“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now if you had all been really paying attention to what I have said for some time about the simultaneous nature of time and existence, then you would have known that the theory of evolution is as beautiful as a tale as the theory of Biblical creation. Both are quite handy and both are methods of telling stories and both might seem to agree within their own systems, and yet, in larger respects they cannot be realities. I am addressing this to our friend over here (Arnold) and partially to our friend over here because you should understand what I am speaking of. But, then, no one asked me about the nature of evolution before until recently when our friend, Joseph, read a book. No—no form of matter, however potent, will be self-evolved into consciousness no matter what other bits of matter are added to it, but without the consciousness, the matter would not be there in the universe floating around waiting for another component to give it reality, consciousness, existence or song.

That probable self can become a whole entity if it so chooses. Now some selves do not choose to become entities.

([Ned:] “Is it up to the probable self whether they become a new entity, or up to the person who creates the probable      self ?”)

...But it was not more than Seth usually does. Now, you are acquainted with those portions of self that you are ready to accept at any given time and he knows when you are ready to accept certain concepts, and when you are ready to accept certain experiences. And so your own development follows your inner dictates, both when you are alone, and when you are in class.

The trouble was that you wanted to hide in concepts, and so he brought you out of them so that you could acknowledge the self that deals in concepts, and then give you some relief and release. He leads you back into concepts again. There is nothing wrong with concepts at all as long as you do not use them as hiding places or as steps of security from which you will not leap, one into the other. Or unless you use them to hide your own emotional reality. Within you concepts and actions are one, and you recognize this, and your inner lives are based upon it, but your mental lives are often based upon ideas, until recently, have been considered very modern and very in, such as the idea of evolution. And yet, if you had listened to what I have been saying, again, you would have known the theory to be a pretty tale. Life bursts apart in all directions as consciousness does and explodes in all probable directions. There is not one steady stream of progress.

Now I have adopted this measure simply because it is impossible to speak to each of you individually with any depth or meaning, but (to Valerie) I want you to realize that you are not alone, and that isolation is a manufactured thing. You manufacture it in your mind. It has no meaning in any terms. You will learn to feel it and not simply accept it intellectually, but you must begin to tell yourself emotionally that you are not isolated, and you must divorce yourself from self-pity.

Now the atoms and molecules that compose you are glorious impermanent things, and through the leadership of your consciousness have you led them to consciousness and song and through you do they experience what you experience. And through your organization do they understand realities that would otherwise be denied them. And when each of you come together in a personal relationship are you then glorifying and adding to the reality of the consciousness that is within those atoms and molecules. You know each other in each life a brief time. What joy and comfort you can give, then give. What support you can render, render. Do you not realize that by doing this you become more than you think you are? And I am not speaking to any of you in terms of self-sacrifice for there is no such thing, and there is no such road, and I do not advocate it. But if you demand the best that is within you then you become more than you realize that you are, and you must also demand more from the other persons within your relationship. Allof you, therefore, that are married and have such relationships must inspire each other regardless of what you all know of the nature of reality.

The bones that you call your own will lie a long time in the grave. The physical beings of those that you know change even as I speak. What joy and creativity you can give, then give. What affirmation you can speak, speak. This life is as important as any other life, and none of you attempt to deny the abilities of another for in doing this you speak against creativity. Therefore, it behooves all of you, on a part of all that you are, to expect the best of yourselves and the best of those with whom you are in contact. But the moment is intimate and the voice that speaks beside you in the night, in your terms, will not speak for long, therefore, comfort it when you can. And remember, all of you, again, I am not speaking in terms of self-sacrifice. It is impossible to sacrifice the self, and when you try to do this, it is betrayal. This is not divorced from the material I have been giving you in terms of evolution or the nature of reality but highly intertwined. You live and breathe these concepts.

But also that you should not attempt self-sacrifice. It should not be expected of you. You should not accept it.

([Mark:] “Then if you have a responsibility it should be an opportunity to develop yourself, not a self-sacrifice?”)

That is not self-sacrifice.

([Mark:] “But sometimes, in self-pity, we think of it as self-sacrifice but really it’s a chance to gain humility or give service to other people?”)