Today’s message is one that reflects some of the private conversations that so many of us have had with God. Whether we pray on our knees, talk to ourselves while driving, or cry quietly and simply ask ‘Why?’, today’s message touches on many of the questions that we so often don’t know how to answer, but that seem to come up again and again as we experience humanity.

Some people try to explain that evil does not exist, or that it is merely a psychological factor. But this is not so. The evidence of evil is here in this world. We cannot deny it. If there is no evil, why would Jesus pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”? He is praying plainly that evil does exist.

So the truth is, we do find evil in this world. And where did it come from? God. Evil provides the opportunity for us to recognize and experience goodness. Evil had to be, if there was to be any creation. If you wrote a message with white chalk on a white board, no one would see it. So without the blackboard, the good things in this world wouldn’t be visible. For instance, Judas was Jesus’ best publicity agent. By his evil act, Judas made Christ eternally famous. Jesus knew the role he had to play, and all that was going to happen to him in order that he might demonstrate the love and greatness of God. A villain was necessary to this enactment.

Perfection is not to be found in this world

It’s hard to know where the dividing line is between good and evil. Certainly it is terrible that bacteria kills billions people every hundred years, but think of the chaos of overpopulation. And if everything here were good and perfect, no one would leave this Earth of his or her own accord; no one would want to go back to God. So in a sense, misery is your best friend, because it starts you seeking God. When you begin to see clearly the imperfection of the world, you will begin to seek the perfection of God. The truth is that God is using evil, not to destroy us, but to make us disillusioned with His toys, with the playthings of this world, so that we might see Him.

This is why the Lord Himself permits injustices and evil. But I have said to Him, “Lord, You have always been perfect. How do you know what suffering is? Yet you have put us through these tests; and you had no business doing it. We didn’t ask to be born as mortals and to suffer.” (He doesn’t mind that I argue with him. He is very patient.) The Lord answered, “You don’t have to go on suffering; I have given everyone the free will to choose good instead of evil.”

So evil is the test of God, to see if we will choose Him or His gifts. He created us in His image and gave us the power to choose for ourselves. But we so often don’t use that power consciously. At night, when we leave our bodies during sleep, we all return to our Godlike states. But in the daytime, we become devils – not all of us, but most of us – the unconscious among us. Why not live in tune with God in the daytime, for then we shall know no fear, we shall know no evil. It is easy to say this, but how easy is it to put into practice?

While evil in itself is something we don’t want, yet it is like a poisoned honey, it is palpable, it is tasty. At the table, we are tempted to eat too much, and to eat the wrong things. Then we begin to get fat here and there, just where we don’t want it. In response to our wrong actions, Nature takes revenge and seems to be poking fun at us all the time. It is indeed a funny world! But the results of our wrong actions don’t seem very funny to us! Believe me, I know! This is why many of us quarrel with God and scold Him, “Why have you created all of these terrible temptations that your children succumb to? Why have you made them so pleasurable?” Well, the lesson is simple: the Law of Cause and Effect.

So, since there is no perfection in this world, why continue to seek it here? You may find a little short-lived pleasure, but mostly you will find suffering and injustice. Pain was given to make you know when something is wrong with the body. But when the pain of cancer comes, there is no reason in it. The sufferer has no relief from his pain, and he doesn’t know why he has to suffer. And there are those who need money and can’t get it, and those who don’t need it who easily acquire more. Those who have much want still more; and those who have nothing want just a little, but can’t get even that. Isn’t this true? Why these injustices? Some people are as healthy as can be, and some are always sick. But health or disease doesn’t necessarily determine whether or not you are happy. St. Francis suffered much of the time, yet he was healing the sick and was filled with the joy of God. Suffering has a different meaning for you when you have attained the freedom of God. But you have to attain that freedom first.

We must learn to work without desire, and to live in this world without attachment. As soon as you are caught up in desires and attachments, you will have all the evil that is coming to you. That is why the Gita says “O Arjuna! No (compelling) duty have I to perform! There is naught that I have not acquired! Nothing in the three worlds remains for me to gain! Yet I am consciously present in the performance of all actions.” Those who want to be liberated must do likewise, engaging in service-ful, joyful, and non-attached activity. Most people willingly work hard for money, but they won’t make even a little effort for their salvation. We must work for God. The way to do this is to stop cooperating with evil and to behave as God would have us behave.

