Now, there are stepping stones along the way;
once you have a hint that your mind is powerful, that your consciousness is, is very powerful,
then you can have experiences of what you could call manifesting,
where you start to see your thoughts manifest before your eyes.
And that's a very helpful step, because that's showing you the power of your mind.
Anything that shows you the power of your mind and the power of thought is a helpful step on the journey.
And so, I've had a lot of those kind of experiences myself, and very many mystical experiences,
very strong, very convincing. But also, they always came with, with this feeling like:
I'm showing you this, I'm using this to show you something,
and the something was the power of the mind.
And then, it seemed to reach a point in consciousness and awareness where it was like, but,
even if you could manifest anything that you think you want,
wouldn't you rather have an experience of eternal happiness.
Wouldn't you trade all that manifesting,
for a consistent state of peace?
Wouldn't you go that extra step,
to know your Source, to know your Creator?
To know Yourself, your True Identity?
That's literally beyond even the manifesting,
beyond this stage of manifesting.
And for me, it was a big yes, it was like a huge yes.
Like yes, I want to be consistently happy, joyful.
I want peace of mind. I want to have a state that transcends all judgments,
all comparisons, all illness,
every doubt. I want to live it in a state of certainty. That is more important to me than even
manifesting what I believe I want,
because I had to come to the realization that I didn't really know what I wanted (laughs)
you know, and that, that "I" that was trying to manifest was still spinning its wheels,
and having a lot of fun actually spinning its wheels.
But there was something beyond that. There was something more, and to me that's what spiritual awakening is all about.
Where you get to that point where you say, "Yes, I'm willing
to know who I am, I'm willing to
wake up from this dream, and I'm willing to accept the happy dream of non-judgment."
Now what is a happy dream of non-judgment?
Well, it's simply a state of mind where you do not have an opinion about anything,
absolutely anything. It doesn't matter when people it's political. It can be about nature.
It can be about music. It can be about movies.
It's coming to a place where you don't have an opinion.
You don't take a side.
Now why is it important not to take a side? It's because the ego made up the dualistic system of sides.
The ego invented all this variety and multiplicity and sides,
and when we take a side, we reinforce the ego in our awareness, and not love.
Jesus tells us in A Course in Miracles that, "Love makes no comparison."
He says, "Comparison must be an ego device for love makes none."
That love is a state of perfect acceptance.
It's the state of 'what is,"
it's the state that goes beyond the dualistic good and bad, right and wrong, ethics, morality.
All of those still would fit in the category of judgments,
and in order to forgive, we have to begin to see that we can transcend
even morality; even those stepping stones that helped us along the way.