from
Being True To Our Creator
Alan Hammond July 11, 1986 World Service Class
“The Lord chose these hearts and minds to come
to the most privileged educational position and process available in the body of mankind,
in order that this restoration of consciousness in heaven on earth may be wrought,
because the angels indwelling these forms have a unique responsibility in the creative process
now outworking on earth.”
I thought to begin this hour I would read a page of a service given on May 4, 1986, entitled To Receive The King. Martin says, “I’m going to read a letter which I received this morning from one of your number, that we may move easily in the spirit of the creative process this morning from what occurred yesterday evening. Here is the Letter.”
I speak these words to you, and to my capacities, and to my world:
BLESSED IS HE THAT COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD! (You can ignore it, you can busy yourself with human activity, you can deny it... but here it is, like it or not.)
BLESSED IS THE FOCUS OF SPIRIT AS IT APPEARS ON EARTH! (Perhaps you would prefer it another way... maybe a more impressive display, some miracles, an occasional bolt of lightning. But you’ve seen plenty of real miracles already, every time you opened your heart to see them. And on the other hand, you’ve seen amazing displays of “miracles” in the form of technology, which later led only to death, destruction and disappointment. No. This is it... just exactly the way it is.)
BLESSED IS THE SIMPLE, CLEAR EXPRESSION OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH THROUGH HUMAN FORM! (You can distance yourself from it by judgment; you can feel superior by nit-picking, categorizing, comparing ... but what does it get you besides indigestion and loneliness? You are only distancing yourself from the creative process of life.)
BLESSED IS THE INNOCENT, UNCONDITIONED OFFERING OF LOVE RESPONSE TO THE FOCUS OF SPIRIT ON EARTH. (You can wait as long as you like for spirit to appear the way you want it to, the way you’ve visualized it... but here it is all the time. Meanwhile the life you’re wasting is not yours alone but everyone’s, because your hesitancy holds back others, just as surely as your yielding opens doors.)
BLESSED IS THE SPIRIT OF GOD REVEALED THIS DAY IN MAN RESTORED! NOW IS THE FULFILMENT OF THE LONGING OF EVERY HUMAN HEART, EXACTLY TO THE DEGREE OF THAT HEART’S YIELDING. BLESSED, BLESSED IS THE ONE SPIRIT APPEARING THROUGH ALL OF US: LET IT BE ACKNOWLEDGED AND REVEALED, AND LET THE FOCUS OF THAT SPIRIT BE ACCEPTED FOR WHAT IT IS!
That phrase, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord”—I think is usually interpreted, “I agree, and praise that one who comes in the name of the Lord.” And, as has been suggested in this text that I read, it is not only a commendable attitude but absolutely necessary for other hearts and minds to begin to find attunement with the creative process of life. But in my experience I have another interpretation which I’d like to share: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” is one’s own experience. As one comes in the name of the Lord, one is blessed.
All human beings are blessed, only they apparently are not fully aware of it. But as one comes increasingly in the name of the Lord, one awakens to the bounteous blessings of heaven—that's the natural experience. I’ve often wondered why Emissaries are so reluctant to help other people in awakening consciously. Obviously one of the main reasons is that the so-called Emissaries aren't awakened adequately themselves to know that they are dwelling in heaven, fully blessed—and this glorious experience of Being is not therefore overflowing into their world. This is a bit of a hard saying, even though I say it very gently! It's something to meditate on if this glory isn’t one's experience.
He that cometh in the name of the Lord is blessed. It's almost embarrassing in the world the way it is, how full the blessings are that are poured through the experience of the one who comes in the name of the Lord. One's almost hesitates, in the context of miserable consciousness all around, to proclaim the joys of heaven, because the human ego present that is in purgatory or hell, objects, and can see all sorts of external reasons why you may be experiencing heaven. But the only reason one is, if it’s the genuine article, is because one is identified in the creative process itself. It is not that man restored is able to manipulate external circumstances—having dominion—so that things line up now the way I want them, and I’ve learned the spiritual techniques to do it. No. It is because identity is come into the One Spirit which is animating everything everywhere. It is the spirit which is the Creator—the animating spirit, force, energy, which is moving all things everywhere. That’s how vast it is—Life, the Creator. As identity comes into that, naturally one’s fulfilment is simply in creating an experience consonant with the character of Being, utilizing whatever the raw materials are in one’s consciousness—be it physical substance, mental substance, emotional substance, vibrational substance. The angel, the focus of the One Spirit, is fulfiled because it is being true to its own nature as the Creator, creating the experience of heaven out of whatever raw materials are around at all these levels of being. We don't need any particular circumstance at all, to know that we are absolutely blessed, because the absolute experience of Being is derived from being oneself.
