The question this evening has to do with joy. What is the function of joy in the evolutionary process in this particular experience and how can we find and utilize joy in our daily round of activities in a way that sustains our growth and service to others?

(Carla channeling)

I am Q’uo. I greet each of you in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. How lovely it is to dwell with you at this time in peace and harmony and seeking. We feel most privileged that we are asked to come and share with you our thoughts upon the subject of joy. May we say what a joy it is for us to so share our opinions.

We wish, however, to caution each against looking upon us or any material whatsoever as an infallible authority. We share our opinions. We are not infallible. Thusly, if we speak truth that is the truth of your heart, you shall recognize it. If you do not recognize it as if, though hearing it for the first time, it were a memory, then it is not a personal truth and could well be a stumbling block. We would ask you not to keep those things which do not feel resonant with your own path of seeking but we hope that we are able to share with you some things which may help as you move along the dusty road of pilgrimage.

Firstly, what we would like to say about joy is that, in its primal state, it has no function. It is. For joy is another expression, and indeed a basic manifestation, of unconditional love. Thus, it is of the essence or the beingness of the consciousness of the one infinite Creator, which is love.

To attempt to describe our understanding, limited though it may be, of reality or that which is most real, we may say that we have found the universe at rest to vibrate with the intensity and joy of sexual orgasm in a steady state. This is the energy power, the joy, the, as this instrument would say, élan vital which is its own truth, has its own beingness and needs no reason.

Now, we realize that it was not this ultimate joy, this joy which moves beyond the word, about which you are asking but rather how to find joy in circumstances where an orgasm is out of the question. We hope that you find this analogy helpful because all that manifests is a diffusion, a watering down, a shadowing, a tinting of that one great original Thought which is love and which manifests its energy in the manifested creation of a billion, billion sun bodies and the joyous flames of an infinite number of beings such as yourselves, who have moved into the darkness, into the seed bed of the densities, to root, contemplate and break forth from the earth in due time to bloom.

Each of you is a natural entity. There is a difficulty with experiencing joy, and now we speak in your terms of simple vital energy, love of life and so forth. It seems as though one were disappearing into a dark maze as one encounters the daily routine. Where is the joy, you ask, in taking out garbage and doing chores; in accomplishing well a job for which you have no real fondness? Where is the joy? Somehow it leaks out, it is not with you. It is unfindable and so an entity moves into the desert of indifference or sadness or sorrow or unsatisfied desire.

It is painful there in the desert. One goes through the motions. One does not appreciate the difficulties until a length of your time has passed and, as you gaze back on the mystery of your desert experience, sitting in an oasis that has come upon you, you are able to see the enormously helpful catalytic nature of that which seemed to be no joy but only difficulty, frustration, boredom and distraction, if not even more negative emotions.

When speaking of spiritual work we always move to speaking of a daily practice, one which is faithfully and reliably kept. It is not easy for entities who dwell in your heavy chemical illusion and who have so much to do in order to keep the self going to find the time each day to meditate, to move into silence, to listen and speak not, neither utter a word except, “Here am I.”

For as you are aware of your beingness, you are aware of the beingness of all that there is. For the creation is an illusion outside of you. It is actualized within you in that portion of yourself which is of the infinite Creator. It is this portion to which you may turn for joy. In the sense of creating, from the outside in, a way of feeling vital and energetic, we can only say that it is to those who enjoy the athletics of the body or other means of exhausting the self who may find the joy from outside. For the true function of joy is an infinite function and that is growth. Joy may be another word for confident and sure faith.

Now, we have moved away from the state of orgasmic pleasure to a more modest view of joy but we do not wish to give you information that enables you to burn out like a bright comet and become extinguished. We wish to speak of a joy that is peaceful, stable, vital and living. This does not come from the entity within the incarnational experience. Rather, the self which is experiencing the incarnation on the surface level of consciousness must yield to that which is within the self which is infinite.

The practice of this yielding, this tabernacling with the one infinite Creator, the immediacy of this presence, when carried on persistently, patiently and with no dedication to outcome over a period of time begins to set within one a growing awareness of infinity. For as you meditate and listen, you are lost in the present moment. And this present moment is instinct with joy. The present moment is infinity. It is as though one were at the intersection of time and eternity at each present moment. The difficulties people experience are due to living the horizontal life without being aware of the resonances of the vertical life which is moving infinitely within one at all times.

