Maitreya

Question: Can meditation become a form of escapism?

Maitreya: According to the Eternal Divine Path, meditation can become escapism. See, a lot of people meditate but they don't have anything to which they can direct their energy.

When you meditate, you clear your mind and you create a lot of energy. Then you have to direct this energy to something. Whatever you direct your energy created by your meditation to, your meditation becomes from knowledge, passion or ignorance. Faith without action, without manifestation of God's Will, is dead. You say, "I have a lot of faith in God," but with the first problem that arises in your life, you fall apart. That's not faith.

Faith is, OK I have faith in God. Now I have this problem. With the energy of God, with faith in God, I'm going to solve this problem. I'm going to face my problems and solve my problems. So that meditation, that energy that was given you, is directed toward creating a good environment for yourself and others. You direct your energy to create Communities of Light.

But if you don't have the Eternal Divine Path, if you don't direct your energy constructively, what do you do? I have seen a lot of people meditate and they come out of meditation and direct their energy to eating, or doing many mundane things, or to arguing, power trips, etc. You ruin your meditation. You meditate to create a greater awareness of your body, of your desires, etc. Instead of having a direction to constructively direct your energy, because you don't know what to do with this energy, you misuse it, you use it for something that is not that good.

That's why in the Eternal Divine Path, in The Greatest Sign, in our teaching, after meditation is what? The creation of the Communities of Light. See, right away it gives you a direction. It gives you a direction because the moment you direct your attention toward the creation of the Communities of Light, you meditate from knowledge. You are not an escapist.

This is why in our teaching we don't meditate just for the sake of meditation, or to reach Pure Consciousness. We meditate to clarify our minds, to create the Communities of Light, to learn how to sacrifice, be submissive, become a Universalist, and eventually become a Paravipra.

A Paravipra is not an escapist. A Paravipra is a person who directs all his energy to create the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth (KOHOE). Therefore, in our meditation we never can become escapists because we don't teach that you meditate to go to Pure Consciousness. We say, Pure Consciousness comes to you.

The same is said in the Bible. God said, If you are lukewarm, or if you completely want to overcome your worldly attachments and go to Pure Consciousness just by meditation alone, I'm going to spue you out of My Mouth (Rev. 3:16).

Just look at India. Many people escaped life by going to the mountains, to escape the family, etc. What did they sow? Misery, disease, social upheaval, killing between the Moslems and Hindus, between the Sikhs and Hindus, etc. Why? Because escapism doesn't create the environment necessary for everyone to progress toward Pure Consciousness together. Reaching Pure Consciousness is a collective effort. An individual endeavor to reach Pure Consciousness alone is not going to work. That's why God said, I'll spue you out of My Mouth.

We work toward the creation of the Communities of Light, to create an environment where many people reach Pure Consciousness. It's a collective march together. You can't go there by yourself. I can't go there by myself. He cannot go by himself. We go together.

We are meditating together, collectively. Not only do we meditate alone, not only do we meditate together, but we also expand ourselves to help others to meditate with us. Not only do we meditate together, we work toward the creation of the Communities of Light. In the Communities of Light we will have a greater light to attract other people also.

Just this little community here is affecting the neighborhood. They are interested. They see something here. There is the unity, light, and beauty here for which they long. They don't want to just come home and watch television the whole night, drink their beer, sleep, and wake up in the morning and say, "Oh, I have to go to work again today. What for? There is no purpose for it. Why should I go to work and come back home again, etc?"

See, there is no real reason for life in that way. Is life eating, drinking, sleeping, and making children? That's what animals do too. What's the difference between us? Are we animals also? Of course, a lot of people teach we are animals.

But we are not animals. We are Souls. We are Spirit. We are men. We are in the image of God. Without purpose in our lives what are we? We are empty shells walking around and doing our day-to-day life. A dog, a cat, and a pig, anything out there can do the same thing that we do. Well, what's the difference between us then?

So in this sense, we're affecting everyone around us. People are interested. There is something different in us. We have some purpose. We have a unity. We are cooperative. We are doing things together. We are joyful. We are happy. We are not afraid of the world, etc. Also, as we live in this environment more and more we create a great energy, and we can affect more people.

So in a sense we never can become escapists. In the Eternal Divine Path, in the Mission of Maitreya, in The Greatest Sign, in THOTH, in all of our teachings, it is never taught to become escapists. Actually we have to be the most aware people of what is happening on the earth and why is it happening the way it is happening.

Look at the prophecies. Look at the world events. Look at the news. If we look at the life of other people and become even more aware that the Communities of Light are so important, we will not become escapists, but we will work toward the creation of the Communities of Light.

You are right, meditation can become escapism. Actually that's why I said, We have to follow the middle path. Even too much meditation is not good. If you're working too much, it's not good. If you're resting too much, it's not good. Too much of anything is not good. But there should be time for meditation. There should be time for work. There should be time for Satsang. There should be time for rest. Once in awhile, maybe you would have some time to watch a couple of programs on television too, especially if the programs are good for your consciousness.

