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Ascended Master Gautama Buddha through Kim Michaels, October 29, 2023. This dictation was given during the Webinar for America 2023: Coming into unity with Saint Germain’s vision for America.

I AM the Ascended Master Gautama Buddha.

What is the outcome of a conference like this? Will you ever see any concrete physical results of your efforts? Well, that depends on whether you can see the signs that are subtle, yet all important. What we have talked about so many times is about these shifts that set a nation or a planet on a different course that in the beginning might not seem that important, but in the long run lead the nation in a vastly different direction. Certainly, this conference has provided such a shift. Will you see it tomorrow or next week? Nay, of course not. Will you see it in your lifetimes? Most likely you will see the emergence of the things we have talked about.

This conference is, of course, not an isolated event. We have given many teachings about America and they are all still relevant. If you go back and look at some of these earlier teachings, for example in the book Spiritual Solutions to America’s Problems*, you can see that America has not yet shifted. You can see that there are many people who are still holding on to the old consciousness and refusing to shift. Therefore, those teachings and the invocations based on them are still relevant, and you can provide a service to America by studying them and by giving these invocations.

We have many times said that we are not looking primarily or exclusively for physical results. We are looking for a shift in consciousness. You could go back to the time when I was in embodiment 2,500 years ago and ask: “Did I see any physical results of my teachings?” I saw the formation of a Sangha, I saw the coming of many students, but did I see any large-scale changes in the world or in the society I was aware of at the time? Naturally at the time there was not the same global awareness that you see today. You might say that I did not see those dramatic results, but I did see the beginning of this shift, and Buddhism has indeed been instrumental in shifting the course of this planet as it is hurtling through space at an accelerating speed.

Escaping from earth vs improving life on earth

Why is the earth accelerating its speed through space? Because it is being pulled up by that upward movement of the universe. Speaking of space, which I hold for earth, you might consider why America is once again determined to commit huge resources of public money to creating a base on the Moon as a springboard to going to Mars. I understand that America is fascinated by technology. I understand that by engaging in this space race, as some call it, there will be technological benefits. New technology will be developed that can have benefits for other areas of society. Yet if you step back and look at the mindset driving this obsession with space that some people have, can you not see that this is the sense that perhaps we cannot survive on earth, so we must find some other place to go? But if you consider what has been said by Mother Mary, Saint Germain, Jesus and others in this conference, you will see that this entire idea that the earth cannot sustain life is a product of the fallen consciousness.

They are the ones who have a sense that a planet can be destroyed and therefore they will have to go elsewhere. They are obsessed with their physical survival, so they are creating this entire space race out of this consciousness. Would it perhaps be more constructive to spend the same amount of money and to dedicate the same effort of research into improving life on this planet, into improving life in America for the American people? When you consider this magnificent discourse by Mother Mary, you can see that by shifting the consciousness into seeing yourself as living in a friendly universe by learning to work with the Divine Mother, all of these problems that seem insurmountable right now will just vanish and become obsolete.

Working with the universe instead of against it

What is the essence of Buddhism? Life is suffering, but there is a way beyond suffering. But what is that way? Is it an outer way? Is it technology? Or is it the raising of consciousness? If you look at the teachings I gave so long ago, if you read between the lines, you will see that even back then, my focus was on raising consciousness.

What will truly solve America’s problems? The raising of consciousness. What will bring about the raising of consciousness? That people individually commit to the path of raising consciousness, however they can see it. What causes suffering? A certain state of consciousness. We have called it the illusion of separation, the consciousness of separation, the consciousness of duality. In this consciousness, you can only suffer. Why? Because you create a mental image of how you want the universe to work. This mental image is based on an illusion. And then you are projecting that mental image out in your environment, such as on earth. But other people have different mental images that they are projecting out. There will always be conflict. There will always be clashes. There will always be conflict between groups of people. But more than that, because your mental image is out of touch with the reality of how the universe does function, you are going against the basic force of the universe.

It is as if humankind decided we want the earth to revolve around the sun in the opposite direction. “Let us find a way to slow down earth and force it to go in the opposite direction.” Would this be a realistic scenario? Of course not. Anyone with any common sense can see this. Why can people not see that their attempts to force the entire universe to work according to their ideas is equally futile, equally unrealistic? There was a famous Greek philosopher [Archimedes] who said: “Give me a fixed point and I will make a lever that will raise the world.” In order to slow down the earth, you would have to have some kind of fixed point. But where would you find it? What is the fixed point? It is the Rock of Christ or the Buddha Nature, or even the Wisdom of the Mother. That is the fixed point for raising consciousness. And when you raise consciousness, you can begin to work with the universe instead of against the universe.

