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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

It Is Important to Have Faith

It is important to have faith in the soul. It is how we legitimize our demand for freedom. It is how we gain the right to choose to be
ourselves, to occupy our own space in time identity, through agreement. It is how we do through agreement. It is how we become our
greater being, through faith in the power of the soul when conscious at the center of one's existence, to move the universe. It is to move
from that other side of the mind, to create from the irrational what is real and rational, to believe in existence. When we believe, when
we have faith in the soul, we gain the soul.

To have the soul is to surrender to the logic of being in the illogical. It is to invite into our everyday existence the power of the infinite
being interrelated into a conscious individual able to choose to believe, to have faith. From an infinite identity is pressed into this
existence the question: "Who Am I?" The answer lies in our sanctity of being, of love, of belief. In "who am I", when expressed in terms
of agreement, is the immense movement of the universe here as it moves in relation to an individual being. It is to move with the power
of the soul, of the universal being as that power is moving itself. "I am that I am", is to look into the being of the mind as that power is
focusing itself there. To become conscious of it, to believe and to have the courage to believe, faith, is then to bring that power into our
everyday existence. This is the miracle of being in the soul. It is a new kingdom where every person is a king within his or her person
when he or she is free from coercion, when they live by agreement. Then, the universe rules there. To have the soul is to become free to
love one another.

To reach out with kindness and helpfulness, to have faith in their strength, to reach out with truthfulness and trust, is to reach out into
the universe and far back into the miracle of the soul. To believe in trustfulness and in kindness is to believe in the sanctity of our being.
How much did the ancients know when they said to "love one another"? The temple of our being is already here, in the individual human
being, our own personal body. Do we shine from within with love and kindness and friendship? Are we more than merely animism,
unable to give? These are the marks of a person with a soul, he or she who has faith in their soul.

To have faith implies hardship. It is not easy to believe in our turbulent world. We are victimized daily, either by anger or by mistrust or
by violence. Our belief is daily tested. We are tested when we suffer. Do we submit and retreat or do we stand fast in our belief? Are we
conscious or weak? Is it not easier to hate than to love? Do we have the faith to move our reality with our soul, or do we merely accept
that to suffer is part of our turbulent world? There is a vast void between faith and submission. Yet, when we believe and have faith in
the soul, we fill that void with our everyday existence powered by the mysterious energy of our greater being. It becomes filled with the
energy of a soul moving our personal reality in terms of our greater image. To be in the mind is to have the freedom to have the soul.
This is an important first step and one which lends legitimacy to our demand for freedom. But to be in the soul is to believe in the power
of the soul in our everyday existence. This lends legitimacy to the universal immortality of our being.

The soul expressed in the flesh, in our being, in our personality, in "who" we are, is the definition from infinity of our being, our identity.
It is the definition into which we are born and into which we die. It is in relation to how we choose existence and in how we will choose
within it. It is how we love and are loved, how we do and how it is done to us. Yet, ultimately, when we are most severely tested, it is
how we believe and how we have the courage to believe. Through time people had built temples to the soul and to this faith. From
ancient times to the present men and women gather to pray, to hope, to sacrifice and suffer in order to have a better life, a better world.
The ancients offered sacrifice to aid them when their faith faltered; they beseeched their personal gods and lavished them with fetishes to
curry favors and privileges from them. But these are false and unnecessary. The power of the soul is in their belief in it, not in some
odious sacrifice. The power is in the strength of the human being to be able to resist temptation and to not succumb to irrelevant and
cowardly acts. It is to stand firm in one's conviction, even when all around are crying to give in. It is to believe, to suffer with this belief
and to power with the soul. We are powerful when we are in the soul. When we are without guilt of coercion, when we are truthful
before our existence, we have a universe behind us. Weakness does not attack where there is strength. The conviction of a single
individual is the greatest strength the universe has to offer.

There lies the true temple of faith. It is in the shrine of goodness, the edifice built of kindness, the temple of patience and helpfulness and
graciousness and compassion. It is to trust our fellow humans, even when this is difficult and it is easier to fear. It is to trust and to love
one another even when the other is afraid of love. It is to not desert a friendship in the face of difficulty, to not abandon a hope because
we are made to suffer. Faith is not to let others power over us, rather it is to hold the power of the soul by having the courage to love
even when the other is undeserving. We do not negate an agreement, nor do we seek to power over those weaker than ourselves. We
move our personal reality through faith in a way that reflects our greater being. In that is the true power of faith. The true temple of faith
is the consciousness of our soul.

There may be great hardship in the test of this faith. We may be subjected to cruelty and fear. Yet, there lies the greatest reward. It is
how we prove ourselves in terms of our identity in the face of peril, the "who am I" rising to meet the challenge of our being. It is how
we prove we have the soul, that we have faith, that we can choose to be conscious human beings rather than fearful victims. It is the
condition of our loving one another even in the face of terrible hardship. There is no greater magical rite than this. There is no temple
more beautiful than one dedicated to a human being able to love with his or her being.

