Dr. Joe’s Gospel

Dr. Joe’s Gospel

There isn’t but one gospel. One Good News. Everyone lives and teaches their own version of this Good News. There are thousands of forms of this Gospel. Everyone thinks they know what the good is. Everyone’s life is a testimony to the gospel they believe in. Most people believe that fear is the only rational way to be safe and therefore they live and teach the Gospel of Fear. Some people believe that aggression is the only way to be safe and therefore they live and teach the Gospel of Aggression. Some people believe that drugs are the only way to be high and well, and therefore they teach the Gospel of Drugs. We are all constructed in such a manner that we promote our own version of the gospel.

I am forthrightly saying that I teach here Dr. Joe’s Gospel just as you teach yours. Matthew taught his version of the good news, Mark taught his, Luke taught his, John taught his, Paul and Peter taught theirs. Thomas taught his, Buddha taught his, Mohammed taught his, Ghandhi taught his, and Hitler taught his. Charles Schultz in The Gospel According to Peanuts taught his. Everyone is living, teaching and selling some version of the good news. Just visit the internet and you will see millions of websites, each describing and selling their particular version of the good. Buy this car and that is supposed to be good news; buy this house and it is supposed to be good news; buy this food or read this book and it is supposed to be good news. Join this political party or marry this woman and it is supposed to be good news. Everything we do is motivated by the desire to find the good, the good news, the gospel.

There is the Gospel of Romance, the Gospel of Business, and the Gospel of Politics. Each gospel has its own teacher and bible. Actually there is only one complete gospel and we don’t even know what that is yet. Every war that was ever fought and every crusade ever launched was over which gospel is true. Everyone defends their own beliefs about what is good. Everyone lives and dies for their definition of the good. Every book that was ever written was about the author’s beliefs about what the good life is.

All of these millions of gospels are measured by some standard. And who is going to perform the measurements? You are. You have already been doing this forever. We test every thing by some inner standard in our mind. We all have some vague if not exact image of what is real and what is good. This imagery shapes and controls all of our behavior. We live and die by our story about reality. Whether true or not, we all have some standard of truth by which we measure everything. Governments have standards of weights and measurements, standards of sanitation, standards of quality control, by which they attempt to make life fair and good. There are standards everywhere by which every good news is measured.

And so we each decide which gospel is true, which unconscious belief system is valid, do we not? Which gospel do you believe, teach, promote, sell, live and die by? Every religion measures every competing religion by some standard of measurement. Every philosophy and every political party measures and promotes the news by its own inherent belief system. Everyone has a bottom line. Everyone seems right in his or her own eyes.

The pragmatic test is about what works. The pragmatic test may take time to sort out and prove to oneself what truth is. The proof of the pudding has to be in the eating. You can’t go by what people say the good is. You have to talk the talk, walk the walk and test the test. We kill each other every day over who and what is right. Everyone has a conscious or unconscious religion which competes with every other religion in the market place. Everyone has a god of some kind, an ultimate, a bottom line, some good they live by.

Why should you trust Dr. Joe’s Gospel? You don’t and you shouldn’t. I don’t want anyone to trust my gospel. I wouldn’t trust anyone else’s. Everyone already has their own gospel, their own belief system, their own survival strategy, their own philosophy of life, their own story, their own self-diagnosis and self-treatment program, conscious or unconscious. But do you know what your gospel is? Can you see what you tell yourself is the good for you? What is good and bad news to you? Find out what your unconscious story is, what your unconscious religion is, what your conscious or unconscious good or god is. Everyone has a bottom line. Everyone has an ultimate. That is Dr. Joe’s Gospel.

What you die for is what you are living for. If normality is your gospel, you live and die for the Gospel of Normality, whatever that is. If security is your religion, then you live and die for the Gospel of Security. If defiance is your strategy, then you live by the Gospel of Defiance. If indulgence is your religion, you live and die for that. If being right is your story, then you live and die for the Gospel of Being Right. If your religion is skepticism, you live and die by the Gospel of Skepticism. If sex or money is your bottom line, then you live and die for the Gospel of Sex or the Gospel of Money. If rescuing people is your thing, then you live and die for the Gospel of Rescuing. Everyone has some gospel or strategy they live by. This gospel produces the exact experiences that you are experiencing today. There is no discrepancy between your actual gospel and your actual experience. I am not talking about your professed beliefs and your professed gospel, but your actual beliefs and gospel.

Dr. Joe’s Gospel begins with the premise that there is nothing but good. There are so many layers of bad built into the psychic structure, however, that we have not even the remotest idea of what the truth of the Infinite Good News is. And so, we have to build upon the good that we know and let the bad or unreal deteriorate. This program is a step-by-step process of realization of what the Good News of Jesus Christ is. I can only say that in my estimation this Good News is beyond anything we have ever been able to imagine. It is so powerful that it could change water into wine, feed thousands with a few crumbs, heal the sick, walk through walls, cast out demons, set prisoners free, walk on water, comfort the broken-hearted, raise the dead and other miracles too numerous to mention. A thief entered paradise in one day. The gates of prisons opened. A prostitute was made into a disciple. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a miracle working gospel. If you see no miracles, you didn’t get it yet.

A client of mine is a plumber. He had recently committed himself to “God is my provider”. He was not making it financially. He went into a large building materials store to buy some plumbing parts. On his way out of the story, he heard on the loudspeaker the word “plumber”;. He stopped in his tracks, thinking that he had left something in the store. A lady behind him ran into him with her shopping cart.. She asked him why he had stopped so suddenly. He said that he heard the word “plumber”; on the loudspeaker and thought that it might be a message for him. She exclaimed “Are you a plumber?” I need some plumbing done at my house. I am the manager of this store. Will you come with me and see if you can do this plumbing job for me? He got a job putting in a new bathroom for the lady. Is that a miracle or what?

The Good News according to Dr. Joe begins with anxiety appreciation. It proceeds with concept evaluation and re-evaluation. Every concept in the human mind must be re-born. Every judgment must be held up to the light of truth. We must re-learn the forgotten language of symbolism, dreams and spiritual understanding. We must be willing to see the infinite wherever it appears, even in the most unlikely finite places. We must be willing to be wrong and constantly exercise self-correction. We must trust the invisible in the visible. We must be willing to let go of our good-vs-evil story about ourself and the world. We must give up whining, bitching, complaining, worrying, criticizing, accusing and defending. We must accept willingly the importance of revelation.

John dreamed that he was flying into an island. When he landed, a fissure in the earth opened up. He looked ahead and a giant baboon was approaching him, waving his arms like King Kong. He braced himself to fight. A beautiful female figure appeared off to his right and said “This gorilla is friendly.” John relaxed, and began to play with the gorilla. He said that since then he has been sleeping deeply for the first time in years. Interpretation: the fissure in the earth was a revelation. King Kong was his anxiety. The female teacher let him know that anxiety is his friend, and that he doesn’t have to fight (resist evil) and peace came to him.

