Month: February 2025

Gathering 2005 Sun Valley, Part 4
Experience For God

JJ: It’s an interesting thing to know that we are in the image of God so to understand God, we have to look at ourselves. We are in His image. We are reflections. In the beginning God said, ‘I want to have an experience so I’m going to reflect myself into an innumerable number of entities that can inhabit a universe and solve all of its problems and work through it until the end of the universe that I have in my vision.’

Audience: Inaudible.

JJ: Because there is no such thing as infinity. It’s unlimited.

Audience: “What do you mean by that?”

JJ: When God decides to create there is no limitation to how much He can do. There is no limitation to the number He can come up with. There is always an end. If you try to count the number of atoms in someone’s body you get up to the millions and billions and trillions. There is a tremendous number of atoms in your body but there is an end. You will eventually reach the total number. If you count the number of stars in our island universe called the Milky Way, you get up to over two hundred billion, but eventually you’ll get to the final and exact number. You’ll count the last star eventually. How many galaxies are there in this universe? In the known universe they figure there are between 100 and 200 billion galaxies and many more beyond our vision. There is a number though and there is an end to this universe. Is there another universe? Probably.

The Dark Brotherhood plays upon illusionary limitations. They say most of the people are going to go to hell, stay there forever and be limited forever. But if there is a beginning there will be an end. If there is any type of limitation placed on us after we die, we will eventually work through it because we are unlimited beings. We will work through anything that limits us. But the Dark Brothers work to instill in our minds that we’re limited forever. We can never be like Christ, we can never be like God, we can never be like Leonardo DaVinci or we can never be a master in anything. But we can be. We can be whatever we want because we have unlimited time to remove all limitations.

When you think that God represents the principle of being unlimited — it’s a liberating thing. It’s probably the ultimate salvation to learn to see yourself as an unlimited being.

Audience: “A Course in Miracles says something about God being incomplete.”

JJ: That’s a controversial thing. Garret just said that “A Course in Miracles” [ACIM] says that God is not complete without us. A lot of new age people teach the opposite in that we are complete in and of ourselves. We don’t need anything else. But we do, really. We all need each other and God needs each one of us. The universe is not complete if a particle is missing.

Part of our purpose as an extension of God is to have an experience with God. One of the objectives in the mind of God is to experience everything there is. In order to assist Him to experience everything there is we have billions of people on earth having all kinds of different experiences. You are having an experience unique and to yourself unlike any other person in the universe. Does that make sense to you? When you think of it no other person in the universe has had a life experience exactly like yours. What do you think? Has anyone had a life exactly like yours?

Audience: “No.”

JJ: Right. We’re all unique in that way and God is a composite of every life in the universe. Your job is to have a unique experience unlike any other life in the universe then He can tap into that experience and that is fruit unto Him. The masters have always spoken of us, as disciples, as being fruit. “By their fruits you shall know them.” Jesus always gave analogies of the fruit of the vine because you are a piece of fruit in a way. (chuckles) Each piece of fruit He tastes, tastes different than any other piece of fruit. Our job is to make our piece of fruit unique for God to taste and to make it taste good. But sometimes in order to appreciate good fruit you need to taste some bad fruit, or sour fruit or fruit that isn’t quite ripe. Some of us give God a bad taste in His mouth.

Audience: Laughter.

JJ: Even God needs to once in a while appreciate the good fruit.

What’s interesting about the religions of the world is that they are anti-experience. They say don’t do this and don’t do that. It’s always thou shalt not. In other words, just do the safe thing. They are against having experience. The old saying goes, “it’s better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.” In other words, it’s better to go have an experience instead of having it all over with no experience one way or the other.

To have an experience is much more desirable than no experience even if it’s a negative experience. To have loved and lost, is a lot better than to not go through the emotions of what it feels like to really go through it. It’s better to go out there and have the experience for God, for yourself and for everyone you’re going to influence for many years. You’ll find if you read the biographies of many of the great people, they’ve had very colorful lives.

Churchill is one of my favorites. If you read about his life, he was just a guy aching for experience. Matter of fact, when he was young he wanted to go to war. He was aching to fight in a war but there was no war anywhere. There was peace all around. He finally found the Boar War which nobody has heard of. It was fought on some little island somewhere. He had to search out a war to fight. He wanted the experience so badly. That experience that he received trained him in such a way that when he was facing down Hitler he knew how to handle him because he had been through so many experiences that he could predict his next move.

There is nothing like experience to really learn, even if it’s a negative experience. It’s better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all. It’s better to taste what the world has to offer than to not taste it. Go take a few risks. How many people in your life advise you to avoid risks? When it comes to your kids you are really anti-risk. They really make us nervous. When I think of my kids doing what I did when I was young it really makes me nervous. But when I look at my own youth and all the times I came close to risking my life, it was worth it in a lot of ways for it produces good stories.

“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.” — H. L. Hunt

Aug 21, 2009

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2005 Sun Valley Gathering, Part 3
Guilt and Karma

JJ: The person who suppresses and denies will often blame others. Often this person will describe others in what is really a self-description. Have you ever had someone do that to you? Call you a liar and you’re not lying at all but you’ve noticed that they lie a lot?

Audience: “Some people project their feelings on to someone else because they don’t take responsibility for them.”

JJ: Projection is a very powerful thing. You see it a lot. Most of these people who do project are suppressing some of these negative teachings involving guilt. True salvation is to be delivered from guilt. When I was delivered from guilt it had nothing to do with any teaching from any religion. It had to do with me releasing myself from someone else taking the place of God.

This is what happens when the true Beast is created. Someone outside of yourself assumes the authority of God and you give them that authority. Whether it’s a prophet, priest, political leader, it doesn’t matter. If you give them authority over you like God is supposed to have authority over you then you have an outside God, an image of God that is incorrect, being your conscience. You’re allowing him to dictate what will make you feel guilty and what won’t.

It takes a lot of honesty to eliminate guilt because to eliminate it you need to go back to your foundation beliefs and ask yourself, “Do these beliefs still have an effect on me?” Often they will have a much more powerful effect on you than you can admit.

I’ve often had the case where I’ve met someone who claims to have moved to New Age or metaphysical beliefs and they think they let go of the old beliefs a long time ago. Then I talk to them about it or maybe quote some scripture and they get irritable. The reason they get so irritable is because those old beliefs are still working below the surface, buried. They’re buried in denial.

So we have to go back and unearth and be willing to look at everything we’ve ever felt, believed or thought about in the light of day. Why is Christ called the Lord of Light or Lord of Love? Because that is how deliverance comes. Deliverance comes through light and love. Not too many people are truly delivered from guilt. This is one of the purposes of “A Course in Miracles” (ACIM). How many read that?

