John Aiken:

Bartholomew talks for the Quest group about the purpose or meaning of life.

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

Well, first I greet you all. I feel the difficulty in answering a question of this nature in a particular group situation is that various ones will be seeking different answers. But I would like to say that I will give the answer in the highest degree that I perceive. And those that can hear, will hear, and those that cannot, will someday also come to hear.

The question that our side of the light would like to impress upon all of the human consciousness is simply that the purpose of life is not at all what your perception would tell you it was. From your human perception, looking out through the eyes - physical eyes - you perceive life and its importance as being bound up in family, work, love in the personal sense, in the children sense, in the mate sense, or love of parents, or love of country, or love of good works, or however it manifests to you.

Now, while no one on this side of the light would say that these are wrong motives, they would say that as long as you believe this illusion, you will not be able to fully participate in the broad ongoing teaching that the planet provides for you. What is meant by this is simply that your eyes lie to you.

You are using - most of you - are using the wrong vehicle to see with. The vehicle that you are called upon to see with is an inner vehicle that has no form of which you are aware. It is made up of spirals of energy fields which we will not go into because, when your inner eyes are developed enough to see them, then you will know within your own mind what you are perceiving. But just let me say that when these inner eyes open, you will then perceive the world totally differently from the way you do now.

And in that new perception, you will become one with all of the great truths that the greatest of the teachers have passed down to you. You say - all of you, or some of you - you say countless times, all is one, there is only one reality. But if you are being honest, and if you will look carefully at your mind, you will observe that your thoughts deny that you truly believe it. You act constantly in opposition to this basic idea.

Indeed, you act not only as if you were separate, but as if your mind is separate from other minds. It is bad enough to think that your body is separate from other bodies, but on top of this illusion, you compound it by feeling that your mind is somehow a separate entity from the rest of the minds in the world. We would like to say that this is an illusion created by the ego for its own use.

And if you choose to continue, this is a matter of choice. There are certain delights to be found in seeing oneself as separate. Some of these delights are obvious. For example, if you happen to be in a fulfilling personal relationship, then you see the obvious delight of feeling a one to one love. On the other hand, it must be seen clearly that if you move from a fulfilling relationship to areas of that relationship that are not fulfilling, then watch carefully what your mind does.

Because your mind then says "Ah! It is simply this particular relationship that has gone sour. So now I will go out and find another personal relationship that will then be meaningful."

And so it goes. Time after time, life after life, relationship after relationship, one forgets and puts aside the pain and the suffering and forgets that the purpose of life is to understand that you are not an ego. It is as simple as that. The purpose of everyone in this room is to come to the awareness that you are not now and have never been an ego.

I am very aware of having been in incarnate form myself. I am very aware of the tremendous pull of the illusion. But having moved out of that illusion, I have come to tell you that it can be done. And if you are still caught in the illusion, rest assured it is because it is giving you something that you deeply want.

So don't beat your chest and cry to the gods and say "You are not fulfilling me, you are not showing me the way!" The way is always there. But most of you, if you would be honest, would see that you are very content on some deep level with what you are doing.

It feeds you in some way, it makes you feel important. And you see, if all is one, then no one is any more important than anyone else. And this is something that the ego refuses to see.

The ego maintains its power over you by promising you a special state. You are special if you are a separate ego. If you are not a separate ego, you see, then where is the specialness? Where does your specialness lie? It doesn't exist.

And that is something that the ego screams at. So please, please be very aware that you get precisely what you want. That what your life is now is what you choose it to be. That the instant that you choose differently, doorways will open. We cannot tell you which doorways, because when the time comes, the combination of energies will be there for you and you will begin to experience something else.

A way will open. But nothing can be done on our side until you ask. And I don't mean a superficial kind of a whimpering, but a real soul call.

Any true soul call is always answered, and answered instantaneously. So I realize that many on the so called spiritual path tend to feel that they are in some way special from the rest of mankind. This is a misuse of the spiritual quest.