We must love one another. Sometimes it is not easy, but to love your enemy means to choose not to become another person’s enemy. By a thought, any one of us could destroy another, but why would we want to? Jesus had that power. When his enemies taunted him to save himself from the cross, he said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” He conquered by love. If the ordinary man is slapped, the great desire is to slap back. Therefore, God does not give His divine power to those who are spiritually weak, because they would misuse it. The desire and the strength to forgive comes from attunement with God.

How few you find in this world who are sincere and who want to be your friend for your sake, and not for something they can take from you. Those sincere souls are most enjoyable. Greater than all riches is true friendship. If you can be a true friend to people, you will find God. If you sincerely love people, you can know them, just as when you look through a clear glass, you can see what is in the glass. But your perception of people is unclear unless you love God, and unless you love others with the love of God.

“I can give my life for a sincere soul”

In this world, we will all eventually learn that we must be fearless, sincere, and surround ourselves not only with those whom we can inspire, but with those who can inspire us as well. When we attain heightened levels of clarity, we can begin to help those who are ‘evil’, but trying to do this when we are not yet strong enough ourselves will weaken us. So many of those who try to reform others become infected with their evil.

If you have a mind that absorbs everything like blotting paper, you must keep that mind free from evil influences. Just as blotter paper that has become snaked with spilled oil will no longer absorb water, so must your mind first be saturated with good until it becomes impervious to evil.

Be strong in your own goodness, and try to be helpful to others. The man who only looks out for himself and his own family won’t find much happiness. If he doesn’t think of anyone else who might be suffering, he denies himself the joy of helping another, so his own cup of satisfaction will remain small.

The Cosmic Motion Picture

There is another angle to duality, or good and evil. If a movie producer made motion pictures only from select angles, and showed them in the film houses morning, noon and night every day, he would soon have to close-up business. He has to produce variety in order to attract people’s attention. The bad man makes the hero look so much better! And we like plots that are filled with action. We don’t mind looking at exciting movies about danger and disaster because we know that they are only movies. I remember one time when I was taken to see a movie in which the hero died; it was such a tragedy! So I stayed and watched the next showed until I saw the hero alive again, then I left the theater.

If you could see what is going on behind the screen of this life, you wouldn’t suffer at all. It is a cosmic motion picture show. This movie that God is projecting on the screen of this Earth has no value once you see what goes on behind the screens. Look at the beam of God’s light that is projecting these scenes onto the screen of life. See the pictures of the whole universe coming from this beam. See beyond the illusion.

Another time, I was sitting in a movie theater watching an exciting drama on the screen. At a certain point, I looked up into the projection booth and saw that the projectionist wasn’t interested in the picture, because he had seen it over and over again. Instead, he was reading a book. The projection machine was doing its job; there was the sound, and the beam of light was casting the realistic pictures onto the screen. And there was the audience, caught up in the drama. I thought, “Lord, You are like this man, sitting here in the booth, absorbed in your own nature of bliss and love and wisdom. Your machine of cosmic law is throwing on the screen of the universe scenes of jealousy, of love, of hatred, of wisdom, but you remain uninvolved in your plays.” From age to age, from civilization to civilization, the same old pictures are shown over and over again, only with different characters playing the parts.

When I took my gaze from the beam of light that was casting the scenes on the screen, I looked at the audience and I saw that they were going through all the emotions of the actors in the movie. They were suffering with the hero and reacting to the evil of the villain. To the audience, it was a tragic experience. To the operator in the projection booth, it was only a picture. And so it is with God. He has created pictures of light and shadows, the hero and the villain, good and evil, and we are the audience and the actors. It is only when we identify with the play that we get in trouble!

Without shadows existing alongside the light, there could be no picture. Evil is the shadow that converts the one beam of God’s light into pictures or forms. Therefore, evil is the shadow of God that makes this play possible. The dark shadows of evil are interspersed with the pure white beam of the virtues of God. He wants you not to take these pictures so seriously. The director of a movie sees the murders and the suffering and the comedy and the drama as a means to create interest for the audience. He stands apart from the play and directs and observes it. God wants us to behave with detachment, realizing we are only actors or observers in His cosmic show.

