Thoreau
Valued Senior Member
The following is from a book called: The New Revelations by Neale Donald Walsh. As I transcribe this, I'm not sure when I will stop but I will try to find a good breaking point. Forgive me ahead of time if this is "too" long. The reason I'm posting this is purely to share. I view the following passages full of wisdom from which we can all learn from.
Whether the author believes he actually talks to God is another story for another thread so please, let's not debate that here. Instead, just let me know what you think about what I've cited.
-----------------------------
Author in normal font
God in bold
-------------------------------
God, please be here. We need help.
I am here.
We need help.
I know.
Right now.
I understand.
The world is on the brink of a disaster. And I'm not talking about natural disaster; I'm talking about man-made disaster.
I know. And you're right.
I mean, humans have had disagreements before, and serious ones, but now our divisions and disagreements can lead not simply to wars - which are bad enough - but to the end of civilization as we know it.
That is correct. You have assessed the situation correctly.
You understand the severity of the problem; you simply do not understand the nature of the problem. You do not know what is causing it. So you keep trying to solve it at every level except the level at which it exists.
Which is?
The level of belief.
The problem facing the world today is a spiritual problem.
Your ideas about spirituality are killing you.
You keep trying to solve the world's problem as if it were a political problem, or an economic problem, or even a military problem, and it is none of these. It is a spritual problem. And that is one problem human beings don't seem to know how to solve.
Then help us.
I am.
How?
In many ways.
Name one.
This book.
This book will help us?
It can.
What do we have to do?
Read it.
And then what?
Heed it.
That's what they all say. "It's all in The Book," they say. "Read it and heed it. That's all you have to do." The problem is, they all hold up a different book.
I know.
And every book says something else.
I know.
So now we should "read and heed" this book?
It's not a question of what you should do. It's a question of what you may do if you choose to. It is an invitation, not a requirement.
Why would I want to read this book when I've already been told by True Believers that all teh answers are in the other books - the books that they are telling me to heed?
Because you have not heeded them.
Yes, we have. We believe that we have.
That's why you now need help. You believe that you have, but you have not.
You keep saying that your Holy Book (your cultures have many different ones) is what has given you the authority to treat each other the way you are treating each other; to do what you are doing.
You are able to say that only because you have not really listened to the deeper message of these books. You have read them, but you have not really listened to them.
But we have. We are doing what they say we should be doing!
No. You are doing what YOU say that they say you should be doing.
What does that mean?
It means that the basic message of all the sacred scriptures is the same. What is different is how human beings have been interpreting them.
There is nothing "wrong" with having different interpretations. What may not benefit you, however, is separating yourself over these differences, making each other wrong because of these differences, and killing each other as a result of these differences.
This is what you are now doing.
It is what you have been doing for quite some time.
You cannot agree even within a particular group of you, much less between groups, about what a particular book says and what it means, and you use these disagreements as justifications for slaughter.
You argue among yourselves about what teh Qur'an says, about what its words mean. You argue among yourselves about what the Bible says, and about what its words means. You argue among yourselves about what the Veda says, and what the Bhagavad-Gita says, what the Lun-yu says, what the Pali Canon says, what teh Tao-te Ching says, what the Talmud says what the Hadith says, what the Book of Mormon says...
And what of the Upanishad, the I Ching, the Adi Granth, the Mahabharata, the Yago-sutras, the Mathnawi, the Kojiki?
Okay, we get the point.
No, actually, you don't. And that's the point. The point is, there are many holy writings and sacred scriptures, and you act as if there is only one.
It is your sacred scripture that is really sacred. All the rest are poor substitures at best, and blasphemies at worst.
Not only is there only one Sacred Scripture, there is also only one way to interpret that Scripture; your way.
This spritual arrogance is what has caused you your greatest sorrow as a species. You have suffered more - and caused other people to suffer more - over your ideas about God than over your ideas about anything else in human experience.
You have turned the source of the greatest joy into the source of your greatest pain.
That's crazy. Why is that? Why have we done that?
Because there is one thing for which human beings seem willing to give up everything.
They will give up love, they will give up peace, they will give up health, harmony, and happiness, they will give up safety, security, and even their sanity, for this one thing.
What?
Being right.
You are willing to give up everything you've ever worked for, everything you've ever wanted, everything you've ever created, in order to be "right."
Indeed, for this you are willing to give up Life itself.
But isn't that how it should be? I mean, you have to stand up for something in life. And the Word of God IS what's right!
Which God?
Which God?
Yes, which God?
Adonai? Allah? Elohim? God? Hari? Jehovah? Krishna? Lord? Rama? Vishnu? Yahwey?
The God whose words were brought to us clearly by the Master adn the Prophets?
Which Master and which Prophets?
