Conversations with God
By Phil Golding (A Review of the Work of Neale Donald Walsch)
We All Have a Direct Line (from Book 1 Pages 3-5)
(Note: When Neale is speaking, the words will be in Italics. When God is replying, it will be normal print.)
I talk to everyone. All the time. The question is not to whom do I talk, but who listens?...First, let's exchange the word talk with the word communicate. It's a much better word, a much fuller, more accurate one. When we try to speak to each other -Me to you, you to Me, we are immediately constricted by the unbelievable limitation of words. For this reason, I do not communicate by words alone. In fact, rarely do I do so.
My most common form of communication is through feeling. Feeling is the language of the soul. If you want to know what's true for you about something, look to how you're feeling about it. Feelings are sometimes difficult to discover -and often even more difficult to acknowledge. Yet hidden in your deepest feelings is your highest truth. The trick is to get to those feelings… I also communicate with thought. Thought and feelings are not the same, although they can occur at the same time. In communicating with thought, I often use images and pictures. For this reason, thoughts are more effective than mere words as tools of communication. In addition to feelings and thoughts, I also use the vehicle of experience as a grand communicator. And finally, when feelings and thoughts and experience all fail, I use words. Words are really the least effective communicator. They are most open to misinterpretation, most often misunderstood.
And why is that? It is because of what words are. Words are merely utterances: noises that stand for to feelings, thoughts, and experience. They are symbols. They are not Truth. They are not the real thing. Words may help you understand something. Experience allows you to know. Yet there are some things you cannot experience. So I have given you other tools of knowing. And these are called feelings. And so too, thoughts.
Now the supreme irony here is that you have all placed so much importance on the Word of God, and so little on the experience. In fact, you place so little value on experience that when what you experience of God differs from what you've heard of God, you automatically discard the experience and own the words, when it should be just the other way around. Your experience and your feelings about a thing represent what you factually and intuitively know about that thing. Words can only seek to symbolize what you know, and can often confuse what you know.
These, then, are the tools with which I communicate, yet they are not the methods, for not all feelings, not all thoughts, not all experience, and not all words you are from Me. Many words have been uttered by others, in My name. Many thoughts and many feelings have been sponsored by causes not of My direct creation. Many experiences result from these. The challenge is one of discernment. The difficulty is knowing the difference between messages from God and data from other sources. Discrimination is a simple matter with the application of a basic rule: Mine is always your Highest Thought, your Clearest Word, your Grandest Feeling. Anything less is from another source.
Now the task of differentiation becomes easy, for it should not be difficult even for the beginning student to identify the Highest, the Clearest, and the Grandest. Yet I will give you these guidelines: The Highest Thought is always that thought which contains joy. The Clearest Words are those words which contain truth. The Grandest Feeling is that feeling which you call love. Joy, truth, love. These three are interchangeable, and one always leads to the other. It matters not in which order they are placed. Having with these guidelines determined which messages are Mine and which have come from another source, the only question remaining is whether My messages will be heeded. Most of My messages are not. Some, because they seem too good to be true. Others, because they seem too difficult to follow. Many, because they are simply misunderstood. Most, because they are not received.
My most powerful messenger is experience, and even this you ignore. Especially this you ignore. Your world would not be in its present condition were you to have simply listened to your experience. The result of your not listening to your experience is that you keep re-living it, over and over again. For My purpose will not be thwarted, nor My will be ignored. You will get the message. Sooner or later. I will not force you to, however. I will never coerce you. For I have given you a free will -the power to do as you choose -and I will never take that away from you, ever. And so I will continue sending you the same messages over and over again, throughout the millennia and to whatever corner of the universe you occupy. Endlessly will I send you My messages, until you have received them and held them close, calling them your own.
