How do I deal with challenging people in my life?

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There is only one challenging person in your life. That, of course, is you. As long as you consider yourself to be a victim of the actions or behaviors of others, your life on planet Earth will be experienced as less than pleasant. Fortunately, victimhood is not the case. We have spoken before about the term projection. There are worse things that you could do than to print up a dozen cards with the word projection on them and post them throughout your home, car, and workplace…on every mirror, by the toilet…as a constant reminder that all you see in the world is your projection, no exceptions. The ego mind goes absolutely ballistic over this and will try incessantly to create exceptions. There are no exceptions. Cause and effect. You are the cause and the world is the effect. Never the reverse.

So, as they like to say in new age circles, there are no challenges or problems, there are only opportunities. These challenges with other people, which are your own creation, are opportunities for you to free yourself from judgment and separation. Or…you can go on pretending that it’s all about other people…and suffer. It’s your call. We don’t have a horse in this race. As a review, this is how projection works. Your ego mind, which thinks it knows everything or at least can figure everything out, knows nothing and can’t figure out anything. It believes you are this body, but you’re not. It thinks you are separate from God and Divinity, but you’re not. If we present this in the form of a story, keeping in mind that no story is true, it might go something like this. The ego believes that it chose to separate from God. This is the tiny confusion from which all of your “problems” stem. The ego is in error because it is not possible to separate from God. Anyway, on with the story. Ego mind creates this body and this universe as a way and a place to hide from God. Realizing it has made a bad choice, wanting to go back home, desiring God’s forgiveness, but feeling that this attempt to kill God is both unforgivable and deserving of severe punishment – ego is in a tough spot. Let’s list some other things that ego mind doesn’t understand. First, you never left home. There is no separation. The body and the Universe are what is not real. God does not and cannot judge. God is pure Love. God does not and cannot punish. Meanwhile in its imagined sinfulness, ego comes up with a plan. Put the blame on somebody else. Maybe God will notice that it is the other and not you who is guilty and deserving of judgment and punishment. “Burn them God! It’s their fault and not mine. I’m Innocent!”, you think. This is projection. Every time you judge another for anything, small or large, it is your guilt that you are projecting. It is all about you and not about them. In addition, you try to be a “good” person so that God will see that you are worthy to be brought back home. The only problem is that you cannot earn something that you already have and the only one accusing you of sin is you. No number of good acts or projections will cleanse you of your self-imposed guilt. You cannot buy your way into heaven. You never left. It is only this guilt that holds you in your earthly hell. So, forgive yourself. End of story.

Well, not quite. You go on through life projecting. Other people are wrong. Other countries are wrong. Other religions are wrong. You are right and you are good, but there is something inside you that doesn’t buy the whole story, that suspects that it is you who are truly guilty. Deep down is this fear, this dread of the inevitability of the coming retribution. Unconsciously you draw loss, pain, failure, illness, and emotional turmoil into your life, always trying to pay this unpayable debt. This is where the healing can begin. Let go of the projection upon God. Let go at the same time of the projection that you have toward yourself. You are innocent. Nothing happened. You did not leave God. God is not upset. It is all much ado about nothing. You cannot hurt God and God cannot hurt you. There is only Love here.

Now let’s return to the opportunity that you called a challenge. You have heard these words from me, perhaps read similar words in A Course in Miracles or heard them from some other teacher, but the bottom line is that you don’t feel them. You feel yourself to be victim to another’s energy. You’re sick and tired of everything but don’t know what to do with it all. This projection works in a very specific way. You don’t project everything on everyone. You project wonderful things onto some people, seeing them as loving and good. When you find yourself with a specific judgment toward another, that is what you believe about yourself but don’t want to face. You fear being punished, so you go into denial and project. Ego mind jumps in and yells, “I’m not like that!”. In truth you are not, but you believe that you are. Until you own this. Until you accept that the judgment is about self and has nothing to do with the other, nothing will change. You will live in projection and victimhood.

Your job, then, is to take ownership of the projections, to accept that the judgment is aimed toward the self. For example, if your projection is that another is not honest with you, ask how you are not honest with yourself. What untruths about self are you believing to be true? Anything short of recognizing your absolute innocence, your Divinity, is part of the lie. You are absolutely loved by God, but are you telling yourself that you are unlovable? You are always provided for, but are you telling yourself that you are undeserving and needy? Forgiveness is not a matter of recognizing where you have been bad and then asking to be forgiven. It is the realization that you have not and could not err, so there is nothing to forgive. There is only the Love of God.

Let’s look at a specific example so you might gain a clearer picture of how this whole process has worked and could work for you. A popular one for those of you who have children is being a victim to them. “They never clean. They don’t do their homework. They are not responsible. They don’t listen to me. They don’t follow my rules. They don’t respect me as the adult.” We could go on and on and you could each add to the list from your own experiences. Let’s just focus on one part of the litany, “My daughter never cleans up after herself. I am left with the choice of being in a constant fight or surrendering to grudgingly being my daughter’s maid.” The choice you make doesn’t matter. What effects you feel come from what you carry around inside yourself. There is a judgment of her irresponsibility causing you to make one of two equally undesirable choices. There is a good possibility that if you listen inside there is a parent saying a similar thing about you. You were taught to be a good person, to clean up after yourself. Did that result in you feeling like a good person? Probably not. Did you learn to feel guilt when you didn’t clean up? Probably. Did you resent being told what to do? Most likely. Now as an adult you act out of guilt and resentment when you must clean up. Instead of facing this inner anger and judgment, along comes this young whippersnapper on whom you can project all of this. The child may not be carrying the guilt or having a thought about what they should do unless you have been successful in drumming it into her. Maybe she is stronger than you and your parents’ games don’t work with her. Instead of passing your guilt on to her you could realize that each moment of each day you are carrying thoughts about what you should be doing to be a good person. What should you do? What does God want you to do? When you were small your parents represented God for you. They taught you right and wrong, good and bad – providing punishments and rewards. That was your first church.

You have the opportunity to notice that you have been forcing yourself to do what you don’t want to do. Ego mind screams out, “Yeah! But if I don’t do it the house will be a total mess!” Maybe. So what? Ego mind says there is probably a special circle in hell for bad housekeepers. Is that really true? Does God only take back home those with clean houses? What is actually going on here? What is really true? Recalling that God is unconditional love and acceptance, there are no rewards or punishments, no heaven or hell. You never left; it is only the ego mind that believes that what goes on here is of any consequence. So back to now. Do you clean or not clean? Perhaps you wait until you feel like doing it. Perhaps your standards of cleanliness go through a transition. Perhaps you start listening more to what the inner guidance and the body tell you instead of marching to the orders of the guilt driven ego mind. Without a sense of compulsion there may be a joy in the act of cleaning. Perhaps in the now there is exhaustion, so go relax. Above all, thank your daughter for putting you in touch with your guilt and denial. Always thank your mirrors…at least silently.

The root of all the fear, guilt, and blame is in the belief in separation. The truth is that there is Oneness. You are One with the Divine and with each other. What another is doing is what you are doing. It is all connected. In the perfection of what is happening right now in each moment, everything is unfolding exactly as it should. The script, as we said in the last message, has already been written. If you accept what is without resistance, it opens you up to the truth of your Divinity, to your Oneness with the Creator and the creation. Can you begin to see the enormous value of seeing the actions of another as your projection? You are being handed the keys to the kingdom. All is within you, never outside of you. What a perfect gift your child, or whomever appears to be a challenge, is offering you with their every action. All of this requires no volition on anybody’s part. Nobody needs to have any understanding of the part they are playing. They cannot help but to serve you. You only have choice on whether you wish to be served or bothered.

It doesn’t matter if the challenge in your life appears to be somebody who is irresponsible with money, has an addiction, is trying to control you, is abusive, ignores you, doesn’t accept you for who you are, or – we could go on and on and on. It doesn’t matter if this person plays a central part in your life or you only meet them once. You have the choice to be a victim (seemingly forever) or to grasp the opportunity to let go of your imagined separation and see the gift that is being offered. As long as you hold this as being about the other there is no way out. You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. But you are blessed and loved. This is your creation and you are doing a perfect job. Accept it and live in this now. You deserve to experience the Love and Peace that is the truth of You.

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

Is everything preplanned?

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This conversation comes from a recent session.

Participant: Is everything preplanned?

I knew you were going to ask that. (laughs) Just kidding…a little. Both the short answer and the long answer is…yes. One of the favorite games of the ego mind is convincing you that you have choice. Not only does it convince you that you have the power of choice, but also that your choices will affect what will happen in the illusion. Therefore, you have a great responsibility to choose well, because what you choose is what you are going to get. We will start out by asking Our favorite question, “How has that worked for you so far?” Certainly, if you have received whatever you have chosen, we would not be having this conversation. What need would you have for a disembodied voice if you had all the money, fame, success, relationships, sex, adventures, and good health you could ever want? Obviously, you have received many things you never in your worst nightmares would have asked for. I assume for all of you to varying degrees getting what you think you want has not been the normal result for you. What that leaves is the possibility that you didn’t do a good enough job, allowing in too many doubts or thoughts that you could not have what you wanted. In this scenario if you had been pure in your thoughts everything would have worked out perfectly. A corollary to this is that you don’t deserve what you want.

Participant: Is the only choice to follow the Will of God?

