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Falling Through the Cracks

December 20, 2023 T.Michael

MJ: I’m happy to be with you today to talk about whatever may come up. Sometimes I plan these conversations for us and sometimes I leave open to suggestions from you what we should talk about.

TM: I read an article this morning about drug addiction. Most of the story took place in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the woods outside of town where the drug addicts camped. The health workers would venture into the woods to administer treatments to the various drug addictions—multiple drug addictions per person. Conflicting kinds of treatment that they have to provide. And it hurts me to keep hearing these stories, it hurts my heart to hear these stories of these people trapped in this kind of life. And so I wonder what is the responsibility for the rest of us for this. I don’t choose to live that way and so I’m not a burden on society in that way. But what is my responsibility in both contributing to the circumstances that exist and my role to change the way it is and prevent this from happening. It feels like quite a conundrum.

MJ: For those people who are sensitive to the pain and suffering of others; who have empathy and sympathy for those; who can look at them and say with compassion and forgiveness I feel for you. I feel for you in your moment of despair and depression, and in your moment of anxiety of living in a world that doesn’t seem to care. That is indifferent to your survival; that is indifferent to your comfort. That is indifferent to your very life, and whether you exist or not does not matter.

The pain and suffering, being ostracized socially, finding comfort and camaraderie only among those who also suffer, that bonds people in misery. At least in their misery they have something to share with one another.

TM: So what is the role? I see the suffering and understand exactly what you’re saying.

MJ: You asked what is the responsibility toward your brothers and sisters when they’re falling down and they can’t get up. Can a human society be at its best when it ignores its worst? When it ignores its failings as a society to create a container that can hold all the behaviors, desires, all the ambitions of the human race? The challenge to humanity as a group requires that everyone rises to their highest good.

When everyone rises to their highest good then you are able to lift those who may be too weak, who may be too blind or incapacitated in some way. As that baseline average moves over time higher and higher that the bulk of humanity can live in that space of their highest good consciously, knowing where they are, knowing how to cope with the trials and tribulations and the anxieties and uncertainties of living on Earth at this time.

When the bulk of humanity can do that it becomes less of an effort to intervene, to step in and lend a helping hand to those who cannot lift themselves.

TM: While my heart aligns with what you just said, I just want to help them, hug them and say it’s going to be okay. But I don’t know it’s going to be okay because I don’t have any control over them or their minds or know what they go through. I don’t understand why people choose to do those drugs in particular. We’ve all had despair. We’ve all had those moments when we felt incapable of moving one more inch.

But, we don’t all collapse into that behavior. So, there’s a trap door there that most of us are unaware of. We haven’t fallen through it and so we don’t understand. And when they fall through it and go to the other side I don’t know how to reach them, and to love them. Even though I feel compassion for them I don’t know what to do because I can’t relate or understand their experience to that degree. It’s a condition of futility if you don’t know what to do. I think that’s where a lot of people are. It’s easier to say, “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps”.

MJ: That’s always been the temptation of humankind. What you don’t know, you shun. You say, “keep it out, I don’t understand it. It has a negative impact. Get it away from us.” That’s a natural and healthy reaction. If something is causing harm, move away from it. You can’t see what’s causing it; so, move away. Stop the harm first. Don’t let the harm spread to yourself. That’s not a terrible reaction is it?

TM: No, it’s not a terrible reaction. That’s what I’m saying, it’s a natural reaction to me. If I see someone doing something crazy, harming themselves and others around them in such a way, I say I won’t choose that for myself and I don’t want to get near it for fear of being sucked into myself. I have no idea how they got into their situation and why they are still there. It represents a danger and is confounding to the intellect and scary to the emotions. So, most of us don’t want to go near it, we don’t want to think about it. We’d like to understand it but it doesn’t look understandable if you’re not there.

MJ: That’s right, it’s terrifying. It’s terrifying to consider you could be living like that. That they could be living in the woods addicted to five drugs, eating dog food and defecating just feet away from your dwelling. Unable to bathe regularly. Unable to stay warm when it’s cold, or cool when it’s hot. Dealing with insects relentless in attacking you. Fear of wildlife. Fearful of other people with harmful intent. It’s a desperate life. It’s a terrifying life. So, yes, it is particularly frightening when you don’t understand it. It is very easy to turn your head and look the other way, because of that fear. And that as a society is what humans have done. Humanity has turned its collective head. There is a small faction that deals with it—the public health administrators deal with it. They are the proxy for the rest of humanity and they’re doing the best that they can. All they can do is sustain a bad situation. And perhaps mitigate some harms around the edges. But, mostly it’s all they can do to keep it contained. They don’t know how to stop it from spreading, because they have neither funding resources nor complete knowledge. All they can do is treat it for what it is. And that’s what they do. With little to no progress in blunting its progression. All they can do is mitigate the intensity of harm at times.

