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Part 1 Chapter 5
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What is the true path to God? Is it through renunciation, as some yogis believe? And what of this thing called suffering? Is suffering and service the path to God as many ascetics1 say? Do we earn our way to heaven by “being good,” as so many religions teach? Or are we free to act as we wish, violate or ignore any rule, set aside any traditional teachings, dive into any self-indulgences, and thus find Nirvana, as many New Agers say? Which is it? Strict moral standards, or do-as-you-please? Which is it? Traditional values, or make-it-up-as-you-go-along? Which is it? The Ten Commandments, or the Seven Steps to Enlightenment?

 

You have a great need to have it be one way or the other, don’t you.. .Could it not be all of these?

 

I don’t know. I’m asking You.

 

I will answer you, then, as you can best under-stand—though I tell you now that your answer is within. I say this to all people who hear My words and seek My Truth.

Every heart which earnestly asks, Which is the path to God? is shown. Each is given a heartfelt Truth. Come to Me along the path of your heart, not through a journey of your mind. You will never find Me in your mind.

In order to truly know God, you have to be out of your mind.

Yet your question begs an answer, and I will not step aside from the thrust of your inquiry2.

I will begin with a statement that will startle you—and perhaps offend the sensitivities of many people. There are no such things as the Ten Command-ments.

 

Oh, My God, there aren’t?

 

No, there are not. Who would I command? Myself? And why would such commandments be required? Whatever I want, is. N’est ce pas? How is it therefore necessary to command anyone?

And, if I did issue commandments, would they not be automatically kept? How could I wish something to be so so badly that I would command it—and then sit by and watch it not be so?

What kind of a king would do that? What kind of a ruler?

And yet I tell you this: I am neither a king nor a ruler. I am simply—and awesomely—the Creator. Yet the Creator does not rule, but merely creates, creates—and keeps on creating.

I have created you—blessed you—in the image and likeness3 of Me. And I have made certain promises and commitments to you. I have told you, in plain language, how it will be with you when you become as one with Me.

You are, as Moses was, an earnest seeker. Moses too, as do you now, stood before Me, begging for answers. “Oh, God of My Fathers,” he called. “God of my God, deign4 to show me. Give me a sign, that I may tell my people! How can we know that we are chosen?”

And I came to Moses, even as I have come to you now, with a divine covenant5—an everlasting6 promise—a sure and certain commitment. “How can I be sure?” Moses asked plaintively7. “Because I have told you so,” I said. “You have the Word of God.”

And the Word of God was not a commandment, but a covenant. These, then, are the.

 

 

 
TEN COMMITMENTS

 

You shall know that you have taken the path to God, and you shall know that you have found God, for there will be these signs, these indications, these changes in you:

1. You shall love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul. And there shall be no other God set before Me. No longer will you worship human love, or success, money, or power, nor any symbol thereof. You will set aside these things as a child sets aside toys. Not because they are unworthy, but because you have outgrown8 them.

And, you shall know you have taken the path to God because:

2. You shall not use the name of God in vain. Nor will you call upon Me for frivolous9 things. You will understand the power of words, and of thoughts, and you would not think of invoking10 the name of God in an unGodly manner. You shall not use My name in vain because you cannot. For My name—the Great “1 Am”—is never used in vain (that is, without result), nor can it ever be. And when you have found God, you shall know this.

And, I shall give you these other signs as well:

3. You shall remember to keep a day for Me, and you shall call it holy. This, so that you do not long stay in your illusion, but cause yourself to remember who and what you are. And then shall you soon call every day the Sabbath, and every moment holy.

4. You shall honor your mother and your fa-ther—and you will know you are the Son of God when you honor your Father/Mother God in all that you say or do or think. And even as you so honor the Mother/Father God, and your father and mother on Earth (for they have given you life), so, too, will you honor everyone.

5. You know you have found God when you observe that you will not murder (that is, willfully kill, without cause). For while you will understand that you cannot end another’s life in any event (all life is eternal), you will not choose to terminate any particular incarnation, nor change any life energy from one form to another, without the most sacred justification11. Your new rever-ence for life will cause you to honor all life forms—in-cluding plants, trees and animals—and to impact them only when it is for the highest good.

And these other signs will I send you also, that you may know you are on the path:

6. You will not defile12 the purity of love with dishon-esty or deceit, for this is adulterous. I promise you, when you have found God, you shall not commit this adultery.

7. You will not take a thing that is not your own, nor cheat, nor connive13, nor harm another to have any thing, for this would be to steal. I promise you, when you have found God, you shall not steal.

Nor shall you...

8. Say a thing that is not true, and thus bear false witness.

Nor shall you.

9. Covet14 your neighbor’s spouse15, for why would you want your neighbor’s spouse when you know all others are your spouse?

10. Covet your neighbor’s goods, for why would you want your neighbor’s goods when you know that all goods can be yours, and all your goods belong to the world?

You will know that you have found the path to God when you see these signs. For I promise that no one who truly seeks God shall any longer do these things. It would be impossible to continue such behaviors.

These are your freedoms, not your restrictions16. These are my commitments, not my commandments. For God does not order about what God has cre-ated—God merely tells God’s children: this is how you will know that you are coming home.

Moses asked in earnest—”How may I know? Give me a sign.” Moses asked the same question that you ask now. The same question all people everywhere have asked since time began. My answer is likewise eternal. But it has never been, and never will be, a command-ment. For who shall I command? And who shall I punish should My commandments not be kept?

There is only Me.

 

So I don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments in order to get to heaven.

 

There is no such thing as “getting to heaven.” There is only a knowing that you are already there. There is an accepting, an understanding, not a working for or a striving.

You cannot go to where you already are. To do that, you would have to leave where you are, and that would defeat the whole purpose of the journey.

The irony17 is that most people think they have to leave where they are to get to where they want to be. And so they leave heaven in order to get to heaven—and go through hell.

Enlightenment is understanding that there is no-where to go, nothing to do, and nobody you have to be except exactly who you’re being right now.

You are on a journey to nowhere.

Heaven—as you call it—is nowhere. Let’s just put some space between the w and the h in that word and you’ll see that heaven is now. . .here.

 

Everyone says that! Everyone says that! It’s driving me crazy! If “heaven is now here,” how come I don’t see that? Why don’t I feel that? And why is the world such a mess?

 

I understand your frustration18. It’s almost as frustrat-ing trying to understand all this as it is trying to get someone to understand it.

 

Whoa! Wait a minute! Are you trying to say that God gets frustrated19?

 

Who do you suppose invented frustration? And do you imagine that you can experience something I can-not?

I tell you this: every experience you have, I have. Do you not see lam experiencing my Self through you? What else do you suppose all this is for?

I could not know Myself were it not for You. I created you that I might know Who I Am.

Now I would not shatter all of your illusions about Me in one chapter—so I will tell you that in My most sublime20 form, which you call God, I do not experience frustration.

 

Whew! That’s better. You scared me there for a minute.

 

But that’s not because I can’t. It’s simply because I don’t choose to. You can make the same choice, by the way.

 

Well, frustrated or not, I still wonder how it can be that heaven is right here, and I don’t experience it.

 

You cannot experience what you don’t know. And you don’t know you are in “heaven” right now because you have not experienced it. You see, for you it is a vicious circle. You cannot—have not found a way yet to—experience what you do not know, and you do not know what you have not experienced.

What Enlightenment asks you to do is to know something you have not experienced and thus experi-ence it. Knowing opens the door to experience-and you imagine it is the other way around.

Actually, you know a great deal more than you have experienced. You simply don’t know that you know.

You know that there is a God, for instance. But you may not know that you know that. So you keep waiting around for the experience. And all the while you keep having it. Yet you are having it without knowing—which is like not having it at all.

 

Boy, we’re going around in circles here.

 

Yes, we are. And instead of going around in circles, perhaps we should be the circle itself. This doesn’t have to be a vicious circle. It can be a sublime one.

 

Is renunciation a part of the truly spiritual life?

 

Yes, because ultimately all Spirit renounces22 what is not real, and nothing in the life you lead is real, save your relationship with Me. Yet renunciation in the classic sense of sell-denial is not required.

A true Master does not “give up” something. A true Master simply sets it aside, as he would do with anything for which he no longer has any use.

There are those who say you must overcome your desires. I say you must simply change them. The first practice feels like a rigorous discipline, the second, a joyful23 exercise.

There are those who say that to know God you must overcome all earthly passions. Yet to understand and accept them is enough. What you resist persists. What you look at disappears.

Those who seek so earnestly to overcome all earthly passions often work at it so hard that it might be said, this has become their passion. They have a “passion for God”; a passion to know Him. But passion is passion, and to trade one for the other does not eliminate it.

Therefore, judge not that about which you feel passionate24. Simply notice it, then see if it serves you, given who and what you wish to be.

Remember, you are constantly in the act of creating yourself. You are in every moment deciding who and what you are. You decide this largely through the choices you make regarding who and what you feel passionate about.

Often a person on what you call a spiritual path looks like he has renounced25 all earthly passion, all human desire. What he has done is understand it, see the illusion, and step aside from the passions that do not serve him—all the while loving the illusion for what it has brought to him: the chance to be wholly free.

Passion is the love of turning being into action. It fuels the engine of creation. It changes concepts to experience.

Passion is the fire that drives us to express who we really are. Never deny passion, for that is to deny Who You Are and Who You Truly Want to Be.

The renunciate never denies passion—the renunci-ate simply denies attachmentto results. Passion is a love of doing. Doing is being, experienced. Yet what is often created as part of doing? Expectation.

To live your life without expectation—without the need for specific results—that is freedom. That is God-liness. That is how I live.

 

You are not attached to results?

 

Absolutely not. My joy is in the creating, not in the aftermath. Renunciation is not a decision to deny ac-tion. Renunciation is a decision to deny a need for a particular result. There is a vast difference.

 

Could you explain what You mean by the statement, “Pas-sion is the love of turning being into action”?

 

Beingness is the highest state of existence. It is the purest essence. It is the “now-not now,” the “all-not all,” the “always-never” aspect of God.

Pure being is pure God-ing.

Yet it has never been enough for us to simply be. We have always yearned26 to experience What We Are—and that requires a whole other aspect of divinity, called doing.

Let us say that you are, at the core of your wonderful Self, that aspect of divinity called love. (This is, by the way, the Truth of you.)

 

Now it is one thing to be love—and quite another thing to do something loving. The soul longs to do something about what it is, in order that it might know itself in its own experience. So it will seek to realize its highest idea through action.

This urge to do this is called passion. Kill passion and you kill God. Passion is God wanting to say “hi.”

But, you see, once God (or God-in-you) does that loving thing, God has realized Itself, and needs nothing more.

Man, on the other hand, often feels he needs a return on his investment. If we’re going to love some-body, fine—but we’d better get some love back. That sort of thing.

This is not passion. This is expectation.

This is the greatest source of man’s unhappiness. It is what separates man from God.

The renunciate seeks to end this separation through the experience some Eastern mystics have called samadhi. That is, oneness and union with God; a meld-ing with and melting into divinity.

The renunciate therefore renounces results—but never, ever renounces passion. Indeed, the Master knows intuitively that passion is the path. It is the way to Self realization27.

Even in earthly terms it can be fairly said that if you have a passion for nothing, you have no life at all.

 

You have said that “what you resist persists, and what you look at disappears.” Can You explain that?

 

You cannot resist something to which you grant no reality. The act of resisting a thing is the act of granting it life. When you resist an energy, you place it there. The more you resist, the more you make it real—what-ever it is you are resisting.

What you open your eyes and look at disappears. That is, it ceases to hold its illusory form.

 

If you look at something—truly look at it—you will see right through it, and right through any illusion it holds for you, leaving nothing but ultimate reality in your sight. In the face of ultimate reality your puny28 illusion has no power. It cannot long hold you in its weakening grip. You see the truth of it, and the truth sets you free.

 

But what if you don’t want the thing you are looking at to disappear?

 

You should always want it to! There is nothing in your reality to hold onto. Yet if you do choose the illusion of your life over ultimate reality, you may simply recreate it—just as you created it to begin with. In this way you may have in your life what you choose to have and eliminate from your life what you no longer wish to experience.

Yet never resist anything. If you think that by your resistance you will eliminate it, think again. You only plant it more firmly in place. Have I not told you all thought is creative?

 

Even a thought that says I don’t want something?

