June 2008 Archives

Many of the people who say that they know What God Wants are killing us. It is not lack of knowing What God Wants that is hurting us, it is thinking that we know without a doubt. Therein lies real danger.

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Over the next half year of Sundays, from June until Christmas, I am going to be posting excerpts here from the book What God Wants, and commenting upon them. I invite you to comment upon them as well, in the space provided below. Then, I will comment on your comments. And you can comment on mine. It is time, I think, that we had a wide-ranging and in-depth discussion of this important topic. It is time for all of humanity to have this discussion. Because humanity's beliefs about God, and about what God wants, are driving the engine of the human experience.
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Last week in this space I said that humanity does not understand What God Wants.

This Sunday I say, consider this: If humanity does understand What God Wants, and if the present world situation is the best that humanity can do after all these years with that information, how much hope can there be for a brighter tomorrow?

If we really know everything that it is truly important to know about God--and if all that has been revealed, all that has been taught, all that has been said and sung about God has brought humanity to this, then what good has all of it been?

Yet if there is something new for us to learn, something more for us to understand about God, then it's still possible for the human condition to change. Hope returns. Not hope for something better in the Hereafter, when life as we've known it on the earth has been destroyed, but hope for something better right here right now, before everything has been destroyed.

That hope cannot be realized, however, until some very important questions are asked and answered.

Is it true that humanity is utterly stubborn, completely unwilling and absolutely unable to overcome its most primitive instincts? Or is it possible that there is still some teaching left to be done, some data still missing, some important aspect of God and Life still not understood?

Could it be that the problem is not with the receivers of the information, but with the information itself?

Could it be that humanity's understanding of God and of Life is not so much "wrong" as it is simply incomplete?

Finally, is it time for humanity to throw open the door to inquiry about God in a new way?

For far too long the world's discussion about God has been moving in only one direction, led in the main by those who say that we understand all there is that's really important for us to understand about God, and who assert that humanity's problems are not caused by human beings who fail to understand, but by human beings who fail to act on their understanding.

This is a popular notion, but it's a misconception. Just the opposite has been true. It has been people who did act on what they understood about God who have caused many of our biggest problems.

These are people who thought they knew What God Wants.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who created the 200 years of the Christian Crusades and the horrors of the Inquisition, seeking to win the world for Christianity.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who told armies of Muslims to send marauders far and wide to conquer every land and culture and bring it under the Nation of Islam.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who called themselves the Chosen People and reclaimed land they declared to be originally their own, ignoring the fact that history had caused it to be inhabited for thousands of years by others, and telling those others to now leave portions of that land, and to live when and how they are told to live, as second class citizens without equal rights in their own home.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who hanged men and women in town squares, and burned others at the stake, holding up the Good Book and declaring them to be witches.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who passed laws making it illegal for humans of differing races to marry, or for consenting adults to engage in certain sexual practices.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who created cultural prohibitions forbidding people to sing or dance, draw pictures of any person, or play music of any kind except sacred songs.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who said that it was not okay to even utter or write the name of G-D--but that it was okay to kill in G-D's name.

Is all of this really What God Wants?

Are you sure?

It is important to be sure, because we are not talking about a small thing here.

(This series of excepts from What God Wants continues in this space next Sunday.)

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Over the next half year of Sundays, from June until Christmas, I am going to be posting excerpts here from the book What God Wants, and commenting upon them. I invite you to comment upon them as well, in the space provided below. Then, I will comment on your comments. And you can comment on mine. It is time, I think, that we had a wide-ranging and in-depth discussion of this important topic. It is time for all of humanity to have this discussion. Because humanity's beliefs about God, and about what God wants, are driving the engine of the human experience.
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God touches our lives in remarkable ways...and never stops doing it. This is the experience of everyone who has a personal relationship with God, and it is my experience continually.

For instance, some days I wonder why I am doing what I am doing. Why have I taken an experience as personal as the spiritual encounter that I had and made it so public? Why have I spent the last 15 years traveling all over the world to be with people who have asked me to come and tell them about it? Why am I now working to help people to have the same experience themselves?

I was feeling some of these feelings on Tuesday, asking some of these questions, when I arose. Then, back to work it was. No time to lose, no time to ponder such meandering inquries...

I opened my personal website (www.nealedonaldwalsch.com) to the Messenger Circle, which I do every day, to read the Comments that members of the Circle place there for me, and to prepare to post my entry for the day. In the Comments section I found this...

Good morning Neale and one and all...

In December I was involved in hospicing my aunt, and found it a trying but rewarding experience. My uncle and she were married for 67 years, and were the true example of unconditional love. Up until the very end they held hands, gazed into one anothers eyes and spoke the truth with love to one another. It was a very difficult time, and at the end of a week, she passed.

There were several events that occurred prior to her passing, such as her grandson speeding to get through traffic to be at her bedside was 'waved" through by traffic cops due to the traffic lights being out that morning. No one else...just him. He made it to her bedside one minute before she passed.

After her death my uncle (who is one of my very favorite charactors in this life) was understandably lost, and I made it my personal mission to talk to him for hours each week even though we live several thousand miles apart. I decided about two months ago to send him Conversations with God - Book 1, and then kept asking him, "Did you read it?". He always answered no...

He called me this weekend, elated, thrilled, excited. At 86 years old he read the book, and wanted to know when the next one was coming out. I laughed and told him that luckily for him Neale started writing these books in the 90's...so he had his choice of several wonderful books to select from. He shortened his call with me as he was off to the book store.

It is important to remember that some people are just getting the news, and it does not matter their age. The work that you are doing does not have a "shelf life" and lives are being changed every minute. God Bless....Patti

I am so very grateful to Patti -- who I do not know personally, but who is apparently a reader of CwG and a member of the Messenger Circle -- for sending me this note. It was generous of her to take the time, and very kind to think of me with these words. I also, and foremost, want to thank God. Thank you, God, for once again answering my prayers, responding to my doubts, assuring me in my waivering, speaking to me just as loudly as you possible can short of coming down here and standing right in front of me!

And to you, dear blog reader....whenever you have any doubts or questioning about anything in your life, I want you to know that you can count on God to be there. God will supply you with wisdom and clarity, comfort and assurance, through every means available. The lyrics of the next song you hear. The words on the billboard around the next highway you take. The chance utterance of a friend you "just happen" to meet on the street.

Count on it. You will have your conversation with God today. Yes, you will. Simply open yourself to it.

Then let me know what you heard. What is God's message to you today?

The Bible contains the Word of God. But is it the only Scripture? The One and Only? Is every other 'Holy Scripture' wrong? Inaccurate? Not the truth?

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Wednesday is Question and Answer Day on the blog...a time for exploring many of the questions that people have recently asked about the nine Conversations with God books and the New Spirituality. Here's this week's entry...
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Question: Do you believe the bible is the inspired word of God? Dana, at Yahoo.com

Neale's Response: Yes, I do. The entire Bible, including the Old Testament. And I believe the Qur'an is the inspired word of God. And I believe the Bahagavad-gita is the inspired word of God. And I believe the Torah is the inspired word of God. And I believe the Upanishad is the inspired word of God. And I believe the Book of Mormon is the inspired word of God. And I believe Conversations with God is the inspired word of God.

Do I believe that the Bible is the ONLY "inspired word of God"? No.

What scriptures are "holy scriptures"? What scripture contains the One and Only, True Word of God? Well, now that depends upon to whom one is speaking. Many say, the Bible. Others say, no, His word is found in the Hebrew Bible. Others say, no, His word is found in the Koran.

Others say, no, it's in the Torah.

Others say, no, in the Mishna.

Others say, the Talmud.

Others, the Bhagavad-gita.

Others, the Rig Veda.

Others, the Brahmanas.

Others, the Upanishads.

Others, the Mahabharta and the Ramayana.

Others, the Puranas.

Others, the Tantras.

Others, the Tao-te Ching.

Others, the Buddha-Dharma.

Others, the Dhammapada.

Others, The Master of Huai-nan.

Others, the Shih-chi.

Others, the Pali Canon.

Others, the Book of Mormon.

Others...

Well, the point is, many people believe that Direct Revelation -- that is, God speaking directly to Man -- has not occurred since the Holy Scriptures with which they feel comfortable were written.

And while few of those who cite these sources agree with each other theologically, many agree on one thing emphatically: their Word of God is THE Word of God; their way to paradise is THE way to paradise; their communication from Deity is THE communication from Deity.

By this measure, Conversations with God would have to be heresy; would by definition be blasphemy. Some of the adherents of the Old Books may not be clear about which old book contains the Truth, but they are clear that no new book does.

Surprisingly, even some of the newer, more theologically liberal movements deny even the possibility that God could be delivering new truth to anyone today through direct communication, and warn against such latter day revelations.

And so, at its very beginning (indeed, by its very title) Conversations with God presents a challenge, upsets the apple cart, turns most present-day theology on its ear. Yet, interestingly, few people seem to have minded; few who have read CwG seem to have any quarrel with the possibility, at least, that God has revealed Himself once more through the written word.

Indeed, I'll go further. An astonishing number of people have come forward to say that they, too, have experienced such communications. And so it turns out that my conversation with God may not be such an "uncommon dialogue" after all.

Let's explore this opening thought and see how it relates to you.

The first major concept in CWG is that God is communicating with us all of the time; has always been communicating with us; has never stopped communicating with us; and will use whatever tool is at hand to continue that communication, both now and even forever more.

TEXT REFERENCE: I talk to everyone. All the time. The question is not to whom do I talk, but who listens? -- Conversations with God - Book 1, pg. 3

So you can see, Dana, that you've asked a pretty interesting question here. And, in truth, you are the only one who can give it an answer. What do you think? Is the Bible the inspired word of God. Is the entire Bible that inspired word, including the Old Testament as well as the New? Including, say, the Book of Deuteronomy? Yes? It the Bible the only inspired word of God? What do you think, Dana? Look to see what you think, then live your life accordingly!

Love...Neale.

(Ask Neale may be accessed on a daily basis in the Messengers' Circle at Neale's personal website: www.nealedonaldwalsch.com. Each week Neale selects a question from those posted there and publishes it in this blog.)

Imagine this. God comes down to Earth for one minute - one blessed 60-second moment - and announces to the world the solution to all of its problems and the way for every soul to experience heaven-on-earth and eternal salvation. God reveals this solution and this way with one sentence. What do you suppose that sentence would be?

"Believe in Me"?

No.

"Believe in My Son"?

No.

"Love everyone"?

No.

"Stop the killing"?

No.

Okay then, what? Whaaat?

Here it is. Are you ready?

"Tell the truth."

That's it. That's all there is to it. Just tell the truth, and everything is solved. Not overnight. Not in the next instant. But fast. Very fast. Because very soon after everyone starts telling the truth, the cause of the problems goes away.

We live in a society based on secrecy. Think about it. Virtually every aspect of life as we have constructed it is based on secrecy. The cultural myth is that what we don't know makes everything work, not what we do know.

That's certainly true of our political myth. If governments around the world (our's included) ever told the people everything that government knows on every subject, governments would have to change. If governments ever gave people the real reasons behind everything governments do, what governments do would be altered forever.

Wars, for instance, would practically vanish from the human experience, because most human beings would never agree to go to war for the real reasons governments declare war. Governments know this, so governments give us trumped up reasons, reasons they hope most of the people will agree with.

Taxes would also virtually vanish, because most human beings would never agree to be taxed for the real reasons governments raise money. Governments know this, so governments give us trumped up reasons, reasons they hope most of the people will agree with.

Our economic myth, likewise, is based on secrets. Can you imagine what would happen if factory foremen and office supervisors handed out sheets of paper every month to all employees with all the company's salaries (including those of every executive) on them? Can you imagine what would happen to world prices if corporations were required to place on their price tags the actual cost, to them, of providing those goods and services? Do you think such a system of complete visibility would allow our economic system to survive in its present form? Of course not. Because once the truth is told, everything changes.

