CONVERSATIONS WITH RAJ
AUGUST 1985
Vol. 2, No. 8

QUESTION: I have been interested in and have made certain moves toward community for myself. I bought some land and have been reaching out to the universe to draw people into community with me. How might I succeed at that?

ANSWER: It is essential to understand that every idea includes within itself everything necessary to its fulfillment. You did not manufacture the idea for this community. You were receptive to it, and you were receptive to the way in which you were to be a part of it.

Now, the problem, as always, is that the ego picks up on ideas and then attempts to be "responsible for" fulfilling them. When this happens, you move up into your head and away from the Place where the idea emerged into the level of your conscious awareness. It is very much like moving away from a spring, where water is emerging. When you move away from the Place where the idea is unfolding, and you try to personally take on the responsibility for fulfilling that idea, you are not in the place where you will be able to recognize the fulfillment as the idea, itself, is unfolding it.

You will experience burden, frustration, and a likelihood of failure as it regards the project. It is important to understand that if you will take the steps you are led to take, but remain focused on the idea, itself, in an attentive, listening way, you will find that there will be further information provided. The idea will continue to unfold itself to you. You will find that the idea, the MEANING of the community, will unfold itself and evolve itself, and, in effect, you will simply be in the position of being a custodian of the idea, a facilitator of the idea, and not its creator!

If you will relax and just nurture the idea or Meaning of this community as it has emerged in your consciousness, and be willing patiently to listen for the rest of the idea or Meaning to unfold itself, you will not experience frustration. You WILL be able to recognize any further steps you, yourself, need to take. And you will avoid entirely the false sense of personal responsibility that you are presently experiencing, together with potential failure and a sense of guilt over not having been appropriate—not having, somehow, accomplished what you were supposed to accomplish.

It is not your task to fulfill the idea or Meaning out of your own present limited awareness. That is not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to LISTEN—not talk in your mind, not reason, not figure out, but continue to listen at the same place where the idea originally emerged. The success of the idea is insured when there is someone present to listen to it.

Again, the problem is that the ego tends to take the idea and "run with it," figure it out for itself, and try to make it happen so that it can take credit. Don't waste your time with that. It is just so much unnecessary folderol, garbage, useless, wasteful expenditure of essential energy.

QUESTION: Our conversation with Raj was very expanding for my girl friend and I, and then when we got home, we experienced a couple of days of craziness, where we were really on each other. Could you give us some perspective on what was going on?

ANSWER: Literally, the two of you have two different modes of dealing with expansion. You, yourself, tend to verbalize and somewhat aggressively impose what you are seeing upon those around you who might have some ability to perceive what you are meaning and what you are seeing. In other words, you tend to share it easily if there is someone who will understand or grasp what you are sharing. Whereas, your girl friend tends to curl up in a little ball and abide with what has happened very quietly and very privately. She shields herself. In effect, you do opposite things, which conflict.

Eventually, your girl friend will not need to curl up in a little ball and digest and integrate what has happened in an exclusive way. But, right now that is what works for her, and it is not appropriate to violate it or try to get her to be as gregarious as you are when there is expansion and insight.

On the other hand, you talk away a lot of the essential energy of the expansion. It would be well for you to do more quiet nurturing of the expansion experience. It is not primarily good news to "spread across the land." It is primarily a process of YOUR OWN MATURING—and I do not mean that in a human sense, but in a divine sense. Divine maturity, or the process of maturing divinely, is a process of inner transformation and change. Your "talking it out" tends to move it into an intellectual realm where you can temporarily avoid the growth—the actual shift of your Integrity from a less integrated experience to a more integrated experience.

Therefore, you can afford to back off from the gregarious sharing, somewhat, and your girl friend can afford to back off from or let go of her extreme privateness. But, again, that is not where either one of you are at the moment. And, where you are is truly not subject to judgment. Therefore, you are not in a position to say to her, "See, Raj says thus and thus," and she is not in a position to say to you, "See, Raj says you need to back off." Honor where you are individually. But, be aware of the direction in which each of your processes of divine maturity are heading.

Be always loving. When you see yourselves getting on each other's back, realize that you are forgetting the essential element of love. Realize further, that when you are not insisting on being in the Place where love is expressed, you are insisting on not being Centered. When you are insisting on furthering the tension, you are insisting on being in the ego place, which you really do not want.

You always have the choice to judge or love, and only loving will resolve the inherent elements of judgment. Be infinitely patient with each other. This does not just apply to you. Every single individual, no matter where he seems to be in his development, is standing at the threshold of discovery, is standing at the threshold of the clearer experience of his Value and his Worth and the divine Actuality of his Being—whether it is a murderer standing with his knife raised to plunge it into another's back, or whether it is someone encircling another in an embrace of love. At that very instant, both are standing at the foremost point of their ability to perceive their divinity and experience enlightenment.

