To read aloud
SEVENTY SECOND DIALOGUE
April 24, 1999
Peter: This morning I would like to bring to Your kind attention the
issue of empathy raised by Dr. Ardyth Norem. I believe this question
relates to the problem of ending up in taking over someone’s pain,
suffering, misery and similar adverse symptoms and making them one’s
own property. The question is how to avoid doing so and yet, at the same
time, to be able to continue in being empathetic. Is it appropriate to ask
this question or might its nature be too personalized and individualized?
However, I would like to ask You if You have anything to add first before
going into answering my and Ardyth’s question?
The Lord Jesus Christ: The majority of the aspects of this question
have a personalized and individualized nature. It is up to each individual
to determine from their own within, from My Presence within them,
asking Me for inspiration, illumination and enlightenment about how not
to fall into the trap of taking over other individuals’ conditions, whatever
they may be. However, some commonalities exist in how to experience or
apply feelings of empathy so that you don’t end up in this predicament.
Before going into this issue, I would like to take up your offer, Peter, and
add some points to the topic discussed in yesterday’s Dialog (Dialog 71).
It relates to the issue of temptation.
As you remember, your question was how the Biblical story of My
temptation by the devil (all evils of the negative state) relates to all of
you personally and to the nature of the ongoing shift. Besides what was
briefly mentioned in that Dialog about this relevance to your times, the
following points will be revealed.
Let Me tell you something important in this respect: Shortly, you will be
entering a very complicated phase of this shift which will put all of you in
the state of temptation. The Biblical story of My temptation will prepare
you to properly deal with that situation during which you may find
yourself in the state of temptation. In the manner and way I handled My
temptations, and by the example of what the outcome of them was, I
showed you how to proceed in this case.
As you noticed from the Biblical text, there were three areas of
temptations which I permitted to be recorded in the Bible. Only these
three have any relevance to your cases or which are accessible to your
human understanding. The numerous others, not recorded at that time,
relate only to Me and to the implementation of My Plan of Salvation of
the devil and Satan himself, symbolically speaking (meaning those
sentient entities who have been producing all evils and falsities).
The first area of temptation that you may be subjected to relates to your
desire to know more or to experience hunger for the understanding of
many things or getting answers to many questions which are not or
cannot be available to you at this time or at any time at all, as long as
you are in human life. Many events and situations have been occurring
up to this point and many will be occurring from now on which have been
and will be very brutal, puzzling, incomprehensible, intolerable,
unacceptable, senseless and confusing, making it impossible for you to
see them or to interpret them in the proper light. This situation may be
compared to the temporary state of darkness during which you are
unable to see anything or sense anything properly. The temptation in
such times will go something like this: “If you are the true
representatives of The Lord Jesus Christ, how is it possible or how come
you are not getting answers about the meaning of all these events and
situations, but are kept in total darkness about them? Or how come your
‘fabulous’ intuition doesn’t tell you what these things are all about? Isn’t
it true that if you are unable to discern or explain or comprehend the
meaning of all these things, then, in that case, you cannot be the true
representatives of your precious Lord Jesus Christ? You are deceiving
yourself, and you better accept the reality of who you really are. Give up,
man/woman, don’t kid yourself; you would be better off if you were to
become just like us without any claims of being someone different. You
are being deceived when you are being told that you have a special
wiring that makes you different from the regular us who don’t have it.”
What would be your response in situations like that? You may say or
think or feel something like this (if you choose to do so by your own
free will and choice): “The Lord Jesus Christ provides me only with
that or with so much as I need for each particular time of my life on this
planet — neither less nor more. If I am not getting answers to my
questions or if I am confused and unable to come up with any sensible
explanations about anything happening or taking place, it is for my own
protection, benefit and safety. It only means that such knowledge, at this
particular time, not only wouldn’t be beneficial for me, but it could hurt
my well-being. In all modesty, humbleness and humility I accept this
necessity and I am placing into the hands of my Lord Jesus Christ my
inappropriate hunger and thirst for knowing more, for wanting more and
for desiring more. By doing that, and by doing it this way, I am
acknowledging and confirming that I am a true representative of my
beloved Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, a response of this nature will
effectively terminate this particular temptation.
The second area of temptation that you may encounter during the
upcoming period relates to your possible fascination and admiration of
external things, of political things and of various external possessions.
The danger here is in placing the meaning of your life into having more
of them and in desiring to have power, control and domination over
others and things. Situations may present themselves to you in which
your preoccupation with these matters can become of such a degree that
you may lose the true spiritual perspective of such situations, tendencies
and desires. You may be promised, through all kinds of attractive
external goods, a happy, fulfilling, meaningful, peaceful and rich life if
only you would stop being bogged down in your so-called spiritual
considerations. In other words, the temptation in this respect would be to
give up your spiritual heritage, and being My true representatives, and
instead, to serve the negative state under the disguise of having total
control, power and domination over your own life and even of the lives of
others.
