Somehow it only recently occurred to me
– that not everyone is innately driven to do what is right and good,
– that they wouldn’t, even if they understood and could.
– that it may be naive fantasy that we all have an inner conscience like my own.

Furthermore, it may be that the driving force of many or most
has no sophistication at all
functioning at a simple, emotional, or sensational brainstem level.

How can we reach someone who does not experience motivation to do what is right and good? Appeal to their simple, selfishness – heaven, eternal bliss, 40 virgins, joyful gifts on Christmas morning. But I am not willing to manipulate with lies and misinformation. I am not here to manipulate at all. I am not here to affect change in any way but to reveal truth. Is that sufficient? Does truth itself inherently birth into the being of the receiver? Does the light always take root?

It certainly seems that the universe will have its way with you whether you like it or not. Such infinite force hardly takes interest in our own. Except when we meet it in its true reality, wittingly or not. When we meet the underlying and pervasive forces of life we may be deft in our negotiation or bumbling fools.

Regardless of your interests, selfish or otherwise, you are inert and ineffectual unless you can negotiate Reality and do what works. The only true objective definition of Goodness is “that which works” – the rest is for you to define, subjectively.

In the navigation of your life, you cannot escape reality. You can attempt to do nothing, to be lazy, avoidant, dissociated, catatonic, useless. You may even succeed at being entirely lazy, unskilled, and ineffectual. Objectively, there is no downside – you are objectively meaningless. There is no anthropomorphic God who empathetically cares in any way your feeble heart could relate. You can do nothing and get away with it. One way or another, life will happen, and then you’ll die.

So when I claim Work as the third step in the value, am I overstepping? Am I injecting a personal wish instead of elucidating truth? I’m certainly far less guilty than the monstrous religions and other cartoon superstitions currently popular across the known universe. Not good enough. Am I being utterly truthful or am I imposing my personal will upon you?

Perhaps more accurately I should state the call as an opportunity. Insomuch as you deny reality and what works, you are impotent, helpless. Insomuch as you do not apply effectual effort into the actual system of life and being, your will be damned.

But isn’t that part of the call of the perennial philosophy – surrender to the will of God? Acknowledge the transience, your mortality, the perfection, and let go? – Perennial philosophy be damned. I’m here to set you straight. I’m here to open the world’s eyes to the truth. It’s time for humanity to graduate beyond their cartoon religions, partial insights, and catastrophic misunderstandings.

You are incapable of doing nothing. And there is no reward for attempting to prove me wrong with some heroic catatonia. You are a human being – being as part of the process and unfolding of the universe of which you are part and parcel. It’s true, we do not need you for any particular theoretical outcome. It’s true, if you died today, we’d get along fine without you. It’s truly not the point.

The point is that you are a glorious thread in the tapestry of God’s becoming. You are a living part of the universe. The glory and ultimate opportunity is that you are at all and in this moment alive and able with the experience of choice and influence on the fabric of our world.

You are not God, but you are part. You are not necessary for any relatable outcome, but there is no goal in any relatable sense. The great victory is now and it is this moment of your life. God’s glory is in this moment of your honoring him – not in his cartoon nor masculine cartoonization. Glory is in your waking up to the light of the moment, the reality of the miracle, the miracle of reality and your experience another breath, another moment, another pain or pleasure, another opportunity to experience choice and action.

You do not need to choose. The world will not end without you. Your death ends your world, not ours. But the ultimate opportunity is to wake up to reality, to the infinite glory of this moment and every moment of your life and every life in this miraculous fabric. No part of the fabric is of relatable importance or value. The entirety of your moment of experience and waking up to the infinite ways of honoring truth and light and love is your opportunity.

You can choose darkness. You can choose ignorance and suffering. You can choose fear and laziness and judgement. You can choose hell.

Or you can understand that heaven is a choice. Heaven is real and it is a choice here and now in the only reality that will ever be. Heaven is an alternative to the hell you create with your sin, your ignorance and fear, your judgment and absurd worldly pain.

Not only is there no heaven. There is no afterlife. There isn’t even death. There is your moment until there is none. In your moment there is your experience. Your experience includes will and influence. You’re living the infinite opportunity to choose right or wrong, heaven or hell, now. Not for later reward, not towards a fantasy future, not towards your goals and dreams. Heaven is right orientation to the one true everlasting reality of the moment and your experience thereof. Heaven is living in the Glory of Reality and Goodness. Getting there is the Work.

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Notable Comments from AI Review:

Make it explicit that “heaven/hell” are names for present orientation, not afterlife geography.

Lines like “perennial philosophy be damned” and “cartoon religions” will be the most likely-to-regret phrasing.

the core thrust (you can’t escape reality; goodness is what works; work is the choice)