Ascended Master Jesus through Kim Michaels.
We have now set a good foundation, and in this key, we will build upon it. I have had you go through the process of coming to a greater understanding of the path to Christhood and deciding to be teachable. I have had you tackle fear and work on loving yourself. Thus, you should now have reached a state of consciousness in which you are open to learning the deeper truths about life. This is a frame of mind in which you are not afraid to look beyond your existing beliefs and in which you are not paralyzed by guilt or a sense of being unworthy or incapable of following the path. Thus, you have the foundation for anchoring yourself on the path, and we now need to take a closer look at what exactly it will take for you to remove yourself from the path taken by most people – the broad way that leads to destruction – and place yourself permanently on the Way of Christ, the strait and narrow way that leads to eternal life.
As the next step, you need to realize that although I clearly want you to be open to receiving a higher understanding of the path, it is not my intention to turn you into a person who only understands the path to Christhood. I have no intention of turning you into a scribe who has the perfect intellectual understanding of how to follow that path but who has not internalized or applied that understanding.
I know I have not given a very flattering view of the scribes and Pharisees, and this might have given you the impression that they were stupid or malevolent people. In reality, most of them were highly intelligent people and they also had the best of intentions. They actually had a sincere desire to do the right thing, and in a sense we can say that they were actually doing the right thing—as they saw it. Yet how could they then fail to recognize the Living Christ and even want him condemned to death? The reason is that the human intellect cannot recognize Christ truth.
The human intellect is an analytical faculty, which means that it is designed to analyze by comparing any idea to what is known to be “true.” In the spiritual field, the analytical mind works by comparing every new idea to a database of what it has defined as true and false ideas. Every new idea must be labeled, so it can fit within the categories defined in the database. Once labeled, it can easily be categorized as true or false, good or evil.
Do you understand the implication of this? The intellect has accepted a database which it believes is accurate, complete, infallible and thus beyond questioning. So if a new idea does not fit into any of the labeled boxes in the database, then it must per definition be false. The consequence is that the intellect can argue for or against any issue in a way that seems perfectly logical and rational to itself. Yet the outcome is predefined by the contents of the database that it uses as a frame of reference.
The problem is, of course, that because the collective consciousness of humankind has been dominated by the duality consciousness for so long, all of the man-made thought systems, all of the databases, are based on the duality consciousness. Thus, the Living Truth of Christ simply will not fit into any of the categories in such religious – or non-religious – databases. This means that people who cling to the security of the database – being unwilling to question it as the absolute frame of reference – will label the truth of Christ as evil or bad, thus being unable to recognize the Living Christ in any form. Consider how the scribes and Pharisees used their database – a particular interpretation of the Jewish belief system – to convince themselves that the truth I stated was of the devil. The only way they could not have reached that conclusion was if they had been willing to question their database, what in modern times is called their paradigms.
Do you see that the purpose of my mission was not to simply bring forth a few new ideas that could take the Jewish religion forward a notch? My purpose was to challenge people to fundamentally change their view of what it means to be human. I was challenging people to rethink the database that they saw as an infallible reference, the paradigm that defined what they thought was possible and impossible for human beings.
My point for bringing this up is to show you that the scribes and Pharisees were not stupid and they were not evil. They were very intelligent people and they were well-meaning. Yet you might have heard the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The real truth behind that saying is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions that are based on dualistic illusions. In other words, most of the scribes and Pharisees actually had the best of intentions. The problem was that they were so intelligent that they had used their intellects to convince themselves that they were already guaranteed to be saved, and thus they did not need the Living Truth that I brought. They had used their intellects – which could only refer to the database they had elevated to the status of infallibility – to convince themselves that the truth I expressed was not the truth but a lie. They were not willing to let me challenge their sense of equilibrium, in which they felt secure and comfortable because they had intellectually convinced themselves that they were sure to be saved. Thus, they were not willing to look for the beam in their own eyes when I pointed to such a beam.
This is the danger of the human intellect. It convinces people that they do not need to change because they are absolutely right. And this is what makes it possible that people can have a very sophisticated intellectual understanding of the spiritual path, but they nevertheless have not applied that understanding and actually changed their state of consciousness. They have taken certain outer steps, but they have not taken the all-important step of recognizing that there is a beam in their own eye and that they need to take active measures to remove it. Thus, they have used their sophisticated intellectual understanding of spiritual principles to convince themselves – as I explained earlier – that they can be saved without removing the beam, without looking in the mirror. They understand perfectly how others need to change or how “one” in general needs to change, but they have not looked in the mirror and acknowledged that they too need to change.
If you will take an honest look at history, you will see that every religion has had its scribes and Pharisees. If you take an honest look at the spiritual landscape of today, you will see that every spiritual movement has a group of people who think they understand the teaching and thus – because of the outer actions they have taken – they have actually applied the teaching to the fullest. They walk around like peacocks, strutting their superior knowledge and attainment, while in reality they have not even taken the first step onto the real path.
