The "Introduction" and "Key Points" for this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not things Mike said during the lecture. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the portions Mike read aloud).
Introduction
This chapter takes All That Is as its premise, explaining that before the universe began there existed a subjective source of infinite creativity. Science cannot prove divine creation, the Big Bang, or the viewpoint of this chapter; it can only be verified through subjective experience. The thoughts, dreams, and feelings of All That Is all carry its attributes and seek free release; within the sacred dilemma that satisfies the needs of each consciousness, the physical universe was created by a leap of inspiration. Every consciousness is in direct contact with All That Is. The end of this chapter emphasizes that "the beginning is now."
Key Points of This Chapter
- Science cannot prove creationism, the Big Bang, or Seth's viewpoint; subjective experience is the method of verification Seth proposes.
- All That Is is assumed to be the subjective source of infinite creativity before the universe began, and is still present in the world of experience.
- The thoughts, dreams, and feelings of All That Is all carry its attributes and creativity, and demand free release.
- When the needs of all consciousness are satisfied, the physical universe is instantly created in a leap of inspiration, without involving time.
- Every consciousness is in direct contact with All That Is, with no agent or intermediary.
Main Text
Location of This Session: Volume 1, Chapter 1
Today we continue sharing Session 883 of Volume 1 of the Seth book Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. This session still belongs to the content before Chapter 1 begins, and it started at 9:06 p.m. on Monday, October 1, 19791.
Seth said, "You cannot prove scientifically that your world was created by a god." He said:
You cannot prove scientifically that your world was created by a god who set it in motion but kept himself outside his own territory.
Nor can you prove scientifically that the creation of the world was a chance event -- that the Big Bang was a chance event, and the moment the Big Bang ended, our universe was born. Neither of these can you prove scientifically; you cannot prove the theory of divine creation, nor can you prove the Big Bang theory. Therefore, you also cannot prove this thing I am about to tell you. You cannot prove it in the usual way, but you can prove it in other ways.
The so-called usual way is the way of the three-dimensional world that we humans accept. You cannot prove it in this way, but you can prove it through your own experience and feelings. Yet experience and feelings do not count as evidence in science -- this is the interesting thing about our current science: it does not call experience and feelings evidence. Then what is it living in this world for? Is it not experiencing and feeling in this world? But then it says experience and feelings are not important; only scientific experiments are important.
For example, if you give me this thing to eat, science proves it is sugar, so what you eat should be sweet. But when you eat this sugar, you feel very pained, very uncomfortable, even nauseated, even that it is bitter -- then you are wrong, something is wrong with you. Because I have scientifically proven that this thing is sweet, and what everyone eats should be sweet, and what you eat should also be sweet. But you clearly taste it as bitter, as nauseating, as foul -- none of that matters; you are wrong. This is the scientific viewpoint -- feelings and experience are not important; only scientific facts are important.
This is a very strange thing. We humans live in this world -- are your feelings and experiences not important? Then what did you come to this world for? Do you live for science? Do you live inside formulas and laboratory theories?
So what Seth means here is: if you cannot accept my viewpoint, at the very least you cannot reject my viewpoint either, because those other two viewpoints also cannot be proven. At least the three of us are the same. He then took a step back and continued:
In any case, I hope, as my explanations proceed, to give you certain hints and clues.
Seth said, although I cannot prove it, I hope through my explanations to give you some clues and hints, so that you know where to look for this subjective evidence.
What is subjective evidence? It is your inner feelings and experiences; this is subjective evidence. Although you cannot prove Seth's theories in a laboratory, you can prove them through your own experience. This includes the experiences many people have shared at this sharing group -- many people have, through their own feelings, experienced the illusory nature of time, traveling across time and space, and things like that. So can scientific experiments prove that?
Subjective Perception and Life
Then he began to explain. First of all, you live your life through your own subjective perception. Then many people say, subjective evidence does not count as correct, I want objective evidence. Seth then said -- the same thing I just said -- you live your life through your subjective perception, and that is what matters most. So why do you insist on that objective thing? This world is primarily based on your subjective feelings, and that is what is real. So why do you say that subjective feelings are not important, and that objective things are what matter?
Let me give a simple example: objectively speaking, a certain young man is especially suitable for you. Whether it is his qualifications, income, family background, and so on, everything completely meets your requirements, yet you simply do not love him. Everyone says the two of you are the most suitable match, but you say my subjective feeling is just that I do not like him, that I do not love him. Others say that is not important, your subjective feeling is not important, all of us have determined that he is the most suitable for you. Can you accept that? Do you not still refuse to accept it? At that moment, why do you not believe in science? Why do you not believe in the choice and judgment that science gives you? Why do you insist on emphasizing your subjective feeling at that moment? This example shows what matters most.
The world we live in now is a very strange world. It completely castrates individual subjectivity and feelings, insists on emphasizing the so-called objective facts of those so-called scientists, and then imposes them on your head.
Seth said:
I will try to evoke within your own consciousness the memory of those events, in which your own inner psyche was intimately involved when the world was being formed, and although these may seem to be past events, even now they are still occurring.
I will try to make you remember, to awaken within the depths of your consciousness your memory of these events. What events? That is, when the universe was born, your own consciousness was also involved in this great event of the birth of the universe. It is not something in the distant past as you imagine, something from 13.7 billion years ago2; it is still happening now. That is to say, this universe is still being created now, still happening now, and you are intimately participating in it, and also intimately involved in it. It is the inner psyche that is intimately involved, but you do not know it, you do not feel it. Seth says I will try to make you able to remember these things, and then you will understand how this universe was created.
The Assumptions of All That Is
Then he says:
Before the beginning of the universe, we will postulate an all-powerful, creative source and being.
The phrase "before the beginning" is interesting -- you say "beginning," and then you say "before"? So which is it... Let's not play word games with this; if we do, we'll drive ourselves crazy. "We will postulate" -- remember, first postulate that there is such a thing, otherwise this discussion cannot even begin.
We hope to prove this divine subjectivity. Subjectivity and subject are two different things -- once you add the suffix "-ity," it becomes something different from the thing itself. Is there a difference between human nature and a human being? Yes, there is. Is there a difference between the subject and subjectivity? Yes, there is. Human nature is non-concrete; anything with "-ity" or "-ness" becomes non-concrete, no longer the specific thing itself. For example, in Buddhism they often speak of "self-nature" -- is this self-nature the same as the self? No, it is higher than the self. Let us put it this way -- art comes from life and yet transcends life -- that is the meaning here. Once you say "nature" or "-ness," it transcends the thing itself, transcends you yourself, transcends your own self, and yet it can still represent you -- that is what is called self-nature. Human nature is the same -- everyone says we have human nature, the radiance of human nature, the glory of human nature, and yet human nature is an abstraction, not something concrete; it cannot be said to be any particular person. But each person can live out our human nature.
Here he says:
We hope to prove that this divine subjectivity still exists in the world of your experience, just as it did before the beginning of the universe.
Let us take this part more slowly. What he means is: we first postulate that before the birth of the universe there was an all-powerful, creative source and being, and this source and being is the divine subjectivity. And this divine subjectivity still exists in our present world and universe; you can feel it, you can experience it. Since you can now experience it and feel it, then likewise before the beginning of the universe, it could also be felt and experienced. But before the universe was born, you did not yet exist, so you cannot use this method to reason about it. But as he says, since it exists now, it also existed then. These two sentences logically unify the two paradoxes -- the source that existed before the birth of the universe, and the source that after the birth of the universe is hidden or latent everywhere, are one and the same source. Since they are one source, that means it is not as we imagine, with a creator god existing outside the universe, nor like the Big Bang, where it ended after the universe was born. What he wants to tell you is this: the source of the universe existed before the universe, and it also exists after the birth of the universe.
Continuing in his sequence, he says:
Once again, I call this original subjectivity All That Is.
I will give it a name. This original subjectivity, that is, the original source and original being, the source and being that existed before the birth of the universe -- let us give it a name: All That Is. In the previous session, All That Is was also given a definition: it is the sum of all creative processes. The creative process includes consciousness itself, the creator and the created, and the process of creation, as well as the interactions among them -- the integrated whole of all this is called All That Is. This All That Is existed before the universe, it will exist after the birth of the universe, and it will also exist after the universe disappears.
Seth says:
I am trying to express concepts that almost defy your intellect.
I am expressing some more concepts, concepts that almost contradict all your previous knowledge, that are subversive of it.
Unless that intellect is thoroughly reinforced by the power of the intuition.
