http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/blog.cfm

Thursday, August 25, 2005
To the best students go the most difficult lessons

A letter I received not long ago has intrigued me ever since...and so today I thought I would share it with you.

Dear Neale,

I have a question. You have written that "to the best students go the most difficult lessons". You also wrote in your first conversation with God that life is not a school, life is about remembering and recreating Who You Really Are. Do you believe that, despite the remembering and recreating business, there are people whose lives present them with more difficulties (or should I say, opportunities) simply because they are in an 'advanced class' and 'can handle more'? If this isn't true, is it true then that some people just aren't able to create their reality as they wish? Or could both be true?

I am very much puzzled, because it seems to me that a lot of people who don't live their lives very consciously (and so don't seem to consciously create their life's circumstances) actually have the easiest lives and seem quite satisfied with their lives. Something I envy! In my life, it feels as if God keeps throwing situations at me, saying: 'Let's see if you can handle this one!' Is this because I am an excellent student or is it because I just make a mess of creating my desired reality? What am I doing wrong here?

I'm very curious what your answer will be. Also, I would like to say that I love you very much and enjoy your writings. Evelien

Dear Evelien...you ask a very good and insightful question. "To the best students go the most difficult lessons" is a metaphor, and like all metaphors is not meant to be read literally. CwG says that life is not a school, that is true. It does say that we have only to remember Who We Really Are. And I understand that when dealing with the Illusions of Life this can very often be extremely difficult.

The word "student" and the word "lessons" in the above metaphor are best understood in the context of a relationship between a student and her Master. There is not a "school" as such, but there are "opportunities" to master moments in life that are brought to us BY us in order to be negotiated in ways that allow us to express and experience Who We Really Are.

I do think that there is a colloration between the level of mastery that a soul seeks to achieve during a particular lifetime and the events in one's life. In other words, I do not think that the events in the life of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) or Jesus the Christ, to pick two examples, occurred by circumstance or by chance. I believe those events were called TO them BY them in order to provide them with opportunities to announce and declare, express and experience, become and fulfill Who They Really Are.

So, too, is it in our lives. I think that it is true that some people who appear to be walking around "unconsciously" often have easier, less challenging lives than those who are seeking higher awareness and a grander experience of themselves. And if the goal is to simply experience a life of ease, as opposed to a life of fulfillment, it may make sense to neither seek nor attain a higher level of consciousness. Yet after a number of "lives of ease," the evolving soul looks for greater challenges and grander experiences of what it means to be human -- and so, the process of Soul Growth begins.

To be clear, Evelien, it is not "God" who "keeps throwing situations" at you, saying "Let's see if you can handle this one," it is you --YOU -- who keep doing this. God simply empowers you to experience yourself in whatever way you choose. Therefore, bless every moment and every event, and know that you live in a friendly universe that has been uniquely designed to allow you to become and know in your experience Who You Really Are.

This is God's work we are up to, you and I, so keep on!

Love...Neale.