Meeting 14 4\/11\/1975

April 11, 1975

SERENA SAYS

SERENA: I have a parable that was given to me this afternoon, by a very dear Father of mine, and I think I'll read it to you. I wanted to type it out so I could remember it exactly as it was given.

Once there was a young man who set about to work his father's fields promising all the harvest that he would get to the brothers that would come after him. All the neighbors said to him, "You don't look like a farmer or act like a farmer." The young man said, "I look exactly like my father." "It makes no difference," they said, "You don't look like a farmer or act like a farmer and we don't believe that you can do what you say you can do with this land." The young man just smiled to himself, knowing that within himself contained all the love and wisdom his father had had for the earth. So he turned and he said unto them, "Judge not a man by his appearance, and remember, a red rose smells no better than a white one. For you see, were I to but look at this land, perhaps I would become discouraged. There are many rocks, and therefore many things could not grow. But I see beyond this rocky top, and I see fertile ground below. That's where I give of my wisdom and my love unto the land, move aside the rocks and plant my father's seeds within the fertile soil below, that all will have a chance to grow abundantly. And when the harvest comes, my brothers will come gather all the crops of the seeds that I have sown for my father, and all men may share this crop."

Now if everyone will close their eyes, we're going to talk about love tonight. Jesus said, "If thou be smitten on one cheek, turn thou the other. For love knows no pain and no regrets." Regret not one experience that you have had, for all are lessons along life's path leading us to God. Kindness given to others is a product of harmony found within ourselves. A man cannot show kindness to another man unless he has found kindness within himself. This is harmony, and true harmony towards all mankind can only be found through God. Love shall reign upon this planet, for God is Love, and God shall rule this world. Mankind has many ideas and many thoughts, but in truth there is only one idea, the Perfect Idea, God is the Perfect Idea. And in truth there is but only one thought, the Thought which is Creation. It is said that a man is exactly what he thinks, so it must be this way with God also. All things are thoughts of God, therefore God is all things. We are all reflections of God's boundless and eternal love, and if we surrender our ideas, our thoughts, our selves unto God, then harmony shall reign within us forever more. God loves us with infinite, divine love, even when we don't love God. So we must fashion ourselves in God's image, loving abundantly and never expecting anything in return. We should be filled in knowing that someday, when the time will come, all creation will awaken to God's light, God's truth. And every man shall come to understand both darkness and light, and see the beauty that both contain. Love knows no separation. Therefore Jesus said, "Love ye one another as I have also loved you." Those are the words that God sent for us to live by. This means loving as Christ loved. Loving everyone equally. Loving where you find it most difficult to love, loving everywhere and everything. Love thy neighbor as thyself and bless him that would do harm unto you. Love is the key to all things. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. Through me you may get to the Father." And Jesus was manifested Divine Love. So he was telling us, "Love. Love ye one another as I have also loved you." When you find love, you will find God, for the two cannot be separated. God is Love and God is all things. God is the creator, and man fashioned in His image is co-creator. Through man's blindness caused by lack of understanding are so-called evils and hate born. Sin is merely misdirected God, misdirected by mankind.