Many would-be Emissaries never come into this state of experience. The identity tends to remain in the human heart or mind and in that false identity there is nit-picking, as it was put in this text—all sorts of things criticized. But I want to just focus a moment on a delusion which we’ve all heard, and maybe touched ourselves. When they see those moving in the Emissary program, and therefore in the creative process of resurrection of consciousness provided, they view EDL as another church or a spiritual group that they belong to. Now that is a delusion, but you can see that it is a common one. People hit a ceiling—it might be a very low ceiling actually, but they hit ceilings anyway in this human nature ego, false identity. They're just a human being, and they think they belong to this group with a slightly superior set of concepts, and so on. And they may be associated for many years with this process, classes, services, groups, and yet they still find a more or less average, mediocre state of experience. And after many years of this, many such people become dissatisfied and begin to distance one way or another from EDL, as I say, viewing it as another little church. And most people, it is true, just go to church on Sundays—maybe once in the week. But anyway, after years of this they wonder why they don’t come into this glorious, absolutely fulfilled experience, and then they view this form, and say “Well it’s the inadequacies there.” It isn’t the inadequacies there. It is because, actually, such people never moved through the various ceilings, coming into a subjective experience of true identity.
Earlier this morning you were considering essences. Now this is a very thrilling subject, and each individual is incarnate on earth to achieve many things in the unfolding design. We have heard that responsibility for coming into true identity is a personal responsibility. I'd like to focus on a similarly singular responsibility which each of us has, and that is to fulfil in manifestation the particular essences which are ours and which we bring as Beings into the earth—because as angels we focus in a unique way some aspect of the One Spirit. Now all the essences are present in us, the full range of spirit is present within us, but obviously there are certain dominances of Being in each of us. And we somehow inherently know that there are certain areas of life expression on this planet for which we have particular responsibility. We sense it, and something may have taken some little form relative to those essences of Being. But I’m sure each of us sense there is much more to be done before we leave this sphere of things. We would love to achieve those unique purposes for which we each came, and that’s an individual responsibility. Nobody else can actually do this because you are you. And I would say that it is important to give this a little meditation—and this isn't self-centered if it is approached from the right level. Many associated with the program, they want to “do their thing,” and they can never be fulfiled unless they go on the stage, or whatever is—you’ve heard these people. Well it is true, there are dominances.
There's two aspects of dominance, I suppose. There’s the spiritual Being which is a unique focus of spirit, and then there's the earthly capacities into which you incarnated, which have certain characteristics and abilities dominant in them. Now you see, the human nature muddle is because the desire to manifest the essences and fulfil one’s reason for incarnation is a self-centered thing. From the angelic standpoint we begin to come at it the right way, and the right way is that I don't have to do anything for my fulfilment. The angel after all, is eternal. Let me give you an example. If I speak about myself it’s not because I want to speak about myself. It’s the universal Me that I'm speaking about—which is the truth. But anyway, I have a full range of essences of Being within myself and as I incarnate, circumstances are thus and so. The design, the external design into which I am born are thus and so, and immediately those external circumstances begin to determine various things about talents developed. For example, I know there's a musical essence within myself. If I had the time and the education I’m sure I could be a great violinist or pianist. I know it within myself—the essences are there. It’s just, unfortunately, I can’t play a note because I had neither the musical education nor the time. Now, am I a neurotic wreck, being aware of that? No! I have no physical children. I would modestly suggest, I’m capable! However, for one reason and another, in the unfolding of the design that hasn’t been the case. Am I a neurotic mess? Of course not!
The angel, the eternal focus of spirit, has all the essences—but, in one incarnation anyway, you couldn't possibly make manifest all of one’s talents from the spiritual standpoint. There's no need to in Divine identity! As we come into true identity and therefore awaken to a larger purpose, we begin to utilize the raw materials of Life, circumstances, that are presented to us, at hand externally. When Life, the power of Life is growing a plant, it just does the very best it can with the raw materials available for the growing of that plant. It may be very good soil, it may be very poor soil, the rainfall may be poor, it may be good, but Life doesn't pack up and say, “To hell with this project; I’m not going to bother to try.” Of course not! Life is naturally the Creator itself, and does the very best job with what is available, and Life itself is fulfilled even though the form that is produced may be quite modest. In essence, in spiritual essences, Life is fulfiled. Under other circumstances it could have created a great forest, and does in other circumstances. And so it is with us. As we emerge on earth, we no longer have to scurry hither and yon trying to find the ideal circumstance so that we can manifest one minute area of the essences of my Being. Because as I am where I am, and I am expressing my Being, which is the Creator, I play my part in the whole and whatever the whole brings to me to be worked upon I work upon, and I find those ranges of my Being, those ranges of my essences are exercised and are fulfiled. And actually, without going into the whole subject now, in fact, one will find that in the course of life a great range of the spiritual essences are exercised, even though one may not create great external forms in any particular aspect of one’s living.
So the key to fulfiling of the essence of one’s Being is simply to be the Creator in the context of the larger creative process—the whole. And I have also discovered personally that there are certain dominant spiritual essences of oneself that in the context of the whole do come round to require particular development and creative activity in the earth. So one can see that coming into true identity as the Creator is the key to fulfilment of one's part in the creative process.
