Saturday, October 4, 2008

Hawaiian Retreat!



Hawaii retreat now scheduledOn the Big Island!


Ishayas’ Ascension retreat will be held at the Yoga Oasis on the Big Island of Hawaii. This beautiful retreat is nestled on 26 acres of lush rain forest surrounded by coconut palms, papaya, banana, mango, avocado and macadamia nut trees and a vast array of colorful, fragrant flowering plants. Sun, occasional rain showers and a temperature range from a perfect 65 to 85 degrees year round. Running on solar power only, it is in a secluded private sanctuary about 5 miles from Pahoa, 45 minutes from Hilo Airport.Set aside all your cares and experience a true vacation. With Ishayas' Ascension, the mind rests, so the body rests. Simultaneously, consciousness expands and the by-product is stress relief.
Hawaii Retreat
January 23 – February 2, 200910 nights
The retreat begins on Friday January 23 at 7 pm with dinner. For the next seven days, you will rest and ascend at the Yoga Oasis Retreat Center. Fresh local produce and fresh local fish are served.After a day of inward movement, we have dinner and meet together. The meetings help to expand your practice of Ascension and integrate Ascension into your daily life. On Saturday, January 31st and February 1st, we will have breakfast and tour the Big Island. While touring the scenic wonders, you will have the opportunity to practice open-eyed Ascension and further integrate the practice into your daily life. Options abound to enjoy on the Big Island, including black sand beaches, Volcano National Park, Botanical gardens, or watching fresh lava flowing from active volcanoes, and much more. On Monday, February 2, we depart following breakfast.
Price includes:
10 nights of lodging
7 days of Ascension Retreat, all meals included
2 days of touring the Big Island, breakfast and transportation included
Transportation to and from Hilo Airport.
(Airfare not included)
For more information contact the Teachers of the Ishayas' Ascension at 1-888-474-2921 or theishayatradition@yahoo.com.















Saturday, August 30, 2008

The Idiot and the Sage

Here is a wonderful story presented by MSI that can be found in the book Ascension.




"One day, God came walking through the world to see how his children were faring. He came upon an old ascetic who had spent his entire adult life in severe bodily mortification and forceful mental disciplines.

The ascetic had gained a certain degree of clarity of his senses from his prolonged practice and realized that the man casually walking by his cave was fully established in awareness of the inner Divine Self. Painfully unwinding his body from his rigid posture, the ascetic bowed before God and said, "Great-Souled One! I perceive you are an illumined master. Pray tell me, honorable sir, how long it will be before I realize my inner Divine Nature?"

God smiled warmly and laughingly replied, "You are doing well, my son! At your present rate of progress, you will realize your inner Divine Self with just one more lifetime of similar effort."
The ascetic, terrified, in shock, cried, "Another lifetime of this horror? How can I endure this boredom, this agony, this pain for another day, let alone another lifetime! How horrible! You have cursed me this day! Be gone from this place, you imposter! Never would I believe such as you."

God smiled lovingly at him and walked on. Soon He came upon an idiot splashing in the river, laughing and singing. This man’s primary activity every day was to cry out, "God! How I love God! God! I love God! God!" This foolish one never took the slightest care for his physical needs, never cared if he were fed, clothed, housed. He never noticed if he were clean or dirty, hot or cold, wet or dry. He might have been locked up in a padded cell in our modern age, but in those days, people saw that he was harmless and therefore tolerated him and occasionally gave him a crust of bread or some old, half-rotten fruits or vegetables to eat.

The idiot was attracted by the radiance of this handsome stranger, came up out of the water, bowed before him and said, "How wonderful! God has sent by a Great-Souled One. I have been enjoying myself so much of late I had nearly forgotten I have a goal. I began my quest to realize enlightenment long ago but of late have become distracted by this constant joy welling up inside. Seeing you just now reminded me of my journey and I was wondering if you could tell me how long it will be before I realize my inner Divine Nature?"

God smiled warmly and laughingly replied, "You are doing well, my son! At your present rate of progress, you will realize your inner Divine Self with just seventy more lifetimes of similar effort."

"Seventy lifetimes of similar effort!" cried the idiot with perfect joy. "How wonderful! What a flawless boon you have today bestowed upon me, Great Lord!" The idiot was so filled with joy at the prospect of another seventy lifetimes of such bliss that the last doubt fled from his mind; his last question melted into the joy that was his life; his ignorance was irrevocably crushed; he attained the highest state of enlightenment instantly."

