The Higher and Lower Mind

The Higher and Lower Mind

2021 Gathering, Part Five

There’s no way to go through life just having everything be sunshine and roses. There are many outward events that we cannot change. But one thing we can change is how we look at them.

Two people can be approached and insulted, and one may react strongly and attack back, and produce negativity, and maybe create other attacks, and create a chain reaction – like two neighbors arguing over where a fence needs to be. Like Rand Paul was recently attacked by his neighbor who didn’t like him. Different things like this happen.

There are many ways we may be attacked, but we can avoid how we interpret it, or we can change how we interpret it. So if two people get attacked, one can look at the attack and react and create a chain reaction. The other can look at the attack and think it’s not worth bothering with, and let it go through him.

It’s not that he’s in denial of anything and that’s the key. Put yourself in a state to where you can just say this just doesn’t matter. You don’t have to deny it. You may feel some feelings within you, and you acknowledge those feelings, and mentally you tell yourself that there’s a different way of looking at this. Suppose my neighbor had a bunch of his leaves blow on my yard. That’s kind of irritating. Now I have to clean up his leaves, but it’s not a big deal. It’s not worth making a fuss over.

So changing your attitude about how you look at a situation or an attack or something that can be emotional, is something that’s within the realm of our decision making.

The third thing that we are not is our minds. There’s something that we can call the higher mind and the lower mind. What is the difference? Lower mind is what is often called the ego. It is that which sees us as being a separate self. Our emotions are separate. Our body is separate, and we communicate in separateness.

Asaph lives in Israel. He had to come thousands of miles to associate with the rest of us because he is living as a separate individual a long way away. So to associate with us he had to actually come here in the physical. And we’re really glad he made that effort.

But it’s interesting that this is all a part of the lower mind, and the lower mind has to function as a separate entity. The higher mind is connected with what I call the spiritual internet. Think of our communication now compared to fifty years ago. Fifty years ago there was no internet, and if you wanted to communicate with somebody, you had to make an individual phone call. If you wanted to get some information you had to go to the library or look at an Encyclopedia Britannica or check out a book.

But now, all you have to do is Google something and ask a question and you can get an answer to almost anything that you want. It’s not always accurate (laughter) but can get an answer to almost anything. If you want to know, for instance, when the next full moon is . . . if you want to know how far it is from Boise, Idaho to here, and how long the driving time is, just Google it and you can have that readily available.

So our evolution is to evolve more toward the higher mind and away from the lower mind. And the higher mind doesn’t see everything as being separate. It sees us all linked together. And there’s only one mind. Think of the mind itself, the mind of God as a flowing ocean. And we are in that ocean. And we are a part of this mind. We are partaking of the mind of God.

Now, if you just see yourself as a fish in the ocean, then you are separate from the ocean. But even if you’re separate from the ocean, you have that water flowing around you, giving you life. And so, the mind of God . . . there’s one mind in the Universe, and this is like a flowing stream that flows through all of us. And we can connect to that mind. And when we connect to that mind, it’s like a spiritual internet, and all things become available to us.

When using the lower mind, we rely on our brain. With the higher mind, our attention goes to the pure spirit of the mind of God, so to speak. With the lower mind, our attention focuses on what the brain can do for us. Those are the two distinctions. When we focus on the brain, we see ourselves as lone individuals, not really connected to anything else. But when we focus on the higher mind, then we have a sense of unity with all living things.

Now when you look at all living things, for instance when we were outside looking at those cute little chickens . . . weren’t those cut little chickens . . . when you look at them, if you look at them correctly, it’s like even those chickens out there or the grass or the trees, if you have a sense of the higher mind, you’ll have a sense of the connectedness with all life in the Universe. Because all life in the Universe is connected. There’s really only One Life in the Universe – which is the life of that which we call God.

All Masters, whether they be people who have overcome death and are gods as far as we’re concerned, the gods, the Elohim, they are people that are one with the One Mind of God. And so, they can identify with being Gods. That’s why in the Bible the word Gods or Elohim is plural. It really says, “In the beginning, Gods created the heavens and the earth.” It’s actually written this way, “In the beginning, the Gods create the heavens and the earth.” It’s used with a singular verb, which is interesting.

So a word which is fitting of “the Gods,” which is plural, yet used with a singular verb would be a council or a group. A group of Gods created the heavens and the earth, so to speak. That’s kind of an interesting thought.

We’re a combination, all of us, of our lower and higher minds. Everyone has a sense of the higher mind, but we don’t use it that much. Everyone has a sense of the lower mind, and we use this quite a bit, but the lower mind is not you. Neither mind is you, but we use mind. Mind is a vehicle, a vehicle that we use to accomplish things.

Similarly, if you’re going to descend below the ocean, you can descend a few feet and be okay, but if you get too far down for too long, you’ll suffocate because you can only stay down there so long. So, you take a breathing apparatus with you, but you still can only go so far before the pressure becomes too great. So, you can put on an armored suit, and you can go much deeper. But you can only go so deep.

James Cameron a while back, made a vehicle and went about five or ten miles down . . . I can’t remember exactly, but it broke a record. But he went down in a vehicle and was able to go very deep into the ocean and was able to endure that great pressure.

Now in the beginning, we decided, being beings of pure spirit, we decided to jump into matter. And to jump into matter, it’s almost like jumping in the ocean and going deeper and deeper. The deeper you go, the more vehicles you need to endure the pressure.

And so, we jumped into matter, and we gathered around ourselves a lower mind. And then we gathered around ourselves the emotional/astral body. And then finally the physical body, and it enabled us to jump into this pressurized system of the material universe, and to be able to be in this material universe and go through experiences, we had to have all these vehicles to protect us, so to speak, so we could go through the experience of physical reality.

Unfortunately, having all these vehicles that we work with, also put distance between us and our true reality. And so this distance between us and our true selves, needs to be bridged. And we need to be able to become masters of our vehicles to the extent that they do not keep us trapped in the lower realms.

So the key to finding out what we are is to first find out what we are not. We are not our bodies. We tend to identify too much with our bodies. This creates all kinds of problems for us.

When we realize we are not our bodies, then we pay less attention to them. When we pay the wrong kind of attention to our bodies, we interfere with the flow of energy going through them creating perfect health.

We want to maintain good health, so we don’t want to interfere with the flow of energies. If you’ve got to perform, and you place a whole bunch of attention on it, you may really blow your performance because you were just too nervous. And this happens with our bodies because if we pay too much attention to it in the wrong way, it interferes with the flow.

The best way to deal with your body is to view it as if it doesn’t exist. And then all the energies in the body will circulate correctly. They’ll take care of themselves. But we interfere with the circulation of energy in our body by our wrong thinking, and much of our thinking is wrong.

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Dealing with Negative Emotions

Dealing with Negative Emotions

2021 Gathering, Part Four

Your body is not the real you. Your brain is not the real you. Your brain is not your intelligence. Your brain is just your computer system. So think of using your computer, and your computer is like the physical brain. It is not intelligence. It is something intelligence uses. It is used by your mind. It’s a physical thing, just like your computer is a physical thing. But it’s a very sophisticated computer that we use.

Same thing with our emotional body. Our emotional body is not us, but it is something that we use.

Now they’ve come up with an interesting measure of intelligence, sometime ago, called emotional intelligence.

Regular intelligence is highly associated with the physical brain as well as the mind. But a lot of what they call intelligence these days on intelligence tests and taking tests is associated with having a good functioning brain. You can take a very intelligent person and give him an older computer and he can do amazing things with it. You can take a person that’s kind of backward and give him a sophisticated computer and he can’t do anything with it.

