Mike's commentary · Seth Speaks, Chapter 14

The "Introduction" and "Key Points" for this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not things Mike said during the lecture. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the parts Mike read aloud).

Introduction

This chapter discusses the world and the multidimensional God: the physical universe arises from other dimensions, and history is only one of infinite possibilities; All That Is is the multidimensional creator, impersonal and omnipresent. Through the creation story in Conversations with God, it explains that the Taiji splits into yin and yang and that which is neither yin nor yang, creating relativity and time, from which the soul arises, its purpose being to experience itself. The soul's task is to remember its true identity and to create in the physical world. The present state of the world stems from dualistic opposition; individual and collective consciousness create experience, and there are no victims, only creators.

Key Points of This Chapter

• The physical universe rises out of other dimensions; human history is only one thread among infinite possibilities, and evolution also has many possible lines.
• All That Is is a multidimensional creator, impersonal, both within all realities and greater than their sum.
• The Taiji creates relativity, time, and the soul by splitting into yin and yang and neither-yin-nor-yang, for the purpose of experiencing itself.
• The soul does not come to the physical world to learn, but to remember its true identity, and through creating experience becomes its true self.
• The present state of the world arises from dualistic opposition and collective consciousness; individuals and collectives create experience; there are no victims, only creators, and only by changing inner perception can experience be changed.

Main Text

Chapter 14: The Story of Creation and the Multidimensional God

This chapter focuses on how this world came to be created, and what that most primordial god we speak of, the one who created this world, or All That Is, is actually like.

The title of this chapter is "The Story of Creation, and the Multidimensional God," and this is a name Seth gave himself. Then he even asked, what do you think of the name, and Rob thought it was great.

He began by explaining that human beings come from a higher multidimensional entity, and from within this entity our lives are generated, our present physical world is generated, and we are still constantly drawing energy from that unconscious source we do not know. Our present physical universe is the same way: it arises out of other dimensions, and at the same time it has its own source in other realms of reality, born from there, and drawing energy from there as well.

Session 559

Just as any individual's life rises out of dimensions that are hidden beyond what the physical body can easily reach.

That is to say, our physical body, such a life, rises out of dimensions of a higher order.

In the same way, the present physical universe as you know it has also risen out of other dimensions.

It likewise has its source in deeper levels of reality, and from them it draws its energy.

The history you know represents only a single light upon which the energy of our human race is focused.

He describes our entire human history as a single light. We can only perceive physical reality, and when we do not understand physical reality, we automatically confine our questions to physical reality in search of answers -- according to him, that is just one tiny light, and the light is produced in an instant.

When you contemplate the shape of God, you say without thinking that it is the creator of that light.

But if you truly understand what this light is, then you will understand the nature of reality.

The history you think you know represents only one of infinite possibilities, only that one possibility in which you are presently immersed.

Our history has many possibilities that exist in parallel, but we only recognize one of them, and we live within that one. It does not represent the entire life of our human species, nor can it represent the sum of all physical activity, nor can it explain the story of the biological evolution and progress of physical beings -- including their civilizations, their joys, their skills, and their triumphs.

Reality is far more varied, far richer, and beyond description than you can presently assume or understand.

This reality includes not only our physical universe, but also all kinds of nonphysical universes -- all the various dimensions, the sum of everything. It is far more complex than we imagine, far richer, and cannot be described in words.

Just as the evolution you think of, and which your scientists classify, represents only one of the possible lines of evolution, that one possibility in which you are presently immersed.

We think that from single-celled organisms all the way to the emergence of human beings, the evolution of life on Earth followed this one path. He says this is only one possibility in which you are immersed, and at the same time many other possibilities are also taking place.

Therefore there are many other equally valid evolutionary developments that have occurred, are occurring, or will occur, all within other probable physical reality systems.

That is to say, outside our physical world, there are many other probable physical worlds that exist, and within those worlds there are all kinds of different evolutionary developments. Perhaps in another physical world, in another probable evolution, the dinosaurs have not yet gone extinct.

The number of possible developments is so vast, the possibilities so endless, that they could never appear within one slender framework of reality.

Because there are too many possibilities, every branch of evolution is a probable existence, rather than the single-threaded kind we have.

You imagine that this evolutionary system you know is the only one.

This is the naivety and pride of our human race -- to think that, concretely speaking, there could not be a second one. But within the physical reality we know, there are hints and clues about the nature of other physical realities. Right within our physical bodies, there are faculties we have not used. These faculties are of little use to our physical reality, but in other physical realities they are useful; they could have come to the fore, they could have evolved, but in this particular probability of ours they did not.

I am speaking of developments on Earth, and the many realities that cluster around the Earth you know.

When he says "around," he does not mean outside the Earth -- it is right on the Earth. Everywhere on Earth there are various other physical realities that exist, but you cannot see them, you cannot feel them.

No line of evolution is a dead end.

If a species disappears or goes extinct in our system, that evolutionary possibility will emerge in another system.

All probable materializations of life and consciousness have had their glorious days in the past, and have created the conditions in which they could reproduce.

Life and consciousness -- he mentions two kinds: one material, one nonmaterial. All of these materializations have had their periods of flourishing. And their days, in our terms, are eternal. At every possible level of evolution, there is a state in which it reaches its peak, and in that state the life condition and the consciousness condition both have the ability to create their own reproductive environment. We think that glory is only a point in time, and once it passes it is gone, but that point never disappears, so for us it is eternal.

In this chapter, what he discusses is mainly about our own planet and solar system, but it can also apply to all parts of the physical universe. As for the existence of those realities beyond our human cognition, that is introduced in another book -- the Seth book The "Unknown" Reality, in two volumes -- which introduces all kinds of probable realities that exist beyond our cognition, and how to go into those realities and explore them. That is another book, outside the scope of our discussion of Earth and the solar system.

So you perceive only one particular delicate balance of the physical world, and a unique portion of it.

Many scientists will say that the process by which life was nurtured on Earth is a miracle among miracles -- the right temperature, climate, various elements, all kinds of conditions, including the entire set of circumstances required for evolution. If all these conditions had to be satisfied, the probability of that happening in the universe is rarer than winning the lottery. What is emphasized here is that we have only focused on one particular, delicate, balanced, and unique portion of the physical world, which is the world we now live in.

You are not only a creature of flesh and blood; you are also a creature that has risen out of a particular probable dimension.

You are not only a physical being; the place where your soul resides -- the previous chapter discussed how you enter the womb, how incarnation happens -- you rise out of that particular probable dimension, and are born into a dimension of reality that is suited to your development, that is rich and full, and that has unlimited possibilities for growth.

If you now have any intuitive understanding of the nature of the entity or the whole self, you will understand.

Through the earlier introductions, you can vaguely and intuitively sense that the entity has placed this physical body of yours in a place where certain abilities, insights, and experiences can be realized, in a position where your unique kind of consciousness can be nourished. Within this multidimensional environment, your soul, your consciousness itself, is multidimensional -- your physical body is a three-dimensional existence, but your essential being is multidimensional.

Your most insignificant experience will cause repercussions far greater than your brain can imagine.

Make sure to underline this sentence. Do not think that the things you experience are insignificant. Do not think that you must accomplish great deeds, big projects, big business, or participate in major historical events in order to gain experience. That is not so. Any tiny experience will cause repercussions far greater than your brain can imagine.

So look at those who truly practice the Way, those who have attained it -- they do not go off doing great things; they just do the small, trivial things of daily life. Many enlightened people in Zen say that before enlightenment they chopped wood, carried water, and drank tea, and after enlightenment they still chopped wood, carried water, and drank tea -- doing the same things as before. It is from these daily, insignificant experiences that they obtain repercussions beyond reality, repercussions you cannot imagine.

So because if you strongly concentrate your attention upon what seems to be the smallest possible aspect of reality.

As far as our three-dimensional world is concerned, according to his analogy, within the entire universe it is simply the smallest possible thing. Even if we only count this physical universe, we focus only on this one planet -- the solar system is just one of countless star systems in the Milky Way, and within the entire Milky Way there are billions, hundreds of millions of such solar systems¹, and the Milky Way is just one of hundreds of millions of galaxies². By extension, our physical universe is only a very small part, not to mention the many nonphysical universes that also exist. You think this world is very big, but in their overall view, it is as small as the point of a needle.

Although you seem to be completely immersed in it, that is actually only the most surface element of the self being so entranced.

You think you are focused only on such a small physical world, but in fact this is only the world recognized by your surface elements. Meanwhile your multidimensional world, without your awareness, without your consciousness, is experiencing a far larger entire reality.

Here, I do not like to use the word "surface," but I have to use it in order to suggest the self.

What is suggested is that this whole self or entity as a whole still has many portions focused elsewhere. In those other dimensions, there are different yous -- some of them are as entranced by their realities as you are entranced by yours. And the entity, that whole self, that largest you, the true multidimensional self, knows all of its experiences -- not only your many reincarnations in this world, but all of its experiences on other levels as well. These other portions of itself, including of course the physical you that you know, can to some degree obtain this knowledge. That is to say, the knowledge obtained by the entity, you can also obtain, because you and it are one.

Eventually, in your terms, becoming fully conscious.

The different reincarnational personality fragments, the selves in different reality spaces, the selves in different parallel universes, will eventually become fully conscious. But the word "eventually" is a human term -- so-called "eventually" implies a gradual process in time, understanding bit by bit. Actually it is not "eventually"; it is known all at once, in an instant, rather than acquired little by little through learning.

And this consciousness will automatically change what they now appear to be, and will add to the diversity of existence.

When you perceive all these experiences of the entity through the unconscious state, in dreams, or through other means, it will automatically -- remember, he uses the word "automatically," no conscious effort on your part is required -- change what you now appear to be. When you say you want to connect with the inner self, to make contact with the entity, when the communication between you becomes smoother and smoother, then the essence of this present you will undergo a fundamental change, and this change is automatic; you do not need to consciously do any kind of homework. All those experiences from other dimensions and levels will add to the diversity of your present existence -- right now you can only experience this one present life, this one identity, this one point in time, only this one lifetime, this one gender, this one life scene, these few decades of experience, which is rather monotonous. That is not the case; you can enrich it through this means.

This first section of the chapter is very short, but the issue it addresses is very core -- how the entire universe, including the physical universe and the nonphysical universe, came into being. He does not explain this point thoroughly, because he cannot explain it thoroughly; the next two sections will discuss it further. Regarding this part, he has two books specifically devoted to it, namely Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, which is also one of the most difficult books in the entire Seth material. The Seth Speaks we are reading today is the simplest book in the entire Seth material, apart from The Way Toward Health -- which does not have much substantive content -- among all these books, this one is the simplest, because it basically just touches on points without going into things thoroughly or completely. He only gives you a general cosmology and outlook on life, without giving you the fine details. As for how the universe actually came to be, how we were born out of All That Is, including how All That Is itself was born, in that book he uses a great deal of space and ink, bit by bit, in this manner that defies description, to describe this matter.

Just like many classical texts -- whether the Tao Te Ching, Buddhism, or many other classics -- when it comes to the first cause of the universe, none of them can describe it in words. Seth insists on describing it, trying every possible means, using all kinds of methods and language to describe it, but even using every possible human linguistic method, it is still obscure and hard to understand. That book is almost like a book from heaven -- you look at every paragraph, every chapter, and feel like you can understand it, but when you close the book, you still do not know what he said, and you still do not understand the basic principles and process of the birth of the universe.

Why is the entire Seth material important, and where does its systematic value lie? It is a body of material about the mysteries of the entire universe, not just about solving simple personal life problems. Of course it can also solve problems of unsuccessful relationships, obstacles in personal development, and health issues -- Seth discusses and studies those things in passing, as a side matter -- but what Seth wants to reveal even more is the truth of this universe. So at this level, we will not go into it deeply today, but I want to give everyone a general concept. I cannot say that after I finish speaking, your concept of the entire universe will still be muddled and vague.

Here I borrow from another book, Conversations with God, and use the content of this book to give everyone a general understanding of the origin of the universe. Once you have this overall concept, when you later read the Seth books and these materials, you will have a basic background and a basic framework. When we place questions within that background and framework to understand them, it will become much easier and simpler. Otherwise, when we discuss certain extremely abstruse questions, without a background and framework, you have no reference point and no place to focus. The things we ordinarily discuss are easy to understand because we can find reference points -- new knowledge is certainly the sum, extension, or expansion of several pieces of old knowledge. But when what you are discussing belongs to another dimension, not something within our three-dimensional space, you have no reference point, so it is hard to understand. Therefore we need to find a reference point for ourselves.

The Account of the Origin of the Universe in Conversations with God

Conversations with God is a book published in the 1990s³, written in several volumes. The author was originally a Christian⁴, but he found that his life had become very miserable, so he wrote a very angry letter to God, the kind that complains about heaven and earth. While writing, he was completely expressing his true feelings, entering a state of self-forgetfulness -- for a believer of many years, cursing God was already unthinkable, but he did it. Then unexpectedly, God began to converse with him at that moment, talking bit by bit, and he recorded what God said to him. Today let us look at what parts of this content can promote and assist our study of Seth.

Let us jump directly to the content that is relevant to us. This is from the first volume of Conversations with God:

We are not here to learn lessons.

God says that we did not come into the world to learn. Then what on earth are we here for?

To remember, and re-create, Who You Really Are.

Not one word of nonsense. Many people ask, what did I come into this world to do, what exactly is the purpose of my reincarnation after reincarnation? The previous chapters discussed reincarnation and the world after death at length; many people understood, but many people are still struggling with it, always wanting a clear and simple answer. Here you are given a clear and simple answer -- this is what you came into the world to do: to remember, and re-create, Who You Really Are.

I have told you this, many times, and you have not believed Me.

Indeed, if you do not create Who You Really Are, you cannot become Who You Really Are.

This is a very interesting, very philosophical sentence.

I am confused.

This is the author speaking -- you sound like a tongue twister: if you do not create Who You Really Are, you cannot become Who You Really Are. Is that not a tongue twister? Let me go back to the topic of school. There are many, many teachers who tell us that life is a school, a great school, and that Earth is even a training ground. Hearing your denial of this view, I am truly surprised.

A school is a place you go if there is something you wish to know that you do not already know.

If you already know something, and merely wish to experience your knowledge -- you already know it, and want to experience it, to practice it -- then there is no need for you to go to a place like school.

What you call life is an opportunity for you to know experientially what you already know conceptually.

That is to say, life gives you an opportunity, through experience, through actual firsthand understanding, to recognize and practice what you have already understood conceptually in your mind. This is somewhat like the Confucian idea of the unity of knowledge and action -- when you know something, you must practice it; you cannot just remain at the level of theory. Buddhism also speaks of actual realization -- when you have learned certain concepts and understood what the Buddha said, you must verify them through actual practice, through real cultivation, and attain them in practice, rather than thinking that "I know it, I understand it, I comprehend it" is enough.

You need learn nothing to do this.

Underline this -- you did not come here to learn; there is nothing you need to learn. You only need to remember the knowledge you already have, and put it into practice, and that is enough. We came to create our world, not to learn knowledge. Do not say, "My knowledge is still insufficient, I still do not understand, I still cannot do it, I must finish learning before I can create" -- you do not need to learn; you already possess all the knowledge right now; you just need to go and do it. Do not give yourself any reasons or excuses; you possess all the strength and ability to create it.

The next passage is very important:

The soul knows all things, from the beginning.

For the soul, nothing is hidden, nothing is unknown. But knowing alone is not enough; what the soul seeks is experience. Through our study of the previous chapters, we also know that the soul, which is the entity, carries all the experiences of all its lifetimes; you already have all the knowledge, so what do you still need to learn? Your task now is to practice it, to create it.

You may know that you are generous, but unless you do something which displays generosity, you have nothing but a concept.

If you have not done any generous act, and yet consider yourself a generous person, that is only a self-concept, not a fact, and not an experience. It is like many people saying, "I am very kind-hearted" -- well, what kind things have you done? You may consider yourself friendly, very nice, but unless you have done something friendly toward someone, all you possess is a concept about yourself.

The sole desire of your soul is to turn its most beautiful concept about itself into its most magnificent experience.

Remember this sentence, underline it -- this is the sole desire of your soul. The soul has an ideal positioning of itself; it takes the most beautiful wish and concept of its most ideal positioning of itself, and turns it into a real, tangible experience and realization -- to do it, not merely to recognize it.

Until a concept becomes an experience, all you have is speculation about yourself.

You think you are a generous person, but it has not been put to the test -- now that the pandemic has arrived, when you are needed to be generous, are you still a generous person? Are you the one who rushes to the front lines, donates supplies, and helps others, or the one who just scrolls through the news every day and complains a bit?

I have been doing the same. I have been speculating about Myself for a very long time. Longer than you and I put together can remember. Longer than the age of the universe times the age of the universe.

God himself was also speculating about "who am I" -- like the movie Jackie Chan starred in, WHO AM I. God speculated for a very, very long time, while the time of experiencing himself was very brief, and by comparison so very fresh.

Then God begins to explain the process of the birth of the universe. This is a very simplified account. It is like the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching, only a few dozen characters, but it speaks of the inner reality of the matter itself, without elaborating -- or one could say it does not know how to elaborate.

In the beginning, that which Is is all there was, and there was nothing else.

Because the translator of this book had a certain foundation in traditional Chinese culture, he used some terms from the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching. You can give this "that which Is" any name; it is only a designation. In the beginning of the universe there was only that which Is, which is what ancient China called the state of undifferentiated chaos. That which Is was everything, and there was nothing else.

Yet that which Is could not know itself. Why? Because that which Is was everything, and there was nothing else in the universe; there was only that which Is, with no reference system, so it could not know itself. For example: place yourself in an infinitely vast universe, with no stars, no sun, no moon, no reference at all -- no mirror, no clock, no watch, just you alone in the vast universe. How would you know yourself? At that time, that which Is was in exactly this state.

Yet that which Is, was not.

Why was that which Is also not? Because it could not recognize its own existence -- it could not recognize its own existence, so it considered itself nonexistent, and this state of considering itself nonexistent is called "not." "Not" is relative to "that which Is." In the state of chaos, that which Is was not -- it could not recognize itself, so it was nothing, it was not.

