692 thoughts on “Looking for Answers and a Game that No One Wins”

1. ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’ Wow as I look up from my laptop I see the huge red sky, there is a golden glow, the sun is beginning to rise. A new day dawns with a new opportunity to clear the mess and stay clear of any impending mess and shine like the sun in all our power and glory.

2. It’s true, when we have to clean up the mess we make – I think that’s part of why we keep distracting ourselves – because otherwise we have to take responsibility for this mess and properly clean it up so that it can no longer effect everyone else.

3. I had someone point out recently that we can go around trying to prove that love doesn’t work, instead of being all the love you are and proving that love works- this was an eye opener for me.

4. It is interesting to observe what it is we give our power away to, be it seeing answers outside of ourselves or seeking recognition for the world around us. For when we do this we negate our connection to who we already are within, that which is what truly confirms who we are and guides us to live impulsed by the truth of our inner-knowing.

5. ” It never crossed my mind that the man in the hat may not have the answer! ”
   Its funny how we are so inclined to give our power away for answers.

6. The whole idea of a game where someone wins and another loses is so absolutely ridiculous when one clearly observes it – and yet the whole lot of us have got hooked on the game of the winner and loser to the extent that there will be cheating, poisoning, sabotaging, and even killing in order to win. The absurdity of it is beyond anything imaginable!

7. The man in the hat is very confident and that confidence can fool us. I notice many times a day, occasions where somebody makes a confident statement and the more I know about the particular subject the more often I realise the person is simply wrong. Sometimes the confidence is justified but many times it is not.

8. Its not an easy thing to begin to step back, look at how distracted we have become by the game and then see what we need to clean up because of the distraction. But this is a process we all need to do so that we feel more and more what is within.

9. Every day I celebrate that Serge Benhayon made the choice to step away from ‘the table’, no longer choosing to play the game of life that most of us have played or are still playing. And from not choosing to remain in the illusion, from his reflection of truth he now offers the rest of humanity a choice to also not continue to play the un-winnable game anymore.

10. When we fully step away from the table and stop playing this illusionary game, the man in the hat loses his imagined power and also steps away from the table.

    1. Yes, no audience, no performance. What would be the point?

11. We don’t have to play the game that takes us nowhere. But for how long I tried! Love your parables Joel.

12. Great read for this morning Joel. This story shows so clearly that we are pursuing ideas from the mind and can be quite stubborn in it, but again and again it proves to be empty of the truth we deeply feel we are missing and looking for. The illusion that the answer is in a game, like with gambling, is a false one and will only keep us distracted from the true path that we can take, a simple path to our inner most where already is what we think are missing.

13. Gorgeous to read Joel thank you for sharing” But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” this too is my task, clearing away what no longer serves me, whatever it is that dulls my light from shinning.

14. ‘There is a conman living within’ and its this that we focus on till we wake up, its this that rears it’s ugly head from time to time and then takes us out of our source. And then someone reflects and makes you realise that we are carrying stuff that needs to be cleaned out, it’s no different to decluttering our home. Loved what you shared Joel.

15. This has sent shivers through my body Joel, reading it for the first time. It exposes the games I have played for so long expecting the answers to come from under one of those shells. It is so beautiful to realise we don’t have to play the game at all, and the answers are not there. All the answers we need are from within us all the time.

    1. I have to second your ‘shivers through my body’ comment Gill, because this is really a powerful allegory of life that I am sure everyone can relate to in one way or another, because we all have been invested in finding the answers to all of life’s big questions via the three options that Joel mentioned, and many times I have felt that I have spent the majority of my life pursuing all these ‘games’ as one big distraction from that ‘inner glow’ that was there to connect to all along. So much out there tells us to look outside of ourselves for all the answers, from our parents, to teachers, to scientists and modern medicine.

16. Trying to beat life might be the most addictive gamble game we have ever played, yet just as with gambling the answer is not in getting better at the play but in not playing and needing it at all.

    1. Indeed Lieke, in our pursuit to beat life with gambling we might have short lived successes, but in the long term we never win but only keep ourselves distracted from that simple gateway to all the answers to life that resides in our inner most.

17. When you spend so much time being mesmerised by the falsities of life , you don’t notice the mess around your own table. Thank God for Serge Benhayon who is offering people a chance to stop and look at life a little differently and from there they have the opportunity to see the mess around their own table.

    1. Very true Sarah. When we give our power away to anything outside of ourselves, we lose sense of who we are, along with the awareness of how we are living and the impact our every move has in the world.

18. We spend a long time hiding the truth from ourselves and it’s funny because the answers are within us all along.

19. The lure of ‘fixing’ life or a better life seems stronger now than ever. this analogy runs true in many ways, and like you Joel, I have started to step back from my table and see the mess that is needed to clear up. But we all have this choice, to feel more of the glow within us and make this what we are drawn too.

20. We can get so caught up and distracted by searching for answers from others but when we meet someone who feels the truth within them we can choose to be inspired to look within ourselves and know truth.

21. This is a beautiful blog Joel and exposes how we are caught in a game that is rigged from the start. If we open to the possibility we can begin to observe what is truly going on…

22. ” But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within. ” .This is so true living with you and emanating out for those who want to see and feel.

23. When you step back from the table and stop playing the games then real true purpose in life is clear. No longer is life about finding the answer but instead about reflecting the truth

24. I love how this author writes, so much is always said and done in a way that brings it to you rather then being told. This article describes things so well in that you invest in something outside of you in the hope it brings you something, it’s almost the same as gambling and you get that far in that you need it to be ‘it’ and so more and more you keep playing. It’s not until you see someone not doing as you do and it’s not that you follow them but more you are space to feel the quality of what you are doing and then you have the choice, stay or make a ‘quality’ change. From there once you have stepped away which is a step back you then see the mess you have created which, truly so, you will need to clean up or re imprint with a true quality.

25. So lovely to read this again and to have the game of life so clearly exposed.

26. These games will never have a true answer but only give solutions that are never lasting long although we can keep playing again and again until we choose to no longer distract ourselves with what is outside ourselves and say ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’

27. A great way to sum up how we ‘do’ life. Full of games and distractions and seeking the answers from others. But what is shared here is that we are able to hold the answers ourselves – we have an inner knowing, an inner glow, that gets stronger the more and more we trust it.

28. The games I have played in my life have all been to distract me and to further delay me in some way – exposing these games wouldn’t have been possible without Serge Benhayon’s loving reflection reminding me there is a different way to live and express in the world free of these exhausting games we can play.

29. Ah the game of life so well exposed, There is a light within that casts no shadows.

30. Living our truth is a powerful reflection that can offered another, enough to reignite within them their true glow within.

31. A beautiful read Joel, and it’s so simple that one person, Serge Benhayon, can change your life so that you get to live your life without the game and therefore all others have the possibility of stepping away from the table of the game because you have changed your life.

32. This is beautiful Joel. Particularly your point that our glowing ball is there inside of us all of the time, and when we realise that, walk with it, talk with it, then we have the opportunity of showing others that they too do not need to play the game. Its so simple, so profound, and yet so rare in our world today.

33. The way you write Joel and expose the game of life we all play and have played for aeons is great – it exposes both the absurdity, the desperation and the want in all of us to know and how we do know there is more to life. And yet we continue to play the game, after all we’ve invested so much in it and we’re loathe to admit we have been fooled and really until we step away we cannot feel that glow within, what we’ve been looking for all along and ultimately we will all do so, so the question then becomes why do we delay?

34. We can only be conned if we allow ourselves to be so who is the conman?

35. Pingback: Talking His Walk – The Truth about Universal Medicine

36. Thank you Joel, great to read this blog again. The games we play with life, with ourselves, forever searching but never finding until we realise the falseness of what is at play. When we realise what we are searching for is deep within the game changes from without to within, but from time to time the old game will call us and in that moment we have to opportunity to sever our connection to that game and heal.

37. This age old game can take life times to see through. Your description here, allows us to view it with cheek and humour and this shows it for the silly obvious game that it actually is. Admittedly I have been playing on and off for years and now, even though I don’t play, I am still engaging because if I am not shining my light from within. Let me explain, when we do not shine, essentially we are still advertising to people that the light might be under the shell. It is all of our responsibility to shine, in oder to expose the conman that is amongst us.

38. It is so true Joel, the ‘man in the hat’ has so many guises, and even when we know the game we have played (and play), we can find ourselves picking up the next set of cards being dealt, re-engaged in the distraction that becomes so important in that moment.

39. Very awesome Joel- a great analogy of life

40. Today I have been playing with the man in the hat. Past hurts was my guess, over and over again – but no luck there. Your blog has reminded me it’s a game and the man in the hat doesn’t have the answer – I do – and I don’t need to play anymore.

41. What an exhausting game to play! It’s no wonder why with so many playing this pointless game so many are feeling exhausted, drained, run down and tired.

42. Just love it Joel… being enticed by the ‘man in the hat’ is such a great metaphor for the myriad of distractions and solutions we are offered for the emptiness we attempt to live with inside. Having the reflection of another living from such richness that nothing the man in the hat can offer has an ounce of appeal… has a powerful impact, a life changing one if we will permit.

43. ‘All that glitters’ is not of the truth of who we are, but more so the shadows that are sent to send us off track so that we do not reignite all that truly glows from within.

    Love this blog Joel 💛

44. Joel, I love your blogs and as you say: ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’ It really is that simple!

45. There is most definitely a conman living within us all. Otherwise we would all be living from our innermost – our love, truth and natural beauty. “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” Inspiring for me to re-read your post today, as I need to clean up my clutter, both inside and outside.

46. The conman within…undermining, creating distrust and persuading us to believe in things that are not true, love it, Joel!

47. Beautifully told Joel. It takes but one person to live their own life sans games to appreciate that it’s possible and an option for anyone willing to choose it.

48. What’s so interesting to me is that when we are playing the game the man in the hat is offering, and become ‘experts’ in the game ourselves and start to invite others to play, we really do not have a clue what the answer is ourselves, and yet we convince others we know how to help them find the answers they seek, when we are still seeking ourselves. Serge Benhayon reflects a way of living that does not need to seek, for he reflects that we hold all the answers we could ever wish to know, within our own bodies. No need to look for the answers from another, just connect to our inner wisdom through lovingly caring for our bodies and they will come to us when needed.

49. What a beautiful analogy of life. We get caught up in things that are just part of the game – a game that we thought we had to play. A game that we thought it was what it was all about. But alas, no, it is a game and one that we have a choice whether we play or not.

50. A relatable tale that most of us know oh so well. It’s interesting to observe ourselves and others also being drawn back to what we already established wasn’t quite it, but for the sake of familiarity and also being free of responsibility, we return time an time again until such time we eventually pack the game up and just choose to be the guiding light for ourselves.

51. The three games you shared in your blog Joel shows how they entice and distract us from feeling and connecting to our inner glow. Stepping away from the table allows us space to truly see what is going on around us and to support us to make more loving choices. It encourages us to take responsibility for the mess we’ve created and start the clearing and cleaning process.

52. I get a feeling how I used to think playing/being played a game was the life – somehow already knowing of the premeditated consequence of anti-climax ending. What I am re-learning through the teachings of Ageless Wisdom is that life is for real, and we can try keeping inventing and reinventing games and time may allow us to do that, but we are on the path of re-turn and the truth will catch up with us sooner or later.

53. I’m so done with being played – time to take life by the horns and be aware of the game at play, without actually playing it! Knowing the game inside out is critical to then not be owned by it but be the observer.

    1. Very true – and then there is the other side of the coin: after choosing to not engage with the game we are then tempted with a whole host of reactions and investments exposed within us, that work to entice us back under.

54. The lure of distraction beautifully portrayed thank you Joel. Even when we have exposed this game we can still be enticed back in and it is wonderful to have the steady reflection of Serge Benhayon and others showing there is no need for the game.

    1. So true Helen, and to understand why we can sometimes get lured back into these loveless games supports us to be more steady and strong without putting ourselves down or going into regret but to learn from our choices.

55. It is amazing how willing we are to con ourselves that there is an answer out there that will be the solution to all our problems. It is only when we are ready to take responsibility for our part in the mess we find ourselves in that we can see the Light that has been there all along.

56. Beautiful blog Joel. The power of someone moving in a way where they know that the game is a distraction is enough to knock your socks off. Or in this case, enough to cause you to look up and see things a bit differently. But we may be so entrenched and invested in the game that we do not notice this divine reflection. Thank you Serge Benhayon for moving through life this way giving us a helping hand should we choose it.

57. Great blog to read again, and the part that stands out is when Serge Benhayon walks past the table not needing to be playing the game, but sees it for what it is, a distraction.

58. The only true light that holds the true answers to all that there is to know, is the light of the Soul, the light within us all, the light of God that we are. When surrendered to, we then are at one with universal intelligence. This intelligence is at all times available for us to explore and through our will to be at one with our divine quality within, the truth is always known, we only need to allow it.

59. Joel, there is a consistent quality in your blogs that always bring me to a stop to ponder upon my choices in any given moment and to willingly see the opportunity offered to embrace the mess of my own making (imposed limitations) and let the glow from within shine more brightly in the process. Thank you for the wise and loving reminder.
    “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within”.

60. “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” When we clear up our own mess and live from truth there is no need to judge or try to rescue others. Offering a true reflection to humanity – with understanding – just as Serge Benhayon offers to all students, supports everyone,

61. ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’ I love the simplicity and deep wisdom you write with Joel, the more I clean up my mess the more energy and clarity I have and it is easier to see the game I have played to keep me small and distracted when in truth everything I have ever wanted is within waiting patiently for me to connect to it.

62. What is clear is that we don’t have to drag everyone away from their tables, preach, cajole or persuade. Allowing others to make their own choices without interference is a loving thing to do. It has certainly made my life simpler now that I no longer go out trying to rescue others. I think it is a distraction in itself, because it kept me busy and away from cleaning up my own mess.

63. All we can do is clean up our own mess and let others see that the glow is living within. This is lovely Joel. A story that describes how many of us are living life, searching for answers outside of ourselves that keep us distracted for years, if not lifetimes.

64. Thank you Joel for another one of your inspiring blogs, it is often easier to see the games being played in others but it takes time and an openness to see the same games in ourselves, but when we do, that then becomes a game changer, when we come come back to our innermost our true essence, game over.

65. Joel I could read your incredible blogs over and over, and every time I fell the deep appreciation I have for your expression. You are an alchemist with words, weaving your way through the energetic configuration within us, allowing one to feel the flow of truth that resides within. Thank you.

66. ‘the glow is not hiding under a shell but living within’, beautiful Joel. I love the imagery you present and how it captures so clearly how we live and the choices we have and how we do not even consider that others we look to do not have the answers, and that in fact we need to come back within.

67. We see in others the games they play, but so often we don’t see our own part in the game too. The more aware we become the easier it is to see what is at play, the choices we make to either enjoin playing the game, or stop and choose the truth we deeply know.

68. I like the image of stepping back from the table and getting to see the bigger picture. No longer is it just about me, but everyone, and there is nothing more to do than clean up my own mess and let my inner glow shine.

69. Although I still occasionally get tricked by ‘the man in the hat’, because he has many more games than that one, I am onto him at least. When we claim back our glow we get to see what hides in the shadows.

70. “One day a man named Serge Benhayon walked past my table. It was clear that this was a game he didn’t need to play.” This has been proven to me over and over each time I try coming back to the table. Each time the struggle to ‘work it out’ dulled me. When I realised through Serge’s example there was no need to play and I took to stepping away myself from the table, my true beauty began to light up within, and eventually shine so bright that I could see right through the shells to the nothingness that was there. What I had been searching for was within me all that time and there was no need for such struggle. Such a crazy game we play with ourselves.

71. Wow Joel, what an amazing sharing of how we live and how easily we get caught in the game and miss the glow in us. And to know we can step away, no matter how long we’ve been playing, to know that the glow is there ready and waiting for us to step away from the table of false promise and step back to us.

72. The glow from within offers us all are reminder of who we are.

73. Nailed it Joel! I love this line…”It never crossed my mind that the man in the hat may not have the answer!”
    If we don’t look in the right place for the answer then we will never find it…and life’s merry-go-round continues. If we don’t step back from the table and ‘go within’, then nothing essential changes.

74. When we are inspired by another to stop searching outside of us and feel our own inner glow then we can reflect to others that they too can connect to their inner light.

75. ‘It never crossed my mind that the man in the hat may not have the answer!’ We can go round and round in circles trying to find the answer from the choices we limit ourselves to.. ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’ This cleaning up our mess seems like a lifelong task and maybe it is and maybe it is ongoing but it doesn’t have to be a chore and the joy in the clearing, even in just one area, brings light then into others.

    ‘

76. When you are a player, you want to be the best at the game, you invest and compete and think that everything in this world revolves around the game, the game is the beginning and the end. Then when you begin to see through the game you realize it is but a speck in a universe of possibilities.

77. When we forgo being guided by our light of our truth within, we lose our sense of who we are, what true and what is not, and as such we are easily led by the false lights outside of us that pose to have all the answers and give us a sense of knowing who we are, a quality of knowing that can only truly come through our connection and surrender to our light within.

78. Brilliant Joel. This is it; we are either playing the game or being played, both the same side of the coin really as the other option is to be free of the game altogether. Being free of the game is sadly a bit of an unknown at first so we often find ourselves heading back to the known for who are we without the game? This is something that only people, like Serge Benhayon, who are not involved in the game can show us by their living example. This is what we all ultimately want but the lure of the game is often so strong as it is what we have been sucked into for lifetimes. The main lure back to the table nowadays is when the man in the hat suggests that there is an answer at the table to helping someone close who is playing hard and hurting themselves and others, but I am on to him now even though he sometimes pulls me in for a time. I am learning to move away from the table and feeling how liberating this is even though there is a mess to deal with.

79. Joel this brilliant blog, shows that ‘gaming’ is not just something that addicted (or casual) gamblers do, but that we have all been doing – obsessive destructive gambling is simply the end-result of our ignorant way of living – the way we have all been living.

80. It’s quite crazy, isn’t it how we keep allowing ourselves to be seduced into chasing the “better life” rather than the life based on truth, and even when we consciously know what the truth is, because we have chosen it, how we can still get caught out! Being honest about the messes we have created is a great start – actively cleaning them up supports with the commitment to truth and a life based on love.

81. The temptations and tests that present themselves to me to purposely try to throw me off track keep coming but the more I become aware of them the less power and hold they have over me.

82. You make the human dilemma so clear and easy to understand in very simple terms Joel, and the stepping back from the gaming table and having space to look around and see the mess human beings have created is particularly significant for me as I learn to put that distance between me and the game laying and take responsibility for cleaning up my own mess.

