Living the Path to Mastership
By John Morton. D.S.S.
This article comes from John’s sharing at a Path to Mastership workshop held in September 2020.
On the path to mastership, one of the traits is simple – a willingness to do what it takes. A lot of that is enduring. I experience the traits as having a kind of order. These traits are keys to the Mystical Traveler Consciousness. All of the traits connect to mastership and the path to God.
Then, is it really a path? Consider it’s a living truth, always present no matter the condition. Whatever is going on in your life, you are in touch with the path to mastership and with the consciousness of God.
There is this aspect we call the Mystical Traveler, which we also call the Inner Master. It’s present in everyone. It doesn’t need to be recognized or acknowledged. It just is because it’s transcendent in all of its qualities. They are always present, and practically leading to the best in our life. If we develop ourselves in these traits, we are fully developing in our life purpose.
All traits are important. Maybe there is a particular trait that is most useful to you in the moment. I find myself processing the path to mastership in two primary ways. Is it truthful? Is it loving? I need both. If I declare, “This is truthful,” I also need to check, “Is it loving?” If I say, “I just love this,” is that truthful? Make sure it’s truthful.
Just as the Kingdom is within, these qualities are within every person. We do not need verification outside ourself. We might get a beautiful reflection that what is inside is being magnificently reflected outside. But we also may get a lousy reflection from what is outside. A reflection that denies your truth, denies your love. It’s like, “You don’t really love me. If you loved me, you would do what I want.”
That sounds like ego to me. The loving may transcend what I want, and the truth may transcend what I want. If it’s between what you want or the truth and love, I would go with truth and love,
Another trait may come in – sacrifice. I may have to sacrifice what I want to be in my truth and love. Is that easy? I hope so. Sometimes it takes discipline. Discipline is to let go of what I want so I can be in what is truthful that is all around. Truth-full, full of truth.
My experience is there is a truth that knows the truth, no matter what. It doesn’t need a witness. It is independent of anybody’s point of view. Truth is first. Sacrifice is next. I sacrifice what is not the truth. How many of us would do that? Stop living a lie, pretending or saying one thing and doing another. It starts to reduce who is in play. Who is willing to sacrifice to be on the path to mastership?
What is next? Faith. What is that about? Maybe that’s about, “I’m not sure about the truth. I don’t know what the truth is.” Consider there is a truth that transcends what you think. Do you have a willingness to go with that truth? Maybe just have faith that you will check it out. You will act as if it’s true and find out what happens. We can do that by faith.
There is a truth that you naturally know. Call it intuition, faith or your trust. Are you willing to put your body in alignment with that? Act as if you are loving and do what loving would do? If some part of you says, “I can’t love that,” consider that is a lie. You can love that. Maybe the truth is you don’t want to love it. If that is the truth, you can say that.
Let’s say you can’t say that love is unconditional. You can’t say you can love anything. That is a supreme love. God’s love is unconditional, always loving in all ways. Unloving does not really exist. Only loving is true and always true. You can deny it, saying “I don’t believe that.” But that is your opinion.
Consider what triumphs. Consider what is present the moment the day is done. There is a loving presence that is always with us. What is temporary is hatred. It’s not going to last. Hatred comes and it must go. It must stop. It exhausts itself and doesn’t have the strength to pick up the weapon, pull the trigger or do the deed. Something stops it.
One of the great teachings from John-Roger is the “cessation of againstness”. Peace is the cessation of againstness. The Bible talks about a peace that surpasses understanding. We do not need to understand it. It is peaceful even if it makes no sense whatsoever. Even where there may be pain, suffering and agony, there is still a peace that surpasses understanding. There is peace, glory and beauty present. These are on the path to mastership.
Our creativity, what we do with our lives, comes with what we look at and where we place our faith and our trust. New creativity is always coming present.
The next trait is intelligence. I look at intelligence also as wisdom. It is the ability to see the best choice within all the circumstances and make that choice. There is the intelligence.
In the teachings, it’s simple – do what is right. Does that mean somebody is wrong? That is not the kind of “right” I’m talking about. It means the best choice. Maybe there is a dilemma like, “I don’t see any best choice. They’re all bad.” What is the least bad? Consider that is the best choice.
Sometimes the best choice is no choice. Be careful with “no choice” because life is going to make choices for us. It’s called default. If you don’t want to make a choice, one will be made for you. My experience with that kind of choice is often that anything would have been better than doing nothing. As long as the attitude is, “I’m going to do what is best. I want to make it better,” that is intelligence.
Next in the line of traits – will. There is a personal will. Let’s call that choice. I like to reserve God’s will for God. What do you do with your ability and power? We could call that our personal will to make a difference. What do you want to create? What results do you want to have? That is where will can come in as devotion.
What is your commitment? It’s one thing to say what our commitment is. It is another thing to do it, demonstrating our life is on the line. Did we have the will to keep going, creating what we want to create? Even if it doesn’t go our way, we have the will to keep going.
Let me offer this to you – you can act in God’s will. That is powerful. There is a saying, “If God be for you, who can be against you?” My God is with me. With armies on the battlefield, it’s not uncommon for both sides to claim God on their side. Let’s consider that is true. God loves everyone. God is on both sides. Who is going to triumph? Consider that is in God’s will.
In the Muslim faith, they have a word, Inshallah. In there is Allah, the word for God, the God of the soul. Inshallah means the will of God is going to prevail. If I say, “Let’s have lunch tomorrow at noon, Inshallah,” it means if God wills it. I’m covering my bases. I do not want to do what God does not will. It will happen if God wills it.
I look at God’s will as having a lot of range in it, but with freedom for our choice. We all have an abundance of choice, even if it doesn’t appear abundant outwardly. Inwardly, we are free to decide how we want to think or feel about it. That is our choice.
After devotion comes discipline. I look at discipline as another word for following. There is a way to mastership. That includes what we are doing inside, how we focus. What is our attitude? If we think about something, energy is following. Our creativity has energy in it. Be careful what you think, especially the kinds of thoughts you hold true. Check out your beliefs, faith and trust, because energy is going to follow. There is a natural law that where we look, energy goes into that.
The first look is in the inner mind. Do you see yourself being successful, kind and loving? Do you see your life that way with others and with whatever circumstances are involved? We all came packaged with imagination. Our mind has the ability to present an image. There is freedom in what we can imagine.
We can imagine whatever we want to. Be careful what you imagine. John-Roger reminded us to always win in our fantasies. We make up our fantasies. It’s our choice. Let’s make it up so we win. What if it doesn’t turn out that way? We don’t win in the way we imagined. Inshallah. God’s will.
Trust that whatever happens is in God’s will. That’s how powerful God’s will is. If it is allowed, it’s in God’s will. That is who God is. If it’s not in God’s will, it is not going to happen. That is powerful.
Our freedom of choice has great range. On the path of mastership, we are always learning from whatever takes place. That’s good. Some of the great questions are, “What am I learning from this? What is this circumstance teaching me? Who is this person as my teacher? What lesson are they bringing me I need to learn?”
Consider this thing we call karma, the law that is in God’s will. What you sow you must reap. What you put out comes back to you. What goes around, comes around. It means you are a responsible creator.
Have the discipline to go with what creates what you want to create. If your life is not working for you and what you want to create is not happening, consider you are being disciplined. You are being taught, having the experiences you need for your learning and growth.
You are a living “master-in-training”. You have a thing or two to learn. That is my life. I am still a student. That’s primary. Are you a teacher? My life is a teaching, and life is a message. I am not the first to say that. Everyone has that teaching in their life.
What we do speaks loudly. What we choose comes back to us. Choose wisely. Choose with discipline and ask yourself, “Is this what I want to create?” John-Roger said, “If you want to be happy, do happy things.” If you want to be joyful, do joyful things. Peaceful? Do peaceful. Could it be that simple? Yes. There’s the law.
We are going to learn according to what we are responsible to as creators. We can go to the master class and play at the highest level. That takes great willingness. I prefer the word “willingness” versus personal will. Are you willing? Are you going to give your best effort? Don’t profess one thing and do another. Be true to your word, and if you are not, change your word.
Perhaps you say, “When I said it, I meant it.” Then, maybe you learned a thing or two. It wasn’t true then and it’s not true now. You needed to learn, and that is what you’re going to do. That becomes a discipline. More importantly, you find out if it is in your heart as a living truth. Let’s call that a dream, a vision, an image of what you can become.
If it’s in your heart as a living truth, it is what you can become. Maybe it takes your mastership to make it manifest. Maybe it’s God’s will being done. You are going to become what that is regardless of what you do. It’s your destiny and life purpose.
With God, our life purpose is divine. That is what I see. It’s complete and total. We are all living masters. Maybe we just haven’t found out yet. We are in our process.
Service comes after discipline. Our life becomes one of service, the highest consciousness that manifests into this world. It must be a loving consciousness. You may ask, “How can I love you as a consciousness of service?”
