It is very okay to seek after pleasures of the body. It is an extremely important part of the Journey of the Soul.
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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: Where does the body fit in?
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I said here last week that I would next discuss the reason for our temporary and selective amnesia during our life on earth; the reason that we have to forget who we are in order to remember and experience who we are. I said that, but today I am going to move in a different direction and get to that piece next week, because I find myself today wishing to express more clearly something I said here in my last entry, so that confusion might be avoided.
Last week in this space I made the following statement:
“If you believe that life has anything to do — anything at all — with the needs or goals or accomplishments of your body, then you haven’t understood anything at all about the purpose of your existence, about the reason you, a spiritual being, chose to travel through time and space with your body and dwell in the realm of physicality.”
I did not mean to infer or imply that we should spend no time whatsoever pursuing pleasures of the body or the joys of fully experiencing physicality. Indeed, I would like to say to you now, very clearly, that just the opposite is true. We have brought ourselves here from the Realm of the Spiritual to the Realm of the Physical for the specific purpose of experiencing with joy ALL the wonders and the beauty and the treasures that can only be found in physical life.
“Only?”
Yes, only. Certain treasures can only be found in physical life. If these experiences could be had in the Realm of the Spiritual, we would have no reason to come into physical form. It must be understood that we are moving from the Spiritual Realm to the Physical Realm for a reason. We are coming here to life on the earth in order that we might gain a “world of experience.” And what it is that we wish to experience is all that we have come to know about ourselves in the Realm of the Spiritual. And so we see that the journey of evolution is a matter of “keeping body and soul together.” Even in the Spiritual Realm we have a “body.” It is simply a different kind of body than that which we carry around with is in our time of physicality. It is our ethereal body, but it is our body nonetheless.
The biggest missed understanding of so many religions is the idea that “heaven” exists on the “other side,” and that this is what constitutes the so-called “spiritual world.” In fact, in Ultimate Reality there are two realms.
These are not, as is commonly thought, the realms of Heaven and Hell. Rather, these are…
… the Realm of the Spiritual and the Realm of the Physical. And the Realm of the Physical is not analogous to “hell.” It is not another way of referring to Hades. In fact, there is no such place as Hades. Hell does not exist. The Realm of the Spiritual and the Realm of the Physical are two distinct realms within the Kingdom of Heaven.
That’s right! Earth is part of Heaven!
We do not come here to this planet as a “test.” We do not come here to be tested. Nor do we enter into physicality in order that we might “learn” something. We enter into physicality in order that we might experience who and what we know ourselves to be. Physicality and the Realm of the Relative are tools created by Divine Intelligence allowing us to create an experience of Who We Really Are, which experience is not available to us in this delicious form in the Realm of the Absolute.
Our time here is not meant to be a time of travail, but a time of bliss. The Contextual Field that we have created as a means of experiencing the bliss can be embraced as a gift and a blessing. It is merely a matter of how we look at things. It is simply a choice regarding the perspective that we take.
So while we are here on earth we are not required to wear a hair shirt and walk around with a begging bowl. We are not required to deny ourselves any of the pleasures of physicality as a means of proving ourselves worthy of God’s love, or of elevating ourselves to a level of “higher consciousness,” or of expanding our awareness. The word “enlightenment” does not equate with the word “miserable.” Nor does “detachment” mean the same thing as “denial.”
The truly enlightened being is a person who is not so deeply attached to physical forms and experiences that the absence of them causes a loss of happiness. Life urges us to enjoy physical experiences of many types, but not to require them.
It is through the enjoyment of the many aspects of physicality that we bring ourselves a rich experience and a powerful internal awareness of our true nature and our true identity.
This series of commentaries opened with a deep look at how time flies, how quickly our lives pass before us. This is good news, not bad. We were given this news as a comfort when we left Home. You see, we did not really want to leave. At some level, though we knew it was all part of the process and the cycle of life, we did not want to go. But no sooner did we enter our physical form than the angels began to minister to us, whispering: “Be of good cheer! You’ll be Home in no time!”
