Lesson One – The Challenges Raise the Bar
“Struggle is a necessary part of life. Our mind is as a muscle in that exercise develops strength and flexibility, strength and flexibility of ideas. Our emotions act through and on choices of how to respond to them.”
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Lesson Two – There is a Game Plan
“Desire and intention are powerful tools, or weapons.”
“Weapons aren’t mentioned in the lesson.”
“It goes without saying that anything that can do good can also do harm.”
“We choose how to use them?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson Three -The High and Low Interact
“Ego and Higher Self Reflect Each Other”
“We can follow both?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“By finding our unique comfort zone between the two extremes.”
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Lesson Four – There is a Plan
“Our memories have memories of their own?”
“Yes.”
“How far back can that game be played?”
“It’s more than a game.”
“Then please explain how we can deal with memories that go beyond memories.”
“Explain what?”
“If what we’re doing now had its beginning in the past ..?”
“And it did.”
“Then, if there was a never-ending chaing of events ..?”
“And there was.”
“Then how can we know what causes us to do or be the way we are, now?”
“What we do may be different, but what we are is not.”
“Please Explain.”
“What we are now is what we’ve always been and always will be, a unique blend of variable strengths and qualities of energy.”
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Lesson Five – The Power of One
“Our thoughts and emotions have power to affect others.”
“If that’s so ..?”
“And it is.”
“Then the thoughts and emotions of some others ..”
“Yes.”
“What gives them power?”
“We do.”
“How?”
“By opening to them.”
“How not to open to them?”
“By being closed to them.”
“Can we learn to be closed to the thoughts and emotions of some others?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Social conditioning can do it.”
“Or self-conditioning?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson Six – There Are No Losers
“Life is the only game in town and we each live long enough to win.”
“How many lifetimes does it take?”
“As many as are needed.”
“And then what?”
“Wait and see.”
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Lesson Seven – There’s More Than Feeling
“It’s not possible to be in relationship without attachment?”
“Yes.”
“Emotions, thoughts, and being are different?”
“Yes.”
“From what?’
“From each others.”
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Lesson Eight – There is No End
“Learning goes on forever?”
“Yes.”
“Why does it take so long?”
“There’s no end.”
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Lesson Nine – Thee is No Self
“Before you can have more than enough faith in anyone or anything, you would first have to have some. Do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Do you have some faith?”
“In what? Or whom?”
“In me.”
“I must have some or there would be no relationship between us.”
“Yes.”
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Lesson Ten – There is No Such Thing
“Do all dreams have a purpose?”
“Yes.”
“What purpose?”
“What dream?”
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Lesson Eleven – There is No Way
“We each are unique in some way, and can only be whom we are, and learn and do whartever, our way.”
“Then the way to enlightenment can only be an individual way?”
“Yes, and no.”
“Please explain.”\
“Learning anything requires accepting general rules, and yet, within these general rules there is infinite flexibility.”
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Lesson Twelve – The Self and Ego
“Ego and Self flow into and sustain each other.”
“Can we relate to each of them at the same time?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Seek to please one without displeasing the other.”
“It sounds like a relationship problem.”
“It is a relationship.”
“But not necessarily a problem?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 13 – There is Only One Story
“Our personal collection of memories is as a history book.”
“But not everything that happened in the past has been recorded.”
“Yes, and not everyone remembers the same situation and events.”
“So, how can thre be only one story?”
“Every individual memory is part of a general collective memory.”
“As in chapters of a book?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 14 – The Tree of Life
“Equality and neutrality rarely last for long.”
“Why?”
“All is energy, and energy moves.”
“Could we develop a pattern of our human energies intentionally moving in harmony with each other?”
“Yes, and someday we will.”
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Lesson 15 – They Each Reach for the Other
“What could be called a trickle-down-effect is the wave of higher-level energy that comes to humanity in the form of insights.”
“And yet we develop from the bottom-up.”
“Not necessarily.”
“Please explain.”
“What?”
“How we might not develop from the bottom and work our way up.”
“We never were at the bottom.”
“How low have we been?”
“As low as you needed to be.”
“Why would I need to be low?”
“So that you could work your way up.”
“I don’t understand.”
“What?”
“I don’t understand why I would want to be low to begin with.”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 16 – Thinking For a Purpose
“We each hone our skills, emotions, and thought development, not to mention spiritual development, in experience.”
“What kind of experience?”
“Whatever experience we choose.”
“Are all of our experiences chosen?”
“Yes.”
“Why would I choose unpleasant experiences?”
“What unpleasant experiences?”
“Any.”
“To learn to feel compassion for those who experience those unpleasant experiences, without having intentionally chosen to do so.”
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Lesson 17 – Thinking is a Game
“There are games in this world, and beyond, that are beyond you, at least for now.”
“How can we know what is beyond us?”
“Failure can teach you that.”
“But some people refuse to let failure stop them from keeping on trying to do what they seem to need to do.”
‘Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“Some people refuse to give up.”
“Is that foolish or wise?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On how important the goal is.”
