And now we arrive at the last article related to human nature, human life, health and spirituality. We will discuss forgiveness, humility, grace and spirituality before we move back into our scientific and geometric discussions.
Forgiveness
A Course in Miracles, the Seth Material, and The Law of One all speak of simultaneous time.
This theory says the past cannot cause anything, so our choices in the present are the only cause for our present situation.
Forgiveness undoes the negative effects of our present ego-based choices by showing us that the cause is in our own mind and that the cause in our mind is an illusion that has produced no real results.
If you made a decision in the past and you feel you are getting karmic retribution for that past decision or action, then in truth, you are still making that decision (or holding that belief) in the present, and so you are feeling effects of your present choices, not your past. You haven’t changed your belief structure yet and so you suffer.
The Law of One refers to ‘karma’ as inertia or the ‘ways of balancing’.
“Those actions which are put into motion will continue using the ways of balancing until such a time as the…higher principle which you may liken unto your braking or stopping is invoked. This stoppage of the inertia of action may be called forgiveness. These two concepts are inseparable.”
The Law of One continues by teaching, “Forgiveness is the eradicator of karma. Balanced forgiveness requires forgiveness of other selves and also forgiveness of the self. Forgiveness of other-self is forgiveness of self…for they are one. A full forgiveness is thus impossible without the inclusion of self.
Both self and any involved other-self may, at any time through the process of understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness, ameliorate these patterns of karma. This is true at any point in an incarnative pattern. Thus one who has set in motion an action may forgive itself and never again make that error. This also brakes or stops what you call karma.”
The ‘Unforgiving Mind’
“The unforgiving mind is full of fear, and offers love no room to be itself; no place where it can spread its wings in peace and soar above the turmoil of the world. The unforgiving mind is sad, without the hope of respite and release from pain. It suffers and abides in misery, peering about in darkness, seeing not, yet certain of the danger lurking there.
The unforgiving mind sees no mistakes, but only sins. It looks upon the world with sightless eyes, and shrieks as it beholds its own projections rising to attack its miserable parody of life. It wants to live, yet wishes it were dead. It wants forgiveness, yet it sees no hope. It wants escape, yet can conceive of none because it sees the sinful everywhere.
The unforgiving mind is in despair, without the prospect of a future, which can offer anything but more despair. Yet it regards its judgment of the world as irreversible, and does not see it has condemned itself to this despair. It thinks it cannot change, for what it sees bears witness that its judgment is correct. It does not ask, because it thinks it knows. It does not question, certain it is right.”1
Denial of the Flesh
The spiritual concept of the ‘denial of the flesh’ is found in both conventional Christianity, Buddhism, and other Eastern philosophies. Great stress is laid upon the denial of the body, discipline of the flesh, and avoidance of desire.
“Philosophies that teach denial of the flesh must ultimately end up preaching a denial of the self and building a contempt for it, because even though the soul is couched in muscle and bone it is meant to experience that reality, not to refute it.”2
All these dogmas use artificial guilt. The devotee is told there is something wrong with earthly experience. You are considered evil as a self in flesh by virtue of your very existence.
“When you try to be spiritual by cutting off your creaturehood you become less than joyful, fulfilled, satisfied natural creatures, and fall far short of understanding true spirituality.
If your core belief stresses your spirituality to such an extent that it cuts off needed sensual expression, then it has become restrictive and will end up strangling even that spiritual experience that is was originally meant to express.”3
Death of Desire; Ego Annihilation
“Many of your resurrected occult schools speak of a recommended death of desire, the annihilation of the ego, for the transmutation of physical elements to finer levels. In all such cases the clear spiritual and biological integrity of the individual suffers, and the precious immediacy of your moments is largely lost.
Earth life is seen as murky, a dim translation of greater existence, rather than portrayed as the unique, creative, living experience that it should be. The body becomes disoriented, sabotaged. The clear lines of communication between spirit and body become cluttered. Individually and en masse, diseases and conditions result that are meant to lead you into other realizations.
All That Is vibrates with desire. The denial of desire will bring you only listlessness. Those who deny desire are the most smitten by it.”4
“Much of the mystic tradition of seeking on Earth holds the belief that the individual self must be erased or obliterated and the material world ignored for the individual to reach ‘nirvana,” as it is called, or enlightenment. What is the proper role of the individual self and its worldly activities to aid an individual to grow more into the Law of One?”
The proper role of the entity is in this density to experience all things desired, to then analyze, understand, and accept these experiences, distilling from them the love/light within them.
Nothing shall be overcome. That which is not needed falls away.
The orientation develops due to analysis of desire. These desires become more and more distorted towards conscious application of love/light as the entity furnishes itself with distilled experience. We have found it to be inappropriate in the extreme to encourage the overcoming of any desires, except to suggest the imagination rather than the carrying out in the physical plane, as you call it, of those desires not consonant with the Law of One, thus preserving the primal distortion of free will. [This means suppress nothing unless it will cause another harm. In that case, carry it out in your mind as fantasy and then learn to analyze, understand and accept why you have those desires learning how to transform them into higher actions and thoughts.]
