Sacred Space
Martin Cecil July 24, 1977
I wonder if this evening we could take a look at the necessity for establishing and maintaining the essential vibratory space in which the creative power may be generated for doing what needs to be done. The idea very often seems to be that the state of oneness, which I am sure everybody knows is essential, comes as people press closer together. This is an idea that is usually in the consciousness of most, that we all need somehow to be closer together physically speaking. We are relatively close together this evening here in the Chapel and something may be accomplished by reason of this proximity in the physical sense but only to the extent that there is plenty of space vibrationally.
I am sure that when you do come into the Chapel for a service you expect to experience some sort of an expansion in your awareness and you find yourselves released in varying measure into a larger place vibrationally. The fact of close physical proximity recedes into the background. Possibly this beautiful Dome Chapel may help to give a feeling of space. There is a lot of air all around us here, reaching up twenty-five feet or so; and air is the symbol of spirit, so this may be helpful in causing a greater awareness of the largeness of space that is essential to creative processes. It is said that human beings are gregarious animals—I don’t think human beings should look upon themselves as animals—but they do tend to jam themselves together in small spaces, perhaps because there is a feeling of having lost the sense of relatedness which they inherently know should be experienced. So according to the usual human practice everybody tries to force it to appear.
When the Master was on earth, during His public ministry particularly, He often found Himself in the middle of crowds of people; they were pressing in all around Him. I am sure that you sense that insofar as He was concerned, vibrationally speaking there was always a large space around Him. The fact of this physical pressure did not interfere with the maintenance of vibrational space. There can be no generation of essential power without this space. A great deal of power is generated by a thunderstorm. A flash of lightning, either from cloud to cloud or from cloud to ground, requires space to appear. It is said that the coming of the Son of Man would be comparable to the lightning shining out of the east even unto the west. Here is an indication of space, lots of room. Human beings find themselves very restricted, not only from the physical standpoint but in every other way as well. We are concerned with the heaven, particularly from the standpoint of the space made available by reason of the heaven. If we look up into the night sky we see the symbol of the heavens, a vast array of lights in the firmament of the heaven and an immense amount of space.
All this space is an essential part of the creative process and we cannot ourselves participate in that creative process as it relates to our own fields of responsibility without space. Yet human beings tend to crowd in on each other. Because earthly orientation prevails, if there is physical crowding this tends to be taken as a reason to feel restricted vibrationally speaking. People will try to break out of their physical restrictions in order to discover some larger vibrational place where they might have more freedom for creative expression. As with most things people have it backwards. There is in fact plenty of vibrational space. We don’t have to produce it somehow; it is already there; but virtually everyone has become more or less unconscious of it because everything is seen in terms of the physical nature of things. If we are tightly squeezed physically speaking then the attitude is taken that there is not much space. Well there may not be much space physically speaking but this didn’t squeeze out the vibrational space in actual fact. Human beings have squeezed that out of their own consciousness because they are so busy reacting to the material conditions.
Becoming aware of the reality of vibrational space because we begin to awaken to it we need no longer feel crowded. There is lots of room. Sometimes we say of a person who has got into a rather restricted condition, “That person needs more room, more room to develop.” Actually there is lots of room for the development of anybody but most people are unaware of the fact. What is really needed is that the individual should be caused to awaken to the fact that there is plenty of room and to take advantage of that fact, instead of being squeezed into very small places. As there begins to be a consciousness of the reality of that vibrational space and we begin to learn how to function in relationship to it fittingly we discover that there begins to be more physical space. We have taken note all along of the fact that what is physically evident, what is materially present, is a reflection of the state of consciousness. As human beings have a very restricted state of consciousness they find themselves in very crowded conditions physically. When we begin to realize that there is no restriction vibrationally except what we impose upon ourselves, so that we begin to learn how to function in this large space always present, then external circumstances begin to reflect that fact.
When a male and a female begin to feel something moving between them the usual reaction is to try to jam in closer to each other, imagining that by getting close physically a greater sense of oneness will ensue. But oneness is based not in physical proximity but in right participation in the living design which is present in the large space all around us. The passage in the Book of Revelation which speaks of 144,000 following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth has tended to be seen in human consciousness as a vast crowd of people all jamming in together, with the poor Lamb being squeezed to death. In other words oneness is looked upon as being physical closeness. It isn’t. The universe is one, and there is more space in the universe than anything else and it is by reason of that space that the oneness is maintained. So we may see in relationship to each other that we do in fact need to give each other space, to function in a way that allows others to realize that they have space.
