Messenger I - Know Thyself

"Greetings from the Brotherhood!

In this time, there is much interest in the element of expansion of consciousness, of opening the consciousness, of knowing the past, understanding the mystery of reincarnation; and on this theme, you have thousands who speak and hundreds who have written. What is the level of consciousness that exists of these things? And why is it that some remember and some do not? Is it, as the Greeks have said, that you drink of the cup of bitter things and remember not? Is there a law, a cosmic law, which prevents this continuation of knowledge, this memory? Is there some hierarchy that determines what shall be remembered and what shall be forgotten? We say to you that there is none. There is no Hierarchy to control these things.

It is this soul and its soul-consciousness and your ego-consciousness, this trinity of self, which determines once and for all within each life, what shall be and what shall not be. And in it, is determined what shall be remembered today and tomorrow and the next. Then we may say that all secrets are present with you. And yes, you may open them. But then, why is it so difficult for some and easy for others? And at times, for those who have no difficulty, why is it then such a shock? Ah... the reason, in reality, is obvious. You who pray to your deities and believe that they have heard, have not yet learned to be one with yourself. And if you cannot communicate with the higher elements of yourself, or at minimum, the subconscious part of yourself, how is it then possible that you can communicate with other ethereal beings, including deities?

If the soul retains the knowledge and you are part of the soul, why can you not remember? The child often remembers. If your society were more permissive in the development of the consciousness of a child, ah what stories you would hear and what memories would be told of what lives, but all that appears to you to be imaginary.

The child is born with the potential of the soul-consciousness and the ego-consciousness open and communicative one with the other. It is necessary in order to learn.

We have said that the mind is a receiver, that nothing is retained in the physical brain other than the physical functions necessary to maintain your body in operation. The problem is not how to remember. The problem is not, why do I not remember? The problem is not, why is it more difficult for me?

The problem is that you have not learned to know yourself. gnóthi saftón,' said the Greeks. Know thyself was the first precept of the school of mystery of the Initiates. All such systems have always striven to teach the individual to know their self. It is not important to know others, and you cannot know others until you know yourself. You cannot be part of a relationship with others until you can relate with yourself. Oh, you may relate, but it is superficial.

'Bring me the oneness with the Divine!' say the students. 'Bring me my soulmate,' says another. 'Let me merge my consciousness with the cosmicness.' Words upon words upon words. How can you, a stranger to yourself, merge your consciousness with the Divine? Who is that which is merging? If you do not know yourself, how can you cause such a thing to be? Another says, 'I want to experience Kundalini.' Who then shall experience it, one third of the consciousness or all?

The unification of self is a process of learning, evaluating, communicating. The communication with self, the seeking to know self is the key. All other systems are but pathways to lead you. Learn to concentrate, to meditate. They are systems to lead you to the inner self. And if they stop short of that goal, then they have failed.

And when you look into the mirror of your soul, you need to know yourself in order to tolerate that which exists there and to understand that which exists. Ah, but then, we could have many storming the doors saying, 'I wish to buy that knowledge, I wish to know myself.' It is not a simple process, but let us begin to understand that you have touched in your society, some of the elements required to know oneself. You have had experiences with the tanks of submersion, the tank of sensory deprivation, that is one form. You have spoken much of the Great Pyramid and ancient tombs and places of initiation. You understand that there are polarities. But which of you, and we speak in the collective worldly use of the word, which of you can enter a darkened tomb without light or any other thing and pass one hour with yourself? And yet, at another time, we did pass such hours in a space sufficient to maintain the life, but without light, without door. There was no existence.

One must walk backward in time and relive the life in an altered state, to accelerate the passage of that memory in the mind so as not to take fifty or sixty or seventy years again, but passing all elements of the life. And wherever an element desires to be difficult or complicated, to analyze it, to clarify it, to focus in upon it, and at each level ask the self why did I choose that direction, why did I take that action? What was my thought, my feeling, my desire, until we arrive at the present.

All systems of study that would seek to achieve the ultimate levels of consciousness need to include some time of isolation in complete darkness, some time of isolation in a setting of natural beauty such as a park or forest or jungle, and time regressing, passing through the life that is. Only when you are prepared to examine all that has been of this life and to account to yourself for every action of this life are you prepared to open the window and look upon the foundation of this life and the foundations upon foundations until at last you arrive at the floor of your very being, the essence from which you emanated. And as you pass through all of the negativity that has passed by in your life, and the positivity, you will find at last that you began in the beginning as a perfect concept, seeking experience to give birth to wisdom from the knowledge that you had.

