However I believe that the Masters were human beings in this world once and have now joined the company of saints in the heavenly worlds. They have achieved what we are still struggling to do. They are our elder brothers. Indeed, they did sometimes speak of themselves as brothers. I know they spoke from the heavenly worlds because they said as much, describing themselves, for instance, as living in a world where all was poetry, music and colour. On another occasion one of them said he came to me in a sea of azure blue and gold. These descriptions are both taken from my records of the first year they spoke to me. Unfortunately I took fewer notes thereafter and have lost those I did take but I know they would sometimes mention the glory of their world in order to encourage me and stiffen my resolve to do my spiritual duty. At the same time, they had to tread a fine line with me then, as I see clearly now, because they needed me to come down to earth and not become a spiritual escapist, dreaming of heaven all the time and not being able to do the job in this world I was supposed to do.
I mention that because it is a common failing of those just entering on the spiritual path. Heaven is real. It is our true home. But we come to Earth to learn the lessons of Earth and that we will not do if we don't accept that here is where we are meant to be, for the time being at least. This is why suicide is regarded as wrong in religious circles. We have a duty to God and to our spiritual selves and should not try to circumvent that or avoid it, though I would not go so far as to say that suicide is always wrong and self-sacrifice for others is clearly another matter. Possibly this question is one on which there is no absolute rule but a general one which may be broken in certain exceptional circumstances. These would be exceptional though. Generally we have to deal with whatever life throws at us and have faith that it is either for our spiritual good or a way in which we can serve God's greater purposes for the human race. We have been assured that those who suffer now will be more than recompensed later, hard as that may sometimes be to believe.
My understanding of the Masters is that they form part of a spiritual hierarchy that is dedicated to the upliftment or spiritual education of humanity. They have been through the experiences of this world and come out of them triumphant. They have been crucified in Christ and risen with him. They are humanity's forerunners and examples of what we should be aiming to become. Most souls who have achieved then progress to higher heavenly worlds far removed from this mortal plane, but some remain in the spiritual orbit of our world from where they serve humanity. The bulk of their work on an individual level will be with our souls which remain in the higher worlds when we incarnate in this physical world (as they said, the greater part of you remains with us and I can assure you that you wish this training to take place however difficult it may sometimes seem). Thus they seek to inspire our intuition from whence, it is hoped, messages will filter down to our conscious earthly minds. But sometimes they are able to take a more direct approach. I can't say how or why this would happen but I can vouch for the fact that it does. However I feel bound to add that, in my view, the great majority of contacts made between people in this world and those in the next are not of this kind, whatever may be claimed. There is an abundance of spirits 'on the other side' and the vast majority are not of this elevated level. Even setting aside demonic deceivers, there are many who, because they are in a spiritual world which is much more expanded in every respect than this world, consider themselves to be more spiritually advanced that they actually are. These are the ones that the average psychic or medium will encounter.
As for how an aspiring individual might contact the Masters, that is not up to us. If such a thing is meant to be then it will be and that's all that can be said on the subject. What we can do is prepare the ground by making sure our spiritual motives are pure and our hearts properly inclined to the love of God. That is really as much as any of us can do and it is all that is expected.
3 comments:
@William - The fallibility of supernatural informers is an interesting matter; and one that generates a lot of confusion and almost opposite assertions.
Traditional Roman Catholic theology has angels as essentially infallible, since they are agents of God and lack free will - but of course they may be misunderstood.
Eastern Orthodox are very focused on the problem of devils pretending to be angels; the usual assumption is that spiritual experiences are all deceptive. And there doesn't seem to be an answer to this - indeed, in my reading, they do not really have an answer to this.
A lot hinges on the definition of angels - Catholics regard them as a separate creation - but there is a folk tradition (also in Mormonism) that angels are of various types, and include ex-mortal-Men (I would add 'pre-mortal' unincarnated Men).
A fascinating and important theme!
My understanding of angels is that they are of a different order to human beings, a separate creation as Catholics believe. I do though find it hard to square the idea that they don't have free will with the fact that some of them have fallen. Maybe there is a theological discussion of this that I don't know about.
Regarding supernatural communicators, it's important to find a happy medium (no pun intended) between accepting spiritual things indiscriminately and rejecting them all out of hand. And for that there is no magic formula or totally reliable test. It's a question of developing proper spiritual intuition, based on inner sensitivity to the good, the beautiful and the true.
@Bruce,
"Traditional Roman Catholic theology has angels [...] lack free will"
Do you have a reference for this? My understanding is Catholics believe angels have free will.
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