One of the main purposes of that book is to deliver people from guilt. The exercises are good for this. They don’t really say that point blank but if you look at the principle of the book, it’s all about the one principle of delivering people from guilt. The teaching of every holy man who has ever lived has led up to this one thing, to deliver us from guilt. But before we can make quantum movements in evolution, we must be delivered from this feeling of guilt ourselves.

Audience: “I watched a program on TV then thought about my own religious teachings. Confronting someone who says Jesus died for your sins, I’ve been thinking about it the past few days. How do you approach something like that?”

JJ: That’s much more different than the religions teach. He died for your sins but in what way? He came and he taught us how to be released from our guilt and how to deliver ourselves from our sins. He got killed for teaching that so in that way he died for our sins.

His death by itself doesn’t deliver us from our sins. Matter of fact, Jesus taught the principle that we’ll be judged by our works and that we have to pay for our mistakes to the last farthing. This is how karma works. When we make a mistake, we have to recompense it to the last farthing before we can have deliverance from the wheel of karma. People often ask the question, “Let’s suppose you kill a thousand people. How can you ever be delivered from such a thing?” If you were a bad guy like Hitler in one life then decided you want to straighten yourself out, does that mean you need to go through a thousand lives and be killed a thousand times? No. If you take out a loan from the bank you have to pay back the full amount say ten thousand dollars. If when you took out the loan you were making $10 an hour it would take a long time to pay back that money. If a year goes past and the note is due and you’re now making $100 an hour, you can pay off that loan much faster than you could’ve earlier because you’re skilled at service and there is a better value for your labor. It’s become much more valuable so you don’t have to work as many hours to pay off that loan because you’re now making more money.

This is how it is with karma. As you develop your skills for service you can pay off a lot of karma with service that will benefit a large number of people. Or let’s suppose you’re in a coal mine and something is happening that may kill a hundred miners and you do something to save all hundred of them. You’ve repaid a debt of a hundred lives. So there are different ways you can pay off your karma without being killed a thousand times. You pay off the karma by paying off the amount that is due.

If your power to pay that off is increased, then you can pay it off quicker. This is what Jesus offered to the twelve disciples when he called them. He gave them power to pay off their karma through service. Through their service they could pay off their karma much faster by promoting His teachings than they could have otherwise.

Audience: “If someone commits a crime and goes to jail, does going to jail pay off anything?”

JJ: That’s a good question. Yes, any type of punishment for a crime does pay off some karma, but this is a very slow process and often creates little if any restitution. Paying off karma through service is much faster.

The advantage the higher lives have isn’t the fact that the future is just there for them, but they have greater powers of reasoning. They can see into the past farther and they can project into the future farther because they have more formulas figured out than we do but they’re not always right.

Matter of fact, you can’t find one prophet that is right more than about 60% of the time. Nostradamus is quoted quite often but he is always quoted after the event happens. Have you ever read “The Enquirer” or the “Weekly World News”? Nostradamus predicts the coldest winter in three centuries next year. Winter comes along and it’s mild and you wonder what went wrong. Then the next one will read that Nostradamus predicted 9/11. Why didn’t anyone see this before 9/11? It’s because the prediction was somewhat vague. Nostradamus wrote in such a way, and often the Biblical passages are this way, such as Isaiah and some of the more complicated verses can be interpreted a lot of different ways.

On hindsight we can say, “Boy it seems to be talking about JFK’s assassination or World War 2, but nobody figured it all out beforehand. Every once in a while somebody figures something out in advance. Some people read the Bible and say, “Every prophecy Jesus made was correct.” Let’s pick one. To the Jews he said, “This temple will be destroyed so not one stone will be left upon another.” This is cited as a great prediction he made which came true. But did it come true? The temple was torn down but there is still stones left upon the other on the wailing wall, right Assaf?

Assaf: “Well, nobody is sure that it is actually a part of it. Scientifically speaking they don’t know.”

Audience: “There is a guy who says that isn’t true because the Roman historians said they did tear the temple down stone by stone and took thousands of people they captured and made them dig under the stones. There is a chance that they’re wailing at a wall that was really just a fort.”

JJ: So if the wailing wall is really part of the temple the prophecy didn’t come true but if what Larry says is true then the prophecy did come true. Another prophecy Jesus said was, “He shall see his seed” and be married and have children. If you read “The DaVinci Code” he did see his seed, well he actually didn’t because he was crucified and Mary Magdalene had the baby afterwards.

Audience: “The legend says she had a daughter before he was crucified and a son after.”

JJ: If we go by the standard Christian belief that he didn’t have any children then that was a false prophecy but if you ask a standard Christian, “how can Isaiah be right if Jesus didn’t have children?” They’ll say, “The seed is the people who believe in him.” There is always a way to work around prophecy so it fits in somewhere.

Audience: “Is it possible that some of these people will be alive when these events take place and not all of them will die? That’s a hard one to reconcile.”

JJ: The way that is reconciled is Jesus says, “This generation shall not pass away before he will come again.” But they say, “This generation could mean an age.” There is an unlimited number of years years in that generation is one interpretation I’ve heard. Believers, by stretching the truth, say every single thing has come true. Another thing about the Bible is that it has been edited off and on by scribes who add things in to make it more reliable and more infallible.

But let’s look at things we know. There are a lot of people who are psychics, like modern day prophets. I’ve met some pretty good psychics. Some are pretty accurate but none of them are 100% accurate. The Bible itself said, in the day of Moses, that if a man comes and makes any prophecy that does not come true he must be put to death. I imagine the prophets were pretty hesitant to make predictions. It’s interesting to think about. Nobody knows the future in all of its details.

A person who I believe to be a master, Djwhal Khul [DK], who gave the writings to Alice A. Bailey through mental telepathy, has the most intelligent writings I’ve ever read. He gives a number of prophecies in his books. I’ve found him to be about 60% accurate. I’ve found others who are considered to have a prophetic gift to be less accurate than that. Edward Cayce is probably about 50% accurate. He predicted Atlantis was going to rise up a long time ago but was wrong.

Truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged. Neitzsche

Aug 15, 2009

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2005 Sun Valley Gathering, Part 2
True Salvation

JJ: When you’re training a child, you’ll tell them not to do something but they’ll go ahead and do it anyway. Then they live through the experience and regret it. After they suffer a little pain then they finally learn. The parents say, “I’ve taught you this all along. Why didn’t you just listen to me? If you would have listened to me you could’ve saved yourself all this pain.

