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The Ten Illusions of Humans
by Neal Donald Walsch
============ ========= ====
The basic thesis of "Communion with God" is that the world is living a series of grand Illusions. These are, the book says, the Ten Illusions of Humans. In this Personal Commentary I would like to give you my experience and my viewpoint of these Illusions. The list of Illusions itself may be found in the book.
Communion with God says that...
THE FIRST ILLUSION OF HUMANS IS THE ILLUSION OF NEED.
We imagine that Need Exists. Because we imagine this, we imagine a God who has needs.
No such God exists in the Universe, but we think that one does, and that OUR God is that God. The idea that Need Exists is a fascinating thought, but it has nothing to do with Ultimate Reality.
In Ultimate Reality, everything simply is. Things exist in the ISNESS. That which IS, IS, and that which is NOT, is NOT, and nothing which IS needs or requires that which is NOT. Indeed, in Ultimate Truth there is NOTHING which is NOT, since everything that IS, IS. This includes everything that could possibly BE.
It is not possible for anything that is NOT to BE, because if it can be conceived or thought of in any way, then it is something that IS--since thoughts are things. And if it is thus a part of the ISNESS, then it cannot be something which is NOT.
Given this truth, it is not possible for That Which IS to "need" anything. It has everything it could possibly need, because it IS everything it could possibly have. The idea that Need Exists is an illusion.
And the idea that GOD needs something is likewise not only an illusion, but a strange one at that. For if God is God as we understand God to be, the very thought of God needing something is crazy on the surface of it. It is illogical in the extreme, unless our definition and understanding of God is incorrect.
Now, the idea that God needs nothing is not a small thought. It punctures holes a mile wide in virtually every major theology on the planet. Because if God does not need anything, then God is in want of nothing. And a God who wants nothing has been impossible for our earthly religions to imagine.
Yet this is the True Nature of Deity. God wants and needs nothing.
This changes everything -- from The Ten Commandments on down -- as even the casual student of theology must realize.
THE SECOND ILLUSION OF HUMANS IS THAT FAILURE EXISTS.
Of course, Failure cannot exist if Need does not exist, because if The One Being needs nothing, inasmuch as it IS, and therefore HAS, Everything, it cannot possibly "fail" to be, do or have ANYthing.
Therefore, Failure does not exist. There are only experiences in life that WE call "failure," based on judgments we have made, as well as deep misunderstandings we have held about just exactly Who We Are.
Let's look at this a minute.
If Who We Are is God, then it stands to reason that we cannot "fail" at anything. Everything we are doing must be an act of Pure Creation by the Purest Creator, and therefore Perfect. All Creation is perfect, and all outcomes are perfect, because there is nothing that The ISNESS needs or wants.
If we do not remember this-if, in our state of human amnesia, we forget this ultimate truth-it could seem as if "imperfection" exists. This illusion would then appear to be real, and some of us would call it a "failure." In our reality, something has "failed" to be perfect exactly as it is. Yet what would cause a thing to be "imperfect"? Something would have to be missing or wanting, yes? And God misses and wants nothing. Therefore, FAILURE IS A RELATIVE THING, relative to who and what one imagines oneself to be.
If you imagine yourself to be God, then everything you are creating is perfect and without flaw, failure or need, because you created it. The simply act of creation makes it perfect, because it is impossible to create anything that is missing anything-since God is All There Is, and, therefore, the concept of something "missing" is and cannot be part of Ultimate Reality.
With the absence of Need comes the absence of Failure.
This is something that is not generally understood. Human society has had a difficult time wrapping itself around this concept. Those humans who have embraced it fully have become Masters.
ILLUSION # 3 IS THAT SEPARATION EXISTS.
As soon as we imagine ourselves to be able to Fail, based on our ability to not meet our Needs, we experience ourselves as separate from God -- for we know automatically and without question that God cannot fail at anything. Since we experience that WE have failed, we conclude that we must be something "other than God."
"Other than" is a big phrase. It presupposes that there is more than ONE of That Which Is. That presupposition is false. It is inaccurate. There is one One Thing, and all things are part of the One Thing That Is.
In the world of our Illusion we do not know this. We imagine there to be all sorts of things that are separate from each other, and we play out this imagining in our moment-to-moment experience. We think that there is something "other than" our Divine Self, and that WE ARE PART OF THAT.
The idea of Separation is the biggest single stumbling block to our living the lives of peace, harmony and happiness for which we say we have dreamed.
In my own life I experience this every day. I see others in pain, and do not feel it. I see the world in trouble, and do not heal it. I perceive people, places and things as if they were separate from me -- and I treat them that way.
I would never treat the earth, or my possessions, and certainly not other people, the way that I do if I thought that those people and those things were me, and I was them. If I thought I was doing to myself what I do to others, many -- perhaps most -- of my behaviours would fall away.
THE FOURTH ILLUSION IS THAT INSUFFICIENCY EXISTS.
Because we have thought of ourselves as separate from God and separate from each other, we have concluded that there is "not enough" of everything to go around. Before we entered into the Illusion of Separation we had the direct experience that there is enough. There is always enough for ONE.
Yet when more than one of us has to split whatever it is we are looking at, in that moment we get to imagine that our portion is "not enough." This is an illusion, pure and simple. Yet for me it has been a powerful illusion, one whose impact has run practically half my life.
First of all, a thing can't be "insufficient" when Who I Am wants and needs nothing. But even if I imagined that I DID want and need something, I would have to imagine that there was more than One of me in order to conclude that there was "not enough" for me.
It is easy to see, now, how one Illusion builds upon another. Without the first three illusions the fourth illusion would be impossible. And without the fourth illusion, the fifth would be impossible as well.
THE FIFTH ILLUSION IS THAT REQUIREMENT EXISTS.
There is only one thing that I think about if I engage in the illusion that there is "not enough." I have to think that it is possible for me to have "enough," and that there is something I can do to make sure that I do. There is something that "having enough" REQUIRES. There must be something I can be, do, or have in order to qualify for sufficiency. All I have to do is figure out what that Requirement is.
Oh, and by the way, because I imagine that I am required by Life to be, do and have certain things in order to have the "stuff of which there is not enough," I have gotten into the habit of requiring YOU to have certain things as well, if you want some of the things that I have -- like love, power, money, or any of the things of which there is not enough.
Thus, a system of "pay up or get out" has been set up by the human race -- and not just in commerce, either. This scenario plays itself out all across the human landscape. And it all derives from the 5th Illusion.
THE SIXTH ILLUSION IS THAT JUDGMENT EXISTS.
The logic for Judgment in the universe is impeccable -- IF we accept, and embrace as True, the first five illusions. For if there is such a thing as Requirement, how will we know if anyone has MET the Requirement? A system of Judgment MUST be put in place, so that this determination can be made.
Based on this logic, we have created in our mind a God who judges us, and we have created in our life on earth a judgment system -- or what we sometimes call a Justice System -- to make sure, in both instances, that the Requirement has been met for us to receive enough of the Stuff of Which There is Not Enough.
In the case of God, we imagine that this means a "place in Heaven." This is something that we have to "earn," because there are "not enough" places to go around for anyone and everyone! You have to "meet the Requirement. "
God only knows what that requirement is, however. It changes from religion to religion, from time to time and from place to place. Presumably, it changes from planet to planet as well.
This can all get very confusing, but it does keep the human race on its toes. Unfortunately, not with regard to what people do, but at least with regard to how much they worry about what they have done.
CONDEMNATION IS THE SEVENTH ILLUSION.
Of course, if there is a system of Judgment in place, there must be a Reward for those who are judged to have met the Requirement, and a Punishment for those who have not.
Thus, we have come up with the idea that Condemnation Exists. This has been very useful to me in my own life. Since I imagine that God condemns us (for not meeting needs He never had, and for not giving Him things he never required), I imagine that I should be able to do the same with my neighbors, as well.
So, I have joined in creating a very judgmental society, which condemns people with impunity --sometimes sentencing them to death, and using God as my justification for doing so. It is "God's Law," I tell myself. An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth.
Such a "law" was never devised by God, but that hasn't mattered to me. My Illusions allow me to think that such a law was devised. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
THE EIGHTH ILLUSION IS THAT CONDITIONALITY EXISTS.
There is no condition in the Universe in which the ISNESS does not exist. The ISNESS is just that -- what IS. And What IS simply IS, under all conditions. That is, there is no condition under which It is NOT. Conditionality, therefore, does not exist as the inherent nature of things.
Nonetheless, we imagine that it does. For if Condemnation Exists, then it seems that there must be some "condition" under which we are not okay. That condition is announced and revealed when a Judgment is made as to whether or not we have met the Requirement to receive enough of the stuff of which there is an Insufficiency.
One Illusion follows another, follows another, follows another, creating a matrix of interweaving imaginings, none of which have anything to do with Ultimate Reality.
In my own life, I have used the Illusion of Conditionality as an excuse to add conditions to my love. "I love you IF..." has been a big game I have played. And I played it because I believed that this is the game God has been playing with me.
Only when I realized that Conditionality does not exist as a part of God -- and, therefore, not as a part of Life, nor as a part of Me -- was I able to begin to step away from the Illusion. I was then able to live with it, but not within it -- which is an entirely different matter. When I lived within the Illusion, I thought for sure that....
SUPERIORITY EXISTS....
...but this is the Ninth Illusion. A thing cannot be superior to itself, and, if there is only One of us, superiority does not exist.
My own commentary on this illusion is very painful for me, for I have imagined myself to be superior to many others in many moments of my life. Far too many for me to feel comfortable with myself. Far too many even today, when I know better.
Yes, this Illusion has gripped me, really gripped me, in a powerful way. It has been the most difficult one from which to step away. It has been the hardest to release.
Judgment -Condemnation- Conditionality- Superiority. Brother, have they been a part of my life.
Yet the Master entertains none of these illusions as part of her reality. The Master knows Who We All Are, and What We All Are, and, by definition, eliminates the possibility of Superiority from our Single Unified Expression and Experience.
The Master looks down on no one. The Master will judge not, and neither condemn. The Master loves without condition, not only other people, but Life Itself, and everything IN life. For the Master knows that everything in Life is in him, since he IS that which Life is, and there is nothing that Life IS that he is not.
This is not a small understanding. It changes everything. It makes anger and hurt and disappointment and revenge and judgment and condemnation and superiority impossible.
Those things are only possible in the world of our illusion. And the world of our illusion is only possible if we are ignorant of it. That is, if we KNOW our world is an illusion, then that which is illusory about it disappears, and what is seen is what is Real. What "is" is what IS.
THE TENTH ILLUSION IS THAT IGNORANCE EXISTS.
This is the Illusion which says that you do not know that all the rest of this is an illusion. Not only that you do NOT know, but that you cannot know. That is because you are Ignorant of the Truth of what IS.
Yet this Ignorance is an illusion. It is not Real. Were Ignorance Real, then what is Real would not be Real, for you could not Know It, and the only thing that is Real is something you can Know.
By definition, the "unknowable" is not Real. It cannot be. All things that are Real are Knowable. Remember that always. All things that are Real are ultimately Knowable. They have to be. Otherwise, they cannot be Real.
Therefore, Ignorance does not exist. It is an illusion.
You may be thinking right now, as you conclude the reading of this commentary, that you do not "know" half of what I am talking about here. But you do. At some deep level, you not only do, but you KNOW that you do.
Grasp this truth now, and embrace it, making it part of your here-and-now experience. When you do, you take the first step on the road to mastery, the first step on the path to COMMUNION WITH GOD.
~ NDW
From: Weekly Bulletin #376 * * NOTE: If you would like to send a comment or a question to Neale here at the Weekly Bulletin, you may do so by addressing an email to: weeklybulletinrespo nse@... *
Neale Donald Walsch (http://www.cwg. org) Neale Donald Walsch is a modern day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch the world in profound ways. With an early interest in religion and a deeply felt connection to spirituality, Neale spent the majority of his life thriving professionally, yet searching for spiritual meaning before beginning his now famous conversation with God. His With God series of books has been translated into 34 languages, touching millions of lives and inspiring important changes in their day-to-day lives. *
by Neal Donald Walsch
============ ========= ====
The basic thesis of "Communion with God" is that the world is living a series of grand Illusions. These are, the book says, the Ten Illusions of Humans. In this Personal Commentary I would like to give you my experience and my viewpoint of these Illusions. The list of Illusions itself may be found in the book.
Communion with God says that...
THE FIRST ILLUSION OF HUMANS IS THE ILLUSION OF NEED.
We imagine that Need Exists. Because we imagine this, we imagine a God who has needs.
No such God exists in the Universe, but we think that one does, and that OUR God is that God. The idea that Need Exists is a fascinating thought, but it has nothing to do with Ultimate Reality.
In Ultimate Reality, everything simply is. Things exist in the ISNESS. That which IS, IS, and that which is NOT, is NOT, and nothing which IS needs or requires that which is NOT. Indeed, in Ultimate Truth there is NOTHING which is NOT, since everything that IS, IS. This includes everything that could possibly BE.
It is not possible for anything that is NOT to BE, because if it can be conceived or thought of in any way, then it is something that IS--since thoughts are things. And if it is thus a part of the ISNESS, then it cannot be something which is NOT.
Given this truth, it is not possible for That Which IS to "need" anything. It has everything it could possibly need, because it IS everything it could possibly have. The idea that Need Exists is an illusion.
And the idea that GOD needs something is likewise not only an illusion, but a strange one at that. For if God is God as we understand God to be, the very thought of God needing something is crazy on the surface of it. It is illogical in the extreme, unless our definition and understanding of God is incorrect.
Now, the idea that God needs nothing is not a small thought. It punctures holes a mile wide in virtually every major theology on the planet. Because if God does not need anything, then God is in want of nothing. And a God who wants nothing has been impossible for our earthly religions to imagine.
Yet this is the True Nature of Deity. God wants and needs nothing.
This changes everything -- from The Ten Commandments on down -- as even the casual student of theology must realize.
THE SECOND ILLUSION OF HUMANS IS THAT FAILURE EXISTS.
Of course, Failure cannot exist if Need does not exist, because if The One Being needs nothing, inasmuch as it IS, and therefore HAS, Everything, it cannot possibly "fail" to be, do or have ANYthing.
Therefore, Failure does not exist. There are only experiences in life that WE call "failure," based on judgments we have made, as well as deep misunderstandings we have held about just exactly Who We Are.
Let's look at this a minute.
If Who We Are is God, then it stands to reason that we cannot "fail" at anything. Everything we are doing must be an act of Pure Creation by the Purest Creator, and therefore Perfect. All Creation is perfect, and all outcomes are perfect, because there is nothing that The ISNESS needs or wants.
If we do not remember this-if, in our state of human amnesia, we forget this ultimate truth-it could seem as if "imperfection" exists. This illusion would then appear to be real, and some of us would call it a "failure." In our reality, something has "failed" to be perfect exactly as it is. Yet what would cause a thing to be "imperfect"? Something would have to be missing or wanting, yes? And God misses and wants nothing. Therefore, FAILURE IS A RELATIVE THING, relative to who and what one imagines oneself to be.
If you imagine yourself to be God, then everything you are creating is perfect and without flaw, failure or need, because you created it. The simply act of creation makes it perfect, because it is impossible to create anything that is missing anything-since God is All There Is, and, therefore, the concept of something "missing" is and cannot be part of Ultimate Reality.
With the absence of Need comes the absence of Failure.
This is something that is not generally understood. Human society has had a difficult time wrapping itself around this concept. Those humans who have embraced it fully have become Masters.
ILLUSION # 3 IS THAT SEPARATION EXISTS.
As soon as we imagine ourselves to be able to Fail, based on our ability to not meet our Needs, we experience ourselves as separate from God -- for we know automatically and without question that God cannot fail at anything. Since we experience that WE have failed, we conclude that we must be something "other than God."
"Other than" is a big phrase. It presupposes that there is more than ONE of That Which Is. That presupposition is false. It is inaccurate. There is one One Thing, and all things are part of the One Thing That Is.
In the world of our Illusion we do not know this. We imagine there to be all sorts of things that are separate from each other, and we play out this imagining in our moment-to-moment experience. We think that there is something "other than" our Divine Self, and that WE ARE PART OF THAT.
The idea of Separation is the biggest single stumbling block to our living the lives of peace, harmony and happiness for which we say we have dreamed.
In my own life I experience this every day. I see others in pain, and do not feel it. I see the world in trouble, and do not heal it. I perceive people, places and things as if they were separate from me -- and I treat them that way.
I would never treat the earth, or my possessions, and certainly not other people, the way that I do if I thought that those people and those things were me, and I was them. If I thought I was doing to myself what I do to others, many -- perhaps most -- of my behaviours would fall away.
THE FOURTH ILLUSION IS THAT INSUFFICIENCY EXISTS.
Because we have thought of ourselves as separate from God and separate from each other, we have concluded that there is "not enough" of everything to go around. Before we entered into the Illusion of Separation we had the direct experience that there is enough. There is always enough for ONE.
Yet when more than one of us has to split whatever it is we are looking at, in that moment we get to imagine that our portion is "not enough." This is an illusion, pure and simple. Yet for me it has been a powerful illusion, one whose impact has run practically half my life.
First of all, a thing can't be "insufficient" when Who I Am wants and needs nothing. But even if I imagined that I DID want and need something, I would have to imagine that there was more than One of me in order to conclude that there was "not enough" for me.
It is easy to see, now, how one Illusion builds upon another. Without the first three illusions the fourth illusion would be impossible. And without the fourth illusion, the fifth would be impossible as well.
THE FIFTH ILLUSION IS THAT REQUIREMENT EXISTS.
There is only one thing that I think about if I engage in the illusion that there is "not enough." I have to think that it is possible for me to have "enough," and that there is something I can do to make sure that I do. There is something that "having enough" REQUIRES. There must be something I can be, do, or have in order to qualify for sufficiency. All I have to do is figure out what that Requirement is.
Oh, and by the way, because I imagine that I am required by Life to be, do and have certain things in order to have the "stuff of which there is not enough," I have gotten into the habit of requiring YOU to have certain things as well, if you want some of the things that I have -- like love, power, money, or any of the things of which there is not enough.
Thus, a system of "pay up or get out" has been set up by the human race -- and not just in commerce, either. This scenario plays itself out all across the human landscape. And it all derives from the 5th Illusion.
THE SIXTH ILLUSION IS THAT JUDGMENT EXISTS.
The logic for Judgment in the universe is impeccable -- IF we accept, and embrace as True, the first five illusions. For if there is such a thing as Requirement, how will we know if anyone has MET the Requirement? A system of Judgment MUST be put in place, so that this determination can be made.
Based on this logic, we have created in our mind a God who judges us, and we have created in our life on earth a judgment system -- or what we sometimes call a Justice System -- to make sure, in both instances, that the Requirement has been met for us to receive enough of the Stuff of Which There is Not Enough.
In the case of God, we imagine that this means a "place in Heaven." This is something that we have to "earn," because there are "not enough" places to go around for anyone and everyone! You have to "meet the Requirement. "
God only knows what that requirement is, however. It changes from religion to religion, from time to time and from place to place. Presumably, it changes from planet to planet as well.
This can all get very confusing, but it does keep the human race on its toes. Unfortunately, not with regard to what people do, but at least with regard to how much they worry about what they have done.
CONDEMNATION IS THE SEVENTH ILLUSION.
Of course, if there is a system of Judgment in place, there must be a Reward for those who are judged to have met the Requirement, and a Punishment for those who have not.
Thus, we have come up with the idea that Condemnation Exists. This has been very useful to me in my own life. Since I imagine that God condemns us (for not meeting needs He never had, and for not giving Him things he never required), I imagine that I should be able to do the same with my neighbors, as well.
So, I have joined in creating a very judgmental society, which condemns people with impunity --sometimes sentencing them to death, and using God as my justification for doing so. It is "God's Law," I tell myself. An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth.
Such a "law" was never devised by God, but that hasn't mattered to me. My Illusions allow me to think that such a law was devised. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
THE EIGHTH ILLUSION IS THAT CONDITIONALITY EXISTS.
There is no condition in the Universe in which the ISNESS does not exist. The ISNESS is just that -- what IS. And What IS simply IS, under all conditions. That is, there is no condition under which It is NOT. Conditionality, therefore, does not exist as the inherent nature of things.
Nonetheless, we imagine that it does. For if Condemnation Exists, then it seems that there must be some "condition" under which we are not okay. That condition is announced and revealed when a Judgment is made as to whether or not we have met the Requirement to receive enough of the stuff of which there is an Insufficiency.
One Illusion follows another, follows another, follows another, creating a matrix of interweaving imaginings, none of which have anything to do with Ultimate Reality.
In my own life, I have used the Illusion of Conditionality as an excuse to add conditions to my love. "I love you IF..." has been a big game I have played. And I played it because I believed that this is the game God has been playing with me.
Only when I realized that Conditionality does not exist as a part of God -- and, therefore, not as a part of Life, nor as a part of Me -- was I able to begin to step away from the Illusion. I was then able to live with it, but not within it -- which is an entirely different matter. When I lived within the Illusion, I thought for sure that....
SUPERIORITY EXISTS....
...but this is the Ninth Illusion. A thing cannot be superior to itself, and, if there is only One of us, superiority does not exist.
My own commentary on this illusion is very painful for me, for I have imagined myself to be superior to many others in many moments of my life. Far too many for me to feel comfortable with myself. Far too many even today, when I know better.
Yes, this Illusion has gripped me, really gripped me, in a powerful way. It has been the most difficult one from which to step away. It has been the hardest to release.
Judgment -Condemnation- Conditionality- Superiority. Brother, have they been a part of my life.
Yet the Master entertains none of these illusions as part of her reality. The Master knows Who We All Are, and What We All Are, and, by definition, eliminates the possibility of Superiority from our Single Unified Expression and Experience.
The Master looks down on no one. The Master will judge not, and neither condemn. The Master loves without condition, not only other people, but Life Itself, and everything IN life. For the Master knows that everything in Life is in him, since he IS that which Life is, and there is nothing that Life IS that he is not.
This is not a small understanding. It changes everything. It makes anger and hurt and disappointment and revenge and judgment and condemnation and superiority impossible.
Those things are only possible in the world of our illusion. And the world of our illusion is only possible if we are ignorant of it. That is, if we KNOW our world is an illusion, then that which is illusory about it disappears, and what is seen is what is Real. What "is" is what IS.
THE TENTH ILLUSION IS THAT IGNORANCE EXISTS.
This is the Illusion which says that you do not know that all the rest of this is an illusion. Not only that you do NOT know, but that you cannot know. That is because you are Ignorant of the Truth of what IS.
Yet this Ignorance is an illusion. It is not Real. Were Ignorance Real, then what is Real would not be Real, for you could not Know It, and the only thing that is Real is something you can Know.
By definition, the "unknowable" is not Real. It cannot be. All things that are Real are Knowable. Remember that always. All things that are Real are ultimately Knowable. They have to be. Otherwise, they cannot be Real.
Therefore, Ignorance does not exist. It is an illusion.
You may be thinking right now, as you conclude the reading of this commentary, that you do not "know" half of what I am talking about here. But you do. At some deep level, you not only do, but you KNOW that you do.
Grasp this truth now, and embrace it, making it part of your here-and-now experience. When you do, you take the first step on the road to mastery, the first step on the path to COMMUNION WITH GOD.
~ NDW
From: Weekly Bulletin #376 * * NOTE: If you would like to send a comment or a question to Neale here at the Weekly Bulletin, you may do so by addressing an email to: weeklybulletinrespo nse@... *
Neale Donald Walsch (http://www.cwg. org) Neale Donald Walsch is a modern day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch the world in profound ways. With an early interest in religion and a deeply felt connection to spirituality, Neale spent the majority of his life thriving professionally, yet searching for spiritual meaning before beginning his now famous conversation with God. His With God series of books has been translated into 34 languages, touching millions of lives and inspiring important changes in their day-to-day lives. *
_________________
to fail to live in harmony is wath bring us natural disater
never resit go with the flow what you resite persite whhen you resite something you contribute to its existance
Row, Roll, Row yer boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily
Life is but a DREAM.
So be your own hero.
AND MAKE IT COUNT!
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily
Life is but a DREAM.
So be your own hero.
AND MAKE IT COUNT!
