Friday, June 26, 2026

In One Generation

In  One  Generation





Martin Cecil   June 23, 1974 a.m.



Recently, on a Sunday morning, I spoke of loneliness. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/thank-god-for-lonliness.html] This service was subsequently entitled “Thank God for Loneliness!” The videotape went to Sunrise Ranch and the transcript went to various other places, so that I have received a number of letters of response from far and wide. One of these I would like to read to you this morning. It was written by a lady, whose identity is not important at the moment, but it outlines something very beautiful on the basis of clear, open response and brings to point what I wish to touch upon this morning later, in connection with what is essential for the experience of restoration, or what we have recently been calling the resurrection of Abel. Here is the letter:


“Dear Martin, Yes, thank God for loneliness! It is a most moving and driving compulsion. It will bring one, depending upon the depth and strength of it, to the depths of hell, or to the heights of glory if it is turned in the right direction. And I have had abundant experience, all relating to the little word ‘loneliness,’ and I surely do thank God for it all. There is such a strong and prevalent pattern in these days in both material men and women to seek relationships to assuage the emptiness and loneliness gnawing at the heart. Actually, these patterns often are established when one is very young; this society encourages such entanglements as a natural and accepted coverup, although everyone really knows that nothing is ever covered up. But beginning at such a young and tender age, these things are well established in the subconscious and the tuggings and pullings are accepted as part of oneself, something that pushes and pulls you around by the nose at the control and will of the devil. It is a hideous and vile state of affairs, established by the devil at the very core of one's being; and because it is accepted as being part of oneself, it cannot be seen. Thank God that these things don't assuage that loneliness; if anything, they intensify it but one still can't see what it is. The only way of purification, of coming to see what really is and of experiencing what really is is to turn to God, Spiritual Man—a point of orientation in form—and let the fires of purification burn the tares and allow the reality, I Am, to be gathered into the Father's barn. And there is no greater joy or fulfilment. In this experience, one realizes that I Am Spiritual Man. In these patterns of fallen manhood and womanhood, those involved—and there are few indeed who aren't—seize relationships and sex and a multitude of distortions in these areas and make them into gods and pour all their lonely energies into worship of these falsities. It is a vile trap and regardless of the longings and loneliness present in one's heart to serve God and move in His way, the person so involved is absolutely untrustworthy and unstable to hold anything of a consistent vibrational pattern when he is at the mercy of the devil. Praise the Lord that the Lord sees these things and is not fooled by them but draws and enfolds until one comes to the point of seeing. How wonderful that loneliness is when it is turned to God, for certainly in time turning the loneliness is filled and there is fulness to overflowing. I suppose there is no one now serving the Lord who hasn't known great and deep loneliness for Abel, for what he knows inherently he should be. I know I have known this; and I greatly rejoice in the experience that this loneliness compelled me to. I know that telling you that now I am trustworthy is not worth a great deal, because the Lord looketh not upon words spoken through the lips or written on paper, but He looketh upon the consistent differentiation of the Tone which always reflects, as a mirror, that which is truly worshiped. And in the Tone and its consistent differentiation the cleansing takes place and spiritual man is revealed through this material capacity which has been freed from bondage. I certainly give deep thanks to see what I was involved in, to see what I accepted as me and to leave it all behind in ashes. And I know as never before the blessings of wholeness, not just in my own individual experience but the fact that this victory opens the way for the Tone to be sounded ever more clearly in this body, specifically relating to the false patterns of relationships and sex. And I also recognize that for full and uttermost service to be extended through these material capacities, all the unreal must be burned and cleansed, so I do not take the attitude that it has all been done and that ‘I have arrived somewhere!’ No. I vividly recognize where every moment and every aspect of my attention needs to be: in absolute and utter devotion to God and the things of God, and surely this comes to focus in one who so perfectly represents Him. Martin, how I praise God for what has taken place in my experience. It feels so good to come clean. How I love and appreciate the great and glorious privilege of serving Him in greater wholeness and fulness with you in these great days of His fulfilment on earth.”


I thank God for what has been the experience of this particular person and for the willingness and ability to convey something of that experience through the spirit of these words. She speaks of a trap, a trap into which human beings of every generation have initially rushed with great enthusiasm, and then they're caught. Though there may be the longing of the heart subsequently to clear out of that trap, as many can testify, it is easier said than done. Clearly, then, it would be better not to go into the trap in the first place. What has happened is that each generation as it came along imagined that it had to prove things out for itself. The inevitable result of this was virtually no progress. Each generation starts at the same place, goes into the same trap, finds itself trapped and doesn't have any time left to emerge out of the trap. So it has been a meaningless circle, a vicious circle, because those who entered the trap usually did it with great enthusiasm and high expectations and it wasn't until later that they found out that it was a trap.


In our recent meditations we have recognized that there were successive steps in what has been called the fall of man. He went down the steps into the cellar. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-stairs.html] Landing up in the cellar, he has continued to exist there ever since he got there, so that it has been customary, in his view, to do what may be possible to enjoy the cellar condition. It has been so long known that now it is thought of as being the inevitable and natural state, and while there is a great deal of unpleasantness in the cellar of human existence, at the same time I am always impressed, and I am sure that you have been too, with the tremendous beauty of the earth. If one can exclude human miseries from consciousness for a moment and observe what is called nature round about, what immense variety there is and what tremendous beauty. What could the state of affairs have been, what could the beauty have been, when man was at the top of the stairs? It is beyond human imagining.


There are endeavors these days to attempt to preserve some of the loveliness of the earth in various ways because it all seems to be finally slipping away; but it isn't really a matter of preserving the remnants but of allowing the restoration to occur. Now, of course, the restoration of man is essential to the restoration of the earth, so first things have to be put first, and it isn't really a matter of trying to preserve the beauties of the earth but of letting the beauties of Spiritual Man be restored, and then the beauties of the earth will take care of themselves. But as we have noted, each generation has exhibited an unwillingness to allow movement to occur up the stairs, right from the very beginning.


We have touched upon the Ministry of Seth, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-ministry-of-seth.html] as we have called it, which is essentially that ministry portrayed by the words, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” There has been provision in this regard all down through the ages. A very great deal of it went unrecognized because human beings, generation after generation, wanted to have their own way, do their own thing, imagining that they were wiser than previous generations and would succeed where others had failed. It never yet happened! But there has been the provision of Seth and subsequent generations springing from him.



We may recognize particularly, of course, something with respect to Elijah in this regard, or Elias, as he was called in the New Testament record. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,” the messenger of the Lord, the one who knows the way, when human beings at the foot of the stairs don't, but won't admit it, won't admit that they don't. Of course, admitting that one doesn't know is what is called repentance. Admitting that one doesn't know and therefore one needs guidance, one needs to learn something, one needs to be shown what the way is, is indeed repentance, and without repentance the fact that the kingdom of heaven is at hand remains unknown.


There is a sense in which the world is in the hands of young people. Of course the older generation are inclined to take this attitude: The youngsters will have to do a better job than we did if anything worthwhile is to happen. But that is not the way in which anything worthwhile will happen, trying to do a better job than somebody else. The way it works is for young people to move under the direction of Seth, so that they do not go into the trap.


All of us went into the trap. It may be said we didn't know any better; it seemed the only way to go. But you know now that it isn't the only way to go. I can recall in my own earlier experience in life there was a point when I was really open to receive something but there was nobody on hand to give it. Now, I am sure that many of you have had the same experience, but that's not true anymore. There is somebody on hand to give it, so we can't use that excuse again. I can recall being bitterly disappointed. There was a very likable minister with whom I was associated at the time, and he was a good fellow, but he didn't know anything! He was preparing me for what is called confirmation and he gave me a bunch of stuff, dry as dust, and it didn't make any sense, because the Way is the Way of Life and it isn't the way of knowledge. Human beings have tried to make it into the way of knowledge. Some of that knowledge they call experience; they're going to learn from experience. Well, human beings have been having experience, presumably, for millennia, but did anyone ever learn anything from it? Apparently not, because each generation goes back into the same trap.


Now, we who have been in the trap, many rather thoroughly indoctrinated, may long to be out of it, but, as I say, it seems to be easier to talk about than to do. Even though there may be a recognition of many things and a desire to repent, the patterns seem to have been so firmly set in human consciousness that in spite of ourselves we tend to think and behave along the lines established by the trap. Well, obviously, it would be a lot easier for a young person who hadn't yet been swallowed up by the trap to begin to move in the right way before the crystallizations were set; and I thank God that there are some who are not too much embedded in the old state and who have begun to move somewhat, those of more tender years; but all too many think that they have to go through the same old rigmarole again. They may say, “Well, it's customary; everybody does it and if I didn't do it I would be so lonely.” Oh ... thank God for loneliness! Without it you're finished. If you can delude yourself that your loneliness has been satisfied, you're sunk; you have committed the unpardonable sin. You can't repent, and if one doesn't repent he can't be forgiven, and if one isn't forgiven he never lives.


