from

The  Spirit  and  Substance  of  the  Single  Eye

Martin Cecil   February 12, 1984

What was drawn to focus this morning is available for my particular use, but this does not mean that your substance has been taken away from you. It is your substance, after all. It has merely been drawn to focus in this way so that it might be of particular use, in which all of you continue to play your parts. There has been an intensification to a point of focus of the substance that is present in everyone here present. It is well that there should be some conscious awareness of the working of this process so that there might be a deliberate participation, because all concerned know what it is that is required and what it is that is going on. As there is deliberate participation, then the focus can be clear and unified, whole and available for the release of the spirit of God, Shekinah, in the continuing cycles of purification.

Shekinah is represented symbolically as the fire that burns, the light that glows, and the cloud of glory. The substance which is available as it is drawn together and brought to focus may accommodate Shekinah. As the hearts of all concerned are increasingly purified, the cloud of glory may shine through in increased spiritual expression. Here is the fire falling from heaven. The focus of spiritual substance that is provided permits this to occur, according to the extent and clarity of it. Each individual has a personal responsibility in the matter, for it certainly doesn’t happen without those who are present. The extent of the happening is absolutely dependent upon the purity of heart and the clarity consequently of spiritual expression. We are concerned with this individually in our daily living, but we are also very much concerned with this because we see the value and usefulness of it when it is drawn to focus on particular occasions such as this. Now I am speaking about this, but it should be something that is clear in the consciousness of all concerned, so that we do not need to speak about it but merely participate in it. We have to be awake and alert, of course, to do this—sufficiently awake to associate ourselves with what is actually going on.

What we speak of as Emissaries of Divine Light has a particular relatedness, as I am sure you are all aware, with the level of spiritual expression. “Emissaries of Divine Light” are words which describe Shekinah in expression through a body composed of individual human beings who are permitting the truth of love to be the expression of their own living. This is what the words “Emissaries of Divine Light” mean. No one can change the truth of this meaning. It is exactly what it is: the truth of love in expression through a body of people because it is in expression through the individuals who compose that body.

I know what the meaning of Emissaries of Divine Light is. Perhaps some of you do too. I am not talking about a theory — I am talking about the fact. There are those who certainly have not known what the truth is in this regard. Some of these have been associated more closely with what might be called the Emissary ministry; others have merely observed from a distance. Observation seems to require judgment, and where there is judgment the understanding gets caught at the surface of things, in which case of course Emissaries of Divine Light is looked upon as an organization. Some have thought that as an organization it was all right; others have thought that it was for the birds! All this surface play has absolutely no meaning insofar as I am concerned, because I know what the meaning of Emissaries of Divine Light is, and that meaning cannot be changed.

Regardless of what anyone thinks about it or anyone judges it or anything else, the meaning remains the meaning. In order for that meaning to be known requires that one provide the substance and the facility for the expression of the truth of love on earth. Only when that is done can a person know; otherwise he doesn’t. Because he doesn’t, there is of course the human habit and inclination to judge for or against, and probably to find many things to object to, many accusations to level. This all is an indication of continuing double-mindedness”.

We have been considering the coming of the foci, in particular the emergence of the spirit of love in expression at different vibratory levels. The vibratory level described by the words spiritual expression is the vibratory level of Emissaries of Divine Light, and the spirit of love appearing at that level may be described as the spirit of blessing. Blessing is impossible as long as an attitude of accusation is maintained. We have noted and we have discovered how very deeply embedded the spirit of accusation is in human experience. It is perhaps the most obvious characteristic of human nature. These days it is displayed everywhere in banner headlines. And while some might say that that display is by reason of what occurs through the media, what occurs through the media occurs through the media because it is what occurs through human beings everywhere. It is convenient to accuse the media then, but there must be an accuser on hand to do it. So accusation has dissipated the spirit of blessing — and the spirit of blessing cannot come to be known by anyone until accusation is dissolved. When this no longer is present in the expression of a person living on earth, then the spirit of love, revealed as the spirit of blessing, begins to become known.

Here is the cloud of glory, in which all that is present in the individual consciousness is enfolded. The cloud of glory might be said to change everything that is present in consciousness. You know how it is on a gray day, such as today, when the sun breaks through. The world of observation is transformed. The whole sense of living is transformed in most people. This symbolizes, in rather a coarse way, what occurs when the cloud of glory is the nature of one’s own expression in living. All that is present in one’s own awareness, in one’s own consciousness, is transformed by reason of the cloud of glory and, look where you will, you cannot find anything to accuse. The very fact that accusation persists is clear-cut evidence of the absence of the cloud of glory.

