Compassion & To Make The Days Ahead Count

Compassion

John Gray  December 20, 2020  Lake Elsinore, California

johncgray@aol.com

As calendar years draw to a close it’s usual to look back and assess the year that was. AJ Willingham, a writer for CNN, posted yesterday, “If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that kindness and compassion have never been more important. It’s taught us that difficult times are made easier when we work together, when we take care of each other; when we reach out a hand to those struggling and lift up the heroes that protect us. It’s taught us that the best way through the darkness is to look for the light—and if there is none, to make it ourselves.” When the Washington Post asked readers recently to describe their experience of 2020 in one word or short phrase, they reported receiving over two thousand replies very quickly. The most common one-worders submitted were “exhausting,” “relentless,” “lost,” “chaotic,” and “surreal.” Those are understandable descriptives. But they aren’t words that I’d choose. How about you? The adjectives for 2020 that come to my mind are “attention-getting,” “opportune,” “progressive,” “confirming,” “rut-breaking,” and “uplifting.” Our experienced personal identities determine how we see things, of course.

A moment of twice-annual solstice occurs tomorrow, December 21st. We’ll have the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest day of the year in the Southern. In the northern half of the planet the winter solstice is when the earth is tilted furthest away from the sun. In South Africa, Argentina, and Australia, for examples, this is the summer solstice. The earth is tilted closest toward the sun. Also tomorrow, Jupiter and Saturn appear to nearly conjoin in the southwest sky at dusk. We’re told this is the closest together they’ve appeared in eight centuries. Of course this is only how it looks to us from here. The physical planets are actually 400 million miles apart in their respective orbits, but the conjunction has meaning at other levels. There are events of far more significance going on than human affairs, but to most people what’s happening to them in their own lives has overwhelming importance. Of course we take attentive care of what’s closest at hand, but we do that while maintaining perspective as the large spiritual beings we really are. Most everyone on earth is aware of the current pandemic, and many are personally impacted in some way—physically, mentally, emotionally, maybe financially. The Washington Post readers’ chosen adjectives speak to that, I think.

I looked up some statistics online an hour ago: About 1.7 million people worldwide are reported to have died of Covid-19 infection complications so far this year, with almost 320,000 of those fatalities in the United States—335,000 if we add Canada. I read that right now the Covid-19 daily mortality rate in America exceeds the number of people dying each day of heart disease and cancer combined. Globally in 2020, an estimated 60 million people died from all causes and about 150 million babies were born. That’s a lot of comings and goings, for sure, but as a proportion of the estimated total human population of 7.85 billion the increase was about 1%. These are just statistics of course, and statistics can be impersonal, even numbing. Let’s draw the matter in from the realm of numbers and closer to home: How many people died this year who you personally knew? How many children were born to people you know? I bet none of us would answer zero to either question; we all know of some departures and arrivals. For the most part, this is all seen as a normal part of human life experience. The coronavirus pandemic introduced a new element into the usual human view of life and death, however. We expect—and are maybe a little numbed to—people dying of heart problems and cancer, for examples, but this has added something different. 

It’s human nature to grieve about death and loss. And there’s a lot of grief in the world. This may be especially felt by an individual when it is their loved one who died. The deep substantial connection known in life shifts with death of the physical body. Resisting this process produces a painful experience to the griever. I think grief may be second only to shame as the most painful emotion human beings feel. We feel grief when our heads and our hearts—facts and feelings—pull in opposite directions. A person may feel, “Maybe such-and-such is a fact, but I don’t want it to be and I don’t like it!” It’s this internal division that produces pain. We can understand a toddler’s tantrum, grieving loudly over being told “no,” but it becomes an irrational and irresponsible thing in a person who is chronologically adult. The pain of grief can feel so great that facts are not faced at all.

Grief is an invaluable way to internally deal with events like death, and it shouldn’t be run from. One of our roles as divine beings in human form is, as may at times be necessary, preside over a process of reconciling and realigning mind and heart in ourselves and in the world. I don’t think grief is something to get over. Its presence indicates, often sharply, the need for healing, for making whole. When the heart/mind divide is closed, grief is no more. Just a thin scar remains. Grief is not related to just bodily death, of course. This past year many people have mourned the demise of some comfortable norms of everyday social life. Some grieve the fact that they can’t get together with family and friends as in the past, or they are controlled by those feelings and do it anyway. How many grieve over the death of a rain forest, or of untold species of plants and animals? How many grieve the innumerable imbalanced conditions in the natural and manmade worlds, and the state of the planet itself?

Personal experiences of grief are connected to and are rooted in deeper collective experiences of grief in the whole body of mankind and of the planet. We are each, after all, inextricable parts of that whole and we share a deep subconscious past. Much of that remains unresolved, unhealed. This may help explain why feelings of grief may seem bottomless, as they sometimes do. We feel on behalf of the whole. Doing this is an aspect of our service.

Well, good grief! What’s needed to comport ourselves effectively and well in the midst of all this? Dealing with grief is just a small bit of what is ours to give and receive and bless in the world, of course, but when it’s to the fore, it can seem pretty big. Spiritual leaders have for centuries emphasized the need for compassion—compassion for oneself and for one’s fellows; to uplift the afflicted. Compassion is defined in dictionaries as “having care and concern for the suffering or misfortune of another, often including the desire to alleviate it.” Both Greek and Latin roots of the word have to do with feeling the suffering and having empathy for another’s plight—and, to me, suggests extending understanding and a helping hand.

            

There is a well-loved passage in the Old Testament of the Bible which describes these essences so well: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty unto the captives… to comfort all that mourn; to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness...” [Isaiah 61:1-3] Anyone looking for a resolution for the New Year—and the rest of this incarnation— could hardly do better than adopt these words! The proclamation I quoted, attributed to the prophet Isaiah, comes from the same spiritual symphony as the basic teachings of Buddha a couple of centuries later. Per Wikipedia, “According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It’s not passive—it’s not empathy alone—but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and lovingkindness.”

Isaiah and Buddha were among enlightened ones who were forerunners to the coming of the one we call the LORD of Lords. What the Christ came to accomplish—minimally, the establishment of a nucleus collective body of spiritually conscious individuals—could not be accomplished the way it might have been had those close to him been more willing. In the New Testament portrayal of this, when this fact became evident, it is said, “Jesus wept.” [John 11:35]  I can only imagine his profound sorrow. Not long after this point came his crucifixion. Notwithstanding that horrific event, his attitude toward everyone throughout this whole time was, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” [Luke 23:34] He demonstrated supreme compassion.

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I confess that there have been times in my life when I’ve said, “Father forgive me, for I know not what I did.” Gradually I came to know with certainty that it is my anointed place—and it is each of ours—to extend the same qualities of forgiveness and compassion to all and to everything. Let us hold the world this way. It so needs us.

To  Make  The  Days  Ahead  Count  Still  More

Evening Service Upon Return To Sunrise Ranch From California

Uranda  August 11, 1948

It is good to be home again. We journeyed out into the field to do certain things. Some of those things we accomplished; and it might appear that, with respect to some of those things, there was failure, but we do not know yet what will develop from the seeds that were sown. I praise God that you have kept the home-fires burning, and it is good to be home. All of you have learned lessons, and through this period you have come to know that there are other lessons to be learned—and we have the assurance that they will be learned. We have the assurance of Victory in the Name of Jesus Christ our LORD. We move forward in the assurance that there will be Victory—there must be. I am not going to review for you tonight what we might call the development of the battle lines back along the centuries that have passed, up to this present day, but you do know that there has been too much go into the development of that which is in accordance with God's Plan for it to ever fail. And we have the assurance that as long as there are even a few who are willing to give that which they are to that Plan, as long as it means something in the heart and life of any individual, it has not failed.

As we came rolling across the Nevada desert, and the wilderness along the Great Salt Lake desert with the fields of salt on either side of the road, and the Wyoming desert, as we saw the various formations of nature, I looked at the face of the earth which we were crossing. Some places were barren rock, alkaline stretches, wilderness, deserts where nothing to speak of grows—and then there were some fertile places where water had been found, where water had been used, places where things were growing. Coming down out of Wyoming into Colorado today, leaving the waterless places, coming to that section where water had changed the desert to a garden, we began to see trees that were green, to see trees bearing fruit. It was a change from hundreds of miles where there was nothing green, where there was just deadness all around. And it seemed to me that the earth itself is not so very different from the human beings who live on it—there are so many desert places in humanity. But I am not so much concerned about humanity as a whole tonight in our immediate consideration as I am about that portion of humanity that is here. Each one of you tends yet to have some rocky places, some arid places, where the water has not wrought the verdant growth that is necessary for the full manifestation of the Garden of God on earth. And yet, there are those places where you are bearing fruit. In each one of you I can see fruitage. Each one of you has places where there are well-springs; some have to do a little irrigating, shall we say. But it is not the fulness that is possible.

I do not return to you today, and tell you this tonight, in any sense of fault-finding, or to bring discouragement; but, while we rejoice in that which has been accomplished and that which has been made manifest, we cannot rest on any laurels; we cannot cease moving forward; we cannot decide, “Well, the fruit of the spirit is manifesting enough in me.” Considering this abnormal condition of the earth itself, and thinking of human beings in that connection, I gave some consideration to the thought of abnormal people, and those who might be considered to be normal. In the world, according to psychiatry, a normal person is not the type of person I would like to be. Did you ever consider what that type of normalcy really is? If you are really interested in the whys and wherefores of life, according to that type or idea of normalcy you are abnormal. Actually then, from the standpoint of the world viewpoint, I suspect it would be very easily said that every emissary is abnormal, according to that standard. What other standard could we use?

The only one that would be of any interest or concern to us would be the standard of reality, the fulness of the expression of Divinity through the human being. And as I consider that, it seems to me I would have to say that, according to that standard, you are still abnormal. You have not reached the fulness of that standard of reality; so there are abnormalities. You have learned much about love one for another; you have made progress toward fulfilling the requirement of discipleship—“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”—but you still have problems in relationship one to another, you still have lessons in tolerance to learn, you still have the necessities of the development of understanding. As I returned to be with you here in person, I was under the necessity of making a choice of either having a little service of more or less patting each one of you on the back tonight, or a service that would form something of an introduction of that which I feel to be necessary with respect to the things ahead. I chose the second course.

The world is being divided into its various camps. We do not have all of eternity in which to prepare for eternity. We have been called to the most serious task, to face the greatest responsibility that can devolve upon human beings. What are we going to do about it? You have been doing something about it, and I praise the Lord for that, but we must do yet more. We must let a more complete cleansing take place. We must reach a place where each one is willing to let his or her own heart be opened up to see that which is there, that the Lord may be permitted to cleanse away that which should not be there, that each one may be that which he or she should be. As I was travelling across country to be with you, my thoughts were running along these lines.

I would like for each one of you to consider a certain question. It is not an off-hand answer that I would like to have. When you examine into your heart, when you take into consideration all the thoughts and feeling reactions that you have through the day, what is the purpose of your action; what is the purpose of your thought and your word, the purpose for which we function, the purpose for which we live? It seems to me that for a little period of self-analysis that might be a good starting point. Every time some reaction tends to appear in you, every time you seemingly act or speak or think without proper consideration, orientation in reality, do you think it would help to stop and look at yourself from the standpoint of that one question: What is the purpose of my action? Why are we here? Why are we undergoing training? Then there are the whys and wherefores with respect to the little points of action, the different phases of function. Do you think that might be a good idea to use that as a starting point for a little deeper self-analysis, to look at yourself every time you feel some turbulent vibration inside that is going to spring out pretty soon, a reaction of some kind, a thought or word, or something of the sort? No, you are not perfect, and I do not expect you to be overnight. You have learned some lessons, and you are learning more, but if I had expected you to be perfect when I came back I would have been disappointed, would I not? It is good to laugh at yourself—but it is still rather serious, so we must do something about it. In the next few days we will begin to work out your individual problems, step by step, as rapidly as possible. What do you think? Are we going to get the job done? I think so. I think so.

Any individual who stands in a place of leadership has problems to consider which sometimes are not given very much thought by others. I mention this to help you to remember that in working out problems, while I consider each one of you individually, from my standpoint I have to consider every problem from the standpoint of the whole, and not from the standpoint of one or two or three or four people. It is not just a matter of what I would like or what you would like. We want to get rid of those abnormalities. It is a matter of what makes you feel happy inside because you did the right thing, because you let the spirit and the power of God work through you. Each one here knows that when some action is wrong and there is a consciousness of it, it does not make you happy inside, and when you are feeling that way inside you cannot do very much toward lifting the spirit of the whole. The things that tend to depress and disturb inside must be eliminated, so that each one can feel the full support of every other one, so that each one can be in position where he or she can receive that full support.

This last year and a half has been a special period of training for you here. That time cannot be brought back. You have done with it what you have done with it, and that is finished—but the next year and a half still rests within the range of choice of individual and collective determination. I feel that all of you wish to make the days ahead count still more than the days that are past. Am I right?

I could, perhaps, take a little time to do a little entertaining in a lighter vein, but I think I will postpone that for another time. Your letters and your function, your staying with the job—all of these things emphasize the extent of your dedication to the service of our KING. It is that in you which makes me feel certain of fulfilment and of Victory. We share, with all other earnest ones everywhere, to the degree of their understanding and dedication, the most glorious Calling, the most glorious privileges and opportunities which it is possible for human beings to enjoy. You have all felt the weight of that responsibility, and sometimes in your efforts to fulfil your share of that responsibility you found yourselves caught in a feeling current of futility. In the physical organism, pain is a sign that something is wrong, a sign that some cause of ill function needs to be corrected. So also with respect to emotional health, a feeling current of futility or discouragement is a sign that something is wrong, that the cause of some ill function needs to be corrected. Generally, it is a sign that efforts to fulfil responsibility have been colored with self-willed action or thoughtlessness. Self-activity is not always willful disregard of reality. It is very often thoughtlessness. At other times it results from the fact that the individual tries to make something work out a certain way to get a certain result, without considering all of the factors. Sometimes the individual is not in position to know all of the factors. Then it is that we need to be careful about coming to a conclusion as to what the sum, or result, is or should be.

Each one has certain equations, or problems, to work out in his individual sphere, but those are all parts of a greater equation, and if they are all put together properly we can have the final determination of the sum, or the result of our mathematics in spiritual life—spiritual mathematics—and we should remember that there is an exactness that is required, and exactness cannot be attained by jumping to conclusions; exactness cannot be achieved by brittle holding to some point which should be yielded to the factors of the total equation. To be molded, while we wait yielded and still, requires a recognition of the whole, a realization of the value of the whole. Intellectually you have that realization; in the feeling realm you have it to a considerable degree. The fact that you have stayed in your places, that you have functioned here regardless of the fact that I was not here present in person, proves that you have such a recognition. I am not denying the degree to which you have it, but I am pointing to the fact that our problems in further attainment will be greatly simplified to the degree that that becomes an abiding realization in the whole emotional realm, so there is patience—patience one with another, patience with yourself when it is needful, patience with respect to fulfilments, and patience with the necessities that devolve upon me in working out the problems for all of you and for the whole.

As we work together in that spirit and attitude, we will find the refreshing Water of Truth, the revivifying Spirit of Divine Love, working in and through us, that our Father in Heaven may accomplish His Will on earth in us and through us, and the only true and lasting joy comes from letting Heaven come on earth through ourselves. To the degree that Heaven is expressing through you into the world, you have joy, you have peace, you have a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment; but to the degree that there are stoppages in you, mentally or emotionally, that prevent the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven through you, you feel disturbing vibrations.

I suggest that we rest in the current of Love for God whereby we are privileged to meditate upon the Holy Joy that is ours in letting the Kingdom come, the Kingdom that is at hand, letting it come into the world through ourselves here and now. The Blessing of our LORD and KING is upon you, and shall be upon you in the Way. And now I think we should go our several ways, to let the physical temple be renewed and refreshed and made whole through the night, that on the morrow we may arise in a realization that it is the Dawn of a New Day.

Each Is Trusted With The Name And Life Of The King

Each  Is  Trusted

With  the  Name  and  Life  of  the  King

Martin Exeter   September 6, 1987  am

This is the first Sunday morning service since the conclusion of Central Council here on Sunrise Ranch. Those who came for this Council brought with them substance which was resonant with the radiance of the Supreme One whom we identify as the King. They also brought with them some dissonant substance, as is usual with human beings. This was brought, both resonance and dissonance, before the throne of the King, that the substance might be purified and brought into alignment with His spirit of love and of truth and life. This has occurred at Central Councils all down through the years. Presumably, as there has been continued development of this body, the substance that has been brought is more resonant than dissonant. There is nothing wrong with the dissonant substance, provided that those who bring it are willing to allow it to be clarified and re-attuned so that it becomes resonant. This always has been done, to varying degrees, on each occasion of Central Council. This was particularly so by reason of what occurred during this recent time. There is, of course, plenty of dissonant substance in the world; so that needs to be represented somehow, that a door may be opened for change. Heretofore human beings have been a little reluctant to allow this to happen.

