Our approach toward everything is from the Holy Place. We do stand in the Holy Place when we have a sense of sacredness with respect to all that transpires in our experience. While there may be many things going on that are not righteous in the world we nevertheless are in position to stand above such things without being involved emotionally, and to enfold and encompass everything of our worlds. There is a radiance of holiness enfolding all things because of our Presence, which gives opportunity to those who are in our worlds to become aware of the reality of this holiness. Of course there are various reactions to the fact. There is this quirk in human nature which seems to want to destroy anything that is evidently sacred. It is a reaction of shame, guilt and fear. This enfoldment of all that is going on in our worlds was summarized by the Master's words, recorded, “Father, forgivethem; for they know not what they do.” And so we extend the spirit of forgiveness. Perhaps this is easier to do with respect to events that are not too close to us, but obviously the reality of our spirit of forgiveness will be dependent upon its factual experience in specific instances.
Daily we have opportunity to prove whether we do enfold our world in the spirit of forgiveness or whether it is merely a theory off the top of our heads, because I'm sure you find that there are many occasions when things arise which seem reasonable to condemn, and people who seem to be in a position where they may rightly be condemned, when what is necessary is the spirit of forgiveness. When we stand in the Holy Place this is natural to us. There are those who say, “Well, I can forgive but I can't forget.” Forgiveness and forgetfulness go together. It could be said that it is rather helpful if one doesn't have too good a memory. The trouble is that people have poor memories about the things they should remember and good memories about the things they should forget! There cannot be forgiveness without forgetfulness—insofar as one's own consciousness is concerned whatever it was has just gone, not that it could not be recalled, because someone would likely come along and remind you of it. A very prevalent human nature approach is, on the part of those who want to stir up a bit of trouble, to remind people how badly they have been treated, and most people go right along with it. But if we have the spirit of forgiveness it is all gone, the slate is clean and we have not been badly treated. In any case, we are living in the moment—nothing's happened yet.
So we stand in the Holy Place, and in the Holy Place we have a sense of the sacredness of things and we have a growing consciousness of the real quality of the Tone of Life with respect to all areas of our living. The mind usually wants to pin things down somehow and says it should be this way or it should be that way. The only thing that can be pinned down is the quality of spirit. When that is right in the moment and one is standing actually in the Holy Place, then it becomes quite apparent what the right thought, the right word, the right action, would be, because we let something emerge in the moment that is fitting for the moment on the basis of the sounding of the true Tone of Life.
We've begun to see more clearly something of the Tone as it relates to the field of sex. People, again with their minds, tend to want to have things pinned down in this field—“Well, is this right or is that wrong?” It can't be pinned down. This is the creative field of angels. The sexprinciple is present with respect to all angelic function. This does not mean that it is merely that angelic function in the intimate function between male and female. The sex principle is at work everywhere and one aspect of this centers in this particular field. However, it is in this area where the sex principle comes to point in the creative expression of life moving through the physical form that is the core of living. If a person is not clear in this intimate area, intimate with respect to him‑ or herself—I'm not talking about relationships with someone else, at the moment, but having a clear consciousness of the nature and quality of the Tone of Life as it sounds in this most intimate part of one's own being—only as that is as it should be will all the other aspects of living be as they should be. We can have a sort of veneer of righteousness with respect to various areas of living—at least it passes as righteousness, because human beings are not all that perceptive—and still have something cloudy, gray, if not black, in this corepattern of one's own most intimate place. When this is clear, when the Tone of Life is sounding clearly here in this core place, in this Holy Place—and it is a Holy Place—then all the other areas of living will be conditioned by this holiness. But if it is not there in the core there will be nothing adequate to condition the rest of one's living. So it is very important to be clear in this area, not clear from the standpoint of mental standards that may be set but clear from the standpoint of an awareness of the nature and quality of the real Tone of Life in this field.
It is to emphasize this that we have considered various matters pertaining to the field of sex, so that you might begin to sense the clarity of this Tone in this area. It is never a matter of trying to get things to conform with some human concepts of what might be right or fitting in the external sense. We need to be careful of other people's concepts in this regard, of the way other people see things and think, but we ourselves need to be clear within ourselves so that we understand spiritually. We know that the actual emergence into expression of what is springing from this coreofclarity may take a vast variety of form. We do not begrudge other people the forms that they may hold at the present time. This is why the subject needs to be approached with the very greatest of care, because no matter what is said someone is going to misinterpret it. You might remember that in what I'm saying to you.
All that we are concerned with at the moment is to get a feel of the pure expression of the creative principle in this core experience, and how it comes out in expression will be on the basis of the inherent design in spirit. As we begin to become aware of certain aspects of this design as it merges we rightly are very protective of it. It is not something that is exposed to the profane view. There is a veil, rightly, about it. There are those things in our own most secret place—which should be the Holy Place—which are nobody else's business except the Lord's. In other words human beings, having little sense of the sacredness of things, tend to bandy about considerations in fields which are in reality, or should be, holy. Talking about these things, trying to figure it out—that's just a mental trip. It never achieves anything because one never understands anything until there is a clarity from the standpoint of one's spiritual perception, of the real nature of the Tone in this most central area. So we are not trying to force it into forms: Would it be this way? Would it be that way? It will be the way it should be, when you are moving with that Tone; and it will emerge as it should emerge, initially on the basis of the state of affairs as it is present with you as an individual. What is present with you as an individual will be distinctly individual and it will not apply to any one else. We cannot have overall rules and regulations and at the same time allow the emergence of the true Kingdom State in experience.
