For mind and mastery to be complete there needs to be a full understanding of the nature of mind; the workings of mind and the ability from that therefore to direct mind. “Resist nothing” does not refer to earthly pleasures or deliberately indulging in squalid, dirty, self gratification states. However, the fear that that is where the mind could take one, means that one resists certain thoughts, urges and in the resistance, one becomes unable to see what is real. In other words the fear of what might be real creates resistance so that reality is never quite achieved albeit heavily sought by the individual.
Your mind takes you in a myriad of directions always towards the same point though: truth, honor, trust, faith, strength. Yet this is not the experience of mind that people have. Indeed for most mind is perpetual thinking, perpetual thoughts that take you in a myriad of directions. When one approaches a type of thought that one identifies as ‘bad’, such as what we have already spoken about- thoughts of squalor, deprivation, etc,- one immediately sensors those thoughts. Yet where do these thoughts come from? Why would you sensor one and not all thought? For if we were to be fully present we would be aware of the nature of our thoughts.
I will try to keep this clear on this occasion. Mind is strength, faith, focus, union with spirit. It is a gateway to the essence, to the soul, to God, and the God experience. The road to this is paved and littered with thought. These thoughts are like leaves fallen from the trees in autumn and how we choose to respond to our journey, whilst in body, is often to become distracted by the thoughts that are on the path: to the point that we become concerned only with the nature of the leaves and the nature of do we like the leaves. And we have forgotten that the purpose of the path is to bring us to union, union with ourselves in the arms of God. Therefore resist no leaf. As you are dedicated to following your path- the path to you, the path to union with God – falsehood comes only from focusing and identifying and creating relationships with thought forms. Therefore resist nothing. Accept all and continue on your journey where we will await you.
Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Where are you? An Exercise
Buddha: So reader, with a pen and paper in front of you draw a square and put you name inside the square.
Now where are you, are you in your body or are you in the square? Are you in both? For those of you who are acquainted with the sensations of energy, are you pulled into the square therefore connected to it or do you simply feel nothing at all?
Now draw a circle under the square, put your name in this. Draw a line connecting the square to the circle. Where are you now? You are in your body, you are in the square, you are also in the circle and you have made a connection.
Now below the circle draw a square and write the name of your sibling or the name of your friend. Where are you now? You are in your body, you are in your square, your circle, the connections between your square and your circle. Are you in this square with your sibling or friends name? No for you can’t. For those of you who are sensitive to energies do you feel attracted or repelled to the square with another name in it? This square, with the other name in it, is a form that is separate to your own yet can you enter that form? No. You can depict that form in letters and shape. This has often been the case with art but can you enter the form of another? No.
So you cannot enter the form of another. But you can enter other forms of yourself. Now I will try not to speak in riddles as this is a subject that I could speak about for many hours.
You, whilst here on earth, have a body yet you are able to put parts of yourself into form that is outside of your body. You do this with your work. You do this with your food when you create a meal. With every creative project you put part of yourself and you become linked to that creative project. So you create a trail whilst living; a trail of essence or, at least those who are working and connected to their essence, create this.
There is a piece of you in everything you will do, in everything you have ever done. And this is deliberately been designed to be the case. You are unbelievably creative and invest you in everything you do. Yet the great experience for most of you is life lives on automatic pilot or with resistance. Would you change what you did and what you do if you knew that part of yourself became invested in it and connected to it?
This is my question for all of you today. You cannot escape your actions, the choices. This is so. At all times you can also change form. This is so. So when you realize that you have been drawing squares through deeds and realize that you do not like the fact that part of you is invested in a square then you can simply start from that point to draw a circle or any other shape you fancy. For whilst you need to reconcile what has been done with what you do, with the present and with where you are, know that you can also use the present to create a new.
Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Mind is Strength, Faith, Focus, Union with Spirit
Buddha: Zoë, you have been hearing my words in your head, ‘resist nothing, resist nothing’ and so on. Let me explain what this means.
For mind and mastery to be complete there needs to be a full understanding of the nature of mind, the workings of mind and the ability from that therefore to direct mind. “Resist nothing” does not refer to earthly pleasures or deliberately indulging in squalid, dirty, self gratification states. However, the fear that that is where the mind could take one, means that one resists certain thoughts, urges and in the resistance, one becomes unable to see what is real. In other words, the fear of what might be real creates resistance so that reality is never quite achieved albeit heavily sought by the individual.
Your mind takes you in a myriad of directions always towards the same point though: truth, honour, trust, faith, strength. Yet this is not the experience of mind that people have. For most, ‘mind’ equates perpetual thinking; perpetual thoughts that take you in a myriad of directions. When one approaches a type of thought that one identifies as ‘bad’, such as what we have already spoken about, one immediately censors those thoughts.
Yet where do these thoughts come from? Why would you censor one and not all thought?
If we were fully present we would be aware of the nature of our thoughts and the thinking process.
I will try to keep this clear and simple on this occasion.
Mind is strength, faith, focus, union with spirit. It is a gateway to the essence, to the soul, to God, and the God experience. The road to this union is paved and littered with thought. These thoughts are like leaves fallen from the trees in autumn. How do we choose to respond to our journey whilst in body? It is often to become distracted by the thoughts that are on the path to the point that we become concerned only with the nature of the leaves and the nature of do we like the leaves. And we have forgotten that the purpose of the path is to bring us to union: union with ourselves in the arms of God. Therefore, resist no leaf. As you are dedicated to following your path, the path to you, the path to union with God, falsehood comes only from focusing and identifying and creating relationships with thought forms. Therefore, resist nothing. Accept all and continue on your journey where we will await you.
Buddha: Lets speak more about mind. As you know there is no one conscious reality, there is no one consciousness. Instead, there are interlinking realities. And what is that interlinking reality? Love: love inter-relates all. What do we mean by love? The ability to be joyous in just being.
The flower is just a flower. A rose doesn’t try and be a lily; it simply extends the best of itself to try and meet the sun as a beautiful expression of the creative wonder of God. And this is what we want for humanity. If you are a rose don’t try and be a lily. If you are a lily don’t try and be a chrysanthemum. Simply be, learn to be.
There is nothing to do there is no way to be, other than through the suspension of mind. Yet, interestingly, it is mind that inter-relates all. There are many paradoxes to this as there are many layers of reality. What is real for your cat Zoë, is real. What is real for the bird that the cat is watching, is real. What is real for you watching the cat watch the bird, is real. What is real for me is the connective force that unites all of us, of which I am part, and the willingness for a transcendence. The transcendence of the current state of humanity. This current state is nothing but a state mind. When enough people change their state of mind there will be a change in the state of reality. This is not hard. It is easy to do and it starts with every individual taking account of their lives, their works and choosing to wake up.
Spending your time as a rose trying to be a lily is exhausting. Ultimately you will fail. But understanding that you are some sort of flower that through becoming peaceful with the self turns out to be a rose will be a wonder. And this is what we wait on: the return of the rose.
How do you know if you’re a rose trying to be a lily? It hurts. How do you know if you’re a lily trying to be a rose? It hurts. You are reaching for something that is beyond your form, beyond essence, beyond your blueprint, yet you bend and twist and dye, and contort. And ultimately there will be no peace, there will be no stillness, there will be no wholeness- there will only be pain for a rose cannot be a lily and a lily cannot be a rose. How do you know if you are a rose? You are a rose and you have peace. How do you know if you are a lily? You are a lily and you have peace.
What is peace? A fundamental feeling that all is well and all is well with you.
All that is not well can be resolved. Some things will take large efforts, some things will take smaller efforts. But ultimately only a rose can be a rose and ultimately only the lily can be the lily. To try and be something else is to inflict pain. This is not the purpose of a rose even though it has thorns! This is not the purpose of a lily even though its pollen can be toxic! A rose is a rose and a lily is a lily. Let that be for now.
Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: It Simply Is (Part Four)
Buddha: How often is it then that a distractive mind becomes a fearful mind? There are very few of you who have spent time exploring their minds so that a distraction becomes fear, fear becomes a distraction and all that exists is the hamster wheel of being, of doing, as opposed to the presence of God in the moment. So I say to you explore the mind.
There is nothing to be frightened of. You will find fearful thoughts, fearful forms, but more importantly, you will find distraction. And of what you feel is fearful, only a small proportion will actually be fear-full; the rest will be distraction. And of that which is fear-full, simply sitting and acknowledging it as a thought form will allow it to move. Simply state, “You are a thought form, go. I am capable of being. I need not acknowledge you, and in that acknowledgment, allow you to take me over and allow you to become.” For that is all that happens when one engages in these types of thought forms, the thought form is able to become. And as a human being, is this not you worst nightmare? Engage not with the thought form. Simply acknowledge it and state to it, “You are a thought form go. I am me, I will be.”
The minds of men are messy, are distracted—have become fear-full. Chaos reigns and only those who are willing to become a disciple of clarity will work to free themselves from the bondage. For this is the truth: Mankind as whole is in chains to itself, in chains to that which separated it from an animal, which for some has meant that part of the species has become lower than that of the animal and through desires, through allowing thought forms to become have allowed catastrophes and horrors of being, such as that not seen in the animal world.
This is not your destiny. This was never your destiny going below the level of animal, no. You were meant as a species to find us from the level of form; to explore new ways of love and being while inhabiting different forms. This is all within you. This is the blueprint of humanity. However, this will require the disengagement of current mind, the individual to become disciple of clarity and from there mankind will be able to raise itself to its destiny. And individuals, such as yourselves, will be able to see clearly what is the beauty of this place that you call your home, earth, the love that does exist within the hearts of all, the essence of God, the connection, the oneness to all that is an indisputable truth.
Work to become clear of mind and the gifts of gods will be yours.
Conversation with Buddha and TMichael: Integration and Disintegration
TM: I feel like for many years I have tried to integrate my human self with my spiritual self. At times I feel I have reached some measure of success only to witness set backs in the form of failures in my life—failures to live purely in my convictions, or failures in relationships, etc. How can we feel one moment in the complete bliss of integration and then later as if things have become unraveled?
Master Buddha: There is a natural progression toward integration that includes disintegration. It’s the same as when you try to affix one object to another and the seal is not set just right. Maybe there is debris mixed in the seal. Maybe there are gaps in the seal. Whether it’s obstruction or space, the seal is not complete and can be easily pried apart with the least amount of stress to one of the objects. Your human personality and your spirit work in a similar fashion.
Once you are inspired and begin to inquire about your spiritual nature you begin to receive information about spirit. You begin to look at your human life through a new filter. You begin to question your life and its meaning. This is the beginning of integration.
Recognize what is happening even in this beginning. There is a natural disintegration of your human personality, that is, due to new, incoming information from spirit your personality begins to fragment and parts begin to modify. Some parts you may let go—destruction. Some parts you may transform. But what was before is no longer the same. Disintegration within the personality has occurred. At the same time, integration has begun between spirit and personality. However minute that may be, it is an integration.
There is a series of cycles of integration and disintegration that occurs. This may go on for a period of time until the tension resolves and you conclude that you have settled on a point of integration. That is what you describe as the point of bliss.
That state persists for some time until there is a crisis, which disturbs that state. New tension is created and you begin the cycle of disintegration—the tension must be resolved. Suddenly you may realize that all the beliefs you adopted in your quest for spiritual alignment where somehow off. You shed them as a snake sheds his skin. Now you are disintegrating your spiritual concepts.
The process is one by which personality disintegrates, spirit disintegrates, the combination of the two in relationship disintegrates and then it begins a new cycle of integration.
TM: So when do we know we’ve reached the final point of integration? How long will this go on? It’s tiring and almost maddening.
MB: It is no different really than my opening example. It continues until you have properly removed the debris or space between the two objects of integration.
TM: Won’t there always be things we can’t or don’t know about ourselves, personally or spiritually?
MB: This is the great challenge of enlightenment—when do you reach that point? Who can know, perhaps one who is fully enlightened? But how do you know who that is if you are not fully enlightened yourself? Is that not the basis of faith? Faith covers the gap between what you know to be true and what you don’t know. It is the motivation to continue, because you believe in the process.
TM: Makes me want to give up at times and say this is bogus, a waste of time.
MB: Yes, and for a while you might do that. That’s a point of disintegration between your personality and your spiritual self. When faith or belief in the process can’t be the salve to satisfy the tension, then abandonment is a choice. That’s natural.
TM: So, that happens, then what? Why would I get on the treadmill again?
MB: You may not. You may decide to live from the perspective that your personality is all there is. That the state of personality is all there is for everybody and that is your world. You may find some new evidence that pushes you back into inquiry, which starts the cycle of integration and disintegration again.
TM: I’ve done both of those things. It’s wearing me out.
MB: Yet it continues. So, something within you pushes through the haze and says try again. What pushes?
TM: I don’t know, something happens and it starts again. Maybe I should pay attention, but it seems like before I know it I’m inquiring again.
MB: Well, let that be a mystery for now. As you progress through the cycle maybe that is revealed for you. Then it will be okay for a while until something else happens to disturb it.
TM: So, basically you’re saying that it is a struggle forever and I’ll either engage the process or I won’t.
MB: I’m not saying it’s a struggle forever. I’m saying that it’s a struggle for as long as it is and that it doesn’t really matter how long it takes. Until such time that your spiritual self can tap into its essence within your personality and transmute it into a reflection of spirit, you will go through various stages of integration and disintegration. Your impatience may serve you to keep trying or it may persuade you to abandon the process. Your choice.
TM: Yeah, I always come back.
MB: One simple truth is that you don’t really have a choice in the long run. You can abandon the process for a while or you can push too hard and feel frustrated. But your spiritual self is never dormant or absent. Spirit isn’t time-constrained, as is your personality. And that may be something you have to take upon faith. Maybe you already accept that, but have to just not think about it for a while. It doesn’t matter. You will eventually resume the cycle. That is the natural order of life on earth.
Conversation with Jesus and TMichael: Jesus Answers a Reader’s Question
TMichael: Christine C. submitted the following questions. Your sincere questions are welcome and I’ll do my best to include them in a conversation for publication from time to time.
Q: Christine C. asks:
“It is written that our DNA is many strands short of what was originally intended for “human beings”, and that unseen powers (to us earthlings) altered DNA. I agree that humans have spiritually existed primarily from faith as our awareness is veiled for reasons possibly connected to the same powers (or for the continued exercise of faith?). At what point does the planet deserve divine assistance, possibly in reconnecting the DNA, thus greater awareness and resulting better health? When does the veil lift for humanity? What purpose does the veil serve?”
A: Master Jesus: There are many perspectives on what has happened on Earth to interfere with humanity’s progress. This is a major one and the ones making the claim do so without complete disclosure of the facts. While they are well-intentioned in their aim, they are withholding information about their own role in this ordeal. I will not go into to the detail, but I will summarize by saying that there was a heated dispute around the DNA issue, and the prevailing side took advantage of a technicality to rush their point of view into place. The group who caused publication of this claim created the technical default through their actions. So, while the outcome is as you have stated, the motives behind it were not sinister as has been portrayed.
It does not matter what could have been, we must take responsibility for what it is now. Divine assistance, meaning assistance from the spiritual realm, has been and continues to be an integral part of the evolution of Earth. There are at present over 3 billion spirit beings attached to Earth service. Some reside within the sphere and others work from distant posts. The dedication and loyalty to humanity is unsurpassed.
Some humans are ready for higher levels of awareness, but most are not. It is our role to lift those who are unprepared to a point that they can receive greater awareness. We do so by offering love and light to all who live upon Earth. We work diligently with individuals and groups to open their senses and their understanding to higher ideals.
The veil, as you call it, represents the darkness of ignorance. Humanity must take responsibility for its part. So long as humanity’s focus is steeped predominately in materiality, ignorance of your true essence will be concealed. The deeper your daily lives become intertwined in material survival and accumulation of material security, the less energy you have for discovering the truth about yourselves. Humanity has the power to turn this around. Those of us in the spiritual realm are here to assist and stand ready to offer all that is needed.
Q: Christine C. asks:
“From another perspective, it is written that this marvelous Earth is the place for emotional healing, divine healing, from the original cause. It is easy to see that if we each heal individually, if we are fortunate enough to have the tools for understanding, that the resulting connection with each other is another path to awareness. Again we are pulling in other “times” of our existence for which we are now responsible. Is this also deserving of divine help on a world wide or even universal scale to assist in blowing away the mists of misperception, thus clearing the way for more wonderful loving vistas?”
A: Master Jesus: This is true. A key to understanding the potential is to discover the minimum of your own. That serves as inspiration to continue and to connect with others along the lines of love and light. Those terms, love and light, are used often and yet what do we mean by them? In these conversations we have talked much about love and what it is, but never can we do justice to the complete experience of love through these words. Light understanding is in a similar predicament. The two go together in a way that makes a description feeble in capturing the true experience. And yet the faithful, those who have glimpsed even a moment of the experience witness to others the splendor achieved. Who is insane? Who is misinformed? Is it the one who clings to material possessions and property rights as supreme to human rights? Or is it the one who claims spiritual sovereignty in the face of doubt and contradiction?
Your better human nature is pitted against your false concepts of reality and it is a battle that shall conclude in victory for the better nature. How you get there is your choice as well as how long it takes. Each generation is challenged with living with, through and transforming to some small degree, the actions of previous generations. Be gentle with yourselves as you evaluate your progress within each turn. Love and light shall be yours. It only requires your openness to receive. Once you receive it you will share it, and once you share it you will rejoice in its endless bounty.
Conversation with Buddha and TMichael: Sensual Pleasures and Enlightenment
TM: I’d like to talk about one area that seems to be rejected by Christianity and Buddhism (maybe for different reasons) and yet Hinduism embraces it in part. And that is pleasures of the flesh. Two questions come to mind. When you say give up the pleasures of the flesh, or give up the sensory pleasures, what do you mean? Why do we have to forego pleasure in order to appreciate and live a spiritual life in the flesh?
Master Buddha: Those questions allow me to clarify some misunderstandings that have arisen from my original teachings and Master Jesus’ teachings too. Let me emphasize too that those teachings were provided for an earlier time in which the conditions of the time were different than they are now and so adjustment is required.
First of all for context, the questions posed that aroused the teachings had to do with achieving enlightenment or salvation. They were intended for disciples who had dedicated their lives to tread the path. Those who recorded the essence of the sermons and discussions were biased by their own personal beliefs toward the ideas presented. This doesn’t mean they are completely inaccurate, it just means that one must make allowances for the bias.
Secondly, we were in our own time biased by our own lives while incarnated. While it is true that Master Jesus and I achieved states of enlightenment beyond the norm we could not escape the effects of being human. This is often forgotten or is dismissed because we are elevated above our actual experience in the flesh by devotees and followers.
Now let me address your questions. Sensuality is a natural part of being human. It is so natural in fact that it can be mistaken as the primary aspect of ones being. It is in reality a reflection of higher consciousness. For those treading the path I ask, do you wish to play in your reflection in the pond or do you wish to know the one casting the reflection?
This was not and is not to be interpreted as an admonishment to those beings who are playing in their reflections. It is saying to the one upon the path, this is the way.
TM: So you are saying that one can’t find their way to enlightenment by exploring the pleasures of the flesh?
Master Buddha: It is knowing the distinction between the true self and the one who pretends to be the self. One will not find the true self by only exploring the reflection. Likewise one cannot deny or ignore the reflection and truly know oneself. I think what you want to know is can one experience and appreciate the pleasures of the flesh and pursue enlightenment. The answer is in each ones heart or center of ones intent. The non-self is a trickster beyond belief. To answer yes means that it is possible and to answer no is to exclude that which is possible. It will be different for everyone.
TM: So it is possible but it depends on the individual?
Master Buddha: Yes.
TM: How do I know if it is possible for me? How do I know what is the center of my intent?
Master Buddha: You will know when the power of your heart and your true desire for enlightenment out weighs all other considerations. All that isn’t from that place melts away and leaves the purity of true self. In other words until that point you won’t know. You will try this and that, and mostly you will try to strike bargains and negotiations with the true self to bring with you all the things that are important to the non-self. Until that day when you realize what you have been doing and it all falls away and leaves who you are. Then you’ll know.
TM: It sounds like what you’re saying is that the pleasures of the flesh are the parts that the non-self is bargaining to keep and that they will be the parts that melt away. Is that what you mean?
Master Buddha: I believe you were one of the ones who recorded these teachings many centuries ago. Why don’t you just find out for yourself?
TM: Well, of course I will. But I’m asking you as a teacher for a lesson that will guide me along the way.
Master Buddha: And I am a teacher along the way who is offering a lesson to a student who wants me to provide shortcuts that obviate his own need for experience, which in reality cannot happen. What more can I say except that you will have to find the way to the center of your heart to know your true self and in time know that which is not the true self. The pleasures of the flesh represent the reflection, but are not the true self. Is that clear?
TM: Humbly, yes. Although, I must say you are being forceful and adamant about this in a way I haven’t before experienced in your teaching.
Master Buddha: Sometimes that is what is needed. I am adamant that you experience life for yourself. A teacher shall point a way, but shall be cautious about dictating precise directions. It is through discovery that you truly learn the lesson, not through intellectual comprehension. The motivating force that propels you into discovery is from within yourself. There is no harm in vigorous stimulation of the mind on spiritual matters. But ultimately it is living experience that counts.
Conversation with Buddha and TMichael: Truth and Trust
TM: I can see upon reflection of what you have said about reincarnation and karma that I had a notion that it was a form of punishment to correct wrongdoing, or reward for good things done. And one has to come back time and time again to get it right. That’s not it though, is it?
Master Buddha: Getting it right, meaning purifying your essence while in material form, and consequently purifying your material form would be one way to see it. Punishment and reward is wholly a human concept.
TM: But we have so many stories of God(s) punishing people for all sorts of things they did wrong, or for disobeying God(s). How do we change our orientation toward that model?
Master Buddha: I don’t know. You could just give it up because it no longer serves you.
TM: Well, that’s just too easily said. Much harder to do I think.
Master Buddha: You have to make that choice whether to hold on to what you once knew and cherished as truth or to embrace a new idea that better suits your current state.
TM: How do you know when it’s time to do that?
Master Buddha: Ask yourself, what is the worst that could happen if I embrace this new thought? Can you not retrieve the old one? Who gave you all these rules that you must rigidly follow?
TM: I suppose at some point I accepted them as truth and have clung to them because I want to live according to truth.
Master Buddha: Truth shifts with you. It is not a fixed thing that you can cling to and drag it around. Truth represents reality. But remember that your journey on Earth in material form presents you with an avalanche of illusion. You must be adaptable and truth seeking, not truth-clinging.
TM: Don’t you have to have something to hold onto for just a little while? I mean, isn’t truth-seeking a truth to follow? When would you give that up?
Master Buddha: As soon as I believe it no longer serves me. And service to me could mean something very different than when I adopted truth-seeking in the first place. You like many others are afraid of losing control and so you place limits; you reduce meaning and experience. Reincarnation and karma allow for a non-judgmental experience of life in material form. If you are fluid enough in your orientation you can experience all that there is in the world of illusion in a very short time. If you’re not, then you can take a long time to spin around in the same space until you realize that is what you’re doing.
TM: How do we know which truths to trust and to follow?
Master Buddha: You don’t know based upon trust do you? You know based upon deliberation in a mental process. You know based upon what has been handed down through the ages in the form of teachings and social norms. You know according to your familial orientation. And you know according to what serves your ego.
If you knew based upon trust, you would not need those other inputs would you?
TM: So you’re implying that I need to find trust first?
Master Buddha: The ego does not trust; it scans. It searches high and low for signs of agreement or disagreement with its agenda. It will play any role that serves to maintain its primacy. It is, in fact, the most worthy foe of any one you could meet. And it is who you think you are.
Trust is incongruent with ego. That is, unconditional trust is in congruent with ego. Trust based upon conditions and waivers abound with the ego. To seek truth with such a handicap is nearly impossible if not maddening.
In ancient cultures, trust was based upon instinct. With modern civilization, the mental faculty has replaced instinct. Beyond the mental faculty you will discover the true seat of trust for your purposes of living on Earth. Then you may choose truths based upon trust.
Conversation with Buddha and TMichael: Reincarnation and Karma
TM: Yesterday we were discussing reincarnation and I asked you if we could include karma. Will you explain karma and whether or not it affects reincarnation?
Master Buddha: Karma does factor into reincarnation. It does so by the nature of what karma is. Let me explain. Karma is simply the eternal spirit of a human taking personal responsibility for his or her life experience. There is an ethical element of course, but not to the degree that many believe. The intensity of the ethical element is an effect of the person herself emphasizing this aspect. That is to say there is no external force determining which acts of the individualized self are subject to karma and which are not. It is the person who decides.
If for example a person commits an act of violence, a consequence is set in motion. Let’s say that the violence is acted out against someone. There is the consequence of injury to the victim and there is the consequence of how the violent actor feels about this act.
TM: What if the violent actor feels good about the act; it was an act of vengeance? What is the consequence to that?
Master Buddha: It depends on the victim’s collaboration in this particular incident. Believe it or not, there are acts that are requested by victims, even horrific acts that you would say that you would never wish on anyone. But let me explain, because I can hear your mind protesting this claim.
From the time of mind endowment for humans, a sense of right and wrong began its slow development. It was at that time that karma also began for humanity; once humans were able to discern and feel ethically, they were responsible for their actions and consequences. Religion in its many forms became a guide as well as an enforcer and judge of unethical acts and their consequences, and also the reward provider for ethical acts. This system of informing humans of what is ethical and what isn’t, however crude, was the first step toward recognition on a social level of the responsibility accorded to an experiential life on Earth.
Karma has nothing to do with the justice meted out by human institutions. If a person commits a violent act toward another, then justice as administered by fellow humans shall determine the consequences of punishment, and retribution if any for the victim. This is as it should be for now. But this is not karma; this is humanity providing justice for itself as a social act. Karma reflects responsibility of the eternal essence of being and is determined by that essence through its personalized spirit relationship with its creator. This is only possible because the eternal essence is one with its creator ultimately, yet is differentiated for the purpose of experience. It is never in reality separate, but has the experience of being so.
TM: So, I’m not clear yet on how a victim asks for it, so to speak.
Master Buddha: Yes, I know this one is difficult for you because in your conscious human state you can’t imagine that you would ever ask for such a thing and that it is just a way for wrongdoers to justify their actions. On a spirit level there is communication between beings that is not evident in their conscious human awareness. Sometimes you recognize it, but not very often. Personalized spirits, such as you, are at once one with your creator and yet separate for the purpose of experience. It is in the state of separation that experience leads you to that which is not your true spiritual nature. Karma is the correction, harmonizing or balancing act. When you take responsibility, of your own volition, your divine nature leads and no external force or judgment is required. This why karma is acted out over many lifetimes. The eternal essence corrects that which is not of its divine nature by its choice in time, place and lifetime.
The difficulty for you to accept this is that you are accustomed to the human ethical nature, which operates in the norm of “don’t get caught”. For you to imagine that you would deliver your own justice is nearly impossible.
TM: You’re right it is nearly impossible, but not entirely. What if human justice is experienced, does the essence still have to do a correction, or karmic experience, separate from the human one?
Master Buddha: Yes. But again I emphasize that it may not be in the way that you will interpret based upon your code of justice.
TM: In the case where the victim doesn’t arrange to be the victim, what responsibility does the perpetrator have in karmic terms?
Master Buddha: As I said, it is up to the personalized spirit essence to determine that. That means it is specific and particular to that essence in bringing relationship to his creator back into harmony and unity.
Master Buddha: There is a natural progression toward integration that includes disintegration. It’s the same as when you try to affix one object to another and the seal is not set just right. Maybe there is debris mixed in the seal. Maybe there are gaps in the seal. Whether it’s obstruction or space, the seal is not complete and can be easily pried apart with the least amount of stress to one of the objects. Your human personality and your spirit work in a similar fashion.