Thoughts are Things
Wally (Vladimir) Kuskoff
Let us consider how to be the authors of our own life - consciously. To experience what we consciously want to experience.
As I've said, that where there is a will there is a way. When the body, mind and soul create together, in harmony, there is no limit to what we can experience. Our soul is the key to that experience and our mind is the key to the first step towards that experience.
The first step in getting our mind under our control is to get our thoughts under our control. And that begins with self-observation, to understand who we are. That is, how we become to believe who we are and how we become who we believe ourselves to be.
For clarity, let me first make few assumptions, statements and some simple definitions (as I use them here) and then put all of it together.
To begin with, let us assume, just assume, you don't need to agree that:
Brain is where the thoughts are housed and the mind is the interaction of those thoughts.
Ego is what we consider ourselves to be. It is a collection of most important thoughts that our mind has collected about ourselves.
Our first thought come from our soul and our soul is a copy and a part of its - Creator. And it is aware of its Creator. But soul's Creator is not aware of its Creator but it knows that somehow it become self-aware in the past so long ago that the time has no meaning.
To experience itself as a human being, the soul entered a baby's brain and caused it to have thoughts and to begin to think. Eventually the baby becomes self-aware.
The collection of thoughts that became self-aware I will call here an Ego. These groups of thoughts consider themselves as one entity, separate from others and housed in a body which it calls its own.
As we grow up, we form a mental image of who we are, based on our personal and cultural conditioning. We may call this phantom self the ego. It is created by unconscious identification with the mind and consists of mind activity and can only be kept going through constant thinking. In the ego mode the mind is dysfunctional. It is always concerned with keeping the past alive, because without it -- who are you?
There are checks and balances in this groups of thoughts. Mostly they react as they have been programmed. They can reason with each other and other beings. Within, between the groups of thoughts, there is a continuous debate in session on what to do with the constant flow of information and ideas.
To most of the received information, this committee (of groups of thoughts) reacts or responds automatically. The new information is stored in a logically appropriate place so as to quickly find it and use it when required.
Unfamiliar information or experience is treated as hostile intrusion and usually is brushed aside unless it is repeated, then the committee takes note of it and eventually it may adopt it as the most valuable asset it has. That is why some people are dead against something and later prepared to die for it.
There is a consciousness within us. It is defined in many different ways by different people. It is nothing in itself to the mind's comprehension but it becomes what it is identified with. Like the electricity, it becomes light or heat depending where it is.
This individuated consciousness creates illusions for itself using the minds thoughts and eventually perceives what it perceives, its own fantasy made out of thoughts that were influenced by the guardians of the child.
In summary, Consciousness (All That Is) creates a Soul (an individuated consciousness). Soul creates thoughts in the brain of a child that eventually becomes the mind. The mind creates Ego, which is a collections of thoughts that consider themselves as one entity, experiencing themselves in the body as I.
Consciousness -> soul -> thoughts -> mind -> ego -> body.
We are experiencing our illusions, if we accept the above assumptions. Unfortunately most of us do not remember who we are; why we have created our illusions and what we are doing. We are lost within them. Just like in a dream, we are so involved in it that we do not remember that we are asleep.
You might say, "If the illusions are such a great invention, then why don't we know it or easily wake up from it?"
There is no real need to wake up from it, unless our dream has turned into a nightmare and we cannot bear the pain anymore. Then some of us need to be woken up by others or by the alarm clock called PAIN. The ideas in this article could be your wake up call.
The Game of Make Believe
On November 30, 2001, after going to the movie with my daughter I went into a large bookshop, hoping to find something to cheer me up. I came across a book about angels, where the author suggested to ask an Angel, if I am to read his book. But I said something like: OK, Angel, if you are around then help me to pick a book.
The book that I did pick was Communion with God by Neale Donald Walsch. It had so inspired me that I began to think: What would I do if I was God? What I imagined, had so excited me that I began to write it out and eventually it turned out to be this Game of Make Believe.
Now, looking back at what happen 9 months ago, I see it as a life changing realization. This Game of Make Believe has answered all of my basic questions about life.
I assumed that we are created in our Creator's image. Why not? Are not robots or even our children; is our attempt in creating what we are or an improvement on ourselves?
