Ascended Master Maitreya, January 8, 2011 through Kim Michaels.

Why is it so difficult for people in embodiment to understand the essence of the spiritual path? Why is it that there are people who have studied ascended master teachings for two or three or four decades, and yet they have not understood the essence of the path?

Well, this is a complex topic, so I recognize that it is not possible in one release to give a thorough discourse on the many subtle aspects of the state of consciousness that keeps people trapped on the false path. Jesus recently gave an absolutely ground-breaking discourse, but even he recognizes that this, of course, was not a complete examination of the factors that make it so difficult for people to see exactly what the path is about.

Nevertheless, for this particular release, I shall take the approach of a practical realist and mention just a few—just enough to get you started on questioning your view of the path of initiation. I have already spoken about this through my feminine messenger, but let me give you the same explanation from the masculine perspective. The view of initiation that most people have, when they find an ascended master teaching, is actually a view that is based on the false path created by the fallen beings and the false teachers. It is the view that is based on the idea that you are exposed to something that you clearly know is a test or an initiation.

It is also based on the idea that you clearly know and understand what the test is about, namely that you live up to a predefined standard and produce a certain result. Which will then be evaluated, either based on the clearly dualistic standard of whether your answer was right or wrong, or another standard where you will be graded according to, for example, the kind of grades that you get in school—that are clearly divided into several levels, where some levels are lower than others. And therefore, it requires a grade above a certain level to pass the exam and get your diploma.

This is, of course, clearly what Master MORE spoke about, namely the mechanical consciousness. If you know enough to fulfill the requirements, you will pass the initiation with flying colors by giving the right answers. And if you follow the process outlined, for example, in the educational system – or in secret organizations, such as the Freemasons – well then you will advance up through the grades, until you reach an ultimate level of initiation. And then you get a diploma.

This is what you see in virtually all universities around the world. If you are a good student, according to the criteria defined by this particular institution, or even by a country as a whole, then you will automatically get a diploma. It is assumed that if you can pass the initiations in the schoolroom, then you will be suited for doing the task that your diploma authorizes you to do, such as being a doctor or a psychologist.

Yet what does it take to be a good doctor or a good psychologist? Does it take only intellectual learning, only book learning? Is being able to memorize and recite certain theories and facts a sign that you will be good at dealing with human beings in life-and-death situations? Nay, it is not, as just about any doctor or psychologist could tell you, if they were willing to have the honesty of practical realism about themselves and their profession.

So what is this entire path of initiation based upon? Ahh, when you take a closer look, you see that it is based on being able to hide something. You can follow the educational system of most countries – or even follow initiatic systems such as the Freemasons or other esoteric organizations – and by passing the predefined requirements, you can reach the top level and get a diploma or degree—while still hiding your basic personality, your basic state of consciousness. Are you a truly sincere and kind and honest person, or are you at completely self-centered egomaniac, who only seeks the outer position because of the prestige or the money that it supposedly gives you.

You know, of course, that there are doctors who seek prestige, and you know that there are people who have become doctors because doctors make a lot of money. You know the same holds true in most other professions. And so, you see that deceit is a fundamental element of this false path of initiation.

On the true path you cannot hide

What, then, is the true path of initiation that I offered in Maitreya’s mystery school, and that I still today offer in Maitreya’s mystery school? It is the path, as Jesus explained in his discourse, where you cannot hide your true state of consciousness, your true inner being, for the teacher. You cannot fool me, for I will see through anything and and everything in your psychology that you are seeking to hide.

As I have just said, the Serpent will also see through what it is in your psychology that you are seeking to hide. The difference is that whereas I will see what you are seeking to hide, expose it to you in a very realistic way and then offer you a very practical way to transcend it, well instead of this approach, the Serpent will see through what you are seeking to hide and will offer you the perfect justification for continuing to hide it—if only you will submit to certain other things that the Serpent wants you to do.

And precisely because you are attached to hiding what you thought no one could see, including the Serpent, it will seem to you as a low price to pay to submit to the Serpent’s recommendations or conditions, in order to be able to feel that you can continue to hide while in the end still being allowed into the kingdom of heaven. For this, of course, is what the Serpent promises.

You do know that if you are not willing to go to Maitreya, or any other true teacher, and let the teacher expose your psychology, well then you cannot enter into the mystery school, and you cannot enter into the spiritual realm that the mystery school is set up to give you access to. So if you thought that there was no other way to get into heaven than through the mystery school, then you would know that if you were not willing to submit to the requirements of the true teacher, you had no way of getting in. So naturally, the Serpent must promise you that there is another way to get into the kingdom of heaven than following the true teacher and his strict requirements.

For the Serpent has discovered a shortcut, an alternative route that can get you into heaven—if only you live up to these outer requirements that the Serpent will show to you and will help you fulfill while still being able to hide your basic psychology. Oh, how tempting this is for those who have not been willing to take responsibility for their own state of mind.

How difficult, my beloved, is it to see the lie here? What have we been telling you in the dictations we have released, beginning with Gautama Buddha? We have been telling you that the one and only key to entry into the ascended realm is your state of consciousness, and that you are the only one who can change your state of consciousness. Yet when you decide that you are not willing to take full responsibility for changing your state of consciousness, then you become susceptible to the serpentine lie.

Of course, in order to fully come to believe in this lie, there are just a few conditions you have to accept. These are very subtle conditions, and might seem very unimportant to you—at least when you are in the frame of mind or wanting to hide something. And so, deceived by your own desire to hide, you accept a teacher who will hide something from you—instead of the true teacher who hides nothing from you, and therefore allows you to hide nothing from the teacher or from yourself. The false teachers also will not allow you to hide anything from them, as they are quite skilled at seeing through your psychology. But they will allow you to believe that you can hide something, not only from them but also from God, or at least from the beings who judge whether you will be allowed into heaven.

For the Serpents will tell you that the beings who judge whether you should be allowed into heaven will not look at the things you are seeking to hide. They will only look at how you fulfill the outer requirements, defined by the Serpents. How difficult, my beloved, is it to see the deception here?

The reality is that getting into the ascended state is not a matter of fulfilling any outer requirements. It is a matter of changing your state of consciousness. Changing your state of consciousness cannot be achieved by doing or not doing certain things in the matter realm. It can be achieved only by you looking into your own consciousness. There is no other way.

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