The rest of humanity sits back looking satisfied that they are making an effort; that they’ve made entreaties to the powers that be that they need some help. The help is slow in coming if it comes at all. And so these people struggle on the front lines uncertain of what else they can do. So, they just continue.

So do the victims. They carry on until they die. Or until they break through in some way. Some do, most don’t. Most die a slow death. A slow, agonizing death of despair and alienation. A social alienation that tears away at what it means to be human in connection with other humans. The physical death is bad enough, but the social death is even worse. It robs a person of hope and connection.

TM: How much will does it take? Where does the will come from for us to say enough is enough. To say we have enough material comfort of possessions—how do we fix these ills? It feels like we’ve become a caretaker society because we’ve created so many problems and so many people have fallen through the cracks and the cracks seem to be getting bigger. And more and more people are falling through which increases the demand on resources to deal with the negativity. Most people don’t want to do that—they don’t like to pay the debt service on all the bad programs and misunderstandings.

MJ: That is indeed what it is. If you think of it as a debt of ignorance, plus the interest because it begins to compound. Economic inequality compounds with poor decision making and poor health standards, and poor education. There is a poverty of resources that contribute to this. And there is a wealth of resources on the other side that prevent those in possession of that wealth from crossing over. They throw small efforts at it, they throw money at it. But mostly they sit in fear, the greatest of all. They stand to lose the most. Their fall from wealth is more terrifying than the person who has an ambition for wealth but never achieves it. That can be a dashed expectation. But to achieve wealth, to see the poverty beneath you, you wish to climb to a higher and higher height so that you can’t see it. You won’t feel safe until you’ve climbed high enough to not see it anymore. Until it is a speck down there. And that you know that any fall you experience will never take you down to that point.

It’s not until then that you feel safe. Until then you feel like any lifeline you throw could be used to pull you into it. And that is what is stopping the real progress to a solution.

TM: And so you’re saying that the impasse is because those who are in a position to help financially and to change the system in ways that would fill in some the cracks people are falling through; you’re saying they are too afraid of falling in themselves even though they have the benefit of height, you’re saying they don’t see it as high enough to escape the fear from falling down. So, what do we do?

MJ: I’m saying that it’s a mix of things. That in the long run although there are many segments of varying degrees of wealth, in the end they all roll up and aggregate into one point of view. If they have more weight than the average person, given a person’s propensity to contrast and compare their lives with others. If they know they are in the top half they feel safe. The person at 51% doesn’t feel as safe as the person at 99%, but they identify with that class. And they think that that class will identify with them. So, if they are in trouble they can always reach out and grab a hand to pull them up. The further below the median average people become more concerned. More fearful. But even the top 50% are afraid it is never enough. The more they see the problems the more demand they put on their progress to increase their wealth. And that drives a more desperate behavior—the more money people have the more they strive to get more out of a necessity that they’re chasing to get away from their fear, the more desperate and unyielding they become in their compassion and their kindness. The more they give way to competition and the adversarial feelings that come with competition as it hardens them to the plight of the others, it’s the others’ fault, they are to blame for their own bad decisions. And while this is true that they are to blame for their own bad decisions; they are at fault for that; they must take responsibility for that, this is true. But how do you help someone to do it when they can’t do it? Is it your responsibility to help them when you see they can’t do it? Are you your brother’s keeper?

TM: Are we?

MJ: That’s a question we’ll answer in our next conversation.

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Money- Does It Matter? Buddha with Zoe

February 26, 2012 Zoe 5 Comments

Waterdroplets on long leaves — Does money matter?

Conversations with Zoe and Buddha: Does Money Matter?

Buddha: Today I wish to speak to about wealth and whether it matters. This is a subject that many of you fight with yourself about. By wealth I am going to focus on money: the mechanism that you have for acquiring large amounts of things and experiences.

The world was made abundantly. There was always more for you than you could ever utilize or use. It was made with great love and given to you with great joy. More than you could ever utilize: a land of milk of honey. But where you have gone wrong is in thinking that more of it was meant for you than was designed for another.

Over the ages man has ensnared man even to the point of physical entrapment . Further more many have sold what they felt was their right to sell: the physical body of another. This is fundamentally against the principle upon which this reality, this earth, was created.

It is possible to go back to having enough for all but a culture shift will need to happen that is so vast you could call it cataclysmic. This will be started by a shift in consciousness. Many of you feel this. Your institutions feel this and their answer is to try and shore their institutions and themselves up in more wealth as if that means the cataclysm can’t and wont affect them.

Many of you are currently suffering feeling you do not have enough. If you feel this is you, please take the time to look around and you and see if this is true- do you really not have enough? Enough of what? Food? Look in your kitchen. Money? Look in your bank. And with this one also look at your spend. Many of you claim to not have enough but actually have more than you could ever maintain physically by yourself: your home, your cars, your electrical goods and so forth. This is indeed a time of change and in these times you are asked to look within and find your own personal answers to how much is enough for you. Once you have enough, cycle your excess: this was, and is, the basis of charity and community.

