If I Dislike Someone, It Is Not Because I Dislike God. What Is It?, How Can We Love Without Attachment?, How Do Steam Baths, Hot Tubs And The Sun Affect Our Chakras?, Do The Chakras Change With Age? How Far Should The Mission Go In Publicizing Its Presence?, To What Percentage Would The Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth Relieve Earth's Problems?, Why Would There Be 1% of Problems Left?, Are All Problems Lessons?, Where Do Singles Fit In The Communities?

 
10/17/89 Satsang (Discourse) With

Maitreya
 

Maitreya: Where do you think we should have the Feast next year? Where do you think we should have it, Quebec? You know we discussed that but there is a language problem in Quebec. If everyone speaks English then the French people are going to feel left out. Actually we talked this morning and the conclusion was it's going to be hard to do that.

How about Florida? Do we have any volunteers from Florida to look into it? Is there any good place in Florida to have the retreat? Do you want to decide tonight that we're going to have it there next year? (One person raised hand as volunteer) OK, next year Florida.

Now let's go to see what are the questions. Do we have any questions?

 

Staff: Lots of them tonight Maitreya.
 

Maitreya: The more you think about this, the more questions there are going to be. Actually the more you ask, the more questions there are.

 

Question: When I love someone, I love God in him. But if I dislike someone it is not because I dislike God. What is it?
 

Maitreya: I don't think anyone in higher consciousness dislikes anyone. We dislike what is in them, their actions, their attitude, but the Essence, which is God, we never dislike. We always like everyone. If their attitude or the things they do are good, we do not dislike them.

Of course if we are human and we are not in higher consciousness, we have our own standards. We have been influenced by the family, by the culture, by the schooling, and our experiences from our previous lifetimes.

So we create some measurements or standards to measure other people as, do they measure to our standards or not? If we look at a person that this standard doesn't exactly fit, then what we're encountering is unknown to us, something that doesn't measure to our standards. The human is very afraid of the unknown.

The human feels very uncomfortable in an unfamiliar environment. That's why we will be taken aback and we take it as something that we don't want to deal with. We probably create a dislike for the other person instantly, without any reason.

This explanation is true in a situation that we just dislike a person with no apparent reason. But if we have a close encounter with the person and then after awhile we decide we dislike such a person because he or she does these things that we don't like, then we really do not dislike the person, we dislike the attitude, the actions, the things they do.

As you come to higher consciousness you become much more flexible. You become more etheric yourself. The more etheric you are -- ether is very easily converted to different elements in the universe -- you also become very flexible. You can deal with different energies, and different attitudes, and at the same time not be affected and not create hate or dislike for the other person. Indeed you create compassion for others. You create a kind of corrective love, that you don't hate the other person, but you say to yourself, "How can I help? How can I correct," if there is something wrong in the person's attitude.

So in the higher level, you never dislike anyone. The only thing is you look at them with the perfection, or the potential that the person has. You look at the person and say, "Hey that person has a potential. He's a good musician. He's a good singer. He's a good talker. He's a good cook. He's a good floor sweeper. He's a good lawyer. He's a good doctor. He's a good" -- whatever they do good. It is their potential. You see?

You can become a good maid, just like this maid here. Everyone loves her. She is just a maid. But she does what she does well. She does it with love. She puts that love in her work and everyone says, That's beautiful. Everyone loves her, because she accepted her Dharma. She says, "Yes, I do this well, that's where I am and that's what I do best." She does it very well, she's happy, and everyone else is happy too.

Actually that is what part of the Communities of Light are, each person finds his place in the community. No one has to be like anyone else. If you have a big heart, and you give beautiful talks about the Heart of God but you intellectually don't understand what the teaching is, you are still beautiful. You give experience to other people instead of intellectually stimulating them. Or as I said, you can just clean the floors and everyone says, "Wonderful, look at what beautiful floors we have in this community," or whatever the person's Dharma is.

You look at the person, you see the potential, and you love that potential. But, of course, the person himself or herself doesn't know that potential. They want to be something else. For instance, if they have a big heart, they want to be an intellectual. If they are very intellectual, they want to become heart, or something different than what their own potential is. What you do is, of course, lovingly, gently, and compassionately try to let the other person realize his own potential.

So that hate really shouldn't come to us at all. If there is hate and resentment, we have to meditate on ourselves. "Where does hate really come from?" It comes from us, doesn't it? It is in us. We really can't hate anyone. See, hate is a tendency whose source is within us. Resentment, hate, discrimination, anything that is from the lower nature comes from us. As we meditate, we can also meditate on this thing in us, "Why do I hate such a thing or such a person," until our meditation eventually opens us to realize the problem in ourselves.

Of course, sometimes that feeling comes from previous lifetimes. You have had some bad experience with this person. Suddenly in this lifetime you encounter the same person with the same energy, and you have no idea why you really feel such resentment.

Again through your meditation you can encounter your resentment and hate, and realize that it's just you. You can't hate anyone. How can you hate anyone in the universe if God is everything? How can you hate anything in the universe? If you hate any part of the universe and love the rest, what are you doing? You're separating one part from the rest. Can you do that? No. God is everything.

You cannot hate. If you hate then you have not realized the real meaning of Haree Om Shrii Hung, Om Nam Kevalam. Om Nam Kevalam means God is everything, that Divinity is in everything. When you look at the other person, if you have some hate, you then have to look at yourself, because it is really your problem if you hate someone.

Again we return to meditation and realizing how things affect us and why. We reach a point where we no longer hate, we become compassionate.

My answers are sometimes so different than answers that people usually expect to receive. You might like to follow-up your questions with another question. So if you have a follow-up question, do not hesitate to ask.

 

Question: How can we learn to love our friends, or husband or children, or parents without attachment?
 

Maitreya: Look at the people around us who God provided to be with us. Appreciate God for providing us such an opportunity to be with these people, to love them, be loved by them, and create an environment where everyone grows physically, mentally and spiritually. In that sense then we look at the hierarchy of beings in our life.

The teaching is that there are four beings who are the most important in our life. The first is God who created us and gave us the Joy and Love of being here in this body to realize Him (or Her, or Both, or It, or whatever). With realizing Him, we're really realizing ourselves. Know thyself to know God...

He is the first Being in our lives. He is the most important thing, nothing else, no one else is more important than God, to realize and know who He is. Then if our priorities are right, we can have relationships with other beings on earth.

The second most important being in our lives is the person who takes us to God. The most important is God, but how can we know Him? How can we know God? So the second most important person in our lives, in the hierarchy of beings, is our spiritual teacher, the person who shows God to us, who takes us to God. He becomes a bridge between us and Him. He becomes the second most important person in our lives.

The third most important are our parents. Their bodies have been used so that we could come to this world and live here. From the very beginning our mother sacrifices her body, to bring forth the child. We see the changes in her body. The hormones start changing and by the time the child is born, she really has gone through dramatic changes to bring the child to this world.

So the mother is really a sacrificial being when she brings a child into this world. A very, very high place in our lives should be kept and given to the mother. Of course, the father also loves us, keeps us warm, provides for our needs, and makes us physically and mentally strong. When we need security, daddy is there so we feel comfortable. We're loved by daddy, etc. We have a great responsibility to them.

The fourth most important being is our spouse (our husband or wife). God provided the spouse for us to be a companion, to be a lover, to be a friend, to be together, to be close, to share our responsibilities and deepest feelings with one another. That is very important in our lives.

However, there is a hierarchy between these four: First is God, second the spiritual teacher, third our parents and then our spouse. None of them in the lower level should become an obstacle for us to go to the higher one.

For instance, if the spiritual teacher is not taking us to God, then he's not doing his work, is he? We should disregard such a teacher. We have to go to a teacher who takes us to God.

If our parents prevent us to go to our teacher, or our spouse makes us disrespect our parents, they are an obstacle in our path, etc. If our parents are obstacles between us and God or our spiritual teacher, they should not be disrespected. We never disrespect our parents, ever. It doesn't matter how bad they are. We always have to keep in our mind that our parents were sent by God, and they really went through a great sacrifice to bring us to this life. It is important to love and respect them, and always help them if we can.

But loving, respecting, and helping does not mean to follow them if they are not taking us to God, if they are not taking us to our spiritual teacher. If our parents are not taking us to God or to a spiritual teacher, we still respect them, love them, and help them, but we go to God.

Now if we have parents who take us to God themselves, what happens? They take two places. They also become the spiritual teacher. So they become the second highest beings in our lives because they are taking us to God. They become a bridge between us and God. If our parents take us to a spiritual teacher who can take us to God, again they are doing a great service for us. They are beautiful parents.

That's why I would like to see more parents, more families in the Mission. That's why I love the Blooms. The whole family is here. That's wonderful! It's so nice. It's so beautiful.

I'd like to see all the wives and husbands, married couples, and children here. That is how the Communities of Light are created, with the married couples, with the families. If the parents become a bridge between us and God, or a spiritual teacher, they are the most respected, the most wonderful beings in our lives.

Then, of course, there is your spouse. If your spouse does not become an obstacle between you and God, your spiritual teacher and parents, and he or she doesn't make you disrespect them, then again your spouse is a beautiful wife or husband. But if he becomes an obstacle between you and them, then he is not doing his Dharma. He is trying to take you from your responsibility toward the hierarchy of the beings in your life.

If we keep our focus on these four beings in our lives, the most important beings in our lives, then our perspective is very straight and we can handle any situation very well. Because if God is the first and highest Being in our focus, then the spiritual teacher, then the parents and the spouse, the rest of humanity will be struggling travelers with us. They are the people who, if we can help them to go a little higher in their consciousness, that's what we do. If they can help us, they will help us to reach higher consciousness. But they are really not a part of the hierarchy.

It is nice to have friends, but the goal of the life is not to have friends. It doesn't mean not to have friends. It's fine if there is a connection between people who can share God together and grow together. They can be together in that level. That's great. That's beautiful. You can have that kind of friendship in God. However, as you grow, you will have other friends in higher consciousness. Sometimes you have to leave your old friends and find new ones in this new level of consciousness you are entering.

I'm sure when you were five or six years old you had some friends. Where are they now? Probably most of you don't know where they are. In that moment it was necessary for you to have that connection with those people, to grow up with them, learn from them and they learn from you. Then they went to other schools and you lost track of them. You don't know where they are any longer.

We went to elementary school. We had some friends there. We grew up together. Where are they now? We don't know where they are. Then in high school and college, we had friends. We don't even know where these friends are. Probably most of us don't know where our college friends are.

What is a friend then? We consider someone a friend in the moment, because in the moment it is necessary for us to be connected. Then most of our friends go away because the only permanent thing in this manifested universe is change.

If you become attached to anything in this universe, it is going to be gone tomorrow and you're going to suffer. But if you realize that these things are temporary, you can love them and be with them in that moment. You can enjoy them but do not let your attachment become strong, because as I said, it is going to change.

As the changes come though, we hang onto our friends and become upset by the things that change. We were so nice. Our friends were together. We had such a good time for a couple of years together. Now one of them is in another state, another one is in another state, and we are no longer together.

So friends and even our children are not ours. As you see, I didn't mention children as a part of the hierarchy of the beings, because for the children, the parents are the hierarchy, but for the parents, the children are not. The parents are really just a tool used by God.

Most of us have children without planning to have children. We just have children. When they come, we are used by God to bring these beings to this world. Our responsibility is physically, mentally and spiritually to help these beings to grow up as perfect as possible. But children eventually reach a point where we're comfortable that they are mature enough to fly away.

Just like the birds, see the birds don't hang onto their young. When the time comes, the young can fly away. The parents go one way and the young go the other way. Even if they fly together they no longer are connected on that level.

Our children also really are not ours. But there is a lot of ten-dency in parents to hold onto the children, not mothering them but sometimes smothering them. If we keep our focus on God, however, we won't be attached to anything.

We think not being attached means we don't love other people. It seems like a lot of people make this mistake of attachment and love as the same thing.

For instance, we have a family member who says, "Are you going to miss me?" whenever she wants to leave. We tell her, "No, we won't miss you but we love you." So attachment really is not love. Attachment is really your need. It is our need that we are attached to the other person. It's not real love.

See, if I love someone and let him go, and he comes back to me, he or she is mine, or we are one. But if I try to keep that person with me, really I don't love her or love him. I want to keep him here with me because I need the person.

If you free a bird and it goes and comes back to you, what happens? It is yours, it loves you. If you cage a bird, however, that bird doesn't really love you. It doesn't want to be with you. It wants to be free. It wants to go away. It wants to fly. If you let it go and the bird comes back to you then it really wants you. It wants to be with you. That is real love.

That is the real relationship between two people. That's also what we have to be. We have to love our friends, our parents, and our children that way, with that love, so that they want to be with us. We have to be so beautiful, have such Godly love that our children just want to be with us because we are so beautiful.

It is just as we were talking to someone here, who wants to be with her daddy, because daddy is such a nice person. Oh, I opened a secret. But that was so beautiful the way she said it to me, I didn't want it just to stay with me. It was beautiful. It's a wonderful feeling, because the love is there. We want to be with those people whom we truly love. So there's no attachment, but true love.

 

Guest: But the worst is when you want someone and you let him go, and he doesn't come back.
 

Maitreya: Yes, I can understand your point. It's a very good point. However, remember a person who goes and does not come back, never was yours! Through your meditation, eventually you reach a point where you let the people go, and they come back. You reach a point where they want to be with you, they want to love you because, what did we say? What is the most scarce commodity on earth? It is real Love. If you create real Love, what happens? Everyone wants it. And it's wonderful.

That's also what the Communities of Light are. The more we create real Love in the Communities of Light, the more we will reach a point where we have so much Love that we want to give it to everyone.

You give to this person and he says, "Where did you get this? I want to be there!" Then you say, "Come this way to the Communities of Light."

Love is the rarest commodity. That is what we have to create here within ourselves, in the communities. The more we create that kind of love, the greater power we have. This is not as a person who uses power in a bad sense of controlling anything or trying to rule people with that kind of controlling power. We're talking about the power of God, the power of Love, the power with which people want to be controlled. It is not in a bad sense, but because that Love is so corrective, so beautiful and it feels so good.

"That's why I want to do things, so that I can receive that Love. What can I do that I can receive that Love more and more?" Then you are willing yourself to do them. There's no longer, Thou shall not, but it is, If you shall not, you will receive this Love, you will receive this Strength and you will receive this Freedom.

In the Old Testament it is written, Thou shall not do this, thou shall not do that. Those are the Ten Commandments. Then Christ came and said, "Even if you look with lust, take your eyes and throw them away." Why? He wanted to purify us.

Now in this age it is not that you don't do it because God said, Thou shall not. You don't lust, not because you don't want to pluck your eyes out and throw them away, but because you know if you don't do it you will receive the Strength, the Love, and the Purity that strengthens the spirit in you. That's much more compassionate, isn't it? It's no longer, Thou shall not, or pluck your eyes out, or cut your hand off, but because you know if you follow God's Laws they will give you the Strength, and the Spirit of God. That's why you do it.

It is a New Era. It is the time of the Golden Era. It is the time when the Laws and God have to be understood, not feared. The more we understand God, the more we realize that what He tells us to do is not because He is a very revengeful God, but because He knows that it is good for us and will bring that Beauty to us.

 

Question: As far as the chakras are concerned, you said we should take a cooler bath and cool the chakras. What do you think about steam baths, saunas and hot tubs?
 

Maitreya: The cooler the body, the more efficient is the body. If you are in a hot room, what happens? Usually you become sleepy because your body becomes lethargic and you fall asleep.

That's why it's recommended to take a half bath. The half bath is for cooling the body, cooling down the chakras. With the half bath, not only do we cool our bodies, but we prevent many kinds of diseases in the body, especially colds. We rarely catch a cold if we keep our bodies cool because the body is used to being cool. And this keeps the body much stronger.

Hot tubs, saunas and steam baths make the body overwork. They make the body perspire. They force a lot of toxins out. So in that sense it helps the body to get rid of some toxins that it usually has a hard time to get rid of. But if you take it very often your body becomes lazy. That's why the people who frequently take this kind of treatment or this kind of bath, after awhile their bodies start craving it.

They don't know why they keep wanting to go to these places more often. The more they do it, they want to do it more often because the body is becoming lazy. The body is saying, "He's going to go in the sauna, why should I bother?" So do not overdo it.

Also, in those environments, disease is rampant. Steam baths and places like that can be very dangerous because it is a perfect environment for germs to grow. It's not recommended if it's a public place.

If you can have those kind of places in your private home and use them very discriminatively, it is OK. Probably the best way is just for your family to use that facility and not very many other people, unless you really are comfortable with the other person to use it. It should be kind of a family place to use. Don't overdo using it because it's going to make you lazy. It can be helpful in a moderate way with discrimination and discretion.

In general they are more trouble then the benefit they render.

 

Question: What about the effect of the sun on our chakras?
 

Maitreya: As I said, the cooler the body, the more efficient. Use the sun moderately. Everything should be used with the middle path in mind. Moderation is the real answer to these questions. You have to use everything in moderation.

Even meditation should be done in moderation. If you meditate too much then you become an escapist. You lose the world. You become completely detached from everything around you. So too much meditation may not be good.

Too much worldliness is not good. Too much eating is not good. Too much not eating is not good. See, too much of anything is not good. Too much of a good thing will become boring too.

Just imagine you can have the best vegetarian food. I was going to say you can have steak everyday but this is not the place to say it. Just imagine the best food in the universe. Imagine eating ice cream for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, ice cream for dinner, ice cream for a snack.

What happens? After awhile you don't even want to look at ice cream. So it is really a matter of moderation and discrimination of mind, and realizing how these things affect the body.

I used to live in Pennsylvania, where the sun is not as bright and warm as in the South. Then I transferred to Mississippi State University. I was going there for part of my education. I remember I was driving and when I passed the Tennessee border there was a welcoming station. You could just park there. I remember my body needed sun so much, that I lied down in the front of my car and I just fell asleep for hours. When I woke up I was really revived. My body was craving the rays of the sun. In that sense my body needed that and liked it, and my body enjoyed it. It was very helpful.

But if you go to sleep in the Florida sun for twelve hours every day for six months, it is too much. You will be completely burned up. Again there has to be moderation in everything that you do. The sun is good for the body but not if it's overdone.

For instance, you don't need to sit in the sun in New Mexico because the sun is so powerful and it's so bright. Even the skin cancer rate is very high here. So you try not to stay in the sun as much as possible. But if you are in Pennsylvania or Boston, you want to get some sun in the summer because the sun is not so bright and powerful. Again it comes back to the discriminative mind, moderation, and where you live.

For example, we said that meat has a lot of tama in it. But if you live in Siberia probably you cannot live without meat. There are no vegetables. There is all meat, and you need meat to create that heat, to make your body warm and get it going. So again it depends on time, place and people.

 

Question: Also in relation to the chakras, is it the same as you just said, or is there another point of view there?
 

Maitreya: How the sun affects the chakras? Sun is necessary for life, it's the life-giving energy on earth. If your body needs the heat and rays of the sun, and if you use the sun to recharge your chakras, your life-force and energy, that's fine. That's going to be helpful to you.

But for instance, there's an exercise for pranayama, a breathing exercise in yoga. They do not recommend doing it in the sun. You have to sit in the shade to do it because it creates a lot of heat by itself. If you do it in the sun it might affect your brain, and even damage your chakras. That's why you don't do that exercise in the sun.

Again it comes back to if your body needs the sun and you realize, "Yes, my body needs the sun," then probably you don't even have to take your clothes off to receive the life-force of energy of the sun. You can just sit in the sun with your clothes on and still the life-force will penetrate your body. You can sit and have some sun, and even fall asleep in the sun for awhile. If you need it you will feel revived, and you will feel very good when you wake up. If you don't need it you will have a headache. Then you will know you overdid it. Does that answer your question?

 

Questions: Do the chakras change with age? It seems as we get older we are more open to spiritual truth, or are we?
 

Maitreya: Sure, they do, because there are different periods of the life. God has created us in such a way that we manifest different energies, and different chakras are more predominant in different periods of our lives.

For instance, when we are children, probably we are mostly connected to the Spirit, and we have no consciousness of our bodies, or very little consciousness of our bodies. Very few of us remember our bodies when we were two or three years old. Does anyone remember his or her body when they were two or three years old? No. We didn't even have the consciousness of our bodies.

We started getting a connection to our bodies around seven or eight years old. We could remember how our bodies were pretty well when we were seven or eight years old. We were becoming more worldly in connection.

When we come to the next age, the teenager, of course we are very aware of our bodies, especially of our noses [all laughing]. Also at that age, we feel passion in our bodies. We're getting signals all over our bodies about how we look and how we act.

As we approach adult life, our concern is, "Are we children, or are we adults?" We are completely confused between being children and being grownups. That's why the teenagers have a hard time.

They are receiving all kind of signals from their second chakras. The reproductive part is developing and they are receiving all these different signals. Very few teenagers really have time, if they are given a choice, to think about God. They'd rather think about their boyfriend or girlfriend, the boy next door, the girl next door, or whatever teenagers think about.

It is so important that the parents be God-conscious and train their children from childhood to think about God. It's going to help the children a lot when they grow up, because in the teen years they can't control those emotions, those passionate feelings. If they have had spiritual training and disciplines, they have a good base to go through this period and come out fine. But if they don't have any control or discipline, as they have never encountered such pulls, they just go crazy. They don't know what to do with them.

That's why we recommend the younger children have a walking mantra. They can just walk and meditate on Haree Om Shrii Hung, Om Nam Kevalam. It makes them concentrate their minds more and more on God, on control of their minds.

I didn't have a mantra but I remember when I was a child I used to count my steps. I used to count, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, and then one, two, three, four, one, two, three. It's kind of a mantra by itself. It's interesting that it adds to seven. But that's what I used to think, one, two, three, four, one, two, three.

If children use a walking mantra, they create this ability to control their minds. They just walk and say, Haree Om Shrii Hung, Om Nam Kevalam. Their minds don't wander to many different ways of thinking.

Of course, when they are twelve years old, we recommend they really start practicing formal meditation. So by the time they are thirteen or fourteen years old they have pretty good control of their emotions, etc. Then in teenager years we're going to have much calmer, much more centered teenagers rather than wild teenagers who don't know what to do with these incredible energies in them.

They really don't know what to do with themselves. They have more problems than we think we have with them, because the poor kids don't know, they're torn by so many different pulls. Of course, when they reach eighteen and nineteen years old, they want to be accepted by society, their group, etc.

The teenager wants to follow the peer pressure. He or she does it but at the end, all of their peers are gone. They receive diplomas. Then one goes to this college, one goes to that college, one goes to another college. Six months later all of them have gone different ways and he or she feels, "What was that all about? I was so afraid about these people liking me, or doing exactly what they wanted me to do. Now they are all gone." That's just one experience.

So in college they grow up a little bit. They are no longer under peer pressure. They are under different kinds of pressure: their social awareness increases, they become more competitive, they become concerned about getting good grades, making it in the world, etc. If they make good grades they make it in school. They may have a good job, but still after awhile they say, "That wasn't it either."

So they may marry. They say, "Well, maybe I'll marry, that's it." They marry and that wasn't it either.

They have children. They say, "Let's have a child." The child comes, they're happy for a year or six months. He's so cuddly and cute. They spend some time with him, and after two or three years, the child starts having his or her own personality. They see, "Well, he's going away more and more from us. He's a different person than us. He's not that cuddly child any longer. He or she has his own will. He wants to be himself or herself." So that phase is also gone.

You reach a point where everything you did didn't give you the ultimate satisfaction. So you are more open now to the Spirit because you realize nothing in this world gives you that ultimate satisfaction for which you long.

Then you go to the Spirit, you go to God. You open yourself to, "What is this life all about? I spent all this time chasing this illusive happiness. I thought I'd be fulfilled with all that I have. None of it gave me that happiness."

So when you are older you are more open, because the lower propensities are no longer pulling you in different directions. That passionate feeling of the teenager is no longer there. The desire of competition and success didn't work. The children, spouse and all these things didn't give you that happiness. When you become older you are more open to the Spirit.

In different levels of our lives, different propensities are awakened in us. As we become older the lower propensities become fulfilled more, and the higher propensities start manifesting themselves. Also we go through many experiences. We go through the many desires that we want, we try to accomplish, and we accomplish. But they weren't It.

Greater is the one who has the propensity to go for spirituality at a younger age. Those are the Great Souls who desire to have this knowledge at a younger age. By the time they are teenagers or in their youth they have already gone through all these experiences in their meditation. They have already seen the emptiness of it, so they become Great Souls.

To answer your question, Yes, the older you become the more you are open to spiritual Truth. Of course, some people never become interested in spiritual Truths because they never learn their lessons. But those who learn their lessons, yes, they become more open to spiritual Truth.

 

Question: How far should the Mission go in publicizing Its Presence? Do we want to reach the masses or is there some discrimination?
 

Maitreya: Well, we tried to reach the masses and there wasn't a very big response. Actually in 1982 we put an ad in many newsletters, etc. We received around 1,000 letters and inquiries.

But according to my experience, there's a timetable working in the Mission. We cannot be impatient with it. We have to do our best, do everything we can do and leave the result to the Lord.

I have to do my best, and whoever is connected with the Mission, really loves the Mission and wants to do something for it, has to do their best. We connect those energies that have already been prepared for this Mission, and spread it to the masses in a very subtle way. The prophecies which said this will be done like a thief in the night, are very appropriate about the Mission. It sounds like we're not making big headlines. But we are quietly, and like a thief in the night, creeping into the world.

We can put ads, or we can spread the news, or we can let other people know about the Mission, if we have the ability to do that. Do it and let other people know about the Mission. Even if someone can look at The Greatest Sign just once, that's better for him than if he's never seen it, because that's the seed that's going to be put in his mind. Who knows, maybe ten years later, even fifteen years later, even fifteen lifetimes later, it hits him. He then says, "Hey, there is something there!"

We have to do our best. We have to reach as many as possible. We have to let it spread. Just like Christ said, "We are the messengers." We just give the Message out, like throwing the seed to the world, with no discrimination, just throw it as it is.

Some of these seeds will fall on the wayside and be destroyed. Some of them will fall on stones and never root. But a few of them will fall in the right place. The soil will be good, and as they receive good water (Spirit) and they sprout beautifully, one seed will give a hundredfold.

This is just like one of our staff, who gave good fruit. Of course, God came through her to do it. She was good ground.

I wasn't discriminative about giving the Message. I gave it to everyone in Florida. I didn't just give it to her. But she was good soil. She was prepared for it, and she received it. She nurtured it. She watered it. She loved it. She tried it. She decided it was good. And God said, "That's good." We have to do the same thing. We have to spread the Message.

Also there is a missionary in Canada. Someone put an ad in some publication and he saw it. He didn't know anything about us. And another seed fell in a fertile place!

So we have to do our best. We have to reach as many as we can. Of course, as the Mission prospers, we will come to a point where we can reach out in a greater degree, and in a way that we can cover the whole earth. I'd like to see that this Message goes to every corner of the earth. There will be no place that it is not covered, especially at this time when we have such wonderful communication facilities.

In the time of Christ, in the time of Moses, in the time of Abraham or Muhammad, they didn't have these facilities. We can put one Message out here, and others hear it a couple of minutes later on the other side of the world. That's wonderful! See we have the ability, we have the facilities to do it.

For instance, our computer system is connected with 8,000 other computers. When we put a message in our computer, a few days later all 8,000 computers have that message and look at it. That's wonderful communication.

Also we have the Fax. You want to send a message to the Mission? Just Fax it, and two minutes later we receive the message.

Our computer system has been set up in such a way that we have all the literature of the Mission available. If you have a computer and a modem, call our number and download all the materials we have. You can download the whole book of THOTH. You can download Keys I to Keys IV. You can download The Plan.

See, we are willing and open to the whole world to receive the Message. We don't keep it undercover or anything. No, we put it in the computer, and the computer is connected to the whole earth. Anyone who wants it can call and take it, freely. Of course, they have to pay for the telephone call, but we offer our literature free of charge. They can have it.

These are the facilities we have to use. These are the things God provided for us to be used in this time period so that this Message goes to every corner of the earth.

Therefore, in answer to your question, we each have to go as far as we can go and use whatever abilities we have.

 

Question: Why would the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth relieve only 90% of the earth's problems?
 

Maitreya: Who said that? [all laughing] 90%? I think the phrase should be, The Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth will alleviate 99% of the problems that are created by the human ego. These are not the real problems. We have these problems because we separate ourselves from one another. We have these problems because we don't understand one another.

For instance, one of the problems we have right now is that the East doesn't understand the West, and the West doesn't understand the East. So they are afraid of one another.

I understand both of them. I'm very exceptional in that. I understand how the Eastern mind works and I understand how the Western mind works. Actually I was very Westernized when I was in the East. I didn't know anything about yoga, or meditation, or God. I was completely a Westernized person.

At the university I went dancing, went to night clubs, or just knew about the latest fad or fashion -- like St. Francis of Assisi before his mission started. So I found those things there and I knew nothing about meditation.

Actually there was a Sufi center just one block from my house. I never even was attracted to go to see what they were doing. I could have gone there, and someone could have said something that made sense to me and that would have been it. I would have been a Sufi there in the East for the rest of my life. You would have never seen me here. But it didn't happen that way. Probably there was a reason why God didn't want it to happen.

So now what should we do? We should understand one another. The Kingdom of Heaven will accomplish that. As we expand more, we're going to have different cultures mixed together. Probably there is going to be some friction, or some misunderstanding, or some change of energy sometime, but eventually we will start to know one another better and we will learn from each other.

Each culture and people have something to teach other cultures and people. Every culture has some beauty that they can add to create an ultimate varied culture.

What is more beautiful? Is it everyone thinking like an Easterner, or everyone looking like those in the Western world? Even in the West, does a European think exactly like an American? Or does an American think exactly like a Canadian? Or does a Canadian think like the South American? See, even there, there are so many differences. The more we mix the earth, the more balanced state we will create.

Actually the whole earth is like the two sides of the brain. The East is more heart and emotion. The West is more intellect and mind. So if we mix them, we will have a more balanced earth.

Also, why are we meditating? We meditate to unify the mind and the heart. That's one of the things we do by meditating. We bring the mind and the heart together, so we have the heart of the Christ and the mind of the Buddha.

We are trying, in the Mission, to do the same thing to the earth, to mix the earth together as the two spheres. As we are doing this, probably 99% of the problems that we have are going to be alleviated by themselves. We don't really have to do anything to them.

They are just like some of our own problems. As we meditate they just vanish, they're not there. One day we wake up and they're not there. "I'm no longer bashful. I'm no longer afraid," or anything that is artificially there.

It's the same thing. It's a very subtle Mission. It is something that is going to affect everyone very subtly. The people are going to wake up someday and see that we have a viable replacement for what is on the earth.

As I said, we are not a revolutionary people, we are an evolutionary people. We are on the brink of an evolutionary change on earth. If we can see the signs -- we really have to be blind if we don't see the signs because -- the signs are all over. We can see everywhere on earth there are signs that we need something. Something has to be done. Why not? Why are we not the people to do it? Someone has to do it. Why not us?

If you believe this teaching has the answer for all the problems that we have on earth, and you hear and see the truth in it, then you are one of the pioneers. And the life of a pioneer is not easy. I have to forewarn you! But it's fun! And it is good (God).

 

Question: Probably the question is also why is there 1% left?
 

Maitreya: Why? About one to two percent of the problems are the real problems. If 98% of our ego problems are solved, that 2% of the real problems are easy to solve with the Communities of Light. That is why we create the hierarchy. We create the system that can take care of the day-to-day life and problems.

Those day-to-day problems are, for instance, a flood. There will be less flooding as we bring the Kingdom. The energy will be so good that God will say, "No, I'm not going to send any flood, those people are so wonderful." Or famine, or divorce, or whatever the problem is. The real, real problems, can easily be taken care of in our system. So even that 2% of the problems are going to be solved.

So with these answers, 100% of the problems are solved. We have no problems.

 

Question: I'm trying to discriminate between the two kinds of problems. I understand that some of them must be lessons. Would that make all the problems, even the ones that vanish, all lessons? The 2% that are left, that we have to work on, are those lessons? All the problems that vanish, are they all lessons also?
 

Maitreya: Lessons, you means as lessons to learn? Or lessens to become less?

 

Question: Lessons as something to learn.
 

Maitreya: Of course, there are still going to be some karmic relationships between people, and people going on and learning from the lessons, and so on. But that's going to be much quicker. Every-thing is going to be quickened, because in the Communities of Light everyone meditates, everyone is quickened.

It's easier for one person to live by himself. It's very easy to have your own apartment, or house, do whatever you want to, and not care for the rest of the world. You don't progress either. You see? Because you think you are wonderful, you never see your problems. You never encounter those problems. You do whatever you want to, and everything looks good to you.

Now, two people marry and want to live in one place. There are some problems [all laughing]. "I'm not as wonderful as I thought." This other person starts criticizing and finding some fault in me. That amazes me. "Oh, I have faults? I thought I didn't have any faults."

Now couples come together to form a community. There are in the community at least six couples, twelve people living pretty close. Ohhh, we really have to watch out, don't we? If we can get along with eleven other people, create an environment where everyone is comfortable and loving, reach a point where we can tolerate each other, learn from one another and create an environment that is flowing, we are in pretty good shape, aren't we?

So in the Communities of Light you progress much, much faster because there are encounters all the time between the members. Of course, you can take your bag and go away. There's always that option. But remember you're not going to progress. You have the option to be self-centered, take your bags and leave. Also, you're going to be lonely, aren't you?

 

Question: You talk about twelve persons, six couples. What about the ones who are not couples? What do you do with them?
 

Maitreya: You don't let them into the Communities of Light [all laughing]. It is recommend that if there are married couples in the community, they take the singles to live with them. If you are not married then you can live with the married couples in the community.

The whole base of the Communities of Light is the married couples. It's very, very important because as the Scripture says, Man and woman have to find one another and become one. Two people who are each other's part, and are pretty much in God-consciousness, are already one. See even if you are not each other's part, if both of you are one with God you are already one because you are one with God.

Two people never can become one because you each have a physical body. These two fingers are never going to become one finger. It doesn't matter how much you try. But if this finger is with God and this finger is with God, they are one in Spirit.

A person who is God-conscious and their Spirit is always with God, has the compassion, love and understanding. If the other person also has the compassion, love, and understanding, it's very easy for them to get along. So you compromise some. You win some, you lose some. You let this happen between you and eventually you reach a balance that you both can live with.

Where that balance finishes is based on the couples, that they can establish that balance. But when that balance is reached based on God, they are one. They can flow together. They can live together. They can grow together. They can learn from one another. They can be friends. They can be lovers. They can be whatever they want to be, and that is a beautiful relationship between two beings.

Now, someone asked, "Why marriage? Two people who like each other and can get along with one another, don't have to marry. They can just live together."

Now it comes to the society, the social approval of a couple to be together. It was very easy in the past. For instance, in the tribe, if a man and a woman were very close, they didn't have to marry. They were just together and all the tribe knew they were husband and wife. It was very easy for everyone to recognize them as such. Socially it was acceptable, and that was it because they really were husband and wife.

Now we are living in a society that is more expanded. We can go from this city to another city. If we are married, then we always have a written agreement that shows we are married. Any place we go, to any society, we can say, "We are married," and everyone feels comfortable and relaxed about it. We are accepted. It is a very social thing for a human to be like that. That is also good for the Soul.

Also it has legal significance in the marriage in that country. If you're just living together and two years or ten years from now you decide not to live together, you have no legal rights. But with marriage you have a paper. You can legally go and say, "Yes, we were married for ten years." You were married this much time, now you are divorcing. Then you can settle things between one another much more peacefully, be it in court, without yelling, or trying to do all kinds of harm to one another.

So there are many, many significances of marrying legally and the marriage ceremony. God wants His people to be married, to be couples and have children. Also children have a better future in the marriage. They have a legal father and mother.

It's very important that both parents are present in the growth of the child. The mother is as important as the father in the growth of the child. The father is as important as the mother. You cannot take the children and leave them with just the father or mother.

I know it is done in the West easily. Divorce is easy. Living together is easy. Even a one night stand is easy. But that is not the way God created it to be. That is why He made man and woman different. They are equal, but equality does not mean similarity.

Man and woman are not similar. If you say men and women are similar then something is wrong. They are not similar, but they're equal. In their physical, mental and spiritual progress they have to be provided for equally.

If a woman has leadership ability, fine. That person has to be given the opportunity to do that. Equality does not mean similarity.

And because there is not that similarity, they have to come toge-ther and be present in the upbringing of the child. So again there is a significance for the children having legal parents, growing in a loving environment and becoming productive members of the society.

One of the reasons we have so much crime and so many problems in the West right now is because a lot of children are raised with one parent, mostly mothers. With only one parent, what can the poor mother do? She has to go and make money, or be on welfare. Either one is not a good alternative.

If she goes to work, who is going to take care of the child? If she goes on welfare, what kind of an image is that child going to create by growing up in that environment? Every month she has to go and beg for $200 or $300 just to live for another month, and live in a house in a terrible neighborhood.

The children are raised in that lower level of self-esteem. So when they grow up crime is the day-to-day life for such a child. He lives in the crime. He sees the neighbor rob another neighbor. It is a very prevalent thing. For him it becomes something that everyone does. For him that's not something for which he should be put in jail. This is life and this is the way he is brought up.

So you see there is a very, very deep reason for this. When God says, "This is the way it is done," again He's not saying it for Himself. He doesn't care. You can have one night stands, not marry and have all those things that are done. But what is the result?

God knows us. God knows better what is good for us and what is not good for us. We can resist it. We can intellectually not like it. But that doesn't make any difference to what He put down as the way it should be.

And I'm not going to change my mind either. If no one's going to accept this teaching, still I can see, I can see what's happening, what it's doing to society.

How are we going to be? Selfish and self-centered, because "It looks good to me so I'm going to do it?" Or will we realize, "Oh, my actions are affecting the whole of society. I am responsible for my actions. I can be a source of the problem. How can I act in such a way that at least I am not the source of the problem?"

If at least 60-70% of the people think like that, then we will see an improvement start happening in the society. Probably 20-30% are never going to learn, but that 60-70% that does learn is enough.

 

Question: So there's not very much place for singles in the community? As you were speaking about just sometimes one or two can be taken care of by the married couples that there are in this community, but the other singles are not able to live in a Community of Light?
 

Maitreya: There is a part in THOTH that explains the different ages, from one to seven, from seven to fourteen, to twenty-one, to twenty-eight, to thirty-five, to forty-two, etc.

From one to seven you're a child. You're in the childish state. From seven to fourteen you're growing up, you're coming to the age of teenage, puberty and all that. From fourteen to twenty-one you go through the teenage years and come to a point when you can make decisions now as to what you want to be.

Between twenty-one and twenty-eight a decision has to be made. Do you want to be single or do you want to be married?

If you want to be a married person then you have to find a proper spouse and get married, start your married life, go on, have your children and do whatever is proper in life. If you don't want to be married, you want to be single, then you have to follow the life of a renunciate.

The life of a renunciate means a person who renounces the world and dedicates himself or herself to the work of God. As in the Bible, Esa (Jesus) said, There are three kinds of eunuchs. There are the ones who are born eunuch. There are the ones who are made eunuch by men. And there are the ones who decide to become eunuch because they want to dedicate their lives to the work of Christ, the work of God.

So a decision must be made at that age, or even a little later. We are flexible, we're not saying you have to do it exactly at that time. But you have to make this decision sooner or later in the Communities of Light. This is the way it is done in the Communities of Light. Not everyone will live in the Communities of Light.

Eventually more people will live in the Communities of Light. We're not there yet, we are here. We are living and we are really dealing with where we are, the energies and the level of consciousness that we are in right now.

But think about these things. You don't have to accept them, but think about them. Meditate on these things. Does it make sense? Does it really create problems?

 

Guest: I can see it. When you say it, it sounds good. It seems clear. It looks like a future this way, and the way of the past hasn't worked. There has to be something new, and it has to be firm and strong in that for the future, because we haven't been firm. We've been getting into trouble. We haven't been disciplined on this planet, so this is why the mess. With your Plan and married couples, it seems more ethical, more moral.
 

Maitreya: That's right. Some of us have experienced it. Those who have experienced that kind of lifestyle, go and ask them. There is disease there. There are problems, emotional problems, physical problems, mental problems. These are all related to that kind of life-style. Think about it. I'm not saying, "Accept it blindly." Think about it. Meditate on it to see, "Does it make sense?"

Is it not much purer if a beautiful virgin woman marries a virgin man, compared to anyone can have anyone, or at least pretty loose? It's not something that we should blame ourselves for if we are not a virgin. It is not something that we should feel guilty about, because that's where we live, that's what the society told us to be. They said it was OK. In the 60's, it was OK.

Now we are at the dawn of The Golden Age. Now is the time we understand God's Laws and Ways. We do not follow them blindly any longer. We follow them because we understand them, because they are good (God) for us, for our children, for our communities, for our society and for earth.