THE NATURE OF SUFFERING -- PART TWO

Many Forms of Suffering

 There are many forms of suffering. Some obviously involve pain, and when I talk of pain I am talking of physical, emotional and spiritual pain. Believe it or not, the easiest pain to bear of those three is physical pain. So what we are talking about is that eventually one learns not so much to overcome pain but to come to terms with it because one can see a meaning and a purpose in that pain. What is difficult to handle is when one experiences pain for no apparent purpose. If there is a purpose and a meaning for the pain, for example when in childbirth, then one comes to terms with that pain and can see it as an evolving process.

When you come to deal with emotional and spiritual pain that is something entirely different. Physical pain is something you can understand, but how do you come to terms with emotional pain, shall we say when your husband or your wife dies and you are left grieving at the loss. Then let us consider the next degree which is spiritual pain. Suppose that you were to die at an early age of a heart attack through abusing your physical body by wrong eating and wrong living and you left behind a wife and young children. From the higher planes of life you would then witness your family living in great difficulties and although you would want to help them you could do nothing about it. That would cause you spiritual pain. That sort of pain is very difficult to come to terms with, but it is something you will all have to face one day.

Basic Cause of Suffering

As individuals you are all going to suffer. The basic cause of all suffering is ignorance. There is no need to suffer, for where there is Light, where there is Truth, where the Love of your Creator is present, there can be no suffering. Suffering can exist only in Darkness (ignorance). It cannot exist in Light. So when you, as an individual, think that you are suffering, recognize that it is because you have not come to terms with yourself as an individual. You have not balanced yourself with the surroundings in which you live, you have not merged your soul, your spiritual wisdom and knowledge, with the physical evolutionary path that you have chosen.

Understanding Suffering

There is no need for suffering. With the understanding of suffering comes the removal of pain, both physical, emotional and spiritual. It is a hard lesson to comprehend, but it is true. If you think back in your life to when you have suffered you will discover that that suffering was born out of a seperation between yourself and your Creator. Suffering only occurs when you lose trust in Its Plan, in Its Perfection, in Its total Being within which you live, move and have your being. When you have fear you are not in touch with your Creator. When you have extreme emotion you are not in touch with your Creator. At such times you will suffer. It is in the harmonization of one´s being with the Universe of which you are all a part that there comes an end to suffering.

So as your progress through the years to come, as you face your lessons in life, some painful, some less painful, when you think that you are suffering, look at yourself. Look at that part of you which is suffering. Is it the soul or is it the ego, the personality self?? Even the Master Jesus upon the cross suffered. But what was the nature of his suffering? It was not for himself. It was for the World which he was soon to leave, the World which had apparently ignored his message and act of being.

He who was overshadowed by the Christ, who had come to lead the World into the Piscean Age, was about to be crucified and the suffering that he felt was the suffering of an evolved soul for a less evolved Earth. It came from his understanding of what the Earth would have to go through. He saw what was to come. That was the nature of his suffering. So when you as individuals suffer, think of that example. Think not of yourselves but of the Earth, for when the Earth as a whole suffers then truly you will suffer as well.

This article is taken from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala".

THE NATURE OF SUFFERING -- PART ONE

There are two kinds of suffering. There is the perceived suffering when you as an individual see others undergoing their trials and tribulations, their suffering, and there is the suffering which you as an individual experience because of your own actions. It is essential that we comprehend the significance between these two forms of suffering, for they are not the same.

Placing Responsibility

Many people today believe that all suffering can be externalised. They can place the responsibility for their suffering on God, the government, their job or some other person. Let us begin, therefore, by looking at the relationship between God and suffering, for if we understand that relationship we can apply that understanding to all the lesser examples. The question is often posed, both consciously and unconsciously, that if God is a God of love, how then can that God permit suffering? The answer is, of course, that God does permit suffering for suffering is a refining process on the soul´s path of evolution.

Suffering should not be seen as a punishment visited upon a wayward child by a dominant parent. Suffering is something which both individuals, groups and nations attract unto themselves. It is usually the result of what they have done, of the seeds that they have sown, both in this and previous lives. Although the power that you call God could alleviate that suffering if It so wished, It does not, because It too is ruled by the Laws of the Univers, Laws such as the Law of Cause and Effect and the Law of Equalisation. Therefore, in Its wisdom, your God sees the purpose of suffering. It sees the need for individuals to come to terms with what they have attracted and brought down upon themselves.


