CwG Weekly Bulletin #188 - Neale Talks about Changing Realities.

Neale Talks about Changing Realities :

Each week I get letters from people telling me that their lives are in shambles, that nothing is going right, that money is drying up, that relationships are crumbling or have crumbled, that work is uninspired and uninspiring, and that life itself has lost its meaning and its joy.

More and more people, even those in affluent countries, are feeling disconnected, deluded, discouraged and depressed. What's UP here...what do you think is going on? Why can't we seem to make life work? And why are so many people being asked to fight against such overwhelming odds?

The problem has to do with our basic understandings about Who We Are and What Life Is.

Why are we here, anyway...?

On the earth, I mean.

Who are we, and why are we here? Are we mere animals? Creatures of the cosmos, as it were, holding no power within ourselves to impact or affect our own reality---much less create it---but subject, rather, to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?

And what IS the purpose of life, after all? Is it just to see who is the Last Man Standing? Or who has collected the most toys? Or is there something larger going on, something more significant to the cosmos?

"I have come here today to bring you the Good News: THERE'S ENOUGH."

I think there is. I believe there is a Process in place that is playing itself out, and in which we are playing a part---most of us without even knowing it.

The fascinating thing about this Process is that we don't have to know that we are playing a part in it in order to play a part in it. So the part that most of us are playing is being played unconsciously.

If I'm right about this---and by the way, most ancient mystics and modern-day spiritual teachers agree with my observation---then the idea here would be to become conscious. That is, to WAKE UP.

Yet, how does one do that? Let this be our question for the day.

Well, it's no fair asking a question without proposing an answer. So here is the answer I propose:

We wake up by waking each OTHER up.

So that's our opportunity, that's our invitation. We're invited to wake each other up on this planet, to let each other know that we are not all crazy, that nothing is really as it seems, that we have "fallen down the rabbit hole" and are seeing things through a glass darkly, and that if we but say the magic words we can live within this illusory world in a way that can actually begin to make sense, that can bring us joy once again, that can end the largest amount of human suffering, and that can allow us to label as a "success" this human experiment.

The magic words we are invited to invoke are these: Nothing I see is real. The world is the world of my imagining and of my creation. If I wish to change it, all I have to do is change my thought about it. From my thought about the world springs all of my reality.

Then, we have to get OTHERS to say the magic words as well. Ah...that's the real trick. How do we get OTHERS to understand that we are all creating this present reality together---and that it doesn't have to be this way?

How do we get OTHERS to understand that the killing and the fighting are not necessary? That there is ENOUGH. There's enough food, there's enough clothing, there's enough shelter, there's enough energy, there's enough opportunity, there's enough of all we need to be truly happy. There's enough for everybody. All we have to do is share.

What stops us from sharing? Ironically, the idea that there is "not enough." The fear that we are somehow going to "run out" of what we need. If we "run out," then what will we do?

And so, it's all about survival. We think that we need what we need in order to survive, and since there is "not enough" of what we need, we have to do two things: 1. PROTECT the stuff that we have; and, 2. get MORE.

If we thought there was ENOUGH of all that we need to survive and be happy, all of our competitions, all of our conflicts, all of our stress and worry and concern and guarding the gate could end.

I have come here today to bring you the Good News: THERE'S ENOUGH.

Those two simple words are all we need to change our realities. Will we embrace them? Can we believe them? Our lives---and the behaviors OF our lives---will be our answer to those questions.

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We can bring an end to this long global nightmare if we will but change our ways. Mostly we have to change not what we’re doing, but what we’re ignoring.

First, we’re ignoring ourselves. We treat ourselves worse than we treat our cars—and that’s pretty bad.

We don’t go to the doctor for check ups. We don’t eat right. We don’t exercise. Plain and simply, we don’t take care of ourselves.

I’m speaking about most of us now. Clearly, not you. I know that you do all of these things. It’s just most of the rest of us who don’t…

"How we create tomorrow depends on what we do today."

Second, we’re ignoring each other—and each other’s plight. Over 400 children an hour are dying of starvation on this planet. Some 200,000 people were killed in ethnic cleansing, with over a million and a half forced from their homes and now roaming as refugees, in the Darfur region of Sudan. Over 50,000 people have still not found permanent homes after Katrina.