Though God has everything, it can still be said that he has some desire: He wants to see who will remain un-intimidated by this picture, and who will play his part well and come back to Him. You can’t run away from this universe, but if you act in this play with your thought fixed on God, you will be free.

If you feel like saying to God, “Lord, this is a motion picture to you, but it is terrible to us”, He may reply, “I make you realize it is a dream every night when you go to sleep. You simply forget this in the daytime.”

For him who realizes God, there is no evil

The way to supreme happiness will not be found by the scientists nor the material-minded people alone, but by those who follow the masters who say: “Go back to the booth of the Infinite from which you can see the projection of all these cosmic motion pictures. Then you won’t be troubled about God’s creation, God’s play…”

When you are part of the delusion, you suffer.
When you stand aside and watch it, you cannot suffer.
When you are an observer, you can enjoy this play.

And with that, a little story to end today’s message:

A king fell asleep and dreamed that he was poor. He was crying out in his sleep for just a penny for some food. Finally, the queen woke him and said, “What is the matter with you? Your treasury is full of gold, and yet you are crying for a penny.”

Then the king said, “Oh, how silly of me, I thought I was a beggar and was starving for lack of that penny.”

Such is the delusion of every soul that is dreaming it is a mortal, subject to the nightmarish evils of all kinds of disease, suffering, troubles, and heartbreaks. The only way to escape this nightmare is detaching from the dream images of this world. It is because you have your attention on the illusions that you suffer. If you give your heart to man, or to drink, or to greed, or to drugs, you will suffer. Your heart will be broken. The more you seek peace in God, the more peace will devour your worries and sufferings. Suffering comes when the evils of the world are let in. When we learn to be spiritually tough, we enable ourselves to be filled with joy, and thus, evil-free.

Mastering the Law of Manifestation is one of the most essential spiritual practices for a student on the path. Following are many principles that serve as the foundation for mastery of this important law.

1. The first part of the Law of Manifestation is that we must learn to manifest with all three of our minds – the conscious, subconscious and superconscious minds – using them in perfect harmony, balance and integration.
2. Awareness that we ARE the soul and NOT the personality is essential. If we manifest from the consciousness of personality, we will see ourselves as separate from our brothers and sisters – indeed, from creation itself. That is an illusion.
3. Do no be attached to what you are praying for or are trying to manifest, or you will end up repelling it from yourself. Make your choice for manifesting a preference, not an attachment.
4. Surrender your prayer request to God and leave it in God’s hands, accepting whatever comes your way. A very useful mantra that I use to assist me in the process of manifestation is: “In the name of God, I place … on the Alter of the Divine, and ask the Masters of Love and Light to take care of the situation in a way that benefits the Highest Good of All.” With these words, you express your preference, and then surrender to the outcome that is for the greatest good.
5. All that exists is perfection. God created us and we are perfect.
6. The thoughts and images that we hold in our mind create our reality. God’s universe is abundant and limitless. We attract either poverty or abundance, depending on the attitude we hold.
7. Have faith. After we pray, know that our prayer has been heard and that God’s laws have been invoked.
8. Everything in God’s universe is energy, and all energy is God. All we are really doing in working the Laws of Manifestation is changing or transferring energy from one form to another.
9. The Laws of Manifestation operate whether we are consciously aware of them or not. Whatever we give the subconscious, it will use.
10. Every moment of our lives, we are working the laws of manifestation, even when we are not praying, willing, visualizing or affirming. Every thought that we have in our mind as we go through our daily life as well as when we are sleeping is part of this process.
11. It is important to receive as well as to give.
12. Gratitude is of utmost importance. Be humble and thankful for the abundance that God has bestowed upon us, no matter what it is.
13. Failure is not a possibility. How can we fail with God, the soul and our personal power?
14. To have all, give all to all. We must keep our abundance in circulation. When we become selfish and stop giving, then the Universe becomes selfish and stops giving to us.
15. Words have power. Every word we speak is a decree of manifestation.
16. Positive affirmations produce positive results.
17. Love yourself through the entire process.
18. Avoid talking about what you are trying to manifest in your life. This can dissipate the energy.
19. Know that you possess all. Always!
20. Ask only for what you need.
21. Tell your subconscious mind what to do.
22. Be of service and focus your love on humanity.
23. KNOW that miracles happen…trust!
24. Be specific in your visualizations and affirmations.
25. After prayer, comes acceptance. This is essential. After praying, accept your prayer as answered. Don’t just believe that it is answered; rather, KNOW with every cell of your being that it has been answered. SO IT IS!

