The Process of Purification
Martin Exeter November 9, 1986
We carry the whole focus of responsibility. Our responsibility is, of course, within the body of which we are a part. The pulsations
of spirit move through this body in the creative process of purifying the
bloodstream, not only of this conscious body but of the whole body of mankind.
We have seen this in terms of breathing: breathing out in
repentance and in radiance of spirit, breathing in that quality of spirit which
permits repentance and the breathing out of its radiance. This is indeed a very
personal matter. Each one breathes for him- or herself. As there is the true
spirit of agreement in what the purpose of the breathing is, then this conscious
focus, at point here now but extending farther afield, provides a basis for the
cleansing of the life stream circulating through the whole body of mankind. If
it does not happen in those who have a conscious understanding of these things
it does not happen anywhere.
The bloodstream of the body of mankind comes to us in a great variety of
ways. It moves through us in the purifying process in our own personal
repentance of the moment, to flow forth again through all of this conscious
body and into the unconscious body of mankind. The cycle is constantly being
completed on the basis of this pulsation of breathing, using that analogy. Here
the essences of purification take place in each individually. Here is the
filter by which the bloodstream of mankind can be purified. It might be said to
be heavenly magic, but on the other hand it isn't magic at all; it's a natural
process for which as individuals we take responsibility. It only happens as the
individual takes responsibility, so that what presents itself for repentance to
us may provide the way by which repentance happens—one's own personal
repentance.
And so the whole bloodstream is purified. It isn't merely an earthly
process; it isn't as though there was a closed circuit. There is the heavenly
aspect of what is happening. The creative cycle flows out of heaven through
each one in the outpouring through repentance and through the radiant
expression of that spirit. It is the outpouring of life, the life stream, the
bloodstream, which circulates through the whole body of mankind and returns. It
is received again to be purified, but coming back in the ascending process
there is a movement which carries this current of pulsation into the invisible
realms, which we may speak of as heaven, where it moves in the heavenly sense
to return to be released in the same current as had occurred before in the
circulation of the life stream through the whole body of mankind.
The cleansing takes place, the purifying takes place, in the heaven, so
that on the returning pulsation the pure expression of spirit may appear. The
pure bloodstream—what Christians have with complete uncomprehendingness called
the blood of Jesus—is the purified life stream made available to the whole body
of mankind, that circulating through that body the purification may take place.
What occurs by reason of that purification must be allowed to occur without
human interference. If we do provide a proper point of spiritual focus in this
process we rightly have no compulsion at all to interfere with what happens in
the body of mankind.
Human beings are inclined to become involved in what is happening in the
body of mankind one way or another. There is a great deal of emotion engendered
in this regard in many areas where it is imagined that people know how things
should be. They are going to bring pressure to bear one way or another to make
them be the way they think they ought to be. They don't know how they ought to
be in the first place. We see this happening in all directions, but from our
own standpoint we may see it as happening much closer to ourselves than out
there in the world. People are very much inclined to project things away from
themselves. This is a very self-righteous stance which assumes that it knows
how things should be somewhere else in someone else, in the experiences that
are going on in the world.
But the cleansing process, while it will properly take place out there,
has its point of initiation right where one is, and it is in dealing with what
is brought to one in one's immediate circumstance and experience that may, if
it is handled correctly in repentance, release the pure stream of life into
what is occurring out there farther afield. But if it is not allowed to be purified
where one is, there is nothing pure to be extended into what is out there. The
life stream proceeds, through those who are merely concerned with what is going
on out there, in a polluted way, because it has never been allowed to be
cleansed in relationship to one's own personal experience right where one is.
There is where the cleansing takes place, where the purification may be a fact.
It can't be a fact anywhere else until it is a fact there. So the futility of
all this effort that is put into trying to make the world a better place is
clearly seen. This is a way of avoiding personal responsibility.
The personal responsibility is not primarily out there. It is right where
one is, right in one's own polluted heart where the repentance can have meaning.
No one can repent for what is going on out there, but one has the opportunity
of repenting for what is happening in one's own heart and for allowing the
pollution to be swept out of one's own heart in the outgoing breath, the
outgoing pulsation. Then that breath, that outgoing pulsation, will have its
effect in the larger world round about. And so there may be a sharing in the
natural creative process by which the bloodstream of mankind is cleansed.
There has never yet been an adequate facility for this to happen. Perhaps
I should modify that statement a little, because there was an adequate facility
in one man two thousand years ago, so that there was an initiation of this
aspect of the creative cycle, the initiation of a process in which we have the
opportunity of sharing now. It is no use looking back and saying, "Well
why didn't people share in it before?'' The point is: What are we going to do
now? It's the only time we have, after all. You can't change the past; whatever
happened happened. But it brought everything to this point where we are now and
where we may provide this focus for the purification of the bloodstream of the
body of mankind. Is that a large task? I would think so. But it is the only way
it can happen, as there are those who take the responsibility.
Partly because of blindness, ignorance, heretofore there was no adequate
responsibility taken for this process to operate effectively. But the time has
come. It either operates effectively now or there is no way by which it can
operate anymore. And if we have some awareness of this ourselves, then we are
immediately acquainted with our own responsibility in the matter. If the vast
majority of people on earth have no such awareness they have no such
responsibility, at least not in the direct sense.
There must be a point of
focus connecting the invisible heavenly aspect of the creative cycle with the
earthly aspect of it, and I think we should have reached the point where we are
quite capable of saying individually, “I am it.” We do not suffer from the
disease of false humility in this regard, which is in fact a way by which those
who know better find excuse for not doing better. It requires humility to
accept responsibility. If there is an attempt to accept the responsibility in a
spirit of arrogance the responsibility will not be accepted. It requires
humility, a willingness to relinquish one's own self-determinations in favor of
providing a point through which the creative process may work to purify one's
own heart. As that is made pure, or to the extent it is made pure, the onflow
of the current of life carries it into the whole body of mankind. So in this
process of cleansing, which we have correlated with the matter of breathing,
purification of human hearts may take place. This is what is going on.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
Threefold Pattern of Focalization
from Peter, James and John — John, James and Peter
Uranda
May 20, 1954 am Class
We remember the pattern that was
portrayed in the Master's ministry on the basis of what is popularly conceived
to be Peter, James and John. We would like to take note this morning of the
basic fact that if it is understood, this particular arrangement is all right.
If we recognize that Peter, James and John provide the proper pattern of
recognition from the standpoint of the body, then all is well. But if in that
pattern of perception Peter is conceived to be the point of focalization, and the mind does not perceive that
which is above and beyond, we have confusion. And that is the state of the
world consciousness with which you must deal. It is because of this confusion
that we do not have the adequate manifestation of spiritual power on earth. Our
ministry, our service, attunements, can be of consequence only to the degree
that there is the actuality of spiritual power reaching through us into the
world. Without that it turns into so many words and so many ideas which have no
more meaning than a host of other words and ideas to be found in the world.
We recognize that John relates to
spirit, James relates to mind, and Peter relates to the emotional realm—the
feeling realm. We recognize that spirit issuing from the supreme point of
focalization in the invisible realm must have a focalization in the outer
realm. If there isn't an overall focalization the various members cannot of and
by themselves come to focus. If the various members try to establish a focus of
and by themselves they fail. We could take any member of your body as such and
assume that that member of and by itself, without regard to the head, could
establish a completely satisfactory relationship to the realm of spirit, and we
would find that it was not so. If the factors that are in the head, from the
standpoint of the endocrine system, the nervous system, the brain and all the
rest of it, are not providing the
point of focalization for the body as a whole, the member of the body cannot of
and by itself establish a pattern of focalization directly with spirit.
But the pattern of focalization is with
respect to every member, and we are not to assume, merely because the head of
the body provides the essential primary focalization, that the rest of the body
is denied the reality of spirit—for it is not. And yet that particular false
concept is one with which you will be working and contending in every sphere of
service which has any relationship to spiritual things, because the human being
will constantly assume that a recognition of the primary focalization at the
point of the head suggests that the members of the body are denied their own
individual patterns of focalization and direct relationship in and with spirit,
which is not the case at all.
If we recognize this pattern and do not
put it “Peter, James and John” as if the true order did not exist, we are all
right. But the minute we assume that it is “Peter, James and John” on this
basis, we are wrong. From the standpoint of Deity the approach is John, James
and Peter. From the standpoint of the mass of humanity, which we call the body
of mankind—and from the standpoint of the individual, for every person has
individually the vibrational focalization factors of John, James and Peter,
every single person on the face of the earth; but if that focalization is to
have any meaning individually it must be established with respect to the whole
body—in the mass consciousness we have it Peter, James and John, instead of John, James and Peter. If we
realize the falsity of this concept and recognize that from the standpoint of
Deity it is John, James and Peter,
and we clearly establish that pattern in consciousness symbolizing these
factors of being, we will have a basis of understanding, a basis of viewing, a
basis of analyzing, which will stand us in good stead in every circumstance in
life. If we break that pattern and try to establish it on some other basis we
will fail, regardless who it is or how much effort is put forth.
We recognize that there are certain
religions where the idea is: “You are not supposed to understand why. That is
what you are taught; that is what you must believe. It is not a matter of the
mind having any part to play; merely belief—feeling. It is not a matter of a
recognition of the spirit in direct relationship with the individual; it is a
matter of feeling acceptance regardless of the working of the mind.” And the
mind is forced, from babyhood, to conform with that which is impressed upon
consciousness through the feeling realm by reason of fear. “If you do not do
thus and so you will go to hell or purgatory or somewhere. You will suffer. The
devil will get you.” So, not so much on a basis of love for God as a basis of
fear of God, the emotional nature is used as the primary point of focalization—concepts
and ideas of every sort are implanted, not only in the field of religion but in
the field of discipline for small children. “The bogeyman will get you. The
policeman will get you. Somebody will come and get you.” All those ideas are
utterly atrocious, in relationship to discipline for the childish mind and
heart. So we use the feeling nature—we
do not say fear has no place—but we recognize that mind is superior. However we also recognize that mind has within it
that which is given particular focalization below it.
There is an absolute principle which
must be realized if we are going to understand: that which is carried out in a
pattern of differentiation in the expanded expression must be in essence
contained in the point of focalization.
Now if you will really remember that, it will save you from many a pitfall.
What does it mean here, in practical application? That which is at the point of focalization,
which we speak of as John, contains
both James and Peter. That which is carried out to the point of
differentiation from John to James carries the vibrational factors of Peter.
The supreme point of focalization must contain the essence of all that is
focalized and made manifest in the differentiation pattern in the expanded
expression.
So you look at the nervous system and
you have simply the differentiated expanded expression of the brain which
reaches to all of the parts. Your nervous system is simply the differentiated
aspects of the brain in expanded expression connected with the parts or members
of the body. Now always, that is true. This, then, follows: If we are going to
think of James as relating to the mental plane, and he certainly does, we are
not going to assume that the mental plane is differentiated from, separate
from, unrelated to, the emotional realm. The feeling nature is contained in the
level of the true intellect. And there is one of the things that has not been
generally recognized, let alone understood, because the attempt has been made to
establish the intellect on a mental basis without regard to the emotional
factor which is inherent in the mind itself, and to do so establishes the mind
as something which it is not. It is only a part of a thing functioning on a
basis which tries to make it the whole thing.
Now this relates to you as a person. The John aspect of your own being is the first outmanifestation, in the realm of
yourself as a being, of that which is of the invisible focalization of Deity
which we speak of as your Father, or your God Being, your centering in Deity.
Whatever name you wish to use is beside the point as long as we do not get
confused patterns. The John aspect of your being is the first beginning point
of manifestation, the focalization of all else that is to manifest as spirit or
by reason of spirit. As soon as that begins to be a fact in manifestation with
you, and John is there, the John aspect begins to differentiate and we have the
James aspect of your being beginning to appear. But the James aspect does not function
on a basis segregated from the emotional aspect in its own level—the Peter
aspect is there. But with continued expressions of differentiation we come to
that which is primarily, dominantly, Peter. That relates, to a very high
degree, to the subconscious range, the subconscious
mind. Actually, while there might have to be some adjustments in your
consciousness on the point—so do not establish it with too fixed a sphere of
limitation—the Peter aspect of your being is the unconscious or subconscious
realm of the feeling nature, which in turn correlates with mind. There is the
aspect of mind which extends into Peter—and remember that the subconscious mind
is primarily the emotional nature.
If out of Peter we receive an impulse
which does not correlate with James, which is not controlled or directed by
James, and it is allowed expression, action, it also disregards John and makes
Peter the supreme point of focalization for your existence. And then you are
subject to every wind that blows. There is no stability. There is uncertainty.
There is fear. There is every sort of ill thing, until we begin to realize that
we do not deny Peter, as Peter denied the Lord, but we refuse to accept Peter as the supreme point of focalization in our
being. And how is most of the control extended into the body? In the range
of the automatic or subconscious. Every automatic function in your body relates
to the subconscious, doesn't it? Certainly. How many of you can, by thinking,
just willing that it be so, change the pulse beat of your heart? Now if you
select certain things to think about, about which you feel deeply, you may by
reason of feeling begin to have an effect in the body through the subconscious,
but it will not be by direct will or conscious intent. It will be indirect. It
still goes through Peter. So with the exception of the external patterns of
action—walking, talking, movement of the hands, etc.—we do not have very much
control on the intellectual level of consciousness in relationship to the
functions in the body.
Now the pattern of habits which we
establish and maintain in the conscious range has its influence in the
subconscious range. But the important thing is to realize that you are very
fortunate that God so constructed you that your mind as such does not have
direct influence and control in your body, because if you had the interference
of your intellect you would not be able to live. I will venture there isn't a
person here in this room that could live twenty-four hours if the coordination
of his internal processes, even in their primary aspects, depended upon
conscious control in the mind. Do you think you would live twenty-four hours? I
don't think you would live an hour, do you? No, I don't. How brilliant you are!
I wouldn't want it either. I am pointing out, however, some basic factors which
are vitally essential if we are going to learn how to live and how to serve
others, because Peter, the emotional nature, must not be allowed to take
supreme control in the body, even though Peter is the direct means by which
control is released in the body, influence made manifest. The control into the
body is primarily through Peter, into the realm of form. And that is not
limited to you as a person. That applies to the whole mass of mankind. Now if
this control level be used wrongly we call it black magic. If it is used
correctly we call it white magic. The point is that the right use at this level
is of the divine design, the magic of living, of beauty, of love and of life.
The wrong use at this level results in the distortion patterns of the world,
which are in fact elements of black magic.
Now James has the ability, by reason of
the essences which are differentiated into manifestation as Peter—the elements
in James differentiated as Peter are present in James, and by reason of the
factors of intellectual and feeling perception we have the means at our command
by which we may become acquainted with and learn to understand John. That is
our purpose here in this Class. And until the human being establishes a pattern
of right relationship with John, the John aspect of his own being, he cannot comprehend or become aware of, or know
in any way, shape or form, his own Lord, his own God Being, or en masse, the
LORD of Lords. We can have all kinds of ideas about, concepts of every sort—and
the world is full of them—but if you cut the nerves between the head and the
body, the fact that the nerves are in the body will not permit the normal
function. And it is just as true in relationship to mankind as a whole as it is
true in relationship to you as a person. In the John aspect of your own being, what do we have—the negative focalization of the positive aspect in the invisible realm, in the range of focalization—simply a
means by which the inner positive, or invisible focalization, is transferred to
the realm of outer form—a connecting link—the invisible part of
the chain and the visible part. If there is a break at the level where
invisible things are supposed to begin to be visible, what is going to happen?
The visible chain will be weak and of no value. It will not hold you up. So the
John aspect of your own being is the
connecting link.
Human beings try to understand the John
aspect, in one way or another, to whatever degree it is comprehended, without
correct function in relationship to Peter and James. And it will not work, try
as you will. You are going to let Peter be the control point in your being and
then learn to understand John? It will not work, because if Peter is the
control point, you are being controlled by external things, by circumstances,
what people say and do and what you think they feel, what you think their
attitudes to be—when you do not know. You are controlled by all these things,
and then you are a slave, pure and simple. It is from that slavery that human
beings are to be liberated, and the moment any human being is liberated from
that slavery, he or she begins to be a son or daughter of God. But that slavery
is there whether we like to admit it or not. No matter what we do about it, without
regard to James and John there is no liberation—and faith in Peter, hoping to
achieve that liberation, will not achieve anything, no matter how you struggle
or what method you use. You can go to the yoga philosophies of the Orient or of
India, or pursue any idea of developing willpower and mental abilities in the
Occident , and it will not work. You can get so far and you run
into a blank wall. Human beings everywhere, by the millions, are up against
that blank wall.
The only excuse we have for being a
separate or distinct organization is to provide something which is not provided
by other organizations—the means by which the individual as a person, and the
mass body of mankind as a whole, may begin to have an awareness of the John aspect of being, so that there may
be true comprehension of what we might call the Jesus aspect of being, the supreme point of focalization for the
whole, the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. The focalization of Deity to us was
made manifest in the form, the body, the man, who was known as Jesus. But that
Jesus aspect of being, now invisible, can have no real or true meaning except
by the means which He Himself outlined. And it always works absolutely, whether
anyone likes it or not. Millions have destroyed themselves trying to make some
other method work, and it will not. There is just one way. And the more quickly
we come to that absolute conclusion and realization the better for us, the less
time and energy will be wasted, the sooner we will be out of the abyss of
nothingness into the realms of joy and peace.
Now, then, if we are going to comprehend
James we must start on the right basis. The popular idea is to judge all things
mental on the basis of the way you feel about it. You are going to let Peter
pass on everything that James says. “I do not like that idea, so I will reject
it. I like this idea, so I accept it, the way I feel about it. I am letting
Peter determine what is true or not true with respect to what James says.” And
it is a snare and a delusion. If the way you feel about it is going to
determine what you believe, you will never be a true server. What happens? If
we have a certain feeling—shall we call it prejudice?—a certain feeling of
aversion toward some idea, or something we think is an idea, and we refuse to
examine it because we have this feeling, we are going to remain in ignorance.
But if, regardless of how we feel about it, we will examine what James presents
with an open mind, what do we find? That when we see the truth the old prejudice,
or adverse feeling, falls away. We do not feel the same way about it anymore,
because we begin to feel on the basis of truth, not on the basis of all the
things that have been pounded into us since our babyhood. And there is the
difference between slavery and liberation into manhood and womanhood. If a
person continues to be subject to his aversions, to his prejudices, to what he
likes and does not like, he will be a slave until his dying day, a slave of
things not controlled.
You must learn to recognize that what
you feel about something is absolutely beside the point, that it should not be
allowed to have any weight at all. If you say, “I like this idea so much I
cannot give it up. I have too strong a feeling about it,” you are deluding
yourself. If you say, “I have too strong a feeling against that idea to accept
it,” you are deluding yourself. The way you feel will follow your intellectual
acceptance of truth once you see it and accept it. And there is no other way
which leads to mastery, to
liberation, try as you will. What you feel about it is beside the point, and
you need to reach the point of absolute conviction in yourself, where you will
say, and mean, “What I feel about this or that is beside the point. It is not
going to control me. My likes and dislikes are no longer going to be in
control. I am going to examine everything from the standpoint of the mind,
without adverse influence from Peter. I am going to examine. I am going to
analyze. I am going to learn to think, and I am going to learn to let my mind,
conscious and subconscious, function under the control of the spirit of God.”
This dual aspect of mind is contained in
James, as we noted, and it is not by pure intellect that you learn to see and
understand John. There is a feeling perception there. But this feeling
perception that works from James to John cannot work as long as Peter is in
control. You can say, “Well I am supposed to use my feeling perception.” Of
course you are. But as long as you are a slave, reacting this way and that to
every circumstance that arises, you are unstable and the Lord is not in
control. When you begin to use this feeling perception that arises out of James
in relationship to John, his brother—isn't that right?, in relationship to
John, his brother—it will not be because Peter is saying, “I reject that
because I do not like it. I accept this because I like it.” But there is
feeling perception there, and if you try to do it on a coldly intellectual
basis, logic and reason alone, do you think you will arrive? No, you must use
both of these aspects of perception as they are contained in James, and when
you do you will find that what you perceive by feeling never violates logic and
reason.
You cannot by logic and reason reach the
point of comprehending John. It is utterly impossible. Though millions have
tried it, not one has ever succeeded. It is a waste of time. But when you learn
to use the true perceptive qualities of James, beginning to understand John,
you will find that that which is perceived through the feeling aspect never
violates logic or reason, or what we might call the intellectual aspect of your
being. And if you perceive something that appears to violate, what are you
going to do? Jump to the conclusion, “Well now, I don't like this. I am going
to put it all aside”? No, if you are afraid of it you cannot approach close
enough to it to examine it. There must be control. If you are afraid to examine
any point which appears, it means that you have no faith in your own stability.
Is that not true? And you need to develop faith in your own stability, learn to
examine it. Then what you thought you saw turns out to be something a little
different. You thought it was this way and it wasn't. It was a different form,
different factors. And as soon as you see it as it really is, you have no
rejection of it—an acceptance. You no longer feel against it and you have
reached a point where you know the truth and the truth has set you free from
that which you feared. And it has not violated logic or reason.
The point I wish to reemphasize here is
that until you reach a point of right attitude toward Peter, try as you may,
you cannot begin to use the true perceptive faculties of James, and the feeling
nature is going to be mixed-up and you will not reach a point where you are
controlled by the spirit of God. Why have I, over this period of years here, been
so patient with all the people? Because I knew that each and every one of you,
perhaps inadvertently but nevertheless certainly, were under the control and
domination of Peter, regardless of what you thought in your mind, regardless of
what you thought you believed, or anything else. Peter is too much in control
to permit you to know the truth. The Master did not say, “And ye shall know how
you feel, and your feelings will make you free.” He did say, “And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” And how are you going to know
the truth? By the perceptive faculties of James in the intellectual level. For
only so can you begin to comprehend John and begin to realize that which John
represents, or makes possible in manifestation in the realm of form.
This means that not by rule and
regulation, not by arbitrary attitude on my part, but by reason of your own
opportunity to observe the truth, you have reached a point where there must be
less subjection to Peter on your part. You may think, “Well I am going to lose
something good.” Oh no you won't. No, you will find things that are lovely and
beautiful and real, the blessings which God would bestow upon you. Nothing
worthwhile will be taken away. Only the thorns that irritate, only the ill
conditions that make one suffer, only that which spoils, will be taken away.
But there is still too much subjection to Peter in your daily function to
permit you to make the kind of progress you can make if you will remember these
things and if you will be sensible and remember that here there is
understanding one of another. But refuse to be blinded by Peter, refuse to
accept the way you feel about anything as conclusive, what you like or do not
like. Do not let it be conclusive. Move to the realm of truth and function on
the basis of James, and you will find that John, his brother, is near at hand,
and all will be well. God bless you.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
Other Tongues
Martin Cecil August 18, 1974
There is considerable evidence of
the movement of the creative spirit of the living God,
bringing something new
to birth through the conscious minds of many people.
As we sit together
this evening do you hear the sound of angels' wings?
These are not just
fanciful words;
they're a means of conveying an awareness consequent
upon the movement of the Spirit of God.
That movement brings a consciousness of
being a part of the Hosts of Heaven,
no longer restricted to the evident
limitations of human beings on earth.
It is most essential that we
should experience the feel of it.
The mind tends to scoff, or if it doesn't scoff it wants to get in on the act
with its self-centered trying to be something. The conscious mind of human beings
uses human beings. We may see quite easily how this is happening everywhere in
the world. Human beings try to use each other, and all this using business is
based in the fact that the mind uses human beings. In the conscious mind an
image is built of what the person is supposed to be, according to this
conscious-mind view. The mind does this to us; it creates a false image, an idol.
