Yes, I can dig it, earl ... it's just the
dire heresy of separateness which I think needs to come to an end. We cannot rush this process, even if we
wanted. And I don't suggest that the distinction between mankind and the Godhead is an arbitrary, or
non-existent one ... from our point of view.
What bears mentioning, however -
and I chose to do it as I have often seen it done here before - is that Christ Himself, in referencing, even Fulfilling, the Law ... taught us much about our
Relationship To, and WITH, Deity. I do not say that He
abolished the differences and distinctions, but He did say a couple of things worth repeating:
"I and the Father are ONE."
and
"No one comes to the Father except by [via] me."
A cursory examination might suggest that these statements are unreconcilable, or contradictory. A deeper look yields insight into the nature of our
Greater Being which methinks it's easier to overlook in favor of an outdated, now harmful model.
So long as we maintain that
our existence is fundamentally separate, one from another, Humanity from the planet, the planet from its Creator(s), and the Creator(s) from Humanity ... we will remain STUCK.
I can't
unstuck anyone. What's more, lotsa folks don't like the notion that God
"stuck us" to begin with! It feels more like
hurt if we try to see it that way. After all, why would a loving God let us "fall?"
Far, far easier to maintain the myth, the
spin, which holds that
erring, sinning Humanity disobeyed, and was
cast out ...
Earl, I think there
is harm in trying to
cling - to this outmoded, outworn, separative, and
dumbed-down model. One form of the psychological harm that we experience is an unhealthy collective self-esteem. People spend
lifetimes trying to scoot out from under the karma of the theologians'
wrathful-god complex. And this really predates Christianity by
aeons!
This thread is about
`The Secret.' And the idea that we can find a
quick-fix, easy-out, everybody's-happy panacea to all our religious ills, or problems in life, is just plain poppycock. That's what I can get from the thread title. And I certainly agree that we cannot
reduce the workings of God's Universe into a simple,
Freudian wish-life ... as if it was the
id, or
ego part of our psyches that really drives things
anyway! [Okay, drives, yes -
directs, no.]
But as the discussion on another thread on
The Secret seemed to reveal, things really
aren't that complicated, after all. Not if we accept that
there are Law(s) which govern the world we live in ... and seek to Cooperate with It/Them. I see no fundamental discrepancy between this, and the discussion that unfolds in
The Secret (and related films/books) ... and the idea of spiritual discipline and piousness -
righteousness, perhaps - as discussed by even the most "
fundamental" (or conservative) of Christians, even the Biblical
literalists.
What I highlight regarding Christ's teaching is the fact that the Divine Potential is
within us.
The Secret does not maintain that we have
already reached, or attained, to this perfection. Even Christ Jesus
had not yet so attained, when He began his earthly ministry ... or otherwise quite a few of the Biblical episodes would require serious re-evaluation.
If Perfection is a
sliding scale, rather than a static
limbo, or
spiritual WALL - the veritable dead-end which our imagination is forced to conjure up if we invoke the idea of "ultimate end-goals" ... then just think:
We may already be perfect, by some standard or another! [Perhaps materially, in some very
simple fashion.
Note: the body breathes, and "lives" automatically. 
WE do not really control this, unless we are a yogin.]
But again,
`The Secret' does not maintain this, even if, in typical New Age fascination, the lines are blurred. Rather, the message is:
We have this power. And many a Christian may not like it, but frankly,
that's tough.
We have it BECAUSE GOD IS. And we don't have to
ask permission. We don't have to
ask JESUS. And we
darn sure don't have to ask ANYONE's permission to
USE IT.
But before we invoke that Greatest of the Aspects of which we've been taught
a little ... should we not remember another?
LOVE ... is supposedly - the SOURCE, even of all that we understand by the term
Divine Will. And if,
stumbling in the darkness, we blindly invoke power - whether that of
jesus, or
any saviour or prophet ... then WOE to us, if we fail to condition what we have invoked with
LOVE.
CAN you invoke the very
Power of God, even in JESUS' name, without
also tapping the Love aspect?
Why complicate it? For Christians, I suppose this isn't an issue.
For those who have no interest at all in the Christian frame of reference, save for how to meet fellow Humanity
regardless of religious choice ... the question of
how to bridge Power, to the illumined, and awakening minds men ... can ONLY be answered by an application of what we call
LOVE.
And THIS -
Love - is governed by the
Law of Attraction. For an esotericist, this is the
most fundamental Law of our System. And only
because of this, can we say,
God is Love.
Perhaps my Biblical references to Psalms and John are hitting a bit below the belt. After all, I feel pretty comfortable with my
current understanding of what was being indicated. I see your reminder as a useful
course correction, earl. And yours too, Pattimax. Thanks for those.
I would quote from
St. Paul, since I think he states in fairly clear terms that our spiritual growth is
ongoing. None of us here has yet
fully arrived, but we do know that there is
a Way. As Paul puts it, in
I Cor 3:1-9:
KJV: And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
KJV: I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able
KJV: For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
KJV: For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
KJV: Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
KJV: I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
KJV: So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
KJV: Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
KJV: For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
And this, clearly as can be, is what I hear when I read, or watch, `The Secret,' even as I hear it and understand it when I read the Bible, and listen to St. Paul. 
