LOVE AND THE SPIRITUAL QUEST

Dear Ones,

You are constantly trying to make something of yourself. But you don't realize that you can never be what you are trying to be. You can only be what you are. So, why don't you give up, dear ones. You can only be what you are. Therefore, these efforts are wasted.

I see you trying to be hard, trying to be superior, trying to be guarded, trying to be separate, trying to be distant, trying not to feel. If you are honest with yourself, you will see that this is what you are trying to do all the time. But you often call it a different name. You might call it trying to be loving, trying to be detached, trying to be strong, trying to be good, trying to gain enlightenment.

My dear ones, you need guidance, you need to be shown what you are really doing. Because in all your trying, you are the blind leading the blind. You do not see your own error.

The truth is, My dear ones, all this trying is in vain.

There is such a thing as ego-transcendence, My dear ones, and I would have you practice it. This is important, that you should overcome your egos.

But this world's ideas of what that is are not true. Some people seem to think that if they gain complete self-mastery over their mind, then they have transcended the ego. This is not true. You can have a very well disciplined mind, and still be identified with ego. Just as you can have a well trained body, and still be identified with the ego.

Of course, it is important to discipline your mind. This will help you with your relationships, your happiness, your peace, your functionality. But do not consider this enlightenment. It has benefits, but it is not necessarily enlightenment.

Another thing that people tend to think is enlightenment, which is similar, is detachment, and the Mystical experience of not perceiving duality, and not seeing any problems. Dear ones, when this happens, you have come into contact with Reality, certainly. But there is another sense in which you are not complete. My dear ones, most of My children who enjoy this detachment are missing something essential.

The truth is, you must be able to experience the reality of duality, the reality of people, the reality of your relationships with people, and be at peace, and be connected. The peace and connectedness that comes from stepping out of human feeling is not complete. My dear ones, you were made with a mind, and with emotions, and you were made as relational beings.

These meditators, these ones who enjoy the enlightenment that is of detachment nature, are often avoiding relationships, because they know that they cannot be in these relationships, and still enjoy that kind of peace. My dear ones, this is not complete enlightenment.

The mind must be disciplined within life. You must feel total unity, and have relationships with people. You must feel totally at peace, and be involved in life. It is relatively easy to feel peace alone up on the mountain. But you were not made to be alone on the mountain for your whole life. Humankind was not meant to be just a number of isolated individuals, pursuing their spiritual awakening. You were meant to have relationships with each other, and you were meant to be spiritual within those relationships. You were meant to be happy, at peace, and connected and involved with people.

My dear ones, the peace that you gain from stepping out of life in order to discipline your minds cannot last. It cannot last, because your True Soul will always call you back, to be a part of the allness, a part of the universe, and a part of the human race. That is because you are created as part of a duality. You are not simply One, even though it is true that you are One. The truth of your existence as a soul here cannot be denied.

So, your soul will always have you return to relationship with people, and the universe. But now, I will warn you, My dear ones, the challenge of being well in relationship to the whole universe, including people, will rob you of your peace, as soon as you step into it. And when that happens, you will think, "I knew it. I knew that I needed to remain apart from this in order to remain at peace and connected." This is what you will think, but it is not true. The truth is, you feel this turbulence, because this is a challenge that you have not yet faced, and mastered. Of course you do not feel at peace. You will have to discipline your ego within relationship to feel at peace within relationship.

Therefore My dear ones, things are not always as they appear. When a person takes a pain pill, and feels better, it does not mean that the disease is gone from their body. In the same way, when you learn to discipline your mind while isolated, and you feel better, that does not mean the ego has been overcome. The ego is what is keeping you from re-entering life and relationship. Because you are afraid of the challenge it represents. And because your ego knows, that if you can be free within relationship, then you are truly free. If you can be free even while you care, then you are truly free.

My dear ones, it is an aberrance that mankind has taken to the pursuit of enlightenment in such a way that it has nothing to do with love. It has everything to do with self-mastery. You want to master your minds, your bodies. You want to hone your awareness, your understanding. My dear ones, when you approach spirituality this way, you are no different than an athlete training their body to perfection. There is nothing wrong with that, in and of itself, but if that is what you think spirituality is then you are deluded.

Spirituality and enlightenment are about love. When you can love, always, without recoiling, without withdrawing from people, without reacting to people, then you will be truly enlightened.

Nothing else will ever satisfy your soul. Even if you gain an awareness that penetrates all, even if your understanding encompasses the entire universe, even if you have the most intense Mystical experiences, you will not be complete. Only love, real love, leads to true enlightenment. Love that is committed. Love that does not withdraw.

This, My dear ones, is what you should practice. This is the number one purpose of your life. This is everything. Nothing else comes even close to this in importance. This is everything.

Love and love and love,

Your Mother