We must be open to the realization that God lives in our body which makes it sacred and holy. Every other body is the sacred and holy residence of God also. We must be willing to consider that everything is made of the substance of God. We must be willing to consider that evil does not exist, except in our story. The true Christ within brings the gifts of Good News. The less-than-true perception of the Christ brings a mixture of good-versus-bad news. Everyone who says “Jesus Christ” means something different.

One person says “Jesus Christ!” as a swear word; another says “Jesus Christ” to try to establish creditability or blind trust. The gospel is in all bibles, and in all inspired literature, but it is not always properly understood, accepted and realized. The gospel in its purest form in history up until this time is spelled out in A Course In Miracles, although even there we may not see the forest for the trees. This revelation process will continue until everyone knows. The gospel according to Dr Joe is just an extension of A Course In Miracles further into the realm of Spiritual Psychotherapy. The inspiration in all disciplines is the underlying gospel. All humans are and will be drawn unto the Infinite Good. If this gospel sounds new and strange, please realize that the gospel has always seemed new and strange. Old and familiar is just our ego story. This familiarity may appear to be safe and comforting, but it is not.

The body is bound by time, space and matter, but the mind is only bound by itself. The mind is entrapped in a mental box that we have constructed, and by nothing else. This mental box is formed by habit and by our perception of ourselves as merely physical, emotional, social and psychological beings. This mental box is formed by the lack of the use of our spiritual vision. In this mental box we primarily see limitations, difficulties, handicaps, boundaries and sometimes impossibilities. We transcend this psychological box when we begin to see ever-expanding freedoms, possibilities and choices. If our consensus views about reality are true, then why did we need someone to say “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free?” And why did we need to get rid of that someone? And why were we unable to get rid of that someone? And why will everyone eventually be drawn back to that someone?

There is the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, Thomas, Peanuts and many others. Everyone has their own version of the gospel for the world to read. That is why I call nick-named this approach the Gospel According to Dr. Joe.

Are you offended yet? Dr Joe’s Gospel is designed to undermine, threaten, offend and dissolve the entire ego mis-belief system. If this course does not bother you, either you didn’t get it or I didn’t do my job. This study entails the dissolution of the entire Victim Religion of the ego story. Dr. Joe’s Gospel is a challenge to all that is mediocre in religion, philosophy, and the gospels of repression and oppression. Dr. Joe’s Gospel is the absolutely radical Good News for those who are stress-sick and battle-weary, aimed at the de-construction of all the false belief systems in sociology, psychology, politics, medicine, science, philosophy, and religion.

Dr Joe’s Gospel: What If God was Not Infinite?

If God, the Good, were not all, of course evil might be here. If God, the Spirit, were not all, of course material things must exist. If God were not the only mind, other minds might be here. If the eternal kingdom of Love and Goodness were not here, a temporal, hateful deceitful world might surround us. But we proclaim that there is only one world, the world of God.

Emma Curtis Hopkins

If God was not infinite, I would have a reason to be anxious

If God was not omnipotent, I could be a victim of someone or something

If God was not eternal, time would be our stressful tyrant.

If God was not omniscience, this world would make no sense

If God was not all, alienation, co-dependency, and addiction would be everywhere

If God was not infinite goodness, then the apparent evil of this world might exist

If God was not infinite love, then the apparent cruelty of this world would be frightening

If God was not infinite peace, then the apparent terrorism of this world would make us defensive and militant.

If God was not infinite prosperity, then the apparent poverty of this world would make us insecure about survival

If God was not infinite truth, then the apparent villains and victims of this world might seem to be the final word

If God was not infinite life, then the apparancy of death would be real

If God was not infinite oneness, then loneliness would lead to unbearable codependency or other addictions

If God was not nurturance itself, obesity, starvation or anorexia could take over

If God were not all providing, fuel prices could be overwhelming

If God were not infinitely attentive, attention deficit disorders could be a constant threat to our sons

If God were not infinitely stable, bipolar conditions could be a fair diagnosis for millions

If God were not eternity, the march of time would be our master

If God were not infinite peace, wars and rumors of war would be our fate

If God were not infinite health, disease would be our inevitable lot

If God was not infinite prosperity, taxes and credit cards could get us down

If God was not infinite safety, self-defense would seem vital

If God was not the infinite good, aging and death would be necessary

If God was not infinite freedom, it would appear that I am bound and restricted

If God was not infinite patience, anxiety and anger would be justfied

If God was not infinite, the beliefs in separateness, lack and entrapment would determine our behavior

If God was not infinite, the addiction to finite form would seem necessary

If God was not infinite, freedom from fear, limitation, disease and death would be impossible

If God was not infinite, our oneness with Him would be clouded by the belief in separateness from Him.

If God was not infinite divinity, victimization would be the chief fact of life.

If the infinity of God’s will was not real, the power struggle against victimization would be the bottom line.

If the infinity of God’s peace was not true, war would be our lot

If the infinity of God’s guidance was not true, parenting would be too difficult

If the infinity of God’s assistance was not true, work would be boring or tedious

If the infinity of God’s purposes was not true, the meaning of life would be trivial

If the infinity of God’s power was not real, the struggle for control would continue to be paramount

If the infinity of Spirit was not real, matter would be the final word

If infinity were not our source and nature, the finite would seem to be

If God was not infinite health, the cure of disease would seem unlikely or difficult

If God was not infinite mystery, miracles would disappear

If God’s forgiveness was not infinite, guilt and blame would destroy all relationships

If God’s purity was not infinite, toxic waste, toxic water, toxic air, and toxic thoughts would poison us; germs and allergens would infect us

Everyone’s gospel is an exact reflection of their belief system about the Infinite Good. We’ve been had. Everyone of us! No exceptions. We all think we know. We are fighting about who is right. We fight about moral and immoral values day and night. We are struggling about our good versus others’; evil. But there is something prior to that struggle. Ooops! What could that be? The Very Good. The Very Good News of Jesus Christ. Rumi saw that vision and never recovered.

I bring you the Good News of Dr. Joe, the Very Good News that God is the Infinite Good of every creature. Anything less would not be the good news, but just more of our mish-mash. The Gospel of Dr Joe is a re-statement of the perennial philosophy of good news known rather incompletely in different forms from the beginning.

What is your gospel? Everyone lives exactly according to their own version of the good news. God is not mocked. Your life is an exact reflection of the best news that you can articulate to yourself. So why not be radical? Claim the good news that God is the Infinite Good, not a mish-mash of finite moral, political, religious and scientific values,which are all based upon the story of good-versus-evil

The world we look upon is the formulation of what would be if Spirit were not all.
Emma Curtis Hopkins

Every good that the human mind knows has an opposite. Therefore, the human mind cannot know the Infinite Good. The Infinite Good is reality and reality only exists in the mind of God. The mind of God, however, is our own true mind. What a paradox! Therefore, we cannot truly live without the mind of God. If you think you want human rules instead, good luck

Dr Joe’s Gospel: In a complicated, wordy and speedy world, we ought to be able to state the Good News of Jesus Christ in one profound sentence. My sentence is “God is my infinite good.”

