Ascended Master Gautama Buddha through Kim Michaels, March 8, 2026. This dictation was given at the conference in Vilnius, Lithuania: Making a Difference in a Turbulent World.
I am the Ascended Master Gautama Buddha. Let me begin by congratulating you for having achieved a greater result than we had envisioned and planned for this conference. You have, once again, exceeded our expectations and created a greater momentum, a greater spreading of the light, consuming the darkness here on earth, but also reinforcing that trail leading to the ascension. For this you have our gratitude and we acknowledge your willingness to come together physically, but first of all your willingness to interact with each other so openly and share so freely.
The taste of the Christ consciousness
Can you feel that you have been in a safe environment where you have felt free to talk about things that are of a concern for you, but not feeling you would be condemned for it? Not all of you feel this, but many of you certainly do.
Well, contrary to what many spiritual and religious people believe, contrary to what many previous ascended master students believed, that is actually a taste of what the Christ consciousness is like, what the ascended masters are like, for we do not condemn anyone.
This does not mean that we are always soft and gentle and nice, because in some cases it is necessary to be direct and confront students with some aspect of their ego, some inconsistency, some contradiction, so that they can come to see it. But we never condemn anyone. That is why we have said that whatever you may have done in this lifetime, we do not condemn you, so why do you need to condemn yourself, or why do you need to accept the condemnation from others or from dark forces?
Fallen beings can never accept you
You understand that the dark forces can never acknowledge you. Here you have a fallen being who fell perhaps in the fourth sphere, has stayed in the fallen consciousness through the entire enormously long process of the fifth sphere, through the equally long process of the sixth sphere, and now for part of the seventh sphere, and it is still in the fallen consciousness. And what is the fallen consciousness? Seeking to raise itself up as being special, as knowing better than Christ, than the ascended masters.
How do you think such a being could acknowledge you or accept you? It will have to put you down in order to maintain its own illusion of superiority, but now think of something else. What is it that the fallen being does not have?—A connection to the Christ mind. But as you approach that 96th level, you gain a greater connection to the Christ mind, and so here you have a fallen being spending all of this time creating this very elaborate, very intricate self, separate self, all of this knowledge, all of these abilities. It feels it is so superior, it is so good at manipulating the darkness. It is as if you have this being in a dark cave who can do all kinds of things with the darkness, and then here comes a person approaching personal Christhood, and you have a candle, a flame that lights up the darkness. Well, who is going to look at the fallen being when there is a light in the cave? How is the fallen being going to impress people when they see the light? Many people, of course, do not see the light, but the fallen beings do, even though they have no connection to the Christ mind.
They can see the Christ light when it shines into this world, and they immediately see it as a threat, and they will do anything they can to cause you to let it go out again. But what you can do is realize this dynamic and decide: “You are not going to get me”, but how can you avoid them getting you? By letting go of that focus on self, that epic self. As Padmasambhava said, the fallen beings are on the epic quest to establish their superiority. And as long as you have such an epic self, well, the prince of this world has something in you. The demons of Mara have something whereby they can tempt you into reacting. For you might look at one of these false gurus that are parading their abilities, and you might decide: “Oh, I want that too. I want to experience what that is like.” But you can, of course, only experience what it is like to be a false guru by walking the same left-handed path that the guru has walked. And again, that is free will.
Giving up the concept of walking a path
Now, you might, based on what we have said, reason that you can only give up the epic self at the 96th or 95th level, but that is not actually the case. You can give it up beforehand. Many of you have done that. You can come to see, lock into the importance of surrender. You’ll come to see that the path to Christhood is not about attaining superiority among men. It is not about having your reward on earth, but wanting your reward in heaven. And you can realize that this means giving up what you see as a reward on earth. It is again this, everything is an experience. You have the experience of climbing up towards the 96th level, whatever motivates you, however you see the path. But then at that level, you have to be willing to give up what brought you this far. And in a sense, at that point, you give up the concept of a path.
You have Eastern traditions, old books, the Gitas, the Upanishads. You have modern non-dual teachings, Neo-Advaita and others. They talk about the need to give up the concept of a path. The pathless path, the direct path, whatever they call it. You just shift your mind and realize you are no self and then you are enlightened.