I've had several people say to me that God doesn't want anything to do with evil or hatred or anything negative in the world. And this came when I tried to speak that God was both everything and nothing. He was good and evil. For God is all things. It is mankind which has misused. It is mankind which has misdirected God. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, the Christ, to walk among men, to show mankind of God's love. God so loved, so loved all of mankind that he wanted to be close to mankind, so he manifested His love and let it tread among the footsteps of all men. Love is the road upon which all men walk, and when we discover all of our fellow beings upon the same road that we are, fellow beings of every color, every tongue, and every belief, all loving one God, no matter what they might call Him, no matter what name they might give to God, there can be but one. And when we discover this, then we are closer to harmony, harmony with the entire universe. At peace with all creatures. And when we ourselves possess harmony, then harmony can stream forth from us unto others. A man must be that which he wishes to give unto others. And so we must become harmony to give harmony. Jesus said, "Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden. And my peace I give unto thee. Take up your cross and follow me. For all that give their lives shall save it, and all who save their lives shall lose it." For when man surrenders his nothingness to God, then God bestows upon him the all and everything which God has. Man is never lost to God except in man's thinking. For if we today acknowledge God in all we see, hear, do and say, then we are beginning to open the eyes of our soul to God. Man at times forsakes God, but never does God forsake man. It takes more than meditating to spread love and light. It takes more than thinking to spread love and light. It takes becoming love and light. A transformation of earth-man into God-man, which is in truth the real earth man made in the form and image of God. We must at every minute of every day seek the face of God in ourselves, in everyone, everywhere. Pray without ceasing. That means that constantly we seek to direct our thoughts towards God. To no longer burden, but benefit all of mankind. It should be our prayer, may we not ask that a man be healed, but may we become that which can heal him. Love is the greatest of all forces, so may we become living examples of God's love. We should seek to truly become humble. Whereas Jesus spoke, "Be not as one who must shout and tell the world of your good deeds. Let not the right hand know what your left hand does." Therefore let us love and expect nothing in return. For in truth I tell you it is God loving through you. Let us fashion ourselves, form our lives, into the life of Christ. Speaking no words from which regret might ever be born. Speak with love for all mankind; act with love for all mankind; think with love for all mankind. For remember, within one tree resides an entire forest; within one river are all the waters of all the oceans; within one man is all of humanity. Every teacher who has ever been upon the earth has taught mankind divine love. Love for all creatures equally, acknowledging that all are creations of God; all things are living and beautiful and magnificent fragments of the God that so loves us. Jesus said, "What you do unto the least of your brothers, do ye also unto God." So love everyone and everything with an unselfish love. Give in the name of Christ and do not ask anything in return, for remember, as ye give so shall ye receive to give. Love all, serve all, become all. But let us in our love remember the words that Jesus left us. So many times He did say, "It is not I, but it is the Father which speaks through me." And that is for all of us.

Thank you. Any questions?

Question: Would you explain the difference between modesty and humility?

SERENA: Jesus gave many examples of humility. When he explained the way to pray, he said not to pray in front of man for that is boasting. I take it modesty means shyness, perhaps. There's a big difference. To be humble is to truly seek with a pure an honest heart towards God, not because you are afraid to pray out loud, but because prayer should be a sacred thing, a silent thing, nothing ever boastful.

Now don't tell me everyone knows everything. You learned it all this week, and you just didn't want to tell me, right?

QUESTION: Would you define hypocrisy?

SERENA: You ask me all these mortal words. I don't know.

QUESTION: inaudible.

SERENA: Well, don't worry about damaging your soul. There is only one damage that can come to your soul. That's when you say,"God, I don't need you." Then you have damaged your soul, but not until. So keep searching. As long as man strives with a pure heart. You can't say, "I am going to have a pure heart." and have one that moment. You must seek and strive and search within yourself. Search until you find the purity within yourself, because purity is like an abundant fountain; a fountain of beautiful, clear water that cleanses you daily. So search for that fountain.

QUESTION Would you elaborate on the statement that we can do it all right here and now?

SERENA: Why not? We don't know where we will be tomorrow. Might as well start now. A man can have God anytime he wants Him. Ask and ye shall receive. Knock on the door, and it shall be opened unto you, now. Remember Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me." Not yesterday, not tomorrow, not a year from now - today; because that's when He is carrying His. We can do it all right now. All you have to say is, "God, I love you. God, I need you. God, I want you." It's yours for the asking. Now. No waiting in line. They have a really good delivery service.

QUESTION: Serena, what does Jesus mean when he says to take up His cross?

SERENA: Perhaps He means get with it. That's what He's doing. He's giving all He's got. He's given it a few times already. And He is still starving, starving to love through us, helping us daily to understand things that we don't today understand. So he means purify yourself so that you might benefit mankind. Find harmony within yourself so that you can guide others in finding this harmony. Love everyone. Be an example of love so that you can show mankind what love really is.

