I felt somewhat drained. I have done a lot of work today. I have a lot of more work yet to do. I want to get all my business work as caught up as possible so the last two weeks of my fast can be spent entirely in spiritual areas. I want to do some restructuring of my AMSWAY site

12:54 AM

Today I had a most beautiful experience. I wish I could give someone the picture and experience I had so that I would feel that they saw what I saw. I was relaxing in bed and contemplating God and other things in my life when all of a sudden I had a vision. No, it was more than a vision. It was an incredibly real experience. Have you ever been to one of the newer outer space movies? You know how outer space looks so crystal clear as if you are floating through space with the stars and planets shining brightly and crystal clear? Well, I found myself floating through space with no spaceship and is seemed like I had no physical body. I was taking in the breathtaking view of all the stars and planets. I felt my eye muscles start to focus on what I was seeing. This attempt to physically focus made the experiential vision vanish. I

234

relaxed my focusing attempt and the vision returned. Then I couldn't stop myself from trying to focus and the vision went away again. This happened once more. When I would try to focus, the vision would disappear and my attempts to duplicate it were met with only a cloudy mass of nothing. I am now going to bed. Good night.

DAY 26, SUNDAY - 11:45 PM

This is one of my weakest days on the whole fast. I now realize that the last couple of weeks of my fast are going to need more rest than I anticipated. However, this should not surprise me. It is only logical that after 26 days on a fast that the body's energy levels are going to be somewhat depleted. Thank God I have this opportunity to have the time to rest and move around at largely my own discretion.

DAY 27, MONDAY - 11:30 PM

Did some paperwork. I just received a call from a computer friend of mine. Tomorrow is the first day of the PC Expo, the second largest computer show in the country. It is at the Jacob Javits Convention here in NYC. There are four other geeks that want me to go with them, so I said yes. This means that I have to get up tomorrow morning about 7 AM and only get about 5 hours of sleep. Oh, well, if I get an early enough start then I won't have to go back the next day.

DAY 28, TUESDAY - 11:00 PM

235

What a day. The PC Expo took over the whole convention center. It is one humongous convention center. I checked out every nook and cranny of the show. By 4:15 PM, I was physically hurting. I walked probably 3 miles through the center, up and down row after row of new technology exhibits. All the while carrying a big shoulder bag to put things I wanted to take with me and a gallon of distilled water for my lunch. I didn't even wait the extra hour until the show closed for the day. I didn't want to be a party-pooper with my friends. They wanted to go out for a drink and eat after the show. They would have sacrificed and taken me home, but I didn't want to do this to them. I had another friend pick me up and was I ever glad to get home. It was a great show and there was nothing I didn't see that I could have seen.

I actually felt better after taking a shower and watched educational television until around 2 or three in the morning on the satellite. Some of the best shows are in the middle of the early morning hours.

DAY 29, WEDNESDAY - 11:00 PM

DAY 37, THURSDAY - 3:00 AM

Wow, I find it hard to believe that 8 days have gone by and I have not written anything here. I have had a sort of rough week. Moments of not feeling well at all. Then a few hours later having so much energy that I found it almost impossible to go to bed at all. All in all, I feel tremendous. I can't life heavy objects for more than a couple of minutes without really feeling a weakness in my muscles. If I go up two flights of stairs, I find I need to stop for about 20 seconds between levels. However, my mind is exceptionally sharp and full of clarity. I have feelings of empowerment inside that bring wells of emotional joy and tears to my face. The tears are full of joy and gratitude with my new found clarity and empowerment. I know what direction I will be heading in the future. I have
236

had visions of what to do. I can't share this right now, this is between me and God - THE ALL IN ALL THAT IS ALL. Even with this clarity, I am not making any decisions until my fast is finished and I have more certitude. I don't want to be premature. I want to do whatever it is that the universe wants me to do for whatever purposes it wants to fulfill through me and my life. This long fast has taken me over ten years to finally follow through with. However, I now see that any earlier in my life wouldn't have been the right time. I had many things to learn to the core of my being that were necessary for me to move forward on my visions. Today, I got up off the couch rapidly and reached high over my head, in a quick manner, to lower a ceiling fan's speed. All of I sudden I felt the feeling of light-headedness. Usually, when I have this feeling, I recognize it in time to sit down and rest a moment and the light-headedness passed. However, this time is was so quick that I fainted and a few seconds later found myself on the floor with a chair overturned next to me. My chin hurt and my nose hurt. This means that I bumped them on the way down. Of course, I felt no pain when it happened. I have to constantly remember to move slowly and do not raise my arms high above my head rapidly. This causes a rapid draining of some blood in the brain and a lowering of blood pressure in the brain. I almost neglected to tell you something. I stayed in bed for most of the day because I really did not feel well. About 8 hours after the faint spell, I all of a sudden felt a urge to sit on the toilet. Now, remember that I haven't had any food for over a month. However, a quart of rubbery pencil-thin stringy material came out. It was an incredible evacuation. Tthere was something definitely working itself out of my body and this probably contributed to the faint spell and my periods of not feeling very well over the last few days. Once it passed, I have felt better ever since. This is the first time this has happened, and I will do my best to insure that it doesn't happen again. Tonight I feel great. I am taking out a bunch of recycling material and a lot of trash for pick-up tomorrow. I feel no problems with this. I don't want to scare anyone with this story. I do feel I need to put it in my journal as a precautionary warning. I have been fasting for shorter periods
237

for over 15 years and this has never happened before. However, I must remember that it has been 37 days since this fast began. My body and energy reserves are not what they were then or even after 2 weeks on the fast. Even on my last 15 day fast, I worked an almost full schedule. Anything over 15 days and one cannot work normal. One needs to follow the body's signals and pay heed to them. I have lost 40 pounds on this fast. I am at 145 now. In the last week, I have not lost a single pound. At some point, the body reaches its next metabolic set-point and tries to keep it at this new level. This is why diets hardly ever work in the long term.. People go back to their old eating habits before their body can gradually adjust to the increase of food intake. More food with the same lowered metabolic rate leads to more calories being stored as fat. Then they repeat this cycle over and over and eventually return to their original weight. More likely than not, they end up in worse shape than they were before the fast. It has to be a change in life to maintain the gains.. This is okay. Since my fast was for cleansing and clarity, and not weight loss, no problem.

I am going to bed. I wanted to update this journal before the fast ends. I expect July 4th to be my last day. We will see. This will mean 5 days leading into the water-only part of the fast, 40 days on water only, and then 4-5 days re-introducing food back into my body. Good night.