The Highest Choice (from Book 1. Pages 130-132)
When life is lived from a standpoint of damage control or optimum advantage, the true benefit of life is forfeited. The opportunity is lost. The chance is missed. For a life lived thusly is a life lived from fear -and that life speaks a lie about you. For you are not fear, you are love. Love that needs no protection, love that cannot be lost. Yet you will never even know this in your experience if you continually answer the second question and not the first (1st Q: What is the highest choice. 2nd Q: What is the most profitable?). For only a person who thinks there is something to gain or to lose asks the second question. And only a person who sees life in a different way; who sees Self as a higher being; who understands that winning or losing is not the test, but only loving or failing to love -only that person asks the first. He who asks the second question says, "1 am my body." She who asks the first says, "I am my soul." Yea, let all those who have ears to hear, listen. For I tell you this: at the critical juncture in all human relationships, there is only one question:
What would love do now?
No other question is relevant, no other question is meaningful, no other question has any importance to your soul. Now we come upon a very delicate point of interpretation, for this principle of love-sponsored action has been widely misunderstood -and it is this misunderstanding which has led to the resentments and abuse by the other. Yet I tell you this: the highest choice is that which produces the highest good for YOU. As with all profound spiritual truth, this statement opens itself to immediate misinterpretation.
The mystery clears a bit the moment one decides what is the highest "good" one could do for oneself. And when the absolute highest choice is made, the mystery dissolves, the circle completes itself, and the highest good for you becomes the highest good for another. It may take lifetimes to understand this -and even more lifetimes to implement -for this truth revolves around an even greater one:
What you do for your Self, you do for the another. What you do for another, you do for the Self.
This is because you and the other are ONE. And this is because there is naught but You. All the Masters who have walked your planet have taught this. ("Verily, verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.") Yet this has remained for most people merely a grand esoteric truth, with little practical application. In fact, it is the most practically applicable "esoteric" truth of all time.
It is important in relationships to remember this truth, for without it relationships will be very difficult. Let's go back to the practical applications of this wisdom and step away from the purely spiritual, esoteric aspect of it for now. So often, under the old understandings, people-well-meaning and well-intentioned and many very religious -did what they thought would be best for the other person in their relationships. Sadly, all this produced in many cases (in most cases) was continued abuse by the other. Continued mistreatment. Continued dysfunction in the relationship. Ultimately, the person trying to "do what is right" by the other -to be quick to forgive, to show compassion, to continually look past certain problems and behaviours -becomes resentful, angry, and mistrusting, even of God. For how can a just God demand such unending suffering, joylessness, and sacrifice, even in the name of love? The answer is, God does not. God asks only that you include yourself among those you love. Sometimes God goes further. God suggests -recommends - that you put yourself first. I do this knowing full well that some of you will call this blasphemy, and therefore not My word, and that others of you will do what might be even worse: accept it as My word and misinterpret or distort it to suit your own purposes; to justify unGodly acts. I tell you this -putting yourself first in the highest sense never leads to an unGodly act. If, therefore, you have caught yourself in an unGodly act as a result of doing what is best for you, the confusion is not in having put yourself first, but rather in misunderstanding what is best for you.
Of course, determining what is best for you will require you to also determine what it is you are trying to do. This is an important step that many people ignore. What are you "up to"? What is your purpose in life? Without these questions, the matter of what is "best" in any given circumstances will remain a mystery. As a practical matter -again leaving esoterics aside -if you look to what is best for you in these situations where you are being abused, at the very least what you will do is stop the abuse. And that will be good for both you and your abuser. For even an abuser is abused when his abuse is allowed to continue. This is not healing to the abuser, but damaging. For if the abuser finds that his abuse is acceptable, what has he learned? Yet if the abuser finds that his abuse will be accepted no more, what has he been allowed to discover? Therefore, treating others with love does not necessarily mean allowing others to do as they wish. Parents learn this early with children. Adults are not so quick to learn it with other adults, nor nation with nation. Yet despots cannot be allowed to flourish, but must be stopped in their despotism. Love of Self, and love of the despot, demands it.
The Question of Suffering (from Book 1. Pages 105-109)
And what of suffering? Is suffering the way and the path to God? Some say it is the only way.
I am not pleased by suffering, and whoever says I am does not know Me. Suffering is an unnecessary aspect of the human experience. It is not only unnecessary, it is unwise, uncomfortable, and hazardous to your health.
