Here are links to the first two installments:
Walking Through Illusion: Part 1
Walking Through Illusion: Part 2
The first excerpt was the preface of the book, while the last excerpt and this one come from chapter 18. So now we continue on from last time with the last segment of chapter 18. At the end of the chapter is a worksheet with questions to ponder and reflect on.
Chapter 18
Identities
What is our real identity?
NAMES, TITLES, AND PLACES
LOSE THEIR VALIDITY AS SOON AS
YOU LEAVE THE HUMAN PLANE.
THE EMOTION BEHIND THEM
LASTS FOREVER.
Did Peter’s friends welcome Vrotskuv at the meeting he attended?
Some did; quite a few were resentful. Vrotskuv was a soldier as well as a stranger with nothing to recommend him but his need to find some answers. His constant talk of visions annoyed quite a few, some even questioned whether he’d had one. And those who did believe were envious. Why did this happen to him and not to us? He’s a nobody, while we’ve been following Jesus for years.
Vrotskuv discovered that those who had known me on a daily basis were every bit as individually disposed as those who hadn’t. In fact, several who’d known me as a friend were worried about their complicity in my fate. To appease their guilty consciences, they decided that any action they had or hadn’t taken was excusable since I had help in ways that they did not.
As they believed in special help, they created separation instead of oneness, and oneness with the whole was how I found my help. Unwilling to accept responsibility for their own victim mentality, they looked for someone to blame; Vrotskuv was handy. But even facing their angry accusations, Vrotskuv didn’t back down; he was more concerned with personal growth than impersonal resentment.
Did their feelings of victimization have any other drawback?
Yes, it caused them to forget the properties of spontaneous resurrection: self-responsibility, self-determination and self-enlightenment. As loss overwhelmed them and depression set in, they insisted that I would still be alive if people like Vrotskuv weren’t.
Even though I resurrected to prove I was alive, ego rebutted here as well: Only someone who rose from the dead can be the love of God. And holding this one definition to explain divinity, they lost all faith in themselves. Then, to feel better, they looked for agreement.
What about those who didn’t lose faith?
They were busy enacting their own resurrections.
Yes, but for him, the vision had been emotional; he didn’t see how anyone could successfully challenge that.
What did he learn from the few who were kind to him?
More about himself.
Did Vrotskuv think of you as wise?
Wise for my journey, yes, but he suspected that everyone was the wisdom of God personified in form.
How could all those people have been God?
Who else would God have been?
A divine energy that was met upon their death.
Why would God be revealed to them out-of-form but not in-form? Seeking answers where none existed was the ultimate frustration.
What about the God who greeted them when they died?
God greeted them most assuredly, but as soon as they were met, they knew they’d been this greeter many times themselves. Just as they loved and supported their friends in-matter, they loved and supported them out-of-matter. Some didn’t believe in the notion of God, but everyone knew the feeling of love; and everyone could expand it.
Did Vrotskuv see himself as a sensitive person?
He saw himself as an honest person. If he was cruel, he took responsibility for his cruelty. In his opinion, many followers did not. They rationalized their cruelty, calling it absolute truth. To Vrotskuv, their absolute truth was cruel because it said to others: We have the answer to heaven on Earth and anyone not believing in us will never find it. But anyone who claimed to have the one true answer to heaven on Earth had effectively shut the door to heaven. Heaven was felt through an open, accepting heart.
Yes, and if they knew something he didn’t, he wanted to know them better. He sensed that several hoped to establish more authority by insisting that true believers preached what they preached: that I was the Son of God and no one else was. Vrotskuv honored what he believed instead.
He knew that I had referred to myself as God, but he also knew that I had referred to my friends as God, and my enemies as well. Few were repeating that line. Government retaliation was still an active force. But even after it wasn’t, many followers didn’t want the masses seeing themselves as the same authority they were. Then they had a dilemma. How could they have faith in themselves while telling others that faith in oneself was unwise?
Vrotskuv decided to investigate within, sure in the knowledge that progress would always be obvious by the progress of those around him.
GOD IS THE LOVE WITHIN.
REALITY IS THE LOVE YOU LIVE.
YOU ARE THE EVERYTHING THESE TWO INCLUDE.
Worksheet Section:
Chapter 18 – Identities
In your opinion, what qualities must a person have to live as God in humanness?
Where are some of those qualities being lived?
When those qualities are present, isn’t that person God-like?
When those qualities are absent, has this person suddenly ceased to exist?
Haven’t you learned more about who you want to be from who you don’t want to be?
Questions to Ponder:
- Who inspires me more: a perfect person, or a person overcoming obstacles?
- Who supports me more: a static person, or a person sensing potential?
- Who do I want to be more: a person smugly satisfied, or a person looking for growth?
THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT
YOU’LL EVER REACH
IS TO LOVE AND ACCEPT YOURSELF.
Personal Insights
I believe that God is a power within–not a power that is only met upon death. If that’s true, it simplifies things, don’t you think? No more dialogues about whose God is valid and whose God is not since every soul is equally valid. No more wars in the name of God since God is you, me, and everyone. No more posturing that God told me to do this and God told me to say that since God isn’t separate from the speaker. No more worries about taking the name of God in vain since you might as well be cursing yourself. No more religions claiming that they have the one true path, since every path that offers a person love is the path of true redemption. No more guilt for breaking God’s rules since the rules we have are the ones we’ve given ourselves.