Focus  of  Conscious  Understanding  and  Doing

from   The  Ark  of  Restoration

Martin Cecil   October 21, 1979

There is always an inevitable destruction as long as human consciousness does not include the consciousness of God. It was described in these particular terms in the Book of Genesis: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth”—we see that, I think—“and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Then it goes on to say: “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth”—well he was messing things up after all; still is, isn’t he?—“and it grieved him at his heart … The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Familiar picture? “And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” This was not an arbitrary action on the part of some mysterious God somewhere but merely the result of what had been happening in the consciousness of human beings. And the result of what is happening in the consciousness of human beings is what is occurring in the world now.

The instruction was given to make an ark: “Make thee an ark.” I am sure you recognize that this ark—whatever it was; a boat, they say—was designed to make survival possible. Because of what was to happen, what inevitably must happen on the face of the earth, there was a need for a means of survival unless the human race was to be wiped out. So the initial ark here mentioned relates to an ark of survival, and indeed evidently man survived; we’re still here. The same picture was painted at the time of the birth of Moses. He was put in an ark too and floated upon the water. The Princess of Egypt found him there and took him into the palace, so he was raised in the palace. That ark was an ark of survival insofar as Moses was concerned.

Both these arks were pitched within and without with pitch. That was to keep the water out presumably, providing a safe place within the substance of the consciousness of man. A seed survived, both at the time of Noah and then again at the time of Moses. We can see perhaps why it was important that Moses should survive—which he did. But later he built another ark that was called the Ark of the Covenant, which wasn’t a boat; and it wasn’t pitched within and without with pitch, but another material was used, namely gold. Here is a distinct difference then between the previous arks, the arks of survival, and this ark which was a symbol, a representation, of something else beyond survival.

Human beings are inclined to look with some fear toward the future, wondering how the human race is going to survive. I don’t think it’s important anymore that there should merely be an ark of survival. The mere survival of human beings on earth hasn’t accomplished very much so far. So this is another kind of ark that is needful. The cycle was initiated at the time of Moses in this regard. We could call it the ark of restoration—not merely survival anymore but restoration—so that there may be some meaning to survival. So far there hasn’t been much meaning to survival. Human beings have always reverted again into the same old addictions—the fallen state, it’s called sometimes. It’s simply the state which human beings experience on earth, and that state, because of what is present in the consciousness of human beings, ensures disaster. It has happened repeatedly in the past and apparently it is about to happen again.

There are those who are attempting to make arks of survival. Some of the religious bodies do this, stash away some food, canned goods or whatever, in anticipation of the disaster that is coming. But it is not only the religious bodies that do it. There are all sorts of people who want to tell you how you may survive in the coming crash of financial disintegration, for instance. So there is a great deal of interest still in the matter of survival; but if that is all it is I don’t think there is any reason for anyone to survive, so why bother? The true concern is with restoration, and there needs to be an ark for this. The composition of this ark is a living composition—it’s composed of people. There are those who have some conscious awareness of what it is that is needful and what should be undertaken, and there are those who are not so conscious in that way—but who are all essential to the ark. Even the ark of survival, as it originally was with Noah, had a lot of forms present in it which were completely unconscious of the reason why they were in the ark.

We may see that the ark includes many more than those who have some little consciousness of it, and the mere fact of having a consciousness of it doesn’t indicate that the individual is necessarily participating in what the ark really is. There must not only be the hearing but the doing. Those who do have the opportunity of sharing in an awareness of what it is that is happening have the greater responsibility, but there are many others who are handling their responsibilities in an unconscious way, perhaps very often a lot better than those who have been handling them consciously.

Recently one lady has come prominently into the news—Mother Teresa, who has lived in Calcutta, India, ministering to the poor there. Well with our vision we see how futile that is, don’t we! But here was a lady of great compassion who saw this as her task and did it; and I would suggest that there was far more evidence of stable dedication insofar as she was concerned than there has been all too often in our own experience. Let us never put others down because they don’t share our exalted vision. What’s the use of an exalted vision if it doesn’t include an exalted doing? Certainly those who do see, who do begin to understand, have the greater responsibility because they have the greater privilege of vision. In such case there is always a sense of appreciation for all those who reveal the qualities of the spirit of God at whatever level.

We may know that merely ministering to the poor is not going to allow for the restoration of man, but it is a part of the expression of the spirit of God nevertheless. What is the quality of the expression of the spirit of God in our own experience at the level where we are supposed to understand and to do what is required by reason of that understanding? In such case we rejoice in the evidence of the spirit of God in action no matter where; and while it doesn’t seem that anything much could be achieved by just a few people in a city such as Calcutta—let alone in the whole world—nevertheless there is a focus of the spirit of God in action, and if that is allowed to be included in a body which has conscious direction, well we begin to discover that there is far vaster expression of the spirit of God, the power of that spirit, already here than we thought.

We don’t have to dig all these things out and find the people. They are doing their job; we can trust them. Can they trust us? That’s the question, because all that they do is utterly futile unless there is a focus of conscious understanding and doing. When there is that then restoration is possible. The thing that has been lacking has been that focus of conscious understanding and doing, the focus that was represented so beautifully by the One called Jesus. But it is not a matter of one person; it is a matter of all of those who have the privilege of sharing a vision and an understanding which heretofore has not been available adequately on earth. Are we going to make sure that it is adequately available on earth? That is what we are here present for this morning, sharing in this hour.

So we stay humble. We don’t think that somehow or other if we do have some vision we are better than somebody else who doesn’t. We have been charged with the responsibility of that vision; they haven’t. They have their own responsibility and maybe they are handling that a lot better than we are handling our responsibility of vision. We need to be honest in these things. We need to be humble and appreciative, and above all encompassing, including all who are participating in the expression of the spirit of God at whatever level and in whatever way. How blessed we are in our vision, but only when it includes our doing.

© Emissaries of Divine Light