A Wake up Call from Your Soul
This month we delve into the magnificent teaching expressed through The Impersonal Life. Although this book was written/channeled by a man named Joseph Benner, the text is the voice of God speaking to you from with the depths of your own soul. On the editions I have seen, the name of Joseph Benner is not noted, and rightfully so. Although the channel deserves immense credit for bringing such a noble teaching to the world, the material is not the expression of a human personality. It is the voice of the great I Am, the same I Am that animates, and is,each and all of us.
In this course we have travelled the sacred journey of identity shift. This theme has carried through all of our teachings since we began last year in the Integral Master Coaching Program. Our friends at E.T. Earth Mission explained that we are multi-dimensional beings whose identity on higher dimensions spans far more than the identity we have adopted as human beings. A Course in Miracles continuously calls us to recognize that we are the offspring and expression of God. Ramana Maharshi implores us to keep probing “Who am I?” until we strike spiritual gold and reveal our deepest essence. Now in The Impersonal Life we are moved to discover the voice that speaks to us as the God within. That voice is our own. The God within is the real you.
In the Ramayana, the sacred Hindu saga venerated, taught, and performed through the ages, we meet Ram, who is an incarnation of God (like Jesus), and his faithful servant, Hanuman, half-man, half-monkey. At one point Hanuman tells Ram, “When I forget who I am, I serve you. When I remember who I am, I am you.”
This poignant statement clearly depicts our situation as divine beings going through a human experience. When we become lost in the illusion of separation, we feel disconnected from God and we approach God through worship, prayer, and service. This is a noble spiritual path, and many holy people and saints have uplifted humanity through such efforts. Yet there is a stage beyond worshipping God that we must all aspire to and attain: the experience of being one with God. This is an experience of worthship. When you know that you and God are one, there is no purpose to worship or serve a Higher Power, because the Higher Power is you, expressing through you, as you.
In the New Testament, one of the disciples asked Jesus if the disciples should fast. Jesus answered that while he was with them there was no need to do so. The lesson was that when you are in the presence of God, dwelling in the midst of the divine, you do not need to do practices to connect with the divine. You are already connected.
In the classic film The Ten Commandments, Moses, portrayed by Charlton Heston, climbs to the top of Mount Sinai, where he encounters God in the form of a burning bush. When Moses asks God, “Who are you?” God answers “I am that I am.”
For many years the identity of the actor who spoke the voice of God was kept secret. Eventually it was revealed that the voice was that of Charlton Heston, deepened by special effects. The scene, drawn verbatim from the Bible, offers a huge spiritual insight. The voice of God is your own voice. When you hear God speaking to you—which occurs every moment, whether or not you are aware of it—you are hearing your own Self. The special effects of the illusory world have distorted your own voice to make you think it is that of another, and the studio has kept the process under wraps. But eventually all secrets give way to truth. When you talk to God, you are having a conversation with yourself.
The Impersonal Life represents the highest conversation you could have with yourself. The God in you is calling to the human personality to remind it of its true source. As you read The Impersonal Life you may experience a shift from identifying with the human reader, to identifying with the divine writer. If that happens, the book has truly accomplished its purpose as a wake-up call from your soul. Ultimately you are your soul, and when all other identities evaporate, as they must, you will be left only with yourself. And what a glorious day that is!