“And whether you believe you might be able to reach your goal with just a little more effort?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 18 – To Inspire Us to Think
“A sudden insight can inspire us to do research on our own, to seek more information on our subject of interest.”
“Is there no conflict between formal knowledge and sudden awareness or intuition?”
“Is there a difference?”
“Between what?”
“Intuition and awareness.”
“Is intuition more sudden?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 19 – Unconditional Love
“Unconditional compassion doesn’t exist.”
“Why?”
“We choose whom to feel compassion for.”
“I’m developing a capacity to feel unconditional love.”
“Yes, I’m impressed.”
“So, what’s the relationship between unconditional love and compassion?”
“Unconditional love has no direct object. I’t a quality of the soul.”
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Lesson 20 – Unhappiness and Suffering
“Unhappiness and suffering are self-inflicted.”
“Who would inflice unhappiness and suffering on themselves?”
“We don’t usually do it intentionally.”
“Or consciously?”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
“Not why.”
“Then how?”
“By choosing to be unhappy and suffer for the sake of some others.”
“Self-sacrifice?”
“Yes.”
“Would it be a temporary situation?”
“It’s not a situation.”
“What then?”
“It’s a state of mind.”
“An emotional state of mind?”
“Not necessarily.”
“A rational decision?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 21 – Unique Individuals
“Knowing that you have a specific need is the beginning of awareness that possibly all human have individual specific needs.”
“Why would we have needs that not all other individuals might have?”
“Humans are each and all unique in some way, so their needs might also be unique.”
“Please explain.”
“Swimmers usually need a swim suit. Mountain climbers need different types of clothing.”
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Lesson 22 – Wanting Changes Nothing
“Without struggle, nothing would change.”
“If we stopped struggling, …”
“Change would still happen.”
“How?”
“The world changes around us.”
“Does the world struggle?”
“All forms of life struggle.”
“Why?”
“To live.”
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Lesson 23 – We Each Have Our Own Style
“Life is a game that we learn to play in a unique way, our way.”
“Is that what Walking the Walk means?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Walking our unique way is simply to be honest with ourself.”
“How can we know if we’re being honest with ourself?”
“Your inner comfort zone will tell you.”
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Lesson 24 – We Learn to Know
“You may not yet know the truth about life, but you know a lot that isn’t true. When we think we know something, then we believe it is true, whether or not it actually is. “
“If truth is a variable, …”
“And it is.”
“Then, could every possible idea be more or less true than some other idea?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 25 – We Live Our Awareness
“Do we necessarily live our awareness?”
“Awareness of what?”
“Awareness of how we are living our life.”
“How else would you be living your life?”
“From habit.”
“What habit?”
“The habit of just living the way we seem to need to live.”
“What way do you seem to need to live?”
“As I have always lived, more or less.”
“What way is that?”
“Doing what seems to make sense, while it does.”
“And the what?”
“Adapting as little as possible to make more sense.”
“Yes.”
“What does tht mean?”
“It means that you seem reluctant to make any big changes in how you live.”
“Yes, and yet I do change my way of living when it seems to need to be changed.”
“Yes, and that is exactly how to develop an ever-satisfying way of life. Too much change, too quickly, can lead to backsliding into old ways.”
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Lesson 26 – We Share Our Life
“We share our life with all who know us, to the extent that they know us.”
“Does that mean that our unique individual lives interconnect with some other unique individual lives?”
“Yes.”
“But only partially?”
“How could our unique individual life be unique or individual if anyone else knew us as we know ourself?”
“It would mean a complete merger of two lives?”
“Yes, and eventually, and gradually, that is exactly what will happen.”
“Why?”
“That’s beyond our individual knowing.”
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Lesson 27 – Whatever Works
“What works for some people may not work for some others.”
“Why?”
“We each have unique capacities and potentials to succeed in some activities than do some others.. We have unique natural gifts that we have acquired over many lifetimes.”
“Would aptitude tests help us to discover what career we might be best suited for?”
“Who would give the test?”
“A qualified career counselor.”
“What would qualify the counselor?”
“She or he would have studied psychology.”
“You studied psychology.”
“But only undergraduate studies.”
“What did you learn about aptitudes for specific careers?”
“Nothing that I remember.”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“What might it mean?”
“That it’s best for the individual to discover what she or he is best suited to by following their own interests?”
“Yes. If someone else has chosen our life’s work, then it’s not our own.”
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Lesson 28 – What is Feng Shui?
“If the story of our life is never finished ..”
“And it isn’t.”
“Then we pick up where we left of in earlier lifetimes?”
“Not necessarily.”
“Please Explain.”
“We may have learned as much about some way of life as much as we care to know about. Or we may simply wish to learn something about something else, this time.”
“Where does Feng Shui fit into this picture?”
“Feng Shui is about discovering our physical comfort zone.”
How do we discover our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual comfort zones?”
The same way we would seek to discover our physical comfort zone, trial and error..”
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Lesson 29 – What is Spiritual Philosophy?
‘The study of the development of higher levels of thought.”
“What about it?”
“If that’s what spiritual philosophy is …”
“And it is.”
“How to develop higher levels of thought?”
“We could focus on the quality of our emotions.”
“Refining the quality of our emotions refines the quality of our thoughts?”
“Yes.”
“And spirituality is a blend of higher quality thoughts and emotions?”
“Yes. It’s as simple as that.”
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Lesson 30 – When More is Less
“More of something, anything, is necessarily less of something else. Dry weather can always be dryer, or less dry.”
“What about wisdom, or understanding?”
“What about them?”
“How do they relate to each other as more or less of one being ..?”
“Wisdom and understanding are each variables, but not polar.”
“So, one could have more of one than of the other?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Understanding is a prerequisite to wisdom, but ..”
“It doesn’t work the other way?”
“Yes. Some things we understand and some things we do not. We see or we do not see, unless we vaguely see. Wisdom is awareness of what and how much we see or understand of whatever.”
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Lesson 31 – When We’re Not Yet Ready
Spirit agreed with me when I suggested that we each have our own comfort zone when dealing with new information, as well as our own individual style of absorbing new information.
“Yes. Not everyone is as interested as you seem to be to understand the interaction of the many blends of human energy that interact with each other within each of us, as expressed on the Kabbalah Tree of Life and Ladder of Light. And, as interested as you and some others might be, it would be foolish to go beyond your depth, beyond your capacity to understand deeper insights until you first become comfortable with the ones you are now coping with. There is no reward for speed.”
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Lesson 32 – Where Does Chaos Rule?
“Our attitude may invite Chaos to rule, when simple respect would serve to unite us.”
“Is it possible to teach everyone to respect everyone else?”
“It’s not only the person or people we need to learn to respect, but the ways of life that they have been conditioned to believe in.”
“How to respect ways that are different from our own?”
“As you would hope that others would respect your values.”
“Is that what ways of life are?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 33 – Where Do Expectations Come From?
“Expectations come from personal experience.”
“Does that mean that we expect to be treated as we’ve been treated in the past?”
“Not necessarily so.”
“Please explain.”
“What?”
“Where expectations come from.”
“We witness how other people respond to each other, and we develop a sense of how to respond to similar situations in our own life.”
“We copy what we see?”
“We copy what we see if we feel comfortable with the interactions of others that we witness.”
“We each influence each other?”
“Yes.”
“But what if there are more mutually beneficial ways to interact with other people, that we have not yet witnessed.”
“Such as?”
“Mutual respect.”
“Have you never witnessed mutual respect?”
“Yes, but not as often as is possible.”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that we can respond to others in ways that they do not seem to respond to us.”
“It has to start somewhere?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 34 – Who Is, or Are, Our Own Kind
“Perhaps our own kind of people would be people like us.”
“Individually or collectively?”
“What does that mean?”
“How many people do you know who are like you?”
“Not many.”
“Not any.”
“Some are more like me than are some others.”
“How can you tell which are more like you?”
“If they generally agree with me and enjoy what I enjoy.”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 35 – Why Do We Do What We Do?
“Patterns of behavior develop early in life. We learn from experience what actions result in positive experiences, and which do not.”
“Isn’t it possible that some patterns of behavior will be more acceptable to some people than they are to some others?”
“Yes, and we learn to adapt our style of response to fit different situations.”
“Where does individuality fit into this picture?”
“We are individuals, more or less.”
“Wouldn’t life be chaotic if we each had to learn how to respond to everyone else on an individual basis?”
“Yes, and that is why social conditioning serves us well, when it does.”
“When wouldn’t social conditioning serve us well.”
“When we individually and/or collectively fail to adapt to changing situations in our individual and/or group life.”
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Lesson 36 – Worlds Within Worlds of Rules
Spirit tells me that it’s possible to become happy and/or contented.
“How?”
“Live by rules of your own choosing.”
“How to choose my own rules?”
“Whatever you do that has a positive outcome is a good place to start.”
“Physically, emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually?”
“Each aad all, individually and/or collectively.”
“Can we be satisfied physically and yet not emotionally?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 37 – Your Story is My Story
Spirit tells me that we’re living interconnected life stories.
“Yes, and yet some of our life stories are more similar to the life stories of some other people than of some others. We’re both the same and yet different.”
“In what way?”
“Not necessarily in any one way, but in many ways.”
“Such as?”
“We’re each and all human, if we are.”
“And we each have experienced similar and different histories?”
“Yes.”
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Lesson 38 – Zodiac Signs and People
Spirit tells me that zodiac signs and people have much in common with each other.
“Yes, just as there are rules about which zodiac signs relate to each other, and in what ways they relate to each other, at different times, so it is with people. We also relate to each other in different ways at different times.”
“Can we learn how to relate to each other by studying zodiac signs?”
“Yes, and we can also learn how to relate to each other by studying the outcome of how we have related to some others, in the past.”
“Practice interactions that have proven to have beneficial outcomes?”
“Yes.”
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End of Book Three
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Simple Seeker Society 