Innocence Openness Clarity
from I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto The Hills
Martin Exeter January 13, 1986
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Psalm 121
This particular Psalm has been read by countless people over the centuries and, while it may have seemed to be poetic and consequently must mean something, there has been virtually no understanding. These words can be brought to life and are easily understood by all whose hearts are open and whose minds are still. “Going out and coming in” is obviously a process familiar to everyone. Constantly people are going out and others are coming in. We can look at it from the standpoint of the earth—people dying and being born—or we can look at it from the standpoint of heaven: coming into the earth and, in season, leaving the earth, returning to heaven. In order for this to happen in a constructive way, insofar as human beings are concerned in their present state, death is the way by which rubbish is dissolved. If the rubbish was dissolved while the person was living, during the person’s lifetime, then there would be no need for death.
Part of that dissolution could occur in sleep. What occurs in sleep is very much dependent upon what occurs when one is awake. If the eyes have been lifted “unto the hills” and there is a steadfast maintenance of conscious awareness in heaven, then something very constructive can occur in sleep. If the conscious mind has been going up and down during the day, to and fro, then very little is achieved in sleep; there is a tendency to keep going downhill; the restoration isn’t occurring. Only when the eyes are lifted unto the hills and kept there can there be the process in effect which dissolves the crust in the subconscious mind, and sleeping can be part of the means by which dissolution occurs. It doesn’t only occur when one is asleep; it occurs when one is awake too, because everything that comes, requiring in the old mode some sort of subjection to the subconscious compulsions out of the past, may be met and handled without becoming subject. So that is part of the process of purification by which the heart is purified. And when the heart is purified, there is no need for death to get the job done. Very simple.
Of course we have to see this in terms of the body of mankind, not just from the individual standpoint. It needs to occur from the standpoint of the whole and is so occurring to the extent that there is a point of conscious understanding present on earth through that focus which is provided by those whose individual minds have been lifted to the hills and kept there. If there are those on earth, then there begins to be a conscious mind present in heaven for the whole of humanity. And it is this being “stayed on the Lord,” as it was put, that permits all the things that are present in the subconscious of mankind to be easily dealt with, both while one is awake and while one is asleep if one is a part of that focus of the conscious mind for the rest of humanity.
Individually speaking, that focus of the conscious mind is a very small point. All that is necessary is to keep that small point lifted to the hills and let it be stayed there, so that it doesn’t come down and become subject again to the rantings and ravings of this impure subconscious state. We acknowledge that that impure state is there, because nobody has allowed it to be dealt with yet. But the process proceeds once there are those who maintain their centering in heaven consciously. It is a deliberate thing: I will. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Because the help comes from above, as long as one keeps one’s eyes unto the hills one is flooded with help, flooded with all that is necessary to permit what is required to be done.
When you scale to a high place, perhaps up the side of a steep mountain, it is advisable not to look down, because if you look down you tend to go down. Well this works too from the standpoint of the conscious mind and this impure subconscious. Don’t pay attention to it! There is no need to indulge oneself, as Jacob did, in wrestling with the angel. There is no need to wrestle unless one is trying to sustain one’s downward view and say, “Well this is justified; look at what’s happening, look at what’s coming to me!” No, look at the hills! And there is the basis then for clarification, so that the dissolution of the subconscious crust may proceed. And this has been thought of as being a great tremendous thing: “After all, human beings have been living on earth and piling these things into the subconscious for millennia! How are we ever going to get rid of this vast mass?” But it isn’t a vast mass, really, because it is repetitive; it is something that has been happening over and over and over again—exactly the same things!
So we begin to find out that there is not an immense pile of manure to be shovelled away, and it would take the rest of our lives to do it, because you deal with whatever needs to be dealt with; and that won’t repeat. And pretty soon you’ve got all the things that have seemed to be so much because they were so repetitive, dissipated, gone. Then there is no longer the false view that one is really struggling with something tremendous and it takes so much sweat of the brow. Well, sweat of the brow won’t do it. Just look up! That’s easier. Keep the eyes where they belong—unto the hills; and what is needful then happens: “My help cometh from the LORD.” That opens the door for that to happen and the dissolution in the subconscious proceeds; one is no longer accepting those impurities as a basis for one’s thoughts and feelings.
Innocence. Openness. Clarity.
And pretty soon there is a sea of glass clear as crystal. The crust in the subconscious is dissolved, and there is the pure water of truth. So we participate easily in this creative process. How clearly this was conveyed through use of this particular Psalm. But such use can never be made until one knows the truth. People who do not know the truth read the words but they have no faintest idea as to what it is they mean. We share the meaning, we understand, we are stayed upon the Lord, and all is easily and naturally fulfilled.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
2 comments:
Sometimes a service will trigger remembrance of other services, or one phrase will remind me of others. This posting is one of those times.
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills” is a way of saying “I will lift up my attention, my focus, my consciousness, to the mountain top, the holy place, heaven. It is a way of saying “Look up!”
I recently reread the 1972 EDL booklet “Look Up” which quotes Luke 21:25-28. This passage of Luke seems to me another way of saying what is said in Psalm 121. It says when things get tough, “look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption” draws near.
“Look Up” itself is a third way of saying the same thing, maybe with more clarity than the OT and NT versions. In it Martin says -- regarding the coming “shattering of the container of self-centeredness” throughout the earth due to the expansion of God’s spirit in the earth -- “the instruction is: Lift up your eyes, lift up your heads, so that there may be a centering in the cause rather than in the effects.”
Then here, in 1986 he repeats, more poetically, that we must “keep our eyes where they belong…stayed in the Lord.” (The phrase “stayed in the Lord” always reminds me of Robert Frost’s quatrain, “So when at times the mob is swayed To carry praise or blame too far, We may choose something like a star To stay our minds on and be staid.”) Only when the eyes are lifted to the hills and kept there – only when one remains focused, centered, in Cause -- can there be the process in effect which purifies the heart, the subconscious mind. Many of Uranda’s and Martin’s words to us relate to purification of the heart. From the 1930s “Triune Way” through 1967’s “Sanctification in the Evening and the Morning,” to 1986 “I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills” we are told to “look up,” pay attention, sanctify and pray.
In the Sanctification service, Martin says that without evening and morning sanctification, meditation, prayer, whatever one calls it, sleep cannot do that which sleep was meant to do. In this service, he clearly states what sleep is for, at least in part. In both, he stresses that this is deliberate, intentional, ongoing (clear your pattern each evening, check your ‘state’ each morning). Like Uranda, who suggested setting aside 15 minutes morning and evening for true prayer, ie being silent and listening for what God has to say to us in those moments).
My help, in word, thought, deed, moment by moment, floods in from the Lord when I am stayed in Him, centered in Cause, consistently. And remaining stayed in the Lord is so easy, given the ever-current and ongoing guidance of Martin and Uranda especially. [Thank you, David!] How blessed we are to be among those who raise our eyes and see and understand. What joy it is to do the intentional “work” required for this.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the Hills from whence cometh my help---for surely, help never comes when eyes are focused on the flat lands. So, keeping my eyes stayed where they belong, the Lord never fails to provide in any moment what is needful and what is to happen in my lifetime on earth. MY help always comes from Him and that opens the door for the dissolution of impurities in my subconscious to proceed and never, ever, to accept them as a basis for my thoughts and feelings---the crust in my subconscious is dissolving - as it must! Therefore, it is my joy to easily continue in this creative process with my eyes stayed upon the Lord---letting All be easily and naturally fulfilled.
The LORD preserves us from evil and preserves our souls; He preserves us forever more as our eyes are stayed upon the Hills.
We know this Truth; we understand it, and so we share the meaning of it as conveyed in Psalm 121. We are thankful for Martin's beautiful expression and expansion on "I will lift up mine eyes unto the Hills from whence cometh my help."
Thank you, David, for posting Martin's Meditation.
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