|
NOTE: This
answer was given on May 19, 2007, during the Shangra-la conference in
Ireland.
Answer from Jesus:
There can only be contradictions in the duality consciousness. And the
duality consciousness can interpret any statement to be contradictory
to another statement. That is what the linear mind will do and has always
done.
Suffering is not necessary because suffering comes from attachment.
What makes it difficult to walk the path is your attachments. So in
a sense you could – if you were willing to let go of your attachments
– walk the path without any suffering whatsoever.
When we say the path is not easy and that you should not expect it to
be easy, it is because we are practical realists who realize –
from our own experience – that it is almost impossible to let
go of everything at once. And therefore, we all had to follow a gradual
path. We all had to walk step by step and give up certain limitations
one at a time, so as to preserve some sense of continuity.
Yet, the difficulties on the path come from your inability – or
in some case unwillingness – to see what you need to see in order
to let go of a particular illusion. And we know – again from our
own experience – that it is difficult to see what you cannot see.
This is no different for many of you than it was for myself when I was
in embodiment. When you are in embodiment, you are inside your current
mental box. And it is always difficult to look at your own situation
from outside that box. That, incidentally, is why you need guidance
from spiritual teachers, from other people and from spiritual teachings.
Yet you can literally come to a state of surrender, where even though
there are difficult phases of your path, they do not cause you suffering.
In other words, the physical octave, the material realm, is dense. It
is not easy to walk the spiritual path in the density of the collective
consciousness. Yet, when you reach a certain state of surrender, the
difficulties you encounter will not cause you suffering. And the reason
is that you have done what Mother
Mary spoke about yesterday—you have surrendered your expectations,
you have surrendered your conditions.
My beloved, there are many people who find the spiritual path and they
realize that in order to walk the path they have to make what they see
as sacrifices. Because they have to give up some of their old lifestyle,
some of the activities in which the world indulges, such as alcohol,
drugs, material pursuits and many other things that take you away from
the spiritual path.
And so people get enthusiastic and they are willing to give up some
of these activities. But they still feel that they have made a sacrifice
in doing so. And so their egos trick them into building the subtle expectation
that when they have sacrificed for the path or sacrificed for God, then
after that point everything should be easy. And God should simply pave
the way for them so that they do not encounter any more challenges or
difficulties.
This, of course, is the ego
trying to trick people into building an unrealistic expectation that
is guaranteed to cause disappointment, so that they become discouraged
and stop walking the path. Or even get angry, as some people do, feeling
that they were given empty promises by a particular organization or
teacher. And therefore, their egos trick them into abandoning the path.
So, my beloved, when you give up your conditions, you have no expectations
of what the path should be like. And therefore, how can anything that
occurs to you cause you suffering. For you see, my beloved, suffering
is caused by a psychological condition that causes you to emotionally
and mentally rebel against what you are experiencing in the physical
world.
You will see that many people who have encountered great physical difficulties
have come to a state of surrender and peace, where they have accepted
the condition and accepted that they can – no matter how difficult
the outer conditions are – make the best of it and still have
a joyful life. Look at some of the people who have physical handicaps,
such as sitting in a wheelchair. Many of the people who experience this
become depressed, but there are a few who rise above it and become joyful
and are at peace with the situation, making the best of it.
So you see that suffering is not caused by the outer condition but by
the inner psychological condition of rebelling against the outer physical
condition. And that is why, as we have attempted to explain over these
last days – both Patrick
and Mary
and Saint
Germain – that when you are on the spiritual path, you would
do well to give up your outer conditions and expectations of what the
path should be like. For you should know, as spiritual people, that
the physical realm is dense, that the collective consciousness is dense.
And thus, you should not expect it to be easy and trouble-free to walk
the path.
Yet, you certainly should not either go into the opposite extreme of
thinking that in order to be spiritual, you have to suffer—and
walk up a mountain barefoot because somehow that pays for your sins
because God is pleased the more you suffer. So the more you suffer the
more sins he will forgive.
Again, there is the Middle Way. And when you find the Middle Way, you
can overcome all difficulties and maintain the joy. This is what you
see among the people who have been involved in arranging this conference,
both our messengers and the person in Ireland who has borne the greatest
burden of the practical arrangements. And when you decide to meet all
difficulties with joy and you are willing to transcend, then the difficulties
are not so difficult. They are simply events in the physical realm.
And you move beyond them because you have a clear vision of your goal.
You know where you want to go and it is not a matter of thinking that
you can only go there if there are no obstacles. You know there will
be obstacles and that it is simply a matter of overcoming them, moving
beyond them, rising above them, walking right through them—so
that you find the joyous path that is independent of the outer conditions
because your joy is full.
Back to topic
main page.
Back to Answers
main page.
Back
to top
Copyright
© 2007 by Kim Michaels |
