Ascended Master Lord Maitreya through Kim Michaels.
It is virtually impossible to grow up anywhere on this planet without being affected by one dualistic religion or another. Even scientific materialism is a dualistic religion in that it claims to present an infallible truth about the existence of God, your identity and the purpose of life, but in reality it simply presents the doctrines of those who have made a religion out of the plausible deniability built into the material universe. My point being that as a sincere spiritual seeker, you can now see that unless you make an effort to free yourself from the effects of dualistic religion, you cannot manifest your spiritual freedom. However, take note of what I am saying here. I am saying that you need to free yourself from the effects of dualistic religion, I am not saying you need to free yourself from all religion or even a particular religion. The difference may seem subtle, but it is extremely important—as will become clear in this chapter.
The first step toward rising above dualistic religion is to overcome the basic manipulation behind all such religion, namely that if you do not follow the right religion – submitting to all of its doctrines and practices – you are sure to burn forever in hell. This fear-based approach to religion has been influencing people on this planet for a very long time, and in this cosmic cycle it is time for the most spiritual people to dispense with it once and for all. The concept that you need a religion on Earth in order to be saved is one of the biggest lies ever perpetrated upon humankind.
As I have explained in previous chapters, you are more than religion, and God is more than religion. Thus, God – who created the entire world of form – cannot be confined to any particular religion on this planet—which is like a speck of plankton in an infinite ocean. You are an extension of the Creator’s Being, and thus you cannot be confined to any particular religion, and neither do you need any religion in order to be saved. Because you are an extension of God, the key to your salvation is not to do something on Earth but to unite with your own higher being. The key to salvation is not doing something but being who you were created to be. Thus, the most important task for you is to never let any man – or anything outside yourself – take thy crown (Revelation 3:11). Let nothing come between you and the direct inner contact with God and your own higher being that is your ultimate birthright.
What you do need in order to be saved is a transformation of consciousness, a rebirth of your sense of identity, whereby you attain oneness with your own higher being. You absolutely can never be saved by maintaining a separate identity. You must become one with your own greater Being while retaining your individuality—not as a separate being but as an individualization of the greater Being out of which you came. I realize this can sound like an enigma or contradiction, but it is one that can be solved by rising above duality. Only the illusion of separation makes this seem like a contradiction. Once you see beyond the filter of duality, it becomes perfectly obvious how you can be one with your source without losing your individuality.
My point being that the only true path to salvation is the Path of Oneness. Yet this path is an inner process. The meaning is that it cannot be guaranteed by following any outer religion. On the other hand, it cannot be stopped by any outer religion. So you can follow the Path of Oneness while being a member of any religion or no religion.
The master key to spiritual freedom is to realize that you can be free only when you are whole, when you are self-sufficient. You are whole when you realize that you get everything from God via your direct inner oneness with God—due to the fact that your conscious self is an extension of the Creator’s Being. So you need nothing from any other person or from the material world, including an external religion or savior.
Take note of the subtlety here. I am not saying that you need nothing besides your conscious self or lower being in order to be saved. Your lower being truly cannot save itself, which is why there is some truth to the belief among many religions that you need God’s grace or help from spiritual beings in order to be saved. The problem is that these religions tend to portray God as the external being in the sky, and thus his grace is seen as coming from an external source. There is separation between you and God and thus there is a gap between God’s grace and your receipt of it. And as long as there is such a gap, how could you possibly receive God’s grace?
The all-important distinction that the most spiritually advanced people need to make is that God is not an external Being. Your source is ultimately the Creator, but you reach the Creator by going through the hierarchy of Beings that have descended from the Creator, the lowest link of which is your I AM Presence. You are an individualization of that hierarchy, and the only path to salvation is for you to come into oneness with it. Thus, you are not saving yourself in the sense that your lower being – which includes your ego – can bring about salvation. You save yourself by bringing your lower being into alignment with, into oneness with, your higher being. Thus, it is your higher being that saves your lower being, not your lower being that saves itself through its own efforts or light. The grace of God is the Light of your own I AM Presence. The trick is to realize that you can receive that light only from inside yourself—the kingdom of God is within you and you cannot find it anywhere else.
