Praise the Lord! Thankfulness surely fills us this morning as we have this, another special opportunity of being together with one accord in His presence. In the spirit of thankfulness we may find ourselves in agreement with His spirit and with the expression that is to be brought forth by reason of His spirit in this hour. We are here to let His will be done, assuming individual responsibility for this. Seldom has it been true, of those who were gathered together in a particular formation of human beings, that all have been willing to accept their individual responsibility. The wandering of human consciousness, the failure to come to point, has characterized even those who have offered themselves to the Lord for His purposes. Is it so of us this morning? Or is it conceivable that this number of people, each one individually here present this morning, is capable of coming to point and staying there? There is no other reason why anyone should be present. In the spirit of thankfulness then we stand together in agreement with the Lord in spirit. In form you are sitting, but in spirit, standing.
There is a familiar passage that I would read to you, from the 2nd chapter of the Book of Genesis: “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
This has produced a rather strange picture in the imagination of many: probably of a large person assembling some dust, dampening it down perhaps, and forming a little clay figure, and then somehow providing artificial resuscitation so that this figure came alive. Of course there wasn’t anyone around with hands, to get the job done along these lines, and the whole exercise is based in the concept of separation: the Lord God on the one hand, the dust on the other. This ignores the fact, the truth, that heaven and earth are one, that God is not some kind of figure separate from His creation, or His creation separate from Him. Oneness prevails: this is the truth. It might be said, using human language, that creation takes place from within; but then here again other strange concepts are engendered.
Again, using human words, we have taken note of the undimensional and the dimensional, the invisible and the visible, the unmanifest and the manifest. Here are two aspects of one thing: the manifest takes form by reason of the unmanifest; the unmanifest is revealed by reason of what takes form. There is no separation. There are not two separate things: the Creator and the creation. It is only in human consciousness, where the state of human experience is that of separation from himself, that the concept of separation exists. It is unreal. The reality is oneness. If we do not know that in our own experience we proclaim our ignorance, we proclaim the darkness of our state; and even though the light may be present the darkness comprehends it not.
There has been an inclination to see the external things around us from the standpoint of the unreal state, which beholds what is seen as being separate. The person sitting next to you tends to be seen as being separate from you. The world, beyond these walls, seems to be separate from us, within these walls. What has been called the Emissary ministry is looked upon as being separate from the various forms of human composition that exist in the world. Very often the population of the earth seems to be divided in the consciousness of Emissaries as being composed of Emissaries and non-Emissaries, but the fact of the matter is that there is only one composition. This composition not only includes mankind as a whole but everything else as well. If this is so, then the futility of trying to manipulate separate things into a state of oneness may be seen. It is an attempt to do the impossible, because oneness already exists. We cannot make the state of oneness. It is already made. It is already the fact. It is already the truth. It is a matter of knowing the truth for ourselves, individually speaking and all together. When we know the truth the concept of separation previously held vanishes away. It is unreal. Separation never really existed.
Again, we are impressed that the condition in which human beings have been existing is a dream state, just as insubstantial as the dream from which you may awaken in the morning. As the awakening comes, the dream vanishes. As the reality is known, the unreality is found to be nonexistent. We have some understanding of these things but how much experience? How real is reality to us? Or, on the other hand, how real is unreality to us? In the human state unreality seems to be real; consequently, attempting to exist in this unreal state, we must be living a lie. As long as we are living a lie we are excluded from the experience of the truth. This has been the worldwide condition of human experience. The truth has remained unknown except perhaps as an intellectual concept, which is not in fact the truth. The truth is not an intellectual concept. It is what it is, whatever that may be.
So we come this morning once more into position to acknowledge the reality, the truth that is. To the extent that we actually do this the unreal dissolves. While we may still be aware of the dream state in which human beings exist, and in which we ourselves have existed, it is known to be unreal. As long as human beings have existed in this unreal state they have been useless. Most people are not in favor of acknowledging their own uselessness. Hopefully, they anticipate that if they are not useful now, one day they will be; evolution may take care of this. Of course most are un- willing to admit that they are useless now, but it is the fact of the matter to the extent that one is existing in an unreal state. One is not very useful about one’s daily tasks if one is asleep and dreaming, and this is the condition in which human beings are. So there is need for awakening out of sleep, that the dream state may automatically dissolve. Most are inclined to think of the present dream state as some sort of nightmare, which it indeed may be; but usually when human beings become involved in nightmares at night they are quite anxious to wake up. Not so in this nightmare state of unreality in which human beings exist. Very few seem to be anxious to wake up. There is anticipation that somehow the nightmare can be turned into a delightful dream if we work at it hard enough.
If we have seen the necessity for awakening and have undertaken, ourselves, to experience something of this, we become increasingly aware of the necessity as it relates to the whole body of humanity. We become aware of our own responsibility to provide what is necessary to allow for this awakening. It may be that there are those who are in too deep a coma to experience any awakening, but we would not make any assumptions in this regard but offer what is necessary to allow this awakening to be made possible.
