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By Kim Michaels
You probably remember the following quote from Mark, Chapter 4:
33 And with many
such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to
hear it.
34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were
alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
Have you ever taken the
time to ponder what this actually means? Does it mean that Jesus had
an outer teaching, adapted to the level of consciousness of the general
public, and an inner teaching, adapted to the higher understanding
of his disciples?
What if spiritual teachings are always given on (at least) two different
levels? What if our spiritual teachers have teachings for the beginning
level of student and a higher teaching for the more advanced disciples?
What if there is an outer teaching, an outer path, for beginners and
an inner teaching, an inner path, for more advanced students? If so,
there might be more than one meaning to the concept of following Jesus,
following the Master.
This leaves you with a decision to make.
Will you continue to follow the outer path, or will you step up to
the plate and look for the inner teaching that Jesus gave to his disciples—the
inner teaching that he gives on this website? Let us consider the
outer and the inner path.
The outer path - the path of doing
When we first find a spiritual teaching, many of us need an outer
path that is straightforward and easy to follow. Orthodox, or mainstream,
Christianity provides this in the form of an outer teaching that clearly
spells out the requirements for being a Christian. This takes the
form of a clearly defined outer organization with a set of unchanging
doctrines and rituals. Mainstream churches also provide an outer framework
in which to fulfill those requirements. This takes the form of going
to church, performing various actions outside of church and living
life according to certain written and unwritten rules. This outer
path is relatively easy to follow because it is a matter of meeting
outer requirements, a set of “do this” and “don’t
do that.”
Many modern churches make the promise that if you follow the outer
rules, your salvation is guaranteed. Yet what if this promise isn’t
exactly in alignment with Jesus’ teachings? What if there is
a limit to how far the outer path can take you? One might say that
the outer path can lead you to the Living Waters of Christ truth,
but the outer path cannot make you drink those waters.
The inner path - the path of Being
You might remember that Jesus often challenged the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, the scribes, the lawyers and the temple priests. He called
them hypocrites, sons of the Devil, and he compared them to whitened
sepulchers filled with dead mean’s bones. Consider the following
quote:
For I say unto
you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)
It seems fairly obvious
that Jesus is not happy with those who blindly follow the outer law,
the letter of the law, and ignore the spirit of the law. In fact,
he is directly saying that such people will not be saved, even though
they claim to follow all of the rules of the outer path. Is
Jesus perhaps saying that the outer path cannot take you all the way
to salvation?
Could this possible indicate that Jesus wants his more advanced followers,
those who are ready to be his direct disciples, to transcend the outer
path and embrace the inner path? The inner path is not mechanical;
it is not simply a matter of following outer rules and doing outer
actions, such as going to church.
The inner path is what Saint Paul talked about in the following quote:
Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians
2:5)
Might Paul be saying that
the inner path, the path followed by the true disciples of Christ,
is aimed at taking you to Christhood? If so, it should be obvious
that attaining the mind of Christ cannot be done through mechanical
means. Manifesting Christhood is a matter of changing your sense of
identity, from seeing yourself as a mortal human being to seeing and
accepting yourself as a son or daughter of God. This change in identity
can only take place inside yourself. It requires you to make a number
of decisions, and that is why it cannot be produced mechanically.
It must be done through choices.
The inner path is not a path of doing; it is a path of being who you
truly are as a Christed one in embodiment. Is this what Jesus talked
about when he said:
Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
(Matthew 5:48)
How does this relate to
the concept of following Jesus?
The Master as the mediator
In the Jewish religion, people were taught that they could not contact
God, or rather the spiritual realm, directly. It was the outer religion,
the church and the temple priests, who served as the only mediator
between the people and their God.
Yet throughout this website, Jesus explains that the only reason we
cannot contact the spiritual realm is that we are in a lower state
of consciousness. As a result, we cannot see the spiritual realm because
of a veil of energy. Ultimately, this veil is not real, but in our
current state of consciousness, it seems real and that is why we cannot
make contact with the spiritual realm.
The Ascended Host are assigned as our spiritual teachers, and their
goal is to raise us to a higher state of consciousness, in which we
no longer see ourselves as separated from our source, from God. They
seek to help us overcome the illusion of separation by sending us
a teacher, a Master, who can serve as a Messenger to bring forth teachings
from Above. This helps us realize that the spiritual realm is real,
and it provides us with the outer path. Yet the real purpose is to
help us overcome the illusion that we are separated from God, and
we can do that only by following the inner path.
So we might say that the purpose of a spiritual Master is twofold.
First, the Master offers us an outer path. Yet as we follow that path,
we naturally come to a point where it is necessary to transcend the
outer path and follow the inner path. The outer Master is meant to
lead us to the inner Master of the Christ self. We might say that
the outer Master leads us to the well, but it is up to us to drink
from the Living Waters of our Christ selves.
So the outer Master is the mediator between us and the spiritual realm.
As long as we follow the outer path, we are connected to God through
the mediator of the outer Master. In our case, as followers of Jesus,
the connection looks like this:
When the Master goes higher
Most of us have read the following statement by Jesus:
And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John
12:32)
Have you ever considered
what this might mean? We know that Jesus was “lifted up,”
and according to Jesus’ promise, we must have been drawn to
him. Yet what does it mean that we are lifted up by Jesus? Consider
what happens to the previous illustration when the Master moves higher.
It will now look like the following:
Take note of the dramatic change. Before the Master moved higher,
he was below the energy veil. Now, the Master is above the energy
veil, and because of that, our individual connections to the Master
cross the energy veil. What exactly does that mean?
