How
the ego can use a spiritual teaching to abort your quest for truth
The least you should know about the ego, Part 7.
A discourse by Jesus
NOTE: This
teaching was given on July 14, 2006, after the NEW
DIRECTION was implemented.
As I explained in previous
discourses, most people start walking the spiritual path in a conscious
way when they find some kind of spiritual or religious teaching. People
have an awakening or conversion experience, and they now join a religious
or spiritual – or perhaps a political or charitable – organization.
Such an awakening experience is always the result of the longing for
something more, the desire to understand, the sense that there must
be answers to life’s questions. As I explained earlier, this longing
– although it can lead to pain or a sense of aloneness or emptiness
– is the safety mechanism that prevents you from becoming totally
lost in the duality consciousness. This is what we might call the “quest
for truth,” and it is the driving force behind all spiritual growth.
The important point to understand is that your ego’s main goal
is to prevent you from awakening to a higher sense of identity as a
spiritual being. Thus, it will do anything within its power to get you
to ignore or deny the quest for truth. As I have explained, this can
be achieved only on a temporary basis, and eventually the quest for
truth will resurface. Yet even then, your ego will not give up. In fact,
the ego will take the spiritual or religious teaching that served as
the outer tool for your awakening, and it will seek to use it to neutralize
your quest for truth. This discourse will expose some of the methods
that the ego uses to achieve its perpetual goal of trying to make sure
that the latest step you have taken on the spiritual path becomes the
last step you will ever take.
The vain dream of a guaranteed salvation
As explained in previous discourses, the one truth of the Christ mind
is above and beyond the many dualistic “truths” created
by the mind of anti-christ. Thus, the essence of your quest for truth
is a longing for a direct experience of the source of truth, the Spirit
of Truth. It is this experience which is the truth that will set you
free from the ego. No man-made, dualistic belief system can do this
for you.
The ego, of course, will never understand this truth. Thus, it is seeking
is to misdirect your search for truth and make you believe you can find
some ultimate or absolute truth in this world and that this dualistic
truth can guarantee your salvation.
A common result of an awakening experience is that people begin to believe
that by joining an outer organization, they have somehow “made
it,” have been saved or have arrived at the ultimate destination.
This belief is ALWAYS promoted by the ego because it wants you to believe
that by the mere act of stepping into this “ultimate” teaching
or organization, you have automatically qualified for salvation. Perhaps
the organization defines a process for you to go through, but nevertheless,
the ego wants you to believe that as long as you stay in the organization
and keep following its outer requirements, your salvation is guaranteed.
The reality of the situation is, however, that the ego has managed to
herd you into a fold that it will now attempt to turn into a closed
box, a mental prison that traps you indefinitely on the false path to
salvation. By making you believe that your salvation is now guaranteed,
the ego has neutralized your quest for truth. The ego can often silence
your inner longing for an indefinite period of time, certainly for the
rest of one lifetime.
Thus, there are millions of people who believe they are religious or
spiritual people and that they are saved or are making great progress.
Yet, in reality, they have stopped their spiritual progress and have
allowed their egos to trap them in a “holier-than-thou”
attitude. This is the false sense of righteousness that I denounced
so forcefully in the scribes and Pharisees. The true righteousness is
the Christ consciousness in which you never stop transcending yourself
and thus flow with the River of Life that is the Spirit of Truth—the
Living God rather than an ego-made idol.
The driving force behind your quest for truth is that you ask questions.
Yet when the ego makes you believe in a guaranteed salvation, it has
made you accept that there are certain questions you either are not
allowed to ask or do not need to ask. Thus, you no longer need to stretch
your mind and reach for a progressively deeper understanding of the
spiritual side of life. Simply accept the doctrines of your organization
and stop thinking about the more subtle or difficult questions. You
will then prevent or abort the direct inner contact with the Spirit
of Truth, which is the ONLY factor that take you beyond the dualistic
beliefs of the ego.
For example, you see many Christians who believe I ascended to heaven
2,000 years ago and that I have “all power in Heaven and on Earth.”
Yet they cannot accept that I could be speaking to humankind today,
giving teachings that go beyond what is said in the Christian Bible.
