In our earlier class this morning you began to perceive certain vibrational factors through feeling or inner hearing or inner seeing, or more or less all together, and to the degree that you felt or perceived you have a deeper appreciation of the reality of the vibratory factors which are in use in Heavenly Magic—the reality of Heavenly Magic in action. Gradually, as you have been gaining some little awareness of Shekinah, you have begun to realize that all Heavenly Magic, even though it may manifest in an infinite variety of marvelous designs and patterns and beauty, Heavenly Magic always works within a basic pattern, without any exception—and if it is not within that basic pattern it is not Heavenly Magic. And you begin to see how these basic patterns are imposed one upon another from the highest Focalization of Deity in the Cosmos, extending out through the entire Cosmos, so that this pattern of the Divine Design includes you where you are. There is a pattern in this Divine Design in relationship to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, but how few there are who let it have meaning.
But this Kingdom of design and control, this Kingdom of power and glory, this Kingdom of the Shekinah Fire, and the Light that glows, and the Cloud of glory is at hand, actually at hand, all the time, within reach, available, to every person at all times without exception—and this is that which the Master was teaching when He gave His Gospel: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Once we begin to realize that it really is, that it actually is at hand, and we begin to have some kind of awareness of it, we find the way much easier.
To the human mind, with senses dulled, asleep or half awake, the words, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” tend to mean almost nothing. It just sounds like words. But you are beginning to find that the Master actually knew what He was talking about and that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, now, that it has been every instant since man was first created and put in the garden of God on earth; and you are beginning to sense something of the nature of that Kingdom—not too much as yet with respect to its delicate and intricate designs, but at least with respect to its basic principles, its basic factors. As this realization increases we have an increased opportunity to comprehend and appreciate many, many texts in the Bible, many things round about us, in nature and in the sky above, things near and far. But now, let us for a few moments center our attention upon a continued meditation of the Master's words as recorded in the fourteenth chapter of John.
In the thirteenth verse, for instance, we read: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son,” and it begins to mean something to you. And whatsoever ye shall ask in Shekinah, that will Shekinah do, that the Father, the One Who Dwells in the Center of the Flame, may be glorified in the Son, in the outer manifestation of Shekinah, made manifest through form on earth.” And it begins to be something beautifully simple, and we begin to realize that the Master's words that the way is easy was true, and is true today. The Way is, indeed, easy. And we begin to establish an attitude that does not deny the fact that the Way is easy. Continually saying that it is easy is of small value. You have to reach a point of accepting the idea of being at home in the things of God, accept the idea that you can let your mind meditate upon the lovely and the beautiful things without imagining that your mind is in a strain.
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in Shekinah, that will Shekinah do, that the Father, the One Who Dwells in the Center of Shekinah, may be glorified in the manifestation of the form of Shekinah. “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” If ye shall ask anything in Shekinah, Shekinah will do it. “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.”
The Father is the One Who Dwells, but the term the Father may be also used for the One Who Dwells and the manifestation of Shekinah around the One Who Dwells. But when we are functioning in the outer sense in relationship to the One Who Dwells, we will have a particular place in the Shekinah Pattern from which we orient. That was true of the Master. When He made distinctions between “the Father and I,” although He emphasized over and over again that they were One, what did He mean? Was He talking any time about the physical form when He said, “I”? Not really. It was the means of manifestation, yes—but not about His body as such. It was the means of a manifestation of something else. And what was the level of His orientation? We have recognized that the Shekinah Pattern is established first in the centering of the One Who Dwells—and around the One Who Dwells, the Shekinah Fire; and around the Fire, the Shekinah Light that Glows; and around the Light, the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. There is that which may have its point of orientation from any of these four levels, and they will still be Shekinah, they will still be the Father. But there are distinctions with respect to the levels of Shekinah, which gradually must begin to be clear to our consciousness, and expression from any of these levels may well be counted as expression from the Father.
But where the Master was making what appears as something of a distinction between the Father and Himself—what was that distinction? He, in the outer sense of expression, oriented in the Father. He was the Lord of Love, so the distinctions which He emphasized in that regard do not suggest any separation, any lack of Oneness, but the level of orientation for the expression. That which is to take form in the outer actually originates in the One Who Dwells but does not have the appearance of originating until it reaches the level of orientation. I am sure by your faces you all understand that. Let us explain it a little.
The centering is the One Who Dwells, the One to whom we may allude, properly, by the term Father, and if we use the term Lord that is the One to whom we do allude. Using the term Father it may or it may not be—but, the Lord is the Center of the Shekinah Pattern, and there is a Shekinah Pattern in relationship to every God Being or Lord, without any exception. That which is to originate in the sense of the outer, originates in the sense of the Inner in relationship-to, or in the One Who Dwells, or the Lord, but from the outer standpoint it has no appearance of beginning to originate there. The appearance of beginning to originate must be in one of the three levels of the Shekinah Pattern. That is, that which came from or through the One whom we speak of as Jesus, or the LORD of Lords, or our Master, whatever term—that which originated and came into manifestation through Him actually originated in the Lord, the One He was and is, but it did not have the appearance of originating there as far as the outer realm is concerned. It only has that appearance as far as the Inner realm is concerned. As far as the outer realm is concerned that which manifested through Him always had the appearance of originating in the Fire, the Fire of Love.