Now, there are two ways here for those who are desirous of repenting. One can put it off. One may perhaps move tentatively toward repentance, but then the provision that is made, the Seth or the Elijah provision that is made, may be lost; the person may put it off so that the one who could make the experience of forgiveness possible finally dies, isn't on hand anymore. So one can put it off that way, or one can put it off for oneself so that you are the one who dies, sitting on the bottom step, the bottom step which is a hint that there is a staircase, the bottom step which relates to repentance, amongst other things. “Well, it is possible to repent, therefore I am going to sit down on the bottom step; I'm not actually going to repent, mind you, but there is a possibility here.” How much easier it is for a young person to be guided, exhibit a willingness to be guided, before the crystallizations have set in. Now, as I say, young people have a tendency to rush with enthusiasm into the trap, imagining that if they didn't they would lose something most valuable. The fact of the matter is that they lose everything that is of value if they go into the trap, but they don't usually find that out until it's too late.


Now the ministry of Seth or Elijah is only necessary because human beings are in the cellar. There is a whole flight of stairs to ascend. It’s not much use only going part way up, because whatever has been experienced by a person, until he comes to the top of the stairs, will inevitably be eliminated with that person from the scene of things, and when that person has gone, no matter what his experience of going up the stairs has been, it is lost. That's right, isn't it? You can't convey it to somebody else. A person has to go up the stairs for himself.



One generation can’t hand it to the next


This is why it has always been said that whatever must to be achieved must be achieved in one generation or it never will be! Where it has had to be carried forward to subsequent generations it has always been lost. That's right. Look around you. Where there are crystallized states in people so that they have the hablt of cellar existence, then the prospect of going up the stairs seems too much. How often I have heard someone say, “Oh, well, I'm too old to change.” It's probably true for that person because that is the individual's attitude and because he has accepted the crystallizations as permanent. If one accepts those things as permanent, well, that's permanent, and the really permanent thing in this regard is what is called death. In saying that it is obviously easier for young people I am not at the same time saying that it is impossible for older ones, but those of you who are older know that there has been a certain amount of drag; you haven't risen instantly to the mountaintop or to the top of the stairs.


There are steps to be taken individually speaking, very specific steps, and you can't miss any of them. But nobody is going to take those steps without a willingness to do it. Collectively speaking, in the world as it now is, we find ourselves at a point where somebody is going to have in take those steps, or good-bye, and if a person can't see that coming...! It has been coming for quite a while in an inexorable way, every year a little more, a little more of the disintegrative condition. And one doesn't have to look very far back to see a vast contrast between what is happening in the world today and what was occurring then; so it is not as slow as some people imagine. We have spoken of the exponential curve before: things intensify and speed up. It's important to come clear, to take the essential steps without dragging one's feet: “Well, I'll feel more like it tomorrow, perhaps when I've enjoyed what I'm enjoying now, then I'll think about it.”


There have been many suggestions as to behavior, philosophically speaking or religiously speaking, which haven't appealed to human beings very much, but this is merely adjustment in the cellar condition, a changed cellar experience in whatever degree this seems to be possible. It is quite different thing to start up the stairs. The only way a person can start up the stairs is because Seth is on hand—it's the only way it can be done. Now Seth, even the original one, didn't refer merely to one person, any more than Cain and Abel were just two people, or even Adam and Eve. The reference is to human beings, and while the principles are at work individually speaking, we can't avoid being a part of the body of mankind; we can't exclude ourselves from it, at least we can't exclude ourselves from it and remain in existence.


Now, of course, it is this sense of being a part of the whole that has been the apparent compulsion that has driven human beings into the herd pattern. They feel they should be a part of what's going on, and this is translated in human consciousness to refer to the peer group, or the social pattern, whatever it may be. But it doesn't refer to that at all; it refers to Man, the true state of Man at the top of the stairs. So the compulsions which would bring human beings to the top of the stairs have been perverted to hold human beings in the trap at the bottom of the stairs: We've got to be one of the boys, or one of the girls, one of the herd, one of the mass, the mass of fallen man, and to do this we have to behave in certain ways. So we behave in those certain ways and they become a habit and we're stuck, we're in the trap.


Now, the lady who wrote this letter referred to “the devil,” and I am sure you know what she was talking about. She wasn't talking about that fellow with the horns and the tail. She was talking about these compulsions which keep people at the foot of the stairs and make them feel justified to be there, and make them imagine, for a little while perhaps, that they are going to be fulfilled there, and that what they are deciding upon, being compelled in this pattern, is going to be really something. Oh, it isn't; believe me, it isn't; and a lot of you older people can testify to this fact. But why wait until one can testify to the fact to let something happen?


