It is my belief that we choose to come into this world to experience a certain malady in order to learn from that malady. I also believe that karma comes into it.

Suffering comes about through the actions, thoughts, etc. of humankind, not because of god, imo.

Ego is exclusive from enlightenment because to have ego, to realise self, is to automatically separate ourselves from god/cosmic. When we do that, we are also disconnecting from that which IS god/enlightenment/cosmic. I am talking in absolutes here, please understand. I believe we are all *tuned in* to some extent all of the time, BUT what matters is if we are paying attention and letting our "higher selves" i.e. our *god selves* come through.

It's just too easy to blame god/cosmic for all of the ills of the world, esp. when one considers free will. When one says it is all god's fault, etc., one is refusing to take responsibility for where they are at in consciousness, which creates the world they live in. Our minds, imo, are like a computer. They take in everything that we input without regard for negative or positive effects. If we *program* it with negative thoughts, images, sounds, etc. then, as it is programmed, so it works to manifest that for which it is programmed. This is a simplistic explanation, because many other factors, i.e. karma, etc. can come into play, but it helps to illustrate my point about how someone can use their free will to create their life experiences. Sometimes a person can be effected by the actions of others, through no conscious choice of their own. This is another instance, though, of humankind wreaking havoc on one another.

I am NOT saying people sit around and say things like today I will manifest parkinson's or whatever for myself. Often I don't believe people are even aware of how their living ways and thoughts can be manifested in their lives. I also think people are not aware of how their environment, even the whole world's environment, can effect them and that is something we can lay completely at the feet of humankind, not god.

kat