January 2008 Archives

(NOTE: This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the intersection of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The “New Spirituality” is defined by the author as “a new way to experience and express our natural impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.”)

Do you believe in flying saucers? Many folks near Stephenville, Texas do. That is, they do now.

It all began January 8th, when a county constable, some very well respected business owners, and other folks as well swear that they saw in the sky an object that was faster, larger, quieter, and flying lower to the ground than any airplane they ever saw. So much for the statement by the Air Force Reserve in Fort Worth that it had fighter jets in the area, training, and there was nothing more to it than that.

Oh, there were fighter jets in the air, alright, those local residents say, but they were not training. They were chasing the large object with bright lights that everyone says they saw.

"I guarantee that what we saw was not a civilian aircraft," Steve Allen, a pilot and freight company owner, was quoted in press reports last week.

And so here we are again, faced with the question we have been asking for what seems like forever. Is there life on other planets? Are we being visited by celestial beings from elsewhere in the galaxy -- or the universe?

To me it always seems surprising that anyone could ever doubt that this is true. In any event, I see it as a purely scientific inquiry. Yet many people of faith believe that a 'yes' answer to these questions borders on blasphemy. I can understand why. For if there really is intelligent life on other planets, if a sentient species or two does exist elsewhere in the cosmos, what does that do to all of our notions about "God"?

Is "our" God the God of these beings as well? Do they live by the same moral codes that we have accepted as the Word of God and, therefore, inviolable sacred law? If not, then what IS the sacred law of the universe? What does God require, demand, request, desire? Is "our" God the God of Gods...or are we "children of a lesser God"?

Worse yet, have we made it all up? Is God nothing but a local superstition, created by and lived as if it were real by the creatures who inhabit this planet?

What could we learn from intelligent beings from outer space? What might we come to know about Who and What God is, and what God wants?

These are all good questions -- and they are also the reasons why not many people want to hear too terribly much just now from the people of Stephenville, Texas. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

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You've been exposed to the concepts and principles from the Conversations with God material. Now the time has come to integrate this New Spirituality into our daily lives.

Come to Portland, Oregon tomorrow -- Friday night, February 1 and be the first to experience how to turn these spiritual truths into a functional reality! Join me on this special evening as I speak from my new book, Happier Than God, and engage in a lively dialogue with audience members in a "Q&A" session, followed by a book signing.

That's tomorrow evening in Portland, Oregon.

You may pre-register at:
www.regonline.com/SNSTakesFlight

As you know, Wednesday is Question and Answer day here on the blog. Last week in this space I posted the following here...

Question from a Reader:Why Are Jews So Special?

Dear Neale Donald Walsch: CWG really knocked me out! I couldn’t put it down; found it astonishing at several points; mak¬ing perfect sense at others; laughed out loud, and was a bit puzzled after two or three “reads” of the same sentence. I will re-read it with pleasure and I treasure it. How grateful I am to you for daring to publish this material. A question: since I am Jewish, why are the Jews “the chosen people”? Love and blessings to you. Phyllis, Stamford, CT.

Neale's Response:

My dear Phyllis, The Jews are not “the chosen people.” All people are “the chosen people.” The Jews have simply been historically far more conscious of God’s covenant with them than most other peoples; they have paid attention to it; they have hon¬ored it. It is the same way the United States sees itself among the world’s nations. The U.S. says this is “one nation, under God.” Well, all nations are “under God.” Yet few nations have had the consciousness to place “in God we trust” on their coins. It is a question of consciousness. It is a question of how nations and peoples see themselves. It is not a question of which people God has chosen, but which people have chosen God.

In the Comments section of that blog last Wednesday I found the following...

Dear Neale,

First of all, I thought that your response to Phyllis was nice. Your point about being conscious of God is very important. Presumably your position is, approximately, that one determines, by one's own consciousness and actions, how "chosen" one is; so no one is barred from being "chosen."

