December 31, 2014

Feed  My  Sheep





from   The Vibratory Turmoil, Tension and Misery


Uranda   August 20, 1953  Class



Our visit this afternoon in the city of Denver emphasized a number of things: one, the blessed privilege of peace we have here. The vibratory turmoil, the rushing to and fro, the tension and the misery, the sufferings of humanity which are so evident in untold ways—and the blessed privilege we have here of knowing a peace which is not known in the world. There are so many human beings who are subject to futility, who have reached a point of hopelessness, of not caring, and we need to have a still deeper appreciation of our privilege and responsibility, a dedication which cannot be caused to waver for even a moment, to the end that we may as effectively as possible serve. 


In our togetherness we have been considering many things with respect to service, what it means to serve and how to serve. We are here on a basis of dedication to service. You have all meditated upon it in various ways, but I was wondering if tonight we might in our togetherness gain a deeper realization of the significance and the opportunity, yes, and the means by which we may serve. Sometimes familiar things tend to take on an appearance of sameness. We tend to take them for granted, and we tend to assume that what we hear of familiar words has been heard before, and the mind and the heart seek for something new. In the pattern of change, we have been given the assurance that there is something new. The divine Word is, "Behold, I make all things new." But we have old problems with us: problems of the social order, problems of government, problems that take on a political pattern, problems of human relationship of every sort. 


Generally speaking the approach to these problems is made on the basis of trying to treat the disease, to heal an ill condition. Our approach is to seek to find something that is right, a point of health and strength in a body that has illness, so that we can increase the health and the strength in the body, that the illness may be crowded out. The same with the mind and the heart. It is easy to look for what is commonly called evil, or sin, and condemn people for it. Sometimes it is not so easy to find something that is right in other human beings and begin to encourage it, begin to give it an atmosphere in which it may grow and become strong and become a dominant factor in the life of the individual. Looking for the right things, looking for the starting points, is our business. 


This opens up a consideration in our field of spiritual psychiatry, the problem of understanding other people if we are going to serve them, the problem of how to find a means of inspiring the acceptance of an increase in that which is right. Most human beings exist on a basis of a deep conviction with respect to what is wrong, both with themselves and with others. This difference of approach is something which requires an educational program before human beings can begin to see its value. 



I was particularly thinking in relationship to ourselves. We need to remember that we are a part of this world family, this world body, with all of its parts, with all of its ill conditions, with all of its suffering. We cannot consider ourselves as being separate from it, and if we are not separate from it and we think too much about all the tragedies and the sufferings and the ill conditions, the injustices, we will tend to become subject to them. We need to face the facts and then pause to consider what it means to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven at hand, right here on earth. How much does it mean to us?


When we see all of this misery in the world, when we recognize the tremendous problem before us, the human tendency is to feel that it cannot be done, that it is too big a problem, and to become fearful. And yet your body was made to let the spirit of life manifest on earth, your mind was created to let the spirit of truth have meaning on earth, and your heart was created to let the spirit of love have meaning on earth. To start with, these three aspects of yourself as the human being do not function perfectly. We cannot say with respect to any of you that the manifestation of life through you is perfect. Your body is not yet a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the spirit of life, but it is moving in that direction. Your mind is not yet a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the spirit of truth, but it is moving in that direction. Your emotional nature is not yet a perfect instrument of the manifestation of the spirit of love, but it too is moving in that direction. 


If we start looking for that which is right we may be forced to recognize that with many human beings in the world it is just too late. With many human beings there is no way to help them. We have recognized that there must be basic integrity. Sometimes it is covered up, sometimes it may be hard to find; but if there is a basic integrity, that is the first point. And the second is, the individual must be not only willing to be helped but must eagerly seek and accept help. In this pattern of dedication to service, we recognize that some people will not let you help them. Therefore as long as there are people in the world who will let you help them we must not waste time trying to help those who do not want to be helped. There are so many who are ready to be helped, looking for someone who can help them, those in whom we can inspire or uncover a spark, a starting point of integrity. If you have these two things in any human being, regardless of his problems, regardless of difficulties with habits, alcoholism or dope or anything else, if you can find or uncover these two things, you can do something. If you cannot find or uncover or inspire these two things, you cannot help that person no matter what you do. 


