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I am writing this time to help
us all, myself included, really
understand that human beings do
not have a second self that might
correspond to the Devil that we
have to battle with and that
there is the possibility that we
might lose!
So let's begin to think this
through together by agreeing that
there are not two selves to God,
God and Devil, good and evil. God
is ONE! The logic that we may
justifiably use is that God
refers to the creative reality
that is in the process of coming
into expression in what we call
the physical or material
universe.
There is ONE SELF or nature or
reality in God to express.
Therefore, God's creation is also
ONE. You and I do not have two
selves struggling for
dominance.
But it has seemed that way
somehow in our collective human
experience. Check the words here:
"human experience." If we take
these words to imply that
"spiritual experience" is
different, something else, this
misleads us. I have written in
another website essay that Dr.
Marcus Bach, the famous scholar
of the world's religions, taught
me the way to use the word
"distinction" instead of
"difference." He was attempting
to make a point that relates to
what we are dealing with here:
the human and the spiritual seem
to us to be "different", two
selves, but the word
"distinction" helps us to see
that the human and the spiritual,
are the one self with distinct
but not different aspects.
An example of this point is
well made when we look at
individual members of any
species. Species means the same,
but there are all kinds of
varieties or distinctions. All of
this is a bit semantical, but
there truly is a significant
point!
Each of us is simply the
individual God has created and
given the opportunity to learn
how to grow and grow and grow
into the ability to express our
ONE God nature that we share with
everyone, an eternal process that
we need not worry about no matter
what! Nothing we do changes our
ONE reality. Consciousness,
behavior, experience are all
subject to change and to becoming
better and better. God never
gives up on us; there is no
hell-fire and damnation in the
ONE nature of God, Who we know is
best defined as UNCONDITIONAL
LOVE.
When I talk about this subject
with friends, I sometimes say,
"The reason why I don't believe
in hell and punishment is that I
think God is more efficient as
Creator than that!"
"For the Son of man
is come to save that which was
lost./How think ye? if a man
have an hundred sheep, and one
of them be gone astray, doth
he not leave the ninety and
nine, and goeth into the
mountains, and seeketh that
which is gone astray?/And if
so be that he find it, verily
I say unto you, he rejoiceth
more of that sheep, than of
the ninety and nine which went
not astray./ Even so it is not
the will of your Father which
is in heaven, that one of
these little ones should
perish." Matt. 12:11-14
My point is that, since it is
not the Father's will that His
creation should perish (or fail!)
it cannot happen!
The word SOUL expresses the
best way for us to think about
ourselves. Soul means an
individual unit of God in the
process of coming into the full
expression of God-potential. The
word SELF we have always used to
define who we human beings REALLY
are, means the ONE God reality
and potential completely and
perfectly shared with all
creation. The eternal life of the
soul (which, like unto God, lives
in both the invisible and visible
realms) is the process of
continuing unfoldment of God
consciousness. We have always
said that our God SELF is in the
soul. All that is necessary is to
identify soul as an individual
unit of God as ONE.
The problem, of course, is
that we find it difficult to
explain and rationalize much of
our human experience and
behavior. Why aren't we all the
perfect human beings RIGHT NOW
that we think we ought to be,
that we think God has displeasure
with us if we aren't expressing
our perfection? Beginning with
the Garden of Eden story of the
Fall, the Bible has one
overweaning message: don't
believe in evil - other than God,
good, love, equality, justice,
love, etc. Rev. 2:17 is
interesting (perhaps revelatory
indeed):
"He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches: To
him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the hidden
manna, and will give him a
white stone, and in the stone
a new name written, which no
man knoweth saving he that
receiveth it."
The white stone is the one we
started out with before we
contaminated it with false
beliefs, and the new name that no
one else knows, I interpret as
meaning that the overcoming is
our individual experience that we
were not dependent upon others to
give us. "And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make
you free."--John 8:32.
What is it that we need to
overcome? It is not a second
(evil) self, but the belief in
one, concluding that because our
behavior does not jibe with our
idealism of being perfect
God--creations, that we must not
REALLY be so!
I think it may well be that
collectively we have not
understood that psychology is not
telling us that ego is this other
self, but is pointing out that
ego is misdirected thinking. In
Unity we would say that ego (both
superiority or inferiority) is
the consciousness that we are
separate beings and that this
opens us up to competition and
conflict. Ego-thinking also
assumes that we are separate from
God and that our behavior puts us
in the condition of receiving
God's wrath and punishment.
To cap this exposition, I
think Jesus Christ makes this
whole thing perfectly clear. To
Him there is a distinction
between God the Father and the
Son. The distinction (which
doesn't mean different in nature
or potential or power!) is God as
ALL, SOURCE, and Son as
expression. "...he that hath seen
me hath seen the Father
..."--John 14:9. What this says
to me is that Jesus always
insisted that what He did was the
Father expressing through
Him!
I believe that Jesus is
teaching us to accept ourself -
each of us as the Son, an
individual expression of God with
endless and unlimited
possibilities of expressing and
experiencinng greater things.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that believeth on me, the
works that I do shall he do also;
and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my
Father." -- John 14:12.
Interesting that in this
statement He said "my Father."
Aropos of what I wrote about the
quote from Revelation, this might
help us to realize that each of
us must do the work as Jesus did
- go to "my" Father!
It is wonderful to realize too
that our human development is
indeed collective: what Jesus has
done lays a foundation for all
humanity. What you and I do also
makes the same type of
contribution! Life is
consciousness-building, building
the consciousness of our
spiritual ONE-SELF as limitless
potential and possibilities.
Even though we all would say
that we would prefer just being
perfect now, it is obvious that
the life process doesn't work
that way. Life is a journey, a
process, of learning, overcoming,
and, as the quote from Revelation
says, we will make it one day.
What then? The dimension beyond
what we now call HUMAN
perhaps!
Don
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