*In the past the good news was announced in many ways:

*Jesus died for our ego stupidities (Matthew)

*The self of Christ arose from apparent death (Luke)

*The grace of God is sufficient. (Martin Luther)

*Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (John Adams)

*In God we trust (dollar bills)

*Our potential is unlimited (Maslow)

*God has a purpose for every life (Rick Warren)

*Wherever there is unawareness, a symptom arises (Freud)

*The self is the symbol of the Christ (Jung)

*Our life is governed by powerful attractor patterns (Hawkins)

*Whatever is, is good (Alexander Pope)

*As you think, so you are (Solomon)

*Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows the Infinite One. (Jeremiah)

*God doesn’t throw dice (Albert Einstein)

*Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the freedom to choose one’s attitudes and thoughts. (Victor Frankl)

*I am that I am. (Moses)

*Lead us from the unreal to the real (Hindu prayer)

*Your god is too small (JB Phillips)

*There is a hidden man in the heart (Peter)

*What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil. (Neitzsche)

*Know ye not that ye are gods? (John)

*I and my father are one (Jesus)

*Christ is being formed in you (Paul)

*For believe me: the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is – to live dangerously. (Nietzsche)

*It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. (Einstein)

*What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us (Emerson)

Infinity is bliss (Buddha)

*The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes (Marcel Proust)

*The only service you can do for anyone is to remind them of their true nature (Stephen Levine)

*Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love. (St. Frances)

*There is Good beyond Good. Far beyond even our ideas of Good, there is Infinite Good, awaiting our words (Hopkins)

*If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. (Maslow)

*The coming to consciousness is not a discovery of some new thing; it is a long and painful return to that which has always been. (Helen Luke)

*God leads me to still waters that restore my spirit (King David)

*Another name for God is surprise (David Steinde-Rast)

*By his light I walk through darkness (Job)

*Everywhere you turn is prosperity. In infinity you know nothing but prosperity. (Emma Curtis Hopkins)

*To be pleased with one’s limits is a wretched state. (Goethe)

*God is love (First John)

*Man is immortal (Leonard Orr)

*If God were not all, what you see would be frightening (Hopkins)

*Beyond good and evil there is a field, I will meet you there (Rumi)

*God is my infinite good (Wright)

*The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you; Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want; Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep. (Rumi)

*Everybody is like a magnet. You attract to yourself reflections of that which you are. If you’re friendly then everybody else seems to be friendly too. (Hawkins)

*That which you resist stays. (David Hawkins)

*Love is misunderstood to be an emotion; actually, it is a state of awareness, a way of being in the world, a way of seeing oneself and others. (David R. Hawkins)

*Prayer is holding in mind what you desire, but without adding desire to it. (David Hawkins)

*That is the exploration that awaits you! Not mapping stars and studying nebula, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence. (Leonard Nimoy)

*You are never upset for the reason you think. (A Course in Miracles)

*The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God (Tillich)

*We are the stage and all the players (Mark Nero)

*Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite. (Thomas Carlyle

*I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room (Blaise Pascal)

*Imagination is more important than knowledge. (Einstein)

*Anxiety is our friend in disguise (Dr. Joe)

*The Kingdom of God is inside/within you and all about you, not in mansions of wood and stone. When I am gone, split a piece of wood and I am there, lift a stone and you will find me (Gospel of Thomas)

The good news is that I can affirm that I am immune to every toxin, disease, allergy and fear. I am overflowing with energy, time, peace, love and purpose. There is provision for and abundance of whatever I need or want. I am a laser, a fearless warrior. Nothing can cause me to compromise this edge of consciousness I now hold. I move forward with precision. With vision my course has been set. I am entering the promised land of abundance, compassion and freedom. I am not controlled by circumstances. My feet are planted in the power of the peace of god. I come boldly before the Infinite One to state my case and to make my claim. In this state of mind all things become possible. Any obstacles and doubts become like grasshoppers not giants what more can anyone ask? God is leading now, protecting now, present now, directing now, providing now– what more can anyone ask?

If we were aware of the true god we would be in love with life. Any stress in our life is a sure indicator that we have a distorted, repressed, untrue, constricted, limited picture of who and what God is. Your God is Too Small (JB Phillips) is an accurate description. All stress, worry, grief, anger and anxiety arise from the fact that we have made god into a human ego. Our only choice is whether we will believe that we are made in the image of the infinite god or whether God is made in the image of the finite, human ego. In the former case, we have no anxiety; in the latter, anxiety would be unbearable. Anxiety occurs when we are stuck between two finite polarities, unable to decide which is good and which is bad, which is absolute and which is relative, when in fact, all polarities are finite and relative. Polarity stress is based on the notion that God is not infinitely good. In infinity therapy we need to locate which polarity we are hung up on. We have decided that one of the poles is security, power and pleasure, and the other one is not, but neither one is. Opposites typically switch from positive to negative, from negative to positive, and you can rarely control which of the pair is going to be exhibited.

Since God always includes and transcends every pair of opposites, we should choose the God beyond the opposites in every case. You get caught between a rock and a hard place, stuck in limbo, locked into a power struggle, and you are frustrated. When you find yourself in a catch 22, you are usually caught in a polarity of the opposites, of duality,. So this tension of the opposites, this anxiety of duality, reveals that we are on an ego level of mind, and this level causes us anxiety, stress, or violence, and requires that we find our spiritual level. This ego level of mind evokes obsessions such as gotta have/can’t have.

What we feel forced to do in the story of good versus evil, is to choose between whatever opposites are presented to us. What we need to do is to hold the pair of opposites in mind, experience the tension, and let it be, await, watch, and allow infinite wisdom to arise. We do not really know which alternative is best. We only assume we know. We cling and demand or avoid and resist. In such a codependent position, we have to see both sides of the duality, be willing to relax and hold both in mind, rather that trying to fix, remedy and control the side we want and to avoid what we don’t want. These two opposites could be: together/alone, enough/ not enough, gotta work/can’t work, gotta sleep/ can’t sleep, etc. We assume that we know what is right and best.

The purpose of this kind of scientific prayer is that we might access wisdom or healing, but we don’t know what either one is. We get caught up in ignorance or arrogance. Gotta decide/can’t decide. Gotta leave/ can’t leave. Hold the pair in mind, accept it as it is, let it be. Wait until the Third Factor emerges. We are constantly struggling with two finite and often opposing factors and do not see the Third Factor, the unifying factor, the eternal factor. We only see the finite conflict between two opposing options. Let us await the eternal breaking into the time line. The time line represents the opposites and the eternal from above breaks in.

