Meeting 16 4\/23\/1975

(Note: This is the only talk in the archive that was presented as a talk, followed by a Q and A. In almost every other instance of speaking to a group, Serena started with opening the floor for questions, although occasionally she would open with a prayer before taking questions.)

April 23, 1975 Clemson University Student Center

SERENA SAYS

SERENA: Well, does everybody know why we are here tonight? That's the first thing. In thinking about what I would discuss tonight, I thought, The best thing, since the poster said, 'The Voice of the New Age,' and most people think that's a singer - but I'm not a singer, I'm a talker.

The New Age. We are very fortunate, because right at this moment we have a new age that has dawned upon this planet, now. And we are all very much a part of it. It's called by many the golden age. Because it is an age of transformation, an age of opportunity. We can't have a golden age until we find the golden age that is beginning to dawn within mankind. As it is within so it is brought without.

We are very fortunate. We are at a time when mankind is beginning to turn and look at God. We are going to rid ourselves of the I, Me, My, and Mine and look to God. So many people seem to think that when you turn to God, you have to quit doing all the things you are doing now. No more fun, just turn to God. But that's not true. God will never ask you for anything, but he'll let you give him everything. But He has a method for us to give Him everything. That method by many is called detachment. But the true meaning of the word detachment is the transformation of Earth things into God things.

We should so love God and seek to serve God and become one with God that we are so filled with God, that we don't have to give up anything. It just all fades away. Because when our hearts are so full of God we won't have room for any of the things that we are trying to get rid of now. So don't detach, just love God. And all the things will just fade away. We should seek to love God, not just to say, "God, I love you," but to love our brothers, and not to just love our brothers, but become one with our brothers. Jesus said, "Follow me. For it is through me that you will get to the Father." And Jesus said, "Everything I look at, I seek to see my Father's face. And when I see my Father's face, I cannot but help but do the right thing, say the right thing, think the right thing, and feel the right thing."

So this is how we should fashion our lives. We should so seek to see the face of God in everything, that we become filled with seeking God. It has to be a constant thing. Always striving to know, striving to serve God. What better way to serve God than to serve mankind. Through prayer, through good thoughts, through deeds. Seeking to serve, not be served. That is fashioning our lives as the life of Christ. He always sought to give and not receive. We should love and not expect love in return. Just love. Abundantly. With divine love. Love, Serve, and Be are probably the greatest things that are upon the earth.

Just seeking to know God. I find that mankind has almost forgotten who God is. I go and I talk to people and they demand explanations, "What do you mean by 'God'?" Can't God just be everything, and nothing?

We are all fragments of the whole. We are only fragments because we are seeking to know ourselves. God is likened unto a circle. And we are all a major part of that circle. As the circle turns, we are seeking to know who We are. Seeking to find our Oneness. A man once said, "Many times I have studied the workings of the universe. And each time I discover that nothing exists but God."

We are all one with God. And we have to find our oneness again. But it is not punishment that we don't have it now. We are experiencing ourselves. God seeking to know Himself through us.

Sri Chinmoy once said… he wrote it in a poem: "My Lord, I am dancing." and Krishna said, "Fine, that is what pleases me." "My Lord I am singing." and Krishna said, "Fine, that pleases me." "My Lord, I am suffering." and Krishna said, "Oh, no. You are not suffering. You are merely experiencing. And in truth, it is God experiencing through you."

So certainly it should be with us. If we seek to see the God in our brother, then there is no more doing wrong. Mankind today is caught up in the word, "sin". But is there really such a thing as sin? Sin is imperfection. And imperfection merely shows us that we are without Christ. So if we find Christ, and put Him into our lives. Not just say, "Christ, I have accepted you." But He said, "Pick up your cross and follow me, not tomorrow, and not yesterday, but today, because that's when I am carrying mine.”

Loving Christ means becoming Christ. Doing as He would have us do. Loving all, serving all, and becoming one with all. We should so give our lives to God, because God is all there is.

To find our oneness with God will bring peace upon the earth. Mankind is waiting for this New Age to bring about peace and tranquility and no more wars, and people shout, "Why do we have wars?" "And if there is a God, why would he allow this?" But the wars are very, very necessary at this time, because they are showing that mankind can sacrifice everything he has. If he can do that for his country, he can also do that for God.

People are suffering because of war. Therefore we are learning that we can suffer for God. Through suffering comes true understanding. So wars are teaching us lessons. But the lessons don't have to go on forever. They can stop as soon as we acknowledge our lessons. This is God's plan.

People are giving their all for their country, and God said, "You can give your all for me." People are sacrificing their lives for their country. God says, "You can do the same for me." It is also showing mankind that people can have all the worldly possessions that they want, and they can be happy, and they can be comfortable, and another man can come in and ruin everything they had. God says, "Mankind, wake up. I show you a great lesson here. All those things will fade away. Nothing is eternal but God."