What we can do with our brains is determined a lot by intelligence that goes beyond the brain. So, with our intelligence, we use the brain and many people that have a really good functioning brain, that have really good power of memory, and they do really well in school, and are good at taking tests because they can remember stuff . . . but they may not be that bright.

I remember when I was twenty years old and was on a mission for the LDS Church, I had this companion who had a 4.0 and a perfect score in college. Now my graded point in college was about average. He had a 4.0, but I’ll tell you, that guy was about one of the densest guys I have ever worked with. His real intelligence level was like a child almost.

When he had to give a lesson, he had to review it every time and I never had to review at all. I guess he could read and write and memorize, and was good at taking tests, and had a 4.0 grade point and almost doubled mine. (laughter) But he couldn’t do the stuff that I could do.

So it’s very interesting that if you have a good physical brain, you may be judged to be much more intelligent than you really are. There are people who are highly intelligent, who are born with brains that don’t function very well, or have good memory, or that good of ability take tests and so on. So intelligence is much more than just the brain.

Now getting back to the feelings, we identify very powerfully with our feelings, it’s amazing. And like I said, you meet anybody who’s enlightened, or go to group of people who are enlightened, or go to a convention or something where enlightened people are arguing with other enlightened people, and you’ll find that they identify just as much with their emotions as the man on the street. It’s amazing.

It’s amazing how difficult it is for people to really get control of their emotions to the point that they can be insulted and act as if the insult does not exist.

How about you, Tyler, can people insult you and can you overlook that? How would you grade yourself on that? Or do you get insulted? You’re such a nice guy, you may not get insulted.

Tyler: Usually my kids insult me. (laughter)

I’m getting better at not being insulted. I have to determine if it’s true or not. If they tell me something that’s true, you know, maybe I’ll take it one way. But if it’s not, then . . .

JJ: Yeah, that’s a good point. If people point out something that’s kind of hurtful that’s also true, there are different ways to approach that. If somebody’s overweight and you say, “boy, you’re fat as a pig. You ought to go on a diet.” Well, that’s a lot different than saying, “you know I’ve got this book here that tells you how to lose weight and get in shape.” The approach can be a lot different. (laughter)

Honesty is good, but it also has to be tempered with intelligence. Because you might be putting your life in danger if you tell the wrong female that her body is not perfect. (laughter)

Guys really enter a danger zone there. We’ve got to be really careful.

I made some jokes about that a while back where if you get the wrong question from your spouse, about her body, you may be putting your life in danger . . .  (laughter) if you answer incorrectly. And sometimes there’s no correct answer. No way out.

So ideas of the difference of the sexes is a fascinating subject in itself. We definitely react different from each other, on the average, but here are always exceptions.

How do we escape this tie we have to our emotional body? It is so powerful that people do everything they can to escape, including denial.

And we were talking about denial and what produces the denial. We figured out that people want to pretend that they are better than that. And what does denial produce? Now suppression produces a blockage within the system. So you have a blockage of energy, and blockages of energy produce all kinds of physical problems.

But denial is a little different. It doesn’t block energy in the same way that suppression does. Suppression takes this energy, and it’s like a tea kettle. You turn on the tea kettle and the steam increases the pressure until the lid pops off. When you suppress again and again, then pretty soon, the energy becomes so strong you have to let it loose.

An example of this happening is the person that, say, you hurt your spouse’s feelings, and they say, “no, you didn’t hurt my feelings, everything is cool.” Then you hurt them a week or so later and everything is still cool. And they’re suppressing a little bit more each time. And maybe about the tenth time that you hurt their feelings, everything is so bottled up to the point that they can’t take it anymore, and you say some very small thing that hurts their feelings, but they blow up big time. Because it has accumulated over a period of time. And the guy will think, “wow, why is she reacting this strong over this small thing that I just said?” That’s because it builds up.

But denial is different. What denial does is, it’s a form of dishonesty. And the dishonesty creates a suppression of spiritual energy. So it creates like a cloud between the person and his own soul. He’s unable to achieve the soul contact that he needs because of the denial. Anything that you do that is dishonest, in any way, increases the barrier between you and the spirit. And so total honesty is always called for, and the easiest place to be dishonest is our own feelings.

Because we do not like to think of ourselves as a person who’s inferior in any way. All of us want to think of ourselves as being at the top of our game. And none of us want to think of ourselves as being too emotional or too controlled by emotions. So this causes many people to go into denial.

And if they’re denying an emotion that they actually feel, they will go into a mode where it’s almost hypnotic, where they’re hypnotizing themself saying, “no, I do not feel jealousy over this incident.” So they will be in denial to the extent that the jealousy will be there, but they will not acknowledge it to the extent that it’s almost like it’s not there. And so they’re deceiving themself into thinking that it’s not there. And this deception produces a dark cloud between them and their own soul.

So it’s important that we acknowledge our feelings, and deal with them in as harmless way as possible. And like I’ve said, dealing with them harmlessly takes a lot of ability and takes a lot of thought to be able to release these emotions in such a way that they will be as harmless as possible.

But as far as harmlessness goes, look at Jesus. Jesus was perhaps the greatest example of harmlessness, yet he still made people angry. And you can make people angry if you’re following the most harmless, honest path possible.

People just pick up things. Sometimes, if a person is very negative and you’re positive, they will pick up the difference. They will be more comfortable being around negative people. And if you’re a positive person, focused on spirit and honesty, they may pick up a difference and they may feel they want to bring you down because of it.

And sometimes there’s just no escape from dealing with some negativity in the world. Again, we look at the life of Jesus and the prophets and the great teachers and they all had negative things to deal with. And to deal with them in the most intelligent way possible is about all we can do.

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Suppression and Denial

Suppression and Denial

2021 Gathering, Part Three

There are two things you can do to mismanage your emotions. You can deny them, or you can suppress them. Both approaches are harmful and they create psychological problems and physical problems. So, what do you think is the difference between denying an emotion and suppressing an emotion? Has anyone got a comment?

Joshua: They’re similar but denial is where you pretend you don’t even have the emotion. And suppression is sort of . . . you acknowledge it, but you push it down and don’t let it manifest.

JJ: Okay. That’s a good answer. What is it that makes a person deny rather than suppress? There are causes behind the denial and the suppression. People deny their emotions because they feel that being emotional is for the lesser evolved and they’re above that. “I’m above being jealous; therefore, I can’t be jealous because I’m above that. I’m an evolved spiritual being and therefore can’t be jealous.”

When their mate or romantic partner flirts with somebody else, and they still feel that twinge of jealousy, but they will deny it. “Wait! I can’t be jealous because I’m above that.” So, he denies that feeling of jealousy.

Now on the other hand, there’s suppression. And suppression happens most commonly with the emotion of anger. The person feels angry, but he realizes that anger is not good. So, what he does is suppress that anger. Then, if somebody hurts his feelings, and it makes him angry, he thinks, “well I shouldn’t really be angry because this creates problems. And because this creates problems, I’ll just pretend that nothing happened.”

Now this often happens with hurt feelings. Somebody will say something, and the guy goes a little quiet, and so you say, “is everything okay?” And the guy says, “yeah, I’m fine. No, no, no problem. None at all.”

But there is a problem. The problem was his feelings were hurt. He would like to say something, but he feels that he shouldn’t say something because that’s negative and he’s not a negative guy. So he suppresses that feeling. What happens when you suppress for so long?

Joshua: Cancer.

JJ: Yeah, cancer is one. It affects you physically, and suppression is a major cause of cancer. You notice, it’s amazing how many people that have cancer are really nice people. Almost everybody that dies of cancer, at their funeral, it’ll be talked about how wonderful they were and how nice and always pleasant they were. And they were always pleasant because when people hurt their feelings, when people said negative things toward them, and they felt like slapping them in the face, but they didn’t!

