A Letter to Neale

Dear Neale...

A question: Are we just here as highly evolved animals trying to put a "grander" meaning to things when there is none?

Every time there is a tragic event I attempt to apply these spiritual lessons I've had or book I've read to make sense of it, to comfort me. I must honestly say it doesn't always work--neither the sense of it, nor the comfort.  You start to question, "What am I doing? What does it all really mean?" Is there a G ift  O f D ivinity (GOD) in all this??"

Did God just create a complex system of "eternity" and give it "come what may" attitude, or is there some overall plan with meaning to this system? Does it all come from the idea that we are eternal? To God, what's 40 years when you have eternity? What's 90?

You stated in the CwG books that God created us so He/She can understand the world experientially. Is that the plan? That simple?  That complex?  Perhaps you can only "get it" if you really know eternity. But in human form, we can only imagine the concept of eternity.

As many teachers have said, the soul (higher consciousness) knows, but usually doesn't let us in on it. So if God created this life, this journey, knowing eternity, I think He/She is the only one that gets it! 

You have stated that God says we are here to experience and remember. I don't know what I'm supposed to remember but I would like some say in consciously choosing my experiences.  I can't get my head around eternity. Frankly, I have enough trouble getting my head around "daily," never mind eternity!!!

It is small comfort when dealing with our issues, to be getting out of bed everyday thinking, oh, well, I do have an eternity.

Perhaps the question is whether this entity - this God - is a personal God or not? If there is no plan, just controlled chaos, does that mean there is no Conscious Entity that runs things? Does it mean that the Universe is simply Consciousness, which gives US the ability to be Gods--all knowing, all loving...because the Universe is just that.... unconditional love?

Ah, but then, whom do we yell at? Of whom do we ask favors? Who will care for us? That takes the idea of personal responsibility to whole new level!

OK, So let's say there is a personal God. Then my question to God is, "Why didn't you give us a better than 80/20 chance of overcoming and growing in this journey? Like, even 70/30 would be nice!

If we really are "spiritual beings having a human experience," why is it that everything that is done to us as (human) children stays with us?  We carry it for life. If we are abused physically or emotionally, it STICKS. 

And if you are lucky enough to identify those hidden issues and deal with them, the most we can expect is to learn to live with it. Then we have our shadow selves, unconscious, subconscious, higher conscious. I never know who's   talking.... and to whom to listen. How can we be such wonderful spiritual beings and be such a mess at the same time???

It is hard for us to act in our own best interests because half the time we don't even recognize what our best interests are! This is what makes me think that maybe a personal God didn't create us.

There is a line in an old Bette Davis movie that comes to mind ...she says.... "Jerry, let's not ask for the moon..... we have the stars." So until I can overcome whatever I must overcome, experience what I am here to experience in this journey, I   will try to remember.... I may not have the moon, but I have the stars.

And I do hope there is a personal God. It does sound better to say "God help us"  than "Universe help us"!

Thank you, Mr. Walsch, for all that you do.

Barbara, PA

Neale Responds

My Dear Barbara...

You are asking all the right questions!

These are the questions that I have been asking all of my life, and that most of humanity has been asking since the beginning of time. And God has been answering these questions right along. It's just that we haven't been listening.

Barbara, I want you to read What God Wants. It is clear to me that you have not read this book yet, because all of your questions are answered there.

I'm going to take just a snippet or two out of that book to respond to your questions here. Then I hope you will be moved to read the entire text, and that you will savor it forever, and share it with every person you know.

Let me quote you here one passage in particular that seems very relevant...

   Huston Smith, in his book The World's Religions , tells us that in Sufism the declaration There is no god but God was long ago changed to There is nothing but God.

    I'll admit that to some, this idea may be worrisome. If there is Only One Thing That Is, then everything and everyone must be part of that One Thing--which means that the sense of having someone else to go to in moments of stress and times of trouble would be lost.

   Where would one receive comfort, courage, wisdom and strength? Where would one go for answers? To whom would one plead for a desired outcome? To whom could one complain...and know that the complaint was received with gentleness and love?