To help and to give in the face of hardship is to test the soul. To tend the ill, to heal where there is fear, to soothe where there is
misfortune, to bear bravely tragedy where others bear confusion, to love even in the face of rejection; these are the paths to the soul. To
temper rage, to encourage kindness in others, to be charitable, to care; these are the paths that raises us from our more primitive past. It
is how we rise above the forces of chaos with the forces of a universe becoming itself. To be free of anger, to be steadfast in the face of
opposition, to protect the weak and to not cower in the face of coercion; these are the marks of a being whose level of consciousness has
raised him or her into a new world of trust and agreement. How great is faith, a given word sealed with a handshake. These are in the
power of the soul.

To be joyful with our reality and to suffer without it. These are the rituals demanded of us who are in the soul. It is ritual as old as time
and as universal as the experience of all living things. How simple and yet how complex. If our ancestors built vast temples to the soul, to
their gods, we caan also, but we need not. We need but have faith, to be still, to pray, to meditate, to believe. These are the expressions
of our ability to choose when we are posed with hardship and suffering. It is how we personify our reality. In each one of us is "I am that
I am." It is how we lend the soul to reality. If we must build shrines, then let them be built to this. Then we can touch our world with joy
and the soul.

When we touch with the soul, our reality changes for us. When we dream from the soul we create new worlds. When we pray with the
soul, we sow goodness and love to spread like a mantle throughout our world. When we are in the soul, we are guardians of a great
energy of universal order that is manifest in our being as love. When we look into our soul and see our universe there, then we are
looking at the world with eyes of love. It is to understand with the clear logic of faith, to believe with the courage of sanctity of being. To
wish another well is to leave behind the essence of the power of the soul, to bring joy into that other's world. To pray for another is like
a mist that will linger and cover them. It is the energy of the soul backed by faith.

If the ancients had tried to capture the essence of the soul, in effect to coerce it and bottle it and then use it in magical charms, they failed
to capture its main essence. In their efforts to capture the soul, they were destroying that which they were trying to hold. The power of
the soul is negated through trespass against it and can flourish only when it is released with love and belief. Coercion undoes the soul,
whereas the free mind giving of itself of its own will is rich in the soul. This is important, for as we understand the soul better in the
future, we must guard against repeating the errors of our ancestors. As we believe in the soul, it gains in consciousness and we will better
manifest its power. But this cannot come about with coercion.

To speak the truth, to be thoughtful of others, to turn away from vanity and flattery, to be thankful and grateful to others, to avoid gossip
and to not injure others; to genuinely wish another well, to love our fellow human beings as well as other living creatures, to celebrate
life. These are the powerful forces of the energy of faith. We need to do these with selflessness, with sincerity, with openness. It is to
step from the shadow of the soul into its brilliant light.

When we reach out and touch another, we are touching a soul. When we become conscious of this, we do it with reverence and awe,
with passion and love. The power of the universal order flows where there is a complete surrender to this, to surrender to a being with a
soul. "I am my being" is more powerful than we can know. Worlds meet. The light of the soul shines between them.

The soul's presence illuminates the darkness, for it gives strength and faith in the face of defenselessness and fear. In the face of evil and
ill-will, it is faith that sustains us. The power of belief, of human identity, of an interrelated infinity tied into each one of our existences at
birth, all define our being capable of the soul. When we become conscious of this, we illuminate the darkness that would do us ill and
overcome it with the brilliance of our human love, and thus we pray from the very depth of our existence. Our presence personifies the
world we live in. This is how free human beings overcome evil.

When we are truly free as human beings, free to love one another, free from trespass, free to do with joy as we will, then we are in the
kingdom of the soul. Then the universe will be free to work with us and around us will materialize a reality of plenty. It will become a
world of plenty, of goodness, of greater abundance and good-will than we had ever known. When we asked: "Is there a natural order...?"
we have seen that we can look into our minds and see the universe there. We are the creators, the communicators, the energy of being
that harnesses the power of the stars into our personal reality. We are the "mind" and we are "love." We are the focus of a universe
made into a microcosm of flesh. We are the soul. When we look up at the sky and wonder: "Who am I?"; the answer that forms itself is:
"We are Free!" Dare we believe in God?

As we gain this freedom, as we learn to do with love and gentleness, as we spread kindness and patience and faith; as we gain the soul,
we will step into a future world of a conscious man, woman in a conscious world. What brilliance will await us? To be one with the
world, to be as one with all living things, to be with the wind, to be powerful in the soul, to be with the energy of a world moving itself. If
we look into another's eyes, feel the warmth of another's hand, stand in another's living presence; there is a whole universe manifest
there! With childlike awe and simplicity, it is to see the soul in a flower petal, or the universe in a drop of rain. How wonderful! We live
and we die. Yet, when we see this, we know we live. What great creature is this that is called man, woman? We dream, we love, we do;
and thus we project ourselves into this world. It is for each one of us the incredible dream of being born: "I Am!"

To have looked into a universe and having seen the world there; to have looked into a flower and seeing another's eyes there. To see
being created of itself, from three. To see belief move reality. These are the power of Faith. To believe, to love, to choose, to be in the
soul. These are how we gain the soul.

"I am Human."

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