Then why is there so much suffering? Why don't You, if You are God, put an end to it if You dislike it so much?
I have put an end to it. You simply refuse to use the tools I have given you with which to realize that. You see, suffering has nothing to do with events, but with one's reaction to them. What's happening is merely what's happening. How you feel about it is another matter. I have given you the tools with which to respond and react to events in a way which reduces -in fact, eliminates-pain, but you have not used them.
Excuse me, but why not eliminate the events?
A very good suggestion. Unfortunately, I have no control over them.
You have no control over events?
Of course not. Events are occurrences in time and space which you produce out of choice -and I will never interfere with choices. To do so would be to obviate the very reason I created you. But I've explained all this before. Some events you produce wilfully, and some events you draw to you -more or less unconsciously. Some events -major natural disasters are among those you toss into this category -are written off to "fate." Yet even "fate" can be an acronym for "from all thoughts everywhere. " In other words, the consciousness of the planet.
The "collective consciousness."
Precisely. Exactly.
There are those who say the world is going to hell in handbasket. Our ecology is dying. Our planet is in for a major geophysical disaster. Earthquakes. Volcanoes. Maybe even a tilting of the Earth on its axis. And there are others who say collective consciousness can change all that; that we can save the Earth with our thoughts.
Thoughts put into action. If enough people everywhere believe something must be done to help the environment, you will save the Earth. But you must work fast. So much damage has already been done, for so long. This will take a major attitudinal shift.
Getting back to suffering -where did we ever get the idea that suffering was good? That the saintly "suffer in silence"?
The saintly do "suffer in silence," but that does not mean suffering is good. The students in the school of Mastery suffer in silence because they understand that suffering is not the way of God, but rather a sure sign that there is still something to learn of the way of God, still something to remember. The true Master does not suffer in silence at all, but only appears to be suffering without complaint. The reason that the true Master does not complain is that the true Master is not suffering, but simply experiencing a set of circumstances that you would call insufferable. A practicing Master does not speak of suffering because a Master practicing clearly understands the power of the Word -and so chooses to simply not say a word about it. We make real that to which we pay attention. The Master knows this. The Master places himself at choice with regard to that which she chooses to make real. You have all done this from time to time. There is not one among you who has not made a headache disappear, or a visit to the dentist less painful, through your decision about it. A Master simply makes the same decision about larger things.
But why have suffering at all? Why have even the possibility of suffering?
You cannot know, and become, that which you are, in the absence of that which you are not, as I have already explained to you.
I still don't understand how we ever got the idea that suffering was good.
You are wise to be insistent in questioning that. The original wisdom surrounding suffering in silence has become so perverted that now many believe (and several religions actually teach) that suffering is good, and joy is bad. Therefore, you have decided that if someone has cancer, but keeps it to himself, he is a saint, whereas if someone has (to pick a dynamite topic) robust sexuality, and celebrates it openly, she is a sinner.
Boy, You did pick a dynamite topic. And You cleverly changed the pronoun, too, from male to female. Was that to make a point?
It was to show you your prejudices. You don't like to think of women having robust sexuality, much less celebrating it openly. You would rather see a man dying without a whimper on the battlefield than a woman making love with a whimper in the street.
Wouldn't you?
I have no judgment one way or the other. But you have all sorts of them -and I suggest that it is your judgments which keep you from joy, and your expectations which make you unhappy. All of this put together is what causes you dis-ease, and therein begins your suffering.
How do I know that what You are saying is true? How do I know this is even God speaking, and not my overactive imagination?
You've asked that before. My answer is the same. What difference does it make? Even if everything I've said is wrong, can you think of abetter way to live?
No .
Then "wrong" is right, and "right" is wrong! Yet I'll tell you this, to help you out of your dilemma: believe nothing I say. Simply live it. Experience it. Then live whatever other paradigm you want to construct. Afterward, look to your experience to find your truth. One day, if you have a great deal of courage, you will experience a world where making love is considered better than making war. On that day will you rejoice.
