What Doth The Lord Require Of Thee?
Uranda June 10, 1954 Class
We come to our morning hour of Class Meditation on June 10th, 1954, in the Chapel on Sunrise Ranch, and thanking God for the privilege of being with you again—and for the blessings that were made manifest, during our absence, to many people. I might mention in that connection that I gave 130 attunements while I was in Vancouver—checked 130 people and gave attunements.
I would like to pose for our consideration this morning, a question: What doth the Lord require of thee? There might well be many answers to that question. I was thinking of it from the standpoint of one who is, first, learning to live on the basis of the Principles and Laws of Life; and second, from the standpoint of one who aspires to serve others and inspire them to let the Divine Pattern of Being have meaning on earth. Remembering all of those Principles of Life which we have considered together in the past, I thought it would be well to focalize for you some of the factors which may confront you in the days to come, either in your life or the lives of others, some of the things that go to make up a good server.
In one way it might seem to the human mind that I am hard to please because, although we have some servers in the field who are doing excellent work and there are many who are being blessed by reason of the fact that they are there, there is not a one of them where I do not feel that they could be greatly helped by being gathered together for a further period of training, no matter what they have experienced in the past. It is not that I am critical of them. I present it this way because I feel very deeply that we cannot have too high a standard or too high a goal in relationship to that which we recognize and accept as the Lord’s requirements of us. It is not that I would be critical of you in anything that I might say, but to help bring to focus, and establish clearly in consciousness, a greater realization of that which the Lord doth require of thee. If we are going to be true to a high ideal, the highest ideal which we know, we must in the first place be careful to never reach a point of self-complacency or to feel that we cannot learn more and attain a still higher degree of perfection in function. So if we acknowledge that which has been, and also acknowledge that it is not yet enough—there is no criticism or condemnation of any, simply an honest recognition of the situation as it is—I trust that touching upon these things does not in any sense produce a feeling of discouragement in any one. It should not. Rather, it should establish in heart and mind a sense of the challenge that is inherent in the world situation and in our part in the Divine Program.
We may say there are specific individual limits with people. One reason we touch upon that this morning is to recognize that every individual has a capacity. We may say there is a limit to that capacity, but I do not believe I have ever met anyone who had reached the limit of his or her capacity. The idea that there is a limit does not need to bother us at the present time, and when we come to that limit of capacity, in an actual sense, we come to the point where we ought to be. The limit of that capacity that is inherent in us, whatever it is, determines that point or place in which we individually know ourselves as we are. Sometimes a human being develops the idea that if he is going to know himself as he is, and be true to himself, he is going to know and acknowledge and be true to his limitations; or his state of being, short of the limit of his capacities.
I think that right here we have one of those things which tends to produce recurring patterns of confusion in many minds, and it is something with which you will be dealing with every contact with other human beings, because human beings have the idea that they know themselves. But they have established a self-evaluation pattern on the basis of their limitations, the intellectual pattern or idea, regardless of what is playing hide-and-seek down here in the subconscious area of being. It is generally embellished a bit—it generally involves a few hallucinations, even with the most sane human beings—and if one has established a pattern of self-evaluation, not knowing what his true limits are, not knowing what his ultimate capacity may be, and he assumes that he knows himself, it will be a false evaluation of himself. And if we have established in consciousness for ourselves a false evaluation of ourselves, no matter how honestly we may have come to it, according to our views, we will not be in position to correctly evaluate anyone else.
If in this interval, while one is growing, moving forward and upward, the individual carefully avoids coming to any fixed conclusions as to his limits, as to what he is, or even too much of an idea as to his own potential, if he leaves his vision open with respect to himself, he is in position to have an open attitude toward others, which permits a higher degree of understanding of others than is otherwise possible prior to the point where one might honestly say, “I know, or understand, myself.” It goes back to that ancient adage, utilized with respect to the schools of old, “Man, know thyself.” Now many human beings have taken that to mean that they are to stop and analyze themselves and come to know himself as he now is in his outer manifestation, within the scope of his own observation—which is not the case. We do not know ourselves, in fact we cannot in any true sense know ourselves, until we have come to that point that is circumscribed or established by our own true limits.
Now if this is something we begin to actually see, we will see that if we accept or become content with a point of development short of that, even though we might by some means develop a reasonably accurate self-analysis of ourselves at that lesser point, we still would not know ourselves. You would not know yourself, because an analytical consideration of yourself in a limited state, less than that of which you are capable, does not give you an understanding of yourself. If you are going to know yourself you must reach a point where you are aware of yourself in the scope of your own true limits. Now when I use the word “limit” here, I am not suggesting something that is an unnatural, or wrong, or in some fashion an ill thing. There are the limits in the Divine Pattern.