It has been necessary in the human nature condition to maintain some sort of structures, some sort of rules and regulations, so that everything wouldn't get entirely out of control. And in order for this to work at least partly there had to be a majority of people who would accept them. These rules and regulations in the external sense have had their purpose, and still have in the world the way it is, and we are not interested in trying to throw off all these shackles. But we know that there is a true state which needs to emerge and it can only emerge through a pureheart, and a pure heart will not be known as long as there is continuing reaction to externals. This is what muddies the heart. Only when the heart is open toward heavenly heredity and the true sounding of the Tone of Life does there begin to be purity. In that purity there is a clarity of vision. Those who have presented themselves before the Lord in human nature, seeking to draw close to the Lord in human nature and to experience an increase of spiritual awareness on this basis, always run into the evil because human nature cannot approach the Lord. It has to be left behind. We can't persist in identification with earthly heredity and approach the Lord at the same time. That would be a contradictory attempt. So those who try this—and all good human beings seeking for better spiritual understanding make this approach; they are not conscious of any other possibilities as a general rule.
So there is an approach, rising up in relationship to the spiritual expression plane of being, which permits an awareness of what one might call a brighteffulgence, as though one might approach the sun for instance. Well certainly it is not wise to look at the sun if you don't want to damage your eyes—and it is not wise to persist in trying to approach the Lord on the basis of the only consciousness a person has from the human nature standpoint, and that is of the general effulgence. That is actually the veil or the flamingsword which prevents a person from going any further; and because he is prevented from going any further, very often the individual says, “Well I've arrived. This is as far as you can go. This is heaven. This is Nirvana. This is wonderful. Such a brilliant light here; it must mean something.” One might see that what is to be experienced is not this, rightly. This is the human nature experience. But the veil becomes transparent rather than opaque, even though the opaqueness is pretty bright. Vision is only possible on the basis of this transparency, and the transparency of the veil is the purity of heart. As long as the heart is not pure there is opaqueness. Sometimes that opaqueness is pretty black, but it can be on the other end of the spectrum, pretty light. And people are fooled by this; whereas before it was black, now it is light. But it is still this side of the veil, so to speak. And we can't penetrate through the veil, but we can let the veil penetrate through us on the basis of our expression. And it is this penetration of the veil throughus which brings with it a sense of clarity. The veil, instead of being opaque, becomes transparent. We ourselves become transparent. That doesn't mean that anyone can look at us and see all the way through, but in our own experience there is a transparency. This relates to the matter of guilelessness. Some think of this as being simply that the person is naive, but there is a true state of guilelessness which doesn't prevent one from seeing what is present but rather being unmoved by what one sees. It seems to others who observe that one is pretty naive, but in fact you know what is going on but you don't emphasize what is going on from the standpoint of earthly heredity because it doesn't mean that much to you.
And so there is this clarity which comes on the basis of the sensing of the true Tone of Life in one's own experience, and particularly in this central core area of experience where the focus of the working of the sex principle is. The sex principle works everywhere but it has a point of focus and that is the most intimate place in one's own experience, the SecretPlace of the Most High. It has been secret to human beings because there has been no inclination on the part of most to keep anything sacred. And the words sacred and secret are alike, in a way. So there is concern to allow a greater clarity to appear in this core place in our experience. And we are not trying to establish any mental ideas about it but to let it be fluid, let it be what it really is, so that we can sense what is fitting. Here, as there is movement in this way, is the evidence of the emergence of the angel, the angel who is incarnate on earth for the purpose of utilizing everything to advantage in the achievement of the purpose for which he or she is incarnate—everything is used—but being used by the angel, it is used out of the Holy Place. Everything is seen as being sacred and the understanding of how things can be used begins to emerge by reason of the purity of heart. There is increasing clarity of vision, increasing experience of the transparencyoftheveil. And it is not just anymore a vague effulgence. It becomes increasingly specific in relationship to the immediate field of action. There is a consciousness of being present in one's human facilities, which are in the immediate circumstance, to handle what is present in the circumstance for the purpose for which, as an angel, one is present on earth. And that handling rightly is righteousness. We make right use of everything.
Our first consciousness of this may be a rather generalized awareness but it comes increasingly to point in our specific experience when we are living from the Holy Place, when everything with which we are dealing is seen as being included in the creative field of our action as angels. I am speaking of a shift in consciousness from the merely human to an awareness of the merely human—in other words, the merely human is not the accepted identity. It is accepted as the only facility one has to do what one is here to do. One will utilize that facility on the basis of its capacity to be utilized. We do not imagine, as angels, that we can do anything by reason of the human facility. We are very conscious of certain limitations in that human facility. As angels it might be said that we can do anything, but we can't do anything in this particular circumstance except as the facility makes it possible. So we are concerned to develop the capacity of that facility to make more that is possible to us possible of expression on earth, because there is vastly more that we can do than our human facility will permit. We begin to see things from the true viewpoint rather than the reverse viewpoint.