They held their temper, and they suppressed it. So that’s one reason people of die of cancer, one of the causes of which is suppression. These are considered very nice people because they never over-reacted, when they were attacked by somebody. They were always trying to be pleasant.

Now why would that be considered a fault by our higher self, to suppress our anger? Why would that be a problem?

Tyler: We’re denying a part of who we are.

JJ: Right. And this is a key to overcoming all of the obstacles on the spiritual path, is total honesty. In other words, if you’re feeling anger and you’re pretending that the anger is not there, it’s a deception. And all deception hinders the person on the spiritual path. It’s very difficult to be completely honest. So when someone makes you angry and you feel anger inside, what should you do? How can you express this harmlessly without creating a problem?

Darren: Acknowledge it and have compassion for it.

JJ: Yeah. Acknowledge it and have compassion. Let’s see. Let’s pick a couple together. Phil –  now you and Rebecca seem like such nice people. It’s hard to imagine you two getting angry or upset with each other.

Audience: Inaudible remark (laughter)

JJ: Rebecca, have you ever gotten upset with Phil? He’s such a nice guy. It’s hard to imagine. But have you ever gotten upset with him?

Rebecca: I have.

JJ: Okay, what do you do when you get upset with him?

Rebecca: Yell at him.

JJ: (laughter) Okay. Well, that’s actually a lot healthier than holding it in.. . . My sister died of cancer. Wonderful woman. My brother-in-law I would guess was a little hard to live with at times. But my sister, she just acted like everything was cool all the time. Yet she died of cancer. So she probably had suppressed feelings; things that she did not express.

But you do express things, right? Does she let her feelings be known (speaking to Phil)?

Rebecca and Phil: They both acknowledge she does.

JJ: (laughter) Well that’s why you two have a glow about you. You’re honest with each other when you do have negative feelings. When he doesn’t put his socks away or whatever he does wrong, do you try to correct him in a harmless way where it doesn’t create total damage?

Rebecca: Yeah, I do. But I don’t do a very good job of that all the time. (laughter)

JJ: Yeah, it’s hard to do, isn’t it? Okay, when somebody makes you angry, there are three things you can do:

[1] One, you can attack them and choke them to death. In this case, you’ll be arrested and go to jail, so that’s not a good plan.

[2] The second thing you can do is suppress it. And that’s really bad for your health because it creates blockages of energy within your body. And these blockages of energy can create cancer, or other problems. All kinds of things can surface because of these blockages of energy.

[3] And the third thing you can do is communicate your feelings. And then what you do is communicate them as harmlessly as possible.

So if your mate or your friend or anybody says something to make you angry, you can approach them like this. You say, “hey, you said this to me, and that really hurt my feelings. Do you understand how that bothered me? And he may say, “yeah, I didn’t know that hurt your feelings at all. I’m sorry about that. And if he says that, that will diffuse the whole situation and make it go away.

Now, sometimes when you honestly communicate feelings the opposite will happen. The guy will get angry himself. You will release your feelings, and the guy will say, “well, what’s your problem? You shouldn’t get angry over that.

And then, what will happen is the negative energy that was hovering over the person that communicated his hurt feelings, the cloud, will be removed because he communicated his feelings honestly, for when he communicates, it just dissipates.

But if the other person doesn’t cooperate in the communication, and turns negative the cloud rests over him. And now, he’s feeling really put out. He’s angry because he feels that he’s attacked unjustly even though no attack was intended. This often happens sometimes, but it’s a chance you have to take.

If you feel anger and need to express it, and you do it honestly and the other guy reacts negatively, that’s just something you may have to deal with, but now you’re free. But the other guy now has the problem, and you might have to avoid him for a while, (laughter) because he’s going to go around with a cloud over him for a few days.

We identify so strongly with our feelings that it’s hard to disassociate ourselves from that identification, because when we feel something what do we say? We say, “I feel this.” It’s almost like, if I feel anger, it’s like saying, “I am anger,” or “I am jealous,” or “I am this.” Whereas you are not. You’re just using a vehicle. And your vehicle is responding to this emotion. It’s not the real you.

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You Are Not Your Feelings

You Are Not Your Feelings

Part Two of the 2021 Gathering

The second thing that people identify with . . . and in this age, people identify very strongly with the second part of our mechanisms that we use. And what’s the second part?

Asaph: Emotions.

JJ: Right, emotion. Your feelings. People really identify with their feelings, even people that realize they are not their body, that it’s just a vehicle. They still identify strongly with their feelings.

I’ve had interplay with a lot of people who think they are really evolved, and if you say anything that crosses them in the wrong way, they’ll still have their feelings hurt because they will identify too strongly with their feelings.

Even people who are into esoteric teachings, thinking they are way beyond the astral and way beyond the feeling nature, but just step on their toes a little and all of the sudden you will see a reaction that tells you that this person isn’t beyond identifying with his feelings after all.

And so we tend to think we are our feelings. And some people have had teachings where they are told that they are not their feelings. And like I said, some of these people still are somewhat in denial, and they haven’t really been able to leave their feelings behind, as far as identification.

Then there are others that do identify strongly with their feelings, and a lot of standard religious people do this. They connect their feelings to their spirit, and they think that’s all part of their eternal nature. But their feelings are temporary. And it’s part of what they call the astral body.

The astral body is a vehicle, just like the physical body, and this is an important thing to realize. The astral body is a vehicle.

After death, when you go to the world of the soul, you will leave behind a lot of the feelings associated with the astral body. Your feeling nature will be quite different because there are lower feelings and higher feelings. And in the spiritual spheres, there are just the higher feelings. And so we leave the lower feelings behind.

But in this physical existence, we have these lower feelings that are very powerful. And we identify with them.

So let’s go through all these lower feelings that people identify with. What’s the most common one?

Asaph: Desire.

JJ: Desire. Okay, that’s kind of a summary of all of them put together.

Audience: Fear.

JJ: Fear. That’s a lower one. What’s one of the main things that causes fear?

Joshua: Uncertainty.

JJ: Yeah. Have you ever thought of this? If your body was completely invulnerable so no one could do any harm to it, would you have anything to fear? What else is there to fear?

Audience: Inaudible.

JJ: Now we fear, for instance, breaking the law because authorities can put us in jail. But if you had complete mastery, like say Jesus after the resurrection, where they couldn’t put you in jail because you could disappear and appear wherever you wanted. Nobody could do anything to your body that you didn’t want done to your body. Would there be anything to fear?

Some people might fear God throwing them into hell or something like that, but concerning the things we know for sure, that cause us fear, what are they?

Like, right now everyone’s afraid of getting Covid, aren’t they? That’s about half the fear that’s generated around the world right now. And it’s all associated with the body. If the body were invulnerable, we wouldn’t have any fear about the virus or any disease or anything like that. So, think of all the fear that is associated with physical health.

Also associated with the body is the threat of people attacking it. Say, going through a rough part of New York right now or Los Angeles. People are afraid of getting attacked, stabbed, or shot. Okay, and that’s all centered around the body.

So think, if you were able to overcome death and become a master of your physical body, your physical vehicle, what would there be to fear?

Susan: Ridicule.

JJ: Yeah.

Michael: There’s fear of loss if you’re really attached to something.

JJ: Right. That’s a good point. Okay, that’s connected with the emotional body, isn’t it? So with the physical body, if we could neutralize all harm done to the physical body it would be amazing. Almost everything that average people fear would be neutralized.

Then Susan made a good point. There are fears connected with the emotions. People are afraid of failure. They’re afraid of ridicule, of emotional attack. Now some people aren’t afraid at all on the emotional level. But others are.

