– Justin

This phenomenon is even worse when it comes to a person’s outlook about their religion. Many people think theirs is the only right religion, and thus the only one that will provide salvation for anyone else. And many of these people actually hate other religions, and their practitioners. When there is more than one religion claiming to be ‘THE’ only right one, it creates a question of who’s right and who’s wrong, and the dilemma of choosing the right one, or facing the consequences of having chosen the ‘wrong’ one (not getting into heaven, going to hell, etc.). But getting back to the idea of everyone thinking their country is the best, consider this: what country ever went into battle without ‘God on their side’? In WWII, all sides believed God was on their side, including the Nazis. What country starts a war thinking that they’re in the wrong? All of these perceptions and beliefs originate from separate selves and the territories they consider extensions of them-selves.

Most everyone favors not just their country, but ALL the extensions of their separate selves—they favor their race, favor their ethnic group, favor their school, favor their local team, favor their political party, etc., etc.. But a precious few people have begun to expand their self-consciousness to include ‘bigger pictures’.

Take, for example, those who have become so environmentally conscious that they are ‘environmentally active’. Those who have achieved that, understand the importance of the flow and balance of nature on Earth. They know that saving whales and forests, or seemingly insignificant things, such as tiny birds, fish, or ferns, can seriously alter life in ways that most people don’t even suspect. Many of those who are truly environmentally conscious, have transcended some of their separate consciousness, and thus some of their self-centeredness, and self-ishness. Thus preserving the integrity of the environment is more important to them than many of the conveniences or inconveniences (recycling, power usage, etc., etc.) involved.

There is a story about a ‘mountain man’ from the United States named ‘Grizzly Adams’ that relates to this. When a beaver dammed the creek next to his cabin, threatening to flood his cabin, he moved and built a new cabin rather than disturb the beaver dam. Talk about inconvenience! And believe it or not, this was still limited consciousness—but what a wonderful expansion of consciousness. To have reverence for all life, and also be able to see the importance and potential effect of the lives of whales, and tiny fish, and a seemingly insignificant fern, is higher consciousness. But it still falls far short of Universal Consciousness, and the efforts of such people can be a total waste of time, or even harmful, without it.

“The human race barely cares about people let alone plants and animals. I remember once seeing a breaking news story about 600,000 people who died in an Earthquake. It was in the L.A. Times. You would expect such a disaster to be on the front page. And be a long article. But it was only one small paragraph, about 40 words, buried on page 9. And the only reason why was because the quake was in China. Even then, I was shocked. Can you imagine how this article would have been treated if 600,000 French people had died? English? American?” (Of course, this was during a time when the U.S. was an enemy of China. The story now, would be bigger news at least, if for no other reason than because there would be 600,000 less Chinese consumers of American products).

And those with separate self-consciousness will defend their views with twisted logic. Some people will say ‘So what if I think my country is the most important? It’s good to have national pride. It doesn’t change anything about any other country, it just helps this one be better.’ If you don’t think that such an attitude has no effect on other countries, consider the atrocities that one country will often inflict on another. Or that a country will stand by and allow to happen to the citizens of one country, but not in another. Imagine invading soldiers regularly using bayonets to cut babies out of the wombs of 9-month pregnant women in the street, for purposes of genocide. That happens. But as long as it only happens in countries that other countries don’t care about, no one cares. As things are, such things are nearly never reported in the news media of the world. What if it was going on in Chicago? England, France, Mexico? Do you think we would not even be hearing about it? If ALL the churches in Britain were being destroyed by invading armies, and the priests tortured, would it not get on the news? It would not only get on the news, but many countries would send troops over there to stop it in an instant.

How’s that for national pride? What national pride?

It all depends on what our separate selves consider ‘extensions’ or relations of themselves, or have selfish stake in. Some people have begun to transcend ‘pride of country’. Again, this is good, but it does not go far enough. So few have a truly global feeling of family, but there are some who do. But even environmental and humanitarian consciousness is still limited, and a person could accidentally cause terrible disasters acting from limited perception, even if their intention was only to help. All these expansions of consciousness are steps toward the ultimate expansive and caring consciousness, Universal Consciousness. But they are still all variations of separate self-consciousness—limited by so many constraints, and ultimately mistake ridden and destructive. Oh, how many tears have been shed in the wake of things gone wrong, and the cry is echoed ‘But I was only trying to help’.

The fact is, all things in the Universe are essentially made of the same ‘stuff’, and are totally interdependent and connected. So we cannot be truly separate from the rest of the Universe, we can only be a ‘part’ of it all (‘apart’). But we can think we are separate. We can believe we are separate. And then we act like we are separate. Having separate self-consciousness doesn’t mean you are really separate, but it does mean having a total ‘illusion’ of separateness from everyone and everything else in the Universe. And when a person truly believes they are separate, they naturally focus on themselves. And when someone believes they are separate, and they focus their attention, and their energy, on their ‘self’, this naturally leads to ‘self’ishness. This is very important, pay close attention. This is the BIG issue. The Big problem of all problems. The only REAL problem. As silly and simple as it sounds, it is serious – simple selfishness is the root of all problems and ‘evils’ that exist on Earth. This is one of the greatest, most important teachings to understand, so say it back to me—selfishness is the root of all problems and ‘evils’ that exist on Earth.

The Earth is just one speck of dust, within an incredibly greater scheme of things. Outside of the Earth, the entire Universe functions in a beautiful, orderly, harmonious flow. On Earth, humans with separate self consciousness, are the only things that are out of step with the flow of nature, and the Universe. And the results of this have been disharmony, disruption, and destruction. That’s why the teachings promote the attainment of “Universal Consciousness”, by any means that works for you.

Separate self-consciousness is transcended and transformed. The dominant consciousness becomes that of the Inner Self, the part of us that is the Universal Spirit—thus, we have ‘Universal Consciousness’. When experienced properly, a person is never the same, and never ‘sees things’ the same way again. From then on, all things are understood in the light of the ‘biggest picture’, in the light of being One with the Universal Spirit (God). Selfishness thus becomes a thing of the past. This is also called achieving ‘enlightenment’, and a few other names.

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The difference between having separate self-consciousness, or having Universal Consciousness, is, as I said before, like night and day. Consider again, an environmentalist who has expanded his/her separate self-consciousness to include concern for ecology. This is good. And if being aware of the flow and balance of Earth’s nature is good, imagine the significance of being really aware of the flow and balance, of all things—of the entire Universe? And if being concerned about all humans on Earth is good, what about being devoted to caring for all life within the entire Universe? A person who has attained Universal Consciousness, has transcended separate self-consciousness, and thus sees infinitely more, under- stands infinitely more.

Imagine being able to ‘see’ the outcome of many of your actions in advance—or whether or not you ‘see’ the outcome, being able to know if what you are doing is really going to ultimately help, or ultimately harm. Or using the classic car allegory again, imagine seeing one side of the car, and not assuming that the other side is the same? How would you like to be able to sense what all sides were like?”

“That would be incredible Father.”

 

“Yes? That is just a small nothing. What if you really had an awareness of being One with everything—even God, even all other separate selves? How would you see things then? And how would you treat everyone and everything? If you absolutely KNOW that every person you are dealing with, is you, just in a different form, how will you treat yourself (others)? Is there any point in stealing from your- self? Hurting yourself? Is there any point in being tyrannical with yourself?”

“It would make no sense, there would be no point if you really believed that to be true.”

“Precisely. A being with Universal Consciousness Loves everyone unselfishly, and is (within the needs of Universal flow) giving, kind, compassionate, caring, knowing, and harmless (that doesn’t mean incapable of defending the innocent). Why? Is it because the person has read something that made them that way? Studied to be that way? Trained to be that way? No. Maybe such things were stepping stones on the path towards attainment of that consciousness, but once there, the fact is that being any other way simply makes no sense to someone with Universal Consciousness. It just is their reality—it is just natural.