June 18, 2016

Communion and Communication

Communion  and  Communication





Martin Cecil   May 3, 1981



How beautifully and strongly a creative atmosphere may be set—the atmosphere of communion. Only as true communion is known is there anything of meaning and value to be communicated. When communication springs out of the state of communion that communication may open a window of heaven, so that others might share in the communion. Communion requires very few words, if any—communion is made possible of experience when there is spiritual intimacy.

There have been those on earth—I think of some of the American Indians, for instance—who had some awareness of the importance of communion, so that when there was a meeting between people from different parts they would sit down together in silence, maybe for a few days, in order to establish something of communion. Until that was done there was no need for words; the words would have been superfluous, unnecessary, achieve nothing. I recall that when Job had his troubles and his three friends came they sat with him in silence for a week. Here certainly was an opportunity to establish communion; evidently it wasn't done, because when the three friends began opening their mouths their communications were not evidence of communion. Apparently they had been stewing inside for that week, waiting for the chance to speak their minds!

I think much of the correspondence which I have received over the years is an attempt on the part of those concerned to produce the experience of communion by communicating with me. That could never be done. There are a lot of wasted words when such attempts are made. If the letters I have written to many have been of value it would be because they sprang from an experience of communion, and so were providing communication which could open the hearts of those concerned to the greater experience of communion. But if you try to do it in the reverse way it doesn't work—try to get a communication, which does not spring from communion, to produce the experience of communion. It won't happen. When communion is the experience, very few words would be necessary. All the words would be doing in such case would simply be confirming the fact of communion. This could be done no doubt in two or three sentences. After all, it's not that I really need to be enlightened by all the marvelous realizations that people have.

What is delightful to me is to touch the spirit of communion, which, as I say, requires very few words. If we share communion, then there are those occasions when communication may be fitting, communication which allows me to participate in the creative action which is emerging through you and others. But then that creative action, if it is actually present, is not an isolated thing either—it will always relate to what is occurring in the larger picture of our body as a whole. Such communication is never, when it springs from communion, an endeavor to create some sort of an empire of one's own, even if it is supposed to be a spiritual empire. There isn't any such thing on an individual basis. “The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” There is an overall state of wholeness which is all included in the Lord's domain.

Individuals are of value only because they are a part of what is springing from the state and the experience of communion; then what is expressed in whatever way will fit in the whole.  To fit into the whole, the whole must be seen, must be taken into account; there must be greater interest in that whole than there is in the particular part which one plays relative to it. One's own particular part of course  requires close attention but not to the exclusion of an awareness of the far greater importance of everything else that is happening. This, when it is the attitude, maintains a state of humility. Humility goes by the board when the person begins to think that his part is so important that it can ride roughshod over what is happening everywhere else. Such an attitude would indicate of course that the experience of true communion was not yet adequately known.

Only at the level of communion is the reality of agreement established. And yet the word agreement doesn't fit particularly at the level of communion, because here is a state of wholeness, a state of blendedness—there is no necessity for agreement. It is one state, after all; and the evidence of that one state is the experience of communion—communion in spirit we would say. It is communion one with another, because each is a part of the expression of that one spirit and it all fuses, blends together, at the level of communion. As something springs forth from this state of communion through those who know that state, the agreement appears from the standpoint of the realm of communication. The form that what is moving in the state of communion is to take is found naturally and easily on the basis of communication. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” This is one way of saying that where there is true communion what emerges into expression by reason of that carries the quality of agreement in the external sense, and because it springs from the one source it is done. Here is a summarized definition of the creative process, but it is absolutely based in the fact that there are those on hand who participate in communion.




It is clear that at the time of the Master there was very little communion experienced by those who were in His vicinity. One could hardly say, for most of them, that they were close to Him. They may have had a sense of being close to their idea of what and who the Master was, but the true communion was rather conspicuous by its absence.  This is the reason why, at the very conclusion of His ministry, He introduced what has subsequently come to be called the communion service. It was introduced because those who were present did not know what communion was—if they had known, there would be no need for the service. So it was, as He said, a reminder of the importance of discovering the reality of communion which was available to be known. As is usual with human beings who are centered in form, the particular approach that He made with the bread and the wine was taken as though it was some sort of magic incantation, that all one had to do was to swallow these things and some remarkable change would occur. How childish! Here were some symbols to remind anyone who was open to be reminded—precious few over the centuries—that communion at the spiritual level of experience was essential, so that something might be brought forth into the world which sprang from that source. As long as the symbols were taken as though they were something of themselves the whole point was lost—it has been lost.

Communion is in spirit. That comes when there is a conscious awareness of the spiritual place where that communion is known. This spiritual place, the Holy Place, the place of wholeness, becomes known because there is someone present who knows it. There must be such a starting point. There was such a starting point of course when the Master was on earth—He was it. We have subsequently become aware of the fact that if there is to be a point of focus in life present on earth this focus must arise out of the body of mankind—it can no longer be a projection. It was a projection at the time the Master was here. He brought it. He brought the point of focus with Him and offered it consciously but, as we have seen, it was very quickly rejected. That opportunity is gone; it can't be recalled; it can't work again on the basis of a projection in that sense.  Something must arise from within the body of mankind which allows a focus of life to be made known. This has been done. We wouldn't all be gathered here this evening if it hadn't been done. And the opportunity was consequently offered to all concerned to share in that, to share in that focus of life, awakening to the place of wholeness, the place from whence the experience of communion may come.

It is natural for spiritual beings to share communion, spiritual intimacy, spiritual intercourse. On this basis there begins to be present, and in manifest expression on earth, the focus of life to which all people may orient. So we have ourselves become increasingly aware of these things, not merely because I communicate with you in words but because, in whatever measure, we experience communion. The fact of oneness is a reality. Then in all our communications the evidence of that oneness takes form.

Bringing this back again to the matter of letters—there are those letters which confirm the fact of communion and they are useful, that this may be maintained in an easy spiritual association between us. Such letters require few words. Then there are those communications which are revealing of the particular parts a person is playing in opening the way for others to share in the reality of communion. This is one way of indicating what our purpose is, because in sharing communion restoration occurs. We have seen this in the light of restoration heretofore; that's still the purpose. But we become aware of the way by which this happens: communion and such communication as may be necessary to allow that state of wholeness to permeate this world.

There are many things to be done—much to be undertaken in the field of things to be done—to provide the facility by which a centering in life is made possible, by which the orientation of human beings in death may be changed. It immediately begins to be changed the very moment the focus of orientation in life is established and is operational. This focus relates to the conscious mind of the body of humanity. The focus is in the conscious mind—this is the Son. The direction and the control spring from the Son. The Son has put in an appearance, to the extent that it is a reality now, because of the prior working of the Holy Ghost through the whole subconscious mind of humanity. And so, something has broken surface, and there is a conscious focus appearing.

That conscious focus is absolutely essential to what we're about in the creative sense. We must see, and understand, and be capable of functioning, consciously. And so the way opens. That conscious understanding expression through this level of the mind of humanity provides direction and control as a point of orientation toward which, consciously or unconsciously, those with sufficiently yielded hearts may turn. Turning, they find something that is stable, steady, sure, always present, not going off on tangents every now and again, not trying to establish some particular personal field of important ministry. How many have had that urge? I wouldn't ask for your hands because I think it's a very general attitude that has been present. There has been a looking for this great thing that one is going to do somewhere, while ignoring what may well be done right where one is, because where one is is where one belongs, for heaven's sake! That's right, isn't it?



Let us be where we belong and provide the conscious focus of creative understanding there. This always requires a certain amount of deliberate action. The deliberate action that is taken may not seem—at least to the human mind, if it's still around—to be all that significant. But with true vision, true understanding, springing out of the state of communion, the opportunity that is present, whatever it may be, is seen as being the most important thing for oneself, in fact the only thing for oneself—there isn't anything else.

So, taking advantage of everything because we are not alone—we all take advantage of our own personal field of operations, seeing this personal field of operations in terms of the whole—then everything gets attended to. The unified state, which is the natural state in the field of communion, emerges in specific ways to make possible creative action at the level of communication. We all have things to do, presumably at times things to say, at the level of communication. I like to be acquainted with those things with which I should be acquainted, but I would have to acknowledge, as I think you need to acknowledge also, that there are many things with which I do not need to be acquainted in a direct sense. There are still some who tend to give me another installment in the serial of their biography. Well there may be some things I should know but undoubtedly there is far more that I shouldn't know. I'm not particularly the prying type! I like to be offered what I need to be offered, and not offered what I don't need to be offered. This requires a certain amount of discernment presumably—spiritual discernment. It requires that one have some sort of awareness of the whole and what therefore would be fitting and what wouldn't.

I don't stand alone in this ministry. There are others who share responsibility, and if there is a reluctance to let the true design work, then that person could be classified I suppose as an obstructionist. Let's let it be the way that is made available to us. And we all know what that is. We all know! We try to deny it at times. We try to go around different paths so as to avoid the necessity of letting the true design emerge. It emerges through people, just like you and me, and in that emergence I suppose it might be said that according to some human concepts someone is not functioning perfectly. Would any of us claim that distinction for ourselves? Allow things to operate the way they are designed to operate, and the way we know they are designed to operate is the way that is apparent to us—not fanciful imagination, as if it was someway else, but the way it is.

On this basis, because we are capable of sharing spiritual communion, we can participate in the creative action of the spirit of God with great power and effectiveness on earth. We know the truth of our spiritual union in this realm of true communion. We can't find it in the realm of communication, for what is present in the realm of communication, to be of any value at all, must spring from this field of communion. And how seemingly still unknown this is to so many; they think they're going to achieve great things because they're capable of communicating great things. That's not it.  Communion.

Wisdom is the experience when there is communion. That is the sense of the fitness of things, isn't it, a sense of the fitness of things at this level of communion, not yet out here in the realm of communication. And when it is experienced in this beautiful heaven, then what emerges in communication will fit—it will ring true; it will be right. But nothing that is communicated that does not spring out of the realm of communion will properly carry any weight at all. It will partake of this business of rationalization, indicative of the impure heart.  Communion requires a pure heart, so that the spirit is known clear as a bell. Those who know that spirit know each other. There is spiritual intimacy, spiritual closeness. I see so many barriers being sustained. The barriers are sustained, not in this realm of communion but in the realm of communication, in the realm of human busyness. We may indeed stand together in the Holy Place, because the tone really sounds quite clearly, and being heard it may be yielded to so that there is communion.

This evening there is the open opportunity, in deep humility, to be aware of the reality of this realm of communion. It's here present with all of us, it's here present with all people on the face of the earth, but who have pure enough hearts to know it? It is here to be known. It is here as our place of abiding.  It has been the secret place. It is the place of wholeness.

How beautiful to share the glorious blended oneness which is known in this Holy Place, the place in which we may abide, so that all that springs forth in our communication, in the realm of words and actions, may carry the sound of the True Tone. Then all that we do will be seen as a part of the creative action of the spirit of God, by reason of this whole body. All self-importance evaporates and there is an ease in the external sense which allows movement into whatever area may be necessary, in association with whomever it may be necessary to be, for the creative purposes of God—not for one's own great ministry, not for any other reason, but for the creative purposes of God, which are achieved under the direction of the Son, by the power of the Holy Ghost.


Lillian Cecil — Martin, your beautiful words speak of the essences of love in our own hearts in this moment, and we feel at one with you and with each other in this holy place. May we so abide.

Martin Cecil — Abide, indeed, in love, in a natural ease which can alone be experienced in the Holy Place.


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