CwG
Weekly Bulletin #174: Make Each Moment Count
Week of
My Dear
Friends...
We’ve received
some communications recently from readers who have asked us to “keep thing
light” in this Weekly Bulletin, staying on the more positive side of life and
not paying so much attention to the “bad news” that so often seems to surround
us. I hear that, and I want you to know
that we are very sensitive here to what all of you feel serves you. I also know that there are many people who
feel that failure to look at the
so-called “dark side” of our lives is a spiritual “mistake” from which we do
not benefit.
The extremely
popular writing and the powerful work in the world of people such as Debbie
Ford (The Dark Side of the Light Chasers; The
Secret of the Shadow: The Power of Owning Your Whole Story; Embracing
Your Dark Side: Seeing Your Light, and other books) attests to the fact that
there can be extraordinary spiritual gain realized through looking directly
into the face of our most negative individual and collective experiences and
creations, calling them what they are and owning them.
So there is a
difference of opinion here. There are those within what I will call the New
Spiritual Community who believe that we should pay very little attention to the
"news of the day," and virtually no attention at all to any
"negative aspect" of life as it is proceeding on our planet, saying
that to do so only expands the experience and “makes it real” by focusing our
energies in such a specific way. And there are those who say that to look at
something and simply observe it does not put it there in the first place, but
does, in fact, serve the useful purpose of giving us a measure against which we
may select more specifically what we would choose to create in the future.
As I said at the
outset, I do understand the point of view of those who simply want a respite
from what seems like a constant barrage of bad news. What I wish to do here is
to balance the two interests so that this Bulletin can be both timely and
affirmative.
I am going to
therefore make a commitment that we will from this point forward make every
effort to keep all information about the so-called negative events of the day
deep inside the Bulletin, as the very last item before the sign-off, so that
those who wish to avoid such material may simply stop reading at the first sign
of the WARNING disclaimer, which will say: The
following material contains information relating to certain topical and
political news of the day, which may be considered by some readers to carry
negative, and therefore unwelcome, energy. Our purpose in reviewing these items
is to participate in Creationist Spirituality, by deciding what we would like
to create in our collective experience in light of these developments. We
believe there is value in this process.
I hope that this
will serve both segments of our readership.
And now let me
change the subject just a little by telling you that I am happy to report this
week that we completed, on Sunday last, our annual year-end Spiritual Renewal
Retreat in a wonderful place. More than 85 people came together for this
program, from all over the world, and the retreat this year was focused on
“liberation” as its theme. We took a deep, collective look at what I call
“liberation theology,” and we gave each participant a chance to explore what it
is that they wish to be liberated from—and what it would take to experience
that.
A number of
people had important “breakthrough” moments at this retreat, and everyone
reported wonderful benefits from the experience. Our next Spiritual Renewal Retreat will be
held
To register for this event go to - http://www.regonline.com/84150.
Now, let me
say thanks for all of your support in 2005! We look forward to continued blessings
and a loving relationship in the months ahead.
We close with a
new feature for the 2006 Weekly Bulletins—READING SUGGESTIONS FOR SPIRITUAL
GROWTH
LIVING
MAGICALLY: A New Vision of Reality
by Gill Edwards
I highly recommend any
book written by Gill Edwards, who lives in
“Written with warmth and humour…it offers a vision which challenges many of our
assumptions about the world and shows how, among other things, we can grow
through love and joy rather than pain and struggle…there is no dogma…the whole
book is written on the premise of our freedom to choose. I have personally made
use of many of the techniques and ideas to successfully turn my life around. I
cannot recommend this book highly enough.”
Another reader adds…
“I have tried out some
of the techniques in this book, and found them absolutely amazing. I willed
some things to happen and they happened in such a way that it could not be
thought of as due to something other than myself. The whole book gives hope,
and shows that since everything in the world is connected, we can have control
over our lives. I really recommend this book to everyone, whether with
difficulties in life, or just a self-exploration. The techniques are really
easy and down to earth. It all just clicks into place.”
Enjoy! --- NDW
= = = = = = =
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
WOULD YOU LIKE TO
Would you like to ask him anything at all about The New Spirituality, and how
it applies to your daily life?
Call him Wednesday at
CALL NEALE ON WEDNESDAY with any problem, question, or comment you have about
your life and your world.
The Dialogue Begins.
This
Week’s Bulletin Topics:
- “If God really loves us, why does He want us to experience pain?
- Visit our Webstore for Inspiring Ideas for
the New Year
- “I was finally able to forgive myself.…” Questions & Comments
- The New Spirituality and the News
w/commentary by Neale Donald Walsch
“You cannot know God
until you’ve stopped telling yourself that
you already know God.
You cannot hear God
until you stop thinking that you’ve already
heard God.
I cannot tell you My Truth until you
stop telling Me yours.”
- CwG, Book 1
– page 16
“If God really loves us, why does He
want us to experience pain?
To begin with, God doesn’t
“want us” to experience pain. God doesn’t “want” anything. God experiences GodSelf through us, and knows GodSelf
anew in that way. God does not come from “wanting-ness,” but from Total “Havingness.”
So it is an inaccurate
assessment to say that God “wants” us to experience pain. This is more than
just a semantics dance, however. I believe the distinction to be important,
because if we think that God wants us to have painful experiences, we are
forced to believe in a God who makes no sense at all. (This, by the way, is the
God in which most organized religions want us to believe.)
So we now can hold as true
an image of a God who does not “want” us to have painful experiences, any more
than He/She “wants” us to avoid them. God has no preference in the matter one
way or the other. God’s process, if you will, is to simply allow us to create
anything we choose. And everything which comes to us—everything—we are
choosing.
That is difficult for some
of us to believe, I know. We find it easier to believe that God is bringing us
these horrible experiences. You need to get the irony here. Unable to believe
that we would do this to ourselves, we’ve accepted far more easily the thought
that God is doing this to us.
Extraordinary. Yet I have been assured by God that it is precisely
the other way around. We bring upon ourselves every thought, every word, every experience. Now, as to why…
The human soul is eternal.
It is on a journey of unending joy, celebrating every aspect of life that
exists, allowing itself to notice and to create, to experience and to fulfill,
Who It Really Is.
CwG, Book 1 is quite clear in explaining “why bad
things happen to good people.” In order for the soul to know and experience
itself as any particular thing, the exact opposite of that thing must come into
the space. This is why, the moment you decide a thing about yourself—anything
at all—its exact opposite must exist in the Universe and will come into your
life, if it supports the soul’s growth to experience it,
For in this relative
existence we are experiencing, hot cannot be hot without cold, tall cannot be
tall without short, and you cannot be you without that which is not you. I am
giving you a very short, very quick, answer here to a very large question. Re-read CwG, Book 1 if you need to, in order to capture this
understanding more fully.
Masters know and understand
all of this, which is why masters never complain in the face of extraordinary
difficulty, but rather, bless their persecutors, and all circumstances and
conditions which assail them. Masters know and understand that every person,
place or thing in their lives has been placed there by them, that they have
drawn themselves to the right and perfect experiences, in order that they might
know Who They Really Are.
Masters also understand that
none of us are doing this dance alone, that all of us are in this together,
that all souls have full understanding of what is happening, and that we, as
partners in the dance of life, join together in our present forgetfulness, some
of us playing the part of “victims,” some as “villains,” that we might create
and fulfill our soul’s purpose in this lifetime. Read again the story in CwG,
Book 1 about “The Little Soul and the Sun.”
Now Jesus understood all of
this, which is why he looked at his crucifiers and said, “Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.” He understood that those other souls literally
did not know what they were doing. That is, they had forgotten who they really
are. And they had done so quite deliberately, in order that they might “play
the villain” this time around. And, in the moment of their greatest villainy,
they are depending upon you to remember Who They Really Are. In so doing, you
heal them of their false thought about themselves, the thought that allowed
them to act in this way in the first place, and thus, provide you with an
opportunity to know and to experience Who You Choose to Be.
No one has ever come to
you—no one—without a gift for you in his hands. This reality is described in
heart-touching detail In CwG, Book 2, in which God said to me: “I
have sent you nothing but angels.”
No, God does not “care” what
we experience; not in the sense that She has any preference in the matter. God
simply watches us experience our selves in a particular way, and invites us (and
give us all the power) to choose again.
However, God is not saying,
that “the purpose of life is to experience things.” God says in the book
that the purpose of life is to create and to experience Who We Really Are, and
that we are deciding and choosing that, every moment of every day with every
thought, word and action.
God also advises us not to
judge the experience of another, including very small children who seem to be
suffering inordinately, or may have been born with a physical or mental challenge,
or whatever. It is natural for us to feel sadness, to feel anger, to run
through all sorts of emotions about these seeming injustices, even to become
bitter, raising our fist to the heavens.
Yet God says, “Judge not,
for you do not know the journey upon which the soul of another has embarked.”
God also says that in the moment of
greatest darkness, “Raise not your voice in condemnation, but rather, be a
light unto the darkness, and curse it not.” - NDW
CwG
Webstore
The Little Soul and the Earth
The collaborative team
that brought you
The Little Soul and the Sun returns with an uplifting follow-up.
The first book in a new series of Little Soul adventures, The Little Soul and the Earth finds our favorite little soul being asked by God to return
to Earth in order to "experience who he really is." Neale’s first
picture book, The Little Soul and the Sun, has sold thousands of copies.
Frank Riccio, the illustrator of the Little Soul
books is the Parents’ Choice Award-winning illustrator of Curriculum of Love
and other books. Your price: $18 / Our cost: $11
Our
The following quotes are responses on the
evaluation sheets from the just completed
“Neale’s loving presence, the way in which he was
totally present with me and everyone, it meant the world to me.”
“The close relationships I have made.”
“Everything – the sharing, the wisdom, the
lightness, the intensity played out exactly
perfectly.”
“Spending time with like minded people was
awesome.”
“Everything!”
“The clear vision presented – how to apply the book
to my life. I really love the
healing.”
“Neale’s sensitive and inspired response to each
individual’s needs – his complete attention was given to the person who was
processing. Awesome!”
Tears were shed.
Laughter rang out. Anger was
expressed. Love was shared. And, yes,
Lives were changed.
You will have an opportunity to have your own
experience coming up next Month, right here in
There is still plenty of space in this retreat, for
you to take the opportunity to look at your issues and resolve them with love,
joy, peace and in the presence of loving, like- minded, people.
Please join us.
You can obtain more information at www.cwg.org
or by calling Will Richardson, our Retreat Coordinator at
Upcoming Events
Nothing is more evident in human society today
than the rapidly increasing pace of change in peoples’ lives. Relationships, careers, locations that we call “home,” health, and,
indeed, the most important circumstances of our lives, both personally and
globally, seem to be shifting dramatically during these days and times.
Is it possible to find a place of comfort, much less realize your heart’s
desire, in the midst of such rapid change and uncertainty? Yes.
With the
deep wisdom and the practical guidance shared in this special retreat, you will
be given the tools with which you can negotiate the shifts that are occurring
for you right now. Useful, down-to-earth techniques and approaches will be
offered here, coming from deep within the Conversations with God
cosmology, presented in highly individualized, deeply compassionate and
understanding encounters between Neale Donald Walsch and participants. This is
a chance for real healing and for entering into the miracle of moving on. This
is a retreat not to be missed if you’re hurting right now, or feeling
bewildered and disoriented by the suddenly shifting landscape of your life. To register for this event go to - http://www.regonline.com/84150.
***************************************************************************
LEP in Australia March 17-25, 2006
The CwG Foundation is teaming up
with Embracing Change to host an 8-day facilitator training in
This experience
will provide you with an inspiring introduction to integrating and embodying
the concepts of CwG in your life, as well as offer some of the essential
skills necessary to be an effective messenger and facilitator of the New
Spirituality.
Experienced and
beginner teachers alike with be given some incredible tools and processes to
make their own retreats/seminars/workshops or programs more effective.
If you are
interested in jumping to the next level of your spiritual growth we invite you
to learn more about this event; click here or email Karen Coffey at Karen@cwg.org
To find out more about Embracing Change visit http://www.embracingchange.org
Questions
and Comments from CwG Readers
Dear Neale,
First of all,
I would like to wish you a very Happy, Abundant, and Blessed New Year.
I've been a fan of yours since I heard you in
I didn't 'get
it' then, unfortunately. It took me seven years to finally comprehend
what you said. Mine has been the source of pain for loved ones and I
never had the first clue. I wish I were writing you a different kind of
email right now. One that wasn't so filled with regret over things I did
to cause pain to those that matter most in my life. I wish I had
been ... better.
Late
this Christmas I was feeling very 'connected' with the Universe and
feeling nothing but pure love while lying next to my wife. She is my
greatest teacher, Neale. I know what Love is ... because of her. I
began to see the beauty of my past and the experiences that I have been
able to learn from and grow with. My children are also wonderful
teachers, as well. I am so fortunate and blessed to have them in my life,
Neale. I was finally able to 'forgive' myself of those things where I
felt I had failed them and others. Not because I 'deserved' to be
forgiven, but because I 'needed' it. Thank you for helping me to do this
for myself.
I want to
thank you for your wisdom, experiences and the wonder that your
books have inspired in me over the years. Mostly,
for helping me to learn to appreciate those around me and why they have been
with me. Years ago you set me on a path of discovery about
the universe and myself ... and my place in
it. It has been filled with highs and lows that I
can't characterize as 'good' or 'bad' now because each experience has
taught me something about myself. I have learned they all must be
'good' in some way, even though 'good' is sometimes harder to find when it
is wrapped in pain. Thank you, Neale.
Sincerely,
Randy,
My Dear
Randy...Thank you for your very open, honest, and revealing letter. I know that
this time of year is a time of great reflection for many people, and I am so
very pleased that your own reflections have led you to this wisdom. I agree
with you that self-forgiveness is an important and wonderful thing. Now, next
in importance will be our commitment never again to walk those same paths of
injury and damage to others through catering to our own egos.
I, too, have
done so much damage to others, Randy, and caused many people many tears. I wish
with all my heart that it was not so. But it is, and I have naught but to
forgive myself, and deeply commit to do better. You are so very lucky to have
your wife and children at your side. I agree with you on that, too.
Their love is a
treasure that you cannot buy, and that I hope you will never lose, and
certainly never set aside. Move even more fully into it, Randy, and your soul will
sing its gladness.
Happy
Holidays, my friend, and thank you for writing to me. I am only glad that something I have
done may have brought you greater insight. It humbles me to think that this
might be true, and I am grateful to God that at least part of my life has
brought benefit to others.
Truly
yours...neale.
====== ======
Dear Neale,
Thank you
for being a messenger of wisdom and clarity.
I
recently came across a booklet called The Spiritual Healer published in
For
I know I don't need to tell you, Neale, that when you go from here
you will leave behind a world richer for the experience of you, your
fellow man more sure that Divinity shapes his end, a wider vision and a greater
sense of purpose, knowledge that death is nothing and life is
everything and a deeper sense of God. But then again may be I
do.
Blessed
Be
When I Go From Here
When I go from here, I want to leave behind me a world
that will be richer for the experience of me.
I want the creatures – the animals and birds – to be a little
less afraid of human beings because they have known me,
because I have blessed them and loved them and
far from doing
them any harm have done them good.
I want to leave trees that are rustling with my thoughts, trees
that have heard me speaking to them when we were alone
together, trees that, one day, long after my form
has disappeared,
shall still in some mysterious way, cherish in their beings
their secret knowledge of me, so that others who shelter from
the rain, or who seek shade under their branches, shall catch
the
peace that went out from me.
