All The World Loves A Lover
from Giving Form to the One Law
Uranda October 4, 1945
In relationship to the One Law, in spite of what I have said about it and written about it previously, I find that one of the greatest stumbling points is in connection with its application to men and women. It is recognized that in the properly balanced and effective function of humanity, man represents the positive pole and woman represents the negative pole of life expression. That fact, intellectually perceived, tends to create difficulties if the realization does not carry over into an understanding of practical function. There is an old saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and it is true. When we stop to think about it, the One Law, being the basic Law, has to do with all the forces of the Cosmos. Ignorance which causes the individual to function contrary to the correct way in relationship to the One Law produces dire results.
We recognize, for instance, that in the relationship of man and the Father within, failure to harmonize properly with the One Law from the standpoint of the mass of humanity is the basic cause of death, and we recognize that the secret of eternal life and of expression in this sphere of creation rests within that One Law. We recognize that this Law is the means by which the solar system is held together, and it is the means by which solar systems are coordinated in universes, and it is the means by which the tiny atom maintains its stability. The power of the atomic bomb as a destructive force springs from the One Law, because in that fringe of manifestation between the formed and the unformed, man has been able to disturb the stability of certain atoms and the oft-repeated statement that two positives repel each other is given vivid evidence in the extreme destructive nature of the atomic bomb.
All of this is in a sense abstract, but these abstract facts must be borne in mind if we are going to have a clear understanding of the One Law in relationship to human beings. The living of life here and now is the important thing to each one of us. The means by which we can experience the fulness of life here and now is found to be bound up in the One Law. Appeal to the human consciousness, from the standpoint of story and experience, finds expression in what we call romance. Another old saying which is true is that all the world loves a lover. Usually that statement is thought of only in relationship to the lovesick swain who calls on his lady fair, and it seems to be commonly accepted that shortly after marriage the function of the lover comes to an end. It is rarely that we find individuals who have been married for a long period of time who still maintain the lover's attitude.
From the standpoint of the Third Sacred School we see at once that the statement, “All the world loves a lover,” can have a very broad application in truth. We recognize that the individual who expresses love in the Divine sense of the word is the individual who receives love in return. I am not talking about the ordinary human limitations of concept only, in relationship to the word “love”. Love is one of the most abused words in the English language. It is perhaps the least understood, and next to the name of Deity Himself, it is perhaps more widely profaned than any other word. The thoughtless, heedless, sacrilegious way in which the word is used is partially the result of the inadequacy of the English language. We may say that we love a baked potato when we mean that we are very fond of baked potatoes; and then we say that we are fond of individuals when actually we love them, so there you are. The expression of love is the basic expression of life itself. Love has a peculiarly Divine Nature which permits it to permeate all phases of life if we but let it be so. To the degree that individuals fail to let love permeate themselves and all their thoughts, words and deeds, they function outside of the realm of the Divine. The expression of the Divine into the earth takes place through those channels which are permeated with love, and only those responsive forms in the world which permit themselves to be impregnated with love which is expressed from the Divine Realm can be drawn into that heavenly state that we speak of as the Christ Kingdom on earth.
These fundamental facts must be recognized in relationship to the One Law if we are going to understand its application to human beings. First we might take a theoretical example. Suppose there is a man in the Third Sacred School who imagines that he knows something about the One Law when actually about all he has is an intellectual concept of what he thinks it to be. From the standpoint of his individual function, then, he has the idea that, being a man, he is supposed to be positive, but since he is not attuned to the One Law and its natural function his effort to be positive manifests as an arbitrarily established shell — patterned after his concept of what he thinks it is like for a man to be positive. This shell from which he seeks to function contains within itself no life. It does not carry the effectiveness of radiation and consequently it does not naturally draw unto itself a response from any given negative point within the radius of its influence. Because there is no true positive expression there is no true negative expression. Then because this hypothetical man imagines that he is being positive, and because he does not feel or receive the negative response which he anticipates from his positive expression, he assumes that the trouble rests with the negative, which he feels should respond.
We shall perhaps consider the limitations of the negative pole at another time, and I am not suggesting that no improvement is possible in that realm, but regardless of what improvement is necessary in that realm, men cannot arbitrarily expect it to appear until they themselves function properly in the positive sense. Now let us note that in this hypothetical case the man thinks he knows what the Law of the positive and negative is. He thinks he understands it; he thinks he is positive and therefore he thinks that he is doing his part and that there should be a negative return. In this theoretical instance at least, we have a state where the individual is not positive but is in fact negative to an illusion created within his own mind. He is subject to that illusion and responsive to it, so that there is no positive expression of radiation; and what I spoke of a moment ago as a shell is what we might call a front, or an appearance of something that is supposed to be the real thing but is in fact nothing but a hopeless imitation.
This imitation or front may seem, when viewed in certain lights or when seen by persons of little perception, to be the real thing, just as the front on a movie set, when photographed from the right angle, appears to be the real thing. What may look like a beautiful house is just a front held in place by braces; it could not stand by itself. It has no use except its appearance; it is something that could not possibly be lived in. And that is the trouble with this imitation state — it cannot be lived in. Therefore we have to recognize that a man who is seeking to be a good Emissary and who desires to function according to the One Law must first go back, or down, as the case may be, to the point of his actual expression of positive radiation, even if it is, comparatively speaking, nothing more than a pin point in actuality. That is where he has to start, because it is absolutely impossible to succeed or to be effective on the basis of the empty form or shell.
When the expression of the so-called positive nature is something engendered on the basis of a human expression, the human will or human desire, it has precious little force; and if it springs from selfishness or a failure to be considerate or to have understanding of the basic factors involved in any given situation, its manifestation produces discord. Therefore in this we have evidence of the fact that whatever is humanly engendered in the so-called positive expression tends to destroy rather than to build, while that positive expression which springs from the Divine is constructive in its nature. Sometimes it may have to be firm, sometimes it may have to destroy an unreal form, but that type of activity is not properly in evidence until the individual has functioned so effectively in relationship to the One Law that he has gravitated naturally to a place of responsibility and authority.
One of the great pitfalls confronting those who seek to function from the standpoint of the positive without having achieved coordination in the One Law is that they attempt to assume an air of authority, or they attempt to participate in what we might call a realm of privilege in which they are not properly authorized to function. The authority or privilege that comes to an individual through a natural expression in true harmony with the One Law cannot be just arbitrarily assumed by some individual because he thinks he knows the One Law and undertakes to function according to an arbitrary form of expression. We have here all the difference that there is between the real and the unreal, and the results of its expression are the difference between life and death.
What, then, is the practical solution in our hypothetical case? If we analyze it we shall probably find that the individual has, in an effort to overcome something of an inferiority complex, developed what we might call a defense mechanism, and in its manifestation he feels that he has something that he can use as a buffer between himself and life. In such a case as we are considering, in its theoretical aspects, the individual would be more or less inclined to avoid looking frankly and clearly at himself. He knows that he would not like what he would see, therefore he tries not to see it. As we move along the Central Way toward reality, we find that sooner or later the aspiring one reaches a point where he has to be able to take a good long look at himself and see himself as he is, unashamed before the Lord, with all the defense mechanisms and all false concepts swept away and with no more illusions left. The individual in such a case, then, should not feel that letting go of the fronts is any reflection upon himself, because a counterfeit is of no value anyway. Such an individual deludes no one but himself, at least not for very long. He needs to be willing to let the counterfeits fall away. In such a case he would have a feeling, at first at least, that his positive expression, so called, was gone — and probably it would be, but he would have lost nothing. It needs to go, because unless the positive expression springs from the Divine it is of no value. The individual would feel weak; he would probably have as one of his first reactions an overwhelming sense of futility. But if he were willing and able to face these facts and hold steady in the face of that sense of futility, he would naturally take a very fundamental step.
From the standpoint of religion as it has been generally known, one of the prerequisites of the usual concept of salvation is repentance. All of these religious concepts contain fundamental principles of reality which are inadequately understood. Repentance is, properly, an acknowledgment of the true state of the individual and a frank, direct indication that he is willing to let his life be redirected according to a new pattern. He is not expected to mature in the expression of that new pattern overnight. He is expected, rather, to come as a little child, wherein he can let the expression of that pattern grow and develop, that he may in due season come to experience true positive expression in reality.
A great deal of the difficulty that we have run into in the Third Sacred School in relationship to men has been on this point, but the only thing that you can get out of a shell is the mockery of a hollow echo. I have repeatedly emphasized in the Third Sacred School, and have consistently exemplified the fact, that the spirit of the form is more important than the form, and if the spirit of the form does not permeate the form it is useless. That fact is just as true in relationship to our consideration tonight as to any other point of reality. It is only as men permit themselves to be attuned to the One Law, so that there is a natural expression of positive radiation through them into the world, that they themselves can begin to find themselves. And in such function they are drawn gradually into their own true polarity, the point from which they can successfully and effectively function. It is only then that they can properly hope for the fulness of negative response for which there is a natural longing.
As we move forward along the way toward that goal it is fortunate that there are women in the School who recognize that they themselves have not reached the fulness of the correct function in relationship to the One Law, and who are therefore willing to serve in their appointed places, according to the principles of reality, in correct harmonizations with men who have not found the fulness of positive expression in reality; and in such a case the two can move forward together to the goal. I said they can move forward to the goal, but in that moving there are many hazards. If for a moment either one forgets the facts as they are and tries to function in human strength, from a human standpoint, the destructive nature of the One Law begins to appear, because if they meet on the human level in positive expression toward one another, two positives repel each other.
It is only when a positive is Divinely Positive that he has a right to stand unyielding, and even in that case he will yield as far and as much as he can without violating reality. Such an individual never makes an issue of his own whims and fancies. Such an individual is careful to let the spirit of the Christ Love so permeate his thoughts, words and deeds that he is an expression of the Divine in the earth.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