There is no happiness but the happiness that a man finds with God. There is no love but the love that a man can have for God. Nothing lasts but God. Doesn't it seems very beneficial to fill ourselves with God? Something that is everlasting, something that is eternal. Something that we can share with, and serve with, and give with? The more you give, the more ye shall receive to give to your brother. So we should strive to know God. Not just God in the heavens, but God in my brother. And not just God in your brother, but God the Earth.

We should seek out total understanding of everything that we come into contact with. To love God, we'll have to understand God. And when I say that your brother is God, and when you say, "I can't help it, I can't sometimes love my brother." Then that shows us that we lack divine understanding. And this was very important in the life of Jesus. So if we are to fashion ourselves accordingly, then we must seek divine understanding. Every man that you will ever meet or ever talk to or ever see is a mirror reflecting himself to you.

Have you ever noticed that when someone talks about their best friend, the remark is always, "We're best friends, he's exactly like I am. We have the same interests, the same likes, the same dislikes. We are exactly alike. Therefore, we are best friends." And when people talk of their enemies, what do they say? "We have nothing in common. We don't like the same things. We don't dislike the same things. We just can't get along." That right there is a very important lesson. Are we trying to find our own egos in another person? To run around with, to love, to date, to marry? Or are we truly seeking the God that is in that person? And when we do, it helps us to get off the wheel as you could term it. The wheel of birth and death. We are on it because we are seeking to be individuals. We are fragmenting ourselves away from God. That's the illusion that we are in. And as long as we seek best friends that are exactly like us, then we are not seeking God. But, when we seek to love all mankind equally, that is loving God. Every man we meet is us. If you meet a man in the grocery store and he is really nasty, and you think, "Boy, you're really nasty." Look back on yourself a week ago, two days ago. Or maybe just this morning. Did you say something or do something or look at someone in a way that perhaps just ruined their whole day.

That's the main question we should ask ourselves. Are we benefiting mankind or are we burdening mankind? For every burden we should give two benefits. But we can't serve mankind until we find that within us which can serve. We can't love mankind until we ourselves find love within ourselves. We must be that which we would have others be. We must be that which we would give to others. Because that makes it real. Meher Baba says there is only one true gift, that is the gift of love from God. When we give someone something, we obligate them to return the gift. On our birthday, anniversary, or Christmas. And we still remember that we gave it. And when we walk in the house and we see it, we think, "I gave you that." That's not a true gift. The only true gift is the love that God gives to us. Because God loves us eternally, no matter what we do. He doesn't point at each of us and say, "I love you. I love you." He just loves us, and he pours it out abundantly. He loves us, and in a way he just forgets, because that's how loving he is. So this is how we should be also. The wheel of birth and death, the cycles of incarnations. And there's a big controversy about that.

That is, "Is reincarnation really reincarnation? Do we really live again? But there doesn't have to be a controversy about that. All the churches agree that the soul is eternal (or most of them, I think). So that tells us that we live again. We don't have to live again on earth, but we do live again. Or do we live again or do we just live? Is it life after death or life after life? That's more it. And when people say, "Why must we live again?" And they look around in the world, and we see people starving we see people comfortable and we see people rich and we see people poor. And when I looked at this situation, I thought God, there has to be an explanation. Why would some people be happy and some people never happy? And then I saw it.

To know God is to know our brother. And when we look at our brothers. Each of them are living differently, suffering differently, rejoicing differently, just being different. And so this showed me. If God is in my brother, and all my brothers are the same, but yet in a way different, then we are all experiencing to know God.

A series of experiences, we don't have to call it reincarnation. Just call it seeking to know God, seeking to know ourselves. First we must be sinners to know how to be a saint. Jesus couldn't have come to the earth and taught man like he did if he himself had not also experienced. Could we sit a man down, no matter how divine of a man, and say, "I am going to describe pain to you, and I'm going to describe suffering, and then when I send you to earth, I want you to do something about it." You must experience, so that is what we are all doing.

Jesus was a man, but he perfected himself. He cleansed himself. He purified himself. And he found his oneness with God. And when he did, the spirit of the Christ moved over him, overshadowed him, overtook him, and became him. And he was no longer called Jesus of Nazareth, but Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man. But He experienced. That's why He says,"The things I do you can do greater." And when we think of all of the things He did, what else could we do that would be greater than the things he did? Perhaps he saw that the time that he was walking along the earth then, he had to do miracles in the flesh. Men who were crippled, he let them walk. And when they were blind with the physical eyes, he let them see.

Perhaps the greater things that we can do is touch the soul. Perhaps this time we can heal a man who can't see his soul. We can open him to the inner life, to God, and help him to see. That's healing a blind man. And if a man has never had the opportunity to walk in the light, then perhaps we can show him how to walk with God. And we will have healed a man who couldn't walk. Perhaps this is what Jesus foresaw that we could do. Until he returned.