They were, of course, being quite literal. But they also meant that in relative terms. They were conveying to us that our “time” here would pass very quickly. It would be like the blink of an eye.
As I said, we understood at the soul level that the journey to physicality was part of the endless cycle of Life Itself, and that the Realm of the Physical was created for us as the place where we could Experience what we had come to Know about who we really are. But leaving Home is never easy. Not when Home is as wonderful as ours is.
And the angels not only gave us comfort, but a great clue. They said, “If you want to really move through your next physical life quickly, if you want to really make ‘time fly,’ here is a secret formula: have fun. Make a joyful noise! You will find that your physical life will be over before you know it!”
What a great piece of information! What a marvelous secret! What a terrific insight! humanity has taken this insight and reduced it to seven words: Time flies when you are having fun. Fun and joy are the jet fuel in the engine of life! We can have the experience of moving through our physical life quickly, and being Home again very fast, by just having fun!
In the Comments Section of this blogsite there was this exchange the other day…
FROM KAREN…Apparently Einstein said something like..if we feel the day to be going quickly we are moving through time fast, similarly if the day seems to be dragging we are moving through time more slowly. I wonder what we do or fail to do to create one or the other experience? Interest or lack of in what we are doing I suspect? Apparently Einstein said something like..if we feel the day to be going quickly we are moving through time fast, similarly if the day seems to be dragging we are moving through time more slowly. I wonder what we do or fail to do to create one or the other experience? Interest, or lack of it, in what we are doing, I suspect?
My response: What we are doing to create one or the other experience is having fun. If we are having fun, time moves fast. If we are not, time moves slowly. A happy person packs more into a day than a sad person ever will. The question is: How does a person become happy? The answer: Happiness is not something we obtain from any moment, it is something we bring to it. Happiness is not a reaction, it is a creation. A Master is not one is who is happy because something happens. A Master is one who is happy and then something happens.
And the marvelous thing about “being happy” is that it requires nothing. Nothing but a decision. Remember that always. It is an amazing piece of wisdom. Nothing is required to be happy but a decision. It is a simple choice to notice that everything is perfect just the way it is. As my son is fond of saying, “It’s all good.”
So I want to make it clear here that Enlightenment is not about self-deprivation, its about just the opposite. It’s about celebration. You are invited by life to celebrate yourself and to enjoy all the pleasures of life. And you are invited to notice that part of the process of your evolution is to look to see what you call “pleasure.” For it is by what we call pleasure that we can measure the degree to which we humans have evolved. Our Pleasure is Our Measure.
So when I said that your life has nothing to do with your body, I did not mean that you are supposed to ignore your body, or step aside from its pleasures. Yet you may wish to redefine them. Does it bring you pleasure, for instance, to fill the lungs in your body with cell-killing smoke? Then do so. If hurting your body is your definition of pleasuring your body, you are announcing your level of awareness and demonstrating your spiritual evolution.
Does it bring you pleasure to watch other people hurt each other in what you call “sport”? Then do so. if watching other people hurt each other is your definition of pleasure, you are announcing your level of awareness and demonstrating your spiritual evolution.
Do you want to know how highly evolved you have become? Simply look to what you call “pleasure.” Humanity as a whole can do the same thing. What do we call “sport”? What do we call “pleasure”? What do we call “enjoyable”?
I also meant to convey in my comments the other day that your body is not the beginning and the end of your experience here upon the earth. Bodily pleasures are outcomes, not goals. They are part of the process of life, not the process itself. Indeed, it is when we focus primarily on the goal of meeting our bodily needs and desires that we rarely do. And even in the few moments when we do, it is never enough. Because the more the body gets, the more the body wants.
Yet when we come to the understanding that what we are here for is the evolution of the human soul, we suddenly change our focus — and the irony is that with this shift, all the peace, all the joy, all the happiness, all the bliss for which our body was yearning can be experienced Right Here, Right Now. All the safety, all the security, all the opportunity to express and experience the simple joys, are ours. That for which we have been struggling comes to us without effort.
