Mystical dialogue with Lita Sen Sei of Japan and Mission Saint Germain's Ron Henry. Editor's note: Lita Sen Sei is the American born hispanic, Rita Contreras affectionately known as "Madame Contreras", who has for over two years been serving young Japanese children in learning English in Sagara, Japan. This "Roving Genji" has for more than two decades devoted her life in service to the causes of the Ascended Masters entering the way of student and overcomer. Humble and yet astute in the path of long striving, Rita has arrived at a course of diplomacy and wisdom and recently explored the Zen nature of "tests and initiations" with fellow mystic Ron Henry The following perspectives are accepted from their commentaries on this topic to each other during late September '04. MC: Ron, in your understanding, what is the difference between tests and initiations? In reflection I Am Rita. RH: A great way I begin is to look up the words in the dictionary. Test. n. (1) a determining of presence, quality or genuineness, examination, trial. (2.) Means of trial: trouble is a test of character. (3.) An examination of a substance to see what it is or what it contains. Initiation. n. (1.) an initiating or being initiated. (2.) Formal admission into a group or society. Initiate. v. (1.) to be the first one to start, begin. (2.) Admit a person by special forms or ceremonies into mysteries, secret knowledge or society. RH: Now, it is my feeling that when we talk about initiations in the sense of how the Masters refer to them it takes on a more fuller and yet also a specific understanding. Of course people in the world so to speak probably don't even place the mystical context of either tests or initiations and how they relate to life. MC: The way I look at it, at this point in time is that an Initiation is the bigger picture, with the smaller tests encompassing the whole. RH: We have all heard the phrase "it's my initiation". To me that also indicate we have within this process a series of "tests" that gives an indication of how I might respond being thrust into certain circumstances. Things get revealed about ourselves, also about others. Both the tests we face and the initiations that contain those tests give us some sense of where our mastery is at. MC: These tests, subtle but they can help one to understand the Initiation that is before one. Yes, I think Initiation is a little like what the dictionary states, it is the goal, the mysteries of the soul. Tests, take us up a step higher into the real knowledge of oneself, and as we pass the tests that are before us we also acquire a special rank of initiation, a step higher like climbing a ladder right to the heart of God and our Ascension. RH: Initiation can imply passage into different levels of being received and tests make up those stages we either pass through or must retake. I also think they can seem the same or at least interchangeable....."Oh, it's my test!" We remember those. It might be how we can deal with someone or are we going to take on something like a work assignment or a project that may push on us. Usually the test is how we respond. What is our attitude about it and then what is intended to be accomplished? MC: I had not really thought about how the people you encounter play a role in this. Yet it is the only way true tests can come to us with the interaction of other souls. RH: We keep weaving the practical and the esoteric, its right here and yet life is profound, its transcending if we notice it. We can say, "I needed this person's cooperation, so I had to hang in the relationship to make it work." I couldn't just walk away or I might have to forsake the desired outcome, oh well I didn't like the realtor but her client made a nice offer on my house so let's find a way to make it work. It's both a test and an initiation. MC: We as chelas (as they say in the east) or students of life, can maybe rank an initiation to the cycles on the cosmic clock. Each line is tests, yet these tests, must be perfected in purity to undergo an initiation that is a gift for having passed those tests. My perspective seems to be a little different maybe than yours but similar. Yet, I do recognize that each initiation is very personal to the individual knowing that we all go through them according to our own lifes calling. Tests and Initiations have their own meanings and interchangeable at times. I would like to think that a test is just that, a test....where an initiation is something acquired, for having passed those tests. A sense of reward an accomplishment. A gift for the soul in mastery like you mentioned. RH: When I reconsider from the Ascended Masters perspective as teachers to unaccented mankind, we are all positioned along some course of development. We can accelerate according to our conscious understanding of life's lessons. All of this, tests whether or not we call them that and our perceived awareness of them places us in a specific place along fellow strivers in life. We can as you note, Rita, become "students" of life and even that is not easy or automatic. MC: I hope to give an example of what I am thinking. Let's say, the individual needs to learn Love in this life, for many lifetimes he was cruel, selfish and inconsiderate of others. The tests that will be before him will be encounters that will help him to give in these situations. Then the time will come when he has resolved enough of these conflicts. The initiation of being the understanding of Divine Love and a spiritual gift of not having to encounter this anymore. It has been balanced in Love and Service. I know this is the ideal and many other aspects play into it like Karma, Dharma, but knowing that we have the tests and the goal of higher initiation is a magnificent gift of our inner calling..."May you pass every test!" (Remembering that the initiation is bringing you closer to your ultimate goal in the Ascension in the Light!) RH: ......and so it is, Rita! |
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