A corollary of what I’ve just been saying is that in the collective as we now know it, certain people focalize certain areas of activity within the body. And many think to themselves, “Well I work in business; now this is a modest kind of performance that I give in the field of business.” But perhaps then theorizing in their heads, “I’m in the spiritual body; perhaps I focalize business for the body of mankind.” Now not many Emissaries are even willing to countenance such a stature, but in a flight of fancy someone may! So they console themselves with meaning and purpose by—they have a little business or something and inside their head they inflate it. “I’m extending something into the world of business; this is my focus.” What a pathetically tiny, little focus for an aspect of the spirit of God—an angel!
An angel is an angel is an angel. God is God is God. As angels with the full range of essences within ourselves for every aspect of human activity, we are responsible for focalizing every aspect of life through human form, as an individual. That means providing spiritual focus, providing spiritual leadership in the body of mankind—at least it’s leadership now because virtually everybody else is asleep. In the restored state it would change, because there would be more specific points of leadership, but even then, one would be a focus for God—Life’s activity in whatever you were doing.
But coming back to where we are right now, take for example the field of relationships. Each of us should be a Divine focus of leadership for the conduct of relationships through human form in the body of mankind. Now you may say within yourself, “Well this is awful, because I don’t even have a girlfriend, let alone focusing for the world.” You see, that is getting into the realm of form; that’s judging the form. It is spiritual focus and spiritual leadership. It is not at all impossible for each of us to conduct our relationships with men or women in the Tone of true spirit. Nothing impossible about that. If we do that, we are providing spiritual leadership in the field of relationships. That’s not saying how developed the form may be. We are saying that if you express this quality of character, this quality of spirit in your relationships, you will be in heaven. Never mind the extent of the form.
And that goes for money. As angels we are here to provide leadership in financial matters for all the governments of the world, for all the tycoons who are crookedly trying to grab as much as they can, etc., etc. It doesn't matter how much money we have because it is working with spiritual essences. As I, in my dealings with money or material objects, do so in the current of Divine character, I am providing leadership in this field. And so it is with every aspect of our living. It's not good enough to just be a world focus for business, or a world focus for relationships, or a world focus for communication, or education, singularly, or a couple of them. If we're present in a situation and participating in some area of activity, I am the manifest focus of clarity of spirit in this field.
Now the essence of every area is actually the truth of Love. For example, the essence of the field of relationships—what is the essence that we're dealing with? It's the truth of Love. One extends the truth of Love to whoever it is, the truth of Love in expression does provide the focus of leadership for that activity. So that, to each person, not just the ones we fancy, but to each person we express the truth of Love, thereby providing a focus for the whole body of mankind in relationships.
In the world of communications, the essence of the world of communications is the truth of Love. In communications, the essence of it is to share true communion in the Tone, to share the truth of Love with another person—to communicate that is to provide leadership.
In education, the essence of education is the loving of the potential of that person, and as one extends that essence, one is a leader in true education—the Divine potential, drawing it forth.
And the last example—business. The essence of the world of business is loving to provide perfect service. It’s an expression of the truth of Love. It’s providing a service to the whole. That’s what business should be—providing a commodity or a service for the whole, which is needed by the whole, and in expressing and effectively delivering that need of the whole, that is the essence of business actually.
So you can see that all these fields—and we could rehearse many more fields of human activity—they all relate actually to the expression of the truth of Love, the essences of one’s own Being. As we express these essences of our own Being, which are the truth of Love, we naturally find ourselves in positions of leadership in the body of mankind. The body of mankind may not immediately acknowledge it but we know, because identified in spirit we know that no one can experience heaven without coming through us—this spirit, not us personally in an ego way. “No man cometh unto the father”, no man cometh into the experience of heaven, no man cometh into the experience of fulfilment, or eternal identity, except through this Tone. We know this. One doesn't have to shout it actually, although it’s fun to do it now and then!
But it’s absolute. The authority is not something that I or anyone else has to kind of project through—“Do this or else!” No, because the One Spirit that is animating this dust—this One Spirit is also animating dust everywhere. Every molecule everywhere is animated by this One Spirit. There never has been a problem. Human egos think they have a big job on their hands. No! Not at all! It is a refined artistic challenge to focus the Tone through this instrument. Individually speaking we have to do that, but that’s a refined artistic and creative challenge utilizing many levels of substance and many qualities of radiation. That focus is our immediate responsibility in the creative process, and as we do that we are moving in concert with the One Power that’s doing absolutely everything. So there is no sweat involved in this at all—or worry. The authority is not the authority of one little instrument. It's merely articulated—this One Power everywhere is simply articulated at one point in one place to achieve some purpose within the design of things.
So it is a privilege to be in the Emissary educational, recreative process in which all of our hearts and minds are engaged. It’s a wonderful provision within the body of mankind. Many people dream of the greater works, the greater experiences in heaven. They are sensed. Many of those would-be Emissaries that I mentioned earlier, who join for awhile and then flake off, they sense something tremendous within themselves. They sense the heaven, the essences within themselves, and because they don’t stay and yield more and more into the creative process which has been provided, they of course become frustrated and then they hit a plateau. Maybe they don’t even flake off; maybe they just hang around belly-aching in the group, kind of mumbling; keep making their own problems, shunting around with all of this, fiddle about with that, hearing about the experience of heaven, and the fulness and the joys, and the variety and the adventure, and the excitement of it, and then they trudge off back to their duplex and “do the best they can.” Anyway, the point being that all this potential is sensed, but it doesn’t fully manifest.
So it is really with us—each one of us in this process. It’s a personal responsibility. I have to deliver the goods myself. I was speaking with John Gray, and Chris Jorgensen, and Jean Hammond yesterday about Assembly experience, and without going into too much detail—Assemblies are provided for those in the Emissary program to come together after finishing all the classes available and to move in the current of the spirit; to let spirit create the forms and the release in the moment together, the collective release of spirit. And one of the difficulties we've had is—you can see by what I’ve outlined that there is potential there if it could be done—unfortunately, many who have been around for years haven’t done their homework and are in no shape whatsoever to do very much. If we subjectively mean business, we do our homework! Very few in the spiritual body, as yet, really do their homework. So many of areas are private property. The person is responsible for their world—but it is tied in to the whole. You can see what I'm getting at here. People don’t do their homework! They hear all the theory, go home, try and grab their personal heaven, manufacture it for themselves, fail—always fail, and then have this mediocre pathetic excuse for a life. It’s even more frustrating because they've heard of something more glorious!
So the blessings—this isn't a bribe but it sounds like one, and I’m about to utter it. One cannot know the blessings unless one comes in the name of the Lord. As one comes more and more in the name of the Lord, the experience moves deeper into the kingdom. I’ve said this before, but you know, the object is to get into heaven. People are in purgatory or hell, and their goal is to learn the truths and all that so they can get into heaven. That’s what the whole body of mankind is trying to do, one way or another—get into heaven. But as we in fact move in the recreative process, and identity begins to change, and identity comes into spirit, you find you are in heaven because you’re the Creator in action. You are in heaven, and the challenge is not to get into the heaven but to get into the earth. That's the real challenge. That’s when Life really begins—coming out of heaven into the earth! There’s the creative challenge then.
And we find ourselves, as it were, deeper and deeper in heaven. We're coming from a deeper and deeper place in heaven. At first it's just kind of like, you pop in on Sundays and then out again on Mondays—that kind of thing on the borders of the kingdom. As we take up residence we find ourselves in the kingdom, and in essence we stay there—but in radiation we come out. And it's the coming out increasingly which brings to heart and mind the new instruments, the greater instruments of radiation, which are necessary for the release of greater currents of power for which one is responsible. And so the adventure continues. There’s constant awakening, not only to the new experiences in the kingdom; primarily one with another; not only do we begin to have new experiences in the kingdom itself, angel to angel—but outer heart and mind become increasingly aware of the mechanisms of radiation which are the angel’s personal responsibility. And that's exciting to heart and mind too.
So it is wonderful to be in Class. It is wonderful to be in this part of the body of mankind, where the Lord has brought you. The Lord chose you. You didn't really choose the Lord, heart and mind. The Lord chose these hearts and minds to come to the most privileged educational position and process available in the body of mankind, in order that this restoration of consciousness in heaven on earth may be wrought, because the angels indwelling these forms have a unique responsibility in the creative process now outworking on earth. Simple. Having come so far, in a semi-conscious way, why not really have the joy now! Having come through the wilderness and the bogs and the blizzards and the deserts of experience, why not do what little homework is now required—there might be a lot—but do what little comes to mind to be done in order that the Lord may pour you out a blessing. And that is a pun, isn't it? Heart and mind experience the blessing, but YOU are poured out a blessing into the earth.
So this hour that we've shared is a mere point in the ongoing creative cycle in which we individually and collectively are participating—in the midst of eternity, here we are at this point, poised to experience heaven, the glory of Being, and to let that expand. What a joyful place to be—and in this place we thank the Lord, the King, for the glory of Being in human form.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
This is the Real World
from Assembly at Sunrise Ranch
Martin Cecil May 5, 1980
"Emissaries of Divine Light is the name of a College from which we have graduated into the real world."
How much are we capable of enfolding and encompassing? When we graduate from school, spiritual school, we become responsible in a real world. In that world there are a lot of unreal people. We're not too interested in the school from which we graduated. I don't think even in the human world, after leaving school, one drags the school around with one, trying to tell everybody about it. Graduating from spiritual school, we have assumed a certain maturity of responsibility which is our own, individually speaking. Of course at this point we are aware of the whole, of the fact that our individual expression, while it must stand because it is the expression of truth, is also an aspect of a far greater truth. We are a part of that far greater truth to the extent that our expression is true—that we are mature enough to be spiritually responsible for ourselves. That doesn't take us into a position of isolation. It offers connection with the far greater truth of which our individual truth is simply an aspect.
We have a field of enfoldment and encompassment, immediately available to us as we assume our mature spiritual responsibilities in the individual sense. Mention is made in the Book of Revelation about the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. I am sure you all recognize that this is the true state of spiritual consciousness, a new state insofar as human experience is concerned, which comes down from God out of heaven. Later, with respect to this holy city, there is indication that nothing should enter into it that defiles or whatsoever worketh abomination or makes a lie. In our own living, here is the holy place in which we abide. We find that there are others who abide in that holy place with us, so it is not merely an individual thing. Here is something coming down from God out of heaven and factually emerging on earth, because of us and all those who provide the means by which it may so emerge—a holy place into which nothing that does not belong may enter in.