Now, to illustrate—to the degree that you begin to see this principle in relationship to me, for instance, that which I present does not have the appearance of originating in the Fire, it does not have the appearance in the outer sense of originating in the Lord, although from the Inner standpoint it does. But it must have a point of origination in relationship to outer form, and it is not at the level of the Fire where that which I present appears to originate. Why not? The Fire is back of it and you find there is Fire in it; but it does not originate there. Actually it originates in the Lord or God Being, and comes through the Fire; but the point of focus, the point of orientation, the point of origination, as far as form in the outer is concerned, is in relationship to the Light that Glows. There is the Fire back of it. Then there is the Pattern extending on out where the point of origin, insofar as manifestation is concerned, appears to be in the Cloud of Glory.
Now, you must learn to work in relationship to originating vibrational factors in the Cloud of Glory before you can have very much consciousness of what is back of that, but you will see that insofar as manifestation is concerned, those things that do appear must originate in the Fire, in the Light that Glows, or in the Cloud of Glory—and that is the point where the thing originating will first begin to appear. There it will be in embryonic form. It will contain the essences and, for instance, appearing first in relationship to the Cloud of Glory, it will look like it is simply beginning there at the level of what we speak of as Life, or the Life of Shekinah. However, it will have back of it both the Light that Glows and the Fire, and the Fire and the Light that Glows will be present in the embryonic pattern of origin that appears in the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. Once you begin to see that, you will not be feeling that if something originates in the Cloud of Glory that it is somehow separate from the Light that Glows, or the Fire, or the One Who Dwells. It is all connected up and it is One—but there are these three primary levels of origination in relationship to the creative processes by which things, in the realm of form, are made manifest.
It will be easier for you to begin to comprehend this if we relate it to the development of the form of the babe in the womb, and here we will begin to connect up with a subject which I suppose some of you have wondered about a little, something I have not talked about very much lately, and that is pneumaplasm. How does this all connect up, what happens—how is it? You will see that in order to help you to reach a point where you could begin to comprehend things spiritual, I worked from the physical outward to the point of pneumaplasm. Once I could convince you, or human beings on the face of the earth, that pneumaplasm was a reality, you could begin to see it and function in relationship to it. We reached, as you will recall, the underside of the sea of glass, hadn't we? We had reached the underside of the sea of glass. But it did not show you what was on the other side, and we could not just go on through. We had to establish a vibratory pattern by reason of which you could begin to become aware of the principles of that which is on the other side of the sea of glass.
You will remember that in the description of the sea of glass it is described as appearing to be flecked with flame—that is, to have spots of fire in it. And yet it was a sea of glass, clear as crystal. Well now, we must not assume that the Shekinah Cloud of Glory is pneumaplasm. It is not pneumaplasm, but this is the point where the two begin to come together, and it is by reason of pneumaplasm that you begin to see the reality of the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. The physical eye as such cannot see the Shekinah Cloud. It is impossible. The physical perception as such cannot ever see the Shekinah Cloud of Glory, except as the Shekinah Cloud of Glory begins to take form through pneumaplasm. Now, we recognize that it is our responsibility to generate the pneumaplasm; from the outer standpoint we must provide the pneumaplasm. God is not going to arbitrarily make it be for us, and if the physical body of the individual is low on pneumaplasm there is no way by which the Shekinah Cloud of Glory can even begin to take form. Now, we must be very careful to remember that the self-active patterns of black magic can seemingly duplicate the things of Heavenly Magic up to a point, so the individual may conceivably have visions or see things of various kinds, sometimes evil things and sometimes supposedly good things, without having the whole pattern in the true design.
An outstanding illustration of this in relationship to the past is Martin Luther. Now Martin Luther had some pneumaplasm, it is obvious, but from the standpoint of what he saw, the visions that he saw, what did he tend to see most? The devil. He was always seeing the devil, and fighting with the devil, and contending with the devil. Well, if you are fighting with the devil, you are subject to the devil. We have to recognize that in relationship to Martin Luther, even if it might tend to insult some people. We have to face the truth of it, because if Martin Luther had been functioning from the standpoint of Heavenly Magic, in actual fact, he would not have been seeing the devil take form in his pneumaplasmic substance, all the time; he would have been seeing Heavenly things, he would have been willing to accept the fact that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And if he had had any real faith in God he would not have been afraid of the devil, and if he had not been afraid of the devil he would not have been fighting the devil. So, he did not have faith in God; he had faith in the devil, and consequently the pattern of vision was of the devil and not of God or the things of God.
When people start talking a great deal about all the things they see, about the visions they have had, and so on, I am inclined to take the attitude that it does not amount to very much, and in fact it does not. But there are those who have seen some things. They are not inclined to talk about it a lot. They might conceivably tell me about it, something like that; or in some cases, those who are working closely with them in the vibratory field—and that is all right, as long as we do not dissipate the vibratory factors involved. But, you can begin to perceive through vision. What is happening in such a case?
