Humility and Authority
Marsha Bogolin
July 12, 2020 Seoul, South Korea
A few months ago one friend overseas recommended we offer a service on humility. After Yujin’s last service on the secret of alignment, it seemed time for it. Actually it’s a topic I’ve wanted to consider for a very long time because I think the quality of humility is essential to humanity’s victory. My topic is actually Humility and Authority, because when we’re truly in alignment, they are inseparable.
When this friend recommended we consider humility, I realized it might be months till that was possible. So I thought, “I should send this person a transcript I remember well, titled Humility and Authority.” But I didn’t. Last week to my surprise I searched every index I know and did not find anything with that title. I read Uranda’s and Martin’s transcripts with similar titles, but they weren’t what I was looking for. I had such a vivid memory of this title, Humility and Authority so I kept searching. You know what I finally found? A letter Yujin wrote in 1997 on this topic. Here are a few highlights from it:
“The spirit of truth and of this program is really one of ‘authority through inner yieldedness.’ Where I have observed the finest examples of spiritual leadership, there was always simultaneously the attitude of deepest yieldedness: I of my human self can do nothing.”
At that time many were feeling the vacuum left by the death of the Emissaries’ second leader, Martin Exeter, nearly ten years before. Yujin was addressing a trend emerging then, and his letter continued:
“It is true that the false humility of remaining forever in a dependent and adoring mode must pass away if there are to be spiritual adults. AND I observe that such adulthood is obedient, tender and yielded in the finest inner way. I remember when I was a teenager, aspiring to athletic perfection and championship, that my mother, Il Sun, told me an old Korean proverb: ‘When the wheat stalk is young, it stands tall and proud. When it is rich with grain and mature, it naturally bows and is humble.’ It is interesting that she did not discourage the young aspiration but guided it to greater perspective and humility.”
The emergence of spiritual leadership takes far more than just intellectually comprehending the Laws of Being. That’s included, but it’s not enough. I’ve known some people who read the entire eighteen volumes of the Third Sacred School. There are about 400 pages in each. These are core materials of the Emissaries’ teaching, in which the Art of Living School is rooted. Some even read all of these three times, but from their actions it was obvious they didn’t really understand. There’s a very large difference between mentally grasping something and integrated understanding through many experiences of seeing how things play out.
One way I learned the inseparable nature of humility and authority was through my mentor Tom. Just two years after I met him something happened where his trust and humility taught me so much. One of the young men who became interested in the Emissaries because of Tom had gone to an Emissary seminar in another state. While he was there, an Emissary server expressed privately to him criticism of Tom. So when he returned to our small center, he no longer trusted Tom and actually left in the middle of the night without saying anything. He never came back. I happened to be in love with this young man, so I took a keen interest in this. After a while, Tom felt it wise to address this pattern of servers criticizing each other. So he wrote a letter to the four leaders recently appointed under Martin to help reduce Martin’s workload. Tom didn’t hear from any of those leaders, but some weeks later, he received a letter from Martin. In essence, Martin strongly rebuked Tom for writing about this to those four leaders, instead of handling it in a different way. What really touched me was: Tom did not have to show me that letter. I had only known him two years. But not only did he show me Martin’s letter rebuking him, he showed me his reply to Martin, which in essence was: “I bow to your larger wisdom, and I will always love you.” To me that was a wonderful example of true humility, and through it Tom lost no authority in my eyes. It actually evoked much deeper trust in me.
Something else Tom taught me was about choosing wisely. He said: “We should always realize if we knew just one more thing, we might do the exact opposite.” That implies we should frequently check whether we’re seeing things accurately. It’s not: develop an idea and refuse to look at it any other way. But continually listen to Spirit’s guidance. Through continuous attunement with Heaven we sense whether we’re in alignment. An important part of that is checking if we’re expressing true spirit, true character. If not, we adjust. That is humility, meekness. Meekness means teachable.
That’s a very different way of functioning than most people’s habits. So it takes time to retrain our minds and hearts to a new way of function. In brief, being guided by Spirit versus heart and mind. But obviously it is through heart and mind that Spirit’s guidance comes. So we must develop discernment of whether impulses are from Spirit or from externals: circumstance, reactions, habits, desires, crystallized thinking.
Another time I learned that humility and authority are inseparable when we are truly aligned was in February, 1996. It was the second day of a four-day advanced aession Yujin and I created and facilitated. We worked many months to bring this event together. At the end of the second day, we felt we had done our best. But some of the twenty people attending expressed quite a rebellious attitude and tended to dominate the atmosphere. So we felt we had failed. In deep sadness, Yujin and I went to the Little Chapel (the most sacred place on Sunrise Ranch). In front of the altar in that tiny Temple, in essence we said: “We tried, Lord, but we failed.” We acknowledged and accepted our failure, walked across the field and went home to sleep. You know what happened then? The next morning at the Sunday service with about a hundred people, there were several speakers and Yujin spoke last. With no previous preparation, what he said was so genuine and deep, it penetrated most people’s hearts, which had hardened in many in their youthful arrogance. The passionate response stirred in that service opened a new cycle: our next series of advanced sessions for long-term Emissaries. Over the next two years, we led twelve of them on three continents plus in Hawaii. They stimulated a deeper alignment. All that started with those moments in the Little Chapel, when we acknowledged our failure in humility. That humility opened a channel for a much deeper tone to sound through Yujin in that service, and it initiated a path to victory.
What develops true humility in people? Probably several things. But I think owning one’s own failures is among the most important, i.e. to honestly acknowledge “I failed.” Those who hesitate to admit failure don’t really learn from their mistakes. Those who find it easy to acknowledge their failures learn quickly, and usually people find them more trustworthy. One of the reasons why I love Yujin so much is how easily he acknowledges his mistakes. I’ve noticed it’s those with the deepest understanding who are the most humble. The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
Uranda and Martin spoke many times about failures of the past. For example, the failure that ended the First Sacred School, the First Wave of Awakening, as we call it in Korea. That was Heaven’s first movement to restore humanity to its True Identity. It unfolded through the lives of many people for over a thousand years. Imagine! All that effort, the great leaders: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Ruth and Naomi, Samuel, David, and Solomon—just to name a few. The challenges they faced, their victories. All that was building over a thousand years toward an important breakthrough for humanity, but it ended when true alignment was lost. There’s a wealth of vital understanding in the Emissaries on this important history, but we’ve taught almost nothing of this in Korea. Maybe the door will open for that.
If we don’t look honestly at failures, we cannot learn from them. That was Uranda and Martin’s attitude, not just reviewing and learning from large historical cycles of failure, but very small ones too. Small ones within the Emissary program, and in the choices of people. Their teaching about these failures helped us understand why things had not worked, so we could learn from previous failures. So we could be forewarned and prepared ourselves for victory instead of failure.
A classic question may be rising in your mind: “If such great men and women as these failed, what hope of victory is there for us?” Actually there’s a lot of possibility for our victory, because we can learn from the record of their experiences. As Uranda pointed out, we have the advantage of an antecedent. We can learn from their efforts, from how their choices worked or failed. More than any other time in history, such knowledge is available to help us learn and prepare for victory.
There have been failures within the current cycle of collective awakening. But does that mean victory is no longer possible? Not at all! Likely it will be different than Plan A. We’re probably at least on Plan K by now. Every person on this planet influences whether mankind will have victory or not. In very simple terms, through their living do they choose love or fear?
What point is there for humanity to survive if mankind does not learn humility? If mankind continues to plunder the earth and people for its own greed? You’ve probably seen movies portraying the kind of future mankind’s current values would produce. A world dominated by human arrogance, cruel, ugly and loveless. Horrible!
The quality of humility is so important it’s engraved into the Garden of Eden story. Our tiny human minds are not capable of judging good and evil. No matter how right we may think we are, we don’t really know if our view aligns with the larger outworking God is unfolding through the Creative Process. So we must be humbly yielded to God’s guidance constantly. We stand in humility before God, the greater wisdom of God.
We can acknowledge failure without shame. It’s only when we’re not in True Identity that we’re reluctant to admit failure. In True Identity it’s no big deal. It’s just another opportunity for our human identity to learn and more fully integrate with Divine Identity. Earlier I mentioned meekness means teachable. Here’s something from Uranda on this:
“Man has interpreted meekness as weakness, but only the strong can be humble. Look at a weak person and you will never find humility. The weak person is afraid to be humble. He may manufacture an imitation of humility, but it will not be the genuine article. Only the strong ever dare to be humble.”
When we are truly aligned, humility and authority are inseparable. Here is something more from Uranda before I close:
“Moses was said to be the meekest man that ever lived, and yet he was one of the most powerful, forceful leaders the world has known. ‘Blessed are the meek’ who are so humble before God, so responsive to God, so completely fulfilling the Law by loving God, that the power of God works through them, giving them more force and power than human beings can possibly engender in any self-active expression. And what will happen? ‘They shall inherit the earth.’”
That describes the channel Yujin spoke about last week, the channel that opens when we’re 100% aligned. The channel for God to act through us. The very cells of this planet resonate with that, respond to that. That’s how we inherit the earth. It comes home through us when we are truly aligned in humility and authority.
After several comments
Yujin Pak — I want to say something. Marsha, thank you so much for this service. It was truly beautiful and important in this larger cycle. When I was twenty-nine years old, in 1984, that was the first time I spoke and shared in a service with Martin, and the content and the theme of my service was passionate humility. I think it was that alignment, the drawing of that line in humility with Martin that lead to, twelve years later, continuing in the place of deepest humility, to take the next steps. For power to move through us, this is the decisive factor. Even if it seems like all has failed, and it seems like there is no way through, as we abide in that passionate humility, God will show the way. And this is what happened with Moses as he stood in front of the Red Sea, and it seemed like in fact all had failed at that time, that this would be the end. But he held true. So thank you for bringing this fundamental truth, refocalizing this in our midst.
Marsha Bogolin — Thank you. Only the strong ever dare to be humble. We are so intimately connected with all of mankind. What is shifting in us, to become truly aligned, immediately is felt by, and affects, all of humanity. So thank you all for your part in this important work.
Marsha Bogolin: mbogolin@gmail.com
Yujin Pak: yujinpak@gmail.com
Yujin, Marsha and Shieun
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