I am on the cutting edge of consciousness, nothing can block my infinite good. Circumstances do not control me. No person can withhold or give me the infinite good. I do not even have to know what it is in any given situation. We are already one with the infinite good, but if we do not realize it, we experience its deprivation. There is no way I can gain or lose the infinite good. Nothing else exists. All of the rest is fantasy, fear, a story of good and evil. If the infinite good exists, then nothing else does. If the infinite good does not exist, then god is just finite good versus finite evil, and we remain in our current mess. There is only one thing to remember: only the infinite good exists. No matter how it appears, only the infinite good really exists.

The landscape of our personal history is dotted by symbols of our desires which continually vacillate between fulfillment and unfulfillment. We spend enormous amounts of energy trying to control all of the factors going into fulfillment and unfulfillment, which we call good versus evil. We engage in numerous power struggles trying to show that we can control this vacillation, but we cannot. And therefore we blame our anxious fellow manipulators for lack of success in this blind endeavor. And so from the git-go we know that power struggles will not work because the manipulator is controlled by his personal history and not by reality. If God is the infinite good, then so is the world and everyone and everything in it. When people don’t measure up to the yardstick of the infinite good, it is because they live in ignorance and confusion.

I have been permitted in this 77th year of my life to look deeply into the incontrovertible fact of the universe, into the face of infinite goodness, and to see past all of the illusions which distract us from the Good News. I was permitted this vision because when I kept looking and seeking, nothing I saw satisfied me. And I believe that if you have the courage to seek and the courage to look without ceasing, that you will discover this same fact. Hopefully I can speed up your search by telling you what I have seen: that God is our infinite good. The flip side of this vision is that nothing that I could be anxious about is true.

I have asked myself relentlessly what is the bottom line of reality. Each person can do that for himself or herself. But if you don’t look past the symbols of your desires, you will not reach the baseline fact that God is the infinite good. Your symptoms will remain. When you do get past your symbols, your symptoms will have served their purpose and will disappear. Every anxiety and every symptom are friendly indicators that we have put the wrong spin on our desires. What you think you want is never what you actually want because our conscious desires only represent in some small and inadequate way what we really want. We do not experience that we already are what we want to be because our perception is skewed and our cognition is distorted by our personal history, by our story of good-versus-evil. “I am exactly as God made me” is the mantra you must chant if you are to wake up to the Good News.

Joan had this god-awful dream re murder, abuse, violence, attacks and fearfulness and I pointed that this is all drama that we have conspired together to create. We must get off the stage of this drama and see that it is drama. It was no different than the drama at the cross, where Jesus said that it is all forgiven, because it is all ignorance. Or was God mistaken and a liar when he said that it is all very Good.

Ultimately there is nothing that you could want except god. God is the ultimate meaning of every single human desire, however distorted or perverted it may be. Think about it. Everything you ever wanted from the day you were born can be summarized as the desire for the infinite good. If the truth were known, there is nothing else you could want but God and the symbols of god, because there is nothing else. When you realize that the infinite good is all that exists in reality, you realize there is nothing else you could want. I am arguing that every desire that we have is infinite in nature, scope, length, width, depth, breadth, and height, an infinite desire for the infinite. If we take the classifications of Glasser and Maslow we can see that all desires are good. By the time we get through labeling and judging we end up with the mish-mash story of good and evil.

What was once the desire for god and for the infinite good is now twisted into a thousand bifurcated symbols of our wants, wishes, fears, longings and desires. I believe that I have discovered the distillation sentence which reduces all of the wisdom and truth of spirituality down through the annals of human history to “God is my infinite good.” When Jesus came out of the desert he was full of light and said he was bringing us good news. Out of a desert you bring good news? Of all the God-forsaken places on earth, you don’t bring good news out of a desert, right?. There is apparently nothing but dry sand, wind, scorpions, snakes and a few cactus there. Yet all that will be remembered about your life and mine is the good news we bring out of the desert of our experience.

What good news do you have for me today? My good news for you is that there is nothing but good news, and our distortions of it. If the messenger brought bad news to the king he was beheaded. If Jesus Christ did not bring good news, it is just because we have not heard it yet.

When my client complains, accuses or self-justifies, I hear the overtones of the drama from the matrix, and I know that he is not aware of his infinite good at that moment. He wants to know it, but he is overwhelmed by the drama and he cannot. And so you learn to identify false desires as false. When they come up, you realize they are only symbols. You re-frame the desire and realize that you already have it. The hunger disappears when you realize you are full. Most of our cravings, hungers, longings, wants, needs and desires arise from the place of false symbolism within us which is prompted and undergirded by our beliefs in separateness, lack and entrapment.

These symbols arise in the mind about every two minutes, and so what you do is begin to recognize them. And the interesting thing is you do not have to repress or reject them, but you just transpose them into what they are all about: the infinite good. All desires then can be boiled down to one fundamental, basic, true desire: the desire for the infinite good. This one fundamental desire is not a symbol not does it carry any symptoms. We begin to realize that state of mind in Psalm 23: “I shall not want.” And thus lust loses its reign. Hell is that state of mind in which desire never gets past the symbolic stage where hunger, lust, jealousy, envy, and loneliness constantly harass and distress the mind and we never know what desire is all about. It gets both hilarious and sad when we see an infinite being telling himself he is bereft. Anxiety then is the signal that you are allowing the finite symbols of desire to replace what they finitely represent.

The phenomenal world is not our problem; it is given to us to awaken us to the nature of reality.

Why do birds sing

Why do crooks steal

Why do the sick get sick

Why does the sun rise

Why do children starve

Why do stars twinkle

Why do scientists study

Why do teachers teach

Why are books written

Why do we have jets and computers

Why do laborers labor

Why do cheaters cheat

Why is the sky blue

Why did Jesus die and rise

Why does a rapist rape

Why do the nations war

Yes, why? So that we can find out that the entire universe is for our benefit. All of the good and bad in the history of the world is for our awakening and enlightenment. How could that possibly be? So that you can awaken to the true cause of your anxiety, and to the true nature of your desires. We don”t comprehend such ridiculous statements because we don’t understand that anxiety is our friendly reminder that only love is real; and because our desires when misunderstood produce our fears. No wonder that Solomon, the wisest of men, said to seek wisdom above all else. But how could Solomon be right when Jesus said to seek first the kingdom. Maybe the kingdom is what wisdom is. If we don’t realize the true nature of our desires and of our anxiety, we will not be wise, the world will continue to be an unsolvable puzzle and we will continue to regard the world as the cause of our suffering. Its all for our benefit!

The story of good and evil that we are attached to presumes that the good that we want is external. The good news that I bring you is that as long as you are attached to this story, your desires will seem elusive and you will experience anxiety, which will eventually bring you to the point of seeing the flaw in the story. You don’t need to be outraged at me for calling this good news, because it is the only way you can realize that reality is infinitely good, and that only our story causes our suffering. I listen to this watchword every day lest I slip back into the hypnotic trance of society.