QUESTION: How do you go about "getting with it."

SERENA: Turning to God. As soon as we say that we recognize that there is a will far beyond that which we call mortal will, and that we would have that will that would flow through us, that we could function for God, with God, then that's putting us on our road. To daily strive to love in the highest and purest way. Striving to help people, not hurt them. Striving to serve people not expecting people to serve you in return. Just giving through prayer, through thought, through deeds. All you can give. Helping to light another man's path is a really great thing. And we can do it by getting on that path ourselves. We must truly be what it is we would have others be. If you want to help someone, if you want to help the world, then become the world. Become God, and then you are helping in the greatest way.

QUESTION: (from a small child) Serena, do you know when Moses and the basket boat is going to be on television again? (laughter)

SERENA: I think she is just wanting up front. You want to help me answer questions?

QUESTION: It says in the song, "All is karma, all is grace." Would you say something about that?

SERENA: Nothing is new or old in the universe. And everything touches everything else in one way or another. God is like a wheel that is constantly turning around and around within itself, around itself. The wheel is all there is. We are upon that wheel and everything is karma, because karma is what has happened before that is happening now because of what has happened before, so it could happen now. Think about it. Everything that is happening to you today was triggered by something that happened to you yesterday. Everything interrelates and interpenetrates everything else. You look like you do today because you chose to look this way. And you chose it because you have looked differently before, and you needed to look like this now. It is not by mistake that we are all here together. We've been together before. We would have to be or we couldn't be here now. Nothing is old or nothing is new in the universe.

QUESTION: "And all is grace."

SERENA: I told you the story, and I'll tell it again. There was once a woman Master who told her disciples, "Before I became God conscious, I thought it was 99% my effort and 1 % God's grace. But when I became God conscious, I realized it was 99% God's grace, and the other 1 % wasn't me either. That was God wanting me to return to God." It is through God's grace that we can even breathe. God's grace is what sustains and keeps us. God's grace is everything. And everything is God's grace.

QUESTION: Divine, I have trouble understanding two terms that seem to contradict one another. They are "Trust the Lord," and "Fear the Lord."

SERENA: I don't have any fear doctrine I don't think. Perhaps to trust the Lord, my interpretation would be only to fear the Lord enough to know that that is what we need above all other things. But I don't know any other fear that should lie within us at all.

QUESTION: Perhaps it was useful for people.

SERENA: Perhaps it was. I think now that the new age is here. and we are coming into it very quickly, it is time that there is no more fear. There shouldn't be any fear. There is so much fear within the world; the fear of sin, the fear of falling from God's grace. The only sin is the sin that we allow to take us over. When we say, "No, God." that's sin. Sin is misdirected God. Because we misdirect it. When a man turns to God, the idea of sin need be no longer. Sin is imperfection. Imperfection is lack of Jesus Christ. And lack of Jesus Christ is no God, and we need God. So when man turns to God, sin will vanish. It has to; we need it no longer. There need be no fear of falling. If we are going along good and we are loving God, seeking God in everything for two weeks, and then we do something, and for a whole week we feel like we've fallen from God, we haven't fallen. God just put His grace upon us even more to let us realize what was in there, within our hearts that whole two weeks we thought we were doing so well. You cannot fall from God. But you can realize your weaknesses within. There is no falling. God loves us too much. We are God. And God is us. And we are all seeking to know ourselves. To know God.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

SERENA: Right. Yes, that is why I mentioned that perhaps it was just to show them that they needed God above all other things. So that would push respect a little maybe. I hope we won't have to do that this age. I hope it will just be automatic with everyone.

