The Altar in Consciousness

The  Altar  in  Consciousness

Martin Cecil  January 30, 1983

We are all aware that we are here present this morning once again to provide space individually in our hearts and minds for heaven. It is well to remind ourselves of this. Being in heaven, because there is a heaven for us to be in, the heaven of our hearts and minds, thoughts, words and actions may indeed be the vessels of the temple for right use. We might question as to how proficient it is possible for us to be, in the right handling of the vessels of the temple. We have a special opportunity at this time to discover just how effective we may be.

How much of what occurs in your minds and hearts in an hour such as this is consequent upon the fact that I command your attention, or how much upon the fact that your attention is already commanded by you? Behind me in the Chapel this morning, as on each occasion when we hold a service, there is what we speak of as an altar. I wonder how carefully you have examined the altar and what is present upon it. A few of you had opportunity to build this particular piece, so presumably you are familiar with the design. I had the opportunity of designing it, so I am familiar with the design. It is composed of wood and marble. There is a flowing design to the wood, which is also picked up again in the design of the lectern. Marble certainly has some very pleasing colors. The wood and the marble are the material of which the altar is composed. There is a Bible upon the altar, two candlesticks and a golden bowl. Perhaps it is not possible for you to see the altar in its completeness from where you sit, but I am sure that you have an awareness of it even so.

This altar obviously is present in the Chapel for some reason. Presumably it represents something. It has a symbolical value as representing a reality. It isn’t of itself the reality but it may represent a reality in our own consciousness. I’m sure that you presently have the idea that the altar is behind me over here, and you are sitting over there. But if you will pause to consider for a moment you will realize that the altar is exactly where you are, because it is only present in your own consciousness. You project it as being somewhere else but the fact of the matter is that it is exactly where you are.

As I say, this altar and its associated vessels is, rightly, symbolic of a reality. The altar itself of course is a particular structure which is capable of holding those vessels which are placed upon it: the Bible presumably would represent the Word, the candles and the candlesticks possibly heart and mind in which the light of life shines, and the golden bowl a very special representation, as a vessel, of the vessels of the temple: thoughts and words and actions spring forth by reason of spiritual expression, rightly. The contents of the golden bowl is invisible; spirit is invisible. We are keenly aware, however, that it is a reality. In fact I suppose it could be described as the most solid reality there is around, but there is the need for vessels which may be filled by the spirit and activated into expression. We have called these vessels thoughts, words and deeds.

So there is a representation in this altar, present in your own consciousness, of what rightly is true of you. The facilities of body, mind and heart are all present where you are, in your own experience. The light of life is there. You know it to be so. You don’t have to analyze it to prove it. It is a fact which you know. In order to provide a better view of the altar in your own consciousness I shall move aside. The lectern may still block your view to some extent but the words that I have used to describe the altar and its contents should be fairly clear in your consciousness anyway. I am not going to be standing here to command your attention. I’m just giving you the opportunity to discover what the nature of your attention is if it is not commanded by some living external point which offers some expression capable of perhaps commanding your attention.

Human beings obviously are quite familiar with having their attention commanded. Usually they watch TV and have their attention commanded by what has been called the “boob tube.” There are those human beings who are more capable than others of standing before an audience commanding their attention, and all sorts of things have happened because this has been so. Emotions can be activated and human beings can just follow along more or less blindly and, because the one who is activating their emotions is saying something, imagine that they are thinking. But the fact of the matter is that this is a blind experience, and people go along with such things and all sorts of horrors are perpetrated because of this. Some of the things that crowds do, and therefore the individuals in the crowds do, they certainly would not do if they were alone. Here is slavery indeed—people do the most ridiculous things.