Understood in reverse: if your intellectual power is not reinforced by your intuitive power, then you will feel that what I am saying now completely overturns your cognition and rationality. Unless your rationality has been reinforced by intuition -- this is what Seth repeatedly emphasizes in The Magical Approach: our rationality must be combined with our intuition. Without the power of intuition, the power of rationality will only lead us in a very narrow direction. And many of our readers can already feel this power of intuition, can experience the power of intuition; when this intuitive power is combined with the power of rationality, you will not feel any conflict. Otherwise, some of Seth's statements will be unacceptable to you.
Therefore, as you read this book, you must bring your mind and your intuition together. What is intuition? It is what your heart feels, what your heart senses -- if your heart feels it is right, then you accept and acknowledge it; if it feels wrong, then you do not accept it. Rationality and knowledge, on the other hand, are considered correct only if they make logical sense and fit within your system of knowledge. Intuition is: I do not care whether it is logical or not, rational or not -- I just feel in my heart that it makes sense.
The Inner Universe of Infinite Creation
He made an addition, then continued:
All That Is, before that beginning, contained within himself the infinite impetus of all possible creation.
First, note that this impetus is infinite. Do not ask him where so much energy comes from. He has infinite impetus.
All That Is possessed a creativity so magnificent that his most subtle imaginings, his dreams, his thoughts, his feelings, or his emotions also attained a kind of reality, a kind of vitality, a kind of intensity that almost required freedom in order to be.
Because the inner creative impetus of All That Is is too strong, his ability too great, omnipotent. When he is omnipotent, any of his notions, ideas, imaginings, dreams, thoughts, feelings, and emotions must attain a kind of reality. Suppose you were omnipotent right now; then you would certainly want to turn every idea in your head into reality. Do you remember in Absolutely Anything3, after the villain caught that person, he said, "I will make all the police in Britain wear pink uniforms" — that was an imagining in his mind, and to him it seemed very amusing. Ordinarily you might not be able to do it, but once you have superpowers you can. When you have ability surpassing everything, all the things you imagine you want to turn into reality, all want to be realized and manifested, all want to be made manifest.
And this manifestation must be allowed enough freedom for it to happen. What does giving freedom to imagination mean? Simply put, you imagine something, you imagine all the police wearing pink uniforms. What is meant by giving freedom to imagination is this: after you finish imagining it, what follows afterward — after the police put on the pink uniforms, what reactions they have, what feelings they have, what things they do, or what subsequent developments and changes occur — that is their own business. This is called freedom. You give every thought freedom. You created it, so you must allow it freedom. Let me give you a simpler example: you gave birth to your child, you created him, but you must give him freedom.
He said: What freedom is this freedom from? And freedom to become what? This sentence is very interesting. Where exactly does this freedom come from? It is very hard to explain.
For example, you gave birth to a child. What the child wants to become is his freedom — that is the later part, "freedom to become what." Then what about "freedom from what"? You gave birth to this child with a certain intention of your own — you wanted a child, that is your freedom, you wanted to have a child. When you gave birth to this child, you had an imaginative space regarding the child's future or regarding the child you imagined, and is this imagining of yours not your freedom? And what he wants to become is his freedom. So between these two freedoms, which one has the final say? Whose freedom is greater?
Seth raised a question here, but he did not expand on it specifically afterward; in fact, he kept discussing this question later on. These two sentences are very crucial — the subject who is the creator of a thought, and the people, things, and events within the reality created by that thought: their subjective intentions and the intention you had when you created them — how do these two freedoms, these two free wills, operate?
Then he said:
That experience, that subjective universe, the mind of All That Is was so brilliant, so distinct, that All That Is almost got lost. God within this ever-multiplying, ever-growing inner landscape.
What kind of experience? It is the experience in which the ability of All That Is is infinite, and all his ideas want to be manifested, all want to come out, all want to obtain freedom — the experience he refers to is this. Such an experience made this subjective universe, made the consciousness of All That Is, its mind, so brilliant, so distinct. Brilliant means quantity, extremely bright, infinite ability, infinite light. So distinct means every small thought is distinctly clear — as Buddhism says, distinctly clear — even the thought of an atom, the consciousness of an atom, is attended to. So distinct refers to this.
So much so that All That Is almost got lost. Of course he would get lost; it is too vast — thoughts give rise to thoughts, thoughts again give rise to thoughts, endless and inexhaustible. All That Is within this world, within this world of divine wandering, God within this ever-multiplying, ever-growing inner landscape. "Multiplying" means the process of ceaseless multiplying and growing — thoughts give birth to thoughts, dreams give birth to dreams, ideas give birth to ideas, feelings give birth to new feelings, emotions give birth to new emotions. Such an endlessly self-perpetuating process of multiplication, such an ever-growing inner landscape, made All That Is get lost. Can you understand this? Too vast, too complex, endless and inexhaustible. Is his ability strong? It is strong, but no matter how infinite his ability, when he encounters an infinitely complex, infinitely multiplying, infinitely growing thing, he too will get lost. When infinity meets infinity, he is just as bewildered.
Every mental thought, every feeling, every dream, every emotion itself was stamped with the indelible imprint of all the attributes of this infinite subjectivity. Each glowed and trembled with its own creativity.
Within the mind of All That Is, every thought, every idea, every notion, every emotion itself carries all the original attributes of All That Is. What are the attributes of All That Is? Creation. All That Is has a thousand thoughts, and each of these thousand thoughts again possesses all the abilities of All That Is; each thought again gives birth to a thousand thoughts, and each thought born from these thousand thoughts again possesses the attributes of All That Is, and it again gives birth to a thousand thoughts... Every thought, every consciousness, every feeling, every experience has its own creativity, the same creativity and the same ability as All That Is. Each of them is glowing, each of them is trembling, each of them wants to be manifested, each of them wants to live out itself.
The "distinctly clear" here means each one is distinctly clear; "so brilliant" means each one is glowing — every consciousness is glowing, with the same light as All That Is. Then all of these added together are just so brilliant, so distinct.
Therefore, before this beginning, there existed an inner universe without beginning and without end. Just before everything began, there was an inner universe — and this inner universe is without beginning and without end. We need not agonize over it, because agonizing returns us to the matter of time. The two words "without beginning" and "without end" themselves already involve the concept of time — "without beginning or end" seems to break the concept of time, but actually it does not break it; it reinforces the concept of time, merely giving you the feeling that time is very long, that time is infinitely long. It does not break it.
Simply put, before this universe was born, there was an inner universe. That is easier to understand. I put "before the beginning" in quotation marks because this way it is easier for you to digest and understand, since without using this phrasing you would not understand.
He said:
That same infinite inner universe, for example, still exists now.
It is not that the inner universe created our present outer universe and then disappeared. No, that inner universe still exists. So let us for the time being use words that we humans can understand to explain it, but remember: using words that humans can understand to explain it does not mean that the matter itself is exactly this way; it is only to help you understand. After you understand, absorb what you have understood, and do not let yourself be trapped within the limitations of the present language.
The Sacred Fact: Thought Is Existence
There was a pause in the middle, and then Seth said:
All That Is contained within itself all knowledge of existences, along with their infinite possibilities. And once All That Is imagined those countless situations, they existed within what I call the sacred fact.
All That Is contains within itself all the knowledge of existences -- the existence of atoms, the existence of dinosaurs, the existence of us humans, how every existence should develop and grow from its birth -- all of this knowledge is there. It also includes all of its infinite possibilities -- every person's possibilities are immeasurable and incalculable. What an immense system this is.
The word "once" is in quotation marks, because when you say "once," it implies there is a time -- in Chinese, "once" has the sense of a day or a moment -- once All That Is imagined those countless situations, that is, the countless thoughts, countless imaginings, countless dreams he was just talking about. The moment he imagined them, they existed within what he called the sacred fact. The so-called sacred fact is the inner universe; he called it the sacred fact. As soon as he thinks it, it already exists.
All That Is knew only itself.
Why? Because everything is All That Is. For him there is no separation, nothing else, only himself. It is like when you feel that everything is you; you do not feel that those thoughts and ideas each have an independent life. You are the subject, and All That Is thinks the same way -- everything is him, and those are merely his thoughts and ideas and feelings and experiences.
He continued:
He was engrossed in his own subjective experience.
Just as each of us is engrossed in our own subjective experience, All That Is is the same -- these experiences and feelings are all his subjective experience.
As his own thoughts and imaginings gained their vitality, and inherited the creativity of their subjective creator, he even felt a sacred wonder.
Because those thoughts and imaginings began to have a dialogue with their creator. When Seth said this passage, he spoke with great emphasis throughout; Rob added a note here: all of it was very emphatic, because this passage is very important.
