God is the sum of all virtues and qualities –
‘What is God?’ asked Mikhaël during a lecture. ‘In a moment you will know that God exists… Do you believe that there are any just people on earth?’ Several in the audience admitted that they considered themselves just. ‘And are there intelligent people on earth? Are there people who are beautiful?’ All agreed that intelligence existed and that beauty existed, particularly in women and children. ‘In other words,’ said Mikhaël, ‘you admit that intelligence, justice, and beauty exist.

What about strength? Do you know anyone who is strong?’ Yes, they all agreed, and Mikhaël continued: ‘So you agree that there is such a thing as strength. And surely you must admit that there are other virtues as well? Now, imagine that all the qualities and virtues whose existence you acknowledge are multiplied, amplified and intensified to an infinite degree. God is precisely that: the sum of all virtues and qualities carried to an infinite, unlimited dimension. We cannot deny this reality, because we all possess some fragments of it.

Proof that we are all seeking God
And he went on: ‘I can even prove to you that although you don’t realize it, you are all seeking God.’ ‘Oh no! Impossible!’ exclaimed one of the men. ‘Yes. When you look at a beautiful woman, it means that you are drawn to beauty. Why?’ ‘Because it makes me happy.’ ‘Well, this simply means that you are looking for God, but in a limited form.’

Turning to the men around him, one after the other, he continued: ‘And you, who fight because you like strength, can’t you see that strength, even wrongly understood, is God in another form? And aren’t those who are looking for tenderness looking for God? Yes, we are all looking for God; we are all in pursuit of the deity in one form or another. It is the means and methods we use to reach and lay hold of our goal that are ineffectual, false and base. But in reality we are all drawn to great things, to the one thing that is great, limitless, infinite.’ 

Mikhaël describes ecstacy
Since his ecstasy at the age of fifteen, Mikhaël had experienced many others, but a talk he gave on January 28, 1951, is so vibrant that it seems to be the echo of a recent experience. Before speaking that day he had opened a small book of meditations by Peter Deunov, asking the invisible world to show him what he should talk about. His gaze had fallen upon a text about ecstasy, which he proceeded to comment on with particular intensity.

‘Ecstasy is a marvellous, indescribable state. One has to experience it to understand. One’s whole being is pervaded by sentiments of self-abnegation, altruism, and nobility. One loves with a love that embraces all creatures and renounces all trivial, material pleasures. The heart is filled with impersonal, selfless, generous feelings. This gives you some slight idea of ecstasy. It is something that can be experienced only when one has admired, adored and contemplated the deity for a very long time.’

Louise-Marie Frenette,
Extracts from The Life of a Master in the West  (Amazon, ‘look inside’)
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