DAY 39, FRIDAY, 4:00 AM

I feel great and have been working for about 6 hours. I even lifted a window air-conditioner out of the storage shed, carried it 10 feet into the house, then set it on the floor to be safe. I felt no ill effects. I had a friend come over later who took it the rest of the way to another floor of the house and put it into the window. Can't get carried away with too much hard labor. Remember yesterday.
238

Good Night

SUNDAY, DAY 40 - 10:00 PM - 138 POUNDS

Well, it is 40 days since I began this journey. Other than being fairly simple, most of what I thought might happen - hasn't happened. However, three very important things did happen. One, I have had visions of what I am to do in the immediate future. My spiritual web site will have a lot of this information over the next few months. The second is that I feel very empowered to do what the visions showed me. The third is that my clarity of mind is incredibly improved since I began this fast. I suppose these three things are just different facets of the same thing. And this was the most important accomplishment I set out to achieve. I could go for another ten days. I was going to fast for 45 days from the first day I began with the juice. But fasting for the sake of fasting for a set time as one's primary goal is not a good reason to fast. I feel my body is telling me it is time to give it some nourishment. I must listen to my body. After 40 days, I know when it is my body speaking to me and not the force of habit or the manipulations of my thoughts. Praise THE ALL that I have had this opportunity to have the time and support of my loved ones on this most important spiritual journey.

239

I have an orange and a knife on my lap. I will only eat 1/2 of the orange right now. My stomach must be shrunk to the size of a baby's fist by now. It requires more discipline to break a fast properly than it takes to stay on a fast after 4 or 5 days. I choose an orange because of the cleansing effect of the citric juice; the stimulating effect it will have on getting my digestive juices going again, and the little fiber.

I am crying so intensely. They are tears of spiritual gratitude. Not for the orange, but for the gift of having even one moment to have experienced the incredibleness of existence at all. And to think I now have the opportunity to follow through on my visions. Unbelievable praise is surging through my mind body and the essence of what I truly am. I can't believe these feelings. Wow, what an orange..... I almost cannot bring my self to start eating the orange. One because I don't want this incredible emotion to be over and two because of the unbelievable experience I am sure it will be. I hope I can handle the experience. I just cut it in half. It is in my lap on a towel. The smell is most incredible. The juice glistens like love beads on the brow of THE ALL. I am sure it will take me at least 15 minutes to eat just 1/2 of the orange.

I just licked it. Incredible. Remember, I have smelled many foods during this fast, even had my nose one inch from the steaming food. This is transcending all. I am going to stop writing now. This is between me and THE ALL THAT IS IN ALL AND IS ALL.

Well, it actually took me about 25 minutes to eat the 1/2 orange. It actually filled me for the moment. It was a spiritual experience. I am sure some will say just the fact of having anything to eat after 40 days, 36 of them with just water and about six tablespoons of something two other days, would be an unbelievable experience. All I can say is that yes, having anything to eat is
240

incredible. However, This was much more than just eating an orange. You have to experience it to know it. I went into this for spiritual reasons and I am not disappointed at all. Time will show. I did not get some of the things I had wanted, but now I know I got the spiritual things I needed.

MONDAY, DAY 41 - 1:00 AM

Well, it is now three hours since the orange was on my lap. I just had the second half of the orange and ate one additional orange. This is enough for today. I feel very good. I can actually hear my stomach and the orange getting to know each other again. It is a good feeling, but I must have no more until tomorrow. Tomorrow, I shall go to the market and get some nice cantaloupes, honeydews, casaba melons (if any of these are available). I shall have some more oranges and the melons. Melons are one of the purest foods you can eat. They are probably 90% water and are a good source of fiber. Tomorrow shall be a fruit-only day. If they have any ripe avocados, I might have one later in the evening. If the avocados are not ripe, I shall buy some for future days. They would be very good for my re-introducing foods back into my body. The following day, I might have my first salad. I am not sure what I will put into it yet, but everything will be fresh and raw. I will keep updating this journal for another week or so, just to give you an idea of the aftereffects of this journey. Fruits have just about all the nutrients you need, even protein. I will wait a few days before I put concentrated protein into my body. I would love to have some cashews and pecans, but they have to wait.

I am going to relax now and allow this new phase to flow.

241

There is an old saying, "do not put new wine into old wine bottles". It is a very profound saying. I won't be drinking any alcohol anymore,. Now that I have cleaned out the old wine bottle, my body, I shall put only good nutritional food into it. I would be a fool to do otherwise after the last 40 days. You should eat at least 50% fruits and raw vegetables and the rest, if cooked, lightly steamed or lightly cooked. If you heat vegetables over 105 degrees you destroy a great percentage of the vital nutrients and enzymes in the food. I will never eat over-cooked food anymore. I might as well eat glue or sawdust and take vitamins to try and make it resemble nutritious.

TUESDAY, DAY 42 - 11:00 PM

I had one delicious orange yesterday. About three hours later I had an incredibly delicious cantaloupe. I felt great and was not hungry. The next day (today) I was going to start having a fresh green and vegetable salad later in the day after a breakfast of fruit. Then I was out doing an errand with a friend and she asked if I would like to try a little Thai food. I said okay, I think I might try a salad to start some greens going down. Well, The greens were great. Then I remembered one other Thai dish I used love. It is fresh vegetables cooked in coconut milk. Understand that I can't stand spicy hot food. Especially not now after the fast. However, they prepared it especially for me. The normal mild way it is served to those who want it mild is a reddish-white color. Mine came milky white. No hot spice at all. I told myself I would have a few tablespoons to taste and then take the rest home for perhaps tomorrow.

Well.....I knew it; I knew it; I knew it:

242

I shouldn't have done it; I shouldn't have done it; I shouldn't have done it.

One little spoonful at a time, just one more little spoonful, just one more, and then I will give it to them to wrap up. Well, it seemed that all of a sudden, there wasn't really enough left to take home. Just about 4 tablespoons left. I thought I might as well finish it. It was delicious. We took a 20 minute slow walk after dinner to help the digestion. I was stuffed, but I felt good.

Well, this was about 9:00 last night. About 3 hours later I had a pain in my lower left side. A little knife-like, nothing to overly concern myself with, but a reminder that it looked like my pancreas was a little overwhelmed.

No problem. About 1:00 AM this morning, I started getting an icky case of heartburn (gastric fluid reflux from my stomach up through my esophagal spincter muscle and into my esophagus). My stomach acid was eating some of my esophagus. This was not a pleasant feeling. After all, I had went about 5 weeks with just water and my esophagus was feeling fine - until now. I couldn't lie down, this would have made it worse. So I did a lot of food storage cleaning and organizing for when I will start my new cooking experience of my few thousand vegan recipes. About 6:00 this morning, I tried to lie down. I had to slightly elevate my upper torso so that the reflux would not be encouraged by gravity to spend more time in my esophagus. I laid there for about an hour and just decided to get up and do some more work. I did a tremendous amount of work. In fact, is is now almost 11:30 at night and I have not slept any since yesterday. About 3:00 PM this afternoon, I was feeling no more discomfort from the reflux for some time. I decided to have a couple of mangoes. They were delicious and I felt fine afterwards.

243

Tonight about 4 hours later, I had a fresh salad and a little tofu. Only, this time, I kept a more disciplined eye on what I was eating, ate slower, and actually started putting the leftovers away before I was finished eating. Both to put away some of the still tempting food and as a reminder that I had to say - ENOUGH. - before I had to say I CAN'T HOLD ANY MORE. It is about three hours later and I feel fine. No inkling of what I was feeling last night. I am going to go up to the bed and sit upright for a while watching educational satellite programs and slowly unwind.