We have all had plenty of opportunity to know about the King and His developing body. Quite a few assumed that knowing about gave the license to judge what was happening, and all too often to enter into accusation. But as dissonant substance is relinquished—it is only dissonant because human beings hold it that way—as soon as it is relinquished, it easily moves into the resonant category. As long as human beings hold onto it in their attitudes of judgment and accusation it remains dissonant. The knowing, as compared to the knowing about, is only experienced as those concerned allow the resonant substance in themselves to be dominant. Then the knowing begins to appear. The knowing about may be a step in the right direction, but if a person retains the position of an observer he can never know. He may consider himself to be wise in knowing about—he knows all about it—but he doesn't know. There is a great distinction here.

We have noted the fact that all of us, all human beings on the face of the earth, start out by being included in the classification of thieves. This is the condition of human nature in the human state. Sometimes there are those who begin to recognize that there is present, however it is viewed, a God, a Supreme One, even a King. If there is such recognition, then there is presumably also the idea that we should rather naturally trust Him. Trust comes because of love. There is another way of looking at trust. The King trusts. He trusts human beings with His Name and with His Life. It is quite obvious that, while many people have been debating as to whether they should trust the King or not, He has consistently trusted all human beings with His Name and with His Life. We are familiar with the Name, which each one of us claims as his or her own: I am. We have a certain awareness at least of the potential of life, but it has been assumed that the life that human beings know belongs to themselves to do with as they choose. In fact there has developed a belief that God, whoever He is, entrusted human beings with life in the expectation that they would use it in good ways. That is a lie. Certainly He trusted human beings with life: we still exist. But He trusted human beings to acknowledge the fact that it was His Life, so that that Life might be used the way it was designed to be used. It has not been used that way, because human beings have all claimed the life for themselves and, in doing so, of course became thieves, criminals, and have received the consequences of the criminal life—or I suppose we should call it existence, because it isn't life—and in various ways they have brought upon themselves troubles, tribulations. Actually the ultimate trouble—at least human beings think of it that way—is called death. All because of theft.

The Name has been stolen; the Life has been stolen. This is the human state as we know it. This is what most people insist on. There might be an inclination to say, “As an individual I am a free agent. I can do as I please.” That may seem to be true, but one has to accept the consequences of so doing. This most people are not inclined to do. They don't like the consequences most of the time, and certainly the usual frame of mind is one of accusation and blame directed at someone else. Ultimately of course it is directed at the King, always because the life has been stolen. “I am going to do as I please. Of course, I please to do good things!” Unfortunately the good things that one person does turn out to be bad for somebody else. Good and bad get thoroughly mixed up in this human state, because human beings were not designed to determine what is good and what is bad. This is considered to be the highest understanding of man: he can choose! He can choose to be good, or he can choose to be bad. Unfortunately, as we have seen and experienced, all too often what you think is good turns out to be bad, and perhaps what you thought was bad might have turned out to be good. It doesn't make much difference anyway, because this is the way of the thief, the thief who justifies himself in his thievery by claiming that he has been trusted with life to do with as he or she pleases.

The King trusted human beings with His Life, but it is still His Life. It doesn't belong to any human being. Neither has His Name, used by human beings in the state which has come to pass, been used as His Name. Each individual says, “No, it is my name. I am a person, I am important. God has given me a mind to think with, so that I can figure out what is going to be good and what is going to be bad.” These are all lies that have been well swallowed and digested in human experience, but it doesn't change them at all from being lies, because the Name and the Life are the King's.

Substance, of whatever nature, whether physical substance, mental substance, emotional substance, any kind of substance, is quite willing—it was created that way, after all—to resonate with the Life Radiance of the King and to be obedient to His Command. This is the case in actual fact, although I suppose human beings would say it can't be proven, with respect to all the substance in the universe, except the substance that has been stolen by human beings. If we see this to be so we would immediately be aware of the enormity of the crime that has been committed. It is a crime that requires the death sentence, and the death sentence has been in effect ever since the crime was committed. It has been so consistently in effect, because of the consistency of the thievery, that it is taken for granted. It is the one sure thing. Of course it is sure: if I assume an identity which is not the identity of the King I have stolen His identity, because I was trusted with His identity, with His Name, which is I am. I was trusted with that, as each one who lives on the face of the earth has been.

Anyone who is born into this world is trusted with the Name of the King, and thus far virtually everyone has betrayed that trust—denied the King and betrayed the trust, and assumed a self-preoccupied human identity, which is the identity of the thief and characterized by accusation. Human beings individually are accusers, accusers of their brethren. Is there anyone here who can deny that in relationship to his own experience? Everyone who is born into this world was born into the state of an accuser—ready, willing, delighted at times, to accuse other people. This has been the state.

But substance resonates naturally with the Radiance of the King. It does so throughout the whole universe. The only place where it is not permitted to do so is in the hearts and the minds of human beings who claim it as their own. The individual claims an identity, self-centered, self-preoccupied. Oh, there are some good people who imagine that they are somehow unselfish or selfless, but the self of human experience is a stolen self, a self-created self. Some people are proud of that: there are self-made men—women, these days, too. “I am a self-made man!” Are you? Could anyone mouth such a lie and imagine it to be true? We stole what we could of the substance which belongs to the King and used it according to our own desires and devices. That is the fact of the matter. A little honesty will reveal it to be true. Our concern, surely, has been to repent of our thievery and to return our identity and our life to the One to whom it belongs. Human beings still imagine that, on the basis of theft, they will be able to produce something satisfactory in the world, but it gets more and more unlikely even from the distorted human view. Actually it is impossible.

