Communion

Martin Cecil   June 12, 1977

The question arises at the beginning of any service as to what is present with which we may work.  Obviously there is a certain amount of flesh sitting here and this is one necessary factor. If there were no one present we would have precious little to work with. Where would we be then?  But there is also spiritual substance present—a vibrancy of spiritual substance by reason of the presence of living flesh, and it is this spiritual substance which provides us with what is necessary for our creative work. How much spiritual substance is present? What is the quality of it? At what levels of consciousness is it appearing?

In a gathering such as this, where those are present who know something of these things and have a certain experience over the months and years, there is a quality of spiritual substance present that would not be present in many other gatherings of human beings. It may be said that we have worked assiduously that we might have this spiritual substance available in a very particular sense at service time to enable us to work in the creative field consequent upon heavenly orientation. If there are those present who are representative of earthly orientation then any spiritual substance that might be associated with them is held away from use—it's not available. It usually takes a little time for those assembled to begin to relinquish their patterns of earthly orientation sufficiently to share the experience of heavenly orientation. If heavenly orientation is not a consistent experience in daily living, then obviously, in a gathering such as this, earthly orientation will still be present. Satan will not only have come among you but will be represented by you, and satan is hostile.

One of the outstanding characteristics of human beings in earthly orientation is hostility. If there is a feeling that one is in the midst of hostility why would there be such a feeling? Because there is the experience of hostility in oneself. Most people have this experience, as we are well aware. They're on the defensive. They're anticipating being attacked, one way or another. They're trying to protect themselves and there is a state of hostility. This is inevitable when there is earthly orientation. It is an imaginary state—in other words a person is contending with shadows, the shadows which he himself casts. Such a statement on my part would no doubt engender quite a bit of argument from hostile people, because they are quite convinced that everyone is hostile to them: we live in a hostile world and a hostile universe. Only hostile people find themselves in such a state. There is no evidence, for instance, that Jesus took the attitude that He lived in a hostile world. Insofar as hostile people were concerned, then and since, that has seemed to be the appearance of things, but from the standpoint of His own attitude it wasn't so for Him, because there was no hostility in Him. He didn't object to whatever was there. He had no sense of hostility toward it.

What is our experience in our immediate circumstance? Do we see our circumstances as being hostile? Do we see other people as being hostile to us? We only see it that way if we are hostile ourselves, because we're not here to contend with anyone. We are here to participate in a creative process, and as we have noted, all things can be used advantageously in this, except lukewarmness; hot or cold it matters not. What is the nature and the quality of the spiritual substance present in this room this evening? Do you have any sensing of it, any awareness of it, or do you expect me to produce some profound words of inspiration, regardless? We can't work regardless of what is factually so. Human beings in earthly orientation try to do so. They ride roughshod over whatever it is that may be present, chiefly because they never noticed it. They never saw the flower bed with all the blooms in it, so they go tramping across in their hobnail boots. To the extent that there is spiritual substance present we have a medium by which there may be discernment of the heavenly elements, the spiritual elements which come down from God out of heaven in the moment. We can only work with whatever it is that is present. It takes quite a bit of ingenuity sometimes.

This brings us to a realm of consideration which we may share to the extent that we are capable of communing. I use the word communing rather than communicating. It is said that in the world nowadays there is a vast network of communication. This is one of the things that is cited as causing the state to be one world, not a whole collection of isolated peoples—but the mere fact of techniques of communication means precious little unless there is something of value to be communicated. The techniques of communication which have been developed by human beings in earthly orientation are of a very surface nature, and communication is thought of in surface terms. We well know that it is impossible for one person to give the truth to another person merely by speaking words or writing words. Yet this is the idea that most people have with respect to communication—something of value can be given by one conscious mind to another conscious mind. That is a very surface thing and it certainly does not permit communion. Information may be conveyed at this surface level to a certain extent, conveyed from one conscious human mind to another, but why do we want information? The earthly-oriented person wants information so that he can more expeditiously and more efficiently manipulate his environment.

Functioning effectively as a person in the state of earthly orientation is to be expert in manipulation, and in order to manipulate things you need all this information. But if we're not interested in manipulating things, why do we need all this information? Yet obviously, if this body of people is to be of value there must be communion, there must be a blending of consciousness. That blending of consciousness does not come by the acquisition of information; in fact the more information one has the less facility is available to experience the blending, because one is so busy with all the information. The information is at a very surface level. I'm not saying that there is no need for a certain amount of information, but we should not imagine that information enables us to function effectively from the standpoint of heavenly orientation.

There is from the standpoint of heavenly orientation an entirely different approach—an approach which relates to communion. In the religious world of Christianity there is what is called the communion service. The fact that this has persisted over the last nineteen centuries and is still present in consciousness in the way human beings have interpreted it gives evidence that there is a basic truth here—a truth which relates to communion. Let's not think of it in terms of some particular religious rite but rather what the word means: communion, one with another. That indicates a sharing, a blended experience. For such an experience to be known of course there could be no hostility present. Hostility immediately sets up all kinds of barriers, quite impenetrable barriers very often, not physical barriers but barriers that are there nevertheless; and you run into them all the time, don't you, and get a bit bruised one way or another on occasion—not physical bruises but bruises nevertheless. Well, of course, if we have an increased vibratory perception we avoid running into such things, just the same as we avoid running into the coffee table.

People very often complain about getting hurt this way, because they ran into some wall of hostility somewhere, and then they blame the wall for hurting them, as though it got up and clobbered them. People often act very much the same way when they hit their shins on the coffee table, as though the coffee table had malice aforethought. But it's really exactly the same thing in the vibratory field. We should have more sense than to run into the wall. We avoid running into the wall physically speaking, as far as possible, but people are running into vibratory walls all the time. We should be able to perceive the vibratory wall before we hit it. If we do then we don't walk into it and we don't complain that it was someone else's fault that we got hurt. It wasn't; it was our own foolishness, our own dumbness one might say.

I have been talking about the necessity for spiritual discernment so that we might function in the true design of heavenly heredity. And while we necessarily have physical things to handle day by day, this is entirely secondary to the spiritual responsibility with which we handle these things. We have to give a little thought on occasion to what we're doing that we may do it right, but our doing, whatever it is that emerges into expression through us, is properly spiritual expression, and we see something far more than the little thing which we are handling at the moment. This does not blind us to the necessities of the moment but opens our eyes to a world of far larger dimensions.

Very often people complain about the restricted field of their present function. They feel frustrated in it. If you ever feel frustrated, who do you think is responsible for that? The circumstances? or the way other people treat you? No.If you feel frustrated the question being asked of you is perhaps, “What's wrong with you? Why are you so incapable of handling your present circumstances from the standpoint of spiritual expression?” Because it doesn't matter what the circumstance is, if you were handling it from the standpoint of spiritual expression you would not find it to be a restricted circumstance. It may seem restricted on the basis of your own view of it. It isn't restricted inherently. There is no restricted circumstance inherently, not even if you are in prison in solitary confinement, maximum security. Those who find themselves in such a condition. if they are functioning from the standpoint of earthly orientation, would be likely to have a sense of terrible frustration. But if that situation is handled in spiritual expression the restriction vanishes. Oh the physical restriction may still be there for the moment, but we're not functioning from the standpoint of earthly heredity; we're functioning from the standpoint of heavenly heredity and there's no restriction.

We put such great store by the physical factors, as though they were capable of imprisoning us. If we have been imprisoned it wasn't because of the physical factors; it was because of our own attitude. We are now free in heaven, if that is our position, if that's where we're at, heaven on earth. In heaven on earth we are free in the circumstances, whatever the earthly circumstances may be. We've talked about this, haven't we? The point is to be free in our circumstances, not necessarily free from them. It's too bad if we're free from our circumstances. Where would we be without circumstances? Well, that wouldn't be on earth, would it? Knowing the truth is freedom, and the truth for us, individually speaking and all together, centers in heavenly heredity. That is the truth for us. It isn't centered in earthly heredity. If we have that attitude and experience then we don't know the truth of ourselves—we just have the experience of a husk.

In earthly orientation there is hostility. This is one characteristic very clearly present in human experience. In heavenly orientation there is no hostility, no sense of being badly done by, no sense of imprisonment, no sense of bondage, no sense of being restricted by darkness. There is, on the contrary, a consciousness of the wide-ranging responsibilities which we can easily carry, responsibilities that are in no sense prevented from being handled by reason of earthly circumstance. We can handle them because of earthly circumstance.

These ideas have been communicated conscious mind to conscious mind for years for many of you, but all too often communion has been lacking. We've noted that the conscious mind is a very thin layer of the total field of consciousness, the total capacity of consciousness. It's like a skin just on the surface. One can communicate information from conscious mind to conscious mind, but information can be deadly if the individual imagines that that is what makes him capable. I suppose you could say from my standpoint there's something of a dilemma here, because I do speak to you from conscious mind to conscious mind. If one speaks at all one can't help that aspect being present. From my standpoint, however, my expression is not merely at the level of the conscious mind. If you limit it in your reception to the level of the conscious mind then it is information to you, information which you are likely to try to use to make you capable of manipulating your circumstances spiritually, and that is something I am not in the least interested in doing. And yet I can't stand up here and say nothing, because there is very little spiritual discernment which would enable communion to occur without words.

Such communion is quite possible. They say, for instance, that husband and wife who've lived all their lives together and love each other communicate quite easily without saying very much. But generally the idea is that if we are to communicate we've got to say a lot, surface mind to surface mind. That seems to be the case in the world of earthly orientation, but it doesn't make people understand each other, does it? They can transmit a bit of information this way, and then it's grabbed hold of and, “Ah, now I have this information I can apply it here and do great works, manipulate my environment.” This is the same thing as wanting information so that one may know what God's will is.

There have been those, maybe some of you here present, who have felt that I would say something sometime so that you would know what God's will was and then when you had that information you could do God's will. But if you were doing it it wouldn't be God's will, would it? It would be your will. God's will is not known on the basis of information. “You just tell me what God's will is” is one very popular question asked by those who are giving consideration to spiritual things. “Let me know what God's will is and I'll do it.” Oh, so sincere people are! But who wants to know? Someone who is in a false or imaginary state of separation from God. God is over there; there needs to be an intermediary somewhere who can discover what God's will is from over there and convey it to you over here. Then you have the information and can do it. That is the underworld state.

You may recall Uranda talking about telepathy. It isn't a matter of zapping a conscious mind somewhere with your conscious mind so that it begins to think what you're thinking, receive the information that you have to transmit. The connection is not at the surface level of consciousness but in the depths, unconscious mind to unconscious mind. We even talk about a heart-to-heart talk. If it really is a heart-to-heart talk the words themselves are not seen to be all that important. Something else is being conveyed, even though words may be spoken—communion! This is an elementary touching into the field of communion, where we're not snowing each other under with words, as though the explanation was going to get the job done.

Whenever you feel inclined to say, “Well I need this information,” stop a moment; why do you need it? And you will inevitably discover that you need it in order to manipulate your environment, at least that's what you think. But that's not our concern. There are plenty of people manipulating environments all over the place. We don't need to join that throng. But there are precious few—and they are a precious few—who in heavenly orientation are allowing true spiritual expression to be born in the moment with respect to the circumstance of the moment, without an endeavor to make the circumstance go in this direction or in that direction. Let it go in whatever direction it will go on the basis of spiritual expression.

In our communion one with another it only seems to require such a lot of words because we've been so ineffectual in the function of communion itself. Communion is oneness, blending, and our blending is in the spirit of God. That is where we come together, because individually speaking we each in reality differentiate an aspect of that one spirit. That one spirit is held in focus at a particular point, and that point, that individual being, we have referred to as the Lord, the LORD of Lords, the Lord of Love. Out of that one spirit there come many differentiations. Magnification of that one spirit is made possible because of this. In Him the point has no magnitude, position but no magnitude. We have the responsibility of allowing the point to be given magnitude, and we find that we each have an aspect of that point to which to give magnitude. But it all comes out of that one point. It's all harmonious; it's all one. That One who provides the point of focus in this regard Himself is responsible for the differentiation of an aspect of a larger spirit beyond Him, the One He referred to as the Father. So it is on the basis of this differentiation of spirit that we may commune.

There are those occasions when our communing requires the spoken word. There are other occasions when it doesn't. If we are responsible for the world around us then we necessarily must commune with that world. We can only commune with that world to the extent that this one spirit is present and active. This is rather rarely so insofar as human beings now are concerned, but insofar as what we call nature is concerned that one spirit, at the particular level of manifestation, is present and active and there is a right communing with nature. There are those who have sensed something of this but haven't really known why they should commune with nature. What's the point? We need to know what the point is, because we have the capacity to know what the point is. We have a responsibility with respect to nature as related to the creative purposes of that one spirit. Man should know a great deal more about nature than nature knows about itself, and yet human beings are always trying to learn things from nature, which is a dead giveaway, isn't it? They don't know anything themselves, as though man didn't have the ability to know what needs to be known. It's present with him but has been shut out from his experience by reason of earthly orientation in earthly heredity. If you commune with nature for the reason that one should commune with nature, which may not be immediately evident to most, you wouldn't harangue nature, would you? You wouldn't go out into the woods and give a service. There would be for the most part no need for words at all.

Perhaps one reason for words would be to focus your own consciousness, but the communing is at a level which is not of the conscious mind. Some people talk to their plants; they say it benefits the plants. I suppose it depends on what's said; but what benefits the plant would be the spirit finding expression in the right way, and that doesn't necessarily require words. And we at times properly, most of the time in fact, should be communing without words, because we can't talk all the time to everybody. Yet there is the need for communion. Let us not look upon talk as though it was the only means of communion or of communication. It isn't, and the more talk there is in the general pattern of daily experience the less communion there will be. Perhaps that's a good point at which to complete the service this evening, because our concern is to develop the capacity to commune one with another, and that is done on the basis of heavenly orientation in the one spirit which we all carry responsibility to differentiate.

When the fact is that we are differentiating that spirit in our momentary expression, we are in position to commune one with another, to sense and to know what's going on and to participate in the creative process which springs out of heaven. In that creative process there's no need for human manipulation; everything is under control when the spirit finds expression. Everything comes under control in your world when the spirit finds expression because of you, and you don't have to manipulate things to survive or to produce conditions which you want to have; because you cease wanting, for one thing. You're willing to let it unfold in the creative process. You're willing to let evil be evol and you're not being pushed around by the circumstances of the environment. You're no longer obeying those circumstances which try to tell you what you should be doing. You see the circumstances simply as the effect of the spiritual expression manifesting through you. You see the circumstances as the fruit of the tree of life and you no longer eat of that fruit. You find yourself a part of the tree of life by which the fruit is brought forth, but not for you to eat. You never again become subject to the circumstance but remain in heavenly orientation and spiritual expression.

© Emissaries of Divine Light