There is a great mystery in the Universe, and the mystery is that there is something, rather than nothing – that something exists. In the universe there is life, light, and consciousness; life dances and moves. How has this all come about?

It is important that you first marvel at the mystery of life, light, and consciousness. These elements cannot exist in isolation; where there is life there is also light and consciousness. Light makes it so that life becomes manifest. In the light is a driving force that causes consciousness to be raised higher, until it comes to a point where it can reflect upon itself, become self-conscious. When consciousness gets to that point, life is able to become aware and capable of giving form to itself. Life can choose and progress, and then there is such a thing as the formation of an I, of a self. This is the birth of the soul.

But I shall take a step back and describe the principles of life, light, and consciousness. Where do they come from? What is the origin of life? In the lap of the Cosmos is a void, an emptiness that breathes:a fullness in the silence. That is the origin of life, and you can connect with that origin by breathing silently. When you breathe in silence and stillness, and bring your attention to the in- and out-breath, you connect with the primal source of Being.

This silent beginning, the basis of all life, continues to be present in each one of you. It lives and breathes within you regardless of what you do or not do. The origin, the beginning – the void that is there from which everything is born – still exists within you. To realize that sets you free, as well as releases the limits of who you are. It reveals the relative, dual nature of your individuality.

In that initial void, in that space, there is not yet individuality, there is no unique soul. There is pure Isness or Beingness. Feel the mystery of this Beingness; It surrounds everything. Without this Ground of Being, you do not exist; It permeates and nurtures you.

What is It? In this silence lives the breath of God. God is indeterminate, undefined, and open-ended. It is formless: that which is not individualized. God is aware of everything, but in this great field of limitless awareness that is God, there are pockets, or hollows, in which a lack of awareness is predominate. That lack of awareness makes it possible for life to grow and flourish there.

God, Being, has created places where life is unaware, from where a desire for awareness can develop and grow toward the light. You are located in such a hollow in the field of consciousness that is God. God had to create a lesser awareness in order for individuality to emerge,

In order to create individual life, God had to do something paradoxical, because in Its essence God is everything. Everything that exists is in God, both what is possible and what is not possible, so God had to create places of lesser awareness to allow the soul to be born. The soul is a defined and limited awareness that finds her way through time and space, seeking always that union with God from which she was born. The soul's birth was a leap into the darkness of oblivion.

By creating awareness at the level of the individual, there is something new, something great created in God: a living awareness that grows, and is dynamic and becoming – and life is change, is in a state of becoming. When awareness includes everything, and also includes all the possibilities, there is no possibility for dynamic growth from unawareness to full awareness. It is only through this dynamic process that light is created in the spiral of growth of the soul: from her birth to her youth to her maturity. And it is this growth in the field of time and space which will add to the awareness of God.

The soul lives in a love relationship with God. God is the soul's Source, its Ground or matrix, and the goal toward which the soul strives. And God creates the soul so God can find gratification in the soul's urge toward becoming, with the depth of feelings that result. The mystery is that God Itself, in this way, becomes visible, tangible, experiential through the individual awareness that the soul carries within herself. That is the purpose of the birth of the soul.

The soul is drawn to lose her way in the hollows of awareness, at least in part. This is necessary on the path of the soul because it is important that she reach out and, in full freedom, return to thedivine awareness, to the omniscience, to the all-knowing. That is why evil, that which is considered "bad", is to be a part of her journey.

When the soul reaches out toward the Beginning, toward the essence of who she is, toward the God in herself, it is precisely in that void – the unlimited and all-embracing nature of God's Being – that she experiences her liberation. The soul has then come Home.

Light and dark are elements that belong to the journey of the soul. The play of light and dark is created because God withdraws Its awareness, or hides it, in certain parts of the Cosmos, and there gives free play to the soul. The creation of the soul is actually a contraction, a narrowing of awareness. But that process has a purpose, because it is precisely in that contraction that there is a movement, a process of realization which is important and valuable, and it is that process which creates light.

Light emerges where the individualized awareness opens toward the divine source. The stronger the light becomes, the more awareness grows and the more the connection to the One is felt, contraction then gradually opens to full awareness. This interplay of contraction and omniscience is the essence of Creation. In that dance between both poles, God reaches Its greatest expression.

Jeshua