Why do you think experience is such a great teacher? If I tell you, for instance, “You can obtain soul contact if you do A, B, C, and soul contact is a really wonderful thing to have.” You might think, “Well, that sounds good.” But maybe there is no motivation there to get soul contact. You’ve never experienced soul contact so you don’t know what it is. But then one day you go through something and have an experience and you obtain a taste of a higher life or a higher energy. Once you obtain that experience, does that change you? How many here have gone through an experience where you’ve encountered a vibration or sensation that you have heard of but never felt before that certain moment? Let’s pick on somebody here. Tell us about your experience.

Audience: “Well, my experience was actually a dream. It was like a dream I never had before. I just saw seven moons above me and they all lit up, one by one by one. As soon as the last one lit up the entire sky lit up and I knew right at that moment that something special was going to happen. Suddenly I was being ascended up. I looked around and there were a lot of people around me. I had this very peaceful feeling, almost a feeling that I had to convince people that everything was going to be okay. Something was going on. My whole entire body heated up like I was on fire. I woke up not knowing what the heck happened but I know something special did happen.”

JJ: After you had this experience can you relate it to people?

Audience: “Yea, I talked to Artie about it. One way of looking at it was like my energy centers opened up, my eyesight opened up and I had so much more clarity than I had before. I’m just more aware.”

JJ: They say one reason we came to this mortal sphere is to experience joy and pain and sorrow. By experiencing the dualities and really going through them, is a lot different than sitting back in some static state and talking about the theory of dualities. Here we’re experiencing dualities. By going through the experience, it produces an enrichment.

It is said that as the soul gathers back to the Source it gathers back fruit of experience. Think of that statement. The fruit of experience. In other words, experience produces the fruit that we take with us to other worlds and that produces a livingness and a joy and an enrichment that we will have in our possession. It’s a fruit that we take with us that we can then partake of and relive if we want to and enjoy it again and again. This is why it’s so important to live our lives so the end of the experience is good and joyous. If the end of our experience is a negative situation, then the fruit that we have will not be good fruit. If our memories on the incident are that you end up hurting a lot of people then you reflect upon it from a higher state it will not be something very useful for enhancing your livingness.

People often ask and this is usually the question that’s called the ultimate question and that is why we are here or why God made anything to begin with. Every time I look up at the stars at night I’m filled with wonderment and I ask myself if the greatest miracle is perhaps that anything is here at all. That’s a miracle. Talk about not being able to see the forest for the trees. The greatest miracle of all is that anything exists, even a rock or a planet. The fact that the universe exists teaming with life and we can see it out there is a tremendous miracle. It’s a miracle that we’re here to begin with. So what’s it all about? Why are we even here? Do you think it has something to do with experience?

We’ve all heard the expression that God is one. Let’s go back to when God was one and was in a static condition and just a condition of being. Visualize yourself being the one life and you’re only one and nothing is really happening except maybe in your universal mind you’re imagining some things happening. That’s not really good enough, is it? You daydream about stuff. Then God reaches a point where he thinks, “I’m really getting bored with this imagining what creation would be like. I’m going to make a creation that’s really seems real then I’m going to jump into it myself. I’m going to reflect myself and create divine reflections all over a universe and I’m going to jump in with my being and my life and I’m going to experience, in reality, a state of duality and I’m actually going to go through it – not just imagine it, but I’m going to go through it and work my way out of it. It’s going to be tough.

People feel the need to give God the benefit of the doubt about His power. Our belief system here is that God is perfect. We feel we are safe believing this way. If He’s not perfect He won’t be that mad that we’re giving Him the benefit of the doubt. If He’s perfect and we say He’s not, perhaps He’d be really angry with us so let’s give Him the benefit of the doubt then our doctrine is perfect.

Is God all powerful? Well, yea, we better make him all powerful too. Does God know every little thing that’s going to happen? Is he omniscient? Yep, we better put that in there too. We don’t want to make him mad for believing He is limited. This fear of making God mad or angry with us causes the designers of every religion of the earth to give the most positive aspect and description of God that they can possibly come up with. If you read some of the Catholic Catechisms, “Oh most holy wonderful Divine being…” They say the same type thing in the east, “Most holy exalted divine being, we adore you.” All these statements of adoration originated from the point of fear because they didn’t want to offend anybody up there. They always say the most positive thing possible.

Does God know everything or does he not know everything? We better say He knows everything and burn anybody at the stake who says otherwise. Let’s make sure we don’t offend the divine being. The scriptures don’t actually say He knows everything and they don’t say he is perfect. But they do say this. You and I are created in the image of God. Are you perfect? Do you know everything that’s going to happen? You don’t, do you? Do you know everything in the universe? Are you all-knowing? No, you’re not.

When we set a goal for ourselves we know how it will end, and if we don’t give up on that goal, it does end that way. You only don’t reach your goal if you give up. Think about it. Any goal that you can set for yourself, a goal that is at least possible, you can accomplish if you don’t give up.

You have the ability to know the end from the beginning. This is the way of every life in the universe. Everyone can know the end from the beginning, just like DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa. He knew the image of how the Mona Lisa was going to look but in between he made a lot of bad strokes that he had to paint over to get it exactly the way he wanted. Leonardo was not perfect in the process of painting but by the time he finished the painting was just about as perfect as perfection could be. But in between it wasn’t. He made a lot of unnecessary bad strokes he had to compensate for. That’s the way we are and that’s even the way God is.

Look at this planet. The physical is really just the tip of the iceberg. Theosophy teaches are seven planes of existence for this earth. We are the fourth one down. The creation of the earth started three planes up from us. We’re the lowest point then the earth will go to the astral then to the higher mental then to the spiritual. We’re at a point in this earth life where the earth is far from perfect. God made this earth that isn’t perfect and you and I aren’t perfect. Perfection is an illusion.

The Bible talks about Jesus being perfect as the author of our salvation. The word “perfect” came from the Greek word TELEIOO, meaning He fulfilled the job he came to do. In other words where it says, “He being made perfect”, it really says in the Greek that he fulfilled the job he came to do. Where it says, “Be ye therefore perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect” it basically reads, ‘Do your job even as God does his job. God makes the sun shine every day and gets his job done so you get your job done every day too and you’ll be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect.

There is another word for perfect which is AKRIBELA in the Greek. This is the word for perfect that we use. It means flawless. This is what we think when we say perfect. We’re thinking the Greek AKRIBELA. Where does this word show up in the scriptures? Where this word shows up is among the people who crucified Jesus. They were trying to be AKRIBELA. They crucified Jesus because he was not AKRIBELA. He violated a lot of laws so they were always accusing him of not being AKRIBELA or flawless. Jesus was far from a flawless man in their minds.

The true meaning of perfection, as it is used in the New Testament in reference to Christ, is to merely set a goal for yourself and get it accomplished. Leonardo De Vinci had a goal to produce an almost perfect painting and he reached his goal so he achieved the type of perfection that Jesus achieved when he became the author of our salvation.

