Of course, we are all deeply saddened by the fires in California, and the prayers of every person are sent to those who have been so devastated by these extraordinary events. I continued in this space yesterday a series of blogs on The Holy Experience, and this seems a very important time to present this material, as the world around us experiences so many challenges.
I wish I could tell you that in the years that followed my descriptions here yesterday, I had a wonderful and fulfilling experience of God. I did not.
My first obstacle was my father. When I told him while I was in the 7th grade that I wanted to enter the seminary he made it clear to me in no uncertain terms that that was not going to happen.
“You’re not old enough to make that decision,” he told me. “When you are, we can talk about it.”
I now understood what that was all about. At the time, I did not. I saw my father as cruel and even “anti-God.” I could not understand what he had against my entering the seminary.
In the 7th and 8th grade of Catholic parochial school the priests and nuns really start talking up the priesthood to the guys. If a fellow has any kind of piety at all, this can suddenly start looking like a very attractive option. In my case, it had become something that I had to do.
The sisters all agreed that I had “the calling.” I served at Mass every morning, and it was not lost on the priests and nuns how earnestly I prayed, how I had completely memorized the altar boy’s responses in Latin, and how I had “taken” to the whole business of God and the Church.
My father was clear that it was the business of these schools to steer as many young boys into thoughts of the seminary as possible. Dad knew that I knew nothing of females—and he was also smart enough to understand that until I did, any decision about moving into a line of work that required me to be celibate all my life was premature.
He was, of course, dead right. Somewhere during the eighth grade I saw my first picture of a woman without clothing. I know, I know, that was late, relatively speaking, in the life of a boy, but you have to remember that this was in the Fifties, and things were a lot different then. A year later, as a freshman in high school, I actually saw a real, live girl naked. She, too, was a high school freshman, and we had gotten into a little mischief together. Nothing serious, really. Just a little show-and-tell. But it sure took my mind off the priesthood.
Still, I remained enamored of religion itself as an institution. I may not become a priest, I thought, but I will always be devoted to God.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was not going to find it possible to remain devoted to God through organized religion. Many peoeple have, of course, and so this is not an indictment of religion. It is simply that I could not find my own way to the Holy Experience, I could not get in touch with the Transcendent Reality, through this vehicle.
Religion, to me, presented too many complications, and I experienced the Transcendent Reality as Without Complication. Indeed, it was Utter Simplicity. Religion, to me, generated too many conflicts, and I experienced the Transcendent Reality as Without Conflict. Indeed, it was Total Peace. Religion, to me, offered to many contradictions with my own inner truth, and I experienced the Transcendent Reality as Without Contradiction. Indeed, it was Absolute Harmony.
Utter Simplicity, Total Peace, Absolute Harmony. That is how I experienced God. Religion did not. I soon found this out.
The how’s and why’s of my personal experience do not seem so important now. It seems sufficient to note in broad general terms that the singular difficulty I had with religion was its insistence on teaching of a needy God—indeed, an angry, vindictive and violent God—who was going to punish me for my sins—and, indeed, punish all the world.
I simply did not experience God in that way. Chalk it up to my mother’s early teachings, perhaps, but for some reason my internal guidance system kept steering me away from such an idea about God.
I searched everywhere within the religions of my culture, but could find no place of comfort. Then I explored the religions of other cultures. Still no simplicity, peace, and harmony. Finally, I left religion altogether.
It would be a quarter of a century before I returned to a deep and abiding faith in God, born of a new understanding of God that changed everything in my perception of who and what God is.
How that came to pass is described in Conversations with God – Book 1 and in the semi-autobiographical Friendship with God. The simple and peaceful and harmonious answer I came to is articulated wonderfully in What God Wants.
So what have I learned through my conversations with God, my friendship with God, and my experience of communion with God?
I have learned what the Holy Experience is. And I have learned how to move into that experience at will. I have not yet learned, however, how to sustain it. I can’t see to “hang onto” it through the whole of my life. Indeed, I’m not even sure if I want to.
All of this is what will be discussed here in the days ahead, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. And all of this discussion will, I hope, help you in moving closer to your own experience, in unveiling your own truth, about these things.
I should like now to begin this discussion with my definition of the Holy Experience, which kind of seeped out of me unexpectedly only recently, as I was responding to a question emailed to me by a man in Maine. Let me share with you here that question and answer, and you’ll see what I mean.
(The question at first seems to have nothing to do with the topic at hand. But wait. It was in the process of responding to the question that my definition of the Holy Experience popped out. See what you think.)
Hi Neale…I have been struggling recently with what “mission” means in a pluralistic world. Mission has had so many different objectives through- out history—converting others to the “true” faith; extending God’s kingdom; doing justice for the poor and marginalized, etc.
Our world seems very near-sighted when people consider their faith the “true” faith and others as condemned to Hell. Since all of us have a somewhat different conception of what “faith” means, what is each person’s responsibility to other peoples- both people of other faiths and people of no faith?
Should we try to show others what we consider “true”, or should we only try to share with others, learn from them, and build reciprocal friendships? What does it mean to be a person of faith- ie. Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, or otherwise- in a pluralistic world?