Of course, as I say, there are those who are beginning to move, those who are of more tender years, and I thank God for that; but most of them have at least got one foot in the trap, and that's enough, isn't it? The rabbit only has to put one foot in the trap and he's trapped. There is a way to emerge out of the trap and there is a way by which a person need never really go into it, but if one is never to go into it he must find that way while he's still young. But then human beings see everybody else going into the trap and they say, “Well, this must be the way.” Broad is the way that leads to destruction! That's right! Everybody goes down that way, and at the moment the other way still seems to be a bit narrow because so few people go down it. If everybody went down it it would be just as broad as the other now is.


There is a lot of common sense wrapped up in that little word repent. “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Don't keep going in the broad way. That's repentance—stop it! “Oh, but I like it.” Oh, how nice! You do? Lots of people do! Very fortunately the cosmos isn't governed by what human beings like, and if human likes are the controlling element in human experience, that is what is called sin, and “The wages of sin”—so somebody said; Paul, I think—"is death.” Right? Stay at the bottom of the cellar and be buried there, or come up the stairs. But no one will ever come up the stairs without being shown how, and if one is to be shown how, there must be someone on hand to show how. And one must presumably pay attention to the “how”—the “how” as opposed to the “like.” Now, I don't know that it really should be put that way because one can like the “how,” and many of you could testify to this fact. But the devil is rather subtle, and lurks around the corner titivating the likes in you that maintain the cellar condition, and if you pay attention to that and insist upon paying attention to that, well, you belong in the cellar and you'll never know that there was anything else.



As I say, after twenty thousand years, how beautiful the earth still is! Isn't it amazing, after twenty thousand years of rotten human behavior in the cellar the earth still stays so beautiful? What would it be if the experience was at the top of the stairs? Unimaginable. Because this is the fact of the matter, it is always amazing to the Lord that human beings insist upon cellar existence.


Now, you have presumably seen something of these things and are generating some enthusiasm to walk up the steps. One can be enthusiastic about that, you know, rather than going into the trap. When I do see young people putting their heads in the trap, it may be said that it grieves me at my heart. Those who know better, or have the opportunity of knowing better, may rise up so easily and come to the wonder that unfolds as there is movement up the steps. When a person is young and resilient, it is found to be so easy to experience once more the beauty of the truth, the beauty of life, the Glory of Life, consequent upon the restoration, the resurrection, of Abel, Spiritual Man, spiritual identity in material form. And when that is the experience, that is life, indescribable life. Life is only known by the experience of it; life can never be known by the experience of the cellar state, never! What is known there is the process of dying. Yes, it's customary, we would have to admit that. It's been customary in every generation as long as human memory goes back, quite customary, but quite unnecessary and nothing is gained by it. It's absolutely useless.


In times past particularly, ministers have talked about hellfire and have gone after their congregations on this basis. Well, they were right, but they didn't recognize why they were right, they didn't recognize what it was they were talking about. They were talking about human experience, that's all—not some future state; the present state. But the present state apparently has nothing to be compared to, so human beings settle for this. Yet you have begun to sense something else, even though you do not yet know what it is. How could one know what it is without reaching the top step? All you know is that it is something different to the cellar. It's a different state to be on the stairs. But that isn't the true state; it is an interim experience which permits the true state to come. But if you never go up the stairs, you never find the true state. Human beings have found all kinds of excuses for not going up the stairs and they have insisted that the joys were really in the cellar. That is a vile state; I think vile is a very good word to describe it. Of course, human beings don't think so, but it is so. It is corruption; it is filthy, no matter how it may be dressed up in human imagination. The cellar state is a filthy state. “Oh, but this is so natural.” No, not natural, just familiar. The true state, the state of wonder and glory, of Man, male and female, is at the head of the stairs. “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”


O Lord, Thou who art indeed nearer than breathing and closer than hands and feet to each one, we thank Thee for the enfoldment of Thy love; we thank Thee for the open way up the stairs; we thank Thee for direction, instruction, assistance, all that is necessary to come up out of the cellar state, out of what was described in the Book of Revelation as a Babylonian condition. Thy Word is spoken. Come out of her, my people! We thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast made available all that makes possible the easy movement in the experience of life. And so, enfolded in Thy love, knowing the truth to be present, the design and the control to be here, we may indeed, to the extent of repentance, live, to Thy glory, in the Christ. Aumen.



