THE LIGHT IN THE LORD'S PRAYER Margareth Lee Inspired by Jesus and His “A Course in Miracles” Published and distributed in the United States by Lulu Enterprises, Inc. Copyright © Margareth Lee, 2010 Websites: www.absolute1.net www.trans4mator.com The Trans4mator to let go of limiting beliefs www.mycourseinmiracles.org All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the publishers; with the exception of short excerpts used with acknowledgement of author. ISBN 978-1-4457-4685-2 Cover design by Margareth Lee – Reactions to the Light The reader may observe many similarities with “A Course in Miracles”. I wish to make it clear that I am a student and teacher of it and therefore this can be seen as an ACIM book. It is intended to offer information to help you in your quest for spiritual well-being. If you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions. What Readers say: One reader wrote: Though it's not possible to read and experience it in one go, however, since I read this book, my life changed dramatically. My relationships improved, my financial situation changed completely and best of all, I am experiencing true peace for the first time in my life. Matthieu Schriek from Tilburg in the Netherlands told me he could not read the book at night, because it energized him. In his own words: "When I read this amazing book, I feel ecstatic. I cannot contain myself, I want to jump and shout for joy." A Dutch lady called me to tell me: It is as if I am addicted to this book, I carry it everywhere with me. I don't read anything else anymore. It is a feast of recognition, yet I also find priceless new information. I am a student of "A Course in Miracles" and this book has given me much more insight in the Course. It really works! Another reader: You are such an inspired awakened mind. This book contains pure Truth. Because of it I now understand the principles that Jesus taught and speaks of in His Course. It has changed the way I see things and I understand the Course much better now. I can truly say it has helped me to let go of my conditioning. For me that is an ongoing process. Reading it made me conscious of the presence of the Christ in me and the love and light that is all around me. And another wonderful lady from Hawaii wrote to me: I feel moved to write you, just to tell you how grateful I am for your wonderful website. I came across it recently, can't recall exactly how, but immediately bookmarked it. The more time I spend reading on it, the more it feels like I am surrounded by love. Thank you! I couldn't control the tears today as I read from your book. I'm glad I was alone. (But not really, eh?). From Jacques I received a very encouraging email. He wrote: "Thank you for allowing the Holy Spirit to use you the way that it did. The insight I got from your book is so refreshing and on time. I was looking for something else and I got much more than I can ever imagine. My life is transforming before my very eyes because of the God wisdom in you. May you continue to be blessed and fruitful in all your endeavors. I read your book online for free but I will buy a copy to support your ministry. I love the Spirit of God in you Margareth Lee. Peace and blessings, Jacques Allrich Someone wrote to me in Dutch: Beloved of All That Is, Thank you for your very inspiring words in your discourse about the Light in the Lords Prayer. As you write words are symbols of symbols, nevertheless, your words are completely clear to me and enable me to experience the power of that which cannot be expressed in words, through the Love contained in it. May we all as the ONE soon be released from the illusion of separation and remain in the consciousness of the Kingdom of Our Father! Thanks again for your Love! I work with great passion for these beings full of appreciation and love. Thank You God for my awakened associations! They attest to my awakening. INDEX Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Divine Fatherhood: the love of the Almighty, our oneness and our divine attributes You are and will remain eternally as God created you and every other self-image is a concoction, it isn't real Truth is true and nothing else is true Ego always attacks Truth. It has distorted the words of Jesus, for instance through incorrect translations Truth cannot be suppressed My thoughts are images I have made You can escape from the world you see by giving up your identification with ego and its attack thoughts Let us meet the ego thoughts with laughter and disbelief There is no love but God's There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind Every desire is the desire for God but man does not know where to find It I am surrounded by the love of God and that is what I desire What is parental love essentially? What is the nature of the love for a partner? You connect to that which you see in the other. If you connect to the ego, the ego will answer When you see another with the eyes of Christ, you have a relationship with God It is never a sacrifice to give love, for everything you give, you give to yourself True giving is surrendering to the point of surrendering all your thoughts to the Holy Spirit Chapter 2: The location of God: what is Heaven? In mortal perception the question surfaces; how can you say that war, crime, illness, poverty, old age and suffering are not real? And why would you say that, what's the use of saying that? You are not saved by death, but by changing your mind about the purpose of the world Heaven can so easily be mine. I choose Heaven How the Holy Spirit judges Let go and let God is to let Reality in You have invented the world you see Is it God's will that we should suffer and die? Heaven is a decision I must make Chapter 3: Hallowing and healing the Name of God Nothing I see means anything Which divine qualities are in us? God has not created a meaningless world Connecting to God through prayer, contemplation and meditation The purpose of meditation What is the purpose of prayer? Chapter 4: What is the Will of God? A much heard contention is; if it is not the Will of God that we experience lack of health, suffer poverty and there is lack of love in our life, why do we experience that? Why do we lose our loved ones, are we ill, or at war? Why do we suffer and die? There is another way of looking at the world I loose the world from all I thought it was I see only the past, but there has to be a better way. I am willing to let my judgments be replaced by those of the Holy Spirit God's Will for me is perfect happiness and I share His Will No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth To empathize is not to join in suffering, for that you must refuse to understand Chapter 5: What is our daily bread? Ask yourself in everything; what is this for? You need nothing but Truth Love is the way I walk in gratitude Why do we have to ask for our daily bread if God has already given us everything and the flow of divine bounty is always available? It is impossible to live in two worlds I will receive whatever I ask. I only ask for what God offers me Chapter 6: Forgiveness; letting go of fear and grievances There is another way of looking at the world The world is an illusion that can be undone. The true Self shall resurrect laughing Every desire comes from God The terrifying ego-god The belief in guilt and penance How do you define evil? How can we know God and deny evil? I am one with God and live and move in God. God is my life Ego is no match for the Holy Spirit How do you experience your oneness now? Pray for your so-called enemies, because without forgiveness you remain blind Ego only has the power that you give it Love holds no grievances The divine man Only you can realize the divine in yourself How to look at unpleasant experiences of lack and limitation and the contrast the world offers Chapter 7: Temptation: the chimeras of evil and other stumble-blocks on the spiritual path Do not resist evil Throw no pearls for the swine Jesus demonstrated that we are invulnerable Do you trust in God or in evil? You will see when you first believe Choosing for God What precedes transformation Everything blesses you, always How can you handle an experience of disease? How does the law of attraction work? How do you know when you are attracting undesirable experiences? Everything is an image in your mind, including sickness, and reflects your belief in it In your transformation, the past, your old thoughts, reappear for healing The causes of weight issues Pain and pleasure are one What are positive thoughts, really? Look at your world. What are you attuned to? What have you attracted into your experience? What does the perfect image that God has of man, look like? Forget everything the ego has taught you; it only brought you pain It takes great willpower to surrender Let go of the past The attacks of our so-called enemies The 'spiritual' ego Purification is necessary before your miracle working ability is restored How do you find out God's Will for you? The fear of loss and the desire to hold on Does the desire to do evil stem from God? Ego condemns those who seek themselves as selfish The desire that leads to the peace of God Seeing a difference between an inside world and an outside world is not real Seek first the Kingdom of God for only the spiritually self-realized can become a master Evil is the power of belief in evil. You always experience only what you believe Can there be something outside of God, Who is everything? The resurrection of your body Again: there are no small upsets, they are all equally disturbing to your peace of mind Above the battlefield Chapter 8: Asking God to deliver us from our evil thoughts . You are unchangeable reality For an awakened individual it is a challenge to uphold Truth How can we be truly helpful? Learning to handle your newly acquired power The temptations are strongest, when you decide to turn your back on them Change the cause, not the effects Chapter 9: The Thoughts from God Coping with paranormal phenomena and new abilities Every idol will fall and bitterly disappoint you We are all teachers for each other When we are guided by the Holy Spirit salvation is not hard Illumination according to the ego The door of your prison is open Chapter 10: Acknowledging the divine power and denying of dualism Anything you can't, God can and anything you think you can, God can do much better. There is no good and bad, there is only God How do you know if this is really true, not just delusions of grandeur? How do you explore your reality? A daily meditation for a better relationship with God Preface         Since I am my own publisher, I can keep my book current with my growing insight by changing any part of it any time I do a new edition. The readers on www.absolute1.net will notice that since I first wrote this book and published it on the website in 2002, it has a brand new and much improved cover, and is now the same as the Dutch version. I have also added many headlines that refer to “A Course in Miracles”.         