My friend Wayne, who’s passed on, God bless his soul . . . he was a funny one about fears. He had no fear at all on the physical plane. But he was terrified about an emotional attack. And that’s the opposite of a lot of people.

A policeman would stop him, and he often drove with no driver license because he believed in being his own guy. (laughter) He was a funny guy that way, and when a policeman stopped him, he’d say, “why don’t you go out and get a real job? Don’t you have anything better to do than go around persecuting innocent citizens?” (laughter)  

And then when he was hauled into court, he would refuse to stand for the judge. And he was just completely fearless on the physical level. I’ve never met anybody like him.

One time we were in a restaurant, and somebody was talking pretty loud a couple of booths down. And I said, “boy those guys are loud.” And Wayne said, “yeah, they are. I’m going to go do something about it.” (laughter)

And so he was gone for about five minutes and comes back and they were really quiet afterwards. And I asked what happened. And he said, “well I gave them a piece of my mind and they said they’d quiet down.”

And I said, “well, it’s a good thing that whoever you were talking to wasn’t a football player or something.” And he said, “well, one of them was a football player.” (laughter) Anyway, he was a funny guy that way.

But then, he had this big crew that he managed that was called (inaudible name), and they did yardwork, tree service, spraying, and all kinds of things. And his guys, when they needed help, they would ask him for extra money, and they would appeal to him on an emotional level, and he could not say no. He would grumble about it, but he just could not say no.

And if somebody told him about another person having their feelings hurt about something, he would really identify with the feeling nature of people. And he did not want to offend anyone’s feelings that he was close to.

Joshua: Except the judge . . .  (laughter)

JJ:  Yeah, except for the judge. That was more of a physical level of confrontation. He didn’t look on the judge like a person. But people that he was friends with, and who he saw as a friendly individual, he was amazing. He was very sensitive. And if I were to say to him, “we need to talk to so and so about this because he’s creating a problem.” And I would bring Wayne in, and he wouldn’t want to talk about it. He would just want to talk about positive stuff.

So he was a funny guy. Completely fearless on the physical level. I’ve never met anyone that was fearless on the physical level outside of him. But he was terrified about hurting somebody’s feelings, somebody that he was close to, somebody that he considered a friend.

He was very trusting too. He would leave his keys in his car all the time. And he would tell people where he stashed money. And they would steal it from him. I’ll tell just one little story about him. It’s kind of funny.

He had this big dump truck that a lot of people wanted to borrow because he was the only one in the area with one. And he always left the key in it. And I told him one day, “you shouldn’t do that. People could run off with your truck.”

He said, “well, I believe in trusting people.” And Curtis’s brother and my nephew, Bill, needed to borrow and he went there, and Wayne wasn’t in. And he noticed the key in the dump truck. So he thought Wayne wouldn’t mind if he borrowed it. So he took off with it, but one thing he didn’t know was that Wayne was changing the oil and he had all the oil drained out. And he drove it a few blocks and the engine blew up. And to Bill’s credit, he bought him a new engine. (laughter)

But after he finally got that new engine in there, I drove up to his place and saw that dump truck there and I wondered if he still had that key in there. And I looked in and there was the key still in there. (laughter) And I said, “Wayne, you still have the key in the dump truck. Somebody’s going to do that again.

And he said, “well, what good is life if you can’t trust people?”

And I said, “some people you just cannot trust, or you can trust them to do the wrong thing.”

And you know what he died of? He died of a big heart. An overgrown heart. So, I guess his soul was trying to straighten him out. Because the soul gives us messages to correct the mistakes we’re making in life. And his soul tried to tell him by giving him a big physical heart, and problems connected with it. But he just didn’t listen.

So he was an interesting character in the fact that faults were really overgrown virtues in a way.

But anyway, we are not our bodies. But the interesting thing is we are not our emotions. Now how is it that people identify so strongly with their emotions, because in a way we just about feel that we are.

I identified strongly with my emotions yesterday. And it takes a lot for me to get emotional. But yesterday, in the car . . . Artie was driving, and I took a nap and after I took my nap, my glasses were gone. And my glasses weren’t in my pocket. We looked all over for my glasses. Couldn’t find them. And so I was somewhat irritated over that.

And then after we got here, Artie took another look and she finally found them under the seat. How they got there, I don’t know. But anyway, that solved that problem. And then after we got here . . . we have this key to our new car, and it costs five hundred dollars if you have to get a new one. And Artie wanted me to change my pants, and in between changing my pants from here to over there, the key disappeared. And I thought, what the devil! (laughter)

And thank goodness Artie had a second key, but that was somewhat annoying because I just couldn’t figure out how I lost the key within ten feet. And as it turns out, Artie found it under that couch. And how it got there I don’t know. (laughter) But it was almost like someone was trying to test me to see if they could get me irritated yesterday.

So all of us have emotions and the key is not to identify with them but become the observer. Not identify with the body but observe what is happening with the body. The more we detach ourselves from our vehicles, the more control we have over them. Because if we identify too strongly with our vehicles, then what happens? Then there is corruption. There’s disease. And there are all kinds of disease connected with the emotions.

One of the problems with the emotions is the suppression that comes, because people tend to want to feel like they’re in charge of their emotions. If you tell somebody they’re being too emotional . . . they don’t want to be called emotional. That’s like an insult. Even though they are being very emotional, they don’t want to recognize that they are being emotional.

But people tend to identify too strongly with their emotions. And many people realize that it’s not good to identify too strongly. So what they start doing when they realize that being too emotional is not the way to be, they will often deny or suppress their emotions.

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Introduction To the Twelve Keys of Knowledge

Introduction To the Twelve Keys of Knowledge

Part One of the 2021 Gathering – Transcription By Adam Clayton

This is kind of a special group because you’ve come despite the virus and everybody’s nervous about catching something. So I thought people may need a little extra incentive to come here. Some came here with quite a bit of sacrifice so I’ve decided to go through all twelve Keys during this gathering.

Now so far, I’ve given out seven of the Keys. Four of them are given out in the books. Three others I’ve given out at various gatherings. But at this one, we will go through those seven, plus five additional ones that I haven’t identified yet as The Keys of Knowledge.

I’m seventy-six years old. Who knows how knows how much longer I’m going to be here, so I might as well get them out so they’re in the public arena. Hopefully, I can live to be a hundred or so.

Asaph: Two hundred and fifty.

JJ: Two hundred and fifty? That would be nice.

Yeah, I’ve got to figure out the key to regenerating my physical body. Artie and I have several keys of personal things we’ve found to try and stay healthy and that certainly helps. But we have aged just like everybody else. And so we haven’t quite overcome the physical pull toward death yet. And that is something that we’re looking forward to gaining.

That usually doesn’t happen until the fifth initiation. At the fifth initiation, the entity becomes what they call a Master of Wisdom, and he has power to regenerate. He’s not really an immortal, but he has power to regenerate until he no longer needs his physical body.

Now when attaining this power, some Masters go on to higher spiritual levels and do other work, and others stay behind. There are seven different paths that are taken by the various Masters. And one of the paths is called the Path of Earth Service. And in the Path of Earth Service, those who attain the higher initiations, stay behind in order to help us mortals that haven’t crossed over the barrier yet.

But when I wrote the first book, I introduced the idea of the Keys of Knowledge – that there are Twelve Keys of Knowledge, Twelve Keys of Understanding, and Twelve Keys of Eternal Life. I probably won’t get any further than the Twelve Keys of Knowledge in this lifetime. But you never know. It depends on if we eventually establish the Molecular Relationship, and then anything is possible.