WE ARE GOD, AND WE ARE ONE WITH GOD. HOW CAN OUR PRAYERS NOT BE MADE MANIFEST?

When I came to the realization – not the understanding but rather the ‘knowing’ – that I am not my body but instead that I AM a limitless, boundless, and timeless SOUL living a human experience, everything else started to make sense…including ‘Nothing Matters’.

‘Nothing Matters’ encompasses the concept of attachment. For example, if you believe that you are nothing without that perfect person, if you believe that you are worthless and would never be able to get along in this world without that perfect man or woman, what you are really saying is that you are attached to the idea of the perfect dependable partner because you do not believe that you are limitless, boundless and self-sufficient, totally powerful in your own right. Through this attachment, you have empowered this idea or this person by giving up your own power. If instead, you apply the concept of nothing matters, than all the fears that lead you to believe that you need someone else to survive disappear. You no longer spend time considering what would happen if you were alone, because the idea of ‘alone’ wouldn’t even exist – you would see it as another cry from your ego to make you afraid.

Our Souls are trapped in a time/space reality just for the benefit of experience. By applying ‘Nothing Matters’, the experience of being here becomes not only bearable but actually peaceful.

Resistance is released.
Passion surfaces.
Purpose is uncovered.

Does purpose matter? That is your choice. The concept of ‘nothing matters’ says only one thing: you make your own choices. Other people’s judgments don’t matter. Your judgments don’t matter. Your choice is made regardless of whether you doubt yourself or not. Nothing matters because this is all an illusion. I am not fat and short. I am so much more encompassing than that. I am not female and blond. My skin color is not me. None of that matters.

“Nothing Matters” opens your EYES to everything around you, not just what you see in front of your nose, or on your schedule for the day. ‘Nothing Matters’ represents a consciousness or an understanding that we are all limitless beings, capable of anything and everything!!

All you have to do is decide what you want to do with the power that is yours. Do you choose to empower manifestations of fear or do you choose another path? There is no right or wrong because in fact…nothing matters! Judgments…nope, they don’t matter!

We are only observers, because the real experiencer, the real thinker is our Soul, going through local space, and past, present, and future time experiences to grow and to evolve. Our body, physical, mental, and emotional, our mind and intelligence are only the tools of the soul to get that experience. I say ‘only’ because to give these things more credit would empower them while taking power away from me.

Let me for a moment get into the topic of free will versus destiny.

It may seem like a contradiction to say that we have free will to create our existences but at the same time, before we came here we decided to go through specific situations that we cannot now choose not to go through. Let’s look at this for a minute. Assuming that this is what actually happened, and that we did in fact agree to experience some predetermined things in this life, it is important to understand to what we actually agreed. We only agreed to take part in the experience. We did not predetermine how we are to experience the experience. In other words:

We always have the choice to decide how we want to respond to experience.

That is the key in determining how our existence unfolds. Empower yourself by owning your choices, taking command of your journey. None of this matters because essentially we will all get to the end result. The question is only how you CHOOSE to get there. If you choose to take a passive role and see yourself as indestructible because the ending is inevitable, that is your choice. Take a moment if you wish and just remember that for each cause, there is an effect. You are free to make your choices, but ignorance of their consequences is not a defense. It is up to you how you choose to live your life.

Only you look through your eyes.
Only you see the world the way you do.

If you choose to see yourself as being harmed, then that will be your reality. On the other hand, if you choose not to see yourself as harmed, your thoughts and perceptions will accommodate this alternate reality for you. Nothing that you experienced matters in the end whether you see yourself as harmed or not. Nothing matters. Even the choice that you make about whether you are hurt or not doesn’t matter because the way you define yourself here is not an all-encompassing definition of who you are.

It is about perception.
It is about experience.
Have fun with life!! Enjoy it!! Life is not a serious thing….it’s freedom if you choose to look at it that way.
Always your choice…

What is attachment?

