You think that everything hinges on everything else. You perceive a chain of events, yet you perceive amiss. Sequence is a result of language. The cause and effect that you see are not as they seem. Time after time is not true. It is perceived but not true. You say 1, 2, 3. You say, "This happened, and then that happened, and now this is happening." You see that Cupid shoots an arrow, and then you are in love. You see that someone shoots a gun, and now there is a bull's eye, for example. There are examples every day, every minute.

Of course, it appears that a flower blooms in a certain sequence. This first, then that. Of course, it appears that a puppy dog grows a little at the tail and a little at the nose.

You may say to yourself a million times: "Oh, if only I had not done that. Oh, if only I had done this, how different my world would be."

Pause for a moment in this everyday thinking and wonder about the possibility that everything happens all at once. Imagine that instead of causality, there is simultaneity. What if everything happens all at once? What if there is no past and no future. What if there isn't even now?

Beloveds, time does not really exist. That is exactly what I'm telling you.

I know you are thinking: "But, God, haven't you said that my thoughts affect everything near and far? My thoughts act out the phrase: 'For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost.' Now, I am sure you are going to say that there is no near or far. What am I to think?"

Beloveds, yes, you do affect everyone and everything in the world. You have an affect. Your thoughts have an effect, and yet, strange as it may seem, there is no cause and effect. Your love stimulates someone you have never seen, and yet that unseen person can rise above the stimulus of your thoughts. He can rise above his own. You can rise above your own.

The concept, and it is only a concept, of cause and effect is too simplistic. From that concept comes the illusion of blame. From the concept of blame comes repercussion and punishment of one kind or another. Contribution and blame are not exactly the same.

Everything contributes.

It is like this: Life is an orchestra. All the instruments play. They come into play. One is at the forefront, and others join in, and from the varied instruments, music is made. All instruments have a tone, and each tone contributes to the whole. All contributes to the whole. And there are the instrumentalists who play the instruments. How and when they take a breath contributes, and yet who can say which instrument is responsible for this music and its beauty that play this moment?

Beloveds, life is bigger than life!

You are indeed part of an orchestra of life, and you play a big part in it. You infuse it. You diffuse it. You are instrumental in every aspect. And yet you are innocent. Yet you are responsible for the note you play, and the note you play contributes to the music as a whole. No matter how well you play, or how well the world views your playing, you merely play the instrument you play. No matter how poorly you may play in the eyes of the world, you merely play the instrument of yourself that you play. Let no man say that you are to blame for the whole composition. Everyone is responsible, and everyone is blameless.

For a moment, accept the concept that sequence does not exist. Get your mind around the idea that everything catapults itself into Eternity and Infinity in one fell swoop.