The more appreciation, the more valuing that one extends to another, because of what he knows the other IS at the essential level of his being, the more transformation you will find occurring BEFORE the blade is plunged, BEFORE the separation occurs, or BEFORE the argument starts. And, in the environment that is provided by the insistence on appreciation, the transformation that both of you are wanting to experience will emerge. IT'S ALL A MATTER OF CHOICE—the choice between judgment and patient love.

QUESTION: About two years ago, I was in a masters program and I was denied candidacy. That denial of my candidacy became a real shattering experience for me. I really came unglued. What happened in that experience? When I try to think about it, I get very confused and I get emotionally upset.

ANSWER: When you listen for what you Know, be aware that that Knowing is not going to arise out of your memory or any experience you have yet had. It will be arising out of territories of your Being, which you have not accessed. Therefore, you have no means of formulating any assumptions, whatsoever, about what will emerge. If you find the old tapes running, if you find yourself getting upset, you may know that your attention was in the wrong place, and YOU CAN STOP THE TAPES once you realize that what you can gather from your memory will never be insight or clarification?

WHEN YOU LISTEN IN ORDER TO KNOW, YOU ARE LISTENING BEYOND YOUR PRESENT EXPERIENCE OF BEING CONSCIOUS! You are not listening for that which is familiar to you. What is familiar to you is what is causing the problem.

The very simple fact is that at the time you had this experience, you were an extremely controlling person. And I mean this in the sense not so much of exercising control over others, as much as it was a matter of controlling the dynamics of your life and feeling that you could do anything you wanted if you simply set your mind to it. That, in so many words, it was all up to you and your decisions—that you set the tone for your life, even down to the last detail. It was highly egotistical, even though you did not flaunt it in front of others. As a result, you were not able to flow with what your Being was unfolding.

Life does not flow from the ego level of consciousness and its manipulative attempts. It flows from a much more fundamental level of your Being, the Fourth-dimensional level, actually—the level of that which you Actually, divinely Are.

What happens is, Being unfolds Itself, and the ego comes along and, with a little bit of skill—and it doesn't take a lot, because it's dealing with other ignorant egos—it manages to take credit for what your Being is unfolding. It builds up the idea, within itself—meaning, within you—that you are doing great! YOU are managing your affairs and your life, and, "You're not doing half bad!" Yet, all along, it is what you divinely Are that is unfolding Itself for the purpose of fulfilling Itself, because fulfillment is the Process of Life.

Inevitably, your Being does not move in accordance with what the ego has projected, and so you experience conflict; especially if the ego cannot gracefully recover from the sudden change that your Being has taken. You could not gracefully account for being turned down. You, at that time, had no awareness that the direction things WERE moving in was in your best self-interest, and constituted the unfoldment of your fulfillment, even though it was a fulfillment beyond and different from what your ego saw as fulfillment.

You were graciously deprived of control! And the ego could not regain control gracefully. It could not "cover its ass." As a result, because you were not able to tap into the deeper level of what was unfolding, you remained with the ego in its confusion.

The experience had the benefit of causing you not to feel as confident in what you had been calling your "self." And, may I assure you that the dissolving of self-confidence that is inappropriately placed is the greatest blessing you can experience, because it causes you to be receptive! Something in you still wants stability, so you will look—but not as strongly to what you had been calling your "self."

(s)elf doubt is the open sesame to Self-discovery, and this is what you find happening with you. You are very fortunate that things were not able to continue any longer than they did with your sense of being in control and in charge from the level of your head, or ego. The longer one is able to fool himself, the longer he is able to invest his faith in his ego, the more difficult and uncomfortable the shift into Self-appreciation and Self discovery becomes.

You were very fortunate, even though the ego couldn't see it.

QUESTION: How can I help the members of my family to experience a greater sense of their oneness. We're having our first family reunion, and people are coming from very differing religious ideologies. I want to know how we can really experience that sense of oneness together.

ANSWER: The simplest way is to honor each one exactly where he is. You do not have the perspective, and neither does anyone else, to say that the leading edge a person is standing at is the wrong leading edge. Let me assure you that any leading edge is the ONLY leading edge that individual has? And, it is one's Being that puts him right at the edge and provides the gentle and sometimes not so gentle push that causes him to move beyond his present sense of himself.

The language one uses to express being on his leading edge is irrelevant! Again, no other one has the perspective to accurately judge that that leading edge is not the best one. Each one thinks his own leading edge is THE one. The ego takes that and wants to project it onto others, so that they can be on the "right" leading edge.

Now, the simple fact is that you are on your leading edge because your Being is insisting on your Awakening. In other words, your leading edge is YOUR leading edge, and what makes it your leading edge are the very ego structures, which you need to become free of so that you may experience your Wholeness without the distortions of the ego.

