Learning to Have Peace

Context. What is the purpose of the human experience?

Before moving on to the next topic, it is helpful to place ourselves within a context that offers a new way of looking at life, a new paradigm, one that allows us to be happier and to understand human beings. You don't have to agree with everything that follows, or believe any of it, because we are not talking about beliefs. All you need to do is verify in your own life the results of applying this information, to see whether they hold true for you.

If these inner results are happiness, peace, and harmony, then we will know that this information is true. If our external experiences in relationships, health, resources, and adaptation to our environment improve, then we will confirm that this information is wisdom.

The purpose of the human experience is to evolve, to develop our consciousness so that we may be filled with wisdom and love. All human beings, without exception, have come into the world to work on our spiritual development, sharing and participating in experiences with other human beings. Life is a remarkable educational process of the Universe; planet Earth is a “spiritual school,” and every experience we live through can be compared to an academic year.

Spiritual development is inner work, absolutely individual and personal. No one can do it for another person, but neither can it be done “without others.” In other words, we need interaction and experience with other people in order to build our own development, to get to know ourselves. Sometimes, instead of taking charge of our own development, we try to interfere with that of others; in those cases, instead of learning from others, we want to change them. All this accomplishes is to distort the educational process, or to try to distort it, and in doing so we complicate our own lives.

Only by understanding this can we effectively ask ourselves, “What does life want to teach us in each situation?”, since every situation is a lesson. Ultimately, it is about learning to transmute ignorance into wisdom.

When we notice that suffering is disappearing, that inner peace is becoming unshakable, and that our capacity to create, act, love, and serve is expressed without any condition or restriction, it means we have attained wisdom.

In order to lay the foundation for a new civilization that brings a greater level of satisfaction to all people, we must begin by bringing harmony to ourselves. To do so, it is essential to study the universal laws and apply the principles that lead to wisdom. We must bear in mind that we will truly reach wisdom only through constant practice and by discarding the theories and concepts that prove to be wrong. In this way, it will be possible to develop peace and harmony right where we are, through the lessons of daily life, since life is the best school and nature the best teacher.

All it takes to achieve efficiency is to stop resisting the perfect order of the Universe; mental inefficiency is necessary to discover, through saturation, that the Laws of the Universe exist. Once we have suffered enough, we are ready to understand the Laws. For the external struggle to cease, the internal one must cease first, and for that we must have accepted that everything that exists and everything that happens is perfect and necessary, because it has a purpose of love.

Studying and understanding why the things that exist and happen do so can lead us to recognize the Laws, which in turn make it possible to create a better future for humanity.

There are seven Laws of the Universe that govern all of its processes of creation, administration, and evolution. Of these seven, four are fundamental, since they control the development and evolution of the consciousness of the human species anywhere in the Universe. These four Laws form the lower triangle of the seven, while the Law of Evolution is the highest, the one that governs the lower triangle—also called the triangle of hell, because it is the lowest part of the Universal Laws.

We will be within the Law when we love, enjoy, and value what we have. Everything that is within the Law works and flows on its own.

Everything that brings suffering, anguish, pain, or illness does so because we are going against the Laws, and through that we come to recognize them. The results we experience when we step outside the Laws allow us to recognize their existence. It is necessary to make mistakes in order to discover the Law. Mistakes are not the problem; the problem is not learning from them.

The Law is designed so that we ourselves make a change, not so that we try to change others.

As you can see in the following tables, the human experience is governed by four specific Laws.

In the tables above, on the right-hand side we see the effects of violating the Law. In the topic on the Laws of the Universe, we will also find an explanation of the benefits of not violating the Law.

It is important not to confuse the universal laws with human laws or with rules. The former are immutable and cannot be repealed; they originate in the wisdom of the Absolute or Divinity and are therefore absolute. They cannot be modified or negotiated, and disobeying them has a negative result, in the sense of being unpleasant, and also a positive one, in the sense of the learning it involves. That is why it is said that human beings do not actually create laws but rather establish rules; we call them human laws, but they are rules, because they can be repealed, are temporary, and are useful for a given moment.

We have come to planet Earth to develop the three inner virtues: Happiness, Inner Peace, and Love or Service to Others. This development brings excellent results in four areas: Relationships, Resources, Health, and Adaptation to the Environment:

The idea is to use these virtues to relate to the external world. Learning to be happy, to have peace, and to love is the true purpose that brought us human beings into the physical world of matter.

Happiness, peace, and love are principles of the divine essence; they have no polarity; they are immutable.

Learning to be happy:

• To learn to be happy, you only have to face everything you believe takes your happiness away.
• To be happy, you don't need anything external, only understanding and a particular mindset.
• Non-acceptance is the only cause of suffering; we must stop resisting reality.
• It is essential to stop working on others and to work solely and exclusively on yourself, changing within yourself whatever bothers you (the ego) so that it stops doing so.
• If there is suffering, only one question needs to be asked: “What am I not accepting?” The answer lies there.
• Everyone, without exception, has what they need to be happy; however, very few know how to be happy with what they have. Learning to have peace:
• Nothing and no one provides peace.
• Inner peace is the result of one's own spiritual development, not a gift.
• Managing peace requires several elements: clear and accurate information to understand that life is a process of love and that evil does not exist; the ability to manage one's own life energy; and training.
• If you lose your peace, ask yourself: “What am I resisting? What do I want to change? Who am I blaming?” Learning to love your neighbor as yourself:
• To do this, all you have to do is take part in activities or spend time with people whose behavior is very different from your own, so that you learn to love and respect them just as they are.
• Love cannot be offended; it is invulnerable, immutable, universal, and neutral.
• Love implies a total understanding of the Universe; it is a way of being and does not need an “object” onto which to project itself.
• Love is not a force, but a tool.
• Love is not a feeling.
• To love is to always give the best of yourself.
• If you’re feeling unmotivated, it’s best to ask yourself why you’re allowing this specific situation to limit your ability to serve, which in reality shouldn’t depend on external events. By developing the three inner virtues, you’ll achieve excellent external results in all four areas:
• In relationships.
• In resources.
• In health.
• In adapting to our environment. Five elements are present in the life experience of every human being: purpose, destiny, mission, function, and intention.

1. The Purpose

There is a purpose of love that brought us into the material world; it is the perfect goal of learning two things:

1. Being happy on your own, that is, not depending on anything or anyone to enjoy inner peace and happiness.
2. To love your neighbor as yourself, that is, to respect the rights of all beings in the Universe. And how is this learned? Here we can see the perfection of the Absolute’s pedagogical design. To carry out the exercise of learning to be happy on our own, we need to live in a certain place, with certain people, and in circumstances in which everything that happens around us is more or less aggressive. In this way we will realize that our problem is not due to what happens around us, but to the way we relate to it, and to the rejection and resistance we set in motion. As for the second part, loving your neighbor as yourself means respecting others just as they are, not trying to change them, and not resisting them. We need to live in a place where the people around us think differently, have varied customs, and believe different things. In this way we will learn to love them as they are, without judging or condemning them. This is how the purpose of love is fulfilled;

it is the true reason why we human beings are on planet Earth.

More than 2,000 years ago, the Master Jesus taught us this when he said, “Love your enemies”—who are not our enemies, but simply people who think differently.

Being happy means experiencing zero suffering in the face of whatever happens; and loving means offering zero resistance to others. Wisdom is equal to love, not to sentiment. A person who has love cares deeply about others but does not suffer; by contrast, a person who lacks wisdom but has kindness cares deeply about others but suffers enormously. Those who don’t care, the callous and the indifferent, have neither wisdom nor kindness.

2. Destiny

It is what we come to learn from the material world—learning to use the seven tools of love in order to have invulnerable peace. It is a great opportunity to learn what we lack.

We all bring into the world an unavoidable destiny, one of enormous value. Our culture teaches us to try to evade destiny instead of showing us how to make the most of it. The key to making the most of destiny is: "You have the ability to enjoy anything you do, because that ability is within you.".. However, if someone tells their child: "You always have to do what you like.", it will create an enormous block in them.

Destiny is a pedagogical design whose purpose is to allow human beings to verify and discover information that governs the Universe and its perfect order. It is therefore the best opportunity to transcend all of our human limitations. Instead of complaining about the difficulties life presents, we should take advantage of them as a great opportunity to transcend them; then they will disappear forever. If we don’t learn from difficulties, far from disappearing, they will become more complicated, persist, and become permanent.

3. The Mission

It consists of what we can teach in the material world. We should enjoy our mission intensely, whether or not it is part of our own function.

Mission allows us to recover a great deal of the vital energy invested in the exercise of learning to be happy. Mission is what has already been understood, what is already known; therefore, it can be used to serve others while enjoying ourselves intensely.

Both mission and destiny are represented in the personality: the latter through the belief system, and the former through understanding. As we transmute our ignorance into understanding and wisdom, we will have more and more mission and, therefore, more satisfaction.

4. The Function

It is what each person does to earn their livelihood; it consists of putting as much enthusiasm, joy, and love as possible into what you do, even if it isn't part of your mission.

We know that all living beings have a function within the order of the Universe. It takes wisdom to take it on with joy, with enthusiasm, with a full capacity for action and service. Function is not about “earning a living”; life is not “earned,” because it is a divine gift. What we earn is the sustenance of this biological entity, this body.

Thus, our sustenance is guaranteed as a result of our function. Those who are happy and enjoy what they do will always have an abundance of resources.

5. The Intention

It is what we want for ourselves or for others. Intention should be directed in such a way that it does not interfere with the destinies of others or try to evade our own destiny.

Intention is the most complex element for human beings today, because sentiment, the idea of goodness, and the other ideas that culture mistakenly passed on to us constantly lead us to try to interfere with the destinies of others. If we accepted that destiny is something extraordinary and not “bad,” that it is the best opportunity we have to fulfill what we came to do in the world, we would stop trying to change other people’s destinies.

When a child wants to become independent and the parents oppose it, how can we act so as not to interfere? We always want things to work our way. In this case, the parents feel it isn’t the right time because their child doesn’t have a stable job, for example, and they don’t want them to leave home. Our “I wants” are the cause of suffering. The “I want” is also called unconscious selfishness, because we want others to be happy doing what we want them to do.

What would be the wise and loving thing to do in this case? To tell the child: “For us, the most important thing is that you are happy and that you find your own path, so we respect your decision. Know that if you want to come back, the door will always be open.”

