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Ascended Master Gautama Buddha through Kim Michaels, June 6, 2025. This dictation was given the conference in Seoul, South Korea: Being the Living Christ in everyday life.

I AM the Ascended Master Gautama Buddha. If the Christians of this world were to hear this, they would say: “What does the Buddha have to do with Christ and the path to Christhood?” Well, we shall see, shall we not? What is the difference between the path to Christhood and the Eightfold Path? I will now tell you. [Silence]

Yes, the difference is nothing. Just the outer form. Is the outer form what is important, or is it the end result? Ahh, now we see the division between those who have ascended and those who have not. Those who have not ascended have become attached to the outer form. Those who have ascended have gone beyond that attachment and realized that all that matters is the end result.

The primary serpentine lie

Those who are attached to the outer form of the teaching, be they Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims or this or that, what are they believing? They are believing the serpentine lie that a teaching that has a specific form on Earth can get them to heaven, and that only this one teaching can get people to heaven. This is a lie, not even a clever lie. It seems real only to the ego, which is attempting to secure its salvation by using the things of this world.

What is the path to Christhood, the path to Buddhahood, the path to any higher awareness, the path beyond Earth? It is to transcend the forms on Earth so that you reconnect to the reality that you did not come from Earth. You are not a product of Earth. You are a spiritual being who descended to Earth and took on the form of your physical body, your four lower bodies. You have not become that outer clothing. It is precisely because you have not become the form, that you can attain freedom from form. If you have not become the form that you have taken on here on Earth, and if the only way to enter the higher realm is to transcend the form on Earth, what sense does it make that the form that you have on Earth needs an outer teaching of a specific form in order for you to be free from form?

You see, you are trying to escape the form of your four lower bodies by using another form in the four levels of the material universe. Can you not see that this will never work? I am speaking into the collective consciousness, of course. Now, you may say: “Well, is it not futile to speak this into the collective consciousness when you always say the collective consciousness is so low?” Yes, that was the temptation I faced when I had entered Nirvana and decided to come back to Earth and teach: “You have reached such a high level of consciousness that no one on Earth will understand.” My reply was: “Some will understand,” or rather some will resonate with the teaching.

Does the Christ consciousness have form?

What is the Christ consciousness? Truly, what is the Christ consciousness? What have we explained here? When people first hear about the concept of the Christ consciousness, they project images upon it based on what they see on Earth, based on their own egos and the coloring and the false teachings they believe in. What are they doing when they are projecting these images upon the Christ consciousness? They are projecting a form onto the Christ consciousness. Does the Christ consciousness have a form? Does the Buddha Nature have a form? Nay. Yes, all forms are made out of the Christ consciousness or the Buddha Nature, but does the Christ consciousness itself have a form? No. It is beyond form—and that is why it is the only thing that can take you beyond form.

Now, due to the mechanics of the material universe, the Christ consciousness cannot be expressed in its pure form on an unnatural planet like Earth. For that matter, it cannot be expressed in its pure form anywhere. It must be individualized. It must take on form. That is the whole idea of the incarnation of Christ. This means that if Christ does not incarnate, then people who are trapped in duality and separation do not get the opportunity to see that it is possible to transcend the separate consciousness, the death consciousness, the duality consciousness.

The incarnation of Christ, the incarnation of Buddha, is giving the opportunity. Most people are not willing to change, and therefore, what will they do? Well, they may follow a religion or movement that is based on a true incarnation, but they will focus on the outer form instead of seeing that the outer form is not important. It is what is expressed through that outer form that is important. The way to transcendence, to life, eternal life, is to look beyond the form. Look at what is expressed, the formless that is expressed through the form and follow that formless to the Christ consciousness, or the Buddha Nature, or whatever you want to call it.

Interpreting the outer form of the teaching

Instead, those who are not willing to transcend themselves, they focus on the outer form. Now, they start interpreting the teaching. Oh, how they can interpret the teaching! Jesus challenged the scribes and the Pharisees. I encountered the Hindu Brahmins—and oh, did they interpret! Now, look what happened to Buddhism, how it split into different factions. Why? Because they interpreted and they interpreted and they interpreted, endlessly arguing about this or that word. Did it mean this? Did it mean that? What did the Buddha mean when he denied that there is a permanent self? Did he mean there is no self? And on and on and on.

You might say: “Well, that’s just the game that people are playing on Earth to postpone that day where they have to make the choice to transcend form or to die permanently.” Then again, do people understand what they are doing when they are playing this game? Nay, for the game itself obscures the reality that there is no life outside the Christ consciousness. The game presents that it could go on indefinitely, but it cannot. The ego, the fallen beings, have an expiration date that can be extended through people’s free will, but it cannot be extended indefinitely. How many incarnations can come to Earth before people’s opportunity runs out? Well, that is an open question, but do not think it is an infinite number.