Which Master and which Prophets?
Yes.
Adam? Noah? Abraham? Moses? Confucius? Sidhartha Gautama? Patanjali? Muhammad? Baha'u'llah? Jalal al-Din Rumi? Martin Luther? Joseph Smith? Paramahansa Yoganandi?
You're not equating all of those with each other, are you?
Why not? Is one greater than the other?
Certainly!
Which one?
The one in whom I believe!
Exactly. Now you get the point.
So what do you want me to do, give up my beliefs?
I don't "want" you to do anything. The question is, what do you want to do?
I want to find a way to get past all of these mixed-up beliefs that humans have.
There is a way.
Which is?
Transcend them.
What does that mean?
Transcending means to go beyond, to move past. It does not mean to completely reject or totally destroy.
You do not have to destroy a thing in order to move past it.
You would not want to destroy your old belief system in any event, because there is too much of it that you will wish to retain.
"Transcending" does not mean always being "other than," it means always being "larger than." Your new, larger belief system will no doubt retain some of the old - that part of the old belief system that you experience as still serving you - and so it will be a combination of the new adn the old, not a rejection of the old from top to bottom.
Can you see the difference?
I think so.
Good. Then you can stop your resistance.
The reason humans have hung so tenaciously to their old beliefs is that they do not want to dishonor those beliefs by rejecting them completely, out of hand. they think that this is the choice they have: Reject the old or accept the old, totally. Yet that is not the only choice you have. You can review the old and see what parts of the old no longer work. You can expand the old to make some parts of the old work better. you can add to the old to make some parts of your belief system new.
Rejecting completely your present beliefs would be to discredit so much of what has been taught, so much of what has been understood, so much of what has been done - and so much of what has been good.
It would make too much of the world feel "wrong." It would make ancestors "wrong," it would make entire scriptures "wrong." People would have to admit that all of the spiritual aspects of the human experience have been a mistake, a misunderstanding.
This is more than most people can acknowledge. It is more than they should acknowledge, because it is not true.
In fact, you don't have to declare that you were "wrong" about anything, because you weren't. You simply didn't have a complete understanding. You needed more information.
Transcending current beliefs is not an outright rejection of them; it is "adding to" them.
Now that you have more information that you can add to what you presently believe, you can enlarge your beliefs - not completely reject them, enlarge them - and move on with your lives in a new way.
A way that works.
But I don't have the information.
Yes, you do.
I do?
You have this book.
Let me see if I understand. You're saying that this book is on a par with the Torah, the whole Bible, teh Bhagavad-Gita?
I did not say that. But for the sake of discussion, were not those book written by mortals, guided by Divine revelation?
Well, yes, but surely you're not equating the words here with teh words of Confucius, the teachings of The Buddha, the revelations of Muhammad...
Again I say... these were mere human beings, were they not?
I wouldn't call them "mere" human beings. They were very special human beings. Human beings who understood enormous truths. Human beings who were deeply inspired.
You, too, can understand enormous truths. You, too, can been deeply inspired. Do you think these experiences are reserved for the very few?
I tell you, that are mean for the very many.
Divine inspiration is the birthright of every human being.
You are all very special. You simply do not know that. You do not believe it.
Why not?
Because your religions have told you that you are not. They have told you that you are sinners, that you are unworthy, that only a very few among you have achieved a level or worthiness to be inspiried directly by God - and that all of those people are dead.
They have convinced you that no one living today could possibly achieve that level of worthiness, and, hence, no book written today could possibly contain sacred truths or the Word of God.
Why have they done so? Why have they told us this?
Because to tell you otherwise would be to leave open the possibility that another master, another prophet another messenger of God could come along, bringing new revelations and opening you to new understandings - and that is something that already established organized religions could not abide.
And so, while your world's relgiions may not be able to agree on which book contains the highest truth and the deepest wisdom and the True Word of God, there is one thing on which that are able to agree.
What's that?
Whatever book it is, it's an old one.
Definately.
It's an old book.
It could not be a new book. it could not be a book written today.
God's direct revelations ended long ago, your religions agree. Only old sacred books can contain divine revelation.
Most people can accept that God's great truths have come to humans through humans. They simply cannot accept that this could be true of humans living today.
This is how you think. This is how you have constructed.
If it's old, it's worthy; if it's new, it's unworthy.
If it's old, it's true; if it's new, it's false.
If it's old, it's right; if it's new, it's wrong.
If it's old, it's good; if it's new, it's bad.
This peculiar mindset is what makes progress on your planet so difficult, and the evolution so time-consuming. What complicates all this is that, as you have constructed it, this mindset applies only to things - that is, inanimate objects - adn to ideas. Ironically, when it comes to people you have it construction the other way around.