What is this passage trying to say? This All That Is, at first he only knew himself, just like each of us. Then he suddenly discovered that his thoughts could converse with himself -- these things he had created, these creations began to converse with the creator, with himself as the creator. Whether creator or created, both are All That Is, both are within the system of All That Is. But within this, let us first make a separation so that you can understand him.
All That Is suddenly discovered that these thoughts he created, these things he imagined, each had their own independence and their own autonomous creativity -- since they possess the same abilities as All That Is, they possess independent free will and consciousness -- and then they began to turn back and converse with the All That Is that created them. He felt a sacred wonder: the things I created actually have the same abilities as me.
The creator discovers that the things he made have the same abilities as him -- is that not amazing? The child you give birth to, does he not have the same abilities as you? When he is a little baby, not yet, but when he grows up, what you can do, he can do too -- you can have children, he can have children; you can work, he can work; you can earn money, he earns even more than you. Is it amazing or not? All That Is discovered that this thing is amazing. And he also discovered that these children of his even talk to him, even converse with him -- do your children converse with you? Yes, and they often make you quite angry, though sometimes it is very sweet and warm.
He continued:
Thoughts of such magnificent vitality began to think their own thoughts, and their thoughts thought thoughts in turn.
All That Is had many ideas, and these ideas all became independent, all came alive. Every imagined thing came alive, and every thing that came alive then wanted to think its own things. In this way, we became something thought up by All That Is, but we have our own thoughts, our own imaginings, and the things we imagine give birth to new things, and those new things have their own imaginings. And so it goes on and on, each one possessing all the attributes of All That Is -- every one of us carries all the attributes of All That Is. This is what the Buddha meant after his enlightenment when he said, "All sentient beings possess the Buddha-nature4" -- every one of us has this Buddha-nature.
All That Is, as if in sacred astonishment and wonder, began to listen, and to respond to these generations of thoughts and dreams.
He can actually speak, and even chat with me -- let me give a vivid example -- he began to listen, and began to respond to these "generations" of thoughts and dreams. A thought one has, and the thought of the thought of the thought of the thought... that is, the descendants of thoughts, all began to converse with him. Because these thoughts and dreams are also related to one another. The reason he puts "generations" in quotation marks is that there is actually no concept of generations; only humans have the concept of generations. So let us temporarily use a way humans can understand -- the thought of a thought, the child of the child of the child of a thought, is still a thought, and this thought still possesses all the attributes of All That Is, and it can also begin to converse with All That Is.
Simultaneity and Spontaneous Creation
There is no time, therefore all of these occur simultaneously.
He put quotation marks around the word "occur" again, because the moment you speak of occurring, there is a question of before and after. Seth is especially afraid that you will misunderstand in the middle of it, and he emphasizes it everywhere—wherever he uses quotation marks, he is indicating that this "occurring" is not the kind of occurring you understand, because if it were the occurring you understand, then there would always be one thing first and another thing later. So he says "simultaneously." You may ask, how can there be a thought of a thought if they occur simultaneously? Surely there must be one thought first and another thought later? This is where he is strange, where he is paradoxical, and this is where he transcends our human reason and intellect. If you use human logic to understand this passage, you cannot explain this sentence, you cannot understand it; you can only understand it with your intuition.
The order of events is simplified.
He does not want to get tangled up in this matter any further, because if he did, it would never end, so he tells you: let us first simplify it and put it this way—everything occurs simultaneously, and do not ask me how it can be simultaneous. Do not ask me how it is that clearly one thought is thought by another thought, and yet they are still simultaneous. If you want to ask this, Seth says, let us not talk about it for now; I am simplifying it first, because this is not the time to discuss it.
And so:
In your terms, then, All That Is spontaneously thinks new thoughts, dreams new dreams, and involves itself in new imaginings.
Remember the modifier "spontaneously"—All That Is is thinking new thoughts and new dreams, and doing so simultaneously. These things are not easy to understand. You could say that these thoughts and mental ideas are the child thoughts and child mental ideas of its previous generation of thoughts, or dreams within dreams; you could also say that all of these are new thoughts and new dreams of All That Is—and at this point, the logic of language again falls into limitation.
And all of these are involved with those interwoven thoughts and dreams that have already endured through infinite ages.
Seth says that All That Is continually involves itself in new imaginings, new dreams, and new thoughts, and these new thoughts are in turn entangled with those old thoughts, those thoughts that have endured through generation after generation for who knows how many generations. What appears to be a new thought is also a creation of the old thoughts, and yet it is new. I think in your heart you can understand this—at this point language really does not know how to express it, and Seth has already used the most suitable language he could think of. If you cannot understand it, then read it two more times. My language is really not as good as his; I do not know how I could find better words to explain it to you. It is simply that all these new thoughts are in fact the result of the old thoughts entangling with one another, generating one another, and interacting with one another through generation after generation, and yet they really are new—that is the state of it.
When Seth was saying this passage, he used many gestures and many emphases; he was afraid you would not understand, so he kept gesturing and kept emphasizing—he hoped you could understand what he was saying in this passage. This passage is actually all explaining the sentence that came before: "Freedom from what? Freedom to be what?" He is actually explaining this freedom.
The Sacred Stream of Awakening
Continuing:
Therefore, besides this spontaneous creation, this simultaneous sacred stream of awakening, All That Is began to observe the interactions occurring among the offspring of his own subjectivity.
He used the word "stream" -- what is meant by the sacred stream of awakening? It is this spontaneous creation, in which every consciousness has awakened, every consciousness has awakened to its own unique existence, every consciousness knows that it can have its own autonomous free will and complete creativity. This is what is called the sacred stream of awakening. Every one has awakened, every one is spontaneously creating.
Besides this, All That Is also discovered: among these consciousnesses, among these thoughts and thoughts, among these imaginations and imaginations, they are also engaging in mutual interaction with one another. He discovered not only that every one has awakened, but that after awakening, no one simply ignores the others -- on the contrary, there is close interaction and mutual influence among them -- just as we human beings interact with one another. This was something new that he discovered.
He listened, and began to respond to, or answer, a thought or a dream.
All That Is began to listen to the interactions among them, and began to interact and communicate with them. These thoughts and thoughts, dreams and dreams, imaginations and imaginations communicated with one another, and then All That Is also took part in this great communication, responding to them and answering them.
He began to deliberately bring about those mental conditions demanded by these spiritual offspring of the generations.
"Deliberately" -- remember this phrase. He was acting with intent; he was deliberately and actively bringing about these mental conditions. The spiritual offspring of the generations -- that is, the offspring of the thoughts of the generations, the offspring of the thoughts -- are all those things created by his imagination, and the descendants of those things. They demanded certain mental conditions, and All That Is began to actively bring about these conditions. Through his responses, reactions, and answers to them, he was deliberately guiding them to bring into play their respective mental conditions.
The core point you need to understand here is this: what these things demanded was not something All That Is imposed upon them. It is not that All That Is said, "You go experience this, you go experience that -- I have plucked a handful of hairs like Sun Wukong and made you all go experience separately, and later you can report your results back to me." It is not like that. It is not that All That Is wanted to experience, but rather that each of these spiritual descendants wanted to experience, each had its own demands.
Just as you have your own thoughts, your own goals, the things you want to realize -- for you, these are the spiritual offspring of All That Is. You also have your own demands, because of what you want -- not because All That Is wants you to do something. Do not get this wrong: it is not that All That Is wants you to do something. Saying things like "I listen to my higher self," "the higher self listens to the entity," "the entity listens to All That Is" -- that is not what this means. If you understand it that way, you have got it completely backwards; you have put the cart before the horse. This is the easiest mistake to make. Many people on the path of spiritual practice always want to hear instructions from a higher source -- "give me the highest instruction" -- you yourself are the highest instruction. Why does All That Is satisfy what you demand? Remember, those mental conditions that are demanded -- it is he who satisfies you, not you who satisfies him. Do not get it backwards.
If he had been lonely, he was no longer.
This wording is very interesting. If All That Is had been lonely before the birth of the universe, then he was no longer lonely from that point on -- he suddenly discovered a great many things. You will find that in real life it is the same, is it not? Many people insist on having a child, and after having a child they discover, "Oh my God," they have to satisfy all kinds of demands from the child, and from then on they can no longer be lonely.
Your language again causes some difficulty, so please accept the term "he" as harmlessly as possible.
All That Is is referred to with a masculine "he." Of course, fundamentally speaking, All That Is quite transcends any single category or any gender -- it is not only a matter of gender, it is a matter of category, of species, of the things like stones and animals and humans and flowers and grasses. So do not misunderstand; I am simply using a "he" like that.
