What are you focusing on?

---

Ascended Master Gautama Buddha through Kim Michaels, December 31, 2020

I Am the Ascended Master Gautama Buddha. What is earth? What is earth? Well, it can be described in several ways of course, but one way is to say that it is a performance like you see in the movies, in a theater. Now, many people in today’s world, with the internet, with television, with movies, rarely attended a live theatre performance, many young people have never done so. Those of you who have, will know that sometimes there can be a sudden dramatic shift in the play, some dramatic event takes place on the stage and all of a sudden you hear this gasp, collective gasp where everybody reacts at the same time.

This shows you that the entire audience was so pulled into the play, that they had actually forgotten that they had prepared themselves at home, taken a shower, shaved, put on clothing, driven to the theater, parked their cars, gone into the theater, handed their clothes off in the wardrobe, then gone into the theater and sat down, looking around to see who else was there, and still in their minds having all these thoughts about their daily lives.

Then once the performance started, even though they knew that what is happening on the stage is just make believe, it is just some story that some playwright wrote up maybe hundreds of years ago, still – gradually they get so pulled into focusing all of their attention on the performance itself that they forget all of these things. They forget what brought them there, they forget their daily lives, and now they are completely pulled in to what is going on, on the stage, and that is why when suddenly there is a shocking event, they react as one.

This my beloved is earth. Originally you all knew what you entered, why you entered, that it was just what we have called a reality simulator. If you look at planet earth today, you see that most of the people on earth, the vast, vast majority, they are like these people in the theater who have forgotten where they came from, they have forgotten there is a world outside the theater. They have forgotten there is anything else going on, that this is a story that is being outplayed on the stage. They have become sucked into the play, the performance. Instead of looking at the performance as something that can help them gain insights and shift their consciousness, they now think this is real, this is a real world and what is going on on the stage are real events.

Now, I know very well that when I say this, and I am of course doing this deliberately, it will create a reaction in many people. They will say: “Well, are you telling us the world is not real, that the millions of people who have had the Corona virus over this year and the many who have died and all of this was not real?” Well of course not! When you are in a theater, it is a stage, there are people on that stage. They are real. They may be dressed up in costumes wearing makeup, but they are real people performing the play.

When I say that they have forgotten that this is not real, what they have forgotten is that they are not human beings – but spiritual beings. You are here to experience the performance that is being outplayed on earth. What is happening on the planet is real enough from a certain perspective, but you are not a human being, you are a spiritual being, you are here to have an experience that can shift your consciousness. Everything that is happening on earth is about shifting your consciousness.

When Shakespeare sat there and wrote his plays, he was not seeking to entertain. He was seeking to shift the consciousness of the audience. He was not trying to make people believe that there was a Prince of Denmark called Hamlet, because he knew that there never was. He was trying to take people through a story that would shift their consciousness, and that is all that the earth is. Now, this may sound insensitive considering that so many people see this year 2020, as a very, very difficult year.

Of course, it has been a difficult year for many people, we are not blind to that. But the thing is, what is going to ease it for people? What is going to make it easier for people to deal with such a difficult year? Is it to simply comfort them and tell them how bad it was? Or is it to give them a different perspective? Well, given that we are Ascended masters, what is our role? Our role is to give people a different perspective, that is our only reason for being on this planet. We are here to remind people, that although you are living on planet earth, and although you have a physical body that is very much affected by what is going on, on this planet, you are not from earth, you are not defined by earth, you are not defined by the physical octave and your physical bodies and your outer minds. You are more than all of this.

What does that mean in its essence? Well, in its essence, it means that you have what we have called the essential humanity, a potential to go beyond your outer experiences. What is the core of this potential? It is that there is a part of your mind, we have called it the Conscious You, you may call it whatever you like, but there is a part of your mind that enables you, empowers you to pause, to say “stop” to all the unruly thoughts.

I will step back from the outer situation on earth.

I will step back from my own personal situation.

I will step back from my physical body and whatever may be ailing it.

I will step back from my emotional body and any turmoil there.

I will see step back from my mental body and any thoughts of what I must think and understand and know.

I will step back from my identity body and any tendency to identify myself as a human being defined by outer circumstances.

I will step back until I experience – I connect to that part of my being, my I AM Presence, my spiritual self that knows and has never forgotten, that it is not defined by earth.

This is your essential humanity, the essence of humanity that you can step back and you can connect and you can experience:

I am more than this.

I am more than what is happening on this earth.

I am more than what is happening in my physical body.

I am more than the turmoil in my emotional body.

I am more than these thoughts in my mental body.

I am more than my outer or human sense of identity.

“I am” and you do not need to add anything after the words “I am.” You can experience I AM. I have being. I have awareness. I have self-awareness.

What does self-awareness mean? For so many people it means that I am aware that I exist as this identity, that I have these thoughts that are going on in my mind, these feelings I have, this body I have, this outer situation I have. This is my self-awareness, I am a human being on earth suffering, this is my self-awareness. But true self-awareness, the core of self-awareness is simply that “I am,” I am conscious. I am aware.

There was a famous philosopher called Rene’ Descartes who is famous for saying: “I think, therefore I am.” Many people have misunderstood his remarks. But what he was trying to show, was that he had thought about everything that could be a deception, everything that could be questioned. But the one thing that he could not question was – that he was thinking, but really it wasn’t the thinking as an activity in the mental body.

What he realised, was that the one thing he could not question was that he was conscious, he was aware. This was the one thing he could not question. It is also the one thing that you can connect to, so that you can realise that you are not only outer things. When you step back from the outer things and experience that, I am feeling, presence, experience, awareness, then you are no longer pulled into the play on the stage, the world stage. You are no longer identified with it. You are no longer defined by it.

What is a human being? In your essence, it is this. I am, I am aware, I am aware of myself as a being. Now in the core of this awareness, there is nothing else that needs to be added, at least nothing on earth because you are not all of these outer things on earth. Most people of course do not notice, they think they are the outer things. But the essential humanity, is that you can disconnect from this and therefore, you can experience that you are more than the outer things, you are not defined by them. When you have this experience, the experience is real. Therefore, you know that the play taking place on the stage, is not real in the same way.

Now, the moment you step away from that I am experience and step into your outer identity, your mental body, emotional body, your physical body, then what you experience through those four lower bodies seems real to you. That is what gives it a sense of reality. But what is it that everything in our teachings leads you towards? It leads you towards this realisation. That there is a reality beyond the sense of reality I get through my four lower bodies. There is a sense of reality that is greater than the sense of reality I get through my four lower bodies. Therefore, I am not really defined by what I experience through my four lower bodies. I am defined by being who I am and connecting to that sense of I am.

This is what enabled me to pass the test of being confronted by the demons of Mara. You may know the story from Buddhism, that when I was ready to go into Nirvana, I was sitting in meditation under the tree, a Bo tree. All the demons of Mara paraded in front of me and they were trying to in all ways to engage me. They were putting on a play and they wanted me to be sucked into the play and feel that it had some kind of reality. Some kind of power over me. Some kind of power over the world. Some kind of power over other people.

How did I pass the test? By connecting to that experience – I AM. When there is nothing after the I AM, there is nothing that the demons of Mara can use to engage you. There is as Jesus expressed it’: “Nothing that the prince of this world has in you.”  So, this is the core of our teaching. Everything we have given you, just has that purpose of leading you towards that, where this is not a theory you are hearing. This is not some outer teaching that you understand intellectually, it is something you experience. Most of you have experienced it, some of you without being aware of it, but many of you have experienced it.

Once you have experienced it, you can use it, you can build upon it, you can use our tools for resolving these deep traumas, going back to the first trauma and even before as avatars. So, you can come to that point where whatever is going on on earth, whatever you are engaged in, there is either a constant awareness that you are more, that you are (sort of) witnessing what is happening instead of being inside of this maelstrom. Or, at least you are quite aware that you could at any moment shift into the I AM awareness, where you are no longer focused entirely on it.

What is man? I said earlier: “Well in a sense, a human being is that attention, an awareness that you choose how to focus. In a sense, we could say that beyond all of these outer things that are happening around you, you are awareness. Some people have a very narrow awareness. Some people have a broader awareness. Some are very focused on themselves. Some have a more global awareness. Regardless of how broad it is, you are awareness. The essential choice, in a way the only choice you are ever making is “where to focus your attention.” Saint Germain has said many years ago “that man is a slave of his attention” and of course that goes for women as well.

So the question is, what are you focusing on? Again, it is not our intention in this day and age, to say what you should focus your attention on. There have in many past ages and even today, even today among ascended master students, been this tendency to think that the world is not spiritual, that therefore you should not put your attention on worldly things. You should try and pull your attention away from the worldly things and focus it on spiritual things. Many people throughout the ages have done this, they have withdrawn from the world, lived in some kind of monastery, some kind of Buddhic retreat (whatever it is) a Christian monastery, all of these different things or environments people have created where they have withdrawn from the world, but now they have focused on some scriptures and prayers and rituals and chants and they have thought, “Oh, I am so spiritual, because I am focusing on this.”

But you see my beloved, many of these people have been no different than the people in the world. The people in the world, had an idea in their minds about what life is about and what they should be doing or not be doing. They were living according to that mental image. The spiritual people who withdrew from the world just had a different mental image, but they were also living their lives based on the mental image. So, here you have the majority of the people living based on a worldly mental image, and then you have a small group of people who supposedly have a spiritual mental image. But it is still my beloved a mental image and it kept them as trapped in the mental image as the people in the world.

They were not in many cases, and they are not in many cases, making progress by shifting to a different mental image, because it is still a mental image. If your attention is focused on it to the point where you think; “This is who I am, I’m such a spiritual person because I am doing all these outer things”, what are you doing? You are reinforcing the mental image. What are the people in the world doing who are identified with the world, and who are experiencing this year 2020 has been so terrible because of the Corona pandemic and so forth? They are reinforcing the mental image.

What you put your attention on, you create a stream of energy through your four lower bodies towards that mental image. You are reinforcing it, both in the collective mind and in your own mind. You are reinforcing the structure that this mental image has created. The more you reinforce it, the more the energy will form a magnetic pull on your attention. The more you put your attention on a topic, the more energy flows into it. The more energy flows into it, the more it pulls your attention – the more energy flows into it and this becomes a self perpetuating spiral.

That is why people get sucked into thinking that the performance is real. Their minds have been sucked into this vortex that they themselves have created, and that has also been created collectively to the point where many people cannot pull themselves out of it, but still, they have allowed their minds to be pulled into this vortex. Many of these so called spiritual people, have created just a different vortex than most of the people in the world, but it still pulled their minds into this.

What is our teachings all about, what have they in a sense always been about? What are they clearly and obviously stated about in this dispensation? It is to help you shift your attention away from the mental image and experience that “I am.” I am more than these outer images, this image of myself and my four lower bodies. I am more than this. Therefore I do not need to be pulled into what is happening in the world.

We have sometimes talked about a concept of “holding the spiritual balance.” There are teachings, various teachings that talk about this that there is a group of highly evolved beings in the Himalayas  who you never see, you never hear about. Some have heard about the unascended master Babaji, and there are others. They are said to hold a spiritual balance for the earth. What does it mean to hold a spiritual balance?

Well, it means in a sense that you are focusing your attention on that “being more.” You are knowing you are more and in being in this state of perfect calm, total inner peace, you are holding a balance because you are still in a physical body. However, while I do not want to diminish the service given by these beings, what we are looking for, what Saint Germain is looking for in a golden age, is a large number of people who can hold a spiritual balance while still being actively engaged in life.

It is in a sense, easier to hold a balance when you are sitting in a cave where you are never disturbed, never challenged. Naturally, it is harder to do this when you are living an active life. But my beloved, what will really make a difference, what will really bring Saint Germain’s Golden Age into manifestation much quicker, is that we have a large number of people who can be engaged in everyday life, doing whatever you are doing, but you still have that awareness that this is not really who you are.

In other words, you are sitting in the theater, you are observing what is happening on the stage, but you are also (instead of being completely focused on the stage), you are also aware “I am more than this performance.” You are aware that the other people in the theater are completely pulled into focusing on the performance, but you still have a part of your awareness that is outside of it, you are experiencing the performance as a performance, not as something real as most of the other people are doing. That is how you hold the spiritual balance that is the Omega polarity to those who hold the Alpha balance by being withdrawn from the world.

This is what has been lacking over thousands of years. That there has been those who have lived withdrawn, who have held a spiritual balance. But they have not had an Omega polarity of people who could live in the world and be in the world but not of the world. This is what will make a huge difference in this time, this age that we are moving into, that more and more people come to that point when you can look at what is happening here, and you can say: “I am more than this. I am not letting myself be pulled into what I see other people being pulled into. I do not need to be so engaged in it, that it eats up all of my attention and I end up feeding my energy into a vortex that pulls on me.”

