Space for Communion

Space  for  Communion

Martin Cecil   May 4, 1981

Assembly Session — Sunrise Ranch

The realm of communication is vital, but this simply reemphasizes the necessity of the factor of communion. This relates to the core. There should be much concern with respect to this core and our right participation in it, because here is the point of orientation, point of life, if it is to be anywhere. And the evidence of the core is in the experience of communion. 

I think perhaps we've graduated a little beyond the family, the need of friendship, to the awareness of the reality of communion; as it was put, “various facets of one whole,” one core whole—or one conscious mind of the body of humanity, a mind with many facets. Individually speaking we have conscious minds with sundry facets, more in some than in others, more brightly polished in some than in others, but there are various facets. So there is this greater experience of communion which involves the heart as well as the mind. In fact the communion is made possible by the pure heart—then we may become consciously aware of the reality of it. Being consciously aware of something doesn't mean that we can intellectually dissect it, or intellectually describe it, but that certainly doesn't prevent an awareness of the fact of communion. In fact, if one becomes too much engaged in trying to isolate the experience, mentally speaking, you lose it. 

The factor of communion we see as being absolutely essential, because it isn't a movement of one person. It isn't a movement of some great leader who puts in an appearance and undertakes to provide all that is needed. The vital nature of this factor of communion keeps emphasizing and reemphasizing itself to us. Without it there is no evidence of the essential conscious core. 

Now the conscious core cannot operate merely as a conscious core any more than your own conscious mind can operate without your subconscious mind. Insofar as those who specifically compose this core of consciousness which is taking form are concerned, each individual has a subconscious mind. We can't sort of strip ourselves of our subconscious minds and become purely a conscious mind with all the other people who don't have the same consciousness providing us with a subconscious mind. We have one of our own. 

It's because we have one of our own that we have a basis for connection with other people, particularly in that vast sea of the subconscious, which includes all people. So there are no lines of division either within ourselves or between us and other people. If we have set up barriers in this sense, and no doubt everybody has, they're not real. They're merely a human invention, something which is sustained in consciousness. The very moment that it is no longer sustained it isn't there anymore, because it has to be held in place by the sweat of the brow. So we are in the business of allowing these apparent divisions to be dissolved. 

Some are very reluctant to allow this to happen. They want to maintain their own little homes which are their castles. Obviously there is no communion as long as that sort of a state of consciousness exists: “This is me and mine.” This comes again to the matter of possessions. One trait of human nature is centered in this matter of possessiveness. It works in many ways. It may be seen in the miser's state, I suppose, but in lots of areas people try to possess each other. One thing that was emphasized was the need to let people be, to love them as they are, not try to enmesh them in your toils, so to speak. It gets to be uncomfortable and eventually fatal if it's allowed to happen. 

There are those who have an approach toward the Lord of trying to possess the Lord. This is very, very common in the general picture of things in the Christian world where there is this seeming desire to have the Lord all to oneself: “My savior”—all my own—“He's going to come into my heart.” Well what about everybody else? I suppose He's supposed to be big enough to get in everywhere, but He would be encased thoroughly then by everyone. No attempt should ever be made to possess the Lord. That, if it was possible of achievement, would be a very suffocating experience insofar as the Lord was concerned. There is this tendency in human nature to try to possess. Love frees up. Now there is a cohesive quality to love, of course—it holds all things together.

But things are together because they are free to move. It's not as though everything was being compressed into the ultimate solid so there's nothing else but this one compressed thing. If we look at the universal state of affairs, we recognize that things are pretty well freed up, even in what we are capable of observing. There's lots of space. Fortunately, the sun doesn't try to possess the planets. There wouldn't be any planets on that basis. But the sun does hold the planets in their right positions in relationship to itself. But there's lots of space in between. And the planets—the earth for instance—don't rightly try to possess the sun; that would be kind of fatal too. Let the sun be where it belongs. And the evidence of love is the willingness to allow things the space to be where they belong. If there is an endeavor to possess something, then there is a constriction placed upon what should truly be happening. And we realize that the happenings that occur, occur because there is freedom of movement. One of the evidences of life is freedom of movement. 

