Factors of Heredity
Martin
Cecil June 23 1974
I
have stressed, from time to time, the vast difference between the present human
experience and the true state of man. It seems difficult for human beings to
realize what that vastness really must be because they are accustomed to seeing
things by comparison, and if you don't know what it is you are comparing
something to, it remains rather obscure as to the difference. As there is
repentance and the first step begins to be taken up the stairs, one rises up a
little from the cellar floor and there is a difference; a difference is
experienced. However, even that difference is more or less indescribable
insofar as acquainting someone else with it who is still standing on the cellar
floor. The only way that someone else can become acquainted is to step up too,
and then they may say, “Oh, yes, I see.” It can be recognized easily, then,
that mere intellectual dissertations about the truth have very little meaning.
There are many, many people in the world who spend a great deal of time talking
about what they consider the truth to be, bandying back and forth ideas and
concepts and beliefs, theories, while still remaining on the cellar floor. What
real purpose is there to that? It is only when something is done, there is some
specific movement onto the first step of the ascending staircase, that a
difference begins to appear.
In
the cellar people are always comparing things in the cellar, and they say, “Oh,
this is like that.” Maybe. But to be on even the first step of the ascending
stairs is different to being on the cellar floor, and it can't be compared to
any of the states that are experienced on the cellar floor. Now, of course,
those who are on the cellar floor can't see this. They assume that everything
is at that level, therefore everything is comparable to everything else, and if
there are differences they are simply modifications of the cellar-floor state.
I
have pointed out that there have been a number of steps which landed man in the
basement—there is a flight of stairs, and all these steps weren't taken at
once. He came down step by step, and incidentally, he goes up step by step; he
can't leap from the cellar floor to the floor above. Human beings, in their
present state, have very little awareness, even from the standpoint of myth and
memory, of the nature of the steps which brought them into the cellar, and if
we touch upon some of these steps, they may tend to look a little fantastic
because the only connection that human beings have with them is through these mythological
stories and fairy tales. The reality of the experience itself has long since
been blotted out of consciousness.
One
of the reasons it has been blotted out of human consciousness is because of a sense
of shame. Human beings don't like to think about it. If they could remember it,
they wouldn't like to think about it, so they take great pains not to remember
it; and if they do find that something filters into consciousness on occasion,
it's turned into a myth or a fairy story so it doesn't have any immediate
application. And human beings that way have gotten around their conscious sense
of shame to some extent. But shame is lurking underneath, because coming down
those stairs was a very shameful experience.
There
is rather a clear outline of many of the things that occurred, in the Bible. Generally
speaking, they have not been recognized for what they are. Adam and Eve, Cain
and Abel, Seth, didn't alone refer to specific individuals but related to a
larger picture, to the human race, portraying some of the things that occurred.
There is one particular passage a little later, as man descended toward the
cellar floor, which is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, the sixth chapter:
“And
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and
daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men
that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the
Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is
flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”
A
slightly longer life-span than is common in these days, but a greatly reduced
life-span insofar as human beings were concerned before that time. Something is
being described here that was a step in the fall and that was lowering man's
condition. “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and
they took them wives of all which they chose.” Now, if I speak a little of
these things, it is not for the purpose of developing concepts, generating
theories, but that there may be a more vivid sensing of what is present in our
own makeup, so that we can handle it more intelligently. We could substitute
for the words “sons” or “daughters” the word “servants.” There were the
servants of men and the servants of God.
What
had happened in the first experience of the fall, and there were a number of
steps involved in that too, was that the material aspect of man as he then was—and
as he then was is not at all as he now is—the material aspect of man was
separated from the spiritual aspect of man. So in the collective sense there
were on earth those who could be said to be the servants of God and those who
had become material human beings, symbolized by Cain.
In
the story of Cain and Abel, Cain and Abel were two brothers. We recognize that
the true state of man is oneness—the material aspect of man and the spiritual
aspect of man are properly one. But as the fall developed there was a
separation and material man, Cain, lost consciousness of spiritual man. But for
the time being, in the collective sense, spiritual man was still present on
earth—those who had not fallen, those who were still identified with the Lord.
