Conversations with God, Books 2 & 3: An Uncommon Dialogue
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Conversations with God, Books 2 & 3: An Uncommon Dialogue
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Overview
In Conversations with God 2, Neale Donald Walsch and God continue their discussion and move on to larger topics than the personal issues addressed in Conversations with God 1. The pair discusses time, space, politics, and even kinky sex. It is an honest look at some of the broad issues important to all of us on the planet.
In Conversations with God 3, final book of the original three-book series, "universal truths of the highest order, and the challenges and opportunities of the soul." In this volume, the dialogue expands to include more about the nature of God, about love and fear, about who we are and who we may become. Here is also a profound dialogue about the culture, philosophy, and spirituality of highly evolved beings (some of whom we presently call "aliens" or "ETs") in other realms of the universe and how they have learned to view life, love and the pursuit of happiness.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781571747204 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2014 |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 704 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 2.00(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Conversations with God, Books 2 & 3
By Neale Donald Walsch
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
Copyright © 2014 Neale Donald WalschAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61283-335-4
CHAPTER 1
Thank you for coming. Thank you for being here.
You are here by appointment, true; but still, you could have failed to show up. You could have decided not to. You chose instead to be here, at the appointed hour, at the appointed place, for this book to come into your hands. So thank you.
Now if you have done all this subconsciously, without even knowing what you were doing or why, some of this may be a mystery to you, and a little explaining may be in order.
Let's start by causing you to notice that this book has arrived in your life at the right and perfect time. You may not know that now, but when you finish with the experience that is in store for you, you will know it absolutely. Everything happens in perfect order, and the arrival of this book in your life is no exception.
What you have here is that for which you have been looking, that for which you have been yearning, for a very long time. What you have here is your latest—and for some of you perhaps your first—very real contact with God.
This is a contact, and it is very real.
God is going to have an actual conversation with you now, through me. I wouldn't have said this a few years ago; I'm saying it now because I've already had such a dialogue and I therefore know that such a thing is possible. Not only is it possible, it is happening all the time. Just as this is happening, right here, right now.
What is important for you to understand is that you, in part, have caused this to happen, just as you have caused this book to be in your hands at this moment. We are all at cause in creating the events of our lives, and we are all co-creators with the One Great Creator in producing each of the circumstances leading up to those events.
My first experience of talking to God on your behalf occurred in 1992–93. I had written an angry letter to God, asking why my life had become such a monument to struggle and failure. In everything from my romantic relationships to my life work to my interactions with my children to my health—in everything —I was experiencing nothing but struggle and failure. My letter to God demanded to know why—and what it took to make life work.
To my astonishment, that letter was answered.
How it was answered, and what those answers were, became a book, published in May 1995 under the title Conversations with God, Book 1. Perhaps you've heard of it or maybe have even read it. If so, you do not need any further preamble to this book.
If you are not familiar with the first book, I hope you soon will be, because Book 1 outlines in much greater detail how all of this began and answers many questions about our personal lives—questions about money, love, sex, God, health and sickness, eating, relationships, "right work," and many other aspects of our day-to-day experience—which are not addressed here.
If there is one gift I would ask God to give to the world at this time, it would be the information in Book 1. True to form ("Even before you ask, I will have answered."), God has already done so.
So I hope that, after reading this book (or maybe even before you finish it), you will choose to read the first. It's all a matter of choice, just as Pure Choice brought you to these words right now. Just as Pure Choice has created every experience you ever had. (A concept that is explained in that first book.)
These first paragraphs of Book 2 were written in March 1996, to provide a brief introduction to the information which follows. As in Book 1, the process by which this information "arrived" was exquisitely simple. On a blank sheet of paper, I would merely write a question—any question ... usually, the first question that came to myhead—and no sooner was the question written than the answer would form in my head, as if Someone were whispering in my ear. I was taking dictation!
With the exception of these few opening lines, all the material in this book was placed on paper between Spring 1993 and a little over one year later. I'd like to present it to you now, just as it came from me and was given to me....
* * *
It is Easter Sunday 1993, and—as instructed—I am here. I am here, pencil in hand, writing pad before me, ready to begin.
I suppose I should tell you God asked me to be here. We had a date. We're to begin—today—Book 2, the second in a trilogy which God and I and you are experiencing together.
I have no idea yet what this book is going to say, or even the specific subjects that we'll touch upon. That's because there is no plan for this book in my head. There can't be. I'm not the one deciding what's going to go into it. God is.
On Easter Sunday 1992—one year ago today—God began a dialogue with me. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's what happened. Not long ago, that dialogue ended. I was given instructions to take a rest ... but told also that I had a "date" to return to this conversation this day.
You have a date, too. You're keeping it right now. I am clear that this book is being written not only to me, but to you through me. Apparently you've been looking for God—and for Word from God—for a very long time. So have I.
Today we shall find God together. That is always the best way to find God. Together. We shall never find God apart. I mean that two ways. I mean we shall never find God so long as we are apart. For the first step in finding that we are not apart from God is finding that we are not apart from each other, and until we know and realize that all of us are One, we cannot know and realize that we and God are One.
God is not apart from us, ever, and we only think we are apart from God.
It's a common error. We also think we're apart from each other. And so the fastest way to "find God," I've discovered, is to find each other. To stop hiding out from each other. And, of course, to stop hiding out from ourselves.
The fastest way to stop hiding out is to tell the truth. To everyone. All the time.
Start telling the truth now, and never stop. Begin by telling the truth to yourself about yourself. Then tell the truth to yourself about another. Then tell the truth about yourself to another. Then tell the truth about another to that other. Finally, tell the truth to everyone about everything.
These are the Five Levels of Truth Telling. This is the five-fold path to freedom. The truth shall set you free.
This book is about truth. Not my truth, God's truth.
Our initial dialogue—God's and mine—was concluded just a month ago. I assume this one will go just like the first. That is, I ask questions and God answers. I guess I'll stop, and ask God right now.
God—is this how it's going to go?
Yes.
I thought so.
Except that in this book I'll bring some subjects up Myself, without you asking. I didn't do much of that in the first book, as you know.
Yes. Why are You adding that twist here?
Because this book is being written at My request. I asked you here—as you've pointed out. The first book was a project you started by yourself.
With the first book you had an agenda. With this book you have no agenda, except to do My Will.
Yes. That's correct.
That, Neale, is a very good place to be. I hope you—and others—will go to that place often.
But I thought Your Will was my will. How can I not do Your Will if it's the same as mine?
That is an intricate question—and not a bad place to start; not a bad place at all for us to begin this dialogue.
Let's go back a few paces. I have never said that My Will was your will.
Yes, You have! In the last book, You said to me very clearly: "Your will is My Will."
Indeed—but that is not the same thing.
It's not? You could have fooled me.
When I say "Your will is My Will," that is not the same thing as saying My Will is your will.
If you did My Will all the time, there would be nothing more for you to do to achieve Enlightenment. The process would be over. You would be already there.
One day of doing nothing but My Will would bring you Enlightenment. If you had been doing My Will all the years you've been alive, you'd hardly need to be involved in this book right now.
So it's clear you have not been doing My Will. In fact, most of the time you don't even know My Will.
I don't?
No, you don't.
Then why don't You tell me what it is?
I do. You just don't listen. And when you do listen, you don't really hear. And when you do hear, you don't believe what you're hearing. And when you do believe what you're hearing, you don't follow instructions anyway.
So to say that My Will is your will is demonstrably inaccurate.
On the other hand, your will is My Will. First, because I know it. Second, because I accept it. Third, because I praise it. Fourth, because I love it. Fifth, because I own it and call it My Own.
This means you have free will to do as you wish—and that I make your will Mine, through unconditional love.
Now for My Will to be yours, you would have to do the same.
First, you would have to know it. Second, you would have to accept it. Third, you would have to praise it. Fourth, you would have to love it. Finally, you would have to call it your own.
In the whole history of your race, only a few of you have ever done this consistently. A handful of others have done it nearly always. Many have done it a great deal. A whole slew of people have done it from time to time. And virtually everyone has done it on rare occasion—although some have never done it at all.
Which category am I in?
Does it matter? Which category do you want to be in from now on? Isn't that the pertinent question?
Yes.
And your answer?
I'd like to be in the first category. I'd like to know and do Your Will all the time.
That's laudable, commendable, and probably impossible.
Why?
Because you have far too much growing to do before you can claim that. Yet I tell you this: You could claim that, you could move to Godhood, this instant if you chose to. Your growth need not take so much time.
Then why has it taken so much time?
Indeed. Why has it? What are you waiting for? Surely you don't believe it is I holding you back?
No. I'm clear that I'm holding myself back.
Good. Clarity is the first step to mastery.
I'd like to get to mastery. How can I do that?
Keep reading this book. That's exactly where I'm taking you.
CHAPTER 2I'm not sure I know where this book is going. I'm not sure where to begin.
Let's take time.
How much time do we need to take? It's already taken me five months to get from the first chapter to this. I know that people read this and think it's all put down in one even, uninterrupted flow. They don't realize that 20 weeks separated the 32nd and 33rd paragraph of this book. They don't understand that sometimes the moments of inspiration are half a year apart. How much time do we have to take?
That's not what I meant. I mean, let's take "Time" as our first subject, as a place to begin.
Oh. Okay. But while we're on the subject, why does it take months sometimes to complete a simple paragraph? Why are You so long between visits?
My dear and wonderful son, I am not long between "visits." I am never not with you. You are simply not always aware.
Why? Why am I not aware of You if You're always here?
Because your life gets caught up in other things. Let's face it; you've had a pretty busy five months.
I have. Yes, I have. A lot's been going on.
And you've made these things more important than Me.
That doesn't feel like my truth.