83. Joel your prophetic style is totally gorgeous. Once again you have delivered a beautiful analogy, summing up in graceful simplicity not only the dense complexities we constantly choose but in how to make different choices, and how to be responsible for those choices.

84. Absolutely love this blog Joel, I missed it when It was first published… no accident… I have played this game for life times. It is a very big ouch to remember it was all unnecessary, a total indulgence and a distraction from what matters : truth and love.

85. There is another table, a table that is vast and seated around it are waiting thrones. Thrones for each and everyone of us, as we claim our inner majestic glow and celebrate the ALL that we have always been and always will be.

86. What a beautiful blog to read again, I always love reading your writings Joel, I look forward to the day when you have a book written with all these parables and analogies, they are really so practical and obvious when you lay it out so clearly.

87. It’s so true that there are many tempting and enticing games out there that we can allow ourselves to get lost in, but no matter how skilled we become at it we can never truly ‘win’, for the games are designed to keep us away from the real ‘win’ which is to connect back to who we are and live a joyful life.

88. It is amazing to come back to this blog. What you have said about us ‘looking in the wrong place for the answers to life’ so describes the act we think of as ‘gambling’: ‘But I was not yet ready to stop because now I had three options, so I played and played, alternating each time, sure that the combination of the three would eventually deliver the prize… I spent months, years, and life-times playing this game. The more I played the more desperate I became, so the more I played.’ In fact if we are not aligning to God all we are doing is gambling. We are all gamblers!

89. It has been so stunning to revisit this blog this morning Joel. Your parables resonate deep into my inner heart. Serge Benhayon is a man who by not holding back and letting his light be seen and felt by all, offers others the reflection that they too have this light within and that there is no need to look outside of ourselves for it.

90. Joel the brilliance of your glow is one that does not fade with time, as coming back to this is as inspiring as ever. A powerful message to remind us of the glow we all are within that is ever-present and ever-calling to guide us to live the brilliance and wisdom of our own light. It is a Divine gift when met with the richness of the light that emanates from the eyes of one who lives in connection to their inner-glow, a gift we all are to this world.

91. “Yet I had met someone who didn’t need to play and so knew it must be possible.” This is one of the (many) things that are amazing about Serge Benhayon, he shows you what’s possible. He does not force you to live his way, or try and convince you, he simply shows what’s possible and presents a way of living that supports you to live that way – if you so wish. So on days I think it’s not possible, I think of Serge Benhayon and his family, and I go, yes it is. Thank God for Serge Benhayon showing us the illusion of the game and the solidness of a way to live in connection to yourself, humanity and God.

92. The ending where you realise the mess rang true and deep Joel “my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” This is the absolute beauty of taking responsibility.

93. The power of not judging another but clearly holding them in the love they truly are is something of an art as we learn to not react but observe the choices of another, and too ourselves. It is so empowering to feel the holding of another in this way as it allows the space for us to feel met and understood.

94. “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” When we start to clear up our own mess we begin to get a clarity that comes from within and the marker we get is the glow you describe Joel and not anything that anyone can entice us with.

    1. There is nothing like a deep and prolonged spring clean to offer clarity to what is in front of us.

95. The thing is we have played the game so much that we belief it’s the only game in town and have got so entrenched in it that it takes others like Serge Benhayon to show us that it is possible to detach from the pull of the game and that there is another reality, and that essentially the game is one big fat lie.

96. Saying no to what is not and focusing within is the only way forth in our evolution.

97. There comes a point when we realize that the conman with the black hat can only exist as long as we feed him by giving him and his game our attention. When we stop feeding him he starts to fade away. We create what then consumes us.

98. Life outside there is tantalizing, seeking to get our attention and the more we give it the more it hooks us until we only know living life outside of ourselves not really knowing how to reconnect within. Crazy but we need someone who reflects us how live from within to remember what we actually know.

99. As ridiculous it is to play a game we are never going to win, so to is it ridiculous to kid ourselves with lies about how we are living and truly experiencing life.

100. To live in life and not be seduced by the game on the table nor live a version of me that is not true. I am with you Joel living the glow within is our true purpose in life.

101. Indeed if we are ‘playing’ with anything less than Truth, we are putting ourselves on the table to be played.
     We don’t necessarily get a say in the game once we are in.

102. It really is a game, isn’t it? And its purpose is distraction – we try to buy time, forget and ignore, and the mess stays on. As much as we would hope someone would flick their finger and make it all disappear, it has been waiting for us to pick up our own broom.

103. Amazing blog Joel, indeed our task is clear however it is incredible how often the man in the hat appears in different guises;
     “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within”.

104. Isn’t that the trick they sells us to keep coming back to play the game. Desire is one of our biggest vices which keeps us away from realising what is naturally within.

     1. True Luke, the desire for something better, which in essence comes from the tension of knowing that it can be, but that the change is not an external one.

105. Awesome Joel and tells so beautifully the trick of the outside that we keep falling for. This is very clever – a great way to expose the craziness of it – we are playing a game but don’t consider we will never win.

106. An incredible story unveiling the deep illusion/game we have chosen to live under, offering a way out of the game if we so chose.

107. Always awesome to read your blogs Joel. It’s a game I play less and less as my glow within starts to shine more and more.

108. Such a brilliant parable Joel clearly showing that the answer to life is not under the hat or up someone’s sleeve but in our very own innermost heart.

109. Another gem from the maestro of fables exposing the games we play and the illusion we have been tricked by. How gorgeous to step back and begin to see and live the truth we have been blinded to for so long.

110. “Then I really stepped back and I noticed the mess around my own table: a mess I had to clean up.” I’ve been seeing more my own messes and how after years and years they still remain until I bring honesty to why I created the mess in the first place before they go for good.

111. The answers to life are not under any shell regardless of the label we put onto it. It’s not outside of us or on any table and if anyone or even our thoughts claim to have the answers to life that are within our whole body that is in the thick of life and has the senses to read life then chances are those claims are not true.

112. Great analogy Joel and very true – I’m learning to step away from the images that is running through my head about how life is to be lived rather than just living life. It might seem hard at time but I guess that is when I get lured back to the ‘table’.

113. And I can relate to the inspiration you share about Joel — meeting Serge Benhayon and seeing every time how he is free of any games and how strong and gorgeous that inner glow is, living his life from that in full, is the mirror I always want to come back to — the inspirational reflection I constantly want to see.

114. The perfect read this morning, given I’ve been oscillating between hovering around the table and walking away! I love how you’ve put it Joel… There will be times when we will be lured back to that table but overall the focus can be on the walking away when we choose this. When I focus on the fact that I am choosing to walk away I feel my own body and the gorgeousness within, that inner glow which is always there, waiting for me to turn my direction towards it and not that table…

115. The ways of the blatant conman are easy for us to see, yet the fact that there is a subtle conman that tricks us and disguises the cons to look ‘good’ is harder to see. Even harder to see is the fact that 99% of us are caught in the con and we don’t know it. And then there are those who can see the con and know it very well but still seem to have an addiction to it. This is a difficult one too. The amazing thing is that there is always a choice there for us to align to truth and we can build the power to say ‘no’ to the con through establishing a living connection with our bodies and staying present with this.

     1. Love it Lyndy, the big con are the easy ones to spot but there are so many subtle ones, that it can be hard work out

116. Joel, this is such a brilliant parable of the game that we are playing on this planet, a game which keeps us locked in, ‘getting there’, having glimpses but never sustaining truth consistently, until we are drained and worn out from playing it. Then the big stop comes – the accident, the illness, the job loss, all an opportunity to re-align to a way of being that is not the ‘game’. Thank heavens for Serge Benhayon who has graced our presence with his way of living that is not owned by this game but is instead impulsed from Heaven where we will all return.

117. I too in the past used to ask the wrong questions to the wrong people in the wrong place. Since meeting Serge Benhayon, I have discovered that I already have all the answers within and so it has been about reconnecting to and living that truth and knowing within me. That reconnection has been triggered by the reflection of Serge living and sharing from his essence, because at essence we are all of and from the one truth.

118. It is true Serge Benhayon does not need to play this game as he knows and lives the answer which take away the questions.

119. I love it how you describe what a real task could be: “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.”

120. The power of one, the power of a living way, no words spoken, no convincing but a look in the eye that speaks volumes, that tells a story of a free man and that reminds all of us that there is another way. This man on that day for you was Serge Benhayon but it’s not Serge that is special, he is the first one to say this is not the case, it can be any one of us that chooses their own glow over the tables temptations and games. We can be the one, the reminding eyes, the lighthouse back to the shore, every one of us can support ourselves and in turn support each other.

121. Yep we spend so much of life distracted and in that we actually miss the joy, wisdom and love that we hold.

122. Being caught in the illusions that my hurts are somehow more important than showing the world my glow inside is were I trip up time and time again. This blog, like all you have written are great gifts for everyone that takes the time in their lives to read them, I am forever grateful of your commitment to bring the truth in written words.

123. Joel….does this shell man with the glow and black hat know the blind beggar man sitting on a box begging for pennies? Who would of thought…. It turned out he was sitting on a box full of riches inside….you never know they may have been peddling on the same street corner.

124. The man in the hat shows us a glowing ball, but we are ginormous and glowing ourselves. First to go and play the game we have to deny the glow within.

125. Yet another Amazing blog Joel, and another reminder that playing the game never works, it is empty and will never cease until we say enough is enough, its time to shine myself.

126. Beautiful Joel. We all try to shirk our responsibility by looking for the answers and enjoying the distractions outside of ourselves when in truth the answers are held within each and every one of us.

127. I loved reading this blog Joel, such amazing wisdom you have shared here and a great reminder to drop the game and to be who we truly are.

128. This is exactly the blog I felt like reading – to the point, playful yet so profound and exposing… It’s time to stop playing games and start living who we are. Joel, when you finally stood back from the table and saw the sea of people also caught in the same alluring trap I got a very strong image of what that looks like in our daily life. It’s everything we invest in to keep ourselves less, keep ourselves irresponsible, all the while thinking we are actually donating our time to a greater cause. It’s such a trick and feels great to be stepping back from my table also. Although, the game still sucks me in at times!

     1. I agree that the feeling of looking around can be overwhelming and at times be enough to push you back to the table. But as you have said….its a trick in itself

129. If ever we want to know why we are so exhausted as a human race, one need only read your blog and realise the games we play are wearing us down big time!

     1. Undeniably so.

130. so true Brendan, it a subtle form of resentment and way to turn powerlessness into some false sense of power.

131. An awesome analogy for our addiction to an illusory life and the ways in which it has been playing us – and us playing it – for centuries, all that time successfully distracting us from what is real and true.

132. “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within”.
     My task is clear also Joel, clean up my own mess and let the inner light and wisdom shine.
     Thank you for the very beautiful reminder.

     1. I’ll lend you a bin bag next time we meet 🙂

133. “One day I noticed just how much time I had let pass playing this game, and couldn’t help but notice that indeed there was now a large stock pile of hurts to deal with.” It is very easy to let the pile of hurts build up, but how amazing that so many are now choosing to have the awareness that they are there, and have the willingness to choose to look at and deal with them. This needs to be celebrated.

134. Beautifully said Joel, the inner glow is always there just waiting to be re- discovered accepted and lived.

135. I have so bought into this illusion Joel. These things do hold empty promises that come to nothing. All we need,to be full, is what is inside of us because the Kingdom of God is there. I am profoundly grateful to Serge Benhayon for living the truth of this and reflecting it to all.

136. I know this too Marion. It’s amazing how even though we know something is not right, we will continue with it because it is either convenient or comfortably familiar. We like what we know and we don’t like change. But as you say, and something I too felt, was that there was still something missing, and I was yearning to find out what it was. Thankfully, I too eventually found Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and was also able to then stop, take a step back and question what was going on and then realise that I was buying into many things that weren’t true. Hallelujah : ))
     One thing to note – this man in the black hat must have an awful lot of friends!

     1. “Convenient or comfortably familiar” – yes a bit of an ouch on that comment…

137. Its true, it take humility to admit we have been played and even deeper honesty to admit we chose it willingly.

138. We have all played games with “the man in the hat” ! It took me a long time to also realise that he did not have the answers, the answers lie within me, it’s really so simple after all. Thank you for sharing Joel.

139. It really hurts to see and feel the extent we’ve sold out to the lies, deceit and lovelessness of the game and allowed ourselves to be played like puppets. But if we are able to observe the mess from the perspective of our all knowing divinity, we can start to feel how powerful we really are and thus reveal the identity of the game’s architect and what’s really at stake here.

140. Love this insight Brendan, the runner up prize of falling for the con, is the feeling powerful by conning others. It might be out of ignorance, but it is definitely about a lack of honesty and wanting to feel better about ourselves.

141. Brilliantly delivered Joel. How intensely we play these games of resisting the glow – our truth – that is ever-awaiting within, and always has been. “I’ve put so much into this one, I can’t bear to let it go and simply accept that ALL of that foray was actually for nought…”
     I can vouch entirely also, for the change that came into my life upon meeting Serge Benhayon. From the very start, his presence showed that I needn’t be playing so small, nor caught in all that I had so staunchly invested in to ‘get me through’ life. There was indeed more, and ‘I’ was more, much much more than the version of me I’d been living…
     His words fired and reignited places within me I had long denied and seemingly forgotten – but once felt, they could no longer be ignored. The ‘reality’ I’d sold myself out to was not ‘it’ – something I’d always known deep within, but had had no idea of how to truly extricate myself from.
     Thank God for Serge Benhayon and the truth of living in union with the Soul and God that he continues to show us all. And thank God for those of us who have also chosen to pierce through the veil of illusion that would keep us from our innate grandness.
     You are on fire with this blog Joel. It is deeply appreciated dear brother. Book of your writings please…

142. I love what you shared Joel it is so clear and also so powerful expressed. You wrote: “Yet I had met someone who didn’t need to play and so knew it must be possible.” That was the same for me and I have to admit without meeting this man (Serge Benhayon) I would be still playing this game 24/7. I would not be aware what a waste of time it is to play it again and again – I am thankful that I met Serge Benhayon – life is now so much more wonderful harmonious and joyful, and to say more often NO to this game becomes more and more familiar.

     1. I guess that is the key really isn’t it. We can convince ourselves that everything in life is fine, until we see there is another way. Those that hear these words, will discount it until they also see for themselves.

        1. Yes Joel I agree – you have to see or feel this for yourself as it is something you have to feel from your body first – for me the mind is not able to reflect it back in such a palpable way.

        2. Yes, the mind will follow any path at the expense of the body but when the body speaks it can speak more loudly than any mind… for all my mental twisting and turning, my body said yes at most turns to the light presented by Universal Medicine

        3. And may I add Joel – for me it is less complicated.

143. Really beautiful and powerful to read Joel, thank you, this is a game changer.

144. It is fascinating in how far we are willing to believe in something being real just because it will make sure that we do not have to truly observe ourselves and deal with our hurts. This is why honesty is such a game-changer as it stops us from playing our games and becoming responsible.

145. I never heard that about hell in the hallway until we close one door and allow another to open, but actually it makes sense, it perfectly describes that internal war that goes on, and how as Joel notes ‘the conman within’ is very real and will play the game until it’s exposed for the lie it is, and until it and we finally realise that the game’s not it, and despite our long investments it never was, it’s been a con all along, and we know it, and nothing we do will make it less of a con, so eventually we will let it go and address the mess we’ve made while distracting ourselves with the game.

146. Thinking that we have to do or find something is the perfect way to keep us busy looking on the outside. Instead of simply looking into the mirror knowing and realizing that every anser we need is already there, inside of us.

147. Joel, love it, and know it very well, to play the game of dramas and hurts and look out there for something, to people who really don’t know and ignore that inner light, and as you say when we do stop, we get to see the mess we’ve been ignoring, and we get to feel the light that is in us not out there.

148. Yes Brendan, it feel like one of those many distractions that we pick up and play with rather than dealing with the root cause. We are ‘hell bent’ on finding a distraction that keep us from letting go of our pride – the pride that we have invested in whilst playing the game. It feels like an addiction that we all choose as an alternative to living a life that is true – the life that we are presented with so often by Serge Benhayon. The lack of judgement and the infinite love of Serge are the constants that are supporting me to let go of my pride, and lessens the appeal of playing the game ‘that no one wins’.

     1. Yes Brendan and Susan, we get played and then we play others, and Susan, pride is a huge part of it, we don’t want to admit we’ve been conned and invested in the game and we definitely don’t want to admit we never had to play it at all. We had it all within, and now when we stop we have to clean up the mess. I still struggle with pride, and slowly I’m learning to be more honest and let go bit by bit.

        1. I agree Monicag2 – we have invested so much in the game of life and are willing players as it appears to be the only way, until we realise that life is not a game, and that we need to grow up and accept the consequences -as you say ‘clean up the mess.’ However daunting this may feel it offers us a new way to approach life as we accept more willingly our responsibility and engage with life in a way that is expansive and serving rather than only self-serving. Life has a purpose and one where we can come together and support one another as we allow the joy to flow freely and love and truth become our way.

        2. Susan, I love that, life has a purpose and it’s more than about being self serving but about serving us all to be the love and truth we are – beautifully said.

        3. It is awesome that as we share our love and purpose with others we begin to shift the consciousness that makes us small and only inward looking. When we look up into the sky and see the greatness and grandness of what we are being offered by way of reflection in life how can we not want to be part of the greater all.

149. Love it Joel, what a brilliant way to show how we are constantly being played by things outside of ourselves instead of looking to our inner where all the answers are.

150. There was a line from an old movie about playing games and a computer figured out the only way to win was not to play. The trash bags are free we all just need to stop playing games and start cleaning up the mess we have made and step in the light.

     1. “the only way to win was not to play.” Exactly, that’s the first step.

151. Very good point Brendon. To keep playing the game after we realise is like a selective form of amnesia. One that is chosen when we knowingly abandon our awareness.

152. ‘And how often do we keep playing the game after we realise?’ Great question to ask ourselves and I have to put my hand up and say many times!

153. Thank you Joel, brilliant writing I find myself re-reding this and every time find hidden gems within it, love it.

154. Even the title alone struck me before I read it Joel. It is powerful and said to me just a lot already in how crazy it is that we invest so much in trying to find answers to things we already know the answers to! How is that conman going to ever know us better than how we know ourselves anyway!

155. The game of life and the games in life are one and the same, we invest our time and money into these games without getting anything real out of it, meanwhile draining our life force and becoming weaker and weaker losing more and more touch of what is true or not.

156. Yes, to clean up my mess is to also know that I have and am everything I ever need to be to handle and to do so.. There is a playfulness, lightness and joy that we can choose to live in doing this and with the love of our brothers in which we are doing it for, it is always worthwhile and humbling. For we have all been at the tables and we have all been fooled.. but we can always make the choices to step up and away and reclaim who we truly are and support each other to do the same.

