We would like to know how to balance having the light touch with ourselves with being a serious student in using our catalyst. What quality is there in laughter that is healing and helpful in the metaphysical sense?

(Carla channeling)

We are those of Q’uo. Greetings to you in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. We find our dear gathered group in the country this day with the birds and trees and stream running wild and yet moving along in the routine of their ways. We are most happy to speak with you concerning the question of the light touch and as we speak we would ask that each of you realize that we are your neighbors and your friends but we are not infallible. So although we are sharing with you our heartfelt opinion we ask that you realize that it is just that, and that you take what resonates to you and leave the rest behind. We thank you for this privilege of sharing these thoughts. It means a lot to us to be able to offer this service and we humbly thank you.

In the life of one who is seeking to live a spiritually directed life the opportunities to move from the periphery of a life lived in the spirit more towards the center of that desire are many. Indeed, each diurnal period is bursting with windows of opportunity for the experience of resonating with the heart of all things. This is because the universe is the Creator as well as the creation and whether one’s milieu is that of people and relationship or that of nature and those relationships, all of these experiences of relating beyond the inner self are as glimpses in a changeable mirror. For one who does not pay the attention the mirror simply reflects a flat image. For the one who by a lucky or careful coincidence is paying attention that mirror of otherness can become that through which one sees the Creator. And so in the life of a seeker there is always the pressure to remember, to focus, and to center the self upon that firm rock of deity, that mystery which we call the one great original Thought of Love.

This being so, it is no wonder that the seeker can become so absorbed in improving his ability to center the self upon the Creator that he may lose sight of the fact that this center that is sought is not only within the small self but is echoed and iterated redundantly throughout all of the experiences of your illusion. Because so much of the creation is perceived as otherness the tendency within the illusion is to stay firmly within one’s own self. This tendency is that which is instinctual to the second-density creature which functions as your physical vehicle. The physical vehicle wishes at all times to establish and maintain boundaries within which lie safety and comfort. This agenda works upon the seeker in an unconscious or subconscious manner, and that seeking for safety and comfort quite often adds to the tendency of the seeker to turn more and more inward.

As this occurs—and it is, we repeat, a natural occurrence—the seeker finds itself within a trap of its own making, for it has used that instinctual tendency to create a zone of safety to think about the spiritual and to act upon those thoughts. Consequently, even though the seeker knows it is doing spiritual work, yet still the seeker considers this the kind of work which entails labor, time and intensity.

Now, let us look at the way a student begins to learn the craft [that] contains the infinite. Let us, for instance, gaze at the student who begins to learn how to play the piano. The beginning student must focus and concentrate intensely in order to begin to master the fundamentals of piano playing. The beginner does the scales and does them over and over and over. This is effortful, heavy work to all but the very gifted, yet it is necessary in order to make the unfamiliar into the familiar and the impossible into the possible.

As the piano student moves through the years of apprenticeship of its craft it gradually begins to get a sense of what lies beyond the finite notes that it has been reading off the page of the music score. The student begins to hear in a different way, a way which has an expanded awareness of the whole. Armed with this hard won resource the student at last opens the door to mastery of its craft, for the true instrumentalist plays not the notes but the music. Even the best must play the scales to warm up, but there is that moment when the instrumentalist realizes the shape of its craft and sees how it may serve as an instrument to pour forth the heart of the composer. Then the instrument knows how to make music.

Now, the seeker has a craft to learn and there are the scales that must be played again and again and again. There are scales which teach the notes of patience. There are scales which teach the notes of devotion. There are other exercises that teach the spareness and the reserve of true service. And these exercises must be repeated, and certainly for the seeker to become inward and inwardly focused and moving in a small circle is completely understandable and acceptable. And we say to those who feel they are indeed too serious, too solemn, too earnest, we say that this is the stage that the student does the basic work to learn its craft, for seekers are artisans and artists of a certain kind. The closest perhaps we might come to expressing the nature of this craft is that of aesthetics, for in the philosophical tradition known as aesthetics the goal is to discover what true beauty is and what the seeker wishes to discover is what the deepest and truest beauty, truth and love is, for it wishes to clothe itself in that armor, and then it wishes to sally forth in service and in love.

So we ask that you think of the earnest self as a lovable, respectable, acceptable self and to see that there is a stage in spiritual seeking where effort is made, and it seems heavy, lonely, and sometimes empty. And we say that this naturally will yield in time as the seeker himself begins to hear that which silence tells so well and begins to sense the shape of things, the form of that undergirding reality, the true nature of love, and once this occurs the universe changes. And it begins to spark into a life that was hitherto unseen, for the soul and the heart are expanding and the center is not only that place in the heart of the self where one has opened the door to love but also is expanded to make a center of the whole creation, with all included and nothing omitted, nothing irrelevant, nothing wrong, but all, all one shade or shadow or another of infinite love.

Now, while the student is playing the scales of daily meditation, daily contemplation, while the student is seeking earnestly, it may if it chooses open a window to larger awareness. How may that occur? That occurs when the student drops whatever is upon the mind and asks the self, as this instrument is fond of saying, “Will this matter in ten thousand years?” There are things within your incarnations that will matter, no matter how many millennia pass. These things are precious. These things do not comprise a large percentage of what is in the perceived sea of confusion within which all of you paddle about at this time. It is most likely that when the student is tightest and most weary and most disturbed the issues will not matter in ten millennia and this is the key that unlocks that corset of tightness and allows the weary student to expand its consciousness beyond the perceived, opening simply to enjoy the breeze, expanding as a flower in sunlight, turning to the sun.

It does take, for most entities, a conscious decision to choose the larger perspective. But we say to you that it is worth the effort it takes when one perceives that one has become straightened, closed, and narrowed simply to affirm the enormous breadth and depth of the possibilities of any and all situations. The energy that is moving when there is laughter, when there is the light touch, is a mixture of the green-ray energy center being full and open, the blue-ray energy center working within its center at self-expression and communication and the lower three energy centers agreeing to lessen or cease their demands.

This is not something which one should do to the denigration of the lower energy centers. It is always important to affirm, to trust, and to do all one can to balance these all-important energy centers. But within these three energy centers there does not exist a light touch. It takes a mixture of the agreement of the lower centers to rest and allow the heart to open and allow the self to communicate with the creation, with the mystery which is the one Creator, and with that Creator within the self.

There are some who have a gift for the light touch. These are the entities you will find saying just the right thing to break the ice to make people laugh and find comfort in each other’s company. But for most this skill of asking the self to stop and open to a larger view must be learned as any habit must be learned. Now you “oof” and “grunt” and try, and find it hard to do, but we say to you simply continue to “oof” and “grunt.” This is good work. At some point, your own self will begin to yearn for and to seek the stoppage of that earnestness and will begin to hunger for the music behind the notes of the devotional life. Trust yourself through these practice periods, for cyclically, as lessons are learned, each seeker will go through learning periods which seem quite adverse. One cannot gain a certain amount of wisdom and then coast for the rest of the incarnation, for the Creator and your higher self hope to learn as many depths and resonances of the lessons you came to learn as time permits. So you will find seemingly the same material coming in again to cramp your style and make life hard and earnest, yet you are not repeating but rather learning at another level of subtlety and profundity.

We hope you can take the perpendicular route out of that little circle walked by the earnest soul and that you choose to take time out for a laugh or a smile, with all compassion for the self, for that earnest toiler who truly wishes to learn and to be better, wiser and more loving than before. Yet these things are reflections of something within that are so precious that there are no words to express the gemlike quality of this crystalline heart of self that is the Creator.

So know that the human experience is driven by instinct and at the same time there are opportunities every instant to grow into a spiritual body and a spiritual instinct and when this begins to occur you shall find meditation and contemplation flowing easily and quietly in natural ways throughout the life pattern, and the muscles of spirit will have learned these notes so that now they can work subconsciously, naturally, so that one does not have to think about the process but can enjoy the music of spiritual consciousness and can turn that consciousness upon a world that is all too short on love and laughter. Each of you can be of service to others in this respect, of lightening other’s loads, of offering that light and caring touch, sharing that laugh, and spending time together easing each other’s burdens.

We would at this time transfer this contact to the one known as Jim. We are those of Q’uo.

(Jim channeling)

I am Q’uo, and greet each again in love and in light. We are, again, privileged to be able to utilize both of these instruments this day and would thank all gathered for inviting us to speak our thoughts and opinions. We would ask if we may speak to any further queries at this time?

When you are dealing with intense bodily catalyst life seems to overtake the entity. How can she keep the light touch and remember the spiritual path that she is walking while everything else seems to be consumed with just the maintenance of the body?

I am Q’uo, and am aware of your query, my sister. And being aware as we are of the situation in which you find yourself, that is where your physical vehicle prepares to bring forth new life, we are well aware that the catalyst which you face is much more intense than that which is normally faced, for the experience that your physical vehicle and, indeed, the intellectual and emotional aspects as well, now undergoes is one which is more challenging in that the affirmations that could normally affect an entity are now less able to have sway, for the changes in your body’s functioning are so basic to its nature and fundamentally overpowering that you will find that there is great difficulty in programming an alteration from this experience.

There is much of metaphysical value in attempting to do so, however. Much catalyst of this illusion is of that nature, although most within this circle do not experience it as a day-to-day experience. There are those experiences within your illusion such as this one which you now encounter that will require the simple persistence of the exercise of your will and your faith on a daily basis. The one known as Carla has had many of these experiences as its physical vehicle was malfunctioning. Your vehicle is not malfunctioning, but is functioning in a manner that is so far deviated from the normal functioning that you experience much of the same difficulties as the one known as Carla has experienced in her past.

And we would recommend, as in the case of the one known as Carla, that you find those small pleasures that feed you in any way that you find helpful, whether these are certain foods, certain music, inspirational readings, the company of certain entities or whatever means is available to you, that you utilize them to feed yourself that which is nourishing on whatever level you may find nourishment. And remember always that this process is one which is holy. Give praise and thanksgiving for it and find within each of your days a means whereby you may give this praise and thanksgiving so that it might build a kind of momentum in your life experience and begin to have an effect upon the mental, emotional and physical aspects of this process which your body now is undergoing.

May we speak in any further way, my sister?

Should one entertain moments of depression or should one try to fight against it?

I am Q’uo, and am aware of your query, my sister. We would recommend that all such moments, whether up or down, be experienced as spontaneously as is possible for the length of the emotion if this is possible, for to battle against the feelings of depression, the feelings of hopelessness, the feelings of loneliness and the feelings of despair is to deny another portion of your experience which has value to you, for it deepens your ability to experience in general. It is as though a deep hole or well is dug even deeper, yet when this is dug by the emotions there is made within you both the ability to experience that which is difficult and that which is joyous. All of this together shall create the tapestry of this particular experience. The difficult, the joyous, the hard, the soft, the light, the heavy, the bright, the dark—these experiences may be difficult, some of them, in what you may call the short run, the moment…

[Side one of tape ends.]

(Jim channeling)

I am Q’uo, and am again with this instrument. May we speak in any further way?

No. Thank you.

I am Q’uo, and we thank you, my sister. Is there another query?

I have a comment. I would have answered P’s question differently. I would have talked about faith and I was surprised when the channeling went as it did. Why did you not say more about the faculty of faith and its perspective?

I am Q’uo, and am aware of your query within the comment, my sister. As we spoke of the quality of perseverance we were beginning that avenue of which you speak, that being of faith, though not clearly stated. You are quite correct about the quality of faith. The quality of faith is that which when joined with the quality of will are the two most helpful aspects of the attitude that a student may exercise at any point within this illusion, for all that you see before you and all that you see about you is born of mystery, much in the pain of birth and much must be taken on faith, for there is no other quality which may sustain one through the difficulties which any seeker will encounter within the incarnation, and we thank you, my sister, for clarifying the necessity for relying upon faith, for indeed it is a great ally for any seeker.

Is there another query?

I wondered whether the reason you did not go that route is that it is easy for people to feel that they do not have faith or do not believe in a system that includes faith. Was that the reason that you did not go into faith?

I am Q’uo, and am aware of your query, my sister. We would simply claim an omission. This instrument does not always pick up that which is given. Is there another query?

No, thank you.

I am Q’uo. Again we thank you, my sister. Is there another query?

Just a comment. I enjoyed your view of the subject. As I read through the channelings from Yadda and Latwii, [they] always bring forth a light touch on a serious subject for me and I just want to thank you all for that.

I am Q’uo, and we appreciate your comments and are grateful that we and our friends of Yadda have been able to add a certain light touch.

Is there a final query at this time?

[Pause]

I am Q’uo, and we are aware that we have spoken to those queries which are available at this time, and we are grateful for each, my friends. We listen to the sounds of the wind in the trees through this instrument’s ears and this sound gives us a great feeling of peace, for the revolutions of your planet about the sun body move in a cyclical fashion and as your Earth revolves those entities upon its surface are subject to the movement of the planet, of the seasons, of the sun, and of the quality of compassion and love that is evident in the one Creator Who makes all move in this motion that is as a dance for those of us who are witnessing the experience of the one Creator moving in all.

The wind, as it moves freely through the leaves, through the field, and through the hair upon the head of those upon the planet, is a reminder of the freedom of movement of thought, the movement of thought of the One as It moves ceaselessly throughout the one creation. We are thankful that we are able to share this with you.

We would at this time take our leave of this group, moving about you as the wind, leaving each in the love and in the light of the one Creator. We are known to you as those of Q’uo. Adonai, my friends. Adonai.