There are various levels of life which we recognize. There is life relative to the mineral kingdom, which is perhaps not generally recognized but it's a fact, and there's a very little freedom of movement there, so very little evidence of life insofar as human observation is concerned. There's more freedom of movement with respect to the vegetable kingdom, and more still in the animal kingdom. The greatest freedom of movement relates to man—rightly, man as a whole. That freedom which should appear by reason of man as a whole appears because there is freedom of movement within the body of mankind. And no one is possessed into a static state, which is what would happen if possession was allowed to go to its ultimate extreme. 

Space—space for the experience of true communion. There are those who think of oneness in terms of physical proximity, and the closer you can press against someone the more one you will be with them. Were you ever in a crowd? No. It requires that one be in the proper positioning in the space which is available for that positioning. And one allows others to be in their own space. The willingness to permit this to happen is the evidence of love.

We may express love perhaps momentarily by hugging a person, but it would be a pain in the neck, a pain everywhere in fact, if one was all day in a state of a hug. How useless everyone would be! No, it is because we have space around us. And this brings up the matter that was mentioned with respect to trespassing. There are those who tend to trespass in the name of love. It becomes an imposition. Let it be free! Where there is real love there is love of the natural freedom which comes because of the truth, the truth which relates to the matter of design and control, you may remember. 

There is a design, and everybody isn't hooked to everybody else, physically speaking. We're all part of one thing—that's true! But that is at a different level of experience, the spiritual level of experience. If we're so unaware of that spiritual level of experience that we feel it is necessary somehow to press up against other people to have a sense of oneness, then we don't have much spiritual experience, because the more one has of that spiritual experience and spiritual communion the more one is willing that people should be allowed to be themselves. 

There are natural pulsations which move spiritually speaking and which are translated into the realm of form in various ways. We have been considering communication in particular. The communication which comes forth is of a practical nature—in other words there's a reason for it. How much chatter goes on between people which is utterly meaningless! It doesn't have any purpose. It's just noise. It's like the radio which is playing in the background all the time. People feel that they would be lost in oblivion if there wasn't this constant sound. It's a distraction from themselves. But communication has purpose—it always has purpose when it springs from the state of communion. It is indicated that one will have to account for every idle word. My goodness, some people have long accounts! “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” The communication which comes forth, when it is a translation of what is present in the state of communion, then has a purpose. It's not idle words, which are not communication! 

Our communications relate to what the creative responsibility is, springing forth from the realm of communion, where there is an understanding of spiritual responsibility. Then something comes forth and needs to be communicated one to another. We use this particular realm of communication to advantage in the immediate purpose which is at hand, namely that of restoration. The communication is designed rightly, seeing that it springs forth from our communion, to acquaint people with the state of communion. Sometimes this can be done by the use of words, sometimes by other means: music, drama, even drama without words. In all kinds of ways we can convey what needs to be conveyed, which is communication. You shouldn't just think of communication as speaking in words. There are other ways—but all of them designed at the moment for the first order of business, which is to acquaint people with the realm of communion which acquaints them with the fact of oneness—which allows for an awakening to oneness, in other words. This is, as I say, the first order of business at the moment. If we, amongst ourselves, communicate with each other, already aware of the fact of communion between ourselves, then our intercommunications all relate to what is required for the greater creative movement toward what we have called the restoration or the resurrection. So there is internal communication, one might say, and there is communication which relates to what is beyond the core. 

Now the core is not separate from the rest of the body. It's all a part of one thing. In that sense the sun is not separate from the planets, because they're all a part of one thing; they're all part of what might be called the solar state. The planetary state is included in the solar state, but it's all one thing as a solar state. We're inclined to think of the sun as being limited to that ball of fire up in the sky, but it certainly isn't, as we well know. If you ever saw the aurora borealis you know that the sun comes quite close at times. And it comes quite close when you sit out in the sun, and it's inclusive of far more. In that sense, I suppose, you could say that we are a part of the sun. We are possessed by the sun in that sense. 

It's all right for possession to occur in that direction. The true state of possession relates to what is true from the standpoint of the Lord. We may be possessed by the Lord, and rightly so. But when the Lord possesses He doesn't cram everybody into a box. He doesn't restrict or limit. He opens up freedom. If the planets are possessed by the sun they have freedom to move in their orbits; there's plenty of space there; they don't run into anything—at least they don't if things are under the right control. 