In the general sense, human beings accept this as what they are and the mind
rules.
We have the opportunity of rising
up out of this subservient condition, and begin to sense the truth that we are
living, breathing beings, part of the living God. And this truth is not in the
least dependent upon external appearances; this truth of ourselves is not
dependent upon the shape of our bodies or the age of our bodies, the extent of
mental development, or any of the usual things that are assumed to identify us
in the human world. We begin to emerge out of that trap into a realm of
freedom.
The truth makes free, but in order
to allow the truth to make free we must know it—otherwise we cannot experience
the freedom. We must know the truth, not just something about it. It isn't a matter
of building peculiar concepts; no matter how accurate a model of the truth our
concept may be, it's still a model. It's not the truth, and the model doesn't
free us. It is knowing the truth that allows the truth to make us free.
We find ourselves voluntarily functioning in the world in
rather restricted conditions, but this in no sense need restrict us. Our
experience of ourselves transcends the apparent restrictions. And what is true
is born in the moment into conscious expression in our living. This birth which
takes place brings with it the creative power of change—of resurrection.
This morning mention was made of
the outpouring of the spirit—mention was made of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
These are terms which have particular relatedness to the Christian world,
presumably, but the truth is certainly not limited to the Christian world.
Power, the creative power which changes things, which permits the resurrection,
comes by reason of the Holy Ghost—the Spirit of Truth—the Spirit of Truth which
provides what is necessary in the creative working of the human machinery.
We have seen it relative to what
have been called the subconscious aspect of the mind. There is much to be
known. Some have thought the truth was known in a blinding flash. “Now I am
illuminated,” the individual might say But the illumination is of the moment—the
truth of the moment is known. That's all that needs to be known; that's all we
actually have capacity to know. We live in the moment and the truth is to be
born in the moment in the conscious expression of life. This is the
transmutation of water into wine—a miracle. But, as we have noted, the miracle
is merely the natural happening. The lack of miracles in human experience is
evidence of unnatural happenings, the unnatural happenings which are of a very
plodding and heavy nature. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden.”
This is the human state where there are no miracles—a very limited, restricted, unnatural state of affairs. Those
functioning in that state, looking at the natural state, to the extent that
they might be able to see it—which in any case is very little—say, “There is a
miracle.” The miracles of Jesus are emphasized as being so rare and so
exceptional and so apparently impossible. This simply gives evidence of how far
the natural state has receded from human experience. So, power comes because of
the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth.
It is recorded that our Master said
He had yet many things to say unto His disciples, but they couldn't bear it. “Howbeit
when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” There
are some who have been inclined to imagine that the last word has been spoken
and is all recorded in the Bible. What, then, about the things which Jesus
could not say when He was on earth but which would be known by reason of the
Spirit of Truth? There is much more to be known, much more to be experienced,
than is written in the Bible. This does not detract from the value of what is
written in the Bible or in various other scriptural writings, but the truth is
open-ended. It certainly hasn't all been said yet; it hasn't all been known. If
it had, what would we do for the rest of eternity?
This morning, because there have
been those who have permitted a continuing experience of the truth in whatever
measure in their daily living, so that they were capable of tarrying in
Jerusalem, as it has been put, we were able to come together in an upper room, a higher level of consciousness
and understanding, to be with one accord in one place. Because of this, there
was the experience of the spirit moving. That was described as a mighty,
rushing wind, a sound that was heard like that, which filled the whole house
where they were sitting—and I think there was something of the sort here this
morning. The sound may have related to spoken words, amongst other things, but
all spoken words are consequent upon the controlled breath, aren't they?—the
movement of air. There was the movement of the air of the spirit in the experience
of those who were present, and a sense of delight, a sense of intensity, of
zeal perhaps, of fire, an awareness of something moving in the heart, a
consciousness of love, of oneness.
“And they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost”—the Spirit of Truth which was with you and also came to be in you.
“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” We have before considered this
matter of other tongues, relinquishing some of the peculiar concepts that have been developed along
these lines. When you reach into your grab bag of concepts, on the basis of
your conscious mind, you bring out something that is more or less predictable.
And we noted this with respect to those who may perhaps ask questions, seeking
to have their needs filled.
Human beings everywhere are asking
questions, being very conscious of their needs, of their emptiness, and looking
for someone to fill them. Not necessarily are the needs looked upon as being spiritual
needs. The need may be simply to go to the medical doctor and get a pill.
People are looking for things with which to occupy themselves in various ways
to fill the void. Those who are successful in the self-centered pattern are
those who find ways and means of filling the needs that other people think they
have. And people are willing to pay for that—concepts are
hauled up out of the grab bag and those who have ingenious minds get them
fitted together in a certain way and, lo and behold, here's the thing that is
going to fill somebody's needs! People are fooled along these lines and imagine
their needs are going to be filled that way.