That Which Is and That Which Is Not: The First Act of Creation

This important concept of that which Is and that which Is Not is used in various ancient myths, literary works, and classics to refer to the origin of time. In the chaotic state of that which Is and that which Is Not, time began from that point.

Although that which Is could not experience itself or feel itself, it could recognize that it was everything in the universe. Yet this was still not enough -- its recognition of its own greatness was conceptual, not experiential; it was a concept. Just as I said earlier: you are a generous person, but that is only a concept; you have not experienced it.

Yet the experience of itself was what it desired. Because it knew, because it wanted to know, what it felt like to be so magnificent.

This is very anthropomorphic. I said it is an extremely simplified account, and he used a great deal of anthropomorphic elements -- be sure to remember this. But you understand, this is for the sake of our understanding; the actual real situation is not like this, not something to be understood with human thinking, and it does not contain these anthropomorphic elements. He tells it in an anthropomorphic way only so that you can understand.

So he said: I am everything in this universe, so I have this concept of my own greatness, but I cannot recognize my own greatness, nor can I experience my own greatness. What does this greatness actually feel like? Everyone says I am great, I am everything of everything, so where exactly does my greatness lie?

Nevertheless, this was still impossible -- what was still impossible? Because it had no way to experience what greatness is. This word is a very relative term: greatness necessarily implies that there is something that is not great. Since there is greatness, there must be something that is not great. Therefore that which Is would have no way to recognize the feeling of greatness.

Because it is relative, it could not recognize the feeling of greatness unless that which Is Not appeared. Only when that which Is Not appeared could it recognize its own greatness. Therefore in the chaotic state, that which Is was that which Is Not -- he said it again, elaborating on the previous sentence.

He asked the author: "Do you understand?" The author said: "I think I understand." He actually did not understand. God said, fine, very well, whether you understand or not, I will continue.

That which Is had already recognized that there was nothing else in the universe besides itself. Therefore it had no way, and could not possibly, recognize itself from any reference point outside itself. It had no reference point, no object of comparison, and could not know itself -- this is very difficult.

Such a reference point did not exist. What was the only reference point? It was the space within itself, the consciousness of that which Is and that which Is Not. This consciousness of that which Is and that which Is Not was the reference point. It was that which Is, and it was also that which Is Not -- it was everything, and it was also nothing at all. In this state, this conceptual recognition of itself as that which Is and that which Is Not was its only reference point.

What reference point? It was the consciousness of self and not-self: I am that which Is, and not-self is that which Is Not. This was its only consciousness, its only reference point. But that which Is thought: no, I still want to experience myself; I cannot merely recognize this -- now that I have this reference point, how do I go about knowing myself?

Still, that which Is desired to know itself experientially.

This energy of wanting to know itself was the energy of that which Is. This pure energy, formless, soundless, colorless, and therefore unknown to anyone -- because you cannot see it; it is formless, soundless, and colorless. The Tao Te Ching has already said this many times, and other classics have also said it: this primordial energy, the purest energy, is exactly in such a state, with nothing at all, just pure energy.

It desired to know its own supreme magnificence experientially.

Who is this energy? This energy is that Taiji, the original All That Is. We call it Taiji, you can call it All That Is, it is the same principle. This most primordial energy wanted to know its own supreme greatness through experience.

It understood that to reach that goal, it had to use internal reference points.

So it very correctly deduced—it is very intelligent, All That Is is very intelligent—that each part of itself must necessarily be smaller than the whole. Actually, this does not even require intelligence; everyone knows that if you divide yourself into many parts, each small part must be smaller than the whole. So it understood: I cannot know this supreme greatness, so I can only divide myself into small parts, and then one small part of me can know the whole. Because the smaller self is, after all, smaller than the whole self, and because it is small, it can know that which is great.

So it realized: as long as it split into parts, each part smaller than the whole could see the other parts, and thereby see its greatness.

Its idea was quite unusual, right? I will divide myself into small pieces. So if I split into two halves, can this half see the other half? Then I can know myself, right? So it split into two halves, and it began to divide itself.

In that glorious moment... (Taiji began to divide itself)

He called it a "glorious moment"—that is when the universe began to be born. What did this glorious moment do? It first became yin and yang, and yin and yang were thus produced. You could also call them this and that. We can call them whatever we like; anyway, it split into two parts, and opposition was thus produced. So yin and yang appeared for the first time, separated from each other, this and that were divided. Yet they also existed simultaneously, and coexisting with them was also that which is neither yin nor yang.

This is the Dao giving birth to one, one giving birth to two, two giving birth to three, and three giving birth to all things⁵. From the original Taiji it divided into two; two is yin and yang; there is also three, and three is that which is neither yin nor yang. Look at the state in the yin-yang diagram—it does not just draw one black and one white; within the black there is a white dot, within the white there is a black dot. It is always a state of neither yin nor yang.

Three elements began to appear, and they appeared suddenly—remember, suddenly. Because as soon as it split, they appeared. As soon as there is a split, these three things appear: the first is yin, the second is yang, and the third is that which is neither yin nor yang. The third, that which is neither yin nor yang, may not seem very necessary, but it is the necessary condition for the existence of yin and yang—remember this firmly: without that which is neither yin nor yang, there would be neither yin nor yang.

Taiji is the nothingness that gives birth to being.

It gives birth to being from nothingness, the nothingness that births being, the emptiness that births substance, the smallness that births greatness—this is Taiji.

It asked, "Do you understand?" He said, "I can still follow up to this point. I think I can understand. Really, you may not believe it, but your explanation is so clear that I think I actually understand a little." He believed he actually understood a little. Then it said, "I will continue."

Some people call this nothingness that gives birth to being God, but saying so is not accurate.

Many people regard this nothingness that gives birth to all things, or emptiness—form is emptiness, emptiness is form—as All That Is, as God. It said that saying so is not accurate. You must remember this: because the implication is that if you regard nothingness as God, then there exists something that is not God. If you treat nothingness as God, then what about all those things that are not nothingness? I am all things; how could there still be an existence that is not me? Whether tangible or intangible—it earlier called itself intangible self-respect—whether tangible or intangible, there is none; I am all things. If I am all things, how could there still be an existence that is not nothingness?

So in Eastern mythology, God is defined as emptiness or nothingness. In ancient China, we often say God is what? God is defined as nothingness and emptiness, Taiji and Taixu—these are what we often define. Western mythology, on the other hand, holds that everything tangible is God. In essence, both are wrong—remember, both are essentially wrong. What is correct? Some hold that God is both Taiji and Taixu; their understanding is the correct one. God is both Taiji and Taixu—this is the correct understanding.

Duality: God's Greatest Gift to Itself

After creating yin and yang, God could finally know itself—having split into two parts, there was finally this possibility of knowing itself. In that instant when the great fission occurred within, God created relativity. In that instant, relativity came into being, and yin and yang came into being.

This was God's greatest gift to itself.

Therefore mutual relationship, this relativity, this duality, is the greatest gift God gave to you humans. It said this point would be discussed in detail later, so it set it aside for now. This duality is the greatest gift God created and gave to humanity.

It thus produced all things from nothingness. This was a spiritual event. What your scientists call the Big Bang theory—our so-called, adding "so-called"—the so-called Big Bang theory happens to correspond exactly to this. That is to say, the Big Bang theory is a relatively fitting event for this.

The various elements began to separate from one another, and time was also created. Remember this point: time was created. Time is not truly real; it was created. Why was time created? Because something was first here, then there, and the distance it traversed in the process of going from here to there could be measured. Therefore, the stages passed through in going from here to there—we define that as time.

God's various tangible parts began to define themselves, and mutual relationships arose among them. At the same time, the intangible parts also experienced the same situation; they also began to define themselves and produced mutual relationships.

So God knew, God understood:

If love is to exist, if love is to be allowed to exist, if it is to know itself as pure love, then that which is utterly opposite to love must also exist.

This is what it said earlier: the existence of relativity and dualistic opposition is a greatest gift. Because only through this dualistic opposition can you experience the true nature of a thing itself. That is to say, for love to experience itself, it must experience the existence of non-love. So God willingly—remember, willingly—created that great pole, the opposite of love, all that is not love. And then we call it fear or dread.

Only when this fear appeared could love exist as something experienced. If there were only love, without non-love, without fear, without the absence of love, you would not know what love is. With only one emotion like love, without contrast you cannot understand it. It is that simple.

This love and its opposite, this dualistic creation—in human mythology—is called the birth of the devil, or the fall of Adam, or the rebellion of Satan. Christian legend holds that the devil was born and is doing these things to undermine God; Satan rebelled against God, his power as great as God's, but he opposes God at every turn. These are all displays of human mythology in the process of creating dualistic opposites.

You personified pure love into a character and called it God; at the same time you personified fear, personified dread into a character called the devil—that is how the most primitive versions came about. Some people on Earth fabricated many quite complex myths and legends around these matters, inventing many battle scenes of wars, heavenly soldiers and demon clans, good and evil, and the forces of light and darkness. These were all made up.

These myths were humanity's early attempts: attempts to understand this cosmic event through myth, to explain and understand this great event of the universe splitting into duality through simple storytelling, and to tell it in a way they could comprehend.

In fact, regarding this cosmic event, the depths of the human soul understand it, but the human spirit is completely unaware of it.

Does this not return to what Seth said about the deepest unconscious layer of the human being—where all knowledge and all information reside? It is the same meaning as what Jung called the collective unconscious shared by humanity, that vast seabed at the bottom of the ocean⁶. People know; the depths of the human soul know. It is known in the deepest, deepest layer of the inner self, but your conscious mind does not know it.

Division and Creation: God Becomes All Things

In this cosmic process of self-division, God used pure energy to create all things that now exist—both tangible and intangible. Remember here, it is not only the material world; the nonmaterial world is also the creation of this pure energy. In Seth's terms, this pure energy is the most primordial units of consciousness. In other words, God not only created the material universe, but also created the spiritual universe.

This formed the equation of self and non-self.

God also split into countless individuals smaller than the whole. What are these energy individuals—these parts of God that were split off and are smaller than it? They are souls. We call them souls.

Some religions among you humans ask how the soul came to be. This tells you how it came to be. So this is consistent with Seth's viewpoint: Seth said that humans and All That Is—humans are a part of All That Is. Your soul is made of exactly the same material as it. Seth even used an analogy—one hundred percent identical material—and Seth emphasized this point in many places. That is: you are split off from All That Is.

Some religions among you humans have myths that regard God as the Heavenly Father who gave birth to many spirit children, many children. This is consistent with your human experience of how life reproduces itself, because that is how human life reproduces. Most people can only truly understand in this way why countless living beings appeared, suddenly appearing in the kingdom of heaven. Only through this way of God giving birth to many children can people understand how those souls came out—actually they were split off, not born. But we humans cannot understand this concept of division, so we think those little souls are all children of the Heavenly Father, all his spirit children.

In this case, your living legends are not far removed from ultimate reality.

Ultimate reality is actually split off: All That Is, in order to experience itself, split itself into countless individual entities. So in the sense of the whole universe, these countless souls that make up the totality of me can indeed be counted as my descendants—you can understand it that way; they can be counted as such, though actually they are not, but they can be counted as such.

The sacred purpose of my division was to create enough parts of myself so that I could know myself experientially.

Using these split-off parts of itself, enough of these partial selves, one small part after another, it could know itself experientially—know itself actually and creatively, rather than conceptually.

If the Creator is to know its own identity as Creator through experience, to know it through practice, then there is only one method—that is to create. Do not forget, our soul is a part of the Creator, a small part split off from it. The Creator wanted to experience the purpose of its division, as was explained clearly earlier: it wanted to know its own identity as Creator. And the only way it could experience its identity as Creator was to create. If the parts split off from itself could all create things, then that would prove that it is indeed a Creator.

I endowed each of these countless parts of myself with the ability to create.

It gave its ability to create things from the void, its ability to create things from its own thoughts and ideas, to every person, every soul, to all my spirit children. And this ability to create things is the same as the creative ability I possessed as the whole—this you must remember. Although you are a very, very small part of All That Is, you are a part of All That Is, and your creative ability and the ability of All That Is as the whole—in terms of ability, you two are completely identical.

Your religions say that humanity was created in the image and likeness of God.

This is a phrase often said in the Bible, and we also have it in our ancient legends—things like molding humans from clay are all like this, all created according to the image of God.

What they actually mean is this: it does not mean our physical bodies are similar, it does not mean our appearances are similar—although God can take on any physical form at will—what it means is: our essence is the same. We are made of the same material, all of that pure energy. We are the same material—it emphasized again—and we have the same nature and abilities, including the ability to create material reality out of thin air, the ability to create something from nothing.

The Creator has this ability. The Creator created all the material and nonmaterial worlds of our world from the state of Taiji or Taixu, and the soul of each of us also has this ability. As the manifestation of the soul in the three-dimensional world, our inner self itself also has this ability. In other words, your physical body was created by it, created by your soul—just think about how powerful it is.

I created you, my spiritual offspring, with the intent of enabling myself to know that I am God. Apart from you, I have no other way to do this.

Therefore, apart from knowing itself as God through our creation, apart from this one method, God has no other way to know this.

My hope for you is that you should know yourselves to be me.

Does this sentence sound familiar? Has Seth not said similar things? You yourselves are God, you yourselves are the Creator, you yourselves are everything. Did the Buddha not also say this? The Buddha said everyone has Buddha-nature⁷, everyone is inherently complete, right? The Buddha repeatedly emphasized: no matter whether you are now a beggar, a slob, or whatever kind of person; no matter how miserable your life is, how difficult your circumstances; no matter how insignificant you are now, how lowly, how hard you work just to get a bite to eat, just to earn a little salary, just to support yourself—do not forget that you are the supreme God of the universe. If you forget this, then you truly debase yourself, and there is nothing to be done.

He said this seems astonishingly simple, yet it is also very complex.

You must remember this. His story is very simple to tell—this is how the world came to be—but it is also very complex, far more complex than you can imagine. But for now we are simplifying, to give you a general concept and a general background.

Because there is only one way for you to know yourselves to be me, and that is for you first to know that you are not me.

This is a very philosophical question. If you want to know that you are me, you must first know that you are not me. Why is this? It said, "Now listen carefully; you need to pay full attention, because what follows is very subtle, intricate, and complex. Are you ready?" He was ready, full of energy. It said, very good.

"Do not forget, I am you—you asked me to explain this to you. You have waited for many years." Because this author, Neale, was a Christian in his life, and he prayed countless times: God, tell me the truth of this world; I am willing to give up everything to know what the truth of this world is. He often said in his prayers: I ask you to explain in plain and simple language, not in theological doctrine or scientific theory. It said, "All right, I know what you asked of me. Hurry up and speak, stop wasting words. Since you asked, then listen well."

This highlighted point is not highlighted casually: asking is a door through which you know the truth. If you do not ask questions, you will never know the truth. Whether you ask yourself, ask others, ask anyone, you must first ask. Asking is the key; remember this firmly: truth is obtained through asking.

Remembering: The True Task of the Soul

He said, all right, for the sake of discussion, I will use your legend that humans are the children of God as the basis for discussion. Because you are familiar with this legend, and in many respects it is not far from the truth. Let us continue exploring how this process of self-knowing works.

He said, "I could use one method to make all the spirit children know that they themselves are parts of me—I could simply tell them." How simple: you are God's child, you are split off from God, you are All That Is, you are Taiji and Taixu. He said, "I have used this method. I told you. But you also understand that merely letting the soul know that it is God, or part of God, or a child of God, or an heir of the kingdom of heaven—however you want to think of it—is not enough."

That is, telling someone who they are is useless. Take a simple example: one day you are walking down the street, and suddenly someone says, "Oh, you are the next chief of some tribe in Africa. We finally found you! Our tribal chief sent us to the East to find his reincarnation; you are our next chief, or you are our new king." He repeatedly emphasizes that you are the king, but you have no concept of it; it is useless. Only if you get on a plane, go to Africa, arrive at that place, and actually become king sitting in the palace, can you experience: oh, so this is what a king is. Same principle.

God once used this method too, telling these souls: you are a part of me, you are a part of God—useless, not enough.

As I have already explained... knowing yourself to be God and experiencing yourself as God are two different things.

The soul longs to know itself experientially. God told this soul: you are a part of me, you are a small part of me, you are God, you are All That Is, you have creative power—he has this cognition, but he has never experienced it, he has never actually practiced it. Therefore cognition and experience are two different things. God is the same—I originally had cognition, I knew all knowledge, I knew I was everything, but I had never experienced it, so I went through all this trouble.

Conceptual awareness is not enough for you, so I devised a plan.

At this point God devised a plan. It was the most extraordinary idea in the whole universe—God came up with a brilliant scheme, and it was also the most wondrous collaboration. Why call it collaboration? Because all of you, all people and I—not just all of you—participated in this plan together with it. All of us and God participated in this plan together, so it called it an extraordinary, wondrous collaboration.

According to this plan, you, as pure souls, would enter the newly created material universe.

Newly created—that is, after all things of the world were split off through yin and yang and that which is neither yin nor yang, through Taiji and Taixu, as just described. Pure souls were to enter, to enter this material universe. Because only through matter, only through matter can the soul experientially know what you know conceptually.

What is it that you know conceptually? You can create, you can create material reality from the void, you can create something from nothing, you are the God of creation—this is your inherent attribute. So this is your concept, your cognition, and now you must experience it, must practice it.

This was actually my original intention in creating the material universe, in governing the relative system of the material universe and all creation.

It not only created the material universe, but also placed relativity—that is, duality, good and bad, good and evil—into this material universe, so that we humans could create under these grand conditions.

After entering the material universe—just as we discussed in the previous chapter, after you enter the womb, after you reincarnate into the material universe—you souls, my spirit children who have become physical, will experience your cognition of yourselves, your cognition of your own identity. What cognition? That you are a part of God. But you must first know its opposite—what is the opposite? It is not being God. You must know that you are not God.

To put it simply:

Unless you have known what is short, you cannot know what is tall; unless you know what is thin, you cannot know what is fat.

Very simple, right? Is this not again what Laozi said in the Dao De Jing? Without good there is no bad, without up there is no down, without far there is no near, without great there is no small; high and low correspond to each other⁸. The Dao De Jing says a lot about this; I will not go into it. Same principle.

