L/L 资料库

Chapter Ten
Work in Consciousness

The Discipline of the Personality

There is energy entering the bottom of the energy system, coming up from the feet and into the root chakra and moving from there upwards. But there is also the inner light of the one infinite Creator that is called into the energy system through the gateway of intelligent infinity, through the violet ray and into the green, blue and indigo energy centers.

Work in the discipline of the personality is indigo-ray work. And it is facilitated greatly by persistent, daily work on one’s desire. For the more intense that desire, the more powerful will be that energy moving through the gateway to intelligent infinity from above. And the more powerful will be the pull that pulls that energy up from the root chakra and to the meeting with that inner light that is called by the metaphysical worker in consciousness.129

We all understand the concept of discipline. However, we may think of it only as a synonym for punishment. When people talk about disciplining a child, for instance, they generally mean punishing the child for perceived wrong-doing. This is not the sense in which the Confederation means this word. They use it in the sense of self-discipline.

All of us already use self-discipline in various ways. Perhaps we push away from the table before we are full in order to stay slim. Perhaps we keep our thoughts to ourselves when we see that to offer them would not be useful or helpful. Perhaps we budget our money and discipline our spending habits.

The discipline of the personality, as the Confederation uses the phrase, means the Player’s reining in of self-perceived unbalanced thoughts and actions by submitting them to the balancing exercises. The goal of such work is to become free of the triggers that throw us off-balance emotionally, mentally and spiritually. In order to work with the two highest chakras in calling down inspiration, we need to have a dependably open heart and even temperament.

Have you ever seen those milking stools with only three legs? It is easy to lean over on two of the legs to reach the udders. The built-in instability of the three legs is useful for that job. And most new Players on the Gameboard have personalities with the inherent instability of the three-legged stool, because they are used to reaching. As we reach for something we desire, we go off-balance on purpose as we lean into getting what we want.

In the discipline of the personality, we create a level of personhood which does not reach. If the three legs of personality are our minds, our emotions and our faculties of will, we neutralize the reaching of will by adding a fourth leg of spirituality or faith. Then we can sit squarely down upon our true beingness. We still are using our minds, emotions and will-power, but those are joined firmly to that faith that knows that all is well and that what is ours will come to us naturally as we offer our energies to the life of faith which we live from moment to moment and day to day.

For instance, the three-legged personality may be caught on money issues. Then it spends precious time reaching for more money. The four-legged personality, while working to pay the bills, will at the same time use the faculty of faith to affirm that there is enough money for what is needed today. Faith causes us to stop reaching and to settle joyfully into being exactly who and where we are.

This use of faith, whose mantra is “All is well,” stabilizes us. As Players working in the realm of spirit, it makes us sturdy and steady. It lets the Creator’s energy flow freely. It keeps the heart open.

Faith is something that grows when we make room for it to grow. We take the leap into faith that says that all is well, even when our intellects and emotions tell us differently. And we find that this statement is true only after we have taken that leap into mid-air. It is in this mid-air environment of stable, sturdy and steady faith that we can begin to do work in consciousness. And the term, work, is used in the same way as the mechanical engineer uses it.

For example, say that a high-voltage transformer works when power is fed to its coils by a battery. The coils of the transformer are already wound. The transformer is ready to work. But it cannot work until a charge is fed to it from a power source. Neither can we do work in consciousness until we connect to our power source.

Don Elkins questioned the Ra group about work in consciousness by asking,

QUESTIONER: If we have no polarity in electricity we have no electricity; we have no action. Therefore, I am assuming that it is the same in consciousness. If we have no polarity in consciousness we also have no action or experience. Is this correct?

RA: I am Ra. This is correct. You may use the general term “work.”

QUESTIONER: Then the concept of service to self and service to others is mandatory if we wish to have work, whether it be work in consciousness or work of a mechanical nature in the Newtonian concept in the physical. Is this correct?

Ra: I am Ra. This is correct with one addendum. The coil, as you may understand this term, is wound; is potential; is ready. The thing that is missing without polarizing is the charge.