This is the wonder and the glory of the spiritual journey. Yet it can only be encountered and experienced by those who have embarked on the journey itself.
(Explorations on this topic continue in this space next Sunday.)
posted March 2, 2008 at 11:11 am
My favorite part of the Realm of the Physical yesterday was ice cream! Sweet cream and strawberries ice cream in a vanilla sugar waffle cone… mmmmm…
~ Then I repotted a few plants and was up to my elbows in cool, muddy dirt while sitting outside in the warm, spring weather with birds chirping and the first leaf buds popping out on all the tress. Ahh… heaven!
I’m also balancing the Physical with the Spiritual right now with busting through many of the illusions I’ve had surrounding the ‘negative’ stuff in my life, thanks to reading Neale’s new book “Happier Than God”. When I step back from these events and look at them from a new angle, or shift my perspective, I find that the meaning I attached to these creations really wasn’t all that accurate. And from this new point of view the emotions bound up in the ‘negative’ stuff… well, they just evaporated. Poof! Gone. And I was left with a profound sense of peace and… happiness.
Now I also have a new understanding of the Energy of Attraction. Before, I was having really high energy days where I was dreaming about what I wanted to show up in my life only to be followed with really, really low, bottom of the barrel energy days. And this roller coaster of energy not only made me crazy, it darn near convinced me that the Law of Attraction didn’t work. But when you balance your energy by busting your emotional attachments to your ‘don’t wants’, essentially making them null and void, you find yourself in a place of moving towards and allowing the vibration of your ‘do want’ into your life. (Maybe that’s why so many people who win the lottery lose or spend all the winnings within a few years because they are still emotionally attached to the ‘negative’ illusions in their lives.)
Have a great day, everyone! And truly enjoy something Physically wonderful today!
posted March 2, 2008 at 11:30 am
GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!!!
ON THE 29TH I PLACED A BLOG RE: ILLUSION, BUT TODAY IT’S AS IF THE SIGN FOR ME WAS THIS NEW BLOG TOPIC DISCUSSES MUCH MORE OF THE MESSAGE OF THE SAME BOOK. THE BOOK IS “SIDDHARTHA” BY HERMAN HESSE. I HAVE READ THIS BOOK
~10 TIMES OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS. EACH TIME I LEARN SOMETHING NEW ABOUT MYSELF AND LIFE ITSELF, BUT WHAT I LIKED MOST IS THAT IT GIVES ME THE SAME FEELING THIS ENTRY FOR TODAY’S BLOG DOES. I FEEL RELIEVED, FREE, AND FULL OF THE DESIRE TO LOVE AND JUST BE. TO LISTEN, TO HEAR, TO SEE, TO TOUCH, TO TASTE, FREELY, IT IS SO AMAZING THAT WE MAKE LIFE SO….HARD FOR OURSELVES, AND DEPRIVE OURSELVES SO MUCH LOVE AND PLEASURE. IF “WE’RE HERE FOR A GOOD TIME, NOT A LONG TIME” THEN WHY DO WE NOT COME WITH THE GRANDEST, PLEASURABLE INTENTIONS? WHY DO WE LET SO…MUCH GET IN OUR WAY? WHY CAN WE HAVE THE INTENTIONS YET NOT FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THE ACTIONS? SOME OF THIS I’VE LEARNED AND SOME IS STILL PERPLEXXING!! STAYING IN THE MOMENT, IN THE NOW, IS THE KEY, BUT HOW DO WE DO IT 1OO% OF THE TIME? AGAIN, SOME OF THIS IS TALKED ABOUT IN SIDDHARTHA AND POSES SOME GREAT INSIGHT, BUT LEAVES ONE UNANSWERED QUESTION AND ALTHOUGH I THINK I HAVE MORE TOOLS, AND AWARENESS TODAY, THERE IS STILL A MISSING LINK. ANYONE HAVE IT? MAYBE TOGETHER WE CAN FIND IT!!!!
