posted March 16, 2014 03:42 PM            

by Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God

Once upon no time, there was a little Soul who said to God, “I know who I am.”

And God said, "That's wonderful! Who are you?"

And the Little Soul shouted, "I'm the Light!"

God smiled a big smile. "That's right!" God exclaimed. "You are the Light."

The Little Soul was so happy, for it had figured out what all the souls in the Kingdom were there to figure out.

"Wow," said the Little Soul, "this is really cool!"

But soon, knowing who it was, was not enough. The Little Soul felt stirrings inside, and now wanted to be who it was. And so the Little Soul went back to God (which is not a bad idea for all souls who want to be Who They Really Are) and said,

"Hi, God! Now that I know Who I am, is it okay for me to be it?"

And God said, "You mean you want to be Who You Already Are?"

"Well," replied the Little Soul," it's one thing to know Who I Am, and another thing altogether to actually be it. I want to feel what it's like to be the Light!"

"But you already are the Light," God repeated, smiling again.

"Yes, but I want to see what that feels like!" cried the Little Soul.

"Well," said God with a chuckle, "I suppose I should have known. You always were the adventuresome one."

Then God's expression changed. "There's only one thing..."

"What?" asked the Little Soul.

"Well, there is nothing else but the Light. You see, I created nothing but what you are; and so, there is no easy way for you to experience yourself as Who You Are, since there is nothing that you are not."

"Huh?" said the Little Soul, who was now a little confused.

"Think of it this way," said God. "You are like a candle in the Sun. Oh, you're there all right. Along with a million, gazillion other candles who make up the Sun. And the sun would not be the Sun without you. Nay, it would be a sun without one of its candles...and that would not be the Sun at all; for it would not shine as brightly. Yet, how to know yourself as the Light when you are amidst the Light -that is the question."

"Well," the Little Soul perked up, "you're God. Think of something!"

Once more God smiled. "I already have," God said. "Since you cannot see yourself as the Light when you are in the Light, we'll surround you with darkness."

"What's darkness?" the Little Soul asked.

God replied, "It is that which you are not."

"Will I be afraid of the dark?" cried the Little Soul.

"Only if you choose to be," God answered. "There is nothing, really, to be afraid of, unless you decide that there is. You see, we are making it all up. We are pretending."

"Oh," said the Little Soul, and felt better already.

Then God explained that, in order to experience anything at all, the exact opposite of it will appear.

"It is a great gift," God said, "because without it, you could not know what anything is like. You could not know Warm without Cold, Up without Down, Fast without Slow. You could not know Left without Right, Here without There, Now without Then."

"And so," God concluded, "when you are surrounded with darkness, do not shake your fist and raise your voice and curse the darkness. Rather be a Light unto the darkness, and don't be mad about it. Then you will know Who You Really Are, and all others will know, too. Let your Light shine so that everyone will know how special you are!"

"You mean it's okay to let others see how special I am?" asked the Little Soul.

"Of course!" God chuckled. "It's very okay! But remember, 'special' does not mean 'better.' Everybody is special, each in their own way! Yet many others have forgotten that. They will see that it is okay for them to be special only when you see that it is okay for you to be special."

"Wow," said the Little Soul, dancing and skipping and laughing and jumping with joy. "I can be as special as I want to be!"

"Yes, and you can start right now," said God, who was dancing and skipping and laughing right along with the Little Soul.

"What part of special do you want to be?"

"What part of special?" the Little Soul repeated. "I don't understand."

"Well," God explained, "being the Light is being special, and being special has a lot of parts to it. It is special to be kind. It is special to be gentle. It is special to be creative. It is special to be patient. Can you think of any other ways it is special to be?"

The Little Soul sat quietly for a moment. "I can think of lots of ways to be special!" the Little Soul then exclaimed. "It is special to be helpful. It is special to be sharing. It is special to be friendly. It is special to be considerate of others!"

"Yes!" God agreed, "and you can be all of those things, or any part of special you wish to be, at any moment. That's what it means to be the Light."

"I know what I want to be, I know what I want to be!" the Little Soul announced with great excitement. "I want to be the part of special called 'forgiving'. Isn't it special to be forgiving?"

"Oh, yes," God assured the Little Soul. "That is very special."