Now we may see this, first of all, as a personal state for which we individually are responsible within ourselves. And we also see it as a collective state for which we are individually responsible too, that nothing should enter into that collective of the holy place. Only as there is such a holy place can there be the factual reality of the priesthood on earth. This is the basis for the enfoldment, and beyond that again the encompassment, which is our primary responsibility in the real world. All that does not belong in the holy place is excluded. But let us not merely look at it in a negative way, because then it would be entirely empty, wouldn't it? It wouldn't stay empty long; nature abhors a vacuum. It is a matter of letting it be filled with the real quality of spirit, consequent upon our own living experience.
But our concern is with this matter of enfoldment. We have individual spheres of enfoldment, which are, of course, at the same time included in the collective sphere of enfoldment. We never try to lift our individual spheres of enfoldment out of the whole, because immediately we would lose the reality of that enfoldment. We would lose our association with the holy place. So we extend an enfoldment to those who are beginning to see the light—we could put it that way. They only begin to see the light because of our expression of the spirit of God, individually and together, moving upon the face of the waters that are present in the consciousness of mankind, and out of that consciousness will come certain individual focalizations in response. These are those in whom the light is beginning to shine, so that they begin to see some more and understand more of the quality of life—and these require enfoldment.
The enfoldment is beyond the holy place, insofar as we are concerned, because obviously anyone coming will have those things that don't belong in the holy place. Therefore you cannot willy‑nilly invite anyone into the holy place who gives some evidence of experiencing an increase of light in their own consciousness. So here is a realm of enfoldment beyond the holy place. We have described this in terms of the outer court and the encampment. But we see this realm of enfoldment and keep it clear as there are those who are welcomed into it.
Within this realm of enfoldment there is rest. I suppose this is the first matter that emphasizes itself to a person. Maybe it did to us—at last we're home, so to speak; a feeling of rest. As the Master put it, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” So there is a place of rest, where the turmoil may begin to drain away out of people. It is also a place of safety, where there is a sense of being protected. It is our responsibility to provide this. It is also a place of education. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” All right, education. This is the nature of the place of enfoldment which we rightly provide. Are we going to say that this place of enfoldment is a very restricted place, into which only two or three people can fit? Or do we recognize the reality of it, which is vastly more than the holy place?
The holy place is, in this sense, a small place—there are not too many who are capable of functioning as the priesthood in the holy place, who are capable, individually speaking, of maintaining that holy place in their own experience, never allowing anything that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie to enter in. Only those who are of the priesthood are in the holy place. When there are those, and the holy place is present because of them, then the influence of that extends on out in enfoldment of others. And we have a place beyond us that is far more capable of including people than, presently, is the holy place.
If we use the symbolism of the encampment, well that's a big place, lots of room. We need to have this attitude, that there may be no exclusion of any point of light that begins to emerge because the spirit which we have been offering in our living has been moving upon the face of the waters of humanity. All right, humanity is spread around; there are quite a few of them out there. Are we going to say well, we'll take a dozen? Or is it going to be open?
We are capable individually and together of providing this large place of enfoldment. Perhaps it needs to be larger than it has been thus far. And it isn't the place of enfoldment with anticipation that those who are so enfolded are going to become hooked up somehow with Emissaries of Divine Light. Emissaries of Divine Light is the name of a college from which we have graduated into the real world. While we may have some college reunions on occasion, we are really about the Father's business in the world. And we are introducing people to that on the basis of invitation to the place of enfoldment. There are those who come in, and there is work to be done relative to those we enfold. Obviously there is the general pattern of rest which is offered, the provision of the sense of protection and safety, and then education. This education doesn't merely relate to what we have thought of as spiritual education in the orthodox Emissary sense: “Well, people must be brought to Class,” and so on. It isn't necessarily that at all. There is a far wider field of education than that. This perhaps is specialized education with respect to those who may, if they will, be included in the priesthood, to stand in the holy place. But the vast majority don't, or won't.
And yet there is something of education needful—a reconditioning of consciousness, to begin with. There are various means of providing this—enfolding them where they are, letting people alone, not trying to make them into something that we think would be better, but letting people alone. Let them be enfolded. There are various classifications of people who more easily relate to this area or that area. There are other gatherings we have, of many kinds. And there will be increasing numbers—if we are doing our job—wholistic gatherings, considerations in various fields, into which people may be invited and in which they may be enfolded. On this basis there is a beginning made with respect to a reconditioning of consciousness.
Some changes may be wrought, so that those concerned may feel more at home in the encampment than they did where they were before they became aware of the fact that there was an encampment. If we play our parts correctly they will have a sense of enfoldment; they will have the increasing experience of rest initially, a sense of protection, and begin to actually experience education without maybe telling them so. As long as we experience the reality, do we need to be told that we are experiencing it? Probably if we were told we would set up a resistance against it. That's the way human nature is. So we let it be, not a con game—not an Emissary con game—but the provision of what is necessary to allow some things to happen in people, about which they may not know is occurring. But they will only occur to the extent that those concerned are open to let it occur. It's not being imposed. If they are open to receive it they will receive it; if they're not they won't. So there is the enfoldment.