We are aware of our responsibility to the King. When that becomes all-consuming we may become trustworthy again. The King certainly hasn't been able to trust human beings. Look at what they have done to the planet, let alone to themselves. Yet it appears that most are determined to persist in this destruction—self-destruction and destruction of all for which they are responsible in the Name of the King. Each one carries the Name of the King: I am. Each one bears the Life of the King. We come again to the opportunity for repentance, that that Name and that Life may be restored to the King. It is restored to the King by reason of His Body. We have a certain awareness of this in our own experience. There is a Body. It is a spiritual Body, which has brought some flesh along with it, but it is His Body.

No one can possibly know for him- or herself the Name of the King as it really is, or the Life of the King as that really is, outside of His Body. The only opportunity any individual has to know the truth of identity, and of life, is present as long as one has a body—only because of that. When the body ceases to exist, the opportunity of the experience of life is gone. And there is only One Life to experience, and that is the Life of the King. There is a meaningless existence which human beings have known, trying desperately to make it have meaning when it doesn't. All kinds of ways have been devised to make it seem as though human existence has meaning, but as long as it is life stolen from the King it has no meaning and therefore must pass away. Individually it does. Life can only be known in the Body of the King, and true identity can only be known in the Body of the King. How else can it be known? Can an observer, standing outside, know what it is? No, of course not. One must have the identity oneself, one must experience the life oneself. It is the only way it could be known. You may see somebody else—we all observe each other, I suppose—but the reality of life and the reality of identity is locked up in oneself.

Only as the Body of the King takes form, because there is resonant substance available to give it form and there are human beings who are sufficiently relaxed and willing to allow the resonant substance in themselves to come into that Body, can the Body take form. It has taken form to this extent on that basis. But of course there are always the continuing factors of what one might call holdout: “I will give a certain proportion of myself, my substance of flesh, my substance of whatever, into the body; but I am going to maintain a majority interest in my own substance.” There are those who say, “Oh well, it is good to tithe, ten percent. Ten percent of the gross! Ah! That is really something.” But that means that ninety percent still belongs to me, belongs to the accuser. We come again in humility, repentant humility, to the King, acknowledging that one has been an arrogant thief. When that is done, that opens the door for the experience of the True Name and the One Life. There are not five billion separate pieces of life enshrined in human flesh. It is One Life. There isn't any other. And I am: that is the Name of the King. I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.

Because there has been present on earth, brought to a particular focus, the Spirit of the King, that radiance has been available, and substance has resonated to it—substance, for the most part and of particular concern, in human beings. There is a lot more substance beyond human beings. But human beings were created to carry the Name of the King and to reveal His Life, not to steal it in order to separate themselves from the King and claim possession of the earth. That has been done, and the earth goes to wrack and ruin because it is taken out of the true design and control of the King. Loving the King, we bring it all back to Him. We can't bring the earth back to Him without bringing ourselves. Once we bring ourselves we can bring the earth. But if we fail in this regard, as human beings have all done down through the ages, the earth is condemned, as are all human beings.

We share the responsibility because we have a certain knowing. Oh yes, we have known about all sorts of things. But there is a certain knowing present. This was very evident during the Central Council. The resonance was very full. Little pieces of dissonance put in an appearance now and then, but it was quickly recognized as to what it was and relinquished, so that the substance which had been held in a dissonant pattern could come into a resonant pattern. Everything can be cleared in this way easily, no big deal. The big deal is trying to keep it out. Then the person will inevitably go through hell one way or another.

The invitation is to come Home. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, all the substance. It might prove that the tithe that brings oneself totally is a good deal less than ten percent of what is available in that regard in humanity as a whole. I suspect that it would be very rich if ten percent of humanity were willing to bring their tithes into the storehouse—bring themselves, with all of their substance, all of it! Ten percent of humanity. The question is—Could we be included in that ten percent? It will prove itself out.

We can trust the King, even though He hasn't been able to trust us; and, trusting Him, we come into position where He can trust us. When He can, there is the tithe, the tithe of humanity. And so, restoring identity and life, held separate for so long, back to the King, the King is present and may say, in effective ways on earth because He has a body on earth, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Then all the rebelliousness, the denial, the betrayal, that has gone on over the millennia can be swept away; and all that is present, all the substance that is present in this planet, on the surface of this planet, and in all the living forms, is brought again to the King. Why? Because, individually speaking, you and I say, “I bring it. I don't expect anybody else to bring it, because I am solely responsible myself for what I bring. And I find that when I do this, others bring what they will also.”

I rejoice in this hour to take a very easy and honest look at the way things are. It is easy and honest for those who have restored, returned, themselves and their lives to the King. It doesn't make any sense to anybody else; but I suppose there is a little twilight zone in between where it makes a little sense, not all that much. All that is of no consequence whatsoever. The truth is true, and it proves itself out. I certainly am very confident of that. I have been watching it for a long time, and it has done it consistently, day in and day out. I have watched the substance coming Home, and I have watched the faithful ones who bring it Home, and I have watched those also who struggle not to bring it Home. But it will all come Home in the end, whether it brings the human being along with it or not. Let us rejoice to play the essential part in the fulfillment of the purposes of the King in His creative ways in effect now.

