A dear friend sought understanding of the concept of individual creative thought within the larger framework of the human race belief system. Specifically, my friend wanted to know how we, when seeking to know our true identity as spiritual BEings, could rise above the limiting beliefs of race consciousness and actually live our own life of love, joy, peace and harmony despite worldly appearances to the contrary. As is my (now) custom, I released the question to Higher Self, and later got this neat analogy (someone wrote that, though a picture may be worth a thousand words, a good analogy is worth a thousand pictures, and I begin to grasp why Jesus taught by way of parables).

Years ago, I recall walking into the secretarial pool of a large insurance company, and seeing this huge room filled with desks spaced only a few feet apart. At each desk sat a typist, noisily pecking away at an electric typewriter, typing complete insurance policies. A similar scene greeted me a few years later in a newsroom, where dozens of reporters and editors worked amid confusion and cacophony to get out a newspaper each day.

Our office environment has evolved, in this country at least, to a more private environment of cubicles, partially isolated cells in which workers can experience relative peace while completing their jobs. When they first came out, these cubicles were sound-absorbing walls about four to five feet high, that shielded a sitting employee from others, but still allowed oversight of the whole room. More recently, these walls have become higher, affording a little more privacy even when standing.

Within each cubicle, each person is generally free to decorate and maintain the space as they see fit, including plants and pictures that create a sense of "personal space". This, of course, is subject to "company policy" that limits their creativity. Further, though they have achieved some control over the local working environment, the cubicle itself is within the larger office space, and things like temperature and lighting are beyond their control.

Similarly, we as separate human bodies, have the ability to think whatever we choose, but still identify ourselves as physical beings occupying a material world, subject to the laws of that world. Thus, we are subject to "race beliefs" about what we call "reality", the irrefutable "truth" of gravity and our physical environment. Following that belief system, we are subject to the "temperature and lighting" of the world, including the storms and conflicts and struggles that weave through our lives.

Within the office cubicle, we are also free to focus our attention wherever we choose, yet are still subject to unwelcome intrusions when a co-worker comes to speak to us, by the odor of strong perfume or the sound of raised voices wafting over the partitions.

Similarly, despite our focus on our spiritual self, we become disturbed and "brought back to earth" when we hear news of disaster, or worse, experience "illness" or "disease" within our bodies. These seem to be beyond our control within the "office" of the race belief system we accept as our reality.

An office worker can rise in status, however, being promoted to the point where he/she may get a "private" office. Through this promotion, at least partial control over local temperature and lighting is gained, and even unwelcome guests, sounds and odors can be shut out by a closed office door. If we are really fortunate, we rise to the position of "boss" where we also control other employees working environment.

So it is in the spiritual realm. We can raise our consciousness to a degree where we remain at peace and largely unaffected by the apparent evils and conflicts around us. We can "close the door" to the noises of the material world and remain centered in our spiritual identity. Even when "trouble" such as illness or disease comes knocking, though the body may experience discomfort or pain, we can remain above that, and escape the suffering that comes from identifying with the body.

We can even rise to the position of "boss" in our lives, and bar the company doors against abusive employees and circumstances, giving no reality to lack or conflict. Though we may experience the same physical things others do, we perceive them differently, and they no longer show up as "problems" in our lives. In fact, when we have achieved a state of harmony and Oneness, they never show up AT ALL!!!

Is there a limit? Even the company owner must leave the comfort of his office, leave the building and walk out into the street, where he is subject to the noise and hazards of traffic, etc. I believe we can. As the Masters have taught us, all is within the ONE that IS All That IS. If we can achieve a complete identification with that ONE, even the physical laws must obey our creative consciousness, and we will do the "greater things" we came here to do.