Volume One Chapter Four — Putting it all Together: Vexing Questions
Monday, July 11, 2022, 3:00 pm
1. Some years ago, it was fashionable in some circles to wear brightly colored bracelets emblazoned with the letters WWJD, which stands for What Would Jesus Do? I'm not in your shoes but your soul is. Your soul is your true self. Your soul is the real you. The objective is to begin listening to it and allowing it to express who you really are through your assigned body and character. The ego be damned. It can move to the backseat to find out what being relegated to a second-class citizen is like. It is time for the soul to take center stage for the first time. Having an ego is not a bad thing. It has been a necessary thing as no one could function without one, but now is the time for the great shift from fear to love, from me to us. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. In this chapter of the book, let's look at some commonly distressing issues in the world today. Let's look at them through the eyes of the soul, through love.
2. Our approach in this course will be to apply either new or revised knowledge to the context of the world, the same one all readers will be very familiar with since everyone has spent every day of their current lifetime here on the great and magical planet earth.
3. Each of the ten dilemmas will be explored within the context of both major and minor issues that humans face. In doing this type of work, readers will be able to better identify responses from the soul level and reactions from the ego level. The differences will be glaringly stark. The differences between love and fear are not always apparent, so this type of work will help all practitioners of this craft to choose love much more often.
Relationships
4. It is first and foremost the relationship one has with oneself that is the most important determiner in factors that are part of its relationship to others. In all ten dilemmas between ego and soul, it is the dominant one that will play out in all relationships. If the dominant operating system is ego, then fear, being special, feeling powerless, competition, arrogance, victimhood, defensiveness, illusionary thought, greed, and grandiosity will be the recurring themes. If the dominant operating system is soul, then love, being whole, being powerful, cooperative, graceful, being responsible for all of one's thoughts and behavior, being defenseless, living in reality (having real thoughts), being generous, and expressing grandeur will be the recurring themes. It has always been a choice between the two, although most do not realize it is a moment-to-moment choice.
5. The reality-based purpose for all relationships, whether it is child to parent, employee to employer, or friend to friend, is in wholeness only. One presents oneself not as a broken self but a complete and whole one, not as one who seeks completion in another but one who seeks nothing but the joy that two or more wholes can experience in togetherness. It is not "I'm ok, you're ok," it is "I Am perfect, as are you who is before me." We are the accomplished. We are the Divine that isn't hard to find because we are here in this place.
6. This description of relationship and of a soul-based identity is exceedingly rare and yet it is available to all. It is available to those who dare to question the status quo.
7. Imagine a soul-based relationship. Imagine how different it would be. A soul-based person would not look for someone to complete them, as they are already whole and accomplished. All relationships would simply be in enhancement mode. Two or more parties would be perfect as they are, by themselves, but together they are enhanced. A soul-based person can even be in a relationship to an ego-based person who sees themselves in very different terms. They could see themselves as broken or as a victim, and yet their soul is enhanced with an energetically-charged soul-based person sitting beside them. When it comes down to it, all relationships are an exchange of positive or negative electrical charges. It is the soul-based person who is providing positive electrical charges to all of those it is in relationship with or just walks past. It's that powerful.
8. A soul-based relationship among peers is fearless. A soul-ego relationship may contain fear stemming from the dominant ego, but it is negated while in the presence of the dominant soul. This being said, all types of relationships are enhanced by the power of soul. Since soul is God, it can be said that God alters all relationships it is involved in. Most human relationships may have niceness involved, but there is typically not any substantial amount of God's energy, so the relationship will always have the possibility of being rocky or completely disastrous.
9. Applying this to human reality, there is inherent suffering involved in human relationships of all types. How could there not be? The suffering does have the capacity to point people to the other way of being in the world, the hidden way, and create space for questioning. What would soul-based parenting and other types of relationships look like?
10. The first relationship with another human is with a parental figure. We refer to them as mentors and the relationship is mentor-mentee. If the parent is soul dominant, they can guide developing egos without using fear tactics such as punishment. Loving guidance includes the use of natural consequences. A child can choose choice A or choice B, but choice B may not include any positive incentives. A mentor always shows love and respect for the developing ego in a child and never withdraws affection no matter what behavior is exhibited or not exhibited. There are children being born into the world now with fully mature souls. Their mentors may or may not be soul dominant, so these relationships are holy or whole from the very beginning, or they may be mentee-mentor, with the child falling into the latter category.