We on Earth commonly think there are three kinds of time: the past, the present and the future. We often guide our actions largely on the basis of regret for our past actions and missed opportunities or from concern for our future well-being. The problem with living for the future is that the future never arrives. It doesn’t exist except as an invented concept. There is only NOW—now extends in all places and at all times. The past does not exist, either: there was, before this instant, an unbroken succession of Now moments; there will be in the future an unbroken succession of Now moments. Now, the present, is the only time there is, the only time there has ever been, the only time there will ever be.

This is why it is so absurdly easy to gain enlightenment—the Infinite light is already here, now, within the grasp of each of us. Nothing more is required than ceasing the attempt to live in the past or the future. The Sun is always shining; we have only to stop identifying with the clouds passing in front of it to be free.

The unhappy ascetic was not enjoying the present; he was continually hoping to realize his Self in the future. Therefore the prospect of even one more moment of such torture was agonizing. The happy idiot, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed each and every instant—he was filled with joy at the thought of continuing his ecstatic present. The additional rush of joy through his already bliss-saturated nervous system was more than the last of his ego’s weakened belief system could withstand—the old limitations in his mind, already largely discarded, were destroyed—the Infinite light of the Now burst through him, upward and out, transforming his life permanently. His eyes fully opened for the first time; he recognized God standing before him. The newly enlightened one bowed before his Lord and cried his gratitude and joy to the Source of all that is.

We human beings have an unfortunate habit of unnecessarily complicating our lives. Love is supremely simple, absolutely fundamental, requires no training whatsoever, is permanently transforming, increases more and more as it is given away, and is the greatest secret in the entire Universe. Like most great secrets, this particular one is displayed openly, as if it were valueless. It is here for all who wish to have it; there is no limited supply; it increases from age to age and yet is infinitely full always.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Some Musings

There never was a time when I was not,
nor you, nor these rulers of men,
nor will there ever be a time when all of
us will cease to be.
-The Bhagavad Gita-
Eternity is that which does not change. We live in a world of constant change, a world of time and space, yet underneath it all there is a Field that does not (for science buffs type into your search engine the words, "John Hagelin string theory"). It may seem that the story of life is only birth, maturation, and death. This is certainly the most common interpretation, but it is not the only interpretation. Ones interpretation of the Ocean greatly depends on where we are viewing the ocean from. Life lived from the surface of the mind is a vastly different world than a life lived in contact with the depths of the mind. Everyone who is Ascending regularly is touching these depths more and more and more. Be innocent and let go of who you think you are. There is no need to think that "you" are anything when you already are.
Each time we think an ascension attitude we are connecting our mind with the Infinite Mind. That is the practice. When the mind is Infinite then life too is Infinite.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Yoga Sutras Primer