Wow! You are way ahead of me. Perhaps we should switch places. We will come around to that point, but let’s fill in a few blanks first. The bottom line here is that if you have the ability to choose and your choice will make a positive difference, then why don’t your choices always work out? Of course, most of you will think of examples where you did choose something and it more or less happened as you desired it to. The question then is, “Having received what you asked for, did that leave you feeling full and complete?” The honest answer to that probably is that though it might have felt good for a period of time, eventually there was something else that you wanted. Perhaps there was not even a short-term satisfaction before realizing that you did not find the feeling you were hoping to have. So, the choosing continues on and on without ever delivering the heaven that has been sought. More likely there is a failure even to gain what is desired.

Let’s jump over to the other side and assume that it makes absolutely no difference what you choose or don’t choose. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. Sometimes your wishes are aligned with that result and sometimes they aren’t. When what happens is aligned, you believe that you did it. You don’t want it to rain because you have a picnic planned and the skies remain clear. Do you now believe that you have power over the weather? If it had rained, who would you have pointed the finger at in blame? Yourself? God? Global warming? Alignment does not prove cause and effect. What if the whole script is already written out and there is nothing you can do to change that story?

Participant: But sometimes I find myself at a fork in the road and my whole life will change based on whether I bend to the left or to the right. Doesn’t that show that choice does make a difference?

Good question. It certainly shows that there is an illusion of the power of choice. It could be said that the choice you make was already written.

Participant: But Sanhia it feels like I could have chosen in the opposite way.

Then why didn’t you? You chose the only way you could choose. Let’s look at how the ego mind actually operates. It is no different than a computer. It is programmed and acts and reacts from that programming. In your programming you have been taught to believe and to act in accordance with all that you have experienced in what appears to be your life story. All of that conditioning leads to the choice you make in this moment. In another moment you might choose quite differently because included in your program now are the results from your previous choice. Your choice in the moment might also be affected by the emotions you are experiencing right at that time. Did you choose to be angry, impatient, pessimistic, or optimistic when it was time to make your choice?  Things constantly change; things that you have little or no control over. Perhaps the choice you are making is totally influenced by your parents’ teachings. Do you remember choosing those parents? Did you choose the teachers you had growing up? Did you choose your religion or lack of one? Did you choose a friend who suddenly appears in your story?  Did you pick your race, gender, or the area where you lived in your formative years? The answers are obvious. Of course not. Yet, all of these experiences formed who you feel yourself to be and out of them you are programmed to make choices. All these events were planned. Nothing was random. Nothing was chosen by you. Yet you act as if you have a power to control the world, to determine your future. That, too, has been programmed into you. As long as you attempt to guide things you will be frustrated. The “best” outcome is that you have moments of feeling successful, periods of peace and happiness. Those moments will end. More likely you will experience a sense of failure and look at your future with foreboding.

Imagine for a moment that you have no choice, that everything is unfolding as it is meant to. You are off the hook. You have no responsibility. You can neither puff up your chest and take credit for what has happened nor blame yourself and feel guilt. You did neither of those things. The place that we call the awakened state is simply one where there is absolute acceptance for what is. Nothing can be changed. It is simply happening. It would be futile to resist what already is because it cannot be changed. It already is! Close your eyes and pretend it isn’t there, but it is still there. You can want to change it, but the genie is already out of the bottle. Here is what the ego mind does when it hears this news. It goes into absolute terror and denial. It asks how can you ever be happy in life if you can’t create what you want? Are you expected to bite the bullet and accept whatever shit comes your way? This, according to the ego mind, is the worst of all hells.

Here’s what happens when you give up fighting what is and simply experience it and live with it. You begin to experience the fullness of life. Ego mind is screaming that what is here isn’t right, it isn’t good, it isn’t what you should have. I am telling you that what is happening is perfect, is exactly what should be happening, is just what you need. Spirit, the Divine, is presenting your perfect now. It is eons beyond what you could have chosen for yourself (and remember your track record). Everything is given in Love.

Participant: So again, the only choice I really have is to choose the Will of God. Maybe this will make me more content with life?

As you said, “the only choice I really have is to choose the Will of God”, but that is still a choice. That may be your intention, but who is expressing that intention? Like all choice, it can only come from the ego mind. Like all your other plans, it may or may not happen. Armed with that intention you drive off down the road only to find you have a flat tire. Is your mind just fine with all of that or do you find yourself in resistance to what is? These reactions are immediate and programmed. The habit that has been nurtured for so long is to resist the Will of God and then to choose what you think would be better. Maybe at some point the awareness that you are resisting what is occurs to you and you stop fighting. Each experience rewires your data base.  Another day you might find yourself just fine with a flat tire as it happens. Perhaps the gap between noticing the resistance and accepting what is will continually narrow.

In the meantime I will simply remind you that not accepting God’s gifts always leaves you feeling separate from your own Divinity. My voice is now a part of your programming as are your attempts and failures to heed it. Be certain that your opportunities to let go of your personal will shall be unlimited. In the meantime, are you in guilt and blame when your choice for God’s Will fails to materialize? Are you then choosing to give up guilt and blame? Who is choosing that? And so it goes. (laughter) This doesn’t mean that things are hopeless and you are helpless. The perfect thing is always happening right now. What you think of as you just isn’t in control. If choosing is present, if guilt and blame are there, you notice that. If you have thought of changing how you respond…you notice that. You are not going to be able to change either of those things. They have already happened, but the noticing, the experience, and the awareness are now part of your programming. Perhaps then over time you find it easier and easier to accept God’s Will. More quickly you are able to let go of “Why is this happening” and “Poor me”. You might find yourself letting go of guilt and blame more speedily. You do this not because of setting such goals, but through the experience that none of that stuff works. It can feel hard to surrender and trust the Will of God instead of pursuing what you want to happen.

Participant: How can it be easier?

Your personal will chooses only out of a sense of separation from God, not from alignment. Personal will accepts almost nothing as it is, instead it thinks about would feel better and visualizes a future with all its desires met, a fantasy of peace, love, and joy. Again, we return to our favorite question, “So, how has that worked out for you so far?” There are three primary reasons why it hasn’t worked out. The first is that you don’t have a clue. What you think will bring you happiness will never do so, will never bring you that sense of peace and Oneness. The second reason is that you are looking in the wrong place. The world cannot give you what you want, because it is simply the projection of your lack. What you seek is within you. It lies with your thoughts and beliefs. If you want love, then be love. Finally, as is the whole point of this message, it is already decided. There is nothing you can do to change anything.

For a moment let’s leap back over to the other side, to the part of you that is able to accept what is without any need or attempt to change it. We could call this the awakened self, although the sense of self has disappeared. There is an observation of that self taking place, but there is no ownership of it. The idea of choice is not present here. This jump cannot be chosen, though you may make efforts toward it by letting go of personal will and asking to hear and follow God’s Will. To believe that you have choice and are separate from Divinity is the sleeping self, living in a dream while believing it is real. This sleeping self believes it must use its personal will, its choice, to protect itself from the universe or from God. The awakened you is One with everything, experiencing rather than choosing and resisting.

Participant: You have been talking about being in the now and accepting what is, that what is here now is exactly what is needed for me. 

Yes. In this perfection of the now, if you are truly there, there is no question of choice. Choice only exists in the horizontal when the mind is referring to the ideas of past and present. In the present there is no choice to make; there is just what is here. Rather than choice there is simply action or reaction, and that also just happens. Any thought of needing to make a choice indicates you are no longer in the now and have drifted off back into sleep. Notice that. That becomes part of your experience. The now is relentless and you have infinite opportunities to be present or not. Again, you cannot choose to be present, but you can notice when you are not. Hmmm. Interesting. Notice where there is judgment, blame, or guilt. Hmmm. Interesting.

Yes, this preplanned world is absolutely perfect. Everything that is present exists to stimulate that leap of faith, that awakening. If your ego mind is running the show right now, that is what is perfect. Notice that and accept it. Or don’t notice or don’t accept. It doesn’t matter. It is still perfect. When it is time to notice or to accept, you will do that. Nothing you do in following the lies of the ego mind makes any real difference. What is true is true, and what is true is of Love and of God. The rest is a dream, or if you prefer, a nightmare. There is no such thing as failure or success, but there is a perfection in holding on to the belief in them until you don’t. Spirit’s GPS is guiding you and loving you in every moment, even when you feel the most alone and abandoned.

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

Can you speak more about the observer who is not from the ego mind?

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We have talked before about the observer. The observer is the one who is watching this movie that you call your life. What are perceived by your eyes are objects. These objects could be trees, birds, clouds, baskets, cars, or people. These are all a part of your movie. The body is also an object you see. If you have the goal to be one with your body, you want to make the subject and the object to be the same. This is not possible. You cannot simultaneously be the observer and the observed. You cannot watch yourself. You cannot do that any more than you can look at the window and say you are now one with the window. Something other than your “self”, or your body, is doing the watching. The Observer of the movie simply sees; It does not have the possibility of jumping up on the screen and acting at the same time. This is why We say that you are not your body. The You that is watching, the real You, cannot at the same time be what it is watching. When you identify yourself with the character in your movie, you have ceased to notice that you are the watcher and now pretend yourself to actually be the object on the screen. But You are not an object. The body, the object, does not experience the movie; it is a part of the movie. The true You is the Observer Who watches the body and notices what it is doing, thinking, and feeling.