We need to see this in perspective. If we ourselves have experienced any measure of awakening to the truth, this certainly didn’t happen because we put our minds to it. What is happening, to bring to pass the awakening within the body of humanity that is now occurring, did not happen because someone, somewhere—the Lord God presumably, whoever that might be—is laying this trip upon the human race. That would imply a state of separation, a state which doesn’t really exist. Anything that is occurring is occurring because of the state of oneness. I mentioned the idea of something happening from within. Whatever word is used to describe what takes place will inevitably produce in human consciousness some misunderstanding, because human consciousness doesn’t know the truth. Human consciousness is still in the dream state. But words may be used as reminders of something that is naturally known when one is awake. So if I use the word within, don’t translate it literally, as the human consciousness is inclined to do, according to its own structured state. If we use the word invisibleit doesn’t merely mean that we can’t see it with our physical eyes; it means that it is not a part of the manifest world, and yet is one with it. There is no separation between the invisible, in this sense, and the visible. They are one. But there would be no visible if it wasn’t for the invisible, and I suppose you could say that the reverse is also true. The whole exists, and the composition of the whole includes invisible and visible, heaven and earth. It is impossible, in actual fact, to separate the two. If it seems as though they are separate, such a view is unreal; and yet it is the view held in human consciousness by all people—the unreal state, the sleeping state, the dream state, crying out, in a way, for awakening.
So the means of awakening is present because of the state of oneness. The invisible is present in the visible. So the opportunity to awaken is actually present, actually working, actually part of the creative operation. It is there, whether human beings know it or not, like it or not, or are in agreement with it or not. Because of this creative movement some awakening is beginning to occur. If we ourselves experience something of this it shouldn’t give us fat heads, because it could well be said that from the human standpoint we didn’t do it. It happened by reason of something humanly unknown, certainly unknown in the unreal state. It is unknown in the unreal state because it is reality. But obviously something is happening in this invisible sense, not only here on earth in this little speck of dust but throughout the whole universe—and who knows what that means?
Human beings have a very limited view of the universe. They postulate certain theoretical understanding on the basis of that view, which is much like the gentlemen who were examining the portions of the elephant, you may recall, and all describing the elephant differently because they couldn’t see the whole creature. They only saw the little part and assumed that because they saw the little part this was evidence of what the whole creature was like. Of course it wasn’t true in that instance and it isn’t true from the standpoint of such observations as human beings make of the very large, as they think of it, or the very small, as they think of it. Nothing is seen accurately, because it is seen from the standpoint of the structured state of separation. After all, the person who is observing is standing over here, and that’s over there. But it isn’t; it’s all one thing, and the observer is not separate from what he is observing. This has been discovered in certain instances, where the very observation alters what is being observed. And, in any case, what is being observed is not understood, altered or not.
Awaken! Emerge from the coma, from the dream state, from the nightmare state, into the real world. People are accustomed to thinking of the real world as being what has been built on the surface of this planet. That’s not the real world at all; that’s a phony state. But there is something moving creatively which is designed to restore the awakening state of consciousness to human beings, who now suffer from the sleeping state of consciousness, or the coma state of consciousness, which doesn’t amount to a row of beans, although it is thought of as being so grand and great. So there is this invisible creative influence, one with the visible, and therefore producing in the visible what has been set in motion from the invisible.
One of the things that has been set in motion is the awakening of human consciousness to the truth. This has been set in motion, whether anyone wants to know the truth or not. Of course it makes a difference from the standpoint of the person concerned, as to whether he is willing to know the truth or not so willing. If he is not willing to know the truth, ultimately there is no state possible, because there is only one state and that is the state of the truth. There is a little interim in human experience because human beings are still alive, in other words associated with the invisible, but in a coma. Their capacity of consciousness is filled with dreams rather than with reality. When these dreams become extreme in nature, people of course are put in institutions; but fundamentally there is no difference, only in degree of craziness. Sometimes those in institutions are inclined to take the attitude that the crazy people are outside, and they are not far wrong either!
So we have an awareness of what may be described as a creative cycle moving in the invisible, which is reflected in various ways by the visible. It is reflected in our own experience by what has occurred in our own states of consciousness. There has been the beginning of an awakening, and we have immediately seen that we have a consequent responsibility in the matter of the continued unfoldment of the awakening process. What is happening is going to happen anyway, whether we are on hand to do anything or not; however if we are on hand and beginning to awaken, then we have a particular responsibility for making the awakening a creative and constructive experience for those others in the world who are in the process of awakening also. We can’t pick and choose. We can’t go around looking into everyone’s eyes, or wherever you would want to look to find this out, and deciding that this person is awakening and that one isn’t. There is no need. The process is at work. We don’t have to do anything about that.
But there are those who will reveal the fact that they are beginning to awaken, and these are the ones who are of primary concern to us if we are to be obedient to the instruction that was given long ago: “Feed my sheep.” Incidentally the instruction was not given: “Starve my goats.” That would indicate separation, wouldn’t it, and judgment, as though we were capable of determining who was a sheep and who was a goat—using these terms to describe those who were willing to awaken and those who were not willing to awaken. It is true that there is what might be called a sorting-out process involved, but in a sense that’s none of our business. “Feed my sheep.” While it may not be so true in the animal world, sheep in this analogous sense eat a different diet to what the goats do. So it may turn out that the goats starve, but not because we deliberately withheld the essential food. If they were willing to awaken and classify themselves as sheep, then there would be plenty of food; and we have a responsibility for providing this food so that the awakening may occur in a controlled way.
It is quite obvious that the world is teetering around these days a good deal; and there is a certain amount of fear, some conscious, some subconscious, that everything is completely going to fall apart. There may be some truth to this, because the unreal certainly is going to prove itself to be unreal. But the reality needs to be on hand in human consciousness. It is on hand in actual fact but hasn’t been on hand in human consciousness. When it is on hand in human consciousness then the state of oneness is known, the truth is known. As it was put, God is not willing that any should perish. He has gone to a lot of trouble, after all, in the creative process, to produce human beings, and He is not going to write them off if He can avoid it.