Only when we begin to have a sense of spaciousness is there any possibility of realizing the true nature of oneness. Each individual requires space to be him- or herself. This space of which I speak is vibrational space. There must be sufficient vibrational substance available to permit the individual to become aware of the fact that there is space. The generation of that substance comes by reason of one’s own right expression of heavenly heredity, but it also comes by reason of one’s own right relationship with others who may be in the vicinity. Each individual needs to experience the truth of him- or herself before the reality of collective oneness would be possible, and yet almost always the immediate human reaction in a recognition that there needs to be a greater oneness is to try to jam in close together physically. There is no necessity to jam in close together physically, because attention should be paid to the vibrational factors primarily rather than the physical ones. Our pattern of right association one with another is of a vibrational nature. What happens in the external sense, in the physical sense, in the material sense, properly just follows along with respect to what is happening vibrationally. If we try to make something happen vibrationally by jamming up close together, as though that would produce a sense of oneness, we find ourselves in troubles of all kinds. How willing are you that others should have space? How willing are you to bring assurance to others that they do have space?
Sometimes with married couples, for instance, the husband or the wife or both are most unwilling to give their partner vibrational space. Various justifications can be produced no doubt to assure oneself that it is necessary to maintain some sort of restrictions here. We may see perhaps that restrictions are necessary for children; certain limits are properly set if there is to be a safe and proper childish development. So there may seem to be restrictions for children, and properly there are. Of course as a child grows there is the need to expand the space so that a child has more and more space to begin to discover him- or herself. Without a realization of the fact of that space a person can never discover him- or herself. And most people seem to be afraid of too much space. There are those who try to break out of what they think of as restrictions, particularly the restrictions of their elders, but they almost invariably fall into greater restrictions still. These are obvious enough if we look around us in the world, the way human beings break out of one set of restrictions and fall into another.
Our concern is with the heavenly space. Of course those who are moving toward a greater experience of the truth of themselves start as children and consequently they have to be kept close physically. A child that is growing up is kept close physically, for safety’s sake for one thing, and because being kept close physically the influence that may be extended by parents, which should be right influence but seldom is, may be more effective. So it is from the standpoint of the movement of those who begin to be pointed in the direction of greater spiritual maturity; they come as children and if they are to grow to spiritual maturity they must be restricted initially. A lot of people rebel against that. We have had many people approach our ministry and back off because they thought they saw so many restrictions. Well if they did they were probably right because children need these restrictions. They need to be kept to point. There needs to be a control extended directly in this way so that the children may be held in the vicinity of the atmosphere which will permit the development of greater maturity. If they refuse to be held in that atmosphere they cannot experience greater spiritual maturity. However, of course no one is forcibly held. It isn’t a matter of putting people in straitjackets. The way children are rightly held is by love, and so properly the spiritual children learn to love. They may not appreciate or understand all the restrictions which may seem to be present for the time being but because they love those who are responsible in the parental sense they stick around. Maybe you have had that experience. If you don’t stick around, then the means by which you might become aware of the vibrational space that is available to you could never be experienced. So there are some restrictions.
That is the trouble with a lot of adults; they never learned to do what they were told as children so they don’t have that capacity when they are adults, and it is a little tougher to learn when you are an adult because the attitude is then taken, “Well I’m grown up now.” Are you? Are you sure? While there may be the evidence of an adult physical body most people grew up very little, mentally perhaps to some extent, but precious little, as a rule, emotionally; people are still children emotionally. And as for spiritual maturity, what’s that? Well what a child should learn as a child may have to be learned, by a person who didn’t learn it as a child, as an adult and that is seemingly a tougher proposition for the individual concerned and for everyone else too. But until we grow up to the point where we can become aware of the vibrational space that is available to us we certainly can’t mature spiritually. To mature spiritually one must become aware of the space that is available for such maturity to be experienced and he will not become aware of that space unless there has been a sufficient growing up in those areas where the growing up should already have been experienced as a child—but virtually never has been in almost everyone. Older people sometimes object to being treated as though they were children when the fact of the matter is that they are children in adult bodies!
