Can we create heaven on earth?

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Can we create heaven on earth? This is an exceedingly popular question, one that many spiritual practices and teachers give much energy to. Most people have little hope that there could be heaven on earth. They tend to possess a helpless victim-like approach to their existence here, though there is usually some hopefulness that something might improve. On the whole though, they expect there will always be problems. Governments will misuse their power. Businesses will always care more for their profits than for the environment or the well being of their customers. Health will be a concern; we are victims to disease and accidents. We will never have enough money and our bosses don’t really care about us. Relationships and friendships are not fully satisfying. Those that start out ecstatically devolve into, at best, a ho-hum day-to-day survival. However, many of those who are on a spiritual path as well as a lot of spiritual teachers have decided that all of this can be overcome, that we can have heaven on earth. Working with an understanding that we are the power in our lives and that what we focus on and believe in will happen gives us the power to determine our futures on the planet. There is an underlying truth in this belief, but when we look at the wholeness of what is suggested here, the insanity of trying to create heaven on earth may become clear to you. This idea has its birth in the ego; it does not come from Spirit.

When we look at creating heaven on earth, there are several things to be aware of. First of all, this physical illusion of the earth and the universe is based on duality; it is based on opposites. In divinity there is no polarity: no good and bad, no male and female, no hot and cold, no opposites. There is simply is-ness. The whole appearance of physicalness is based on the illusion of duality that does not exist in Divinity. One thing this means is that when you try to create “good” in the universe, an equal amount of “bad” must also be created. Opposites always balance out each other. “Good” cannot exist without “bad”. There simply cannot be heaven on earth without hell on earth. In duality, you cannot create one thing without creating its opposite. So, if you succeed in creating a “good” in this illusion, somebody has to create a balancing “bad”. To further confuse the issue, your “good” may be another’s “bad” and vice-versa. Everyone is trying to create heaven on earth according to their own personal model of what that is, and how to achieve it.  If this sounds insane, please understand that insanity is the basis of duality. If you wish to follow this reasoning as far as you can, then if you wish to create “good” coming out of others, you should create as much “bad” as possible yourself, so that the balancing energy could be released. If this is an absolutely insane proposition, welcome to planet earth. It is just a dance where every action brings an equal and opposite reaction.

Creating heaven on earth is an impossibility. Heaven is your true home. It is where you are right now, though you are having a dream/nightmare that you are in a physical body on earth. There is no real earth. Your true self is in heaven as you are reading this. So, here you are trying to reinvent the wheel, trying to create something that already is. In this case, rather than having God’s absolute perfection, we have humans who don’t believe in their Divinity and are therefore capable of using only a small fraction of their infinite creative power trying to compete with God in creating heaven in the midst of duality. It is not too hard to see the futility in this. But, it could be no other way, because this earthly physical illusion only came about as the result of a crazy idea. You thought that maybe you could create something better than God was capable of doing. That was an insane idea. Then you compounded this by going into terror and fear and disappearing into your creation to hide. All humans hold guilt about this choice to separate from God. Fortunately, you didn’t succeed. It was not possible to separate from God, any more than it is possible for God to judge you, withdraw His love, or punish you. It is possible to be in a dream, to be in an illusion where you forget who you are. You cannot change who you are, but you can experience amnesia in your dream.  Your job is not the impossible; it is not to attempt to compete with God, by trying – and failing – to create heaven on earth. Your job is much easier than that. Forgive yourself. Be aware that God has no anger or judgment about what you have done. In fact, nothing has really happened. Realize that the easy thing to do is to allow yourself to be in heaven, not to try to create the impossible on earth. It is not only easier, it is also inevitable.

You will all wake up from this dream and realize your true home. You have no choice about this. All you can do is drag your feet and slow your progress down on your trip back home. You can extend time, but time is just one of the illusions of duality. Only what is real can last forever. These bodies, this earth are finite. You are real; your body and the hell around in the dream are not. Even now, as you dream of being here on earth in a body, the truth of you is in heaven. Rather than focus energy on bringing heaven here, wake up! The heaven you will find yourself in will far surpass anything you could even dream of in this illusion. Instead of doing the impossible, do the inevitable. Rather than dragging your feet, lift them up. Let Spirit carry you home. By choosing to hear that voice each day you can shrink time. You can cut off years or lifetimes. In the long run, it makes no difference. Once you awaken, this will all seem as if it never happened. In the meantime, you experience some amount of pain and suffering. Why prolong it?

If you try to create heaven on earth, you will fail. This will bring about some amount of pain and suffering. The part of you that feels helpless at not being able to create heaven on earth, but feels equally helpless in figuring out how to wake up, can feel doomed to suffer until ascension finally happens. There is a fear of seeing the earth being slowly destroyed, of wars, of corruption, and of friends, loved ones and eventually yourself succumbing to disease and then death. Does one just have to put up with all of this, to stand helplessly by? That is one choice, but it is not the only one. You can focus your energy and intention on seeing that none of this is real, just like the show you watched on television the other day. Not real. Made up. Imaginary. As you get that, you can find that watching it becomes less and less painful. In fact, it may become quite entertaining. When you know it is not real, it is not so hard to experience anything. The closest you can get to creating heaven on earth is by realizing that everything that is happening is being scripted by Spirit for one purpose only, and that is to guide you to your awakening…to your ascension. It is there to help you become aware that none of it is real and that you are and always have been in heaven. This means that whatever is happening is perfect. Realizing that it is perfect, accepting rather than judging and trying to change the gift of Spirit, allows you to begin to experience heaven. Perfection is not something that you create; it is what already exists. Your job is not to make the world perfect; it is to recognize the perfection that is already in place. When you think that something has to change, you are not accepting the perfection.

This bears repeating. You do not need to change anything to bring heaven on earth. Spirit is taking care of that. All that you need to do is to relax and accept the perfection of Spirit’s gifts, to feel gratitude. Your only response is to Spirit, as you learn to ignore the insane ranting of your ego. You don’t ask for any part of the world to be fixed. The only thing you pray for help with is your willingness and ability to hear and receive Spirit.