I invite you to look at your actions. You've been deeply involved in your physical life. You've paid very little attention to your soul.
It's been a challenging period.
Yes. All the more reason to have included your soul in the process. These past months would have all gone much more smoothly with My help. So may I suggest that you don't lose contact?
I try to stay close, but I seem to get lost—caught up, as You put it—in my own drama. And then, somehow, I don't find time for You. I don't meditate. I don't pray. And I certainly don't write.
I know. It's an irony of life that when you need our connection the most, you step away from it.
How can I stop doing that?
Stop doing that.
That's what I just said. But how?
You stop doing that by stopping doing that.
It's not that simple.
It is that simple.
I wish it were.
Then it really will be, because what you wish is My command. Remember, My cherished one, your desires are My desires. Your will is My Will.
All right. Okay. Then I wish for this book to be finished by March. It's October now. I wish for no more five-month gaps in the material coming.
So will it be.
Good.
Unless it's not.
Oh, man. Do we have to play these games?
No. But so far that's how you've decided to live your Life. You keep changing your mind. Remember, life is an ongoing process of creation. You are creating your reality every minute. The decision you make today is often not the choice you make tomorrow. Yet here is a secret of all Masters: keep choosing the same thing.
Over and over again? Once is not enough?
Over and over until your will is made manifest in your reality.
For some that could take years. For some, months. For others, weeks. For those approaching mastery, days, hours, or even minutes. For Masters, creation is instantaneous.
You can tell you are on your way to mastery when you see the gap closing between Willing and Experiencing.
You said, "The decision you make today is often not the choice you make tomorrow." So what? Are You saying we should never indulge in a change of mind?
Change your mind all you want. Yet remember that with each change of mind comes a change in the direction of the whole universe.
When you "make up your mind" about something, you set the universe into motion. Forces beyond your ability to comprehend—far more subtle and complex than you could imagine—are engaged in a process, the intricate dynamics of which you are only just now beginning to understand.
These forces and this process are all part of the extraordinary web of interactive energies which comprise the entirety of existence which you call life itself.
They are, in essence, Me.
So when I change my mind I'm making it difficult for You, is that it?
Nothing is difficult for Me—but you might be making things very difficult for yourself. Therefore, be of one mind and of single purpose about a thing. And don't take your mind off of it until you have produced it in reality. Keep focused. Stay centered.
This is what is meant by being single-minded. If you choose something, choose it with all your might, with all your heart. Don't be faint-hearted. Keep going! Keep moving toward it. Be determined.
Don't take no for an answer.
Exactly.
But what if no is the right answer? What if what we want is not for us—not for our own good, not in our best interests? Then you won't give it to us, right?
Wrong. I will "give" you whatever you call forth, whether it's "good" for you or "bad" for you. Have you looked at your life lately?
But I've been taught that we can't always have what we desire—that God won't give it to us if it's not for our highest good.
That's something people tell you when they want you not to be disappointed with a particular outcome.
First of all, let's move back to clarity about our relationship. I don't "give" you anything—you call it forth. Book 1 explains exactly how you do this, in considerable detail.
Secondly, I don't make a judgment about what you call forth. I don't call a thing "good" or "bad." (You, too, would do well to not do so.)
You are a creative being—made in the image and likeness of God. You may have whatever you choose. But you may not have anything you want. In fact, you'll never get anything you want if you want it badly enough.
I know. You explained that in Book 1 as well. You said that the act of wanting a thing pushes it away from us.
Yes, and do you remember why?
Because thoughts are creative, and the thought of wanting a thing is a statement to the universe—a declaration of a truth—which the universe then produces in my reality.
Precisely! Exactly! You have learned. You do understand. That's great.
Yes, that's how it works. The moment you say "I want" something, the universe says "Indeed you do" and gives you that precise experience—the experience of "wanting" it!
What ever you put after the word "I" becomes your creative command. The genie in the bottle—which I Am—exists but to obey.
I produce what you call forth! You call forth precisely what you think, feel, and say. It's as simple as that.
So tell me again—why does it take so much time for me to create the reality I choose?
For a number of reasons. Because you do not believe you can have what you choose. Because you do not know what to choose. Because you keep trying to figure out what's "best" for you. Because you want guarantees ahead of time that all your choices will be "good." And because you keep changing your mind!
Let me see if I understand. I shouldn't try to figure out what's best for me?
"Best" is a relative term, depending on a hundred variables. That makes choices very difficult. There should be only one consideration when making any decision—Is this a statement of Who I Am? Is this an announcement of Who I Choose to Be?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Conversations with God, Books 2 & 3 by Neale Donald Walsch. Copyright © 2014 Neale Donald Walsch. Excerpted by permission of Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Living in the World with Honesty, Courage, and Love,Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
Forethoughts,
Forethoughts,
Forethoughts,
In Closing,
Embracing the Love of the Universe,
Dedication,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
Forethoughts,
Forethoughts,
Forethoughts,
In Closing,
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