Beloved Students:

Congratulations! A New Year is underway! What are you learning from the journey that you can offer toward the enlightenment of your planet? In the end, everything comes back to enlightenment, doesn't it? Perhaps this is a good time for us to create a strong group focus on the enlightenment of the planet, considering how such is part of you and you part of it.

There is a host of ideas about enlightenment floating around in the collective experience, many of which actually come from one egoic perspective or another. In truth, every path (even that of a path steeped in one egoic framework or another) has the potential of transcendence and enlightenment. While the path of the ego may provide interesting diversions and perhaps much fun, ultimately, such must be cut through with penetrating insight and sharply honed discernment.

Many of you have had the opportunity to observe your own egos in action during the past year. As you awaken to the tyranny of ego/mind, however, the temptation is to be all too aware of how unruly and sly is the ego/mind of everyone else. Even in well-meaning situations, you may find your own ego getting you to take your focus off it and place it upon the path of another. Granted, such is part of the vast field of collective learning. However, the only one you can transform is yourself. That being said, it is also by transforming yourself that you transform the world.

Enlightenment, whether personal or planetary, is not some process you engage in to make yourself feel better. It is not some course you take to make yourself appear brilliant. Rather, it is a journey you undertake on behalf of all beings everywhere. Some want their enlightenment to excuse themselves from responsibility; others want enlightenment to heal their relational partners; others somehow believe that enlightenment will fall from the heavens like fairy dust, canceling all their debts to humanity, irrespective of how they have chosen to live their lives previously.

It is important to remember that spiritual growth is not some race off the planet, nor some escape route from personal or collective foibles. It is not a journey into intellectualism, nor is it an elitist club. It is, rather, awakening into wholeness and profound humility that leads to a deep and abiding understanding of the preciousness of life. This may sound glib or simplistic to one who can only skim the surface of a spiritual path. But as one deepens into the profound mystery of life, allowing awe and wonder to hold one's heart is profound aliveness, one awakens into wholeness. These are times of seeking not only personal wholeness, but planetary wholeness, as well. Such will not come about without some significant effort applied at both personal and collective levels of experiencing.

You may notice that some spend so much time arguing over what is true that they are unavailable to have any direct experience of Truth. Spiritual arenas, not unlike political arenas, can become filled with arguing over semantics or concepts, nitpicking over trivia, and judging harshly the experiences of those perceived to be on a different path. Has the planet not seen enough of this?

Each must find her or his own way up the Mountain of Truth, and certainly, there are many paths up the Mountain. If you discover someone walking a path that began at a different point than your own, or that takes a route different than your route, how do you help him or her by judging their path? How do you become clear on your own path when your energy is focused on the path of another? Cutting through illusion is never easy when it comes your turn. The ego/mind plays tricks on you, perhaps inflating your sense of importance and causing you to judge the paths of others.

When I first approached Kathlyn to work with me as a channel, she thought she should go out and read all of my work through Alice Bailey. I specifically asked her not to do that, because I wanted this work to be genuine, and not colored by her experience of Alice. I told her that as we worked together, people who knew me through Alice would either really recognize me or really not recognize me as I worked through Kathlyn. The ones who recognize me do so because they experience my energy in the process and know the Source from which it comes. Often those who do not recognize me are stuck in the kind of teaching I did through Alice, or the manner of presentation used through Alice. Some think I should now be repeating my previous work. They may feel that if this current work does not sound like my earlier work, it cannot be from the same Source. In truth, I would be merely wasting my time and yours to simply repeat my own work from another time!

In my work through Alice, the goal was create a body of resource material to expand the collective consciousness as it existed between World War I and II, and thereafter. While that body of work, which was extensive, has been a great help in the education of the planet, it has not significantly enhanced the mass enlightenment curve. It was generated for a specific reason and has addressed well the goals and purposes for which it was created.

My focus at this time is to facilitate those who so desire in cutting through the veils of illusion, which distort their own clarity and confound their true nature. This involves generating wholeness at all levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. You see, it is quite possible to stretch the mind immensely by encountering the great mysteries of the cosmos and still be ineffectual in relationships to others. Likewise, it is possible to understand profound ideas, entertain and manipulate vast and highly creative concepts, yet be completely ignorant regarding the importance of compassion, generosity, kindness, serenity, truthfulness, wisdom and joy.

The collective journey for humanity in these times is the application of true wisdom and the establishment of wholeness. Thus, I encourage each of you in the realization of these important attributes. As an act of love for your friends, family, planet and yourself, why not give up all unnecessary squabbling, polarizing and blaming and see what it is to live in harmony with all sentient beings. Know you are vaster than the force of the poles which divide you; know you have it within you to be one with all that is, becoming worthy of the goodness and beauty that greets you daily.

Please join me in listening to The Holons are Coming, a talk I did for the Vancouver group last May. With some humor and possibly a new idea or two, may it facilitate your understanding the work now at hand on this beautiful planet. May it inspire you to seek with all your life force, wholeness and enlightenment.

For our work together in February, I would like you to return to watching your own ego/mind as your contribution to healing and wholing for Earth at this time. Please sit for approximately 30 minutes daily, following your breath and noticing your thoughts. As thoughts arise, simply say "thinking," and return your focus to your breath. While this may sound very basic, it should prove helpful to you in generating calmness within, and in watching the ego/mind at its work. Know that you are not your mind; you are neither your feelings nor your thoughts. You are Essence, sent forth perhaps thousands of times from the Source of All Being, eager to release It's compassion, love, blessings and peace upon humanity. This you can do without engaging the ego/mind. Know and remember that my wish for you is:

May you be happy;
May you know peace;
May you have ease and a sense of well being;
May love and kindness fill and heal you.

Walk in love and kindness, holding well the preciousness of life. Cultivate peace and generosity as you become alive with the wonder of Creation.

Djwhal Khul