I would like to give the opportunity for Jim Miller in Calgary to say a word to us from that location.

Jim Miller — Martin, in this day, such as never before, we are coming to know factually the King. This, to me, is the highest honor affordable to anyone. I find, as I come closer factually, that the image of the King changes, for it is a wonderful thing. It is a love that is present in form that has not been available as it has been available to me. This brings with it the unique responsibility. I would in this moment that there would be no dissonant factors at all present, or let them yield, that resonant substance of the King may fill not only my form but make it available for all those who are here with me in this part of the kingdom. We are seeing actually that the whole process of the restoration is very easy. It is with me, it is with us.

For years, even in this body, we have tried to do good things for the King. We have tried to bring the tithes into the kingdom. But we have forgotten, actually, that the King wants us. We must bring ourselves. What we thought was so difficult is such a delight. I know that in fact being with the King has been being with you at Central Council. Words cannot describe the privilege of being there and hearing directly the message. And I heard it very clearly. So in this day we move with reverence and joy, and because we move ourselves in that, the world that we see is transformed, is changed; there is beauty everywhere. Has it always been there, or are we just seeing it now? Whatever, it is here now. I am reminded of words that perhaps go across the sky in this day: “Whose life is it, anyway?” It is the King's, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Such freeing words.

And so, Martin, I send this back to you with the love of all of us here. This is in fact a glorious day to know that the resonant substance is here with you and with the King because of that. Thank you.

Lord Exeter — The resonant substance which you bring, Jim, is received easily and naturally and shared by all who have come to know the King because they have accepted His name as their own, His life as their own. I rejoice with all those in Calgary who share your spirit, Jim. The way is easy, the burden light. I would also like to give John Gray an opportunity to say something from Glen Ivy.

John Gray — The resonant quality of Central Council is being shared by a Southwest grouping this weekend. Interestingly, this matter of resonance and dissonance was represented by the very nature, technologically speaking, of our phone connection this morning. It has been rather noisy. But despite all the hissing and roaring in the background, your voice came through very clearly, at times requiring special care to stay in attunement with it but nevertheless ever present. Here is an apt symbol, I think. The dissonant factors yet remaining may be allowed to diminish into insignificance when there is attunement with the Spirit of the King. We have loved being with you here in this hour as you have given such clear voice to His Spirit. We bring ourselves, and the worlds of our responsibility come along. They rush, in fact, where there is no more denial, no more betrayal, but simply open minds, open hearts, and open hands through which all substance returns to the Living One, our Lord and King. Thank you, Martin.

Lord Exeter — Your words, John, and the spirit of them, bring close not only you personally, but those who are with you in the Chapel at Glen Ivy. We, all together, are responsible, this morning particularly, for providing a focus of radiant expression, because of the presence of resonant substance, for the whole of the Body of our King. He has a Body on earth. There are the tithes that have been brought into this storehouse. There are also those who yet observe. The invitation, the radiant invitation, is strong, that all the substance might come home. There is indeed a magnetic attraction. I would that this substance bring along with it all those in whom it is contained. But the substance will come home.

© emissaries of divine light

Heaven From The Heavenly Perspective

Heaven  From  the  Heavenly  Perspective

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Martin Exeter   November 9, 1986  pm

We are able to speak together of earthly things from a heavenly perspective. This is most necessary, that a sharing in the process by which hearts are purified might be known. Only when the heart is purified to a goodly degree can we speak of heavenly things with a heavenly perspective. As we have already understood, the house of the Lord, where we rightly dwell, has both a heavenly and an earthly aspect. A purified heart opens the door into the experience of heaven, dissolving the veil which is the impurity of heart. The earthly aspect of the house of the Lord is hardly present at all in human consciousness now.

We have to see the earthly state as it is, but from a heavenly viewpoint; and we have begun to do this. We have noted the awareness that is now present of the working of the creative cycle and how it is that all that transpires in the world as it now is comes about by reason of the working of the creative process; therefore we do not need to dispute what is going on. We may, and I suppose we do, observe the foolishness which is expressed by people the world around, close in and far out. We understand as to why this is. It is because human beings are foolish. Very simple. They are inevitably foolish in this human state. Therefore if we observe foolishness it is not very surprising. It carries very little weight. What carries weight is the working of the creative process, which certainly emphasizes foolishness when foolishness is present; but it also emphasizes wisdom when wisdom is present. Our concern is with the wisdom, because wisdom is of heaven. We ourselves therefore would surely be wise.

We are able to observe the effects of the creative process in the world of form around us. It is well that this process should be operative and that we should at the same time be aware of the fact that it is operative. This gives us a heavenly perspective of earthly affairs. We see these earthly affairs with a heavenly vision and no longer with the earthly vision which comes because of involvement with the earthly affairs. We are quite aware that the vast majority of the population are involved with the earthly affairs and therefore put great store in the various ways by which these earthly affairs are being handled by human beings in this unfortunate state. We do not put much store in that, even though we observe it. We put great store in the creative process itself.

However we need to see the creative process not merely from its effects in the earthly sense. We need to understand that creative process as it is present in the heaven. We are familiar with the question: "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?'' One can't know the ordinances of heaven without being in heaven. The ordinances of heaven are in the process of being set in the earth by reason of such awareness as is present in those who know that what is happening in the earth is consequent upon the working of the creative process. It is because of this that the ordinances of heaven are being set more directly in the earth, even though those who carry this responsibility may not be fully aware of what is happening by reason of their acceptance of the responsibility. There is, so far, little conscious awareness of what is happening in heaven from the perspective of heaven. There is an awareness of what is happening in the earth—beginning to dawn—as a result of what is happening in the heaven.

The creative process springs out of heaven, and the effects are recognizable to those who begin to share a heavenly perspective. But there needs to be more than that. We need to be in position to speak of heavenly things. This only becomes possible to the extent that we can speak of earthly things from a heavenly perspective. Then there may be the beginning point for the acceptance of what is present in heaven. This relates to something that we perhaps know of old, pointed to through the word "Shekinah'': the evidence of the presence of the One who dwells in heaven. The first touching into what is present in the heaven relates to the most peripheral aspect of Shekinah. This of course is the cloud of glory. The cloud of glory relates to a more or less undifferentiated awareness of something. This is about as far as anyone has reached from the human standpoint. Nirvana has been considered to be an ocean of bliss; it is another way of speaking of the cloud of glory, the most peripheral aspect of such awareness as may come of the heaven; it isn't really the heaven yet.

This also relates to what we have seen as the necessity of silence, of quietness. In that quietness there has, at the same time, been an awareness of the sounding of a tone and of a brightness. This has been known in some measure to us. We speak of the tone of life. How on earth did we become aware of it? This is present within the scope of the cloud of glory. We had to be quiet enough to begin to hear the tone, a sounding note, which is quite different certainly from the cacophony of noise that is present in the earthly state. We begin to hear the tone when we are quiet enough, and we become aware that there is a brightness, a lightness: The yoke is easy and the burden light. Here is the first dawning awareness of the heaven of the house of the Lord from the heavenly standpoint.

We are to dwell in the house of the Lord. We can't yet dwell in the earthly aspect of the house of the Lord, because it isn't present. But we are in position to begin to dwell in the heavenly aspect of the house of the Lord. It's only when this is done that the earthly aspect can begin to put in an appearance. There have been many sincere and earnest people in the world who have had the romantic idea of somehow building an earthly heaven, but you can't build an earthly heaven without heaven. It is heaven that carries the weight insofar as we are concerned, surely, that we may be so unmoved by the present earthly state that we can share an understanding of the heavenly aspect of the house of the Lord.

I am reminded again of another story from the Bible, relating to the Master's experience shortly after His conversation with Nicodemus. At least that seems to be so in the story that has come down to us. He had another conversation, this time with a woman. Perhaps there is more significance in all of this than meets the eye, relative to the male and female aspects and the particular conversations that occurred. After some talk, during which the Master was feeling out the nature of the state of this lady, the conversation developed and she expressed some rather structured views as to how it might be possible to worship God. Then the Master said something which in fact carries considerable significance.

"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me"—understand me, understand what it is I am saying—"the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." It wasn't a matter of form. Certainly it wasn't a matter of geographical location. "Ye worship ye know not what.'' And I think that is a statement that could be repeated within the hearing of almost anyone on earth, particularly the religious people. "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews."

I suspect that the latter portion of that sentence was inserted somewhere along the way, but it does make a point relative to the creative process as it has been working out and as it had been working out up to that point. The First Sacred School, which was brought to a very specific point by Moses, had failed of its purpose after Moses. However here was the initial opportunity provided, by which the restoration of man might occur. Therefore, in the continuing unfoldment of whatever might happen next after that failure it would necessarily have to emerge out of what was left of that state of failure. This is why Jesus was born into that particular situation as He was, because out of the remains of the previous opportunity the next opportunity could come. We are aware of the fact then of the Second Sacred School. These are ways of describing the sequence in this aspect of the creative cycle.

The Second Sacred School emerged through Jesus. As I said, Moses was primarily responsible for the First Sacred School, which failed after him. Jesus was responsible for the Second Sacred School, which failed after Him. The Second Sacred School therefore necessarily emerged out of the First, and what we know as the Third Sacred School must necessarily arise out of the Second—I suppose you could say out of what remains of the Second. But the remains are rather more massive than they were of the First Sacred School at the time of Jesus. That involved the Jewish pattern of things at a particular point of focus at that time in Jerusalem. The evidence of the failure of the Second Sacred School and the remains of it could be summarized by the word "Christianity.'' So out of Christianity, somehow or other, the Third Sacred School had to take form. It did so through Uranda. He certainly had a very strict, one might say, Christian background—Seventh-Day Adventist, to be exact. I myself had something of the sort too.

So what has arisen in the Third Sacred School emerged out of a Christian condition simply because this had provided at least some recognition of the Master's presence on earth and the importance of what He did. All this got mixed up, but still here was a connecting link with the Second Sacred School. Uranda was responsible for this. And while there had been of course failure previously, both after Moses and after Jesus, if anything was to be salvaged out of all this there had to be some sort of success or victory from the standpoint of the Third Sacred School. Thus far it has been proving itself out. Something remained in clear polarity after Uranda. I necessarily had something to do with that, but there were others who held the point with me, so that there might not be a failure this time.

All this is indicated in that little passage that I read: "For salvation is of the Jews." Salvation emerges out of the creative process, which had two shots, followed by failure and dissipation in each case. I don't think those who are Christians would like to hear this; and I suppose most of us came out of a Christian background, but much more than that is included now. Certainly there is the inclusion both of what came out of the First Sacred School and what came out of the Second Sacred School, as witness the fact that there are those who have thought of themselves in the past as Christians present, maybe in this room now, and also those who have thought of themselves as Jews. So, here we go! We would not exclude anyone, regardless of background, whether from the Orient or from the—what?—Middle East. But here is the way the creative process works. It's interesting, it's quite capable of picking up the chips again. It has been doing that, and we are at least some evidence of the fact that it has been doing that.