In the meantime I have also developed the Trans4mator, a system for self-help and healing, based on Energy Psychology and the principles of “A Course in Miracles”. It is a profound way of eliminating all blocks to your illumination and to connect to your inner guidance. This groundbreaking technology is explained on www.the-transformator.com.         You probably have noticed that my mission is to raise the consciousness of the planet. My books and websites and courses are all instruments for that purpose. It must be possible, because I am awakened and I changed my mind. Now my whole world is changing with me. My fearful projections are dissolving and finally Reality can reveal itself to us in all it's glory.         In his book 'In Tune with the Infinite' (1915) Ralph Waldo Trine remarks, that 'the great world war …. surely would not have been necessary, if we had lived our Christianity, instead of mainly lecturing about its Founder'. In this book that has been avoided. Here the teaching of the divinity of man, so concisely framed by Jesus in the Lords Prayer, has been explored. He has given us his teaching to lead us to enlightenment, not just to help us improve our earthly existence or to aid us in collecting more earthly treasures or to reach any other earthly goals. That is a side-effect at the most. After reading this book, the Bible will have new meaning for you. Jesus gave the Lord's Prayer to everyone, to invoke a great power in us that will free us from all lack, limitation, pain, sickness, suffering and death. It gives you a marvellous system for living, by teaching you to connect to your inner guidance. It also teaches the unfailing power of forgiveness that will always result in joyful, abundant living. Stop blaming God or others for what happens to you. You are the cause! With your beliefs you create heaven or hell on earth. However, since everything is a condition of your mind, you can change your condition by changing your mind! And you will forgive yourself for what you think you did, because it never really happened! Then your old world will come to its end. That is not a fearful thing, because your true Self resurrects laughing. The world will end in laughter! Acknowledgements:         This book is a product of the Christian Mystical Association, as my teacher Joshua called it. That is not an organization in the world, but an organization in the mind.         The following teachers on my path are part of that: Jesus and his book 'A Course in Miracles' and its American teachers from the Endeavor Academy Joshua and Liberty, the leader of Endeavor Academy who is called the 'Master Teacher', Greta, Robert Jan Visser, Arty, and many others: Marianne Williamson and Louise Hay, who first introduced me to this way of thinking through the program of Oprah Winfrey on television: the books by Joel Goldsmith, James Allen, Harriet Emilie Cady, Gardner Hunting, Annie Rix Militz: Mary Baker Eddy and her book 'Science and Health with key to the Scriptures': Masaharu Taniguchi; Ralph Waldo Trine;The Masters of the Far East: The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes: The work of Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, Joseph Murphy, Wayne Dyer, Iyanla Vanzant; the life and work of Henry Thomas Hamblin;the work of Herbert Beierle, Jack Canfield and I could go on and on and on. Also many books about the Lords Prayer have been written. Especially the interpretation of Emmet Fox in 'The Sermon on the Mount' is worth mentioning.         From my personal relations in the first place I want to thank my daughter Yvonne, who walks hand in hand with me on the same path to heaven, and who greatly encourages me. She has contributed a lot to this book. I am so grateful that she reflects my transformation. I am also grateful for the support of Joshua Scholtmeijer, Cisca Mager, Mieke Verhulst, and Lucenda, who so lovingly act as students and for their gentle lessons. I also want to thank Nathalie Verbeeten and Elise Coppelmans for their love. Last but not least I thank all others on my path, they have all blessed me.         In our process of transformation we encounter the same message everywhere, in other words and with different accents, but in essence words that resound in us. The knowing in us recognizes the Truth we have projected outside of us and it expands in us, till our whole being is permeated with it and all mortal concepts and thoughts are healed. We are happy and deeply thankful for these road signs and our awakening. Thank You Father! Margareth Lee Introduction The Lord's Prayer Our Father Who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread: And forgive us our debts As we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen. (New American Standard Bible) Jesus gave us this prayer, which contains all mystical wisdom in a nutshell. According to Emerson, prayer is 'contemplation of the facts of life from the highest viewpoint'. This prayer certainly represents the most elevated viewpoint the human mind is capable of. Everyone is praying all the time, whether we are aware of this or not and everything we ask for is given us. God always answers all our prayers. The world we experience shows us that it is necessary to ask for something else, to learn to pray differently. And in the beginning that can be difficult, because the human thought-world is directly opposed to the divine. This prayer was never meant to become an overlearned response from which not a syllable penetrates our mind, as is the case for most of us now. With this prayer in our thoughts every moment of our earthly existence can be holy, until our whole life has become one holy moment. Then every moment is the same, whatever seems to be happening. And at the same time all things become new. This is what eternity looks like. Jesus said, 'man does not live by bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'. The Word of God sustains us and when it lives in us as part of our consciousness, our human existence becomes divine. The Word of God slumbers in us; it does not consist of the words in our holy books, but of the consciousness in which we read these books. And that consciousness awakens to remembering the Truth through contemplation and meditation. The Truth truly frees! God reveals Himself in our consciousness as our consciousness! Truly closer than our breath. You are that which you are looking for. However, that cannot be taught, because it is an experience. Experiencing divine Truth is the function of prayer. The truth is that consciousness is all there is. And you are It. Our consciousness is not the same as our thought-world. Human thinking is based on narrowed perception. Consciousness is not the result of evolution, but the world came to be as a result of consciousness. You have constructed the world as the denial of your own reality. You have no reference by which to establish what you are, because everything you believe is true for you. You experience everything you believe. I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 2:14). Still you are destined to know Reality and Truth. The measure of your reality, the Truth that you are, unites you with everything, because God is Love and Oneness. Love is all encompassing. It contains love for everything in awareness. In the divine light we only see with the loving gaze of God. And then you see that you are the perfect expression of divine consciousness. Chapter 1: Divine Fatherhood: the love of the Almighty, our oneness and our divine attributes. When we pray 'Our Father' that is a confession of faith. We recognize our oneness with each other and with God by vocalizing that we realize that we all are children of one Father; that that Father is divine and therefore so are we; that He is very favorable toward us, yes, loves us exceedingly and unconditional, as may be expected from a divine and therefore perfectly loving father. In this prayer only 'us' and 'our' are continually used; I, me or mine do not appear. Everything revolves around our common experience. We ask nothing just for ourselves, but for all humanity. Whoever prays the Lord's Prayer, should be aware that there is essentially no difference between us, regardless of our physical appearance. Regardless of skin color, sex, age and other physical and personal characteristics, we are children of a divine father. Though we are individual centers of consciousness who experience everything from a unique perspective, it is the same Spirit who processes all these experience-worlds. It has been said that God is only the Father of the ones who have faith in Him. And it is true that only those who have faith in Him can experience their oneness with Him and each other in Christ. If we do not acknowledge God as our Father, whom do we see as our creator? You are and will remain eternally as God created you and every other self-image is a concoction, it isn't real. No matter how much we try, we cannot become something we are not. We can totally identify with the ego, with an image of limitation and littleness. But what comes from God is changeless and forever will remain as He created it. Even if we don't have faith in God, He always has faith in us. And we can only temporarily put ourselves out of reach of His grace in our imagination. Truth is true and nothing else is true. In the gospel of John (10:30) Jesus claims: 'The Father and I are one.' Now it was considered blasphemy to call yourself God and a mortal sin, which merited death. Presently the ego still will not allow you to know or proclaim your reality, but fortunately it is no longer punishable by death in our society. So John tells us (10:31-39): 'The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, “I said, you are gods”? (Psalm 82:6). If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods” – and the scripture cannot be annulled – can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God's Son”? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.' Through the ages the holy men and saints of every religion have said the same thing over and over again and their bodies were silenced. But the truth about us cannot be silenced. The ego always finds Truth offensive. It feels it is being rebuked and punished. That is why part of you may not like what Jesus tells you, while another part is deeply touched. Truth pushes against the conceptual prison walls you have erected in your mind. The human mind is split and contact with Truth reveals that. Truth does not need sugarcoating. That, for which it is meant, will recognize it and be thrilled by it. That is why not everyone can handle Truth. It depends on the degree in which you shun the light. If you are someone who tries to excuse evil and thus makes it real, you will tend to consider the vision of the Holy Spirit as black-and-white. Because He sees that the evil you experience is not real and therefore can dissolve into the nothingness from where it came, if you let it. So the aim is not to pretend we don't see evil or to try to smooth it over. We do see evil, because we see all the evil we had made up and in which we believed. The aim is to hold it under the Light of Truth and Reality and ask of yourself; is it real? Alongside every evil we perceive, we lay the Truth and if it is someone else showing us our old lies, we speak the Truth to that person. Then you have arrived at a point where you say; I see the dreamer and I see his dreams. I no longer project, because I am the Christ. Only the ego-mind projects. I see my brother as he really is and I also see what he thinks he is. For this I offer healing. I don't judge him, I don't blame him for being ignorant, but I hold Truth before him. Much of what comes hereafter can be experienced as quite uncomfortable. It is so threatening to the ego, that it crucified the teacher of this knowledge. The goal is to be freed from the walls that have been erected in your mind against Truth. You desire liberation of old ideas and conditioning. This is an attempt to push against those walls and that can cause discomfort. You will not only find things here that conform to your old thoughts. That is not the aim. It is the aim to learn something new, not just to find confirmation for your own ideas. That, which is comfortable, hinders and limits us. Some think it 'dualistic' and experience it as harsh. Only the ego thinks Truth is harsh. When you confront the ego with Truth, it always feels condemned, because it condemns itself. The ego tries to cause confusion by distorting the Truth. When the distorted thought-system of the ego tries to use the sword of Truth, it just looks clumsy and ridiculous. Ego always attacks Truth. It has distorted the words of Jesus, for instance through incorrect translations. In the same way it distorted the Master's words. An example of this is the translation of part of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus is quoted as saying; 'blessed are the poor in spirit'. Who are they? Spirit is divine, how could Jesus then glorify lack of spirit? Of course he did not. The text was in fact; 'Blessed are those who ask for awareness'. When we are willing to have our consciousness expanded, we are blessed. While we do not understand the law, that states that we always experience what we believe, we will reject the magnitude that is really ours. And attack those who do not join us in littleness. So everywhere Jesus went, they tried to stone him for speaking the truth, but nothing could contain him, not even the grave. His words have been distorted and the focus was directed at adoration of his personality, making him the exception, rather than the example he intended to be. Truth cannot be suppressed. In the last century many have come forward, who had the courage to speak the Truth, as taught by our Master, Jesus. Jesus taught us that we have all the Power of God available to us and that through our beliefs our minds are powerful attractors of every experience. This is currently called the Law of Attraction. And we, the children of God, proclaim that we are made in His 'Image and Likeness' and therefore we are just like Him. God is Spirit and therefore so are we. We have the same abilities and attributes. That characterizes the relationship with our father.] God has not created us as material bodies, but as Itself. As a perfect spiritual being, with all divine characteristics and abilities, such as all-powerfulness and omniscience. Children of God must be divine. And as is narrated in the parable of the lost son, it looks like we have chosen to waste our inheritance by narrowing our perspective to the perceptual vision, which characterizes material existence. We have chosen a very limited vision, in which everything we think we know is based on speculation. But that is only one level of our existence. This is only one aspect of our experience. We are also timeless awareness, where all things and experiences are at the same time. Where there is Knowledge and no perceptual speculations. A state of timeless bliss as opposed to the unreal; perception, ignorance, and therefore doubt and speculation. Our real world of experiences envelops everything, the material world and all other possibilities, which we cannot imagine in perception. My thoughts are images I have made. We are not a mind in a body; the body is an image in our minds, with which we associate in our material experience. All perceived differences between humans and all forms are just aspects of the material experience. They are possibilities we have concocted, after we made them up. Every thought has its substrate in form. That was Our Will. However, it was not our will that our journey into form should make us suffer. But to experience form we had to limit ourselves and as it were hypnotize ourselves. You can escape from the world you see by giving up your identification with ego and its attack thoughts. And we could not foresee what the consequences would be. We only have to awaken to our divine reality to escape our self-made prison, the world of pain, suffering, sickness, growing old and death. And then we also realize what a great experiment this has been. We have been able to experience the impossible: a world which is godless; a world with two opposing powers, in which we seemed to be separate from each other and from God. A world in which the strong survive and in which our differences determine our value. Let us meet the ego thoughts with laughter and disbelief. Seen from the other side, where we perceive everything the right way, these ideas are incredible. The seeming difference in spiritual development is also no true difference, because it is linked to time. And time is an illusion. We are all unique individual aspects of one Spirit and everyone represents a unique perspective. Everything that is in the awareness of anyone is in the awareness of all. It will all be integrated. We experience a little piece of eternity at a time; the experience of states which are linked to time are finite and therefore very small. We are evolving to the realization of oneness. That manifests on the surface in our social organizations and values, in which equality and oneness are central. Nothing can keep us from awakening to the realization of our inner connectedness. The transformation goes on all the time. Everything is a picture in the mind and is being played in awareness; but what a picture! Matter that thickened from the atoms of the 'big bang' and gives form to everything, is of magnificent complexity and diversity. Every material evolution reflects the true evolution of becoming aware. The boundaries that limited thinking has assumed, are all incorrect. Every new horizon offers a view of new vistas. There is always more. Every new level of awareness opens new perspectives and is expressed in new conditions. Progress is eternal. Every door is open. We are liberated when we are no longer attached to the illusion of the perishable and valueless that our world consisted of and when we have also released our disgust of it. Amazed amusement is the only correct reaction to this world which we pretended existed. The ridiculous can only elicit ridicule. And all together we will express divinity, as soon as there are enough who do that. And indeed we are always doing that, even if part of our being pretends to be something else. Because time does not exist, it is part of the experience of godlessness. Your true Self looks from timelessness, where all Knowledge is, into the experience of time. There is only one time: now. And the divine NOW is timeless. And there is only one place and that is in God. There is no place God is not. God is always with you. There is no love but Gods'. The unconditional love of the Almighty does not resemble any human love. It is not connected to any form. Usually an earthly father does a lot for his children; how much more can we expect from our divine Father, Who is almighty and loves us completely! God created us and saw that it was good. And He has not changed His Mind, because in essence we have not changed. We cannot change, because from God only the unchangeable good, the divine, comes forth. We are always one with God, despite our seeming experience of separation. And we are always connected in His Mind. e are one and furthermore, we are loved by no lesser being than the Ruler of the Universe. We