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Ascended Master Master Lord Maitreya through Kim Michaels, June 6, 2023. This dictation was given at a conference in Seoul, Korea.

I AM the Ascended Master Lord Maitreya. You might say: “You have told us a lot about how to connect to our spiritual teachers, but not so much about how to connect to our higher self or the I AM Presence.” Yet, we have actually told you many things that are relevant to connecting to your I AM Presence, as well. Because everything that helps you connect to your spiritual teachers, of course, also helps you connect to your I AM Presence. Yet, what I wish to give you is some further thoughts on this.

The image of the I AM Presence at the different stages of the path

Now, as the Chohans have carefully explained, there are stages of the spiritual path. It does not do any good for us to go to a person at the 48th level and give the teaching I am going to give in this dictation. Because when you are at the 48th level, you cannot grasp this teaching. You can, of course, hear about your I AM Presence and you can hear many teachings about the I AM Presence—as they are still valid and relevant teachings about the I AM Presence given all the way back to the I AM Movement in The I AM Discourses.

But at the 48th level, and between the 48th and the 96th level, you will tend to feel that you are separated from your I AM Presence, that there is the distance or a gulf between yourself and your I AM Presence. This is, of course, not an actual distance. I know that we have said that your I AM Presence resides in the lower levels of the spiritual realm. You can say there is a distance in vibration between the Conscious You being focused here in the denser realms of the physical octave, and the spiritual realm. Of course, there is. And that is why you will, at these earlier stages of the path, experience that sense of distance.

But as we have also attempted to explain, you are not actually separated from the spiritual realm in the sense that the spiritual realm interpenetrates the physical realm. Your I AM Presence is around you, within you, with you, wherever you are. But ,of course, you cannot experience that at these lower levels, which is why we have given these teachings in previous dispensations, why we have given this chart of the I AM Presence that depicts that you are the lower figure and some distance above you is the I AM Presence with the colored rings around it, representing your causal body.

And it is valid to use this image for a time. It is also valid at this point to make calls to your I AM Presence, to give prayers to your I AM Presence, to ask your I AM Presence for help, for guidance, for direction. But of course, there comes a point where this is no longer what you need to do, because now you need to make a shift and realize that you will not truly connect to your I AM Presence by projecting this image that is carried over from so many religions that your I AM Presence is like the wish-fulfilling god.

Your I AM Presence, first of all, is not a god, because your I AM Presence—despite what has been thought by students in previous dispensations—your I AM Presence is not ascended. Your I AM Presence is not an ascended being. It becomes an ascended being when you, the Conscious You, ascend back to the Presence. You need to recognize here that there is a fundamental difference between your I AM Presence and an ascended master. The ascended master has ascended. And even though your I AM Presence resides in the lower levels of the spiritual realm, it still is not an ascended master.

Letting go of your old image of the I AM Presence

Now, at the higher levels of the path, certainly at the 96th level, but even before you can begin to contemplate this. You need to do away with the chart that sees the I AM Presence above you. You can contemplate an image of the I AM Presence around you, visualize this in your mind, but really it is a matter of a more subtle shift. It is a matter of starting to shift the mind, where you begin to challenge this image of a distance between yourself and the Presence. You begin to challenge whatever images you formed in your mind as you were walking the path, whatever images you formed based on the teachings given by us about the I AM Presence. Because what have we attempted to explain to you so carefully? It is that whenever you find the spiritual path, let us just as an example say you are at the 48th level, you are looking at the spiritual path through the consciousness you have at the 48th level.

What has happened to many ascended master students is that they have found an ascended master teaching—in many cases, they were above the 48th level—but nevertheless, whatever level of consciousness you are at, when you find the teaching, you approach the teaching through that level of consciousness, that world view, that perception filter you have. It is inevitable that you project a mental image that is a mixture of the teaching and your perception filter when you find that teaching. You formulate this mental image in your mind, and it may very well allow you to raise your world view, to raise your mental image, but you are still projecting a certain image upon the teaching. This is natural. It is inevitable. We are not in any way blaming you for this.

I am simply saying that when you come to the higher levels of the path, you need to become aware of this. And you need to be willing to look back at your path and say: “Is it possible that when I found the ascended master teachings those many years ago that I formulated a mental image of my I AM Presence that was based on the level of consciousness I had, and which is therefore inaccurate, inadequate, and cannot actually help me connect to the Presence?” And if you look at this neutrally, you will see that the answer is always yes. Because as I said: “What else can you do?”

The teaching appears, when the student needs the teaching

What you unfortunately find is, especially in previous dispensations, that people have made the assumption encouraged by the culture of those dispensations, which were in the Piscean Age, as we have explained. People have made the assumption that because they were able to find this high spiritual teaching from the ascended masters, they must be in a very high level of consciousness. And you may be in a higher level of consciousness than the average person, but nevertheless, you are still at a certain level of consciousness. Many people have found the ascended master teachings at the 48th level. Some have been above it. Some have been some ways above it.