If it's new, it's worthy; if it's old, it's unworthy.
Thus, your society dismisses out of hand some of the brightest new ideas and some of the wisest older people.
Whether the author believes he actually talks to God is another story for another thread so please, let's not debate that here. Instead, just let me know what you think about what I've cited.
-----------------------------
Author in normal font
God in bold
-------------------------------
God, please be here. We need help.
I am here.
We need help.
I know.
Right now.
I understand.
The world is on the brink of a disaster. And I'm not talking about natural disaster; I'm talking about man-made disaster.
I know. And you're right.
I mean, humans have had disagreements before, and serious ones, but now our divisions and disagreements can lead not simply to wars - which are bad enough - but to the end of civilization as we know it.
That is correct. You have assessed the situation correctly.
You understand the severity of the problem; you simply do not understand the nature of the problem. You do not know what is causing it. So you keep trying to solve it at every level except the level at which it exists.
Which is?
The level of belief.
The problem facing the world today is a spiritual problem.
Your ideas about spirituality are killing you.
You keep trying to solve the world's problem as if it were a political problem, or an economic problem, or even a military problem, and it is none of these. It is a spritual problem. And that is one problem human beings don't seem to know how to solve.
Then help us.
I am.
How?
In many ways.
Name one.
This book.
This book will help us?
It can.
What do we have to do?
Read it.
And then what?
Heed it.
That's what they all say. "It's all in The Book," they say. "Read it and heed it. That's all you have to do." The problem is, they all hold up a different book.
I know.
And every book says something else.
I know.
So now we should "read and heed" this book?
It's not a question of what you should do. It's a question of what you may do if you choose to. It is an invitation, not a requirement.
Why would I want to read this book when I've already been told by True Believers that all teh answers are in the other books - the books that they are telling me to heed?
Because you have not heeded them.
Yes, we have. We believe that we have.
That's why you now need help. You believe that you have, but you have not.
You keep saying that your Holy Book (your cultures have many different ones) is what has given you the authority to treat each other the way you are treating each other; to do what you are doing.
You are able to say that only because you have not really listened to the deeper message of these books. You have read them, but you have not really listened to them.
But we have. We are doing what they say we should be doing!
No. You are doing what YOU say that they say you should be doing.
What does that mean?
It means that the basic message of all the sacred scriptures is the same. What is different is how human beings have been interpreting them.
There is nothing "wrong" with having different interpretations. What may not benefit you, however, is separating yourself over these differences, making each other wrong because of these differences, and killing each other as a result of these differences.
This is what you are now doing.
It is what you have been doing for quite some time.
You cannot agree even within a particular group of you, much less between groups, about what a particular book says and what it means, and you use these disagreements as justifications for slaughter.
You argue among yourselves about what teh Qur'an says, about what its words mean. You argue among yourselves about what the Bible says, and about what its words means. You argue among yourselves about what the Veda says, and what the Bhagavad-Gita says, what the Lun-yu says, what the Pali Canon says, what teh Tao-te Ching says, what the Talmud says what the Hadith says, what the Book of Mormon says...
And what of the Upanishad, the I Ching, the Adi Granth, the Mahabharata, the Yago-sutras, the Mathnawi, the Kojiki?
Okay, we get the point.
No, actually, you don't. And that's the point. The point is, there are many holy writings and sacred scriptures, and you act as if there is only one.
It is your sacred scripture that is really sacred. All the rest are poor substitures at best, and blasphemies at worst.
Not only is there only one Sacred Scripture, there is also only one way to interpret that Scripture; your way.
This spritual arrogance is what has caused you your greatest sorrow as a species. You have suffered more - and caused other people to suffer more - over your ideas about God than over your ideas about anything else in human experience.
You have turned the source of the greatest joy into the source of your greatest pain.
That's crazy. Why is that? Why have we done that?
Because there is one thing for which human beings seem willing to give up everything.
They will give up love, they will give up peace, they will give up health, harmony, and happiness, they will give up safety, security, and even their sanity, for this one thing.
What?
Being right.
You are willing to give up everything you've ever worked for, everything you've ever wanted, everything you've ever created, in order to be "right."
Indeed, for this you are willing to give up Life itself.
But isn't that how it should be? I mean, you have to stand up for something in life. And the Word of God IS what's right!
Which God?
Which God?
Yes, which God?
Adonai? Allah? Elohim? God? Hari? Jehovah? Krishna? Lord? Rama? Vishnu? Yahwey?
The God whose words were brought to us clearly by the Master adn the Prophets?
Which Master and which Prophets?
Which Master and which Prophets?
Yes.
