November 20th 1965
Let us unite in Spirit. Let us love one another. Remembering first to love the great God of all creation with all our hearts and with all our minds and with all our spirit. For by so doing shall we draw upon the great divine power of love itself.
And let us remember the things we have talked about in the past. Remember the talk of the sparks, fly upwards, remember the words that man is born to trouble even as the sparks fly upwards. Though this is perfectly and absolutely natural, let us remind you that this world must be a place of struggle, of a certain amount of suffering, simply because it is the only place wherein you can really learn the lessons necessary for your spiritual growth.
It is very difficult, dear children, for you to understand the terrific value of your experience, or of the way in which you accept these things. But we do want to impress on you that you should not feel ashamed or guilty concerning those natural shortcomings which are in a way your birthright. You were born with these things. Just as long as you try to overcome them, and to accept them as experiences. Then the dark shadows have past away, and man becomes again receptive to the higher vibrations and influences, you look back and realise, as you think about these things, that there was something of interest in these occurrences. And that in small measure or large, you learnt something from them.
And let us remind you also that each unpleasant, unhappy experience overcome and used as a challenge for further tolerance and courage, is another step towards complete, spiritual growth.
And remember at all times that the ordinary, everyday, human being with whom you must come into contact has not this knowledge and this understanding. And we must this morning re-cap on many of our talks. And remember the talk concerning the wagon. And what you have been doing of late, because of the natural vibrations, the lower, slower, heavier, vibrations, which the cold, uncomfortable, weather brings to children of Earth, you have not only been getting off the so-called, symbolic wagon, but you have been a little weak, because of the attack on the physical brain and body, and you have been lingering and dallying longer than has been really necessary in the conditions and environment and vibrations of other minds who are not so attuned to the spiritual vibrations as you yourself.
But now we ask you, children, what harm has been done to anyone or anything through this dalliance except that you have learnt once again, that it makes you very unhappy and that it isn't worth it. Is it worth it? What good have you done, the sick and the poor, and the needy, and the miserable, and the discontented, have you helped them in anyway? The answer is a no. You have simply brought yourself down to lower and grosser vibrations and suffered the impact as a consequence. You go on. Will you never learn? We think you will.
We know that when you meet in this land of peace and beauty, you will look back and you will see exactly the same thing happening to those you have left behind. But we will comfort you with this thought. You will be able to read the mind of these same little ones, and you will see that you have left your mark. And they will think and realise that what you said, the things you did, helped them considerably. And with this thought, and this realisation in their minds, if they are worthy, they will try, and try again.
Let us go a little further. I worshipped, while upon the Earth plain, at the shrine of the all-enlightened, that great and peaceful soul, the Buddha. Who, because he himself had sunk to the lowest depths of despair, remember this, Mary, remember this, the all-enlightened one, surrounded with absolute luxury, with all the beauty of the human form around him, with a son as sweet as any human babe could be, fell into this depths of despair. Was so unhappy that his heart was filled with desire to search until it reached bursting point, and then he made his search. Where did he go? Where did he go? To the sick, to the diseased, to the poverty stricken, to the so-called saints whose bodies were covered with festering sores, to the naked who tortured their already terrible bodies with more pain, more affliction, more torture. Did he find peace amongst all these things? He did not. But he gained the experience, the realisation that God was not in these things, and that it would not have brought him into the light to stay and to die amongst this environment, on this vibration, and so at last, he found his own wagon. And after giving all the help he possibly could, he started along his own path. He started along the way.
And as you feel these depressions and the psychic impact of misunderstanding, wrong thinking, jealousies, you too feel this very same longing to escape. Seeking within yourself, you must admit that these troubles are not your very own, but at the same you feel grief, you feel that you are to some extent your brother's keeper, and this is so. But, you do not have to learn his or her lessons. You are his keeper, you are linked together with the Spirit indestructible, you are linked together through God, through love and when, in a very short time, in the twinkling of an eye, you will all be free of your pain, your afflictions, your sorrows, and together, because of your absolute sincerity, the sincerity of the soul, these things will be acknowledged.
Except for the divine fact, that through them you have learned necessary lessons, and you will not only have the peace, but through your suffering, through your trying to understand, through your tolerance and compassion, which are all necessary, you will not only have the peace, but the understanding which together will bring true wisdom.
Now in many people, these so-called depressions, this terrific anxiety, is indeed a weakness and a lack of faith. But in the case of you, my children, it is not a lack of faith. Because we can see by the colour of your aura that this is not so. But it is actually a weakness of your own psychic defence. The other can get through. What you do is to jump and stay off your wagon too long, and you leave your watch tower to join in the actual goings on. This is understandable. It is excusable. But you must try to be stronger. We do know how difficult it is and we have seen the suffering in the minds of you both during the last few weeks. But all these things will be smoothed away as you get stronger and stronger psychically and naturally and spiritually.
You are indeed surrounded at this same time, with good and honest people. But their spirituality at this time is not wholly developed. They have not searched, they are not searching, but the only thing which will be their salvation is their trials and tribulations, and these are the only things which will bring them eventually in this world or the next, to begin the real search.
We are at hand, we have been at hand now at last we bring you back onto a clearer and sunnier path, and let us hope you have learned a little more. And hand in hand we reach the sandy shore, And we too will be pleased when the river has been crossed and we walk with you into the everlasting life. It may surprise you to know that even we shall enjoy that space of time when we shall not have to come back. We shall rest too. So remember what the master said, what the Buddha said: "Thou art That”. Follow the middle way and be at one... "Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their dead and follow me".
Remember this. Hold on. Follow goodness. Follow truth. Help all you can but do not insist upon lying down with the corpse. Let the dead things go back to where they belong, child, back to Earth. Wise in the spirit, wise in love and truth, into the place of peace. Bless you.
The "wagon" here isn't about alcohol, it's about staying attuned to spiritual vibrations rather than sinking into "lower, slower, heavier" states, drawn down by contact with less attuned minds or being distracted by the physical. Lapsing — getting off the wagon, dallying too long — harms no one but yourself, and is not a failure of faith but simply a weakness of psychic defence, natural and forgivable, "your birthright." Shame isn't the point; learning is: each unpleasant experience overcome is itself a step in spiritual growth, but strength can be gained by focussing on the spiritual.
The Buddha is used as an example that even the enlightened were not exempt from this struggle. He left luxury for extreme asceticism — starving, self-torturing "saints" — and found peace in neither. What he found instead, after both extremes failed him, was the Middle Way: not indulgence, not mortification, but balance. "He found his own wagon." This is the same teaching in the transcript's closing instruction, "follow the middle way and be at one" — Buddhism's central path, the Majjhima Patipada.
And the message closes by repeating two teachings already given elsewhere: Tat Tvam Asi ("thou art that") and "let the dead bury their dead" — a reminder not to linger over what's finished, whether an old grief or an old failing, but to let it return to earth and go on.
It also makes the point that you can be genuinely bound to someone in love, care about their suffering, and want their good — without absorbing their trials as and allowing yourself to become stressed or depressed. "You do not have to learn his lessons".