But most, the vast majority of the people who find ascended master teachings are below, even some ways below the 96th level. Why is this? Because the teachings are, of course, designed to help people climb from the 48th to the 96th level—including the teachings of previous dispensations. What would be the point in finding a teaching at a higher level if you needed it at the lower levels? It is constructive to have some humility and realize that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Which means that the teacher appears, or the teaching appears, when the student needs the teaching. What would be the point in a teacher waiting to appear to the student until the student no longer needs the teaching? You see, a realistic assessment shows you that when you found the teachings, it was because you needed the teaching, meaning you were not at the highest level of consciousness.

But unfortunately, in previous dispensations, many people have assumed differently. They have thought: “I must be at a high level of consciousness in order to be able to find this high teaching.” They have created a certain culture in the organization, a certain mindset in many individuals, that: “The way I looked at the teaching when I first found it, was the highest possible way.” Which means many people have assumed that: “The way I looked at the ascended masters when I first found the teaching, that is the highest way to look at ascended masters,” as the Chohans have explained. But also: “The way I looked at my I AM Presence when I first found the teaching, that is the highest way to look at my I AM Presence.”

The attachment to the old image of the teachings

This means that people found the teaching at a certain lower state of consciousness. They used the teaching to formulate a mental image of their I AM Presence. What the I AM Presence is. What it means to be connected to your I AM Presence. What the I AM Presence can do for you. And they assume that this image is accurate, is the highest possible, so they keep projecting that image. Many students have become very protective of their image. Because what unfortunately happens—when you make this assumption of assuming you were at a very high level when you found the teachings—is that if you had to admit that the mental image of your I AM Presence is inadequate, you would start doubting that you were really at a high level of consciousness when you found the teaching. And this would be a blow to the ego, so the ego does not want to admit this. This is unfortunately a mechanism that we have seen in many students.

This is one of the reasons why you have many of the students from the I AM Movement that could not move on to the Summit Lighthouse. Why there are many students from the Summit Lighthouse who could not move on and accept this messenger. It is not the only reason. Many students were not meant to move on. But the point is that many students have taken a specific teaching, formulated a mental image, become attached to maintaining the illusion that their mental image is correct. And therefore, they are not willing to question it.

There comes that point when they approach the 96th level where the image formulated at lower levels of your I AM Presence is not adequate, because now you need to step up to a higher level of relationship with your Presence. This is an unfortunate reaction from people, when they refuse to reconsider this. And it can truly block their path. There are people who have been on the path for decades, but for a long time they have not really made progress. Or have not made the progress they could have made, if they had been willing to change their mental image of both the masters and their I AM Presences.

Studying I AM Presence from a distance

This is, of course, a mistake we do not desire to see you make in this dispensation, where you have these much higher teachings. And they are higher because they have the concept of the Conscious You and the separate selves. And this is a revolutionary concept compared to previous teachings for the simple reason that when you grasp it, when you experience it, when you experience that your Conscious You can step outside of a subconscious self, then you have a tool, you have a process that can take you all the way to the 144th level. But it can also help you develop a different relationship to your I AM Presence which is not based on a mental image.

What is it, as the Chohans so carefully explained, that you do when you formulate this mental image with the linear mind and project it? Well, you are seeing from a distance. You are seeing that: “Here I am. I am a subject. My I AM Presence is up there. It is the object that I am studying, that I am approaching, that I am praying to.” But as long as you see yourself as a subject and the I AM Presence as an object, what are you doing? You are affirming that there is a distance between yourself and the I AM Presence. But how can you get beyond that distance? How can you connect? How can you become one with the I AM Presence, if you are projecting that there is a distance?

Experiencing Oneness with the I AM Presence

Some students have gone into this almost obsessive-compulsive state of mind where they think that: “If only I give enough violet flame to transmute my karma, then I will become one with my I AM Presence. Now, I have given three hours of violet flame decrees a day for ten years, but I am not one with my I AM Presence. Maybe if I give four hours of violet flame a day, I will become one with I AM Presence. And if that does not work, well, how much more can I give in a day?” You think that in order to get to the goal, you have to push. And if you do not get to the goal, you just have to push harder or you have to continue to push the same way for a longer time. But how are you ever going to get to the goal if you are pushing it in front of you, if you are pushing it away from you? There comes that point where you have to step back and stop pushing.

