Balance
is key
Previous discourses
stated that most people are either creators or organizers and that both
types of people are needed in a successful organization. However, the
two types of people can only function in harmony if everyone makes a
sincere effort to stay balanced and avoid taking their creative or organizing
tendencies into the extremes.
If people lose balance, creators tend to become rebels who think that
they are above the law. Organizers tend to become judges who think they
make the law and that it is their job to judge everyone else by the
letter of that law.
Many churches encourage people to help each other. Considering the idea
of rebels and judges and the need to maintain balance, it becomes obvious
that a big part of being your brother’s keeper is to help your
brother remain balanced.
If you encounter a brother or sister, who has temporarily stepped off
the golden middle way, your first impulse should be to help that person
regain balance. Instead, many people take this as an opportunity to
push the person further into the ditch on either side.
Why are people so quick to condemn and so slow to forgive? There is
only one explanation, namely that those who do not forgive are in an
unbalanced state.
When a creator has turned rebel, he has a low tolerance towards anyone
who wants to impose restrictions on what he believes is his creative
efforts. When an organizer has turned judge, he has a low tolerance
towards anyone who wants to go beyond the letter of the law as defined
by the judge himself. Therefore, rebels and judges are very quick to
condemn each other.
The rebel will say that he does not have to follow any of the rules
of an organization because it is more important to create something
new than to follow the rules. He will then withdraw from the organization,
saying that it no longer represents the truth. The judge will say it
is more important to uphold the law than to show tolerance towards other
people, and therefore anyone who refuses to follow the rules must be
expelled from the organization.
The essential point here is that as long as both sides remain in the
extremes, or through a conflict are forced further into the extremes,
no resolution is possible.
The real question to consider is why so many spiritual teachings tell
people to love one another? Could it be that the Ascended Host, for
thousands of years, have seen numerous organizations destroyed by squabbles
and arguments that sprang from the fact that people have not learned
the essential lesson that harmony and unity is more important than whether
this or that person or this or that viewpoint is right?
Is it possible that the Ascended Host are hoping that, some day, the
members of an organization will be able to see beyond the human power
struggle that has been going on since Cain slew Abel? Is it possible
that our spiritual teachers hope that people will choose to rise above
the consciousness of division and animosity and instead show the world
an example of what can be achieved by those who are willing to look
beyond all outer differences?
Do they hope that some people will see the true unity of the spirit
that lies right beneath the surface of the human illusions? Do they
hope that religious people will show the same love towards each other
as God gives to all, namely an unconditional love that rains upon the
just and the unjust?
If you believe that this could possibly be the hope of the Ascended
Host, then the logical question becomes: “What can I do to make
sure that this hope is fulfilled in my organization?” The answer
is very simple: choose to rise above the outer power struggle and make
an all-out effort to manifest your individual Christhood.
Not even the most profound reasoning or the most eloquent arguments
will resolve a conflict. The only possible resolution is that a critical
mass of people attain such a high degree of Christhood that they can
divide the real from the unreal. When a majority of a group can see
what is of God and what is not of God, then conflict can be resolved.
Overcoming division
When an organization is mired in conflict, you often see the formation
of two opposing factions. Members of each faction will level accusations
against members and leaders of the opposing faction. In a religious
organization, it is always easy to label other people as being the
tools of dark forces.
Such accusations can never be in accordance with the vow to recognize
all members as your brothers and sisters. It is not constructive to
single out people and label them as tools of the devil.
Consider what can happen when church members engage in a witch hunt
process to single out certain people. Do you want to repeat the inquisition
or the French Revolution in your church? Consider that many revolutions
of the past might have removed a corrupt leadership only to empower
a worse tyrant. In many cases, a group of people were envious of the
power of the present rulers. These people plotted against the rulers
and managed to arouse the people to join in their revolution which was
supposedly for a just cause. In reality, the people simply moved from
one form of slavery into another. The Bolshevik revolution is but one
example.
Instead, it would be wise to consider the question: if two factions
are locked in a struggle, each side straying from the golden middle
way, can any of the factions represent truth? The statement: “We
must do evil that good may come!” was never spoken by a representative
of the Ascended Host.
If a church is to overcome conflict and division, a critical mass of
people (both leaders and members) must rise above the consciousness
that causes people to judge one another. Instead of seeking to single
out people and label them as rebels or judges, everyone must recognize
that you do not remove a problem by removing the person who is making
that problem visible. You cannot solve a problem by killing the messenger
who is simply there to show you the existence of a problem that you
must deal with.
It is not constructive to reason that if only we could get rid of this
of that person, all of your problems would automatically go away. Instead,
people need to recognize that the real problem is not the outer situation
or another person. The real problem is the elements of the carnal mind
that you have not yet identified and removed from your being.
Instead of being so quick to call for a person to be removed from leadership
or expelled from the membership (so that you can return to the sense
of comfortability that the other person has disturbed), you should realize
that it is your duty to help everyone attain and maintain the balance
that is required to successfully walk the spiritual path.
Of course, before you can help anyone else attain that balance, you
must attain it yourself. Therefore, why waste your energy in squabbles
and arguments with others when you could be using that energy to attain
your Christ consciousness? Christ consciousness, of course, being the
only thing that could ever overcome the human power struggle.
