Category: Spiritual Teachings

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Spiritual Teachings

What Is Paradise And Can It Be Created In This World?

What is Paradise and can it be created in this world?  This was a question that was posed to our spiritual teacher (Hafed) at one of our development circles.

Hafed answered it by first clarifying that “Paradise was not so much a place, but a place waiting to be created”.  In theory it would be possible to build Paradise here, but it would be extremely difficult to achieve because of the conditions of Earth are not conducive.

It would require complete isolation from the world at large and the development of your spirit to the point where the negative conditions of this world are totally stripped away and replaced by the creative qualities of spirit which can be found in Heaven.  Those special spiritual qualities provide the foundations upon which Paradise is established and brought to life.

The superior conditions existing in the Paradise environment are completely different from those on Earth, which are exposed to decay and pollution.  The contamination not only originates from poisons brought into our environment through industrial processes, but also from poisonous thoughts such as hatred, selfishness and greed.  These negative thoughts and emotions are in direct opposition to the creation of Paradise on Earth, so you see how extremely difficult it would be whilst those conditions exist.

It was never meant that we should exist in this way; in fact in the beginning mankind did live in Paradise, which was a little way from the world.  However, mankind chose to disobey the rules by inviting dark forces to enter that environment.  Hence Paradise was destroyed and mankind fell from grace to live on Earth.  The Earth was primarily created for the animal kingdom, but when mankind’s nature fell to the same order as the animals, this was the most suitable place for us to reside.

This story of man’s fall from grace is chronicled in the parable of Adam and Eve, where you will find that God says, “You may eat of every tree, but not the one that grows in the middle of the garden.”  When mankind broke that rule we paid the consequences.

God knows that we are subject to great danger unless we respect and comply with the natural order of life and our environment.  Even today we are continuing to ignore this vital message because we are destroying the fabric of our world and placing ourselves at great risk.  The symptoms of this can be witnessed in global warming, ozone layer depletion, deforestation, polluted oceans and rivers, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves etc.  When will man learn?

Unless mankind turns away from these destructive ways and attempts to recreate the conditions of Paradise, this world will decay and crumble.  Fortunately Hafed tells us that God will not allow this to happen and has a plan to save mankind and bring us back to the light.  Not everyone will be saved, but those of a gentle and loving disposition will be given the opportunity to build a new world, just as it is written that the meek shall inherit the Earth.

Man will enter the long promised Golden Age, harnessed through the qualities of the soul and the creative power of thought to bring it to life.  The Golden Age is in fact another way of describing Paradise.  All of those bounded within that power shall live in the Golden Age and there will no longer be illnesses and other forms of suffering.  God never meant for man to suffer; it has been the choices we made that have taken us so far away from Him.  When mankind is ready to accept that very first thought as a seed to grow a better way of life, then God is willing and waiting to nudge us in the right direction.

To those who ask “What is Paradise?”  I would conclude that Paradise is that elusive place where we once lived and are trying to get back to.  It’s waiting to be created by the power of your thought, but first you must fill yourself with those special qualities of spirit such as love, humility, gentleness, meekness, forgiveness and understanding. When these creative forces pervade every atom of your being, you will have raised yourself to a state of Paradise, where you once more live with God and all things are possible.

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Spiritual Teachings

Did God Create Evil?

A question I once put to Hafed, my spiritual teacher, was did God create evil?  My assumption was that God created everything, therefore, evil must have come as part of the package.

Hafed realised the confusion that was going on in my mind and reminded me that without free will and the power to exercise choice, there would be no spiritual progression.  He told me that if there was only one road back to God, you would inevitably return to Him, but you would be doing so without being tried and tested by evil.

The Bible tells us that we are all Gods in the making, however if we seek to reach that level of spiritual perfection, we must first acquire the same understanding of God and use the powers that go with that position, as God would use them himself.  The only way we can do this is to discover right and wrong for ourselves, through our experiences, actions and choices.  This continual learning process leads us to the realisation of what really is the best way to live our life.  In essence this is true purpose of being here, to conquer the trials of this life and move spiritually closer to God.

When we begin to follow the correct path we feel happier, more contented and empowered by a new guiding force in our life.  Our character changes and we jettison the harsher side of our nature, which belongs to our human form.   It is replaced by a soft, gentle and caring nature that belongs to the God man in you, which you yearn to develop and become.  You will want to share this feeling and knowledge with everyone and try to find ways to do this, even if it’s just giving the right advice and opinions to friends.

Just as I did, you may ask, did God create evil?  The categorical answer is He did not, because good and evil have always existed.   In the world today there is a widely held view that God created everything, but this is incorrect.  Many things are just naturally there and did not require God to create them.

Just as you have light and dark, love and hate, hot and cold so you have good and evil.  They exist because you exist; they give you power to choose and through choice comes spiritual development.  It is strange but true that good teaches and informs you about evil and evil teaches and informs you about good.  These polar opposites didn’t need to be created, they simply are.

