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

How can we deal with the world immigration problem?

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I have been asked to say some words about the issues of racism, immigration, and the reactive rise of conservative political parties around the world. There are important questions about how to deal with the people who have been dislocated by wars and abusive governments. There is also the ongoing story of racism, both in the United States and in Europe. We always wish to begin by having an awareness of the illusion. If there is any part of the illusion that is triggering fear in you – whether it be expressed in anger, judgment, or confusion – take that and work with it, seeing it as a gift. The truth is that there are no victims or victimizers. Everything comes out of the creation of the individual.

When one believes one’s self to be separate from God, whether or not the awareness is conscious, there is fear and projection. The projection may be upon the victim and how in some way they deserve what they got. There could be projection upon the heartlessness of the victimizer. People may be seen as power driven, ignorant of what is going on, or stupid. So, forgiveness is called for on both sides. Keep in mind that all of this is about you. If these events and people did not touch on something deep within you, we would not be having this conversation. As long as you believe that this is all outside of yourself and a part of the world, a part of others, it will continue to trigger fear and helplessness in your life. It is not about the events themselves or about the unfairness, the pain, and the suffering. It is about the fear that is triggered in you by these events, by these stories. One way of dealing with these fears, of course, is to use the five-step process to transform the fear that is generated.

The route to spiritual awareness often passes through territory of intense fear and suffering. If your world appears to be okay, there may not be anything to drive you to go past your self-imposed limitations. If the world is absolutely insufferable, you feel a need to find a way to deal with it. The only way to truly make sense of what is going on in the world is to realize that nothing real is happening. If you take it seriously, you will never find a solution. If these racial/immigration situations can help you to face your fear or to realize that love or fear can be chosen as a response to any situation, a great gift has been realized.

If you are choosing to help others because you see them as victims who cannot help themselves, that is fear based. You cannot see another as a helpless victim unless you hold yourself in the same light. You can choose to project your sense of victimhood on others – and the world will be so generous in providing you an endless list of sufferers – or you can deal with your own fear of vulnerability. I am not picking out any group of people and labeling them as victims. To be human is to believe that you are a martyr. Every human does that. You believe in your separation from God. The history of humanity is the history of victimhood. Your job as a human is to realize that you are Divine. As a human, all you can do is pick your poison. Which side do you wish to view as the victims, those who have been driven from their homes or those whose homeland is being changed? Either way there are good guys and bad guys, winners and losers. Either way there is separation. Either way there is fear. The only way out of the morass is to no longer see yourself as a victim. You begin by forgiving both the victims and the victimizers, however you may have those roles distributed. You can’t have one without the other. Both are your creations and both represent your belief about your identity.

Let’s look at the Swedish immigration situation. The question is one of how to experience things from a position of unconditional love. If you hear someone state that the immigrants are destroying “our” way of life, how can that be looked upon with love? The bottom line is that fear begets, or gives birth to, fear. When you act out of fear, you create the very thing you are afraid of. Reacting out of fear is always self-defeating. It can never bring a solution; it can only make things appear to be worse. The approach to take with those who act from fear is not to throw fuel on the fire by accusing them of racism, hatred, or selfishness. It is of greater service to acknowledge their fear and to help them to do the same, without judgment. Realize that you could not feel fear in them without holding it yourself. The question then becomes one of asking how this fear can be transformed.

The same question is there for those who see all of the immigrants as victims and those who oppose them as victimizers. What is the fear? What are they terrified of? What are you terrified of? Your job is always to see the Divinity of everyone involved. The truth is that everybody just wants to find their way back home and they don’t have a clue how to get there. Back home might look like pre-immigrant Sweden. Perhaps, if we could get back there, there would just be peace, love, and safety. Or getting back home might be possible if everyone just opened their doors to all the world’s victims. Then, everything would be fine. If we all just found a place in our hearts to take care of them, we could live in peace, love, and safety.

In truth, there is no idealistic past to return to, except the Garden and the reality before your imagined separation from God. There was no perfect time in Sweden or in the United States. Every “present” was a time of fear and of longing for an earlier “perfect time”. On the other hand, if you try to be the white knight for all the victims of the world and bring perfection to the now, you will quickly realize that there are more victims than you could ever be able to handle. If you tried to bring all those in need of help to Sweden, the number would be many times greater than the current Swedish population. Are you prepared to invite anywhere from 10 to 100 people into your home? Are you ready to care for all their financial, emotional and psychological problems? On a logical level, this is obviously an insane solution, but far beyond that, it cannot deal with the problem because it does not recognize the true cause.

The solution does not come through changing the outside. It is your inside that creates the outside. If you are placing the blame on the outside and think you can do something about it, you are in denial of your own victimhood and helplessness. How can you save the world if you cannot save yourself? Ultimately there is no difference between feeling sorry for the immigrants and blaming the victimizers than in judging the immigrants and saying that it is their problem and not yours. It is just a different choice of how to deal with your projection. You can blame yourself and believe that you can’t do enough to make the situation right, or you can blame the victim and therefore can’t do enough to eliminate that problem.

The only solution begins with owning and facing your own fear. This requires taking responsibility for creating the world, rather than acting as a victim to your creation. It is not that solutions cannot be found, it is that the answer begins within you. First you find your own Divinity and then see it reflected in every other human. You see all as creators and none as victims. From that place you can invite others in love to look within for solutions. Since you know that every apparent outer problem is a gift from Spirit to help you open to your Divine self, you can support others to do the same. This is not to say that you ignore the outer because it is only illusion. You support each person in the way that you are guided without taking their problems seriously. You know it isn’t real, but sharing that with another who is not ready to hear it may not be the greatest support you can offer. On the other hand, buying into their story only helps to cement it in place.

If this dance is a difficult one for you, you probably have more work to do with yourself. Silently thank your victim “mirrors” and go back to transforming your fears. Be kind to yourself about this. If you are in a body you have fear and you believe in the reality of the illusion. If you have made the intention to release the illusion and to let Spirit guide you, there is still work to do. It may be part of Spirit’s plan for you to be here to support others. You are not here to help them solve their problems (a Sisyphean task if there ever was one) but to help them take responsibility, to take their power, to find their Divinity. Whenever it all feels like too much, remember that it doesn’t really matter. It is truly all illusion. You cannot take a wrong step. Nothing outside needs to change. Within is love and Divinity. Ask Spirit to help you find it.

Good Now

Sanhia

How do you define yourself?

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Today’s question, rather than being one that is asked of me, is one I wish to ask of you. The question is “How do you define yourself?” If your only answer is that you are a divine, eternal, unconditionally loved and loving, infinitely creative child of God – and that is all that ever comes into your mind when you think about who you are, that is fantastic…..and you can stop reading now and enjoy your oneness with God. There may be other ways that you see yourself that seem to stand in the way of realizing personal divinity, even if you have been making efforts to see the truth. For example, you might define yourself by some traumatic event that has come into your life, which was painful when it happened and you cannot forget about it or let go. Perhaps you tell this story to others, maybe often, and/or it regularly comes up in your thoughts (click for an introductory message about “old stories”). These are places where you allow yourself to believe in your separation from God. Rather than one traumatic event, there may be a painful pattern you have noticed in your life, perhaps dealing with money, relationships, deservedness, loneliness, or lovableness.

There are two things I wish to say concerning these things you hold about yourself. The first I have already mentioned. You define yourself by these issues. This is part of who you believe yourself to be. That’s why you relate these stories to others. It gives your fearful ego self a boost to have others understand what you have been through, and to receive some compassionate thoughts from them. Some of these identities you have carried for so long that it is difficult to imagine yourself without them. Not only is letting them go difficult, it is fear provoking. Who would you be without this story? An example of this is a parent who has lost a child, who thinks they can never recover from this and will never be the same again. Another example could be the belief that you were shaped by how your parents raised you. A third could be that money is always a struggle for you. Whatever your story is, it defines you.

I mentioned there were two things I wished to say. The second is to remind you that your story is not true; it is a fiction. It is a movie that you are acting out a role in. You are pretending to be a victim of some event or series of events. It simply is not true. What is actually there for you is an enormous gift. Whatever you see as an anchor weighing you down in your life is a blessing from Spirit. Whatever limiting, fear provoking message this event is telling you is something you came in with in this body. Out of the fear you brought with you, you created the event. You didn’t do this to punish yourself. It was part of your pre-planning for this lifetime. You created this to overcome the false beliefs and separation from God that you have carried through all your incarnations. You are presented with these enormous gifts so that you can choose to overcome. There is no real consequence to holding on to the story, other than your continued pain and suffering in this body and the next and the next, until you decide to let this illusion go. God doesn’t care how long you hold onto it. He doesn’t see your story. He sees only your perfection. God can only see what is real, which is the loving, divine you.

If you want to take the bull by the horns, if you want to be proactive – make a pact with yourself. First, become aware of these limiting definitions that are less than divine. Notice the stories you tell yourself and others. Agree to stop telling them. If one comes into your awareness, do the five-step process. Now, look at the fear connected with this story until it transforms. Let go of the hopelessness of feeling that you will have the story with you forever, and look it right in the face. The reason that you cannot seem to get away from it is because it is your creation. It will follow you wherever you go until you confront it and let it dissolve. It is not real, but until you look at it and feel it fully and completely without backing down, it will feel real. This is not a work that anybody else can do for you. In fact you will likely react angrily toward anybody who would try to help. That would probably be too frightening. You need to be in control here. The action is to come from you. You are to admit that you have chosen to be a victim. Nothing has happened to you. It is 100% voluntary. Because you have chosen the “old story”, you can unchoose it. The truth is that only things that are real can stay forever.

Something that can assist you in being proactive with this “old story” is to change it in your mind. Ask your guidance to show you how this “old story” has already been a blessing for you or how it could be seen in that light. For example, if you have had a severe financial crisis in your life, you might now recognize that you have survived the “worst possible thing” and no longer have the same fears about money. If you have a parent who you felt treated you in an abusive way, you could thank them for doing such a loving thing because it forced you to find your strength within you, to love yourself instead of looking for approval from others. There is always a true story in the gift presented by each piece of this identity you have given yourself. Ask for support in finding the truth of the benefit from each situation. Now you can burn your candle at both ends. At one end you face and transform your fear. At the other end you see the event as a blessing. Develop the habit of doing both of these things until you notice your fear evaporating and everything being a blessing for you. There is no reason or need for you to continue to suffer or be a victim any longer, absolutely none. Nor is there any judgment if you continue to do so, absolutely none. You are free. Choose as you will. Go in peace.

God Blesses You

Sanhia

 

What spiritual practices should I be doing? (Part 2)

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In the previous message we began discussing the question of what spiritual practices you should do, focusing primarily on those that touch on the physical and mental planes. It is highly recommended that you go back and read that message if you have not already done so, or as a review before continuing today. Now we will talk about the emotional plane. One suggestion that is often proposed as a spiritual goal is to suppress any feelings other than those of unconditional love. The attempt to do this encourages some to choose celibacy and/or to live in a meditative retreat. This seems to make it easier to hold only the highest feelings, only love. If that is your goal, you may suppress or avoid every other kind of feeling, so you will carry anger, fear, judgment, jealousy, and other negative emotions around with you unconsciously. You won’t want to see them and there may be no triggers present, no mirrors to reveal them to you. Other sources will encourage just the opposite. They will say that the best spiritual practice is to vomit all of your feelings on whoever is around you, to not hold anything back. This idea holds your raw emotions as something pure. Both of these approaches consider your fear and negative feelings to be real.  The monkish approach is “out of sight out of mind” while the purging approach assumes that when you express the emotions, they are gone. Neither ends up working very well. In the former case, the emotions will eventually surface; in the latter they will surface over and over again. Expression does not release the fear because you still believe it is real.

There is nothing wrong with fear; it is simply an illusion. If you hide from it, you make it real for yourself. If you push it out on another, you also make it real. The only way to deal with an illusion is to go into the heart of it to see what is there. Face your fear. If you stay with your fear, you will eventually realize it is only illusion. It will disappear. It will transform. Only love will remain. This is why we recommend that you do the five-step process. Love is not something you find by running away from fear or by casting it off of yourself, it is what you realize when you go to the bottom of whatever is before you. It is absolute truth. It is all there is. Love is what is left when all illusion is gone. There are no words to describe it. Love is not a state you can try to attain. All you can do is face all your fears until only love remains. When you are in the illusion of fear, consciously or unconsciously, the fullness of love cannot be experienced. Do the process or simply ask Spirit to support you in facing your fears. There is nothing wrong about holding on to your fear, but it is no fun and leaves you feeling separate from God. The five-step process will not guarantee your ascension. It is not a spiritual practice. It is a tool, but it is not intended as a crutch. Facing your fears simply makes the period of time easier to bear, while you are in a body waiting to realize your divinity. We are also not suggesting that you drop any or all of your spiritual practices. If you enjoy them, if you are guided to do them – do so. Try not to feel needy about them; let go of any attachment to your practice.

Last, but not least, is the spiritual plane.  Here we have meditation and prayer. Many teachings suggest that if you meditate often enough and long enough, you will realize your divinity. The Buddha did it, didn’t he? If you are not being successful, you must not be doing it good enough or hard enough. Good luck with that. Of course there are wonderful benefits from meditation. You can have improved health, more calmness, more energy, more focus. Most of this, however, relates to making the illusion better. The true heart of meditation is in giving everything to Spirit. To meditate with a goal of improving your experience in a body will keep you anchored in the physical. The focus is on giving to Spirit rather than to the ego. Giving importance to this practice is an act of the ego. Give up any pride connected to the length and depth of your practice. Do it from your heart; release the need for a schedule, for an enforced discipline.

The bottom line is that whatever plane your spiritual practice is connected to, if it has as a goal to improve your life, you are trying to create heaven on earth. Thus you will always be at cross purposes, because you created earth to hide from heaven, to hide from God. As you are deciding how to focus your time and energy, how to realize your spiritual goals, a constant question to hold is whether or not the practice is designed to enhance your physical existence. If that is the goal – be honest with yourself , there is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy yourself – this is not the same as choosing to realize you ascension. Ascension is letting go of the physical. This does not come through reaching physical goals. It also does not come about through the denial of the physical. Fasting, celibacy, and physical discomfort make you more aware of your body, not less. This is why the Buddha spoke of the middle way. Both lack and excess leave a focus on the material. As you become aware of a particular importance you are giving to any spiritual practice, remind yourself that it doesn’t matter. What you choose to do or not to do really makes no difference. As you realize that it doesn’t matter, it becomes much easier to give it to Spirit. If you think it matters, the ego is attached to doing it right. If there is no “right” choice, then why not trust Spirit to choose for you. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You can trust that your ego choice will leave you rooted in your body, feeling separate from God.

You may doubt your ability to hear Spirit. Be willing to do nothing until you hear something. What if you fear you may not hear Spirit correctly? Trust and follow what you hear. Then keep listening. Following Spirit is not a one-time thing. It becomes the only constant in your spiritual life. The more you trust, the better you will hear. What evolves is a great simplicity. The ego’s attempt to control all planes and make all the right choices is exhausting. You never get it figured out. There is always a new idea, a new direction, a new discipline. You will always be second guessing yourself. Giving it to Spirit makes it so easy. You simply accept that you don’t know and trust whatever comes. If you have fear, face it. If you have confusion, give it to Spirit until you become mindless, only following the guidance of Spirit. Nothing else matters. Spirit might suggest that you follow some spiritual practice for a time. That is guidance for you now, not for anyone else or for always. Spirit is always in the now. All guidance is, at best, half-truths, designed to lead you out of your ego mind. Let it. Let it be simple. Let it be God.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia

What is the difference between a special and a holy relationship?

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One of the goals of most people, including those on a consciously chosen spiritual path, is to find that special relationship, that special person, that soul mate that completes you. My job today is to throw cold water on that dream. This topic, like many we discuss, could be covered in book length form, but we will narrow the focus to making a few observations.

Let’s start at a basic level. A pattern that tends to happen in relationships is that you are attracted to another person for certain qualities that they seem to have. Perhaps it is a physical attraction; you like the way they look. It might be their smile or there is an incredible sexual energy between the two of you. Maybe you are drawn to them intellectually; you like the way they think and you enjoy talking together. It may be common interests that draw you together – you share a love for music or the outdoors. Perhaps the connecting bond is of a more spiritual nature. In all likelihood, it is some combination of these different possibilities. What commonly happens is that the thing that initially attracted you eventually becomes an issue that you have difficulty dealing with. What you once loved now gets under your skin. Perhaps you then decide to leave and try another relationship. You go through the same cycle again and again. Or at some point you might decide to settle with the relationship you are in, rationalizing that overall, the pluses overrule the minuses. Maybe you have a lot of time invested in the relationship, and/or children, and/or shared property or a business. But these days, people are more likely to leave, choosing a relationship that fits them better.

Why does this pattern occur? Why don’t we just fall in live and live together happily ever after? Let’s focus on two reasons. First, as we mentioned, you are drawn to this other person because of certain qualities they possess. You want them to continue to be that way, to please you as they initially did. This is what we call conditional love – as opposed to loving them simply for whom they are, allowing their sense of identity and person-hood to evolve and change. Instead you love them for whom you perceive them to be, and if they perform in any other way you are upset and feel betrayed. Then you may begin to look around. The truth is that they never were who you thought they were. You projected upon the other person what you wanted to see. Conditional love is the first major roadblock to creating a successful relationship. The other person is not acting as you wish them to; this is not acceptable.

The second challenge is a little more subtle. You are looking for someone to make you whole. There may be thoughts such as “I can’t live without you”, or “You are my better half”, or “We complete each other”. You are thereby expressing the judgment that in order to be truly happy, you require someone else’s loving approval. We call that codependency. You depend on somebody else to be satisfied. You have a need for the other, which brings on an anger directed at them for that dependency. It is a place where you can’t win. Part of you wants to push the other away and the other part can’t live without them and wants to hold on. It sounds pretty hopeless and sad. How can one ever have a successful relationship?

The relationships we have been talking about are special relationships. You hold the other as being more special than all other people. It’s the flip side of you not being enough. You make them more than enough, so they must eventually let you down. You are not seeing yourself as divine. You cannot experience your divinity and, at the same time, have a need for a special relationship. Special relationships are built upon your fear of and separation from God. They stem from the belief that you have to be special in order for God to forgive you. Since God never judged you, no amount of specialness will do the trick. There is no need to earn forgiveness. God loves you unconditionally. However, the ego believes that if you can find somebody special who also believes that you are special, maybe God can find you special, too. If that specialness ceases to exist, what is God going to do to you?

The resolution of this quagmire is in seeking a holy relationship rather than a special one. A holy relationship is grounded in unconditional love. You have no expectations for the other person; you hold no judgments. No matter what your partner does, you love and accept them. This thought brings terror to the hearts of most people. It brings on fears of being a helpless victim. I want to remind you that your partner is your mirror. Whatever you judge in them, you judge in yourself. You can use your desire to control or change them to instead forgive and love yourself for whatever it is you perceive in them. Acknowledge that this is you. The ego wants to pretend it is not. The ego wants to point the finger so that you can stay special in God’s eye. The ego wants the other to be the one punished. Take responsibility. Acknowledge that this is you and forgive yourself and your partner.

Accept that your record in choosing partners has been less than stellar. Give the job of attracting your next partner to Spirit. Your holy partner will have one function and one function only. That is to be aligned with you in realizing personal divinity. It is possible for you to have a holy relationship where your partner does not share that intention, but it puts all the weight on your shoulder because your partner is expecting a special relationship. For you to act in the “right” way for them all of the time will be a major challenge for you. They will not be happy to find you choosing God over them.

I will tell you quite honestly that if your intention is to be absolutely true to yourself and to love yourself unconditionally in order to realize your divinity, you have a real challenge to accomplish that within any relationship. There are few models out there in how to behave in a holy relationship. The mass consciousness only shows you special relationships as the ideal. In fact, you may find this work easier to do when you are not in a relationship. It is said that when the student is ready the teacher will appear. I will modify that to say that when the person on the ascension path is ready, the partner will appear. Many of you have this thinking reversed. You seek the partner first, who will magically bring you to heaven, rather than first becoming what you wish to attract. When you get to the point where you realize you don’t need a partner to support your spiritual growth, you may attract one. Neediness will only attract a special relationship.

All that has been said up to this point is here to support you in being able to make the choice for a holy relationship. Once you have made that choice, you are really on your own. As mentioned, there are no models out there for how to proceed. You don’t know how to behave in a holy relationship. The only thing certain is that the ego will struggle to salvage something special out of it. All that you can do is to notice moment by moment where you have attachment to anything about your partner or the relationship and give it to Spirit. The holy relationship is fully guided by Spirit, as the special relationship is guided by the ego. To give yourself a fighting chance in your holy relationship, it is helpful if your partner and you have this as a shared, expressed intention and agreement between you. In this way you travel through the darkness together. You did not create this illusion and physical body to be experienced alone. You created other people so that you could project your guilt and fear on them. By yourself you could live in the illusion that none of that exists, but when you are in the presence of others, your judgments are inescapable. This allows you to see them and to take ownership of them. Your partner is always going to fulfill this function for you above all others.

When you intentionally take on the holy relationship, you learn to take 100% responsibility for everything that happens. If you allow yourself to be a victim to or in blame of your partner about anything, you are in illusion and denial. This is the challenge. It is also a great gift and a great opportunity. When two people choose to have a holy relationship, the ascension process is accelerated for each of them. It supports both in looking at the truth and in doing the required work. The irony and ecstasy of it all is that when you release the expectations of conditional love, you open up the possibility of enjoying full and complete happiness in the relationship. There is no limit to the upside of a holy relationship. The downside is no different than that of a special relationship. But, you have the momentum with you that comes from having chosen a holy relationship. Spirit is always there to support you. The perfect thing is always happening in your holy relationship to support your realization of your divinity. The only commitment that you can truly make in a holy relationship is to see divinity in your partner and in yourself in every moment, and to forgive and let go of anything that does not live up to that. That is God’s relationship with you always, except that there is no work involved for God. He always sees you as perfect.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia

Can you tell more about being in the now?

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There is a lot of talk in spiritual circles about the “now”, such as “living in the now” or “be here now”. I hear confusion expressed about just what it really means to “be here now”. Where else could you possibly be? I am going to follow a few different threads in talking about time. It is always a confusing thing to discuss because the truth is that there is no time. So, we are talking about something that doesn’t exist, using words that can never express the truth. We have quite a dance to perform today, but then it usually is so with these messages. The truth of you, who always exists, does not fit into any concept of time you might hold. Always is a constant; there is no beginning or end. You think of things in time as having beginnings and endings, such as birth and death. You think of time in a continuum. If you consider reincarnation, you probably see your lifetimes unfolding in a sequenced order where you learn lessons and grow from incarnation to incarnation. From the human perspective of time, that seems to make sense. From the divine perspective without time, there is no order.

When we talk about the “now”, we are speaking of the eternal is-ness, that which is for all time, which is outside of time. When you begin to think of the ordering of events, with one thing coming before or after another, you are dealing with illusions and not divine truth. This is a very difficult concept to grasp, let alone to accept, when you are in a body. It always appears that “now” is this moment, but there is a past and a future. There are things that came before and events that will follow. If your intention is to experience your divinity, it is necessary to realize that this exists outside of time. The closest you can get to that understanding while you are in a body and your ego mind is running the show, is to try to be in the present moment, to attempt to remain in the “now” that you are experiencing – even though you remember a yesterday and anticipate a tomorrow. Simply hold the intention to let go of the focus on the past and the future. As fully and completely as possible you focus on this present moment. That is what “be here now” signifies.

Let’s shift gears and talk about the immediate benefits that are there for you on your spiritual path as you focus on the “now”. Time is one of the ego’s greatest tools in convincing you of your separation from God. When you look at the past it is almost always with a focus on victimhood and fear. This usually takes one of two forms. In the first, you look at the past and see how you were the victim, whether of your parents, a lover, an accident, abuse, and on and on. You focus on this mistreatment to which you were a victim, to justify the bad place where you are now. You recreate in the present the pain and suffering you experienced in what seems to be the past. On a practical level…stop doing that to yourself. What possible benefit can be brought to your “now” by recreating old pain? Actually, there can be a benefit. If you take this old pain you are recreating and transform it using the five-step process, your past has now been of service. The intention is to simply be here now.  If the past intrudes on your present, transform the energy so that you can be here now.

There is a second manner in which the ego uses the past. The ego will pull a pleasant memory from the past and say, “Look how wonderful that experience was. You can never get it back again.” These pictures could be of your childhood, falling in love the first time, or the optimism of young adulthood. Those were the days my friend. Now, you can never relive them. The ego uses scarcity and fear to convince you that life will never be that good again, that the past is irretrievably lost. So, it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t with the past. Joyful memories of the past leave you with sadness and grief for what has been lost, while painful memories leave you totally helpless. Above all, these memories take you out of the “now”, and the “now” is where divinity lives.

The ego also plays two kinds of games with the future. One is the fear based vision of what might happen to you. You will get older and your body will break down, your relationship will end, you won’t have enough money, you won’t ever realize your dreams, you will get sick or injured, you will die, a loved one will die, and on and on. The ego has no end of fears of possible futures to flash before your eyes. Even if one or more of these scenarios were to play out in the future, it is not happening now. Why would you wish to replace the ecstasy of the infinite “now” with fear of future possible events? Whatever the past or future may or may not be, they are not here now. What is here now? Let that be your focus. The other game that the ego plays with the future is to dangle dreams in front of you. You will find your perfect partner, your financial problems will be solved forever, you will be healed, and on and on. Behind these dreams is a shadow warning you that you are just fooling yourself and the future will only bring more frustration.

So we come back to the “now”, and its truth is love. Fear belongs to time, to the past and the future. It is not part of the “now”. In the “now” there is only love. If you are experiencing fear you are either in the past or the future. Just knowing that can be a motivation to let go. Your ego warns that if you don’t remember the past it will repeat itself, but it is actually the memories themselves that bring about the repetition. The ego warns that if you don’t prepare for the future, you will only be a helpless victim of what will happen. And so, you make your present a hostage to your fear of the future.

It always begins with intention. You choose to be in the “now”. You choose to let go of the past and the future. When either of those illusions tries to invade your “now”, give it to Spirit. Spirit will handle your future. Spirit will bring you the highest thing to support the realization of your divinity. When the past comes creeping in, give that to Spirit also. If you are unable to let go of either the past or the future, it may be time to do the five-step process. Go into the fear and transform the energy now, into love, into the infinite “now”. Guidance is always there for you. Be comfortable in your ignorance. Trust Spirit. Support is always there for you. There is nothing real but love. It is in the infinite “now” that you realize your ascension. It is not in your future, and it certainly is not in your past. It is not about doing a lot of work and spiritual practices to earn your right to heaven. It is about being absolutely present and timeless. You don’t have to decide which door to choose. The “now” dissolves all doors. Nothing can take you where you want to go because you are already there. There is here. Be here now.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia

Do I need to transform all of my fears before I can ascend?

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We will continue this month with the theme of ascension. Many of you are doing a wonderful work here, facing your fears and perhaps dealing with them through the five-step process. When the energy in your body is transformed from fear to love, the transition is permanent. This does not mean that you may not create more fear in the future, but if you have the intention of aligning with and giving everything to Spirit you are not as likely to manifest new fear energy in your body. There is, however the residual old fear that you are still carrying with you.

While I do not wish in any way to discourage you from continuing to work with the process to transform any fear that you become aware of, I do want to give you the following warning. You may believe in an “incremental” approach to ascension. You may have the idea that if you chisel away at your fear a little bit at a time there will eventually be nothing left and you will realize your ascension. I want to give you a different way to visualize this. Those of you who have studied math in the past may remember the image below, or perhaps it will just trigger your math phobia. There is a function in geometry which generates an asymptote. This is a straight line that is approached by a curved line. The curved line gets closer and closer to the asymptote without ever touching it. The distance between the curve and the asymptote continues to be cut in half, but, in infinity, the curved line never reaches the asymptote. Close, oh so close, but no cigar. Cutting the distance in half will never fully eliminate it.

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Let’s look at how this relates to your ascension process. Though there is a finite amount of negative fear energy carried in your body, the five-step process also transforms it geometrically. You may think that if you keep chiseling away it will all disappear, but this is like the asymptote. It represents your ascension, while the curved line measures the fear you are continuing to transform. You keep getting closer and closer to realizing your divine self, but never fully realize it. The upside is that as you approach the awareness of your divine self, you experience more joy and less pain in your life. You likely find yourself providing more of your divine service for others. Your ego is less of an irritant. But you don’t fully realize your divinity.

Again, I am not suggesting that you stop working with your stuff. If you feel pain or fear, by all means reduce the pressure. Transform it into love. This leaves you much more capable of hearing Spirit and following its direction. What I would encourage you to let go of is the thought that facing your fears is enough. It is not by your work that you realize your ascension; it is by the grace of God. If it is not about eliminating all of your fear, what is it about? It is about giving everything to Spirit. In A Course in Miracles Jesus speaks of the sacred moment. This is when you absolutely experience the oneness with God. It is not something that can be forced into being. It happens when you give up all intention and become one with whatever Spirit is presenting. This realization does not require that you be free of all fear. You do not need to work and work until every last drop of fear is squeezed from your body. As we explained above, that is not going to happen. You can only approach that point, but can never reach it. There is no magic point on your curved line where you suddenly jump over to the line of infinity (divinity). There is no order. I can’t look at each of you and measure how close you stand to realizing your divinity. Your position on the curved line measures nothing about the timing of your ascension. It is only about surrendering to the sacred moment, about being open to Spirit and to the grace of God.

But Sanhia, you may be thinking, you are beginning to sound like a broken record. Give it to Spirit. Give it to Spirit. Is there anything else? Of course! If you are in pain, do the process. There is no reason for you to suffer. If you are pain free, but wondering what to do next – you give that thought to Spirit. There is nothing for you to do. Anything that you might choose to do would only get in your way. Your only job is to get out of the way. That may sound like a double-edged sword; the thing to do is not to do. How can you think about not doing? That seems crazy. Of course it is. Your entire creation is crazy. It is insane. Your mind can never think its way out of it. Enjoy your insanity, and give it to Spirit. There is nothing else to do, nothing to worry about. Any attempt to realize your ascension comes from the ego. It comes from the assumption that you are not who you are. It assumes that you are separate from God, when you are not. Only the ego can have that thought. The truth of you knows your divinity. The good news is that you are off the hook. There is nothing you have to do, nothing you have to worry about. Listen to Spirit. That Voice will remind you of the truth. You are already ascended.

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 tools are there for realizing ascension?

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You deserve to be in a place of joy, love, and peace. The ego always pulls you away from your true inheritance from God. What is certain is that you will ascend; you will realize your divinity. You will know true joy, love, and peace. People have asked how they can shorten the period in the meantime in which they are suffering and in fear.

I am presenting you with a short list of things that you may do to help speed up the chasing away of the ego and the welcoming of your divine self. I present this not in the spirit of burdening you with more thoughts about what you should be doing, but to offer you some inspirational choices. As you move toward realizing your ascension, your moments of pain will be spread further apart and will be of shorter duration. Your go-to place will be joyful, loving and accepting of whatever is present.

First are some suggestions for how to deal with all the lists in your life. I expect that most of you have lists, whether written or mental. Some of the experts suggest that the way to handle your lists is to tackle the toughest thing first. The thinking is that when the biggest challenge is out of the way, everything else becomes easier. Of course, the next thing you take on is what is now the biggest challenge. I think this orientation is backwards. Look at your list and ask yourself what would be the most fun thing to do. What would give you the most joy and excitement? Or ask what is the easiest thing for you to do? You do that task first. After experiencing the joy of crossing something off your list, check to see what is now the most fun and easy thing. That is all you do. Of course, your list will never be finished: you will always be adding more things to it, but the choosing remains the same. It is not a question of what has been on your list longest or what most “needs” to be done. The choice is always determined by your passion. If you believe that life is a struggle, choosing the hard things first will reaffirm that creed. You think that if you just force yourself to do these tasks you have been putting off, your life will ease up and you can enjoy things. The truth is that your list will keep growing, as will your certainty that this is just how life is. If the habit you nurture is to look at your list and ask what would be fun to do today, what is most exciting – your whole attitude toward life will begin to shift. You deserve to do what you came here to do, and that “doing” will be a joyful experience.

I recommend that you treat the list I am about to give in that manner. There are more things on it than you could do every day. “Cherry pick” the ones that most appeal to you and play with them first. There is no order of importance to the items.

1. Intention: Have you made your intention to realize your divinity? If not, the pain will not begin to end until you commit to joy and ascension. If so, there is no need to repeat the request. However, as you are looking at whatever is troubling you or whatever logs you have thrown in front of yourself for the day, ask yourself how all this connects with your intention. That is the important question. The task is to align yourself with what you want. Perhaps this means letting go of something. Maybe you are giving importance to matters that are not connected to the truth of who you are. Are you are being true to yourself? Give everything to Spirit.

2. The five-step process: If you are not feeling good, emotionally or physically, do the process. Go through it on your own, or listen to the recording on the website, or contact one of your friends to lead you through it. Decide that you don’t wish to live with the discomfort; change your story. Remember that the fear that you transform to love through Spiritual Alchemy is permanently altered. You have accumulated a finite amount of fear in your body. It is only a matter of time before love rules your day instead of fear.

3. Numerology chart – Your Love Letter from your Higher Self: There are many different ways that you can play with your chart. You could pick any major position in your chart and ask for guidance concerning a situation you are dealing with. Or you could pick one position at a time and think and meditate on it. Eventually you might work through your entire chart. Focusing on the name numbers will help you accept, support, and love yourself, while looking at the birth numbers can assist you in accepting what you have created or drawn into your life. Allow Spirit to talk with you through the numbers. Your Ascension Numerology book will assist you as you begin this process, but eventually the numbers and positions will become such a part of you that you will only refer to the book occasionally.

4. Spiritually inspiring reading: Find an inspirational book to read out of daily, perhaps in the morning as a way to start off your day. You may have a particular favorite or might move from one book to another. Ask your friends for recommendations. You can read from our old messages here on the website or in the book format: God Blesses You: Ascension Messages from Sanhia. Reading regularly helps align your brain-mind with Spirit instead of the ego.

5. A Course in Miracles: I have separated this out from inspirational reading, because the Course is a particular study. It is designed to be worked with in small blocks of time on a daily basis. I see the Course as a spiritual equivalent to a workout at the gym, A day here and there will not make much difference. But years of regular training will perform Miracles with your body or with your spiritual awareness. We could call it spiritual toning. It takes quite a while to turn around the ship of mass consciousness. If you stay with the Course, the ego doesn’t have a prayer.

6. Forgiveness: Practice forgiveness daily, constantly. Separation evaporates. Forgive yourself; forgive others. Forgive God; forgive the weather. Forgive the driver for hanging out in the left-hand lane. Forgive everyone, everything, all of the time. You do this not because the forgiveness is needed, because everyone, including yourself, is innocent, but because when you forgive, it allows a place to align with Spirit. When you are judging yourself or others you are separate from Spirit. That places you in hell. When you are in hell you are suffering. The ego will tell you “that bastard deserves it”; he deserves your anger and your judgment. The ego loves righteous indignation. It creates enemies and separation. Forgiveness is the quickest way. Everything in your life that is painful is connected to a lack of forgiveness. Every physical ailment you have is linked to not being able to forgive. If you are having trouble forgiving, ask Spirit for help. In the end, as well as in the beginning, there is nothing to forgive. There is only innocence.

7. See the perfection: See the perfection in each person and each situation you meet. They are here to support your ascension. The driver who just cut you off was the perfect driver for you at this moment. You have the perfect President. Everything is perfect. That plane crashing with no survivors was a perfect event. Divine, as it should be. The dis-ease, whatever it is…perfect. Accepting perfection is the greatest threat to the ego. The ego’s job is to protect you from imperfections. It uses your judgment and your anger to accomplish this. Perfection puts the ego out of work. With the recognition of perfection, you can no longer be a victim to anything. Negative patterns will disappear from your life. There is nothing left to fear. This is heavenly. It doesn’t matter whether you understand why something is perfect, that knowing will come in time. Just trust. Nothing has to change.

8. Accept God: This doesn’t make any difference to God, but it makes an enormous difference for you. Here is how I know that people fear God, even if they claim to be atheists. If they hold a speck of judgment, they believe in and fear God, a punishing God. People consciously deny the existence of God because they have made Him in their image. They think that God is judgmental and vengeful. They blame God for what humans have created…which is everything that exists in the physical world. They deny God because judgmental people claim to speak for God. Separate all of these ego lies about God from the truth, which is so simple. God is unconditional love. There is nothing that God would ever judge. Claim God. Reunite with Him.

If you pick just one of the items on this list, the one that most draws you, it will make an enormous difference in your life. When you are ready to take on more, you will know. If you skip a day, forgive yourself and start over. God doesn’t care.

God Blesses You, 

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