They have turned the Bible into a closed box. You also see many New
Age people who are open to this website—until they come across
teachings that contradict their belief that all is well. Many New Age
people reject my teachings on evil, dark forces or the need to take
a firm stand for truth. They have turned the concept of being kind into
a closed box and will not let me take them out of it. Thus, their egos
have become their teachers.
In other words, the ego has now created the perfect mental prison in
which you feel relatively content. You think that as long as you stay
in the prison, you will be saved. And you think you should never look
outside the prison. As long as you accept this approach to spirituality
and salvation, your ego can feel safe because it knows that the Conscious
You will never discover the ego’s existence.
Should you begin to see through the illusion of an automatic salvation
through an outer organization or guru, the ego can still win. Many people
have realized that a particular organization or guru was not what they
first thought it to be. Yet instead of searching for something better,
they give up on the spiritual path, which means they now have nothing
to lead them beyond the logic of the ego. The ego has won either way.
Black-and-white,
gray and beyond
Let us look at how the black-and-white and the gray approaches (as described
in the previous two discourses) relate to this:
-
When you take the black-and-white
approach, you think there is truth in only one belief system. Thus,
you never need to look at any ideas outside your belief system.
In fact, you should reject all such ideas as dangerous. This explains
why many Christians believe anything that is not in accordance with
the Bible is of the devil and why some New Age people think they
should listen only to their guru. In other words, you become stuck
in one belief system and can never move beyond it. This approach
is based on fear, the fear that opening your mind makes you vulnerable
to false ideas. This is the ego saying that unless you allow it
to control you, you will go to hell.
- When you take the gray
approach, you think there are no false ideas. Thus, you are willing
to look for ideas in many different belief systems, which can seem
to be more open-minded. Yet if you do not have the willingness to
discern (as explained in the previous discourse), people often end
up doing what I call guru-hopping. They go from teacher to teacher
until they find one that confirms their belief that they can be saved
without discerning and confronting their egos. Or they continue to
go from guru to guru, constantly thinking that the next one will do
it all for them, all the while refusing to see that no serious spiritual
growth is possible until they take responsibility for their path and
exercise their built-in ability to know truth from an inner source.
This approach is based on pride, the belief that you could not possibly
be wrong. This is the ego saying that it is always right.
Although the two approaches
can seem very different, the reality is that they are based on the same
basic psychology, namely an unwillingness to reach beyond the duality
of the ego and attain the discernment that can come only from the Christ
mind. It is only through the Christ mind – which is the open door
that no human can shut – that you can experience God’s Living
Truth. And it is only this forever self-transcending truth that will
make you free from the dualistic “truth” – the graven
images – defined by the ego and the prince of this world.
This is the essential point that all sincere spiritual seekers need
to contemplate. The mechanism that can bring you beyond the prison of
the ego is the quest for truth. Thus, the ego is constantly seeking
to stop this quest. If it cannot stop you from asking questions, it
will seek to divert your attention. The central aspect of the ego’s
efforts it that it is trying to make you believe that ultimate, absolute
truth can be found in this world—in one of the belief systems
of this world.
Yet, as I have tried to explain in previous discourses, truth cannot
be confined to the words and images used in the material world. Truth
is a Living Spirit, and thus you can know truth only by having a direct,
inner experience of the Spirit of Truth. Yet to have this experience
– to know the one true God – you must be willing to look
beyond the graven images – the idols – created in this world.
The ego is trying to make you believe in its own mistaken belief, namely
that he Spirit of Truth can be captured in – confined to –
a belief system in this world. If you believe this lie, you will limit
your quest for truth to a particular mental box, and thus you will not
encounter the Spirit of Truth—except possibly in rare glimpses.
Your ego will never see that the Spirit of Truth bloweth where it listeth
and thus cannot be confined. Yet the Conscious You should be able to
see this truth and then decide to reach for the direct experience.
Let me be clear. As long as you are searching for truth outside yourself,
you will NEVER find the Living Truth. There simply is NO belief system
on this planet that will guarantee your salvation. No outer system can
ever take you – automatically – to enlightenment, because
enlightenment is an inner condition that can be reached ONLY by continuing
to look beyond ALL outer beliefs systems until one attains a permanent
state of oneness with the Spirit of Truth.
Take note of the subtle distinction here. I am NOT saying that all belief
systems are false or that it is wrong to follow a belief system or teacher.
Yet to make the ultimate spiritual progress, you MUST become aware of
the mechanism whereby your ego turns the outer belief system into a
closed box. If you are not aware of this, you will INEVITABLY be trapped
by the ego and your progress will come to a halt—even if you have
been following a teaching and diligently performing its practices for
many years.
Take note that the ego can use even a true and valid spiritual teaching
– even a teaching released directly by the Ascended Host –
to create a closed box. Once a teaching is expressed in words, it enters
the realm of duality, and it can now be used by the ego. There is no
guarantee against this—except your personal alertness and discernment!
Also take note that here is only one way to have true discernment. In
order to expose a dualistic truth created by the ego, you must have
a frame of reference, you must know a truth that is not dualistic. This
can be attained ONLY through a direct, inner experience of the Spirit
of truth, whereby you have a direct experience of the Living Truth and
can thus instantly expose all dead doctrines coming from the mind of
anti-christ. Can you see that no outer teaching can do this for you?
There simply is NO substitute for a direct experience of the Spirit
of Truth.
Let me point out that there are many people who will read these statements
and think they do not apply to them. They will think that they really
have found the ultimate teacher or belief system, and thus their egos
cannot possibly trap them. There are also those who will think they
have such a sophisticated intellectual understanding of the path –
perhaps even of the ego – that they could not possibly be fooled.
Yet the ego is subtle, and it is precisely the people who think they
are above the ego who are trapped in the most subtle weapon of the ego,
namely intellectual and spiritual pride. This is a topic I will talk
more about later.
Out of the jungle
Let me illustrate the process of spiritual growth with a parable. Imagine
that you have a group of people who are trapped in a deep gorge with
vertical walls that cannot be climbed. The gorge is large enough to
give people everything they need to survive. It is covered with dense
jungle that prevents them from seeing the top of the cliffs. On top
of the cliffs are other people who know the world is much larger than
the gorge. So to help the people inside the gorge, they have lowered
a variety of devices, such as ropes and ladders, so that people can
climb out of the gorge.
Many people in the gorge are aware of these devices. Some of them have
gathered around one device and believe that one day some superior being
will climb down the device and save them. Others go from device to device
without being able to settle on one. Others claim that their device
is the only right one and that all the others are false or dangerous.
Some are even seeking to destroy all other devices than their own. Yet
hardly anyone has decided to climb up one of the devices to see what
is above the canopy of the jungle.
Do you see my point? Each device has a particular form. The purpose
of the device is to allow people to climb higher, be it steps on a ladder
or knots on a rope. In other words, the particular form of the device
is only meant to be a temporary means to an end, namely to lift people
above the blindness of being in the dense jungle. It is not the purpose
of the device to give people some ultimate truth about what the world
looks like above the jungle. To truly know the greater reality, you
have to experience it yourself and the device is meant to facilitate
that experience.
The form of the device does not necessarily say anything about what
is above the jungle. What can the particular shape of a knot on a rope
possibly tell you about what the sky looks like? Likewise, there could
be more than one device that could lift people into the clarity above
the jungle. Surely, some devices may not be able to lift people above
the gorge, so one needs to be careful. Some might be made of ropes that
have rotted and might cause you to fall to the ground. Others might
have been disconnected from the rim of the cliffs, thus leading only
to the tops of the trees. Others might have been lowered by people who
have climbed the trees, and although they can take you above the ground,
they cannot take you beyond the gorge. My point is that although it
is necessary to exercise discernment and evaluate the condition and
origin of a device, one should not become too attached to the particular
form of any device.
The meaning is, of course, that the climbing devices are symbols for
the spiritual teachings found in this world. There are a number of true
ones that can potentially lead you beyond the confinement of the gorge
– the duality consciousness of the ego – and allow you to
see the greater perspective of Christ truth. So you should not allow
your ego to make you attached to the particular form of one teaching.
No true teaching is designed to give you absolute truth. It is designed
to give you a series of steps that – if you climb them –
can take you to a direct experience of the Spirit of Truth. It is this
direct experience that will raise your consciousness, not an intellectual
understanding of the outer teaching. Thus, climb any valid ladder instead
of arguing with other people over which ladder is the only true one!
The important message of a true spiritual teaching is that there is
something beyond the teaching. The outer teaching is only meant to show
the way to the kingdom of God that is within you. So if you allow your
ego to make you believe you can reach the kingdom by staying in a closed
box – based on the particular form of an outer teaching –
you will NEVER enter the kingdom.
How a living teaching becomes an infallible doctrine
There are two ways whereby your personal ego can use an outer teaching
to trap you in a closed box and prevent you from reaching for the non-dualistic
truth of Christ:
-
For most people the
personal ego is not strong enough to come up with a belief system
of its own, so it looks for a ready-made belief system that claims
to have some form of infallible or absolute authority. This form
of authority is an external authority, such as the Catholic Church’s
claim of being the only true church of Christ because of the succession
of popes going all the way back to Peter. In fact, the more outrageous
or bold such a claim to infallible authority is, the more likely
that the egos of some people will accept it. The purpose is, of
course, to make you believe that your salvation is guaranteed so
you no longer need to think.
- Once it has made you
accept an external teaching as having infallible authority, your ego
will come up with a set of personalized versions of the outer doctrines.
These are designed according to your personality and beliefs, so they
vary greatly from person to person. Most religious people and most
inexperienced spiritual seekers are unaware that they have created
such personalized versions of their church’s doctrines.
For example, many Catholics will claim that they strictly believe
in official doctrines, but in reality they believe in personalized
versions of the official doctrines. These personalized versions allow
their egos to hide and allow people to live their lives the way they
want to—while still believing they are good Catholics who will
be saved. In other words, the personalized doctrines allow people
to violate my commandments without thinking they are doing so. They
can then maintain the illusion that they are good Catholics and the
belief that their salvation is guaranteed. You do, of course, find
a similar mechanism in all other religions and in New Age teachings.
People who are trapped in the gray thinking have taken this approach
to the extreme.
Let me give just a few examples
of how the ego can misuse any spiritual teaching to create a closed
box. Bear in mind the following facts:
-
Once a teaching is expressed
in words, it has become “frozen in time.” The teaching
will not change by itself, and if the connection to the source of
the teaching is lost (the original teacher dies or the connection
to the Ascended Host is broken), the teaching cannot be renewed
from Above. The ego then has the perfect opportunity to turn it
into the “ultimate” teaching that never needs to change
because it is already perfect.
-
There is no teaching
expressed in words that cannot be perverted by the ego. It simply
is not possible – given the current level of consciousness
on Earth – to bring forth an ego-proof teaching.
-
The ego will NEVER understand
the true purpose of a spiritual teaching, namely to help you attain
a direct connection to the Spirit of Truth.
- I know this will seem
like a contradiction, but to the ego there is no such thing as an
absolute truth—namely a truth that comes from beyond the duality
consciousness. The ego sees any spiritual teaching as just another
concept that can be debated and interpreted according to its dualistic
reasoning. Yet once the ego has interpreted a teaching the way it
wants to – has created its own version of the outer doctrine
– it will elevate that version to the status of infallibility,
trying to make you think you should never question it. That is why
the egos of two people can interpret the same words in mutually exclusive
ways, yet each ego is absolutely convinced that its interpretation
is the only true one.
Do you see the subtle point? The ego is NOT seeking for absolute truth
– meaning a direct experience of the Spirit of Truth –
but is seeking to take a relative expression of "truth"
and elevate it to the status of being absolute. It is not seeking
to find absolute truth but to define it based on its own dualistic
reasoning.
The modus operandi of the
ego is that it will look for statements in a spiritual teaching that
can be interpreted as giving absolute authority to the teaching, to
the person releasing the teaching or giving superiority to the followers
of the teaching. Once the ego has found or defined such absolute statements,
it will seek to establish a culture in the organization that makes people
believe they never have to question these absolute statements. They
are raised to the status of infallibility, which means the following:
-
The teaching comes from
and is one hundred percent backed by the highest possible authority—often
God or God’s highest representative on Earth (take note that
for all true representatives of God, value judgments are meaningless—the
Christ is not higher or lower than the Buddha in a human sense).
