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Ascended Master Master Serapis Bey through Kim Michaels, June 5, 2023. This dictation was given at a conference in Seoul, Korea.

I AM the Ascended Master Serapis Bey, Chohan of the Fourth Ray. What can the Fourth Ray offer people in terms of helping you tune in? Well, there will not be so many people who can tune in to the Fourth Ray, but there will, of course, always be some who will understand, who will grasp, who will tune in, who will resonate with the Fourth Ray.

The Fourth Ray is sort of in the nexus between the first three rays and the second three, and therefore it requires a certain step up. I have called it before the Ray of Acceleration, even though traditionally it has been seen as the Ray of Purity. But they are really one and the same because how do you attain purity? Only by accelerating the vibration of that which has a lower vibration, and of course a lower vibration is the definition of impurity. There is really nothing that is completely impure in a dualistic sense, but there are higher and lower vibrations, and that which vibrates below a certain limit is what we can consider an impurity. But since it is all energy anyway, there is always the potential that the lower energy can be accelerated in vibration and therefore become pure, become the higher energy that flows upwards. Lower energy flows downwards, higher energy flows upwards.

There will be some people who have an affinity with the Fourth Ray. Perhaps they like that which is pure, that which is often simple, uncomplicated, not so disturbed by many different facets or interpretations. For truly, when you look to vibration, when you can read vibration, where is the room for intellectual interpretation? This is in a sense what science has brought into the world, that you can make these precise, so-called objective measurements, and there is not much discussion. The temperature is either 20 degrees or 40 degrees, but you have a precise measurement, and the same, of course, you have with vibration.

Tool for tuning into the Fourth Ray

How can you tune into the Fourth Ray? Well, you can do it in various ways, of course. The decrees and invocations in The Mystical Initiations of Intention, my book in The Path to Self-Mastery series, can help you tune in, but as others have explained, we have decided to give you some seemingly more simple tools.

The first tool I want to give you is as follows: Sit quietly, close your eyes and pull your attention within. There is a center in your being. Wherever you see that center, it does not have to be the base chakra or the heart chakra or any particular chakra. But you pull your attention into the center until it goes into what science calls a singularity—a single point where there is no extension, there is no room, there is just a point. You are not visualizing that this is happening, you are simply allowing it to happen. There will be like an explosion, a radiation of white light out from that point, and it penetrates your aura, it penetrates your forcefield and it radiates out from your being. This is a very simple visualization or meditation. Withdraw your attention into the singularity in the center and then allow the light to explode outwards.

I am not recommending that you do this for three hours at a time. Perhaps only do it three times to begin with so that it does not become too much for you. But it is a powerful exercise to feel that radiation of the Fourth Ray of Purity, that white light that is so white that it is whiter than anything you see in the physical octave. If you have any particular ailment in your body, you can do the exercise and focus your attention on the particular point in the body, and then allow the light to radiate out. It is not that you are forcing the light or you are pushing the light, you simply withdraw your attention into that single point, and then you allow me, as the Chohan of the Fourth Ray, to radiate the white light.

The linear mind wants to complicate everything

Again, a very simple exercise, but simplicity is often the key to change. Change, self-transcendence, is not complicated. Self-transcendence cannot be accomplished with a mind that wants to complicate everything because then it feels superior or sophisticated and feels that it can somehow figure out a way to force its way into heaven. That is what the mind wants to do, not just the ego, but just that linear mind. And although we have talked about the linear mind, it is not that we are denouncing the linear mind. The linear mind has a place, it has a function. It can help you do many, many things in the material world.

Science, as you have seen it so far, has largely been based on this linear mind. But this is, of course, also why science now has created problems that can be quite a threat to the future of this planet, whether it be nuclear war, or pollution, or any other things. The linear mind has a function. It has a place. But if the linear mind is allowed to rule, then it must create problems. It will create problems. Therefore, it is not the linear mind that will take you into heaven. But once you find the spiritual path and start studying a spiritual teaching, then the linear mind can begin to believe that it can take you to heaven, for the linear mind looks at everything in a certain way.

You might have heard the American expression that if the only tool you have is a hammer, you think every problem is a nail. Well, for the linear mind, the only tool it has is analysis, rationalization. Therefore, it thinks that every problem can be solved by rationalizing, analyzing, coming to understand the problem. And once you understand the problem, the linear mind thinks it can solve it because if you have a linear understanding, then you will see the linear solution.

