Question: Dearest Nada, this marks the end of my path with this course (The Course of Self-Mastery). I have learned a great many things as I have progressed along, but I cannot accept that I would be at peace if I allowed low consciousness free will to outplay itself when I could have a possibility of influencing or stopping it. As a thought experiment, I pondered if I could just stand aside in a neutral state of mind while my soon-to-be-born grandchild was beaten, and I have come to the conclusion that I could not do so and be at peace with inaction. Even though I would not intend physical harm to the attacker, I would definitely intervene in any other way that I could. I do fully embrace turning the other cheek. I still consider myself to be a disciple of Jesus and Buddha. I suspect that even Jesus would attempt to shield the child in some fashion. But your statement that I should not intervene in any way to influence the outcome of an attacker’s free will simply does not resonate with me. I have failed level 5 of your retreat. (Kim: This is the fifth chapter in the book . Nada’s book – number 6) And my journey along the path of self-mastery ends. Add me to the long list of chelas that could not accept being at peace with doing nothing. If I have not understood your teaching properly, I would greatly appreciate a response.
Answer from Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2025 New Year Webinar.
I just want to elaborate a little bit on this question. Because what Nada says in chapter 5 of the book is actually not what the person is saying here. The person has not understood the teaching properly. Because what Nada is saying is that many people look at karma as something physical. You are taking a physical action and then you make karma. But what Nada is saying is that the most severe form of karma you can make is not at the physical level, but it is influencing a person’s mind at the emotional, mental and identity level. That is a more severe form of karma than taking physical action. What she is saying is, in this thought experiment, your grandchild is about to be attacked by a bully at school. Nada is not saying that you cannot step in to protect your grandchild. That is not what she is saying. It is a misunderstanding, a misreading of the teaching. Neither is she saying that you cannot attempt to persuade the attacker to stop attacking. What she is saying that you cannot do is try to manipulate the mind of the attacker at the emotional, mental and identity level.
You have to understand the deeper meaning here of what she is saying. She is saying that if you are trying to talk to somebody, you are not interfering with their mind. It is when you are trying to manipulate them, control them, that is when you are interfering with their mind. And that is what the fallen beings are trying to do all the time. They are trying to pacify us, trying to deceive us. You have a right to talk to somebody who is attacking you. You also have a right to physically defend yourself against an attack. Because if you did not protect your grandchild, if you are an adult and you did not protect your grandchild, you would make karma for not protecting the child who is more vulnerable than you are.
The way the person is describing is a misreading of the teaching. But now let’s say that you tried, even though the attacker is there and has an aggressive intent, you tried to persuade the attacker and it did not work. The attacker just did not respond. You can imagine that Zelensky tried to persuade Putin to stop attacking Ukraine. Probably not going to happen, right? But what she is saying is that there is a fundamental difference between trying to persuade somebody and then trying to manipulate their mind. For example, you see what is commonly called control games, where somebody is trying to make another person feel guilty for not having done what person A wants them to do. And that is a form of manipulation. And that is making karma more than taking physical action. I think what is happening here is that the person is reading the teaching with the linear mind and is not reading it carefully enough. I understand that this is a challenging teaching. But what Nada is really saying is you have to overcome all desire to manipulate other people’s minds.
And therefore, you have to allow free will to outplay itself. In other words, if you cannot persuade an attacker to stop attacking, you have to allow them to have that aggressive intent. It does not mean you cannot defend yourself, but you cannot seek to manipulate the mind of the person. Because when you reach that level of the path that she is talking about on the initiations of the Sixth Ray, you have to see through this desire to influence other people’s free will that many people have, even many spiritual people have. I can see in myself that I had it when I was younger. I thought it is so important to overcome suffering that it is okay to interfere with people’s free will so they can choose not to suffer. But that is what Nada is saying. In order to go to the higher level, you have to overcome that desire. And if you read the text carefully, you can see that that is actually what she is saying. And quite frankly, I have not yet heard from somebody who understood it the way this person is doing. So this thing about⎯’add me to the long list of chelas that could not accept being at peace with doing nothing’. I do not think there is a long list of chelas, not to my knowledge at least. If there is, then let me hear from you and let’s discuss it. But this person clearly has not read the teaching carefully enough because there is a deeper profound effect. You also have to realize here that if you look back at Jesus, he was pretty radical: “Turn the other cheek”. And there can be a reason for it. And that can be that if you have karma with another person because you did something to that person in a past life, so the person comes and attacks you in this life, you attack the person back. You are adding to the karmic spiral. This is what you see in the Middle East. What is going on right now, Israel and the Palestinians? Well, they have a karmic spiral that goes way back. Now they have just both accelerated it, added to it. That is why Jesus said: If you want to break this karmic spiral, you have to turn the other cheek.
Now again, I am not saying you cannot defend yourself if you are in a danger of being killed. I am not saying you cannot defend your grandchild by taking physical action. But specifically, what she talks about there is this desire to influence other people’s state of mind. And if you do not grasp that, you cannot go beyond a certain level. And there is a danger that you actually start going downward because you start reinforcing the self that you have at that level instead of overcoming it. You understand, I hope, that the Course of Self-Mastery is really that each chapter in all of these books represents a certain level of consciousness, a certain sense of self you have at the 48th level or the 60th level or whatever. And in order for you to go to the next level up, that sense of self really has to die. I mean, it has to die. And that means if you have the intent or you have the thought that it is okay to influence other people’s minds for some greater good, this is a self. And until you let the self die, you are not free of it.You cannot rise to the next level. And that is why sometimes the masters have to be very direct and very provocative to get you to give up this.
And as I said, you could very well have a situation where there is a person who has this kind of a self and in many past lifetimes has taken actions to defend itself and has created all these karmic spirals. And the person has for a lifetime just been treading water, getting to a certain point, cannot get beyond it. Therefore, in order to get beyond it, that self has to die and therefore the person has to confront that self, look at it, and accept to let the self die. And if the person is not willing to do that, you will just take another round of reinforcing the self. But if you are willing to do it, you rise above the self. And then you can actually, possibly take action to defend yourself or defend your grandchild without reinforcing the karmic spiral. Because now you are doing it from a higher level of awareness, a higher level of Christhood. I actually sense that Nada does not want to comment on it because what I have said here should be enough. You simply need to read it carefully and you will see what I am saying here.
Copyright © 2025 Kim Michaels