This just shows all of you who have E-Mailed me about fasting over the last year or so that I know your trials and temptations. I have experienced almost everything you either have or will experience. I am spirit, but I am a spirit in a material world. I should have had no problem using the discipline to follow the fast-breaking plan I spoke about. However, perhaps this little story of how we all have similiar temptations - and how I actually did not last past 48 hours before not practicing what I preach. Perhaps this story will help you keep a more watchful eye out for the temptations that are sure to come. Remember one most important thing. Be gentle with yourself. If you do what you say you shouldn't do, talk to yourself and remind yourself of your foolishness in neglecting to just not say "NO" to whatever tempted you.. If you slip, remind yourself you knew what to do and you choose to do otherwise. The choice to overeat was mine. The choice to overeat is yours. Sometimes the subliminal forces seem to have a will of their own inside you, however, the final decision is yours. Do you struggle and use more discipline? Or do you cease the struggle and do what you know you should not do. Sometimes the mental manipulations are not as blatant. Sometimes the rationalization is very subtle. Remember, you can get to Chicago from New York walking all the way - ONE LITTLE STEP AT A TIME. Then forgive yourself and be thankful that this is a new moment, tomorrow is a new day. It is not always the number of times you stumble or get knocked down that matters, what matters is after each and every time you take the step in the wrong direction instead of the right direction - you just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and say "Okay, I shouldn't have, but I did, I choose to do it, now I choose to begin again. I will succeed". Sooner or later - YOU WILL SUCCEED!

244

I will stop in tomorrow and let you know what is happening. The journey of a forty days fast is still in the process. It doesn't end with the moment you say, "Okay, time to eat now". It still has a few days left. It takes between four to six weeks for your metabolism to re-adjust to the tremendous amount of food energy it is now receiving after over 5 weeks of having nothing but what it could find and burn on its own. I lost about 50 pounds on the fast. I am not going to put it back on. What I put on will be better than what I took off. One can gain about 18-20 pounds a year in muscle weight. Of course this in addition to fat weight. When the winter months start getting closer, your body adds a little weight as a survival mechanism for the coming cold weather. We require some weight that is not muscle. Just as a side thought. Do you realize that 5 to 8 pounds of our weight is fecal matter that we are carrying around with us?

This fecal matter and some water weight we will put back on fairly quickly will bring us back up maybe 15 pounds over our last day fasting weight. The rest is what you eat, how much, and how patient you are for your metabolism to adjust to your non-fasting life-style. Speak with you later..... ;-)

FOUR MONTHS LATER It is now four months after ending my fast. Time for an update and a closing of this journal. I went to Cape Cod for the July 4 weekend. I was having a wonderful time. Then another painful lesson occurred. After finishing the fast, I was so joyous of eating again that I neglected to drink enough water. On July 5th, I

245

realized that I had not gone to the bathroom and passed any fecal matter since ending the fast. I also noticed that I was getting lower bowel pains. Then I realized that I had developed "impacted bowels" because of the lack of water (liquid) in my diet. I went from up to a gallon of water a day and no food to 8 ounces of water a day and food, food, food. It took me three days to get my bowels back in order. I won't go into the details here but it was a fantastic learning experience. I received first hand knowledge of what a lot of elderly people go through with impacted bowels. The pain is REAL. After that impacted bowel experience I kept getting stronger and stronger and feeling better and better. Now I exercise every other day for two hours. Thirty minutes on a treadmill, 45 minutes with weights and about 45 minutes of yoga (stretching). Most spirit-people, in their later years experience three physical problems that they could have prepared for when they were earth-years younger. First is circulation and cardiovascular problems. The treadmill takes care of this. Second is digestion and elimination problems - both part of one process. Eating over 50% of a diet of uncooked and fresh fruits and vegetables takes care of this. The exercise helps this also. Third is flexibility and limberness. The yoga (stretching) takes care of this. I have gained back 27 pounds. I have stabilized at 165 pounds The weight I have put back on is mostly muscle weight, not fat weight I feel as good or better than I remember feeling when my body was in its twenties. Friends and business associates say I look better than they have seen me look in years. After being a vegetarian for over 17 years, I am a complete vegan now. No animal products of any kind. I find that I really don't miss the pizzas. I have a vegetable pizza, without cheese, and friends sometime say it tastes better than their pizza with the oily, fatty, binding cheese.

246

I just spent a couple of weeks in Hawaii and had no problem over-eating. I ate as much as I wanted and found plenty to eat. However, my old habits seem to be a thing of the past. I no longer drink coffee and find I don't need nor do I miss it. I do not drink alcohol any longer. I don't really have headaches any more. I may have had two minor ones in the last four months.

In short, I feel great, I look great. I fast one to three days now when I feel like it. I will do at least a 7 to 10 day fast after the first of the year. I am really looking forward to my next long fast in the spring. However, the next long fast will not be recorded in a journal for others to see. It should be between me and God. This journal was an exception for the purpose of helping others along their fasting and spiritual journey. I hope and pray this journal has helped some of you. I am now going to spend more time building my spiritual web site and I will be putting a lot of information on it concerning fasting, diet and health. If there is any way I can help you, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. I will get back to you as soon as I can.

247

A Letter On Fasting To A Special Spirit-Person

This letter was written around 1997 to a special friend who needed some guidance on fasting and dealing with her relatives who did not approve. I pray it helps you in your journey.

Dear _______ , I offer you a few thoughts, based on my own experience of fasting. Each person is individual and will have individual experiencing of fasting. However, unless you have some unknown medical condition, my experiences should offer you a good general guideline to follow. Except for some unknown medical conditions, you should be in okay condition to follow your heart and gain tremendously from a pure water fast. If you have never fasted, it may be wise for you to check out your doctor's opinion. Just remember that most doctors are not schooled much in nutrition or natural herb and fasting programs. Doctors have told me that my tongue coating during a fast means nothing. However, every time I have fasted over the last 20 years - within 48 hours my tongue is coated. Within four hours after eating anything - my tongue is cleared. This has never varied. The tongue is one of the organs of toxin elimination from the body. I highly respect the learned opinion of the medical doctor. However, you must make your own decision on what to do if your doctor's opinion is different from what your heart is telling you. I want to be of as much help as possible in making your fasting experience a safe, pleasant and most effective experience. I will be honored if you give me your opinions on how I can make it more readable and understandable. One thought I could repeat over and over - a fast is not recommended for vanity weight loss. Changing your diet, exercising and getting plenty of rest is a better way to get into shape. You will definitely benefit by "cleaning house" before you re-build your body. Just know that I feel a fast is much more than a weight-loss diet and potentially much more rewarding.

