Down Your Dark Alleys

M: Why do I have so many difficulties with other people?

J: You seek out threat and what you seek, you find, because you placed it there TO be found. A fear induced vigilance consumes your mind, although you consider it a “normal” part of living. Yet, it was from fear that the ego was formed and made to seem “normal.”

M: I’m not aware of seeking for threats, although certainly one should avoid dark alleys.

J: The ego is a seemingly impenetrable system of defensive fortifications constructed entirely from fear. You need not be aware of the extent of this system, which is intricately complex, just the fear from which it was built. Without fear it cannot stand. Without fear, the world would not be as you now SEE it… a labyrinth of “dark alleys” from which it seems impossible to find your way home. This is what you find because this is what you expect to SEE, which demands the need to protect your ‘self’ from what SEEING makes REAL.

Surrender your fear and defenses dissolve and you will SEE that there was never anything “there” requiring protection. There are no “dark alleys” and there never were.

M: I admit that there are some people I may be cautious with, but I don’t fear those I love.

J: “Love” in your world is a contractual obligation that can be dissolved at anytime if the terms of sacrifice are not followed. This is cause for your greatest fear, because guilt is the chief weapon of attack. You believe in your wounds and so your vigilance is paramount to protect against future attack. These are the “dark alleys” that you fear. They exist nowhere but in your mind, because you made them up.

The Love of God requires NO sacrifice and demands NO guilt and if you could look beyond your defenses, you would SEE this as true. 

M: But I’m not aware that I’m being defensive.

J: You are not “aware” of oxygen, yet this does not interrupt your breathing. The ego does not require your awareness, just your denial. I am the answer to all denial in the search for Truth.

The egocentric mind is so tightly bound and constricted that the slightest reprimand or disparaging look, could easily plunge you into darkness. The world is blinded by guilt and this is what you SEE everywhere you LOOK. You have experienced this guilt with those you have chosen to “love” and, although the ego demands denial, your walls have been securely reinforced as a result. Yet, how can love be extended from behind walls? Clearly it cannot.
 
M: So how do I stop being defensive?

J: Simply believe that there is nothing to fear and, in that moment, it will be realized. You have NO freedom until you do, because it is only fear that keeps you in chains. The world you experience was made from fear and your brief moments of “happiness” only reinforce the fear which is always there before the “happy” event and must always come after. The ego’s fear is rigorously consistent, while your brief moments of pleasure are fleeting wisps of smoke disappearing on the horizon, never to be seen again. You have called on me to show you the way to a joy beyond measure and this I do completely without fear, since fear is unknown to me. Nevertheless, you have yet to come from behind the walls of fear that YOU made to protect from NOTHING. There is nothing there to harm you. Let down your defenses and be free.

M: I want to and I try to do the things you teach, but it just seems impossible. I keep screwing it up.

J: Success is guaranteed!

M: But when?

J: Not a moment more. Choose the moment.

M: So it’s up to me to end my fear?

J: You were not Created from fear, which means that there can be NO fear in you, other than what you demand. Demand it no longer, as it serves NO purpose.

M: I have no idea what it would be like to be totally without fear. To not worry, get angry or depressed occasionally. To be at peace in every moment. It seems impossible.

J: There is little I can say to relieve your doubt, other than to ask that you walk with me and I will take you to the place where no fear can be found, because your joy will give you no reason to LOOK for it. But you must give up ALL other maps, because nothing in the world can offer directions. The world is lost in fear and if you are “there,” you are lost with it. Yet, if only one SEES entirely without fear, all must SEE.

M: You say that I should “simply believe that there is nothing to fear and, in that moment, it will be “realized.” So I should no longer wear my seatbelts or look both ways before crossing the street?

J: There are NO exceptions to what God made REAL. However, in a world made from fear, exceptions are necessary. The mind that makes fear real, must protect the body from death, because fear also made the body. But if you are NOT a body, what is there to fear? If all “experience” is of the mind, how can fear rule the mind if it can be easily banished forever with just a thought of perfect peace? The body was made from fear and if fear is gone, so too must ALL its remnants vanish.

You live solely in the mind of God, whose thought gave you an eternal life that cannot be altered by ANYTHING you choose to think in denial of this FACT. Fear is the denial that changes NOTHING because it makes NOTHING. Your world was made to deny TRUTH.

Believe it no longer.

Freedom Comes From No longer Having To Choose

M: Sometimes I feel I’m in some sort of self-imposed hell. What am I not doing right?

J: Belief that something must be “done” defines your “hell.”

M: Okay, so what should I be thinking then?

J: That nothing need be “done.” The joy of absolute freedom requires nothing from you, simply because there is nothing you could ever DO to have it. It is what you choose to DO that results in bondage. You choose a desired future by making present choices to mitigate choices made in the past. YOU are only going in circles.
I ask that you let me choose for you. Yet, in order for you to trust in me, you must no longer trust in yourself to choose correctly and this is what you struggle against.

M: How do I know I’m hearing your choices and not just myself?

J: The answer will bring you joy, no matter what you are “doing.”

M: Okay, so I have to go to work right now and I don’t want to. What’s your answer to that?

J: If you ask a question, but give your own answer, you will not hear my answer. Recognize that the ego will always answer first.

M: Fine. Why don’t I want to go to work?

J: Because you believe there is a better “choice.”

M: There is. I would be much happier not going to work.

J: Are you “happy” now?

M: Well, no…but only because I have to go to work. I’m always much happier when work is done for the day.

J: Yet, as you say, this lasts only until you must consider going to work again.

M: Yea, I would be much happier not working at all.

J: Therefore, on the days you do not work, are you then “happy” until the time you must again consider work?

M: Usually, unless something happens on that day to disrupt my happiness, like if I have to do something that I don’t want to do.

J: Therefore, your happiness is never based on one specific variable, such as “work,” but on many variables. Your happiness is determined by choosing the correct action and avoiding the incorrect action. Yet, your “self-imposed hell” should be enough to demonstrate that you do not know the difference. Nevertheless, no matter how many times you fail, you persist in believing that you will one day choose “happiness.”

M: It does seem pretty disparaging when you put it that way, but there doesn’t seem to be any other way of being happy than by choosing things that make me happy.

J: Happiness based solely in delusion cannot have any lasting value, since it is contingent on choosing between different parts of the delusion, all reflecting the impression of varying levels and degrees of happiness, but all equally failing to endure with any consistency. The world you see cannot make you happy, because the world you see is based entirely on your own inconsistent “happiness “and ALL your choices do nothing but maintain that delusional inconsistency.

M: So what can I do about that?

J: Again, there is nothing you can DO.

M: I should just give up all attempts at trying to be happy?

J: Based on your choices, what other choice do you have? In fact, that is the only choice you must make.

M: I have no idea how to even make such a choice. How do I choose not to choose?

J: There is nothing you must DO to be happy. However, there is also nothing you must NOT DO in order to be happy.

In a world of delusion, seeking to achieve happiness by choosing not to DO, is as futile as making a choice to DO. Both must be delusional choices because both choose from the delusions the world offers, which are nothing more than a reflection of your inner inconsistency. Your choices merely take you in chaotic circles. I simply bring you back to your ‘self,’ because the origin of delusion always rests with the mind that thinks it.

M: Then how do I break out of this circle?

J: Do not seek happiness from a delusional world.

M: Then how can I ever be happy?

J: In the understanding that your happiness is not contingent on what the world offers or on what it does NOT offer. In realizing the FACT that nothing you do, or do not do, can offer you happiness. Freedom comes from the choice of no longer having to choose and, thus, what you do, or do not do, cannot victimize you in anyway.

The choice is not of doing something or doing nothing. When choice does not matter, the right choices are made naturally, because you have surrendered your NEED to choose. Until then, allow me to choose for you, as I am free of ALL delusion. My choices are always perfect because I have NO need to choose.

Allow the ego to answer first, because the ego can only answer from the past. Then wait for the correct choice, which is not victim to time and is applicable to ALL variable delusions. You will know the correct choice was made when all fear has vanished.

In the absence of fear, joy must naturally fill that void.