We speak of limitations, ordinarily, as having reference to ill things, or something that ought not to be. So there are limits with respect to the realm of unreality, but there are the limits in reality, and it is the limit in reality that I am talking about—a limit in reality which is a goal, which is a place to which we aspire. And knowing that that is the point where our capacities will have full expression, our personalities, our individuality, will have adequate meaning in whatever scheme of things God has prepared, we will see that it would be an utterly vain thing for the human being to say, “I would like to go on beyond the point of my limits.”
Actually, if one reaches the point of one’s true limits and functions therein correctly for the essential cycle of time in the creative activity, he will find that either individually, or in relationship to the whole, the ceiling of his limits in the true sense is lifted, and there is something on beyond. But if we are to ever touch or know that which is on beyond we must function correctly with respect to that which now is, and the present realm of true limits, whatever that may be, individually and collectively, is our goal. It is that to which we aspire, that we may function there in the full expression of our beings according to the Divine Design, and we leave any movement beyond that to the future, to Eternity. That is something to which we need not give present attention. My concern is that we do not sell ourselves short, that we do not accept a level within ourselves, or in relationship to each other, that establishes unnatural limits in the expressions of our beings.
All service which you may render in the days to come, in giving attunements, ministering in any way whatsoever, will be successful only to the degree that you can inspire others to refuse to accept, as permanent, the present range of limitations in physical condition, or state of health, mentally, emotionally, spiritually—the present range of limitations within which that individual has become more or less crystallized. If a person merely takes the attitude, “I wish to remain within these unnatural limits, but I want you to make me well inside of my shell and I do not want to break out of my shell. I am afraid of anything out here beyond, you may be able to render some palliative assistance, bless a little, help a little, and that in itself may provide you with an opportunity, ultimately, of establishing the true inspiration; but, until it goes beyond that level it is temporary at best, because until we can reach a point in ministry where we can inspire others to arise out of the unnatural patterns of limitations within which they have tended to become crystallized, we cannot render any real or lasting service. That is true with respect to the physical body, the mind, the emotional nature, the spiritual factors of life, and we need to remember that service to others is fundamentally helping others to reach a point where they have a valid—not a false hope pattern—but a valid conviction that it is possible to achieve a higher goal. So, our goal must be at the point of our natural limits, for it is not until you reach that point that you can know yourself, realize your own capacities and experience the fulfillments which God has in store for you.
If this is clearly realized we begin to have a basis by which we may effectively avoid many misunderstandings. A failure to bear these things in mind places us in a position where we are examining ourselves and others on the basis of a false premise. Actually, you cannot understand until you learn to analyze these factors from the right premise. We cannot arrive at the point where we have a full vision and comprehension of the right premise until we have reached the realm of our true individual limits. So, our vision of the premise tends to change as we move along, not because the Truth changes, not because the Laws change, but because our vision of them, and our understanding of their function, is constantly being enlarged, and with each enlargement of vision, with respect to the basic factors of our premise, there must necessarily follow lesser adjustments into all the fields of our lives, lesser adjustments which come as a consequence of the adjustment basically. But we cannot make that adjustment, basically, all in one leap. It comes as a process of rebirth, a process of growing, steps in illumination, steps toward Mastery—or it could be put in other ways.
The important thing to remember is that the fixed conclusion attitude, for any individual who is short of the goal, not yet having reached the point of his true natural limits, is an extremely dangerous thing, and when he reaches that point he will not have fixed conclusions. The tendency disappears at that point. It is dangerous to have fixed conclusions before we reach that point. When we reach it the fixed conclusions are gone, if you understand what I mean by that expression, “fixed conclusions.” It is not that we have a vacillating idea or attitude with respect to the Laws or Principles of God now or anytime, but the more we come to realize that the Truth stands of itself and no arbitrary attitudes are going to increase the meaningfulness of that Truth, and no amount of pushing or pulling or trying to turn away is going to void one iota of it. Fixed conclusions, in the sense in which I am using that expression, are always an indication of a lack of knowing the Truth, a lack of faith or trust in God, or in oneself or in another. I have called it a fluid state of consciousness, something that is not hard and brittle, but something that is fluid like water, so that it can conform to the nature of the surroundings without losing its own nature, without violating its own principles, without subjecting itself to external dominations by circumstance.
At first it seems to the human mind that if we are going to refrain from having fixed and hard attitudes we are somehow going to be weak and be subject to all kinds of ill things. Those whom we contact have established certain more or less fixed conclusions in their own minds, and they imagine that, if these fixed conclusions are in any sense disturbed, they are going to be exposed in a state of helplessness on a basis which will make them subject to every sort of ill thing. Over and over again you will have to deal with that, and I suppose you recognize that I have to deal with it, whether I am on Sunrise Ranch or somewhere else. It is not limited to Vancouver or the 100. It is here, too. All of this boils down to a basis of understanding, and avoiding misunderstanding. In spite of all I have said along this line there has continued to be tendencies toward expressions which are not adequately cognizant of all factors, and reactions to such expressions as if they were cognizant of all factors—therefore, the reactionary attitude which produces the magnification of the misunderstanding is something that attributes to the original expression something that simply was not there.
But if one asks for oneself an understanding attitude—lest one’s own expressions be found faulty and cause difficulty for lack of vision, lack of understanding, lack of control or something—if one asks for oneself an understanding attitude, how shall we ask for it? By going around and saying, “I will pat you on the back a bit if you just stand still long enough. And please, I want you to be sure in the future to have an understanding attitude toward me. I may make some slips, I may do this, I may do that. If you will just have an understanding, patient attitude with me,” and you go to each one like that, would not that be silly? Utterly ridiculous! The very fact that we are here indicates that we are seeking understanding, that we are seeking to know. But how do we ask in actual fact? By extending an understanding attitude.
I must admit that the function here on Sunrise Ranch during my absence was not altogether perfect. I put it gently so. I am not inclined to condemn or find fault, but, in my view, all of these things which tend to disrupt the pattern of our function are based in misunderstandings one way or another. Sometimes human beings feel they are misunderstood. Well and good. If you are afraid of being misunderstood you should never aspire to be a server, because if you serve God, if you follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Master, you will be misunderstood by many. And so, one of the first things that we must realize here is that this is a training ground, a place where we begin to become immune to reaction when others actually, or we may think others, misunderstand us. It could be either one—someone may actually misunderstand you, or you may only think someone does. But if we do not take advantage of the opportunity here, where there is definite opportunity to learn not to react and become disturbed and upset because someone misunderstands us, do you think going out into life in the world we are suddenly and by some mystic means going to develop the ability to remain steady, unmoved, by reason of the misunderstandings that develop?
Do you think I have never been misunderstood? Some of you have, at various times. If I had been moved and controlled by the misunderstandings of others toward me, do you think we would be here sharing this hour together? I do not. You will need to take advantage of this opportunity here, to begin to go through a cycle of training, so that whatever misunderstandings others may have of you, you do not let it color your attitude, change your control. Many are going to have misunderstandings, and we cannot serve in the world as it is, or follow in the footsteps of our Lord, without facing misunderstandings. He was misunderstood—and are we to complain if we are? I think not. But, if we are not controlled by misunderstandings, if we learn to rise above them, we begin to be in position to do something about them; perhaps not directly, but at least we have also here an ideal field in which to experience training in developing, not only an immunity in reaction with respect to the misunderstandings of others, but training in the ability to extend understanding to others. That is the way we ask for others to understand us—not by specifically requesting it, but by extending understanding to them.
In this connection, one of the amazing things to me is the tendency in human beings everywhere—and certainly not excluding here—the tendency in human beings to feel that if there is something wrong, something not understood over here, something that is an irritant point, something that is causing concern, that person who is so concerned will, generally speaking, go to almost anyone—generally the least qualified person within reach—to talk about it and to try to understand it, instead of going to the person involved.
The Master made a statement with respect to this. He said, “If you have aught against your brother, go to him”—go to him personally. Go to that one, if you have something against some person, if you feel that some person has not understood you, or has taken some wrong attitude toward you. Go to that person and undertake to clear it. Now sometimes you cannot. But inquire into it gently, not with anger or an ill attitude of some sort. If you think that someone has said something that demeans you, and you assume that that was the case, and you get hurt and avoid coming to that person to find out, what is the result going to be? A continuity of misunderstandings.
Actually, if we begin to give our attention to that which makes for understanding, agreement, harmony, these ill things that tend to segregate and nullify will be cleared away. It takes understanding—understand yourselves—but we have to move in a pattern toward the goal and undertake to understand others. As we do so, if we find someone who has said or done something and we feel that that somehow was wrong, and we do not understand it—instead of merely being hurt or upset or bothered, why not go—not to somebody else and talk about it; generally the tendency is to go to the least qualified person around—but if you do go to the person involved, if you have aught against your brother or sister and it does not clear, then go with that person if possible—if the person will not go with you, then go alone—but go with that person if possible to, well, in this case me if I am here, or someone else, whoever I have left in charge, if I am not here. But if you come to me with that person so that it can be balanced out, so that you may begin to see that, generally, there is not as much basis of misunderstanding as seemed at first to be the case; then as we go on, you learn not to react to those things, you learn to extend understanding to others. But if something is bothering you about someone else, go to that person, if possible. If not, come to me—but open the door so that something can be done about it.
If you think you are just going to hold back and try to work it out yourself if it keeps nagging, it will not work, because you will never be in a position to have a perspective vision. You will be working on the basis of a false premise no matter how sincere and honest and earnest you may be. We need to realize the vital importance of understanding, and without understanding there cannot be agreement, and without agreement there is no basis by which the Father may do the works in and through us. It is absolute. There it is. If the Father is going to do the works through us, as the Master indicated should be the case, it must be on the basis of agreement, a true agreement on a right premise. And if we are going to have that agreement we must first have understanding. Now, the attitude you have toward each other here is establishing a miniature cycle, establishing the character and the nature of it, so that others will tend to have that attitude toward you which you now have toward those around you, and toward me. We begin to realize that it is here that we have this opportunity.
This is a training ground for ministers and servers in all different fields out in the world, and the individual who has the basic concept of his own limits needs to accept the opportunity of rising above that here or he certainly will not do it somewhere else—unless he does it by hard circumstance, and then someone else will help pay the price. Here, this process of training can be worked out without hurting anyone. If you do not learn your lesson here, and you go out there and accept some responsibilities with respect to the lives of others, and if it comes to the point where you are forced to learn your lesson out there, you will pay a high price. But do you think you will be the only one? Someone else out there will help pay that price, because someone will get hurt. It is always so. I do whatever I can to alleviate, and to help, and to clear any such thing. I have, over and over again. But someone pays a price—if you do not learn your lessons here—always, you and someone else; maybe several someone elses. And if we have a limitation pattern established in our own minds, and say, “I can do this but I can't do that,” we are saying, “I will let the Lord work through me up to this point, and then I will take over and refuse utterly to let the Lord work through me over here.”
Now actually we are here to learn to progress, to open the way for others in a thousand and one phases of life. This process must be done with understanding and discretion, and you will find that those who share responsibility with me are always considerate of those factors if you give them a chance. That is true. If you think someone is not, why you should come to me about it. But you will find that they are, or they would not be in that position—believe it or not—regardless of any concepts to the contrary. Those who are in the position of helping focalize and coordinate the activities here, share the responsibility with me, they are always considerate of those points. But if they are functioning properly they will never accept your own limited evaluation of yourself as your limit. They will always be asking you to go a little bit further, to break up patterns, to do it this way, to do it that way, so that you do not get down into a crystallized pattern and ruin your future.
If you want to stay in a crystallized pattern, this is not the place to do it. We are here to break up crystallizations, to shift it this way, and that, with understanding, but you cannot receive the understanding open to you unless you come to us with the problems, unless you come to the person who is responsible, or to me. Do you expect them to be mind readers? They are not and I am not. We have to act on the basis of that which is expressed through you in one way or another. All kinds of adjustments are possible if we do it on a basis of understanding—but not if we accept arbitrary limits. If there is a valid reason, do you think that anyone in a responsible position here will reject that valid reason? If you do, you do not know the people who serve with me. If you think that anyone in a responsible position would reject a valid reason and treat it as if it were nothing, you do not know the people who serve with me. And you cannot know them until you give yourself a chance.
And if you insist on accepting a limit pattern that is not valid—now there may be limit patterns for the moment that are valid; well and good; but they might not be just what you think they are. We need to examine; we need to see. And if I let you settle down into some pattern entirely pleasing to yourself, do you think we are going to grow here? I do not. You would be selling yourself short, and not coming up to the point of that goal with the true nature of your own true limits. You would be violating God’s trust in you, and the trust of others who are waiting for you, because there are those out there who are waiting for someone to serve them. They do not know what to do, they do not know how to proceed; they do not know that there is a door that will open. They are waiting for you. And when the door is open, they come through so eagerly, so joyously. I have seen it over and over and over again. I saw it on this trip, not just once.