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is the most concise formulation in history of the mechanics of the growth of consciousness from the Waking State to the highest degree of human consciousness, Unified Consciousness. This ancient manuscript presents a systematic and complete understanding of the psychological, emotional and physical transformations that occur as an individual develops full enlightenment. This process of development is called Ascension, or rising beyond the boundaries of ignorance.
What we use for the meaning of the word “Yoga” in America is very different than it’s original meaning. Most Americans think of yoga as just set of physical exercises.
Yoga (in its truest sense) is an extremely practical methodology for systematically expanding the conscious mind. Said another way, Yoga is the Science for overcoming the self-destructive and limiting beliefs and internal programs that keep individual life bound to the experiences of the Waking state of Consciousness -- the state in which life is alternately happy and sad, loving and hating, healthy and sick -- in short, dual. Yoga provides a systematic ladder for climbing beyond the often painful experiences of the Waking State of duality into the state of non-changing full human consciousness.
Yoga is the Science of Union. The union of what with what? Yoga is the science of joining together the individual lower self with the universal higher Self, the indivisible spark of God that resides within everyone. As the growth of consciousness proceeds, every area of life develops -- heart, mind, body, environment. Yoga, properly understood, is not a system of giving up life. It is a system of adding to life.
The Science of Yoga begins and ends in the present moment. Everything to be understood about the transformation of life from suffering to permanent happiness, from failure to success, from ignorance to enlightenment is to be found in the present instant of time. Life in freedom is the result of learning to turn from the imperious demands of our past experience. Nothing can be done for the past, it is over; nothing can be done for the future, for it never comes; all that can be done is to make the present Ideal. Then the future will take care of itself. Perfection of the present instant is at once the goal and the means of the Science of Union.
“Stilling the movements of the mind leads to Union,” and Union leads to the stilling of the movements of the mind.” Yoga or Union is both the path and the goal.
When the constant chattering of the internal dialogue is stilled, Union with the higher Self is natural, for this is the normal state of the nervous system. It is the constant activity which is abnormal - the mind hammering out its 100,000 thoughts a day, most of them the same as yesterday’s, many of them self-contradictory.
Systematically quieting down the mind is the purpose of the Science of Yoga. It is not only natural, it is extremely easy. There are only three requirements. There must be 1) a functioning nervous system, capable of thought. There must also be 2) a suitable vehicle for the mind to follow in this process of stilling, a vehicle which naturally and effortlessly pulls the mind inward to ever deeper levels of silence, until even the faintest level of activity is Ascended and the conscious mind experiences its true form, the higher Self. And there also needs to be 3) competent guidance to ensure the necessary feedback that verifies the correctness of the practice. Thus it is extremely difficult for tapes or books to teach techniques validly, for the third requirement is missing. Even if the prospective student is proceeding completely correctly, how would he or she ever know without verification from a qualified instructor?
The yoga sutras have been misinterpreted as the means to walk down the path to enlightenment. They are not. They are a description of the nature of enlightenment. The yoga sutras included no actual techniques of Ascension or Yoga in this text. His descriptions of the mechanics of enlightenment are so brilliant and clear, however, that many of the sutras have been widely misunderstood as actually being the techniques themselves.
Above was excerpted from Enlightenment! The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translation and commentary by MSI.
As MSI makes clear in his commentary, the Yoga Sutras does not contain the actual techniques toachieve enlightenment. Rather, it describes what happens when proper tools are correctly applied. The tools themselves, the Ascension Attitudes, have always been passed on through personal instruction, one enlivened heart to another. Without instruction and feedback from a qualified Teacher, the ego much too easily fools itself into believing it is doing well, when in fact no real progress is being made. Even though the techniques themselves are simple, if they were printed in books or given in audio recording, much time would be wasted by individuals making their best guesses about correct practice, missing the experience of expanding awareness.

To learn the simple techniques of Ascension you will need to find a qualified teacher. MSI taught the Art of Ascension to hundreds, many of whom now teach the Ishayas’ Ascension all over the world and offer a variety of websites for further information.

If you would like to read MSI’s translation and commentary of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, you can download the ebook for free at www.theishayatradition.org/books/ebooks/Enlightenment.pdf or for a complete listing of books, ebooks and audio books, go to www.theishayatradition.org/books.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Manifesting the Goddess

This is one of my favorite articles by MSI, enjoy!

“For whither thou goest, I will go.”-the Book of Ruth

Life flows in waves of feminine energy. There would be no life on Earth without the Mother. Nurturing always, judging never, the Goddess is the embodiment of all growth and progress. Mother Earth is fertile and ever-growing. The natural relationship of the human to the Earth is receptivity. Balanced humans live in a reciprocal, symbiotic relationship with their Mother: complementing, enriching, expanding in waves of life, love and joy.

With the dominance of the ego in the collective consciousness of the human race for the past five thousand years, our relationship with Mother Earth has fundamentally shifted. The ego wishes to own everything, to control everything. Ego-based human beings no longer receive life in joy with one-pointed Faith; ego-based human beings live in fear and therefore attempt to manipulate all of life. Control of the Earth by the left-hemisphere, male-dominant, ego-based collective consciousness of the human race has led us to the threshold of global destruction. There is no question that this must change; there is no question what the change must be; the only question is how quickly this transformation can occur.

Taking Charge of the Rudder

There is a new movement in the collective consciousness of the human race. It began as a tiny trickle from a hidden spring, but it is daily expanding in power and passion, becoming a mighty, expanding flood which is washing away all the limitations of stress and judgment and restoring innocence. This movement is the return of the authority of the Goddess, absent from the dominant civilizations of the Earth for more than five thousand years. The Goddess is right-hemisphere dominant; She embodies intuition, Her Reality flows in waves of love from the hearts of all creatures.

