Beloved Students:

As we close 2003 and enter another Earth year, I greet you in hope and peace, desiring that you make these two spiritual qualities available to the planet as the fruits and gifts of your spiritual contribution to the larger whole. May you open to new possibilities for yourselves, your relationships and for the entire world. Know that holding such an intention and actively working toward its manifestation is not only a wise use of your focus and energy, it is a great gift to all sentient beings.

As you face a new year, it is a good time to reflect on - perhaps count - the number of years you have been allowed to experience this beautiful planet. Consider all the ways in which you have been fortunate, for as you have heard Me say, the quickest way to lose those blessings is to fail to recognize them! It is indeed an important time to reflect on how fortunate you have been. Not only does that help you have the appropriate sense of your place in the scheme of things, and facilitate the appropriate type of humility, it is so what your planet needs at this time.

With the news just yesterday (12/14/03) of the capture of Saddam Hussein, you will begin to see some interesting playing out of karma, if you pay attention. Indeed, you can expect the media to continue its hype, which most Americans will lap up like a puppy at a dish of warm milk. To those of you getting this letter who are Americans, do your very best to hold firmly to your center. To those of you who hail from other countries, do your best to support your American spiritual friends at this time. Clearly, there is much work to be done on the inner planes; and all of you who are aware of what is going on do have some karmic connection with both the events and the people.

With the lack of evidence of any "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, and with the recognition that the reported sales of nuclear material by Africa to Iraq was false, it becomes clear that both individual and collective karma are being tweaked. Since all experience is but the interplay of karma and emptiness, this is a good time to focus on the emptiness part. The entire world will be focusing on the karmic part.

Try not to let your minds run wild with the media frenzy that is likely to occur. If you can remain in a sane state and be ever observant, you will see a demonstration of karma ripening that can help you understand the nature and force of karmic projection. Watch your mental projections, not only with the events that are presented, but with the people involved as well. Since there is so much at issue around the notion of "trust," it is probably good advice not to trust your own assumptions and projections.

One of the karmic imprints you can easily see has to do with the fact that the U.S. has never unseated a President in a time of war. It will be interesting to see if that pattern replicates itself in the coming elections or whether it is broken. Most of you have already seen the power of karma playing out through the Iraqi war. Many karmic seeds had to ripen to bring about all the events of the war. When you consider all the people who have had their lives impacted who are neither Iraqi nor American, you can see how vast the picture is. Of course, destructive as war is, it has once again demonstrated the singularity of the planetary experience.

It is important for each of you to consider what you are seeding in your mind to germinate in 2004. With so many areas either outwardly engaged in war or the consideration of waging war, you can see how necessary it is to anchor deep and unfailing peace in your own mental space. It was never more important to hold peace in all your relationships, particularly the relationship you have with yourself. To discover emptiness through the course of karma arising before you will be quite a challenge. For each of you, that process will be a bit different; but one thing true for all of you is that you must first find peace within, since you simply cannot see emptiness through the lens of a chaotic mind.

Never forget how fortunate you are - even on those days when you do not feel particularly fortunate. Use all that you have been learning about training the mind, seeing beyond projections, and stepping beyond the illusion that things are as they seem. It is likely that you will have multiple opportunities in 2004 to find yourself at some threshold, and if you are present and conscious in the moment, you will see that you are at a choice point between staying asleep and waking to greater truth and freedom. Remember, your access to truth and freedom has everything to do with how the ego mind holds those concepts in relation to itself.

Actively contribute peacefully to all your relationships. Worry less about whether or not you are getting what you want, and rather seek to offer something. Try to hold dear all those who try your patience or seem in some way to wrong you. Their presence in your life may just be showing you where you have slipped from peace and neutrality in your own life. When you feel burdened in your relationships, give thanks that you are able to carry the burden; then try to see it another way. Try looking through the eyes of the one who seems so burdensome, and notice how a change of perspective makes all the difference in both meaning and outcome. Then give great thanks that you are able to make such shifts in consciousness. Above all, find plenty of opportunities to give the ego some much-needed periods of rest.

Since you have all had many years (indeed, lifetimes) where the ego completely ran the show, make this year a year of Essence. Instead of simply allowing ego to overshadow Essence, reverse the pattern and see how much you gain from it. If you can, come to see the ego as a humorous - perhaps immature - part of self that is still figuring out it has to grow up. With kindness and gentleness, give up the stories it has contrived about who you are or why you are a certain way. These are only illusions that spoil - or seek to spoil - the realization of your limitless nature. Besides, when you are really clear with yourself, you already know who/what you want deciding your fate. Essence is so vast and perfect that it kindly dissolves the ego, opening the heart to the full measure of radiance and infinite Life.

Please join Me this month in listening to the lecture I gave in Denver on December 7 of this year. It is titled Yet Another Year, and I hope you will find the lecture supportive and inspiring in your journey on Earth at this time. May it convince you that you can indeed stop suffering. At the end of the lecture, I give you another short meditation that you can do several times a day to aid you in creating well the year that is before you. May you be inspired by the knowledge that others before you have accomplished freedom from suffering, and have learned to walk in the world as pure beings of Essence. May their accomplishments be ever with you as you discover your own path to freedom.

Please continue with the meditation practices I have given you. Whether or not you have as yet recognized it, this training is paramount to your learning to see the Pure Land, and ultimately to stop suffering. May you find the inspiration to walk your path courageously in 2004, and may you have the blessing of purified body, speech and mind. To each of you, Peace, Joy, and the fullness of deep and profound Love.

Djwhal Khul