If my assumption is right, (especially if it does not contradict my experience) then it should be possible for me to imagine what the Creator could have done, when nothing existed and He became aware of Himself.
I encourage you, please take some time, relax and let my imagination help your imagination and then see in what way you would create your universe differently. Have fun.
The Game Begins
Imagine that only you exist. No universe. No light or darkness. Just you.
Then ask a question, "Who am I?"
How would you describe yourself?
You can't say, "I am big." Or "I am small." There is nothing to compare yourself with. Isn't that right? And you can't say you are nothing because you know that you are something. You exist and only you.
So, what can you do?
You did nothing for as long as you can remember because you have no desire. What can you desire, when there is nothing?
And how can you remember how long you've been around when there is no time? For time to exist there must be a distance, but you are not even a dot or a point. You just are.
The only thing that I can think for you to do first is to ask yourself a question, "Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?" Then try to imagine something that you are not. Since the only thing that exists is your awareness that you are, that's all.
You can imagine anything you like. But what can you imagine? You only know that you are - you exist. You could imagine light and darkness. Both. It has to be both - duality. Otherwise it would be like trying to paint with white on white or with black on black.
For as it is written; "God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
That is the beginning of you and me.
OK. OK. I'll slow down.
OK. Imagine, that the beginning of your imagining was like the big bang of creation. In your imagination you have created your universe; you have created everything. Eventually you have created me.
I am just a character in your story. You are thinking for me and through me. Isn't this what authors of books do? Except, since I am a characters in Creator's story, I can also think for myself and create in my imagination.
So, you have created me - I exist in your imagination. I have the awareness that I exist. You have created me in your own image, with an ability to create. Just like you. As it is written: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
Then a question arises within me - your creation, "Who am I?" And of course you answer me and say, "You are the creation in my imagination." And I think, "Did I hear that or have I just imagined it, that I am someone's creation?
Maybe that someone is the creation of my imagination. Maybe I am 'All That Is'. Maybe I am imagining that you are imagining me. Maybe you do not exist? I know that I do. I know that I am. All the rest could be just my imagination or an illusion."
In the above reasoning or imagining I've said that you are my creator or was it I your creator. So did God create me or I created Him? Or are we one entity? Or have I made an error in my reasoning? If so, then what is it? Please, please let me know.
And if it is possible, how can it be tested - objectively? Or does it matter who I am, as long as I am enjoying my life?
What is the point? Why do I bother to think about this? What am I trying to resolve?
Imagined Hell - A Bad Illusion
When I was suffering and wanted to know: "Why am I suffering?" most of the good answers that I received have not satisfied me for very long.
So, if the logic of my reasoning is correct and the truth is that I am the creator of my universe, then the hell is my own creation, and I need to find a way out of my imagined hell.
I need to change my illusions but I've imagined them for so long that I've forgotten the base rules of my own game. I became like a magician who has forgotten his own tricks and is fooled by his own illusions. I've cornered myself.
So, the question is: "How do I stop my suffering?"
The best answer I've got till now is:
I need to change my illusions. To imagine a better state for myself than what I believe I am in and start behaving as if I am in that new imagined state. But don't overdo it. Take one step at a time and then see how you are doing.
Instead of expecting: if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Try to see the evidence in your life that all things work together for your good, and you will notice how your illusions begin to change from Murphy's Law to God's Law.
In other words, play a game of make believe. Imagine yourself a little bit better of than you believe yourself to be. As Jesus said, "all things are possible to him that believes." Who we are in our lives is a result of how we think and what we believe.
If you believe that you are in such a bad state that you can't help any one, prove yourself wrong by helping someone. By action.
For instance, find some crumbs and feed a bird. I've actually done that. It helped.
Blessed to be a Blessing
Before I continue about the illusions, please let me take a little time and share with you, that reading Communion With God by Neale Donald Walsch, where he teachers about the laws that govern the universe and the illusions that rule the humans... He has so inspired me and influenced my view of life that I've written about the illusions.
The understanding about illusions has changed my view of life so dramatically, that before I finished reading Communion With God, I went and bought the first four of the Conversations with God books and started to read the fourth one, Friendship with God. It was just what I needed and I could hardly wait to go back to the fifth. But the fourth was also so good.