If you are trying to do something but are not actually doing something, can we classify that as service? We must not confuse trying to help someone with the actuality of helping, trying to serve with the actuality of service. If we see this distinction and recognize it clearly in relationship to ourselves, we can see that, regardless of intent or ability, regardless of purpose, unless we actually do serve someone in the sense of helping them, our effort is not service. 


In the world there are many service organizations, there are many people deeply interested in helping their fellows in various ways—church people, ministers and laymen, all sorts of approaches to this problem of helping others. I have seen many a minister who genuinely wanted to help someone, who was looking primarily at what he conceived to be the sins of the individual whom he sought to help, and he took a more or less condescending attitude, a perhaps halfway tolerant, halfway judging attitude, where there was no meeting point established. If the minister is as righteous as he wants to appear to be, and if he is dealing with and seeing the sins and the evil in the people whom he is trying to serve, there is no meeting point between the two. The individual feels that there is a self-righteousness; he does not feel a contact and he feels that he is not really being appreciated, just more or less condemned. If your function is of reality, you cannot have a meeting place with others on the basis of their unrealities, and unless there is a meeting point between two human beings, they are not going to really, in any direct sense, influence each other's lives. 


It is our business to influence the lives of people in any way that rests within our ability on a legitimate basis—to influence the lives of people toward a constructive expression of life. But what is our meeting point? The ill conditions, the sickness? Many people like to have a pattern of relationship established on the basis of their sickness, and I have been forced at times, in order to get a toehold so to speak, to listen to some tale of woe or other about an operation, sickness, etc.—you can learn something about human beings as you listen to them—and then to say something about, "I know, I have been sick too." Just a touch. "I've been through something." Not to exaggerate it, but many human beings simply do not know how to have a meeting point with another person except on the basis of sickness, illness, operations, misfortunes, tragedy, and if we are going to find a point of relatedness with that person we may be forced to touch an acknowledgment of something of that nature, but we must not dwell on it. What is our meeting point? The righteous condemning the evil? No. If we are functioning on the basis of reality we are looking for that which is right. 


I remember a good many years ago, in the early period of the depression, I got into a very difficult circumstance, financially, etc.—now, you see, we are going to have a meeting point on the basis of a little bit of suffering—as I want to bring something out so we can see it clearly. I was persuaded by some well-meaning friends, finally—they talked several times about it—that I just ought to go down to the Welfare Department and get a little help. Everyone else was doing it, why shouldn't I? I was having difficulty feeding my family, finding enough income to, well, just barely keep alive in the physical sense. My whole soul rebelled against the idea, but I finally decided, well perhaps, for the sake of my wife and baby, I ought to: "Perhaps I'm letting pride stand in my way, perhaps I ought to." So I went down, and into an atmosphere that was so utterly repulsive. Then the cross-questioning started and the ideas were presented. They started to treat me as if I were some kind of a criminal, and if I were not some kind of a criminal, some scoundrel or ne'er-do-well, I would not be looking for any help. I stood it for a while. I got up and walked out. I never got the so-called welfare assistance; I decided I could get along without it. But there I was, under a circumstance that would put any young man's integrity to a test, feeling futile enough; difficult enough in any circumstance; and the situation in the world, you know how it was. And instead of recognizing the situation as it was with me, the whole additional load started pouring in on top of me—the very attitude that was taken, to make me appear even in my own eyes to be worse than I really was. And I rebelled about it, I rejected it. 



Another time, back in the middle twenties, there was a certain circumstance—I was ill and no one to care, in the outer sense. I had been too ill to be on the job, and when I tried to go back to work my boss told me to go back to bed. I had been in a room alone, sick, for a week and I thought I would go crazy. So I could not go to work. I didn't have any money, but I couldn't, just couldn't, go back to that rooming house. So I got on a freight train and took a little trip, and wound up in a little town down in Oklahoma. It is a mining town. I got down there and looked for work. I thought maybe I could get another job but was not successful. I had not had anything to eat for two or three days, which was probably all right for the sickness; but I had been cold and miserable. Various times in my life I had contributed as generously as I knew how to the Salvation Army, and I thought, "Well now, I have given a lot more to the Salvation Army than a meal and maybe a place to sleep tonight would cost." And I sure needed it. "If I ever needed it in my life, I need it tonight." So I went down to the Salvation Army to get some help. I needed something to eat and a place to sleep, just for one night, so I could have enough strength to go on. Of course they were having a meeting, and there were two or three other fellows apparently having the same need in some way or another. And these Salvation Army officers, whatever their proper titles were, proceeded to do some questioning, which is understandable up to a point. Then they proceeded on the basis of saving our souls. Here we were, hungry and tired, and the Salvation Army captain insisted that we get down on our knees on that hard floor. He would not even listen to us. We had to get down on our knees as the first thing, and then the prayer. He was the righteous mouthpiece of God and we were the poor, lost, sinning souls. Oh, the whole thing was made so utterly repulsive. It stirred every rebellious, independent streak in me, to think that under that circumstance, in that need, I was required to be treated as if I were, well, something or other. Actually the food that I got was nothing. It was the nearest nothing I was ever offered. And it was a cold night, there was snow on the ground, and after a long rigmarole to save our souls, finally I was taken to a room. There was a little iron cot there and a little thin cotton blanket on it, and that is all, absolutely all—a little thin cotton blanket, no cover. I got under it with my clothes on and got everything I had over me and just simply froze. I finally left the room very early in the morning and went down to a place where there was some kind of a plant or something, and managed to get warmed up a little bit. It was a terrible experience, and I would not have given a nickel for the help I had received, and I have never donated to the Salvation Army since, either. I have donated somewhere else, but not to the Salvation Army. Maybe that does not truly represent them, but my experience was very unsatisfactory. I needed help and I was not given help on any decent basis at all. 


I am pointing out that all too often this thing that is called service, that people render to others, is not service. It is something so utterly contemptible, something that takes away any bit of dignity that there may be left, anything that allows the individual to recognize himself as having any meaning. We need to see that service, if it is to be really rendered, needs to be on the basis of that which is, and not on the basis of that which is not. If we are functioning in reality we do not have attunement with that which is wrong, with that which is sick, with that which needs to be changed. If we are functioning on the basis of reality we need to look for that which is right, the point of integrity, to inspire the willingness to be helped, to seek help. If the person is seeking help, at least on the face of it, we can take it as an honest gesture to start with. If he proves to be dishonest, then that is his tough luck, not ours. And we can remember that the body is designed to let the spirit of life have meaning on earth, that the mind was designed to let the spirit of truth have meaning on earth, and the heart to let the spirit of love have meaning on earth. In one of those three levels, surely, we can begin to find something. If we just give a person an attunement and don't say even a word for the mind, not a gesture of love for the heart what have we done? Gone through the motions of serving? We need to be able to bring these patterns into alignment. 


I had an experience once, something that lives in my memory. After leaving Oklahoma on that trip that I mentioned, I got to Joplin, Missouri, and I went up one side of the street asking each restaurant if I could do something, wash some dishes, for a bite to eat. No, they wouldn't even offer me a crust of bread. Going down the other side of the main street I got pretty well down; it looked like it was running out of streets and then, I wondered, what was I going to do? I was terribly hungry, and getting so weak I could hardly walk. And I went into a tiny, little hole-in-the-wall place. It specialized in a stack of wheats and a cup of coffee. And I asked this man if I could do a little work to get something to eat. He said, “No.” He didn't have anything for me to do. There was a man sitting at the counter and he looked at me and he tossed a dime, one thin dime, on the counter, and he said, "Give the kid a stack and a cup of coffee." Some of the sweetest words I ever heard in my life. My body was starving for food. "Give the kid a stack and a cup of coffee." That was a thrill. I don't know whether I managed to thank the man adequately or not. It is something that stands out in my memory. That was service, real service. I have a few such memories running back to my earlier life. 


We reach the point where we can feed the hungry—"Feed my sheep." The Master repeated it three times when He was talking to Peter. Peter denied Him three times. "Feed my lambs—Feed my sheep—Feed my sheep." Feed the body, feed the mind and feed the heart; feed the three phases of being in those whom you do serve, and be alert to ways in which you can feed them. I have seen so many starving people treated as if, well, it was their just desert to starve, and I do not mean just physically starving. People that were hungry. When we look for that which is worth feeding—not to condemn, not to find fault, not to try to treat what is wrong, but to feed the hungry, to serve—how do we do it? With ostentatious display? Or a comradely attitude, a meeting point, something that reaches into the heart, something that arouses gratitude, something that puts you on the basis of meeting the one whom you serve? I wonder. What does service mean to us? What does service mean to us? Are we alert not to force something upon someone but to feed the hungry and let the pattern work out, let the cycles clear, so that we get completely away from "what I am going to get out of it," completely clear in the true expression of service? To feed the hungry. 


It seems to me that if our peace here in this little valley, if our privilege of togetherness, is to have any meaning at all we need to meditate upon these things in relationship to a starved and hungry world, a world that is starved for God's love, a world that is starved for the water of truth, starved for the bread of life—a world that is starved. And yet how are we going to feed people? Go out and say, "Well now, here you are starving, aren't you?" and try to drag them in? No. We must see clearly enough, we must have perception enough, to see what needs to be said or done at the right time, just the word, just the gesture, just a little something that begins to create confidence, assurance, a sense of relatedness, a sense of trust, a sense of a meeting point. Build those things first, the meeting points, and the rest will follow. 


And remember: As God has been patient with us, let us be patient with others. And we will find that there are many who are eager to help us build the form of the kingdom of heaven on earth.


© Emissaries of Divine Light
 

December 29, 2014

The  Significance  of  This  Season  of  the  Year





from   Directions For The New Day #56


Uranda   January 1, 1947


Tonight I am inclined to think of the significance that was attached to this season of the year in ancient times, long before our Master came on earth. When man was beginning his journey up from that low estate to which he was plunged after the submersion of Atlantis there remained in the consciousness of survivors some of the principles that had been widely known, and opportunity to gain control of the remnant of the people through superstition was not overlooked. Among those things that remained in the world to speak of the Glory that had been, was the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. There were other evidences in other parts of the world, and to say that during that period there were no civilizations would hardly be true. There were surviving peoples who did have great civilizations which nevertheless passed away and were lost, but when we speak of a great civilization in that sense it is hardly comparable to what we think of today, using that term but, strangely, all these civilizations of antiquity had keys which, if they had been properly understood and properly utilized, would have provided humanity with the understanding necessary to return to God. When man fell he was told that the penalty of separating himself from God would be death. Those civilizations, as they are called, passed away. They paid the price for refusing to return to God. All of the great civilizations of the past, running down into recorded history—the empires that have been built—when they refused to return to God, all passed away. Nations died, civilizations died, just like the human beings who composed those manifestations of man's self-activity on earth. 


In ancient Egypt, while the covering of white limestone still remained on the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, the priesthood undertook, by means of superstition, to gain a complete hold upon the people and complete control over them. They built a temple somewhere around, I think, a little short of a hundred miles from that Great Pyramid, the limestone surface of which was slightly concave, and in the temple they placed a mirror. Each year, when the days began to shorten, the people were told that the sun god was going away, that soon there would be no more day—all would be night—unless the priests succeeded in interceding and preventing the going of the sun god. The people well knew that if the sun should never rise again they would soon perish. The thought of everlasting darkness was terrifying. Therefore, they did whatsoever was commanded them by the priesthood, and the people were told that if the priests succeeded in their intercession that they would be given a sign, so that the days shortened and they continued their ceremonies, and on the shortest day of the year, when it seemed to the people that their cause was almost hopeless, the tilt of the earth was such that the sun would shine on the limestone surface of the Great Pyramid and project that ray nearly a hundred miles to flash on the mirror in the temple. The people had no means of knowing about the reflection from the Great Pyramid. All they knew was that once again the priests had succeeded. The sign had been given and all was well, and as proof of the fulfilment of that intercessory work the days began to grow longer. There were the feasts and rejoicings and sacrifices, and wonder-working power of the priesthood was again firmly established in the minds of the people. 




Instead of using those keys to Reality which were at hand, to benefit humanity, instead of seeking to bring those who looked to them into a state of Spiritual liberty, the priests enslaved through fear, thinking to sustain their rule—and it was sustained through many centuries—but even though Egypt was a great nation for so long in the history of the world it, too, passed away, and the Egypt of today is of another nation. But the long line of the Egyptian kings came to an end, the power of the priesthood vanished away, another civilization died, and the glory of Egypt as it had been known, was gone. 


This season of the year, through one reason or another, has been recognized down through many thousands of years as being significant. By the time seven days after the sign had passed the lengthening of the days was sufficient for the people to begin to perceive that the days were getting longer. It meant the coming of Spring, another season, another harvest. Back there, thousands of years ago, even though these principles of Reality were used wrongly, the people recognized that without the sun they would perish, without the light and warmth that came each day life would soon cease, but the minds of the people were kept in darkness and so the people, of themselves, perished for the lack of that light for which they sold themselves into slavery under the priesthood of that time.


Our days are beginning to get longer. As we consider it aright we are reminded once more that only as we let an increased expression of the light and warmth of God's Love manifest through us can we have assurance of the time of harvest. In the darkness, without the sunlight, there can be no harvest, there can be no time of planting. As the days grow longer—and our New Year has begun—it seems to me that this phenomenon of nature that has been so significant down through untold generations should bring to us a realization of the importance of that to which we are called. First, because of man's refusal to turn to God, individuals died and passed away. Then, tribes came to an end, and finally nations. Civilizations rose and fell. In their growth they seemed indomitable. In their supremacy it appeared that their glory could not fade, and yet we know from history that they passed away. Great nations, great empires, great civilizations, came under the consequences of man's failure to obey the Laws of the Living God. 


When we stop and review these things does it seem strange, as the world has become smaller in the sense of the time element and transportation and communication, that we should recognize that unless man returns to God, that which has been true of individuals, true of tribes, of nations, of civilizations, and of empires, shall in the final analysis be true of the world of humanity? In those days distances seemed great. The time of travel from the Orient to the Mediterranean countries was long, for instance. That which we call the New World was unknown in recorded history until recently, comparatively speaking. Gradually the world has become a much smaller place, not in actual miles but in the time required to traverse those miles. The Laws of God have worked down through the ages, those nations that thought they could not be destroyed have passed away, those civilizations that thought they could rule the world forever have crumbled. Why?—because they neglected to return to God; they neglected to let themselves be removed from that curse which they brought upon themselves at the time of what we call the fall of man. 




God said that His Spirit would not always strive with man. At first, the fulfilment of God's Word was only with respect to the death of individuals. It began, according to the record, with the death of one man—a righteous man. Gradually the death penalty reached out until empires and civilizations and nations fell under it. Is the world of man so arrogant that it cannot see, or that it refuses to see, that now, with the world shrunk, as it were, into so small a space, the same inexorable Laws are at work with respect to the world of humanity? God has waited so long for humanity to return to Him. The whole record proves that His Word was true and that it is true. Otherwise, some nation, some civilization, some empire, that refused to return to God would have endured. But can we point to a single one? All the nations on earth at the present time that can be accounted powers in the world as far as their governments are concerned, are comparatively young, and yet already we see the signs of decrepitude creeping in. Already we see the results of the inexorable working of the Law. 