"But the hour cometh"—and this is surely the hour; it came anyway—"and now is"—you can say that again!—"when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." Along the way perhaps some of us may have misinterpreted this matter of seeking, sensing that "the Father seeketh such to worship him.'' We would be good Emissaries and find them! But He seeks how? In the expression of His spirit. Here is what we have described as a magnetic force, and the magnetic force is quite capable of finding those who will yield to that magnetic force. It is, in that sense, a foolproof system. It brings home those who should come home.

Some of those who begin to come home decide against it along the way. Woe unto them, because they had the opportunity. There are vast numbers of people who never had that same opportunity. If there is one thing that I might feel quite strongly about, it is that anyone who has the opportunity should turn their back on it. There certainly have been those who have done that. They turned their back on my King, and that is the unforgivable sin. I suppose, for some, it is possible to turn around again, but it certainly hasn't happened too often. It may happen for those who, as it were, go "by default''—just drift away. And there are some of those who, as it has been put, are re-surfacing; and I rejoice in that. But if there are those who turn their backs on my King they mean absolutely nothing anymore to me. This is an attitude that we need to share. We are not playing children's games. We are not here to fiddle around with human nature. Along the way we have done a great deal of fiddling with human nature, our own in particular—and other people's too, because we were still fiddling with our own, so we felt it necessary to fiddle with other people's.

But, coming to the point of knowing what we know, we realize there is no sense to fiddling around with human nature. We repent of it in ourselves, and so the current of life is offered to others. And we see this is quite effective. People put in an appearance very often that we really don't know where they came from or why. It doesn't matter. They come because the magnetic force is there and it brings them, and we are thankful for that. We can't pat ourselves on the back and say, "I did it.'' We may have participated in extending the magnetic force. We had no idea where it would land up, and we don't need to know—just do it. We do it through our willingness to repent as necessary. We become aware of the elements in ourselves which need to be relinquished, then let the spirit carry them away, and then there is a clear connection for those who are being drawn by this magnetic force. We all share in this. We all have our own fields of responsibility because we are all different. Aren't you glad for that? Would you want any reproductions of yourself? I am quite content to be unique, and so it should be for each one. We are not trying to be anyone or anything. Someone may be accused occasionally of trying to be Jesus, for instance. What blasphemy! That One is who He is. But each one of us is who we are individually.

We discover that our dwelling place is in the house of the Lord; and our first experience of the house of the Lord is necessarily the heavenly aspect of it, because as yet there isn't any earthly aspect to experience. When we know the heavenly aspect then we begin to be in position to dress and to keep the garden, in other words to set the dominion of the ordinances of heaven in the earth. Then the fact of the new heaven and the new earth can come quickly. The new heaven and the new earth simply refer to the house of the Lord. It isn't new; it's just new to us.

So in our time together this evening we have touched into a heavenly awareness of the creative process, which certainly has produced certain effects in the earth. But we begin to see that it is our responsibility to understand this heavenly aspect of our responsibility. We may know that we have repeatedly played a part in this particular creative cycle which I have described from the time of Moses. You can go back farther than that, I suppose, if there is any reason for it, but this is the most recent application of the creative process in a specific sense through human beings. We have a perspective in this regard because we are very much aware that in the heaven the total concern is for the re-creation of man. This much we know of the heaven from the heavenly standpoint. All that happens at the moment is for that purpose. There is a lot more going on in the universe than that, but insofar as our field of responsibility is concerned, that's it! And when we are in the heaven that is known; it's prominent in awareness. We don't find ourselves at any point saying, "Ah, shucks, I forgot!'' No, the dwellers in heaven are trustworthy. They are inseparable from the One whose house it is. We begin to become aware of what the ordinances of heaven really are and how they must be brought into the earth to allow for the restoration of the earthly aspect of the house of the Lord.

We learn once again to dwell in heaven. I don't think that is such a tough proposition. It means that a good deal of our present surroundings must be largely ignored. We don't find it necessary to become involved in them in the sense of reacting to them. We may utilize our external opportunities in the business of repentance—that is required—but we see everything we do in the external sense from the heavenly standpoint and we don't get lost in our consideration of it from the earthly standpoint. What are your favorite things from the earthly standpoint? What do you imagine you were created to do on earth? Human beings translate that invariably in human terms: "I'm a businessman. I'm an artist. I'm a banker. I'm a scientist. I'm a sociologist"—all very important things, meaning absolutely nothing.

I am the angel of the Lord incarnate on earth. All these affairs that human beings put so much store by are not important for that reason at all. They may carry an importance to us because they enable us to bring something out of heaven into the earth in relationship to people, that's all, not to satisfy ourselves. What do you do, day by day, to satisfy yourself? That's something that might be thought about a little, because we are not here to satisfy human beings, ourselves or anyone else, but to bring heaven into the earth; and we use what is at hand to do that. Anything we do day by day is for that purpose only. People get so thoroughly embedded in their external interests, that they forget: "Oh shucks!" again.

Of course one has to have money; one has to live, after all. You do? Why do you have to live? What would the reason be? So that you can do your human thing, whatever it is? That's no reason at all. You might just as well be dead. The only reason that human beings are still alive is to give them an opportunity to find out why they should be here; that's the only reason. If we begin to know that, then let's be true to it. I thank God that there are those who are discovering what it means to be true to that, so that nothing of this earthly state looms so large that it causes amnesia, a lapse in memory, as to why one is here.

So we consider these things together in times like this. But, remember, the spirit of truth brings all things to remembrance constantly, so that you never forget. We are not here to forget why we are here but to do what we are here to do. Remembrance Day is coming up shortly. With respect to it there is something about "lest we forget." Well I think that's a pretty good thought to conclude our time together this evening. We are not here to forget why we are here but to do what we are here to do. Just let it happen. Just let it happen.

© emissaries of divine light