Questions – Would you rather be right or happy?

Answers – Would you rather be right or happy? HAPPY

What is truth? That which does not change. God and God's love are true as they do not change. Innocence, peace and eternity also do not change. What is untruth? That which changes. Ego, and anything that comes from alliance with ego, such as guilt, conflict, separation… are false.
What is relative truth? That which is true within the illusion, or that which undoes the illusion and restores us to truth. Miracles, forgiveness, reincarnation and karma are relative truths. What makes them relative? They serve no purpose in absolute truth. Is reincarnation the same for everyone? Yes, until we break the cycle of birth and death by being true to the truth. Do the laws of karma apply to everyone? Yes, until we free ourselves of the laws by remembering who we are – then all our past vanishes instantly. What is forgiveness? A relative truth that stops extending truth to the untrue. It sees that the untrue is in fact untrue. It says the unreal is unreal. What are miracles? Relative truths that allow truth to reemerge by undoing the untrue, making it vanish from our sight. They deny the unreal by transforming it back into the real.
Is truth the same for everyone? Yes. Why or why not? Because God created us all endowed with the same truth. How can you and I join if we hold differing beliefs? We each have to be willing to be wrong and to ask Spirit to show us how to truly meet. We have to want truth more than we want to be right. Is there more than one truth? No, there are many paths to truth but all the paths end at the same place, just as there are many paths up the mountain, all ending at the same pinnacle, where the view is exactly the same for all who make the ascent.
If we have differing views, what are the possible causes? We could both be wrong, one of us could be wrong while the other is right, or we could both be right. What is meant by the whole is greater than the sum of its parts? We all have a valuable contribution to make to the truth and we need each other in order to gain the whole truth.
How do we open ourselves to the possibility that even when we differ we may still each have a contribution to the truth? Open – mindedness, wanting the truth above all else and trusting each other will expand our understanding of truth. We have to listen deeply and objectively to each other. What are the benefits of knowing that we might both be right? We will be tolerant and respectful of each other and inclusive, even if we perceive differences.
How do you respond to someone who claims to have the truth, especially if it differs from what you know to be true? Ask Spirit within to show you how to respond, know that truth needs no defense, protect the truth by living it, save your debates and discussions for those who are open and willing to be wrong, and see what's behind your need to share – is it a need to fortify your position or to truly be of service?
What happens when you need to be right about your beliefs? You bind yourself to defending those beliefs and close the door to truth. All viciousness comes from needing to defend a thought system which is not true. If you find yourself needing to be right at all cost, know that you are wrong. Is it ok to be wrong about everything you've taught yourself thus far for the sake of truth? Yes. Are you willing to let go of all your beliefs if they don't withstand the test of truth? Yes. What is the test of truth? Is it reasonable, logical, does it come from the depths of your being, does it give you deep peace, or do you still find yourself searching, has the universe given you confirmation?
Are all religions valid paths to God? Yes, all believers worship the same God, regardless of their particular religion. What in religions is true? They all teach love for God and fellowman. What is untrue? Exclusiveness, intolerance of other paths. Ego pits brother against brother through beliefs that are not based in truth.
Can truth be attained outside of religion? Yes. Give some examples. Meditation, non-duality, duality, qualified non-duality, householder, renunciate, action, devotion, wisdom, meditation, inner inquiry, service…What is your chosen path? Wisdom and inner inquiry. What is essential to every path? Purity. Why? Without purity you will have a tendency to misapply the teachings due to ego's cunning, in which case it would have been better left alone. A little truth can be a dangerous thing so drink deep or don't touch the teachings.
What is the difference between content and form as they relate to truth? Content relates to essence where form relates to outer expression or ritual. Is it ok to differ where form is concerned? Yes. Where content is concerned? No, because that we all have in common. Give examples. You may be Christian while I may be a Jew. We differ in our day of worship, the literature we read and in the language we study in. These are examples of form. In content, we are both taught to love the same God and the same fellowman.
What is ego? Ego is the idea that truth could be overthrown, ego is the source of all untruth, and we are the source of ego. Why does ego always speak loudest and first? Because truth is non-competitive so will not vie with untruth. Truth is respectful. Untruth is disrespectful and pushes its weight around. Why is admitting error such a big deal? Ego does not want us to admit error because ego is an error and if we are willing to admit any error ego becomes fair game.
What evidence are you gathering for your case for truth? I'm letting God gather all the evidence and trusting Him implicitly. Do witnesses constitute hard evidence? No. How can witnesses cause you to draw erroneous conclusions? We tend to look for others to agree with us, and then conclude that we are right based on consensus, but it does not necessarily follow. Just because everyone agreed that the world was flat did not make it flat. Can what your senses tell you be used as hard evidence? No, our senses are not to be trusted because what they tell us is filtered through our belief system. In other words we tend to twist evidence from what we witness or hear to conform to our beliefs rather than be open to all possibilities. Does what you believe constitute hard evidence? No, usually what we believe gets in the way of true knowing. We have to set aside all our beliefs in order that we give ourselves a chance to know the truth. What constitutes hard evidence? Conclusions that are reasonable, logical and that support everyone's betterment regardless of what they might believe. What do you know to be true? God is love and He created us in His image and has not changed His mind, so we are still as God created us for all eternity. Untruth had no effect upon the truth.