To reach your spiritual potential you must follow the ways of truth, light and love.  You can hide in the shadows and darkness where you will find the paths of evil or, if your nature is suffering and desperately wants to find peace, it will turn you to the light where you will find the contentment it seeks.  But even though you do this you need to be aware that it will not shield you against the power of darkness, which is always striving to bring you down.  The battle will always go on within you, like the fires of Hell turning you to pure gold.  Good and evil coexist and the decisions you make can bring either one of them to life.

If you look at the scriptures none of the holy men and prophets had easy lives.  They were constantly challenged for the things they believed in, but their strength of spirit and steadfastness to fight for good made it possible for them to repel the powers of darkness.  All things are possible to him that overcomes.

Unfortunately there are some people who have gone too deeply into the darkness and they will never choose the light.   They no longer have the common sense to see what is happening to them; as the expression says they have become as ugly as sin.  They have become absorbed by the evil forces of darkness which control their daily lives.

An analogy my spiritual teacher once used related to the physical environment here on Earth.  He would remind us that this world is made up of oceans and land.  Obviously the human body has evolved to live on the land therefore if we choose to live in the sea it will put our life at risk.  On a spiritual level the message is clear; we can choose good (the land) where spiritually we belong, or evil (the sea) which will damage our spiritual being.

God did not create evil; we create evil when we bring it alive through our thoughts and actions.

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Spiritual Teachings

What is Faith

What is faith in the context of the world today?  Few of us truly understand what faith is.  Some people will say it is a belief in God, yet this only represents part of what faith is.

Others say they have faith in God yet when things go wrong in their lives their faith seems to abandon them.  Instead they start to question if God really exists because he did not stop bad things happening to them.

So faith must be more than an abstract belief because it must be able to endure life’s storms.  It must hold you steadfast so that any trials and tribulations leave your faith unshaken and intact.  This special quality of faith can only be achieved when the knowledge of God is deep within you.  It is not something that can be wished for and it will happen by magic.

You see the declaration ‘I believe in God’ raises fundamental questions about the depth of your belief and the strength of your faith.

Jesus said if your faith was the size of a mustard seed, you could command a mountain to be cast into the sea and it would obey you.   Yet I haven’t seen many recent news headlines proclaiming “Man throws mountain into the Atlantic”!  So are we saying the words of Jesus are exaggerated or false?  No, I don’t think so, rather we should be asking what is missing that will bridge the gap between the quality of faith that we possess today and the quality of faith which Jesus referred to.

Here is the secret to reaching that spiritual higher ground:

Your faith has to be strengthened and have at its core, the spiritual qualities of love, humility, gentleness, meekness, forgiveness and understanding.  Each one of them is a spiritual quality, a substance, which have the power to take you from the level of faith you hold now to a new super faith at the heart of your being.

You must build all of these special spiritual qualities within your soul to make you complete.  Eventually you will reach the spiritual tipping point where you are no longer the child of God, but the son or daughter of God.  If you examine these qualities you will discover that each one is of a creative nature.  They have the power to create and lead you to that higher level where your faith is as great as a mustard seed and miracles will be possible through you.  You will become a conduit for God’s will because you wish it to be so.

You must start by examining and challenging what you have said and done during the course of each day.  You must question whether you have acted in a spiritual manner that God expects of you or have said or done things for selfish reasons?  Each time you choose for good, it brings you a little closer to that perfect faith.

You are the master of your own destiny because you have free will.  Choose wisely the energies and forces you allow into your life.  Will they be of a creative nature, or will you pander to your destructive side?

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Spiritual Teachings

Many Sparrows

Jesus said “Two sparrows are sold in a market place for a farthing and one shall not fall from Heaven, except your heavenly Father knows about it and you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Why do you think He used a sparrow to value how much God loved them, when surely it would have been easier to have told the crowd that God loved them more than all the gold and treasure on Earth?

The reason He could not make a materialistic comparison was that He had already said: “What shall it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your very own soul?”  He was making the point that if you put material law over spiritual law you will damage or even lose your soul.

Consequently, it was impossible for him to use the wealth of the world to measure the love of God for all of us.  Instead He used something that was priceless, literally priceless.  He used the example of a tiny sparrow’s life because it is divine, as all things created by God are divine.  Yet they were blinded to the truth because two sparrows were sold in the market for just a farthing.

In giving us this simple yet beautiful teaching Jesus gave us a new spiritual value system to follow.

When we look back over the centuries it is so very sad that we have not learned this vital lesson.  Man still gives pride of place in his life to the pursuit of power and riches, but at the cost of his spiritual development.  In today’s world the taking of human life and the destruction of Mother Nature for material gain is common place.  But this can never be right for the divine is being traded for the material.

I am not saying that all rich or powerful people are bad, because many do excellent charitable work with their money and use their influence for good.  Nor am I saying all poor people are good because evil is not the exclusive domain of the rich and privileged.