In fact, you can come to a point where you make it a conscious decision. “I will not allow any of these collective vortexes to pull on my four lower bodies.” This is, by the way, also a way to raise your physical health, that you are not allowing the collective vortexes to pull on your physical body, or your emotional body, your mental body, your identity body, you are not pulled in. Therefore you can stay out of these reactionary patterns that most other people are pulled into. You can be in the world but not of the world. You can sit under the Bo tree, watch the demons of Mara parade, and you do not engage them. But after some time where you feel you have allowed them to do their tricks, you can put your hand to the ground and say: “Vajra, Vajra, Vajra, I affirm my right to be the Christ, to be the Buddha on earth.”

This, is what we desire for all of you who are direct students, so that you can avoid being pulled in. We are not in any way putting blame on you. We know that this has been a very difficult year. We know that there has been created some enormous collective vortexes in all parts of the world. Partly because of the corona pandemic, partly because of the economy, partly because of political conditions such as the election in the United States. We are not in any way wanting you to feel bad about your reaction if you have been pulled into some of these – so be it. But you have the opportunity now to step back, to connect to the I AM. To realise you are more than this, and to perhaps look at “what was it in my four lower bodies that caused me to be pulled into this.”

Then if you use our tools for resolving the traumas, you will see that it all relates ultimately to the cosmic birth trauma but also to these other separate selves you have created after that experience. You will always find that when you are pulled into a reaction, there is a self, maybe more than one self but these selves are unreal. They are unreal in the sense that I described. They are there in your four lower bodies, no doubt about it. They have a certain existence because they are created out of energy, they are based on a certain belief and therefore they have become like a being that lives inside your four lower bodies, like some animal that lives inside your house. But they are not real in the sense that they are not you, and you are not them.

When you connect to that I AM awareness that I AM Presence, then you can realize: “Oh, this is just a self,  this is not who I am. I am not that self. It is not me at all. It never was me. I just thought it was. But now I see it is just a self. I see it is limiting me, I see it is based on some belief that I do not really accept anymore.” That brings you to that point where you have this – not an outer decision with the outer mind but the spontaneous sense of release: “Oh, I am letting you die. You are not “I” I am letting you die.”  That is what we desire to see all of you go through if you have not already in this year 2021.

My Beloved, that would give us joy. It would give you joy. It would give the people around you joy, most of them at least, although some may not accept that you are not as engaged as you used to be. And therefore, they cannot manipulate you as they could before. But so be it – so be it. You cannot grow on the path towards Christhood and Buddhahood without angering and alienating some people.

Now my beloved, what will the year 2021 be like? Well, many people will say it will be a difficult year, partly because the pandemic will not be solved as quickly as many had hoped. Quite frankly we had hoped it would be solved earlier but that would have required a different behavior for many people, and many people were not willing to make that behavioral change and so the pandemic has kept going. But of course, what will be the biggest challenge in 2021 is the economy, because the economy has been damaged by the pandemic. So for many, many people 2021 will be a very difficult year. Almost as difficult as 2020. In some ways, maybe even more difficult.

But why will it be difficult to people? Because they are identified with the play. Now, I know very well that most people cannot disidentify from the play. But the one thing I want you to keep in mind and make the calls on, is that there are people who although they do not need to hear about ascended masters, and have not heard about ascended masters, are open to one particular idea. This is the idea that I have talked about before, and that I talked about 2500 years ago. That the entire world is an interconnected whole. It is what is often in Buddhism called the Interdependent Originations. That there are no separate events that just happen out of the blue. But that every event that happens has a multiplicity of causes. A long, complicated sequence of causes. A little bit like the Chaos theory that has been proposed by science .

And so many people are actually open, many of the more progressive, creative people are open to beginning to realise this. This can have some potentially positive ramifications, where people can begin to question the way we have looked at society so far. One of the things that can happen here, is that people can start saying: “Well, what caused the Corona pandemic? Was it just one bat somewhere in China that came in contact with a human? Or was it any other single cause whatever people may believe it is? Was there just a single cause or was there something deeper? Was there certain conditions in society, in a way we look at society that perhaps are part of this picture? Does our response to the pandemic say something about those conditions that we might look at, analyse, learned from and change? Is there something positive we could take away from this pandemic, that could help us move society in a better direction.

