Resanctify the Vessels of the Temple
Martin Cecil August 27, 1976 Class
The Israelites were referred to as a peculiar people; the Lord's people are a peculiar people. They may seem to be a bit odd to others, but the meaning of peculiar is an indication that they are special people. The Israelites, of course, might think of themselves as being special because they were descendants of Abraham. But then, as we have noted by this generation, we could say, “Who isn't?” Because the approach at that time was from the standpoint of the first plane, or the physical approach, the core of the Israelite pattern centered in the sons of Jacob. Of course, by the time the people were brought out of Egypt, the number included many who were not particularly related to the sons of Jacob. But something at that time was springing out of the earthly pattern of heredity, insofar as the peculiar people were concerned. However, their peculiarity was not based in this fact. It was based in the extent to which they were willing to participate in the Divine purposes on earth. Most of the people at that time had very little awareness in this regard, but certainly Moses did, and various ones had some vision. However, the rest of the people went along with it to a certain extent, and so to that extent they were a peculiar people because they were participating in the outworking of the purposes of God, in the sense of providing a facility at the level where human beings are, by which the impact of the spirit of God might be felt by all people.
Those who participate in the outworking purposes of God, in this sense, are always a peculiar people. If we, today, participate in those purposes, then that makes us a peculiar people. As I say, we may seem a bit odd to some of our fellows, but it isn't really that sort of peculiarity. It is a special people because they have a special task to fulfil. And in the fulfilment of that task, they have all the support and backing that is necessary to permit it to happen. We may have a recognition that the Lord never asks something of anyone that is impossible. He Himself has never been interested in the impossible. I have before indicated that He certainly is a realist. He doesn't delude Himself like human beings do. Always we are under the necessity, if we agree with Him and prove that we are a peculiar people, never to delude ourselves but to work with things the way they are. This is a very rare occurrence insofar as human beings are concerned. They are always trying to work with imaginary things, partly because of lack of vision, lack of any real comprehension of what is present with them. Everything is seen through the state of consciousness which is based in earthly heredity. So nothing is seen clearly, let alone understood.
A peculiar people are those who have accepted, in whatever measure, spiritual responsibility. This acceptance is only possible to those who begin to be spiritually oriented. Now, an earthly oriented person, trying to accept spiritual responsibility, may be peculiar in another way. And there are some of those around too. But where there genuinely is spiritual orientation, in whatever measure, then there begins to be some vision, some understanding, and consequent acceptance of responsibility. We have seen this as an aspect of maturing. If you are to participate in serving, then you must have experienced at least some measure of maturity; you must have put away childish things—stop playing children's games, stop treating the elements in your environment as toys put there for your pleasure, so that if some of the things you find round about are not pleasurable, then you try to get rid of those toys. We're not interested in seeing what is around us in terms of toys. We will not see anything in terms of toys if we stop being childish. We will begin to see the real purpose of everything within the scope of our experience.
As we do accept spiritual responsibility we are, in fact, accepting the responsibility of what may be called the Priesthood. We need to see this word in a way that it is not usually seen because there are many people who are awakening spiritually who would not be particularly interested in becoming a priest or priestess because they have a concept as to what that word means. We see it in terms of abiding in the Holy Place—but then we have to have an understanding of what that means. Those who function on the basis of spiritual expression are the Priesthood in the Holy Place. We use these words to identify those who are functioning in this fashion—your dwelling place, the place where you habitually are in consciousness, a Holy Place. Heretofore, I am sure that it hasn't been at times. Even now, perhaps you find yourself in and out. Only the mature, those who have put away childish things, can be in the Holy Place. It is a place of maturity.
The Priesthood, in the true state, constitute what may be called government—the government of God on earth is extended through the Priesthood. There is no separation of church and state in this regard. We can well recognize why it has seemed necessary that there be a separation of church and state when function is from the standpoint of earthly heredity, because it isn't a true church or a true state. And if they get together they are something untrue. So, keep them apart and perhaps they will help to keep each other towing the mark, so to speak. But all this is children's games. We are willing to let it pass away. This does not mean that we are forcibly going to throw it out, enter into some revolutionary approach, because we are well aware of the fact that the unreal will dispose of itself. There are these two aspects in the creative cycle—integrative and disintegrative. And when there begins to be a means by which integration can more effectively take place, then disintegration more effectively takes place. The two go hand in hand.