LIVE REAL,
LAUGH OFTEN,
AND LOVE ALWAYS!
MICHELLE MA BELLE
posted March 2, 2008 at 11:51 am
Being attached to “things” is part of our nature, learning to reduce the fears and anxieties we have managed to “imprint” upon our DNA over eons of time through evolution, can be and is a hard act to shake. However we are spiritual beings in flesh and we did choose this and once we truly realise we have CHOICE, and the FREE WILL to exercise it, life makes more sense inasmuch as perhaps with good common sense and balance does in our everyday lives.
Spiritual responsiblity isn’t a very hard thing to do as it is in our nature, intigrating our ego might be as we are used to reacting to our world, somehow protecting the physical however NOT impossible, loving ourselves, “valuing our beings and others” Quote from 2007 Revised edition of Shut the H*&^ up, I’m trying to be Spiritual Here” and being kind might just allow the ego to evolve too? Allowing ourselves to enjoy the world we live in and the people in it.
We have such amazing capabilities in our senses, I am always amazed at our ability to continue to love and seek love no matter what form it might take, ice cream! YUM! reading a great book, enjoying a summer evening, a beautiful snow fall, another’s touch, a loving hug, it is no wonder when people are supressed and not “allowed” to feel God’s love through another there are wars. We are fighting for the right to be loved and to love. I am thinking “valuing” our beings and others might mean valuing the physical body we have chosen to live in and grow in.
After reading about Ice cream I think I might just go and have a bowl and savour it on this cold and frosty day!
JOY!
posted March 2, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Michelle Ma Belle. Writing in lower case is much easier and much friendlier to read, paragraphing helps too.
Neale, what a great blog today, much wisdom to absorb. Thanks!
posted March 2, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Dear flying dolphin,
i do not understand why people think typing in uppercase is yelling, or unfriendly. i do not set that tone at all, and if you read my blogs you would feel that.
could you read it better in all lower case, like this? it is very frustrating to type as it is, until i get this thing off my hand and i do indent my paragraphs, but when it comes up on blog–no separation, no indentation?? as i’ve said before, i’m typing for content not style,and i’m reading other people’s blogs the same way. i’m sorry it bothers you, but it’s what i have to work with at present!!
happy thoughts,
michelle ma belle
michelle ma belle
posted March 2, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Well michelle ma belle, I’m just sharing my viewpoint, I’m not attached to it.
Your last post response to me was much easier to read in my view.
Do what feels right for you to do.
Especially, if you have a hand problem that makes one way easier for you.
Best 2U either way you choose. I hope your hand problem heals quickly too!
posted March 2, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I am perplexed at the thought of how we quantify each individual’s spiritual growth by how they watch sports or anything else for that matter which may bring pain to another.
Is it not the case we are multifaceted beings and with that comes varying degrees of evolvement e.g. one might work as a humanitarian but enjoy rugby does this mean they are lesser evolved? Personally I cannot see it, however, I am continually learning and growing so I won’t judge it and prefer not to. My thoughts are only of a communicative effort to understand where one comes to the arrival of such a point and decision.
Surely you aren’t saying you are judging another’s growth curve because they watch boxing or rugby? Doesn’t this send the guilt and shame cycle into effect once again, instead of understanding the underlying need or whatever it might be?
I am fascinated by your thought processes inasmuch as I wonder where your thinking is coming from to assume because one smokes or drinks they cannot have a spiritual experience or they are at some level of growth which isn’t “Godly”? Please if you have time explain to me what you mean as it perhaps is the way I read it, and perhaps not. Thank you.