Living a life full of God is really a very nice thing. So often people feel that when they turn to God they are going to have to give up this and give up that, but that's not true. When you love God, and you keep filling your heart with love for God, all these things vanish away. Because God, once he gets into your heart, there's not room for anything else. And your heart keeps packing up and packing up. You don't give up smoking, you don't give up drinking, it just leaves. When a man has so much God in him, how can he drink. He can't put alcohol in there. He's got too much God. There's no room. That's how it should be. That's how it can be. Right now. No lack of encouragement, it is. I know from experience.

QUESTION: What bothers me most is making the same mistakes over and over again. Is that necessary to go through, to make those same mistakes over and over again?

SERENA: You tell me. Are you done yet? Have you made the same mistake over and over again? Was it necessary? You've just answered your own question.

It is not necessary to do anything but love God. And then when we love God, God shows you what is necessary for you to do. And if you continue to love God, and continue to seek God's will, then you will find God's will, and you will find God. And you won't keep making the same mistakes over and over. You'll just keep loving God over and over. Detachment is the transformation of earth things into God things. Remember that.

QUESTION: The world is a place full of wonderful things. You know there are lots of things to learn and lots of people to be with and this and that. Can you tell me something about that - about what it is when you get attracted to these things. I know there is a danger there, but I just don't know quite .... you know what it is I'm trying to say?

SERENA: I don't think so.

QUESTION: Well, is the danger in having these things ... Is there any danger to them.

SERENA: You would have to tell me. You see, no one, no teacher - if you notice Jesus never did either - can walk up to you and say you can't do this or that or this or this, because it would be bad for you. But I can tell you of a better way, of an easier way, of a lasting way. And then you can put that with your life and you can tell me what is best for you. What is best for you is what you feel is best for you. Because when you feel so strongly about something, no matter what I said could I change you mind. A man must follow his heart. That's why it is so important that we fill our hearts with God, and let God direct us. But unless God directs us, then we are not directed at all. Life is put here complete. God did not make sin for man to crawl down into. The world is complete. The world is a paradise; the world is a hell. The world is whatever you want it to be. Anything you look for on this planet, you will find it. If it is beauty you seek, you will find it. If it is ugliness, you will find that too. If it is God, you will find it. If it is no God, then you will find that too. God has equipped this world for us to learn learn about Him. He fashioned everything in an image of himself, filled it with life, breathed upon it, and started it to turn, and we agreed to jump on the wheel. And we are still here. We can have anything we want. God judges our intent, not our words. The heart is what speaks to God, daily. Every minute and every second. Fill your hearts with God and find God in the world, and when you find God in this world, show it to other men.

QUESTION: Serena, perhaps this is in my own understanding, but why is it that it seems that all these great teachers who teach through this same Spirit, why do they each have different...I suppose you would say - doctrines or different ideas?

SERENA: To reach different kinds of people. Sometimes the difference in doctrines that we see is only with the fault which is within us, that we are not capable of seeing the unity between them all. Through the ages many of the teachings brought down by the Masters and the great teachers which God has sent have been distorted greatly. We fail to see the true beings as they were. They all taught the same thing. Love ye one another. Serve ye one another. Be ye one another.

So many times people feel that Buddha didn't believe in God. That's why I have Buddha sitting on the piano. I know he did. Buddha's doctrine as man has it today says Buddha dwelt in a place where God was not. But that was only consciousnesswise. Buddha was a young man who had no doctrine of God. He taught of man. That's why he came before Jesus, 500 years before Jesus, because that's what man needed. He put mankind at that point on the road to finding the virtue that lay within all of mankind. And when Buddha taught man to love man to see the truth of sufferings, to give unto all men. Then it came time for Jesus to come, and Jesus took those same men that had found the virtues within themselves, and he said, "I will take you one step farther. All that goodness and all that that lies within you is accredited to our Father God. Now you must pray to this God, because God is like your best friend. He will never leave you. This God is within your heart. Turn ye not to God. Blossom forth with God."