The problem is, however, that 'chosenness' is not JUST about what WE think about it. It is also (even mainly) about what God Himself has said about the case. And, following statements in Deuteronomy, God seemingly HAS declared the Jews as being chosen in a certain sense. So that brings us back to Phyllis's question: "Why are the Jews 'the chosen people'?'"

There are of course many possible answers to this question. My own take on it would be that God chose the Jews to do a certain job, namely to respect and protect the covenant. It is their job to be such priests. And if they do their job nicely, and take on that responsibility, they will be holy.

One important point here is that the fact (if it is a fact) that God has assigned certain tasks to the Jews is no guarantee for that God does not assign similar tasks (for example, protecting other scriptures than traditional Jewish ones) to non-Jews; and it is no guarantee that God does not assign non-similar tasks to non-Jews.

In fact, one may very well be of the opinion that God custom-designs different religions in all societies, cultures, and ages, in order for all sincere souls to have a chance to find Him. And if this is the case, one might say, using Neale's way of framing things, that everyone really IS chosen; it's just a matter of one's own individual consciousness and action to determine HOW one is chosen.

Sincerely,
Bo C. Klintberg
Editor/Author, Philosophical Plays
http://philosophicalplays.googlepages.com

While I appreciate the author's expansive observation that God may have chosen other people as well, what I would like to do now is to simply take a look at the Source that this writer has used as the authority in this matter. Bo Klintberg writes...

"...following statements in Deuteronomy, God seemingly HAS declared the Jews as being chosen in a certain sense."

The problem with this assertion, from my point of view, is that...

(NOTE: This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the intersection of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The “New Spirituality” is defined by the author as “a new way to experience and express our natural impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.”)

I met a living master last Saturday night. Her name is Byron Katie. She is the author of several books, including:

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life

I Need Your Love - Is That True?: How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation and Start Finding Them Instead

and her latest book....

A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

Katie (everyone who knows her calls her by her last name, which she essentially uses as if it were her first) came to my town over the weekend to offer a workshop, prior to which she offered a free introductory evening, so that people could have a firsthand experience of her doing what she calls The Work.

The Work, if you do not already know, consist of four questions that Katie invites you to ask yourself at any time that you are "hung up" on a particular thought or idea about yourself or another, or about any situation that is plaguing you. She claims the asking and the answering of these questions change help you "get off it," and can alter your experience of any unpleasant or unwelcome thought or emotion.

On Saturday she sat before several hundred people who jammed a meeting room at the college in our town (they were standing along the walls and sitting on the floor in front of the first row of seats) and demonstrated this process.

Here are the four questions that Katie suggests you ask:

1. Is it true?
2. Can you absolutely know that it's true?
3. How do you react when you believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without the thought?

The Work can be done either by oneself or with another person.

I went to Wikipedia today to learn more about all this process of inner inquiry. Here is what I found on this Internet open source...

"First one identifies a belief or thought related to a topic that causes anxiety or unhappiness. Initially one is encouraged to choose something which feels important, which annoys or troubles you, that someone else does or did: for example 'My mother never loved me,' or 'Tom shouldn't expect me to solve his problems.'

"One by one, the person doing The Work asks themselves, or is asked, each of the four questions listed above. If they are doing the Work by themselves, people are asked to write down their response, and if they are doing it with another person they speak their answers aloud.

"After the four questions, the thought is literally turned around to its opposite. For example: 'My mother never loved me' turns around to 'My mother always loved me,' Then the person doing The Work sees if they can find ways that this new thought is equally true, or more true, than the original thought.

"The turnaround also takes the form of turning the statement around to oneself: 'I never loved my mother,' or 'I never loved me.'

"Katie sumarizes The Work as: 'Judge your neighbor, write it down. Ask four questions, turn it around.'

"Katie has applied this technique to exploring painful beliefs across many topics, including relationships, parenting, illness, death and trauma. She has facilitated The Work with audiences in widely varying situations, from ordinary people dealing with financial worries to prison inmates and survivors of armed conflict."

That is taken from Wikipedia, as I have noted above. I had a chance to meet and talk with Katie for a brief moment after Saturday's event and I want to tell you, she's the Real Deal Meal. There's not a fake bone in her body, there's not a single pretentious fiber.

Let me see here if I can illustrate how The Work works...

(NOTE: This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the intersection of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The “New Spirituality” is defined by the author as “a new way to experience and express our natural impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.”)

Okay, I admit it. I'm in love.

I met the woman for the first time Saturday night, so it's only been a couple of days --but I don't need any more time than that. I'm in love with Katie.

I spent a couple of hours in the company of Katie this past weekend, all in one sitting Saturday evening. At one point she gently and joyfully grabbed my face with her soft hands and squeezed it as her eyes twinkling and her lips formed words of love.

I'm in love with her back. She brought other men into her parlor that same evening, calling them "Sweetheart" and "Darling" right in front of me...but I don't care, I don't mind. I'm in love anyway.

She gave those men love and attention right there before my eyes. i don't care, I tell you. I don't care. I love her to pieces.

Katie gave love and attention to women, too -- also right in front of me -- but that only served to make me love her more. Because this is a very special woman, and one encounter with her is all it takes to fall head over heels for her.

She asks a lot of questions, though. That's the one really intriguing thing about her. She asks questions -- usually the same four questions -- of everyone. Here are the questions she asks -- usually after you've told her about some feeling you have:

1. Is it true?
2. Do you absolutely know it to be true?
3. How do you feel, how does your life feel, when you hold that thought?
4. How would your life feel if you let go of that thought?

Forgive me. I'm paraphrasing here. But that's the gist of the questions she asks. And when she finishes asking them, the person who is doing the responding almost inevitably feels better. Much better. Lots better.

That's only one of many reasons why I have fallen in love with Katie. Another is that she always tells the truth. A third is that she always lives her truth. That is, she doesn't say one thing and do another. A fourth reason I have fallen in love with her is that she never gets upset. She's always happy. Always.

At least she was always on Saturday night. And lots of things were going wrong on Saturday night, but she never flinched, never uttered even an under-the-breath complaint, never let a single look of impatience cross her face.

This lady, this woman, is a master. Byron Katie is a master. Tomorrow I will tell you why.

Sunday is Message Day on the blog. Monday through Friday we look at contemporary events and day-to-day occurrences at the intersection of Life and the New Spirituality…but on Sunday, we reserve this space for a specific teaching derived from the material in Conversations with God

Through the years I have given hundreds of talks and written scores of articles revolving around this material. Every seven days we will present in this space a transcript or reprint of one of those presentations. We invite you to Copy and Save each one of them, creating a personal a collection of contemporary and uplifting spiritual thought which you may reference at any time. We hope you will find this a constant source of insight and inspiration.

This week’s offering: The fourth in a series of Sunday pieces taken from the transcript of a talk on the nature of Enlightenment and how to achieve it, before a live audience in Ashland, Oregon in July, 2004.

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I, too, like the Buddha, like Jesus the Christ, like Paramahansa Yogananda, like Maharishi, chose to seek enlightenment. And like all of those other masters, I tried everything. First I tried orthodox religion. I said my rosary faithfully everyday, because there was a formula that you could use to have God answer your prayers. There was a litany, there was a process that if you said the rosary a certain number of times you could depend upon a certain outcome, we were told. I tried fasting. I tried meditation. I tried reading every book I could get my hands on. I took est. I learned transcendental meditation. I learned transactional analysis.