QUESTIONER: Then the charge is provided by individualized consciousness. Is this correct?

RA: I am Ra. The charge is provided by the individualized entity using the in-pourings and in-streamings of energy by the choices of free will.130

We provide the power source for work in consciousness by choosing consistently to be of service to others; that is, to polarize positively. We then charge the coil by consciously choosing what in-pourings and in-streamings of energy we wish to seek.

Our first polarization as Players is simple and primary. We choose positive polarity. We choose to be of service to others. In choosing consistently to be of service to others, we open our hearts and therefore gain the ability to access unconditional love, which is the steady state of our heart chakras and of the Creator.

Further refinements of polarization are possible for the Player who decides to do what the Confederation calls work in consciousness. Once the Player decides to focus upon a particular way of polarizing as he moves into the gateway to intelligent infinity, he uses his faculties of desire and will to provide the charge to the powerful coil of his inherent spiritual nature.

When doing work in consciousness, it is vital that the Player have faith in himself as a powerful being and faith that there are sources of aid from beyond the gateway. We as Players need to reckon with the inherent power of our own coiled potential as we approach the gateway. If we doubt our own power, we shall not get far with our use of the gateway. We do well to assume that we are entities of enormous potential power. Then we can dedicate ourselves to the right use of this power of will and faith.

And we need to create the charge for our work in consciousness by using our own free will to focus on precisely how we will use the in-pourings of energy coming through the gateway to us from the world of spirit. If we doubt that there are real, authentic sources of inspiration and information coming through the gateway or doubt that we can connect with them, we will not get far.

The preparation for work in consciousness, then, is the disciplining of our personalities so that they are sturdy and rest in their own essence. We can then proceed to link ourselves with those powerful sources coming through the gateway. We get quiet and centered. We orient ourselves in our positive polarity We desire to seek the truth. We seek to use our will and faith purely. We remain true to our highest ideals.

And then we are ready to proceed.

Techniques of Work in Consciousness

Practicing the Presence of the One Creator, also called Meditation

Allow yourself to feel the essence of your desire. What do you desire? Those ready to work with the gateway to intelligent infinity will be saying something like, “I desire to seek the truth. I desire firsthand experience of the One. I seek to know in order to serve,” and sentiments of that basic nature, which ask nothing for the self except to rest with the Beloved at last and practice the presence of the one infinite Creator.

As you find that desire, my friends, begin to feel the energy within your third eye vibrate. Feel it come alive. Oh, sacred desire! It is vital to be passionate in your seeking. Then, imagine that contact, that moment when that desire is fructified131 by the inspiration which is focused only for you and adequate in every detail for all that you could ever wish to know or use in order to serve.132

Meditation as a technique of spiritual seeking is recommended by most religions and spiritual traditions. It is pervasive in the literature of spiritual seeking. It is so popular that it has become a part of our “pop culture.” As such, the meaning of the word has been much diminished by overuse. Some people use the term without knowing anything about it. So it has become almost a joke. And it is very confusing for a new Player to be told to meditate. How? What does one do?

My answer to these questions is simple—practice the presence of the one Creator. I think the phrase contains implicit guidance by pointing the Player in a sound direction. In addition, the Confederation often speaks of practicing the presence of the One. To explain this practice, I’ll draw from the lives of two men whose works have inspired me in my own spiritual walk, Brother Lawrence and Joel Goldsmith.

Brother Lawrence was a 17th-century Frenchman. He grew up poor and uneducated. He joined the army and fought in the Thirty Years War before receiving a revelation of God’s power and becoming a lay brother in a Carmelite monastery in Lorraine. All his life, he worked as a kitchen assistant and repaired the monks’ shoes.

His profound inner peace attracted students and one of these, Joseph de Beaufort, collected his sayings and letters after his death. Beaufort made them into a very short work called The Practice of the Presence of God.133 Brother Lawrence foreshadowed the work of Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations with God series by nearly four centuries as he advised,

God only reveals Himself to a humble heart that is sincerely open to Him and a will that is surrendered to His will and ways. The only way God does this is through a relationship with us. Our Father reveals Himself in all His love and truth through a private and continual conversation of mind, heart, and soul.134

This “continual conversation” of Brother Lawrence speaks to our deep minds and hearts. Our part of the conversation can be spoken out loud, thought mentally or written down, as Walsch did. The rest is our listening to the silence. Lawrence says,

This is the way God shapes us into His image and likeness according to His unique plan for each of us.135

Joel Goldsmith was a born a middle-class, 20th century, Jewish New Yorker. He received inner visions as a teenager which suggested that he study Jesus and become a Mason. He did so, reading the Bible and joining the Masonic Order. He excelled as a mason, taking the 32nd Degree at the age of 22.

He also excelled as a student of Jesus. He became a Christian Science Practitioner and had a healing practice for 15 years within that church. In 1947 he left Christian Science to found his mystically Christian system of seeking, which he called The Infinite Way.

In one of Goldsmith’s excellent books on meditation, Practicing the Presence,136 he said,

Brother Lawrence called it practicing the presence of God. The Hebrews called it keeping the mind stayed on God and acknowledging God in all ways. Jesus called it abiding in the Word. It is a practice that ultimately leads to a complete reliance on the Infinite Invisible, which in its turn brings the invisible into our awareness as we have need of it.137

How do we Players set about meditating? Firstly, we prepare ourselves to access the gateway by checking to be sure our hearts are open and our energy is flowing well. We get physically comfortable. We calm down until we are centered and silent within.

Then we set our intention and focus our desire and will upon opening that gateway and “clicking on” the menu of selections which becomes available once we have opened the gateway. We choose Practicing the Presence from that menu.

We begin our session by expressing our intention mentally once again. The Q’uo group suggests a sentence such as “I desire to know the truth,” or “I want to experience you first-hand, Creator.” I find the sentences, “I am a human being. Help me to become,”138 helpful also. By expressing our intention very clearly we are opening the channel through which this “continual conversation” can take place.

Then we become silent, and remain silent for the period of the meditation.

That is the gist of practicing the presence of the one Creator.

There are many ways to keep our minds receptive, listening and quiet. Transcendental Meditators repeat a mantra or phrase which their teacher has given them, over and over. The meditator is told to meditate about twenty minutes, twice a day. If that appeals to you, you can go to the web site, www.tm.org, and investigate further. Local area teachers are listed on that site.

In another style of meditating, an ancient Buddhist technique called vipassana meditation, the meditator focuses his eyes on a candle and simply watches the candle flame flicker and curl. If we practice this type of meditation, we allow our thoughts to arise, and then fall away, without becoming attached to them or following them. Instead of trying to quiet the surface mind, we let it go on, and gradually learn the laws of how our minds and bodies interact to produce suffering or peace, while continuing to focus our attention on the flame.

Vipassana meditators often sit for longer than twenty minutes; sometimes for hours. My favorite source of learning more about this type of meditation, because I know and admire the leader of this school, Barbara Brodsky, is the web site, www.deepspring.org. Instructions and a schedule of classes and retreats can be found on that site.

Many meditators follow no practice, but simply choose to follow their breath, in and out, counting their breaths. Or they may choose to visualize their breath as white light, flowing into the body on the inhalation and then flowing out on the exhalation.

Confederation member Hatonn says,

Meditation is an attempt to contact your original identity, the consciousness of the All. This consciousness is a much different reality, a reality transcendent to that of the illusion.139

The Confederation suggests that we can think of meditation as rebooting our connection with the deeper portion of our being. For all is one, and the Creator we are calling down into our energy bodies and our lives is our ultimate consciousness and nature.

It is hard to understand meditation from an intellectual point of view. This “conversation” or “contact with our original identity” is done in silence. Except for expressing our intention, we do not use words. The Creator rarely uses words. The conversation is silent. And yet, suggests Brother Lawrence, the wisdom gained in this silent communication will set us on the right track.

Practicing the presence of the Creator is perhaps the most passive of all the choices on the menu which opens when we access the gateway. We are calling for our beloved Creator’s Presence, consciousness and essence to come through our gateway, through our violet ray and into our indigo ray.

