Responsibility and God

Meaning of Non-Dualism:
“Non-Dualism is the orientation that there is one absolute reality without a second, and that each of us, although an individual person, is one with that reality, just as a wave is not separate from the ocean”. (Centre for Non-Dualism.)

Yeah, well, that’s California for yer. But what if there is something in this that you don’t have to give all your money to and wear a flimsy white bed-sheet and eat nothing but lentils?

In a sense, if you apply this concept to “religion” you believe there is no separation of yourself from God (don’t worry if you don’t believe in God – in spite of what “religion” tells you HE doesn’t care whether you believe in HER or not – but it suppose it’s just as well IT believes in you.) This leads to some interesting thoughts. Christianity, for example, is a dualist belief, since it envisions God (the Trinity or otherwise) as being a separate entity from the individual. Therefore things like the concept of Original Sin are valid since God is free of sin and we are not. But if you believe that you are inseparable from God than you cannot sin because God cannot sin – ditch the Original Sin; ditch the guilt. That’s quite a shift, isn’t it? I truly believe there is no such thing as Original Sin, it’s just a scam devised by the religious elite/priesthood to keep you in your place and keep them in the sweet lifestyle which is the real reason they joined. Moses must have had a wicked golf handicap.

Non-dualism can be expressed as a philosophy more than a religion. It is similar to a religion because it is a belief; it is not knowledge, i.e. nobody knows whether it is true or not. On the other hand non-dualism does not insist on a narrow interpretation of the word God; it could also be expressed in many other ways as the Universe, Love, The One, The Divine and so forth. All that the prophets, sages and mystics have received are flashes of Truth emanating from their own Spirits. Sometimes their “revelation” is perfect as received; sometimes their Ego has distorted it. Sometimes other people e.g the seven Councils of Nicaea filtered out whatever made THEIR Egos feel uncomfortable, e.g. the Gospel of St Thomas, their descendants reinforcing THEIR Egos by inspiring persecutions like the Albigensian Crusade and the Inquisition.

Ho’oponopono, the Hawaiian teaching says that we are inseparable from “Divinity” and that as part of Divinity we are the Creator. Therefore we are responsible for the world around us and if it (they, that insane person, that car, that President) needs healing it is within OURSELVES we should focus the problem. Sounds a bit whacky? Okay here is a documented case to get your head round.

Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len is a psychologist. He went to a mental hospital and over a period of time healed so many patients they closed down the “insane” wing. Think about that for a few moments because it is a bigger deal than just a few words on this sheet of paper/blog/whatever. It cannot be faked; it really happened – therefore we KNOW rather than BELIEVE something is going on here. What is more Dr Hew Len did not see one single patient face to face. The hospital had a savagely bad reputation, it had huge staff problems – those who did actually stay there for more than a short time had a high level of absenteeism and lived in dread of going to work. Physical attacks were frequent and one member of staff described walking with his back against the wall every time he entered the ward.

What the Doctor did was to read each patient’s file and then go deep inside his own sub-conscious and HEAL HIMSELF because he believed through Ho’oponopono that HE was responsible for the world around him and that the problem was with HIM. It worked, whackos walked, ward went out of business.

Another non-dual system or philosophy is “A Course In Miracles” (ACIM). It is a system which holds that we have never become separated from God; we have simply formed a belief that we are separated. We are essentially Spirit in a body which has no meaning except as a tool for learning lessons based on our mistakes in the so-called past (there is no past; it is simply a perception to explain the present). Those mistakes lead to “action replays” where the same problems keep coming back – in somewhat different forms mostly. I’m sure you’ve muttered ‘not again!’ or had a feeling you had been there before. ACIM postulates that we have a chance to deal with them so that they do not recur. If successful, this leads to a concept of collapsing time; that is to say it cuts out the continual repetition of the problem, it brings realisation that there is only the Now and shortens the process whereby we can recognise and full accept our unity with the Divine. It also leads to the interesting conclusion that there is no death, simply that the Spirit, which is invulnerable, moves on and no longer needs the body. I have long believed from personal experience that the body does not control the mind therefore the mind does control the body. This is particularly useful in dealing with personal health. The healing power of the mind itself is so unbelievable, i.e illogical – i.e. denied by the Ego - that we needed to invent drugs. Then somebody observed, probably by accident, that patients healed when a mistake was made in medication and the patient was healed despite the treatment being wholly ineffectual.

