William Samuel

William Samuel
William Samuel

Saturday, August 20, 2016

A Conversation about Guilt




Excerpt from "The Awareness of Self Discovery"
 By William Samuel 

CHAPTER 16

A Conversation about Guilt

"Mr Samuel, it seems to me that in the final analysis, the solipsistic metaphysics of the Absolute tells me that I am the cause of the discord on the scene. This means that I am taking on the sins of the world—that I am responsible for every heinous act ever committed that I have ever been aware of. I don't like this at all."

The Christian Christ has been pictured as one who was willing to accept this appearance of guilt, and then do something about it; but be that as it may, who says that the expanding view of a society in upheaval is a bad view or a guilty view to be disliked? Who says it is heinous to see our former landmarks being left behind?

We view without judgment because awareness doesn't judge. Society judges. As we look out into the world "tumult," we are merely seeing misconceptions tumbling or not tumbling into the piles of unimportant dust they are. We have seen fit not to continue giving them a power they do not have, but this doesn't mean it is bad or that we are guilty of the sights we see. As awareness, we are not responsible for any appearing. Awareness is the seeing of Deity, and it is our good pleasure to be the seeing that DEITY (ISNESS) is "responsible" for. 

Just as we come to stop holding others guilty for what it appears they are doing to themselves or society, neither do we hold ourselves guilty for being their creators. 

Awareness is no creator. Awareness beholds a kingdom which is forever finished. When did "Eternity" begin?  Really, even the use of the term "finished kingdom" can be misleading. What had no beginning cannot be finished.

"Well, as I understand it, Mr. Samuel, solipsism says that by my act of putting off the old man, the misidentification, I am looking out at my own opposites as they do battle with one another and this appears to be my world in turmoil for which I am guilty!"

Not so!  We would like to be the Creator, a Shakespeare who writes and enacts all the wondrous events appearing as history, but as AWARENESS-IDENTITY we cannot take credit for aught. We let the old man bury the old man—and he is certainly doing a thorough job of ending the fiction he began. But that one is not our identity. That one is not awareness. Awareness, here and now perceiving these words, is not guilty of personal judgments or fragmented purviews of Isness without the knowledge that they are only fragments.

"But we must put away the former concepts and it is this action that appears to be my world in turmoil and isn't this the most awful guilt of all?"

Listen carefully: The events of history as they are apparently unfolding in the arena of tangibility are both (1) the human dream ending and (2) perfect ISNESS disclosing Itself to Itself. The sights and sounds on an historic scale would be appearing whether we were engaged in this study or not. Events in the world will continue to go on unfolding as the appearances of people reacting to human pendulum swings one way of the other, but as WE put off the belief of misidentification, we are able to perceive events as they are and for what they represent. Furthermore, we are able to stop being personal reactors and become "passers-by." If events are the appearing of a personal dream ending, the dreamer is their cause and has the same control as the dream-identity in the dream has over the events of the dream. On the other hand, events that are the divine Isness unfolding to Itself are "going on" regardless of a dreamer's personal actions (or reactions) and his awakening appears as an ability to endure the events without judgment, without blinding involvement and without being disturbed.

"Now I see. All that has been accomplished by becoming so intellectually involved is that now I know why 'all things work together for good to them that love God.'"

Yes, and we can see that the appearance of a human awakening going on is only half the scene, for which we are not guilty!  There is a greater Scene being all scenes.

A LETTER CONCERNING GUILT AND FORGIVENESS

Listen with the Heart, John;

Considering the human scene alone, the "wages of sin is death."

"Sin" is "guilt".  Semanticists can rationalize until hell freezes over, but "sin" still winds up being "guilt" — and guilt, sin. Their "effect" appears to grind the spirit and body to dust-and "death".

The seekers of truth finally wind up facing the greatest guilt of all—the most heinous "sin" imaginable: What is it? The belief that, since nothing is external to awareness, then one is guilty of every botched appearance in his world—guilty of wars, pestilences, murders, governments, pollution, over-population—to infinity. 

Notice, I just said facing this greatest guilt of all—not guilty of it. In this particular aspect of experience (or "cycle" if you want to call it that) it is imperative to see the absurdity of this "final" onslaught of the old nature. It is the "equal and opposite" claim of the same ego which earlier tries to be God, using the same pretense—i.e., that everything is included WITHIN me! — that "me" still the old impostor.

This particular aspect of guilt presents itself via any avenue it is given to enter—it says many things: "My life is a failure—I am ignorant—my family doesn't love me—my friends are leaving— I have hurt this one or that one—I have broken up this or that..."—all of which is only the other end of the playing-at-being-God swing of the pendulum.