   The happy news is that everyone can still go to God for all of these reasons. Just because God is everything doesn't mean that God has to stop being any part of what God always was. It means that God now gets to be even more--or more correctly, that you get to experience even more of God.

   People can still go to God for comfort or wisdom. They can still ask God for what they need. Or they can thank God in advance for what they are about to receive. And they can complain to God as loudly as they ever did. They can question God and they can even argue with God. They can now do this without fear, in the tradition of Abraham and Moses, in the tradition of Jesus, in the tradition of Muhammad, and of all the great masters who have truly understood God. For how do you truly understand God without questioning a little, arguing a little?

   Is it possible for "regular people" to understand God, and to know What God Wants ? You bet it is. You do not have to be an Ascended Master or a Living Saint in order to do this. Regular, ordinary, everyday people can do it. You can do it, and so can I. You're taking a big step in doing it right now.

   There are those who don't want you to think that you can do it. They will tell you that even attempting to do it is a blasphemy. But that is inaccurate. That is simply not true. God would not create a world He did not want us to understand, a life He did not want us to comprehend, or an experience of Divinity He did not want us ever to know. What would be the point of that?

   You will be open to the possibility of truly understanding God the moment you close yourself to its impossibility.

Let go of the idea that a God who can't possibly be understood is What God Wants. If you can do that, your understanding of God will change forever. This is, by the way, going to happen for humanity. It is not a question of whether, it is a question of when.

   The fact that humanity's understanding of God will change will not mean that anything has to change in the way humans approach God, however. What might change is the way God approaches humans. Or, more accurately, the way people believe that God does.

   Currently, people believe that God approaches humans in the same way that humans approach God--generally with a shopping list. There are things that human beings want, and they ask God for them. There are things that God wants, and He asks humans for them. It's a trade deal. You give me this and I'll give you that. You don't give me what I want and I won't give you what you want. You want to get to heaven, but you can't unless you give Me what I want. This is roughly how humanity has it set out. It's perhaps a simplistic way of saying it, but that's basically it.

The only thing is, that's not the way it is.

If God could send only one Message to the World, and He was told that He had to keep it to one sentence, I think I know what that sentence would be.

You've got me all wrong.

And if the world really believed that it was God speaking, that sentence would create a miracle, because it would throw the discussion about God and about What God Wants wide open again. A discussion that everyone thought was closed would be re-engaged. That could only be good for humanity. Theology might even expand again, like every other body of knowledge.

The fastest ways for humans to expand their theology is for humans to expand their mind. This process can begin by asking the two Basic Questions of Theology, and then following those questions with a daring What if....?

1. Who and What is God?

2. What does God want, and why?

Now, what if the standard answers to those questions--the answers humanity has heard for centuries--were incomplete? What if they were inaccurate? What if who and what you thought God is, God is not? What if what you thought God wants, God does not?

You have been offered answers to the two Basic Questions of Theology here. You are invited now to carefully reconsider those answers.

1. God is life, and everything in life.

2. God wants nothing, because God has, and is , everything that God could possibly want.

It's Unity Theology that produces these answers. Separation Theology could never do so. What would prove extraordinarily beneficial right now would be a shift in humanity's thinking from the second to the first. Such a shift would produce an end to the outcomes that only separation could inspire.

Now, Barbara, with regard to your comments about a belief in eternity being necessary for humans to be able to understand, and WITHstand, the events of everyday life...you are correct. That is why every major religion on the earth teaches of a life that is eternal.  

What may be the most extraordinary teaching of all about this truth has been given to humanity in the final Conversations with God dialogue book, HOME WITH GOD In a Life That Never Ends.

I highly, highly, highly recommend it.   It not only explores the concept of Eternity in exquisite detail, it explains the reason that all souls journey continuously from the Spiritual to the Physical Realm and back again. I would not attempt to answer that question in detail here, as it truly does take a whole book's worth of words to do so. But the answer is well, well worth it.

Don't get frustrated with these questions, Barbara. Keep asking! Keep asking! Always live within the question.   That is the way of all Masters.

Love,