TOPICS: Why religions lower the life experience – Your life experience and the times – Your life experience and your world view – Better material conditions, worse mental conditions – Higher levels of Christhood and Buddhahood – What is peace of mind? – No ultimate level of consciousness – The path need not be difficult –

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Ascended Master Gautama Buddha, June 4th, 2017, through Kim Michaels. This dictation was given at a conference in Holland.

I AM the Ascended Master Gautama Buddha. But what does that mean? What is an ascended master? What is the Buddha? There are so many misunderstandings about this floating around in the collective consciousness that, as Jesus expressed so eloquently, we are constantly facing this dilemma of how can we penetrate people’s perception filters and give them some idea, some impetus that can take them to the next level.

Why religions lower the life experience

We are also facing another challenge, that is, a more long-term challenge. You have seen, when you look at history, that it is possible for us, as I did 2,500 years ago, to give a teaching that does spread, that does appeal to many people, that does have a major impact on individual lives and even on society. After some time, it inevitably, or so it seems, happens that the movement transitions into some codified religion and now suddenly the growth that was achieved in the beginning slows down and can even come to a halt. It can even become a negative where an entire religion forms a negative spiral that ends up pulling people down, down, down into lower and lower levels.

Now, my beloved, if we apply the measure we have given you at this conference of how you feel about yourself, we could get a different perspective on religion. Naturally when we say: “how you feel about yourself,” we are not meaning just in the emotional body. We mean how you look at yourself, look at your life, look at the world, look at whatever god you see and how you, in general, experience life. What is your life experience, as we have said before? If you applied this measure and said: “Ideally, people should feel good about themselves and their lives, they should have a positive life experience.”

If you took this and then had the members of the major religions on earth look honestly at this, you would see that the vast majority of the members of all of the large religions on earth actually do not feel good about themselves. They are not having a positive life experience and if you then looked at: “How big of an impact does a person’s religion have on his or her life experience,” you would see that the majority of the members of the major religions are having their life experience negatively impacted by their religion.

If you could expand this study to look at how this was fifty years ago, a hundred years ago, five hundred years ago, you will see that for all of the major religions on earth, there has actually been a decline. The members of those religions today are having a lower, more negative life experience than the members of the same religion were 200 or 500 years ago. If you could prove this scientifically/statistically, it could give rise to the question of why is this so? Why has the impact of religion led to a lowering of the life experience of its members? Why has there been this decline?

The explanation is, of course, multi-faceted, but it is possible to say that, as Saint Germain and other masters have said, you can see historically that over the past 2,000 years and more, there has been a raising of the collective awareness. You could say that for every age there is a certain collective awareness. This means that there will be only a few people who can have a life experience that is more positive than what is defined by the collective awareness. The average person at that time will have a life experience that is at a certain level that corresponds to the collective consciousness.

Your life experience and the times

So, 500 years ago the collective consciousness was lower but this does not necessarily mean that people had a worse life experience than some people have today. It does mean that the potential for how positive of a life experience people could have was lower. Nevertheless, the life experience you have is a very complex thing. We can actually say that if you were living 500 years ago in Europe, for example, you can look at it and compare it to today’s standards and you could say that most people had a much lower material standard of living. They had less freedom, they had many other limitations that you do not have today. Therefore, you might say there is no way these people could have been satisfied with their lives. You see, the reality is that in any age, if you are in line with where the collective consciousness is at, if you have a certain world view that makes you feel that the way things are, are probably the way things are meant to be and they couldn’t be any better than they are, then you can actually have a relatively comfortable and positive life experience because you don’t know any better.

The people who lived 500 years ago did not know what material standard of living you have today. What I am pointing out here is that 500 years ago the collective consciousness was at a certain level. Back then, there were many Buddhists, Christians and Muslims who had used their religion to build a world view that gave them a relative sense of peace with the way the world was and the way their lives were. Therefore, they were having as positive of a life experience as the average person could have at the time. They were in line with their times. Today, you have a higher level of collective consciousness. This means that there is a potential that the average person could have a higher life experience where they are more positive, more at peace with being who they are, living in the time they are living in.

However, what have we pointed out and what can you surely see in society? There is an increasing rate of mental illness, of depression. There are more and more people (even though you live in these incredibly affluent sophisticated nations with great freedom and human rights) who are becoming dissatisfied with their station in life. This leads to the simple conclusion that today, the average person is not in line with the level of the collective consciousness. The average person is not having the level of a positive life experience that the person really is meant to have based on the level of the collective consciousness.

Then, you might look at why that is. You will see that in every case, for every person that is behind the potential (the sort of median) life experience that you can have in this age, their religious belief is a major factor that pulls them below. You may say that here in Europe many people do not have religious beliefs and I would say: “Of course, they do. They are just not members of one of the traditional religions.” You cannot live without having “religious beliefs.” You must have some world view that gives you an impression of how the world works, who you are, what kind of being you are, how you fit into this greater context. You cannot live without it—at least not outside a mental institution. Although, perhaps we should say that some large universities should really be reclassified as mental institutions, some political think tanks, some large corporations, but let us let that rest for now.