And so, as All That Is realized that his own ever-growing thoughts and dreams themselves yearned to enjoy those greater gifts of creativity of which they were born, he began to feel an ever-increasing pressure.
In this passage, the "he" was quietly changed by Rob to the character "he" with the radical for "it," carrying none of the gender connotations of human language. When All That Is realized that every one of his thoughts wanted to manifest, wanted to experience, wanted to interact, his pressure grew greater and greater. It is like when you have given birth to many children, and every child wants to become independent, wants to do what they want to do -- at that point you feel pressure.
It is difficult to try to assign anything like human motives to All That Is.
The motives of All That Is completely transcend the categories that human beings can understand, so do not use human concepts of motive to imagine the motives of All That Is -- why it does what it does.
I can only say that he was fascinated by the need to lovingly create from his own being, to lovingly alter his own reality in such a way that every most subtle possible consciousness could come into existence. He was fascinated by the need to see any possible consciousness take the opportunity to emerge, to perceive, and to love.
This passage -- if you want to ask what the motive of All That Is was in creating this universe, this is the closest expression of it. But although it is close, it is not the most exact, because we cannot truly understand the motive behind All That Is, since it transcends human understanding of motive. We can only try, at the level of words, to get as close as possible to it, to understand it.
What kind of need was All That Is fascinated by? To lovingly create from his own being -- to create grounded in his own existence. This is a core point. What is the key in this sentence? The point of "creating from his own being" is this: he creates without any purpose whatsoever. Remember this sentence: his creation is not for the sake of anything; he simply needs to exist, and creation is for experiencing this existence, experiencing his own existence. To create from his own being, to lovingly create -- he loves this creation, loves experiencing his own existence through creation. This is one of the motives of All That Is.
And then, to alter his own reality in such a way -- in what way? In this way of creating, in the way of letting every one of his own thoughts manifest, in the way of letting them create -- to alter his own reality. From one reality to another reality -- from the inner universe to the outer universe, from inner reality to outer reality. He is altering his own reality, and he loves this process of creating the outer world from the inner world; this is something he cherishes.
What is his purpose in doing this? To let every most subtle possible consciousness -- even a consciousness as tiny as an atom -- to let even the consciousness of an atom enter into existence. His intent, in the end, is still to let every consciousness feel its own existence. It is like when you have ten children -- do you not hope that every child lives happily and joyfully? And one precondition for every child living happily and joyfully is that they can feel their own existence. That is enough. They do not need to become famous or accomplished, they do not need to be the best among people; they only need to be able to truly feel their own existence. All That Is is like this great parent, except that he takes care of a great deal more -- from atoms all the way to living beings, all the way to the stars and the universe, all are within the scope of his care.
After a long pause, Seth was also using all the language possible in human words to describe the motive of All That Is at this moment. Then he said:
All That Is was fascinated by the need to see any possible consciousness take the opportunity to emerge, to perceive, and to love.
All That Is needed to see -- is seeing not a kind of experience, a kind of perception? He needed to see, needed to manifest, that symphony of interactions among all possible consciousnesses. Every possible kind of interaction could emerge -- between consciousness and consciousness, between human consciousness and cellular consciousness, organ consciousness, the consciousness of every person, at different levels, different orders of magnitude, different scales, different dimensions of consciousness, and at every scale there are infinitely many consciousnesses. Between consciousnesses at different scales, between one scale and the next, among all these possible interactions and all their possibilities, he hoped to bring forth every single one, and then to perceive, and to love.
To put it in plain words: to let the love and feeling among all consciousnesses, to let all possible love and feeling, be fully expressed. This is one of the intents of All That Is. If you want to say what its motive is, this is its motive -- our loving one another is the deepest motive of All That Is.
Then he said:
We will discuss the fuller meaning of the word "love" in this context later, and this chapter is only an outline for future material.
Let us not expand on the word "love" here, because the word "love" has a deeper meaning in this context, and we will discuss it later. For now, just know this much. All things love one another -- not only between humans, but between humans and animals, humans and plants, humans and nature, among all things -- they form a vast network of consciousness with one another, and within this vast network of consciousness they are mutually compatible and mutually loving. This is the most natural state. And this is also the most fundamental, most core intent and motive of All That Is in creating this universe. And through this, every consciousness feels its own existence.
The Sacred Dilemma
Continuing:
All That Is, then, as each supreme thought, supreme dream, supreme mood, and feeling of All That Is strained at the edges of your existence, seeking release that was then unknown, undiscovered, and unthought of, All That Is began to become aware of a creative restlessness.
Here it adds "supreme" -- why use the word "supreme"? Because from the standpoint of All That Is, all of this is supreme, sacred, pure, and magical. So within the universe, within this world, there is nothing that is not good; everything is supreme. You see its badness, you think this is bad and that is bad -- today someone kills a person, tomorrow someone mistreats something -- you think it is bad. But from the standpoint of All That Is, each of these is supreme.
Every supreme thought, dream, mood, and feeling strains at the edges of their existence, seeking release that was then unknown, undiscovered, and unthought of. What does this actually mean? It means every thought, every dream, every feeling, every mood wants to release itself, wants to become itself; they all want to experience this existence. When they are at the edges of existence and have not yet truly experienced that existence, each one wants to manifest, to truly feel its own experience. At this point All That Is felt a creative restlessness -- it could not bear it any longer.
The psychic offspring I have spoken of included all consciousnesses that have ever appeared or will ever appear on your earth, all gentle latent ones.
Psychic offspring are the offspring of our thoughts, the offspring of consciousness, the offspring of emotions, the offspring of imagination -- these offspring of All That Is include all consciousnesses that have ever appeared or will ever appear on earth; they all gently lie latent within the brilliant, clear and distinct thoughts of All That Is.
The first human being, the first insect, each had an inner knowledge of the possibilities of its development.
Every species, when its first individual appeared, already knew all the possibilities of its species' future development; its knowledge was already there.
All That Is loved its own offspring, and sought within itself the answer to this sacred dilemma.
All That Is loves its own offspring; it wants each one to experience, it wants each one to feel this sacred creativity of its own, to experience the same qualities and experiences as itself. Just as a parent loves their child and hopes to give the child the very best, All That Is is the same. So can you imagine this feeling -- it wants everything it has created to be like itself, and so it bears a great pressure. This is a sacred dilemma; it must seek an answer.
All the thoughts and ideas of All That Is -- each one must live itself out, each one must develop, each one must create its own descendants. But within its own scope, how does All That Is bring this about? How can it allow these descendant thoughts and ideas, like countless分身 of itself, to all experience existence? This is its own sacred dilemma. We will discuss "the sacred dilemma" later; in the early sessions this question is addressed -- the three creative dilemmas, dilemmas where no matter how you choose, it is very hard to choose. You might say, can All That Is still have difficulties? Can All That Is still have troubles? It can.
The Dilemma of All That Is
Its difficulty, I am not sure how to put it, may be rather hard for humans to understand. Speaking of this, let me give a small example, otherwise you will not understand where the dilemma of All That Is actually lies. I just want to give you a slight feel for it.
For instance, the beliefs, thoughts, and consciousness that All That Is creates — for them to feel their own existence, there is one premise: they must be embodied through action. Right? Is your thought also a kind of action? Your idea — when you think about something — is that also action? Yes.
Everything in this world can be understood from the perspective of action. But when we speak of action, there is the subject of action — right? Who is acting? And then there is the object of action — what are we acting upon? Are we running on the ground, or flying in the sky? Or eating something, doing something, falling in love with someone? There is always an object of action, an object. And then there is the action itself.
Here the most subtle point emerges: the subject of action wants to experience its own existence, or its own sense of self-existence, through action. But is this action itself the essence of action? No. As for this action — for example, eating something, or loving someone — can this action itself represent the subject of action? No, it cannot.
Then what is the relationship between the subject of action and the action? Let us set this aside for now, because if we were to expand on it, it would lead to a whole series of subsequent questions. We do not need to consider these questions now, but All That Is has to consider them. These are many of his dilemmas, and this is one of them.
There are also many other dilemmas. For example, what you imagine is always greater than the fact of what you manifest — have you ever thought about that? No matter how fast your objective creation is, it can never keep up with the speed of your imagination.
You do not understand? Let me give an example and you will understand. When you think of this question — "No matter how fast what I create is, it still cannot keep up with the speed of what I imagine" — such a thought itself is not even included in the thing you have created.
That is to say, what you create is always less than what you imagine in your subjective mind. No matter what dimension you are in — the objective object, that is, the created thing, is always less than the inner thoughts of the creator.