I want to leave the whole of Nature nearer to the whole of
man. I want to store up riches in the wind, and leave blessings
travelling upwards to the stars. I want to leave my
peace in the
grass. I want the tears that I have shed for the sake of high
love
to come again in the dew. I want to leave Nature richer for
having known me.
I want to leave my fellow man more sure that there is a
Divinity that shapes his ends. I want to leave him with a wider
vision and a greater sense of purpose. I want to
leave him with
the knowledge that death is nothing and life is everything.
When I go from here, I want to leave behind me a deeper
sense of God.
Derek Neville
Dear
====== ======
Dear Neale,
I want to thank you for your article on why people
hurt each other in the 12/31 issue. Your weekly bulletin was very timely
this week since I received it just after I was asking God for advice on what to
do after being hurt by someone. Although I can't fully
understanding why this person would treat me this way, the comments in your
article make sense and help me see things from a different perspective.
I truly appreciate all that you do and want you to know we're
listening to your kind words. You are making such a positive difference
in my life!!
Thank you.
Tina
====== ======
Dear Neale,
The following quote was sent to me on the final day of 2005. I was stunned to
find out who it was from and when. It sure has great relevance today. I thought
maybe everyone could use the reminder that history can and does repeat itself.
I sent the quote to every one on my E-mail list and asked them to do the same.
"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after
all it is the leaders of the country that make policy, and it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship.
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell
them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism
and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every
country."
---Hermann Goering, speaking at the
Thank you,
Best,
Neale.
If you would
like to send a comment or a question to Neale here at the Weekly Bulletin, you
may do so by addressing an email to: weeklybulletinresponse@cwg.org Please note that because of the volume of mail
that we receive, it is possible your letter will not get printed here. However, we do our best to see that all
letters get a response, if not directly from Neale, then from a CwG Foundation
staff person, or LEP participant.
THE
Observations and
Commentary by Neale Donald Walsch
PLEASE
NOTE: The following material contains information relating to certain topical
and political news of the day which may be considered by some readers to carry
negative, and therefore unwelcome, energy. Our purpose in reviewing these items
is to participate in Creationist Spirituality, by deciding what we would like
to create in our collective experience in light of these developments. We
believe there is value in this process.
Each week there
is a news story or two that provides us with a wonderful opportunity to look at
the world through the eyes of CwG and the New Spirituality. This week a number of events captured the
attention of our world…
WHAT
NEALE’S COMMENTARY: The
difficulty here is as it is all over the world: the belief in a Theology of
Separation, which produces an ideology of Separation, which produces a
sociology of Separation, which produces a pathology of Separation.
Unless and until we provide some way for
humanity to escape from its fervent belief in Separation Theology (in which it
is taught that we are separate from God, separate from life, and separate from
each other), we will continue to see such manifestations in our physical
reality. We can dramatically reduce them, however. Creation Spirituality
thinkers may wish to hold a vision—and do this for three minutes each morning
and three minutes each evening—of an absence of bloodshed in Iraq, and of a new
openness to Unification Theology, to be taught in the School of the New
Spirituality, which it is hoped will be dotting the landscape throughout the
world by 2008.
For more information go to www.newspiritualityschool.com.
WHAT
NEALE’S COMMENTARY: I
note with interest that the Associated Press reports that while rabbis called
on Israelis to flock to synagogues and say special prayers, Ahmed Jibril, a radical Palestinian leader in Damascus, Syria,
called the prime minister’s stroke “a gift from God.” This is a striking
example of the role that we believe God plays in our lives—and of the startling
differences of opinion that people hold about what God wants. In the now famous
13th Chapter of What God Wants, the
latest CwG book, released last March, it is made clear
that God wants nothing at all, in particular, to occur, in relationship to life
on this planet, or anywhere else. That is because God is a force, an energy, the very Essence of Life Itself, not a singular
Super Being with likes and dislikes, proclivities and preferences, such as
human beings possess and entertain.
I am pleased that
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
called Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert to express his
concern and told him that Palestinians hope
WHAT
NEALE’S COMMENTARY: The report of Robert
Kennedy’s continual orders to assassinate Fidel Castro are not new. If
Secretary Haig is being truthful (and there is no
reason to believe that he is not), the spiritual lesson to be gathered here is:
as you sow, so shall you reap. Or, to put it in new thought terms, what goes
around comes around. As long as we keep thinking—either as individuals or as a
collective society—that we can undertake negative actions in our lives without
personal consequences, we will continue to produce the kinds of negative
outcomes that create history. CwG says that the biblical injunction to “do unto others as you
would have it done unto you” is more—much more—than a nice-sounding idea, it is
an announcement of how the Universe works…because what you do unto others IS
being done unto you, for the simple reason that there is only One of us. Yet as
long as we keep insisting that there is “we” over here and “they” over there,
the cycle of self-violence that we see on the Earth is likely to continue. And
it will be as the late cartoonist Walt Kelly wrote, in the words of his most
famous cartoon character, Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and they is us.”
WHAT
NEALE’S
COMMENTARY: According to the Associated Press, at a vigil attended by about 200
people in Sago on Wednesday night, the Rev. Wease Day
said the days ahead will bring funerals and mourning for the victims, but he
insisted they must also include a celebration of the lives that were lost.
"We need to pray for the families," Day said, "but we also need
to be joyous” about the lives of those who died, and the wonderful
contributions they made to all those around them, and to our world. CwG deeply agrees,
and adds these astonishing thoughts, in the form of what are called The
Remembrances:
The First Remembrance: Dying is something you do for
you.
The Second Remembrance: You are the cause of your own
death. This is always true, no matter where, or how, you die.
The Third Remembrance: You cannot die against your
will.
The Fourth Remembrance: No path back Home is better
than any other path.
The Fifth Remembrance: Death is never a tragedy. It
is always a gift.
The Sixth Remembrance: You and God are one. There is
no separation between you.
The Seventh Remembrance: Death does not exist.
The Eighth Remembrance: You cannot change Ultimate
Reality, but you can change your experience of it.
The Ninth Remembrance: It is the desire of All That Is to Know Itself in its own Experience. This is
the reason for all of Life.
The Tenth Remembrance: Life is eternal.
The Eleventh Remembrance: The timing and the
circumstances of death are always perfect.
The Twelfth Remembrance: The death of every person
always serves the agenda of every other person who is aware of it. That is why
they are aware of it. Therefore, no death (and no life) is ever “wasted.” No
one ever dies “in vain.”
The Thirteenth Remembrance: Birth and death are the same thing.
The Fourteenth Remembrance: You are continually in
the act of creation, in life and in death.
The Fifteenth Remembrance: There is no such thing as
the end of evolution.
The Sixteenth Remembrance: Death is reversible.
The Seventeenth Remembrance: In death you will be
greeted by all of your loved ones—those who have died before you and those who
will die after you.
The Eighteenth Remembrance: Free Choice is the act of
pure creation, the signature of God, and your gift, your glory, and your power
forever and ever.
These Remembrances utterly change our experience of death,
and allow us to rejoice both in the life lived by those who have “passed on,”
and in the life that they continue to live, as will we all.
(NOTE: The above Remembrances are taken from HOME WITH God in a Life
That Never Ends, the final book in the CwG dialogue series, to be published by Atria Books in March. The
statements are explained in great detail in this final text. This title may be
ordered in advance now by going to our webstore: cwg.org/
For more information on how you can learn to embrace the
events and changes that occur in your life, go to www.cwg.org
and click on the Life Skills section of the Life Education Program.
Thanks for being with us this week. Make it a wonderful
seven days! May God be expressed in your life.
NDW
========================================================================
The CwG Weekly Bulletin is written by Neale Donald
Walsch. It is produced by Joanna Gabriel and edited by Rose Wolfenbarger with
technical contributions from Marion K. Black and Roger Mellon.
========================================================================
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