157. Thank you Joel, what I love about your blogs is that they are illusion breaking, they have you relating unquestionably to the detail of the turmoil and disappointment in the beginning and then longing to get to the end to be free from the turmoil and relate to truth, once again in the warm embrace of our connection within ourselves and equally to God.

158. Yes this is so true. The game is so subtle that sometimes we fool ourselves in thinking we are no longer playing the game but in fact we are by choosing to be attached to our hurts. We can easily be lured back into playing the game without realising because we are not perfect. The key is to be super aware and we can choose to step away from the game once we realise what is happening.

159. This part you highlighted inspires us to take full responsibility for all our choices. Clearing the mess we’ve created allows us to fully appreciate what is underneath. It reveals that we each hold a glowing light as we choose to clear more and more away and we get to experience our own true light and potential and to share this with the world.

160. What an awesome blog, reading it again and appreciating again the amazing way Joel reveals the truth all so relatable and inspiring.

161. This sentence and article itself exposes the game…I so get this thought, when I meet Serge Benhayon it is clear that he does not play the game….”One day a man named Serge Benhayon walked past my table. It was clear that this was a game he didn’t need to play.” It is so refreshing and so supportive to meet a man with such clarity and understanding. And fundamentally every time I encounter Serge Benhayon I am reminded and know that I can live this way as well, and so I continue to practice to do so…

162. I love the creativity and symbolism that is expressed here. It’s so true and shows how easy it is to walk away from the false games and lives we lead, and come back to the truth of what life is really about. Going within to know its all there.

163. When I walk away from the game, there is true freedom. It is lovely to not feel caught in the various consciousness’s that have held me in the ‘life’ game.

     1. Good question Otto: ‘Is it possible that there are many that aren’t even aware that they are at the table, that there is man in a hat in front of them and that they are playing the game?’ Yes. And there are some who are at the table and know that they are there and think that this is IT, that this is all there is. As you say, it is a great first step to realise that you are playing this futile game and that it can lead to nowhere but ruin and bankruptcy.

164. Meeting Serge Benhayon for the first time allowed me to stop playing the games in life that I was so caught up in and supported me in finding the amazingness that I am. Thanks Joel, this is an enjoyable reading.

165. It truly is a game we are playing and we are hooked line and sinker. We have been focussed on the game for so long, that accepting that this will not deliver what we all yearn for within, is a very hard pill to swallow. Thank God for Serge Benhayon who simply stands and shines the light of truth for as long as needed for those who are ready to walk away from the game and see the world around the table.

166. Wow thank you Joel for sharing this. I could feel how long I have played along this game which never felt right in the first place.

167. The game. A mastergame that’s asking me to change the rules by taking responsibility for having played this game in the first place. When I”m in the game I still see myself running around, giving up, driving myself to find solutions outside of me, etc, rather than saying STOP and literally stopping the game by allowing myself to connect back to my body and heart. I’ve never wanted to surrender to my body where as now I’m starting to see that this is part of the game. Of course ‘it’ doesn’t want to surrender, because the momen that I connect to body and heart, the game’s over. Accepting to feel my own and others Divineness first before anything they do or look like is requiered. Thank you Joel for this empowering blog.

168. That’s exactly it – ‘the perfect set up’.

     1. Yes Brooke and Caroline, it is a perfect set-up, and it is clear where the energy of ‘set-up’ and ‘framing’ comes from. Not from love, that is for certain. Anything that leads to the reduction of our grandness, and the damaging of our health, is a source that is pure evil.

169. Joel you are so beautiful and this blog is just gorgeous. I love how you express and I love the responsibility you have claimed at the end – ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’

170. Such a beautiful description of how we all tend to give our power away to things outside of ourselves believing that the answer to all our problems must be out there somewhere and so we keep chasing the dream, chasing the ideals, believing in things even hope meanwhile not noticing the mess and personal irresponsibility we are living in. Self-empowerment is understanding that we have all the answers we will ever need within and we hold the key to change all of life to be the more loving and truthful life that we all want.

     1. Brilliant andrewmooney26, very well said. I am learning to live a true way of life embracing love and truth. To appreciate the amazing power we all hold from within and to let go of all the distractions, to detach from seeking comfort and step into the expansion of life.

171. A great blog thank you Joel, so much here to reflect and ponder on.
     I love what you have written in your last sentence; very inspiring
     “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within”.

172. Serge Benhayon is a game changer! Thanks to him I’m stepping away from that table too, and just loving that glow inside me more and more.

     1. Yes literally a game changer.

173. Oh Man – ‘How often do we keep playing the game after we realise’? That is a profound question.

     Ouch!

     1. Ouch indeed….I’ll stop on Monday….promise…..

     2. Yes simplesimon888 an absolute huge Ouch!

     3. I so know what you mean simplesimon888. With so many playing the game, it takes a lot of strength to consistently stand up and say no to the games. The irony is that every time we do say no to the games, the next step is revealed to us.

     4. Oucharama simplesimon888…! And how masterful we are at knowing how to keep all the players of the game just where we want them – including in the way we manipulate not only ourselves but others…
        Crazy, when the greatest Love there is, lives within us all.

174. Dude! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You totally rock!

     I love this Joel. You are the Aesop.

     1. No, in a word, ottobathurst!

175. Yes I am forever thankful for Serge Benhayon, not playing the game and showing me that I did not need to play this game either. Feeling this inner glow is really all I ever needed and wanted and no game can replace that feeling of deep contentment and joy in myself.

176. ‘My heart sank as the emptiness started back’ this is what happens. I remember getting excited as yes this time I’d found the answer and pursuing it for as long as my denial that it was not the answer would hold out. The feeling of devastation I’d try to numb out but II knew.

     And there are times I’ve reflected and imagined what if all I’ve felt to be true isn’t and I’d be faced with that level of despair again. But this is me just playing games I know I have no need for because when I connect with me I know the love we are held in always. This is a truth I am living more consistently and know will deepen forever more when I choose to be greater consistency.

     1. I remember seeing the game everywhere I looked and thinking there was nothing else on offer. Then when I came across Universal Medicine I thought that was the end of it but it was only a start as the game has many levels and our addiction to it runs long and deep. But every layer of the game that I uncover and let go of releases another shackle that has held me down for too long.

177. I loved this Joel: “I saw millions of people around me, each at their own table, either playing or being played. I could see the centuries that this game had been played and the mess that surrounded all of these distracted people.
     Then I really stepped back and I noticed the mess around my own table: a mess I had to clean up. This will take some time and there are days when the game is the perfect distraction from my task…” It captures our responsibility to deal with our stuff and the opportunity to not repeat the same game.

178. As long as I remember myself I knew that this reality is not real. That there is so much more to life. But like a blind kitten wants to play and being played with, I was following one person or another to have fun and find the answers along the way. Every time it was a false person. Sometimes I had a feeling that I live in a dream world surrounded by artificial decorations full of theatrical characters.
     Until I met Serge Benhayon. He was, and is absolute, not perfect, but always loving and always showing by his own living what is possible for all of us – if we choose the Way of Livingness. We are still playing the game but with different partners, name and gain.

179. There are so many games that we play with ourselves- the only thing that has ever supported me to fully cut these is the support of the esoteric healing modalities as they support me to see the games, then have the clarity to make a different choice.

     1. So well said Kristy. At this point of our evolution back to who we truly are, we really need the support of the esoteric healing modalities to fully see, cut and extricate ourselves from the sticky web of these games.

180. ooo Joel your last ending words are so inspiring. I can feel a chill down my spine ~ I must quote it here “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” I so feel the beauty in your words and love your ability to showcase the living light within.

181. Joel I love the way you express, the game is like a hook, it hooks you in to think that there is nothing else other than the game to play, and that that is life. Thank goodness for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine that are able to show us that we don’t need to play the game.

182. We are all unwitting players in a game right from the start, Brendan. When we do realise it is a game, we often don’t know that there is even a choice to stop playing. Thus the game is rigged, and it keeps the players playing.

183. Thank you, Joel, for another gorgeous blog ……
     Love how you have very simply exposed the insidious game that we have chosen to play, becoming puppets in our own show. Fortunately, that same free choice also allows us to bow out, step off the merry-go-round and connect deeply to the pot of gold, with all the answers, that has always been within us all.

     1. This is so true Alison, free choice to play means free choice to stop. If only we can become more aware of what games we have signed up to!

     2. I agree Alison, it is an insidious game that we are playing, yes it is free choice, but only when we become aware we are even on a merry-go-round.

184. Great question, what if our whole life is a game and we don’t realize until our grave?

185. This is a great conformation of what our bodies already know naturally. I love the way you make science easy to understand and the conformation your blog offers on the benefits of going to bed early.

186. Joel what I also find interesting is when we are so invested in playing the game, that it is all we see to the point we don’t even remember we sat down to play. It’s only when we start to notice nothing is changing do we glimpse outside of our narrow vision of the game and at that time having true people reflecting that their is no need to play the game is an incredible gift. Without people living who don’t play the game – humanity will never truly change.

     1. Exactly David. The reflection offered by those not playing the game is paramount. And whilst Serge Benhayon offers the most powerful reflection I know in this regard, each and every one of us who has stepped outside of any part of the ‘game’ as it stands, is worthy of the deepest appreciation, for today the reflections offered to all are many fold, and they will continue to grow, unabated.
        There is a great ‘balance shift’ occurring for humanity in these times – where we are stepping out of so much of what has enshackled us for aeons. Glorious times indeed, undoubtedly with much to be shaken and fall as the games are exposed – yet times to truly celebrate, as we reclaim the Sons of God that we truly are.

187. I have recently seen the mess at my table too Joel. It is a sobering realization and yet the colours of the world seem so much brighter now.

     1. very true Lisa and Esther, the name of the game is to keep the grey and the dark filling our range of vision but it can only when we are focussed on the game only. As we step back we can see the world around it. IN the same way when we are focused on an issue we cannot see the whole of who we are, and the love we are is always far far greater then any issue we can have, just as the world is so much bigger then the table.

188. Yes Brendan, that is the question. How often do we keep playing the game after we realise we are doing it? The familiarity of it, the comfort of it, the fact that our bodies’ circuits and chemistry are now rewired to it, all make it tricky to turn around. But we can turn it around with the key of Love.

     1. So true Lyndy and Brendan – it seems crazy to choose the game for it’s comfort and familiarity when it actually feels so uncomfortable to live in that way when we know it is not our true way to be. Those patterns can feel so ingrained at times but with awareness and Love we can absolutely make different choices.

189. Thank you Joel for another amazing piece of writing, I love how you present life as it is now, and then get us to reflect on our part in life, in this fairytale captivating manner. This and your other fables would make an amazing book.

190. Thank you Joel a great analogy of truth and the games that are being played to keep us away from the truth that we know inside us all. Looking outside for someone to tell us everything simply because we have lost connection by that very searching to who and what we truly are. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine are the inspiration for us all to work on ourselves and be that inspiration by how we live and our choices and to stop playing the games we now know.

191. How merrily we dance with our inner conman, how eagerly we pursue meaning and purpose only to find its a bluff deal. How one man exposed the involutionary dance we have sold out to.

     1. beautifully expressed Lucinda and yes there has always been one to expose the game if we but take time to notice him.

        1. And today there can be many exposing the game, if we are willing to acknowledge the call that is made for us all. Pretty darn amazing what this can and will inspire, I’d say…

192. It’s really interesting to break down the games we play into past hurts, modern religion and intellectual pursuits. Each offers quite a different flavour – a different way to ‘do life’ –  but the outcomes are the same. We can be the victim, hold on to false beliefs or lose ourselves in the pleasures of the mind, but either way we’re not seeing clearly the dynamic as it truly is, keeping us forever trapped on the chess board.

193. That second question’s a great one Brendan. If we continue playing the game after we realise the game is a game, that would indicate we have bought holus bolus into the game. In other words, we have sold out.

194. When I read articles like this, or ponder on the situation we are in as a whole in, I am reminded of movies and stories where the protagonist has to awaken as if from a dream to a truer reality than the one he had thought to be living in. I want to thank Serge Benhayon for presenting that it is possible to wake up – we might have had inklings the game wasn’t true but we sure as sure had no idea how to get out from under it.

     1. I wholeheartedly agree with you Victoria. We did have inklings that the game wasn’t true, we saw through much – the hypocritical behaviour, the society run on greed, glamour and illusion, the way we were all somehow complicit in the game, no one really questioning it to an nth degree. And yet we couldn’t extract ourselves from it without the help and inspiration of Serge Benhayon, partly because we would use another counter of the game to ‘deal’ with what we saw through e.g.. we could see through the hypocrisy e.g.. we could see through the hypocrisy and dealt with it through ‘reaction’ while all the time ‘reaction’ was another counter in the same game. What a sneaky game.

     2. The game of life. We even try not to play the game, thinking we are aware it is a game, yet all the while, just being fed another version of the game. And even the different versions are all the same game in disguise.

     3. I would also like to thank Serge Benhayon for reminding me of what is true in life. So often I see people awakening from the fog of the false reality we live in, only to be lured into another form of fog (presented as the true reality). With Serge’s loving, steady reflection I have no doubt of the true reality or the way back to Soul.

195. The game we play without even knowing we are playing it… how can we ever hope to win? Yet that is what we ceaselessly do, until we realise something has to give and that there is a truer way to live that doesn’t involve any game whatsoever.

     1. Thats awesome Victoria.
        When we realise that there is never a way to win, and the man running the game has only one objective – to keep us at the table and distracted from the truth – then we can walk away in who we are and know the answer is naturally within ourselves.

196. Joel, thank you for yet another ‘gem.’ The line that really resonated with me is “my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within” This is a simple but powerful reminder that once we become aware of the game of life and the mess of our own creation, we can but inspire others by our Livingness.

197. Great blog! Although we believe we are intelligent we play this game over life times without noticing that we can never win…
     Our intelligence does not want and allow us to realize that it is actually a lesser form of intelligence because we are not free in our choices but are made to believe that we are. Ererything is set up so well that we can`t even really fight it because we then think „But what else have I have got? I have just this intelligence and I need it!“ So we keep being caught in games…

198. The game is the perfect set-up we create to keep us forever distracted from our own inner glory. Why would we want to avoid our own inner glory, is it that we want to avoid responsibility so choose the false tantalising lights?

199. On re-reading this, Joel I can see how obvious the game looks yet I and many have fallen for it time and time again, so thank goodness there are some who stand back and reflect there is no longer a need to play.

200. This blog highlights beautifully how we have allowed ourselves to be sucked into the illusion and how we choose to go back to the tables. As more and more people are able to choose to disengage with the conman and his games, it will make it easier for others to look up and take notice.

201. This is so close to my heart Joel and beautifully expressed. The puzzle that cannot be solved because it is based on a false premise. The idea that something is missing or wrong when in truth it isn’t. The pursuit of that thing that we already have inside us. Great sharing Joel, thank you.

202. Brilliant Joel, just loved reading this, sets it all out so well.

203. Dear Joel, In the first paragraph I knew this blog was yours. I have come to deeply appreciate your playful expression and the insightful ways you deliver deeply reflective topics such as the game of life. Thank you – I am feeling my glow within too.

204. We do not have to ask for the answer to life, as we already have it. It sits deep inside our bodies and we only have to listen to remember it.

205. Another great story Joel which brings home the message.

206. The eternal human game of seduction (or being sucked in) by creation and detachment from it; it is only when we re-discover the light within that we know where to step into and what to step back from. Without the inspiration/reflection of ‘the one’ already being reconnected to his inner light, most will not know anything other than the game. Everyone of us is ‘the one’ responsible to be that light and bring such light for everyone.

207. Awesome Joel, it shows that a part of us wants to play games, and if love is forsaken we are easy to fool. We are both the conman and the glow within; once the conman is exposed we have true choice.

208. Beautiful Joel. You have a way with words that makes the topic playful, yet easy to understand for all. I particularly liked ‘He gladly took my time’. How much time have we freely given away to the man in the hat? While we are being distracted by the game (in today’s term modern technology) we are not noticing how out of control humanity has become. We need more people to clean up their table’s to create a shift in the rhythm we have as a society.

     1. Like your comment, lindellparlour. The big question its, why don`t we naturally mistrust the man with the hat?

        1. Its is great question evamariafoertsch, maybe because he did ‘trick us’ but we CHOOSE him!..ouch.

        2. Oh evamariafoertsch I like your question. Could it be possible that because we have already seperated from ourself that we look to the outer for our answer and in this case the little glowing ball looked familar. It doesn’t matter who has the ball as we are only focused on getting that ball so it can give us the answer. Maybe this is why we don’t naturally mistrust the man with the hat.

209. So lovely to read another of your blogs Joel. They have such a playfulness and at the same time a great poignancy in the way that they are written and always leave me with a great deal to ponder on, knowing that I will return again and gain further insight. Thank you for yet another blessing.

210. This is the second time I have read this parable Joel and I love it. For me, I would add the word recognition to my list of distractions. I am trying not to play but the game still hooks me at times.

     1. There are so many shells we could add – perfect job and perfect family have kept me in the game too long too. And they keep changing; when you know one doesn’t work you just choose the other for a while.

     2. Great one you mention here Lee, same for me, I can add this one to my list as well. The need of wanting to be seen, wanting to be special and the desire to be recognized for what you do is a huge one. It creeps in and shows itself in many ways. Subtle and not so subtle….

211. I love the analogy, Joel. It is so real. I also am in training to see more through the games. Serge Benhayon is the most loving teacher and rolemodel where I am able to learn and trust step by step to observe the game and not be part of it any more.

212. I can just say wow – and yes I am also getting more and more away from the table as I feel it is so exhausting to play this game. Thank You for sharing Your wisdom in such a beautiful way. It’s amazing.

213. How my life and the focus of life changed since I chose and accepted my responsibility to “clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” So confirming.

214. How many life times have we been caught up in this game they call life, the illusional roller coaster ride that keeps us away from the destination we all truly seek.

215. You write so melodically Joel – like music to my ears and a call to strengthen what I know about myself. We hold everything we need to live life and not play victim to the game of existence.

216. Ode to Joel and humanity.

     The thing that happened next was my glow was very bright,
     So I started to venture out alone in the night,
     My light it leads the way and lots of players stopped their games, they stopped because they noticed . . . my glow it drew their focus . . . from the shells on their tables and they thought they might be able to get a glow like mine,
     I pointed to a man name Serge Benhayon and then I pointed to my heart inside . . .
     “It’s all inside I cried!”
     But they were busy looking back at the man with the hat, to see if they could gamble and win a glow like ‘that’! (pointing at mine) holding a glass of wine…

     I told them my glow was not won at the table but from deep within me and deep within them and it could be found deep within all of their friends.
     Even the man in the hat, could come back, if he stopped turning tables, he would find he was able, to light up too.
     So in my adventures this is what I have found . . .
     That some feel the pull and some light the way and others chose to simply stay at the tables of delay,
     but in the end whether you like it or not all the tables will go bust and be found out for their rot and found out that they are not what they seem, and all the lights will grow so bright they are giant beams, that all mix together and rise up as one and simply leave together, shining brighter than the sun.

