Of Supreme Importance
Of Supreme Importance
from The Seed
Martin
Cecil May 5, 1974
Each
year in the springtime the reality of resurrection is portrayed; and while this
is recognized, and more or less taken for granted by human beings, they do not
usually see it as possibly relating to themselves. First of all, except on a very
extended basis they do not see resurrection as being particularly necessary.
However, we have come to recognize that here is the immediate divine purpose
insofar as man is concerned. So often people have spoken of the inscrutable purposes
of God. These are, in fact, not at all inscrutable; there's nothing incomprehensible
about them; just that man should be moved from the state of a dying soul to
that of a living soul. How this might be done may be perhaps incomprehensible
to human beings, but as attitudes change it becomes easy to see and understand
what is to occur and the means by which it occurs. Let us not be hoodwinked into
this foolish view of the inscrutability of the purposes of God. It may have
seemed this way to most because there has been a stubborn refusal to allow the
purposes of God to be achieved in human experience; and if they are not
achieved in human experience, then human beings don't know much about them. But
it is not because they could not know much about them; merely because they
refuse to let them be achieved.
From the
divine standpoint there has been a certain amount of maneuvering over the ages
to prepare the soil, so to speak, for the achievement of these essential
purposes. Various things have worked out in all parts of the world, both in the
orient and the Occident, that finally somehow a setting might adequately be
prepared so that the ultimate achievement could be brought to pass, the
achievement which brings man again into the state of the living soul. Various
patterns of religion were developed in human consciousness correlating with the
preparation of the ground. There is, for instance, what was offered through the
life of the Buddha; there is the record with respect to Krishna. Out of these
and other specific events and people something was achieved in the
consciousness of human beings to prepare the setting, so that finally it all
might be brought to point and the required task completed. We need to see all these things with respect to human
experience as relating to this purpose in a more or less general sense. But,
obviously, when it can be brought toa
final focus, there is the event of supreme importance. It's all very well
to cultivate the garden and have the seedbed as it should be in the spring, but
it doesn't mean too much until the seeds are sown. Then, of course, there is
the requirement for the necessary climate so that the seeds may germinate and
grow. Finally, because of this, the harvest may come.
People
have become very wrapped up in the cultivation of the soil. There are numerous
religious approaches made, and have been made all down through the ages, which
simply related to this matter of preparing the setting within the scope of human
consciousness so that the required seed could be planted. When the seed is planted,
then the prior cultivation has reached a point of fulfilment and is not
necessary anymore. If one were to continue to cultivate the garden after the
seeds had been sown there wouldn't be much of a garden. This is just about
what has been happening in the world. People cling to their traditions and
their awareness of spiritual things, such as they are, imagining that their
particular
approach is about the only one.
Of course
the sowing of the true seeds actually occurred at the time that Jesus was on
earth, and this has subsequently tended to make those who call themselves
Christians somehow feel superior to everybody else. But apparently nobody
really understood what had happened, and the seed which should have been
planted was put in a glass case, insofar as Christianity was concerned, so that
everybody could come and look at it: This is the seed! Of course, a seed in a
glass case is not likely to germinate; it must be planted in the right season,
in the proper soil, when the climate makes germination rightly possible.
Now, there
are those who may take the attitude that Jesus never existed. Well, whether He
existed or not He certainly came into the consciousness of mankind; and that,
after all, is the point, isn't it? We have noted the preparation that was
specifically made before His coming, through the Israelites of old. And this
might have obviated His coming, at least in the way He came, if that opportunity
had become specific for the world. But it disintegrated, scattered, never
adequately came to point so as to allow something to evolve out of it. However,
what did remain provided the setting when Jesus was born into the world — or into
the consciousness of men. And He was under the necessity, because of the
previous failure, to refocalize the approach, bring it together again, and
establish a new cycle that's been called, at least in one of its aspects, the
New Testament. But here again, by reason of the lack of response, there was
another failure on the part of human beings to recognize, appreciate and accept
what it was that was being offered. Incidentally, that recognition, appreciation
and acceptance has been peculiarly lacking ever since. Something has been
clothed in the concepts of men, but the truth has certainly not been known.
However, this one man undertook to allow all that was required of the human
race to be brought to focus in Himself, and He moved through the cycle, from
level to level in the vibratory patterns of consciousness, by which a living
soul was once more established as a reality on earth.
This was
the seed which should permit the plant subsequently to grow. All that was
essential for the design of the plant was present in the seed. This is so with
respect to seeds as we understand them, isn't it? When He was on earth our
Master spoke of the mustard seed, a very small seed which grows into quite a
large plant. But one would not recognize the form of the plant by looking at
the seed. At one point, according to the record, He Himself commented on this;
and these words are from the 12th Chapter of John: "The hour is come, that
the Son of man should be glorified." There is a peculiar idea in the consciousness
of many people about this, imagining that He was somehow glorified by being
hung on a cross. The glorification was simply the return to the state of the
living soul, the living soul which was consequent upon what has been called the
resurrection man restored in the seed form. The essences were all present by
reason of the experience of this one man. He moved through what was totally necessary,
insofar as mankind was concerned, to experience the state of the living soul,
so that in Him were the essences, the seed
essences, which when allowed to germinate would permit the growth of the
plant, or the tree — the tree of life, indeed — on earth, man restored to the
state of the living soul.
There
has been a lot of talk about salvation, and human beings couldn't see it
anywhere, so they thought it must happen after they're dead. It should be
fairly obvious, to anyone who honestly looks at the situation, that the place
where salvation is needed is right here on earth. They even claim that it's all
right in heaven, wherever heaven is; no salvation needed there. It's needed
right here — and not some inscrutable process but the actual experience of a change
of consciousness in human beings, so that they cease to be identified with the
state of a dying soul and become identified with the state of a living soul.
This has
seemed to be very mysterious to human beings, simply because they were
unwilling to experience it. If one could retain the state of the dying soul and
convince oneself that one would become a living soul after one was dead, then
that was a happy ending. But if one begins to look at the thing with a little
common sense there may be the recognition that changes are possible in human
experience on earth now, and if they have not occurred it is simply because there
has been an unwillingness to let them occur; there has been a won't attitude. This has often been translated
in human consciousness as a can't
attitude, but I don't think there is rightly any such word, really. It's always
won't.
"The
hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." Maybe He was
speaking specifically of Himself at that point, but how about this hour as the hour which has come,
that the Son of man should be glorified, not merely the seed but the whole
plant?
"Verily,
verily, I say unto you," — and here He was emphasizing something—"Except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit." Now we need to look at this word
"die" because there is a very peculiar misconception in the minds of
most people. If you take a seed and put it in the ground, does it really die?
It certainly passes away. But it germinates, doesn't it? Out of the seed comes the
evidences of life — the life is released as the seed germinates, and what was
before passes away. One might see this in relationship to Jesus, because human
beings have been inclined to keep Him hanging on a cross. The cross, as
Christianity has
envisioned it, relates to crucifixion. And the seed has been preserved in that
sort of a form. We still have a lot of crosses around. There will be no cross
in our new chapel, incidentally, at least as a symbol of crucifixion. The seed
rightly passes away when the plant grows. Of course, if you refuse to let the
seed germinate, then there it sits.
What
Jesus brought and offered to the world has been more or less isolated and set
in a special place so that people could look at it — from way below, of course,
so that they could say to themselves, "That is so exalted that we could
never be expected to participate in anything of that sort. We're just sinners
here, and we can't help but sin. So we're going to remain sinners and just look
at Jesus up there" — wherever. The seed has been preserved in its glass
case. If something has grown and developed that has been called Christianity it
had very little to do with the seed. It has something to do with various ideas
that certain ones had about the seed — particularly Peter and Paul — but the
seed itself was set apart, remained alone. That's right, isn't it? Of course,
there were those who said, "Well, you have to accept the seed as your
personal savior," whatever that meant. An idea about someone was to be the
personal savior, and a peculiar picture was developed in this way of someone who
was called Jesus, having very little relatedness to the truth of the matter. So,
actually, what was preserved was a false seed.
The true
seed did fall into the ground, and has been present in the soil. We have recognized
the setting of the Tone long ago, and now that Tone has really persisted, even
though covered up with all this crust, until eventually the climate was such
that it might germinate and begin to grow and reveal the form — which would not
be the form of the seed. You can't tell what the tree is going to be merely by
looking at the seed. If you have had experience with seeds you may be able to
tell that way, but the tree isn't just a big seed. The oak tree isn't an
enlarged acorn. It's something different, isn't it? And when the true plant
grows you can forget about the seed, right? The very fact that this seed has
been preserved is indication that the true seed has never grown, because once
the seed dies in this sense there is the evidence of the growth to reveal what
is right and proper by reason of this creative process. There is no more necessity
to try to preserve the seed. Of course, as we have seen in this particular
instance, the seed that has been preserved hasn't been a true seed anyway; it's
been a human concept about someone called Jesus. That wasn't the reality at
all, just someone's idea; and a lot of human beings have developed ideas on
this score, but they've usually been based in some sort of prior concept
developed by somebody else.
We have
a picture up on the wall here that is someone's idea of Jesus. All it is,
insofar as we're concerned, is a reminder of the true seed, that we might be
concerned with letting that true seed germinate and reveal what the plant is,
what the true vine is. And one could never tell what the true vine would be
merely by analyzing the seed. This is just about what has been done, hasn't it?
There has been an analysis of a human concept of what the seed is, and out of
that has sprang what is called Christianity. But to provide the material by
which the germinating seed may begin to take its true form, that has not been
allowed except as it is beginning to emerge in this present setting; not just
here but wherever there are those who are willing to relinquish concepts of the
seed and get on with the job of letting the plant appear.
Clearly
it was apparent to Jesus, at the time, that human beings would tend to do this
sort of thing, but He sought to establish a reminder through what has
subsequently been called the communion service, so that somebody somewhere
along the line might wake up to the fact that the plant needed to grow. But
this again became a method of preserving someone's idea about the seed:
"We're going to swallow this bread and drink this wine, and somehow or
other this is going to cause the false seed to germinate." No. It may
remind people that a seed was planted, and that when there is the right climate
it will germinate and grow. Looking at it in this way, obviously the right
climate is important; and it isn't the right climate if human beings are
looking at a seed — the wrong seed, incidentally — in the glass case and
falling down and worshiping that. That doesn't make even the false seed grow!
So this
matter of dying is not death in the usual sense, is it? It's just change. Dying
souls need to die if living souls are to appear. You can't have a dying soul
and a living soul in the same place at the same time. So the dying soul needs
to pass away. In order for the living soul to germinate and grow, the essential
requirements were fulfilled in the person of Jesus. He moved all the way
through the whole creative cycle. In Him was the seed, then; the stage was set
for what should creatively be the experience in human beings subsequently.
Well, of course, such a thick dry crust was established on the surface of the
soil that the seed has been underneath that crust. But finally, at a weak point
in the crust, this germinating seed pushed through its little shoot.
It's
interesting, isn't it, that it was really at the weak point, the weak point
primarily of Christianity because the emergence is out of that. But where
Christianity was strong and beliefs were determined, convictions were sure,
that's the strong point, isn't it? That's the crust, and nothing can break
through there. Only where there begins to be a little questioning, a little
doubting, a little uncertainty that everything that has been said in
Christianity was the last word, only so could the plant begin to thrust through
the soil, appear above the surface, as something other than the seed. We don't
have to try to maintain a human concept about the seed once the seed has
germinated. Speaking of the bread and the wine, our Master said, "This do
in remembrance of me"; but when you have remembered what it's all about,
then you can forget the reminder because something is actually happening. Of
course, in the subsequent verses it is made clear here what the word die really referred to: "He that
loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall
keep it unto life eternal," being once again identified with a living
soul.
A little
further on there are these words, "And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me." This has usually been translated as referring
to the fact that He was going to be lifted up on a cross. "Look to the
cross," they say; look to crucifying the Lord! No, that wasn't at all what
He was talking about, although that manifest event related to what was
happening in the process by which He was moving all the way through in the
cycles of resurrection. It only happened that way because it was imposed by
human beings; it needn't have happened in that way; that was the human
reaction. But what was really occurring was something else. He Himself said,
"Judge not by the appearance." All that human beings have done is
judge by the appearance. That's exactly what they have done insofar as
Christianity is concerned — a direct contradiction of His specific
instructions, "Judge not by the appearance."
"And
I, if I be lifted up from the earth…" This could relate to the seed,
couldn't it, the seed which falls into the earth and is below the surface,
hidden. Except for the One who planted the seed, no one else would know it was
there. And finally the seed germinates and grows. There is a creative cycle in
this regard. It doesn't all happen instantly. Those who have looked at the
portrayal of the true vine have rather imagined that suddenly there it is. No,
it grows from a seed. It is an unfoldment of a life form, the form of the
living soul which was called man. Presently we have non-man, the dying soul.
But man is necessary on earth. The resurrection by which man is once more on
earth is the immediate purpose of God. It has been for thousands of years, and
finally it is coming to a point of fruition, not by reason of all the antics of
human beings in their striving and struggling on earth but in spite of all
that.
When we
see this it reminds us of the worthlessness of virtually everything in which
human beings place value. All the vast and marvelous works of non-man are
nothing. What else could non-man produce but nothing? It looks like something,
it looks grand to those who judge by the appearance, but the fact is that it is
nothing. That's another sort of death, isn't it? So the seed germinates and
grows because it was planted, because it fell into the earth, because the Tone
was set, because the essences of all that was needed for the growth of the
subsequent plant were present in the seed. That is indeed a marvelous thing,
that it could have been established by one person who was truly alone. In spite
of everything that could have been thrown at Him He did it. And because of this
we certainly have a deep love and respect and reverence for the One who did it.
But we recognize that what He did only has meaning as the seed germinates and
the plant grows. And if we do have that love and reverence and respect, we
couldn't possibly fail to allow the plant to grow, because if we did fail, then
it would be tantamount to saying, "Let the seed rot in the ground!"
And that is just about what human beings have been saying all this time — "Let
it rot in the ground! We like this seed we have in this glass case and we're
going to worship that." And if there is one thing that has been rife in
the world it is idolatry. There are so many good people out there who are
out-and-out idolaters. It's not the right thing to go around telling everybody
that, but we need to know it ourselves for ourselves.
What was
done on earth nineteen centuries ago is of supreme importance because the seed,
with all the essences present in it, was planted; and, by all means, it is the
deepest longing of our hearts to let it grow, simply because we love the One
who planted the seed. And we wouldn't let all that go for nothing — it won't — but
individually, for ourselves, we can make it go for nothing. In the total
outworking it won't go for nothing, but from the individual standpoint there
are lots of people who make it go for nothing while claiming at the same time
that they love Jesus. That's blasphemy, isn't it? We begin to see things as
they really are and not as human beings fool themselves into believing; because
only the truth makes free: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free." And that is all consequent upon continuing in His Word,
continuing in the Tone which He set and allowing the germination of the seed so
that the seed itself may pass away and the plant be revealed on earth, the
plant which is the true Son of man. He provided the seed essences in this
regard, but the Son of man needs to be known once again on earth; that is, man,
the living soul.
"And
I, if I be lifted up … will
draw all men unto me" — lifted up from the earth, the germinated seed appearing
above the surface of the earth, revealing what it really is. We can describe it
— the true vine, the tree of life — but what is it? Only as it takes form may
we know. It's not a matter for idle speculation; it's a matter of sharing the
action by which it happens, because there is attunement with the essences that
are present in the seed. And those essences emerge in a differentiated,
expanded manifestation in human experience as there is a willingness that they
should, as there is a refusal to stand in the way and prevent that unfoldment.
There is the necessity of losing what human beings imagine life to be, of dying
in that sense, that there may be the experience of resurrection, of movement
into the state of the living soul. This occurs inevitably in and through and
for those who are willing that it should and who do not think their human
values are more important than the values which appear when they participate in
the living process.
The
human values include all the things in which human beings have put value, and
of course highest among these, presumably, are the values of Christianity as it
has been understood, or maybe of Buddhism, or Hinduism, or Judaism — anything.
These are the values that human beings so desperately thrust forward:
"Keep these values here." That's the crust, that's what prevents the
seed from germinating and growing. One must lose one's life. What life? The
life related to the values that one has known. Letting go of those values, an
individual imagines that he is facing a yawning chasm, nothing. But the True Tone
is present, the seed is germinating, the nature of its form is inherent in the
seed. As there are those who are willing to let this occur in their own
experience they find their life; there it is. But no one can find his true life
without letting go of the false life — "Well, I'm
going to hang on to a little bit of my false life now in case there is no true
life over here." But a person can hang on to that false life a little too
long, you know. Then it's proven out that it is false life, because life cannot
die. It is the nature of life to be alive; life is eternal. So this false
condition of dying souls which human beings experience does not acquaint them
with life. Life is in the Son of man; that is, in the growth and development of
that form of the living soul on earth. And it is to this, surely, that any
intelligent person would give himself. But it takes more than intelligence; it
takes a yielding in love.
Emissaries of Divine Light
1 comment:
I have read Martin's Message many times with the thought of making a comment regarding my comprehension of what he says here. but, for whatever reason, words would not come easily; yet, I understand clearly what is said here. Rather than expressing myself with many words, which I often do, I would like to quote in part his words: "What was done on earth nineteen centuries ago is of supreme importance because the seed, with all the essences present in it, was planted; and, by all means, it is the deepest longing of our hearts to let it grow, simply because we love the One who planted the seed. And we wouldn't let all that go for nothing---it won't...." No, it won't individually and collectively because we love Him above all else and we continue in His Word, sounding the Tone of Life---of a Living Soul. What Wonder, what Beauty, what Glory is known in yielding in love to this Supreme One.
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Yes, absolutely---free to express the Divine in any moment, in any situation, because I/we can't do otherwise.
Again, thank you, David, for posting another fine but powerful Meditation from Martin.
Post a Comment