We are concerned with this matter of integration and therefore with function from the Holy Place in spiritual expression, and consequently we assume spiritual responsibility as peculiar people. Nobody is born a peculiar person in this sense. It merely becomes evident after a while. It comes out into the open if it is so. If there is a movement away from children's games into the expression of the Priesthood in the Holy Place, and therefore the fact of maturity is made evident—peculiarity in the maturity. To start with, it is simply in the fact that there are those who are willing to align themselves with the Divine purpose; they are not so interested anymore in human purposes. And giving evidence of this alignment with Divine purpose, they become peculiar to the Lord in a way that those who are not aligned with the Divine purpose cannot be.
This relates to the matter of government on earth, the government of the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit—not the absence of spirit, the unholy spirit. This government is a very different government to what human beings know in their earthly state, but nevertheless a very effective one—far more effective than the rather distorted and elementary methods that human beings use. Human government is based, fundamentally, in manipulation at the level of form, and also at the level of what is not usually thought of as form but nevertheless is—mental form. Ideological considerations come into the picture. And people are manipulated in various ways by propaganda, it is called. And then we have all kinds of physical programs of government that are supposed to benefit people, materially speaking. So, the governments of earthly heredity are manipulative. The true government is based in spiritual expression and is very exact, because the Law works. Those who respond are attracted; those who oppose are repelled. And we have the two aspects of integration and disintegration coming ever more specifically into the picture. This is government; this is sorting things out on earth.
How do human beings go about it in earthly heredity? Well, they have various methods. You join the right political party or subscribe to a particular political system, and that will sort things out. We know how nonsensical and irrational all that is; it accomplishes nothing; it multiplies confusion. The true government is spiritual government, something that is virtually unknown to human beings and therefore it is very secret—secret service we have called it—but very effective, because nothing can withstand that government. Everyone is going to have one attitude or the other. Everyone is going to respond or they are going to oppose. For a while, some sit on the fence, but eventually even those are spewed out of the mouth, are forced by the very circumstances to fall off the fence one way or another, or be pushed off. It's getting that way in the world. It begins to be impossible to be indifferent, lukewarm.
So there is government. One of the factors of government is leadership. That has tended to be rather lacking in human government; at least there has been all too much of the wrong sort of leadership. Of course there is a sort of leadership which is more or less natural in human experience. When people begin to see what is present in themselves, exemplified by leadership, they try to get rid of it by getting rid of the leadership. That's not the way to do it. One should do it here first, and then it is discovered that it will not be in the leadership that is accepted. If there is what might be referred to as crooked leadership, it is because crooked people are being led. What other sort of leadership could there be? That's the way it is. There is a saying that people have the leadership that they deserve. There is a certain amount of truth in that because the points of focus that rise up, rise up in relationship to what it is that is being focalized—this is so in the state of earthly heredity where everybody is pointed in the wrong direction.
Leadership is very often looked upon as being an arbitrary imposition of some kind. And those sort of leaders are sometimes acceptable to human beings where someone gets up and says, “Well, you do that; don't do that; don't do the other thing.” A lot of people like that sort of regimentation, rebelling underneath all the time at it, but they feel safe and secure in such a situation because someone else is taking all the responsibility. But the leadership with which we are concerned is spiritual leadership. And we are not interested in manipulation of circumstance, whether the circumstances are near or far. Those who are interested in world affairs look out into the world and see various things going on, and the press tries to make something out of these things, in various ways, which have little to do with what is really going on. And if we pay too much attention to what we read without having any basis of understanding, we will no doubt be embroiled in taking sides this way and that way, once more beckoned into earthly heredity.