Joshua: On these Keys, what’s the difference between these gradations? There are these three sets of keys. There are the Keys of Knowledge and . . . I forget the names of the others. What’s the distinction between those?

JJ: Well, I don’t have all the keys yet, so I can’t clearly tell you the distinction. But we’ll present the Keys of Knowledge, and you can see that the Keys of Knowledge really open up the disciple to more knowledge and understanding of principles that will further them along the path.

And the Keys of Understanding are like the Keys of Knowledge, but they are more related to understanding than increasing knowledge. And the Keys of Eternal Life will be keys that once they are in place, we will understand how to rejuvenate our physical bodies, which I do not have yet.

And if I did have them, I wouldn’t be able to give them out yet, because there isn’t a group ready to receive those final keys. The Keys of Knowledge are something that everyone can understand, and it will increase their ability to discover new knowledge, knowledge that is accurate and true.

Any other questions before we move on?

Key One:  Decision – The Essence Behind Decision

So in the book, we’re hit with the idea as to “Who or what are you?” That is the question that many people have dealt with. Many philosophers have dealt with throughout the centuries and millennia. And what is the main answer that most people give?

Now, there are a lot of teachers teaching “who or what are you.” And they give various answers. But most of their answers are very similar. What do most people say that we are?

Joshua: Souls.

JJ: Souls, yeah. Then you say, “what is a soul?” What else do people say that we are?

Asaph: Gods.

JJ: Gods. Okay, well what does that mean?

Asaph: Essentially, that we are eternal.

JJ: Yeah. Okay. There’s certainly truth to that because we came from a sphere where we were one with God. And we’re reflections of God, so there’s a lot of truth in that. But what is God? And what is any life form? What is the essence of who we are?

Let’s say Asaph here is God. And he doesn’t even know he’s a God because he’s forgotten who he is. But who is he? What is his essence? What’s an answer that a lot of people give?

Joshua: Spirit.

JJ: Spirit. That’s the most common one. Okay, our essence is spirit. All right, well what is spirit? It’s higher than matter, right? But what does that tell you? It doesn’t really tell you anything, does it?

There’s spirit and matter. We kind of have an idea of what matter is. There’s stuff that we can see. And we can build houses out of it and build cars out of it. And our physical body is built with it. But then a lot of the teachings teach that everything that we see is built on the principle of illusion. So we don’t even know what matter is for sure.

Scientists are trying to figure it out. And they look at smaller and smaller particles and all they can find is wavelengths. And then when they get down to the smallest particles, they find out that when we look at it, it’s a particle, and when we are not measuring it, it turns into a wave. And so it goes back and forth depending on whether we’re looking at it or not.

And this has really baffled scientists. It even baffled Einstein. Einstein couldn’t figure it out. It didn’t make much sense to him. He said there had to be something missing in the explanation here.

Some people have even come up with theories from the quantum reality, that science is finding, that they think the whole Universe is produced by some type of hologram. We’re living in some type of video game, and the video game is not composed of real matter that can be touched. But in the game, the actors can touch each other and have experience.

And a lot of people, because of the quantum studies they’ve done where they showed that matter is not solid, and can be either a particle or a wave, a lot of theories are surfacing that our whole life is like a video game that is being played out. This is quite interesting. But that still doesn’t tell us who we are.

Now let’s consider two different teachings. One says we’re in a real universe with real matter and God created it, and I’m in a body. Okay, well what is in the body?

Now the same thing occurs if life is a video game. You’re still in the avatar. We all saw the movie ‘Avatar.’ The guy was in his physical body, but his consciousness was projected to an avatar. The avatar wasn’t real, but it was like it was real. He still had an essence that was real. Even though he wasn’t his avatar, and maybe he wasn’t his body, he was still something. What is that something?

And this is what people have been asking for centuries. And that is what the first Key is centered around.

So the question is “who or what are you?” And first, the seeker has to find out what he is not. The first thing we have to realize is that we are not our bodies. It’s kind of sad that many hard-core scientists believe we are our bodies. They believe we are a machine, and our physical brain has produced our consciousness.

It’s kind of odd though that consciousness, according to science, came from something that was not conscious. Does that make any sense? Does that make sense that your consciousness evolved from something with no consciousness? Doesn’t make sense, does it?

There are so many things that do not make sense regarding the idea that we are our bodies. For instance, consider how complicated one cell in your body is, and how complicated the DNA within that cell is. It has all the knowledge within it to duplicate your entire body. Those small strands of DNA are more complex than any computer we’ve been able to manufacture so far. As a matter of fact, it’s so complicated that it took a tremendous amount of computer energy and technology to decipher it and merely map its configuration.

So figuring that something that has no consciousness . . . just materialized and put things together to produce less than one trillionth of your body, which would be a cell, and in that cell the DNA . . .  to figure that one thing alone was produced by just random effects is harder to believe than like walking through a forest and tripping over a computer, and thinking, “oh, this computer just materialized through the elements all combined together to make this computer work.

Now, just think of a lightbulb, for instance, how complicated it would be for random energies and random events to put together something with threads that could screw into a socket with matching threads. So you screw in a lightbulb, and it works because everything matches.

Within the cells in your body, there are all kinds of linkages like that going on, where you have things matching to other things, just within the cell. Just that alone isn’t something that would just show up for a trillion years, anywhere. And if it did show up once, the winds would blow it away and it wouldn’t go anywhere.

I often think when these atheist scientists die, and they find out that they still have consciousness, and they find out that everything was not created by chance, I think they’re going to hit themselves on the head and think, “boy, was I stupid! Why didn’t I figure that out? Here I was projecting myself as the smartest of the smart, and I did not see this really simple thing that consciousness cannot be created by unconsciousness. How can something with no consciousness create something with consciousness? How can something with no intelligence create something with intelligence?”

I think these scientists, when they find out, when they’re on the other side, they’re just going to slap themselves. Because, you know how you feel when something dawns on you and you think, “well, I should have known that, darn it.” How often has that happened to you? You know, every once in a while, it happens in life.

But you can imagine what an atheist, especially a scientist, who is supposed to be a seeker of truth, how they will feel when they see how obvious it should have been. It should have been completely obvious that we are not our bodies. But even a lot of people who are religious, and believe that within the body is a spirit, they’re still very attached to being a body. They identify with it very strongly.

A sign that we identify too strongly with the body, is the fact that we get ill, that the body breaks down. Since energy follows thought then if we identify too strongly with the body then in the process the thought will be distorted. We are not our bodies. But our body is a vehicle.

Now sometimes, like for instance, if you have a really good car . . . we had a neighbor that had this ’57 Chevy that was in prime shape. He just loved driving that around showing it off. And he had a couple of classic cars, but this particular one he almost identified with, like it was an extension of him. But he’s not his car. His car was a vehicle, but he liked his car so much that it was part of his identity.

Same thing if someone gets a Lamborghini and invests everything in it, or any type of car that someone is really proud of . . . it’s a vehicle. And the tendency of many people is to identify too strongly with the vehicle as if they and the vehicle are one.

Asaph here is a good-looking guy. But it would be a mistake to identify with his body, that he and his body are one. So we have to look on our bodies as a vehicle, a vehicle that we use. And a vehicle can be used for good or evil. You can use a car to help somebody out, to get somebody where they’re going. Or you can use a car to rob a bank.

You can use your body for service and love and helping people, or you can use it to hurt people and do destructive things. So whatever you have, whatever you identify with can be used for good or evil. But the first lesson is to learn that we are not our bodies.

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Recognizing the Christ

Recognizing the Christ

Many fairly intelligent people resist learning by searching and comparing teachings with the voice of the God Within because it does take a certain degree of humility; but remember the truth in the statement that “one must become as a child to enter the kingdom of heaven.” We could call it the kingdom of soul contact.

