Group question: We would like to ask about discernment. We are aware that we know whatever we know through the intellect, through the experiences that teach us, and we know through intuition, through the subconscious mind, through any entity that might communicate through the subconscious to give us an indication of the rightness of a thought, direction or action. We are wondering how to find or discriminate the highest knowing, the best knowing, the way that we can act according to what we know that we are doing the best we can, both to know and to act? How much of this is dependent upon faith?

(Carla channeling)

We are those of the principle known to you as Q’uo, and we greet each of you in the love and the light of the one infinite Creator. What a blessing and privilege it is to be called to your circle of seeking on this day of chill and grayness, when the days are so short and the longing for the light is at its greatest. We greatly appreciate this opportunity to share our thoughts, to share with you those things that we feel that we have learned. We ask, as always, one thing of you and that is, if we may use the word, discernment. We do ask that each of you trust her powers of discrimination, for there is within you a very powerful knower. And that keeper of your own personal truth awakens when you hear that which is true for you, that which is of use to you. It is a feeling of remembering or recognition of that which was already dimly known. Then that is yours. If you have no such recognition of those things which we say then leave them behind, for we are not speaking as authorities but as those who walk the same path as you and those who have perhaps in the illusions of time and space walked a few more paces than you have.

The wish to obtain and purify the faculty of spiritual discernment is surely a common one because of the nature of the spiritual journey. It is not given to any to have proof of rightness. In other avenues of your daily existence where the world of the physical holds sway there are ways that seem to approach exactitude, of knowing and measuring quantities and qualities of those things which are manifest within your illusion. One of these things which is manifested in your illusion is the physical, mental and emotional bodies that you have taken upon yourselves as one would don a suit of clothing in order that you might have a beingness within your world of illusion during your incarnation here. That body is at once a wonderful gift and a gift to be grasped and understood as a part of but not all of that which is yourself. In particular, that mental and emotional mindset that comes with the body that you have, that follows the instincts of the body that you have, is also that which makes it very difficult to see into that darkness in which spiritual things are always hidden.

The hallmark of the spiritual inquiry of the seeking and searching after truth, of the thirsting for righteousness, is the darkness, the perversity, the inability to see clearly that is typical of a world that is in darkness in which the only light is the light of stars and of the moon. The one this instrument knew as Don used to say that the moon was more important that the sun because it gave light in the night, when you need it. This is very true. It is into the spiritual night that the light, so dim yet so precious, of discernment must come. It is not in the noonday of consensus reality when choices seem clear, but rather at the midnight, the dark night of the soul, which in some levels goes on all the time beneath the tempo of your everyday life.

It is as though the greatest of treasures was hidden in a darkened theater, or a darkened field. If within a theatre, then, it is not simply the audience but those upon the stage that gaze about and look for that hidden gem that is truth. If within the field of night, then, we might bring that parable that this instrument has from its Christian education of the merchant who sold all that he had to buy a pearl of great price. That pearl lies buried with the field, and it is the decidedly unglamorous job of the seeker of truth to dig in the dirt. Now, each of you has a different way of approaching the dichotomy which is sometimes not clear and is sometimes excruciatingly obvious betwixt the second-density great ape physical vehicle with its attendant mind and emotions and that consciousness which was before all began and which shall continue after all has ended in the stream of time and space.

To most entities it is very difficult to move from the choice-making, comfort-seeking mindset into that consciousness which has no characteristic of time or space or momentum but rather which exists in the eternal, in the infinite, in the unknowable. All that is unknown in spiritual discernment does indeed lie safely, most deeply within the heart, within that great center within which you may visualize as a tent of meeting, the tabernacle, the holy of holies in which resides the Creator, that great original Thought, unconditional Love. That power that is the Logos is absolute.

When there is that golden moment and the self somehow moves into that space where one is tabernacling with the infinite One, one is in the light, and one becomes the love. When those moments occur we suggest that you write them down in your memory and know that you have gleaned a precious gem from that field which you are digging in. Or know that one of the characters upon that stage has come to life because somewhere in that theater that little bit of truth was found. Those moments are absolute. They cannot be transferred to another, but for the self they are tremendously important, for very often, while in the physical illusion, the seeker must run on faith and hope alone. And when this is the case, it is memory that feeds faith and sparks hope. Memory of the self is a blessed gift of the moment, and another and another, and as the years of your incarnation roll by there is a growing collection of precious, precious gems of moments in the light, moments when love and the self were not bounded or separate.

This instrument has often attempted to write of these moments of ecstasy in a way that would spark others to find the fullness of joy in the Creator, and yet there is no communication that can transfer this kind of moment of pure awareness. So the seeker, as always, is upon an unique path. There are no two sparks of love, no two souls, shall we say, that have the same path, though many may say, “Oh, I have a Christian path,” or, “I have a Buddhist path,” or whatever path is named. Yet one path is not equal to another. Each is unique. The difficulties of sharing and helping each other when discernment is being searched [for] is monumental because one path is not just like another, regardless of how two people use words to describe that path.

Your nature as an entity is at the same time unified and extraordinarily complex. If the soul that you are works better moving from feelings it is perhaps desirable to cue to the unitary nature of experience that all is one and that in experiencing any one is experiencing one experiences, in the end, the All. For the one who is more aware of the internal workings of the mind, that one who is aware of the layers of meaning and of consciousness, the image of a subtle and complex network of mind works better. The mind has great depth, moving ultimately into that Self which is All. There is a kind of geometry to the mind. There are pathways within it. And there are entities within your culture, within each culture upon your planet, who have moved deeply into subtleties in discriminating betwixt one level and another, betwixt one tone poem of a mood and another, between one awareness and another.