So possession is by the higher of the lower, one might say, but should never be attempted by the lower of the lower, or by the lower of the higher. Within the possession of the Lord we all have space and we move in that space naturally and should not attempt to alter the space. Let it be whatever it is—allow people to be where they are and what they are.

On this basis the changes come, whatever changes are necessary. If we're thinking of this from the standpoint of the restoration, there are obviously changes necessary but everybody must be accepted as they are. How else could they be accepted? If one sits around waiting for someone to change in a suitable way so that one will then say, “Well now I'm able to provide what is necessary for you,” we'd sit around forever. The only thing that can be done is to take things as they are and allow it to work from there on the basis of the fact that we are capable of the right communication, which permits the changes to occur. 

And the primary change to occur in the experience of people is an awakening to oneness—or an awakening to the fact of a level of communion which before had been excluded from their experience. Now it begins to come back into experience. It only comes back into the experience of others because there are those who have the experience and therefore are in position to provide what is necessary to assist the process of awakening. And it's very easy, because it's not as though nothing was happening in people. The spirit is moving in everybody, so it's ready to produce what is required in everybody. And if there is the provision from the standpoint of communication from those who are already participating in the state of communion, then everybody is assailed from both sides, so to speak. The spirit is moving in them and here is something being provided external that correlates with that, and so it comes quickly. 

There is always that which is resistant, yes—always! And the objectors are always in the forefront with their signs and slogans, but even if there is objection that is no objection insofar as we are concerned because it's a form of response. We don't have to confront it; let the objectors object. We see that from their standpoint it's rather a foolish thing to do. It's not going to be helpful to them. And if there is an opportunity for right communication, well, we may do something about it, but if there are objectors who insist upon objecting we let them object, and are thankful for the response that is thereby exhibited. They must be objecting to something, the something that is happening; therefore they're aware of the happening and they are reacting to the happening; and that is a form of response. And it facilitates the job which we're here to do. We may say it is preferable to have the experience with awakening people to life than to damnation, but either way gets the job done. 

So we are wise as serpents and harmless as doves. We avoid confrontation because for the most part it's unnecessary. Sometimes it is what is offered to us and we have to deal with it, but we don't stimulate it particularly, if we can help it, so that it must be offered to us. We tread delicately. We are willing to receive what is brought to us. And functioning out of the state of communion we are keenly aware of the fact of our weight The core of the atom is where all the weight is. This core that we are to represent is where all the weight is. There may be things flying around that core, but they're not particularly weighty. The weight is at the core and we therefore have no particular concern that we can be thrown off balance by anything that is flying around, because it doesn't amount to anything really. Everything centers in the core. 

Here is the balance point, then; here is what holds things steady and sure. There is an absolute certainty to the creative fulfilment of what it is that is occurring. As that weight becomes more apparent there is the state which shall not be moved. Everything else may move around, and must necessarily move around, until it becomes possessed by the core. And consequently everything falls into place and the wholeness of all things begins to be known in a wider and more all-encompassing way. Human beings awaken to that wholeness. 

We play our parts easily and naturally in that cycle of awakening because we abide in the communion of oneness and allow everything which is included in that state of oneness to find its own natural positioning. We refuse to be possessed by what is associated with us in relationship to the positive point which we provide. The positive possesses the negative but not the negative the positive. The negative takes its correct orbit in relationship to the positive and then there is the creative whole. That is the restoration. We can see this as occurring in many different ways and many different levels and many different fields, but we recognize it in the overall sense, where the core is essential to the restoration of man in allowing all that composes man to come into its correct position relative to the core. And that needs space for it to happen, not trying to cram everyone in to anything, least of all into something called Emissaries of Divine Light. There are those who belong in the core. We praise the Lord for that. But even in the core, you know, there is space. 