Your life experience and your world view

The point is that the average person today is not having as positive of a life experience as they could have and this is because their religious beliefs are pulling them down. This is because their religious beliefs or their atheistic/materialistic beliefs (they are still religious beliefs) are actually behind the times. There has been a raising of the collective awareness, which meant that most people should have transcended the world view based on both traditional Buddhism, traditional Christianity and scientific materialism. In other words, many more people should have accepted a much more universal, mystical world view that you yourselves take for granted because you have been in spiritual teachings or ascended master teachings for so long that you have long ago integrated this world view into your beings. The reality here is that the world view of most people is behind the level of the collective awareness and this is why people are not having the positive life experience that they should have.

My beloved, this is not a matter of getting people to accept ascended master teachings. It is a matter of getting them to accept what Saint Germain explained to you last night: These universal ideas of the potential to raise consciousness and that this means you now have a sense of purpose. Look at these affluent nations here in Europe. Look at the material abundance people have. Look at the freedom they have. Look at the opportunities they have. Then, look at other regions of the world and then, can you reach any other conclusion than most people in Europe are acting as spoiled children who simply can never get enough and who have all they can possible want but just cannot be happy with it?

Well, you can reach another conclusion, namely that the issue here is that these people, with all their affluence, with all their freedom, with all their opportunities, they cannot apply it because they do not have a sense of purpose. They do not have a sense that their life can go in a better direction, in a direction where they come to feel better and better about themselves.

You see, my beloved, what I want to point out with my example of how people felt 500 years ago is that back then it was much more simple for a human being to find a world view that made them at peace with their times, that made them feel that they were living in not so bad a world and that it probably could not be any better. Perhaps they would get a better life in heaven after this lifetime because they were good Catholics or whatever. You may look back and say that this was a rather primitive world view and I do not disagree with it. But you see, the world view was in line with the times, it was in line with the level of the collective consciousness. So people did not have to go to a more sophisticated world view in order to feel at peace and have a good life experience.

Today, the collective consciousness is so much higher that this actually requires people to gain a more sophisticated world view in order for them to feel at peace with their times and in order to raise their life experience. This is why so many people do not feel at peace even though they have all their material needs fulfilled to abundance. Because they are beyond focusing on material needs; they have to focus on the self-actualization needs: raising their consciousness. Because they are not doing this, they cannot feel fulfilled. Why can’t they do it? Because their religious beliefs are holding them back in a mental box that has become obsolete decades ago. Whether it is the religion of Christianity, the religion of Buddhism, the religion of Islam or the religion of materialism, they are all preventing people from raising their world view and thereby raising their life experience. Naturally, we desire to see people raise their life experience, feel good about themselves, feel good about the world, recognize you are living in a friendly universe.

Better material conditions, worse mental conditions

My beloved, is there not a certain irony in the fact that in all of the rich nations, especially in the United States, there is an increasing number of people who believe in either conspiracy theories or negative prophecies that give them the impression that the world has never been in a worse state and some major calamity is just around the corner? Yet these people are living in much greater freedom personally, much greater affluence personally than any previous generation. How is it that they have a better material condition, but their mental condition has deteriorated?

There is a certain irony there that many people should be able to see, and are able to see with a little impetus, with a little pull on the collective consciousness. This means that, again as Mother Mary said, a relatively small number of ascended master students can in certain situations have a major impact on society. What you can have is the impact of causing this very subtle shift that Saint Germain talked about where people begin to focus less on the problems, more on the possibilities. This can gradually lead people in today’s age to be pulled out of that negative spiral, to look at the fact that they are the ones who need to start looking at their own consciousness, learning how the psyche works, learning about the potential of consciousness, applying it and therefore raising their level of consciousness and thereby raising their life experience.

Of course, what will it take for a person to do this? Well, there comes a point where the person will have to make a conscious decision that it is willing to shift from the negative focus to a positive focus—from focusing on problems, to focusing on possibilities. This is a decision you have to make, and until you make it consciously, you have not really anchored yourself in a positive spiral, you have not really anchored yourself on the path to Christhood.

Again, my beloved, there was a person who asked this messenger about the value of the fourteen stations of the cross defined by the Catholic Church where you see out-pictured much of Jesus’ suffering up to his crucifixion. You see, 2,000 years ago, suffering was a necessary aspect of the path to Christhood. Today, the collective consciousness has been raised so much that it is not necessary to suffer in order to walk the path to Christhood. Some people may still need to do it, but it is not necessary for those who are willing to shift their minds to focusing on the possibilities.

