This article by John-Roger was first published in the Movement Newspaper in April 1978.
It takes great courage to see the face of God. It takes great courage to see the face of God within you. To see the face of God, you must go in very deeply, past all the things that camouflage reality for you, all the things that have frozen up inside of you, all the blocks that you have placed in the path of your own freedom. And you must confront and clear them all.– John-Roger
The mind of a human being is much like a tape recorder. It records what goes on, and then you spend time isolating and categorizing information for future use. This particular approach to life can lead you into various amounts of grief because much information that you receive cannot be catalogued or given any sort of reference point other than “just information.” If you try to live sources of “just information,” you are in for a lot of heartache. You can only live your experience. You can only know the validity of your own experience and how to make that work for you.
It is very important to realize that the essence of experience is that you are involved in time and space in this dimension, and that you are bringing to yourself all things that are for your unfoldment. It is important, too, to remember that there is really no separation between you and Spirit. When I speak of spiritual things, I am not speaking of either just a physical action or just an invisible action, but I am speaking of the totality of beingness. As you separate yourself from Spirit by saying, “I am physical and Spirit is invisible,” you may have placed yourself in judgment on your consciousness and you just might regret that action a little later on.
Many people reach out with the mind into the world and attempt to establish an identity upon which they can base their consciousness. This can be folly. All you probably have to do is look back over your own life to recognize the truth of that. As soon as you have established your consciousness in some particular area, you find that you soon become a little bored or a little dissatisfied with that. Then you have to go on to another thing to establish your consciousness. But when you reach that new thing, you again become dissatisfied. Maybe you are satisfied for a little while; the satisfaction is of a short duration so you get a rest before you start running again out into the physical world.
When you cease the mental and physical running hither and thither — when you stop reading every “information” book you can get your hands on, when you stop programming the tape recorder of your mind — then you can know what peace is, and you can let the essence that is divine come forward and move your consciousness into that which is Spirit. When you have done this, then you are in a state of beingness. The mind is quieted. The emotions are quieted. Physical activity is balanced. And you have the potential of entering into a sense of bliss.
This state of bliss is guarded and protected, and not many people get there. The thing that guards it and protects it is an empty void. When people reach that void, they falter; they stumble and they reach out again into the world of illusion and pull “information” to themselves, attempting to establish their identity out there in the world. It would be nice if that would work, but most of the time it doesn’t. The only way that I know it could work for you would be if you had infinite supply of all material goods that you could use and abuse to whatever extent you wanted. Then if you had a guarantee that you would live for two or three thousand years in order to get through it all, you would complete that experience. When you had gone through all things in the physical world, you could then leave it all alone. The other way is to go directly into the essence of divine Spirit, reside there, and have all things in spiritual consciousness. That way may be much quicker, if you would care to be a little less greedy and impatient.
When you sit still for a few moments and look inward — in meditation, contemplation or spiritual exercises — you often stumble over and hit your tape recorder button. The playback system comes on and plays back the miasma of things you have gone through. You may actually feel like you are throwing up inwardly. It may not be too nice. This process can shake you up. But that shaking can be a form of therapy if it shakes you loose from that which is corrupting your consciousness. When the Holy Spirit, the Light, the Mystical Consciousness become a vital force in your life, you can bet that if you have something hidden, it is going to be thrown up for you to look at. And some people just can’t take that. But those who can get to make the choice to be free and this freedom is known by the results, not just your thoughts.
If you look at your consciousness as an iceberg, you know that what you see is probably only about ten percent of the totality. Ninety percent is below “see” level. The part that you can see, you can chip away at and dissolve. If you saw an iceberg and felt that you had to dissolve it, you might start with the areas at the top, the jagged points that could be knocked off in a hurry, those tips that were obviously protruding. You might look at them and realize that those were the weakest areas or they wouldn’t be sticking out like that. You might realize that those areas were not supported by a good, solid foundation. As you knocked off those areas that were not secure, you might hear a resounding sound, and feel a shake as those areas fall away. The more you can knock off these areas that are insecure and out of balance, the more you can surface parts of the iceberg that have previously been invisible to you. Then you can work on those areas, also. It may be just as out of balance under “see” level as it is above. It just so happens that way too often you have lots of out-of-balance situations camouflaged with nice, clever words, sharp mentalizing, and beautiful images of illusions. And all that permits you not to look where you ultimately have to look.
It takes great courage to see the face of God. It takes great courage to see the face of God within you. To see the face of God, you must go in very deeply, past all the things that camouflage reality for you, all the things that have frozen up inside of you, all the blocks that you have placed in the path of your own freedom. And you must confront and clear them all.
The very thing that will free you, the shaking loose of all illusion, is the very thing that you run away from. Yes, it may be “terrible.” And yes, you may be miserable. But THANK GOD because now you can see more clearly. Don’t run away or paint the process bad or evil. If you do that, you may be painting yourself right out of business because, ultimately, you are going to have to come back to whatever area it is that frightens you and look. It doesn’t cost you one penny to look. The mind may say, “What will other people think?” You know what other people will think because you’ve been on that side often enough thinking about others. And your thoughts didn’t hurt them; they went right on. So will you go right on, regardless of what people think.
If you want to take the best trip, go in to the essence that is the Spirit in its pure form. When you get to that point, you can push a lot of buttons and dissolve a lot of “problems” rapidly. That process of turning inward to Spirit to release blocks will get you as far as the mental realm, maybe even the etheric realm, in your unfoldment. Some may luck into the Soul Realm, their own inner realm of Soul. But to get from that into the greater over Soul takes a different process, which we refer to as the Mystical Consciousness. Through that Consciousness, you can reach into the Holy Spirit; and through the grace of God that is extended to you, you can then reach into that realm which is your home. When you get “home” you can then work back into this realm, dissolving other things as necessary. You can reside in the heavenly realms while your physical body walks through this realm, clearing and dissolving all karmic debts.
