TOPICS: Dealing with division in the psyche – knowing without knowing – not ready to acknowledge the teacher – in the epic mindset, anything can be justified – you no longer hear inner direction – seeking to change others instead of changing yourself -coming to a turning point – ego hides behind small things – you do not ascend by seeking to save others –
Question: I think many of us have observed that there are some people we know, who have been on the spiritual path for a long time. They are doing all the outer things prescribed by their guru or organization, but they never seem to change. There are simply certain habit patterns that they cannot see, even though their teaching clearly exposes them and the need to get beyond them. In recent years, I have even started seeing this in myself, where there are simply some old habits of thought that I cannot seem to break. So how can we get out of this catch-22?
Answer from ascended master Jesus through Kim Michaels: (August 24, 2010)
As Master MORE is fond of saying, “If people knew better, they would do better.” And while this statement is ultimately true, the problem is that people can know without knowing, they can know without acknowledging that they know.
When you also consider Master MORE’s statement that “When the student is ready, the teacher appears,” you gain a deeper perspective. Many people will look at the first statement and feel that they are somehow being deprived of the knowledge that would enable them to do better. Yet the reality is that people ALWAYS know better.
As the second statement implies, the teacher you need is ALWAYS available to you. The problem is that your conscious mind might not be ready to open itself to the teacher because it is not willing to change. So you always have an inner recognition of what “feels true deep, deep down,” but your conscious mind isn’t always willing to recognize and acknowledge what you know within.
The reason is that your ego and the false teachers of this world have managed to make you believe in many of the subtle lies that cause you to feel that you have a perfect justification for ignoring your inner directions. There are many such lies, but one of the most successful tools is the entire epic mindset, where people feel that because of some greater cause, it is acceptable for them to engage in behavior that they know “deep, deep down” is not right. There is virtually nothing that cannot be justified by this mindset, including torturing and killing people in order to get them to recant their “heretical” beliefs and prevent them from going to hell. Or in this case all kinds of persecution of homosexuals or – on the flip side – the drive to get the entire world to recognize homosexuality as natural or even approved by God.
Many people have become so enveloped in this mindset that they have created a personal downward spiral that also links them to a collective downward spiral. When people are trapped in such a spiral, one might say that their outer minds have created such an effective justification that they simply no longer “hear” their inner direction. They could still hear the direction, but given that they are fully convinced that their actions are justified, they are not paying attention. Instead of listening to the true teacher who is telling them to change, they are listening to the false teachers who are telling them it is other people who need to change. And thus millions of spiritual people – including some who have the potential to manifest Christhood – have been pulled into these spirals of seeking to change others and have – at least for the time being – put their progress on hold. They are so spiritually blind that they are unreachable to us; they are unteachable.
How do you get out of this spiritual blindness? Well, you must come to a point where you are willing to recognize that there is a difference between your outer beliefs and actions and what you know deep within—you must be ready to listen to the teacher even if he tells you something your ego doesn’t want you to hear. And once you are in spiritual blindness, it is usually only the school of hard knocks that can bring a person to that point. When you have a moment of truth and realize you cannot continue doing certain outer things, then you might be open to realizing that you have an inner direction that offers you a way out—or rather a way up.
The turnaround will start exactly as what is described here as a “slight conflict inside.” The crucial point is whether people will be willing to take a closer look at this conflict. The reality is that the conflict appears slight only because your outer mind is still partially blinded by the ego’s justification. Thus, it seems like this is such a minor conflict that it really doesn’t warrant a lot of attention. The subtle temptation is the belief that if you ignore it, it will go away by itself.
Yet let me assure you that those who truly make spiritual progress are those who are willing to look at any conflict or divisions in their psyches—however slight they may appear. And once you do take a closer look, you see that the ego is always hiding behind these conflicts. And when you begin to expose the ego, you discover that what appeared as a slight conflict was only the tip of the iceberg—with an entire superstructure hiding beneath the “surface of the water,” as a symbol for the subconscious mind.
Those who are concerned about making their ascension will need to take a look at every conflict and division in their psyches. As is demonstrated in the question, even a slight conflict is a division in your vision, meaning that your eye is not single. And as long as your eye is not single, the prince of this world will have something in you—whereby he can pull you out of the ascension spiral. In other words, you cannot even enter the ascension spiral until you have made peace within yourself and have made peace with all other people by transcending the epic mindset of thinking you have to save other people or give them the “truth.” In other words, you will not enter the ascension spiral as long as you are seeking to change other people—as long as you are looking at the splinter in the eye of a brother or sister.
We have, of course, given many teachings on this website to help people overcome all division in their psyches, and I will recommend people start with my teachings on the ego. Yet a number of the rosaries and invocations also contain profound teachings that can help people overcome their inner divisions.
Copyright © 2010 by Kim Michaels