Configurations of Angels
from The Spirit of Understanding
Martin Cecil April 16, 1978 am
In a choir there are a number of individual people offering themselves to the expression of one purpose. Each individual is different, each voice is different, although they fall into certain groupings, four groupings to be exact—soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Regardless of this particular pattern of grouping, each individual voice is still unique, and yet the power and beauty that is generated is generated by the choir as a whole. If what is offered is to be effective there must be the experience of one spirit on the part of all concerned. There is need for someone to provide a point of focus and direction, but the beauty and the power are generated by the choir itself, even though the director is an essential part of the choir—the director may not sing a note. Here is a portrayal of something that is of considerable significance in other fields.
We have a gathering here this morning for the generation of power and beauty which may have an effect upon a large audience of human beings who are not present here in person. When there are those of whom it may be said they are with one accord in one place there is a creative facility available for the use of true cause, for the use of the Lord, for the use of God, whatever term might be used—these fundamentally refer to true cause. True cause is present, the expression of true cause is present, but virtually unknown insofar as human beings in the world are concerned, because they have become involved with another cause. This other cause relates very particularly to the human mind. The human mind tends to think of itself as cause, but the mind itself is an effect. If an effect tries to play the role of cause there is then a false cause present. As long as the function of human beings on earth is wrapped up in this realm of effects true cause remains beyond awareness and is excluded from any true expression in human experience.
That realm of cause which already is present, already exists, already is a reality and always has been, may be referred to as heaven, for the sake of a word. We have seen how human affairs are restricted to the earth. There is a lack therefore of any real understanding of what it is that is transpiring outside of this restricted realm in which they imprison themselves. The practical realm seems to be the realm of earth, and this is considered by most to be all that warrants any consideration. We have seen these things and recognized the futility of remaining embedded in that state. There is the necessity of coming out of it, of awakening, but the means by which we may come out of it is obviously not the false cause of the human mind. True cause relates to what is referred to as true spirit. The mind is quite incapable of understanding or encompassing spirit. On the other hand spirit is quite capable of understanding and encompassing the mind. How often have you made the statement, or heard others make it, “I don't understand”? What is it that doesn't understand? It is the human mind. If you say “I don't understand,” you are saying that you are identified with your own mind. “The mind doesn't understand; therefore I don't understand.” If you expect to experience true understanding and restrict the idea and experience of this to what is possible of your own little mind you will never have any understanding.
There are those who fill their minds with a lot of information. But regardless of the amount of information that has been collected, regardless of the amount of knowledge that is available, there is always the search for more. This obviously gives evidence of the fact that no one understands anything yet. Knowledge is a bottomless pit; there is no end to it. If understanding is to be based upon the ability of the mind to grasp knowledge then the real experience of understanding can never be known. Here is the mind again trying to be cause when it is only an effect. The physical body of man is obviously an effect of something. By the same token the mind is an effect of something—something must be present if there is to be the possibility of mental function. If that something is not present, then all we have is a corpse, and not very much intelligent mental function on that basis.
Be careful what you say. Pause and consider, if you have the impulse to say “I don't understand,” because true identity is in cause. True identity is in true spirit. If there is identity with true spirit then your words would be: “I understand. I may not understand in the sense of mental understanding, my mind may not be capable of encompassing this understanding, but I do not depend upon my mind to tell me when I understand.” This may seem like a peculiar distinction here and may tend to cause those who are identified with their minds to say with respect to this, “I don't understand.” If you feel impelled to say that, then you may know for sure that you are identified with a mind that doesn't understand, because the mind certainly can't understand everything. It is capable of understanding certain things at a certain level but it very quickly gets out of its depth. And then it finds itself in a realm of fantasy, a realm that doesn't really exist in reality. We need to wake from this bad dream. The heaven is the realm of cause, and our identity needs to be there. Then we understand.
Understanding comes to the extent of purity of heart. By reason of this emotional capacity, we may move into a realm of cause where understanding is. It isn't a matter of staying in the earth and trying to accumulate enough information to enable us to understand, because that would never happen. It is a matter of moving over the dividing line into the realm of cause, where understanding already is and may therefore be the experience if our identity is there. You do not grow into understanding. You either experience the fact of it or you don't. You either know identification with spirit, with cause, or you know identification with effect. Identification with effect is a state of darkness. The darkness comprehends not the light, nor ever can. The light relates to cause. If one is restricted to effects one is in darkness, and one will not comprehend the light. And one will be inclined to say, “I don't understand.” Stay in that level and realm of experience and you will never understand, because understanding is impossible there, no matter how much knowledge may be gleaned and stored in the filing cabinet of your subconscious mind. It all remains meaningless. It is a matter of identification with spirit, which is the one place of agreement.
Sometimes it is said that there was a meeting of minds. While momentarily there may be a sense of agreement, it never lasts. Sometimes it is said that there is a meeting of hearts. But that experience is just as evanescent as the other. There is only a true meeting in true spirit. True spirit is uncontrollable by the mind. The mind seeking to establish control over spirit loses true spirit and finds a substitute in its place that might be referred to as evil spirit, wrong spirit, destructive spirit. Human beings are governed constantly by these sort of spirits—human nature is human nature, but why should we insist upon involvement with human nature when we may participate in the experience of angelic nature?
The word “angel” may be used to identify one whose identity is in heaven. If we experience our identity in heaven while we are living in form on earth then obviously there are angels present and in expression on earth; heaven and earth are revealed as being One. And it is this reality in experience that allows the transformation of the consciousness of mankind, but not merely because one person has that experience. We could point to the One who was called Jesus and say, “There is the evidence of an individual who experienced identification in the realm of cause while living on earth.” This fact certainly opened the door, but thus far virtually no one has gone through it. Everybody has fallen down and worshipped the door, if they have paid any attention to it at all. And that is considered the thing to do. But a door is of value because one may go through it. There is no sense to having a door in a room if you are not going to go through it. You might as well fill it in and just put a wall there. It would make no difference to the experience, would it? You might just as well forget about the door. The fact that human beings have remembered the door may, if there is a modicum of intelligence somewhere, suggest the possibility that one might go through it!