It is entirely possible that the cycle of money you circle in this life may come back to you when you may need it for yourself. Lonely is the person who shores themselves with big bank accounts and excesses of living whilst others are in pain. This is how it is. This is how it always has been. This is how it always will be. This is because you are part of each other. To shore yourself against another defies your nature, so your nature will suffer. To sell another for personal gain without thought and feeling for their well-being is another example. It defies your nature and so your nature must suffer.

I say end this suffering: discover your enough and circulate your excess. All is well with your world.

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Enough: Jesus with Zoe

October 30, 2011 Zoe

Conversation with Jesus and Zoe: Enough

Jesus: On the eve of the day of reckoning few will be able to sleep. There will be an unease, a malaise, across the world. Events will have come and gone and many will be awakening to the changes we have put in place.

Economic viability now will be the bed rock for the individual. Teach yourself now how to care for yourself materially. Strip the excess now and many years of financial pain will be spared.

Learn to honour and respect what you have now and God’s grace will be yours. The yearnings, the desires for what others show, deliberately instilling desire, consumerism and envy is coming to an end.

Turn in now and let the peace come over. In truth there is nothing to have or know but yourself. In yourself you will find us. You will find love, hope, peace and charitable intent. As the turn inwards begins, do not be tempted back to the world of man’s greed where no form is enough – more shoes, clothes, bags, money, bigger, better, stripping the earth, killing the cows and deafening the sound of your inner reason.

You have enough. Free yourself from the greed, the pain of wanting and fill yourself with us. The truth of this shall set you free.

May God’s grace be with you.

Love.

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Look Within: Buddha with Zoe

March 23, 2009 Zoe

Look within, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/method-of-madness/ ‎ — Look within

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: In Times of Fear and Uncertainty Look Within

Buddha: We are living in a time of collective madness. We are living in societies and civilizations, not all but most, where people are living with a collective consciousness below that of hysteria. The threat is believed to come from every angle: from economic downturn, from terrorists, from immigrants, from racial minorities.

Within this context many of you will become uncomfortable, unable to function to the best of your abilities and unable to accept this way of being for yourself, for your community, for your country anymore.

When these times arise there is only one place to look that is not in defensive strategies, that is not in armament either of weapon or money. The time to look is the time to look inside and to learn to become one with what you find there in. There is nothing to be frightened or fearful of inside of yourself. There is nothing inside you that, with focus and dedication, cannot be turned into gold. So during this time look inside without fear. There will be great reticence initially at doing this for what is hidden has been hidden for good reason or so the mind has told you. But it is illusion as I repeat there is nothing that is within any human alive that cannot be turned into gold, that cannot be turned into the seeker and even the finder of better states of being.

I have been asked, “Why look within? Why will looking within and becoming at peace with what one finds be a strategy in uncertain times such as these?”

You are connected to the collective mind, to the consciousness of humanity. For the consciousness to change be the change. If enough people in uncertain times become stable and solid and stalwart then peace will be able to return. Think of a life or death situation that is being faced by a group of people. If there is one that is able to find the peace, the strength, the courage to stay in the moment and to deal with what is happening, that one is able to impact the hysteria of the many; not always successfully but impact would be made.

Now think if there were two or three or four, the odds are getting better aren’t they. So in uncertain times when one is concerned with ones material future switch to ones interior future and begin the work. By creating stillness, by allowing the system to harmonize, you will not only make more logical and grounded steps you will also impact the collective of everyone around you.

This is all for today.

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Money: Buddha with TMichael

October 30, 2005 T. Michael

Money, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/money/ ‎ — Money

Conversation with Buddha and TMichael: Money

TM: I’ve received quite a few inquiries about money and requests to talk about it. There has been a great body of writing on this from a spiritual perspective. What do you say to someone who asks, “What is the proper relationship to money, how much to have, how to use it, how to get it, etc.?”

Master Buddha: First of all, there isn’t just one way to view this because each person has his or her particular orientation to money given his or her life path. Anything I say must be understood as general statements and then I can offer examples of individual circumstances to show how some principles may apply.

As viewed from the spiritual perspective, meaning from a non-material realm, money is as worthless as a bicycle would be for travel across an ocean. It is purely a human creation. So your question presumes a spiritual oversight that doesn’t exist except in the form of advice and counsel that may be offered from time to time. That is the spirit in which I present these ideas today.

Let me attempt to simplify the concept of money in relation to a person. Humans have decided that money shall represent a value of some thing. Those things may include the physically inanimate object (house, car, etc.), a personal action (one’s labor), a promise for future delivery of value (speculation), restitution for past value (grievances resolved), a gift of love or social obligation, so on and so forth. The second premise is that the value of money shall equal approximately the value of that thing in the exchange. Sometimes the values are not equal, and if they are too unequal, then one or the other person feels either elated or cheated.

The third premise created by humans is a system of ethics regarding transactions between one another using money or the thing valued as the currency. This is a point of departure between the diverse cultures of the world. The one dominant force has been the Western philosophy governing the use of money. The ethics of the Western system have varied over the past two hundred years, but for the most part they have represented an idealism that while noble in its aim has not achieved its goal.

TM: So is it possible to answer my questions?

Master Buddha: I’m getting there, but needed to frame my response for clarity. The proper relationship to money must take on a general perspective representing larger society (we’ll call general ethics) and the particular relationship of an individual to money. From the general ethics, the idea of freedom to choose one’s occupation and one’s level of income and expense, is I think the best arrangement. As we have discussed in these conversations there is a point that one must consider that individual freedom intersects with group harmony. This means that it is necessary for individuals to contribute to the whole in a way that brings harmony to the whole and doesn’t disturb the peace of the many. This is the greatest insurance for all. The current system in Western society doesn’t achieve this goal, but with modification it could.

TM: I’m not clear on what you mean. Are you saying that there needs to be a balance in interest between the range of individual freedom and the needs of the whole population?

Master Buddha: Yes. For example, in Western society a person is permitted to amass unlimited wealth. On the other end of the scale a person is permitted to starve to death or die due to exposure to the elements because he cannot afford shelter. What is preventing Western society from implementing safeguards at the bottom end of the scale?

TM: We don’t allocate budget for it because we’ve determined other things are more important.

Master Buddha: And the contradiction is that your idealism states that you cherish life above all. Your military runs to all ends of the earth to rescue those in peril. Your governments send aid to foreign countries in an attempt to prevent starvation and lethal diseases from spreading. Yet in your own domestic domain you have families living in such poverty that their lives are at risk daily.

TM: It isn’t a perfect system for sure and most Westerners will agree that we can do more to clean up our domestic programs.

Master Buddha: What do you think is stopping you from doing this?

TM: We have an overly complicated and increasingly corrupt political system that can’t philosophically agree on just how much we are our brother’s keeper.

Master Buddha: It is first and foremost the obligation of your governments, using the general treasury, to prevent starvation and health-related problems derived from poverty. This cannot be left to the generosity and goodwill of individuals. It must begin with your domestic sphere first. It is there that you work out the ethics of being your brother’s keeper as you phrased it. Once you have mastered that step then sharing that wisdom with other cultures is a natural extension.

TM: We have the resources to do what you suggest, but not the collective resolve to do it.

Master Buddha: This is true, but you asked for a perspective on the proper relationship to money. You will have to work out the politics in order to deliver a just relationship.

TM: Okay then, maybe you can state what a person should be required to do in order to receive assistance that raises his status above poverty. That’s where we fail; we can’t agree on that. Some people say we should be self-reliant and others want to give to others with little or no requirements for self-responsibility. So, what is the answer?

Master Buddha: Ah you see, now you are into the business of designing a society that grapples with such ethical obligations yet stumbles at the final step failing to complete the mission. If the US government felt the collective will of its citizens favored a system whereby no citizen would be permitted to fall into poverty, could they achieve that?

TM: Yes.

Master Buddha: Then it must be that the collective will of its citizens do not favor such a system.

TM: How many citizens create a collective will?

Master Buddha: Enough that under your political system you could legislate and implement the system.

TM: Then you must be correct. Sadly it must be true. But you still haven’t answered my question of self-responsibility.

Master Buddha: Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. Your society has through its own design created an array of citizens from the genius to the infantile. Your society is responsible on a par level with the individuals that make up society. It will take many generations of enlightened governance to correct the mistakes and injustices created by past policies and practices. It will likewise take time for individuals to climb out of their ignorance or unfortunate circumstances due to conditions beyond their control.

Wandering your streets are the insane and the helpless. They cannot take responsibility for themselves in any way.

You have many people who are indolent and averse to responsibility through personal predilection and familial training. They will have to be educated on a new understanding of their responsibility.

You have a growing number who have turned to crime and are either incarcerated or among the general population. They will have to be educated, and until they are they will remain incarcerated because you have no other way to assimilate them.

There are those who through no fault of their own have fallen upon hard times due to major shifts in the economy. They will need to be retrained in new occupations and helped along the way.

When there are enough enlightened citizens there will be a more enlightened government and they will realize the long-term commitment required to correct your system. It is a race against the clock.

If you do nothing to correct this situation, because as a society you think it isn’t your responsibility, then you will suffer the consequences of doing nothing. The consequences will include a greater divide between the economic classes, thus more poverty; less efficacy in minimum education achievement among the lower classes; increased criminal activity; reduction of individual freedoms due to crime prevention measures; compartmentalization of community along class lines further reducing the efficacy of government and the erosion of community infrastructure. You can probably project from there what will transpire next.

If however, you find the collective will to make a long-term commitment to correction, then you will begin to see minor changes for the good. It will take patience beyond one, two or three generations. That is perhaps the greatest challenge for a society that has come to expect immediate gratifications of its goals (even though this hasn’t really been the case).

TM: What can you say to the questions regarding individuals and their relationship to money? What are some guidelines to follow is really what I’m asking.

Master Buddha: As individuals you must graduate through levels of ethical refinement regarding the role of money in your life. What is good for one person may not be good or right for another. For that reason do not be hasty in judging others for their view in earning or handling their money.

As Master Jesus and I have maintained throughout these conversations, release judgment from your view. Find your relationship to money based upon your path and your understanding and allow others to do the same without inveighing their choices. When you have come to peace with your relationship to money then you may offer a helping hand to others who may wish to hear from you.

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I Want My Spirituality Now: Jesus and TMichael

July 30, 2005 T. Michael 3 Comments

I Want My Spirituality Now, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/i-want-my-spirituality-now/ — Spirituality now

Conversation with Jesus and TMichael: Spirituality and Patience

TM: Oftentimes I feel the undercurrent of impatience in spiritual matters. I want it all to happen immediately and in complete fullness.

Master Jesus: The knowing is not of the mind or of logic. It just is and you know it by feeling it, not thinking it. It is a hard corner to turn if the mind is doing the driving. For the ego and the mind, knowing from the heart represents self-destruction, which in turn, goes against survival instincts. The mind is so clever in that way. It’s a house of mirrors. Everywhere you see a way out; that is indeed just another mirror. There is no escape through the mind or by the mind. That is my point and yet it appears I am appealing to your logical mind to embrace this, but that isn’t the case. I’m strengthening your soul to tap your spirit that holds the key to your power that unlocks your heart that alters the mind that frees you from the illusion.

TM: I suppose the biggest frustration I experience with spirituality is the shroud of secrecy surrounding it. Of course, we are fascinated with what we can’t sense in our physical world. But it seems like you could make things appear in our sensory form that would make things much clearer and universally understood. Why don’t you do that?

Master Jesus: Have you never the noticed the many similarities found in all the world’s religions and customs? Throughout the centuries, humanity has received the transfer of knowledge from the spirit world. This has been in many forms including human incarnations of master teachers, appearance of masters in visible spirit forms, demonstrations for non-believers of feats beyond human ability and inspiration channeled directly to humans in all fields of earthly creation. Remember that until recently the population of humans worldwide has been relatively developed in isolation. In the last few hundred years has commerce between continents developed to such a point that sharing of cultures has become more prevalent and thus an education in how other people interpret social and religious events.

The stage is being set for what you are clamoring for, but it can only come when there are universal points of recognition and understanding. Again, it is human tendency to view things from a present and provincial point of view without the longer time interval needed for events to ripen. We are making more revelations worldwide now than in any period of human history. You take it for granted because you don’t have the memory of all the other epochs. Also, you have instant communication tools that never before existed, which makes news travel so much faster. What was once a communication barrier is slowly being lifted to make it possible for teaching to be at once universal in language and delivered to people worldwide instantly. That’s quite an opportunity, wouldn’t you agree?

TM: I agree it’s an opportunity. But where’s the evidence of revelations in a universal language and experience that everyone can breathe the big Ah-ha at the same time?

Master Jesus: It’s coming. There has to be preparation. That’s where these writings and many others are going to lead. You have to accept that revelation of truth is not an easy task, because it generally differs from what the majority has accepted through faith and experience as truth. You have already said so yourself in your own wrestling with what we have to say. Do you think you’re so unique in that regard?

TM: No, I know what you mean and it’s very frustrating and so I keep putting my hope in the spirit world to be so awesome in power that you can instantly overcome these obstacles in human ignorance and make it all better. Childish I know, but it’s part of me nevertheless.

Master Jesus: When someone is in the pain of the moment it’s natural to want relief immediately. But what if the pain was due to psychosomatic causes instead of real flesh and blood injuries? You would take a different course of treatment wouldn’t you? Emotional distortions and mental delusions require a longer time period to work through. It isn’t so cut and dried as strapping on a bandage or committing to surgery. Humanity has evolved to the point that these other issues are predominant and that’s the field we’re working. The chief reason why physical wars and threats are no longer sufficient to quell dissent and discord within and among nations is that people will no longer accept the servitude explicit in that arrangement. They will literally die fighting against it.

TM: But in Iraq and Afghanistan people were living under horrific oppression of their freedoms and they did nothing but endure it. Where was the revolution?

Master Jesus: Had the US allowed it to run its course you would have seen the revolution. Everything within its time and when outside interests force revolution before its time, then the forces of premature revolution become the new oppressors and will have to reckon with real agents of revolution eventually. The US will discover this is true. The old ways of command and control through wars and might do not work any longer. You are witnessing the decline of those methods in this generation. Just three generations ago if anyone had made these statements it would have been received with such incredulity as you cannot imagine. But today you sense that it’s true, even if you’re not sure, you know it’s possible.

TM: I don’t know. I hear what you’re saying and I believe it to some degree, but we still witness so much violence that it’s hard not to see the opposite condition.

Master Jesus: Your impatience is staggering at times. And it’s not just your impatience, it’s all those who wish for immediate solutions to problems that are ancient. That’s not an excuse, but an explanation that what has been created by humanity over millions of years cannot be rectified in one generation without the will of the entire populace behind it, and that simply isn’t happening. So, your hoped for solution is that there be some sort of divine intervention to set things right, to speed up the process. We have covered this and you understand it, right?

TM: Yes, I do. Thanks for reminding me though. You know what I really want? I want for you and Master Buddha and all the rest to walk among us; sit in the chambers of our governments and address our leaders and representatives; visit our religious institutions and seize the pulpits; lead the classrooms in our schools; and really just be among us everyday to provide the guidance we need. It’s the physical presence I want.

Master Jesus: All in good time, my friend. The leadership you’re seeking is already among you. It’s just that their voices cannot be heard at this time. Well, not entirely heard, but they are growing in number and positions of strength. For one who listens they can be heard. Soon all will hear and then you can decide what you want to do. I repeat, it is humanity’s decision and will that determines the next stage for Earth. As much as you would like to shuffle it to others it is yours. You will be given a fair and informed opportunity to make your collective decision. Don’t look for someone to take that responsibility for you.

TM: Our orientation to spirits, gods, heroes and the lot is deeply engrained. We like being rescued in the final hour. You’re saying that’s not going to happen? There is going to be an Armageddon?

Master Jesus: That’s a loaded question in many ways. The struggle is within humanity—it is your Armageddon.

TM: In reference to biblical scripture and even esoteric revelations, there is a war in the heavens between light and dark forces, good and evil, the mark of the beast, all that stuff. A lot of folks say it’s happening now. Explain what you mean by ‘humanity’s Armageddon’.

Master Jesus: Humanity has created crisis within itself. It’s the crisis that has been prophesied. But it’s not external forces using humans as puppets as your stories are telling. That is part of the illusion created. Humans have so convinced themselves that there are forces of evil and darkness that are in constant pursuit of them that they literally believe it is a race to the finish between good and evil. The problem is that they can’t decide if they are inherently good or inherently evil. Which is it? If they are good, then Satan (or any substitute for him) is using every trick in the book to lure them into devilish insanity. If they are evil, then they must use all their being to return to God and forsake their wicked thoughts and ways.

I’m not going to pretend that there isn’t a real experience of evil at the level of illusion, but it simply isn’t real on the spiritual plane and ultimately it is the spiritual plane that counts. We’ve been through this discussion and I understand how difficult it is to accept that much of what you experience in life isn’t real. Eventually you’ll see and that’s all I can say for now.

TM: It’s very frustrating to hear that. Because I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. You say love is real and everything else isn’t. But how do I know what is real love and what is the illusion of love?

Master Jesus: You don’t know it; you feel it. But you can’t feel it if you live inside your mind. And your mind manufactures the belief system to keep you in the illusion because knowledge is perceived as power and safety. As long as that is the cycle then that is your trap as well. You are imprisoned by your beautiful mind; that mind that is so wonderfully creative. You have to admire it. That level of creativity is astounding. But it isn’t serving you to stay there. Love is from the heart and uses the mind in a reality that isn’t inverted like humanity’s. That is the next stage of evolution.

TM: That’s a hard corner to turn it seems. I don’t trust that I know my heart from my desire that may spring from thoughts or my lower nature. How do I know the heart and trust that is the source of my desire?

TM: In other words, that understanding is buried within me?

Master Jesus: Your spirit knows all that I’m saying. Your soul struggles in the space between spirit and human consciousness. Integration is the aim and the purpose of life on Earth.

TM: But what then? What happens when there is integration?

Master Jesus: That is for another time.

TM: One thing mastered at a time?

Master Jesus: That’s right.

TM: So what can people do to help this process along?

Master Jesus: It’s different for each person, but let me offer stereotypical descriptions. For those beings who are on the path so to speak—they have stimulated their spiritual awareness and are questioning their everyday experiences looking for spiritual significance in what they do—the path will lead to actions that set an example for others who have not yet awakened. Those actions will consist of sharing, compassion, non-violence in relationships, acceptance and a willingness to separate their identification with aggressive materialism. They will exhibit an increasing kindness in their daily affairs and less concern for what they own. As a matter of fact they will feel that they have too much and begin to sell or giveaway many of their belongings without any effort to replace them with new items. Material acquisition will no longer satisfy their emotional needs.

It is no secret that many people in the West have buried themselves under mounds of debt in order to acquire vast stores of material items. As this trend reverses it will bring relief to the pressure that many people feel to keep up with the pace of spending and earning. At first it may feel a little painful or lacking in some way, but very soon after that brief phase they will find gratification in the challenge of living within their means and reducing their means in order to enjoy the many insights they are now experiencing.

TM: Our US economy and to a growing degree the world economy is based upon increasing consumption and production. The fear, of course, is that if it stops or slows down real economic problems go into effect.