You see, it is so tempting to think of oneself as the physical vehicle which you may see in one of your mirrors. It is so tempting to give oneself characteristics and qualities based upon various parts of one’s physical appearance, emotional makeup, and so forth. It is very, very easy to become entwined with many, many intellectual thoughts which always end in mystery and paradox.

It is extremely tempting, in a world which values things and phenomena and fact and proof, to seek some proof of that which is your inward journey to eternity, your journey to the present moment and into the present moment, so that you begin to sense the deep, infinite resonances of your beingness in the one infinite Creator.

You are love. You are the light. But you are not these things within your physical form. Indeed, within this density you are deliberately causing yourself to become stupid in order to be able to partake of the intense catalyst available to one in a heavy, chemical vehicle. You may think of yourself as a distillery or a refinery that begins with the raw material of the harvest of your spirit, your experience, and your meditation and out of which you begin to create that which may be called the magical personality. You begin to know, without knowing what, that there is an immediate presence, an infinite and omnipresent reality lying beneath, above, within, without and in between all that there is. There is a depth and a height to any moment of the life experience.

The point of view may be manipulated by the intellectual mind and this is a tool which is useful in the search for one’s own center of vitality, joy, peace and love. One certainly may ask oneself what causes joy within. But the answers are most distorted by the chemical body which is experienced.

And again we move back to the analog of orgasm and joy. To expect one within third density to vibrate orgasmically at each moment would be to ask that which is not possible within the illusion. You are not here to be joyful but rather to make choices. This is that for which you came into this experience: to choose to serve either the self or the one infinite Creator, as seen in the faces of all those whom you meet.

Now, it is difficult to see many entities as the face of the one infinite Creator. For all entities have the clay feet of that which perishes, that which does not know what is hidden within the roots of mind. Thusly, to expect to have the vitality and the joy at all times is to expect to learn nothing, to progress not at all and to make no choices. For with choice there comes change. With change there comes pain.

Each time a truth that has worked in the past ceases to work in the present, much difficult work must be done in consciousness. For your mind must lose or “dump” the program which no longer is effectual for the seeking entity in order to make a place for a new understanding that will inevitably change the seeker in some way. Change is painful. Dumping information is painful. Letting go of old truths is painful. Being uncertain is painful. Being at risk is painful.

You are those who have sought a life of risk. You do not wish to stay in one place mentally, spiritually or emotionally. You wish rather to accelerate the pace of your spiritual evolution. Now, this is sensible. This is in our opinion the very best and most useful attitude to take. But it is not a path which delivers one into the gateway of élan and joy but rather the continuing difficulties of confusion, misunderstanding, realignment of understanding, and ever progressing onward.

There is much more desert in the spiritual life than there is oasis. It is simply a matter of how much you, as a spirit, wish to work in consciousness. The more that you work in consciousness, the more you will change, the more you will be transformed and the more you will be uncomfortable.

Why then, do seekers so stubbornly follow their star? Nothing, my friends, rests in the creation. All things move. And in this activity, in this manifestation, in this movement there is that which, as it is said in your holy works, passeth all understanding. The name for that which passeth all understanding within the holy work of which we speak, is peace. But it is not a peace that is understood among your peoples for it is a peace that is joyful, a peace that is vital, a peace that is merry, that may make light of the serious and may tease and play and feel one’s way as a child within the great caverns and grottoes through which one must pass in the spiritual quest, having only one faint light: that of hope. And so you move in darkness, attempting to see. And much of the energy of the incarnation is involved with the simple ability to perceive without distortion.

Now, perception without distortion is a sure yielding of joy. On the other hand, each must distort, through the physical senses, the catalyst which comes to one. The senses you have are those given to all and they are all illusory. To base one’s seeking for vital energy on the life experience or anything which it may offer is to put one’s trust in that which perishes. The key to joy is the realization that you are an imperishable being. You are a being which is love and is called to love. The Creator created each out of love and placed within each free will and Itself. You are moving through the disciplining of your own free will. And that disciplining must be done freely, the choices your own, in order for that joy which underlies all things to begin to bubble up into the life experience.