In order to ascend, your conscious self must receive grace, namely the light of a being in the spiritual realm. You cannot receive this light as long as you see yourself as separated from God. Thus, you must come into oneness with your own higher being and Chain of Being, and then you can receive the ascension flame. Take note that the ascension flame will accelerate the vibration of your entire lower being, and in doing so all dualistic images and sense of identity will be burned away. That is why you cannot receive the ascension flame until you have purified your lower being from a dualistic sense of identity. If such a mortal identity was suddenly burned away, you would end up in a spiritual vacuum, potentially feeling like you had no continuity and identity. Thus, the Path of Oneness is a gradual process of rising above your mortal, separate sense of identity until you are ready to be accelerated into the ascension without losing your sense of identity.
Take note that the true teachers of humankind will not claim that they can save you. They will help you transform your consciousness until you reach the state of wholeness that is salvation. In contrast, the false teachers are trapped in separation, and the very idea that there is a distance between you and God inevitably gives rise to the concept that you need an external savior in order to cross that distance. In other words, any religion, person or non-material being who claims to be able to save you is making a false claim, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Many immature religious people actually want to believe in this claim, because it seemingly sets them free from taking full responsibility for their own choices. As a mature spiritual seeker, you need to stop believing in such claims and accept the ultimate responsibility that you are the one who must change your consciousness and thereby open the door for the true salvation, the salvation from within.
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The ultimate question to ask concerning your involvement with religion is not whether your religion will save you. The real question is whether your religion helps you come closer to wholeness or takes you away from wholeness? The most sure way to evaluate this question is to honestly consider whether there is any trace of fear in your approach to religion.
As we have seen, fear can only come into play when there is separation from your source. So if you detect any fear in your approach to religion, you know you have not yet attained wholeness. You then need to use the right tools, such as Mother Mary’s book and rosaries, to overcome your fear. You need to strive for a state of mind in which your involvement with religion is based on love and joy, with no sense of fear or obligation. You should not be involved with religion because you fear hell or feel obligated to do God’s work. You should be involved with religion because you love your own Higher Self, you love the Creator, you love other people, you love the Earth, you love truth. And it gives you supreme joy to be involved with an activity that expresses your God Flame while helping other people and bringing God’s kingdom to this planet.
Consider what I have told you in this book about the true God – the Creator – and the false gods. How do you think the true God wants you to approach religion? How do you think the false gods want you to approach religion? The true God wants you to approach religion exactly as Jesus described, when he said that God is a Spirit and that you must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24) and when he said that you must become as little children (Luke 18:17). The Creator has nothing to hide and wants you to discover the truth that will set you free from all illusions, whereby you will experience the incredible joy that the Creator has in being creative—you will experience the Creator’s blissful Spirit. In contrast, the false gods can motivate people only through fear, for in their state of separation they have forfeited all true joy. They know only the dualistic joy that is in a polarity with its opposite. The false teachers want you to be fearful of religion. Why? Because if you knew better, you would never follow them, so their survival depends on keeping you in ignorance. And the primary way whereby they use religion to keep people in ignorance is to create a culture based on fear so there are certain questions people don’t dare to ask. And when you don’t ask, how can you receive an answer? And thus, how can you escape the illusion that keeps you trapped in a limited sense of identity?
The simple fact is that you will never escape your current mental prison unless you adopt a willingness to question any and all of your current beliefs, including those imposed upon you by an outer religion. The false gods want you to think that if you ask the forbidden questions, terrible things will happen, but if you follow them blindly, your salvation is guaranteed. As I have now hopefully helped you see, nothing bad will happen from asking questions, but following the false leaders blindly will not take you to heaven. Thus, be willing to question every aspect of your present approach to religion, from the most general – your attitude to God – to the most specific—the doctrines or rituals to which you have been exposed.
Obviously, by reading this book you have already started this process, but you cannot expect the process of cleansing your mind from dualistic beliefs to be completed in the – relatively – short time it takes to read this book. You should consider this a life-long process, and if you will ask for inner direction, study teachings that give you a broader view of religion and practice spiritual techniques, you will be amazed at the transformation that will begin to take place.
NOTE: The rest of this dictation is available in the book Master Keys to Spiritual Freedom.
Copyright © 2007 Kim MIchaels.