Black is White
In my search for truth, I have found some of my greatest pearls of knowledge by the following process. I take the popular way of looking at things and ask myself: Is it possible that the opposite is true? Then I investigate. I have been surprised at how many times that the truth is the opposite the way people think. It has happened so often that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the Sun is really a cool body warming us by microwave energy or that the earth is hollow.
I find that the more truth I discover the fewer people there are I can openly share it with. When I was young even, though I had seeds of unorthodoxy, I still had many mainstream beliefs that I could share with mainstream people. I thought I had basically “found it.”
Life was simple.
Since that time about everything I found in orthodoxy has been discovered to be an illusion. Sometimes I feel like “Johnathan Livingston Seagull.” The trouble with discovering truth that is upside down to regular thinking is that you just can’t go and openly discuss it all over coffee with the rank and file. In normal conversation you have to talk about the weather, healthcare, movies, making money, O.J. Simpson, and complain about government — but never offer a solution.
The teacher of truth will see many truths that seem to be upside down, but are really right side up and when he presents them they seem right side up to him, but upside down to listeners. Isaiah was frustrated with this upside downside thinking of people when he said:
“Woe unto them that call evil good , and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)
I am constantly amazed at how many times the truth is turned upside down. This is easy to see when one is having a discussion with someone who believes much differently than himself. For instance, we are in the New Age section of the on-line services now. If the New Agers were to go over and have discussions with the born againers they would go away saying: “Whew. Boy has he got everything upside down.” On the other hand, the religious zealot will have the same thoughts toward the New Ager.
The trouble is we look for the sliver in the other person’s eye and we do not see the beam in our own. Both sides of the midway point have numerous things wherein they see illusion as the truth.
Most of us would have little trouble in attacking the Bible thumpers, but let’s look at ourselves.
Why?
Because we can change ourselves.
Here are some common upside down beliefs:
“Truth is relative.”
I have challenged many people over the years to show me even one relative truth and have never been shown one. The truth is that our PERCEPTION of truth is relative, but everything we perceive to be true is not necessarily true. Many New Age people hate the word absolute, but I’ll use it any way. The truth is absolute. For instance 2+2=4 and will never equal anything else in this universe. We can be under an illusion and think that it is 6, but the truth is still 4.
“You have your truth and I have my truth. What is true for you is not necessarily true for me.”
“A Course in Miracles” [ACIM] correctly calls this thinking a law of chaos that keeps a person from the miracle of the soul. This is upside down thinking similar to the first belief. If we substitute the word “perception” for “truth” it makes some sense, but truth itself “is true and nothing else is true.” (another quote from ACIM) Again 2+2=4 is true for me and is also true for you if both of us have correct perception.
“The emotions are more important and higher than the mind.”
Some New Agers go so far as to tell us that we should eliminate thinking.
There are several levels of emotion and mind and they are both very important. Mind gives us right direction and emotion gives us a passion to move in that direction. Emotion without mind leads us in a direction that has no purpose and often creates pain and harm. Mind without emotion leads in a direction that serves only self. Emotion is the female part of ourselves and mind is the male. Humanity is currently shifting in a more female direction as is evidenced by an increasingly sensitive mankind.
“It is wrong to differentiate between male and female.”
On the contrary, it is impossible to have the union of souls without understanding the differences between the male and female energy. Those who see the opposite sex as being the same in principle as their own or as some kind of enemy are those who refuse to understand their opposite. Before one can have a truly happy relationship there must be understanding and empathy for the other half.
“Any mention of the Bible, religion, hierarchy or leadership is old age and to be left behind.”
In the two thousand years of the Piscean Age we are leaving behind, there were many mistakes and abuses. But that does not mean that we should throw the baby out with the bath water. As humanity passes from one age into another its members must take the lessons learned with them. There are many good teachings in the Bible and other world scriptures. There is still a place for religion, hierarchy and leadership, but they will all be on a higher level as we get our feet wet in the New Age over the next several hundred years. In the New Age there will still be witches and heretics, but we will let them have their say and may even honor them instead of burning them.
“Whatever you think and believe will happen.”
These are two important first steps to make things happen, but not all the steps. Few realize that up to the day World War Two began nearly every psychic and New Age type teacher believed, taught and thought that there would be no war. This mass belief did not do the trick. There was still a great war. There are numerous causes of events and many of them are larger than our own little wills. The best way to be in charge of our lives is to tune into all the energies around us.
“Go with the flow.”
This is a great deception. For one thing over 99% of humanity is already going with the flow. Even those who consider themselves rebels are usually following the line of least resistance. It takes a very strong soul to not go with the flow, to be willing to suffer pain, embarrassment, and humiliation for a cause bigger than himself. One travels through many lifetimes before he or she gathers the courage and fortitude to go against the material flow. Going against the flow builds your spiritual muscles and brings energies into play that were never dreamed of.
“Everything we need to know is available from the God within.”
This is a very common misperception. Tell me just about anything you know for sure and then trace the origins of that knowledge. You will find that essential parts of that were taken from the world without.