Please don’t be impatient with yourself because you slip back into the good news/ bad news scenario. To me it is unavoidable. How about every five minutes? How about every time you turn on the television? How about every time you read the newspaper? How about every time you listen to gossip? How about in your dreams at night? How about all of the fears that besiege your mind? Jesus said “Why could you not watch with me for one hour?” Who can watch for one hour and not take his eyes off of the infinite good in the midst of the dramas of life?

I Observe my Stream of Consciousness

I observe the stream of thoughts, feelings, sensations, judgments, images and opinions that flow through my consciousness. I notice that this entire stream concerns what I consider to be valuable and vital for me and the world that I know. I notice that this stream is made up of do’s and don’ts, goods and bads, facts and figures, gains and losses, opinions and judgments, fears and desires, shoulds and shouldn’ts, attachments and resistances, musts and can’ts, wills and won’ts.

I notice that this stream of conscious and unconscious phenomena is already programmed and is rather automatic, unless I make a new type of choice. The overall matrix, the dynamic paradigm, the processing filter is set. I realize that I do not see as God sees. Einstein said he wanted above all things to think the thoughts of God. Jesus said “Thy will be done.” King David said that he was after the heart of God. Isaiah noted that without vision, the people perish. God’s way of seeing has been called Good News.

I sought after the seeing of God and I noticed that without exception every single desire I have is about whatever seems to me to be good. I noticed that many if not most of these judgments about what is good were missing the mark. It was mish-mash. It was trial and error. It was hit and miss. It was mistake and correction. It was failure and success. It was up and down. It was a roller coaster of causes and effects. Prioritizing and re-prioritizing. Spending and saving. Getting what I want and not getting what I want. Anxiety and anxiety management. Fulfillment and non-fulfillment. Your needs or wants versus my needs or wants. My responsibilities and not my responsibilities. Reaching and not reaching goals.

I also noticed that this process of awareness, however, was all based upon an implicit story, a story that does not match up with the seeing of God. I noticed that it is a good news/bad news story. Even at its most simplistic level, this story is about overcoming evil with good. Certainly at no level did it say that God is the infinite good or that life is infinitely good within any sort of realistic paradigm. If I notice that right now I am a bit tired or that my stomach is in a knot, is that infinitely good news? If I am telling myself that today is April 10 and I have to get my taxes done, is that ultimately good news? I am recalling a TV show I saw last night which evaluated the pros and cons of Pope John’s legacy after his funeral. Is that an example also of the infinite Good News? Also I saw an action movie in which the good guys killed all of the bad guys to compensate for a child they had kidnapped. Also I notice that I am making a mental list of my chores and duties for today. Is that the way the mind of God works?

I remind myself of my Good News Paradigm, that God is my infinite good. This paradigm says that beyond all of my judgments and opinions, only the Infinite Good exists. All of the rest is just an interesting story or drama. I relax. The slate of my mind clears. The knot is gone. A little more energy is flowing. My consciousness is now a clearer, calmer, more peaceful place. God is the infinite good. Nothing else is ultimately real. All of my desires and fears have to do with whether that basic truth is real. Jesus’words come to me “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” I continue to observe every thought and feeling that comes upon my stage today. Maybe.

Or maybe I will again go unconscious and fall victim to the good news/bad news scenario. Can I “Watch with him for one hour?” One day? Not so far. If I could take this watchword that God is my infinite good, for one hour or for one day, would it change the entire world I live in? Would the kingdom of God that Jesus saw everywhere become apparent to me? I have seen glimpses of it. Will the day come when I see nothing else except a few shadows that now fill at least half of the stage? I don’t really see that anything else is worth my time.

My writing is devoted entirely to the watchword of Dr. Joe’s Gospel: “God is my infinite good.”

However, you must realize that this watchword offends me and my sensibilities! What about all of the injustices and tragedies in the world? Where is compassion in this gospel? Who will right the wrongs, fix the broken, and mend the torn? What about my suicidal clients? What kind of Pollyanna rubbish is this? Don”t tell me that hell isn’t real, and that the hospitals, nursing homes and prisons are not full of the victimizations of evil. Don’;t speak to me of your ivory towers! What kind of a god would not lead the march like George Bush against the evil-doers and stop the likes of the Osama Ben Ladins of the world. And we need healing of the sick, not just denial of sickness. And besides, why did Jesus, the prophets and the bodhivistas come if it was not to forgive sin, heal the sick, correct evil and set the prisoners free? Why do we need armies, tanks, guns, police, courts, judges and jails if God is the infinite good? Whew! I feel better already! I’m not about to throw away any of my favorite conspiracy theories about who runs the world bank. I”m not about to remove the locks from my doors or cancel my insurance policies. I”m not about to tell the family next door whose house just burned down that only good exists. I”m not about to tell anyone that the pedophile down the street is just Jesus in disguise. I”m not about to relax my homeland security net of self-defense against the terrorists. Star Wars are real, and so is 1984 and Armageddon is just around the corner. Jesus’ passion was real and necessary, even if Mel Gibson got a little carried away, right? And we had better continue to fight cancer, drunk drivers, illiteracy, obesity, teenage pregnancy, Enron greed, political hypocrisy, drunk drivers, false credit cards, dictators, internet pornography, molesting priests, and crooked lawyers.

I have every right to my righteous anger and my sense of grief-stricken losses. I have to have my self-medicating addictions to compensate for God’s lack of proactive concern for the victims of the world, including me. God should be ashamed to even admit that He created this insane mess. I could have done better myself, but the least we can do is to clean up his mistakes. And what is all of this pomp and ceremony about the Holy Father, and what good was he doing for the abused kids and the downtrodden women of the world! Don’t tell me that God is the infinite good! And if he is, how does that benefit me? I feel 100% better now that I’ve told the real truth for once! You can see who is the realist here. Anxiety is the small price people pay for trying to be decent human beings on this insane planet, right?

My name is doubting Thomas. I could be an anchor man on Fox News, or even a comedian on Saturday Night Live. I’m in sympathy with all of you fellow victims. I appreciate the fact that you are right up there on the stage slugging it out in this human melodrama. Its hard for me to find a single flaw in your argument. In fact, since Genesis 1: 31 it has been hard for any of us to disagree with this good news/bad news scenario, not even in all the bibles of the world, except perhaps in one called A Course in Miracles, a heresy if there ever was one.

And what I say to you, Mr. Thomas, is that you are dead right. Suffering and victimization does seem to be the bottom line in this insane world. But what I find interesting is that you can’t accept it the way it is. Your doubts, Mr. Thomas, are good news for you because due to those doubts you stuck your hand in the hole of the side of Jesus. And that was the flaw in the whole argument you had been making for humanity’s poor me story. That one act upset the whole applecart. And we almost missed that tiny detail except for one reporter named John. What a close call!

So here we are, Mr. Thomas, in the 21st century, and to think that your gospel just got unearthed for us recently. How lucky for us! What if all of the world’s greediness is simply our frustrated search for the truth? And what if our frustrations are simply the result of our ignorance? Isn’t that good news?