If there is a true response to the center in relationship to the One Who Dwells, around the One Who Dwells is the Shekinah Fire, the Shekinah Light that Glows, and the Shekinah Cloud. By reason of response, the pattern of pneumaplasm generated within the individual is lifted up so that it can touch or contact the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. Now, you will never contact the Fire first. You may not know it, you may not be aware of just how it works, but, in actual fact, no matter what the appearance is, the pneumaplasmic substance of your own being never contacts the Fire first from the standpoint of Shekinah. Of course, there is the action of a Shekinah Pattern in your body, in actual fact, or you could not develop any pneumaplasm—you could not live, you would not be alive. But, moving from the outer toward the inner, the first contact is between pneumaplasm and the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. Once you begin to let your pneumaplasmic substance be the means by which the Shekinah Cloud of Glory has substance for manifestation, you begin to give the Shekinah Cloud of Glory a body—in other words, by letting it use your pneumaplasm—and it is not separating you from it, remember. It is still a part of your own reality—then you have made the first initial start in letting Deity have your body for the manifestation of Deity.
Now we recognize that most people do not let Deity use their bodies and minds and hearts for the processes of revealing God or the things of God on earth. They are revealing hell or some of the things of hell; their miseries and their pet difficulties, and all the sorrows, and everything else—the things of hell. Their bodies are used to reveal on earth the forms of hell. But, the body and all of its capacities is supposed to be the means of revealing God and the things of God. So the first step is made manifest as the Cloud of Glory begins to have body through the pneumaplasm of your own being. And then, after that is an established fact, the vibratory factors that we speak of as mind, conscious and subconscious, come into play in relationship to the Light that Glows, and the Light that Glows begins to have a relatedness to the vibratory factors of your capacity of mind, after your pneumasplasmic substance begins to be, or provide, a body for the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. And then, after the reality of relatedness has been established between your capacities of mind, conscious and subconscious, and the Light that Glows, you find that the next step follows—the heart or the feeling nature—the interpenetrating heart that penetrates body and mind and spirit, begins to be connected up with the Fire, the Shekinah Fire, and then you begin to have a basis by which you, in consciousness, that which speaks of itself as “I”, can have an awareness of relatedness to the One Who Dwells, so that the “I” of the outer and the “I” of the inner, in the sense of the focalization of personality, are brought together, and they become One. And that blending of the “I” is important to the state where you leave behind the double “I”, not just the eye of seeing but the “I” of the personal pronoun, the “I” of yourself as a Being.
The two eyes (I’s) must get together in relationship to personality and Being, and the two eyes (I’s) must get together from the standpoint of the Inner and the outer, the mind and the heart, and so on, until you begin, by this process, to have a single eye (I)—not as if you just had a third eye up here in your forehead, or something of that nature. You begin to realize that the single eye (I) means that the “I” when the Father speaks and the “I” when the outer form speaks must be the same “I”, not two “I's”. When the Lord within says, “I am the Lord thy God,” and the outer form says, “Well, I am the sheep, I am the servant,” they are still in the state of separation, there are two “I's”, and the two “I's” relate to double mindedness—that is, two minds; the attempt to function on two levels, the attempt to be two things, the attempt on the part of the human being to be something without being what the Inner Being is. And that is what caused the fall of man in the first place. And so, we begin to see how simply it actually works out, how easily. But there is no way by which the heart, the emotional realm, can be truly cleared and made pure until the Fire begins to come into it. But the Fire cannot begin to come into it until the Light that Glows has become connected with the mind, and the Light that Glows cannot become connected with the mind until the pneumaplasm of your own body and being, in the outer sense, have been connected up with the Shekinah Cloud of Glory.
Now, what was it? “And in Shekinah was Life.” Life, the Cloud of Glory, and the Life of Shekinah are the same—that is, in the pattern of form. “And the Shekinah Life was the Light of men.” As soon as the Shekinah Life begins to have meaning in your pneumaplasmic body, on a control pattern, you begin to have Light, you begin to be Light, you begin to feel Light, you are no longer weighted down with all the weights of the world. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden” saith Shekinah, “and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me (Shekinah). For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”—the Light that Glows. And so we see the Shekinah Pattern made evident in relationship to the pattern of Being in form, and as soon as the Shekinah Light begins to enter into the pneumaplasmic body so that there is a real connection, you begin to have Light. The Light that Glows begins to get through and you begin to feel light, you begin to be in a position where you begin to start to be a living soul instead of a dying soul. But the process of resurrection is not yet complete. That is the beginning of the resurrection and the life.
What did the Master say? “I (Shekinah) am the resurrection and the life.” And so the process of resurrection must begin and be allowed to complete if it is to be real, if it is to have meaning in you. Consequently, you begin to receive Shekinah into the temple of your body, for your body is a Temple of the Living God. And if you have filled that body with things that do not belong to God, in the sense of the vibratory factors of control, you will not have Life—you cannot get it together into alignment, into agreement, and it is ill. We need to be thorough, we need to do a job, and we have to be persistent; patient, but persistent—always there has to be the pressure. If anyone starts rebelling against the pressure, well then, that somebody starts to get hurt. Always. To rebel against that pressure is dangerous, as some of you have found out. The changes must come.
