Love: Seth, Stephen, and Conversations
Posted on 10 July 2012, 13:48
We will probably agree that Love is a central theme for all of us and for our spirituality; so I set myself the task of seeing what Seth, Stephen and the rest had to say about it. I was surprised how differently they treated the topic.
Now, although I produced the Stephen book, I don’t advocate that we accept his words blindly, neither his nor those of the others.
We could say that our individual lives are heuristic education programs where we find out the truth or falsity of things through experience. (Stephen would say,...that we find from painful experience what does or does not make for love.) In our learning we should consider what the greatest spiritual writers have to say, what the best psychic and other scientific research has to teach us, look in many directions for illumination, and humbly try and establish a truth for ourselves.
In my previous blog Seth was the main focus, now it is Stephen. For him Spirit is in all, through all and above all, and this includes physical existence, temporary though it may be. He finds it hard to explain to us in the physical, the part that our present experience plays in our individual spiritual evolution. So he uses the image of the Tree to represent the inter-dimensional experience in which we participate, and different parts of the tree to represent ourselves at varying stages of development was in the physical and spiritual worlds.
Stephen: “How can a leaf tell, through the branch, the seed that is yet to come, of the unfolding after it arrives and it has fallen to the ground?”
(Section 85: the whole passage is worth reading)
Whichever part of this tree we may be at a given time, we find it hard to understand how we may play a very different role at some other stage.
On the whole Stephen agrees with the way both Seth and Conversations describe spiritual-physical reality, simlarly with the description of some QM physicists; all the same, Stephen is less concerned about how things work, and is much more concerned about the quality of our human and spiritual relationships. In other words he is “religious, a mystic, a spiritual counsellor, and enters into a loving relationship with the physical people with whom he is conversing. For him, “Christ” is the loving creative aspect of “God” or “the Source” as it relates to humankind. Stephen explores how best we may grow towards communion with That which is in all through all and above all – and that includes “our neighbour”. He affirms the best in all religions, but uses the language of Christianity.
Playing a role
There is no talk of the destruction of the ego or physical self: it is the organ of experience for the Whole, and is also a way the Whole acts. Stephen is such an organ of experience: “For if I say that I am Stephen, I must first create Stephen, and be he. For I cannot be nothing. For once I decided I was nothingness, then I have learned nothing of nothing.”
We are not to be clever, we are to be humble, willing to play the role that Spirit assigns us. ..
S7: Stephen: Furthermore we must all love one another for we are part of the one body; there is no separateness. To hate someone, dislike someone, is to hate or dislike yourself and to hate and dislike your God. There is no one, no soul beneath your love; for there is not one soul that should not give you love and not one soul that you should not receive love from. Therefore, the second of your duties is to love yourselves, for you are a part of God and He of you. Love each other; give to each other, for in giving you are receiving.
“God”, “the Lord”, “Christ” is in all that is, spiritual and physical.
S22 Stephen: Look at the things that we know,
things that we have been taught:
That he is our Lord, is ever with us, that he is always close.
This we must understand,
for there is no journey that we must take,
not one thing that we must cast off,
for the nearness of our Lord.
In our minds it may be conceivable that when we have cast off one barrier, or one body, we might see Him more clearly. But - “See?” is that the right word?
For the Lord is a presence and a being-with, not as an individual but as all pervading and as with all.
What we should ask is “How must I recognize the Lord here with me now?
How must I look for him that I may see him?
But not with a physical eye to do the seeing
but with the eye of my heart,
and with the eye of my emotions.
Feel great joy and you feel the Lord.
Feel great love and you feel the Lord.
Feel great happiness and you feel the Lord.
Feel first these things, for often we look for a feeling that is greater than our experiences that we have each day.
We must find for ourselves strangeness,
in order to recognize what is ordinary.
What we seek is a heightened sense of emotion
that we have through our understanding.
If when we feel love
and we understand completely what it is that we love,
then the emotions do heighten
and we feel ourselves comforted or protected from all harm.
And our emotions are heightened at these times
through the knowledge of when and whence the protection and love come.
Then we will recognize the Source of these emotions.
Would it not be a strange Christ
that he should be at a distance
and come only under special circumstances to special people
The negative emotions
S58 Stephen: We could say that the [cell, soul or] SELF-consciousness is
a “thought, created by the Spirit
so that the Spirit has communication
and communion with the created”,
Let us then go further and give examples of the emotions
or the battle of emotions
that we have when the SENSE-consciousness
puts forth emotions into the cell - the self-consciousness,
against [the] other emotions [which] come into that same cell from the God consciousness, or the Spirit…
[…the emotion of love, as Stephen says earlier. Emotions such as anger, fear, desire to flee and aggression belong to the sense-consciousness.]
The emotion of whatever may be uncomfortable or inconvenient to the sense-consciousness then overrules and overrides [the emotion of love]
Stephen: Even whilst the sense-consciousness
is overruling the emotion from the Spirit
the cell knows that it does not act
according to the influence of the Spirit.
We have a word to describe this –
the most apt of all words - it is “selfishness”.
Think carefully on this word.
Think more of “sense-selfishness”,
…the battle of emotions
puts forth emotions into the cell - the self-consciousness,
[St Paul sees the conflict as being between the Flesh or physical self and the spiritual self. See Romans 7.16: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out]
We need to note that Stephen uses the expression, “the physical self” both for the actual physical self and for that same self in the afterlife. And this is appropriate when we think about communications from so-called “dead”: “afterlife” people usually exhibit the same personality traits, prejudices and memories that belonged to them when they were in this life. Stephen says that there is a more fundamental level of ourselves which he calls “the Cell of influence, or SELF-consciousness” This cell-soul I understand to be involved in the creation and the guidance of the individual personality; and to relate to other cells doing the same thing, who are also aspects of yet more fundamental level expressing itself in a multitude of personalities both living and in the afterlife, involving a form of reincarnation where selves are not regarded as coming from one body into another, but rather as projections of the greater and wider reaching self of each of us. At a deeper level of ourselves it is decided how we shall incarnate, and the experiences that it is necessary for us to have for ourselves to develop.
An overall picture
Stephen does not make quick reading: so let’s try to paint a simple picture of how Stephen sees things.
Firstly, we live and move and have our being in God: whatever direction we look in, there that God is to be found. The spiritual physical universe is God made manifest.“Consciousness is for bodies,” says Stephen. There is no separated managing director with a consciousness of his own. Love is the underlying force permeating all that is; love is more than an emotion, it involves co-creating relationships, bringing into existence all sorts of realities. In reality there are no divisions within this everywhere God, but it is helpful to imagine a limitless network of selves. Because each self or group of selves creates its own reality, and because the physical selves so often give negative feedback, our limitless network does not cohere harmoniously. Stephen calls this situation, “Misarrangements”. For us to have conscious union with this great Whole, union with the Absolute, we have to overcome what Stephen calls, “sense-selfishness,” and learn selflessness, empathy and all the dimensions of love.
It would be interesting to speculate about the relationship of the spiritual to the physical in general, but I shall not do that here.
Here are some quotes from A Course in Miracles
Lesson 127 There is no love but God’s.
Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible. Perhaps you think there is a kind of love for this, a kind for that; a way of loving one, another way of loving still another. Love is one. It has no separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and no distinctions. It is like itself, unchanged throughout. It never alters with a person or a circumstance. It is the Heart of God, and also of His Son.
Love’s meaning is obscure to anyone who thinks that love can change. He does not see that changing love must be impossible. And thus he thinks that he can love at times, and hate at other times. He also thinks that love can be bestowed on one, and yet remain itself although it is withheld from others. To believe these things of love is not to understand it. If it could make such distinctions, it would have to judge between the righteous and the sinner, and perceive the Son of God in separate parts.
Love cannot judge. As it is one itself, it looks on all as one. Its meaning lies in oneness. And it must elude the mind that thinks of it as partial or in part. There is no love but God’s, and all of love is His. There is no other principle that rules where love is not. Love is a law without an opposite. Its wholeness is the power holding everything as one, the link between the Father and the Son which holds Them both forever as the same
The Game of Life : Creating Your Own Reality by Seth via Jane Roberts
Imagine that you are about to participate in an interactive role-playing game. There are rules in this game that everyone agrees to: what goes up must come down, day is followed by night, if you touch a flame it will burn you, etc. etc.