Thanks for any comments or insights you may have Neale!
Matt, Natick, MA
Dear Matt…The only True Mission is the mission of the individual soul. Every other mission is an extension of that. The mission of the individual soul is to know itself as it truly is, in its own experience. This is accomplished by creating itself as that. Life is not a process of discovery, it is a process of creation.
The hitch here is that, in Ultimate Reality, it is not possible to create anything, because everything that ever was, is now, and ever will be has already been created. So the Process of Creation turns out to be, after all, not actually Creation, but Perception. It is about seeing what has always been there, knowing what has always been true, and experiencing the Only Experience There Is. We call this, loosely, God.
The challenge here is that one cannot experience The Only Experience There Is if it is, in fact, the only experience there is. This is because…

…in the absence of That Which Is Not, That Which IS, is not.
Put simply, in the absence of black, white is not. In the absence of cold, hot is not. In the absence of up, there is no such thing as down. None of these things can be experienced, save in relative terms. The same is true about God. And, for that matter, about the human soul. For the human soul IS God, in part. It is a holy and individuated part of That Which IS.
If there is nothing that is NOT That Which IS, then That Which IS cannot be known in Its own experience. Nor can any Part of It. It cannot be known in relative terms, but only in the Realm of the Absolute. And in the Realm of the Absolute, That Which IS cannot experience Its own magnificence. It cannot know the glory of Itself, the wonder of Itself, the Truth of Itself. This is the condition faced by your soul—and this is the reason that physical life as we know it was produced.
Physicality produced a solution to the conundrum—a solution that is ingenious and spectacular: create an entire reality based on Illusion. That phrase in itself, “reality” based on “illusion,” is a contradiction in terms, but it gets the idea across.
And so we find ourselves in this Alice in Wonderland world (an Alice in Wonderland universe, really) in which we swear that what is So is Not So, and that what is Not So is So. It is a “wonderland” in the sense that it allows us to experience the True Wonder of Who We Really Are. We do this by calling forth the Opposite of Who We Are, and by experiencing ourselves in relation to that.
Suddenly, we have a point of reference by which we may know ourselves. (Remember that I said that the mission of the individual soul is to know itself as it truly is, in its own experience.)
All of this lays down the theological basis for my (finally!) direct answer to your direct question. That which is opposite to us, that which is “not us,” exists for a very holy reason: so that we may announce and declare, express and experience, become and fulfill Who We Really Are.
Therefore judge not, and neither condemn. Raise not your fist to the darkness, but be a light unto the darkness, and curse it not.
Our “mission” vis-a-vis people of other faiths is to accept them exactly as they are. Not to seek to convert them, not to judge them, and certainly not to condemn them.
Now Matt, you have placed your question inside a riddle that offers two choices—yet these choices are not, in truth, mutually exclusive. It does not have to be one or the other, as you have posed it. You have asked: “Should we try to show others what we consider ‘true’, or should we only try to share with others, learn from them, and build reciprocal friendships?” I believe we can do both.
As we share with others, learn from them, and build reciprocal friendships, we DO “show others what we consider true.” In fact, that is the most effective way to show it! Thus, we set people free from their own limiting beliefs about us. This eventually will set them free from their own limiting beliefs about themselves. Soon they, too, will know Who They Really Are.
And so, Matt, walk through the world not as one who seeks to convert or convince others of anything, but simply as one who seeks to know others as everything. When you know all of it as everything, then you know yourself as everything as well. You see yourself in every other person. Indeed, in every other thing that exists. Suddenly, the magnificence and the glory of
Who You Are becomes apparent to you. It becomes part of your experience.
Many people have had this experience momentarily. They have had it in meditation, perhaps, or in a moment of pure silence, or in the midst of an impactful interaction with another (such as sexual union or laughing or crying together, or walking through the woods on a sunlight morning, or swimming in the ocean, or, simply, washing dishes.) I call this The Holy Experience. It is when we know Who We Really Are.
While many people have had this experience momentarily, the trick is to have it continually. That was the yearning of the Buddha. It was the journey of the Christ. It is the opportunity placed before each of us. Many Masters have shown us the way.
The way is for us to BE the way. “I am The Way and The Life. Follow me.” This is what all Masters have declared. This is what all Students have understood. Therefore, do not look for your Master, BE the Master for whom you have been looking. Do not seek the Truth, BE the Truth you have been seeking. And do not attempt to change another, BE the change you wish to see.
That is your mission, Matt, and there is no other.
Bless you, Matt, with the knowing of Who You Really Are. May God be experienced through you, and in the living of your life.
Love always, and all ways…
neale.
So there you have it. In responding to Matt’s inquiry I stumbled upon one definition of the Holy Experience. It is a definition that works for me. After all these years I can say that I know what I have been searching for since I was a child. I have been searching for the experience of knowing Who I Really Am.
All my life I have been trying to figure this out. Who am I? What am I? Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? Is there any reason for what I am doing? Does anybody care? Is there any outcome, other than the doing of it? What is the point of life?
These are the questions that plagued me as I tried to make some sense out of my life. There is a possibility that they have been plaguing you, too. If they have, boy, have you come to the right place.