There is a very false picture of the world situation portrayed by what we read in the newspapers or hear over the radio or on TV. However, I'm sure that all of you begin to have a better point of outlook, so that your perspective may be more accurate. This is so when we begin to stand in the Holy Place; and we know fundamentally that these two processes of integration and disintegration are going on. We stay steady. We stand in the Holy Place. This is where we belong as the Priesthood. And we deal with world affairs, not in imagination, but because we handle the affairs that are right next to us correctly. That is dealing with world affairs. If we can be lured away from what is right next to us, to become embroiled in attitudes this way or that way, then we remain subject to earthly heredity; we remain pawns of the devil. This is what happens to people, because they don't know what else to do. We know what else to do; we know that we are here where we belong, and that our environment immediately around us is the closest part of our world to us. Our world does reach to a further extent, but the only place we can do anything is right where we are. And as we do something right where we are, we are doing something out there too because it is all connected together. But the only place we can touch it is right where we are. We can't touch it out there. And so, leadership relates to the extent of our spiritual expression in handling the immediate circumstance. And we will find in our immediate circumstances, when we have this perspective vision, that all the elements that are out there are right here. We don't need to go anywhere to find them. They are right here, wherever we may be. Our service as the Priesthood is in the Holy Place, not rushing helter-skelter all over the world trying to fix things up. If there are those who can hold things in place, in the external sense, it is for us. But let's not expect them to do it too long—let's get with it.
Our service is in the Holy Place; and to serve in the Holy Place, there are certain necessities. Long ago, when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, or even when the Tabernacle passed out of the picture, there were various vessels, golden vessels, which were used in the Temple in the service in the Holy Place, which were lost. They were no longer used in the service in the Holy Place because there wasn't any service in the Holy Place in this sense. Someone else had grabbed on to them and carried them away and was using them for other purposes. We can see something in regard to this, symbolically speaking, because everything for which we are responsible in the expression of spirit properly belongs in the Holy Place. This could include, in a general sense, thoughts, words, and deeds. Thoughts, words and deeds are the vessels of the Temple. And they have been scattered far and wide, haven't they? Human beings use their thoughts, their words, and their deeds for all kinds of things—in other words, they have stolen the vessels of the Temple, vessels of the Holy Place, and used them for their own self-centered purposes. We are concerned to let the vessels of the Temple, of this Holy Place, be brought back into the Holy Place. We've been doing this, haven't we, particularly from the standpoint for instance, of words. What do you use your words for? What do your words contain?
The spirit, the quality of your expression, is what is present in your words and in your thoughts and in your actions. When you are concerned with the content of these vessels, then you will bring the vessels back into the Holy Place so that they will only be used in the Temple service. They will not be used by you in earthly heredity for human purposes. All your thoughts, all your words, and all your actions will provide the setting for spiritual expression. That is service in the Holy Place. If you can let any of these aspects of setting be used for other purposes, then immediately you're out of the Holy Place. So we see the necessity of gathering all these vessels back into the Holy Place. They were golden vessels—the symbol of Love. All that we think, say and do must be permeated with love. But there is a very specific reason for the vessels of the Holy Place. There is a very specific reason for what our thought may be, for what our words may be, for what our action may be. Here is the setting for spiritual expression. If we do not gather the vessels back into the Temple, there is nothing to contain spiritual expression. If we think we can sit somewhere with a completely blank mind, doing absolutely nothing, and radiate spiritual expression, we would be rather foolish, wouldn’t we? There is always something going on as long as life remains. And so, we have these vessels all available. All that needs to happen is that they should be brought back into the Holy Place, that they should be used in the service of the Holy Place. And that service is spiritual expression. We have noted this matter of words, and we see in this realm many other things.
We were also speaking a few days ago about physical sex, as it is called. I might emphasize something which appeared in our considerations of yesterday, relative to the fact that the physical level at most could only be one seventh of the total picture. And yet, insofar as human beings in earthly heredity are concerned, it constitutes almost the whole picture. And it seems to do so very much in relationship to the realm of sex. When we recognize the generation of these dimensions, and the reason for their existence, the reason why we are here with this composite nature, sevenfold nature, we recognize that the generation comes out of nowhere into the now here and extends outward, or downward. There is something coming down from God, and it comes through and out of heaven into the earth. That's the direction of movement. In this case, what happens in the earth is the last thing to happen, and yet, particularly in the realm of what human beings think of as sex—it isn't really sex if it is limited to that area—what they think of as sex is usually put first, where it is an exact reverse of what the actual creative experience is. It relates to something coming down from God out of heaven. And it relates to all the vessels of the Temple, whether it is thought, word or action.
