June 7, 2010
You are all in the light. The light that you share is a light that bathes, that nurtures, that caresses, that heals, that comforts all.
We have spoken of separation and its impact. The truth, as you have heard, is there is never any true separation. There are only thoughts of separation, but thoughts are merely a temporal response to something that is actually permanent. You may feel at times separated—separated from each other, separated from the loss of a parent, separated from siblings, a spouse, separated from relationships that are meaningful. But these responses that are elicited and felt as separation have no basis in fact. There is no separation. You may feel separated, but despite however intense those feelings may be, the separation is not real.
There are many reasons that one may feel removed from others. For most, that sense of separation is caused by inability to see certain personal needs being fulfilled. Human beings become accustomed to needs being responded to from a particular direction, a particular source, a particular motivation perhaps. It is at such times that each of you must acknowledge what those needs are, and be open to the responses that are already present. If you lose someone with whom you are close, it is natural and appropriate to miss that person, for you are no longer seeing yourself close to someone whom you love.
The truth of there being no separation is exercised through an understanding that the one who feels left behind is not left behind. When you lose someone close, that individual who you miss is in fact closer than when you were aware of that person with your normal senses. What has changed is the energy form of that other individual. The energy still exists, but your senses are not equipped to clearly see that actual presence. No one departs. One is only changed, and your senses are tuned to certain states of energy and are unable to perceive other states.
Changing a form of energy does not change the fundamental reality of a person. That person is still there. Your parents, your siblings, relatives, friends, colleagues, people you never met but yet you respect remain exactly where you are. There is no physical separation. There is only a change in perception of energy.
Nothing is ever lost through what you refer to as death. Nothing is ever really lost in what you perceive as relationships. Relationships of course change, but the relationships that you are aware of are merely one component of the energy that exists with another. That component may change, but the other is still the same as before the change.
You love all, whether you are aware of them through your senses or not. You are asked to be nonjudgmental. That assumes that all human energy is essentially positive. Put another way, all human beings are good. All behavior is not necessarily good, but all people are. A bad human being does not exist, for no human being is different from you. There are energies that may compete, but essentially all are the same. You cannot judge because there is nothing to judge when you consider the value of another human being.
Capital punishment, as you refer to it, has no place in the purpose of God. It has no place in the purpose of all that exists, for it is counter to respect for life. It is counter to what is created. There is no question that behavior can be inappropriate. Behavior can be a kind of evil, as it is sometimes identified, but behavior is not the person. You can judge the manifestation of behavior, but you cannot judge the person. You can punish the behavior, but you cannot punish the person.
All That Is is good. All energy of spirit is good. This goodness goes beyond evaluation of sorts. This goodness implies an ability to generate light.
You ask about the impact of negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are the absence of light, but that absence of light is waiting for illumination. That absence exists. That absence has an influence. What is that influence? The influence is the recognition by what is light of an absence to be filled, an emptiness to be filled. It is not a separateness; it is an emptiness.
The tendency of light is to expand. There is no tendency to darkness. Light expands; darkness is inactive. When there are negative thoughts, those negative thoughts are a kind of darkness that has influence through its presence, not through its energy. Its presence encourages the response of light.
All that exists is not fully light, but all that exists serves to illuminate what is not yet light. You are not darkness, but in your existence, we are led to illuminate. We are led to spread the love that is light to where that light is lacking. You search because you do not know. We respond to the search. Were there no searching, were there no difference in perception of light, there would be no need to illuminate.
The path is illuminated by the Spirit Center, by God, because otherwise the path lacks that illumination. If the paths of your lives needed no illumination, then there would be no energy expanding to accomplish that illumination. The light that is God’s light expands because there are conditions where such light is not recognized. That is the sole reason that light expands, that light is disseminated.
You cannot disseminate darkness, yet darkness exists. The negative thoughts that human beings have are essentially evidence of the need for light, and that light naturally comes. So the darkness of spirit, of worry, of concern serves a purpose because it attracts light, and when that happens, the human experience of darkness is gradually alleviated. It is diminished, and it is replaced by faith.
Your lives are filled with opportunities to be aware of where light seems to be missing. We say a true expression of love is compassion. That compassion is expressed in many different ways through action, through listening, through prayer. But you are asked to use the light that you see to eliminate the dark corners that are made evident to you. These dark corners are sometimes part of your own lives. Those corners sometimes belong to the lives of others. You are therefore asked to see others as they are, to acknowledge the reality of that life, and to respond as you are able to respond. When you do so, the energy that you provide is transformed. Without your vision, without your openness to others, you are less able to illuminate.
Conversely, there are times in your lives when you have great need. We have often said that each of you must learn the importance of being vulnerable, allowing yourselves to have needs, allowing yourselves to receive the light from others. Being loving means being loved. The response of others to your own needs is part of the process of being loved, and in that process, when you are vulnerable, when you have your own specific needs, you are in reality strengthening yourselves to be a servant of the needs of others.
This is a dynamic process. Sometimes you are filled with your own needs. Sometimes you are filled with the need to help others. No life is characterized only by being needy. No life exists that entirely, without cessation, gives light. All human beings have needs. All human beings have moments in their lives when they can give to another. Sometimes you experience shadows and sometimes you experience blinding light, overwhelming brightness. You must allow this change in your energies from one to another to occur, always being humble and always aware that when you are filled with light, you are not filled with magical powers, and when you are shadowed, you are not bereft of all powers. Your lives are constructed so that you can experience both. You can receive and you can give, and you can subsequently receive and give. There is a balance.
You are each aware of individuals who seem to go through life with little care, with little worry, with little concern. All seems so easy. You are aware of those in your life who are seemingly always walking under a rain cloud. In truth, neither is correct. You are aware of what you are aware of, but there is much that remains unseen. The neighbor who seems to have all things carries an understanding of life that is different from yours. You cannot fully occupy the shoes of your neighbor. Likewise, the friend who is constantly in need is in reality not constantly in need. It is you who are aware only of the needs, but you may not be aware of the light.
There are many reasons you are given life. Important among them is you learn to see the equality of all, and to recognize that you are no more valuable or less valuable than another who is in great need, or seems perpetually to have no needs. You are equal. You have different needs, and your vision must expand to allow recognition of the fact that there is much about every individual that you will never fully know. There is no place, therefore, for pity or envy. There is always a place for response, for being vulnerable.
You live to love. You live to be loving. You live to respond. You live to see those around you as they truly are. You are not given life to feel beneath or above another. You are not given life to feel special or privileged or unique in a way that enhances a sense of self-worth.
All share in the unity that is God. All share in the light. All share in the reality of giving and receiving. All share in the reality of light and shadow. All share in the energy of light. All share in the receptivity of shadow. Both must exist.
We pray for your growth. We pray especially for your vision. May it see the truth of All That Exists, and embrace, support, affirm, and love.
Amen.