     1. Yes kathleenbaldwin, but a very wise young man said a thing I will never forget tonight at a talk I attended and that was the reference to a rubber band and the fact that no matter how far or which shape we stretch a rubber band – say…into a triangle, when we let go and just let it be it forms a circle again. My point is no matter how long we choose to play or stay on the merry go round and the end of the day we are all on our way back to from which we came. I can’t seem to stop rap rhyming to this blog, He he he.

     2. You’re my biggest fan, thanks kathleenbaldwin, glad you enjoyed.

        1. Thanks Kathleen, I don’t know where I got my “all encompassing sense of humour” from but was certainly born with it and funnily enough I have noticed that your own writing has very similar qualities.

     3. Jaya, it is so great to hear your young voice, its honest, wise beyond your years. It can be a difficult to take these steps back but the more steps you take the easier it becomes to take them, if that makes sense…

217. I love the way you show how it is the reflection of one’s presence, love, way of truly living that is the great healer: ‘One day a man named Serge Benhayon walked past my table. It was clear that this was a game he didn’t need to play.’ Serge has shown us how to live through his own commitment to living from the inner heart – his livingness. Everything is indeed energy!

     1. Here here Lyndy Summerhaze – an inspirational fact that we too can be that guiding for others when we claim the truth of who we are and live that presence. We not only turn heads but heal hearts as we walk with purpose.

218. Joel, I love the way you have set this scene – it is a scene, a staged production and so it is ‘not life’. And because you make it so familiarly seedy and theatrical, the message is clearer than ever. Once taken out of the clothing of our everyday lives this gaming trick is exposed. Voila!

219. You are a true story teller, Joel – a craftsman at putting the intangible into words and pictures and making a topic very relatable and beautifully clear.

220. This blog makes a mockery out of life – the way it is and the way we have allowed it to be. Once that switch inside of us that says ‘move away from the table’ is turned on, man, life changes and the blinkers come off, one by one, faster than the conman’s switch – if we allow it.

221. Great Joel, what an interesting analogy you have used to describe the years and life times of seeking outside of ourselves in pursuit for that, that naturally lies within.
     Having been sucked into the game of seeking for so long, I became very home sick feeling the absence of the glowing light within my soul. I am now on my return journey home and it’s this light within that guides my way.

222. Joel WOW this is magnifi – so powerful. Your expression is playful and divine. Thank you for stepping away from the table and cleaning up your mess. Inspiring others to clean up theirs.

223. The game, the setup is so palpable in your writing Joel, you have made it so obvious of how it is. I’ve been seeing the game and distractions all around us, and how very ‘real’ it can seem… the many spiritual, intellectual, physical pursuits that can take us on a path of no true purpose for eons. The man in the hat, saying read this book, do this course, you need this diet, job, lifestyle etc etc, anything that ensures we don’t listen to our own inner wisdom and make choices for ourselves. The man in the hat would be out of a job otherwise, so steps up and makes the game more attractive every-time until we see that there is absolutely no glow or spark anywhere at that table.

     1. Well said Aimee. There is a HUGE list of distractions that can be dealt out to us on hand, particularly as technology advances there are now even ways of checking out in your pocket (phones) and dotted all around your homes. Yesterday I was talking to a friend at lunchtime in school and I couldn’t actually hear what I was saying because two boys were blasting their (pretty aggressive) music so loud I couldn’t hear myself think – it was just accepted by the other 20 people in the room, and this is just an example of how music has become another form of distraction, and another way the conman keeps you at the table.

224. Is it not strange, that we get totally lost in and hypnotised by a game that promises the answer to life, when in fact the answer is already there, deep down inside everyone of us?

225. The catch 22 we play – “I spent months, years, and life-times playing this game. The more I played the more desperate I became, so the more I played”.
     Until someone’s out of the game we can see.

226. I can relate to this Joel in that I have had ‘relationships’ as one of the options too. I also searched externally in religion and intellectual pursuits, though did not realise it at the time. I was living an empty life, never able to ‘fill up’ or find what it was that would make me stop and go ‘Ahh, that’s it’. Instead I was in the constant motion of moving to the next and next thing, feeling like what I had always been waiting for – heaven or bliss on earth – must be just around the corner at my next holiday, meeting or even meal. Re-discovering what it is like to connect to my innermost, or my heart, and be with myself everyday has taken away much of this searching. There are still times I feel myself trying to look or grab externally, but coming back to myself soon allows this to pass, and life flows a lot smoother. Knowing I already am the grandness I have been searching for has been such a simple, yet profound revelation to me. I too have learnt this wisdom from Serge Benhayon and the teachings of the Ageless Wisdom ~ a lineage felt right through our time as human beings.

227. Yes Joel, we do have to clean up our mess, but oh the mercy and the compassion of God’s love as we feel the tremendous support and beauty of the beholding love all around us, and the possibility that we have of living productive lives in service, despite the mess to be cleared – it never ceases to blow my mind – the mind that got caught in the game in the first place.

228. Oh Joel, this is brilliant. It so brings out the conman, showman, false trickster who is running this game that we have bought into – the glamour, the illusion, the maya. Your words about observing how Serge Benhayon doesn’t play that game brought tears to my eyes: ‘Could it be possible that I didn’t need to play either? But I had both invested and lost so much that it felt impossible for me to step back from the table. He never asked me to leave the table, but I spoke with him from time to time and each time I could see from his eyes that there really was no need to play.’

     1. Yes and as the ones who are conned by the trickster, so too do we become the ones who then con, lure or trick others …. to create this whole complicated web of ‘conman-ship’. Yes, we have fallen hard for this game that has tired and wearied us for centuries. Though the spark of the eye-ancient can be all it takes for us to step away from the table, stop playing and see the way home again. Thank God for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

     2. What a game. Playing this game has become the ultimate distraction. Everyone seems to know the rules of the game, with the most important one being that we never talk about the game that we are all playing. And then there was Serge Benhayon who dared to talk about it – who dared to challenge the ‘rules’.

229. I love the way you expose the game Joel. I know for me competing against the conman most of my life and looking under the wrong shells for the answers has been exhausting. I love your final words
     “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.”

230. Looking for answers is a kind of addiction of the intellectual mind which thinks that maybe the next option will be the answer – it’s a peverse persistence which leads us up many garden paths and never to the hearth.

231. Joel, I do enjoy your parables. They are a good simple way to show up the ridiculous games we play and how much we get distracted from what is real and from our true purpose.

232. This is beautiful Joel and so deeply inspiring. It is the commonness of this piece of writing though that I love most, it is such a simple but mind boggling game that we are all playing and we get sucked into so many different realms. I love all your writings Joel.

233. Again a WOW!!! What a truly touching story…

234. Please put me on the pre-order list Joel, for when you publish your book of stories and reflections. Another amazing post – thankyou.

235. “One day, as I stepped back from the table, I saw millions of people around me, each at their own table, either playing or being played. I could see the centuries that this game had been played and the mess that surrounded all of these distracted people.” It is all such a set-up and no one who is inside the game can see it for what it is. Someone famous said that you can’t solve a problem from the consciousness that created it. Too true. Thank heaven – literally – for Serge Benhayon who is outside the game and reflects his light for us all to see and feel, so that we don’t have to play the game any longer ourselves.

     1. Thank heaven – literally – for Serge Benhayon who is outside the game and reflects his light for us all to see and feel, so that we don’t have to play the game any longer ourselves. In deep appreciation to Serge Benhayon for his powerful reflection of how to live and express in this life, being our true selves.

236. If we truly connect it is very obvious that the world we have created is a charade or a game as you say, fully ignoring the glory we are from and the love that dwells inside.

237. You are writing a book, Joel, a book for the world to read. Please may I pre-order many copies. This, like the other stories you have shared is insightful, distraction stopping, accessible and simply very beautiful, thank you.

     1. I will be his book selling manager 🙂 I LOVE Joel’s writings too… They are so bridging and full of wisdom…

     2. How beautifully and acutely observed Matilda. Joel you have to publish a book of your Fables gathered for the world to read, starting with that one about waiting for the saviour. I keep remembering Borges’ collection ‘Labyrinths’, but your book will lead us OUT of the maze.

        1. The pre-order list is getting longer!

     3. I was going to write exactly this matildaclark! May I be second on the list Mr Joel Levin. Upon my upteenth reading of this blog, I was reminded of many of your other writings – this fable and fairytale like quality – but all the while delivering the most powerful and awesome truths. I guess this is what “true folklore” would read like – sharing the truths (and untruths) of life and beingness through amazing examples like this. I find it hard to even call it a story because it is so much more than that! Thank you Joel for redefining what stories, fables, fairytales and folklore is – the sharing of our inner wisdom and inviting others to connect to theirs.

238. Seems to me hurts underpin both our bastardisation of religion and also pursuit of intelligence. If we truly did not harbour any more hurts, what would life look like? Perhaps all that we would be left with is the true light within and no impulse to seek anything outside, no matter how alluring.

     1. Great point Simon, if there were no hurts there would be an allowing to simply be our true selves, no dramas, no play, a sense of joy, being, oneness and brotherhood. Really how it should be.

239. It is when we realise that we actually have a choice to play the game or not can the game change, otherwise we are stuck in the illusion that there is nothing else we can do but keep playing along and as you have shared Joel we can carry on for a very long time until someone reflects to us that there is another way.

     1. This is so true Donna, if the game is all we know, then why would you stop playing it. It would hurt too much to stop. Not only did I not want to stop at times, I fought to stay at the table.

240. To even get to the table, we first dismissed and walked past our own glow.

     1. This is great Melinda. To get to the point that we are honest enough to realise we step away from the inner glow, BEFORE going to the table…so it’s not the conman’s fault, it was our choice!

        1. Blaming and judging the conman. Just 2 of the emotions you would be in when standing at the table of separation.

        2. Yes exactly lindellparlour, looking to hide the fact of blame and judgement, along with many other feelings from having made the choice to separate in the first place.

     2. It is so true Melinda, we disregard our glow and our connection to ourselves first. To disregard or regard our glow is our choice.

241. And it’s such an empty game we have been playing. How could we have settled for so little?

242. This is so beautiful Joel I could cry. What awesome wisdom to share so succinctly in this parable. How often are we lured away from the simple truth that all we need and could ever need is within.

     1. I love your words Melinda – the simple truth that all we need or could ever need is within. So simple and so true and full of light’s wisdom.

243. I couldn’t stop wondering if the ball wasn’t real in the first place when I read your blog. You are right, the truth is within us. It is so embarrassing and so hilarious at the same time. It is as if we keep going to the market to beg for money when we are millionaires already. What a hobby and how seriously we take it.

     1. HA Christoph – it’s ridiculous but this is what we have been led to believe since young. We are indeed millionaires with endless piles of love in the bank. We just have to go the the bank and draw it out and share it around.

     2. Hilarious Christoph. Absurd what happens when we don’t get off the merry go round.

     3. Great parallel – and good point in that the elusive shiny ball isn’t real to start with; it is really no more than a bit of entertainment and distraction in the pursuit of the outer at the expense of the inner.

     4. Love the anology Christoph, ‘ It is as if we keep going to the market to beg for money when we are millionaires already’. We truly are millionaires, and all we have to do is claim it, claim our birthright, ie the love that we were all born with.

244. I agree Ariana: very beautiful, Joel! It’s a great unfolding to find out more about the different conmans inside. Apparently they are always around when I’m doubting my own light and the knowing of the the fact that all the answers are deep within me already given. Answered by the most glorious light ball I can imagine: my own heart.

245. The true game is to stop playing and bring the conman to quit his job. Simply by showing me as the light ball I am – which get’s his little light ball exposed as a bad copy, a faux light ball, that can never give any answers.

     1. Love that christinahecke, yes, realising the ball of light that I truly am within is key, then I know that elusive light ball that I was being tempted with by that man with the black hat, was a very, very poor copy of the real thing.

        1. Spot on. I can never be fooled by someone pretending to know me better than I do, if I but only trust the light of my heart – the connection that lies in there to a much higher truth and all-over love.

246. Joel your writing style is as ever a gem that allows us an easyily relateable way to see through the many tricks and traps that see us seeking outside, perpetually chasing and distracted, for the glow and connection that lived within all along. Thank God Serge Benhayon walked past your table, and you got to feel the difference.

     1. Gorgeous Kate. The false glow has been luring us away from the light of the Soul for aeons. And now we have been utterly blessed with feeling and experiencing the man whose realised divinity can see the false glow for the nothingness that it is. The magnetic pull of this true teacher is unmistakable, so grand and so powerful, one wonders how we got distracted by the tinsel town lights that sputter and flutter in the lost and empty darkness.

        1. Beautiful Lyndy I totally concur “we have been utterly blessed with feeling and experiencing the man whose realised divinity can see the false glow for the nothingness that it is” and show us another way, a way to get up from the game at the table and look with our eyes of Truth.

        2. I love that Shelley, ‘get up from the game at the table and look with our eyes of Truth’. It is so clear to see now, and how tiring it is to be sucked in by parameters of this gaming table.

        3. Beautiful Lyndy – “we have been utterly blessed with feeling and experiencing the man whose realised divinity can see the false glow for the nothingness that it is. The magnetic pull of this true teacher is unmistakable, so grand and so powerful..” so beautifully said Lyndy. Feeling this grandness makes all the “sputter and flutter” of the “tinsel town lights” stand out and become very obvious – such that we are offered true freedom and choice. Again I say thank God for Serge Benhayon, and everyone who walks with their light past others tables so we might all have a choice to return to live the love we all are.

        4. “…whose realised divinity can see the false glow for the nothingness that it is” – the nothingness that it is. Absolute truth Lyndy.

     2. Absolutely Kate – “Thank God Serge Benhayon walked past your table, and you got to feel the difference.” I could so relate to this part after meeting Serge Benhayon, taking little steps away from the table bit by bit.

247. I so love the way you write Joel you capture so beautifully the game we play in life, going round in circles going absolutely no where, yet thinking we must be, because we are making different choices. Step away from the game and it becomes so much easier to see what is really going on

248. Serge Benhayon is truly inspirational; he doesn’t rah rah or pump anyone up, it’s not needed, just seeing the way he lives and relates with everyone reminds that there is another way, one that we all know deep inside. And so he never encourages anyone to set him apart as special because he is reflecting something that we can all live too.

     1. Beautifully said Fiona.

249. Aah Joel! Brilliant. Another wonderful story on RESPONSIBILITY and EFFECTS, I’m round the fire listening as you tell it; you really take us there Joel. Your words: “But I had both invested and lost so much that it felt impossible for me to step back from the table” hmm, yes the addictive effect in wanting to be right, but not true. How often have we fallen for this trick? Centuries indeed.

     1. It is true Zofia, wanting to be right, or at least not wanting to be wrong and the more we have invested the more deeply we can be blinded by it. What is truly disturbing is that it is not a trick we have fallen for but a path we have chosen.

        1. Yes, the illusion of the investment when you are in it seems the only thing you have, how can it be wrong? when it most definitely is. It is disturbing that we have chosen the path Joel, and it is also liberating, as when we realize this, we then realize we have the choice to make another choice.

250. This is so well captured Joel, a game we have all played to avoid our responsibility to feel and share the fiery glow within.

     1. Beautiful summary of a very revealing blog Abby – Why have we run and distracted ourselves from responsibility..? When in truth it holds a liberation from the binds that blind us to the wonders of life and what we are here to bring.

        1. Well said Rachael, responsibility has set me free to be, and do, who I am, not what others think I should.

        2. We’re so used to thinking of responsibility as something onerous to avoid that we’ve failed to see how it sets us free. If we think we’re here once, only to live and die, perhaps accumulating a few possessions and pleasures along the way if we’re lucky, then we can abdicate any sense of responsibility for the way things are. Any sense of something more than this is (for many) relegated to leaving a legacy – to promote a name and a memory or to extend a bloodline. But that is just perpetuating the game.

     2. Agreed Abby. The game designed to distract and keep us forever looking outside for something that was inside of us all along.

        1. Yes absolutely Lee and Abby, beautifully summed up.

251. Joel love the analogy as recovering game player myself. I must say the mess is a lot less and catching myself playing the game more quickly these days. The key for me for realising that my life was a game and discovering a true way forward with the support of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

252. I love the ending to this blog and your sense of purpose and responsbility, ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’

253. And following on from my previous two comments, I can’t resist also sharing this audio: http://www.unimedliving.com/voice/audio-of-the-month/the-deepest-form-of-prison-2015-09.html – which presents how our choices can be freeing or imprisoning and how with every choice there is a consequence.

254. Ultimately there is only one choice and that choice is which energy you align to. All else comes from that. Great free audio on this can be found here: http://www.unimedliving.com/voice/audio-of-the-month/everything-is-because-of-energy-2015-08.html

255. This is a great expose of how we are offered all these apparently different choices so we think we are making a choice but really it is all the same choice – the choice of what will never work and will take us further and further away from who we truly are. Distraction after distraction not realising that there is another way… and then along comes Serge Benhayon living proof of another way – one we always knew but long forget. Once reignited we start to wake up and more and more start living and reflecting that indeed there is another way and we become less controlled by the game and more free to choose.

     1. Beautifully said Nicola, totally sums up the game, and our liberation from it.

256. Beautiful parable Joel exposing the games we play in life and with our lives forever chasing our tails in the endless search out there looking for answers to relieve our misery and heal our hurts. When in reality the answers all lay with in us all the time waiting for us to take responsibility and choose to clean up our own mess.

257. I love the depth of your writing Joel, it is very profound. So true what you share, that it really takes a moment to sit back and feel the magnitude of this. What a timeless piece of writing.

     1. Timeless indeed Kristy, completely agree. If only we could actually literally see this with our own eyes: “One day, as I stepped back from the table, I saw millions of people around me, each at their own table, either playing or being played. I could see the centuries that this game had been played and the mess that surrounded all of these distracted people” – wow this is massive and exposes how our choices (do) affect the lives of others.

        If it’s possible this way of gambling lies, then it’s equally possible the other way of walking TRUTH too.

     2. ‘Timeless’ – a great word to describe this writing…not only do I hear it being read for years to come but it also totally covers our past, present and future: humanity’s chaotic veering from the truth – the glow within.