For whose sake are you going to serve? For the sake of our King. To what purpose? To make it possible, that is, to open the door so that any man, woman or child who so responds, as to permit it, may enter that Kingdom and become a citizen to serve our Lord and King, to serve God on earth—to be a noble man or a noble woman, a person through whom the things of God may appear and the blessings of God be made manifest on earth. There is no other reason. Remember, all we do is for the sake of our King and not for the sake of those whom we serve! And the moment you can be tricked or trapped into doing something for the sake of the person you are serving, you will be making a mistake, you will violate the laws and the principles, you will lose the power. You will do the same thing that Peter did at the day of Pentecost when he went impulsively out on his own, refusing to let God's plan have meaning. He threw it away. He threw away the blessings of the day of Pentecost. It just started to appear. And you will do the same thing if you will allow yourself to be tricked or trapped into doing something for someone for that person’s sake. Whatever you do, do it for the sake of our Lord and King.
Blessed ones, to the degree that you have entered into a realization of these things you will see the meaning of the Word here: And I, the Shekinah Fire, will pray the Father, the One Who Dwells, and he shall give you another Comforter, in the Shekinah Light that Glows, that he may abide with you for ever: Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
“And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
“… that the world may know that thou hast sent me …” The world does not yet know this insofar as the One who was purported to have spoken these words is concerned. That certainly was not known by those who were in His vicinity when He was on earth. There have been those who subsequently assumed that they knew that He had been sent by the Father, but insofar as they were concerned it has been a theory. It is not something that is known; it is thought of in terms of this one man who, when He was on earth, was rejected. There was no way by which He could be accepted subsequent to His rejection. The acceptance of the truth had to come in a new way. This new way was pointed to: “… Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” It has been anticipated that somehow He would put in an appearance in the future; this has been defined as the second coming of Christ, believed in earnestly by many sincere people. But whatever that might mean, factually, would not be known until there were those who would say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.''
When Uranda was on earth he pointed to these truths and presented himself as one who came in the name of the Lord. This presentation was based in the quality of his character and his living, and there were those who at that time said, in effect: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” I personally was included amongst those. On this basis the One who spoke the words originally, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” began once again to be seen, once again to be known. After Uranda left, I presented myself as one who came in the name of the Lord. These things may not have been specifically said but the proclamation was made on the basis of character and living, presumably to be proven out over a period of time. And there have been those who have said, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” To the extent that this was honestly said, it became apparent to those that the Lord could be seen once again.
This, as we have all realized, provided an essential beginning point for the drawing together and the manifestation of a body for the Lord, the Body of the Son—a new body. To the extent that this is actually taking place and you, amongst others, know in your hearts what that extent is personally speaking, there has been present One who comes in the name of the Lord. This One is not one person, but there is One Body in whom the One Spirit is incarnate, revealing the fact that the Son, once again, is appearing on earth to reveal the Father. This could be called the second coming of Christ, but it is a very natural process. It doesn't seem to fulfil the expectations of what is looked for in the sky, but it does fulfil the expectations of what is rightly looked for in the heaven. And so there is One who comes in the name of the Lord.
The verses I read to you out of the 17th chapter of the Gospel according to John are indication of what should be: “That they all may be one … and that the world may know that thou hast sent me.” Heretofore the world has not known that the One called Jesus was sent of the Father; in spite of what has been called Christianity, that has not been known. It has been an idea in the minds of many people that it was so, but the only time that it could be known, insofar as He personally was concerned, was when He was present on earth. After He was no longer present on earth in the form that was then known of one individual, that truth could no longer be known. The Christian world and those who are a part of it have tried to recall the past but it cannot be done. Factually, when Jesus was on earth, it was not known that the Father had sent Him. That was rejected, and as it worked out He was crucified in consequence.
But this is something that must be known. The only way it can now be known, which was to be anticipated after His rejection, was by reason of a new body, a body in which He might be incarnate on earth, carrying authority. This would certainly not be as it was before, when it was possible for human beings to reject Him as an individual without at that point sealing their own doom. One might say that another chance was given. We have seen this next chance as relating to the Third Sacred School. When the opportunity of His Presence on earth was rejected, that finished that insofar as that personal body was concerned. If there was to be another chance there would have to be a new body for His incarnation; and this new body would carry the authority of the Son—the authority which would require that it be accepted or, on the other hand, rejected. But the situation would be quite different to what it was before.
“… that the world may know that thou hast sent me …” How will the world know? Because there is the evidence of the One who has been sent, in the body with which we ourselves are becoming increasingly familiar. The world may know. They may accept or they may reject, but the world must know, and that knowing comes because the authority of the Son is present on earth. We can see this as the dominion of God restored. We may remember that man was created in the beginning to have dominion. The Son has the dominion of the Father. The Son is restored on earth by reason of the body of mankind. All come to know that the Father has sent the Son. We are not anxious to go out and try to proclaim these things; there is no need. The fact becomes obvious, increasingly so, as there are those who share in coming in the name of the Lord. Then the opportunity for anyone to say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” is available. Some, however, will likely say, “Cursed is he”—that is up to them.
