Ascended Master Jesus, June 17, 2012 through Kim Michaels.

Do you not see that as long as you are trapped in the dualistic consciousness, you are paranoid, you are schizophrenic. There is no way around it. The fact of the matter is that what the psychological establishment labels as paranoid schizophrenics are only people who have taken to the extreme a malady that affects 99.9% of the people on this planet. Most people are paranoid schizophrenics, it is just that some forms of paranoid schizophrenia are so common that they are considered normal.

There comes a point where someone has to stand up and say: “The Emperor has nothing on.” It has to be acknowledged that if you truly want peace, you must step out, step beyond, the dualistic polarities, for you cannot find peace there. This is what the Buddha attempted to explain in the Four Noble Truths. The first Noble Truth is commonly seen as saying that life is suffering, but the deeper reality is that as long as you are in duality, life is suffering.

It is the dualistic polarities that pull between them that turns you into a house divided against itself and that causes you to not be at peace. There are, of course, many different definitions of suffering but if you go below the surface appearances, is it not so that suffering is caused by non-peace. If you are not at peace, you are suffering.

The moment you attain inner peace, your suffering is transcended even if the outer conditions are still not ideal. If you have peace of mind, you are not suffering and this is why you see some people at old age, when their bodies begin to show wear, can still find inner peace.

How to attain inner peace

Indeed, it is very rare when you look at the earth to see those who are at peace with themselves. We of the ascended masters would, of course, love to see all who are familiar with our teachings attain this inner peace.

But you will not attain it until you come to the point of being willing to look at yourself and say: “I am not at peace, am I? No I am not at peace, but then why am I not at peace? What is the feeling I have, what is the reactionary patterns that pull me out of peace? Why do I react this way, what is the deeper belief behind my reactionary patterns, the deeper belief about myself, about life?”

If you look closely, you will gradually – as you use the tools we have given, and other tools available in the world – you will gradually come to greater clarity where you see these very subtle beliefs that you have. An expectation of what life should be, and life is not that way so you suffer because you strive towards that opposite polarity where life is the way you think it should be.

There comes a point where you have to ask yourself: “Will I forever be chasing my expectations, will I forever be seeking to make the universe conform to my expectations?” Or will I stand back, look at my expectation and say: “Is it the expectation that is keeping me trapped in suffering and not the outer conditions?” When you come to that realization, that is when you truly start the spiritual path to Christhood and even Buddhahood and beyond.

This is an excerpt from a longer teaching. You can read the full dictation HERE.