The heavenly realm of the Soul is perfect; anything less than that is not perfect (nor is it the heavenly realm). There are errors on all lower realms. In some dimension, in some state of movement, there are always errors. It may seem perfect for a time, but eventually the errors become evident. There are certainly errors here on the physical realm. All you have to do is look at the way physical bodies fall apart. All you have to do is watch how people misplace emotions, or listen to how information comes tumbling out wrong. Passing on information is so tricky because almost as soon as you start talking about anything, it becomes fraught with illusion and lies and misinterpretations.
Go always to your own experience, to those things that work for you. If you try to get what is working for someone else, you get caught in the trap of glamour which blinds you with Magnetic Light so that you do not see the spiritual qualities; then you may really be hung up for quite some time. Have you ever seen people who say, “I must be doing something magnificent on this planet, but I don’t know what it is. I have come here to perform a great mission. I don’t know what it is yet, but I have to do something great.” They are not going to do anything except run from point to point to point to point, circle back on themselves and say, “My God, here I am again, right back where I started.” At some point, they’ll probably say, “‘Who needs it?” and let it go — sometimes out of disgust, sometimes out of hurt; but whatever makes them let go is cause for rejoicing. When they let go, they can become aware of where they live as a spiritual quality, a pure form. Then the world comes towards them, and they perform their destiny from a spiritual state, maybe discovering that they are great spiritual leaders — not because they are out soliciting devotees, but because people will follow Spirit wherever they find it.
When you find Spirit, you will find me also, because that is where I live. When you follow a spiritual leader who resides in Spirit, you follow all spiritual leaders who reside in Spirit. There is NO conflict among spiritual teachers. There may be conflict among their followers. Or there may be conflict between people who think they are spiritual teachers, but in fact are not. Those spiritual teachers become self-evident in the due course of time. They’re not difficult to find.
Remember that anyone who resided in the pure spiritual quality all the time would be dead to the physical world. Even the most evolved spiritual teachers must come back into this world at some points in consciousness and work on this level. And for everyone on this level, it is often the relationship level where the trials and tribulations seem to be — and yet they are not. That level — as are all other levels — is really perfect. The imperfection lies in your attitude, which comes from the programmed mind; that’s what stirs up the confusion.
Sometimes if you just stop thinking for a while, things can get really nice for you. You can get so many things done because there are few problems when you are not saying “good” or “bad” to every situation. When you just say, “There it is,” it’s easy. Now you don’t play the fool and close your eyes to the reality of your situation, but knowing something exists and giving energy into it happen to be two different things. I could very rapidly name off a lot of things that exist, and you might not give any energy into them at all: cars, planes, boats, houses, television sets, radios, horses, typewriters. You know those things exist, but they didn’t do anything to you, did they? If I talk about a nice, thick, juicy steak, smothered in mushrooms and onions and grilled perfectly — and for you vegetarians, lentil soup — you might notice that you start to get something of a reaction inwardly. But for some of you, that doesn’t do anything, either. When you can be aware of something, but not caught up in it, you are living in a consciousness of detachment, which can be very, very nice.
As you learn how to do, and then drop all judgment of that act, you will find the golden path to your own salvation. It is nice to know that you can do it yourself to a great extent. And if you don’t know how to do it now, then you will evolve up to it until you do know how. It is nice to know that there are infinite chances, and it is nice to know that you get a chance to create for yourself those things that you want.
Many of us have been to this realm many, many times in consciousness. We are the elders who have made a lot of mistakes along the lifetimes. But with those errors have come some greater awarenesses, some wisdom. And yet, the paradox is that the Soul does not necessarily evolve; it just adds to itself the pure essence of what comes to it. So the more purity you can perceive, the more you can purify the things that you attract to yourself, the things that add to the glory of the Light that you manifest.
As you attune to the Light and carry more Light all the time in your consciousness, you might find that you more specifically encounter the negative force that resides within people. In many people the negative force is predominant. So when the Light consciousness comes to it, it comes into confrontation. If the negative force in others is stronger than your spiritual Light, then you need reinforcements.
If you find yourself needing assistance, I am available to assist you when you ask for that in the inner consciousness. The spiritual quality that is the Mystical Traveler may come forward, and at that particular point, the negative force becomes self-defeating, because it turns against itself. The Mystical Consciousness reflects to the negativity exactly what it is; so then it fights itself in the false image until it gets so sick and tired of that, it gives up. Then the spiritual quality may come forward into expression and manifestation.
When you find yourself in conflict with another human being, it is often best to just hold in your consciousness, not reacting, until the spiritual quality comes into the situation and presents a mirror for the negativity to see itself. When people get tired of throwing up their negativity, they either leave the situation (which is fine) or they drop the negativity (which is fine). Either way, they know that the Light force is love, strength, kindness, and charity. Holding the Light for another person gives you a chance to check the quality of your strength and to see if you can stand the slings and arrows of “outrageous misfortune” that will be directed towards you. If you have a spiritual quality, you will find that you can turn it all into the Light, which passes it right back to the negative force. And you remain neutral and detached. You don’t have to push. You don’t have to force. You just let your own Light shine. And those who can see it will know its truth.
Baruch Bashan
WATCH A MOMENT OF PEACE WITH JOHN-ROGER