The most common question about meditation is, “How can it possibly work? I can never completely clear my mind. I cannot achieve inner silence.”

My answer is, “Don’t worry about it.” It does not matter how well we think we are doing. The purity and intensity of our desire and intention to practice the presence of the Creator is all that matters. I, for one, have never been good at keeping my mind clear. However I currently meditate three times each day and have meditated since 1962. I can vouch for the benefits of this technique.

The next most common question is, “What do I wear and how shall I sit?” Buddhists recommend sitting with the legs crossed, on a small pillow on the floor which they call a zafu. This posture opens the energy body at the bottom and allows a straight shot for the incoming energy flowing through to the heart. They also traditionally wear loose, comfortable clothing so that the mind is not distracted by any sort of physical discomfort.

I feel that, other than staying awake, which rules out meditating while lying down flat, it really does not matter how we sit or what we wear. Our purity and intensity of desire to feel the Presence is what matters.

If you as a Player decide to try this technique, I would suggest starting modestly, going into meditation for just two or three minutes each time. Then gradually build up to the length of time you wish to meditate on a regular basis. Be patient with yourself. It takes a while for the physical body to become used to sitting still with the eyes closed, doing nothing. We are used to sitting still, but our attention is always focused outside of ourselves, on the work we are doing, or the movies or TV shows which we are watching, or the video games which we are playing. So start small!

The benefits of this technique of work in consciousness accumulate quietly but surely if we are consistent about practicing the presence daily. We do not need to spend long hours in meditation in order to reap its benefits. Rather, we need to be consistent and persistent, moving into the practice daily.

Some people are very insensitive to the subtle energies received in meditation, while some are hyper-sensitive. Most of us are somewhere in the vast middle! But if you try meditation and find it alarmingly powerful, you may wish to find a good meditation group with whom to meditate until you become entirely used to the energies involved. The other people in the group buffer your individual experience so that you are more able to receive the energies of meditation comfortably.

One warning: do not spend too long a time each day in meditation. A little of this amazing technique goes a long way. People who remain in meditation too long at a time can lose touch with lower chakra work and begin to drift away from their relationships, their jobs and all the normal, everyday parts of their lives. Meditation is intended to aid the Player in living his everyday life more skillfully, not in taking him away from it.

I will discuss this technique of practicing the presence of the Creator at more length in Living the Law of One – 103: The Inner Work. Be assured: you cannot get it wrong. If this is a practice that appeals to you, just go for it. Find a quiet, private place, get centered, set your intention and sink into the silence. There is no elaborate ritual needed. It is a simple technique. Think of it as your time of listening and also your time of being heard. Relax and enjoy it!

Prayer

Each of you is a temple and a priest within the temple. The temple is your body and personality and gifts. The priest is the consciousness within that directs that building and its stewardship, the disposition of the talents and treasures of the temple and the use and aid of those faculties of being that fuel the ministry. Each priest needs to spend time in that sanctuary that has to do with no one but the self and that connection that is sacred between the self and the infinite Creator, between the loved and the lover, between the spark and the source of that spark, that great fire, that great light, that great love, that great Thought that is the one infinite Creator.

It is helpful to picture entering, not that empty room of impersonal prayer, but a very personal room that is the heart of self and in which there waits the figure of the Creator as the Creator would appear to you. Many see the Creator as Father. Many see the Creator as Mother. Some see the Creator as the Christ, as does this instrument. Whatever that image is, realize that the Creator is waiting for you there and that you go to be with your true self when you enter the sanctuary of silence.140

Prayer is basically a verbally expressed way of practicing the Presence. Although the Confederation’s discussion of indigo-ray work often includes mention of prayer, they do not tend to emphasize this technique. This is because they, themselves, do not use words. They use concept communication instead of words in their own lives and in offering messages through channels such as I. Being fully telepathic, they naturally prefer the round, living, fertile nuggets of concept communication which are carried by inner silence to the flatness and specificity of verbally expressed words.

