The following questions and answers have all been fished directly from the Thought Pool and typed out while they were still wet and flapping about. The question will likely arise, 'Who is asking the questions? Who is answering?' A very good question! As usual, when we really look closely into it, we have no idea who is doing either.
Q: My Life Coach said that there is unlimited abundance in the Universe and all I have to do is change my attitude towards money and it will start to flow into my life.
A: Ha ha! Did she?
Q: Yes, what is so funny?
A: Well, there is a rather glaring contradiction there. The moment the concepts 'I' and 'my' are adopted, limits have been imposed. Life, or Consciousness, or as she put it 'the Universe' can be said to be unlimited in the absolute sense, but 'my life' cannot possibly be. The very ideas 'me' and 'my' are themselves limits. There has to be a limit where 'me' ends and 'not me' starts. If the 'edge of me' limit is not there, then the question of either abundance or scarcity is irrelevant. There is no 'my life' into which money can either flow or not flow. While the limit is still there, then quite obviously it is not 'unlimited'. This kind of confusion between the relative and the absolute is a hallmark of many a shiny new age nonsense collection. They are very amusing once the contradiction is seen, a bit like a lovable comedy of errors.
Q: But I could replace some limited beliefs about myself with less limited ones.
A: Maybe, but what would be the point? It would be rather like building a fence in infinity, and then knocking it down and building another fence with a slightly wider diameter. Or maybe you make a larger change in the size of your fence. Go from a little 'me garden' with picket fence to a huge 'me ranch' of several acres, complete with a huge herd of 'my cows'. It doesn't matter how big a fence one builds. In the context of infinity, it still just serves to fence 'you' in.
Q: So what is the solution?
A: What is the problem?
Q: I want to feel better about myself, to feel less limited. I want to feel abundant.
A: There will never be enough 'my cows'. Personal desire - that 'I want, I want' - is relentless and insatiable. While that 'myself' fence building continues, then a limited feeling will always linger. If ever the fence is knocked down and no new fence built to replace it, there will no longer be any problem to solve. But of course, a life coach has to leave you with a perpetual problem to solve, otherwise they are soon out of business. It is a canny trick, to make you feel as though your problem is being solved, when really it is just temporarily postponed, very much like the temporary hit of narcotics or alcohol. It seems like the solution for a while, but sooner or later another solution or 'fix' will be needed.
Q: So I can never be free?
A: No, you can never be free, but Freedom already is.
Q: John Lennon and Bill Hicks talk about there being two basic motivating forces - fear and love. One creates contraction and the other expansion. It is only by embracing love that we can expand and grow and fulfill our potential to create.
A: Mmm hmm? What need is there to expand and grow? What creates that motivation? What purpose will it serve?
Q: Well surely it is the purpose of all consciousness to expand and evolve..
A: Is it? What for? What difference will it make? Consciousness this size, consciousness that size. What does it matter? There seems to be a fear of smallness there. Perhaps that is the motivation ...
Q: But isn't consciousness continually evolving and expanding?
A: No idea. What size is it now? If that can be discerned, then maybe some some further measurements can be made to find out whether it is expanding or not.
Q: Isn't it obvious that it is the nature of all life to expand and grow?
A: Not obvious at all. Repetitive alternation between expansion and contraction seems to be the observed norm. Growth for a while, then decay. Imagine a heart that just expanded or breathing that just went out.
Q: You can't be suggesting that we should embrace fear just as much as love.
A: A suggestion isn't necessary, just as it isn't necessary to canvas support for winter.
Q: But how is humanity to improve?
A: What need is there of improvement?
Q: What about all the destruction?
A: Destruction is the seed of creation. Creation is the seed of destruction. There's the alternation once again. The sand castles come and go.
Q: So we are supposed to just accept the world as it is?
A: Does not accepting that it is going to be winter once a year stop it being winter once a year? Accept or accept not, makes no difference.
Q: Is there life after death?
A: Was there death before life?
Q: A friend recommended that I read a Course in Miracles. Have you read it?
A: Yes. Wrote it too. I have also read Asterix in Belgium, which is much funnier.
Q: So you would not recommend the course?
A: All supposed 'spiritual' courses tend to be a bit like race courses. Round and round in circles for a while, end up back where you started. At least with woodwork you might make a nice cabinet.
Q: So reading it will not be of any benefit?
A: Neither benefit or detriment. Both of these ideas require the comparison of one set of temporary circumstances with another and the application of an arbitrary value judgement that has just been plucked out of thin air. Fiction upon fiction. The circumstances will not last and the judgement is just made up. So the ideas benefit and detriment are just a nonsense.
Q: So what is the point of doing anything?
A: What is the point of going on the swings?
Q: Would you say that you are a Lightworker?
A: Not really. About 18 stone. Maybe 19 just after Christmas. Although this is light compared to an elephant, and extremely light compared to a medium-sized planet.
Q: Everything that I or anyone else says to you, you just seem to counter it or ridicule it.
A: That is what happens with all thought. It is just a bit faster than average here. Consider the ideas that you held as a little child - that Santa and the Easter Bunny are real, and then you get a little older, and these ideas are seen as just quaint and amusing stories. Or maybe as a teenager you and your peers held some political or social ideas that at 50 years old you find quite absurd.
This is the same thing. It is just slower. Garbage in, garbage out. Here it is just seen immediately that the ideas, all ideas, are just quaint and amusing stories. Or ridiculous, you might say. Hence they seem to you to be ridiculed.
Q: So you are essentially going around spoiling little children's dreams?
A: Only if they sincerely ask for honesty. If a child came and asked whether I REALLY think that there is an Easter Bunny, looked me in the eye and asked me to tell the truth about it, I would tend to put my hands up and own up to the fraud. All children, indeed, do tend to come to this point in life sooner or later. It is the same thing with all ideas. They all get debunked sooner or later. If it isn't here in this discussion, it will be somewhere else. Perhaps a few years later. But all get debunked. None can stand.
Q: I went to a silent retreat where the theme from the facilitator was of Not Knowing.
A: Really? Doesn't sound very silent. Silence doesn't usually have a theme.
Q: I think I really grasped something when she spoke, I think I finally began to let go of all my so-called knowledge.
A: Ha ha! Did you? Okeydoke. So what?
Q: So it seems that the answer lies in accepting Not Knowing.
A: Does it? You know that, do you?
Q: You're trying to trick me.
A: Not really, the trick has already been played. The speaker at a silent retreat lets you know all about the importance of not knowing. One cannot help but laugh.
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