Surely, somewhere, somehow, through someone, there must be a return to God, or the human race stands in danger of passing away. To the skeptical, to those who mock, to those who consider themselves practical in the wisdom of this world, it might seem the height of presumption or arrogance or perhaps of foolishness, for anyone to seek to establish the precedent in the return to God that would give a basis of true hope for salvation to humanity. They say, "But people have always lived and died, nations and empires have risen and passed away, but humanity goes on always", but in that record of history, when was the world so united by means of transportation, communication, when did the whole human family blend together so completely, in fact, whether in harmony and cooperation or not? 


This, to my mind, is the background of that which we have undertaken. It gives an idea of the significance and of the importance of that to which we are called. It emphasizes the reason for our being here. It shows how necessary it is that the keys to Reality that are placed in our hands should be used, not to enslave but to assist, all who will respond, into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God. It emphasizes how very needful it is that someone, somewhere, somehow, should return to God. Our Great Master's influence on the world, through His short Life on earth, has profoundly moved the children of men down through these generations because He opened the Way for a return to God, because He, Himself, seen as a man in the world, returned to God. He instructed us to follow Him, which means that we, too, must arise and go unto our Father's House. We must return to God and it is only as human beings return to God that they can hope to change the monotonous course of history, for if it began with one man and continued through tribes and nations and cities, empires, civilizations, spreading ever outward, reaching to include all, and now when all are included, it looks to me like something of an ultimatum—return to God or humanity itself shall pass away.
 

If we were made in the Image and Likeness of God, regardless of the failures of the past, regardless of anything which may have happened in days gone by, regardless of the opposition that might be raised in the world or through the mass consciousness or anything else, if we are made in the Image and Likeness of God it must surely be possible for human beings to return to God without waiting till some vague hereafter, without accepting the penalty of disobedience as being the only means by which human beings can return to God. Millions of human beings expect to return to God after they die. Why should we not truly return to God while we live upon earth, for man was made in the Image and Likeness of God, and it is man, not just some vague soul, that needs to return to God, that in the light of the lengthening day he may have the promise of Life and that in the Springtime he may plant with confidence and in season come to the Harvest where he knows the joy of having returned, of being restored, of living in the light and the warmth of God's Love forever.


© Emissaries of Divine Light

 

December 26, 2014

They  Have  Taken  Away  My  Lord





from  The  Passing  of  Graven  Images


Martin Cecil   Dec 21, 1986



I was thinking a little about our use of that portion of the Bible which purportedly describes to us the Master's presence and experience on earth. We have something here which has come alive for us so that it is no longer merely a story in a book. It has come alive to a certain degree. 


Christians talk about Jesus Christ. We may speak of our King. When it comes right down to it, what's the difference? There is a character described here in the Gospels. This is a story. No one really knows where it came from. There has been a certain amount of effort to find what might be referred to as the historical Jesus, rather than the Jesus of the Gospels. I think it is fairly safe to say that no one has been very successful in this. Many ideas have been put forward as to the nature of the Jesus of the Gospels. Where did this character come from? Was it a real character? 


If you're trying to make it so by looking at the form of things you will come up with an image. And human beings, obviously, have come up with an image. I'm thinking of this particularly in the Christian world; and I suppose most of us have had some sort of a background of Christianity, certainly from the standpoint of heredity in many ways, of generations and generations of people who read this story in the Bible and assumed that it was true and that it had reference to some certain particular character. However, as I say, when you start looking for that character, historically speaking, you don't find him. 


