Soul in the Driver's Seat

A Course in Miracles for the New Age


Soul Installment 3

Saturday 30 September 2023

 


Volume One
Chapter Three — Revelations

Wednesday, July 6, 2022, 7:30 am

1. The first revelation is that the power of God, the power of a soul, is trapped and is unable to express through dense matter. The God who is prayed to in the nether regions is not far away but cannot express and be listened to until it learns how to perform this difficult task. This soul is surrounded by others who are at the same level of development and maturity, so they are in the same boat.

2. God is cursed when it is seen as being punishing and is praised with gratitude when it is seen as kind and generous. But the reality of the situation is that God is not a major player in any situation. Life provides things and situations that characters like, and life provides things and situations that characters do not like at all. They are typically attributed to God but have little to do with Him/Her/It/Them. What is this life-force that I speak of? You can think of it as an external system responsible for the growth of souls from seed to full, unbridled expression. It provides everything of a positive nature, just as sunlight, water, and soil provide everything needed for the growth of a regular seed. Where do all of the negative aspects of life come from? They come from the characters themselves. When they resist their own soul's call to express love, small to large disasters await.

3. Think of the life-force as something that organizes life. It has a say in personality development through astrological energy influence. It has a say in the birth order for certain characters. It has a say on family assignment. It has a say on any developmental disorders or disabilities that an individual soul or a family of souls will be dealing with. By default, the life-force knows who will be born into wealth, middle-class comfort, or extreme poverty. All of this and much more is in the realm of the life-force, which deals in odds and likelihoods to bring about the desired conditions for soul development. Everything, and I mean everything, has to do with the number one objective and priority for the life-force: soul development.

4. With this explained, there is a plethora of events and situations that trigger what the life-force knows as Plan B.

5. The exercise of free will is the single most important element when creating something eternal, which is defined as something that cannot be altered by time and is not temporary. Characters say no all the time. They go left instead of right or right instead of left. They choose things that may cause harm. They choose things that may cause short- or long-term suffering for themselves and others. The list is endless because egos are primarily selfish. When egos pull their characters away from the flow that the life-force wants to take them in, then the life-force itself has to recalibrate and come up with a Plan B. Plan Bs are never as good as Plan As. They always involve making lemonade out of lemons. Maybe a character has long-repressed feelings related to trauma incurred somewhere along the way and then developed a dependency on alcohol for self-medication purposes. Let's say the character had a DUI charge and spent time in jail. This is definitely not a Plan A situation and is a Plan B situation. The life-force desperately wants the character back into the flow of life because it does not want a soul to be imprisoned where growth may be especially difficult. This is just one example of how the robots try to run the show. Egos desperately want to stay in the illusion. Their lives depend on it.

6. All souls want the grand and mystical illusion to end once and for all. The illusion of separateness and independence has locked out the soul, who has had a minor part at best in the great play of life. Souls want characters to start to question their beliefs. This will have a twofold effect. The first is that one question will lead to the next and an awakening can happen. The second is that the awakening will lead to a shift in identity, a shift away from the brain to the heart, from fear to love, from me to you.

7. The third dilemma is Power vs. Powerlessness. There is very little power here and a great deal of powerlessness. Control falls in the latter category. Freedom falls in the category of power. The human robots have illusionary power within the realm of the illusion, but that's all. As hard as they will try, they do not have the ability to prevent an awakening from happening or to stop it. They only have the power to delay in time, and time itself is a powerful part of the illusion, held together by thought.

8. The ego's thought system, plus other egos' thought systems, cast an incredibly powerful spell that locks out the voice of the soul. Most can only hear it faintly. It is quiet and is overshadowed by loud ego-led voices from within and without. This isn't to say that the ego is bad, or that it doesn't do nice things from time to time when it feels especially benevolent. Egos, individually and collectively, have done wonderful things for individuals and communities in need. These prompts may have originated from the soul but had to be filtered through the ego. This process dampens the pure love inspirations somewhat, but the ego and soul can work together in harmony from time to time. The life-force uses both benevolence from the soul and fear-driven situations to advance characters to create openings. The goal here is always more care and consideration for others, more love. The problem is the mind's interference. It has the power to completely stop love. Love cannot be harmed, but it can be delayed.