If the thought arises that you want to experience Oneness, you are saying that you lack Oneness. This is not true. Your ego mind believes that it is separate, but the Observer is One with what it sees, though it is not what it sees. The subject is not the object, though there is no separation. There is only Oneness. There is no identification with the body, there is only the seeing of it. The Observer is One with everything that is. It is the creator of all that is. The thought of wanting in the ego mind affirms its pretense of separation. You can notice that such a thought seems to exist in the ego mind. You cannot make yourself feel oneness. All you can do is notice the thoughts of separation the ego mind holds and bring the awareness back to the now and the next thought. You keep peeling away what is being held onto that stands in the way of experiencing the Oneness. Thus, Oneness is not a goal; It is what is always present. To try to experience that is to maintain the illusion of being separate from it. The only process is to let go of everything that isn’t Oneness. You don’t try to change what is, that only feeds it. You simply do not dwell on the thoughts. The job is to be the noticer, not the thinker, the analyser, or the understander.

Let me give another picture of the perspective of the Viewer. The ego mind sees time as a horizontal line. It sees the now as the point where the past and the future intersect. In truth there is no point of now that exists because the movie is in constant motion. There is no way that you can try to be here now, because now is a moving target. There may be an attempt to hold on to something that can never be grasped. The result is likely a sense of failure to stay present without finding you are easily slipping into the past. Even the intention to experience nowness comes from the mind which is rooted in the past. Let’s replace the horizontal timeline with a vertical axis. The viewpoint of the Divine Observer comes straight down and contacts only the moment, not the whole horizontal timeline. Nothing is seen except what is directly in front of the Viewer. There is just what is. As long as the mind seems to wish to alter what is observed in any way, the appearance of separation is created; the viewpoint has returned to the horizontal timeline. The vertical perceives no past or future. Thoughts of wanting to be elsewhere are seen just as clouds in this moment’s sky. They are noticed and the eyes move on to the next thing that is presented. From the vertical perspective there is no such thing as past or future. There is just what is. You cannot look from this perspective and see a “younger” you. You might observe a thought of a “younger” you, but it will be quickly replaced by another thought or feeling. No “younger” you exists; no “older” you exists. Nothing exists but what is present now.

The object that is the “you” You are perceiving may be having thoughts about an imagined past or future, but all that is there is that “you” now. Not only is there no reality in the past and the future, but what is being viewed is not real either; it is all a movie. If the actor on the screen is perceived as an object by the Observer, rather than as self, that is an awakened viewpoint. All there is to do is to notice the passing of a thought. If upon noticing the thought you jump in and try to fix, heal, or otherwise change the situation, perhaps believing that you are as you are because of your “past”, you are back in the ego mind game and can only be certain of continued pain and suffering. You have again tried to make the object out as the subject, which it isn’t. Instead of looking down vertically at what is, you jump into the illusory timeline trying to heal the past and change the future. You are Divine as you are. There is nothing to heal, fix, or change. The you that is the Observer sees with Divine eyes. There is nothing to do to become enlightened. It is as simple as opening your eyes. Stop pretending to not be awake. See what is present without holding judgements. There is nothing that needs to be earned. It is your true birthright. Nothing has ever been done that needs to be atoned for. Nothing has ever actually been done. There is just now. See it from the vertical perspective. Seen for itself there is nothing to be changed. Everything is perfect. And You are One with it.

You are each watching your own movie. No two see the same film, even if they appear to be walking side by side. If you are thinking you are the character on the screen, you don’t see what is happening. You see from your ego mind perspective. If you rewind your movie back ten minutes, are you now in the past? Does that make the past real? You can jump all around in a movie. Does that make anything real? The movie has a beginning which for you might look like birth. Did the Viewer not exist before the movie began? The movie has an end which is called death. The Viewer is still there watching. If you are the actor, who is watching the actor? Through whose eyes do you see? Where are those eyes looking from? Can you be watching the movie and be in it at the same time? If you throw yourself against the screen, can you merge with the film? It’s just a movie. It’s not real, it’s just up on the screen and you’re watching it. Things become very simple. You are not the character on the screen. The movie is not real. You are just watching it. You can have no effect upon it. The movie has already been made. It is just playing. The script has been written. The actors have been cast. It has been directed and filmed. The special effects have been added.

One way to help the letting go of seeing yourself as the body and the seeing of things as they are is to change your language, certainly in your thoughts and out loud when you can get away with it. Stop referring to the physical body as I or me. Refer to that self in the third person. The words “I am” should stand alone, not to be followed by any descriptors. For example, rather than saying “I am sad” try “There appears to be sadness here”. Go a step further and replace “sadness” with words that describe the bodily sensations that seem to be present. Wherever words carry a heavy emotional weight for you, look for more neutral descriptors to use. Otherwise, you will likely go back to acting as if you are the object instead of the subject.

The question then arises as to how one becomes the Observer instead of the observed. It is important to be aware that all questions are generated by the ego mind, which is unable to ever find satisfactory answers. You can be aware that as long as there are questions and any beliefs that the body and the world are real, there cannot be a looking from the Observer taking place. All you can do is notice that you are still pretending to be the object and ask yourself who is watching this. Where is the observer located? If it is within your body, then find it. If the self seems to be interacting with the movie, who is watching this interaction? Wherever interaction is perceived, that is the observed and not the Observer. Take a step back and see who is observing the interaction. Each time you notice an identification with the actor, take another step back and see who is observing this. The part that wants to interact and believes that the movie can be changed is not the true You, the Observer, Who is simply noticing all of this. The movie, however, cannot be changed and so the actor is constantly frustrated. It is even scripted as to how long you will resist, argue, question, and continue to try to change the unchangeable before you give up trying and fall back to your true place as the Observer. You appear to have the choice to continue flailing away or to sit back, enjoy the show, and say “Pass the popcorn please”. You can’t make yourself let go and watch from the Observer’s eye, nor can you stop yourself from doing it. You cannot will yourself into being the Observer because you already are that. All you can do is notice where you wish to act and stop doing it.

One of the games of the ego mind is to say that if you are just the Observer you will no longer have any involvement with your movie, with other people, or with the world. The object “you” in the movie will still interact, but not in any attempt to change the movie nor with any goal or outcome in mind. The responses and actions will just be whatever is moving in the now. It is like improv theater. There is no conscious script nor outcome in mind. One simply responds spontaneously to the scene. The next response is absolutely dependent only on the new cues presented. There is no forethought nor afterthought. That is the game. It is comparable to a tennis match. All that matters is this shot. If your mind is anywhere else, you are not fully present for the next volley. This is just a movie. You know that you are not going to change anything; You are aware of no purpose. Yet, there You are, and you fully engage in the moment. But what possible reason could there be for an apparent birth and death, activities and relationships, failures and successes, ups and downs – all just to disappear? The ego wants you to believe that there is a purpose, a meaning in all of this. Where is it found? The Observer just witnesses apparent activity; it sees no plan. Ego mind creates a story with a beginning and ideally a happy ending. Spirit mind sees just life appearing to happen. Even for you on a spiritual path there is a thought that you will wake up and then understand the purpose and meaning of your life. You are already awake, and you can stop chasing your tail. You can begin that task by asking yourself who is chasing your tail. As you step back and observe from the true You, however, instead of understanding the answer, you will find that there are no questions. Some would say that the experience then is one of absolute Love, not as an opposite of hate or fear, but a steady state no matter what seems to be happening on the screen.

In conclusion, neither I nor anyone else can tell you how to accomplish the feat of releasing the ego self and viewing everything from the Divine Perspective. Nor can anyone explain to you what it will be like to realize the Divine View. Nobody will be there to have such an experience. There will be no sense of being awakened or enlightened because those are ideas of the separated mind. It is easier to try to tell what won’t be there. There will be nothing to fix. There will be no responsibilities. There will be nothing to understand. There will be no questions. Any questions?

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

Is a long life something to be valued?

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We had a question from a reader in Taiwan who wrote (and I am paraphrasing):

Life in its natural state is pure energy, so why do we call “life” a gift? Why is there an obsession with the longevity of life? Does Sanhia wish to return to the “solid body” and low vibratory life conditions again with all the uncertainty and challenges? I am aware that the Asian cultures – the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, at least – have a need to jump on the bandwagon of living long and being healthy, as Spock and the Vulcans said, “Live long and prosper”. Of course, one should take care of health, but as to how long one can live, who knows? Long life can be like longer sentences on “Death Row”. Sooner or later, it is all over; the body deteriorates; and we become a burden for others and ourselves.

It seems that the reader has a fairly good handle on the question, but we will go a little deeper. Since time does not exist, how can it have a value?  Living long has no meaning if time is not real. What those of you who are reading this are doing now is living. Otherwise, you would have difficulty opening this message. You are in the now, and that’s all there is. There is no future. If you believe it exists, I will ask the questions, “Where is that future? Can you get there from here? How do you do that?” If somebody has an answer to these questions, please write back and we’ll have a conversation. The same questions arise with the past. All that is here is the present and in these few moments that you have been reading, how many presents have there been? As soon as you try to describe what is happening, you are referring to the past. The present is constantly moving and morphing. Any attempt to explain or understand it pulls you out of the now and into the past. You are no longer fully experiencing the present. If you accept that time is real and has a value, it might make sense to think that more time is a good thing. However, as the reader pointed out, if your experience of life in your body is hellish, then perhaps a longer life is not to be desired, and time instead holds a negative value; a shorter life might feel more desirable, less time in hell. Those who choose suicide might hold this negative view on time and earthly experience.