He claims that God has given him the answers on how to have a better life and also revealed to him the Individual, Global and Universal Truths. Whether these ideas are from God or not, they are the best I've came across about life and how, for all of us, to enjoy it.
A central teaching of Conversations with God is: What you wish to experience, provide for another. Look to see, now, what it is you wish to experience-in your life, and in the world. Then see if there is another for whom you may be the source of that.
Why do I tell you this? To encourage you to check it out for yourself. As much as I've read, his teaching did not contradict my experience of life but it did contradict a lot of my theology that I've held for decades.
If my ideas here have been a blessing to you, then you'll probably enjoy Conversations with God books even more. As I was reading these five books, I was adding and rewriting my ideas here. I've also quoted here some sections from these books.
His writings help me to comprehend who I am and what my Creator could be like, that I am a localized expression of God - as you are. These books also have made me feel at ease with myself and my actions. They helped me to get more understanding of life and how to enjoy it more.
During the five months that it took me to read these five books, I have reconsidered most of my views about life. What amazed me the most is how we tend to accept the opinions and assumptions of others as truth even when they contradict our reason and our own personal experience. Especially, it seem, if the beliefs are old and fear inspired. We rather believe a lie and see others as the creators of our own reality than to admit to ourselves, that we are reaping what we have sown.
Most of us, it seems, will try to do anything to solve our problems, except changing our beliefs. Yet, the solution most likely will be found at the level of our Belief. Take a look at your own most important beliefs. Which among them lead to thoughts of separation, scarcity, and fear? Which among them lead to thoughts of unity, abundance, and love?
To top this all of, immediately after I've read his five books, I had the opportunity to be at Neale's seminar in Moscow. I would like to share with you some of the helpful points and ideas I've written down for myself as a reminder from Neale's two and a half day seminar in Moscow.
The Game of Make Believe
continues
In the imagination game, I have said that nothing exists but your self-awareness and you can imagine whatever you desire. You began to imagine the universe and all that it contains. Nothing exists but you but if it does you don't know about it.
You can imagine: if you wanted to, that there are other self-aware beings around you and of course there is that possibility but you have no awareness of contact with them. As it is written in Isaiah 44:8, "Fear you not, neither be afraid: Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any."
Here, I am talking about you, the reader, my imagined creator, you have created me in your imagination and others like me - those that I have awareness of. I can commune with them and of course, with you - my Creator.
Since you have created me in your imagination and I have the ability to imagine whatever I choose, then why don't I imagine myself in a better state than I am in?
Could it be that my parents and others that you have imagined for me have limited my imagination?
You gave me the possibility to have unlimited imagination, as you have yourself but I am limited by the universe you have placed me in; until I would master those limits and could live as some Masters have done.
I am limited, yet I have the possibility that you do not have?!? - Hmm interesting. You gave me the possibility to fellowship with other beings, like the opposite sex (women) but you have no one to fellowship with but through your creation. You are not even He or She but an androgynous, sexless, hermaphrodite or something like that.
Hmm interesting. I am so excited! I want to continue with these illusions or delusions but I am so tired - I need some sleep, it is already five in the morning. It is good that you do not ever get tired or need sleep. As it is written in Psalms 121:3 "He will not let your foot be moved: he that keeps you needs no sleep."
I am talking here as me - your imagined creation, I have the ability to imagine and experience whatever I choose. Everything that I experience is my illusion except my relationship with you.
For you, the reader of this article, the experience of your life will be much more enjoyable when you look at it from the perspective of your Creator. For only He exist.
See yourself as the director and the actor in the opera of life, and then you'll experience not your own broken heart and not of the actor but the heart of the imagined person that the actor is portraying. Then you'll perceive yourself as Who You Are and what You Could Be and not from the usual human perspective.
Base Rules
This is my imagination of what you would do as a Creator of your own imaginary universe where I reside as one of your creations - a replica of who you are. What would you be like and what would you do?
Based on my experience, if I was your creator and I wanted to experience unlimited possibilities, this is some of the base or foundational rules I would create. What else is there to do, when time has no meaning to me?
