A GUIDE TO YOUR ECSTATIC UNION WITH GOD
THE ASCENSION HANDBOOK
BY THE TWO MARYS
CHANNELED BY JESSIE KEENER
INTERVIEWED/EDITED BY JOEL D. ANASTASI
INTERVIEWED/EDITED BY JOEL D. ANASTASI
Discourse Nine
PRACTICE MASTERING
D I S C O M F O RT
Joel: I’m feeling as though I should apologize to you. I know you
don’t need an apology. But I’m very aware that I need to spend more
time with these teachings. A lot of what was showing up for me
I need to study them more and apply them.
Two Marys: Indeed. You have explained it perfectly. There is no need,
of course, for any apology to anyone but yourself. For when you
review the last dialogue, you see what you have done for yourself.
You have created that trespassing that we discussed, and then you
found yourself in the mess. You were awake and aware enough to
say, “OK, I’m in the mess.” That is preferable to being oblivious
and in denial. It is more enlightened to wake up and acknowledge
to yourself, “OK, I am in the mess.”
So, indeed, that is the process. As you are learning, the process
can be easier and go more quickly when you are engaging with others and aware that every unfoldment, every circumstance, every
interaction is grist for the mill of the teaching.
We applaud you for choosing that insight, for you have chosen
to end your relationship with duality by choosing to be in the insight
versus in victimhood. You are choosing to enter into love, into self-
love, into your growth, into the resonance of your spirituality, into
your spiritual mission.
And, indeed, what is that mission? That mission will always be
about expanding into more. By choosing to be awake enough to
notice that you are getting messy, you demonstrate you have chosen
expansion, Ascension, awakening, or whatever you choose to call it.
And beloved Joel, beloved students, this is the springboard
for the topic for this discourse. For it is time to truly discuss the
student’s relationship with comfort at a whole other level. The
discussion of comfort zones has been utilized before. Each student
recognizes her own relationship with discomfort and comfort
zones.
Here is the rub. Each student has an unconscious aspect of her
mind that repels her from pushing the boundaries of her comfort
zone. So the only way for the student to progress is to practice the
art of integrating discomfort. Expanding consciousness involves
growth, and GROWTH CREATES DISCOMFORT.
In the previous discourse, we mentioned that when students
trespass, when they wake up to the fact that what they have been
up to is not congruent with Ascension, it is very uncomfortable to
discover that they are in the mess. This starts a whole other level
of trespassing—shaming and judging themselves for being in the
mess.
The only way to stay rational in the face of great discomfort is to
learn to MASTER discomfort. When you study the practices that
historically have been used to develop spiritual students, they always
include practices to master discomfort by producing discomfort
in the BODY—uncomfortable yoga poses, uncomfortable breath
work, uncomfortable exercises.
Humans do not pleasure themselves into growth. Most spiritual
A TEST FOR THE LESSONS YOU ARE HERE TO LEARN.
That is a beautiful paradigm. How fantastic for the students
to realize that everything occurring in their life is a testing ground
for the life lessons they are here to learn. Whether it is lack and
limitation, whether it is suppressing communication, whether it
perfect lessons or tests for the student.
So instead of judging oneself for falling down, what if the
interpretation was “Fantastic. I have fallen down, so I can use
this situation as an OPPORTUNITY to get back to my heart.”
All of a sudden it is an opportunity, not a disaster. It is an
moment that fosters more growth. Who decides? The student, of
course.
So the practices are NOT designed to be comfortable. The
practices that we endorse—that the spiritual masters, the avatars
of your third dimensional planet have always endorsed—involve
MASTERY OF DISCOMFORT.
Perhaps it will help the students to realize why they hesitate
so often to reach into their tool kit to practice a tool. They have
not mastered the discomfort that occurs before the situation is resolved. What if not having it all resolved, just being in the chaos,
was viewed as a perfect opportunity to master discomfort?