Help me to trust the perfection that surrounds me. Help me to know that this is not real, that no child of God can ever be truly hurt, that death is an illusion. Help me to choose your voice instead of the voice of ego, to choose love over fear. Help me to choose to believe in my innocence rather than in my guilt. Help me to reclaim my true home in heaven.

Good Now

Sanhia

Are other people a part of the illusion?

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In the previous message we talked about the illusion, and I meant every word I said. Now, it is time for some balancing words. It is true that your physical body is an illusion, but it is not true that you are an illusion. You are very real. It is true that the physical bodies of others are illusions. But it is not true that other people are illusions. As you are working with this truth of the illusion, I wish to suggest that it is fine to look at everything in the physical world going on about you as illusion, including things and events. Remind yourself that they are not real. However, it is not recommended that you look at other people and tell yourself that they are illusions, that they are not real. There is a practical reason for this. Whatever you see in others, you see in yourself. I have called this the mirror effect. If you identify others as illusions, you will view yourself in the same light – or lack of light. When you see yourself as an illusion, nothing is left that is real. That can be a depressing way to exist. That will pass. No permanent damage can be done. Denying your reality, your Divinity, can never change it. You are real and so are others. In the meantime, holding yourself as an illusion may not feel so comforting.

To avoid this, simply don’t think of others as illusions or as part of the illusion. This doesn’t mean that you look at them and say, “Ah! This physicalness is real.” All physicalness is illusion. But, when you look at someone, the truth of you sees the truth of them, recognizing their Divinity. If you say that they are illusions, you are saying that the Divine is an illusion. Here is what I suggest instead. As you are observing other people around you, practice seeing them as Divine. Forget about whatever you notice them doing or about how they physically act or appear. See them with your Divine eyes, as Jesus saw everyone. Behold their Divinity. If that is a challenge for you, and some individuals will present you with enormous challenges in perceiving their Divinity, ask Spirit for support. As you master seeing others as Divine, so will you identify yourself.

Remember that when it is hard for you to recognize the Divinity in another, you are looking in a mirror. You are projecting upon the other whatever is most difficult for you to love and forgive in yourself. You are not truly seeing the other. If you were, you would recognize Divinity. If you are identifying anything less, you are seeing your mirror. Of course, when you perceive the Divinity in another, you are also seeing your mirror. When you look with judgment you are watching through the eyes of your ego. Your Divine eyes can only see with true vision, can only perceive the Divinity in another.

Knowing that the action, rather than the actor, is illusion allows you to see the Divinity. This helps you to let go of the false picture of the other person. Your projection, your judgment of the action, is what is not real. The person is real. The truth of everyone involved is unaffected by the action. No harm can be done to Divinity. This is where the illusion is significant to realize. The players are real and are Divine. Only the action is not real. So don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Discard the illusion of the action without rejecting the Divinity of the actor. This is true forgiveness. Whatever you see that is not Divine is your projection. It is what you don’t want to notice in yourself, because it is too painful, too frightening. Hold everything in the physical as illusion except for other people (and of course yourself).

That is it for this month. Short and sweet. See the Divinity in others so that you can see the Divinity in yourself. That is what is real. All the rest is illusion. You are real.

Good Now

Sanhia

What do you mean when you call the world an illusion?

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We have talked many times about the illusion, but there has never been a single message fully describing what is meant by this term. Now the time has come. I am going to start with the ending and then go back and fill in the spaces. This is the ending: Everything, without exception, that you experience in this physical world is an illusion. Everything. None of it is real. No exceptions.

Now we will take a giant step backward. In the illusion, you can do that. In reality, there is no place to take a step and no time in which it can be accomplished. What is reality? Let me tell this as a story. In the first part of the story there is God. God is unconditional love, unlimited creativity, unlimited power, and unlimited joy. There is no duality, only the is-ness of these qualities. These descriptors are human terms and unable to do justice to what Jesus called “the Kingdom of God”. The only thing that is absolutely true and real is this kingdom. In the second part of the story, God chose to create beings or entities in the image of Himself. Remember, as always, that the language is limited. There are no serviceable gender free terms, but be clear that divinity, that God, does not have gender. There is no duality in divinity. As a default, we will refer to God as “Him”. To continue, these entities were created in the image of God, beings of unconditional love, creativity and so on, and, of course, gender free. These could be called the Children of God.

In the third part of the story, a group or a portion of the Children of God, who A Course in Miracles calls the Son of God, in their infinite creativity, decided it would be fun to construct something that would be secret and separate from God. To begin with, this was an impossible task. There can be nothing separate from God. I will now use the term “We”, because you and I are a part of this group. We are One with God and God cannot be separate from Himself. We allowed ourselves the thought that we could create separately from God and then went into that creation. We then experienced the illusion of separation. This experience was not real because we could not actually create something separate from God. We could say that this creation was like a dream. We went into this collective dream. God could not see this dream any more than a mother can see her child’s dream. In the dream we felt separate from God and had our first experience with fear. We were afraid that we could never find our way back to God and that He would be angry with us for creating behind His back. These fears were false. It is not possible for God to be angry or judgmental. However, in this nightmare we had created, all of this seemed possible. The ego is what we call that part of us that feared God and believed in the illusion.

In this way we created the physical universe. It is a part of this dream, of this illusion. We have been hiding here in the physical from God. The truth of us is still One with God. This is just a bad dream. As soon as God recognized what we had done, he created the solution. He imagined the means by which the part of our Divine selves stuck in the nightmare could reconnect with the Oneness. Because there is no time in Divinity, the solution was instantaneous. The problem was immediately solved. You could say that it was over before it began. Boom, boom. However in the illusion there is time. There is duality. So, it seems that we have been trapped in this dream for thousands upon thousands of years, for lifetime after seemingly endless lifetime. Trapped. The idea we have of hell is right here. This earth is it, but it is not real. The idea of heaven is our true home, the Kingdom of God, the place of unconditional love and unlimited joy. The challenge for us through these eons of time in the illusion has been to simply wake up to our Divinity, realizing that we are and always have been the Children of God. I have called this waking up our Ascension. These physical bodies are not who we are.

This entire physical world, every aspect of it, is an illusion. We created it, not God. This is our nightmare. As long as we hold onto it and defend its reality, it will seem real. The ego’s job is to convince us in whatever ways possible that the illusion is real and that we have no choice but to stay here. The solution that God created is called Spirit, or Holy Spirit. Spirit is the intermediary between God and the illusion. God doesn’t directly experience our dream because it isn’t real. If He were able to observe it, it would make it real. That’s the last road we would want to go down. Then our illusion would be true and we might really be stuck here. Fortunately, this isn’t the case, and God cannot get directly involved with things that don’t exist. Spirit, however, is the link between God and our ego illusion. We can listen to the voice of Spirit and be led home, or we can listen to the voice of the ego and continue spinning through lifetimes of pain, fear, and suffering. Sounds like a slam dunk choice here. However, the ego is whispering in your other ear telling you not to trust Spirit, asking you how these things that you can feel can be less real than some ideas that probably aren’t even true. Ego tells you that your divine nature is the illusion and that God is out to get you. You will have to pay for what you have done. You are guilty, guilty, guilty. Why would you want to go home to a God who is just going to punish you? Instead, you play all kinds of games trying to win God’s favor and His forgiveness. You project blame onto others, hoping God, and yourself, will be fooled and will go after them instead. All of this is impossible because there is no judgment or favor to be won. How can God love you more than unconditionally? It can’t be done. The only thing standing between you and realizing your Divinity is you. It is your choice to listen to the ego and to believe its claims that this illusion that keeps you trapped here is real.

Your job is to remind yourself every day that everything except your divinity is illusion. NOTHING that you see in this world is real. No exceptions. Scream it from the rooftops. The bodies are not real. The objects are not real. The stories are not real. The weather is not real. Your problems are not real. Money is not real; well, you probably knew that. None of it is real. The only thing that is real is your Divinity and unconditional love. Whenever you make something else more important than your Divinity, you stay trapped in the cycle of pain, suffering, and illusion. That’s all there is to it. It is very simple. When you feel trapped, give it to Spirit. Spirit is the link between the illusion and Divinity, so that you can ask for support and guidance as you deal with your fears and difficulties in the illusion. Spirit is, always has been, and always will be involved in every moment of your life. Spirit directs your story, presenting you with exactly what you need in this moment to find your way back home. Meanwhile, the ego is telling you to fear the gift of Spirit, so you push away in terror what Spirit brings to you. Maybe Spirit brings a death into your life. When you resist what Spirit brings, you are saying that you want to stay here in illusion rather than go home. Spirit is bringing death into your life to show that death is not real. It is bringing a material loss into your life to show you that things don’t matter. Spirit brings failure into your life to show you that your earthly goals are not important.

The question again is a very simple one. Do you want to listen to the ego, which will have goals for you in the physical, or do you want to listen to Spirit, realize your Divinity, and go home? The more successful you are in reaching goals in the illusion, the more attached you will be to staying there. This is why Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You can’t take it with you, not one part is real. It is all part of your dream. That is what I mean by illusion. I am not using a metaphor. I am trying to express as clearly, directly, and honestly as I can. There is nothing in this physical world that is real. You are to give up all attachment to everything physical and to trust that Spirit is always there bringing you exactly what you need to find your way home. Trust everything that comes into your life. Give up the fight and the struggle. If that is hard, give it to Spirit. If it is still hard, do the five-step process in addition. That is also a gift from Spirit to you.

Everything that happens in your life is guidance and a gift from Spirit to lead you home. Nothing here can ever be lost because nothing here is real. It is all illusion. Spirit will play with your attachments until you come into that full realization. The illusion and duality dissolve as you listen to and trust only Spirit, letting the ego go. Then you have no need for the illusion. You have no reason to create heaven on earth because your true heaven is right before you and infinitely more fantastic than anything you could dream up here. Welcome home.

Good Now

Sanhia

What spiritual practices should I be doing? (Part 1)

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Many of you wonder about what spiritual practices you should be doing. What is necessary? What is important if you wish to realize your divine self, if you want to ascend? What should you do to help let go of the illusion?  I will start with the short answer. The short answer is, “Nothing is required”. To elaborate on this response, if you think that something is required, that is the ego speaking. If you think that you cannot possibly ascend without practicing a specific physical discipline – such as yoga or meditation – that is from the ego. If you think a perfect diet must be followed – such as vegan, macrobiotic, fruitarian, or breatharian – that what you eat will determine what happens to your soul, again you are listening to the ego. Jesus was quoted fairly accurately in the New Testament when he said that man is not defiled by what goes into his mouth, but by what comes out of it. You create impurity in your life through your expressions, not through what you eat. If you fear that something you are about to consume is not good for you, give it to Spirit to purify. That is the true purpose of praying before you eat.

Does this mean that it makes no difference what you do? Can you live at McDonald’s and never lift a finger? This is not what I wish for you to understand. Your body is an illusion. Ascension is about letting go of the illusion. If you think that taking care of your body is what is most important, then taking care of the illusion becomes your goal. You can succeed at taking care of your illusion so well that you could live forever or until you realize that the body has no meaning in and of itself. Its purpose is to help you understand that it has no purpose. It is merely a vehicle, so you take care of it like you would any vehicle. If you don’t listen to it and provide for what it is asking, it may not get you to your destination. Any other function you might give to your body gives it a reality which substitutes the illusion of the temporary for the immortal truth of you. In the meantime while you are experiencing this body, take care of it. If you are hungry – eat. Listen to what it wants. If it later communicates that it wishes you had not made that choice, perhaps you will choose differently the next time. But, ultimately it doesn’t matter what you eat. If your choice brings you discomfort, accept it as a gift and do the five-step process. When you have chosen ascension, everything that comes into your life has the purpose of guiding you to that realization. It is not your diet that is to be a constant, but your listening to the divine, your acceptance, and your trust. Have faith in the guidance you receive in each moment. If a book or a person suggests to you what you should eat, smile and let it go. Spirit never speaks in “shoulds”, that is the domain of the ego. The same thing is true with physical activity. If you come away from this saying you are not going to exercise your body because Sanhia said you don’t have to, you have missed my message. Basing what you do on what you think I have said is another way of placing your power outside of yourself.  There is no particular physical activity that is required, but if your body is asking for movement – listen to it and move in a way that it desires.

We have been focusing on the body because it is the most obvious part of the illusion. That physicalness that you can see in the mirror and touch – and that others react to – seems to be you. But there are other aspects of you that may seem to demand correct spiritual practice. There is the mental focus where you may believe that you need to think the right thoughts, that you should only think positively, and that your choices must be aligned with the highest truth. It is good to be wary when the mind uses words like “should”, “need to”, or “must”. That is the language of the ego. If your desire is to always manifest things in the world that please you, then choosing the highest thought is a “must”. But choosing goals in the physical world, again, puts the focus upon the illusion, not on your divine nature. If you are afraid to think wrongly, fear will run your life. There is a larger scope to this picture around spiritual correctness with your thinking. It assumes that you know. I want to be the first to let you know, in case nobody else already has done so, that you don’t know. You haven’t got a clue. If you knew, you would not be here in a body. If you think you know, you are being guided by illusion – also known as the ego. The only thing you can do is to give your mind to Spirit. Whatever response you then receive is your message for the moment, but not the truth for all time. It may not be your message a week from now, and is certainly not anybody else’s message. Your mind may find this a tough assignment. How can you know the truth if it keeps shifting and we are not all sharing the same one? It is not the truth that changes, truth is the only thing that never changes, but the words used can never express the full truth. The question then becomes one of which “half-truth” serves you best in this moment. All you can receive is a piece of the truth, which always contains its own contradictions. The guidance for you in this moment may be total insanity for another to follow. Each person receives only the guidance that is appropriate for them at that moment. When you are ready for the full truth, you will be beyond words, and likely beyond any need for a body.

We wish to also deal with the emotional and spiritual/intuitive planes, but I think you have plenty to work with for now, so we will continue in the next message. The bottom line for now is that if you are feeling any fears or pressures around performing as you “should” with your spiritual practice, you can let all of that go. There is no right way. There is just your way, and nobody else can truly tell you what that is. So, follow your guidance and trust what comes back to you. It is all perfect. It is better than you could ever plan. It is divine and so are you.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia

If the body is an illusion, why do I have one?

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I have mentioned many times that the body, along with all physical manifestation, is an illusion. It is not real. It is not the truth of who you are. Sometimes people ask me, “Why do we even have a body? What is it all about? The body certainly seems real. If you pinch me it hurts. It seems like I have a body. If I run up against the wall, it feels solid. It’s there. If I go under water, I can only stay so long. What do you mean this is an illusion?” These are all very good points. The ego does an excellent job in asking good questions.

What is there to do is to find the source. When you have conflict in the world, one person making a response to another’s action, it is in reaction. This can go back and forth endlessly. Where is the source of all of that contention? Where does it begin? It is one of those chicken and egg questions. When you speak of reincarnation, you may say that you have something happening now because of something you did in a previous life. Why did you do it then? Well, you had a life previous to that, and so back it goes. Where is the source? If we go far enough back, you arrive at the first man and the first woman. Is that the source? The Bible will tell you its creation story. There were Adam and Eve. They were in paradise and everything was perfect. Then she tempted him. Actually, she was first tempted herself by the serpent. Who was this snake? The serpent encourages her to just eat of this apple. God said not to eat of the apple or there will be severe consequences. That’s the Bible story.

What is the real story? The serpent is the ego. The fruit was of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Upon eating the apple, good and bad appeared. That was the original illusion. They are not real, as the ego is not real. The god that kicks you out of heaven is not the real God. It is your guilt. All of that is part of the illusion that began then. You allowed this voice that was separate from God to have power over you. You decided that maybe truth was being spoken. The ego said to believe in good and bad. Spirit said this will separate you from God; more correctly, create the illusion of separation. Spirit didn’t threaten punishment, It warned of the illusion you would thereby be creating. This was what Christianity calls “original sin”. The sin is the belief in good and evil. It separates you from God. Out of this whole separation story, you, who were in truth One with God, created this illusion of physicalness, created a world that seemed real, but is fueled by the opposing energies of good and evil, or duality. You manifested bodies and disappeared into them to hide from God, forgetting your Divinity, believing that your body was the truth of who you were. You believed that this body that feels pain when you pinch it, and this wall that you can’t walk through, and this water which seems impossible to breathe in are very real.

Before we talk about what to do with these bodies on this earth, in this physicalness, the first thing to understand is that they absolutely are illusions. They are not real. You are real, but your body is not. God is real. The physical universe is not. If something does not last forever, it is not real. If it has a birth and a death; it is an illusion. All that is real is eternal. It is good news is that the world is an illusion. I say good news because most of you aren’t having such a great time in it. The news of its unreality should be welcome to you. Time is not real either. God is timeless. You don’t have to worry about how long this hell is going to go on because time doesn’t exist.

We come back to the original question. Why even have these bodies? The answer is that in order to fully realize your Divine nature and Oneness with God, you need to do it in a body in the physical world. In a sense, you have locked yourself into this world and only you can let yourself out. When you use up one body, because they are quite expendable, you eventually choose to create another. If you don’t realize the truth in that body, you create another, and another. You have already created countless ones.

The body is not something to be honored or revered. Though it is not Divine or real, it is a tool, a vehicle. You respect and take care of it because it is a required part of realizing your Divinity. You do it in a body. If you deny the body or fight the bodily desires, through severe fasting, defying sexual desire, eliminating music and dance, or even gouging out your eyes so as not to be distracted by physical beauty, you are giving power to the physical. You are saying that it has such control over you that you have to go to war with it in order to ascend. It would be more aligned with truth to hold the physical as neutral. It has no meaning one way or the other. But now you are in a body believing it is real, which all of you do even though you might have some awareness through reading things here or from other studies, such as A Course in Miracles. You haven’t had the full experience of your Divinity. If you had, you would no longer be with your body. While you still believe your body is real you can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist. That won’t work for you, so you take care of it. Otherwise, you will just have to trade it in for another. The body is a tool, and you take care of your tools or they are of less use. You created your illusion of separation by creating the illusion that you were a body, so you create the end of the illusion through a body. It is that simple.

In the eyes of God, none of this ever happened. Or, we could say it happened in the wink of an eye. The ego says there have been billions of years of evolution, so many lifetimes, and so much trouble and pain. But, it is just a blink of the eye of God. As you created the illusion, God created the solution. He made the Holy Spirit. As the ego dispenses confusion and falseness in one ear, Spirit whispers truth in the other. At some point, you will choose to begin shutting out the ego and listening to Spirit. At some point this transition will become complete, and you give your life fully to Spirit. You let go of judgment, separation, and fear. You fully realize the truth. Then time begins to disappear along with the universe. We call that ascension. You do it while you are in a body. That is the only reason you have a body. There is no necessity for you to suffer in the body while you are completing this process. Suffering only comes from listening to the ego. God would have you enjoy every moment. As you are transforming fear into love you will experience less and less pain on all planes.

Begin by acknowledging the body is not you, is not real. Do this even if you don’t fully understand or believe it. Accept that everything the ego tells you is a lie (Book I: Message 77: How do I discern Spirit from ego?). Give intention to turn your mind over to Spirit. Ask It to keep you focused on the truth until that is all that is there for you. The ego will always give value to things in the physical world and have goals. You will have goals. Don’t put any value in them beyond holding them as tools for your ascension. Nothing of the world has any other value. Any additional importance you place on the physical will bring you pain and separation from God. Spirit will provide you with all your physical needs as you are realizing your divinity. It is that easy.

Good Now

Sanhia

What Is the difference between ascension and enlightenment?

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I have been talking about ascension for a long time. This has been the major focus since I began communicating through Michael over thirty years ago. For those of you whose native language is Swedish, there is no word that directly translates this concept. The closest is “himlafärd”, which means “a trip to heaven”. This provides a beginning in grasping the term, but still contains a sense of going somewhere. In English, ascending literally means to go up, again indicating the involvement of motion. A clearer understanding would be to associate ascension with the realization of your divine nature. The idea of “going up” assumes that your ascension is not right here, right now. The thought of having to travel to find your ascension only leaves you separate from its realization. However, there is also an accuracy in these literal translations because when you fully realize your divine nature, this earth plane loses any reality it might have previously held for you. In the challenging attempt to define ascension, I have often talked about what it isn’t. Ascension is not something that is realized through following specific practices, disciplines, or beliefs. It does not happen because you are good, or because you do things in the right way. Ascension is the full realization that you are one with God, you are loved unconditionally, you are love, that there is only love.

I have talked about all of this before, but today I wish to introduce another term which is commonly used and, at times, seems to be interchangeable with ascension. That word is enlightenment, which in Swedish translates as “upplysning”, meaning “putting the spotlight on”, a more direct translation. I want to compare these terms, beginning with a disclaimer. The differentiation I will establish is connected to the manner in which I define these words. Other sources may have different definitions. Enlightenment could be seen as a subset of ascension. All who realize their ascension are also, certainly, enlightened. However, those who are enlightened do not necessarily realize their ascension. What is the difference? Enlightenment means that you realize that this physical plane is all illusion. You understand that you are the creator of all that you experience. You know that time doesn’t truly exist, nor does your physical body. You realize that you are. That is your only truth. You always are. That full awareness is called enlightenment. Often, enlightenment is seen as the highest spiritual goal. It is a term that is used within the Buddhist tradition. The Buddha became enlightened, and so Buddhists seek a similar experience.

If you experience enlightenment, you continue to deal with the world about you, but with an absolutely different perspective. You are still in a body dealing with everyday life, but you no longer take it seriously. The only thing that remains real is self. You know that you always are. The enlightened one has no idea whether others have any true existence. I wouldn’t know if there is such a thing as “you”, an entity that also creates everything that you see. All that I can know is that your existence is my creation. In ascension, you have this enlightened perspective, but here is a distinction. When we speak of enlightenment, there is usually no reference to God. There is only the “light”, the eternal is-ness. The assumption of the enlightened one may be that the existence of God is beyond knowing, that all that can be known for sure is the existence of self. There are no answers to any of the deep questions such as: “Why do I exist?” “Where did I come from?” or “Why did I create this body and this universe?” Some who are enlightened will argue that your existence is all you can know. This knowingness of the unreality of the human experience allows almost all pain to evaporate.

The difference with ascension is that it does deal with these questions. It recognizes divinity and a creative source, which I call God. It understands that the earth experience and physical creations emanate not from God, but from the souls we call human. This manifestation came out of fear of God and separation from Him. We created this universe to hide from God, out of our fear of punishment. Without the acceptance of the existence of God, you can realize that all of this is a movie, but still have a vague sense of emptiness. The deep questions do not totally disappear. Strands of judgment persist. In fact, enlightenment might be the last refuge of the ego. The answer to the deep questions is that you are here to heal your relationship with your creator. Denial of His existence won’t make Him go away. He has nowhere to go. Nor do you. This understanding allows you to ask God, or Spirit, for support in aligning with truth, in reconnecting to your divinity. You realize the importance of forgiveness in the process. You become absolutely intolerant of the slightest judgments you might hold. You seek to see divinity everywhere.

There has been a great confusion because most of those who believe in God do not believe in enlightenment, while most of those who believe in enlightenment don’t believe in God. Ascension requires both beliefs. The connective energy is unconditional love. Without God, unconditional love may not be of importance. You could be enlightened, but not fully surrendered to and guided by Spirit. The void or emptiness of the enlightened state allows a place for the voice of ego, because your mind has not been fully offered to Spirit. In Buddhism, there exist bodhisattvas who are on the threshold of enlightenment but hold back, waiting for everyone to join them. They reincarnate over and over, coming as teachers. The confusion is that one’s primary reason for incarnating becomes the serving of others. This is in denial of God and your separation. It is the lack of recognition that what you see in others is only a reflection of yourself, which is all that you can affect. The ascended masters comprehended that their own realization of divinity was the reason for their physical experience. Ironically, their ascension is also the greatest gift they could offer to others in supporting spiritual development. Ascension understands the oneness. It knows that personal ascension raises all ships, shines light on all souls.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia 

Why do I feel abandoned by God?

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Some of you have expressed anger to me – perhaps not directed at me, though you may have wanted to shoot the messenger – because of things I have said about God. You feel that God doesn’t pay any attention to you, that He is not aware of your struggles and your pain. You feel abandoned because none of this exists for God. I can understand, on one hand, why you might draw that conclusion. I have explained to you that this earthly experience is all an illusion. Nothing in your physical world is real. The only things that truly exist are absolute love and divinity. This illusion you have created in the physical realm of bodies and fear does not exist in the mind of God. He does not see your experience. God sees only the truth in you. He does not see your fantasies of separation, judgment, and pain. He sees your divinity, your holiness. Hearing that causes some of you to feel that God doesn’t really care about you. He is just going to let you hang out here in your pain and suffering. All your prayers and cries for help are ignored. To your great surprise, I have a number of things to say about this “abandonment”.

If God could see your illusions, it would make them real. Think what that would mean. If your body truly exists; if this earth and universe are existent; if your pain, suffering, and fear are real; they will go on forever. When you die, and leave all of this ”reality” behind you, you will realize that none of it was actually taking place. This you realized after your last incarnation, as well as following the multitude of others you have experienced. When you no longer have a body, you still are, just a whole lot lighter without the excess baggage you carry with you now. All of the things that felt so necessary, vital, and important in your physical experience are gone. They are simply gone. If they were real, they would still be there. When you ask God to give them reality, be aware of what you are asking for. You are asking for your hell to be permanent. It is to your saving grace that God does not see your illusion, seeing only the truth of you so that you have the potential of also holding the truth.

Rather than abandoning you, God has sent the Holy Spirit. This is a difficult concept to fully understand. In Christianity, they talk about the trinity of God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. Usually, even though the concept is alright, the execution of it is woefully inadequate. The Father is often pictured as judgmental and punishing; the Son is limited to Jesus, excluding all of the rest of the Sonship (which includes you and me); and the Holy Spirit is often simply not understood at all. The Father is the originator God – all loving, all powerful, all creative. The Son is you: whoever is reading this; whoever isn’t reading this; and whoever has, is, or will be in a body. The Son is created in the image of the Father: divine, all loving, all knowing, all powerful. But, a part of the Sonship has chosen to believe in a separation from the Father and fears retribution for that action. That is the case for all who have chosen human form. God recognizes that you believe yourself to be lost, but does not experience the trauma you have created. You are like a sleeping child experiencing a nightmare. The loving parent recognizes that the child is having a bad dream and knows that it is terrified, but cannot penetrate into the illusion. The parent knows that what is being experienced isn’t real and that sooner or later the child will wake up. The parent tries to lovingly awaken the child and to assure it that it is safe. It is the Holy Spirit that carries out this function.

The Holy Spirit is the intermediary between the Father and the sleeping Son. Spirit is designed in such a way that you can ask for Its support, supplicating to be brought into conscious alignment with the Father. I want to remind you that you are not being helped to establish alignment. You are already aligned with the Father. You are one with God. You are one with each other. What is lacking is the awareness of that oneness. This does not take away the truth of who you are, but it does keep you from having the experience of your divinity. Rather than living in the divine love of your birthright, you live in fear. By asking Spirit for support, you can realize your alignment with the Father. The role of the Father is to hold the course, to hold it steady, to hold the truth, to never waiver, and to never give any reality to the hell that you have created. The Father always sees your perfection. It is your role, as the Son, to give up the ego, to stop choosing to listen to it, and to choose divinity. To facilitate your process, God has created the Holy Spirit to help those of you who have chosen ascension, and want to give up fear and illusion. The Holy Spirit is there to give you a helping hand. He is aware of your illusions, but does not take them seriously. Your task is to believe Spirit, rather than the ego. Spirit is there to support you in constantly choosing love over fear.

You can ask God to come down to earth and enter your hell. God won’t hear you. Spirit will hear you, however. Even as your faith in trusting Spirit’s voice over the ego becomes stronger and stronger, there is still a step between believing and knowing. When you cross that line into knowingness, you no longer feel a need to talk with God, because you are fully aware of your oneness. In the meantime, rest easily in the knowledge that God’s love for you is eternal and that dissolution of your hell is a certainty. The consistent message from Spirit is ”lighten up, everything is moving forward perfectly”.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia

What is a spiritual response to a world crisis?

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As you are working with your own spiritual healing, realizing your personal ascension, and perhaps using the five-step process, there often seems to be a stark contrast between the spiritual work you are doing and what seems to be the “reality” the world is presenting you with. One of the current “realities” is connected to the situation in Syria. This appears to be a complex political situation. The Mideast was destabilized by the Afghani and Iraqi wars instigated by the United States. This led to the formation of terrorist groups in the former Iraq. These groups spilled over the border into Syria. The long-standing dictatorship in Syria began to experience a civil war. Of the groups opposing the regime, ISIS emerged as the strongest. For those of you who are intent on rescuing to make the world a better place and to supporting the “good guys”, it is hard to find a champion. In addition, an extremely large number of Syrians have felt that there was no choice for them, in order to protect themselves and their families, but to flee the country and to seek refuge elsewhere. Many of them have fled to Europe, because there were few good options in the Middle East. That is the stage that has been set.

The situation tends to trigger extreme reactions for some people. One response is, “How can we take care of all of these people? We have our own problems. We don’t want to accept more Muslims in our country because their ways and beliefs are so different. We would have to take care of them, which is expensive, and they don’t want to follow our laws or respect our way of life.” On the other hand are those who say, “Oh, these poor people. We have to do everything that we can to provide them with a safe haven, to help them to get there, and to assist them in starting their new lives.” Oh, and another response for many people is one of hopelessness. The inner voices might say, “What can I do? This is all too big for me to make a difference. It just isn’t my problem.” All of these viewpoints come out of a place of fear. For those who do not want to take on the responsibility of helping there is the fear of lack and the fear of becoming victims to the refugees. For those who want to take care of the refugees there is often guilt, which is a manifestation of fear. It is the belief that you have behaved badly and that you will be punished if you don’t somehow make up for it. This all comes out of the illusion that there was a “wrong” and that it, therefore, can be corrected. Hopelessness is the fear that one is powerless. The ultimate fear is of death. You can also reread What am I to do with death? for help in dealing with this issue.

It is time for us all to take a deep breath and to collectively take a giant step backward. Let’s look at this whole situation in a different light. First of all, it is absolutely essential to remember that whatever you see in the world is a projection of your ego. If you see chaos, if you see victims, if you see people who don’t deserve help because they are responsible for their own troubles, this is a projection of your ego and how you perceive yourself in the world. The first step to take in healing what feels to be enormous world problems, and specifically the situation in Syria with the refugees, is to look and see where your fear is attached. Take responsibility for it and realize that this is about you, not about them. Looking at the situation with unconditional love, taking full responsibility for your own life, you might consider Syria and say, “My, this is an interesting opportunity for healing that they have chosen for themselves.” You would not see victims. You would see powerful children of God who have collectively chosen to create a situation that forces them into enormous change. Such change always leaves wide open the opportunity for healing. In your own life, your greatest opportunities for healing often come in the face of what appears to be adversity.

Deal with your own fear that is triggered, perhaps using the five-step process, and see this as an enormous spiritual gift for the Syrian people as well as the people of all the countries that are also deeply affected. Then you can look at these people freed of your judgment, guilt, and the feeling that you have to do something to help. Rather, you can see their divinity and the opportunity they have created. You can go into a place in your heart and see if you are guided to support this healing process in some way. Only from this place of unconditional love and acceptance can you be guided to an action that will truly support the spiritual process of another. Remember that the solution to a problem is never about changing others or changing the outside. It is always about taking responsibility, about looking at the situation and acknowledging, “This is me”. The solution lies with healing yourself. If you absolutely succeed in that, your personal ascension will change the world.

This is an enormous challenge. It is one thing to choose to be a monk and to go into solitude to work on your spiritual process. It is another thing to stay in your community, your family, and your work where you are dealing with the energies of others and are exposed to much of what is transpiring in the world. But, this is the challenge that you have chosen, to be in the world but not of it. You might wish to go back and read two messages that dealt with world problems for further support: How can I change the world? and How do I deal with my environmental fears?. You have created Syria for your own healing. This a great gift and an opportunity for you. We encourage you to make the most of it and to find that unconditional love within you. And to live there.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia 

Do you believe in a punishing God?

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Let’s start by defining mass consciousness. Mass means a large number of people, though not all. Consciousness is the awareness that is in your mind. When you are unconscious of choosing your beliefs, you have surrendered your consciousness to the control of others. The ”others” can be called the mass consciousness. In any culture there are a set of beliefs that are held by most people in that society. If you are unconscious, you simply accept those beliefs and they run your life. Though in truth you are divine and powerful, you will manifest according to the illusion of reality of the mass consciousness, and thereby prove its correctness. It is an endless loop. Whatever you believe in, you create. Your ego says, ”See. I was right”. It is considered blasphemous to oppose the mass consciousness and to proclaim your personal divinity.

Perhaps the cornerstone of the mass consciousness in western society is the belief in a punishing God. Some of you may already be saying, ”Oh yes, I was raised with that, but I don’t believe in it anymore”. My question for you is, ”Are you so sure?” Let us start with the first peg. God is unconditionally loving. That is the simple truth. The idea of a punishing God is man-made, not a divine idea. God is unconditionally accepting. There is nothing you could say or do that would be blasphemous to God. Absolutely nothing. The only one who can provide consequences for your words, thoughts, and actions is you. Only you – not God, not other people. If you cannot accept the belief in a loving non-judging God, there is nothing more to say here. You are welcome to follow your life and to make the best that you can of it. However, you would not be here reading this message unless at least a part of you was open to accepting the truth about God. I am speaking to that part of you.

The next step, once you have changed your mind, is to move everything in your body you are holding that doesn’t believe in your innocence and your divinity. It is one thing to state the belief – and that does come first – but that is not mission accomplished. It is simply setting a course. The path you are traveling is across what you believe to be your separation from God. If you believe in an angry and judging God, the chasm is uncrossable. How can you approach something that you are terrified of? In that case, you do whatever you can to keep the lion away from you. Your choices include living in the way that you think God wants you to, in order to avoid punishment – or denying the existence of God altogether. Either choice is designed to keep God away, not to bring God closer. That is what keeps you safe, in this illusion of an angry God. Being ”good” is a way to deflect God’s attention. You also want to hide what you think are your transgressions, both from God and from yourself.

The following step is to realize that that there is no such thing as a sin. There is no such thing as doing something bad that needs punishment. Sin is an illusion of the ego. If there is no judging God, there cannot be sin. You are off the hook. You have the absolute freedom to do anything you want. God will never judge you. This idea of good and bad, and right and wrong, is man-made. This thought can bring a level of terror to you. Because you haven’t fully accepted the truth of love as the ruling aspect of the universe, your ego in its fear says that people would be out raping, murdering, stealing, and God knows what else. You are terrified of the chaos that such a world would bring. Take a deep breath and feel that part of you. Ask yourself what part of unconditional love would want to kill or be killed, or to be involved with stealing, raping, or punishing? What part of unconditional love would wish to bring harm to anyone or would deny you whatever it is that you want? What part of unconditional love would create scarcity so you’re going to have to fight over what’s there?

Whenever these fears arise of what would happen if there were no rules of right and wrong, no judgments, and consequences, they arise out of the belief in a punishing God. If the energy that created you is unconditional love, how could you be anything else? How can the creation of a loving God be sinful? You have accepted the mass consciousness that God is angry and judging, and you are punishing yourself before God can get a chance to. You create sickness, financial struggle, relationship problems, victimization, trade-offs, and, finally, death.

First accept a loving God, accept your sinlessness, and give up your guilt. Forgive yourself for everything including your judgment of yourself and of God. Of course, there is truly nothing to forgive. God is not judging, but, because you are, it is a helpful step to take. Since you believe there is something to forgive, continue forgiving until you realize there is nothing to forgive. We would improvise slightly on the maxim ”To err is human, to forgive is divine”, changing it to ”To believe in error is human, to forgive is divine”. We could say that the state of divinity is the state of constant forgiveness. Forgiveness becomes acceptance.

Now we come to the place where we arrive in every message. If you are trying to work through all of this with your brain-mind only, you are still holding on to mass consciousness energy. Your brain-mind does not have the ability to let it all go. At best, it can convince you that you can experience your divinity and that God might not be punishing. You will still draw in the illusion of punishment, because deep within your body you still hold the belief in a punishing God. One way to move this is by giving it to your belly-mind by doing the five-step process. There is no should, or right or wrong, about doing this. Use any other technique that leaves you experiencing unconditional love. There does not need to be a great deal of struggle in whatever procedure you use. To use no method delays your experience of unconditional love. You deserve to feel unconditionally loved all of the time. Whenever the feelings of fear are felt in your body, go to the website and listen to the recording. Allow yourself to be guided through the process. You can also lead yourself through it or ask the support of a friend. Transform that fear into the love that is truly you. When you do the five-step process you are allowing yourself to fully feel the unconditional love of God, instead of the judgment and struggle of the ego. I will end by giving you my judgment of you. You are divine. You are loved, unconditionally. Always. No matter what you say, no matter what you think, no matter what you do. Your birthright is unconditional love.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia 

How can I reduce stress in my life?

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When you don’t see perfection in everything that is happening around you, or when you don’t experience the divinity in yourself and others, you may think that you have to fix things. You often feel that the responsibility lies with you and a heavy weight descends upon your shoulders. It seems that you must deal with all of these challenges and with the ”idiots” surrounding you. It appears that you have to protect yourself from the latter, avoid them, or attempt to control them, so that they don’t ruin this great effort you are making to create perfection. It sounds like a tough job. I’m glad I don’t have to take that one on.

Your life becomes such a struggle that you lose sight of how total, constant, and unending the battle is. You try to reduce the amounts of stress you are aware of to a level that is bearable, but no matter how much you are able to alleviate situations, life remains a battle. This struggle is your creation. You are choosing to have hell on earth. No matter how much you let go of, the inferno remains. The questions is, ”Why are you creating hell on earth to begin with?” You can see divinity and perfection, or you can choose to fight. We have spent the past two messages focusing on the former, so let’s try working from another side this time. You don’t have to see the divinity in another, when they seem to act as your trigger. Nor do you have to see the perfection of what is happening, to give up your resistance. Just say NO to struggle. Decide to stop fighting. Let go of it. Decide that there is nothing that is so important that it requires straining.

If today were the last day you were going to be in this body, would you spend it in struggle and stress over little things? This is one acid test to see if struggle is involved in your day. Ease up on yourself. As you become aware that you are struggling, take a deep breath and relax. Go do something that does not feel like struggle, something that feels like fun, or joy, or even ecstasy. What would you truly rather be doing right now?

Buried deep in your consciousness is the belief that your very existence depends upon struggle, that if you don’t fight to survive you will simply go down – for the third time. And that’s it. Your whole life is defined by separation from divinity. Your brain-mind is full of reasons why you have stress. Things have to be done, it argues. This is a story of separation from the divine, a belief in your weakness. Argue for your limitations and they are yours. You are that powerful. The ego arguments for struggle are very rational to your brain-mind. There is no end of them. You will carry them to your grave. Or, you can just say NO. You can refuse to listen to them. You can change your mind. This might throw you into such terror that it will be best to do the five-step process. Eventually, you will be able to choose your passions over your guilt and fear with greater ease. The first step, as always, is to have the intention to give up the fight. Remember that what you are fighting against is always an illusion. It is never the truth.

There are two primary places where you can get stuck. One is the belief that the nature of life is simply that you have to struggle. You think you have no choice but to work at something you don’t like, that you are required to do all these things you don’t want to do merely to survive. If you want to do better than just subsist, it seems you have to strain even more. Look how much hassle is involved just to go have fun on a vacation. The other belief is that anytime somebody else is involved with what you are doing, there will be a battle. You anticipate working together as a challenge and relationships as hard work. That’s the story. It is a belief in struggle. You don’t have to do it anymore. The battle is totally within you. Nobody else can force you to fight. Every time that you give up a little piece of this resistance you realize a little more of what true joy can be like. If you absolutely give up control, you can sense your divine nature right here, right now.

You have experienced this. You have had moments when you were at peace and your brain-mind was at rest, not wrestling with any devils at all. You were enjoying what was there right then, feeling the unconditional love of the belly-mind. You feel that when you finish the second step of the process. But you have the story that it is not practical to stay there all of the time. You wonder how you could get anything done, how you could survive. On the other hand, when you believe that there is nothing but struggle, you begin to call for and welcome your death on a subtle level. Nobody wants to live forever if survival means constant stress. Let’s talk about what true responsibility is. You are responsible for choosing your reality. You are not responsible for taking whatever steps are necessary for making your reality happen. Spirit does that for you. Let it. There was an advertising program for an American busing company back in the 60’s. The image was a powerful, comfortable bus with a competent, professional driver. The voice-over said, ”Leave the driving to us.” The ad implied that you would enjoy the ride, have fun, relax, be safe and protected, and arrive well rested. In your mind, hear Spirit saying, “Leave the struggle to us.”

God Blesses You,

Sanhia