"Okay," said the Little Soul. "That's what I want to be. I want to be forgiving. I want to experience myself as that."

"Good," said God, "but there's one thing you should know."

The Little Soul was becoming a bit impatient now. It always seemed as though there were some complication.

"What is it?" the Little Soul sighed.

"There is no one to forgive."

"No one?" The Little Soul could hardly believe what had been said.

"No one!" God repeated. "Everything I have made is perfect. There is not a single soul in all creation less perfect than you. Look around you."

It was then that the Little Soul realized a large crowd had gathered. Souls had come from far and wide ~ from all over the Kingdom ~ for the word had gone forth that the Little Soul was having this extraordinary conversation with God, and everyone wanted to hear what they were saying. Looking at the countless other souls gathered there, the Little Soul had to agree. None appeared less wonderful, less magnificent, or less perfect than the Little Soul itself. Such was the wonder of the souls gathered around, and so bright was their Light, that the Little Soul could scarcely gaze upon them.

"Who, then, to forgive?" asked God.

"Boy, this is going to be no fun at all!" grumbled the Little Soul. "I wanted to experience myself as One Who Forgives. I wanted to know what that part of special felt like."

And the Little Soul learned what it must feel like to be sad. But just then a Friendly Soul stepped forward from the crowd.

"Not to worry, Little Soul," the Friendly Soul said, "I will help you."

"You will?" the Little Soul brightened. "But what can you do?"

"Why, I can give you someone to forgive!"

"You can?"

"Certainly!" chirped the Friendly Soul. "I can come into your next lifetime and do something for you to forgive."

"But why? Why would you do that?" the Little Soul asked. "You, who are a Being of such utter perfection! You, who vibrate with such a speed that it creates a Light so bright that I can hardly gaze upon you! What could cause you to want to slow down your vibration to such a speed that your bright Light would become dark and dense? What could cause you ~ who are so light that you dance upon the stars and move through the Kingdom with the speed of your thought--to come into my life and make yourself so heavy that you could do this bad thing?"

"Simple," the Friendly Soul said. "I would do it because I love you."

The Little Soul seemed surprised at the answer.

"Don't be so amazed," said the Friendly Soul, "you have done the same thing for me. Don't you remember? Oh, we have danced together, you and I, many times. Through the eons and across all the ages have we danced. Across all time and in many places have we played together. You just don't remember."

"We have both been All Of It. We have been the Up and the Down of it, the Left and the Right of it. We have been the Here and the There of it, the Now and the Then of it. We have been the male and the female, the good and the bad; we have both been the victim and the villain of it."

"Thus have we come together, you and I, many times before; each bringing to the other the exact and perfect opportunity to Express and to Experience Who We Really Are. And so," the Friendly Soul explained further, "I will come into your next lifetime and be the 'bad one' this time. I will do something really terrible, and then you can experience yourself as the One Who Forgives."

"But what will you do?" the Little Soul asked, just a little nervously, "that will be so terrible?"

"Oh," replied the Friendly Soul with a twinkle, "we'll think of something."

Then the Friendly Soul seemed to turn serious, and said in a quiet voice, "You are right about one thing, you know."

"What is that?" the Little Soul wanted to know.

"I will have to slow down my vibration and become very heavy to do this not-so-nice thing. I will have to pretend to be something very unlike myself. And so, I have but one favour to ask of you in return."

"Oh, anything, anything!" cried the Little Soul, and began to dance and sing, "I get to be forgiving, I get to be forgiving!"

Then the Little Soul saw that the Friendly Soul was remaining very quiet.

"What is it?" the Little Soul asked. "What can I do for you? You are such an angel to be willing to do this for me!"

"Of course this Friendly Soul is an angel!" God interrupted. "Everyone is! Always remember: I have sent you nothing but angels."

And so the Little Soul wanted more than ever to grant the Friendly Soul's request. "What can I do for you?" the Little Soul asked again.

"In the moment that I strike you and smite you," the Friendly Soul replied, "in the moment that I do the worst to you that you could possible imagine ~ in that very moment..."

"Yes?" the Little Soul interrupted, "yes...?"

"Remember Who I Really Am."

"Oh, I will!" cried the Little Soul, "I promise! I will always remember you as I see you right here, right now!"