Anything that makes you feel any way different from every other man is a misuse, because there is no real difference. But we tend to use these devices when one is in a body. We use these devices to separate ourselves. And I would ask you all to be extremely careful about this.

Some of you are in marriage relationships or in non married relationships with mates. And herein lies one of the greatest misuses of the spiritual quest, which is the insidious feelings that you emanate to your mates that make them feel less. And I would like to say that things are not always as they seem.

For example, the long suffering mate who continually stays home and takes care of the family so that the other party can go out to these meetings: it is questionable, you see, who is really the more caring and the more dedicated. So be very careful in all of your thought processes as you go through these pathways.

That you don't take on the really deadly habit of thinking yourself exalted because you have some glimmering of a spiritual truth.

John Aiken:

More on purpose, with special attention to the life beyond the physical plane. Can you express anything regarding the overall purpose further than what you already said?

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

I think that several members of the group are interested in what happens beyond the event that you call death. And there's much written about this phase. Most of it is erroneous because in order to speak these things, words have to be used, symbols have to be called on that really do not exist in a parallel fashion on the other side. So, much of it is filtered and very foggy and therefore misleading.

I think it a fair assumption that most people, unless they are highly developed, highly aware, have an underlying fear of death and the whole process and the other... waking on the other side, as they call it. So, with that in mind, I will do my best, but again, one has to understand that the symbols given are going to be misrepresented by the woman because she simply doesn't have the... the ability to translate these for you.

But let me just say that the moment of transition varies greatly with a person going over. And the degree of fear is commensurate with the... what shall I call it... the disorientation that is experienced.

Some humans pass over with absolutely no change of perception, but they're very rare. Now the main thing that you have to keep in mind is when you move over to the other side, your consciousness does not explode into a tremendous difference than it was on this side.

Because you see, there really is no "other" and "here". It's all the same.

In order to make any sense at all, we can speak in these terms, but when the transition is being made, the general tendency of the human is to concentrate on the body form as long as it can. It is deeply suggested that those of you who can free yourself of that and keep your awareness of your consciousness as your primary function at that time, that will be a tremendous help to you.

Because, you see, there is only fear in the body sense. There is no fear in the consciousness sense because the consciousness does not change. There's no alteration in your consciousness when you die.

So if you want to keep the flow of continuity as much as you can, and do your best to learn about this process as you're going, then the suggestion is to really let the body take care of itself and do whatever it is destined to do, and keep your awareness highly concentrated, as power-packed as you can in your consciousness. Now, on the other side, it will differ. It is really difficult to make any statement about this type of thing. It is fair to say that what you envision it will be like, so will it be... for a limited period of time. Because one of the great things that you will learn is that the mind creates. And as you are creating this type of a reality on the other side, you will realize that this is what's happening, that your mind is creating something. But be that as it may, there isn't too much to say.

It'll all be taken care of. That is the primary thing that I think is important to all humans... is to get a really deep feeling and knowledge within that just as you are sustained by the Divine force while you're in body form, you are sustained by the Divine Force when you are not. So the degree to which all people in this room spend the rest of their life here creating this very definite, concrete almost, awareness of their oneness with the Divine force that is pulsating through them constantly, the less fear there will be, the less change there will be, the greater expanding and experience... the greater the experience will be on the other side.

And by that I mean it will not be as limited. Someone who goes over with limitations as to who they are will experience those limitations to some degree on the other side.

But the ones who have really worked at feeling the tremendous harmony that sings through their being here, now, in body form will find that it is a continuing process and that it isn't even so much going, as they say, from one room to another. Even that is too much of a limitation.

What does free them so much is the dropping of all of the physical, which is a tremendous relief. And this is what they experience as such, enlightening, because the physical vehicle, it can be very cumbersome. Would you ask a question?

John Aiken:

Yes. What can you suggest [is] the best way for parents to help their children?