248

Your immediate future and the rest of your life can and will be affected by your fast and the reasons you go into your fast. One pre-fast tendency is to eat an overdose of the foods and drink you think you will miss most on the fast. This type of gluttony is never beneficial to your bodily health. It will also make the first few days of a fast even more difficult since your body has to assimilate and eliminate this overdose of food-stuffs. If you do indulge this tendency, I believe it is important to begin the fast with a couple of days of a blended fruit and colon conditioning process. This will balance the previous overindulgence and help prepare your body. You can drink juice during this pre-fast process. Since the digestive system was not made to drink the highly concentrated fruit-sugar of processed fruit juice, you should add fruit and plant fiber to your beverage. I use a colon conditioner called "Colon Cleanse". One or two tablespoons in a juice beverage will give more bulk in your system. The longer it sits in the glass, the softer it will feel when you drink it. You might have to add more liquid to your drink because it can get pretty thick the longer it sits. The protein powder I mention can be any brand you like. Each one will taste differently. The most important aspect is to choose one that has as few additives of any kind. The one I presently use is vegan, no animal products in it and no sugar. It will not leave any additional toxins in your body as you prepare to enter your fast experience. You can actually drink it every day for the rest of your life. It is not just for beginning a fast. I like protein powders that are vanilla flavored. The fruits and/or juice you add to the blended beverage will give it an enjoyable flavor. You don't need the protein powder. It only gives the blended drink more of a malted-milk texture and flavor. Any health food store usually carries it. A few thoughts on the pre-fast beverage: You can drink as much of the beverage for the two pre-fast days as you like. Fill the blender 1/2 with apple juice. Apple juice is an excellent pre-cleansing fruit. Add two to three bananas and a couple of tablespoons of the vegetarian protein powder. The protein powder will give the beverage a smoother taste. Add one tablespoon of the colon conditioner for more bulk. Add about 8 ice cubes (if your blender can handle ice cubes. The ice cubes will make the drink more refreshing and the cold of the ice cubes will slow down the bulking of the colon conditioner before you have a chance to drink it. I love strawberries so I add about 1/2 pint of them to my beverage. Pineapple is an excellent digestive aid. Orange juice blended with some pineapple slices is great. If

249

you use canned pineapple slices, make sure the pineapple is canned in its own juices, not in sugar-syrup (either heavy or light syrup is a no-no). However, be careful of too much acidic fruit such as oranges, pineapple and grapefruit. Too much acidic fruit can cause small acid bumps to develop in your mouth. Nothing to worry about, but uncomfortable. I sometimes have a few bottles of low-to-no-sodium V-8 juice in my two day pre-fast beverage diet. It may be bottled, but it offers a little variety and is somewhat nutritious. I drink it straight. If you must have some added energy later into the fast, an okay thing to have is 50% water and 50% grape juice with some colon conditioner powder. If you must have anything, at least the grape-juice will not stop your cleansing process and the colon conditioner will scrub your digestive tract somewhat. We prefer your stomach to stay asleep for detoxifying. Grape juice mixed with water will not be digested in the stomach. It will pass directly to your intestines to be absorbed into your bloodstream. It is important to sip the juice beverage. Too much too soon will contribute to you feeling worse in a little while rather than better. You don't want your blood sugar levels to fluctuate wildly. Follow this juice-water drink with a glass or two of distilled water. This extra water will help your body handle the juice and colon conditioner. The two day pre-fast fruit diet will definitely make your initial stopping of eating easier and will help lighten your discomfort in the beginning days of the fast. You have to expect times during the fast when you feel real good and other times when you feel real miserable. The miserable times are just moments of detoxifying. If you eat and break the fast at the miserable times, you will just slow or even defeat the important detoxification process you body is involved in. If you have headaches, take a headache pill if you must. It is best to not introduce any chemicals into your body, but when it comes to a headache, I use the Tylenol crutch (just as much as I feel I have to). I am not a masochist. I don't like headaches. I can deal with just about any discomfort other than a terrible headache. Even the headaches that you feel like screaming from the pounding pain will pass. Don't stop the detoxifying process and the headaches can be looked at as a positive sign that the body is moving right along on its de-toxing journey. You might not even have any bad headaches. Just know that if you do, it is good and it will pass. After many years of all kinds of various foods, your intestines are like the drainage

250

system of a large house. You have over 20 feet of intestine that has many curves. These curves have collected oils, fats and other particulate matter that is actually sort of glued to your intestine walls. Just like the accumulations of a house plumbing system. A fast is like a "roto-rooter" of your intestinal tract. As you go into the fast, your body shuts down nonimportant bodily processes (like the stomach digestive action) and starts using its vital energy to "clean house". It actually digests the fats and toxic particulate in order to eliminate them from it's house. It carries the toxins through the lymphatic and blood system. It passes these toxins through your liver for cleaning. Your tongue, your kidneys which produce your urine, your feces and sweat glands are important avenues for the body to eliminate toxins. Your blood stream is one of the carriers of the toxins marked for elimination. When the toxins carried along in your blood are passing through your liver, your kidneys, your colon and your brain - you will feel various bodily discomforts. The degree of discomfort and the frequency of discomfort will be determined by how built-up the toxin and garbage is in your body. KNOW THIS - THE MORE YOU CAN HANG THROUGH THESE DISCOMFORTS, THE POTENTIAL IS GREATER THAT THE BETTER YOU WILL FEEL IN THE LONG RUN. Future fasts will be easier since your body will a less concentration of garbage to have to process. It is important to give your body as much rest as possible. Any energy used in non-detoxifying activity takes away from the vital energy the body is devoting to "cleaning house". At times you might even feel stronger sexual urges than normal. A build up of the body's vital energy concentrates in the genital area. From here it either is released through the sexual activity or it is concentrated and sent through the body where it is most needed. Deplete this vital energy through sexual activities and you will lower your energy levels for just getting out of bed in addition to the energy needed for an efficient "house cleaning". I could repeat over and over the importance of this concept of vital energy. I can not repeat it often enough. This vital energy is the energy used by the mothers you have heard of who have lifted an automobile off of their child in an emergency. Your body will not be eating and digesting nutritious foods during the fast. It will be using it's vital energy to both eliminate the toxins and use whatever energy it can get from the internal burning of the toxins for the energy to keep you alive, healthy and functioning through the fast. Don't make it any harder for your body to do its job than you have to. You will be the only one who will feel the rewards or suffer the penalties. A little discipline will go a long way. You can expect to
251

lose between 1 and 2 pounds a day on average. One day you may lose 3 pounds. The next day 0 pounds. No one is the same. The amount and speed of your weight loss will be determined by your individual metabolism. Just know that over an extended fast, losing one to two pounds a day is almost a universal experience. The first ten pounds will be mostly liquid. Be sure and drink plenty of water. Drink at least two quarts a day. You don't want to dehydrate. If you feel like it, even a gallon a day is not too much. The body needs plenty of liquid to help flush the system. Don't force the water, just drink as much as you need to make the hunger less discomforting. The more the toxins are diluted in your body with liquid, the less they will impact on your perception as they are being eliminated. Your tongue is a good indicator of the detoxifying process. When it is completely clean is the indicator that your body has cleansed as much as it will on this fast. It is then time to consider breaking the fast unless you feel like continuing it for other reasons. By then, you might have some spiritual inspirations to consider when you are contemplating breaking your fast. After about 15 days, some people will begin to notice their tongue starting to clear from the outer edges in towards the center. It is written that between 21 days and 28 days your tongue will be crystal clear. Your breath will be fresh. On a fifteen-day fast, my tongue didn't clear up completely. However, my body told me it was time to stop the fast. You have to learn to listen to your body. After fasting several times, believe me, you will become more and more aware of your body and how it speaks to you. During the fast, drink as much distilled water as you want. Just make sure the water you drink is distilled. Don't drink spring water, it is not as pure as distilled water. Distilled water is recommended for clothes-irons so mineral deposits don't form in the iron and ruin it. Your body is more important then an iron.....treat it accordingly. Do not drink spring water. Spring water is not as pure as distilled water. Do not drink tap water. Tap water has chemicals and poisons which kill harmful bacteria and microbes that might be in the tap water. When you are taking water into your body and no food, the chemicals and poisons will become too concentrated in your body and can be harmful to your health.