Let us take the simple math again of 2+2=4. Think of when and how you learned this. You probably had a teacher back in the first grade instill it in your memory. How about the capital of North Dakota? Have you learned that (if you have) from without or within? How about your own address. You probably learned that from without when you first walked through your door.
How about this computer you are working on? You would not get anywhere on it without your eyes to guide you without. Perhaps you have had instructors or read manuals. These are all tools without. Even hacking away learning by yourself is often trial and error in the outside world relying on past knowledge that was planted from without.
Now don’t get me wrong here. I am following the middle way principle. All knowledge is neither within nor without. The without world serves to stimulate us and the one within serves to assimilate and verify the truth of that which we perceive.
The “God within” actually knows nothing!
Surprised? Were we not all taught in Sunday school that God knows everything? This is another example of the truth being the opposite of what we think. The God within is consciousness and pure Spirit. It is not a data bank. Nevertheless, this consciousness within has power to access all data banks, but only does so when necessary. For us to successfully use the God consciousness we must learn how to pass data by it for verification and enlightenment. When the God consciousness sees truth in what has been correctly passed by It, It will send forth a “flashing forth” to the mind to verify a point of truth.
It takes much contemplation on the part of the disciple, however, to correctly perceive the Life of God within.
Because God knows nothing, we have to empty ourselves of all attachments to knowledge to commune with it. This is why many of the great minds seemed quite backward mentally in certain ways. When Einstein went for a walk he sometimes couldn’t remember his way home. Geniuses often seem to be “absent minded” because they are truly absent the knowing mind so they can commune with the God who knows nothing, but can verify everything which is true in principle. It is true that “we must become as a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven.” One must forget everything he knows to break past the barriers between himself and the revelation within.
This illusion is an upside down belief held by both the fundamental religious people and the New Age community: That is every seemingly spiritual contact is either God or the God within.
The truth is that there are numerous barriers that each disciple must break through to reach the Holy Spirit. We contact several selfish and deceptive spirits that give us temporary highs before the true Spirit is found. One of the purposes of the keys I teach is to help the seeker cross through the barriers of contact.
How does one tell if he has reached the true God within and not been deceived? When one has made the contact, he or she will know for sure. But the trouble is there will be numerous times he will think he knows before he gets there because numerous spiritual highs are reached before the final breakthrough has been made.
When two people reach the Spirit within together, they will find it next to impossible to disagree about anything. When my wife and I have a personality disagreement and we reach an impasse I will say. “Let us stop a moment and seek the Spirit.” Without exception, harmony will come and moments later we will find it as difficult to disagree as we had earlier found it difficult to agree. Often, we could not even remember what we were arguing about. I have found that this principle works without exception to every single person who allows himself to feel that “still small voice within.” In the world of the spirit all souls are one. In this world of the Presence, disagreeing with another soul is like disagreeing with yourself.
The key is that both have to enter this spiritual world together.
It is an illusion that two can be in the soul, yet have a fundamental disagreement on principle. “They shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.” Isaiah 52:8
This illusion concerns some of the readers of this group Some say to me something like: “ Joseph, the keys you teach are your keys. The rest of us need to find our own keys. Your keys are yours and mine are mine.”
Any keys of knowledge possessed by you or me do not belong to you or me. There was always someone else who had them before us and they did not belong to him either. Does 2+2=4 belong to your first grade teacher? Of course not. Do the keys of knowledge belong to me? No. Can they help both you and me? Yes.
If one of us obtains knowledge then we have a responsibility to share it. If we do not then we are in danger of having further knowledge cut off.
Another illusion is that teaching by giving hints somehow takes away free agency, or it denies the God within the other person, or that it is too authoritative. All complaints against this method are made by those who have not participated in it. They are criticizing that which they have not experienced.
Some say, “Don’t give hints. If you have something to say just say it!” The problem is that these keys of knowledge cannot be taught by just being spoken. If I were to write them all out to the best of my ability only one in a hundred would absorb them. By teaching them through the hint method around half of the seekers can understand them. The other half will still gain much.
In the hint method the teacher does not give the answers, but throws the student back toward the kingdom of the soul within to find the answer. By using the regular teaching method one uses authority which makes it more difficult for the seeker to register within. Therefore, the hint method honors the God within more than any other method of teaching presented on this planet. The only drawback is it does take more discipline and effort than a regular teaching method.
The most baffling thing is that some believe that it will take away their freedom. How can seeking an answer from within take away any freedom? Why would anyone think such a thing?
I will tell you bluntly. Any plan that directs the seeker within to the true source of power will greatly disturb the Ego or false self. The Ego subtly places clouds of illusion over the God center and is shaken to the core when the possibility surfaces that the darkness will be lifted and the God within will replace the lower self. In this case the lower self will lose its freedom to control your whole self. Letting the power of the Ego go is very dramatic and frightening. But the seeker finds himself pleasantly surprised that he has even more freedom than ever after he has let it go and finds the true center.
There are more illusions that we could cover, but this is all the space I should take for now.
Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible. —Saint Francis of Assisi
Jan 16, 2009
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