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An excerpt from Unity - The Dawn of Conscious Civilization
The Power of Love
Followers of all religions are convinced by God that their prophet or teacher is special and superior to others. Shiva and Krishna are worshipped as divine incarnations. Jesus is deified as the only son of God. Mohammed is believed to be the final messenger of God. Buddha has attained nirvana, the ultimate state of consciousness.
This divine device of chauvinism has set the stage for the conflict and violence between religions that has characterized much of the last 4,000 years.
Jesus, Krishna, Shiva, Buddha and other teachers are believed to have miraculous powers. However, God-the-beyond is the one and only power and all events are His doing. All teachers are His instruments.
When Jesus was fasting in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, God pretended to be the devil and tempted His young messenger with all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus was destined to pass the divine test and say: 'Get thee behind me Satan.'
Perhaps God did not reveal to Jesus that the devil is just one of His infinite number of disguises. Certainly, many Christians believe that the devil is responsible for the evil that exists in the world and that Jesus is still fighting his ancient foe.
Humanity is poised on the threshold of dramatic global transformation. The division that God creates by pretending to empower spiritual teachers or by impersonating the devil is about to cease. The understanding that God is the one and only power soon will be revealed to every soul.
With the flowering of this understanding, everyone will still be able to connect in love with their favourite human teacher. For there will always be a need for seekers to receive support from a divine friend who is closer to them than the eternal void of intelligent awareness that is God-the-beyond.
Perhaps in those future days of oneness in God, there will be some relinquishing of departed divine friends as we understand: all teachers are instruments for the One.
Millions of people are helped by their love for Jesus and other departed teachers but the apparent power of Jesus or any disembodied soul to help anyone is a divine illusion, created by God to help perpetuate the divisions of the age of darkness. This includes all disembodied masters, entities, guides and angels that speak through channels. No soul has ever had any individual power, and no soul ever will.
After spiritual teachers have left the body, their capacity to be used as a channel for divine energy diminishes. God does not require disembodied teachers for energy transmissions. He uses living buddhas for that. Living enlightened beings have the capacity to channel divine light in a way that is deeply transformative for seekers.
Nor does God require disembodied teachers to guide people through channels. God is already guiding seekers directly through the words of living teachers and indirectly through your intuition, thoughts and feelings.
However, if the methods of departed teachers remain relevant, such as the 112 quintessential meditation techniques of Shiva, people will continue to employ them. And by their love and gratitude, devotees keep the departed beloved forever alive in their hearts.
Unlike Buddha, Osho and other fully enlightened teachers whose souls have dissolved in the void of God-the-beyond, the soul of Jesus does still exist; his story calls for one last life in which he will become fully enlightened.
Many Christians feel and believe that Jesus Christ is alive and is helping them to connect with God. Love is a powerful and tremendously healing force.
When devotees understand deeply that God is all there ever is and that prophets, gurus and other people are equally divine, they will take their personal connection to Jesus and other departed teachers a little less seriously.
Jesus is a very influential spiritual figure in the world today, but he is just one of several venerated founders of religions who are all equally revered, empowered with divine attributes and deified by followers.
God has a reason for appearing to empower Jesus and other teachers with the ability to save and transform: to perpetuate the sectarianism that divides religions in the age of darkness. Teachers and followers who say their way is the only way are clearly agents of division.
In reality God is the only power. Only God can save the world and your soul. Only God can reveal Unity to us.
Maitreya is the messenger for Unity; many people will come to God and find freedom through Maitreya. Just ask him to help you connect to God in awareness and love, and something will happen.
This is not because Maitreya has any power separate from the power of the One. This does not mean Maitreya is the only way to know God and should be deified; it just means Source is using him as a human bridge to help people connect with the formless mystery of God-the-beyond. Yet there is no need to build your house on the bridge and become attached to it as the only way to God.
Unity invites you to cross over the bridge of human teachers and to merge with God directly. Those who are able to connect directly with God in love and awareness may feel they have less need of a human bridge.
Unity also supports everyone's freedom to connect in love with any teacher. Being in satsang and living with an enlightened teacher is the fastest way to grow in love and awareness. Satsang communities offer optimum support for rapid and sustainable spiritual growth.
Now it is time to understand these divine messages of Unity. They are not Maitreya's teaching but a message from God revealing His ways.
Unity is not a new religion that competes with the old religions. Unity has a far more challenging mandate: to provide the rational framework required to integrate and harmonize all existing spiritual approaches and religions.
Understanding the nondual message of Unity is of vital importance for every lover of truth; this understanding supports conscious surrender to reality as a reflection of divine will. The unifying way forward for humanity is in conscious surrender to life-as-God.
Conscious surrender to life-as-God ushers in freedom from suffering, and ecstatic reunion with the Beloved in the divine wonder and bliss of awakening.
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