Jesus ran the money lenders and the prostitutes and all the bad people out of the temple. And this was very symbolic for us today. He was cleansing the temple, the physical body, running out the greed, the selfishness, the lust, the envy, showing us that we could become pure. Because he said, "My temple should be a house of prayer " And surely it should be. These temples we have are sacred temples given to us by God. And surely they should be houses of prayer. Jesus was showing us then to purify and become one with Him that we might go to the Father - loving all, serving all, and becoming all. That is what we should seek to do.

This physical world that we bind ourselves to, we become so bound to our physical bodies that we don't know if we have a soul. The Bible says, "Be still and know that I am God." "Any thing," Jesus said, "that you ask in my name, it shall be given to you." If mankind would turn within himself for some of the answers to today's problems, we would find them. We're so much in a hurry, so confused, so bound up, just so closed-minded sometimes, that we just can't find things. But if we would be still and recognize that God is within us, then we would find the answers.

Does anyone have any questions? Or anything you would like to hear about?

QUESTION: Would you speak on suffering?

SERENA: Jesus said, "You shall always have the poor." And people didn't understand that statement. But being that we are experiencing to know God, and God is everything, then we would have to know both suffering and joy to make the distinction between the two.

It is through suffering that we bring about compassion within us. When we ourselves suffer, if we are wise, we recognize the suffering of other men. If we ourselves have known joy, then we recognize joy in other men. It is said that we should suffer in the sufferings of others and rejoice in the rejoicings of others, seeking the truth of both.

Suffering is very important because suffering breaks down the hard shell that is put around our heart, the heart of our souls, and through suffering we find compassion. And true compassion is divine love, and divine love is the Christ. And the Christ is one with the Father. So through suffering we learn God.

QUESTION: You said we could ask anything in Jesus' name and we would receive it. (inaudible)

SERENA: If we ask with an impure intent, that is not asking in Jesus' name. Jesus stood for purity and love and sincerity, and when we truly ask in His name, it shall be given. But if through impure intent, through our egos, it cannot be fulfilled. For if one of us prayed in the name of Jesus Christ and some of us prayed that it would rain tomorrow, and some of us prayed that the sun would shine, all day long some would say, "No rain tomorrow," some would say, "rain all day," and we all just prayed just really long and hard, could we expect God to fulfill all of our prayers? And if we checked our intent, is that not a useless thing to pray for? Should we not pray that we would have understanding to help people and should not we pray that we would find divine love within us that we might love everybody?

If we search ourselves as to truly what is "in the name of Christ" within is, then that is what we should pray for. Prayer is a form of communication, a giving of yourself to God, and a receiving of God back into yourself. Prayer is very good, and sometimes we don't do enough of it. Prayer should just be like talking to you best friend, God. And prayer should so become a part of us, that it becomes like your breathing. It's just a natural thing. If you would go around for three days, or two days, or even one day, or because I really want you to, ten minutes, and just over and over in your head repeat God, God, God, God. Just that name, however you consider God to be, then something good will happen to you. Because that is associating God with wherever you are at right then. That is putting God right where you are sitting, right where you are standing, the room you're in, the way you feel. And when we do that, when we call on God, and we put God where we are, then we find God, and that's what we're all here for. At this time, what is called the Golden Age, or New Era, coming about, it's the time when mankind, all of mankind can turn to God however we conceive God to be.

We can't put any limitations on God, yet we try to by saying there is only one way. There is one way, but we shouldn't have to talk about it. It should just be agreed that there is only one way, and that's through God, however we conceive God to be. Mankind also says that there will be only one church, one church that will just take up the whole world in this New Age. A unification. But I don't see that there will just be one church and all the others will go out of business. I think the one church will be called the "God Church."

And we will still have Buddhists, and Krishna Conscious­ness people, and Jesus lovers, and Baba lovers, but we are still going to be unified. Unified in the way of saying, "I love you because you're my brother and we're all going to the same God. We have to be, because there is only one. We might call Him different names, but how can we separate the supreme and eternal Everything?" Sounds like we're fooling ourselves. If all of mankind will turn to God, it doesn't matter what name we give to God, just so we love God, and serve God, and become one with God. That's the one church we will have on the earth. When all of man wakes up and says, "I see. We may have different beliefs, yet somewhere they're all the same."

It can be likened unto a thousand people all walking on the same road. And when we tell these thousand people, "Now when you all get to the end of this road, and you're all going to the same destiny, I want you to all sit down and tell me what you saw along the road." A thousand people and one road. And you have your people who don't see anything but the skies, because my, how they love sky. And then there are people who love clouds; they don't look at the sky, they look at the clouds in the sky. And then we have the flower lovers. They don't see the grass, just the flowers. And lovers of trees. And we have men who work in stone, and they see the stone on the road. And there are people who love insects and see all the insects along the road. All these thousand people who walk on the same road, and they all saw different things because they all searched on the road, found what they could best relate to, what they could best believe in, what they could best be devoted to, and it kept with them.

God is like that. To say there is only one way is like putting a thou­sand people on that road and saying, "I want you all to seek and find. God's only in one thing. God is either all flowers or all trees, and those of you who look at the wrong things and like the wrong things, you're just out of luck." We can't say that, because God is like all of that scenery on that road, and the road, and the sky, and all. the people on the road. So everyone is there together going the same place, but they see different things. Sometimes we have great lessons to learn and we are in the process of learning them now. The soul can be likened unto a seed that we hold in the palm of our hand, and we put it but in the sunshine and hold our hand out, and it gets all the sunshine and all the air, everything it needs to grow. But the seed just lies there, doesn't do anything. Then we put it in the ground, into the darkness, and we close it in. At first the seed is afraid. "Where am I," it says. "It's dark in here. It's close in here. How will I ever get out?" This is likened unto the man in illusion. But then the seed becomes wise, and it gives to the earth, and takes from the earth, and grows. These are our experiences. And when the seed reaches the light again, it understands. Because it has become a plant, and by becoming a plant, it has experienced not being a plant, and therefore now it is at the stage to understand this light, and this rain, and this air, and the earth it is in also. We cannot be free until we see the beauty of darkness and the beauty of light and all the lessons therein contained. If we have never known bondage, freedom will mean nothing.

Adam and Eve in the garden. God said, "Don't eat of the tree." And they said, "Why, what will happen?" "Well, you will get wise." "But what's wise?" "Well, just believe me. If you eat of the tree, then I won't be with you anymore." "Well what's it like for you not to be here with us anymore?" "Well, just believe me, it's wrong. Don't eat of the tree." "What's wrong? I don't understand what wrong is." And so they didn't know until they ate. They had to experience that, because they didn't know what it would be like not to have God with them. They didn't know what it was going to be like to be wise. So we're like that. We can't sit here and say, "I'm going to describe pain to you so you will know others who feel pain." You must feel it yourself. And when we feel it, we shouldn't say, "God, Oh, why me?" We should say, "God, thank you. Because this is teaching me mankind."

These are the things that the Buddha taught. And mankind today, I'm so surprised to say, says that Buddha didn't believe in God, but that's not true. Buddha came 500 years before Jesus, and Buddha took mankind, and he said, "Come on. I'm going to show you all the good that lies within you, so that you can bring it forth and give it to other men." And so Buddha taught about the virtues of man. Buddha didn't claim to be a God, like sometimes we try and make him be now. He just was a man, who at first had been wealthy and had seen no suffering. And then when he did see suffering, he so went into suffering that he tortured himself, starved himself, that he might know the pain of all those other men that knew pain. He starved himself that he might know what it was like for other men to go hungry. But still he didn't find the peace that he was searching for. And so one day he meditated and suddenly he saw. He saw three roads in front of him. He saw one road where the man knew no suffering, only rejoicing. He saw another road where the man knew no rejoicing, only suffering. And it wasn't until he saw what was on that third path, the middle path, suffering in the sufferings of others and rejoicing in the rejoicings of others, and understanding both. And when he saw that, he became enlightened. He didn't seek to talk about God. He thought mankind needed to wake up to what was inside mankind. Because Buddha knew that the people he was talking to then would someday be with Jesus the Christ, and Buddha was right. Buddha taught them all about men, and the Jesus came and he said, "Now you have seen the goodness and the evil that is within you. I have come to tell you that both are by my Father's grace. And when you turn to God and purify this good within you, and understand this so-called evil, then you will know my Father."

So often we try to separate Masters. Buddha was over there and Jesus was over here. But that's not true. They are one and the same. Because anything that teaches man to get to God is of God. Buddha foreran for Christ. And Jesus was preparing the way for others. Teaching people, helping them to know themselves so that they could better accept other teachers, other gurus, other masters that were coming. They are all doing the same things. And then people say, "Well, don't you think that Jesus was better than the rest?" Is any man really better than another? And even though Jesus was the Christ and was one with God, which makes him (if we want to look at it that way) better than everything else in the whole world, but we can't say that if everything is God.

Jesus was a being who had found total oneness with all things. And he came forth and gave his life that we might know what it was all about. He so gave that when they went to take his physical body, He said, "Sure. Because I come from my Father. And though you don't understand the words I say now, someday you will. So you can take everything I have. Because in truth I tell you, you may tear the temple down, but he said, "In three days my Father will build it up better than ever." And they didn't understand. But Jesus knew that he could give everything because he was one with everything, and that all of mankind who watched him suffer and helped him to suffer, watched him laugh and helped him laugh. He knew that they would find each other somewhere. And that's how it has to be today. If we seek to know God. No matter how we conceive God to be - we can follow Krishna, or Buddha, or Zoroaster, or Meher Baba, or Jesus - we're going to find them all when we get there. Because we can't separate them. The only separation is with our finite minds.