Could you ever create enough force on earth to slow down the earth’s movement around the sun? Of course not. Could you ever create enough force to make the universe forcefully give you what you want? You could not. But you do not have to generate force. You just have to work with the universe and it will give you what you want as a connected being that is striving for the oneness of the Christ consciousness. The universe is not set up to give you what you want as a separate being who is forcing others. When you use force, what must you do? Well, Mother Mary talked about the two complementary forces. But when you go into duality and turn these forces into opposites, what does this mean? In order to go in one direction, you must use one of these unbalanced forces. But even the unbalanced forces are not separated. When you use one force to push in one direction, the other force will generate an opposite force that opposes you. And for a time and within limited boundaries, you can create a decisive force that will push you in one direction. But you will generate the opposing force, and there will come a point where you cannot generate enough force to have a decisive movement in that direction.

Therefore, your movement will slow down, come to a halt, and whatever you have created, be it in your personal life or even an entire civilization, will begin to fall apart. And this is what creates suffering. You expect the universe will conform to your mental images, you see that it does not, and you suffer. And what the fallen beings have done is to reason: “We must find a way to generate more force.” And then they pull other people into this where they attempt to generate more and more force so that our religion becomes the dominant one on earth, eradicating all who oppose it. Has it happened in known history? No. Has it happened in unknown history? No. At least not for a very long time. What I attempted to explain, to teach, back then was much the same as what Jesus attempted to teach 2,000 years ago. “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” When you stop trying to take by force, when you stop trying to take heaven by force, you will find that it will be given freely.

The force-based mindset in America

This force-based mindset is very deeply ingrained in the American psyche. You see it in the Revolutionary War. You see it in the Civil War. You see it in the first settlers who came and felt they had to force nature to give them what they needed. Then they had to fight the native people. Then they had to fight each other. Then they had to fight other nations. Fight, fight, fight–using more and more force. Americans think that this is the way to achieve results. After all, how did they win the Second World War? By generating more force than the Germans could do; by generating more force than the Japanese could do. But you can win the war, but lose the peace. By generating the force necessary to win the war, you lose your peace of mind. How long do America and Americans want to move along this trajectory of seeking to generate more and more force? How long will the American people allow the power elite to push them along this trajectory? When will the American people begin to see that the power elite can only use force and will never, at least not in the foreseeable future, give up on this attempt to use force?

When will the American people see that Jesus did not use force? He demonstrated what you can achieve by not using force. And of course, many people around the world, but certainly many people in America, even many who call themselves Christians, look at the life of Jesus and they think: “But what did he really achieve? He got arrested and condemned as a criminal and was crucified. What did he achieve of physical, material results?” But he did achieve the result of ascending to the spiritual realm. Of course, most Americans do not understand this or the significance of it because they think he was so special that they cannot follow his example.

Americans who do not want to change

You have this old fairy tale The Emperor’s New Clothes. It really was inspired from the ascended realm and certainly not all of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales were inspired from the ascended realm, but this one was. And this really is meant to depict the fallen beings and how the fallen beings are able to hypnotize people into following them blindly, not questioning what should be questioned, what obviously should be questioned.

When you look at America today, you must wonder, when will someone cry out that the emperor has nothing on, that the power elite has nothing on? When will someone cry out and point out the obvious? We have said that in a decade or two or three, people will look back at this time and they will see what today’s people cannot see. And they will ask themselves: “How could they not see it? It is so obvious.” But obviously, it is not obvious to people today. Why? Because their vision is blocked by this cloud of energy that hangs over this nation. People cannot see what otherwise is obvious. But of course, some people can indeed see it, and more and more people are beginning to see it. And as a result of your calls and your raising your consciousness, more and more people will begin to see it. But still, you must ask the question: “Why are there so many people in America who cannot see many of these things that we have pointed out in this conference and in previous conferences?” It is partly because of the energy that has this blinding effect, this hypnotic effect, that the fallen beings are so good at producing.

But more than that, it is because there are many people in America who do not want to see it. What is the mechanism behind this? It is that they do not want to change. They do not want to change themselves, their state of mind, their worldview or their attitude. And if they were to see certain things that are or should be obvious, then they would have to change. They refuse to see; they refuse to look. Instead, they follow the fallen beings who promise them that there can be change in America without these people having to change themselves.

Look at the Christians who feel they have to hold on to these traditional values even though they know America is changing before their eyes. But they frantically want to hold on because they do not want to look at themselves and say: “Do I need to change with the times instead of trying to prevent the times from changing?” Change is the order of the day.

