I also wish to explain, how they are relevant in the context of our current organizational development. We all have beliefs and expectations, both conscious and subconscious, about ourselves, our loved ones, our church and our place in God's universe. We need to take time to examine them.

Paradigm is a term attributed to a philosopher-scientist Thomas Cune. It refers to the set of ideas we have, that defines the way that we look at the world. It's the way we see our world. It's our frame of reference, our point of view—our way of perceiving, understanding or interpreting.

Our paradigms are the rules and regulations we have established for dealing with life's situations and problems. Both conscious or subconscious, paradigms shape our view of the world and enable us to succeed in solving problems. However, they can become our mind-set. They can be like rose colored, or not so rose colored glasses, that we have prescribed for ourselves.

If you do not retain an open mind, your paradigm can become for you the only paradigm. Management consultant and futurist Joel Barker refers to this as paradigm paralysis. In order to survive and prosper in today's ever-changing world, we must continually question, revise and change our paradigms.

Francis Bacon, the final incarnation of Saint Germain, referred to paradigms when he said, "Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true." In other words, we filter incoming experiences. We try to fit incoming data into our perception of the world and we often accept only what fits and ignore the rest. It's trying to put on a size ten when you're a size twelve.

Joel Barker calls this the paradigm effect. Scientists call it experimental bias. What are the components that shape human behavior? As you know, there is quite a debate among scientists and sociologists as to the relative effects of genetics and the environment on the human behavior.

We also understand that there is a third component—the karma we bring with us from past lives.
I used to think it wasn't that important. I used to think that you could sow a little negative karma here and a little negative karma there and it wouldn't matter. But I've grown wiser. I realize that every day we could be crossing the line and causing ourselves to make karma.

Genetics' and the Environment's Influence on Human Behavior

Then we come to those past lives and we think they're somehow buried beneath ten thousand leagues under the sea. But it is not so. Misqualified energy that we have not balanced, is like the hunchback of Notre Dame. That big rock is still on your back. You're still carrying it. You're still carrying that karma, when with the violet flame and the understanding of new paradigms you could get that rock off your back and get on with earning your ascension.

The environmental factor is key to shaping paradigms. Teaching and learning can help us develop new paradigms. As an organization or a society, when we say we learn through education, we mean we learn through our culture. And conversely, we realize that cultural change will come through education.

When we speak of paradigms, what we're most often concerned about is paradigm shifts —shifting our way of thinking from its current state to more strategically advantageous ways of viewing the world.

How do we do that? How do we know where we want to go and how to get there? There are
many tools available. Some of these come through our church, such as prayer, decrees, and meditation. More secular approaches include studying, self-help and psychology books, getting enough exercise and watching our diets.

Today I'd like to share with you some of the necessary paradigm shifts that we all must make,
that are necessary for our growth and for our families and our church, if we are to survive into the
21st century. How many of us want to survive into the 21st century? We want to see, what's going to happen, don't we? We're going to see whether we've made it, turned things around for Saint Germain, or we put up the sign that says dog-house.

May we all come to understand the need for change. With the right paradigm shift, which some of you have already made as you have assessed what the future may have in store, our paradigm for the future will be one of an exciting opportunity. Change is a necessary step for entering the Aquarian age.

Being mortals and not having the cosmic overview of the Divine Order, we tend to fashion our paradigms within a framework of time and space. But time and space are not. The greatest philosophers of all time said that, and Mark Prophet said it in his lecture "KalDesh." Time and space: they don't exist. So where does that leave us? Floating somehow, having to navigate yet without a compass, till we understand what we're really made of?

We are gods. This is what it says in Scripture." Ye are gods." And all of you, all of you are of that God and of that one God. If we go forward with the sense that God is in us and through us and around us, we will see a potentiality so vast, so intense, so on fire that we no longer even see ourselves as having a beginning and an end, but only continuity in the Godhead. This is what is in store for us when we break those barriers.

However, regardless of our perceptions, the world around us is changing daily. As Heraclitus said, "Nothing endures but change," which is sometimes paraphrased as "The only constant is change." The pace of that change is accelerating daily and there is very little we, as individuals, can do about it. In fact, we are the ones driving that pace of change, whether we realize it or not, whether we like it or not. We are the driving force, plus or minus, of where our civilization is going.

As organizational performance specialist Price Pritchett states in his handbook 'Mindshift,'

"The only way to really succeed in a world of high velocity change is for us personally to behave in ways, that force even more change."

If you're not pushing change every day you are behind, you are behind of this world that's moving at a vast pace. We have spoken to you in the past about some of the paradigm shifts occurring within our church. Let's consider a few.

Let the Messenger Be the Messenger

As you know, we have separated the office of the messenger from the executive branch of the organization. The office of the messenger, then, formulates the "what" and "why", and the executive branch determines the "who," "when," "where," "how" and "if," along with the basic details of execution.

This is a very interesting role that has been placed upon me and it is the mantle of Messenger, and it is the mantle of the spiritual direction for our organization. I am grateful to play this role and to see many fine and brilliant people on my staff being able to take a more secular role of working through the details of what it takes to build a church, to build an organization and to reach worldwide those wonderful people, that are about to cross the line and come into this organization.

Being the Messenger allows me to work with you personally. It allows me to enter into a heart to heart tie, whether through the octaves of light in a one-on-one interchange between yourself and myself, as we meet on the high road of life. Being the Messenger then I feel that I am in two worlds; the world of spirit and matter, and that when these come in to a beautiful equilibrium, we will see the beginnings of the golden age we have all longed for.

Now we come to the understanding of our second principle

A Flatter Organization

A second paradigm shift is from a vertical or top down approach to a flatter or more horizontal structure and function. The implications of this will become clear, as we look at the other paradigm shifts.

Just a few years ago the saying was, that people often spend much of their life trying to climb the corporate ladder, only to discover, it was leaning against the wrong wall. This points to the need to be mission focused. But today the most successful organizations are those without much of a corporate ladder to climb, organizations where employees are contributing team members, and where individuals make up the heart of the organization.

A Team Approach

In line with a flatter organization we have moved more from individual decision making and problem solving, to team decision making and problem solving. The reason for this is that in our current complex society, no one individual has all of the skills and competencies needed to solve all of our problems. Isn't that wonderful? It means that we need one another. And that's what church is about. That is what the kingdom of God is about. If we had everything within ourselves we would be mighty proud of ourselves, too proud to bend the knee.

It requires a synergistic approach, where our collective minds function at a much higher level, ideally—at the level of the Christ mind. We must rise to the level of the Christ mind because it is our solace, it is our refuge, it is our mentor, it is the one thing about us that is permanent—this wonderful, glorious, beautiful Holy Christ Self, that loves us even if we get out of line and do things that we wish we hadn't done.

Knowing our Holy Christ Self is a wondrous experience. And in knowing that Holy Christ Self we must know that it is ours to balance the threefold flame of blue, yellow and pink, which is why I'm bringing you this trinity of messages today. So that you can meditate on your own threefold flame as something very active, something that quickens us, something that is a part of God. And if we get rid of all the other junk and leave a vacuum, that Holy Christ Self is going to come right down into us and into our temples.

And we're going to walk the earth as sons and daughters of God. And we will be humble and meek, and yet we will not allow any to trample upon us. We will walk the earth and bring our message of the teachings of the ascended masters, and there will not be any more obstacles because we will have invited into our temples that living, breathing Presence of the Holy Christ Self who is our mentor, who is our teacher.

And do you know that your Holy Christ Self is unique to you? Very unique to you only. He has his one personality vis-à-vis yourself. You can walk and talk with him. Your Holy Christ Self might discipline you more than the person sitting next to you gets disciplined by his Holy Christ Self,
et cetera.

So God is an individualist from the beginning, from the beginning unto the end, from Genesis to Revelation, to all the scriptures of the world, God is individualized, and he's individualized in us. And you know what? If we go below the level of the heart, if we are stingy and penurious and we are beefing about this and we're crying about that and we're not happy about this, you know what? We lose contact with that Holy Christ Self.

And all you have to do is reach up a little bit more. Stretch a little bit more, stretch some more, stretch some more. Get up here and hold on to that Holy Christ Self and you won't have to walk through the muck and the mire and the gossip and the soap operas that we daily deal with. You can enter your Christhood today. And I want you to take that statement with you for the rest of your life. You can be the Christ from this day on. Let's do it!

So going back to this team approach, if we think we can't make it alone and we have to make it together with groups of one another, where we meet in our hometowns, remember this. I'm going to read it to you again: a team approach. Our bodies are a team approach. All of our parts work together that we might bring forth the nobility of our soul.

In line with a flatter organization we have moved more from individual decision making and problem solving to team decision making and problem solving. There's more brains putting all together than there is just one brain. That's the key. The reason for this is that in our current complex society no one individual has all of the skills and competencies needed to solve all our problems. But our Holy Christ Self does.

So it requires a synergistic approach. And guess who is in the middle of that approach? Our Holy Christ Self and our threefold flame. Here our collective minds function at a much higher level, ideally at the level of the Christ mind. This can be.

We know that on the lost continent of Atlantis, before Atlantis sank, there was a great golden age on Atlantis. Atlantis sank. That doesn't mean we have to sink. It means that once upon a time there was a golden age, and if it happened once it can happen again. And we can determine that it's going to happen in this coming century. That's the idea. That's why we're here. That's why we're hanging in there. We want to see it happen for our children, our progeny, and all the children that don't have a proper education.

So the net result is an output greater than the sum of the parts, greater than what any individual could produce alone. Each group is led by a team or process leader, who functions as a "servant leader" as opposed to a "boss." That title "servant leader" puts you in tune with their Holy Christ Self. You can call him that, if it makes you feel good. "I'm calling upon my servant leader, my Holy Christ Self, to deliver me to that octave, to the level of my heart chakra and above, so that I do not have to descend again into the lower levels of my human consciousness."

Recognizing Life Cycles

We all go through life cycles, with ups and downs, peaks and valleys. We need to realize
and accept this in order to position ourselves for optimum future possibilities and outcomes. As a nation, over the last few hundred years, we have moved through three different economies: agrarian, industrial and the information age.

Beginning in the 1700s we began moving from an agrarian to an industrial economy. What was the impact? Jeremy Rifkin gives an example in his book "The End of Work":

In 1880 it took more than 20 man hours to harvest an acre of wheat land. By 1916 the number of man hours was reduced to 12.7. Just 20 years later only 6.1 man-hours were required. Today it can be done in a few minutes.

Viewed another way, in 1900 approximately 40% of our labor force was agricultural. Today it is less than 3%, yet we feed three times as many people and several million people in other countries. In the 1950s, we began shifting from an industrial to an information economy, based on knowledge and people. It took more than 30 years before most people began to realize a change had occurred.

Were we all asleep? Perhaps—perhaps not. One thing we may not have done, is to knock on the door of the heart of our Holy Christ Self and say, 'I want to rise higher because I'm not getting where I'm going without my Holy Christ Self.'

And yet many, if not most organizations, are still based on an industrial, top down organizational structure. Again, most people view industrialization's impact on agriculture as a blessing. It allows us to pursue other goals in our lives, produce new and better goods and services, and make greater contributions to society.

Yet today. when modern technology gives new tools and equipment that eliminate the need for people, it is viewed as bad. People are laid off. Companies are down-sized. The paradigm is: Creating jobs and keeping them is good. Eliminating them is bad. Yet historically, as we saw with agriculture, this is not true. So why are people reluctant to change their paradigm? Because the old system was simple, predictable and stable. The Information Age is complex, unpredictable and unstable, and therefore scary for some of us.

But individually, organizationally and globally, because of the life cycles we are going through, there is a need for change. And change is in the winds and it comes with the age of Aquarius, as just about everybody here knows. And we need to embrace this change in order to progress upward on the next cycle of our lives. As Charles Darwin put it, "It's not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

Let's explore a few examples of change within our Church.

In 1961 I met Mark Prophet after my long search, after having found Saint Germain's book. I joined The Summit Lighthouse. How many of you weren't even born then? Let's see your hands here. Quite a few. Shortly after, President Kennedy gave Americans a vision to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. It only took scientists a few years to figure out how to do this. The trouble was, in those first few years they hadn't figured out how to get BACK from the moon. This wasn't an acceptable paradigm for the president, the scientists, or the astronauts.

When the goal of a landing on the moon was achieved in the late 1960s, the computers that were used cost several million dollars. Despite their apparent complexity and high cost, the astronauts' computers were less sophisticated than the one under the hood of your new car or in the Nintendo machine on top of your TV.

Shortly after this lunar walk God called Mark Prophet home. What's happened on the world
scene since then? From an economic or consumer standpoint, it can be argued that the poorest households today are better of than most households were in the early 1970s. Poor households are defined as those at or below the poverty level, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Compared to ALL households in 1971, poor households today have a greater percentage of clothes dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, color televisions, VCRs, personal computers, telephones and air conditioners. In other words, by today's standards, most U.S. households were poor in 1971.

As you may know, Church comes from the Greek "ecclesia", meaning a religious congregation or Christian community. Upon founding the Church in 1975, our paradigm was to become one worldwide body of lightbearers sharing fellowship, brotherhood and community. We have yet to fulfill the fullness of our paradigm.

Through our international ministry we will focus on applying the teachings of the ascended masters, as opposed to publishing, in our mission statement. Jesus said to Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my church." We know this rock will be the stable, reliable presence of our individual Christ mind. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. That rock is the rock of your
Christ consciousness. That is what will be the steady foundation to guide us through this ever changing world—that beloved Holy Christ Self.

In the 1980s Saint Germain asked us at our headquarters community to move toward greater self-sufficiency. We followed that direction and established our base in Montana. Then in 1993 he asked us to shift our paradigm by applying the best practices of the 1990s in running our organization.

Saint Germain said,

"Let there be a restructuring. Let there be a streamlining on this staff and throughout the field. And let there be those assignments and projects that concretely lead to the writing and publishing of the teachings, that which is most pertinent to the very existence of the community and the education of the children."

Saint Germain continued,

"Let us trim the fat and not engage in any projects whatsoever that do not immediately lead to the practical dissemination of this teaching or of the profile of this Community. Let there be a reordering in all departments and let the Community come together. And let there be one-pointed direction and let the priorities be established. For I, Saint Germain, have lined up the advisers at inner levels who will overshadow you. You have but to organize yourselves according to the superior business methods being practiced in the decade of the nineties."—Saint Germain

Although uncertain of the direction, we heeded the call and found that it required indeed a revolutionary change in our modus operandi. Today we are now realizing the absolute necessity of our new course. You will be hearing quite a bit about this at our business meeting on Thursday and at various workshops and meetings throughout the conference. This is only the beginning.

Begin with the End in Mind

How many people do that? Do you think about the end from the beginning? I think a lot about the end from the beginning because I want to know where I'm going. Begin with the end in mind.

A key component in starting off on a new life cycle is greater emphasis on planning and the formation of a mission and a vision. You have to have a work that is your passion. You have to have a vision, a geometric focus right in front of you that says; This I can do. This I will do. This I know I can achieve.

Steven Covey characterizes this paradigm as "begin with the end in mind." Our mission, personal or organizational, is the criterion by which we measure everything else. Our church's current mission statement is as follows: "Our mission is to publish and apply the teachings delivered by the ascended masters to their messengers Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet and their anointed successors, in order to restore the original one-on-one relationship between the soul and God, and to liberate the souls of planet earth."

Don't you feel that deep fire in your being to liberate the souls of planet earth? Is it not appalling to see children that go hungry, all kinds of burdens, plagues that come upon the peoples of the Third World and in our own nation? To have this cast into the violet flame because we embraced our Holy Christ Self, because we entered into our self-actualization by determining that each and every day we would re-create ourselves through our Holy Christ Self. This is what we must do.

If many Christed ones walked the earth as you are walking the earth now and you become more intense, more determined to walk that walk in the heart of your Holy Christ Self, we will see tremendous change on earth. Do you know why I believe that? Because Jesus Christ was one man and he changed the world. So was Moses. So was Mohammed. So was Buddha. So was Lao Tzu. So was Confucius. So, it doesn't take millions and millions of people to save a world. It takes a few that are on fire and who already have their hearts in the heart of God. These are the ascending ones. Yes, it's true.

The organization was initially founded to publish. Our Church was formed later to focus more on applying the Teachings. We now have a mission statement that includes both.

From Internal to External Focus

A certain amount of internal focus is necessary. If you don't have your house in order you're not so inclined to have guests over for dinner. Initially in our reengineering, we've spent some time to be clear in establishing our new direction and structure. Now we need to shift more toward meeting your needs, and toward involving you in decision making, which we call customer focus.

We know some of you are not fond of the term customer. We use it, for lack of a better term, as a constant reminder to us that we're here for you and not the other way around! We are here for you. We exist to serve you, to nurture you, mentor you, to coach you and to love you. We are the servants, and you are one mystical body of our Lord on earth with us. We are one together.

We consider this opportunity an honor and a privilege because we know that every time we serve you we are serving not only your soul, but your Holy Christ Self, and that is an honor for us to be able to do.

Control to Empowerment

We've spoken to you before about moving from control to empowerment. Gilbert Cleirbaut said it best when he asked and answered, "Why empowerment? The answer is because the problems of tomorrow cannot be solved by top leadership alone." We are in the process of changing our rules and regulations to enable greater decision-making authority both at our headquarters and at our teaching centers and study groups.

One way to characterize this paradigm shift is that our employees will be empowered to meet your needs without asking for a supervisor's permission. There are other paradigm shifts that relate to this, such as moving from monitoring to mentoring, and from steering to rowing, which you will hear about in greater detail from other conference speakers. If the Industrial Age was about powerful organizations, the Information Age is about empowering, empowering individuals.

Responsibility and Accountability

In order to be empowered, individuals need to be trained. It's as simple as that. And they need to accept responsibility for their actions. We all do, all of us have to be accountable for our actions. If we make mistakes we will have to correct them.

So empowerment doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. In the boom years following the depression and World War II, the government and big business began to be very generous with their spending programs. Whenever something went wrong, the government willingly provided a solution. Over the last 50 or 60 years we have come to rely on a multitude of government or corporate programs for everything from health, disaster, and retirement needs. Unfortunately, many people have come to accept this support as a right.

We deserve it. We're entitled to it. As Price Pritchett explains: "Spoiled by success, we gradually programmed ourselves to believe that big government and big business could and would protect us." Well, they might, but they would run away with the bank and the gold at Fort Knox before they would be through. Because it's an impossible thing. It's absolutely impossible to give everybody the amount of money that they think they should have, and not work for it to boot.

"Worst of all, we convinced ourselves that we deserved all this . . . that success should be ours... that it was our right. As popular thought shifted toward this entitlement mind set, America's ethic of personal responsibility grew still weaker and still weaker. Also, our culture's basic belief in equality of opportunity somehow got warped into an insistence on equality of results." Unfortunately, this mind-set diminishes personal responsibility.

I have lived in the United States, praise God, all of my life. It took me many centuries to finally get here. I'm not kidding. I had plenty of European karma that I had to work on. But what I want to tell you is that I watched this nation, and I was very current on the news because my parents were very much involved in what was happening in World War II and sending care packages to Europe and all those things.

So we lived in war. When I was growing up there was a blimp over New Jersey that blew up, the Hindenberg blimp. There were submarines right off the shores of New Jersey where I now go swimming. So I've been through all those years and all of those times. And I realize that it is impossible to run a country under Socialism.

Today socialism is rearing its head in the European nations, and it's a disaster that's not waiting to happen. It's happening. Socialism cannot take care of the people. I could tell you about many people that I have known over the years who, because they grew up under socialist governments, can scarcely make a decision on their own or do something independently because they have grown up in a familiarity of socialism where the state takes care of everything.

So let us realize that when we allow the state to feed us, to clothe us, to give us money, to pay for all our expenses, all of our medical things and so forth, what we are creating is a group of people who do not have resources in situations of very severe calamity, calamity itself, unexpected situations. So I just want to point that out to you that what we do on our own, what we do best on our own, what we do because we did it ourselves, is what counts, not what somebody else did for us.

So this mind-set diminishes personal responsibility. Instead, it claims that corporate America should protect our careers, and Uncle Sam should protect everything else. Price Pritchett looks ahead and comments: "Nevertheless, in the future, rewards will be based much more closely on each person's own productive capacity—on our performance as individuals." The individual for me in this sentence is another name for your Holy Christ Self who walks and talks with you every day. We're seeing a shift from entitlement to earning. From blame and excuses, to personal accountability. From rights to responsibility.

Systems Thinking

Moving from blame and excuses to personal accountability is difficult for most of us. One reason is that we've come to believe that when something goes wrong, someone must have screwed up. A systems thinking approach shows that this is often not the case.

For example, let's say you order a book from a highly complex organization. If there are enough rules, regulations and procedures in place, it could take a year before you ever get what you ordered. Now each person in the system may be trying his best to shuffle his paper down the line, which will eventually result in you getting the book. From the customer's perspective, if it takes too long to get something, someone must have screwed up. But in this example the problem lies within the system, not the people.

So people are trapped into the system. That is the problem. Each step in the process was probably put in place by a well intentioned person, for what may have been a good reason at the time, perhaps to solve a problem. But increasing customer expectations demand a new system with a new end in mind. Perhaps it is to get customers what they want as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

Fortunately, it doesn't take a year to order and receive a book from SBI or our Customer Delight process. But we know we can do a better job in meeting your needs. And so SBI is being reorganized, and Customer Delight is scheduled to be the first process to be reengineered beginning in August.

Cultural Changes

Some of the most important paradigm shifts we must make involve cultural changes. In reality, all of the paradigm shifts mentioned so far affect our culture. Most of these apply to many organizations going through transitions in the 1990s. Individually and collectively, we must go through some unique experiences to fulfill our mission culminating in the 21st century.

Complete cultural changes usually take months or years because they are deep rooted. We need to change the written and unwritten rules by which we operate that keep us in the old way of doing things. There were often good reasons to put the old rules in place. Many students of the ascended masters benefited by them. But the times are changing and the winds of Aquarius are beginning to blow. We must set a new course and reset our sails. We must not be like the foolish seaman of whom it is said, "The captain who doesn't set his sails is always complaining that the wind comes from the wrong direction."

And we need to remember Gilbert's warning, "The more successful you are in your old paradigm, the more vulnerable you will be to the new rules." We are going to develop new rules, and we are going to acquire new jobs as well. For a lot of people that sounds like a threat, but I would say, 'when one door closes, another opens. But we have looked so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. Look for the open door.

Key among our cultural paradigm shifts is moving from fear to love. Vertical organizations tend to promote following the rules and pleasing the boss. Yet even in the military, where tight organizational structure and management has provided for success in the past, there is movement toward a team approach where individual contributions and decision making are more highly valued. Moving toward greater and greater love is what we, as a Church, are all about. It needs to be not only our mission but our passion. We need to meet people where they are and accept the God potential within them.

Another key shift that needs to take place is towards greater support for our families. Although we have put a lot of emphasis on education over the years, our headquarters' climate has been somewhat monastic in lifestyle. So without abandoning the unmarried seeker on the path, we want to have a much stronger focus on the family in our Aquarian Age ministry.

A Learning Organization

It has been estimated that only 20 to 50% of what a college graduate learns is still relevant 3 to 5 years after he graduates. On the job scene, some futurists predict that 7 to 10 career changes for an individual may be common. How much will corporate America contribute to ongoing education?

Peter Drucker in The New Realities observes: "Education can no longer be confined to the schools. Every employing institution has to become a teacher. The country that is again in the lead is the United States, where employers spend as much money and effort on education and training of their employees as do all the country's colleges and universities together."

In order to make the transition into the future, we need to be adaptable, flexible and continually learning. To me that translates "openness", open ears, open minds, open hearts. Open our eyes and see what is the peripheral teaching that God is sending to us from the vast reaches of time and space coming right back to the heart.

It wasn't long ago that college students who appeared to be taking extra courses or spending longer than needed for a degree were criticized as perpetual students. Today, lifelong learning is a necessary trait for survival. And each of us must take personal responsibility for our continuing learning, especially the spiritual learning of the heart. Because if the heart does not expand and it is not balanced and we close that heart, everything else in our systems will close down.

They will shut down. Maybe it'll be the arteries. Maybe it's going to be someone's heart attack. Maybe it's going to be a brain tumor. Maybe it's going to be this problem. But if we don't expand the heart we won't have the energy to overcome the negatives that have been in our lives for centuries. We need to conquer them today with the violet flame and especially with the violet flame love of Saint Germain.

Moral Compassing

The final paradigm shift I will discuss with you today is what Steven Covey calls moral compassing. In "Principle Centered Leadership" Covey states: "When managing in the wilderness of the changing times, a map is of limited worth. What is needed is a moral compass. Our principles are our internal compass. Principles such as honor, accountability and compassion must guide our decisions and conduct."

It has been said that "Order is heaven's first law." We realize that Divine Order is based on these fundamental and everlasting principles. Love—not just as a word but as a fiery intensity whose torch we take. And with it we ignite other heart flames that don't have that momentum. Justice —holding the scales even though we are blind. We are blind so that we can be fair and judge not those whom we look down upon.

Let us embrace faith where our parents never taught us faith, where we did not know faith. Therefore we do not lean on it. Faith is the most powerful energy of the universe, and when we have it in our hearts we can conquer ourselves and anyone. Hope opens the door to opportunity as never before.

Trust is in ourselves and in our heart flame, trust in God, trust in the human experience, trust people even if they betray you. Better let them betray you than you betray them. Think of compassion, think of honor—just to name a few. These are the fabric that hold our heaven world together, and that we are destined to embody here on earth.

Therefore in moving from rules and regulations to principles and values, we are trusting that you will choose wisely. We are counting on it. We have to live as though we have only one life to live, which is true. We have to expand that threefold flame. We have to take care of our physical bodies, get rid of that substance that slows us down because of what we've been eating all our lives.

We have to have such a passion to live and to bring our teaching to the world, even if it's one by one by one, that we want to make ourselves fit for the kingdom of God and fit for this world. So that anyone who comes along, we have a cup of cold water from Jesus Christ to give to those persons. We have it in our hearts. We have that living flame. We can deliver it. And that one cup to one beggar may ultimately become a chalice that rings the planet with the love that we sent forth once upon a time when we decided to send that love in that chalice.

In making this transition, training and learning will be key for our headquarters staff, and for teaching center and study group members as well. We are looking forward to a productive partnership with you in expanding our worldwide ministry. So where do we go from here?

You may be waiting to hear that from us—and we'll have some of the answers for you at this conference. But under the new paradigm, we're also waiting to hear from you. And of course, we're all waiting to hear from the Ascended Masters. Please join me now in welcoming our beloved El Morya.

Beloved El Morya

I Bring You a Heightened Sense of Your Own Immortality
Accelerate in the Fires of the Holy Spirit

By the grace of God, all things come to fruition. The seed that is sown bears fruit and the light of the Central Sun shines across the galaxy. All things that are of man come to naught, but the soul and the center of the heart flame endure forever. Seek, then, those things that are permanent, and cast all else into the sacred fire.

Be stripped of the old garments; enter into the new. Know that you weave, in this very moment as you are gathered here, that very special bridal veil, that very special manifestation of your Holy Christ Self that in this moment does imbue you with that special quickening if you will receive it.

And what is the quickening? It is the quickening that comes following that which is dead that now must be alive. Thus, draw nigh to the quickening Spirit of your Holy Christ Self and all things shall come to pass as you revolutionize the world, as you enter into levels of consciousness of which you have not dreamed, no, not in many a lifetime. Understand that many things can be revealed to you as long as you keep these things in your heart, as the Blessed Mother has done.

So, beloved, I know of your service. I know well of that service to change, to alter, to turn around, to enter in, to give birth to, to destroy, to come into the heart of Ecclesiastes, to come into the very fire that is aglow.

You Can Transcend the Finite World: There Are Only a Few Keys

May, then, this conference provide for you that quickening Spirit. May the fires of God climb up the being of selfhood, up the entire oneness. You who have [the spirit of] the knight champion, you who have [the spirit of] the lady of the flame, know then, beloved, that this is an hour and a day and a cycle of time and space wherein you can transcend the finite world and enter infinite cycles of being.

I speak to you, beloved, for I have chosen not to continue the subjects of the day, <1> but rather to bring you to an heightened sense of your own immortality. Nothing is more important to you. For the immortality of your threefold flame—that is what will carry you into infinite spheres of existence that are truly beyond all telling, all realization, all becoming. Yet you, man, woman, are designed for this fate, for this eternity, for this return to the Great Central Sun.

There are not so many keys, beloved, only a few. To find them, to unlock the door, to return to eternal life—this is your calling. And in the process you shall know the Holy Spirit. For I, El Morya, am determined that you shall know that Spirit as I have known that Maha Chohan, that beatific one who comes to us and says to all of us at the point in time that we are called: "Come up higher. I shall reignite in you the eternal flame, a flame that shall never go out. It is the flame of your Holy Christ Self."

Look at Yourself As Eternal Being Now, in the Flesh

Come, then, come, then, my children. Come, then, into the interior castle; enter into the depths. Where there is vacancy, so, fill that vacancy with divine love, with a quickening Spirit. Know then, beloved, that it is not true that you must wait forever to hear, to know, to feel the Holy Spirit. [The time] is now, beloved. Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation, now is the moment. Look not back nor forward but look at yourself as eternal being now, in the flesh.

Take note that the flesh is also being transformed. Do you notice this, beloved? Do you notice how others you may see walking in the promenades, going here, going there, do not have of that essence, of that eternalness? Have you not seen how the light has glowed in your physical bodies, in your minds? Do you not reveal, do you not understand, do you not see the Holy Spirit that comes upon you now?

This is a conference, beloved, and you are at the conclusion of the first day. Value this day, beloved, for I have chosen to come back to you each of these six days that you might understand why I move among you, why I would secure holy purpose for you, why I would ordain for you a certain measure of service, a certain going here and a certain going there--because these places must be transmuted and you must move on in the cycles of being and you must not be at that particular place at a particular time. No, you must be at a level of the etheric octave, you must be in communion with your Holy Christ Self.

In Increments You Receive or Lose the Holy Spirit

Therefore, this do, this do as you depart, going into inner octaves of light in sleep; this do, beloved: vacate the temple in a sense of the word that you are not filled with food and with thoughts and things that are irrelevant. But come to the day and the day's ending with a desire to be one with the Holy Spirit, to be one with the Maha Chohan. He is our mentor, he is the mentor of the seven rays; we move under him and with him.

Know then, beloved, that in increments you receive the Holy Spirit, even as in increments you lose the Holy Spirit if you do not move in pathways of love, move in pathways whereby the road is long, the road is hard. You may not like that road but if you desire eternal life then you must take it. However difficult that may be, do not be concerned, for the life everlasting is ensouled by many angels.

The question then becomes, do you have the determination of the lord of the first ray to accelerate and to take these six days and put them together in a formation of the six-pointed star so that you may see the ascending and descending triangles?

You may come to the realization, beloved, that I would give you in this moment—that you are not mortals! But because you think you are, you have become mortals. It is like a dog who thinks that he is a rabbit or a skunk or a this or a that.

You must understand that there are openings that come to all at critical moments in your life, when you will say: "I will take my stand upon the rock of El Morya. I will take my stand on the rock of being. I will push forward, I will move, I will enter in, I will transcend self. I will not allow myself to simply be at these low levels, in the doldrums, where the winds do not carry the sails to their appointed tides."

Many Are Worthy in This Moment to Come Up Higher

I, El Morya, then speak of the love of the seven rays and the Maha Chohan. The character of that love in each of the seven chohans is special, very special. Imitate it, walk in it.

Observe Hilarion, the great healer. Observe Nada, who comes with such tremendous love that how could you continue in any way to doubt the love of God. There is the power of Lord Lanto.

There is the mighty presence of Serapis Bey. No matter what the white fire that passes through you, if his pinions come to you, then move with them, in them and through them and take the pain, beloved, for pain is the precursor to immortal life.

If You Are Called to Heaven, Accept That Calling

Yes, indeed, beloved, understand that you are living in a time when God has said: "I would harvest my souls, the seven. I would harvest those of the Maha Chohan, for they are worthy." And many in this hall are worthy in this very moment to come up higher. God has called you. Have you heard him? Have you listened? Is the pain too great? And therefore do you shut it off, seal it off and say, "I will stand where I am"? Well, it is not possible, beloved, for the Law requires you to accelerate. And if you do not choose to accelerate, then you will go down in a downward spiral. And what will become of you?

We do not take chances with our chelas. There are those of you whose timetables have come. You have earned your victory, you have earned your ascension. You have asked to retain and carry and hold the balance, and this has been a magnificent service even to this messenger. But I tell you, beloved, you cannot afford to stand still. That is the greatest mistake that any of you could ever make: "I will wait till tomorrow, I will wait till next week. I will do this thing first, I will do that thing."

Well, do you know, beloved, that the planets in their courses have appointed rounds? And if you are students of astrology, you know that seconds and minutes make the difference as to what that astrology in your chart may be. Thus you see, beloved, in a sense you are prisoners of your karma but you are also prisoners of the Godhead. And the Godhead will not receive you if you do not understand that there is atonement to be met. Atonement means "at-one-ment with God" and it also means "to atone"—to atone for karma, to atone for sin or disease or death or all those things that you have carried as baggage through the centuries.

The centuries are heavy; the end of the Piscean age is heavy. But you have come to this place and you feel the lightness and you say to yourselves, "What is this lightness?" The lightness is the combination of all the causal bodies of all of you gathered in this hall. Can you imagine what this might mean to the Darjeeling Council of the Great White Brotherhood, what this might mean to all souls in heaven, on earth and throughout the planetary home?

There is great meaning in this. It means that some are truly chosen. Some may take their ascension because they have lived through their lives, whether for other reasons, and so on. <2> Beloved ones, if you are called to heaven you must accept that calling, for you do not know when the cycles will turn again, even though you say to yourself, "I will stay and stay and stay." Well, perhaps, beloved, some group of souls, many thousands or even hundreds of thousands of souls, are waiting for you.

When God Gives You an Assignment, Put That First

Your messenger moves in other planes of consciousness and often in other solar systems. This is true, beloved. You must know this so that you can understand that when God gives an assignment to you, whether you think you are the lowly or the high and the mighty, it does not matter. When you are given an assignment by God and you have heard his voice and that voice has spoken to you, then you must put that project, that purpose first. Then you must go about all the rest. If you do this in order, beloved, you will never shortchange your God, your mentor, your chohan, your Maha Chohan.

Remember, you are servants of the chohans and the Maha Chohan. You serve us, beloved, and you should, for all of you have made some karma on each of the seven rays. It is time you accelerated. It is time you accelerated in the fires of the Holy Spirit. It is time that there should be so much heat in your body and so much acceleration of the flame flowing upward that you can scarcely contain that white-hot heat that is a signifier of those coming days of transformation.

If You Accelerate, You Pull Up the World

When the transfiguration comes, the transformation, the resurrection, the ascension, beloved, be prepared. As the messenger has thought to herself and meditated upon these concepts many, many times, it is important that all those in embodiment who are approaching balancing 51 percent of their karma and moving on beyond that percentage, that those ones, beloved, realize that they must hold fast to what they have received and not backslide, that they must move forward and carry civilization forward.

For as long as you serve, beloved, know that to give of yourself to the Holy Spirit, to purge yourself of all that is anti the Holy Spirit, to do what it takes for that transformation—this [is what you ought to] do. For I tell you, beloved, when you go back to the Darjeeling Council and meet there with me and so many ascended masters, when you go here and there around the world and you are in the retreats, remember, remember this, beloved, that if you accelerate you are pulling up the world, you are pulling up your four lower bodies.

Therefore, as I have said, do not allow yourself ever to go below the level of the heart when it comes to the flowering of the heart chakra. Remember that you can raise up the sacred fire upon the altar of being. You can raise up that sacred fire to the crown of life. You may know an angel that may come upon you, that may place upon you even that crown, that crown of twelve stars.

You do not know where you are on the ladder of life. Since you do not know, beloved, assume that you are a humble being. Assume that you [need to] work hard, serve diligently, be kind to neighbor and friend, obey the commandments, and so forth. If you do all these things, beloved, recognize that God is propelling you upward. And what propels you is the fleur-de-lis. <*> Think of the fleur-de-lis as three white plumes centered in your heart, and see how they are tinged with the pink, yellow and blue.

Put All Else Aside and Make Your Ascension

Know then, beloved, that the day and the hour is known to you by the God within you. Don't miss the train, don't miss the plane, don't miss the marathon, don't miss the football game, don't miss any of it, beloved. Put it all aside and make your ascension. This is my advice to you. And each day for six days I shall speak to you of this subject. I pray you will not tire unduly.

I seal you in the heart of the will of God. Now, this night, ponder the will of God for you. And do not shirk the opportunity when opportunity knocks, for it may not knock again for a long, long time.

I seal you with the cross of white fire, the blue lightning of the mind of God. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Divine Mother, Amen.

This dictation by El Morya was delivered by the Messenger of the Great White Brotherhood Elizabeth Clare Prophet on Monday, June 30, 1997, at the 1997 freedom class Practical Spirituality: A Six-Day Conference on Living a Spiritual Life, held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, San Diego, California.

* threefold flame

1. A few hours before El Morya's dictation, the messenger delivered El Morya's personal message "On the Cosmic Order and the New Paradigm Shift" in the context of the current organizational development.

2. The messengers have taught that the requirements for the ascension include "the balancing of 51 percent of one's karma; the balancing of the threefold flame; the alignment of the four lower bodies so that they can be pure chalices for the flame of the Holy Spirit in the world of form; the achievement of self-mastery on the seven rays of the Christ; the attainment of mastery over sin, sickness and death, and over every outer condition; the fulfillment of one's divine plan; the transmutation of one's electronic belt; and the magnification of the Mother energy of the Kundalini." Serapis Bey states: "The ascension must be desired and it must be desired ordinately. It must be desired not as a mechanism of escape from responsibility or from worldly duties. It must be desired as the culmination of a lifetime of service in the will of God, and men must be willing during their final embodiments upon the planet—the time of their escape from the round of the centuries—to give the very best of service to the light and to help usher in the
kingdom" (Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet: Lords of the Seven Rays: Mirror of
Consciousness, Book One, pp. 169-71 [includes quote from Serapis Bey's July 23, 1967 Pearl of Wisdom, vol. 10, no. 30]). For more teaching, see Foundations of the Path, pp. 61-70; and "The Ascension," ch. 2 in The Masters and the Spiritual Path, pp. 81-136. See also Annice Booth, The Path to Your Ascension: Rediscovering Life's Ultimate Purpose. All are available through Summit University Press, www.tsl.org/bookstore.

Transfiguration

I AM changing all my garments,
Old ones for the bright new day;
With the Sun of Understanding
I AM shining all the way.
I AMLight within, without;
I AMLight is all about.
Fill me, free me, glorify me!
Seal me, heal me, purify me!
Until transfigured they describe me:
I AM shining like the Son,
I AM shining like the Sun! (3x)

Resurrection

I AM the Flame of Resurrection
Blazing God's pure Light through me.
Now IAM raising every atom,
From every shadow I AM free.
I AM the Light of God's full Presence,
I AM living ever free.
Now the flame of Life eternal
Rises up to Victory. (3x)

Ascension

I AM Ascension Light,
Victory flowing free,
All of Good won at last
For all eternity.
I AM Light, all weights are gone.
Into the air I raise;
To all I pour with full God Power
My wondrous song of praise.
All hail! I AM the living Christ,
The ever-loving One.
Ascended now with full God Power,
I AM a blazing Sun! (3x)

"But the Guru may be given opportunity to be Guru only for a certain cycle; and if at the end of that cycle the members of a lifewave by their recalcitrance and hardness of heart have not responded as chelas to the heartflame of the Guru, then the Guru must withdraw. And that which might have been may not be, and to no other hierarch then will the dispensation be given."

" . . . I show you, then, the mystery, beloved hearts, which I show the Messenger, and it is the thread. It is a filigree thread. And this thread, starting in the devotion of the heart, proceeding to the crown chakra, is now shown to extend through your I AM Presence to the Central Sun. This is what is known as the thread of contact with the entire Spirit of the Great White Brotherhood.

"Blessed hearts, the thread of contact can be broken. It is a mighty strong thread but also delicate. Therefore, see thou do it not: see thou do not blaspheme thy God or disgrace him or take his name in vain. See that thou dost control thine anger and all aggressions akin to the Martian mechanization evolutions.

