Book 1

Sample Chapter 34

Untangling Belief

The ego must be seen for what it is—
a distraction to prevent you from knowing Me.

Last night, to my horror, I discovered hundreds of tangled rubber bands and twist ties on the bottom of my kitchen drawer. I hadn’t noticed them for years. Holy Spirit, what is Your interpretation of this? It represents a mass of conflicting distractions built upon years, lifetimes, of not looking. It also represents the rejected parts of you, the ones you project onto others, judgments you have not been able to acknowledge until now.

You regard the tangled mess that has collected for years with horror and can’t believe it’s really there and you never saw it. It makes you think you’re crazy and that anyone who might discover it before or after your death, would agree. It’s as though an unknown entity has been playing a huge trick on you. This is a perfect example/symbol of the ego thought system—hundreds of tiny, multicolored, used twist ties and rubber bands intermingled in a tangled mess. You can barely pull them apart to reuse them, and you’ve kept them so you’ll never be without one. The rubber bands and ties accumulated without your attention until they took over the drawer. You never noticed them, because the ego thought system has a way of covering up its ugliness so you don’t even see it. Last night, you even felt a sense of shame as you tried to sort out which ones to keep and which to toss.

This is how the ego thought system operates in every human being. Attachments to the little things of life get incorporated, go undercover in the mind. The entanglement grows but becomes so much a part of the inner and outer landscape of one’s life that it isn’t even noticed. It is so familiar the details are ignored. This is the out picturing of the work you, Meera, and Jo have been doing, looking at all the elements of your ego, often shocked by its depth and horror and awed at the tenacity it took you to examine it piece by piece and dispose of it. The ego thought system must be seen for what it is—a distraction to prevent you from knowing Me. Each piece must be seen and, with My help, identified and tossed. You did that as you dealt with the rubber bands and twist ties in your drawer, calling on Me and allowing Me to look with you at the horror you had created. Now you understand what it symbolizes.

Uncovering layer by layer these rats’ nests, you’ve been able to catch a glimpse of My Light. Meera had a similar image—the inside of a golf ball, tangled bands of rubber rolled so tight you have no idea what’s at its core. As the ball is unraveled, I am revealed. This ball, for the three of you, represents your special relationships that were laden with guilt, anger, betrayal, disappointment, and yes, hatred. You’ve had to learn by looking closely at every feeling triggered in your day-to-day, moment-to-moment life with your brother, that each feeling is a reflection of your own thoughts, a projection of the anguish of your own believed separation from God. It has been easier—for lifetimes—to hide these nasty thoughts under cover, blocking them from your eyes and sustaining your denial. They have accumulated in your unconscious over lifetimes, each lifetime accruing more discontent until finally, you felt completely disconnected from your brother and from God. This block had to be seen, or in the unconscious denial of your experience of separation you would still believe you’d had a “decent life.” It takes courage and determination to see and then unravel this tangle. Take your break, and we will proceed later.

(After breakfast) Holy Spirit, what is Your request now? We’ll continue to look at the entanglements. This is the word often used to describe relationships. They become inextricably intertwined with feelings of love and hate so the essence of the relationship is lost. The Essence is always Me, which is the Love of God. That is the core of everything. The ego distorts each human experience with its agenda of separation. It overlays everything with guilt and ugliness, distorting the truth of its connection to Me. With layers of plaque building over the centuries, the true beauty of relationships is not seen. This continues lifetime after lifetime in the dream of being a human on earth. The variety of roles played after thousands, millions of lifetimes is so complex and confused that to see the light at the core seems impossible.

Our book is describing one of billions of ways to reach Me. Each individual will find his or her unique way, and each will come to the place where he or she realizes there is no individual, no other, and no earth. He will eventually wake up from the dream of separation and realize it is only a misperception set up by the ego in the momentary thought of leaving home, which led to the beginning of time. Time will end, and there will be the experience of coming home—union with the One from Whom he has never been apart. You three have been able to empty your closets and drawers of the hidden, accumulated messes of the years and to look at each of your special relationships. Eventually each relationship was seen as a projection of your own inner conflict, all of which stemmed from your guilt at the belief you had separated from God. Now that My Voice is available and present to each of you in every moment, you are convinced that the separation could never have happened, as you now know Me as your Self. The work of your spiritual quest has paid off.