I have found that nothing in the entire ego thought system is fundamentally true. Thank God! Murder is not true. Greed is not real. Anger is a waste. Fear is unfounded. Lying is not pro-survival. Stealing can’t happen. War is a farce. Death is an illusion. Only peace is real. Of course, I had a little help from Jesus on these matters through the Course in Miracles. If God weren’t infinitely good, we would be insane with such daily happenings. The good news about the three rules for success given by Henry James to his son, William James, the founder of American psychology, was “Be kind, be kind, be kind.” The possibility of kindness in every situation is the Good News According to Henry James.

When anything happens, ask yourself:

Is it true? It seems to be

Is it real? It seems to be

Is it good? It doesn’t seem to be

“Seem” is the only honest answer you can give to these questions, and therein lies your salvation and mine. “What you intended to me for evil,” said Joseph, “God intended to you for good.” This was the Gospel of Joseph. When the lions didn’t eat Daniel, that was the Gospel of Daniel. When the Revelator saw that “All things are being made new” that was his gospel. Freud’s gospel was that wherever a symptom appears, awareness is not. Most human judgments are limited and that’s good news too. All human desires are misjudgments and that is definitely good news. Anxiety is your friend in disguise and that will enable you to save on your medication costs.

Even going to jail can be God’s purpose for you, said the woman tied up in her bathtub by a serial killer. John Bunyan didn’t write his best seller Pilgrim’;s Progress until he was in jail. When Paul and Silas sang their hymns of the good news in jail, the doors of the jail flew open. Nobody gets religion as fast and as often as prisoners in jail, soldiers in foxholes and victims of tsunamis. Only when you “lose” everything do you realize you didn’t, and that you can’t lose your self. God guarantees that you can only lose your self-image, and only then do you see that you are not your personal history.

And thank you, Mr. Gibson, for your graphic presentation of the suffering Jesus. The innocent always seem to out-suffer anyone else. But Jesus victimization ended all victimizations, we just didn’t get it yet. In l972, however, Jesus straightened out the record: the resurrection is the centerpiece, not the crucifixion. Apparently he was still aware and centered enough is his peace place while on the cross that he remembered that God is the infinite good and that we are just ignorant.

Mr. Gibson, meet Mr. Thomas. Mr. Gibson is the archetypal human who is the king of drama. And it is good news that we can see it. Mr. Thomas found the hole in the whole story when he put his doubtful hand in Jesus’ side. Mr. Skeptical then went on to write his own Gospel of Thomas for the 21st century.

And Paul is also back to say a few more things. And Mary is saying quite a bit for a powerful female voice in our times. And Jesus is quietly carrying on his great ministry to us. And they aren’t through yet. They’re putting a few final touches on their gospels. They are all back, even Judas.

And the scriptures say that in the final days there would be many false prophets. In fact, over six billion, all offering their own version of the good news/bad news scenario. No one wants to miss this internet version of the drama. All of the bodhavistas are here. And God will use all of their messages for your benefit. Look, we didn’t get it right the first 1000 times. But Rumi’s Good News says that there is another chance. The entire bible is being replayed again. Hundreds of “life of Jesus” books have appeared in the last century. Jesus is returning in manifold forms to bring us the Good News again.

In the near future, Everyman will bring Good News to his neighbor because no one can remember it.. We are more forgetful than Ronald Reagan, but not as forgetful as God. God has already forgotten and forgiven our crimes and sins, and all of the foolishness we are so beset by! If we could forget like God, we would not need Alzheimer’s and if our attention was on the truth we would not have an epidemic of ADD. Eye disease, heart diseases, and sugar diseases are rampant because we do not see, feel or taste the truth of the infinite goodness of God or his creation. The cancer cells of fear seem to be eating up the healthy cells of love, but that is just more of the drama, because nothing is real but God.

All of the failures and atrocities and disasters of the world do not destroy the infinite good. Every event on the evening news has one purpose: to show us that bad news is not the final news, and that bad news is just the creation of the human mindset. The Holy Spirit will take every spoken and unspoken word in this vast melodrama and transform/elevate it to the Good News. That is his/her job. The messages of the tower of Babel (our cell phone towers, our television antennas, our radio stations, our internet satellites, and the twin towers of NYC) will all be de-confused, de-contaminated, and converted to their true essence: the Good News of the Infinite Good. Within, through, behind and beyond all of our garbled messages, the Good News will shine forth.

In fact, “losing everything” is just another reminder of that which cannot be lost. Even death is not the final word according to the Good News of Easter. Adversity is sometimes the only teacher that gets our attention long enough to get us off the stage of the drama. This can’t be all there is, the spirit whispers in our ear.

My client misunderstood me and quit therapy.

Is that true? Is that real? Is that good?

I depend on my clients for my income.

Is that true? Is that real? Is that good?

My wife left me and I am devastated.

Is that true? Is that real? Is that good?

My father died just after we had finally started to talk.

Is that true? Is that real? Is that good?

I got so depressed that I attempted suicide and I should have succeeded.

Is that true? Is that real? Is that good?

Katie Byron’s good news is that if you can suspend all such opinions, judgments and shoulds, peace will come to you. Wow! Thanks, Katie

Emma Curtis Hopkins’ good news is that If God were not all, we would be stuck with this world. Wow, thanks Emma!

This newsletter is devoted entirely to the watchword of Dr Joe’s gospel: that God is my Infinite Good.

It would be interesting to do therapy with people who could begin with the premise of getting off the stage, rather than trying to make the ego plan work on stage. Most counseling is entirely focused on making the ego system work. All of our self-improvement strategies, such as taking drugs, are futile attempts to get off the stage of this drama.

What then is the Good News of Jesus Christ according to Dr. Charles Whitfield?

What is the Good News of Jesus Christ according to A Course In Miracles?

What did Neitzsche’s good news say: that the old god idea is dead.

What did Maslow’s good news say

I hope to make the point that the Good News is the bottom line topic that all of the Great Ones have addressed. Did we garble it up? Look at the world and see. Can we do better? Absolutely. What is the very best news that you could possibly imagine. And do you have any “buts” that you tack on to it? Those “buts” will disqualify your infinite vision. Come on, jump in the pool. Stick your hand in the hole in Jesus’ side, and become a new Thomas.

Quote from the Gospel of Thomas. Read The Disappearance of the Universe if you want to know more about Thomas’ continuous work. The Good News will galvanize your consciousness into that of a servant-king forever. The good news is that kings are servants and servants are kings, and neither are dominators or victims. Bullies and cowards will disappear off of your radar screen. No longer will you be able to think in terms of attack and defend, blame and guilt.

Dr Hawkins good news is that you are a divine being (Energy Quotient 1000) pretending to be a victim (below 200)

Jesus’ Good News was that only servants can be masters, and that in the Kingdom of God, servants and masters are one.

Nietzsche’s version of the good news:

The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.

God is dead.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn’t become a monster.

But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness.

For believe me: the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is – to live dangerously.

Out of life’s school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.

Goethe’s good news:

If the eye were not sun-like, it could never glimpse the sun; if God’s own power were not within us, how could we be stirred by the divine.

Einstein’s version of the good news:

Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.

At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice.

I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom

Kierkegaard

Infinity is bliss

Buddha

Maslow”s version of the Good News:

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings.

If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

Rumi’s version of the Good News:

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you; Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want; Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep.

We fritter away all of our energy devising and executing schemes to become that which we already are.

Trying to find the way home is the thing that convinces us we are lost.We’re not lost. We’re not alone.

We’ve never even left home.

The world is simply a dream that we have agreed to experience together. The dream disappears when we withdraw our awareness from it.

If there is any lover in the world, O Muslim, it is I.

If there is any believer, infidel, or Christian hermit, it is I. The wine, the cup-bearer, the musician, the instrument and the music, The beloved, the candle, the liquor and the inebriation, it is I.

The seventy-two religious sects in the world

Do not really exist;

I swear by God every religious sect-it is I.

Earth, air, water and fire: do you know what they are?

Earth, air, water and fire-and the soul as well; it is I

Truth and falsehood, good and evil, pleasure and suffering, beginning and end, Knowledge, learning, asceticism, devotion and faith-it is I.

Be assured that the fire of hell and its flames,

Paradise, Eden and the angels of heaven-it is I.

Heaven and earth and all they hold: angels, demons, and men – it is I.

All that is other than the true “I” must be slain.

Experience shows that the spirit is nothing but awareness. Whoever has greater awareness has greater spirit… When the spirit becomes greater and passes beyond all bounds, the spirits of all things become obedient to it.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Stephen and Ondrea Levine, Embracing the Beloved:

The only service you can do for anyone is to remind them of their true nature.

When we see all women as the divine mother and all men as the divine father, everyone you meet is sacred.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us

Emerson

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes But in having new eyes

Marcel Proust

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom

Kierkegaard

Infinity is bliss

Buddha

A fish does not drown in water

A bird does not fall in air

Each creature God made

Must live in its own true nature

Mechthild of Magderburg

I will always have fears, but I need not be my

fears, for I have other places within myself

from which to speak and act

Parker J. Palmer

Perhaps the shortest and most powerful prayer

in human language is help

Thomas Keating

So long as you haven’t experienced

this: to die and so to grow,

You are only a troubled guest

On the dark earth

Goethe

When you are tired, sit quietly and breathe away the heaviness of the day. With each breath, release a thing undone, a bruise encountered, a worry or fear that has been fed. Do not analyze or solve these things, just breathe them away.

Mark Nepo

Beneath what I try to see is all I need

Mark Nepo

These bodies are perishable,

But the Dweller in these bodies is eternal

Bhagavad-Gita

Enlightenment for a wave is the moment the wave realizes it is the water. At that moment, all fear of death disappears.

Thick Nhat Hanh

By his light I walk through darkness

Job

We are the stage and all the players

Mark Nero

God leads me to still waters that restore my spirit

Psalm 23

Who sees all beings in his own Self

And his own Self in all beings, loses all fears

Isa Upanishad

Here is always beneath There

Mark Nero

The mind composed of ignorance or wrong view suffers from spiritual disease; it sees falsely. Seeing falsely causes it to think falsely, speak falsely and act falsely. You will see immediately that everyone, without exception, has the spiritual disease.

Ajahn Buddhadasa

Discernment is a process of letting go of what we are not

Thomas Keating

When was the last time you danced?

When was the last time you sang?

Native American Medicine Man

Be patient with all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves

Rainer Maria Rilke

There’s no need to seek the truth;just put a stop to your opinions!

Seng-Tsan

The cut worm forgives the plow

William Blake

I contain multitudes

Whitman

There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground

Rumi

Underneath there is only one emotion

Mark Nero

To direct the mind toward the basic unity of all things and to divert it from the seizing of differences—therein lies bliss. Tejo-bindu Upanishad

Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

Goethe

Another name for God is surprise

David Steinde-Rast

If you can’t cross over alive, how can you cross over when you’re dead?

Kabir

The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin

Parker J. Palmer

Do not seek any rules or method of worship. Say whatever your pained heart chooses.

Rumi

Our strength will continue if we allow ourselves the courage to feel scared, weak and vulnerable.

Melody Beattie

I felt anger toward my friend. I told my wrath. My wrath did end. I felt angry toward my foe, I told him not. My wrath did grow.

William Blake

Stop talking, stop thinking, and there is nothing you will not understand

Seng-Tsan.

How can one be born again?

Nicodemus

Now there’s nothing left but to keep dancing

Mark Nero

The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins

Rabindranath Tagore

It is only by risking ourselves from one hour to another that we live at all

William James

Love, and do what thou wilt

Augustine

Lead us from the unreal to the real

Hindu Prayer

The coming to consciousness is not a discovery of some new thing; it is a long and painful return to that which has always been.

Helen Luke

We could never have guessed we were already blessed where we are.

James Taylor

Goethe’s Good News:

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

To be pleased with one’s limits is a wretched state.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.

Live dangerously and you live right.

More light! Give me more light!

All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.

Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse.

He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.

The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.

If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought and could be.

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Einstein’s good News:

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.

It is the theory that decides what we can observe.

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein’s Gospel of Curiosity:

My sense of God is my sense of wonder about the Universe.

I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.

Theories should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

How despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the unlimitable superior who reveals Himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

In the beginning, there was nothing. And God said, ‘Let there be Light.’ And there was still nothing. But, you could see it.

Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.

Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.

Never underestimate your own ignorance.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.

Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.

We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.

So long as there are men there will be wars.

I claim credit for nothing. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insects as well as for the stars, Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.

It’s not that I’m so smart , it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

Thomas Carlyle

What you see, and cannot see over, is as good as infinite

Carlyle

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room

Blaise Pascal

Evil is easy and has infinite forms

Blaise Pascal

Robert Browning’s gospel:

I see only the incongruence of the yearning pain of our finite hearts and the fact of infinite passion.

I discern infinite passion and the pain of finite hearts that yearn

The Infinite Goodness has such wide arms that it takes whatever turns to it

Dante

Is this entire universe, including man, not an echo of the Infinite?

Oliver Wendall Holmes

Perhaps the greatest theologian of all times saw the height and depths of the infinite in all of existence: The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God

Paul Tillich

How could the infinite exist in me and you? Marlowe puts it this way:

Infinite riches in a little room

Marlowe

King David praises the infinite understanding which heals us:

Great is our Lord, and abundant in strength, His understanding is infinite;He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars and gives names to all of them. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 147: 1-5

Even from the beginning the Infinite is looking for us who have hidden ourselves from Reality: Adam, Where are you?

