Gene's Blog

Ennui

October 23rd, 2007 | by gene |

I’m not sure ennui can be properly called writer’s block, for one thing, first one would have to be a writer, and I am not. Of late, I’ve been more of a reader, but it isn’t what I’ve been reading that I want to talk about tonight. Recently reading, I should say. :^) I want to come back to something from a couple posts ago, that I have been thinking about, as I have been reading. I referred to book 1 p. 41 where Neale asserts that without fear, of hell, of heavenly retribution, of God, that anarchy would be the result, and God responds, “is it fear you need to be good?”. A discussion ensued. Sounds like minutes from many of the meetings I’ve attended, the too many meetings, I might add, lol. But I want to take this a step further, because in truth it is not fear that we need to be “good”, and by “good”, I mean to one another. Each other. All the time. So I’m going to move on a good bit into book 1, into chapter 8 which is on relationships, of the human kind, but of the soul kind too, and for the moment I am going to move past human relationships, what their purpose is, what relativity IS, and engage, with God, another idea of relationship.

First, in preface, this section HAS been about human relationships and the “rules” we make to play that particular role, how we define ourselves in terms of how others see us. That is an interesting exchange and I’ll come back to it another time. I am going to have to figure out how to search these archives, lol, if I keep skipping around these books like this, so I don’t repeat myself, too often. Some of these ideas do indeed bear repeating, but given my advanced age, I don’t want you thinking I am repeating myself because I have forgotten I already told you a particular story. Which is not to say I won’t do that or that I’m not capable of that, but there ARE many stories which sort of circle back in on themselves. And, in all honesty, as we talked about in an earlier post, the way to “undo the teaching” of our prior lives, is to read and reread books 1 and 2, until we can call them to mind in midst of our darkest hour and recover our balance through this wisdom. Okay not an exact quote, but if you want the rest of it as God said it, find that post, or read page 120, giggle. For tonight, I want to start with a question from Neale, remember these book ALL began with an angry question from Neale. I wonder if I have ever reproduced that first page? If I haven’t, well, another time, tonight we’re going to talk about THIS question, from the bottom of page 134.

Neale: “So I don’t have to be the long-suffering wife or the belittled husband or the victim of my relationships in order to render then holy, or to make me pleasing in the eyes of God?”

God: “Good grief, of course not.”

Neale: “And I don’t have to put up with attacks on my dignity, assaults on my pride, damage to my psyche, and wounds to my heart in order to say that I “gave it my best” in a relationship; “did my duty” or “met my obligation” in the eyes of God and man.’

God: “Not for one minute.”

Neale: “Then, pray God, tell me – what promise should I make in relationship; what agreements must I keep? What obligations do relationships carry? What guidelines should I seek?”

God: “The answer is the answer you cannot here – for it leaves you without guidelines and renders null and void every agreement you make in the moment you make it. The answer is: you have no obligation. Neither in relationship nor in all of life.”

Neale: “No obligation?”

God: No obligation. Nor an restriction or limitation, nor any guidelines or rules. Nor are you bound by and circumstances of situations, nor constrained by any code or law. Nor are you punishable for any offense, nor capable of any – for there is no such thing as being “offensive” in the eyes of God.”

Neale: “I’ve heard this before – this “there are no rules” kind of religion. That’s spiritual anarchy. I don’t see how that can work.

God: There is no way it cannot work – if you are about the business of creating your Self. If, on the other hand, you imagine yourself to be about the task of trying to be what someone else wants you to be, the absence of rules or guidelines might indeed make things difficult. Yet the thinking mind begs to ask: If God has a way She wants me to be, why didn’t She simply create me that way to begin with? Why all this struggle for me to “overcome” who I am in order for me to become what God wants me to be? This the probing mind demands to know – and rightly so, for it is a proper inquiry.

The religionists would have you believe that I created you as less than Who I Am so the you could have the chance to become as Who I Am, working against all odds – and, I might add, against every natural tendency I am supposed to have given you.

Among these so-called tendencies is the tendency to sin. You are taught that were born in sin, that you will die in sin, and that to sin is your nature.

One of your religions even teaches you that you can do nothing about this. Your own actions are irrelevant and meaningless. It is arrogant to think that by some action of yours you can “get to heaven.” There is only one way to heaven (salvation) and that is through no undertaking of your own, but the through the grace granted you by God through acceptance of his Son as your intermediary.

Once this is done you are “saved”. Until it is done, nothing that you do – not the life you live, not the choices you make, not anything you undertake of your own will to improve yourself or render you worthy – has any effect, bears any influence. You are incapable of rendering yourself worthy, because you are inherently unworthy. You were created that way.

Why? God only knows. Perhaps He made a mistake. Perhaps He didn’t get it right. Maybe He wishes He could have it all to do over again. But there it is. What to do…”

Neale: “You are making mock of me.”

God: No. You are making mock of Me. You are saying that, I, God, made inherently imperfect beings, then have demanded of them to be perfect, or face damnation.

You are saying then that, somewhere several thousand years into the world’s experience, I relented, saying that from then on you didn’t necessarily have to be good, you simply had to feel bad when you were not being good, and accept as your savior the One Being who could always be perfect, thus satisfying My hunger for perfection. You are saying that My Son – who you call the One Perfect One – has saved you from your own imperfection – the imperfection I gave you..

In other words, God’s Son has saved you from what His Father did.

This is how you – many of you – say I’ve set it up.

Now who is mocking whom?”

Neale: “That is the second time in this book you seem to have launched a frontal attack of fundamentalist Christianity. I am surprised.”

God: “You have chosen the word “attack”. I am simply engaging the issue. And the issue, by the way, is not “fundamentalist Christianity,” as you put it. It is the entire nature of God, and of God’s relationship to man.

The question comes up here because we were discussing the matter of obligations – in relationships and in life itself.

You cannot believe in an obligation-less relationship because you cannot accept who and what you really are. You call a life of complete freedom “spiritual anarchy”. I call it God’s great promise.

It is only within the context of this promise that God’s great plan can be completed.

You have no obligation in relationship. You have only opportunity.

Opportunity, not obligation, is the cornerstone of religion, the basis of all spirituality. So long as you see it the other way around, you will have missed the point.

Relationship – your relationship to all things – was created as your perfect tool in the work of the soul. That is why all human relationships are sacred ground. It why every personal relationship is holy.

In this, many churches have it right. Marriage is a sacrament. But not because of its sacred obligations. Rather, because of its unequaled opportunity.

Never do anything in relationship out of a sense of obligation. Do whatever you do out of a sense of the glorious opportunity your relationship affords you to do decide, and to be, Who You Really Are.”

Neale: “I can hear that – yet over and over in my relationships I have given up when the going gets tough. The result is that I’ve had a string of relationships where I thought, as a kid, that I’d only have one. I don’t seem to know what it’s like to hold onto a relationship. Do you think I will ever learn? What do I have to do to make it happen?”

God: “You make it sound as if holding onto a relationship means it’s been a success. Try not to confuse longevity with a job well done. Remember, that your job on the planet is not to see how long you can stay in a relationship, it’s to decide, and experience, Who You Really Are.

This is not an argument for short-term relationships – yet neither is there a requirement for long-term ones.

Still, while there is no such requirement, this much should be said: long-term relationships do hold remarkable opportunities for mutual growth, mutual expression, and mutual fulfillment – and that has its own reward.”

Neale: “I know, I know! I mean, I’ve always suspected that. So how do I get there?”

God: “First, make sure you get into a relationship for the right reasons. (I’m using the word “right” here as a relative term. I mean “right” relative to the larger purpose you hold in your life.)

As I have indicated before, most people still enter relationships for the “wrong” reasons – to end loneliness, fill a gap, bring themselves love, or some to love – and those are some of the better reasons. Others do so to salve their their ego, end their depression, improve their sex life, recover from a previous relationship, or, believe it or not, to relieve boredom.

None of these reasons will work, and unless something dramatic changes along the way, neither will the relationship.

Neale: “I didn’t enter into my relationships for any of those reasons.”

God. “I would challenge that. I don’t think you know why you entered your relationships. I don’t think you thought about it in this way. I don’t think you entered your relationships purposefully. I think you entered your relationships because you “fell in love.”

Neale: “That’s exactly right.”

God. “And I don’t think you stopped to look at why you “fell in love.” What was it to which you were responding? What need, or set of needs, was being fulfilled?

For most people, love is a response to need fulfillment.

Everyone has needs. You need this, another needs that. You both see in each other a chance for need fulfillment. So you “agree” – tacitly – to a trade. I’ll trade you what I’ve got if you’ll give me what you’ve got.

It’s a transaction. But you don’t tell the truth about it. You don’t say, “I trade you very much.” You say, “I love you very much,” and then the disappointment begins.”

Neale: “You’ve made this point before.”

God: “Yes, and you’ve done this thing before – not once, but several times.

And this is where we’re going to leave this for tonight. :^). I’m not done with this quotation yet. A couple more pages. But what’s been said here is worth cogitating about for a day, or two, don’t you think? Where they go next is to the crux of relationship, why, how, and what. God actually has suggestions for we, His children, on how we might not only make better choices in selecting our relationships but in how we might actually learn to sustain them, to make them the glorious vehicles of self-growth He intended them to be for us all. Not in any sort of gender way. Gender is not relevant to this discussion. In truth, it is irrelevant, in that the principles I’m going to put forth tomorrow night, follow no gender path, they follow a path toward creating successful and sustainable relationships, friendships, and beyond, irrespective of gender. If God is not making an attack on fundamentalist christianity, or for that matter dogmatic, exclusionary religious proscriptions on human behavior, in what He has to say next, well, then, I am. Because that IS Who I Really Am and a statement of what I believe and an expression of who I choose to be as I create myself in this world relative to this world. Had I my way, I’d turn this place on its ear and give it a good spin, giggle. I might do that anyway, after tomorrow’s reading. Until then, much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene