Greetings. I bring you God's blessings, my dear ones. From
the point of view of the spirit, there is an extended perception apparent,
both in form and substance, that describes the spiritual life of man. Life
is a sea, an ocean, and man, or each life, is a boat. Quite often man experiences
this analogy in his dreams. This sea of life presents various aspects: it
can be stormy, the sky is gray, and then again the sun shines and the sea
is calm, until the next storm comes along. And so it alternates, until the
journey reaches its destination. This destination is the firm land, the world
of spirit, the true home of man. Thus all depends on how well man can direct
his life. One is a trained, experienced, skillful captain and, as such, he
must not be afraid of danger; he directs his boat well through the elements,
and in the calm and good periods gathers strength for the next storm. Another
gets nervous and loses his inner control when a storm is brewing. Yet another
is so afraid that in his utter fear he doesn't steer his boat at all, but
lets it drift through the storms of life -- and thus doesn't achieve anything.
You are aware, of course, that these atmospheric disturbances, these thunderstorms,
these hurricanes are the tests that life brings, the clouds that gather together.
And a human being who has already been through some spiritual schooling, and
is a little more sensitive, can detect quite well at what point his little
boat is at this particular time.
I would like to talk about these tests. There is hardly any
group of people, be it a family or any other community, where there isn't
at least one human soul who is still so low in his development that he becomes
the pawn of the forces of darkness.
This doesn't mean that he has to be a thoroughly evil person.
No, it is enough if he doesn't accept the validity of certain spiritual laws
in his life, that he doesn't apply them to himself, or that, in spite of certain
very good qualities, he will not cultivate self-honesty. And the dark world
takes its material from these vibrations, from this lack of self-discipline
and self-awareness, from all the formations that manifest when man doesn't
follow divine law. Spiritual material resembles threads, fine, ray-like threads
-- in this case of more somber color and texture -- which are spun, knotted,
and entangled, until there is such a tight ball of confusion that one can
disentangle it only with the greatest difficulty. However, it is not only
this one person who furnishes the material for such a confused situation,
but all the other people involved in the group contribute their share, which
arises from their own mistakes and weaknesses with which they violate spiritual
law. Thus more of the same kind of yarn is spun, until truth is no longer
discernible even for those whose sight is sharper -- at least not easily --
and often it takes a great deal of effort to find the truth at all.
For a person who strives towards a higher spiritual awareness
it is often extremely difficult to know how to behave when such tests come
along, for the dark forces know only too well how to make untruth appear as
truth, truth as untruth, good as evil, and evil as good. And so man gets confused
-- he, who actually wants so much to be in truth. He doesn't know any more
how to act in the right way; and, often unconsciously, his own inner sick
vibrations, of which he is unaware, contribute not only to further confusing
the situation, but also prevent him from perceiving it with clarity and thus
to know how to deal with it. That's why it is so important for man to school
himself in spiritual awareness and, according to his level, to undertake to
develop himself to his utmost capacity. For, otherwise, he will also, again
in unawareness, become a pawn of the forces of darkness, and his boat will
be blown hither and thither, and he will no longer be able to steer it well.
Neither can he, in order to see the truth, dissipate such heavy clouds alone,
and perceive the core of the problem, and know what to do or not to do to
contribute his energy to the service of the good. He can do this only when
he goes on a path such as this, when he learns the discipline to go into his
inner stillness at any time -- especially when the wild storms are raging
-- and make contact with God and His divine spirits and open himself to the
inspiration of truth by observing himself with all his faults, conquering
all resistances.
The spiritual laws can, or should, be made a living reality
on three different levels; the higher the development, the deeper the level
of penetration. These levels are: (1) doing; (2) thinking; (3) feeling. The
most difficult is to put this into practice on the emotional level. This is
the highest level, partly because many feelings are at first unconscious and
it needs work, good will, and patience to bring them up into consciousness,
and partly because one can't control one's feelings as immediately and directly
as one's thoughts or actions. It requires laborious work on the spiritual
level, self-analysis, and the thorough absorption of spiritual laws before
the emotions can even begin to change.
The less developed a person is, the more superficial his understanding
of and adherence to the spiritual laws must be. This is why God gave mankind
first the Ten Commandments. These deal with man's actions. "Thou shalt not
steal," "Thou shalt not lie," etc. This was already a lot to take in for the
average man of that time, and still is for certain groups of people who are
incarnated from lower spheres. The next stage is to deal with one's thoughts.
Quite often man acts rightly, but his thoughts run another course; he acts
rightly because he comprehends that otherwise he would get into trouble with
the outside world, and it is still difficult for him to control his thoughts,
and he often desires things which are not in accord with the spiritual laws.
He hasn't yet understood that the impure thoughts and feelings must lead him
into conflicts within himself, since all thoughts and feelings create a form
and a substance in spirit and thus bring about effects and chain reactions,
even though he is unable to perceive them as such right away. Such an overview
requires a spiritual awareness that can come only through higher development.
Thus Christ brought you an expanded understanding of the divine laws and commandments,
namely the teaching that you can sin also in thought. At His time mankind
was beginning to become ready for this expanded awareness and depth of perception.
And today mankind begins to be receptive to an ever greater deepening and
understanding of his spiritual consciousness.
A person who is in the second stage, so that for him it is
perhaps doing his utmost to work on the level of his thoughts and to purify
them, is well ahead of him who has only reached the stage of keeping the laws
to the extent of acting rightly. But you, my dear friends, must learn to reach
deeper than that and come to your real feelings, to those which remain so
often in the unconscious, which are so easily covered up by pretexts about
which it is so easy to deceive yourselves, so as not to have to look at what
is really there. But this self-deception must inevitably bring you in conflict
with yourself and often also with the world; this is so even if you refuse
to see it, to recognize the true origin of these conflicts. It is difficult
enough to purify one's thoughts -- and each of these stages can be reached
only through the greatest efforts and self-discipline -- so that it is quite
painful for someone who has laboriously worked himself up to this stage to
have to recognize that many of his feelings still deviate quite a bit from
his thoughts or conscious intentions.
But it is just this extra effort that God wants everybody to
make. This last stage and deepening of consciousness is of course the most
difficult to reach, this is the goal to which you all aspire: it is the true
purification. He who can bring his innermost feelings into his consciousness
and is willing to recognize that these feelings don't always run parallel
with what he has accepted as right in his thoughts, has already accomplished
a great deal. He who does this continuously, until he slowly acquires mastery
of it, can penetrate not only into his own truth, but can then find, at times
of trial, in difficult situations, the core of truth. Then he can scatter
the clouds, then he can untangle the ball of threads, knot by knot. For only
he who courageously faces himself again and again -- and here vanity is an
unsurmountable obstacle -- can gain true perception of another human being
or or any outer situation. He who is blind to his own truth must be blind
to the truth of others.
These knots and tangles create spiritual forms which are a
reality, my dear ones. We can always observe them around groups of people.
Everywhere there is such a tangle of threads, woven by the dark forces; everybody
adds his share, and often there is one person who contributes especially much
to create tangles and achieve greater and greater confusion. But if there
is one person in such a group who walks this high and direct spiritual path,
who truly confronts himself day by day, he is the one who will eventually
-- I repeat, not from one day to the next -- succeed in loosening one knot
after the other, until there are none left and everything becomes clear. Then
that weak person won't be able to deceive himself any longer either, which
anyway was most detrimental to himself and which had burdened his progress.
Of course, at first he will put up a resistance, because confusion feeds his
lower self, the road of least resistance, that of vanity, which prefers self-deception
and thrives on discord. But, in the long run, even such a weak person will
feel liberated as the clouds disappear from his life, even though he used
to cling to them. And only when truth illuminates with its clarity a previously
obscure situation, will there be no more questions left as to what is the
right attitude, what is just, and what is the right action.
Everybody has enough self-knowledge -- or should strive to
reach this point -- to ask himself, "What am I able to do to contribute my
share to God's Plan of Salvation?" Many don't have as their task anything
that would create attention. But quietly, for his own sake, everybody can
and should start to fulfill his part. For everyone has his task within the
Plan, even the weakest; for him it may suffice, and may mean the maximum of
achievement, to cast off a particular fault, to set something right with a
fellow human being with whom he was incarnated for that purpose, to adapt
his actions to God's laws, and to refrain from giving in to his lowest instincts.
More is required of others; always that which is most difficult, what needs
the greatest perseverance; each one purifies himself and develops within the
capacity of his level and strength.
For those who are more advanced in their development, this
process of purification automatically leads to the ability to disentangle
the knots in their surroundings, to clear up confused situations, etc. Thus
they accomplish something they were meant to do, and contribute to God's Plan
of Salvation, in which each action counts so much. And then further tasks
will be found. You human beings want to be happy, all of you, and of course
we understand this. If this yearning for happiness and perfection did not
exist in the human soul, there would be no spiritual development. But there
are only very few who ask, "What can I give? What can I contribute to God's
Plan of Salvation?" You are always demanding something, not necessarily in
direct prayer for the fulfillment of this or that wish, but with your selfwill,
your feelings, and often even in your thinking. You want the best for yourself
and are unhappy over the difficulties of life.
But have you ever asked God, "What can I do for You?" For he
who claims his own happiness as the ultimate goal -- which is usually the
case, even if you are not conscious of it -- breaks the cycle of the living
flow of energy which is the basis of everything that is spiritual. And the
moment the cycle is interrupted, it is also dead. Let us suppose that a particular
wish of yours has been granted. If you then consider your personal satisfaction
as having reached the ultimate goal, nothing is left that can remain alive
in you, and therefore your happiness will be of short duration. Only he who
keeps the cycle actively flowing by being constantly conscious of and inspired
by the desire to put to spiritual use and into the service of the Plan of
Salvation all that he has received in help and grace, in happiness and fulfillment,
in divine intervention and guidance, and acts and feels accordingly, will
also be able to sustain and keep alive his own happiness.
You can and should allow God to guide you, so that you can
achieve this goal. A person who does this is indeed a participant in the Divine
Order and his happiness will never become shallow, or dry out, or die, but
will always be alive, pulsating, forever regenerating itself. And only a person
with this kind of intentionality is worthy of special guidance and divine
help.
Yes, my dear ones, few people think this way. They go to God
and make wishes and demands, but they are not willing to give anything to
God's world, to this great battle which is so very important. Think about
this, all of you. He who approaches God in this way can be given more light
and help to disentangle the knots and to have the strength to steer his little
boat well, even through a storm, so that he comes through it strengthened
and enlightened, as is the will of God.
The Guide
via Eva Pierrakos
March 11, 1957
Copyright 1957 by Center for the Living Force, Inc.