So there is a creative process involved here, which in a very specific sense was initiated some nineteen centuries ago, and it has been in operation ever since, below the surface, within, invisible. It begins to push out toward the surface now, so that the surface consciousness of some human beings is beginning to awaken. One might call this resurrection, something that is occurring in the overall sense. Some people imagine somehow that God is particular about certain people: “Well I’ll awaken you and you and you, but all the rest, go on slumbering.” No, there is oneness, isn’t there, and while it may prove to be selective in one sense it is not because of anything that is happening from the standpoint of the invisible but merely from the standpoint of the choices which human beings make. They either select themselves or exclude themselves. They are capable of doing that. Thus far it has been exclusion principally, obviously not completely or no one would still exist on earth. So there have been the life signs, so to speak, in the body of humanity; but there has been a state of coma, an unawareness of the real world and only an awareness of the dream world, which is associated with the state of coma.
This creative cycle is working and there are those who are in the process of awakening. I rejoice, and I am sure you do too, that this is happening. It has happened with respect to ourselves, in whatever measure, and we begin to know that it is happening. We begin to be able to see that this invisible creative cycle is at work and is the fundamental cause for everything that is occurring on the surface. The things that occur on the surface occur there by reason of the reaction in human consciousness in the coma state. Of course that doesn't provide a clear reflection of what would be true if human beings were awake and participating in the process; then obviously the results made apparent in the world would be quite different. At the moment that is mere speculation but we can see how it would work that way. We do not know what would be produced. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard” It’s not necessary. The invisible is quite capable, actually, without our help. But there is something we are here to do, related to what is occurring on the surface, in the visible sense, and we have a part to play in this to the extent of our wakefulness. If we try to play the part while we are still asleep it won’t be very effective. There may be the appearance of movement and of action—there are sleepwalkers, after all—but it won’t provide what is really necessary. Awake! Arise! In one sense the alarm is sounding.
As it says here: “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” This has been thought of in terms of the need for the garden which was to put in an appearance: there needed to be irrigation; it was dry. But here is a symbolic presentation of something, which may have some literal meaning too. But the literal meaning relates to the truth, doesn’t it? Not to the fantasy, not to the dream. We have a lot of people in the dream state who have been busy trying to interpret the Bible, for instance, and doing it, as they suppose very often, literally—fundamentalists. They say that this that the Bible says is what we should pay attention to. Yes, we should perhaps, but we need to see what is said first.
The mist went up from the face of the earth. We know something about that. We know that there is a generation of spiritual substance from physical substance. Here it is being said in specific words for those who are capable of understanding. If you see only droplets of water arising upon a dry land, then you don’t see very much. But if you see an invisible substance which at the level of mist presumably is somewhat visible—but water vapor in the air is not necessarily visible; there always is some water vapor in it anyway—then we may be able to recognize the spiritual substance that is being described. And it waters the ground; in other words it is the means by which animation occurs physically speaking. It is the connection between the invisible and visible; it relates to the heaven in between. So by reason of a generation of this substance something could begin to happen in the creative process to bring forth man. And it wasn’t someone manipulating the dust of the ground into clay and producing a little human figure, but something from within, something occurring through this mist, the undimensional taking form dimensionally on the basis of the true creative process, the natural creative process which occurs in the state of oneness.
Whatever actually happened, we don’t need to concern ourselves with that back there. We are quite aware of the fact that it happened: we’re here! We don’t need to go back there. What is required is required right here, and what is required now operates on exactly the same basis but there is a different situation. Human flesh is around. The earth is already present in the sense of the flesh body of mankind. Well a mist needs to go up on the face of the earth. There needs to be the generation of the essential spiritual substance, which in turn waters the face of the earth, brings a greater animation. We see this in various ways, mostly destructive; but it is all based in the same creative movement. There is the generation of this substance, and if in our own living we find ourselves associated with this generation we begin to be in agreement with what is happening, and being in agreement we begin to awaken and we begin to see what is happening.
We begin to accept responsibility in the happening, because heaven and earth are one. We are not separate from it. We are not going to stand back somewhere and say, “Well now I am coming in the name of the Lord for all these people out here who are beginning to awaken.” That wasn’t the way it worked in the creation in the first place. The Lord God was not over here and the creation over there. Oneness prevailed and it was by reason of the presence of the Lord God in the invisible sense that something happened visibly, and it happened visibly because there was the connection present—obviously it would be there if there is a state of oneness—to allow for the creative process to work. That connection is described as a mist which went up on the face of the earth.
Now, this is happening; and if we awaken to the happening we find ourselves to that extent one, both with the Lord God and with the happening. In other words it is not happening merely to those miserable people out there who need to be awakened. It’s happening right at home, and the reality of the Lord God only emerges, in fact, to the extent that the happening is known in our own experience. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground; well this is what He is doing now in the sense of restoring man, or re-creating man, who is not separate from Himself: man, made in the image and likeness of God, as it has been put. That merely describes the state of oneness, that man is not in fact separate from God. He is only seemingly separate from God in his own view in this dream state. Awaken and the truth is known, the truth of oneness. And so, in awakening, the Lord God is then known to be present within His creation, if you want to put it that way, but as an essential element of the creation. Nothing would exist at all but for this fact, and we awaken to this truth in our own experience. Because we so awaken we are associated with the Lord God increasingly in a conscious sense relative to the creative process by which this awakening happens. In other words the process becomes more specific, more direct; and we have a responsibility in this. This is the realm of our integrity.