Reluctance is rather a common human trait, at least with respect to the truth. As we noted, enthusiasm is usually reserved for the cellar. “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” Let the zeal and enthusiasm be in the right direction so that it is withdrawn from the wrong direction. A person can only make that choice for himself rightly, but if he doesn't make it he's stuck in the trap, which, if he doesn't recognize it now, he will recognize it later and perhaps find himself repenting at leisure, when it's not so easy to repent. Do it now. Do it now. While my words were spoken this morning to young people certainly, they were also spoken to everybody else, because the way is open for all. I thank God for those of younger years who are zealous in making sure that what they represent is the truth, but no matter what a person's age may be, we all need to be sure that what we represent is the truth. There is no circumstance possible at any time anywhere which could prevent the representation of the truth.












Where Your Treasure Is There Will Your Heart Be Also: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2026/04/where-your-treasure-is-there-will-your.html






© emissaries of divine light



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Tuesday, June 23, 2026

The Stairs

The  Stairs





Martin Cecil   June 16, 1974 pm



There is an inclination on the part of many to complain that they don't really understand what the true way of life is—everything is so confusing—just as if no provision had ever been made to make abundantly clear why human beings find themselves in the state which they do, and how they may easily move out of it. The Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New, has within its covers an accurate picture of what happened and why, and an accurate portrayal of how any human being anywhere may once again experience the truth.


It would seem reasonable to recognize that the Lord has found it difficult to understand how human beings have been so successful in continuing in the pattern of failure. From any rational view, it's utterly amazing! It has taken, indeed, a great deal of effort, much sweat of the face, to keep out of the Way. This is the exact opposite of the usual view, in the Christian world particularly, where it is supposed that the Christian life is a hard row to hoe. Of course, the way it’s been set up, maybe that’s true, but the way of the Lord is simple. Our Master Himself said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Good Christians certainly don't have that attitude, do they? “Tough, that's what it is!” If it seems that way, then the individual is moving in the wrong direction and it has nothing to do with what our Master offered. When He was on earth He brought it all so beautifully to focus once again, provided the clear understanding, sounded the True Tone. But what have people made out of that? Something that is very obscure. Anyone who has studied what is called theology could certainly testify to that—darkness upon darkness, obscurity upon obscurity. In spite of all the mental gymnastics through which human beings have gone, life continues to operate. Life seems to take very little notice of what human beings do. If they become too obstreperous, which occurs from time to time, then they are simply swept to one side.


However, the beautiful clarity of provision that has been made, relative to what we call the Bible, is not only in what has come down to us from the Master's life on earth but goes way back before that. The outline of the very beginnings of things paints a clear picture, even though those who have read it immediately begin to make obscurity out of it. I was thinking, particularly, of the events described to make obvious the nature of man's failure. This has been called “the fall”. There are those who object to the idea of a fall. The theory of evolution is one of the ways by which it was thought to set at naught the idea of a fall: man has simply been rising up out of the slimy depths all the way, so that this is the supreme pinnacle of his experience now. And each generation was able to imagine that it was better than the last; it had evolved some more. How nice! How satisfying to the human ego! But how untrue!


It is said of man, when he was first created, that the Lord God put him in the Garden, which had been created eastward in Eden. This has been called the Garden of Eden. Eden is a word for the earth, and the Garden of Eden is the heaven aspect for the earth. The creation included heaven and earth; a two-phase creation, two aspects, but just one creation. And man was placed in the Garden, in the heaven aspect. This relates to what we have been referring to as Spiritual Man, the spiritual aspect of man, where his true identity centers.


Now, man was placed in the Garden to dress it and keep it. Using this method of describing that circumstance, there is obviously a state outlined which is presently beyond the comprehension of human beings. Abel, Spiritual Man, was subsequently slain by Cain; and Cain, material man, remained. This is the same story, but we may recognize that there have been a number of what one might well call descending events relative to the fall—it didn't happen completely, all at once. When you go down stairs it's possible to jump from the top to the bottom, but then your neck might be broken and there would be no more you, in the material sense at least. So the fall of man did not mean that he jumped from the top to the bottom all at once. He went down step-by-step, hopeful that when he got to the bottom he would find something better than he found, or thought he had found, at the top. But he landed up in a murky basement, an airless cellar, where he has been existing now for a long time. He became accustomed to this state of affairs, and considers it the normal course of events—to live at the foot of the stairs.


But when the first step was taken, by reason of what was described as the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, immediately it was made apparent to him that a mistake had been made, and that therefore repentance or a change of attitude was needful if what had occurred was to be rectified. We know that, regardless of this opportunity, human beings chose not to let the mistake be rectified. They preferred, apparently, to go on down the stairs. This was adventure, I suppose, after a fashion; it was pioneering. Certainly no one had ever gone down the stairs before, so what marvels might be found at the foot! So he trudged on down, and when he reached the bottom he had forgotten what was at the top. There was a faint memory, perhaps, of something, recorded through myths for instance, mythology, fairy tales, and what have you—an awareness that there was something other than the basement state. But by then he had forgotten pretty well that there was anything really at the top of the stairs where he belonged, and so, in latter days at least, he has decided that man's fate was to live at the bottom of the stairs until he finally disintegrated there; then, by some magic means, he was to be wafted to the top of the stairs. The one thing that human beings apparently didn't lose when they fell to the bottom of the stairs was a vivid imagination!