However, this option on the drop-down menu of the gateway is often chosen by Players because we, as humans, are used to words. We are moved by words. They do not seem flat and limited to us. Words work far more instantaneously and easily than silence in bringing us an immediate sense of the Presence we seek. As we express ourselves in prayer, the answering back-pressure of sacred Presence is right there. And as we experience ourselves as Players, there is a priestly energy connected with the experience; the energy of sensing the sacredness of everyday things. Players are all priests within the temple of their own open hearts.

Prayer is the most accessible of all the menu choices for work in consciousness. Our prayers do not have to be grand. They only have to be heart-felt. We may need, however, to recover from our incorrect childhood assumption that only written-down prayers, or prayers in church, are really prayers!

When most of us in the Western world think about the word, prayer, we think of “church prayers,” especially the most commonly used prayer in the Christian faith, The Lord’s Prayer. Taken from Jesus’ instructions to his disciples when they asked Him how to pray, it is a set of petitions. The prayer includes requests:

The Lord’s Prayer begins with a salutation to the Creator and ends with praise, giving the Creator the “kingdom, the power and the glory forever.” It is a complete prayer, and if we choose to know only one by heart, this is a good one. I say this because it contains all the moods of prayer: praise, thanksgiving, hunger for the presence of the Beloved, a desire for justice, repentance for self-perceived errors and a plea for protection against negativity.

There are lots of written-down prayers, some of which, like the Lord’s Prayer, have become widely known because they express universal needs. My Episcopal Book of Common Prayer141 contains over 800 pages of prayers, for daily and weekly worship, weddings, funerals and on and on. These written-down prayers have in common a beauty of expression which makes them seem more worthy than our own words, which may be halting and clumsy.

And indeed, many people assume that they can only pray by reading the words of a written-down prayer or hearing them in church. Yet that is not true at all. While written, ritualized prayers are wonderful instruments of inspiration and constitute a real resource for the Player, nothing can equal the power of the prayers which come from our own hearts.

The word, prayer, has as its root the 13th-century, medieval Latin word “precaria,” which means “petition.” Whereas in practicing the presence, we simply sit passively and allow the Creator’s conversation with us to be held in silence, in prayer we speak up and ask the object of our petitions for what we need.

The Player may choose what to request. The simplest and most heartfelt prayer is often, “Help, Lord!” or perhaps, “O Lord! Be with me!” We Players might consider substituting “Help, Lord!” for our more usual “prayer” in times of trouble, “Oh, ****!”

In the end, a skilled Player is a living prayer. The more we become conscious of our energy and our thoughts, the more we will see ways to pray as we go, until we embody those ideals and hopes for which we pray.

Communal times of prayer with the family at home or with the congregation in church are good. Group worship can be tremendously powerful. The support of the group makes it easier for us to move deeply into prayer. However, solitary times of prayer also have an appeal for some Players. I have found a daily time of solitary, personal prayer a powerful, satisfying and supportive technique.

Whether in a group or in solitude, in prayer we can be intimate with the Creator, sharing our feelings of devotion, confessing our concerns no matter what they are, expressing our deepest sorrows and offering ourselves in service to others.

Prayer can be an outgrowth of practicing the presence of the Creator. When we have experienced that charged, muscular silence that is the ongoing conversation with the infinite One in meditation, we may find that we move very naturally into the verbal expressions of love and dedication which are the essence of prayer. Play with the two techniques. Find your own style.

And keep the technique of prayer close by, all day, every day. In moments of stress, the desire for contact with the infinite One can instantaneously clear our energy bodies and shoot us through the gateway so that we may take immediate refuge in prayer. And just seconds of prayer can reboot our whole point of view and bring us back into balance.

