CONVERSATIONS WITH RAJ
JANUARY, 1986
VOL. 3, NO. 1

QUESTION: What needs to be known for this new year, 1986?

RAJ: Let there be the utmost willingness to release fears and concepts and beliefs. Be willing to find that many things that you call truth are illusion. The tininess of your embrace of the universe binds you to personal, local, national, and planetary definitions when you are citizens of the universe, and exist in terms that you have not cared to fathom, much less explore.

Many of your "truths" are local, fragmented, partial perceptions of a Wholeness in which those truths do not exist, as they are being perceived. As long as you defend those truths, you "protect" yourself from the direct experience of the Wholeness in which those truths constitute an entirely different dynamic.

You, yourselves, are not what you seem to be, but exist in a context of infinite Wholeness (holiness) as Conscious Being. It is not too soon to begin to shift into your more infinite capacities by desiring deeply into your Self, or Being, to know what Truth is. It is You. You are It. To know the Truth is to know your Self. To know your Self is to know the Truth.

QUESTION: What is the relationship between animals and humans? Did humans evolve from animals, and will animals eventually become humans?

RAJ: No, humans did not evolve from animals, and that which constitutes the identity of animals will not become what you call humans, just as flowers and trees will not become something other than what they are. There is, of course, more to everything than is currently being experienced. But, each thing, which is identified, is specifically itself, and its identity is eternal

What is not perceived at this time is that communication is possible between all life forms. And although communication of ideas, and an intelligent interchange cannot occur between animate and inanimate forms, nevertheless, the Meaning or Intent, which constitutes inanimate forms is capable of being communicated by those forms. Every form is capable of communicating its Intent for being the form it is, and the Intent for that form is always a divine Intent, because nothing exists outside of the Reality of Being, or Life.

Everything, which is identified, is quite capable of experiencing fulfillment without reservation, and therefore it is not any more desirable for a flower to become a human being than it is for a human being to become a flower. In the infinite manifestation of the Life-Principle, each thing has its place and its fulfillment, and that fulfillment is absolutely divine. Therefore, there is no envy and no reason for envying.

QUESTION: Why is there a similarity of behavior patterns between animals and humans?

RAJ: You must understand that from the three-dimensional-only frame of reference, there is much illusion, much distortion. That is because the data gathering devices—meaning your five physical senses—are incapable of presenting to you the full representation of what is being observed or experienced. Thus, many of what you are calling similarities in behavior are representative of the fact that the biases inherent in the processes of perception apply equally to everything seen, and are not necessarily representative of what is seen.

For example, you see aggression throughout life, whether it is the animal kingdom or mankind. And yet, without the biasing distortion of the ego sense, the sense derived from the five physical senses, the lion and the lamb will lie down together and peace will be the experience of everyone, and the behavior patterns will be different.

As you, yourself, have moved along your path of Awakening, behavior patterns, which had once confronted you, which were unpleasant, have slowly dropped away and new behavior patterns, more harmonious, more loving, more expressive of the Oneness of Being, have emerged. This is not because anything actually changed in the objects perceived, or those you were confronted by, but your level of perception had become less dense, less distorted, and thus your experience of your world changed, and will continue to change.

Again, the patterns you are recognizing are not necessarily inherent in what is seen, but are representative of the distortions or biases of that through which you are looking.

QUESTION: There is more and more talk about "becoming New Age," and many of these ideas relate to a general collective rise in the consciousness of mankind. Yet, there are a number of people in the more traditional esoteric disciplines who say that consciousness can only be raised by an individual following a teacher or master or enlightened being on an individual level and discount the idea of a jump in consciousness coming. What is the truth about this?

RAJ: Both are correct. The movement is one which began on an individual basis. But, there is a universal Oneness. There is a Brotherhood, a commonality, a unity, and therefore as individuals have awakened it has lessened the density or ignorance of the whole, thereby reducing the strength of the inclination to continue to be ignorant. You could say that it provides an inspiration, because the whole of the Brotherhood is not as dense as it was.

Now, the simple fact is that each one, every individual, will move through his own process of Awakening, and there will not be a sense of it being done in conjunction with another. It will always be an individual process because the process is constituted of the relinquishment of each individual's ego structures. As each one releases those structures it contributes to the similar release of ego structures in every other individuality, because the ego is less present, and therefore weakened, within the Whole.

Therefore, every individual contributes, by his awakening, to the Awakening of the Whole, and the process of Awakening is compounded or enhanced beyond just the amount of enlightenment that one individual allows to occur. The process is a self-substantiating process for the whole of the Brotherhood, and thus the rate at which the whole experiences enlightenment is increased. It becomes more rapid.

QUESTION: For quite a few years I was involved in the New Thought Movement. There is a phenomena that I experienced, and I know others have experienced. At first everything works well. They teach that all one has to do is to engage in positive thinking, in visualizing, and that type of thing, and manifestation into your life of the thing visualized just automatically appears. At first, that seems to happen very easily. But, the longer you're in it, the harder the manifestation is. Why is this?

RAJ: Very simply, because it constitutes a part of one's growth, part of one's process of Awakening. For those coming into the New Thought Movement, the metaphysical realm, it is an incredible and revolutionizing concept that "all is mind" - that, indeed, all is not matter and physical life. This realization literally moves one from his totally physical perception and interpretation of life, to a more mental or spiritual level, we will say.

The discovery that one's thought can affect his physical experience, whether it is in terms of health, wealth, or happiness, unlocks him from the bondage of his physical interpretations. However, it does not significantly help him leave the ego basis of belief, and so he manifests or demonstrates things which, from his ego standpoint, seem to be necessary and fulfilling.

This is not, therefore, an ultimate step in his development, but a transitional one. When the time comes that his discovery of the mental nature of being is no longer sufficient to move him further forward in his process of Awakening, and further enlightenment is needed, the demonstration or manifesting of things and health seem no longer to work. It is at this point that the necessity of moving beyond the ego's frame of reference comes into play.

At this point it becomes necessary for one to grasp that there is more to him than his ego and his ego wants. Indeed, he has proven to himself that life is mental in nature and not physical only, but it is necessary for his experience of what Mind is to make a quantum leap. It is necessary for him to find that the Universal Mind, which he feels he has been using, is, indeed, what constitutes his mind. That this Universal Mind is the presence of infinite intelligence, which far surpasses his present experience of his mind. That, indeed, what he is experiencing of his mind is some part of that infinite Mind, but that there is a need for him to experience the infinitude of his mind, his oneness with the infinite Mind, or God.

This requires what I have referred to as listening deeply, listening beyond his obvious wants and his perceived needs. The need is for him to access his greater capacity to be aware, which is a capacity he has by birthright—which means, by virtue of what he divinely Is, even though he has been believing he is less. Thus, one must forfeit everything he believed he needed or thought he wanted in order to discern deeply what his infinite Being is already unfolding as fulfillment.

This requires flowing with one's Being. It means listening quietly enough to discern what is really needed—not just the swimming pool, or the house, or the car, or the healed heart, or knee, or shoulder—in terms of helping bridge the gap between his present sense of himself and Who He Really Is, as the manifestation or presence of infinite Mind, infinite Intelligence, the Universal Life-Principle.

He will find that as he is willing to relinquish his personal sense of power, of his ability to demonstrate this, that, or the other thing, and will listen for what his real needs are, which he will experience in terms of very deep desires, and then will allow those desires to fulfill themselves because that is their intent and function, there will be what one could call "demonstration" from a new level. Fulfillment, healing, the having of whatever meets the need, will once again begin to emerge, but minus the sense of personal control over it. Personal control is the way creativity appears from the ego level.

The reason it becomes more difficult, and there seems to be less success, is because it is time to move on. It is time to move further into the Meaning of the mental nature of Being at Its most fundamental level. At Its most fundamental level It is all God, and it is no personal sense. Thus, as the shift occurs, Individuality takes on new meaning, new definition, which is derived from what the Life-Principle is, rather than from the ego level of perception.

QUESTION: I have found my spiritual path, and it is really conflicting with my marriage. I feel that I'm pulled in two directions. I feel that to follow my path, I have to give up my marriage. Can you give me any direction to help me in that decision?

RAJ: It is very important to not misunderstand or misconceptualize "spiritual growth." Spiritual growth is learning how to be Yourself, becoming at peace with Yourself, learning how to be quiet within Yourself and, from that vantage point, learn first about you, and then about your fellow man.

Is spiritual growth a process of upliftment into radiant Light, the transcendence of everything you see? Is spiritual growth something that puts you at odds with your world? It is so conceived by many.

Spiritual growth is more a letting down than a rising above. It is learning to be at peace with yourself—a peace which makes it obvious to you that you do not have to present a facade to your world, an artificial face. What this means is, that you are able to deal with your fellow man humbly, nondefensively. Spiritual growth uncovers your capacity to love by revealing to you that the substance of the Peace of your Being is divine Love.