11. Imagine if there were no fear present in an employer-employee relationship. No fear of getting fired and losing pay and benefits, no fear of being demoted to a less desirable position or shift, no fear of being investigated and getting into trouble, no fear of being falsely accused, no fear of anything because souls only seek out opportunities to serve. They don't hold onto situations that don't serve. They are happy to let them go until life gives them a new assignment to serve in.
12. Likewise, a soul-dominant employer will help a soul-dominant employee to thrive and meet their goals in the context of employment. A soul-dominant employer will help an ego-dominant employee to release fear and express love more often.
13. Soul-dominant employees with ego-dominant employers is a typically difficult situation because these types of employees will not be subscribers to a competitive office culture and will be viewed in a negative light.
14. Loyalty is conditional and is one element that is absent from a friend type of soul relationship. Unconditional love is just that, unconditional. It doesn't want or need anything from anyone. Soul-dominant individuals may enjoy going to see a movie or a concert with anyone at any level of soul development, but they are less interested in the activity than they are just being and sharing with a soul. Mentors enjoy being with other mentors and with mentees alike. They don't have to be with those of like mind, and it is better if they aren't. Soul-dominant journeymen and women are in such high need. They need to be an example with those who need an example. Mentors won't get their feelings hurt if a mentee finishes with them and ends their relationship. One mentor may not cut it for many of the high-need characters out there. They may need many mentors before they are ready to graduate to the next level.
15. There are many types of human relationships besides the three broad categories we've talked about, but are there really? On one hand, in regards to the ego, there are. We didn't mention sworn enemy relationships, "I hope I never set eyes on you again" relationships, abuser-abused relationships, popular-unpopular relationships. This list is a lengthy one. These relationships do not exist when at least one party is soul dominant, because the relationships are always among equals. No one has the upper hand because that type of thinking does not exist with souls, whose thinking is always done with the Christ Mind and involves equality and sharing of everything that can be shared.
Health and Wellness
16. The dilemma between power and powerlessness is seen in the strongest sense in the category of health and wellness of the body. It is truly a vexing problem. Getting a mild to major illness or developing any type of condition is part of the human condition. It is part of being human and no one escapes. Whether it is a stomachache, headache, muscle tear, cough, cold, the flu, Covid, or many different types of cancer, the list is seemingly endless.
17. Humans are powerless and don't know from one day to the next what sickness or health malady awaits them. They try to turn the tables and buy time by staving off things that will rob them of health, of feeling good, of feeling happy, without a care in the world. They exercise, take vitamins, go in for preventative checkups, eat the right foods in the right amounts, and avoid the wrong foods in any amount. And yet people die of lung cancer who have never smoked, and people die at young ages who are champions of fitness and healthy eating, whereas people who make questionable food choices may live to one hundred, along with smokers and alcohol enthusiasts.
18. Eating nutritious food and exercising aren't bad things. They may contribute to longevity, but are they significant contributors? Returning to the ten dilemmas, can you see that the ones associated most strongly with dominant ego would have a price tag associated with them? I am here to suggest to you that these ten items are the strongest things that work against health and wellness. On the other hand, the ten items that are most closely aligned with soul promote health and wellness. The bottom line is that thoughts that are even remotely fear related keep ego-dominant individuals trapped in the illusion of being human exclusively, while soul-based identity counteracts that and produces health and wellness as a result.
19. Merely having regular run-of-the-mill human thoughts, which are illusionary thoughts, makes one susceptible to disease, which is a state of being ill at ease. This is what the word disease or dis-ease means. While it may seem possible that doing this and that, or not doing that or this, may be effective in preventing disease from arriving at your doorstep, it's futile when it comes right down to it. Maybe a vaccination can prevent a specific disease from visiting a specific vaccinated person, but if the dominant thoughts remain from their host, the ego, other diseases will wait in the wings. Medical technology can cure many conditions and stop them in their tracks, but no one has figured out what the real culprit is.
20. Advances in medical technologies have saved and extended countless lives. They have given people more time, and many who have been given more time have shifted their programming and have made room for their soul to express love. Some comment "It's not the same person" after someone they know has had a bout with cancer or some other life-threatening disease. These situations have the power to help someone change their priorities and change the road they've been traveling on. Without medicine this gift of additional time would not be able to be given, and time is needed for soul growth. Egos produce diseases that create pain and suffering in the now, the only time there is.