This is easy to understand, right? For example, from birth you have had many, many ideas, but when you take stock at the time of death, you find that only a small portion were actually realized, and most of your ideas were never realized. This is very normal. You would think, "I as a person am limited, my abilities are limited. If I were God, everything I think could be accomplished" — that is what you believe. But when you are God, you discover that not everything you think can be accomplished either. It is not that you cannot accomplish it; it is that what you think is always more than the object you manifest.
All right, let us not expand on this further. All of these are among the dilemmas of All That Is.
The Leap of Inspiration and the Birth of the Universe
Let us continue. When that answer arrived, he had to go looking for it. He paused, and he devised.
This answer involved a leap of inspiration that was previously unimaginable -- his inspiration took a leap forward, something he had never thought of before. And it happened in just that way.
How did it happen? All That Is traversed every possibility -- in computer terms, you would call it an exhaustive traversal -- he experienced all of his countless, incredible offspring. This seems like an infinity-to-infinity matter, but All That Is has this ability. He traversed all of his countless possibilities, and then looked again at this even more magnificent dream -- this dream of objective freedom -- to see exactly what conditions it required. Which door had to be opened, in order for physical reality to emerge from such an inner realm?
All That Is traversed all the children and grandchildren of his thoughts. Every one of them wanted to manifest, every one of them wanted to become independent, every one of them wanted to experience, to create, to feel, just as he did. So how could this be achieved? How could they be given such a platform? How could they be allowed, like All That Is, to create their own worlds, worlds that belonged to themselves?
Which one should be created first, and which one next? How should it be done? How could each one of them be allowed to bring forth what they wanted to experience -- every small consciousness, from the great consciousness down to the small consciousness -- to create their own self, to live out that self of their own? And then, how could they cooperate with one another, how could they fit together, and become a harmonious whole? In other words, the creation of each individual ego's consciousness would not affect his whole, would not harm his whole. This is what was said earlier -- what kind of freedom was needed?
Since this freedom is infinite freedom, then within infinite freedom, how could the wholeness remain unharmed, while still allowing every consciousness to experience freedom without limits -- and this unlimited freedom could not affect the freedom of others either -- how was this achieved in the middle of it all? Did it not involve this question?
When All That Is brought all these conditions together, in an instant he saw the spiritual creations that those objective worlds required. And as he imagined those worlds, in your terms, those worlds were physically created.
All right, now we have reached the most critical point. When All That Is brought all these conditions together -- the earthworm wants to do this, the ant wants to do that, the human wants to do this, the fish wants to do that, the tree wants to do that, the flower wants to do this, the grass wants to do this, the plant wants to do that, the mineral wants to do that -- bringing together all of the consciousnesses, from the smallest, down to every atom, up to every planet, every star, every galaxy, bringing together all of these consciousnesses, laying out each one's conditions: what do you want to do? What do you want to do? Including all of your possible, potential, all of your possible conditions -- the miraculous thing happened.
In an instant, All That Is saw the spiritual creations that those objective worlds required. What does "the spiritual creations that those objective worlds required" mean? It means that as he imagined those worlds, in your terms, those worlds were physically created.
To put it even more plainly: when All That Is satisfied the conditions of all consciousnesses -- under such a great premise, all consciousnesses were satisfied -- when he imagined such a spiritual picture, a spiritual imagination in which all consciousnesses were satisfied, this world was born. It was created in just that way.
In other words, to put it even more plainly: the birth of this world, or the birth of this universe, came about by satisfying the needs of all the deepest possibilities within all consciousnesses -- at the same moment those conditions were satisfied -- "pop," there it was.
Remember this premise. Without this premise, he would not have created this physical universe. That is to say, the premise upon which our universe was created is that every consciousness must be respected, and every consciousness must have the ability to create all of its own possibilities.
So you have infinite freedom. You may ask, how was this infinite freedom created? We will discuss these questions later. But just remember this: this infinite freedom -- when every freedom is satisfied, and at the same time none can harm one another, and your freedom cannot affect the freedom of others -- when all the conditions were in place, when All That Is thought of such a solution, and said, "I know there is a solution on the spiritual level, in which all consciousnesses can be satisfied, in which the freedom of all consciousnesses can be realized, and in which they mutually fulfill one another, mutually assist one another, without any conflict or sense of discord" -- at that moment, this universe was transformed from spiritual thought into a physical realization. It was created in just that way.
I do not know whether you can understand this -- when the conditions of every consciousness were satisfied, the universe was born. One could also say that the premise of the universe's birth is that every consciousness was permitted, and obtained total freedom. What kind of condition is this? It is something ineffable, something very difficult to put into words. But All That Is figured it out, and this universe was born.
For us, we can only go this far. Beyond this, Seth does not say any more either. If even he could not say it, then how could anyone else?
Divine Content and Direct Contact
Yet All That Is did not separate himself from the inner world. The premise is that he did not separate from anything else -- not that he finished creating and then just left it at that, not that after satisfying every little consciousness's thoughts he himself ran off. No.
Because he is also a sum total of all consciousness and all processes of conscious creation, he is also within them. Those worlds were created out of the beliefs of All That Is, so he is not separate from all of this, not separate from his creations.
And each one has divine content. Every created thing has divine content, all are his offspring, all possess the same qualities as he does. All worlds are created by this divine content.
What is divine content? It is that attribute of All That Is. Every one of us possesses all the attributes of All That Is -- this is what the Buddha said, that everyone has Buddha-nature.
So although in one respect they are external, in another respect they are made of divine stuff. Although when you look at our universe, at this world, many things seem external, seem like material existence, their inner side is made of divine stuff. It is divine stuff that forms the inner core, and only then do you have the external things you see.
And every hypothetical point in your universe -- any point in the universe -- in the most fundamental terms, is in direct contact with All That Is. The universe is so vast, yet any point is in the most direct contact with All That Is. Remember, it is not indirect, not through some soul, higher self, or entity to deal with All That Is. He is in the most direct contact with All That Is.
Here you must remember: no agents needed, no intermediaries, no message-passing, no secretaries, no masters, no gurus, none of any of that. You are in the most direct, most intimate contact with All That Is.
The Infinity of the Subject and the Objectification of the Object
Within every portion of All That Is, there is the knowledge of the whole. All That Is divided himself into infinitely many small portions, and each small portion has within it a knowledge of his whole — that is, the knowledge of All That Is. Yet All That Is is more than the sum of those portions.
He has said this many times before. Each one has the knowledge of All That Is. All these portions — for example, if All That Is divided himself into a trillion portions, then are those trillion portions added together All That Is? No. All That Is is greater than those trillion portions put together and summed up. This is the collection of parts being less than the whole.
The divine subjectivity is indeed infinite — remember that it is infinite — it can never be wholly objectified. Because it is infinite, it cannot be wholly objectified, because an object is always finite. Your thoughts are infinite, but the things you manage to materialize are finite.
When the divine spark of inspiration explodes into objectivity — when the infinity of your subjectivity seeks to express itself wholly through objectification — it explodes into objectivity. When you and other worlds were created in this way, there was indeed an explosion of unimaginable proportion.
Here he means to tell you this: if you use this as an analogy, when infinite subjectivity — the inner world is infinite subjectivity — when this inner universe manifests into the outer universe and becomes objectified, then according to our human understanding, it really does seem like an explosion.
Seth has said many times before, if you want to understand the expansion of the universe, how should you understand it? He said the closest way you can approach understanding it is to imagine the expansion of one of your thoughts, or the continuation of one thought. You have an idea, and through this idea it keeps extending and extending and extending, this thought gives birth to child thoughts, child thoughts give birth to grandchild thoughts, endlessly — isn't that very much like the process of a universe being born? Although it is a small universe, the nature is the same. When you do not understand how the universe was born, how it develops, how it expands, then just think about how your thoughts develop and expand — that comes closer to how our universe develops.
So for All That Is, the process itself of his thoughts materializing and becoming objectified, from the perspective of the material world, really does seem somewhat like something appearing out of nowhere and bursting open a new universe — like an explosion.
Chaos and Syllables
Then Seth went on to say: the first object -- object, the first thing, he put it in quotation marks -- was an almost unbearable mass. The first physical matter born of this universe was a mass. "Mass" is the English translation; the original word is MASS. The word MASS refers to something large-scale, clumped together into a lump. But the word "lump" is not quite right; the best Chinese rendering should be "hundun" -- "chaos" is the best way to describe it.
The first thing in this universe was a chaos, an unbearable mass. It could not bear itself, because within it were contained all possibilities. Although it had no weight, it exploded, and in an instant the process of forming the universe began.
