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

I AM the Ascended Master Padmasambhava.

My contribution is not intended to be long, but I want to talk somewhat about words. Because if you look back throughout history on spiritual teachings that have been brought forth on this planet, you might ask yourself: What is the greatest hindrance, what is the greatest stumbling block to the spiritual progress of the many sincere people throughout the ages who have found the spiritual path? And that greatest hindrance is indeed words. Now, you might also ask yourself: What is then the greatest asset for the spiritual teachers of humankind? What is the greatest opportunity for spiritual people to make progress? And the answer is words. And the simple reason for this is, of course, that on a planet like earth, with the density of matter and a density of the collective consciousness, telepathic communication is not practical on a large scale. And therefore, spiritual teachings must be given with words.

Words: opportunity and hindrance to spiritual growth

On the one hand, giving spiritual teachings with words is indeed an opportunity, for it is a communication from the spiritual realm in the form of words. But on the other hand, words are also the greatest hindrance to spiritual progress. But why is that so? Well, it is because people have this tendency to become attached to a particular worded expression, wanting the words to convey or define some ultimate truth. The other reason is that the linear mind, the intellectual, analytical, rational reasoning mind, can do tricks with words. You might have seen these magicians that can do magic tricks, but the intellect can do magic tricks with words. It can interpret words. It can, as the saying goes, split hairs about splitting words, interpreting words endlessly. And this is, of course, what you saw the Hindu Brahmins do, and the Buddha attempted to counteract it. But not long after the Buddha was no longer in embodiment, the intellectual people of the Buddhist religion started doing the exact same thing. The scribes and the Pharisees did the same when Jesus walked the earth, but as soon as the Catholic Church was formed, and even before, theologians started doing the same thing with Jesus’ teachings.

And in the modern age, of course, scientists, materialists are doing the same thing with scientific teachings or discoveries. And many spiritual people who have found a spiritual teaching, whether it be an old one or a new one, well, they are doing the same. Endlessly debating about the meaning of words, endlessly trying to interpret words to come to some ultimate interpretation of words.

Looking for the highest possible teaching in the past

One thing you can see, one tendency you can see in the spiritual field is that there are many spiritual people who are looking backwards. They are looking at a worded teaching given some time ago. It may be in the most ancient worded teachings known currently, the Vedas, it may be the Buddha’s teachings, it may be the Old Testament, Jesus’ teachings, later interpretations or scriptures from Buddhism, or the Koran. It may be newer teachings, even ascended master teachings given in previous dispensations. But you see this tendency, people look back in time, they seem to think that back then when the Vedic Rishis were in embodiment, somehow this was a purer time, so the revelation received by the Rishis was the highest revelation that could be brought forth. Or Mohammed’s time was a special time, so that was why the Koran is the ultimate revelation that could be brought forth.

Do these people never open a newspaper, watch television, read books or go on the internet? Have they not recognized that there has been some progress in the living standard compared to ten thousand years ago? Have they not asked themselves why this progress has come about? Can they not reason that the progress has come about because the collective consciousness is higher today than it was at the time of the Vedic seers or Mohammed or Jesus or the Buddha? What sense does it make then that a higher revelation could be brought forth ten thousand years ago than today? How could you bring forth the highest possible revelation when the collective consciousness was lower than it is today? Does this make sense?

Less and less room for interpretation

Well, to some it does or they simply refuse to think about it. But why is it that people will not recognize any later revelation? Why is it that they cling to the old? Because the revelation that was given in a previous age was given for a lower level of consciousness and that means what? It means that the revelation that could be given at that time was not as precise as what can be given today. What does it mean that a teaching is not as precise, that the worded expression of the teaching is not as precise? It means there is more room for interpretation and the more room for interpretation the more the linear mind can do its tricks and the more people trapped in the linear mind such as the Brahmins or the Scribes and Pharisees can use their superior intellects to set themselves up as having a special status. And once they have achieved that status they do not want to give up on it and that is why they cling to that old teaching that can be interpreted endlessly.

Even the teachings of the ascended masters given over the past century show a clear progression. Go back to previous dispensations, read the teachings, you will see they were not as precise, not as direct as the teachings given today. Some have said: “Well the old teachings had a much more elevated language.” Whereas the teachings today are very simple, very limited vocabulary and I agree this is the case but it also left more room for interpretation.

What we are about doing as progressive revelation, as part of progressive revelation, as the Omega aspect of progressive revelation is to make the teaching plain so more and more people can grasp it but also so that even people at a higher level of consciousness are not in doubt about what is being said, there is not as much room for interpretation, not as much need to interpret.

Interpretation based on the present level of consciousness

Of course, a teaching given in words will always be interpreted because people will interpret it based on their present level of consciousness. You can give a teaching from a certain level of consciousness but there will still be those levels from the 48th to the 96th level and for that matter even the levels below that can interpret the teaching based on that level, the world view, the perception filter that people have at that level. This is unavoidable but at least we can do what we can do from the ascended realm to make the teaching as unequivocal, as precise as possible. This is not to say, of course, that the teaching we are giving now is some ultimate teaching and could not become even more precise in the future when the collective consciousness is raised further. But nevertheless you understand my point, I trust that looking back to the old is not really productive especially not when you are in the transition period between two ages, two spiritual cycles moving from Pisces to Aquarius for the teachings given in Pisces were given for that level of consciousness for that cycle and now we are giving teachings for the Aquarian age.

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