The Radiant Focus of Spirit on Earth
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Martin Exeter December 6, 1987 Vancouver, B.C.
We seem to be a little short of seats. It's wonderful to see so many here this morning. And we are joined today by others who are gathered in various locations at the end of the telephone line Green Pastures, Glen Ivy, Still Meadow and 100 Mile House. The point of origination is here in Vancouver. There must be getting on for a thousand sharing this hour, which is a goodly number. There could, of course, be many more around the world! We might question as to how come all these friends are participating directly in what we share in this hour, and also that there might well be others around the world who would delight to be a direct part of what we ourselves now know. How come? Was an advertising program put on? There have been those who have been a little enthusiastic in times past in an endeavor to gather people out of the highways and the byways; but this isn't really the way it works, although no doubt people do come from the highways and byways—all of you, for instance! No. The requirement is that there should be an attractive force, a point of spiritual radiation, so that the substance of the quality of character in people may begin to resonate therewith.
This radiation has been present in a specific way for many years. The force of attraction has been in operation. The substance has been resonating and has been drawn, and brought with it all these people. We are usually rather proud of our independence and that we choose to do this and to do that. But really it isn't a matter of choice. When something genuine puts in an appearance it is no longer a matter of choice. If there is genuine substance of character in a person and there is this focus of spiritual radiation, there will be resonation, there will be attraction. While there are those who resist the attraction and come rather reluctantly, they can't help but come. It just depends on the extent of that quality of character that may be present. For those who do come, they discover that there was really no choice. One might as well admit and acknowledge that right away; otherwise there is a good deal of discomfort. But to be true to oneself as this attraction works, one is compelled to come home.
It is a matter of coming home—coming to a place where we all belong. We have managed, with a great deal of effort, sweat of the brow, to stay away from that place, together with most of the human population. But it takes much effort and much grief. It seems that people are inclined to enjoy their suffering; otherwise why would there be the inclination to keep at it? It is a matter of yielding to a compulsion. This compulsion relates to a focus of spiritual radiation. I'm quite aware of the way it works, because it had to work for me, just as it is available to work for anyone, anywhere, at any time. The spiritual point of radiation insofar as I was concerned turned out to be the one whom many of us knew as Uranda. Oh yes, he had a name like the rest of us—Lloyd Arthur Meeker—but he offered himself on the basis of this name Uranda so as to indicate something which was not merely of human nature.
The requirement is that there should be a point of focus—radiant focus, spiritual focus—in form on earth to provide that attractive force. Obviously we are all very much aware that there must be a point of focus in the invisible sense. Many people on earth believe that. Christians particularly think of it in terms of Jesus, and other characters for other peoples. But the mere fact of an invisible point of focus, which apparently is quite successful in operating the universe, is not enough insofar as human beings are concerned. In spite of claims to the contrary, that point of focus has consistently been ignored in the actual practical experience of living, so that humankind has got way off into left field, separated from any awareness of this coordinating point of invisible focus. That has always been available for everyone, but the state of human nature has been so strong that scarcely anyone has acknowledged that point of focus, except in theory, in an attitude of belief perhaps. But as practical experience of that point of focus in one's own expression of living, it has been absent. It seems helpful for some to believe that there is such a point and to try to conduct their lives according to what they deem would be the requirement of this invisible point, but no one really knows. There are all sorts of ways by which people have attempted to do this; but it has all been very theoretical, and it has all been very conflicting.
There is only one way by which this conflict might be dissolved, and that is if all concerned found their centering in this one, presently invisible, point of spiritual focus. Without that there is no possibility of what human beings think of as peace. Trying to get human beings together to agree, I’m sure all would be inclined to recognize, is an absolutely impossible task. It can’t be done. The Christians say, “Well if everybody would agree to be a Christian then we’d have peace.” Do you think so? Is there peace in the Christian world, or in the Islamic world, or in any of the other worlds that are around? The conflict is everywhere; we are aware of that.
We recognize the necessity for realignment with, repolarization in, the point of invisible spiritual focus. But that is impossible. Everybody has been trying to do that, but people had their own ideas as to what it was, and those ideas differ. The Roman Catholics, in the Christian world, have one idea; Anglicans have another; the United Church has another. People feel comfortable, or less than uncomfortable, associated with these various aspects, and they try to do what is considered to be the proper things in relationship to these various designs of religion, whether Christian or any other. But we still have conflict. There are masses of people now who do not particularly relate to any religion. It doesn’t really make much difference. The state of the affairs on earth has always been conflict. War is not a modern invention, and there is no less of it on earth today than there ever was. Clearly enough, whatever has been done has been of little value, simply because this point of radiant spiritual focus has been ignored. To be acceptable as it really is, such a point must be embodied in human form. Those who call themselves Christians have recognized this, and they have fingered Jesus for the task. Unfortunately He apparently lived a couple of thousand years ago, which isn’t much help now. It could have been then, but it wasn’t.
There is the necessity for the spiritual point of focus to be embodied on earth. This is the one thing that has been lacking. There has been no common point toward whom all could orient. This necessity has been recognized by people in general, that there is this need, and so there are various ones who have presented themselves as usefully providing this point, not only in the world of religion but in the world of politics and everything else. “Follow me, follow me. I'm the great one. I'll lead you into heaven on earth.” And there are all these ways, all these systems, all these various conflicting undertakings, coming to focus in different people, everybody vying with everybody else: “If you would only come my way, then everything would be solved.” Nonsense—I don't care whose way it is.
There is only one way, and that is the way of this heretofore invisible point of focus. That point of focus, of spiritual radiation, must emerge through a person. It doesn't emerge through two dozen people. It emerges through one person. I had the very fortunate opportunity of becoming aware of this in this very city of Vancouver. I have had something of a love affair with Vancouver for a long time. I first visited the city in 1930. In 1940 Uranda came to Vancouver and I met him here in person. I had been in touch with him before and had arranged for his coming here to Vancouver to speak in a room that I obtained in the medical-dental building opposite the Vancouver Hotel. He came, and he spoke seven times there. There was a handful of people who thought it worthwhile to come and listen. I had a house in Vancouver, a rented house, on Blenheim Street almost at Marine Drive, and it was in this house that Michael and I first met Uranda. Michael was only four or five years old, but he remembers. I had only recently had contact with this man. He came to the house. There was something about him that was very familiar. Of course I was busy racking my brains, which is the usual procedure, as to how this could be, because I had never met Uranda before. The mind usually, on such occasions, goes off on its round trips: “He must remind me of somebody.” I suppose in a way that's true. If there is a genuine focus of spirit the reminder is of oneself. But of course I was searching around, looking here and there to see if there wasn't someone who fitted the bill; but I never did find anybody.
I attended all the lectures; and at the time I felt rather desolate, because I could hear what was being said and it seemed, at the time, like an impossible task was being undertaken. I am sure we have all had that sensing at times as there has been an initial movement with the creative focus of spirit. Uranda provided this for me. The reason why such a necessity is there is that one may awaken oneself to one's own responsibility in the matter. It is not that it can all be left for somebody else. For a while this usually is the attitude. It took a while for me to begin to realize that I had a responsibility in the matter and so proceed to assume some of it. Fortunately, somewhere along the way it all fell into my lap, because Uranda was no longer here. That was a most wonderful blessing. Tragedy? That's what it was thought to be at the time, but it opened the door for something which had not occurred up until that point. And I was compelled, very specifically, to assume responsibility. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2015/08/facing-martin-cecil-august-7-1954-do.html]
It is much better to assume responsibility without having to be forced to do so. I can't say that I did it exactly unwillingly, because I knew it had to be done and couldn't do anything else. One needs to recognize that for oneself in whatever field of responsibility one may be, that what is required in your individual world will not be available in that world unless you provide it. It is very specific. I am sure there are many who are now awakening to this fact, so that the focus point of radiation in form on earth may expand, may become more intense. That is what draws resonant substance to itself. It isn't because someone stands up, like I'm doing now, behind a lectern and merely speaks words: “You should do this. You should do that.” It comes because there is somebody present, oneself in particular, who is actually doing it—not merely telling someone else to do it.
Mind you, there may be some sort of inspiration offered perhaps, so that others may be inclined to do it, let it happen, emerge out of the state which is present on earth with respect to all people, the human state. Usually when that is called in question a person will say, “Well there are some good things about that human state.” Maybe. By the same token there are a lot of bad things too. But it is the whole human state that is the revelation of failure. Everything, whether it is judged to be good or bad—it's all failure. It's all failure because the focus point of spirit—the spirit of Love, the spirit of Truth, the spirit of Life, the focus point of that—has been rejected, ignored, in favor of each individual doing what he or she pleases. That is considered to be freedom. “I have the right to do as I please, I have the right to think as I please”—human rights claimed.
But this claim—that one has the right to move in any other way than the way that the focus of spiritual radiation requires—is a wrong, not a right. There are manifold human wrongs which people claim, calling them rights. The truth of the matter is that we either accept the established design of things the way it is or we perish. And because human beings have refused to accept that, every generation has perished. Perishing is taken for granted. What really happens, at the time of what is called death, to that person? The world which human beings have made—I've called it the mind-made world—passes away insofar as that person is concerned; it's gone. They had it in consciousness to the last gasp probably, and then it's gone. That world passes away in every generation, for each individual in that generation. It is an unreal world.
There is a real world, but that has been lost, because everybody has been so busy sustaining their unreal worlds. This is considered necessary. One has to find one's place in this unreal world; one has to make one's mark in this unreal world; one has to prove somehow or other that one is worthwhile when in fact one isn't. It's impossible to prove! There is an endeavor to fool oneself on this score, but everybody has doubts.
The essential element that has been entirely lacking, as far as history goes back, is this focus point of spiritual radiation on earth. It hasn't actually been lacking, because it's always been there, but unknown to human beings, so that one has to have beliefs about it. There are all kinds of beliefs about it, but that achieves utterly nothing. The knowing comes because one accepts the fact of it for oneself. You can't accept the fact of it for anybody else. Many who go out and try to convert other people say, “You should accept the fact of it.” But the individual doesn't accept it for himself. The truth has remained unknown; therefore we have to believe this and believe that and believe the other thing. What an unreal state. What a counterfeit state! Yet it has become so thoroughly ingrained in people that it is taken for granted: this is the state. There isn’t any other state.” That is because one has chosen that. And human beings are inclined to go along with the crowd. Everybody does it, it must be right—majority rule. Does the majority make anything right? Of course not. One may be very, very sure that if there is a massive majority of human beings in favor of something, or against something, it certainly isn't the truth, because the human state has been maintained over all these millennia on the basis of a lie. The lie is that I can do as I please, provided I'm good—whatever that means—and things will be all right; and if you believe in God, God will be in favor of it. How anyone can maintain such a stance, involved in this counterfeit state, is really beyond belief!
We are well aware, because we see it so vividly portrayed in other people, that fear and greed are primary motivations in the human world. “Of course, not me.” But then when we stop to consider the matter, “Oh, I’m a bit fearful at times, and fear does determine the way I act and behave. And greed—well, modified, you know. I don’t aspire to be a billionaire yet.” “Oh, that will solve all problems, you know.” Do you believe that? I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want more money. Did you ever meet anyone who didn’t want more money? Why? “Because it’s going to be better if I had more money.” Is it? Somebody has more money—is it better? No, they want more money; it isn’t enough. More, more, more!—which is clear evidence of the fact that the acquisition of the money in the first place wasn’t any answer to anything. It seems to be an answer right at the beginning, “because I need the money; otherwise I’m going to starve, I’ll have no place to lay my head. Therefore I need that money; therefore the government has a responsibility to hand it out to me.”
There is a state of affairs in Canada in general—I don’t know if it’s limited to Canada but it’s very obvious in Canada—where there is a great reluctance for anyone to take any responsibility at all. Someone else has to take the responsibility—hopefully the government, whatever the government is. “They’re responsible for me!” No, I’m responsible for me. It’s done in every field. It’s done in the health field, for instance. “The doctor is responsible for me.” No he isn’t. Who knows your experience better than you? Oh there are plenty of observers round about who will give you good advice—they think they know—but the only one who is in position to really know is oneself, no one else. Who has the backbone, the manhood or the wo- manhood, to say, “I am responsible. The government isn’t responsible. The medical doctor isn’t responsible. No one is responsible but me.”
I was talking about the attitude in Canada of weakness, softness; somebody else is always responsible. Whom can I sue? Of course that’s a popular pastime in the United States, but Canada isn’t exempt. But who is there who is responsible in fact, not in fancy? What finds expression through me determines what my world is, not what finds expression through somebody else but through me. I am responsible for my world. We can each say that easily enough, but it takes something to make it stick. It takes manhood, or womanhood, as the case may be.
The responsibility comes because of the spiritual focus of radiation, which is the base of one's own responsibility in the expression of living, that one may convey into one's world this radiation, which means that one is no longer controlled by everything that is going on round about. That's where fear and greed come in, of course, because all these things round about engender fear or, “ah!—make it possible for me to get something.” Most people are on the get, aren't they? Are we on the get? Is our purpose in life to get something? There are those who have very high aspirations in this regard; they're going to get the truth. Where are they going to get it? From somebody else? The only truth that anyone can experience is the truth that is expressed in his or her own living, not the truth that's gotten from somebody else.
In order for an awakening to come in an intelligible way to human beings, there must be an initial point of focus of spiritual radiation which will set the substance of character, if there is that substance present, to resonating. It is that resonation that begins to enable a person to see and understand, so that all the things of the human state cease to be the controlling factors in human existence. And that's what it is—just existence, not life. Human beings exist for a few years and then they're gone. Unless someone erects a statue, they're forgotten. But there is a purpose for mankind. We are all aware that that must be so, or mankind couldn't have lasted as long as it has.
That purpose begins to come within the range of awareness as there is resonant substance in oneself which begins to acquaint us with the fact that there is a focus of spiritual radiation. One sees that, apparently, beyond oneself, to start with. There must be that in fact on earth if there is to be any starting point at all. There is one point of focus, one invisible point of focus. Human beings talk glibly about one God. There is one God, one point of focus. They think of God as being a sort of miasma spread throughout the universe. That's a very human view of things—smoggy! In fact it all comes to point. There is one point, and out of that one point everything is coordinated. Everything fits together. There is a design. Human beings can't have their own way without destroying themselves. Well they've done a pretty good job of that, generation by generation.
We share the responsibility, individually, to allow this focus of radiation to be the expression in one's own living. It is differentiated in various ways, because there are unique people around. It can be differentiated beautifully, and because it is differentiated it is understood. But until it is differentiated it is not understood. It is understood only when one gives expression to this beautiful reality of being in one's daily living because one is no longer controlled by one's heredity, one's culture, all these things that are so worshipped in this world—not only in religion. One's religious beliefs are part of it. You can't have religious beliefs and know the truth at the same time. That should be obvious to anyone who thinks about it, because there are multitudes of religious beliefs, and the fact is that none of them are true. They may have some relatedness to the truth but, if clung to, immediately become non-truth. That sounds like a lie. The truth is only known when it's expressed, not when something is believed in. That doesn't make it true, does it? “Oh I believe this to be true.” Who cares? It doesn't make it true. The truth can't be known until it's expressed, and it's expressed in momentary living because the individual takes responsibility for doing it.
We share this opportunity in this particular setting now; but always it's present with us, so that we cease to be governed by all these human nature states; good states they are, undoubtedly. But we were enjoined not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—it would bring death. Did anybody notice that there's dying around here? Why? Because of that. There is another way. There is another state, which has been totally excluded from human experience so that they have to believe that there must be something after I'm dead. Why not something while I'm alive? Wouldn't that be more sensible?
So we share the opportunity of revealing the radiant focus of spirit on earth when we are expressing it. If we are expressing it we find that we are put together. Love one another. "Oh I'm going to try to love my neighbor; it's going to be a tough task but I'll try." That's not love. Love doesn't come because of trying. It comes because one totally resonates with the radiant expression of the spirit of Love and of Truth and of Life. That is what finds expression, and there is no longer the control of religious belief, no longer the control of culture, no longer the control of any of these human things which human beings worship—idols, maintaining the hell of conflict. The truth is one, and as one expresses that, one fits with everybody who expresses the truth. And there is love consequently one for another, not because one tries but because that is the experience. We may share this, now and always.
