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In Near Death Experiences it is often reported that the most prized and celebrated accomplishments of our lives are moments motivated by love. The smallest of actions, when motivated by concern for another with no thought of personal reward, are the greatest triumphs. Accomplishments that society may deem as successful are not necessarily seen by spirit as important at all.

Yet often we go through our lives thinking that our success is rooted in material prosperity, social status, or physical impact. We celebrate CEOs, politicians, surgeons, and actors. We hope to be “successful” too.

The entire realm of the physical is subordinate to the realm of the spirit. You are in both right now- you’re just focused on the physical, which is the one that will pass away. In the realm of the spirit, where you will always exist, love is what matters. The physical will pass away; love will never pass away. The physical dirt or money that you moved around will not last; the spirit that you moved through love will last forever.

Recognize then today that your true success resides not in your great physical achievements, but in the small matters: in making selfless choices, in helping others in small ways, in facing your own failings in simple quiet moments. Great spiritual work is done even when nothing is seen in the physical world. Follow where your spirit leads, and embrace the wonderful treasures that are the smallest decisions- for indeed in the Big Picture, even though we cannot see it, the small stuff is the big stuff!

We live in a world of imperfect human systems. The political systems, economic systems, legal systems, and nationalist systems all end up failing countless individuals in many ways. One fundamental reason is: our systems are primarily driven by self-interest rather than love. Most human systems are built to protect one’s self or one’s group at the expense of other individuals or other groups. Capitalism is a clear example of this: it is a system that capitalizes on selfish motivation to produce economic output. It generates tremendous activity- but the motivation of the activity is often selfish rather than loving.

Love supports the optimal way that individuals can interact and support one another; selfishness does not.

Because the fundamental motivation is not optimal, the human systems themselves can never function optimally in support of the experience of their participants. The systems themselves are not the problem: the quality of our intent is the problem. The answer to the world’s problems is not a new leader, new laws, or even a new financial system. The answer is love.

Love means full individual accountability and commitment to act with loving intent (intent that supports others over the self) in all things- even (and especially) in how one deals with one’s own weakness, fears, and needs. While the universal application of loving intent would heal the world, it has also proven to be the very hardest thing for us to do. In fact, as a species we have a pretty long and dark history of how we have neglected one another, the animals on our planet, and the planet itself. But learning how to actually embody loving intent in such a constraining environment is not something easily mastered by any given individual, let alone a few billion of them! Indeed, the mastery of selfless loving intent is not something that typically can be experientially learned even in several lifetimes! Fortunately, all of us are beyond time, and have been graciously given all the time in the world to really grow up and get it right.

All the time aside, though, it is important to recognize that our power to grow up is happening right now. Our power to change the world is right now- by actively working on the quality of our intent towards being more loving with whomever is around us and by confronting our own fear and ego. Every single one of us needs to own the responsibility. Every single one of us can take a hard look at where we have been selfish and can strive to put another above ourselves. That step is a step toward healing the entire world! You are an incredibly important piece of the solution. You do have the power to advance the entire world one step closer to love by the choices you make! So next time you turn on the news and see something challenging out there, instead of worrying about it, look to yourself to take just one step toward grace and love. The power to heal the world exists- and it is through your love, right now!

In our modern society, when we succeed in making money, others tend to respect us. Our system of capitalism holds up those who can earn and spend material wealth. Collectively we tend to admire those who have been “successful” – note the word “successful” typically means “financially successful.” It is even the very basic tenet of Customer Service that the customer, who is controlling the money to be spent, is to always receive respect.

The entire capitalism system of our society exists within a reality of constraints. Physical resources are required for survival, and they are limited. We have evolved within a stark “kill or be killed” environment in which stealing food from the other guy meant survival and the success of one’s self and one’s progeny. Our capitalist system is a more sophisticated version of the same process of controlling resources. As the system pushes most individuals to work hard in order to acquire the resources they want and need, the total physical output is relatively great (great relative to living in the wild), and thus many can survive or thrive. However, it is still a system of force and aggression. It may be subtle force, but the lives of billions are very heavily influenced by this system’s power over physical resources. Since control of physical resources has historically meant success and survival, our culture has evolved to applaud it as successful.

Yet success in the larger reality has very little to do with material success. Indeed, we are not even physical beings, but beings of conscious awareness who can take many forms! Our success is not derived by the material possessions or even the bodily survival of any of the avatars that we play. Ownership of physical objects or the power to allocate physical resources is almost totally insignificant in the Big Picture.

True success goes much deeper, to matters of the being: to matters of selflessness, to the conquering of fear, to creativity, to Love. As we grow on our spiritual journeys, we should take note of this, so that we might gently re-direct what we ourselves value in our lives. As we all begin to do this, we will begin to respect each other for what matters- for Love- and not primarily for our ability to control the allocation of a bunch of transient physical objects.

We are integrators of experience. Here in the physical we have experience (receive sense data), interpret the experience (attach thoughts and judgments to the data received), and then react to our own interpretation (even if we’ve forgotten it’s our own interpretation). Through that process we grow as “successful experiencers of experience.”

Some experiences are more challenging than others. In general, this physical reality offers to us uniquely challenging constraints: the fact that this reality around us “stays firm” and appears to not yield when it pushes on us makes the “force” of the circumstances very strong. As the consciousness seeks to integrate such a challenging circumstance-set, the stress of the experience can potentially enable profound spiritual growth.

Alternatively, it can also potentially stress a consciousness to a “breaking point.” Psychological trauma cases are examples of where a personality has been “forced” to experience a constraint-set and resulting interpretations that are too severe for what it can handle in its current form. Often the consciousness “buries” the experience somewhere so that it does not have to fully confront what it felt as a result of the experience.

Yet in the long run the consciousness always seeks to integrate- always seeks to “assimilate” the experience and its interpretations- into its own “big picture” of experience. For trauma sufferers, the old fears, “unanswered whys,” negative self-perceptions, and pains may continue to come up time and time again- often very disruptively- in an effort to be “processed.” I myself have experienced this, and it can be unspeakably painful and challenging.

But ultimately, eventually, any experience can be fully processed and healed. In order to do so, though, we must be humble enough to admit our many weaknesses and negative self-perceptions, and we also must be brave enough to be willing to fully feel what we feel in the now. We must actually feel our feelings in the present moment, as they come up, no matter what they are, without judgment! Healing always takes place in the now; our power is always in the present moment.

You can always “now” decide to face and feel your old wounds- especially during the precious opportunities when those negative feelings have risen to the surface for you to process. It can take years, decades, even lifetimes to heal certain old wounds- but when you truly commit to undertaking such a process, the powers of the higher realms themselves come to your aid!

There is a natural way that events tend to unfold. From the highest orders of magnitude to the lowest, life follows similar patterns of development at every level. Seasons, cycles of birth and death, cycles of development from low-complexity to high-complexity: patterns emerge and repeat under the ultimate direction of the universal laws that God has laid out in His incredibly deep wisdom.

Those laws include feedback mechanisms both “outside” of us and “within” us. When we listen to those mechanisms, we live life more smoothly. When we resist those mechanisms, we experience struggle and difficulty. Oftentimes we choose the latter, and we do so with great effort and resolve! We do this because we think we know in our minds what will be best for us. We deeply trust the intellect to lead us toward the situation that we believe, for one or many reasons, will be optimal.

In fact, we are far more than our limited human intelligence, and the knowledge and wisdom of the spirit from which we come is far greater than that of our Earthly intellect. Spirit has a much better vantage point.

Furthermore, the universal laws established per the will of God are ultimately perfect in their operation- and so, properly and honestly interpreted, they can be trusted.

Thus when making decisions in our own lives, it can be beneficial to recognize the “place” of the intellect- and instead try to listen to what life itself is telling us. We can always listen with the “being level” and turn to God for guidance. Oftentimes in silence and genuine humble surrender, the divine will indeed reach out to us. But even if we cannot hear it, we can still look at the “currents” in our lives for guidance. Which way is the current flowing? It might be easier to recognize than you may think: God’s way is the way of love, stresslessness, creativity, understanding, forgiveness, acceptance, and joy!

God does not require you to believe anything. He/She/It is All That Is- the profoundly loving conscious foundation of reality that has given you the opportunity to make choices, including the choices about what you believe. You are not punished for making the wrong choices or for believing this thing or the other. Countless reports from the other side (NDEs) reiterate this.

Love, on the other hand, is paramount to our reason for being here. We do always inevitably experience the results of our choices- whether they be loving, or unloving. The true nature of our intent is never hidden from God. We often tell ourselves that we have loving reasons for doing things, but often our motivation is rooted in fear rather than love.

Being able to successfully navigate this phenomenon sometimes requires taking a hard look at what one believes. This is because belief often rises out of the need of the ego to protect the individual (or group) from their fears: fear of the unknown, fear of powerlessness, fear of worthlessness, fear of death. This is not always the case, as often beliefs can be used to root and motivate a person in loving action as well. Beliefs can be profoundly valuable- and oftentimes necessary- to many who seek to rise above the brutal nature of our world, to grow spiritually, and to seek God. But the beliefs themselves are not the “active ingredient.” The active ingredient is the quality and direction of one’s intent: whether it be motivated out of genuine love, or selfish fear; whether it is pointed toward God, or to self. When one seeks God truly, God always responds, regardless of the physical metaphor or form used by the individual. The consciousness is primary; the symbols used by it are secondary.

It is very important to recognize that many are not ready to question their beliefs to their foundations. That is totally acceptable! Re-establishing a lifetime’s worldview can be an incredibly personally destructive process, and many simply do not need such a radical belief-overhaul to successfully pursue their relationship with God (whatever they call it). Do not try to push over someone’s apple cart with new ideas when they are not ready- rather, respect and uphold each person’s place and beliefs. The spirit will always work with each individual as they are ready, and the individual will always eventually utilize their actual experience to grow in their own way.

Others, however, can benefit greatly by permitting themselves to examine the nature of their beliefs so as to throw out what does not serve love and so as to better understand their own “next steps” on their genuine spiritual walk. Oftentimes the individual is greatly benefited by releasing old fear-based ideas such as the ideas of condemnation, group favoritism, shame, and sin. Such ideas are, in fact, OK to release when the individual is ready- because in the larger consciousness system, belief itself is not fundamental. Genuine Love, however- that is the stuff universes are made of!

For much of my life, I justified my worth to myself partially by establishing intellectual capability. I learned facts and skills. I grew my knowledge of various subjects, and learned a foreign language. I earned a high GPA in college, worked hard to excel in my career, and became “the best” I could be at various activities. Eventually I had a long list of intellectual accomplishments to present to myself to prove my worth to myself. It worked for a while.

A few years ago in my spiritual walk, I made a profound personal discovery: in the Big Picture, my intellectual accomplishments are largely unimportant! Sure they have some effect in the physical- and of course there is in fact certain spiritual value to my having achieved them. But in the Big Picture, from the view of larger Reality which supersedes this entire physical reality, my knowledge, skills, and abilities actually mean very little. They are not the reason why I am here.

Metaphorically, I realized that my skills are like a video game character’s skills: they have value where assigned, and perform functions within the video game, but are in fact almost meaningless in the larger reality, where I already transcend that paltry knowledge and crude physical functionality.

I found that what is important, in fact, is intent: striving to have the truest quality of intent- that means genuinely loving intent- in all the choices that I make. Put crudely but succinctly: love is more important than knowledge.

Metaphorically speaking, you and I are living in a video game. (See Tom Campbell’s work.) This is a “virtual” reality: an experience constructed within consciousness. When we die, we don’t take our character’s video game skills with us. The character’s body dies. That’s OK because fundamentally we don’t need the skills, or the body.

What we do take with us, rather than the character’s skills, is our own ability to actually play the game with higher quality intent (intent that is more loving and less fearful). We learn how to actually be more loving and less fearful. Every time we play, we get a little better at seeing past the illusions and making loving choices. Every time we play, we conquer some fear.

Our knowledge does not survive in its current limited form, nor does it need to. However our wisdom, our genuine love- that survives forever!

Creation is a phenomenon rooted in joy!

However, sometimes we do not experience physical life that way.

When we adopt the “veil” and become physical, we become bound to this reality’s rule-set. That rule-set includes having a body. The body needs to physically survive. The body can be harmed. The body deteriorates. We need things to protect us, shelter us, feed us. Since the location of objects remain consistent, “possession becomes nine-tenths of the law” and control of resources by force is encouraged. The jungle evolves then to be a “kill or be killed” environment. And there isn’t a day that we don’t forget it, for we are constantly involved in a struggle for control of resources (often in the form of money), and sometimes even survival itself.

That entire experience can lead us to take things very seriously. Indeed, just the concept of one’s own body dying alone can seem like a very somber problem indeed!

From the perspective of immortal invincible spirit, the opportunity to experience such a messy, tough environment is a treasure. The decision to engage in such an experience is not done out of any seriousness, but rather out of incredible excitement and joy! Every one of us knew the challenge we signed up for before we came. We knew that we were coming to a place where we would one day die. What joy we felt at the opportunity!

That may sound confusing, or perhaps even masochistic- but in fact as creators it is we that have interpreted our experience here in that way. We have created this world and its perceptions. It can be very liberating to be reminded- if we dare- that none of it needs to be feared or taken too seriously.

In fact, there is nothing you are “supposed” to be doing. There is nothing you absolutely “have” to do! If you feel there is, it is because you have chosen to buy into that belief for one reason or another. You may have bought into various beliefs and interpretations that lead you to feel that you “must” do this or that- and that is a great experience to have- but none of it is fundamental. Fundamentally you are free, joyful awareness. Fundamentally you, and the person next to you, cannot be harmed. Fundamentally you are more than all of the things in your mind, your life, and even your imagination.

So kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride! Play the game of life with the carefree joy that is still you down in there. What’s the worst that could happen?

All the experiences of individual perspective, and in fact all experiences of duality (duality meaning experiences of contrast like “up versus down,” “hot versus cold,” etc.), exist “within” the larger reality of consciousness that “contains” everything. We call that larger reality of consciousness “God.” All individual perspectives and all cause-and-effect events and choices that led to them are all “accounted for” within that great awareness. Absolutely everything is known and accounted for. And yet that great awareness is not simply a sum-total of individual perspectives, but is a potent living consciousness that far exceeds the sum of its parts.

From an individualized perspective within a dualistic universe such as ours, we simply cannot grasp what that means. God as the Author of duality is beyond it- so we cannot define all of Him from within it.

Stated differently, it is impossible to describe God with the Earthly dualistic intellect, such as the one you are using right now. Since form cannot describe the formless, God- the author of form- is beyond description.

Fortunately, however, the spirit of which we are primarily comprised does exist beyond duality. It is a part of God. Your earthly personality, steeped high in the experience of duality, may not remember it- but because your spirit is irrevocably a part of God, you do fundamentally transcend the dualism, just like God does.

It is OK then, when you wish, to let every single thing in your life go: to relinquish your death-grip on forms, responsibilities, and ideas, and simply allow yourself to be fully present, exposed, and surrendered to the current moment. God, the great Author, is always there.

Love is what you seek. You may not even consciously remember the love that you seek, but as it is native to your being, you seek it every day. God’s love- however you may or may not identify it- is your substance, your life blood, your desire and drive. It is the place from which you’ve come and to which you will return. It is what you yearn for. It is your ultimate strength and your motivation. It is the purity of being that rests beneath all your interpretations. Love is the fountain of life from which you spring.

It is OK to acknowledge your deep, deep longing to truly be loved and accepted. Yet doing so may mean acknowledging to yourself how very much you have NOT received the love that you have yearned for: in other words, facing your deepest wounds and mistreatments. But that is OK! You do need love, and it is OK to turn into a sobbing wreck and surrender to “daddy God” (or however else you may conceptualize our Source)! It is even OK to be angry about it. If you are truly open, you will find that the spirit is always there for you, and can take any “vent” that you might dish out. The love that exists specifically for YOU is very real, and it transcends all the pain you have suffered.

You may feel abandoned and unloved at times, but in truth, you never are.

Just as you need love, recognize that it is also the thing that everyone around you needs. We all need love! Yet we are so tangled by a lifetime of thoughts that we have become lost in the deep illusion of separation that is physical life. We turn to forms around us to fill the void- to substances, to entertainment, to possessions, to ideas. We have forgotten that we are searching for love. Those who are around you have forgotten.

You are here for a purpose. That purpose is to love! Be the reminder. The being who is next to you right now needs what you have to give. Shine God’s love back into the world! For as you need it, give it!