{"id":314,"date":"2008-05-25T05:44:35","date_gmt":"2008-05-25T05:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/05\/interview-with-nealepart-v.html"},"modified":"2008-05-25T05:44:35","modified_gmt":"2008-05-25T05:44:35","slug":"interview-with-nealepart-v","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/05\/interview-with-nealepart-v.html","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Neale-Part V"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of the problem of humanity is denial that we are responsible for the world and how it is. We cannot create a new way of living on our planet until we take ownership for what we are been creating up until now.
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\nSunday is Message Day on the blog. Monday through Friday we look at contemporary events and day-to-day occurrences at the intersection of Life and the New Spirituality\u2026but on Sunday, we reserve this space for a specific teaching derived from the material in Conversations with God<\/em>
\nThrough the years I have given hundreds of talks and written scores of articles revolving around this material. Every seven days we will present in this space a transcript or reprint of one of those presentations. We invite you to Copy and Save each one of them, creating a personal collection of contemporary and uplifting spiritual thought which you may reference at any time. We hope you will find this a constant source of insight and inspiration.
\nThis week\u2019s offering: The fifth in a series of excerpts from an interview with Neale Donald Walsch first appearing in Spiritual Growth Monthly<\/strong><\/em>
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\nMatt: Isn\u2019t the feeling uncomfortable, though, part of the problem, because if we\u2019re focusing on negative aspects of experience, are we not just creating more of that? Is it not the solution to focus more on the positive changes that we want?
\nNeale: Yes, but the positive changes in what? You can\u2019t change nothing, you can only change something, therefore you have to be thinking about what you want to change. That means you\u2019ve got to be aware of what you want to change.
\nFocusing on the uncomfortable is not what we\u2019re talking about here. We\u2019re talking about noticing the uncomfortable truths and then focusing on the way we want things to be. But if you want to focus on the positive, if you want to focus on the changes you wish to make, you have to know what you\u2019re trying to change. What are you trying to change? In order to know what you\u2019re trying to change, you\u2019ve got to think about that. You\u2019ve got to think about the bad things in the world that are going on because those are the things you want to change. You just can\u2019t say, \u201cI want to change\u2026I can\u2019t mention what I want to
\nchange, because that would be focusing on the negative. But I want to change something, I know that. I want to change something.\u201d No, you have to actually say, \u201cI want to change prejudice. I want to change the oppression of people. I want to change the conditions that create starving children.\u201d
\nYou\u2019ve got to look at that and say…<\/p>\n


\n…\u201cThat\u2019s what I want to change.\u201d Part of the problem in the new-age community is that we get into this idea that we\u2019ve got to focus only on the positive, only on the positive \u2013 be the change you wish to see \u2013 only on the positive. But changing what? Even positive thinkers have got to say, \u201cOkay, there is a train coming down the tracks.\u201d That\u2019s just what\u2019s so. Now, do we want to get off the tracks or do we want to throw more people on the tracks? What do we want to do?
\nMatt: So we first need to appreciate and really understand where we are now before we can help to change something.
\nNeale: We have to be aware of what we already have created. The process is really quite simple. We are all creating our own reality, that is true, but in order to change the reality we have created and make it different in the future, we have to acknowledge, at the very
\nleast, what we have created in our most recent past.
\nTo observe that the train is coming is not to put it there. If I observe that a train is coming, I\u2019m not actually creating it. People say, \u201cDon\u2019t say that, don\u2019t say that. Are you trying to create that?\u201d Whoa, wait a minute, I\u2019m not creating anything, I\u2019m just observing it. If I observe that a train is coming, I haven\u2019t crated it, I\u2019ve simply observed that it was
\ncreated already, it\u2019s already on the way. In a past moment, that was created. Yes, it was me who created it, but that was Then and this is Now.
\nIn the Now I have a whole different decision. Given that the train coming down the tracks has already been created, what do I now wish to create? What is the best way to do it? Id I want to create a new future, is the best way to create that to ignore the train that\u2019s coming, or to get out of its way?
\nMatt: Get out of its way.
\nNeale: Of course, obviously. So we have to first observe what we have created in our past, including in our most recent past. We can\u2019t ignore it and we can\u2019t put our heads in the sand like an ostrich and pretend it\u2019s not there. We have to notice what\u2019s there and then say, \u201cNow, what do I choose?\u201d So I have a bit of impatience with people who say, \u201cDon\u2019t talk about that, don\u2019t say anything negative!\u201d
\nMatt: Really? Impatience?
\nNeale: Yes, of course. Just like Jesus in the temple, when he took out a rope and tied knots in it and drove the money changers out of the temple. \u2018You vipers!\u2019 he said,
\n\u2018You hypocrites!\u2019 I would call that a little impatient. And he was called the greatest Master of all time by some people. So if it\u2019s good enough for Christ, it\u2019s good enough for me.
\nMatt: Was that not righteous anger?
\nNeale: What\u2019s the difference between righteous anger and impatience? How many angels fit on the end of a pin? Let\u2019s split words in half.
\nMatt: Okay, I\u2019m just throwing it out there for further discussion.
\nNeale: Sure, and I\u2019m willing to discuss it with you. Let\u2019s talk about it. What\u2019s the difference between impatience and righteous indignation or righteous anger? It\u2019s the same thing. In fact, the motto of my group of 1,000 is \u201cbe impatient.\u201d I think that righteous anger leads to impatience, or impatience leads to righteous anger \u2013 it\u2019s all a circle, getting to the same place. But there\u2019s nothing wrong with impatience. All great masters have become impatient. There\u2019s nothing wrong with anger. Anger is one of the five natural emotions. It\u2019s what you do with your anger that matters. If you use anger to fuel your earnest desire for change, and to work hard to make change happen, then anger is good, anger is powerful. If you use anger to hurt other people, to lash out, to attack, to destroy, rather than to rebuild in a new way, then anger may not be so good.
\nGandhi\u2019s impatience with British rule over India created an entirely new nation-state. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s impatience with prejudice in the United States created the civil rights movement. I\u2019m all for impatience.
\nMatt: I suppose it depends upon the spirit in which that impatience is expressed.
\nNeale: Of course; everything does. That is true of every single thought one has. That is correct.
\nMatt: All of these things we\u2019re talking about apply to our personal lives as much as they do to the entire planet.
\nNeale: Indeed, because we are all one, and that is what is true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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