252

Concerning enemas during the fast. You should give yourself an enema to help dilute the concentration of toxins accumulating in your lower colon and being re-absorbed into your body through the colon walls. The colon walls are very absorbent. An enema actually does not go very far up the colon. A colonic, which is a more profound enema, is better. However, an enema is better than nothing. Just don't rush it. It is best to be horizontal during the enema so that gravity won't work against the water going deeper into your lower colon. A general rule of thumb is wait at least 4 days between enemas. If you do it properly in a horizontal position and use plenty of water, you should notice a definite difference in your general feeling of well being. It is good to brush your tongue when you brush your teeth. Not a heavy scrubbing, but a light brushing which will loosen the white accumulation and stimulate the process of detoxification through the tongue. It is good to floss regularly also because of the accumulation between the teeth of toxin residue. A good warm to hot shower will help remove the toxin accumulation of body's largest organ of elimination - your skin. A little cool rinse after the hot shower should invigorate you. My first long water fast lasted for 7 days. On the seventh day, I had more energy than I had when I went into the fast. I wanted to continue the fast. However, I broke it at day 7 because I wanted to have a good memory of my first long fast. A good memory of a successful fast makes future fasts easier to get into. On the other hand, once you go for seven days - day 8, 9, 10 and so on are a lot easier to do to than if you start again from day one some day in the future. This is something you have to decide on one day at a time. I will be as close as your e-mail to give you encouragement and support each day of your fast. I will be honored to help you through your ongoing decision process of when to break the fast and how to break it properly. Breaking the fast properly will tend to be more difficult than staying on the fast. The tendency will be to gobble up as much food as you can get your hands and mouth on. Resist this with all the discipline you can. The value of your fast can be completely destroyed by a lack of discipline at this break-fast time.

253

RESISTANCE FROM YOUR LOVED ONES DURING YOUR FAST Naturally, practically everyone who loves you will resist your decision to fast in one way or another - for one reason or another. This resistance will in most cases be for what they think is for your own good. They don't want you to injure yourself going on a strange journey. During your fast, your loved ones are sure to make concerned comments on your physical appearance. They will think and tell you that you are wasting away to nothing. Do not let this discourage you. A couple of weeks after a long fast will have you looking better than you looked before you began the fast. Your body will look healthier. Your eyes will be brighter. Others will resist for reasons of your discipline itself. They will be reminded of their lack of discipline in doing the things that they have been telling themselves for years that they were going to do someday, usually tomorrow. They won't admit this. The resistance will be manifested in joking, ridicule, put-downs and sarcasm. They don't want you to succeed only because then they have to face their own broken promises to themselves over the years. Others have read all about the horror stories of gurus, charlatans, tricksters, false prophets, false priests, false rabbis, false religious books that just want to control you and get your life and money. Your loved ones do have valid fears in their love for you and not wanting you to do the wrong thing and get sick - either physically or mentally. One thing I can say to this is people great and small have been fasting for thousands of years. Some of your greatest religious/philosophical/political leaders have both fasted before a battle or major decision. The ones who do great things and who experience great growth are the ones who follow their own heart, not the heart of another - no matter how wellmeaning the other heart may be. Your greatest in any field of endeavor have been the ones who followed the beat of a different drummer than the rest of the crowd. It takes great inner strength and desire to follow your heart. There is an old saying - "A coward dies a thousand deaths, but a hero dies only one".

254

You can be an inspiration for your loved ones - or you can fall in with the crowd. I feel you want more than what the crowd is willing to discipline themselves to accomplish. If this was not true, you would not have read this communication on fasting. The more you know your true self, the more full your life can be - alone and with those you love. I have been fasting for the last 20 years. My body is 47 years old and I believe I have not done anything to injure it. In fact, I believe I look better than most others my age. I find it hard to believe how old most of my peers look. When I was younger, I did everything that others did, and even more. When I reached 29 years of age, I decided I had better change my way of living before it killed me. I was surprised I was still alive even then. My wife died of a drug overdose when we were both only 21 years of bodily age. I have no regrets other than I wish I would have changed sooner and changed more over the years than I have. I understand the temptations of the flesh, both physical, mental and emotional. I understand how easy it is to just go along with the crowd. They will be glad to support you if you are doing what they are doing. However, old age and death is the final destination for every physical body.....I want more.....I believe you want more. I have had experiences during fasting that were beyond what people call the human consciousness. People have been experiencing other levels of consciousness for thousands of years. Were they all lying? Or is there something worth looking into with all your heart and soul? You have to choose for yourself. No one can live your pain for you. No one can live your pleasure for you. No one can die for you. And no one can experience whatever might be for you after your body is dead. If you don't do this discipline, I believe you will be wondering for the rest of your life - "WHAT IF I HAD"? Others will tell you that you would have not gained anything. But since they have never experienced it, how can they know? A KNOWER KNOWS - A THINKER ONLY THINKS HE OR SHE KNOWS.

255

Do you want to be a thinker - or a knower.....? I offer you as much support and advice as I have within me to give. In helping you - I will help myself.

256

The Natural Human Diet

This anatomical comparison between herbivores, carnivores and omnivores that that follows is not mine. However, it is freely available through the Internet. It is by Dr. Milton R. Mills, MD. It says what it says better than I could say it. You read it and then you be the judge. I am putting his summary anatomical chart comparing our anatomy with herbivores, carnivores and omnivores at the beginning of his excellent article to help you digest what it says. According to biologists and anthropologists who study our anatomy and our evolutionary history, humans are herbivores who are not well suited to eating meat. Unlike natural carnivores, we are physically and psychologically unable to rip animals limb from limb and eat and digest their raw flesh. Even cooked meat is likely to cause human beings, but not natural carnivores, to suffer from food poisoning, heart disease, and other ailments. People who pride themselves on being part of the human hunter tradition should take a second look at the story of human evolution. Prehistoric evidence indicates that humans developed hunting skills relatively recently and that most of our short, meat-eating past was spent scavenging and eating almost anything in order to survive; even then, meat was a tiny part of our caloric intake. Humans lack both the physical characteristics of carnivores and the instinct that drives them to kill animals and devour their raw carcasses. Ask yourself: When you see dead animals on the side of the road, are you tempted to stop for a snack? Does the sight of a dead bird make you salivate? Do you daydream about killing cows with your bare hands and eating them raw? If you answered "no" to all of these questions, congratulationsyou're a normal human herbivorelike it or not. Humans were simply not designed to eat meat.