Reaching down to help others
Well, there is some validity to it, but the thing is, most of the students who are attracted to this are not at the 96th level. And at the lower levels, you cannot give up a path. You cannot give up a path at the 94th level, the concept of a path, because you need it to climb higher. Only at that 96th level can you give up, as we have explained, focusing on rising higher, focusing on going up and instead embrace reaching down. You are not going down. You are reaching down. You are allowing the Christ to flow through you to reach someone at lower levels and help them rise.
That means, in a sense, that you give up this focus on your own growth on the path. It does not mean you are not on the path, because you are still on the path until you reach the 144th level and can ascend. And even in the ascended level, you are on a path towards the Creator consciousness. There is always a path, but you are not focused on walking it, focused on yourself. You are instead focused on helping others walk the path.
And that is a shift in consciousness that requires you to give up this dream of an epic reward, of being greater than others. What did Jesus say to his disciples when they were quarreling about who would be the greatest among them after he left? — “He who would be greatest among you, let him be the servant of all.” That is the Christ, the servant of all, instead of the servant of self.
No state of nothing
You see, we are not giving these teachings to persuade anyone, to make anyone believe what we are saying, because you cannot grasp these teachings until you are close to that 96th level. And you do not need to. How do you know if you are ready for these teachings? You will know when it is not a matter of believing or not believing, when there is no part of your mind that is arguing against it, but when you are just experiencing the teaching and it seems obvious. It is just obvious. If it is not, then you focus on other teachings that help you walk further on the path. But when you reach that level, it is just obvious.
It is self-evident that the self has to go, the separate self, even the spiritual self. But you are not ending up as these, quite frankly, false teachers are saying, with no self. There is no state of no self. Why? Because if there is no self, how can there be an experience? And if there is no experience, there is nothing. You cannot experience nothing. For in nothing there is no one to experience and nothing to experience. But, as we have mentioned before, there is no state of nothing. Nothing is a myth. The concept of nothing is a mental image created in the dualistic mind because the mind says, in this world there is suffering. How do I escape suffering? By going beyond differentiation. And what is the opposite of differentiation? Must be nothing. But there is no nothing because beyond the material world is the ascended realm with myriads of self-aware beings. And at the top of that hierarchy is the Creator, which is not nothing. Even the void is not nothing. The void is an absence of the Allness, but it is filled with the Creator’s being. For the Creator cannot create something apart from itself. And in the Allness there is not nothing—there is a state of awareness that is so beyond what you can imagine when you are on earth. I cannot imagine it either for that matter, but I can experience it.
The difference between Christhood and Buddhahood
Jesus said: “How do you make a difference in a turbulent world?—Be the Living Christ.” The Buddha says: “How do you make a difference in a turbulent world?—Be the Buddha.” The only thing is that so far our teachings have been directed at taking as many students as possible beyond that 96th level. But you cannot be the Buddha at the 96th level. You have to go some ways beyond the 96th level before Christhood subtly turns into Buddhahood. Some will say: “Ah-ha, give me the keys to Buddhahood. Tell me what it is. What is the difference between the Christ mind and the Buddhic mind, Christhood and Buddhahood? I want to know everything. I want to know the neighborhood, Christhood and Buddhahood.”
But you see, there is a certain mindset that has been around in the East for a long time. Even before I appeared as the Buddha, it was there. It comes from the Vedic rishis, and it is this idea that there are certain questions that cannot be answered until you are enlightened. And it is not that the questions are answered, but that in enlightenment the questions disappear. For example, Vedic teachings talk about these huge cycles. You come out of the undifferentiated Brahman as an individual lifestream. You have myriads of incarnations. In many of them you suffer. Then gradually you discover a spiritual path. You make great strides to walk that spiritual path. Then you reach back up to the highest level, and then you go back into the undifferentiated. And there are scholars who have realized that this leaves a gaping question. If you came from nothing and go back into nothing, what is the purpose of the entire circus of these myriads of incarnations? And there are those who will say, as this messenger recently realized, this question cannot be answered. But when you are enlightened, the question fades away.