"Good," said the Friendly Soul, "because, you see, I will have been pretending so hard, I will have forgotten myself. And if you do not remember me as I really am, I may not be able to remember for a very long time. And if I forget Who I Am, you may even forget Who You Are, and we will both be lost. Then we will need another soul to come along and remind us both of Who We Are."

"No, we won't!" the Little Soul promised again. "I will remember you! And I will thank you for bringing me this gift ~ the chance to experience myself as Who I Am."

And so, the agreement was made. And the Little Soul went forth into a new lifetime, excited to be the Light, which was very special, and excited to be that part of special called Forgiveness.

And the Little Soul waited anxiously to be able to experience itself as Forgiveness, and to thank whatever other soul made it possible. And at all the moments in that new lifetime, whenever a new soul appeared on the scene, whether that new soul brought joy or sadness--and especially if it brought sadness--the Little Soul thought of what God had said.

posted March 16, 2014 08:44 PM            

I've seen it time and time again.

Another thing, if you look deeply within yourself, and think of all the little atoms spinning around and the fact that all those little parts spin and work together as a whole, they are comprised of a galaxy called you.

When one part of that galaxy shuts down and refuses to work with the rest, or actively works against the rest, we have a problem.

When one part is working in a synergistic fashion, who wins?

The Whole.

So, it's like Karma; you make all these high-flung theories and all, but basically you are talking

Action.

That's what Karma means, Action. So, if you are putting out nothing but positive Action, that is what will come back to you. You are not responsible for the actions of others, we are all called to terms for our own acts.

Really, if you are angry and retaliate in kind, you are only hurting yourself and your world as a whole.

So, it's better to put out good energy as a whole.

posted March 16, 2014 11:06 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Ellynlvx:
But see, the thing is when you judge others, you tend to experience what they are going through, so you can understand and have compassion for the situation.

I've seen it time and time again.

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What I think you're actually noticing isn't people becoming what they judge but judging those who are what they are, at least somewhat. For example, an adulterer or child molester who puts down gays, or even a closeted gay person who is hostile to others who are openly gay. But they don't become that, rather they judge because of what they already are but can't handle in themselves so they look for others to project into or at least feel better than and the extreme cases are brilliantly described in People of the Lie. At least that's how it looks to me.

Or alternately I'd think you're speaking purely of trivial matters (like not doing one's chores when one's supposed to and leaving it for someone else, refusing to obey traffic laws and common courtesy on the streets, spreading unproven gossip just because it's too juicy, snapping at someone in irritation, etc) in which case pretty much everyone is going to do it sooner or later whether or not they hold grudges against others for doing the same thing.

posted March 16, 2014 11:16 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Ellynlvx:
Really, if you are angry and retaliate in kind, you are only hurting yourself and your world as a whole

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I agree with this written about a Lesson in Karma which seems to echo what you're saying:
http://www.deepleafproductions.com/wilsonlibrary/texts/raw-karma.html

quote:

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Then, returning from school one afternoon, Luna was beaten and robbed by a gang of black kids. She was weeping and badly frightened when she arrived home, and her Father was shaken by the unfairness of it happening to her, such a gentle, ethereal child. In the midst of consoling her, the Father wandered emotionally and began denouncing the idea of Karma. Luna was beaten, he said, not for her sins, but for the sins of several centuries of slavers and racists, most of whom had never themselves suffered for those sins. "Karma is a blind machine," he said. "The effects of evil go on and on but they don't necessarily come back on those who start the evil." Then Father got back on the track and said some more relevant and consoling things.

The next day Luna was her usual sunny and cheerful self, just like the Light in her paintings. "I'm glad you're feeling better," the Father said finally.

"I stopped the wheel of Karma," she said. "All the bad energy is with the kids who beat me up. I'm not holding any of it."

And she wasn't. The bad energy had entirely passed by, and there was no anger or fear in her. I never saw her show any hostility to blacks after the beating, any more than before.

The Father fell in love with her all over again. And he understood what the metaphor of the wheel of Karma really symbolizes and what it means to stop the wheel.