And as long as we continue to function with our finite minds, we are never going to become infinite. And if we don't have the infinite brought forward from within us, then we don't have God. So if we seek God, and open ourselves, then we are going to find that within ourselves are Jesus and Buddha and Krishna and Zoroaster and Meher Baba - just everybody. All right there, and they wouldn't separate each other if they could because none are better than the others. They've all come to show us the way. And if we are wise, we'll follow. Any more questions? Don't tell me everybody knows everything and you just didn't want to tell me? Good, I hope you do. I'm looking for people like that.

QUESTION: What do you want to do with them when you find them?

SERENA: Use them.

QUESTION: In what way?

SERENA: Offer my teachings of loving God, serving God, and becoming one with God. That's what I'm here for.

QUESTION: Say that again? I didn't hear you.

SERENA: Well, I'll put it in another way, a little better I think. Give of myself to help them love everyone and serve everyone and become one with everything. God needs people down here. There are not any "chosen" people. The only chosen people are when we choose ourselves to work for God. God can use anyone. Because we are all part of the plan. And God doesn't separate us. God never forsakes man, but man sometimes forsakes God.

QUESTION: Is it necessary to read your Bible every day? To make it a daily habit.

SERENA: It is necessary for you to love God, to serve God, and to become one with God. If you like to read the Bible or any other holy book, it is necessary for you to do that as much as you feel you should. As long as we are striving to know God, to understand the face God has given us to work with, experience with, love with and serve with, then we should do it abundantly whatever that thing may be. But I couldn't say that everyone here should read the Bible. I can only tell you to seek however you conceive God to be. I couldn't limit God and say God is this way or that way. I can only tell you that there is a God who is the absolute every­thing and the absolute nothing. He is both illusion and reality and understands both. And I can tell you that you are a fragment of God, and that the whole purpose of creation is to return to that oneness with God.

QUESTION: Will the New Age (inaudible)

SERENA: The New Age. We keep talking about it and that's why I wanted to mention it tonight. The new age is within us. And we can bring about on this earth anything we want to. It is a very good time, and we are very fortunate, but it is not like that we are fortunate that we are all here. It's planned this way. And a lot of things are going to happen as soon as mankind realizes the necessity of wars, then we can come out of them.

It is true that we must experience, but we can learn, we can decide when we are through experiencing some of these things. The whole reason for experiencing is learning. God doesn't just put suffering on us so he can watch us suffer. He knows that it is necessary for us to learn - to learn who God is. And when we seek to see these lessons - which is seeking divine understanding of all events and all people that are in our lives, then we will bring about no more wars. It won't come about by some men sitting an office somewhere deciding how we are going to do it. Because God's not going to let it happen that way.

QUESTION: Do you think that someday all wars will end? And that there is a necessity to see these to fully understand them. And then if people come who haven't ever seen them, how do you fit this into the picture? How does this not seem to be a perpetual situation that you are never going to extract yourself from.

SERENA: Because everyone who is on earth now has been on earth many times.

QUESTION: Why aren't we in a position to (inaudible) I still don't understand how you are able to rationalize the situation.

SERENA: We have had many wars in the past and many still going now. But if we look around us, we can see why. We see men in competition, we see people, we see colleges that are full of people that haven't quite turned to God, and God says that until we do turn to God, then we are going to have to keep having things like this happen. War is an experience. Right now if I looked at you and I said, "Give your all unto God." What would you say to me.

QUESTION: I have given it.

SERENA: But if I said, "In the past week, how many times have you done your very best towards mankind? how many times have you burdened and not benefited? How many times have you closed your mind to people? How many times have things upset you that other people did? How many times have you closed yourselves to the God within another man? "

QUESTION: That's not answering my question.

SERENA: I'm slowly taking you there.

QUESTION: Maybe not.

SERENA: Maybe not.

QUESTION: But getting back to my original question. How would you go about (inaudible) a beginner? If the problem is with me so that you can't direct your answer to me so that I can see then try it again.

SERENA: I explained that a war is an experience. And that we will keep on experiencing.

QUESTION: I can't see where the reality of future generations, not seeing war first hand fits into your picture us being here previously and still not seeing it at the moment. And still, maybe it will translate this through the being who has been here previously and will be here in the future.

SERENA: I say that you are yesterday's generation. I say that you, sir, are tomorrow's. And if you had learned your lessons last time, then you would have no need to be here now. And if you learn them this time, then you will have no need to learn them next time. But until you do, you will continue to experience. That is the way I see it.

QUESTION: Why do you see the need for suffering in the future.

SERENA: I didn't say in the future. I just said that until mankind learns his lessons. I don't say that all of mankind will realize it on the same day. Each year we have people who realize, who find God. But each year we have people who don't. This will continue. But we are reaching a point. You, Sir, were not just born yesterday. Your soul has experienced many things. You learn no more and no less than you need to. And when you learn your lessons and you become one with God then you will devote your eternity to teaching people about God, to loving God, to serving God, and being one with God.