Look at the history of America. It is constant change. Look at America before the arrival of all the settlers. The native people also largely refused to change. They resisted the change; they fought the change. There is a certain segment of the American people today who have bought into this idea that America had at some point in the past reached some level of greatness that could never be surpassed. Now America has declined, but we can make America great again if we just follow those who make these lofty promises that we can change America without changing ourselves but by fighting those other people. It is those other people who have to change, not us. This is not the consciousness behind the American system, the American nation, the American way. It is based on change, constant, ongoing change. There was never a point where America had reached a greatness that cannot be surpassed and there never will be. There is always more that can be achieved, and this is, of course, Saint Germain’s vision for the Golden Age.

Why is it that some people will not acknowledge the need for change? You can say, given the Law of Free Will, that people are allowed to have any experience they want until they have had enough of it. Couldn’t you just say that these people have not had enough of the experience they are having? But you see, they have had enough of the experience they are having. That is why they are dissatisfied. They want change. They just want other people to change instead of themselves being willing to change. Once you go into this state of mind, you have suspended the Law of Free Will for yourself because you are not allowed to indefinitely have the experience that you want change but you are not willing to change, you want to force other people to change. This is not covered by the Law of Free Will when other people are willing to change. If some people are willing to flow with the times and move towards the Golden Age, then those who are not willing to change themselves but want to hold on to some state in the past that never actually existed—they have suspended their own free will.

The will of those who want to change

For now, it is the free will of those who are willing to change who will determine the course of a nation. How else would the universe progress? How else would a sphere ascend if some people could hold back the progress of an entire nation or an entire planet? There must be a way to break the deadlock, and it is that the free-will choices of those who are willing to change themselves carry greater authority than a choice by those who are not willing to change. Surely, a group of people can isolate and insulate themselves and for a long time refuse to change. You see that in many places on the planet. You even see it in some of these rural communities in America where people have isolated themselves and refuse to change. But in the nation as a whole, the question is: “What is the balance between the people who are willing to change and those who are not?” And when there are more people who are willing to change than those who are not willing to change, then those who are not willing to change cannot hold back the growth of the entire nation.

That is why they are beginning to feel that their control is slipping away. That is why there must come that point where they cannot maintain their control of society. This has happened innumerable times in history. It has happened to the native peoples of America who were not willing to change with the times. It has happened to the Tibetans who were not willing to change. It has happened to many other people. You see this dynamic around the earth. You see it even on a planetary scale that there are already so many people who are willing to change that those who are unwilling cannot hold back the inevitable march of the planet towards the golden age.

Peace through self-transcendence

As Saint Germain said, the earth is being pulled up by the rest of the sphere. And this is not a violation of the free will of those who are using their free will to suspend the free will of others. When you are not growing, when you are not transcending yourself, your will is not truly free. Who is limiting your will? Not God, not the ascended masters, not cosmic law. You are limiting your own will. Sometimes the fallen beings limit your will but that is because you are allowing them to by blindly following them and believing in their promises. No human is an island. You cannot indefinitely isolate and insulate yourself from the forward march of the universe.

Could any group of people stop the earth from moving through space? Not only around the sun but moving through space? As the sun moves through space, as the galaxy moves through space, as the entire universe moves through space, could they stop this? Of course not. When you realize this, when you are willing to acknowledge that you are living in a vast universe with immense forces, with interdependent originations, where you are part of the whole and you must flow with the whole, then you can come to that point that many people have come to, where instead of resisting the whole, you embrace the whole. You flow with it. You work with the universe instead of working against it. You can only avoid changing through force, through resistance. But as the old saying goes: “Resistance is futile.” You will be assimilated into the upward movement of the universe.

Many who claim to be Buddhists have not actually understood the dynamic nature of the Buddha Nature. They think that the Buddha is about attaining peace. They think peace means stillstand. You have all the images of me sitting there in meditation with this enigmatic smile. You have the idea that I was at peace. But why was I at peace? Because I had surrendered into the flow. I had stopped resisting the flow. And that is how you are at peace. Peace is not stillstand. Peace is a dynamic state of mind because you are flowing with the universe instead of seeking to stand still. Stillstand is death. Life is self-transcendence. You will only be at peace when you are flowing with that self-transcendence that is the driving force in the universe. Even the Creator desires to transcend itself or there would be no creation.

How does the universe actually work?

America has the sponsorship of Saint Germain and he has a vision for a golden age. That golden age will require tremendous changes in America. You can either flow with those changes or you can try to resist them. But by resisting, you only create suffering for yourself. You might slow down the changes here and there but you will not stop them, any more than you can stop the planet from hurtling through space at this almost unimaginable speed. America was founded to be a progressive nation that will continue to grow, continue to change, continue to reinvent itself over and over and over again.

What are you seeing right now in what is called the culture wars in America? It is basically a struggle between those who are willing to change and those who are not. This does not mean that those who are willing to change are only found on one side and those who are unwilling to change are only found on the other side of the political divide. From a larger perspective it is really a struggle between those who are seeking to force the universe to conform to their vision and those who are willing to tune in to the Wisdom of the Mother and the Christ consciousness and learn how the universe actually functions.

You have people on the right and people on the left who are both so convinced that the universe should function according to their vision that they are willing to try to force all other people to conform to that vision. And both sides are out of touch with the Wisdom of the Mother, with the Christ consciousness and with Saint Germain. When will a critical mass of Americans have had enough of trying to do the impossible? When will people step back and ask: “How does the universe actually work? I do not care what this or that authority figure says about how the universe should work. I want to know how it actually works. How can I know this?” And then the answer will be: “Through the Christ consciousness and the Wisdom of the Mother.” “Ask and ye shall receive.” “When a student is ready the teacher appears.” The ascended masters are ready to teach Americans, but we must be invited, we must be asked.

But of course, you do not need to recognize ascended masters, but you need to somehow tune in to that higher reality that is higher than what is created by the human mind and to the Wisdom of the Mother. It is possible to look at the material universe and learn much about how the universe works, but you cannot understand everything by looking at the material universe. You must also use that Christ mind to tune in to those principles that you cannot learn by looking backwards or by looking up from the material universe. You must go directly to the source because they can only be seen from above, they cannot be seen from below.

At the time when I was in embodiment, the Hindu Brahmins were caught in this, seeking to create mental images of how the universe should work. I said at the time: “Let us put aside all of these speculations and instead focus on mastering our own minds, and then when we have raised our consciousness beyond this lower state of consciousness, then perhaps we can again look at these larger issues.” Today many people are ready to look at these larger issues because they have raised their consciousness and many are willing to raise their consciousness further. It is a different time with much greater opportunity both for spiritual students and spiritual teachers. But what does it require? A willingness to look beyond what you have now. If you are always looking back towards these teachings that were given so long ago, you cannot fulfill the potential you have in this Age.

The answer is not in the past

Look at so many people in America including some celebrities who are looking to Buddhism, who are looking to the Dalai Lama, thinking this is the answer. But the Dalai Lama has a specific position for the Tibetan people who are at a much lower level of consciousness than the American people. What can you as an American really learn from the Dalai Lama? He is not meant to be a spiritual leader for America. What can you learn from the Christian religion which is looking backwards and which never even understood the true teachings of Christ from the very beginning? How can you move into a New Age by looking for old spiritual teachings? If you really want to flow with the times, you must find the higher spiritual teachings that are being released today.

Look at the irony. So many religious people think: “Back there in the past when our religious teaching was given, it came from a higher authority.” However they see it, there was a higher authority that released this teaching 2,000 years ago, 2,500 years ago, 3,000 years ago. It came from a higher authority. But they do not think: “Where is that higher authority today? Does it really make sense that this almighty being in the spiritual realm could only release one teaching on earth and has had nothing to say in two or three thousand years and could not release anything today and does not want to release anything today?” Does it really make sense? Does anybody ask this question? Many do of course and many are indeed willing to look for something new. And these are the people who will drive the shift that will bring America into the Golden Age. The past cannot manifest the future. If you keep doing the same thing and expect different results, you are not going into the Golden Age.

It is my privilege and my joy to seal this conference and to give you my gratitude for having been willing to be part of it. We of the ascended masters cannot bring the Golden Age alone. You human beings cannot bring the Golden Age alone. It can only be done by establishing a figure eight flow between the ascended realm and people in embodiment. You are part of that flow. Many other people are part of the flow, many of whom have not even heard the concept of ascended masters but they are still able to tune in.

You cannot pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. You cannot save the planet by using the same consciousness that has created current conditions on the planet. You must reach for something beyond. However you see it, whatever you call it, the important thing is that you experience that there is something beyond. You experience that there is a Presence beyond your own mind and beyond whatever you see in the material world. Have you experienced my Presence during this release? In that case, you have something to build on, a frame of reference that can help you rise above the illusions of Mara that may still be affecting you.

Gautama Buddha I AM, and I seal you in a Flame of Peace that I hold for earth, and I hold it because I have become one with it so that I AM the Flame of Peace, the Flame of Cosmic Peace. Be sealed then in that flame.

* The dictations in the book were given in 2018