Beloved Students:

As another month dawns in the rapidly disappearing year of 2003, I greet you in the splendor of Earth in Her beauty. May you enjoy all the goodness Earth has to offer you at this time, and may you celebrate your journey with Her as your partner in growth and wonder.

Have you been paying attention to your mind in the recent days? I hope that each of you is learning the tremendous importance of ceaseless vigilance in this area. As you discover the considerable power and influence your thoughts and feelings have in the playing out of your life, you may come to wonder why you ever went to sleep and let it take control of all your important areas (like relationships, jobs, personal image, etc.).

For our lesson this month, I would like to focus with you on continuing the work so many of you began in our Burning Karma workshop. Some of you have made tremendous strides in not only your understanding of what karma is, but in how you work with your own mind, as well. Now we must focus on the “keep on keeping on” process. For most of you, the really good news is that you are not doing the work completely on your own since the work of the group attending the workshop gives you a boost – whether or not you actually attended.

Those of you who have been continuing diligently with the work are probably recognizing that the most important part is to look for areas where some (or all) of your ego mind wants approval, control or security. A note to the wise here is that this work is difficult to do without a context for these energies. Some of you have already noticed that when you try to release generally (say on approval, or control), you are unable to feel the kind of release you got while you were in the workshop. This is because your work when so generalized, lacks context. You must bring to mind a situation in which you felt you needed approval or control in order to get in touch with the feelings driving you in the moment. Without bringing up those feelings, you may note that your “release” feels a bit hollow. This is because the feeling and the motivator (i.e., approval, control or security), are strongly bound in the creative process. This means that to get the full release, you must approach the area through the emotion. Working the other way can give you some insight, but to get the full benefit, you will need to approach the release through the emotions related to the motivation.

Some of you are learning to use the release process while engaged in the normal flow of your life. This is, of course, the way you will ultimately want to use this practice. Let's say you find yourself in a conversation with another, or even a group of people, and you realize you are being triggered by something that is being said. Clearly, the sooner you can identify the emotion(s) that is/are arising within you, the quicker you can go free of their controlling influence. At first you may think it is okay to take care of them later. But if you are really honest with yourself, you will have to ask why you want to wait until later to release them when you can actually do it in the very moment of their arising. Why let yourself suffer even a moment when you have the power to free yourself?

This “power” (and I don't use that word lightly) is fully at your disposal, and as you already know, only you can free yourself from the tyranny of your mind. The real issue is training yourself to use it. This would mean that you would ultimately not allow yourself to wallow in self-defeating emotions and self-talk for even so much as an eye-blink. You will come to see that freeing yourself from these negative and heavy moments is the finest form of self-care you can learn. By the way, it is also one of the nicest things you can do for those around you. Recall for a moment what it is like for you when someone around you is angry or depressed. It is almost impossible not to react in some manner to their feelings. This is true even if you are not the one towards whom they are mad or depressed. Freeing others from the effects of your negative or judgmental feelings is indeed a precious gift to offer. Actually, you will probably end up inspiring them to seek the power you seem to work with so easily.

For those of you who were unable to attend the Goal of the Soul workshop, there may be additional opportunities in the coming year to facilitate you in this work. In the meantime, it is important for you to know that you are part of a large movement on Earth at this time to generate a path of liberation for the entire planet. Now I recognize that this may sound a bit grandiose, but if we remove the egoic elements from the notion, you will recognize that this is really what you came to do, anyway. The ego, of course, wants to make this work a big deal for you, which is actually diversely opposed to what the work is all about. In fact, as one learns to burn karma, the ego gets put on a rather intensive weight reduction program!

In truth, these times are very exciting. If you can look beyond the heavy aspects at play in the world at the present moment, you can get in touch with the level of energetic support for your own transformation. Whenever war is waged, you can be sure that such comes about as a reaction to the presence of transformational energies. In fact, there are those who attempt to use transformational energy for waging war. Clearly, this shows they do not understand the spiritual basis for the energy they seek to control and direct. Consider yourselves most fortunate that you understand these matters and that you therefore have the opportunity to direct transformational energy to the greater good, rather than toward the greater ill.

In working with mind, whether individual or collective, you must be awake and ever watchful. Effort to become wise in all areas, particularly those that require you to stand in your very best self. Begin to walk daily in the truth of your becoming, as if you actually believe your enlightenment already exists. This is how you open your shells of protection and allow your enlightenment to sparkle through. Again, you do not have to create your enlightenment. You only have to let it shine through. It is by pulling back those projections, learning to see through those perceived mental barriers and opening your eyes to a new way of looking at yourself and the world around you that draws you toward the Pure Land.

Of course, you do have the opportunity to stay bound in those repeating patterns and old habits of mind which cause so much suffering. But please recognize that to so remain is your choice. There is no force in this world (or any other) that confines you to those old ways of seeing and reacting. In truth, there is no force as powerful to confine you as the force of your own mind.

As the Teacher Who loves you deeply and so longs for your spiritual emancipation, know that I will meet you halfway in this journey. This is how the plane-to-plane partnership is created. My job is to point the way and give you every tool I can to help you. But in truth, it matters little how many tools I present if you do not use them. I cannot cut through your karma. This you must do. But you can be encouraged by the fact that so many spiritual aspirants before you have cut through theirs. You can be inspired by their examples, and enthused by their successes, which will only point you toward your own success

Please join me in November in listening to Awakening into Life, a lecture I did in Denver on the 5th of October. It is my desire to aid you in going deeper into this work, and to provide the impetus to spark your deep desire to master your karma. Of course, in the end you will discover that none of this is the way it now appears. That said, you must realize also that all you have to work with at the moment is what appears. Do not be frustrated with the seeming paradox, but hold fast to the realization that you are learning to pierce the realm of appearances that seems so real at times.

May this Teaching help you to awaken to your true nature, and may it facilitate your journey into freedom. May all of you be happy, abiding in the pure beauty of inner peace.

Djwhal Khul