There came a point when these remaining ones did leave the earth, so that the
world was left to material man, and there were some very violent cataclysmic
events which occurred as all these things were taking place.
But
in the original state, spiritual man was provided with a means for the
accomplishment of necessary physical work. This means could be described as the
servants of men, just as man in his true state could be described as the
servants of God. This means, by which man was served on earth, has been carried
down in human consciousness, reproducing itself, for instance, in a pattern of
slavery. This occurred because man had some remnants of a consciousness of
something which he misinterpreted in a self-centered sense. We have had various
races and nations who have considered themselves to be master races, for
instance, so that those who were not of the master race should all be slaves to
the master race. Here again is a self-centered interpretation of something
which was originally true.
There
were servants of men, but they were not man; they were in the
animal category. We have to use words to describe something which is, at the
present time, indescribable except on the basis of using parallels. We could
take what are nowadays called dogs, for instance. The faithful dog who loves
his master is delighted to do, in his doggy ways, whatever he may for his
master and he doesn't feel put upon by his master. There is the evidence of
humility there, isn't there? In this present state, on the cellar floor, this
is a portrayal, in a very limited sense, of what was true at the head of the
stairs, what was true before man fell. There was provision made in this regard,
and these creatures, the servants of men, were not human. Perhaps I use the
wrong word there because, as is evident from this passage which I read, those
who are represented by Cain, whose response had reversed, whose polarity was
reversed, were responding to externals and their response to externals, their
lust, their desires, related to what was external to them, and so they
undertook to blend with these servants of men, who were very much in the form
of what we are now; and the progeny is us—we might say mongrels.
I'm
not speaking of these things to generate concepts and wallowing in more
knowledge. Probably it may seem a little fantastic, but everything at the top
of the stairs is fantastic to the cellar dweller. But we do see remnants of
this inhuman function. There was rightly, in the original state, this level at
which the servants of man functioned—higher than anything that is known (other
than man as he is now) in the animal kingdom. The only thing that is comparable
is your own physical body. But there is a very peculiar mixture here, isn't
there? It isn't the original state at all, and this reemphasizes what I was
saying before—the vast difference between what is now known and what is true
after the steps have been taken out of the cellar to the top, where man belongs
as the servant of God.
Now
these creatures were what would now be called slaves, but delighted to be
slaves; that was what they were created for; this was their fulfillment; and
true man loved them, enfolded them, cared for them, something along the lines
of a good master looking after his faithful hound. The provision that was made
for these creatures was completely adequate as far as they were concerned. They
weren't human, except that nowadays, if we are to say that, it wouldn't
entirely be true because they're mixed up in us.
Now,
this shameful experience, which relates to our forebears, has eliminated from
human experience the control factors which worked insofar as those creatures
were concerned. The animal kingdom, the kingdom of vegetation—all these
kingdoms of life form on earth are controlled externally—there is no being
present in these forms, as is true of man. Man was given dominion in the
original state, and all the government, all the control, of all that was
happening here on this planet and beyond, was in the hands of man, who was the
servant of God; and so direction and control were given to the development of what
we now call nature. But it was a very different state then to what it is now,
because nature has been functioning, since man fell, without that guidance and
control; and the result is that we have some mess-ups in nature. Of course,
there are elements that help to maintain some sort of a control there, but not
the same as it was when man was in place, because nature depends upon man. It
is said that Adam named all the animals. He didn't go around giving them names;
it's just an indication of the fact that they were all included in the scope of
his consciousness; they were all enfolded; they were all kept in their right
positions and right relationships because man, in the collective sense, himself
had a pattern of right relationship established because of what was inherent in
God. So the whole thing was under control; there was dominion.
When man descended to the cellar,
nature was left without the control which man had been offering. Of course, as
he was descending into the cellar he had more continuing ability to do things
with nature than human beings now have. He was still on his way down; he was
still up a little, in other words, from the cellar floor. So there were many
things he could do in relationship to nature which he can't do now, many things
that he could produce, for instance. Having begun to move in a self-centered
pattern, he proceeded to produce some things that had no business being
produced. But quite apart from any deliberate action on man's part, and there
was quite a bit of that, there has been the fact of his absence—the fact that
he hasn't been in position, providing any control. He's been trying to do it by
imposition, but that is not the true control. The more he exerts this sort of
control the more difficulty he gets into. Nature, left to itself, has generated
various life forms—there have been mutations and what have you, for various
reasons.
Here is man as we now know him,
brought into a physical form which is basically the physical form of the
original servants of man; but present in this physical form is the angel—spiritual
man. But what the human experience is in this mongrel state is a composition of
these creatures and the original material man. Of course, we call this
composition material man now, but it is not the way Cain was. So here was a
particular step of the fall, a deliberate step downward, which has brought us
into the condition in which we find ourselves.
Now what we are externally has a
slave nature, and this fact must be accepted, and yet what human beings have
known of themselves externally has been endeavoring to get freedom. The
external nature of man is mostly slave, and must accept that fact. We have
indications from our Master's words, when He was speaking to His disciples,
that He had referred to them as servants but they were to be friends—they had
to be servants first; there had to be an acknowledgment of this slave condition
of material man.
Presently material man is a slave
to his own nature. He's a slave to the external world around him. He's a slave
to his own feelings. He's a slave to his own concepts. He's a slave to
everything external to himself. He doesn't like that condition; he tries to
break out of it; he tries to stop being in a state of slavery, but the more he
tries the more of a slave he becomes. He feels that he is boxed in some way, so
he develops various forms of government, for instance, which are going to give
him freedom, he thinks—they're going to make him feel secure; but he discovers
that what he develops brings him more and more into a state of slavery.
But the true slavery of the
original creature was to man. Man was the master; this creature was the slave,
and this creature is right here, right where we're sitting. But man was the
master. Man was the master because man was the servant of God, so that God's
dominion was extended through man, not only to this creature but to the whole
range of his realm of responsibility on earth. Now, obviously, if this step of
the fall is to be reversed, the slave must become the slave to man again. But
man originally was spiritual man, so what human beings are in the external
material sense must become the slave of spiritual man, spiritual man who is the
slave of God. But the conditioning of self-centeredness in man keeps making him
strive as material man to become free, but material man cannot be made free all
on his own. He does not experience what freedom is until he is a slave to
spiritual man, so that spiritual man governs material experience, and none of
the feelings, none of the likes and dislikes, none of the good ideas, none of
the human view of what should be, is allowed to control in material man's
experience. And yet, this is what does control in material man's experience
now. He is a slave to these things, and he thinks this is somehow an evidence of
his freedom. He has what he calls a freedom of spirit, the spirit of man, so
he's able to see so well what's good and what's bad, what he should do and what
he shouldn't do, and what he likes to do and what he doesn't like to do, what's
pleasing and what's displeasing; he is going to govern himself on this basis.
He thinks he knows what's going to be good for his fellows, he thinks he knows
what's going to be good for his children, he thinks he knows what's going to be
good for himself. But he doesn't know any of these things; he's in a state of
complete self-delusion in this regard, the delusion of self-centeredness, the
trap. He is in the trap. So, rightly, there must be slavery to spiritual man
insofar as material human experience is concerned.
People don't like that idea. They
say, “Well, now I'm going to lose my freedom.” What freedom? They don't have
any now; they're being pushed around from pillar to post by everything that
comes up on the basis of their reaction to whatever it is. So there is slavery
to the wrong things now, and repentance requires that an individual admit that,
acknowledge that it's true. If one is a slave anyway, why not be a slave in the
right direction, to the right master? The right master is spiritual man. Abel needs
to be resurrected, as we have seen, into the consciousness of Cain, and when
Abel is resurrected into the consciousness of Cain, Abel, who is a slave to
God, shares the freedom that is present in God; and Cain, who is a slave to
Abel, shares the freedom that is in Abel. In fact, it is discovered that it
isn't a matter of Cain and Abel at all. Cain and Abel vanish as two separate
brothers—there is just one person, and that one person is called Adam, or was
in the beginning. Cain and Abel were the progeny of Adam after Adam had fallen—we
can see what is being portrayed here.
So material man, what we have
thought ourselves to be in the external sense here, becomes a slave to
spiritual man, rather than a slave to externals. Abel is resurrected. That
experience, of course, relates to one of the steps coming up from the cellar—
found to be an entirely different state of affairs, vastly different. One would
be hard put to find any similarities. Of course, all the cellar experience
somehow originated at the top of the stairs, but by the time human beings got
to the bottom it had been changed and distorted to be unrecognizable.
Human beings have felt a sense of
shame in relationship to slavery. Some have tried to exploit other human beings
on this basis and their endeavor stemmed from a faint memory of the original
state, where human beings have felt that there should be slaves, but where are
they? Nowadays everybody is said to be equal; perhaps this is an awakening to
the fact that everybody is on the cellar floor, at the same level. But when we
step up onto the stairs, then a new level begins to appear, so that everybody
is not at the same level; and as there is movement up those stairs, more and
more levels begin to appear. Of course, those on the cellar floor have a
tendency to try to drag everybody else down onto the cellar floor—we're all
equal down here! But we need to come up out of the cellar; we belong on the
next floor, and we can't come to the next floor without taking the steps that
lead there. And if taking those steps makes it appear that there are higher and
lower levels in the process, what's wrong with that? It is merely evidence that
there are those who are beginning to come up the stairs, and that's what's
needed.
We
need to recognize that there is this slave nature incorporated in us. We stem
from a slave background in that sense. Not because God made it that way but
because human beings made it that way, and we're the end result right now.
Until this is seen, and we acknowledge it in relationship to ourselves, so that
there is a willingness to accept what is the fact insofar as the external
pattern is concerned, there is no way out of the dilemma. Accepting the fact of
being a slave is repentance. It requires that the balloon be deflated, and the
balloon is the human ego, which tries to make something of itself by stealing
whatever it can get its hands on from spiritual man. We have this corrupt state
in consequence—and it is corrupt. It relates to all human beings on the face of
the earth; it relates to the cellar-floor condition.
It is said that disobedience was
one of the reasons for man's fall. That's right! Wanting to be something for
himself without regard to God. And then that fall kept coming down the stairs,
so that the slave condition into which man had brought himself then wanted to
be something of itself, without regard to spiritual man. Well, we come again
into a beginning awareness of the real depravity which has been the experience
of human beings on the way down into the cellar; and, of course, coming into
the cellar, we think we're trapped there. But the stairs go up as well as down,
and they go up when what is a slave is willing to be a slave and doesn't try to
be something that it isn't, is willing to be governed from above, so that it is
not following out its creature feelings without anything providing a control
for them. Spiritual man provided the control for this creature, the servant of
man, and this must be restored. We don't need to speculate as to what occurs in
the outworking of this creative process, with respect to the possibility that
the servant of man is separated from man, who is the servant of God. In other
words, there are two grades of creature—the servants of men, and men—because
men are the creature of God, after all.
All our concern is to let the
separation take place in us, so that the slave is a slave and man is man; and
the slave relates to this external manifestation, the physical form with a
capacity of consciousness. It is through that capacity of consciousness that
the original servant of man was controlled—there is a certain level of
consciousness—so that pattern of consciousness in the body, the physical body,
needs to come under control of spiritual man because spiritual man is
resurrected into that consciousness, and we begin to find ourselves being
something different, a new state of consciousness. But it came from somewhere,
the consciousness of spiritual man by means of which material man is restored
as a servant of the Lord. Material man no longer has any consciousness separate
from spiritual man, and spiritual man does not have a consciousness separate
from God; it is all one state. But we need to become aware of the nature of the
condition as it really is on the cellar floor, and not try to fool ourselves
that this is almost heavenly. There is a whole flight of stairs, and when we
come out of the cellar, what a wonderful thing the fresh air is!
And so, I touched upon some things
this evening that do not warrant speculation, but may reacquaint us a little
with our earthly heredity. And though we have this earthly heredity in close
proximity to us, there is also the heavenly heredity of spiritual man.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