And you need to realize the simple dynamic we have explained with our teachings about the subconscious selves. What keeps you from Oneness with your I AM Presence is the subconscious selves that you have. As you overcome these selves, it becomes easier and easier for the Conscious You to withdraw itself from the outer mind—the identity, mental and emotional minds. It becomes easier for the Conscious You to step outside of the remaining selves you have left. That means that as you approach that 96th level, it will be natural for you to actually experience your I AM Presence, not from a distance, but as being around you. It is, you might say, that you experience that you are part of the Presence, you are inside the Presence.

Instead of seeing the Presence up there, you begin to experience that the Presence is around you and, as the Chohans have given the image of the wave that rises from the ocean, you are just a wave rising on the ocean of your I AM Presence. And when you are focused, your attention is focused at the top of the wave, it is difficult to see this. But if you allow yourself to sink into the wave deeper and deeper, then you become able to sense the ocean itself. And you become able to flow with that movement of the ocean. And that is when you begin to experience more of that, not so much a connection to your I AM Presence, but oneness with the I AM Presence.

“I am Presence”

Why are we talking about connecting to an ascended master, but oneness with the Presence? Well, because you are not the ascended master, but you are the I AM Presence. You are out of the I AM Presence. Yes, you can technically say that your I AM Presence is created out of the Presence of ascended masters, but nevertheless, from your perspective, it is not so that you will ever come to a complete oneness with an ascended master. You can have a sense of oneness, but you still realize that Master MORE or Saint Germain are distinct ascended beings. But your I AM Presence is not a distinct being, even though it seems that way at the lower levels of the path. But that is the illusion you need to start challenging as you rise higher.

You need to challenge the illusion that your I AM Presence is a separate being from you. You are, as I said, out of the I AM Presence. You are a wave on the ocean of the Presence. That is why it is more fruitful to say that you connect to an ascended master, you become one with the I AM Presence. Or rather, you overcome the illusion that you are separated from the I AM Presence, that you are something different from the I AM Presence. Until you realize: “I am the Presence.” And everything that the other masters have given you about connecting to your spiritual teachers, of course, applies to the I AM Presence, as well. The more you shift your consciousness, the more you overcome the linear mind, the more you overcome the separate selves, the easier it is for you to feel that oneness with the I AM Presence.

But I want to give you also a seemingly very simple tool, some might call it simplistic, but it actually has the potential to have a profound effect. You know how you can say that an actor on a stage can have a great stage presence? Or you can say about a person that they have a certain presence? Well, your I AM Presence is a presence. Yes, it has individuality, but it is a presence. What you have been used to is looking at the I AM Presence as a presence up there apart from you. You might even say: “I am the I AM Presence.”

But the tool I want to give you is to switch this a little bit and simply take some time, go into a quiet room, close your eyes. And then, you meditate on this mantra: “I am Presence.” Not: “I AM Presence,” but “I am Presence.” You see, it may seem like a play on words, but it is much more than that. Instead of thinking about your Presence as the I AM Presence, your mantra is: “I am Presence. I am Presence. I am Presence.” And when you meditate on this mantra, this can be a very effective way to come to actually experience the Presence.

Your I AM Presence is an unascended being

And really, you will not begin to connect to or feel oneness with your I AM Presence until the Conscious You has had that experience of stepping outside the outer personality and experiencing the Presence, experiencing yourself as the Presence. But this, of course, is only the first challenge of Christ as it relates to the I AM Presence. The second challenge of Christ is that now when the Conscious You comes back into your normal state of mind, you have to be very careful that you do not fail the second challenge of Christ and start projecting your mental images on the experience with the Presence. Start again projecting your mental images upon the Presence.

And you have to especially be careful once you start having that experience of oneness with the Presence that you do not project the image upon the Presence that you might have of the wish-fulfilling god or ascended masters. As I said, your I AM Presence is not yet an ascended being. You cannot expect that your I AM Presence knows everything. This is an assumption you find in previous dispensations, where they thought the I AM Presence is like a god, is like an ascended master, knows everything, has superhuman supernatural abilities and can grant me favors and protect me from karma and do this for me. But that is not the case.

Your I AM Presence is an unascended being. Now, it is not in duality, of course, it is not even in the lower realms of the physical octave. It has a broader perspective than you have. But you need to recognize that your I AM Presence still has certain desires for what it wants to experience on earth. The desires that caused it to send you, the Conscious You, as an extension of the Presence. And the I AM Presence does not have a full understanding of everything that an ascended master understands. Even though it is in the lower realms of the spiritual realm, it is still not an ascended being. It does not have the perspective of an ascended being. The I AM Presence is still focused on itself as it sees itself. That is why you cannot look at your I AM Presence as a being who can answer any question you have.

There are people who have thought that they can ask their I AM Presence about any cosmological issue. But that is not the case. You really do not want to look at your I AM Presence as some being who is going to do something for you. Because if you are maintaining this image that your I AM Presence will protect you or will do something for you or will answer your questions or tell you what to do, you are still reinforcing the sense of distance. And other masters have talked about that there is a dilemma, there is an enigma, there is an almost schizophrenic stage of the spiritual path where you are balancing seemingly incompatible things.

Stepping up to the greater union with the Presence

And truly when you begin to experience the Presence, it is a slightly schizophrenic phase you go into. Because you have your ordinary everyday life, you have your responsibilities in this world, and yet you are beginning to experience the Presence, which has a different perspective on life in the world than you do. It can be difficult to balance the two. It can especially be difficult to resist the temptation to have your I AM Presence help you out of some difficult situation or have your I AM Presence tell you what to do in specific situations. Many people have asked for advice from their I AM Presences.

But see, when you begin to go into this phase, the I AM Presence is also in a delicate situation. Because the I AM Presence wants the Conscious You to grow towards union with the Presence. And this means that if you are asking the I AM Presence for advice or directions—if the I AM Presence were to answer it, it would validate your image that you are separated from the Presence. That the Presence is up there. That the Presence is like the genie in a bottle who can grant you any wish you want. You see, if you allow yourself to maintain this mental image of separation, there comes a period where your I AM Presence must withdraw from you, so to speak, and not answer your questions, not give you a frame of reference. And there are people who have felt this, that they felt like they were cut off from a connection they had had earlier. It can be a connection with an ascended master. But in many cases, it is the connection with the Presence. And that is because you have not stepped up.

You have not let go of this mental image based on the sense of distance. And therefore, the I AM Presence must withdraw until you work it out in your mind, overcome that sense of distance, begin to challenge it. And then, your Presence can again interact with you. But what you need to come to, and what I am seeking to help you come to, is to come to the point where you are not asking your I AM Presence for answers to specific questions, for directions on what to do or not to do in situations. You are moving towards a point where you can, as I said in the mantra, recognize I am Presence here in the world. Not that I am the I AM Presence, but I am Presence because the Presence is here with you. The Presence can be expressed through your lower being. And this is actually what it means to be at these stages of personal Christhood. I know we have explained that it is the Christ mind that expresses itself through you and that is correct.

You do need the Christ mind, but your I AM Presence is not separated from the Christ mind. But what we have said previously, what Saint Germain explained also, is that when you come to these levels of Christhood, you do not become a marionette. You do not become a puppet on a string. Because you have to decide how you want to express your Christhood. However, the Conscious You does not have to decide this alone or as a separate being. When you come to this greater union with the Presence, then who is it that is deciding? Is it the Conscious You or is it the Presence? As Jesus said, my Father worketh hitherto and I work.

The I Will Be Who I Will Be aspect of the Presence

There can come a point where you start feeling: “Where is the difference between the Presence and the Conscious You? Where is the difference between the Presence and myself?” And even asking that question implies a distance. But there can come a point where you go beyond that question, where you just experience: “It is not meaningful to even ask the question, because there is no longer any difference.” You begin to realize that the Conscious You is the Presence. You are the Presence in the physical octave, in the emotional realm, in the mental, in the identity.

You are the Presence. But you are, as we have said before (some time ago), the ‘I Will Be Who I Will Be’ aspect of the Presence. As opposed to the ‘I AM That I AM’ aspect of the Presence. The ‘I Will Be Who I Will Be’ is the omega, the feminine or the expressive aspect of the Presence. There is the ‘I AM That I AM’ which is and will remain in the spiritual realm, so it cannot be destroyed by anything that could happen in the unascended sphere. But the ‘I Will Be Who I Will Be’ aspect is what decides to express itself in the unascended sphere. You can say that the Christ mind gives you an energy and momentum that is moving. But it is the ‘I Will Be’ aspect of the Presence that directs that movement to go into specific situations and manifest specific manifestations or have specific experiences.

There comes a point where the distinctions fade away. What is the distinction between the Christ mind, the I AM Presence and the Conscious You? At lower levels, yes, it gives meaning to have that distinction, because it can help the Conscious You shift its awareness. But there comes a point where, for the Conscious You, the distinctions fade away. You are not concerned about it. There comes a point where you are not concerned where you are at on the 144 levels of consciousness. Are you at the 97th or the 108th or the 128th? You are not concerned about it anymore, because you know you are continuing to look for whatever illusions you need to see. That most of the time you are focused on expressing yourself in this world, what you want to express in this world. It does not matter what level you are at. It does not matter the distinction between the different levels or the distinction between the Christ mind, the universal Christ mind, the I AM Presence and the Conscious You. They all blend together.

The rest of this dictation, along with an invocation based on the dictation, is found in the book: Connecting with Your Spiritual Teachers.