We don't all cram together. There are times when we associate more closely in person but other times we have plenty of space. That's wonderful! It doesn't eject us into outer space, so to speak. This is an inner space, the space of the core, and that is beautiful. And we rejoice to let each other have space, that we may all share in right communication one with another; and in right communication, with all parts of the overall body of the Son of God. Surely, to the extent that we are in fact together in the realm of communion, it doesn't matter all that much as to whether we are closely in each other's vicinity in person or not. We are one.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Attunement  to  the  World  Body  of  Humanity

Uranda   November 1, 1952

I was thinking that when we give an attunement to an individual, if there is no particularly difficult condition the period involved may be comparatively short insofar as establishing a basic pattern is concerned. But the more difficult the condition the more necessary it is to consider time elements. Even in creative activity, such as was made manifest through divine man before the fall, that which was to be created was not brought forth as a finished thing in an instant. The vibratory factors had to be established and maintained long enough to allow the specific formation in harmony with the pattern. A specific creative field had to be set up, the reality of the creative fire had to be there, the working of the control factors in truth had to be established in fact, the design had to be projected into the field, and the whole vibratory composite or focus had to be maintained long enough to permit physical substance to take form in relationship to the particular pattern. The divine design with respect to such development for the human being in the prenatal period is nine months from conception to birth, nine months for the development of the form of a babe. Conceivably a specific flower, such as the pansy, might be developed in the creative process in nine days. I am not suggesting that is what it actually is, but illustrating. Whatever the period of time, the vibratory factors had to be held in focus until the job was done. Anything else would have produced an abortion, as surely as disturbing the development of the vibratory factors during the prenatal period in the development of a babe.

Here we have the responsibility of setting up a creative field, of bringing all the factors to focus in miniature, yes, but nevertheless in fact, as they relate to the kingdom of God on earth, establishing and maintaining those vibratory factors in harmony with the agreement which we have been considering. Every time a word is spoken, an attitude is taken, even a thought is accepted in the mind, or every time there is an act which is contrary to that pattern and the purpose of the creative field, there is that which would defeat or destroy. The period of time that is involved or required for the accomplishment of our goal is not of immediate importance. Whether it can be done in five years or fifty years or any number of years is really, as far as we are concerned, beside the point. Should you have any less dedication to purpose if you felt it would be fifty years rather than five? Or should you be any more zealous if you thought it required five years instead of fifty, or some other period of time? Is there any greater calling, any greater purpose, anything to which life can be more properly dedicated, regardless of the period of time that it takes to do the job?

In this process we are giving an attunement to the body of humanity, the body of mankind as a whole. When we give an attunement we only have to touch a very limited portion, a very small portion of the body, or it can be done “no touch” perhaps; but the specific focalization involved, as far as touching the body is concerned, is a very small part of the body directly involved. We do not have to feel that in order to give an attunement to the world body we must somehow be able to take the whole world's body in our hands, get it completely enfolded that way somehow. Some of you have had the privilege of receiving an attunement from me on the basis of our latest development of technique, which development was focalized through Albert Ackerley. I have been working out the various factors with respect to it, and those of you who have experienced it can testify that when you let go and respond rightly it penetrates; something happens all the way through the body. And it works very quickly, penetrates deeply, leaves nothing out, and I only touched two small points on you on your throat and one point on the shoulder or arm, a little bit of the upper arm and two points on the throat, and yet the whole body, from tip to toe, knows something is happening. It works, it penetrates. This has significance in relationship to our whole program. If within the scope of those who serve consciously with us there is enough to represent two tiny points in the throat and one or two points on the arm, three or four points to touch in the whole body, we have enough to give the whole body an attunement. The point is, then, that just as you do not have to take hold of every cell in the body and somehow work it over in order to do something to the whole body, neither do you have to take hold of every human being on the face of the earth as a separate individual, providing we have a true creative field, providing we are giving a true attunement, providing we as a body function as a true server should, not breaking patterns.

