Welcome and Testimonials

Noor opens Feast: Sal-Om all. How are you all doing? How did you like the service, if you came? You feeling the energy? It is good, yeah? Nice to see everyone here.

Unus and Niama in Turkey are here with us in Sprit. They wanted me to let us all know that they would be here if they could, but the time and the circumstances, it just does not make it possible. But they are here with us in Spirit and they will be celebrating the Feast also in Turkey. So we have a little stronghold there.

Let us begin this welcome and officially open the Feast by taking a moment of silence, closing our eyes, and becoming One, not by trying to become one with each other, but all becoming One with the Spirit, and so we are made One. Bring all our focus on the center of The Greatest Sign, He who Is and Is All. [Silence]

Let us make a joyful week in His Service.

Sal-Om all. Welcome to the 23rd Feast of Tabernacles as celebrated by the Mission of Maitreya. The first one was in 1989. We have come a long way since then, in 2011. And we are now in, I guess, the fourth round of celebrating, because we celebrate one seal each Feast and we are now on the fourth round of this, the Second Seal in the fourth round.

Welcome to the Feast. The Feast will mostly be online this time, and we hope that all of you will be celebrating it in your own areas, and if you can and if it seems Godly, join us with the services that we will be doing as well. We set up what we think is a pretty nice service, and a pretty nice set of events this year that should hopefully bring everyone together and help us increase, help the Spirit in us increase and the ego decrease.

To open the Feast, we should begin by remembering why we celebrate it and what it is. What is the Feast of Tabernacles? Why do we celebrate it?

The answer to that can be found in THOTH, as everything else, which explains to us that in chapter 23 of Leviticus in the Bible, God commands the Holy Days and Feasts which He expects humans to follow over the course of the year. There are seven of them, and they are the only Holy Days and the only holidays commanded by God. There should be none other.

But, of course, this is not a Commandment with no reasoning, not an angry God that just tells you to do things and you should do them without understanding why. The reason is that most man... or all man-made holidays are focused on glorifying the self, or the individual, or the humanity, and increasing the false ego, whereas all of God's Holy Days are created in a way that focuses the self on God.

Since all of human suffering and the entire reason the universe needed to be created was because the false ego exists, that illusion that we are separate from God, anything that focuses on the false ego will lead to destruction and ignorance, and anything that focuses on God and brings the focus away from the self and that false ego leads to salvation.

So these Holy Days are created to help us - Sabbath is for man. They should be followed because they will accelerate our spiritual progress and as a sign of obedience to the Lord, as we are His people.

There are seven Holy Days that were commanded to be celebrated in Leviticus, and the Feast of Tabernacles is the seventh. As it explains in THOTH, I will read it from Feasts and Holy Days of the Lord, which is in Essays 1, Tablet 14 in THOTH, it says:

10 - The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles and for seven days there will be a feast. On the first day a holy convocation, and no servile work.

11 - After seven days of feasting, a Sabbath on the eighth day, a holy convocation. It is a solemn assembly, with no servile work.

Unlike the other Holy Days that are commanded in Leviticus 23, which talk about... they are asked to be solemn. On the Passover we focus on the Lord passing us over. It is a time of self-examination and control, and sort of discipline, and the same with the other Holy Days. But the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of feasting, celebration, a joyful time.

So do not be solemn but be happy, be joyful. Let that Joy and Spirit come through. It is a time to have fun in the Spirit of God, in a Godly Way, and feel that side of God also.

God clearly wants those who are the Children of Light, the Children of Israel, to follow these Feasts and Holy Days, this most Holy Day or Holy Week of the Lord, and let it be a sign that we are truly the Children of Light. The Mission of Maitreya is the fulfillment of many prayers and expectations. Through the truth that has been revealed to us, we will return to God's Ways.

We talk about the Children of Light because each year we celebrate, or we focus the Feast, on one Seal of the Seven Seals in the Eternal Divine Path and The Greatest Sign. And this year we focus on the Second Seal.

What is the Second Seal? The Second Seal is The Plan, the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth, the Godly system that has been revealed that will unify humanity and accelerate the progress of all, the system which is based on the Communities of Light and whose main message is brought by the Children of Israel, the Hebrews, and the Old Testament.