This point is very close to what the Big Bang says, but he tells you about it in this way. Out of a chaos, the universe came into being, formed in a flash, and yet it did not involve time. He says the universe formed in an instant, and yet it did not involve time -- this in itself is a paradox. You say "an instant," and then you say it did not involve time; this is very hard to understand. But you can imagine that the process which would take an infinitely long time happened in a single instant. Those 13.7 billion years, in fact, formed in a flash.
And the great thought of All That Is, the initial objective materialization explosion, formed reality. How did this explosion come about? It was one great belief of All That Is. Earlier he described a great deal of the inner universe; that was a great belief. When it first wanted to objectify itself, there was this objective materialization.
What does objective materialization mean? It means separating it from All That Is. For this object, it is itself also a subject, but for that subject, it has already become an object. I do not know whether you can understand this meaning; it is like you giving birth to a child -- that makes it easier to understand. Before the child you give birth to is born, it is one with you, right? For the mother, once you have given birth to him, he is independent, and relative to you he is your object. But for him, is he himself a subjectivity? Yes. So relative to you, it is called objectivity; conversely, you, relative to him, have also become objectivity. Before he was born, both of you were within one subjectivity.
I use this analogy hoping you can understand the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity: once the created is separated from the creator, it possesses objectivity.
Then in your terms, this was a true explosion -- from our human perspective, this seems like a true explosion. But for the ideas involved in that breakthrough, they experienced it as a triumphant first inspiration of ecstasy, a breakthrough into becoming another kind of existence.
When Seth said this, he used his most focused expression. He said from the material perspective, this seems like a big explosion; but from a higher level of consciousness, what they experienced was not an explosion, but a triumphant, first spiritual ecstasy. One of its beliefs manifested in physical reality; one of its inspirations became an objective existence. For it, this was the ecstasy of inspiration, and also a breakthrough into becoming another kind of existence. In other words, from the inner universe it became an outer existence, from an energy state it became a material state. To put it more precisely, consciousness transformed energy into matter -- from an energy-consciousness state into a material state. Both of these are existence; ontologically they are the same, but they are different states of existence: one is a consciousness state and an energy state, the other is a material state.
When consciousness turned itself into the many aspects of nature, the earth appeared. When this whole consciousness turned itself into the many aspects of nature -- mountains and rivers, the great earth, rivers, oceans, clouds, wind, thunder and lightning, rain -- the earth was born.
Atoms and molecules are alive and conscious; they became living and conscious causes and syllables, through whose consciousness matter could be formed. He is making an anthropomorphic description -- as though they had sound, as though they had the rhythm of nature, and thus matter could be formed.
We will not expand on this here; later there will be related lessons and related material introducing how the initial consciousness formed matter. In the process of consciousness becoming matter, there are certain laws, inner laws. In his words, they became living, became conscious causes and syllables, and then through their consciousness matter was formed.
Atoms and molecules can be seen as causes, as individual syllables; through their consciousness they combine together and become a song, a sound, a melody. If you see this sound or song as a manifestation, then it formed our present matter. So atoms and molecules are like syllables, like the smallest units of music, and they ultimately formed a song, a movement -- our matter came into being in this way. Then how do syllables form a movement? Here consciousness plays the key role. Only the action of consciousness can make syllables, tones, and timbres become a movement. Can everyone understand this?
The Dream World and the Dream Walkers
But in your terms -- to use our human terms -- although it was completely designed, this was still largely a dream world. From our human perspective, that initial stage in which the inner universe manifested into the outer universe was more like a dream world, where everything was not yet so definite. And this state is what we call the state of "chaos."
Why do we say it was dreamlike, chaotic, and not yet distinct? Why do we speak of chaos? Because only out of chaos can heaven and earth be separated -- that is the meaning. Although this state was fully designed, with all possibilities planned out and contained within it, before it was manifested it was a state of chaos, like a dream.
Generally speaking, this world contained all the species you now know. To put it simply, in that chaotic, dreamlike world, before heaven and earth were clearly distinguished, in that state of chaos, all species were already present.
These were all related to the many varieties of consciousness -- because there are many kinds of consciousness, there are many kinds of creatures, many kinds of species. They were clamoring to be released. These many species formed by the many kinds of consciousness were all clamoring to be released.
And those consciousnesses were spontaneously endowed by All That Is with forms suited to their needs. Remember, forms suited to their own needs, not forms suited to the needs of All That Is -- forms suited to the needs of each individual consciousness. But the miraculous thing is that these forms, each suiting its own needs, at the same time integrated together and also suited one another's needs, forming a whole. That is where the wonder lies.
Therefore, that individualized consciousness you speak of, at the moment of generating matter, each consciousness was endowed by All That Is with a form suited to its own needs. Form is the outer aspect -- water, trees, humans, animals -- this form suited its needs. It wanted it this way, and All That Is endowed it with this form.
Then we see this individualized consciousness forming all the individualized species and all the varieties of things; then we see the differences between one kind of matter and another -- wind, fire, thunder, lightning, the five great elements, and the differences between these elements; and then the elements combined with one another to form new differences. Matter thus began to draw boundaries; this thing and that thing began to differ.
Those consciousnesses were already individualized before the beginning -- it was not that matter became individualized first and then consciousness came; rather, before it became different matter, it had already become individualized in consciousness. But it had not yet stood out; those consciousnesses had not yet emerged.
But the individualized consciousnesses were not all so bold. Every materialized consciousness, at the very beginning, was not especially bold. At first it did not wholly attach itself to its physical image, but often rested within its ancient, sacred heritage.
This is very interesting. In the initial process of forming matter, consciousness did not have a particularly strong identification with this material body, this materialized thing. That is to say, when such a material form was first created, it rested more in its own inner world, occasionally coming to pay attention to this body, this materialized thing.
It is easier to understand if we use living things to describe it: that is, in the earliest period of humanity, we spent most of our time sleeping, not even knowing we needed to eat -- until we were so hungry we could not stand it, then we got up and ate something, and once full, went back to sleep. Because after sleeping, your consciousness returned to its natural, sacred heritage, that inner world; in the state of the inner self, it went to rest. Consciousness left the body. That is to say, at the beginning, your consciousness did not have that much interest in the body it had created according to its own needs; it glanced at it occasionally.
In your terms, it was as if the earth and all its creatures were in a half-dreaming state, rather than being so focused within physical reality as they are now. At the very birth of the universe, in that state of chaos, haziness, and half-dreaming, that was the early period of the universe. We were not as focused on physical reality as we are now; at that time we paid more attention to the inner world, the sacred heritage.
To put it precisely, when individualized consciousness was within the great subjectivity of All That Is, besides its own uniqueness, it enjoyed a protective sense of unity, a comforting knowledge that it was one with its source.
He is explaining why people were unwilling to stay in this material body, why they always wanted to return to the sacred heritage. Because when it returned to that great subjectivity of All That Is, besides feeling its own uniqueness and individuality, what it felt most deeply was the sense of mutual support and unity with all things. In this unity of all things, this mutual support of all things, it had a comforting knowledge -- it was at ease, because it was in the state of unity, in the embrace of All That Is.
Therefore, at the beginning of your world, the fluctuations of consciousness were very great. It would run into the material body for a while, then return to the inner being of All That Is. These are two completely different worlds. For consciousness, at one moment it was like present human consciousness, having to experience the material world and feel these things; at another moment it returned to the inner embrace of All That Is, roaming in that inner world. So for consciousness, the fluctuations were very great.
Can you understand what these great fluctuations mean? Imagine this: at night you go and be God, be All That Is, managing the entire universe; after waking in the daytime, you become a small clerk in a company, commuting by subway every day, being scolded by your boss -- do you think that emotional fluctuation is great? As soon as you get off work, after dinner, you play some games, watch some TV, and go to sleep; the moment you fall asleep you become a godlike existence. You exist alternately in these two worlds -- this was the state of early humanity. It was not emotional fluctuation, but very great fluctuation of consciousness, shifting back and forth between two different states.
And at first it was "lightly attentive" -- remember this phrase -- attentive to what? Attentive to our material body. But it was not quite as fully independent as its first intention seemed to suggest. What does it mean that it was not as independent as its earlier intention? At first, did consciousness want to become independent from All That Is? It wanted to experience, to create, thinking "I want independence, I want independence." But when it actually came time to be independent, it was not as independent as it had imagined -- it was still nestling in the embrace of All That Is, occasionally going to look at, to pay attention to, that body it had wanted to make independent. Here he used a phrase: "lightly attentive." Very interesting.
