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Secrets of the Self

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Introduction.................................................................xiiiChapter One: Hello There, I'm Talking to You.................................1Chapter Two: Stepping into the Fire..........................................15Chapter Three: The Seen and the Unseen.......................................29Chapter Four: The Heart of Knowledge.........................................49Chapter Five: The Self That Is the Self of All...............................67Chapter Six: The Mind and Mindfulness........................................83Chapter Seven: Choices and Decisions.........................................103Chapter Eight: The Language of Love..........................................123Chapter Nine: Light and Darkness.............................................139Chapter Ten: The Art of Letting Go...........................................155Chapter Eleven: Living in the Present........................................173Chapter Twelve: Future Time..................................................189Secrets of the Self: Workbook Appendix.......................................205How to Use This Section......................................................207Appendix A: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter One........................208Appendix B: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Two........................209Appendix C: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Three......................210Appendix D: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Four.......................211Appendix E: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Five.......................212Appendix F: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Six........................213Appendix G: Selected Contemplations from Chapter Seven.......................214Appendix H: Selected Contemplations from Chapter Eight.......................215Appendix I: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Nine.......................216Appendix J: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Ten........................217Appendix K: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Eleven.....................218Appendix K: Suggested Contemplations from Chapter Twelve.....................219Suggested Reading............................................................220

Chapter One

-1-

When God Speaks to Your Heart, Listen

God believes in you. You are the source of creation-not the other way around. God exists because you exist, for whom else but you can remember him? You are God's ego, God's vanity if you will, and you have been created multifaceted.

God doesn't make demands. It is you who makes demands of God. But what more can God give that you don't already have? God has given everything to everyone equally. The true universe is within.

You cannot outguess or outrace God. This is not ethics but common sense. God does not need to be improved upon, but to be remembered and acknowledged for the connections that are already present. There is always ebb and flow.

When God speaks to your heart, listen. Hear his song. It is a song of love. It is a song of blessing. It is a song you were born to hear. Learn it now. Open your heart and close your mind. This is how supreme joy is attained.

-2-

Light Is God

The world is pure energy and light. This light moves through time, and humans are but one species-though they think they have the right of way.

Nature has the right of way. Nature is God. Light is God. This is God's gift to all species, to the animate and the inanimate.

When you disrespect God's gifts, there are consequences. There is no risk/reward ratio. Grace is God's gift, and grace is energy. These gifts cannot be returned, nor can they be exchanged.

The greatest gift a person can offer to another is to listen. No one lacks the capacity to do this.

Don't let others define you. Define yourself. Understand who you are and you will understand others. When you walk alone, you walk on a high wire. Believe that God walks with you and you are protected.

Nothing begins or ends. Everything that happens is a continuation of something that happened before. History is never-ending and ongoing. All personal history has a place in world history. Your mind does not live in a laboratory, your mind lives in experience, just as your heart lives in love. Everything connects, and for this reason "random" is not as it appears.

You have met your present before. You have asked the same questions before, and you have received the answers before. When true knowledge is imparted, when you have truly learned something new and incorporated it into your life, then-and only then-will you discover new questions.

-3-

A Play of Opposites

Nature is awesome because God is awesome. Nature can be altered but never destroyed.

Nature is what always was and what will always be. It is what has existed before and what will exist after you and all your descendants.

Everything has a purpose, even that which is hardest to understand. Sometimes this purpose can't be seen for many lifetimes, but a lifetime is a blink in recorded history.

Don't imagine God judges the world every time someone blinks.

Extremists have a role in balancing nature. Yes, they are violent and use destruction as a tool for what they wish to save, but it is a dichotomy, a play of opposites. Extremists force others to take note, and it is because of polarization on the right or on the left that a consciousness takes hold.

The heavens play no favorites; the earth balances its wealth over time. There is no end to beauty, to the marvels of life. The colors of the sunset are harmonious; the moon shines equally for all. Everything is transient. All of time is in motion.

What was once cold will turn warm. Nothing is permanent, not even this.

-4-

God Remembers

There is beauty in nature, there is beauty in life. There is terror in nature, there is terror in life.

Nature cannot be struck down. Neither can life. Both change, both are unpredictable. Both rejuvenate, both are everlasting. A tree dies, and a new one is planted in its stead. Generations later, no one knows it wasn't the original tree. A life ends, new life is born. Generations later, no one remembers where that life stood.

God remembers. God watched it all and watches still. And sometimes he reminds those who come after about those who came before. He does this with memory. He does this through myth and legend. He does this through empathy and also through pain, because sometimes the memories conjured up are vengeful and the myths that explode are based on myths that exploded eons ago. These are the tests that humans go through with little understanding. These are the tests to see what has been learned, if progress has been made.

Ancient grudges carry weight because karma is embedded in memory. Not conscious memory, but the unconscious, which is why, though an action may appear illogical, as if taken against will, it is born from past karma.

Grow older, but don't grow old alone. Love your spirit. Ask questions and honor the answers, because then you have done your...