The reason it is unwise to overcome is that overcoming is an unbalanced action creating difficulties in balancing in the time/space continuum. Overcoming, thus, creates the further environment for holding on to that which apparently has been overcome.
All things are acceptable in the proper time for each entity, and in experiencing, in understanding, in accepting, in then sharing with other-selves, the appropriate distortion shall be moving away from distortions of one kind to distortions of another which may be more consonant with the Law of One.
It is, shall we say, a shortcut to simply ignore or overcome any desire. It must instead be understood and accepted. This takes patience and experience which can be analyzed with care, with compassion for self and for other-self.”5
Humility
Some people believe there is a great merit and holy virtue in what they think of as humility.
To be proud of one’s self seems a sin.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Turn this around and say, “Love yourself as you love your neighbor,” for often you will recognize the goodness in another and ignore it in yourself.
Genuine self-pride is the loving recognition of your own integrity and value.
“True humility is based upon this affectionate regard for yourself, plus the recognition that you live in a universe in which all other beings also possess this undeniable individuality and self-worth.”6
False Humility
There is nothing more pompous than false humility.
False humility tells you that you are nothing.
It hides a distorted, puffed-up, denied self-pride, because no man or woman can really accept a theory that denies personal self-worth.
False humility can cause you to tear down the value of others.
If you accept no worth in yourself you cannot see it in anyone else.
Many who consider themselves truth seekers and spiritual are filled with it.
They will say, “I am nothing, but the spirit of God moves through me, and if I do any good it is because of God’s spirit and not my own,” or, “I have no ability of my own. Only the power of God has any ability.”
In those terms you are the power of God manifested. You are not powerless. Through your being the power of God is strengthened, for you are a portion of what God is. You are not simply an insignificant innocuous clump of clay through which God decided to show Itself. You are It manifesting as you. You are as legitimate as It is. If you are a part of God then God is also a part of you, and in denying your own worth you end up denying God’s as well.”7
Self-Sacrifice
“True self-pride allows you to perceive the integrity of your fellow human beings and permits you to help them use their strengths.
Many make a great show of helping others, encouraging them to lean upon them.
They believe this is holy and virtuous.
They are keeping others from recognizing and using their own strengths and abilities.
There is no merit in self-sacrifice, regardless of what you’ve been told.
Usually this means throwing the ‘burden’ of yourself upon someone else and making it their responsibility.
A mother who says to her child, “I gave up my life for you,” is speaking nonsense. In basic terms such a mother believes, no matter what she says, that she did not have that much to give up , and the “giving up” gave her a life that she wanted.
A child who says, “I gave up my life for my parents and devoted myself to their care,” means, “I was afraid to live my own life, and afraid to let them live theirs. And so in ‘giving up’ my life I gained the life I wanted.”
Love does not demand sacrifice.
Those who fear to affirm their own being also fear to let others live for themselves.
You do not help your children by keeping them chained to you.
You do not help your parents by encouraging their sense of helplessness.”8
“Martyrdom is the work of love without wisdom. The consequences of martyrdom must be considered, for in martyrdom lies the end of the opportunity…of the martyr to offer love and light. Each entity must seek its deepest path.”9
Mystical Experiences
Mystical experiences are often distorted in ecclesiastical organizations.
Mystical experiences “…represent man’s innate recognition of his oneness with the source of his own being, and of his own experience.”
You must have a willingness to admit there are other dimensions in which you exist.
The only way to get firsthand information about other realities is by the exploration of your own consciousness.
All personal contact with the multidimensional God, all legitimate moments of mystic consciousness, will always have a unifying effect.”10
Grace
“Grace is a condition in which all growth is effortless. It is a transparent joyful acquiescence that is a ground requirement of all existence.
Your body grows naturally and easily from birth; not expecting resistance; taking its miraculous unfolding for granted; using all of itself with great, gracious, creatively aggressive abandon.
You were born into a state of grace. It is impossible to leave it. You will die in a state of grace whether special words are spoken, or water or oil is poured over your head. All animals and other living things share this blessing of grace.
You cannot ‘fall out of’ grace, nor can it be taken from you. You can ignore it. You can hold beliefs that blind you to its existence. You will still be graced but unable to perceive it.
Love perceives the grace in another. The state of grace is the cause of your sense of well-being and accomplishment. It is a condition of existence.
You may believe you have fallen from grace and creaturehood is cursed. If so, you will not trust your body or allow its natural pattern of self-therapy.
To some extent, the feeling of grace is your emotional recognition of the necessity, purpose and freedom, the innate appreciation, of your rightness and your place in existence.
You will love yourself and have no difficulty in loving your neighbor.
This does not mean that you must smile constantly, but that you affirm your validity and grace within the dimensions of your creaturehood.”11
Kieth Critchlow writes in Homage to Pythagoras; “The word most appropriate for spiritual presence is grace. Grace can be variously described as state of consciousness or a state of understanding or a state of serenity out of which specific psychological energies flow. These states have the effect of aligning one’s way of life, or the communal life, which results in a more wholesome and enriched existence. The common factor is a life-enhancing positivity and sense of rightness and affirmation.”
