Kim: Jesus, would
you mind commenting on this letter and the supposed contradictions
in your remarks on Padre Pio? Please let me know if in either answer
I did not get the exact words to convey the meaning you intended.
Jesus: I
have no comments for the person who wrote the letter. If a person doubts
the validity of the messages I give through you, how can anything I
say through you help that person overcome such doubts? I will, however,
comment because the concept of dealing with seeming contradictions is
an important one for all spiritual seekers.
One of the greatest problems we face as spiritual teachers is that so
many people tend to close their minds to a higher understanding of some
aspect of the spiritual path. And I am not hereby talking about people
who openly reject religion. You will see people who have been on the
spiritual path for decades and who think they are very open-minded.
Yet they have certain viewpoints, certain beliefs, that they think are
beyond questioning, so it becomes impossible for us to give these people
a higher understanding of those particular issues. Such people are simply
not willing to let us “disturb” them with a higher understanding.
This is explained in greater detail in the answer
from which the first quote about Padre Pio was taken.
As I explain throughout this website, the spiritual path is a gradual
process. Many people start out in a traditional religion, which claims
that an outer doctrine presents an absolute, infallible or unquestionable
truth. They gradually open their minds to something beyond the doctrines
of their (former) church, but many retain the belief that in order to
evaluate the validity of a spiritual teaching, it is necessary to compare
it to a particular doctrine or philosophy. Even many New Age people
accept one particular teaching as the authoritative source, and they
compare any new teaching to it. At the beginning stages of the path,
this is necessary because the soul needs a foundation. However, there
will come a point when, in order to make further progress, the student
needs to transcend this approach.
The reason is that when you evaluate a new teaching by comparing it
to an old teaching, it is very easy to base your evaluation on the words
or a particular interpretation of those words. This can block your acceptance
of higher concepts that go beyond the old teaching—and the entire
idea behind progressive revelation is that we continually release higher
concepts.
As I explain in the answer mentioned above and in the book Beyond
Religious Conflict, words are inherently relative, and no absolute
truth can be expressed in words. The consequence is that if your understanding
of a spiritual teaching does not go beyond the level of the words, you
will inevitably find contradictions between different teachings, which
is one of the major causes of religious conflict. It was precisely the
mindset of basing all beliefs on the outer word that caused the scribes
and the Pharisees to reject me and my new teaching.
When you look only at the words, you will often find contradictions
within a single spiritual teaching. Take for example the following statements
made by me,
He that is not
against us is for us. (Luke 9:50)
He that is not with me is against me. (Matthew 12:30)
To the analytical mind, these
statements are contradictory, and the conflict can be resolved only
by going beyond the words and considering the context in which each
statement was made. The problem is that many people are not open to
such a higher understanding:
- Some people approach the
spiritual path based on feelings, often fear. They reason that if
two statements are contradictory, one must be true and the other false.
- Some people approach the
path intellectually, and they often reason for or against an issue
without finding an absolute answer.
Both groups of people close
their minds to the fact that there is an absolute truth but that this
truth cannot be confined to words. If people are trapped in fear, they
tend to become very judgmental toward any teaching beyond their chosen
one. A perfect example is how the scribes and Pharisees deliberately
sought to find contradictions in my teachings or between my teachings
and the old law.
If people are stuck in the intellect, they often reason that there is
no absolute truth or that they cannot know such a truth (and they cannot
know truth through the intellect). Thus, they tend to see any teaching
as being as valid as any other teaching, meaning that they can pick
the one that appeals to them. They can become judgmental toward anyone
who states that there is a truth beyond what the intellect can detect.
The problem with both approaches is that they are based on a refusal
to discern between God’s truth and man-made – dualistic
– doctrines. This often makes people feel threatened by a higher
understanding than what they currently accept. In order to avoid being
disturbed, they often go into a defensive frame of mind that makes them
judgmental toward new ideas. As a way to justify staying in their present
belief system, some people deliberately look for ways to reject new
ideas, including looking for contradictions in the teaching or between
the new teaching and the person’s preferred teaching.
When a person is deliberately looking for contradictions and is only
looking at the words, contradictions can always be found. The reason
being, as I also explain in the previously mentioned answer, that words
belong in the realm of duality. When a mind is stuck in duality, it
decides what should be true and then judges every new idea based on
that decision. Thus, such people are no longer looking for a higher
understanding; they are only looking for confirmation of what they have
decided must be true. They are no longer approaching the path with the
innocent and inquisitive mind of a little child, and thus they cannot
enter the kingdom of true knowledge.
Instead, the person has now formed a belief system in the outer mind,
a belief system influenced by, perhaps completely based on, dualistic
thinking. Because such a belief system is relative, the person can always
interpret a teaching or situation in such a way that it seems like the
person or his/her belief system is right. The ego can always control
people in this state of mind because it can so easily make them believe
in ideas that block their growth.
For example, the ego will reason that if I say something through a given
messenger that agrees with the person’s belief system, then it
is the real Jesus speaking. Yet if I say something that is not in agreement,
then the ego says I cannot possibly be the real Jesus. You see this
in many fundamentalist Christians who reject this website because I
say things that contradict their literal interpretation of the Bible.
Sadly, even many New Age people reason the same way—they simply
have a different dualistic belief system as their reference point.
Many people keep looking for a teaching or messenger until they find
one that says what their egos want to hear, rather than saying what
their souls need to hear in order to transcend the ego. They somehow
reason that they know better than the Ascended Host what we should or
should not say. An extreme example of this mindset is found in the following
passage,
21 From that time
forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go
unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests
and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far
from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan:
thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that
be of God, but those that be of men. (Matthew, Chapter 16)
Although Peter recognized
the Christ, he was not willing to let go of his dualistic ideas about
how a Christed being should live or die. Thus, I could merely lead him
to the well; I could not get him to drink my Living Waters.
It remains a fact that if you are not willing to be disturbed by a spiritual
teacher, you are not truly on the spiritual path. You are following
the way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the
ways of death (Proverbs 14:12). That is why I called the scribes and
Pharisees for hypocrites; they thought they were the most pious and
religious people, yet their minds were closed to the Living Truth.
At an even deeper level, it is a fact that when most people find the
spiritual path, they are still partly in the duality consciousness.
Thus, they will inevitably be in a state of consciousness that attracts
the dualistic opposites. With that I mean that many people are open
to progressive revelation, but they fall into one of the two extremes
of either accepting only one teaching as valid or accepting all teachings
as equally valid. Either way, they will be targets for false teachers,
who will seek to manipulate them to either close their minds to new
ideas or open their minds to any new idea, including false ideas. People
then tend to become either too rigid or too scattered and confused.
Even if you find a teaching that is truly from the Ascended Host, your
ego will still use your dualistic beliefs to distort your view of that
teaching. As you become more familiar with the teaching, your ego is
also educated in the concepts and lingo used by the teaching. Thus,
your ego and any external false teachers can actually use a true teaching
to slow down your growth by causing you to close your mind. The only
way to avoid this is to constantly be open to being disturbed by your
Christ self and the Ascended Host, which means that you are willing
to let a new idea take you beyond your comfortable beliefs. If you are
not willing to be disturbed, you will turn even a true teaching into
a mental prison.
When you come up higher on the path, you can completely transcend the
level of duality, and thus false teachers and false teachings will no
longer be a threat to you. The prince of this world will come and have
nothing in you. How can a person rise above duality? It is captured
in my statement,
God is a Spirit:
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
(John 4:24)
In the spiritual realm, there
are no contradictions. Thus, when a person reaches beyond duality, reaches
for the Spirit of Truth (which is the person’s Christ self), all
seeming contradictions will be resolved. Yet in some cases, the contradictions
between two outer teachings cannot be resolved in a way that can be
expressed in words. The resolution can be experienced in a nonverbal,
nonlinear way that cannot be translated into words.
In the end, the validity of a spiritual teaching can be determined only
by reading the vibration of the message—not by reading the words.
You can learn to read vibrations by developing a conscious relationship
with your Christ self. When you have contact with your Christ self –
with the Spirit of Truth – you can compare the vibration of an
outer teaching to the vibration of your Christ self, and this is the
ultimate measure of truth. In some cases you might even sense the validity
of a teaching even though your outer mind does not agree with the words
used.
When you have contact with your Christ self, you will not fall into
the trap of comparing new ideas to a fixed doctrine and you will not
judge the people bringing forth such ideas. Your approach to new ideas
will be love-based, instead of being based on fear, judgment or a sense
of being threatened—which leads to anger. Thus, when a person
points out a seeming contradiction, it is always valid to read the person’s
vibration and see whether it is based on love or other emotions. If
the person is not coming from love, there is often little hope of helping
the person reach resolution, and thus further discussion is best avoided.
I often said, “Let those who have ears hear,” because some
people simply do not have ears to hear a higher expression of truth.
Kim: What exactly is your teaching concerning Padre Pio’s
mission?
Jesus: Padre
Pio lived a long life and his mission had many complex aspects. Thus,
as I clearly indicated in the first answer, it was not my intention
to give an absolute teaching on Padre Pio’s life. How could a
couple of paragraphs give a complete summary of a person’s life?
Thus, each quote was meant to illustrate a particular point in the context
in which it was given. The context of the first answer
is that it is never our intention to give an absolute teaching, and
therefore our messages are adapted to the target audience. I then said:
This explains why a person
with the spiritual attainment of Padre Pio could deny reincarnation.
Padre Pio’s mission was to work within the context of the Catholic
Church. It was not his mission to challenge the Catholic Church as
an institution, and therefore it was not his role to challenge church
doctrine.
If you read my comments about
the Catholic Church on this website, especially my discourse, Follow
me, not Peter, it is easy to conclude that the Catholic Church
was, from its inception, based on a flawed interpretation of my teachings.
The main problem being that the Church turned me into an idol and discouraged
people from following my example and doing the works that I did. It
is therefore true that there is a great need for reform in the Church.
Yet there are different ways to go about this, and here are a few:
- One approach is to reason
that the Church is so far from my true teachings, and so steeped in
centuries of tradition, that it is impossible to reform the Church
from within. A person would then start another organization that was
based on a higher interpretation of my teachings. In doing so, the
person would challenge the very existence of the Church and its claim
to be the only true Church of Christ. The person would challenge the
Church as an institution and would also challenge at least some aspects
of the outer doctrine.
This approach is perfectly valid for some people, and it is indeed
why the Ascended Host have sponsored various organizations and messengers
to give a higher understanding of my true teachings. Yet it was not
Padre Pio’s approach.
- Another approach is to
reason that while the Church needs reform, it is still a viable organization,
and thus it must be reformed from within. A person might challenge
specific aspects of doctrine and the organizational structure, yet
this is done by working within the existing structure and seeking
incremental changes. Again, this is a perfectly valid approach (although
with certain limitations), and it was taken by Pope John the 23rd,
culminating in Vatican II. Yet neither was this Padre Pio’s
approach.
- Another approach is to
embody the true teachings of Christ to the point where one demonstrates
some mastery over matter, in what is often called supernatural abilities.
By demonstrating these abilities, one would prove that it is possible
for anyone to do the works that Christ did, and if this was genuinely
accepted by the Church, it would lead to deep changes in every aspect
of the organization.
This last approach was, in
fact, part of Padre Pio’s divine plan. Yet during his upbringing,
he came to accept the authority of the outer church and its leadership
as being unquestionable, and this caused him to hold back. As I said
in the second answer:
A very similar, although
not identical, consideration can be applied to Padre Pio. It was part
of his divine plan that he would seek to reform the Church from within.
He already had great attainment, far greater than John Paul, before
that embodiment. Yet he also failed to translate his inner vision
and attainment into practical measures for reforming the Church.
It was part of Padre Pio’s divine plan that he should develop
and express his so-called supernatural abilities and then use them
to demonstrate that there is far more to my teachings than what is
defined by Catholic doctrine. By demonstrating that when one follows
in the footsteps of Christ, one attains mastery over matter itself,
Padre Pio could have served as the instrument for making obvious the
glaring need to reform Catholic doctrine, Catholic practices and the
Catholic organizational structure.
My point is that it was not
Padre Pio’s role to challenge the Catholic Church as an organization
or to start another church. Neither was it his role to challenge specific
aspects of outer doctrine, such as the doctrine against reincarnation.
And it was not his role to seek a position in church leadership. It
was his role to demonstrate the embodiment of my inner teachings and
thereby challenge church leadership to reform the church and bring it
into alignment with my true, inner teachings, allowing all Catholics
to openly follow my example.
Obviously, there is still much more to be said about Padre Pio and his
mission. Yet for me to give deeper teachings through you, Kim, you would
have to spend a considerable amount of time studying his life. And I
do not consider that a priority, given the plans I have for your messengership.
Finally, let me say that it is not uncommon for the Ascended Host to
deliberately make certain statements that will seem contradictory for
people who are trapped in the consciousness of duality. This is the
principle used in Zen koans of confounding the analytical mind, and
you will see that I often employed it 2,000 years ago. I use it occasionally
on this website, although I generally seek to give a very straightforward
explanation. This is due to the fact that your mind has been trained
for lifetimes to express complex spiritual concepts in a language that
is easy to understand for people in today’s rational age. Thus,
I seek to make the best possible use of your abilities as a messenger.
The bottom line is that all contradictions spring from the consciousness
of duality. Contradictions are like beauty; they exist only in the eye
of the beholder. They can be resolved only by transcending duality through
oneness with the Spirit of Truth. Likewise, spiritual safety can be
found only by transcending duality. The least spiritually safe are those
who in their pride think they know it all and who are not willing to
be disturbed by a spiritual teacher. Woe unto ye lawyers . . .
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© 2005 by Kim Michaels |