Reincarnation

 It is difficult, if your consciousness cannot accept the concept of reincarnation, of life after life after life, to see how suffering can be regarded as a evolutionary process. For if you lead only one life and then perish forever, and if you have suffered deeply and grievously in that one life, then how can there be justice in that? Truly, if that was the case, then life would not be just. But those of you who have walked a little further along the evolutionary path than most of Humanity are aware that you bring into being with you in your physical body all that you created in other lives, on other levels of existence beyond the physical plane of Earth. You bring with you not only your spiritual wisdom, but also the sins of the past, the lessons you have not learnt, the karma you owe both to yourslef and to others. So as you advance through the life which you now lead you will automatically attract unto youself the lessons which you have chosen to learn, the karma you have chosen to transmute.


A Choice Not A Punishment

If there is one point which I would like to emphasize now, it is this: That Suffering is chosen by yourself. It is not given to you by your Creator as a punishment. It is chosen by you, willingly as a lesson to learn, as a lesson which your soul needs at this particular point in its evolution. Therefore, when you who live here in the west, at this time observe the suffering of other countries, of other races, as they conflict with each other, you must realize that those countries and races are learning a lesson in which you have no part, for you have come to learn a different lesson, a different aspect of evolution. You can observe the suffering of others but you must not become one with it.

Recognize that the suffering is part of their lesson. You may express compassion for them, you may offer help when it is sought, but there is little that you can do to ease their suffering, their trials, their tribulations, for that is something which they as individuals have to resolve. You in your wisdom might see the resolution of their problem, the answer that must come about, but you cannot impose that answer upon them. They must bring it forth from within themselves in order to end their suffering.


Facing Your Own Path

As you look around the World today you can observe the quickening of the planet, and the fact that Armageddon is here. Because of this, suffering will abound and multiply all over the planet. No one can avoid it. You, as individuals, must come to terms with that. You must not allow the suffering which this great evolutionary step forward will create to swamp you. I may seem to you that I am inviting you to be hard-hearted, to shut your eyes to the suffering of others, but I am not.

Yes, you may have eyes for them. Yes, you may have compassion for them, but do not let the lessons of other people, do not let the karma of other nations, become your karma. You can, of course, take on that burden if you so choose. That is your birthright. But is it the destiny of your choosing? It is so easy to externalise your own suffering, your own lessons, your own evolutionary path, onto the suffering of others, onto the lessons that you have already learnt, because you do not want to face your own path, your own struggle. There are many today who side-track their evolutionary path by placing themselves on the paths of others.

Part Two follows...

This article is taken from "The Fantasic Teachings of Ramala".

DAWNING OF THE NEW AGE

There are souls of great evolution incarnating on the Earth at this time. Some of them have not been present on the Earth for over ten thousand years. However, they are incarnating into an environment which they find hard to understand. Your world today is so out of balance that it is almost impossible for an evolved child to find the harmony necessary for spiritual growth. It is therefore imperative that an environment be created where these great souls can manifest their true wisdom and potential, and so allow them to be heralders of the New Age.

Responsibility & Choices

I wonder, as you read my words, if on a physical level you are aware of the responsibilities that have been placed upon the shoulders of all evolved souls at this most critical time in the Earth´s evolution. I wonder if you are aware in your innermost beings of the reality of the present world situation and of the choices which Humanity faces at this time. Yes, a new Age is dawning, but many other Ages have come and gone. You yourselves are aware of the events of the Piscean Age and know how its evolutionary cycle has unfolded.

You are aware of the human progress that has been achieved but, equally so, you can recognise the errors that have been made. You can see how Humanity has strayed from its destiny path leading to this moment of world crisis which you face today. What, therefore, is so significant about this new Age? Why is this Aquarian Cycle so much more important for the path of human evolution than any other age, than even the last Piscean Age which witnessed the grounding of the Christ energy.

The Aquarian Age

I will begin by asking you to visualise a ceremony of the ancient Druids, as they met to celebrate the summer solstice. Standing in their circles of stone they would wait expectantly for the sun to rise. They would know the direction and time of its rising, and as they stood in the morning twilight, eyes fixed on the marker stone, so they would be aware of the first rays of light as the sun began to rise towards the visible horizon. You, today, can be compared to those Druids, and the sun is but a symbol of the new Age.

