| Answer
from Jesus:
Non-attachment is a concept that cannot be understood by the human intellect.
It is a nonlinear concept that is beyond the linear intellect and the
dualistic mind.
It is very helpful for a spiritual seeker to come to the realization
that here are many spiritual concepts that simply cannot be expressed
through words. The reason being that words are linear and they can easily
be interpreted (or misinterpreted) by the dualistic mind. Therefore,
to fully grasp – meaning internalize – a concept, you need
to use the outer teachings only as a springboard for achieving an inner,
intuitive experience of truth.
The meaning of this truth is that when the Ascended Host give a spiritual
teaching, such as the teachings I gave 2,000 years ago, it is never
our intention to give an infallible statement of truth. We know full
well that no teaching expressed in words can be a compete statement
of truth. Truth simply cannot be expressed in words. Truth can only
be experienced and internalized. One might say that you cannot know
or understand truth; you can only become truth. That is why I said:
Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me. (John 14:6)
This statement is the perfect
example of what I am talking about. So many Christians – trapped
in the dualistic mind – have interpreted this to mean that
the outer person of Jesus Christ, or the Christian religion, is the
only road to salvation. The true meaning is that the Christ consciousness
– which is beyond the linear, dualistic mind – is the only
way to know God and God’s truth. And you can know truth only by
uniting with, by becoming, that Christ mind. And no man/woman can come
to the Father except by uniting with his or her Christ self.
By uniting with your Christ self, you will gradually become non-attached
to the things of this world. This will not happen by you willfully repressing
your desires for the things of this world. It will happen because your
Christ self will help you realize that there is much more to life than
the material pleasures. You will then come to desire the things of the
spirit more than the things of this world.
This process is a gradual process. You absorb a morsel of truth, and
then you allow it to raise your consciousness. That is why I said:
The kingdom of
heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures
of meal, till the whole was leavened. (Matthew 13:33)
You know that when you put
yeast into dough, the yeast needs time to work. If you keep kneading
the dough, you will prevent the yeast from working, so you must set
the dough aside for a rest. Likewise, you take in a morsel of spiritual
truth, and then you allow it to gradually raise your consciousness.
Unfortunately, many people – especially in today’s age of
instant gratification – seek to force this process with their
intellects. This is especially dangerous when people want some kind
of phenomenon or peak experience. Such people often end up with a false
experience that gives them an incorrect understanding of the spiritual
side of life. Yet these people believe that because of the experience
they had, their understanding is the absolute truth. That is why I said:
The kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
(Matthew 11:12)
My point being that you cannot
force an intellectual understanding of non-attachment—you cannot
force non-attachment. You need to ponder it and gradually internalize
the deeper truth behind the concept of non-attachment—you need
to become that truth and then you will be non-attached.
When that happens, you will naturally find a balance that allows you
to enjoy the things of this world without becoming attached to them.
In other words, ideally you should be able to fully appreciate and enjoy
the beauty of this world. Why do you think I said:
I am come that
they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
(John 10:10)
God has no desire to see
spiritual people renounce all aspects of the material world. So the
path of renunciation – espoused by so many Christian churches
and other religions – is not the ideal path. In reality, when
you renounce all of the things of this world, you are inevitably denying
some aspects of God’s design, some of God’s gifts to his
sons and daughters. As long as this denial of God’s gifts continues,
the kingdom of God simply cannot become manifest on Earth.
However, this does not mean that the path of renunciation is completely
wrong. It means that it is a response to a crisis, namely that so many
people have become attached to the things of this world to the point
where they identify themselves as material beings instead of spiritual
beings. They think they could not possibly live without the things of
this world or they think they could not be complete without some aspect
of life in this world. This attitude prevents people from entering the
kingdom of God because:
20 And when he
was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come,
he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the
kingdom of God is within you. (Luke, Chapter 17)
In other words, you cannot
truly take the kingdom of heaven by force, even though many people think
they can. So many religious people believe that by following the outer
rules and believing the doctrines of their religion – by observing
the rules of this world – they will automatically force their
way into heaven. Not so. The kingdom of heaven is a state of consciousness.
The key to attaining that state of consciousness is to become non-attached
to everything in this world. Becoming non-attached is a process with
several stages. We might talk about several main stages—although
many more could be defined:
- You realize there is
more to life than the material world.
- You decide you want an
understanding of the spiritual side of life more than certain material
pleasures, so you are willing to set aside worldly pursuits to free
up time and attention to attain a spiritual understanding.
- You realize the real
key to spiritual growth is to internalize truth and integrate with
a higher part of your being, what I call your Christ self.
- You realize that certain
activities in this world take you away from integrating with your
Christ self. You then decide to let go of such activities without
feeling a sense of loss. Your Christ self gives you something that
is more valuable and fulfilling than earthly pleasures.
- You realize that many
of the things in this world are expressions of God’s vision.
They are God’s gifts. Therefore, enjoying these gifts –
without becoming attached to them – does not detract from your
Christhood. You can now appreciate God’s gifts without thinking
that you cannot live without them.
As you go through this process
of gradually becoming non-attached to the things of this world, you
begin to realize that God is the source of all that is good. Therefore,
you stop looking to worldly sources and causes for your survival and
pleasure. You look to God for everything, and when you do so with complete
faith and complete non-attachment. God truly will fill all of your needs.