The purpose of the incarnation of Christ

What is the purpose of the incarnation of Christ? Was it so that when I was born, I was in a higher state of awareness already, I was in the Buddhic consciousness already? Was it so that when Jesus was born, he was already in the Christ consciousness? As we have explained many times, it was not so. We both had to follow a path. Therefore, what is the incarnation of Christ or the incarnation of Buddha? It is that a human being, or rather a spiritual being in a human body, reaches that critical level of consciousness where the Christ can begin to express itself through that outer form. When you pass that initiation at the 96th level, you become the incarnation of Christ. You do not have the fullness of Christhood, but you become the incarnation.

In other words, the incarnation of Christ is not something that you are before you incarnate. It is something you can attain by raising your consciousness. What is the purpose of this incarnation? Well, it is, of course, to give people a choice they did not have when they had not encountered the possibility that a human being in embodiment can attain a fundamentally higher state of consciousness than the one they have. If they have not seen that there is something called the Christ consciousness or the Buddha Nature, they do not have the choice, do they?

For free will to outplay itself, people must be allowed to go into duality. As we have explained, the consequence of going into duality is that there is a clock that starts ticking. At some point, that clock is going to run out. Before that clock runs out, people must have been presented with the possibility of escaping the separate state of consciousness. They can only be presented with this by someone becoming the incarnation, thereby demonstrating a higher level of consciousness. The most important aspect of the incarnation is to demonstrate that higher state of consciousness. That is, so to speak, the alpha aspect of the incarnation.

What is then the omega aspect of the incarnation? Well, it is that the teaches. Teaching is, of course, a word that, as others have mentioned, has been misinterpreted by human beings on Earth and by the false teachers. Because it is really not that the Christ seeks to give an outer teaching that will automatically and mechanically awaken people. It is more that the Christ seeks to give a living teaching, and this is a realization that few people throughout the ages have had.

The Christ gives a living teaching

You see, when I sat there 2,500 years ago in the lotus position – which this messenger cannot attain – I gave a living teaching. I spoke words, yes, but those words were imbued with the flow of Spirit, the flow of the Buddha Nature, the flow of the Christ mind—as the words that the messenger is speaking are imbued by my living Spirit. Then, the followers that I had attracted, after I left embodiment, they created this oral teaching where they tried to memorize my words.

Later, of course, the words were written down, translated into other languages. Those words were not the living word. They were not necessarily dead words, for you can take a written teaching and you can study it and you can use the outer teaching to attempt to connect to the spiritual being behind the teaching, that gave the teaching. Therefore, you can feel the flow of the Spirit as you are studying an outer teaching.

It is so easy for people not to do this, but to focus on the outer teaching, thinking that if they understand it intellectually, or if they learn it by heart, or if they come up with an interpretation that they think was what the living being actually meant when it gave the teaching, then they have done enough. Then, the outer teaching itself now becomes the vehicle for their salvation, their enlightenment. If just you study the Buddha’s teachings long enough and practice certain practices long enough, then you will reach enlightenment. Maybe not in this lifetime, but surely after this lifetime. It can never work. As we have said, there is no guaranteed path.

It is only if you look beyond the form of the outer teaching and connect to the living Spirit of the being who gave the teaching, that the teaching will bring you to enlightenment or Christhood. No form can help you transcend form. Only Spirit can help you transcend form. Nevertheless, those of you who attain the levels of Christhood that start at the 96th level and above (for some of you, not all of you, but for some of you) it will be part of your Divine Plan to teach. Well, you could say that for all of you, it will be part of your Divine Plan to teach, but not necessarily in the way you normally look at teaching.

Your calling to teach

For some of you, you will teach in your everyday life when you interact with others, just in normal situations: children, family, co-workers, whatever it may be. You will sometimes feel inspired to say something that is imbued with the living Spirit. This is teaching, even if you are not formally teaching them, even if you are not referring to an ascended master teaching, even if you are not having an intention of teaching them anything. When there is that flow, you are teaching. Others will have, as part of your Divine Plan, to teach in a more normal, formal way, where you present yourself and a teaching to others in whatever form it may take.

Now, throughout the ages, we have seen many ascended master students who have found the teaching, realized that it could be part of their Divine Plan to teach, and they have then forced themselves with the outer mind to start teaching. It is, so to speak, a yoke, a burden they have taken on. I therefore, encourage you to look at yourself. Look at your reaction to the idea that you might teach. See if your outer mind takes this very seriously. See if your outer mind has some epic outlook on teaching. See if your outer mind has this sense that you could be successful or you could fail.

If you feel this, then I am giving you permission to decide that you will postpone teaching. You will not seek to teach in an outer way. Instead, you will use the tools for discovering and uncovering the subconscious selves that you have in relation to teaching. It is only these selves that can cause you to be so serious about it, to be obsessive-compulsive about it, to feel that it is something you have to do.

The rest of this dictation, along with an invocation based on the dictation, is found in the book: Being the Living Christ in everyday life.