There are five great barriers to spiritual contact:

[1] Pride and fear from the ego.

[2] Underestimating or overestimating your place on the Path. Usually, the problem is overestimating. How many people have you met who say they are on their last life? 999 out of a 1000 are wrong and consequently delay their learning necessary to progress because they think they do not need it.

[3] Separateness.

[4] Being captured by an authority other than their own soul. This can be anything from a religious leader, the Bible, a channeled entity or even a wise teacher. One must test all with the spirit within.

[5] The deception that a thought form or high emotional vibration is the true spirit within. Few have discovered the true spirit within them and most believe that the highest that they have felt is the highest there is. Just ask a follower of David Koresh or a Moonie or a radical  “born-againer.” They will all say they have felt the Spirit of God, but God did not tell them truth as the readers of this forum understand it. Why not? Because the energy they contacted was indeed a true spiritual energy, but a deceptive one that is not the revelator and confirmer of light and truth. It may give them guidance as they are willing to take it, and it may be helpful in the long run, but it does not give them undistorted truth.

True spiritual contact reveals a point of truth which is eternal and unchanging and will always be true in this universe.

I previously asked a reader who believes his guru is the second coming of Christ why he thinks this and he attempted to give an answer. I read it several times trying to see why he thinks this, but still, it is not clear.

Our friend did make the interesting statement that he was impressed by the guru’s first speech, but couldn’t remember what he said. I find this to be a hallmark of his words. My wife and I have read them all to date and she mentioned to me yesterday: “You know, I have read all his words, they sound flowery and nice, but I cannot remember one thing he said.”

I answered back: “That’s the same with me. However, when I have read the words of Jesus, they strike me and remain with me because they reveal truth.”

So what I would like you to consider is this: Why did Jesus at the first coming say new things, teach new doctrines and word them in such an original way that his phrases have resounded through the centuries, whereas this guru is merely repeating nebulous catch phrases that every new age teacher tosses around?

Even if he is the Christ, he will not be able to accomplish anything, reach men’s souls, or teach anything with nebulous thought that no one can even remember.

Let’s take a significant soul of our time: John Kennedy. He was great because he stirred our souls and we remember his words. Some of them spoke to our souls like — “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

On the other hand, if the current president were to repeat that phrase, as if it was something original, he would be seen as a copycat.

If this guru wants to be even a good false Christ, he must speak in such a way that we can remember some point he was making and he should at least claim to have something new to say. The scriptures tell us repeatedly that when God does a work he does “new” things.

One of the things that impressed you about the guru was the light around him. Did you see an actual light or sense a light?

Whatever the case, Jesus gave us an interesting clue about signs. He said: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign….” (Matt 16:4)

I notice that both orthodox Christians and New Agers look for signs to establish belief, but the Christ told us that this is the way of the deceived. It is interesting that just a few verses later Peter told Jesus that he knew he was the Christ and Jesus said: “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” (Matt 16:17)

Jesus challenged people to test his doctrine, and if we do the truth would be revealed to us just as it was to Peter. The first problem with this guru is that he seems to have no doctrine of his own to test as Jesus did.

I have several more questions for this reader:

[1] You say you are a student of Alice A. Bailey. Is your guru also familiar with her writings? If he is, does he claim to be overshadowed by the Christ as Jesus was or to be the Christ himself?

[2] When and how did he become aware that he was the Christ?

[3] How many followers does he have and what is the goal of the group?

[4] Does he have a correspondence of the 12 disciples?

[5] AAB said that the Christ would “reinstitute the Mysteries of Initiation.” Does this guru have any plan around this?

I don’t mean to be difficult with you here, but if this guru is one of the many deluded Christs, then it will be a great advantage for you to realize it.

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” — Robert Frost

Jan 7, 2009

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Leadership and Criticism

Leadership and Criticism

A reader had a number of criticisms of me beginning with my views on leadership. He commented that a flock of geese illustrates that leadership is not necessary for the one leading the flock is sometimes switched with no negative effect.

The flock of geese switching positions of leader follower is a good one. A correspondence would be a carload of people switching the position of driver periodically. It is a very advantageous thing to do. The geese analogy, however, does not apply to all human endeavors.

If a group is working on a project and the knowledge and skill necessary to lead the project to fulfillment are found in all members of the group then switching the leader-follower position can be advantageous if it does not interrupt the flow of momentum.

On the other hand, if the leadership position requires great skill, knowledge and power to motivate others, then it may not be a job that all members of the group can or may even want to handle.

Let us take the position of England at the beginning of World War 2. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, was completely deceived by Hitler as well as most of the Britons who had parades for him for bringing “peace in our time,” several weeks before the start of the war. When the war began the cheers turned to jeers and the people demanded a new leader. They looked to Winston Churchill, the only prominent man who saw the Nazi threat years in advance and attempted many times to warn the world.

After assuming power Churchill gave one of the most inspiring speeches in the history of the world. He took a people who were defeated in spirit and made them believe in themselves again.

It was unthinkable that someone would suggest something like this: “Chamberlain still wants to lead so let’s let Chamberlain lead half the time and Churchill lead half the time.” Nazi’s would be ruling the world today if that would have happened.

Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet wanted him to share leadership with them. Thank God he refused or we may still have slavery and a divided nation.

There are times for a rotating leadership and there are times for individual leadership.

Do you really think I want to be a leader or teacher for the egos sake? You have judged it so. Why don’t you ask me what I think before making a judgment. I will answer you honestly. When and if you get to know me better that is one virtue you will find in me. I answer truly to the best of my ability.

I enjoy teaching and I enjoy leading. I also enjoy learning and following. If I see that another knows a certain subject well, I have no desire to teach him what he already knows. If I see that another can lead a group successfully in a certain direction, then I have no desire to be the leader. I do have a desire to teach others who do not know what I know, and a desire to lead in avenues where no one else is leading. There are certain areas of teaching and leadership where I see vacancies and there are no volunteers to fill them. I ask myself this: “If not me, who will do it?” The answer comes back: “Maybe no one.” Therefore, I volunteer to do what I can.

This seems to disturb some people. It saddens me that it does, but I continue the path that I know I must follow refusing to deny the feelings within me.

I do not expect you or anyone else to accept my words just because I lay them out to you. If what I teach is confirmed by your soul then we shall feel an inner union and our joy will be full. If what I teach is not confirmed by your soul then you have a duty to not embrace it. If you see a greater light then you have a duty to share it.

I know that it is important to share love and light with others. If we do then more is given, but if we do not and merely hoard it for ourselves then the greater vistas are dimmed.

Question: Are you a politician?

No, I am not a politician. I am a small businessman attempting to get bigger. I believe our government is way too big and the less government the better. Once again a conclusion drawn about me is wrong and once again I ask, “Where do you get such an idea?”

You mention my “oft repeated use of the word governed.” I did some checking and in the past 100 pages of postings my computer does not find the word “governed” used even once. The word “governing” was used once, “governors” once, and “govern” twice. In a volume of writings equaling a small book that is by no means excessive. In the few cases the variations of “govern” were used they were not used in the current political sense. Twice it was used describing the organization of the atoms, once the organization of the white brotherhood and once to NASA.

If you call exposing the truth sarcasm then I guess I am guilty. But I challenge you to compare my choice of words with those who have strongly disagreed with me. Many have used name-calling type words, which I have not used back. I have merely answered questions and posted my thoughts. I have not resorted to name-calling and I am prepared to defend any statement I have made. So why, my brother, do you accuse me of being sarcastic while leaving those who are much more sarcastic alone? Why do you not go after them also? Also, I might note that your posting is much more sarcastic than anything I have written. Is this the pot calling the kettle black here or what?