Your leading edge is perfect for you because it will, once you have moved beyond it, release you from your own highly individual ego structures and belief systems. What is beneficial for you in your growth is not, and cannot be, beneficial for another's, because another's Being is putting him or her up against his or her own peculiar or highly individual ego structures so that they may be released in the most effective way.

Now, how can you experience the Oneness when your family gets together? Love each one of them right where he or she is. Honor, in your mind, the divine Being that has to be right there where each apparent ego structure is standing. Be willing to listen, beyond his or her words or actions, into the underlying dynamic of his or her Individuality (not ego).

You know everyone simply wants to be loved, because they are not capable of loving themselves fully. Love each one right where he is. Join with him on the basis of his essential Value and Worth, and don't quibble over differences. Don't magnify differences so as to bring them over to your "far superior leading edge." It's only superior for you, and theirs is only superior for them. Simply love them, so that they can love themselves more easily.

When this family gets together, it will be a gathering of Christs—Christed ones—who may be unaware of their divinity. Honor the essential divine spark in each one of them that has them right up against their ego limits and therefore has them at the edge of their enlightenment, and leave the responsibility for their enlightenment with their essential Being.

I assure you that you will have a fantastic time when everyone gets together if you will do this. Realize also, it is only necessary for YOU to do it in yourself for you to enjoy the gathering, and in order for you to provide the essential element for that good time occurring. Everyone else can have a miserable time if they choose not to honor the Individuality of each person there, and choose, rather, to magnify differences and egos.

You can leave the gathering, when it is over, with wonderful memories. And others, even if they had a miserable time, generally speaking, can go home feeling that their contact with you was wonderful.

Love where each one is, even though you wouldn't want to be there yourself. To someone else, where you are is not too hot! But, it is perfect for you, and you know that. Extend that same acknowledgment to every other one, whether it's your family or not, and watch what happens.

QUESTION: Much of my work has been with individuals and groups who see their work in the context of serving the planet. Many of them, right now, find themselves at a crossroads and at a time of intensive reevaluation and restructuring of their organizations—a lot of which has been stimulated by financial crises and financial strain. Can you give some insight as to what we should be especially paying attention to, and what's being asked of us at this time?

ANSWER: I'm going to answer this in a very general way, and yet it will hit the mark very specifically. Change on the planet, the increase of planetary health, will always and only be the manifestation or reflection of INNER health.

The existence of the planet, the existence of everything natural to the planet, and, indeed, the solar system and the universe, is the manifestation of what, for lack of better words, could be called the infinite Mind, the infinite Life-Principle—whether you call It God or not. What fundamentally exists is not a creation of egos, but of That, which divinely Is.

That which messes it up are arrogant, pompous, little egos trying to be "in charge." This is true, whether we are talking of the physical body of a person or the physical body of the planet that person lives on, et cetera.

The health of the planet is not something that is going to happen "out-there" in three-dimensional space, although the effect will be visible there. The shift is a shift of consciousness. And all of the New Age movements, all of the movements, which are endeavoring to value the earth and its resources and its Meaning, need to keep their attention at the "spring," as I mentioned earlier, and not take the very insistent motivation, which is arising within them and running with it at the ego level, so that the ego level can make the improvements and take the credit.

In other words, the shift that will be occurring, and which will be rendered visible as a healed earth, a healed environment, is actually a shift from the ego level to the Being level in each individual—a shift from a three-dimensional-only frame of reference to the Fourth-dimensional conscious experience of Being within and as each individual.

You cannot bring historical, three-dimensional processes or techniques into the Fourth-dimensional frame of reference, else there is no transformation, and it is just another fascinating, illusory technique of the ego, which is being indulged in and CALLED New Age. More listening needs to be done. More listening at the very Place where the insistent motivation came forth from in the first place.

As I said before, every idea/Meaning includes within itself everything necessary to its fulfillment. As the listening continues, and as one abides with the Meaning as It is unfolding at the level of one's conscious awareness, the funds (M-0-N-E-Y), the ideas, and the means of facilitating those ideas will all emerge, and all that will be necessary will be for everyone to flow with them and forget about "being creative."

A new world does not need to be created. The one that's already here and already fundamentally perfect, needs to be FLOWED WITH. Since it doesn't actually exist objectively in three-dimensional space, but is a part of the infinite manifestation of Fourth-dimensional Conscious Being, it is going to have to be approached, accessed if you will, from the Center of each one's Being, as Conscious Being, rather than a little mortal running around on the surface of this planet, trying to save it.

Steps WILL be taken, and they WILL be successful to the degree that those taking the steps insist upon listening and flowing with the underlying, immovable intelligence, which is responsible for the very existence of the globe, and the solar system, and the universe. There simply isn't enough attention being given in the right direction. This is not a criticism, but a statement of fact, so that perspective can be had.

As one moves out of the three-dimensional-only frame of reference, the ego tries to bring itself along, and be Fourth-dimensional in the same old three-dimensional way, and it cannot happen!