This is expressed in my saying:
But seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall
be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)
It is important for spiritual
seekers to realize that before your soul came into embodiment, you created
a plan for your life that was designed to produce maximum spiritual
growth. In other words, your soul wanted maximum growth and it asked
God to help it attain that growth. Right now, you outer mind might have
forgotten this and have developed a strong desire for certain things
in this world. You might think you can’t live without them, you
might think you are incomplete without them or that you cannot grow
spiritually without them. You might even think – which is the
greatest illusion of all – that you cannot manifest your Christhood
without these outer things.
So if God were to give you those things, it would only reinforce your
belief in your incompleteness, and this would be in direct opposition
to your growth. The essence of Christhood is that you realize that you
need nothing from this world, nothing from outside your self (your Christ
self) to manifest your Christhood.
Do you see my point?
If not, please spend some time pondering the teaching I am giving you.
The essence of the teaching is something I taught Kim as I was training
him to serve as my messenger. I told him: “If you think you need
it, you can’t have it!” The meaning is that as long as you
think you are incomplete – that you cannot be the Christ –
without something in this world, God cannot give it to you. Doing so
would violate your soul’s deeper choices of wanting maximum spiritual
growth. Yet God has no desire to see you live a life of lack. God wants
you to have the abundant life:
Fear not, little
flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
(Luke 12:32)
So the moment you attain
final non-attachment to the things of this world and realize that God
is the source of all good, then God can and will give you the abundant
life.
In terms of defining materialism, there are several stages, representing
a progressive denial of God:
- Some people think there
is nothing beyond the material world. God doesn’t exist and
there is no part of themselves that is beyond the material world.
Only that which can be detected by the physical senses or scientific
instruments is real. This is the ultimate denial of God, espoused
by many scientific materialists.
- People realize there
is more to life than the material world, but they cannot connect it
to themselves. They see God as being way above them. They think they
are separated from God and can only be saved by someone outside themselves.
This is a denial of God espoused by many orthodox followers of any
religion, including Christianity. They recognize that God exists,
but deny that he exists where they are.
- People begin to realize
that everything is created from God’s energy, yet they still
see a separation between the material world and God. So they think
God cannot do certain things – such as heal diseases –
or give them things in the material world. They think they must depend
on the material world for their survival and for their pleasures.
This denial is espoused by many spiritual people who have not yet
fully internalized a true spiritual teaching. Therefore, they have
not yet attained true non-attachment.
You are correct that the
process of attaining non-attachment is a process of overcoming the ego.
However, it is not a battle between the ego and God, for God has no
opposite. It is a battle between the soul and the ego, and the question
is whether the soul allows itself to be controlled by the ego or sees
itself as a co-creator with its I AM Presence. Remember that the ego
is born of separation from God, and therefore the ego is the ultimate
materialist. As you attain complete non-attachment, your ego will die,
so one might say that the source of all materialism is the ego and the
forces – the prince of this world – using the ego to control
your soul.
If you compare this to my recent teaching on how
to deal with evil, you might see a profound truth. Throughout the
ages, so many spiritual people have believed that the world is a battleground
for an epic struggle between two forces, namely good and evil. These
people often think that the goal of the spiritual path is to somehow
defeat evil by using spiritual force or even the weapons of the material
world. Or they think that by renouncing the things of this world, they
will automatically be open to the spirit.
In reality, the ultimate key – the only key – to defeating
evil is non-attachment. You don’t fight evil. You simply walk
away from it. You become completely non-attached to the manifestations
of evil—including the idea that you have to defeat evil. Whatever
the prince of this world throws at you, you refuse to engage his games.
You refuse to play along, and therefore you stay clear of the epic struggle
between good and evil. That is why I said:
But I say unto
you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5:39)
Yet take note that being
non-attached to evil does not mean that you ignore it. It means that
you transcend it and that you help others do the same. In other words,
instead of fighting it with material force, you fight it with spiritual
force, meaning that you transform it into light. My point is that although
there truly is an epic struggle between good and evil, the struggle
exists only in the minds of beings who are trapped in the consciousness
of duality.
In other words, it is the sense of struggle that creates and maintains
the struggle. And the source of the sense of struggle in attachment
to the things of this world. When you manifest non-attachment, you rise
above the struggle between the dualistic forces of this world. You are
no longer concerned about whether good or evil wins because you want
God to win and you realize God is beyond the good and evil defined by
the dualistic mind.
One last point. When you realize that God is the source of all good,
you realize that the concept of scarcity is an illusion. God is unlimited,
so there is no scarcity in God. This is the true concept of the abundant
life. When you ponder the cause of attachment, you will see that it
springs from the illusion of scarcity—you believe that there isn’t
an unlimited supply, so you have to hold on to what you have. When you
transcend this illusion, you will realize that there is an infinite
supply of all good things, and therefore you can begin to freely give
of what you have to others—knowing that God will multiply what
you give. "Freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew
10:8). And when a critical mass of people begin to give instead of holding
on to what they have, you will see the abundant life manifest on Earth.
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Copyright
© 2004 by Kim Michaels |
