You, God, Love Life: Self Transformation Principles
If you are a student, teacher or practitioner of personal and spiritual growth you’ll find this book insightful, helpful and inspirational.
Berner begins the book by telling his readers that the ideas and practices that he’ll be presenting will be “a voyage of discovery about yourself and life…..and that it’s best to not become too serious but to investigate with sincerity.”
Never demanding a blind faith in respect to his teachings he always encouraged self reflection and personal direct experience rather than following a belief system, philosophy or religion.
“I don’t ask for belief nor do I recommend it. In fact I discourage it. Teachings function best only when they rest on a foundation of understanding, not on belief."
The book is organized into five main sections and twenty eight chapters. The five sections are Theology, Life, Help, Communication and Problems.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Section 1: Theology
Chapter 1 The Three Rationales and the Five Categories of Life
Chapter 2 The Evolution of the Concept of God
Chapter 3 The First Assumption: You are Uncreated Divinity
Chapter 4 How To Treat Yourself
Chapter 5 The Second Assumption: Equivalent Others Exist
Chapter 6 How You Should Treat Other People
Section 2: Life
Chapter 7 The Story of Creation
Chapter 8 The Purpose of Life
Chapter 9 The Cycle of Life
Chapter 10 Living By Theory
Chapter 11 People are Relating By Choice
Chapter 12 Games & The Ultimate Formulae of Life
Section 3: Help
Chapter 13 Why Help is Necessary
Chapter 14 How Help Takes Place
Chapter 15 Degrees of Help
Chapter 16 The Supportive Environment
Chapter 17 Receiving Help
Section 4: Communication
Chapter 18 Love
Chapter 19 Reality
Chapter 20 Understanding
Chapter 21 Putting Yourself Second
Chapter 22 Facing the Crisis
Chapter 23 Improving Communication
Section 5: Problems
Chapter 24 The Nature of Problems
Chapter 25 Long Term Problems
Chapter 26 False Solutions
Chapter 27 Types of Problems
Chapter 28 Problems, Decisions, Priorities
Chapter 29 Problem Resolution
Section 1: Theology explores the idea of what god is and explains that your basic nature and God’s nature are the very same. He writes, “That the core of the entire book is that your basic nature and God’s nature are the very same.”
Berner isn’t content with simply making that statement but goes on to explain what he means theologically, spiritually and in practical terms with respect to what your are and your relationship to the divine.
“How You Should Treat Other People” is the last chapter of the section on Theology. He counsels that you should treat other people as Divine while also recognizing that in doing so problems may arise.
Each chapter ends with self enquiry meditation exercises and questions that encourage your understanding of the presented ideas.
Where does Life come from? It all came from YOU. YOU AND ALL THE OTHERS!
Section Two: Life is a focus on the existential dilemmas of what life is, how it comes into being, what it’s purpose is and how best to live one’s life including how to handle the problems that arise in life.
Berner begins by asking “Where does it all come from? Life that is…” He briefly summariizes the main stream Biblical view and then summarises the scientific view point before offering a third viewpoint. A view which says….”it all came from You, all of You.”
In this point of view he writes there is “you alone, all by yourself. There in your aloneness you are as God. When for no cause other than your own you wondered whether there was an otherness and BAM! You felt an Other.”
At that point there was some consciousness of Otherness. And that, according to Berner, sets in motion what we call life and its original and ultimate purpose which is be conscious and to understand each other.
At the end of each chapter are questions and exercises for you to explore and self inspect.
Here’s an example.
Exercise 1
Get the idea of reaching out toward others.
Get the idea of pulling back from others.
Write your comments or observations in your journal.
Exercise 2
Write in your journal what you think the purpose of life is.
Berner often uses the technique of pondering the opposites as a meditation to clear the mind. Over a thousand years or more ago the great Yoga Master, Patanjali who wrote the Yoga Sutras taught that powering the opposites is a path to Self Realization.
Help never really takes place. What takes place is communication, understanding and increased consciousness of each other as Divine.
Section 3: Help shines a light on the importance of receiving help and describes a supportive environment. In chapters thirteen through seventeen Berner writes and explains various aspects of help such as why help is necessary, what you should do to receive help and how to decide who to receive help from. In the last chapter of the section he most importantly discuses that what is really happening in a helping situation is that your relationships with others are improving. He writes that “help never really takes place. What takes place is communication, understanding and increased consciousness of each other as Divine.”
Communication understanding which ultimately results in the fulfillment of life.
Section 4: Communication explores the principles of love, reality, understanding, putting yourself second, facing a crisis and how to improve communication.
Berner describes some of the “many varieties of love and meanings given the word love…” He suggests that behind all those variations is a pure desire to relate. The words Agape or Divine love have been used to describe that state but Berner uses the word ‘affinity’ to refer to that kind of “love which is the Divine desire to relate between individuals.”
When you love others you want to get closer to them because behind love is the desire to relate. And it is communication that brings about understanding which ultimately results in the fulfillment of life.
Berner writes, “Loving is an integral part of understanding. If you don't love anyone you won't receive any communications or send any communications. Without love there would be no communication and without that there would be no life.”
Affinity or love, reality and communication make up a triad of principles and practices that are at the heart of fulfilling the purpose in life which is to get closer to another, to understand them so completely that there is no separation,
In the chapter titled, Facing the Crisis, Berner explains about the difficulties in relating and how to increase your abilities to overcome a crisis. He says relating crisis is “a situation which you are not sure you can successfully resolve.” Berner writes that “ Love, communication and understanding are basically very simple activities. If all we had to do was grasp these concepts, our relationships would start improving at once.” But since people hold back their love, hide their feelings and don’t communicate responsibly inevitably a relating crisis situations arises.
If you are persistent in applying the remedies of communication, love, understanding and consciousness then all problems will be resolved.
Section 5: Problems is the final section and covers the nature of problems and how to resolve them.
In the last six chapters of final section Berner’s focus is on the topic of problems. He discusses the nature of problems, types of problems, false solutions to problems and how to resolve problems.The core of Berner’s view is that all problems are problems of relationship. He councils that if you are persistent in applying the remedies of “communication, love, understanding and consciousness” then all problems will be resolved.
He begins the section on problems by discussing the nature of problems and how to turn problems into projects. He describes how to analyse a problem, question the problem, explore its make up, how to take it apart and finally what actions to take that will resolve it.
The self enquiry exercises he suggests at the end of each chapter offer opportunities to shift problems into projects.
I trust that you will find as much value in reading, studying and applying what you find in the following pages of this book as I have. As with most endeavors in life, persistence is often the key to success. I wish for you a long and happy life and may all your incomplete communications find their way home healing all your problems and fulfilling all your desires.
This book is also available in paperback, kindle and audio book version from Amazon.
