Higher awareness has no intention of seeing Europe converted to the outer religion of Buddhism, but Europe can still benefit from accepting some of the universal, timeless truths that were described in the teachings the Buddha gave forth so long ago in an entirely different world. For even though they do not see themselves as Buddhists, there is a large number of people on this continent who are beginning to realize the four noble truths. They are beginning to realize that suffering is caused by wrong desire, which is caused by attachment. They are beginning to realize the necessity of rising above the state of consciousness that causes attachment and simply letting go of the attachments.
And this is an essential element if Europe is to manifest the Age of Higher Awareness. For when you look at the history of this continent, you see the conflict, you see the warfare, you see the anger, the hatred, the immense amounts of misqualified energy that still hang over this continent as clouds, that in certain places are so dense that they completely overpower the people.
There are indeed nations – and Serbia is not the only one – where the people are so overwhelmed by the energy that has been produced by previous generations, that they cannot step back and look at their situation from a new perspective. And thus, they have no real choice but mindlessly – like robots or like lemmings marching towards the sea – continue to repeat the same old patterns over and over again—thus reinforcing the very energy that keeps them trapped in a downward spiral.
When you look at the conflict and the energy produced on this continent, you can see that some of the atrocities that have taken place here could not possibly be resolved, could not be overcome, could not be neutralized, could not be fixed. For the holocaust did kill a certain number of Jews. How can you change that fact? How can you change the fact that the Second World War caused the death of so many millions of people around Europe? Well, you cannot change it. You cannot turn back the clock of time and set right what was done wrong so many years, decades or centuries ago.
So when you cannot fix the past – when you cannot change it – how can you be free of it? Well, you can be free in only one way—by letting it go! You can be free of the past, not by holding on to the anger and hatred against another group of people, not by seeking to compensate for the wrong that was done to your people in the past by committing a greater wrong by destroying those who have wronged you before.
Understanding true forgiveness
You can be free of the past only through forgiveness, but only through the special type of forgiveness that is unconditional forgiveness. For even though the world has a hard time understanding unconditional forgiveness, if you will think about this, you will realize that there is no other form of forgiveness but unconditional forgiveness. For as long as there are conditions, you have not truly forgiven, have you? Nay, you have not.
You have in fact created a very subtle sense of logic, which gives your ego an excuse for not forgiving other people. For you have in your mind set up conditions that say that only if they live up to those conditions are they worthy of your forgiveness. Your forgiveness is now no longer determined by you making the choice to forgive; it will be determined by the choices they make.
What have you done with this subtle reasoning? Well, you have given away your own power over your own destiny. And you have put your destiny in the hands of other people. And who are the people in whose hands you have put your destiny? Are they not the very people that you see as having wronged you in the past? So what sense does it make that you would allow them to control your future by letting your forgiveness be conditioned upon their response or non-response?
Do you see, this makes no sense whatsoever? For if someone has wronged you, why would you want to in any way be dependent upon them? Would you not want to be free of those who have wronged you, so they can no longer control you. So how can you be free from other people? Well, you can only be free through total and unconditional forgiveness.
When you forgive other people, you are not setting them free; you are setting yourself free. And if they are not willing to come up higher and forgive you, then they will be left in their old state of consciousness, but you will transcend that dualistic state of consciousness and rise higher. The universe is a mirror. So it will inevitably reflect back to you conditions that reflect your higher state of consciousness. Whereas those who were your enemies and not willing to forgive will receive back conditions that reflect their state of consciousness, so they will still have an enemy but it will not be you. For you are now free to rise above the dualistic struggle.
When you look at this continent, you will see that there are places where entire groups of people are so focused on the past, that it is literally consuming their present and overpowering their vision of the future. Even to the point where they do not have the ability or even the courage to envision a better future, a golden future. How shall there ever be a better future, as long as people are so focused on the past that the past becomes prologue and sets the pattern for continuing the dualistic struggle that has been going on for centuries?