Journaling

When a practice of meditation has been established in a way that is satisfactory to you yourself, it is entirely possible for you to dedicate a time to conscious journaling. Perhaps you may be familiar with this method of seeking. It is one in which you either write that which comes to you or in which you write down a question and then let your pen begin to write as if you knew the answer. Little by little you may find, with this way of conscious journaling, that you are beginning to be able to hear those inner voices of guidance within you that would wish to speak.142

 

Work in consciousness always has to do with practicing the presence of the one Creator. In accessing the gateway we are always striving towards a heightened awareness of that consciousness which is the Creator’s. Our intention is to penetrate the surface layers of our everyday consciousness in order to access the gateway, becoming more fully awake; more fully a Player.

We began this discussion of the techniques of working with the gateway with meditation, a direct attempt to practice the presence. The second technique we discussed was prayer, which is a way of practicing the presence by expressing our side of the “continual conversation” by forming words mentally or out loud. In this third technique we are still practicing the presence. But we are doing so in a more structured way.

Keeping a journal or diary of one’s thoughts and history is a practice as old as writing itself. When we were children, we may have kept such a diary. But as an adult, life overtakes us and we tend to cease writing down our daily thoughts, conversations and events.

I got back into this sort of non-spiritually oriented journaling as an adult when my schedule became too packed for me to be able to indulge in writing long, newsy letters. I decided to keep a blog on line, which I call The Camelot Journal. Camelot is our name for our home here on the outskirts of Louisville, Kentucky. This journal is intended as a way for the many friends of our work to keep up with me and with L/L Research.

The spiritually oriented journaling which is a menu choice on the gateway menu is differentiated from conventional journaling by the intention to make contact with the Creator, or as the Confederation sometimes calls the Creator, intelligent infinity. Such journaling can have at least three focuses: writing down our dreams, recording our favorite nuggets from our reading of inspirational materials and seeking a journaling conversation with the Creator.

The first focus is our dreams. The Confederation suggests that our subconscious minds, which have links to the advice of spirit which are independent of our conscious minds, are talking to us in our dreams.

In order to keep a dream journal, get a notebook and pen, or use your computer. Attach to the notebook or laptop a small light, or use a flashlight as a source of light. When we as Players choose to work with our dreams, we will want to keep the light source dim so as not to awaken any more than necessary.

Once we have successfully written down the gist of our dreams, we can think about them and gradually begin to develop an awareness of the type of symbolism we personally experience in our dreams.

There are many dream interpretation books available. I have not found one to be better than another, but certainly reading a couple of them will help us to become aware of the language of dreams. When we have read from several sources, for instance, that dreams of flying are likely to have spiritual connotations, we can tentatively assume that general meaning when we have a “flying” dream.

The more familiar we get with our own dream world, the more information we can receive from the dreams we have each night. It can be a powerful way to get to know ourselves and to work in consciousness.

Another type of spiritual journaling which many like is to keep a reading journal. For many of us Players who are waking up now, reading is an important part of our process. In keeping a reading journal, we can simply write down inspiring and inspiriting quotations from our books, or we can also write about the ideas across which we have run in our reading, reflecting upon them in our journal.

This is a way to feel as though we were in a constant spiritual dialogue, with which our reading helps us, rather than feeling as though we have read so much material so quickly that all the ideas are running together.

And the third type of journaling is the technique the Q’uo group discussed in the q’uote beginning this section. It is the way Donald Neale Walsch created Conversations with God, the series of books we mentioned earlier. In this technique the Player needs to let go of the self-consciousness which usually accompanies writing something down. My grandmother, Nana Marian, called this letting go of focus “letting the brain sag in the middle.” That phrase really catches the essence of the technique.

It may take some Players a while to become able to write down what is received, for it is easy to disregard the little inklings that come to us after writing down our questions. However if Players are faithful about setting their intention or asking their questions, and then immediately writing down the next thought which comes to mind, this technique will work. I keep this kind of journal myself, asking for a Word for the day from my personal guidance system, which is the Holy Spirit, since I am a mystical Christian. I have found it a very helpful technique.

Let your choices of how to use the gateway reflect your own preferences, not your teacher’s. What works for one seeker will fall flat for another! Experiment and have some fun with this work.

The Development of Faith

Faith requires that you walk off the cliff of known things into the mid-air of unknowing. It is in that mid-air that the seeking soul who decides to activate his desire and use it to fuel his seeking must do his work. Therefore, the only solid ground beneath such an entity whom we may call, for convenience’s sake, an adept, is the knowledge of himself, who he is, why he is in the process of seeking, what he is living for, and what he would die for. That is that upon which one stands in metaphysical seeking: not physical ground but the ground of being.143

 

“O Lord, increase our faith!” In the Gospel according to St. Luke, the disciples ask this of Jesus the Christ. And Jesus replies, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”144

A mustard seed is about a millimeter in size. Jesus described it as the smallest of all seeds. When sown, it becomes a plant as large as some trees in about three to five years. Its faith, then, is the pattern of the mature plant which is encoded genetically into the seed.

We ourselves grow from the combined seed of our fathers and mothers. At first microscopic, we eventually are born and grow to be adults weighing millions of times what our original fertilized sperm-plus-egg weighed. Each of our bodies is a living testament to faith. Our parents did not know how to “grow” us. Our bodies’ faith is the pattern of the mature person which is encoded genetically in the seed.

We take the functioning of our bodies for granted. We do not know how to make our hearts beat. We have no conscious awareness of how to breathe. The billions of chemical reactions and responses that create our continued life and health are almost entirely unknown to our conscious minds. And yet, here we are, living our lives in perfect faith that our hearts and lungs and all the rest of our amazingly intricate body systems are working.

It is logical, then, to trust that the non-physical parts of us—our minds, emotions, energy bodies and spirits—are also functioning well. These characteristics, too, are implicit in the seed that grew to be each of us. Our intellects and our wills are good and useful parts of our natures. Our soul essences, contained within our energy bodies, are as excellent as the rest of our design.

Yet when trouble comes our way, it is hard for us to believe that all is well with us. The world of outward appearances weighs on our minds. We see a world around us in which animal predators hunt to eat and human predators hunt to establish their dominion.

In this dog-eat-dog outer world, it is very easy to become fearful and to spend energy attempting to stay safe and secure. Major security concerns on the flat gameboard of Life include life insurance, auto insurance, home insurance and the search for a job which offers a good pension. And there is nothing wrong with that. Our consensus reality advises responsible adults to be prudent. So does our value system, in that we wish to take responsibility for ourselves.

However, the Confederation suggests that we Players seek to live our inner lives upon the enhanced Gameboard. In this mental and emotional environment, our conditions and concerns are markedly different than they are on the flat gameboard.

Our condition is that of a soul, not a body; a being whose life is eternal, not limited to a lifespan. Our concerns are about living the life we wish to live as souls during this time on Earth. Success for us as Players is gauged not by a full stomach, a secure job or any other physical measure. Our success is gauged in how well we keep our hearts open and how willing we are to choose to act in a way that reflects our desire to serve the Creator and to serve our fellow beings with unconditional love.

Our Earth culture cannot support these choices. We do not receive any signals from society which say that life is about abiding in unconditional love. And so living a life in faith is something which is left to us as Players as a matter of choice.

What is faith? We could define it, as does the Ra group, as “positive purity.”145 It is a purity not of action so much as of intention. We choose to live according to our highest and best ideals; ideals we have developed as a result of our grasp of our nature as part of the creative principle. We intend to live our lives with the consciousness of unconditional love; the consciousness of the one Creator.

All of the ideals of faith are unseen. And we know from hard-won experience that we shall fail again and again to live up to these ideals. Life will blindside us often. We will misunderstand situations frequently. And events will sometimes fall in a way that seems disastrous to us. So how do we “keep the faith”?

We keep the faith by remaining certain—without proof of any objective kind—that, as Chauncey Gardner said in the film, Being There, “As long as the roots are not severed, all is well, and all will be well in the garden.”146

George Seaton says it slightly differently: “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.”147

Oswald Chambers says, “Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”148

Martin Luther King says, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”149

And St. Paul defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.”150

This brings us back to Jesus’ statement about moving the sycamore tree if we have the faith of a mustard seed. He is saying that we as souls are encoded with a solid link to the Creator. And with the Creator, all things are possible.