Instead of accepting this and denying the Ego, this led to the idea of placebos. It is not weakness of mind that allows the placebo effect, because even though your Spirit may not always be able to get through the clutter in your mind to tell you this, your Spirit KNOWS it is a placebo. Placebos are only a reminder that it is your mind (Spirit) that is healing your body. How else can you explain that they work if your inner consciousness KNOWS they don’t? Your true inner mind, your Spirit, cannot be fooled by the world outside because it/you created that world, so it knows about the placebo and therefore the illness should not be affected by it.

You may ask why I am spending so much time talking about placebos but you need to ask yourself this question. If placebos (i.e devices that have absolutely no “drugs” in them) can have the same effect as a so-called proven drug treatment then obviously nobody really needs the drug! Simple? Why would that not work? Because the Ego is telling you that hundreds of brilliant chemists and scientists and millions of pounds/dollars have been spent on vital research into an effective drug, therefore the drug heals. WRONG! The drug is not healing you at all. It suits the Ego at that point for you to BELIEVE the drug is healing you but if it did not suit the Ego the drug would NOT heal you. Hey! Drugs don’t work every time – not exactly Breaking News, hmm? See how dangerous the damned Ego is?

Can you imagine the power this gives you over sickness if only you could stop your Ego from being a Doubting Thomas? Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to take away all fear of death itself if only you could stop your Ego from convincing you it is the end of all things? Most Religion is a palliative answer. It says only believe in God, the guy with the white beard, and the world to come and your death will seem like the beginning of another adventure when you JOIN God?

Actually there is no death and God has never been separated from you (your Spirit)! Geddit? Forget death, it is irrelevant because the body is irrelevant. The Spirit cannot die – it is only the Ego that wants you to believe in death – THE EGO WANTS YOU DEAD to prove it is right!! It’s like a bloody virus, folks. It wants to kill you even if it dies itself. Grasp that one simple concept and truly grasp it and you will never fear death again. I accept that even if you urn out to be the holder of the Guinness Book of Records entry for longevity you will be parted from your body one day, that is not death and your Spirit knows it. Go on, I dare you to tell your Ego to go screw itself.

The fact is that denying the Ego is probably the one greatest challenge we have. The process starts with Forgiveness. The process is not about forgiving others because YOU are responsible for the world you/your Ego has created. Forgiveness starts and ends in you. Now that really is a problem getting your head around, isn’t it? Read that sentence again. Some b*stard is giving you a hard time and you have to forgive you? Yup, that’s what I said. It took me a long time to get MY head round that becuase the Ego kept telling me 'this is too hard, don't bother with it, have another beer.'

Flash back to Dr Hew Len – he “cured” the patients by forgiving himself. Actually what he did was to focus the following words into a tool to connect with an inner space in his mind – ‘I love you, I am sorry, please forgive me, thank you.’ This “cancelled out” (sorry to keep putting quote marks around things but language is particularly inadequate is describing these ideas) all past thoughts/guilt and brought about a state he calls Zero Limits, i.e. no limits on the mind’s power. Still sounds like mumbo-jumbo? Yes, I too almost threw the book across the room when I read it but the nagging thought kept coming back to me – just a minute, what about all those raving nutters he healed without even seeing them? Mental note : Forgive me, shouldn't have said 'raving.'

At this point you are probably thinking one of three things. (a) this guy Apianus is on something (b) this guy Apianus is onto something or (c) this guy Apianus is an utter pillock. Well I’m on LIFE which is cheaper than weed and much more fun, I’m onto the fact that Ego is sneering at my attempts to beat it and if I am a pillock, why are you still reading this – unless you are just as big a pillock as you think I am?

My honest belief is that for almost all my life my head was stuck in a pile of manure with occasion glimmers of light seeping through. I don’t believe I have been given some Divine revelation like some latter day saint (oops, did I just say that?)just that my Spirit is managing to overcome my Ego’s attempts to keep me in the dark. My life is all a learning experience and it will be until the day I make my Transition and probably beyond and for that I’m grateful. It doesn’t take away the fact that now that I am in a state of radically different belief I can’t believe how successful Ego has been in keeping my inner eye closed all these years. The film “The Matrix” comes to mind as a scary parallel to reality. What if the Machine (Computer) ie the Ego has been keeping all of us occupied whilst it rapes our Spirit?

If you want know more about ACIM look it up on the web. It is NOT a cult or a California whacko-fest and they are not after all your money – neither concept of cult or cash has any meaning.

AND ...I don’t expect you to run out into the street and start waving your arms and shouting that everybody must conquer the Ego until the big white van with the pretty blue lights draws up and they cart you off. All I ask is that you take a sneaky look at the way Ego is telling you that I am talking crap and then think about all those lucky people who had Dr Hew Len as their healer. Yeah? Hmm? Bye-bye for now.