What Does It really Mean to Follow the Guru?

How to connect Morya’s dots

April 15, 2004

By Kim Michaels

We all know that Jesus taught the multitudes in parables but expounded all things to his disciples. We all know this means that Jesus had an outer teaching, adapted to the level of consciousness of the general public, and an inner teaching, adapted to the higher understanding of his disciples. Many people believe the Ascended Masters, through this church and previous organizations, have given us the inner teachings that Jesus taught his disciples. Yet might there be more to it?

What if even the teachings of the Ascended Masters are given on two different levels? What if the Masters have teachings for the beginning level of chela (often called a chela with a lower-case c) and a higher teaching for the more advanced Chelas (with an upper-case C)? What if there is an outer teaching, an outer path, for beginners and an inner teaching, an inner path, for more advanced students? If so, there might be more than one meaning to the concept of following the Guru. Let us consider the outer and the inner path.

The outer path - the path of doing
When we first found the teachings, many of us needed an outer path that was straightforward and easy to follow. The church provided this in the form of an outer teaching that clearly spelled out the requirements for chelaship. This took the form of Mother’s lectures, books and dictations. The church also provided an outer framework in which to fulfill those requirements. This took the form of decrees at home, decree services, conferences, SU, staff service etc.

This outer path is relatively easy to follow because it is a matter of meeting outer requirements, a set of “do this” and “don’t do that.” The promise is that if you follow the outer rules, you will make progress on the path. This promise is true in the sense that you will transmute karma and negative energy, and therefore you will remove some of the mechanical obstacles to your spiritual progress.

If you diligently follow this outer path, as many people have done, you will eventually work through your karma, yet there is a limit to how far the outer path can take you. One might say that the outer path can lead you to the Living Waters of your Christ self, but the outer path cannot make you drink those waters and become the Christ. To manifest Christhood, you must discover and follow the inner path.

The inner path - the path of Being
You might remember that there came a point in the late 1980’s when Mother and the Masters started talking a lot about the need to resolve our psychology. We started with the inner child and eventually were given many other tools for resolving the psychology. This proves that the Masters never wanted us to mechanically follow the outer path for the rest of our lives. Instead, they want us to eventually find the inner path.

The inner path is not mechanical; it is not simply a matter of following outer rules and doing outer actions, such as decrees. The inner path is aimed at taking you to Christhood, and this cannot be done through mechanical means. Manifesting Christhood is a matter of changing your sense of identity, from seeing yourself as a mortal human being to seeing and accepting yourself as a son or daughter of God. This change in identity can only take place inside yourself. It requires you to make a number of decisions, and that is why it cannot be produced mechanically. It must be done through choices.

The inner path is not a path of doing; it is a path of being who you truly are as a Christed one in embodiment. How does this relate to the concept of following the Guru?

The Guru as the mediator
We have all been taught that the reason we cannot contact the Ascended Masters directly is that we are in a lower state of consciousness. As a result, we cannot see the Masters because of the energy veil. Ultimately, this veil is not real, but in our current state of consciousness, it seems real and that is why we cannot make contact with the Masters.

The Masters seek to help us overcome this illusion by sending us a Guru who can serve as a Messenger to bring forth teachings from the Masters. This helps us realize that the Masters are real, and it provides us with the outer path. Yet the real purpose is to help us overcome the illusion that we are separated from God and the Masters, and we can do that only by following the inner path. So we might say that the purpose of the Guru is twofold. First, the Guru offers us an outer path. Yet as we follow that path, we naturally come to a point where it is necessary to transcend the outer path and follow the inner path. The outer Guru is meant to lead us to the inner Guru of the Christ self. We might say that the outer Guru leads us to the well, but it is up to us to drink from the Living Waters of our Christ selves.