Karma, in the original Buddhist scriptures, is a blind machine; in fact, it is functionally identical with the scientific concept of natural law. Sentimental ethical ideas about justice being built into the machine, so that those who do evil in one life are punished for it in another life, were added later by theologians reasoning from their own moralistic prejudices. Buddha simply indicated that all the cruelties and injustices of the past are still active: their effects are always being felt. Similarly, he explained, all the good of the past, all the kindness and patience and love of decent people is also still being felt.
Since most humans are still controlled by fairly robotic reflexes, the bad energy of the past far outweighs the good, and the tendency of the wheel is to keep moving in the same terrible direction, violence breeding more violence, hatred breeding more hatred, war breeding more war. The only way to "stop the wheel" is to stop it inside yourself, by giving up bad energy and concentrating on the positive. This is by no means easy, but once you understand what Gurdjieff called "the horror of our situation," you have no choice but to try, and to keep on trying.

And Luna, at 13, understood this far better than I did, at 43, with all my erudition and philosophy.... I still regarded her absolute vegetarianism and pacifism as sentimentality.

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OTOH, anger has motivated several positive changes in our society. It wasn't love and acceptance that moved our world to greater equality and individual empowerment (and ending things like legalized slavery), that lifted us up from stark tyranny, it was anger against the injustices of the world that did it. Furthermore, there are demented and evil people who will take advantage of concepts as forgiveness and even justify their evil under the guise of karma and such (IIRC, though I may be confusing it with another mass murder, the sarin attack by a Japanese cult included references to karma and divine love in why they did it which sounds similar to the parable in the OP).

And if you believe the parable in the OP then one of the best things you can do is not only forgive but to inflict suffering on others so that they can forgive you. I expect the philosophy is to intended to make people feel better about the bad that happens to them yet I know it also helps others justify the "cruel to be kind" pain they inflict on their victims, too (either as a laugh or sincerely believing it).

And I've seen such "lessons" preached to make a person feel obligated to suffer and eternally forgive, like some misguided spiritual person a century ago who said all battered women deserved what they got because if only she loved enough then he wouldn't batter her as what she projected controlled his actions (or words to that effect), which of course makes the woman fully to blame while also fully disempowered at the same time. I'd hope no one would buy into such a concept (but they do, even today), and I'd hope men would be insulted by the implications that they are puppets to the feelings of women.

Likewise, anger saves lives of people in trouble, both of the self and of others. Anger under the right circumstances is not only survival, it's a virtue.

But like everything--including love and forgiveness--there are healthy and unhealthy manifestations of it. Finding the right balance and the right time for each can be difficult, and sometimes there are no easy answers, only the lesser evil (hopefully clearly seen and not mistaken) can be chosen. Sometimes acting on anger, let alone justice, is the best way to prevent harm while other times it's best to let the water flow under the bridge and let it go, and knowing when to do which is as much an art as a learning process.

posted March 17, 2014 01:18 AM            

People you have no respect for after a major growth process, or those who have been abusive in some way towards you and repeat familial patterns, yes, they are are there for a reason, to awaken something inside you and trigger change........but "enemies".......not really. Never.

posted March 17, 2014 02:17 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by T:
.......anyone who still thinks in terms of friend or foe

still has quite a long way to go..........

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I think that way, that is there are people I consider friends & foes. But only a few people have earned a label in either. It's true that enemies can help you grow along with friends but that doesn't make them teachers you should value, no more than a hurricane or maybe a predator hunting you at best.

posted March 17, 2014 02:44 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Randall:
"Always remember," God had smiled, "I have sent you nothing but angels."

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I just recalled this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK9qfVQ4Z04

Yet in light of the parable then that serial killer would've been an angel God/dess sent after Its victims as well. Because, deep down, they wanted God/dess to kill them or kill their loved ones, it was why they were born, to be murdered or to know the grief of it.

posted March 17, 2014 04:27 AM            

A goddess once told me I had to be strong, let the trials of my life temper me (and not be "like those seeking to be eternal children of their gods forever trying to crawl back into the womb that spit them out") so I could stand with Her against the giants of Ragnarok. But I never thought of the goddess inflicting those people and disasters on me, she was just working with what she had, at worst she was throwing me into the shark-filled ocean and telling me to sink or swim (but saying she hopes I swim), not that she sent rapists and thrill killers after me just to make me stronger. My perspective would be quite different if I thought such trials were intentionally set against me (especially if I thought it was so I "had the opportunity to forgive"!).