I need you to contemplate that it is perfectly possible for the intellect to use any spiritual teaching expressed in words to create a database and then use it as a justification for not looking for the beam in one’s own eye. Yet I am determined to do everything possible to make sure that you will not be fooled by this subtle temptation, and thus I will give you certain teachings that might seem repetitive, but that nevertheless seek to shave off layers of illusions. You might consider your human identity as an onion that has many layers. If I were to remove all of them at once, you would lose all sense of continuity and experience an identity crisis. Thus, I take off one layer at a time, giving the Conscious You time to adjust to a new identity that is higher than the old one but not so much higher that you lose your bearings.
So what does it actually take to step onto the real path to Christhood? Well, you need to make decisions, but you need to make a special kind of decisions.
***
Take another look at the following passage:
16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matthew, Chapter 19)
What is important here is the fact that the young man is telling me that he has followed the outer path all of his life, but now he wants more. I then offer him that more, namely that he can become one of my disciples and follow the path to Christhood. Obviously, I also tell him what is the first requirement he must meet in order to follow me, namely that he lets go of all attachments to anything on Earth.
Take note of a couple of things. One is that when I walked the Earth physically, I only had a short time, and thus I had to set some rather radical demands for those who were my direct disciples. Another is that it really isn’t important that you let go of all your possessions. What is important is that you prioritize the path to Christhood higher than your Earthly possessions. Thus, I was giving this young man a test to see where his priorities were.
My point is that in today’s world, I don’t require my disciples to sell all their material possessions and withdraw from society. On the contrary, I generally prefer my disciples to be integrated in society, so they can demonstrate to others that there is an alternative to the typical materialistic lifestyle, even the typical religious lifestyle.
Yet it is still essential that you set your priorities straight. Why is this so? Because if you give your ego an inch, it will take a mile. If you prioritize anything in this world as being more important than the path to Christhood, your ego will trick you into stopping your progress at a certain point. And you will not progress beyond that point until you decide that you are willing to give up whatever is holding you back.
I am aware that we are at an early point in the course, and you may not yet be ready to give up everything on Earth. Yet I need to plant a seed in your mind so that you can begin to understand just how absolutely ruthless your ego and the prince of this world are in terms of using any opportunity to stop your progress. It is simply a basic fact of life that as long as your priorities and loyalties are divided, you cannot make maximum progress on the path. Here is why:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)
Trying to serve the master of this world and the Master of the Living Christ will only make things harder for yourself, for you will be pulled in two opposite directions until something breaks—and that something is you. Incidentally, this is a point very few Christians have understood, for Christianity has been turned into an outer path based on the illusion of Peter, namely that you can be a disciple of Christ without removing the beam from your own eye. Why has Christianity perverted my teachings to the point of literally turning them upside down? Because the influence of the ego and the prince of this world is so subtle that it can use any spiritual teaching to justify the outer path. Yet look at how many attempts I made at explaining the essential, uncompromising nature of the path to Christhood:
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon Earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew, Chapter 6)
44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. (Matthew, Chapter 13)
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. (Luke, Chapter 12)
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. (Matthew, Chapter 16)
Why is the path so uncompromising? Because for your ego, it is a matter of life or death to stop you from walking the path to Christhood! And you know very well that when people are in a survival situation, they will do almost anything to survive. Thus, you should never expect your ego to simply lay down and die. It will fight you every step of the way, and it will exploit any opening you give it. Meaning that as long as you have any attachment to anything on Earth, your ego will use it against you.
The simple fact is that your ego doesn’t actually care about you at all—it only cares about itself. Take note of the following quote:
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (Matthew, Chapter 22)
The fact is that your ego loves itself with all its heart, soul and mind. Love is an attractive force, so the real factor that decides your progress on the path is the ratio between your ego’s love for itself and the Conscious You’s love for something beyond the ego. You have to decide that you love something more than your ego loves itself. Take note of my statement:
If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John 14:15)
And my foremost commandment was to love God. Now, I am well aware that for many people in the modern world this is difficult because they have been brought up with such a distorted view of God. Yet if you cannot love God, then you must love something else, be it me, another person or your higher self.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Matthew 22:39)
How can you love your neighbor as yourself unless you also love yourself? Obviously, I am well aware that many spiritual seekers find it difficult to love themselves, yet you have started to overcome this condition, and I will give you further teachings and tools on this. For now I want you to contemplate what is your motivation for wanting to walk the path.
I especially want you to look for a motivation based on love, for if you look deeply enough, you will surely find it. You see, traditional religion has often sought to control people through fear, which has given many people a negative motivation. For example, many Christians seek to be saved because they are afraid of burning forever in hell. Such a negative motivation can be constructive for people in a low state of consciousness, because it can help them change their behavior and turn their lives around. However, a negative motivation will not get you very far on the path of Christhood.
As I explained in the last key, you were designed to have God’s love flowing through you. And that is why I know that when you reconnect to your Higher Being, you will rediscover the positive motivation that made you decide to take embodiment on Earth. That motivation was based on love for something, and it is a stronger love than the ego’s love for itself.
NOTE: The rest of this dictation is available in the book: Master Keys to Personal Christhoood.
Copyright © 2008 Kim Michaels