Ultimately, wisdom means having a clear sense of purpose, making the most of destiny, enjoying your mission, taking on your function, and managing the intention not to interfere with other people’s destinies, and it requires that all of this be practiced in thought, word, and deed.

Chapter 1. The Power of Inner Peace

This topic is intended for all those who think that this world can become a better place; for those who are sure that human beings can change themselves in order to live together in peace and harmony; for those who hold on to the hope of a new life; and, ultimately, for all those who are willing to improve their lives and succeed in their projects.

All human beings seek the same thing: to be happy, to find inner peace, and to learn to love. We can do this through the material or the spiritual, but the search is the same regardless of the path we choose, since the same place can be reached by different paths.

1.1 The Difference Between Being at Peace and Having Peace

Being at peace can be compared to the sea when it is calm; but if a storm comes, it is stirred up and large waves form. Even so, the depths of the sea remain calm. This is what having peace means: not getting upset or reacting to an external event, but being able to maintain calm and serenity.

To be at peace, it is enough to isolate ourselves, practice meditation, visit a botanical garden, listen to relaxing music, or find any other situation that guarantees we won't get upset.

Being at peace is a temporary state, whereas having peace is a permanent state of invulnerable peace. Temporary peace occurs when we isolate ourselves from situations we cannot handle, so as not to allow our vital energy to descend into the zones of darkness. Permanent peace, on the other hand, is imperturbable: a Master does not need to isolate, because a Master is trained and does not allow any external situation to disturb that peace, so their vital energy always remains in the zone of light, where there is understanding and mental clarity.

Having peace equals zero conflicts.

To have peace, you need training and mastery of the tools of respect and taking responsibility. This requires not confronting anything or anyone and ceasing to react to external events.

We will have absolute peace if we respect everyone's ideas, customs, beliefs, and behaviors, as well as their right to make their own decisions. That is, we will have it if we give up criticizing, judging, or punishing others for any reason, because we understand that everyone does the best they can with the best they know, and no one is in a position to judge them.

We will also have unshakable peace if we take responsibility for the results of the decisions we make and of our life experience, and if we accept that we ourselves generate our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, not what happens around us, and much less what others think, say, do, or fail to do. This means giving up blaming others for what happens to us.

We won't achieve much by fighting for peace, suffering because it isn't achieved, or trying to impose it, because that is not the way. The only way to achieve it is individual by individual, not globally, just as happens with spiritual development. If each person works on their own individual development, they can become a being of peace and enter a state of peace by themselves, completely renouncing violence in thought, word, and deed. Thus, each individual who becomes a being of peace begins to be part of the brotherhood of the Universe; as long as they are not, they are not part of it, but stand on the side of aggression.

As long as no inner change is achieved, everything else is useless. This proposal is hundreds of thousands of years old, and it is the same one made by meditation techniques: if each one of us enters “into peace” and all of Humanity does so, then Humanity will be at peace; but for that, it is essential to do individual work.

The Law of Correspondence creates an external world that corresponds to our thoughts. Therefore, if someone establishes within themselves, with their thoughts, a world of peace and harmony, of peaceful coexistence and love, the Law of Correspondence of the Universe will create external circumstances that fit that reality perfectly.

Declaring yourself in a state of peace means completely renouncing feeling bad about what happens around you.

Having inner peace is one of the three pillars of spiritual development. If our peace increases, our vital energy increases, and this in turn allows us to improve our understanding, since we will have more mental clarity. On the contrary, if we are full of conflicts and have no peace, we needlessly wear down our vital energy, enter the zone of mental darkness, and our understanding diminishes. If any of the three elements of this triad is missing, the balance does not work; it is a process of continuous movement.

Understanding

A Master attains a level of imperturbable inner peace and reaches such rationalization in the expenditure of their vital energy that they consume far less than they generate, which increases their lucidity and brings greater understanding. If you aspire to raise your vital energy, you need to learn to sustain mental states of peace.

A Master is recognized by the unshakable peace they harbor within. As their vital energy rises to the zone of light, they will always have the information they need at the right moment. That is why a Master knows exactly what to do when the time comes to do it; in their spiritual development, they have attained happiness through inner peace.

Every day we have the opportunity to practice and to check whether we truly have peace or are only at peace, and we can do so thanks to our dear “coaches”, the people life puts in front of us precisely so that we learn not to lose our peace.

Our best coaches are usually our boss, our partner, our children, the friends who “tell it like it is,” the person who honks at us when we're driving, and, ultimately, everyone who makes us “lose our nerves.” We have to thank all of them for the opportunity they give us to learn to achieve an unshakable peace.

Every difficulty teaches us not to lose our happiness, our peace, our attitude of service, or our ability to enjoy life.

Peace begins within yourself.

Peace, like Love, does not exist by nature, but is a conscious manifestation of Being, an ideal state. Throughout its history, Humanity has known very few periods of peace, because it has always been believed that peace was a natural state, that others can make peace, or that it can be imposed by force or by decree. We have not understood that peace, like love, is born only from the heart.

If we plant the seed of peace right now in the hearts of all children and young people and of the rest of human beings, but above all let it take root in our own hearts, tomorrow we will be able to live in a world of harmony.

The seed of peace is planted by example: by showing at all times, with a smile, our will to serve the cause of peace with love; by showing every day our ability to understand, to forgive, and to help; by expressing at every moment our spirit of integration, solidarity, and collaboration. In short, by always showing our goodwill, kindness, responsibility, and simplicity toward everyone. In this way, we will be helping to build a better world.

Anyone who reads this message should observe their feelings and analyze whether there is any trace of rancor, hatred, jealousy, or resentment in them. Those who have no peace within cannot find it in their home or country either, nor in the world in general. After all, we receive only what we give, have, and feel.

Therefore, we should not expect to receive what we are not capable of giving. Each of us should examine how we think, how we act, and how we treat others, and conclude whether we have truly become compatible with living in a world at peace.

Let us, then, forget everything that has hurt, harmed, or offended us, and let the seed of peace germinate within us, so that the flame of love may grow in our hearts.

Seeking peace outside ourselves is futile.

As long as a person has not found their inner peace, the possibility of outer peace does not exist for them, regardless of where they live, because they will be in permanent conflict with others and with life's situations. On the contrary, we could say that for someone who has inner peace it doesn't matter where they live, since anywhere they will find peace around them; by projecting peace and Love, that is exactly what they will find outside.

Inner peace is a very powerful tool for the awakening of consciousness and the transcendence of the spirit. The permanent peace of the spirit is found within, in one's own consciousness, and is the result of spiritual development, that is, of increased understanding.

Inner peace is a thermometer of spiritual development, and it is measured by the ability to handle situations without losing it.

Inner peace indicates the degree of spiritual development people have reached. As we advance in our understanding of the principles that govern the order of the Universe, we begin to notice that we suffer with less intensity, have fewer automatic reactions, and that our inner peace increases.

Within us there is an energy with special characteristics, which we call vital energy. This energy is used in all human functions associated with thought, the mind, feelings, and emotions. Just as glucose is produced, by analogy, this vital energy is produced, especially during states of mental rest such as sleep or meditation. When vital energy rises to the mental zone of light, it allows us to connect with the higher faculties of the human being. However, very few people manage to reach that zone, because most maintain within themselves permanent states of mental, emotional, or sentimental conflict that consume alarming amounts of vital energy; in addition, they needlessly give away their vital energy through fear, attachments, and a tendency to get involved in experiences that are not theirs. The great hidden power of having peace is precisely the ability not to waste this precious energy needlessly, since by conserving it we become wise people, Masters, magicians, or saints... that is, more complete and spiritually more developed human beings.

Spiritual development consists of renouncing getting upset by the

various events. Vital energy can remain in the upper zone of light, which increases understanding and mental clarity; in the middle zone, or zone of twilight, where our belief system resides, which makes up our ignorance; or in the lower zone of darkness or depression. Inner peace, as we have already noted, allows us to raise our vital energy so that we can ascend to the zone of light.

One of the great secrets to achieving the awakening of consciousness is the management of vital energy. Masters are masters both for their ability to manage energy and for the wisdom they possess. The fact is, no matter how much wisdom a person has, if they do not manage their vital energy correctly, it will be of no use to them, since they may even lose their ability to act if they fall into the zone of darkness.

Understanding sets us free and leads us to peace, which in turn leads us to respect others. Conversely, the lack of respect that leads to conflicts and wars originates in a lack of understanding and inner peace.

1.2 The Invulnerability of Peace

Peace requires a deep understanding of each individual, born of their own experience in the search for truth. It is not something that can be imposed; rather, it arises within each person and is projected outward to everything around them. No one can be forced to be at peace, much less to have peace.

Peace is not achieved by fighting evil or by trying to impose good.

To say that “we fight for peace” is truly incoherent. How could we, if fighting is already not peace? It would be more appropriate to say that we “work” for peace, and that it is inner work, since only those who dedicate themselves to working on themselves, and not on others, can have peace. To understand this, it is necessary to establish a system of education for peace that begins in early childhood. This requires that parents and others involved in education decide to adopt truly peaceful behavior, grounded in a deep understanding of love and of the Laws that govern the Universe.

Recognizing the existence of the Laws of the Universe brings great inner peace and greater harmony, because it means ceasing to fight with the Universe and with life, and beginning to understand that everything that happens is perfect and necessary, and that each of us is in our own learning process. All we need to do is learn what life wants to teach us, that is, to have peace, to serve, and to be happy.

Peace is the result of integrating conflicting extremes, not of eliminating either of them.

Many people, in their search for peace, use various methods to isolate themselves from conflict situations. To this end, they build their homes in places as far away as possible from areas of disharmony. Others, on the other hand, enter states brought about by various forms of relaxation, prayer, and/or meditation, or try to distract their minds with different recreational activities. Any of these methods is beneficial for achieving a state of peace and, therefore, for the mental health of those who practice them. Indeed, they help considerably to restore adequate levels of vital energy, and they contribute to physical, emotional, affective, and mental balance. However, all these states of peace are temporary, because as soon as the person comes into contact again with the situations that confront them, they lose their inner peace once more, give away their vital energy, and fall back into a depressive state.

If the peace we have is the result of not facing situations that confront us, then we do not have peace.

If we share our lives with someone who has peace, we will be at peace if we also work within ourselves. If we share our lives with someone who does not have peace, we will have the opportunity to learn to have it, if we take advantage of that opportunity; otherwise, we will lose it.