There are those who have postulated the idea that the Jesus of the Gospels was invented out of the characters of certain historical personages, maybe a couple of them or more. Well, someone was quite bright, evidently, if this was done. Of course, it is true that the Jesus of the Gospels largely supports the building of the Christian religion. So presumably the things that are there were there because they did support this human effort. More recently of course there have been what are called the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have described another character. No doubt there has been a suppression back along the way of certain aspects of what it was that appeared on earth, in order to make possible the building of the doctrine of Christianity. This is not exceptional, mind you. You can look into this from the standpoint of other religions too. 


All I am saying here is that, insofar as we are concerned, we have seen Jesus very largely through the eyes of the Gospels. However we have also seen something which went beyond that, because there has been some sort of a living experience, something that we have had in our own experience which transcends the form. We don't need the form, really, to tell us what the experience is. It's something that springs forth into expression in our living if we will let it, let the light shine. The idea has been, in the Christian world at least, "Look at the light.'' The light was Jesus, Jesus of the Gospels. The statement has been made a number of times that all history is fiction. Are we to exclude this? 


We have all, I'm sure, established images in consciousness relative to Jesuslargely based in the story of the Gospels. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.'' Some have painted pictures of the image they had in consciousness. But everybody had the image in consciousness, in whatever measure and whatever it seemed to be. I am suggesting that this must be relinquished. It must dissolve. 


We find ourselves in a situation somewhat like what was spoken of in this story when Mary Magdalene was in the garden—again according to the Gospel—and couldn't find the body of Jesus. There was someone there whom she questioned: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.'' I would suggest that everybody needs to come to that point. 


Here is an image which people cling to; it's very precious to them. But one cannot experience the truth if one clings to an image, even the image of Jesus. How then can the truth be known? Well we are aware of the way. But fundamentally it is taking the same position in one's own world as Jesus was purported to have done in His. That's the only way you could find out what the truth is. We don't need to go back there because all that is real is here now. The truth can be known now. 


An aspect of judgment is this business of setting up an image. Thou shalt not make unto thee any image or a likeness of anything, even in the heaven above, certainly not in the earth beneath, though everybody has done that. Everybody has worshipped their external idols and been largely governed by what is present in the water under the earth, in other words the subconscious elements that come out of the past through heredity and in various ways. But there has been a deliberate setting up of an image of Jesus Christ in the Christian world, and other images in various ways in other religious doctrines. The view is: "There is the light''—the image is the light. One may feel rather self-righteous by reason of the fact that one may not have externalized one's image, but you still have it. There are people of course who seek to externalize it in their living. This would require a very, very good person, if we are considering the Jesus of the Gospels. It isn't a matter of trying to imitate Jesus according to one's image of Him. Immense numbers of people have endeavored to do this, to make a facsimile of Jesus. What blasphemy! 


The only way to discover what the truth is is to be it. You can't be it if you think it's over there somewhere, even if it's over there simply in consciousness. So there is something to be relinquished here, simply because one assumes the responsibility of standing in the place where we have an awareness that He stood relative to the world. 


The image has always been valuable to people because it helped them to feel right about not accepting the responsibility. If one can have an image to worship, well, provided that image is at the very peak—and in the Christian world that would be Jesus Christ, presumably—then one doesn't need to assume the responsibility that He, even in the story, suggested that we should. As long as we have an image, there is something separate from us, and we remain in the identity of human nature. Human-nature identity is the identity that is separate from the truth; and if we see an image, obviously we have an identity still which is separate from the truth. I think it is well due that we should realize that "they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.'' We don't need to know, because each individual assumes the responsibility of being the truth. 


Nobody can ever assume that responsibility and identity as long as the human-nature identity persists. So, clearly, one must come to that point, somewhere along the line. I think most of us have been sidling up to it a little. But the truth is now. It's not in the past. It's not in any image that we could create in consciousness. There are those who have tried desperately to do this. They have read the Bible with such care and application, seeking to find that truth. Well of course it isn't there. The truth is here. The truth is in the individual himself or herself. Only when it comes out can he know it or she know it. Let the light increase.


© Emissaries of Divine Light