So the outer Guru is the mediator between us and the spiritual realm. As long as we follow the outer path, we are connected to the Masters through the mediator of the outer Guru. In our case, as chelas of Guru Ma and El Morya, the connection looks like this:

When the Guru goes higher
We have all read the dictation by El Morya and Mother’s comments in which they talk about Morya and Mother moving higher. They also say we are not sponsored as an organization but only as individuals, but what does that truly mean? Consider what happens to the previous illustration when the Guru moves higher. It will now look like the following:

Take note of the dramatic change. Before the Guru moved higher, she was below the energy veil. Now, the Guru is above the energy veil, and because of that, our individual connections to the Guru cross the energy veil. What exactly does that mean? It means that because Guru Ma has moved higher, all those who are connected to her have the potential to attain their direct connections to the Masters. This does not mean that we are disconnected from the Guru or no longer need the Guru. But it does mean that we have a greater opportunity for contacting our Christ selves - and through our Christ selves contacting the Masters - than ever before.

However - and here is the catch - in order to fulfill that potential, we have to follow the inner path. Because the Guru is now above the energy veil, we can no longer maintain our tie to her by following the outer path. We can contact her only by following the inner path and going through our individual Christ selves. We have to be willing to change our sense of identity from being chelas to being Chelas, from being human beings to being Christed beings. We have to accept that we can and must stand on our own and establish our individual connections to the spiritual realm.

Again, this does not mean that we no longer need the Guru. We are still under Mother’s and Morya’s sponsorship, we are still under their umbrella. It does, however, mean that we now have the opportunity - under their sponsorship - to manifest a higher level of Christhood. As a natural consequence of that Christhood, we have the opportunity to establish a direct connection with the spiritual realm—we can pierce the energy veil as never before.

The question now becomes, “Are we taking advantage of this opportunity, or are we turning our backs on it?” The answer depends on whether we are willing to leave behind the outer path and fully embrace the inner path.

The false path
Up to a point, there is nothing wrong with following the outer path. It is simply a necessary intermediate stage that leads you to the point of being able to embrace the inner path. It is still a viable approach for people who are relatively new to the teachings. However, when the Guru moves higher, the longtime students must make the choice of whether to move higher with her - as outlined above - or whether to deny the need to move higher and stay where they are comfortable.
The reality of the situation is simple. You either move higher with the Guru, or you refuse to move higher and are left behind. However, consider what happens to those who refuse to move higher. The reality of the situation is that the Guru is above the energy veil, as in the previous illustration.

If we refuse to acknowledge that, we create an idol of the Guru that is below the energy veil. We continue to see the Guru the way she was in the past, or the way we want her to be. As long as we hold on to that idol - instead of maintaining our connection to the Living Guru - we neglect and might eventually lose our connection to the Guru. Instead, we end up establishing (through the power of our attention) a connection to the idol, and that idol will forever remain below the energy veil. In other words, we cut ourselves off from the Living Guru and instead tie ourselves to an outer idol.

The consequence is that if we continue to follow this outer idol, we are following a false path. It is false because it has replaced the real Guru with an idol of our own making. The sad part is that we can actually use the outer teachings to justify this idol and thereby trap ourselves even more firmly on the false path.

Misquoting the teachings
What has been happening in the church since Mother’s retirement is this process of the dividing of the way between those who cling to the outer path and those who are willing to move up to the inner path. That is why you see some people who vehemently refuse to move higher and who will quote any number of dictations by the Masters and statements by Mother as a justification for staying on the outer path.

It is easy to find numerous quotes to support staying on the outer path because the outer path is a viable and necessary stage of chelaship. Consequently, you will find many statements that describe this path, and if you are willing to interpret them literally, it will seem to you as if the Masters are saying that you should never stray from that path. Yet it is very easy to misuse these quotes and build a culture that says we should never move beyond the outer path. This would be a misuse of the teachings because it prevents you from manifesting Christhood.

For those with eyes to see, it will be obvious that the Masters have never talked exclusively about the outer path. If you take an objective look at the teachings, you will find that they describe both the outer and the inner path. In other words, if you are willing to look closely - and occasionally read between the lines - you will find numerous quotes that talk about the inner path, the need to manifest Christhood, the need to never become comfortable and the need to always keep moving higher.

For example, if you read between the lines, you will see that Morya’s call for constant chelas does not mean he wants chelas who remain at the same level of the path for a lifetime. He wants his chelas to constantly grow toward Christhood, he wants Chelas who are constantly moving higher, constantly transcending themselves at a steady (but constantly moving) pace. For those who are lower-case chelas, it does mean remaining constant in the outer actions, such as decrees and services. But at some point you need to move beyond that level and become constant in transcending your limited sense of identity.