Gradually there may come a greater awareness of the fact that there is space available in which one may mature for oneself; but how many there are who seem to be afraid of maturing for themselves. They want to be propped up by somebody else, and we find male-female relationships developing on this basis very often, where there are two slanty people propping each other up and if one of them gives way the other one gives way. One needs to grow up vertically and be able to stand for oneself. To do that one must have space around one and not have other people jamming in vibrationally into that space. We need to learn not to jam into other people’s space, and to generate a hedge around our own so that we do not allow all and sundry to jam into our vibrational space. My what a tangled mess there is in the field of human relationships because blindly human beings jam into each other’s vibrational space without any awareness of what they are doing! It is extremely destructive. Individually we may mature within the vibrational space which is our own but we can’t do that if someone else is jamming into it. I don’t think you have observed me going around and jamming into everybody’s vibrational space, taking people to task for their weaknesses and their failures and all the rest, or trying to develop some sort of relationship with somebody or other by jamming into their vibrational space. From my standpoint I leave people alone because I know that unless a person grows up for him- or herself he will never grow up.
We have to learn how to sustain the vibrational space that is around us so that we refuse to allow others to jam into it. Those who find themselves specifically in fields of direct service with respect to others need to have a keen awareness of the sacredness of the vibrational space around people. Of course most people have no awareness that there is anything around them that is sacred. This is something that we have the responsibility of inspiring, that an individual may begin to wake up to the fact that he or she is him- or herself. But if a person is tangled up with somebody else how is he ever going to learn what he is himself, or she is herself? Each is always being conditioned by somebody else. We have many patterns of husband and wife where each partner needs to learn to give the other one space so that there is not a continual jamming into the vibrational space which is sacred to the other. One may perhaps be invited in by somebody but even if one is invited in the approach must be made with considerable respect and a keen consciousness of the sacredness of the trust that is being placed in one.
Servers of course need to learn this because there are those whom they serve who will invite them into their vibrational space probably because they have been accustomed to inviting in all and sundry anyway, but if you are a server and are so invited you don’t go jamming in there and taking over and trying to push the furniture around, so to speak, to get it the way you think it ought to be. You approach with the shoes from off your feet because you stand on holy ground. Taking the shoes from off your feet is relinquishing any human concepts you may have still hanging around which might cause you to try to make over the person into whose vibrational field you are invited. Treat it with respect and an attitude of sacredness so that the individual may begin to learn that it is sacred, even if he has not realized it before. One must have this vibrational space around one into which one’s fellows may not trespass except possibly on invitation, as I say—but then you need to be very careful who it is you invite in. The wisest one to invite in is the Lord but even the Lord will not come jamming in there. It is said that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. We need to respect each other in this regard and to respect ourselves. Unless we have vibrational space around us that is kept sacred we have no holy place, and if we have no holy place we cannot live.
The truth of life springs out of the holy place. If we violate our holy place, or the holy place of others we die; we squeeze out the life. The state of oneness can only be known because all these holy places relative to each individual are in place and kept holy. Then the design of right relationship can be established on the basis of the space between because the space between is holy; it is capable of accommodating the true design. If we do not have any such space we could not possibly know what the true design is. Human beings have not had any awareness of that for so long simply because there have been virtually no holy places by which it might be known, and because there did not seem to be any right pattern of relationships human beings went ahead and tried to set them up themselves on the basis of the way they happened to feel for the moment. They would look the field over and say, “Oh, well I feel something with respect to that person; I wonder if that person will feel something with respect to me. Let’s go and try to find out and do whatever is possible to get the thing moving.” If you multiply that by about four billion people you have got a mess! But there is a design, there is a proper pattern of creative relationships, the relationships that are right for the divine purpose, not the relationships that are right to satisfy human beings. That is not it at all and as long as a person wishes to remain childish in the human state, well he can continue to muck things up; but our concern presumably is to let order be brought out of chaos. Order can never be brought out of chaos until the essential space is realized in relationship to oneself and observed with respect to others.