When I do step aside and let you contemplate the altar in your own consciousness, you don’t necessarily need to see it with your eyes. In fact sometimes seeing something with your eyes, except to remind you for the moment, may be a distraction. But what will it engender in the space in you? Something heavenly? Now we’ll see what happens to the vessels of your temple, particularly those of thought, presumably, in this instance. Sometimes, even when I am standing here, thoughts wander. Thoughts wander because of feelings. Feelings are triggered in various ways. If you are considering the reality that is represented by the altar and its contents, you are in position to let the vessels of your temple—perhaps thoughts principally—contain the expression of spirit. In other words there will be a handling of these vessels by spirit, so that what needs to be seen and understood, the meditations of your heart, may be engendered by spirit—a certain experience of illumination, so that what you have heretofore perhaps more or less taken for granted, not considered as important, the altar and its contents, may come alive in your own consciousness by reason of your own living expression of spirit.

Be still. “The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.” But this isn’t a blank, is it? This means that the vessels of the temple would be used rightly. They would be filled with spirit, spirit would flow, and consequently you would participate in an enlarged experience. Now the question is as to how proficient you might find yourself to be in such an experience. Well, I’m going to provide you with the opportunity, at least, to find out, because if I merely command your attention when I am here, then to that extent you go along for the ride. But if your attention is commanded by the spirit that is moving in you, then we are all in position to participate in what we have spoken of as radiation. The other aspect would be absorption, wouldn’t it? If you go along for the ride, in an automobile or in an aircraft or on the train, there is a power source in all these vehicles which moves you along. You yourself are not the power source. Well now you are—and if there is any meaningful movement, any meaningful depth of greater awareness, it comes because your heart, your mind, your body are the vessels of the temple, with sufficient space in them to accommodate the movement of the creative spirit.

When I stand here and speak, this is what I have to do. If anyone stands here and speaks, that is what is necessary: to have space to accommodate the expression of the spirit. All right, here is the particular opportunity to see what happens to you when there is a silent space provided for you, at least for your physical forms, your minds and your hearts. Will they take over? Or will they be the vessels of the temple which are used by spirit and therefore provide the means by which you, spiritual you, the only you that is real, are introduced into experience on earth in this fashion, in this particular setting, individually and therefore collectively? You will discover for yourselves what it is that I have to work with, whether I merely have to take you along for the ride or whether you are part of the power source yourselves.

So the space is offered to you, and we will have a period of quietness, and you individually will discover what happens in you. As an individual you are the only one who will have that awareness, but it may acquaint you with the extent to which you are present on earth, having come forth from the Father into the world through your mental processes, through your feelings and through your physical form. So I shall step aside for the moment. You still have a point of centering, but what that point of centering is is entirely up to you. I have offered the altar as a representation in your own consciousness, because it is present in the consciousness of each one.

Martin left the lectern and was seated in his chair to the side of the lectern for six and a half minutes.

You will know for yourselves individually how well your minds and your hearts have been able to hold a focus so that there was an ongoing experience of a creative nature, something unfolding in your awareness. This unfoldment properly is occurring constantly. I provided a representative form to offer you a connection with what is actually happening in the flow of the creative spirit. If you are capable of holding a focus in a true point of representation, then you have the experience in mind and heart of the flow of the spirit, which enlightens you. You become aware of far more than would be possible if that connection were not there.

You may see in this that there is a certain importance and necessity for a representation of some kind in consciousness in order to let the creative experience be known. This is the value of true symbols, true representations. It has been emphasized that there always is the need for an external point of representation; at least that’s how it appears to the person. But I’m sure you realized that you weren’t concentrating on an altar over here, separate from you. Your attention came to point in an altar in your own consciousness, so that the representation which had before appeared to be out there, now is found in fact to be in here. This also relates to the living representation that is provided. That is essential for the experience in heart and mind in any person, first of all of the creative flow of the spirit, and then consequently of the awareness in heart and mind of the coming forth of the one who you are.