What is Grace?
“We can define it as the effective, supportive, affirming, transforming power of divine benevolence, given freely and unconditionally. It is the mysterious creative and supportive power by which we come into existence as living beings and through which we continue to exist from moment to moment.
Grace expresses the divine intention that we be free of the ignorance that leads us to feel separate from the Self and thus be free from the suffering such forgetfulness brings. The power of this graceful compassion reveals the nature of the Self as Love.
So, grace is the transforming divine force that opens our eyes and hearts to the divine Presence itself. So, too, grace is the power that allows us and impels us to move forward in our spiritual lives toward higher levels of love and into fuller communion with Divinity.”12
The other traditional meaning of the word grace, Gyorgy Doczi tells us, is “mercy and the divine gift of love, springing from the relatedness of all that exists.”
Illumination
“When you are fairly happy and content in life you can be said to be in a state of grace.
When you feel at one with the universe, or come upon an exceptional experience in which you seem to go beyond yourself, you can be said to be in a state of illumination.
This state has many degrees and levels.
Generally your physical health benefits from this state.
You will feel at peace with yourself and your world, or you will surpass yourself, suddenly feeling a part of events and phenomena usually not considered yourself.
In one way – this state happens when there is the greatest poised balance of the conscious mind with the other levels of the psyche and the body.
It is a biological and spiritual recognition of the individual’s wholeness within himself and his relationship with the universe at large.
Illumination leads to a condition of mental, psychic, and physical health and efficiency.”13
Spirituality
“True spirituality is a thing of joy and of the earth, and has nothing to do with fake adult dignity. It has nothing to do with long words and sorrowful faces.
It has to do with the dance of consciousness that is within you, and with the sense of spiritual adventure that is within your hearts.
That is the true meaning of spirituality.
Your vitality is not dependent upon a physical image. It is not dependent upon your youth, it is not dependent upon your body. It rings and sings through the universe, and through your entire personality. It is a sense of joy that makes all creativity probable.
The seasons within your system come and go. The sun falls upon your face whether you think you are a sinner or a saint.
The vitality of the universe is creativity and joy and love, and that is spirituality.
One of man’s strongest attributes is religious feeling. It is the part of psychology most often overlooked. There is a natural religious knowledge with which you are born. It is a biological spirituality translated into verbal terms.
It says: “Life is a gift (and not a curse). I am a unique, worthy creature in the natural world, which everywhere surrounds me, gives me sustenance, and reminds me of the greater source from which I myself and the world both emerge. My body is delightfully suited to its environment, and comes to me from that unknown source which shows itself through all of the events of the physical world. That feeling gives the organism the optimism, the joy, and the ever-abundant energy to grow. It encourages curiosity and creativity, and places the individual in a spiritual world and a natural one at once.
Organized religions are always attempting to redefine that kind of feeling in cultural terms. They seldom succeed because they become too narrow in their concepts, too dogmatic, and the cultural structures finally over-weigh the finer substance within them.
Religion should include all of the pursuits of man in his search for meaning and truth.
Spirituality cannot be some isolated, specialized activity or characteristic.
Many search for a ‘seemingly remote spiritual inner self’ to trust and look to for support, all the while distrusting the familiar self you are now.
You set up divisions between portions of the self that are unnecessary.
The inner self is not remote and divorced from your most intimate desires and affairs – it communicates through your own smallest gesture and smallest ideal.
This sense of division within the self forces you to think that there is a remote, spiritual, wise, intuitive inner self, and a bewildered, put-upon, spiritually ignorant, inferior physical self, which happens to be the one you identify with.
Many of you believe, moreover, that the physical self’s very nature is evil, that its impulses, left alone, will run in direct opposition to the good of the physical world and society, and fly in the face of the deeper spiritual truths of inner reality. The inner self then becomes so idealized and so remote that by contrast the physical self seems only the more ignorant and flawed.
Trusting your impulses, you can find yourselves again.
You are a portion of All That Is; therefore the universe leans in your direction. It gives. It rings with vitality. Then forsake beliefs that tell you otherwise. Seek within yourself – each of you – those feelings of exuberance that you have, even if they are only occasional, and encourage those events or thoughts that bring them about.”14
- Schucman, Helen, A Course in Miracles, Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975
- Roberts, Jane, The Nature of Personal Reality, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1974
- ibid.
- Roberts, Jane, The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1981
- Elkins, Rueckert, McCarty, The Law of One, Session 18.5, http://www.lawofone.info/results.php?s=18
- Roberts, Jane, The Nature of Personal Reality, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1974
- ibid.
- ibid.
- Elkins, Rueckert, McCarty, The Law of One, Session 75.15, http://www.lawofone.info/results.php?s=75
- Roberts, Jane, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1972
- Roberts, Jane, The Nature of Personal Reality, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1974
- Mahony, William, Exquisite Love, Sarvabhava Press, 2014
- Roberts, Jane, The Nature of Personal Reality, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1974
- Roberts, Jane, The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1979
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