Most people in human nature identity—well all people in human nature identity—approach it from below: “Well how can I permit my capacity to be more valuable in the hands of the Lord?” That is the human approach and on this basis you run into the effulgence, because you're still a human nature person who wants to be improved somehow so that you might be more valuable in the Lord's service—a very good idea from the human standpoint, but it simply doesn't work. We have to be right for anything to work. So there is the need for this change in consciousness, which begins to become more familiar, of looking at things from the angelic standpoint, of accepting the truth, to the extent that it may be experienced at this point. But the truth will never be experienced as long as we stay in the human nature state—and we will stay in the human nature state as long as we approach everything from the standpoint of the human nature state. So we begin to align ourselves with the angelic state and the angelic outlook, the angelic viewpoint, and lo and behold, as this is done consistently we find the reality of our own true expression. It appears—not in the sense that we can analyze it or get it all classified and categorized, but in the sense of a flow to momentary living. We begin to live from the standpoint of the angel and we see when the facility that we have makes a mistake, or what appears to be a mistake to the facility, probably. We are not thrown by that. We are not, if we are the angel—it isn't the angelic mistake in any case. Again, mistakes are only mistakes if we repeat them too often. If the angel is present and a mistake is made then something is learned from the standpoint of the working of that facility, and you do not need to let that happen again. It wasn't a mistake; it was a means of learning. I suppose most people don't learn the first time; it takes several mistakes of the same nature for a person to finally wake up to the fact that it is a mistake even; and even when he realized it is a mistake it is likely to be repeated again—but let it not be too often. One is quite capable of learning and one will do so very easily when the approach is from the angelic standpoint. You see the element in the human aspect of yourself which prevents an adequate expression of yourself, you do something about it. As an angel you take responsibility for yourself. This does not preclude the possibility that other angels may come and minister unto you. But no matter how many angels minister unto you, you still hold the primary responsibility with respect to the human aspect of yourself.
We were considering the matter of incarnation and the term of incarnation. As the angel begins to come forth, of course, the reason for one's presence on earth becomes apparent—not necessarily to the human mind, but one has a sense of meaning, of the creative cycle in which one is moving as this pertains to what is moving through other human beings in whom the angel is also incarnate. You have an overall view. We have that now, don't we? We understand what the overall purpose is—the restoration of man. That to the human part of us is just a statement of words which doesn't really mean very much, but to the angel it means everything because that is the reason why you as an angel are here on earth. You may have had a rather sick human state to get out through but nevertheless you begin to see how even these things are used to advantage. You can look back, I'm sure, upon your experience in the past in the human sense and you can see value to those experiences. You didn't want any part of them at the time, but looking back you can see value and you could see that something was working out. Something is working to bring you to this moment, in this particular setting, at this particular time. Everything that is back of you comes to point. You begin to be aware, then, of creative cycles that have been working out in spite of the fact that you didn't know anything about them, because they were not working out on the basis of you in the human sense. They were working out on the basis of you in the angelic state and the human aspect of you had very little consciousness of that.
Now the consciousness of it is beginning to emerge because the angel is beginning to emerge and you begin to see things from this standpoint. You are concerned that all the seeing, here in the field of your responsibility, should be from this standpoint. If it slips back into the human view of things on occasion, then you become aware of that. You step back from the human view into the angelic view again. You can deliberately do this. The angel can begin to work consciously with the facility, and as this is done there begins to be the increasing consciousness of the real Tone of Life. When there is this state of increasing holiness there is the state of increasing life. When there is the state of increasing unholiness, that is the state of death. One cannot be unholy and live. This is why human beings don't live very long. In the human sense there is the necessity of beingholy, and when there is the experience of holiness there is the experience of the angel who lives. It is not as though life was being acquired, that we were getting it somewhere, some generous God somewhere was handing out life because He approves of us. No. The life is already present—life is the nature of the angel, and in the experience of the angel there is the experience of life; there is the experience of the reason for one's presence on earth, alive. And that life naturally is born through the physical form with its capacity of consciousness, and consequently there is the increasing expression of angelic life known, humanly speaking, on earth.
We move with the creative cycles for which as angels we are here. We do whatever is necessary in that cycle right up to the point of its completion. Now the human nature view of this is “until I die”—but it isn't that at all, because the angel doesn't die; the angel completes the creative cycle on the basis of the facility through which this expression was appearing, and miraclescanoccur in this facility as the angel comes forth increasingly, so that the restrictions which have been present in the human form, in one way or another, are not seen as being necessarily permanent. The angel can come forth. The angel who you are is very ingenious in this matter of coming forth so that there isn't a coming forth with great intensity through some restricted area, which would blow the whole thing. The coming forth is through those areas where there is a certain freedom of coming forth, and then this will exert an influence on the areas of restriction and they will begin to relax, and there will be an increasing coming forth. In Class here we've moved along in relationship to various areas of consideration and then we have moved over to another area and then to another one and another one, maintaining a balance in the process of coming forth and not coming forth too much in any one area, because if that happens it is liable all to be blown. A balance needs to be maintained. With each one there are different areas of restriction; it's not the same for everyone. We have to deal with the areas of restriction in everyone, so for that reason we have to keep moving around too. Something may not be an area of restriction in one person but it is in another. So we need to keep the whole miniaturebody here moving together by allowing restrictions to be dissolved as may be possible, and an increased intensification of life as the restrictions fall away.
So we become aware of the fact that we are here on earth to do something very specific as angels in company with other angels, and we use everything to advantage on the basis of righteousness—righteousness which springs forth because we stand in the Holy Place with a continuing sense of the sacredness of our mission or destiny on earth. Sacredness shouldn't be correlated in consciousness, as it sometimes is in human nature, with goody‑goodyness. The expression of sacredness can sometimes be pretty harsh. You have only to recall some of the Master's words recorded in the Gospels, when He was speaking to the hardness of human hearts, specifically indicated as the scribes and the Pharisees in that setting. Sacredness is sometimes pretty tough. Love can be very gentle but it also can be very hard. Human beings can hammer themselves to death against it, and it won't move! God has never moved His position. He stays in place. That's just wonderful, isn't it? We can depend on it, then. If He kept switching around because human beings wanted Him to—which they have—then nobody could depend on anything. But we know He is right there and He is not going to change by reason of the whims of human beings.
So we are here present in this particular creative cycle, however long it may be in the individual sense, to do certain things. And if we have done everything that can be done on the basis of all the factors involved, which would include our own earthly facilities, then there is no point in staying around, is there? If you can't do anything anymore then you don't stay around. But as long as something is being done and there is a reason for you to be there, well you better stay there, not duck out. Human beings have the inclination to duck out, while they are still apparently alive on earth, of all kinds of things. The pressure gets too much and they duck out. Well eventually the pressure gets too much and they duck completely out. We don't do that—we don't duck out! But at the same time we become aware of when creative cycles are complete; we become aware of this with respect to others, those with whom we may be working, and we help in the matter, we have something to offer. But also in relationship to ourselves we become aware of the fact that the appointedtime is complete. There is nothing wrong with that. No doubt there will be residue left behind, but then we are leaving residue behind every day. It is only a final experience insofar as that physical form is concerned. But if it is residue, it needs to be left behind. That doesn't change the angel any. The only difference is that there is no means of incarnation for the moment. Probably that's a temporary relief. You have to pick up the pieces anyway a little later on.
All these things relate to an increasing consciousness of our purpose as angels, rather vividly portrayed in a passage in the Bible, about Jacob—he dreamt a dream. “And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it.” That illustration presumably means something to us now—from the standpoint of the fact that angels are incarnating and then completing their sojourn and returning from whence they came. It also relates to the ascending and descending processes that are going on in us as individuals—something coming down from God out of heaven, to the extent of the pneumaplasmic substance available, finding expression on earth; and because of that expression, something returning and ascending as an increased generation of pneumaplasmic substance; sweet incense before God, ascending and descending.
“And Jacob awaked out of his sleep”—it is what we are supposed to be doing—“and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” That's what we awaken to, isn't it? Most human beings are asleep to it. They think that the Lord is someplace else. But when we awake, “Surely the Lord is in this place; now I know it. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” That is a shocking realization when one first awakes. “What's been happening all this time and I knew it not? This is a sacred place, a Holy Place, and I've been profaning it, defiling it.” So fear may enter in a little. “What's going to happen to me?” Of course, the individual was getting along all right before he knew this, apparently. So the fact that he knows it, is not going to make all that much difference to the effects; but presumably it will make some difference, in the person who knows it, to the causes which find expression in his living. This is the House of God—the physical form—the House of God—and this is the Gate of Heaven. What is the reference here? To the pneumaplasmicbody—the pneumaplasmic substance that is present is the Gate of Heaven through which the ascending and descending processes may occur. We awaken to this out of our prior dream and we know the reality of the Holy Place. If we have awakened truly we never forget it.
We have the greatest opportunity in the world, but wherever on the face of the earth anyone has that feeling of belonging with the Lord, with righteousness, with all things right, and pure, and holy, there is a part of the Body of God. I was recalling a few words of the service we shared with respect to belonging—a sense of belonging, a sense of oneness. I wonder if anything could be more vital to our consideration at this time than this sense of belonging, the actuality of the oneness of the Body of God on earth. What does the Body of God mean to us? Some words, or is it something living? Are we it? Wherever there is the awareness of this oneness, this sense of belonging, there it is, and it doesn't necessarily mean a certain number of human beings in one place—it can, if that awareness is within each one; but wherever the one is, if that awareness is present, there is a part of the Body of God on earth.
All this took me back to the beginning of things. "In the beginning God created" this wonderful world, and there was a Body of God, and it was perfect and beautiful, and it was one thing—one thing, without any exception. That means that the Whole Body was beautiful and perfect, and everyone a child of God. This was in the beginning. A lot has happened since then. And there was a design, and we know something of that design. There was a pattern of Twelve, and there was a pattern of Seven; not some mystical numerology, but the fact. We don't know much, in an intellectual sense, of what happened in those days of perfection, because the mind of itself cannot know it. It is an awareness that recalls it, an awareness which utilizes every aspect of our consciousness, of our beings: feeling, emotion, mind, body. It is not knowing about; it is coming into an awareness of.
So this wonderful Body was created, a beautiful design, a perfect one, with dominion over all the earth and all the kingdoms of the earth, whether animal, mineral, whatever; and everything was lovely. The Lord created His Temple—this whole earth, and each individual body—for His pleasure. That which man knows something about started a little later, in history as we know it today. We can go back to a time in the record where man began to do something on earth, come together. There was an awareness of a need for oneness. There was a recognition that unless something came together, there was nothing on earth. There were great leaders back in those days, and with respect to Twelve we naturally think of the twelve sons of a patriarch, the twelve sons of Jacob. This is a very interesting story, but it is also symbolic in nature. It is the bringing together of the twelve aspects of mankind under One Father—by name Jacob in the story, a Nameless One in actuality, in reality—the twelve aspects of the Body of God brought together. This was away back there, and this was accomplished. It is spoken of as one family, but they were twelve different, distinct aspects—it was a coming together of the twelve aspects of humanity into One Body. We have this coming together, and then we have the people formed called the children of Israel. And this was not a racial thing; there was marriage into the people of Egypt, the people of Midian, which is fundamentally an Arabian people, despised in a sense by many in those days as barbarians. They were all integrated, because it was comprised of all the aspects of humanity. And there was formed a people, the beginnings of the Body of God again on earth—one thing, one family. But there is something very interesting about this family, about this nation which was moving toward the restored design of God for His people on earth. There was something which integrated them all. You see, there were Thirteen, and the thirteenth was called the Priesthood.
Now, the priesthood has corrupted the way of man through at least five thousand years, and beyond that: those who sought to make of the things of God purely a religion, a self-centered thing for self-centered purposes. But here was the true Priesthood beginning to take form. Here was something that was integrated into each of these twelve aspects. It was something which could manifest in each of the twelve and still be one thing. The Levites was the name of the Priesthood. Each of the twelve inherited, so to speak, property, possessions in the Promised Land—rightly so. There was an aspect of this creation, of this earth, which was under their dominion, each one specifically. The Levites had no inheritance; they had no property. The Levites did not go to war. They were different. They had no particular portion of land on which to dwell. They were in each of the twelve tribes. Each tribe had its Levites within it. They lived in that particular portion. Their substance, their material goods, was provided by that particular aspect of the twelve in which they had their domain. It was said of the Levites that their inheritance was the Lord; their substance came from that inner place of Being. They represented God to man, and there was that in each of the twelve, or there would be no One Body; it would still be twelve. There has to be that which is of the Lord, and which can manifest in the twelve without taking on subjection to the twelve, that remains in the world but not of it. This is the true Priesthood, and there must be that in all the twelve to connect it, to merge it, to meld it into One Body. That pattern was perfect; it was beautiful. So, one could say there must be a Body within a Body, and every aspect of humanity is a part of the Body of God. If we look at ourselves, surely we are part of that Body. Are we not all different? The very fact that the Priesthood is in each of those twelve means, in that sense, that the Priesthood is different, and yet it is not. It is because it is in one of the twelve aspects, but it is above and beyond it. It is in the world, but it is not of it.
If we carry this story along we find that they did get to the Promised Land. They did move in, they were established—something which overcame the boundaries of country, nationality, patriotism. We read that they were very faithful, dedicated. But to whom? To the Lord. And they were constantly warned that all the world was to be included in this pattern—never to let it be a segregated thing. When something comes together to form the Body of God, there is a Oneness, there is a coming together. When the Lord is forgotten it is dispersed, it dissipates, it falls part: there is the very opposite of the working of the Law which draws together all things, and it is scattered abroad. So, going along with our story we found that the twelve began a wonderful movement toward the forming of a Body, a Temple for the Lord on earth. In Revelation we read that God said, "And I will be with them, and I will be their God; they will be my people." The Temple of God is with men. And in this wonderful beginning—for that's all it turned out to be, a beginning—there began to be the differences, something happened which really spoiled the whole thing. As long as the different tribes began to quarrel, it wasn't too serious as long as the Priesthood was intact. But at one point along the way we find a very graphic story, symbolic of what took place in the whole: the corrupt priesthood. The priesthood became corrupt. It began to drift away from that firm dedication, that dedication whereby there was no partaking of anything except what came from the Lord. There was a drifting, and the material aspect entered it—they began to pay certain ones to be priests, and the very minute that the priesthood became corrupt there was nothing to cement the body together. It is that Body within the Body which is so vitally important. Then the twelve began to fall apart, because twelve aspects don't make the body. The Priesthood is that which cements it together, and when that became corrupt, everything fell apart.
We go along, and we see that the minute there was division within the Body, there were predatory excursions from outside, and these took place from all directions—all around their enemies began to take over. But this was after the failure of what was inside. Up until this time it couldn't do a thing, and it never can from the outside; but when it happens from the inside, it can all come rushing in, and that is what happened. And we find that first the kingdom, the one solid kingdom, was divided into two. Then there were two kingdoms, and then they were taken away captive into foreign lands. First the kingdom of the ten—the ten tribes were taken away captive. What happened to the ten? the dispersed tribes of the children of Israel? We could say the second fall of man.
In this great land in which we live—isn't it a melting pot of all these twelve tribes? Don't we lose our identification with those old countries? It's interesting that it's called the "old country." And the "new country." Here, just as surely as those twelve came together, is something new. Perhaps we can say, "Yes, but it's getting kind of old." All right, that's where the Priesthood comes in, because without the Priesthood we don't have anything. Something has been brought to point on earth in this day, which is taken for granted, and which is absolutely priceless, just in an outer sense, that which the world can see. In this great land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean—where once there were two great continents—here in this great land have come together peoples from all nations on the face of the earth, lost their individual identity, taken new names, speaking one language. It is a wonderful thing. We've noted in our conferences, our classes, when we all come together, the variations, the coming together of the dispersed tribes of the children of Israel. And it's the Body within the Body that is so vitally important; it is in the Priesthood that the Lord is the inheritance.
There must be that Body, within the Body, that is trained for that deep dedication to the Lord, with a constant awareness of belonging. And if, in that Body, if in the Priesthood, there is not that deep sense of belonging, how can there ever be throughout the tribes of Israel? It is right that there are twelve aspects, but it must be One Body. And we'd better be doing something, in that inner place, to bring about a sense of belonging for all people, not just privileged me—everyone on the face of the earth, no matter the color, no matter the tongue. We are here to provide that essence which will cause them all to be One. We have something to take care of, a place close to the Lord where we inherit Him—I am thine inheritance—His very Being. We don't receive something from Him. It is what He is that is our inheritance. And where do we find that? Right here, within the Temple of the Living God. I am thine inheritance. We say I Am, and when I and the Father are One, then He is my inheritance. This is that which must be done by the Body within the Body, and then all that has been done through the years, heroically, beautifully, by dedicated men and women in their places, will have meaning, will not have been in vain.