Regardless of what I may have said in the past, all that I have expressed that was designed to inspire and to set you on fire in the fire of God's love, regardless of all the many times we have shared an hour of meditation, regardless of all the wonderful blessings God has granted, in spite of all the things which may be properly classified as blessings, there is yet within the scope of those here gathered that which is not true to the agreement, the creative field, our purpose, that which keeps the attunement from reaching into the world body because it is stopped here. There is that which has not really penetrated to a point where there is an integrity, an honesty, in relationship to the agreement. Now, it is quite possible that someone might place a hand upon someone's throat and not give an attunement. There might be motivations which were not altogether right. The mere fact that you touch someone's throat is not all that is involved. So the question is, What do we do? I have been caused to stop and look and meditate upon the pattern of my presentation, the spirit of it, the extent of it, and of my ministry to you and through you, wondering what I could say, in what way I could say it, with what power of spirit not yet made evident, that would cause the meaning of the Word to so penetrate into the whole of the mind and the heart that there would be a true remembering. Oh, there are those of you who are beginning to really do it, and I thank God. But there are those of you who tend to more or less constantly break the pattern, refusing to be a part of the means by which an attunement may be given to the world.

I have felt that if I were to be effective from the standpoint of the world body I should, within the scope of those who have gathered here, be able to be effective. The fact that I have been effective with some gives me hope and assurance. I know it will be done somehow, through someone, somewhere, but I have so longed that it should be done through you who have shared so many of these vicissitudes of our beginning here. But there are those things which are not yet a true pattern of our ministry. Words are spoken that misrepresent us and our purpose. Spirits find expression that are not of my spirit, and they are not of the spirit of my Lord and King. From whence do they come? Why are they here? It takes time, yes, that I grant. I have never suggested anything else. But when I see unnecessary delays which close the door to searching, hungry ones in the world, when I see outworkings where actions, attitudes, words are contrary to our true purpose, where thoughtlessness, untrustworthiness, makes it difficult for those who would respond and share the reality of our ministry, I wonder. We cannot do it by ourselves. There are not enough of us here. We need more, more and more—not just a few dozen more; thousands and tens of thousands more, and more than that. We cannot tend to close the door and have the larger number and the deeper dedication. Why are we here? For some selfish purpose? We are here to serve. We are here to share creative activity. We are here to do a job to the glory of God and the blessing of the children of men. Until that reality of rebirth takes place, and until the results appear in life and action, we cannot do that job in any real sense. What can I say more than I have said, or do more than I have done, to bring about a true, completed sharing of that which God provides day by day, that as one body of many members we may truly let the kingdom come and let God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven?

I thank God for the progress that has been made and for the faithfulness of the service that has been made manifest, but if we would establish the pattern, and maintain it, by which we may truly give an attunement to the world body of humanity there must be more than has yet been made manifest in dedication, in yielding to the control of the spirit of God in living that to which we are dedicated. I thank God for you, but you are supposed to be a contact point by which we may reach ten thousand more, and each in turn ten thousand more, not for ourselves but for all, that there may be wholeness and wholesomeness, completeness, that the way of God's love and the reality of His truth and the wonder of life may appear, and that the things of God may have meaning to all the children of men. But that takes creative activity, the reality of divine attunement, which is present in fact all the time, something that is not violated because of human pettiness, self-centeredness.

Blessed ones, as long as we move as slaves driven to a task by circumstance, we will be that, and it will be revealed by attitude and by word. But when we begin to move as men and women, sharing the creative work of God on earth, it will be revealed by word and attitude, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak and there will not be words which ought not to have been said. There will be silences that are golden, there will be a speaking of heart to heart that does not require so much noise of chatter. There are too many words and not enough meaning. We are invited to be men and women in Christ, to follow our Lord and King, to share God's creative activity on earth. That does not mean that we cannot live and enjoy the little things and large. It does not mean that we cannot have pleasure, that we have to be long-faced and supposedly solemn. It does mean that the things that hurt and the things that destroy and the things that defeat will be eliminated and caused to pass away. It does mean that we can really, in all things, be a blessing one to another, and we can be trusted to be a blessing to others in the world.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Blessed  Is  He  Who  Comes  In  The  Name  Of  The  Lord

William Martin Alleyne Cecil  September 21, 1926

from  Assembly — Sunrise Ranch

Martin Cecil   May 1, 1981

The Assembly has been moving particularly with what the Master offered when he was on earth. I'm sure you have an increased sense of His presence, the reality of it. He was a real person on earth, in one sense the same as all the rest of us; but of course we also know that we ourselves are all unique individuals. So it was with Him: He was Himself, and to the extent that He was permitted to do so, He revealed that genuine person. He always was genuine, of course, in His expression of life, but not too many had any real awareness of it. Looking back from this distance, seeing beyond the rather stereotyped picture that has been developed by Christianity, we find the Master Himself, and the intervening centuries tend to disappear.

Obviously, at that time when He was on earth, the external state of affairs was very different to what it is now. But we can see how, coming into that world, He accepted the condition as it was and was capable of handling it the way He did. This emphasizes the fact that we come into the world now on the same basis; accepting things the way they are now, we can handle these. To the extent that we have been doing this, we have what I suppose might be described as a fellow feeling with respect to the Master Himself, not that we do not have an attitude of respect and consciousness of His position, but if He had been here now in this present situation in the world, He would have handled it just as He handled things back there, in a way that was fitting to the state as it actually is. He trusts us to do this, in His name.

We have been seeing more clearly what He actually was capable of offering to the world, if there had been those willing to receive it. As it turned out, there simply weren't. He offered a conscious understanding which nobody else had; on the basis of that conscious understanding, He could have provided the guidance and direction for the whole world, through the circumstances that were immediately at hand where He was. We understand that, from the standpoint of our own ministry now, the world is reached through the immediate circumstance and through those who are present in our immediate circumstance. That was so with Him. He had the understanding and was capable therefore of giving the guidance and direction that was needed. The door was open. Here was the very specific point of the conscious mind of the body of mankind manifest in form and expression on earth, and capable of allowing that point to expand as necessary under His hand, so that the restoration could have so easily taken place. I think we've had the awareness that He came to make that possible, at that time, but I think perhaps it now becomes more reasonable in our awareness that it certainly was possible. It could have been done; He was there to do it. That in itself is such a wonderful thing.

The Christian world particularly talks about the love of God and how this was brought into the world by the Master, revealed by Him so fully. They've seen or sensed something of this but haven't understood what it was. It was a very practical thing. It was something that, there and then, opened the door for the restoration, mankind to be man once again. But quite quickly it became evident that, while there were those who sensed something perhaps, drew close, they weren't really going to let it happen. We have seen the particular point where this fact of rejection was acknowledged by the Master Himself; it has come down to us through the words in the 23rd chapter of Matthew, the last three verses:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

Of course, he didn't just have reference to this one occasion, when He Himself was incarnate upon earth. All kinds of opportunities had been given before that, but of course this was included. So He was the final link here, and could have let it work out in the rational way, and be something that was rational and reasonable to the minds of human beings if they had been willing to accept it.

“Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Here we have the necessity of allowing this to become no longer from the conscious standpoint. But going down into the subconscious mind, there is no conscious direction available. All that was to work out was to be done in a way that undoubtedly would produce a great deal of desolation, which it has done over the centuries since that time: all sorts of unnecessary suffering which we can see, looking back, quite easily and which He saw, knowing the way things would have to work out. “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth”—there will be no conscious awareness anymore—“till ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Only when the conscious state once more emerges out of the subconsciousness of the body of mankind, so there is something recognizable.

Now this is something that has come from the working of the creative spirit of God in the subconscious mind of humanity, to raise up a point of consciousness once again, whereas before when He came, of course, there was a projection there from above. It wasn't dependent at all on what was happening in the subconscious mind of humanity. He came as that point of consciousness regardless of what was going on and could have handled everything on that basis if He'd been allowed to do so. But the next cycle required that what was to emerge at the level of consciousness should come out of the subconsciousness of the body of humanity. It has done that, and we ourselves are aware of it because we participate in what has emerged. You can't take any credit; it just simply is what has been working out in the last 19 centuries. As there is such a conscious emergence, it assumes the position of the Son, and there is the opportunity for human beings everywhere to begin to say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," because there is something on earth that is in the name of the Lord.

And we find that, as it is working out, there are many who are reaching a point where they are saying this, albeit mostly subconsciously. Creative changes are occurring in the consciousness of people everywhere, but some of those are rising up toward the light so to speak, still interpreting what they are experiencing in their own structured views, but nevertheless it's clear enough that something is happening. And we presumably are on hand, in some instances directly, to keep what is rising up from becoming introverted—in other words, merely more greatly infused with the structures they already have. It is easy to interpret the increase of awareness, as many people have done, to the structures in which they find themselves.