The distinction, from what happened before, now is that the authority is emerging in such a way that it cannot be set aside. It could be set aside before when this one man came. If there had been those available to Him who would let His new body be established then, it could not have been set aside then. But because He was left alone and He only had His individual body, then the authority could be set aside, and He allowed it to be set aside. It was at that point that He established the basis for the re-emergence of a body in the days to come. The days to come are now—they have come. We have some increasing awareness of this in our own personal recognition of having been sent. We no longer play human games anymore. Human games, of course, have been the regular experience of people all down through the ages, but these are no more for us. There is something to be done; it is done by the Son, who is the Father living on earth and therefore has the authority. Only to the extent that the Son is living on earth is there the authority, and that authority reestablishes the dominion of the Almighty on earth.
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” I am sure we all are aware of what that statement “In my name” means—it's, In my Body. If my authority is being expressed in My Body, then whatever is necessary is done. There is no question—the restoration of dominion. This is something which puts in an appearance as the body is proven—which means, as those individuals who aspire to compose the body are proven. Obviously the authority is not for human purposes. Someone mentioned the occasion when the Master was asleep in a boat and a storm came up. The disciples were afraid, so they woke Him, and He rebuked the wind and the waves. Peace, be still, and there was a great calm. What sort of a man is this who could rebuke the wind and the waves and be obeyed? That looks like a rather farfetched story, doesn't it? Would it be such a strange thing if the authority of the Father was reestablished on earth for even the weather to be controllable? The weather is the way it is, apparently unpredictable, swinging to extremes in remarkable ways, because of the state of mankind. What human beings do on earth affects everything, and so we have troubles and tribulations of all sorts. What is probably more important than the weather is what is going on with the winds and the waves in human experience, in human minds and hearts. This has apparently become uncontrollable. There are some who try to manipulate it this way and that. They succeed perhaps after a fashion, but in their success they generate forces which are beyond their control. So there are many things happening in the body of mankind that are apparently quite destructive, and seemingly nobody knows what to do about it. It is good that they should find out that they don't know what to do about it. But we know—we are aware of what should be done. We came to do it, after all: to give form to the Body of the Son on earth. That requires something very specific of each one individually. The quality and character of living must prove it out. I think it is quite clear in the consciousness of all concerned that there are no justifications for anything other than proving it out. That is what we are here to do, after all: to provide a body in which the authority of the Father may be present.
This is a drastic change in the world that has been known. There has not been anything like it heretofore. There was a very small indication of something when Jesus was here. But what would it be if the essential Body of the Son is present, so that the Son is present and in action on earth, carrying the authority of the Father? Well let's find out. And we are in the process of finding out, but let us be assured in the matter, so that we don't feel it is necessary at any point to revert into the old ways of separateness: “Oh I have my affairs to attend to.” Well we all have our responsibilities but they are not outside of the Body of the Son. Everything is within the Body of the Son, so I suppose in that sense one could say that they are not one's own personal affairs. One may have a personal responsibility for handling what needs to be handled, but it is handled by reason of the presence of the Son, by reason of participation in that Body. I see people still trying to live their own lives without regard to the Son, without regard to what it is that is needful by reason of the presence of the Son on earth in His Body. We are beginning to awaken to what is needful, so that we are able to act intelligently. And we do not see anything that comes within the range of what has heretofore been thought of as personal as being outside of the Body of the Son. It's all contained, or we are not contained! Because there is nothing outside of the Body of the Son, we begin to experience nothing.
I made mention of this remarkable book, the Bible, this morning, particularly with respect to the words of Jesus, but there is much that warrants attention and understanding throughout this book. I am sure you recall the words of the 91st Psalm, for instance. We have been considering them recently: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” These words usually are thought of simply as applying to the individual. Could it be that the word “he” is used as indicating mankind, or as indicating, according to our present consideration, the Body of the Son? People have read this 91st Psalm and seen all the wonderful promises in it and then wondered why they didn't happen. Well it isn't an individual matter alone; it's something that relates to the Body of the Son, and that body must be there for it to happen. It's interesting to read this Psalm with that in mind: “He [this collective Body] that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
And then the body speaks: “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.” Of course this requires that each individual says that. But the effectiveness comes because of the Body. “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.” Reference is here being made to the body. Something may need to happen within the cells of the body to restore the health of the body. Certainly this is true of our individual bodies; all the toxic wastes need to be cast out, and sometimes that is rather a painful business, a noisome business even. So there is the need for the purging if there is to be the body—the purging individually if there is to be the body collectively. So it's not such a bad deal that we sometimes suffer so terribly! Purging. Let it be that. Don't become self-centered in the matter: “Poor me, I feel so miserable. Somebody help me; somebody understand what is happening in me and give me the right treatment.” Let's be willing to be purged.
“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” Well this could be so individually, but it relates to the Body of the Son. “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.”
“Oh goody, I'm going to be protected!” It doesn't really say that. It says that the Body of the Son of God is secure. Abide in that Body and maybe we will experience what that security is. “Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.'' The heart doesn't become involved. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” This is true of the Body of the Son of God. “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Who are the angels? You and you and you and you and I. We are responsible, as angels, for the Body of the Son of God. “They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” There is our responsibility for the Body. And finally here is the Word of the Son, the Word of the Father spoken by the Son: “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” All this pertains to the Son incarnate on earth in His Body, carrying the authority of the Father, that whatsoever is asked may be done; not asked by some human mind or some impure heart but asked by the angel of the Lord incarnate. And it is done; the authority of the Father is present and increasingly known. I am not suggesting that one should be overly concerned to discover how this increased authority is appearing; we just let it appear. I think we know something about it already. Things come together; things work. There is a natural operation in consequence of the presence of the Son in His Body on earth; and we discover what the greater works are as we continue to let it be.