Your response during these types of temptations may go something like
this (again, if you choose it to be this, or a similar way by your
own free will and choice): “I am a humble servant and follower of The
True Lord Jesus Christ in His/Her and Her/His New Nature, the only
One Who has all power, control and domination or dominion over all and
over everyone and everything. There is no one or nothing that I have any
need or desire to serve, or to be under their influence, or to worship them
or to consider them of any importance to my life. By my own free will and
choice I am giving all such tempting thoughts, feelings, tendencies and
behaviors to my beloved Lord Jesus Christ Who is the only One who
counts in my life. Whatever I have or don’t have at this time or whatever
I will have or won’t have in the future, it is and it will be by the Will of
my Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s the only thing I need. For all that which
I have and don’t have, and which I will have and won’t have, I am deeply
and profoundly thankful, grateful and appreciative to my Lord Jesus
Christ because it is only He/She Who knows in an absolute sense what I
need or don’t need or what is the best for me at each junction of my life
on planet Zero or anywhere or anywhen else.” By saying, thinking or
feeling something like this, you will successfully ward off these types of
temptations and charms of the negative state.
The third possible temptation, which may come your way during this
particular shift, is the one which relates to your own personal, mostly
physical and/or mental sufferings, illnesses, anxieties, worries, pains,
discomfort, loneliness, depression, non-fulfillment, poverty, lack of
sufficient support and funds and similar negative states and conditions.
So, the question may be raised: “How come you are experiencing these
types of totally negative conditions if you are the true representatives of
The Lord Jesus Christ? How come your precious Lord Jesus Christ
doesn’t take care of His/Her own? Why are such things allowed to be
experienced by you? Isn’t it true that if you are experiencing them then
you are just like us and there is absolutely no difference between you and
us? Is this how the positive state looks and how your precious Lord Jesus
Christ treats you? Is it worthy at all to serve someone like that Who
allows you to go through all these miserable states?”
Your response, by your own free will and choice, in situations like
that can go something like this: “Away with you Satan — the falsities of
the negative state! By my own free will and choice I agreed to go through
these types of adverse experiences for some very important spiritual
reasons and for the learning and benefit of all. Such negative and
adverse states could never deter me from my true spirituality and from
being a true representative of my Lord Jesus Christ. Even He/She
Himself/Herself underwent all temptations, even the temptation on the
cross, in order to set up an example and to illustrate the futility of such
temptations and their total powerlessness to sway me from my spiritual
path and from my destiny. So, don’t waste your time and energy on
tempting me with your foolish and useless efforts to throw myself down
into your pit. It will never work. I accept in deep modesty, humbleness
and humility everything that I have been and will be going through in
my life on this planet, no matter how painful, miserable, negative and
adverse it has been or will be. It is all a part of my mission and
assignment.” By saying, thinking and feeling it this or a similar way, you
will be able to overcome these types of temptations.
If you look carefully on the content and mode of these temptations, which
you may be facing shortly or in the near future, you will find striking
similarities between them and those which were permitted by Me to be
recorded in the Gospels. I can assure you that the reason why the story of
My temptations has been on your mind, Peter, is that you would address
this issue from the position of its relevance to this particular time, during
the currently ongoing shift and how it may apply to all your lives in the
services for Me from the position of being My true representatives. And
this is all that I wanted to convey to you for now.
Peter: Thank You very much for these suggestions and support.
The Lord Jesus Christ: You are welcome, Peter. And now we may
address some aspects of the question about empathy.
As you know, empathy, together with mercy and compassion, derives
from the nature of unconditional love. Although there is some degree of
interconnectedness between empathy and mercy and compassion,
empathy is also able to function on its own merit. In order to better
understand what follows, it is necessary to define from our standpoint
the term ‘empathy’ first. What do we mean by this term regardless of
how it is defined in the common dictionaries of human languages? Such
definitions may or may not be what is meant by the spiritual aspects of
this term. In order to differentiate among these three terms — mercy,
compassion and empathy — it would be advisable to briefly define all of
them strictly from our own standpoint and understanding.
Empathy, in our conceptualization, is defined as an ability of any
sentient entity to feel and to sense what another sentient entity is going
through, no matter what it is, without internalizing or accepting or
taking over into himself/herself anything felt and experienced by the
other one. By the factor of this definition, empathy may or may not lead
to compassion, depending on the nature and character of such
experiences. If the experience is of the suffering type or of an adverse
type, or if one finds someone in a condition of needing support and help,
situations of this nature may evoke a state of compassion.
In this sense then, compassion may be defined as an internal state of
feeling for someone else’s state or predicament which leads to the
establishment of the need to be helpful and supportive of any individual
who is in the process of experiencing such predicaments or whatever it is,
again, without internalizing or accepting or taking over into
himself/herself the other individual’s states and conditions. If these
states and conditions are of such a nature that they require on your part
to let go of some negative feelings which you might have toward such an
individual, it may lead to the state of experiencing within you the need of
having mercy upon such an individual.
For that reason, in this sense, mercy can be defined as completely letting
go of any negative feelings, thoughts, attitudes, expectations and
behaviors that you may experience toward anyone who is, in some way or
other, indebted to you, whether spiritually, mentally, physically,
materially, financially, socially or in any other way.
These three states and conditions of your mind are rooted in the nature
of unconditional love itself. However, as you know, a true unconditional
love never functions or is expressed without its unconditional wisdom; as
unconditional wisdom never functions and is expressed without its
unconditional love. Otherwise, neither of them would be powerful or
properly functional and expressive. For this reason, the major attributes
of this wisdom — understanding, acceptance and forgiveness — need to
be taken into consideration if their proper function, application and
expression could be established.
Thus, whenever you acquire a full understanding of something or
someone’s condition, no matter what it is, and if this understanding is
based on the proper consideration of all spiritual factors of free will,
choice and agreement, it will lead you toward the establishment within
you of the need to accept the necessity of such an individual’s condition
and/or experience. If this experience, in some way, is of a negative and
harmful nature, and he/she shows remorse or sorrow or asks you or
others for forgiveness, based on all the above factors, you experience
within you a strong need for forgiveness and you really forgive.
So, what is going on in you if you find yourself in a predicament when
you feel empathy for someone’s suffering to such an extent that it
becomes your own suffering and, as a result, your own life becomes
miserable? First of all, the wisdom portion of this combination was not
properly applied in this case. It means that you have not properly
understood the need and the choice that such an individual had when
he/she accepted to go through such experiences. Because of that you were
unable to accept the fact that the individual in question placed
himself/herself in a position which enabled him/her to fulfill his/her
mission in this respect. And if the situation warranted the need for
forgiveness, in that case, you would not be able to forgive someone or
something, who, in your view, was the causative factor of such
conditions, states or experiences.
However, there is another reason for your negative experience in this
respect. Unconsciously, and sometimes even consciously, without having
proper understanding, knowledge and acceptance of such individuals’
needs and choices, you conclude that in no way they deserve to have
them or to suffer them. Because of that, by your unwise empathy, the
empathy which, in this particular case, excludes understanding and
acceptance, you want to free or liberate them from that condition. Thus,
in some sense, you are depriving them of having their own experiences
and fulfilling their own purpose for which they agreed to place
themselves, by having them.
There is a certain degree of spiritual arrogance in such an attitude.
Because of that, this attitude may lead to retribution and self-
punishment manifested in experiencing or taking over some symptoms of
other people’s problems. They are the warning signs that your attitude in
this respect is inappropriate and does not take into consideration all
factors from the proper spiritual view of the whole situation.
This is one aspect of this issue. Another aspect, which I believe is
Ardyth’s concern, is when you have empathy with someone and you
share yourself with that someone and that someone ends up hurting you
or rejecting you or both. In other words, you get burned. There are many
reasons why this can happen. This aspect of the problem is the one which
is totally individualized and personalized and therefore, it cannot be
revealed or explained through someone, in this case, through Peter, who
is in a different mode and level of experiencing and understanding of
anything.
One aspect of this situation though, may be touched upon. The question
here is: From what position do you establish any condition or build any
foundation for a relationship which would lead to sharing yourself with
each other? Is it empathy? Is it true love? Is it true understanding and
acceptance? Is it compassion? Or is it expectations and projections of how
such sharing should be experienced, and manifest itself? Are you relating
to that individual from yourself, from your own essence and substance,
directing it to that individual’s own essence and substance, from your
true “I am’ to the other’s true ‘I am?’ Or is it directed from your own ego
to the other individual’s ego and from all their negative attributes? Or in
a higher and most important sense, is such a relationship directed from
Me in you to Me in the other individual?
If you carefully explore all these factors, you may find the answer to your
questions about why such failures are occurring in many human
relationships. Simply stated, they are based on the wrong foundation;
they are approaching each other for the wrong reasons and with an
inappropriate intention and motivation.
On the other hand, don’t forget also the issue of some very individual,
personal and unique choices that you accepted before incarnating on
planet Zero into your brand of human life in order to place yourself into
having these types of adverse experiences for some very important
spiritual reasons. In that case, the understanding and acceptance of your
own destiny and of your own assignment while on planet Zero may help
you to cope with these problems, and in all modesty, humbleness and
humility, you will let go of any unnecessary expectations and
anticipations in this respect. If not, your life will continue to be
unbearable and unfulfilling, full of disappointments and unhappiness.
Peter: Thank You very much for this explanation. Is there anything else
that You would like to talk about today?
The Lord Jesus Christ: You are welcome, Peter. No, not today. I think
this is enough for the moment. Go and have a nice day.
Source: DIALOGUES WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST PART 1.