You see, so many people, since I have been on earth, I have found that many people have told me, it's really amazing, that Buddha did not believe in God. And that is not it at all. Buddha merely taught about man, because man needed to see that understanding. And it is still not here today. It wouldn't hurt if many of us would study the teachings of Buddha and Jesus. And if we put the two together, we will see that they are one and the same. Jesus just took Buddha one step further. All doctrines must be the same if we go to the very source of them. There can be but one doctrine - the God doctrine. We may give them different titles, but that cannot be. One God, one way to live. No matter what we call this God, no matter who our teacher be, that does not matter. We are entering an age when mankind will turn to God however we conceive Him to be. Whatever name you give him. Whatever you feel he looks like. If you feel God is black or white or no color. That is not important. Just that you love God. Any man who says, "I love Allah, I love this, I love that." They have to be loving the same God that I am speaking of now. There is only one. Mankind is hoping for one church upon the world, and from what I understand, he actually feels that all the churches are going to unite and will just have one name. But that's not true at all. The one church will be when all of mankind upon this world can say, "I'm Buddhist. You're a Jesus follower, and I love you. I wouldn't change what you believe." And the follower of Jesus will turn to the Buddhist and he will say, "I'm a Jesus follower. You're a Buddhist. I love you, and I would not change you." One church called the God church, but all these different religions will remain. Mankind must unite. Not convert. Unite.

Saying you are my brother no matter who you are, no matter what you believe, and we must be going to the same God, to the same place. Because there is only one. This will be the unity that will be coming upon the earth. Now later perhaps - one church. But what we are worried about right now is unifying mankind. Loving and serving all and becoming all. There is not one way upon the world, unless you call it God's way. And say that it includes all beliefs, all colors, all men. This is how it must be. Because God is everything, and God is a loving God. We are all merely fragments of the eternal infinite Spirit. Many paths, but one path. One path leading to God. We have likened the one path with many travellers to a dirt road with many people walking on it. A thousand people upon one road. Yet not everyone sees the same thing on this road. But they are all going to the same destiny. Some are looking at the sky, some see the trees. Some are only looking at the birds. Some see grass. A thousand people upon one road all going to the same place. And when they get there, we ask them to sit down and write what they saw, we would have one thousand different descriptions of what the scenery looked like. Every man searching and seeking that which he can take closest to his heart. All men putting out their hand and filling up their cup with that part of God which they can best understand and acknowledge. We should seek to so love all our brothers that we would have understanding of them. We should seek in truth to say, "No matter what you believe, I love you." But we don't do that. We say, "No, you have to come my way." That is disharmony. If that were the correct way, although the intent of many people is very right when they say, "You must come my way," if it were the right way, surely would God not show that poor blind man that you have the way and he didn't? Who would this God be to fill an earth and only let a small portion of people know which way to go? If that is so then we best not be here tonight. We had best be out in the world gathering up all the lost souls, for only logic would tell us that there are many pathways to God. One road leading to God and every soul there is is upon that road. If we cannot see that then the fault lies in us, not in God's plan. God's plan of creation says that all souls must need to discover who God is, become one with God, and turn around and help his brothers to become. We are treading the pathway of illusion, and the whole time this is reality. Reality and illusion are not side by side or one is not above the other. They are the same. Anything we seek to find within ourselves, we can find. And the things we feel and see and know within us are that which shines forth from us. We are what we have found within ourselves. Seek to find God, and it is God's promise that you shall have God. And when you find God within you, turn around, and you won't have to say a word. Just look at your brother, and he will know. Prayer for all of mankind is good. Good thoughts for all of mankind is great. Good deeds are marvelous. But the thing which you seek to become yourself, is the greatest benefit to all of mankind that anyone can possibly give. Jesus said, "Follow me. I am a living example of my Father." Thus we must become like this also. We have to think, "Am I burdening my brother when I preach to him?" There is no need to preach. Become and show him the way without a word. Do one act of kindness in front of ten people, and everyone will recognize it. They may not look like they do, but the soul recognizes God when the soul sees it.

