TESTS ON THE PATH

Some have asked why, when walking a metaphysical Path, that life seems to become a series of frustrations instead of being full of “love and light” as others proclaim. This depends purely on where one is situated on the ladder of evolution and the level of spiritual maturity that one has attained.

An aspirant’s advance is determined by how rapidly he can meet and conquer the forces of his own nature and by the speed with which he may be tested by the destructive elemental forces of the planet. If he manages to pass and conquer the first onset of these forces, he progresses rapidly. If, however, he does not manage to completely conquer the problem, he is tested again and again through the years until he feels he is beset by troubles and frustrations, as indeed he is. He is tested until he overcomes the problem. It is similar to passing a test at school to see if the student is fit enough to go up to the next grade.

The greatest test on the Path is usually one of doubt. If doubt can be cast aside as he strides forward, he will find the reality of the Path, and his resolve will be strengthened. He does not fight because there is no need to fight; he sees beyond the physical. But if he is overcome by doubt, then faith flies out the window, and his struggle can become quite intense as he searches for meaning in his life.

The next greatest test is personal love. Love must become purely unconditional. This is one of the hardest tests along the Path. When a man turns his face to the solitary Path of Discipleship, and he does not do that unless he had heard the call, he must leave behind the mortal ties that bind him to Earth. This does not mean to say that he must leave those he loves but that he must cease to lean upon them or to rely on them. So it becomes that he walks with his loved ones, assisting them through the earth plane phase of their journey, instead of dominating or trying to posses them.

His focus of interest must change, and the one dominating purpose of life, the fulfillment of Universal Law, must order his thought. As he continues to practice unconditional love in all his earthly affairs, he will naturally become more unselfish as he gives all and seeks nothing in return. This also is a hard test and naturally changes his point of view. No longer does he feel that he has the right to posses; indeed, he feels it a privilege to love, to give and to serve. This is the spiritual meaning of the vow of poverty. It does not mean giving away all your earthly goods; it means not having an attachment to them because they are only transient. They are not the things you can take when you pass through the veil. The only thing you can take with you is love. Love is an energy—not an emotion.

Another test on the Path is that of anger or hatred. The disciple must learn to receive betrayal or injustice without anger or hatred; to do so merely causes an imbalance in his energies. It should not be his concern what others may do to him for the Law has its own way of working out and will bring justice to all concerned. What matters most of all is whether attacks by destructive forces through human vehicles can stir destructive forces within him. It matters not about the attitude of others towards him; it is his attitude to others that determines his progress. You only have to look at the great Ones to see how they handled their lives.

We live in difficult times, faced with uncertain circumstances, so live and enjoy each moment that you have.

In relating this short discourse, I am sticking to the dictum of using the masculine gender for both personalities to save the tiresome repetition of constantly writing his/hers, she/he, him/her, man/woman etc.

The Birth of a New Age

When someone passes through the veil, it leaves people still on the earth plane miserable and unhappy; and we have to ask, why is this so? Chiefly because it separates us from those we love. The only other reason why death brings grief or fear is because we do not understand it and comprehend the part it plays in human evolution. But the moment our ignorance gives way to comprehension, such fear usually vanishes and a more peaceful attitude of acceptance takes its place. Humanity has now come to the point where it must break through the “thought barrier” if it is to continue on to an enlightened age of peace and true brotherhood.

Why do we have enemies from whose words or acts we suffer? Because in our limited physical consciousness we do not perceive the unity of all life and realize that our wrong thinking acts like a boomerang that returns to us bringing the results we need to experience for our own soul growth. The only way most people learn is through interaction with others, and sometimes through painful interaction, because that is the only way the information can get through.

On a personal level, others will mirror back to you exactly what you have sent out and will continue to do so until you cease to think negatively. This naturally is called the mirror effect and it will dance around you like a shadow until you realize the effects your thinking processes are having, not only in your own life, but in the lives of others also. This will continue for you until the time when the causes you have already generated are fully exhausted. When spiritual illumination comes, and you no longer stumble in the night of ignorance, the last enemy will disappear and you will no longer be required to incarnate upon the earth plane.

We can be free of all such barriers when we are released from the confines of the physical body during sleep. Many wake up to find themselves out of body and in a different sphere or realm where there is only peace and harmony. Mostly this is forgotten by morning and the person goes on to face another day, but having an unconscious knowing that there is something better somewhere else. We do not have to wait to pass over to experience heaven. Heaven and hell are created right here on the earth plane. It is our choice which one we want to experience.

It is our ignorance that makes poverty and disease able to manifest in our lives because we do not comprehend their meaning or their lessons, nor do we know the correct attitude to assume toward them. If we did, there would not be any poverty or disease on our planet, and we know that this is not the case. Yes, a minority of people are certainly learning the lesson in how to bring about the balance, and walk the middle way.

And so it is with all forms of suffering we experience. They are at once reactions from our ignorant blunderings and instructors that point out the better way. When we have comprehended the lessons they teach they will be no longer necessary and disappear because by then we will have understood why they were essential factors in our evolution. It is not by the outward acquirement of facts that men become wise and great. It is by tapping in to the soul from within until it illuminates the brain centres with a downpouring of that flood of light called brilliance.

When we have reached that point in our evolution, then we will turn from our interest in mastering matter to the instinctive knowledge of a spiritual universe composed of myriad realms, planes and sub-planes and perhaps when a loved one passes through the veil, we may even be permitted to go with them a certain distance. This is happening even now.

Each soul that moves out of the shadows and into the light, out of ignorance into knowledge and out of superstition into truth is helping to dissipate the fog of darkness into which humanity has fallen. The darkness is greatest just before the dawn, but the more people invoke the light, the quicker the energies of the new age will be ushered in. The planet is experiencing the birth pangs of a new age, and like a woman travailing in labour, all the pain will be forgotten when the new age bursts forth and the Christ consciousness is born anew in each one. The chosen ones are those who choose to be chosen.

ARE YOU MAKING YOURSELF SICK?

Many students of Metaphysics are wondering why it is sometimes that sickness still occurs to those who have been meditating for a long time. It would be better to look at sickness or illness as an opportunity to clear old states of consciousness or a purging that takes place to rid the body of impurities. This benefits not only yourself, but the overall planetary consciousness and helps everyone to move up a little higher in consciousness.

Most students don’t make a big deal about their problems; everyone has them and their prime purpose is for learning. We look into the area where the problem is occurring and this can give us a clue as to what is going on in our sphere of consciousness.

Take kidney complaints for example. Like some of the other organs arranged in pairs, kidneys represent something to do with partnerships. Usually we attract people into our lives who represent our shadow side; that is that side of ourselves that we have repressed or pushed down. This happens as an opportunity for us to look at ourselves and clear that repressed energy. Those traits we do not like in our partner are usually the very things we need to look at within ourselves.

Now energy will not be repressed, it must flow through. If we have an energy blockage, we soon find out about it in the form of a mental or emotional upset. If we refuse to deal with it at these levels, eventually it becomes a physical problem and we are forced to deal with it because it becomes uncomfortable not to do so. If you have problems with your kidneys, it is a possibility that you project your inadequacies and/or your problems onto your partner or someone else close to you because you either can’t or don’t want to look at that which you have repressed. If your partner tries to help you look at these problems and you are not ready to listen and block out that which you do not want to hear, you may end up having ear problems as well.

The body is a marvelous expression of what is going on in the soul and what needs to be corrected at a deeper level. When my husband was alive, many years ago we did a lot of work with people suffering from anorexia nervosa. Some interesting facts that were uncovered in some cases included a past life in a concentration camp where all human privileges were denied and cruel and inhumane abuse experienced, to the point where the body became almost a living skeleton. Now in this life, the feelings associated with those experiences were triggered off again by some traumatic experience. Those suffering from bulimia have another cause that is just as interesting as it also may involve a prior life experience.

A lot of people are still experiencing fear and a fear of physical pain. Even after all the teachings about being a spiritual being inhabiting a physical body, we still have this fear. If you look at the things you fear, you would see that almost all of them are connected with the idea that you are just a body. If you were just a body, there would be many reasons to fear; but if you can see that you inhabit a body then many possibilities open up for you.

ARE YOU STUCK IN TODAY?

Are you a prisoner in a little room called today? This is quite a fascinating room; it has two locked doors and a large red button. One door is called yesterday, and the other one is called tomorrow. Are you a person who has an absolute fascination with these doors; are you forever trying to unlock them, instead of enjoying the present moment, which actually activates the large red button and puts you into the eternal now.

If you are a person who looks through the keyhole of yesterday, you will stimulate your memory and possibly have regrets about what you did or didn't do. This activity will close off the wonderful energy that is available to you in the present moment and you may begin to feel weighed down with guilt or anxiety. You can never unlock that door to the past; you can never retrieve those wasted hours; you cannot make the hands of a clock move backwards.

Remember your yesterdays create your today, and your today creates your tomorrows. Perhaps you are a person who worries about tomorrow. You cannot unlock the door of tomorrow, today. But because your today creates your tomorrow, live today to the fullest in the present moment regardless of adverse circumstances.

Perhaps when you wake up, your thoughts go immediately into tomorrow. All that energy meant for today is then lost, and you start your day with a depleted battery.

Consider for a moment that you have been given one hundred units of energy to use every day to live in the present moment and enjoy the eternal now. If you start off your day having regrets about what happened yesterday, allowing the energy to weigh you down, you may have already used up 30 units of energy. if your thoughts then go towards tomorrow and you worry about how that will pan out, to the point that you cannot even eat breakfast, you might have used up another 30 units of energy. That only leaves 40 units of energy left for today.

So, you become stuck in today because you don't have enough energy to complete your tasks, enjoy your children, or enjoy all the wonderful blessings life has to offer you in the present moment, because you never live in the present moment; you are either living in the past or in the future and you have forgotten you have that big red button full of energy that will give you many magical moments in the present.

When you arise, first thing in the morning, give thanks for being alive on this beautiful planet, and then ask: "I wonder what wonderful things are going to happen today?" Then stay in the moment, enjoying the sensation of a luxurious stretch before getting out of bed. When you take a shower, imagine the water cleansing not only your body, but cleansing the emotional and mental debris right out of your subtle body structure. If you find yourself slipping back into old mental habits, immediately nip them in the bud and come back into the present moment.

This is the first step on the road to self-mastery.

With all this in mind, don't be anxious or have regrets or feel guilty and so on, regardless of how dire your outer circumstances seem to be, because you will get stuck in today. At some level of your being, you created them for your learning and your soul growth. Remember to push that big red button, first thing. That big red button is your heart centre, and if you allow it to open, it will help you to heal, it will help you to repair your relationships, to enjoy and share quality time with your children - to become the magnificent human being you were always meant to be. No one else can do it for you.

TESTS ALONG THE PATH

In relating this short discourse, I am sticking to the dictum of using the masculine gender for both personalities to save the tiresome repetition of constantly writing his/hers, she/he, him/her, man/woman etc.

Some have asked why, when walking a metaphysical Path, that life seems to become a series of frustrations instead of being full of “love and light” as others proclaim. This depends purely on where one is situated on the ladder of evolution and the level of spiritual maturity that one has attained.

An aspirant’s advance is determined by how rapidly he can meet and conquer the forces of his own nature and by the speed with which he may be tested by the destructive elemental forces of the planet. If he manages to pass and conquer the first onset of these forces, he progresses rapidly. If, however, he does not manage to completely conquer the problem, he is tested again and again through the years until he feels he is beset by troubles and frustrations, as indeed he is. He is tested until he overcomes the problem. It is similar to passing a test at school to see if you are fit enough to go up to the next grade.

The greatest test on the Path is usually one of doubt. If doubt can be cast aside as he strides forward, he will find the reality of the Path, and his resolve will be strengthened. He does not fight because there is no need to fight; he sees beyond the physical. But if he is overcome by doubt, then faith flies out the window, and his struggle can become quite intense as he searches for meaning in his life.

The next greatest test is personal love. Love must become purely unconditional. This is one of the hardest tests along the Path. When a man turns his face to the solitary Path of Discipleship, and he does not do that unless he had heard the call, he must leave behind the mortal ties that bind him to Earth. This does not mean to say that he must leave those he loves but that he must cease to lean upon them or to rely on them. So it becomes that he walks with his loved ones, assisting them through the earth plane phase of their journey, instead of dominating or trying to posses them.

His focus of interest must change, and the one dominating purpose of life, the fulfillment of Universal Law, must order his thought. As he continues to practice unconditional love in all his earthly affairs, he will naturally become more unselfish as he gives all and seeks nothing in return. This naturally changes his point of view. No longer does he feel that he has the right to posses; indeed, he feels it a privilege to love and to serve. This is the spiritual meaning of the vow of poverty. It does not mean giving away all your earthly goods; it means not having an attachment to them because they are only transient. They are not the things you can take when you pass through the veil.

Another test on the Path is that of anger or hatred. The disciple must learn to receive betrayal or injustice without anger or hatred; to do so merely causes an imbalance in his energies. It should not be his concern what others may do to him for the Law has its own way of working out and will bring justice to all concerned. What matters most of all is whether attacks by destructive forces through human vehicles can stir destructive forces within him. It matters not about the attitude of others towards him; it is his attitude to others that determines his progress. You only have to look at the great Ones to see how they handled their lives.