| Answer
from Jesus:
My beloved brother, my heart
truly goes out to you and to the many other sincere souls who have been
faithful to the teachings of the ascended masters through any of the
many organizations we have worked with over the past century and more.
You are right that your experience does indeed contain a lesson that
is of value to all spiritual seekers and especially to students of the
ascended masters.
Many souls have been given a vision of their higher purpose in life,
their divine plan, yet when it comes to transferring that vision to
physical reality, they often feel inadequate in themselves or they feel
they get an inadequate response from the world. This causes some to
become discouraged or to become confused. I can assure you that you
are not the only one of our students who is in this predicament. In
fact, far too many are at an impasse, and I truly wish I could help
them move on.
Unfortunately, some of them are not willing to listen to what I say
through a messenger whom they consider not approved by their organization,
and I commend you for your willingness to ask me this question. In fact,
I can assure you that several of my colleagues, who in the past have
sponsored various organizations, would love to reach the members of
those organizations with the next level of progressive revelation. So
let me give you, and others who have ears to hear, some thoughts to
ponder.
Thought 1
Moving on is the key concept you need to ponder. When you find yourself
stuck in discouragement or confusion – or for that matter any
other type of human limitation – there is only one way out, and
that is to transcend your current state of consciousness, to reach for
the higher understanding and the balanced vision of the Christ mind.
The simple fact is that if you have done the same thing for a time and
have not yet achieved your goal, then it is time to try a different
approach. Stubbornness and rigidity will not get you to Heaven, but
the flexibility of the Christ mind – the flexibility that is not
a compromise of truth – will help you achieve your true goals.
The problem is that before you can grasp a balanced vision, you must
be willing to let go of your present beliefs and expectations of how
life or the spiritual path should unfold. And this is precisely where
many sincere students get stuck for a period of time, sometimes for
lifetimes. And unfortunately, they often use our teachings to keep themselves
stuck indefinitely.
As I attempt to explain throughout this website, any spiritual teaching
can become a trap for your mind. Therefore, even a true teaching can
be used to build a mental box that prevents you from ascending to the
next level of your personal path. One might say that the essence of
the spiritual path is that you transcend your mental image of who you
are, who God is and how the world works. All seekers start out with
a limited vision and understanding. Many were brought up with a severely
limited world view, such as those presented by orthodox Christianity
or materialistic science.
Many seekers experience finding a spiritual teaching or organization
that expands their world view and helps them grow to a much higher level.
And because this teaching gave them such growth, they think it is absolute
truth or the highest teaching on the planet, and therefore they should
never need anything else. These people then build the mental image,
the expectation, that if only they keep doing what they have been told
(or have decided – based on their spiritual teaching – is
all they need to do), they will automatically achieve Christ consciousness.
Yet, as I explain throughout this website, no outer teaching or organization
can guarantee that you achieve Christ consciousness by following its
teachings and practices. The reason is that Christ consciousness can
be achieved only through an inner process. Sure, an outer teaching can
assist you greatly, but no outer teaching or practice can automatically
produce Christ consciousness. Unfortunately, an outer teaching can prevent
you from achieving Christ consciousness, and even a true teaching –
including the teachings on this website – can be misused to create
a mental box that keeps you stuck at a certain level of your path.
Thought 2
At a certain level of the path, it is helpful to follow an outer teaching,
but you need to be ever vigilant, so that you do not fall into the subtle
trap of turning that outer teaching into a closed box. For example,
at the beginning stages of the path, you are fighting much opposition
from dark forces, so it is necessary to be steadfast, even to the point
of being somewhat rigid. Yet as you rise to the higher levels, the very
quality that got you there can quickly become a liability.
The dark forces fully understand the fact that any teaching can mislead
you if it is taken to extremes. So they see a student who is very steadfast,
and they whisper in his ear that this is all he needs to do for the
rest of his life. And thereby the student keeps doing the same thing
far longer than he should have done, which inevitably leads to rigidity.
And once the student passes a certain point, he cannot go any higher
by being rigid, so his growth comes to a halt. Yet the student is so
convinced that he is on the right path, that he thinks he is still progressing.
This can go on until the student begins to wonder why – if he
is doing all the right things – his divine plan is not being fulfilled.
You need to be aware that
at the beginning stages of the path, it is necessary to be steadfast
to plow through the opposition from dark forces. Yet when they see that
they cannot hold you back by force, they will change their approach,
and they will now tempt you by using very subtle ideas. At the higher
levels of the path, you need to be flexible, so that you can outsmart
the opposition. You basically need to move so fast that the dark forces
or your own ego cannot pin you down. And to do that, you need to be
willing to follow the minute-by-minute directions from your Christ self.
You simply cannot allow the dark forces to be able to predict your next
move. The student who is too predictable is an easy target for dark
forces. In other words, at the higher levels of the path, nothing will
work forever and therefore you cannot cling to any outer rules.
If an outer teaching is
valid, it will help you grow, and the true purpose of any outer teaching
is that you grow to the point of getting direct instructions from your
Christ self and your spiritual teachers. The problem is that your expectations,
preconceived opinions and mental images can form a wall that prevents
you from hearing our instructions or prevents you from trusting what
you do hear.
The more closed your mental box – the more emotionally attached
you are to the outer teaching and organization – the more impenetrable
it will be for our guidance. It is a sad fact that we simply cannot
reach many of our students, even many who have followed one of our outer
teachings for decades. These people have used our teachings to shut
up their ears against our inner guidance, just as the scribes and Pharisees
had used the Torah to shut up their ears against my new teachings.
When you find yourself at an impasse and cannot see which way to go,
you should always assume that you are being blocked by the expectations
and mental images held by your outer mind (which includes your ego).
So if you are serious about growth, you need to step back and make a
conscious effort to look beyond your mental box. And in order to do
this, you have to be willing to question or let go of any and all of
your present beliefs. I am not saying you have to let go of all your
beliefs – at least not all at once – I am saying you have
to be willing to let go. If you are not willing to let go,
you are attached, and attachment is the cause of all suffering, as the
Buddha pointed out centuries ago.
Thought 3
At the lower levels of the spiritual path, the student is inevitably
trapped in the consciousness of duality. So even though the student
finds and follows a true spiritual teaching, the student builds a mental
image of the teaching, and of the correct way to follow that teaching.
Yet this image will inevitably be based, at least partially, on the
consciousness of duality. As you grow toward Christhood, you will come
to a point, where you can go no further until you are willing to let
go of your mental box. You must free your vision of the spiritual path
from the dualistic elements.
One characteristic of the dualistic state of consciousness is that it
traps people in a black-and-white
approach to the path. In other words, people think that this is absolutely
right and that is absolutely wrong, and if they keep doing what is defined
as right, they will automatically be saved. So the dualistic frame of
mind is very rigid, and thus the only way to grow beyond a certain level
of the spiritual path is to let go of the dualistic mindset by becoming
flexible. Yet this flexibility must not be based on the shifting sands
of the human consciousness. It must be based on the rock of Christ,
which knows how to be flexible in the moment without compromising timeless
principles.
To go beyond a certain point, you must literally be willing to lose
your life – your sense of what life should be – in order
to win the higher form of life of your personal Christhood. This is
a very subtle initiation that will be faced by all advanced students,
and you will face it as a continual initiation as long as you are in
embodiment. And as I said, he who seeks to save his life – meaning
his current mental box – shall lose it—shall lose the life
of his continued growth. It is wise to contemplate the fact that a student
can fail at any level of the path. Failure on the spiritual path means
that you become attached to your current level of attainment and refuse
to transcend it, to transcend your image of who you are.
There is a subtle temptation to think that the longer you have been
on the path, and the more outer things you have done on the path, the
less likely you are to fail. Many advanced students fail because they
think they cannot fail, and thus they think they no longer need to transcend.
Yet I tell you there are crucial points on your personal path where
you have to be willing to die on the cross, meaning that you are willing
to let go of all of your expectations and preconceived opinions about
how your life and your personal path should unfold. If you are not willing
to let this human sense of life die, you cannot be resurrected into
the higher sense of life of the Christ consciousness. The reason being
that you are holding on to a dualistic vision created by your outer
mind, and you refuse to align yourself with the higher vision and will
of your soul and I AM Presence.
Do you see my point? So many sincere seekers find a spiritual teaching
or organization and use it to take a giant leap forward on their path.
Yet without realizing it, they use the teaching to create a mental box,
and when it comes time to let that golden calf die, they cannot let
it go. Some are too afraid to let it go, some are too prideful and others
are just too lazy. Let me say that again:
-
Some people find the
path and use an outer teaching/organization to build a mold for
how a true student should be. They take pride in the fact that they
live up to the outer criteria, and they decide that they will remain
steadfast forever. They often use their viewpoints to judge those
who cannot live up to their high standard, and thus they build the
subtle sense that they belong to the highest class of students.
Yet when it comes time to go to the higher levels of the path, this
approach becomes a trap. These students will feel that if they change
their approach to the path, they are slacking off, and this would
be a blow to their pride. And if they are not willing to let go
of that pride, they have no other option than to keep doing the
same thing. Unfortunately, this keeps them trapped at a certain
level or causes them to slide into the depths of spiritual blindness
that is the inevitable consequence of pride. These people can be
completely convinced that they are better than everyone else, yet
they are unable to recognize the Living Christ, as was the case
with the scribes and Pharisees. That is why I called them hypocrites.
-
Some people find a teaching
and feel that it offers them an oasis of security in an insecure
world. By following the outer teaching, they believe they will be
saved, and thus they can distance themselves from the demons of
fear that used to haunt them. And following a true spiritual teaching
can be a bulwark against fear. The problem is that you cannot enter
Heaven by insulating yourself from your fears. You can enter Heaven
only by conquering your fears, and to conquer them, you must be
wiling to face them.
So it is never the purpose of a true teaching to insulate you forever
from your fears. The purpose is to give you a safe haven, so that
you can build up your strength to face those fears. Yet if you do
not realize this, or if you are not willing to face your fears,
you will cling to the certainty of the outer teaching and use it
as a justification for not facing your fears. Unfortunately, while
this approach is valid at the beginning stages, it will never take
you beyond those beginning stages. The problem is that these people
become so afraid of making a mistake that they do not dare to try
anything new. Yet without trying, you cannot move forward. If you
are not willing to risk making a mistake, you cannot succeed.
-
Some people find an outer
teaching and find that it is so easy to follow that teaching instead
of doing the hard work of thinking for themselves. They gladly allow
an outer guru or organization to do their thinking for them, and
they gradually become addicted to this sense of security, much as
people become addicted to a drug.
Yet again, a true teaching will give you a reprieve so you can gather
strength and the ability to discern truth from within yourself.
When you reach a certain point on the path, you cannot go further
until you are willing to engage in the difficult task of discerning
truth from within yourself instead or relying on an outer teaching
or guru.
Common for these types of
students is that they want to hold on to the idea that they can keep
believing or doing the same thing for the rest of their lives. These
people are essentially saying to their Christ selves and to the Ascended
Host, “Don’t disturb me with your inner directions. I have
this outer teaching and organization that gives me everything I need!”
So they keep dancing around the golden calf instead of being willing
to let their human expectations be consumed by the fire of God—the
fire that consumes all unlike itself.
The simple fact is – a fact overlooked by many students –
that even a true teaching can be misused into creating a closed box.
Thus, many sincere students have used our teachings to follow the way
that seemeth right unto a man, yet the ends thereof are the ways of
death. It is a sobering fact that many spiritual seekers have used a
valid spiritual teaching to box themselves in, whereby they eventually
start following the left-handed path. This is a complete betrayal of
the trust of the ascended masters who sponsored the release of a particular
outer teaching. If you think my colleagues and I are happy about this
situation, then you obviously don't know us as well as you think you
know us!
The inescapable fact is that the essence of the spiritual path is self-transcendence.
The moment you use an outer teaching to justify why you do not have
to transcend yourself, you are following the left-handed path. Thus,
you are no longer a true student of the ascended masters. You have now
become the anti-chela, and you will inevitably begin to follow an anti-guru.
I can assure you that I am not exaggerating or being melodramatic. It
is a stark reality that many longtime students are on the wrong path,
yet they use our outer teachings to make themselves feel that they are
the most advanced students on the planet. And we have virtually no way
to awaken these students to the folly of their ways.
The only way to break this pattern is to be willing to have the humility
to question some of your long-held beliefs about the spiritual path.
I am not saying you should drop an old teaching and follow a new teaching,
such as this website. I am saying you should drop the beliefs that block
your contact with your Christ self so that you can get guidance from
within.
And I can assure you that if you have followed and practiced a true
spiritual teaching for a time and still do not have clear contact with
your Christ self, there can be only one reason. You have some outer
beliefs and expectations that are blocking your inner direction. So
be willing to let go of these limitations; be willing to let them die
so that you can live forever in the light of Christ Truth.
Thought 4
The subtle distinction that many students overlook is that the approach
of following an outer teaching can indeed give people growth. Yet it
only works for a time, and then it will begin to hinder your growth.
The only way out of this impasse – and the only way to prevent
yourself from sliding backward on the path – is to transcend your
mental image. And in order to do that, you have to be willing to let
any part of that image die when you are prompted to do so by your inner
guidance. And as I already said, the more you hold on to the mental
image, the more you will block the inner guidance—which is what
creates the catch-22.
So my suggestion is simple. In the back of The
Christ Is Born in You, I give an exercise in which I set people
free from all sense of obligation, all sense that they have to do something
or have to do it a certain way. This is a useful exercise because it
is only by letting go of the preconceived opinions that you can still
the outer mind so that you can hear your Christ self. So be willing
to let go of all sense of what you should do for the ascended masters,
and be especially willing to let go of all sense of how you should do
it.
I can tell you that one of the most common problems we see is that a
student receives a correct vision of what he or she should do in this
lifetime, but then uses an outer teaching – or rather a dualistic
interpretation of that teaching – to build an unrealistic expectation
of how it should be done. You now have a situation where the student
has become a house divided against him/herself. The soul knows what
the vision is and it also knows how to accomplish it. Yet the outer
mind has set up a different vision for how to accomplish the goal because
it has used an outer teaching – or a set of rigid rules defined
by that teaching – to define how the goal should be accomplished.
This will inevitably shut off the true creativity of the soul, and therefore
the soul refuses to go along. You see, your divine plan can be accomplished
only by you expressing your divine individuality – anchored in
your I AM Presence – through your work. If you use an outer teaching
to set up rigid rules or expectations for how to accomplish your goal,
you will deny your individuality the opportunity to express itself through
your work. Therefore, the outer mind will be fighting against your soul
– you will be fighting to restrict the creativity that is the
key to fulfilling your divine plan – and thus the goal is not
accomplished. The student is working toward a worthy goal, but he is
trying to accomplish it in a way that the soul cannot accept, and thus
it sabotages his outer efforts. The soul knows that the student will
never achieve his goal through the faculties of the outer mind, so the
soul is actually seeking to get a message through to the outer mind.
The only way out of this impasse is to overcome the division in the
self by letting go of the mental image held by the outer mind. And this
often requires the student to let go of some – or perhaps all
– of the expectations built up as a result of his involvement
with the outer teaching/organization. At the very least, the student
must be willing to let go of all expectations.
Thought 5
You ask:
Is it at all lawful
to use the light-momentum I have garnered as a Son of God and transfer
it to a world in need through the Motion Picture and "act"
in ways that as a Decree Leader I would (by the powers that be) have
been forbidden to act?
First of all, it is always
lawful to use your attainment to achieve your divine plan—that
is what the attainment is for. Yet you need to make sure that your outer
mind is brought into alignment with the vision of your goal held by
your soul and Christ self.
Is it lawful to pursue your goal in ways that are against the outer
rules of a spiritual community? Certainly—if your Christ self
tells you to do so and if you are sure it is not your ego tempting you.
Yet in most cases it is your outer mind that tells you to follow the
outer rules blindly without listening to your Christ self. You should
ponder my teaching about the sabbath and the statement, “The sabbath
was made for man—not man for the sabbath.” It applies to
all rules created by any religion.
To manifest and express your Christhood, you have to be willing to transcend
all man-made limitations. You have to be willing to let them die so
that your soul can be free of their shackles and rise above them. Your
soul is literally crucified on the cross of these human, dualistic expectations
that your outer mind has accepted. Thus, your outer mind and the forces
of this world have nailed your soul to the cross.
This includes the inner limitations created by your lower mind and ego.
And it includes the outer limitations created by the world, including
a particular religious community. Obviously, there is a balance to be
found, and at the lower levels of the path, you can benefit from following
the outer rules. Yet there comes a point where you cannot grow further
until you pass the initiation of being willing to follow your inner
guidance rather than the outer rules.
Thought 6
Achieving your spiritual mission cannot be measured by the world’s
standard for success. From a worldly perspective, my mission was a failure,
yet from a spiritual perspective it was a success. So do not fall into
the trap of thinking your personal success can be measured by the standard
of the world—especially not the standard of Tinseltown.
Another aspect of this is that you should not allow yourself to feel
that the progress of your mission can be limited by the world. To manifest
Christhood, you must come to the point where you decide that you are
NOT going to let anything – from within or from without –
keep you from taking the next step on your path. In other words, if
you have a vision, you keep moving toward your goal with whatever lawful
means you have available to you. You do not let lack of money prevent
you from doing whatever you can do – and there is always
something you can do – including working on yourself.
Remember the motto of one of my esteemed colleagues, “Do right
action and be non-attached to the fruits of action.”
Thought 7
Let me say again that any time you feel stuck, it is because there is
something you have not let go of, something you have not surrendered.
And the reason you have not let go is a mental image of how the path
should be—an image that you have so far been unwilling to question
or that you thought it was unnecessary to question. Yet I tell you that
as you grow toward Christhood, you must be willing to question and look
beyond any and all of your beliefs, opinions and expectations.
Whatever you are not willing to look beyond will inevitably become a
mental box that traps your mind.
So step back, let go of your sense of what you have to do and how you
have to do it. Let go of the sense that you have to save the world,
that the fate of the world depends on your actions or that the cause
of the ascended masters rests on your shoulders. Contemplate the fact
that God has given everyone free will. Therefore, you are not responsible
for the salvation of other people. Yet you are the only one who is responsible
for your own salvation.
Please understand that there is a subtle distinction here. We are not
in embodiment, so if the Earth is to change, people in embodiment must
bring about that change. Yet the necessary change cannot be brought
about through the outer mind. When you become attached to a certain
mental image, you begin to think that you are the doer. And it is people
who think they have to save the world that inspired the saying, “The
road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” In reality, the road
to Hell is paved with human intentions, dualistic intentions.
The key is to let go of the human expectations and bring your outer
mind into alignment with your soul and Christ self. Then you can say,
"I and my Father – my I AM Presence – are one"
and “My Father works hitherto and I work.” This is the only
way to bring true change to Earth. If you want to bring the teachings
of the ascended masters to the world, your first step must be to embody
those teachings and walk the path to Christhood. You cannot teach Christhood
until you have attained some degree of Christhood. You can teach Christhood
only by example.
Thought 8
The ascended masters are not as concerned about saving the Earth as
we are concerned about saving your soul. And the only way to save your
soul is for you to attain Christhood. So our primary goal is for you
to achieve Christ consciousness—and even the fulfillment of your
divine plan or the saving of the world is secondary to that. At the
higher levels of the path, you must have your priorities straight. You
must be willing to seek first the kingdom of God, the Christ consciousness.
Of course, when you seek first the kingdom of God, all else, meaning
your divine plan and the saving of the Earth, will be added unto you.
Do you see the subtle point? Even the worthy goal of walking the spiritual
path, fulfilling your divine plan or saving the world can become a trap
if you put them before the task of attaining Christ consciousness. As
long as anything is more important to you than Christ consciousness,
you cannot attain Christ consciousness. And until you attain Christ
consciousness, you cannot fulfill your divine plan and save the Earth.
Thus you must be willing to let all other goals die – you must
be willing to lose your sense of life – in order to attain the
eternal life of the Christ consciousness. This is the process Kim went
through before qualifying as my messenger, and you can read more about
it elsewhere.
When you do attain your personal Christhood, you will not be bound by
any outer rules or expectations. You will allow your divine individuality
to express itself through you, because you will know, “The Son
can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what
things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John
5:19). The son is the soul who is in alignment with its I AM Presence.
Thought 9
You cannot take your human expectations, opinions or mental images with
you into Heaven. So you cannot enter Heaven until you let go of them.
Holding on to them will keep you out of Heaven. So the key to entering
Heaven is not found by holding on to what you have. It is found by letting
go of all that is unreal. And before you have the discernment to tell
the difference, it is wise to make it a clear goal never to create a
closed mental box.
To avoid creating a closed box around your mind – a box that your
Christ self cannot penetrate – you must be willing to always reach
for a higher understanding, meaning that you never allow yourself to
believe that any of your beliefs are absolute and thus above being expanded
by inner direction. In other words, never let an outer teaching, teacher
or organization come between you and the inner teacher of your Christ
self.
I truly wish all of our longtime students would contemplate these ideas—and
thus I hope people will feel free to share them. I can assure you that
the ascended masters are very concerned about the fact that so many
of our longtime students have used our teachings – given to set
them free from all limitations – to create closed mental boxes.
This not only prevents them from achieving their divine plans, it also
prevents them from attaining Christhood. For this reason alone, the
teachings we have given over the past century have not had the impact
on this planet they were meant to have.
This state of affairs can be corrected, and it can be corrected quickly.
But it can happen only if our longtime students are willing to let their
former expectations die and be resurrected in the fire of the Living
Truth – the baptism by fire – that they can receive only
from their Christ selves.
Thought 10
I wish our longtime students would contemplate my explanation of the
origin of their
Christ selves and meditate on its deeper meaning. It does contain
a teaching that has not been released though previous messengers, and
thus it is a good example of why progressive revelation is needed.
Obviously, my Christmas address was directed at Christians, so I could
give only a basic teaching. Yet for longtime students, it should be
clear that many ascended masters have "broken" their Spirits
to form Christ selves for their unascended brothers and sisters. So
not all students have a Christ self that is part of my Spirit, and it
is important for the student to attune his or her consciousness to the
master who gave him/her the gift of life in the form of the Christ self.
I might also mention that many of our longtime students could benefit
from contemplating that what I am doing on this website is to cast a
wider net in the hope of reaching souls who could not be reached through
previous organizations. Therefore, my teachings here do not contain
some of the elements found in previous teachings. Yet I still give many
hidden pearls that are valuable for longtime students, and Mother Mary’s
rosaries and Archangel Michael’s rosary are truly more powerful
than the techniques we have released through previous organizations.
So if you are a longtime student of the ascended masters, you might
consider whether you are loyal to an outer teaching or to the source
of that teaching. I am not saying people need to necessarily leave behind
a previous organization and follow this new movement. But I am saying
that people need to be willing to leave behind an old organization,
if they are directed to do so from within. And if you have
used the old teaching to build a closed mental box, how will you ever
hear our inner direction?
I am also saying that all of our longtime students could benefit greatly
from using the new rosaries as a supplement to whatever techniques they
use from previous organizations. Why travel by a propeller-driven aircraft,
when the jet airplane has been brought into the physical world? Given
the severity of the current situation on Earth, we need all of our students
to use the most powerful techniques available. You might read Mother
Mary’s discourse on the recent disaster in Asia and contemplate
what could have been mitigated if more of our longtime students had
been using her rosaries.
Quite frankly, I have much more to say to our longtime students, but
if what is said here does not open their ears to who I am, I suspect
nothing will do so. Let a word to the wise – or those who claim
to be wise – be sufficient.
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Copyright
© 2004 by Kim Michaels |