What comes to mind in that case is how Conan responded when a holy man (or whatever you want to call him) says his slaughtering Conan's village when Conan was a child, beheading Conan's mother right in front of him, selling him into brutal slavery, etc, made him who he was:
http://youtu.be/yhy9--YRBD8?t=57s

And don't give me the BS about "God doesn't give us more than we can handle," people break and die every single day (and some Ancient Greeks thought the lucky ones were those who died a relatively painless death while young before worn away by life). If you do believe that, and the above, then send that statement of belief along with the parable above to Adam Lanza's father who now says he wish his son had never been born so he can remember Adam was an angel sent by God and be glad for helping bring it about. And forward it to the families of the murdered children and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary so they can remember the living & dead "handle" it well (or God wouldn't have made it happen) and that they are to forgive because they CHOSE this, should be grateful, and that God has sent them "nothing but angels," one of those angels named Adam Lanza.

posted March 17, 2014 04:41 AM            

THIS makes a lot more sense with a similar point, though it doesn't purport to be truth...this is a couple of passages from Pages of Pain, not one that I'd recommend as you'd need to be familiar with the setting for it to make any kind of sense to you, but hopefully you can see how the point is similar about pain being necessary and good for us and makes more sense than that parable. But you do have to understand that an enigmatic, unknowable entity (one that can kill gods) called the Lady of Pain (aka Her Serenity) rules a bizarre city of medieval fantasy & epic myths come to life (with just a touch of Victorian sensibilities) that connects to every plane of existence (that is every world and spiritual vibration, including ours), every world, every Heaven, every Hell, which makes it a dangerous & intriguing city to say the least, and only the vigilance of the Lady of Pain keeps it from being torn apart by unimaginable powers of good and evil alike that want it. And here she speaks on the Pain of the Multiverse:

quote:

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Whenever my denizens [unknowingly and not knowing] brush up against me, tiny white welts rise on their skin. Before my eyes, these blisters swell into thumb-shaped pods. They begin to grow more slowly, then sprout dozens of hooked spines. As the crowd mills about, the barbs catch hold of anything they touch, and the husks pass to fresh carriers. They continue to enlarge and soon latch onto someone new, then someone else after that, and it is not long before a sea of bulging pods is spreading steadily outward around me.

My denizens continue to bustle about their business. They cannot see the pods, nor feel the extra weight, nor even smell the fetid reek that clings to their bodies. Only I perceive the husks, slowly swelling and turning emerald and gold and ruby and jet; only I see them oozing yellow ichor and starting to throb like hearts.

Thus are the four Pains spread through the multiverse--agony, anguish, misery, and despair--to ripen and burst and bring low the mighty and the meek alike. From whence they come, I do not remember. It may be that I create them myself, or that they rise from some hidden place deeper and blacker than the bottom layer of the Abyss, where the smoke hangs thick as rock and death is the sweetest memory. I can only say there is a void in my chest where I once had a heart, and from this emptiness springs all the suffering in the multiverse.

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The Lady says they're a gift. She explains why they're gifts later on, emphasis added:

quote:

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The prayer is, I think, the most beautiful ever uttered in Sigil. How it speaks to me! Of reckless yearnings pursued unto misery, of secret lusts that are themselves unbearable torments. Pleasure and pain, they are one; hope nurtures the despair, love breeds loss, joy begets sorrow--this Thrasson, he knows me for the thing I am. His fine words I would forgive, if I could.

But this is Sigil. Here, no god may enter--and if the Thrasson prays to me, what do I become but a god?

It must not be. The doors would open: the city itself would crumble, and there I would stand, one alone against all the gods of the multiverse. With chains of starlight and axes of fire, they would come for me, the bad and the good, and make a war to sunder the planes themselves.

What then? With Pain caged in the deepest Abyss and bound to the will of Demogorgon or Diinkarazan or some other god of wickedness, what then? I will tell you: tyranny and cowardice, darkness in every plane, and fear in every breath; a single foul ruler himself ruled by hungers, foul beyond imagining, all the multiverse his to pillage and to ravish as he desires.

And worse still, if good prevails: endless worlds of endless ease, with no suffering to build strength, no anguish to breed courage, no fear to foster cunning; a multiverse of middling passions and bland hungers, where nothing is ventured because nothing can be lost, where no anger is consuming, no love passionate, and no life worth living.

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