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Chapter 1 Introduction In this book, we will focus on enlightenment, personal peace and conscious creation. Or to put it another way: 1) Recognizing intuitively that you exist fundamentally as pure awareness, as the open capacity for experience. 2) Developing the ability to unselfishly flow in harmony with all that life brings forth. 3) Removing any unnecessary limiting beliefs that you might have about yourself, the world, and how you fit into it.
Conscious Creation Seth, as channeled by Jane Roberts, adamantly proclaims, “You make your own reality. There is no other rule.” In a general sense, you (as a soul) can incarnate in every way imaginable yet you have chosen a certain theme to explore in this life. It is important to note that all themes offer joy, significant soul growth and greater wisdom. So don’t worry about being trapped in a life full of suffering. Also note that the popular claim that you can “be, do and have anything you want” (in this lifetime) is simply not true. The universe is not your personal mail order catalog simply waiting for you to clearly make up your mind and place your order, as you may have heard. But you can be happy without getting everything you want, right?
Let’s start by thinking of a Hollywood actor. Here it’s easy to see that the actor is the source of the character. Surely it’s not the other way around. The character is not the source of the actor. Furthermore, the character cannot go on the stage without the actor. And yet, the actor can drop the role of the character at any time. Because of this, it is wise to make a distinction between the transcendent source (the actor) and the dependent construction (the character).
And yet when the actor comes forward as the character, they are one. If you are standing in front of the character and you want to find the actor, you do not need to dig into a deeper and deeper layer. No. When you look into the eyes of the character, you are looking directly into the eyes of the actor. They are one.
What appears to be the will and power of the character are really the will and power of the actor. The character is not the source of anything and has no substance of its own. Of course you see what this metaphor is pointing to. God is the one invisible Actor who is coming forward as each and every visible character, as each and every visible person. All of creation is a spontaneous emanation that comes about when formless Source-Awareness (God) miraculously and paradoxically appears as the form that makes up not only our own physical world, but also all of our spiritual worlds. Ice doesn’t just come from the water, it is the water, and so it is with God and creation. God is not only infinitely intimate with all of creation, God is creation.
Now, let’s suppose that I take you out in a spaceship to a vantage point where you can clearly see the sun and the spinning earth. You would learn the true nature of the situation from personal experience. And yet, when you got back to earth, the illusion would persist. You would still see the sun apparently traveling across the sky! At noon, it would be high in the sky and about six hours later, it would be setting low in the west. And no matter how hard you tried, you would not be able to feel the spinning of the earth. Even though there really is something happening to you, you cannot feel it directly with your body.
If there is a cluster of “negative” beliefs, it is important to deal with the core belief at the center of the cluster. If we dissolve that belief by recognizing that it only appears to be true and we just drop it, the entire cluster will fall apart.
And then it happens. The block of ice falls into the hot pool of water and right before your very eyes, it melts in a matter of minutes. Now you clearly see that it is made out of the same thing that the hot water is made out of. There’s no denying this now. But a few minutes ago it was very different. It was in a different form, a different state, which gave it a completely different set of properties, a completely different set of qualities. Could this be similar to God and creation? Let’s expand the water analogy by including water vapor, which is an invisible gas. That invisible gas might be like God the Source. We cannot see God the Source since the Source has no form. And yet, if the Source wanted to create a spiritual world, a world of angels, for example, the Source could choose to lower its temperature, its vibration, and “part” of the Source would change from an invisible gas into liquid water that now has a tangible form to it. This spiritual world could include beings with a sense of self and freewill. They would not appear to be the same as the Creator and yet they would be made out of the same divine essence.
This Divine Awareness is the buried treasure hidden within the personal self; it is the kingdom of heaven within you. Your “personal self” appears to be your body, mind, and soul, but your True Self – your fundamental, unconstructed self – is this Divine Awareness that perceives everything that you experience. This is why I like to repeat an old saying:
You are not the sentient being you have considered yourself to be all your life. You are sentience itself!
AI Summary
Living the Paradox of Enlightenment by Thomas Razzeto and Timothy Conway presents key insights from the contemplative tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.