If truth is constant, does it matter what you do? Yes, it matters very much. Why or why not? What we do attests to what we believe. If we are not supporting truth we are supporting untruth and will manifest untruth as our experience. Even though truth has not been affected by our choice, our experience is very much affected. To have truth we must want it, and we demonstrate our wish through our choices. Choose with God and our thoughts, words and deeds will all align with truth and be noble and inclusive. Choose with ego and we turn away from truth toward corruption, bondage, distortion, misperception, exclusiveness, separation...
What are the questions that can have only one true answer and what are the answers? Were you created? Yes. Was everyone created? Yes. By whom? God. Are you God? Yes. Is there one God or are there many? Only One. Is God love? Yes. Are you love? Yes. Is everyone love? Yes.
Who is your savior? Only you can save yourself. What do you need salvation from? From illusions and misperceptions, from untruth which we mistook for truth. Why can't someone do it for you? Because God endowed us each with freewill. Salvation is as simple as changing our minds. No one can change your mind for you – only you can do that. You are all the power in the universe. To want someone else to save you is antithetical to who you are and keeps you from your truth.
Where is truth to be found? Within. How can you tap your inner wealth of truth? By getting quiet, having a pure heart, trusting yourself, wanting the truth, being willing to be wrong, turning to God and away from ego, being open to all possibilities, self-love... How will you know when you've found truth? By the peace you feel, you will find that you know that you know, and the universe will confirm your enlightenment. How does self-inquiry lead to truth? As you have all the answers within, when you ask, the answers do come effortlessly. It's a grand discovery. That's why the Socratic approach is brilliant. The Greek definition for ‘educate' is to draw forth, to elicit from within. We have to keep diving deeper within till we catch hold of the core of the issue for there we will discover the answer as well.
Is it possible not to know the truth? Not really, for God endowed us all with the truth when He created us, and made certain we could not lose it, and He didn't change His mind, so we still know the truth, even though we may have covered it up with untruth. Is it possible not to know who you are? No, that's a ridiculous assertion, for just to live we have to know who we are. Ego identity caused us to be confused about something so fundamental and basic. When we made ego to be our source, we let it dictate to us our identity. Since ego is nothing, as long as we identify with it, we think we are nothing. All we have to do is stop allying with ego and we will remember that we are children of a Most Holy and Loving God, and that we too are most holy and loving.
Are we all more alike or different? We are all more alike than different, because God created us all the same. What the same? We are all equal in power, glory, holiness, grandeur, innocence, joy, love, creative ability… What is different? The way we express our creative ability. The sun has many rays, each is equally bright, however some rays may have a yellowish hue while others are more orange, or red or pink… Our differences only add beauty, and have no element of competition or better than or less than in truth.
What caused a true experience to become untrue? Using our God given freedom to make ego to replace God as source. We have the freedom to choose our experience, but we do not have the power to change the truth. We saw ourselves lacking and wanted an experience of self-authorship, autonomy, imperfection and special favor. As all those are untrue, we entered an untrue experience due to our choice. How can our untrue experience be transformed into a true one? We can change our minds about what we want and reenter a true experience. We must be willing to look at ego and see that it is untrue. Then ego disappears and we are free to be in a true experience of love and joy in perfect harmony with all our brothers and sisters everywhere, all totally in love with God and each other. As long as we need to defend ego or see anything but ego as the problem we do not want to look where the answer is to be found.
What's the real problem? Ego is the only problem. Why? Ego is the cause of all our problems, which are all really just symptoms of alliance with it. What's the solution? See ego as the problem and its nothingness as the solution. When seen as nothing, it no longer has power over us. We defend ego while it is sucking our very blood from us. We need to stop defending ego and see it for what it is. We need all the help in the universe for this simple act of looking, because ego is a very slippery and crafty opponent who does not want to be seen. To vanquish ego, we must unite with God and each other. Ego is separation - union is ego's undoing.
What is true seeing? Seeing with God instead of with ego, not making the untrue true and allowing the true to be true, seeing God in everyone, seeing perfection, innocence and goodness beyond error. How can this idea be misapplied? If we look for perfection with ego, we will see the imperfect as perfect and thereby make the error real. If we look at bodies or actions or words, we will see imperfections. If we look at what God created beyond form we will see perfection. Those who know their perfection will act perfectly and those who do not, can be inspired to do so.
What happens when we draw conclusions about anything, without leaving a margin for error? We close the door to truth being deeper, fuller, richer…We close down, find ourselves defending our position, creating disharmony, being exclusive, and even fighting and resorting to drastic measures, such as killing in defense of our position. How many religions are not guilty of this very offense?
What is the blessing of spiritual experiences? They add substance to belief. What is the danger of spiritual experiences? We can misinterpret our experiences or draw conclusions from them that are not true, such as thinking we are better than others or undeserving if we don't have experiences or thinking we are enlightened when it was but a light experience, nothing more, nothing less. We should be grateful for all our spiritual experiences and let them be just that, beautiful experiences from out of time to cherish and support us along our way. Let us not fall into ego's trap of thinking we are special because we had an extraordinary experience. Let us not think we are better than others because of our heavenly gifts. God loves us all equally and wants to shower blessings and gifts on all His children.
Please comment on these ideas:

24a. We are always thinking either with God or with ego – never independently. We made ego to think independently, so when we think we are thinking independently, we are thinking with ego.

24b. When we think with God, you and I will be on the same page, with ego, we'll conflict. Thinking with ego produces conflict simply because ego was made to separate, and conflict is separation. When we think with God we unite, simply because God created us one with Him and each other.

24c. All negative thoughts, behaviors, experiences… are symptoms of alliance with ego. Ego is the cause of all our problems and we are the cause of ego. As long as we need to defend ego, we will be doing so while shooting ourselves in the foot.

24d. All we have to do is look at ego and it disappears. Ego was made to replace God as our source. As ego cannot replace God, it is simply an imposter and has no life except the life we give it through the power of our belief in it.

24e. There is only one problem – ego – and the solution is its nothingness. Ego tries to convince us to fix symptoms so that we will never look for the cause of our problem. As soon as we see ego as the cause of all our problems, we will be looking in the right place. As soon as we look where we can find, we will find. As soon as we see ego as the cause we pull the plug on ego and collapse time immeasurably. We need all the help in the universe just to look, for ego is very determined to stay alive, and that at our expense. Ego has been sucking our blood while we have been defending, protecting, nurturing and befriending it. We have been insane. Fortunately we can choose again.

24f. When enough people become egoless, 144,000 to be exact, the suffering will end for all. When there is a critical mass, the divinity is given welcome. Imagine out of 8 billion, all that the divinity needs in order to act is thousands. Sai Baba says all He needs is a handful of good individuals to bring the Golden Age onto the planet for all of humanity. When we are egoless, we are good naturally, and not before because even the best of intentions will be polluted as long as we are harboring ego. Once we see ego truly, we are free, we know who we are, we are enlightened and we bless the planet.

24g. Truth is the same for everyone. God created us all the same, therefore we are all the same, we all have the same truth in equal measure.

24h. We've all always been innocent. No matter what you've ever done, you are and have always been innocent, and so has everyone else. Until you see that is true for everyone, no exceptions, you still do not believe you are innocent. We must inspire goodness and perfection in everyone through our lives of purity and nobility. Make your life your message.

"My life is my message." Sai Baba