You get to choose the character you play beforehand; shall I be black or white, Australian or American, male or female? You might even choose to meet up with others in the game, which is tricky because you won’t necessarily remember them when you see them.
To enter the game, you must be “born” and become completely helpless. You must forget everything you know and start all over again. You are given sets of rules by the “older” players which you learn as you go along. After a given time, you are declared an “adult” by the other players and are sent out on your own.
The thing is, after a while, you become so involved, so completely immersed in the personality of the character that you are playing in this game, that you forget who you really are.
You forget that you’re even in a game, and you begin to believe that the game is all there is.
Now, you still get to decide everything that happens to your character, which you do constantly, but as a player who has now totally identified with the character you have chosen to portray, you begin to believe that everything that transpires is happening by “chance” or “fate”.
.. “There is nothing in your exterior experience that you did not originate within yourself. Interactions with others do occur, yet none occur what you do not attract or draw to you by your thoughts, feelings, attitudes or emotions. In your terms this applies both before, during and after physical life. In a most miraculous fashion you are given the gift of creating your own experiences.
“In this physical existence you are learning how to handle the inexhaustible energy that is available to you. Some of your feelings and thoughts are translated into objects. These exist in a medium you call space. Others are translated into events that exist in a medium you call time. Both of the concepts of space and time are illusions. They exist only in the physical realm. Since you are a part of “being,” then you in effect give yourself the life that is being lived through you. While physical, while you are in the flesh, you are a portion of nature therefore, not apart from it. You can not strive to be above nature, and still be yourself.
“Beyond myself there is another self and still another, of which I am aware. And that self tells you that there is a reality beyond human reality and experience that cannot be made verbal or translated into human terms.”
“Your soul was not born yesterday, but before the annals of time as you think of time. In your terms, you are its most latest addition. You are a part of the whole soul, but not yet aware of the greater portions of yourself. The characteristics that were yours at birth were yours for a reason. The inner self chose them. The inner self can even now alter many of them. You did not arrive at birth without a history. Your individuality was always latent within your soul.
“The pattern that is you is written first of all in the psyche, and is then faithfully decoded in your genes and chromosomes. Your you is expressed in flesh, but came first from the psyche which is beyond or outside of flesh. You are awake, alert and participating in many more realities than you know, as your soul expresses itself through you. You are a living picture in flesh of yourself or soul. You project what you think you are outward into flesh.
“It is more correct to think of the soul not as something you have rather, what you are. You frequently consider the soul as a finished thing that belongs to you but is not you. In truth your soul is the most intimate, powerful part of your inner self and is forever changing and growing. Your soul is alive, responsive, curious and in a constant state of becoming. The soul portion of you resides in other dimensions beyond the physical level. The soul portion of you is the most highly motivated, most highly energized, most potent consciousness unit know in any universe. Your soul, the soul that you are, that you are a part of, that soul is a far more creative, miraculous phenomenon that you can possibly imagine. Your soul possesses more wisdom, knowledge, information and strength than you can ever be consciously aware of.
“The soul is not something waiting for you at death, nor is it something you must save or redeem. You cannot lose it. It is indestructible. The fulfillment of the soul is not dependent upon arrivals at any points, spiritual or otherwise. Your own personality as you know it, that portion of you that you consider most precious, most uniquely you, will never be destroyed or lost. If you maintain a limited concept of the soul, then you cannot take advantage of its many abilities that are your own, and to some extent you cut yourself off from the source of your own being and creativity. The soul’s abilities will continue to operate, but often in spite of what you believe rather than with your conscious cooperation.
“Your beliefs generate emotion. It is somewhat fashionable to place feelings above conscious thoughts, the idea being that emotions are more basic and natural than conscious reasoning is. The two actually go together but your conscious thinking largely determines your emotions,and not the other way around. Your beliefs generate the appropriate emotion that is implied.
More quotes from Seth: see http://www.the-office.com/seth/
Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr by Michael Cocks is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and other bookstores.
Paperback Kindle
A Course in Miracles: Original Edition is available in eBook formats from White Crow Books.
http://whitecrowbooks.com/ebooks/page/a_course_in_miracles_the_original_edition/
Next blog, July 24
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