are godly children. Our Source gave us everything in our creation. Nothing was denied us. We have the same creative ability, the same all-powerfulness as our divine Father. Our Father is not an angry, vicious man who wants to hurt us in the name of love. When the Spirit brought us forth, He made us as Himself, invulnerable and imperishable. From God only the perfect can come forth. All the fear and resentment which determines our thinking, our feelings and our actions, are caused by our identification with a vulnerable, mortal, contrived self; a ridiculous lie. Spirit cannot die. All the suffering we experience, are imposed by us. It is not the Will of God. Our Father loves us and wants us to be happy. Though negative experiences can lead us to the light in a sense, they do not come from God. We can only experience them if we see our self as separated. Love never teaches through hate. We can only be happy if we accept our divine inheritance again. Let us realize who we really are and let go of every identification with the small self image. We are not mortal and powerless. We are not victims of a cruel world, at the mercy of poverty, suffering, sickness, pain and death. In the divine reality, which is the only one, we are immortal and through the divine love and mercy the all-powerfulness, which gives us the opportunity to experience anything we desire, is available to us. God Himself has placed every desire in us, including the desire for more. A desire used by the ego to focus our attention on that in which the unfolding of the divine truth is not to be found. Every desire is desire for God. We fill it in by ourselves with all sorts of substitutes. Haven't you noticed that a fulfilled desire does not give satisfaction, that every satisfaction is only short-lived? Desire continues to exist. If you have one thing, you already desire the next or more of the same. This happens until you no longer value the valueless. That which pleases the ego is always small and perishable. Nothing that is temporary can ever make you truly happy. Only Knowledge of God can really satisfy you. However, without the desire for more, no mortal could be tempted to give up the need for experiencing dualism. For the human being who is not awake, becoming aware seems like destruction, because it is the end of all that is familiar, everything one is attached to. The special relations, that shut out the world, growing old together, the distinction between people, this limited thinking does not exist in divine reality. That is why it is a miracle, if you are willing to follow the path of light. So it is not the desire itself that has to be overcome, for it is not the desire for more that leads us into the consciousness that is chained to matter, but the desire which is focused in the wrong direction. If we would desire nothing more than what we are aware of in duality, that would be the height of hopelessness. If you would think that that which constitutes your reality is life, that that was all there is, you would want to die in the end. Only by seeking, can we experience the grace of God. Because that is how we show our willingness to receive His grace. Seeking is a denial of God, for God is here and now. But you must and will seek until you are fully aware of this all the time. Deep inside we know that we have the ability to experience the infinity of Reality. It is often said that we should accept our experiences, that we should not resist. Do you overcome suffering by accepting it, even loving it, as some say? It is impossible to accept suffering, if we think that it is real. Under the much glorified acquiescence a giant amount of resentment and fear of God is hidden. We can only do this if we accept our unwanted experiences in the realization that they are not based on Reality. We don't have to change anything, because our circumstances change automatically as we are transforming. There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind. Everybody experiences limitations. There is a seeming diversity and the one seems to suffer more than the other does, but there is no real level in suffering. Human life is unimaginably painful. It looks like you can maintain yourself and only when you have arrived at the other side of the water do you see how grim human destiny is. Everything that aims at betterment of outward circumstances is only substituting one painful illusion for another. That is why it is useless to repair your situation; only if your thinking changes, changes that endure come into your life. Behind all our desires is the desire for genuine fulfillment. Desire seems to be based on discontent with our current experience. However, every desire is the desire for our divine good, God, but man does not know where to find It. Every desire is the desire for God but man does not know where to find It. We long for love and want to be loved; and we do not realize that we can only experience that through feeling it. We long for Truth and seek it in outward appearances and things. However, in us is a spiritual might that shows us the Truth, when the Christ has lit this light in us and that power is awakened. We long for power, for we have erased our true power from our memory and now we feel helpless and powerless. However, all the power of God is available for us. We long for freedom and do not realize that we always are. We long for justice and do not see that perfect justice is at work in our lives; that our thinking and our beliefs create all our circumstances and that all the evil we undergo is only in our experience through our imagination. It is impossible for two almighty powers to co-exist. And if there were an evil power that was subject to the power of God, God would know evil and be sinful. God knows no evil and gives no evil and in Reality it does not exist. Reality consists of an everlasting stream of blessings. I am surrounded by the love of God and that is what I desire. Man expects to find love in a mortal relationship, but only divine love can make us feel true love. This love is indescribable; it is energy, not just a feeling. Many claim that there are indeed forms of total love here; the love of a parent or love between so-called soul mates were given as examples. Or the love of a millionaire, who has generously given all his money away in the course of a couple of years. Once you have experienced divine love, the love of mortals is nevertheless like a shadow in a mirror, that distorts everything. Love itself is always pure and immaculate, but the thoughts and especially the fears that accompany it, hang like a veil in front of it. What is parental love essentially? In our special love for our children we fill them with fear by teaching them to fear the world and to identify with a body and to think that they have to take care of everything themselves, in stead of relying on divine providence. They learn that in every life evil can strike every moment. It is just a matter of time. Everybody sooner or later receives a portion of suffering. The best they can expect is a smaller portion than others and to travel in reasonably unblemished state on the road to old age and death. They also learn that their parents show more love when they are 'nice' than when they are 'naughty' and so they learn that love must be earned. They learn exactly what they want to learn, all in all. That there is a world in which good and evil alternate. It is for this that we came here and we have all become perfect dualistic thinkers. Without realizing it, we do not give each other the love we truly deserve. We see each other as less than we really are; we all are a manifestation of divine Spirit and excessively lovable. However, personalities do not love; that is in essence not part of a limited self-definition. And yet love is in all and everything is done out of love. The paradox here is that out of love we give hatred and limitation to everyone who wants to experience that. We think that concern is an expression of love, but it originates in fear. Whoever walks in darkness, expresses love in this way. He offers hate, not love, because he does not rely on divine care. Of himself he can do nothing for another; because people cannot really help each other ultimately. It is God Who takes care, God Who helps. Let us not ask for hate any more. Let us finally claim our true inheritance. What is the nature of the love for a partner? The love of people for their partner is usually looking to get something. If that was not so, they would love everyone. If someone they do not care for, loves them, that means nothing to them. So the other has nothing they want. Love between 'soul mates' can be a very beautiful experience; but for how long? In dualistic thinking loss is possible and consequently unavoidable. The belief in a special soul mate originated when people in the west learned about reincarnation. Under hypnosis they went back to 'previous lives' and discovered that they had previously had a relationship with their beloved. Two errors are at work here. In the first place there is no incarnation, let alone reincarnation, though there is the experience of it. All time is going on all the time, there is no past or future; there is only the now. And that is not happening on some other level, it is happening on the only level that is real. The experience of time is the experience of an illusion, pretending something. It is like special spectacles we are wearing to see reality differently. If the past is part of the story we tell ourselves, a holographic image, what is reincarnation then? The second error involves the special nature of the relationship. The one, in whom a soul mate is perceived, should rather be considered a traveling companion. A saying that is much quoted calls us 'spiritual beings on a human journey'. This needs to be corrected: we are one spiritual being on a human journey. We are all soul mates. We are one. And the only relationship is a divine relationship, in which your own transformation is served by the relationship. You connect to that which you see in the other. If you connect to the ego, the ego will answer. That, with which you connect, determines the relationship. You can see beautiful mortal qualities in the other, but remember that all these 'virtues' have an opposite. And you will experience them, either within or outside of the relationship. If you connect with the Christ instead of with the mortal personality, the relationship is stable and filled with consistent, unconditional love and peace. You do that by letting go of your definitions about the other. What you labeled as lazy at first, or as egotistical, or as an inflated ego, you can then recognize as fear. And you can ask yourself why you are faced with it; what conviction in you shows you behavior that seems to be laziness or egoism or misdirected pride? In every relationship the other only reflects your thoughts and convictions. You always attract people who only reflect your thoughts and beliefs. It is not your job to change another, but we can try to give the other that in which he or she seems to fail. And at the same time realize that their dreams cannot change their Reality and the Truth and the Light in them. We do not have to approve of that which can only elicit aversion, but we should keep in mind that everything we see belongs to the realm of time and is therefore temporary. In fact it is completely in the past. The other is nothing that he thinks he is. What is eternal? The other is that. What is unlimited? The other is that. See his reality and in light thereof you will discover your own light. See the masterpiece of God in the other and he will hold a mirror up that shows you the same. When you see another with the eyes of Christ, you have a relationship with God. It is very easy to love another if you see God in him. That is the road to happiness, for it changes your vision of life. You lose your fear of your neighbor and that is a large part of the fear that oppresses you. However, call no one good, because personalities are not good. See only the Christ in your brother. All true beauty that you see in another is potentially in everyone and comes from God. In a spiritual relationship you can appreciate the one who is with you very much; but if that is someone else then yesterday, you will not grieve or feel resentment, only gratitude. Then you do not need a special relationship, because you realize that everything in your experience is there to help you expand your realization of God and to expand your consciousness. Every relationship is meant to show you the Truth. And for this purpose exactly the right kindred spirits are placed on your path. In the vision of God we are all perfect. Everything in his Awareness fills God with joy and love. This is what we feel for everyone on our path when we reflect this consciousness. A relationship, which brings you nearer to the experience of who you really are, is a relationship with God. And that is the only real relationship. It is never a sacrifice to give love, for everything you give, you give to yourself. Everyone knows examples of altruistic behavior. There are many who give away relatively large sums of money. We call someone who risks his life to save another, a hero. Regularly someone, who was trying to commit suicide, is saved. If the savior would realize, that life is immortal and untouchable and that every form of dying is a form of suicide, he might be able to give something of real value to the saved one. Maybe then he could convince the other, that suicide is no solution to problems; that that, which seemingly can be killed, is not real. He should first realize however, that consciousness cannot die. You can only escape by awakening. This also demonstrates that mortal divisions are untenable. Selfishness as well as unselfishness do not exist. By being unselfish your self-esteem rises and usually also that of the people who know you. It is wonderful to feel good about yourself. You will have given yourself that joy. And when you experience everything and everyone as part of yourself, you give freely. You give to your Self and it benefits everyone, including you. It may seem as if there is sacrifice involved. However, that is impossible, when love is given. The need to take care of others, to heal them, to give them love, are all inspired by God. Only the one, who teaches us about our own power, our divine abilities in oneness with God, truly helps us. Everything you furthermore do, serves to make the other accessible for growth of consciousness. But do not make it real! For every need you perceive in the other, is your own. You do what you can; for some that is the giving of money and material things, others give of themselves. These gifts are usually directed at the body. However, everything is used for the good by the Christ, therefore every gift is valuable. And isn't it wonderful if you are enabled to give something of lasting value, namely Knowledge concerning who the other really is and what Reality is? Everyone with whom you are connected, who you manage to reach, is in turn connected to many others. In the end you do everything for your Self; in individual sense and in the complete association the constructive power of love is for your own good. Serving others is in your own best interest. You can only give to yourself anyway. That is very far-reaching. What would serve you best if you lived in a nightmare of your own making? Wouldn't you want to hear that it is just a dream? True giving is surrendering to the point of surrendering all your thoughts to the Holy Spirit. Giving is creating. The Spirit can only create, it is unable to exchange. When you do not give, you do not create and you are in the experience of limitation and death. Then you are stuck in the constructs of your own mind. Everything is your Self. Let go of your identification with a small, limited self. Become aware why you want something; if you think it's money that will make you happy, know then that anything you can buy pales in comparison to the joy God gives. If you look for your happiness in a romantic relationship, realize that you experience love by giving it. Give all the love you possibly can to everyone you meet. And do not forget yourself; the love you are looking for is in you. Do only that which makes you feel good about yourself. If you are yourself you only feel peace. If you go against your own nature, you feel pain. You are a beloved child of God. You are a miracle, for you originated in divine imagination. Treat yourself as God would. And more and more you will see yourself with the joyful, elated vision of God. Realize your true Self; let us think, feel and act as God meant us to, according to our true nature. Chapter 2: The location of God; what is Heaven? The words 'Our Father' say a lot about who we are, what our relationship with God is and what our relationship to each other is. When we say 'who art in Heaven' we do not mean that God dwells in a physical location, somewhere above us. Everything is spiritual and heaven is just like everything else, a state of mind. God is always in heaven; the heavenly, high consciousness is God. God is all there is, outside of God there can be nothing. Everything that seems to be outside of heaven, is made up, it is a simulation, an illusion. The divine consciousness is only aware of the divine. In such consciousness there is no place for relative perception, for the discrimination and the separation of the narrowed mortal view. But we cannot live in a private world. Even in that there is oneness; agreement concerning reality was necessary to make it real for us. To be able to experience a world of separation we even had to agree about that. You needed witnesses for the mad idea that you could be a separate being in a body. If nobody supported you in that notion, you would have given it up long ago. In mortal perception the question surfaces; how can you say that war, crime, illness, poverty, old age and suffering are not real? And why would you say that, what's the use of saying that? What we call evil does have a place in the world of our experiences, but it does not originate in divine reality or in the workings of a malicious power; it is just the product of human ability to experience. Which is fortunate, because if God or an evil power outside of us were responsible, how could we ever escape? There is no God or evil, there is only God. When we say that God is the only power, we say that Reality is absolutely good. We admit that 'evil' can seem very real sometimes. It might seem as if fate has turned against us, as if there is a conspiracy to make us suffer. However, that is not so. Everything is waiting to be looked upon in a different way. There are no limits for us. We can experience anything we want. There is no power at all to stop us. Nothing can keep us poor, unhappy, sick, unsafe or unloved but us. When we focus our attention on God, the almighty good as the only power, all our problems disappear into the nothing from whence they came. God is everywhere and good. God must then also be all and in all. Therefore all is good. God is therefore also in everyone, even in your so-called 'enemies'. As Iyanla Vanzant says 'your brother is God, cleverly disguised as an idiot'. When you focus on his mistakes, you will not be able to perceive his divine essence. Behavior is on the surface and its nature is temporary and passing. We must not make mistakes real, then every seeming evil will disappear from our thought-world. Moreover, God always shows you what you want to see. If you want to see the Christ in your neighbor, enough people will come who want to show you the face of Christ. Those who had the role of 'pressing your buttons' en activating you to forgive, change or disappear from your world of experiences. Of yourself you cannot change anyone. The Holy Spirit changes people, because only He knows their heart and their path. You cannot decide how others should behave. A human being cannot decide what is right. Everyone assumes to know what is enlightened or spiritual or right behavior, but mortal judgment is always wrong, for it is based on wrong assumptions, which are diametrical to Truth. We are here to let go, not to act holy. Human beings are always pretending. In doing that, you eventually lose contact with your true feelings. It demands courage to be genuine. But genuineness leads to happiness. The goal is not to pretend anymore. We have tried to remake God to measure up to our mortal standard; and we made a God who demands that first we suffer and die to get to heaven. And during this whole ordeal you have to love God above all. Who could do that? You are not saved by death, but by changing your mind about the purpose of the world. It is a sensitive topic, the belief in a heaven after death. We can learn something from the experience of people with a 'Near Death Experience' (NDE), who entered the light. We prefer to refer to it as a 'Near Life Experience' (NLE). Every kind of experience in which the mind dissociates from the body is an experience of transformation; therefore it could better be called a 'life' experience or 'near life' experience. And we decide how we come out of it. We decide whether we go home or not. And if not, we continue to experience this illusion of separation. And the purification of our thought-world. Because the last judgment is the moment we have judged for the last time. That is the moment in which we perceive nothing outside of divine reality. Because if we do not condemn anything anymore, there will be no more evil visible in the world around us. It is an experience of transformation, when we experience the divine light and the Christ, our true Self. If we are not yet ready for it, we return. We are not sent back, because our task on the earth is not finished yet, as people with an NLE reported; that is again an interpretation from the fearful ego, who perceives itself again as banished from paradise. If we could stand to be in paradise, in the state of divine oneness, we would simply stay. But our consciousness still cannot stand the higher level of vibration and we experience God as fire. Man deludes himself that God rejected him; he even made up the myth of 'being driven from paradise'. But we never left heaven; we only began to imagine that we were separated from God. Of course you want to know how you got here. Because you are afraid that you did something terrible and were really driven from paradise. And you are afraid of what awaits you when you decide to return. We use everything to associate spiritual life with misery. And so nothing frightens you more than your salvation. For that reason we have made up a fearful malevolent threatening God; for that we used the crucifixion of Jesus. You don't enter heaven by dying. Dying is a thought, for which there is no place in the heavenly consciousness. Your task on earth is not finished when your perception is not healed. Heaven is a place of oneness; thoughts of separation cannot abide there. It is our judgment that keeps us out of heaven, our consciousness that is not whole, but split. Doubt, fear, worry, resistance, they are all expressions of the split in mortal thinking. Moods and changing emotions are also a part of that. Anger, misdirected pride and greed are a distorted, mortal version of the attributes of God. In the healed consciousness they gradually fade. We learn to focus our attention on what we can give instead of on what we can get. We can only keep that which is eternal. And we do that by giving it. Heaven can so easily be mine. I choose Heaven. Some think that a life without capricious peaks and valleys would be dull. But the emotional state continues to vary; except now it varies from fairly cheerful and calm to joy that can almost not be contained. The divine state of mind also includes passion; it is the same energy as anger, but does not leave us emotionally drained. We are always cared for, safe and invulnerable. Every threat we have made ourselves. God is the only power there is and only God's laws are working. What power does the ghost of poverty have then? What can threaten our health? We can let these phantasms in our mind be purified. We don't have to pray to receive our good, because God has already given us everything. We only have to ask to be awakened and to see reality again. There is no spiritual and material world, as we thought, there is only the divine and therefore spiritual world. Isn't it wonderful to recognize that the world is an illusion that can be undone? On earth the perceptual consciousness will be like the heavenly consciousness. In moments of perfect communication, also called holy instants, you let go of your perceptual associations and you are whole. While we are in time all of us will be aware of our oneness and live in a world in which everyone is willing to stand by each other as a matter of fact. We then know what everything and everyone needs. There are no more so-called private thoughts. They never existed, but then nobody pretends that they exist. No one has anything to hide then. And no one hides from the consciousness of another. Then we do not have any fear from one another and all human loneliness is over. Animals are not afraid anymore and show none of the unpleasant traits we attributed to them, when we were allowed to 'name' them and thus define their role. When we know our divine nature, we will have found peace and happiness and wisdom in ourselves. When we live from the inside out, we are always filled with love, peace and joy, regardless of external circumstances. Disagreeable thoughts full of hate no longer have any power over us. In whatever form they present themselves, we encounter everything and everyone with love, faith and understanding. We know reality and know that in essence we are invulnerable and therefore always safe. God loves us and only good can happen to us. Everything that is not divine and presents itself, is coming to us for healing. Do not project healing outside of you anymore, the healer is inside you. Every thought you have put out there, needs to be healed, until you have reached your last judgment. How the Holy Spirit judges. As we become more aware of the incorrect assumptions our thinking was based on, this is purified more and more. We learn to use our ability to judge to make the only sane distinction and ask ourselves in every circumstance; is it real? You are filled to the rim with opinions due to comparing constantly; but you actually compare the wrong things. There is only one comparison the thinking faculty should be used for: Is it real? How do we know if it is real? If it has eternal value, it is real. And if everything shares in it. Your desire to be special and separate from everything is keeping you here. There is no true love here; love here is not all encompassing, it discriminates, looks for limited advantage and is usually temporary and conditional. When we know our divine nature, we are loosed from sickness, worry and destructive fearful thoughts. Not that these do not surface in us anymore; they come along another time to see what we do with them, how we react. We have made them and put them outside and everything we have made will come by for acknowledgement. The Power of God makes us whole. Let us ask for healing of the real cause of sickness, suffering and separation, namely our belief in them and concentrate on divine wholeness. We don't have to try to avoid unpleasantness, we only have to see the reality of Truth, God. To let go and let God is to let Reality in. This form of renunciation of the world is not a spiritual escape, as the ego would ascertain; the only thing we can flee from are our nonexistent projections, so that we can experience the real world. We do not renounce the world, we renounce the lie. That is true altruism, because the greatest possible service you can offer mankind is to let your consciousness be expanded. We do not close our eyes for all the grief and misery in the world. On the contrary, we assume full responsibility. But we also know there is no solution in the world. You can try as hard as you can, work for this, fight against that, but the problems never cease. By having problems and trying to solve them, you keep yourself outside of wholeness and heaven. In this way you make this world real and affirm over and over again that you believe in it. There is only one solution; let go and let God. We should only be attached to God. You cannot be unattached to life. You don't have to be afraid for that to happen. People, who say you can go too far in that respect, think that something in the dualistic world is still valuable. They do not realize that ultimately we are allowed to let go of living on this level. God sees only oneness, wholeness and love. We, who think we see something else, have placed ourselves outside of divine Reality. We experience something that God does not know and that cannot possibly be real. For people this experience of suffering and death seems very real, but it is a fantasy. As long as we believe in it, we experience it. Not our circumstances cause pain, but our belief in separation. Because we have that power; we can experience everything we believe in. Thus we create this make-believe reality; just by pretending. We experience what we believe. There is a higher power operating in your life and you are perfectly cared for. Everything falls in its place naturally. Trust your divine guidance to bring you success and surrender. Your inner guidance takes very good care of you. All your experiences can only change you for good. Everything is in your best interest. You are worthy of abundance. It is fine for you to have every good thing, because you are a child of God. You share in everything God has and God has everything. Therefore everything belongs to you. Expand to circulate more and more good in your life. You are rich because you possess everything from God. You have the dominion of God. You have the joy of God. You have the peace of God. You have the security and the safety of God. You have the supply of God. It is all in your consciousness. It is God's Will that your life is rich and fruitful. You are one with God. It is God's Will that you realize your true identity and live like God, in the realization that you are