Master Jesus: This is truly the belief and one that has been carefully planted to keep the factories rolling. The group of people who will at first experiment with reduction and gradual separation from this practice will discover that the economic destruction and collapse is false. Your economy has these periodic problems anyway. Those episodes seem more severe because you’re still in the old paradigm of earn and spend without cessation. Once enough people do it willingly and with a sense of grace, the severity will not be a part of the experience.

TM: As a brief aside, who planted the idea “to keep the factories rolling”?

Master Jesus: It’s just part of the story of developing materialism and wealth and power. There is nothing sinister or improper about how the story came to be. Commerce through the advances of the industrial period has served humanity in many positive ways. It has run it’s course in its current form and now it’s time to change it. The citizens of Earth have created this and are the ones to change it.

TM: What can other people do who may not fit into the description you gave?

Master Jesus: Witness. They may not be ready to do anything other than observe and that is okay because eventually they will see that their fears are unwarranted. For the more advanced souls, teaching the ones in the middle will be their role. Thus you have these three major segments.

TM: It sounds like it’s more a profile of Western society and countries with strong economic positions. What will it look like in the weaker economic countries?

Master Jesus: The profile will shape up to be similar, but the pace will be delayed. They will not spend as much time at the levels experienced in the stronger economic countries. And by stronger and weaker we are clearly referring to a definition that measures production and consumption. Since many people in the weaker economies have not developed habits of over-consumption they will not have the same sort of withdrawal fears that people in the stronger economies face. For many, just having the basics will be satisfactory.

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Conditions on Earth (Part 1): Jesus and TMichael

June 11, 2005 T. Michael 1 Comment

Condition on Earth Part 1, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/conditions-on-earth-part-1/ — Conditions on earth part 1

Conversation with Jesus and TMichael: Conditions on Earth (Part 1)

TM: This being our second writing, where shall we start?

Master Jesus: We shall note for the record that we are beginning this series of conversations on Easter Sunday in the year 2004. That may be significant to some folks.

TM: Should it be significant and if so in what way?

Master Jesus: First of all, there isn’t a ‘should’ involved. It either is or it isn’t significant based upon one’s orientation to these things. For some people, Easter is a big deal, wouldn’t you agree?

TM: Yes. But I have to say that for me, it’s not really.

Master Jesus: You say that but it’s not entirely true. When you were younger, in adolescence, you went to a Christian church every Sunday and Easter was a big deal in your life. Even your father who rarely attended services attended Easter Sunday. So, it was a big deal at one point.

TM: True it was then but it hasn’t been that way for over thirty-five years. I think I can say it isn’t a big deal now.

Master Jesus: It’s okay if it isn’t. The one fact you can’t escape in the influence of religious practice on society is that the significance of major religious events is en-grained in your being like DNA imprints on your physical body. They affect you whether you are aware or not. Human consciousness on the whole is not an individual affair. You can increase or decrease the affect by conscious awareness. The affect is there nevertheless.

TM: So, I’m affected in ways I’m not aware? Will you elaborate and give an example?

Master Jesus: You reside in a Judaic-Christian society. On Easter and during the weeks preceding Easter there is a build up of energy in the form of thoughts and emotions based in ancient traditions and expectations. Every year this energy recycles, gaining momentum from the previous cycles. When enough people experience this recycling of energy they perpetuate it through their contribution. And so it builds over time. Even though you may not participate in Easter services, you experience the affects of others in your society who do participate. Because you participated as a young person your connection to the experience is greater than someone who has never participated. Even that person will experience something despite his/her religious orientation.

TM: There is an air of worship and reverence I sense on Easter.

Master Jesus: That’s what I’m referring to, although it may register as something else to someone else.

TM: How many other beliefs and mass experiences does this same phenomenon occur?

Master Jesus: Whenever there is a strong belief tied to an emotional commitment with a large number of people, sustained for a long period of time, then this phenomenon occurs. Sometimes there are competing thoughts existing at the same time. When this occurs collectively you feel the energetic tension of opposition. This is the great duality that plays out constantly in human affairs. There is a saying to avoid politics and religion in polite conversation. That is recognizing the deeply engrained opposition and emotional force behind the tension—it is uncontrollable at times. It is reserved then for a different arena; one in which conflict can be explored.

TM: Is that why it is so difficult to change the way we do things in our society even when they are destructive?

Master Jesus: Did you have a particular example in mind?

TM: Yes I do. I’ve been thinking about our economic system of capitalism and how it has deteriorated over time. I see the initial guiding principles and see how it was altered. Along with many other people I want to change it so that it serves everyone, but the forces opposed to change seem enormous.

Master Jesus: What would you change about it?