We see the so-called underprivileged classes in the world. Can we ever look at any of them without something inside saying, "This is wrong"? Every single one belongs to the Body of God, and that feeling of insecurity in those who have been downtrodden certainly puts a responsibility on all of us who know better. Maybe we're not in position to do something in an outer sense about that sort of thing, but what about our own sense of belonging? Is there still a feeling of, I get something from the Body? What is the Body if everyone says that? It's an imaginary thing and everyone's outside. Each of us is the Body, if there is one—and I know there is one. When we look out at the world today, perhaps it's hard to believe that God made a Body, utterly beautiful in all its parts, for His pleasure—and He can't have pleasure in His Body unless the Body is having pleasure. How else could it possibly be known? And when we realize that this was His only intent for man, and that when that Body is restored it will be, as He said, without the crying, without the suffering, without the sorrow, we can see how man has fallen—and for one reason only: he has separated himself. There is a design in the Divine State. It would not be something hodgepodge, just a mixing. There is a perfect design.
The races were formed, in the first place, as we know them today—we won't say what went before; certainly there was a design; it wasn't just monotonous—but the extremes came about because man functioned incorrectly. And when those days of great cataclysm were over, and it looked like nothing was left on earth, here and there were people, just remnants of people, all the same people, but they were isolated and each probably thought they were the sole survivors on the face of the earth. And to perpetuate the human race they intermingled, there was intermarriage, of course, within themselves. This we have symbolically portrayed in the story—symbolic of people, all the way back, and the farther back you get, the more true this is. We're talking about remnants of people from something in those far, far days. And here we see something of the way they were formed. Here was the reversal of God's Law for His children.
We are all God's children, and something glorious has taken place in our day, which is completely without any meaning whatsoever unless there is a Body within that Body—a Body that is close to the Lord, and which lets the things of God come through in meaningful living, not in fancy, not saying, "Oh, I'm the positive Priesthood. How nice!" No, but in humility, really practicing letting the things of God take form through us. More and more one is surprised, perhaps, in walking the Way, at the beautiful evidences, the rewards we could say, of learning to let the Lord fill our days and our lives. Are you sometimes overwhelmed and say, "Thank you, Father, for showing me that"? Do you just sit down sometimes and say, "Thank you"? You can't help it! It happens so many, many times. I suppose one learns to take it for granted—but I hope not. It is good to have that welling up of thanksgiving for the wonder of the Way of the Lord. I am thine inheritance. That means I Am, the wonderful Body within a wonderful Body. In the commonplace things; this wonderful land, a melting pot, a melting away of the things that don't belong, of the differences. Isn't that what it is? Each one of us needs to be that melting pot where the Fire of God's Love burns away all that does not belong, purifies the dross, so that the Divine Alchemist can bring forth the gold. It is all here. And let us never be fooled by the appearances, look out and say, "Oh, there's nothing right." Where there is that which will bind the Body close, it works.
It is time for the Divine Priesthood. We have called it, after the Order of Melchizedek, meaning simply the Divine Design, the design ordained by God for His creation. In the Psalms it says you are a Priest forever after that Order. Man's order isn't very lovely. It takes everything apart; everything is dissected. If you want to learn about something, you dissect it, take it to pieces. Of course, you can't put it together again. There is something so unutterably filthy and degrading about the whole thing, taking apart the beautiful creation of the Lord. It is indecent, isn't it? Trying to be as God—that is what the Body of God has done on earth, turned into a mess, segregated, separated. Every part of this Body, every people on the face of the earth, belongs in One Body. Is there any part, any people, you can think of that you'd like to exclude? It all belongs together. Isolation—that is the order of fallen man. It is exactly the opposite to the Order of Melchizedek, which draws everything together into the One Body it was created to be. As that Holy Priesthood, we surely, with each day, have a deeper, more vibrant, more thrilling awareness of the perfection of God's creation. And we have one place to start—this Temple, oneself. And we become, surely, less convinced of this wrong pattern of man's. The Divine Order is really order. It is perfect, and it partakes of none of this filthy thing that man calls design. He has names for it. There's a certain design, all kinds of names for diseases, for mental disturbances; they are all categorized, a certain design, they say, an order. But it is not order. It is disorder. It is chaos. It takes everything apart, and you have nothing.
So let us, remembering the One who draws us all together, cherish his words with respect to that belonging. Then we find that, seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all things are added. We don't have to get anything from the Body. All things are added to the Body; they're all here; and what a joy when we realize it. It's all here. It's all one thing, and we needn't look to any pattern that we thought was there before, even yesterday, even this morning—because you're not the only one who is changing: your neighbor is too. This is something we tend to forget. You're different, but no one else can change? That's not a pattern of belonging. Give your fellow as much credit as you give yourself. It's one of the greatest lessons we can ever learn, to really believe that the one next to me can change, and that I'm not so self-righteous, after all. It's a Body. We're all moving. That wonderful movement through the air of the spirit has been uppermost in my mind—constant movement. Constant movement is flying, isn't it? You don't dare stop. It's a wonderful feeling. There's no stopping. As we move along and there's a little slip, and you almost go down, just keep on going. Maybe you have to take a look at something, but it is never stopping. You'd be engulfed in the thing. Keeping on going.
