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On Being God: Beyond Your Life's Purpose
In Carl Bozeman’s profound and deeply compelling On Being Beyond Your Life’s Purpose, the author reveals an experience that changed his life and led to the inspiring revelations so beautifully described in his book. Bozeman puts forth the convincing belief that we are not a composite of the people and events and experiences beginning at birth, rather we are the “now” and endowed with such creative energy as to make each of us a god. Knowing this, and fully recognizing what exists within us?our own power and our knowledge?will direct us beyond the mundane and into the realm of embracing our infinite and divine nature. Only then can we recognize that what we perceive as our reality is, in truth, only a small part of what and who we are. Accepting this true and exquisite authenticity will bring purpose and joy into our lives.
216 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 16, 2012
This book is filled with some of the most profound statements and insights of any book I have read regarding the limitations we place upon ourselves.
The book opens with a new interpretation of what the story of Garden of Eden really implies. Carl's take on this is right on and makes complete sense that the alleged serpent is actually our ego, which deceives us with endless mind chatter that keeps us from knowing we are gods. There was no serpent beguiling eve. Her own thinking deceived her and she shared with Adam her logical conclusion that we are something other than god. We are so much greater than we have realized. We are individuations of the divine source. We were not created in God's image; instead many times we create our own image of god. We limit him as we have limited ourselves with our egoic thinking.
"The idea that within each of us is the god we seek is so contrary to what we have been conditioned to believe that the mention of it is to blaspheme against the finite god we think we know and believe in," writes Carl on page 22. "Our reasoning protects us from the awesome power and responsibility of being god and accepting our divine nature and seeing beyond the reality we have come to know. . . We yield our divine nature to the reasoning of others who think that what they know is what we should believe . . . The judgments we make are the essence of all our sorrows, suffering, and sadness in this reality."
Another strong point the book makes is that there is no sin, hence we are sinless. Some readers may have a hard time grasping the fact that there is no good and evil, right or wrong, but if Christ paid for our sins then how is that different from the idea that there is no sin? Unless we throw out the Bible and dismiss it entirely, we must admit that this is the major theme in Jesus' teaching: don't judge. "Forgive everyone" is the same as saying, "if you cannot accept the idea that there is no sin, forgive everyone of what you think or claim to be sin." Gods do not judge at all. Only man in his current ego-ridden state of assessing what is good and evil judges in any way and then places such characteristics on god. Gods can only exist in neutrality that makes no judgments about anything and accepts unconditionally every act or event as part of the infinite range of possibilities.
For me, the highlight of the book was Bozeman's interpretation of the parable of the talents spoken of in the New Testament where Jesus tells of a man traveling to a far country, leaving his wealth with his servants to manage until he returns. Removing judgment from the equation as Carl so eloquently does, we see that the man, who hid his talent because he was afraid of his master's reputation as a stern man, is actually afraid of his own divinity. A lesson for all of us who are afraid to step into our rightful power minus the ego.
Lastly, the book anticipates that some people will refuse to change their minds or believe differently even when they know that what they currently hold as truth is to their own detriment. That is the working of the ego at its self-protective core. The ego knows that anything we ascribe to god we have within ourselves. In order to realize our god-like nature we must overcome our need to judge others. The more we get rid of judgment, the more of God we will see in ourselves. Naturally, in order to continue its own existence, the ego will show us creative ways to keep judgment alive. It's our choice. Are you a god or not?
The book opens with a new interpretation of what the story of Garden of Eden really implies. Carl's take on this is right on and makes complete sense that the alleged serpent is actually our ego, which deceives us with endless mind chatter that keeps us from knowing we are gods. There was no serpent beguiling eve. Her own thinking deceived her and she shared with Adam her logical conclusion that we are something other than god. We are so much greater than we have realized. We are individuations of the divine source. We were not created in God's image; instead many times we create our own image of god. We limit him as we have limited ourselves with our egoic thinking.
"The idea that within each of us is the god we seek is so contrary to what we have been conditioned to believe that the mention of it is to blaspheme against the finite god we think we know and believe in," writes Carl on page 22. "Our reasoning protects us from the awesome power and responsibility of being god and accepting our divine nature and seeing beyond the reality we have come to know. . . We yield our divine nature to the reasoning of others who think that what they know is what we should believe . . . The judgments we make are the essence of all our sorrows, suffering, and sadness in this reality."
Another strong point the book makes is that there is no sin, hence we are sinless. Some readers may have a hard time grasping the fact that there is no good and evil, right or wrong, but if Christ paid for our sins then how is that different from the idea that there is no sin? Unless we throw out the Bible and dismiss it entirely, we must admit that this is the major theme in Jesus' teaching: don't judge. "Forgive everyone" is the same as saying, "if you cannot accept the idea that there is no sin, forgive everyone of what you think or claim to be sin." Gods do not judge at all. Only man in his current ego-ridden state of assessing what is good and evil judges in any way and then places such characteristics on god. Gods can only exist in neutrality that makes no judgments about anything and accepts unconditionally every act or event as part of the infinite range of possibilities.
For me, the highlight of the book was Bozeman's interpretation of the parable of the talents spoken of in the New Testament where Jesus tells of a man traveling to a far country, leaving his wealth with his servants to manage until he returns. Removing judgment from the equation as Carl so eloquently does, we see that the man, who hid his talent because he was afraid of his master's reputation as a stern man, is actually afraid of his own divinity. A lesson for all of us who are afraid to step into our rightful power minus the ego.
Lastly, the book anticipates that some people will refuse to change their minds or believe differently even when they know that what they currently hold as truth is to their own detriment. That is the working of the ego at its self-protective core. The ego knows that anything we ascribe to god we have within ourselves. In order to realize our god-like nature we must overcome our need to judge others. The more we get rid of judgment, the more of God we will see in ourselves. Naturally, in order to continue its own existence, the ego will show us creative ways to keep judgment alive. It's our choice. Are you a god or not?
December 29, 2009
To quote a friend who read the book: "if Neale Donald Walsch had written the Power of Now he would have called it On Being God."
What can be learned from this book is that we are divine and that anything we allow our so called gods to do we can do even more. That a good message to the world.
What can be learned from this book is that we are divine and that anything we allow our so called gods to do we can do even more. That a good message to the world.
September 3, 2016
AWARENESS
My moment of awareness was the still small voice that encapsulated me when I was fourteen. This experience faded as I grew into adult ego-hood, Seems that in Bozeman's reckoning God is in reality human consciousness, this is the message I received from reading his thought provoking work.
Chock full of mind blowing tips for living beyond your ego and into the marvelous 'now!'
My moment of awareness was the still small voice that encapsulated me when I was fourteen. This experience faded as I grew into adult ego-hood, Seems that in Bozeman's reckoning God is in reality human consciousness, this is the message I received from reading his thought provoking work.
Chock full of mind blowing tips for living beyond your ego and into the marvelous 'now!'
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews