How do we explain the “bad” things of this world spiritually?
If you are willing to suspend your beliefs, your judgments and your attachment to your fears for a moment, I invite you to listen with an open mind… more importantly, with an open heart to an alternative explanation. You are totally free to reject everything I say or to accept only that which resonates deep within you.
Our true nature is spirit. We are energy. We are divine beings having a human experience that we have willingly chosen.
We incarnate to have experiences. As spirit, we are everything and nothing exists beyond or outside of us. So how do you know or experience darkness if all you are is light? How do you know and experience anger if all you are is peace and loving harmony?
As spirit, we yearn to experience the totality of emotions and experiences. Why would divine, infinite, perfect, innocent, magnificent beings like us want to do that? And the answer is… why not???
From a spiritual perspective, we know our unlimitedness, our divine creative power, that we have always existed and will never die, that nothing of the illusory world we call the third dimension (or Earth) can diminish us in any way, that we are ONE with God because we were created by Him/Her and therefore are simply an extension of That One, who is not only everywhere but is everything.
Yes, you heard me correctly. I am saying there is ONLY God. Nothing else exists. Nothing! Listen again… There is nothing else beyond or outside of God. God is all there is.
We, as humans, have created the illusion that we are separate from God—actually not only separate but different from God… less than God—and that somehow we have to “earn” our way back into God’s love. And that is insane. Why? Because God cannot possibly create anything than is unlike Him/Her. Imagine a zebra giving birth to a monkey or a banana tree blooming roses. It’s impossible. And the same is true of God.
So, if God can only create like himself and I think we can all pretty much agree on a few things here–such as that God is perfect love energy, absolute compassion and pure harmony–how, then could He/She create something that is the opposite of Him/Her? It is impossible. It makes no sense… But the only natural explanation is very scary to us! The only other possible explanations would be that either we were not created by God or that we are just like God.
Wait a second! We believe that, right? Many of the world religions teach us that God made us on His/Her image. But is that true? Arguably, we don’t believe that because we don’t behave like God, we don’t have the same power as God. Look at the world around us: we hate, kill, rape, treat others as less than ourselves because they are different from us. God wouldn’t do that, would He/She? I think we can agree that the things humans do are definitely un-godly… So where does this line of reasoning take us then?
Let me try to put this in context… We as humans, have embraced the illusion that God created us perfectly innocent and that we lost it… Remember the story of Adam and Eve (for those of you who are Christian)? They were naked and did not feel there was anything wrong with their state of nakedness because they were INNOCENT, PURE, GOOD and more importantly, HOLY. They were just like their Creator! However, depending on which beliefs you subscribe to, we have been told that we did something bad and God punished us by banishing us from His/Her kingdom, “paradise” (as if God were only in ONE place! God is EVERY place!).
This myth implies that God created something that was less than perfect—Adam and Eve sinned, offended God and since God is perfect, the fact that His/Her creation behaved in a less than perfect fashion suggests that they were NOT perfect. Not only that. The story also implies that God was not powerful enough to protect His/Her own creation from their own foolishness… and if you tell me “Oh, but God gave us free will!” I ask then, why would he then punish us for choosing in a way He/She would not? What kind of free will is that? The free will of an arbitrary, domineering and cruel God. Not a God that is pure love…
Please don’t be offended by my words—after all they are just that: words. In reality, we should all be offended when someone says that God punishes and demands we act a certain way because when we say that, we are turning God on His/Her head! We are giving God human attributes. That is the true blasphemy! We have created a lesser God, one that demands things be done a certain way or we will face His/Her punishment. One that accepts that some of his children are better than others. Why would God create diversity of life and then allow only one type of person or creature to cruelly rule over the rest of his creations? Why would God create billions of human beings and then decree that only a handful of them meet His/Her criteria for “salvation” (e.g. by following “x” religion) and the rest are “ungodly” and therefore unworthy of God’s love and will perish in hell? God wouldn’t do that… We have.
And the real question then becomes why do we do the things we, humans, do? One answer, which will probably annoy you, is that everything we do is neutral. Things are the way they are… the value of things in this dimension is given to them by us. And we do that by attaching certain judgments to things. Some people believe that female genital mutilation is a good thing… but many other cultures don’t believe this. So it is us who assign value to things, based on our views of what is “good” or “bad.”
But notice that even this concept of good or bad means different things to different people. So we live in a reality ruled by contrasting things (or you could even call them “truths” if you want). We can call that duality. You have cold and hot; good and bad; light and darkness; kindness and cruelty; generosity and greed. In this dual reality in which we inhabit, we come to better understand some things by experiencing the very opposite.
Oh, sure, some of us think we know kindness, but we truly experience kindness when we have gone through a difficult time and someone is kind to us. That “experience” of being on the receiving end of an act of kindness, of love, of support, of generosity can never be the same as “cognitively knowing” what kindness, love, support or generosity is.
We think we are children of God… but we don’t behave like children of God. We behave often like the very opposite. And what’s most amazing is that we see nothing wrong with that. And in truth, there is nothing wrong with the way we act, unless we decide we don’t want to act that way anymore… but I will get into that later. [Isn’t this fun?!?!]
Now, you are probably still wondering what does all this have to do with the idea that we are like God. Everything! Let me explain.
Imagine the earth for a moment. The earth is a simple entity… a single “thing.” Right? It’s round. It has certain dimensions, and many different components that make up the whole we call earth. It has a magnetic field, a protective layer of ozone, clouds, rivers, seas, valleys, mountains, deserts, volcanoes and glaciers. If you notice, even the components and attributes of the earth are in duality or polarity with each other—valleys and mountains; deserts and glaciers; rocky areas and muddy marshes. Would you say that glaciers, deserts or volcanoes are bad? No, they just are… and they “behave” in certain ways, but that doesn’t make an eruption of a volcano “bad.” It’s a neutral event; something that happens when certain factors converge. That’s all.
So when you think of the earth this way, you can see certain things. First, the earth is a single entity made up of many components or parts that while different from each other—like the desert is different from the glaciers—form a perfect and harmonious WHOLE. The earth cannot possibly reject the parts of it that have different properties because despite the way a volcanic eruption burns and destroys, volcanoes are in perfect harmony with everything else the earth is and are necessary to maintain the balance of the whole planet.
Second, each of the components of the earth is perfect on its own right and different from the others, but it is still part of the “one earth.” Right? You cannot really take away the volcanoes, or even an anthill and still say that’s the same earth. It wouldn’t be. An earth free of volcanoes or glaciers or deserts would not be the same. So even the parts that seem to behave badly (based on our judgment—e.g. they cause property and life loss) are important for the earth to be EARTH. And this is why I love this metaphor….
We, God’s creatures, are extensions of God. When God created us, He/She couldn’t create us outside of Him/Her because there is nothing beyond God. So when we were created, we were totally connected to God because we emerged from Him/Her. If you have a difficult time with this, hang on for a moment longer. Imagine a new island emerging from the depths of the sea. It is part of the earth, it has emerged from the earth, and so in truth it IS an extension of the earth, and, therefore, it is THE earth, isn’t it?
Likewise, we were created by God, with God’s energy; and since God can only create like Him/Herself, that means we are LIKE God. And if we are like God, the question is then why don’t we behave like Him/Her?
And the answer is that we behave unlike God because we can! And so we do. We create experiences that allow us to understand hate, pain, suffering, misery… but in reality, we are eternal and none of those things can hurt us—the unlimited and vast spirit we are is never diminished by the things we experience in the flesh. But these experiences are what we yearn for.
What we experience when we go through these so called “bad things” (or when we witness the suffering of others), allows us to truly understand the good, the holy and the beautiful. From our human perspective, it’s very difficult for us to accept that genocide is not a bad thing. But if you were a divine spirit and you could live forever, and you knew that nothing that happens to the flesh can touch your divine essence, and you could create anything you wanted and watch it play it in front of you and have the opportunity to experience transformation from despair to absolute joy, from hatred to forgiveness, wouldn’t you want to see how it would happen; how it would play out? And that’s exactly what we do!
We incarnate on this earth and have all kinds of experiences—some beautiful and sublime; others painful and heart-shattering—and since we are ONE (remember, nothing exists outside of God), we all learn from every experience of every human who has ever lived or will ever live. And these experiences enrich our understanding of LOVE because even though we think there is evil and that evil is outside of love…NOTHING is outside of Love. Just like nothing is outside of God! And this, we have to accept through faith… and if we dare do it, our lives are transformed… Why? Because you suddenly realize that YOU are the director of your own play and you can change the plot and the actors and the last scene (which will free you of your physical body and bring you back Home to your Creator) when you want to!
We ARE NOT at the mercy of an invisible and arbitrary God. We are creators and as children of God, we are all powerful. Do you dare wrap your head around that idea?! What have you got to lose? This way of seeing yourself and God can transform your life and empower you to make different choices and to CHOOSE NOW to be happy, even if your life’s circumstances are less than ideal (after all, if they are less than ideal, you were the one who created them and you can change them!).
So, dare to see God as the Great Observer and yourself as the Great Creator… a beautiful duality; two sides of the same perfect and shiny coin, existing in harmony and creating countless experiences for the sheer joy of it!
In love and playful wonder,
Millie Rivera
Kerplunk Mastery