QUESTION: So you see the future as being, at some point in time, a situation without war and suffering.

SERENA: Yes, eventually. I don't speak of tomorrow. These things take a long time.

QUESTION; You're talking in millennia..

SERENA: I say that there will be a time when there will be no more war.

QUESTION: Do you feel like any of us will realize it in our present age?

SERENA: If you seek to. God closes the door to no man. But man closes many doors to God. If we seek to know God and serve God, then we will find God. Because God does not hide himself from us. But we at times wish we could hide ourselves from him. This planet is reaching a point of becoming a sacred planet, not tomorrow, it will take awhile. But we can't wait until tomorrow to start. I can only tell you that I see that it will someday happen. And I can only tell you that you have a hand in it all. And we are all of us together. Not separate individuals, but one whole God, will bring this about. And that the faster we begin, the faster it will happen. And we can say everything follows a plan. It sure does.

But I wouldn't be sitting here now telling you to love God, serve God and become one with God if perhaps you weren't ready to. We ourselves put up the barriers to God. We say, "God, I'm not ready. Wait until tomorrow. God make my mother well.” And then we walk down the street and we hate our neighbor. "God, do this. God, do that." And all the time God's going, "Why won't you become one with me and let's do it together." That's the only way we can do anything. We have wars today, we had wars yesterday, but as soon as we under­stand why, then we won't need wars anymore. We say that if there's a just God, then why doesn't he do something. And God said, "Why don't you love me?" We look back at when Jesus walked on the earth and we see how people hated him, and despised him, and crucified him, and then we sit here today and we say, "Oh, but things are different now. I would never do that.” But would we?

QUESTION: I'm sure we do. I mean it's a fool who would think that we would say that.

SERENA: That's why we need to seek God. If we truly seek God in every man, then we are going to find God. And if we find God within every man, then we would find it if Jesus walked into a room.

What would happen right now if just a man walked in and sat down and then got up and said, "I'm Jesus, and I've come back." We'd probably all do the same thing. We would probably all look at each other and I'd keep right on talking, and you'd keep looking at me, and we'd just ignore him. "He'll sit down in a while. Come on, let's get with this." Do we really think we are different from those people back then? We are those people back then. That's why we are here today, with an opportunity to love God and to serve God.

QUESTION: What are your views on Armageddon? Talking about the coming wars.

SERENA: Being that we are reaching a point of bringing about a change...You have to bring about a change slowly. And transformations come about by breaking down one thing and building another up. We are reaching a climax right now of wars, of hatred, of envy, of selfishness, and as these things come to a peak, then the sun shall come. The sun will rise over the mountain. We are wondering if there are going to have to be disasters and catastrophes on the earth. Some people say, yes, and some people say no.

The only reason we would have a torn up earth is if we refuse to acknowledge God. And if we acknowledge God, then that will bring God on earth. And that's what the whole point is. The Revelation in the Bible is exactly what it says, "The Revelation of St. John the Divine." St. John loved God, he sought God, and he received enlightenment. He received a revelation. And when he did, he wrote it down. And now we call it "The Revelation of St. John the Divine."

He foresaw all things because he became one with all at that moment. We are going to have to reach a point of just really big trouble. But it is up to us what that point of trouble is. We can sit here and talk about it, or we will have to experience it.

Either way, the purpose is for God to make himself known. Make himself known to a world that has forgotten what God really is. So if we seek God now, then why does He have to do something to us to make us seek him. Wouldn't it be better if we do it on our own? All these things don't have to happen if we will turn to God. But if we need proof that there is a God, then things can get to where we will eventually cry out for him.

QUESTION: Will you help me resolve the conflict of reincarnation? All of the Eastern religions they all believe in reincarnation, but the Christian religion or the Bible, as we know it, doesn't.

SERENA: When Jesus went upon the River Jordan to have John baptize him, Jesus looked at John and He said, "Behold, this is Elijah re­turned." And John just smiled. Because he knew Jesus was right. And he remembered it, and Jesus did too. And everything was nice. That's one example. Why shouldn't we live many times? Perhaps not on earth, but why shouldn't we so we could experience,

QUESTION: It seems to me a very attractive concept, but every Christian I've run into, they actually deny it. They quote all kinds of passages from the Bible, just like you quoted.

SERENA: And now you have one. That's the only one I have. Sorry. But I use it quite often.

QUESTION: But all they ever read is the quotes that support their arguments. No Christian I've come into contact with has never believed in reincarnation.

SERENA: Well, if God is so loving like we keep talking about. Even when we think just think of the animal kingdom. Why are some dogs lucky enough down here as poodles who get their toenails painted and bows in their hair?

QUESTION: The best argument against reincarnation that I have heard Christians cite is, "Well, all you need is grace and it comes from God. You don't have to come back."