Time
21. Where is the past that is so often referred to? Where can one locate it? While we are at it, where is the future? Can you get into a car or an airplane and go to these places? Time is not like a book where you can turn back to an earlier chapter and see what a character's childhood was like or skip ahead and see what a disaster a character's wedding reception is going to be. The past and the future live in the brain, which has attached memories to artifacts from a time passed by or an aspirational future. The lamp grandma gave me before she died triggers all of my memories about grandma. These memories are all in the past, a past that lives only in the brain. It doesn't even live inside a tombstone. The tombstone serves as a reminder to those who knew grandma on some level. To those who walk by in the cemetery it may mean nothing. They can only imagine what her life must have been like based on the time period she lived in and how many children and other family members she left behind.
22. Time is illusionary and yet it isn't. If there is only now, then that means there has been an extensive and vast collection of past nows. The proof is in the pudding. You were once a baby learning to walk. The connected nows make a chain that can be called the past. Your body has aged as has the tree in the backyard. Your brain remembers the chain of past nows, and your own body is an artifact of living time. It didn't always look the way it does now. And yet you can't go backwards in time. Time is illusionary. Two people may have very different sets of memories about the same event they both experienced together, side by side. Their own brains recorded the now differently based on their own perceptions. Over time the chain of past nows fades. You may have an award ceremony photograph without any memory of having been there to receive the award. What about the future?
23. The future rests its head on a concept known as if this, then that. It is a wished outcome scenario of likelihoods. A character may hope that one day they will be rich after winning a lottery. Then they can retire, play golf, and live a life of ease. Less wishful thinking characters can hope to make it through college to earn a degree and then settle down to start a family. Futures typically ask for planning and completing needed steps for a likely outcome. This method has worked for many. They did, in fact, receive a basic framework of a projected plan in a past now. They did become a hairdresser who opened their own shop in suburban Chicago, but they also received plenty of things they did not plan for.
24. Characters receive what they have told themselves that they want at times, and at other times they receive what they did not want, things that no one wants. Characters then start to plan on ways to prevent the unwanted things from appearing again, while at the same time never forgetting the times in past nows when they received something unwanted and undesirable. This is how most humans experience the now time, the only time there is. They don't fully experience it. It is just a bridge between a past filled with faulty memories to a projected future filled with things they want and not things they don't want. Add to this the attributes of the ten ego dilemmas and you can discover how problematic human life is, and how different it is from a soul-based life.
Sex
25. Because the ego does not feel as if it is complete, sharing physical intimacy with others is a treasured experience. Beyond reproductive purposes, the simple act of touching and being touched gives not only the ego, but the soul as well, a deep feeling of connection with another. While there have been many books written about the spiritual or tantric side to sex, my purpose in writing this section of this new book is to explore the topic through the context of the ten ego dilemmas.
26. Where does the sex drive come from? Is it primarily for reproductive purposes? Is this why there is a sex drive to begin with? The answer may surprise you, but the answer is no. Reproduction may be a benefit of the sex drive depending on the situation, but it isn't the primary purpose. The primary purpose is for substitution. The ego is wanting to duplicate a sense of unity that was lost when the soul seemingly left a state of unity to be in the world of form. Sex acts of all types are largely reinforcing, and the human is a creature of habit. Over time, sex became a primary motivator and need. The drive for sex is stronger than the drive for food or sleep in many people, but let's not forget that in most cases it is ego driven. Many of the ten ego dilemmas play out in this conflict-ridden area.
27. There may be a great deal of guilt associated with this topic, but it isn't the sex itself that creates this. It is all of the thoughts that surround sex and have attached themselves to it that created the guilt. Children may have been told that masturbation is wrong and then felt shame surrounding it. Teenagers may have been taught that sex is only for traditionally married couples and may feel shame if they don't wait for marriage or don't even want to get married. So why should they wait? A young married couple may have been taught that sexual intimacy is only for procreation and may feel shame about intimacy while using birth control. Committed couples may feel incredible amounts of guilt if they have sexual encounters outside of their primary relationship if both parties have not explicitly agreed to this. Gay men and lesbians have their own hurdles to jump over involving defining what sex means to them, and then having to explain it to family members who may not approve. This minefield of a topic covers numerous dilemmas but none as much as fear vs. love.