Now that is the pattern of the
usual tongue. This is what happens in the world; and, even coming into the
realm of our own experience with respect to spiritual things, I'm sure that all
of you have had experience in this endeavor to find a suitable concept to satisfy
the mind of someone who comes to you seeking an answer. After all, you have the
answer! Some of you have read a great deal of literature—you have the answers,
so that you may look down your file and say, “Ah, here's the answer to this
question,” and you hand it over. But it never is. It may seem to satisfy the
individual for the moment, because he only had a concept as to what his
question was, and so another concept may satisfy that concept. But it doesn't
answer the question really—the true question that is present in that person,
not the way he misinterpreted it. To answer the question truly, you must speak
with other tongues.
What is born through your
consciousness must come as the spirit gives it utterance, not as the mind,
looking things over and deciding that it should be this way or that way, then
provides a mental answer. That is the old tongue. But there are other tongues—the
tongues which provide what is right and fitting in expression as the spirit
gives utterance.
The Spirit of Truth guides into
all truth, and all truth is quite a package, one would suppose, so it might even
take eternity to experience it. And that's the truth! So it isn't all truth at
once; it is truth in the moment, the truth that should be born into your living
expression in the moment. The moment is all you have; you never have more than
a moment, so why would you need more than can be born in that moment? This
gives indication of the naturalness of patience.
When there is a tranquility of mind,
a serenity of attitude, so that your mind is no longer in charge of the game,
then the Spirit of Truth can begin to assume control. But the Spirit of Truth
must have something to work with. We should have very much available for the
Spirit of Truth to work with. Those of you who have attended Class know that
one of the first things to be considered is the matter of the movement of the
mind, the working of the mind, in the analogy of the water wheel. The water pours
over the water wheel and the water wheel turns; that's the way it should work.
It shouldn't be cranked around. In its turning it lifts up out of the cistern
of the subconscious what is fitting for the expression of the moment, and it is
that which is born into the conscious expression of the individual's life,
rightly. It is born in each moment, springing forth eternally—all truth.
Of course, you may not have this
same equipment eternally for your use, but at the moment that's beside the
point. This is the present experience—the equipment is here; the mind is
present and capable of being operated in the way that it was designed to be
operated. It will move this way quite naturally when allowed to do so. The main
sticker is the conscious mind which has become accustomed to ruling the roost
and is reluctant to relinquish its authority. It is inclined to think that it knows
best, and it's done a good job of convincing people that this is so, when it
isn't. This is not the purpose of the conscious mind. The conscious mind is the
facility through which the birth into the expression of life occurs. It is the
only way you can live. If you try to make it work some other way you find
yourself a dying soul and your experience of yourself in season will be a dead
soul. That's not much of an experience.
The living soul is known when life
is being born through the Son level of consciousness into expression on earth.
And that birth comes by reason of the Father level of consciousness—which is
there in any case, and no human being can
touch it or change it—and also the Holy Ghost level of consciousness. Here in
simplified terms is the equipment by which the living soul experience may be
known. The Spirit of Truth is available, first of all because the Spirit of Truth
is with you—external to you. It must be external to you before it can be
internal to you. But the purpose of it being external to you first is that it
should be internal to you. The purpose isn't that it should be kept external to
you forever, although this is attempted by some who try to get external Spirit
of Truth to tell them what to do. Well, external Spirit of Truth is not
interested in that at all—that's not the purpose.
This occurred in
relationship to Jesus when He was on earth. His disciples kept looking at Him. He
had all the answers. They didn't need to have any of the answers because He had
them all—He could give them, so they didn't need to bother. It was expedient
for them that He went away, so that internal Spirit of Truth might be experienced.
External Spirit of Truth had been with them in the person of Jesus—it continued
to be with them in the person of the disciple John, but they failed to
recognize that, even though there was a beginning of the experience of internal
Spirit of Truth. Our concern is to be guided into all truth—not a blinding flash of truth in the moment but whatever
the truth is that should be born in the moment, which is a very little thing if
we see it relative to all truth. But if we let it be born in every moment and
we go on letting it be born in every moment, then eventually it will be all
truth. How long that eventually may be is another question. But this is the way
it works. And we see the equipment for this creative process as being available
to us and we begin to sense and feel its working.
We can't look at these
principles and say, “Well, now, there should be something coming down from the
Father consciousness and there should be something coming up from the Holy
Ghost consciousness, and they'll get together here in my conscious mind and
then I'll know.” No. We may be aware of the principles—let them rest where they
belong. We don't have to worry about them; they're not going to change. They're
still there even though they're in storage. There is the necessity of finding
the feel of movement in this creative
process. And we have guidance in this regard, guidance which allows the birth
of an increased expression of life in each moment. That guidance comes partly
externally, but increasingly internally. The provision is made externally for
you and you properly make it for others. You can only make it for others to the
extent that it is internal to you. If it's internal to you it can be external
to somebody else. And when this works as it should, you're not struggling to
find some concept to give to somebody to make you look as though you were wise.