AM
257

Facial Muscles
CARNIVORE: Reduced to allow wide mouth gape OMNIVORE: Reduced HERBIVORE: Well-developed HUMAN: Well-developed

Jaw Type
CARNIVORE: Angle not expanded OMNIVORE: Angle not expanded HERBIVORE: Expanded angle HUMAN: Expanded angle

Jaw Joint Location

CARNIVORE: On same plane as molar teeth OMNIVORE: On same plane as molar teeth HERBIVORE: Above the plane of the molars HUMAN: Above the plane of the molars

258

Jaw Motion
CARNIVORE: Shearing; minimal side-to-side motion OMNIVORE: Shearing; minimal side-to-side HERBIVORE: No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back HUMAN: No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back

Major Jaw Muscles

CARNIVORE: Temporalis OMNIVORE: Temporalis HERBIVORE: Masseter and pterygoids HUMAN: Masseter and pterygoids

Mouth Opening vs. Head Size

CARNIVORE: Large OMNIVORE: Large HERBIVORE: Small HUMAN: Small

259

Teeth: Incisors
CARNIVORE: Short and pointed OMNIVORE: Short and pointed HERBIVORE: Broad, flattened and spade shaped HUMAN: Broad, flattened and spade shaped

Teeth: Canines
CARNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved OMNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved HERBIVORE: Dull and short or long (for defense), or none HUMAN: Short and blunted

Teeth: Molars
CARNIVORE: Sharp, jagged and blade shaped OMNIVORE: Sharp blades and/or flattened HERBIVORE: Flattened with cusps vs complex surface HUMAN: Flattened with nodular cusps Chewing
260

Teeth: Chewing
CARNIVORE: None; swallows food whole OMNIVORE: Swallows food whole and/or simple crushing HERBIVORE: Extensive chewing necessary HUMAN: Extensive chewing necessary

Saliva
CARNIVORE: No digestive enzymes OMNIVORE: No digestive enzymes HERBIVORE: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes HUMAN: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes

Stomach Type
CARNIVORE: Simple OMNIVORE: Simple HERBIVORE: Simple or multiple chambers HUMAN: Simple
261

Stomach Acidity
CARNIVORE: Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach OMNIVORE: Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach HERBIVORE: pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach HUMAN: pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach

Stomach Capacity
CARNIVORE: 60% to 70% of total volume of digestive tract OMNIVORE: 60% to 70% of total volume of digestive tract HERBIVORE: Less than 30% of total volume of digestive tract HUMAN: 21% to 27% of total volume of digestive tract

Length of Small Intestine

CARNIVORE: 3 to 6 times body length OMNIVORE: 4 to 6 times body length HERBIVORE: 10 to more than 12 times body length HUMAN: 10 to 11 times body length

262

Colon
CARNIVORE: Simple, short and smooth OMNIVORE: Simple, short and smooth HERBIVORE: Long, complex; may be sacculated HUMAN: Long, sacculated

Liver
CARNIVORE: Can detoxify vitamin A OMNIVORE: Can detoxify vitamin A HERBIVORE: Cannot detoxify vitamin A HUMAN: Cannot detoxify vitamin A

Kidney
CARNIVORE: Extremely concentrated urine OMNIVORE: Extremely concentrated urine HERBIVORE: Moderately concentrated urine HUMAN: Moderately concentrated urine

263

Nails
CARNIVORE: Sharp claws OMNIVORE: Sharp claws HERBIVORE: Flattened nails or blunt hooves HUMAN: Flattened nails

"THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF EATING"

BY

MILTON R. MILLS, M.D.

Humans are most often described as "omnivores". This classification is based on the "observation" that humans generally eat a wide variety of plant and animal foods. However, culture, custom and training are confounding variables when looking at human dietary practices. Thus, "observation" is not the best technique to use when trying to identify the most "natural" diet for humans. While most humans are clearly "behavioral" omnivores, the question still remains as to whether humans are anatomically suited for a diet that includes animal as well as plant foods. A better and more objective technique is to look at human anatomy and physiology. Mammals are anatomically and physiologically adapted to procure and consume particular kinds of diets. (It is common practice when examining fossils of extinct mammals to examine anatomical features to

264

deduce the animal's probable diet.) Therefore, we can look at mammalian carnivores, herbivores (plant-eaters) and omnivores to see which anatomical and physiological features are associated with each kind of diet. Then we can look at human anatomy and physiology to see in which group we belong.

Oral Cavity

Carnivores have a wide mouth opening in relation to their head size. This confers obvious advantages in developing the forces used in seizing, killing and dismembering prey. Facial musculature is reduced since these muscles would hinder a wide gape, and play no part in the animal's preparation of food for swallowing. In all mammalian carnivores, the jaw joint is a simple hinge joint lying in the same plane as the teeth. This type of joint is extremely stable and acts as the pivot point for the "lever arms" formed by the upper and lower jaws. The primary muscle used for operating the jaw in carnivores is the temporalis muscle. This muscle is so massive in carnivores that it accounts for most of the bulk of the sides of the head (when you pet a dog, you are petting its temporalis muscles). The "angle" of the mandible (lower jaw) in carnivores is small. This is because the muscles (masseter and pterygoids) that attach there are of minor importance in these animals. The lower jaw of carnivores cannot move forward, and has very limited side-toside motion. When the jaw of a carnivore closes, the blade-shaped cheek molars slide past each other to give a slicing motion that is very effective for shearing meat off bone. The teeth of a carnivore are discretely spaced so as not to trap stringy debris. The incisors are short, pointed and prong-like and are used for grasping and shredding. The canines are greatly elongated and dagger-like for stabbing, tearing and killing prey. The molars (carnassials) are flattened and triangular with jagged edges such that they function like serrated-edged blades. Because of the hinge-type joint, when a carnivore closes its jaw, the cheek teeth come together in a back-to-front fashion giving a smooth cutting motion like the blades on a pair of shears. The saliva of carnivorous animals does not contain digestive enzymes. When eating, a mammalian carnivore gorges itself rapidly and does not chew its
265

food. Since proteolytic (protein-digesting) enzymes cannot be liberated in the mouth due to the danger of autodigestion (damaging the oral cavity), carnivores do not need to mix their food with saliva; they simply bite off huge chunks of meat and swallow them whole.