In your discovery of that, you have discovered something about your husband, and everyone else. You have, by virtue of discovering the gem, or jewel, or light-center of your Being, discovered experientially that this is true of everyone else.

You will not get into the Kingdom of Heaven by rising above your world. Love is the door to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is nothing about your spiritual growth that should cause separation or a greater sense of difference from your husband. If it is doing this, it is not spiritual growth, but ego. If your spiritual path is not revealing to you how to more genuinely be with your husband, how to love him more, then it is not worth beans!

You know what? Your husband knows what love feels like. Everyone knows what love feels like. And, as I told someone else recently, if, as a result of your spiritual realization, your capacity for being the presence of Love is increased, then your husband will be absolutely delighted with "whatever it is" that you are doing. It won't matter to him what it is, and you will not get resistance from him.

Understand also that it is not necessary for your husband to be able to talk at length on spiritual subjects. What is necessary is love—and I am not directing that statement entirely to you. What is needed is the clarity that comes from going within oneself, leaning into his deepest levels of Wisdom, leaning into that which he divinely Is. Spiritual progress has nothing to do with words, and theories, and concepts, and organizations, and philosophies. But, it does have to do with waking up to what you divinely Are by paying attention to your Self, and by virtue of what you learn about your Self, learning about everyone else, and in that learning, discover that there is no reason for withholding your love from anyone.

"Well, I can't talk to my husband about these things!" So what? You can hug him, You can be quiet with him—at peace with yourself, and thereby able to be sensitive to the fact that you are together—so present with him that he knows the two of you are touching with your Soul.

To hell with your mind! For the most part, what you call your mind is simply ego processes—very faulty—everyone's. The process of going within is a process of moving out of the surface, reactive levels of your mind, and a movement to the Center of your Mind, which is one with your Soul, one with the Love that constitutes you, one with the Principle that constitutes you, one with the Life that constitutes you, one with the Truth that constitutes you.

Do not be so busy with your spiritual growth that you do not have the peace or the time to be present with someone else. It is in being present with someone else, in the joining with someone else, at a level other than the ego thought processes, that constitutes the living of your Path. This is so important to understand.

What good does it do to leave the busy-ness of the world and get into an equally busy spiritual process that doesn't allow you to be present for that which counts—the simple ability to be present with and love everyone and everything that you come in contact with?

QUESTION: I am 52, divorced, have moved three times in the last ten years, and I'm wondering whether it's in the cards to have a nourishing, committed relationship?

RAJ: It is imperative for you to understand that no matter what your apparent age, no matter how many times your planet has revolved around the sun since your birth, you always stand at the threshold of your fulfillment because your very Being is the Movement of Fulfillment. Therefore, you never stand in a moment that is truly biased by your past. You always stand in the instant in which your Being is fulfilling Itself perfectly. The only reason that fulfillment is not always perceived is because you are bound, to one degree or another, by belief structures and your memory.

Now, the most effective way to break out of the imprisonment of your memory and your belief structures is to be willing to look beyond them, to be open to more than they promise. It is much easier to look beyond when you understand, even theoretically, that your very Being is the Movement of Fulfillment, since it is the direct expression of the Life-Principle, and that therefore you are not the sum total of your past experiences. Your opportunities, which confront you at every moment arise out of the Life-Principle, Itself, or God, and not out of your apparent past.

Desire companionship. Desire commitment. Do not argue against your desire with your thinking processes, or with conditioned doubts—either about your age and your desirability or because of statistics that say there aren't as many men available because of the war. Be willing to dare to assume that your Being is not limited in any way in manifesting that, which identifies your fulfillment.

Abide with your desire with the expectation of seeing it come to pass. You see, it is the combination of the desire and expectancy that puts you in the position of discerning your fulfillment, no matter what area of your life the desire relates to. It is not a matter of your creating or manipulating your environment and your world, but rather it is a matter of being in harmony with what it is already the Intent of your Being to do. The expectancy, the interest, and the alertness as to how this is going to unfold releases you from the arguments that are embedded in your psyche that would tend to cause you not to even bother to look.

It is very unlikely that you will go through what you would call the remainder of your life single, unless you absolutely refuse to be open to the development of a relationship. So, I encourage you to happily look forward to the development of a relationship. I also encourage you to allow it to unfold in its own way and in its own timeliness. You do not need to grasp or manipulate or meet some deadline. Let there be a confidence in the effectiveness and the power of your Being to manifest that, which constitutes Its experiential fulfillment!

