Q: If, before we are born, we are in a place of absolute peace and if, after we die, we return to a place of absolute peace, what’s the point for us to just go through this life? Wouldn’t it be easier just to skip over this part?

John: It’s a time to give form to what you are, which also enables you to give form to something that you are not; discovering what you first are and then, uncompromisingly, being that. That is you giving form to what you first were. That gives you the opportunity to be profoundly real, which, in a world like this, is painful.

Q: What is the meaning of the pain, or for the pain, then?

John: The pain has no meaning unless you’re being profoundly real within the pain. If you’re being profoundly real to the deepest part that is true in you in the midst of pain, that is you revealing true form. You are not required to have endurance, but being true produces endurance. When you are quieted, within, you are then in touch with something, within, that doesn’t stand out in this world. Being in touch with the smallest and the most quieting knowing, within, that, while you may not understand it, it does make you profoundly still. That nourishing stillness is the beginning of real form.

From there, you begin to know more and to understand, a tiny little bit, the kind of understanding that alters your whole perspective, a perspective that is in line with where you came from. A perspective that gives room for pain and a perspective that doesn’t indulge in pain. A perspective that simply sees what it knows, in the midst of pain. When you’re in touch with such a fine knowing, within, you begin to realize a higher calling, the calling to reveal the kind of form that surpasses this world.

The most profound reality requires the most profound awareness, an uncommon awareness, but the kind of awareness that is available to you, the only kind of awareness that is able to satisfy you to the core, awareness that is quiet and so full of knowing. One touch of it within has you facing what you know is the right direction. It is that for which you exchange everything that you think you are to give form to the deep, within, that you always knew you were. You being the quality of awareness that convinces even your own thinking. You being that irrefutable knowing that can think so clearly. You being the loyalty to that. You being loyal to the very deepest awareness in you. You giving form to such awareness, first. You having your feet in where you know you came from, while walking in this world with such feet.

When your eyes are seeing from within where you know you came from, then you clearly see where you are going. If not, then pain and pleasure will divert you. You know what you’re looking for. You are looking for it because you already have the knowing of it. You won’t find what you’re looking for until you are first being that knowing. It is being it that finds it. It is not where your head is; it is where your feet are, and then letting what your feet are in fill your thinking: you letting your perspective come from where you came from, a perspective that is not of this world and yet walks in this world.

Being in this world isn’t about the quality of the experience that you have. It is about the quality of your knowing that you are letting have real experience. You letting your own innermost have real form. Consult with the deepest and finest knowing in you by believing what you know, even if you don’t understand it. That gives you knowing feet, the place from which you can think clearly.

As awareness, begin with knowing instead of thinking. First, you know. Then, you can think: you having the kind of thinking that has a real innermost to it, the kind of thinking that comes from where you came from. Profound thought begins with profound knowing. It is the depth and the quality of your awareness that determines how much you will really see. You do, more so, know how to see, than you are accustomed to seeing. You are able to see. You just need to trust what you know when you do see, letting nothing divert you from being that finest and deepest knowing. Know where you are going, because you know where you came from. You, within this world, providing form that spans the two, that spans where you came from and where you’re going. You, as awareness, being that knowing, that deepest and finest knowing that gives birth to itself. You being that knowing precedes all understanding. It is you being such profound knowing that gives you understanding. You being the knowing that precedes what you’re looking for, and that will be you turning into what you’re looking for. It is not for you to find it, and have it. It is for you to know it and turn into it. The diversions are endless. The knowing, within, is one. Instead of being a person, be profoundly aware of what you know, and remain in that, and you’ll be even a better person. Then you’ll not only be awareness that knows, but you’ll be a person that really understands.

When you relapse into the absence of this, you will still know that you knew, which means that you really do know. What you are knowing is the way. Be that way. It isn’t about what you experience and see. It is about what you know, within, and be. That is you forming your experience, seeing rightly, because you are being knowing. You getting it right because you know what’s right. You being that depth and quality of awareness that gives birth to a higher self in this world while healing the lower self. You being the awareness that holds the two. You being that awareness that both precedes and exceeds the self. That is what your life is for; a much higher calling than this world will bear witness to. Let what you know, within, persuade you.

Peace isn’t a feeling to relate to. It is a higher quality of beingness to return to. You, being where you came from, without leaving this world. You giving form to where you came from, in this world. Then you not only know where you’re going. It will also show.