In particular I refer to those who built their wealth on suffering.  They hoard their resources and will not help those who are less fortunate.  They watch them die from starvation and disease without a hint of human compassion or remorse. They are cash rich but spiritually impoverished.

When they make the change called death they will find the roles reversed, for they will become the servants of those they exploited, abused and hurt.

One day this world will live under spiritual law and the true meaning of “You are worth more than many sparrows”, will become apparent for all to see.

Jesus said “Two sparrows are sold in a market place for a farthing and one shall not fall from Heaven, except your heavenly Father knows about it and you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Why do you think He used a sparrow to value how much God loved them, when surely it would have been easier to have told the crowd that God loved them more than all the gold and treasure on Earth?

The reason He could not make a materialistic comparison was that He had already said: “What shall it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your very own soul?”  He was making the point that if you put material law over spiritual law you will damage or even lose your soul.

Consequently, it was impossible for him to use the wealth of the world to measure the love of God for all of us.  Instead He used something that was priceless, literally priceless.  He used the example of a tiny sparrow’s life because it is divine, as all things created by God are divine.  Yet they were blinded to the truth because two sparrows were sold in the market for just a farthing.

In giving us this simple yet beautiful teaching Jesus gave us a new value system to follow.

When we look back over the centuries it is so very sad that we have not learned this vital lesson.  Man still gives pride of place in his life to the pursuit of power and riches, but at the cost of his spiritual development. In today’s world the taking of human life and the destruction of Mother Nature for material gain is common place.  But this can never be right for the divine is being traded for the material.

I am not saying that all rich or powerful people are bad, because many do excellent charitable work with their money and use their influence for good.  Nor am I saying all poor people are good because evil is not the exclusive domain of the rich and privileged.

In particular I refer to those who built their wealth on suffering.  They hoard their resources and will not help those who are less fortunate.  They watch them die from starvation and disease without a hint of human compassion or remorse. They are cash rich but spiritually impoverished.

When they make the change called death they will find the roles reversed, for they will become the servants of those they exploited, abused and hurt.

One day this world will live under spiritual law and the true meaning of “You are worth more than many sparrows”, will become apparent for all to see.

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Spiritual Teachings

Life’s Meaning – The Real Purpose of Your Life Revealed

At some point in our lives most of us will ponder some massive questions:

  • What is life’s meaning?
  • Why am I here?
  • What is my purpose?

These periods of questioning and reflection may be triggered by many different things; perhaps a personal crisis or tragedy, reaching a crossroads in our lives, being unfulfilled or bored by our monotonous ‘groundhog day’ routines or simply being overwhelmed by the pressures and unfairness of this world.  For some of us the feeling may be summarised by the title of the Anthony Newley song, ‘Stop the world, I want to get off’.

It is like awakening in a strange and hostile land with no memory of who we are and where we came from.  We desperately want to find our way back home, but where is home?  We have forgotten who we really are and where we came from.  To navigate the obstacles and traps which lie in our path we must search for our ultimate destination and find directions to get there.

Your destination is not a town, city or any other physical place in this world because the truth is that you did not originate in this world.  You were spirit before you came here and you will return to spirit when you make the change called death.  In fact you are spirit here and now, hidden within the physical body required to survive the conditions of this planet.

How can it be that so many people look in the mirror each morning and think the reflection they see is their entire being and that when they die it is the end for them?  Is it any wonder then that this ‘dog-eat-dog’ world is now in such a sorry state?  They are lost on their journey and seek comfort in the bright lights, the mundane and in the acquisition of possessions and power.  Little do they realise the damage they inflict on their real self, their spiritual self, because when they return ‘home’ they will have to judge themselves for the wrongs they committed here.

Having taken a look at the bigger spiritual picture, let us now return to the meaning and purpose of life.  Put simply, your ultimate goal is spiritual perfection and your time here opens up the opportunity to make significant spiritual progress through the test of experiencing the human condition.

Right now you are like steel being tempered in the furnace of life.  How you handle the negative and positive experiences of this world and the choices you make will show you how far you have travelled spiritually in pursuit of that goal.  This is why God has given you the gift of free will in order that you form your own judgements and take your own decisions according to the spiritual light that burns within you.

It may be likened to a parent and child relationship.  Good parents do the best they can to let their child know right from wrong, but as the child grows they release the reigns to allow the child to make his own decisions and grow as a person.  God’s duty towards you is no less.

God did not put you on Earth to abandon you.  You asked to come to this environment where tough choices between good and evil have to be made on a regular basis.  He equipped you with a road map for your journey in the form of His guiding words over the centuries on how to live our lives.

When you return back to eternal spirit you will reflect on your time here and see more clearly what this life’s meaning has been.  Your mistakes and achievements in this world and how you dealt with success and failure will provide a yardstick of how far you have progressed along your journey of spiritual enlightenment.  Use your time well and do not waste a single second of this precious opportunity.