Actually, if you want to know tall, you must know low. If we extend this logic to its extreme, then:

You cannot experience yourself unless you have encountered that which is not you.

Can you understand this? If you do not know tall, you will never know low; extended to the extreme, if you do not know what is not you, you will never know what is truly you. This holds up logically.

This is relativity, and the purpose of all physical life.

Our physical life, our life in the three-dimensional world, is here to do this, to experience this—our life is a life of dualistic opposition. What is the purpose? It is that you yourself are defined through that which is not you.

Is this not a very philosophical viewpoint? It is that you ultimately come to know that you yourself are the Creator. You must create, and only when you create can you experience yourself as the Creator. Telling you that you are a king is useless; only by letting you be king for a few days will you know what a king is.

You must destroy yourself before you can create yourself.

What does it mean to destroy yourself? It means you are God, but when you come into the human world, you are not God at all. You are an infant in swaddling clothes; what can you create? You cannot create anything; others must feed you milk for you to survive. So you are not God at all—although your essence is God, all the states you manifest in the human world show that you are just one of the multitude, as lowly as an ant; you are nothing at all. You do not have the slightest appearance of God, right? So you must first destroy yourself; you must completely destroy the things of God, and then step by step you create yourself, and only then do you come to know that you are God. So in a certain sense, you must first become that which is not, before you can become that which is.

It asked him again, "Can you understand?" He said, "I think..." It said, "Stop thinking; let us continue."

Of course, you cannot change your essential nature.

What essential nature? Your essential nature was fixed long ago: you are pure soul, creative soul. It has always been so in the past, and it will never change in the future. So what can you do? You can only settle for the next best thing—what is it? You cause yourself to forget your identity.

It said earlier: if you want to know yourself, you must first become not-you. But you cannot become not-you, because you cannot change your own attributes: the fact that you are God is something no one can change. I cannot change your material into something that is not God—you are God. You want to experience that not-you, but you cannot experience it; there is no way to change this fact. So what to do? You can only settle for the next best thing, only think of another way: then I will first forget myself, forget the fact that I am God.

After entering the material universe, you abandoned the memory of yourself. As soon as we reincarnate and return, you forget everything—the fact that you are connected to God, that you come from another universe, or another dimensional space, or another higher-level world. You forget it.

Why forget? Here it explains clearly: it is because you must come to know the true self, the original self, through this state of not-self. Just as Taiji needs Taixu to know its own existence, just as yin needs yang to know its own existence.

This allows you to choose to be who you truly are, to first forget your identity before you can become who you truly are, rather than having no choice but to accept your identity.

To put it in human terms: if you were born a king—if I simply gave birth to you and said you are the crown prince, you are the heir apparent, you just sit here, you are the next king, and when the old king dies you will be the new king—then for that person, he actually does not understand what a true king is. His kingship is inherited, given to him by his father, passed down from his father.

What does it take to know the true king? Become the most original kind of king. He first has to forget that he is a prince, first has to forget that by nature he may be the future king, and he starts out as a commoner. If he truly has the ability and talent of a king, then step by step, through one battle after another, he fights his way into becoming that king, carves out a realm for himself, and wins territory that belongs to him. Only then can he be called a true king, right? Not that just because you are a prince, you are a king. That is what God is saying here.

What I am saying now is that God tells you that you are God, but if you yourself have never experienced this process of creation from nothing into something, you cannot experience what it feels like to be God. That God split himself into countless small pieces precisely because he wanted to experience the feeling of being God, and as a result, because you have not experienced it, he has not experienced it either. Now do you understand what this means?

It is precisely in the act of choosing to be a part of God, and not in the process of learning through words that you are a part of God, that you can experience that you have absolute freedom of choice.

You become a king by fighting for it, not by inheriting it, and only then do you experience that you have absolute freedom of choice. And having absolute freedom of choice is the essence of God. Only in the act of choosing to be a part of God -- in the process of that act -- do you discover that you have sufficient freedom of choice.

All right, having said that, do people today have freedom of choice? Yes, you have sufficient freedom of choice, you have absolute freedom of choice. But if you say you do not have it, then we tell ourselves we do not have it -- and then you do not have it. If you tell yourself you do not have it, then do you still have it? Actually, do you have it? Yes, how could you not have it? You have all the freedom of choice, all the cards are in your hands.

Yet how can you make a choice about something over which there is no choice at all? No matter how hard you try, you cannot not be my offspring.

There is one thing you cannot choose: you cannot choose that I am not a descendant of God, you cannot choose that I am not a soul, and you cannot choose that the soul is not a part of God -- these are things you cannot choose. But you can forget them -- this you cannot choose, but you can forget it.

You are now, in the past, and in the future, always a sacred part of the whole of God.

You are a part, a member, so to speak. You are a sacred part of the whole of God, and we will regard you as a member. So the act of rejoining the whole, of returning to the ranks of God, of moving back toward God, is called "remembering," it is called remembrance -- remembering again, becoming a member again. Do you understand now?

Remember your true identity -- you actually choose to remember your true identity, or you could say you choose to unite with all your parts and experience the whole of you. You can also choose to cooperate with your various other parts -- those other souls. Every one of your incarnations is one of your divisions, one of your fragments, and through this you experience the whole of you. The whole of you is the whole of me, understand?

It is the entity's repeated incarnations into the human world, one after another, that let you experience these things. This is somewhat like All That Is dividing himself into countless entities: through countless souls he experiences the essence of All That Is, the existence of divinity; and it is also very much like this soul of yours dividing itself into countless reincarnations, using its creativity to experience the divine existence of the soul itself. The same principle.

Therefore your task on Earth is not to learn, but to remember your true identity.

You did not come to Earth to learn, because you already know everything, the soul already knows everything. You came to Earth to remember your true identity -- that you are a part of God -- and to remember the true identity of all other people. You need to recognize that all human beings have this identity.

Why does Buddhism say to be compassionate and to deliver all sentient beings? Because every person is God. Every person you save is God. Can he understand this now? He is not a person, he is not a beggar, he is an incarnation of God.

After the Buddha attained enlightenment, he understood this matter, right? So he wanted to deliver all sentient beings. So this is about you and all other people needing to remember their true identity.

There are other tasks within your task, and a very large part of it is to remind other people, so that they can remember their own true identity.

Then is what I am doing right now exactly this work? Reminding you: you are actually a part of God. And after you have studied and understood this, can you turn around and tell the people around you? Within your sphere of influence, you are waking up the people around you.

What those miraculous spiritual teachers do is nothing more than this. The Buddha did exactly this, waking you up. The word "Bodhi" in Buddhism means the enlightened one, the awakened one, the one who has understood, the one who has thought it through, or the one who has woken up -- it means the one who knows his own identity, who has remembered what his original identity is. So he is telling you: every person has Buddha-nature, every person has Buddha-nature, every person is inherently complete -- but we do not believe it.

This is your only pursuit, and this is also the pursuit of the soul.

You did not come into the human world to learn, you came to create, right? And along the way, you wake others up as well, wake up those other companions of yours.

Then the author says: "My God -- well, of course it is his God -- so simple and yet so flawless. I mean, I finally understand, it is truly a sudden breakthrough, as if enlightened from above. I now see a picture that I had never before been able to piece together completely." He finally sees the picture of the entire universe. Then God says: "That is very good, that is very good. This is the purpose of our conversation this time. You once asked me to give you the answer, so I am telling you the answer." God then says: "I suggest that you write these conversations into a book and pass them on to more people."

This was said to Neale. This is in Chapter 1 of Book One of Conversations with God⁹, and not long after the two of them began their dialogue, they touched on this question, on this deep matter.

You should know that Conversations with God presents a version of the creation story that is far more complex, far more profound, and far more philosophical than the creation story in the Bible, the story of God, and it is much closer to the essence of reality. The Bible version is like a little picture book, like a fairy tale told to a child before bed: on the first day he created this, on the second day he created that, and on the last day he created human beings -- this does not reveal the very deep principles and philosophy within it. But this passage here has already given a simplified yet very complete expression of it.

I hope that through this, you remember: everything he said earlier is an anthropomorphic, very simple expression meant for our understanding. You can understand it, you can understand it through a simplified version, but you must never think that the birth of the universe was just such a simple process. He already said earlier that it is far, far more complex than this.

This is the second part of the commentary on Chapter 14 of the Seth book Seth Speaks, which is Session 560 in the book.

Multidimensional Existence

Therefore there are many probable reality systems. Our present physical world is one reality system, and there are many other reality systems, and these are primarily composed of physical material, very much like our physical world. But this kind of possibility system composed of physical matter represents only a small portion.

Each of you also exists within nonphysical systems. That is, each of us is essentially a multidimensional being; we exist in the three-dimensional world with a physical body, and at the same time in other dimensional spaces there is the existence of the inner self and the soul.

Session 560

He said:

I have explained before that your most insignificant thought or feeling is manifested not only in the place of your own existence, but also in many other ways.

In other dimensional spaces, in other realities, those insignificant thoughts and feelings of yours are also manifested there. As he said in the previous session, your most insignificant emotion will produce influences and echoes beyond what your mind can imagine. It is certainly not in your dimension -- in your dimension this is just a very, very small matter, but in another dimension the meaning may be completely different.

As you know, only a portion of your entire identity is familiar to you now.

Our entire identity is that entity, and only a portion of it is familiar to us now, which is the personality fragment we are at present. In fact, what we are familiar with is only our physical body. When you ponder the question of a supreme being, you often imagine it as a male personality. Think about it, don't you? Have you ever imagined that your entity is a young girl? Have you? When speaking of your entity, speaking of your soul, this supreme thing, your instinct is to imagine it as a male personality.

With all of those abilities that you yourself have, and with particular emphasis upon those characteristics that you particularly admire.

This imagined God changes with the generations, reflecting the changes in people's ideas about themselves. Because it is imagined, when his ideas change, the image of God changes accordingly. So no matter which country in the world, its image of the divine constantly changes with the times, whether from India, China, or the West, from the ancient goddesses and the various mythological stories of ancient Rome, all the way to Egypt -- it is all the same.

Then:

God was seen as cruel and powerful.

Why? Because these are the traits we humans want, especially those necessary in the human struggle for survival. He needs this cruelty, needs this power, so he hopes God has these things. Because he both admires and envies these traits -- both admires and envies them -- he then projects them onto his idea of the divine, saying that God also possesses these two abilities. So they cast their concept of God according to their own inclinations; they created God according to our own ideas.

In an unimaginable multidimensional reality -- this must be understood -- that multidimensional world is not only indescribable, but sometimes even unimaginable. Because our mode of thinking has one core problem: our logical reasoning ability is built on the foundation of the existence of time. So-called logic has a before and an after, just as a cause has an effect. We think our thoughts are the same way: such a thought must have arisen because of some prior matter or thought, so our thoughts also have cause and effect, and only then can there be logical reasoning. This is the way our brain imagines and the way it thinks. Our imagination necessarily has continuity and narrative quality; there will be scenes and events taking place.

When you enter multidimensional space, this foundation of imagination no longer exists. First, it has no time; second, it has no logic; third, it has no consistency. What does inconsistency mean? It means completely overturning all your cognition of all things. For example, you see seawater surging in the sky, you see bread starting to speak, you see a bicycle going out to deliver takeout -- these are called inconsistencies. It completely overturns all the space you could possibly imagine. Actually, it goes even beyond my imagination. The examples I just gave are still imaginable, but this is unimaginable -- you cannot even imagine it.

In such an unimaginable multidimensional reality, the ancient concepts of God -- that is, this extremely powerful, majestic, and cruel thing we were just thinking about -- are meaningless.

Even the term, the supreme being, is itself distortive.

Supreme relative to whom? This is a relative concept. But in that multidimensional world, it is not the existence of a relative concept; it is an absolute domain. In that kind of absolute domain, first of all we cannot even imagine what a world without high and low, without far and near, without large and small would look like.

Because you will naturally project all kinds of human qualities onto it, onto this being. This is something I have repeatedly emphasized in all my interpretations, hoping that everyone will not project human attributes, human labels, and human understanding onto your understanding of the soul. To put it simply, do not anthropomorphize the soul. Do not think that because this soul projects a you, and you are a person, you should therefore use human thinking to speculate about or understand the thoughts of God, or understand the thoughts of this entity.

It is simply not a person. You must remember this: the entity and the soul are simply not a person. To put it bluntly, it is not a person; it is a mass of energy, a mass of conscious energy. This energy is different from other energy in that it can be aware of its own existence -- just as you can be aware of your own existence. You can sit here or lie here, and you can be aware of your own present existence, your real existence. That energy can also feel the existence of its own energy itself. That thing of self-perception and self-existence is called the entity, or the soul.

It itself carries no human attributes whatsoever. It can project into the human world and become a person; it has some human attributes, and it has the things of its reincarnational past lives deep in its memory. But it also exists in other realities. It does not only incarnate into or project into our three-dimensional earthly world; it projects into many realities.

The point of saying all this is to remember the first rule: if you want to make progress or improve, you must stop right here and forcibly pull yourself out of human thinking and logic. This is very difficult, because we are people, after all, and we only know the human way of thinking. If you asked me to use an ant's way of thinking, I couldn't do it either; if you asked me to use an alien's way of thinking, I couldn't do it either, and I don't know how they think about problems. I only have the human way of thinking about problems. That is correct, but you must never project it onto anything you see or anything you cannot understand, anthropomorphizing it. I will not mention this again. Just be sure to remember this issue; it has already been stated very clearly. If you project human nature onto the entity, then many of your later understandings will be distorted, because you are considering God from a human perspective.

God Is an Idea

He said:

If I told you that God is an idea, you would not understand what I mean.

You do not understand what I am saying, because you do not understand that an idea, in other reality spaces, in other dimensional worlds, has its own definite reality. Because we do not understand that dimension, you also do not understand the meaning that this thought itself possesses. Nor do you understand how strong the energy is that ideas can create and propel.

Because everything in the universe you now see, all the worlds around you, are created by ideas. You do not believe in ideas the way you believe in physical objects—we believe in tables, chairs, and benches, we believe the surrounding world is actual and material, but you do not believe in ideas, you only believe in the material things you see. So if I told you that God is an idea, you would misinterpret it as meaning that God is not quite real, is chaotic, has no reality, and moreover that God is action without purpose, without motive, muddled and confused, like the universe before it was civilized.

But is this misunderstanding correct? No. God's existence is just as real and valid as your existence, exactly as real and valid, except that it is real and valid within a reality space you cannot understand. Because that space, as I said before, is one you cannot even imagine, so you also cannot imagine the real validity of this idea.

Actually, your own physical body image—our own flesh body—is the concretization of your idea of yourself within the material properties of the three-dimensional world. In essence, our physical body is a concretization of our own idea in the three-dimensional world; you can call it a manifestation or a concretization. Without your own idea of yourself, you would not have a physical body image. But we often only perceive the physical body and think that this body is your most primal energy. Actually it is not; it is your idea of yourself—the idea of who you are and what you are—that is the initial force, and it is this energy that allows this image of yours to continue living.

Quite incredible, right? That is actually how it is.

Ideas are far more important than you realize.

He said:

If you would try to accept the concept that my own existence is multidimensional, that I dwell within infinite possibilities... then you might catch a faint glimpse of the reality behind the word God.

He will mention this concept later. If you can try to accept such a concept—that my own existence itself is within multidimensional space, that the world I now inhabit, this reality, is only one of infinite possibilities, and that I also have the possibility of existing in other probabilities—if you can accept this fact or this idea, then you will have a little bit of an emotional, intuitive understanding of the reality behind the word God, the reality that the true God represents. And you may also understand why it is almost impossible to use words to capture a true understanding of that concept.

So what is the most important thing about God? It is a creator. So just remember this: God is a creator. It does not only create the physical universe we see—the planets, galaxies, star systems—but infinite, immeasurable kinds of possible worlds, infinite, immeasurable kinds of possibilities. Just imagine that. Regarding this, Buddhism actually has various descriptions of three thousand small worlds, three thousand middle worlds, and three thousand great worlds¹⁰, often mentioning Mount Sumeru and so on, with very magnificent macro descriptions of the universe. The human world has also discovered that this world is simply endless—not only is your material world endless, but there are also infinite, immeasurable worlds like our material world. And that is only the material world; besides the material world there are also many non-material worlds, spiritual worlds, worlds in other dimensional spaces, which are even more infinite and immeasurable. So he used a very large term: infinite, immeasurable kinds of possibilities.

What God creates is not only the material universe we now live in; it creates all the worlds in all dimensional spaces. He said:

Far vaster than the physical universe your scientists are familiar with.

It did not merely send one son to live and die on one small star—what he says after this is all about Christianity. That whole matter is only one part of all the possibilities.

The Story of Christ

Here he draws on some basic Christian concepts. Because this book was published in the West and had to be released commercially, Seth knew he was writing a book that would be published, so he used many concepts that people in that society at that time could understand and relate to. Christianity is a very widespread religious belief in the West, with probably more than 70 to 80 percent of people adhering to Christianity¹¹. In Europe there are also Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and others, but their foundations are essentially the same, all branching off from Judaism. In essence they all believe in one God, with different denominations and divisions -- just as Buddhism has many schools, such as Theravada, Mahayana, the Human and Heavenly Vehicle, as well as Zen, Pure Land, and so on.

The most central point of Christianity is that God sent His son Jesus into the world, and that Jesus was crucified to atone for humanity's original sin. This is the foundation of Christianity, the very basis on which the religion was established.

With so many universes and so many worlds, the idea that God sent only one son to Earth is impossible. That is only one possibility, only one among millions upon millions of possibilities.

He says:

All kinds of prophecies have been spoken -- he uses prophecies and creation stories, stories of how this world came to be -- all of these are attempts to convey knowledge in as simple a manner as possible.

Just as in the previous session I discussed with everyone how Conversations with God¹² describes how the world came to be, that is also one version. But although that one is also a simplified version, its depth is not diminished -- the deepest meaning within its account of how the universe came to be is not itself simplified; it is only the process, the story, that has been given a somewhat anthropomorphic description. So the accounts we see of how the world came to be are more an attempt to convey something in an extremely brief way.

