Being in Heaven—Achieving on Earth

Being  in  Heaven — Achieving  on  Earth

Martin Cecil   October 10, 1982 a.m.

I am sure that we all rejoice to be together on this beautiful Sunday morning. We rejoice to be together in heaven. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/being-in-heaven.html] According to the story, it was said that the disciple Peter was given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. You can either lock a door with keys or open a door with keys. I think this is something that had not been noticed in considering the fact that Peter may have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. It always was assumed that these would be used to open it. It would appear that Peter was rather an emotional man; perhaps he had a big heart, as they say. In any case he could well represent this to us now, because certainly it is the heart which either opens or closes the door to the kingdom. No one was ever able to get into the kingdom merely by the use of the human intellect.

The heart is of vital importance, either to open the door or to close it. Hardened human hearts, as they have been described, have kept the door firmly locked. Now of course the question always is as to what direction the heart may be opened toward. The creative experience comes from the creative spirit of God. However, human hearts have tended to be opened in every other possible direction—which is described as the hardened heart, and this has maintained the destructive state that is apparent on earth. By the way, there is nothing new about a destructive state. Nowadays it is just on a larger scale, that's all.

Every human being is equipped with a heart, or what is symbolized thereby, the realm of feeling and emotion. It has of course, over the years, become the human habit to let the heart be hardened—that is, it is soft in the wrong direction; it is open to every destructive wind that blows. I am sure all of you can testify to this habit in your own experience. How often has anyone been disturbed emotionally? I am not necessarily thinking of being fit to be locked up in an institution! But emotional disturbance is, generally speaking, the order of the day because the heart is opened in the wrong way.

The keys of the kingdom are kept by the human heart. The door has been rather firmly locked. In the passage which mentions that the keys were given to Peter it was also indicated that whatsoever he should bind on earth would be bound in heaven, and whatsoever should be loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven. Here we have indication of the two possibilities: whether the door will be kept locked or the keys will be used to open it. I am sure that all of us have been well aware of these things, at least in a theoretical sense. The question is always as to how seriously we assumed responsibility for what was implied.

We noted last Sunday [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-vibratory-modes-of-love.html] that we were assembled here in this particular setting to be in heaven. Heaven is the place of being. It is rightly “the place where I am.” If there is a sense of identity it is always a false one unless the experience is that of being in heaven. Here is the place of being. There is something evidently to be achieved on earth, but that achievement is impossible except by reason of the fact that there is the experience of being in heaven. Being and achieving go together. Trying merely to be on earth does not permit creative achievement on earth, just destructive achievement. Clearly, everybody has been much concerned about being on earth. Most have felt that experience slipping away to some degree and so there is a very strong endeavor to keep on being on earth. No one wants to die, after all, even if it means going to heaven. Well there is something valid about that concern because we are supposed to be in heaven now. Heaven presumably would be a place that was characterized by life rather than by nothing, which is death; and we are alive now, at least in some measure—we have awareness, conscious awareness. So here is the place to experience life, in other words, to know heaven, to be in heaven—the place which each one may say is “the place where I am.” That is the truth, a truth apparently unknown by the vast majority of people. For much of the time I suppose most would be inclined to say, “I am in hell.” Occasionally we imagine we slip out a little and something nice happens—not for long, however; at least this is descriptive of the human state. Maybe we have known something different; we surely have to the extent that we have experienced being in heaven. When there is that experience, why would anyone wish to duck out, slam the door and lock it again? That is done by the wrong use of the heart.

We have taken note recently that there are hearts which are yielding and opening, hopefully in the right direction, in many people the world around. We ourselves have particular connections with certain ones. Perhaps we might suspect, based in our own experience, that there are more hearts potentially willing to yield in the right direction than may have heretofore been assumed. We hear so much of destructiveness and of human beings engaged in this type of work, that there tends to be the idea that there is nothing else in the world. Admittedly there must be a good deal of that, but then there are a lot of people on earth. I wonder what percentage are in the position of a certain willingness to open their hearts if they could be assured that they wouldn't be hurt by so doing? I am sure all of you have tentatively opened your hearts here and there and been hurt. I don't know anyone on the face of the earth who hasn't. Some of the hurts are so deep and traumatic that the heart is closed up for good, perhaps. But in most, while there is a certain protectiveness present, there is a longing for the opportunity, really, to open the heart if one was sure that it would be protected.

It has been apparent on earth that there has been very little present that was trustworthy. Even if something trustworthy did begin to put in an appearance, it was a human habit not to trust anyway, and so there was a good deal of reluctance even to test it out. I think that reluctance receded into the background somewhat in your own experience, so that you were willing to put your toe in the water at least and move in the direction of proving it out. Well, having had that experience ourselves, we may recognize that there are great numbers of people who would be willing likewise if given the opportunity. Therefore we recognize, having had the experience ourselves of security, safety in opening the heart, that we have the responsibility of providing what is necessary for others and making very sure that what we do provide is absolutely trustworthy.

Are we still looking around for trustworthiness in somebody else? That is the initial approach of anyone, but sooner or later, having found something that provided a point of stability for us, then we need look no more. There is no more searching for the point of trustworthiness but merely concern to provide the point of trustworthiness. We don't have to look for it anymore. Then we can get down to business and provide it. That presumably is what we are here for on earth, but in a particular sense in this moment in this gathering in the Chapel this morning. We may share an outlooking attitude of responsibility for everyone everywhere. It may be, and surely is, true that there are others sharing this attitude with us who are not present in person; but in any case, it is a matter of being in heaven.

Being in heaven doesn't require that we be in some particular geographical place on earth. Perhaps, as we are experiencing now, something may be achieved by being present in a particular geographical situation, such as this setting in the Chapel at 100 Mile House. It enables the achievement of something, but it doesn't change anything insofar as being is concerned, and to achieve anything we must know the reality of being. If there are others who know that reality of being wherever they may be, well we all find ourselves being in heaven. There is no geographical distance involved. The geographical factors only come into the picture from the standpoint of achieving something. We achieve on earth, and we achieve on earth in the true sense because we are in heaven. That is our place of being, that is where each one of us may say, “I am.”

As hearts open because there is a trustworthy core of being on earth, in heaven on earth, the process of purification may continue. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” They shall be aware in heaven. What it means to see God is usually translated in human terms. “Well He's over there; let's have a good look.” That isn't the way it is at all. The name of God is I Am. And God isn't interested in looking at Himself. He is, after all, the Creator—the Great Achiever, we may say. Self-centeredness is an earthly human trait. Human beings are always looking at themselves, in the sense that they are unsure of themselves and want to build up their egos in one way or another so that they may feel sure of being on earth. But it's never sure, is it? It is very uncertain—here today, gone tomorrow. No, the only sure experience is being in heaven now.

Here we are in heaven now. This is our place of being. We may look out from heaven into the realm of achieving and we see various things reflected in form. Some of these things we see directly with our own eyes, so to speak; others we hear about. I suppose most of the things that are happening, that we think are happening anyway, are simply what we have heard about. We don't know for sure, and if it is the news report, we are pretty sure it didn't happen just that way! Or we should be. But that is not of the greatest concern insofar as we are concerned. We are aware of these opening hearts with which we have connection in various geographical places, some of them not so far away. Last night some attention was paid to Mexico and Argentina, various countries in South America, and also South Africa. This may be encouraging if we are responding to that sort of thing, but that is not our place, is it? Our place is in heaven, the place of radiant vision. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” They shall be in the place of being, be in heaven, where the vision is radiant, not reflective. Reflective vision relates to this matter of self-centeredness: “How is this going to affect me? If something comes bouncing back, how is this going to affect me?” If one has radiant vision one is not so interested in what is bouncing back but in seeing what is actually present.

We begin to see from the position where we are—that is, in heaven. But we are in heaven on earth in the geographical sense, so we are on earth where we are. In the present moment it is in the Chapel here, and it is from this position on earth that we look forth with the radiant vision in order that we may see what needs to be seen and handle what needs to be handled. Our looking forth always relates to what is next to us. We have been aware of this principle, shall we call it—you can't jump over what is next to you and achieve anything further afield. This has not been much more than a theory for some because there is the constant attempt of so many to be somewhere else: “If I were somewhere else I could really achieve something.” That is the human attitude, the self-centered attitude, that is taken because there is no experience of being where one is.

