Excited about a new book on the way - Talking with Angels

I have just ordered the French-language version of a book called Dialogues with the Angel in French but translated into Talking with Angels in English by Gitta Mallasz. It is apparently another case of "scribum deus" by which the author/s were inspired to write or felt they were not their own words (i.e. they took dication from a higher source). This story is interesting as it took place over 17 months among 4 Jewish friends in Hungary right before the second world war. Only the author survived the war and lived to tell the incredible story.

Similar books I have read and loved, mentioned in early blog posts include Conversations with God (Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1)), A Course in Miracles (A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume) and Many Lives Many Masters (Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives)

I still haven't received my copy yet but I hope to be able to share some pearls of wisdom for you from this book once I have time to dig into it...

[Continued] Thoughts on Conversations with God

(continued from yesterday)

If I had to choose one major actionable insight from Conversations with God, before rereading it afresh, I would have to say it is “What would love do now?” as a guiding question to answer most decisions we are faced with.

To better understand this question, I probably need to explain that it is premised on another key idea from the book, namely that everything we do is motivated either by love or fear. (Note, this is very similar to what the Course in Miracles has to say, the main difference being that in the Course in Miracles it is written that only love is real; meaning that only acts of love are lasting and thus real. The inference then is that we have a choice at all times - do anything we do out of love or from a place without love…).

Another five word powerhouse (like 'the content of their character')... “What would love do now?”

While I do not remember to use it often enough as a prologue to action, nor has it become a reflex, when I have applied it, it has been quite powerful.

One of the rare times I do think of it is when I have a potentially disagreeable e-mail to write to write to someone who has ticked me off. Instead of writing what I would have spontaneously written (a more or less poetic and subtle version of ‘screw you’) I try to reframe my attitude and say, ok, what would love do now? I try to find a feeling of love, caring and compassion for the person in question and then I write my e-mail. Sometimes it works well for me and sometimes it doesn’t (usually when my ego says ‘go ahead, give ‘em a kick in the balls, you know you want to…’ or something to that effect). But I try, and when it works, it feels really, really, good and it works wonders.

If you do apply it, let me know how it works for you.

Another incredible insight, from the beginning of the first book has to do with Joy, Truth and Love. According to Walsch, according to God, These three are interchangeable, and one always leads to the other. It matters not in which order they are placed. The Highest Thought is always the thought which contains joy. The Clearest Words are those words which contain truth. The Grandest Feeling is that feeling which you call love.

Just the first book covers so many topics that no blog entry could ever do them or the book justice. Values, morals, creativity, sexuality, finding your own way, free will, religion, finding your own way, being happy, desire, gratitude, what God is not, what religion is not, what prayer is not, what you are not, and on it goes. The subtitle of the books is ‘An uncommon dialogue” and it really is.

Trying to skip through the book to find nuggets to report back to you I realized I so marked up the book that there is hardly a page without underlining, stars, exclamation points, comments, notes to self… and I realized I want to reread it from start to finish again from a clean slate. And I will.

While there is so much I would like to share and comment on this book, I know it is impossible. So let me just wrap up this post by sharing the following series of quotes which followed Walsch’s expression of feelings of inadequacy in terms of providing for his children. God is quoted as saying, “Your job is to render them independent […] for you are no blessing to them as long as they are dependent on you in order to survive.[…] Let your love propel your beloved into the world—and into the full experience of who they are. In this will you have truly loved.”

Then begins the following series of statements:

In the same sense, God’s greatest moment is the moment you realize you need no God.
A true Master is not the one with the most students, but one who creates the most Masters.
A true leader is not the one with the most followers, but one who creates the most leaders.
A true teacher in not the one with the most knowledge, but one who causes the most other to have knowledge.
And a true God is not One with the most servants, but One who serves the most, thereby making Gods of all others.

Food for thought, isn't it?

[Joy, Truth and Love] Thoughts on Conversations with God

One series of books that I was truly surprised to enjoy reading, and continues to be a source of wonderful insights for me, is Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations with God. I have a feeling that is has gone too far in the commercial realm, with a movie adaptation (which I have not seen), workbooks and too many sequels. But I did read the first three ‘Conversations’ and especially appreciated the first two.

The basic premise of the books is another example of scriba deus (a scribe of God, like Dante was purported to have seen himself as a scriba Dei, a scribe of gods...), i.e. Neale wrote questions to God on a notepad and felt that God began to answer him. His books are the result of the 'dictation' he took down over the years (same story by the way for the origin of the Course in Miracles).

If you are not open to spiritual issues (yet), it could seem like a lot to digest, but it is one of those books that you can read slowly, bit by bit, 15 minutes a day, while reading other books. Chewing on it in small bits will probably help to really ‘get’ the different ideas, of which there are many. Also, I would suggest getting beyond the skepticism in regards to the form in order to test the content based on your own internal bullshit detector. Do the ideas make sense? Would you be a better person and would your life be better if you applied them? Regardless of what you might think of the how, it is hard to be skeptical about the what of these books…

An interesting insight about communication appears early in book 1. This is not even from the realm of the spiritual but an insight on human understanding. Here I am quoting Walsch who is quoting God:

When we try to speak to each other—Me to you, you to Me, we are immediately constricted by the unbelievable limitation of words. For this reason, I do not communicate by words alone. In fact, rarely do I do so. My most common form of communication is through feeling. Feeling is the language of the soul.

If you want to know what’s true about something, look to how you’re feeling about it. Feelings are sometimes difficult to discover—and often even more difficult to acknowledge. Yet hidden in your deepest feelings is your highest truth. […]

I also communicate with thought. Thought and feelings are not the same, although they can occur at the same time. In communicating with thought, I often use images and pictures. For this reason, thoughts are more effective than mere words as tools of communication.

In addition to feelings and thoughts, I also use the vehicle of experience as a grand communicator.

And finally, when feelings and thoughts and experience all fail, I use words. Words are really the least effective communicator. They are most open to misinterpretation, most often misunderstood.

And why is that? It is because of what words are. Words are merely utterances: noises that stand for feelings, thoughts, and experience. They are symbols. Signs. Insignias. They are not Truth. They are not the real thing. Words may help you understand something. Experience allows you to know. Yet there are some things you cannot experience. So I have given you other tools of knowing. And these are called feelings. And so too, thoughts.

Now the supreme irony here is that you have all placed so much importance on the Word of God, and so little on the experience. In fact, you place so little value on experience that when what you experience of God differs from what you’ve heard of God, you automatically discard the experience and own the words, when it should be just the other way around.

Another irony is me writing a blog in which I quote a phrase like "when feelings and thoughts and experience all fail, I use words." Then again, that is probably why I need to write about these topics...

(to be continued - I will finish this post tomorrow)