And that smile of the One we follow is always there.
When we really learn that, we have something utterly priceless—look up and see that smile.
It says, "It's all right, keep on going."
I surely rejoice in our togetherness, to keep aloft the Body of the Lord. The Body within the Body we are. It's the way it is now, isn't it; exactly the way it is now that is our starting point; the way people are now, not maybe the way they were, how we might think God created them to be in the beginning, but what are they now, right now? And do we have this feeling of Oneness and belonging with respect to all people? Because if it isn't in us, how do we expect them to have it? Never let us think that only we in this room form that Body of which I was speaking. We have the greatest opportunity in the world, but wherever on the face of the earth anyone has that feeling of belonging with the Lord, with righteousness, with all things right, and pure and holy, there is a part of the Body of God. It doesn't matter who he is, or where he is. But it is far easier in a Body, and absolutely essential for a Body to come together—and anyway, it will come together. Wherever those parts of the Body of God are, they will not remain isolated. They must come together. It is a magnet drawing unto itself its parts. But let's never think that there aren't those parts all over the world; not just in this wonderful land, not just in this wonderful room, but all over the face of the earth. They are being drawn to form that Body, but it has to have a place. It has to start. It must come together in actuality, not just in theory. And of course we know it can't be done in isolation. It can be begun; it must be begun that way, or there won't be any drawing together. But those parts are now in all countries on the face of the earth, and we rejoice that it is so. And it isn't easy to do it out there all alone. So let's be sure we have that feeling of true belonging, and then there is the drawing, and the time is shortened.
Man has been prone for so many centuries, millennia, to say, "I trust the Lord," without ever realizing that the Lord needs to trust somebody on earth, and it is wonderful when we really know what it means to be trusted, to know the importance of being trusted, so that if ever we tend to slip we get moving. We all know that feeling, "I've betrayed the Lord," don't we? And there isn't anything like it. No wonder Judas hanged himself! But how good to know that there isn't anything worth it, to know that there is nothing on the face of the earth so priceless as to be trustworthy. This is why we are here. Praise the Lord.
Last Sunday Yujin spoke on Healing Collective Pain. He talked mostly about racism & slavery, but mentioned other abuse, including abuse of women. [youtu.be/ih7_Z6fI6SY] In February 2018, Statista.com reported South Koreans considered domestic abuse against women and girls the number one social issue. Recently we’ve seen the rise of the Me Too movement, around the world but notably in Korea.
Today I want to speak about Trust, because it’s an essential quality of spiritual leadership. But how can we trust in such a context of abuse when our own past experiences may have brought us distrust and fear? Fear for countless reasons, not only from abuse we’ve experienced as a man or woman. What does it really mean to trust? How can you trust wisely?
In over 45 years of living consciously, I’ve found there are many levels of trust to explore and open. It takes time for our trust to really land in us. It’s not something we rush. But what we trust & how deeply we trust has a huge influence on our life: on our direction in life, on our creativity and our effectiveness.
One way to see this is: We’re always trusting. We’re always trusting something. Even distrust is really trust in fear. Fear is the opposite of love. Often people say hate is the opposite of love, but underneath hate is fear. So even when we think we’re not trusting, we are really trusting fear. We always have a choice. What do we choose to trust? What is wise to trust? We could use many words to describe it, but let’s start with: it’s wise to trust the power of Life, the power that created the whole universe, and continues to create every moment. Is there anything more trustworthy than the power that brings life & beauty to our world? If we meditate on this, why would we trust anything else more than that?
But inside trusting the creative power of Life is trusting our ability to discern and harmonize with it. That’s an art that takes time to develop. Another way to say this is: we’re trusting the laws of the Universe, the Laws of Being.
Another step inner to that is: we’re really trusting the expression of True Spirit in ourselves—our true character, our True Being. Or our highest perception of Truth, whatever that is in the present moment. If we follow our highest perception of Truth, it will lead us in a creative direction. Even if our perception of Truth is flawed, trusting it and then honestly reflecting on what we learned, will deepen and hone our perception of Truth.
All that is quite abstract. So let’s look at how this can play out. The first example I want to give relates to how do we trust people? Probably each of you have thought a lot about that. Some of you have heard me speak about the mentor I had for 18 years, a man 30 years older than me. Do you think I trusted him when I first met him? No! When I met him, even though I was just 21, I had travelled in Europe 6 months, finished university, been living on my own for some years, and begun a career in social work. So when I met my mentor, I had enough experience of the world that I had concluded: “I don’t trust any man!” I had a boyfriend, but I only trusted him in some ways. How did I move to the deep experience of trust I have now? Step by step.
YouTube Video
One of the first steps was to trust my mentor. I watched him carefully, and noticed what I experienced when I trusted him and when I didn’t. I came to realize he was a lot wiser than me, and his love was far larger and more trustworthy than I had ever experienced with anyone. He enfolded me in a golden quality of love that gave my heart a place to rest. I found a home in his heart. But his love was not just gentle. At times he challenged me, sometimes even fiercely! And that also encouraged my growth. Not long after meeting him, I realized he knew me better than I knew myself. He saw qualities in me—true qualities—that I didn’t even know I had. I learned so much from him, and through his guidance my true qualities and leadership grew and bloomed.