You allow what is fitting to be born through you in the moment and it may possibly look foolish. It may look foolish to that wise creature, the conscious mind, because it thinks it knows when it doesn't. But you will find that what is expressed will fill the need, the real need, not the assumed need. The individual to whom you are giving the truth in this way may not be satisfied. You're not trying to satisfy that person anyway. All you are doing is providing what you may to assist the Holy Ghost to come upon that person, or to assist that individual to be willing to let it happen. You're not a celestial cow which may be milked periodically by those who want answers, so that they never need to discover the truth for themselves; they can always come to you to get a quart of milk. That isn't the way. What you provide you know,if you are functioning correctly, is what is required. The other person perhaps won't
Most people have rather
fixed ideas as to how the answer should come. If it doesn't come in the way that
they think it should, they think the answer hasn't been given and they go away
dissatisfied. But maybe somewhere along the way they'll suddenly awaken to the
fact that the answer was given. You may have had the experience yourself. You didn't
see it at the time, but then later there it was.
And also, from the standpoint of allowing this process of birth to take place through you, you provide things for people in other tongues, tongues which you may not know. You may have had someone come to you who had met you sometime in the poast, and they will say, "Well, you said something to me that stayed with me to this day," and you haven't the faintest idea as to what you said. But if the spirit gave utterance it was what was required. It hits home with the person if that person is open to receive it. Very often people receive it on the side, so to speak. You're not actually giving anything to that person; you're giving it to somebody else, but it slips in on that person. The person you're giving it to may receive refuse to receive it, but somebody else does. So, there are many other tongues, many ways by which this creative process works when the spirit gives utterance. Some of that utterance we understand. We know what is happening with respect to such and such a person perhaps, but we don't know what's happening in other realms where the particular tongue one was speaking to this person is another tongue to somebody else.
Now I'm speaking to all
of you and each one hears in his own particular language, and yet what I'm saying
is the same, in appearance, for everyone. But there is something more than the
appearance, obviously, because it comes out differently for everyone and yet
the same truth. We learn to allow this birth to take place, moment by moment.
And the spirit gives utterance. The expression is of the spirit. And because it
is that, it is powerful. It goes forth and achieves that whereunto it is sent.
So here is a change from the expression of the liar—that is, the conscious mind
on its own—to the expression of the spirit. And immediately the experience is a
creative one, the outpouring of the spirit; the Holy Ghost is come upon you and
you receive power. And that power relates to Cause insofar as your field of responsibility
is concerned, where the effects appear.
This evening we have moved again in a cycle of meditation together to the extent that we have allowed ourselves to be moved by the creative spirit of the living God, to the
extent that we have not been holding on to the crank of our mental processes,
so that they can work as they were created to work and so that we may share in
the unified movement of the creative spirit of the living God moving through
all of us because we are with one accord in one place. As this is so—to the
extent that it is so—the spirit gives utterance through each
consciousness, the essential tongues are being used, and the creative power
reaches forth into open and yielded hearts and minds everywhere on the face of the
earth. Then, when we see that what goes forth does not return void—when we see
what comes back by reason of what has gone forth of the increased expression of
the truth of life—it is cause for joy unspeakable. It may be that tears come to
our eyes—nothing wrong with that—tears of joy, the movement of the spirit of
God known and experienced.
And we have an increasing feel of
it; we have the feel of it not only with respect to our immediate circumstance
but we have the feel of it with respect to the world. We do not segregate the
immediate circumstance from the world. We do not segregate portions of our
circumstance from other portions of our circumstance. It is you that provide
the continuity.
Only when you judge by the appearance
do you see walls and barriers between everything—fences. But there is no fence
when you are giving expression to the Truth of Life, because this occurs
regardless of the circumstance. The circumstance doesn't matter. There are some
people who moan and say, “Oh, you should live where I live. You'd never be able
to stay properly centered there—all these things coming at me all the time.”
Well, people like to indulge in a little self-pity. How about indulging in the
Truth, because the Spirit of Truth is present, wherever you are. That's the
point!—wherever you are. And so, wherever you are the Truth of Life can be born
through you. It doesn't matter where. It doesn't matter what the circumstance
is, it can still be born through you—and it will be born in that circumstance
in a way that is fitting. What I may express in a service here is not what I
would express in Denver! But there is something to be born there just as much
as there is something to be born here, and when the spirit gives utterance it
will be fitting to the circumstance.
How beautiful to let it be so, to
let the spirit give utterance because the conscious mind has resigned from its position
of supposed authority. And it becomes the Son, by means of which the evidence
of the Father is made known on earth. So, once again we've shared this time in
the current of the spirit, with one accord in one place—living, breathing
beings part of the living God.
© emissaries of divine light