It means that because Jesus has moved higher, all those who are connected
to him have the potential to attain their direct connections to the
spiritual realm. This does not mean that we are disconnected from
the Master or no longer need the Master. But it does mean that we
have a greater opportunity for contacting our Christ selves - and
through our Christ selves contacting the Ascended Host - than ever
before.
However - and here is the catch - in
order to fulfill that potential, we have to follow the inner path.
Because the Master is now above the energy veil, we can no longer
maintain our tie to him by following the outer path. We can contact
him only by following the inner path and going through our individual
Christ selves. We have to be willing to change our sense of identity
from being blind followers to being living disciples, from being humans
to being Christed ones. We have to accept that we can and must stand
on our own and establish our individual connections to the spiritual
realm.
Again, this does not mean that we no longer need Jesus. We are still
under his sponsorship, we are still under his umbrella. It does, however,
mean that we now have the opportunity - under his sponsorship and
with his blessing - to manifest a higher level of Christhood. As a
natural consequence of that Christhood, we have the opportunity to
establish a direct connection with the spiritual realm—we can
pierce the energy veil as never before. We can sit under our own vine
and fig tree, and by doping so we can bring about the true second
coming of Christ, as explained elsewhere.
The question now becomes, “Are we taking advantage of this opportunity,
or are we turning our backs on it?” The answer depends on whether
we are willing to leave behind the outer path and fully embrace the
inner path.
The false path
Up to a point, there is nothing wrong with following the outer path.
It is simply a necessary intermediate stage that leads you to the
point of being able to embrace the inner path. It is still a viable
approach for people who are relatively new to a spiritual teaching.
However, when the Master moves higher, the longtime students must
make the choice of whether to move higher with him - as outlined above
- or whether to deny the need to move higher and stay where they are
comfortable.
The reality of the situation is simple. You either move higher with
the Master, or you refuse to move higher and are left behind. However,
consider what happens to those who refuse to move higher. The reality
of the situation is that the Master is above the energy veil, as in
the previous illustration.
If we refuse to acknowledge that, we lose direct perception of the
Master, and therefore we inevitably create an idol of the Master that
is below the energy veil. We continue to see the Master the way he
was in the past, or the way we want him to be. If you take an objective
look at many Christian churches, you will see that they have created
their own images of what they want Jesus to be like—they have
created idols instead of reaching for the Living Master who, as he
promised us, is with us always.
As long as we hold on to that idol - instead of maintaining a direct
connection to the Living Master - we neglect and might eventually
lose our connection to the Master. Instead, we end up establishing
(through the power of our attention) a connection to the idol, and
that idol will forever remain below the energy veil. In other words,
we cut ourselves off from the Living Master and instead tie ourselves
to an outer idol.
The consequence is that
if we continue to follow this outer idol, we are following a false
path. It is false because it has replaced the real Master with an
idol of our own making. Instead of following
the Living Christ, we are now following anti-christ.
Is this the true meaning
of the following quote:
There is a way
that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. (Proverbs 16:25)
The sad part is that we
can actually use the outer teachings, the Bible itself, to justify
this idol and thereby trap ourselves even more firmly on the false
path. We think we are the perfect Christians who are doing everything
right, yet we are only following the path that seems right unto human
beings but is not right with God.
Misquoting the Bible
What has been happening to Christianity over the past 2,000 years
is this process of the dividing of the way between those who cling
to the outer path and those who are willing to move up to the inner
path. That is why you see some people who vehemently refuse to move
higher and who will quote any number of Bible verses as a justification
for staying on the outer path.
It is easy to find numerous quotes to support staying on the outer
path because the outer path is a viable and necessary stage on the
road to salvation. Consequently, you will find many statements that
seem to justify this path, and if you are willing to interpret them
literally, as many fundamentalist Christians do, it will seem to you
as if the Bible is saying that you should never stray from the letter
of the law. Yet it is very easy to misuse these quotes and build a
culture that says we should never move beyond the outer path. This
would be a misuse of the teachings because it prevents you from truly
following Jesus. It is exactly what
the scribes and the Pharisees had done 2,000 years ago, and that if
why Jesus rebuked them so forcefully!
For those with eyes to see, it will be obvious that Jesus never talked
exclusively about the outer path. If you take an objective look at
the Bible, you will find that it describes both the outer and the
inner path, although to find the inner path you have to read between
the lines. In other words, if you are willing to look closely, you
will find quotes that talk about the inner path, the need to manifest
Christhood, the need to never become comfortable and the need to always
keep moving higher.
For example, consider how Jesus talks about the need to purify the
heart and overcome the desire for sin. Consider how many of his statements
are aimed at transforming our state of consciousness, instead of getting
us to blindly follow outer rules.
Christhood means that you have your own connection to the spiritual
realm. And how could you possibly achieve that connection if you maintain
the attitude that only Jesus, or some church leader or pope, could
contact the spiritual realm? In other words, Jesus was sent for your
soul’s liberation, but you have turned him into a prison guard
who keeps you trapped in a mental cage.
If you want to, you can find numerous Bible quotes that support the
inner path and the need to manifest individual Christhood. So what
is the difference between those who follow the inner path and those
who cling to the outer path? It is the difference between those who
are motivated by love and those who are driven by fear, as explained
elsewhere.
The bottom line is that if you want to follow the outer path, this
website has little to offer you. If you are ready to look for the
inner path, this website can give you much food for thought. The
main purpose of this website is to help you establish your own personal
connection to the spiritual realm, including to your personal Christ
self and Jesus.
So please take some time to explore the extensive teachings found
on this website and discover the true inner path to personal Christhood
that was always there behind the outer teachings of Christianity,
but visible only to those who had eyes to see.
You might begin by reading the following discourses:
I challenge you to leave the outer path and follow the inner path
I
Am on a Mission Impossible from God
Copyright
© 2009 by Kim Michaels |