If one has the experience of being where one is, then one also has the experience of achieving where one is, because the achieving is not separate from being. You can't be here in heaven on earth in this particular geographic spot and achieve something out in South America. All you can achieve is right here now, in the geographical circumstance as it is. Now, we know that. That's been said so many times, hasn't it? But do we know it? Do we actually assume responsibility because we are in heaven, now, here, for the achieving that is now here? This relates to our presence in the Chapel now, but it relates to each moment. The place of being, true being, makes possible the achieving, and the achieving must necessarily be where one is. Being and achieving are not separate. We are not going to go into a trance here this morning, being in heaven here but achieving something great in South Africa. No! We may recognize that there is the place of being, heaven, which could be defined as having position where we are, individually speaking where anyone is, but no magnitude yet, no dimensions in the sense that we understand dimensions at least.

So there is this point of being, from which the achieving proceeds, and the initial aspect of achieving was indicated by the use of the term Word. In the story of creation in the Book of Genesis, on each occasion it was indicated that “God said.” In other words the Word was spoken. The expression which proceeds from the point of being makes possible the achieving. Unless one proceeds from a point of being, nothing will be achieved, and this is the experience of human beings. They spend a whole lifetime doing all kinds of things but end up with nothing—that's right, isn't it?—end up dead. Being and achieving cannot rightly be separated. The being is in heaven, the achieving on earth; at least this is the way we are looking at it at the moment. But one must be in heaven to achieve on earth. Being in heaven one is at one point, this point. If you want to define it in geographical terms, it is where you're sitting now.

Out of the point of being, then, begins to come the expression of the Word. We have some awareness of this in our own experience, so that what I'm saying to you has at least some meaning to you. If I were saying it to most people it would be meaningless, wouldn't it? But here we have the emerging core of achievement in the realm of dimension in the earthly sense. We may think of dimensions as being physical dimensions: height, breadth, length, etc., maybe some more. Or we could think of it in terms of substance, physical substance: solid, liquid, gas. All these are indications of dimension. But there are some more invisible dimensions too. There is what occurs in the realm of the mind—something happens. The reflection of that can be recorded through what are called brain waves. It isn't what is happening in the mind; it is what is happening in the brain, and that relates to what is happening in the mind certainly. But even in recording such things it is recognized that emotion plays a considerable part. The lie detector is based upon this fact, that when the emotions come into the picture they apparently change the brain waves. That's the way it works, isn't it? It isn't the brain waves producing the emotions. Yet people try to study the effects in order to discover how the cause works. Well the only way to discover how the cause works is to be the cause, to be in heaven in other words. Then we don't need to discover anything, because we are that. What we do discover is the creative effect that the Word proceeding from that point of being has in the realm of achieving. We may observe that and we may play our part in letting it operate the way it does without any human interference.

In the creative process God said, “Let there be light.” He didn't say, “Now I'm going to make some light.” He was quite willing to let it appear in the way it would appear. And when we participate in the experience of being we are equally willing to speak the Word, and the Word is primarily “Let,” isn't it? Let the achievement come according to the fact of being. And the Word is spoken in living, in expression—something outgoing, something radiant in other words, not based in anything that is bouncing back.

Obviously, if there is creative effect something will be reflected. When we take note of what is reflected, are we then going to say, “Now that is happening because I am in heaven and achieving from that place, and so this is coming back. Now I'll look this over and see whether I like it or not and accordingly I will behave”? Well that immediately takes one out of heaven, doesn't it? One is in the earth again, trying to be in the earth; and you can't be in the earth for very long without being in heaven.

So we stay in the heaven,
speak the Word,

let the achieving appear,
to bring forth whatever should be brought forth.

And we recognize that in that achieving process there is a creative cycle. There is something unfolding, something as yet incomplete that is moving toward the state of completion. That state of completion of course is just completion at that particular point, at that particular level, but we recognize that it is ongoing still and it is always the beginning point for what comes next. We don't come to the end: now we have it achieved, nothing more. Nothing more is the state of death. The state of life is the state of achieving in the natural unfoldment of the creative cycles which proceed from being.

Now, we associate ourselves with this and we share in radiant awareness of what is happening. Some people who retain certain aspects of human nature want to see, with radiant vision, matters that are none of their business. “I want to be sure that what's going on over there is all right.” Well you exclude yourself from any real awareness of what is going on over there, anyway, on that basis, and to the extent that you are endeavoring to be over there you are not here and therefore not participating in being here in the processes of achieving here. What we are designed to see, understand and correctly handle is what is right here, and if we are in position to do that we will begin to find that here is the core of something larger; we begin to see connections reaching through beyond. But unless we start where we are we can never see beyond.

The radiant vision is the way we see. It must penetrate through what is here to reach beyond. All we can see if we look first beyond is what is reflected to us. This is obviously so if we are considering events on the other side of the earth, we will say events in the Middle East. You can't look at events in the Middle East from here, can you? All you can do is to look at what is reflected to you by the reactions of other people. Well that doesn't really tell you anything; but it is quite possible to see with radiant vision as far as the Middle East—that's not very far, after all, in this little earth—if your vision focuses where you are with respect to the circumstances where you are. Then you begin to see beyond, if your view of your circumstances is a radiant view. If you are still bogged down in the reflections that are coming to you out of your circumstances immediately around you, so that your emotions are disturbed thereby in one way or another—sometimes the disturbance is painful, sometimes the disturbance is delightful—but if you are being disturbed in this fashion, emotionally, by what is going on in your immediate circumstance, your radiant vision is blotted out. You don't see anything. All you see is what bounces back at you immediately, and you may include in that bounce-back things that are further afield too, that are bouncing back at you on the basis of the reaction of other human beings to those events.

Now, we live in this world of utter confusion. Nonsense, isn't it? It is a realm of nonsense. So we come to heaven, to be in heaven and to look forth with radiant vision into our immediate circumstance, and we see what is going on there. And now, regardless of what bounces back, we see through it; we are not behind the veil anymore. The veil is the bounce-back. We penetrate through what is there and consequently are in position to achieve intelligently. You remember, as it was described, Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. In other words here were the emotions becoming involved with the bounce-back, and Adam, that great male figure, associated himself with the bounce-back. Adam, the conscious mind of the human being, oneself, proceeded to utilize the God-given ability to function on the basis of logic and reason to rationalize the experience of the emotions, so as to be able to go along with that, to go along with the bounce-back, and the mind has been doing that ever since. It is quite capable of being logical and reasonable, but then, as has been noted before, if the premise is the bounce-back there is no sense to it. It doesn't mean anything. One may construct magnificent theories about everything, as human beings have done, but they don't mean anything. They aren't the way things are, because they are based in the bounce-back, whereas the positioning for which we are responsible is in heaven, being in heaven. Then we can look out and we can observe the bounce-back. We have been accustomed to such observation, but there is something more that we can see when the vision begins to become radiant and is penetrating.

It is said God looketh upon the heart. Well if we are in heaven we look upon the heart and we see what is happening there, and we are not disturbed by the bounce-back. The moment we are disturbed by the bounce-back it's all blotted out. So clarity of vision, clarity of understanding, clarity of thought, clarity of feeling and clarity of action are all dependent upon being in heaven, and surely, once there begins to be that experience, who would wish to be anywhere else? Can we be lured out of heaven? Well we have to prove that out for ourselves, not just answer it: “Oh no, I could never be lured out of heaven.”

So we share in this moment something of the radiant vision, radiant understanding, because, to whatever extent, during this hour we are spending together the bounce-back hasn't meant all that much. It has faded into the distance. Even if I mention events in the Middle East or wherever, that very quickly dissipates again, doesn't it? We don't need to keep staring at it. Human beings get hypnotized by such things, don't they? They are held in bonds. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. We let all that go and we find ourselves loosed in heaven, to see and understand and operate from the radiant standpoint, thereby providing for yielding human hearts everywhere the reality of a point of orientation and stability that is in heaven on earth.

We are aware of many opening hearts; there are many more than we are aware of. Obviously all need a shepherd. They all need laborers in the harvest field to bring in the harvest. Bringing in the sheaves!—but in a little different way. We don't have to go out there, grab people by their necks, rub their noses in beliefs. We just simply provide the fact of being in heaven on earth, and because we provide that fact we speak the Word, the creative Word, in our momentary circumstance. Simple! Some people think it would be easier perhaps to go and speak the Word out there. Ah! The simplest place is right where one is, in fact; not only the simplest place, it is the only place. All the rest is imagination. And when we speak it here where we are, we discover that on the basis of radiation it does go out, but we don't get carried away with the radiation. We stay in the place of being and the radiance proceeds from where we are and it has its creative effect wherever it is needed. But it has that creative effect because we operate in our immediate circumstance, the place where we are. And so we may provide what is essential in the unfolding creative cycles by which man is restored on earth. That restoration comes by reason of the action of the spirit of God, and we are responsible for letting that action be present on earth. 

© emissaries of divine light