Much JOY! to the best of your ability, love and happy days
posted March 2, 2008 at 5:23 pm
STAYING IN THE MOMENT, IN THE NOW, IS THE KEY, BUT HOW DO WE DO IT 1OO% OF THE TIME?
to lovely Michelle MaBelle
well you can of course – we all have free will and choice
so it’s a choice – you make the choice to be in the moment of now 100% of the time
when you slip back, don’t beat yourself up
just keep making the choice to stay in the moment of now 100% of the time
just say to yourself
“I choose to stay in the moment of now”
that mere act alone will have you being in the moment of now
what made you happy when you were a child and kept you in the moment of now? sometimes it’s about revisiting our childhood
what’s the missing link?
in my opinion it’s because we don’t think we deserve in some way, on some level – whatever it may be – it will be different for everyone – and many don’t feel they deserve to be loved
sad but true
Helen
posted March 2, 2008 at 7:43 pm
dear helen,
i really liked what you said. oh, how i wish i was a child again sometimes, esp. for that very reason, this is one very big reason i homeschool my children.
i am successful at being in the moment quite alot actually in the grand scope of time which we all know is an illusion, but what i find challenging is how to stay there for a long time without meditating and being in alpha or theta. it is actually something i am working on at present and teaching my kids. my greatest feat is when other people, including my kids constantly take me out of my moment. how do we stay in our moment, without getting distracted and still be functional in this physical world?
i hope this makes sense, it is sometimes hard to communicate thoughts and ideas. obviously we have to either learn to coexist in both realms or is it all one and we just have to figure that out?????
thanks for jogging my brain!
LIVE REAL,
LAUGH OFTEN,
LOVE ALWAYS!
MICHELLE MA BELLE
posted March 2, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Dearest Michelle Ma Belle,
You are so beautiful !!!! Personally I think you will find your way to bring it all together for yourself.
It seems to me you are already there!! Allowing yourself the freedom to be in the moment!!
It isn’t always easy for sure and it takes great courage to keep bringing yourself to the point of being in the moment and relinquish the negative yakking.
I have found myself actually hiding myself when I am in the moment for fear of ridicule, however I got out of that practice only recently. I felt so much pain for those who couldn’t find the moment and felt I didn’t want to “rub” their noses in something they had a hard time finding. My ex mother in law being the one who had such a hard time finding true happiness, she always said I smiled too much and I stopped around her, but then I realised misery loves company and I decided to find ways which WOULD make her smile and share that.
Now I prefer to share the moment and stay in the moment as best as I can using humour to share it and love to bind it.It also takes great courage to be different from the mainstream, as I always have found out from my own spiritual sources, “…as long as you aren’t hurting anyone or yourself, be yourself, and if you find you are seeking hurt, then seek yourself which requires happiness and joy more than pain and share that with your world.”
Michelle Ma Belle, I LOVE reading your posts, thanks for sharing with us.
By the way, I am over 50 years old and have not yet grown up and I LOVE IT! As I have been told, I am too happy! (well most of the time!)
Much love and joy to you and your kiddlie winks!
Jeanette
posted March 2, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Hello Everyone,
I am and have always been fascinated with the freedom of choice and the evolution of the mind and just how powerful it all is. Quiet time,
meditation, going within and just plain having fun is so exciting. It
has been renewed in me since retirement. I have so much more precious time for myself and the things I enjoy with very little distraction,
mainly because I’ve learned how not to be distracted. I listen to that
spirit within. I’m more aware of it, in the same way I was as a child.
Only now, I have a much better understanding and relationship with
myself and I’m almost never lonely or without peace because I’m learn-
ing to expect the best and give the best of myself.
Love to you all.
posted March 3, 2008 at 1:04 am
If a person is living a full and interesting life, I would imagine the very last thing that he would concern himself with is what another person would think that his level of spiritual evolution is.
posted March 3, 2008 at 6:41 am
lovely Michelle MaBelle
yes I understand what you’re saying
be the child!
there is a difference between being “childish” and “childlike”
being childlike in essence is activating the Oneness because we ALLOW ourselves to enjoy the experience because we don’t judge it – so in fact this act of non-judgment activates the God within
I totally hear you when you talk about not having to meditate ALL THE TIME just to “be” in that state
it’s great that you’re home schooling your children because this hopefully will allow you to use this to your advantage
maybe when the kids become distracting pull out drawing materials, craft material etc for them AND for yourself so you can allow yourselves to CREATE (because you are Creator – hint, hint – allow that God within to be activated) and be in the moment without judging it – and just have fun!:)
Here is a Quote from 2007 Revised edition of Shut the H*&^ up, I’m trying to be Spiritual Here” (Jeanette is my best pal and biz partner) and something told to us by Spirit:
“How can you live in your now?