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

Well, I'll make it a little more concise this time, but basically I would like to suggest to everyone who is a parent or is thinking of becoming a parent that their primary consideration must be to, if they wish to be truly successful in this rearing of children who will be in harmony and who will have a joyful relationship to life, but the thing that they really must do, if they find it in themselves to do, is to develop this day and the next day and all days henceforward, an actual living relationship with the wisdom that is available in the moment. Now, this is a very specific thing and not something vague.

Most of parents, when they find that they are going to become a parent, or if the child is already born or some difficulty looms ahead, they rush around and they read - quotes - so called "experts" and the data that they receive seem to them to be helpful in some degree or other. But if they were paying attention, they would realize that there is no particular way in an overall sense of knowing how to respond to each instance problem.

Now there is a way. You see, you are not alone. None of you have been left alone here to battle your way to awareness alone of what's right to do. I mean, that would be a very unfortunate, chaotic kind of universe that you were thinking of. But the fact remains that most of you enjoy this separate feeling as we've talked about before. You enjoy a sense of being a separate entity and you enjoy the power making your own decisions.

And as long as that is what you want, then by all means continue to make your own decisions, to decide every detail down to the last as to what you should do for your child. But for those of you who have come to the understanding through watching your own life that perhaps you have made some mistakes, that perhaps things could have been handled in a better way.

Now, if you are one of those, this is for you. If you really have come to this understanding, and if you are really in enough love state with the child to truly wish to serve that child the best you can, then I say to you, the best thing you can do is to develop your tuning device so that the wisdom that is pulsating around you constantly will be able to record itself in you.

And therefore you will know what to do. You see, it is not a mystery.

There are no mysteries here. Man beats his breast and screams to the sky and says "I don't know what to do!" Well, that's because his mind has not been able to think of an answer. But rest assured, the answer is there. And for parents, we are particularly concerned with the raising of children in this age and the next few ages to come because a lot depends on that, which is another subject.

But a lot depends on what happens to these next few generations. And so any of you who can hear, we would ask you to hear this.

In the moment when your mind is still and you are totally attuned to what is present in this moment, with no encumbrances of past thought, with no desire beating at you, but simply in the quiet of each moment, you will be able to speak the things that need to be spoken. You will be able to think the thought that should be thought. And you will perform what the Buddhist would call a right action. Now, your mind is incapable of knowing what is right action for everyone in a certain area.

At least I think that is true of all in this room. There are some human beings, of course, who have transcended. But basically the human condition is one of having a very narrow awareness of what is the best thing to do. So if you choose to be in love and harmony with the total plan and then know that all will be served at the highest, it is a very simple matter: you must learn to constantly stop your thought process, to place yourself totally, wholly receptively in the moment and listen.

You know, all the great books have said it and you don't hear it. They say God speaks. And you know, most people don't understand that. They don't believe it. And the reason that they cannot experience the voice of God or the voice within, or however you choose to say, the reason they cannot experience it is because they're too busy talking. Now, by this I mean mental talking in the form of thinking, mental fantasies, hopes, fears, past, future, all of these things tend to fill you to such an extent with your own material that God simply cannot get through.

There is no one in a body that cannot, if they seek it, hear the voice of God. No one.

And if you doubt me, then I will give you a challenge. Spend the rest of your life trying. And when you cross over the other side, tell me, I'll be there.

John Aiken:

You're ready for questions?

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

I am.

John Aiken:

The first question the woman has: she wonders whether you can tell her a little bit more about your relationship with her.

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

Well, it's a very healthy sign. I've been waiting, hoping that something of this nature would come up because one of the things that I've been concerned about was her lack of inquisitiveness about me and my relationship to her in the past.

The questions have come from you, questions that you have raised, if I'm remembering correctly. And she hasn't asked them on her own. I consider this a healthy question because it means that she is accepting me in a way that I think she has had difficulty doing in the past. So I'm glad to speak then about this relationship. Basically, what I think she needs to know, and the question that is foremost in her mind... is, I think in her terminology... would be "Am I her friend?" And of course, this is a very true, very true statement.