Higher levels of Christhood and Buddhahood

My beloved, as an ascended master student, you can, of course, make a major shift by doing what Jesus so carefully explained about shifting your MO, shifting by asking yourself: “Do I live in a friendly or hostile universe? Do I have friendly or hostile spiritual teachers? Do I live in a friendly or hostile physical body?” For some of you it may also be valuable to realize one simple thing: “What is the goal of Christhood? What is the goal of Buddhahood—which is a slight step up from Christhood?” Certainly, it should be possible to see that the goal of Buddhahood is to achieve peace of mind. This is actually also the goal of Christhood, but only achieved at the higher levels.

Not that we want to be so linear, but if you look at the 144 levels, you would say that you will have elements of the path of Christhood from the 48th level and upwards. You will shift in a major way where you really anchor yourself on the path to Christhood after the 96th level, when you decide to serve something greater than yourself. Then, you will continue to rise in various levels of Christhood until you go up to around the 136th level. It is not entirely linear like this, but somewhere in that range. Then, the levels up from there could be considered to be the path of Buddhahood. It isn’t necessarily that you need to be so linear in terms of Christhood and Buddhahood, which are in no way incompatible or mutually exclusive. You can start walking the path of Buddhahood from the 96th level and up and have elements of it. You can certainly have elements of Christhood with you to the 144th level.

Nevertheless, there comes a point where you begin to transition and you focus more on the Buddhic consciousness than the Christ consciousness, the Buddhic initiations than the Christ initiations. This is, of course, why I have given dictations instead of letting Jesus and the path of Christhood be the only path we are describing. There comes a point where it might be valuable for you to say: “What is the goal of the path? It is peace of mind. What is Buddhahood? Peace of mind. What then does it take to reach Buddhahood?” It takes to overcome all of your attachments.

Then, you can begin to look at what it is that pulls you away from having peace of mind and unravel these attachments you have. We have given teachings on this before, and I do not wish to go into it here. It is something to keep in mind that when you are an ascended master student, when you have been on the path for some time, it is a natural goal to see for yourself to achieve peace of mind. You could also say that how are you ultimately going to feel good about yourself and the world if you do not have peace of mind?

What is peace of mind?

What does it mean to have peace of mind? It means to be of one accord, in one place, meaning of one mind in your own head, or energy field. If you have divisions in your mind that are pulling you in different directions, if you have internal spirits that are warring with each other, you cannot have peace of mind. You will not ultimately feel good about yourself, if you are not at peace with yourself, if you are not at peace with the world, with your physical body, with your spiritual teachers.

Naturally, my beloved, we all want to see you make progress on the path. Many of you have followed the pattern of finding the spiritual path, finding the teachings of the ascended masters, becoming very eager, very determined to make progress, to apply the teachings, to study them, to understand, to give decrees and invocations, to resolve your psychology. You have become very, very determined. We completely applaud you for these efforts. Sometimes you may be a little bit unbalanced. It may be helpful to swing towards balance, but we applaud you for your willingness to apply the path.

However, as we have said before, even the concept of a path can become a hindrance because it implies you have not arrived. There does come a point on the path where it is valuable for you to recognize that you have made progress and therefore you must be closer to arriving. Perhaps you are actually at the point where the only thing that is preventing you from arriving is that you cannot consciously accept that you have arrived because you are so focused on taking the next step on the path.

There are some of you that have postponed your Christhood, postponed your Buddhahood, because you have not been willing to step back and look at: “Do I have peace of mind, am I at peace with being an ascended master student, being on the spiritual path? Am I at peace with being at the level of the path where I am? Am I at peace with being in physical embodiment, living in the world I live in? If I am not at peace, what is it that pulls me away from being at peace? In many cases, there can, of course, be psychological issues, but there are also cases where the only thing that really prevents you from being at peace is that you make this your new goal. You make those shifts in consciousness that allow you to recognize that you have actually reached the level of the spiritual path where you have the potential to be at peace and where you simply need to shift your consciousness in order to be at peace.

It does not mean, my beloved, that you think you have now arrived at some ultimate level and you have qualified for your ascension and therefore you are enlightened and you do not need to change anymore, you do not need to grow. It means that instead of striving so eagerly, always feeling that the goal is ahead of you, you now are at peace with being on the path, being where you are, but also constantly moving towards higher levels. It is only a slight shift in consciousness to be at peace with being on the path, even though you have not arrived at the ultimate goal because you have not ascended.

No ultimate level of consciousness

It is clear, my beloved, that you need to have a goal to strive towards in order to make progress. The people who do not have a goal to strive towards, find it much more difficult to make progress. But I can tell you that there are people on earth who have set themselves up in many cases as spiritual teachers or who have been spiritual students for many years, and now they have gotten themselves in a state of mind where they feel that they have arrived at some ultimate level of consciousness. They are in cosmic consciousness, they have the Christ consciousness, they are enlightened, they are unascended-ascended masters or whatever you have.