The dominion of God is reestablished on earth by reason of the Son, the dominion of the Father revealed through the Son because He has a Body, an obedient body, on earth. How obedient is your individual body to you, to the angel who you are; not to the demands of the impure heart or the insistence of the mind, but how obedient is your body to the spirit of the Father? The only way your body can be obedient to that spirit is through a sanctified mind and a pure heart. The body cannot be acted upon directly. The intervening substance must be clear, the intervening substance of consciousness, so that the authority of the Father may be made manifest in the Son. And that authority is very real.
There was one, at the time when Jesus was on earth, who had some recognition of this. He was a Roman, incidentally, a soldier at that. “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” Here was one who, according to his understanding at that point, was aware that the authority of the Father was present. He was one point in the world who knew that the Son had been sent by the Father. Presumably he had been aware of some other of the actions of Jesus, but I suspect it was something that he himself sensed from within himself, an awareness of authority. In fact he pointed to that fact. He had some awareness of authority himself, being a soldier. He had authority over others and there were those who had authority over him, so he knew how it worked. But he sensed the authority, the spiritual authority, that was present in this man, Jesus, and acknowledged it.
The world must know that authority. Some will acknowledge it, as I say, some will reject it. But it doesn't matter anymore which way it goes because the authority is present and cannot be set aside. Those who acknowledge it and receive it into their own experience find themselves a part of the creative process which is occurring, the resurrection which is taking place. Those who become aware of it and reject it are moving in the other direction. The point is now that the Son cannot be denied with impunity. Of course He never could be. Human beings have been proving that out in their experience all down through the millennia. But ultimately there is a point reached for mankind where the issue is brought to resolution, and that is in these days. That is our responsibility. I am so very thankful that there are those who know these things and have reached a point where they cannot do anything else in their living, through body and mind and heart, than to allow this authority to find expression. It isn't a matter of choice anymore; it's just a matter of obedience. We may have thought we had a choice somewhere back along the way but we discover, somewhere, sometime, if we keep moving along, that we really do not have any choice. We just simply do what is required of us. The fantasy of choice vanishes from human experience. The reality of the compulsion of spirit brings forth what is required in the moment, and we would under no circumstances try to stop it.
So we share this absoluteness increasingly. We have no experience of life, rightly, but the Life of the Son. We all individually have a unique part to play in that experience, but it is all the Life of the Son. Whether we are male or female, this is what it is. The Father is glorified on the earth because of the Son; and that glory, when allowed to appear through the Body which He built, is undeniable. It may not seem like glory to some, it may seem like a consuming flame, but it is the Glory which is natural in the expression of the Son on earth, revealing the Father. We rejoice in that revelation, sharing it as one. The increase comes in a variety of ways. The evidence of authority is made manifest in an increasing variety of ways. This requires some care in the way we handle our affairs, for we recognize that there is the requirement of excellency. We do it right, as we use all things to advantage under the authority of the Son.
Lloyd Meeker — Martin, I cannot let you leave that position without saying something also in a vertical stance—I will even button my coat! There is no life but the Life of the Son. There is no fire, no power, but the Fire of the Son which burns away the dark and polluted clouds of human delusion, revealing the truth for any to see and either accept or reject. I am deeply thankful for this sacred hour and for all that has worked together to bring my consciousness, and the consciousness of many others, to the point of being profoundly aware that there is a body, the Body of the Son, that the Son is incarnate and that I must abide in the name of the Son, for there is no other life; there is no other choice. There is one way, a way of indescribable Glory and certainly, no doubt, far more variety than we have yet known. But that differentiation is possible only as I abide in the sacred name of the Son.
Martin Exeter — We are capable of allowing the Glory of the Father to be revealed by the Son, according to our present ability to so do. Let us allow our present ability to be occupied one hundred percent. When it is occupied one hundred percent, then that ability can expand. If it is not occupied a hundred percent there is no point in expanding it. There is still space. Let us let it be filled full, pressed down, shaken together and running over, and behold the capacity expands, so that the greater Glory of the Son in the revelation of the Father may be known on earth in practical ways, in the living of our own individual lives where we do what we have to do. We do it in the name of the Son, because we abide in the Son, and behold the authority of the Father fills our field of operations. Our field of operations is part of a greater field of operations. We are not in position to see what the extent of those greater operations really is, of which our smaller operation is a part, so there is no point in judging anything. We let it be whatever it is and allow our expression of living to be a revelation of the Father and the authority of the Father made manifest in the Son.
Only as we reach a point where we can begin to see for ourselves the wonders of the Kingdom at hand can we begin to truly appreciate, see, and know it. I would like to consider briefly with you in meditation tonight something of the Shekinah Pattern as it was made manifest at the beginning of our Master's Ministry. From the Third Chapter of Matthew we read:
“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.” (That is, the fruit of the locust tree, and wild honey.)
“Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves. We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
“Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
There are many points of interest and vital importance here, but with respect to this concluding verse we are reminded of the Master's invitation: “Follow me.” If we follow Him we reach a point where we hear a voice from Heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” “This is my beloved Daughter, in whom I am well pleased.” We begin to realize that until this blessing, this sanction, this acknowledgement, from the Divine Source is granted unto us, we cannot, in the deeper sense, minister; we cannot, in the larger sense, serve.
We recognize that John the Baptist, preparing the way as a forerunner of our Lord on earth, said, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias.” That is, he was making reference there to himself. “For I am the one spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” We note that John used strong words to those who came without true repentance: “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers” O generation of serpents—a generation of those who are functioning in the pattern of the self-active mind of man. “Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
This statement has particular interest and importance to us tonight because we see that the pattern of fulfilment which was ordained at the time the Master was here did not appear. What stones was John speaking of? The stony hearts of the children of men—“these stones.” So often human beings have thought merely that he had reference to some rocks beside the road, or along the bank of the river. “I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” And we see that that is what is taking place today—the stony hearts, the children of men, beginning to yield, that they may be children unto Abraham, the seed of the chosen of God. And then we note the statement: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit”—or with the Shekinah—“and with fire.”
We recognize the specific recognition of the Master's focalization in the Shekinah Fire. “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire”—He will burn up the chaff with the unquenchable Fire of His Love. And then, the Master Himself received baptism in the Water. Water is the symbol of Truth. He was the Focalization of Deity, carrying the pattern of the Shekinah Fire. In order to establish the vibratory balance necessary to the accomplishment of His ministry, He accepted baptism in the Water, symbolizing his relationship to function on earth in the pattern of Truth—not that His mission was to be the Fire of Love only, His own true pattern of Focalization, but of the Truth also, that out of the blending of Love and Truth in His Being there might issue Life, the resurrection and the Life to the children of men.
“And lo a voice from heaven, saying,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
John C. GrayJuly 7, 2019 Lake Elsinore, California
We've all had many teachers in our lives. There were the professional teachers in our formal school years, and many, many more people who may not have been teachers per se, but from whom we've learned many things. And of course, we are taught a great deal through our own observations and experiences in life and from books and other media.
Some teachers have lasting influence. To this day I remember Mrs. Connelly, my kindergarten teacher, my fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Dahill, and a certain chemistry lab instructor when I was a college freshman. In my memory a common denominator among them was their enthusiasm for what they did and their genuine care for their students. My wife, Pamela, retired last month from her career as a teacher in our local public elementary school system. I’m sure Mrs. Gray endeared herself to many little ones whose hearts and minds she touched over the years. To teach is to impart knowledge, but the teachers we remember most fondly are the ones who not only taught us but touched us.
Most new learning experiences require new language. Even in elementary school arithmetic, terms like “hundreds’ column,” “tens’ column,” and “ones’ column” are concepts described in words that are new to children. Remember your introduction to electrical theory in school? Terms like ohm, ampere and volt come from the names of the physicists who observed and defined certain electrical properties and behaviors. There were no other words in English or any other language then by which to call those discoveries. They were new. The words have become common vocabulary in modern times, of course. Probably few if any of us think of Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) when we buy a 9-volt battery at the store.
In general, the purpose of language is to communicate. Language provides symbolic means of self-expression, of sharing ideas, of giving the implicit and invisible more explicative and visible form. When existing words are insufficient to convey new concepts, we invent specialized terminology. In recent years we've all added to our everyday vocabularies lots of words, like digital, RAM, pixel, gigabyte, 5G, algorithm, cyber-attack, AI, and hundreds more, and more all the time.
Over centuries of human history there have been great teachers who have touched the hearts of billions of human beings. Four who are prominent among these are the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Lao Tzu, and Gautama Buddha. They spoke the languages of their times and people, and today we have some of their teachings translated into English. Mostly, as far as we can tell, they used commonly known words, but they formulated them in new ways to convey profound meaning.
“You do not do evil to those who do evil to you, but you deal with them with forgiveness and kindness.”
“From morning until night and from night until morning, keep your heart free from malice toward anyone.”
“You will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another.”
Those quotations are attributed to the Prophet Muhammad.
They may remind Westerners of teachings of Jesus that have come down to us in the Bible:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
Of the numerous wise sayings of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, here are two:
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, ‘We did it ourselves.’”
And Gautama Buddha is said to have said:
“Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth.”
“If you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?”
“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?”
These and similar teachings have been around for generations. A couple more contemporary examples are American poet and author Maya Angelou’s, “Courage is the most important of all virtues because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” The root of the word courage relates to heart. And DeWitt Jones, former National Geographic photographer and a down-to-earth wise man in my view, whose central tenet is, “Celebrate what’s right with the world.”
People may say they believe or don't believe such teachings. As Buddha said, what good does it do us if we do not act on them? The human condition continues to be rife with hatred, violence, depravity, bigotry, iniquity, resentment—we could make a long list. Empirically it's easy to argue that just having lofty and noble teachings available is not enough.