These things arise in experience because of what is coming down from God out of heaven and not because of what may be present in the environment. If it comes because what is present in the environment, if our thinking is engendered by this, if our words are engendered by this, if our actions are engendered by this, there is a clear case of earthly heredity, isn't there? When there is the experience of heavenly heredity, then the exact reverse occurs. What is to find expression comes down from God out of heaven, and there is a specific way by which it happens. We have illustrated something of that way on the blackboard by using the series of triangles.
Because earthly things tend to be so paramount in human experience, and heavenly things so unknown, we have to deal with the circumstance as it is—if I started to talk to you in the expression of something that appeared at the seventh level, for instance, it would mean nothing to you at all because you do not have that experience. And yet, the fact of the matter is that the process is coming down from God out of heaven. However, the Lord is a realist and so he recognized the necessity of starting with something—of starting at the level where people are, not at the level where they should be or where He might like them to be, but at the level where they are. And so, if there is consideration of sex, for instance, we could hardly begin the consideration with respect to the seventh level, could we? Because it would mean all of nothing. So, we do touch upon this realm at the level where human beings at least have been, where you have been. In any case, in speaking of these things, using words, we can only, at the moment at least, touch upon heavenly things by analogy, just as was done in the Book of Revelation. And the analogy begins to mean something to the extent that we begin to have the experience of it—to the extent that we have risen up to the level of the thing itself, which has been described by the analogy. And in earthly language, there would be no words available to describe that. How could there be? Because human beings haven't known what it was, haven't had any experience of it at all. We may find that as there is a restoration in this regard to the seven dimensional experience, a new language appears.
We might look back to the way things were before man fell and recognize that there was one language throughout the whole earth. It didn't require so many words as the languages of today seem to require, because the content of the words was all there, and one didn't have to go into extensive descriptions or explanations, because there was a consciousness on the part of all concerned of what was present in the word. Now there isn't. Human beings don't agree as to the meanings of the words—words mean different things to different people. But when there is a true expression springing forth from God, then all share that expression, and so there is no misunderstanding. We multiply words to try to avoid misunderstanding, at least if we are honest we're doing that. There are those who multiply words in order to make the misunderstanding. So, we use the words we have and begin to discover new meanings in those words, based in our own new experience. Then it isn't the word that is so important, the external form of it, although that will be very exact, an exact reflection. It is the reality that is back of it that is important. And we only know that by our own experience. We have a feel of it and move with what it is that is unfolding in the current of the spirit. We have an attunement with the spirit, and it begins to reflect in our own consciousness. And we see it. If we take time out to try to grasp something, and get it to fit into some concept we already have, well, we'll lose the movement of the spirit and we won't understand anything. It is to the extent that we do move together in the current of the spirit that we share an understanding, not because we figured it out with our minds, but because we simply know.
And so, in this matter of sex, as human beings understand it, we have noted that it is playing games and playing with toys. It has nothing to do with the real purpose, the real reason why we have this particular vessel. It belongs in the Holy Place. It isn't a toy to be played with by children. Maybe that's what happened to some of the vessels in the Temple when it was destroyed—children got hold of these things and started to play with them, fill them with mud pies, and one thing and another. That's just about what human beings have done. There may have been a sensing there was some value here, but because human beings were childish they looked upon everything they saw as toys for their own indulgence. Whenever I do speak a little about this particular realm of sex I am very conscious of the fact that there is a tendency for each person to interpret it on the basis of his own state of consciousness, which may contain some rather distorted structures. And even though these structures are present, they are not usually seen as being distorted by the person who has them. After all, they are very familiar to him; he's had them all along, or he's developed them over the years. And so, when anything is said it tends to be translated on the basis of these structures. I'm very aware that when I am speaking to all of you, for instance here, that if I talk about correct function, I'm not in the least suggesting that there should be some sort of a promiscuous indulgence in some of the things that begin to emerge into awareness.
Everything needs to unfold in the way that we know that it does unfold—on the right basis—under control, decently, and in order. One can allow one's understanding to open. These currents of the spirit are moving through the individual, male or female, and there are the two aspects in the one person. In a woman, the female aspect is dominant; in man, the male aspect is dominant. But the other aspect is present also. This indicates that there is, in the Holy Place, a correct use for the vessel of the Temple in an individual sense—the positive and negative are present. And while the word has been a rather disreputable word in the idea of human beings on the basis of the toys which have been stolen, masturbation actually has a reason, a purpose in the Holy Place. And so, the fact of the matter is that regardless of relationships that may be presently a fact between men and women, the creative expression in this regard is available to all. It is a fact in relationship to all, as anyone can testify. Sometimes these things are suppressed and so on—but we're still alive, and so there is something moving.
We noted in the diagram that we used the other day, a creative cycle, a cycle which moves down, coming down from God out of heaven into the earth. I’ve simplified it by just putting the creative cycle here, but there is also another one down here. And it flows down this way. However, we don't wish to complicate things, but you can see that there is something more that needs to be considered. Thinking of this from the standpoint of the union of male and female, here is the male point and here is the female point. And the movement of the current is different in each case. There seems to be some sort of a program in the world now to make it seem as though men and women were the same. How ridiculous! And also, to seem as though a women being a woman was rather a menial business—that unless she can become a man she won't amount to anything. Well, she doesn't amount to anything until she becomes a woman. And a man doesn't amount to anything until he becomes a man. And why women should aspire to occupy the place of men who are not men amazes me! Would that be any improvement? But from the standpoint of the union between a man and a woman, the current is moving this way: It is coming down from God out of heaven through the man; and it is rising up in response through the woman. There is an opposite movement of the current in each case.
What is coming down from God out of heaven needs to be held steady and allowed to radiate into the world. It actually radiates with respect to something specific at this point, and it connects with something in his consciousness with respect to what it is that is happening by reason of the radiation. Now, men have usually been so wrapped up in playing with their toys that they have no awareness at all of anything except—what? The joys of heaven, which rightly are experienced, are an effect. They are not supposed to be the reason for the undertaking. “And these things shall be added.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness”—that is, right function in every circumstance, the right use of all the vessels of the Holy Place. And then there is an adding. If there is radiation there will be response. And response rises up through the woman here, to ascend to God through her. And obviously, where there is response and something is moving, that is a delightful experience. It will be emphasized in her in relationship to what is called orgasm, rightly speaking. Something is rising up to let it be so. Now, there are all kinds of concepts that men and women have had about, oh, the delight that should be experienced because there is a mutual orgasm. This is just simply a concept. What is the right thing to happen? That is the question. And in a general sense, a man is responsible for maintaining a steady current in relationship to what it is that is being achieved. There is something going forth which shall not return unto the Lord void. It is coming down from Him. The man has his point of responsibility. Control must be maintained. Now, a woman sometimes has the idea that she is capable of causing a man to lose his control, which she is. And that gives her a sense of power. There are all sorts of attitudes, of course. There is the idea of the wifely duty, or something, a passive sort of attitude, which is ridiculous! How could anything move? There must be a participation and a consequent movement of the current. But she certainly has a responsibility to make sure that what is moving through her does not cause a loss of control in the man, so that what is moving is allowed to move up or down, according to the requirements of the situation. And there may be a pulsating current sensed in this regard.
I speak of these things to impress the actual fact that this is a core element in the service in the Holy Place. We are equipped this way for that reason. We weren't equipped this way in order to have toys to play with. There is some adult reason for these potentialities in us. And these are essential if there is to be restoration. We cannot continue to just play children's games and expect anything of a creative nature to happen. It isn't game-playing. There is something real here. And, touching upon it as I have this morning, oh so briefly, is simply to emphasize the point that here is something supremely sacred and holy. It belongs in the Holy Place—nowhere else. It hasn't been so, insofar as human beings are concerned, for a long, long time. Therefore, in introducing these things, it tends to carry into a realm of the unknown. Well, fine. It is an unknown. It has been unknown. But it needs to be known.
We begin to recognize the essential factor of having a right attitude in this regard. Regardless of what possibility of right function there may be at the present moment, the first thing is to have a right attitude, to begin to see what is really present in this field. And it has very little to do with what has been present in the structured consciousness of earthly oriented people. The best that can be said of that is that it is children's games. And it's a lot of other things as well. Virtually all of it has been destructive, and we see the evidences of it all around us. So, let us recognize that the vessels of the Temple need to be returned to the Holy Place—all of them. If I have touched upon this one it doesn't mean that we should ignore all the others. All the vessels of the Temple must come again into the Holy Place. And the Priesthood is responsible for assembling them there.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