The reader asks if I would wish to return to a “solid body”? This is another crazy question, one that implies that choice exists. I simply AM. I do not act out of choice but flow with the Oneness. If you believe in choice, you are constantly pulled out of the now into your mind to search the archives for information to guide that choice. This is in lieu of letting yourself be present and going with the flow. It is a recipe for hell on earth. Less time or more time doesn’t matter. All that matters is now. Your reasons for leaving or staying all come from thoughts from your past, which, as you may recall, doesn’t exist.

Some cultures, in fact most modern cultures, place a value on a long life. They believe it is a tragedy when someone dies at a young age, the younger the person the greater the catastrophe. Even with somebody older, perhaps quite along in years, the death is still often held as a tragic event. All kinds of medicines, surgeries, and treatments are invested in, sometimes at great cost, to sustain the physical life. It is as if more days of life has a positive quality in and of itself. Rather than accepting that all will die, there is an attempt to fight what is, which eventually will be the person’s physical death. Why would one want to live longer? That idea can only come from a mind that is not in the present. In the now you are alive. You cannot live in the past or the future. If you are thinking about living longer, you are no longer in the now; you have stopped living. That is to say that the only place you can experience life is in the now. You can’t experience it in the future or the past. You are then pretending to be someplace else. You are in a dream within the dream. Whatever reasons there are for being in this dream exist only in the now. Having a focus to live long, means not living now. This connects with the words expressed in the last message about goals. I know that none of you are like this. but you might know of someone who denies themselves certain pleasures in the present out of the belief that this will help them live longer and have greater health in the future. Sacrifice today for tomorrow. Well, that’s a good plan. Perhaps if you deny yourself everything that might make the present more enjoyable you could live forever. Just kidding, well just a little bit. Seriously, if joy can only be in the future and you only can live in the now, your self-denial will be forever, and your joy will be for-never. .

There is only one reason why you are here and that is to awaken to the truth of yourself. The only place that you can do that is in the present. It doesn’t matter how much time you give yourself in order to wake up, that awakening will always remain in the future. But guess where you are. You are stuck in the now. How do you get to this future where you will be awake? Again, please write to Us if you can explain that one so that we can discuss it. If you know how to do that you are sitting on a gold mine.

We have another little matter here. Let’s just say that you could convince Us that having a long life would be a good thing, how would you go about creating that? We are assuming that you find life to be bearable enough that the thought of longevity doesn’t scare the hell out of you, or at least it scares you less than the thought of death. You must now have the belief that you can affect the timing of your earthly departure. Perhaps you are jogging every day, working out at the gym three times a week, eating a vegan macrobiotic diet, abstaining from alcohol, tobacco and drugs, fasting and purifying your body, doing yoga, meditating, and more. Are you certain that will lead you to living a longer healthier life? Are you sure that an object won’t fall out of the sky and land on your head? Are you sure that your electric car battery won’t explode?  Do you know for certain that a terrorist won’t step into the store where you are shopping and blow himself and you up with his strapped-on bomb? Obviously, we’re just having some fun here, but wouldn’t it be ironic to come to such an end after giving your present over to guaranteeing a long and healthy life. The question again is, are you certain that no such present could happen for you?

The larger question is are you certain that you can control the future, that future that doesn’t exist? Are you sure you have that kind of control? How’s your track record? Has everything in your life come exactly as you have had it planned so far? Be honest here. This is your present you are thinking of sacrificing. If things always happen according to your hopes, go for it. When you celebrate your two-hundredth birthday, send me a postcard. I know, all communication will at least be electronic by then, but you catch my drift. The rest of you recognize that things don’t happen just the way you want them to. I will point out though, that if you are in the now, absolutely, and notice what is happening, you will know that all is occurring perfectly, and you would choose to change nothing. Your thinking, planning mind doesn’t have a clue what is in your best interest. What is in your now is absolutely in your best interest. It is necessary to see it, to not resist it but rather to welcome it in, opening to the wonder of it. You might as well. It is here and isn’t going anywhere. The last place to be is in the illusory future or wondering how long this now is going to last.

Let’s get on to the real biggie. Wanting to live longer is about the fear of death. If you are living in the now, totally present, there is no time. You are fully living. In truth, you are always fully living, but when you are not present you can become oblivious to that. Can you remember a time when you weren’t conscious, when you didn’t feel alive? If you can, please add that to your list of messages you can send to me. Tell me what that experience was like. Oh wait, how could you do that unless you had some consciousness in that moment. Not wanting to die is the fear of no consciousness. This is the terror that many do not want to face. The belief is that you are your body and when your body goes, so do you – down a black hole, into oblivion, never to exist again. The only way to deal with fear is to be totally in the present with it. Go right into that fear, that chasm, that void. See what is there. Feel where you carry it in your body. Use the five-step process with your fear of death.  A famous songwriter once penned the lines, “He who is not busy living is busy dying”. Living is done in the present. If you are somewhere else, you are busy dying. Not only that, but you likely think that death is real. Believing in reincarnation is no different than affirming the existence of heaven and hell. It is avoiding the now, trying to mask the fear of death with a happy, or terrifying, picture of what will happen after your body dies. Everything you could possibly wish or hope for – all your dreams are right here in this moment. It has nothing to do with your body. The body is merely the form in which you are experiencing the now. The future and past have nothing to inform you of. In the now is the absolute knowing of the truth of you, of your isness that cannot be destroyed.

The script has already been written. Where, how, and when the death of your body will occur has been determined. You are only fooling yourself if you think you can have any control over that. When I say that you all share the purpose of awakening, that is not to say it will be experienced in the present incarnation. Those of you who are reading these messages or are actively focused on living in the present have a higher likelihood of such realization, but nothing is guaranteed by your efforts. You are all aware of people who think a spiritual focus such as we write about here is insane. They accept the world as real and want to either make it better, get their share of the pie, or are hopelessly despondent. Perhaps they believe there is no God or Oneness or whatever It might be called, or that it is just a random universe, and we are all victims of whatever might be coming down. Without any thought or intention toward waking up, it is less likely for them to experience that in this now. That is fine. It is written when that stirring will begin. It is none of your business. If their thoughts and actions disturb you, it is just mirroring the part of you that shares the same fears and beliefs. Thanks for the reflection. What is certain is your awakening. The timing is known, just not to you. It makes no difference in the illusion of time if it happens now, in ten years, or in ten lifetimes. It makes no difference. When you wake up, time stops. Past and future dissolve; there is just now. When that is your truth, it will not matter how long it took to get there, because there is no awareness of a past. Meanwhile, the more you can succeed in remaining in the now and not letting your thoughts lead you, the more possibility there is for peace and joy now.

I want to return to the very beginning of this month’s question. There seems to be a concern in the reader’s mind as to whether life is really a gift. Everything is a gift! Everything happening in each instant is a gift. It is only the mind rejecting what is given and thinking something else to be better that keeps this gift from being received and enjoyed. Only an unquestioning mind unled by past thoughts can achieve this. The questioner goes on to suggest that a long life isn’t something to wish for or wish onto another because it will just make your prison term longer. Yes, if you are not in the now, longevity may mean more time in hell. However, an early death is no reprieve; it simply postpones the awakening to another bodily experience. Nothing wrong with that, but equating being in a body with suffering comes from not living in the now. Seeing life as a struggle, as a negative thing, comes from not living in the now. Being in the present has nothing to do with how long you will live. It has nothing to do with time. The gifts are simply here now waiting for you to embrace them. Those things that are real do not deteriorate and break down. Death is a gift for the one who can go no farther towards awakening in this body. Your life is forever. The death of this body, like its birth, is just a story, just a movie, just an illusion. The truth is here in the now.

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

Why should my goal be to not set any goals?

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A question has arrived from a member of a recent online group. I had lightly mentioned during the session that it could be your goal not to have any goals. A later discussion with the person’s family brought up many doubts about the advisability of such a course. Talking with family and friends is always an excellent way to have your doubts and confusion expressed for you. We’ll start with the word “should”, which I didn’t use. I suggest replacing that word with “could”, or “would”. “Should” implies a right or wrong, suggests that if you are “good” you will do it in this fashion. The statement that was made was not that it is wrong to have goals and good to not have goals. And, if you are following along at this point, how crazy is it to have the “goal” not to have “goals”.  The statement was made in jest, but also in all seriousness. Duality requires that something be said, but not worshiped as absolute truth. What we wish to do is to investigate what is involved in the whole goal setting process.

One of the ideas put forth by the pro-goal faction is that there can be no progress without goals; for individuals or the world to improve, goals must be set and reached. Is that really true? Let’s take a closer look. To begin with, goals are set by the mind. The mind knows only what it has learned in the past. Therefore, goals can only seek to achieve what already exists. The mind runs on old stories. These goals can only reinforce old ideas about how things should be.  People who are truly innovative, who help bring about remarkable change in the physical reality do so by ignoring their minds and what they have been taught. Instead, they observe what is and follow their inner guidance leading them to ideas that have not surfaced before. We could go back into history and witness those like Copernicus and Galileo who ignored what was taught to them about the earth being the center of the universe with everything rotating around it and observed what was to be seen through telescopes. They went inside to find explanations for what they observed. Or look at Einstein whose ideas went counter to everything that was taught in math and physics. He ignored all of that, in fact he was reported to not be a good student at all, being too busy seeing what he saw and going to his own intuitive guidance to find explanations that were not available in the world. New ideas do not spring out of old knowledge.

