There is
no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this:
I do not know the
thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to
look upon the world or on myself.
Yet in
this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of Itself.
Let’s
talk about what you are and where you came from, and then you can decide how
quickly you want to get to where you’re going.
Symbols
cannot really express what appeared to happen just before the making of the
universe. The magnitude of the trans-temporal mind is much too great to capture
with words. We can however, give you a glimpse of what’s really behind the
so-called fall of man, and what many have called original sin. We can tell you
what it was that resulted in the event you refer to as the Big Bang. No
scientist will ever be able to trace anything back before that, except in
theory. But it is possible to remember the very
beginning—and to change your mind about it. It’s not necessary, however, for
you to remember the very beginning now, because you will really change your
mind by forgiving the symbols of this beginning. Thus your
salvation always has and always will depend on decisions you are making right now.
Before
the beginning, there were no beginnings or endings; there was only the eternal
Always, which is still there—and always shall be. There was only an awareness
of unflawed oneness, and this oneness was so complete, so awe-striking and
unlimited in its joyous extension that it would be impossible for anything to
be aware of something else that was not Itself. There was and is only God in
this reality—which we will refer to as Heaven.
What God
creates in His extension of Himself is called Christ. But Christ is not in any
way separate or different than God. It is exactly the same. Christ is not a part of God. It is an extension of the whole. Real Love must be shared, and the
perfect Love that is shared in God’s Universe is beyond all human
comprehension. Humans appear to be part of the whole, but Christ is all of it.
The only possible distinction between Christ and God—if a distinction was
possible—would be that God created Christ; He is the Author. Christ did not create
God or Itself. Because of their perfect
oneness,
this doesn’t really matter in Heaven. God has created Christ to be exactly like
God, and to share His eternal Love and joy in a state of unencumbered,
boundless and unimaginable ecstasy.
Unlike
the concrete, specific world you appear to be in now, this constant and
enthralling state of awareness is completely abstract, eternal, unchanging and
united. Christ then extends Itself by creating new Creations, or simultaneous
extensions of the whole, which are also exactly the same in their perfect
oneness with God and Christ. Thus Christ, like God, also creates—because It is
exactly the same as God. These extensions do not go inward or outward, because
in Heaven there is no concept of space; there is only everywhere. The result of
all this is the endless sharing of perfect Love, which is beyond understanding.
Then
something appears to happen which, as in a dream, doesn’t really happen—it
just appears to. For just an instant, for just one, inconsequential fraction of
a nanosecond, a very small aspect of Christ
appears to have an idea that is not shared by God. It’s kind of a “What if?”
idea. It’s like an innocent wondering in the form of a question—which
unfortunately is followed by an apparent answer. The question, if it could be
put into words was, “What would it be like if I were to go off and play on my
own?” Like a naïve child playing with matches who burns down the house, you
would have been much happier not to find out the answer to that
question—for your state of innocence is about to be seemingly replaced by a
state of fear and the erroneous, vicious defenses that this condition appears
to require.
Because
your idea is not of God, He does not respond to it. To respond to it would
be to give it reality. If God Himself were to acknowledge anything except the idea of perfect oneness, then
there would no longer Be perfect oneness. There would no
longer be a perfect state of Heaven for you to return to. As we will see, you never really
left anyway. You’re still there, but you have entered into a nightmare state of illusion. While you have traveled only in dreams, God and Christ, Who are always One, have continued as they always did and
always will—completely unaffected by the “tiny, mad idea…” of separation.
In this
cosmic instant of seeming individuality—and no matter how attractive you may
think individuality is, it is nothing but separation—there seems to be a tiny
aspect of Christ that is now aware of something else. That is duality. Now,
instead of oneness, you have twoness. Before, there was the perfect oneness of
Heaven and nothing else. That is non-duality, or non-twoness and that is still reality.
There is
not really more than one thing, but now
something different seems to be going on for you. There seems to be God and something else. That is the
illusion of duality, and the world of multiplicity and the endless subjects and
objects you perceive in it are merely symbolic of separation.
While
you may still try to create, you cannot really create without the power of God,
so everything you make eventually falls apart.
But the
fail-safe memory of what you really are can never be lost, making an awakening
to the reality of Heaven completely inevitable. However, this memory can be
seemingly delayed by unwise choices in the dream. Unwise choices have been made
by you all along. You have the power to choose the memory and strength of God or something else instead, and if you really examine your thoughts you will
find that you are usually choosing something else instead. That is what the
part of your mind that chooses did immediately after the seeming separation.
Out of shock, fear and confusion it made a series of unwise choices that
resulted in you appearing to be here. You still don’t realize that given the
awesome power of the mind, certain choices made by you could end the seeming
separation—and could have at any time.
The idea
of separation, as well as your subsequent decisions, are things that God is
totally unconcerned about because you are really still safe in Heaven, and
because what you are seeing is not true. You are not really able to hurt
yourself—even if you dream you are being hurt or even killed. God does not
create anything that is not the perfect oneness of Heaven. Everything else is
your own nightmare, and does not exist.
You are
at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to
reality.
"I
remember that there are men imprisoned in a cave, chained so tightly they can’t
move enough to turn their heads or even their eyes. All they
can see is the wall of this cave in front of them. They’ve been there so long
it’s all they can remember; it’s all they know. They can see these shadows on
the wall in front of them and hear some sound. Because it’s all they
know, they think that what they’re looking at is
reality. It’s all pretty dismal, but they’re so used to it they think it’s
normal and they’ve become sort of comfortable with it.
Finally,
one of the prisoners manages to break free, and he’s able to turn around and
see that he’s in a cave. He can also see some light coming from the direction
of the entrance. It takes a long time for his
eyes to be able to stand the light, but when he makes it to the entrance he can
see people walking by on the road outside, and it’s their shadows that are
being cast onto the wall inside the cave.
Realizing
the prisoners inside the cave can’t see that what they’re looking at is untrue,
the freed prisoner goes back and tries to share his knowledge with them.
They’re so used to their own way of thinking, that they don’t really want to
hear what the free one has to say. In fact, it’s just the opposite. They want
to kill him. It’s like what you’ve been telling me: People may think they want to be free, but they’re
not really willing to give up their own way of looking at things."
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