There are those who have found a new awareness from within the Roman Catholic church, from within Islam, from within almost anything; and usually when that happens, the individual imputes what has happened to the structure in which he was contained. It may be of course, at times, that the structure reached the point within the individual's own awareness where it was so structured that it was evident nothing was going to come of it, so they turned to something else; and because they have relinquished something and turned to something else, there is a greater release of light and then that is imputed to whatever it was that they'd turned to. Now this has been done in the Emissary ministry just as much as elsewhere, as though what was happening was coming out of an external structure, a form, even out of the teaching. But we have an awareness that, if anything has happened that has any meaning whatsoever, it is because something has come out of the person.

Human beings are so addicted to form that they see everything in terms of form, whereas what is happening is happening by reason of spirit. Now this is what, of course, was portrayed so beautifully in the story we are considering about the Master at the well with the woman in Samaria. She was drawing water out of the well; she had a facility for doing that, she had the water part or whatever it was, I suppose a rope and all the rest. This certainly portrays the view, the human view, that everything that is of use must be brought to the surface through the efforts of the conscious mind, which is not the Son, but rather I suppose the son of perdition.

All kinds of stuff is stored away in our wells; both directly and indirectly we inherit a lot out of the past, and we also have undertaken to various extents to put some more stuff down in the well, which is on file so to speak. If we have develped a good system of recall, we can get it up out of the well and this is considered to be the only basis of operations in the world as it now is. Everything is supposed to depend upon the precedents of the past: all the knowledge that has been accumulated and stored away, and which by various means can be gotten out of the storage. Go down to the library—we may have a pretty good storage bin and a capability of getting it out, mentally speaking. This tends to be a trap, of course, because the person imagines that he is pretty capable and wise and so on, on that basis. The thing that struck the woman of Samaria, of course, was that the Master offered something and apparently there was no means of getting home with it. This is the state of affairs which we've all experienced. Of course, we've tended to try to get hold of it, to grasp it; in other words, to follow out the same usual process of getting stuff and sticking it down the well so that we can draw it up as necessary. The Emissary concepts and ideas, beliefs, and so on—we've done this with these.

But there's a different manner of operation, as we are well aware. If we depend upon that, we're going to be thirsty most of the time. A question has often been asked, I suppose particularly with respect to Uranda in times past: where did he get it all from? There was no vessel to get it out of the well, apparently, because the vessel relates to this matter of human education, doesn't it, and the amount of water in the well, too; and Uranda didn't go all that far in grade school.

Where did it all come from? Well, we have some experience in this field. We are still often most inclined to place dependence on what we can get out of Jacob's Well, out of the world of precedents, the world of human knowledge, and it is thought we can slake our thirst that way and achieve great things. But it isn't the way at all, as we well understand. The way of spirit, something that you can't grasp, something that, from the standpoint of the human mind, is very elusive. And yet, here is the means of drawing: spirit draws what is required. It isn't a material bucket.

So there must be acquaintance with spirit if there is to be the experience of true thinking and of intelligence, of life itself. We find the spirit is very capable of drawing the material that is needed to give form to whatever it is that is required. This is the basis of healing, isn't it? The human view of healing and the healing arts is that you need to have a great deal of knowledge and a good bucket so that you can get the water out of the well as needed. You can diagnose, and then you can draw up the answer, which is very typical of medical training.

We begin to be more fully acquainted in the conscious sense with the fact that all healing, all of the necessities for resurrection and restoration, are made available simply by the working of the spirit, not by the bucket at the well. The well of water that springs up from within anyone—no one is superior or inferior in this regard. What is needful for intelligence is made available to the individual regardless of his intellectual prowess or lack of it, according to the particular part that that person is rightly playing in what is emerging on the basis of this creative spirit—something unique, individually speaking, in this regard. We need to have assurance that this is so, not only with respect to ourselves but with respect to others, so that we do not discount what others offer or what we ourselves have to offer.