divine. Come out of the dream of mortality. You have invented the world you see. Even though there is a divine world, consisting of absolute values, you can experience every illusion you can think of. If you want to know what your beliefs are, take a good look at your world. The reality you experience, shows you what you believe. We must accept our responsibility for our own fabrications. We reject our responsibility, by refusing to experience that which we have fabricated. Because we have placed time between the moment we made them up and the moment we allow the experience of them in our awareness. And in the meantime they are no longer welcome and we try to get away from them. As long as we do not appreciate them or see that they are not real and therefore ridiculous, they keep coming up in our awareness. Everything is happening in one consciousness. Cause and effect are not separate. The law of cause and effect is not a punishment, as is often thought; it works actually to safeguard your power and to make sure you can experience anything you want. That is the free will, which has been given us. This thought-system is diametrical to actual ego thinking. Ego characterizes it as 'unnecessary complicated', 'too centered in the head', and so on. Of course expansion of consciousness has to be demanding. Ask yourself what the old way of thinking is giving you. Do you really want the world of sickness, loss, suffering, decay and death? Is it God's will that we should suffer and die? If it is not God's will, you are not doing God's will if you experience suffering and death. Isn't it time then to ask yourself how you can really do the will of God? And we can experience another reality that is very close to our true state of being. What is simpler than being your Self? We should not rest until the whole world shares this different perception. We cannot be satisfied until the whole world is saved. For this we were called and we who have made it, must see it with the vision of Christ, so that the illusion of a perishable, dying world can be replaced by eternal life. You do not do that by converting your neighbor. Transformation is individual. If you change, the world changes with you. Of course! Whatever seems to be going on 'out there', your perception of it will have changed. Moreover, you will attract those events and people, who are consistent with your awareness. And the light in you invites all to drink together with you out of the cup of eternity. You can experience Heaven on earth. When you awaken, the whole world awakens with you. And that is happening now! Heaven is a decision I must make. Heavenly consciousness is not just meant for mystics. It is the home of us all. When we recognize this, we are overflowing with joy. In this state which is described as 'rebirth', there is a smiling tranquility in us, the 'peace that passes every human understanding'. Chapter 3: Hallowing and healing the Name of God. After our awakening we cannot refrain from honoring and praising God, for this priceless treasure, this pearl of immeasurable worth we have found inside of us. 'Hallowed be thy name' is an expression of this delight and praise. It is also the affirmation that it is the ultimate destiny of each human being to manifest the characteristics of God fully, in wholeness. We complete God, by expressing the godly. The 'Name of God' refers to the divine characteristics, not to a human name. In our perception we have attributed all kinds of characteristics to ourselves which are not in accordance with Divine Reality. Nothing I see means anything. We attribute only unreal characteristics to the perceived, because we perceive everything in terms of good or bad. However, it is not good or bad, it just is not real. Everything is God and all is in God; everything we perceive that is not godly, must be an illusion. We have made up the world of conflict and suffering and death that we perceive. Perception is based on the senses and on interpretation of the perception through the senses; but eyes deceive and ears lie. In the perceptual world nothing is certain, everything is temporary knowledge, till the next insight makes everything uncertain again. Everything is speculation, hypotheses. That which seems so certain at first, is ridiculed a century later. In the world of human cognition it is very easy to make mistakes. Our perception only shows us small unrelated pieces of reality. This godless world begins with perception, a way of perceiving that is opposite of divine cognition, and divine certainty is replaced by human fallibility. The apparatus of the senses is that which enables us to experience illusions. We can only see small parts of the whole. And the small unreal I seeks with grim unrelenting diligence for everything that witnesses of its own reality and the lie of that which cannot exist; the signs of mortality, sickness, pain, suffering and death. The fear-based perception sees all around it something to be afraid of. And all our judging is based on this fear. To have insight in our phantasms about the world and let them go, healing of our perception is necessary. Our perception can only be made whole again with the help of a higher power. We reach the state of consciousness, in which this is possible, when we open up to the Holy Spirit, also called the Whole Spirit or the Holy Inspiration. The same vision that dished up lies can lead us to Truth. Everything can be reinterpreted in favor of divine reality. When we follow the light of the teacher God has given us, we see the world as God beholds it. We only have to be willing to hear this Voice in everything we hear and to see this Light in everything we behold. And this willingness shows it to us. Which divine qualities are in us? Which godlike qualities are really in us? Altruism is seen as one of the most important Christian virtues. We can ask ourselves if it is so desirable, besides attainable, considering the actual definition of altruism. Behind this ideal is the idea of sacrifice. And God does not require any sacrifice. The only things you have to sacrifice are the convictions that bring you conflict. Your thought-world determines how you feel. Sacrifice is impossible. We do become altruistic, but not in the way the ego prescribes. We want to give our brothers everything that serves the transformation of the mind. We want to teach them, not only through words but also through our example. We cannot act otherwise; in the beginning maybe only because we see that we are always teaching ourselves. God has not created a meaningless world. And as time goes by we realize that the experience of everyone is always shared. We experience our oneness. You could call it compassion; this feeling originates in the recognition that it is I who experiences lack, it is I who experiences godlessness. But no one is a body. And we know that we must not make this hallucination real. Our understanding of God is now being healed. If you answer to God's Call, which is your calling, you immediately are in His Service. And all your worldly attachments and delusions are broken or transformed. You enter every relationship as God's minister and every relationship is used by the Holy Spirit to augment your spiritual awareness. And you are used to raise the awareness of God everywhere and to bring the Light everywhere. Connecting to God through prayer, contemplation and meditation. Many books could be written about the initiations awaiting those who tread this path. And that has been done. Ultimately we have to recognize that God is everything and everything can only be whole. But we see unmistakable evil. When we realize that we are experiencing our own illusions, that God does not know it, we begin to become aware of divine reality. Healing our breach in communication is done by contemplation and meditation. We can get to know and experience God in this way; the divine qualities are revealed in us as the love flowing through us, a love that takes possession of us more and more under every possible circumstance and that envelops everything in our experience. In prayer and meditation we can connect to the divine world. In meditation we connect to our Source and thus receive new vitality and inspiration. Through meditation we are filled with peace and harmony, and pour this out over everyone who comes into contact with us, also over the ones we do not see. So meditation is the focusing of the attention on the divine and everything you do in the process is an aid not to let that attention wander. The intention is indicative of the object of attention. If somebody says a mantra, he does so with a reason. In most cases to seek contact with the divine. You cannot seek God in vain; the prayer of the heart is always answered. How it will look depends on the interpretations you put between yourself and the experience of the divine. God remains Itself, but as soon as the thought process and therefore your old thoughts and expectations start to interfere, you create Him in your own image and likeness. In the Bible we are admonished not to make images of God. Our idols are not just the substitutes for God, in the form of attachment to earthly pleasures, but also our definitions of God. We should not try to define God based on our limited fearful human perception. Let God tell us Who and What It is. It is impossible to understand God within human perception. With our perceptual consciousness we cannot experience Totality, but we can transcend this consciousness. We cannot comprehend infinity with our intellect. The intellect was the tool of the ego up till now, of the filtering mechanism with which we maintain this world of good and evil. Therefore we have to let our thoughts be purified before we can experience our oneness with God. We have to become like children, with the faith of children and set aside everything we think we know. God reveals Himself to those who seek Him earnestly and passionately with an open mind. We unfold spiritually by turning inside, not by rituals or by good deeds. That is where you find the Power of God. Listen to that inner voice. Some people see