For instance, watching the movie, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, that's great. Or watching some of the movies about Krishna, or Christ, or Muhammad, or Moses, or the Ten Commandments, that's beautiful. They just make you feel closer to God after you see those wonderful movies.

That's why, not only do we meditate to clarify ourselves, but also we are creating an environment on earth that will always direct our mind back to God in everything, in what we read, in what we watch, in the company we keep, in the food we eat, etc.

In any environment we are in, in any moment, we have to choose our path in such a way that we are directed to God all the time, until we reach a point that it doesn't matter where we are, we are always directed toward God. Not only are we always directed toward God, but we affect our environment. Others become Godly too. Then life becomes meditation.

So the environment doesn't affect us any longer. We affect the environment, because we are so focused on God, everyone else also becomes focused on God. Whoever comes in contact with us (they are usually not very centered on God, they are centered on their world, family, job, drink, and all those things that human flesh desires) is suddenly hit with a person who's completely focused on God. Either they take their belongings and run away from him, because that's too much for such a person, or they want to keep this person with themselves. They always want to bring him down where they are, or they eventually see, No, he's not coming with me, I'd better go with him.

Actually we played a game in a retreat. There were around 100-150 people in that retreat. One person would be called God, or Purusa. No one knew, besides the director of the game, of course, who he or she was. The lights would be turned off and everyone would walk around, and when you hit someone you would grab him and would say, God, God? If he wasn't God, he would say also, God, God? So you would know, this isn't God. You would let go of him. You would walk around again and find another person and say, God, God? And this other person you touched would say, God, God? So you would let go of him also.

Eventually one person found the one who was called God. When you found the person who was God, when you would say God, God, he wouldn't say anything. God, God, and he would be silent. You would know God and you would stay with him. The moment you stayed with him, you became God yourself. So there were two now who were called God together. And the third person would say, God, God? These two who now were one would stay silent. They wouldn't say anything.

After awhile all 150 people would be around this one person who was God. Then everyone would be silent because they had found God. They didn't have to go around and say, God, God?

Then we would all chant together. It was beautiful. It created such energy that no one could sleep until 4:00 in the morning [all laughing]. Probably it is a good game for children to play. We learn much easier through play.

This is also the same thing. When you reach God, you're focusing on God, and the other people come. You learn, of course. At first you are focused probably 10% to God. Other people come and 90% of you still wants to go to the world. So they can affect you. Then you learn your lesson, Oh, Wow, these people affected me so easily, took me from God. I'd better go back to God, I feel miserable with these worldly people.

You go back to God. This time you're 20% with God, but still 80% toward the world. Other people come and affect you. And 80% goes toward them. Eventually you say, Oh, I again became affected by other people. This time you go back to God 40%. 60% is still not completely toward Him. Then you are 80% God conscious, etc.

Eventually you learn that you should be focused on God 100%, all the time. That is when no one can affect you. Then you start affecting other people because they see they can't affect you. At the same time you have the joy, peace, and happiness that they are longing for, because everyone wants God.

Whoever says, "I don't want God," is either lying or they don't know themselves. Everyone wants God. There is no one who doesn't want God. But some of the people want the world more than God because they don't know God.

We usually don't want something that we don't know anything about. We didn't know about maple candy from Quebec until tonight. Before that we didn't want any. Now we want some for tomorrow night [all laughing]. So that's the same thing.

As long as you don't know God, you don't know if you want Him or not. But when you experience Him once, that is the only thing really worth to have, or want. And whoever knows God is really not an escapist. The person who really knows God is not an escapist at all. Actually he's more effective. Probably he's 100% more effective than many people who work a lot. They do much work but they don't get things done.

Many people like coffee because they feel they can get more done when they have coffee. But if you meditate, and really purify yourself, you get more done than when you drink coffee. Actually after that you realize that whenever you drink coffee the energy is very scattered. You feel good, but you don't get anything done, and the things that get done are not deep, pure and effective.

So the person who really meditates on God, knows God's Will and especially follows the Eternal Divine Path 100%, and is focusing on God 100%, cannot be an escapist. He just simply cannot.

How can you be an escapist if you are in the process of creating the Communities of Light? You cannot be an escapist. There's a lot of work to be done.

Creating a community is not an easy work. The human is very self-centered, and the Community of Light says, Thou shall not be self-centered. So you are trying to create something that the human has a hard time to deal with, to give up of himself, of herself, and become more flowing, more open, more loving, more sharing, more caring. Most people don't want to do that.

Most of us want our own little house somewhere. We have our own little world and that's it. We don't want to have anything to do with anyone else. But we are miserable. We have the house. We have our own world but we are not happy. And we cannot have both God and mammon. You cannot have the world and God at the same time.

Even after you create the Communities of Light there will be much to do. So even then you will not be an escapist. Indeed, others are escapists, not those who are in the Mission!

So as we said, That is true, you can become an escapist just by meditation. But if you really realize God through your meditation, you will see that God is not an escapist. He wants to see that the Communities of Light are created and His Kingdom comes. Those who preach escapism in meditation don't really know God.

Sal-Om.