Salvation is an interesting word. The word in the Greek actually means deliverance. It means to be delivered from something. If we study these ancient words we’ll find how misused they are. They’re so misused today that a lot of intelligent people don’t even want to associate with these ancient words like sin, repentance, righteousness. A lot of people want to distance themselves away from these words unless they’re really strong religious people. They feel there is something wrong with these words and something is wrong because we’ve distorted them from the way they were in the beginning.

When people commit what they call a sin, what do they feel afterwards? Guilt. What is guilt? Let’s take the true meaning of sin which it to “miss the mark.” Have you ever shot an arrow at a target or a gun where you’re shooting at a bulls-eye? When you’re shooting and you miss the bulls-eye do you ever feel guilty because you miss? Why don’t you feel guilty?

Audience: “I haven’t been taught to feel guilty about that. I may be mad.”

Audience: “I feel disappointed.”

JJ: Do you hit yourself and think, “I’m not ready to try another arrow? I must do penance and wait thirty days at least. I’m not worthy! I must wait sixty days and purge myself. I must cleanse myself!” We don’t think that way, do we? Why not?

Why do people think that way about sin? Why do they think, when they commit what they call a sin, why do they experience this guilt? And this guilt makes them think, “I’m not worthy of even trying anymore.”

Audience: “I have a question or maybe a comment. If I were just shooting an arrow at a target, nobody gets hurt. If I make a mistake and a lot of people are hurt, then I’d feel pretty guilty about that. Why shouldn’t I feel guilty?”

JJ: With a lot of sins no one gets hurt. Let’s say you were taught that drinking coffee is a sin. If you’re taught that and you drink coffee nobody gets hurt much but if you’re under that religious system, you’ll feel guilty about it.

Audience: “How about if it angers God? If you’re taught it is the wrath of God and you make Him mad, he’ll get you.”

JJ: Does drinking coffee make Him mad? What produces guilt? Fear? That’s part of it. Fear is a big part of it.

Audience: “How about a lack of understanding?”

JJ: That’s part of it. You’re not understanding something and that lays the foundation for guilt. That’s true. What is it that we don’t understand?

Audience: “I think just buying into society’s expectations and trying to live up to those produces guilt. We’re concerned about what other people will think if we do something bad or hurt people. That’s part of it, I think.”

JJ: Let’s pick something that produces guilt. Let’s say Robin does something she knows will irritate Larry so Larry asks her about it and she lies to him. Then she thinks, “Oh no, I lied to him and God says not to lie.” So, she starts to feel really guilty about lying to him. Now, let’s apply the true meaning of sin which is to miss the mark and realize you’re wrong. If you realize you’re wrong you can tell him, “I told you a lie. I’m sorry. I’ll do better.” There is no guilt involved. You corrected the situation and are ready to shoot another arrow at the target.

What produces guilt is this. The commandment or the law that you feel you have gone against was given by God, but not by God himself but by a representative. A man in the flesh is representing God and he’s telling you that you have done something terribly wrong and you need to feel bad. This produces guilt. Instead of God being inside yourself, when God is outside yourself and a human agent gives you a law and you break that law you feel guilty because God is out there.

Let’s suppose God is in here and not out there anymore. If He is within and you are doing your best and you make a mistake then you check within and you think, “I made a mistake. I’ll do better next time.” You follow that and there is no guilt. You’re in communication. You have no individual that’s a mediator between you and God. Your soul is the mediator between you and God so your soul tells you what God thinks.

God reveals His thoughts to you and when this happens you don’t feel guilt any more. When you make a mistake, instead of thinking, “Oh no, I’m not worthy of trying again” you try again immediately. Even if you hurt someone you think, “It’s really bad that I hurt somebody. I didn’t mean to make them angry or hurt their feelings. I’ll do better next time and be more sensitive.” You shoot another arrow at the target and there is no guilt. You may feel disappointed in yourself just as if you were shooting an arrow at the target and you miss but you won’t sit around for a month doing nothing until you shoot at the target again.

This is the true meaning of what salvation is. Christ came and delivered us from guilt. That was his main mission. That deliverance has been lost. Even the people who say they have been saved are still suffering from guilt so they really have not been saved. You’re only saved when you’re delivered from guilt but the regular religious person thinks it’s evil to be delivered from guilt. They think that if you’re delivered from guilt, you have no conscience.

I’ve been free from guilt for many years but I still have a conscience, but if I make a mistake, I don’t think I’m not worthy to do this or that or I’m not worthy to enter the door of a church or that I have to fast. If I make a mistake, I feel absolutely no guilt about it. I may feel bad about it. Like shooting an arrow at the target I may think I screwed up. I just vow to do better next time. This is the way of progress. You can make about ten to a hundred times more progress on the spiritual path when guilt is eliminated.

“There is only one you… Don’t you dare change just because you’re outnumbered!” — Charles Swindoll

Aug 11, 2009

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2005 Sun Valley Gathering, Part 1
Humor & Spirituality

JJ: I’ve never started a gathering with a joke but I feel impressed to start with one today. Has anyone ever heard the joke about the three degrees of hell? Nobody? That’s great. That means you’re in for a good joke. This mobster named Lenny is kind of a bad dude and he dies. He meets the devil and says, “Well, I knew I’d end up in hell. What do you have waiting for me?”

The devil replies, “We’ve modernized down here so instead of just having fire and brimstone we’re giving people choices now. We have three degrees of hell. The good part is you get to pick one to go to. We’re going to open the doors to the three degrees and let you look. Once you choose one you go through the door and there is no retreat.”

So, the devil opens the first door and everyone in there is standing on their heads on razor blades.

Lenny says, “This is pretty horrible. I don’t think I can handle this. Show me the next degree.”

So the devil takes him to the next degree and there is everyone standing on their heads on sharp swords.” Lenny says, “Oh man, this is even worse. Show me the third degree.”

So he shows him the third degree and there is everyone standing waist deep in fresh manure drinking coffee. Lenny thinks, “This isn’t that great but it isn’t as bad as the first two.” So he chooses this degree. Then a couple of the devil’s imps throw the guy into the fresh manure.

A couple minutes later the devil claps his hands and yells, “Alright everyone. The coffee break’s over. Back on your heads!”

(Laughter from audience.)

Tonight, we’re going to talk about experience and a little humor is a good lead in for this topic.  Have you often wondered if God has a sense of humor? Some people say that when God made man and man thought he was going to be one of the gods because God says: “The man is going to be one of us,” that some Christians interpret that as God joking. In this case I do not think any joke was involved, but let me tell you a true story about my friend Wayne that you may find somewhat humorous.

Back in high school Wayne and I used to go to Seminary class together, and talk about serious, this teacher of ours was so serious that you couldn’t crack a smile or you were being irreverent to God. Wayne wasn’t serious at all. As a kid he was even worse than he is now. Wayne would often come in late. When he came in late, he didn’t just come in silently and pull up a chair. He would go to the furthest chair in the room. He would stumble over things on the way and knock over a chair or trip over someone’s foot. He always created a disturbance. The teacher was giving a class on something really serious and spiritual from the Bible and Wayne comes in late and stumbles across everything. Looking at the teacher’s face you could tell he was just seething inside and he wanted to get mad but he felt it was wrong so he kept containing his temper. He became more and more irritated with Wayne every day as the class went through the season, but he tried to be patient.

After class, there weren’t enough cars to take us all to school so we’d all rush to get a ride. About two thirds of us could get a ride to school. If you couldn’t squeeze into someone’s car, you had to walk a mile or so. So the faster we could get out of class the less the chance that we would have to walk.

So, Wayne, as we were having the closing prayer, would sneak out during the prayer. He always wound up getting a ride that way. As we were praying I’d open my eyes and see Wayne sneaking out then look at the teacher. You could see steam almost rising off the top of his head. He’d turn beet red like he wanted to strangle that son of a gun. So, Wayne irritated the teacher at the beginning of the class then he irritated him at the end of the class and sometimes irritated him in the middle of the class with questions.

One day I came to seminary late myself and Wayne was outside the class with this new yo-yo. He was standing over the stairwell playing with it. It had a very long string on it. I said, “Aren’t you going to seminary this morning?”

Wayne said, “No, I’m experimenting with this yoyo.”

This other kid named Jerry, from a lower class, came up to me and says, “Maybe I’ll go in your class today.” Then he changed his mind as I entered the door. He stayed outside hidden from sight.

The teacher was talking about the Holy Ghost and every time he mentioned the Holy Ghost Jerry, who was out in the hall with a voice that sounded a little like Wayne would go, “woooooooo” every time the teacher mentioned the Holy Ghost.

You should’ve seen Paul, the teacher. He started turning red and you could tell he was ready to pop a cork. He tried to control himself and continue and he mentioned the Holy Ghost again and each time he did Jerry made his best ghost impression by saying, “wooooooo.”

The teacher turns red again but gets hold of himself and mentioned the Holy Ghost one more time and then comes the ghostly sound again, “wooooooo.”

The teacher says, “I’ll be right back!” He ran out there and I thought Jerry would be in trouble but ole Jerry hid behind the door. So there is Wayne with his yo-yo and of course the teacher figured it had to be Wayne mocking the Holy Ghost.

(Laughter from audience.)

So the teacher grabs Wayne and throws him against the wall. Wayne isn’t the type of person to let anyone throw him against a wall so he grabs the teacher and throws him against the wall. They threw each other against the wall a couple times and Wayne says, “What’s going on?”

(Laughter from audience.)

Finally it got sorted out. It was the one time the teacher had a chance to punish Wayne and it was the one time that Wayne was innocent. Any other time he would have gone after Wayne, Wayne would’ve been 100% guilty.

Wayne, speaking from the audience states:

“He didn’t believe me and I got kicked out of seminary.”

JJ: He didn’t believe you? You got kicked out of seminary over that? You were completely innocent! I could’ve been a witness. You got kicked out for the whole year? I could’ve verified that for you but you probably wanted to get kicked out though, knowing you. Your mom made you go, didn’t she?

Audience: “Explain to us what seminary is, JJ.”

JJ: Wayne and I grew up in the Mormon Church. In the Mormon Church before school starts they have a seminary program for the Mormon kids. One year you learn about the New Testament, another year, the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon and the church history. There are four years. It starts early in the morning before school and none of us liked to go because we had to get up early and go before school started. Wayne’s mom always picked me up and took me and I was almost always late and it irritated her. We weren’t real excited about going but most of the kids’ parents made them go. Wayne was probably happy to be kicked out if I know him.

“Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.” — George Santayana (1863 – 1952)

Posted July 30, 2009

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Love and Karma

We received a post from a reader showing appreciation for this group reaching a balance between hierarchical authority and democracy. Then he notes that the group is “imbued with the magnetism of Love that can hold it together in spite of the many controversies that will come and go in true occult and esoteric work.”

I appreciate this observation and an honored you see this as one of the top groups you have come across. But what particularly struck me was your observation of “the magnetism of Love.” In the years I have taught here you may have been the first (outside of myself) to make this observation.

In the course of these teachings there have been many a conflict and many complaints of a lack of love — that the quality of the people here is too low to accomplish anything of note. You are, of course, familiar with the principle of harmony through conflict — that this does not negate the second ray principle of love.

I have sought to assure the group a number of times in differing ways that the love of the soul is here and many of those that seem obnoxious are just sincerely proceeding along the path in their own way and time. I have stressed DK’s teaching of tolerance for other students even though they irritate our personalities.

This irritation runs through all groups and has to be neutralized before productive group work can be accomplished. But one of the effects of centering on irritation is that the general current of real love that does indeed circulate is often overlooked.

As you noted, the magnetism of love is here and does circulate, even though there is some resistance. I will also observe that this group has made considerable progress over the years.

The simple principle of seeing the glass as half full rather than the emptiness ever applies.

Karma & Effects

A reader asks this: “If we ‘cannot step into the same river twice’ because it is always flowing and thus the composition of said river changes from micro-second to micro-second, how can karma or sin stick to an individual who also is flowing from micro-second to micro-second?

JJ: Karma is not composed of the moving drops as in a stream but is the direction of the stream. If you alter its direction then it doesn’t matter how many times the original water changes, the direction will continue until another change occurs.

If you cut your finger off the effect will stay for many years until you die even though the elements that compose your body will change several times.

Jesus said: “Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” Matt 5:26)

Even so, the last farthing of Karma must be paid before the pilgrim obtains liberation.

We know that if we cause money to be put in the bank we will have the effect of available money (good Karma). We also agree that if you cause a loan to be made at the bank that you will then owe some money (bad Karma).

To say that there is no bad Karma is to say that there are no negative effects. Therefore, if there were no such thing as bad (or negative) Karma is the same as saying that when you take out a loan from the bank that you will owe no debt. In this case if negative Karma is denied long enough you will awaken to reality when you watch the bill collectors haul your car off.

To say there is no bad Karma is the same as saying that when you drive over a cliff that only good things will happen. I think here we all will agree that when we create a cause in this life that an effect will follow.

Now perhaps some think that when we die all of our causes die with us and we carry no effects into the next life, but in principle a cause always is followed by an effect, and they are carried over into future lives.

A Letter

I’ve received some very heartfelt letters from readers over the years and have only shared a few. Here’s one I just received:

Hi, my name is Alex, and I am from Mexico. Let me tell you that the teachings in your books have astonished me, for I haven’t read such good material in a long time.

I went to this retreat (Ramtha) in Yelm, Washington, USA, and there they have what they called “The Quantum Cafe” where there are lots of interesting books. Well anyway, I bought some of Ramtha’s fireside series books, “The Red Lion,” “Brother of the Third Degree,” and also bought “The Immortal.” I still don’t know why I picked “The Immortal” — as it was a simple book with no flashy cover, and somehow the book called to me, so I bought it and brought it back from the retreat to Mexico.

I didn’t read it quite away, and let it gather dust, saving it for a later time. It probably would still be gathering dust if it wasn’t for my brother who wanted something to read, so I told him to grab any of the books that I brought back from the retreat.

 Well to my surprise, my brother was greatly fascinated with the book, so I asked him, what’s so special about the book? The only thing he told me was, “You have to read this!. “Okay, maybe later,” I told him.

It was one of those books that once you start you just can’t stop reading it. My brother even gave me money to purchase the other books from the Immortal series. So, we ordered them from Amazon.Com.

 I am now on the fourth book — “Eternal Words.”

 All of the books seem to have great knowledge from many philosophical currents, and from the looks of it you have read a lot of books. You can tell that by the different quotes in the book that it is not like other “New Age” books that don’t want you to think, and that somehow enlightenment will come all of the sudden.

 I don’t care if characters in the novel are real or fiction, the truly important thing is the message not the messenger.

 I just wanted to thank you for such good books that have helped me in my own evolution, and maybe you should make translations into other languages, I know it will make a great hit here on Mexico.

 I can’t hardly wait to get the other books of the Immortal series.

Alex

“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.” — Sir Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)

July 13, 2009

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Is Life a Game or a Play?

A reader continued to take issue with my comments about life not exactly being equivalent to a play. He said he had an out of body experience where “I found myself on a stage in a giant rotunda. The audience was giving me a standing ovation.” He said he saw there were “49 levels from the beginning to end of a creative expression.”

The 49 levels make sense as it agrees with the esoteric writings which tell us there are seven cosmic levels each consisting of seven sub levels wherein we are at the lowest ebb.

In the whole scheme of things, the “play idea” does not exactly correspond for one must always consider this principle that correspondence of below with above is never exact, but always involves a twist, for in each level of creation the Intelligence of God seeks to do something new and different.

I submit that life is more like a game than a play. An actor giving a good performance may receive an applause, but a player in a game making the winning score is the one who really gets the mind-bending accolades.

There are similarities between a game and a play, but also significant differences. The main difference is that the script is all predetermined in a play and there is no free will to go off script.

In a game the rules are predetermined and because of past performance you may have ideas as to how the game will play out, but you do not know for sure. As you play you can make a split-second decision that may dramatically change the result of the game. If you succeed you will get the applause that you sensed.

On the other hand, both a play and a game are performed before an audience and the players receive accolades if they perform well.

Shakespeare himself said that “All the world is a stage and the men and women in it merely players and each person in his time plays many parts.” This also corresponds to comparing life to a game.

That said, some people take this idea of a predetermined script too literally to the extent that they believe that even Hitler was really a good guy and agreed beforehand to play the bad guy and kill millions of Jews and the Jews who suffered also volunteered for the part. Then after death Hitler and the Jews sang kumbaya together.

Let’s face it, no one in their right mind would volunteer to be tortured or starved to death or watch helplessly on as their loved ones suffer. Many of the parts that are played here are not voluntary but we are plunged into undesirable situations because of karma or the need to learn to be better players. Hitler did not plan on creating the negative karma for himself that he materialized, but was captured by illusion in the midst of the game and played out the role that illusion led him toward.

One of the reasons that life seems like a play to many is the sense that we are being watched by unseen beings. This makes it seem that we are actors on a stage performing for a host of watching beings from the unknown.

Even here the “play idea” breaks down somewhat because over 95% of any life is pretty boring and not worth watching whereas a play is written so every line is important and geared to having the whole thing watched to be understood. Then, with a game, there is much timed spent in preparation that would be boring to watch.

Also, on this earth there are many who have nothing much of interest that would attract attention if they were a part of a play. I think I speak for many in saying that if I were in the spirit and able to watch whoever I wanted there would only be a few I would find interesting enough to watch.

I know in my own life I am watched now and then. There may be a guardian angel or two helping me to stay out of trouble and danger, but as far as watching me because it is an interesting thing to do I sense this happens just once in a while. I will add though that Higher Lives tune into lower lives and can be aware of them while doing other things, thus eliminating extreme boredom while maintaining awareness.

I had an experience once when I made a life changing decision that afterward I was made aware that many spiritual beings were watching me. It wasn’t as if I was in a play though but more like I was in a giant arena making a game winning decision. The decision was more important than I realized as numerous concourses of beings were cheering me on with great jubilation for the decision I had made. Because of this decision certain things were going to manifest in the future, but from their eyes it was as if the manifestation were already in the present.

I remember the episode of Star Trek you mention where Picard lived an entire life within a few minutes of normal time. This is indeed a possibility and from some spheres of existence a whole lifetime here would seem but a very short time.

I think your sense of being watched like you are an actor in a movie could indeed be real but most likely you are watched for two reasons:

 First, you have lived an interesting life. Secondly, successfully navigating your life to a good end will mean that many people will benefit. This fact draws the attention of “watching lives.”

Overall, the purpose of life is very simple. It is about having an interesting experience, and if life becomes interesting enough the path of joy will be discovered.

“At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.” — Jean Houston

July 12, 2009

Revisiting Initiation

Reader Question: “If I understand the initiation process correctly, it is a process of purification whereby our mind/body/spirit becomes in complete harmony with God. I realize this is a vast understatement but is this accurate or have I completely missed the mark?”

JJ: Purification is more of a byproduct of the path of initiation rather than the purpose of initiation itself. Purification, as it is generally understood, plays a much larger roll in the first two initiations than those that follow.

Each initiation does bring us in closer harmony with God, but again this is not the prime motivator that pushes us along the path.

The core ingredient that moves us from one initiation to another is the removal of limitations. Because of being born to this material existence we have moved into a sphere of great limitations. These limitations must be removed one by one until complete liberation is attained.

A reader first quotes me: “In the fifth initiation, the disciple receives a revelation that he has to take to the world. […] When that revelation is taken to the world successfully, he then has the opportunity to become a Master of Wisdom.”

Then he writes: “What might define/determine when a revelation “has been taken to the world successfully” – Publication? When a particular number of folks believe, follow or teach it? When it has manifested physically — like the lightbulb. What?”