In a particular sense I have provided an external point of reference to all of you, and many more, a representation of a reality. You imagined that I was somehow separate from you. Well that’s the starting point; that’s the way all human beings see things, as being separate from themselves, so how else could one approach the consciousness of human beings, yours included? So a representation is provided which seems to be external, and heart and mind scout around it, so to speak, to see it from all angles as far as possible and find out whether it’s genuine or not. And if, finally, there begins to be such a sensing of the spirit that is being represented, regardless of the form (of course the form can’t be separated from the spirit; there wouldn’t be any spirit represented if it wasn’t for the form), if there is a sensing of that spirit so represented, heart and mind begin to realize gradually, rather slowly as a rule, that what is being experienced is internal to heart and mind. It is contained in the heart and mind. The representation, in other words, begins to dissolve into the experience of the reality, because the representation in the first place never was separate from the person; that is, if it’s a genuine representation—I suppose in a sense you could say even if it isn’t, because people become involved in others; they pattern their lives upon the lives of others. They have images of themselves which are gleaned from images of others. So what is being undertaken could be said to be internal anyway; but now, finally, if there is a genuine representation of spirit, then that begins to come home, so to speak.

It seems to be over there to start with. There are many people on our mailing list who receive the services “out there” somewhere, and they read them, and they sometimes feel they have no adequate personal connection with me who gave the service. But the fact of the matter is that the individual is reading the service; I gave the service; I’m right there and in fact in the individual’s own consciousness. How could I be any closer? This idea of, “Well we need closer connection,” is a fantasy. We don’t. The closest possible connection is already there. All that is required is to awaken to it, and the awakening comes because the reality that is you begins to come forth through the heart and the mind of the physical form in which you are incarnate. This is making all things new. It isn’t repairing the physical form, it isn’t adjusting the mind somehow, it isn’t doing something else to the heart—I’m not sure what—getting it straightened out somehow. It isn’t any of those things. What has been absent is now coming forth, that’s all; and in its coming forth, in your coming forth, all things are made new. There’s a new state of consciousness.

There are many people who recognize that there needs to be some sort of change in the state of consciousness, but it’s always considered simply from the standpoint, as we have noted before, of changing the furniture of consciousness around so that there’s a new look to it. It isn’t that at all. The furniture needs to go on the junk heap, that what should be present may come forth. It isn’t a matter of healing. That’s a heretical thing to say, isn’t it? because everybody is trying to get healing. Even this wholistic business is seen in terms of somehow or other getting the person together, as though that in and of itself would produce something worthwhile. But you can get this mess over here and that mess over there and the mess in the other place all together and all you have is a bigger mess. It isn’t a repair of anything. Healing is seen in terms of repair: “My gallbladder isn’t functioning too well; it has stones in it. It needs to be rid of the stones, so let’s get an expert in that field and he’ll get rid of the stones. Ah, now I’m healthy.” But you don’t have a gallbladder anymore. You’re not whole. That is healing from the human viewpoint. There is no need for healing, because what seems to need to be healed must pass away. Healing just keeps it around a little longer, so the whole approach ultimately, from the human standpoint, which considers the matter of healing to be so important, is false.

There are two words that might be used to indicate the change in consciousness that is to occur, or rather the experience that is known when it does occur. The first one relates to this matter of simply trying to fix up, repair, make better, the false state, and the second one refers to the experience of the true state. The first word is revolution. Human beings always imagine that something new is produced by revolution. I’m thinking more in the terms perhaps of political revolution: throw somebody out, put someone else in. But, as has repeatedly been the experience of human beings all throughout history, virtually nothing has changed. Just the people have changed, that’s all. Different people are in and others are out, that’s all. But the way they operate hasn’t changed at all. Revolution is rotation, isn’t it, in other words going around in a circle, and it gets nowhere. You just, sooner or later, land up back where you were before.

The other word is revelation, which implies that there is something which wasn’t there which is now there—this coming-forth business of which I have been speaking. And when you come forth through the altar which you are in the external sense, the symbol of the reality which you should be in the external sense, when you come forth, the symbol is immediately a true symbol. You didn’t fix up the old thing; you simply allowed the new thing to appear.

The attitude of most is to try to get themselves fixed up. The whole approach, the whole humanoid approach, is to try to get fixed up, as though, being fixed up, some very useful thing has occurred; but it’s still the same false person there, doing the same false things. It has often been said that a person may receive healing but then immediately thereafter goes and does exactly the same things that he was doing before and lands up sick again. This is revolution: revolutionary diets there are these days, revolutionary ways of exercising, revolutionary all this stuff, which is supposed to be so valuable, so modern. It has all been done before. But it gets nowhere. It’s revolutionary—going around in a circle. Until there is the experience of revelation nothing creative has happened. But the revelation is the coming forth of the truth, and when the truth is present it is revealed by reason of the vessels of the temple. They are used rightly, and in their use they are restored; they are restored to the purpose for which they are there. If these vessels are used rightly they are revealed as perfect; they don’t need fixing up.

So we have had opportunity this morning to participate in a recognition, a direct recognition, of something which has been talked about for a long time, of the fact that there is always the need for external representation of the truth, to start with—something which may symbolize the truth and which the individual interprets as being external to himself. That’s the way the human mind now works. But gradually you find out that what you were interpreting as being external to yourself isn’t. It comes closer and closer. There s a feeling of closeness. In our ministry there are many who say there’s a much greater feeling of closeness now than there used to be. Well the evidence of some revelation is appearing, which is the coming forth into experience of the truth that is already present. We can’t make closeness. There are many people who try to make closeness by communicating more. Well this is not to say that we don’t need to talk to each other a little—less, probably, than we do. Communication has its place but it isn’t the way by which the truth is known. The truth is only known because it comes forth. And how can it come forth, with respect to anyone, from anywhere else than where the person is? It can’t be injected in from somewhere if it’s coming forth. It wouldn’t be coming forth, would it? It would be going in. Well we have vast experience of things coming in, and it never did us much good, did it? It could be said that we are still present on earth because of some things that were injected into us to give us a chance to discover what the coming forth is. It’s the only reason we’re still alive. It’s the only reason anyone is still alive, to have that chance.

What a wonderful opportunity and provision is always present, and we are here to take advantage of it. I represent something to you of the altar of the Lord, the living altar of the Lord: physical body here, mental capacity and emotional capacity. The Bible is here, the Word is here; the candlesticks are here, I trust lighted in some measure at least, the light of life shining; and the golden bowl is here, capable of containing spiritual expression—the vessels of the temple, of thoughts, words and deeds, by which the expression of spirit is brought forth. And the expression of spirit creates. There would be nothing if it weren’t for the expression of spirit. All things were made by the Word; and without the Word was not any thing made that was made, that is made.

So we find the truth coming home to us, but it isn’t really that, is it, either, because it was always at home. No, the truth comes forth, and here is the change of polarity for the changed experience. What has been known in the past has always been relative to something supposedly coming from somewhere else—the stars dictate our lives! The stars presumably are way off somewhere, so it has to come a long way to get here—but that’s a lie. All that is real comes forth because it is our own true expression through the purified heart and the sanctified mind and a body filled with life.

If you know for yourself as an individual who I am, you only know that to the extent of your love. And if you do know that, you immediately know to that extent who you are, because there is no separation between the two. So you say, “I am,” and you know who you are, because you know who I am. There’s no separation. You can’t know who you are without knowing who I am. People try to maintain themselves in little cells apart from everybody else: “I’m going to know who I am now.” It can’t be done, because the truth is there is no separation. There is oneness. And we discover what that means as we are in position to come forth because heart and mind are available, there is space there of the quality and nature that will accommodate our coming forth. And as we do, heart and mind know that and share the experience of the one who is coming forth. So let it be, not only in an hour such as this—maybe we have had some experience in this hour which would be helpful—but let us come forth constantly.

© Emissaries of Divine Light