Love heals; fear divides. There are only two emotions at their root - love and fear. The one is of God; it is the moving power of the Holy Spirit throughout Creation; it is the flowing life of the Goddess. Fear is the primary construct and support of the ego - it is based in illusion and has its life in dreams. Unreal at its core, it nevertheless has disastrous consequences for human life. Fear-based living leads to suffering, illness and death. A life dedicated to the Reality and the experience of love leads to joy, healing and life.

This choice between love and fear-based thinking, feeling and experiencing is a great deal easier to make than is commonly supposed. It is, after all, just a choice, a simple choice, with unlimited consequences. When love is firmly in charge, when the feminine, Goddess energy guides the rudder of life, true progress begins and accelerates ever more quickly into the heart of perfection.

The Return of Ishani

The appreciation of beauty and the passion for life are the natural counterparts of a love-aligned existence. For the first time in long ages of the human, the female aspect of Christ, Ishani, is returning to the Earth. When fully embodied here, the Ishani vibration of pure, unconditional love is going to propel the entire human race through a phase transition to an entirely new way of living and being. When Ishani rules in every human heart, there will be no more sickness, no more death, no more sorrow, no more destruction for Mother Earth or any of Her creatures. All species will live in harmony, all of life will progress in unlimited expansion of love, joy and full human enlightenment. This is the At-one-ment, the full expansion and blossoming of Unity Consciousness for every human.

The Atonement is coming to all of humanity now. This is the Seventh Task of the human race; this is the dawning of completion of the labors of so many for so long; this is the age prophesied by every significant civilization in the history of our world. Today we stand on the threshold of fulfillment of the ancient dream. We need only enough dedicated workers to make the transition smooth for the human race. This transition is coming, it is inevitable; the one remaining question is how many will enter the New Earth. Every human is going to be offered the chance to choose between the Life of immortality and the death that comes from the ego. Our job is only to provide this choice to all humans; it is not to decide for them how they will choose.
Ascension possesses the knowledge to heal anyone; there is nothing these techniques will not do for a soul that chooses innocence over the lies of the ego. The fruits of Ascension are unending joy, flawless clarity, infinite love, perfect health, complete alignment with the Holy Spirit. It is imperative that this Teaching spreads quickly to all lands and peoples, fulfilling the ancient promise of Christ. This is the life dedication of every Teacher of Ascension; it is the guiding light of the flawless commitment of every Ishaya.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Service of Being

The Service of Being
“As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors of whole life.”
-The Upanishads

As a wanna-be teenage monk (yes, such a thing does exist) I would come up with many, many work projects to do in hopes of realizing my higher consciousness; cleaning the house, garage and everything in sight, volunteering where I could, picking up trash around my town, helping old ladies across the street, anything and everything. My attention always seemed to be on trying to get enlightened through thinking about everything on the outside and I really ran myself quite ragged. I would often think, “Does this do any good?” I wanted to find some kind of manual for what actions are “good” and what actions are “bad” so that I could just treat life like some formula and just fill in the blanks. This kind of equation does not seem to exist. What is positive from one point of view can be quite detrimental from another. It is impossible from the waking state level of our minds to know all the outcomes of our actions. The wonderful thing is that there is so much more to life than what we are usually taught and that “more to life” rests inside us. There is a way to transform our actions so that they have only beneficial effects. This transformative power comes from tapping into the level of our Pure Consciousness, the level of Being.

There is a wonderful old Chinese story about a farmer and a horse. There are many variations, but it goes something like this. A horse comes to the farmer and his neighbors say, “Oh what good fortune”. The farmer answers, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” Later the horse runs away and his neighbors say, “Oh, what bad fortune.” He replies, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” The horse returns with a whole herd and the neighbors proclaim, “What wonderful fortune!” He replies, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” Next, the farmer’s son attempts to break in one of the wild horses and ends up falling and breaking his leg. The neighbors exclaim the bad fortune and again the farmer says, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” War breaks out and all able bodied young men are being conscripted. The farmer’s son cannot go because of his broken leg. The townspeople proclaim, “What good fortune!” The farmer says, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” This can go on forever. . . . . In the end you can’t really know the outcomes of your actions from the surface mind. What is most important with any action is your awareness while doing it. The wisdom to know what serves in any given moment is found by experiencing a state of consciousness that is deeper than waking, sleeping, and dreaming. As our awareness of that higher consciousness expands it becomes more and more clear which actions, feelings, thoughts are helpful to us and which are not. When we know who we really are, then we know the True identity of all the other actors on this world stage. Underneath me, mother, father, sister, brother, lover, friend, enemy, acquaintance, homeless man is the same underlying Consciousness. This Consciousness is the unified field of creation. When we experience this place of consciousness our mind becomes clear and coherently functioning. Actions performed at this level work for the Good of all life. A problem cannot be solved at the level that it’s created. By going to the source of all thought we connect to a level of consciousness that is deeper than all problems; we connect to the level of solutions.

By being of service we become channels for the river of life. As humans we have a choice to either resist our life or to flow with life. Service is a gateway that allows our individual will to be transformed into the cosmic will. We can bind ourselves to our perceptions, beliefs, ideas, programming, likes, dislikes, opinions, conceptions, words and deeds, or we can bind ourselves to something much more subtle than all of those mentioned before. We can live a life in complete awareness and cooperation with the Essential element of life itself, the Unbounded Infinite Field. In binding ourselves to the Unbounded we become infinitely flexible to any and all situations that arise in life. Attaining this state is a true service and service leads to the attainment of this state of Truth. When this state is attained we become as conduits for the prime energy of the Universe, Love. In this way we are never left empty or lacking. In fact, living in this way leads to a never ending supply of Love, Joy, and Intelligence. It is much easier than the alternative-the alternative being to live a life solely or primarily in the very limited domain of the ego. Service leads to a life lived beyond these boundaries and living life beyond these boundaries is a life of service. If you wish to turn your life into a life of service an easy means is becoming intimately familiar with this Consciousness. There are millions of ways to do this (the exclamation point symbolizes ample experience)! A fast and efficient way is to be dedicated to a practice, discipline, or technique that moves the mind inward. Through the practice the mind gains regular experience of the deeper , more expanded levels of awareness that are only waiting for us to tap into them. Infinite awareness is not far away nor is experiencing it. It is strange that we must traverse a path to it at all for it has always been present, Here and Now. It has only been the habit of our mind to wander ceaselessly into the realms of the past, the future and the distant which has obscured our connection to the Infinite Inner Light. Once we re-cognize this Light, the path of true service will be illuminated. However you wish to proceed there is always more power in focusing our energy. There is more benefit in digging one hole ten feet deep than there is in digging 10 holes one foot deep. Pick a direction and go there with all your heart, mind, and soul and the recognition of Pure Consciousness will happen swiftly.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

One Pointed Faith

By MSI

The secret to success in any area of human concern is really no secret at all, it is so obvious: whatever you whole-heartedly put your attention on, you will progress. The master key in that sentence is "whole-heartedly." Half-heartedly doesn't work, in business, in relationships, in life. Three-quarters-heartedly doesn't work either. Neither does 99.9%-heartedly. Wherever there is a crack in commitment, doubt and then mistakes and then failure rush in. Whole means complete, entire, with every fiber of one's being dedicated to the goal. That works. When one is 100% complete, the almighty forces of Nature align behind one to bring success in countless unforeseen ways.

Anytime we think the problem is somehow "out there", we have missed the essential point of human life. All of our experience, all of our creation comes from inside, from here, from our heart. To change the outer world is impossible without first changing the inner world. As Thoreau put it, For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root. The power of a life that stems from inner strength is incomparable. Life dedicated to external solutions will lead to ever-increasing frustration as one is disappointed again and again with all noble efforts to change the outer world. The outer world has a certain wonderful disdain for the attempts of the human to change it, if the human is not coming from the place of whole-heartedness. It is not difficult to become whole-hearted. It takes a reversal of the typical direction of awareness. From birth, we have been trained to use our senses in an outward direction. This was necessary for survival and has served us well. We needed to learn to identify that of the outer world that nourished, that which was safe, that which was not. Then we went to school and learned some ability of using the mind horizontally: thinking about things. Both of these directions of the mind we accept without question as being utterly natural and normal, simply because we are so familiar with them. With both these motions of awareness being natural, outward vertical and horizontal, why should anyone think that the third obvious motion of the mind, inward vertical, should be unnatural and involve effort in order to accomplish? It is a curious result of waking state thinking, that the inward-direction of the mind alone should involve work.

The Reality is quite other: it takes less energy to think at deeper or more inward levels of thought, therefore it is actually easier to go inside than it is to use the senses in an outward direction or even to think about something! It is just that the average person has never been trained to take the attention inward. Too bad, because it is precisely by taking the attention inward that one learns to be whole-hearted. The Ishayas' Ascension process is the most effortless means available in the world today to train the mind to move gently inward. No effort is required in order to Ascend. None. Zilch. Nada. In fact, the single most common mistake among new individuals to the practice is that they try to do it. They try and try and try and it doesn't work and so they stop Ascending. A great tragedy, that, and all based upon the simple misunderstanding that it involves effort to Ascend. It is explained... over and over again!.... in the First Sphere Weekend that Ascension is a completely effortless process, but there is so much information being communicated there, it is not surprising that some of it gets overlooked, particularly this fact. The life-long habit is to use effort when one thinks. The inward-direction of the mind alone is effortless. Small wonder then, it takes some time to learn this concept. As one moves gently inward, several remarkable things begin to happen. First, the body settles down to very deep rest, deeper than that of sleep at night. This allows deep stresses and strains to be released from the physiology. Second, the mind starts erasing the old grooves of doubt, of limitation, of fear, of self-destructive behavior patterns. This is true because the inward movement of the mind takes one to greater levels of subtlety that automatically start erasing the boundaries of limits. Third, joy and peace start spontaneously developing in the life, freeing one's heart from the painful shrouds of past experience. Life begins to be lived in innocence and unconditional love. Every area of life changes for the better with Ascension, because the mind controls every area of the life and the mind begins immediately to expand, to lose the boundaries and limits of old, fear-based thinking.

As this process continues, one begins to become more and more innocent, to live life more and more fully in the present moment of time, without preconceived ideas or judgments about the nature of reality. The constant chatter of the internal dialogue gradually stills, freeing one to experience pure creativity and joy in every moment. As life becomes simpler and more innocent, one naturally finds that one's desires become increasingly one-pointed. As the full power of attention is directed onto a single desire, the fulfillment of the desire becomes more and more quickly; in time, the fulfillment is instantaneous.

What is desire like in the waking state? You desire an apple and go the refrigerator only to find that the only apple there is mushy, half-rotten, with a worm sticking out of it, laughing at you. With increasing evolution, you desire an apple and go to the refrigerator and your roommate has just purchased a bag of the most beautiful, ripe, crisp apples you can imagine. Evolve a bit further, and you don't have to get up out of your big overstuffed chair: you desire an apple and your partner walks in the door bringing you one, saying, "I just thought you might like an apple..." Evolve further still, no partner is necessary to produce the apple at your side, in your hand. These are stages of the growth of physical mastery, of one-pointed faith. "For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." - Matthew 17:20. Faith as a grain of mustard seed is one-pointed faith. When the intellect is firmly focused on a point, the awareness is free to experience itself as it truly is: unbounded, infinite, absolute. When the intellect is established in one-pointed faith and learns to entertain desires in one-pointed faith, the unbounded nature of Ascendant Awareness acts instantly to fulfill the desires. This is known as the Miracle Power; it automatically develops in anyone who continues Ascending long enough to clean all the internal machinery completely.

The waking state sells itself far short. Created in the image and likeness of God, the average human lives a life more akin to the animals than to the glorious potentiality of full human realization. Unfortunate misinterpretations of the world's scriptures have contributed greatly to the distorted and unfortunate self-images that keep humanity locked into limitations and boundaries instead of freeing the human race to soar with angelic wings into the heart of Heaven. Fortunately, any mistake, even those of centuries-long duration, can be changed by simply choosing again for the Truth. The Atonement patiently awaits all humans' simple choice to flow with the Ascending currents of Natural Law, rather than continue to be caught by the darkness of the ego's created universes of fantasies, of pain and death. This is a choice, a simple choice; once the choice is made, whole-heartedness naturally follows. And following whole-heartedness is the most remarkable series of transformations that leaves, in the end, the human as a full manifestation of God's perfect Creation.