I want to emphasize the title of this message but want to tell you that I need to provide a foundation first and to set the stage for this very important concept. So, I thank you for your patience ahead of time.

I am suggesting that a new world is being born and along with that, a new knowledge. The process of awakening for the individual is essentially the evolution for the collective, for the planet. It is essentially the changes that you see taking place in the world.

This slow process uses the exterior, material world as a tool of that awakening and in doing so, you are witness to a greater and greater awareness of the power that lies inside of you. The power that lies inside of you is the awakening process itself, for the power inside of you is synonymous with Self.

Through this cumulative, gradual process, you become more aware that there’s something else going on, that there is a will that is operating outside of you but connected to you in some way.

**The process of awakening for the individual is essentially the evolution for the collective, for the planet. It is essentially the changes that you see taking place in the world.**

The Will of God, the divine will, is none other than the will that resides inside of you, so there is the macro, universe at work and there is the micro, individual at play.

The ever-increasing motivation to know that power is an essential part of all human beings but, without a conscious understanding of the nature of its existence in the first place, you can see around you the problems it creates.

Now, consider that there are three levels:

There’s you the individual, the physical.
Then, there’s the cosmic, the metaphysical.
Then, there’s the transcendent, the whole thing, the oneness, the vastness, the all.

Birth is the stipulation that you will engage in the playing out of this unfolding but without remembering this and is this separation, this division, this amnesia, that prevents you from really making progress with your life. As a result, lifetime after lifetime is required to bring the already established result…your awakening…about.

Any alternative to this destination is of your making and these alternatives represent your illusions, your ignorance, and your resistance to the already established destination. As a result of essentially being trapped in the physical without any access to the cosmic or the transcendent, all of us are subjected to the physical processes and natural laws related to negativity. This negativity is housed at all levels of your mental, physical and emotional being, at conscious and unconsciousness levels.

Your lack of understanding of a higher knowledge causes you to play the game of life through the unevolved parts of yourself versus the higher parts of your Self. This results in your karma. Karma is the result of self-imposed stupidity and unconsciousness, self-imposed in order to play the game.

In speaking only of the physical, from the beginning of the game (birth) to the end of the game (death), you are witness to levels of creation, preservation, and dissolution, and then creation preservation, dissolution, over and over and over. Subjected to attack and insufficiency on a regular basis, you have to figure out to support yourself, how to survive, how to make it.

As you eat, you’ll notice that at times you are the one being eaten. As you consume, you are consumed. Consuming more and more doesn’t change the mathematical balance of the consumption process. What you hoard, hoards you. What you use to build yourself up in life is the very thing that is over time, uses you up.

When these processes go out of whack and they almost always do, then dysfunction is a natural outcome of those forces at play; disease, decline, dissolution, death.

Your struggle with everyday life under these conditions and stipulations of unconsciousness and ignorance makes it nearly impossible to make progress for very long.

For example, the more you have, the more you are consumed by what you have. Any effort you make to improve your life in the physical world is always met by similar reactions in your environment that limit that effort, and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. This going back and forth generates greater intensity but still, you seek greater stability, financial stability, good health, love, etc.

You see that all others are seeking the same thing that you are seeking just in different textures and appearances, but still the same. You continue to seek experientially in the physical world what you cannot find existentially in the spiritual world, but to at last find and maintain the infinite happiness or well-being you seek, you keep seeking the infinite in the finite.

That doesn’t work, you’ll try this.

This doesn’t work, you’ll try that.

And on and on and on. These moments, these efforts add up over time, creating an experience that is your past. The accumulation of good, bad, and indifferent experiences that are used by the soul to enact the process of evolution requires a change of many kinds, including the change of life itself which is the process of death and then reincarnation.

From this viewpoint, you can see that Death is not a negation or ending of life but is a process of life. I have never heard an intuitive guide tell someone that they were the same person in different lifetimes, so, apparently, a change in form, environment, conditions, a different struggle, is required. Change becomes essential.