Adam? Noah? Abraham? Moses? Confucius? Sidhartha Gautama? Patanjali? Muhammad? Baha'u'llah? Jalal al-Din Rumi? Martin Luther? Joseph Smith? Paramahansa Yoganandi?
You're not equating all of those with each other, are you?
Why not? Is one greater than the other?
Certainly!
Which one?
The one in whom I believe!
Exactly. Now you get the point.
So what do you want me to do, give up my beliefs?
I don't "want" you to do anything. The question is, what do you want to do?
I want to find a way to get past all of these mixed-up beliefs that humans have.
There is a way.
Which is?
Transcend them.
What does that mean?
Transcending means to go beyond, to move past. It does not mean to completely reject or totally destroy.
You do not have to destroy a thing in order to move past it.
You would not want to destroy your old belief system in any event, because there is too much of it that you will wish to retain.
"Transcending" does not mean always being "other than," it means always being "larger than." Your new, larger belief system will no doubt retain some of the old - that part of the old belief system that you experience as still serving you - and so it will be a combination of the new adn the old, not a rejection of the old from top to bottom.
Can you see the difference?
I think so.
Good. Then you can stop your resistance.
The reason humans have hung so tenaciously to their old beliefs is that they do not want to dishonor those beliefs by rejecting them completely, out of hand. they think that this is the choice they have: Reject the old or accept the old, totally. Yet that is not the only choice you have. You can review the old and see what parts of the old no longer work. You can expand the old to make some parts of the old work better. you can add to the old to make some parts of your belief system new.
Rejecting completely your present beliefs would be to discredit so much of what has been taught, so much of what has been understood, so much of what has been done - and so much of what has been good.
It would make too much of the world feel "wrong." It would make ancestors "wrong," it would make entire scriptures "wrong." People would have to admit that all of the spiritual aspects of the human experience have been a mistake, a misunderstanding.
This is more than most people can acknowledge. It is more than they should acknowledge, because it is not true.
In fact, you don't have to declare that you were "wrong" about anything, because you weren't. You simply didn't have a complete understanding. You needed more information.
Transcending current beliefs is not an outright rejection of them; it is "adding to" them.
Now that you have more information that you can add to what you presently believe, you can enlarge your beliefs - not completely reject them, enlarge them - and move on with your lives in a new way.
A way that works.
But I don't have the information.
Yes, you do.
I do?
You have this book.
Let me see if I understand. You're saying that this book is on a par with the Torah, the whole Bible, teh Bhagavad-Gita?
I did not say that. But for the sake of discussion, were not those book written by mortals, guided by Divine revelation?
Well, yes, but surely you're not equating the words here with teh words of Confucius, the teachings of The Buddha, the revelations of Muhammad...
Again I say... these were mere human beings, were they not?
I wouldn't call them "mere" human beings. They were very special human beings. Human beings who understood enormous truths. Human beings who were deeply inspired.
You, too, can understand enormous truths. You, too, can been deeply inspired. Do you think these experiences are reserved for the very few?
I tell you, that are mean for the very many.
Divine inspiration is the birthright of every human being.
You are all very special. You simply do not know that. You do not believe it.
Why not?
Because your religions have told you that you are not. They have told you that you are sinners, that you are unworthy, that only a very few among you have achieved a level or worthiness to be inspiried directly by God - and that all of those people are dead.
They have convinced you that no one living today could possibly achieve that level of worthiness, and, hence, no book written today could possibly contain sacred truths or the Word of God.
Why have they done so? Why have they told us this?
Because to tell you otherwise would be to leave open the possibility that another master, another prophet another messenger of God could come along, bringing new revelations and opening you to new understandings - and that is something that already established organized religions could not abide.
And so, while your world's relgiions may not be able to agree on which book contains the highest truth and the deepest wisdom and the True Word of God, there is one thing on which that are able to agree.
What's that?
Whatever book it is, it's an old one.
Definately.
It's an old book.
It could not be a new book. it could not be a book written today.
God's direct revelations ended long ago, your religions agree. Only old sacred books can contain divine revelation.
Most people can accept that God's great truths have come to humans through humans. They simply cannot accept that this could be true of humans living today.
This is how you think. This is how you have constructed.
If it's old, it's worthy; if it's new, it's unworthy.
If it's old, it's true; if it's new, it's false.
If it's old, it's right; if it's new, it's wrong.
If it's old, it's good; if it's new, it's bad.
This peculiar mindset is what makes progress on your planet so difficult, and the evolution so time-consuming. What complicates all this is that, as you have constructed it, this mindset applies only to things - that is, inanimate objects - adn to ideas. Ironically, when it comes to people you have it construction the other way around.
If it's new, it's worthy; if it's old, it's unworthy.
Thus, your society dismisses out of hand some of the brightest new ideas and some of the wisest older people.