Nothing is loosed in heaven without first being loosed on earth. A person will never learn or know what it means to give expression to the spirit of God without action of some kind. One can live in a dream world, but it requires action for the reality to put in an appearance, the heaven to be made known. The action which is required may be seemingly limited or restricted in the initial stages at least; there isn't any other way of loosing what is required in heaven without first loosing on earth.

So we have shared in this Assembly much more than is generally shared in the educational processes of the Classes, of allowing this well of water that springs up within a person to be released. The material action is what makes possible the drawing of the spirit; it opens the door to heaven, to the working of the spirit, to carry the creative process forward. But if the spirit in heaven is bottled up and prevented from having any release on earth, then of course nothing can happen from that standpoint. There's no drawing; there's no true intelligence; there's no real understanding. This has certainly been lacking in the world, obviously so. Now we introduce a little intelligence to the extent that we take action. We have reached a point, have been elevated presumably sufficiently in this process of the working in the creative spirit of God so that we have some idea as to what the necessary action would be. Most people are quite at sea in this regard; they have their precedents of rights of various sorts that they go through, which is not the sort of action that is required. We have a conscious awareness of the sort of action that is required.

While we're assembled at least it relates to this matter of speaking, of taking action on earth in this regard, and something is released in heaven. All such things obviously require a starting point. Most of you who have taken advantage of starting points in the past so that you have something already moving in this regard are aware of the fact that, if you do act, something is released and something more is thereafter available—there is something that is fitting, and we learn to work in a fitting way. Action—doing something. “Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth.” Well, what are we going to loose? We need to think a little bit about it; it's not just a platitude to be mulled.

What is this “whatsoever”? We'd better think about it. It has something to do with all kinds of actions which are necessary to make the facility by which the drawing of spirit is done available to spirit, to do the drawing. Then we begin to have an operating machine, so to speak, a living organism that is capable of coming in the name of the Lord—in other words, coming in the conscious expression of the mind of mankind. The Lord comes through that conscious expression in a very specific and definite way.

I don't think anyone who has any perception at all imagines that the Master could be pictured as He has sometimes been pictured, as a weak and vacillating individual. Nothing, even in the Gospels, gives any indication of that at all. He didn't hesitate to call a spade a spade when it was necessary to do so, and He didn't undertake to express Himself in a way that would win a popularity contest. He just spoke the truth, as it was fitting. Some people pride themselves on speaking the truth, and they splatter things all over the place, they have no awareness of what the truth is in the first place. But there also is little awareness that expressing the truth relates to a sense of the fitness of things; it's not something that one can sort of lay on everybody without regard to what is present in those concerned. It is what is fitting.

This conscious level of understanding and direction is coming into our experience. It is exactly the same experience as was true of the Master. He was a particular person, and we are particular people, and together we make a particular focus of consciousness, so what is happening is unique in that sense— but nevertheless it is exactly based in the true working of the Law which was known in the experience of Jesus. It's coming in a little different way in our experience, although it came in that way also for Him as an individual.

When you begin to see Him as a focus for the conscious mind of man, that is a little different because He came into that position and was therefore a projection, whereas we are letting something come up and begin to be raised up from the dead to come alive in intelligence. That is different to what occurred from the standpoint of His world ministry because, by the time He initiated that, He was already the projection, He was already the focus of the consciousness, the conscious aspect of the mind of mankind. But in His own personal experience, He had to come up from a baby, after all, all the way through, which is exactly what is really happening in the overall picture of the body of mankind. Of course, we might see it as we have in terms of the tomb and the resurrection, but the tomb proved out to be a womb, anyway.

So we see these cycles repeated in various ways, and if we come to the point of a clarity of understanding so that the reality of the Son consciousness is present, there is certainly a projection into the total mind of the body of mankind. The way it is coming about is a little different to what was the case insofar as our Master's public ministry was concerned. We rejoice to share these things, to have a sense of closeness to Him, to know that He went through the mill more so than we did, or have done, or are likely to do. But we understand Him to the extent that we have come to the point of understanding ourselves, of understanding what it is we are here to do, and are participating in the doing. I'm sure we're all most delighted and thankful for what has been brought to us during this time, that we might have the opportunity of participating consciously in the direction necessary to the restoration of mankind.

© Emissaries of Divine Light