Conversations With God, Book 3: Embracing the Love of the Universe by Neale Donald Walsch. These were my favorite passages of this book (part 2)

“Go, then, and give it. Seek to make everyone whose life you touch feel worthy. Give everyone a sense of their own worthiness as a person, a sense of the true wonder of who they are. Give this gift, and you will heal the world.”

“I tell you this: Many have there been who have been risen from the “dead.” Many have there been who have  “come back to life.” It’s happening every day, right now, in your hospitals.” 

“Should you take the third path and submit to the creations of the collective consciousness, you will move very quickly into total acceptance, total peace, total joy, total awareness, and total love, for that is the consciousness of the collective. Then you will become one with the Oneness, and there will be nothing else except That Which  You Are—which is All There Ever Was, until you decide that there should be something else. This is nirvana,  the “one with the Oneness” experience that many of you have had very briefly in meditation, and it is an indescribable ecstasy.” 

“You’ll look back at the first stage and call it purgatory. The second stage, when you can have anything you want with the speed of your thought, you’ll call heaven. The third stage, when you experience the bliss of the  Oneness, you’ll call Nirvana.” 

“You do not have to do anything. Not in this lifetime, not in any other. You will have choice—always you will have free choice—to go anywhere you wish to go, do anything you wish to do, in your re-creation of the experience of God. You can move to any place on the Cosmic Wheel.” 

“Yes. That’s the greatest truth. There is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one you have to “be” except exactly who you’re being right now.” 

“Go inside. Search your place of inner wisdom. See what this calls on you to do. Then do it. If that means write your politicians and your industrialists, asking them to take action on environmental abuses that could lead to  Earth changes, do it. If that means bringing your community leaders together to work on the Y2K problem, do it.  And if that means just walking your path, sending out positive energy every day, and keeping those around you from falling into a panic which brings on a problem, do it.” 

“Psychic power is simply the ability to step out of your limited experience into a broader view. To step back. To feel more than what the limited individual you have imagined yourself to be would feel; to know more than he or she would know. It is the ability to tap into the larger truth all around you; to sense a different energy.”

“The psychic has learned not to question what he’s “thinking” or suddenly “seeing” or “feeling,” but merely to allow it to “come through” as untouched as possible.” 

“Because the psychic has not “predicted the future,” merely offered a glimpse of one of the “possible possibilities” observed in the Eternal Moment of Now. It is always the subject of the psychic reading who has made the choice.” 

“But now there was another problem. People figured out that this must mean they could do anything, as long as they confessed it. The church was in a quandary. Fear had left the hearts of the people. Church attendance and membership dropped. People came to “confess” once a year, said their penances, were absolved of their sins, and went on with their lives.” 

“Do animals have souls? Anyone who has ever stared into the eyes of an animal already knows the answer to that.” 

“If the soul returns to human form, it is always in an effort to further experience, and thus, further evolve. There are many levels of evolution observable and demonstrated in humans.” 

“Because you were starting not to have fun. Life was beginning not to be a joy anymore. You were starting to get so caught up in The Process that you forgot it was just a process.” 

“Trying is the explanation of the uncommitted. Trying is the self-deception of the undisciplined.” 

“Each moment ends the instant it begins. If you do not see this, you will not see what is exquisite in it, and you will call the moment ordinary.” 

“Your time with each person would be glorified if you thought it was your last time with that person. Your experience of each moment would be enhanced beyond measure if you thought it was the last such moment.  Your refusal to contemplate your own death leads to your refusal to contemplate your own life.”

“The first false assumption is that there is such a thing as “right” and “wrong.” The second false assumption is that killing is possible. Your question itself, therefore, disintegrates the moment it is dissected.” 

“Right” and “wrong” are philosophical polarities in a human value system which have nothing to do with ultimate reality—a point which I have made repeatedly throughout this dialogue. They are, furthermore, not even constant constructs within your own system, but rather, values which keep shifting from time to time. You  are doing the shifting, changing your mind about these values as it suits you” 

Thus, if a person in your society kills himself with a gun, his family members lose insurance benefits. If he does so with cigarettes, they do not. If a doctor assists you in your suicide, it is called manslaughter, while if a  tobacco company does, it is called commerce.” 

“Interestingly, this is the exact opposite of what a truly humane society would conclude. By any reasonable definition of what you would call “humane,” the shorter the death, the better. Yet your society punishes those who would seek to do the humane thing, and rewards those who would do the insane. It is insane to think that  endless suffering is what God requires, and that a quick, humane end to the suffering is “wrong.” “Punish the  humane, reward the insane.” 

“So you poison your system by inhaling carcinogens, you poison your system by eating food treated with chemicals that over the long run kill you, and you poison your system by breathing air which you have continually polluted. You poison your system in a hundred different ways over a thousand different moments,  and you do this knowing these substances are no good for you. But because it takes a longer time for them to kill you, you commit suicide with impunity.”

“Because you are deeply ego invested in being something you are not—and in not being what you are. Most people hear insults when only an observation has been made, if what is being observed is something they don’t want to own. Yet until you hold a thing, you cannot let it go. And you cannot disown that which you have never owned.” 

“Enlightenment begins with acceptance, without judgment of “what is.” This is known as moving into the Isness.  It is in the Isness where freedom will be found.”

“Yes. And so anyone who says that the very holiest people never have sex, and that this is a sign of their holiness,  does not understand how life was meant to work.” 

“Then you’ve just agreed that no real master will ever say that sexual celibacy is the path to mastery. Yet it is this idea that sexual abstinence is somehow the “higher way,” and that sexual expression is a “lower desire,” that has shamed the sexual experience, and caused all manner of guilt and dysfunction to develop around it.” 

“When you are in readiness, you are in wakefulness. A smile can take you there. A simple smile. Just stop everything for one moment, and smile. At nothing. Just because it feels good. Just because your heart knows a  secret. And because your soul knows what the secret is. Smile at that. Smile a lot. It will cure whatever ails you.  You are asking me for tools, and I am giving them to you.” 

“It takes a great deal of maturity to see, and accept, that, in fact, they might both be true.”

“One is always grumbling, angry, thrashing about, vainly seeking “justice,” or earnestly trying to reconcile opposing forces which were never meant to be reconciled, but which, by the very nature of the tension between them, produce exactly the desired effect.” 

The realm of the relative is, in fact, held together by just such tensions. As an example, the tension between good and evil. In ultimate reality there is no such thing as good and evil. In the realm of the absolute, all there is is love. 

“I am filled with awe and reverence at the reading of those words. Thank You for being here with me in this way.  Thank You for being here with all of us. For millions have read the words in these dialogues, and millions more will yet do so. And we are breathlessly gifted by the coming of You to our hearts. My dearest beings—I have always been in your hearts. I am only glad you can now actually feel Me there.” 

“have always been with you. I have never left you. I am you, and you are Me, and We shall never be separated,  ever, because that is not possible. Yet on some days I feel so terribly alone. At some moments I feel that I am fighting this battle by myself. That’s because you have left Me, My child. You have abandoned your awareness of Me. Yet where there is awareness of Me, you can never be alone. How can I stay in my awareness?” 

“Be the source of the love which I Am in the lives of all others.” 

“Public declaration is the highest form of visioning. Live the grandest version of the greatest vision you ever had about Who You Are. Begin the living of it by declaring it. Publicly. The first step in making it so is saying it is so.” 

“Everyone knows Who They Are in their heart. If they open their heart, if they share with others their heart’s desire, if they live their heartfelt truth, they fill their world with magnificence. You are a great teacher. And where do you suppose that gift comes from? You. And so,  when you declare yourself to be Who You Are, you are merely declaring who I Am. Always declare Me as  Source, and no one will mind you declaring yourself as great.” 

“In truth, there is no such reality. There is only one moment, and that is the eternal moment of Now.” 

“These are very subtle vibrations, and some of you are more sensitive to them than others. Also, from person to person it is different. You may be more “sensitive” to your “past” or “future” experience with one person than another. This usually means you’ve spent that other time as the part of your very huge soul enveloping the same body, whereas when there is still that sensation of “having met before,” but just not as strong of one, it may mean that you shared the same “time” together, but not the same body. Perhaps you were (or will be) husband and wife, brother and sister, parent and child, lover and beloved.” 

“Good heavens, this blows the lid off all limitations, and makes all things possible. The minute I catch myself, in the future, saying “that’s impossible,” I’ll know that all I’m doing is demonstrating that there’s a great deal I don’t know. That is a good thing to remember. A very good thing to remember.”

“Your own experience teaches you one thing—that loving everyone full out is the most joyful thing you can do.” 

persons outside the marriage is allowed?” The question is “Who Am I—and Who Are We—with regard to the  experience called marriage?” 

“Fear is that which you are not. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear is the opposite of love, which you have created in your reality so that you may know experientially That Which You Are.” 

“Nobody wants to; you are taught to. A child experiences no fear. He thinks he can do anything. Nor does a child experience lack of freedom. She thinks she can love anyone. Nor does a child experience lack of life. Children believe they will live forever—and people who act like children think nothing can hurt them. Nor does a child know any ungodly things—until that child is taught ungodly things by grownups.” 

“The irony will be that the more you cause others to amass, the more you will amass, effortlessly. With no  “contracts,” no “agreements,” no “bargaining” or “negotiating” or lawsuits or courts which force you to give to  each other what was “promised.” 

“Because in highly evolved societies there is neither “marriage” nor “business”—nor, for that matter,  any of the artificial social constructions you have created to hold your society together.” 

“Yet your “basic instinct” is not survival, but rather, fairness, oneness, and love. This is the basic instinct of all sentient beings everywhere. It is your cellular memory. It is your inherent nature. Thus is exploded your first cultural myth.”

“But You said Yourself just a moment ago that “Love has no requirements.” You said, that’s what makes it love.  And so it is.”

“A circle is the symbol of the Sun, and the Earth, and the universe. It is a symbol of holiness, and of perfection and peace. It is also the symbol of the eternality of spiritual truth, love, and life . . . that which has no beginning and no end. And in this moment, Neale and Nancy choose for it to also be a symbol of unity, but not of possession; of joining, but not of restricting; of encirclement, but not of entrapment. For love cannot be possessed, nor can it be restricted. And the soul can never be entrapped.” 

“Do not confuse the length of your relationship with its quality. You are not an icon, and neither is Nancy, and no one should put you there—and you should not put yourself there. Just be human. Just be fully human. If at some later point you and Nancy feel you wish to reform your relationship in a different way, you have a perfect right to do that. That is the point of this whole dialogue.” 

“How could I be against marriage? We are all married. We are married to each other—now, and forevermore. We are united. We are One. Ours is the biggest marriage ceremony ever held. My vow to you is the grandest vow ever made. I will love you forever, and free you for everything. My love will never bind you in any way, and because of this you are “bound” to eventually love Me—for freedom to Be Who You Are is your greatest desire,  and My greatest gift.” 

“Do you take Me now to be your lawfully wedded partner and co-creator, according to the highest laws of the universe? I do. And do You take me now as Your partner, and co-creator? I do, and I always have. Now and through all eternity we are One. Amen. And amen.” 

“This is the main difference between your culture—which is a “baby” culture, really; a primitive culture—and the highly evolved cultures of the universe. The most significant difference is that in highly evolved cultures, all  sentient beings are clear that there is no separation between themselves and what you call “God.” They are also clear that there is no separation between themselves and others. They know that they are each having an individual experience of the whole.” 

“We are talking here about the Law of Opposites and how it plays its effect in our lives. Why do things happen sometimes in exactly the opposite way that we hoped they would or prayed for them to?”

“What you think, you create. What you create, you become. What you become, you express. What you express,  you experience. What you experience, you are. What you are, you think. The circle is complete.” 

“For instance, your penchant for, your insistence upon, comparisons, and your constant need to characterize something as “better” or “worse,” “higher” or “lower,” “good” or “bad” demonstrates how far into duality you have fallen; how deeply into separatism you have submerged.” 

“The level of a society’s advancement is reflected, inevitably, in the degree of its duality thinking. Social evolution is demonstrated by movement towards unity, not separatism.” 

“Do you know how long it has taken your nations to agree to simply stop poisoning the atmosphere with fluorocarbon?” 

“I did, and it is. Yet in other cultures and other societies on different planets, the definition of “self-interest” is much larger than it is on your world. It is very clear to enlightened creatures that what hurts one hurts the many,  and that what benefits the few must benefit the many, or, ultimately, it benefits no one.” 

“By developing medicines to do the work that your bodies were intended to do, you’ve created viruses so resistant to attack that they stand poised to knock out your entire species.” 

“The only reason a species under attack would kill another would be that the attacked being forgot Who It Really  Is. If the first being thought it was its corporal body—its physical form—then it might kill its attacker, for it  would fear the “end of its own life.” If, on the other hand, the first being understood full well that it was not its body, it would never end the corporal existence of another—for it would never have a reason to.” 

“Well, exactly. The writers of what you call your “science fiction” are often leading you to greater truth.”

“Human beings have been trying to solve problems at the “doingness” level for a long time, without much success. That’s because true change is always made at the level of “being,” not “doing.” 

“HEBs live in unity, and with a deep sense of interrelatedness. Their behaviors are created by their Sponsoring  Thoughts—what you might call the basic guiding principles of their society. Your behaviors, too, are created by your Sponsoring Thoughts—or, the basic guiding principles of your society.” 

“Their First Guiding Principle is: We Are All One.” 

“A HEB never worries—and wouldn’t even understand the human concept of “worry” or “stress.” Neither would a HEB “hate,” or feel “rage,” or “jealousy,” or panic. Therefore, the HEB does not produce biochemical reactions within her own body that eat away at it and destroy it. A HEB would call this “eating itself,” and a HEB would no sooner consume itself than it would consume another corporal being.” 

“As I said, you eat poisons. Some of you drink poisons. Some of you even smoke poisons. A highly evolved being finds such behaviors incomprehensible. He can’t imagine why you would deliberately take into your bodies substances that you know can’t be doing you any good.” 

“There is no shame. No shame? Nor any such thing as guilt.” 

“In these cultures, elders live closely with the young ones. They are not shuffled off to live by themselves. They are not ignored, and left to work out their own final destinies. They are honored, revered, and held close, as part of a loving, caring, vibrant community. When a new offspring arrives, the elders are right there, deep within the  

“heart of that community and that family, and their raising of the offspring is as organically correct as it feels in your society to have the parents do this.” 

“In your culture, is a baby ashamed of its “bathroom habits”? Of course not. Not until you tell it to be. Does a  child feel “guilty” for pleasuring itself with its genitals? Of course not. Not until you tell it to feel guilty.”

“by sharing rare things. The only thing that is different between HEBs and humans is how HEBs define “being  enriched.” A HEB feels “enriched” by sharing everything freely, without needing to “profit.” Indeed, this feeling is the profit.” 

“As a result of the combination of these two types of evolutionary advances, it has become possible for HEBs to disassemble and reassemble their bodies at will, allowing most beings in most highly evolved cultures to “be”  wherever they choose—whenever they choose.” 

“Tasks are performed, and activities are undertaken, based purely on what a being loves to do, and sees as the  highest expression of Self.” 

“So you honor, and pay, ballplayers and movie stars more than you do teachers and ministers. In this you have everything backward, given where you say that you want to go as a society.” 

“Act as if.” Act as if you were all One. Just start acting that way tomorrow. See everyone as “you,” just having a  difficult time. See everyone as “you,” just wanting a fair chance. See everyone as “you,” just having a different experience. Try it. Just go around tomorrow and try it. See everyone through new eyes.” 

“Then, start acting as if “there’s enough.” If you had “enough” money, “enough” love, “enough” time, what would you do differently? Would you share more openly, freely, equitably?” 

“Yet right now one-fifth of the world’s people are using four-fifths of the world’s resources. And you show no signs of changing that equation. There is enough for everybody if you would stop thoughtlessly squandering all of it on the privileged few. If all people used resources wisely, you would use less than you do with a few people using them unwisely. Use the resources, but don’t abuse the resources.” 

“You separate yourself into nations for reasons of survival and security—and produce just the opposite. Highly evolved beings refuse to join together in nations. They believe in simply one nation. You might even say they  have formed “one nation, under God.”

“The point is that all races and species are evolving, and evolution—the purpose of observing what serves you, and making behavioral adaptions—seems to keep moving in one direction, and away from another. It keeps moving towards unity, and away from separation. This is not surprising, since unity is the Ultimate Truth, and  “evolution” is just another word for “movement toward truth.” 

“As for communication, a HEB uses as his first level of communication the aspect of his being which you would call feelings. HEBs are aware of their feelings and the feelings of others, and no attempt is ever made by anyone to hide feelings.”

“Honestly expressing one’s feelings, for example, is often deemed by human society as “wrong.” Such a  conclusion could never be arrived at by a HEB, since precise awareness of feelings facilitates life in any community or cluster. So, as I said, a HEB would never hide feelings, or find it “socially correct” to do so.” 

“They see a health-care system that is really a diseasecare system, spending one-tenth of its resources on preventing disease, and nine-tenths on managing it, and deny that profit motive is what stops any real progress on educating people in how to act and eat and live in a way which promotes good health.” 

“They see that eating the flesh of animals that have been slaughtered after having been force-fed chemical-laden  foods is not doing their health any good, yet they deny what they see.” 

“For what you resist, persists. Only what you hold can disappear.” 

“Life is The Process by which everything is being created. God is the energy—the pure, raw energy—which you call life. By this awareness we come to a new truth. God is a Process.” 

“But that IS the truth! The One Unchanging Truth is that God is always changing. That is the truth—and you can’t do anything to change it. The one thing that never changes is that everything is always changing. Life is change. God is life. Therefore, God is change.”

“Nobody does anything inappropriate, given their model of the world. I love you always—all ways. There is no  “way” you can be that could cause Me not to love you.” 

“Observe. Observe. OBSERVE. I have told you—the major difference between you and highly evolved beings is that highly evolved beings observe more. If you wish to increase the speed with which you are evolving, seek to observe more.” 

“Now know that there are three basic wisdoms that run through the entire dialogue. These are: 1. We Are  All One. 2. There’s Enough. 3. There’s Nothing We Have To Do.” 

“If you decided that “we are all one,” you would cease treating each other the way you do. If you decided that  “there’s enough,” you would share everything with everyone. If you decided that “there’s nothing we have to do,” you would stop trying to use “doingness” to solve your problems, but rather, move to, and come from, a  state of being which would cause your experience of those “problems” to disappear, and the conditions themselves to thus evaporate.” 

“Everything changes; everything turns around, when you come from “being,” rather than seeking to “be.” You  cannot “do” your way to “being.” Whether you are trying to “be” happy, be wise, be love—or be God—you  cannot “get there” by doing. And yet, it is true that you will be doing wonderful things once you “get there.” 

“Here is the Divine Dichotomy. The way to “get there” is to “be there.” Just be where you choose to get! It’s that simple. There’s nothing you have to do. You want to be happy? Be happy. You want to be wise? Be wise. You want to be love? Be love.”