Even our theological systems fall into the same category. We are told that we do not have the answers, and cannot find the answers, to life's most challenging questions on our own. These are "mysteries," which only religion can solve. And each religion declares that it has the "right" answers, and everyone else has the "wrong" ones. Yet even religions don't tell us everything they "know." Much is kept hidden, away from the mass of the people who, it is said, cannot and would not possibly understand. Incantations are offered in ancient tongues that only the chief priests understand. Rituals are shrouded in secret. Admission to the temples of some religions is forbidden to the general public and, even within the religious family, open only to a select few.

But secrets aren't limited to our society's institutions. Our society itself is based on secrets. Families keep secrets tenanciously, and whole familial environments are often built on secrets. The family alcoholic, the father who abuses his wife and children, the aunt who suffers from kleptomania, the brother-in-law in jail -- all are kept secret, not just from the people outside the family, but very often from other family members themselves.

"What you don't know won't hurt you" is such a powerful myth that it has become more socially unacceptable to tell the truth than to hide it.

None of this would really matter very much, one supposes, were it not for the fact that wars have been started because of state secrets. Children have endured years of abuse because of family secrets. The rich have gotten richer, and the poor have gotten poorer because of economic secrets. And people have gone to their death cringing in fear of God because of religious and spiritual secrets.

Lives have been ruined because of secrets, and yet humans will not tell the truth, because the real slogan is, "What you don't know won't hurt me."

As long as we're afraid of being hurt by the truth, we're going to lie. And, while we don't like it, we'll tolerate an entire society built on lies.

Yet it is society's refusal to become truthful that causes most of the pain society is forced to endure, and the vicious circle is complete. We sidestep the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in an effort to avoid pain - and we cause pain in the process.

There is a way out of this mess. Conversations with God - Book 2 calls for a new societal standard, captured in a word: Visibility.

I spoken about this before, in lectures across this country, in articles and interviews around the world, and in this very column. I'll keep preaching the virtues of visibility as long as I live, because I know now that it is the only way to live.

Conversations with God - Book 2 says that there are five levels of truth-telling. First, you tell the truth to yourself about yourself. Then you tell the truth to yourself about another. At the third level, you tell the truth about yourself to another. Then you tell the truth about another to that other. And finally, you learn to tell the truth to everyone about everything.

The first level of truth-telling was the hardest for me. There was a part of me which did not want to hear the truth about myself - least of all from myself. I knew that if I admitted to myself what many others had been telling me most of my life, I would no longer have anywhere to run.

As long as I could avoid admitting to myself that the criticisms and observations of others about me were simply not true, I could go on. Yet how could I continue if I once acknowledged within my own heart and mind that I was behaving exactly as others said I was behaving, doing exactly what others said I was doing, and very much the person that others told me I was?

Who cares if I was wearing the Emperor's New Clothes? I much preferred parading around in my illusions of how I presented myself to the world to any inner acknowledgment that the most often loving and well-meaning observations of others might be right on the money.

So yes, level one was the most difficult for me. Yet once I mastered it my whole life changed. I found that most of the pain of my life had been caused by holding on to my illusions, not by letting them go. When my false image of myself began to drop away, I could start directing all the energy I had been using to hold it together toward other, much more useful, pursuits.

Level four was the next biggest challenge. The real work was not in finding the courage the speak my truth about others to those others, but in creating a way to do that sensitively, with love and understanding, gentleness and compassion. I had to learn to speak my truth, yes, but to speak it softly.

This continues to be a challenge for me, especially when I am being critical of society in general, or "those others" as a group. My words far too often come out harsh and cold, justified and righteous. Oh, my, can I become dangerous if I believe I have "right" on my side - whatever that is. But I'm working on it. I'm seeking to develop the skill of telling my truth without clobbering my listeners. I want them to be able to hear me.

So how about you? Do you want to help change the world? You can start by deciding to tell the truth always, to everyone, in every moment and about every matter.

If you run a business, tell your employees exactly what everyone else is making. Tell your customers exactly what your products or sevices cost you to provide. If you're in a relationship, tell your significant other everything you think they need to know in order for them to be holding five cards, too. If you're in government, tell your constituents the real reasons behind all of your agency's decisions. If you're in education, teach your students all there is to know, in an age-appropriate way, on the subjects you're exploring. If you're a rabbi or a minister, priest or monk, tell the whole truth about God, open up your rituals, throw wide the doors of your temples. Let the sun shine in.

