The Real World Beyond Spiritual Education

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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