JJ: One of the problems with teaching the Fifth Initiation is the lack of examples. Jesus worked on his fourth and the Christ his sixth and began his seventh. According to DK, Jesus completed his fifth as Apollonius of Tyana. It is possible that Moses completed his fifth before he was translated.

DK does not talk about his fifth or how any of his fellow masters accomplished theirs.

To complete the fifth involves more than getting a revelation and publishing it. After the disciple completes the fourth and approaches the fifth he will indeed receive a revelation involving principles or a vision of work to do. This could concern something that he alone must do, or even the furthering of a group endeavor. The revelation will involve the incorporation of higher knowledge, but it will be knowledge that the disciple not only has to anchor in the world, but also incorporate into his own life. He must transmute the vision into workable reality. When he accomplishes this to the satisfaction of his inner self then heaven and earth will meet in him and he will obtain power to sustain his body with vital energy as long as it serves higher purpose.

If you go to the search link at the end of this post and type in “Initiations” you’ll be led to numerous things I have said on the topic.

Reader: “Is not God’s hand in all things so that ultimately, all our works fulfill God’s eternal purpose?”

JJ: God’s purpose is fulfilled despite our works, not because all of them are essential to purpose.

If you want a room painted blue and the worker paints it yellow then a non essential mistake was made. The painter has to learn of his mistake and then paint the room blue. Painting the room yellow was not essential to the plan, but a complete waste of time. In the end the owner got what he wanted despite the mistake which was not essential to his plan.

Reader: “In my experience, the forces opposite an act are as necessary to accomplishing that act as the force of the act itself.”

JJ: Yes, the opposition in all things as taught in the Book of Mormon is a true principle. All things are created by the interplay of opposing forces of positive and negative. One thing I have taught that goes beyond this standard doctrine is that for the creation of form to be, the two forces must be slightly out of balance. The positive and negative forces in each atom and molecule are slightly out of balance. If they were in perfect balance they would be transmuted into pure spirit.

Even so, good and evil are not perfectly balanced in the universe, but are dominated by good (creation) over evil (destruction). This is called “the dominating good” in the Alice A. Bailey writings.

Reader “I think of God as the director of the Broadway Play we call The Universe. To simplify, I limit the play to just this earth’s inhabitants (plant, animal, human). The director does not attempt to have the dark characters be as good as they can. For the play to be successful, each character follows the script. And without conflict, their wouldn’t be a story to tell.

“My question to the group was whether that belief comports to the system of teachings this group is based on, ie DK. I don’t think it does and hence why I laid out my thinking step-by-step to see where we deviate.”

JJ: First let me make it clear that unlike the churches and many organizations we do not have a strict set of teachings that members have to accept without question. Anything that I say or any quote from any source is open to question. If a teaching is given here and someone thinks they can present a greater light on the subject then they are welcome to try. All we ask is that students be civil in their discourse.

New people are welcome to challenge any presentation here, but they should also expect to be challenged themselves if something they say does not make sense.

The basic guide here is that teachings should ring true to the soul and make sense to the mind and heart.

That said, let us examine your idea that God has produced a correspondence to a Broadway Play in creating the universe.

There is one problem with this correlation. Where is the audience? Who writes a play to be watched by himself alone? That would be no fun.

What would be fun for God is to reflect Himself with an unlimited number of creations in His image and then plunge into a complicated universe that becomes an extremely complex puzzle from which to work Himself out.

A good game is always fun for any life form — even God; and we are all involved as his reflections in solving the problems of creation, guiding it toward a satisfying end and mastering all the challenges along the way.

You might want to read “The Grand Tour” in my book “Eternal Words.”

“Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.” — Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)

July 10, 2009

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A Course in Revelation

Many have enjoyed the treatise called “A Course in Miracles” which is believed by many to be revealed by Jesus.

Few, however, realize that this course is merely preparation for another course of a higher order which is centered around Revelation, or “A Course in Revelation.” The Revelations are also called “Keys.”

Let me quote from A Course in Miracles or ACIM for short:

The Course tells us that revelation transcends miracles (T-1.I.48) and “Miracles are thus a means and Revelation is an end… The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices. When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct Revelation, the need for miracles is over.” T-1.I.28, 1.I.46.

Does it not stand to reason that since “Revelation” is a higher principle than the “Miracle” that there should be a course somewhere on it?

The basic stated purpose of ACIM is to remove the barriers between you and direct Revelation from the Holy Spirit. If you have applied the course successfully then you should be ready for the next step which is Revelation.

Here are some additional comments from A Course in Miracles on Revelation:

“Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished.” T-1.I.28

Revelation “reflects the original form of communication between God and His creations, involving the extremely personal sense of creation sometimes sought in physical relationships. Physical closeness cannot achieve it. Miracles, however, are genuinely interpersonal, and result in true closeness to others. Revelation unites you directly with God. Miracles unite you directly with your brother. Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there. Consciousness is the state that induces action, though it does not inspire it.

“Revelation induces only experience. Miracles, on the other hand, induce action … Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable love.” T-1.II.1&2

“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

“Under my guidance miracles lead to the highly personal experience of Revelation. A guide does not control but he does direct, leaving it up to you to follow.” T-1.III.4

Some worry that a teacher or guide such as myself is seeking to control, but such is not the case. My goal is the same as the Master’s to “direct, leaving it up to you to follow.

Unfortunately, Revelation cannot be directly taught from book form as was the case with ACIM and other important works. The Revelation is a personal experience between you and the Holy Spirit and cannot be spelled out in black-and-white by me or anyone else. You can be directed to it, however; and you can be given hints. Often times when the hints are solved a Revelation will come. In the world of Revelation from the Holy Spirit all is one and all entities see “eye to eye.” Thus a Revelation given to one will always be in harmony with a Revelation given to another. Sometimes one will receive additional information or insights, but harmony will always be there.

There are 36 Revelations or “Keys” as I have called them in this course. Revelations are not limited to these 36, but includes them.

There are twelve Revelations of knowledge, twelve to enhance the wisdom-understanding aspect and twelve of power also called “The Keys to Immortality and Eternal Life.”

You must pass through the first round of Revelation before you go to the second and the second before you go to the third.

The first “Revelation” or key to receive is “Who and/or What AM I?”

Hint: To say God, the Soul, the Higher Self is not enough. To understand what you are you must also understand what you are not.

For instance, a person may buy an expensive car and like it so much that he begins to identify with it so that if the car is damaged, he or she feels pain. We understand, however, that we are not our cars, but a car is a vehicle that we use to explore the physical world.

There is the real YOU that uses vehicles to explore the worlds of form. What are the vehicles that most people identify with and think that is their “Selves,” but in reality is not their Selves at all?

The first three keys are covered in the three volumes of the Immortal series and the fourth on in my book “The Unveiling.”

