Elizabeth Clare Prophet, will you tell us how the life of Jesus relates to our life today?

The life that God has given to us is a life that is intended to be used by our soul to attain reunion with the Inner Self. All else is extraneous and subject to that one goal. If we don’t make it in this life, we come again. The soul puts on a new set of “coats of skins,” or a new forcefield, and returns once again to the scenes of earth. This is why earth is so familiar to us; it’s because we’ve been evolving here for thousands and thousands of years

Life, then, is the path of initiation. Jesus, in his great love for the people of earth, came to show us how we could follow the path of initiation and in one concluding lifetime return to the heart of God as he did in the ritual of the ascension.

When we see the life of Jesus as a life marking the stations of our own individual initiation, we look at the birth of Christ as the sign of the birth of our own Christ consciousness—the moment when we determine to manifest the Father-Mother God and to bring forth that Christ light. We have the decision of Jesus to be about his Father’s business. We have his decision to discourse with the doctors in the temple, to expound upon the Law. And then between the ages of twelve and thirty, he is in the East preparing for the final three years of his Galilean mission.

One of his first initiations in these three years is the ritual of baptism, an important initiation symbolizing the cleansing and consecration of the soul to the will of God. We have his transfiguration before the disciples. We see his crucifixion, his resurrection. And between the transfiguration and the crucifixion, he works many miracles, so-called, as demonstrations of the science that we must one day prove.

The fact of the matter is that we must affirm that we are being transfigured every day, that we are experiencing the resurrection every day, that we are ascending. Even by a tiny, tiny increment each day we are drawing closer and closer to that energy forcefield that is the white-fire core of the atom of Self.

Continuing in order with the “Heart, Head and Hand Decrees,” we find that with each successive mantra we draw forth a greater degree of light. As we become more sensitive, we actually feel this light building within our own bodies. We can begin to feel the burning in the heart, which the disciples felt on the road to Emmaus when they were near the master but did not recognize him.

The burning in the heart indicates the expansion of the threefold flame. It is the sacred fire actually consuming the misqualified energies of fear and hatred and impure motive that often surround the heart.

The one pursuing the initiation of the transfiguration, then, gives the following mantra from the “Heart, Head and Hand Decrees:”

I AM changing all my garments,
Old ones for the bright new day;
With the sun of understanding
I AM shining all the way.

I AM light within, without;I AM light is all about.
Fill me, free me, glorify me!
Seal me, heal me, purify me!
Until transfigured they describe me:
I AM shining like the Son,
I AM shining like the sun!

There is a tremendous joy in this mantra of the transfiguration because it represents an influx of light whereby the very cells of our bodies begin to be filled with light and to be flushed of physical as well as mental and emotional toxins.

The joy of giving these mantras is the joy of becoming God.

What is the meaning of the term right living?

Right living is one of the requirements of the Eightfold Path of the Buddha, and right living means being obedient to the Inner Self. For thousands of years people have rebelled against the laws of God because they have felt that they were imposed from without as a yoke and as a burden. This rebellion against what seems to be outside of oneself is really the ultimate folly of rebelling against one’s own being, one’s own True Self.

Moses received the Ten Commandments. Jesus gave us a new commandment. We have received the code of living from all of the great gurus. Confucius’ teaching was a very practical wisdom for everyday life.

This is really what the great masters have come to show us—how to live on earth and yet to remain in God. And it comes down to a few simple precepts: Love the LORD thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself.

So right living means being obedient to the highest principles of the religion we were brought up in. Whether we are followers of Muhammad or Zarathustra or Confucius, Lao Tzu or Mother Mary, we must remember that the basic precepts of honesty and right living are a proper and necessary matrix for the science of the spoken Word, this science of alchemy that comes with the Holy Spirit.

Is it true, then, that the Science of the Spoken Word is in no way a substitute for moral rectitude?

Yes. In fact, if the Science of the Spoken Word is used without the correction of our way of life, it will not be effective because the Law will not work for those who are out of alignment with that Law. If we steal, if we kill, if we partake of substances that we ought not to partake of, we are depriving ourselves of the benefits of the pure energy of the Word.

Is the Science of the Spoken Word useful in taking care of all the little habits and negative traits that plague most of us?

That’s a very interesting question. The Ascended Master Lord Maitreya has answered that question in his teachings on the overcoming of fear through decrees. He reminds us that Paul expressed the dilemma of these subconscious motivations and momentums when he said, “The good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do.”

Maitreya asks: What can the modern-day disciple do to protect himself from evil intent and evil action that he finds manifesting in himself and in the world at large? And he answers the question by talking about the discipline of the controlled use of energy through the Science of the Spoken Word.

Maitreya compares the momentum of habit to a coil of an electromagnet wound around its core. The number of times that the coil is wound around the core determines the power of the habit and its momentum. In other words, the number of times that the habit is engaged in determines its strength.

We can break that momentum through the use of the Science of the Spoken Word. As we give the mantras, we break the power of habit. Maitreya tells us that instead of unwinding the coil turn by turn, we can break right through the entire forcefield of that coil and break the habit by the power of God through the Science of the Spoken Word.

What exactly is meant by the term initiation?

Initiation is the testing of the soul. It is God’s way of determining how we will use the gift of free will. Temptation comes before us; we have to make a decision to walk the path of honor or to walk the path of the compromise of truth. As soon as we demonstrate that we are just stewards of the Law and of the abundance of God, God gives us more. He makes us caretakers of others and of larger fields of energy, more abundance, more supply, more responsibility on earth.

Every day we are receiving initiations and every day we are sending a message to our I AM Presence as to whether or not we are worthy to be counted as joint heirs of the Christ consciousness.

Are we worthy to inherit this Christ mind, this mind of the Buddha, this mind of Confucius?

It is ours for the overcoming, but we have to pay a price, and that price is to follow the inner law and to be obedient to the inner voice.

So one progresses on the Path by demonstrating one’s faithfulness and one’s courage?

In the parable of the talents, Jesus taught, “If thou wilt be faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many.” The path of initiation is the only way that God has of determining whether we are ready for an increase of light, of the Holy Spirit, of graces and of the inner keys.

There are inner keys that are transferred to the individual by the ascended masters and by his own Inner Self as he passes his tests. And these keys are the very keys that we would have—the keys to the mastery of the science of Matter as well as the science of Spirit.

What are some of these keys?

The multiplication of the loaves and fishes. We have talked about a mantra that could be used to attain the abundance of God. But there are further keys behind that mantra from which that mantra comes. These are not lawful to reveal because they are the keys that are imparted to the individual by the master himself.

There is an old saying that goes, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears.” When we show that we are ready because we have been faithful over a few things, we have been willing to discipline our lives and our energies, then we find that the ascended masters approach us.

And as they come—either through a book, through a person, through a teaching, through our hearing about the Science of the Spoken Word—we begin to pursue the master. We begin to say, “I am going to do what that master says because I want to be like him.” So we begin demonstrating the master’s techniques and we find that in our own heart of hearts God speaks to us and gives us the key of life.

Is everybody being initiated?

Everyone is being initiated. Earth is a schoolroom. The moment you get out of bed in the morning your initiation begins and it doesn’t stop till you retire at night!

Everybody is making the decision hour by hour to be or not to be in Reality, in Truth, in God.

Does that mean that everybody is on the Path?

“The Path” means the path of the ascension. It is the goal of life for everyone to be on that path. But there are a number of tests and a number of challenges that you must meet before you can say you are actually on the path of the overcomers who are tied to the ascended masters.

Those who are on that path are daily pursuing the balancing of their karma and the fulfilling of their dharma—the duty to be oneself, to fulfill one’s reason for being.