Because I found a place of rest, of sanctuary in his friendship, that helped me develop a firm foundation in myself. So I could push beyond my comfort zone to explore and grow. My earlier conviction, “I don’t trust any man,” changed first to “I can trust one man.” But as my foundation strengthened, it changed my approach to all men, and women somewhat too, although I had not lost my trust of women. I began to understand the challenges men had to overcome to mature into loving, trustworthy and wise men. I realized my friendship could help draw forth the qualities of true manhood in men. So instead of being a warrior that criticized men, I tried a totally new approach: to appreciate and magnify what was right in the men I knew, and to find wise ways to deal with immaturities I saw in them.
Last week Yujin said the rising of righteous warrior energy in many countries recently is ultimately rooted in the rising of the Spirit of Truth. He said how maturely warrior energy arises will be a determining factor in our future. Looking back, I see how the change in my approach to men was the maturing of my warrior energy, growing into righteous warrior energy. Can you sense how that might change your relationships, not only between men and women but also man to man, woman to woman, parent to child, child to parent?
What is righteous warrior energy? Yujin said anger is not the primary quality of true warrior energy. The primary quality is the will to righteousness. Righteous warrior energy is just, compassionate and wise. The impulse of warrior energy not only says “No!” to what’s unrighteous, it also exerts a powerful influence by saying “Yes!” to what is right, to magnify that and help it increase. In our personal relationships, that could be calm conversations about the impact of certain behavior, which actions help and which hurt, i.e. specific and clean communication, which is a primary tool of warrior energy.
So, my friends, when you’re tempted to pull out your sword and slash away at the things you think are not right in people, consider first that righteous warrior energy would have greater creative impact, righteous warrior energy that is just, compassionate and wise. A warrior who knows his or her true strength rarely needs to use a sword. The power of his or her righteous presence is enough to stop others from doing what’s not right. The development of righteous warrior energy in ourselves is one way trust grows in us. We develop confidence in our righteous warrior energy. We begin to trust ourselves, trust our own strength to handle whatever comes. And that trust is based in understanding and practicing Laws of Being.
Before I go on to another aspect of trust, I want to give a word of caution to women, especially in Korea. Women’s warrior energy rose in America in the 1960s, so we’ve had more years to see the effect of that. I want to warn you about the negative impact women’s unwise warrior energy can have on men, especially the men who honor women most. In America many men so abhorred their domination of women that they lost access to their own true strength. They became too soft, too sensitive, too emotional. And then you know what happened? Women didn’t find them attractive anymore! So you can learn from our mistakes.
I described how developing trust of my mentor prepared me to trust myself and men. There was another important shift in my awareness that came many years later. Up to that point, even though all this gave me a firm foundation and confidence, the trust I experienced was as a follower, not a full leader. That began to change when in early 1987 I realized that even Martin Exeter [the Emissaries highest leader] was trusting. He was trusting, not only us, but God, and the working of God in what we call the Creative Process. Up to that point, to me it had seemed that only followers or students had to trust the leader. Then I saw that he was trusting, just like all the rest of us. That realization began an important shift in my life which opened yet deeper trust. I began to understand that, regardless of one’s position, trust is essential to live creatively, and especially trust is essential to offer spiritual leadership. Not only that, but trust is required even at the highest level of responsibility and leadership.
Recently I found something from Uranda (the first leader who founded the Emissaries), titled The Reality of Trust [TSS 7:40]. He was talking about moving to deeper levels of trust. By sharing this I certainly am not implying that you should be at this deepest level. But it will show you something of where you could go. Actually my experience is we often think we’re trusting fully, until something happens when we realize we’re not. Then we have a choice: to go deeper in trust or not. I was really moved by Uranda’s message in this talk, including the personal example from his own life of service. He said that until a person realizes deeply that he or she is nothing without God, he or she has not fully learned to trust. He said this is essential for rebirth. This was on Obtober 28, 1951, 19 years after he initiated the Emissaries. For him to say he is nothing without God when he had already expressed such rare depth and scope of vision, to me emphasizes trust is essential even at the highest level of responsibility and leadership.
This is what he shared of his own experience: “Trust—I have seen the day when that was very nearly all that I had left in outer form, my trust in God, because it looked as if my adversaries were going to take everything away. If I had not continued to trust God when it appeared that everything was going wrong, you would not be here tonight. Because in those dark hours I proved that I trusted God, you have a place to be trained. Everything that has been achieved of reality in our program has come about because of true trust in God.”
I’ll pause to give you a moment to digest that.
He went on to say this: “When we put one hundred percent of our trust in God, we begin to know what it is to have God's power work in and through us. Then something is accomplished. Then we know fulfilment; then we come to know that we are important to God. When all of our trust is in God, we can be trusted.”
That bears much meditation, but I’ll now summarize how you can reach that point. When you know your True Being, and when you know the strength of your righteous warrior energy, and when you know and practice the Laws of the Universe, then you’re ready to deeply realize: “Of myself, I am nothing.” And that’s when you become one with the Universe!
As I said earlier, our trust deepens as we move naturally step by step in our highest perception of Truth and expression of True Spirit, true character. How can you start? Find the most trustworthy people you can. Observe and learn from them, how they express, live and help others. Notice your own experience when you trust them and when you don’t. What happens to your consciousness, experience and even relationships when you stop trusting those who are most trustworthy? Or when you stop trusting God, the power that creates all life and beauty? In which state do you experience greater peace, strength, and creativity: when you trust or when you don’t? Observing this honestly, you begin to understand and know what trust is and how important it is to expressing the creativity of our highest potential. Trust in Heaven, Truth, God, the Creative Process is how we can live most creatively and how we can offer the leadership that is uniquely ours to bring. Trust is an essential quality of spiritual leadership.