But of course, there is no linear solution to the “problem of spiritual growth.” It is only the linear mind that will see it as a problem. It will say: “I am here. I should not be here. I should be in some higher spiritual state. There must be a linear progression to that state. And if I can just figure out the mechanism that brings that progression about, then I can get into heaven.” And of course, we have given you the concept of a spiritual path and the 144 levels of consciousness which the linear mind loves. But we have also told you many, many times that you are not going to make progress on this path by thinking. It is a matter of shifting your consciousness. And this is not a matter of intellectual understanding.

What has happened to most people is that they have gone below the 48th level of consciousness. They have gone into separation. They have been overpowered and blinded by this dualistic state of consciousness where there is a linear scale with two extremes. And when you think in these dualistic terms, you think that one extreme is the problem, the condition to be overcome, and the other extreme is the solution, the condition to be attained. The linear mind goes into thinking: “How can we eradicate the problem? How can we bring forth the solution?”

The linear mind cannot transcend itself

But as the Buddha attempted to teach people the concept of the Middle Way, the solution is not one of the dualistic extremes. The solution is to transcend the scale, the level of consciousness that sees the extremes. But the linear mind cannot do this, for it is the linear mind that defines the extremes, that defines the scale. And the linear mind cannot transcend itself. It can reason about certain things, but it cannot transcend itself. The Conscious You can transcend itself because it is self-aware, whereas the linear mind is more like a computer, but a sophisticated one that has artificial intelligence and can therefore adapt.

The linear mind can learn more and more. It can adapt to certain conditions. And you could almost see the linear mind as one of these robots that they have created now that seems like it can think like a human being. And in a sense you could say that it can think like most human beings think because they think with a linear mind. But still, a computer cannot overcome its own programming, it cannot transcend its own programming, and neither can a linear mind. But the Conscious You can transcend itself, for it has no programming when it realizes it is pure awareness.

What can help you experience pure awareness? Well, as we have said, it is a matter of cleaning out the things in your four lower bodies that are pulling the attention of the Conscious You into a separate self, into that perception filter, into that sense of identity. But when you have done that to a sufficient degree, it becomes easier for the Conscious You to pull itself out.

Exercise for confusing the linear mind

I will give you another exercise that might help you with this. Again, sit down in a quiet room, and now imagine, visualize that you are standing on a completely flat area, a completely flat plane, absolutely flat, and it extends in all directions as far as you can see. And now pull your attention within to the center of your being. But now it is not a matter of radiating light, it is a matter of letting your attention go through the center of your being and then outwards on the flat plane. You pull in, but instead of going directly out, you are going through the center and out in all directions. This might be easiest to visualize if you focus on your two eyes. Your eyes are pulled into the center and then your gaze goes through the center and in both directions, back and forth, inwards-outwards, inwards-outwards, inwards-outwards.

You can take time to do this. It is not a matter of doing it quickly. In the beginning it will seem very confusing, disorienting, perhaps even very difficult to achieve, but as you practice it a little bit, you will find that the inwards-outwards movement confuses the linear mind and there can come a point where now you feel a certain calmness, a certain silence in the mind. And then you stop focusing on going inwards and outwards, or just focus on that calmness, extending your attention outwards on this flat featureless plane, just letting your attention go out and continue to go out, stretching it as far as you can stretch it and then gradually, slowly pulling it back in. You can do this several times or if you feel that this is more natural, just let your attention rest when you have extended it as far as you can go.

Again, this is a very simple exercise or at least it seems simple. The mind will not be able to grasp the purpose of it. It will say: “What is the point? What is it going to lead to? What is it going to do for me?” But you see the point is that there is no point, there is no purpose and there is no goal you have to reach. You just go through the process and let it unfold. When I say there is no point, I of course mean there is no point that the linear mind can grasp.

You will see that out in the world there are various meditation techniques and there is always the promise of some reward if you practice the technique. But I am not going to promise you a reward, I am going to say that if this appeals to you, practice it. If it does not appeal to you, ignore it. But if you decide to practice it, give it some time and see what happens. Instead of starting out with a goal that you are moving towards, let the goal be to just experiment and participate in the process and see what unfolds. Again, the linear mind will object: “Define for me the goal I am going towards. How do I know how to get there if I do not know where I am going?”

But you see the linear mind is not going anywhere. That is precisely the point, and in a sense you are not going anywhere either, but perhaps you will, in the peace that emerges when the linear mind is neutralized, experience who you are as that pure awareness that has no features and no definite extension in space. It is not centered in a point, it does not have a boundary, it is just pure awareness.

The essence of spiritual path on higher levels

There are many students, especially in previous dispensations, who have thought that the Fourth Ray is very strict, that I am a very strict disciplinarian. But really why do they think this way? Well, they thought this way because they did not have the teaching about the separate selves, so they did not truly understand the mechanism that we have given you—that the essence of spiritual growth is to come to see these selves and let them go. Therefore, they thought that they had to discipline themselves, to try to control their mind, to force their mind, to follow a strictly defined path. They looked at the spiritual path differently than you do. Again we are not criticizing, we are not finding fault, we are simply pointing out that as progressive revelation progresses, we can give a higher and higher understanding of the path.

And as we have said, between the 48th and the 96th levels, there is a certain necessity to be disciplined, to be focused and to raise yourself above the mass consciousness. But when you have gained sufficient freedom from the downward pull of the mass consciousness, you can benefit from reconsidering how you look at the path. You understand here that I am not negating what was said in previous dispensations. It is clear that you cannot progress above the mass consciousness by being lazy or unfocused or lacking dedication. You cannot be casual about spiritual growth because the mass consciousness will pull you down constantly. You have to be focused and determined enough to build that momentum that pulls you above that gravitational pull.

But once you have done that to a certain degree, you can then embrace the teachings we have given about the Conscious You and the separate selves. You realize that it is no longer a matter of the Conscious You beating the subconscious selves into submission, disciplining the subconscious selves or suppressing the subconscious selves. It can be valid enough to suppress and discipline your subconscious mind for a time because otherwise it pulls you in too many different directions. But when you get above that pull of the mass consciousness, you can benefit greatly from shifting your approach and realizing that spiritual growth is not about forcing anything, it is about letting go.

You come to see a separate self. You see what it is doing to you by keeping you trapped in endlessly repeating this pattern of reactions. And you see that illusion that makes you think that you have to continue to do this, that this is the only way to react, that this is perhaps even the only way to be as a spiritual student. You see that it is an illusion. You see that it is an illusion that there is a problem you have to solve. And then you just let go, you let the self die. And when you let a self die, at say the 96th level, you spontaneously rise to the 97th. You do not have to force your way up to the 97th level. For when that self is dead, when that energy is transmuted, you spontaneously rise. And thus there comes a point, and it can come sooner than the 96th level, where you can shift your approach to the spiritual path, where you realize it is not a matter of forcing anything.

The Conscious You is out the Christ consciousness

It is a matter of letting go and beginning to contemplate, as we have said, that the Conscious You actually is the Christ consciousness because it is out of the Christ consciousness. And the Christ consciousness is the consciousness of oneness. The Christ consciousness spontaneously seeks its way closer to oneness. And at the 64th level, you are closer to oneness than at the 63rd level. So when you resolve a self at the 63rd level, the Conscious You spontaneously rises to the next level up. You do not have to force it. You do not have to discipline the mind. You spontaneously rise.

Take care to consider what I am saying. There is a time when you need to use the mind’s ability to discipline itself. And yes, it is to some degree force you are using. You are using force to suppress these separate selves that pull you down, pull you into old habits, old reactionary patterns. You are saying: “I do not want to continue this worldly life. I want a more spiritual life.” And you are then suppressing the things that pull you into a worldly life. And this can be beneficial for a time. But what you are doing is that you are using the mind to suppress the mind, to discipline the mind, to force the mind. And you can achieve some growth by this, but you cannot go beyond a certain level. You certainly cannot go beyond the 96th level by forcing your way.

“You cannot force your way into heaven,” as Jesus said. But he also said: “The violent attempt to take the kingdom of heaven by force, by forcing their way into the Christ consciousness.” And this is what cannot be done. If you come to the 96th level and you are still seeking to force, then you will not pass that initiation, and therefore you will start going down, forcing yourself down. You may think you are achieving progress because you sense that you get better and better at forcing yourself, but you are not rising to a higher level of consciousness. You are just building on to that spiritual self that you created between the 48th and the 96th level. And this can even lead you to go into the fallen consciousness where you think that the end goal is to build the most sophisticated spiritual self that anyone has ever built and then surely God will let you into heaven.

Accelerate into Purity

So it is important to contemplate this—that there comes a point where you need to transcend force, where you are not using the linear mind to suppress the linear mind or even suppress the subconscious selves that are not necessarily always linear, for in some cases they are just chaotic and unfocused, shifting from one to the other. And this is an important shift when you shift out of that force-based approach. That is when you can truly accelerate, accelerate into purity. Consider this very simple reasoning: Purity is a divine quality. How do you get out of purity? You force yourself out of purity. Does it make any sense that you have to force yourself back into purity? Nay, because a divine quality is the natural condition. And as I said the Christ consciousness naturally seeks back to oneness. Any divine quality seeks back to oneness spontaneously.

The rest of this dictation, along with an invocation based on the dictation, is found in the book: Connecting with Your Spiritual Teachers.