Government — Education — Sex

Government  —  Education  —  Sex

Heaven  and  Earth  

Martin Cecil   August 11, 1980  Assembly

It is always a pleasure, isn't it, to see those who are capable and competent at their particular work perform, whether it is the artist or the automobile mechanic. We all have our fields of artistry contained within the overall reality of life itself.

Life is a common denominator relative to all people. It is this basic element that, being common to all, may unify all. It is one of the primary characteristics of what we might refer to as heaven. I used the word heaven yesterday to describe whatever it is that encompasses everything. One characteristic of this heavenly encompassment is life. There is an inclination on the part of human beings to take the attitude that life is present here or there, but in between it is absent. The question arises: Is there any life on this planet or that planet?—as though the particular form of life that we know on the surface of the earth is the only possibility and that where this form is not present there isn't any life. That is a very self-centered view. We are well aware that life enfolds the whole universe; it would be impossible to find a place where life is not. Because human beings are very restricted in their ability to comprehend and observe limits life in the scope of their observation to restricted areas. However the fact that human beings are restricted in this way doesn't deny the reality of life everywhere.

Life is the most obvious characteristic of heaven. A lack of awareness of heaven, this all-encompassing sphere, does not deny the fact of life or restrict life in any way. Life, we are aware, is characterized by what we call love and truth, without as yet having an adequate understanding of what love and truth are. What experience do we have of life? That decides as to the extent of our comprehension of love and truth.

The heaven, which is characterized by these aspects of the spirit of God—this is just another way of describing something—is all-encompassing, all-enfolding, all-omnipresent. Certainly it can't be discerned in human ways, but it can be experienced by those who dwell in heaven. They dwell in heaven because they no longer insist upon merely strutting upon the stage of earth, posturing upon the stage of earth. The earth recedes in importance and heaven comes more into the foreground of right experience, and to the extent of that right experience the earth becomes a colorful place. It becomes a place fit for the habitation of kings, fit for the habitation for those who belong in heaven—those who belong in heaven remain unknown until the experience of that dwelling in heaven is a reality.

Perhaps we can think of this particularly from our own standpoint. Whatever may happen to be true with respect to others—what is it that is true for us? How extensive is our experience of dwelling in heaven? We claim to have extensive experience of dwelling on earth but we don't really know what earth is until we dwell in heaven. It is not something all on its own as human beings seem to suppose, something that they can use to their own benefit as they see fit. But the heaven is not separate from the earth. If this is really so then the earth isn't the way we see it at all; it isn't the way we've experienced it at all. We've experienced the earth as though it was separate from heaven, which isn't the truth of the matter at all. We've all subscribed to a lie in this sense. But now we begin to awaken to the truth of the heaven. Awakening to the truth of heaven, we begin to awaken to the truth of the earth too, because they are one.

Heaven is characterized by life. The very fact that there has been awareness of life in the earth is indication that heaven is present. Heaven is characterized by life, and life is characterized by love and truth. Here we have the enfolding substance present everywhere. We may think of this in more specific terms relative to our realm of responsibility. Now the realm of responsibility has been thought of as the earth. That is included in our realm of responsibility but heaven and earth are one. Our realm of responsibility is the heaven. Because of the assumption of right responsibility in the heaven then we have right responsibility in the earth. We can't find what right responsibility in the earth would be if we do not find what right responsibility in the heaven is.

So there are those, including us presumably, who have been playing roles in the earth which have been frustrating in many ways, because we couldn't find the right responsibility that we should be carrying. This has been a troublesome factor in Emissary experience, hasn't it, because there are those who want to go here, want to go there, want to be appointed here or appointed there, to do this or that in the earth when they really didn't know the heaven. They saw the earth as being something separate from the heaven—that they could carry responsibility in the earth regardless of what was necessary in the heaven. It can't be done. And yet giving consideration to the heaven has seemed like almost giving consideration to nothing, because it has been absent from human experience our own included.

Well we have awakened to the reality of the heaven and have a sensing in this regard already. And we certainly have a logical view in our minds that heaven must be there even if it is not all that apparent to us: “Heaven and earth are one—yes, here is the basic principle.” But it is the fact, the truth. And I suppose one has to take it a little bit on trust to start with, but very shortly, if that is done, one finds that there is something beyond the earth. And there is a creative movement that reveals itself in the earth, yet one cannot tell where it came from immediately. The Master described it in terms of a wind that blows whithersoever it listeth, and from the earthly standpoint there is no way of determining where the spirit originated or where it is going or what it is about even. However, one becomes aware of the fact that there is a wind. And I think we have some awareness in that regard, thinking of it in terms of what is symbolized by the movement of air—the movement of spirit. We have shared a movement of spirit during this Assembly time together, a movement of spirit in a more specific sense.

Now, as we have noted with respect to this movement of spirit there is a living design involved—life is the primary element here, isn't it? There is a living design which puts in an appearance because of the inherent nature of life which, we are now noting again, is characterized by love and truth. Now we have noted that truth defines love at the various levels of being. Truth establishes the vibrational parameters of the expression of love at whatever level may be in question. We do not therefore imagine that the truth of love at one level is the same as the truth of love at another level. It is unique to the level upon which it is being revealed. That uniqueness comes by reason of the truth; which establishes the design of that particular level of manifestation.

We have an awareness of what we call the physical level as being, what one might say, a base for the generation of substance which may be allowed to emerge in the ascending cycle of one's own experience at finer levels than the physical level. And yet there would be no substance if it wasn't for the physical level—which makes possible the generation. Now of course there is more than the physical level to make possible the generation—there must be the fact of spirit. In other words the heaven must be present and the action of spirit therefore available. And the action of spirit is of the nature that is right and proper relative to the particular level at which love is emerging.

We have a certain awareness of what might be called undifferentiated love, love that has no parameters in the dimensional sense. Love fills the universe, we might say. Saying that, we have a picture of something but we don't really know what it is because we certainly don't know what the universe is or what the real nature of space is, or what we call space. The space that we define in our own consciousness may not be the right definition of space at all. We have an inclination to think of vast blankness throughout the whole universe, with little dots of physical substance here and there. Of course these little dots are vast in extent from the standpoint of human view, but infinitely vaster still is supposed to be this blank in which these little dots are suspended somehow. Well this is a nice symbolic view of things, but we may be assured that it is not the way things really are at all; it is the way we see things from the standpoint of the present level of our understanding. Let us never become hung up on our view of things. Our view of things may be useful because it connects us with other people who have a similar view, and we need to have a similar view with other people to a certain extent at least, in the recognition that a connection with people enables the uplifting process to keep on occurring. The former things must pass away at each level.

When we become familiar with something, we are generally a little reluctant to allow it to pass away and we get stuck. Wherever we get stuck, of course we begin to die, because the nature of life is to keep moving. One of the obvious evidences of the fact of life is that movement. So there is a necessity of letting the former things keep passing away. Of course the first former things to pass away in which there is some interest presumably are the painful things, the unpleasant things. I suppose the idea is that when those have gone, “Well all right, we're sitting pretty now; no need to let anything more pass away. We have it made.” But of course the creative process continues. And if there are no more painful things to pass away there will be some delightful things to pass away to make room for whatever comes next. So there is no ultimate heaven that is reached in this way where, “At last!” we say, “we've arrived. Now we are in heaven and we can settle down!” No settling down—life doesn't allow it.

As we have noted, one of the main characteristics of life is movement, and so we are in a moving state—heaven is a moving state. This relates to the irresistible force, the moving power in heaven. And there is the immovable mass, but it is called that merely because it is only moved relative to the irresistible force—it is immovable insofar as anything else is concerned. We begin to find ourselves unmoved, then, by the earth, as we are associated with this immovable mass; but we find ourselves greatly moved by the heaven, greatly moved by the movement of life, greatly moved by whatever life proves to be at the particular level of experience which is there available because the truth has established the design for love's expression at that level, what we call the physical level. We need to recognize that it is physical to us simply because we have the facilities for interpreting it that way.

Again we might be reminded that there is this vibrational state which is present throughout—space present throughout—let's not define it—a vibrational state which is a reality because there is substance in which that vibration can move. The vibration itself is the expression of spirit, but it only becomes vibrational in experience because there is substance to allow it to do so. Insofar as the dimensional world is concerned, spirit isn't vibrational; it isn't anything. Spirit puts in a vibrational appearance when it moves through substance which is vibratable by spirit. Then the substance is vibrating—and there is the evidence of spirit. But you can't get your hands on spirit directly. We don't wish to. We find that ultimately, in our own experience, we are that. We say individually I AM THAT I AM.

“THAT” relates to spirit—regardless of whether it is revealed in a specific sense in vibrational substance. We are interested in vibrational substance because we are composed of it in the sense of substance—or what we refer to as substance, because I don't think we have any other word for it. It seems a good word because we are aware of vibration in this fashion at what we call the physical level. So we arbitrarily say, “Well there is the physical plane.” Well it is physical to us, or at least we define it that way. To someone else, with some other means of vibrational discernment, it could well appear entirely differently. It appears to us the way it does by reason of our ability to discern it that way. And as I indicated before, this is what makes for a beautiful world, because all the vibrational conditions that are present in the vibrational substance are capable of being translated in terms of form and of color and of beauty of all kinds. And so we have an awareness of what we call the physical level.

Now we don't particularly wish this physical level to dissolve into space, so to speak, because we no longer have any means of translating it this way—that is what it does of course when we have no more means of translating it this way. But it really hasn't changed anything; the change has been in the facility for translation, that's all. What was there is still there. So we have this physical level, as we call it, and relative to this level of experience the truth has of course set parameters for the unique revelation of love—beauty of form, color, sound, smell, touch. Whatever interpretation we make is all interpretation of love at this particular vibrational level. And that is the way it is in our interpretation because of the truth. The truth establishes certain parameters, and we obviously need to be in position to function correctly within those parameters at the particular level.

Obviously the physical level is not the only level at which we need to function correctly. However all the other levels do interpenetrate this physical level which we have interpreted the way we have. All the other levels are present there. The sequence of parameters that the truth has established are all there until the final one is dissolved into what we might describe as the purity of love itself—unrestricted love.

Now the restrictions that are placed upon love are part of the design of truth, and there is no objection to the fact of restriction in this sense. We wouldn’t have anything very much to work with if there weren't these restrictions. The restrictions are most at the lowest level—at the physical level. We are aware of something of this when we think of the mental level, for instance; there is more freedom there than at the physical level. We can apparently do many things in our minds that we can't do with our bodies. Now these are the first two levels which are included in what we call the earth, and yet are interpenetrated, never separate from, the heaven. There is more to the earth than these two levels of interpretation. There is the level where spiritual expression is possible—that is still a part of the earth. Here we have an arbitrary definition of the earth state—we say a triune earth state. And we see also that there is a triune heaven state, and that there is a connection between the two because heaven and earth are one. That connection between the two we have recognized relates to the realm of the heart, which isn't anything of itself but is the means of blending, or the means of division, as the case may be.

We have seen before that the impure heart is the veil which establishes a state of division between heaven and earth in human experience—not in fact but in human experience. It is well to be reminded that the realm of spiritual expression, while it is interpenetrated by the heart realm—just as the mental realm is interpentrated by the heart realm, and so is the physical realm—is not the realm of spiritual expression. People get mixed up in their consciousness about the heart, and they see it as being somehow spirit. It isn't—it isn't anything of itself. It may be a window of heaven, the means by which the reality of spirit can emerge into expression on earth. But it is like a window, if it is clean: if the heart is pure then obviously the scene outside can come in and can be experienced inside. Well that is a portrayal of the heart—the heart would be the glass, not the scene outside or inside. It isn't anything of itself. It is merely a medium of connection rightly—or a medium of division wrongly. The purity of heart relates to the sea of glass clear as crystal, so what is on one side of the glass can come through to the other side of the glass—the heaven may be known in earthly experience.

Now there is this physical level where the truth has established certain parameters for the expression of love. What human beings have known of love has been almost entirely a distorted experience within the scope of those physical parameters. There has been some mental experience in this regard, of course; very little spiritual experience in the general sense. So the physical aspect has loomed large. One aspect of that physical aspect comes to point more particularly in what would probably be describable in human consciousness as sexual terms.

Now of course love is sex, so this would not be surprising, and it relates to everything that is experienced at the physical level but at every other level as well. There isn't any experience without love. The complete absence of love indicates a state of nothing. Well there can't be, in fact, complete absence of love, because love is everywhere present. But in the experience of a person in the setting of love, the complete absence of that person's experience of love has been described as death—nothing—because love is everything. And there is no experience without love. On the physical level, as I say, this may be seen as coming to a particular focus in what is described in human terms as sex. In other words the focus relates to the sex organs, which are very vividly apparent in human consciousness.

Life requires right use at all levels of experience. We are aware of this. When we begin to consider what is right relative to the physical level, we can only do so by reason of the fact that every other level is present at the physical level—there is nothing right for the physical level all on its own. No one can do anything right if that is the state of understanding and awareness. Now there are many people who simply find themselves at the physical level, with very little experience beyond that; others have the physical experience and they also have more mental experience. Those who find themselves at a physical level, where that is almost there total experience, are not, obviously, conscious. They may think of themselves as being conscious but in fact they are not; they are functioning at a subconscious level and the controls in experience spring out of that subconscious level.

We see how people, particularly when it relates to this rather potent area related to the sex organs, are compelled in various ways to do various things that are completely irrational. A great deal of crime, of course, relates to this area because of the irrational subconscious controls that push human beings around. All this springs out of the earth and the earthly heredity, which has long been separated in human experience from the heaven, and so there is all this pileup of compulsions present in earthly heredity which springs out and takes over in human experience in various ways. Very particularly we can see how it does this in the field of sex; and it has been doing this with virtually everyone, let alone those whom we might classify as criminals, but with respect to everybody. This has been looked upon as the natural experience for human beings. We know better; we know it isn't. But it only ceases to be that controlling compulsion when there begins to be an element of conscious awareness present, when we're not simply ruled by the subconscious compulsions.

Now of course most human beings learn to control themselves to a certain extent in this field, and in other fields, so that they behave, as far as possible, according to the decided-upon social norm. This is done by those who have a greater measure of conscious awareness, so that they are not just pushed around by the subconscious compulsions without any element of control entering into the picture other than the subconscious compulsions. When we begin to become more conscious we find ourselves in the position where we must establish certain, what I suppose would be called, ethical controls so that the subconscious creature doesn't hold full sway—he holds some sway. And what we are seeking to impose as a control also springs from the earthly heredity. It may have some elements of spirit faintly there but primarily it is still out of the devil's domain, so to speak. And so we've all risen up to some extent in our awakening, and part of the experience in that rising up is the establishment of control over the subconscious compulsions which take charge of the vast majority of human beings most of the time, and if the intensity gets too hot it bursts out in violent ways of various sorts.

But we have at least some experience of the control of spirit, because there is some substance through which it may work. And that substance is present at the physical level and at the mental level and the level of spiritual expression. In some measure we have substance through which spirit may work, and because of that we are to this extent awake. We have of a consciousness of what is going on and a dawning of awareness as to what it is that rightly should go on. And we see that what rightly should go on is not based in the subconscious eruptions which take control of the way we behave. So we have an awareness of these things. I'm not really saying anything new to you; you know all this. But I am refreshing your pure minds, because sometimes these things get shelved or forgotten in some way in actual experience.

From the standpoint of spirit, we are supposed to be in charge, so that what is done is done because it is righteous—because it is the right expression in that particular circumstance. Now of course we have many circumstances around us where this right expression needs to put in an appearance because we are there. We have looked at the matter of education. There is a need for education, in the sense that human beings everywhere need to discover the compulsion of spirit rather than the compulsion of earthly heredity. And we have something to offer in this regard to the extent that our expression is spiritual expression. Then there is control, then there is the fact of dominion; and whatever is done is done because it rightly should be done. And if there is a need that we see, then we discover ways and means of filling that need, and one of the needs relative to human beings everywhere is that of spiritual education. We recognize that. Children need to be educated, and human beings everywhere are either unborn children or newly born children, and a few perhaps who have reached childhood. Now that is one aspect of it.

Now another aspect of it we recognize is government. There is the need for government to begin to appear, even though human beings are unconscious of the fact. In fact, from our standpoint we are delighted that they are unconscious of the fact. As long as they remain unconscious they won't interfere, at least not so blatantly. There will no doubt be resistances present, as human nature is very resistant, but it won't be focused; will be a general state of affairs. And so we are quite content to let government be conscious to us but unconscious to everybody else. And part of the process by which this government may be increasingly effective is based in education, because it brings those who are in the process of education to the point where they are more deeply influenced by the action of spirit and less influenced by the compulsions of earthly heredity.

We can see a changeover occurring here that requires someone on hand to make that changeover possible. So we do have a dual role; certainly government is a primary factor, but that government includes education. We are to stand at a point which is above, so that we are not involved in the educational process as though that was all there was to the experience of life. We stand above. We think of that standing above perhaps now in terms of government, but out of that level of government education proceeds. There are children all around us in adult bodies who, without conscious awareness, may be hungering for that education. We can't impose that on anyone but we can offer it in fitting ways. There is a right way of doing things, and we know what that right way is when we are functioning from the standpoint of heaven.

Part of that right function relates to the education that is necessary from the standpoint of what may more specifically be referred to, in the physical sense, as sex. Generally speaking, human beings want to know more about sex, and this is not untrue of Emissaries. They want to know about it because this would enable them to be better servants of the Lord, at least this is the idea that is probably in consciousness. But it is not really a matter so much of knowing about something as of knowing what the reality is. The way by which one learns to be a carpenter is to have a carpenter teach one, and in teaching he doesn't sit you down in a chair and propound to you all the principles of carpentry. There may be the necessity of recognizing some things, mentally speaking, but that remains entirely meaningless until the student picks up a saw and saws the board. And so in any realm where there is to be right education there are the two aspects; one might say the knowing about something, but then the actual experience of that something.

Now this tends to be a rather taboo realm when we approach the matter of sex. Why it should be different to any other area I don't really know. Of course it is different because human beings have so much shame in themselves with respect to this area that it has been set apart as something that is quite different to any other field of education. But obviously something needs to be given.

Now our main concern, insofar as allowing this focus of ministry to come into the earth has been to allow the development of those who were in position to provide right education. Well, we've done this in some fields, and some have learned something for themselves; some are capable in certain fields. But this central one is one that needs to be rather carefully examined, because it is the most potent of all, after all, and wrong experience in this field reeks the havoc that we know on earth. And it isn't reeked merely by people thinking about it or talking about it; it is reeked by what they are doing. And consequently, if there is to be a creative experience of awakening and restoration of people, it isn't based merely in talking about it but is what is done.

So this brings us to the gate of something which we need to look at, because we need to have it in our consciousness first. It is coming down out of heaven into the earth, and we need to be aware of what it is that is rightly coming down so that we can play our parts, whatever they may happen to be, in this area as in any other area. And by the way, our parts are not the same; it is not sort of a flat thing—“Now everybody will do this.” It is something that each one has to discover in his own experience of the expression of spirit. But nevertheless, there are so many structures in the consciousness of human beings that make it virtually impossible for spirit to get through—it is always banging up against these structures. So we need to let there be a window in heaven, because of the pure heart, so that something can be seen and comprehended and consequently be allowed in the right way to be a part of the experience that is fitting for each one.

Generally speaking when sex education is considered it is a sort of flat thing that is supposed to apply to everybody the same way. It isn't. It is absolutely unique to each person. And while we may be able to see a general view of what is right and fitting and necessary in this field at the moment simply looking at it from the standpoint of education, the actual experience in this regard will be distinct and unique for each individual.

I rejoice to come to the door—or the window, is it? And I hope the window is sufficiently clean so that the scene can be rightly viewed through the window of the sufficiently pure heart. Because if there are smudges on the window it is going to distort the view, and what is really there to be seen won't be seen. So the Lord trusts us to have adequately pure hearts to let happen whatever can happen, to the extent of that purity.

© Emissaries of Divine Light