The self beyond personality, choice versus time, and the mind as a negative tool

Frederic explores the earlier suggestion of looking beyond personality and ego to the broader or true self, noting there is no judgment there and that an experience is simply an experience; he wants his personality to reflect that, moment to moment, and finds it strikingly simple.

The Wonders tell him he is still thinking in terms of time, which is irrelevant to the self and relevant only to the controlling mind: he should drop control and simply make a choice, then another when it comes.

What the mind fears is the space between choices, which exists only from the perspective of mind and time, since for the self everything is in the moment.

Because the third-dimensional reality has linear time, the mind will judge, define and react to it; the task is to command the mind to be non-reactive to time, treating time as merely the movement between choices, without concerning itself with quantity, value, difficulty or method - letting the mind enjoy itself in the meantime instead of fretting.

Frederic observes that when everything is falling into place his mind will invent a problem; the Wonders say the mind needs entertainment and works on the judgment of fear, being a negative tool that sees existence as potentially harmful and protects itself, thereby judging everything negatively, overwhelming the person with fear and judgment, and then controlling and diminishing the physical body, producing aging and 'not enough time' thinking that ages the body further until early death.

They repeat their statement that the body is designed to last 10,444 years, likening it to a car that could last that long but is neither maintained nor trusted, so it is judged into decay in a few decades.

Frederic notes some people's solution is to leave the body and implant themselves in computers; the Wonders answer 'go get another car', pointing out that people replace expensive cars within a year or two because the mind judged them not good enough, and that the body itself is an existence outside the self which the mind likewise decides to discard.

Increasing awareness, they say, increases one's ability to command oneself out of this; the negativity is a matter of degree, and one could avoid it entirely only by commanding the mind from the moment it was created.

Growth might extend life to 90, 100, 110 or 120 years - or one could be hit by a truck tomorrow.

After a joking exchange about Russian missiles and moving to Portugal, the closing counsel is to stay open and flexible, since flexibility matters more to him right now than being rooted.