I've been her friend for a long time. It is also true that I am her teacher. But the thing that she's beginning to sense is the thing that is closest to the truth, I think, which is that until such time as she can stand in relationship with the Divine, I stand closer to her, and therefore serve as a channel for her.

So in a sense, I am just a vehicle at her disposal, and I think it would be helpful for her to look at it this way. Her big concern, of course, as it should, is the concern of being taken over to such extent that there would be no feeling of her own self in this process.

And I think that the more she realizes that this is just simply a... as I am a channel, she is a channel. And that it all comes from the one source. So if you could tell her that, then I think she'd feel better about the whole life experience that she's undergoing because she has had a very hard time of it.

But as we've said before, this is very healthy. We would be very, very unhappy if she was terribly taken over with it, terribly obsessed with it... and this would indicate a tremendous degree of ego involvement, which would be troublesome for her. But this isn't true in her case, and I think it's healthy.

And in no way do I wish to discourage her checking out of the data, her keeping alert to what is true, that I speak and what is not true. She needs to do this, and I think it's healthy. So if you tell her that...

John Aiken:

Thank you. And I might ask, do you experience yourself in a form? Does your consciousness take on a form that seems separate, as ours does on our plane?

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

Well, this is difficult to say, but what it is, is very compact. If you could see me - if this is the question - if you could see me, if I could materialize self for you, I would be a very compact energy unit, you see. I would be very compact and wouldn't look to you, perhaps, like a form because you're used to a very different form. But I would be very compact, very liquid, very movable.

I don't hold from any particular form at any time because thought changes that form instantaneously, and so therefore, if I have a thought of one thing, I can move into that form. Do you understand?

John Aiken:

We're told that consciousness always has to have a form through which it can manifest.

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

Well, this is very true. I mean, when you speak in terms of the One or the vast void or whatever, that... of course... both are true because once you have placed yourself in total relationship with the Divine, once you - if I may use the word - merge yourself into that, then your consciousness can move into infinite realms and change its form, you see.

It's interesting that the myth that your culture, not particularly United States culture, but the Earth cultures, have created... some of the fantasy stories are about people that transform from one shape to another. You use it from toads to princes and so forth, but actually, this is a statement of fact. And on the higher realms, it's tremendously freeing and very creative to be able to change form.

And one of the tremendous helps of it is that one doesn't become attached in any way, you see, as perhaps the physical vehicle doesn't lend into this because it seems so stable, you know, so ongoing.

John Aiken:

Comments on being more open to guidance from higher forces?

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

No, I think just continuing on. Of course, all of the data that was given in the last two days, I'm sure you both heard it and you both understood instantly the thrust of the moment. And as with every other being who has not reached the final state of total awareness, we do always recommend this. Both of you do it in varying degrees of efficiency at varying times of the year, at varying times of the day, so forth.

But this is very normal with fluctuation. But by all means, if you would like to make any change at all, or not even a change, a continuance, I would suggest a much more hopefully consistent remembrance of the moment and to place yourself in the power of that moment. I can use the word power with you both because it is not something that you would misuse.

This is not a word I would recommend you to use to your group. Power is very loaded word in your environment.

John Aiken:

The moment [?] itself has the power, not we.

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

That's exactly right, Sir, and that's why we can use it with you, but to other people, they translate it as something that they possess. And this makes for great misuse.

John Aiken:

Question is, how do any of us best discover what jobs we should be in, kind of work we should be doing? What particular job, I suppose?

Bartholomew / Mary-Margaret Moore:

As I observe human life, I would say this is one of the major questions that humans have and very few of them seem to ask about it, so I'm very pleased that this was raised because there are a few things that can be said.

Now, the first and foremost, I think, is... there must be an understanding within a person that oftentimes a job that they have, they look on it as something God has given them to do. Let us take an example of a person in a Safeway store.

Now many people - if say this person is on the so-called spiritual path - they would tend to look on that job as something God had given them, you see, and therefore they stay in it and so on. Now this is a great misconception because oftentimes, you see... what the higher forces want above all is for you to move with creative joy.

This is one of their main aims and one of the things that [?] does help a person in a body to have joy and creative awareness is to having a so-called job that they enjoy doing. So I would say to someone who is in a job they really don't like, I mean, not just a marginal, if you understand, but someone who is totally unhappy in their job, the chances are, no, that they have placed themselves there on their own limitations.

And if they would begin to look within themselves and ask... you know, again, we come back to the same thing. Most people in job situations are there because they're either comfortable or they're convenient or they're afraid of any further expansion for fear they won't be able to handle the new responsibility.

You see, there are many, many reasons: a fear of a decrease in income or a loss of prestige to take a job, a lesser job will destroy their prestige. You see, these are all ego questions, ego attributes. And so the first thing that should be done is a very serious consideration, as deeply as they can: "Why am I here?" Is it because I am afraid? And so on, you know, considering all these possibilities and to look deeply at these questions, not asking other people because other people can't answer them.

If a woman has a prestige problem and would prefer to be in a poorly paid prestige position, she's getting what she wants, you see. Now when the paycheck arrives, then she's unhappy, but most of the time she's pleased because her biggest desire is to be in a prestige situation.

All right, so that's one type of answer. I hope I covered that sufficiently, but the first job is to look critically, to remove the veils from the real situation, your own motivation, why you're doing what you're doing. If you find at the core that you really... the reasons that you're there are very superficial, arrogant or fearful or egotistical or whatever, then you are open to go to the second stage.

Now the second stage is then you say, well what, what in all this world would I want to do? There's so many opportunities, there's so many choices. Well, that's really not true.

If they would look at their environment, they will see that they have certain limitations that they must work in. They have a certain amount of money they must pull in, they have a certain ability. You know, you can't be a president of a corporation if you've never had any background. And God is not interested in placing everybody in corporate positions, you see.

You see, they keep placing on God functions that are not his, that he never wanted and has nothing to do with, you see. In a real sense. You get what you want. Believe me, the same law applies to all of the things we've discussed and it equally applies with your relationships and it applies with your job. It applies in all these things. You're getting something that you want in any situation.

So if you discover after the self-analysis or these people do then really apply to them [?] - certainly to the speaker - it applies to her. If you really deeply look at the situation and realize that the motives are not very exalted and you wish to move on, then the second phase is simply a constant paying attention to a movement within your life.

Now, oftentimes the committee, as you call them, forces as I would call them, place before you, like a carrot before the nose of a donkey, an opportunity. This can come in the form of something they read in the paper.

I mean we use the physical medium, you see, to teach you all of the things don't have to come through beautiful agile notes of harmony. No, I mean we use what is there. And so we use newspaper, we use other people, you know, we use the radio, the television.

And if they made up their mind, if they want to make a change... now, they don't run out, quit the job and sit around and wait for the committee to give them a new job, you see. But what they do is they've made up their mind that their motives are wrong.

They make the best of what they're in, you see, they don't drop everything and move on. They make the best of what they're in and then they keep all of their antennae out in listening. They listen within and they listen without. They listen to people, they talk. In other words they've decided to make a change.

Now the question remains what are they going to move into? Oftentimes a word, a neighbor says something, you know, do you know what I'm saying? The committee places these there for you but if you were so busy just berating and moaning and groaning and never really being willing to make the move then you'll never... they'll never hear it.

So that's the second suggestion and then the third one is when you feel something is right, have the courage to try it. Have the courage to try it.

You know, make an intelligent decision. You know we are not really in favor of people leaping out of one job into another... usually a great waste of energy. But something that is considered and feels right, they will develop in their watching, you see, it all works of a whole [?], their whole life.

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