Gen 3: 9

Job expressed his infinity experience in terms of wisdom and understanding:

But where can be wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value. Nor is it found in the land of he living. The deep says it is not in me. The sea says it is not with me. Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it. Where does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding? Thus is it hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from he birds in the sky. God understands its ways, and He knows its place. He saw it and declared it, he searched it out and established it and to man he said “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28:12-28

King David expressed his infinity experience in terms of his inmost wonderfulness:

O Lord, thou has searched me and known me, thou has understood my thoughts from afar, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, thou dost know it all. Thou has enclosed me behind and before and laid thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. it is too high. I cannot attain it. Where can I go from thy spirit? Or where can I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in sheol, thou art there. If I dwell in the remotest par s of the sea, even there thy hand will lead me. Even the darkness is not dark to thee. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to thee. You formed my inward parts in my mothers womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are they works and my soul knows it very well. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance and in thy book they were all written, when as ye there were none of them. How precious are thy thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them they would outnumber the sand. Search me o God and know my heart Try me and know my anxious thoughts. And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

Psalm 137

Everywhere you turn is prosperity. In infinity you know nothing but prosperity. Emma Curtis Hopkins.

What did Jesus say about infinity? Every word he spoke was about his Infinite Father and the Kingdom of the Infinite which is everywhere.

The Good News of the Gospel of Thomas:

I am the light that shines over everything. I am the All. From me the All came forth, and to me the All has returned. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Pick up a stone, and you will find me there.

Know what is in front of your face and what has been hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be made clear and nothing buried that will not be manifested.

If those who would lead you, say to you: Behold, the Kingdom is in the sky!, then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: It is in the sea!, then the fish will precede you. But the Kingdom is inside you and it is of your eye. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the sons of the Father who Lives. However, if you do not recognize yourselves, then you exist in poverty, and you are poverty.

The Kingdom of God is inside/within you and all about you, not in buildings/mansions of wood and stone. When I am gone, split a piece of wood and I am there, lift a stone and you will find me.

I am sown in all things; and whenever you will, you can harvest me, but when you harvest me, you harvest yourself..

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Gospel:

Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

Sir Francis Bacon

You cannot go around and keep score. If you keep score on the good things and the bad things, you’ll find out that you’re a very miserable person. God gave man the ability to forget, which is one of the greatest attributes you have. .

Hubert H. Humphrey

The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers. Martin Luther King Jr.

There’s a dark side to each and every human soul. Thing is, this ain’t no either or proposition. We’re talking about dialectics, the good and the bad merging into us. You can run but you can’t hide. My experience? Face the darkness, stare it down. Own it. As brother Nietzsche said, being human is a complicated gig. Give that old dark night of the soul a hug! Howl the eternal yes!

Stuart Stevens

Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.

Aristotle

Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.

John Wesley

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

The Buddha

The most annoying trait of Right-Wing Outlaws in general is a lazy incuriosity about the real world. They know their lines, they’re sure who the good guys and the bad guys are. Therefore they view the passing world as a kind of animated “Bartlett’s Quotations” – that is, as handy source material with which to illustrate, rather than challenge, preconceived views.

James Fallows

I argue here that God is the infinite good. Whatever is infinite, cannot be irrelevant. Whatever is infinite, cannot be bad. Whatever is infinite, cannot be mixed or divided. Whatever is infinite, must be God. Whatever is infinite, must be infinitely good.

God is the infinite good. You may call that a statement of faith, reason or dogma. I call it vision, I call it truth, I call it sanity. To declare that God is the infinite good is the fact without which life makes no sense and cannot work. That God is the infinite good gives purpose and meaning to human existence.

To communicate, terms have to be defined. God is the main term used in this book. In this book I use the word God to mean the infinite good. I find only four positions possible about the infinite: 1. The infinite is irrelevant 2. The infinite is bad. 3. The infinite is good and bad. 4. The infinite is good. To say that the infinite is irrelevant, or that the infinite is bad, is insane. To say that the infinite is both good and bad is par for the course for the majority of people down through history. To say that the infinite is good is the only sane and freeing position we can take.

I argue here that God is the infinite good. Whatever is infinite cannot be irrelevant. Whatever is infinite cannot be bad. Whatever is infinite cannot be good and bad. Whatever is infinite, is infinitely good. To say that god is both good and bad would make god less than infinite, because he would be divided against himself. Making God schizophrenic without noticing it is quite a slight of hand, but that is the condition of most religious, political, philosophical, and military minds. We are going to make the world safe because God didn’t. We are going to free the world because God didn’t. We are going to perfect the world because God made a mess of it. We are going to moralize and spiritualize the world because God didn’t. We are going to get rid of evil because God didn’t. What ever happened to the God of the Very Good (Genesis 1:31)?

The undeniable fact of human existence is that God is the infinite good, but it has been denied, overlooked, ignored, and denigrated. I will argue that it is the one correction that we need to make in human perception and thought in order to transform life on this planet. If you want to pretend that God does not exist, or that God is not the infinite good, then you have a problem and you will get sick, you will become bipolar, you will experience depression and anxiety. But God is the infinite good anyway. There is nothing you can do about the fact that God is the infinite good and you are his offspring. No matter how hair-brained you think or act, God is still the infinite good. Nothing that you can do will change that.

Neither science, religion, philosophy, wars nor earthquakes can change the fact that God is the infinite good. You can and you do bet your life on this incontrovertible fact of existence Yes, this is a principle, even though it sounds like a dogma. You are allowed to think anything you please about God, but just don’t expect life to work if you think that God is anything less than the infinite good.

Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg in 1517 and started the Protestant Reformation. I am nailing my five word thesis to the door of the internet, and starting nothing. My five words are “GOD IS THE INFINITE GOOD.” You will find the details of my 95 theses scattered throughout my writing, but it can all be stated in five indelible words: God is my infinite good. Actually I am not unique. Everyone stakes his or her life on this thesis, whether we know it or admit it or not. God is the ultimate fact in the universe.

We need far more here than a reformation. We should all be abolitionists. We need the total abolition of slavery. We are all slaves of our belief systems. We are all victims, not just the blacks or the whites. Or rather, we would be except for one inalienable fact: God is the infinite good. The only choice you have about this thesis is to test it out or throw it out. Chop it up in little pieces, throw it in the trash, use it for toilet paper, or simply burn it. It won’t really matter, because God is the infinite good anyway.

Please realize that although “God is my infinite Good” is hard wired genetically into the psyche, there are tons of conditioning which overlay and confuse this self-affirming truth. I guarantee you that if you chant, sing, speak, say, affirm and decree this aphorism moment by moment, hour by hour, the veracity of its intensity will change your consciousness. We are culturally, socially, psychologically, and physically conditioned otherwise. Everyone is programmed by the belief in “good versus evil” by the time we are five years of age. Even a newborn brings this conditioning imprinted upon his psyche through the pregnancy, not to mention previous lives.