New World Order (from Book 2. pages 204-208)
Let me see if I'm tracking this. What seems to be emerging here is a world view of equality and equanimity, where all nations submit to one world government, and all people share in the world's riches. So let's summarize it.
Remember when you talk about equality that we're meaning equal opportunity, not equality in fact. Actual "equality" will never be achieved, and be grateful that is so.
Why?
Because equality is sameness -and the last thing the world needs is sameness. No -1 am not arguing here for a world of automatons- each receiving identical allotments from a Big Brother Central Government. I am speaking of a world in which two things are guaranteed:
1. The meeting of basic needs.
2. The opportunity to go higher.
With all your world's resources, with all your abundance, you have not yet managed those two simple things. Instead, you have trapped millions on the lowest end of the socioeconomic scale and devised a view that systematically keeps them there. You are allowing thousands to die each year for lack of simple basics. For all the world's magnificence, you have not found a way to be magnificent enough to stop people from starving to death, much less stop killing each other. You actually let children starve to death right in front of you. You actually kill people because they disagree with you. You are primitive.
And we think we are so advanced.
The first mark of a primitive society is that it thinks itself advanced. The first mark of a primitive conscious is that it thinks itself enlightened.
So let's summarize it. The way we'll get to the first step on the ladder, where these two fundamental guarantees are accorded everyone. ..Is through two shifts, two changes-one in your political paradigm, one in your political paradigm, one in your spiritual. The movement to a unified world government would include a greatly empowered world court to resolve international disputes and a peacekeeping force to give power to the laws by which you choose to govern yourselves. The world government would include a Congress of Nations -two representatives from every nation on Earth -and a People's Assembly -with representation in direct proportion to a nation's population.
Exactly the way the U.S. Government is set up-with two houses, one providing proportional representation and one' providing equal voice to all of the states.
Yes. Your U.S. Constitution was God inspired. The same balance of powers should be built in to the new world constitution. There would be, likewise, an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. Each nation would keep its internal peacekeeping police, but all national armies would be disbanded -exactly as each of your individual states disbanded their armies and navies in favour of a federal peacekeeping force serving the entire group of states you now call a nation. Nations would reserve the right to form and call up their own militia on a moment's notice, just as your states each have the constitutional right to keep a state militia. And just as your states do now -each of the 160 Nation States in the union of nations would have right to secede from the union based upon a vote of the people (though why it would want to do so is beyond Me, given that its people would be more secure and more abundant than ever before).
And-once more for those of us who are slow-such a unified world federation would produce-?
1. An end to wars between nations and the settling of disputes by killing.
2. An end to abject poverty, death by starvation, and mass exploitation of people and resources by those of power.
3. An end to the systematic environmental destruction of the Earth.
4. An escape from the endless struggle for bigger, better, more.
5. An opportunity -truly equal -for all people to rise to the highest expression of Self.
6. An end to all limitations and discriminations holding people back -whether in housing, in the workplace, or in the political system, or in personal sexual relationships.
Would your new world order require a redistribution of wealth?
It would require nothing. It would produce, voluntarily and quite automatically, a redistribution of resources. All people would be offered a proper education, for instance. All people would be offered open opportunity to use that education in the workplace - to follow careers which bring them joy. All people would be guaranteed access to health care whenever and however needed. All people would be guaranteed they won't starve to death or have to live without sufficient clothing or adequate shelter. All people would be granted the basic dignities of life so that survival would never again be the issue, so that simple comforts and basic dignities were provided all human beings.
Even if they did nothing to earn it?
Your thought that these things need to be earned is the basis for your thought that you have to earn your way to heaven (in other words, be worthy of unconditional love). Yet you cannot earn your way into God's good graces, and you do not have to, because you are already there. This is something you cannot accept, because it is something you cannot give. When you learn to give unconditionally (which is to say, love unconditionally), then will you learn to receive unconditionally. This life was created as a vehicle through which you might be allowed to experience that. Try to wrap yourself around this thought: People have a right to basic survival. Even if they do nothing. Even if they contribute nothing. Survival with dignity is one of the basic rights of life. I have given you enough resources to be able to guarantee that to everyone. All you have to do is share.