from
The True Stature of Man
Martin Cecil January 14, 1974 a.m.
Human experience is based in what we have described as self-centeredness — the projection of human beings to first place, as though there was nothing more important in the universe than human beings. Obviously the universe is not subservient to human beings. The way people are on earth at the present time they are very small fry when we consider the total picture, scarcely discernible at all and carrying just about as much significance. Yet it has been said that man was originally made in the image and likeness of God. This should give him considerable stature, but in his self-centeredness he has lost his connection with God and consequently has lost his true stature.
There is a description in the Book of Genesis as to what happened to the serpent that was in the tree in the garden. He landed up on his belly in the dust, and his diet was dust too. Now the serpent relates to the central nervous system in man, by which he finds his contact with the external world around him. In consequence of that contact he forms his various concepts with respect to that world. He generates a crust of consciousness. We are considering this from the standpoint of what has been occurring since self-centeredness set in. Man's consciousness has been hooked to externals and goes upon its belly in the dust, eating dust. Man's awareness of his environment and of himself is of a very lowly nature. All that man really knows about is what is on the surface, related to the layer of dust. He does indeed, in his present consciousness, go upon his belly in the dust, and this is what he eats too, both literally and metaphorically.
Man, made in the image and likeness of God, should rightly have considerable stature. He has been keenly aware of his lack of stature and has felt ashamed of it, but has thus far been unwilling to relinquish the things which keep him in that lowly state. He may, standing in the dust, look outward beyond himself into the universe, but he has to use the serpent to do it, so he sees everything through the serpent's eyes, or through the worm's-eye view. He stands in the dust and looks to the larger environment around him, seeing everything through those self-centered eyes; and he may also look in the opposite direction, inward to the very small, and he sees things there likewise. On the basis of this he develops what he calls his physical sciences, and the crust forms within the scope of this thin layer of dust. At the same time, he may indulge himself in the development of various philosophies. He moves into a metaphysical realm, something that is beyond the immediate experience of the dust. But this realm doesn't go very far either. It is comparable to the atmosphere around the earth — a very thin skin too. So the atmosphere and the dust are both relatively nothing, compared on the one hand to the body of the earth, on the other hand to the body of space. Yet it is within this range that human beings exist. The stature of man has been entirely lost.
If in our meditations we undertake to look beyond the worm's-eye view there are those who react in fear. To come out of the state of the worm looks as though it would cause a person to lose any sense of security which he has, which probably isn't much anyway. But to lose that little bit is unthinkable to many, so there tends to be a more or less violent reaction on the part of the majority of human beings, based in not wanting to see the truth, and being desperately afraid of seeing the truth. The vast majority of human beings won't even look in the right direction. True honesty, of course, compels a person to look. This being so, there is much evidence of very little honesty. Those who do look, in spite of the general tendency which does not want to look, develop their philosophies on a basis which will allow them to maintain their sense of security, and consequently they only produce theories which permit the maintenance of self-centeredness.
Obviously, if human beings are ever to be restored to the state of man they must come out of this earthworm state. The necessity, then, is that something more be seen than is possible to the consciousness of the earthworm. If, for instance, I begin to point to a larger sphere of understanding, there are those who, looking at it, claim that I am offering a new system of concepts; and there are others who look at what it is that I offer and develop a new system of concepts. In either case the real necessity of what needs to be experienced is overlooked. It certainly is not a matter of either seeming to accept a new system of concepts from me — I have no intention of offering one — or of developing a system of concepts from what I say (which is the only way, actually, that a system of concepts can be produced, because it is not what I offer). There must, however, be an introduction to an awareness of the real stature of man. If everything that is offered in this regard is translated, interpreted, on the basis of the worm's-eye view, then it merely becomes another philosophy, and human philosophies are no good — they're worthless.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God, to have a stature which would be of God. The vast difference between present human experience and that is incomprehensible to human beings. It's incomprehensible to the self-centered state of consciousness. However, if finally there is a certain willingness on the part of some to come out of that limited state and to find again the true stature of man, then there is a discernment of the real quality of that stature; but we cannot comprehend the real quality of that stature if we insist and persist on going upon our bellies in the dust. We must share a movement which allows us to come out of the realm of concept. The actual experience that is needed transcends the worm experience, and if the door begins to be opened for the greater experience of the true stature of man, how very reluctant most people are to move through that door.
Let us for a moment consider something, do a little thinking without interpreting what begins to emerge in consciousness from the standpoint of the worm's view. So let us consider, and in this consideration I am trusting you not to form a system of concepts, a metaphysical system of some kind, a new philosophy. We have to use words which have certain meanings in human consciousness. You have undergone a certain amount of change in this regard so that you have seen different meanings; but those different meanings that you see are now your present concepts, so do not restrict what is to unfold in your concepts of meaning. Allow yourselves to move with the spirit of what is occurring, because we are moving, in fact, to the state of man — who became man, when he was originally created, because the breath of life was breathed into his nostrils. The breath of life indicates spirit. His state of being man is absolutely dependent upon his experience of spirit, not upon his mental concepts. Man's true experience relates to spirit. He is not man until that is dominant in his experience. You can examine your own daily experience and recognize what is now dominant. Man has tremendous stature when he is man, breathing the breath of life.