You frequently seek change in order to free yourself from the limitations and struggles of the time-space framework in which you find yourself. Ending relationships, ending jobs, moving to another location, changing your wardrobe, buying a new car, all of these behaviors are the individual’s attempt to improve, stabilize, and infuse in your daily life a sense of meaning and well-being in the midst of a whole that insists on doing the opposite.

In confronting your daily problems, your compulsions and addictions are all efforts to break up the struggle, the deep sense of limitation, and lack of freedom and control that occurs on a habitual basis. This process is supported by your attempt to self-aggrandize, to fulfill your unique desires that are inherent in your unique evolutionary process, that in fulfilling the ideals of your ego, you will at last know and have and own that freedom and stability…only to find the process starting over again.

It is this sense of being used up, this frustration, this never-ending struggle to find that stability that you deal with on a daily basis and the thing about is, is everyone else is going through it, too. It is absolutely true that eventually that all physical form disappears in the end, the act of death an unavoidable finality and in between your birth and your exit, it is absolutely true that you seek pleasure and enjoyment in your attempts to satisfy the innate hunger for joy that lies not just in you but everyone. You might notice that that process isn’t working very well for most people.

As I said before, some days you eat well, and some days you are well eaten, and that exchange, that principle of balance, often results in an immeasurable degree of dysfunction. What devours must be devoured. Add to that formula your unique karmic path and the fact that all other individuals are stumbling their way alongside you trying to figure out to get theirs which may involve the taking of yours and you see where this is going.

Separated from your source, experiencing limitations and incapacity, seeking but never finding, unconscious of its true Self, the wheel of evolution keeps churning. So, you have to make a decision and choose. Either the evolutionary process is nonsensical and meaningless in which case or the process is an aberration of life or an evolutionary process is an act of the infinite in the middle of the finite, creating an act of becoming, perfect and intentional, whose goal has already been established.

Your individualized struggle increases your skills, your learning, your growth until one day in one lifetime it recognizes itself in physical form. Rising above the limitations, above the barriers of your life is an inherent necessity in your being, in your existence, in your divine yearning. I want to say it again: it is a necessity.

The realization of the love that is most sought through relationships with others is a necessity.

This is the hidden consciousness that lies within, the unavoidable impulse you have as a human being that cannot be ignored. This is the basic structure of desire in your life, however awkwardly you have gone about the business of fulfilling your desires.

**Rising above the limitations, above the barriers of your life is an inherent necessity in your being, in your existence, in your divine yearning.**

The fulfillment of your desire structure is not only a necessity but also a justification for your efforts for until you realize the fulfillment of those desires, you cannot realize, much less consider, that something else is going on. It’s one thing to speak about consciousness and love and fulfillment but that subject is most entertained when your belly is full. Why should I bother when things are going so well for me, why should I bother with creating a spiritual life when I don’t need anything, you might say to yourself.

It’s another thing to bring up consciousness and discussion around a spiritual existence when you are broke, hungry, broken, and distraught. I don’t have time for these discussions, I can’t waste my time, I’ve got to get more money, more sex, more love, then, I can focus on things more spiritual. Once my cravings are met, maybe I can start reading, start meditating, start a different life.

And I have established that everything in the finite, in the physical, must disappear, leaving you right back at the beginning of the game of chance of trying to fulfill your desires again…and again…and again.

This play, this game of life is what I refer to as the unconscious play of unreal thought. But, under what conditions, if any, could desire not to be present? If desire was not present, what would you be thinking, sensing, feeling? Isn’t that what you want…to have your desires fulfilled, to at last reach the pinnacle of joy, of needing nothing from anybody or anything for any reason to realize that you were perfect just the way you are?