Now my beloved, there are of course many, many things that people could take with them, that they could learn from this. I am not intent on listing all of them, because they are so many and they are so widespread. But the one thing that stands out here that I want to focus on is the economy. It is very easy for people to now say: “Oh, but the economy has taken a downturn, but it was only because of the pandemic. It was just because people could not travel, they could not go to the store, they could not go to restaurants, so people were out of work and that is why the economy has taken a downturn”.

My beloved, the economy is not the economy, the economy is not an isolated phenomena. The economy is part of the interdependent originations of society as a whole, of the collective consciousness. Where is the collective consciousness at? If you look at the economy from a broader perspective, what can you see? Well, you will see, as some economists and journalists have already seen, that the rich, the elite did not become poorer during the pandemic, during the crisis.

Despite this economic downturn, the rich have become richer. Their investments are worth more, the stock market has gone up. But who have become poorer? Well, the ordinary person. The normal people, the everyday people who have become most affected by the pandemic, either by being sick, by having other people that were sick, or by having to stay at home losing money, losing their source of income. Well, the normal people, the broad population.

Look at the world, which countries have been most affected? Well, certainly many among the poorer countries have been more affected, not all of them. You also see a country like the United States that has had a larger proportion, a larger percentage die or become very ill from the epidemic. So, ask yourself then: “Why is this so. Why do you see this?” You will see that underlying all of this is the focus on yourself, the caring only about yourself, the caring only about your mental image and of holding that mental image.

Look for example, to the very beginning of the pandemic. China, they knew there was a new virus that was spreading. But they withhold that information from their own people and from the world. It meant that by the time it became known, it had spread so far beyond the borders of China, that it could not be contained. Could it have been stopped at the very beginning? “Yes, it could.” If the Chinese authorities going all the way up to the highest leadership would have been willing to do what was necessary.

Why were they not willing to do what was necessary? Because they were trying with all of their might, to uphold the mental image they have of China as the perfect state, the perfect society, the perfect communist society, the only remaining really communist society? Why did the virus spread? Because of the mental image of the Chinese leadership. Of course, you could say: “Why did the virus even appear in China? Again, partly because of the leadership, but also because of the people of China, their mental image, they have a mental image that China is superior to any other nation.

But what about the rest of the world? Well, they also have a certain mental image of China and they have not decided what they want to do about China, how they want to relate to China. As we have said before, can you really keep trading with a country like China that is suppressing its own people and not living up to the democratic ideals you have? Can you allow these corporations in the Western world, who are making huge amounts of money on having cheap goods produced in China and selling them for a larger profit than they could do if they were manufactured in their own countries?

Can you allow this to go on and then say: “We will overlook China’s human rights record; we will overlook what is happening in Hong Kong where they are clamping down on democracy. We will not take a stand for democracy because China is too big. We do not really want to engage; we do not really want to make a decision about what to do about China”. So, was this not why the virus spread to all nations? Because they have not decided what they want to do about China and their relationship with China.

Now, look at the United States, one of the countries that has been hit hardest by the pandemic in terms of the percentage of people who have contracted the COVID-19 disease. Also, one of the countries that has been hardest in terms of the percentage that have died from it. What does this show you?

Well, it is clear if you look at this realistically, that the United States has done far worse than the countries that have a public health care system. If you compare it to the European nations, even though they are also some of them hard hit, still they have done better than the United States. What does that show you? Well, can the United States continue to be the only rich and powerful country that does not have a public health care system? Is this sustainable? And at the same time claim to be the greatest nation on earth and the best society to live in? Is it sustainable?

Now, look at the economy and how many people have lost their jobs. Is it sustainable that you have an economy, where the rich are so much richer and can become richer? The rich in the United States have made more money during the crisis, than they would have done if there had not been a crisis. Can you allow such an economy, such a completely unbalanced economy that funnels more and more money to the rich, despite the fact that studies have proven that this has been going on for four decades? Is this sustainable? Is it part of why the United States has been so hard hit by the pandemic? Does it not show that the system is unbalanced towards the rich? Is this sustainable?

