Harmonic Convergence, August 17^th 1987 - Were you one of those 144,000 people world-wide who gathered together to pray for greater consciousness in order to deal with the upcoming changes supposed to culminate in 2012? What have you done to prepare yourself for any change in consciousness?

The concept of soul craft is one of reformatting – blind faith is just not good enough any more! We need to re-examine and become more truthful, not following anything because ‘it has always been so’ but investigating and bringing ourselves up-to-date, so to speak with where we are now. Consider changing deeply ingrained unnecessary habits, re-visiting the truths that we have been taught, and finding out how other people’s attitudes influenced their teaching of us. No-one is without problems – however in order to really progress, we need to have the attitude that problems are opportunities for us to find spiritual solutions.

In bygone days, descriptions of the “Sons of God”, showed them as giants in not only their size but also their spirituality and the length of their life span. As time progressed, their spirituality decreased, as did their size, intelligence, compassion, longevity and memory. If we want to return to being eligible to be truly called “sons of God” then we really need to learn from their mistakes.

Over the past years there has been a resurgence in matters “esoteric” with a tacit understanding of the need to become more conscious. However, this growth towards lightness is often plagued by negative forces apparently keen to disrupt and block our progress. Rather like those bind-weeds in the garden, which over night can twine around a healthy seedling, robbing it of its chance to grow strong.

One of the first tools we need then is to learn discernment or discrimination and especially applied calmly with thought and without sentimentality.

“This means that in applying leadership principles – or in choosing which principles to follow in our lives – we should accept those that are favorable to our service to God and reject all those that are unfavorable. This is the basis of discrimination.”

Another tool is one of self evaluation. There are qualities that we know that we need to work on, like lack of patience, or pride or irritability. The time spent on this evaluation is not wasted or selfish if it helps us to rise above our problems and to start helping others.

“If we are carrying a higher, spiritual energy, we will automatically uplift the other person’s spirits by our natural radiation”

There are many advertised methods of self evaluation, spiritual growth and awakening to higher levels of understanding and consciousness. We need to apply discernment even more with these apparently “spiritual” groups. Many people are easily deluded, thinking that these practitioners must naturally be connected to powerful god-like beings, but these connections are still only higher realms of this same material plane, not the truly transcendental levels beyond even the heavenly planets. We need tools that will help us transcend our levels of selfishness and self-gratification because they interfere with our spiritual progress.

Lord make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

And where there is sadness, joy.

O divine master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love

For it is in giving that we receive- it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

And it's in dying that we are born to eternal life

Prayer attributed to St Francis of Assisi

So now let’s look at the teachers that you are involved with, are they really eligible to take you further than just this material plane. How involved are they with the very things that prohibit them from rising further? Unfortunately even spiritual people can get attached to various aspects of their spirituality and forget that there are higher things to attain. Look at the yogi who is busy manifesting material items out of nowhere. It is wonderful to be able to assist others but when the aspect of helping totally encompasses them, they are again in a box of constraints, unable to move higher. Then there is the devout religionist who follows his beliefs to the nth degree. Again very commendable but where is his search for greater understanding in his own experience whereby he can confirm teachings he has been taught and at the same time discover that all that he has been taught has not necessarily been correct. Will he stay in that box irritated with things he does not believe in, so that he will not appear to be someone who has fallen by the wayside. That is always the comment towards someone who has left or gone beyond the "rules".

These are many potent situations that guarantee that we will not be able to pass through the “ring pass not” out of the restraints of planet earth in order to become really spiritual beings with eternal life, unless of course we have the courage to use our indwelling consciousness without external manipulation.

Higher truths help prepare us for even higher experiences in order to regain what we have lost as “sons (and daughters of course) of God” – and one of the most spiritually empowering is compassion, and without it we will not make the grade!

The meaning of compassion

“Compassion is unfettered by material restraints. The term ‘material’ implies survival of the fittest, based on who is more dominant, controlling and capable of manipulating others. Compassion is the opposite. It is a spiritual trait, based on selflessness and freedom from envy or any sense of proprietorship. It is not sentimental and it does not come and go with our feelings. When we are compassionate, we offer unmotivated love to others, freely making sacrifices on their behalf.”

Like compassion, yoga techniques and psychic powers are not something that we should use as a means to enhance our own chances of salvation. Even wanting salvation is selfish!

"…No one can expect to enter the kingdom of God without deep compassion”

Many books refer to the fact that we need to check out something from three different sources. We have three sources that we can use – our mentor (guru), respected spiritual practioners (sadhu) and holy scriptures (sastra). However, none of these by itself, is sufficient nor reliable. Therefore we should feel confident when all three of the sources agree.

“.. all the major scriptures emphasize that we are eternal beings who have a home far beyond the mundane realm of our material existence. We are out of place in this material realm, which serves as a training ground for higher experiences, but is not where we can be truly happy."

We should be preparing ourselves for the ultimate test when we do finally depart from this planet. Are we going to be elegible for supremely higher levels of consciousness, unavailable on this planet earth - or do we have to do it all again?