You will note that in what we call the solar system there is a good deal of space too. There is oneness; the solar system is one. That doesn’t mean all the planets fell into the sun. Usually with the concepts that human beings may have about the positive and negative aspects of being it is thought that somehow or other the positive should swallow up the negative. It is not a matter of swallowing up. It is a matter of establishing a balance, with the essential space between. It is only as there is the essential space between that the experience of oneness is possible. If the necessity of that space between is ignored and people try to jam into each other they will never know oneness. They can’t because it is not established on that basis.
The two aspects, the two poles, are essential and they are essential for the generation of power. The power is generated in the space. If there is to be a lightning stroke there must be positive and negative poles present with space in between. We recall again the old carbon lamp principle. There must be space between the two carbons, with the electrical charge in each carbon, positive and negative, if there is to be an arc. The arc is generated in the space. The power by which there may be creative achievement is generated in the space between people, when there is a correct balance on the basis of the positive and the negative. Then something may flow, or jump the gap, however you might describe it, and you have light and heat which relate incidentally to truth and love, the true characteristics of life. And what needs to be achieved on earth is achieved by reason of the controlled expression of life, not by life running amuck, which is what the present human experience is. So our concern is to let things come under control and into balance. This requires that we give people space, in the recognition that the space is there already. We are not producing it; it is there already; but by our own living we need to acquaint people with the fact that it is there already and that they need to take care of it. As there is inviolate space between people the association may appear on the basis of the fact of that space because it is through that space that whatever is required creatively may occur.
I wonder how conscious you are, individually speaking, of the reality of your own holy place. We have taken note before that it is possible to recognize seven levels of being in the dimensional world. There is obviously the physical level, the level of our flesh bodies. There is the mental level, but the mental level which may be said to be composed of mental substance interpenetrates the physical substance and extends beyond it. And then there is the spiritual expression level which interpenetrates the physical and mental levels and goes beyond both. Then there is the substance of the heart, emotional substance, which interpenetrates physical substance, mental substance, the substance of spiritual expression, and goes beyond all three. If we move beyond that to the fifth level we find the same to be true. Whatever characterizes this fifth level in the way of substance interpenetrates all the levels below it and goes beyond, and so on, up to the seventh level which interpenetrates all the levels below and goes beyond. The seventh level, the seventh heaven, merges into the heaven of heavens which is beyond the dimensional world as we know it. If we see this interpenetration we see something of the largeness of space that there is in relationship to a person. I have not attempted to say how far each might go beyond the last because it is not really a matter of distance, but there is some distance involved. The very smallest thing about you is your physical body. There is far more to you than your physical body, far more substance, far more space occupied by that substance, substance of varying vibrational intensities, and it all is rightly holy. It is holy because at the highest level it merges into the dimensionless state of God.
So the space is available, the substance is available, and the holiness is available. The physical body, the lowest level, is in a position where it receives whatever is imposed upon it. It has no choice of its own. Your body has no choice of its own. Choices are established by reason of the higher vibrational levels of substance, generally speaking in the human state by what occurs mentally and by the emotional levels which are present mentally and physically, and that is supposed to be a human being—very restricted. And feeling very restricted there is the endeavor to somehow or other make it some other way. Well the restrictions are an illusion because in fact, as long as life remains, there are all the other levels as well present but unexperienced. We are learning to let them be experienced, and that experience comes as we allow an increasing expansion of the vibrational space around us. We begin to become aware of ourselves as being something far different from the little human ego state which we have known before. And in this new experience of holiness we find that there is a right relationship between ourselves individually which permits a vast variety of creative fields to be established in which the power of God may be generated for the achievement of the purposes of God.
Riverbend Orchard Kamloops BC
Fundamentally those purposes center in whatever is necessary to the restoration of man, and one of the things that is necessary in this regard is that there should be found those human beings who are willing to acknowledge the space around them and who are willing that it should be kept holy. When it is clear in this fashion then there may be a keen vibrational perception of the proper patterns of right relationship, and never under any circumstances do we go jamming into someone else’s holy place. We respect each one and the holy place that should be there, even though very largely it may not be there because the individual never realized that there should be a holy place, never grew up sufficiently to experience it. So in our attitude we encourage others to retain their integrity, to keep inviolate the sacred space around them; and we would never do anything to violate that sacred space in anyone nor would we ever allow it to be violated in ourselves. When this is so there is, one might say, a collective holy place of all those who are so living. The ways of the Lord are very specific and require us to awaken out of the dream state and get to work.
© emissaries of divine light