So we rejoice to associate ourselves with this creative process, in the increasing awareness of the reality, the Lord God and His creation. We are aware of the oneness because it is one in us. It’s the only way we can know it. If we think it is going to be a oneness somehow in the future, well the state of separation still exists insofar as we are concerned and we are of no value. Whatever is useless proves, sooner or later, its uselessness. So we share this immediate awareness of responsibility in the expression of the Lord God in oneness with His creation, which includes our own physical forms, our own minds, our own realms of emotion, our own ability to allow the invisible to be made visible. In this way the fulfilment of the creative purposes of God, by which all things are made new in the realm of human consciousness, comes to pass.
O Lord, Thou who art present always in the midst, we would acknowledge this truth and, being one with Thee, let this invisible truth be made visible in all the ways of our living. Thereby we are filled with thankfulness, filled with joy, filled with an increasing awareness of the creative power of Thy spirit and of the creative processes now occurring in which we may, and necessarily must, in oneness with Thee, play our part. The enfoldment of Thy love extends forth by reason of our presence with Thee on earth, that all who will may awaken to the truth and be restored to life. Aumen.
Our meditations this morning [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/giant-stature.html] emphasized the fact that all that is to be creatively achieved must be consequent upon the working of what we call the Spirit of God. At the same time we were, I am sure, very much aware that we have very little understanding of what those words, “the Spirit of God,” really mean.
We are capable of observing and examining whatever is present at the level of consciousness where we are, and what is below that level. The spirit of Godrefers to something that is higher than man, certainly very much higher than the present self-centered condition of human consciousness, so it is quite impossible to observe and to examine the spirit of God. The spirit of God is capable of observing and examining us, because we are at a lower level than that at which the spirit of God freely operates, that spirit having been excluded from human consciousness, and it remains excluded as long as human beings are self-centered. However, it is working just the same. There has never been a time when everything that is occurring, not only in this very small corner of the universe but everyplace else, was not under control. Within the scope of human experience it seems as though many things are far from being under control, but this is merely within the scope of the self-centered human consciousness; it has nothing to do with the truth of the matter. All things are under control and all things remain under control. It is because of this fact that it is possible for the state of human consciousness to be restored to what it should be, and it should be governed by the spirit of God. It is useless, as I say, to try to find out what the spirit of God is, to put it under a microscope, so to speak, so that we can dissect it and discover what makes it tick, because where would you look? It isn't within the range of possible human examination.
According to the record in the Gospel according to John, our Master made the statement that it was necessary to be born of the spirit. He said something about the wind, which is the symbol of spirit, blowing where it listeth. So is it also with the spirit of God. It is working as it should work; it is moving as it should move; it has never ceased to do so. This movement of the spirit of God, which is universal, comes to focus in relationship to mankind; it comes to focus in relationship to this whole world. It is working here creatively, even though human experience seems to indicate a rather chaotic state. We have noted something with respect to this which is happening in human experience, that there is a disintegrating aspect to the occurrence, and also an integrating one.
Looking at the state of affairs in the world historically speaking, we might be in position to observe at this point that the working of the spirit of God has been playing something of a delaying action because, in spite of all the opportunities that have been offered to human beings, the disintegrating experience remains paramount. If it was a matter of letting the spirit of God rip, so to speak, then everything would disintegrate insofar as the human world is concerned and that would include the inhabitants thereof. This is why I say there has been something of a delaying action, to permit the development of a manifest integrating aspect of the cycle. This relates to the various opportunities that have been offered to mankind to experience restoration to the true state. The opportunities were to make possible the beginnings of a manifest integrating aspect to the creative cycle. This integration could have occurred within historical times through the children of Israel, for instance. It obviously didn't occur, the opportunity was lost; but then, again, it could have occurred when Jesus was on earth. Obviously, it didn't. In spite of all the doctrines and beliefs that have been developed in Christianity, the world remains pretty much its usual mess, more of a mess these days because there are so many more people and it is the people that are messy.
So while the opportunities were provided, very specifically, relative to the whole human race, in fact very little occurred in any manifest sense which would give evidence of integration rather than disintegration. So things have been held in abeyance, disintegration has continued, but not in any violent sense, waiting for the development of something on earth which would allow the integration to be experienced. If it were all disintegration, obviously, nothing would be left. So it has been important that there should be something in the process of integration. We, ourselves, have begun to be aware of something with respect to this aspect of the creative cycle. Here is something, in which we are present and which is of an integrative nature. Something is beingdrawn together.
“Not by might, nor by power” — not by any human effort or endeavor,
not by any human organization — “but by my spirit, saith the Lord.”
By the spirit of God. This is the only thing that is capable of generating the integrating aspect of the cycle. Now, of course, human beings observe something of the disintegration on every hand. They have observed disintegration all down through the ages and they have undertaken various methods to try to prevent it or turn it toward integration, so that we might have a better world, as it has been put. And, apparently, hope still springs in human breasts along this line. Perhaps if we in Canada, now, give the Liberals a working majority or elect another party to power, maybe the Conservatives, then this will really start things integrating! I personally find it difficult to comprehend how anyone could believe any such hogwash, and yet many enthusiastically follow along the political trail, as though this were going to be the answer. Well, if nothing else is seen, I suppose there are those who have this as their highest vision. So it's not a matter of criticizing, but from our level of understanding we should easily be able to see that the answer doesn't come that way. It's child's play, really, children's games. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
By the way, when I was speaking this morning, I hesitated a moment before using a certain expression, and I sought to qualify it so that it wouldn't be taken as though it was an indication of what was really true. Consequently, I was a little surprised—not altogether, I suppose, or I wouldn't have been so careful in saying what I did—when this expression cropped up in a number of letters of response I received, as though it was some sort of a central theme. The words I did use were “divine herd.” As I say, I was rather hesitant in using those words, because I was a little concerned as to what might be done with them. The herd pattern really relates to the animal kingdom, not to God. There are animals that operate in herds and packs and flocks; but this isn't the way man moves, rightly. A herd is made up of a number of separate creatures, and with all of them put together you have the herd pattern. But insofar as man is concerned, there is what is describable, rightly, by the term “oneness”. There is the sense of a shared identity. That shared identity was described in the Old Testament of the Bible by the words I Am That I Am.