We may look at the setting in which man finds himself on the surface of this planet. Presently that setting is simply a thin layer of dust and a thin layer of atmosphere. But there would be no possibility even of that if it were not for the fact of the planet itself, what we call the earth, this rock moving in space. So we have one level here, the earthly level, about which, in the self-centered condition, man merely knows a little something of this skin of dust and atmosphere. Human beings imagine that they know so much when what they know is scarcely discernible even in this first level of consideration where man rightly has responsibility. This relates to the total planet and actually includes another body that is very closely related to this planet — the moon. Here we have the first level, the physical level, of being as it relates to man.
But this earth, with its moon, is not all alone in space. It has an immediate relationship to a number of other planets. Here we have another level of being: the earthly level first of all, and then what we might call the planetary level, because the earth is part of a family of planets. This family of planets is interrelated and these interrelationships involve movement in a pattern of rhythm. Now this immediate contact with the rhythmic movement which characterizes all things, through this system of planets, correlates with the mental level of consciousness in man. We have the earthly level, and the physical nature of man. The planetary level correlates with the mental nature of man. His mental nature, then is getting a little larger than is the case with the worm!
And insofar as this planetary system is concerned, it does not exist all on its own. It has a relationship to what we call the sun. Now the sun is not merely that fiery orb that is observable when the sky is clear in the daytime. That is the core of what the sun actually is, but there is far more to the sun than this core. There is what has been described as the solar magnetosphere. What the sun is extends through the planetary system and beyond. In other words, the planets are contained in the sun, even as the earth is contained in the planetary system.
So we have three levels here: the earthly level correlating with the physical nature of man, the planetary level correlating with the mental nature of man, and the solar level correlating with the spiritual expression nature of man. Here is a portrayal of what is properly the true nature of man in the external sense, in the manifest sense; and this is only part of man, isn't it? Man is more than that because of the breath of life. We may begin to see that beyond the solar system are other relationships, because the solar system does not exist just for itself. It is part of what is called the galaxy. But when we get beyond the solar system we get beyond the level of man in the external sense. We begin to find the correlation of man in the external sense with God in the internal sense.
Man is made in the image and likeness of God, and God is certainly not limited to this solar system, so we may go beyond the solar system and find the galaxy, one level beyond the solar system. We may go beyond that and find another level which relates to the system of galaxies. And we may go beyond the level of the system of galaxies to what is composed by those systems, the total universe. Here we have another three — internal levels, related to the internal nature of man, which is rightly the nature of God. Man, internally and externally, is made in the image and likeness of God. What vast stature is this! Just look at it, without forming concepts about it, and then look at the world — then look at human beings in their present state.
I have emphasized over and over again the vast changes that need to come in consciousness. Perhaps this outline will help you to understand how vast those changes really are, because we are not really worms burrowing around in the dust, and that is all there is to us. If we try to maintain that state, no wonder we feel futile and frustrated. But if we feel that way it is because we ourselves have maintained that state. Of course, the worm looks around and accuses other worms of keeping him bound in this state, but that's not true at all. It has no basis in truth whatsoever. No one can keep anyone else in the wormy state. If we begin to see the vastness of what man really is, perhaps we may have a better comprehension of the nature of the irresistible force and what it is that is actually working and capable of restoring man. It isn't done by the efforts of the worms — it is done by the power of God, by this vast, almighty reality which encompasses the universe. Man is equipped to have a direct relationship to that. What a lowly state he has brought himself to; what a sad, insignificant condition, when the mightiness of what man really is is so tremendous.
Let us begin to sense once again the true nature of man and how it is related to the reality of God, and how in that relationship he finds himself as an essential element in the total operation of the universe. Clearly, for a person in the worm state of consciousness to develop some sort of a big head, a conceited view of himself as being so vastly important, is ridiculous. He isn't, in that state. He cannot comprehend the real nature of his importance until that state begins to be transcended because he is restored in his triune nature into the pattern, the design, of being. Then his mental processes correlate with the rhythms of the planetary state, the planetary level, Mazzaroth; and his spiritual expression with the solar level; and all based in his physical correlation not merely with the surface dust of the ground and the little area of atmosphere around the planet but with the earth itself and the total earth system. Then once again man begins to find himself with his true stature, made in the image and likeness of God.
Rising up out of the cloudy state of human consciousness we may find ourselves restored to a pattern of right relationship with God, so that our triune nature may be rightly used in extending the dominion of God into the total realm of man's true responsibility. “Behold, I make all things new.” Yes, indeed!
© Emissaries of Divine Light