258. Wow, Joel, this is such an exposing blog. I have played these games for about 70 years or more, looking for something outside of myself, time to let it all go completely out of my life. I was not drawn enormously to the modern religion, it did not really feel right to me, and I have played the intelligence, really thought that was the answer for me, but no answers there either. But I certainly dwelled on my hurts. Slowly, slowly, I am releasing that inner glow that I feel more and more strongly within, so gradually others come to see and feel that glow that I truly am. No more looking outside, but much mess to be cleaned up. I am so grateful to Serge Benhayon who has shown me so clearly that there is no need to be playing games, they are just a distraction from what is true.

259. Ah yes, the allure of the promised land and a better life and how much we look outside of ourselves for answers. It’s such a trap. I searched for years to eventually discover that the answers have always been within. Thanks for the very cool analogy Joel – always an enjoyable read.

260. Joel you have a mastery for unearthing the games between spirit and soul. “He never asked me to leave the table, but I spoke with him from time to time and each time I could see from his eyes that there really was no need to play.” I particularly love this line because I can feel the true freedom of choice and the infinite power of reflection.

261. We have had lifetimes to get good at playing games. Now we have a life glowing with love, awareness and responsibility to develop our own game that supports us from here on in. Thank you Joel.

262. Joel, your modern day fables are so rich in wisdom and such a blessing to read. I was reminded of a beautiful line from one of Michael Benhayon’s songs. “Will you want to see that to get there is so easy?” We have all invested so much time and effort into the struggle of playing the game, that our pride and stubbornness makes it hard to let go. Yet once we have felt someone walk past who doesn’t play the game, like Serge Benhayon, we are forever reminded that this is not the answer and never will be, no matter how the solutions present themselves.

263. That little glowing ball has another name – Distraction, anything that takes us out, that gets in the way of connecting and staying connected to the ‘Glowing’ ball within. The endless wheel that the little mouse gets caught in that goes nowhere. Thanks Joel.

     1. I agree, ch1956, “distraction gets in the way of connecting and staying connected to the ‘Glowing’ ball within”. I have let distraction run my life for so long, as you say, it is an endless wheel, it feels so good to be gradually letting this go. I want to expose that glowing ball within me for the sake of me and all of humanity.

264. Joel, this game which we played all our lives are impossible to win, yet we step towards the table again and again. Some would say hope, I would say desperation. It is like we get lost in the desert. Even when we know for sure, no price in this game, we try somehow to get the big deal. But honestly as you said, we need reflections like Serge Benhayon to be able to step back, see the mess and start to clear it.

265. Yes the tale of our inner conman – always trying to lure us – just one more game – c’mon on – play with me. I have sat at this table for many years (possibly lifetimes as well) and am very grateful for Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon who have shown there is a way to live a life not listening to the conman and playing the games that literally goes no where. And to listen to something much grander – and that it is there for each and everyone of us should we choose.

266. I have a feeling there are many more games being played once we expose the big 3. The answer is always the same though “…clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.”

267. As I began to read this awesome blog I said to myself, I bet this is written by Joel. Sure enough. It was so cool to personally thank you for your amazing blogs at the Lennox Head Retreat in 2015. They are written in such a way that is so creative, yet simple and true. They always expose something that has fooled humanity for aeons. If humanity hadn’t allowed the teachings of Jesus to be bastardised and the teachings of Patanjali before that we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now; being tricked at the table that the key to life is outside us. All the true messengers over time have said, ‘The Kingdom of God is inside us’. We do not need to play any game outside, we only have to connect to our true essence within. Your blog beautifully confirms these teachings, of which have been around for thousands of years and ones that humanity would benefit from hugely if reconnected to. Many people in positions of power and authority will one day need to see the words in this blog and realise the truth that the words hold and to stop playing the game and return to being the Son of God and stop being the Son of Man.

268. Walking away from your table can be hugely challenging. Most of our life may have been invested in playing that game and we may have set our table up with bells and whistles or with a lovely level of comfort. But if we allow ourselves to feel the pull of the glow, it’s becomes less of an option to stay as we have now glimpsed the truth and can no longer deny playing the game was a setup.

     1. Yes indeed – why would we stay at the table smelling the farts when we have been offered the perfume of a rose?

269. Yes indeed, another masterpiece from you Joel. The inner conman has a hook so strong over us. It truly does take a long time untethering ourselves from his tendrils. You speak of the pride we feel when we understand it has all been a con and waste of energy and how hard it can be to first walk away. But walk away we must to the clear, warm and true glow which emanates from our heart. Thank you Joel.

270. What a great natural storyteller you are Joel – I love how you’ve told this one. Just how much time do we spend investing in these 3 areas – religion, past hurts and our intellect? I feel the middle one, past hurts, is huge as much of the chaos and mess in our world today stems from the reactions to our past hurts, and so to not feel or deal with this, we use a miriad of distractions and ways to not feel these hurts which takes us further away from the glow you’ve described that is within us all.

     1. You nailed it Sandra, Joel is a natural storyteller like the wise men and woman from the old days.

271. Wow, I love your blog Joel, you’ve exposed how so many of us have chosen to live. Playing the game to pursue the glow (answers) outside of us, completely distracted when all along the glow was residing in us all along. These distractions are such a trick to lure us further and further away from who we are. We make and choose every step to move closer get caught or move away from the game to reveal the truth of what is going on.

272. The way you write this is like an allegory Joel. It allows me to see how I have fallen for this game throughout my life. I try to work out with my mind solutions and answers, but what I see in this beautiful story is this is a game no-one wins.

273. Yes I have much to clean up and I don’t like cleaning when I can play.. But when I connect to my ‘glow within’ then cleaning is part of my self-care.

274. It is a big turnaround, going from looking outwards to looking within, but one that is truly necessary if the world is going to heal itself from its hurts and return to the connection with the light within, where true love resides. Great blog Joel, once again a great sharing.

275. As I was reading Joel your very real time description I could feel the addictive pull to the distraction we create in life. The distraction to create an illusion that can completely stop us even remotely being able to acknowledge we have hurts. We can search everything and everyone but as you say the true glow is within and we have the highest possible divine honor of accepting the responsibility of choosing it for ourselves.

276. When I don’t just use my eyes as my only/main means of perception and I use all my senses including acknowledging my ability to feel what any situation or person is like then, Joel, what you call the glow within shines so strong that it shines out for all to see.

277. This blog just brought the biggest smile I can smile on my face. So true we can often get lost in a game trying to ‘win’ or ‘find the answer’ not realising that we can stop playing the game which will truly set us free from the struggle of the game.

278. Joel, it feels like the many paths we take back to God or stubbornly choose a path in life that purposely does not include God. We are all seeking and trying to reach the ‘answer’ and beat that ultimate ideal we have decided it is it. I recently felt by giving it a go that surrendering my body and acknowledging my feelings was all I had to do. No game or seeking was needed. Surrender and let that glow within be my own guiding LIGHT. Thank you Joel for exposing the game of life.

279. I know this game, I also remember when I was first aware of the game that was being offered to play. I figured out how to play this game and the approach I used was the chameleon. One that would morph and fit into whatever situation, event, or person I was interacting with. A game where I could blend in, not stand out and therefore never be there in full being myself! What a con! Fortunately I am seeing through this game to step out of the character shadows I cast myself in and to step into the light to be the love I am.

     1. Thank you Marcia – it is great to have a particular form of the ‘game of fools’ called out!
        That old chameleon way is one I recognise and used to play well. As this facade drops away more and more, it is a joy to be feeling the solidness and strength within myself.

280. Ahhh the game of fools…the game we play when choosing to not be ourselves in full!

281. Wow Joel you have such a wonderful way of writing and you translate what you are observing in yourself and the world so beautifully. Thanks again!

282. Another brilliant piece of writing Joel of how we are so often tempted by the inner conman because we feel it will somehow deliver us more than we are.

283. This is a great blog Joel. An easy-to-understand story that reveals so much about how we can get stuck in that vicious circle of playing games with what’s outside of us to find the answers, when in actual fact they are found from connecting within.

284. It is so crazy that we can be so dedicated and committed to playing the game and playing it well. It only took one to show that there is another choice.

     1. This comment is very poignant nicolesjardin, yes, it only takes one. Once the switch is flicked, the games lose their hold very quickly.

285. I love your conclusion Joel: “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” and you are doing a great job at it.

286. Wow Joel, the way you write truth with such beauty brings me to a complete stop. I feel a warmth in my heart and a sadness rising also as I connect to the fact that I too have played this game but there is neither time nor any need to dwell too long on this for, like you, ‘…my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’

287. Amazing the games we play, over and over, thinking the conman must know the answer. But he doesn’t. We all do know the truth, once we reconnect with our true inner self. Thank you Joel.

288. I can relate to surrendering to the game thinking that is all there is, and like you Joel, Serge Benhayon came into my path, and never played that game again. A wonderful analogy Joel, thank you.

289. I love this blog, if we do not step back from the game we are caught up in we are unable to see it for what it is- a game that is playing us. We are so entrenched in it that we cannot see the mess we are creating in and all around us. I know I did not want to step away initially because I then had to take responsibility for what I had created and clean up the mess. With the support of Serge Benhayon I too was able to step away and clean up the mess that was not me and reclaim my glow.

290. Wow. The final sentence of this blog is so very powerful it blew my socks off, so much so that I have to copy and paste it here to read it again. “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” Ahhh… So very, very true.

291. What a classic story Joel , just love it the games we play to distract our selves and create more complication than necessary. All these games keeping our selves separated from the love we are or can be .

292. I love the way you present your wisdom Joel, especially the image of Serge Benhayon walking by and not playing, he truly is an inspiration.

     1. It is so simple the concept that to win the game, you just don’t play. For Serge Benhayon and many others too, they have figured out how to not play. I guess I can look at what games I just do not play myself, and unpack what it is I feel that makes it so easy for me to not play those games at all. This might help me figure out what’s going on for me if I do decide to step up (or rather step down) to the table for a game of con.

293. Thanks for exposing the inner conman so clearly in your parable Joel – yes I know him well and it’s great to discover he doesn’t have the answer – I do.

294. Beautiful metaphor for the game that we all play with life. It is so true that we can get caught up in the bright lights and colours of the outside world, totally forgetting the glow within us.

295. This is a really great analogy Joel. How many of us even realise we are ‘playing a game’? Our societies keep us busy moving from task to task, trying to achieve the next thing and reach the next target. We can leave ourselves and our bodies behind whilst doing this, getting too caught up in the game play. What if we knew we were already everything, and didn’t need to try or play with anything. What if our innate qualities were fostered and celebrated from when we were young, and these allowed to flourish, instead of the incessant searching? How much less drama and hurt would there be? This way of living seems unfathomable at times, with our current state of the world. More love, for self and each other, is definitely the way forward.

296. Lets keep us strongly holding the space where there is no game needed at all, we the living testament for it with our glowing eyes, the way we talk from our bodies, and how we move in endless vitality and power. That way we will stand out and confirm that the livingness is the way.

297. Beautiful Joel so true and so illuminating and real to read and understand all you are passing on in this story telling journey to truth. Serge Benhayon is the inspiration and reflection to us all of the games we are playing and that we do not need to and to just be ourselves from our innermost love. Thank you

298. Another great parable from the Book of Joel.

     1. Although I was very amused by your comment Adam, it would be fabulous to have these writings in a book. The way you write Joel brings the realness of what is happening in the world back to the very real question of ‘what are we doing?!”

299. Joel, that was exceptional, and a sharp blow of truth for many playing the game. You have a masterful way of telling the truth for all to hear.

300. How often do we believe the answer is out there, ‘under the shell’ or around the next corner. And you’re so right, it is the glimpse, the sprinkle of truth or the imagined ideal that can lead us by the nose all over the place… until we feel, see, hear the real deal. I know my search stopped when I met Serge Benhayon. What I saw, heard and felt, resonated so deeply within me that I knew there was no point in looking under the shells anymore. This was it. I was reacquainted with my own truth and on a journey to reveal the games I’ve played. Love your analogy Joel, here’s to lifting off our own shell to reveal the answer inside ourselves

301. Wow – that feeling of desperation in playing the game – I so recognise that, and the battles within, and also how sometimes we can walk away from the table and notice how great that feels . . . and despite that how often we return. The steadiness in Serge Benhayon is one we all need to develop so that we can inspire humanity the way he has inspired us to step away from the table and find the answers within.

     1. Well said Carmel. The word ‘desperation’ is a great one. I am reminded of when I worked in a casino where everyone was jostling to be at a table. There was a clear pull to play the games, but that pull seemed very ugly and made people behave very out of character. It was like they all were wearing masks but couldn’t see it. The casino is indeed one big conman, but perhaps the even bigger, gigantic conman is life itself, pulling people in to play its game, changing the rules on them the moment they glean something’s not quite right here. The rules may change on us, but it’s just a quick side step and one can be escape the pull of the con.

302. This idea that we have invested and lost so much, and need so desperately to win that we will not let go of the competition is founded in pride. I know how stubbornly I have held fast to scenarios avoiding eating humble pie! It has been with the reflection of true humility, in Serge Benhayon, that I begin to lessen the stranglehold of that pride.

303. Your analogies are stunning, Joel, always delightful to read and deeply inspiring. It helps us to see the reality of how we sell ourselves to the game. Such an important and not so easy step.

304. This so lovingly exposes the games we all play and have played, and the tricks we’ve fallen for. As I read it, I felt the glow rise up in me from your description and the realisation that the man in the hat doesn’t have the true answer. And then the inspiration of Serge Benhayon simply walking by, not being drawn in to playing the games, this is a beautiful blog I will return to, thank you.

305. Just love it Joel – knew it was your playful yet so seriously accurate account of how humanity has lost its way. Its so great when we no longer play the game. I’m with you.

306. Joel I love the way you describe profound issues in life through playful stories. Your stories themselves provide a gorgeous stop to our games. They offer us a fun and easy way to step back from our table and see the con that is going on. Thank you.

307. Joel thanks for the reminder that we are all playing the ‘Game of Life”, and in all honesty we just need to realise we live from within out, not the other way round. We do get tempted even when we have an amazing example living with us, Serge Benhayon. Teaching us that all is within and of The Way of The Livingness.

308. Joel I love the way you write – I hope you are keeping a record of all these parables, they are captivating and would make great bedtime reading for for us all, and our kids! And one day high school curriculum reading!

309. Absolutely Ariana the devious nature of our inner conman requires a commitment to living in conscious presence at all times – a work in progress for me.

310. Great blog Joel. Thanks for presenting us with another way to look at how we fool ourselves and keep ourselves trapped by our inner conman.

311. Epic, Joel. It is very true that we can only truly take in the state of the world and people around us if we step away from our own ‘game’. Could it be, in fact, that we only play the game to STOP feeling and observing what is going on around us? That seeing millions, billions of our brothers entranced in this ‘game’ is the greatest hurt of them all? But they will continue on playing until, like you, some passes the table without a need to play… We all have the power to be this inspiration for many.

     1. And that puts love and brotherhood on a whole new level. Whilst I indulge in the game (dispense with responsibility in my expectation that someone else will deliver) I support this separation from life. One man, Serge Benhayon, walked past my table and without needing to say a word created space for me to step away from the gaming. One man, who I know has inspired many others. Just consider for a moment a collective stepping away from the table, standing up tall (for I see everyone bent over their tables) and the space, support and inspiration that would provide for others.

     2. Definitely, and it’s a bit like if you take one step back you start to see your game and the further back you step the bigger the game you see that is going on and the more people you see are involved, and you realise it’s never been more important to not play this game.

        1. Absolutely – your entire perspective on the game depends on how involved you are with it, and how much you allow it to control you and blind you from what’s really going on in the world.

        2. The thing I find really hard, is when I see the truth about the game, or the way everyone is choosing to live I actually feel horrified, and I find the hardest thing is to not back away, but to instead to step forward and be willing to lead the way out of this.

312. Beautifully exposing of how we chose to enjoin with the game and even become the man in the hat enticing others in order to distract ourselves from the mess our life has become. Standing back from the table gives us greater perspective but I can still feel the pull to go round one more time when presented with challenges in my life and the pull that looking outside of myself for answers has had on me for lifetimes. Today I choose to clean up my own mess and allow myself to feel the glow within me. Thank you Joel for the inspiration.

313. Wow very profound especially ‘One day, as I stepped back from the table, I saw millions of people around me, each at their own table, either playing or being played. I could see the centuries that this game had been played and the mess that surrounded all of these distracted people.’

     I could feel a complete change, a Stop to the game when you wrote ‘One day a man named Serge Benhayon walked past my table. It was clear that this was a game he didn’t need to play.’

     Serge Benhayon does indeed expose the veil of illusion humanity has been living in. He has a Love and resolve I have never seen in anyone ever before which is a Huge blessing.

314. What an amazing opportunity to clean up our mess and allow the glow to be seen more in the process. There’s honesty and acceptance in this, that yes, there is a mess and yes, the game has been played and now it’s time to choose differently. The responsibility of stepping back from the game and cleaning up the mess is a beautiful opportunity, especially when there’s no drama, and push in doing it.

315. What a brilliant post Joel Levin and I love the way you tell it. Yes I know this game very well and I also met that man Serge Benhayon 10 years ago and was at first suspicious because he did not play the game and was reflecting another way. At that time it was a possibility for me that he could be the real deal but the game was something I became addicted to and so it had a strong pull – a kind of force keeping me controlled.
     However, I did take note of this man who had obviously made a choice to not play the game. Eventually I stepped out and like you I saw the mess around me that needed to be cleaned up and cleared out. Well if I say so myself, I have done a great job and now I don’t go and play the game and its a choice. As I am human I don’t aim for perfection and if I get caught it disturbs me enough now to know what to do to get back on track.
     Thank you for this amazing take on life Joel because it sure makes sense.

316. “One day I noticed just how much time I had let pass playing this game, ” It’s crazy how we let love pass by and everything we hold true and dear to us, to the point we get toward the end of our lives and we can regret the times we did not spend – not on playing games, but with people and knowing what we hold true and dear to us – love. Why wait till then when we have the opportunity to stop playing these games now, and live a life that we all really want – full of love.

317. If truth be told this blog allows for us to feel the invidious lies we play with ourselves and others for what we think will better our lives or thats of those closest to us – but do we ever stop to consider the damage these games (lies) we play causes everybody. When we are so caught up at the table unable or unwilling to see the mess around us everyday, until that there is a big calamity. Along comes a man who does not tell or force but simply by presenting there is another way to live, one that does not need any games, as he is so content and steady within himself and knows there is a greater love that is the answer to all our woes – a love that we all are, and all come from and can easily live.