Often they gave answers to questions that have no meaning except within your own system of reality.

That is, the question of how the universe came to be. We often ask this question within our universe, but the question itself has no meaning within our universe. Why does it have no meaning? Because when you stand within this universe and ask how this universe came to be, even the sentence you ask, even the act of asking itself, is part of what this universe has created.

So having said this, I still want to say one thing to everyone: unless you are a professional who wants to study how this world came to be, someone who seeks the truth of this world, you can study it carefully and in detail. For example, you can look at more of Seth's material, such as Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, which contains a detailed introduction. Or you can study how humanity currently understands the origin of the universe from a scientific perspective -- the Big Bang theory, learning about Planck time, the Planck constant, and how the starting point of the Big Bang came about¹³. You can also study some basic views from quantum mechanics on the emergence and nature of the world. That is, if you want to study it. If you do not have this kind of scientific inclination or desire, then do not keep stubbornly pursuing exactly how this universe came to be, how the first atom came into existence, or how the first material thing came into being.

Having a basic concept is already enough; it is sufficient as background knowledge for understanding the universe as a basic framework. If you want to study it in more detail, I very much welcome that, and we can engage in deeper discussion and research. But for ordinary people, there is no need to keep pursuing this question, because for ordinary people it does not have much meaning.

Why does it have no meaning? Fundamentally because that thing cannot be told to you in the simple, logically clear way that you as a human being want. Many people want a single sentence telling them exactly how the universe came to be -- just explain it clearly and plainly to me. Many people write to Seth saying, can you describe your corresponding theory to me in a simple way? They always want it explained in a logical manner that their human brains can understand, how this universe came to be, but this matter itself exceeds what their human brains are capable of comprehending. They can only first break down all their frameworks, all their worldviews, and all their modes of thinking, and use a method similar to entering samadhi or entering meditation, using that intuitive approach, using the inner senses, to truly understand a part -- and only a part -- of how this universe came to be.

If you insist on using the current logical mode of human thinking, or the so-called logically clear way, to understand this universe, then you are heading in the wrong direction, and you will end up with the same result as all scientists. You take the tools created by this universe -- the things we use in scientific research are all tools created by this universe -- and you take things created by this universe and try to study the universe itself. Is that not a joke? Whether it is your microscope, your particle collider, or all your experimental equipment and instruments, including you yourself as a person, all are products of the three-dimensional world. You use this set of tools, this set of logic, this set of theories -- all things produced by the three-dimensional world -- and try to understand how this three-dimensional world came to be. Is that not falling into a strange loop?

Only by leaping out of it, leaping out of our system of reality, out of our material world, and understanding it from a higher vantage point, can you gain some small measure of cognition. Otherwise, all your understanding within this dimensional space, I can only say, is incomplete and not ultimate. I will not say it is wrong, but I can only say it is incomplete and not ultimate. No matter how much more you study, it is meaningless; if you study a little deeper, it is just a slightly more complex children's storybook, a slightly more popular-science storybook. It is not the essence of things.

Later he gives an example:

There was no beginning, and there will be no end.

This is very hard for us to understand. Our world always has a beginning and an end, always has a boundary, yet he tells you there is no boundary and no beginning. But:

Yet there are prophecies telling you of beginnings and endings.

It is only because we have a distorted understanding of time that we have beginnings and endings, and therefore we have the Big Bang and how the universe came to be. The same is true of Conversations with God¹².

He continues:

Beginnings and endings seem to be inseparable, logical events.

In our understanding, everything has a beginning and an end; this is very basic, it is logical. You tell me about the birth of the universe, and if you do not talk about a beginning or an end, then how can you talk about the birth of the universe? But originally there was no beginning and no end. So at the very first question you are already baffled, and you cannot continue the conversation.

The Focus of Attention

When you learn to shift your focus of attention—the focus of our consciousness, the focus of attention—away from the physical universe, that is when we enter a state of meditation or meditative absorption and set the physical universe aside. When you also gain some slight evidence of other realities—remember, slight—you have only just set this physical universe aside and gained a tiny, tiny bit of awareness of other realities. For example, your soul can have an out-of-body experience. This is a very slight piece of evidence.

Your consciousness will cling tightly to old concepts. What old concepts? How the world came into being, how the universe originated. The first cause—if you speak of a first cause, doesn't that imply something before the first cause? If there is a first, isn't there a second? And there is the zero before the first. As long as you approach these questions this way, you are getting it all wrong.

He says:

However, in your dreams there are certain trance states, or within everyday consciousness, beneath it, in which you can gain multidimensional awareness.

Beneath your ordinary waking consciousness, in the state you are not conscious of, or in a subconscious state, or in a state of sixth-sense awareness, you can gain multidimensional awareness. Outside, beneath, or within your waking consciousness, you have multidimensional insight, but your consciousness cannot recognize it.

This awareness beneath consciousness that he describes:

Gives personal experience its multidimensional richness.

And this multidimensional richness does not exist outside the sensory world of your physical body. Be sure to remember this: it blends with your sensory world, exists within it, and permeates and surrounds it. When you experience the multidimensional world, for example, when you fly during an out-of-body experience, you must remember that this multidimensional world is not the way you imagine it—like entering a place called Zion in The Matrix¹⁴, as if there were some special region that was the center of the universe or the core of a computer system; or you think there is a Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, or a heaven, or a place where God lives. It is not like that. It blends with your present world, exists within it, and permeates and surrounds it.

If you have seen my introduction to four-dimensional space, you will understand. Four-dimensional space is only an analogy, and five-dimensional space is also an analogy. It is simply space of a higher dimension. It is both inside this three-dimensional world and outside it, both in here and out there. This is not easy to understand, but you can only imagine it this way—it is not another world outside the three-dimensional world. It is integrated with our world, closely integrated, mutually penetrating. It goes beyond what we humans can probably imagine at present. Language can only take us this far.

So you need to understand that when you understand the richness of multidimensional reality, it is not outside your sensory world. You can understand this now, right? If you have had an out-of-body experience, you will know that this out-of-body experience must fall within the range of what your sensory system can understand, or be blended into it. Basically, you fly through spaces that are familiar to you or that you can imagine. You cannot fly into a multidimensional realm that you are completely unable to understand.

He says:

To say that physical life is unreal is to deny the fact that reality pervades all appearances.

In other words, if you deny the existence of the three-dimensional world and deny the meaning of its existence, you are denying this real world—what we call real is a multidimensional world that pervades all appearances, including our three-dimensional world, which is one of those appearances. When you deny this part, you also deny the whole.

So many people ask: Then what meaning does this three-dimensional world of mine have? Since we know that the nature of things is a multidimensional world, that its essence is thought, then let's go straight back to that world. My present world is all empty—it exists like dew, lightning, bubbles, and shadows—so why don't we just abandon it? Let's return to the source and leave this illusory world behind.

Wrong. You cannot refuse to acknowledge it. If you do not acknowledge your three-dimensional world, you are denying the existence of the multidimensional world behind it, because the three-dimensional world is part of the multidimensional world, one of its appearances. If you deny the appearance, you also deny the substance behind it. So many spiritual practitioners get confused at this point—if I am practicing spiritually, what am I still doing in this three-dimensional world? I would be better off entering meditative absorption every day—this is an understanding based on withdrawing from the world, and it is wrong.

He says:

In the same way, God does not exist outside physical reality, but within it.

Here he emphasizes that God does not exist outside physical reality. God is within it, right here in our three-dimensional world. God is not sitting somewhere in the clouds as you imagine. He is right here in our three-dimensional world, part of it. Just as God exists within all other systems of existence and is part of them. God is everywhere.

If you have seen the movie called Lucy, released in China under the translated title Super Body¹⁵. At the end, after developing one hundred percent of her brain, she becomes a godlike being. At the end she says: I am everywhere, I'm anywhere.

He says:

Your image of Christ symbolically represents your ideas about God and the relationship between God and his Christ.

We think of Christ as God's child, God's son, so this story, this image, expresses our understanding of God in our thoughts: that God is a heavenly father, and Christ is his son who comes to save humanity.

Then the point he makes next completely overturns all the foundations of Christianity. So one of the reasons the Seth material has not entered mainstream culture in the Western world lies right here—he put forward a view in the first book that Christians found extremely objectionable, so they did everything they could to reject the Seth material.

Look at what he says next:

There were three separate individuals whose histories became mixed together, and they were combined and identified as Christ.

These three individuals were part of the same entity. It was the same entity, just three personality fragments. Then they wove the histories of these three individuals together and said this was Christ.

Therefore:

There are many contradictions in your records.

That is, in the Bible, including the New Testament and the Old Testament, if you examine it carefully, you will find many contradictions. By now they have basically revised it to be entirely internally consistent, but if you look deeply into it, there are still many contradictory issues.

These individuals were all male. Because at that stage of human development, including the ancient time when Jesus appeared, a woman would not have been accepted as an equal. If you understand the development of human history, you know that our matriarchal societies lasted much longer than our patriarchal societies. In matriarchal societies, men had little standing. They did hard labor, carried heavy things, went out hunting, and served as tools for reproduction. Men could not participate in any religious ceremonies or sacrificial rites. Even when the clan discussed decisions for the whole tribe, men had no voice and were excluded altogether. Women led the entire development of human civilization. So you see, the earliest gods in ancient times were all goddesses, and gradually they became male. After society became male-dominated, people could not accept a female counterpart.

In that era, more than 2,000 years ago¹⁶, we could only imagine God as a father, a heavenly father.

They would never have thought to imagine God in any way beyond human thinking and worldly relationships.

They could not imagine it. If you had told someone 2,000 years ago that God was an idea, that God was a thought, that God was pure energy, they would not have been able to understand, recognize, or imagine it. They could only imagine God as a fatherlike being, the father of this universe, the common father of humanity.

These three individuals acted out a highly symbolic drama, driven by extremely concentrated energy. However:

The recorded events did not take place in history.

What events?

The crucifixion of Christ was an event of the psyche, rather than a physical event.

This statement upset all the Christians. He says Christ was never crucified at all, that the crucifixion was only an event of the psyche, that it happened only within each person and never happened in history. Doesn't this statement amount to denying the entire foundation on which Christianity was established? So now you know why Seth is not well liked—when he speaks about the essence of certain things, mainstream society cannot accept him. As for the church's treatment of Seth, I can basically use the word "suppression."

If you actually live in the Western world, you will see that people who are truly aware or truly understand this matter hold Seth in very high regard and study him. This is what is called the New Age movement. The Seth material provides the core theoretical framework for the entire New Age movement. Other works, such as A Course in Miracles¹⁷ and Conversations with God¹², and all sorts of other materials—there are very, very many—are part of this core system. But the New Age movement as a whole has not entered the mainstream values or gained mainstream social acceptance in Western society. Instead, it is regarded with rejection or indifference. Because of freedom of religion and freedom of belief, people cannot attack others' beliefs, but they can reject them to the utmost. You can see the root of it right here—as soon as he says this, all Christians will refuse to read another word. They think everything that follows is nonsense: you have shaken the foundation of my belief.

Just as I often say that there is no reincarnation in this world at all, or even cause and effect, and many people do not want to read any further; when I say there is no true good or true evil in this world, many people do not want to read any further, because this has already shaken the foundations of their values. This is very normal.

He says:

Vast concepts that are almost unimaginable were acted out.

They were acted out. They did not really happen. They were acted out like a play.

The Twelve Disciples and Personality Traits

So he starts giving examples. He brings up Judas -- the one who betrayed Jesus.

In your terms, he was not one person. He was, like all the other disciples, formed by the Christ personality, a blessed, created fragment personality.

Christ projected his personality outward into twelve fragment personalities, which are the twelve disciples. Among them, Judas represents the betrayer of the self. The betrayer of the self is one of the traits within the human personality -- you will often do things that betray your own inner nature, that go against your own self. After you do them, you feel very strange: this thing doesn't match my consistent values and my consistent self-image. How could I have done such a thing? And yet you actually did it. Judas went and informed on him, you see. He dramatized that betrayer of the self that exists within every person.

This Christ represents the inner self of every person. The twelve disciples represent twelve basic traits of a human being, one of which is self-betrayal. Judas was focused on physical reality in a greedy way, denying that part of the inner self -- they gave him gold coins, and he sold Jesus out.

He says:

Each of the twelve disciples individually represented different traits belonging to one person, and the Christ as you know him represented the inner self.

Therefore, the twelve disciples plus the Christ as you know him -- the one of the Trinity -- represented a worldly personality. That is, the inner self, which is Christ, together with the twelve main characteristics connected to the human ego, is a manifestation of a worldly personality. Just as Christ was surrounded by the twelve disciples, so your inner self is surrounded by twelve traits.

Each attribute was on the one hand drawn outward, focused upon daily reality, yet it also operated around the inner self.

Because it was this inner self that gave the disciples their physical reality. Just as all of our traits come forth from our inner essence.

He says:

This was a living parable, made flesh and blood and living among you, a cosmic drama enacted for your sake.

Through Jesus and the twelve disciples, he enacted a cosmic drama, vividly showing you: a human being is composed of the inner self, and around the inner self there are twelve characteristics. But he didn't say what these twelve characteristics are. He only mentioned one -- the betrayer of the self.

He says:

The lesson was clearly expressed. If you will forgive me, it was like a small-town morality play.

"If you will forgive me" -- because although Jane and Rob were not religious, Jane grew up in Catholic church schools, and the people around her were mostly believers, so he used this phrasing. A small-town morality play is a bit like the local operas in small county towns or rural areas in inland China -- the kind that used to travel from village to village performing, like Henan bangzi, Henan zhuizi, Cantonese opera, Sichuan opera, and the various local dramas of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region. The content performed was often things like Chen Shimei, who rises to high office and wealth and abandons his first wife -- a kind of moral play teaching the common people to do good and shun evil, to promote virtue and eliminate vice.

This drama of Jesus, from a cosmic perspective, is like one of these moral plays performed in the countryside. Christians certainly wouldn't like hearing this -- you're describing Jesus coming to redeem humanity, this great event of his birth, as a local folk play. They would definitely attack you for that.

He says:

This does not mean that you are any less real than you have previously supposed.

What he means is: he is not saying this drama is unreal. In fact, what is said here should clearly imply those aspects of divinity that are even more powerful. Since he was able to express what he wanted to convey through such a cosmic drama, making all the participants believe it was psychologically real -- this very fact shows the great power of divinity.

He says:

Three Christs were born upon your planet.

This is another thing people don't like hearing. How could there be three Christs? There is only one Son of God. Mary gave birth to only one of them. So who were the other two?

He continues:

They did indeed become flesh among you. None were crucified. The twelve disciples were materialized from the energy of these three.

The twelve disciples were manifested from the combined energy of these three people, though they were then fully endowed with separate individuality. What was their main task?

To clearly demonstrate certain abilities inherent in all human beings.

The same drama in different forms -- that is, different forms of expression, but the storyline was roughly the same -- had also been enacted before. Although the drama is never the same, it is also always the same -- what is the same is that it comes to demonstrate those traits inherent in human beings.

Is your inner self the child of your soul? This connects with what was quoted in the previous session from that book Conversations with God¹². If you think of All That Is in terms of a father-son relationship, then aren't our souls its children? Within each of us sits a soul, and he is one with All That Is, with this Creator. So doesn't this story symbolically hint at the birth of the universe?

He says:

This does not mean that each system of reality has a Christ.

This drama is performed in many places. Although it is not the same, it is always inwardly the same. In every dimensional space, in every physical world, the concept of God is displayed in a way that the local inhabitants can understand. This Earth specifically enacted this particular drama; in another dimensional space, it enacted another drama.

The drama continues to exist.

It does not belong to your past. It is not that once it was performed it was over. It continues to exist. But this does not mean it is always being reenacted -- it is not that it is performed again and again. What continues to exist is the thing that this drama implies.

He says:

The drama, then, was by no means meaningless. In your terms, the spirit of Christ was legitimate. He is the probable drama of the divine that you chose to perceive.

He affirms the importance of this drama and affirms the spirit of Christianity. Because Christ was demonstrating the existence of a higher dimensional space. If you think about it carefully, isn't that what he means? But there are other dramas being perceived -- not perceived by you -- and other such dramas also exist.

John the Baptist

During this session, as Jane was delivering the material, she recalled that she had an image she could not explain any better than this: it was as if Christ were a central pillar, with twelve spheres revolving around it, while at the same time radiating light outward. This was a mental impression Seth gave her during the transmission -- Christ created those twelve spheres.

Then he mentioned that of the three persons who made up the Christ entity, two names were given. Obviously, Christ himself was one of them, and the other was John the Baptist. If you do not know who John was, you can look up the biblical story; John was one of his disciples. In the early sessions, Jane and Rob repeatedly pressed for the identities of those three persons -- you said three persons made up this Jesus, and one of them we already know is Jesus, so who exactly are the other two? At that point Seth told her that one of them was John, and John was also one of the physical bodies of that Jesus. And what about the third person? He said he had not come yet; the third person was someone in the future.

He went on to say:

Whether or not the Crucifixion occurred physically, it was a psychic event, and it exists just as all other events connected with this drama exist.

It exists on the psychic level, and it exists in the awareness of every person.

Many events are physical.

That is, they really happened. And psychic events and physical events affect your world to the same degree. We only think that historical events that actually happened can have an influence on history, and that events that did not actually happen in history have no influence on us -- he said that is not so; psychic events actually affect you just as much.

This whole drama came into being because of humanity's need -- humanity needed such a thing, and it was created and grew out of that need. But it did not originate from our own physical reality system; it came from another reality, another dimensional space.

Other religions were built upon different dramas. Each religion has its own different drama, in which the concepts are enacted in ways that can be understood by each different culture. Islam, for example, is also a drama enacted locally in a way that the local history and culture could understand.

He said, unfortunately:

The differences in these dramas have often led to misunderstandings, and have often been used as excuses for war.