QUESTION: How close can we come to the greatness of Jesus?

SERENA: Jesus said, "These things I do, you can do, and greater things." Not a thousand years from now, today. What Jesus was talking about, if you think of all the things that Jesus did, what could I do that would be greater than those? This was because Jesus recognized that he was at a time when he had to do things in the flesh, symbolical of what takes places in the Spirit. And Jesus knew that the blind man that he healed in the flesh needed a greater healing, the blindness of the soul needed to be fixed. The greater thing that we can do today is to become living examples of God's words, of God's love. Help the man who is blind through his soul. See through the eyes of his soul. Help the man who has never walked in God's truth, walk in God's truth. Open the ears of the man who is deaf to the words of God and teach him of God. There is a greater healing than that in the flesh, and it is the healing of the soul. One act of kindness towards your brother is greater than all the things.

QUESTION: Could you define "soul"?

SERENA: The soul is that part of you which is one with God, is seeking to know itself. The very bud of the essence of the whole entire universe, seeking, searching, striving to find its oneness with all creation.

QUESTION: Is everyone's soul alike?

SERENA: We only feel that we are separated from God. You see, we have picture images of "This is God," and a little spark comes of and that is the soul. But in truth the soul remains immovable with God. It is only what our consciousness allows us to know that we know. In truth we could say that the soul does not exist. Nothing exists but God.

QUESTION: With these teachings that we've had for thousands and thousands of years, why is it taking so everlastingly long?

SERENA: You tell me.

QUESTION: Doesn't it seem that we are going at a snail's pace, circling.

SERENA: When you decide to move at all.

QUESTION: I was reading that a God conscious person knows no time and space, and that we know time differently. It may seem like a long time to us, but to her it doesn't seem like a very long time.

QUESTION: Serena, there are two trains of thought here from week to week that we've talked about. There is one train of thought that we can be and are what we want to be and yet there is another train of thought that these tribulations and trials that we experience in life and all these happenings are necessary in our development and in our progression. Is there a contradiction here?

SERENA: No, not at all. You can be exactly what you want to be. And the more you want to be God, then the quicker you will learn. All these trials and tribulations, as you put them, are your stepping stones to get you to where your desire to know God is full afire within you.

QUESTION: That is to say that in this lifetime I needed to get the experience of a broken heart, and I can't understand it. Because it says that I wanted it, and in my frame of mind I know I didn't want it.

SERENA: Have you ever hurt another in this lifetime? You see sometimes we say, "I don't ever remember if I have ever lived before, so when things are happening to me today, why did I know that I needed them. Why did I choose that?" But is there one word that you ever.said to someone that hurt them, and you just said, "Oh, well, he'll be alright. I've been hurt worse than that." And we don't see anything in that one word. But we say, "Why would I have to be so hurt?" But that one word was as big a pain as that mighty broken heart that we say that we have experienced.

QUESTION: I still hurt people, and is it out of a need within me to do this.

SERENA:. Or is it out of a lack of God. If every sentence that we spoke had a thought of God in it, around it, and through it, could we hurt another man? If we so sought to see God in everyone that we saw, would there ever be anything that someone would do that we couldn't see an understanding of? Lack of God is what causes all these things. They have caused it to us before and they will cause it to us again in the future. When we so keep our minds going on nothing but repetition of God's name over and over and over. Try going around for about two days and do nothing but say, "God, God, God" in your head silently. No matter what you are doing, repeat God's name. Seek God everywhere you look, and you will find him. You don't need to hurt another man. It won't be within you to hurt anyone.

QUESTION: I know in a lot of people's lives, and even in my own, there is a time when we would like to stop the world and get off. Can the soul get tired or is this just our minds in our experiencing that makes us feel tired?

