Task

Spiritual material resembles threads, fine, ray-like threads—in this case of somber color and texture—which are spun, knotted, and entangled, until there is such a tight ball of confusion that one can disentangle it only with the greatest difficulty. . . . it takes a great deal of effort to find the truth at all.

Now who is Christ? Some Christian religions claim he is God. This is not so, for he himself has said, as you can read in the Holy Scriptures, that he is not God. He is not the Father, or the Creator. Some say Jesus was just a wise man, a sage, a great teacher with great wisdom, not unlike a few others who have lived at other times in other countries. This is also wrong. The truth is, my friends, whether you want to believe it now or not, that Jesus, the man, was the incarnation of the Christ. And this spirit is the highest and most exalted of all created beings. He is the first direct and inborn creation of God. His substance is the same as the substance of God. All of you possess some of this substance which I call the higher self or the divine spark; it has to come out gradually through spiritual development. But no other created being has this substance in quite the same degree as the Christ. And there is the difference.

There are many ways, indeed, to test with what spirits you are communicating. Anyone who wants to judge must, under all circumstances, take the trouble to study the vast subject of how to test spirits. Only then will that person be in a position to determine from where they come. I have spoken about this subject and will do so again in the future. For the time being, I only wish to say this: If you still lack the necessary knowledge to determine with what spirits you are communicating and what laws are involved, you can ask your heart right now. You will get the answer to some extent, provided you do not let your doubts shade your feelings. If your feelings are receptive and open, you will be able to find and feel harmony, as well as love, patience, wisdom, and humility—or the opposite of all this. But your heart will only be able to speak to you and confirm what you wish to know if you are receptive, if you are open and put all prejudice aside for the moment.

Oh yes, the outer conflicts are always noticed, but you all know the outer conflict is only a reflection of the inner one. Yet people so often have the wrong attitude; in a very subtle way they think if they are trying to advance in a certain way, the outer conflict will eventually cease and they somehow expect conditions to change according to their own ideas, the preconceived ideas they have formed because of this wrong basic attitude. So you overlook the simple fact that first your ideas have to change before the vexing conditions have a chance to change too. Thus you find yourself at a certain crucial point on this path in a vicious circle: you wait for a change in your conditions, while the conditions wait for you to change your ideas.

The task of every fragmented, apparently disconnected aspect of consciousness is to realize its true identity and connection with the real self. This happens through an often laborious groping search, through attempts of the mind to expand its own narrow limitations.

What is the deepest meaning of the spirit of self-preservation? If the deep mind knows that there is eternal life, why does it hold on to life and instinctively fights leaving the body? This seems to be a contradiction.