prayer as pleading and talking to God. But prayer is not a communication from earth to heaven, but from heaven to earth. If you want something done in earth, you will have to operate from heaven. The Bible speaks of the renewing of your mind. You have to let go of your bodily, material thoughts, the lower physical material level to vibrate on the level of God. Heaven is inaccessible to the devil, he always gets thrown out. God is not on the frequency of the ego mind and cannot be reached from it. Therefore it is necessary to listen to God. We also do not attain the desired result by talking piously about God or by discussions with others or intellectual research; they can witness to desire, but the ideas of others can often create confusion, because the advice of mortal thinking is not based on the right information. Desire and patience are finally answered by God, for those who seek God in the silence. However, it is not necessary to wait to contact God. In the wonderful book 'Working with God' Gardner Hunting states that you do not have to wait for peace and the resulting joy. The things of the earth require time, we reap when the harvest is ripe. But the fruits of the Spirit are always available. As soon as you start to look for the Kingdom, you will find it. You do not have to wait until your mind is purified; leave that to the Holy Spirit. You only have to be willing and to open up yourself in faith for the love, peace and joy God wants to give you. There are many ways to pray. The act of praying is contemplation; turning the attention inward and reflecting on the words. Concentration is often considered a problem. Staying awake and not letting the thoughts wander seems to be a challenge. Admittedly, meditation has to be learned. But when we are willing and persist, step by step we succeed. An inner urge has developed to meditate and be about our Father's business. The world of our thoughts is more and more filled with the divine and where could our thoughts then stray? Many say the Lord's Prayer in affirmative form. And doubtless that is very powerful; that part of the prayer, that refers to divine reality, has come to us in this form. It is the part in which is stated that God is in Heaven, that He rules there and is our Source and governs our life and furthermore, that all power and glory are God's. What we are asking for is to become aware of the divine guidance that is always there. We also ask for help to accept it. It is often recommended to let prayer be accompanied by certain body-postures and gestures. Movements of the body can also be an aid in concentration, especially when physical feelings and movements are an important perceptual mode. You can dance toward God. For some reading the prayer is effective, for others hearing it. No matter which favorite perceptual channel we use to focus our attention on the divine, it may be clear that the power of prayer lies not in ritual repetition, but in conviction. When we pray with faith and trust, it cannot but be effective; it permeates our hidden memories and through the grace of God these are returned to our consciousness. For that is God's Will. The purpose of meditation. The purpose of meditation is to have your thoughts purified and then to leave this mortal world behind you. That is why meditation is not only limited to the time you spend in quiet contemplation, but more and more permeates the daily routine, for it becomes the state of your consciousness. Then your whole life is meditation and you are a master of the stream of thoughts. In that inner silence you hear God's voice. The goal is not to silence our thinking. Thinking is good, the goal is to heal and change the thoughts that surface in us. For that purpose the correct relationship between the thoughts and the thinker must be recognized. You can be a master of your thoughts when you realize that you are connected to one of two sets of thought sets; one of the ego, the mortal set of thoughts, or that of God. You learn to notice the thoughts that come up and transcend the procession of thoughts from the realm of mortal ideas. When you name and examine your desires, feelings and experiences with the aid of the Holy Spirit, you gain insight into your motives. You start to see your life patterns and your convictions. And you recognize that incorrect identification with a limited small self is responsible for all limitations you ascribe to yourself. You learn to look upon all judgments and thoughts without attachment to them and to offer them then to the Light of the Whole Spirit to make them whole. That is how you attain a clear awareness. It is your function to shine light on every mortal, limited thought that passes through you, before allowing it to continue. You cannot leave this world while it is in your awareness; as long as you believe in it you will experience it. You can only experience another world with a changed consciousness. Though it may seem as if we enter another world, we do not leave this world for another. There is only one real world. Only our consciousness and consequently our perception changes. You can only leave the simulation if you experience the divine world, Reality. But that is only possible if you let go of the belief in evil, in opposites, in fact your judgments and grievances. And you cannot do that by yourself. Through prayer and meditation the mortal thought-world, the ego, starts to realize how it works, what it is doing and how futile that is and gives up. It becomes silent. Then that which is real, the real thinker, not influenced by time or space, can manifest. Divine insight dwells in us; there is suddenly an irrefutable knowing in us, so totally different from the conclusions, based on all kinds of hypothesis and fallible observations, to which we were accustomed. However, it is impossible to voice that knowing. In our perceptual experience reality is symbolic. As such words are symbols referring to symbols. As far as it can be called a process, it goes as follows: Looking at your old beliefs and thoughts, without blaming yourself or anyone else for them. They are collective ego ideas, not personal. However, to let go of them, you have to look first and therefore be aware of them. Identifying yourself with the consciousness of everything and everyone in your experience, experiencing your oneness. Letting go of any limited identity and recognizing that you can be anything you would want to be. As a consequence of this you will experience the blissful stream of awareness and carry in your heart divine peace and joy. You will experience your oneness with God, infinite awareness, and unconditional love and acceptance for everything in your consciousness. It is an indescribable state of mind. God reveals Itself in us as a place of inner peace where we can always enter. A peace so filled with joy that it could be described as ecstatic peace. What is the purpose of prayer? The purpose of prayer is communion with God. If we sincerely try to focus our attention on that and pray with faith, all power joins our prayer. We do not have to beg for the good, as we used to do based on old-fashioned religious beliefs. We now know that God has given us all the good already when He expanded Himself as us. We only have to realize this. This Self-Realization is attained by recognizing and affirming the reality of it. Whatever may be the content of your prayer, in fact you are always praying for yourself. You are always reminding yourself what Reality is, you keep affirming Truth. In fact the goal of praying and affirming is to convince yourself of the Truth. Despite all the evidence that we receive that Power of God is the only Power and despite the experience of Divine Reality, the belief in that to which the senses witness, keeps popping up for some time. It has taken us a long time to learn to believe in the ego ideas. Although it takes a much shorter time, still it does take some time to unlearn to accept them as truth. Through prayer, our conscious union with our divine awareness, our consciousness expands, in order for love, peace, joy, harmony and prosperity to flow into our experience. In prayer we only have to ask to be enabled to see Divine Reality, the light that is everywhere in and around us. The right prayer affirms that the good has already happened and has happened for everyone and all we seem to see is but an illusion. In Reality there is only love, knowledge and understanding, safety and invulnerability, peace, joy and abundant good. The ego manufactures escape routes to try to make the ego world real. Instead of totally denying that the ego world would be an illusion, it now discerns 'levels'. Then there is the world of common everyday experience, which is very real; and the world of God, which is still very far from us. The ego keeps trying to make the illusion real. However, there is only one level, the level we all are. The rest is like a movie, playing in front of us. We are not a part of it. We can identify with the actors, but it just isn't real. Everything we perceive here, be it beautiful or ugly or good or evil, just is not real. But that only becomes an experience, when we are willing to let go of our belief in illusions. Prayer can only serve one personal purpose; we can ask that our eyes be opened to experience Reality again. Even that request is really superfluous, because it is the only thing that is really going on here. But as long as we seem to live in this make-believe world, it is necessary for us to do that. The purpose of prayer is union with our divine consciousness. When that happens, we usually remember little to nothing about it, we only know it has happened. That which we still remember is distorted, because we only take images in the perceptual dualistic consciousness with us from these experiences. If you are one, there is no witness, nobody to perceive it. The Kingdom of God is in you. When you enter in, every dualism and time ceases to exist. Only timeless oneness is there. There is no I as beholder, one experiencing and something outside of me that is experienced. There is only I. Everything is I.