Chapter 6 of The Way of Spirit is amazing in its brevity, depth, and relevance. It explains “levels of Godness”, the forces that influence our actions, and provides fun, engaging stories for our troubled times.
The way the spirit world works is the way you work. Your essence guides you, but in ways that are so accommodating that you might think you’re the one doing the guiding. And what else would you expect from essence, who only wishes to serve?
Indeed, you wouldn’t want it to tell you what to do all the time: you need to call the shots, too. Your ego self has the gift of free will, which allows you to make your own choices in life. However, your essence self makes constant suggestions through your impulses, dreams, and intuitions—it really does nothing more than that—and you’ll do well to listen, so as to follow your way of spirit, the best path for you. So do so.
Essence supports you in amazing ways
The spirit world works in “strange and mysterious ways.” You’ve heard this used to describe God, and that’s exactly why we use this expression: because your essence constantly works to support you, often in amazing ways. We will say more about this later, but for now, it’s important to realize that there’s also a version of God who is the Totality of All Things, All Probabilities, All That Is. So you may think of yourself in relation to God on three “levels” of being that exist at same time:
- The everyday God-in-training—the you who makes choices based on your way of spirit (your egoself)
- The mediating Personal God—the “spiritual suggestion box” who helps guide you (your essence self)
- All That Is
These distinctions are important, because when we discuss God, we sometimes need to be clear about which level we are referring to.
Every action has probabilities built in
Now, it is also important to understand that within All That Is, there is an infinite array of choices you and your essence can make. What this means is that you exist within a vast set of probability fields in which your every choice has an effect on the outcome of every event in your life and those around you.
Probabilities are the way
things are likely to go.
You can imagine that within All That Is, sometimes you think they’re going one way, but they go another, and another, and another, until Infinity. And inherent in any situation—in every ghastly or wonderful experience—are built-in probabilities that things will go differently. And when you understand this, you will have the ability to really get the ideas we’re about to tell you, for they’re very important.
Every action has probabilities built in,
and every situation can go in any direction at any time,
no matter how improbable it may be.
For example, say you’re walking down the street and see a parked car with its headlights on. In one probability, you don’t even notice it, and think nothing of it.
In another probability, you do notice that the car has its lights on, and you have the ability to turn the lights off. This would benefit the individual whose car is in danger of finding its battery dead. In both scenarios, you have the ability to help the individual, whether it is by leaving the car alone and safely parked, or, in a small act of kindness, by reaching in and turning off the headlights.
Your actions matter
In either scenario, you have the ability to move the world in ways that are beneficial. This is the natural order of things: to benefit. So when you perform random acts of kindness, or planned actions of benevolence, you perform in ways that are aligned with the world.
In this case, you benefit the planet by allowing the car to conserve energy, and you benefit the individual when you prevent him from having a dead battery. You also benefit, perhaps more than anyone else in the situation, because you are following your way of spirit.
And you can think of acts of kindness as helpful to your Personal God, too, for it looks kindly upon them. Indeed, that’s what we’re here for. Your Personal God nudges you to move in these directions constantly. So the suggestions of essence will always—always—beautifully portray innate goodness through the loving spirits we are, and you are.
Therefore, your energies mingle with your mediating essence energies to create a wonderful collaboration in spirit. You can also imagine that All That Is, indeed, is informed of this, for all things are interconnected. So when you engage in works of charity or other forms of spiritual activity, you love the world and all things. You are intimately interested in doing so because you are all things.
You are Gods-in-Training
As we have said, you are Gods-in-training. This can be somewhat confusing, so we’d like to sort things out for you, for misunderstanding this idea can result in a great deal of disharmony.
When we say, “You are Gods-in-training,” we mean that on your level of Godhood, you are learning to be your essence-level God. In some respects they are the same, but in other respects they’re not. For your essence-level Godhood can be considered your future self, in some respects, although you coexist in time. Essence is not interested in time and space like you are, because essence exists primarily in areas of consciousness that are outside of your space-time construction. So you’re correct if you’ve guessed the next part.
