Conversations with Ed, a Former 2x2er, About Neville Goddard, Visions and Freedom: Part 4

Hi Dan.

How's things today? When you read the bible do you agree that all characters are portraying the states of mind? I when I read it find it difficult to understand its true metaphysical meanings! Do you believe that the Jesus in bible is simply the "awakened imagination"? Thank you for taking the time to write. 

Ed

Ed,

It was Father's Day here today, and my children took my wife and me to San Diego to the USS Midway Museum and other places for the day. Very nice.

Are all the Biblical characters states of mind we pass through? My understanding of it all is a bit more complicated than that, because more than that is going on. Certainly Jesus is more than just the awakened imagination. Cults like the one you were a part of flourish because their members DO NOT KNOW WHAT A JESUS IS. Nor do they know what a Christ is. "God's Salvation" and "Anointed" or Messiah" are pap answers.

You will over the years learn what the words mean in you. Victor Alexander's notes in Mark that Eashoa (Jesus in his Aramaic language) means The Life-giving, Living Branch. Neville notes in one of his lectures that one of the letters--I don't remember if it was shin or ayin--is symbolic of a tooth for destruction and consumption, because it removes the present situation to make place for the desired future. Have you ever thought of Jesus as a remover? Everything, every letter, has meaning. It is layer upon layer upon layer--up to the reality of our being and His being us, and our being Him.

Growth is gradual. We learn a lot and think we are doing pretty well, only to find other groups for whom what we have learned is baby stuff, and they are way ahead of us. EACH ONE OF US IS INDIVIDUAL IN GOD. Your roots feed you. My roots feed me. And every one of us is going to make it.

I ask you, please, to take a look at The Worship of the Dead by Col. J. Garnier at https://ia801404.us.archive.org/6/items/worshipdeadoror00garngoog/worshipdeadoror00garngoog.pdf . Just take the time, if you would, to read the preface and first chapter. My point in this exercise is the woeful ignorance of the common man of history. Garnier does a marvelous job of linking the spread of religion and the religion that was spread with the how of it all. Nations and people and religions we have never heard of left archaeological records of how we got our religions and what these religions signify. I know it is a lot to read, but it is most valuable. 99.999% of Christians do not even know that this book exists.

No, the characters of the Bible are not just states of mind. They are a mix of real people (not necessarily the people it says) and ideology which symbolically represent our natures. When you say, "states of mind," do not forget that what you mean is you. The characters portray GOD, and they portray YOU, because you are God, or rather, God is you!

Rather than call them states of mind, I would call them our natures, or natures which are common to all of us, both as God and as humans. For example, Simon is hearing, the type of hearing that is inclined to obey what is heard. Peter, as you know, means rock, the rock upon which Christ builds his church. We know that this has to do with faith. Yes, these are states, but more than that, the natures of men the authors knew and observed who exemplified these characteristics in their lives and character. They are things we DO. I think I am trying to say, "eliminate the distance between the state or nature you read in the Book and find it IN YOU. For example, the nature of Peter, "to hear," is not a subject on the page--it is a manifestation of that nature of God in you." And in me, and in everyone else, because we are all God. The same God.

No one knows the true metaphysical meanings. Except maybe the Ineffable Itself. The true metaphysical meanings of God are things which cannot be said. If I said to you, "Yellow, pink and blue," would you be able to tell which yellow, which pink, or which blue I was speaking of? Of course not. The Biblical languages are pretty specific as to case, tense and gender, but as to shades of meaning . . . we have got "yellowish, pinkish, and bluish." Get their definitions from Strong's and New Englishman's and whatever dictionaries and lexicons you might wish to use, and "-ish" them in your mind. When you are standing in the shower and cannot write(!), it will come to you. Time and time again, your whole Bible will change. THERE IS NOT AN END. He is unlimited potential. How do you "exact" that?

Some of the best advice I ever got was from Mickie Silberling in Kaoshung, Taiwan, in 1977. I was stressing out a bit about the culture and my expectations on a summer mission, and Mickie said in so many words, "Dan, you need to lighten up. Don't take this stuff (the Chinese culture) so seriously. Rome wasn't built in a day, and you are not going change them in one fell swoop. Don't load yourself with expectations. Relax. Lighten up." I have learned to lighten up. We eternal spirits have been learning for many, many years. Many more to go. Be open, and He will teach. You do know that He can teach us directly, don't you? What good would his being our imagination be if he couldn't?

Dan