First you can look at your experience as just that – without judging it.
You can also speak your truth.
Accept where you are at this moment in time.
Have enjoyment even in the small details.
All of the above are about PATIENCE!
Here are some exercises from Spirit for living in the now:
• Being aware while using your five senses i.e.
pick a color and be aware of that color around you
• Awareness of any judgments
• Daily quiet time of five to ten minutes
• Notice your thoughts (if you’re thinking of the past or future, then you’re not in the now)
• Try to notice something new everyday (while walking, driving to work, etc)”
I hope that helps – it’s just to give you something to contemplate – as Spirit has told Jeanette and myself -
“Use what you need and disregard the rest”
much love, joy and abundance
Helen
posted March 8, 2008 at 10:00 am
I’m sure I misinterpreted something. Is this what you’re saying:
1) We were in our natural state as Spirit, being our real selves;
2) Obviously, we were content. We did not want to come here;
3) We apparently had no choice but to come to Earth, which means that there’s no free will in the spiritual realm;
4) The compelling reason for coming over here was to to have fun here–that’s all;
5) The Earth experience presents us with a unique opportunity to find our real selves through the distractions of the physical world.
Does this mean that we weren’t our real selves in the spiritual realm? I’m confused.
posted March 8, 2008 at 8:22 pm
To Michelle Ma Belle—————-I have a question–I’ve studied and read for years but somehow have missed the terms being in alpha or theta———–I know they are states of being, but would you mind explaining them to me? Is the alpha state that floating feeling a person feels just before sleep? I think I read that somewhere but know nothing about theta.? Thanks so much.
posted March 11, 2008 at 4:43 pm
On my journey to truth, your first ‘conversations’ book was one of the many New Age books I read along the way. I have always been a very positive, happy and self-assured soul, until a chronic sleep disorder destroyed my high-flying career. Instead of listening to the “wisdom” of doctors I launched out into alternative healings to combat my inexplicable sleepiness. I tried diet, needles, herbs, counselling, literally everything, then finally found a psychiatrist specializing in clinical hypnotherapy. After experiencing an intense vision during therapy, I quit, terrified by what I had seen, then later realized that there might possibly be a spiritual element to my suffering.
Since then I discovered a book called “Remarkable Healings” written by psychiatrist Shakuntala Modi. Her pioneering techniques led to her discovering the root cause of all illnesses. The book gave me such a jolt that I was in shock for about six months after reading it. It’s collection of verbatim transcripts of the feedback she has with from her hypnotised patients. None of it comes from her own beliefs. All of them receive healing and report different facets of the same phenomena. The physical body becomes ill due to traumas and unrestrained sensual indulgences which lead to spiritual corruption (soul pain), later manifesting as disease, then death.
The primary goal of the life experience is to find the way of spiritual regeneration resulting in spiritual fellowship and communion with the beings in the heavenly realms. This upward journey begins when we realize that the body is actually the test of our spirits. We can either sink into the pit of dissipation and follow sense gratification which is easy, or we can evolve upwards towards the higher virtues and away from bestial behavior. We are supposed to assimilate & practice spiritual wisdom, rather than pursue temporal wealth and gain. To serve the creator and each other, instead of created things. The minor goals of the life incarnation are to not only to live in joy, but to also experience suffering and pain, which are the wages of wrongdoing (evil) and so guide us towards that which is good (truth).
Thanks to a fresh angle on ancient wisdom, chronically ill people like me, who believe, now have a path to healing and successful life. I challenge you to post this comment, then step out of your comfort zone and read this amazing book, which cuts and humbles.