Your experience of time and space is part of what
you are learning to manipulate in terms of
physical reality as Gods-in-training.
Now, let’s return to the probabilities already in progress in your car scenario.
Let’s say the car is parked on a street in which the dog catcher lives. When you reach into the car to turn the lights off, you get a scare, as you didn’t notice there’s a dog in the car, who growls at you. The dog has no tags and is not licensed. You suspect that the dog may be dangerous, but you don’t know for sure. The dog also looks very sweet, but you would do well to not try to find out. You also notice that the dog has not taken his medicine. We know you can’t know this for sure, but we’re saying that you’ll know instinctively that the dog hasn’t been cared for.
What probabilities will you choose?
The dog is not licensed, is potentially dangerous, and is not being cared for. What do you do? Do you go to the dog catcher’s house and tell him or her about the dog?
Indeed, you would. For your wanting to save the trouble of doing what you know inside is the right thing is laziness, and not wanting to assist because you think that the dog or the owner would not like it would be an even worse offense. You would have the ability to help the dog, help the potential children in the dog’s path, and help the owner by allowing him or her to get the dog the proper care it needs, for the owner needs help, too. They may not know what is required and want to help the dog, but need guidance.
And that is why—as you explore the probable outcomes—you would want to report the dog to the dog catcher and save him the trouble of having to find the dog in a more protracted way. For your way of spirit sometimes needs to allow for guidance, as well as policy and policing.
Show respect through policy and policing
Policy and policing are similar in the respect that policy sets the rules and policing encourages some to follow them. We say some people, meaning that they won’t always want to be policed, as this would intrude on what they consider to be their fun, but in some respects, this is incorrect. The fun sometimes comes from being policed, and when you avoid policing, you ruin their fun as well as their response-ability.
For why would anyone truly want to beat up old ladies and snatch their purses? Do you really believe this is fun for them, not to mention for the old ladies? Indeed, this is so very not fun that you’d do everyone a valuable service by allowing yourself to be more police-like at times and spare us the stories about wanting to allow individuals their rights to express themselves. For your ways of spirit don’t promote one individual’s fun at the expense of another, and we’ll tell you why.
Respect makes way for response-ability
When individuals don’t get the respect they need, they turn on others. The respect they need is what you can give them, only you may not know how. When you don’t correct an individual—whether they are two or twenty years old—they don’t get the respect they need from you. Theories abound with regard to respect and what it is, but we will define respect as fondness—not necessarily love—but fondness that promotes response-ability.
When you respect someone, you become familiar
with them in subtle and profound ways.
We will give you an example. Say that you have a food tray that you will give to a very old person, and you have the ability to put flowers on it. Why would you do this? To show respect and what you think would be a nice way to treat them.
Do you call this policing? Perhaps not, but why not? When you police things, you provide the flower on the tray, in a sense, for individuals who need the attention. This includes individuals who need to be shorn of their locks on their entry to prison, or someone who needs the benefit of your spoken word when they do wrong at the expense of other’s well-being. For acting out to get attention has created so many merciless actions that some are considered brutal by even the worst offenders, not only by the law-abiding citizens who pay taxes for someone else to take them on.
Indeed, you need to take on these kinds of individuals, and the way you do this is through your acts of respect, kindness, and mercy. You each have the ability to intervene on lives in ways that are greatly—indeed, divinely—inspired, so do so. We will give you another example.
The Tale of the Quarreling Princesses
There is a cottage by a stream, and the cottage is run by three princesses. They are constantly quarreling with each other, so you, a prince, can’t stand going to visit, but you allow yourself to do so because you want to marry one and get the princess’ cottage.
Why would you do that? Because you don’t respect the princesses: you only want their money. And why would you do that? Because you’re not following your way of spirit.
Indeed, why would you not follow your way of spirit? Because you haven’t connected with the idea that you’re here to perform good works, and you have the response-ability to suggest to the princesses that you would not want to marry any of them given their terrible habit of quarreling.