In the beginning, there was knowledge and there was no experience. Therefore, in the beginning, we had not wisdom, "gignoskein". That is all for this moment."

"The best evidence is to know that nothing is by accident. It is not an accident that you met the entity. It is not an accident that you are here or that you have met any of the persons in your life. Every person of every day that passes has a reason to be present, for from every individual you may learn.

Nothing can pass your way by accident, nor can any person do anything to you that you have not attracted to yourself, either consciously or subconsciously, from the need to learn, the need to balance or eliminate that which you term the karmic debt. There are many things which do not seem in balance when viewed superficially. Why is one man rich and another poor, one happy and the other unhappy? Why does one suffer with illness and another not at all? Why are nations, such as those in Asia, suffering for lack of food when other parts of the world have excess? It is part of the continuing law of balance, the law of karma and God, the balancing, the blending, the learning, the relearning.

Your direction can be made clearer when you eliminate the obstruction of the ego of self. We are, and we are nothing, for we are part of the whole, and if we are not, but wish to separate ourselves, then we cannot be part of the whole. And if we are not part of that, we are alone, without foundation. Every act, every word that passes from your hand or mouth each day, is a thing of responsibility, a thing which you must balance, and you must answer to yourself for the result. If the lack of a smile has brought sadness in the heart of another, for that also you have the responsibility. If you fail to take the opportunity to bring joy to one person, you shall find a lack of that.

But hear well of the law: Those who seek to open their consciousness, those who seek to march forward, those who seek the light, shall find that their karma of this time shall not be reserved for some future lifetime, but shall return in the very present life. You might term that 'instant karma,' but that you have and shall have, for in the process of seeking the light, you are saying, 'Purify me.' You cannot speak to an external force, you are speaking to yourself. Therefore, you are saying, 'I am purified.' And if you say unto yourself, 'I am purified, I see myself pure,' how can that be if you have not eliminated the karma? Therefore, your consciousness and your soul must bring forth the karma to view, to erase, to learn, to comprehend. These are the elements."

"The first element is to love yourself and to help yourself. The person who has not yet brought himself or herself into balance and cannot deal with the world about them completely, that person cannot help another. It is only when we are love that we can help others, that we can love others, that we can be worthy of being loved. But love does not need to express itself. The being that is love does not need to say, 'Behold, I am love,' it is evident. It is evident in the very energy of their being.

The potential exists in all. The manifestation requires a living consciousness. Learn to function within your society, within your system, and function within that in balance, maintaining balance. And if in humility, you will open your consciousness to your inner self and recognize that you are but a dot upon the yardstick of life that represents your soul and that you are but a fragment of the consciousness that is the totality of your soul. Stand upon a mountaintop and watch the sunrise over the mountain. And when you see the countless number of mountains before your eyes and their majesty and their grandeur, you know that you are no thing but a consciousness passing in the sea.

Patience with yourself. We have been patient with you for a long time. You can be patient with yourself for a little while longer."

"They are in front of you. Nothing need come to you; it is there. It is upon a table in front of you at this time. All of the direction and all of the things that are necessary have been provided. It is now your task to learn how to use them. Continue."

"Tears are expression of emotion, of feeling. They may be tears of joy, they may be tears of sorrow, but they represent suppression of emotions within the self. Let them flow. And why would it be strange to have tears? We have shed our tears for many and we shed our tears. It is not a strange thing. It is well, and it will be well within, but seek the mirror of your soul. If you mourn yourself as you are, not that you see yourself, and not as others, but as you truly are, look for the mirror to see yourself. And only in humility, may one approach the inner self. But remember, that to annihilate the ego is a difficult process. There are few who are ready to surrender the ego self, but when you have surrendered and given all, you shall receive all. And it is not a metaphoric expression, it is a reality. Let go and let yourself be the guide."

"There need not be a conflict, but look to the cause. Look to the nature by returning in your mind to the past to the foundation of those ideas, and look to the source of those ideas and their happiness or unhappiness to understand a thing. If you take a child and you tell the child for the first seven years of its life that it is bad, it shall believe that it is bad for the rest of the life or until it goes back to hear that voice and says to itself, 'But why?'

You are worthy of being loved, and you are worthy of being loved by yourself. You are the primary reason to exist. You exist because of the love within yourself. You are not a part of another, and in your universe, there is none other more important than you. And in the totality that is all, you are most important, because we as a sum total cannot function without you. You are part of the whole, even as we are, and we need you to return to the whole in order for us to be one.

Love is a confused expression, misused and maligned in your society. It is a strange reward that has been offered, but we say it is none of these things. It is the very essence and force of life. It is the energy of all things. It is the essence of healing. You need not love yourself; you need only in love, for in truth, you are. Therefore, you need not be, but you need to recognize that you are a living principle of love. You have a strange sense of time and a restlessness orientation with yourself, but if you look upon the kaleidoscope of time in the evolution of your soul, you would find many times where you passed lifetimes without as much progress as you have made in this, your present life. It is well. Continue."

"The question is well put. There are two separate elements, but they are related. The society of today has created many pressures, both psychological and economic. Economical pressures create other types of problems for individuals. Emotional immaturity caused by parents who are emotionally immature, a failure of the educational system, and the lack of a sound spiritual foundation leave the youth struggling to learn how to swim in the middle of the ocean. And in their fatigue, they decide that it is easier to drown. The many systems of escape that are used are evident.

There is much more suicide than you are aware. In the form of drugs and alcohol, abandonment of the family, the life of a vagabond, all of these are forms of suicide as well. And there are many who commit suicide and it is not known. In all of this, we are dealing with souls who have returned too rapidly from their death in war and violence, with souls who were not given the proper education and foundation in their childhood, with souls who are too sensitive to function within the accelerated society which you call a modern world. They also seek to escape the hypocrisy and lack of truth and values. They see no reason for the life. The life for them is a complicated and difficult thing, and therefore, they seek the escape of all of this pain and work. Religion, at one time, prevented this failing, but now as religion begins to fade in the background, or those that are dominant appear utterly ridiculous in the minds and eyes of an educated youth.

But you are creating with this type of thing, that which can be termed a vicious circle, for he or she who commits suicide in their youth, will return again within five years as a typical value. Therefore, if a group take their lives now and they return again and again and again and continue to commit suicide, then you shall have a vicious circle. Do you understand that element?"

"Those of the elderly, those who have gained their years, are suffering from other problems. The life has been prolonged by modern medicine, but the society has not adapted to that prolongation. Therefore, the person of mature years is considered yet in your society to be useless, an appendage, a thing to be tolerated, someone to send to Florida or Arizona to put them in a trailer and wait for them to die. The life has little meaning. There is no opportunity for creativity. There is, but they know it not. They have no faith that binds them to a concept. They expect nothing after the death. They are tired from their labors and weary of the rejection. They suffer from diseases which modern medicine has not eliminated, but has simply controlled.

Remember that in torture of an individual, it is only a matter of time before the individual breaks. There are those who will die first, but in general, it is simply a function of time. It is the same theme. When one is suffering for a prolonged period of time, there is a limit to the consciousness of what it may tolerate.

Unfortunately, the fear of death causes the life, and it is not that we would wish any to die young, but there exists the ability to leave the physical body without pain. The termination of the physical existence is possible, and you need not use weapons or drugs or things outside of the consciousness itself. But one may not terminate the physical existence with a fear of death itself. Only those who have conquered death by knowing it may cross the barrier without a problem. Are we clear?"

"There is definitely a karmic factor. Once having chosen to take a life form, the consciousness is obligated to complete it, for all of the life pattern is part of the experience and learning pattern. There is a conceptual point where the consciousness may separate from the physical body. That is not an element the same as suicide where there is a physical act to destroy the physical form. A moment ago the entity left the physical body. If he chose not to return in open consciousness, that would not be termed a suicide."

"We understand, and that is what we said, that yes, there is a karmic factor. The soul taking or the consciousness taking its own life will return, most likely within a five year period, as you term time. That would not be true in the case of the elderly, but it is not in balance in their case. There is an interesting level which must be determined, and it is clear to say that there is also a karmic factor for those that prolong life in artificial manner, because that also interferes with the consciousness and its right to terminate."

"We are caught in the dilemma of morality and consciousness. That which you term the mercy killing in general is an act of love, but into whose hands can this be entrusted? And the person that chooses death today, would they choose it tomorrow equally so? Each case should be considered on its own individual merits. Certainly, a soul has chosen the form of termination, but the course of disease is a biological thing, and there are many times when the soul would not have the extension of time that exists, and the modern drugs and chemicals and machines do extend the life. We cannot say that there is justification, but in truth, it is difficult to condemn in certain cases, for the act of love transcends all things. At what point does the law of the land control the right of the spirit? The law says that it is illegal to take your life. Does that strike you as ridiculous?"

"How can there be a law against the taking of your life when that law may not be enforced? For if you have not succeeded, you have not violated the law, and if you have succeeded, you are not subject to the call of that court. Where does the line become reality? Who shall make the decision?

Each individual has the ability. We may terminate physical consciousness at any moment we desire. It is as simple as astral projection and not returning. The suicide, the destruction of the physical body by violence, is wherein exists the element that is negative, the failure to give the body its life span to exist, the right to exist and continue. But if that form be defective and the consciousness chooses to leave, it may do so. In each case, we are drawn to the comparison of things. Look to the so-called Masters. The entity known as Krishna Murti was for truth a man of peace, a man of vision, a man of wisdom, and a man and but a man. And though he had glimpsed and tasted of the Divine nectar, he yet lacked the ability to terminate his existence, even though he suffered the disease you term cancer. Through his consciousness he controlled, but he chose not to seek a release or knew not how to. As the Teacher, he might better have left had he known how to, choosing his moment as it were."

There are exceptions to all things, and we have discussed that element of exception in the past, that where the life of the mother is endangered and a practitioner has chosen or decided that it is necessary to save the life of the mother, that is a logical procedure and really is not in the hands of the individual. We have indicated that there are conditions of violation or rape that could bring about the justification. In reality, there is no justification, there is necessity.

Your society is split upon the concept of abortion. Is it legal? Is it not? Is it right? Is it wrong? Is it life? Is it murder? All life is sacred, from the smallest ant to the largest elephant. The woman who conceives has performed a biological function. She was created to conceive, and no, we do not speak of the woman as an animal to bear children. The forces of the universe do not judge the good or bad of the act. But in a modern society where your ability to understand and take responsibility is greater, the ability, karmically speaking, to ignore the responsibility for abortion is reduced.

And those that repeat the act, that is to say, who have had an abortion more than once, shall certainly incur even greater karma. But remember this in all elements, that from the moment of conception, a soul-consciousness was assigned or selected. That particular form, that seed to be his vehicle of incarnation upon this plane and that soul has a right to demand the karmic balance when it is deprived of that opportunity. The form or manifestation is different in each case.

We have said that karma is the need to learn. Obviously, in a society as advanced as this, if abortion need to exist in the quantities that exist, then it is obvious that this generation has not learned. And if it has not learned, it must pay. We understand the arguments of both sides. The conception of life is not a function of the laboratory. They may unite the egg and the seed in the test tube, but they have not yet learned how to create the egg or the seed. And when those two join, you have opened a door to the other dimension. You have tapped into the spiritual. Therefore, there are karmic patterns.

We cannot generalize, and we have heard the thousands and millions of reasons floating upward. 'I can't afford to have more.' 'Nobody wants me.' 'I have no money.' But how did the person get into that state, the original question we asked years back when it was raised. Just think about the consciousness that brought about the state, but we did not mean to imply that there was no karma. The degree or severity of the karma is an individual matter balanced by the consciousness as a whole and predetermined by the soul.

The other element that we wish to touch upon is the element of relationships. The consciousness that does not open itself to its higher levels to evaluate a relationship may indeed find itself surrounded by difficulty. But remember this, that all things are temporary, that all moments are short. The time of your physical cycle is short in comparison with the time or longitude of your soul-consciousness. We receive or attract to ourselves. They do not pass by. Those who pass and are not worthy or are not qualified, were attracted. How could they pass if they were not called, and then why were they called? And if one must question too much of the other, 'Is this good?' 'Is this bad?' If the inner voice within does say it is perfect for me, then it might be better to look onward.

The thing that is dwelt upon is never acted upon. The desire that is placed in the universal alter may not be manifested until the person who created it has left it there without strings, with the knowing consciousness and faith that it will be fulfilled in harmony with the soul-consciousness itself. That which is connected, that which is not placed there freely but still has a chain to its source, may not be integrated into the cosmic consciousness, and therefore, may not be created. Your idea must be given to be created, but if you say, 'It is mine, I wish to change it constantly or reevaluate it,' then it is not time to create it. Time has no meaning; and yet, there is always the lack of time. That is sufficient for this time."