Maitreya: If you have read our teaching, you'll remember that creation was evolved after the First Begotten Son reached Pure Consciousness. That was a very hard process for him and for God to bring that unit consciousness to Pure Consciousness, because in the ethereal level we don't have this "I," this body, this feeling, these senses which are much stronger to make us realize the external world. In the ethereal level you almost can create your own universe, because in the ethereal level the mind is very strong, is very powerful.

That's why the people who go to the ethereal level sometimes become very scared. They return to their bodies very fast. The reason is that they take their impurities with them. So when they go to the ethereal level they create a very scary scene for themselves. That scary scene makes them rush back to their bodies, and usually they wake up shaking. They say, "I had a nightmare," or things like that.

So because the mind is so powerful in the ethereal level you might even create a universe for yourself and become trapped in it. That's why when people go to the ethereal level, they meet some masters, or these beings who are there. These beings think they are the masters of the universe and they try to persuade these people to follow them. They are the beings who have been trapped in their own creation.

Because of so many traps in the path to reach Pure Consciousness, God decided to create this creation. This creation is the place to learn and grow the fastest possible. So that's why we are here. We are here to learn in this lifetime from our experiences, tests and trials that will come through our lives.

Anytime something happens to us that is not very pleasant, why isn't it pleasant? What happened? Why wasn't it good? Or when something is pleasant, why was it pleasant? That is a part of the meditation. We meditate on the things that happen to us, and we try to understand the reasons behind them.

If we don't meditate, usually we just go along and we make the same mistakes over and over and over. After awhile they become a pattern in our lives because our subconscious mind is set. That is the way we're going to react to this situation. Our reaction to this situation is this way, so this situation is going to end up the same way. We're going to go on and do the same things over and over.

But if you meditate, what happens? You create a keener awareness. You say, OK, look at this situation. I really messed it up, didn't I? Why? Why did I mess it up? Then you realize, Oh, OK, these things I did are not according to the Spirit. The Spirit has already given me the way to do things and if I'm not following the Spirit, then these things are happening to me.

So you become more aware of the ways of the Spirit in this body. Of course, the key is to meditate. The key is to become keen, to become more aware of your actions and the reactions that are created by your actions.

A lot of us are not aware of how our actions are affecting other people or ourselves. If we really become keen and create that awareness then we can realize how our actions affect ourselves and others. So, the less we make mistakes the more perfect we become.

What's perfection? Perfection means the lack of mistakes doesn't it? The less mistakes we make the more perfect we become. The moment we reach perfection, we don't even know we are perfect, we just are.

That's one of the questions people ask me, What is Pure Consciousness, what is perfection? A lot of people say, I want to become perfect, I want to reach Pure Consciousness. I say, Well when you are there you don't know that you are there. You just see everything you do is blessed by Spirit and is prosperous. That is when you understand, I can't do those things by myself, there should be a reason behind these wonderful things happening around me. Probably the Spirit is behind it.

I am not the doer, I am just a channel. I'm a pure channel for that energy, whatever you want to call Him. You want to call Him God? You want to call It Om? You want to call It Jehovah, Yahweh? It doesn't matter, you can call Him Nothingness, Atman, whatever... That Thing, That Indescribable Spirit, or Energy, is doing it because He wants it to be done. That is His Will.

So I am just the enjoyer. You see, as long as I am saying, I am the doer, who is the enjoyer? God is the enjoyer. God sits back and says, Hey look at this child, he thinks he is the doer. He just laughs and He enjoys. But the moment you say, Oh no, I am not the doer, God is the doer, what happens? Then you are the enjoyer and God is the doer. He does everything perfectly. So you can sit back and laugh and say, Look at that, God does such a great thing, and you enjoy it.

This world is upside down. We think we know because it feels good to us. It looks good. We have a desire to do it and we want to do it, so we do it. But what looks good is not necessarily good. That is the difference.

That was how Eve felt, didn't she? She saw the tree, it was good, it makes you wise. Why not eat it? So she went and ate it. But God told them don't eat it. Of course, it is symbolic.

Just like us, we see things we desire and in the moment it looks good. We want to do it, so we do it. But the question is, is it good? Then how do we know if it is good or not? So we need a yardstick, don't we? We need some way to know, something to measure against. Are my actions good or not? That is when the Word of God comes in, when the Scriptures come in. This is a guideline for us, how to do things. If it looks good to me, is it good for me?

There is one difference in this creation now though, because we go through the life and through this body. Sometimes we don't learn our lessons when we are in the body because we are so busy. Our mind is so engaged in day-to-day life. So what we do is, when the time comes and we leave our bodies, the death is a perfect meditation.

Then you are in perfect stillness. That's what death is. Because you are in perfect meditation then you see where you went wrong in your life.

That is why after we die and we come back to another body we're usually more aware of our mistakes from previous lifetimes. We will usually, especially if we meditate, become more aware of what we are doing wrong, or what we have done wrong. So in a sense, in that level, we face ourselves squarely.

Many us don't want to face ourselves, it's a very scary thing. A lot of people say, Yeah, I want to know myself. But truly, most of us don't, we really don't want to know ourselves.

Knowing Self is a very powerful thing, and you have to be a brave person to really want to know yourself, to really face yourself and say, I really want to know the Self. What is really making me do the things that I do? Knowing Self is knowing God. Many are scared of God.

But at that state when you leave the body you have no choice. That is when you have to face yourself. So in a sense, in that moment, you probably progress more than you did in the rest of your life because you're in perfect meditation. In perfect meditation you face yourself. You see yourself completely. So in that sense, yes, but at any other time there is no place in the universe that you can progress more than in this body that you're in right now.

See everything is here and now. Either you do it here and now or you will have to do it a couple hundred of more lifetimes before realizing Self.

This creation is not going to stay here forever. God goes to sleep once in awhile. That original energy that created this universe eventually is going to wind down. There was an original energy that burst out as creation. They call it the big bang. That energy is eventually going to become tired, it will be finished. Then it's going to collapse back to its origin. Then you will have to wait billions of years before another creation is created.

Nothing is permanent in this creation. The only thing that's permanent is your Soul. Whatever else you glorify is not going to go with you when you go. You're going to leave it all behind. The only thing that is going to stay with you is your Soul. That's the only thing you take with you, nothing else, not your body, your name, your fame, your wealth, your Greatest Sign, nothing. But if you have it in your Soul you can take it with you.

So the answer is, This is it. You are in the right place, do it!

Question: Since we pick our parents in each lifetime, does that mean that we can evolve faster that way, or are there problems from past lives that have to be resolved?