"Blessed hearts, guard the thread. For as some have lost the threefold flame and the bonding to Christ, so some have lost this thread of contact. It is given to those who have attended this conference. Those who may offer their devotions through [the decrees and songs that] have been given in these five days [in King Arthur's Court] may apply and receive the same [dispensation of the thread of contact].

"Blessed ones, this is a gift of Alpha and Omega, given in the hopes that you and all who shall hear again the Word that is given and has been given in these days may keep this thread and thereby extend the right hand of contact of the Great White Brotherhood to all whom you meet.

"I pray fervently that you shall know how precious a gift this is. And do not take it lightly nor consider that should you break it, it should be given again. So great, so great is the desiring of Alpha and Omega that I leave it to your heart's discovery to truly know what is that love for you personally of your Father-Mother God.

"I AM Morya of the flame. I have spoken. I have sealed. And now I remind you that I stay, still, as Thomas Becket. And I remind you that for centuries pilgrims did visit Canterbury Cathedral to pray for my intercession after my martyrdom and did receive complete healing.

"Therefore, know that I remain always one who desires to extend that healing light first and foremost to your soul that she might pursue the Path with all due diligence, then to extend that healing light to the heart that that heart which has been broken might be made whole and the flame might increase, and then to extend that healing light to the mind that its divisions and fleshly pursuits might be erased, and then to extend that healing light to the spirit itself that it might be strengthened-then to extend that healing light to the body, beloved, for with these four points of healing, the body may come into conformity with the inner man, the inner woman, the inner child.

"I seal you, therefore. And I know that you know that I love you. But how much, my beloved, you can never know until you, too, are ascended in the Light and free.

[24-second standing ovation. Congregation gives the salutation:]

"Hail, El Morya! Hail, El Morya! Hail, El Morya!

"Hail, El Morya! Hail, El Morya! Hail, El Morya!"

Staff Meeting in King Arthur's Court, May 13, 1997

Mother gives opening invocation and then reads the following letter:

Letter from El Morya to us dated April 30, 1997

I, El Morya Khan, Chief of the Darjeeling Council, hereby announce the removal of the thread that originates from my mantle to the heart of the Messenger, to your hearts, for the holding of the balance of your lifestreams. The dispensation of this thread, which is a thread of protection, was formerly made possible because of the codes of conduct established and sponsored by me in the past. Your merit for intercession will now be based upon your own decree momentum, your devotion to your God Presence and your service to mankind. May you pass every test. [highlighted by webmaster]

Ma:

I was asked by the executive Board to comment on this. So these are the comments that will elucidate what I have just stated as the words of El Morya. The conclusion of the matter is that the Messenger's protection is from the Great White Brotherhood and El Morya. The chela's
protection is from his daily decree work and his maintaining of the standards of the Great White Brotherhood's Code of Conduct.

Morya states:

"Those who have kept the code of conduct have maintained their tie to me, El Morya, through the Messenger. First and foremost, this has been a tie of protection. The tie of protection was made possible because the chelas upheld the Code of Conduct. Under the new standards, El Morya can no longer hold the balance of protection for the community and its members.

"The new standards do not allow El Morya to hold the line for any loss of light or of the sacred fire accrued by any of the Church's members. Formerly, El Morya's codes of conduct established a circle of fire that protected the Church members from the loss of light while undergoing the trial by fire.

"El Morya is neither approving or disapproving the new codes. The bottom line is, every member has to play his own game of chess. Every decision made that does not stem from the spiritual laws of God will so lose its potency, value and balance. My decisions are always based upon pleasing God not man." [highlighted by webmaster]

Then we read:

"Every chela must be responsible for himself and those to whom they are accountable. In effect, each one must now occupy El Morya's seat and every day the chelas must establish their personal protection for themselves and that of their families and children and their Church in preparation for their ascension. Each of us must realize that we are the living Church.

"The threefold flame of that Church burns on the altar of our hearts. There is no church except the church that embodies the threefold flame. Each one of us can rightly claim that we are the living Church, that there is no Church without me. Because the Church is not a building built with hands, but it is the living presence of God within us." [highlighted by webmaster]

El Morya has taught us from infancy to full maturity. We are now ready to fly. Today is our graduation day. It is time for us to demonstrate and apply what we have learned from our Guru over the years. So in reality, this action taken by El Morya can be seen as a potential
empowerment. If we desire to be empowered by El Morya, we must seek him and seek him diligently and daily that we might have that greater empowerment that we would desire to protect our Church, to protect all of us in it and to protect the lightbearers of the world. Therefore we must diligently seek empowerment from El Morya and the Holy Spirit.

We must daily make calls for our Church and its members to protect and sustain the dome of light over this retreat and create a fortress of light. When you have more freedom, you have more accountability. The message is "Morya's children must learn how to fly."

From time to time, El Morya has requested that we play his keynote and welcome him to our services as well as to meetings at Ranch Office. We must concentrate on pleasing God, not man. We must involve El Morya, invoke his presence in all that we do and meditate on his heart for our personal and organizational protection and direction. We should also give him our burdens: wallet card on the right knee as we recount for him the burdens that are upon us that we ask him to take that we might serve him on a world scale.

Morya has promised to take on our karma if we engage in challenging world karma. Because most chelas have not earned El Morya's ultimate protection, the Masters gave us this dispensation. The dispensation was granted because of the agreement between the chela and the Guru not to misuse the sacred fire. When chelas do not misuse the sacred fire, the Masters can use it to give the chelas extra protection. Conversely, when the chela misuses the sacred fire, the chela is vulnerable and does not have a buffer between himself and his karma.

In conclusion, as I read these notes and as I have looked at them during these past weeks, I have looked for the good and the saving graces. So I would like to list for you the saving graces in this situation:

We do have the sponsorship of the Great White Brotherhood.

That sponsorship comes to us through the lineage of Sanat Kumara.

At any time upon this planetary home we should understand that there is no reason why anyone, starting with Sanat Kumara and his lineage all the way down, should remain on planet Earth. We may be able to count the rising of the sun, the falling of the night, but we do not know when an avatar who has sponsored us will take his leave from this world. So this is why I call this "saving graces." Sanat Kumara is here and here to stay for the indefinite future, unless I am told otherwise.

Gautama Buddha, Lord Maitreya, Jesus Christ, Padma Sambhava and Guru Ma.

So my mantle is also involved. I am the bottom person of the totem pole, representing the Divine Mother in the base-of-the-spine chakra. We have an embodied Messenger who is determined to see you all the way home to your ascension. That is my commitment to each and every one of you, as long as I live and have breath. We have thousands of stalwart souls who toe the line of the Great White Brotherhood and much, much more.

Above all, we must involve El Morya in our lives and in our Church and every decision we make.

That is the end of my formal statement. And if you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them.

[Silence.]

I have had concerns that have been brought to my attention from various people in the community who have said that they have felt kind of a change in the chemistry of the community or the protection of the community and so the reason we convened this meeting was to give you the understanding of why we have had lapses in the presence of El Morya, his chelas.

And so we have knowledge now. We understand why we may have had these feelings, these rumblings, but did not know why. Now that we know about them, we who are responsible and I count that all of you being responsible, we must accelerate the protection of our community, the protection of our children. All of this, then, falls upon us. I have the mantle of Messenger and through that mantle, I am tied to El Morya and to the Great White Brotherhood. That is your connection. But El Morya himself is not personally overseeing this community.

He is overseeing our souls. He is overseeing all that we must do. He is here with us. He is as he has always been, but he has said to me, "I have loved you; I have been with you. I have been there at your birth. I have been there when you entered kindergarten. I have been there when you entered the first grade, when you had those little faces that were kind of tall and wondering, 'Where am I and what am I going to do here.' He has seen us through what you would call almost the university level. In other words, we are graduates. We don't like to be graduates because we like staying in the nest with El Morya. But El Morya has said, 'I have given you everything you need to have your victory and the Messenger will give you the rest.' [highlighted by webmaster]

So if you have no further questions—you haven't had any questions—I will sit down.

Murray speaks now. Good evening everyone. It is my job now to try to explain . . .

After Murray's statement, Mother said: "I do think that Christhood is the key. When you embody your Christ Self, and that is not very far from you—your Christ Self is much closer to you than you may think. When you embody that Christ flame in your heart, you know the answers. You always know the answers. That is where we need to be. And if we fall below the level of the heart chakra in our negative karma, we don't know where we are or who we are. So we always have to go back to center. And that is the real lodestone that will carry us.

Debra: Good evening everyone . . . Concludes with subject of holy orders.

Mother:

For many, many years now, I have looked forward to the day when the right moment would come where it would be logical in our ascent, like the ascent to Mount Carmel, for we would come to the place where it would be totally natural for us to enter into holy orders.

The holy order that I have envisioned for many years and whose time had not yet come, is the Holy Order of Saint Francis and Saint Clare. This is the holy order that Kuthumi and El Morya have bequeathed to us and I think that it is a very exciting order because it brings us into contact with people around the world, as men or women going forth and carrying the Teachings.

We know who we are. We know what Teachings we are bringing. We know what our background is. We know where we have originated with Saint Francis and with Saint Clare in the beginning. I think that there are many things that we can do where people have preferences, where people have skills. For instance, in one of the Darshans, someone's statements was that he had worked with Jesus when Jesus was a boy.

There are so many different aspects to holy orders that come under this mantle, so we don't need more holy orders, we need to enrich these orders.

So it is with great joy that I understand today, and I understood very early this morning as I was meditating on this that the real key to the bonding of this organization and of specifically the holy orders that I am so interested in. That key is the hearts of the people and what we do with our lives and how we serve others. So I see it as, just a very precious step, that we have an identity. We can move in groups. We can move as the disciples did, like the other seventy, and there's the sense that we have a presence in the world. And the holy orders are stricter than everything that is lower, that (DG) has listed on this pyramid. But strictly put, you are either celibate or your married and all other rules and regulations that go with that should be minimal, are built upon that foundation.

So it's people that think nothing of decreeing from 9 p.m. till 3 in the morning, who are always there at services, who are always there to serve others, who are always joyous, who always carry a flame, who always light up our day and make our day for us when we greet those souls. And so I think God made holy orders and I think for our holy orders, their time has come.

Gilbert. So let's talk for a while about those orders.

Looking at the astrologic chart for May 13, 1997, Tuesday, when Mother at the King Arthur's Court staff meeting gave key comments upon this organization and how it is directed, what we see is that the natal chart is very strong: natal Sun (at 23 degrees taurus) square Jupiter, conjunct Uranus, trine Mars and north Node.

The dramatic progression of this natal chart is strikingly simple: the solar progression (at rate of 1 degree per year) to the natal Venus at 4 degrees Gemini, opposite natal Pluto at 4.5 degrees Sagittarius, both square Lilith Moon at 6 degrees Virgo—this solar progression takes 11.5 years, so November 2008 will be a very tough testing especially of this activity's Venus energies—in relation to the graduation that May 13, 1997 has meant to this organization, graduating from El Morya's direct guidance unto the reins totally in Mother's hands and in the hands of the Holy Christ Selves of the membership.

Now, checking the transits occurring on 13 November 2008, we find very severe ones: Pluto is at the cusp of Sagittarius/Capricorn, Lilith Moon at 24 degrees Sagittarius, sun is in parallel declination to Pluto, Sun and Mars are opposite Moon, Sun squares Neptune. So it is an extremely tough testing, November 2008, astrologically.

" . . . Let this organization and this worldwide Church apply the new ways of teaching. Let this Church come to a higher level—a higher level of genius, of performance, of understanding. Build, then, from the heart of God in the Great Central Sun, a City Foursquare founded upon the base of the pyramid, with the All-Seeing Eye of God in its capstone."

"I pray that you pray for the leader within you to rise up and take dominion and that you surrender to that leader and to that law and to the justice, which is absolute and unerring, of your own karmic condition.

"I pray that you study the profiles of many [successful leaders in every field] and [the books and courses of] those who are professional teachers in these subjects [today on] how to be a good leader, a good administrator, [and] how to be the servant of all if you would be great among men. The true leader is first and foremost the servant who humbly remembers at all times that he is actually the employee of the Christ of the ones whom he must lead.

"Therefore, beloved, let us see and study and come to the gentleness of heart. So, the gentle Spirit most holy shall impart a power not of this world and a fire to consume all temporal power and tyranny and totalitarian regimes.

"If there is to be leadership and the shepherding of souls and true ministers of the Word, there must be those who will be sensitive not to hurt any 'one of these little ones' and who will always remember: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these little ones, even unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me, Christ Jesus. I think, beloved, [that it is wise] before addressing anyone [to take that] very simple pause to remember that [although] that one you are speaking to may be a soul bereft of Christhood yet [that one is] still that potential Christ, that potential God."

"Therefore, I wield this sword to carve away from Keepers of the Flame worldwide the condition of hardness of heart that does not allow some of you to obey the Truth of the inner voice or of precepts given.

"Thus, let the good hearts appear. Let them arise. Let them bear my standard. For I have waited long for the Lords of Karma to approve my coming.

"Thus, know the meaning of the sword of the Divine Mother and trace its blade and understand, beloved, that when you know the Truth, to be an exponent of Truth you cannot compromise the Truth. This, then, may be painful at times but the reward is infinite. Thus, the reward of Truth is the fullness of the Christ consciousness.

" . . . There is a false truth in every area of human knowledge, and in many branches of science and learning it is error which is upheld and protected and defended. This is true also in religion even when many know that their religion is flawed.

Those who espouse Truth walk alone. They fear not to address the lesser self nor the Higher Self: and this, beloved, is the prize of a chela of any Ascended Master.

" . . . El Morya says to you, one and all:

"Do not take me for granted. Do not take all [or any] of us for granted—those of us in these octaves who have been so faithful, out of the First Ray of our First Love of God, to your every need, who have seen to it that you have been secured against odds and misfortune and opponents you know not of. Do not take for granted the Law. Do not take for granted the father you have had who now, as you understand, has been benched by order of the Four and Twenty Elders through the Lords of Karma." [highlighted by webmaster]

"There are those upon earth today who have given their lives to the cause of truth, lifetime after lifetime. By their loyalty to the cause of truth, they have earned the esteem of the Great White Brotherhood. In their service are legions of truth who defend them and their families. These embodied watchmen on the wall of the Lord comprise a legion of the cosmic honor flame."

" . . . There are not so many keys, beloved, only a few. To find them, to unlock the door, to return to eternal life—this is your calling. And in the process you shall know the Holy Spirit. For I, El Morya, am determined that you shall know that Spirit as I have known that Maha Chohan, that beatific one who comes to us and says to all of us at the point in time that we are called: 'Come up higher. I shall reignite in you the eternal flame, a flame that shall never go out. It is the flame of your Holy Christ Self.'

"Come, then, come, then, my children. Come, then, into the interior castle; enter into the depths. Where there is vacancy, so, fill that vacancy with divine love, with a quickening Spirit. Know then, beloved, that it is not true that you must wait forever to hear, to know, to feel the Holy Spirit.
[The time] is now, beloved. Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation, now is the moment. Look not back nor forward but look at yourself as eternal being now, in the flesh.

" . . . Know then, beloved, that in increments you receive the Holy Spirit, even as in increments you lose the Holy Spirit if you do not move in pathways of love, move in pathways whereby the road is long, the road is hard. You may not like that road but if you desire eternal life then you must take it. However difficult that may be, do not be concerned, for the life everlasting is ensouled by many angels.

" . . . You must know this so that you can understand that when God gives an assignment to you, whether you think you are the lowly or the high and the mighty, it does not matter. When you are given an assignment by God and you have heard his voice and that voice has spoken to you, then you must put that project, that purpose first. Then you must go about all the rest. If you do this in order, beloved, you will never shortchange your God, your mentor, your chohan, your Maha Chohan.

"Remember, you are servants of the chohans and the Maha Chohan. You serve us, beloved, and you should, for all of you have made some karma on each of the seven rays. It is time you accelerated. It is time you accelerated in the fires of the Holy Spirit. It is time that there should be so much heat in your body and so much acceleration of the flame flowing upward that you can scarcely contain that white-hot heat that is a signifier of those coming days of transformation.

" . . . For as long as you serve, beloved, know that to give of yourself to the Holy Spirit, to purge yourself of all that is anti the Holy Spirit, to do what it takes for that transformation—this [is what you ought to] do. For I tell you, beloved, when you go back to the Darjeeling Council and meet there with me and so many ascended masters, when you go here and there around the world and you are in the retreats, remember, remember this, beloved, that if you accelerate you are pulling up the world, you are pulling up your four lower bodies."

" . . . But in an organization run by human beings there is no definitive way to assess people's attainment.

" . . . After careful study and deliberation of the blueprint team's research, the elders and board of directors have determined that the organization must do everything in its power to retain our heritage as a mystery school."

"Precious ones, life is always at a turning point. And therefore, to so say that this Community is at a turning point is only to say the proverbial, because unless there is movement, there is neither growth nor life but only death from stagnation. The question then becomes: What is the direction for the community of the sannyasins who live here and those who practice the Law where they are so that they are also counted sannyasins?

" . . . The safest and most wonderful guarantee that you have of being God-centered is this altar of the Holy Grail—and its extensions that you have created in your centers and homes throughout the world. Coming to this altar daily, even if your workload is heavy, entering here and kneeling for fifteen minutes midst a busy schedule, reconnects you to the flame of the ark of the covenant that burns brightly on the altar at the etheric level.

"That flame reinforces your threefold flame, reinforces the God-dominion of your Christhood within you and protects you from straying too far from the center of life whereby you find yourselves frustrated on the periphery, your frustration then leading to annoyance and annoyance leading to anger and anger leading to an out-of-control state of consciousness."

The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant®

A White Paper On the Path of Initiation
—Maintaining Sponsorship and the Guru/chela Relationship
At Maitreya’s Mystery School

A Message from the Board of Directors and the Ministerial Council

June 17, 2003

Dear Friends of the Will of God on the Path of Initiation,

We are writing to you to let you know some of the challenges that we face as an organization and how we are approaching these challenges as we move forward together on the path of initiation.

Commitment to the Guru/chela Relationship

The leadership of The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant fully supports the Guru/chela relationship under the two witnesses, Mother and Lanello. This philosophy underscores for all chelas, and especially those associated with this organization, everything that we do and say and think, waking and sleeping. In a letter written in 1985, Mother likened the relationship of Guru and Chela to the relationship between Father and Son, saying:

“This Father/Son or Guru/Chela relationship must be present physically in order for the physical universe to be sustained, which is why this organization, though it is called a church, is in actuality a mystery school based on the original laws of Eden and the divine interchange of Lord Maitreya with those on the path of personal Christhood.

“As Jesus referred to Maitreya when he called to his Father (Guru), so we also receive the response from beloved Maitreya when we call to the Father for help. Because the guru/chela relationship is primary, all other considerations and activities are secondary. For example, in other churches social life, community fellowship, and stress on more human values and a social gospel replace the fiery path of initiation that the members of this community hold dear.”

Commitment to the Standards of the Great White Brotherhood

The messenger and the masters have explained the high standards of the Great White Brotherhood and Church Universal and Triumphant. In addressing new communicants on July 7, 1980, Mother said:

“The Church is not like any other church. It is the white-fire core of the path of initiation. It’s not a church that we join because we want to join a Church. In fact, the word 'church' is such a misnomer that it is entirely misleading. I say it once and I say it many times, that that word 'church' comes from the Greek translation of the New Testament; the word 'ekklesia' means community of the called-out ones. So this is not the Baptist Church or the Methodist Church, it is that white-fire core mystery school and it embraces all of our life and it provides a home for souls of light who want to have a physical home as well as the spiritual home.

“It is the Church of the mystical body of God upon earth. As such, therefore, there are much, much more stringent requirements for the maintenance of membership in this Church and for entrance into the Church. Those who do not like, those who do not desire such a disciplined path, may easily remain Keepers of the Flame and avail themselves of the teachings. And if they desire a Church of less discipline there are many churches, where they can hear the recitation of scriptures without any demands being made upon them.”

Commitment to the Integrity of the Teachings of the Ascended Masters

The Board of Directors and the Ministerial Council are committed to staying true to the core teachings of the ascended masters as given to their messengers Mark l. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet. These teachings include not only the teachings delivered by the messengers from the platform, but also the precedents and policies established by them for the running of the organization.

The Board and the Ministerial Council are committed to maintaining the spiritual integrity of The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant, and to continue to administer the organization in the way that our messengers Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet have taught us to do.

Decisions Formerly Made by the Messenger

As a result of the messenger’s changing outer role, both the Board of Directors and the Ministerial Council are charged with making many of the decisions formerly made by the messenger. Some of these responsibilities were delegated to others partly or fully by Mother in the years before her retirement. Others have become fully the responsibility of the leadership bodies within the organization only since the formal retirement of the messenger.

The Board of Directors, in the current situation of the retirement of the messenger and Vicar of Christ on the outer, is vested with the duty and authority to make decisions on behalf of the organization. This responsibility is assigned to them by the Articles and Bylaws of the organization, which were reviewed and approved by the messenger. The Articles state:

“During the term of vacancy (of the Vicar of Christ), all of his temporal duties and powers shall be conferred upon the board of directors, excepting the power to direct any significant changes in the mission, tenets, doctrine or ritual of the Church or any other specific power of the Vicar of Christ that may have been conferred, in the absence of the Vicar of Christ, upon any other offices or bodies by these articles of incorporation or the bylaws of this corporation.” [Article X, Section 2. Vicar of Christ p. 13] [highlighted by webmaster]

This provision has been essentially unchanged since the church was first incorporated in 1975.
The Ministerial Council has been charged by the Board and the Elders with a specific and limited subset of these responsibilities. When considering issues that may come to its attention, the Council reviews its duties as authorized by the Council of Elders and the Board of Directors to see if a particular issue falls within its scope. The duties are as follows:

“For the period of time up to and including October 30, 2003, the board of directors shall have the authority to delegate the following powers of the Vicar of Christ to a Ministerial Council:

a. Commission lay ministers;
b. Ordain ministers;
c. Oversee discipline of ministers;
d. Approve and oversee the policies and procedures for placing ministers in churches;
e. Approve individuals to lead rituals and give blessings;
f. Approve individuals to use the spiritual focuses formerly used exclusively by the Vicar of Christ;
g. Approve any proposed rituals; and
h. Approve Communicant policies and procedures, including disciplines and reinstatements.”

The Continuity of the Mission

It is certainly with a sense of loss and sadness that the Board and the Ministerial Council take up these duties and responsibilities, realizing how much we all relied upon Mother in the past for leadership and direction in these areas. However, we realize that dealing with these issues is necessary for the continuation of the work and the mission of the messengers and the masters in this age. In doing so, we call upon the mantles of the messenger, and as Mother did, we pray for guidance from the masters that our decisions be in accordance with God’s will. We also seek to faithfully implement the precedents that the messenger has set. [highlighted by webmaster]

What Would Mother Do?

Some Christians, when facing a decision, have the practice of asking, “What would Jesus do?” Mother is our Guru. Thus, “What would Mother do?” is a legitimate question, one that we can all ask as we, the chelas of Guru Ma, seek to become her hands and feet in the world. While only a few episodes of Jesus’ life and mission have survived in the records we have today, we have the great good fortune of having so much of the messengers’ mission documented. We also have with us many people who worked with Mother for many years and saw her deal with many different situations. All of this is a record and an example that we can draw upon.

We realize of course that none of us can replace the messenger, do all the things that she has done or make decisions in exactly the same way. However we can all endeavor to become “Mother” in the highest sense of the Guru/chela relationship.

When Mark took his leave of this octave, Mother had to become Mark. Now that our messenger is withdrawing to enter the white fire core of being, we must become the fullness of the Mother. We face difficult and challenging situations in the life of our organization today, but the messengers also faced many difficult and challenging situations in the years of their service. And so, when we ask “What would Mother do?” we can often find quite similar situations that she or Mark dealt with in the past. By looking at how Mother dealt with these situations and instructed her staff, ministers and Board of Directors to deal with them, we can have a very accurate sense of what she would do in similar circumstances today. As beloved Lanello told us during his Ascension Day Address in 1977:

“As an organization and as a body of chelas you must put yourselves in this frame of mind: What would we do if Mother were not here? How would we solve this problem? How would we do this work? How would we meet our own crises?

“You will find, then, that less access to the messenger will result in greater access to your I AM Presence, for it is true that when the messenger is present the chelas rely more on the Messenger than on their inner God flame.”

Situations and Issues Facing the Board of Directors

From time to time, the following kinds of issues or situations come to attention of the Board of Directors:

1. Keepers of the Flame acting in ways not consistent with membership in the Fraternity (e.g., engaging in psychicism, black magic, witchcraft, malicious criticism and gossip, dishonest business practices, or attempting to undermine the organization and its purposes).
2. Communicants not fulfilling the vows of their office in the Church.
3. Study Groups and Teaching Centers functioning outside of the bylaws of the organization.
4. Keepers of the Flame or communicants setting up spiritual organizations and associations that are based on our teachings but that are not consistent with or which do not uphold the legal and/or spiritual structure of our parent organization.
5. Desire of members or nonmembers to use intellectual property and copyrighted material of our teachings in ways that may be inappropriate or misleading.

Situations and Issues Facing the Ministerial Council

The duties of the members of the Ministerial Council are to uphold the standard of Church Universal and Triumphant. The Council says, “We exist to protect the hierarchical foundations of the Church by virtue of our years of service, our direct interaction with and tutoring by the messengers and many years of spiritual preparation and job responsibilities in the organization and the Church.” The members of the Council seek to uphold the standards and guidelines for ministers and communicants by implementing the policies and precedents set by the messenger and the masters. This includes upholding the bylaws and articles established by our Church for study groups and teaching centers. From time to time, the Ministerial Council may deal with the following situations:

1. The discipline of ministers who are outside of the law of their vows to the Mother Church or the standards of personal conduct and behavior that are expected of ministers. Mother, for example, would not have allowed a minister to support or establish another spiritual organization that may conflict with the goals and teachings of the Church Universal and Triumphant. Nor would she have allowed a minister to encourage other individuals or groups to do these things or to establish another spiritual group outside of the church. Nor would she allow a minister who was not upholding the necessary standards of personal behavior to continue to function in that office. In the past, she has asked individuals in circumstances like these to leave the organization, and she has wished them well in their endeavors.

2. Taking necessary action when communicants are in violation of their vows. For example, communicants of Church Universal and Triumphant agree to uphold the tenets of Church Universal and Triumphant, to not belong to any other church, spiritual or religious organization, to follow the law of the tithe and to maintain certain standards of personal behavior.

The Need to Uphold a Standard

The Board of Directors and the Ministerial Council are committed to performing their duties to the best of their abilities. And while it would be easy to ignore these issues and the necessary decisions that they require, we would do so at our peril and at great cost to the organization and to the very spiritual path itself.

The ascended master Pope John XXIII spoke of this necessity in his dictation of February 10. 1974:

“Ecumenism has failed because it has entered into compromise. There is no area of compromise! The teachings of the Christ represent a hurdle over which the carnal mind cannot pass. It must first surrender and make way for the Christ. We cannot then condone the action of the lowering of the hurdle to the level where the carnal mind and all of the animals of the barnyard of the electronic belt can hop over into the holy place. This is that abomination of desolation standing in the holy place where it ought not.

“You see, then, when compromise holds sway, purity is not preserved-not for the elect, not for the children of God, not for the fallen ones. And then the Church crumbles, becomes dead ritual—a hollow echo of former things, former glory, and the hope that was, that cannot be realized because the honor flame has fallen to the ground . . .

“And as this matter has been discussed in other councils of the Hierarchy since the turn of the year, it has been the conclusion of the Great White Brotherhood that if and when the time comes when all upon earth compromise truth, then Hierarchy will be obliged to withdraw. And only as long as there is established an order and a focal point of purity, of uncompromising devotion, unflinching discipline, can we continue to pour our love to the earth. For Hierarchy will not desecrate the flow of God’s light by giving unto those who take that light and spend it upon their lusts.”

The Resolution Process

In dealing with the kinds of situations mentioned above, and especially those involving the possible misconduct by one or more individuals, the organization has adopted a resolution process by which allegations can be investigated and acted upon in a way that is fair to all parties while upholding the spiritual principles central to the organization.

This process includes fact-finding, meeting with those involved in person or by phone, giving them the opportunity to respond to questions and concerns. Only after this process has been followed and the facts ascertained is a decision made. Soul searching, spiritual work and prayer are also key elements in the process and in determining any action to be taken.

Going the Extra Mile

The leadership endeavors to go the extra mile in all of these situations. The fact-finding process may be lengthy and the phone calls and meetings often take much time. The benefit of the doubt is given, the facts are made clear and the potential decisions and their ramifications are spelled out to the individual (or individuals). If it is found that an individual’s behavior or actions are not consistent with or appropriate for their office in the organization, every opportunity is given for them to make amends and rectify the situation.

The resolution process takes diligence, commitment, time and energy as well as spiritual discernment and prayerful deliberation. When decisions are made that involve removal or suspension of a mantle or a level of affiliation within the organization, this decision is only made if all other avenues to resolve the situation have been exhausted. While these decisions are always difficult to make, Mother has told us that upholding the necessary standards is essential. In fact, if this were not done, it would jeopardize not only the spiritual path and the soul progress of the individuals concerned, but also the continued sponsorship of the organization.

Maintaining Sponsorship of the Organization

As Mother explained to her permanent and probationary staff, including the live-in staff of teaching centers and study groups, in a letter on May 25, 1985:

“Our sole reason for being and the reason that we are sponsored on an annual basis is because this Guru-chela relationship is sustained and the necessary disciplines and dismissals are not compromised or ignored. If this church or organization ever ceases to function as the focus on earth of that Master-disciple hierarchical chain of the Great White Brotherhood, it will lose its sponsorship and cease to exist.”

Therefore decisions are made in the spirit of the Guru (Mother and Lanello). If some sort of sanction is required, it is in no way a personal condemnation of the individual, their soul or their free will choice. There is no enmity and those involved wish the persons well on their chosen spiritual path and pray for the healing of all involved in the situation.

From time to time, for the protection of the organization and the benefit of the individual involved, a decision may involve removal of Keeper of the Flame or communicant status, or of a mantle that was previously bestowed by the messengers, even that of a minister of our church, or the status
of a study group or teaching center. The ascended masters champion free will. They also make clear what the exercise of that free-will choice may mean responsibility for one’s actions. For example, the Board of Directors, the Presidents and the Office of Ministry and Outreach cannot, in good faith, allow a group to affiliate with The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant, if that group does not want to uphold the legal and spiritual structure of our parent organization, nor be accountable to that organization.

If a communicant by free will chooses to act in a way that is not consistent with communicant status, it may mean loss of that status. For a minister, it may mean the removal of their office in the Church. The individual concerned is then free to do what he/she wishes to do-join another spiritual organization, take messages from a supposed master and share them with others, or live the lifestyle of their choice. And if their chosen path is not consistent with cosmic law, then the separation from the organization may well be a mercy for all concerned. The person may be making karma—but they will not be making the additional karma of being in violation of their commitments to the masters’ organization. And others in the organization who are upholding their vows and commitments will no longer need to bear the burden of those who do not wish to.

In some instances the details of decisions and the reasons for people’s loss of status in the organization cannot be revealed to the general membership because they involve confidential matters—for example, confession of inappropriate personal behavior or other matters that would come under the requirements of confidentiality of the priest/penitent relationship. In addition, the resolution process offers confidentiality unless the person involved waives that confidentiality and agrees or offers to share the outcome and its reasons.

Consider the Motive

Sometimes members may find the decisions reached as a result of this process are surprising or unexpected. In some cases this may be because, for reasons of legal requirements or confidentiality, it is not possible to release all the information having to do with the situation. Although everyone may not agree with the final outcome or decision, we hope you will understand the approach that leadership has taken. We ask you always to consider the motive of the leadership in any decision. While it may not always be readily apparent, there is a clear process that is followed before a decision is made. The decision is made based upon prayer and according to the past directives of the messengers, applied to a current situation and always seeking the highest good of the soul involved, as well as the integrity and good of the organization.

And if you do have any questions or concerns about a decision that may have been made, we would ask that you contact a representative of the organization to seek clarification. We will do our best, within the bounds of the law and respect for the individuals concerned, to explain the reasons why a decision has been made.

Claims and Challenges to the Messengership

One challenge facing the leadership at this time is a number of persons who claim to take messages from the masters and who share these with others. Some of these have claimed to be messengers; some claim that they are not messengers, but effectively seek to fulfill the same role as mouthpieces for the masters to the organization or to other students.

Over the years of the messengers’ service, there have been dozens of individuals who have claimed to be receiving messages from the masters. Mother has given many teachings on specific individuals who have made these claims, explaining that they had been contacted by false spirits. And while the masters certainly have their chelas and representatives in the world, we should also expect that, as in the past, there will be many making these claims who are simply caught up in the psychic.

Mother predicted in 1976 that “there are going to arise many, many people calling themselves messengers . . . It will have to be the people who have the discrimination who will denounce the impostors.” While we know every chela has their own discernment and discrimination, it is our job to uphold the integrity and mission of the organization as a whole, and to be clear about individuals who seek the endorsement of this organization for their activities.

Mother explained the mantle and office that she holds in her letter of May 25, 1985:

“The office that I hold and the mantle that I bear is greater than I—the I in the lesser sense of the word. Though I, personally, may have made mistakes, passed through the arduous challenges of fully balancing my karma as well as a learning curve in the execution of my office and meeting the responsibilities of family and organization, etc., the mantle and the office have remained intact and untarnished. They have not been withdrawn and they are the source of the power delivered
at the altar and in the one-to-one relationship that I hold with the masters’ students.”

The Board of Directors and the Ministerial Council believe that this statement holds true today. They pledge to remain true to the messenger and to the path of initiation that she taught. Mother and the masters have given us very clear guidelines for the continuity of the Guru/chela relationship within our organization, and these guidelines have never been more important than today.

By the grace of God, we have our messenger in embodiment, holding the balance for us all. This does not preclude God sending a messenger at a future time. However, if anyone is claiming to be a messenger or to deliver messages from ascended masters to others, then, in order for this claim to be recognized by the organization, they must undergo a process by which a future messenger can be recognized. Such a process exists in the bylaws and articles of incorporation of the organization written under Mother’s direction and in existence since 1975.

The organization cannot appoint a messenger—messengers are appointed and anointed by the ascended masters. But the messenger, herself, instituted a process by which the anointing of a future messenger may be recognized by the organization. If such a process were not in place, the door would be closed to the masters sending any other messengers to the organization in the next 2,000 years.

The leadership of the organization supports the principle of progressive revelation taught by the messengers. They respect, as Mother does, the personal communion of each one with his or her Holy Christ Self and the ascended masters—indeed the masters and their messengers have taught this as one of the goals of our path of discipleship.

However, Mother taught the parameters to this relationship and clearly delineated what is correct and what is not. She does not interfere with other people’s spiritual experiences, nor is she the judge of an individual’s private and personal communion with God or the ascended masters. But she cautioned that unless one has a mantle bestowed by an ascended master, one is subject to err in receiving communications—whether from the etheric octave or from the mental plane, from the astral plane or the physical plane. The reason that the masters have trained and anointed messengers is because they sponsor messengers by placing upon them absolute protection when it comes to the delivery of the Word of God.

Mother said that if someone is not a messenger, they should not share communications from the masters with others. If indeed a master is communicating with an individual, then the message is for him or her alone and for their personal calls and prayers. If one passes on such messages to others, he or she may well be interfering with their communication with their Holy Christ Self. They may soon come to rely on the “messages” instead of their own inner communion with their Holy Christ Self and the masters. (And if the message is not accurate, the person who gives the message will certainly be making karma.)

Most importantly, the messengers have taught that if there is a point of vulnerability—whether involvement in the psychic in past lives or the present life, emotional or physical imbalance, or spiritual pride—it is easy for the false hierarchy to intrude upon spiritual experiences. There are many individuals who think they have been contacted by one of the masters, and in fact it may not be the master at all. El Morya explains in The Chela and the Path, chapter 16:

“Some of these, deceived and deceiving others, go so far as to say that everyone should be a psychic channel, everyone should develop his psychic powers. Like the magicians in Pharaoh’s court, they hold up to our Messengers their psychic phenomena and they say, ‘See, we do the same thing!’ Not so! Like the fallen ones who, in their attempt to level hierarchy, would make themselves equal with the sons and daughters of God, these psychic channels would cause our Messengers and their work with the living Word to become muddied by the flood of psychic material being released by the false hierarchy.”

In a group setting or in our worldwide movement, this quickly becomes a problem for all concerned. And it is easy to see that if this was allowed to continue, the true teachings could soon become lost in a flood of psychic material claiming to come from the masters. This was the whole reason why the masters have a messenger who has given us the teaching over the years that we need for our path.

Mother’s teaching on the psychic has always been clear. Psychic activity poses a grave danger to the community. Those involved in such activities, by giving and receiving “messages” or by participating in sessions where these messages are received, will lose light from their auras and could forfeit their ascension. By placing themselves under another’s direction, they displace their own connection with their Holy Christ Self. They not only give the light of their aura, but they also give of their supply and of the light of their causal body to pay for these clearance sessions and psychic activities. They place a burden of psychic energy on the community, taking the light from the services and the altar and giving it to the psychic. This light as well as the light from their aura is used to produce the psychic phenomena through the false hierarchy imposters of the masters and the messenger.

Morya has explained that this places a great burden on the messenger and the rest of the community. The tie to the astral plane created by these kinds of activities becomes the open door for all the forces of death and hell to enter in and attack the community. The Board of Directors and the Ministerial Council are determined that this cannot be allowed to happen.


Maitreya’s Mystery School

The presence of the Mystery School of Lord Maitreya on the earth is beyond price, yet we have been reminded by El Morya that “it is possible to fail.” The requirement for the continuation of the Mystery School of Lord Maitreya at the Inner Retreat has been made abundantly clear by the masters and their messenger. There is a standard and it must be upheld. There is a ring of fire around the community and it must be maintained.

As our beloved Master El Morya said in the Pearls of Wisdom, Vol. 29, No. 17, April 27, 1986:
“And well it is that church might remain as an alabaster inner city of Light, unsullied by mankind's poor attempts to imitate the City Foursquare. So long as the Church Universal and Triumphant shall stand as the white cube in the earth, so long [shall] the open door for angelic hosts to step through the veil and souls to ascend [remain].

“Let the borders of this Church Universal and Triumphant expand. But let not the standard be lowered. Let Lightbearers come and be educated here and in Darjeeling and at the Inner Retreat, at Maitreya's Mystery School, and be shown how they may meet a standard of excellence and the self-mastery of the sacred centers of Life.”

The standard relates to every aspect of our lives as chelas and all that we have been taught that can accelerate our arduous path to the ascension.

The Torch of Victory

Lanello spoke of the progress of our movement in his 1977 Ascension Day address on “The Office of the Messenger,” published in Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 43, no. 22, May 28, 2000:

“To see the progress of the movement as we behold it at inner levels is to see the expansion, the unfoldment of hearts who are one. Indeed it is so; the foundation of the movement is the heart of each devotee. Beginning with the center and expanding, every devotee of the flame of Morya and Jesus and Saint Germain ought to consider how to expand the heart-the love fires of the heart, the wisdom of the heart, the good will of the heart.

“Your hearts, breaking through the mass consciousness, will be the victory of America. Your hearts, one with mine, form the magnet with Jesus and Magda of our endeavor in the New Jerusalem. It is a challenge, but then you are a group, oh, a good group, who have borne over many centuries the challenges of every obstacle, every difficulty, every opponent and every foe in the way.

“Your teeth were sharpened in the days of chivalry and the period of the Hundred Years’ War in Europe. And beyond, in China and through the ancient days, you have been developing that consummate skill to keep on, to thrust through and to thrust home to the core the very torch of victory.”

We believe that the members of the Community of the Holy Spirit at Maitreya’s Mystery School and worldwide share the commitment to the mission of the messengers and the masters and the path of chelaship and initiation that they have taught. We believe that they desire with all of their hearts, as we do, to fully engage in the Path of Initiation under the messengers and the masters.
As we move forward together in commitment to the mission and to the right course of action in this octave, we invite your prayerful support. May God ever hold us in his heart and love, and may we move closer and closer to his will.

In the light of the Divine Mother and through her mantles we serve,
Yours in faith and sincerity,

The Board of Directors and The Ministerial Council,
The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant

cc: Staff and Volunteers, Board of Directors, Elders, Ministers, Teaching Centers and Study Groups, Local and Distant Friends, Communication Facilitators