For more information on The Plan, much more information, the system that Maitreya has brought, we encourage you to read the book by Maitreya, The Plan. Or, of course, you can attend the several events that will be... there will be two lectures, one recording by Maitreya or reading from Maitreya from him about The Plan, and another lecture by a disciple, over the course of this Feast. So all those who are interested in learning more should come to these, and we will discuss those later.

To understand The Plan and the system, you can look to the Second Seal in The Greatest Sign and see what it is: The Star of David, the six-sided symbol. And you can look to the symbolism of that.

The six-sided symbol can be broken into two triangles: The triangle upward and the triangle downward. The triangle upward represents the system, the Godly system on earth, man reaching up to God. The triangle downward represents the Laws and Grace of God present throughout that system and the Godly Justice, God reaching down to man. Neither is complete without the other, but both together provides the best system possible to govern humanity and lead to progress for all.

I am going to read something briefly from one of Maitreya's Satsangs, or one of his writings:

The twelve tribes of Israel had a system -- the triangle upward -- which Moses brought to them. They had a very deep spiritual understanding of God's Plan and God's Law -- the triangle downward.

So they had the system (), and they had the Laws and Grace of God (). They were reaching up to God and God was reaching down to them. That is why they created the Communities of Light. They became the Children of Israel -- the Children of Light. Knowing Self will be accelerated in these communities because you will have the time, support, and understanding of others to be able to meditate to know God and become One with Him.

(From Thus Speaks Maitreya On Communities Of Light, section Communities Of Light)

That leads into the second part of the Second Seal, which is that this Godly system, the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth, is based on the Communities of Light. What are the Communities of Light? They are communities based on the Eternal Divine Path, communities in which people follow God's teachings, God's Laws, the same teachings that the Children of Israel followed and were given when they were the Chosen People, but, of course, much more expanded and even further explained now that we have the full truth in the Eternal Divine Path.

Why do we want Communities of Light? What do they give us? Why did God Command? Why is this a part of the Eternal Divine Path? The answer is that you progress much more quickly in a community together than you do individually, alone. That is true both individually and collectively.

Individually it is much easier to think you are very good when you are living alone. It is much harder to see the problems that you have. When you live in a community with others, you have jagged edges, and those jagged edges rub against each other and cause friction, and violence, and conflicts, and problems, arguments, divorce, all of these things. But those things allow these problems to be made aware. You will never know you have a problem until it surfaces and becomes a problem for you. The Communities of Light allow that to happen. So living individually might be an easier life, but it does not provide you spiritual progress in the way the community does.

It also accelerates the progress of all because we are helping each other to progress spiritually. We work together, we live in a community. And God does not want the salvation of individuals, He wants the salvation of the world and the universe. Indeed, those who try to reach salvation by themselves will be spued out of His Mouth, will not be allowed.

So we can see that the Communities of Light is an essential and very necessary part of God's Plan. It allows us to live more easily together in terms of physiological and safety needs, as we can share and work together, pool our resources, and live easily off of them. It accelerates the spiritual progress of everyone. And it provides the base for the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth.

We work toward creation of the Communities of Light, to create an environment where many people reach Pure Consciousness. It is a collective march together. You cannot go there by yourself. I cannot go there by myself. He cannot go by himself. We go together.

The Communities of Light are based on the units of 12, six couples. Again, that will be discussed in more detail if you attend our events later in the Feast.

This teaching comes from the Children of Israel, the Hebrews, as mentioned before. They had the system, to an extent. God took them as an example of choosing a people to be His people and create communities under His Laws. I will read something quickly from Maitreya:

What is a tribe? It is a community, isn't it? The number twelve, for the twelve tribes of Israel, is similar to the base of twelve in the community, or the number twelve in the twelve disciples.

Who is the thirteenth? The thirteenth is God Himself. Christ came with twelve disciples. Who was Christ Himself? Christ was the number thirteen, wasn't he? Twelve plus one makes the thirteen.

That is why in the Communities of Light we also base the community on twelve people, six couples. Who is the thirteenth? God! When they sit around the round table, each couple representing one sign, who is in the center? God is in the center. So they always have God's presence in their endeavors, in their decisions, in their unity. In whatever they do, God is with them and their decisions are based on His Guidance.