Thus, you see that for things to change, there must be some who will come to the realization that they want to be free and that they cannot be free by seeking to change the past, by seeking to right the wrongs of the past. They can be free only by forgiving the wrongs of the past, by leaving them behind and rising above the old state of consciousness, the old view of other people, the old view of themselves, and the old feelings of anger, hatred, fear or the sense of being threatened. It is the sense of struggle that creates the struggle. For it is your consciousness that sets the stage for what you experience in the physical. And thus, if you seek to change outer conditions before you change your consciousness, you are, as the old saying goes, putting the cart before the horse. And you will get nowhere.
Europe’s greatest potential contribution to the world
What greater contribution could Europe make to the future of the world, than setting forth an example of the willingness to unconditionally forgive the very people with whom you have been warring for centuries? The European people are responsible – through their consciousness – for creating a situation in which many ideologies and belief systems have come into the physical on this continent. And the errors of those belief systems have spread throughout the world. The European people are also responsible for setting the stage for several conflicts, armed conflicts that have had worldwide consequences, even beyond the two so-called world wars. For the European people to balance this in the fastest possible way, there is no more powerful measure than to practice unconditional forgiveness.
In this regard, do not forget to look in the mirror and practice unconditional forgiveness toward yourself. For truly, many of the more aware people find it easier to forgive others than to forgive yourself. But unconditional forgiveness is unconditional. Meaning that it is not dependent upon any conditions on earth. In order to forgive your neighbor unconditionally, you must be willing to look beyond his or her imperfections. And so you must do with yourself. If forgiveness is unconditional, what conditions could you possibly have to fulfill in order to be worthy of that unconditional forgiveness? Do you not see the logic of this? You do not need to be worthy of unconditional forgiveness. You are worthy of it right now.
Envision how you gather these imperfections from all corners of your forcefield, all corners of your aura. You draw them together, and you might envision them as black threads that are interwoven with the fabric of your being, but you visualize how you pull them out of your being as so many black threads.
And you pull them together and you pull them tighter and tighter towards your heart. And in the light of your heart, you begin to see them. And you pull them together in a ball. And now you see how you cram together that ball, making it tighter and tighter, as if it was a roll of yarn or string that at first is somewhat unruly, but as you keep pulling it together, it becomes more and more compact until it is so small that you can hold it in both of your hands.
Envision that you hold that ball of yarn of non-forgiveness in your hands, and you throw it into the burning furnace of higher awareness—that burns with a light so bright that it will instantly consume any imperfection on earth. There is nothing you can have that could be so bad, that it could not be consumed. So take it now and throw it into the fire and see how it is consumed instantly upon touching the fire.
And now accept that you are free of this non-forgiveness. Accept that you are worthy of the unconditional forgiveness. Accept that higher awareness has forgiven you unconditionally and completely. And thus, as Jesus said, “Thy sins be forgiven thee. Now go and sin no more.” Do not go back into the old momentums and recreate the non-forgiveness of yourself—even if you continue to make certain mistakes. When you make the mistake, seek honestly to learn from it but then forgive yourself rather than holding on to it.
The more aware people have the potential to be one of the forerunners for the Age of Higher Awareness. But how can you fulfill that mission if you hold on to non-forgiveness of yourself? How can you demonstrate forgiveness to others, if you do not practice it towards yourself? So forgive yourself, and let go of the conditions that your ego and the forces of this world are using in order to trick you into thinking that you are not worthy of forgiveness. Or even trick you into believing the age-old lie of the serpentine mind, that once you have made a certain mistake, you are doomed forever and can never be redeemed.
The reality is that higher awareness has no other desire than to see you rise above all imperfections on earth and become the free being you were created to be. And you can rise only when you accept unconditional forgiveness. For this applies on a continental scale, it applies on an individual scale. You cannot right the wrongs of the past. You can only learn from them and then let them go by unconditionally forgiving yourself.