SERENA: But I also talked to a young lady, a very long discussion one night, and she said that she turned to Christ and now Christ was going to take away all her sins. And I said, "Well, that's the same thing I talk about." Then she said, "But He's going to do it the day I turn to him. Everything's gone." And I said, "But do you still have those same nasty thoughts?" And she said, "Yes, I did." Didn't you have to fight the same things? And she said, "Yes." So we do the purifying.

And God's grace is what sustains us during our experiences that enable us to purify. A woman Master was once with her disciples, and she told them, she said, "Before I became conscious of my oneness with God I thought it was 99% my effort, and one percent God's grace. And when I found my oneness, I dis­covered it was 99% God's grace and the other one percent wasn't me either. It was in truth God wanting me to return to him. God's grace is everything. It is not put upon us at any one moment. It is always with us. But we have to seek to purify ourselves.

So experiencing many different lifetimes is very important. Because nothing can sit us down and say, "I am going to tell you the suffering that other men have had, but you won't ever have to do it." We would not gain wisdom from that, or enlightenment. We would just go, "I understand." But could we understand? Not until we ourselves recognize it in another, because we know of it within ourselves.

QUESTION: Who do you basically read?

SERENA: I like to do a lot of thinking. As far as reading recomendations I always go to the basic Meher Baba books and that's just it. Meher Baba books. Meher says everything that's in the Bible just in a totally different way.

QUESTION: What's your native language? Is it English?

SERENA: Something I picked up from my Father. I don't know what it is.

QUESTION: Do you remember being a child? I mean, say, in the last thirty years?

SERENA: I'm only 18.

QUESTION: OK, within the last 20 years.

SERENA: No, I don't. I didn't have to do that this time.

QUESTIONS: You didn't have to do what?

SERENA: I had a friend who helped me out. She got started for me, and then I took over.

QUESTION: What? What language did your friend speak?

SERENA: English, I believe. North Carolina English.

QUESTION: Where is your friend?

SERENA: She's still living. Don't you want to know anything about God? I have to admit I didn't get here like everybody else did.

QUESTION: How did you get here? How do you defy the laws of the universe?

SERENA: I didn't defy them. I created them. No, I found my oneness. That's why I'm here talking to you now. It is my story that says I journeyed a long time ago. I journeyed, and I found my oneness, and when I found my oneness, I became that journey. And now I am offering it unto others. And that's all I can say.

QUESTION: Do you have to have a Master to find God? To become one?

SERENA: Yes you do. You reach a point where you must have a master. Because there are several very tricky places on different occasions where that ego can be involved, and really to be trying to do some­thing good, but the ego overpowers, and therefore we get off the track a little. So every man does reach a point where we must have a Master teacher. Very rarely does it happen that we don't have to have a Master.

QUESTION: Do you have an ego?

SERENA: Do you think I do? You'd have to tell me. I couldn't tell you.

QUESTION: Who is your Master?

SERENA: Well, I had a Master for awhile. And then I reached a point where I became a Master.

QUESTION: What was his or her name?

SERENA: G O D. He's the only one I can remember.

QUESTION: I think that can be the one.

SERENA: Yes, pretty good.

QUESTION: Speak on ego for a few minutes. In the context in which you used it awhile ago.

SERENA: Well, the ego, as I am speaking of it right now, as in egotistical, is when we seek to know ourselves and it is the illusion part of us that seeks to separate ourselves and to keep us apart from God. Because sometimes the mind or the ego within us can tell us that we don't need God because we have too many parties to go to, and there are too many things to do, and you don't have time for God, and God is giving everything up, and then where will you be. You'll have to sit home. You can't ever get married. You'll never get to go out. That is the ego as I speak of it now. The illusion part of ourselves deluding ourselves into thinking that we are better than other men, and that we are separate from God.

We seek to overcome this. We turn the false ego into the true ego, which is the eternal I. And the eternal I is God himself. So we seek to understand illusion enough to gain reality. I liken illusion and reality unto a garden that is freshly planted and all the tiny granules of dirt all around that garden, all of them are illusion except for one grain of dirt in the very center of the garden that is reality. And so we go all around the garden experiencing and experiencing, seeking that one grain of dirt which is reality. And when we find the reality, we stand on it, we become that grain of dirt, and when we become that grain of dirt that is reality, we look all around us and all we see is illusion. You can't see reality. You have to become reality.

And when you become reality, you discover there is illusion. Because illusion is necessary. It is sustaining reality, as reality is sustaining illusion. So the whole idea is to battle within ourselves to close ourselves and purify ourselves, and find the God within us.

Turn the false ego into the true I, or the God, the God personality within us. That will give us our oneness. And when we have this oneness, we become reality, but we never leave illusion. There is nothing to leave. Because when we become reality, we see our brothers in bondage, and when we see our brothers in bondage, we seek to help them to become free as we are free. That's the whole idea of creation.