QUESTION: I've been working on my relationship with my parents and my brother for some years now, trying to get to a more peaceful place on my own, and at the same time battling with trying to get them to change. What guidance do you have for me as far as improving those relationships?

RAJ: The first mistake is in attempting to get them to change. You see, it assumes that you are in some way superior—at least superior enough to know what is good for them. That is an egotistical assumption. Everyone must learn to value where every other one is. Whether it makes sense or not, each one is always at the leading edge of his capacity to understand the truth, to understand Reality clearly. They are in the only place they can be, and it is absolutely right for them. Therefore, you have no valid basis for judging them.

The very fact of releasing the judgment will release the amount of stress you are experiencing. It will also get them out from under the gun, and they will be able to breathe a little easier. At the bottom line, the issue is your peace, and you will not have your peace until you release the judgment.

You wish to be able to exercise some control so that they may behave in a way, which you recognize as meaningful and harmonious within the context of the family. You cannot have that kind of control. But you can move to a place within yourself where you are at enough peace to think well of them and love them, even though it is difficult to be around them, and even though it is preferable not to be around them too much.

It is quite one thing to be apart from someone on good terms and another to be apart from them on negative terms. One generates tension, conflict, defensiveness and guilt on all sides. But, if you are apart from them with respect for them, then you do not bring into play any guilt within yourself, and you do not create defensiveness in them.

Your world reflects back to you what you are looking at it with, and if you are looking at it with defensiveness, you will find a defended and aggressive world reflected back to you.

The Bible says, "Physician, heal thyself." You must be true to yourself before you can be true to anyone else. So, address your attention to yourself. Realize you do not have control. Realize that you do not have the perspective needed to appropriately judge where they are in their development and their self-expression or behavior.

Further, be willing to acknowledge that they are as far forward on their leading edge of enlightenment as they can bear to be, just as you are, and that no one relinquishes old territory, old habits, without a second thought. They are released like treasures of great value, which are no longer treasures because you have grown out of them and they have become a form of bondage. Nevertheless, one does not let go of old "friends" easily.

Love them (your family). They are as worthy of it, as you are. And, if you are going to use standards, then, by some set of standards, you are quite ignorant. If those higher standards did not involve a greater perspective of love, then the help you need might be denied you, because you are so ignorant. Yet, you know that you are in a wonderful place. You know that you are learning. You know that you are on the threshold of further discovery, and that therefore you are worthwhile. This is true of your family.

No matter how loving you get, no matter how in touch with the substance of your Being—which is Love—you are, it does not mean that you are to become the doormat of egos. If there is a sufficient difference between where you are and where someone else is, and that difference makes it difficult to be together for any length of time because it is unsettling and uncentering, then you need to be wise and not subject yourself to an environment in which you cannot keep your peace.

Your recognition that it is wise not to be together too much, constitutes an honoring of your right to your inner peace, as well as the need of having that peace substantiated so that you can have the presence that allows you to be around them occasionally in a truly appropriate and constructive way.

Now, I am saying to give up on trying to change them. And I am saying, address yourself to your peace, because in your peace you will find your capacity to love them, and your capacity to love them will allow you to be with them briefly from time to time in a wonderfully constructive way.

QUESTION: My work has not been the most fulfilling thing lately. The day to day enjoyment is gone. I'm bored. I'm not sure whether it's appropriate for me to change my work or whether it's my ego sabotaging what I do.

RAJ: No, this is not just your ego. You are experiencing and responding to a movement of unfoldment, or a movement of growth, development, within you. You are experiencing the leading edge of change, and it is not change which is growing out of dissatisfaction as much as it is change moving toward greater satisfaction, more clear experience of fulfillment.

Now, the key here is not to jump the gun and move before there is a clear sense of the direction in which to move. Now that you are aware that it is not ego dissatisfaction, which is bothering you, you will not waste as much energy examining your motives, and you will not in any way resist the clarification that is to come about because you think it might only be your ego speaking.

Continue with your work as you have been doing, with a general attentiveness—not to outward circumstances, but to this inner movement that is occurring. As I said, you are experiencing the "leading edge" of change, and if you will continue to feel it without resisting or questioning it, it will continue to emerge, and with it will be the clarification of the form in which this change is going to manifest.

You will also find that as you are simply allowing this clarity to come forth, your present work will be less distressing, less monotonous, because you will be well aware that you are not stuck in it. You will be able to look at it with some freshness, and some increased vitality. It is only when one begins to feel trapped by his circumstances that the circumstances take on negative connotations, negative vibes. Once one knows he is not stuck, once one knows that there is going to be movement beyond where one is, the place where one is ceases to be experienced as negatively.

