Transfiguration—Ascension

Transfiguration  —  Ascension

Uranda   July 19, 1953 am  Class

“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John

and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart;

And was transfigured before them:

and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.”

I would like to continue the pattern of Meditation which we have been sharing on the basic realities of the Magic of Life. Human beings have for so long unwittingly, ignorantly, been subject to the black magic patterns of distortion in the world, and as we gain a comprehension of the reality of Heavenly Magic we can begin to live, for most people spend the days of their years dying. Let us spend the days of our years living.

Last evening, in the pattern of our Meditation, we began a consideration of some of the principles of ascension, and we saw that the recorded pattern relating to ascension revealed the Shekinah Pattern of Being—the Cloud of Glory, the Light that Glows, the Fire that Burns, and within the Fire the One Who Dwells. The One Who Dwells. The Master spoke of this Shekinah pattern of Being as the Father, not excluding the One Who Dwells, for there is the Centering, but including the Shekinah pattern of Being. And wherever we read His words translated as referring to the Father we should bear this in mind.

As we begin to gain a comprehension of the reality of Shekinah we begin to comprehend the basis of our relationship with God and the things of God are no longer to our consciousness far away, vague, or ambiguous. We begin to yield in a realization that we are not required to do something fanciful, something rather foolish, something that violates logic and reason, but that under the Law of Being, which contains and unifies the Cosmos and all that is therein, we ourselves can begin to know, not in wishful thinking, not in prejudicial concept, but in knowing—not merely knowing about, but knowing—the reality of our relationship with Deity, so that we like Enoch of old may walk with God, and like Moses of old we may talk with God, and like Elijah of old we may reveal the essential spirit of God, and like our Master who lived on earth and invited us to follow Him we may reveal God Himself, not just the Cloud of Glory, not just the Light that Glows, not just the Eternal Fire which is in reality God's Love, but a revelation of the One Who Dwells by the fact that we live.

But here is one of those inconsistencies which beset human beings. Being subject to death, spending the years of their lives or their existence, the days of their years, in dying, they wonder why they do not more successfully reveal God. But how shall God be revealed by a dying soul? Would that be a true revelation of Deity? No. We must recognize that if we would truly reveal God, if we would let Deity find manifestation in our lives, we must be living souls. That is the first word concerning man in the beginning of things. For God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness.” And so, God created mankind. In His own image and likeness created He mankind; male and female created He them. And God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of mankind, into man's nostrils; and man became a living soul. The first word with respect to life, action, being—“And man became a living soul.”

Last evening, in our pattern of Meditation, we touched briefly upon the statement the Master made as recorded for us in the Seventeenth Chapter of Matthew, where we find the words—the Master stated, He “charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” Now some there are who have imagined that Jesus was talking about Himself, but most surely He was not. Until he shall be risen again from the dead. Had He already been dead somehow? Not at all. The Son of man, the Son of mankind, the Son of Adam—the whole body of humanity. Had man been dead before? Man, though formed by the hand of God, was dead until the Breath of Life had been breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul, which is to say, man first-formed had been a dead soul. And so the first time man rose from the dead was when man was first created by the hand of God, and man became a living soul. And that is resurrection, rebirth. And so, the Son of man—“Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” Our Master had not been dead before; He was not dead after that; He did not die upon the cross as so many have supposed; He was not dead at all. He gained or revealed the victory over death, which means that He did not die—for had He died, where would the victory have been? Not to die and then to live, but to not die. And He gained the victory over death.

Now if we begin to see these things truly, we begin to be in position where we can comprehend something of the real significance of ascension, the meaning with respect to these four men who revealed the Shekinah pattern of Being by their lives, by the fact that they did not die, by the fact, as it is put, that they ascended. Ascended from what to what? Now some suppose that it means leaving the earth's surface. But we recall the Master's word, just after He came forth from the tomb and spoke to Mary in the Garden. She was about to fall at His feet, and He said, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended unto my Father.” The outer form of Being, in other words, was going through the process of ascension. If He was just going to ascend sometime later on, there would have been no reason why she should not have touched Him. But He was going through the process of ascension while He stood there on the surface of the earth.

Now ascension may mean moving from the surface of the earth, if we are talking about an aeroplane, or a balloon. But if we are talking about the laws and principles of Being, it does not mean moving from the surface of the earth; it means a vibrational change into a higher level of Being at that same point in relationship to the earth's surface. For if we are going to think of Heaven as being up, up is a relative thing. Up is a relative thing—let us not forget. And so, ascension is not a matter of ascension from the earth's surface—it is a matter of change in the vibrational state of Being or the level of Being without changing from the standpoint of the human concept of the relativity of up and down.

Now, let us examine this thing. Up from what? The state of the world. To what? The state of Heaven. And everyone has imagined that Heaven was in some far place. But is it? Our Master came and made a statement that He said was His good news. His Gospel. Human beings have ignored it, generally speaking. They have said that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was that He died on the cross. In the first place the idea that He died on the cross is a contemptible lie. The idea that He had to die on a cross by some decree of God to save man is a blasphemous falsehood. God did not ordain that He should die; for the Master Himself said, remember, before the betrayal, before the trial, before any of that great atrocity took place—He said, in prayer to the Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” He did not say, “I am about to finish it. I will have finished it when I have died on the cross.” The Master did not at any time in any recorded word signify that He was to die, although people assumed that that is what it meant because He was crucified—pure assumption. He did not say He was going to die, and He did say, before any of these things, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” If we say that He in that prayer to the Father did not know what He was talking about or did not mean what He said, then we attempt to judge Him and make Him a liar. Let it not be so.

So He had finished the work before that atrocity took place, had finished the work which God gave Him to do, but He faced something which man had imposed upon Him, which was not required by God, and which was not in any sense essential to the salvation of man. And until we begin to see that we cannot comprehend the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel which He Himself stated as, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” available, within reach. And according to His word, this Gospel of the Kingdom that is at hand was to be preached unto all nations, unto all peoples, and then should the end come. The end of what? The end of the rule of evil, the end of discord and inharmony, suffering, misery, sorrow, meaningless futility, the end of misery, the end of the self-active pattern of humanity. But not the end of the world, not the end of the earth, not the end of man—the end of the fallen state of man, that man might be restored to his Divine Estate. And where would that be? In some far off Heaven? Not according to the Bible, not according to what the Master taught.

In the beginning God created man in the image and likeness of God to be on earth, to have dominion on earth. Man is not supposed to be thought of as some particular asset to some far off Heaven. Man never gets to Heaven in that sense, never has and never will. Man belongs on earth; and that which is man never gets away from the earth, for that which leaves the earth is not man. It is something else. Man's place is on earth, and until we begin to comprehend that basic, fundamental fact, the delusions and superstitions and prejudices which have bound human beings for so long will continue to entangle and betray us. Let us, then, remember that the place for man is on earth. God created man to be on earth, to have dominion on earth, and the only place where God has any use for man is on earth, and man is never anywhere else for that which ascends in the sense of going somewhere else is not man, for then man has been absorbed into something that is of a higher level of Being and it is no more man or woman. That is a large subject and we do not want to get into it this morning.

But what is ascension as far as we are concerned? The movement from the fallen state of things, from this world, to Heaven. And where is Heaven? Where is the Kingdom of Heaven? At hand. If it is at hand, it is within reach, it is available, it is right here. And until we begin to realize that the true pattern of ascension does not mean that we become something else than that which we are, it does not mean that we leave the surface of the earth and go into the sky, it does not mean that we are to be confused with the relativity of up and down. It means that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and that we ascend from a state of being subject to the pattern of fallen man to the state which God first ordained for man, for in that beginning man knew Heaven and earth to be One. They still are. They have never been anything else but One. Man lost consciousness of the heaven aspect, but it was there all the time. And the good news, the thrilling news, which the Master brought to the children of men, was the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, right here, and we do not have to go anywhere to ascend into it, we do not have to lose our bodies, we do not have to die, our bodies do not have to become ethereal things. Our bodies as they are can ascend into Heaven.

Now remember the distinction. The Master said with respect to His body that He the man had to ascend unto the Father. That is an altogether different thing. In the Divine state, if a God being incarnated, had completed his or her task on earth, there was an ascension unto the Father. But let us not assume that ascension to Heaven and ascension unto the Father are the same thing. They are not. The Father is there, the One Who Dwells. Individually and collectively the principle holds true. But ascension unto the Father means for the body to leave this sphere of things as we know it, into a level of vibratory Being that is still right here but which human eyes as such cannot see—regardless of all the fantastic tales of so-called visions and all the rest.

People suppose they have seen a vision of Jesus Christ, for instance. They have not. They have not. They may have had a vision that was contained within their own consciousness; they may have thought they saw it out here; but it was something formed in their own consciousness and was not a vision of Jesus Christ. It cannot be done. It never has been done since our Master left this sphere of things, and until there are some radical changes in relationship to man, man is not going to see Jesus Christ again. They will never see Him just as He was. But the same God Being will come—when? After the whole earth has been restored to the Divine Estate and we are ready to turn the Kingdom in full functional form over to the King. But the King did come, and He suffered that great atrocity at the hands of men. Those who imagine that He is going to come floating down out of the sky somewhere but delude themselves. He is not going to come and set everything to rights on earth. If it is done, man is going to do it in the spirit and power of God; for God always acts on earth through man, through the human being or through the body of mankind. So we had better be busy about letting the Kingdom come.

If it was so important, according to the popular concept of the second coming of Christ, as it is put, that He should return, why did He not teach men to pray, “Hasten Thy second coming so that then Thy Kingdom may come and then Thy Will may be done on earth as it is in Heaven”? He did not teach men to pray any such thing. He said that we are to pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” the Kingdom of the King appear, that is the first thing, that is the important thing; everything else has value only in relationship to that in a relative sense—the coming of the Kingdom. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” And according to all reports, the Will of God does very well in Heaven, producing beautiful, lovely, wonderful things; not producing misery, suffering, sickness, sorrow, death; not producing any of the ill things which are commonly attributed to God's Will in a blasphemous attitude. God's Will produces on earth exactly the same thing God's Will produces in Heaven. So let us let His Will be done on earth.

But now, once we begin to realize that the place of man is on earth, it always has been on earth, always will be on earth, we will stop trying to get out of the earth into Heaven. In that same prayer what did the Master say? “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.” He recognized this weakness, this tendency in human beings, and He Himself put in His prayer. In the Seventeenth Chapter of John it is recorded, if you want to read it for yourself—“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” And yet human beings have been imagining through the centuries that if they wanted to get to Heaven they had to die and get out of the world. Blasphemous nonsense. Heaven is at hand. It is here. And until we begin to recognize that Heaven is here and our place is here, and we are not to be concerned about getting to some other place, we cannot possibly have the right attitude toward living or the opportunities that are granted to us day by day. Ascension then is ascension from the state of fallen man, the state of self-activity, the state of misery, to the state of the Kingdom of Heaven at hand, the restoration to the Divine Estate on earth.

Now let us connect this up with something upon which we have given Meditation before. For God planted a Garden eastward in Eden. Now Eden is what? The earth, the whole earth; not just some part of it. Eden is the earth as a whole. “And God planted a garden eastward in Eden.” People have wondered if it was not in the region of Mesopotamia or here or there. They imagined some kind of a garden just planted on the surface of the earth, like you might go out and plant a garden on some spot on the earth's surface. But that is not what the Bible teaches. Eden is the whole earth, including every part of it—every part. And the Garden of Eden God planted was eastward in Eden. From what point? From every point. From all points. And that means east is in the future—tomorrow morning or the next five minutes. What is coming to us from out of the east that will appear and get here in just five minutes from now. Can you prognosticate and tell me? You certainly cannot while I am up here and you are listening to me, because you do not know what I will say in five minutes from now. But the point is that everything of God must come out of the future. When human beings begin to realize that they cannot change the present—you have to live in the present, but if there is something in the present that needs changing you cannot ever, at any time, change the present. That which was in the future a little while ago is now in the past. The present is never more than one instant long, just this instant. And in this instant we are in eternity. We cannot get out of eternity and we cannot get into it. Why? Because we are in it already. If there is such a thing as eternity it is now. You cannot have an eternity in the future, can you? Without an eternity that is present, an eternity that is past! It is all one. This is eternity. People talk about getting into eternity. They have never stopped to think. You cannot get out of it. This instant is eternity. But you cannot change the present. You can change your future, however; you can refuse to let what God planted in your future to come into manifestation, and then that which manifests in the moment will be evil, it will be unpleasant. Or you can let what God planted in the Garden eastward in Eden manifest as it comes to the point of fruitage in the moment and appears and takes form, and it will be lovely, beautiful, wonderful.

You cannot change the present. The present is going into the past so fast that before you begin to get something changed in the present, if you think you can, it is gone and you never get oriented. Trying to change the present is the most foolish and futile thing which human beings undertake, unless it be to try to be as God. That is more foolish still. But trying to change the present is impossible. Why waste time trying to do it? The present is as it is. We may look at it, we must live in it, and we must not try to live in the future or in the past—live only in the present, but let your future be changed, let God design it—for the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden is still there.

What is the Divine Word? That there was an Angel with a Sword—which turned every way, a flaming, fiery Sword—who was placed in the Way that leads to the Garden. What is the Way that leads to the Garden? The future. It is there; it has been in every instant of time, for every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. And if you can pass that Flaming Sword that turns every way, you can walk in the Way that leads to the Garden of God. That Garden is still there, and that Garden that is there, at hand, as close as the next second, is the Kingdom of Heaven that the Master talked about, the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand.

Now if you are going to ascend up into some place, physically speaking, what meaning are you going to have on earth? None. Your place is on earth; that which you need to do is on earth, in relationship to the earth. As I pointed out before, why be in a hurry to get to Heaven? Do you think you will be some especially beautiful ornament up there, or that God needs you up there to make everything work right? Somewhere else you want to go!—you do not know what it is but you want to go. No, here is our place, and it is only here that you can live, only here that you can live. So if we wish to reveal Deity on earth, if we wish to let the things of the Garden of God come out of the future into our lives and into our circumstances, we must live here in the present, we must be on earth, and we must be spending the days of our years living and not dying. The time you spend dying you have shut out from yourself and your life, your environment, all those things which God has provided for you in the Garden that He planted eastward in Eden, eastward in the future, the days of our tomorrows. And with each day we have an opportunity to receive something from out of the future that God provided, that God made possible to you.

What then is ascension? Not leaving the surface of the earth but moving from the realm of misery and suffering and sorrow and death, moving from the realm of the self-active state to the realm of attunement in and with the Continuity of Manifestation coming to us from out of the future, from out of the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden—but we must learn how to receive them on earth. If we once start receiving them, we may not receive completely all at once, but then the things of God start being around us, and they start extending into the past. What is it that extends into the past with most people? The beauty of the Garden of God or the misery of the hell that man has made on earth? Once you reach a point where there that which comes from out of the future, from the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden, has come to you, been made manifest in you and through you because you live on earth so that it surrounds you and begins to move back and extend into the past, where are you then? You are in the midst of the Garden of God. But it is the only way you can be when you let it come out of the east, manifest where you are, and extend into the west or into the past. Finally you are in the Midst of the Garden that God planted. And what is in the midst? The Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life is in the Midst of the Garden. It is to manifest where you are—where you are! If you think you can go to it by going up or down or sidewise or something else, you are wrong. The Tree of Life is just as available to you as to any Adam or Eve in the past, before the fall or after. It is at hand; it is available; the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden is at hand; for they are one and the same thing. But we must let them come into manifestation, and when we do that what do we do? We ascend out of the old order of things into the new, into the Divine Estate. But we do not leave the earth's surface. We are living right here, letting God's Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And so does His Kingdom come. Where from? From out of the east, from out of the future, in a manifestation through those men and women who let His Will be done; and it takes form around them; and it begins to extend into the past and others begin to see and they aspire to that same ascension, to ascend to the place where there is the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells.

That is the mystery unveiled by Enoch, by Moses, by Elijah, and by our Master, who was made manifest through the body of Jesus. And He said, “Follow me”—follow me, that the mystery may be unveiled, that you may begin to know the reality of the Cloud of Glory. The Tabernacle—your own body—the Tabernacle filled with the Glory of the Lord until it shone round about. Yes, to be true of you. Where? In the wilderness of this world as it is, until the wilderness is caused to blossom as the rose because the Garden of God comes out of the east and is made manifest through those who let His Will be done.

Seeing these things, let us take another look at the Mount of Transfiguration. For He ascended a mountain—the process of ascension—but He did not leave the surface of the earth to be transfigured. The Mount of Transfiguration, let us take another look at it. “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John”—again the three and the one, the four—“and bringeth them up,” ascension, “into an high mountain” of consciousness, “apart” from what? Apart from the discords and the limitations that are characteristic of the world. “And was transfigured before them.” In other words, they saw that which gave evidence of the Divine Estate. “And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” Now wherever we have had a description of the One Who Dwells, has not this same pattern of language held true, in the Old Testament or the New, in Revelation or wherever you turn? “His face shone as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” Now note: “And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.” Why just Moses and Elias talking with Him? That made three. Where was the fourth? Here on this level He was a part of the three, and the fourth was higher still, the next step focalization in the higher level of Deity. Obvious. Moses and Elias and the Master, making the three. But there was a fourth who was not seen. But these three gave the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells on the next higher level, carrying the Focalization of Being.

Then Peter had to get impetuous and talk out of turn. We will skip that. It does not mean anything. “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.” A bright cloud overshadowed them. The Cloud of Glory, whether of the Old Testament or the New—it is all One. And a bright cloud overshadowed them, the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. “And behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Now what was overshadowed? Not just Jesus, but the manifestation, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells—the next higher Focalization of Being “overshadowed them.” The Shekinah Pattern of Being is the Son, the only begotten Son. Those who imagine that the body of Jesus was the only begotten Son do not know what they are talking about. It was not, is not. Your body is just as much one of the Sons and Daughters of God as the body of Jesus was, just as much. What was the only begotten Son of God? That which issues forth from God at all times. What is it that issues forth from God? The Shekinah Pattern of Being, the Fire that Burns, the Light that Glows, and the Cloud of Glory. These are present wherever God is, wherever a God Being is present. And that which issues forth from God all the time, that which reveals His Presence to those who have awareness, is the only begotten Son of God.

The Cloud of Glory enfolded Elijah and Moses as surely as Jesus. All three were there, and in that pattern they were the three in relationship to a higher fourth. And “This”—this what? This one man? No. It does not say that. Take a look at how human beings have assumed and jumped to conclusions. What the word said was This—“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” That which was the expression through Jesus was the Shekinah Pattern, yes, but it is the Shekinah Pattern of Being—the Fire of Love, the reality of Truth, and the reality of Glory or Life. Yield to Love and Truth and Life and you will be hearing, you will be feeling, you will be knowing, the Son of God. Because human beings have assumed ignorantly that the body of Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, they have felt separated by nineteen centuries, and by some far sky, from the body of the only begotten Son of God. But the only begotten Son of God is here just as much in this hour as in any moment when the Master walked on earth, in actual fact. Perhaps not revealed as much, but the only begotten Son of God is the Shekinah pattern of Being; and once you ascend out of the state of dying into the state of living in Shekinah you begin to be a part of the body of the only begotten Son of God because you are a part of the body of mankind, yielding to the Spirit of God or the Shekinah pattern of Reality.

And it is here, and you do not have to go anywhere. And ascension is not leaving the earth's surface; it is living here on earth. And our work, our place, is on earth, and it is our job to reveal the fact that Heaven and earth are one, they have always been, they will always be, and as we let the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden come into manifest form because we live we will be doing our part toward letting the Kingdom come, and the Will of God be done on earth as His Will is done in Heaven. So let it be in you and through you, now and always.

Our gracious Lord and Holy King, we would indeed let Thy Kingdom come, that Thy Kingdom may be made manifest and may be made ready to receive Thee, that all who enter Thy Kingdom may know the oneness of Heaven and earth and know that Thou art near, that there is no necessity for Thee to come floating down on a cloud from some far sky, but that Thou art here in Heaven on earth, in relationship to this part of the Cosmic Body of Being, and that the centering cycles extend on and on until we are caused to realize that this part of the Cosmos is centered in the Center of the Cosmos as surely as any other part, and that All is One, and that Thy Allness is here insofar as we are capable of receiving it and revealing it and using it to Thy Glory and to the blessing of the children of men; for Thine is the Kingdom; therefore Thou art the King, and we would act like it, and we would let Thy Kingdom manifest, we would let it come; and Thine is the Power by which these things shall be done; and Thine is the Glory revealed as they are done in the blessings of Life to all who will receive, IN the Christ, now and forever. Aum-en.

© Emissaries of Divine Light