There is One Spirit, the spirit of God. The spirit of God actually relates to the whole universe, but in its various fields of operation it is brought to specific focus. It is here insofar as this particular pattern is concerned. But our true identity relates to this one spirit, the spirit of the Lord, we may say. This is the spirit of God brought to focus insofar as we are concerned, and our experience of true identity is within that one spirit, not separate from it—it's not as though there were little isolated globs of spirit handed out to individual human beings. The individual human beings, as we know people in the world at the present time, are the varied evidences of one spirit, but, of course, the sense of self in human beings has not been included in that one spirit. There has been a separate ego developed by people which seems very real to them and makes them feel that they are apart from everybody else—"I'm me and you're you.” But the fact of the matter is, in true identity we are one. It seems a paradox that in true identity there is identity, individual identity; if we are one, how could it be? Well, we'd better find true identity and then we'll know. It's useless merely to discuss it, talk about it, theorize about it, and develop concepts about it, because that is not what it is. The only way to know what it is is to experience what it is, to experience the reality of our own true identity. When we do that there's no problem; we do find what oneness is, and it isn't a divine herd!
The spirit of God finds expression, this one spirit finds expression, in a variety of different forms; but it's still just one spirit. And when we are identified in that one spirit, we have the experience of oneness. The experience of oneness is describable by the word “love.” Human beings have misinterpreted that word in a host of different ways, but to know what it means the state of oneness must be experienced, and in that state of oneness we discover how we are related to each other—all connected, all springing out of this one spirit. However, I don't particularly wish to talk about that; I only mention it so as to dispel the idea of the divine herd.
All that is to be achieved is achieved by the spirit of God. Human beings trying to make an integrated state, fail. They can't do it. It is an attempt to do the impossible. The integrated state is consequent upon the working of the spirit of God, the one spirit of God—well, of course, it's integrated—but in order to permit this integrated state to be restored to human experience a good deal of disintegration is necessary. All that smacks of self-centeredness must be dissolved. Of course, if we individually smack too much of self-centeredness, then we ourselves find that we are dissolved. We must learn how to relinquish self-centeredness. This has been indicated by two little words, “Let go,” but just to use those words doesn't get the job done. We need to be aware, however, of the necessity of relinquishing something. To the extent that we have been self-centered, this idea of relinquishing self-centeredness looks like a rather tough proposition, because it seems as though pretty well all of us has got to go. If things are worked out by the spirit of God, with the individual cooperating in the process, all that needs to be done can be done. However, here again, we should recognize that it is not just an individual matter. The spirit of God is not operating just through you but through the person who's sitting next to you, too, and it is something that is unfolding on a collective basis. It isn't a competitive thing, in other words. The individual can't say, “Well, now I'm going to forge ahead spiritually and leave everybody else behind.” We all move together.
This doesn't mean to say that all those who are moving in the integrating cycle are at the same level. Recently I have been using an analogy of a staircase [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-stairs.html] leading up out of the cellar. Of course, the staircase that leads up out of the cellar also leads down into the cellar; but we are concerned with going up. This staircase has a number of steps, and a person who is rising up out of the cellar will move from step to step.
Then everybody is not on the same step.
So there are differences in this sense, differences of level. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/factors-of-heredity.html]Again, this analogy provides a picture with respect to what I was talking about before, namely the ability to observe. If you're on the cellar floor all you can observe is what is on the cellar floor; if you're on the first step of the stairs leading up, then you're a little higher and you can overlook what is on the cellar floor just a little. You can begin to see things with a different perspective and you can recognize what is present on that particular step. Yet, while you may sense that there are steps leading up higher, you can't really see what those steps are; all you can do with respect to the steps that are above you is to develop concepts about them, and that is a waste of time. It's much easier not to develop concepts about them, so that we can experience what they are. As we noted this morning, if you develop a concept, that concept is going to stand in your way until you're willing to let it go. A lot of people prefer their concepts to the truth. We see this very much the case in the religious field, but not only there; in the scientific field, too; everywhere, in fact. People prefer to espouse their concepts, even in the political field. We need to learn not to develop them.
Now, there's a Class gathered here, and the tendency is to develop concepts—but first of all, to compare them. You have some already, so when something else is brought up, you compare them and say, “Do I like this, or do I like that?” Well, we get into a hassle on that basis, because human likes and dislikes enter into the picture, when they have no business there. So the idea is not to develop concepts; the idea is to develop an increasing sensitivity to the spirit of God, to the movement of the spirit of God.
If we are to develop that sensitivity, the spirit of God must be moving, of course. Well, the fact of the matter is that it is moving. We wouldn't be alive, we wouldn't be sitting here, if it wasn't. It is moving, but it needs to be brought to specific focus, so that it becomes intensified, and therefore there can be a much clearer discernment of what its quality is. That discernment comes not by the development of concepts but by feeling; the heart is a very important instrument. I'm not just speaking of the physical heart—that's important, of course—but of the ability to discern through feeling.
Of course, if one is all involved in problems and worries and troubles and all these sorts of things, the heart is fully occupied and there is no facility left to discern anything of the spirit of God. But most people think the things they are worried about, the things they are all concerned about, are more important than the spirit of God. The proof of this is in the fact that they get all emotionally involved in these things—the heart is turned in that direction. As long as it's turned in that direction, the individual has his back to the spirit of God. But he may say, “This is a pressing problem here; I've got to deal with it.” Well, how are you going to deal with it? If you try to deal with it in the usual way, you may seem for the moment to solve that problem, but when you turn around you find, “Oh, there's another one over here.” Then you have to rush over there and start solving that one. You're harried from pillar to post, and none of the problems are ever solved, because human beings trying to solve problems are attempting the impossible again. They may push something down here—"Well, I've got that under control now”—but something bobs up over there. It's all connected. There was a world war not so very long ago which was intended to defeat the nazis principally, “So we'll put fascism down,” but communism springs up over there. Nothing is solved. Do you think the world will come to an end if you're not on the job solving problems?
The only way that what needs to be done can be done is by the working of the Spirit of God
Therefore, this is the first order of business—that we may be associated with that working. We find, when we are associated with the working of the spirit of God, that we rise up a step and then another step, and we begin to see with a different perspective, so that what we thought were such pressing and terrible problems before are not so pressing and terrible anymore. The thing may still be there but you see it differently. You know, all these things with which human beings struggle are maintained by the very fact that they are struggling with them. As long as you are wrestling with the devil, the devil will be right beside you, won't he? As long as you have the devil in your grip, you are in his grip, too.
So there's no answer in that direction. Let go! Because only so can your feeling realm begin to settle down so that there may be a state of calm. Then you may hear the word spoken, “Peace, be still,” and there is a great calm. The heart is not frantically grappling with all the external things that seem so pressing. And only then does there begin to be a sufficiency of facility to discern the movement of the spirit of God, to sense something.
What is sensed I have spoken of as a tone, a tonal quality. The spirit of God is powerful. When we come right down to it, it is the only power in the whole universe. There is no other power. There is no evil power, or devilish power, except in the consciousness and consequent experience of human beings. That's the only place it exists, and it's a state of fancy; it isn't real at all. It is the human experience, and seems to be real to human beings, but it is only that way because human beings are contending with the spirit of God. Contention with the spirit of God spawns trouble, and if we notice any troubles around, we know why they're there. Because human beings have been contending with the spirit of God. Well, there's no sense to that. We're surely no longer interested in spawning more trouble; there's enough already.
We have the opportunity of associating ourselves with the working of the spirit of God as we become aware of its nature, of its quality, within the scope of our own experience; and this, as we move with it, is an integrating power insofar as we are concerned. It is also a disintegrating power insofar as human contention is concerned. But, at last, if there are those who are consciously, deliberately, consistently, moving with the spirit of God, there is something emerging into manifestation that is of the integrating aspect of the cycle. Then the disintegration can proceed because integration is here, and consequently the delaying action is no longer necessary. Let what is contending with the spirit of God be disintegrated. Now, of course, there has to be reached an adequate point of manifest integration before that would be safe, because I suspect that if we were to take the attitude here, now, in this moment, “Let all that is contending with the spirit of God disintegrate,” there might be some dust around, with no one to sweep it up! So the integrating development has to reach a certain point before the outworking of affairs in the world can be brought to a point of final issue.
Now this development is what is going on right now. We have not reached the point of final issue. It is indicated in the Divine Blueprint, the Book of Revelation, that there should be 144,000 people who are participating consistently in the integrating aspect of the cycle before the issue can be drawn, before it is safe to do it. Now, we've got a way to go yet; but that must come, and it will come as there are those, and there are, who are beginning to move more easily and effectively in the current of the spirit of God. It is the movement of that current which gets the job done.
It is not because we, for instance, are brighter than other people or more capable of doing what needs to be done. The only difference between those who are of the integrating cycle and those who are overly involved with the disintegrating cycle is that there is, for whatever reason—there is a reason; let's not pat ourselves on the back about it—a greater openness to the spirit of God. But it's not by our efforts, it's not by our might and our power, but by the spirit of God, that what needs to be done is done ...
and it is being done!
We ourselves have some awareness of the fact that it is being done in our own experience, and that spirit is working through all; it is working through all peopleeverywhere on the face of the earth. As there is an increase in the integrating aspect in manifestation, the intensification of the working increases. It increases to integrate more speedily, more effectively, and it also increases to disintegrate more speedily and more effectively. It works in both directions. And somewhere along the way it comes to a point of climax, a point when the issue is finally drawn. Then let him who is righteous be righteous still, and let him who is filthy be filthy still. In other words, that's it, the line is drawn. And wherever there is a predominance of self-centeredness, disintegration is sure; wherever there is a predominance of movement with the spirit of God, integration is sure. Now, we may recognize that this integrating process has a lot of implications. We don't need to examine them at the moment because all we are concerned with is to let our own experience be mor firmly associated with the spirit of God and the integrating process; then we'll become aware of some of the implications here.
This is rightly the concern of those who will be attending this Class; but not only them, of everybody else, presumably, as well. Changes are coming. These days they come more quickly than they used to come. In the earlier years of this ministry there was a great deal of plodding, and we all may be thankful that there were those who were willing to plod; otherwise we wouldn't be at this point. What we do now and what we experience sets the stage for those who come after. But we need to remember that all that is to be done is achieved solely by the spirit of God, not by the intelligence of human beings, not by the efforts of men, our own or anyone else's. This is not to say that we do not become active or that we sit around twiddling our thumbs. Obviously, the spirit of God is not interested in this sort of action. There are other things to be done as we become increasingly aware of the True Tone of the spirit of God, and we find ourselves impelled because we can't help it. In the external sense, we can't help it and we no longer would wish to help it anyway. Just let it happen, and behold all things work together to perfection. The integration takes place naturally and easily. Something is built according to the true design, a design of which we as human beings have no particular consciousness; we don't know what it is, so we would be incapable of building it. But it will be built, and we see something of that design emerging within the range of our own present awareness.
Let us rejoice that these things are occurring, and willingly move in the unfolding cycles which are initiated and maintained by the creative working of the spirit of the Living God. And so, tonight, we have had the opportunity of sharing something of a consciousness of what it is that is working, not merely on the basis of the words that have been spoken but on the basis of the current of the spirit that has been touched. It is working; let us let it continue to work in our own experience. It will continue to work, but let it work in our own experience. Aumen.
This is our class meditation period on the 11th day of May, 1954 in the Chapel on Sunrise Ranch, and carrying forward in our cycle of meditation in the application of the basic principles which we have been considering in the field of the unfolding expression of life and Being in the individual, I have a number of points to which I would like to draw your attention this morning.
I think if each one would remember that it is a process not only of the unfolding life expression, but of the unfolding manifestation of being, it will make it easier, for the Way is easy. Very often it seems to the human mind that it is hard and difficult, but if we could always remember that when the human consciousness whispers that it is hard, or it seems in some fashion to be difficult, to let the things of God have meaning, if we would always remember that that is a lie we could the better maintain the right attitude.
The manifestation of life, the increasing expression of life, is something which in and of itself does not and cannot appear; and the human being is inclined to evaluate his own experience, determine his own progress on the basis of his own concept of the degree to which the life expression is increasing. But this can lead into many traps, devastating traps. The increased expression of life can appear only as there is the reality of increased expression or unveiling of the Reality of Being.
In this process of movement from the Land of Egypt to the Promised Land of Reality the individual goes through many cycles, many periods that we call the abyss of nothingness [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/abyss-of-nothingnesssabbath-rest.html], many steps forward, and if each one would ever remember that the darkness of the abyss of nothingness is evidence of progress, so that each could hold steady therein without all of the pushing and pulling and shoving that tends to appear, it would shorten the time that one remains in the abyss of nothingness and speed the unveiling of the Reality of Being.
This brings us to a point where we can consider a number of factors. The human mind is always inclined to forget the Master's injunction, “Judge not.” The human attempts to evaluate with inadequate understanding, inadequate vision, are constantly producing ill conditions. This is one of the things that you will be confronted with in the field, should your future rest in that area, or here or anywhere, because human beings who are making progress always come, sooner or later in one way or another, to a crisis point and that crisis point is of tremendous significance, whether in your life or in the life of another. As you pass through these crisis points—and it can be easy or hard, depending upon your attitude—it helps you to be in position to understand those whom you will serve in the days to come, when they begin to move in such cycles as will permit them to come to the crisis points or the points of the abyss of nothingness.
These cycles work physically, when a person is moving toward health. They appear mentally and emotionally, and sometimes they come at all three points all at once. These crisis points are of vital importance. There is no way by which we can emerge out of the Land of Egypt into the Promised Land without them because if it were required that you move more-or-less instantaneously from one state of Being to the other, it would be one big crisis point and it would be so overwhelming that you could not possibly be expected to make it. These crisis points which signify the steps of adjustment and change must be divided up, more for some than for others, but attitude is the big thing when we come to a crisis point, or the abyss of nothingness, because if one begins to resent and rebel and fight and struggle and twist and turn and try to get out from under the pressure, he will make that crisis point to be of no effect. He simply guarantees that he is going to have to face it again. When we learn to have the right attitude, no twisting, turning or squirming, no trying to evade, but face into it, we will find that it is possible to go through the crisis point easily, naturally, without any great suffering. But the suffering that comes at a crisis point is largely on the basis of the way the individual wiggles and twists and squirms when he is under the pressure. If he will just take it easy and relax, and let it work out, there will be no undue suffering. It may hurt a little, yes, but it is still easy. The right way is the easy way.
So there is the vital importance of learning yourself to have the right attitude so that you will be in position to help others face it effectively. And, when someone has come to a crisis point, an abyss of nothingness, if the response is centered truly, no rebelling, no fighting, no twisting, no squirming, if you are the server in the case you can he exquisitely gentle. But if under that circumstance, you begin to extend what we might call human sympathy, if you begin to function on a basis which will cause the person to think that gentleness is weakness on your part, you will have to be firm; but you have to learn how to be firm, in what way to be firm, because wrong function in that regard can be devastating. Sometimes the very nature of the case makes it necessary for you to stand afar off so-to-speak, and for those who do not understand, you may be classified as hard-hearted, cold. Under the pressure, someone may imagine that you are disinterested. But you were considering this morning on the tape recording, this primary test, and always there is a contest at these crisis points if the individual does not have the right attitude. Now if there is the right attitude, there is no contest, merely the shedding of an old skin and the process of being born into a new; and in the world as it is, there is a certain amount of labor in it, a certain amount of suffering in these steps of rebirth. But, generally speaking, there is something of that abyss, or a crisis point, just prior to the reality of birth into a new level of consciousness and function. If the individual will function correctly, relax correctly, co-operate correctly, it will be comparatively easy. But if he fights it and becomes tense, resentful and rebellious, he will suffer.