As another example, take the often-quoted dictation by El Morya (from 1993) in which he talks about psychic messengers. Those who are still lower-case chelas do not yet have the discernment to tell the difference between a psychic message and a real message from the Masters. Therefore, it is prudent for them to refuse to look at anything that didn’t come through Mother and Mark. Yet if you maintain this approach too long, it becomes a trap that prevents your Christhood.

Christhood means that you have your own connection to the spiritual realm. And how could you possibly achieve that connection if you maintain the attitude that only Mother could contact the spiritual realm? In other words, the Guru was sent for your soul’s liberation, but you have turned her into a prison guard who keeps you trapped in a cage.

To build Christhood, you must achieve discernment, and how can you do that if you are afraid to exercise your discernment—if your are afraid to T.R.Y.? You simply cannot build discernment if you look only at teachings coming from one source. In that respect, we might be able to help and inspire each other, as more and more of us become able to commune directly with the spiritual realm.

The bottom line is that if you want to, you can find numerous quotes that support the inner path, the need to manifest individual Christhood and the need to walk and talk with the Masters. So what is the difference between those who follow the inner path and those who cling to the outer path? It is the difference between those who are motivated by love and those who are driven by fear.

From fear to love
If you read some of the many e-mails that have been circulating for months, it is not difficult to see that they can be divided into two main categories:

• Fear-based. Some people are clearly motivated by fear and their e-mails have a vibration of fear. They often want to turn back the clock and bring everything back to the way it was at some point in the past (although few seem able to define when things were ever ideal). They aggressively argue that we should follow a letter-of-the-law approach and stick to a literal interpretation of the teachings. These people are often very quick to point the finger at others, to raise blame, to label someone as a scapegoat or to defend themselves against any (real or imagined) attack. Their arguments are often based on a fear of what can happen if we don’t stick to a literal interpretation of the teachings.

• Love-based. Some people write letters that radiate love, respect and a desire to bring positive change. They don’t seek to raise blame; they simply point out problems in a neutral manner. They seek to inspire everyone to come up higher by embracing a higher understanding of the teachings. They do right action and are non-attached to the fruits of action. These letters also show that such people have been willing to confront their own fears and move beyond them into a love-based approach to life and the path.

Unfortunately, those driven by fear cannot look at any suggestions as a neutral call for positive change. They feel that anything which questions their position or their interpretation of the teachings is an attack, and they quickly label it as criticism. Furthermore, those driven by fear cannot accept that anyone but Mother could have a genuine communion with the Masters, and they automatically (without even evaluating it with their hearts) label all such communication as psychic. Even more unfortunate, many of the people in current church leadership seem to be driven by a fear of change or a fear of losing power and control. So the question becomes how a positive change can be brought about? The answer is simple, namely that we must allow the true community of the Holy Spirit to manifest itself in our midst.

The real community of the Holy Spirit
The masters have often called for the establishment of the community of the Holy Spirit. We might ask how this could possibly happen as long as the church and a majority of members cling to the outer path? The nature of the Holy Spirit is that it blows where it listeth, yet people on the outer path are not willing to let the Holy Spirit blow.

The essence of the outer path is that it creates a mold for how the ideal chela should be, and in order to walk that path, you must fit yourself into that mold. This is the principle of the Guru-chela relationship in which the chela surrenders his or her individuality to the Guru and therefore submits to the authority of the Guru. The reason being that when we first find the path, our sense of identity is heavily influenced by the ego, the carnal mind and the programming of the world. By being willing to set this outer personality aside and submit to the Guru, we make progress on the path and overcome the pseudo self.

Yet the result of our spiritual progress is that our divine individuality is uncovered, and at some point we must dare to express that true individuality. One might say that the outer path removes the layers that cover our divine individuality, but it does not guarantee that we will actually embrace and express that divine individuality. It is up to us to make that decision by engaging in the inner path. This means that we must let the Holy Spirit flow through us, even if this happens in ways that are surprising or shocking to those still following the outer path. In other words, we must dare to manifest and express our Christhood regardless of the persecution we receive from those in a worldly state of consciousness.