And beyond that again there is encompassment—the encompassment of everything, of all humanity, indeed of the world. It is all‑inclusive. We have our points of contact which increasingly enable a greater effectiveness in that encompassment. It has been, evidently, sufficiently effective thus far to prevent some final disaster from striking. But as it all intensifies there will need to be a greater control extended in a more specific way. It might be said that this encompassment could be compared to casting a net over the world, a net of control and containment, dominion and containment. The net is composed of interlocking meshes which relate to people.
We find ourselves associated with people who have, in one way or another, connections into the state of the tribes of the earth beyond the encampment. Usually these connections are those who come into the encampment, who participate in the enfoldment, and through them there may be an extension of the net of encompassment. We need to be alert in this regard, so that we do not take arbitrary Emissary attitudes with respect to anyone, thereby excluding that person from enfoldment. We see the value of people by reason of their associations. If such people are open to enfoldment, so that they come closer, then through such people we can reach what is beyond.
There are already the beginnings of such a network in various fields with which I am familiar—far more than even those who are the points of connection understand or see. We need to be aware that this is an open‑ended process. We think of things as being small because they are close, but it is through these apparently small things that the larger things are encompassed and the dominion of God begins to be an increasing reality on earth, regardless of the thrashings around of the dragon, regardless of the human‑nature state which still seeks to govern out there.
Here we have a consciousness of ministry which transcends, I am sure, the usual Emissary viewpoint, because it begins to become no longer an illusion, but the actuality. The actuality is related to people—and what we extend as enfoldment and encompassment is not some little viewpoint as a cult on earth. This is the real thing, and we reach a point of actually being willing to acknowledge this. There has been a hesitancy to acknowledge this, and the endeavour to maintain a cult, because it felt safer. But to really reach out—that is what is required!
© Emissaries of Divine Light
from
The Real World Beyond Spiritual Education
Martin Cecil July 22, 1979
The Lord will and can come into the world only when the door is opened for His coming. If the human attitude is, “He must come into the world, if He is going to come, through my doctrines, through my traditions, in my way,” then He does not come, and the world is left desolate, as it indeed has been for the vast majority of people on earth. We are here present this morning, and continuously, to leave the door open, that His coming may be in His Way, according to the beauty of His Being and for the purposes of His Will. Let no human attitudes trespass in the space by which he comes. How cluttered is that space, humanly speaking—it is filled with the ways of human nature, the doctrines and the conditions established by human nature, the traditions of human nature. How arrogant the human state is and has been. We have some awareness of the task which is given into the hands of those who participate in the coming of the Lord on earth. This does not happen by chance, nor by the whim of deity, but simply as the facility is resurrected to let it happen. If the means isn't there it doesn't happen, at least not in the experience of human beings. Regardless of human beings, that coming will occur, but it has no meaning if no one is aware of it—and ultimately, on this basis, there is no one to be aware of it.
In the world as we know it there is contained what may be referred to as a world of education. The world of education is prominent in the consciousness of many, but obviously it is only a part of the world in the overall sense. It is there, from the human standpoint at least, for a purpose. Evidently education is necessary to prepare young people particularly, so that they may graduate into a larger world and be capable of handling the circumstances that then arise. They come out of the world of education in a specific sense into this larger world, to operate there for whatever the human purposes may be. In the occidental world, for the most part, this educational system may be seen as following a certain design. Initially, of course, a baby and a young child are enfolded, rightly, in the parental home; but very shortly there is an emergence into this world of education: perhaps kindergarten to begin with, and then elementary school, which is the primary level of education in the initial sense. From this primary level of education there is movement into the secondary level of education. From the secondary level of education there is movement into a third level, referred to as that of higher learning—we could speak of it as the university level.
There is nothing that human beings do which was not originally stolen from the true design. The world is filled with thieves. It was referred to rightly, by One who saw clearly a long time ago, as a den of thieves. Education, as human beings understand it, is looked upon as being good and necessary, but use is being made of stolen property. The truth of education has been perverted and caused to appear according to the desires and the determinations of human beings for their own human nature purposes. But there could be no educational system, even in this regard, if there was not something from which it sprang—if there was not the genuine goods to be stolen. Everything in this human world may be seen as stolen goods, stolen from the original design, whatever that might be, and used for these nefarious human purposes, some of which are looked upon as being very good, some of which of course are looked upon as being definitely bad. But nevertheless the composition of human experience is composed of all this, and we may see an indication pointing toward the genuine article.
Education as it is known is temporal education, which sometimes has some religious overtones. The public school system doesn't, but there are other areas of education where religion comes into the picture; but for the most part, except perhaps in some very fundamentalist institutions, the religious aspect is soft-pedaled and the temporal aspect is still dominant. At best, then, any spiritual influence, which is mostly religious influence, is recessive to the dominant role of the temporal approach.
