| We teach that:: - When God created the Universe, It created everything out of Its own Unmanifest Essence This means that every atom is God-being-that atom, every planet is God-being-that planet, every tree is God-being-that tree, every bird is God-being-that bird, every animal is God-being-that animal, I am God-being-me, and you are God-being-you. Each person is therefore a divine being in their basic nature, a 'child of God', and all the qualities which are in God, such as love, volition, desire, intent, goodness, wisdom, joy, creativity, and power, are in them. God is entirely Good, so all creation is entirely good, as God is. This means that you are, most definitely, basically good, and so am I, and so is everyone else in the world, even people who seem to be very bad. If everyone is basically good, where do bad behaviours come from? We are blessed with a mighty God-given power, the power to choose, also known as freewill. Freewill is very powerful, it enables us to do many wonderful things which we would not be able to do without it. All of our human accomplishments and successes are made possible because we have freewill. However freewill also makes it possible to violate against the earth and against other people and it is these violations that are understood and experienced as bad behaviours. Yet even though freewill makes us capable of such violations, God trusts us with this power, because we are truly basically good. God trusts us, because of our innate goodness, to learn to use our freewill wisely and well and without violating. Also, God revels in all the wonderful accomplishments and successes we achieve because we have the power to choose. It is common to notice faults and bad behaviours in others and to criticise or judge them. Most people are also aware of their own faults and bad behaviours. It can be very hard to think of every person, including yourself, as basically good when there are all those faults and bad behaviours staring you in the face, but it is important for your happiness and your spiritual development that you learn to do so. Validate and Rely on your own Basic Goodness Learn to separate, in your mind, the good person that you are, from the faults and bad behaviours you find in yourself. Never label yourself with names which say you are a bad person. Don't say, "I'm stupid", or "I'm an alcoholic", or "I'm violent", or "I'm a wimp", etc. In every case, tell yourself instead, "I am a good person who sometimes does stupid things", or "I'm a good person who sometimes drinks too much", or "I'm a good person who sometimes gets violent", etc. These faults and bad behaviours are not a part of you like your arms and legs, they are things that you do, and even though you should stop doing bad things, you are still a good person when you do them. Some people have extremely high, and worthy, moral values, and these people tend to judge themselves very harshly whenever they fail to meet these high standards, and often have an overall attitude that they are not a good person because they do not permanently live up to their own high expectations for their own behaviour. If you feel bad about yourself for these reasons, then consider what a good thing it is to have such high standards; not everyone does. Your high standards are a good indication of your caring nature, and also show you are doing well in your spiritual development. You can be proud of your high moral values, and proud of yourself for having them, and then be gentle with yourself for the small lapses, for you are still a good person in these moments. Tell yourself often "I am doing well to have such high moral values, they show how well I know I am basically good" and when you fall below these standards, tell yourself "I am still a good person even though I am not pleased with my behaviour right now." Many people feel that they are always in danger of suffering the repercussions from every little mistake they make, and for every behaviour, which others object to, even though these behaviours are not violations. They constantly brace themselves for unpleasant responses. This has the overall effect of making them feel bad about themselves, as if they are not really welcome in the world, not doing well, not important, and definitely not good. Our society tends to make this worse, with general beliefs that goodness is weak, and power is bad, and that people are in competition with each other, but none of these beliefs are really true. The way people treat each other as they carry these beliefs into action, is, all too often, disrespectful, inconsiderate and abusive, adding to each person's fears and concerns that there is something wrong with them, when all the time there is really nothing wrong in basic terms. At the same time, where are the pleasant repercussions for good behaviour? These are all too often lacking. If we tell you now that God admires and appreciates every single good thing you do, and that God has always admired and appreciated every single good thing you have ever done since you were born, we are telling you a spiritual truth which you can take into your heart and soul as spiritual nourishment. Tell yourself often: "God admires and appreciates every good thing I have ever done." Basic goodness and natural guilt Because you are a good person, when you do something wrong, when you violate, your own goodness makes you feel guilty about it. It would not be possible for you ever to feel guilty if you were not basically good. So guilty feelings, unpleasant as they are, are further evidence to you of your basic goodness. The guilt is meant to teach you, "DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!" You are meant to say to yourself, "I am a good person, but that was a bad thing I did, and I won't do it again". As soon as you decide this, you are free to feel good again. In fact all the time when you are not doing anything wrong, and for most people this is most of the time, you have the right to feel your own basic, unassailable, eternal goodness. As you are reading this, I think I can safely assume you are not at the same time doing anything wrong, so in this moment you are entitled to feel your own goodness, to feel and know, "I am a good person and there is no badness in me". Check within yourself right now, and if you find any guilt, for anything you have done in the past, or just for being the kind of person you are, set it aside, separate it from yourself, and feel your own goodness free of all guilt. When you really feel and know your own goodness, you will find it very much easier to avoid behaviours which bring guilt, and you will know what the guilt means if you do feel it. It means, "Don't do that again!" and it never means, "You are a bad person." The more you learn to feel and know your own goodness, the more you will act on it, choosing behaviours that promote your own wellbeing, the wellbeing of others and a natural, loving, considerate cooperation with the whole earth and every lifeform on it. You may find that some behaviours you thought were good bring on feelings of natural guilt and in fact turn out to be violations, while some other behaviours you thought were bad, may in fact turn out to be good. As you learn to trust your own innate goodness, you will not be swayed by artificial guilts for behaviours which perhaps you once thought were wrong, (e.g. swearing, which may be socially unacceptable, but is not a violation) nor by artificial justifications for behaviours you once thought were right, (such as revenge, which may seem very justified, but is a violation). Instead you will behave with the utmost integrity as a natural, loving, cooperative person, in a natural, loving, cooperative world. Many people think that bad things are more powerful than good things, but this is not true. God is the original and only source of all power, and God is entirely good. The power of divinity is gigantic and eternal, the power of goodness is gigantic and eternal, and the power of love is gigantic and eternal. In comparison all wrong and bad things are small, weak and temporary. Bad and wrong things need your belief in their power in order to have any influence. Otherwise they are but shadows; temporary clouds across the sun of goodness. A good attitude with which to approach the world is, "Divinity is huge, and in comparison, all problems are tiny." Assess all others as basically good When you notice someone else who is behaving badly, or who seems to be a bad person, or someone with a lot of problems, remember, "This person is a Child of God, therefore their divinity is very big, and in comparison, their problems, faults and bad behaviours are very small." You will respond differently to them if you affirm this. Knowing their divinity and goodness is very big and powerful within them, you will expect it to show itself. Then you have the best possible chance of bringing out the best in them. It is also true of every single person, that the basic goodness in us, and everything we do as we seek to express that goodness, is real, powerful, divine and endures forever, while faults, problems and bad behaviours are but temporary and will fade away sooner or later. From this point of view, each person is self-regulating. It may seem to you that people who are behaving badly in your opinion will never see the error of their ways, and must be forced to change their behaviour through criticism, control, and punishment. Of course you would hate these kinds of treatment yourself, but they should be used to control others! However the true situation is that although it is important to respond when people are behaving badly, and to protect yourself and others who may be getting hurt, the person who is behaving badly will sooner or later come to understand that what they are doing is wrong, not through outside influences, but through the influence of their own inner divinity and goodness. A special note about punishment We teach that punishment is never necessary, and never a good idea. Since many people will find this idea unreasonable, and unworkable, we would like to add some comments here. First, we would like to make it clear that if anyone is hurting because of the bad behaviours of others, they have our utmost sympathy. The idea of not punishing people is not in any way an attempt to lessen the importance of every victim's right to receive help, support and healing. It is also very important that everything possible should be done to keep others safe from similar offences and to prevent the wrongdoer from reoffending, however we do not think punishment is the way to achieve this. We understand the anger the victims feel, and we understand their desire for revenge, however punishing the offender won't help their healing, it merely turns them into an abuser as well. Furthermore, punishment seldom has the desired effect of forcing the offender to behave better, or convincing them that they should behave better. Instead their response is often to feel like a badly treated victim themselves, and often they then reason that their offence was therefore justified. We know that in society as it is today, there are some offenders whose behaviours in society are so seriously damaging that they would still need to be in supervised care for their own sake or the sake of others, even in a society which did not punish them, however this should be done in a caring way, not as a punishment, for what they really need is healing and help, if they are to change their ways for the better. We agree that society would need new effective programmes of proven value, both for healing the victims and for effectively ending the offenders' unwanted behaviours, before people would be willing to give up the current system of punishments. Taking care of yourself This does not mean that you should ever put up with bad treatment, but even the steps you take to end such bad treatment are likely to be different if you firmly believe in the goodness and the power of goodness in this other person who is hurting you with their actions You will find you also develop an underlying trust that their goodness will show itself sooner or later. You will remember, "the goodness in this person is real and enduring, but their bad behaviours are only temporary and will end one day". It is true that in the meantime, if you do not like their behaviours, or if they are hurting you, or if you disagree with their values and attitudes so much that it is unpleasant for you, then you have the right to take reasonable steps to stop them from ill-treating you; you may decide to move away from them, for example, or at the very least, you may need to let them know what you think about their actions, according to the circumstances. You are a very important person, and you have the right to take care of yourself at all times and in all situations, bearing in mind that other people are also important, and doing your best to choose actions and responses that are respectful and beneficial to everyone, with the aim of stopping your suffering or problem with others in a way that does not inflict pain on them, except where it is completely unavoidable, as sometimes happens, for example, when you have to leave an abusive relationship for your own sake, even though the other person is badly upset when you leave. Bringing divine goodness into this world We are, in our most basic inner nature, divine, joy-filled beings, we are here to bring our own unique, divine, joyful contribution to this world. We are here to bring goodness into this world, and we are each of us very important. Each person who brings goodness into the world changes the whole world for the better in that moment. Believe then, in your innate divinity and believe in your goodness, and think of yourself as a powerful source of goodness, bringing divinity and goodness into the world with every good action, large or small. Copyright © Spiritual Mastery Path 2001 Unaltered copies may be made for free distribution All other rights reserved |
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