Judge not
Consider the following story. Two people meet in the marketplace and
after some discussion they realize that one is a person of the light
and the other is an embodied fallen angel. They now engage in a discussion
of which side is better and which side will eventually win the struggle
for planet Earth.
Throughout this discussion, the good person is completely convinced
that his side is better, and therefore he is superior to his opponent.
The fallen angel argues that as long as both of them have a carnal mind,
it is meaningless to talk about one being better than the other.
The good person, recognizing that there is some truth to this statement,
exclaims in frustration: “Well, but because I am such a good person,
my carnal mind is not as bad as your carnal mind!” The fallen
angel is about to utter a heated rebuke when his master whispers in
his ear: “Tell him that he is absolutely right. As as long as
he believes that, he will never attain Christhood, and therefore he
will be no threat to us!”
The essence of the path is and always has been that you must overcome
the carnal mind and merge with the Christ mind. What keeps you here
on Earth is the carnal mind. Everyone has the potential to rise above
that consciousness and embrace the Christ within. You must recognize
and accept that you have that potential, and you must recognize and
accept that all others have that same potential.
If you truly accept this, you will stop judging your brothers and sisters
or trying to label them as this or that because of something they did
in the past. Instead, you will direct your energy and attention towards
helping them take one step closer to their personal victory. And you
will not be so quick to condemn them if they do not respond as you want
or as quickly as you want.
The way to change a rigid church culture is not to get rid of certain
people in leadership. The true way to change a church is to remove a
certain state of consciousness which is present in leaders and members
alike. Once a critical mass of church members rise to a certain level
of Christhood, it will inevitably begin to change the outer organization.
To change the outer organization, you must begin by changing the inner
situation, namely the consciousness of the members. Instead of seeking
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye (or remove your brother),
start by raising your own consciousness and then work to raise the consciousness
of others.
The Cain consciousness
The consciousness that must be removed from any church is the Cain consciousness
which causes people to see their brother as a potential adversary because
they feel threatened by the fact that their brother is different. This
consciousness can only be removed when you come to the point where you
fully understand and accept that your brother or sister has a right,
a God-given right, to be different from you. Your brother also has a
right to temporarily express imperfection and to walk the path towards
perfection at his own pace.
When you accept this, you look at your brother’s differences with
unconditional acceptance that springs from unconditional love. Of course,
you can only come to this point when you have understood and accepted
that God has an unconditional love for you.
Your brother might commit acts that you would never have committed or
that you think are wrong. However, whereas you might condemn the act,
you can never condemn your brother. Committing a wrong act does not
turn a person into a wrong person. The wrong act is a result of the
fact that the person is temporarily in a state of illusion, but then
again everyone on this planet is influenced by the myriad illusions
of the carnal mind.
If you are out of balance, you will begin to create a standard, and
you will use that standard to judge your brother or sister. If people
do not live up to your standard, you will condemn them. If you have
power, you might seek to remove them from your presence because the
fact that they are different challenges your self-created world view
and makes you uncomfortable. People who are different might be a threat
to your sense of being in control.
So the unbalanced person reasons that if only he can remove all of the
people who disturb his world view, then all will be peace and harmony.
How many kings of history have taken this tendency to the extreme? No
spiritual person should ever fall into this age-old trap!
Simply let go of the Cain consciousness and accept that if God can extend
unconditional love to you, in your present state of imperfection, then
surely you can extend that love to your brothers and sisters no matter
what state of imperfection they might be in.
The true hope of the Ascended Host is that the members of any church
will come into unity as one body of God. You do not create unity by
removing those who make you feel uncomfortable. You create unity only
by seeing beyond the temporary manifestations of this world and accepting
that beyond it all is the one God, expressed in myriad manifestations.
Resolving conflict through debates
This does not mean that raising the consciousness of the members will
automatically solve all problems. Outer decisions must still be made
through meetings and debates. However, as long as too many people remain
in a state of consciousness that is dominated by division, no amount
of meetings and debates will ever resolve the problems of an organization.
In fact, debates might only divide the membership into opposing factions
and solidify the division.
When people are in a lower state of consciousness, they enter a debate
for the sole purpose of proving that their existing viewpoint is the
only right one and that all opposing viewpoints are wrong. When people
have risen above that state of consciousness, they realize that the
purpose of a debate is that by coming together in the true spirit of
cooperation, the participants can draw forth a solution which is better
than any of them could have come up with alone. A harmonious whole is
more than the sum of its parts.
For such a true debate to occur, all participants must have a certain
degree of non-attachment to their existing viewpoints. Non-attachment,
of course, being one of the main requirements of spiritual growth, as
demonstrated by the Buddha.
In this respect, it might be helpful to consider that a Buddha can have
no enemies. A Buddha is a person who was overcome the illusion of Maya.
The Buddha realizes that behind all outer appearances, everything is
the Buddha nature. If everything is the Buddha nature, how can there
be any divisions or any opposing factions? Such divisions can only be
the temporary appearances produced by Maya.
In this world, there might be forces who oppose the Buddha and set themselves
up as self-proclaimed enemies of the Buddha. But if the Buddha were
to recognize such forces as his enemies, he would, by definition, no
longer be the Buddha.
A twinkle of Buddhahood is needed in any church. Buddhahood must begin
with non-attachment. Non-attachment begins when a soul makes a conscious
decision to look beyond the appearances of this world.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