I have spent so much of my free time answering questions and clarifying misunderstandings in the forums that I have been limited in my time to post other teachings.

I do not post my writings to prove anything. I am seeking those who are spiritually sensitive enough to make soul contact and travel higher together into the realms of spiritual knowledge, love and service.

I would like to make a general request to those who disagree with me. It would be helpful to avoid the following:

* Avoid name calling.

* Avoid nebulous accusations with no explanation like: “Your words have no love…” “Your words are sterile.” “You are on an ego trip.” If you feel this way fine, but instead of throwing out a general accusation that means nothing to anyone, tell me why you feel that way or what I have done or said that seems to indicate that I am that demon you see.

* Avoid sarcasm. I will not seem sarcastic to you if you are not obviously sarcastic to me first.

* Avoid limiting judgments on each other.

* Avoid trying to change me to the image you want me to become. All of us including myself are the controllers of our own destinies. I will always allow you to be what you decide to be. Please allow me the same privilege.

It would also be helpful if we do the following:

* Approach each other with real sincerity and a spirit of love and helpfulness.

* Remember the importance of kindness and harmlessness.

* Attempt to make this forum a center of teaching and learning by all who wish to participate.

* Operate on the assumption that we are all friends and are sincere even if we disagree. It is often easier to use the word “love” than it is to extend the hand of friendship.

The only gift is a portion of thyself. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jan 6, 2009

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Revelation – Union with God

Revelation – Union with God

We’ve been examining these four words: “Perception, Facts, Revelation & Knowledge.”

There is a fifth word of great significance which fits between facts and revelation. That word is “miracles.” However, we are not going to cover it in any detail at this time for the subject is too vast.  After all, A Course in Miracles has already spent a half million words covering the subject.

The main miracle according to the Course has nothing to do with physical healing, but it is the gaining of an awareness of who we really are – a Son of God who is an extension of our Creator. When this awareness is achieved then many things considered miraculous can occur including physical healing. But in the overall scheme of things, the realization of our true identity eclipses any physical miracle.

The Course makes several statements about the relationship between miracles and revelation, For instance it says, “Miracles are thus a means and revelation is an end.” T-1.I.28.

This tells us that the miracle comes first, then the revelation. In addition, it says this:

“Miracles lead to the highly personal experience of revelation.” T-1.III.4

“Revelation induces only experience. Miracles, on the other hand, induce action.” T-1.II.2

“Revelation unites you directly with God. Miracles unite you directly with your brother.” T-1.II.1

This last quote is quite significant for it stresses that a union with our brother is necessary before we experience a true union with God.

So then, we take the Course and develop a miracle mindedness and this leads to revelation which is “transcends” miracles which are still linked to time. T-1.I.48  “When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.” T-1.I.46

Again, with this mysterious word, the Course emphasizes a lot different meaning than in common use. Among us mere mortals a revelation is merely an insight or a new awareness of some kind, but we need to go beyond that and ask what revelation is as taught by the Course.

So far, we have mentioned that revelation returns you “to your original form of communication with God.” T-1.I.46 and it is an “experience” that “unites you directly with God.” T-1.II.1

In addition, we are told that “revelation transcends it (time), having nothing to do with time at all.” T-1.I.48. whereas the miracle can control time and “as an expression of charity, can only shorten it.” T-2.V.10

Religious people often call a vision a revelation but to the Course “A ‘vision of God’ would be a miracle rather than a revelation. The fact that perception is involved at all removes the experience from the realm of knowledge.” T-3.III.4

This tells us that revelation takes us beyond the realm of perception, even the perceived vision of God.

Then it makes this statement:

“Only the healed mind can experience revelation with lasting effect, because revelation is an experience of pure joy.” T-5.I.1

Then there is this:

“Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable love.” T-1.II.2

We all have the knowledge of this revelation within our true sense of being and the Course tells us we seek to have it in our physical relationships “involving the extremely personal sense of creation sometimes sought in physical relationships.” But then adds: “Physical closeness cannot achieve it.” T-1.II.1

Physical closeness would involve sexual relationships which may be very pleasant, but does not compare to the ultimate sharing of revelation.

Whereas miracles “induce action” revelation brings experience. And what experience is that? Pure joy and unspeakable love which goes beyond physical and emotional sharing here or even a vision of heaven, God or angels.

That is certainly something to which the student can look forward.

Here it gives us guidance on attaining this ultimate communication:

“Revelations are indirectly inspired by me because I am close to the Holy Spirit, and alert to the revelation-readiness of my brothers. I can thus bring down to them more than they can draw down to themselves. The Holy Spirit mediates higher to lower communication, keeping the direct channel from God to you open for revelation. Revelation is not reciprocal. It proceeds from God to you, but not from you to God.” T-1.II.5.

To be ready we are given this advice”:

“The injunction ‘Be of one mind’ is the statement for revelation-readiness.” T-2.V.A.17

After revelation is experienced, we are then ready for knowledge:

“Knowledge is the result of revelation and induces only thought.  Even in its most spiritualized form,” T-3.III.5

We now arrive at knowledge, but again, do not go by the dictionary definition if you want to understand how it is used in the Course. We will explore this concept next.

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The Value of a Teacher

The Value of a Teacher

Dialog with readers

A reader who believes his teacher is the Second Coming of Christ expressed the thought that a teacher does not need to prove himself competent.  To this I say that if a teacher does not show in some degree that he has something to offer then why should we follow him or her?

Jesus was a great example. He proved himself through miracles as one method. But more important he proved himself through his teachings. He was able to answer any question. In fact, he answered them so well that “no man dared ask him any more questions.”

He also mentioned that there was a second witness to him which was his Father. This is where Peter got his definite knowledge (Matthew 16).

Where is there ever a great teacher among humanity that has not brought forth something new? Newness is an aspect of the servants of light. In Revelations we are told: “Behold, I make all things new.”

If your guru is really the Christ, or even a servant of Christ, I would ask what his revelation is that is new to this generation? The law of correspondences demands it.

My next question is this: What makes you think your guy is the reappearance of the Christ? Have you had some type of personal witness or revelation or does it just seem right?

Reader Question: Are you familiar with Benjamin Crème?

Yes, I am familiar with him. I see little light at all in his channelings. I have met him in person and was not impressed.

Some of our greatest revelations do not happen during prayer or meditation. Nevertheless, they often come as a result of them in unexpected moments.

Those who are capable of true initiation are so few and far between it is almost unbelievable. It would be discouraging if it were not for the sure witness I have that I am supposed to continue.

The Spirit and the Hierarchy have always been willing to verify my teachings to all those who will seek, but one has to seek with all his or her heart.

Some decisions are set and others are very fluid. All are subject to the free will of the decision-maker. If we as lesser lives are under the influence of a greater life then we can do nothing about the decision of the greater life. For instance, if you decide to go for a walk all the cells and lesser lives in your body have to go along with you. The most positive thing they can do about it is cooperate in the walk and use the benefits of the exercise for their own use.

The universe is unfolding according to the many decisions being made.

There is a truth which says: “Without decision, there is no life.”

Think on this.

Quoting the words of a reader: “Why can’t you just stretch your soul just a bit and acknowledge that there are realms you haven’t walked in? I feel so dishonored by your lack of directness and clarity with me, and with others here. Oh yes, there is a LOGICAL clarity, but the feelings brought forth (what little I can feel) are not clear at all…”

My response: Of course, there are realms I have not walked in. Where do you get such an idea? It is too bad that you feel dishonored. Can you tell me what I said to make you feel that way? Tell me which of my feelings you wish to have clarified.