Now, look to Russia which is another nation that is very determined to maintain a certain mental image. It has come out that the number of people who have died from the pandemic is far greater than the official numbers. Why is that so? Because the Russian leadership going all the way up to Putin, are desperate, desperate to maintain a mental image of Russia’s greatness. That they are in control and that they can take care of any problem. Well, can they? Can a leader who has all power, take care of any problem? If not, does it not show that a centralised system which shuts your concentration and power is not really a sustainable society, especially not in this age.

Then, look to the United States again and see how the pandemic has influenced the election process. Why did President Trump at an early stage in the pandemic choose to downplay it? Well, simply because he wanted to maintain a certain mental image of himself and his own ability to govern. Once he had put that image out there, he was not willing to change it, as it should have become clear that the pandemic had not gone the way he expected in the beginning. Did this cost him the election? Yes, my beloved. If it had not been for the pandemic, Trump would have been re-elected. But because of his reaction to the pandemic and that enough people were able to see this, he did not get re-elected.

What has he done since the election happened? He is still trying to maintain a mental image that he did not lose, that he is not a loser, that the election was stolen from him. It was rigged, there was massive fraud and these claims that you see over and over again. No evidence that can be sustained in court. You are maintaining a mental image.

So, what is it that we look to see in this year? Well, we look to see in the world that people, governments, creative people, the more aware people will be willing to reflect on this and look at what does this pandemic, what does the economy, our reaction to the pandemic, our reaction to the economy, what does this say about us? How we need to change, how we are unbalanced, how our society is not sustainable. In order to facilitate this process of self-reflection, I will give you a thoughtform for this coming year.

It is a very simple, thoughtform. It is that in this year of 2021 the Sun will be a mirror. I have at councils with Helios and Vesta, who are the ascended beings, the cosmic beings who are the Cosmic hierarchs for your sun.

We have come up with this very simple mechanism where the sun will act as a mirror. When people focus on the sun and look at the sun, their own mental images will be mirrored back to them in such a way that it becomes easier for them to see, it is harder for them to ignore it.  This will not be just individuals; it will be societies as a whole.

So, you by taking this thoughtform, using it on a regular basis, you can help magnify the effect of this. I encourage you to do something very simple, nothing elaborate. But once a day, focus on the sun, whether it is visible or not in the sky does not matter. But just focus on the sun and just in your mind, say this affirmation. “Gautama Buddha, you are the perfect mirror for earth.” Simple, easy to remember, takes a few seconds. “Gautama Buddha, you are the perfect mirror for earth.”

You may if you like visualise me sitting in a lotus posture over the sun. Even that is not necessary. Just that simple affirmation. Focus on the sun, you do not need to say it aloud but you can if you like. “Gautama Buddha, you are the perfect mirror for earth.”

This can have a tremendous impact along of course with your calls as we will direct you to give them. Of course, in societies to reflect upon the entire situation and what can be learned from it.

What did I say in the beginning, what is earth? It is a performance. What is the purpose of it? To shift people’s consciousness. Well, what is the highest outcome of the corona pandemic and the economic crisis? It is that it shifts people’s consciousness, it shifts their awareness, they begin to look at themselves, look at their societies and say: “Here is what we can change. Here is where we need to change otherwise things will fall apart. The focus on wealth, allowing a small elite to continue to run society in such a way that it only benefits the elite at the cost of the people.”

This is no longer sustainable. This is the awareness that can begin to break through in 2021 more than it has done so far. That there is a need, an absolute and an urgent need to create societies that are balanced so that the elite cannot exploit the people. This is in fact, much more urgent than the climate crisis, or the pandemic or the economic crisis or any other crisis. This is the real crisis, the only crisis on earth, as it has been for centuries.

But we are at a point where more and more people are ready to see it, more and more societies are ready to do something about it, more than they have done so far. Even though many democratic nations have made considerable progress in making their societies less elitist, the United States not being one of them, Great Britain not being one of them. But there are democratic societies who have made considerable progress. Nevertheless, much more progress can be made, especially on a world scale. So this concludes the remarks I wanted to give you here.

I will withdraw, seal you in the absolute peace of the Buddha and then allow Mother Mary to give you the Omega polarity to this address. Gautama I AM.

An invocation based on this dictation – WINV44 Invoking a focus on reality.

Copyright © 2020 Kim Michaels