To be at peace, it is enough to isolate yourself; to have peace, you need to train.

1.3 Exercises for Being at Peace

Anything that helps the mind come to rest and keeps away all thoughts of conflict, frustration, anguish, fear, rejection, sadness, and suffering will help the vital energy rise to the zone of inner light and, consequently, bring about a very comforting state of balance and peace of mind.

For this reason, it is very important that we learn to:

• Enjoy wholesome pastimes, take harmonious vacations, spend time in nature, and get enough sleep.
• Practice techniques for managing pure thought.
• Use relaxation, meditation, and prayer techniques.
• Practice harmonious socializing, since sharing affection generates large amounts of vital energy within us.

1.4 Exercises for Having Peace

Developing the ability to constantly maintain inner peace and to take ownership of it, without allowing anything or anyone to take it from us (let’s remember that no one takes our peace away; we lose it on our own), requires conscious training to make the most of all the circumstances that life presents each day, but without seeking out those we do not need.

Every circumstance that presents some level of difficulty, whether for the mind, feelings, or emotions, or in controlling instinctive reactions, is a wonderful opportunity to learn and train in cultivating inner peace. Only if we understand this will we be ready to apply acceptance and renunciation and free ourselves forever from mental conflict and inner suffering. So, in any situation of mental confrontation, we must accept that it is only a process of the Laws of Correspondence and Evolution, and let go of trying to change it and of involving our concepts, beliefs, feelings, and emotions.

It is best to always do whatever needs to be done calmly and serenely; never reacting, but acting. Every time we react, we are behaving out of ignorance and failing to make use of our capacity for understanding.

We must think the best of every situation so that our mind creates a file of peace that replaces the earlier one of automatic reactions. To do this, we need to think in terms of love. For example, if someone shouts at us, we will think: “I will not allow my instinct to react to other people’s shouting; I will be invulnerable and immune to any shouting; my peace will not be disturbed in the slightest.”. If we tell ourselves this many times each day, then magically the day will come when someone shouts at us and we will find that we feel nothing, that we don’t react and, therefore, that we don’t lose our peace.

Thought is very powerful; let’s constantly think this: “My peace is invulnerable; I will not allow what happens outside to disturb my peace.” In the end, this thought will recode our minds. If we think that we have everything we need to be happy, we will be using our minds with wisdom and we will have peace.

1.5 Controlling Our Thoughts

The thoughts that pass through the mind can be of two kinds: pleasant or “pure,” which are recognized because they generate inner peace; or unpleasant or “impure,” which generate conflict or distress.

Thought generates positive or negative emotions in us, and when we think automatically, it enslaves us. That is why we must observe our thoughts and consciously select them, the way one selects a radio station, discarding those that are not pure.

Any form of thought that brings peace has great value, because peace does two wonderful things: it clears away the negativity that blocks the mind, and it allows vital energy to rise, thereby increasing mental clarity for understanding and acting.

If thoughts disturb our peace, we must conclude that they originate in ignorance, not in understanding.

As has already been said, peace is an inner state of mind that has nothing to do with what happens outside; quite the contrary: what happens on the outside is the result of our inner correspondence. We need only work on it within ourselves, since peace is an individual process, not a collective one. If every individual has peace, the community will have it as well.

Circumstances don't bother us; each person decides whether or not to be bothered by them.

Sometimes you hear people say, “How can we possibly be calm with this government, with these reckless young people, with this violence, with this traffic, and so on?” We have a long list of people to blame for our mental upset. However, it turns out that this upset belongs to each of us, and there is no reason to look for culprits outside ourselves.

How can you tell whether or not you have peace? The most obvious sign that you don’t have it is the tendency to get upset over anything and to react negatively to any event. This lack of peace, which shows up as a lack of control, leads us to isolate ourselves in order to find some tranquility. But when we emerge from that isolation, we lose that “supposed” state of peace, because it wasn’t inner but outer. Furthermore, when we fail to find peace, we tend to make two mistakes: blaming the other person and trying to change them, either by attacking them or by imposing our own views on them. That is the perfect expression of selfishness and the origin of all wars. Instead of imposing anything on others so that we feel good around them, we must accept others as they are. That is truly an expression of love that leads to peace.

When you have peace, you don’t need to isolate yourself from any situation or person in order to maintain it, nor do you need to run away from any place. Anyone can verify whether or not they have inner peace through a simple observation: if you become upset when you are with people who lack peace, then you do not have the peace you thought you had. The day we no longer lose our peace in the face of a conflict situation, we will know that we have peace, and the problem will have magically disappeared from our lives. The most obvious sign that we have peace is that nothing happening around us upsets us.

We can only be peaceful when we accept violent people and stop confronting them, because they give us the opportunity to work on our peace. We should be grateful for that and make the most of the situation they offer us. Let us renounce any form of conflict or protest, as well as any thought that disturbs our inner peace.

Everything that leads us to rebel is false information that we hold in our minds, whereas what leads us to accept, and to train ourselves to attain peace, happiness, and service, is information born of wisdom. Fighting against what is external is ineffective, and running away serves no purpose other than to waste the opportunity to train ourselves and learn.

We have two options: to seize the opportunity to learn, or to complain about our misfortune. If we choose the latter, we lose energy, so the most efficient approach is to make the most of the experience. If we are willing to enjoy everything that happens, this attitude will lead us to a state of inner peace.

Sometimes we complain about what happens in our surroundings and about what we see in the news, and we can’t manage to separate what happens around us from what happens to us. If it’s nothing serious, what are we complaining about? It seems that we can’t allow ourselves to have peace if there is violence in the country or in the world. However, this is a mistake, because peace begins with oneself. We don’t have to wait for the whole world to be at peace or for things to work “our way.”

Having conscious inner peace means having patience (which is not tolerance of suffering but, as has been said, “calm and science of peace”), and understanding that things are not instantaneous, but that everything in the Universe is part of a process. Patience is a virtue we need to cultivate, because it is what allows us to respect the rhythms of the Universe with serenity. We gain nothing by becoming impatient.

When a person has inner peace, they are trustworthy to themselves and to others, because they have no inner or outer conflicts.

The more peace we attain, the less weight destiny has in our lives. Mission and destiny are both part of our existence, and as we move forward, mission gains greater importance and destiny less. This happens because we learn to understand, and even to enjoy, the difficulties, which become for us tools for our work and opportunities for learning.

To achieve a new life filled with fulfillment, we need to be willing to enjoy learning and to value all experiences, especially the most difficult ones, ceasing to rebel against them and accepting them instead. In this way, we will attain an invulnerable peace, complete happiness, and a constant expression of love.

Thus, if we value what we learn from difficulties and see them solely as tools that life places before us for our evolution, we will begin to look for solutions instead of focusing on problems, and we will achieve a state of inner peace, regardless of whether other people accept those solutions or not.

Everything that is understood produces peace.

Ignorance brings certain unpleasant situations, while understanding, wisdom, and truth bring satisfying results. Therefore, each person obtains the benefits or problems that they themselves generate within themselves. Destiny is unique to each person, and it corresponds exactly to their file of ignorance, that is, to what they still need to learn.

Chapter 2. Appropriate Communication

2.1 Loving Communication vs. Aggressive Communication

It is essential to always use loving communication in order to avoid conflicts. This is achieved by avoiding aggressive or limiting words, which requires training in a new way of expressing ourselves: using a gentle tone of voice and avoiding aggressive body language and impositions, which cause instinct to put the person we are talking to on the defensive.

In aggressive communication, the other person is not valued, is not given freedom, and is not offered support. Therefore, we should eliminate aggressive phrases from our vocabulary if we hope to have no conflicts in our relationships.

If someone has an aggressive attitude but we speak to them very calmly, they will calm down; but if someone is violent and we shout too, the tension will double. You can do some preparatory training beforehand, which is very useful for being ready to face these kinds of situations. The training consists of visualizing ourselves at peace in the face of the situation and repeating to ourselves several times: “I will not lose my peace and calm for any reason, no matter what this person says or does.” Before going to talk to someone with whom we have a disagreement, if we want to reach a reconciliation, this visualization exercise will be very helpful.

To have excellent relationships with other people, you must always be willing to offer support and to value your relationships above your personal preferences.

To improve our current relationships, we can establish satisfying agreements. This requires communication, because we cannot guess what the other person feels. To propose an agreement, we will use appropriate communication, with neutral and loving terms. We will avoid aggressive expressions, which are passed down by our culture, as well as impositions, prohibitions, or conditions, because they create blocks to reaching agreements; and we will use loving communication that facilitates dialogue rather than hindering it.

The following table presents some examples of loving communication versus aggressive communication.

It's best not to speak ill of anyone or anything, regardless of whether or not we agree with what someone does or with what may happen at any given moment. The proposal is to lay down the three weapons we have:

1. Aggression of a physical kind, even if only through gestures or hand movements.
2. Verbal aggression.
3. Mental aggression. As long as we don't do this, it is impossible to think of living in a world of peace. Weapons will never bring about peace; on the contrary, they will bring war.

Peace is the result of learning not to fight.

A Master has no conflict with anyone, regardless of other people’s levels of evolution, because he respects them and handles them with wisdom. Meanwhile, a person with little wisdom has conflicts with practically everyone. The Master remains silent when he should be silent and speaks when he should speak.

2.2 Thinking and Acting with Wisdom: The Path to Peace

According to the Law of Correspondence, when a person declares themselves to be in an absolute state of peace, they correspond to being respected by all other beings in the Universe. We can verify this result as we move forward in our lives. A state of inner peace makes us correspond to a world of peace wherever we are.

Each person builds their own correspondence, which is why we must learn to think and act with wisdom. Thus, if our thoughts are peaceful and we invalidate no one, we will correspond to peaceful experiences, generated by ourselves. If, on the contrary, we live filled with resentment, hatred, and a desire for revenge, then we will correspond to similar experiences.

The Law of Harmony also addresses this aspect of peace, expressed philosophically as: “Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself.” If we are aggressive, something with the same characteristics returns to us, whereas if we are peaceful, we will receive peace, because everything we send out acts, reacts, and returns.

We must manage situations rather than let them control us, in order to maintain balance and inner peace. The peace we so long for requires intense and constant work on ourselves, rather than confronting others, our environment, or the circumstances around us. It requires a firm commitment to inner work that leads us to overcome pride and the rest of our mental limitations.