(From Thus Speaks Maitreya On Communities Of Light, section The Chosen)

So in this Feast of Tabernacles we celebrate this part of God's Plan, the Second Seal, and understand how, "The Communities of Light are the salvation of humanity, physically, mentally, spiritually, individually, and collectively."

Indeed, Maitreya wrote an essay in THOTH that says that, "The only issue is the formation of the Communities of Light. All other issues are the effect, not the cause" (Supplements, "The Only Issue"). Focus on creating the communities and everything else will take care of themselves.

So it is very important. It is important to understand and it is important to implement, and it is our primary purpose at this time.

We are here to celebrate this and understand it, in the context of the rest of Maitreya's teaching, of course. The Communities of Light will only work if you sacrifice, if you surrender and submit to the Will of God, the Third Seal and the Fourth Seal, if you become a universalist and have one government, one world, one humanity, not separated by countries or race or creed. It all works together, but today, I mean this Feast, this week, we focus on understanding and celebrating this Seal as a part of the whole.

So welcome, welcome to the Second Seal Feast. If there are any questions about the Communities of Light and the Second Seal, [pause] you can ask them later [laughter], you can ask them at the lectures that will be provided for the events.

Now let us go to a more mundane topic, which is the schedule for this year's Feast in celebrating this Second Seal, in celebrating this Holy Day, this Holy Week. We have developed a schedule here locally that we are going to broadcast the majority of online, so everyone who would like to is welcome to join us. I am going to go through it briefly to make sure everyone understands all of the parts, and clear up any confusion.

During the Feast we celebrate one Seal each day in a way that the Seventh Seal is always on Sabbath, Saturday - in the larger scheme we focus on the Second Seal, and for each day we also focus on these individual seals, understand them, and glorify them.

If you would look at Day 1 - from that page that I linked to, the Index, if you click on '1st Day.' The schedule is pretty similar each day so I am just going to briefly go over what happens on a day to make sure that it is understood.

This is all in Mountain Standard Time (MST) or actually Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) since we are currently in Daylight Savings Time, so you will have to transfer that to whatever local time you are in to be able to join us. But starting in the morning at 5:30 AM on Paltalk we will be broadcasting a service, similar to the service we had this evening. Then at 6:30 we will be having a THOTH reading. We have selected the THOTH readings to be based on the Second Seal so we will be starting in Children of Abram (Abraham) in THOTH, and if we finish that book we will move on to The House of Judah (Jews), both related to the Second Seal. These readings are assigned, so please check and see if you are assigned to any of these readings if you volunteered.

Then we have an hour of innercise. Innercise is those activities that relate to the chakras, the flow of energy in the body, the glands, and awakening the inner body, the ethereal body, strengthening the spiritual, the inner spiritual awareness in the body. The main example is yoga, and indeed we have a guided class for men and a guided class for women that are provided on the website that anyone can use if they would like more help in this section. That can be accessed by clicking the link on the schedule: "(see our guided classes)," if you click that you can go to it.

Other examples, if you would like to do those, are tai chi or similar martial arts practices, and many other things from all over, from the Mystical Paths all over the world. Any of these would be fine.

Then we have two events every day, one in the morning and one in the evening.

In the midday we do The Reminder. Then after the second event in the evening, we again have a THOTH reading. These are assigned as well, and they are related to the Seal of the day, but it is reader's choice. The reader chooses what they would like to read based on the Seal of the day.

Then we have a Pilates routine or similar practice, which is: Pilates is a combination of exercise and innercise. Another example is martial arts.

Then we have service again, and in the evenings we have freeform readings from the teachings. Everyone is welcome to come on Paltalk and read whatever they like for however long they would like and just enjoy the teachings.

That is the basic schedule for each of the days. It follows that general idea. All of this is broadcast on Paltalk, every single thing I said here. You can join us for every single one of these, either on Paltalk or, for some events, on GoToMeeting. If you would like more information about those, there is a link again in the schedule, "-Broadcast on Paltalk-". If you click that, you will learn more. And where GoToMeeting is listed it also has a link.

So let us quickly go over what events there will be. On day 1, which is tomorrow, we are going to have the lecture by Maitreya that he gave at the 1990 Feast of Tabernacles about the Second Seal. We only have the recording for half of this lecture, the second half, so for the first half we will be reading the transcript, which is linked from the schedule, and in the second half we will listen to the recording.

On the second day we will have the first lecture of the Feast, on The Plan by Unus. If you are interested in The Plan you should come to this.

Then in the evening our event will be a teaching session of proper methods of Mission practices. This is something new that we have never done before, and what it will be is a review of the proper methods of doing Mission practices, such as The Reminder. We are going to go over the proper movements. Even if you think you know how to do The Reminder, you should come to this because Maitreya has added some smaller things within it to further purify it and make it even more powerful. So you should come to this to learn these new things.

Then we will go over Kirtan, recommendations on how to sing, and dance, and chant, and then Tandava and Tandavi, which are two newer practices Maitreya recommends. Tandava is for men, and Tandavi is for women, to control sexual desire and also lead to either strength for men or grace for women, and many other benefits. We are going to demonstrate and explain how to do both of these. This is something that not many people know either, so if you are interested, we encourage you to come.

Then we will be going through some yoga asanas, especially those people have questions about, so if you have questions about yoga, if you have questions about a specific posture, or how to do it in general, breathing, please come. Unus will be taking care of that and he is a certified yoga instructor, remember that he is the owner of three yoga centers in Turkey, so he is very good. He can answer your questions very well.

After these, we will be going through these for sure, and anything else you have questions about in terms of the Mission teachings and the Mission practices: The Rosary, the meditation process, if you have questions about pronunciations of words in THOTH, Sanskrit words, anything like that, please come and ask, and we will answer. That should be great.

That will be in GoToMeeting, both the lecture on The Plan in the morning and that in the evening will be in GoToMeeting so that we can use the webcam and other things to show these.

On the third day we will be having a discussion session, which is also something new that we just started this Feast. It is not exactly a lecture, it is more involved, it is more of a discussion back and forth and all can get involved and talk about it. It is similar to the MOM Meeting, you could say. This discussion will be about how the current activities in the Mission will lead to final manifestation of the system and The Plan - some examples are project managers, creation of the centers (the BeyondMind centers in Turkey) and other things. Unus may also use this time to finish his lecture if he has not finished it in the first session, but we will also have this discussion, if there is time. That will be on GoToMeeting.

Then in the evening will be my lecture on, God's Prophets: How have we treated them?

The fourth day, we will have Maitreya's first Question and Answer session. Maitreya will be available for two times this Feast to answer questions. It is the only time of the year that he does this, that he is available to the public for answering questions, so it is a very rare and great honor. If you would like to ask a question, you should e-mail it to us now, beforehand. Maitreya will answer any question e-mailed to him before questions asked in the room, and if you e-mail it to him, he will be able to provide a better answer as he will have time to meditate on it. And, he would prefer it that way. So if you have a question for him for these sessions, the one on day 4 or the one on day 6, e-mail them to us now. You can e-mail them to us at any of our e-mail addresses: questions@maitreya.org , Mission_Of_Maitreya@maitreya.org , and we will receive them (Note: please review our Questions Policy before sending questions, but also understand that these Feast sessions are an exception and Maitreya is more lenient about the questions He will answer in them).

Then in the evening we will have a discussion session, on that day, day 4, we will have a discussion session on: The current food and farming systems - the problems, the solutions, etc.

The fifth day is the Sabbath. On the evening of the Sabbath during the Feast, we usually watch a video. This year the Mission has picked Food, Inc., which is a movie, a documentary about the Western food system and all the problems with it and how terrible it truly has become. So we suggest, if you would like, that this is a good movie you could watch, and if you look on the schedule on day 5, we have two links to where you can find it. One of them is free, the full version is available free to play on the website. It is not the most... it is not the best website, so do not click anything else. You might wind up with some spam or something. But if you click just on to play the movie you should be just fine, and the full movie is there. If for some reason it gets taken down - we found it free somewhere else and it disappeared - then you can find it on Amazon, but you will have to rent it or buy it for about $3 or $10. But it is online there as well. It is a great movie, it is very, very informative. We encourage you all to see it.

The sixth day, in the morning we will be doing a community service. We encourage everyone, in their own area, to find something that they can do as selfless service, from knowledge, that you can do. This is a great part of spiritual practice, and also getting out there and helping the community is good for all.

Then in the evening we will have Maitreya's second session, Question and Answer session. So again, if you have questions. And be aware that your questions will not be answered unless you are in the room. You must come to these sessions to have your questions answered, if you ask beforehand. They will not be answered if you are not there.

The seventh day... ah, that is interesting. Shirin said that if you subscribe to NetFlex you can also find Food, Inc., that movie, under documentaries. And actually if you subscribe to Amazon Prime, which is a service that Amazon offers, it is free on Amazon as well. So if you have any of those, that is another way to get that movie. It is a very good movie, it is worth watching.

Finally on day 7, the day before the last day of the Feast, we will be having our regular trip to the Jemez Mountains here. But the greater meaning is to have a vision quest: To go to someplace quiet and meditative in your area and have a quest for vision, for true understanding.

It is a Native American idea that when the child wanted to become a man, they would have to go off and be alone until they had a vision. Then they would come back as an adult.

We find this to be a very beautiful idea, and we encourage all... in fact, there is a Satsang by Maitreya, in this Satsang Maitreya requests everyone to have a vision quest, to truly go and have a quest for Vision: To let God give you the Vision of this Mission. It is in the Satsang. So I would encourage you to read it and go on a vision quest during this day and see what God will reveal to you.

That evening we will have the Spiritual Stories Night. This is usually the Talent Night in previous Feasts but we decided to try something else this Feast. So for this night we encourage everyone to find something, some stories, some jokes, that teach beautiful spiritual lessons, and share them with the rest. Some of the examples are shown on the schedule, example links to stories, laughter, and facts, which are already on the website, such as Mullah Nasruddin, and many of the stories that have been submitted.

So go use Google, Google it up, and see what you can find. Find some beautiful stories and bring them to share, and we will all share them together and be enlightened by that.

Finally on the 8th day it is the Holy Convocation, the last day of the Feast, and we will be having the rounding. If we had enough people, what the rounding would be is a repeated service over and over again constantly throughout the day of chanting, constant chanting, people meditating while others are chanting, and it would be an amazing time. Since we are so small at this time, what will happen is, we will have a regular service in the morning as the other days. After that, chanting, straight chanting, will start playing in the room for the whole day. So any time any of you feel inspired to chant that day, do the HOSH Mantra, the Kirtan, just join the room and there will be chanting. And that will occur until the evening service.

Finally after the evening service we will be having the candle ceremony, which is a time in which we take unlit candles and light them from a lit candle at the foot of Maitreya's chair. It is symbolic of taking... of receiving the Light Maitreya has given to us, and then having that Light to spread to the world and place on top of the hill and provide to others.

It is a very powerful, symbolic ceremony, and we welcome everyone to do something similar in their own areas, or at least feel that symbolism there.

That is what we have planned for our Feast. Of course, these are not rigid rules. This is just what we have come up with to provide a great week of Spirit and worshipping God in Joyfulness. None of these... God did not command any of these, but they are great. So do not get too rigid, but they will help all greatly if you come.

Are there any questions about the schedule, anything I did not cover, anything that is unclear? [silence] Then we welcome you all to the Feast. May you all enjoy - may we all enjoy. May God be with us, if it is His Will.

As has been in previous Feasts, we will now open up the room to testimonials given, if one would like to give a testimonial of how they received the Mission and came to the Mission. Or, if you are just filled with the Spirit and just want to say something devotional, please go ahead.

I wish we had more new people. We have kind of already heard all the stories like ten times. But, that does not make them any less beautiful. So I will now open up the room to testimonials. Thanks God, and Sal-Om everyone. Welcome!

Testimonials:

Tahirah: Sal-Om everyone. I hope the sound is coming over good. Thanks God for good sound. Thanks Noor, thanks God for your welcome. What a beautiful warm welcome and explanation of our Feast for this week. I am just looking forward to being in the Joy of this celebration of God's Holy Days.

As you said, we probably each heard our stories so many times of how we came to the Mission and met Maitreya. So I won't repeat all that again and it's been all the beautiful, beautiful love, the beautiful love that is in my heart for Maitreya and for this Mission that has been there from day one and still is there, if possible even greater.

I am just very thankful and just want to again just share the thankfulness of being here to share in these teachings that Maitreya has brought to us.

There is so much to be done, I know that, and so many people to touch, and to get the Mission and God's Plan put in Its place on the earth. As Maitreya has always reminded us, it will happen and these beginning days are blessings.

So the Feast, as you said Noor, is a celebration and we receive it in Joy. And I feel this Joy at this Feast so much, and just give thanks for it and sharing with everyone.

So this just keeping it short and quick. Thanks God. Thanks God again!

Keyosha: I could go ahead now if my sound is coming through good. Just checking if there is good sound. Mine will be short and sweet as well. Thanks God for good sound.

You know, while I was sitting here in between the service and the beautiful welcome that Noor gave for this Second Seal for this Feast of Tabernacles, Maitreya was giving Satsang online here in the room. And he was just saying something that hit me and I just knew I had to say this in my testimonial: That this teaching just makes sense.

It goes through my being to the very core. It is the only thing I have ever found in this life religious or spiritual that just makes sense. And in addition to that, that it makes sense, it is for everyone. No one is left out. It is for the whole universe.

So coming back life after life, whatever it is we have to do to bring everything back so that God's Body is fully Lightened and there is no darkness, and the universe is just gorgeous and shining, whatever. What a blessing! What a blessing to be a part of it.

I just thank God so much that I even found this and that I have the responsibility of passing this on to other people. It has become easier and easier for me to do that as I have been with the Mission longer.

So never fear for those who may be starting out. Just stick with it. I think it will become even easier for me in the future. As our Spirit changes, as we purify more by following the teachings, God sends what needs to be sent through us to those that we come in contact with.

Anyway, that is it. Just thanks God!

Noor: Thanks God, Keyosha. It relates to something I was thinking of saying, which is: Maitreya has said that when you come to the Mission, first you understand it with your mind, then you understand it in your heart, and finally you proclaim it with your mouth. And it almost could seem like you could have three testimonials, each person, of each of those three times, because each of it is sort of joining the Mission in a different way and being baptized in a further extent.

Because two years ago, the first Feast that I celebrated with the Mission where I truly was with the Mission, I said that I understood it, I had to go and research each little section and answer all my questions mentally in my head, and that I thought I was a Vipra, an intellectual, because that is the way I understood it, I was all brain. And I think that is still true, I think I am a Vipra, but the longer I am with the Mission the less it becomes, the less I feel, when I speak about it or when I think about it, the less I feel it in my head, and the more I feel it in my heart, and the less it is about thinking, and the more it is about, IS, if that makes sense.

So it almost could be a second testimonial that eventually it clicks, not just in the head that, "Yes, it makes sense," but also in the heart in such a deep way that the chatter of the mind disappears. And once the chatter of the mind disappears then it becomes easy to proclaim it with no fear or doubt or problems. I am still working on that part.

So hopefully in a couple of years I will have my third testimonial to give.

Sarah: Hello, I do not know if my sound is OK. Could you let me know if my sound is OK? Good sound. Thank you.

Well Sal-Om everyone, it is great to see you all. Sitting here listening to the welcome I could just imagine us at the first Feast of Tabernacles. Do you guys remember that? 1989. We had never done it before. It was a new idea. And it was chaotic. We had so much to do. We had to cart the big Greatest Sign over to the Madonna Center, and we were... we had to rent a truck to bring everything over to the Madonna Center so we could do the Feast. We had no idea what we were doing. We had these menus with all this food.

And we opened the Feast and there was such an energy. It was amazing. We all looked at each other and said, "Oh my heavens, this is amazing." God's Spirit was with us. It was just blessed. That whole week never, it never changed, it was just blessed the whole time. I guess everyone that was there in the room, I guess, they all agree.

That has been 23 years ago and we are still small. We are still pretty quiet. Not a lot of people have heard about us yet. But it is true. It is true. There is nothing that is not true in this Mission. This Mission is amazing. The teaching is amazing. Maitreya is amazing. And we all know that.

We have to constantly trust the Spirit, trust the Spirit that brought us to this Mission, trust the Spirit that guided us to be here, and always trust that. Noor said something about doubt. The moment you doubt you are just down in the gutter. Just push that doubt away and trust, trust and...

I was looking at some older letters that Maitreya had written from 1988, 1989, and in those letters he was talking about, "We are creating a system to replace. When the old systems break down, the old systems of the world break down, we are creating a system that will replace that."

In 1989, whoever would have thought that what he said is coming true today? We see the systems just falling apart. We see that it is happening now, and this is something that Maitreya talked about, what, thirty years ago? And it is happening. It is actually happening.

So never forget that we are the seed, we are the beginning of God's Kingdom on earth, and God has to be part of the system. You cannot put Him out. He has to be there.

So great to see you all. My love to all of you, and Sal-Om. Thank you.

Noor: I will just say really quickly that something I was thinking about the other day that relates to what you just said, Mommy. I am going to call you Mommy. That you talk about how the doubt, our strength is from not having doubt, it is faith. And I think that if any intellectual or scientist ever questions, "What is faith, is faith this useless thing?" just tell them to look at the placebo effect.

Do you know what the placebo effect is? It is the effect that you give someone something that does not do anything, it is a sugar pill, but because they believe that it does something, it does. It actually does. Or there have even been cases where they give them a relaxation pill and tell them that it is a stress pill, or a pill that promotes anxiety, and the people feel more anxious.

So if any scientist, any intellectual, or any agnostic, anyone who does not understand this teaching, asks you, "What is this faith, what is this useless belief of faith?" just tell them that. That is faith. Even not faith in God, faith in a sugar pill has the potential to change the human body at a molecular level. So what do you think faith in God can do?

That is it.

Ananda Ma: Sal-Om everyone. I wanted to say something about how wonderful this Mission is and has been. And it seems like all of you have said what is on my heart to say. So there is not very much left to say.

I started with knowing that Maitreya was in the world, reading THOTH, all my answers were... all my questions were answered one by one through the readings of THOTH. It was just wonderful.

This Mission is wonderful and it has always been wonderful, and I expect it to be... just to be more than what I see it to be today, in the years to come.

That is it. Thank you.

Noor: There are not many other people in the room. I will leave it open for a little longer. If anyone else has anything else to say, go ahead.

Tahirah: I just wanted to say that I just have tears for joy right now. I just have a very deep heartfelt feeling, and very joyful, and so sometimes, mainly when I get overwhelmed with joy, I cry. Tears of joy.

Veronica, my cat, she is sitting here too because she enjoys the Mission so much. She is attending the Feast with me at this point. Thanks God.

Noor: She can be the kitten of the tribe of Judah. How about that? 30 more seconds. Speak now or hold your peace until tomorrow. Sal-Om.

Tahirah: OK, one more thing and then I am not saying anymore. I just wanted to share that I have been feeling very, very strong this whole week, this whole month actually, about the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

I just feel that, I see Maitreya, as the proud and strong Lion with his roar, I can just almost feel his roar at this Feast. So I am just feeling the energies of the Lion of tribe of Judah and am thankful, just thankful.

Keyosha: I just wanted to take a moment too to recognize that there are a number of disciples that for various reasons cannot be here who also have wonderful stories about how they found Maitreya and the Mission, and how much this Mission means to them. Numbers is the Hand of God in a way, but in a way too sometimes it is just a matter of having to be here in Spirit. So I just wanted to take a moment of silence for us to feel those stories as well.

One other quick thing: Noor, you were sharing about faith, and it brought back to me a Satsang where Maitreya talked about faith, a question was asked about faith. And I love the next step that he gave in that Satsang, which is, "After a while you just Know. It goes beyond faith and you just Know that it is the truth."

I just wanted to share that. Sal-Om.

Noor: All right then, yes, I think we have said our peace, it seems like. So, thanks God. Let us have a great Feast. Enjoy! May we be with God forever. Sal-Om, and be ready to wake up bright and early tomorrow [laughing].

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