A  Vast  Cosmic  Drama  Unfolding

from  Human Entertainment vs True Creative Enjoyment

Martin Cecil   June 1, 1960   Sunrise Ranch Class

The matter of feeling was touched upon and how human beings are a little inclined to be touchy in that regard. It is this which causes so much conflict and misunderstanding. The reason why human beings are so touchy is because they are so self-centered. Everything that happens, consequently, tends to be translated into personal terms so that the human being is not capable of standing back and looking at the situation without involvement. Only as he develops this capacity is he in position to see what actually is there. The very moment an individual starts to translate on a personal basis distortions immediately enter in.

Now, it may be that when one is associated with someone else and that other person has a reaction of some kind—takes a critical attitude, we will say—that that person may be projecting the critical attitude to someone else. But actually we recognize that there is something within that person who has the critical attitude which is causing him to do that. There is something in the individual himself. It is not, really, an external problem. It is a problem that is present in that person. While there may be all kinds of ideas put forward to justify an attitude of such a nature, yet it still does not change the fact that there is something wrong in that person who is holding the wrong attitude, regardless of what may be wrong anywhere else. The very fact that a person has a wrong attitude indicates that there is something wrong with that person.

We are concerned with doing what we may, according to response, to correct wrong things; therefore, should someone project an ill attitude towards us, we, if we are serving truly, look at that person and begin to gain an understanding of what it is or seek an understanding of what it is that is causing that person to have such a wrong attitude towards us. Of course, we have to make sure that we ourselves are right; we have to examine ourselves. This process of examination and analysis, both in relationship to oneself and with respect to the other person, cannot be undertaken if one is personally involved in the matter, if one has translated the experience into personal terms. “Oh, this person is being nasty to me.” Then the individual projects himself right into the middle of the picture and seeks to combat what he considers is wrong in the other person, and there is a conflict—there is a battle. We need to be able to look at anything without being involved in it, no matter how personal it may seem from the standpoint of a self-centered approach.

I thought we might consider something which has a relatedness to all, and see if we can approach it without becoming involved in feeling reactions. Everything that we consider can be used as a means of moving into the larger vision. We know that we move from the known into the unknown. And if I take up something in relationship to some specific experience, whether it is of the individual or of the group, I do not do so so as to translate it on a personal basis. I always take everything so that it may be used to advantage, so that we may open a door to move forward. It is not on the basis of criticizing. It is not on the basis of judging or condemning. It is merely on the basis of utilizing what is present so that we may move into a larger vision.

The particular point I had in mind was our little program the other evening which was carried through so beautifully by the Class members, enjoyed by everyone. I would like to take a look at it from the standpoint of that in which we are interested. This might be summarized as letting the Kingdom come, letting something new be made manifest, letting that which is of God appear here on earth as God designs it to be.

When we undertake a program of such a nature as you undertook the other evening, the source of the material which is available for use is that which is in the world which man has made. The material itself may be of one sort or another. If the purpose of the entertainment was to provide something light, amusing, a certain selection would be made from the available human material to allow a pattern to be developed of the nature which took form. In other circumstances, there might be the use of different material. There is a variety: there is that which is light; there is that which is of a more serious nature, that which might perhaps move into the religious pattern—various patterns might be used. All these sources from which the material is drawn are of the human design of things here on earth, something that is fundamentally distorted, fundamentally contrary to the Divine design.

The question which should exercise our thought: What would it be if it was the Divine state? There are those who are inclined to imagine that in the Divine state, in something that was supposed to be holy, it would always be very serious, very heavy. But I do not think that within the scope of your experience, at least, as we have touched upon the things of God that it has always been very heavy or very serious. There can be, and rightly should be, a balance—there is that which is properly light, and there is that which is properly of a heavier nature. But what would the material be? With the world as it now is human beings find themselves more or less forced, seemingly, to adapt the things that man has made to the purposes which are felt to be desirable in the moment.

Here we have that which caused the Children of Israel a lot of trouble, because they mixed considerably with the patterns that were round about them in the world, and they lost the purity, the beauty, the perfection of that which they should have maintained, that for which they were responsible unto the Lord. It is a very easy thing to do because, with the world the way it is, where is the material available other than that which man has made?

When we approach the lighter field of what could be called entertainment, we find various themes tending to dominate in the available material. One of them relates to what human beings imagine love to be—the romantic approach with a certain amount of sentimental feeling involved. We may recognize in relationship to this that love is a vital matter, but human beings have so distorted the understanding in that regard that it becomes something that is virtually meaningless. And human beings allow feeling to intensify in relationship to these distorted patterns. They get carried away a little bit sometimes in a sentimental fog which is certainly not a part of the Divine design. Perhaps we need to take a look at some possibilities.

When the Divine state was a reality on earth in what we call the Motherland, it was something most pleasing and wonderful, most desirable. The experiences were all what they should be, and there was the essential balance in the expression of life. The human imagination with respect to such things tends to get lost. It is almost inconceivable to human beings that there could be a state on earth, for instance, where no police force was necessary or no armies were, where there was no conflict, where there were no hospitals, no necessity for them, no necessity for the vast majority of the things that are present in the fallen world of men which occupy so much of man's attention. When we recognize this, we see how much wasted energy there actually is in the fallen state, because human beings are busily engaged in things which seem to be necessary in the fallen state, and are, but which would be totally unnecessary in the Divine state.

In the Divine state all energy, all the life force, would be directed into the true channels of expression. So we can see then that, even just to the extent of our ability to visualize, there would be a tremendous current of power available for constructive achievement. If all these things, all the energy that is being expended by human beings in such activities as defense—considered to be most essential in the world today—armies and air forces and navies, and the police force—in hospitals, correctional institutions of all kinds, and we could go on and on. Wherever we find things that are wrong needing to be corrected, we have a situation where energy is being expended which would not be expended in the Divine state because things are right there. There is one activity which would still be necessary and that is education; rather different, but education would still be necessary. But in any case, all the energies of all concerned would be centered in the achievement of the creative purposes of God. The whole of the expression of life is rightly directed toward that end, so that everything would be used constructively.

Now, because human beings have lost their purpose, things like entertainment have very little constructive purpose. They may be valuable in a personal sense in order to relax tensions or allow a better balance to appear in a distorted expression of love. In other words, entertainment takes on the characteristics of self-centeredness very particularly. The individual likes entertainment because he enjoys it for himself. It is something that he likes, something that he wants. Oh, there is nothing wrong with enjoyment, there is nothing wrong with pleasure, provided it isn't on a self-centered basis. The pleasure and the enjoyment should be seen as something that is added, the true enjoyment, the true happiness. We need a creative purpose and we need to be functioning in relationship to that creative purpose.

Now human beings, when they think of creative purpose and function in relationship to it, are inclined perhaps to consider some genius or other whose whole life is centered with respect to some particular field and he eats and sleeps and lives in that pattern twenty-four hours a day—but there we have rather an unbalanced thing. We need to recognize that every aspect of life from the Divine standpoint has a relationship to the Divine purposes, everything. That does not mean that we, if we are one-pointed, we are just fixed in some single pattern—in the over-all sense, yes, for the Divine purposes, but it is such a broad field and everything that is done rightly, on the right basis, from the Divine standpoint, may participate in this broad field. And that would include what human beings call now entertainment.

Now, there was something of the sort, of course, in the Divine state. Everything that man has was not invented by self-active human beings. It is just a distortion of something that God established, in the beginning. So there was something which corresponded, after a fashion, with what human beings consider now to be entertainment. But there again it was for a purpose and not just a self-centered purpose. It all had a part in the creative purposes of God, and consequently the presentation, whatever it might have been, was directly related to those creative purposes. We might recognize something in this regard with respect to a dramatic presentation of some kind.

We have stories coming down to us out of the past, so-called mythological stories, which deal with the gods—made in the image and likeness of man pretty well, according to the stories, these gods came to earth and walked around and did certain things, got into different kinds of trouble, and some of them make interesting reading. But where did these stories come from? What is their basis? We say perhaps “well, human imagination,” but where did the imagination come from into the human mind, because human beings have never invented anything as an original. One thing human beings cannot be is original. Insofar as they are concerned there is nothing new under the sun. All they can do is take something which God made and distort it or change it around so as to suit themselves, and they have produced some rather remarkable distortions. It would be difficult to trace some of them back to their original sources. But all of them, without exception, have a source, a point of origination, in the Divine design somewhere. Everything, the most evil thing you can imagine, had its source somewhere in the Divine design, because man is not an original creature. He is not the point of origination. God is. So these stories have a background pattern somewhere which has been terribly twisted around and distorted.

We might remember something at this point with respect to what was said by the Lord to Job: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or guide Arcturus with his sons?”

We recognize that these things relate to constellations in the starry heavens. We have touched upon something of the significance of the constellations Pleiades and Orion—influences at work. Mazzaroth has also been mentioned—the Science of Mazzaroth, which relates to the creative influences which are brought to bear in relationship to this planet particularly, the facilities which are available for use in the achievement of the creative purposes. Human beings have tended to get it changed around from their self-centered standpoint and they have more or less childish approach in what is called astrology where people are supposed to be under different influences and that determines how they are going to act or what they are going to do, and so on.

The influences which are real are for use, are to be used, in the achievement of the Divine creative purposes. Man is not supposed to be subject to them. He is supposed to be subject to God. Because he is subject to God and is under the control of God's dominion, he then comes into position to make use of the provision which God is offering in relationship to the achievement of the essential creative purposes.

We have taken note of the fact that God never tries to do the impossible. As there is a certain combination of creative factors brought to focus, it is that combination which needs to be used for the achievement of whatever is required. It is useless to try to achieve something else on the basis of some other combination which is not there. We use what is present. This should not be a difficult principle to comprehend, because human beings in their limited spheres are doing it all the time. Of course, there are those who try to achieve things which are not possible of achievement because what is required to achieve them is not present. The Lord provides that which is necessary from the standpoint of His creative purposes. Man has stolen what he could of the Lord's provision and tried to use them for the human purposes, and we have a situation of great confusion.

There are certain influences which relate particularly to what is called Mazzaroth. From the standpoint of the human recognition of something this relates to what are called the signs of the zodiac and the movements of the various planets of which human beings are aware, also the movements of the sun and the moon and so on. The very fact that that which human beings have built in this regard must of necessity be based upon that of which human beings are aware sets a very distinct limitation upon it, because human beings are aware of so little, even from the standpoint of the planets of this solar system. There is an awareness of nine, including the earth. In actual fact there are twelve. We recognize that there is one out of position. There is some perception in this regard with respect to what are called the asteroids and some theorizing as to whether they might not be the remains of an exploded planet that moved in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter. There is a vacant orbit, anyway, in there and there are also two other planets of which human beings are not aware. Whether those other planets are in physical form of manifestation or not is something we do not need to consider at the moment, but one is beyond the outermost planet of which human beings are aware, Pluto, and the other is beyond the innermost planet. But there are, in fact, twelve planets which need to be taken into account. If you only take nine into account, you are not going to get the right answer. We see these things as having influence, as having meaning. We do not at this point have too much comprehension of what it is all about, but it is there. There is relatedness between that which transpires on the surface of this planet and the great universe beyond.

Much of the dramatic work, which was undertaken in the Motherland, related to this vast drama. In other words, the forces that are moving in the cosmos may be brought to focus in relationship to the achievement of the creative purposes of God here on earth in a manner that is harmonious to that which is transpiring out there. This is something that human beings in the fallen state take no account of at all. If they want to do something, well, they want to do it. It does not matter what is going on out there; it has no meaning to them, anyway. But from the Divine standpoint everything is coordinated. Everything belongs together; it is one thing. And that which is going on out there has vital significance and meaning to that which is capable of being achieved right here. We can only draw to focus at this point something that actually is. We cannot draw something to focus that does not have existence, so whatever it is that is transpiring out there provides the material or the means by which there may be creative achievement right here.

The dramatic presentations that were offered had a direct relatedness to that which was transpiring from the cosmic standpoint, and the miniature pattern here on earth was brought to focus in different individuals—playing the parts, we might say, of the gods and yet, in a sense, they were the gods—God Being made manifest, but bringing into focus something far greater, far more than was just here on earth. And there is a vast cosmic drama unfolding, of which human beings are virtually unaware, which needs to have its relatedness to that which is transpiring here on earth. It must be brought to focus on the surface of this planet through God's crowning creation to permit that which is to be achieved here to be made possible. We cannot somehow just generate the power from within ourselves and say that we are going to do this, that, and the other thing—at least, we cannot do very much on that basis. But once there begins to be a connecting up with that which is transpiring in the vast drama of the cosmos, then there can begin to be sensed the tremendous power that would be available to do whatever was necessary here on earth. It would actually be a very small fraction of that which was available, because our field of function here is relatively a very tiny thing.

So we begin to see that just from the standpoint of this one aspect of what correlates with present-day entertainment, there are vast possibilities. And it is not a matter of make believe, as it is in the world. It is not a matter of just some fictional story. It is the matter of the presentation of something that is a reality—symbolically clothed, yes—clothed by the forms of human beings and their actions, but having a direct relatedness to something which is transpiring in fact, and something which, thereby, can be brought to focus so that the creative cycles may be established in relationship to that which is needful here on earth.

Now, there would be those in such a pattern who would participate as what we might call the actors or the performers, and the audience would participate also. There is a certain participation from the standpoint of the human pattern of things now, isn't there? If the presentation is something which is really capable of stirring the audience, the audience is just carried along with that which is transpiring on the stage or on the screen—generally speaking, on the basis of wrong patterns of emotion in the human scheme of things. But in the Divine scheme of things it would be the right pattern of emotion, the right pattern of feeling, something altogether wonderful.

In the world of man so much of that which is presented, for instance in opera, which combines the dramatic presentation with the music—much of that which is presented through opera is tragic, isn't it? So much is tragic, rather true to human existence. Of course, from the standpoint of the moving picture industry, they have to have a happy ending most of the time so as to make people feel better, but that is not altogether, generally speaking, true to life as human beings know it. It is just a fancy; it helps to make people think that it is worth while going on.

There is no tragedy in the Divine scheme of things. I, personally have never been able to sit through a whole opera with comfort. There are portions which are perhaps beautiful, as far as they go, but there are great possibilities in that field of dramatic presentation. And that relates, certainly, to something that was true in the Divine state. If the presentations which are offered to human beings now were true to the Divine design, they would have no meaning to human beings at all. Human beings would feel utterly separated from them and divorced from them, because they have no experience in that regard. So, it is not a matter of suddenly saying, “Well, now we are going to have the Divine design,” because human beings would not be capable of participating.

Here we begin to come down to something which is of immediate concern to all of you. How much are you capable of participating in the development of those patterns by which the creative purposes of God may be fulfilled? This includes such undertakings as you presented the other evening. What could be done? When we look around to find material to use, all we find is that which fallen man has produced. Some of it may have some possibilities in it, but none of it is actually what is required. In other words, there must be the development of something that brings forth from the true point of origination rather than from the distorted patterns that man has made. We cannot manipulate the distorted patterns that man has made in order to produce the perfect pattern which God offers. It must be something that comes from God.

I do not intend this morning to do very much more than offer a vision, to see if we can share in the opening of a door. What is beyond that door is something that needs to come into the range of our awareness in the days to come. Sound is a very important field of action, creative action—the Word of God—we touched upon this matter, the Word, the spoken word, the creative word. I would like to share something with you of a vision which, at the moment, may be said to be in the realm of imagination. You know while there is vain imagination, there is right imagination too. There is evil imagination but there is that perfect imagination which is needful for the achievement of the Divine purposes. Imagination is a capacity which man has for the Divine use, not something to be thought of as being evil of itself. It is only evil when it is used in a self-centered manner. When it is used by God, it is Divine. We need the right imagination.

I wonder if, just for the sake of taking a look at something, you could consider sound—sound appears by reason of air, the right use of air. It must be under control. God has provided His crowning creation with a mechanism for controlling the use of air. We think of air as being important for breathing and it is, but it is important for the creative processes of God on earth as they manifest through man. The spoken word, for instance, requires control, doesn't it?—because we say what we mean to say, and we mean what we say, or we should—there is the control of air. Air is a symbol of spirit. We recognize that, in speaking or in singing, there should be the release of the spirit, there should be something contained in the words or in the sound. Those of you who sing know that there is something more to it than just the physical aspect of it. There needs to be something put into that which is expressed, whether in the spoken word or in the sounds of a song. So many of the songs that we have in the world are of such a nature that it is very difficult to release any real current of the spirit through them, because the form is not right. So we will not, for the moment, consider words as such but just simply sound.

You can imagine yourself, perhaps, or another permitting the release of air on a controlled basis so as to produce a note, just one note, a sustained note. You recognize the need for the controlled release of air on this basis so it does not all come oozing out in a moment—the diaphragm needs to be in operation so that this single note may be sustained. I wonder how long you could sustain a note, just letting the air gradually come forth, vibrating the vocal chords, to give form to this steady, sustained note—perhaps starting off quietly and gradually increasing in volume, some particular tone.

And then, this which is provided by one person, we will say, is a central core to something that is to be developed. We have other individuals, one by one, adding their single sustained notes in a pattern of harmony with that original note, so that the original note would be going down the center, and a note would be added this side and a note would be added this side, and there would be something gradually built up on the basis of the release of a controlled current of air through the mechanism of the human voice. Now all these notes would blend together. The individuals concerned would have to know which note was natural to them, so that they did not try to bring in their note at the wrong point. As the notes were added together, there would be a harmonious pattern maintained.

If, we will say, after the first note someone came in with the eighth note or the ninth note, wherever it was in its right relationship to the pattern as it had been developing, and then all the intervening notes were suddenly cut off, it might be that that particular note down along the line would not be harmonious directly to that first note but it would be harmonious to the whole pattern. So, the individual cannot tell. W may say, “Well, my note is not going to be in harmony with that original note,” and yet if it is built up as it should be built up, when the point comes where it blends in, it will be in harmony with the whole. In any case, we would begin to have a sound, wouldn't we?—all centered in relationship to this one thing. It could be something very powerful. It could be something which would, for instance, shatter some physical object. The purpose would not be to shatter things, actually of course—but just to indicate something of the power involved, we could recognize that that would be possible.

The purpose for this—which is just an example of something, an imaginary something at the moment—would be to provide a means of releasing the current of the spirit in the achievement of specific purpose. In a broadcasting station, when it is on the air there is something of the nature of a carrier wave constantly radiating out, and superimposed upon this then comes whatever the program may be—maybe the spoken word, maybe an orchestra, something is imposed upon this constant radiation. We can, then, from the use of this example begin to see a process of providing radiation available for use in the release of specific currents of creative achievement.

Now I have been speaking in what we might, in one sense, call symbolical terms. Sound certainly is included in the pattern in order to open up a field of awareness in relationship to creative possibilities. We have opportunities of learning, of practice, with respect to these things—for instance, we have comment periods. I have set the note in the service, and the opportunity is offered to others to learn what it means to blend in with their particular harmonious note, to come in at the right time in the right way. It seems to me that there is still room for improvement, room for learning something in this regard. And all these things have purpose. There is nothing, in relationship to the opportunities that are offered here, which does not have purpose. Everything does. Sometimes the purpose is not seen; in fact, of all the provision of purpose there is, I suppose, perhaps about five or ten per cent is actually seen.

We need to become aware that there are things beyond so that we make use of that which we now are associated with, so that we can move on to those things beyond. We cannot move on to the things beyond until we have accepted the things that are at hand, until we have learned to function wisely in relationship to that which is here, that of which we are presently aware. If we neglect our opportunities in this regard, then there is no means by which we can proceed because we are not just functioning from the standpoint of vain imagination. It must be the real thing or it doesn't mean anything. And so, we have this provision of opportunity where we are that we may take advantage of it. And it is in the measure that we do take advantage of it that the door really opens into that which is beyond.

This morning I have offered you something to bring within the range of your awareness a recognition of certain possibilities, some things that are actually at hand. They always have been, waiting for human beings to come to the point where there may be experience of them in the achievement of the Divine purposes. Human beings are inclined to look at the world and say, “Well, what can be done? It is a hopeless situation.” Oh, there is a very great deal that could be easily done from the Divine standpoint. When we begin to accept God's way, we begin to discover what it is. But until we let it work within the range of that which we do know now, we cannot move beyond to that which at present is unknown.

There is power, there is provision, there is everything that is necessary to deal with the world situation so that all the powers of men would look foolish, insignificant. But we cannot get that by any effort of the human mind whatsoever. It simply comes as we begin to share the control, the dominion of the Lord working through us in relationship to present circumstances, the things that now are. Then we can begin to become increasingly aware of the things that are on beyond so that we move from the known to the unknown. And everything that we do, every action that appears, all the fun we have, all the joy, all that we apply ourselves to day by day, may be used to permit the current of God's Power to be brought to focus on earth for the achievement of His purposes.

© Emissaries of Divine Light