28. If an innocent desire by an adult to touch another consenting adult is perceived fearfully, then various judgments get attached to it. "You can't do that." "You shouldn't do that." "That is wrong." "God won't like you if you even think about doing that." This is where shame and guilt come into play, but they don't have to and never had to throughout time. The ego made this decision when it came up with religious ideas steeped in the desire to control the populace. If we strip away all fear from the simple desire to touch and be touched, then the topic of sex can be demystified.
29. We've covered external and internalized judgments about sex through the eyes of fear. Now let's talk about how other dilemmas can play out.
30. The ego can turn any simple and innocent desire into something as dangerous as a weapon. Sex is frequently used as a weapon of control. There are those who refuse it unless they get what they want first. There are those who will force it on an unwilling partner as a way to punish them. There are those who demand it and threaten with blackmail unless their request is granted. The reality of a loving desire to make love is frequently cast into the illusion by characters who want to use others for their own purposes. Of all the subcategories in this chapter of vexing problems, sex is by far the most problematic.
Death
31. You can't blame anyone for the fear of death. There could be a tremendous amount of suffering and pain involved. Sometimes it is announced that death may pay someone a visit soon, and sometimes a death is a completely unexpected shock. Some never recover from the death of a loved one. They miss their presence and may have guilt about things that were done or things that were not said.
32. Because humans don't see the big picture and don't know about their true identity, death doesn't seem like a passage as much as it seems like a cruel joke. Babies die. Children die. People die in the prime of their life. People die who are expected to. And people die unexpectedly.
33. If the human identity and the thoughts that go along with it create this vast illusion, then how can death be true?
34. Death is as much a reality here as birth is, but if you aren't really a character with a body, then can you die, and can death be ultimately real? The answer is a resounding no. You are the energy that activates the body and presents itself as a character, but you are not either of those things. When the body dies and the character is laid to rest, it's just as if a book has closed with many more waiting to be written. Death can be seen in a more celebratory light, but it won't be until the truth of everyone's identity becomes more widely known. Different ego dilemmas play out around the death of characters, and there is a great deal of fear that surrounds it. Do some go to heaven? Do some go to hell? Do some just fade away?
35. The truth is that the real you never dies. It never has and it never will, although it has experienced the death of all of its characters as an observer. Death of a character just signals an exit from earth time and an entrance into time outside of time where you are reunited with souls who played your character's friends and enemies. All of these souls are strengthened from the experience of expressing love through a character who may not have been too keen on it. Some of you may have grown considerably in this one group of lifetimes and others may not have. But every one of God's souls will play another day, so to speak, and will be assigned new characters to play in the great drama that is life.
Money
36. Money is something that controls most lives to a large degree. Do I have enough? How long will it last? What happens if I run out? Do I have to keep working at a job I hate just to pay the basic bills? What happens if I get sick or need surgery and I don't have insurance? Do I have enough for diapers and formula? The list goes on and on. Money usually dictates how people feel about themselves. If there isn't enough, people may feel like they can't afford to be generous. People who have more than enough may feel like they have to hang on to what they have and even stockpile it. Generosity vs. Greed and Grandeur vs. Grandiosity are at play in this area.
37. If a character finds themselves in a low-wage job with less than full-time hours, they may question their life choices to get married and not attend college. Money is seen as a necessity and as a reward for hard work. The ten dilemmas as seen through ego make characters feel powerless and trapped. They wish they could choose love and see things differently, but when there are bills to be paid and mouths to feed, love seems like a pipe dream, an unwise choice.
Relationships Revisited
38. A singular human being is in relationship to everything and everyone. The people who make bread at the factory for morning toast, the people who provide gasoline for the local gas station, and the people who read the news from teleprompters are all in relationship with millions of people they will never meet. One false move by anyone and jobs can end, and relationships can be altered or broken.
39. Humans have relationships with ideas. They may hate certain ideas, so the relationship is one of rejection. They may like or approve of certain ideas, so these relationships are of acceptance. These ideas help to codify self-image and group identity. They indicate that an individual is a certain type, who likes specific things and hates, or at least dislikes, certain other things. These ideas can and often do attach themselves to objects. You can wear a T-shirt emblazoned with an idea you support, or you can speak at a school board meeting about objects such as books that promote ideas you disapprove of. A single human has more relationships with ideas and objects than they do with other humans.