 

If you don’t want it, why think about it? Don’t give it a second thought. Yet if you must think about it—that is, if you cannot not think about it—then do not resist. Rather, look at whatever it is directly—accept the reality as your creation—then choose to keep it or not, as you wish.

 

What would dictate29 that choice?

 

Who and What you think you Are. And Who and What you choose to Be.

This dictates30 all choice—every choice you have made in your life. And ever will make.

And so the life of a renunciate is an incorrect path?

 

That is not a truth. The word “renunciate” holds such wrongful meaning. In truth, you cannot renounce21 anything—because what you resist persists. The true renunciate does not renounce, but simply chooses differently. This is an act of moving toward something, not away from something.

You cannot move away from something, because it will chase you all over hell and back. Therefore resist not temptation—but simply turn from it. Turn toward Me and away from anything unlike Me.

Yet know this: there is no such thing as an incorrect path—for on this journey you cannot “not get” where you are going.

It is simply a matter of speed—merely a question of when you will get there—yet even that is an illusion, for there is no “when,” neither is there a “before” or “after.” There is only now; an eternal moment of always in which you are experiencing yourself.

 

Then what is the point? If there is no way not to “get there,” what is the point of life? Why should we worry at all about anything we do?

 

Well, of course, you shouldn’t. But you would do well to be observant. Simply notice who and what you are being, doing, and having, and see whether it serves you.