This first opportunity, after the immediate step of the fall had been taken, is described in the Book of Genesis—an opportunity that was rejected, of course. We recognize that the fall was consequent upon eating that fruit which had been forbidden, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the idea being, of course, that if one could gain enough knowledge about things, one would be able to establish a good state, a good life no doubt, and be sufficiently wise to avoid the evil. Human beings have the idea, to this very hour, that all they need to do is to gain knowledge and this knowledge will be all that is needed to establish a state of bliss, happiness, on earth. This has been the idea collectively speaking, but it has also been the idea individually speaking. It is the usual human effort to gain whatever knowledge he considers to be expedient to enable him to succeed in setting up a particular life pattern which will be satisfying, which will bring happiness, presumably all done by knowledge. Whatever kind of knowledge may seem to be desirable, if we get enough of it we will be happy. That’s right, isn’t it? There is this addiction. Of course, those who become addicted to alcohol, maybe a few finally face the fact and recognize the delusion under which they have been functioning. By the same token, it is possible for human beings to recognize the nature of their addiction to the forbidden fruit and face the fact that no amount of consumption of this narcotic will produce a state of happiness. What it does produce is death. It may be that the alcoholic, fearful of cirrhosis of the liver, will decide that alcohol is not going to enable him to live; it’s going to kill him. And so it may be that there are those who realize, finally, that the continued consumption of the forbidden fruit is not going to bring happiness, is not going to bring heaven on earth—it is going to kill. And it does. Now isn't that clearly set out here in the beginning of the Bible? It's been there all along; good Christians have been reading it; not only Christians; Jewish people too, and others, have looked into it. There are similar stories in other scriptures in different parts of the world, outlining the same principles, clear and obvious.


So there was this idea that the fruit was pretty good to look at, could perhaps make one wise, so that one would be able to set up for oneself a kingdom on earth, or for mankind collectively, which would be desirable, according to the self-centered concepts of addicted human beings. But this addiction produces irrational behavior on the part of people. A drunk very often thinks of himself as really being the life of the party. Of course, he may be the life of a drunken party because everyone else is deluded too. But if you are sober and go into a situation where everybody else is at least somewhat under the influence of alcohol, you will find a ridiculous state of affairs, something quite irrational, utterly meaningless,  and yet all those who are participating in it think it’s splendid. This is life; this is a good time! And it is in this way that human beings have deluded themselves, until they land up in the gutter. But even the drunk in the gutter doesn’t want to be moved, very often; he’s comfortable there. “Let me sleep it off in the gutter.”  Stories of drunks are quite popular, aren’t they? Everybody thinks they are funny. Why? Because there is a recognition of some relatedness to what occurs in the story, and yet the individual feels that he is sufficiently superior to what is happening in the story that he can afford to laugh at it. There’s a little sense of guilt also—and its not really such a little sense either. Shame, after all, was one of the first experiences of those who began to walk down the stairs. When they had taken that first step, nothing too much had really happened yet as a result of their action, so it didn't seem that, immediately, there was anything wrong with what they were doing; everything was going along all right still. So, evidently people weren't ready at that point to admit any failure and turn around to take that first step up. If that had been done, well, we wouldn't be sitting here in this fix now.


But it is said, here in the story, “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” Walking in the Garden. The Garden is the heaven aspect of this true duality—heaven and earth. Man, at this point, had taken the first step out of the heaven aspect, where his true identity is, and where he carried the responsibility of dressing and keeping the Garden. The realm of spiritual substance, in this dimensional world in which we live, is the Garden, where the seeds are planted, where the essences of what is to take form are established. Of course, in the true state there is no veil between the Garden and Eden. They were one—heaven and earth were experienced as being one by Spiritual Man in material expression. There was no distinction between spiritual and material man; they were one; there was no veil between. Man was at the top of the stairs and his material facilities were with him. But he started down the stairs by imagining that he could substitute knowledge, as the controlling factor in his living, for God. Now, of course, we can say “for God” at this present time and know scarcely anything of what we are speaking, because to know God one must be at the top of the stairs, and as human beings went down to the bottom they lost God. God became a figment of fancy to them; at best all one could do is believe, but apparently never to know. One of the questions asked of people sometimes is, “Do you believe in God?” If it is necessary to believe in God it is evident that one doesn't know God. Do you believe in the sun? You don't have to have any belief, do you?


Now, man had started to leave his spiritual identity and he was falling into a material identity, and in this process he was having some new experiences on the way down. These, by their very novelty, were apparently desirable, but he had not yet come to the point of recognizing what the results would be—what it would mean to be a dying soul. He could not have these changed experiences, which he thought he enjoyed for the moment, without the results of his own actions, and the results had not shown up yet. But we recognize these principles So, as with many human beings even today, he thought he was getting away with it. But the results show up somewhere along the line and nobody ever gets away with anything, in fact. But we recognize these principles as being operative in our own experience. While it was something that happened in a peculiar way, a particular way, long ago at the point of the initiation of the fall, it is not something of which human beings have no present experience. It has been true in every generation. And it isn't until the individual calms down, so to speak, and is not gorging  himself on the forbidden fruit quite so extensively, that there is sufficient stillness in the heart to discern what is moving in the Garden, in the spiritual substance of being.


You may recall in the story of Elijah, when he fled from Jezebel and went and hid in a cave, he was afraid—just the same as Adam was. He was afraid. His feelings were in a turmoil, and he rationalized with his mind so that he had a ready excuse when he heard the Word of the Lord, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” He had an excuse all set up, a reason as to why he was in the cave where he didn’t belong, running away from this woman. So he was justifying himself, justifying his own turmoil, and as long as the turmoil remained he couldn’t discern the true Voice of the Lord. It was only finally when he began to let go of his excuses and to relinquish his justifications, and begin to trust the Lord again, that he heard the Tone. But when he heard it again it was only a very still, small voice—not very much. This is the way it has been with human beings—the Voice of the LORD God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day. When it's not quite so hot in one's feeling realm anymore, then there may be some discernment of the Voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden, where man belongs. And here it says:



“And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the Garden.

And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?”


Obviously, that question indicates that he was not where he belonged. Where he belonged was in the Garden—not hiding behind the trees; in the midst of the Garden, assuming his responsibility to dress it and to keep it. He was ignoring that responsibility and gathering knowledge so that he might direct his own course of life as he saw fit. When he quietened down a little, then he heard the Voice of the Lord God—he hadn't gone so very far away yet; he hadn't entirely left the Garden yet—and so he heard and realized that he wasn't where he belonged. This is always looked upon as though there were a number of people around, the Lord God somewhere, and Adam, Eve, and the serpent, but here was something happening inside the person—you, for instance. And you have sensed that you were not really where you belonged. Now most human beings do sense this; there's something wrong. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Well, Adam was on the way down at that point. We find ourselves down by now, at the foot of the stairs, but most human beings still imagine that what brought them to the foot of the stairs is going to save them: the knowledge of good and evil, sufficient knowledge to establish a good state. Isn't this what all the sweat has been about on earth, to establish a good life, whether that is an individual undertaking or a collective undertaking? Human beings want to do that by reason of the knowledge that they gain, and knowledge has certainly been increased in these days. Oh, how much knowledge everybody has, how many experts, how much technological know-how! Surely with all this knowledge we have it made at last! Is that the way it looks? Surely not to anyone who is in the least bit honest. Utter confusion, chaos, disintegration!


The diet of narcotics, which human beings have been eating with such relish, has brought them into this state, and yet they are so irrational that they imagine that eating more of them is going to get them out. Isn't that irrational behavior? Isn't that plain stupidity? And yet, the human intellect claims so much for itself—so wise, knows so much. The forbidden fruit is indeed a narcotic, which brings human beings into a state of stupidity; they behave irrationally. Those who think of themselves as being sober may laugh at the drunk, or may criticize the drunk, but those who are sober, as they suppose, are in just the same condition in actual fact, under this narcotic of the forbidden fruit.


Now we have seen these things more or less plainly, but perhaps tonight it can be brought more specifically home, so to speak, and we perhaps heard that word, “Where art thou? What are you doing in this state?” Are we so convinced of our depravity that we insist upon remaining subject to the dope? Or, recognizing the truth of the matter, having heard that question, “Where art thou?”, we presumably decided to kick the habit. But most people think that the way to kick the habit is to … “I’ll just go off it easy.” This is the way some people approach the business of stopping smoking, for instance. “I’ll smoke fewer cigarettes.” But you know, there’s only one way to kick the habit—to kick it! It isn’t a matter of improving at it, which is the usual human approach; just relinquishing it altogether, because it keeps us where we know we don’t belong. And to the extent that we have begun to kick the habit—it still has a few tentacles left, I believe—we become more and more convinced that where we were was certainly where we didn’t belong, and we become increasingly conscious of the reality of the Garden, the place where we belong, and the place where our true identity is.