QUESTION: Is the return to the physical earth by the Master, is this a karmic thing to play your karma out, or is it self choice, the will to grow spiritually?

SERENA: When a man becomes God-conscious he is called a satguru, or sometimes a perfect Master. And this is karma that enables him to come from man-God or man becoming God-conscious into God returning to earth as a God-man or an avatar or saviour. This is karma many times. There is no karma that the person would be bound to. But it is just a good karma, to bring back an automatic from God conscious to God on earth. But then after that it is mostly a thing ruled by what they call the Law of Compassion that brings masters forward on the earth. Not karma, just a universal law that says," As ye love, so shall ye show your love." And you come back.

QUESTION: This experiencing oneness, is that an active process? That is to say, I decide: "I want to reach oneness." Can I decide that or do I have to make the next process, or do I have to wait until I'm ready.

SERENA: You are ready today. You are ready when you want to be ready. And when,we seek oneness with God, we have to first find God. And that means finding him in everything we look at. Like Jesus said, "I sit and I contemplate and meditate and I don't let it escape my mind all day until I find the God in that situation or that person. And when I find the God, I know exactly what to do, and I love the person or that situation. I achieve understanding." That is seeking oneness.

When we begin to find ourselves as God, God in all things. So it is quite a process. But we can't keep putting it off. We have to start today.

QUESTION: At what point do you have to have the guidance of a Master?

SERENA: When the student is ready the Master will appear. God always looks out for you. Abundantly. Good night. Thank you for coming.

QUESTION: Have you ever read Carlos Castaneda's books?

SERENA: No, but I have encountered a few people who say that he is their master. And they follow his books.

QUESTION: Do you believe that he has found his oneness.

SERENA: Well, I don't want to say anything about him. Because I don't know that much.

QUESTION: Not him, I am referring to his master who is Don Juan and Don Genaro.

SERENA: I don't know that much about him at all, except that the couple that I encountered seemed to be as I term it, "Using false means to find God." Which means that they told me that he was their Master, and they did, I don't know, I just call them "false means", drugs, mushrooms is what they used.

And the young man was truly a seeker, because he seemed to love God, but yet he seemed to also want to take the easy way out, and that is instead of purifying himself, he would just, I don't know however he does his mushrooms, but the mushrooms seem to bring it a lot faster he told me.

And he said he recognized me as a Master but he just wanted to come to get my advice about something he couldn't ask Carlos Castaneda. And I said, "What is it?" And he said, "The things that I experience with these mushrooms are so real. How do I get the feeling to stay with me? That's what I want to know" And I said, "Well, that's the only thing wrong I can find with what you are doing."

We can't seem to keep it. We still have to end up going around and doing like everybody else has to do. Love everyone, serve everyone, and become one with everything. You still have to purify." And so that's about all I know. I wouldn't know enough to say whether he is doing right or wrong. I guess that's up to each individual.

QUESTION: Well, yes, that is pointed out in the book. What his Master says is that students don't have to use drugs to get there, but for some people they need that jolt.

SERENA: But the jolt can come by sitting down and stilling our­selves and seeking God and then actually finding It. One of the greatest things that Buddha ever did was that he was scheduled to talk to a group of people and all these monks sitting and he walked out and everyone was so excited, and he held up a flower, and he didn't say a word.

That was it. It's called Buddha's greatest silence. Because he knew that if the people saw the beauty, the true beauty, of that flower, it was worth more than any words he could ever say. So that's a good lesson for us. Meher Baba says a very nice thing about drugs. He said, "If God has to be found through drugs, then God isn't worthy of being God." I believe that. Let's just all do it the right way.

Sometimes we think of our journey on the path as something slow and something that just is a lot of trouble and a lot of suffering and a lot of pain. But that's not true. Our journey on the path to God is a time when we have a lot of time to give and serve and love. It can be the most joyous experience of it all. And when you find God consciousness within yourself, sometimes we think it is a path of suffering and then one day, smack, there it comes. God right through your bedroom window one morning. Never the same again. But it doesn't happen that way.

It's a process of you keep giving more and more of yourself, keep loving in places where you find it hard to love, and you keep just giving and serving and loving and becoming and then one day you find God within yourself, and it doesn't come as a surprise at all. Because you realize that it's been coming. It's always been there, and you slowly watched it unfold, and that's God consciousness.

Now I think we should close in prayer.

God, thank you for this day, and for the many blessings that you have given us - the lessons which have come our way, the ones we have seen and become wise by, and those we have missed and perhaps can see again tomorrow. Help us to open the eyes of our souls that we might better understand you and your love. Attune us to that part that is within all of us. That part which is called the Divine Ocean of Love and Understanding. Let us become like the drop of water that when placed in the ocean becomes the ocean. This is how we can liken ourselves unto being one with Thee. Immerse us in Thy love. Let us become love. And let us spread love, light, and wisdom upon the world. Always seeking to benefit and not burden

In your ever-blessed name. Amen.