The dream walkers you once had -- there was a period, a historical period of humanity called the dream walkers, and among present humans there are still occasionally individuals called sleepwalkers. He says he is not referring to these present-day sleepwalkers. These individual sleepwalkers merely show us a possibility, letting us know that humanity can still have such a state of consciousness. He is referring to a historical period in which all humans were like today's sleepwalkers -- that is the meaning, not referring to individual sleepwalkers. But the behavior was the same.
In that historical period, all humans were like today's sleepwalkers, not knowing what they were doing. Their identification with this material world was not so strong; what they identified with was their inner world. Their manipulation of the outer body was not like the recognition we have today. It was as if they put on this armor, put on this Transformers-like mechanical outer body, mechanical body -- they merely put on a physical body to experience the human world for a while.
They were the ancient members of your humanity. In that earliest state of humanity, their main mental focus still remained hidden behind that earlier subjectivity. Their minds, that is, their thoughts, their primary consciousness, were all concentrated behind the subjectivity of All That Is -- that is to say, they were still one with All That Is, still unified. But at the same time they wanted independence, and so they created an independent body, a materialized body, wanting to manifest it, yet not making much use of it.
In those terms, they were your true ancestors. The humans of that dream-walking period were our true ancestors.
A Session Interrupted by a Cat
Seth said: Early man had to rely on his great inner knowledge, and then take a rest.
Why take a rest? Seth called a halt very suddenly; he had noticed a cat outside. Jane immediately asked, because she heard the cat meowing. Rob looked around and found Billy — their eight-month-old little tiger cat — asleep on a chair near them. Two minutes earlier, it had started making some very high-pitched sounds that Rob had never heard before. Rob was silently worrying whether those noises would disturb Jane in her trance state. Sure enough.
But he did not know where Billy's little companion — that kitten — was. Later Rob discovered that it had been shut inside the front porch, which was screened on all four sides.
Jane said: "I don't want to shut off this material." Because this material was truly wonderful. She quickly returned to the trance state. Rob tried to take notes, and the kitten began climbing all over him, mewing softly and rubbing against him.
It resumed at 10:30, after a seven-minute break. Then Seth continued:
All species initially emphasize a subjective orientation, which was extremely important at that time, as they learned to manipulate in a new physical environment.
Seth was continuing from what he had said before. You see, his previous sentence was "early man had to rely on his great inner knowledge" — inner knowledge is subjective knowledge. He was not so concerned with the objective world; he cared more about his inner subjective knowledge. He said all species have a very subjective orientation at the beginning, and this is quite normal, especially when they begin learning to manipulate in a new physical environment; this subjective orientation is very important and very meaningful. Because he had no other knowledge, only this inner subjective knowledge, so he had to use inner knowledge to expand into the outer world and explore the outer world.
Very interesting. Today we do exactly the opposite — through our sensations of the outer world, we try to understand our inner world.
Then Jane paused, eyes closed, with the kitten nestled in her arms. Then, suddenly, Seth said: "End of session." Because their state was no longer very good, he just ended it directly — only said "it will end in a minute."
Rob said in surprise: "How come it ended?" Jane said: "I'll tell you what happened. I was just getting more material, and I was very interested in doing so, and I knew what was coming and what it was about. But after going back like that, I couldn't get it anymore." After the cat interrupted them, when she returned to the trance state, the material that had been there was no longer there; it had been interrupted, the material was gone, and she could not get it back.
Rob told Jane that this session was wonderful, one of the best sessions — it truly was wonderful. He said this session raised many questions, but I don't think anyone has ever handled the origin of our universe, our world, and history better. Although this session of Seth's put forward many viewpoints that people cannot understand and would raise many questions and controversies, Rob did not think anyone else had ever been able to handle the origin of the universe, the origin of the world and history, as well as Seth had.
Jane said: "Before the session I got some material about the first people before the earth was formed — you could call them a kind of entity that was not concrete, not concretely existing — but now to say that an entity in physical terms could not contain that much consciousness sounds like a stupid thing to say."
What she meant was that before the earth was formed, there were already some entities, which could be called those earlier people, which could be called non-concrete, non-materialized entities. But if you say these entities did not have that much consciousness, that statement sounds stupid — yet they really did not have that much consciousness; their consciousness was more merged with All That Is. There is something very subtle in between. They were more like All That Is's little children, little babies, not yet fully independent, more merged with All That Is.
"Yet I knew — only after the session was over did I know, did I truly become certain — wow, that was really a wonderful situation, and I really enjoyed it." She said with satisfaction. She said it was only after these passages were finished that she knew what Seth was trying to say; it was wonderful, and she enjoyed it very much.
Rob said: "But I must admit I was also taken by surprise. While I was taking notes, Seth came through so quickly and powerfully that I hardly had time to think of asking questions."
He asked Jane: "What exactly is Seth trying to do? Is he combining the scientific theory of the origin of the universe — the Big Bang theory, that everything happened billions of years ago or 13.7 billion years ago2 — with the doctrine of creationism — the one in the book they had been reading a couple of days earlier, that the universe was created a little over ten thousand years ago, through a spontaneous, divine creation?"
Rob was wondering whether Seth was trying to combine the Big Bang theory and the creationist theory of the universe. Creationism holds that the universe was born on its own a little over ten thousand years ago, not through evolution, and not through the Big Bang. Was Seth trying to put these two together?
Did our earth and its creatures actually evolve? Could there be simultaneous evolution? These were Rob's many questions, a head full of question marks. "I guess at this point we are back in the paradox of simultaneous time again. How does Seth's instantly formed universe, a process that began without involving time, also fit with the fossils on earth? Is he saying that the growth and evolution of the universe came about through a series of dreams?"
These were Rob's pile of question marks. We won't dwell on them; there's no need to expand on these questions, because after all these are his thoughts, but his thoughts represent the thinking of ordinary people.
Rob told Jane: As far as I know, the original extremely dense condition or entity, and the unimaginable explosion that consequently led to the formation of the universe, is a straightforward time sequence — once it began, it just kept going. For example, between the physical and the nonphysical, between matter and non-matter, there is no fluctuation, no state of balance that opens and closes from time to time. This theory is the standard model that science currently assumes for the creation of the universe.
Rob said that according to the scientific viewpoint, even if one assumes that there was a consciousness before the Big Bang, then after the Big Bang consciousness no longer participated; it simply conformed to an objective set of laws. Scientists believe that after that point, consciousness no longer participated in it; there would not be a state in which a consciousness came in and out, participated and did not participate from time to time, or a state of continuous participation. Scientists do not think that way. Scientists believe the standard model is: once the universe is created, no matter who you say created it — God, All That Is, this or that — they won't argue with you, because they don't know what was before that; they simply tell you that after that point, these things no longer exist.
Then how does Seth's own concept of probable universes and probable earths fit into tonight's material? What he meant was: Seth, when you discussed The "Unknown" Reality earlier, you talked about probable universes and probable earths; now today you are talking about how this earth was born and how the universe was born — so are there other ways of being born? Do you have other probable universes and probable earths, with other different ways of being born? That was what he meant.
Then Rob said, "I am sure they will" — he was sure Seth would integrate it all together. He quickly saw that his questions could go on and on. He told himself: Seth's book has only just begun, so I will just have to wait patiently. He said Seth should talk about this issue later, so I'll wait for now.
The kitten's affectionate performance had long since ended, and it jumped down from Rob's lap and disappeared while Jane and Rob were talking — it had interrupted them just enough, and then it left.
A Note on "He" and "It"
Then Rob made the first note, about the masculine "he" and the third-person "it."
Here Seth was clearly experimenting. Because when talking about All That Is, he immediately went back and forth using "he" -- that is, HE. But earlier, he had told Rob that when using All That Is, he would use "it" (IT) to represent it, rather than "he" (HE). This "it" was not entirely satisfactory either, but Jane and I did not question Seth about whether it should be "he" or "it" -- you use HE one moment and IT the next. Then we preferred to use IT, because it encompasses any gender orientation and function within All That Is.
When later in this session Seth read All That Is and used IT, we used IT in the record every time. Rob made a note here -- from this session onward, whether Seth used HE or IT when talking about All That Is, they would uniformly use IT to replace it, and this was also a unification between him and Seth on this core issue.
Regarding the sleepwalkers: Seth first talked about the story of the sleepwalkers in Volume 2 of The "Unknown" Reality; for details see Session 708, September 29, 1974, which discusses the matter of the sleepwalkers -- this process of early humanity.
Autumn Days and Flocks of Geese
Then let us look at this short passage from the beginning of Session 884, and put it here to discuss together. Because most of its content is covered in Chapter 2.
Session 884 began on Wednesday, October 3, 1979, at 9:13 in the evening5. At the start, Rob described the recent weather.
