The Only Thing That Matters (20 page)

Moving from the
Knowing
to the
Experiencing
of this is the Ultimate Expression of Completion. It is when you have experienced your Self fully not only as
one
of the aspects of Divinity (love, compassion, understanding, patience, acceptance, etc.), but as
every
aspect in every one of Its endless manifestations. It is when you experience All of Oneness All at Once.

It is at this Moment that you can identify with both the “victim” and the “perpetrator,” with both the person wearing the white garment and the dark garment—knowing that you, yourself, have worn both at one time or another, and that you love and forgive yourself still, because you know that confusion is not a crime, and that villainy in any form is all a form of simple forgetting.

Such holding of the Total Awareness of the Soul in the Total Comprehension of the Mind is more normal and more usual than you think. Again, the trick is to
keep
it there.

Now … have you not ever noticed how often it is that just when your Mind seeks to regain its Total Comprehension—when the need for an answer to some particular life dilemma becomes most acute—the Right and Perfect Answer often spontaneously pops up right in front of your face, as part of life itself, from a seemingly “separate” source?

Yet what if
there is no such thing as a Separate Source?
What if there is only One Source—and that Source lies with you? What if it sometimes manifests
outside
of you, but it
originates
within you?

Can you conceive of such a thing?

Okay, so let's talk about this Single Source that lies within all of us.

In some conceptualizations—including the messages of
Conversations with God
(CWG) that inform this text—it is called the Soul.

CWG says that your Soul holds a complete Awareness of Ultimate Reality. That is, it knows whence it came, where it is now, and that to which it shall return.

It is from this vast Awareness that your Soul retrieves the data and co-creates, with other souls, the conditions, situations, and circumstances arising before you in just the right way at just the right time in your life. (Even as it is doing right now.)

Indeed, this is the Soul's
job
. This is the Soul's
purpose
and
function
.

Many people have lived their whole lives without hearing that. Perhaps you are one of them. If you are, all of your life you've heard about the soul, the Soul, the
Soul
, but no one could ever tell you
why you had one.
Many people may have told you
that
you had one, but no one told you
why
you had one.

Now you know why; you remember your Soul's purpose and function. But be careful! If you are not careful, it could look as if this
book
just told you that, when in fact
your own Soul
just told you that.

Are you seeing how this all works? Your Soul called this forth, bringing it
before
you from
within
you—even as your Mind will insist on imagining that it is coming from somewhere outside of you.

Your Soul will continue to use all sorts of methods and approaches—even those that
bypass
your Mind (indeed, especially those) in order to
rouse
your Mind, thus to educate your Mind about how to meet the challenges and overcome the obstacles of day-to-day Life.

It will also use tools and devices that appear to be totally
separate
from the Mind—such as a book that you “just happened” to pick up. In this way it will appear to the Mind that one has “found the answer elsewhere.”

In the beginning of one's life quest for greater truth, when one is a Seeker, this often makes the answer more acceptable, because not many people are ready at this early stage to embrace the notion that they had the answer all along.

You, however, are no longer at the beginning of your quest. You are hardly an Early Stage Seeker. You are now a Serious Student, or you wouldn't be reading this. So you are very ready now to dance with the idea that all the Awareness you will ever need to solve all the problems you will ever have is, and has always been, within you—and that you are simply
calling it forth
from time to time, using a variety of methods and devices, some of which have made it
appear
as though the Awareness you are seeking is being found outside of you.

To others, looking on from the sidelines of your life, it may very well seem this way. You've no doubt often told your family and your friends, “I've just read the greatest book!” or “I've just seen a fabulous movie!” or “I've just heard a marvelous lecture!”—and then, when they see some change in you, they naturally assume that the book, the movie, or the lecture is the source of your new Awareness.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

23
A Dare, from the Author to the Author

O
KAY, NOW COMES THE MIND-BOGGLING PART
. This entire book has been a wide-ranging exploration, but right now you're going to be invited to undertake one of the most unusual explorations of all. You're going to be invited to explore not just the idea, but the
experience
that there is only One of us—and therefore, no separation between you and the author of this book.

The “rational” side of your “mystical” side (yes, the two can exist simultaneously) may fairly easily have accepted this book's basic notion that “remembering and experiencing all of the insights here this is why you came to this moment,” as well as the idea that “
you
have called forth this wisdom and this understanding,” but now, exactly where are we going …?

You've just been reminded that
What One Desires
is The Only Thing That Matters … and so, now where are we going?

We are going to a place of Mind where you may know experientially one's greatest desire: no separation from anyone or anything; the end of loneliness forever.

As you take this next courageous step in your self-exploration, we want to suggest that you begin with questions that may have occurred to you earlier:

“How can I claim to have called forth
my
wisdom by reading someone
else's
book? Is this not what I have always done—looked to someone else for answers?”

The response offered here: Perhaps it is what you have seemed to have done in the past, but it is not what you are clear that you are doing now. This is different. Now, in this moment, you are Aware that when you actively call forth wisdom from within, it “shows up” in a hundred different ways across a thousand moments:

The lyrics to the next song you hear on the radio.

The message splashed across the billboard on the next highway you travel.

The chance utterance in the next conversation you overhear, or of a friend you “just happen” to run into on the street.

And yes, even ”you,” seemingly talking to yourself.

Which brings us back to this book—and the statements that led off
Chapter 4
. It can “look like” the wisdom on these pages is coming from somewhere else, but it is
you
who have
called it forth
.

You will remember that in
Chapter 3
it was said that you can call forth wisdom in two ways: One way is to gather it from a place that appears to be outside of you. That is what you appear to be doing right now. A second way is to gather information from a place that is
inside
of you. That is what you are
actually
doing right now.

It
looks like
you are doing the first, but you are actually doing the second.

Now, as you delve even more deeply into the wisdom that you have brought forward, you might ask yourself: Is this a book that I “just happened” to be drawn to, and that I “just happen” to now be reading? Do I really think that this is all “just happening”—or could it be the reverse: that it is all happening justly?

Might it be occurring in just the right way, at just the right time, for just the right reason, just perfectly?

To take this all to new territory, could it be that you not only “found” this book so easily, but that you found it so easy to read, because this really is all just
you
calling to yourself and talking to yourself?

Just for this moment, let's pretend that it is.

Just for the experiment of it, just for
the mental exercise of it
… pretend that what you are holding in your hands is a book written
for
you
by
you, called forth through what appears to be Another … but who may not be “another” at all.

Again, there's a reason for this experiment, and it has to do with bringing you a direct experience of The Only Thing That Matters. So, will you “play”? Begin the fun by assuming that you created and brought to yourself every Soul Knowing you have here “remembered,” simply using an exterior device to do so.

“Well, if that's the case, then this book might just as well be written in the First Person, as if it were
not
written by someone else at all,” you might say. And indeed, it might as well be.

So now you are invited by Life Itself to imagine in this moment that the author of this book is you—that you are
writing to yourself
.

You realize now that you were told earlier in very clear terms that Life's Invitation is to now engage you in the process of exploring with
yourself
many things. This moment in your life is all about turning inward, looking at what you already know, but that you may simply not have been remembering.

So why not create a real “switch” right now? Why not entertain a most unusual notion? Why not change the Narrative Voice of this book from the Third Person to the First Person?

Will you dare to put this book into your own voice—to read it as if it truly
were
your own lost diary?

24
Taking the Dare

A
CTUALLY
, I
LIKE THIS IDEA
. I can easily imagine that this book is being written
to
me
from
me,
for
me
by
me. I like the idea that the “me” who I Am is much bigger than the one physical form that currently calls itself Me.