The Disappearance of The Universe
I like to start with a joke. Here is one we saw recently.“When does a joke become a Dad joke? When it becomes apparent.” Does this work for a Mom joke? Let’s try it: “When does a joke become a Mom joke? When it becomes apparent.” This doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t feel funny. Why? I suspect that it is because of my conditioning. My unconscious perspective. We are conditioned by our surroundings. By our culture, our environment, our circumstances, our past, and other factors. “I am fooled by the Physical.” Far beyond what I realize. When I was about eight years old, we visited a place in Colorado called the House of Mystery. It was a building that was tilted at a strange angle. I remember having trouble standing on the sloping floor. When water was poured out of a bottle it fell at an angle, not straight down. A ball, placed on a board, rolled up hill. I was really baffled by this. That was long ago, but I can still remember it. A few years ago, I read about a man who had a visitor from Nepal and they went to a House of Mystery. Although it was in a different state, it sounded the same and there were the same demonstrations I had seen. After leaving, he remarked about how things like pouring water, or rolling a ball had been so different. However, the visitor was surprised as they did not experience this. How could that be? Apparently things appear this way because we live in buildings that are level and square. The tilted building is an optical illusion. So things appeared to us not to behave normally, because our brains are conditioned to everything being level and square. This did not happen for the person from Nepal because they live in mud huts. Nothing is square and level. So they had a different perspective because their conditioning was different. In the House of Mystery, to them, the water poured straight down and the ball rolled downhill. Experiences like these have convinced me that things may not be as they appear. I am fooled by †he Physical. I have also noticed that things change. Recently I realized that everything in the World changes. Everything! For as long as I can remember, I have heard the saying that the only thing you can count on is change. But I never realized that everything changes. The Tibetan Buddhist say that the World is not real because it is always changing. But behind the World is an Unchanging Truth. They even have a religious symbol to remind them of Unchanging Truth. The Dorje. Enlightenment can be described as finding the Unchanging Truth behind the World. Accordingly, the Dorje is also considered a symbol of Enlightenment. There has been A Course in Miracles meeting at our Church for Decades. I attended many meetings, but struggled with reading and understanding the Course. In fact, I gave up a number of times. I can be incredibly slow to realize something. For example, we sang the song “Nothing Real.” In this song, a quote from A Course in Miracles is sung over and over again. The quote is “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.” From 1995 to 2024, I attended a retreat where we sang this song every year. Since I had the quote and song memorized, I sang it at other times too. I could repeat it, but I did not really understand it. A few years ago, the leader of our Course in Miracles class, Brian Jones, introduced us to the book, The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard. This book is very compatible with A Course in Miracles, but it is in everyday language with key points explained. This has made the difference for me. How? For example, the book says that God did not create the World. When I first read it, this really impacted me! I immediately remembered the song that I loved to sing when I was a child. The song is, “This is my Father’s World.” Not only does the book say that God did not create the World, but that the World, the Physical, does not even exist. One day I realized that this is what “Nothing real can be threatened” means. That can be rephrased, “Nothing real changes.” Everything in the Physical changes. So the Physical can be threatened. According to the quote, the Physical is not Real. It is unreal. The quote says that what is unreal doesn’t exist. I could not figure that out from A Course in Miracles on my own. Could it be that that basic teaching, that God created the World, a teaching that have been handed down for generations, is not right? If I seriously questioned this fundamental belief, what other things do I need to reconsider? A Course in Miracles says that we know nothing. I am not sure of that. But I now consider that I might know a lot less than I think I do. As a Mystic, I hear or see things in meditation. I have found that I need to write them down immediately. The specific vision, sound, or words are important. Usually, the words or phrases are not ones that I would use. Also they can be completely unexpected and come on multiple dimensions. These factors help me realize that they are not a conscious part of my thinking. The are not my imagination. If I don’t record them right away, I may not remember them correctly. In fact, I may not remember them at all! When I meditate, I keep my planner and a pen close by. I often go back and look at something when I realize that I am not remembering it correctly. It might be just the next day. The text for The Disappearance of the Universe started when two ascended Masters appeared suddenly and totally unexpectedly on the couch in the living room of the author, Gary Renard. They appeared in bodies as a man and a woman. As real as you or me. (Think about that phrase.) The book is the record of their off and on conversations over nearly ten years. Gary took notes and even used a tape recorder at times to more accurately record what was said. This material has been published with limited editing. There was so much, that it has been divided into a number of books. The Disappearance of the Universe is the first in the series. So Gary Renard is not the author, in the usual sense. There are quotes from him which reveal that he is very human. The man and woman directed him to study A Course in Miracles and his comments allow the couple to correct or confirm his understanding. I have asked other people what they learned from this book. One common theme that emerged was that it opened up new possibilities and perspectives. This is what it has done, and continues to do, for me. Another common theme is that it explains A Course in Miracles in a way that is more easily understood. Brian Jones had studied A Course in Miracles for years, and then quit. This is the book that brought him back. This is the book that made the difference for him, for me, and for many others. Here is a list of some of the concepts from The Disappearance of the Universe. I am stating them in my own order and in words that are meaningful to me:
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
God did not create the World
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….We are Spirit - we are not a body
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………,….We are ONE
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….The Physical is an Illusion
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…. We never left Home, we never left God
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………True Forgiveness is what is needed (The Forgiveness we have learned is Not True Forgiveness)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..….Time & Distance are an illusion
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….Each Reincarnation is not new - it has already happened
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….Much of what Jesus said or did is left out of the Bible or misinterpreted
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….Jesus body, after the crucifixion and burial, disappeared - he came back in a different body
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….God does not participate in the Illusion (to do so would make it real)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….Mind is part of the Illusion
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….Life is as if we are asleep and dreaming - we think that the dream is real
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….Life and Death are both Illusions - it is like they are different sides of the same coin
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….What will happen when we wake up? The Universe will Disappear.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….Of course there are a lot more concepts in the book, and I apologize for leaving out some that are really important. Perhaps concepts that are really important to you. I have not accepted all of these concepts as true. I consider them as a possibility and continue on with my Life, but I am reexamination my beliefs. What I want to do, in giving this talk, is to catch your attention. I know that this can happen, because it happens to me. For example, reincarnation best explains some memories and experiences that I have had. I one once had a reading from someone channeling a being. It was decades ago and I cannot remember the details. What I do remember is that this being, call it an ascended master, said “Don’t worry, if you don’t learn it this life, you will just keep coming back until you do.” I remember thinking, this being must not have been on Earth because each life is so painful and difficult. I thought, how arrogant! The more I thought about it, the more angry I became. I don’t remember the details, but I do remember the intense, hot anger. Recently I was shocked to realize that I was thinking exactly the same thing. If we don’t figure it out this time, we will simply come back until we do. However, I don’t want to come back. I want to figure it out this time. I want to go Home, and not have to reincarnate. Another example of catching my attention was when I read that my “next reincarnation” could be in the past. That was a shock! I really don’t want to return to live a life in the past. However, the possibility makes sense based on the book. If time is just an illusion, then a reincarnation could be anytime in the future, in the present, or in the past. Thinking that my next reincarnation would only be in the future is an example of my unconscious conditioning. So how do we fit into the Disappearance of the Universe? Let’s go back to that quote from A Course in Miracles. “Nothing unreal exists.” Since the World, the Universe is always changing, it is unreal. That means it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t even exist! That seems to me like a harsh statement. After all, it has form and it is the place where bodies exist. We identify with our bodies, so they must exist. But we know that they don’t last. Disappearance and A Course in Miracles say that none of this is real. It is an Illusion. What powers the Illusion? I remember one book said, “Our belief.” So if we can stop believing in the Illusion, if we can stop believing that it is real, and realize that it doesn’t exist, the Illusion will end. The Universe will Disappear. However, remember that we are One. So it will take a number of us, a percentage to wake up. Some sources give what this is. I have not seen that and have not gone looking for it, because I want to focus on what I need to do. Here is what the ascended masters said when they first appeared to Gary Renard. “We are appearing to you as symbols whose words will help facilitate the disappearance of the universe.” (Page 5) So reading and following their words will help us wake up. When enough of us wake up, the universe will disappear. Today I want to encourage you to consider reading The Disappearance of the Universe. That is what I am doing to wake up. That is what we are doing in our Alohem mediation group. Is it working? I have had results that lead me to believe that we are headed in the right direction. It is said that we can wake up and still live in the Illusion. I believe that one ascended Master said they woke up and then lived for about ten years. However, as you can see, the Universe has not disappeared. So not enough of us have found the way Home. Why am I talking about this today? Because we are getting ready to read the Disappearance of the Universe in our class. I want to invite you to join us. However, for everyone here and on Zoom, there will be many good reasons why you cannot do this now. That is because we look at the Illusion for our answers. The Illusion is not real. As a Mystic, I ask you to check with your intuition, with your inner knowing, with your connection to Spirit. The questions are, “Should I read the book? Should I join the class? ” Intuition can give answers that are in your Highest Good. Following them may not be easy. As a Sufi Master taught me, “Simple, but not easy.” Meditation: While I was writing this talk, I remembered that, in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s I had a vision of the Light inside and heard “This is the only thing that will remain. This room, this building, these bodies, even the Earth will all pass away, but this will remain.” I now realize that this was an earlier example that “Nothing real can be threatened.” The light inside is real. We are going to repeat the mediation that we did last Thursday. That is, to find Peace. To do this, we will connect with the Light inside. Remember, Light and Love are words that can be used to describe the same thing. So we could also say that we will connect with the Love inside. The Love that we are. From that love comes Peace. When we first enter meditation, we can become aware of our inner senses. When we go deeper, we can connect with Spirit. We can connect with Love and from that can flow Peace.
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