Many channeled teachings are coming through to humanity
right now advising humans to change their lives; disrupt the status
quo; end things that aren’t working; begin things that the heart
wants; say no to outside intruders; stay focused. These are all
accurate teachings. Underneath all of them is the idea that the
student must be able to hang out in the discomfort of not knowing.
For that is what the discomfort is all about, is it not? “I do not
know. I can’t see. I don’t understand. I don’t like how it feels.” All of
this involves the fear of not knowing.
Now, beloved students, these are all products of the mind.
And, of course, there is no knowing in the mind. The knowing
is always in the heart. What if the doorway to your heart was
actually paved with discomfort, and each state of discomfort was
interpreted as one step closer to a full heart? Can you see how that
instantly changes the entire paradigm? “Oh, this discomfort. If I
practice correct consciousness with my discomfort, it will lead me
to my heart.”
Humans won’t go to their heart without discomfort pushing
them there. They will seek other avenues through the mind and
through distractions. That is why people choose to live in ashrams
and monasteries and rid themselves of distraction. It’s much more
challenging to stay on track with your mission while living among
people who are living their regular lifestyles.
The students reading this handbook are living, breathing, and
eating in their normal lives.Therefore, your capacity for discomfort,
to have compassion for yourself when you are in the “I don’t know
part” must be substantial. How do you do that? It is much like doesn’t understand or know anything about that experience. Yet,
when those contractions begin and the baby is being born, the body
knows everything it needs to know.
Where is that for the student? In your heart. Your heart
knows everything it needs to know. How will you get there? By
developing an enormous compassion for yourself, accepting that
the road is paved with discomfort. Why do you think austerity
exists in the schools, the ashrams, the monasteries? Austerity is
UNCOMFORTABLE. Indeed, this is the sign of mastery when
students have developed such a tolerance, such a loving capacity,
such a compassion for themselves with their discomfort that they
LOVE THEMSELVES through it.
It is not about having lots of tools in the tool kit. It is about
being willing to not know the outcome of reaching for the tools, to
not know the answer and simply engage with the discomfort until
it takes you back to your heart.
So if we use the example of your own planet as a model, it
is easy to see the planet has been going through discomfort. It is
obvious as she shifts and changes herself to her next highest order
of integration. It is not about comfort. It is about moving. For
transformation to occur, disruption must happen. The status quo
must be changed. Full disruption must occur with regard to certain
beliefs, certain brainwashing, certain erroneous assumptions about
how it all works and, of course, that obsessive, addictive part that
just needs to know the answers.
So for that realignment to take place, one must become much
like a marathon runner regarding discomfort.The marathon runner
may experience something called the “wall.”When he hits the wall, he will know it because he has been told by his coaches and others
back with everything he has and continue moving his body forward. time, there is no way they can conceive how much chaos it will
produce in their body. And when they hit the wall, those that keep
going are really just repeating one thing to themselves: keep going,
keep going, keep going.
The purpose of developing a relationship with discomfort is
not about asking the student to CHOOSE discomfort. It is to
simply acknowledge that discomfort is REQUIRED on the way to
growth. It is required. We have discussed before that the suffering
one attaches to painful bodily sensations is entirely optional. There
is no universal law that says when the intensity of pain builds to
certain levels you must suffer. It is not law. It is a belief system, a
very destructive belief system. Suffering is optional.
Suffering is the context in which that owner/occupant of the
body is operating. The paradigm says intense pain equals suffering.
The spiritual adept says intensity equals opportunity to become
more expanded: “Let me go into this intensity. Let me use my tools.
Let me honor this transformational moment within myself. And let
me practice with this.”
This is the way of the spiritual adept. This is the way of
developing more compassion for yourself and for your relationship
with suffering. It is an option for you to simply choose to end your
relationship with suffering, much like choosing to practice or to
choose Ascension.
It is not true that one must suffer to ascend. It is true that
one must CHANGE to ascend. It is true that one must GROW
to ascend. And it is certainly true that to become a master, one
must DEVELOP MASTERY WITH DISCOMFORT. It is not
discomfort saying, “Yes, I embrace it. Yes, it is intense. Yes, God is
intense. Yes, Ascension is intense.”
It is very apparent that human beings are addicted to intensity
through all their distractions—intense movies, books, and politics.
Yet humanity has a complete aversion to FRUITFUL intensity
in the body. “Let us make our women completely numb so they
cannot feel their body giving birth.” How does this serve spiritual
unfoldment? It does not.
So to truly master discomfort, you must develop the courage
to KEEP GOING. The courage of the universe is yours. How
does God keep expanding? Through love, which is courage. Lots of
but it is absolutely guaranteed there will be injuries along the way.
The adept says, “Goody, here we go again, time for more healing.
Thank God I get to heal. Thank God I get to keep going with this. Thank God I have some idea of what this might be about.”
It is such a pleasure for the part of us that remembers being
human to witness the student’s courage. It is time for everyone
who reads this material to recognize that courage, to recognize
that you already have compassion for yourself. It is time to turn
that volume all the way up. It is time to say, “Yes, I will allow all
the courage of the universe to be mine.” It is time for the student required that I SURRENDER WHEN I DISCOVER MYSELF
SUFFERING.”
SURRENDER AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. That is the mantra
of the spiritual adept: “I surrender. In this moment I choose
surrender.” And then, of course, as the surrender occurs, the
students are restored into that stillness, that purity of the heart,
where once again they remember who they are. They remember
God’s love. They remember their birthright to be love, to be God
experiencing God through this precious vehicle called a human
body, to be loved and to love. In that place whatever is on purpose
for that student to be revealed will be revealed.
So the consciousness of the student begins to draw on the
God power of divine love when the student says, “I will redesign
my contextual experience of living life so that I will begin
to see everything that is unfolding for me as the PERFECT
OPPORTUNITY—not some exasperating circumstance that
makes no sense.”
As that student begins that theme, she will be using everything
from humor as a tool to exercises with breath, movement, and sound
to discussions with like-minded individuals who can say, “Yes, I
you go through this. I will hold this space so that you will develop
more self-love as you embrace your circumstance. And I observe for
you and with you that because you are choosing to embrace this
That is how a soul family operates. Family members recognize
everything that is occurring is about those lessons. When the Two
Marys walked on the Earth as women on a mission, they were exceedingly handicapped being women. Now in our expansion, of
course, we understand how fabulous that we chose to be women
walking with a Messiah.
How great that we could master our bodies so that we would
completely understand our spiritual development from childbirth.
We would then have the gift of being mothers letting our children
break our hearts over and over and be women walking with an
avatar that was at times loved and at times scorned. How perfect to
master discomfort.
Now, students, look at your life anew and ask yourself, “How
have I designed it perfectly to learn mastery with my body? Not
that my body betrays me with injuries or diseases, but how have I
actually set it up through those issues to potentially put myself in a
position of mastery? Have I recognized that, or do I avert my inner
vision from the simple truth that the lessons are showing me? Am I
seeing it as a perfect masterpiece of creation? Am I able, even if it’s
painful, to chuckle and say, wow, I sure set that up well so I could
learn more mastery. Fabulous.
“How interesting that my mind wants to run down that
wretched track in my brain where the only possible outcome will be
suffering. How interesting that I can observe that and practice not
going down that path and just be uncomfortable and return to my
center and say I love myself even when I’m uncomfortable. I love
myself as God even when it’s complete chaos in my body. I love
myself no matter what I’m feeling.”
It is time for the students to see the perfection of their creation
in every domain of their life, in every circumstance. “How is this
teaching me trust, self-love, courage, and compassion for myself ?”
Humans might think it is time to have more compassion for each other. That is not quite it. It is time for humans to have more
compassion for THEMSELVES, which will then out picture as
more compassion for each other. But it must start with them.
Students, create an inventory for yourself in the different
domains of your life. Are you aware of what lessons permeate every
domain of your life? Is it courage? Is it compassion for yourself ?
Is it to have more trust in the chaos? What is the lesson you are
currently experiencing? Start to proclaim your circumstances as
perfect and be grateful for the lessons they are teaching you. You
created them so you could test yourself, so you could learn your
lessons. You are the master teacher.
The more you perceive, the more you gain detachment from the
drama and the glamour of suffering. There is the belief in Western
culture that it is somehow civilized to suffer. There is nothing
civilized about suffering. If you are suffering, you are avoiding the
lessons. You are avoiding practicing the tools from the tool kit, and
you are being dishonest with yourself about universal law.
There is a term used in the human potential movement in your
Western culture called “radical honesty.” The Two Marys endorse
the idea of radical honesty, which in an ashram, mystery school,
or a temple the word would not be required. Every student
would understand that the only honesty is full honesty. But in your
current culture, you need a word such as because it is radical
to be honest. Of course, it has become radical to tell the truth in
your culture.
So we recommend a radical form of honesty for yourself, one
that is tempered with great compassion because your culture fosters
all this deceit, pretentiousness, and inauthenticity. As a result,
being honest with yourself about what you are doing, what you are creating, what you are resisting, and what you are experiencing is
radical. As you read this, let that be a little uncomfortable. There is
a reason it is uncomfortable. Everyone reading this understands it
is not wise or honorable to be dishonest with yourself. It is a habit,
a learned behavior. It is not fact based, and it doesn’t resonate with universal law. It is, in a bizarre way, an act or defiance.
So we recommend that you make an inventory of your life and map it out according to such categories as your relationships, your physical health and well-being, your spiritual life, and your money/material concerns. You really want compassionate, rigorous honesty in these areas.
So we recommend that you make an inventory of your life and map it out according to such categories as your relationships, your physical health and well-being, your spiritual life, and your money/material concerns. You really want compassionate, rigorous honesty in these areas.
How fantastic a cocreator you are that you have created these
challenges in one or more of these categories at this time! Why? For
the purpose of painting yourself into a corner so that you could
transform yourself into something more. How glorious! What an
artist you are! What a masterpiece you have created! Acknowledge
that. Love that about yourself. Look and ask yourself, “How am I
doing? Am I embracing each lesson showing up in each category of
my life?” There is always one lesson that is dominating each domain.
We recommend you do this process monthly. If you’re truly
interested in your progress, each year review all twelve months to
see where you’ve been to acknowledge your progress and to consider
where might you want to go next. What do you want to happen
next? What is your life calling for next? Contemplate that.
The Two Marys wish to inform students that they may derive
compassion from various sources that they may not have conscious own spirit guides, angels and helpers; from the Christ Consciousness;
from Gaia, who has gone before humanity and is actually in the
leading edge of Ascension; from the compassion of nature; from
the compassion of deceased spiritual masters; from the compassion
of the animals. There is no end to the compassion available.
With radical honesty you will open yourself up to more and
more compassion. At some point that compassion will move you
to such depth that you will be permanently in touch with your
spiritual destiny.
We want to acknowledge that no one reading this material gets
for their ability to surrender, for their ability to keep going when the
going gets rough. So now at this time we offer you our benediction,
our love, and our certainty that because you chose and you have
been chosen, you are the way, you are the light, you are the truth,
and you are the peace that surpasses all understanding.
If we were in front of you now in physical form, we would
give you a standing ovation. Please give yourself a standing ovation
on our behalf. We invite you at this time to stand up, to cheer out
loud, to hug yourself, and to congratulate yourself for your part in
God’s plan, the Cosmic Consciousness, for your part in assisting in
every aspect of the expansion. Thank yourself for showing up and
receiving your good and your birthright.
You may call on us at any time to assist you in your grand
adventure of Ascension. Call on your guides. Seek others who
resonate with your plans for Ascension. Study the discourses. Have
discussion groups about the discourses, if you choose. Practice
your tools, and we will meet you beyond this dimension.