This is what the rishis could conceive of so many thousands of years ago. But this is not an answer. See, as a spiritual student who begins to have Christhood, you have a direct experience of the Christ mind. You realize the Christ mind is all and in all. Therefore, there is no question that cannot be answered by the Christ mind. Now, we have said before that the linear mind can ask questions that cannot be answered in a way that the linear mind can understand. But when you experience the Christ mind, you realize that with any question you can formulate, the Christ mind can give you a perspective that can help you raise your awareness beyond the level where you ask the question.
The Christ mind can realize that there is a certain level where you can begin to grasp the difference between Christhood and Buddhahood. But you have to go some ways up in the levels of Christhood before you really begin to grasp it.
Circular teachings
What you can say in the Vedic tradition is: “What is the purpose of life? —We cannot answer that question within the context of our teaching.” That is why if you want a higher awareness of this issue, you must go beyond that teaching, which leaves the question unanswered. You must seek a higher teaching. And of course, we, the ascended masters, have given teachings about what is the purpose of the whole thing. That you start with a point-like sense of self and expand it to the greater consciousness until you can choose to create your own world of form. That you help raise up the spheres. There is a clear progression.
You see what is the problem with the Vedic teachings? They are circular. It is a serpent swallowing its own tail. You come out of the undifferentiated. You are a differentiated being. You, in a sense, become more and more differentiated by all the suffering you go through. But then you just disappear back into the undifferentiated. What is the purpose? “What is the point?”, some will say. And they will say: “Well, there is no point on a circle.” Mind games, plays with words. As we have said, it is not a circular movement, but a spiral. An up-going spiral towards higher and higher levels of consciousness. Look at this Vedic image. What is the purpose of sending spiritual teachers to earth? Seriously, what is the purpose of all this long tradition of gurus? Why did the Vedic rishis appear? Why did they receive some teaching that is supposed to be a superior teaching? Why? If there is no purpose for your incarnations and your suffering, why offer you a way out of suffering? Why not just let you continue to suffer until you somehow pop back into the undifferentiated?
For that matter, if you really go deeper, look at this image. The undifferentiated Brahman. There is nothing in Brahman. Nothing you can conceptualize. The Brahman they envision is nothingness. It is not a self-aware being that can have an intent for creating the world. Therefore, there can be no purpose. But then what is the purpose of giving the teaching that there is no purpose? Why send the rishis? Why send gurus? Why do you have a guru tradition based on this Vedic tradition? What is the purpose of escaping suffering if there is no purpose? What is wrong with suffering? You do not even know there is an alternative to suffering. How did human beings ever come up with the idea that there is a way out of suffering? How did I as the Buddha come up with this idea? Life is suffering, but there is a way out. How can a being that is suffering in a purposeless universe even know that there is a way out of suffering?
Well, because there is something outside the world that is not nothing. It has knowledge. It has awareness. And it is the Christ mind, the One mind, the Buddha Nature. You see, if you really look at Hinduism, Buddhism, when you understand what the Buddha Nature is, as I talked about it as best could be done 2,500 years ago, it is not the Brahman of Hinduism. The Buddha Nature is not nothing. It is a higher level of awareness, a higher awareness. And in that awareness is, of course, the awareness that there is something beyond suffering, the awareness that it is possible to escape the cycle of incarnation, and that there is a purpose for the whole thing.
The shift into Buddhahood
A slight detour perhaps, but it points back to the difference between Christhood and Buddhahood. You can say this in many different ways, but I will give you one here. Perhaps I will give more later. You can say that as you are climbing towards the 96th level, you are focused on yourself, raising your awareness as a self.
Then you switch into the Christ perspective. Now you are focused on being the open door for Christ, letting Christ do something through you to help others, to raise others, to free them from suffering, maya, illusion, the death consciousness. But as you climb higher towards the 144th level, there comes a point where you begin to shift again. You see, when you go beyond the 96th level, you are very much focused on helping others, doing something actively to help others. You do, as Jesus, go out in the marketplace, go out among the people. Christhood that is not expressed is not Christhood. But as you climb higher, there can come a point where you are still being the open door, you are still willing to express yourself, but your focus begins to shift.
As we have said, from the 48th to the 96th, you are looking up. At the 96th level, you begin to look down again. You do not go down, you look down. But as you climb beyond the 120th or so level, you again not necessarily look up, but you look within.