9. The ego by itself is a problem and always has been. The ego, gently tempered and guided by soul, is the first stop in the awakening process, and this stop is what the new course in miracles is promoting. If every human adult and child alike could educate themselves about the basics and then allow even a small shift from ego to heart and from fear to love to occur, the world would be a very different place indeed.

10. In order to accomplish this, we need to provide more information about the ego, the illusionary thought system, as well as information about souls and God, a commodity largely missing from the equation here. Once this is accomplished, a step-by-step process for ego deactivation and soul empowerment will be included in Soul in the Driver's Seat: A Course in Miracles for the New Age.

11. The fourth dilemma is Competition vs. Cooperation. Not all competition is harmful, but all competition is unnecessary.

12. Competition vs. Cooperation is one of the most vexing of human problems. Competition stems from an idea concerning scarcity of goods and services and can range from the ability to pay to the willingness to commit acts of bodily harm. The payoff can be physical objects, status, or reputation. The fear of losing any of these things motivates those involved to continue competitive behaviors and teach them to others, especially children. The motive for this is always to help children to do well in life and society, but this just keeps the competitive drive alive as part of the ego's trap to keep cooperation out. There are many examples of cooperation here, in the form of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours," but the objective is always some type of reward. Rewardless cooperation is exceedingly rare.

13. The fifth dilemma between ego and soul is Arrogance vs. Grace. The ego is arrogant about what it swears up and down that it knows, while the soul is graceful about all things, both things it has firsthand information about and things it knows nothing about. It doesn't pretend to need to know. It's okay with not knowing and trusting that if the need were to arise, it would be informed in perfect timing. The ego, on the other hand, thinks everything and everyone revolves around it and that it must know. It believes stories that are only partially dipped in truth, and it is fine with believing falsehoods by aggrieved parties and just making things up as it goes along. As with all dilemmas, they couldn't be more different as they exist at polar opposites.

14. Two diametrically opposite thought systems and ways of being exist in every human body. One is expressed and one is suppressed, prevented from speaking and from growing. It is no wonder that the very tightly woven illusion of false identity and fear-based thought has done everything possible within its power to not allow its roommate at least equal share of the apartment. Egos know about souls, and they know about unconditional love, but see it as their responsibility to oppose them at every turn. As a consequence, from the beginning until now there is very little of God's energy on the earth in amounts significant enough to prevent many of the consequences of unbridled ego. In fact, this was part of the deal. Unconscious fear-based behavior has been allowed to reign unchecked. The life-force has had minimal ability to protect immature souls and characters from a plethora of tragedies. When you hear of someone being taken too young or for no reason, this is the result of the ego's reign of terror. Unwanted and unwelcomed things happen all the time. They are from the ego's resistance to soul and to the life-force that positively directs life's plays. Souls are never a victim, but egos frequently feel like they are. The truth is they have had something to do with creating a response to the unwanted event, and this response is the only thing within their power. The storm, the accident, and the crime were all acts in resistance to love, but the response is within the ego's realm. The sixth dilemma is Victim vs. Victor.

15. However difficult, one can never be a victim of anything if they hold the power of their response in the palm of their hand. Dorothy had no control over mean Miss Witch, the tornado, or the concussion, but she did have control over her next steps as time unfolded in the dreamlike state she was in for most of the rest of the story. When she became conscious, she brought her ability to respond positively, negatively, or in a neutral manner with her. The life-force often uses difficult characters, such as the one seen as an evil witch, to deliver its messages, lessons, and opportunities to practice the power within. Life always wants you to see that no one really has any power over you. Even if they lock you up with an hourglass to scare you about how much time you have left, you still have the key to how you will respond.