According to evolutionary theory, the anatomical features consistent with an herbivorous diet represent a more recently derived condition than that of the carnivore. Herbivorous mammals have well-developed facial musculature, fleshy lips, a relatively small opening into the oral cavity and a thickened, muscular tongue. The lips aid in the movement of food into the mouth and, along with the facial (cheek) musculature and tongue, assist in the chewing of food. In herbivores, the jaw joint has moved to position above the plane of the teeth. Although this type of joint is less stable than the hinge-type joint of the carnivore, it is much more mobile and allows the complex jaw motions needed when chewing plant foods. Additionally, this type of jaw joint allows the upper and lower cheek teeth to come together along the length of the jaw more or less at once when the mouth is closed in order to form grinding platforms. (This type of joint is so important to a plant-eating animal, that it is believed to have evolved at least 15 different times in various plant-eating mammalian species.) The angle of the mandible has expanded to provide a broad area of attachment for the well-developed masseter and pterygoid muscles (these are the major muscles of chewing in plant-eating animals). The temporalis muscle is small and of minor importance. The masseter and pterygoid muscles hold the mandible in a sling-like arrangement and swing the jaw from side-to-side. Accordingly, the lower jaw of plant-eating mammals has a pronounced sideways motion when eating. This lateral movement is necessary for the grinding motion of chewing. The dentition of herbivores is quite varied depending on the kind of vegetation a particular species is adapted to eat. Although these animals differ in the types and numbers of teeth they posses, the various kinds of teeth when present, share common structural features. The incisors are broad, flattened and spade-like. Canines may be small as in horses, prominent as in hippos, pigs and some primates (these are thought to be used for defense) or absent altogether. The molars, in general, are squared and flattened on top to provide a grinding surface. The molars cannot vertically slide past one another in a shearing/slicing motion, but they do horizontally

266

slide across one another to crush and grind. The surface features of the molars vary depending on the type of plant material the animal eats. The teeth of herbivorous animals are closely grouped so that the incisors form an efficient cropping/biting mechanism, and the upper and lower molars form extended platforms for crushing and grinding. The "walled-in" oral cavity has a lot of potential space that is realized during eating.

These animals carefully and methodically chew their food, pushing the food back and forth into the grinding teeth with the tongue and cheek muscles. This thorough process is necessary to mechanically disrupt plant cell walls in order to release the digestible intracellular contents and ensure thorough mixing of this material with their saliva. This is important because the saliva of plant-eating mammals often contains carbohydrate-digesting enzymes which begin breaking down food molecules while the food is still in the mouth.

Stomach and Small Intestine Striking differences between carnivores and herbivores are seen in these organs. Carnivores have a capacious simple (single-chambered) stomach. The stomach volume of a carnivore represents 60-70% of the total capacity of the digestive system. Because meat is relatively easily digested, their small intestines (where absorption of food molecules takes place) are short -about three to five or six times the body length. Since these animals average a kill only about once a week, a large stomach volume is advantageous because it allows the animals to quickly gorge themselves when eating, taking in as much meat as possible at one time which can then be digested later while resting. Additionally, the ability of the carnivore stomach to secrete hydrochloric acid is exceptional. Carnivores are able to keep their gastric pH down around 1-2 even with food present. This is necessary to facilitate protein breakdown and to kill the abundant dangerous bacteria often found in decaying flesh foods.

Because of the relative difficulty with which various kinds of plant foods are broken down (due to large amounts of indigestible fibers), herbivores have
267

significantly longer and in some cases, far more elaborate guts than carnivores. Herbivorous animals that consume plants containing a high proportion of cellulose must "ferment" (digest by bacterial enzyme action) their food to obtain the nutrient value. They are classified as either "ruminants" (foregut fermenters) or hindgut fermenters. The ruminants are the plant-eating animals with the celebrated multiple-chambered stomachs. Herbivorous animals that eat a diet of relatively soft vegetation do not need a multiple-chambered stomach. They typically have a simple stomach, and a long small intestine. These animals ferment the difficult-to-digest fibrous portions of their diets in their hindguts (colons). Many of these herbivores increase the sophistication and efficiency of their GI tracts by including carbohydrate-digesting enzymes in their saliva. A multiple-stomach fermentation process in an animal which consumed a diet of soft, pulpy vegetation would be energetically wasteful. Nutrients and calories would be consumed by the fermenting bacteria and protozoa before reaching the small intestine for absorption. The small intestine of plant-eating animals tends to be very long (greater than 10 times body length) to allow adequate time and space for absorption of the nutrients.

Colon The large intestine (colon) of carnivores is simple and very short, as its only purposes are to absorb salt and water. It is approximately the same diameter as the small intestine and, consequently, has a limited capacity to function as a reservoir. The colon is short and non-pouched. The muscle is distributed throughout the wall, giving the colon a smooth cylindrical appearance. Although a bacterial population is present in the colon of carnivores, its activities are essentially putrefactive.

In herbivorous animals, the large intestine tends to be a highly specialized organ involved in water and electrolyte absorption, vitamin production and absorption, and/or fermentation of fibrous plant materials. The colons of herbivores are usually wider than their small intestine and are relatively long. In some plant-eating mammals, the colon has a pouched appearance due to the arrangement of the muscle fibers in the intestinal wall.

268

Additionally, in some herbivores the cecum (the first section of the colon) is quite large and serves as the primary or accessory fermentation site.

What About Omnivores? One would expect an omnivore to show anatomical features which equip it to eat both animal and plant foods. According to evolutionary theory, carnivore gut structure is more primitive than herbivorous adaptations. Thus, an omnivore might be expected to be a carnivore which shows some gastrointestinal tract adaptations to an herbivorous diet. This is exactly the situation we find in the Bear, Raccoon and certain members of the Canine families. (This discussion will be limited to bears because they are, in general, representative of the anatomical omnivores.) Bears are classified as carnivores but are classic anatomical omnivores. Although they eat some animal foods, bears are primarily herbivorous with 70-80% of their diet comprised of plant foods. (The one exception is the Polar bear which lives in the frozen, vegetation poor arctic and feeds primarily on seal blubber.) Bears cannot digest fibrous vegetation well, and therefore, are highly selective feeders. Their diet is dominated by primarily succulent lent herbage, tubers and berries. Many scientists believe the reason bears hibernate is because their chief food (succulent vegetation) not available in the cold northern winters. (Interestingly, Polar bears hibernate during the summer months when seals are unavailable.) In general, bears exhibit anatomical features consistent with a carnivorous diet. The jaw joint of bears is in the same plane as the molar teeth. The temporalis muscle is massive, and the angle of the mandible is small corresponding to the limited role the pterygoid and masseter muscles play in operating the jaw. The small intestine is short ( less than five times body length) like that of the pure carnivores, and the colon is simple, smooth and short. The most prominent adaptation to an herbivorous diet in bears (and other "anatomical" omnivores) is the modification of their dentition. Bears retain the peg-like incisors, large canines and shearing premolars of a carnivore; but the molars have become squared with rounded cusps for crushing and grinding. Bears have not, however, adopted the flattened, blunt nails seen in most herbivores and retain the elongated, pointed claws of a carnivore.

269

An animal which captures, kills and eats prey must have the physical equipment which makes predation practical and efficient. Since bears include significant amounts of meat in their diet, they must retain the anatomical features that permit them to capture and kill prey animals. Hence, bears have a jaw structure, musculature and dentition which enable them to develop and apply the forces necessary to kill and dismember prey even though the majority of their diet is comprised of plant foods. Although an herbivore-style jaw joint (above the plane of the teeth) is a far more efficient joint for crushing and grinding vegetation and would potentially allow bears to exploit a wider range of plant foods in their diet, it is a much weaker joint than the hinge-style carnivore joint. The herbivore-style jaw joint is relatively easily dislocated and would not hold up well under the stresses of subduing struggling prey and/or crushing bones (nor would it allow the wide gape carnivores need). In the wild, an animal with a dislocated jaw would either soon starve to death or be eaten by something else and would, therefore, be selected against. A given species cannot adopt the weaker but more mobile and efficient herbivore-style joint until it has committed to an essentially plant-food diet lest it risk jaw dislocation, death and ultimately, extinction.

What About Me? The human gastrointestinal tract features the anatomical modifications consistent with an herbivorous diet. Humans have muscular lips and a small opening into the oral cavity. Many of the so-called "muscles of expression" are actually the muscles used in chewing. The muscular and agile tongue essential for eating, has adapted to use in speech and other things. The mandibular joint is flattened by a cartilaginous plate and is located well above the plane of the teeth. The temporalis muscle is reduced. The characteristic "square jaw" of adult males reflects the expanded angular process of the mandible and the enlarged masseter/pterygoid muscle group. The human mandible can move forward to engage the incisors, and side-toside to crush and grind. Human teeth are also similar to those found in other herbivores with the exception of the canines (the canines of some of the apes are elongated and are thought to be used for display and/or defense). Our teeth are rather large and usually abut against one another. The incisors are flat and spade-like,

270

useful for peeling, snipping and biting relatively soft materials. The canines are neither serrated nor conical, but are flattened, blunt and small and function Like incisors. The premolars and molars are squarish, flattened and nodular, and used for crushing, grinding and pulping noncoarse foods. Human saliva contains the carbohydrate-digesting enzyme, salivary amylase. This enzyme is responsible for the majority of starch digestion. The esophagus is narrow and suited to small, soft balls of thoroughly chewed food. Eating quickly, attempting to swallow a large amount of food or swallowing fibrous and/or poorly chewed food (meat is the most frequent culprit) often results in choking in humans. Man's stomach is single-chambered, but only moderately acidic. (Clinically, a person presenting with a gastric pH less than 4-5 when there is food in the stomach is cause for concern.) The stomach volume represents about 2127% of the total volume of the human GI tract. The stomach serves as a mixing and storage chamber, mixing and liquefying ingested foodstuffs and regulating their entry into the small intestine. The human small intestine is long, averaging from 10 to 11 times the body length. (Our small intestine averages 22 to 30 feet in length. Human body size is measured from the top of the head to end of the spine and averages between two to three feet in length in normal-sized individuals.) The human colon demonstrates the pouched structure peculiar to herbivores. The distensible large intestine is larger in cross-section than the small intestine, and is relatively long. Man's colon is responsible for water and electrolyte absorption and vitamin production and absorption. There is also extensive bacterial fermentation of fibrous plant materials, with the production and absorption of significant amounts of food energy (volatile short-chain fatty acids) depending upon the fiber content of the diet. The extent to which the fermentation and absorption of metabolites takes place in the human colon has only recently begun to be investigated. In conclusion, we see that human beings have the gastrointestinal tract structure of a "committed" herbivore. Humankind does not show the mixed structural features one expects and finds in anatomical omnivores such as bears and raccoons. Thus, from comparing the gastrointestinal tract of humans to that of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores we must conclude that humankind's GI tract is designed for a purely plant-food diet.

271

Gifts To AM
It is natural for you to desire to share with me a gift from your heart because of how much my writing has helped you in your spiritual journey. First, I have to say that I never ask for a gift. I never ask for a donation. I never ask you for anything other than your desire to grow closer to God and to better appreciate the incredible reality of your awareness of being aware. The "Book Of US" on the AMSWAY website will never cost anything. It will never cost you anything to read, download or share with other spirithumans. My living through and learning the spiritual lessons, and being able to put it into writing, is God's gift to me and it is God's gift to you. The only restriction is that you do not change one letter, one word, one sentence, one paragraph or even one punctuation mark. It must remain exactly as I write it. Even if you do not want or cannot send me anything, this is perfectly ok with me. Just you reading my missives is worth more than all the money in the world to me. If you want to just send me something you created with your hands and your heart, like a drawing, a piece of your writing, a photo, a piece of artwork in wood, metal, or any material you desire, even a knitted lap cover - I will be eternally grateful that you so desired to share with me an expression of your heart. Even if you do not want or cannot send me anything, this is perfectly ok with me. Just you reading my missives is worth more than all the money in the world to me. If you ever feel that you want to send me a monetary gift because of what I have shared with you, it would be my honor and pleasure to receive whatever you wish to send me. It will definitely help me to have more time to communicate to you and other spirit-humans on the Earth. If you do desire to give - I am honored to receive. Whatever I receive from you will be filled with your love from the center of your self. Checks or cash

272

are great. If you want to use a credit card, just call me and we will talk about it. I do not want you to go into debt to send me any money. You may send it to: AM 141-34 81 Avenue Briarwood, NY 11435 Spirit of AM

273

Copyright And Disclaimer Page 1975 through 2011

God has led me to express the ideas and the ways of expressing these ideas in this book. I cannot even think of a word without the help of God. If any of the thoughts and ways of expressing these thoughts in this book of on the AMSWAY web site help you in your spiritual journey wonderful Praise the Universal Spirit. Share them with any and all whom you want to share them. This is why I write these thoughts. The words and thoughts are not for sale. Perhaps some packages of these words and thoughts, such as on a CD, will be sold someday. Perhaps a bound printed book of these thoughts will be sold someday. However, the words and thoughts on the AMSWAY web site will always be free as they are my gift to you because of my relationship with the Universal Spirit. I serve the Universal Spirit through you. Money can never interfere with helping another spirit-human along the path. It would be nice if you tell spirit-people that these thoughts and ways of expressing these thoughts are found on WWW.AMSWAY.ORG. If you print any of them, please share them as written. If you think you have any improvements on these thoughts, please, please share your ideas with me. I will be very happy to find ways to make the words and the thoughts easier or clearer for others in their journey. In helping others, we help ourselves. Now for the legal "Disclaimer". All my writings and the entire AMSWAY.ORG web site is solely the personal opinion and point of view of the spirit some call AM. The documents, information, and materials in this book, AMSWAY and AMSWAY.ORG are provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. Nothing in this book, AMSWAY.ORG or any AMSWAY.ORG responses to correspondence received from readers of any material in AMSWAY is to be considered as sound medical or psychological advice. If you have any medical problems, either physical or psychological, it is advisable to check with any and all doctors of your choosing BEFORE you do anything suggested in AMSWAY. In no event will AM or AMSWAY be liable for any physical or mental damage or problems whatsoever arising out of the use or inability to use any of the information in AMSWAY, even if AM, AMSWAY.ORG or you are advised of the possibility of such damages beforehand.

274

Now that the legal part is finished - Have a wonderful Spirit-Filled journey. AM

275