1. I would give you:
a. Free will and empower you to create whatever experience you choose and give you tools with which to do that. You choose what you want to experience.
b. I would give you as many abilities as you will be able to handle in that moment, from the abilities I am aware in myself.
c. I would be a God you want Me to be to you. I will give you an experience of whatever God you would like Me to be to you or none if that is your desire. A God with needs, demands, separate from you or whatever kind you choose.
d. I would establish a system whereby all of your innermost desires, will be realized, but you wouldn't always know about it. My purpose would be for you to choose the truth you would like to live by, to choose the purpose for your own life and to create a world of your desire.
2. I would create conditions for you, where you experience consequences for your choices. For choosing love you will experience joy, harmony, beauty - you will enjoy your life. But if you choose fear then you will suffer. Not forever - of course. If you get stuck in the torment of fear and suffering I would do everything possible to get you out of it without violating my first rule - to help you to choose to be love.
3. I would not command, judge or condemn you. For that would be limiting my own experience through you. My command would circumvent or spoil my intention of discovering who I am and what I could or want to be. Of course, I would help you and give you advice if you would receive it. I would ideally prefer not to interfere or meddle in your life unless you ask.
Now I am asking for your contribution: In what way would your rules differ from the above and why? How would you improve them?
Why Was I Created?
And now I am asking you: "Why did you create me? What is the purpose for my life? What would your answer be?" Wouldn't your answer be something like?
I've created you in my imagination. You are my imagination or a part of it. I AM you, and you are Me. That is the truth, and all else is an illusion. You are the result of my question, ""Who Am I?" and "What can I become?"
Every Character in my story (or His-story) is different and unique or one of its kind. Each one of them sees life from its own perspective and creates his own reality. Each one through its preference reveals to me Who I Am in that moment and a possibility of what or who I can become. You are an expression of me in the unique situation that you are in.
If there is a God and if the following is what He said, according to Neale Donald Walsch in Communion with God (in the Prelude), then you are All That Is.
"The purpose of individual expression is for Me to experience My Self as the whole, through the experiencing of My parts. And while the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, I can only experience this by knowing the sum.
And that is who you are.
You are the Sum of God.
Everything that you see, and do not see. All That Is, All That Ever Was, and All That Ever Will Be is Me. And all that I am, I am now.
This is as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."
The purpose of your life would be to re-create yourself anew in each moment, in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who You Are. And there by you are also extending the experience of Who I AM becoming.
If I were to tell you, and every one else from the store of my "vast" knowledge, what you should do in every situation you are in, then to what extent would you be different from other characters in my story? Your choices are determined by the unique experience and knowledge that you have.
I would not spoil or miss a unique experience for myself in and through your being, by telling you what I know and what you should do in your unique situation. Unless, from My perspective, you are in danger of destroying something very unique. I could also suggest to you to do something, if I see a possibility for me to experience what I would like to experience through your being in your unique situation.
That is why you always managed to get through your darkest experience. When you thought that you can not go on any further; that you could not live through that particular experience; that it is too much for you. It is the end. Yet in the last moment salvation comes. Have you not noticed? That you always survived, somehow?
And don't say, "But, what about the others that I know " You don't know all the facts and there is no need for you to know. They are all fulfilling their part in my story, in my discovery of Who I Am.
You, as my creator, in what way would you answer my questions differently? "Why did you create me? What is the purpose for my life?
Reading about my illusions (or is it delusions?) do you sometimes forget who is the creator and who is created? Maybe that is why you, or is it I, in my illusions who says, "I am All That Is!" without being illogical.
Benefit of This Point of View
"What is the point in discussing this subject?" you may ask. I think that when we see our illusions as our illusions we would not be like that magician who has forgotten his own tricks and is fooled by his own illusions.
This game of make-believe - that if I where the creator, then what would I do - has really revolutionized my way of looking on life. And also gave me the understanding, why the world is in the state that it is.
"Who are you?" Nothing affects you and your behavior as much as how you answer that question and what you answer. Your answer to yourself, determines how you treat yourself. The most important decisions that you are constantly making, is the decision of who you are and out of that decision you decide who I am.