Policing in love can be fun
So you’d do well to take the approach of caring enough to tell them they are limiting their options by constantly quarreling. Indeed, one of them may want to marry you, so you’d do well to get the facts straight. And you’d do what we would call policing in love and without fear. Since the abbreviation PILAWF would be terrible, we’ll call it policing in love, and that’s exactly what your way of spirit calls you to do.
Policing in love is what you’re here to do, as well as to enjoy yourself. And who says that policing in love can’t be fun, too? Indeed, why wouldn’t your prince love to tell the princesses what the way of spirit calls him to?
Indeed, he could say, “Well, Your Royal Pains in the Butt! What do you want to quarrel about today? Should we carry the venison to the neighbors or should we carry the chickens? Indeed, why would you quarrel about something so ridiculous? Indeed, no one will want to marry you, given your silly arguments. Certainly not me!”
And what would be more fun than to see the looks on those three princesses’ faces when that truly wonderful suggestion comes their way? Indeed, now that is fun!
We suggest that you’ve learned some very bad habits. We will try to set the record straight for once and for all, because you need this information desperately.
Acts of kindness have great power
The way you sometimes consider kindness is in the most wrong way you could possibly imagine. That you would let that poor dog suffer, that poor dog owner suffer, the poor princesses suffer, the poor woman in her wheelchair without a flower on her tray suffer because she doesn’t think anyone loves her—these are some of the worst ways to not show kindness that you could possible imagine. And yet, you consider yourselves to be such kind people.
Do you see the folly in this? Why would you possibly want to endanger a child under the guise of wanting to allow people to do their own thing? Indeed, this is the most dangerous way to live that we would imagine, and we imagine a great deal. This leads us back to probabilities, and your way of spirit.
When you perform an act of kindness—
indeed, an act of policing in love—you create
a rich set of probabilities around yourself.
The way you can think of this is as “the Force.”
Remember Luke Skywalker’s way of handling himself? He was told to summon his courage and blast the evil Death Star out of the sky. Indeed, he followed his way of spirit, and “the Force was strong in him,” in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s terms.
Why was the Force so strong in him? Because he followed his intent, left his home, left his family, and faced the challenge of the dark forces of nature.
You have the Force in you, too
This is exactly what you do every single day when you walk down the street or sit at your computer. You also do this when you allow your way of spirit to contend with what you may consider the dark forces of nature. And when you do, you connect with the greater energy of All That Is.
Do you know why? Did you notice that the word “evil” in the earlier paragraph is spelled like a regular old word? Indeed, that’s because that’s exactly what it is: a word.
The evil you know is a fashionable illusion designed to enable you to find your way of spirit. When you find the way, you know it. You know it with all your heart and soul, because All That Is is innately Good.
That’s right. There is no evil with a capital E, as if there’s some Dark Lord who prevails as much as Goodness. You can trust that when you follow your way of spirit, you will do only good. This is another reason why you chose to become physical: to remind you that as Gods-in-flesh, you are Goodness Personified. In this, you will be the best and most fulfilled individual you can be.
Not taking action when needed is against your better nature
For when you don’t take action, you’re not happy because you ignore the call of your essence self in ways that are sad. That’s what you are when you don’t invest in your world, in your lives, and in yourself. For to become an island—and think that the world doesn’t need you—does you and the world a terrible disservice.
For you are Goodness, you are Love, you are the Obi-Wans and Darth Vaders of your world, and you only need to choose. The way of spirit suggests in your every breath which way to go, as the path of light is the only way towards All That Is.
For there is no evil at that level—only at your physical god level—so you can take that to the bank, as well as perform acts of power.
You will find that aligning with All That Is is fulfilling
and wondrous, dear Gods-in-training.
You’d do well to remember this! That, after all, is what we’re here for, us essences: to remind you of your innate Goodness in a very big way. What more could we do for you? Indeed just ask.
But be assured that wanting only fame and fortune is not the point. The way of spirit doesn’t like that—it likes sloppiness, and bleeding, and all kinds of horrible things. So get used to this, and we’ll suggest again that you’ve signed up for it, indeed!