Human beings are revealing themselves all the time. They think they are accusing other people but they are revealing their own state of consciousness, their own miserable condition, as a rule. Surely it would be much more profitable to reveal a condition which is characterized by the cloud of glory. The accuser is a pretty sleazy character, after all, and the world of consciousness is maintained in a state of darkness where it seems to be easy to find shadows, holes, absences, to blame and to accuse. Let the world of your own consciousness light up with the cloud of glory and the shadows flee away.

When the light is more intense the shadows are not intensified, but decreased. It appears as though the shadows deepen, but only because of what is happening in the human eye, not because it is a fact. The more light there is — the more light there is, not the more shadows there are! We may see this from the standpoint of the cloud of glory. It doesn’t intensify shadows. It doesn’t intensify elements in one’s consciousness which one would accuse or blame or think are bad. It only seems to do that as long as the heart is impure, or there are elements of impurity present. It can’t be entirely impure, or you wouldn’t have the cloud of glory at all.

Light or darkness is in the eye of the beholder. If there is light, there is light. If there is darkness, there is darkness — the increase of light does not increase the darkness. Clearly enough, when the sun is shining brightly, even though there is something present which casts a shadow, it is lighter in that shadow than it would be if the sun were not shining. Right? Obviously so. And yet from the standpoint of human observation it looks darker. Judge not by the appearance. We are concerned with letting the light shine. That is supposed to be characteristic of an Emissary of Divine Light: the cloud of glory, present, because one is present oneself.

Those who do not participate in the revelation of the cloud of glory in living have no idea what the meaning of the words “Emissaries of Divine Light” might be. There have been some of these present in the Emissary ministry, and many more who were not, who were trying to observe. All observation must happen through the state of consciousness of the individual concerned. What anyone observes will be a reflection of the individual’s own state. There have been so many who have thought that there was something wrong, who have seen shadows. But the shadows were in their own consciousness. I suppose, amongst anyone who could observe, I might be in the best possible position. I know the meaning of the words “Emissaries of Divine Light”; therefore I know when that meaning is not being revealed. I have never felt that it was incumbent upon me to accuse and criticize because I could see this — and probably more clearly than anyone else. Yet there have been so many who felt themselves to be in such an exalted position that they could really see what was happening — this usually ended up as the concept of an organization, which fundamentally it isn’t. This is the projection in human minds; it is not the truth.

The truth is Shekinah, the cloud of glory in particular, made manifest through human beings on earth — that is the meaning of Emissaries of Divine Light. Factually, no one can fault that. The faulting comes because there is accusation. Those who should be revealing the cloud of glory are not doing it — one would have to judge and point the finger. Remember the other ones! But no one is in position to judge until there is the pure revelation of the cloud of glory, and when there is that, there would be no reason to judge. The very fact of judgment and accusation is a revelation of failure in oneself. No matter what it is that is being accused and judged, it is the attitude that is the failure, the revelation of the fact that the cloud of glory is not in expression, that the individual is therefore not an Emissary of Divine Light.

There is something that might be looked at here, individually speaking, which brings us, incidentally, to the spirit of the single eye. How about double-mindedness? Everybody has capabilities of one kind or another. What do you do with them? Let us think of this in terms of what probably would be spoken of as serving the Lord. One may say, “I’ll give my capabilities to this. I will be very unselfish; I will not go after my own ambitions. But I will give my capabilities, in this instance, to the Emissaries of Divine Light.” There have been a goodly number of people who have certainly done this. I suppose it could be said to be a tentative step in the right direction, so that the individual may decide whether it is safe to give himself, so that he has no other life than the life of spiritual expression. As long as one is holding oneself out on one side — all this is a cop-out. It is based in the same attitude that human beings have in the religious world of trying to placate a wrathful god: “Perhaps if I give my money, then he will be easy on me,” or “If I don’t have much money but give my capacities, whatever they are, to doing the things that seem to be needed, then he will take that into account.” This is a state of double-mindedness, isn’t it? The spirit of the single eye has not been experienced yet at all. There are various gradations here of course.

Double mindedness!—the state that is conceived to be normal in the world of mankind. You daren’t give yourself entirely to anything. You might be taken for a ride — probably would be! There is a choice to be made nevertheless by every human being on the face of the earth. It was summarized in some words which said something about, Choose ye now this day whom ye will serve. If there is not the acceptance of the truth into one's own expression one will be a house divided and a house divided cannot stand. It doesn’t, it falls apart. Human beings struggle to hold themselves together — people who refuse to become single-minded. Well you can buck the Law just so long and then everything falls apart. Being single-minded, there is no division. One is not single-minded until one has stopped trying to bargain with the Lord: ‘‘I will give you so much but not everything, and because I give you so much I am going to expect a handout from you too.” To become single-minded the point must be reached where there is no expectation of anything, because the person who expects things is no longer around. Are you a person who expects things? You are still around.

So we come to point, as we have collectively this morning, to allow Shekinah to find release in expression, and the evidence of that in one’s own experience is the fact that one has one life. And that one life is not available to be released tentatively here or tentatively there, but retaining the control of it. Surely if one stops to think at all one would not be so arrogant as to assume that one can control God. If you try to control your life you are trying to control God. Fortunately, the reality described by the word “God” is quite merciful; otherwise none of us would be here, because we have assumed this arrogant stance over many, many years. Of course, those many, many years to us are virtually nothing in the sight of God.

In any case the falling of the fire from heaven, the coming forth of Shekinah in the expression of living, dissolves all these divisions. The divisions are in oneself — just remember that. We tend to see them as being over there. The division is everywhere. Between individual human beings — that is where the starting point is. Let that dissolve. But an even closer starting point is the division in oneself, where a person has what he thinks of as his own life and he is going to direct it. That is fatal, absolutely fatal.

Life relates to the cloud of glory — it is part of Shekinah. As Shekinah finds expression, life finds expression. If Shekinah is bottled up because one is trying to maintain the hand of control upon what should happen in one’s own experience, one is in the process of committing suicide. Of course everybody does it. Some do it more suddenly than others, and then it is brought to point. But suicide is suicide. All death, as it is understood in the world at least, is suicide. All suicide is, is the effect of the absence of spiritual expression, the absence of Shekinah in expression on earth through human beings. Shekinah in expression on earth through human beings may be described by the words “Emissaries of Divine Light,” Nobody could ever join Emissaries of Divine Light. It isn’t an organization to be joined. One either allows Shekinah to find expression in one’s own living or one doesn’t. For the most part it is sort of a twilight zone, isn’t it? And twilight usually leads to night.

Let the sun rise. Let the truth of love shine forth in blessing, because there is no judgment, no accusation. Everything is working the way it works — exactly so. Let it work that way. Don’t interfere. Don’t try to make it work to your own advantage. As we let it work we begin to discover what it is that is working. If we understand what it is that is working we can cooperate in the process, we can move with it; but as long as we are divided, double-minded, we can’t. We would be weighing things this way and that way: “Am I going to like this?” Well that person is a house divided. When it comes right down to it they are useless. Depart from me! No, there is no choice anymore. One has made one’s choice. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. That is the one choice that human beings have, in actual fact, no other. Not, “Well I would like to go that way, or I’d like to go the other way,” or “It would be nice if such and such happens.” Phooey! There is just one choice. Choose ye now whom ye will serve: yourself, as a human being, or what has been called God, what reveals itself in the expression of Shekinah. Let the fire fall from heaven. Anyone is capable of that. And if they don’t let it happen, well that is their choice. If that is their choice it is going to have certain results, just as there are certain results if the right choice is made.

So, in this hour we have assumed a certain responsibility, on the basis of the substance that has been brought to focus, and the fire has fallen to this extent. Each individual will know something of what has or hasn’t happened in his or her own experience. It is not something that can be imposed upon anyone. You either let it happen or you don’t. Letting it happen, we share the happening, and there begins to be a focus of something that carries the impact of the fire falling from heaven into the larger consciousness of mankind. We have this responsibility. That is something, surely, one would delight in, one wouldn’t try to avoid. Would we try to avoid life? “Well certain aspects of life I don’t favor too much.” What do you think life is? Life is the expression of Shekinah.

Nobody knows what life is until Shekinah does find expression and the cloud of glory fills the temple of one’s own body and shines round about. Then the whole world of one’s consciousness lights up, the shadows flee away — there is nothing to accuse, there is nothing to blame. All is just exactly the way it should be. And we have the opportunity of giving constant glory to God — and share in the spirit of the single eye.

© Emissaries of Divine Light