QUESTION: Patience, I can see, is required—and I want it now!

RAJ: It is not so much that patience is required, as it is that impatience needs to be released. When you use the word "patience," you are really meaning a subdued form of impatience. It is a willingness to tolerate something that is intolerable to one degree or another. Yet, patience in its true meaning is the release of goals and the willingness to allow oneself to be totally present in the Now. This does not involve waiting in any way, and it does bring one face to face with the Fullness that is going on in the Now. Thus, the Now ceases to be experienced as something one has to tolerate.

So if you adopt a stance of patience, it is really just a toned down form of impatience. Whereas, if you will release the impatience, you will in effect be allowing yourself to be present in the Now and you will truly be practicing patience.

QUESTION: I guess I'm ready for direction. I'm ready right now! That's where the impatience comes up. I want a sign right now.

RAJ: Initially you will have to take this on faith, but the fact is that to the degree that you push for it, you push it away from you, because you are exercising willfulness. In order to be willful, you cannot be in touch with your Self—you have to be functioning at the level of the ego. At this level it becomes frustratingly difficult to perceive what your Being is unfolding. Therefore, if you want this to unfold swiftly, you must begin to insist upon allowing it to unfold at its own pace.

If you understand that it is the Intent of your Being to fulfill Itself perfectly, and that It has infinite resources with which to do so—in other words, It is not limited in anyway by "conditions"—then it will be clear to you that delay cannot be a part of the process of fulfillment. Therefore, if you do not want to experience delay, do not express impatience! This will really constitute a subtle shift within you. I bring this out so you will not view it as a complicated, difficult problem to deal with. You simply must be alert and recognize, when you begin to be impatient, that you do not want to be impatient, because you do not want to delay the experience of fulfillment.

QUESTION: I just want to know who set these rules up? Who made these rules? They are just the complete opposite of what I've learned all my life.

RAJ: What you have learned are very simply ego structures, which seem valid from within the ego's frame of reference. You must understand that it is a relatively new thing for mankind to be perceiving that he is not his ego and that there is, indeed, another vantage point from which to experience Being. Therefore, there are generations of beliefs that are being carefully handed down, and which were presented to you because they were believed to be the key to success.

Now there is a deeper understanding emerging. I can guarantee you this: If your parents, or grandparents, or society in general, back through time, had known better, they would have done better. So, there can be no justifiable reason for criticism. However, now the clarification is coming forth and there is no reason to delay in exploring this new clarity and discovering its validity.

You are listening. I mean by that, that you are being attentive to something other than your mental processes of "figuring" everything out. You see, the moment you begin to allow for something other than what you figure out, there is a "void" through which your Being can emerge at a level that you can perceive consciously.

It is as though the busy-ness of your mind creates a screen of enough density that you cannot see what is Happening on the other side of it. And what is Happening on the other side of it is what your Being is infinitely unfolding with absolute perfection. No matter what the technique is that is used to quiet the thinking processes, the result is that that quietness constitutes a "hole" in the screen, which allows you to see something of what is beyond. Of course, that "something" which is beyond is You at the level of your Being in the process of fulfilling Itself.

Initially it is just a small hole, you might say, in the screen. So, the screen, in its overall aspect, is still distracting. So, a conscious choice has to be made as to which you are going to give preference to—that which can be seen through the hole in the screen, or the screen itself. Since what can be seen through the hole is less impressive than the larger area of the screen, it seems as though a more intent conscious choice must be made to give your attention to what can be seen through the hole.

However, in the decision to pay attention to what can be seen through the hole, you have selected to honor your Self and thus the "hole" becomes larger, because you are not continuing to energize the screen. The point is arrived at where the hole occupies a larger percentage of the total area of the screen than the screen occupies. Then there is no difficulty in ignoring the screen, and also no attendant sense of there needing to be a specific intent to pay attention to what is real and what is true as seen through the hole.

Now, what I have described here refers to the "rent in the veil" that is spoken of in the Bible. The veil is constituted of the sense of life that arises out of the partial vision of the ego, which seems to become dominant and block the direct perception of Reality.

Do not quibble over the fact that there seems to be a slipping back and forth between giving your attention to your deeper levels of Knowing—or what can be seen through the tear in the fabric of your ego sense of things—and the attention you give to the ego sense of things. You will develop skill at being able to more consistently home in on what is emerging from the very depths of your Being as a result of your having arrived at a degree of quietness, as a result of your being willing to look beyond your present sense of things.