Third, we’re ignoring the worldwide political instability that we all see. Actually, many of us are doing worse than ignoring it. We are actually supporting it. And I won’t even mention the worldwide environmental crisis that looms over all of humankind. (Talking about the ecology is just for sissies, right?)

What can the average person do about any of this? That’s the question that stops us—because, of course, we think that the answer is: nothing.

Yet that is not true.

It is true that we may not be able to do very much to affect things in the short run, but there’s a great deal we can do to affect things in the long run. And that’s where all truly significant change is made anyway.

What we can do in the long run is to work to help humanity expand its belief system, alter its understanding, and enlarge its awareness about who we are, what life is really about, who and what God is, and what God wants from us.

This is not easy work, but it can be done. Because it is not easy, it will require the attention of dedicated, committed people. Many of them. I have often said that if there were a thousand people around the globe willing to do what they could do to make the world a different place, this task could be accomplished within ten years.

But it would take commitment. Real commitment. Commitment of time, talents, and financial resources. I hope that most of you have already made such a commitment and that you have activated it by supporting the efforts of those who work on behalf of all of us to make this a better world. (I also hope that you will consider that the Foundation that sends out this Bulletin every week is one of them.) And whatever you do, remember this: the present moment is as much a time of opportunity as it is a time of danger. How we create tomorrow depends on what we do today. So…as Helen Keller famously urged: Do what you can do.

Things here at the Foundation are pretty calm this week. We all seem to just be working on whatever tasks are at hand and getting through everyday doing what we do with smiles on our faces. That feels really good. There doesn’t seem to be any crisis or fires that are out of control.

Since everything seems to be running smoothly I’m personally headed into three full days off. Actually writing this article is the last thing I’m doing before taking this downtime. This is really rare for me. I’m very much a workaholic and for me to set aside three whole days for myself with nothing to do is almost hard for me. I love my work and my work family, but I’m also clear that rest is really important no matter how uncomfortable and unfamiliar it may be to me.

I think that with all the advances we’ve made in the technology around us there is a level of stress that is elevated in a way that happens where we barely notice it. For instance, with email we no longer wait for the mailman, with online banking there’s hardly a moment between transactions, with cell phones we’re made available 24/7.

Personally I don’t know that I’ve done a very good job of setting up any personal limits or boundaries around these technologies. Email is a never-ending task at hand. I answer the cell phone whenever it rings and I’m lost if I leave it behind. Since I handle the accounting of the Foundation, the evolution of online banking, merchant accounts, and e-commerce fill my days with a constant oversight and observation of what is happing with the finances of this Foundation moment to moment.

What I think happens with all this stuff is that it leads to an underlying tension that’s rather insidious. It’s like it’s always there, but I’ve conditioned myself to ignore it. I’ve just incorporated it into who I am, but it’s not really me.

Several months ago, some layers of my personal onion revealed themselves and I knew that it was time to bite the bullet and really deal with these core issues in a concerted and intentioned way. I got a therapist that does the type of work I knew I need to do and a little later I started with a phenomenal “energy” worker that the therapist referred me to.

What I’m very clear about for myself in this life is that if we’re here for the evolution of our soul and if it is true that our personal stuff can get in the way of that evolution (both of which I believe are absolute truths), then I am committed above all else to do the work necessary to evolve as much as I possibly can.

I’m not very patient in all this process. When something shows up that I need to work on: I want to do it as quickly as possible and I’m willing to immerse myself in it and get to the other side. Unfortunately, much of this type of work takes the time it takes and there’s nothing anyone can do to make it happen faster than it’s going to happen. I find that tedious at best.

At any rate, this immersion in my own personal process coupled with my tendency towards workaholism has led me to a pretty depleted state. In the past, I would just hunker down and muddle through, not taking any time for myself to rest or being very effective in my work, but this time I’ve decided to take the advice of others and just take a few days off.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with myself for these three days, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. One thing I know I’m going to do is shut off this computer as soon as I email this article to Joanna. I don’t think this laptop has been turned off in the last six months. I’m going to put the phone on voice mail. I had Roger set up an auto responder for my email accounts so I don’t feel like there are people out there that are going unattended.

As I sit here and think, “what am I going to do?” the silliest stuff comes to mind, but you know what I really want to do – this is so crazy – you know how the cabinets under your sinks get kind of gunked up with the residue of cleaning products and little spills – well even if you don’t have that under your sinks and you have no idea what I’m talking about – I have that under mine. I see it all the time and I never take the time to take everything out of the cabinet and just clean it. I think it would make me feel really good if I do that sometime in the next three days. I don’t think that’s work. Is it? I think it will please me every time I look in there after it’s done, knowing that it’s one less chore on my never-ending list of things “I need to do”. So I know I’m going do that especially now that I’ve told all of you about it – I have to now.

I’m also going to read a mindless work of fiction. Will gave me a paperback several months ago and he told me it was great, I’m going to take the time to read it. I’m going to catch up on everything I want to watch on my TIVO and best of all I’m going to sleep. I just love to nap.

I hope I do this well. I’ll give you all an update next week on if I succeed in taking some quality time for myself. Are you taking time for yourself? Do you need to? Think about it.

Marion Black, CEO
ReCreation Foundation, Inc.
dba Conversations with God Foundation

PS: My email is marion@cwg.org or my cell number is (541) 301-0365. (“But remember, I won’t respond for the next 3 days!”)

There is nothing mysterious about the universe once you look right at it,
once you see it multi-dimensionally.
This is not easy for most people to do, however, given their limited perspective.

You have placed yourself with a body, inside of Space and Time,
seeing, perceiving and moving in the limited directions
of which the body is capable. Yet your body is not Who You Are,
but something that you have. Time is not something that passes,
but something that you pass through, as you would pass through a room.
And Space is not really “space” at all, as in “a place where there is nothing,”
for no such place exists.

Time IS. It is said that “time marches on,” but time, in fact, marches nowhere.
It is you who march on, you who “move through time,”
you who create the illusion of “time passing”
as you pass through the Only Moment There Is.

And the “Only Moment There Is” is endless, and so, as you move through it,
you have the feeling that you are literally “just passing time,” because you are.

Time is something that you notice sequentially while it exists simultaneously
in all spaces. Space and Time are sequentaneous.
As you move down the Corridors of Time you come to experience
that Space/Time is vast. The “Only Moment There Is” is called
the Space/Time CONTINUUM precisely because
this space/time reality continues to always be.

You, as Pure Spirit, can move through this Singular Reality
(sometimes called The Singularity) in endless cycles
as you continue to experience your Self. You ARE this Singularity.
You are the stuff of which it is made. The Pure Essence. The Energy.
You are an individuation of this energy and this Essence.
You are an “Individuation of the Singularity.”

The Singularity is what some of you call God.
The Individuation is what some of you call You.

You can split your Self up and move through The Singularity
in many different directions. You call these varying movements
through the Space/Time Continuum, “lifetimes.”
These are the Cycles of the Self that reveal the Self TO the Self
through the Cycling OF the Self THROUGH the Self.

Dear Neale,

My name is Ipek and I’m a 17 year old Turkish girl, and because of a reason that I don't know why, I believe in you. I have read three books and I love them, but there are still some questions in my mind. For example, I still don't understand how to change myself, cuz I know that if I want a different life I have to change. But how can I do that?? I tried so hard but... the fact is sometimes it works but sometimes there is something wrong. Everything is very complicated now. I love my world, I love living, I love this life, but there is something absent... can you help me??

By the way, I was a Muslim but now I’m not, because of your books. But my friends think that I'm stupid. I am afraid to tell them but they are dark Muslims and they refuse to read the book. Is there anything that I can do for them??

- A friend in Turkey.

My Dear Ipek,

You have asked a very good question, and it is a question that many, many people have been asking for a very long time: How can I change? When we really hear and apply the answer to that question, the whole world will change. This process can only occur one person at a time, however, and so the trick to changing the world is to change ourselves, each of us in our own way, in the fastest time that we can.

There are several steps that we can take along the way. Let's look at them:

First, we must admit and acknowledge that we really WANT to change--yet we cannot seek change as a means of resisting that which we are now. What we resist persists. That is why all great masters tell us that the fastest way to personal peace is to resist nothing. As the spiritual teacher Da Free John says: "Cease all againstness."