Is this still the case today? We know that in the Middle East, between Palestine and Israel, and between the Arab countries as a whole and Israel, because of religious differences there is still no peace, and they are still fighting. This includes the Crusades in history, which originated from religion -- one side considered the other a heretical cult and wanted to wipe it out. Whether it will still be used as an excuse for war in the future is uncertain. Religion is a very troublesome topic, and many people are unwilling to talk about it, because it involves too much conflict, and that kind of conflict is extremely cruel. There was once a cartoonist in France who published a cartoon satirizing Islam, and as a result this person was hunted down by Muslims all over the world -- truly hunted down¹⁸. So although religion is said to be free and open to discussion, in certain places or certain societies it is not permitted to be explored or questioned. We also know that some Koreans are especially fond of proselytizing; they even went to purely Islamic countries and regions like Afghanistan to spread Christianity, and they were often captured and executed¹⁹.

The root lies in these different legends and the different sacred dramas enacted throughout history, which have led to deeper misunderstandings among people. Everyone believes that their own god is the true god, and that other people's gods are false gods, devils, Satan -- only the god of the sect they believe in is the true god. You see what a cruel and brutal excuse this is -- those watching one drama want to kill those watching another drama.

He said:

These dramas are also enacted in the dreams of individuals, and so the way is prepared.

The figures of the gods first appear in people's dreams -- this must be remembered; only by first appearing in dreams can they prepare to appear in reality. So many people who believe in Christianity or other religions say, I dreamed of my god, and God gave me a revelation and spoke to me; and many people who enter a state of meditation say they saw the Buddha or Guanyin seated upon a lotus; and those who believe in Islam say Allah transmitted a message to me last night. These are all real. These incarnations of the gods first appear in people's dreams, and only then do they appear in reality.

In visions and inspirations -- visions refer to those supernatural things, such as what you see when you open your third eye, or what you see in dreams, or what you see during sitting meditation -- people knew that the drama of Christ was about to begin. When the event of Christ actually took place physically, when he was nailed to the cross, people recognized its essence, because they had already seen its power and force in dreams or visions.

Then it returned to the universe of dreams. The origin of this drama is not in our physical world, so you can only see it first in the dream state. Through physical materialization, its vitality and intensity were strengthened. In dreams, its meaning is only that of a dream, and the demonstrative effect and energy it provides are not strong enough; if it is actually enacted once in our physical world, then its energy becomes powerful to the extreme. So after this energy was strengthened, it returned to the dream state to strengthen it further. The universe of dreams is that higher-dimensional universe; in other words, after being strengthened and enacted once in the three-dimensional world, this event truly became real, and became even greater energy -- energy endowed by matter.

In the dreams of individuals, each person associated with the main figures in the drama -- he might dream of John, of Peter, or of God. In the dream state, the dreamer also recognized its true importance. In dreams, he would discover that things beyond this three-dimensional world were so real.

God Is Greater Than the Sum of All Reality Systems

He says:

God is greater than the sum of all the systems of probability that it has created, yet it is within each one of these realities.

God is not what you think -- that it created 1,000 universes, and the sum of those 1,000 universes is this God. He says no, God is greater than the sum of these reality systems. But it is within each one of these realities, without exception. Therefore it is in every man and woman, and it is also in every spider, every shadow, every frog.

And this is what people are unwilling to admit. People are only willing to admit that God is within themselves; they are unwilling to admit that God also exists within spiders, within frogs. This is a blind spot of us humans -- we regard ourselves as unique beings. In fact, you yourself are also God, but at the same time you are also a creation of God -- a special relationship between creator and created, being both creator and created at once.

He says:

God can only be experienced and felt, and whether you know it or not, you experience it through your own existence.

Whether you know it or not, you experience it within your own existence.

Yet it is neither male nor female, and I use these terms only for the sake of convenience.

In the most inescapable truth, if he were to put it in our human words, it is fundamentally nonhuman. And it is not a personality. Your concept of personality is far too narrow to contain the multiple facets of its multidimensional existence. I have already talked about this before -- your entity, this God, this creator, this All That Is, is itself nonhuman. Never think of it as an existence like your father. It created you, and you are its child, but it is not like you -- human character, human traits, human modes of thought, human emotions, it has none of these.

But from another perspective, he then reverses himself and says:

Yet it is also human.

This is rather similar to concepts in Buddhism. He often first states something, and then negates that something. He first explains a principle clearly in order to make it understood, and then after you have understood it, he sweeps it away with a broom. He preaches and sweeps at the same time, preaches and sweeps. By the time Buddhism was transmitted to the end, the Buddha said, "I never said anything" -- if you can understand the meaning of this statement, then you understand. He is actually saying that each of these concepts is merely for your convenience in crossing the river, for your convenience in ferrying yourself to the other shore of knowledge or the other shore of spirituality. But the tool is not important, and these intermediate theories are also not important.

It is like a joke often told in Buddhism: if the Buddhist scriptures or the words spoken by the Buddha -- including what Seth says today -- are a boat that ferries you to the other shore of your awakening, then your goal, the direction your eyes should be looking, should be that other shore. Whether you have reached the other shore or not, you should not sit there studying the boat. Studying the boat is meaningless. Once the boat has ferried you across, its task is complete. Do not worry about whether it is a hovercraft, a wooden boat, a warship, an aircraft carrier, or some kind of spaceship -- how it is constructed has nothing to do with you; it just needs to get you across. Your focus of attention should be on the opposite shore, not on studying the boat. Many people just sit there studying the boat -- "This boat is amazing, it ferried people across; how is it constructed, how is it designed?" You have forgotten that your purpose is to cross the river, not to build boats.

So after he tells you a concept, he will then reverse it and tell you that concept again, so that you can have a correct understanding. Earlier he said that God, that your soul, is not human, that it must be a nonhuman existence; then below he says that from another angle it is also human -- because it is a part of every person, and each of us is a part of it.

And in its vast experience, it retains a concept image of itself as human.

God is not only concerned with this tiny three-dimensional world of Earth; it has many physical worlds and many nonphysical worlds to experience. Among those millions upon millions of experiences, it has retained a concept image of itself as human. Human is one of its concept images.

It can be related to, it can be connected with.

You must understand that the part you connect with is this concept image of it.

It truly made itself into human form, dwelling among you, because it created your physical bodies.

This concept image of itself as human that God retains is what formed and created your physical body.

It is responsible for the energy that gives vitality and validity to those private multidimensional selves.

Who are the private multidimensional selves? They are the soul. It is responsible for the energy of vitality and validity given to that soul. God is responsible for the soul it gave to you as this person. You can call it the inner self, the fragment personality, whatever you like -- it is that essential part of you within your body. Never get entangled in the concepts themselves; concepts are there to help you understand, and once you understand, that is enough. You do not need to keep applying these labels and say, "He uses 'id' one moment and 'inner self' the next, and it confuses me" -- it is you who have not understood, not him confusing you. You need to understand the essence of the matter, not get entangled in the concept itself.

It projects down this fragment personality to you, gives you energy, gives you vitality, gives you validity, and then it lets go. At that point, once it has made you into yourself, you must use yourself to form your own image according to your own concepts.

If this point is hard to understand, just use your own child as an analogy. You and your partner give birth to your child; after you have created him, what does this child become? He will inherit some of your genes, but the greater part of him is what he himself creates. He creates according to his own image, not according to your image. God is the same way -- after it endows you with vitality and energy, the rest is left to you to create.

This private multidimensional self, or you may call it the soul, therefore has an eternal validity. Where does the validity lie? The soul is sustained by the energy and inconceivable vitality of All That Is. The energy and vitality behind the soul are all given to you by All That Is. Your outward expression is your exterior, but the soul behind you always has energy and value being given to it. So you are always graced -- the meaning of grace is that the energy of All That Is is always upon you. This is the same principle as what we discussed in the previous session: that we are small fragments split off from the Taiji, from the Great Void, small portions split off from God.

He says:

Your inner self, then, cannot be destroyed, nor can it be diminished.

This was also stated earlier in Conversations with God¹²: it cannot be destroyed, it can never die. Nor can it be said that it diminishes with use -- that my divinity decreases with each cycle of reincarnation while my humanity increases. There is not the slightest diminishment; you are always a divine existence.

The inner self shares the abilities that are inherent in All That Is.

What he says here is almost exactly the same as what was said in the previous session from Conversations with God¹², just expressed differently. Conversations with God¹² says: each one of your souls possesses exactly the same abilities as God or the creator, one hundred percent. All of my abilities are my abilities as a whole, and every individual has them; it is not that because you have become individuals, your abilities have decreased -- not one bit. Your abilities are exactly the same as the creator's. Here it says that every person's inner self shares all the abilities inherent in All That Is.

Therefore, because you have its abilities, and what does All That Is do? It creates; it is the creator. Therefore you must create. You cannot avoid creating even if you want to. You say, "I have not created anything; I have not created anything at all. I just muddle along every day waiting to die; I have not built houses, not built airports, not built highways, not built airplanes -- what have I created?" Actually you do not know -- just as your inner self was created, your outer physical body is also created by the inner self. As long as you are alive, you are creating; your physical body is your creation.

For this is the great gift that lies behind all dimensions of existence.

In all realities, in all worlds, there is the great gift of creation, not only in our three-dimensional world. Because other dimensions are also created by All That Is, and are also a part of All That Is. In every thing within every dimension, within every species, All That Is exists, and therefore they themselves are creative. The source of all creation overflows from this source within All That Is, and what overflows is your creativity. This is how each of us comes by our creativity.

Opening of Session 561

Before the session began, Jane said she was afraid there would be an interruption, that there would be visitors. Fifteen seconds later, someone knocked on the door. It was Carl Jones, a friend of hers. He had previously taught a high school course called "The Inner and Outer Universe," using Jane's The Seth Material as the textbook. Carl was passing through during Thanksgiving, stopping by to visit them on his way to Niagara Falls.

There are several points here. First, Jane already had a certain degree of precognitive ability by this time. Her inner senses were actually quite developed, and she could sense someone coming before they arrived -- although not very far in advance, only a little ahead of time. This ability is something we all have; it is not unique to Jane. We all have this kind of intuition. Second, in 1970, in a small-town American high school, there was already a course called "The Inner and Outer Universe," and the teacher even used Jane's The Seth Material as the textbook. In 1970, in a small-town American high school, there was already a course called "The Inner and Outer Universe."²⁰ This shows that the openness of American education came very early, and teachers could decide for themselves what textbooks to use in their classes.

The Multidimensional God

Now we enter the main text. Seth says that in due time he will identify the third Christ. Actually, this was something Jane and Rob kept asking him inwardly: who exactly is the third Christ? But by the end of the entire Seth material, Seth still never said who this person was. He probably gave some descriptions of this person, but he never said who it was. This is also quite normal; he would not do this kind of thing of predicting the future. Throughout the entire material, Seth gave a great deal of theoretical introduction, but he never made predictive introductions.

He says that what we are now concerned with is the multidimensional aspect of All That Is. This multidimensional, multi-dimensional reality can only be recognized and felt; it cannot be described. No fact can faithfully depict the attributes of All That Is. You cannot depict it—because it is everything, so how can you depict it? What would you use to depict everything?

Session 561

This reality and those attributes will appear within various systems of actuality, harmonizing with the camouflage material within any given system.

That is to say, All That Is itself is a multidimensional reality existence, and its reality and attributes will appear within various systems of actuality -- that is, physical systems. When it appears within such systems, these systems contain a great deal of camouflage, including the physical world we see. The physical world we see now is all camouflage. Its inner core is the essence of matter, that is, its consciousness level or energy body -- whatever we call it, that is the essence; the tables and chairs we see on the outside are all camouflage of its material image. This All That Is and these physical camouflages are in harmony with one another; they work together, in coordination.

Your inner experience of the multidimensional God can come from two main areas. In our three-dimensional world, your experience of this God can only come through two ways.

The first is through realizing that the original motivating force is within anything you can perceive with your senses. In anything you can perceive with your senses -- your eyes, nose, ears, those senses -- the original motivating force within that thing. If you can feel that original motivating force, then you have felt one kind of experience of God existing in our world.

The second is realizing the motive force of this original impetus. This original motive force has a reality independent of its association with the world of appearances. Does that sound a bit convoluted? Actually it is very simple: you can also realize that this original force and our world come from another world, from another reality. In other words, it comes from another dimension.

Only through these two points can you experience the existence of God.

The Unifying Effect of Contact with God

All personal contact with the multidimensional God -- that is, your individual contact with God -- all orthodox moments of secret consciousness, in the conscious process of your contact with God, always have a unifying effect.

What does unifying effect mean? It will always show you that you are one of millions of possibilities, that there is always more space of reality existing. You are not singular, you are not the only being existing alone on a lonely planet in the universe, you are not an isolated existence. This effect is called the unifying effect.

This unifying effect does not isolate the person involved. If what you connect with is the true God, it will always tell you: you are one with all things. And you are also one with all things in other universes. This idea of not being isolated will instead expand the perception of the individual who communicates with God, until he can experience -- as far as he is able, after his perception has been expanded -- the greatest possible authenticity and uniqueness of the other facets of reality that he can perceive.

In plain words: after you come into contact with God, what God shows you is always the feeling and consciousness of oneness with all things. It will never make you feel that you are the only one, that you are independent. It always makes you a many, always makes you feel the existence of more dimensions and more worlds. Then through this, your perceptual system can be expanded, extended, and developed. With your newly expanded perceptual system, you can recognize more realities, more worlds, and discover the authenticity and uniqueness of more realities -- each reality has its own true existence, each reality is unique, each world is different.

We have been discussing this issue in the previous chapters. When you contact the inner self, it will bring you into the state of multiple reincarnations. After your physical death, when you return to the intermediate state between two lives, you recognize the nature of the entity, and it will tell you all the experiences the entity has ever had -- not just experiences on Earth, but other experiences as well -- and you can comprehend them all. Therefore you will feel less isolated, not alone, and less cut off. You feel that you are actually together with your many other reincarnations. This perception of multidimensional space will give you this feeling of not being isolated, not being cut off.

You will not, because of that experience -- the experience of perceiving the existence of multidimensional worlds -- consider yourself above others. When you have seen the vastness of the worlds, you will not be so arrogant as to say, "I am the spirit of all things in this world, I am the highest intelligence on Earth." When you have seen the multiplicity of worlds, the vastness of worlds, you will no longer have such childish thoughts.

On the contrary, you will be swept up in a gestalt of comprehension. What is a gestalt? It is a holistic concept, called Gestalt in English, very difficult to translate -- it is the feeling of the whole of existence unified with all worlds, all dimensions. When you realize and become aware that this world is not just our Earth, not just this matter, but that there are many, many worlds of dimensional space existing -- you will be swept up by this feeling of multidimensional worlds. This individual will realize his oneness with All That Is, that they are one. Under the sweep of this gestalt experience, you finally understand that you and All That Is are one, that you are the creator of the world.

Just as some parts of reality -- parts of physical reality or parts of nonphysical reality -- cannot be consciously perceived by you; there are also other probable systems that you cannot consciously be aware of. When you cannot perceive it, understand it, or accept it as clearly as with our kind of thinking, you are actually perceiving it in other ways. There are also some aspects of the original divinity that cannot be understood at this moment. You must understand: in this reality, some parts cannot be understood by our consciousness. Of course our subconscious can understand it, our inner self can understand it, but this part of your consciousness -- the part of your thinking and spirit -- cannot understand it. You can perceive it, but not through your consciousness; you perceive it through your unconscious.

Therefore there are possible gods, each reflecting in its own way a multidimensional aspect of a basic entity. Each god reflects, in its own way, a multidimensional aspect of the state of its own basic entity. This basic entity is so great, so dazzling, that no single reality, form, or kind of existence can contain it. Simply put, the greatness and the state of God is not something you can feel, understand, describe, or contain with your consciousness.

Thought as Reality

Seth said he had once told us a little about the far-reaching creative effects of our thoughts, that is, the process by which thoughts create matter. Knowing just this much -- how ideas take form in space as matter -- you can then understand that it is impossible to imagine the multidimensional creations that can be attributed to All That Is. You cannot imagine it; your imagination comes to an end here.

The term All That Is can be used to refer to all the manifestations of all those possible gods. Here it cannot be defined, and yet a definition must be given to it -- it is used to refer to all the manifestations of all possible gods. A god, we can understand as the creator of a world. Although All That Is is one, and it created all the universes, the members of each universe will believe that their universe was created by a single god. The god who created this universe used its fundamental essence to create the world in which it dwells. What is called All That Is is the sum total of all the worlds created by all these creators.

He said some of you may find it easier to understand the simple creation stories and prophecies he had told. But now the time has come for humanity to take a few more steps forward, to walk a few more steps, to try to understand the deeper aspects of reality, in order to expand the nature of its own consciousness. The purpose of our understanding the deeper aspects of reality is precisely to expand the nature of our own consciousness. Our consciousness can be expanded; it is inherently infinite. Only after its nature is expanded can it focus into different realities. After its capacity is expanded, the reality you observe or can experience will change.

He said you humans have grown up, and you have passed the time for listening to fairy tales. What counts as fairy tales? The Bible is a myth, the Quran is a fairy tale, and some of the stories in Buddhism are also fairy tales. In that era, they reflected the essence of the world through simplified, fairy-tale-like descriptions of the truths of the world and the universe. He said you have already passed that stage; you are no longer children, and you no longer need to listen to fairy tales. You should know the true face of this world.

When your own thoughts have a form and a reality, when they also have their own validity in other reality systems of which you are unaware, then it is not difficult for you to understand why other systems of probability are also influenced by your own thoughts and emotions, or why the actions of possible gods are not affected by events occurring in other dimensions of existence.

This passage means: when you understand that your own thoughts have a form and a reality -- your ideas, your beliefs, the things in your mind, these themselves constitute a world, and in other dimensional spaces that you do not know about, they exist just as much, are just as real, and are just as effective -- then it is not difficult for you to understand why other reality systems are still influenced by your thoughts and emotions.

This sentence echoes something said earlier: your most insignificant beliefs and thoughts produce echoes in other reality spaces that your brain cannot imagine. You are in fact a part of God. As a tiny arising thought of God, a small thought, it may not produce any change in this three-dimensional world of yours, but in another world, its influence and change are simply enormous.

Let me say it again; this logic is very hard for most people to grasp. You have a world in your mind, and your thoughts are that world. Without your awareness, this world of yours produces a profound influence in that dimensional world you do not know about. For example, a very small thing in your daily life -- while eating you swallow a bug, you feel extremely disgusted, and you spit it out. To you this is not a big deal, nor is it a small one. But in another dimensional space, it may cause a great upheaval. And such an influence is something you are completely unaware of; you are entirely unconscious of it.

What is this like? Suppose you are a god. From the perspective of that dimensional space, are you not a god? One small thing of yours influences enormous changes in that space. You are the god of that world, because the events of that world are caused by changes in this dimension of yours, caused outside the dimension of that world. That world does not even know why this event was caused. From a comprehensive standpoint, from a higher standpoint, you know it is because of this reason.

So from the perspective of that world, there is no causality at all; it does not know why, it is without cause or reason. But from a higher perspective, there seems to be some causal relation -- it is because the you in this world encountered such a thing that such a great change was produced in that world. This is somewhat like The Matrix. In The Matrix, some thoughts in your mind, or a tiny thing in reality, can produce earth-shaking changes in your dream, or in another world of yours, and can even cost the lives of some people in that world.

If you can understand this, then you can understand: if you are a god, and you live in this three-dimensional world, although some things in your mind will influence another world with a very great impact, the things that happen in that other world have no influence on you, the god in the three-dimensional world. God cannot feel the influence of the events that occur in the world he created upon himself; God is not affected by this; he simply cannot perceive it.

This chapter has three sessions, all discussing how the world came to be and what kind of existence God is, repeatedly trying to make you understand what kind of existence God is. Having said all this, you can probably understand a part of it -- by considering this question from God's perspective.

Personal Matters with Jane and Rob

After that, he talks with Jane and Rob about some of their own personal matters. Over the weekend they had some plans: they wanted to take some ESP classes, and they also had to receive some visitors, talk with guests, and help them with their problems. Seth's advice was: don't overdo it. Your main energy should still go into transmitting this material. Make sure you hold at least two or three sessions a week. If you still have energy left over after that, you can do some of the work of talking with guests.

Then he suggests moving the sessions to the house behind theirs. Visitors should make appointments in advance; they shouldn't just knock on the door at random. Lock the door, and during the session you won't hear anyone knocking. If you move to the back house, other people won't be able to hear you either, and you won't hear the telephone ringing. Let's just focus single-mindedly on the session, and after the session is over, you can do whatever you want. During the session, try as much as possible not to let these things interrupt Jane or interrupt Seth's transmission of the material. Seth is not opposed to having guests come; there's no problem with guests coming, but it's best to arrange things in advance, not to have people suddenly knock on the door and barge in.

This session is relatively short because there were guests present. Sessions with guests present are generally shorter; both Jane and Seth are affected to some degree.

Supplement: Why Did God Create Such a World

Now that we have reached this point in the session, we need to add some supplementary material. Since he has been talking about God and the creation and existence of this world, about all worlds, all kinds of possible worlds -- material and non-material -- what we humans care about most is our own world, the Earth world. How did the Earth world come to be? Why is the Earth world the way it is?

This is also a question everyone asks: why did God create a world like this, and why did he create it with so much in it -- plagues, wars, people starving to death, so many little children starving to death in Africa every year²¹, typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. Why could God not create a perfect world, so that we could cultivate ourselves and evolve in it? Why create a world where even eating, even basic survival, is so difficult?

This chapter discusses Genesis, the existence of God, and understanding God. The depth of the Seth material lies in the fact that what he talks about is always concepts and ideas at the highest level. Sometimes he does not even pay much attention to matters of the Earth; what he talks about is all worlds, all universes, and all gods. But what we humans care about is more the matters of our Earth. Now that we have finished understanding the whole picture -- from the perspective of the cosmos and from the perspective of All That Is, all universes, all possibilities, all gods -- let us talk about the matters of our Earth.

But unfortunately, Seth does not discuss this here. He discusses it in other books, but in this book he actually does not; he wants to give you a comprehensive concept. For this part, we will use some content from Conversations with God as a supplement. I think that part of the content is very good and can help us understand why God created such a world, and give us a basic understanding of Genesis.

"Conversations with God": The Original Intent of Creation

Of all the questions human beings have asked God, what is the most common one? Why is the world the way it is now? Since time began, human beings have been asking this question. The classic formulation of this question, expanded, essentially asks: if God is so perfect and so loving, why would He create a world filled with plagues, famines, wars, diseases, earthquakes, tornadoes, typhoons, all kinds of natural disasters, deep personal disappointments, and worldwide catastrophes? Why create such a world?

The God in Conversations with God begins to answer this question, and answers it brilliantly. The answer to this question must be sought in the deepest secrets of the universe and the highest meaning of life. The following text in bold is the key point:

I do not demonstrate My goodness by creating only perfect surroundings for you. Nor do I demonstrate My love by not allowing you to demonstrate yours.

The literal meaning is actually not complicated. My goodness is not demonstrated merely by creating an environment as beautiful as the heaven you imagine. Nor do I forbid you from demonstrating your love; I demonstrate My love in this way -- I give you the right to love, I give you the ability to love, and in this way I demonstrate My love.

He says:

As I have already explained, you cannot demonstrate love until you can demonstrate not-love.

In the first section of the previous chapter, when I was introducing Conversations with God, I mentioned this content. This world created this kind of dualistic world, with yin and yang. After creating yin and yang, it created this duality, and the purpose is to let you experience love through the way of not-love, and also to let you find Me through the way of experiencing not-self.

It is like what Buddhism says: you must go through the state of no-self, of not-self. You must enter the state of no-self. But entering the state of no-self does not mean truly negating yourself, casting yourself away. Many people, when practicing Buddhism, misunderstand this very first point. They think that no-self means negating the existence of myself, negating the existence of this self in the three-dimensional world, negating the existence of my thoughts, consciousness, and concepts, and that everything related to me should not be wanted, should be cast away, should be eradicated. But they do not understand the deeper meaning within this. This passage makes it very clear: through no-self, through removing attachment to self, you are led to find the true you. Only through no-self can you find the self.

Things, as long as they are things of the three-dimensional world, cannot exist apart from their opposites. Without high there is no low, without good there is no bad. Unless one is in a kind of absolute world -- in that higher-dimensional, absolute world without a material world. However, the realm of the absolute, for you and for Me -- for human beings and for God -- is not enough. You must remember this: it is not enough.

This sentence explains why we must have the existence of this three-dimensional world, why we must have the existence of this material world. Why did God not create us in a purely spiritual world? Why can we not experience within a purely spiritual world? Why must we come to this material world to experience? He tells you: it is not enough. Why? Because in that absolute world there is only love. You say, is it not good to have only love? No, it is not good, because you cannot experience what love is. Because it has only love, only this one thing, you actually cannot experience it.

Let me put it in plain everyday language: if from the moment you were born, everything I gave you to drink was sweet. Water was sweet, milk was sweet, food was sweet, salt was sweet. Everything you put in your mouth was sweet. Then I ask you, do you know what sweet is? You have no idea. Only when one day you eat something salty, something bitter, something spicy, does your sense of taste differentiate -- oh, this is this flavor, that is that flavor. Same principle. If you were placed in a world that was all love, you would actually not know what love is. Only when not-love exists, when hatred exists, when fear exists, do you know that love is actually this beautiful.

God has always existed in the absolute world, and we human beings also came from the absolute world. But in the realm of the absolute there is no experience; it has no way to experience; it only has knowing. This point is very crucial, mark it as important. In that pure, higher-dimensional, non-material realm, there is no experience; there is only knowing.

Knowing, Experience, and Existence

What does it mean to say that a purely spiritual world has no experience, only knowing? After you die, you have only a soul. Your spirit body leaves the body, and you can wander around. But can that spirit body go eat a big meal? Can you eat a hamburger? Can you eat a steamed bun? You have no sense of taste, no sense of smell, none of your senses at all. Of course you can fly around, you are more impressive than any human being, you can go wherever you want without buying a ticket or getting a visa. But you do not even have the most basic sensory experience. You have cognition -- you say, I know what chive buns taste like, I know what they feel like, I know all of it, because I have experienced it all. That kind of cognition you do have. But the immediate experience and the immediate feeling of the moment, those you do not have, because you have no physical body. In other words, you cannot create a world either; you cannot even move a cup. You can only know; you say, I know, I know it all.

So here, knowing, experience, and existence are completely different feelings.

Knowing is a divine state.

Do not underestimate knowing. Knowing is a divine state.

Yet the greatest joy is existence.

This is also a key point. God has always been in a state of knowing. God knows all things, and it knows all concepts. But it is not happy -- it is a learned scientist, like the core algorithm of a search engine, knowing everything, aware of everything, but not happy. Why? It is a machine. Knowing does not equal happiness.

The greatest joy is existence. Knowing a thing in itself brings no joy. For example, you know about love. You have read novels and poetry written over thousands of years describing love in all its forms: love is giving, love is eternal... many, many concepts, and you have learned a great deal. But none of that is as real as the joy brought by actually having a boyfriend or a girlfriend. A love poem is so beautiful, their love is so moving, and you long for love that way -- none of that is a problem. But what can truly bring you joy is only when you fall in love with someone, or when someone falls in love with you, that you can know: so this is how beautiful the feeling of love is. The essential difference between knowing and experience is right here. Having a correct understanding of love is right, but it cannot bring you joy. Only when you actually experience the existence of love can you feel joy.

Existence can be realized only after experience.

What does existence mean? Seth often speaks of existence, and sometimes he mixes up the words existence and entity. But sometimes it is not a mix-up; it is that our understanding is insufficient. He says existence can be realized only after experience. In the Seth books he often says that we do not understand the nature of existence; when, between two lives, you come to understand the nature of existence, then you will have a new realization. Here he is talking about what the nature of existence is. This material is interconnected; when we read certain books and can find the places where they communicate with each other, that is very useful.

The relationship among knowing, experience, and existence is this: first there is knowing, then experience, and only then can there be existence. This is the trinity, and this trinity is God.

The Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

If you have studied Christianity, or have taken part in Christian activities, you know that Christianity has always spoken of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit united in one. But in the past we visualized the Trinity in Christianity as specific persons -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit being so-and-so. Here it points out to you: the Trinity of God is not a Trinity of specific persons, but a Trinity of three states -- the state of knowing, the state of experiencing, and the state of being. What is called God is the union of these three. The state in which knowing, experiencing, and being exist simultaneously -- that is God, three aspects inseparable from one.

Conversations with God is addressed to people with a Christian background, so it re-explains this in a Christian manner.

The Father is knowing, that is, the father of all understanding, the source of all experience. Why is it the source of experience? You cannot experience what you have never known. When you do not know a thing, you cannot experience it. Someone may ask: I have eaten something I have never eaten before, and that is also an experience -- how can you say that if I do not know it, I cannot experience it? He will say later that this is not entirely right, but not entirely wrong either. This itself is a dialectical relationship -- you cannot experience what you do not know; but if you have never experienced it, you cannot truly know it either.

The Son is experience, that is, the implementation and execution of all the Father's own knowing. The Son is experience, which means putting the Father's knowing into practice, carrying it out, putting it into action. Therefore, you cannot become what you have not experienced. If you want to become something, you must carry it out in practice, become it. Only after you have experienced it can you know what it is.

The Holy Spirit is being, which is all the Son's own experience abstracted out of concretized action. Abstracting this process of experience -- note, it must be abstraction; it does not refer to the thing itself, but to the abstraction of the thing.

Only through the memory of knowing and experiencing can this simple and wonderful sense of being be obtained.

Let us return to the example of love. First, you have a certain understanding of love -- you think such-and-such is what love is. Where does this come from? From the education you received since childhood, the things you saw, the knowledge you accepted, your parents, society, all aspects. You have a basic understanding of love, and you have also fantasized about what your hoped-for other half would be like. But this understanding is only understanding; you have not put it into practice. Until one day you meet the right person, and only then do you begin to experience what love is. Love becomes concretized -- dating, eating together, watching movies together, walking the streets together, going home to eat together, living together, studying together, playing games together -- all these are experiences.

This process of moving from understanding to actual implementation, becoming actual experience, is a sublimation of your understanding. This love itself turns you into the one who loves and the one who is loved; you become a thing of love, you become love itself. In another person's eyes, you are the embodiment of that love. That person in your eyes is also that love. Love becomes concretized -- this is that experience. So he says, without this experience you cannot become what you have experienced. You cannot become what you have not experienced; in other words, you will certainly become what you have experienced.

What does the being of the Holy Spirit mean? After going through your understanding of love, and also going through your actual experience of love itself -- living together, cohabiting -- after this deeper actual understanding of love, the memories formed in your mind through these two processes -- the memory of the concept of love and the memory of the actual actions of love -- these two memories are called being. Only then can you feel the wonder of this being, beyond words.

When we say how wonderful love is, it is certainly not about specific events, but about the specific events within love, gathered together with the thing of love itself. The reason love is wonderful is surely that this idea of love plus the events within love, combined together, become a being of love. To give an imperfect example: take watching a movie by itself -- if there is no love in it, watching a movie itself is nothing wonderful; it is just watching a movie. But if it is under the premise of love, and the two of you go to watch this movie because of love, then the act of watching the movie becomes part of your love, becomes a wonderful thing. The act of watching a movie, because it has the blessing of love, becomes a wonderful thing.

Existence Itself Is Bliss

Simply put, existence is joy -- not even joy, but bliss.

So I want to ask: where is the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss? It is right in your present moment. Is your present state not simply existence? That is the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. If you cannot perceive this bliss, that is a problem with your understanding. If you think bliss is some other world, somewhere else in your universe, and that you need to trek across mountains and rivers, practice for countless hours, reach some rank or level, pass some master's examination, and obtain a pass before you can enter the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, then you are far too naive. Bliss is right in the present moment, right in this instant before your eyes.

He is the state reached after God knew and experienced Himself, the state God had longed for from the very beginning.

Who does "he" refer to? It refers to simple existence. Simple existence is truly extraordinary. Do not think it is easy -- it is easy, as long as you can understand it.

Many people have seen Peaceful Warrior, also known as Way of the Peaceful Warrior. A line often repeated in that film is: there is not a single moment in this world that is not sacred. That line is quite philosophical. Expanded, it means: every moment is simple existence, and this simple existence is bliss, is sacred.

Beyond the Infantile Stage

He says:

Of course, you have long since passed the infantile stage.

This passage is very similar to what Seth just said. Seth said you have long since passed the time of reading fairy-tale books. What is meant by the infantile stage? Actually, it is the period around feudal society, or around the Middle Ages. That period was our infancy. At that time, our understanding of God and of ourselves was insufficient, which is why the religions of that period came into being. You have now passed the infantile stage.

He says that at this point you can understand without explanation -- this father-son relationship he speaks of, that is, the relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit mentioned earlier, has nothing to do with gender. The vivid language I use here comes from your latest scripture -- that is, the Trinitarian formulation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Bible. But the earlier sacred scriptures, that is, the earlier versions of the Bible, placed this analogy in the context of mother and daughter. Modern people prefer to express it as father and son; in earlier times it was mother and son. But neither of these is accurate. Do not think about this question in that way in your mind.

How should it be viewed? It should be viewed as the relationship between predecessor and successor, between the one who gives birth and the one who is born. Knowing is the one who gives birth; experience is the one who is born. You must first have something that knows, and only then go and experience it -- if you do not know that thing, you do not even know what it is you are experiencing. You first know love, and only then go and experience it, and only then do you know that what you are experiencing is called love.

Someone might say: I can experience love without knowing love. Wrong. Many people in elementary school have this vague awareness of fondness. In kindergarten or even elementary school, a little boy and a little girl get along well, holding hands and playing together every day. That feeling is extremely intimate. Is it love? Its behavior has already surpassed the behavior of much love, but it is not love. Why? Because at that time you had not yet come to know love. Although you went through this thing, you did not know what it was called. You could only call it childhood innocence, or a childhood sweetheart. Foreigners coined a term for this stage called puppy love -- the love of little dogs: today you get along with this one, tomorrow with that one. Why? Because that one did not give me candy to eat, or your toy you did not let me play with. It is not called love, and the reason is not because of its behavior, but because at that time you had no knowledge of love.

What is the third part? The third is the one who exists. The Father is knowing, the Son is experience, and the Holy Spirit is the memory after experiencing these two -- that is, existence. The first is the one who gives birth, the second is the one who is born, and the third is the one who exists. The three of them are in this kind of relationship.

The Three-in-One Divine Pattern

The reality of the Trinity, this true existence, is the mark of God. The divine pattern is three-in-one. Everywhere in the divine realm you find this three-in-one relationship, this triune relationship. Once you deal with matters concerning time and space, the consciousness of God, and anything related to the divine, you will encounter it.

To put it another way, in all of life and the mundane, you cannot find this three-in-one relationship. Life and mundane relationships are not divine; they are the path to the divine, they are the instrument leading to the divine, but they are not the divine. All who handle the divine relationships of life are able to find the three-in-one truth within those relationships -- when you handle the relationships of life in a divine way, the three-in-one truth can reveal itself.

Some religious scholars describe the three-in-one truth as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; some spiritualists use the terms superconscious, conscious, and subconscious; some soul scholars speak of mind, body, and soul; we often say body, mind, and spirit -- the physical body is the body, the mental and spiritual is the mind, and the soul is that higher thing; some scientists consider it to be energy, matter, and ether -- ether is a Western word, something ethereal and intangible; some philosophers say thought, language, and action.

If you look at the Trinity in terms of time, you will find three tenses: past, present, and future. In terms of spatial relationships, whether you consider a point in the universe or a point in your room, you will identify here, there, and the space in between.

It is always a three-in-one relationship. When you discuss divine matters, and matters related to the divine, you will always find that the Trinity exists. But in mundane relationships, you cannot identify this in-between thing. That is because mundane relationships are always binary, two-valued, while relationships in the divine realm are without exception three-valued.

In mundane relationships there are left and right, up and down, big and small, fast and slow, cold and hot, and the most remarkable two-valued relationship God created -- female and male, man and woman, yin and yang. In the mundane world it is always a two-valued relationship, with no in-between. In these relationships things are either this or that; there is no thing between this and that. In the realm of mundane relationships, nothing that is conceptualized can exist unless its opposite has also been conceptualized -- for example, good and bad; without bad, you cannot define what good is. In divine relationships, there are no opposites; all things return to one, and everything interconnects in an endless cycle.

