September 13, 1985

• Life is essential for all souls

• Soul compared to a river

• Love has no conditions

God is with each of you. God surrounds each of your souls with warmth and love. The effect of that love, its presence, is like a burnisher. Your souls continue to reflect, ever brighter, that reflection we see, and that reflection also reaches to others. The effect is almost magical to see the change which takes place in each of your souls when you devote a portion of your life to meeting as you are now, or to reflecting on your own on the meaning of God and the implications of God’s presence in the lives of all.

So often you go through life with little thought given to God, let alone to your guides. It is easy to become wrapped up in concerns of the moment, losing all sight of why you are alive. It is in recognizing the purpose for life that your lives have any meaning for you. Life would be pointless if it was only work and rest, work and rest. It would be no more than a treadmill—much activity but no movement.

You are all aware by now that life consists of much more than action and inaction, that you are really a part of the very great continuum. It may be but a moment in respect to the continuum, and yet it is an essential moment. It is a link. The continuum is strengthened or weakened through the character and nature of that link. Your spiritual life contains a kind of natural direction—namely, to be drawn toward God, and yet your lives greatly affect how your spiritual journey is given direction.

Life is essential for all souls. We emphasize it, it bears repeating: life is essential for all souls! There is no spiritual entity that does not experience life at some point in its life of progress, of motion, leading towards God. Without human life there is no completion of that journey. It is a path that all souls must take. Because it is so essential, it becomes even more important than you may realize to shape your lives in a manner which gives strength and direction to that soul within each of you.

Not all living things have souls—that you know—but the course of your soul is much like the course of a river. The river can be diverted. It can be damned, blocked, but it can also be channeled so that the river flows more freely without encumbrances. Your lives must serve as a means of channeling the motion of your soul, enabling the soul to move. When your soul is free in its progress, your lives are enhanced. A soul that is blocked in some manner creates a great restlessness within the person. You might look at life as an opportunity to diminish that restlessness and develop a sense of flow of a natural direction of your soul.

What we teach you is directed with the intention that your lives will be free because the application of what you learn frees your soul. Certainly you cannot expect to go through life free of frustrations and anxieties. But there is a difference between facing anxieties and being in conflict with one’s self, for anxiety is generally not directed toward one’s self but towards something which is happening. The turmoil which we speak of is a turmoil against one’s self. This is what we seek to eliminate. This is what you must seek to eliminate.

Try to be as a leaf upon a free flowing river. You are moved by that river. You are part of it. You move at the same rate. You move in the same direction. The river is free, the leaf is free. All moves as one unit. That is what life should be, and we urge you to accept the fact that that is what life can be. Yes, it is difficult to achieve, but each of you in this room has within you the insight, the perspective, the understanding to become the leaf upon the river, to let the soul flow freely. There is no implication of speed, only freedom.

How can you become as that leaf? You can only achieve that by giving up your own objectives which foster a sense of dominance. You are being asked in a sense to give up control. It is not easy to do. You all seek control in your life. You all seek a means of manipulating the world about you to achieve goals selected by you. That is natural, it is understandable, it is very human. But you see, you can maintain control of all that is about you by giving up that control. We are not talking riddles here. You gain control by relinquishing control. You gain control in the sense that your lives become smoother, less full of turmoil and conflict, harmonious, more joyous, characterized by peace, more able to give love, more able to recognize love when it is given. That can be achieved. That is control, for what else could be more important than that? It can only be achieved by relinquishing your insistence on priorities which are opposed to those objectives.

We are here to serve you because we love you. It is our objective, in a manner of speaking, to permit the leaf to float freely, to become one with the soul. That is what we do in our life. Our activities in the spiritual plane are centered around becoming free and allowing our soul and the energy of our soul to become one, allowing that flow to be unencumbered as it is directed toward God. This is not all theory. This is practical and it is essential. There are many who may never achieve it, but because you have shared so much together as a group and experienced God in a personal manner, you have within you the potential of allowing yourself to go free.

Tying into the direction of your soul’s growth is achieved only with love—not just love for one another in the group—love for all: love for the criminal as well as the saint, love for those who do you harm, love for those who thwart your efforts, love for those who may mock you, love for those who may wish to do you harm in any sense. You cannot place a condition on love. You love because that is the way one’s soul responds to another…no conditions, it is free.

God loves you as you are and not as God would have you be. You are accepted. There is nothing you can do to anger God, for love will not anger. Love is peaceful. Be patient with others as God is patient with you. Be tolerant of others as God is tolerant with you. Be patient with yourselves as you are asked to be patient with others. Think about what it means to grow spiritually. Think of those things in your lives which hinder that growth and eliminate them totally! Seek ways in all of your days of living an unhindered life motivated, moved, generated and given energy by the progress of your soul.

It is a great river. There is great buoyancy. It sparkles. It is full of love and peace. There are no bad eddies and swirls. It is free for the asking. Reach out and make it yours. We are here to help, and our love will ensure your success, if you ask for it.

God’s peace is with you. God’s love is with you. God’s motion and rhythm are with you. Be uplifted by this! And now we bless you with that peace and love.

Amen.