At this time you are experiencing the twilight of the Aquarian Age. You cannot see the Age for it has not yet risen above the visible horizon but, like those Druids, you wait in anticipation for it. You cannot yet see its power and its light. You cannot yet know of the path of its evolutionary cycle. You cannot yet know, unless you are a soul of the highest consciousness, of the picture that this Aquarian Cycle will paint on the Earth.

From One Cycle to Another

Now there are some today who say that they know these facts and, because of this, they are misleading many people by defining the new Age according to their limited vision. It is for this reason that I speak now to all evolved souls on the plane of Earth at this time. Recognise that you are part of a select band of beings who came on the Earth to initiate and transmute, to help the Earth move forward from one cycle to another. You have experienced this event in many lives, in many cycles, and therefore you feel within you a sense of anticipation, the same as you would await the birth of a baby. You know that the seed has been sown, that the baby has formed itself, that the Age is about to dawn, and that at the correct moment it will come into life and will be touched by the same cosmic breath that awakens a baby to life.

You all know that the new Age is soon to dawn. You have within your soul-consciousness the knowledge of the part that you have to play in that birth, the individual responsibilities that you have come to fulfil, for you are the midwives of the Aquarian Age. Although the cosmic energy pattern is present, it still requires individual human activity to ground that cycle to come, in just the same way as the Nazarene grounded the Christ Energy two thousand years ago. It needed his physical presence on the Earth in order to become manifest.

Being Misled

But as we of the Spiritual Hierarchy look down on the Earth at this time we see everywhere that many souls of aged evolution are being misled. It is inevitable, at such a critical time in the Earth´s evolution, that the Forces of Darkness should be present just as much as the Forces of Light. Therefore as you strive to ground the energies of the new Age recognise that what you create now, what you bring into physical manifestation, will attract corresponding energies in the Universe as a whole. Hence the Forces of Darkness would like nothing better at this time than to subvert the path of the Aquarian cycle, for this cycle is destined to be THE GREATEST CYCLE IN HUMANITY´S EVOLUTIONARY PATH. It will surpass even the evolutionary cycle of Atlantis.

Many of you lived in that cycle and have returned now, as part of the karmic pattern for which you are responsible, to prepare the way for the re-emergence of the Atlantean energy. Recognise, therefore, that much of the evil that was present in Atlantis is coming to the surface again. As you look at the planet today, as you observe the quickening of the Earth´s vibration and note the increase in the frequency of natural disasters, the increase in Humanity´s violence, in its self-centredness, in its arrogance, so you cannot but fail to recognise that you are approaching a time of decision. You are approaching a time when Humanity, both individually and collectively, must decide on a path of action.

Divine Plan

To you, perhaps, the concept of Armageddon is frightening. It signifies the release of energies beyond the control of Humanity, but if Humanity did but know it, it rarely controls its environment. Because of its great intellectual progress Humanity has been led into believing that it is the master of its fate, that it is the master of the physical World, that Humanity alone decides the path upon which it walks. But those of you who are aware of the God in all things, who recognise that the Divine Plane alone manifests on this Earth, know in your heart that the cycle which is now beginning was planned aeons of time ago.

It has been seen on other levels and has been prophesied by many beings. It is a necessary path of evolution for this Earth. You are here, therefore, as witnesses to that path of evolution. Within your innermost beings is the knowledge of what is to come. It may not be with you on a conscious level, on a level which you can pull down into everyday physical reality, but within your heart is the knowledge of what is to come and the part that you must play in it.

Creating The New Age Cycle

It is, therefore, of the utmost importance at this time that those of you who have come to herald this new Age, who have come to birth this new child, should be true to yourselves, should be true to the spirit within you. You should strive at all times for purity of thought, word and deed, for as you create now so you are creating for the new Age, you are preparing the ground for the new Age seeds that will come.

As the sun, symbolising this new Age, rises above the visible horizon, and as you greet it as did the Druids of old, let us hope that you will be able to say that the ground has been properly cultivated and that the souls for which you are responsible have been trained and made aware of their responsibilities. We, for our part, pray that as the light of that sun, as the light of the Age, comes down and the seeds begin to shoot, you will be able to look back and say "I have been worthy of the trust that has been placed in me".

This article is from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala"

THE FUTILITY OF WAR -- PART THREE

I ask you, therefore, in this year of resolution to go deeply within yourselves and to seek your peace for, truly, that peace is the only peace that endures. If you do not have peace in your hearts then you do not have peace in your thoughts, your words or your deeds. You cannot achieve peace by war. You cannot achieve peace by violent action, by aggression. YOU CANNOT ACHIEVE PEACE BY THE DESTRUCTION OF THAT WHICH THREATENS PEACE.

No Peace by War

If you have destroyed an enemy that threatens you, you may have removed that enemy from the physical plane of Earth but what of the thought-forms and the energies that you have created? What of the energies of hatred and revenge you have created? What of the beings who will come back and inherit the mantle of those thought-forms and energies?

Where Is The Victory?

Peace, therefore, involves the quality of humility, of personal surrender. If someone wishes to fight you and you refuse to fight, where is the victory? Though that person may achieve that which they desire they will not be fulfilled by their "victory" if there has been no struggle to achieve it, if it has been given to them freely with love. What is the real nature of surrender? All of you as individuals find it so difficult to surrender, yet the example of all the great Masters has been just that: the release of the physical in loving surrender and from that act of release comes great strength.

If you consider some of the people of this Earth who have stood for peace, who by their very demonstration have shunned war, if you consider the impact that they have had on Humanity you will see that their example is remembered far more than the example of the generals and the soldiers, who achieved peace through war. Peace can be achieved for only a short time through war. That form of peace never lasts. The everlasting peace is the peace that you create with your hearts, with the love that comes from within.

Not Imposing Dominion

Peace is an individual creation. It begins with one person then spreads to two and then to four and so on. Peace is an energy of wholeness which begins individually and then expands. Peace cannot be imposed by above. Peace cannot be imposed by any greater country, by any greater force. Is it not strange that with so many other beings in our Solar Body, with so many other evolved life-forms in our Galaxy, no one seeks to wage war on you? If there are these highly evolved beings from other planets, who visit the Earth in their space ships, with the cosmic power that they possess they could easily establish dominion over this planet and over Humanity as a whole. But they do not do that, rather they seek only to help Humanity along its evolutionary path.

There perhaps is the lesson that you should observe. When you have the power, when you have the consciousness, when you have the ability to impose dominion, you do not use it for self aggrandisement. Your space brothers respect your individuality, allow you the freedom to be what you want to be, to evolve at your own pace, to walk your own path and seek your own destiny. You too should give that freedom and that choice to all those around you.

A Greater Power

So during these critical years, when so much is being decided on the plane of Earth, be strong in yourselves. Know that there is a force that protects you, a power that is greater than any weapon that Humanity will ever create: Divine Love. Recognize that Divine Will controls all things on your plane of life. The note which you sound, the understanding of life which you exhibit, they are your protection. Inner peace is reflected in outer harmony and even though you are faced by energies of extreme disharmony they will not affect you.

Understand Life´s Oneness

Therefore seek that inner peace, seek that inner wisdom. Know it as the one-ness of your Creator, know it as the one-ness of life. Seek that one-ness in all things and you will find that peace, the peace that passes all understanding. Do not think that it is beyond your comprehension, beyond your attainment. Do not think that it can only be obtained through long periods of meditation and prayer and soul-searching. It can be obtained in the twinkling of an eye, in the understanding of the divinity in one´s self, in one´s purpose, in one´s destiny. That is the lesson of these divisive times, the nature of the choice that faces you all, for there are days coming when there will be war, there are days coming when there will be destruction and death. You must choose now whether you are to be a part of it or to rise above it.

This article is taken from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala".

THE FUTILITY OF WAR -- PART TWO

 

When can it be said that you are truly at peace? You are in a state of peace when you are at one with your Creator´s Will. When you are in tune with the Infinite you are at peace, and in order to be in tune with the Infinite you have to be self-less, you have to become part of the one-ness of all life, you have to become at one with the Godhead.

The One-ness of Life

If Humanity would but recognize its one-ness, its wholeness or holiness, there would be no need for war. If there were not political, financial or racial divisions there would be no war. Recognize that it is the divisions which Humanity creates that are the seeds of discontent, the seeds which lead to war. Consider in your own lives how often you are at war in your everyday relationships, not only with the people around you but with the other Kingdoms of Matter.

Be aware of how often you are not at one with the Infinite, of how often you make war to get what you want, what you desire, what you wish to achieve, no matter what the cost to those around you or to those who sacrifice to you.

So Little Is Gained

As you look back at Humanity´s past wars you can see that little has actually been gained though millions of people have died. Outwardly it may seem that one country has been prevented from taking over another country, a financial interest has been defended, an ideology has been preserved, but what of that country, that financial interest, that ideology, fifty or sixty years later? The countries that intiated the last World War have achieved many of the aims they sought militarily through other means.