Time is just such a divine realm. In this realm, what you call past, present, and future all exist in an internally connected way -- they are not opposed to one another. The so-called Trinity is never oppositional; it is not a matter of either this or that. These three are one and the same thing, different facets of one whole. They are not opposites of one another, but different parts of the same whole, different stages of the same concept, different cycles of the same energy, different aspects of the same indistinguishable reality.

If you infer from the above viewpoints that past, present, and future exist at the same "time," then you are correct. He put quotation marks around "time" -- just like Seth does. Seth often says that when things exist at the same "time," you should put quotation marks around "time."

Okay, I am Mike. Today we continue and finish the last part of Chapter 14 of Seth Speaks. In the previous episode we roughly sorted through the overall concept of the Trinity and time. In this episode we return to the question of why the world is the way it is now.

Seth says the world is the way it is now because it could not exist in any other way. In a physical, mundane realm, binary opposition is inevitable. Because it is not an absolute realm; it is a relative world. Earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, typhoons, and the events you call natural disasters -- including what we now call the pandemic -- are nothing more than the movement of various elements from one pole to the other. The entire cycle of birth and death is also part of this movement. When you understand that this is the nature of how the world operates, you will understand that the world can only exist in this way. This rhythm of life, this cyclical, revolving movement, is something that nothing in mundane existence can escape, because life itself is a rhythm.

This rhythm, one could say, lies at the very center of the Taiji, in its rising and falling, its trembling and throbbing. Our ancients understood this principle very, very early. Look at our moon: when the moon is full, it wanes; from waning to full, from full to waning, things always operate this way. This is its law. Therefore, in mundane existence, nothing can escape this rhythm, this law.

Seth then goes on to speak of illness. He says sickness and disease stand in opposition to health and well-being. They appear in your reality also in obedience to your command -- you let them come. If you had not to some degree caused yourself to be ill, you would not have sickness. The moment you decide to recover your health, you can immediately be well again.

Does what he says sound a bit like what many cults say? Very much so. So you see, between the righteous and the evil there is only a hair's breadth of difference. If you took this sentence out of context and put it in another setting, it would be a cult. He says if you do not want to be ill, you can quickly get well. But there is an important premise here -- he says that deep personal disappointment is a response to personal choices; and worldwide disasters are the consequences of worldwide consciousness.

If you have heard what I said about Seth's views on the current pandemic, the virus, and epidemics (I devoted four episodes specifically to this topic; you can find them among my videos), you will find that in those views, between the second and third episodes, he expresses this exact same viewpoint. What is that viewpoint? It is that many illnesses arise because the person who is ill feels deep disappointment and dissatisfaction with his own life, or with his personal situation, and when he is powerless to change it, this state tends to lead to illness. This is a very, very clear matter. So everyone must remember: when you are dissatisfied with your current situation, and you cannot change it, and you are very disappointed with how things are, if this emotion and state persists for a period of time, you will become ill.

Then if an entire society, or an entire country, or the whole world becomes ill, it is because the collective consciousness of that world is deeply dissatisfied with the present state of things and powerless to change it. If you consider the current pandemic and the current COVID-19 epidemic facing humanity from this angle, you will understand why every country in the world encounters the same problem. In fact, every one of us is dissatisfied with our psychology and with the present state of things. We are dissatisfied with the current system, dissatisfied with the current economic system, and dissatisfied that after human civilization has developed for so long -- we already achieved tremendous technological development in the 1940s and 1950s and solved the problem of feeding and clothing the entire world -- yet after another sixty, seventy, eighty years, humanity is still lingering on the same problems we faced in the 1920s and 1930s: how to get enough to eat, how to work, how to have a satisfying job, enough income, and live a happy life of our own. We are still struggling along the baseline of survival, still desperately struggling over how to live a better life -- the most primitive problem that should have been solved collectively by all humanity long ago.

As many people write online: life itself has already exhausted me; it has already made me use every ounce of my strength. The simple matter of living has already made me use every ounce of my strength, so how can I talk about spiritual practice, about the realm of thought, about universal love, about loving humanity? You are thinking too much. I cannot even handle my own life; I do not know where my next meal is coming from; I have not yet seen clearly my future goals and prospects.

Therefore, the deep dissatisfaction of the whole of human society with the present state of things is the dissatisfaction of every individual. Do you think Americans are satisfied? Ordinary Americans are also dissatisfied with their own situation. If they were satisfied, they would not have elected the current president, Trump. As many people say, they would rather elect a true scoundrel than a hypocrite. Because many of Trump's behaviors cannot even be called gentlemanly, but he is real. In other words, people have grown tired of those hypocritical politicians, and that is why Trump, a political novice who had never spent a single day in politics, was able to be elected President of the United States. In our real lives we can also see other situations. It is just that every one of us is dissatisfied with our present state. One person dissatisfied, two people dissatisfied, and when everyone is dissatisfied, this social problem erupts. It will push us to change. We will talk about this later; let us not expand on it here.

Then the author asks: are you implying that I chose these events, that our will and desire caused them to happen? God says: your question -- the question the author just asked, why is our world like this, why are there wars and plagues -- the unspoken implication of your question is that I, God, chose these events, that my will and desire caused them to happen?

But God says: I, God, do not will these things to exist. I merely observe you doing so. I watch you humans doing this. It is not that I want to do this, nor have I done this, nor do I will this to happen. I do not want the world to have plagues, nor do I want the world to have wars. I merely watch you let them happen. And I do not stop these things from happening.

Then the author asks: since you, God, have such great power, why do you not stop these disasters from happening? Because that would frustrate your will. That is to say, it would deprive you of your experience of God. What experience? The creative experience. You came to create this world; you create however you want to create, and God will not stop you. You want to start a war -- even though God knows war is not good, if you insist on making it happen, God lets it happen. Because God lets you come to experience being God, to experience itself. If it stopped you, what would free will be? That is the meaning.

Therefore, the passage that follows is very important -- he says: therefore do not blame the world for having so many things you call bad. Instead, bend down and ask yourself: ask yourself how these circumstances that you judge as bad came about, how all these bad things happened. If you want to change them, what are you willing to do about it? This question of his is very weighty; it strikes straight at the heart. You complain every day that this is unfair and that is unfair. He says rather than complaining about these things, why not ask yourself: what can you do about them? Do not ask others. Ask your own heart. In the face of such a disaster, which part of myself do I wish to experience? Which aspects of existence do I choose to pursue?

In other words, under the current state of the pandemic, this is a real disaster; we do not need to use analogies. In the face of this disaster, what do you want to experience? What do you want to become? Do you want to become a volunteer, a bystander, a donor, a changer, a person who cries out, a person who blows the whistle, or a person who just watches the excitement? It all depends on you, right? Do not ask why this disaster happened; ask what you want to do when this disaster comes. Through this disaster, what kind of you do you want to become? That is what he wants to ask you.

Because life as a whole exists as an instrument for your own creation. You must understand this: life is simply an instrument for you. What kind of instrument? An instrument for creating you, for fulfilling you. Can you treat the pandemic as an instrument for fulfilling yourself? All of its events are nothing more than opportunities -- you must remember this. Every single thing that happens in life is nothing more than an opportunity. What are these opportunities for? They are for you to decide to become the true you. You must use these opportunities to make the decisions you should make and become the true you. If you look at everything in life this way, you will understand. This is true for every soul; it is the same for everyone.

So you should understand that in the universe there are no victims, only creators. You must understand this: you are not a victim of the pandemic. You are not the person locked at home, you are not the person infected, you are not the person quarantined, you are not the person who cannot open the door or do business because of the pandemic, you are not the person about to be laid off by the boss, you are not the person forced to close down and go bankrupt because of the pandemic. You are not a victim. You think you are a victim, but you are not a victim; you are a creator, and you must go create.

The masters who have walked this planet all understood this truth. Whichever master you mention, they never considered themselves persecuted; they never considered themselves victimized. Although many were truly tortured to death, and many masters did not meet good ends in their lifetimes -- whether Copernicus or those who were burned to death²² -- it was all like that. But those masters did not have good endings in their own eras, yet they did not feel they were being tortured; they did not feel they were suffering.

He says every soul is a master. He emphasizes again: do not say those masters are beyond me, that the affairs of those masters have nothing to do with me. He tells you: you are a master. Although some souls do not remember their origin or their gifts -- some souls cannot remember; their origin is God, and their gift is creation. Yet every soul still creates its own conditions and circumstances according to its own grandest goals and its most vivid memories, in that moment called the present -- that is, the here and now.

Every soul, according to its own grandest goals, creates the circumstances related to its own conditions -- that is, its surrounding environment. It creates it itself. The opportunities are also created by itself. These circumstances, these conditions, these things it creates, are the present moment of our lives. This present moment -- it is all created by you.

Therefore, do not criticize or judge the karmic paths others walk. Do not envy success, and do not pity failure. Why? Because you do not know what counts as success and what counts as failure in the soul's reckoning. In your physical world, you may think this person is poor and a failure, and that person is rich and successful. That is your standard in mundane terms. You do not know what counts as success and what counts as failure by the soul's standard.

When things happen, do not call them disaster or joy. When you encounter things, do not define them as disaster or joy unless you have already determined or witnessed their purpose. Because if death saves thousands of lives, can you still call it a disaster? If one person's death saves the lives of millions, would you say that person's death is a disaster? Certainly not. If birth only brings sorrow, can it still be called joy? Life is a happy thing, a joyful thing. But if a life is born into a very, very harsh environment, and dies of starvation shortly after birth, in such an environment, do you think birth is joy for him? From the soul's perspective, of course it is for experience; that is his matter, you need not concern yourself. But his point is that you cannot define it; by mundane standards you cannot easily define it, so do not label it. Therefore, do not even judge this. Always walk your own path, while allowing others to walk theirs. That is enough.

Then many people say: fine, then I will just mind my own business and not care about anyone. But Seth then says the opposite -- this does not mean you should ignore the cries of others for help. Is this not the same as what Seth said earlier? You cannot ignore the cries of others. It is not that you should walk your own path and not care about others, that their path is their choice, and if they want to experience it, let them experience it; I do not need to bother with them. No. So you will find that although these teachings are separated by decades, many of the underlying concepts are consistent.

First, you cannot ignore others' calls for help. When help is due and you can help, you must help. When someone appears in your life, there is meaning in their presence. Helping them is not simply helping them; it is through the act of helping them that you fulfill yourself. Second, you cannot ignore your own soul's impulse to change certain situations and conditions. When you are dissatisfied with the present state, when you feel an impulse from your soul to change the present state and make life better for others, you must not ignore it; you must not block it; you must realize it. He says this because he is afraid that after reading the above -- always walk your own path, do not mind others' paths -- you will become a cold and heartless person. He says no, you must never ignore these two points.

Rather, realize that whatever you do, you must avoid preconceived notions and self-righteousness. Every situation is a gift, and every experience hides a treasure. Every experience, every situation, no matter how miserable the circumstance, is a gift and a treasure.

Later he gives a story, which I will not tell. It is a story about a little soul. I think in our QQ group there is an article called "A Little Story of a Little Soul," and that story is a fuller version based on this one. It is a very good story; you can go read that content.

What is the conclusion of his story? He says: if you want to be a light in the darkness, do not complain. The earlier part of the story says: if you are a light, if your essence is a light, and you want to realize the attribute of your soul as light, you must stand in the darkness. If you are not in the darkness, you cannot demonstrate your essence as light. In other words, if you stand in the sun, even if you are light, you are insignificant and cannot be discovered by others. As light, only when you are together with darkness can you show that you are light. But when you are together with darkness, you must never complain: why is everything around me darkness, with no light? Because that is your choice. Because you are light, your surroundings can only be darkness. Because you want to express yourself, to become yourself, you can only be in the darkness.

He says: in this moment when you are surrounded by that which you are not, do not forget your true identity. Praise this world, even as you try to change it. In other words, even if this world is very imperfect, even if you want to start changing it right now, even if you see its imperfection, you must still praise it. Recognize that in the moment of greatest trial, when your life encounters its greatest difficulty, what you do may be your greatest success. Because the lowest point, the most difficult time in life, is often the time when you are most capable of achievement. Because the experience you create demonstrates your true identity; in this most difficult time, the experience you create by rising from the dead demonstrates your true identity and your ideal identity.

He tells you this story so that you can better understand why the world is the way it is now -- why the world is like this, and how it can change in an instant. How can it change? As long as every person remembers their own highest reality, their sacred reality; as long as every person knows their true identity -- you are God, you are the creator, the maker of the world -- when every person knows their true identity, the world changes in an instant.

He says some people say life is a school, and the facts of observation and experience in your life are there for you to learn from. He says I have responded to this viewpoint before, telling you that life is not a school. Now I tell you again, and he emphasizes this point once more. Read this bolded passage carefully; it is very meaningful:

There is nothing to learn in the life you have entered; you only need to demonstrate the knowledge you already have. In the process of demonstrating this knowledge, you must put it into practice and create a new you. In this way you can prove that your life is meaningful and purposeful, and in this way you can make it sacred.

This passage is so easy to understand that there is nothing left to explain.

Then, later, the author asks: do you mean that all the bad things we encounter are chosen by ourselves? Are you saying that the disasters and calamities of the world, on some level, are all created by us in order to experience the opposite of our true identity? If that is really the case, is there not some less painful way for us to create experiences and opportunities for ourselves? Why must we display our opposite in order to create our true selves?

Then God says: you have asked several questions, and they are all good questions. Let us answer them one by one. He says: first, not all the so-called bad things you encounter are chosen by yourselves. Not consciously chosen. You must understand this clearly: these bad things are not something you consciously choose. What he says next is even more amusing. He says: they are all created by you -- not chosen by you, but created by you. You are always in the process of creation, every minute, every second; every minute and every second you are creating.

As for how you create, we will talk about that later. But when we studied Chapter 5 of Seth Speaks, he explained how you create a physical reality from a belief, an emotion, and a thought. He already covered it there, so we will not repeat it here. He tells you: for now, just remember what I have told you -- you are large-scale creation machines. You are large-scale creation machines, machines that ceaselessly create. You ceaselessly bring forth new physical realities, ceaselessly.

Do you ask whether the speed is very slow? No. He says its speed is as fast as you can imagine. The speed at which you create physical reality is as fast as your thoughts. The moment you think of it, it exists. He gives examples: events, things, objects, environments, circumstances -- all of these are created by consciousness. This is completely consistent with Seth's viewpoint, without any equivocation or ambiguity.

He says the power of individual consciousness is strong enough. So you can imagine that if two or more people unite in the name of God, how tremendous the creative energy released would be. Then collective consciousness is even more powerful. Our ability to collectively create illusions is extremely strong; the events and environments we create can reach the whole world and cause serious consequences for the entire planet. I will not elaborate on this; I have already said it before. We must never underestimate this point; our creativity is extremely powerful.

To say that these consequences were chosen by you, chosen in the way you mean, is not accurate. You did not choose them, just as I did not choose them. Like me, you also observe them, and through them you determine your true identity. You did not choose them; you are creating them. And like me, you are creating, observing, and experiencing all at once. You determine your own identity based on the physical world you have created around you.

Yet in the human world there are no victims and no persecutors. You are not the victim of others' choices. On some level, the things you say you hate are actually all created by yourself; after creating them, you then choose them. This viewpoint echoes what Seth said earlier -- in Chapter 13, on reincarnation: if you carry hatred, or if you hate something, you will experience those things in your next life. These two also resonate with each other; it is the same principle. You must never hate or dislike anything. The things you hate and dislike are very strange; they will always follow you, like a vicious dog forever at your heels. The things you hate are all created by yourself, and after creating them, you choose them.

He says this state of thought is very elevated. When you understand that this world is all created by you, this state of thought is very elevated. All masters eventually reach this state. Because only by taking responsibility for all evil consequences can they gain the ability to change part of those consequences. That is, you take responsibility for all the bad things in the present moment. Can you say of the current pandemic: this is my responsibility? Do you dare say it? If you dare say this is my responsibility, only then can you gain the ability to partially change it. If you say the pandemic has nothing to do with you -- I am still a victim; what does it have to do with me? If you think that way, then I am sorry, but you cannot change anything.

As long as you stubbornly believe that these bad results were done to you by something else, or by someone else, you deprive yourself of the power to change them. You deprive yourself of the very power that would allow you to change them. This passage is exactly the same as Seth's viewpoint. Only when you say, "I did this," when you look at the problem in this way, can you gain the power to change it. All these bad things around you are projected out by your beliefs; they are your inner world projected outward. You say, when you see murder and arson, you blame the murderers. Why don't you blame yourself for projecting these things? You might say, what does this have to do with me? Most of you think that way, and if you think that way, then you are done for.

He says that compared with changing other people's behavior, changing your own behavior is much easier. When you try to change other people's behavior, it is very hard to change. On what grounds do you expect others to change? Isn't changing your own behavior easy? He says the first step in changing anything is to recognize and accept this fact: you chose for it to exist in the way it does now. If you cannot accept this on a personal level, then please understand the principle that we are all one. He said earlier that we are all one, that all things are one. When you recognize that you and other people are one, then you will be able to agree. What they do is actually also what you do.

The first step is to accept that this thing was done by you. Then, you must find a way to create change. Acknowledge that you did this thing, but you feel it was not done well, not done beautifully, that it is so disgusting, so vile, so change it. Not because something is wrong, but because it no longer matches your standard of identity. This thing is so disgusting, so vile, but that does not mean there is something wrong with it. Because right and wrong have no standard. By whose standard do you judge right and wrong? By your standard, or by his standard, or by the victim's standard, or by the universe's standard? So do not think about the question of right and wrong. Just think this: the reason this thing must be changed is that it no longer accurately expresses your identity. It can no longer express your true identity, so you must change it.

Then he emphasizes one core sentence again:

There is only one reason you do anything: to announce and declare, express, and fulfill, become and experience Who You Really Are.

Everything we do in daily life has only one reason: to declare your true identity to the universe. Your actions are your identity. Everything you do is your identity. Everything you do from birth to death, added together, is the definition of you. You say, I have many ideas in my head, I am a kind person, I am a wise person, I am a person with great ideals and grand plans. Sorry, but if these plans exist only in your head and you never put them into practice, they cannot express your identity. You must actually do them in order to express your identity. So any idea in your head, any kind thought, any beautiful wish, go realize it in your life. Do not wait and say the time is not ripe yet, the conditions are not in place yet, I do not have enough money yet. You must express your identity. Everything you do must be consistent with your true identity.

After being used for this purpose, life becomes the process of creating the self. What purpose? The purpose that all your actions are the process of expressing your identity. When you make life your goal, your life becomes a process of creating the self. You must use life; do not let life use you. Do not passively say that life is playing you. Here he shifts the angle and says, you go play life, you use it. How do you use it? Use it for all the opportunities and all the possibilities it gives you. Everything you face is an opportunity given to you. These opportunities allow you to create yourself, your true identity and your ideal identity. Without these things in life, how could you express yourself? In other words, without encountering these hardships and difficulties, how could you demonstrate your greatness? Without encountering those extreme situations, how could you show your compassion and love? Do you understand? You must use it, use this life, and not complain about it.

There is only one reason not to do anything: this thing can no longer express your identity. The reason I no longer do bad things is nothing other than this: these things no longer match my identity. The reason you do something is only one: this thing expresses your identity. The reason you do not do something is also only one: this thing does not match my identity. If this thing does not reflect you and does not represent you, then you do not do it. If you wish to be accurately re-presented, then you must change everything in your life that does not fit the picture you wish to project into the eternal realm. This sentence in bold, underline it. You want to project into an eternal realm, which is a higher-dimensional world. That is the real you, that is your soul. Your true identity is the soul. Your true identity is a part of All That Is. Your true identity is a branch of God, a part of God. What God should do, you should do. You should do the works of God. Do you understand now?

Therefore, in the broadest sense, all the bad things that happen are chosen by you. Your mistake is not that you chose them, but that you defined them as "bad." Because when we define them as "bad," it means we have labeled ourselves as "bad." The mistake is not in the thing itself; it is in your defining the thing as bad, and then you are bad. And this label we cannot accept. We cannot accept the fact that we ourselves are bad. So in order to avoid the self being labeled as bad, we abandon our own creations and cast all these things aside.

He says it is precisely this intellectual and spiritual dishonesty that makes you have to endure a world like the one you have now. This bad thing was clearly done by you, but because you are afraid of defining yourself as bad, after you do it you refuse to admit it. It has nothing to do with me; other people did it; it was all the people around me. Are you not one of the people around you? Are you not a member of this earth? Are you not a member of this group? Why do others have a share in this thing but you do not? It is still that old saying: when an avalanche happens, no snowflake is innocent. How is it that you alone are fine while everyone else has a problem? The finger points outward at everyone else; why not point it at yourself?

If you accepted your personal responsibility for the world -- never mind others, first speak of yourself -- even if you only felt deep in your heart that you bear personal responsibility for this world, it would be vastly different from what it is now. Even if you do nothing at all, if you merely think in your heart that the reason the world has become what it is today includes your own responsibility in it, if you have that recognition, the situation would be different. And if you can do something, of course that is even better. If everyone felt responsible, the world would surely become more beautiful. Precisely because this principle is so plain and obvious, it is so annoying and so full of irony. This principle is too simple to state: every person bears their own responsibility for this world; take up the responsibility you ought to take. It is that old Chinese saying: the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of every common person. That common person does not mean someone else; that common person means you. The rise and fall of the world is your responsibility. Our ancient ancestors understood this principle long ago.

So that is why it makes you so troubled. Why? You do not want to bear it; the responsibility is too great. Just like the current pandemic, no one wants to take the blame, and no one dares to step forward and admit that they bear responsibility for this matter.

The various natural disasters of the world, the various physical disorders, are not created by you alone. It is not that you alone created the tornado, created the tsunami, or that you alone created the pandemic. You did not create them independently. But what did you create? You created the degree of impact these things -- this typhoon, this pandemic -- have on your life. That is what you can create. The event happened; the pandemic happened; the disaster happened. You cannot change that; it is the result of the collective will. But what you can change is how this event affects your life. In other words, in the face of this event, what do you intend to do, and what kind of person do you intend to be?

He says these events that occur in the universe can never be said to be caused or created by you. To say that would be flattering you too much, and it is not yours alone either. What creates these events is the combined consciousness of humanity, the collective consciousness. All the people of the world together produce these experiences. What each of you individually does, the actions you take within it, determines what they mean to you, and based on your relationship with them, determines your true identity and your essence. In the midst of this pandemic, what did you do, what was the impact on your life, what do you want to do -- that is the question you should consider.

Therefore, you collectively and individually create the life and the times you are experiencing. This sentence, mark it as important. We collectively and at the same time individually create this life and this era, so that the soul may achieve the goal of evolution. How does it evolve? By you becoming yourself, by you becoming your true self.

Earlier the author asked, is there some less painful way to go through this process? He says the answer is yes. What way? Your outer experience remains unchanged. These things still happen as they happen. A typhoon is a typhoon; a pandemic is a pandemic. To reduce the pain you associate with earthly experiences and events, you must change the way you look at things, at those experiences and events. What he means is, you ask me whether there is a less painful way to experience this process. There is. What way? It is how you look at the thing called pain. If you do not feel it is painful, then you will not feel pain.

Here he states a very philosophical principle: you cannot change the outer world. This is what many of us believe. Then someone says, belief creates reality, so should I go create a reality without the pandemic? Many people are now going around making vows, meditating, the whole world meditating for a few minutes, making what vow? Saying, may this pandemic quickly recede. He says this outer world is something you cannot change. Rather than making vows to change that event, you would do better to make a vow to change your own present thought, your own present state. Because those events are created by many people, and your consciousness is not yet mature enough; you are not sufficient to change by yourself what has been collectively created. That is your ability. Why is a master able to do it? For example, a master can produce fire, or make something in a bottle disappear. That thing in the bottle is determined by the collective consciousness of everyone. He has the ability, in certain small matters, to change the collective consciousness, and so that thing disappears. It is that simple. But you do not yet have this ability, so if you cannot change the outer, you must change the inner experience. This is the path of life for becoming a master. A master does not become a master in one day. A master also leveled up step by step from being a very low-level novice. When he was a novice, he also could not change outer events, so how did he level up? He had to walk the correct path -- changing on the inside.

How do you change the inner? Nothing in itself is painful. Things themselves have no pain. Pain is the result of your thinking, the result of your cognition. It is an error in your thinking. To think that it is painful is itself a mistaken viewpoint. If you think it is bitter, it is bitter; if you think it is not bitter, and you can find joy amid bitterness, then it is joy. A master can dispel the most sorrowful pain, and therefore a master can bring miraculous healing. Pain comes from the judgments you make about things. Remove the judgment, and pain disappears. This pain is just your perception. In Buddhism, pain is your perception, your view. If your concept of pain changes, pain disappears. Buddhism has its own very detailed and systematic theory and methods for removing pain, which I will not expand on here. Simply put, his viewpoint is: when you do not think it is pain, it is not painful; if you think it is pain, then you will live in pain forever.

How do you remove this judgment? Judgment is often based on your previous experience. Your view of a thing comes from some prior view about that event. That prior view comes from an even earlier view, layer upon layer, like stacking bricks, starting from the beginning, until at last you trace your way back to the original thought. All thoughts are creative, and the most powerful thought of all is the original thought. And this original thought is sometimes also called original sin. If your original thought about a thing is wrong, that is, if the core belief is wrong, then it is original sin. If this viewpoint is not wrong, then it is not original sin. As your erroneous cognition of this thing continues, you will produce a second and a third error, and this error is multiplied many times over. The duty of the Holy Spirit is to inspire you, to give you a new understanding of things, which will free you from your errors and give you a new perspective.

For example, take the matter of a breakup. Some people feel the pain is beyond bearing and even commit suicide over it. If someone tells you, I can tell fortunes, and the person you have now lost is not your destined partner at all; three days after your breakup, you will meet someone who will truly grow old with you, someone who satisfies all your needs and desires. Well, would you not feel that this breakup is not painful at all, and is even something to be thankful for? If you had not broken up, you might have missed the chance to meet this destined partner. Is this breakup still painful? Not painful anymore, right? If you think the person you lost is your destined partner, and that after losing him you will never again in this life find someone as good as him, then go ahead and suffer; you will suffer your whole life. It is that simple; it is a matter of a single shift in thought. The event is the same. The breakup happened, and it happened; there is nothing to change. But how you look at this event -- that is something you can change.

Then the author says, according to what you say, should I not feel sad for the starving children in Africa, or the violent shootings in America, or the earthquake in Brazil, and so on -- these were current events at the time -- should I not feel sad for them? God says, in God's world there is no should or should not. Do whatever you want to do. If feeling sad reflects the real you, then feel sad. If you do not want to feel sad, then do not feel sad. Whichever of these two you feel reflects you, just do that one. But do not judge. You may feel sad, and it is also fine if you do not want to feel sad, but do not blame, and do not label it. Because you do not know what caused the event, and you do not know what its outcome will be.

Why? He says, please remember: what you blame will blame you, and what you judge will become you. This is a very weighty sentence. Do not blame, do not judge, because it will all become you.

Then what is the better approach? Try to change those things that no longer reflect the real you, or help others to change these things. These things can no longer truthfully reflect you. You are also constantly changing and progressing. Perhaps last year you were still a person who did not want to care about others and had no spirit of universal love, and then in a single shift of thought you became loving. Then since you have become a loving person, go do loving things. If you feel something can no longer reflect who you are right now, then do not do it; change it. Or help others change that thing which cannot reflect their true identity. That is the better approach.

What is the even better approach? Bless everyone. Because everything is created by God through living life, and living life is the noblest creation. Your existence blesses all people, including yourself. The existence of your physical body -- as long as this body is alive, it is a great miracle, it is worthy of admiration, it is worthy of praise. There is no need to say anything else. Many people say, I need to produce many achievements; should I go donate to children in Africa? If it is within your power, and if you want to do it, then go do it. If you do not want to do it, that is also fine; no one will force you. Your very existence is already one of God's greatest manifestations. Your existence is one of the best displays of your soul. You yourself are a miracle; this is a miracle.

He says, can we stop for a moment and let me catch my breath, because he has said too much. We will finish this section and then stop.

He says, you just said that in this world there is no should or should not. I said, did I hear that right? God tells him, you heard right. The author says, you say there is no should or should not in this world -- what does that mean? Just do whatever you want? Murder and arson, anything goes? Many people leave comments under my videos, and the most common comment is: oh, you say there is no good and evil, no cause and effect, so I can do whatever I want, and then would the world not become full of burning, killing, looting, and pillaging? Would the world not become a living hell?

He did not ask it exactly this way, but it was similar in meaning. God says in God's world there is no should or should not. Then the person says, there is none in God's world, so where is there should and should not? Then God, being very interesting and very humorous, says, well, that is a good question, actually. So where exactly does should and should not exist? If should or should not does not appear in your world, then where does it appear? He uses a rhetorical question. Then he says, he thought God had not understood him, so he repeated himself. Actually God was teasing him. Only then does God say one sentence: it appears in your imagination. This sentence is very important. So the should and should not, right and wrong, good and bad that we believe in -- all these things are imagined in our minds. If you think it should, then it should; if you think it should not, then it should not. This has no meaning at all; everything you imagine is just that.

Then the author says, someone once taught me to distinguish right from wrong, what is and what is not, should and should not. They said these rules were all set by God. Then God says, those who taught you were mistaken. He says it very directly: I have never defined right and wrong, nor have I defined what is and what is not. To do so would be to deprive you, to completely deprive you of your greatest gift. If I defined for you what is right and wrong, what is and what is not, I would completely take away your greatest gift -- the possibility of acting as you wish and experiencing the consequences; the opportunity to create a new you according to the image and likeness of your true identity; and the space to continually transcend yourself according to your grandest idea of your own abilities.

Simply put, if God had defined for you what is right and what is wrong, what is and what is not, he would have deprived you of the right, as a creator, to act, create, and experience as you wish. If you are told that some things cannot be done and some things can be done, then what kind of creator are you? What kind of maker are you? You do not even have this right; you still have to follow a rule about what you can and cannot do. Many people do not understand this way of thinking. As I said before, not everyone can accept this viewpoint.

He says, if something, some thought, word, or action is wrong, and if I defined it as wrong, that would be telling you not to do it. Telling you not to do it would be limiting you. Limiting you would be denying your true identity. It would be depriving you of the opportunity to create and experience the truth. So do not think about right and wrong, should and should not. We humans often learn more meaningful experiences precisely from those events that we humans define as "wrong." Do not define right and wrong. You simply do not know the causal relationships behind these events and the connections between them. You do not know how they happened, and you do not know what their results will be or what they will affect. Because this event itself comes from another dimension. You in this three-dimensional world only see a very small part of the situation. You do not know how it happened, so do not judge these things. Just experience being yourself.

Some people say, I have given you free will. But then these same people say, if you do not obey me, I will cast you into hell. He is being somewhat sarcastic about those people in the church. Then he says, they say you are a child of God, you have free will, you can do whatever you want. But then they turn around and say, yes, you can do whatever you want, but the premise is that you must obey me, you must believe in the Lord. Only by believing in the Lord can you gain eternal life; if you do not believe, you will go to hell. What kind of free will is that? I give you free will, and then I say, believe in me, and if you do not, go to hell -- is that free will? He says, is this not a mockery of God? Does this not mean that no real relationship exists between us? All right, at this point we have finished explaining. After this he begins talking about heaven and hell, but that is not within the scope of today's discussion.

Regarding this part of the content, I used the last section of Chapter 14 of Seth's Seth Speaks, because that section is relatively short and only briefly introduces some of this, without saying too much. So I combined this content with Conversations with God to explain it, because what he is talking about is the process of the creation of the entire universe. He is talking about the process of the creation of the entire universe. And you, as an existence on earth, how do you, from your own perspective, look at this matter of the relationship between the God who created the universe and the various realities of the universe? What Seth says in the last section of that chapter is this viewpoint, a very grand cosmic view. But we humans are more concerned with the matters of our earth -- the floods, disasters, and pandemics on earth. You talk to me about the universe; that is too distant for me. I have not even figured out the earth yet; I do not want to talk about the universe.

Therefore, I brought in the discussion from Conversations with God about why our present world is the way it is, and also combined it with the actual situation we currently face with the pandemic. We need to think deeply about this. In this matter, or in any matter we encounter in life in the future, how exactly should we act? When there is no should or should not, when there is no right or wrong, no good or evil, no cause and effect, no karmic retribution, how should you do things? This is a question we should seriously consider.

We will continue sharing the following content with everyone.

注释与核实

1. According to Mike's original words, "there are billions, hundreds of millions of such solar systems in the entire galaxy"; upon verification, it should be "the number of stars in the Milky Way (i.e., star systems similar to the Sun) is about one hundred billion, not billions or hundreds of millions." (Source: University of Arizona Steward Observatory, "How Many Stars Are in The Milky Way? More Than You Can Imagine," https://astro.arizona.edu/news/how-many-stars-are-milky-way-more-you-can-imagine) ↩

2. Source: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, "Observable Universe contains ten times more galaxies than previously thought" (https://esahubble.org/news/heic1620/) ↩

3. Source: Wikipedia, "Conversations with God" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversations_with_God) ↩

4. Source: Wikipedia, "Neale Donald Walsch" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neale_Donald_Walsch) ↩

5. Source: Laozi, "Tao Te Ching, Chapter 42" (https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing/zh?searchu=%E9%81%93%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%80) ↩

6. Source: C. George Boeree, "Personality Theories: Carl Jung" (Shippensburg University) (https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html) ↩

7. Source: Wikipedia, "Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah%C4%81y%C4%81na_Mah%C4%81parinirv%C4%81%E1%B9%87a_S%C5%ABtra) ↩

8. Source: Laozi, "Tao Te Ching" (Wang Bi edition), Chapter 2 (https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E9%81%93%E5%BE%B7%E7%B6%93_(%E7%8E%8B%E5%BC%BC%E6%9C%AC)) ↩

9. Source: Wikipedia, "Conversations with God" (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E8%88%87%E7%A5%9E%E5%B0%8D%E8%A9%B1) ↩

10. According to Mike's original words, "in Buddhism there are three thousand small worlds, three thousand middle worlds, and three thousand great worlds"; upon verification, it should be "in Buddhist cosmology there are no 'three thousand small worlds, three thousand middle worlds, and three thousand great worlds': one thousand small worlds form one small thousand-world system, one thousand small thousand-world systems form one middle thousand-world system, one thousand middle thousand-world systems form one great thousand-world system, and because of the threefold progression of 'thousand' it is collectively called the 'three-thousand great thousand-world system,' which is one great thousand-world system." (Source: Wikipedia, "Great Thousand World," https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E5%A4%A7%E5%8D%83%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C) ↩

11. This claim could not be verified. ↩

12. Source: Wikipedia, "Conversations with God" (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E8%88%87%E7%A5%9E%E5%B0%8D%E8%A9%B1) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

13. Source: Einstein Online, "Planck time" (https://www.einstein-online.info/en/explandict/planck-time/) ↩

14. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "The Matrix | 1999 Film, Cast, Plot, & Facts" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Matrix) ↩

15. Source: Wikipedia, "Lucy (film)" (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E9%9C%B2%E8%A5%BF_(%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1)) ↩

16. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Jesus" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus) ↩

17. Source: Wikipedia, "A Course in Miracles" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_in_Miracles) ↩

18. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Charlie Hebdo shooting" (https://www.britannica.com/event/Charlie-Hebdo-shooting) ↩

19. Source: Wikipedia, "2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_South_Korean_hostage_crisis_in_Afghanistan) ↩

20. This claim could not be verified. ↩

21. Source: World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, "Child health" (https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/child-health) ↩

22. According to Mike's original words, "whether it was Copernicus or the one who was burned to death"; upon verification, it should be "Copernicus was not burned to death—he died of a stroke in Frombork on May 24, 1543; the one burned at the stake by the Inquisition was Bruno (February 17, 1600, Campo de' Fiori, Rome)." (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Nicolaus Copernicus," https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus) ↩