Either of these kinds of path will work. It is simply that one must find the path or the combination of thoughts that will yield to the self that which is sought, which is an increased trust that all shall be made clear in good time.

The simple use of time is recommended to those who wish to work with the processes of perception. When an entity takes time with the self it is a great help to the inner workings of that self. Some find that the greatest gift that they can give to themselves is silence, and we do recommend, always, the daily silence, the listening within to that still, small voice that speaks in that silence with thoughts beyond words, with food that feeds the deeper person. Some find conversations with the Creator very helpful. These are often cast as prayers, but any conversation with that mysterious higher power qualifies as prayer, as this instrument has often done, getting very angry with the Creator, complaining and otherwise getting negative emotions expressed. Sometimes yelling at God is suitable and appropriate for what someone has been through and what someone is attempting to integrate into that combination self of awareness and mortality that each is within your illusion. Certainly allowing time to pass, allowing sequences to build up, is extremely helpful when one is attempting to discern and there are subtleties that cannot be voiced. The simple allowing of time to pass can bring into your awareness those subjective signals that work only for you, those little nudges that you begin to get when you turn your life over in complete surrender to that truth that you seek and that you wish to be.

There is a freedom that comes with the surrender to that higher power, to that attitude that says, “Not my will, but Thine. Teach me Thy ways. I want to know how to fulfill my service to you. Give me a hint. Give me a sign.” Then allowing the time to pass, asking the question, and waiting. There are times when the waiting period is very, very short. There are times when one waits for years. However, always these questions continue to work within you until you have found your way. Fortunately, it is in how you meet the conditions of life that the quality of life inheres, not in the events or circumstances themselves. It is easy to forget that consensus reality is illusory because everything looks very real and seems very solid. Scientifically speaking, you are aware that within each piece of furniture and within your own body there is far more space than anything else, with electrons dashing about as tiny little galaxies. Almost all space. No real matter. All an illusion. How hard it is to wipe out, sometimes. And to find that patience that seeks more deeply, that is not impressed with seeming success or put off by seeming lack, that sees beyond the appearances and the chances of a mortal existence.

But discernment is all about moving into that uncomfortable darkness, where things are almost impossible to see aright. The colors are hidden, even the shapes. Oh, the light could not be dimmer without going out entirely. This is your spiritual situation, and that is why the faith with which you meet the good and bad fortunes of your existence is such a signal and powerful portion of a walk that can be termed spiritual or devotional in nature. Since nothing can be known, one must choose either to stop trying to understand or to invest in faith.

If the seeker is able it is very helpful in pursuing truth to work with those entities with which you come into contact, for as long as you are thinking internally and turning the gaze inward, the mirrors which others offer to you are not used. It is very difficult for one within the tangle of life that each entity creates in his incarnation to see that tangle in a balanced and helpful way. However, those others with whom you share your environment have the happy faculty of being mirrors without effort, for you shall catch off of their mirroring only those images that provoke reaction within you, and as you react to those entities seemingly outside of yourself you may know that you are now working in an area where there is something to work on. Your interest has been awakened, perhaps rudely. Perhaps you do not like what you see. Perhaps you love what you see. Either way, you as a seeker have been served by the mere being of the other, who without any effort whatsoever is able to show you the truth that is hidden within you. When you have the untoward or the negative reaction, take that gift and look it over, for it has much to tell you. Perhaps in the end, when speaking of spiritual awareness, we must admit that in terms of final things we as yet do not know anything. The mystery continues to recede before our eyes in an infinite and spacious way.

And this seems to us to be satisfactory. We are content at this point in our own evolution to serve according to that which we value and that is why we thank you for allowing us to speak to you. For to us, the cries of those upon your Earth for understanding, illumination and peace are gripping and make us feel much sympathy. We feel the sorrow and the desire for the higher way, for the loving way, for the truthful way, for that quality of life which turns the everyday into an object of beauty and truth. We feel these desires within you and praise them. As you move in response to them you are accelerating the rate of your spiritual evolution and beginning to live a life larger than yourself in that as you attempt to live from moment to moment, fastening upon those things of greater importance, the vibration of your being lightens, and as it lightens the planetary consciousness lightens also. It is as though with your being, with that essential you that breathes in and breathes out and yet remains beyond all breathing, you have the power to change the world. And indeed, quite literally, each of you is changing the world to the full extent of your choices in respect to how to serve.

The great choice, as you know, is between the radiant, the giving [of service to others], and the attracting and holding and controlling of service to self. Each of you has chosen the path of radiance and each of you is making a difference.

There is perhaps nothing greater that we could say than to love one another as you have come to love yourself, and if you have not learned to love yourself, that task is your first one. For it is difficult to do work in consciousness until one has become at peace with one’s being, in its full nature, with all its shadows and its dark side. So we ask you to love, to find ways to love the self, and to nurture that self and appreciate and respect the sacrifice of that second-density great ape being which has given you the opportunity to walk upon the earth and to make a dent in it and to live and to choose. This is a very precious thing, this incarnation. Each is aware of how quickly it is going. We wish you every blessing and shall be with you at any time that you request our presence, not to speak but simply to sit in meditation with you.

We are aware that there are questions that remain and so we would transfer to the one known as Jim so that we may probe further in this interesting area. We thank this instrument and leave it in love and in light. We are those of Q’uo.

[Transcript ends.]