40. People have relationships with brand names. They can never drink coffee that doesn't come from brand X. They will never wear sneakers other than the ones from a certain brand. They only wear specific styles and colors because they have relationships with them. These relationships affect how people see themselves and how they hope to be seen by others. Even people who live off the grid are in relationship to entire lists of ideas about themselves. Maybe they are anti-government and pro-militia. Maybe they don't trust anyone or anything. Here's a question. What do you think would happen if you took a single human being and stripped all ideas away? What would you be left with?
41. Why does the ego feel like it has to define itself? Are these defining thoughts ways to make it seem special and important? This is how the dilemma of Grandeur vs. Grandiosity plays out. Everything, and I mean everything, the ego does is to make the character seem as if it has value. It may be educated, have certain beliefs, done things it feels are important, or received awards. At the other end of the spectrum, it may have gone to jail, hunted lions, or rubbed elbows with someone it feels is important. All of this is grandiosity, plain and simple. It only has value because an unreal operating system of the body says it does, and perhaps other egos agree with it or at least they say they do. Do you see how illusionary all of this is now?
42. What is left when you strip away all of the ideas, concepts, should haves, would haves, and could haves? This is where the soul lives. Soul is beneath thought and covered over by it. This is where God lives. This is reality. This is the real world. The soul or God seeks to surpass thought and the illusion it creates in order to create relationship first and foremost with the body. When the body has been consumed by soul, the soul then seeks to consume already established relationships and creates new ones on a mentor-mentee level and on a peer level of mentor-mentor. This is and always has been the purpose and goal of this and all worlds of form.
Criminality and Evil
43. At this point, you can see the connection between the ego and a myriad of fear-based behaviors, including criminality and what has been referred to as evil acts. Some behavior can be explained away. Maybe someone was beaten or bullied as a child. Some behavior is so horrific that it simply can't be explained. Things happen here every minute of every day that produce revulsion. They increase fear and make the illusion of thought even thicker.
44. A singular criminal act such as theft may or may not include an evil intent to take away property or harm someone. Either way, the act stems from fear. These acts occur at times when the ego is in revenge mode. Egos can be quite dangerous. If they feel that their needs are not now and/or have not ever been met, great harm can come to others in the illusion, meaning the human experience that is void of soul to a large degree. Egos lash out at known nearby targets mostly but can also lash out in the larger collective against complete strangers as you see in the newer phenomenon of mass shootings. The phrase fear begat fear is absolutely true as the acts of a lone ego will forever alter the lives that are directly and indirectly impacted. There is even a third group here — the ones who read about incidents or see them on television. This group is in the multimillions. Their defenses and desires to defend are highlighted with every new incident of small-to-large proportion.
45. There isn't a celestial being somewhere who inspires evil loveless acts and wants them to happen with greater and greater frequency. Egos, all by themselves, are responsible for all the terrible things that happen in the world. They are by definition and design, loveless beings. Therefore, just by being in this illusionary loveless-by-design world, literally anything can happen at any time. The ego offers no protection. God would protect itself if there were more of it in greater strengths. In the illusionary if-this-then-that world, many things happen that go against plan. Lives are lost and others are forever altered by things like being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is part and parcel of the illusionary thought that created the human world to begin with. The reality of love and the concept of as within so without don't materialize until the container of the ego, the body's lord and master, starts to allow it.
46. Punishing criminal and evil acts has done virtually nothing to diminish them. Being a criminal can be a shameful act or it can be an identity: a point of pride. There are gang members who target people they think are wealthy, can afford the loss they are about to endure, and perhaps deserve what is about to happen to them.
47. In the illusion of human thought there are degrees of like but there is very little, if any, unconditional love. The illusion is not eternal and not based in love. We say that it does not meet the definition of real or reality, and yet it is very real in its own way according to its own established rules. It is very much an alternative reality. It is more real than putting on a headset and playing an artificial intelligence game because you can feel pain and experience hardship. The human world is an illusionary alternative reality with real blood and guts to prove it. The question is, what purpose does it have?
Thought
48. As you can see thus far, it is thought itself that got humankind into this mess. It is the mother of all vexing problems. Thought creates illness of all types. Thought creates problematic reactions to problematic reactions to problematic reactions. It is a vicious circle. This is where we will end this chapter of the book. The next chapter will take a look at other factors at play within the illusion.
End Time: Tuesday, July 19, 2022, 1:06 pm
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