Dare you, dare you, double dare you...

First Tim Russert...now George Carlin. What's going on here? What's the Universe trying to tell us? Could it be that each day might be your last? What if that were true? Clue: It is. I don't care how healthy you are, you could get hit by a bus. You have no way of knowing when your last day will be. You have only Now...this moment, right Now...to answer life's single question: Who Am I? My wonderful life partner, poet m.Claire, offers us this answer... You are right, my Other...we don't have much time. A weekend ago George Carlin was on stage, performing at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. One weekend later, he is gone. George had a history of heart trouble. He went to St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica yesterday afternoon complaining of chest pain. He died, with perfect symmetry, at 5:55 p.m. I don't know if he had a chance to even know what was going on. I mean, that he was living his last moments. I don't know if I'm living mine. So I guess the best I can do is act as if I am. Since Tim Russert celebrated his Continuation Day just over a week a ago I have continued pondering and feeling my own mortality. Now, today, with the news of George Carlin's death, I am feeling doubly impacted by that energy. I am questioning today which parts of me might still not be fully expressed. I look at the spectrum of life, not just that which is before me in my own, but also that which is presently here and coming up behind me...the children of our future... mine, yours, and ours collectively. I wonder...Is there something more of me to give than I have offered thus far? Is there something within me that has been unspoken to or about the children and our future that would serve the world for me to speak? More important, is there a part of me that I have not fully expressed within? Have I reached as high as I can reach in compassion, in humility, in caring and sensitivity for others, in loving without condition, in accepting others even with their "faults" (of which there are none), in embracing difficult circumstances, in making everyone around me -- everyone -- feel safe? We are all perfect just the way we are - but I am sure there is something left, something more, that's yet to be realized within me. I wish I could be better. Nicer. Not so darned self-serving. Not so selfish. As I ponder this, I realize that one of the greatest things that I can do for the future of humanity, one of my unfinished songs, is the teaching of humanity's children about the messages that came through the Conversations with God books. The platform I have created to support this teaching is the School of the New Spirituality. SNS is working feverishly to develop wonderfully exciting spiritual resources to assist parents, families and educators in teaching youth about how to understand and live New Spirituality principles. SNS has recently established a monthly online Spiritual Parenting Newsletter which serves to educate, support and connect parents with articles, resources, tips and advice. The price has been purposely kept low in consideration of high gas prices and a soft economy. SNS offers you a low introductory price of only $12 for an annual subscription - that's just $1 a month - but the price will go up to $15 after June 30th, so if you have an interest in learning more about parenting based on the messages in Conversations with God, you may want to subscribe now. This affordable price serves to allow as many people as possible to create and participate in a growing spiritual parenting community. This community starts with the newsletter, but will grow to be so much more because you're collectively going to have a part in it. Together, we are creating a spiritual grassroots movement...a revolution you might say... that intends to set aside stale thoughts and belief systems as we mold a future of peace and joy. If you haven't done so yet, I highly encourage you to visit the School of the New Spirituality to take a look at what it is doing. I'd also like to suggest that you add your name to the growing list of people who wish to stay connected and involved in the New Spirituality wildfire that's spreading across the globe. You'll be hearing more about the work of The School of the New Spirituality in this space every so often, as I consider it to be one of the most important independent spiritual/social/political movements of this first quarter of the 21st Century. And now, I am -- would you believe this? It's true -- off to the hospital this morning for some tests. I, you see, also have "a history of heart trouble." Last week it caused me to cancel my entire summer schedule of events. We're going to do a blood draw this morning, and an EKG, and some other stuff... I want to live to be 90. There is so much more I want to do...and way, way more that I want to Be. How about you? Have we had enough "warnings" these past two weeks? Are we ready now to get serious about what we're doing here, and how we're doing it? How many more red flags do we need? So join me in trying very hard today to live our Highest Self. And let's join, too, in sending up a prayer, all good thoughts and sweet energies, for our good friend George. He brought us much laughter, and insight, too, into our human condition. Thank you, George. See you soon.

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