-
Since there can only
be one truth – or so the ego believes – all other teachings
are false.
-
If you follow a false
teaching, you go to hell, but if you follow the only true teaching,
your salvation is guaranteed.
-
The teaching is higher
or better than any other teaching, meaning that its followers are
better than all non-members.
-
Because the teaching
is absolute, it could never be changed or expanded upon. In fact,
nothing should be changed and you should follow the teaching the
way it has always been done.
-
Because the teaching
is absolute, there could never be a higher or more advanced teaching.
Thus, you can set aside your longing for something more, your quest
for truth. The quest has now been fulfilled in you finding this
teaching here on Earth.
-
Because you have this
perfect teaching, there is no need to seek for a direct experience
of the Spirit of Truth. In fact, such an experience is either impossible,
unnecessary or reserved for the leaders who will then tell you what
to believe based on their infallible experiences. In most orthodox
religions, a direct experience of the Spirit of Truth is discouraged
or forbidden. That is why the Jewish leaders were so upset when
I preached that the kingdom of God is within you, meaning that you
do not need an outer priesthood to tell you what is true. You can
contact the source of truth inside yourself.
-
Because the teaching
has absolute authority, who are you to think you can ask questions
or seek for a deeper understanding of the teaching than what the
leaders are giving you?
- If you ask a question
that the leaders cannot answer, there is something wrong with that
question. If you are not satisfied with the official answers, there
is something wrong with you. If you question the leaders or the official
doctrines, you are questioning God and will go to hell.
The overall effect is that
you can forget about the quest for truth and simply follow the outer
doctrines and rules of the belief system that claims it can take you
into the promised land. Now that you have found the ultimate spiritual
teaching, you no longer need to think; you no longer need to use the
intuitive faculties that led you to search for a spiritual teaching
in the first place. Just leave them at the door and forget all about
them.
You have seen virtually every religion and spiritual movement on Earth
be affected by this mindset to a smaller or larger degree. Some have
become so stifled that they have lost any element of the Living Truth,
thus becoming virtually useless while their followers still believe
they are the only ones going to Heaven.
Why the Ascended Host start new organizations
The Spirit of Truth cannot be confined to words. Once a spiritual teaching
has been put into words, it is no longer the Living Truth. Thus, the
ego can use the dualistic reasoning of the mind of anti-christ to turn
that teaching into a closed box. This is an inevitable consequence of
the fact that so many people on this planet are still trapped in and
completely blinded by the duality consciousness. There is NO guarantee
against this, in fact it is virtually guaranteed that any spiritual
teaching will be affected by it and that some people have turned that
teaching into a closed box.
You must be on guard against the fact that such people will seek to
pull you into their box, because the ego literally believes that if
everyone on Earth agrees with it, then it must be right. As they say,
misery wants company, and so does the ego. The ego is convinced that
if everyone believed the Earth to be flat, then the Earth really would
be flat.
For millennia, we of the Ascended Host have given humankind a number
of valid spiritual teachings. In every case it has only been a matter
of time before the Living Word was turned into the dead word by the
human ego and the subtle logic of the serpentine mind. Is there a way
to avoid this scenario? Yes, but ONLY as long as a teaching remains
open to progressive revelation, meaning that there is a direct connection
to the Ascended Host through which we can bring forth the Living Word.
The ego will attempt to distort the teaching from the moment it is given.
Yet when the direct connection is broken, it might only take a few years
before a valid spiritual teaching has been turned into a closed system
that promises salvation without having a direct connection to the source
of salvation.
Most modern Christian churches overlook the fact that I did not create
a closed box but attempted to establish a tradition for the delivery
of the Living Word. I did not send my disciples with a fixed doctrine
from which to preach. I sent them with an empowerment by the Holy Spirit,
whereby they could preach the Living Word. Throughout the millennia,
other organizations have had a tradition for the Living Word. And although
such a connection can be perverted by the ego, it is still the main
means that has the potential to prevent that a spiritual teaching becomes
a closed box.
As humankind’s consciousness has grown, we of the Ascended Host
have attempted to establish a more direct connection by training messengers
through whom we could speak in a more direct manner. Yet so far every
organization we have sponsored has followed the same pattern. The members
and leaders – and often even the messenger(s) – have become
too focused on the outer teaching and the outer organization.
One common scenario is that an organization becomes too focused on the
messenger. The problem here is – as always – the duality
of the ego. Many people are so trapped by the spiritual blindness of
their egos that they will not accept any messenger unless he or she
has some kind of otherworldly authority. Yet if we establish such authority
by setting forth the credentials of the messenger and our sponsorship,
the ego will immediately take this too far and build an organizational
culture that says this organization is the only one sponsored and this
messenger is the only true messenger.
Another common scenario is that an organization becomes too focused
on the particular form of the message given through its messenger. Thus,
the way the Living Word is delivered through this messenger is the only
way it could possibly be delivered. The organization then turns the
Living Word into a dead doctrine and sets it up as being superior to
any other teaching. It now falls prey to the dualistic game of defining
itself in relation to – as being superior in comparison to –
other teachings. While this allows the members of the organization to
feel superior and feel certain they will be saved, it does nothing to
promote personal Christhood. In the Christ mind there are no dualistic
value judgments and comparisons. Thus, the Christ way is to use a teaching
only to reach the Spirit of Truth beyond the teaching.
The consequence of such ego-games is that an organization becomes rigid.
And when the messenger is no longer functioning – or has
become rigid – the members – and especially the leaders
– fall prey to the serpentine temptation that now the flow of
the Living Word has come to an end. Their organization was somehow the
last one to bring forth the Living Word, and we of the Ascended Host
have now stopped talking to humankind for the indefinite future.
These leaders will now label all new messengers as false by definition,
encouraging their members to reject them without taking a closer look.
They will cite all the dangers of following false messengers, often
by using selective or twisted quotes from the old teaching. Those who
believe in this claim fall prey to the ego-temptation to refuse to exercise
their personal discernment. Certainly, there will always be false messengers,
but only by looking at all new messengers can you sharpen your discernment,
thereby becoming able to separate the true from the false based on the
inner vision of Christ rather than outer criteria defined by your ego
or the egos of those you have made into your gurus on Earth.
The only way out
Is there a way to avoid this trap? Yes, but only by establishing an
organization that fulfills two requirements:
If such an organization can
attract spiritual seekers with an uncompromising commitment to their
own spiritual growth – being willing to confront their egos and
pull the beams from their own eyes – and to maintaining the unbroken
flow of the Living Word, then we can potentially establish a tradition
that can remain open. Such an open connection has previously been established
through many messengers, but is has only been kept open for a short
time before the ego-games took over.
We of the Ascended Host believe it is time to take this to a higher
level, which is why we are now giving higher and more direct teachings
about the ego and the pitfalls of spiritual organizations. What remains
to be seen is how the spiritual seekers of this age will respond. Will
they use the teachings we have given through our present messengers
to always reach beyond the teaching for the direct experience –
in their own hearts – of the Spirit of Truth?
Will they be willing – each one in his or her own way –
to become open doors for the delivery of the Living Word? Or will they
become focused on the outer teaching or the outer messengers and thus
turn our releases into another closed box that can join the trash-heap
of dead spiritual organizations? To be the open door or not to be the
open door, that is indeed the timeless question.
Do you see the central point
here? The only way out is individual Christ discernment. It is the ego
that has created the dream of an automatic or guaranteed salvation.
Thus, it is essential for spiritual seekers to realize that there is
no way to create a spiritual organization that is automatically guaranteed
to be free from the ego and its games. The ONLY way to combat the ego
is through constant alertness and a constant reaching for the Spirit
of Truth. However, this can happen only as a personal, inner experience,
and although the experience can be shared – so that people's individual
experiences reinforce each other – it can never be institutionalized.
Never become attached to a particular expression of truth. Use it as
a stepping stone for reaching for a direct, inner experience of the
Spirit of Truth.
The Sprit of Truth is the River of Life, and the all-important characteristic
is that it is constantly flowing. If you take a snapshot of the river,
you stop the flow, and thus you no longer have a true representation
of the river. Never settle for a still frame—always keep reaching
for the river itself.
How
the ego seeks to divert your attention from the inner path
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© 2006 by Kim Michaels |