We find that a sense of humor, as this instrument would call it, is extraordinarily helpful in the pursuit of a deeper and clearer awareness of the tremendous beauty and resonance of each present moment. As one moves about the illusion doing what one must do to support the needs of the physical vehicle, it is most easy to see life as a horizontal path; a path upon which one literally walks, plods, trudges, ambles or runs, depending upon the mood; a path in which gravity keeps one’s feet to the ground, keeps one from rising into the ethereal or sinking into the roots of mind.

One of the choices each spiritual entity makes is whether to move upon that which is consciously known in making life decisions and in living moment to moment or casting all safety to the winds and trusting the self to the risky business of feeling the depths and the heights of each present moment.

It is difficult, when one is working at a job to which one is indifferent, to feel the magnificent resonance of the present moment, to experience the intersection of eternity with that present moment. Consequently, it is a good exercise, when one is fatigued in the spirit, the emotions and the mind, to move backwards, away from gravity, away from all that has to do with the illusions created by fields of energy.

Moving back, we may see the home planet—fragile, somewhat troubled, and infinitely beautiful. One may imagine the many entities scurrying about on the surface of this celestial globe but one no longer sees the individual selves of the bodies of the third-density beings of the planet, that which will become, in fourth density, a social memory complex.

Thus, when one is peeved, distressed or distraught it is well to move back in the mind, moving away from the surface, flying upwards, gazing down upon, first, yourself and the room, and the dwelling and the town, then larger land masses, then the planet. Then one finally moves back enough to see the infinity of celestial bodies, of centers of the Logos or love which is the great original Thought.

It is well to keep within the mind the resonances of eternity. And if they are not to be found upon the surface of the daily experience, yet still, you are of a certain nature and you may tap into the infinite possibilities of the present moment more and more by persistent faith and hope. Within your illusion all ends in mystery, nothing can be known ultimately.

It is a necessary portion of the illusion of third density that nothing may be objectively proven that would interfere with the free will choices of entities who are deciding upon their path of service. For this reason you came into incarnation, to express and manifest your choice of a path of service.

There are suggestions we may give as to how to compound the joy that is native to you already. If one may draw back from an unpleasant entity enough to affirm that that entity is the one infinite Creator distorting its own illusion in its own way to its own sadness, one is then able to feel an outburst of compassion for an unhappy spirit.

One is similarly able to feel compassion for the one who is happy but without a spiritual vector. Many are those who are asleep and do not wish at this time to awaken. This is acceptable, for there is an eternity in which each has all the time, literally, in creation to move back to the source whence each came before the world as you know it was created.

You are imperishable. You are light. You are moving towards the light. This instrument finds the parable within the holy work which you call the Holy Bible of the prodigal son and daughter to be most useful in an awareness of the spiritual journey’s constant intersection with the infinite love of the one Creator.

We will now work upon some simple exercises to move into a mental, emotional and spiritual configuration which allows one to follow one’s joy.

Firstly, the listening meditation, done persistently and in a daily manner and, if possible, with two or more together, is a basic tool, one which cuts to the heart of a process of spiritual evolution. For those who speak are not listening and those who know all the answers have blocked further questions, further learning, further refinement, further distilling into purity.

You seek to be pure in your service, in your dedication to the one infinite Creator. Yet this seems oftentimes a burdensome and toilsome thing, a yoke you must carry, and a burden that weighs the body, the mind, and the soul down with responsibility. This is where the ability to laugh at the self, to laugh at situations, to laugh at the enormous comedy of paradox and mystery comes in so handy. When all else fails and there is no joy within you and there is much difficulty, one tool you may use is the sense of humor.

Gaze at the entity which is the Creator but is distorting itself in a way which expresses anger or hostility or other negative emotions and remove that entity’s clothes. Put this image in the mind so that all the gesticulations, all the pomp, all the mannerisms are those done by an entity in his underwear. It is well, perhaps, to imagine how someone would look with big green spots or a third eye or blue skin. Work at thinking ridiculous thoughts. For the spiritual path is not serious, precisely. The spiritual path is all that there is.

It is possible within the schoolroom to ignore the lessons. But when one is in school, that is the business of the student. One may be an eager student or a lackadaisical one. One may do the homework or not. And we would not judge any, for until the time comes when the demand from within to know infinity and imperishability becomes paramount, it is only flogging and whipping at the self to approximate the state of realization of one’s own imperishable nature. Thus, each entity has a rhythm of its own, a time of its own, and a pattern of its own.