The countries which were your enemies fifty and sixty years ago are now your friends, those which were your friends are now your enemies. It is obvious, therefore, that the sides which oppose each other in war, the power structures which conflict with each other, are human, temporal creations. It is not a question of right or wrong, of goodness or evil, of one side being for God and the other against God, for all is of God. Those that make war are, in a sense, fulfilling the Divine Plan.

Growth And Evolution

It must, of course, be said that God Itself does not desire or initiate war directly as a lesson for Humanity. War is a lesson which Humanity creates of its own choice. Nevertheless, it also cannot be denied that in the act of war great growth and evolution takes place for Humanity. Is it not strange how in a country at war people unite together as never before. The little differences which formerly seperated them are forgotten in the hour of crisis.

As people are faced with the suffering and the loss of war, as they discover the frailty of human existence, so they come to terms with the reality and purpose of life and death and recognize that they take place every minute of the day. That understanding of life, of course, is there for you to grasp whether there is war or not, but in time of war many people achieve great evolutionary breakthroughs in consciousness.

Part Three Follows....

This article is taken from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala".

THE FUTILITY OF WAR -- PART ONE

In this World there is a constant threat of war mainly because of the nature of Humanity´s political and financial empires. Much of the struggle that takes place between these empires is hidden from public view.



A Constant Threat

As ordinary individuals living your lives you are far removed from the machinations of those who control these empires. Indeed, you have very little idea of the plans that have been made and are ready to be implemented should the decision be made to go to war on any level.

Throughout the known history of Humanity there has always been war. Hardly a decade has gone by without one country or tribe fighting another country or tribe either to acquire a piece of land, to protect its boundaries and sphere of influence or to gain an advantage that was not held previously. The fact that there has not been a major war for so many years is only because the major powers of the World cannot see a way of achieving victory without great loss to themselves.

If a victory without too great a loss could have been achieved then there would have been war. You are, however, approaching a time of planetary resolution, a time when cosmic factors from beyond the plane of Earth will impel the major powers of this World to make far-reaching decisions, a time when the separatism of the past will have to go, either to be surrendered consciously and willingly or else to be removed forcibly from the plane of Earth.

Seeking Peace

All over the World today there are many who seek peace. They seek it in many ways: through peace movements, through writing and journalism, through marching and demonstration, through religion and prayer. But will they achieve peace in this way? Why has peace always eluded Humanity? Many people see peace simply as the absence of war but, as you well know, that is not true peace, for that form of peace is but an extension of war, especially if you are still plotting and planning to make war.

Peace is not the interval between wars. Can there indeed ever be peace while acts of mental aggression are taking place and weapons of mass destruction are being made? Can one achieve peace simply by getting rid of nuclear weapons or by stating that one is not prepared to use them unless one is oneself threatened by extinction?

International Politics = Power and Greed

The answer to all these questions is something which you as individuals are being forced to consider at this time because of the nature of international politics. Bet before you can do this you first have to decide the nature of your own peace, what you are prepared to accept or reject, to stand up and fight for or to surrender. I think it would be true to say that most people today seek peace externally. They feel that peace is something which has to be achieved through negotiation, through agreement, through reconciliation, but peace has never come to the plane of Earth through such methods.

Although a compromise may be agreed upon and the conflict of interests reconciled, after a few years the old enmities return since the desire for victory is still there. Even though the older generations may remember the scourge of war, there are still politicians who are prepared once again to resort to war as an instrument of national or tribal policy.

An Inward Expression

Can you not see, therefore, that peace is an inward expression. There cannot be peace outwardly unless there is peace inwardly. Moreover, it is the nature of your own inner peace that will decide your fate in the conflicts that are to come, for if you are at peace inwardly then the nature of the energy that you create and send out will attract peace unto you. You are all magnetic beings, attracting unto yourself according to the note that you send out, and though others may be at war you will be at peace. Though others may be engaged in war, though you may be surrounded by war, you need not be a part of it.

At this very moment in time consider how much of your World is in a state of war. Hundreds of thousands of human beings are killing themselves each year and yet you are not a part of that suffering and that slaughter. That is soon to change. Pressures will soon come upon the Western Civilization that will stretch the peace alliances to breaking point. Pressures will come not only from without but also from within. Therefore you, as individuals, at this time of resolution should resolve within your own hearts what is the nature of your own peace.

Part Two Follows....This article is taken from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala".