Life It Is!

Life  It  Is!

Martin Exeter   June 21, 1981

As there are those who awaken from their slumbers, questions begin to form in their minds. One of them might be couched in the terms presented in this translation of the Bhagavad-Gita: 

“By what force doth man

Go along his way, unwilling;as if one

Pushed him that troubled path?”

Where there is a valid question there is always present at the same time a valid answer. If the answer doesn't seem to be present it is either because the question is not valid or because the discernment of the answer is inadequate. The answer comes here:

“Life it is!

Life's urge it is! used in darkened understanding,

Which pusheth him.”

Of course it is used in darkened understanding by human beings in the world. The result of this might be summarized by using the words: Life will be the death of me! And it is in the world as it is now known.

Inherent in life is purpose. If that is so, why should human beings imagine that they have to superimpose upon their own experience of life personal purposes of various sorts? The purpose is present in life itself. The purpose of life might be defined by using the word truth. If life is purposeful in fact, then there is some means of achieving the purpose. That means of achieving the purpose is truth. There is a design in the purpose to be achieved, and even a design by which it may be achieved. There must also be the essential control to make this achievement possible. Above and beyond this there is necessarily what might be referred to as the power of achievement. We have defined that by using the word love. There is a reality back of that word, a reality largely unknown in human experience.

But power is an apt description of at least one aspect of the reality of love. It is the power of achievement. It is also a cohesive power. It is the basis for the fact of oneness. In fact it might be said that oneness is another way of describing love. Here is the unifying power, but also the creative power, the power of achievement, the power of achieving love's purpose by means of truth, by means of the essential design and control. The achievement itself is life, universal life. Because life springs from the reality of oneness the nature of life is unity. We speak of the universe. Here is an indication of oneness, and yet obviously there is apparent a great diversity. But this diversity springs from the central core of oneness.

We ourselves have awakened in some small measure to the reality of this love—to the reality of oneness. Life is present throughout the universe. This is what makes it a universe. This life, omnipresent in the universal sense, is drawn to point in a particular way in this particular planet. Beyond the planet, human beings in their darkened understanding are not inclined to see the reality of life. They may look around, trying to discover reproductions of what they consider to be the forms of life on earth, but the reality of life itself is not recognized as being a universal condition. It is not recognized as life until it begins to be drawn to focus relative to this planet. It is so drawn to focus particularly on the surface of this planet. A variety of forms reveal life unmistakably. This is so because, being drawn to focus, it is concentrated, so to speak, and unavoidable even to the darkened understanding of human beings.

So the fact of life revealed in form is acceptable to the darkened human consciousness. The ultimate focus of this appears rightly in man. Here is a purposeful focus then, with the essential design and control inherently present, together with the power of creative achievement. If this begins to be understood from this perspective, then it is easily recognized that man has significance. Here is life spread throughout the whole universe, being drawn to a particular focus in this planet, relative to a great variety of forms and ultimately that of man, where the supreme focus in this regard comes to point. This significance can be seen locally: what human beings do has considerable effect in their environment. The environment these days is seen as extending a little further than the surface of the earth even. There is a lot of junk in space nowadays, and instruments have been sent out to visit the moon and various planets. One of the instruments visiting the moon was man himself.

So there is a recognition that the significance of man could relate to more than this planet as such, but I don't think the present view goes much further than the solar system. But life does not stop at the edges of the solar system. However, here we have an awareness which emphasizes some sort of significance to man. However extensive that may ultimately prove to be, it is at least seen as being a very virulent factor in his immediate environment. I suppose presently man could be looked upon as the cause of a diseased world. If you subscribe to the germ theory, then man is the germ! But equally, if he can be and is a destructive element in the scheme of things, he might well be a truly creative element. The power is evidently there. One might well anticipate that greatly more power would be available if man's actions were actually creative. Fortunately it seems to have been subdued somewhat, so that to this point he has not as yet entirely eliminated life from the surface of this planet. He seems inadvertently somehow to have proliferated forms of life, particularly his own. I don't know that that was so inadvertent, but it causes some problems.

In any case, life is here, moving with purpose, even though human beings try to use it on the basis of their own darkened understanding. I am sure we would all agree that life is not really for human use. If it is spread throughout the universe it is for universal use on some basis other than the ideas of human beings. If that is so into the far reaches of the universe, it is obviously so in this little corner of it. Yet man, as we are well aware, has diverted, or attempted to divert, life to his own uses, and it has been the death of him.

Seeking to use life for human purposes does not nullify the purposes of life. It merely temporarily superimposes something on top of those purposes, hides them for the moment. But they are still there as long as life is there. And life is universal, so those human purposes are inevitably set aside. Life's purposes prevail. We say, “Unconquerable life prevails.” No matter how seemingly good our human ideas are as to the way it should be controlled and for what purpose, life isn't really interested. It goes along for a while, but those who attempt to turn it from its true purposes into their own gradually find themselves with less and less life to turn, until in their own experience it has vanished away. But life didn't vanish away; it is still there. The person who was seeking to turn it into foreign directions passed away. Life remained, but no longer in that particular form.

It appears as though the more life is diverted, or the more human beings attempt to divert it, the more life puts in an appearance, as though it was saying, “You're not going to get away with it.” Of course not! There is a larger and larger spate of life, and human beings find it more and more difficult to keep it diverted into their own particular designs composed for their own purposes. It keeps slipping out of them, and the designs perish. And so more and more designs have to be thought up to try to provide the control to keep life sustaining human purposes. The attempt to keep life sustaining human purposes produces decay. On every hand we see decay and, consequently, the greater effort put forth by human minds and hearts, rebellious human minds and impure human hearts, to keep life somehow upholding the desires and the designs of mankind, of individual human beings and of various groupings of human beings collectively.

I reemphasize these points so that it may be clearly seen as to what it is that is happening in this decaying process. Life is the death of the purposes of men, and if we associate ourselves with the purposes of men it is the death of us. Yet life's purpose is present and will have its way. It is present in this setting, now, here, because of us who are here primarily, delighted to have its way to the extent that there are hearts and minds that are willing—actually willing, not just theoretically willing. There have been gatherings here over the years of many theoretically willing minds and hearts, but the actuality has been somewhat restricted, because those concerned were still intent upon maintaining, sustaining, their own purposes, based in what was present in their subconscious minds and hearts primarily. And of course whatever was present there emphasized consciously the seeming direction that should be taken, and then there was consequently a certain amount of deliberate, conscious action based in that which was at variance with the purposes of life. And we find troubles still persisting.

There is the necessity of taking into account the fact that life is not merely an individual affair but moves through the whole of humanity; and not only the whole of humanity but through all the kingdoms of this world; and not only through all the kingdoms of this world but through the planet itself; not only through the planet itself but through the whole solar system; and not only through the whole solar system but through the whole galaxy and the universe beyond. We cannot as individuals lift ourselves out of this totality and live. This is the attempt, of course, that has been made by mankind: to lift itself out of this totality and have a little state of delight upon this planet, presumably served by everything round about, particularly by the sun—we need that. Of course this is entirely contrary to the true purpose of life, which had no intention of isolating human beings from the whole.

Awakening to our association in the whole, we become aware of the reason for oneness, which is love. Now here is a key which has not been accepted too well by most, because human loving tends to be rather selective and indeed exclusive. That is not love; that turns the creative power into something destructive. Love is the basis for oneness, the way by which the whole universe is unified. The lack of love in human experience is the reason for the divisions and the state of isolation in human experience. We may see that insofar as human minds and hearts are concerned love is rightly the motivating power. Each individual here has a mind and a heart and is capable of considering the extent to which love is the motivating power. Most consider that someone or something else, environmentally speaking, is the motivating power for their experience. I am sure that all of you have had this habit of attitude.

As long as “they,” for instance, are the reason for one's own discomfort or for one's own necessary action, to that extent of course love isn't the motivating power. Do you ever have the niggling idea still that they are somehow producing your difficulties? They take all kinds of different forms, don't they? And you can find they almost anywhere! But life doesn't come from they, does it? If you suspect that you are still alive, you also are aware of the fact that the life which you are experiencing did not come from they. Right? Of course. It did not come, in Emissary circles, from the focalizers; it did not come from the finance committee. It did not come from any of these they but is an experience that is one's own, springing forth from within oneself. In the individual sense this is the only source for one's own experience. There isn't any other. Take that source away—life—from your mind and heart and there is no experience.

So the source of motivation, true motivation, is only present in oneself. It isn't anywhere else insofar as one is concerned oneself. And that applies to each person. No true motivation springs from anywhere else. If you find other motivations determining your attitudes and actions, then obviously they are false motivations. They are all false motivations. If life is characterized by love, and that is the truth of the matter, then love must be the experience with respect to one's own momentary living, as the motivation thereof. Rather simply described, this could be put that you love to do whatever you do. Right? If you take the attitude that “they are making me do this,” they are your motivation—it isn't love, and you won't love to do what you do. You may try: “I know I should love to do what I do, but they are making me do it.” No they are not! That is your own self-deception. You are the one who is doing it, not they. Why are you doing it? Well if you sink into the stupor which blames they for it, you have, to that extent, rejected life. You say, “Life is not my motivation. Life is characterized by love; love is not my motivation. They are. They are making me do it.” One can very simply solve that problem by loving to do what one does. They are out of the picture. They is a good name for the devil, I suppose, the devil which is self-created. They may be this person or that person in your consciousness, but if you give them the power to motivate you, you have created the devil out of them. Well that is not what we are here to do, create devils all around us, and yet it is what everyone does.

Here we see there is the power to create. But life springs forth from within our minds and hearts, may flood our minds and hearts, and when it does we find that the motivation for everything we do is love. We love to do what we are doing. That is heaven, you know. If you are pushed reluctantly by life, because you are accepting environmental motivations—other people, things, circumstances—you are trying to use life for a false purpose. And life goes along for a while, but not forever.

How beautiful to awaken to what has always been present with us and accept it. Let God's will be done. Let love's will be done. Let motivation be love, and when it is, you love to do whatever it is you do. And they are never responsible. It is true that life is one, so we move together; but we move together because we are all moving with life, moving in love, loving to do what we do. If we love to do what we do, then the experience is a joyous one. Joy is the result. Love is the miracle worker, the creative power. If we exclude it, woe unto us. But love is not exclusive. It is not selective. The sun shines on all, and so is it with love.

Human hearts and minds can be the children of love, that that creative power may fulfil the purposes of life. Those purposes are beautiful, and indeed perfect. Why would anyone wish for anything else? Yet we can sit and theorize about it, claim to know the truth but not know it. Life is here with us; the purpose of life is here with us; the power for the achievement of that purpose is here with us. Why not accept the experience of the achievement? We do it individually, and consequently we do it together. We love what we do. We love what we do because we awaken to the purpose of what we do. And the purpose of what we do is not an isolated human purpose. It is not merely what is pleasing or satisfying to me. What is truly pleasing and satisfying puts in an appearance only when life has its way with our minds and hearts. We do not try mentally and emotionally to maintain the habitual state which has frustrated life heretofore. Actually it does not really frustrate life; it frustrates our own experience of life, because life keeps moving. Here is a mighty flow, one might say, which certainly no man could stem. It is fatal to try it. Indeed, let us live. Let us let life be the life of us, to the glory of God!

© Emissaries of Divine Light