Scarcity must be replaced by abundance, weakness must be replaced by strength, separation must be replaced by unity, struggle must be replaced by peace, and fear must be replaced by love. The reason that you know this is a necessity is that this is what you’re trying to do on a daily basis, every day of your life. “Mine is the labour of the battling Gods” is not just a great quote but it is the struggle of your life. Mind, body, and emotions have yet to cross the threshold of the fourth quarter of the spiritual existence which is the defining characteristic of our changing world for it takes little effort to see with great clarity that until you seek a larger and more comprehensive understanding of your life, another meta-system, you are doomed to repeat the old one. And so is the world.

But I want to ask you again, under what conditions, if any, could desire not to be present? If desire was not present, what would you be thinking, sensing, feeling? Under what conditions could scarcity be replaced by abundance, weakness replaced by strength, separation replaced by unity, struggle replaced by peace, and fear replaced by love?

It would be the movement from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the daily grind to the divine, and if you could imagine that you could pull that off and you could look at the unconscious you and remember when you didn’t know what you now know, what is that you didn’t know? What is it that you pretended to be true, what illusions did you practice in your former life, the life in which your desires were met with opposition, setback, and failure?

**Under what conditions could scarcity be replaced by abundance, weakness replaced by strength, separation replaced by unity, struggle replaced by peace, and fear replaced by love?**

What is the difference between the unconscious you and the unconscious you? How did you rise above the ever-present pattern of birth, desire, struggle, and death? What judgments, beliefs, opinions, perceptions, positions did you practice in being stuck in the fixed-tape-loop of your incapacity never being able to fully experience capacity, fulfillment? Now, staying in the moment of being here, in the physical body, in that movement of birth, desire, struggle, and death, where do you turn for support?

Now, for some reason, if you think I am over-stating the struggle of the individual in the face of the disaster-ridden world of duality, of the ongoing battle of good and evil forces in the world in which we live, I encourage you to look again.

Today, as you listen to this message, in the middle of this mess, how do go about getting the support and affirmation you need to continue the journey, to what or to whom do you turn? Friends, family, do you drink too much, watch TV and zone out, do you self-inflict, do you self-anesthetize, stay online all night, sex-out, fantasize? What are your addictions that keep you moving through the day-to-day?

Now, go back to some of my earlier comments: what is the end result that your individualized, evolutionary is seeking? Scarcity is replaced by abundance, weakness replaced by strength, separation replaced by unity, struggle replaced by peace, and fear replaced by love. If that is the end result, but, of course, highly individualized, in the way that you and no one else would do it, what is the source of that realization? In other words, to what would you attribute your realization, your discovery? God? The absolute? The Divine? Perhaps you have another word for it.

As you have heard me say, as above, so below. So, as your skills and consciousness increase in daily life, the horizontal physical life, so are your skills increasing in the vertical, spiritual life.

What do you call that vertical, spiritual life?

Now I want to use an example with which most people are familiar.

It concerns the life of Jesus and what we know about Jesus that is contained in the Bible. I want to go to the path of the crucifixion and ask you to recall to whom Jesus spoke. Are there any indications that he called out to any of the disciples to save him, to ask him to carry the cross, to give him water? Once on the cross, did he appeal to anyone to get him down?

In Matthews 27:45-50, in the King James version, it states, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ translated, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’”

The idea of a man who did not appeal to anyone for help and who felt forsaken at the same time is incompatible. I struggled with this scene for a very long time in my life and I finally arrived at the conclusion that he could not have said this because he was one with God, with the Divine. Jesus knew that he was not a body but was man spiritualized, unthreatenable and it would have been impossible for him to see himself as being forsaken for any reason for it was that union with God that allowed him to complete his mission, to demonstrate that life is not about the crucifixion but is about the resurrection.

So, back to the question, to whom did he speak? He spoke to God.

A man named Bulkent Rauf, known as Hamide, was a Turkish-British mystic who was born in 1911 and died in 1987. He asked this question and then answered it.

