Hi Jim

.........if there is such a thing as the divine factor, why should it only be working for you and not for other people?

Dear Carl,

It's a good question.  I'll answer it from your point of view first, then from mine.  "Your point of view" means that for the purpose of argument I accept your perception of me as a finite human being, one separate from every other. I only want what the Divine wants for me, so my will is in harmony with the Will of the Divine.  Therefore I always get every thing I want.  Or put it this way, everything I get, the presence or absence of x, is exactly what I want.  So Divine is always working for me.

But since I do not think of myself as anything other than the Divine here is the way I see it. In a non-dual reality I am everything that is.  Therefore I already possess and inhabit every apartment there is.  Therefore I already have an apartment.  But I cannot say this.  You will think that I am a megalomaniac.  Or should we say you will think that I am even more megalomaniacal (or just plain deluded) than you presently think I am.  And this would put a stress on our friendship.  So I put it in as humble a way as possible.  Alas, it still seemed like arrogance to you, I fear.

Finally, if I am the Divine and there is a phenomenal universe in which karma and its results operate then I know that my will always prevails.  Therefore when I assume the Maya of Jim so as not to upset those of my friends who cannot accept me as the Divine, I can confidently say that the Divine factor is working for me.  Saying that it is working for me, from this platform, does not mean that it is not working for everyone since I am not only Jim, I am everyone else too.

The misunderstanding arose when you interpreted 'I' as Jim, a person in the world, a guy who was looking for an apartment.   But when I said 'I' it wasn't that Jim speaking.  It was the Self, the Divine.  I'll bet you didn't know you were talking to God.  Obviously not or you would not have had the temerity to question me.  Actually, and you will probably find this impossible to believe, I don't think of myself as 'Jim' at all.  I lost him down the sinkhole of union with the Divine many moons ago.  But I know that the world has a problem with this idea so I act like a Jim would act if he were a more or less normal person.  And my performance of Jim is generally convincing enough to keep me from getting tacked to the cross or some equally unpleasant indignity.  In fact it seems it is so convincing it reaps tons of good karma for the body mind that the world imagines Jim to be.  So I'm not surprised that you too were fooled.

OK. Here's the second argument. The Divine works for everyone, but not always in harmony with their desires. This is so because it is the will of the Divine that everyone attains union with the Divine in understanding (they are already in union in fact) and the way individuals interpret the results of their actions is the most important factor in determining whether or not they seek the Divine.  It is the Divine's will that everyone seek it.  Since the Divine knows the heart of the individual and understands how he or she will interpret his or her experience (which is just the results of his or her past actions) the Divine only produces results that will ultimately lead to the conclusion that there is a Divine.  {Eighty five percent of the word's population believes in God or some form of God.  The other fifteen percent are in the process of coming to the conclusion that there is a God.}  The conclusion that there is a Divine causes people to worship it in various ways and the worship of the Divine eventually leads to inquiry into the nature of the Divine.  The inquiry into the nature of the Divine ultimately leads to the understanding of non-separation from the Divine.  If an individual wants something that is not in harmony with the will of the Divine he or she will not get it.  The non-attainment of desire-prompted results also serves the will of God since it causes frustration with the world which ultimately leads to dispassion and dispassion leads to inquiry.  And inquiry leads to the conclusion that one is the Divine. I'll sign off. 

All the best.

God masquerading as Jim