As there are those who do awaken to the true experience of identity in the realm of cause it is because there is the experience of spiritual expression. It isn't a static experience: “Let's go through this door and there we are. Isn't it nice to be in heaven? We're now in the realm of cause.” What are you going to do there? Of course the experience of being in the realm of cause is consequent upon the fact that in one's living there is spiritual expression. You only know what you express. As there is an awakening to the reality of cause, so that we begin to be identified with cause, it is because we accept the responsibility in our living of giving expression to the true nature of cause. And we are not always excusing ourselves by saying, “I don't understand.” Oh yes we do! We understand enough for the moment to give expression to true cause at the level of our present experience. It is not a matter of evolving into something in the future; it is a matter of accepting the responsibility in the present moment. We have enough understanding of the quality of right spirit to give it expression. We also have enough understanding of the quality of wrong spirit to refrain from giving it expression. If you refrain from giving expression to what characterizes human nature, human nature will no longer be your nature—angelic nature begins to reveal the true nature of the individual. And this can only be done in living. You only discover the secret of life by living—by expressing the true quality of life. Then life isn't a secret anymore. If that isn't done it remains a secret, it remains hidden; but that is the choice of the individual. As there are those who begin to let this happen agreement becomes a natural experience—agreement in spirit.
This ministry only exists to the extent that there is agreement in spirit. There are those who have tried to make it exist on the basis of agreement in form, but scarcely anyone agrees on this basis. In true spirit there is agreement. In spite of all the disagreement with respect to form this ministry has remained together, because there was sufficient willingness to keep aligned with spirit, in which the agreement was. If we agree in spirit we begin to find that there is a form which emerges in consequence, but it does not emerge because we figured it out with our minds. The mind does rightly play a part in that emergence but only because spirit governs. When spirit governs, the mind moves accordingly, and the understanding of the mind will be what is necessary to fulfil the particular requirements of the expression of spirit in the moment—and the mind in that case may say “I understand this much,” but it minds its own business and it doesn't try to understand something which it does not understand.
The agreement comes in spirit. And those whose identity begins to center there find themselves a part of something that reveals the design in spirit. There is a design in cause, a design which when it is operative into the realm of effects allows the realm of effects to reflect the realm of cause. So the concern is with heaven—the realm of cause. What is needful is that true cause should have opportunity of release into the consciousness of mankind. And that is not going to just happen. Victory doesn't come in the way that human beings think it comes. Knowledge—the human mind trying to be as God. It is self-centeredness that has prevented the transformation of human consciousness which may necessarily and easily be experienced. The yoke is easy and the burden is light. But it doesn't happen just by chance; it doesn't happen because we would like it to happen. It happens because there is a fulfilment of the essential requirements. And those essential requirements relate to the realm of cause.
There is something described in earthly terms in the Book of Revelation which has been very confusing to human minds, because the structures of human consciousness were used to describe something which couldn't be described by the structures of human consciousness. We can describe things around us in the earth but the symbols we use to do that, the words we use to do that, are not adequate to describe something in the realm of heaven, the realm of cause. But there is an indication conveyed by the words that are used in the Book of Revelation, as long as we don't get hung up on the words. Last Sunday that we were considering a couple of verses about coming up hither into the realm of cause and becoming aware of certain things because of that. This was described in some detail in a peculiar way, and the description included something which has been translated as four beasts, four living creatures.
This rather interested me before, when I was speaking of the choir, because within the body of the choir there are these four parts. There are many notes being sung during the course of a number by the choir and they all blend together; they are not all the same note. Sometimes, when we begin to think about the realm of cause and perhaps we talk about the sounding of the Tone, we may think of just one note. Clearly that would become tiresome after a little. There is a vast variety and it emerges on the basis of the fact that there are unique individuals associated in distinct configurations. There were four beasts described, four distinct configurations of angels incarnate in human form. What is being described as being in heaven is the authority and the government of God, the means by which cause may operate in the affairs of men. And because true cause operates in the affairs of men, true cause will then operate beyond human beings in whatever the scope of their field of responsibility really is, and that may go way beyond the earth. The point is that this facility of authority and government should begin to be experienced by those who find themselves identified with cause.
There are these configurations of angels for specific creative purposes. Do you think we are all here by chance? You know better than that. Many human gatherings may seem to be by chance, but this isn't so with us because there is an understanding of purpose. We find ourselves associated with others in relationship to the fulfilment of this purpose. You shouldn't think of purpose in terms merely of your momentary task. That is a part of the purpose, but it is not the purpose. There is far more to it than that, obviously. We are sharing a purpose, and the purpose goes way beyond whatever is done—and yet these tasks are necessary. They give us the opportunity to reveal in expression our angelic nature. If we do that then we begin to move in the greater purpose. The conscious mind may not always know what that is. It doesn't need to. It is fortunate very often that it doesn't know, because if it knew it would interfere. But you know in your identification with cause. There is something beyond mental grasp, which is the true knowing. Then the mind can come along and play its part in the total expression of true cause. That total expression is true spirit, spiritual expression, the holy spirit, complete, not little bits and pieces.
So we have the opportunity of allowing various configurations to appear, not by reason of some idea that the human mind has but by reason of what is impelled by spirit. Then those configurations can be used for the creative purpose. And we may share in letting that creative purpose appear. This is the sole reason why any of us are incarnate on earth now.
© emissaries of divine light