Freeing ourselves from inner conflict and finding peace, harmony, and satisfaction in life therefore means freeing ourselves from pride, since pride makes us rigid and prevents us from acknowledging our mistakes. When we are proud, we refuse to back down, we don’t know how to ask for forgiveness, and we don’t ask for help, so we will inevitably have conflicts with others.

Inner peace does not grow spontaneously, like moss or grass, but requires voluntary effort.

The Law of Generation can be compared to a seed that is planted within us so that it may produce its external counterpart. If we sow within ourselves peace and other inner virtues and certain values—such as trust, loyalty, service, enthusiasm, joy, calmness, mental flexibility, adaptability, or understanding—we will begin to reap excellent results.

Thus, today's thoughts, words, and actions are the seeds of the fruit we will reap in the future.

According to the Law of Affinity, the best is always associated with the best. Therefore, if we aspire to achieve peace, let us always think of something that brings us peace, for everything that is nurtured within us generates situations, people, and places that are in affinity with that energy.

Culture is a pattern that generates internal behavioral guidelines within the individual. Thus, unless we are able to take responsibility for our own behaviors and decisions, we will not be ourselves, but will remain in a state of dependence on something external.

Respecting others' behaviors means allowing everyone to live and take responsibility for their own experience, and respecting others' beliefs ensures peaceful coexistence.

When I decide to take responsibility for my own experience, I understand that there is no one to blame.

The following table shows some examples of harmonious communication that takes responsibility for oneself, as opposed to a way of expressing oneself that blames others.

What is truly worth sharing is peace, harmony, happiness, and inner love. If we share our fears, limitations, or anxieties, we are sharing our selfishness, and in that case the results will not be satisfying for anyone.

The role of people with greater spiritual development—who are already beginning to act out of love and wisdom—is generally associated with teaching; with setting examples of harmony; with flexibility and adaptation to the environment; with the transmission of information for human betterment; and with the construction of new forms of peaceful coexistence, grounded in the development of inner peace.

When someone is interested in finding inner peace, it means they are ready to stop suffering and live a fulfilling life.

No one can offend us if we decide to keep our peace.

As a training exercise, we can practice dialogues with our partner, parents, children, or coworkers, replacing the language we normally use with the language of taking responsibility.

Another wonderful exercise for training in peaceful coexistence is to ask questions without expecting a specific answer. For example, if we have a rebellious child who doesn’t want to study and “threatens” to leave home, we can put our minds to work, as training, by asking the following questions:

• Do you think you have more rights than other people?
• Do you think you have the right to impose your tastes on others?
• What do you need to do to live in peace with others?
• How could you do everything you want without making agreements with anyone?
• What would you do to become independent?
• How would you go about getting the money you need to become independent?
• What would you do to be happier in life? These questions get the mind working; the system of association of ideas kicks in, and we realize that it is not possible to do everything we want without establishing agreements. The questions above neither judge nor forbid, and they neither impose nor hand the conclusion to the person we are speaking with, who must reach it on their own for this to be a technique of mastery.

Chapter 3. What It Means to Take Responsibility

Taking responsibility means managing what happens within us and respecting what happens around us. Taking responsibility for our inner world gives us complete self-knowledge, and taking responsibility for the external leads us to the acceptance of all that exists.

As long as we human beings are unable to fully take responsibility for the experience of our own lives, it will be impossible for us to attain high levels of satisfaction and inner peace.

When we reach the state of fully taking responsibility, we no longer need anyone to watch over us or control us, so we have complete inner freedom, and we correspond with a world where unpleasant contrasts and external controls are no longer necessary, because everyone fully respects the rights and functions of others and never fails to fulfill their own.

Learning how to take responsibility for the different kinds of contrast that life offers, as well as the fundamental techniques of mastery, gives us the opportunity to learn to live in peace, even in the midst of a turbulent world like ours. It also allows us to relate to people who are still immersed in the limiting experience of being unable to take responsibility for their own decisions and feelings, or to respect others.

Using the tool of taking responsibility with wisdom will bring us absolute peace.

Taking responsibility deeply means giving up blaming anything or anyone for our own personal experience. We need to put an end to the habit of blaming at its three deep levels. These ways of not taking responsibility are described in the following table:

It is about resolving to take full responsibility for our own life and for the results of the decisions we have made, learning from them. Spiritual development is individual; no one can develop spiritually on behalf of another person, but neither can anyone do so without others. It is a perfect interaction: we need the other beings of the Universe in order to evolve, but we cannot evolve for them, nor can they evolve for us.

We need to take responsibility both for making decisions—whether they are wrong or right—and for their results. Taking responsibility means acknowledging our own mistakes, learning from them, and not blaming anyone—and therefore not punishing anyone, much less ourselves—since mistakes are necessary for learning and constitute one of the fundamental rights of the human being.

Taking responsibility, therefore, means becoming conscious, acting both internally and externally without blaming anyone.

Taking responsibility for our inner world gives us the condition of being ourselves; that is, it allows us to reach a level of invulnerable peace, since we feel absolutely independent. On the other hand, when we blame others for the decisions we make, we become people who can be manipulated, who depend on others and blame them for their own mistakes. The reality is that nothing can harm us except ourselves.

To take on what is external, we need to work with acceptance of everything that exists around us and in the Universe, as well as with respect. Accepting means giving up the urge to rebel and to try to change the perfect order of the Universe or other people; it means no longer interfering with other people's life experiences. Acceptance, like taking responsibility, requires deep understanding and a certain level of wisdom. Likewise, we need to respect the fundamental rights established by the Laws of the Universe: doing so will give us complete freedom, while not respecting them will result in limits on our actions, place, abilities, or resources. So we must stop interfering with the decisions others make, and not criticize, judge, or condemn any being for any reason. Respect has to do with the capacity to love.

Understanding evaluates, while the ego criticizes.

Taking responsibility is so powerful that it allows us to take the reins of our lives, avoiding any situation of manipulation or control by others. Even when we feel threatened, we are the ones who decide what to do about the threat, not our aggressor.

Taking responsibility for our decisions therefore means freeing ourselves completely from dependence on what is external: we do not depend on the world, but rather we relate to it. It also means that only each of us can resolve what is happening to us. We have the right to ask for information, to lean on other people, to ask questions, to investigate and, of course, to make mistakes; but taking responsibility for our mistakes and their results is called mental maturity. Blaming others, on the other hand, is a vice of humankind that involves evading our responsibility and shifting it onto someone else, so that we never solve the problem.

Taking responsibility means giving up asking someone else to do what is yours to do.

Taking responsibility for inner change means being happy for your own sake, rather than behaving in order to avoid punishment or earn a reward; in short, it means being aware that each of us is solely responsible for the consequences of our actions.

The art of taking responsibility is the art of living.

The triad of magical success consists of:

• More wisdom.
• Higher-quality relationships.
• Service with greater efficiency. Attaining wisdom means achieving a certain inner development that allows you to be free from suffering and conflict and to be filled with love, that is, with the capacity for service. The state of magic is the inner state of someone who works on themselves. Those who attain it do so because they know, give, do, and receive more. Such a person thinks and acts better and gives their best because they have a higher understanding. We cannot achieve success or peace, cease to suffer, become Masters, or help anyone as long as we interfere in the decisions of others without letting them make those decisions for themselves, nor as long as we are afraid of losing something.

Chapter 4. Taking Responsibility for Life with Wisdom

4.1 The Inner State of Spiritual Independence

Fully taking responsibility for your life allows you to reach what the Masters call the inner state of spiritual independence. Achieving this extraordinary inner state leads directly to invulnerable peace.

This is a state proper to the Masters, and it means not depending on anything or anyone in order to be at peace, to be happy and to make decisions. People who reach it depend only on their inner capacity and on their understanding of the need to respect what is external, and they can no longer be manipulated by others or by their circumstances.

Inner work to develop the capacity to take responsibility gives us the ability to take the reins of our lives, from the past to the future, without depending at all on any person, situation or external circumstance to maintain inner peace, harmony, happiness and a successful attitude toward the material world.

Taking the reins of your life means not depending on anything or anyone in order to live in peace and harmony.

The innocent mind of a child is inevitably contaminated through its belief system, which contributes to the formation of its personality and becomes filled with information that leads to suffering.

Children and adolescents can hardly free themselves from mental slavery and from dependence on their external environment, since reaching an inner state of spiritual independence requires having developed a certain level of understanding of life, which generally does not happen before the age of eighteen.

An adult can free themselves from mental slavery as soon as they understand that they alone are the owner of their decisions.

When someone comes to understand that they alone are the owner of their decisions and of the events of their life, they are ready to set out on the path of liberation and to begin training themselves to take full responsibility for their decisions in the face of life's different situations, as well as to accept everything that happens to them as the best opportunity to move definitively away from the suffering and fear that originate in their belief system.

Mental slavery consists of resentment, bitterness or guilt. When someone blames another, they are actually attacking the object, person or situation they believe is guilty of their problem; so by becoming aggressive they align themselves with living in a world of violence, and they cannot complain, because they get what they themselves have provoked.

If, on the other hand, we do exactly the opposite, we align ourselves with living in a world of peace and harmony, built from within. If we give up blaming, and therefore attacking, we become beings of peace and begin to be ourselves, that is, to be free.

4.2 Becoming Conscious and Taking Responsibility

Fully taking responsibility for life means becoming conscious of the results of the decisions we make, and owning them, from birth until death and the dissolution of the personality. To free ourselves from mental slavery and reach the state of spiritual independence, we need to take responsibility for the different aspects that make up the experience of any human being. This means forgetting the concepts of guilt and injustice and focusing on a perfect purpose of love. The development of inner freedom can be summed up in seven ways of taking responsibility:

1. 1. Take responsibility for the decision of the design of destiny. I can face difficult situations, but I can never deny the opportunity within them. The design of destiny is a wonderful learning opportunity, but recognizing it takes training. No matter how difficult the challenge we face, the lesson to be gained will always be that what happens on the outside does not affect our inner world, our peace, our happiness and our capacity for service.
2. 2. Take responsibility for the decision of choosing the body. The body is a perfect design of God that we borrow as an excellent vehicle for our experience of evolution. We may complain about our body, but we cannot fail to recognize that it gives us excellent service for our evolution.
3. 3. Take responsibility for the decision of our correspondence with our parents. We may have differences with our parents, but we must never stop valuing what we receive from them. True parents are those who support their children so that they can grow and take responsibility for their own lives.
4. 4. Take responsibility for the decision of choosing the place. The place we choose for our life experience may be temporary or permanent, but it will always be the best one for the development of our evolutionary experience. Those who learn to be happy will be happy anywhere, no matter where; those who do not know how to be happy will be bitter in any place.
5. 5. Take responsibility for the decision of choosing the situations. This means making the most of the learning that situations offer us in order to maintain inner peace, regardless of whatever happens. We should be grateful for what we learn from every difficulty. We can adapt, yield or fight, but never lose our capacity to decide freely.
6. 6. Take responsibility for the decision in the face of life's events. There is no way for someone else to decide for us, because each of us is the one who decides whether or not to submit to what others think. We can act and accept our results, but we must never let our peace depend on others.

7. Take responsibility for the decision to dissolve the ignorance of the

personality, transforming it into understanding and wisdom. To achieve this, it is essential to give up suffering in the face of life's events and to let go of all emotional attachment to material things and to people. This means that we are willing to value and enjoy the things and people who are part of our lives at each moment, without giving importance to how long they may stay with us. Beliefs limit; understanding liberates. From the ignorant we learn to recognize our limitations, while from the Masters we learn what wisdom is.

In conclusion, taking the reins of life means fully taking responsibility for the decisions we have made, with full consciousness of our mental independence from the world and its inhabitants, and without blaming anything or anyone at all for the results we have obtained.

If we act automatically, we cannot redirect the course of our lives. To do so, we need to learn to decide, to be happy and to live in inner peace, regardless of what happens outside.

The first exercise an adult undertakes in order to become free is to try to change their environment, because they assume it enslaves them. But eventually they realize that this is a futile effort and that it is governed by the Law of Saturation: when someone becomes saturated with fighting and aggression, they sense that this is not the way and look for the true path. Then they discover that the problem lies within themselves—and, therefore, so does the solution—and they begin to seek the kingdom of God, that is, to free themselves from mental slavery, to take the reins of their lives, and to depend on nothing and no one in order to live in peace and harmony.

To begin moving beyond ignorance, we must stop complaining about the things that happen to us. Events are neither good nor bad, pleasant nor unpleasant; they are neutral. Every event holds an opportunity to learn, and no one is to blame. The only elements in our minds that lead us to make mistakes are innocence and ignorance, and we are not to blame for either; they are part of a natural process of evolution. It does no good to look for someone to blame; instead, let’s look for solutions.

Chapter 5. Inner Independence

5.1 Avoiding Manipulation

To achieve inner independence, we need to take the reins of our lives without depending internally on anything, without feeling manipulated by our surroundings. We must not identify with anything that happens, regardless of whether it is extraordinary or seems chaotic to us.

Manipulation is a mental condition that is present in the lives of all human beings, unless they have already attained a state of spiritual independence. On many occasions, when faced with an external situation, we feel obligated or pressured to do or say something that goes against our convictions, beliefs, or desires. We then justify ourselves by saying, “I was forced by circumstances,” and blame others for our own decisions.

Manipulation is a mental condition that consists of

blaming others for decisions that, in reality, we make ourselves. Throughout life, many situations can arise that have a powerful effect on each person’s belief system, generating states of fear, anxiety, and suffering, and producing dependence on consumer goods, or leading the person to make decisions based on feelings, even against their own convictions.

Beliefs, feelings, and fear are the tools of manipulation.

The main agents of manipulation can be classified into the following five categories:

1. 1. Threats from other people. The most vulnerable part of those who have not yet managed to fully take charge of their own lives is their feelings. For that reason, many people allow their decisions to be driven by the more or less threatening messages that come from their loved ones or from their bosses, coworkers, employees, or neighbors. These are messages like: «“If you keep going like this, you're going to kill me”; “I suffer so much when…”; “It's your fault that…,” etc. Others may threaten us, but we are the ones who make our decisions.
2. 2. Aggression from People or Animals. When faced with aggression, most people react either with violence or by trying to flee; and they blame their aggressor—whether a person or a situation—for the results they themselves bring about through their defensive or flight behavior.

When faced with aggression, our ignorance leads us to blame others for our own fear.

1. 3. Commercial Propaganda. Advertising contains messages specifically designed to manipulate people’s belief systems or fears so that they will consume certain products or services.
2. 4. Cultural Norms and Laws. Compliance with laws, moral principles, taboos, etc., is a way of honoring established agreements. Some are age-old, while others are more recent, but all these codes are part of life in society and of civilization in a broad and positive sense. Some of these aspects define us as a species. However, some are limiting, because most people feel obligated to obey cultural traditions, moral principles, and legal norms out of fear of punishment, criticism, or rejection, and because their minds are limited by the concepts of good and evil. As long as we hold false concepts associated with good and evil, we will also maintain a constant internal conflict between them that will not allow us to have peace. This is the struggle of the ego, within whose belief system good and evil do exist. Feeling obligated to obey stems from an inability to take responsibility for one’s own decisions.
3. 5. News from the Media. Approximately 90% of the news disseminated by the media is full of violence, disasters, and messages that create unpleasant expectations. They lead us to assume that something similar could happen to anyone at any time, which fills us with anxiety and fear and makes us feel compelled to adopt all sorts of costly "security measures." Ignorance leads us to believe that what happens to others could happen to us. We are manipulable in direct proportion to our emotional weakness, which originates in our own belief system and in our deep fears of losing what we are using or the people with whom we share our life experience. Wisdom in the face of the external environment consists of neutralizing its influence—that is, not allowing external messages of any kind to dictate our own decisions or inner states. We attack or flee when we are afraid. We neutralize or set boundaries when we are at peace. To free ourselves completely from the manipulation of our environment, we need to understand that no one can force us to decide, because all decisions are always made freely—whether to take advantage of the design of our own destiny, to respect the experience of others, or to adapt to the environment in which we are meant to live. We must never feel obligated to anything or anyone, because we are the owners of our own decisions. The statement “I decide” is a way to reprogram the mind to be completely free, to achieve spiritual independence, and to stop being manipulable. By becoming aware of our freedom to make decisions, we transcend an enormous number of mental limitations, free ourselves completely, and begin to live a far more satisfying life. In short, we begin to live with wisdom. That is why it is recommended to repeat it many times: “I decide.”

• I decide to love and respect all living beings, recognizing the perfection that each one manifests.
• I decide to accept all of life's events and the role that each person is meant to fulfill.
• I decide to embrace the experiences and events of my life as necessary for my understanding of love.
• I decide to act with serenity in every situation in life, understanding that peace is the tool of love.
• I decide to be grateful for everything I learn from the difficulties life presents me with.
• I decide to appreciate and enjoy everything I have, understanding that it is perfect for me.
• I decide to adapt to the environment I myself chose, so that I can live a life full of satisfaction in it.
• I decide to respect other people's experience completely and earn people's trust.
• I decide to make wise use of the destiny I myself designed and of every opportunity that life presents to me.
• I decide to make my mind more flexible in order to accelerate my spiritual growth.
• I decide to yield and allow myself to experience other points of view, so as to put an end to my ego and my limitations.
• I decide to stand alongside others so that I can serve them and bring them, with my support, a message of love. If we internalize these statements, we will feel completely free and happy, because we understand that we are the ones who decide whether or not to do something in a given situation, and because we understand that everything is part of the destiny each of us designed to support our own spiritual development. To reach the state of spiritual independence, in which our peace, harmony, and decisions depend only on us, we need to recognize that no one can force us or decide for us, so we cannot blame others for decisions that are ours alone. Only by ceasing to blame will we begin to evolve spiritually. We must understand that the threat or pressure someone puts on us and our freely chosen behavior are two totally independent things. Blaming others for the results of our own choices is the first symptom of not taking responsibility for our lives, that is, of being a slave to our surroundings. It implies an inability to be oneself and to find one's own worth. As for the person making the threat, the problem is theirs; it is their experience. Faced with a direct threat, such as an insult or having to pay a tax, we can assess what we gain instead of considering only what we lose. Impositions mean that people lose their capacity to decide; they become incapable. Every rule is a threat, which is why it is necessary to reach agreements. Such agreements rest on commitments, and these in turn on benefits, which take the place of the threat. For example, a threat would be: “If you don't do this, I'll take that away from you,” whereas a benefit is: “If you decide to do this, you get that, and if you decide not to, you don't get it.” For it not to be an imposition, you have to talk it over with the person and build agreements. The desirable goal is to reach an inner state of “I am,” which means completely and definitively giving up blaming others for the decisions we make, and taking responsibility for the results we obtain from them. When someone blames another, they are not being themselves; they are in a deplorable state, the state of “I am not,” and in those circumstances they can be completely manipulated. As a result, they will feel threatened by everything, blame others for what they feel, and negative reactions will arise from everything they do. That is the state of mental slavery. Let's stop being slaves and become free now. When someone is a “slave,” they depend entirely on things and other people to have peace; they are dependent and suffer in trying to protect what they believe are their possessions, their loved ones, and what they consider to be their rights, and they spend their lives fighting to defend something that, in reality, isn't even theirs. The exercise of taking responsibility consists of not suffering, not blaming, and instead taking action. When faced with a threat, we have several options: negotiate to reach an agreement, set boundaries, or protect ourselves by taking certain precautions. Furthermore, with wisdom, we can be grateful for what we learn from the threat: that it is an opportunity to maintain our peace, serenity, and acceptance, regardless of what happens outside.

5.2 External Influences

Many people are afraid that their minds might be affected by external influences from their environment. In some regions of the world, these fears may include subliminal messages, Satanism, spiritism, and black magic. Many people (especially parents) also fear that young people will fall into risky games, reckless drunk driving, drugs, violence… or similar dangers. These fears can lead to very limiting mental dependencies and, at times, serious physical injuries.

The fear that something unknown might harm us is proportional to our level of personal ignorance.

As we gain wisdom about how the Universe, the mind, the body, and the Laws work, fear becomes unnecessary. Throughout the history of humankind, it has been useful as a form of defense; but who needs to defend themselves? Only those who think they could be attacked. And who could be attacked? Only those who are incapable of respect. Therefore, if we look at it the other way around, when someone absolutely respects every being in the Universe, they do not need to defend themselves, because they will be respected.

One of the types of external influences mentioned, which many people fear, is subliminal messages and the many kinds of suggestion and advertising persuasion: subtle messages designed to bypass the filter of the conscious mind and reach the unconscious directly. The way to free ourselves from their influence is to be aware of ourselves and of the reasons behind our decisions. Negative personalities are more susceptible (more prone to autosuggestion) to subliminal messages.

On the other hand, Satanism is the name given to the practice of activities related to states of mind of profound ignorance. Therefore, “evil” will only be near those who are immersed in such ignorance.

Finally, black magic is understood as the improper use of mental tools by people with high levels of ignorance, with the purpose of negatively influencing the minds of others. Black magic can only affect those who believe in it or put themselves in tune with it.

People with good spiritual development who are properly trained to take responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, decisions, and actions are not subject to the influence of any kind of subliminal, satanic, spiritist, advertising, or black magic message, nor do they fall into vices that are harmful to their health.

Completely renouncing any level of defense or aggression makes us invulnerable. It is precisely building those defenses that invites aggression.

To properly manage external influences, it is important to know that the only time the human mind can be influenced or programmed from the outside is during the stage of innocence, that is, from birth to age twelve. But the adult mind is not subject to any external influence unless the person decides to accept it. This means that each of us needs to take responsibility for our own decisions to accept or not accept the messages that originate in the external environment, within which we are meant to live our own evolutionary experience in order to achieve the transmutation of our destiny.

If we understand that nothing can affect us beyond our own decisions, we become invulnerable. The problem isn't what happens around us, but what happens within us, as well as what we do with our minds.

5.3 Toward Wisdom

The mind of a teenager or an adult often accepts new information, suggestions, ideas, and persuasion, as well as any other type of external influence, as long as the messages agree with the belief system initially acquired (although teenagers may also accept other information more easily); otherwise, it will reject them and put up great resistance to any change proposed to it.

An adult's mind accepts only information that is consistent with their own beliefs.

To break through the resistance that the belief system offers to evolutionary change, divine wisdom uses the tool of feeling, so that in the face of external events that false beliefs cannot accept, it generates extremely high levels of suffering. At a certain point, a mental phenomenon occurs thanks to the Law of Saturation: when a person can bear no more suffering, they exclaim, “I don't want to suffer anymore!” From that moment on, their mind is ready to accept new information that will allow them to free themselves from suffering and from the limitations they initially learned, because they have completed their destiny and can set out on the path of love, happiness, and personal success.

The saturation of suffering breaks the belief system and opens the way to the search for inner peace and spiritual development.

From the above follows the importance of implementing a true education that allows children to develop a flexible mind, so as to avoid later on that mental rigidity, which requires extremely high levels of suffering to break. A rigid person always makes the decision to fight or flee, while someone with mental flexibility makes other decisions, with greater wisdom. A proper education develops a flexible mind, with low levels of suffering.

In general, decisions can arise in two different ways:

1. Out of ignorance or fear. In this case, the decision is directly related to one's own destiny, and it will lead to a negative outcome.
2. Out of wisdom or understanding. The decision is then related to our mission or to something that can bring us great satisfaction, and thus it will yield a positive result. Each of us makes our own decisions, wise or not, and needs to accept their consequences. These consequences show us precisely our level of ignorance or wisdom, and this is how we grow spiritually. Mental flexibility is what allows us to make decisions that involve yielding and adapting to circumstances, as well as respecting others. On the other hand, the Law of Cause and Effect helps us understand the need to respect our inner peace. Whatever we do, think, or decide has an effect on the external world. Each of us constantly, and usually unconsciously, receives exactly what we put out. If someone is always thinking about defending themselves against external threats, that is what they put out into the world. Achieving that state of inner peace, along with outer satisfaction and success, depends solely on three elements: thought, word, and deed. The Law of Cause and Effect refers to our life experience in the present moment. It is necessary to eliminate negative thoughts from the mind, no matter what is happening outside. We must always guide our thoughts with love: always think the best, say what is appropriate, and do what is necessary. That is wisdom. To this end, it may be helpful to reprogram our minds with the following phrases of wisdom:

• "I will not let anything disturb my inner peace."
• "Everything I do with unconditional love will turn out well." As for how we express ourselves, we must break the habit of speaking ill of anything, anyone, or any situation; and as for our behavior, it is best to refrain from physically attacking others, from doing what is not ours to do, and from poisoning our bodies with substances that do not support our health. Suffering puts us in correspondence with negative situations, so simply by ceasing to suffer and taking ownership of our own lives without blaming anyone, we begin to remain unaffected by external influences. Let us therefore clear our minds of the idea of danger, of blame, of manipulation, and of external influences, because they do not exist: only each of us, through our own decisions, thoughts, and attitudes, determines, by the Law of Correspondence and the Law of Cause and Effect, what happens in our life.

5.4 Embracing Our Inner Levels

To embrace all the inner levels that are characteristic of human beings, recognizing them as the most extraordinary tools that life has given us, is to develop the ability to appreciate, in its full dimension, the perfection of divine creation within ourselves. It is a matter of embracing everything we are as biological, spiritual, and mental beings, and consciously taking control. In this way, we can be free and be ourselves. The following are our inner levels, and what we need to embrace in each one:

1. 1. Instinct. We must embrace the three fundamental characteristics of instinct, which are: to generate life, to sustain it, and to defend it. This involves learning to wisely manage the messages that arise from each of them.

• Generating life. It manifests itself through attraction to others and produces states of falling in love based on the recognition of genetic compatibility. This means that falling in love can arise spontaneously with different people, and with relative frequency. Managing states of falling in love wisely means recognizing the role of instinct and enjoying the feeling internally, without allowing it to affect in any way the commitments or agreements we have already established with our partner, nor the respect that other people deserve.
• Sustaining life. This is directly related to the body’s needs and deficiencies, which are expressed through desire. Embracing all our desires and learning to satisfy them in a healthy way ensures the body’s harmony and health. When it is not possible to satisfy a desire without interfering with other people or causing them harm, we must accept that.
• Defending life. This impulse manifests itself when a person feels threatened and afraid. The instinct reacts, either with aggression or by trying to flee the situation in order to defend or save oneself. Embracing this aspect of instinct means refraining from aggression and flight, and instead using dialogue, agreements, compromises, and firmness, or setting boundaries when an agreement cannot be reached. Instinct, when managed wisely, enriches life. Since these three functions of instinct are automatic, we must learn to manage them consciously; to do so, we will use discernment and understanding. We cannot prevent attraction, which arises from the Law of Nature, but we can prevent it from creating conflict. Instinct has functions that are often temporary, lasting only until a higher stage of evolution is reached. Since our goal is to take control of our lives, embracing them 100 percent, we need to be clear about what to do when situations arise. The wise approach is to enjoy and respect.

1. 2. Emotions. Embracing our emotions means that when we experience sadness, anger, distress, or fear, which arise as a result of external stimuli, we must let go of those emotions without blaming or lashing out at anyone for what is happening inside us.

Managing our emotions is a sign of mental maturity.

Emotions are automatic, just like instinct, and we also need to learn how to manage them, especially the negative ones. One way to express them without causing conflict is what we’ll call here the “Wailing Wall”: a spot in the house or a secluded place in nature where you can scream, jump, or hit something without hurting anyone.

1. 3. Feelings. We need to embrace the suffering that comes from our feelings as an internal experience resulting from our own mental limitations or false beliefs, definitively stop relating to others from our negative feelings, and, much less, make the mistake of blaming or lashing out at them because of how we feel.

It is ignorance to blame others, or ourselves, for what we feel.

Unlike instinct and emotions, feelings are not automatic but learned, so they are directly related to our beliefs. If a belief generates a negative feeling, it is because it is false and stems from the ignorance that has accumulated within us.

Once again, we must work on embracing. We have the right to feel bad, like all human beings in the process of evolution; but if others don’t realize that we’re feeling bad at a given moment, we will have done the work of embracing perfectly. From that point on, all that remains is to work on not experiencing that negative feeling again; when we achieve that, we will have cleansed our minds. Mental cleansing involves a reprogramming process to replace false beliefs with understood truths.

The sadness we feel, for example, when a loved one passes away is not due to the external event itself, but rather to our lack of inner acceptance and our attachment. Acceptance requires understanding, and understanding requires information. When we have enough information and understand a situation, we can accept it and, therefore, not suffer.

As long as we have attachments or believe that something or someone belongs to us, we will always fear losing it. Loss is a feeling associated with the belief in ownership; that is why, when we understand that we own nothing, that feeling of loss, and therefore of sadness, disappears. This is a profound understanding of the essence of life, and it is worth working toward so that we may free ourselves, never suffer again, and be able to love completely and unconditionally.

1. 4. Ignorance. Inevitably, everyone initially accumulates certain levels of ignorance within their personality. Embracing our personal ignorance means understanding its importance as a contrasting element in the discovery of inner truth. On our path of evolution, we must stop blaming or attacking others, as we come to understand that our emotional and sentimental reactions stem from our own ignorance. Ignorance is necessary for finding the truth.
2. 5. Destiny. Embracing our own destiny means that we decide to use the difficulties life presents us as a wonderful opportunity to develop physical skills, mental maturity, inner peace, and the ability to express love constantly. In this way, we free ourselves completely and permanently from suffering.

Wisdom lies in seeing destiny as an opportunity.

Destiny takes root in our minds as a learned belief system, and this system leads us into situations that match our need to learn.

If we didn’t have to face difficulties, if there were no challenges or situations that we struggled to learn how to handle, how would we grow stronger? How could we acquire the ability to be invulnerable or unshakable? How would we learn to be happy and at peace, regardless of what happens around us? The answer is simple: there is only one way, which is to face our destiny as an opportunity to learn to love. So let’s make the most of our destiny.

Absolutely no one is subjected to trials they cannot overcome. Once we have fully learned what a situation is meant to teach us, it never happens again. Difficult experiences are an opportunity to develop love within ourselves, so we should not view them as something negative or as a punishment. It is we who distort reality, seeing as a problem what is really an opportunity for learning and fulfillment.

1. 6. Function. Embracing the function we are meant to carry out in life means understanding that every job or activity through which we “earn a living” is directly related to our destiny and, at times, to our mission. For this reason, whether we like it or not, we must be ready to carry out our work with the greatest enthusiasm, joy, and love. In this way, we will be able to transmute our destiny and fulfill the mission that belongs to us. Doing our work with love turns destiny into mission.
2. 7. Understanding. Achieving understanding means beginning to love willingly and universally, giving up interfering with other people’s destinies and, of course, never failing to carry out the functions that fall to us.

Not interfering doesn't mean not doing.

The level of understanding each person has consists of their capacity to love, the importance of the spiritual in their mental field, and the truths they have gradually discovered and verified.

To understand means to decide to fully respect other people’s experiences, behaviors, attitudes, emotions, feelings, and decisions. Respecting means not interfering; not criticizing; not attacking others in thought, word, or deed; not entering into conflict even if we disagree with them; and not allowing the experiences that others need to go through to disturb our inner peace.

1. 8. Mission. To embrace our own mission, we need to verify whether it is part of our function. If it is not, we must accept that the mission is something to pursue only in our free time, since it will not be possible to “earn a living” by carrying it out. When, on the other hand, the mission does partly coincide with our function, it is important to embrace it as a commitment to life and to be ready to enjoy it intensely, understanding the profound meaning of service.

To serve with Love is to embrace our function as a mission.

1. 9. Thoughts. To embrace our thoughts, we must observe them carefully and discard those that bring suffering or may disturb the peace and perfect balance of the mind. We must be ready to voluntarily select thoughts of Love, peace, harmony, and joy and, in general, always direct them toward whatever can contribute to personal development or to that of our surroundings. Any idea that does not leave harmony within us is not a thought of Love. To direct our mind in this way, we have to choose our attitude toward what happens outside. When we are able to see perfection in everything that happens and exists, and can always feel at peace in any circumstance, we will know that we are thinking “in Love.” But to succeed in this exercise, constant training is needed.

Selecting thoughts is tuning in to Love.

1. 10. Perceptions. Embracing perceptions means understanding, accepting, and verifying that, in addition to the five senses, we human beings have other “senses” and faculties that are not very clearly defined but are evidently real. What we call parapsychology, or supersenses, are normal faculties of the human being that consist of perceiving information from other dimensional fields. These faculties are not highly developed in most people, which is why their existence is sometimes doubted. They manifest spontaneously, without the person in question knowing exactly how it happened, but they do really exist. It is therefore necessary to embrace them as other forms of communication that, even when they are not always very clear or easily understood, should not be taken as a product of the imagination, but as other real ways of receiving

Chapter 6. Steps to Achieve Inner Peace by Freeing Ourselves from Ignorance

6.1 Breaking the Ignorance That Chains Us

Ignorance keeps us chained to the worlds of dense matter, where there is little development of consciousness and where suffering, dissatisfaction, illness, pain, and death are a constant. Breaking the chains of ignorance means putting an end to the limitations of the personality and definitively transcending suffering and the other “evils” mentioned.

To achieve a fulfilling future that allows us to ascend to higher levels of consciousness, we need to free ourselves from the chains that bind us to the past. These chains are often cultural in nature and are directly related to the destinies we need to transcend. «There is a future full of love, peace, happiness, abundance, and prosperity waiting for you».

6.2 Letting Go of the Limiting Belief in Possession

One of the beliefs that dwell in our ignorance is the idea of possession. In reality, we do not own anything or anyone, nor are we indispensable to others, nor do we need others in order to be happy and at peace.

Every defense of our beliefs keeps us fighting; every belief that does not give us peace and harmony depresses us; and every idea of possession enslaves us.

People’s vital energy and lifetime are needlessly worn away by maintaining states of worry and suffering associated with fighting for and defending what we believe belongs to us or is indispensable for us to live, have peace, and be happy.

In reality, we have very little when we possess:

• Our material possessions, because we are slaves to them.
• Our loved ones, because we suffer in order to protect them and suffer if we lose them.
• Our way of life, because we close ourselves off to better options.
• Our activities, because we refuse to serve in other areas.
• Our profession, because we try to avoid other experiences.
• Our business, because we have to defend it from the competition.
• Our job, because we depend on it to survive.
• Our ego, because it makes us believe that we are unique in the Universe. Therefore, clinging to our “possessions” leads us to a gigantic limitation in accessing the universal sources of wisdom and the unlimited abundance of resources, and to an inability to serve, have peace, be happy, and recover the energy we keep scattered across everything we want. We need to sacrifice the sense of possession and all the attachments and fears that stem from it, definitively giving up complaining about what we have and wanting what we don’t have, as well as controlling others because we believe they belong to us. We must renounce all beliefs that limit peace and happiness, and to do so we must completely burn away our attachments, fears, and feelings of possession. We do not need to possess anything to have peace, because peace is a result of our own understanding. We only need to reach agreements with others, respect them, and enjoy everything. Letting go of beliefs and fears means surrendering to the perfect flow of the Universe, and thus gaining access to the information we need to have peace, be happy, and have the resources necessary to serve.

6.3 Steps to Free Ourselves from Ignorance

Happiness is an inner spiritual condition. A Master possesses an inner state of peace and happiness that remains steady wherever he may be, since what happens outside does not affect him. A saying of Master Jesus sums up all wisdom: “Seek the kingdom of God within yourselves, and everything else will be given to you as well.” Seeking happiness, abundance, or harmony outside ourselves is useless work, because “everything else” is the result of our inner state. If we apply this information to our lives, we will obtain a result of peace and happiness.

Abundance is the natural characteristic of the Universe. There is no scarcity, only people who find themselves in a state of scarcity because they have limited their ability to access abundance. Analyzing these self-imposed restrictions and moving beyond them means breaking the chains of ignorance. But to do that, we need to apply all the techniques of acceptance and of assuming.

When a person takes a deep interest in their own inner growth, their spiritual refinement, and the search for inner peace, it is because they have already reached a level of development of consciousness sufficient to no longer need to keep a belief system, or archive of ignorance, in their personality. From this moment on, they will be ready to take the last four steps that will definitively free them from the archive and the chains of ignorance. These steps are:

1. New information that changes our conception of reality and life. When we are ready to leave behind false beliefs, ignorance, and suffering, we can access the information of love and of the truth of the Universe. This information allows us to understand that everything that happens in the Universe is perfect and has a profound purpose of love, directed toward the awakening of consciousness. The information of Love frees us from suffering. If we want to transform our lives to find the kingdom of love, the first thing we must do is be willing to receive new information. The kingdom of love involves accepting new information of wisdom, which sets us free; and for the kingdom of love to manifest in us, we need to bring our values and virtues to the surface. At that moment, the old information will come into conflict with the new, and we will resist receiving it because they are nothing alike. It is like comparing the information of darkness—the old—with the information of light—the new. Then we must choose which of the two we want to remain within us. When we become saturated with suffering, we seek and accept new information in order to obtain more satisfying results. The belief system, or ego, has nothing to do with the truth, and it will never allow us to be happy. Being willing to receive new information involves inner work: deciding to let go of the ego. But first we need to make it flexible; a flexible, adaptable personality can be transformed easily, and thanks to the understanding it has gained, it is able to live in peace and harmony. To renounce the ego, we must use some tools that we have known about for many years but have probably not used until now:

• I renounce confronting.
• I renounce complaining.
• I renounce criticizing.
• I renounce judging.
• I renounce changing others.
• I renounce fighting.
• I renounce everything the ego does. The information that culture passes on to us in each generation is not new; it is about 12,000 years old, and it persists in each individual unless the chain of ignorance is broken in one of two possible ways, namely:
• An adult decides to clear their mind of false information, thereby allowing new information of wisdom to enter.
• A child is born to parents who have new information and who, instead of passing culture on to the child, allow direct access to the wisdom of the Laws of the Universe.

2. Verifying the truth through acceptance and

abandonment. For people to be able to use the information of love effectively, they need to have verified it as truth. This is achieved by carefully observing the results of applying the information of love to everyday situations in life.

Verifying the results of peace, satisfaction, and harmony is finding the path of truth.

Filling ourselves with wisdom and liberating truth is only possible individually, because truth cannot be taught; information and concrete tools about it can be given, but each of us finds it in our own life. The path is to practice the Master’s teaching, not to worship him or ask him to solve our problems.

We need to verify that the new information is true. How can we do that? Through the inner and outer results we obtain with our current behavior. If our inner results are happiness, peace, and Love, we will know that the information we hold in our minds and are applying is true. We must observe whether there is serenity, harmony, and joy within us or, on the contrary, suffering, fear, anguish, and blockages. Information that generates suffering is necessarily false.

If we are applying true information, our external results in relationships, health, resources, and adaptation to our environment will be satisfactory. If, however, they are “problematic,” we are using false information. We should not accept any information as true unless we have verified it as such. It doesn’t matter where it comes from or who passed it on to us.

Verification is the only tool for knowing the truth.

As has been said, any information that limits our happiness is false, and it can go by many names: ego, belief system, cultural principles, intellectual development, or knowledge.

1. Alchemy of thought. To have inner peace, it is helpful to:

• Change the way we think. For example, thoughts that do not bring peace are wrong, even if they are logically well constructed.
• Dematerialize thought: reality is not here. Identifying with what we truly are—the immaterial soul—will bring us peace.
• Depolarize our thinking: what happens is neither “good” nor “bad” but “neutral,” and it happens for the growth of our soul.
• Take the position of witness to our own thoughts. Learning to be witnesses of our mind and our emotional body keeps us from identifying with what we think and feel, avoiding the “hijacking” that sometimes occurs when our emotional and mental bodies take our peace away. We need to learn to use the mind and emotions when appropriate, but not to be used by them. By placing ourselves as witnesses, we can see clearly that we are not our body or our mind, but rather the witness of both, and this shift in identification will bring us more inner peace.

4. Assuming our own inner change from a place of responsibility,

putting an end to victim mentality. The solution does not lie with others, since I am the one who creates what happens to me. To live in a world where ignorance and suffering no longer exist—a world where we all respect the rights of others and share only peace, harmony, and happiness—we must voluntarily embrace inner change. Once this is achieved, no external pressure or control is needed to maintain behavior based on Love and respect toward all other people and the existing socioeconomic structures. Something that can help us develop an attitude of respect toward others is to remember that every soul is at its own particular stage of evolution and that its behavior stems from that. We must focus solely on our own personal change. Someone who embraces their inner change achieves peaceful coexistence with their surroundings, and therefore no longer needs police officers or penalties of any kind, because they themselves have freely decided to be the master of their own actions and behavior.

Those who embrace their own inner change no longer need external controls or worries.

Inner change is something we need to take on individually, as our own spiritual development. No one can train on behalf of another, just as no one can eat, study, or live on behalf of another. Therefore, asking God/the Absolute to bring about our spiritual development is one of the vices of Humanity, and it stems from our failure to take responsibility for our own lives. We can ask for information, but the work of spiritual development is something we must do ourselves.

1. Training for transcendence. Once a person has verified the information about love, they can begin the training that will lead them to the definitive transcendence of learned mental limitations. In this way, they will be able to break the chains of ignorance that bound them to suffering and to the worlds of mortification and trial—such as the planet Earth—which are the gymnasiums for the spirit. Mortification is an exercise to develop potentials that already dwell within us, for everything that mortifies us is an opportunity to learn to be “immortifiable.” Similarly, everything that offends us is an opportunity to learn not to be offended; likewise, what is aggressive is useful for learning to be invulnerable, and so on. All situations with a certain level of difficulty are an opportunity for us to develop; that is why they are called worlds of mortification and trial. Mortification because they are training exercises, and trial because they measure how we make use of different situations—for example, in making experiences that once bothered us greatly bother us less, or no longer bother us at all. The result of taking charge of our own development of consciousness is living in a world of harmony and satisfaction. Training for transcendence consists of refusing to suffer, get upset, or lose inner peace in the face of any of the circumstances we call “difficult.” The training is constant work. The following words of wisdom will allow us to reprogram our minds if we repeat them hundreds of times, especially when facing difficult situations:

• "My inner peace is invulnerable, no matter what others do or say, or what happens."
• “My happiness depends on me; if I am not capable of being happy by myself, nothing and no one will be able to make me happy.” To be invulnerable, we must renounce the law of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” and do exactly the opposite. The more negative or difficult people or situations we encounter along the way, the more strongly we must draw on our inner values. If we meet bitter people, let’s speak with them with a big smile; when they talk to us about crisis, let’s convey the happiness that can be found in any circumstance and show a smile and joy; if someone attacks us, we must respond with complete humility and peace within us. That is the daily training.

Ignorance binds us; wisdom frees us from suffering.

An ignorant person lies because they try to evade responsibility, without taking on in life what is theirs to do, or else because they try to impose their own views without respecting the rights of others.

A wise person, on the contrary, does not try to avoid their duties but takes them on. They do not say, “It wasn’t me,” but instead acknowledge their possible mistake and are willing to learn from it. And when they provide information, they adapt it to the mind of the person it is addressed to.

A wonderful, absolutely extraordinary future awaits all of us. That future could be here and now, or five million years from now, depending on what we decide to do. If we take action starting now, our lives will change; but if we don’t understand what we need to do, or decide not to do it because it seems too difficult or because it goes against our beliefs, the Universe will continue to wait for us. It has a series of levels through which one ascends, and it is not possible to move up a level without having understood 100% of what can be learned at that level. The Universe is in no hurry because it operates in zero time—eternity—so we can take as long as we like.

Breaking the chains of ignorance means learning to stop getting upset by the behavior of others or by the things that happen around us.

If we are only interested in improving external things, it means we are not yet ready to take responsibility for our lives. When we start trying to improve our inner condition, and think about how to have more peace and mental flexibility and how to improve our relationships and our health, we are ready to take responsibility for our lives.

On the other hand, and as has already been said, if we want to achieve truly satisfying results in life, we need to stop trying to work on others and dedicate ourselves to working on ourselves.

When it comes to others, let us always act from discernment rather than judgment. “Understanding evaluates; the ego criticizes.” Discernment carries no emotional charge, whereas judgment does.

If we judge others, we cannot serve them, since that judgment can bring, for example, aversion, and no one can remain “neutral” and be of service to someone they feel aversion toward. By not judging, we facilitate our spiritual development.

To avoid stagnation in our spiritual development, let’s keep in mind that every situation or condition, no matter how good it may be, can be improved. This will increase our understanding and, consequently, our happiness.

6.4 In Search of Role Models

Let's define what we mean by "expert," "Master," "magician," and "artist," starting from the premise that all of them have sought their own improvement.

An expert is someone who does something better than anyone else in that field. It doesn't mean they've been trained to do it. You can be an expert in cooking, farming, fixing engines, or any other activity.

A Master is someone who has made many mistakes and learned from them. They have taken advantage of the opportunities life has presented to them in order to learn, and have developed the ability not to make mistakes. Therefore, they know more.

A magician is someone capable of performing miracles, of accomplishing what others cannot easily do. In short, a magician is something like an expert.

An artist is someone who enjoys what they do—and who also does it better than most people.

In summary, the title of “Master” is given to someone who basically meets three conditions:

• A greater amount of knowledge, information, training, experience, ability to do things, and skill in managing life and its circumstances.
• Better quality of relationships, service, physical condition and training, attitude toward life, and adaptation to the world or to any place where they are meant to go. They have greater life satisfaction and better quality of results than others.
• A superior capacity to understand everything that happens. They can see love where others do not. They are not aggressive, but rather express love; they have a greater capacity for respect toward everything that exists and happens; they take responsibility for their own life without blaming or judging anyone; they are capable of being happy on their own; they require no external control, because they accept everything that happens and do not try to change anything; they are endowed with a superior capacity for action; and they deeply value everything they have and everything that exists. To attain the qualities of a Master, we need to take action. Life does not respond to inertia, but to action, whether wise or mistaken, with the corresponding results in each case. To improve, we need to look to others for examples and conclude: “If that person was able to achieve it, so can I.” In this way, we can improve without confrontation, simply by comparing ourselves to someone who knows more, realizing that they possess something superior, and thinking: “How wonderful, I, too, can attain those qualities.” If we ask them, that person will surely share information with us. But we must keep in mind that the point is to seek reference points, not goals, since a goal can lead to frustration if we don’t achieve it, whereas a reference point lets us know what we can achieve at some point, no matter when. In destiny, the only thing that isn’t programmed is time. If we need millions of years to learn to add, we will be given them; but if we can learn in eight days, then that is the time required. In the Universe, it is not time that matters, but quality: reaching 100% understanding. Until we reach it, we cannot take the next step.

Chapter 7. Symptoms of Inner Peace

• The ability to enjoy every moment.
• Loss of interest in judging others and oneself.
• Loss of interest in conflicts. This should not be confused with failing to face the conflicts that arise and resolve them with LOVE and firmness.
• Loss of interest in worrying.
• Calming of the emotional body.
• Overflowing moments of appreciation for everything around us.
• A deeper connection with others and with nature.
• An increase in the moments when good humor prevails.
• A tendency to let things flow.
• A tendency to act more and more spontaneously (letting go of control over the results).
• Greater trustworthiness in the eyes of others.
• The intention of conscious growth and service to others awakens.
• The contextual clarity of the higher faculties develops.
• Growing interest in working “within oneself.”
• You have more energy, and your creativity increases.
• Experiences of the “miraculous” increase, and you become more aware of synchronicities.

Conclusions

• What is inner peace? Inner peace is the result of inner work and is achieved when all inner conflict disappears.
• What is inner peace for? Achieving inner peace and fully taking responsibility for our lives allows us to be spiritually independent and invulnerable.
• How do we achieve inner peace? Achieving inner peace doesn't come from fighting "the negative" and trying to impose "the positive," but from clearing away "the clouds" and trying to serve, facilitating the evolutionary process. It comes from loving the difficulties that allow us to grow spiritually.
• Inner peace raises vital energy to the zone of Light, which connects with the higher faculties.
• As long as our lives are governed by beliefs, we will be very vulnerable.
• Taking responsibility for our decisions means giving up blaming anything or anyone for what happens to us. We must make a decision and take responsibility for the result.
• Learning to decide with wisdom, from understanding, will result in inner peace, liberation, and total success in life.
• We are manipulable when we blame others for the results of our decisions; we stop being so when we take responsibility for our own decisions and their results.
• Taking responsibility means giving up asking someone else to do what each person is meant to do.
• Taking responsibility for our lives with wisdom is the best antidote to external influences.
• Steps to achieve inner peace:

1. Being willing to receive new information of wisdom, changing our conception of reality and of life.
2. Verifying this information about the truth in our inner and outer results, through acceptance and letting go.
3. Alchemy of thought.
4. Taking on our own inner change from a place of responsibility, putting an end to victimhood.
5. Training constantly in our daily life.

• Let's make the most of what life gives us. There are no problems or difficulties, only opportunities to learn to be happy.
• Let's learn not to judge, but to discern. Understanding evaluates, and the ego criticizes
• Let's learn to respect all human beings, because each one is at a different point in their evolution.
• Taking responsibility for our own decisions means taking the reins of our lives, being grateful for and appreciating what is in them at every moment. There is no need to believe any of the above; rather, we should practice and verify whether this information works and yields satisfying results in life. With this information, we have three courses of action:

1. Store it in our library.
2. Carry it with us and teach it to everyone.
3. Make the information a part of ourselves, so that it becomes the way we act. Only in this last case will we achieve satisfactory results.

Training Exercises

Exercise for Mental Reprogramming to Achieve Inner Freedom

• With this phrase of wisdom: “I never feel obligated to anyone or anything, because I am the master of my own decisions.”
• With the prayer “I Decide.”

An Exercise in Mental Reprogramming to Achieve Inner Peace and Transcendence

This is the intention with which I will get up every day:

• "My inner peace is invulnerable. No matter what others do or say, or what happens around me, I will not allow anything to affect my peace."
• "My happiness depends on me. If I am not able to be happy on my own, nothing and no one can make me happy."
• "I will take today as an opportunity to be happy on my own."
• That way, each day you will gain more time in happiness, peace, and Love, until it becomes permanent. We aspire for our peace to become continuous rather than sporadic.
• If you want truly satisfying results in your life, give up working on others and devote yourself to working on yourself.

1. 3. Exercises for Finding Peace

• When faced with situations you can't handle, ones that upset you, try not to react aggressively. Be aware of the situation, take a deep breath, and stay calm so you can act effectively and with serenity.
• Don't judge the people who upset you; use discernment.
• Show respect to everyone, understanding their stage of evolution. Otherwise, it is impossible to serve anyone.
• Speak calmly and non-aggressively.
• Practice mental fasting: give up any thought that disturbs your inner peace.
• Those who live, breathe. Those who read, learn. Those who act, understand. Those who practice, know. If you always do the same thing with the same attitude, you’ll always get the same results. Change the information, change your attitude, and your results will change.