True education is all—all of it—spiritual education. Obviously there will be some temporal factors included, but they will be included on the basis of a genuine awareness of what the purpose is and the nature of the educational cycle that is unfolding. Just as there is presently a human nature world supported and sustained by the present educational system, so is there a true world which puts in an appearance when there is the provision of the true educational system, and that is totally spiritually based, not religiously based. Religions, after all, are human cults in fact. If they get big enough they're not called that anymore, because cult, as a term, tends to be rather derogatory, but as we have noted before, virtually everything that human beings do is of a cultist nature. It segregates people into little boxes and provides what is necessary to sustain a sense of self-righteousness in those boxes. And I'm not speaking alone of the religious cults; there are plenty of others. Virtually everything that human beings do is included.
The concern of the true educational system presently is to make it possible for human beings to emerge out of their cults, that there may be inhabitants, citizens, for the true, genuine world. There are none as long as everybody is held firmly in this immense structure of human cults. Those contained in one cult, of course, are usually quick to judge another, and there is a tendency to proclaim that one's own cult is based entirely in the truth. Whether that truth is thought of in religious terms or material terms, the attitude is the same.
The genuine article, insofar as education is concerned, requires a spiritual approach. We may see these three levels in the human design of things relative to what has been referred to as the Sacred Schools: the First at the time of the Israelites, the Second at the time of Jesus, and the Third at this present time. The First Sacred School was necessarily the first approach, the primary approach, the elementary grades. As it turned out, in a larger sense, the Israelites got to squabbling in school to such an extent that the school had to be dissolved—no more discipline. However, they had the textbooks, they had the readers, and there were those amongst the children of Israel who kept these volumes, which while they were indeed most necessary for the primary grade were considered as being good enough to enable all concerned to graduate into secondary school and on into university. The same old books. In the human educational system that wouldn't work too well, would it? Neither does it from the standpoint of the Sacred Schools.
Looking at it in these broader terms, we have recognized that the First Sacred School ended in the dissolution of the School itself, and out of that came the Judaic tradition, which is based in the early textbooks. So another approach was made to enable any who might be sufficiently competent to move into the secondary level of education, spiritually speaking, under the hand of One called Jesus. It's quite obvious that not many took advantage of that opportunity; there were even less at the time than participated in the first grade. This was clearly what would likely happen, because virtually all those who were in the primary level had quit school. There were very few left to move into the secondary level, and their primary education was so sadly lacking that they found great difficulty in high school—I suppose junior high to start with. So that opportunity of schooling under the hand of the true Instructor was lost, was dissolved. That School ceased to be. Out of it came what has been called Christianity.
You will note that Christianity has used the traditions which sprang from the Israelite pattern and included them in what they call their Bible, plus adding some more traditions out of the textbooks which were provided at the secondary level; and this has been supposed to be sufficient. At best one could only go to the point of graduation from high school on this basis. But this in fact was not possible, because the Instructor was no longer on hand in person, and so everybody had their own ideas of what should happen. And we have many cults contained within the Christian cult, all of them very self-righteous.
So we come to the time of the Third Sacred School, when the approach is necessarily made at the university level—there isn't any other level left. However, this does not exclude bringing to remembrance what is essential at the elementary levels and at the secondary levels in order to be able to function at the university level. The lack of educational skills had to be upgraded somehow, and you can't skip over the natural cycle of unfoldment, even in the spiritual sense. However, the approach to that natural cycle is from the standpoint of spiritual expression. We have some experience in this regard. We know that the textbooks of the First Sacred School and the textbooks of the Second Sacred School may be useful in upgrading skills, but these are naturally and inevitably left behind when one moves with the skills into the university level. The university level relates to the Third Sacred School. But let us recognize that while all these levels of education are necessary in the spiritual sense, they are not the end and aim of everything. They simply provide what is necessary for spiritual function in a spiritual world. But if nobody graduates from the university, from the Third Sacred School, there is no one to handle the affairs of the spiritual world.
From the standpoint of those who have been associated with this Ministry there has rather naturally been established a view that the school is everything: We must have classes; we must have this spiritual training. Fine, it's necessary. However, there must be a recognition that skills need to be upgraded. The First Sacred School had something of value to impart, as did the Second, and unless we accept what was thereby imparted we're not going to be able to function very intelligently in the Third. But coming to a dawning experience of this whole educational process in the spiritual sense, we recognize that it is there for a purpose, not for itself. There should be no expectation that we remain in school forever. What's the point? Here is a means by which maturity may be experienced because there is graduation into the real world. The educational world has a reality of its own, but it is not the real world—it is an approach to the real world. The real world is beyond the educational system. The educational system at some point must be left behind if one is to find the real world for which one's educational skills have been developed.
Of course the cycles of education—primary, secondary, university—all require a certain amount of work, application; one has to gain experience. One gains experience in this educational nest, where there is a sense of enfoldment, in our case spiritual enfoldment. But that enfoldment, which generates a certain comfort, a sense of security and safety to those who yield to it, is not designed to make the students so comfortable that they will never consider the possibility of getting out of the nest. After a certain point one becomes absolutely useless continuing in the educational system. He doesn't belong there; he belongs in the real world. There are some who are very hesitant about emerging into that real world, amongst those who have had the opportunity of participating in the Third Sacred School—which includes the First and Second also.
We have to get to the point of university, you know, and you can't get there without discipline. So certainly there is the need for a person to learn obedience. If he doesn't have that basic element in his makeup he's useless, absolutely useless. Parents sometimes seem a little reluctant to require obedience, to require the development of courtesy and good manners and all the rest of it. What's wrong with that? I think it's something that we need to experience if we are going to be in position to play our part rightly in the real world when we get there. It may seem pointless to a child. Well just because something seems pointless to a child doesn't mean that it really is pointless; that's just the childish view of the thing. If we have supposedly a more mature approach to things, then we understand what the necessities are and we willingly and happily accept them.
In the educational process there is a gradual freeing up of the restricted world in which the child has been existing. If those who are responsible for this educational process are themselves oriented in spiritual expression then the situation is easily handled. There needs to be balance. There needs to be the fact of spiritual control in the parent, in the teacher; otherwise how could it be drawn forth through the child? So there is this natural evolution by reason of the Third Sacred School, which includes, as I say, the First and Second Sacred Schools. But from the standpoint of a spiritual approach, there is a lot of upgrading to do in the First and Second Sacred Schools, the elementary and secondary levels of education, that there may be emergence into the realm of higher learning, the Third Sacred School.
We've all been quite familiar with the words Third Sacred School. Are we outside looking in? Or have we been able to receive sufficient upgrading that we might find ourselves in university and participating in what is necessary there? So there is something to move through insofar as the Third Sacred School is concerned. But then there comes a time somewhere along the way where there is graduation, and it's graduation out of this highest level of education as it is now possible of comprehension by human beings on earth. We do not see this as merely graduating into some other school, so that we go on being at school.
The graduation into the other schools—and there are other schools, four others to be exact, four other levels—but the graduation there is not so much into an educational process as it has been understood in the first three schools. It is a graduation into the real world, and there are various levels of right function in the real world. We discover these through experience. There are various levels in the real world, and we need to discover where we fit insofar as those various levels are concerned. Let us not imagine that it is merely a flat plane—how boring! how dull! Some people like to live on the prairies; you can stand on a gate and see quite a ways. But the mountains have some fascination too, don't they? There are various levels in the real world, and we discover what they are when we emerge finally out of the Third Sacred School, so that we're not looking to be educated forever but we assume responsibility in the real world.
Where is that real world? It's all right to be educated. One passes through a protected state in the process of education. There's nothing wrong with that, provided that somebody comes out at the end! If all we have is a bigger and bigger university, what's been achieved? If we are moving in the cycles of Spiritual education, we discover that we are prepared for whatever it is that is required of us in the real world. We don't have to figure it out ahead of time; we just let it happen. And we will discover, on the basis of our level of ability in this regard, that something will be brought to us. Most people who are getting out of university are looking everywhere for jobs, trying to find someplace to go. From the standpoint of true spiritual education there is actually no place to go. We don't need to go anyplace, because what is required of us will be brought to us according to the level of our spiritual ability. There are no unemployed among those who move beyond the Third Sacred School. If a person hasn't taken advantage of the opportunities in the School and has failed to gain the experience necessary, then there won't be much on his plate when he comes to the end of that cycle.
What is it that is being brought to you? That is always what I'm interested in. What are the words of the 23rd Psalm? “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” That's right! That's right, but there is a lot before that point, isn't there? “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” There is something to be learned, isn't there? “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” How willing has one been to let that happen? Or do you want to cultivate your own plot? Your plot may prove to be a tragedy! And there is all this which is part of the university curriculum. The individual comes out the end with no oil in his lamp. That's exactly what happens, and has happened to many.
We have the opportunity of the easy little circumstances to learn something, so that when we get beyond these easy little circumstances in school we may have the fortitude, the ability, the sense of the fitness of things, to handle what is there. If we don't learn it in school we're not going to be very effective out there, and we're going to be in what has been called the school of hard knocks—knocks which are completely unnecessary if one had learned what one had opportunity to learn while one was still in school.
We need to see this from the standpoint of the Third Sacred School, from the standpoint of what we have referred to as this Ministry, because our purpose is not to stay forever in school but to move out to where the need actually is. We should have some basis of understanding how the creative cycles move out there in that world. We're required to live in the spiritual world but there is another world out there, the material world. Okay, do you think of the material world as being on one side and the spiritual on the other? “We'll leave the material world alone; we'll just go out into the spiritual world.” Where is it?
Let us accept the responsibility of seeing that these two worlds are one and it is what we do in the world that is here that allows for the spiritual world to be brought forth as a reality—a reality in form. But we can't avoid that big, bad world out there. Insofar as we're concerned it's not big, bad; it's just our field of operation, that's all. And there is no place where we could not operate when it is brought to us. We're not going to look over the field and say, “Ah, I see. There's something that needs to be done in—wherever. I need to get out there and do it.” Don't be ridiculous. What value would you be? What needs to be done is done in spiritual expression by reason of whatever it is that is brought. And the Lord does not lack in tasks to offer, when there are those who are competent to handle them—that's the point.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