Going with the flow can be a definite decision, as well a standing still. Going against the flow usually involves decision. Going with the flow usually involves acquiescence and not decision. There is always a sense of purpose behind a true decision. Those who “go with the flow” usually have no purpose in what they are doing. They are actually letting go of their power of decision.

The power of choice is available to the masses, but the full power of decision is reserved for the Gods.

Remember the scripture: “Now the man is to become as one of us: To be able to decide good from evil.”

Isaiah later points out that in his day none had the power to decide good and evil. Why is this? Because we do not understand the power within us. We think we are making decisions when we are merely making a choice to follow someone else’s decision. Actually, it is often not even a choice, but pure acquiescence.

Visualize yourself floating down a swift stream on a log. To continue going downstream involves only acquiescence and no decision is necessary. On the other hand, you will only undergo the struggle to swim upstream if there is some purpose involved. This normally requires some decision.

If your life is at stake and you need to swim upstream to save it then you are following the line of least resistance again. You or your higher self have already decided to make an effort to preserve your life at most any cost. Therefore, the motion to swim upstream is not a current decision, but the effect of a past one.

Many new agers do not understand this principle and think that “going with the flow” is a high-end goal. Not so. The animal kingdom has already perfected this art through programs written into their data banks by the Gods who really decide.

“Of those who say nothing, few are silent.” — Thomas Neill

July 8, 2009

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The Ideal Disciple

A reader gives this quote from DK:

“When love for all beings, irrespective of who they may be, is beginning to be a realized fact in the heart of a disciple, and yet nevertheless love for himself exists not, then comes the indication that he is nearing the Portal of Initiation, and may make the necessary preliminary pledges. […] If he cares not for the suffering and pain of the lower self, if it is immaterial to him whether happiness comes his way or not, if the sole purpose of his life is to serve and save the world, and if his brother’s need is for him of greater moment than his own, then is the fire of love irradiating his being, and the world can warm itself at his feet. This love has to be a practical, tested manifestation, and not just a theory, nor simply an impractical ideal and a pleasing sentiment.” Initiation Human and Solar, Page 193

He then makes this comment:

“I think I understand the concept that DK is trying to get across here, but is anyone ever TRULY this altruistic? I think maybe a lot of people WANT to be like this but when the chips are ACTUALLY down, find themselves acting somewhat differently. What person of reason does something that he not only sees absolutely no benefit to self in but even detriment to self? Absolute altruism – seeking benefit to other in total disregard for self – as the above DK quote sounds, makes as little sense to me as does absolute selfishness. Does one ever act in total disregard for self?”

JJ: That was a beautiful quote from DK. I sense that it was worded as it was to stress the ideal attitude of the disciple toward service, which is basically this:

If the need comes down to his or her personal desires or the greater good of humanity or the group, he will choose the group.

Does this mean that he has no thoughts of his personal destiny, personal satisfaction and individual joy?

No. It does not mean that at all as evidenced by the Tibetan himself who wrote:

“Joy settles as a bird within the heart but has winged its way from the secret place within the head. I am that bird of joy, Therefore, with joy I serve.” Discipleship In the New Age Vol 1 Pg 158

The disciple places service of the whole above service to the individual self because he realizes that this is the true path to joy. It is as Jesus said that only by losing our life can we find it. Even so, by placing individual happiness last can we be the first to become that bird of joy.

One could say that the disciple has the ultimate self interest in mind because service without thought for the lower self brings the greatest possible joy and happiness to the whole of the individual.

Even the Master himself realized this as stated in the scriptures:

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2)

So what was it that gave Jesus the power to endure the cross?

It was “the joy that was set before him.”

Even Jesus himself did not relinquish self-desire without a struggle. In the Garden of Gethsemane when he realized the pain he would have to endure he pleaded with the Father, “if it be possible remove this cup.”

Neither he or any other disciple goes through the Fourth Initiation without blinking and questioning, but in the end, he expresses this toward higher will:

“Not my will, but thine be done.”

DK indeed expressed the ideal, but even the ideal disciple does not move forward without thinking of self. What he will do is to always proceed toward the good of the whole, but sometimes after a serious internal cross examination of the sacrifices involved and questioning the necessity of the sacrifices along the way.

The disciple realizes that he is a valuable tool for the work itself and you do not throw away a thing of worth for something of little value. The sacrifice of the disciple should have a good chance of producing fruit of equal or greater value than the worth of the sacrifice itself.

The Highest Religion

Another reader asks this: “I am also interested in the groups opinion of The Book of Mormon. Do members here consider it a work of scripture?”

JJ: The group as a whole only has one belief:

“The highest religion is truth, whatever that is.”

The Keys was started by Rick Audette who doesn’t particularly like Mormonism, and was not intended to be a group to draw anyone of any particular belief, except for those who are searching for greater light.

Presently, I would guess that maybe a third of the members have some type of LDS background in their lives. We get quite a few questions related to LDS teachings, but we do not seek to be an LDS or any other religious group. The group as a whole sees all the churches as a kindergarten experience. Some things we learned there are useful, but we want to concentrate on the quest for knowledge not sought in the major religions.

Reader: “How would it compare to wisdom literature. For example, I place The Bible, The Koran and the Bhagavad Gita above works such as ‘Seth Speaks,’ Madam Blavatsky, ‘A Course in Miracles’ and other channeled works.”

JJ: I’d put them all in a similar category as far as truth goes. You have to study them all in the light of the soul. If one group of teachings rings highly true with your inner guidance then it is logical to give them some preference for a source of truth.

Reader: “I am not familiar with DK writings but it appears from the messages I have read here that it is also a channeled work. By ‘channeled’ I mean that the mouthpiece for the work is in a trance state and a particular advanced being speaks though that person.”

JJ: The only work you mentioned received in the trance state was Seth. The DK writings were received in a similar manner that Joseph Smith received his; except that Alice A. Bailey wrote them down herself as she received them, so obviously no trance state was involved. She carefully explains the telepathic method by which she received the messages.

In the trance state astral entities from the spirit world or thoughtforms are contacted. Some are more intelligent than others, but they are not masters. Christ and the Holy Ones associated with Him work through a higher form of either impression or mental telepathy.

I would invite you to read the Bailey works as they take you way beyond anything else offered from an extra human source.

Reader: “Under this definition, The Book of Mormon is somewhere in between The Bible and the channeled works listed above.”

JJ: The Book of Mormon is far from unique in the method of reception as the works of Alice A. Bailey, “A Course in Miracles,” “The Koran,” and works of Madam Blavatsky were received in a similar manner in full consciousness.

Myself and other members sometimes quote from the scriptures of the world, but any writing from any source that emphasizes some truth is considered a positive thing.

“The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.” — William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830)

July 7, 2009

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