SERENA: Yes, well it's mostly just the many experiences that the mind has and the things we see, and it all seems to get a little heavy at times. And it does seem like the easiest thing would be to get off the world and come back at a later date when we feel a little more stronger. But you see when we feel tired, we are just seeing something about ourselves, which is all the more need to stay on earth and overcome that rather than prolong it and thus prolong other things all to do at a better date. There is not a better day than today. No matter what today seems like. Everything is a lesson. And when we stop saying, "God, why?, Why this, why that?", and start becoming something that would help another man, we must know pain, so that we can know the pain of others. We must know rejoicing, so that we can know the rejoicing of others. Jesus came, and Jesus was God, and Jesus suffered. What was he trying to tell you mankind? And then He turned around and He said, "Take up your cross, and follow me." And what did he tell the disciples? He said, "You may follow me... and birds have nests, and foxes have holes, but this Son of Man has no place to lay his weary head." Life was not easy. He suffered so that he might understand mankind. A man can not sit and say, "Can I tell you what a broken heart is like?" and then you don't want to feel another man's broken heart. You must experience it. Learn from these valuable lessons that God gives us every day.

If you feel a pain, rejoice. Because that is bringing you one step closer to understanding all men who have even more pain than you do.

Buddha was a young man who lived a nice, calm life, and then he got out in the world and he saw suffering. And when he saw it, he wanted to know the sufferings himself so much that he tortured his own self. He did without food so that he might understand the needs and wants of starving people. He hurt himself to feel the pain that people feel being crippled or being abused. He did not keep up his appearance so that he might know the scorn and laughter that other men so often get. And Jesus experienced the same thing. They were trying to tell us, learn from your suffering, because in that suffering there contains all the understanding of mankind that ever you will need. Suffer and feel not that you yourself have suffered, but let that be an experience for all the rest of mankind. And when you rejoice, rejoice not for yourself, but rejoice in the understanding that at that moment you had of all men of all the world that are rejoicing. Thus you will know all of mankind through yourself. That is what makes every soul one with all the other souls. And all of us are God. Learn from your experiences. Love all your lessons that God will have you know, and turn around and help your brother.

QUESTION: Serena, is it therefore necessary for man to know pain in order to know joy?

SERENA: Yes. Do you remember what Jesus said, that you should fear not for you will always have your poor. He was telling us then that there always will be suffering in the world. Suffering is very important. You must know both light and dark to distinguish between the two. If a man resides in darkness, could you explain to him what light would look like? You must experience all things. So we have the opportunity of having every experience, knowing everything that there is to know, becoming everything there is to become. And when we become that, we take all of our experiences and help our brothers with them. There is no teacher who could ever come to earth and could be called a teacher just because God sat somewhere in a nice comfortable room and said, "My Son, now I want to tell you about the sufferings you are going to see." The teacher had to know the sufferings before. Know the suffering, become the suffering and come forth to offer their pathway to other men. We must experience all things to become all things. When we learn from our experiences then we become our experiences. And when we become that, then we become God. And that is what we are striving for.

QUESTION: Serena, I think that if we look at our lives and really search that far (inaudible) In this lifetime, I have never really lost any person, or seen any suffering, but I remember during the Stations of the Cross, I really felt badly for Jesus, but I really concentrated and felt something deeper for Mary. (inaudible) I know that in this lifetime I have never experienced anything like that, but I know I must have in a past lifetime lost people.

SERENA: Yes, you have. Guaranteed. You see when we learn a lesson well, then it stays with us forever. You become that lesson, and you need not experience it again.

Shall we close with prayer?

God, thank you that we might be gathered together today, gathered together this evening to be with one another, to touch one another, and to hear of how we might better understand You. God, show us what Thou would have us to do. When we seek that inner voice, let that voice be loud. Help attune us to ourselves. Put our feet upon the path. Let us acknowledge this. Help in our understanding that all men are one. And all men are equal. Teach us, God, of the many names which mankind has given You, that we might come to the understandings that you are the only God, no matter what men shall call you. Help us to help ourselves, that in turn we might help others.

In Your ever blessed Name we pray,

Amen.