Authenticity

"You must look with clear eyes and listen with a quiet mind so that you can hear and see and determine the truth and the authenticity of what you see and hear around you."

"If what you are thinking and saying does not have your heart in it, it is really not honest. Perhaps it is the normal thing to say, the expected thing to say. Perhaps that is how you feel in the moment. But if it is really not authentic in your experience, then it is not really honest."

Where Authenticity Is Found

"Heaven will not be found in the world. It must be brought here. It must be demonstrated through the giving of people and through authentic relationships and genuine service to the world. This is how Heaven is brought to Earth."

Foundational and Thorough

"There are those who are focused only on political freedom or economic freedom or social freedom. This is a very important contribution to many people, and it may be their ultimate purpose to do this, but the question is, are they free within themselves? Is their motivation based upon love and compassion for people? Or is it driven by anger and hostility, resentment and regret? Is their gift real and authentic, or is it tainted and polluted?"

What Is Not Authentic

"There are so many layers of dishonesty all around you and, to a certain extent, even within you that trying to see what is real and authentic becomes a very challenging thing."

"Your own social behavior" [has been] "rarely honest and authentic."

"There is so much that is done in the name of religion and spirituality that is not honest and that is not authentic."

"If you cannot follow what God has given you to follow, if you cannot follow the deeper Knowledge that God has placed within you to guide you, then your prayers and your prostration really are not authentic."

"There are people who want to serve God and even think they are serving God, but they are not free inside, and they are not really honest with themselves. They think their freedom is serving an ideology or a system of belief, proselytizing on that, communicating that, but they are not really free inside. They are driven by personal needs. They are still slaves to the intellect. They have not broken free of the mind. And so their service to God has not really come into being yet, not authentically. It has the appearance of being this, but it is not really there yet. Yet if they become honest with themselves and doubt their beliefs and question their own assumptions, then the pathway to freedom begins to open up for them again."

"Many people simply want to have revelation as if it is some kind of appendage to their old life, like spirituality is like a seasoning to the tastelessness of their life. It is something they are going to add on. Now they are going to be spiritual and do spiritual things and think spiritual thoughts and do activities that look edifying and uplifting, But again, this is all for approval. This is all to seek more pleasure, more comfort, more security. The motivation for it is no different from the motivation that guides one to seek wealth and pleasure and escape from life. It is not authentic. And as a result, it does not yield an authentic result."

"This self within you is deeper and far beyond your intellect, beyond your beliefs and ideas, your habits and the nature of your personality. Your real nature is far deeper than this. So you build a kind of life in the pursuit of happiness, but it is not really an authentic life. It is not really a life that you are committed to wholeheartedly, for your soul is not committed to it, even if you are attached to it in your own mind."

The Authenticity of the New Message

"When people begin to consider that there is a New Message from God in the world, one of the first questions that they will consider is whether this is honest and real and whether the Messenger who has been sent into the world to present this New Message is honest and authentic."

"People do not know what to think. They do not know what is real. They do not know what is authentic, and so they go along with what everything else thinks. They go along with the consensus viewpoint. They say, “Oh yes, this is real,” but only because so many people think it is real. Or they say, “This is not real” because what they are considering has very little agreement concerning it. So when a real Message from God arrives, it is immediately disputed and denied."

"People have many questions, but they must learn to listen at a deeper level, to still their minds and to listen, to be present, to be observant, to be reverent. For the intellect cannot know for sure if a New Message from God is authentic. They cannot know for sure if what they are hearing is absolutely the truth, the greater truth from the Creator of all life. They cannot know with the intellect if the Messenger is the real Messenger. But in their heart they will know. The resonance will be deeper. The recognition will emerge from a deeper awareness within you and within others. This is what has kept religion alive. It is this deeper resonance."

The Journey Toward Authenticity

"Many things will have to be learned anew. They will have to be re-evaluated. Many of your thoughts will have to be reconsidered. Many of your firmly held beliefs will have to be questioned and in some cases even set aside. This is the price of freedom. This is the price one pays for having the opportunity to live a greater life, an authentic life, a life that is in keeping with Knowledge within themselves, a life that fulfills the destiny that they were sent into the world to fulfill."

"The needs of the mind, many of which are really not authentic to begin with, compete and obscure the deeper need of the soul. People do not realize that the need itself is genuine and authentic. At a deeper level, it is fundamental to your success and to the value of your life and your fulfillment here."

"The calling is within you now to respond, to become aware, to look without hostility and preference, to see what you can see coming over the horizon. Instead of planning your future around what you want, you must plan your future around what you see, what you feel and what you know. If this seeing, feeling and knowing is authentic, if it is true to Knowledge within you and not merely some kind of bargaining on your part, then you will be able to build a strong foundation. And you will begin to change your life before the requirement for that change is upon you. You will begin to alter the course of your life and to shift your allegiance to Knowledge before necessity has overtaken you."

"Your first commitment and engagement is to Knowledge because that is your commitment and engagement with God. If your engagement is authentic and not filled with your own ambitions and ideas, then you will have a foundation that will enable you to be a source of strength, purpose and reassurance for others."

Reality and Authenticity

"You do not understand the reality of life in the Greater Community. The revelation of this must be given to you from God if it is to be real and authentic and not some form of manipulation from some other race who seeks to gain advantage here."

"Relationships will have to be simple and honest now. Though many people will use deception to gain advantage over others, relationships will have to become very simple, direct and honest. In a way, your life will have to become more authentic, more healthy and more in balance instead of this frantic pursuit to fulfill your fantasies and your needs, your expectations and the expectations of others—this frantic, desperate, unhappy life where you have no sense of yourself or where you are going or what you are really about."

Further Study

• Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume II, Chapter 9: Honesty