The moment you think that you have achieved an ultimate state while still being in a physical embodiment, you have stopped your progress. You are not open to the possibility that there might still be something in your psychology that you need to look at and transcend, or there may still be higher levels of consciousness or higher levels of service. You actually have some spiritual movements where you have a guru that is considered to be enlightened and the guru is not growing and the followers of the guru, many of them are not growing either.

This is parallel to the traditional religions where you do not have a guru who claims to be enlightened, but you have a pope, for example, who claims to be the Vicar of Christ. He is not growing and the followers are not growing, and so this is why they are all falling further and further behind; this is why they are becoming more and more dissatisfied. If you will see it honestly, why have so many people left traditional religions? It is because, even though they do not know this consciously, they sense that religion is actually restricting their life experience, preventing them from having a more positive life experience. You also have many, many people in traditional religions and even in many New Age movements and smaller movements where they are not growing. They feel an increase in tension because they are not growing, but they will not look at why they are not growing.

They will not recognize that there is a limitation in the teaching they are following or at least in the way that they are applying that teaching. Therefore, the tension just keeps growing and growing and as a result of that, they actually feel worse and worse about themselves. They are not following along with what is truly the potential of this time in which you are living. Namely, that all people who live in a relatively affluent part of the world, and therefore do not have to worry about material conditions, they have the potential to come to feel good about themselves and feel at peace with being who they are, where they are in time and space.

The path need not be difficult

As I said, in every age those who are in tune with the level of the collective consciousness, even an average person, can feel at peace. You could look at yourselves as ascended master students and say that if you do not feel good about yourself and being in embodiment and where you are at in life, if you are not at peace, is there perhaps something in your religion or at least your view of your religion, your MO of your approach to the masters and our teachers that is restricting your feeling good about yourself, restricting your life experience? And if you will follow the directions of Jesus, you can very, very quickly identify what it is, transcend it and raise your experience of the path to an entirely higher level.

Why would you ever entertain the idea that the ascended masters want your spiritual path to be difficult, to be tense, to be full of frustration and anxiety? Why would you ever consider that we want you to suffer on the spiritual path? It can only be because you are holding on to an outdated image of God and spiritual teachers, like Jesus explained. Can you see, my beloved, how shifting your view slightly can get you to a point where you are at peace with being who you are? You are at peace with being at your present level of the spiritual path. You are not beating yourself up for not being at some higher level.

You are at peace with your outer situation, being a spiritual person in a non-spiritual society, living in the age you are living in. You are at peace with it because you are focused on the opportunities of your personal growth and of helping others. This means that for the rest of your time in embodiment, you can enjoy life, you can enjoy being on the spiritual path. I assure you that when you come to that point, you will actually make faster progress on the higher levels of Christhood and Buddhahood.

We know, of course, as Jesus said, we cannot lift you beyond your perception filter. I know that each of you listening to this and each of those who will hear it later, who will read it later, each of you has his or her own perception filter. I may be able to penetrate it a little bit. I may be able to nudge you upward a little bit. But I cannot nudge you beyond where you are willing to go. I fully accept that. I fully respect your right to be where you are at. I fully respect your right to continue to struggle on the spiritual path, if that is the experience you desire. I hope you can respect that as a spiritual teacher, as an ascended master who has a vehicle who is willing to speak the living word, I also have a right to give you a vision that there is something beyond your current stage and that it is not necessary to walk the Via Dolorosa, to suffer and to strive and to always be behind and never be at peace.

It is actually possible to be a spiritual student and be at peace with being in physical embodiment on a planet as difficult as earth. It is possible. It is much more enjoyable. You will feel much better about yourself and we have given you the tools to achieve it if you are willing. I have set before you the possibility, we have set before you the possibility, and we only hope that you can step up and come to feel good about being who you are right now. This is what I desire for you. Naturally, you will be more tomorrow and in a year or ten years and my wish is that you will keep feeling better and better about yourself, for truly as Jesus said: “We have never had any desire whatsoever to make our students feel bad about themselves; not just as a matter of feeling, but as a matter of experience.”

If you can, shift your MO so you can come to have a more direct experience of an ascended master, as Jesus said. Then, you can also quickly come to see that you actually also have a certain MO that decides how you relate to your I Am Presence, to the higher part of your own being. And if you will examine that MO, then you can also make that switch where you realize: “Do I have a friendly I Am Presence or a hostile I Am Presence? Indeed, I do have a friendly I Am Presence who wants to support my growth.” It is when you make peace with your I Am Presence that you will ultimately feel good about yourself and have the highest possible life experience, even while you are in embodiment on this quite challenging planet.

This is my hope, my vision and this is my gift for today. I seal you and I seal this magnificent gathering of your hearts for which we are truly grateful.