This year in October, the weather was unusually warm for autumn, warm and often rainy or foggy. But at this time of year, that was extremely welcome, because autumn and winter here are usually crisp and clear, relatively dry. With the rain that came, this autumn took on a special mood.
The trees seemed to lag far behind the season -- the trees had not begun shedding their leaves so early; only recently had they seen the first leaves, the first wave of color change. In previous years the colors might have started changing quite early, many of them beginning to turn yellow or red.
After lying dormant and dry through a long summer, the grass began to grow again. In many parts of the United States the seasons are like this: summer is dry, and the grass does not grow; winter brings rain, and only then does the grass begin to grow. Los Angeles has exactly this kind of climate, unlike many other places -- in many places the grass grows in summer, but in Los Angeles the grass grows in winter.
Yesterday morning, Rob heard for the first time this season the wild geese flying south -- but they were above thick low clouds, so he could not see them, because it was raining and the cloud cover was low, yet he could hear the calls of the wild geese flying south. This afternoon he heard them, and saw them too, and called Jane to come and look as well: a broad, scattered, shifting V-shaped formation. Today in the afternoon they could finally be seen, whereas before they had been invisible. He could see a V-shaped, scattered, broad formation, disappearing over the valley where the small town below them lay.
They now lived in a house on a hillside, so when they looked down, they could see the whole small town spread out below. At that moment the geese were flying over the town, disappearing into the distant valley.
Compared with the vast expanse of land below, the flock of geese seemed very fragile -- but this was only an illusion. Just like every entity on earth, each of these birds knew what it was doing, and each had the ability to seek out its own individual value fulfillment.
A few minutes before we sat waiting for this session, Rob had just finished typing up the record for that evening's session, and Jane, before she felt Seth coming, had just had time to look over his record of Monday's session. She said, "All right, I am ready."
Rob mentioned this scene of the wild geese flying over more than once. He could feel from it the passage of time and the changes it brought -- without their noticing, they had been transmitting the Seth material for seventeen years already. From 1963 to the end of 1979, more than sixteen years. In those sixteen years, the geese had come and gone, spring had passed and autumn returned. Every change of season stirred something in Rob, some melancholy, some wistfulness, and so he would bring it up.
Just two days ago, Sherly from Seattle sent me a WeChat message. She happened to see a similar scene, saw the wild geese flying south. Seattle is farther north, and the weather there had already turned cold -- when we gathered in Seattle last time, everyone could feel that the temperature there was colder than it is here. At that moment Sherly was sitting in her car, parked by the side of the road, and she could not help herself -- she did not know why, but that feeling, that emotion just came over her -- and she sat there crying for a long time.
What is the reason? It is that once our hearts have opened, once our consciousness has become connected with all things, once you have opened this channel of conscious connection and no longer block it, no longer seal it off, you can feel the influence of the interconnected emotions among all things.
Those who have not experienced this may not be able to understand it; those who have experienced it can understand why seeing a scene or an object in nature, a flower or a blade of grass, can sometimes bring such a sense of being moved, and tears flow out uncontrollably, without your even knowing why -- it is just that kind of emotion. Rob was the same way -- he described the scene of the wild geese flying south more than once.
Seth's Oral Account: The Framework of Time
Then Seth came through. Seth smiled and said carefully:
Let us return to our story and its origins.
That is, Seth said, let us continue talking about the origin of the universe.
We sit here on a particular autumn evening. I speak through Ruburt -- I am obviously dictating this book -- and Joseph, sitting on a couch across from a very particular coffee table, takes down what I say. The year is 1979, and the concepts of dates and time seem indelibly mixed into each of our psyches.
Right? When we recall, or miss, or think about certain things, they are all indelibly mixed together with time. You can remember things that happened last year or the year before, and to some degree you can look back over the years of your life. Past memories seem to be your present consciousness wandering back into the past, until finally you no longer remember -- in the end you really cannot recall. What is the earliest memory you can think of right now? Anything before that seems to be gone.
And on a conscious level, at least, you must rely on secondhand evidence to look at the event of your birth. Because you have no memory of being born; you can only hear others tell you about it -- your mother, father, or relatives at home tell you what happened when you were born. Very few people have conscious memory of this event -- not to say absolutely none, a very small number of people can indeed remember their own birth, but most people cannot.
Seth said: For the purpose of our discussion, I must to some extent place this book within the framework of time. So he said, I must place the content of this book within a time framework, which is why there are these temporal markers such as "before the beginning" and "at the start of Chapter Two." Without these time frameworks, he said, you would not know what I am talking about -- so I must respect your uniqueness, otherwise you would not know, nor would you understand, what I am saying.
Then another pause -- one of many pauses.
Therefore, although this book is dictated within the tradition of time -- for example, the period from 1963 to 1979, for example tonight, October 3, 1979, the three of us sitting in such a small room, in Ruburt's study, transmitting the Seth material -- it seems to be within your human framework of time.
And regarding this matter, Seth said: "When I speak of the origin of the universe, I also make extensive use of your framework of time, such as 'before the beginning,' 'after the beginning,' and so on." These two -- whether I describe and cite time in the book, or whether we are actually speaking this book -- are both within time. But I must remind you:
Basically that tradition is not mine -- that is, the tradition of time, the framework of time, is not Seth's, because for him there is no concept of time, no concept of time like we humans have.
But he said, what is more -- basically it is not yours either. Time is the same for us; we do not necessarily have to live within the framework of time.
So I use the term "before the beginning," and I will speak of the earth's time in a certain sequence. He said when speaking of the origin of the universe, what he focuses on is the origin of this physical universe, the earth -- that is, the origin of the universe we have always been concerned with.
However, in the deepest terms, the statement that shames the intellect that tries to operate alone is: "The beginning is now." He said, what makes your rationality deeply ashamed, what makes your knowledge and logic completely collapse, is -- the beginning is now.
He used "the beginning is now." You say the origin of the universe, isn't that the beginning of the universe? He said the beginning of the universe is now -- this completely conflicts with your logical cognition. He used a phrase that shames the intellect.
Because of the simultaneous nature of that sacred subjectivity. This sacred subjectivity is the attribute of All That Is, and it is simultaneous. Why is it simultaneous? Because it is multidimensional, multi-dimensional. It is itself multi-dimensional, multi-dimensional, so it is simultaneous. Therefore the sacred subject's decision, its decisive plunge into objectivity, is forever occurring, and you are given life at every moment.
So here, he felt this sentence was very important. Therefore the original translator, Wang Jiqing, placed this English passage here. You can refer to it to understand the difference between this English passage and the preceding Chinese. This English passage begins from "Because that sacred" -- the English passage that follows begins from the "Because" section. This is a translation comparison, not that there is further translation after it -- you can get a sense of the difference between the English and the Chinese.
Now let us look below. He said:
We will still call our next chapter "In the Beginning." Certain events are laid out for you in sequential form -- still laid out for you according to the sequence of time, although all of this is created at every moment, all in each present moment. But for us to understand, he had no choice but to lay it out for us in the manner of time.
It is hoped that certain psychic exercises in other parts of this book -- some meditation exercises, some spiritual exercises -- will allow you to step beyond the traditional framework of events, that is, the traditional framework of time.
With the united intellect and intuition -- uniting the part of you that is intellect, logic, and reason with the part of you that is intuition, feeling, and experience -- I will provide some exercises to help you unite these two parts. Through these exercises, through your united intellect and intuition, feel your own personal existence within a spacious present.
This spacious present is large enough to contain all segments of time. Again, he will give us some exercises, and through these exercises you can, through your wisdom and also through your intuition and experience, feel that present moment, that point of the moment. That point of the present moment is a spacious present. Only after you have truly experienced that feeling of the spacious present firsthand can you experience that it already includes all points of time, all within it.
He said at that time, you will personally experience this feeling. Right now, I can only speak to you in the sequence of time, but it itself has no time. In the future you will experience it; right now you cannot experience it through words, so I can only speak to you according to the sequence of time.
So this is the ending of Chapter One.
注释与核实
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Source: Wikipedia, "October 1979" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_1979) ↩
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Source: NASA, "WMAP's Portrait of the Early Universe," 2007 (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10123/) ↩ ↩2
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Source: Wikipedia, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice (film)" (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AD%94%E6%B3%95%E8%80%81%E5%B8%88_%28%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%29) ↩
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Source: Dharmakṣema, trans., "Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra" (https://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T12n0374_021) ↩
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Source: Time and Date AS, "October 1979 Calendar – Gregorian calendar" (https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?country=22&month=10&year=1979) ↩