If I am going to love you, I need to have loving. I love myself to give you the loving. If you can get to a place where you can’t tell if it’s my loving or your loving, consider that it is God’s loving. God loves all of Its creation, and not in any incomplete way. We are all fully loved. When we share that divine love, it doesn’t matter where it’s directed. It’s like the sun, radiating in every direction. It radiates to all. It is also called the Light.
The path to mastership is the path of love and light. It is a beautiful vibration. The key that moves us into mastership is loving it all. It doesn’t hold back for anything or anyone. That is the greatest love.
Can you sustain it? Consider a moment where you love everyone and everything. Have you had a moment like that? When I’ve asked that question in groups, the majority of hands go up saying, “Yes, I’ve had that experience in just one moment.” They are saying, “I loved everyone and everything, even the worst of it.” That is mastership. It transcends whatever is going on.
Baruch Bashan
Blessing of the Living Master
Dear Lord, we are in Your embrace, all of us together.
Your embrace is complete and full with loving for all,
including all the conditions, all the people, and all that is needed.
We give thanks that we have the opportunity to be in our path of mastership,
to be conscious and willing toward the truth.
So we let go. We sacrifice as needed.
We come into the truth that is the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
We find our faith.
We find our trust in the highest good of all concerned.
We find the way is prepared in creativity.
We find we know the way in a conscious awareness.
We are blessed with Your intelligence and wisdom.
Our will and our willingness become Your will being done.
Our commitment is our devotion to be one and truthful to Your will being done.
We have all that is needed.
So we will follow in Your way.
We will exercise this discipline.
In this way we are of service to You and to all that is serving
this will being done.
We are the consciousness of the Beloved.
Loving for all in all ways.
We become aware that there is an anointing that comes from the Holy Spirit. It is the simple ability and authority to do what God would do in our way,
with great acceptance of this power and this choice
with great patience to do it in perfect timing, in perfect ways.
We are one with you, Beloved.
Beloved of God.
We are the consciousness of the living master.
Baruch Bashan
Path to Mastership Resources:
The MSIA store offers several products by John-Roger related to Path to Mastership. They may be found on the MSIA website at: https://www.msia.org/shop/s=path+to+mastership&post_type=product
Also, on ThatWhichIs.org in Premium, you may listen to the audiobook, Path to Mastership, as well as various seminars by John-Roger and John Morton and SAT seminars on the topic of mastership. To login or subscribe, go to:
https://www.msia.org/media/videos/
Baruch Bashan
This article comes from John’s sharing at a Path to Mastership workshop held in September 2020.
On the path to mastership, one of the traits is simple – a willingness to do what it takes. A lot of that is enduring. I experience the traits as having a kind of order. These traits are keys to the Mystical Traveler Consciousness. All of the traits connect to mastership and the path to God.
Then, is it really a path? Consider it’s a living truth, always present no matter the condition. Whatever is going on in your life, you are in touch with the path to mastership and with the consciousness of God.
There is this aspect we call the Mystical Traveler, which we also call the Inner Master. It’s present in everyone. It doesn’t need to be recognized or acknowledged. It just is because it’s transcendent in all of its qualities. They are always present, and practically leading to the best in our life. If we develop ourselves in these traits, we are fully developing in our life purpose.
All traits are important. Maybe there is a particular trait that is most useful to you in the moment. I find myself processing the path to mastership in two primary ways. Is it truthful? Is it loving? I need both. If I declare, “This is truthful,” I also need to check, “Is it loving?” If I say, “I just love this,” is that truthful? Make sure it’s truthful.
Just as the Kingdom is within, these qualities are within every person. We do not need verification outside ourself. We might get a beautiful reflection that what is inside is being magnificently reflected outside. But we also may get a lousy reflection from what is outside. A reflection that denies your truth, denies your love. It’s like, “You don’t really love me. If you loved me, you would do what I want.”
That sounds like ego to me. The loving may transcend what I want, and the truth may transcend what I want. If it’s between what you want or the truth and love, I would go with truth and love,
Another trait may come in – sacrifice. I may have to sacrifice what I want to be in my truth and love. Is that easy? I hope so. Sometimes it takes discipline. Discipline is to let go of what I want so I can be in what is truthful that is all around. Truth-full, full of truth.
My experience is there is a truth that knows the truth, no matter what. It doesn’t need a witness. It is independent of anybody’s point of view. Truth is first. Sacrifice is next. I sacrifice what is not the truth. How many of us would do that? Stop living a lie, pretending or saying one thing and doing another. It starts to reduce who is in play. Who is willing to sacrifice to be on the path to mastership?
What is next? Faith. What is that about? Maybe that’s about, “I’m not sure about the truth. I don’t know what the truth is.” Consider there is a truth that transcends what you think. Do you have a willingness to go with that truth? Maybe just have faith that you will check it out. You will act as if it’s true and find out what happens. We can do that by faith.
There is a truth that you naturally know. Call it intuition, faith or your trust. Are you willing to put your body in alignment with that? Act as if you are loving and do what loving would do? If some part of you says, “I can’t love that,” consider that is a lie. You can love that. Maybe the truth is you don’t want to love it. If that is the truth, you can say that.
Let’s say you can’t say that love is unconditional. You can’t say you can love anything. That is a supreme love. God’s love is unconditional, always loving in all ways. Unloving does not really exist. Only loving is true and always true. You can deny it, saying “I don’t believe that.” But that is your opinion.
Consider what triumphs. Consider what is present the moment the day is done. There is a loving presence that is always with us. What is temporary is hatred. It’s not going to last. Hatred comes and it must go. It must stop. It exhausts itself and doesn’t have the strength to pick up the weapon, pull the trigger or do the deed. Something stops it.
One of the great teachings from John-Roger is the “cessation of againstness”. Peace is the cessation of againstness. The Bible talks about a peace that surpasses understanding. We do not need to understand it. It is peaceful even if it makes no sense whatsoever. Even where there may be pain, suffering and agony, there is still a peace that surpasses understanding. There is peace, glory and beauty present. These are on the path to mastership.
Our creativity, what we do with our lives, comes with what we look at and where we place our faith and our trust. New creativity is always coming present.
The next trait is intelligence. I look at intelligence also as wisdom. It is the ability to see the best choice within all the circumstances and make that choice. There is the intelligence.
In the teachings, it’s simple – do what is right. Does that mean somebody is wrong? That is not the kind of “right” I’m talking about. It means the best choice. Maybe there is a dilemma like, “I don’t see any best choice. They’re all bad.” What is the least bad? Consider that is the best choice.
Sometimes the best choice is no choice. Be careful with “no choice” because life is going to make choices for us. It’s called default. If you don’t want to make a choice, one will be made for you. My experience with that kind of choice is often that anything would have been better than doing nothing. As long as the attitude is, “I’m going to do what is best. I want to make it better,” that is intelligence.
Next in the line of traits – will. There is a personal will. Let’s call that choice. I like to reserve God’s will for God. What do you do with your ability and power? We could call that our personal will to make a difference. What do you want to create? What results do you want to have? That is where will can come in as devotion.
What is your commitment? It’s one thing to say what our commitment is. It is another thing to do it, demonstrating our life is on the line. Did we have the will to keep going, creating what we want to create? Even if it doesn’t go our way, we have the will to keep going.
Let me offer this to you – you can act in God’s will. That is powerful. There is a saying, “If God be for you, who can be against you?” My God is with me. With armies on the battlefield, it’s not uncommon for both sides to claim God on their side. Let’s consider that is true. God loves everyone. God is on both sides. Who is going to triumph? Consider that is in God’s will.
In the Muslim faith, they have a word, Inshallah. In there is Allah, the word for God, the God of the soul. Inshallah means the will of God is going to prevail. If I say, “Let’s have lunch tomorrow at noon, Inshallah,” it means if God wills it. I’m covering my bases. I do not want to do what God does not will. It will happen if God wills it.
I look at God’s will as having a lot of range in it, but with freedom for our choice. We all have an abundance of choice, even if it doesn’t appear abundant outwardly. Inwardly, we are free to decide how we want to think or feel about it. That is our choice.
After devotion comes discipline. I look at discipline as another word for following. There is a way to mastership. That includes what we are doing inside, how we focus. What is our attitude? If we think about something, energy is following. Our creativity has energy in it. Be careful what you think, especially the kinds of thoughts you hold true. Check out your beliefs, faith and trust, because energy is going to follow. There is a natural law that where we look, energy goes into that.
The first look is in the inner mind. Do you see yourself being successful, kind and loving? Do you see your life that way with others and with whatever circumstances are involved? We all came packaged with imagination. Our mind has the ability to present an image. There is freedom in what we can imagine.
We can imagine whatever we want to. Be careful what you imagine. John-Roger reminded us to always win in our fantasies. We make up our fantasies. It’s our choice. Let’s make it up so we win. What if it doesn’t turn out that way? We don’t win in the way we imagined. Inshallah. God’s will.
Trust that whatever happens is in God’s will. That’s how powerful God’s will is. If it is allowed, it’s in God’s will. That is who God is. If it’s not in God’s will, it is not going to happen. That is powerful.
Our freedom of choice has great range. On the path of mastership, we are always learning from whatever takes place. That’s good. Some of the great questions are, “What am I learning from this? What is this circumstance teaching me? Who is this person as my teacher? What lesson are they bringing me I need to learn?”
Consider this thing we call karma, the law that is in God’s will. What you sow you must reap. What you put out comes back to you. What goes around, comes around. It means you are a responsible creator.
Have the discipline to go with what creates what you want to create. If your life is not working for you and what you want to create is not happening, consider you are being disciplined. You are being taught, having the experiences you need for your learning and growth.
You are a living “master-in-training”. You have a thing or two to learn. That is my life. I am still a student. That’s primary. Are you a teacher? My life is a teaching, and life is a message. I am not the first to say that. Everyone has that teaching in their life.
What we do speaks loudly. What we choose comes back to us. Choose wisely. Choose with discipline and ask yourself, “Is this what I want to create?” John-Roger said, “If you want to be happy, do happy things.” If you want to be joyful, do joyful things. Peaceful? Do peaceful. Could it be that simple? Yes. There’s the law.
We are going to learn according to what we are responsible to as creators. We can go to the master class and play at the highest level. That takes great willingness. I prefer the word “willingness” versus personal will. Are you willing? Are you going to give your best effort? Don’t profess one thing and do another. Be true to your word, and if you are not, change your word.
Perhaps you say, “When I said it, I meant it.” Then, maybe you learned a thing or two. It wasn’t true then and it’s not true now. You needed to learn, and that is what you’re going to do. That becomes a discipline. More importantly, you find out if it is in your heart as a living truth. Let’s call that a dream, a vision, an image of what you can become.
If it’s in your heart as a living truth, it is what you can become. Maybe it takes your mastership to make it manifest. Maybe it’s God’s will being done. You are going to become what that is regardless of what you do. It’s your destiny and life purpose.
With God, our life purpose is divine. That is what I see. It’s complete and total. We are all living masters. Maybe we just haven’t found out yet. We are in our process.
Service comes after discipline. Our life becomes one of service, the highest consciousness that manifests into this world. It must be a loving consciousness. You may ask, “How can I love you as a consciousness of service?”
If I am going to love you, I need to have loving. I love myself to give you the loving. If you can get to a place where you can’t tell if it’s my loving or your loving, consider that it is God’s loving. God loves all of Its creation, and not in any incomplete way. We are all fully loved. When we share that divine love, it doesn’t matter where it’s directed. It’s like the sun, radiating in every direction. It radiates to all. It is also called the Light.
The path to mastership is the path of love and light. It is a beautiful vibration. The key that moves us into mastership is loving it all. It doesn’t hold back for anything or anyone. That is the greatest love.
Can you sustain it? Consider a moment where you love everyone and everything. Have you had a moment like that? When I’ve asked that question in groups, the majority of hands go up saying, “Yes, I’ve had that experience in just one moment.” They are saying, “I loved everyone and everything, even the worst of it.” That is mastership. It transcends whatever is going on.
Baruch Bashan
Blessing of the Living Master
Dear Lord, we are in Your embrace, all of us together.
Your embrace is complete and full with loving for all,
including all the conditions, all the people, and all that is needed.
We give thanks that we have the opportunity to be in our path of mastership,
to be conscious and willing toward the truth.
So we let go. We sacrifice as needed.
We come into the truth that is the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
We find our faith.
We find our trust in the highest good of all concerned.
We find the way is prepared in creativity.
We find we know the way in a conscious awareness.
We are blessed with Your intelligence and wisdom.
Our will and our willingness become Your will being done.
Our commitment is our devotion to be one and truthful to Your will being done.
We have all that is needed.
So we will follow in Your way.
We will exercise this discipline.
In this way we are of service to You and to all that is serving
this will being done.
We are the consciousness of the Beloved.
Loving for all in all ways.
We become aware that there is an anointing that comes from the Holy Spirit. It is the simple ability and authority to do what God would do in our way,
with great acceptance of this power and this choice
with great patience to do it in perfect timing, in perfect ways.
We are one with you, Beloved.
Beloved of God.
We are the consciousness of the living master.
Baruch Bashan
Path to Mastership Resources:
The MSIA store offers several products by John-Roger related to Path to Mastership. They may be found on the MSIA website at: https://www.msia.org/shop/s=path+to+mastership&post_type=product
Also, on ThatWhichIs.org in Premium, you may listen to the audiobook, Path to Mastership, as well as various seminars by John-Roger and John Morton and SAT seminars on the topic of mastership. To login or subscribe, go to:
https://www.msia.org/media/videos/
Baruch Bashan
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