318. Joel this blog is profound and so clear with the analogies for the game the conman plays within us all. Thank God for the day I first heard Serge Benhayon present and began to see that there was a game at play that No One Wins.
     “One day a man named Serge Benhayon walked past my table. It was clear that this was a game he didn’t need to play”.

319. Right from the start you say it how it is – how would life be if we all lived like this? Not in judgement or critic – but simple observing life and truthfully seeing it how it really is. Not wanting or needing life to be perfect but willing to see the truth.

320. Fabulous blog Joel – how we all play or have played varieties of this game – hoping that one of our choices will win. So why do we choose to play? Because everyone else does? ( Well, nearly everyone….) “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” An absolute yes to that choice.

321. This is so cool Joel, it describes so well the obsession and the way we are tricked to think the answer to life is in one of the main ‘pillars’ of life. You can spend a lifetime looking for the answer to life and never ever find it, it’s a game you simply can’t win, because all along you were the answer.

     1. This is the simplicity I love; The game to find the answer to life we can’t win, because all along we were the answer to the game.

        1. Me too, it makes human life look COMPLETELY crazy! We’re all playing such a complicated game, that we can never win, when the truth is so beautifully simple.

     2. ‘you were the answer all along’ … There is such beauty in those words, such an allowing. As Serge has walked passed all our tables observing the mess and the game we continue to play there has been no judgement, simply a love for humanity and a knowing that by reflection we will all return home once again.

        1. Totally – Not feeling judged by someone, but feeling totally understood and loved has got to be one of the best feelings in the world.

        2. Oh Meg, your comment: ‘Totally – Not feeling judged by someone, but feeling totally understood and loved has got to be one of the best feelings in the world’ has to be the quote of the week if not the century.

        3. Haha thank you 🙂 it’s true though right?

        4. Oh yes Meg, it’s true alright! And one big step for Brotherhood.

322. Joel, I love your writing. You find great ways of looking at things that give us a new perspective on what we already know but can tend to struggle with. Very refreshing.

323. OMG I love this blog Joel, something I feel everyone can relate to – the untrue game we have been playing for lifetimes searching for something outside of ourselves, and then to have the reflection of a man who does not need ‘the game’ inspiring us to leave the illusion.Powerfully written and a blog that shows our history very clearly.

     1. I completely agree samanthaengland, and important to note that every one of us can be that illusion-exposing man or woman, simply by walking past without a need to play the untrue game. This is true inspiration.

324. I like this blog because it talks about the self responsibility we each have towards our own issues to be cleared, and how the mess created by these issues is in fact there for everyone else to live with, even though we may think they are only there for ourselves.

325. I love how you write, Joel and the way that life can be made into a story to look at through different eyes so it is accessible for all to read and relate to…thank you.

     1. Yes jsnelgrove36, Joel has a true gift and I love that he shares it so readily (and frequently) with everyone. I really connect with this way of writing and the undeniable truths that are shared.

326. Beautiful Joel, I love the analogies you use, they really help me to understand what a game we are playing and that this is not it. The true answer feels very simple – looking within, compared to all of the wasted time looking for the answers outside of us and repeating the same mistakes over and over.

     1. I love this blog too, beautifully said rebeccawingrave. The ‘true answer feels very simple’, I totally agree. So much time is wasted in making life complicated, full of distractions and investments in playing a game that pulls us further and further away from truth. We all have a choice to not play this game.

327. A wonderful expose Joel of our inner conman or, how we lie to ourselves.

328. Joel, yet another awesome blog.A beautiful expose of all those games I have played, and still do, but less and less so, since that man with the glow, Serge Benhayon, walked past my own table of mess.

329. Joel a great expression that is profound in its simplicity and the fact it relates to what I feel and also what I notice in many people and situations around. The fact of the playing the game has taken its toll on everyone in society yet a few, such as Serge Benhayon, show us that the game does not need to be played and in turn when we lovingly choose not to play the game we too can then reflect to all those still playing the game there is no need for everything we ever need is within.

     1. How awesome is this feeling of freeing up from the addiction to play this game. As Joel said “The more I played the more desperate I became, so the more I played.” After making the break of this game there is so much joy and clarity – that makes the game look very stupid and not needed at all.

     2. Reading your words I can feel that just choosing to stop the game itself is a moment of grand stillness.

330. The game of life so beautifully captured Joel, how many lifetimes have we all been captivated by the game of shells, continually seeking that eternal glow outside of ourselves when in reality it resides inside us all the time. And then we meet Serge Benhayon, a man who relinquished the game a while back, whose inner glow burns strongly and steadily for all to feel, a beacon that calls us back to our own inner flames. Time to address our mess and stop meddling with the distractions we have created. Thank you for such a beautiful opportunity for us to all stop and realise the games we like to play that keep us from our true responsiblity.

     1. Beautifully expressed Rowena.

     2. Perfectly expressed rowenakstewart, “Time to address our mess and stop meddling with the distractions we have created.” Continually going back to the table really highlights for me my lack of appreciation for what Serge Benhayon is truly presenting and reflecting, and the lack of confirming this same living flame within myself. For if I truly accepted this, why would I ever turn back to the table of distractions?

331. Wonderful! So illuminating. Thank you for the beautiful parable, Joel.

332. When we place the “glittering prizes” and the “glow” side by side the emptiness of the glitter is so evident next to the love that emanates from the glow, but somehow at times that conman still manages to entice us away from the truth. But standing next to Serge Benahyon the glow is all you feel and the glitter feels tacky and false, and begins to fade. Thank you Joel once again for heaven in a blog.

     1. This reminds me of the saying ‘All that glitters is not Gold’. Truth needs no false coating, it stands strong, bold, glorious and on and in full beam for ALL to see.

        1. So true shevonsimon – “Truth needs no false coating, it stands strong, bold, glorious and on and in full beam for ALL to see”.
           How easy it is for the bright glitter of fools gold to lure us away from the true Gold which is innate within us

     2. Oh so true Ingrid, the glitter and falseness gets triggered when standing next to Serge Benhayon and looking into his eyes. The warmth and love that is there is undescribable and makes me always very humbled but the same time it makes me feel my inner love that I am. His Love that he has for us all is so big.

333. Joel, you have never stopped expanding that which lies in the darkness to be exposed by the light that has always burns within us with your simple, powerful, succinct analogies.

     1. I agree with your comment sjmatsonuk, I could not have said it more clearly in reponse to yet another amazing blog by Joel Levin.

334. “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” Be a true shining light for all to see in a world that is so clouded by darkness. An inspiration… One that says our light is not hiding within a game of illusion. This blog had so many and so much meaning to it Joel. Awesome to read. As that song goes… ‘Step out from the shadows; and into the light ‘

     1. Maybe its the reality of cleaning up our mess that helps to keep us on that treadmill of illusion for as long as it does? I agree Emily there is so much depth communicated in this blog – I can read it over and over. Book (or e-book) please Joel …

     2. Brilliant Emily! The line you’ve highlighted inspires us to take responsibility to clean up our mess of hurts and investments, to reveal our light and inspire others to do the same. Without the mess we can begin to feel clearer, lighter and allow our inner light to shine. We have more space to look around, move without tripping over the mess. When our mess is cleared we can move with ease, walk around freely and move towards others to assist them too.

        1. Chan, perfect comment. I loved this bit – “Without the mess we can begin to feel clearer, lighter and allow our inner light to shine. We have more space to look around, move without tripping over the mess. When our mess is cleared we can move with ease, walk around freely and move towards others to assist them too.” so well said and my experience exactly. just like cleaning your room allows for so much more space and feels light and more free- so too does cleaning up our internal mess from the choices we’ve made allow us to free ourselves up a bit and love life so much more harmoniously.

     3. Let’s bust out into this song and dance next time we see one another Em. 🙂 This blog was truly incredible. It just exposed the whole illusion that humanity has allowed themselves to be tricked by for thousands of years. It was put so simply and clear and yet we have all played a role in being fooled. It makes you wonder how much effort has gone into keeping us from knowing we are all the Sons of God and the Kingdom Of God is inside us.

        1. Hahah Tracy, We’ll have to bust out in song and dance for sure next time! There is so much effort put in in keeping us blind. We all play along with it and, regrettably, kind of help out… blahk.

        2. Well now that I’ve done a singing retreat I’ll be hogging the microphone!  You take care of the dance moves and together we shall shine bright and claim our awesomeness.

        3. hahah It’s on!!

     4. Joel has delivered a golden nugget for all. All we have to do is step away from the table long enough to pick it up. And in that space provided we have another choice: more of the bent over game playing or standing up to see the view in all its glory and chaos and engage in life, with others and a big picture.

        1. Well said matildaclark – yes, another golden nugget delivered through Joel’s writing showing that all we have to do is step away from the table long enough to pick it up.
           As you say, we can be bent over with the game of lies or standing tall and reflect the glory of this life, the bigger picture for us all to enjoy and know the truth of.

        2. Stepping away from situations sometimes is what makes all the difference- that moment you give yourself to really get an overview of everything going on and actually seeing it all for what it is.

335. The games you speak of Joel is something I can very much relate to, I have recently been really letting myself see all the games that I play still along with the games that others play also and what a devastating feeling it is when you see yourself playing a games that makes you less or more than another. The more I live connected to myself the more this is very evident and the more I feel the damage that these games generate.

     1. These games of inequality -my constant vie for being better or making myself less than another which cannot but invite other’s into the game because it involves others, has been the fabric of my existence.

        It is only when I choose to connect to the truth we are all equal in our divinity that I can glimpse the extent to which these games keep us separated from this truth and locked into believing the games are valid- that I am better than another because I know what to say in a certain situation, or I’m less because I reacted and was irritable with someone. And it is only when I feel this truth that I feel how all these games aren’t actually who I am or anyone else is and don’t feel the need to defend them but can be honest about the damage they do without going into self-criticism.

        When I see them at play so clearly and don’t choose self-criticism and choose equally and love instead I feel so blessed. I’ve played this game for so long that making those new choices is about staying open to being aware because, at present, they are so normal. But with constant dedication I now I know they don’t have to be.

336. Joel, I am very touched by your blog. I know that man in the hat that you describe so well, I have listened to him and been fooled, just like many others. All I can say is thank God for Serge Benhayon who came into my life and showed me that there was more to me than what I ever imagined was possible and that this gold within me is there to be shared with the whole world.

     1. I too thank God for meeting Serge Benhayon. I often ponder on what my life would look life if I hadn’t met Serge and the Benhayon’s 7 years ago and it’s a pretty grim feeling. Knowing I’d still be living with physical pain, probably still drinking and smoking and living a life full of emptiness and no responsibility. Life now is truly spectacular and amazing and it’s because I chose to stop listening to the conman and looking at the glittering shells and stopped being fooled. I chose to connect within and feel the truth of Serge Benhayon’s presentations and to live connected to the fact that we are all the living sons of God and we are all divine.

337. The games we play in order to avoid feeling the truth of how we are really living – seeking outside of ourselves for the answers to find that ‘something’ that throwing up of a ‘number six’ on the dice -that will solve all our choices. Just to take that step back and observe the truth with honesty of what is really going on. Such a brilliant and powerful analogy Joel thank you.

338. I’m totally blown away yet again Joel. Keep them coming they are such a pleasure to read and get amongst. It is so very easy to get caught up and sucked into things that are keeping us from truly evolving, but the time is upon us in this new era to step back and start cleaning up the mess.

339. Serge Benhayon is an inspiration to stop playing the distracting game of searching outside of ourselves for truth. Stop, feel and the glow is, and always has been, within our own inner-heart.

340. I love the point that I have to step back first before I can clean up my mess. As long as I am in my mess – I can’t see clear.

341. Oh man, we really get lost in playing this games with no win. Brilliant and spot on Joel!

342. Reading this I got a clear sense of how futile and exhausting it is to keep playing the game and then getting to a stage where we see how others are playing it also. It reminds me of being addicted to gambling, as we keep going back for the next hit even though we know deep down that we never truly win. Awesome blog.

343. Thank you for your brilliant parables Joel, I too knew when I started to read it had been penned by you. A volume of your work would be a wonderful introduction to the teachings of Serge Benhayon for all who read it will feel the truth within your message, and be inspired to seek more.

344. Another fabulous blog Joel. The way you present the subject of making life about a game makes it all so clear for me. We are constantly playing a game, while life is no game at all, it is about a quality of being to be lived and then everything will be revealed to us.

345. “I had both invested and lost so much that it felt impossible for me to step back from the table” – I can so relate to this. It’s amazing how we gravitate more towards ‘the familiar but false’ than ‘the unfamiliar but true’.

346. Fabulous Joel. Another gold blog. I had only read 2 paragraphs when I said to myself – this one has to be by Joel!
     I love the storytelling way you share extremely important life lessons and truths on life in general.
     I too have had many shells at my table each luring me away and distracting and dulling who I am. Thank god for that man, Serge Benhayon who stood and stands in his light. He reflected to me that that light, is also in me and burning brightly. Now I know this and while I still feel the pull of the table at times- I know it is not me, just as I know that others have this equal shiny light in them too. I am now choosing to live from that glow.
     Thank you.

347. Perhaps the reflection of the depth of your true expression Joel is in the way you have inspired your readers and wow such amazing comments right back at you (and me). I have learned much through reading this blog and comments and much more to ponder on.

348. It is only until we choose to start to take responsibility of our past choices that we can see the mess we have created and the illusion that we have lived in always looking on the outer when the answer has always been within ourselves, Thank you Joel, thoroughly enjoy your writing.

349. Really wonderful Joel, such a great analogy! Couldn’t agree more with how you have woven this story into how life truly is and what we are responsible for. Really loved it. Thank you.

350. The fact that humanity is searching for answers tells me quite clearly that we know that life here on earth is not all that it is. We know there is more, and yes Joel as you have so elegantly expressed, we choose to search for it on the outside with all the lure of its inducements. We have fallen again and again, in desperation latching onto the game, until we see Serge Benhayon, the one man that can see right through the game. To discover the answers to life have been with us all along, the love within ourselves, right under our noses, is the worst trick of all.

351. Joel your ability to turn words into pictures is an absolute gift given to you and then passed onto us, particularly people like me who see life in pictures. I could see clearly my table and my shells spread out. I had spirituality, exercise/well being and identity on my table as my main conch shells but an assortment of other shells too.

352. A great parable Joel which exposes the ‘game’ of life we often play, and our often endless pursuit of ‘something out there’ to solve the answer for our sadness. Misery, disastifaction with our lives and relationships etc…in truth, the only true answers come from within, and while we continue to seek outside of ourselves, we will not escape from the merry go round of the game we play. Master Jesus certainly knew this with the teaching “The kingdom of God is within”…

     1. Yes Angela, if only we would look.

353. Awesome!…. A great parable that describes and presents so much truth

354. wow, I loved this analogy. So power-full. I just wanted to read more and more, but also realise that it is all within me and I don’t need another for the answers and don’t need to keep looking under the ‘shells’. Thank you for your deeply inspiring words. love Sue 🙂

355. When I saw the man with the true ‘glow inside’, I realised the game had no glow whatsoever – but was merely a ‘light show’ of trickery from the shadows.
     Serge Benhayon has inspired me to now cast my own light upon the shadows and expose the pathetic puppeteers hiding within them – The game is up.

356. What’s that game they play at the tables, isn’t it called “craps”? I think I know why they call it that! We are like gamblers and interestingly, like gamblers, we actually know we’re playing an addictive, unhealthy game but press on with it.

     1. We do Dean. We know it and we press on, enjoying this meagre form of enjoyment, feeding on crumbs, when there is a feast that awaits us (gluten and dairy free of course!).

        1. The only true enjoyment that exists in this world is in the one who steps away from these games of shadow and embraces the light from which they came.

     2. Yes Dean and press on we do even though we are fully informed about what it is we are actually doing. All we need to do is stop . . . and more away from the table.

357. I started reading this Joel and my conman went straight to my ear whispering “but Kathleen I have this amazing dress worth thousands that will change the way everyone sees you going very cheaply online at the moment” I laughed at my conman and said “I’ve fallen for that one before. . and for what . .only to have the dress turn into a “what were you thinking” kinda of thing after I have purchased it in. You cannot get me so easily!” so the conman said “but Kathleen I have the perfect boots” and I found myself asking “Where? Let me see.” And I realised that the glow under the shell at times still fascinates me.

     1. Beautifully exposed Kathleen. The conman is good! When I do fall for it, it always comes up empty which becomes easier to recognise the longer I spend away from the table.

        1. I agree nikkimckee, but the question is, can we and do we tear ourselves away from the table and how do we play that game? The end of my original comment that I cut short was. . . ” And I realised that the glow under the shell at times still fascinates me . . . but wait up, after I purchase these beautiful Italian leather boots I will return to move away from the table. Wait on . . . oh now I understand the word ‘delay’.”

358. Joel there is so much lightness in your writing. I love the analogy of the Conman living within – so true about the distractions, doubts, feeling less…. and none of it is me!

359. I love your parables Joel. So beautifully expressed.

360. We are all drawn to each other by the warm glow within us, the more brightly this glow shines, the more clear another will see and feel the same glow within themselves equally. It is not the person that we are seeking but this glow that we all feel, with the knowing that it is true within us too.

361. When we just approach every choice in life with the knowing that it is just another thing no different from eating or sleeping that we have to get on with, then it is not bigger than us. Dealing with one thing at a time is just one thing less to contribute to what is the culmination of things undealt with–the definition of mess.

     1. Great point you make here Adele. The mess we eventually see when we step back can seem daunting and overwhelming. I like the way you describe seeing the mess as just another thing to do, no different from eating or sleeping. I will take this into my day, because I know I can make some problems seem insurmountable.

362. Cleaning up our mess is only difficult when we know we have to clean it up but do not make the choice to do so. Feeling the overwhelm of cleaning up and getting bogged down by it and not taking action, is why a mess remains daunting.

     1. The overwhelm of the mess comes when it is avoided. Getting in there and dealing with the mess whilst challenging at times, is actually a beautiful experience and one that feels incredible in the body. It is not the mess itself that feels horrible – it is the avoiding of it.

363. So there’s this thing of walking away when many choose to stay—whether it is us walking or staying, it takes a bit of time but really it is space, for ourselves to feel. Spaciousness allows us to make true choices and that is why it is so cool and necessary in-truth, to have those who choose to walk and as well as for those who stay. No one can make our choices but ourselves, and it may well be a choice made true.

364. I love this blog Joel, and feeling into it I find that when I step away from the table and choose to strut in heaven style, or skip in joy to a tune from our hearts, or even twirl (counterclockwise of course) playfully in our awesomeness, not only will I walk away easier next time, it is actually fun in every step I walk, and in each step that I take I feel more solidity in my two feet. The solidity comes from knowing it is okay to choose to step away even though many rightly choose to stay, and we can enjoy different choices and own up to them. And to top it all off, the unmistakable glow that you have so beautifully mentioned, warmly glows brighter each time I walk.