‘What is the single most important point that must be understood by a person who wants to know? It is that there is only One, Unique, Absolute, Infinite Existence. It must be more than an idea. One has to be so completely certain of it that one adopts it through reason and an intuition as the basic unshakeable fact of one’s existence.
When it is like that in one’s existence then every possible ramification that occurs to one is seen as not being outside The Existence, but as being an aspect of it. Accept and completely adopt the idea that there is only the Unique, Absolute Existence, apart from which there is not.
Then constantly, or as much as possible, keep it in mind.
Then, as only He can adopt such an idea, you disappear in the face of the awareness of this idea (which is Him in any case – who else could think of it?).
Then your consciousness of this idea is your consciousness of His Existence; His consciousness of Himself.
Then where are you? You never were. He shows you He is yourself, then bit by bit He shows you how He is all that there is.
These showings are His caprices until all exterior existence is known as Him. He shows you He is you, then shows you (Himself) that all else is Him. In the instant, all so-called progress is annihilated in Him.”

Maria Alfassa Richard, who became known as the Mother, said this of that power of which Hamid speaks.

She said,

“But the true reaction, the pure reaction is an enthusiastic impulse of collaboration, to play the game with all the energy, the willpower at the disposal of one’s consciousness, in the state one is in, with the feeling of being supported, carried by something infinitely greater than oneself, which makes no mistakes, something which protects you and at the same time gives you all the necessary strength and uses you as the best instrument. And one feels that, and one feels one is working in security, that one can no longer make any mistakes, that what one does is done with the utmost result and — in delight.
That is the true movement; to feel that one’s will is intensified to the utmost because it is no longer a tiny little microscopic person in infinity but an infinite universal Power which makes you act: the Force of Truth. This is the only true reaction. I understand well, there are people who do not like the idea of a “Divine”, because immediately it gets mixed up with all those European or Occidental conceptions (which are horrible) and then that complicates their life somewhat — but you are not in need of that! — the “Something” one is in need of, the Love one is in need of, the Truth one is in need of, the supreme Perfection one is in need of — and that is all.
The formulas... the fewer formulas there are the better. But that: a need, which the Thing alone can satisfy — nothing else, no half-measure, only that. And then, you go! Your way will be your way, that has no importance — whatever the way, it does not matter, it does not matter; even the extravagances of the modern American youth can be a way; that has no importance.”

Sri Aurobindo says: “If you cannot make God love you, make Him ﬁght you. If He will not give you the embrace of the lover, compel Him to give you the embrace of the wrestler. For He is sure to conquer you.”

So, to whom should you turn for support, solace, comfort? The answer is no one.

No support. No intermediary. No priest. No friend. No therapist.

Go straight to the source, straight to the Divine, to God, and to no one else.

Stop living at the mercy of the forces of life that wear you down and start living by the grace of the force that dwells inside of you.

For you are the thing, and God resides inside of you. Appeal to That, with a capital T, not for rescue, for a miracle, but for knowledge, for understanding, for increasing your ability to see the truth of the event, the truth of your life and to understand that Truth is never and I mean never expressed in the negative.

Manage the balance of your horizontal and vertical life by seeking support from the source of your life and no one and nothing else. You don’t need crutches, you need the truth of who you are and what your life is about. Of course, seek clarity, find a teacher, attend a workshop, read A Course in Miracles or Savitri, but go within to seek and find the comfort, respite, resilience, and strength you need to move forward.

The lower you must unite with the higher you and you cannot achieve that by projecting your well-being onto others. Sooner or later the higher you must show up and your horizontal life will unite with your vertical life and you will know grace.

Only what is can become and as Hamid says, “It is that there is only One, Unique, Absolute, Infinite Existence. It must be more than an idea. One has to be so completely certain of it that one adopts it through reason and an intuition as the basic unshakeable fact of one’s existence.”

No support. Move within for there lies all of the support you need because that is who you are, becoming, unfolding, a spiritual being in a physical body.