So do not seek to change because you are "against" anything that you are today, but, rather, because you want to become even more; you want to be an even larger version of the greatest vision ever you had about Who You Really Are.

Second, be very clear with yourself about HOW you want to change. Don't just say, "I want to change," but, rather, say, "I want to change the way I eat." Or, "I want to change the way I react when somebody makes me feel impatient." Or, "I want to change how I feel about people who don't agree with me, or who don't share my own views about God and about life." Or maybe, "I want to change how I experience the world, and how I create my life, so that everyone I touch is blessed."

Third, give yourself a time period within which you would like to see this change occur in you. Tell this to yourself: "I would like to change the way I speak to people when I am angry, and I would like to see this change in me by June of 2006." You can just make up this date. It can be any date at all. And it can occur BEFORE that date. You do not have to wait to put this change into effect and to see it in your daily life.

Fourth (and here is the magic part), believe that this change has already occurred, and that you are just waiting for it to be seen by you. Try to see this as something that has already happened, and that you are just waiting to experience!

Fifth, remember that you have God or Allah (both words mean the same thing) on your side, and thank God/Allah in advance for helping you to accomplish what you have decided to do. Say a prayer of gratitude each day. "Thank you, God, for helping me to see that this change has already occurred in me."

Try this formula with one change at a time. Pick a single thing that you would like to see changed, and go about this task one thing at a time like that, until all the changes that you wanted to see in yourself have been experienced. Then go out and change your world.

As for no longer being a Muslim, I want you to know, my wonderful friend, that it is never my intention to move a person away from their personal religion. It is okay if you are no longer a Muslim --- and it is also okay if you still are a Muslim. What really matters is not what religion you belong to, but how you practice the religion that you call your own.

What Conversations with God seeks to do is not to move people away from their religions, but to help people expand their understanding to allow them to see that God and Allah and all the other names that we have for That Which Is Divine are the same thing, and that This One Divine Being loves all of us, and would never want to see ANY of us hurt or damaged or punished in any way if we do not belong to a certain religion. All religions are individual paths to paradise, and each path will take us there. There is no path to paradise that is better than any other path. This is the great secret, and when we learn this, we will never fight or argue or have war in the Name of Allah or in the Name of God again.

I hope this has helped you, Ipek, and I wish you well.

Hugs and love,

Neale.

In Response to Last Week’s Bulletin (Bulletin #187)

Dear Neale,

WOW!! You’ve touched on a subject as important as CwG. Not the Oreo’s, the whole concept of how we can be so magnificent, be one with God, one with each other, yet still live a life operating at 5% of our potential.

I have been reading the book The Path Finder by Nicholas Lore. It really comes down to what you are committed to. And, he goes on to say, that “everyone, for the most part, is committed to comfort, lack of risk, and equilibrium.”

He describes the physiology of what happens when we try to “go outside our box” like changing your eating habits to eat healthier or trying to spread the New Gospel throughout the world!” You create an “imbalance” in your life (something new/different). Your mind immediately kicks into survival mode and says “got to get this body BACK into equilibrium”. It does that by coming up with the “yeah/buts” to move you back into your box, and re-establish your equilibrium.

The secret? Continually live outside your box, which will adjust your equilibrium UP to a higher level.

Neale, obviously (or not!!) you can see that your life now, versus 10 years ago is eons ahead of where you were. You are constantly creating yourself anew, in the grandest version, of the greatest vision you’ve ever held, about Who You Are. And, you inspire others to do the same.

You also just happen to be enjoying an Oreo along the way! OK, maybe too many!

What really impressed me the most, was your transparency. Showing us that you too have these feelings and are not afraid to show them. That’s how we know you are a true messenger from God (as we all are). A Jim Baker, or Pat Robertson, or any of the other “celebrities” from God would never reveal the part of themselves, which is a part of everyone.

Reading your materials has given me the courage to stretch and grow in new understandings of love, and life.

With Sincere gratitude,
Jim, Jacksonville, FL

Jim....I will never be able to tell you how much your email meant to me. Thank you very much for taking the time to write it. With love and hugs....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.

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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.