In such a case there is always a contest, and in such a case you need to be extremely alert, to put on as much pressure as the individual can stand, but not too much. And your proximity to the case, so-to-speak, the degree of nearness that you can utilize, will depend upon the individual's ability to carry through, to remember the Lord's statement that, “whom he loveth he chasteneth” rebukes, and so on. Sometimes human beings imagine that if you in a position of leadership, really love, that you will never rebuke, you will never be firm. That is not true; it is not true at all. But it is something that you learn to perceive in the current of the spirit. Now sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. You just let it work out. Other times you can seem to do something. Other times you have to do what you do without even seeming to do it. You have to be wise. So the crisis point is of great significance. And this gives us a starting point for a little consideration of this aspect of this problem of limitation factors.
I received a letter yesterday which emphasizes the point. For this particular individual, having heard something of what I have said with respect to proper function, etc., proper patterns of attitude which I was inspiring in you one toward another, undertook to judge me on the individual concept of the application of those principles. In other words, according to that viewpoint I was not living up to what I teach. Now that is one of the tricky snares that tends to appear. I have to face it all the time, and if you are going to do any leading you will have to face it. But, in a pattern such as this here, for instance, where we have a class or a group or the whole Unit on Sunrise, or anywhere else where I am under the necessity of functioning, having come into this pattern you have accepted, whether you know it or not, certain protection which I provide. In other words, as you begin to respond, I begin to modify the results of your ill action and to magnify or intensify the results of your right action, and if you are going to share with me in ministry, you will have to learn how to do that too.
We do it physically speaking through attunements, for instance, because one phase of the result of the attunement is to modify, lessen, the result of some ill function, perhaps eating wrongly or something else, some unwise action, a fall perhaps, or a thousand-and-one things. So, part of it is the modification of the results of something that is wrong or has been done incorrectly. And the other part of the attunement process applied physically, emphasizes, intensifies the corrective expression, the growing or the healing process, and we do that consistently. But that applies in every level of being in the whole life, because here, as much as response permits, I modify the ill results and intensify the current which produces the right results, as you permit it to be so.
Then, if an individual moves along for a certain period of time without taking full advantage of the opportunity so afforded, and begins to develop in consciousness the idea that he or she is justified in these repeated wrong patterns of function, he begins to forget that they bring ill results because the results have been modified and no one has been too seriously hurt, etc., and he begins to neglect the process of responding to the currents that would lift one up and over, he begins to develop habit patterns that disregard the basic factors that are involved, then I have a responsibility. It is not your responsibility one toward another. It does not alter the pattern of your pattern of relationship, but it does alter the pattern of my correct function, because then I have to utilize some point, and I generally pick one where the probabilities of someone getting seriously hurt are modified.
In other words, I generally pick on something that is comparatively little and I will avoid, if I am permitted to do so, making an issue on the comparatively big points or the serious factors. If I am forced to it, of course that is a different story. But I will start picking out some of these little points and letting that individual reap the reward as quickly as possible of the result of wrong function, and in my action in that regard, I am very often considered to be harsh, or cold, or inconsistent, or failing to live up to what I teach, which isn't the case at all, because if I fail to take that type of action when I find it necessary, I would be failing you and you would imagine you were in a state of progress and growth in which you are not, and then you would go out and try to function on a false basis, and you would fail. So, if there is some kind of a reactionary pattern that continues too long, the modification factors that I utilize are all withdrawn, and I begin to let the individual find out what it is to be down where he really is, not where he has imagined himself to be. It takes an understanding of the factors. Now I am not suggesting you try to do that, but I am pointing out that from my standpoint I have to do that or I would not be a leader.
So, with respect to something that is clearing and there is forward movement and the individual has not taken it for granted, and relaxed into sloppy habits in his growing process, I will continue the process in modification as long as it may be necessary, but when someone starts imposing on me in that regard, and starts doing it consistently so that there is a disregard of the opportunity that is afforded, I am going to start seeing to it that the results of ill actions start coming back. And generally speaking, the starting point with respect of such things comes in the range of inconsiderate function on the part of the individual involved. When human beings start to imagine that for me to live up to my own teaching, I must tolerate a lot of inconsiderate function on the part of someone, persistently maintained, well that person is due for a rude awakening, because it does not work that way.
This should help you to understand something of the patterns that are unfolding here, and it should be helpful to you at least in a realization of that which is to be required of you when you are in the point of focalization in the field or somewhere else—the wisdom, the understanding, whereby one may know when to ignore, when to tolerate, and when to positively reject something which the individual gives into expression in life. There is also the matter of simply modifying it. Sometimes we ignore it, sometimes we modify it, and sometimes we reject it positively, depending upon the circumstances, depending upon how many people are involved, and what opportunity we have to just let that individual have plenty of rope. There is the old saying, “If you give a person enough rope he will hang himself.” Well we are not interested in doing that, unless we have no choice.
So these limitation factors that are present in human beings, which spoil the pattern of individual manifestation, cloud the vision with respect to what is really working out, are often the basis upon which a human being makes an utterly false judgment and then assumes a pattern of self-righteousness which is in the range, the danger range, the range where, well, results are questionable shall we say. This matter of the limitation factors can be seen in this regard from a little different standpoint ... continued ... greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/mirage-vision.html