The Christ is very active. You can be focused on doing, speaking, writing, interacting with other people, inventing, doing all kinds of things to improve the world. But at the higher level, you begin to focus on being. You can still do, but you are doing it not from an active state of mind, but from a being state of mind. You can, even though we talk about the rock of Christ, you can say that Christ is moving. You have a goal. You can come to that point where you begin to lock in to the Buddhic level of consciousness, where you are focused on being. This does not mean you retreat to a cave in the Himalayas. You can still be active in the world, but your mindset is more focused on being while you are doing. You reach, in a sense, a higher level of non-attachment, where at the 96th level you are not seeking to force others, but at the higher levels you are not even focused on results. You are allowing the light to flow through you. You are ‘doing’ action, but you are not attached to the fruits of action.
Being in the world
You are just being in the world instead of doing in the world. And that, mind you, is not better than being the Christ. It is just a different experience than the Christ experience. It is not better. Yes, in the sense that it is higher, in the sense that it is closer to the 144th level, but it is not better. It is not more important. It is just a different experience. Because as you get closer and closer to the 144th level, you need to prepare for your ascension. And as we have said, when you ascend, there cannot be anything unfulfilled on earth. The Christ can, in some sense, have something unfulfilled, because it wants to help others. It wants to help manifest the golden age. And this is measurable. You can measure what the Christ does. You can measure how many people you help rise to a higher level of consciousness. You can measure that you bring forth a new invention, that you help bring society forward in some way. This is measurable.
But when you reach the Buddhic level of being, this cannot be measured. You are still producing results in the sense that you are radiating light. You are taking actions. Even when I had reached the Buddhic consciousness, I was still teaching. But I was not focused on measuring it, achieving results. You can say that for the Christ, the reward is to see the results of its efforts. For the Buddha, there is no reward. There is no need for a reward, because the experience of being in the world is the reward in itself.
You can say, of course, Jesus saw that he made a difference to some people, he helped some people, he healed some people, and that gave him a sense of accomplishment and reward. You can say, the Buddha, I taught many people, I had many people come to the Sangha, but I did not experience it as a reward that I needed for any reason. The experience of being there was a reward in itself. I had no intent to teach other people, to help them change or to change them. It does not mean I did not help people change, but it was not my intent, I was just being.
Now, you have this romanticized view in Buddhism that the Sangha that I created was this otherworldly, fantastic, wonderful place. And that all who came there and sat at the feet of the Buddha were transformed, but they were not. You remember the initiation, where I attempted that I had reached a level of consciousness that no one on earth could understand? And I said: “Some will understand.” And some who came to the Sangha did understand, but the majority did not. Well, they understood intellectually, but they did not shift. I was not moved by this, I was just being.
And when cycles turned, I moved on. I allowed the body to die through so-called natural causes, and I moved on. You will see that Jesus hanging on the cross still had some expectation of what should or should not happen. And that is why he cried out: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What have I done wrong? What have I not done?” But as the Buddha, there is nothing unresolved. There is no evaluation: Have you done enough? Could you have done more? It is not a decision with the outer mind. It is just this inner recognition: “Cycles have turned. I move on.”
This has been a lifting of the veil in a small measure. But I am not saying this is the final teaching, of course. There is no final teaching. That is another illusion you let go of in Buddhahood. Even as Christ you can still have some sense that it must be possible to give forth some, not necessarily absolute ultimate teaching, but at least something that really will help people. But in Buddhahood you transcend that because you realize that there is no guarantee that an outer teaching will help people. But just being can help some people who do not understand being because you cannot understand being. But they tune in, they experience the being and they say, what is this state that is so beyond my present state? I desire that.
Again, we congratulate you for having gone beyond the goal we set for this conference. Have you achieved any measurable result in the world? Have you made a difference in a turbulent world? Yes, you have made a difference. Will you see results tomorrow? Probably not. But has being here made a difference for you? Then that is the reward. What more do you want? What more do you need to feel that it was worthwhile to be here?
With this I offer you just a radiation of my being, the Buddha I AM. And thus I seal you in that Flame of Peace where unruly thoughts do cease.
Gautama I AM. And I seal this conference and a magnificent matrix that you have co-created with us.
Copyright © 2026 Kim Michaels