     1. Dear Adele, I love the way you have brought our awareness to the fact that it is movement in alignment that is the greatest assistance in helping us ‘step away from the table’. Your map of action is a great addition or footnote to Joel’s awesome blog. Our addiction to th game has been busted!

365. Joel, you had my full attention from the very first few words “There is a conman living within….” and I knew I was in for another magnificently written parable. You write like a True Master. A picture comes to mind of a large group of children sitting on the ground totally mesmerised as they listen to your brilliant stories – so full of wisdom and truth.

366. Oh Joel, I am lost for words, this is Simply Brilliant. Thank you! A transcript for the ages, to be recorded in history, a footprint for all to align to and when they choose, get to see their game is up.

367. Absolutely incredible article Joel Levin, wow ! So real and true. The picture of the man with the hat is an absolute terrific example. We can either go for glamour (the man with the hat and shining ball) or we can be with our own inner-glow (truth). At the end of the article I deeply felt the game you were talking about and so I remember playing this very often, which like you shared, is getting less and less. This is true winning.

368. Joel yet again what you share is so deeply felt, you are a true story-teller one that never holds back from exposing the truth. I love how your stories unpack so beautifully the beliefs we have all held about ourselves, that all our answers lie out there, when in fact the answers lie within.

369. The flickering lights of this game of life can never play with the one who knows the source of its glow.

370. Absolutely brilliant Joel. You are a master with words!

371. Thanks Joel, from one ex-player to another, I too noticed a man named Serge Benhayon not playing the table game…. I also noticed that he had a huge family that chose not play either, which made me ever more curious. I had seen others ‘not play before’ but they were usually ‘not playing’ out of reaction, to give up or get attention and all the while they were still focused on the table, even if they were ‘not looking’ at it. Serge on the other hand, I observed was very different in his choice not to play, as he did not exclude anybody nor did he judge others for playing, he was not protesting against the game but he definitely was not supporting it. His glow was so bright, it seems to remind all others of their own glow and the light grew in all that stood closer to him, growing ever brighter the more steps that were collectively taken away from tables.

     1. Well said Sarah. When you allow the space for Serge Benhayon to come near your table there is an alchemy that happens and your own glow suddenly becomes stronger and you can actually feel it, even though you may have been playing the game for so long that you really had no concept that the glow you were trying to find was inside you all along.

372. The crazy games we play. Great blog Joel.

373. ‘I had both invested and lost so much that it felt impossible for me to step back from the table’ Great line, Joel and so true. Even once we realise we’ve been playing our life away to a hollow tune, believing that the limitations on offer are true, we still delay in stepping away from the table and into the unfamiliar. We can often prefer comfort and delusion to the absolute rawness of truth.

     1. Yes Cathy. Joel’s blog reminds us that we cant expect different results if we keep doing the same thing.

374. Another gorgeous parable Joel, I love it… the responsibility to ‘clean up your own mess’ is gold, and something that in the end cannot be avoided, despite the man in the hat’s empty promise that there is no need.

     1. And I would add… a beautiful way to simply say (again) ‘we are our own Saviours’. Thank you… always such an ease-full pleasure to read your blogs.

375. The power of reflection shines bright and clear. “One day a man named Serge Benhayon walked past my table. It was clear that this was a game he didn’t need to play.” How fortunate for us who recognised this glow with the clarity it shone..and there began the clean up to uncover the equal light that lives within us.

     1. It could be quite annoying to have someone walk past who has no need to play the game. I can appreciate in myself that I didn’t get annoyed and instead embraced this person – Serge Benhayon.

     2. Beautifully said Victoria. I feel blessed that I’ve had the opportunity for Serge Benhayon to walk past my games table so I could stop and see that he wasn’t playing this endless and exhausting game. A moment of deep appreciation for ourselves is needed for stopping and recognising the glow within Serge as being the same glow we hold within ourselves, and for taking the steps to cease this lose/lose game.

        1. Absolutely Sandra, and with acceptance and appreciation our glow expands…

        2. That’s lovely Victoria and Sandra, I would like to join you in appreciating ourselves, for taking steps to walk away from needing the games, and also Serge Benhayon for being a man who never plays games and has shown us, by his lack of need, just what an illusion they are.

     3. We are truly blessed to have someone like Serge Benhayon walk past to remind us that we don’t have to play this game that is full of illusions. He inspiring us to stop and step away from the table to see the truth of what is really going on. Because he is not choosing to play the game we start to recognise that we can choose to not play too. So, I completely agree Victoria, ‘The power of reflection shines bright and clear’.

     4. Love this Victoria – thank you. It is up to each and everyone of us to uncover the equal light that lives within us.

376. Beautiful, powerful and brilliant Joel. Who we are within never truly diminishes. It is only when we seek the answers outside of ourselves that we diminish the glow of our connection to the answers we already do know within.

     1. Well said Carola! So incerdibly important to remember we are not our off the wall thoughts we feed ourselves.

377. Your writing is amazing Joel and you weave a wonderful way to present the truths in life. By deep internal honesty and also honest observation, you have discovered the truth about not only what lies within you but also what this represents outwardly to the world. Just beautiful.

     1. Indeed it takes a great deal of honesty and clarity – bound up with a mastery of words – to reveal what Joel Levin does with his divine parables. Thank you Joel they are a joy to read again and again.

378. And what a true statement, sometimes we play the game for so long and can’t win so we decide to be the man in hat and set up the game for others, but they are all lost and not glowing from within of course.

379. And how awakening it must be to stand back and see everyone playing a game. What a brilliant analogy Joel. For it is true, we all think we are going somewhere but the truth is we are going no where, until we clean up the mess that we live in, and start to walk around glowing again.

     1. Well said Harry – we have been tricked into playing the game by that sneaky conman but how blessed are we to have come across Serge Benhayon and his teachings.

     2. Yes a fabulous way to look at it.

     3. Beautifully said harryjwhite – it was an awesome analogy. We are all playing a game and most don’t realise. Until we step back from our own table, Asses our mess and start the clean up crew.

     4. I invest so much in the end result is I forget all about the journey to get there. When I focus on the journey I realise the falsity of the end goal.

     5. Awesome comment harryjwhite, I love what you shared, it’s so true and inspiring.

380. It would seem we are champions of distraction. We drag our feet, hang back, try to not be eager yet search for answers as long as those answers hold some comfort and some flattery for us. The answers lie within us. It is time to let go of distractions and really live our full and complete lives. It’s time to be present in our own lives no longer holding back.

381. But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.
     I love these words Joel and so appreciate what you have written and love that we have Serge Benhayon to inspire us and support us to see the game clearly for what it is.

     1. I’m with you on this Rosie, I also appreciate that we have Serge Benhayon to inspire us and support us to see the game clearly for what it is!

382. Brilliant Joel, how many of us have been playing these endless games and also have been played by looking in all the ‘wrong’ places.. that is until we awaken to the treasure that is inside of us and has always been.

     1. Yes we have played, and we have been played…we can walk away from the game table when we re-connect to the divinity and truth of who we already are.

383. Your final words sum up ‘the answer to life’ so well, ‘…the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’ How much time and how many life times have we wasted looking outside ourselves for the answers, when they were always inside, not competing against the conman, but waiting patiently to be discovered?

     1. I know Carmin, we wasted so much time with searching and delaying from our inner knowing. But we have said no to the game and standing in strong power to reflect the way that is the only true answer – our livingness.

384. The glow is the illusion that we can fall for, thank you for unmasking and for another brilliant piece of inspiring writing.

     1. Yes indeed. Falling for the illusion that we can find that glow somewhere (outside of ourselves) and then grab on to it. The illusion that it is on the outside.

385. The game of life…..play religion, past hurts or intellectual pursuits: the simplicity of cutting back the apparent complexity of life into these three categories. and then effectively debunking each, makes it so clear for all of us to be able to see how illusory buying into any, or all, of these three categories actually are. Awesome exposee, Joel: in simplicity lies both truth and natural brilliance.

386. Wow, I feel a book building here Joel, thank you yet again for words so full of wisdom they pull me to a stop and a further step away from the games table.

387. The way you frame it here Joel sums up the desperation and investment we have that this time the game will turn up trumps. Like a gambler at a roulette table who thinks they are just around the corner from a ‘hot streak’ and bets their very last coin. You show that there is no part of the game that’s true – it is just a distraction from the glow that you have beautifully returned to in you. Thank you for the exquisite way you express this here.

388. We have been hoodwinked into trusting this great deceiver in the hat, the voice lurking in the shadows that always suggests he has the answer but as you have said Joel he comes up empty. We have been ‘played with’ and you have clearly outed the bad guy and shown us we are all can shine our light and not hide it under a shell. I feel like a kid and I’m being asked to clean up my mess before I get another story😀

389. Joel, I love how you present simple ideas so gorgeously what a blog. And yes we play this game all of us, and we’re absolutely convinced that somehow we will eventually get the right combination, and then we meet those who don’t play and it throws us, but we have so much invested in playing we can’t let go, what would happen, and what would we be? We become so identified in playing we miss everything else, including that we don’t need to play, until one day we see that we can stop and I know for me I can still play even now, even knowing that it’s a game, but I know deep in me that it’s time to stop and as you say Joel, look at the table around and clear it up. Thank you.

390. I found myself reading through this beautiful, with such a growing feeling “this just has to be from Joel”, as I read more and more of it, and yes, there at the end was your name, Joel. An absolutely beautiful, story once more, I love how you have woven almost a fairy tale of how we all play this stupid game, most of us for all of our lives. But it is no fairy tale, it is the truth of how most of us have really lived our lives. We have all been so misled by this man in the hat who entices us into the game. I too am so grateful to Serge Benhayon for showing me that I don’t have to play this game, what a relief it is to be free (almost) of it. Thank you for sharing it Joel.

     1. Me too Beverley – I knew it was Joel instantly. Love everything you have shared.

391. While reading your blog, Joel, I couldn’t help but be struck by the similarity between “the game of life” described here and the addiction of gambling….it has me wondering if this is part of the trail that leads to that addiction for some…

     1. I also made that same correlation coleen24, it seems everyone of us has an addiction to a game of some sort which prevents us from hitting the true jackpot.
        Instead of putting bets on everything outside of us to get that glow, what is needed is investing in ourselves knowing that we are already ‘winners’, the jackpot of the glowing ball already there inside us. Far less exhausting too I reckon.

        1. Yes, Jeanette, it would awesome if those involved with supporting those with gambling addictions had access to this knowledge and wisdom: so much suffering would be arrested in an instant.

392. I love how you write Joel. It is other-wordly as one comment says. You are a great storyteller and one that has great stories to tell – a good combination :-). I too have been seduced by the game and a strong image that came to mind is the whole world around us sitting at these tables, playing these games whilst the mess around us keeps piling up an and up. Time to step away from the table and clean up the mess and stop playing the game.

393. Investing in the outside is a choice to turn the dimmer switch down on our light. Another cracker blog Joel, thank you.

394. This is a beautiful analogy Joel of the game and tug of war that effectively takes place within us all. Do we listen to the little dar man (or woman) who lurks in the shadows and offers us tantalising goodies or do we choose to connect to the fiery flame that is within that doesn’t need tantalisation, conditions and goodies of any kind — it is abundant as of itself and we can drop into this and be it. It’s a constant choice, one that i grapple with daily because when i do choose the sneaky little fellow in the shadows, I see myself gradually slumping, diminishing, slouching… Choosing ME instead brings about the entire opposite.

395. An analogy we can all feel in our lives – the games people play. What is interesting is that the figure in the hat is always ready to step forward and offer the game but if humanity chooses not to play then the game finishes. It is a powerful illusion that the glowing ball is outside of us but in reality by stepping back we become aware of the glow within. No wonder the man in the hat wants us to remain by the table being distracted from the amazing glow we naturally have within – life changing analogy and great fun Joel.

396. I just love reading your blogs, Joel. This line resonated with me deeply: “But I had both invested and lost so much that it felt impossible for me to step back from the table.” It is one of the most difficult things that we feel there is: to let go of the thing that we have spent so long cultivating, working on, learning. It is where there is the most resistance, largely due to pride, but also due to the fact that we will need to face our mess.

     1. It’s true Naren, most of us are so deeply invested in our lives that stepping away from the mess can appear to be an insurmountable task, but in truth is the most freeing of all choices, to come back to our true and authentic selves.

        1. Absolutely, Jo. The freedom to step back and even to look at the mess is such a freeing choice. Whatever that mess may be, when we actually look at it, it is never as bad as the mess we have imagined in our heads.

     2. Hello Naren Duffy and yes I agree. The investment we bank on being the ‘right’ one and the one that will deliver everything. But when it’s found to be flawed we cling to it because of the investment. The bigger the investment the bigger the ‘cling’ and what is the thing we fear most, the fact that “we will need to face our mess”, the responsibility, facing the responsibility of investing in something we already knew was flawed. Thank you Naren.

        1. So so true Naren. The mess is never as bad as the crafty conman wants us to believe in our heads. I have been faced with the consequences of a couple of messes I made earlier in this life but because of the foundation that I have built in stepping away from the table (it still lures me) I faced them and it was amazing the simplicity of dealing with it, and the grace given to support me through it.

        2. Yes, Raymond, the responsibility for what we have invested in, and that it was our own choice to create the mess we must face is a big thing to be able to admit. It must be deeply appreciated when that step is taken, because it is one of the hardest to take.

        3. Raymond Karam, I am sure a lot of people can relate to – ‘The bigger the investment the bigger the ‘cling’ and what is the thing we fear most, the fact that “we will need to face our mess” – I certainly can. For most of my life I lived with a constant facade and with the impact that had on my body – rather than just being me. I was even convinced that I was a responsible person. Universal Medicine’s teachings have been life changing in every sense.

        4. Hello Eva Rygg and I agree, well said. We have a perception of what “responsible” looks like and with the support of Universal Medicine I have certainly blown the way I use to look at it apart.

397. The lurking and luring of the man in the hat, he who will stop at no cost to distract us from the power of love. But love is what we are made of, so it is inevitable that we will once again surrender to the grandness of it all.

398. Joel, once again I’m completely floored by your eloquent expression, this story is brilliant and perfectly describes the illusion most of live in, the vicious cycle we cannot escape. Beautiful and so accurate the way you describe Serge Benhayon walking past the table, I can see this so clearly with his signature walk! I love the way you continue to go deeper – everytime. We are truly blessed by your offerings.

399. Absolutely beautiful Joel. This story is a true gift for humanity. Deep appreciation to Serge Benhayon for being the man who has not played the game and by not playing the game has shown others that they too don’t have to play.

     1. I agree Donna, to witness someone who is not playing the game is pure healing in itself. It wakes us up.

400. I love your blogs Joel and the pearls of wisdom you convey through your parables. It is so easy to get caught up in playing these game that keeps us floundering around in the dark with the promise of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and if there was a pot of gold so what, that wouldn’t give us the love and happiness we seek when we look outside of ourselves for the answers. Or at least it hasn’t worked for me. I agree with you Joel “My task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow (light – love) is not hiding under a shell, but living within.”

401. A brilliant blog Joel. The constant in our lives will always be to trust in the glow of our hearts. When we embrace and accept the hurts we hold the game is over, love wins.

402. Joel you are one amazing writer, you blogs are just phenomenal. You have just shared the game of life we all have played and got caught up in, and we can see the extent of damage. Yet so many find it difficult to pull themselves away. It is about taking one step at a time and pulling away from the game knowing the glow is within us all.

403. Joel, once again you have written a blog that is so much fun to read and yet presents some basic yet fundamental truths in life. We do so get ‘caught up’ in such games that distract us from what we are really here for. And when we do say yes to love and step away from the game playing then life truly changes – not in the sense that what we do or where we live necessarily changes, but the way we are and the quality we bring changes. When we stop the game playing with the man in the hat, we become the game changer and hold much power in our hands.

     1. Hello Henrietta Chang and I agree, Joel Levin delivers a simple, easy and fun read with a huge message. Almost like the lightness of the way it reads allow you to feel the enormity of what is being said, a true art in writing. We make so much about the game, playing or not playing, the rules, working things out etc but to see that the whole thing isn’t true then we no longer talk about the game, it’s about the connection, anything about the game is a distraction. Thank you Henrietta and thank you Joel.

        1. I too agree Ray, and it seems that I am stalking your blog comments and replies – so I cannot help but ask: is this (stalking blog comments) also a game sold to us by the man in the hat? No I don’t think so – this is a game that we can choose to play with God, a game that helps us develop our expression and allows us to bring forth that which has been kept hidden for so long, a way of having fun whilst letting out more of ourselves and sharing who we are with the world and inspiring other like wise.

     2. Henrietta, this is very important – when we stop playing this game, we become the game changer – obvious, but so very powerful!

404. I really liked what you said about the glow not hiding under a shell but living within Joel, I spent a lifetime looking answers only to discover that what I’m looking for is within me, but I still can fall back to looking for answers outside of me.

405. I’m still playing the game of looking for answers, solutions and ‘quick- fix’s’ in my life, each time I think this will fix me, a short time after the answer to my woe’s drops away like mirage on the road when one is driving, that is seen up ahead then disappears before one gets to the false image.

406. Joel knocks it out of the park again with another great blog! Love to read your writing it is so accessible and revealing. Yes that conman has been taking up residence for too long at my table. I love the image of stepping back and suddenly seeing all the other people hooked into their table. Such a mess. Time for a big clean up! Starting with my own table.

     1. Very true Vanessa – we need to clean up our own table to be of true support to others. It is too easy to roll up the sleaves and get out there to ‘save’ others and leaving the most important person behind – ourselves.

407. The answer may not be what others tell us but comes from what WE feel inside.

408. Joel as soon as I read the first lines of this blog I knew it was another cracker from you! You have given us the bigger perspective so beautifully of how so deeply entrenched we are in our distractions from the truth that we fail to see that we are blindly invested in lies, desperately wanting them to be the truth. As such we get in deeper and deeper, more tense and more desperate in wanting it to work, not realising that if we look up there is a different way – a true way.

409. Another lovely blog Joel thank you. I have played that game too but now know there is a different choice.

410. I was working at the airport today and I was observing hundreds of people from all over the world passing me. I stood there quite steady on both feet, enjoying the feeling of being with myself and knowing who I am. I also knew who all those people were, no need to know their stories, just knowing the connection we all share, the glow we all have inside us. There is an immense amount of distraction going on around us, astonishing weird if you observe and when you see how many people are lost in a multitude of distractions. My task is as clear as yours Joel and I am honored to fulfill it. No perfection needed just a great love for Humanity.

     1. Beautiful Katinka de Lannoy, holding steady and shinning amongst the immense amount of distraction going on around us, knowing we are each this light in essence.

     2. Hello Katinka de Lannoy and a great way to look at the world or to observe the world. The appreciation you have in that moment is really felt and you can see how it is for everything and not just one part. You show has simple and easy ‘our’ part is to play, “I stood there quite steady on both feet, enjoying the feeling of being with myself and knowing who I am.” and from there this, “No perfection needed just a great love for Humanity.” Thank you Katinka.

     3. Indeed Katinka de Lannoy – Love is just the medicine Humanity needs.

411. Great blog Joel, the game that we play is indeed distracting us from that what is really needed to be looked at and cared for, feeling that what we are within, and then get the opportunity to look at the mess and clean it up.

412. You have described the frantic game to a ‘T’ and its ringleader – the faceless creature, hat pulled low to hide its empty eyes and sightless stare.
     How busy do we get with game, fascinated by attainment of that glowing promise…never do we question who we are playing with, as we sit hunched over the table, eyes intent on the ephemeral prize, until we sense the liberated man and woman who walk by tall and free.
     The full liberation is slow to attain. You have described this so beautifully Joel. It leaves a mess in its wake that can be daunting to see, and that trickster knows how to present its empty wares in slightly more tantalising ways as we pull ourselves away from its futile game.
     The call of the inner glow becomes too strong to ever ignore again. And the freedom of true liberation, to walk tall in the light of the inner fire calls too strongly to get caught in the game to promises everything …and delivers naught.

     1. ‘The call of the inner glow becomes too strong to ever ignore again.’ – True power dentistryinharmony – Dr Rachel Mascord BDS – Thank you.

413. The game you speak of is such a dastardly one. Convinced we are of the truth that someone else can give us, end our misery with – refusing to recognise the joy and possibilities within. Beautifully expressed as always Joel Levin – a man who is able, masterfully so to tell it like it is with lines that makes my inner heart smile.

     1. ‘ A dastardly one’ indeed Lee. This is the game of irresponsibility. When we hand over our responsibility to love ourselves – we are forever at the mercy of the game that never fulfills it’s promise.

414. Another awesome story capturing beautifully the struggle of human life… the struggle that we choose through allowing ourselves to be lured by the game that keeps us away from the truth. Choose love and the game is exposed.

415. A fine and amusing analogy Joel, this outside world is just a game of trickery. Thank you.

416. I love the Humour in your blog Joel. It really nails the ridiculousness of the game we’re playing. There’s times that I step back nowadays, but there are also lots of times that I loose myself, or more correctly, choose to distract myself away from me and the tasks I’ve got to do. Both cleaning up the mess as shining my light in a currently very dark place called earth.

417. Love it Joel. Stepping back from the table and out of the game, releasing ourselves from that elusive and alluring light fuels our glow within, revealing those fanciful darting lights outside of the glow that burns from within, are nothing but distractors to the course we’re designed to be on where all wins.

418. “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” Simple, clear and to the point. Time for the games to stop and the fun to truly begin.

419. Spot on Joel. The more I step back from the table, the more I can see the self created mess that is there to be cleaned up. But when I am at the table playing, I can’t see what is going on and the complexities take over. It’s a relief to know that the answer isn’t at the table and that I can step back if I choose. What helps with this is knowing that I have role models within Universal Medicine who have done this and I can look to them for inspiration and support. In turn I can offer inspiration to others and so on.

420. Hello Joel Levin, you had me in. I had to read to the last part to see what was going to happen. The last line brings all this together Joel, “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” Thank you Joel your writing is very easy to read.

     1. Both reminding us of who we are…and the responsibility we have in living with our level of awareness.

421. Joel, this is another piece of your absolute gorgeous writing full of true poetry, humor and Universal Wisdom presented in such a playful way that it delivers pure joy with every line.

     1. That’s what I love about Joel’s writing…such profound wisdom that is accessible for all. No matter where you are on your path of return, this will speak to you on some level. Magic!

422. Exellent blog and to the point Joel. – ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’ Bring on the fire!

423. A classic beautiful quote of deep wisdom “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” I also understand how it feels to be looking in all the wrong places, while all along there is this wonderful truth and divinity residing within waiting to be lived. I understand this because I am getting to know and live this divinity within my every day. I agree the “task is clear” keep cleaning up and learn to live from within, which is a gorgeous and deeply supportive endeavour personally and for humanity.

424. And so we play until one day there is no need to play anymore and then it is our turn to walk past the tables and reflect that there is another way, a way without the need to play the game. Thanks Joel for making it so obvious that it is a simple choice, we will all have to make sooner or later.

     1. So many games and so many tables, but we do have a choice whether we play or walk away. I love what you say here Judith about there one day being no need and we will walk past as a reflection for the next ones to come to their own realisation that there is another way, no need to play.

     2. True Judith, and the day will come when the game itself will be fully exposed and we have no need for the games or the tables.

     3. Beautifully said Judith – one day we will indeed see that the game playing is not serving us nor anyone else.

425. There are many hooks in life that draw us in yet how often do we go for the hook and feel the unease and disatisfaction of that choice. It is true that there is a man Serge Benhayon who has shown us all that we needn’t get hooked in for when we give our all and don’t hold back there is magic already within us all.

426. I like how you point out the light you can feel inside of you and the mess you can see around you once you have stepped away from the table. We are mostly so caught up in life as such that we do not see what we are doing but always with a enough thrill and hope that the next round will bring what we are looking for. All the while we just need to stop and step away from that which so obviously hasn’t worked and allow that what we feel and know deep within will guide us.

427. I started off reading your blog with an amused smile Joel, which changed slowly to great attention, followed by being very moved and almost in tears as I felt the enormity of what you were describing, and ended up with a glow inside me as I took in the simplicity of what Serge Benhayon offers and you are expressing for all of us. I love the way you expanded and expanded it so that we receive a vision of many ages and millions of people all playing the same game. Human romantic love is a game but True Love does not play a game, it just is and holds us all, just as Serge Benhayon does.

428. Another beautifully crafted blog Joel. We can be easily distracted by the playing the game, and not see that what we are looking for is actually already within us.

     1. So true Peter. Right under our noses it is!

429. The glow is not hiding under a shell but living within. In all of us.Thank you Joel, for another beautiful blog.

430. Amazing blog and well written as always Joel. If we are all playing the game we don’t tend to see the enormous damage it is causing for humanity as a whole and just how much it affects the quality of life in society and in each and every interaction.

     1. So true Joshua and Joel. The less we join in the game, the more we will see what is truly going on. A game that promises much, but in fact keeps none of the promises. And the answer is already lying deep inside of us only needed to be seen and lived.

431. Thank you Joel for this story.
     What if the answers to life are not underneath or within anything outside of ourselves?

432. Joel this is so how I’ve lived. So true how it is time we pay to the man with the hat – a person who could also be anyone of us at any time we position ourselves or accept other’s belief in us as an authority when we peddle these deciets.

     I’ve lived thinking my past hurts will reveal who I truly am, or how modern religion will deliver the answer or, if I think deep enough about the world I’ll discover the solutions. All these do is take my focus from me and the wisdom communicating to me from the cells of my body.

     It’s wonderful to have such a great reminder of how I am distracted so clearly signposted. I do not need to choose this game.

     1. Yes Karin, I know that one backwards, the trying to understand my hurts, to understand everything – its a total trick and waste of precious time, the focus has to be building the feeling within and then you understand everything!

        1. I completely agree, Karin and Vanessa: I even took University courses in understanding my own and others’ hurts…nothing came of it. The only thing that supported and developed me was connecting within and then living and expanding in that quality.

        2. Gosh this blog has inspired such gems, “the trying to understand my hurts, to understand everything – its a total trick and waste of precious time, the focus has to be building the feeling within and then you understand everything!” Brilliant Vanessa.

     2. Accepting others belief within us is indeed a dangerous game where we become the peddlers of a deceit as an unknowing yet willing receptacle for an authority that is void of love and truth.

     3. Yes, it’s a great description of how I have lived also, and sometimes get caught up in the illusion again from time to time but I now know there are no answers there. The glow within that I return to always serves me, I know in my heart the answers to life are within my own heart and all I need to do is connect.

     4. Well said and very powerful Karin! I just love reading these blogs. They are deconstructing life’s illusions and laying solid foundations of love that clearly show the difference between the two. That man in the hat is quickly diminishing – he fades away into the shadows the more I choose that glow within. The days are numbered for the man in the hat as we shine more and more.

433. Wow this blog is magnificant Joel, “But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.” With this you have just given the answer so many people are looking for.

     1. The simplicity and power in Joel’s expression is truly divine.

434. When we live ‘the glow that glows from within’, we cannot be ensnared by the trickery of light that would so meet our eye.

     1. But the most amazing part of the story is, although captured and ensnared by the trickery of false light, we all know immediately when truth is presented that we have been all played and that there is no game needed. Then it is the pride of the Spirit and the investment in the game that let us keep the glowing ball moving as if it was the game that attracts us, but in truth it is the comfort of not wanting to let go of the false investments and assuming responsibility of our choices. We all know!

     2. Beatifully said and so true Liane – Thank you.

     3. So true Liane -When we live ‘the glow that glows from within’- we know there is no other choice , the choice is to keep choosing that love by living it in every moment.

     4. I love that Liane, you’ve said it so simply. When we choose truth over deception, deception is seen for what it is and has no power over us. But we have to make that choice first.

     5. Absolute truth Liane for there is nothing more magnificent than the glow from with and only when we are connected to this can we appreciate it in others.

     6. True Liane. We are only tempted by the false light of that which we do not live

     7. Hmm so Liane you are saying the light within, when allowed to foster and glow bright from within, will expose all the lights that tantalize and de-light the eyes, yet serve no purpose but to keep us in the game. So who’s game are we playing?

        1. Yes, great question Caroline…
           When we are not living a true life impulsed from within, we are empty, and thus being puppeted from the outside and easily drawn in by the flickering lights.

     8. Beautiful Liane. It is only the ‘glow within’ that can reveal the falsity of all other lights – no matter how ‘similar’ they appear.

     9. this needs to be bumper sticker Liane!!

435. Love wins – by virtue of the fact that it never engages in the game.

     1. Hello Liane Mandalis and I agree. Equally love didn’t stand back from the table or out of the game. Love just ‘played’ the person, the connection, built the relationship and as you said “never engages the game”.

     2. Just like Serge Benhayon – he never engages in the game, though he is the first to be there and observe all that is happening, never judging, never criticising, just watching and learning and understanding.

        1. That judgement is key for me Henrietta and one I am learning to be with – to observe and still be the glowing delightful being I am.

     3. That’s beautiful Liane and true – Love never engages in games, it engages with other people that they may remember their glow too.

     4. This is what I have learned from Serge Benhayon. There is no game to play when we live the love we are.

     5. And that is key Liane – I have learnt this over time, to engage is to play the game. It slowly entices me, draws me in and before I know it, I am part of the game! I gently catch myself and say, ok… my next choice will be something that brings me back to me and choosing something that leads me to love and back to my relationship with God! Nothing is more precious than this.

     6. So true Liane, as much as the “conman” can try to lure us away from ourselves with promises of glittering prizes, it is love that will “win” in the end, as it simply won’t play the game!

     7. Truth so simple and clearly expressed, thank you Liane.

        1. Love just is. Love is a beholding Light, Love just holds us.

436. Love it Joel. All of it. When we buy into ‘the game’, we are either the players or the played. We tempt each other, we tempt ourselves. We thirst for that which we have not quenched and so greedily we slurp from all that is on offer; religion, intellectualism, culture and the like, whatever we can get our hands on to quell the thirst that comes from forsaking the well within. For if we sip once from these waters, we know, beyond the shadow of a doubt that the game is up, no matter how long that last round takes. And what then? When we have no game left to play, what will we do? …all that time…. all that space…. Who will fill it? It is this that scares us so.

     1. I think you’re onto something here Liane – delaying the inevitable, and why, because we haven’t fully surrendered to the Will of God, because we want to think we are major stakeholders in the plan, endlessly seeking identification?
        When in fact, who would ever need to know the answers to these or any questions once we submit our will to that of God?

437. Joel, you didn’t happen to be Shakespeare in a past life did you???
     If not him a writer just as incredible. Your words speak otherworldly volumes, to everyone, all ages, there are so many levels at play, deeply philosophical, so much that comes flowing through in every single line. There’s a world in each word, where it’s placed and how it’s placed. I am enamored. You are a true wordsmith. Thank you for choosing to write, what a blessing for humanity you are.I’m so thankful that you saw the game for what it really is. Just a game that we either choose to play or not.
     Keep on shining Joel-and writing!!!

     1. A Shakespeare he is!

        1. Yes I agree rachelandras and Irena – I read with great enthusiasm enjoying the journey right to the end – always wondering ‘now how is this going to end!?’

     2. Hear, hear Irena! Thank you Joel for exposing the game and the unnecessary lure to gamble and risk our own unique quality for something outside of ourselves that we know in our hearts is not true.

     3. Brilliant comment Irena Haze your Joy at Joel’s wisdom is gorgeous to read. This is how we support each other to develop and grow – through genuinely and joyously valuing and celebrating what another brings.

        1. And so too do I need to acknowledge what you have said shevonsimon, that ‘through genuinely and joyously valuing and celebrating what another brings, we support each other to develop and grow’. As opposed to holding each other back either consciously or unconsciously which is in truth holding ourselves back as there is, in truth, only One of us.

     4. Whoo Irena you just said what I felt, thank you for expressing this so beautifully – I really love reading Joel’s work.

     5. I agree Irena, my sock were also totally blow off! He encapsulated the whole illusion we live in, in a simple and relatable story. Pure magic.

     6. I agree with you Irena, Joel’s writings are quite amazing. How inspiring they are for us to read, there is such a depth in his ‘fairy stories’. Yes, he is truly a blessing for humanity, the truth shines through all his stories.

     7. I totally agree with you, Irena. I love how Joel expresses with his words. And I love how you have expressed your appreciation. It’s such a joy to be shared.

438. Oh the games we play Joel when we listen to the conman that lies within. Thank God for Serge Benhayon for showing us that it is game we really don’t have to play.

     1. I agree alisonmoir.

439. Again I can relate to this coming and going to and from the table, feeling the glow within and then getting seduced by the fake glow at the table, the gloomy attraction of the old or new hurts. This man Serge Benhayon says he does still get hurt, but never now hangs on to his hurts, he lets them go, does not allow the false light to seduce him any more. This is the future and what is before us.

440. ‘But my task is clear – clean up my mess and let others see that the glow is not hiding under a shell, but living within.’ Joel, you are a gifted story teller using symbology how could I miss the mark of this story. Your ending sentence sums it up after we have distracted ourselves for so long, it is time to clean up the mess. I too can relate and have been there time and time again, but now it’s time to shine the light that is within outward and illuminate the shadows of the past, just as you recount, thank you.

441. This is great Joel!

     Relatable on many levels.

442. Joel Levin you are one of my favourite philosophers and your answer to the game of life is beautiful, just step back and let others see all that you are.

     1. Joel is an amazing philosopher and his messages are always clear and give me much to feel and think about( maybe less thinking and more feeling!). He has just exposed another game we have been playing.

443. When we lose sight or sense of our divinity and cement our gaze on the glittering lights of a 3 dimensional world we are bound to never leave the playing table. Lift our gaze from the table and the magnificent multi-dimensionality of God is everywhere not least of all within us. I have lifted my gaze enough to know that whilst life is lived to its fullest my sights are firmly set on God.

     1. Beautifully expressed, Helen Simkins, especially “Lift our gaze from the table and the magnificent multi-dimensionality of God is everywhere not least of all within us.” How, how true! It is wonderful to be free of the silly game we have been playing.

     2. So true Helen. The only role of the man in the hat is to keep us distracted and delay the moment that we look up, delay the realisation that the glow is actually within us.

        1. Indeed, and Joel’s parable depicts how easily we have been distracted. In the need to be the one to win we lose sight completely of the fact that there is nothing to beat in the first place – and no prize in sight either.

        2. Exactly Lee, what Joel has exposed here is how we get caught in the game of delay.

     3. I love that Helen – just gorgeous and I can so feel that within me too.

     4. Gorgeous Helen. The third dimensional world stimulates and tantalises the senses in an attempt to hold our gaze – like a theme park with all of it’s neon lights, music, smells, and attractions. We are lured in and can remain for an entire lifetime if we choose; However, I have now come to learn that it is as simple as a gentle breath to exit the circus and return to my Heavenly connection.

     5. Helen it feels like we’re all hardened gamblers and life is a massive casino. Our eyes have been so glued to the tables that we have failed to notice that we’ve squandered lifetimes away waiting for the bog win !

        1. So true Alexis, great description!. . . but I just slip in for a moment! Time just slips away inside a casino one can wake up lifetimes later if one is not careful.

     6. Yes Helen, I accept we live in a world that is full of imperfections. My Will will deliver me from the temptations and keep my sights set on God. I’m going home!

     7. I love what you express here Helen. We have indeed lost connection with our sense of divinity and so have become side-tracked on a plane of life that is locked into materialism and what the eyes can see; we have fallen for the belief that this is all there is. With this as our foundation we are striving and giving it all we have to make it work, kidding ourselves that life is getting better with the advancements in technology and medicine, but going round in ever the decreasing circles of the tensions of illness, disease, abuse and loveless systems. We only have to change our focus to realise all of this is an illusion and step to the side to realise we are so much more and part of something so much grander.

444. A great analogy Joel! I too am in the process of stepping further and further from that table, and am finding my own inner glow too, thanks to having Serge Benhayon pass my table with that knowing reassurance.

445. Yet another magical parable from the masterful Joel Levin. I am very much looking forward to a book of these gems!

     1. “Hear, hear” Helen I am enjoying Joel’s parables and could to see a book!

     2. Agree Helen! What an enjoyable and relatable read! Joel Levin – you’ve done it again!

     3. So true Helen definitely a book of parables is needed with great insight and wisdom.

446. Beautiful Joel the warmest, brightest glow is within us not outside of us!

447. Wonderful story Joel- reminding us of the importance of living from within and be guided by our inner light.
     It was not until I too met Serge Benhayon at Universal medicine that I realised I was searching for answers in the wrong places- from outside of myself- in religion, academic pursuits, or ideals which allowed to be more separated from the truth of who I am.

448. You have such a way with words Joel and have captured so much in this description of “the games we can play” to avoid realising our true potential.

449. Amazing writing Joel, the only place where I have recieved all the answers to life has been at Universal Medicine

     1. Hear hear Joe! Universal Medicine has been the support for me to come to know that all of the answers are already within.

        1. I agree Sara Harris, it is the same for me.

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