What you decide to think about me, will affect you behavior towards me. For if I think that you are a "sinner" wouldn't I treat you as one. Or if you think that I am not worthy of your good attention, then wouldn't you treat me accordingly?
Consciously or unconsciously we all continuously are redefining our answer to the question, "Who I am?" And live out our life accordingly. Our every act is an act of self-definition, an announcement and a demonstration of who we are.
We are what we believe ourselves to be, in our innermost being. Maybe we are the authors of our own life, masters in it and not the victims as we so often thought. Have you not noticed that we behave according to who we believe we are, in our deepest level of our being? Is that not your experience? Think about it and see if I am right.
If my reasoning is sound or correct, then you can choose whatever kind of life you like: Godly or ungodly, Christian or Muslim or any other you like - God does not mind. If your choice is original, then God will enjoy it with you and through you.
Will God punish you? Why would he? Unless you mean by that, will you have consequences for your actions? Then the answer is undeniably yes; as surely as the pain you feel when you stub your toe. Pain in your toe is the consequences for forgetting what is where in your illusions, not God punishing you.
God will not punish you, but you will enjoy or suffer the consequences of your choice. Of course you can call that as God punishing you, as many people do.
Love or Fear
There are two polarities - Love or Fear just as there is light and darkness. The more loving you are, the less fear you will have and suffer less. Love builds up - fear tears it down, so choose love and life abundant comes with it. But if you not had enough of pain in your life then choose the way of fear.
Some teach that God is good and the Devil is bad but others teach that there is no such thing as good and evil, that God is all, not only light and darkness or just light but everything there is.
Those who believe in good and evil, right and wrong, they have concluded from circumstantial evidence that there is a good God and a bad Devil; that these two are at war with each other in the hearts of men, darkness against light.
In a way, what they are saying is that their God is a very inefficient God. He can't seem to get anything done. Even sending His only begotten Son to Earth, He has not been unable to turn the tide, to change the course of events, to create the world of His desires. Or could it be that His purpose has been to create the world as it is?
Those that believe that God is All That Is - believe in a happy God, who is having a game (Lila), like a good father playing with his children. His wish is that all his creation will enjoy life and experience whatever they desire within the limits He has set.
The consequence for going beyond those limits is like a shock from an electric fence around cow paddock, which a good farmer put for the safety of his cows.
If you are not enjoying your life then you have forgotten who you are. Check and you will see that you are too close to the fence. You've strayed too far from love and into fear. For as it is written in the Bible: "There is no fear in love: true love has no room for fear, because where fear is, there is suffering; and he who is not free from fear is not complete in love."
But if you do want to experience some pain so that you will appreciate joy more, then the way of fear - is the way, but try not to forget your way back, as most humans have done and that is why the world is in such a mess. I hope that we all will remember our way back soon. Before we destroy our planet and end the experience that it offers.
You might say, "Why bother, if what we are experiencing is our illusion then nothing is lost but our illusions." That is true, but before this illusions of ours will end, there will be more suffering until we wake up from it or die physically; or according to some, suffer even longer.
"Why, does not God stop the suffering and make a paradise for us?"
- So that we could spoil it again?
Or you might say, "Better still; why not just wipe us out?"
- Would every one of us (at present) go for that?
I think God intends to let His-story play itself out to whatever conclusions His story-characters will choose.
I would rather change my illusions of suffering into illusions of enjoyment of life and if you would join me that would make it easier for others to be convinced, to turn our imaginary hell into illusion of paradise.
If our creator is even a bit better than me, I think he would be glad that the characters in His-story have at last come to their senses - became sane.
If I am All That Is - the good and the bad; love and fear everything that my mind can and cannot name, then all I need to do to experience what ever I choose at this moment is to be that.
As you may have noticed that we can think ourselves into a state of being but often, as it happens, it is into negative state of being. A better and a faster way is by declaration of being without thinking. Because when we think about it, we will, at best delay it, and, at worst, deny it.
To experience some things is easier than others but as we practice on what we can, then our experience will be greater and greater until we will be able to say, as the Masters from their own experience have said, "I am All That Is."
What I know - I feel it, what ever that may be, out of All That Is. When I know that I am totally joyful, loving, accepting, blessing and grateful then I am That. I feel it. I experience it.
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