I walked down many paths, many, many paths. And then one day I had an out-of-body experience. Now that was interesting, because I wasn’t trying to do this. This was not something I was trying to do. I was trying to produce outcomes with my fasting. I was trying to produce outcomes with my meditation. I was trying to produce outcomes with my rosary and with my disciplines, but those were not bringing me where I wanted to go. But here was, just simply trying to get some sleep. I just fell asleep. But in that experience, I flew out of my body quite involuntarily, just left -- and I knew that I had left. It was a conscious awareness. I was not in my body and I knew I was not.

I won’t take time here to explain to you or describe for you my experience, although I can tell you it was very real, and it is very real to me to this very day. I’ve had three such experiences in my life, two since the original one. And every one of those experiences brought me to the same place: a space of absolute—capitol “A”—awareness. Kind of like an AA meeting: Absolute Awareness. And when I returned from my very first out of body experience, I was left with two words that blew my mind. Would you like to know what they were? Nothing matters.

Nothing matters! What an amazing message for my soul to receive from the unified soul that is all of life. Nothing matters? And yet, like the est training, like transcendental meditation, like my venturing into the work of Paramahansa Yogananda, it changed my life. And here’s the message behind the message:

If nothing matters intrinsically, then I am free to declare what I choose to have matter to me. But if something matters intrinsically...that is to say, if something matters to someone other than me, to someone else—shall we say God...then I had darned well better figure out what that is, I had better figure our what matters so much to God. Because if I don’t figure out what it is I will be the thing called "condemned;" or, at the very least, "unenlightened."

But God said to me in this out-of-body experience, “Neale, nothing matters.” Therefore, you are free to make matter what you choose to make matter in your life. And I mean that in two ways: not only to "make matter," but to make something into matter, to cause a thing to become matter. That is, to "make it matter" in your life, to manifest in physical reality something that is pure matter out of physical energy, out of invisible physical energy. To turn energy into matter.

Gosh, I have become so enlightened that I can sometimes barely explain what it is I am trying to say. You know you are enlightened when you can’t even articulate what your thoughts are. Either that or you’re totally crazy, one or the other. Wouldn’t it be funny if enlightenment and craziness were one and the same? (laughter)

So here is what I have come to share with you on this occasion. If you think there is a path to enlightenment that is the only path, the best path, the fastest path, the one that everyone has to know about by 10 o'clock tomorrow morning, you will suddenly find yourself feeling pressure, stress, and upset, and your ego will be deeply involved in convincing as many people as you can that that’s what’s so.

Suddenly you will start acting not like a master at all, but like someone who is under a terrific amount of pressure and stress, because it will suddenly matter to you whether I "get" what you are trying to tell me. If you are not careful, you will even start having quotas or goals. You’ll have to get a certain number of other people to agree with you every week, or every month, or every year. And if you don’t meet those goals you will think that you have not done a good job. And yet, you have done a good job if you simply love without expectation, without requirement, without needing anything in return.

Enlightenment, when it is all said and done, has nothing to do with what you do with your body or your mind. It has to do with what you do with your soul. If you simply love everyone whose life you touch endlessly unconditionally with nothing needed or wanted in return, you have become enlightened and you have shown everyone whose life you touch how they may be enlightened as well, as fast as with any other system that exists, (snapping a finger) like that.

As fast as transcendental meditation (snap), like that. As fast as joining the Self-Realization Fellowship (snap), like that. As fast as taking est (snap), like that. And if you learn to love yourself unconditionally, as well as everyone else, you can heal your entire body without lifting a finger.

(Next Sunday, Part V in this series on How to Become Enlightened.)

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You've been exposed to the concepts and principles from the Conversations with God material. Now the time has come to integrate this New Spirituality into our daily lives.

Come to Portland, Oregon, Friday night, February 1 and be the first to experience how to turn these spiritual truths into a functional reality! Join me on this special evening as I speak from my new book, Happier Than God, and engage in a lively dialogue with audience members in a "Q&A" session, followed by a book signing.

That's this coming Friday evening in Portland, Oregon.

You may pre-register at:
www.regonline.com/SNSTakesFlight