There is another tool which one may use to good effect if one is able not to trust the intellect beyond a certain point. That tool is the analytical ability of the mind. When one moves oneself back from a situation which is disturbing one and begins to untie the tangle of distress, one may, through inductive and deductive reasoning processes, come to more and more fundamental realizations as to the true nature of that experience which is difficult for you at this particular time.

You were not of a mind to come here to be happy and content. You were of a mind to come here to graduate into a density that has more light, less heaviness, and no veil between the conscious mind and the roots of mind. Yet you cannot use the light of the one infinite Creator until you have made a profound and persistently chosen choice.

Whom shall you serve, to serve the infinite One? Shall you serve yourself, or shall you, having prepared yourself to serve others in what may seem like service to self, move into the world with the attitude, “How may I help? Send me where there is work for me to do and let me never judge that work or hold it as a goal but only do it for love and let it go.” There is a tremendous release of joy in the experience of truly releasing one’s good intentions to the caretaking of those who may well not view that joy and wisdom of yours as useful to them but indeed may gibe and carp at the spiritual seeker for his unworldliness, his lack of attention to the important things such as your money, your possessions, your reputations, and your power over other entities.

You see, this third-density experience is biased, in the outer sense, towards service to self. This makes all entities uncomfortable and puts them in the position of choosing. This is the point of this particular density. It is especially the point of the density at this time, as each entity prepares for the walk of light and each entity wishes to move comfortably into the more dense and living light of the one infinite Creator which creates the illusion of fourth density.

A tool which is most helpful in removing negativity from the self that is unwanted is that which this instrument would call prayer. It is not for nothing that a teacher known as Jesus suggested to pray for those who despitefully use you. The concern, the turning to the Creator, the genuine loving and praying for an entity who would never expect such a positive return, is a way of aiding that entity by the love it does receive. It then becomes a mirror to reflect back to you a hundredfold that desire to be of service. It may not come from the entity with which you have the difficulty, as each entity has its own path, but it is inevitable that, as you offer yourself, so you shall receive what others offer.

How to find joy? Know more and more who you are. You are an imperishable being of light. You are doing many ridiculous things within an illusion which is created to be difficult, ridiculous, paradoxical, confusing and destructive of all positive emotions. Yet within you is the one infinite Creator. And the infinity of that imperishable self that is you may always lift the self by prayer, by meditation, by laughter, and simply by the abiding, persistent calling upon the hope and faith that each truly is a portion of the one infinite Creator and of the return of the prodigal.

No matter how long and how difficult the journey, it will occur and the Father will be waiting with a great feast. And in that feast you shall feed each other. For joy comes from others to the self and goes from the self to others. Joy is expansive, generous.

Vitality is a matter of honoring the Creator within each and having the sense of humor to make fun of the illusion that separates each from each. When you touch hands, you touch energy fields. When you love and pray and make a cartoon of an entity to strip him of his negative qualities, you have invoked that which will give joy not only to yourself but to those about you. For one who is centered in eternity while in the present moment is a light unto many, a joy unto many, a source of faith to many. Never consider yourself as unimportant or unworthy. You are the Creator. You simply are learning to deal with the freedom that is the hallmark of the creation of the infinite One. You are free. There is no failure. You choose your own pace.

Before we leave this instrument, we would like to affirm once again that there is not a large number among your people who have the spiritual maturity to experience joy as a steady state. This is not important. What is important is the knowledge within that it exists in a steady state, that it is of love, the Logos, the infinite Creator, and that all is as it should be for your learning.

What sacrifices you made, my friends, coming here. One might well compare this to the basic training in the Army or the Marine Corps. It is difficult. It is taxing. It is wearying. Allow yourself these things and laugh together. Be merry together. Exhort each other, when each is sad, by the silent exhortation of the hug, the smile, the listening ear, and the understanding heart.

If you wish to be joyful, it shall always come to you by reflection. For as you give, so shall you receive.

We would at this time move to the instrument known as Jim so that we may close the meeting through that instrument if he will accept our contact. We thank this instrument very much and we leave it now in love and light. I am Q’uo.

(Jim channeling)

I am Q’uo. I greet each again in love and light through this instrument. We realize that we have spoken for a lengthy portion of your time and that there is fatigue within the circle. But we wish to offer an opportunity for those present to ask the query which may yet remain upon the mind, if indeed such does. Is there a query at this time?

I would ask about what, in yogic terminology, is referred to as kriyas 1 which I experience as resistance within the body and mind complex to the free flowing of intelligent energy as it was given from the Creator. I am wondering if this is largely due to mental distortions which have their root in the physical body or are they also maybe preexisting physical distortions? And in what way can I work towards clearing my mind/body complex to allow this freer flowing energy?

I am Q’uo. I am aware of your query, my brother. The distorting effects of which you speak are, for most entities, reflections of mental origin which have as their roots the particular bias that has been desired to be experienced as a portion of a lesson or a service within an incarnation. There is the movement through the deeper portions of the tree of mind that is made as one enters into the meditative state and begins to contact those deeper portions of mind. One experiences this contact as an increase in one’s vibratory rate or awareness of this nature of being. One also passes through the area in which the perceptions have been formed and reside, upon a subconscious level, and refracts a portion of this light energy.

These symbolic experiences that, in effect, cause a resistance to the available and increasing energy of intelligence contacted may be seen in their more expansive nature, shall we say, by observing the energy centers affected and the type of expression that occurs within the life pattern in the daily round of activities as a result of this kind of distortion, which is also an opportunity to become more aware of a facet of the being that seeks balance.

Thus, one may observe the daily round of activities in a regularized fashion so that those experiences which register in a polarized form, either toward the positive or the negative, in personal terms, may be noted and used as seed for meditation, so that greater understanding of that facet of the self might be achieved and might be applied to the life experience in a more conscious fashion when similar catalytic circumstances present themselves once again.

This kind of review of the daily experience has the effect of illumination in that the self becomes informed. It has the effect of allowing for balance to occur within the total being as well as the effect of providing the opportunity for forgiveness to be offered to other selves and also the self, which indeed deserves this kind of inner acceptance and requires such in order for the movement from that point to be made.

Is there a further query, my brother?

No, thank you very much.

I am Q’uo, and thank you, my brother. Is there another query?

I don’t know, I guess I’m still really aware that no matter how you look at the illusion, if you are having a bad time, you are having a bad time. Is it possible that a constant state of joy is not so much the focus of this incarnation as the constant search for the proper questions about what is truth? I’ve puzzled over that for many years. It doesn’t seem to be part of the human destiny and nature to be unfailingly happy.

I am Q’uo, and I am aware of your query, my sister. For indeed, this evening we have spoken at length concerning the place which joy holds as that which is ever present and eternal, yet that which is but the oasis upon your long and dusty journeys within the third-density illusion. For if one wishes to progress and to be able to experience a greater unity with all that one sees about one as the one Creator, it is necessary to be in the midst of the catalyst and its effect upon your total being. This requires a forgetting, for the most part, within the incarnation of that unity which indeed binds all that is and of that love which creates and empowers all that is and that light which reveals the true nature of all that is.

This forgetting allows for the self to become affected by the illusion in a manner which will offer the opportunity for the entity to choose more and more to seek, in one fashion or another, to serve the Creator in the self or in others so that an awareness of the Creator might be given to the Creator in a fashion which is unique.

And in providing this perspective and experience, one also expands the ability to accept more and more of the light of the Creator within the being. Thus, you are correct, my sister, in that joy is but a fleeting visitor to those who wish to pursue the work in consciousness that is possible within an illusion that seems so far removed from unity, from love, or from light. This is the sacrifice which you make, my friends, when you enter incarnation.

Yet, there is a pearl, as it has been said, of very great price that may be won by such sacrifice, so that when it is finally won, all sacrifices will seem as nothing in comparison to that great pearl.

Is there a further query, my sister?

No, thank you.

I am Q’uo, and we thank you, my sister. Is there another query at his time?

[No further queries.]

I am Q’uo, and would take this opportunity to express our great feeling of joy and gratitude at being invited to blend our vibrations with yours this evening and for the journey which each shares with the others at this time. We hope that we have been able to offer a perspective from our experience that will be of service to you. We would, at this time, take our leave of this instrument and this group, leaving each, as always, in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. We are known to you as those of Q’uo. Adonai, my friends. Adonai.

  1. Kriya is a technique of energy control, or pranayama. It is also a comprehensive spiritual path, which includes additional meditation practices, right living, and a link to the enlightened Masters. ↩