I’m sorry, your words have not caused resistance in me as you suppose. What is there to resist?

You say you want to know what feelings your words have roused in me. I feel somewhat sad that you see me in such a negative light and I do not feel this great love that you say you radiate. There seems to be great frustration, however. I think the cause is something within yourself and that I have in no way made you a victim.

Why do you assume that the open expression of passion and feeling is some great mystery I need to learn? It is one of my core teachings that I have incorporated for many years. My brother, I have no negative feelings that I am holding back here. What do you want me to do shout and scream in capitals on line?

You say you have tremendous treasure to offer me. Fine offer it.

Reader: “It must be a terrible burden to have all the answers… Humanity is such a stubborn lot!”

My response: I do not feel love in your sarcastic remarks, but frustration again. I say you must not concentrate on changing me to get the love you want. You will find, as others have, that you can feel overflowing love from me if you accept what is in me and stop trying to create me in your own image.

It is not terrible at all to have answers. I feel richly blessed for each answer I have been given. None of us have all the answers and all of us have some of them. The important thing is to appreciate what we have. I feel a responsibility to share the richness I have been given. There are  some who appreciate this.

Another reader accuses me of being in the ego and challenges me to speak with passion and love.

My Passion? I was born with a desire to do the greatest good for the largest number of people possible. At the age of six I decided that being a scientist would make it possible to bring great discoveries to mankind. I kept this goal in my mind until my late teens. Then over the next ten years I had a number of spiritual experiences that changed my priorities. I realized that there was something greater than physical science that humanity was crying out for help in many ways. I found that the spiritual and social evolution of our planet needed to catch up with science. I also realized that the realm of the Spirit is governed by a great science. I discovered that becoming one with the Spirit of God is the greatest love experience that I can imagine and I know that few have had this experience. Knowing this, I have a tremendous passion to share certain knowledge and keys that lead to feelings of love and fire so great that one will think his whole being is dissolving into a spiritual fire.

Perhaps things are the opposite of what you assume my friend. Perhaps it is I that can lead you to vistas of love and feeling that you have not imagined.

Some were confused by this statement I made:

  “Your higher self is one, yet many; just as your body is.”

I was expressing a similar meaning as Paul did in Corinthians when he said:

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” (1 Cor 12:12)

One could reword this as follows:

  “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is the Higher Self.”

Since the higher self represents Christ consciousness this is quite fitting.

Let me further clarify my statement:

  “Your higher self is one (it is linked to the Higher Self of all other Humans on this earth as one great oversoul), but many (there are many parts working with many people); just as your body is. (the body is also one, but has many parts)”

The second key of knowledge to understand is the Middle Way Principle. The great teacher of the Middle Way was, of course, the Buddha. He realized the middle way after experiencing two extremes in life. First extreme comfort and riches and later extreme poverty and deprivation. During the deprivation extreme he was living on just several grains of rice a day seeking enlightenment when it flashed into his mind. The way of enlightenment is neither extreme, but between the two extremes.

I believe the true teaching of Buddha’s middle way has been lost, but many of us have the imprint of the knowledge within us.

So the question for us to examine is: What is the Middle Way?

The power of the Middle Way is hinted at in the writings of Alice A. Bailey:

“Let the magician guard himself from drowning at the point where land and water meet. The midway spot, which is neither dry nor wet, must provide the standing place whereon his feet are set. When water, land and air meet, there is the place for magic to be wrought.”

The service we render others is the rent we pay for our room on earth. — Wilfred Grenfell

Jan 5, 2009

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Esoteric Astrology

Esoteric Astrology

The group had been discussing the possibility that Paris Hilton was a reincarnation of Marylin Monroe. A reader questioned this because of DK’s teachings of the disciple’s progression through the Zodiac and Paris would have been out of sync for Marilyn was a Gemini and Paris is a Aquarius. These signs are not sequential.

First let me add that I said it was within the realm of possibility that these two are the same entity but cannot say for sure at this point. If I were to take the time to do a more complete analysis of their handwriting and charts, I could be more definite.

Secondly, it is doubtful that Paris Hilton is an advanced disciple so DK’s sequential progression through the zodiac may not apply.

There are two astrological pieces of information that DK gave that could be interpreted as black-and-white, yet, just as in all things, exactness in black-and-white rarely works out — especially in esoteric science.

First, he said the advanced student incarnates in counterclockwise order through the zodiac and the average person in regular order, though he did not tell us if the average person moves sequentially.

From my limited study I have found this sequential movement to not be any fixed law, but seems to be true about half the time.

Why isn’t it true all the time if this is the way we progress?

There are, I believe, a number of reasons for this:

[1] In each sign the pilgrim has a lesson of some kind he has to learn. Being as dense as we humans are, around half the time the lesson is not learned, but partially so. Therefore, he does not progress to the next sign but to an energy that will assist him in completing his lesson. Since the lesson is partially learned then it is quite possible he can finish it off in another sign and circumstance.

[2] The sun sign is the most powerful agent in astrology, but still only transmits about twenty-five percent of the influence in a chart. It is then quite possible from an esoteric point of view (often held by DK) that the lesson of a sign, such as Aquarius, could be finished off in another sign, such as Gemini or Libra, when other factors exert a strong Aquarian influence.

[3] I would assume that during the Sabbath life the entity would often be born out of sequence, since no major lesson is being undertaken.

[4] We are strongly linked to our groups and opportunities and sometimes this makes it impossible to be born in the next designated sign.

[5] An advanced soul places service above personal progress. If the opportunity for service is there then he may delay the potential progress of moving to his next sign.

The second unusual teaching is that a person is born in one life on the day he died in the previous life.

A prime example of this was Galileo Galilei who died on Jan 8, 1642 and then exactly 300 years later was born as Stephen Hawking on Jan 8, 1942. His disease was  caused by residual guilt from his life as Galileo when submitted  to the  religious authorities and recanted his   discovery that the earth was not the  center of  the universe.

I have found, however that we are often not born on the d ay of our death in the last life, thought it often happens in approximation.

For instance, in my last life my friends Wayne and Curtis were with me. Curtis was killed Aug 8 and was born in this life on Aug 7. This could have been within 24 hours of the same point in time.

Wayne was killed on October 14 and born in this life on October 17. Close again. On the other hand, I was killed 12:30 AM, July 21 and born Feb 6. This was way off the theoretical date. I was probably attracted to be born when I was because of links with my family as well as to take advantage of the Star of David in my chart.

DK never explained why the birth and death signs are so closely linked.

Here are my thoughts:

The art of astrology teaches that the natal chart is significant because at the moment of birth the entity has impressed upon his soul a snapshot of all the energies of the chart in that moment of time and space.

Now the other significant moment in the life of the soul is death. It’s quite possible another snapshot of equal power is impressed upon the pilgrim.

If this is so then one of two things would happen:

[1] He would be reborn under similar influences.

[2] If this doesn’t fit in with the plan then he would still be influenced by that snapshot of the death date as well as his birthrate and some similarities would be found in the two charts.

I just compared the death chart  of my last life with my birth chart and found some interesting things. In my last incarnation I was killed when my sun was in 28 degrees Gemini and my sun ascendant was also 28 degrees Gemini.

The ascendant in my death chart was also in Gemini and that is very significant. Esoterically the ascendant is the second most important point in the chart because it indicates the future lesson in life.

So, I was not born in Gemini, the sign of my last death, but my ascending time of my sun in Gemini harmonizes with it down to the exact degree. This makes a lot of sense to me in ways that I do not have time to explain in this post.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost

Jan 1, 2009

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