The point of life is not to get anywhere—it is to notice that you are, and have always been, already there. You are, always and forever, in the moment of pure creation. The point of life is therefore to create—who and what you are, and then to experience that.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 ascetics 9e1035a2aafd31bc849493d8cb3489a7     
n.苦行者,禁欲者,禁欲主义者( ascetic的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • How does Paul's teaching differ from that of the ascetics about celibacy? 关于独身,保罗的教导与禁欲主义的教导有什麽分别? 来自互联网
  • Nevertheless, it is known that Hindu ascetics occasionally visited Greece. 然而,众所周知,印度的苦行僧偶然会拜访希腊。 来自互联网
2 inquiry nbgzF     
n.打听,询问,调查,查问
参考例句:
  • Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
  • The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。
3 likeness P1txX     
n.相像,相似(之处)
参考例句:
  • I think the painter has produced a very true likeness.我认为这位画家画得非常逼真。
  • She treasured the painted likeness of her son.她珍藏她儿子的画像。
4 deign 6mLzp     
v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事)
参考例句:
  • He doesn't deign to talk to unimportant people like me. 他不肯屈尊和像我这样不重要的人说话。
  • I would not deign to comment on such behaviour. 这种行为不屑我置评。
5 covenant CoWz1     
n.盟约,契约;v.订盟约
参考例句:
  • They refused to covenant with my father for the property.他们不愿与我父亲订立财产契约。
  • The money was given to us by deed of covenant.这笔钱是根据契约书付给我们的。
6 everlasting Insx7     
adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的
参考例句:
  • These tyres are advertised as being everlasting.广告上说轮胎持久耐用。
  • He believes in everlasting life after death.他相信死后有不朽的生命。
7 plaintively 46a8d419c0b5a38a2bee07501e57df53     
adv.悲哀地,哀怨地
参考例句:
  • The last note of the song rang out plaintively. 歌曲最后道出了离别的哀怨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Birds cry plaintively before they die, men speak kindly in the presence of death. 鸟之将死,其鸣也哀;人之将死,其言也善。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
8 outgrown outgrown     
长[发展] 得超过(某物)的范围( outgrow的过去分词 ); 长[发展]得不能再要(某物); 长得比…快; 生长速度超过
参考例句:
  • She's already outgrown her school uniform. 她已经长得连校服都不能穿了。
  • The boy has outgrown his clothes. 这男孩已长得穿不下他的衣服了。
9 frivolous YfWzi     
adj.轻薄的;轻率的
参考例句:
  • This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
  • He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。
10 invoking ac7bba2a53612f6fe1454f6397475d24     
v.援引( invoke的现在分词 );行使(权利等);祈求救助;恳求
参考例句:
  • You can customise the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集,您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为,通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • You can customize the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集,您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为,通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。 来自辞典例句
11 justification x32xQ     
n.正当的理由;辩解的理由
参考例句:
  • There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
  • In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。
12 defile e9tyq     
v.弄污,弄脏;n.(山间)小道
参考例句:
  • Don't defile the land of our ancestors!再不要污染我们先祖们的大地!
  • We respect the faith of Islam, even as we fight those whose actions defile that faith.我们尊重伊斯兰教的信仰,并与玷污伊斯兰教的信仰的行为作斗争。
13 connive hYqyG     
v.纵容;密谋
参考例句:
  • They connive children excessively which will bring a negative effect on theirs character.他们过分纵容孩子,这对孩子的性格有不良影响。
  • Senior politicians connived to ensure that he was not released.几位资深政治家串通起来确保他不会获释。
14 covet 8oLz0     
vt.垂涎;贪图(尤指属于他人的东西)
参考例句:
  • We do not covet anything from any nation.我们不觊觎任何国家的任何东西。
  • Many large companies covet these low-cost acquisition of troubled small companies.许多大公司都觊觎低价收购这些陷入困境的小公司。
15 spouse Ah6yK     
n.配偶(指夫或妻)
参考例句:
  • Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
  • What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么?
16 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
17 irony P4WyZ     
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄
参考例句:
  • She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
  • In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。
18 frustration 4hTxj     
n.挫折,失败,失效,落空
参考例句:
  • He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
  • He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
19 frustrated ksWz5t     
adj.挫败的,失意的,泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 );挫败;使受挫折;令人沮丧
参考例句:
  • It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
  • The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》
20 sublime xhVyW     
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的
参考例句:
  • We should take some time to enjoy the sublime beauty of nature.我们应该花些时间去欣赏大自然的壮丽景象。
  • Olympic games play as an important arena to exhibit the sublime idea.奥运会,就是展示此崇高理念的重要舞台。
21 renounce 8BNzi     
v.放弃;拒绝承认,宣布与…断绝关系
参考例句:
  • She decided to renounce the world and enter a convent.她决定弃绝尘世去当修女。
  • It was painful for him to renounce his son.宣布与儿子脱离关系对他来说是很痛苦的。
22 renounces 4e680794d061a81b2277111800e766fa     
v.声明放弃( renounce的第三人称单数 );宣布放弃;宣布与…决裂;宣布摒弃
参考例句:
  • Japan renounces all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores. 日本放弃对福尔摩沙(台湾)及澎湖的一切权利,主张(名称)及所有权。 来自互联网
  • He renounces Christianity, temporarily straining his relationship with his parents. 他放弃了基督教信仰,从而与父母的关系暂时变得紧张。 来自互联网
23 joyful N3Fx0     
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的
参考例句:
  • She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
  • They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。
24 passionate rLDxd     
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的
参考例句:
  • He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
  • He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。
25 renounced 795c0b0adbaedf23557e95abe647849c     
v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 );宣布放弃;宣布与…决裂;宣布摒弃
参考例句:
  • We have renounced the use of force to settle our disputes. 我们已再次宣布放弃使用武力来解决争端。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Andrew renounced his claim to the property. 安德鲁放弃了财产的所有权。 来自《简明英汉词典》
26 yearned df1a28ecd1f3c590db24d0d80c264305     
渴望,切盼,向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The people yearned for peace. 人民渴望和平。
  • She yearned to go back to the south. 她渴望回到南方去。
27 realization nTwxS     
n.实现;认识到,深刻了解
参考例句:
  • We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
  • He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。
28 puny Bt5y6     
adj.微不足道的,弱小的
参考例句:
  • The resources at the central banks' disposal are simply too puny.中央银行掌握的资金实在太少了。
  • Antonio was a puny lad,and not strong enough to work.安东尼奥是个瘦小的小家伙,身体还不壮,还不能干活。
29 dictate fvGxN     
v.口授;(使)听写;指令,指示,命令
参考例句:
  • It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
  • What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令?
30 dictates d2524bb575c815758f62583cd796af09     
n.命令,规定,要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 );口授;支配;摆布
参考例句:
  • Convention dictates that a minister should resign in such a situation. 依照常规部长在这种情况下应该辞职。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He always follows the dictates of common sense. 他总是按常识行事。 来自《简明英汉词典》


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