Dogma

A lecture given by Maitreya on, "Dogma; Difference Between Mind and Intelligence; Negative Thoughts."

5/21/1990 Satsang (Discourse) With

Maitreya

Maitreya: Well, I don't know if there is anything that we didn't discuss in these Satsangs that we have had together. I guess we almost covered every topic possible in the universe, haven't we? But anyway we are open to any questions, if you have them. You seem like you are ready for it.
 

Question: I have a few questions, yes. What is dogma for you?

Maitreya: Dogma for me? Dogma is a set of beliefs that can be the truth, or not. It's a set of concepts that are accepted by the followers of a religion, or a sect, which they believe to be the truth.

But as we know, the truth is only one. In that one truth, of course, there are a set of principles that also can be called dogmas. But those dogmas (Principles) are the truth behind the universe.

Then there are dogmas that are concepts which are not the truth, but which are accepted by the followers of a sect or religion to be the truth. Who is the judge to know which is the truth and which is not? Again that goes back to the belief of the coming of the One who will separate the chaff from the wheat.

So there is a lot of chaff that people take as the truth, and they believe in it. Those are dogmas with no base of truth in them. They are the dogmas that are chaff. There is no truth behind them. They are just concepts that are followed by the followers of a religion and sect.

But, of course, there is the wheat which also is dogma. You can call it dogma because it's the principle that people believe in. But they are the wheat, they are the truth.

And that is the difference between the true dogma, which is the reality behind this universe, and those dogmas that other people believe in, that are not the truth behind this universe. However, in general when someone talks about dogma, they mean the chaff.

Question: How can you differentiate one from the other?

Maitreya: As I said, When the Messiah comes, he will differentiate between the chaff and the wheat. That's the prophecy. If you believe in the prophecies, all through the prophecies it has always been suggested that the chaff will be separated from the wheat when the Messiah comes. The person who has been prophesied to come will do that. So whatever the Messiah, or this Chosen Person, says is the wheat, and whatever is not according to the wheat is the chaff. It's very simple.

Question: So the belief that there is only one Begotten Son of God, and no one goes to the Father but through him, is that a false dogma, a true dogma, or what is it? The people who follow your teaching, don't you think it's a dogma believing in that?

Maitreya: As I said, there are dogmas which are wheat, and there are dogmas that are chaff. So dogma can be the truth. If dogma is the truth, it's dogma from knowledge. If dogma is not the truth, it's the chaff. It can be from passion or ignorance.

There are some dogmas that have been politicalized. Politically they have been used to exploit others, or separate humanity, or create an environment where that political system can exist, based on those dogmas. People use these dogmas to manipulate the emotions of the followers. They can base their strength on those dogmas to be able to control others. These are the dogmas that they use to stir the emotions of the people. These are dogmas from passion.

There are dogmas that are from ignorance. Some people have very deep feelings and beliefs in things that are not the truth. It's just that there is no truth behind what they believe and do. And they just keep doing it with no results. They don't even think twice, Is that the truth or not? They are doing it from ignorance.

Then there is dogma that is from knowledge. That dogma is supported by the Scriptures. If you look at the Scriptures you will see, in the Bhagavad-Gita, in the Puranas, in the Koran, in the Buddhist teaching, in the Christian teaching, in the Jewish teaching, in the Baha'i teaching, in all the religions, they are supported by the revelations from God. And in all those religions the concept of the Messiah, in many different languages, is revealed. They all believe in a being as the Chosen One who will come to separate the chaff from the wheat. He is God manifested. God always manifests Himself on earth.

And when does He comes? Look at the Bhagavad-Gita which says, Whenever the morality is low and the people start going astray from God, my Spirit arises on earth in order to establish righteousness. It also says, There is going to be a fight between the unrighteous and the righteous. That is the fight of knowledge which leads to salvation.

We read the same thing about Christ. Christ said, I am the way, the truth, no one goes to the Father but through me. He is the manifestation of God. His word is the Word of God. When He tells you something, that is it. You don't argue with Him.

Of course, that is the first step of realization, to realize that He is the Son of God, He is the Begotten Son, He is the Chosen One, He is the person who has been prophesied to come. After you accept that, that's it, His word is the Word of God for you. There is no argument this way, or that way, or these people don't like what you say, or these people culturally are doing differently than what God said, or it is OK not to be married and to live together. These things you don't question any longer.

The first step is to accept that person as being the Messiah, the Son of God, the Chosen One, the One who has been prophesied to come. When that's accepted and done, there is no argument left. His word is the Word of God. His action is the Action of God. His manner is the Manner of God. If you don't accept that first step, of course, you can argue with me, or with anyone, for the rest of your life.

You can find fault in anything in this universe. You can find fault in creation. You can even find fault in God, if really you insist and have a faultfinding mind. Of course, most of the faults we accept or believe about others are 90% our own impurities that we project to the others. Because we have impurities and we don't want to see our own impurities, we see them in other people.

If I accept that it's everyone's fault but mine, I'm OK, aren't I? So it's everyone's fault, it is not mine. Then I can argue with everyone about their faults. I can find faults in everyone. I can tell them how terrible they are. But I never look at myself, how terrible I am.

It's very easy to find fault. Faultfinding is easy. That's one of the Thirty-Three Virtues, "Aversion to faultfinding." Get away from fault-finding. When you want to say something, as the old saying says, consider, Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary? If it is not kind, and it is not the truth, and it is not necessary, you just don't say it. It's just like "Aversion to faultfinding."

When you do not accept that first step as, "Yes, this is the One," of course, you can argue with anyone, including Him, and try to make them believe that what they do, or say, is not the whole truth. You try to compare Him with other channels, etc. Yes, there are a lot of channels out there, who channel many beings, and every being says something different from the other beings. Even the same being with the same name says different things.

So, of course, there is confusion out there. But that is the first step. "I don't want to be confused. I eventually was guided to this Mission, to this place, saw the prophecies fulfilled, saw the religions of the world were unified, saw that whatever He said is according to God's Word, so I accept Him as the person who has been prophesied to come. And the rest, I am completely submissive to Him. I am surrendered. My ego is out. I am empty. I am open to whatever comes to me through Him, because you only go to the Father through Him." That is what Christ said. That is what Krishna said. That is what all the great religions of the world are saying.

So if that's accepted, "Yes, the dogma that we teach here is accepted, it comes directly from God, it is the wheat," then whatever else is chaff.

Question: Just to remind me, what is the difference between lower mental, higher mental and intellect? What is the difference between mental and intellect? You talked about that once but it was not registered well.

Maitreya: You changed the gears from one topic to a completely different subject. Lower mental is whatever is related to this external world: fears, attachments, desires, wanting, survival, physiological and safety needs. These are all related to the worldly mental.

Intellect is the power to analyze the external world, to be able to look at the external world, analyze your situation and try to come up with the solution that is most effective to control your environment.

So really the intellect comes from the third chakra, control. The first chakra is only fear. The person who is in the first chakra has fear for his physiological needs, and he wants to survive. The only thing he wants is to have security, such as a job, or to know where his next meal comes from, etc. He doesn't want to control. As long as someone gives those to him or her, he or she is satisfied.

Also they have fear all the time. Am I going to lose my job? What should I do? Should I stay in my job? Am I going to be fired, or if I'm fired what am I going to do? What's going to happen when I become old, and all those fears. But they can't control their life. They just submit and surrender to the situation that has been created for them by the society.

In the second level or chakra the person is also attached to his physiological and safety needs, and he or she is bound with passion. They are very passionate. They want the physiological and safety needs, and an environment to satisfy the passion that they have. So they become attached to the family life, children, home, etc. But that is their ultimate desire, to have those things around them. They have no higher desires.

At the third level, the third chakra, not only do they provide for their physiological and safety needs, and probably have a good house, a family environment, etc, but at the same time they control their environment. They are usually the politicians, the businessmen, the people in the universities who have very good income. They are pretty secure in a worldly sense. Their physiological and safety needs are pretty much taken care of. They have a house, they have their children around them, and the passionate part is taken care of. Also they control. They have some say in what is going on in society. So this third level is really the intellectuals, the people who use their intellect to control their environment.

But from this point on in human mental and spiritual progress, the person goes to the higher mental level. Then comes the spiritual desires, to want more than just physiological and safety needs, satisfaction of their passion, and control of their environment. They also want to bring the Spirit to others. They want to create an environment where others who are interested in spiritual matters will also come and gather, and will pursue their goal to the higher thoughts.

They're no longer bound by their physiological and safety needs. Physiological and safety needs are secondary. As we said, have God first in your life, the rest will be added to you. As long as you are only afraid for your physiological and safety needs, the only thing you think is, "Where are my physiological and safety needs going to come from? How am I going to have the money to live? Where is my money going to come from? I have so much money I have to pay." Their minds are just all the time in the lower mental level.

When you go to the higher mental level, those things are not important. "It's going to come. If I do the Will of the Father, if I concentrate on His Word, if I think about the greater things in my life, the physiological and safety needs are not important, they will be easily satisfied."

Just like, could you imagine Gandhi being afraid of where his next meal was going to come from? Or would we think of a great spiritual teacher like Christ being afraid if he was going to have a next meal or not? He was not concerned. He didn't care. If his next meal didn't come, he just fasted. He could continue fasting until the next meal came. It didn't matter. The most important thing was, "How am I going to be able to reach more people for God's Message?"

A high conscious and dedicated person to the Mission would say: "My concern is higher things. I'm here for the Mission. I'll do my Mission, the rest will be added to me. I'm not going to be afraid, Are they (Mission) going to provide for me to go and preach the word of God? No. I'm going to preach the word of God and they're going to provide for me. Yes, everyone is going to provide for me to go and preach the word of God."

See, physiological and safety needs don't come first. You don't ask people to provide for you to go and preach to them. You say, I am a good preacher, then they are going to provide for you to go there and preach. So what comes first? God comes first. The higher thought comes first. Your thought is always directed to God and His Way. That is higher mental. It comes from the fourth, fifth and sixth chakras.

In the fourth chakra you create unconditional love. You don't have the discriminative mind but you have a lot of love. You have a lot of healing power. You can heal other people easily. That's where Christ was. As our teaching shows, Christ was in the fourth chakra. He was a healer. He could heal. But he healed in such a way that eventually he lost all his energy. Everyone said, "Give me, give me." He gave, and gave, and suddenly he realized he didn't have any left for himself. He said, "Just forget it. I'm not going to do it anymore." The moment he said that, everyone left him.

They always do that. They take as much as they can and then not only do they leave, they also despise you and say all manner of unpleasant things about you, or complain. What is harder than opening the Red Sea? Moses opened the Red Sea and the Children of Israel went to the other side of the sea. They were saved from Pharaoh. Then they told him, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt? We had food to eat, a place to sleep, etc." See, that's how the human works.

Have they changed really from 2,000 years ago? Have they changed from 4,000 years ago? Have they changed from 6,000 years ago? No. They are the same humans. They still want to ask. The human never tires of asking. Give a little, they want more. Give them more, they want more than that. Give them even more, they want even more. And then we say, "We don't give anymore, we're not going to do this for you."

It is just like a business, "If you don't give me attention, I'm not going to do this for you." "If you give me attention, I'm going to do something for you." I say, No, it's not going to work that way, we're not in business here.

That's why in this lifetime we are looking for the people who are self-motivated, who are already connected to God. I am not going to heal you. You want to be healed? Learn how to heal yourself. I'm not going to give you attention. If you want attention, go to God.

Actually you have to reach a point where you not only don't need attention from me, but you'll be able to give other people attention who need it. At the same time you direct them to God, you do not direct them to yourself.

But you realize, the more you give them attention, the more they want from you. You're not helping them really, because the moment you give them attention, they feel good but they don't know what to do with that energy. They haven't learned to receive it from God. They feel good one, two, three days, and then if you don't give them more attention they feel miserable. They start even despising you, finding fault in you, and saying, "This is no good. I am not receiving any attention anymore. Why am I not inspired?"

You have to be inspired from God, not from me. I can give each of you attention one at a time, but God can give attention to all of you, all the time, because God is with you. His Essence is within you. You don't need to receive attention from anyone but God. You do not need to long for company from someone else. God is your company. You have it within yourself. Reach there, find it and be satisfied. Don't try to find satisfaction out of yourself.

Don't be a teaser who gets attention, destroys the attention, and then tries to tease other people because they wanted to give you some attention. And when you receive it, you tease them. Do you think they're going to give you their love anymore? They might be polite about it, and not really go to your face and tell you, "Hey, you are a tease," but they will realize that you are a tease. You want to get attention from this person, from that person, from this person, and give nothing back. Then if they don't give it to you, you despise them. That is no good.

You need that attention because you want it from the external. Anything you want from outside of yourself is false ego. That is your ego craving, just like a vampire, like those vampires they show who drink the blood of the other person. It's the same thing, ego is just like a vampire. It just sucks the energy from other people. But it's not satisfied because it can't retain those energies, and does not know how to utilize them for good (God). It's not connected to the Source. It's just like a bowl with no bottom, whatever you pour into it just goes right out through its bottom.

So what do you do? You give for awhile. Eventually you reach a point where you say, "No, I'm not going to give it to you any longer. You have to be connected to God."

I direct you to God. I have said everything about God and His Way, and that is the way it is. We don't argue here. We don't discuss. This is the way it is. You accept this teaching and this set of principles, or you don't accept it. If you accept it, that's it, "I'm submissive to it, surrendered to it, and accept this and I let my doubting mind go," because what good does it do to have this doubting mind, carrying it around, and working with it all the time?

So just let the doubting mind go, and you go to the higher thought, to the higher level of mind. In the higher level of mind there is no doubt because there you recognize these words are from God. You don't argue with them because in the lower nature you expect something that you are not receiving.

Arguing is actually a kind of receiving attention, isn't it? It's a negative way of wanting attention. It's a negative way of asking other people, "Please give me some energy, some attention." And that is the false way of ego.

Even kids learn that. If they get spanked, it's a kind of attention, isn't it? If a child is not receiving the attention he/she craves, and he does something bad which attracts punishment, that is attention received. It is better than nothing, isn't it?

Many carry this way of receiving attention from their childhood to their adulthood. They do things which attract this negative attention to them. Then they feel satisfied for awhile. At the same time it confirms that they are rejected again. All these are psychological defects in many people. It all stems from immaturity, lower nature.

In the higher level, the level of knowledge, you can see ethereal things, you can be in the ethereal level, you gain a lot of truth from the Akashic Records. People think you've read a lot of books because you have all this knowledge. You can talk about almost any topic right away, sometimes even better than the people who have written books about the topic. The people who have written the books probably become upset about it. They might say, "What do you think, do you think you know more than me who wrote a book about this topic? How do you know better than me about this topic? I have researched this topic for years. You just come out and say something that makes sense, but you didn't research these things. Where did you receive this knowledge?" It's in the ethereal level.

In higher thought, in the ethereal level, you have a connection to the Akashic Records. Then you go to the sixth chakra. That is where you have control over all the three gunas. That is control of the mind. You can even manifest things, if you want. Your mind can become so powerful that you can even manifest your own universe, because you have power over the three gunas, as God has power over the three gunas. He can manifest the universes. He can destroy the universes. He can do whatever he wants to.

So this higher thought comes from the fourth, fifth, and sixth chakras. Of course, in the sixth chakra you also create the discriminative mind. It's not just unconditional love. You love everyone but at the same time you have a discriminative mind.

Actually, in this level, love changes to compassion, because unconditional love is a lower level of understanding the universe. Unconditional love doesn't have the discriminative mind. Unconditional love is not a correcting love. Unconditional love accepts good, bad, as is, it really doesn't have compassion for you. He or she loves you, but at the same time, because it's not the highest, he or she resents you. So that resentment still is there. That's where the fourth chakra and third chakra overlap one another.

So those who are in the fourth chakra really realize that they are not the highest, they haven't reached a point where they can correct you or guide you. They love you. They have a lot of love for you. They have unconditional love, but they don't have the discriminative mind. They're not surgeons yet, who are able to cut the cancer out of you.

But when you are in the sixth chakra, then you have discrimination, you have compassion. Your Love is a more discriminative Love.

It is just like a surgeon. A surgeon doesn't hate you. He wants to take the cancer out of your body. How does he do that? Does he say, "Oh, no, I'm not going to cut you, it's going to hurt." He says, "No, I will cut, and get the cancer out." So sometimes the person with the discriminative mind might apparently even hurt you. "It feels like he's really hurting me." But he's a surgeon. A surgeon hurts. You have to recuperate. It takes time sometimes. He cuts you in a couple of places and gets the cancer out. You have to go and recuperate for awhile.

But His love is compassionate love. It's not an unconditional love. It's discriminative love. So compassion is greater than unconditional love. Compassion is a corrective Love. Compassion has the ability to see the bad and good at the same time. Unconditional love doesn't have that ability. Unconditional love just loves. It's a mother's love. That's why we said, The fourth chakra is the place of the mother.

What is mother? Most mothers can't see the bad in their children. They think their children are the best children in the whole universe. "How can such a cute little thing have any fault in him or her?" This is because they have the mother kind of love, the unconditional love.

But for the father, if he really is the father and is in the higher thought, love becomes a kind of compassionate love for the children. That's why both are so important. Mother has unconditional love. Father has corrective love. And that is why, again, it is so important to have the mother and father present in the family. Lack of either of them is equal with the children feeling a lack of something in their lives.

So in the sixth chakra there's compassion. That's why we have to create compassion, not unconditional love. It's alright, if you are in unconditional love, but compassionate love is even greater than unconditional love.

In the sixth chakra, of course, your mind and the Mind of God is the same thing. Then you can understand the Father. Whatever Father thinks, you think. Whatever you think, the Father thinks. In the sixth chakra you are connected with His Mind, and your mind and His Mind are One. Then you understand there is a purpose.

Four thousand years ago the Ten Commandments were it. "Thou shalt not do this." But in the Mission we explain why you should not do this. It's not that, thou shalt not do adultery. We explain now why thou shalt not do adultery. As it has been explained many times, the whole Kingdom is based on the community and based on the couples. That is why thou shalt not do adultery, which brings impurity to the family and community. You are responsible for your actions, and your actions affect everything around you.

Neither I nor God cares if everyone goes and does adultery. I'm not going to sit here and cry about their transgressions to God. But God said this is the way it is, and that is the way it is. Your purity, your family environment, couples together, marriage, children, Communities of Light, creation of the hierarchy, creation of the Kingdom, that's all based on you, individually. You are responsible for it.

If you say you love the Mission, you have to love my words. If you love the Mission, you accept this thing as the truth. Is it a dogma that you should not do adultery? Is it the chaff or the wheat? I say it's the wheat. If you don't believe it's the wheat, then you don't believe in me. If you don't believe in me, what are we doing here together?

You have to believe the first step. What we are saying is the wheat. We're trying to create those families who are pure, based on God's Word, based on the purity of relationship, based on the Communities of Light, and the Eternal Divine Path.

Those things are the base of the communities. You are responsible. You're responsible for your life. You're responsible for the community, and you have to serve in that capacity with all your heart, mind, and spirit. You don't make excuses. If you love the Mission with all your heart, mind, and spirit, you don't tell me, "This is going to be hard for me to do." If I ask you to do it, you do it. You don't bring excuses. If you bring excuses, you don't love this Mission with all your heart, mind, and spirit.

You love something else more than this Mission. Either it's yourself, it's your culture, it is your family, it is your friends, it is your... whatever it is, you love those things more than this Mission.

You don't create excuses. This is the Mission, "It makes sense, it is wonderful, I love this Mission." When you say, "I love this Mission" it means there is no other love for you, and that is where you want to serve, and be, and accept, and do. If you don't feel like that, then you don't love the Mission. No matter how much you say, "I love you, I love this Mission," if you also say, "I'm not going to do it," then you don't. There is something else that you love more than this Mission.

And that's why we said, You have to reach that point where you love this Mission more than anything else in the universe. Then you can come and serve. Otherwise you can't. You're going to be lukewarm. And what happens to the lukewarm? God says, I'll spue you out of My Mouth. It's very simple.

You cannot be lukewarm. I cannot be lukewarm. I am not lukewarm. That's it! I will go to the cross for this Mission. That's fine with me. If I have to go to the cross, if people want to come and crucify me here, that's great. That's where I'm going to go. I am ready for it, because if the situation reaches the point that that is the way to go, that is the way to go.

Are you that dedicated? If you are not, you're in the wrong place. You are not there yet. I owe you nothing. When I gave you this Mission and you saw it, and you said you loved the Mission, this became your Mission. It is not just mine anymore.

It is called the Mission of Maitreya, of course, but who is Maitreya? Maitreya is the Spirit of God. Maitreya is the fulfillment of the prophecies. Maitreya is the fulfillment of the many prayers. But when you hear the Message, then Maitreya is you, it is your Mission. If it's not your Mission, it is only my Mission, still you are in the wrong place. You haven't reached oneness with the Mission. And that is the problem, if we are discussing, if we are arguing, if we are doubting, if we are not being One.

You have to love the Mission with all your heart, mind, and spirit. That is when you accept the first step. You accept, this is it, there is no other one. Whatever is here is wheat. Whatever is out there is chaff. Of course, you always find a few grains of wheat in the chaff too. I don't know if you have ever seen on a farm (at least they used to do this in the past), when they reap the wheat. They air the wheat. The wheat is heavier and the chaff is lighter so the wind takes the chaff away, and piles it away from the wheat. But still some wheat is blown by the wind and they fall in with the chaff. So there is some wheat out there. Even in the chaff there is some wheat found. But here is all wheat that the wind couldn't blow away. All the wheat is falling and gathering together here. The chaff is gathered somewhere else.

That is what God is also doing with us. He's putting us to the wind and seeing who is the wheat and who is the chaff. The chaff goes. The wheat stays. The more dedication you have to the Mission, no matter how tough it gets, you are still going to fall right with the other wheat. But the wind is strong and if you are weak, what's going to happen to you? The wind is going to take you away.

So what are we looking for, the chaff or the wheat? We are looking for the wheat. The chaff is no longer going to be able to be with the wheat.

So in the higher mental level you will realize that you become the Word of God. That's what some people even call a higher person in the hierarchy of the being. The preachers call it the Word of God. That means the word of that person is the Word of God.

Just like the people in India who believe in their Gurus. But the Guru is a person, is God. Whatever he or she says is from God. There is no argument, that's it. His or her word is the Word of God. However, a Guru can be three kinds too. But after they accept a person as their Guru, as their teacher, that Guru's word is the Word of God.

If you reach the sixth level of consciousness, the highest level that you can reach in the body, then you will realize that what is in Scripture is what you accept also as the truth. No great spiritual teacher ever said that adultery was OK, stealing was OK, lying was OK, false witness was OK. None of them said such things because the words of all of them came from the same place, from the same higher consciousness. It is the same mind, it doesn't change. When He said 4,000 years ago, Thou shalt not do adultery, still He says the same thing today. He made His Mind up in the beginning of creation, "That is not going to happen. It destroys the purity of family. That's no good."

So that is the difference. Those people in the lower level of consciousness don't even have the concept of God. The only thing they understand is the worldly mind, the calculative mind. That is where that mind comes from. The lower level of consciousness is very calculative. "What can I get out of this situation for myself? Am I getting what I want?" Then when they don't get what they want they say, "My higher self says, it's no good here, I have to go somewhere else. I have a guide that guides me."

See? It's really that they're not getting what they want. The lower nature is not receiving what it wants. And because this calculative mind, in many situations, told them what to do and what not to do, now they accept that as their higher self and/or guide, and they say, "Oh, no, I can't stay here any longer. My higher self says, No, it's no good here."

But if you had a vision, if you saw that this is the fulfillment of the prophecies, that all the religions of the world are unified, then you have to come to the conclusion, "Something should be wrong with me, or with the Mission. If it is the fulfillment of the prophecies and all the prophecies are fulfilled, all the religions of the world are unified, and all the signs in the earth are telling me, Yes, we need something like this to unify otherwise we're going to destroy ourselves, and this teaching is based on the Ten Commandments, the Fifteen Commandments, purity, the Communities of Light, family environment and children, then what is wrong with me that I don't see these things? But I see something else. I see faults all the time. Where does this faultfinding mind come from?" That is where you have to look for the answer. That is where the answer is.

Of course, the number of wheat is probably going to be small. When farmers harvest, from all the planting they do, always very little wheat is gathered. Most of it is chaff. That's why it is said, Many will be called, but few will be chosen. Who are those few? Those few are dedicated. Those few want to do the Mission. They don't have any excuses. The only excuses they have are how can we work for the Mission? How can we do the Mission? How can we better serve the Mission, all the time?

So let us be more discerning, more meditative in our behavior, in our thought, in our words, in our actions, and realize how our actions, or thoughts are completely contradictory to a dedicated person, to a person who says, "I did see the truth in you, in your teaching." That "I did have a vision about you and your Mission. I saw that, that is it. But why are my actions in such a way, that they not only affect myself but everyone else?"

That is where our meditation should be. That's the way we have to look at it. Am I really dedicated completely to the Mission? Am I really dedicated? Am I seeing the vision of the unifying force behind this Mission, or am I not?

If I am not, what is wrong? If it is the fulfillment of the prophecies, if it's the unification of all the religions, then why am I always seeking to find fault in everything: in other people in the Mission, in Maitreya himself, in the teaching, and on and on and on?

So let us meditate on that. Meditate on ourselves and see what is in us that we run away from, in every situation. We create the same problems wherever we are put. Is it the situations we are put in, or are we running from something else all the time? Let's find that something else in us.

And let us be dedicated to God completely. Let's put Him first. Let's put His Mission first. Let's put His work first. Let's not say that, "It's difficult, I can't make money, I don't have money, I don't have a place to live, I don't have my bread." Let's put those things secondary, thirdly. Those come from the lower mental. Putting God first comes from the higher mental.

Do you want to go after the lower mental, or higher mental? That's how it is, What is first for me, my physiological and safety needs, or God? If God is first, my physiological and safety needs are going to be taken care of by Him.

I started the Mission with one cent and I haven't worked one day out there for the last thirteen years. I wasn't worried about where my food was going to come from. God provided for me. I did not work one single day out there in the society, did I? No, I didn't. But where was my priority? My priority was the Mission, God. That's why it was provided.

Am I now going to change my mind and be afraid of who's going to serve this Mission, or how this Mission is going to get done? Am I going to be afraid? Do you want me to stop because one person, or many, do not see God's Ways?

It's not just me. What other examples are there? There's Mother Theresa. Was she afraid of where her next meal was going to come from? No. Wasn't she provided for? Not only was she provided for but she has a convent. She created an international organization. Was she afraid whether she was going to make money or not? She received millions of dollars in contributions from other people. She wasn't afraid. She wasn't concerned about that.

So let us see! Let us compare ourselves with the Great Beings, not "Where is my next meal going to come from?" Let's compare ourselves with Gandhi, with Mother Theresa, with Great Beings. Let that be our vision, "Where did they get their strength, and dedication, and one-pointedness?" Were they afraid of life and what was in store for them? No, they weren't. They put God first. They put higher thoughts first. They put their ideal first, and then they manifested great things through it. That is higher thought. That is higher consciousness. If it's not there, it is lower consciousness, it's lower thought.

No matter how you argue, discuss, tell me a hundred times in a hundred different ways, still if you are more concerned about your physiological and safety needs than serving God, that is from the lower nature. It doesn't matter how bad the situation is.

It doesn't mean, don't have a discriminative mind and manage your financial responsibility in the best way possible. But don't be concerned about it. Manage it well and just leave it to God.

Question: I was wondering a few days back about thought, and about when you have negative thoughts, I guess coming from your lower nature. Sometimes it seems like there's nothing you can do about them. Does that accumulate karma? Are those negative thoughts from ignorance?

Maitreya: Well, negative thoughts are really negativity in yourself and that is why you project that to other people. It is easy to see negativity. That's a well known psychological phenomena, that you project your impurities, your doubts and your bad thoughts to other people. So whatever you see in other people, really is a reflection that bounces back from you.

Question: Well, when I'm having the thoughts, I know they are from myself. So that part of it I know. I guess I just have to keep remembering, as I have them, to put them in the Light.

Maitreya: But also, negative thoughts can be three kinds too. Sometimes there is really a negativity in the external world, out of you, and you see that negativity strongly and powerfully, and you wish to somehow convert it, because negativity is really energy. So energy converts itself.

You see, tama can be converted to raja, and satva. So that's why they say, Put the negative thought in the Light. What they are really saying is, Transform the negative energy from the lower nature to the higher self.

Why do we meditate? We meditate to learn the ability to transform the negative energies to higher energies. Why do we sleep? What is sleep? The process of sleep is really a way to convert the lower energy that we accumulate during the day to the higher energy through our sleep, because sleep is really a kind of deep meditation.

But because we have not trained ourselves to learn how the process of meditation really works, we don't remember how the process of sleep works. Actually there are some people who meditate and reach a point where they don't need sleep anymore because they can transform those lower energies to the higher ones with meditation.

This is just like a technique we use, which is to lie down for around fifteen minutes. Usually you feel very refreshed after this fifteen minute technique. We call this process "technique." What we really do is we transform the lower energy to the higher energy.

You lie down on your right side for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes later you wake up and it's just like you have been asleep for hours. You're even more refreshed than sleeping eight or ten hours.

So if you learn, through your meditation, the ability to transform the lower thought to the higher thought, after awhile no lower thought is going be left there. Everything is going to be higher thought.

That's why we say, Concentrate on God. Where is your focus? Focus means what? Focus means, Where is your energy? As it is said, there is no movement in this universe without raja guna, without energy. There is no thought which arises without energy. So when the energy stimulates the lower chakras, the thought is negative. When the energy stimulates the higher chakras, the thought is positive, it's wonderful, it's for God, it's beautiful. Everything is fine around you, etc.

But the person who has a negative thought in his lower nature and also has a powerful mind, can affect his environment. If you have a negative thought, you're going to affect everyone around you. Everyone else becomes negative too. If you have positive actions and positive thoughts, everyone else becomes positive.

Why does everyone love a positive person? It doesn't matter what the situation is, they always find something positive in it. And that is why they create such a positive energy around themselves.

And that is why we have to be careful, because not only does our negativity affect us, it also affects everyone else around us. We are responsible for our thoughts. We are responsible, not only for our actions, but also for our thoughts. Negative thoughts affect everyone else. We are creating a negative energy, a negative environment. Negative thoughts lead to negative actions!

Such a person feels, "Wherever I go is negative," it becomes negative after awhile. The truth is that I create that environment myself because I have such a powerful and negative mind, which affects everyone else around me.

So that's why we need the Communities of Light, to create positive energy, positive people, and a positive environment, so all the negativity around us becomes affected by our positivity, not by their negativity, and also to teach them not to be negative. Negative thoughts lead to negative actions!

So again we're not only responsible for our actions, we're responsible for our thoughts, our feelings, our energy. That's why we have to meditate, to fast, to pray, to do all the things that have been given, to prostrate, and humble ourselves in front of God, but not be egoistical, "Oh, I don't need you. I don't need anyone. I am sufficient by myself."

You need us. We need you. God needs us. We need God. It is not something that you can just say, "No, I don't need anyone, I can do it myself." But you do!

That is a kind of escapism. That is a kind of running away from facing yourself when you say, "I don't need you, I can do it myself." That's a kind of escaping the issue, escaping the reality. That is not the truth. Everyone needs everyone else. But that is the lie we're telling ourselves and everyone else. And the more we tell this lie, the lonelier we become, because that lie takes us away from feeling one with everyone else. If I don't need anyone, I can keep my ego and run away.

Comment: Well, that's the same thing. I hear myself say, when I have the negative thoughts, I can't help it. That's a running away, like you're saying. That fits right in with those things, because that's what I've been doing.

Maitreya: So meditate on these words and learn from them, that you may transform your negative thoughts and problems related to them. Then you may become a positive, 100% dedicated person to the Mission. When you reach there, come back and serve the Mission positively with all your mind, heart and spirit.

Oh well! (laughing) It has been good having you with us again for the last three months. You had your second initiation, and now you have your new spiritual name. What does Ram Dass mean?

Comment: Ram is an abbreviation of Brahma, and Dass means the servant of Brahma, the servant of God. Ram also means a kind of Aries.

Maitreya: That's right. So, your name means you have to become the servant of God. A servant of God is a person who serves God with all his heart, mind and spirit. There is nothing else important for him but serving Him, serving God. That is why the name was given to you.

We appreciate all the help you gave around the Mission. You built us a wonderful room with the others. Give our thanks to them again when you see them. We are hoping to hear from them also. If you get a chance let us know how they are doing.

And thank you for the gardening. You did it and then you left it for us to take care of it, although you did it in a way that we don't have to be too concerned about it. And what else did you do? You helped build a front porch and shed and did a lot of other things around the house.

I know you haven't come here to be a builder or a gardener, you have a greater Mission to be doing, and you don't like to do those things. A lot of people don't like to do the mundane things. But who is going to do them? If everyone says, I don't want to do the mundane things, who is going to do them? Someone has to do them. When something has to be done, it has to be done. But we appreciate that you decided to do them, and made the Mission a more wonderful place to be.

We hope that you have a good trip back, and a successful trip and tour. I also hope these couple of discussions and talks that we had together the last few days, and this Satsang, stay with you. I leave you to God again, as usual, as I do all the time with whoever leaves the Mission. It sounds like anytime they leave the Mission I have no choice but to give them to the Father, and say, Father, this child is in Your Hands.

I would love to see all of you come back and be with us. And not only be with us, but get married and have children [all laughing], buy houses around here, and just create a wonderful community where we have a lot of beautiful children around laughing, smiling, and playing together. We can even create a school, or something here for them, have teachers here to teach them, and have a community that manifests the Spirit of God.

Then we may always talk about God and bring His Spirit into this community, and each of us will become positive about everything here and create that positive energy that we all need to have here. Everyone needs to be positive. Everyone needs to feel the love of God and the positivity of His Energy around here. If we cannot create that, then it is no good. We have to learn, and learn more, how we can make it more positive.

Does anyone have any answer why we have any negativity anyway in this? Do we have negativity in this Mission? We do?

Comment: Yes, within us I think.

Maitreya: That's right. How can we make it positive?

Comment: Well, you were saying, fasting, praying, meditating, and our community meetings after Sabbath, etc.

Maitreya: That's right! So let's fast, and maybe we should create one of those fasting centers that they have in Quebec, and probably get the people to come here and have a month, or 40 days of good fasting, really get themselves purified, really reach the depth of their beings and realize where the negativity comes from.

By the meditation, eventually, we'll see that negativity is in us. It's nowhere else. It's not out of us. Nothing is out of us. Nothing! Our problems with other people, our negativity, our mind, everything is within ourselves. If we can see those things come out of us, we can see in the external world there is no negativity. If the negativity comes to us it's from the negativity of other people, we don't have any negativity anymore. And you live happily ever after. No matter what happens around you it doesn't make any difference.

For example, if the Feast of Tabernacles is going to be a success, or not, I'm still going to be happy. It doesn't make any difference. I'd love to see it succeed.

We did our best, didn't we? We had many meetings about it. But it doesn't make any difference because the happiness and joy has to come from within ourselves. If there is something external to us that is affecting us, it is really our problem, isn't it, because our joy has to come from within, not without.

So we cannot look for happiness out of ourselves, otherwise we're just going to look all over the universe, and we won't find it. We, then, will be disappointed. We're looking in the wrong places. It is within us. It is not out there.

So we leave you to the Father. As usual I don't say good-bye. But my Spirit goes with you and may God be with you and guide you to the right path.

Sal-Om.