THE EXTENT OF GUILT

The extent of mortal guilt—that is, the belief and acceptance of it—is horrendous. The pressures of guilt are used in every way—even to teaching—even in our casual conversations. Indeed, guilt is the veritable food of the "old man."

The lids that are popping off throughout the world are mankind's attempts to find an escape from the constant pressures of imposed and accepted guilt. Why, even the television commercials teach, sell, make their points by way of adding to our guilt: "Why aren't you wearing your seat belt?"—"Are you giving your family orange juice every day?"

The body appears to break down in our attempts (subconscious) to justify the guilt we accept from every hand and ultimate "death" appears the consequence.

There is no guilt outside the acceptance of it! God is not guilty of doing God in. There is no Identity but the One and that One is not guilty. Guilt exists in the superimposed ego-world which has already served its purpose for you. (Its purpose is to bring us to perceive the ONE and "learn" via its contradistinctions just what the one is.) The ONE is not guilty of sin, sickness or death. The One is not lethargic. The One does not need to be boosted up by bourbon nor propped by pills—and does not develop a dependence on them. The guilt that would tear the body apart is the final "is not"—and now you do not need more contradistinctions to battle with.

So what to do? Look in the mirror and see that one INNOCENT. Look in the mirror and FORGIVE that one of everything. You can do it because that one is not guilty. That one has never had a mind of its own except in its own belief.  But "belief" is just belief—a powerless notion, incapable of doing anything to anything. What can two plus two equals five do to the perfect principle of arithmetic? What can "is not an oak tree" do to the pine tree? Not a blamed thing, and you know it! A lie is a zero. A big lie is the same zero. A belief in guilt is a zero, incapable of bundling up the nerves, incapable of preventing AWARENESS from doing whatever it seems sensible to do. 

Do you understand this?

You can, in the twinkling of an eye—and find the RELEASE, the PEACE that letting go the burden of guilt will bring.

We do "forgive sins"—by "forgiving" guilt—and you will find yourself quite able to take up your bed and walk wherever you want to!

Walk straight to the mirror first and forgive yourself. Thank the Ineffable HERENESS for its forgiveness of guilt by its preclusion of guilt.

...then, watch what happens in the minutes, days, weeks ahead!

————————

Dear John, 

This letter comes as a simple "proof" that you have not been forsaken—a few words from me and my pines on this side of the hill.

A grand harmony reigns. While the humanist declares there is no God but mankind himself, I know better. What I have found exists above and beyond the concepts of people. Its articulation, however, is apparently limited to human words and human philosophic attempts.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

We are not guilty of ignorance. We are not guilty of having created our trials and tribulations. While it seems so—and much of the religious education of the world hangs this albatross around our neck—"'tain't true, 'tain't so!" The dreamer dreams because the dreamer is the dream. To say that the dreamer is responsible for the dream is the subtle birth of guilt—a pseudo-guilt that has never been justified. We are not guilty of a botched experience because of our failure to "know the Truth" or to be honest or any other such thing. Every "trial and tribulation" of personal experience has worked to prove our uprightness to us—all events of a natural, normal and happy, happy awakening. That awakening is even now going on, and you are my opportunity to tell myself so—even as I am yourself telling you.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

All is well because All is.

IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SAY "THERE IS NO GUILT"

There is more to having done with the appearances of "guilt" than simply saying there isn't any. There is even more to it than understanding that there is no guilt. It is not enough to declare with grand metaphysical flourish that "guilt implies sin and a sinner, which are impossible because God is ALL." Oh yes, this is true—God is ALL and this holy ALLness precludes the guilt of wrongdoing—but until such time as we stop enacting the role of a guilty sinner by virtue of believing ourselves to be a sinner, then that identification is stuck with the appearances of its beliefs—the sense of guilt being the most unbearable, hence paradoxically most likely to shake us from the belief of the imposter.

In short, the appearances of guilt remain on the scene until we stop holding ourselves or anyone else guilty. Of what? Of anything short of the absolute perfection they are!
It is one thing to say there is no guilt. It is another to ACT in accord.

————————

There is a monumental joy to be discovered when we release others from any obligation we think they owe us. I did not find myself "free" until I first freed others of any responsibility for my own happiness; until I stopped expecting them to conform to patterns I or humanity had established as proper, normal, correct, polite, expected, etc. I simply let all this go upon discerning the light: in the words of Jesus" ...forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."

Of course, this does not mean that we become remiss in what appears to be our responsibility toward others.

————————

Dear Mary,

Listen to these words of hope: From out the depths of depression and feeling of guilt, from out the sense of personal worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness and despair; from out this nearly unendurable darkness seemingly void of Love always comes the birth of the Christ Truth within! Always! Without fail! Inevitably!

GUILT AND IDENTITY

Thank you for your letter which I hasten to answer. The very fact that you are concerned enough to be "seeking" is enough for me to tell you—and very positively—that you shall find every answer to the "enigma of life." For a time, they will appear to come to you from books, classes, tapes, conversations with others and letters such as this, but I assure you that each and every one is coming from within your own Selfhood; from your own desire to know the Truth you be.

In the play, Lady Macbeth feels a great sense of hopelessness and guilt for having killed the king. You will remember that she tries to wash the blood from her hands and fails. For one to believe any feeling of guilt to be real (no matter what the supposed cause) may be compared to an actress playing the role of Lady Macbeth and completely forgetting her real identity. Her true Identity is not a guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth, but a happy and devoted actress. 

We have a greater Identity too. Aware of this fact, we are able to go on playing whatever role seems to be our part on the human stage, ever mindful that "things are not as they appear." Let us leave "guilt" with the old man" whom we are not.

————————

On the stage, no matter how heinous the sin, it has nothing to do with the genuine Identity. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Oh, but we remain wary, wary not to use this as an excuse to condone our own dishonesty or to attack the appearances of dishonesty in others.

ISNESS IS THE VALUE AND THE POWER

An all-pervading Reality exists everywhere, being everything. The charging horseman with raised sword only thunders across a powerless stage. The blood he seeks and mayhap draws is but the enactment of a line or two of fiction, a parody on Truth.

On the stage we walk wherever seems best and say the line that reveals the play's harmless beauty—but we remain steadfastly aware that Truth and its enactment are already one and inseparable; that Reality of God is the Value and possesses the Power.

The Light that Love is lets us see the scene as an undisturbing event that best suits the moment. And what is the moment? Another aspect of Reality's Love coming to light!

If you would like further guidance in understanding any of William Samuel's work based on Self discover you are welcome to contact me, Sandy Jones - samuelandfriends@gmail.com - Ojai, California -   





Friday, August 19, 2016

The Reversal



William Samuel  
"The Child Within Us Lives! A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics 

DEVELOPMENT OF COSMOLOGY

Da Shan and the Mist

  Every theology that has grown out of Light contains a mountain illustration. Judaism and Christianity have Sinai where Moses talked to God and from which Moses descended, bringing the Commandments to those on the slopes below. The childlike founder of Christianity was taken to a mountain to be tempted. He delivered one of the great sermons of the world from the slopes of a mountain. The Indians of the American Southeast have a holy mountain in their cosmology and tell stories remarkably similar to those in the Bible—myths developed long before they knew of the Bible. Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Moslems and many others have their mountains of Light and Life. All of them use river, tree and seed analogies as well.

  There is good reason for this telling of a mythical mountain which mankind is climbing. The analogy will bring us to a breakout into a meadow of green grass and simplicity. Just a little more about Da Shan, the world.


THE METAPHYSICAL INVERSION OR REVERSAL

  The retro-nature of “the climb”—this human experience—is an important dimension of the cosmology to be comprehended if the “metaphysical inversion” that so mystify the world (especially metaphysician) is to be understood and lived intelligently. Certain states of mind know nothing about this inversion or “reversal” in the nature of things and care nothing about it. Others have heard of “the divine reversal,” or whatever else it might be called, and accept its validity, but they simply cannot understand it. Still another group understands the reversal intellectually but can't find its application in the world. Finally, there are those to whom this mystery has been fully revealed and who are charged with its telling—but face the world's intransigence and incredulity in doing so.

  When “the reversal” is understood, the wheat and tares mentioned in the Bible are understood as well. So are the reasons for religion in the world and for the appearances of sin, sickness and death. Further, those who know this mystery are able to distinguish the honest message from the misleading one or from the intentional lie. The Da Shan illustration will lay the groundwork to enable the credulous, the simple and childlike—no matter how intellectually astute they are or are NOT—to perceive this essential unfoldment of “metaphysics” and, finally, to get beyond that maze of boggling erudition and move onward! There is more to Truth than metaphysics alone, my friend, but we do well to understand “the reversal” and its “contradistinctions.” They will become crystal clear as you read this book. That is a promise I make to the persistent. Some schools of thought say those who understand the inversion are enlightened!


DA SHAN IS AN IMAGE OF AN IMAGE

  In The Gospel According to Thomas we find these remarkable words: Jesus said: If they say to you: “From where have you originated?,” say to them: “We have come from the Light, where the Light has originated through itself. It stood and revealed itself in their image.” If they say to you: “Who are you?,” say: “We are His sons and we are the elect of the Living Father.” If they ask you: “What is the sign of you Father in you?,” say to them: “It is a movement and a rest.”

  That in mind, imagine still another mighty mountain beyond Da Shan. It is an unseeable Infinite Mountain of Reality, preexisting Da Shan in exquisite Simplicity. That mountain transcends all names. It can't be seen directly by those who are climbing Da Shan, but when one reaches the tangible mountain's peak and stands balanced there, he begins to perceive the Mountain Beyond Name, mysteriously inverted, its peak touching the peak of Da Shan. It is a Mighty Universe so vast that even Da Shan is but a granule within its heart.
In a twinkling, the balanced Child, but ONLY the balanced Child, sees that Da Shan is an image of the Mountain Beyond Name. More, he sees that Da Shan, the image of the real, is an infinite quantity of images of images of the Mountain Beyond Name—all spiraling inward—and because Da Shan is so many images, and images of images, compacted inward, Da Shan (the world) appears opaque and solid to the climber, his own body a physical microcosm of Da Shan.

  The Child perceives, further, that the light which is the substance of Da Shan is only an image of the Light of the Real Mountain Beyond Name, The limited light of Da Shan is in motion; the illimitable Light of Mountain Beyond Name is a rest. Da Shan appears one way in its own limited light, quite another way in the timeless Light at rest.

  Standing atop Da Shan, one also finds that the physical body has a Twin for which the climber's self-image is a poor inversion. Indeed, the real Identity stands within the very center of the Ineffable Mountain Beyond Name and atop Da Shan simultaneously. More than that, The Child is everywhere on Da Shan at once, as well as at the Heart of things. This “other” Identity has a Name—the Child, the Christ-Light, the Guide, the Original One-I-AM, the Comforter, Messiah which has never left the State of Grace of Mountain Beyond Name and has never been bound by the world's time and space, even while appearing there.

  Atop Da Shan, the balanced View,  the Child's view begins to comprehend that everything under its feet is imaged confirmation (to infinity) of the REAL; that everything beneath the balanced foot exists in time's inward spiral—present to  confirm eternal Timelessness and infinite spacelessness.

  Ah so, as the good people in Kwangse often say, what does this mean? For starters, it means that at each moment of time on the face of Da Shan, the unbound, unconfined Child within us is available to guide our way to Da Shan's peak wherein time ends and Timelessness exists already.

  What does the Christ Child, the Heart within, tell us that helps our ascent? That in Truth, the Real of us is victorious already—and in proportion to our belief that those words are true, THIS tangible experience in the world of people, places and things progressively moves to CONFIRM that Fact, proving the Light of the Eternal—appearing in our experience as another step toward the Truth, another Glimpse.

  How? As a perfect balance maintained against all worldly odds; as inward scenes of beauty; as feelings of joy and well-being beyond human comprehension, all rushing to confirm the Real—the veritable “proof of God” the world (Da Shan) is looking for.

WHAT ELSE DOES THAT CHILD WITHIN TELL US?

  It tells us intimately of “The Equation” without which no one tangibly reaches the pinnacle of understanding.

What is the Equation? It is the mysterious Balance—the perfect balance actually lived in the world of appearances. This will become clear in the pages ahead.


If you would like further guidance in understanding any of William Samuel's work based on Self discover you are welcome to contact me, Sandy Jones - samuelandfriends@gmail.com - Ojai, California -   

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Overlooked Simplicity

"China Cove" by Sandy Jones 


Excerpt from 
"The Child Within Us Lives! A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics" 
by William Samuel

CHILD EQUALS HEART EQUALS SOUL,
     THE OVERLOOKED SIMPLICITY

I have never talked heart to heart with a single person who hasn’t admitted that the child was still there within him--struggling perhaps, or a distant dream from the past, but still there.  All of us continue to dream dreams and wonder about soft things.  The heart of us still goes leaping through the high places of imagination occasionally and soars with the high flying swallows to see the far side of the moon.  That is the Child at work.  Yes, the Child still lives.

Moreover, this inner one, the old new Child of us, is healthy and well, absolutely all right in every way.  None of the enthusiasm has been dulled by the years.  Its eyesight is as sharp as an eagle’s.  Its hearing keen as a puppy’s, and all the feelings of youth are pounding with excitement exactly as they did when we were children-children, unencumbered by the world.

Much has been said about the “heart” of us.  Great theological positions have been established around “the immortal soul.”  Reader, listen with that heart of yourself for a minute.  The little child of us, the heart of us and the soul of us are the Same One. Whatever we have come to perceive with the heart has been a recognition of that eternal Child within.  And now, as I write of that One, I address the heart, the soul with which we are all concerned.  Oh, yes, the heart and soul of us--the Child--is still right here quite capable of confirming Itself, evidencing Itself and revitalizing our view of everything.

As the years pass and the world encroaches relentlessly, we lose sight of this Original Nature or Identity except as an old photograph or a memory etched somewhere in an inaccessible past.  It comes as a surprise to hear that the Original Child and all Its feelings are still around;  then it comes as a wonderment to learn first hand that they are not inaccessible at all, but still right here, closer than breathing, closer than fingers and toes.

THERE IS AN AGELESS MYSTERY IN OUR ABILITY TO FIND IDENTITY

As one reads these words about the Child, the heart knows this is the truth, a truth hidden all these years in simplicity and childlikeness that we have left behind.  When we are alone, we still play the child’s game.  While we are walking or driving or puttering with the pots, there is some little something we do in the mind’s eye exactly as we did as a child.  There are ships and ports and storms at sea when we wash the dishes or take a bath.  Don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about.  Deep inside, you do.  You see, I am the child, too--the same Child--and I have become It again.  I know, by God, by the grace of God, what I’m writing about here.  And I know that the first step in feeling the joys of the Real (as we did as children) is to acknowledge that the Original Nature of us hasn’t left us.

THE HISTORIC CHRIST AND THE CHILD

Bill, are you saying that the early church substituted the historic Jesus for the Child?”

No.  Churchdom has limited  the Christ to the historic Jesus, and all of that has been done for a divine purpose the church seems to know little or nothing about.  Everything that has happened is by God’s grace.  The historic Christ-in-linear-time came, as all luminaries, to confirm our own subjective Self-discovery.  The historic Christ is the first begotten of the Father in world time, and the original believers had that straight.  The discovery of the Child within is confirmed by the Bible and its accounts of the historic Christ and his role on earth.  The Child I Am and you are “comes” to us as the second coming, as Messiah re-discovered within, for whom the Bible and Jesus are the first or external confirmation.

“Are you saying that the Child is the Christ also?

Yes! Yes!  Exactly that.  “Closer than breathing.  Exactly as the historic Christ said.  He would never leave us nor forsake us.  He has been here as the Child of us from the beginning.  Our very Child-Selfhood--which seems to go away from us and returns to us, rediscovered.

“William, tell me if this is what I’ve heard you saying these past few days:  the Child within is the same historic Christ?”

Yes, History, like all other things is subjective.  To rediscover the Child is to find what Jesus found, lived and confirmed before he began his ministry.  When the historic Christ said he would be back again, he meant that each one who understood what he was saying would find the Child within and recognize THAT SELF HIMSELF as the Messiah written in the heart, the “second coming” in actual fact.

“Are you also saying that when I was a child on earth, I was that Christ-Child?”

Yes, spiritually.  And I’m saying that everyone can prove the truth of this for himself by finding that all the acute feelings of the Original Nature which were present in us as children are capable of returning to us again.

“You know theology isn’t going to agreee with that, William?”


Perhaps neither theology nor the subjective groups, but all who feel the Child within themselves will agree, because they will KNOW it is the Truth, having proven it for themselves.  And when the theologians begin to perceive that this is indeed what is meant by the New Covenant “written in the heart,” they will slowly, grudgingly give way, even those powerful conservatives so intent on going back to Biblical literalism.  Not without argument.  Not without doubt.  Not without questioning those who have found the Child of themselves, and not without persecuting them mightily.  Not everyone will be taken up in this Light.  Jesus foresaw it accurately: “ Two are in the bed and one is taken; two are in the field...five are in the household, two against three and three against two; father against son. Those without consciousness of the Child will not know which of the senses to believe, nor who in the world is telling the truth.  Those who have found the Child within won’t care what the theologians or philosophers think.  We leap through Spirit’s door and leave the flaming house behind.


If you would like further guidance in understanding any of William Samuel's work based on Self discover you are welcome to contact me, Sandy Jones - samuelandfriends@gmail.com - Ojai, California -