TM: It’s almost too much to list here. In short, capitalism cannot be just about more—producing more, consuming more, pursuing more wealth for the purpose of perpetuating the cycle of production and consumption of more. We have to integrate higher values into the equation. I had a friend say to me that he thought that maybe the destruction of the Earth and many or all of the species was the right path and the inevitable outcome of this life experiment, and maybe then new life springs from that and a new cycle begins. He is a well-respected, financially successful businessman. When I heard him say that I began to understand the rationale behind the opposition to change.

Master Jesus: So, is your friend correct?

TM: I’m working from the premise that we don’t have to destroy everything if we have a consciousness that is inherently creative and can alter our path creatively to support life in an ever-changing dynamic.

Master Jesus: What if you’re both correct? What if these two points of view are true, then what?

TM: Then it’s a matter of choice. Our society can choose one or the other.

Master Jesus: And you’d like society to choose your point of view?

TM: Well, yes I do.

Master Jesus: And your friend would like it to go his way?

TM: Yes, I believe so.

Master Jesus: Then will you and your friend continue to support your respective points of view in how things work out in your society?

TM: I suppose we will unless one of us changes our mind.

Master Jesus: Then this is how it is for everyone on Earth at this moment. It’s about making a choice. Will you destroy life as you know it or will you creatively re-frame it? Does that seem over-simplified?

TM: I was hoping for a little more help I suppose. Maybe you could tilt it one way or the other.

Master Jesus: I guess you can say that I’m working on the side of humanity, which by the way includes your friend and all those who believe as he does. My work has been and is dedicated to assisting humanity in its decisions about living. A major decision is facing humanity now. Will you collectively choose destruction, death and eventual rebirth, or will you choose the next evolution of life from this point. There is no judgment either way, good or bad.

TM: You almost sound indifferent.

Master Jesus: You really want me to choose a side don’t you?

TM: YES! Choose, validate my point of view and give me the strength and courage to fight these bastards!

Master Jesus: And what about your friend? Shall I tell him I support his view so that he is encouraged as well? Or would you prefer I tell him he is wrong and he better get with the program, or else?

TM: Or else what?

Master Jesus: Or else he shall burn in hell of course. Isn’t that what happens to people who don’t get with the program? I’m pretty sure I hear that message quite often, throughout the world and from almost every religion, and evoked in political circles as well. I guess we’ve moved beyond polite conversation haven’t we?

TM: I think if you just simply told my friend and his fellow believers that their path of destruction is wrong, and then they would change because it’s coming from you and you’re the man. They aren’t convinced if I say it or if others in my tribe say it. But they’ll listen to you.

Master Jesus: Really? Why would they listen to me? What am I offering as proof that what you want is right and true for them?

TM: They will accept it on your authority. You are Jesus. In case you’re not aware, that carries a lot of weight. I think they would yield to your point of view.

Master Jesus: Believe me I’m aware of the weight I carry. So, it’s that simple. If I appear on Earth and say to humanity, listen, here are a few things I’d like for you to do at this time, then you believe that everyone will respect my authority and follow those simple directions?

TM: Well, not everyone, but enough of them to swing things the other way.

Master Jesus: Your way?

TM: Yes, for the umpteenth time, my way.

Master Jesus: I just want to be clear about whose way it is.

TM: Since you’re such a stickler for this distinction, many of us who believe this is the right way draw that belief from your teachings. So, I guess we assumed it was also the way you believed was right.

Master Jesus: I’m not sure I remember in which lesson I encouraged you to ‘fight the bastards’.

TM: Touché. But that’s just my emotion speaking. I’d rather not fight. I’d rather you persuade them with your magic and then we could all live happily ever after.

Master Jesus: Again I ask you, why would they listen to me if they believed I was on your side opposed to their beliefs?

TM: You are beyond humanity and know things we don’t. You are the man, the boss, he who rises from the dead. They will just be relieved to know you really exist and that you have an opinion on these matters. Of course they will follow what you say.

Master Jesus: They don’t believe I really exist?

TM: Maybe some of them do, but they think you’re returning some day and you’ll set the record straight then. But until then, they are not going to follow your teachings unless you explain it to them in modern terms. So, I guess I’m asking you to reveal yourself now and tell it like it is.

Master Jesus: You mean in your terms?

TM: Why don’t I just ask you to define it in your terms whether or not it resembles mine? I’m really not caught up on it being my way.

Master Jesus: Okay, I’ll do that for you. It’s a long story are you ready for that?

TM: Sure.

Master Jesus: Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away….sorry, different story. But one closer than you can imagine to the real one. All of these stories have their origins in truth. There are many entry points for stories because there isn’t a beginning you see. At least there isn’t a beginning that we can identify in words that will express humanity’s story. We can also include humanity’s spiritual journey and that gets us closer to a beginning, but even that isn’t completely a beginning. I’m emphasizing this beginning business because humans are tethered to truth having a beginning and anything that doesn’t have a beginning must be false or non-existent. You’ll have to accept that your story doesn’t have a beginning or an ending. Are you with me so far?

For Conditions on Earth Part 2 click here.

Conversations with Jesus and Buddha