This evening we perhaps may hear the question a little more clearly—“Where art thou?”—not merely because it is spoken externally but because of our own experience within ourselves. I am sure that none of you have faith in the idea anymore that you belong where you have been. There must be resurrection into the experience of spiritual identity, where we again assume responsibility for the Garden and we are no longer hung up in Eden. In crossword puzzles, very often the clue, the answer to which is “Eden,” is something which relates to a heavenly state, and that’s the way it should be, but certainly not the way it is in human experience.


The earth is lacking heaven because man has failed in his responsibilities, in his responsibilities of caring for the Garden. That's where our responsibilities belong; they do not belong in the material realm. Our responsibilities do not require manipulation of material things. Material things will reflect the Garden when man is in place in the Garden, taking care of it. But he's not going to take care of it if he's all involved in material things, and if he imagines that nothing will work successfully in the material realm except he himself is on hand with his knowledge to see that it works successfully. That is the human view. He supposes that nothing would work rightly if he, material man with his knowledge, were not on hand to direct it, and that unless he keeps his hot little hands onto all these things, that everything would disintegrate. Well, that is probably so insofar as his endeavor is concerned to maintain a material state unrelated to the Garden. But it is supposed that if human beings were not doing this, were not giving all their energies into these things, there would be nothing. If this is the view, it is quite obvious that the person that has that view is completely lost to any awareness of the reality of the Garden. He is saying, “This material state is all there is; if I don’t look after it it’s going to pieces.” Well, the affairs of men may fall apart if human beings do not put all their lifeblood into them, but would it be such a loss if they did? The universe seems to get along all right as it is without human beings applying their self-centeredness to see that it keeps going. Why not what is right here? It's part of the universe. If the universe keeps going as it should, it is because there is a correct operation from the standpoint of the Garden of the Universe, from the standpoint of the Heaven of the Universe. That is being cared for by those who have responsibility in the matter, but insofar as this little corner of the universe is concerned, where man supposedly has the responsibility, there is a mess, because there has been failure to assume that responsibility.



So, having heard the Voice that reminds us of these things, let us not hide from that Voice; let us not insist upon being merely human anymore. The first thing that Adam said in reply to that question was that he was afraid; and this is the state of man. Remember how it was with Cain? He was afraid, too. “Everybody that finds me will kill me.” In other words, he had the attitude that everything was hostile to him. And this is a human attitude, this is the attitude of someone who is merely human: he sees everything as being hostile, and he develops all kinds of defense mechanisms to defend himself from the enemy. He's surrounded by the enemy on every hand, the hostile universe—nature is hostile; we have to tame it. Do we really? No. Man is hostile. Man, having lost himself, feels that everything's against him. Have you ever felt that way? Everything's against you. The idea of fate developed out of this. The bogeyman is going to get you in the end and he does!—because of man's insistence upon being somewhere that he doesn't belong, in this dank cellar at the foot of the stairs. He has made a bit of artificial light down there and he calls that daylight, but it isn't. He doesn't belong there, but in the Garden, to dress it and to keep it, to become aware again that all his responsibilities are in the Garden. When he assumes his responsibilities in the Garden, Eden will take care of itself, and there will once again be the Garden of Eden, in other words heaven and earth, the two phases in oneness, no veil in between, because man is back where he belongs.


We have touched something of the reality of the spiritual substance of Eden, and have become aware, and are becoming aware increasingly, of what it means to dress and to keep that substance. When we dress and keep the substance of the Garden, then we find that Eden is dressed and kept, too. But if we try to dress and keep Eden according to our view of the way it should be dressed and kept, it disintegrates.


We need to come back to where we belong, Spiritual Man, true identity, a state that was represented by our Master after the resurrection. The material aspect of man shares with the spiritual aspect of man, not the other way around, as most people try to make it happen. Human beings want to stay material and have the spiritual come and share it with them. It doesn’t work that way. One must accept the responsibility of Spiritual Man and then the material will share it, and that sharing does certainly involve a different state of material experience. It is a different state at the top of the stairs to what it is down in the basement, and human beings find that they are different people. Man is at the top of the stairs. I don't know what's at the bottom—sub-man! So we have the opportunity of returning to the state of spiritual experience in identity, that what had been known before in the material sense may be invited to share that spiritual state. And that’s restoration.













Where Your Treasure Is There Will Your Heart Be Also: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2026/04/where-your-treasure-is-there-will-your.html








© emissaries of divine light


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