Ascended Master Lord Maitreya through Kim Michaels.
There is a very pragmatic reason behind the fact that a non-dualistic teaching is so often transformed into a dualistic religion, namely that the dualistic forces want to get energy from religious people. A non-dualistic teaching will make it very difficult for this force to steal energy from its followers. Thus, the dualistic forces must seek to pervert a non-dualistic teaching by inserting very subtle dualistic ideas. Thereby, they can eventually turn a non-dualistic teaching into a dualistic religion without the followers being aware of what has happened. The effect is that the followers believe they are following a true religion – perhaps the only true religion – yet almost everything they do within that framework gives spiritual energy to the dualistic force that has managed to pervert the religion. Let us look at the most obvious differences between non-dualistic teachings and dualistic religions:
A non-dualistic teaching describes the reality that God is your source. You have a spark of God’s Being within you, and therefore you have the potential to attain oneness with your source. You can say with Jesus, “I and my Father are one.”
A dualistic religion portrays God as a remote being in the sky who is above and beyond his creation and thus inaccessible to you. There is a distance between you and God and thus you and God are in a dualistic relationship. Only very special people, such as Jesus, can attain oneness with God.
A non-dualistic teaching describes the reality that because God is your source, you can attain a direct inner contact with your own higher being, with your spiritual teacher and with God. In fact, it teaches you to let nothing come between you and God, to let no man take your crown (Revelation 3:11).
A dualistic religion says that you need someone or something from outside yourself to mediate between you and God. You need the outer religion and its leaders or at least an external savior.
A non-dualistic teaching describes the reality that God is a loving God who loves you unconditionally. Thus, it encourages you to build a personal relationship with God and God’s representatives (the spiritual hierarchy out of which you are an individualization), a relationship based on love. It also gives you intermediaries for helping you build this relationship, the Ascended Host, but we will neither do the work for you nor block your own growth.
A dualistic religion portrays God as an angry being in the sky, who is ready to condemn you for your mistakes and send you to hell if you do not obey his commands—as defined by the outer religion and its leaders. Thus, it teaches you to fear God and blindly obey the leaders of the outer religion, causing many people to build a relationship with God that is based on fear. This fear makes you a house divided against itself, for you are fearing what is truly your own higher being.
A non-dualistic teaching helps you attain inner communion with the spiritual realm, whereby you can know God’s law from within yourself. You can then begin to spontaneously follow that law because you experience that it is enlightened self-interest.
A dualistic religion teaches that you cannot know God’s law on your own. You can know it only through the outer religion, which has a monopoly on revelation from God. Thus, the law is inevitably portrayed as an external influence that is being forced upon you under the threat of going to hell. You do not follow God’s law out of love but out of fear.
A non-dualistic teaching helps you attain Christ discernment so you can know what is right and wrong from within your own higher being.
A dualistic religion claims that you cannot know right from wrong on your own. Therefore, you need an external authority to tell you what is right and wrong, namely the outer religion and its doctrines, rules and leaders. You should follow the outer religion rather than trust your own inner guidance.
A non-dualistic teaching describes the reality that by putting on the mind of Christ – by walking the Path of Oneness until you become one with the Christ mind and your own higher being – you can know the truth about God from within yourself.
A dualistic religion claims that because you are an incomplete being, you cannot know truth on your own. Human beings can know truth only through divine revelation. And only the leadership of the only true church can determine what is true revelation and what is false revelation.
A non-dualistic teaching describes the reality that you were originally created as an individualization of God. Thus, you have the potential to become all that God is by following the Path of Oneness. In other words, you will be saved not by following an outer religion but by following the inner Path of Oneness.
A dualistic religion teaches that you were created imperfect and incomplete – for example, that you are a sinner – and thus you can be saved only through the intercession of an external savior. That savior might be a spiritual being, such as Jesus, but you still need the outer religion in order to receive the salvation from this spiritual being. You simply cannot be saved without the outer religion.
A non-dualistic teaching describes the reality that as you walk the path of Christhood and become sufficiently mature, you need to follow your inner guidance, even if it conflicts with the outer guidance from an earthly institution or a spiritual teacher.
A dualistic religion claims that if you do not obey the doctrines, rules and leaders of the outer religion, you will not be saved.
A non-dualistic teaching describes the reality that in order to receive reliable inner guidance, you must strive to rise above the human ego. Thus, a non-dualistic teaching promotes Christ discernment.
A dualistic religion does not talk about the ego or Christ discernment. It encourages you to blindly follow the outer religion. It essentially says that you do not need to pull the beam – the ego – from your own eye. You can ignore that beam, for the outer religion will guarantee your salvation.
A non-dualistic teaching describes a path of love. You follow God’s law because you know it is in your own best interest to do so. It will make you more, and you love becoming more.
A dualistic religion seeks to motivate you through the fear of something bad happening to you, such as burning forever in a fiery hell. Thus, you should not seek to go beyond the level of a normal human being, you should not seek to become more, which effectively puts you on the path of becoming less (for if you do not multiply your talents, you slide downwards).
A non-dualistic teaching describes the reality that salvation is not a matter of the arbitrary and unknowable decisions of a remote God or some kind of miracle. It is solely a matter of applying God’s law so that you raise yourself above duality and put on the mind of Christ. This is a rational, scientific procedure, and although it involves creative decisions, anyone can follow it.
A dualistic religion traps you in the dualistic state of fearing the punishment of an angry God and hoping for a reward that is administered in mysterious ways, thus given to some while withheld from others based on unknowing and seemingly arbitrary decisions.
A non-dualistic teaching encourages you to ask questions beyond its outer teachings, for it knows that it is only by asking questions that you internalize the truth.
A dualistic religion strongly discourages any questions that cannot be answered by official doctrines. Such questions are portrayed as dangerous, often combined with the threat of damnation for those who continue to ask them and an eternal reward for those who blindly follow the outer religion. Thus, a dualistic religion gives you both a carrot and a stick, appealing to both pride and fear.
A non-dualistic teaching will do everything possible to take you to a point where you no longer need the teaching for your own growth—you have become spiritually self-sufficient. It will then give you opportunities to use your attainment to help other people.
A dualistic religion will want you to stay codependent on the outer organization and its leaders. It will seek to keep you at a certain level where you are not spiritually self-sufficient.
A non-dualistic teaching will promote leaders exclusively based on their spiritual attainment, meaning whether they have risen above their personal egos and the duality consciousness.
A dualistic religion will promote leaders based on their willingness to conform to the doctrines and rules set by the outer organization. Only those who are willing to put the outer organization above anything else – such as the truth – will attain positions of power.
A non-dualistic teaching is always open to the truth, and it will receive the truth no matter where it comes from.
A dualistic religion is not open to anything beyond its doctrines, for they are seen as absolute and infallible. Only those who have attained power can bring forth any new idea, and only if it preserves the status quo of the organization.
A non-dualistic teaching is open to change coming from below or from the outside, such as changes in society. Such a religion will adapt to changes in society so that it can continue to meet the spiritual needs of its members. It functions to serve its members, not to preserve the status quo.
A dualistic religion is not open to anything coming from beyond its leadership and tradition. The only people who can bring change are the ones in the established leadership, and you can only become part of leadership by demonstrating that you are committed to preserving the organization at all costs. Only those who have power can change the status quo, but you can attain power only by demonstrating that you don’t want to change the status quo. A dualistic religion becomes a closed circle.
A non-dualistic teaching is open to new revelation from the spiritual realm. Thus, the Ascended Host can take a non-dualistic teaching to a higher level, as the consciousness of humankind is raised.
A dualistic religion is not open to such input, claiming revelation stopped with the founder of the organization or can only be brought forth by the leaders and only within the mental box of past teachings and tradition. Nothing can overthrow the status quo.
A non-dualistic teaching is focused on bringing forth the highest possible expression of truth, and it is focused on serving people in the best possible way. It sees itself as a means to an end, namely the spiritual growth and ascension of its members.
A dualistic religion is focused on preserving or expanding itself, meaning the outer organization and the power of its leaders. It is focused on preserving and defending existing doctrine and it acts as if the members are there to serve the organization. It has become an end in itself and neither God, truth or people are more important than the organization.
A non-dualistic teaching has no superior leadership in the three lower levels of this sphere. It recognizes that the true spiritual leaders of humankind are the Ascended Host who are completely beyond the duality consciousness and thus only serve to set people free.
A dualistic religion is led by people in embodiment and by fallen beings and beasts in the mental and emotional realm.
A non-dualistic teaching has ultimate respect for free will. It needs nothing from its members, and thus they are free to leave at any time and with no penalty or threats.
A dualistic religion creates its own beast that needs to be fed by people’s energy. Thus, the beast seeks to suck people into the religion and makes it very difficult – physically, emotionally and mentally – for people to leave.
A non-dualistic teaching places great importance upon humility and the fact that all people are equal in the eyes of God.
A dualistic religion often raises its leaders far above the members but it also raises its own members above all other people. Thus, it appeals to and encourages pride and a sense of superiority (combined with the fear of hell, of course).
NOTE: The rest of this dictation is available in the book Master Keys to Spiritual Freedom.
Copyright © 2007 Kim Michaels.