I’ve been thinking about the distinction between a teacher and a mentor. A mentor, a wise advisor, is more than an imparter of knowledge. I looked it up. The word comes from Mentor, the friend of Odysseus and advisor to Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, in Homer's The Odyssey. The word mentor appears to be an agent noun of the Greek word mentos: intent, purpose, spirit, passion. In the term’s ordinary usage, a mentor is usually someone you know in person, someone with whom you have personal connection. Having a personal relationship facilitates gaining an understanding of intent, purpose, spirit and passion—an introduction to the subtler essences of a thing, behind or above and beyond what’s immediately visible. That’s how we “get it.”
Surrounding everything, including the word used to represent the thing, is its aura of meaning. Through the aura we touch the spirit, or, to put it another way, spirit is known at the level of human consciousness when there is sufficient medium of connection between the two. Countless human beings earnestly endeavor to know God, whatever and whoever God is, but unless there is the connecting medium, all that’s possible are beliefs about something separate, distant, and imaginary. Some people don't want to believe in that sort of god, and I don’t blame them!
About sixty-five years ago Richard Thompson, a student and friend of Uranda, initiator of the spiritual movement Emissaries of Divine Light, suggested a new word, pneumaplasm, as a name for the “something” that connects spirit and form. It’s composed of the Greek roots pneuma, meaning air or spirit, and plasm, meaning substance. In the Bible and other sacred texts, the words translated into English as “firmament” and “heaven” had this meaning originally, but those words were usurped for other purposes: firmament to refer poetically to the expanse of space beyond Planet Earth, and heaven to a place to which good religious people go after they die.
Throughout human history every real spiritual teacher or mentor has been at pains to find words and ways to communicate the truth they themselves experienced. Uranda and others developed a nonverbal means of spiritual communication called attunement. To experience attunement, at least at first, requires an adept practitioner/mentor, however, and how many of those are around?
Words, whether in visual or audible form, can accommodate more scalable spiritual communication at the usual levels of human consciousness. Unfortunately, so many words tend to be stuck in people's minds with rather ossified interpretations, and it's challenging to squeeze new life through them. People who long to know the truth must of necessity be flexible and open-minded about word meanings. Maybe now and then an altogether new word is needed, like pneumaplasm, but it's much more about tuning in to the aura of words as expressed by one who knows. Maybe at first mentors speak to us in words we think we already know, but to deeply understand we must come to know for ourselves what moves the mentor’s tongue.
The human world can seem a pretty crazy place, and people everywhere tend to focus on and be moved by what’s deemed wrong. What's wrong gets people’s attention; what's wrong with me, what’s wrong with him, and her, and especially them. What’s wrong often—I’d say almost always—gets people riled up. “Just look at what those politicians are doing!” I have friends who are all the time upset by what they’re told is going on. Do you and I get riled up by what we see on TV or the Internet? We are wise to consider the sources and purposes of many of the so-called news reports we see and hear. You know, they might all be fake news! I don't say this cynically but to take a different look at things.
There is vastly more going on that we don't hear about than we do. Uranda, twentieth century mentor to many and teacher to many more, made this pithy proclamation: “That which is right in you is the starting point. That which is wrong in you is beside the point.” Some may think, “Hey, wait a minute. You’re saying what’s wrong doesn't matter? That's Pollyannaish. How naive! That’s not the real world.” Okay, let's wait that minute, and “un-rile.” It’s not that we shouldn't care, but that we should care so much that we live and act in ways that allow something altogether different to appear. To do that we must start with what's right. In what isn't right there's no foundation to build on. This perspective has been around a long time. In the book of Philippians in the biblical New Testament is this admonishment: “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.”
We generate pneumaplasm by revering and expressing spirits of divine origin. This connecting heavenly substance is the necessary medium through which spirit acts to make all things new. And that creative process always and ever begins with what's right in our minds and hearts. So, we see all these wise teachings aren't about being good. They’re about being who we really are: spiritual beings having a human experience on Earth.
Of the spiritual mentors I've been blessed to know, to me the greatest was Martin Cecil. Decades ago, he penned a poem of simple words and eternal verity:
Any Moment
Any moment of lying,
Any moment of hating,
Any moment of resentment
Is a moment of dying.
Any moment of loving,
Any moment of giving,
Any moment of thankfulness,
Is a moment of living.
All our moments add together
Like the digits in the sum,
And the answer tells us plainly
Whether life or death shall come.
In every moment that we love and give and are thankful, we generate heavenly substance, pneumaplasm, and live. In every moment we don’t, we experience symptoms of diminishing life until eventually there’s no more. Malachy McCourt, Irish-American actor, writer, politician and younger brother of author Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes) spoke a vital truth when he said, “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
How deeply do I care about what's of paramount importance? We’ll only be consistently loving and giving and thankful when the expression of those spirits, and others resonant with them, matters more to us than anything else, and certainly far more than the things that people get upset about, all the wrong in a world. Let's not let our hearts be troubled. We understand why that matters! Even when the earth beneath our feet trembles, we’re unmoved.
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Let’s be immensely thankful for whoever is or was the greatest spiritual teacher and mentor, the most inspirational spiritual leader, whom we’ve each ever known. Now, in these times more than ever, we must more than admire and love and emulate them. In our own ways and in our own places, it is each of ours to BE that leader in any and every moment.