Whereas the outer path is somewhat mechanical, the inner path is highly individualized. In other words, there is no mold for how a Christed being - and a Chela with a capital C - should behave. As long as we - or the church - seek to impose a mold on how a person should express Christhood, the Holy Spirit cannot flow through us individually, and consequently we cannot collectively build the community of the Holy Spirit.

The true community of the Holy Spirit cannot be established through outer, mechanical means. The church cannot guarantee the creation of such a community, and consequently we do not need the outer church to establish such a community. In fact, we cannot establish this community with our outer minds—we of our own selves can do nothing. It can be established only when people establish their individual connections to their Christ selves and the Masters. After a number of people establish such connections, we can then begin to come together and build the true community. This community must be based on the realization that even though Christhood is an individual matter, we can still do more for the Masters by coming together. The true community of the Holy Spirit offers each of us greater opportunities for expressing our Christhood.

In other words, there are three steps to the establishment of the community of the Holy Spirit:

• The first phase is the Guru-chela relationship in which each chela is connected to the Masters through the outer Guru.

• The next step is the inner path in which each chela establishes his or her personal connection to the Masters through the inner Guru of the Christ self.

• The final stage is that those Chelas who are connected to the Masters vertically come together and establish a horizontal connection (physical or spiritual) between them.

The next logical step for those who are committed to following the Guru is that we each establish our own connections to the Masters and then come together to form a community of like-minded individuals working on common goals. We must create a love-based culture in which people are free to express their Christhood and share their communion with the Masters.

How can we help you?
I would like to point out that the above teachings came forth when Lorraine and I met with a good friend and had a discussion about the path. After we had brought the teachings into the physical, Mother told us: “I did it!” We realized that her intended meaning was that she had managed to raise some of her chelas to an understanding of the true nature of the Guru-Chela relationship and the inner path. In other words, by us coming to this realization, we had helped her achieve her victory as a Guru.

Obviously, I am not saying that the three of us did this alone or that we are the only ones who have this understanding. But we got the clear impression that the more people come to this understanding and embrace the inner path, the more victorious Mother and El Morya will be. That is why I am sharing this teaching and hope you will share it with others.

As some people know, Lorraine and I have been receiving teachings from the Masters, and the Masters have called us messengers and have given us specific mantles. Unfortunately, some people have taken offense to the use of this term and have felt that we tried to usurp Mother’s position. In fact, this has never been our personal intention. The Masters have used the term messenger, and we have stated what they told us to say without fully understanding why. We have now received a deeper understanding of one reason the Masters wanted to use that term.

We have been called to serve as examples of the fact that when you follow the inner path, you will establish a personal connection to the Masters. We do not claim to be the only ones capable of doing so, although we each have a specific mission according to our mantles. One reason we have been asked to do what we did is to demonstrate a path that many can follow. Obviously, not everyone will need to do exactly what we did and create websites and write books. However, we serve as messengers for the fact that it is possible for everyone to establish a connection to the Masters. This connection can take different forms and be expressed in many different ways. Therefore, each person who establishes this connection becomes a messenger who demonstrates that we can all walk and talk with the Masters. And we can do so in our individual ways.

My point is that Lorraine and I have no desire to set ourselves up as being above anyone else. We are here to help everyone manifest and express Christhood. If we can help or inspire you, we are grateful do so. If not, we hope we can coexist in peace and mutual respect. If you are at a point where you are ready to express your Christhood, we are willing to help you do so with the means available to us. Let us know if and how we might serve you. I strongly believe that by coming together, we can do more for the Masters than any of us can achieve alone.

You might remember the concept of Morya’s three dots. I believe Morya has many dots that are scattered around the globe. Each of us has the potential to become one of Morya’s dots by connecting to our Christ selves and through that to Morya. After we achieve that connection, we can each serve the Masters in a greater capacity. Yet we can serve even better when we establish a connection between us in this world and form a true spiritual community. I believe this is what Morya wants to see happen. I believe he is telling us that it is time to connect the dots.

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