We could take a sidestep here and demonstrate the difference between being present, seeing what is there, and following inner guidance – all of which is not goal oriented. How can you have a goal about something that you know nothing about? Einstein developed theories that absolutely changed how we look at time, space, and matter. Later physicists have expanded upon these insights through their own observations and inner guidance. Parallel to this were goal-oriented scientists who chose to take these concepts learned from Einstein to develop a weapon that could be used to kill countless thousands of individuals. The old idea of war and destruction was a part of the justification for such goals. Even though centuries had shown that war never leads to peace, they took these old ideas and set a goal that allowed them to destroy two entire cities. It is very difficult to have a goal that doesn’t incorporate old ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, or should and shouldn’t. While humans continue to set goals as they have, nothing is learned. Past mistakes are repeated. War and poverty continue. Environmental degradation increases. There are fears that the ultimate result of human goals will be the annihilation of the planet. It could be. Goals are based on past learning and past learning is wrong and has never worked. Notice we didn’t say partially wrong. Past learning is all wrong – we are not talking of learning that allows one to function in the world, such as operating machinery and computers, cooking and finding one’s way around, but learning what life is about, what is important, and what is true. Something in the past may have been true for that moment in time, but it is not for today, not for now. Those answers lie in the present, not in the past. The past is not creative. It is repetitive. Repeating the same failing ideas will never make them work. A world that is not working cannot be made to work with the same old beliefs and ideas.

Why do you set goals? This is a place where being completely honest with yourself is important. Perhaps you believe that the realization of that goal will bring you happiness, peace, security, or love. I suggest that you look at your personal history at those times you have realized personal goals. Have they brought you any of that, other than the momentary high when the goal is first reached? Is that happiness, peace, security, or love sustained? Does that continue to be felt in your day-to-day life or do you compulsively set new goals to try to get that feeling back? Perhaps one sets the goal of being wealthy. Does that person ever have enough money? Is there a constant desire to accumulate more, perhaps more than could even be reasonably spent? So, the question remains of why the goal is being set. Again, honesty is important. If you are lying to yourself as to the true reason, how can you ever be satisfied? Is it because you want to feel that you have been successful in life? What is success? Who decides that? Whose approval is being sought? I suggest that you look long and hard for the true motivation for the goals you set. If you seek to feel at peace, then be at peace now. There is nothing that needs to be done. Peace is not earned. It is here right now, right in front of you. If you desire to feel loved, then love yourself now. Love everyone you meet today. Love what is happening now. Notice when you are not expressing love. Don’t decide that you need to be different in the future. Let go of unloving thoughts right now. Don’t feed them. One reason why goals fail is they are dishonest. You do not truly seek the realization of the goal; you seek something beyond that. What do you really seek? Where is it? Do you know exactly how to get there? My guess is that if you knew how to get there you would be there now. Why would you procrastinate for a minute? Instead, you have this belief that achieving a goal will bring you where you want to be. But it doesn’t do it. You don’t really have a clue. You are following somebody else’s formula for how your life should be. That formula is not working for them either, but it is what they learned.

Let’s take another sidetrack here. One of the greatest misunderstandings that most minds accept is that you have free will. You believe that you have a choice and your choices matter. You have no choice. It doesn’t matter what you do. Everything is predetermined. It is all planned. It is known exactly what you will do in each scripted moment. You will realize your Divinity, but you will have no idea where or how this awareness will come. Everything is in motion constantly moving you to that realization. You can go kicking and screaming, thinking that you know better than God, rejecting the Divine plan and trying to replace it with your goals. You can fail and suffer. Or. You can open your eyes and see what is before you. You can watch that plan unfold. You have no need to understand why things are set up as they are or why you are here. You are here. Nothing you could try to do will change that. The plan is far grander than anything you could imagine. You can welcome it and enjoy playing in it. Everything is offered right now, not in some nonexistent future. The past doesn’t exist either. Try to find your way to either place. Where are they? There is just the glorious now, all yours without even having to ask. There is nothing you can change no matter how much you might wish to. There is nothing you would wish to change if you truly let your thoughts go and accept what is here.

If there is something that is your special thing to bring to the world, it won’t come from the past and no teacher or teaching or idea can tell you what it is. If the past knew what it was, it would already have been done. It must come from the now. If it is yours to do, it cannot be anybody else’s. How can someone else tell you something that only you can know by being in the present, seeing what is there, and listening to your inner direction? How can anything you have been taught about who you are, or should be, and what kinds of goals you should or shouldn’t have be true for you? Is everyone supposed to do the same thing? Why are there so many different people then? That seems rather wasteful and inefficient. On the contrary there is something unique about you. You don’t discover that by being directed by your mind and all it has been taught from the past. That’s where you find how to be like others, rather than finding your own uniqueness. You learn how to be another crazy person in an insane world. So let that mind go. That’s what true creators do. They see what is in front of them in this very moment. They learn to hear and trust their inner voice, their inner guidance. This is about what to do right in this moment; it is not about goals for a nonexistent future. If there is a goal for you, you don’t know what it is. If there is a goal for you, it is for you and not for anybody else. You have a unique role to play in this awakening process. You find it, not by going where your thinking says you should go – as your thinking is faulty – but by listening and letting go of your mind to see what you are drawn to, what is drawn into your life. Everything is being provided; it is not your work to figure out what to do but rather to follow the trail that is being presented.

Everyone is here in a body with a common purpose. That purpose is to awaken to the truth of their Divine nature, to the truth of who they truly are. You are to be a loyal follower of your purpose. Your purpose is set. As long as you agree to let your life be led by your mind and old thoughts, you will remain asleep. Whatever goals you set are built on sand, not solid ground, and the whole structure will eventually collapse. You will be frustrated in your attempts to realize what you have dreamed of. Don’t take my word for this. Go ahead and set your goals. Give them everything you have. If that works for you…wonderful! If someday you realize this is not bringing you what you hoped for, come back and we’ll talk some more.

As you are awakening to the truth of you, which can only be experienced in the now with a silent mind; as you are now ignoring or no longer following the untruths that you have learned; as you see what is truly in front of you and you work with it rather than resisting it and attempting to create something different; as the Divine voice within you becomes increasingly clear – then you support others in doing the same. If you wish to end poverty on the planet, you let go of all beliefs you hold about scarcity. When you notice those thoughts arising, you do not act on them. You simply notice the thoughts and let them go. When you believe you do not have enough, you manifest poverty in the world. Goals emerge from a sense of not enough. That lack becomes your gift to the world. What is right in front of you is all you could ever need. Goals emerge from a belief that the world is not as it should be, and that it is your responsibility to change it. How has that succeeded? How many people have been trying to change the world and for how long? Every improvement that comes from human attempts is two edged. Every plus brings with it a negative. That is the nature of duality. Technological advances are used in war. Medical advances are used to keep people sick. It’s a big business. Money, rather than being used as a tool to help share what is there, is used for competition with winners and losers. Love is used to control others, to keep them where they are wanted. Again, be honest with yourself as to why you have your goals. Save yourself a lot of time and trouble. If you want to trust that you have enough wealth, do that right now.  What do you truly need that is not before you now? Let go of the dreams of accumulation and the future. You don’t live there. Accept the wealth that is offered right now, the beauty of nature, air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, and people to be with and to love. Go directly for what you want. Find it in the now rather than shuffling everything off to an imagined future that never comes. If you want to be happy, then be happy! It is right here in front of you. Look. Accept what you see. Welcome it. There is nothing to change. All that is required is to be present with it, to flow with the ever-changing moment. Notice the insanity of your thoughts.

We will go back to the original question, the humorously offered suggestion to have the goal of having no goals. That suggestion might be softened by saying to have the intention to have no goals. You notice when you have a goal and instead of trying to reach that goal you simply recognize its existence in your thoughts. Interesting. Is the goal something that can be realized now? No, it is off somewhere in the future. The goal is never fulfilled in the now. So where is happiness? Where are peace and love and fulfillment? They are all out there in the future. Where do you live? You can only live in the now. When does the future arrive? Never. Why sacrifice your now, the only place you will ever be, for, the future, where you will never be? But this is what you choose to do when you have goals. The insanity is in having goals. Sanity is living in and loving the only place you will ever be. Seems to be a no brainer, which is a fortunate state of affairs because you just might stop using yours.

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

How can I see ego as perfect?

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In duality there is Spirit and there is ego. Most spiritual seekers label Spirit as good and ego as bad. In oneness there is no judgment; there is no comparison; there is no separation. We have spoken many times about accepting the perfection of the now. If your ego is speaking in the now and you wish to shut it up, to be rid of it, to be beyond it – are you accepting the now? Everything comes from the Divine. Notice that “everything” is in bold, italicized, and underlined. Everything comes from the Divine. Ego comes from the Divine. Spirit comes from the Divine. Everything is in perfection. Everything happens exactly as it should.  Everything is already written out, has already happened. You, the reader, believe that it is happening now and that any possible outcome could result from this present moment that is being experienced. You believe that what you choose to do or not do will make a difference in that outcome. You think that the moment is not perfect enough so you have to roll up your sleeves and get to work to make it more perfect. The mind says that ego is not part of the perfection and needs to go, that ego tells untruths and fills you with fear. Since everything comes from God, He apparently made a mistake here and it is your job to correct it. As I love to say, “Good luck with that”. Only ego could suggest that you can do God’s job better. Only ego can suggest that you should try to get rid of ego. What you resist persists. The ego may be many things, but it is no dummy; it is not self-destructive.

So, let’s turn it around and accept the perfection of ego’s presence in the now, that its pronouncements are exactly what you should be hearing. I could just leave things at that; leave you to meditate on it, and call it a day. The last few messages have been rather long and we each deserve a break. But….I’m going to play with this a little longer. The only reason that you are able to hear the voice of ego is that part of you believes it is speaking the truth. You suspect there are some things you need to fear and that you have to protect yourself, defend yourself, attack, blame. Again, ego can only speak these things in your ear if a part of you believes they are true. One of the great ironies – and I love irony, which is perhaps all there is in duality where opposites exist at the same time – is that in duality you can’t have Spirit without ego. Spirit indicates where home is and ego reminds you of why you are both terrified of and ill-equipped for going there. If you listen carefully to Spirit you will hear that there is nowhere to go; you are home now. Ego screams out, “The hell with that! This doesn’t feel like home.” It then proceeds to reel off a litany of all the characteristics that your true home should have; it should be a heavenly place where there are none of the negatives, only the positives. The ego promises that one day if you work hard enough, you will get there. Other days in despair it cries out that you will never make it; it’s hopeless.

Your mind might ask why God would create such a thing as ego which fills you with such confusion, untruth, and suffering. Why does God want you to experience doubt and fear? One of the ironies is that at the same time that God has arranged everything and it is all fixed in the illusion of time, you are the God that has done this. It reminds me of the old questions, “If God is all powerful can He create a rock so heavy that even He can’t pick it up?” So here you sit, the Child of God, not knowing who you are. You are here for no other purpose than remembering that you are the Child of God, but you have absolutely forgotten it. If someone were to suggest that truth to you, you would not believe them and would probably shove them away, at least figuratively. You believe that you are something small and inferior and sinful and deserving of punishment. Sometimes you try to convince yourself that you are more than that. This whole argument is ego arguing with ego. But this is the thing…without the ego you will never find your way home. Ego is there as a nearly constant reminder of what separates you from the truth. Ego isn’t responsible for that; you are doing it. The truth of you is pretending to be the untruth of you. Ego has this wonderful job of reminding you of what you are doing to yourself, so that you can see it and feel it. Of course most of what ego says is false, what it tells you to fear is actually powerless. Yet, a small or big part of you buys the ego story and is convinced that it is up to you to take the bull by the horns and change yourself and/or the world so that the worst doesn’t happen. It’s just like in the movies; you can’t have an exciting show without a good bad guy or bad girl or both. You can’t have a hero without a villain. Jesus had to have the devil tempting him.

You can’t wake up without ego. Your job is not to make an enemy of ego, to try to blame or get rid of it in order to live in an egoless state. Welcome it. Listen to what ego has to say. These are the untruths you believe that are standing in your way. To banish the voice of ego is to shoot the messenger. It doesn’t change the message. Instead of asking for Spirit’s support in offing the messenger, listen to what ego is telling you. If what it tells you fills you with fear or other strong emotions, go right into them. Face them. If you suspect there might be truth in what it is saying, then look at it. Investigate the thoughts. Are they really true? I can tell you until I am blue in the face, though I have neither a face nor a color, that everything ego tells you is a lie and everything you are afraid of isn’t real. However that will do you no good at all. It is not for you to put your trust in me, but to do the work yourself. Ego has brought you your assignments, now it is time for you to get down to work. As you are facing fears and looking to see what is really true, ego is going to do everything possible to stay in the picture. When you have found that there is nothing to fear and you are certain that ego thoughts are untrue, there is little space for ego to come in. Even then you can welcome in whatever openings ego finds because they represent places that distract you from being fully present.

Love the ego. Welcome it into your life and allow it to do its special job. This does not mean that you allow your mind to go crazy following the path ego has laid out for you. Hear what ego is saying without following, without choosing to act as it would have you do. A politician was once quoted as saying, “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.” Of course ego is not your enemy, it is your teacher. We are now complete with this message. If the ego is in your now, welcome that perfection and listen. See what you fear may be true so that you can let go of those false truths. If you aren’t aware of their presence, you cannot let them go. This is the invaluable service of ego. We may know how this will all play out, but you don’t and cannot. It is much more fun to be in the movie when you don’t know, and are simply experiencing the excitement of life in the now.

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

Why is it so hard for me to find my perfect relationship?

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It is so hard for you to find your perfect relationship because you are looking, as the song goes, in all the wrong places. You are searching outside of yourself to find that relationship with another person, but your perfect relationship can only be with yourself. Let’s start at the beginning. When you are looking for your ideal or perfect relationship you are seeking completion, to be made whole. Perhaps, on another level, if someone else loves you, you just might feel loveable. All of this stems from the belief that you do not deserve love, that you are not a good person, and that you are not loveable. The grounds for your desire for a perfect relationship are in your belief in your separation from God and in scarcity, that there is not enough for you. This sense of lack rules every aspect of your life and the whole world around you. You think that you are incomplete, separate from each other, from Divinity, and from Spirit – that there is no Oneness. However, nobody can make you feel whole because you are already whole. No matter what relationship you might attract to yourself, your beliefs will remain unchanged. Though the relationship may seem to begin in the blissful fantasy of having found eternal love, as time passes the realization painfully descends upon you that, no, you haven’t. Difficulties and challenges emerge in the relationship. You were expecting that other person to come in and fix everything for you. That’s far beyond their pay grade. Nobody can fix anyone else. Whatever lacks, deficiencies, or problems you feel you have are your creation and not theirs.

This relationship you are looking for is the one you have with yourself. Whatever your mind tells you that you wish to receive from another – notice that. This is where you believe in a lack in yourself. Fortunately, the truth is that you lack nothing and that you are fully lovable. You are a Divine Child of God, created in the image of Divinity. You could no more be lacking in anything than could God be deficient in any way. The idea is pure insanity, but it is that craziness that got you stuck in this illusion to begin with. Nobody forced you into this illusion. You are here by choice – whether you remember the choosing or not – along with your beliefs of lack, guilt, and not being deserving of love. Your job is to notice that. Be aware when limiting thoughts arise. Notice when you have the thought that another person can be your savior, can make you feel whole and complete. It would not be an easy job to change those thoughts you now have; most likely that task is impossible. It is sufficient for you to notice that you have them, without trying either to deny the thoughts or to run away from them. Accept those thoughts. Own them. “I am unlovable. I am guilt. I am jealousy. I am lack.” Don’t divert your awareness from these thoughts. Notice them. Be with them. If you find you are blaming or judging yourself for these thoughts, then pay attention to that. Your job is to simply be alert as to what flows through your mind, if possible without any attempt to change what is there, but certainly noticing such thoughts if they arise. It is not for you to try to change your outer world, nor your inner world. All you have to do is notice and keep noticing. Accept what is there.

Remember always that your partner, as well as all other people, is your mirror. You project on them what you believe to be true for yourself. Often you do not wish to face these self judgments, so it feels safer to project them on another while denying that it is about you. This is usually done unconsciously. That is why it is so important to look at every thought that enters your mind. If the thought comes that your partner can be so selfish, look at that. “I am selfishness” is your belief. Don’t fight it. Don’t try to change your behavior. Simply observe and accept. Do not let a single projection live on without this kind of examination. As long as you deny this part of yourself and see it only in others, it will continue to be a painful and hopeless problem in your life. Your perfect love is you. As you truly realize that through accepting the perfection of you as you are, you will feel yourself engulfed in love with everyone you meet and every situation you encounter. Perhaps you may find yourself sharing your living space and/or your life with another, but this won’t be because they are your perfect partner or because you feel a need for their presence to feel loved and completed. They will simply reflect or mirror the love you have for yourself.

Let’s look at this from the perspective of how the mass consciousness has formed and fed you. You are not a victim to this, but have likely been an unconscious participant. Now it is time for full awareness. One of the ways mass consciousness works is to tell you that you should have a partner and also, most likely, children. It may say that your relationship is to be forever, that separation or divorce is wrong. To change partners can bring a sense of failure and guilt. Having more than one relationship at a time is also usually frowned on by that societal teaching, leading to further guilt. There is no right or wrong in any of your actions, but, again, notice your thoughts around these things. There may be contradictory messages that come to you from the “spiritual” realms. This guidance from teachers or teachings might tell you that you should not have a partner, that you should be celibate. You should not even entertain sexual thoughts. This is just as confusing as the judgment that you should have a relationship. Some of you are dealing simultaneously with both teachings. Letting beliefs dictate your actions in the hope that your separation from God will end or that you will awaken is not going to happen. Whatever you resist will persist. Your job is not to try to control or change your behavior, but to just notice what is there. Otherwise you are putting things outside of yourself, therefore not accepting what is. Any fight or struggle to oppose what is will leave you in the perpetual state of conflict. The peace of God is not there.

To be One with God, be One with Yourself. Perhaps you notice no desire for a relationship or you may notice an intense desire for a partner or simply for sex. It doesn’t matter what the thoughts and desires tell you. Just notice and accept the perfection of what you are feeling or experiencing. In your perfect relationship with yourself there is no judgment or need to change. You accept yourself exactly as you are. Will this acceptance be followed by a difference in the kind of thoughts that enter your mind? It is likely, but not if your “acceptance” is rooted in the hope for such change. Notice such thoughts and stay with whatever is present for you. You are becoming your perfect relationship. Lovely!

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

How can I be sure I am on the right path?

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All of these questions are enjoyable, but this one is really fun. When you think about it, and I do know that some you of spend some time thinking, there are lots of paths out there. There are a multitude of choices with all of the major religions, minor religions, cults, disciplines, teachers, retreats, centers, ashrams, temples, and monasteries. On top of that is the plethora of books. You would be hard pressed to keep up with reading all of the spiritual texts dealing with the various paths to awakening, enlightenment, or ascension that have been published and continue to appear at an ever increasing rate. As we mentioned in the previous message, some of the authors/teachers claim to be enlightened and are willing to show you the way. If you study more than one of these paths, you will find there isn’t a clear overlay. Who is right? Who is wrong? Who can you trust? What’s a poor seeker on the path supposed to do? It’s too hard to sift through all of this. What if you spend years following a certain path and then find out you’re on the wrong one? Now do you have to go back and start all over? Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Fortunately, I can make this very simple for you, unless you would rather make it difficult for yourself. To begin with, you can’t know anything. No matter how much you study or learn, no matter how hard you work at trying to figure it out, you will never have certainty about being on the right path. You will never have full confidence that all you need to do is to continue down the path you are following, persevere with your practice, pedal a little longer and maybe a little harder, take a few more trips around the sun, and then – BINGO! You are home; you are awake.

The good or bad news is that there is no right or wrong path, or that if such a thing exists you will never know whether or not you are on it. Now comes the answer that you may have been eagerly awaiting, salivating over. When you hear about someone else’s path and have a reasonable expectation that what you’ve been told or what you are reading is a fairly accurate depiction of how they woke up, you can be sure that this is not your path. Does that mean you should study every possible path you can find and then see what is left? You could try that. Let Us know how it works. But, We can make it even easier. Your path is unique to you. Nobody shares this path with you. Nobody else will awaken in precisely the same manner. No one ever has and no one ever will. It is just yours. How, you may be wondering, can you figure out what this path consists of? You discover it inside of you.

You don’t find it by seeking out a teacher to tell you what the path is. You won’t find it in any book. You will only find it within yourself. The only thing holding you separate from realizing the truth of yourself, from fully experiencing your Divinity, your I am-ness, from the awareness that everything else is an enormous practical joke, that you are not this body, that you are not this anything which you could attempt to define, that you simply are – is within you. There is nobody outside of you in the world, in your house, in the neighborhood, in the metropolitan area, in the time zone, or in the universe that is holding a gun to your head telling you that you must stay asleep. This is absolutely an internal choice. The only way you can possibly experience your awakeness is by choosing differently. Everybody has their own unique set of untrue beliefs. If everyone shared the same beliefs there would be no wars or conflicts. All would be in agreement. But there are all these differing views about how everything should be. They are all false. They all cause personal suffering. They are all voluntarily held. All that concerns you are the ones you believe to be true. Nobody else knows just what you are holding in your hand. They can’t see your cards, so this process has to be your own.

When you ask the question or have the fear about whether you are on the right path, the answer is so joyfully simple. There is no right or wrong path. You are simply on your path. It is what it is. Does this mean you should never read another book, follow another teacher, or pay attention to the examples of those who apparently have awakened?  Should you shut out all religious teachings? There are no shoulds here. Any should you hear is not coming from the true you, it is a voice from the outside. If your inner guidance draws you to read something, read it. Notice what aspects appeal to you or what games you want to try out. You may also find something from the same book, teacher, or source that pushes you away. Pick and choose. The truth of you will speak to you through others. Trust what is pointed out to you. If you miss something that might support you, you can be sure it will keep coming back around until it gets your attention. Maybe the pointer you follow today is the last piece of the puzzle and you realize the folly of all you have previously held as true, that you have taken so seriously. Maybe the latest piece of guidance seems to lead to an absolute dead end. However, following it may have been the best way to have that realization. We have placed a small bet that that is the case. The most important thing is to listen to your inner guidance and to follow it.

How can you know that you are on the right path? Are you listening to your inner guidance and following it? You can’t do better than that. Remember that your inner guidance is for the present. Nothing is forever except the true you. This now may last a short or long time. It is important to stay connected to that inner voice and see what is there for today.  One thing that makes your path unique is that it is custom designed for you by Spirit, by Divinity. Whatever comes to you today is always the perfect thing to nudge you into awakeness. One of my favorite things about duality is that it provides a home for irony. It is so humorous that as long as you want to be special you will stay asleep – because that desire is based on separation, but at the same time your path to awakening is specially unique, different from all others. Your path is special, but so is everyone’s. You are One in your specialness.

If God wanted to create in his likeness a form that is capable of having sensual experiences, three dimensional encounters in this illusion – why didn’t he just make one form? Why not make one human instead of multitudes? We are not trying to speak for God here – that is certainly a fool’s task – but it is fun to play. One could guess that there are so many because each one plays out a unique aspect of the wholeness of God. No one aspect can reflect all of God, but taken all together they make up that Oneness. This is analogous to an orchestra, which depends on each instrument making its unique contribution. But, look at the magnitude of this ensemble! One instrument failing to contribute the sound it has been given keeps the whole from expressing its unity. So, we have a world in seeming chaos, but your only job is to play your note and allow others to find their own.

This brings us to the second, exciting part of this message. If you have the thought that it is all about awakening and that once you are awake nothing else matters, keep reading. Most likely the awakened you will look around and notice that the body is still here. The realization will be present that this body is not you, but it remains to be noticed and “lived” in. The world is still there, too. It is an illusion and is not to be taken seriously, but you are still observing it, sensing it. In that awakened state where you have learned to listen to, trust, and follow your inner guidance, you will continue to do just that. What now is the purpose? That information is also outside of my job description. It is not for me to tell you what your purpose will be in your awakened state. You will have no need for that. You will be guided. I will set the stage though. Is your brother awake? Is your sister awake? Will you look about and notice those that are unconscious of their awakeness? You will be aware of the sleepwalkers and your guidance will suggest what to do about that. I have been telling you that other people’s illusions are none of your business. Your only job is you. Now that you have disappeared, you no longer have a job; you are unemployed. Since there is no you, there are no goals, nothing to be pleased or satisfied. In this uniqueness that is related to the “specialness” that formed your unique path of awakening, you will now have a particular path of expression. You will play your part in this cosmic symphony, and many have been waiting to hear your song. It is all connected. It is all planned. You will touch those other beings that the Oneness, that the Guidance, that the Wholeness, that Spirit, that God, that the Divinity – whatever you wish to call it – wishes you to reach.

That now is your function. That is between you and your creator and is none of my business. My only job is to point the way toward your realization. I am not your guidance. Your guidance might lead you to my voice. It might lead you elsewhere. It doesn’t matter. All roads lead to Rome. It doesn’t matter if you ignore information that could have shortened your trip. Time doesn’t exist. The destination is certain. Your decisions are preordained anyway. No matter how hard you try to be the captain of your ship, you will eventually surrender. Whatever you choose is perfect. Spirit will give you as much line as you need. When you make the decision to surrender to your inner guidance, you will hear it more and more clearly. It will direct your path until you realize that there is no path; there is nowhere to go. There is just the eternal now. No other place to be, no other place existing, and you are there and always have been.

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

Do I create my reality or does Spirit?

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It seems that this month’s question is one of those chicken or egg quandaries. Let’s begin in this manner. When you say “I”, that means the question is emanating from your ego. The ego “I” is the only one you can relate to because there is no true “I”. Only your ego can be asking this question. Then we have the dilemma of deciding what the hell is meant by “reality”. If reality is defined as how you perceive the world, then of course you are the creator. Everything you see in the illusion is your projection, is your creation. Your body, the people around you, the physical world, the weather, the drama, the governments, sports…..it’s all your creation in terms of what you perceive. The important question now is do we want to label your perceptions as reality. I have told you many times, including earlier in this paragraph, that all this is an illusion. Yes, your ego self creates these illusions. I can hear the wheels spinning inside your mind and you’re thinking “Sanhia, you are really not answering this question for me in a satisfactory way.” “Do my thoughts affect this “reality” I’m in, or is Spirit running everything?”

That’s a very good question, but I want to return to what I have already stated. If you are speaking in terms of this illusion being “reality”, you are absolutely in charge because you choose your reaction to each moment. You choose how you perceive; you choose to judge; you choose your emotional response. If you are asking if you have the power to absolutely control this illusion, to make it exactly what you want it to be, the answer is yes, to some degree, but no, not really. If you have a child whom you perceive as lazy, never helping around the house, leaving messes all about, and so on, do you have the power to change this behavior in your “reality”. Those of you who have been in these shoes are laughing and thinking, “Not a chance”. What you do have the power to affect is in how you choose to react. Here the only limits are the belief structures you restrict yourself with. You might tell yourself that any rational person would react in a negative way to this behavior and try to change it. If you are cut off in traffic by another driver, the “natural” response is to honk your horn and display your middle finger. Otherwise, they will never learn proper driving etiquette. I ask again, how successful do you think your expressions of anger are in changing the other driver’s habits? So, if “reality” is what is happening in the outer world, you probably have little power to affect change. You do have the power to stop thinking you should be changing this “reality”, you can give up the thought that it should be different. It is insanity to believe that if you honk your horn loudly enough and thrust your finger far enough out your window, suddenly the highway will be a peaceful place filled with courteous drivers. Maybe the thousandth time of asking your child to clean up after themselves will magically work. Maybe this is why the illusion is referred to as a dream. You have the power to accept how it is. You have the power not to be upset by what is.

The question now comes back that if you are actually not creating this “reality”, who is? Is it just random? Does Spirit create everything that seems to be happening? My answer is “absolutely”. Then you ask me if Spirit has a screw loose? Why would Spirit create this mess? You cannot even begin to grasp the answer to this question without accepting that nothing going on in the world matters at all. I am not saying this metaphorically; this is as close as we can get to expressing the truth in words. Nothing in this world has any value or importance. The only purpose for anything in this dreamscape is in assisting you in waking up. You have no other function or purpose other than awakening. This is not to say that Spirit won’t use you in the master plan of awakening everyone, but while you are asleep you can have no awareness of how Spirit might be using you. When awakened, you are aware that your only function is to do as Spirit asks. Again, this function is not one of saving the world; the universe is going to disappear. It is only in supporting others in awakening and you will not have the responsibility of figuring out how to do that. Spirit will guide your every moment. Everything that happens is guided by Spirit. Everything is planned. Not only is everything planned, but Spirit knows exactly how you are going to respond. Therefore, it is impossible for you to make the wrong choice. Self judgment and guilt are absolute wastes of time. Spirit/God can hardly hold you responsible for doing as you are expected to do. Spirit creates the situation and you respond. If you are in resistance to what is presented and think it should be in some other way, the lessons continue to be presented until you realize that all is as it should be. Maybe that happens in this body and maybe in another. None of that matters because none of this, including time, is real. Eventually within the dream you will have that moment when you realize you have been rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic, trying to empty the ocean with a spoon. You will laugh at your own insanity, let go, and accept the glorious perfection of everything you are and have been experiencing.

You, and here I am speaking to your ego self, fortunately cannot control this illusion that you have been projecting outside of yourself, this dream world. If you could, you would choose from your ego and remain forever asleep. But that’s not in the cards; you won’t be able to accomplish that. On a good day you may fool yourself into believing that you do have that power and want it to continue indefinitely. Ultimately, the weather will change. That’s the nature of duality, of this illusion. Every up is followed by a down, and vice versa. They may not seem to be in balance but neither of them can fully disappear. In Spirit, in Divinity, everything is perfect. There is nothing you would consider changing. The stubbing of your toe, the kiss of the sun, the sting of a bee, and the laugh of a child are all part of the perfection of the now.

I want to repeat that as you are dealing with your life each day, you cannot do it in a wrong way. You are just following the plan. The end of the plan is the awakening and the awareness that it has always been a dream. There is no way you can make that happen today, nor is there a way to stop it from happening now. It’s simply not in your control. The plan is all there. The perfection of it is beyond ego comprehension. The enormity of the seemingly infinite interconnections of Spirit’s plan should be humbling to your ego thought system. If you are reading this message, if you are taking it in, if you have been choosing to listen to Spirit and to let go of your ego mind, all of this has been planned. None of it happens by accident. If you seem to be either ahead of or behind another in your awakening process, take no credit and leave no blame. All is going according to plan (not to speak of the fact that your placement of your “growth” in relationship to others is likely to be faulty). Your reaction to what you are reading here is also planned. You cannot make a mistake.

Those of you who feel all alone, who think nobody understands you, feel that God has abandoned you, or believe that you can’t hear Spirit – know that Spirit is with you at every moment. Your consciousness of this has nothing to do with it. Spirit is always whispering in your ear, whether you are listening or not. There is never a time when you are alone. You are truly One with Spirit and with each other. Absolutely One. Ego believes in your separateness. Again that is why there is a call for gratitude for your inability to be able to control the dreamscape “reality”. The ego can only use its power to maintain the sense of separation. Otherwise your ego disappears. For the ego to make such a choice is not in the cards. Ego dies from a lack of attention.

In truth, this is not a chicken or egg question. There is only one answer and that is that Spirit creates the “reality” of your dream world. Spirit controls every aspect. Spirit does this through a loving, connected “spirit” of Oneness, leading you step-by-step to stop listening to your ego and to hold Spirit’s hand and experience the Love and Oneness. Your ego wants you to believe that you can and should take control and make the world the way you want it to be. It’s never going to happen. When you experience being One with Spirit, you will find that you do “create” your own reality, but this is a co-creation with Spirit; Spirit speaks and you act. There is an absolute alignment. You would never want it any differently. There is nothing you would rather do.

Good Now

Sanhia/Spirit

Did Jesus die for our sins?

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The holiday of Easter has just passed; perhaps some of you celebrated it. In the last message, we talked of love and sacrifice. In the world of Christianity, the great story is of the martyrdom of Jesus. That legend has been passed down for 2000 years. As it is told, Jesus, the only Son of God, came down from heaven out of his Father’s love for us. God sacrificed his only Son. He did this because we humans are bad. We are sinners; we are evil. The only plan God could come up with to allow us to return to him in heaven to be saved, was through offering the crucifixion of his Son. That is the story, a very sad tale. It is filled with graphic descriptions of suffering, torture, and betrayal. However, this is nothing more than a fairy tale. It is not true. This is not what happened. The true story is that Jesus was not the only Son of God. We are all the Sons of God. He did not come to atone for our sins, because God does not recognize our sins. Only we see our nature as sinful. We see this because we believe that we chose to separate from God. We are terrified of God and fear his vengeance for what we think we did. This is all part of the myth. Jesus came to tell us that it’s not true, that God loves us. Absolutely and always. There is nothing we have to do to earn it. It is just for us to realize that we are divine, that we are one with God.

Jesus came to earth of his own choice to save himself. He wanted to become aware of his divinity while in a body. Easter is the celebration of his self-realization. That is what the resurrection was. It does not represent dying and coming back to life again. Death is an illusion. The resurrection represents the ”death” of death, the realization that there is only life. There is only life and always life, in divinity. That is the true nature of every soul. Easter is a time to remember this truth and to let go of death, suffering, fear, and the belief that you are an evil sinner.

You may want to ask me why this made-up story has been passed down and believed by so many. There seem to have been eye witnesses. People recorded these happenings. Why would it have been passed on like this? Don’t tell us it’s a lie Sanhia! Well…this story is like all stories. They are imaginary. No story has happened. Nothing that you attribute to an action by those in human bodies, no, none of those stories are real. Nothing has happened in the truth of God. You have manifested this illusion that you have an earth. You create all of the stories that take place on it. You stay in an endless loop with those stories, a seeming infinity of bodies and lifetimes. This goes on until one day you wake up and realize that there is only now, only this moment. There is only the truth, only love. Everything else you have been making up. Meanwhile, because you think you are a sinner, you created a savior, since your story says that you can’t save yourself. You believe that somebody has to pay for the sins you imagine you have committed, so why not have Jesus do it? He’s got big shoulders. He is the Son of God. Let him do it. The problem is that you are still stuck with the guilt. Not only are you a sinner but you let Jesus take the rap for you, leaving you even further away from God (This perhaps is a good thing. Have you noticed how he treats his Son!).

What if we look at the life of Jesus from his perspective? He came in with a high level of knowledge of truth, brought forth from previous lifetimes where he did much work. He created a wonderful support system in his pre-planning. On both sides of his family there were great spiritual workers who came in with him to support his process. His father Joseph ascended before him, showing him the way. When it came time for his full realization, which required an absolute surrender to Spirit, he was told that his path was to go through this “Passion Play” of crucifixion. In this way, the story would be recorded and passed down for the ages. Even though the facts would be grossly incorrect, the seeds of the truth would be there for those who have ears to hear with. It seemed that a trusted associate turned on him. In truth, Jesus asked his good friend Judas to play a role. Judas did not want to carry out that assignment, but Jesus convinced him it was part of Spirit’s plan. This was an act of love, not betrayal. Though what people saw at that time did look like punishment and torture, Jesus experienced no pain on the cross. Rather, he was in ecstasy. He knew that he was not his body. As for the witnesses, however, they could only project their own fear upon what they saw. The story was written down and passed on. Had there been no crucifixion, nobody would know of Jesus today. Adding to the drama, his body disappears. Now, you have an unjustifiable execution, but there were many of those with the Romans. How to make this one stand out? Let’s disappear the body, right under the nose of the Roman sentries. To cap things off, let’s have the body reappear later. This is the stuff that sells newspapers, not to speak of Bibles. Jesus simply, out of love and trust, followed the plan that came from Spirit. He did this, not to pay for your sins, but to teach you how to listen to Spirit, how to trust, and as an act of faith. Some of you have the terror that if you listen to Spirit you’ll end up nailed to a cross, too. You may have something to move through around this. It is the ego that leads you to pain and suffering, not Spirit.

How would your life change if you trusted in the true story of Jesus? When you think of Easter, the message is of love and eternal life. The focus is on the resurrection. If your thoughts go to crucifixion and suffering, ask Spirit to lift those thoughts from you. It is time on a symbolic level to burn all of your crosses. As long as you hold onto the cross as the symbol of Christianity and Jesus, your life will be one of sacrifice and suffering. Burn the cross. Burn them all. Let that blaze be the fire of the love of the eternal flame of God.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia