Creation Spirit

The following are excerpts taken from a recent interview with Dr. James H. Young pertaining to the initiation of his new MY SPIRITUAL AWARENESS SERIES:

Q: How does greater spiritual meaning help fulfill life’s purpose for you?

JY: “Life has taught me that our purpose is much simpler than most of us make it out to be. People often say in despair that ‘there must be more to life than this.’ My response is that actually there’s much less to life than we make it out to be. We give far too much importance to things that really don’t matter in the larger view of life. Most particularly, we take ourselves way too seriously. And we often think of purpose as some grandiose plan to implement or a glowing legacy to leave behind. For me, I express my life’s purpose best when I simply express ‘what’ I really am, and not ‘who’ I think I am, through all of my being. This keeps life simple in its expression of spiritual integrity. Most of us want to know and express who we are, when ‘who’ speaks mostly only to roles we play, and doesn’t really speak to ‘what,’ or the essence, of what we really are. Thus we have the inner conflict between our essence, that is, the divinity of our existence, and the roles we play mostly out of ego-need. Interestingly, when we drop the illusion of roles and express only from the Truth of our essence, the inner warring between the two ceases to exist, and we become One in being. When this happens, we are at peace with the world, primarily because we first have made peace within ourselves. We hear so much about the potential for weapons of mass destruction these days, but it seems to me that our own inner peace is a good place to begin the transformative idea of a spiritually-oriented mass re-construction that is so badly needed on our planet.”

Q: How has your life as an administrator in higher learning related to your current life’s work as a practicing metaphysician?

JY: “On some level I’ve known for a long time that I belong in the vineyards of higher learning. Yet it wasn’t until I saw higher learning as a metaphor for a place of deeper meaning that I decided to dedicate myself to the world of spiritual awareness. For me, spiritual awareness is the path that opens the door to core Truth that only going within provides.”

Q: You appear to stress the divinity in each of us, for example, by using the Hindi greeting, ‘Namaste,’ throughout these books.

JY: “Yes I do. You see, what I have come to learn is that we indeed are the essence of perfection as God sees us, rather than the feelings of ‘less than’ that evolve from having taken on others’ views of us. The sacred greeting ‘Namaste,’ pronounced Nama-STAY, is often taken to mean ‘the divine in me acknowledges the divine in you.’ In this series I stress expanding the meaning to include the perfection of being through Christo’s insistence that neither God nor divinity is in us, but rather that each is you and I. Said another way, you are God expressed as your authentic being, and this makes you divine. When we express our divinity, or live from the Truth of God expressed uniquely through us, as us-instead of expressing from all those false images we have taken on from outside authorities-we then live what we really are in the most authentic expression of that. Hence, when Christo greets the participants with ‘Namaste,’ he is saying that out of his own divinity he heartily acknowledges and celebrates the divinity that is common to all. Thus we come to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Q: It would seem to me that this would be a much more peaceful way to live than most of us now do.

JY: “Absolutely. When we live from a false understanding of what we are, we create a life filled with separation from all others and things. When we live from the perspective of separation (some call it duality), then we are bound to suffer the pain that separation from God and one another engenders. It is similar to living from the perspective that we are less than divine, thus regularly demonstrating that we are ‘less than’ by entering into the highly competitive lifestyle that we think will finally bring us to feeling at least equal to all the rest. The fallacy in this perspective is that we already are perfect in God’s view, so what’s to be achieved through competition? All that can result from this illusory perspective is short-changed expectations, continued feelings of low self worth, anger or rage, and even depression. When we can finally accept our divinity, and live from the authenticity of that sacred Truth, then our heart fills with joy and our mind is finally at peace.

Q: Your characters in these offerings lean on the teachings of Jesus for inner strength. Why is this so?

JY: “First of all, there are many misunderstandings about the teachings of Jesus, the master metaphysician. As a prime example, religious doctrine would have us believe that Jesus was the only real healer, while Jesus told us in one way or another that we are an entire race of healers. To paraphrase, Jesus told us that if we believe in and act from his perspective that not only would we heal others as he did, but more than this will we do. Does this sound like he commanded sole authority in healing? Hardly.

What’s interesting about all this is that when we learn to read life, in general, and holy writ, in particular, from the perspective of metaphor rather than from intellectual literality alone, we come to much deeper meaning about both. We learn, for example, that insight and enlightenment bring us to real Truth, rather than on relying on only our five senses for what we have been led to believe is the truth about life. The intellect, much like words that merely symbolize meaning, can only point us to meaning rather than being the actual meaning in and of itself. On the other hand, insight renders intellectual understanding as the Truth expressed through enlightenment. Thus when we hear something said in a very different way, one in which we see new meaning from within-on a much deeper level than heretofore-then we declare: ‘Oh, now I see what you mean.’ Does that mean that we see it physically with our eyes? No. It means that we have sensed or come to really know it spiritually. We have gained a deeper, real, meaning from within, the only source of Truth in the matter. When living from this perspective we eventually come to respect and trust only in our inner authority-some call it God, or the Christ, or intuition-instead of thoughtlessly following the dictates of pure intellect alone or depending on any outside authority for validation and Truth.

Q: Is this why Christo uses the Gospel of John to lead the participants to the threshold of their own Truth?

JY: “Without a doubt this is True. The main thread running through KEYS TO THE DOOR OF TRUTH is the idea that when we live primarily through first listening for the guidance of the Christ, or Holy Spirit, then we are beginning rightly. We now know that what we manifest comes from our beliefs, those thoughts and ideas we have taken seriously and to which we have committed our conviction, our faith. If we live consciously, from the Truth of our being, then what we manifest will be that very same Truth, expressed as only each of us can. The effect of Truth can only be in the exact image and likeness of its cause, that is, Truth. This Law of Divine Order, sometimes referred to as the Law of First cause and effect, provides that each effect we see in life has had its direct cause. This is as it must be, for cause and effect are inseparable. The entire Gospel of John, when read metaphorically instead of literally-as Jesus so ardently taught us-is about this very thing: the power of the Law of Divine Order. One must be careful to understand, however, that this law applies whether we begin with the Truth of our Being or, instead, out of some illusory configuration to meet ego-demand. The law always works the same way: the fruits always fall under the tree that produces them. In this way, we are the unceasing prayer that always manifests the answers, whether we like them or not.

Q: Does this in any way relate to what is called karma?

JY: “It is karma. Karma is described in many ways. Among them are: ‘Whatever we cast out into the waters is what is sure to return to us;’ ‘What you see is what you get;’ ‘What you do unto others you do unto yourself;’ and ‘Do not judge, for when you judge, you judge yourself.’ The Truth of the matter is that karma has nothing whatsoever to do with punishment for some ill deed performed. All karma means is that every cause has its like effect. The lesson? To be conscious of what thoughts and actions you put out into the universe, because whatever you put out into the world is sure to come back to you as that very same thing manifested. This is what is meant by the expression that we are created in the image and likeness of God. When we understand that God is divine idea expressed through faith-and that you and I are the very same-we can see with abundant clarity the Truth of this declaration. This testifies to the Law of Order, of cause and effect, and cause and its effect are inseparable.

Furthermore, karma is not about being judged for a particular action, as karma is so often erroneously portrayed. The word and idea of judgment is a misplaced one in a spiritual sense, for what is really required is discernment, not judgment. Long story short, when we come to discern what we are putting out into the world, hopefully we will finally learn to inject only loving energy into life. For it is then, and only then, that peace will reign-and rain-both within and without.