Faith is confusing to the non-Player. The intellect, uninformed by spiritual seeking, sees no proof that choosing to live faithfully is a sound idea. Quite to the contrary, the intellect perceives endless dangers. Projecting into seemingly spiritual matters, the intellect is fearful that it will not continue. It fears death. It goes to the dogma of religion to find some assurance that life will continue after that inescapable Nemesis of death. For many who still are asleep, following the instructions of such dogma is another kind of insurance.

As Players, Confederation information suggests that we step away from any such considerations and release all fear. Our concerns move far beyond the death of the body. We do not fear death. We know that death is just a time of change, when we as Players move from the yellow-ray, chemical body in which we have enjoyed life here on Earth to the indigo-ray, light body in which we came into incarnation and in which we shall leave it.

Yet it is easy for even the best Player to be fearful on occasion! And so we Players are always interested in building and strengthening our faith. Practicing the presence of the one Creator, however we choose to do that, is very helpful in increasing faith. Dwelling in that consciousness of unconditional love, we become fearless, relaxed, peaceful and powerful.

And as we act to express that unconditional love in the things we do and the choices we make, we develop and grow as souls, until we have become a metaphysically or spiritually mature being, our roots deep in the foundation of unconditional love, our branches of service, thanksgiving, gratitude and praise soaring to the skies.

Do you remember the fairy, Tinkerbell, from J. M. Barrie’s story, Peter Pan? In one famous scene, Tink is dying, but will survive if enough people believe in fairies. In the play the characters make a plea to the children in the audience to sustain her by shouting out “I believe in fairies,” and clapping.

When I was a child, I saw this play on television. Mary Martin, then young and vibrant, played Peter. When she cried, “Clap for Tinkerbell,” I clapped as hard as I could. My heart was in my throat as I repeated over and over, “I believe in fairies!” And as I clapped, the tightly focused, very dim spotlight which represented her on the stage began to get brighter and brighter until Tinkerbell was once again flying about, as vital as ever.

As Players, we do the equivalent of clapping for the Tinkerbell spirit in each of us. We believe that our spirits are indestructible. We believe in love, and in ourselves as creatures of love. Why do we believe? There is no reason, in terms of absolute proof. There is nothing which the intellect can accept. We believe because we believe. Yet if we look, we can see examples of the rightness of faith all around us in the people we admire. Hatonn says,

Let us look at one who faces a tiger, a lion, a predator. Is all truly well for one of faith as this predator comes to eat its chosen prey? How foolish can the prey be to have faith that there is something more than eating and being eaten, killing and being killed and striving against adversity? Such an entity must be quite foolish.

Yet it is those foolish entities who shine through the centuries of your recorded time and history, blazing off the pages of books and records into the human heart. Those who loved and gave themselves for others, no matter in what circumstances in the outer world, those who acted according to an absolute and perfect love, are those whose shining memory inspires all seekers still.151

Søren Kierkegaard wrote of this illogical choice to leap into a life in faith in his book, The Concept of Anxiety.152 He noted that this leap is circular; that is, a leap into faith is made by faith. We build faith by acting as though we have faith. Remember my boss? I did not like her at first, but then decided to act as though I did love her. I made room for being able to love her, and soon I did, in complete sincerity, come to love her very much.

Faith is the same way. We make room for faith in our lives and hearts by acting as though we had faith. It becomes a habit. And soon our memory is full of subjective “proofs” of faith working for us. Faith becomes real to us as we feel it from the inside out.

We always have the choice of living in faith or living in fear. In every challenging circumstance, whether it is an illness, a broken relationship, a lost job or an inner depression which hits us for no clear reason, we can choose our reaction.

Those dwelling on the flat gameboard will react with fear, contracting around their concerns as to what will happen. We Players will practice the art of reacting with confidence and faith. As illogical as it may seem, a subjective proof developed through our work in consciousness as Players sustains us in difficult times. We know that all is well in our garden. We know our roots are in the Creator. We know we are children of the Logos. We know that we are creatures of love.