To be attached to something is to be unable to let go of a belief. To be unable to let go of a belief is to create a limitation for ourselves. A limitation does not allow us to progress. It does not allow us to expand our thoughts, develop our feelings, and essentially, stops our journey of experiencing life. Every time we create an attachment, we take a step back on our journey through life, and every time we return to the ‘comfort’ that we have convinced ourselves the attachment brings, we take yet another step back. To experience life, not just to ‘know’ of life, but to experience life in this physical dimension, we must choose to continually take steps forward. The difficulty is that each new step is a step on new ground. New ground is unexplored unknown. Growth through experience means taking new steps and placing our feet on new ground, regardless of how afraid we have convinced ourselves to be.

Why do we have attachments?

They make us feel artificially safe. We surround ourselves with attachments to create a world where we feel secure, where we see the predictability of what will happen when we turn to our attachment. We convince ourselves that routines are positive things. We are told that routines, or in other words, processes that we continually repeat (or…PATTERNS!), allow us to limit, or one day ‘maybe’ even eliminate the possibility of making a mistake. We are taught practice makes perfect.

So, we attach ourselves to processes that we have dared to try at one point, and after seeing that things worked out, and probably believing that it was luck that made it work out and not us who did it all by ourselves, we continue repeating the process. There is a sense of addiction in the success that we reap from attachments. But before you get too comfortable with this ‘success’, tell me what is wrong with making a mistake in the first place?

A mistake is just as much an experience in life as a success. Who is to say that mistakes aren’t successful? We are here to experience. We are not here to experience the good, and then go home. We are here to experience the all. Are you not perfect? Are you not whole and complete? Are you not a direct manifestation of all the power that exists? Why are you limiting your experiences out of a sense of artificial fear that you have convinced yourself exists in the unknown? What is the unknown? Who is to say that the unknown is bad? What is bad, and what is good in the first place? You owe it to yourself to do Your ALL in this lifetime. If you choose to hide from that which is not familiar, you have stopped living.

There is a different side of this story as well. Sometimes attachments do not bring ‘success’ and pleasure. Sometimes, people grow attached to beliefs that make them miserable. Why would anyone want to be miserable? They may believe that they deserve to be miserable. Attachments that result in suffering are created as a form of self-deprivation, or in other words, as a punishment that we think we deserve.

Why do some people think they deserve to be punished? Because they have stopped loving themselves. They have stopped seeing the beauty and magnificence of the loving being that they are. They have forgotten that the person they are in this life is not a clear and full representation of who they are  and of what they represent. That which they represent is pure love, is pure acceptance – the two are synonymous, but the attached person has forgotten about this. The attached person believes that they are not worthy of their own love. This is when attachments develop.

What are we attached to?

It is easy to say that someone is attached to his mother or her sister. How many people do you know who are attached to money? What seems on the surface as an attachment to an object, to a process, to a physical or intangible thing, is really an attachment to a belief. Beliefs make us feel certain ways. Beliefs create artificial security that motivates an attachment. If you say you are attached to your mother, could it be that you are really attached to the belief that only responsible, good and polite daughters take care of their mothers in old age? Could it be that you have chosen to punish yourself for your successes because your family wasn’t as strong as you and you failed to help them to change and to be stronger, so instead you started punishing yourself for being the strong and limitless person you are?

Could it be that your attachment is a manifestation of a belief of which you convinced yourself decades ago: that being strong and loving of yourself should be punished, and being weak and refusing to take responsibility for your own life should be praised and rewarded? Could it be true that you don’t love yourself enough, that you don’t appreciate the gifts that you chose for yourself to be an independent, free spirit that does not NEED to be attached to any belief? The moment you understand your true potential, the second you begin to love yourself again and to appreciate the radiant spirit that you are, is the instant when you begin to fully experience life again.

I say again because there was a time when you chose not to accept your strengths as weaknesses. There was a beautiful time when you were totally unconditional love and free of judgement. There was a time when you loved yourself enough to know that you could do anything. Go back to the point when you gave up hope and love for yourself. Go back to the painful and wonderful moment when you started punishing yourself and feeling the need to attach. Go back to the person who you are still punishing and free the limiting belief structures that have trapped you for so long. Let that person free and you will feel your lungs fill with fresh air for the first time in years. Release all limits and you will again be able to manifest your dreams into reality.