16. The seventh dilemma is Defenselessness vs. Defensiveness. The ego always watches out for things to defend against. These range from common sense things to prevent slipping in the bathtub with bare feet, to ensuring that winter ice is salted before venturing outside. But the most egregiously dangerous thing to watch out for is, by far, other ego-led puppets who could have bad intentions. They could be armed to the teeth, and you could be their "wrong place at the wrong time" target or one who has been specially focused upon. Defensiveness is the ego's gift to the character. It is a gift that keeps on giving as defensiveness and stress go hand in hand.

17. Defenselessness, on the other hand, is unfathomable to the ego. They see that all types of terrible things happen to the innocent and unsuspecting, and egos don't want to be in this group. Defenselessness is not in the cards and is off the table for the vast majority. They would rather die trying to defend themselves and theirs and at least die nobly. But what if there is a better way? What if being in an egoic state is an open invitation to things that need to be protected from? What if there is another state of being where defending oneself isn't a need? The soul never has to be protected and never has to be defended. Nothing can happen to it, ever. It can't be sold to the devil, and it can't be harmed in any way. True defenselessness is true power. It is just one of the benefits of soul identification.

18. The eighth dilemma is Reality vs. Illusion. The world is seen and experienced through the ego, which is the body's operating system and is itself not based in truth. It is for a temporary experience in soul strengthening. That's all. As real as the character seems to be, it is only part of something designed to be dismantled so that reality can be expressed through the context of the character and the body. Reality is 100 percent based in the fuel of the Universe and of God. It is pure love, with nothing else mixed in to dilute it. All judgment, which always stems from the ego and its lord and master, the mind, does not originate from the soul and is therefore illusionary. All unconditional love in the world stems from the soul and is reality, however little there may be at any given time.

19. The human world of characters, roles, and drama is virtually 100 percent illusionary. But remember what I said about truth. It has to be 100 percent true, 100 percent of the time. Although the illusionary human world is and has always been almost at the 100 percent level, 100 percent of the time, it is not now. Nor has it ever been at the spiritual standard for something that is considered true. There have always been small populations, sometimes in the single digits, who live their lives with a great deal to at least some amount of soul, some amount of pure, unadulterated, and unconditional love. There are those on the earth today who live a Christed life, living as their true Self most to all of the time. If Christ means God in Mankind, and I am telling you that it does, then being at the Christ level and living a life based in reality is the goal and is the answer to many unanswered prayers.

20. The ninth dilemma is Generosity vs. Greed. Because giving and receiving are one in truth, only the ego-led mind would think of them as separate acts. The ego thinks of everything as being separate from everything else, as it does seem to be. The reality of the situation seems quite implausible, whereas a soul is part of God and is connected to all other parts of God. Again, there are two things unfolding simultaneously. Souls are asking to be acknowledged and heard while egos turn a blind eye. The ego can be very generous indeed, but there is always an angle, something that it seeks, something it wants in return, even if it is just a pat on the back or a favor to cash in at a later date. Souls, on the other hand, grow stronger with each selfless act, none of which ever have to be repaid in any way.

21. The tenth and final dilemma is Grandeur vs. Grandiosity. Try as it might, the ego can never achieve true grandeur. The best that it can do is pretend. Pretense or an air of fakeness describes grandiosity. The soul doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. It is the real deal. It is grand and spectacular. And when it is allowed to flourish it makes itself known.

22. Summary of the Ten Ego Dilemmas or choices:
    1. Fear vs. Love
    2. Whole vs. Special
    3. Power vs. Powerlessness
    4. Competition vs. Cooperation
    5. Arrogance vs. Grace
    6. Victim vs. Victor
    7. Defenselessness vs. Defensiveness
    8. Reality vs. Illusion
    9. Generosity vs. Greed
    10. Grandeur vs. Grandiosity

End Time: Monday, July 11, 2022, 7:22 am