The Significance Today
Martin Exeter March 30, 1975
This is a beautiful day in Colorado. We are all delighted to be together, that we might take advantage of this hour which has been provided for us by the Lord. In the Christian world it is Easter—also, in the Jewish world the Passover falls. These two times of celebration relate to events that occurred far distant in time from each other and also from this present time. The events themselves were significant at the time that they occurred. The Passover relates to the redemption of the Israelites, and Easter to the resurrection of the body of Jesus—significant events in and of themselves but, at this present time, that significance is in the far-distant past. The question is as to what the significance is now.
Each of those far-distant events related to fundamentally the same thing. Of course, subsequently they got all tied up in the concepts that human beings developed, so that what they really related to has been largely overlooked. One group of people say, “Easter Day is vitally important.” Another group will say, “The Passover is tremendously important.” And there are manifold further groups who will proclaim the importance of certain days, the significance of certain past events. That’s all very interesting but remains rather meaningless insofar as the present is concerned if all that happens is a celebration of the past. Seeing that these particular events are so far from us in time, their significance must in some fashion be symbolical when relating to the present. But there is an actual significance in the present. Perhaps the symbols may remind us of what that actual significance is, but only as we experience the present significance can it possibly have any real meaning to us.
Of course, what occurred with the Israelites and what happened to Jesus both point to an event of far greater significance than either one, an event which can be a present event. Therefore the present time would then be known to be a time of the greatest significance. The question is as to whether we are willing that this should be so, because obviously, to the extent that we might be hooked to the past, the present to that extent is reduced in significance; we are imputing the significance to something that occurred way back. And as we take significance to that point way back we have removed it from the present. So let us be here now, recognizing that those past events did point to something that should be known now. Both of them related directly to the restoration or the salvation of man. It hasn’t occurred yet, so whatever significance those past events may have had has not yet been understood. It has only been described in human terms, based in human concepts of various sorts, which are thought to be very important. But surely there is something of far greater importance to be known now. This something relates to the restoration or the salvation of man now.
We might pause to consider for a moment what occurred on Easter Day, as it relates to the present time. But first I think we need to see the situation on a little wider basis, carrying through to the moment when what has been called the ascension occurred. I’m not promulgating the doctrines of Christianity, neither am I downgrading the doctrines of Judaism, if we consider this particular aspect of significance, because it can be quite easily correlated with the significance inherent in the Israelite pattern. Recalling the story of what happened after the resurrection of the body of Jesus, a point came when what has been described as the ascension took place. This event, whatever its nature, was described in certain words contained at the beginning of the Book of Acts. There were evidently certain of the disciples present with Jesus at the time.
“… while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
This is presumably taken as a reference to what is called the second coming of Jesus. The way this is put it is couched in terms which constituted the concepts of the one who wrote the passage and this, in turn, was conditioned by the concepts of the ones who translated it. But we need to see what is being said here, because it relates very specifically to the restoration or the salvation of mankind. The resurrection of the body of Jesus, and then the subsequent ascension, may be seen in terms of the body of the Son of God. The body of Jesus represented the body of the Son of God, but the body of the Son of God itself emerges out of the body of mankind and is composed of many people. This idea has been in the consciousness of those who have called themselves Christians.
There was a recognition that the so-called body of Christ should appear upon the earth. It was anticipated that this would happen very shortly after the ascension. When it didn’t happen, as was expected according to the concepts that had been formed, then it seemed to be necessary to do something about it; and the doing something about it resulted in what is called Christianity. There was an endeavor to make the body of the Son of God appear. The Christian church, and I presume this would include all the manifold denominations thereof nowadays, was supposed to be the body of Christ. It was an imitation body, simply because it was constructed according to the concepts of men—it wasn’t created by God. It hadn’t appeared on the basis of God’s creation, so it was assumed, apparently, that God had fallen down on the job and therefore human beings needed to get busy and make something which would be just as good. The Christian church resulted.
Very much the same thing happened with respect to the Israelite pattern, because this, certainly, should have evolved into the body of the Son of God; but again it didn’t. There was a disruption of the outworking, a scattering of the people concerned, and the Israelites as such vanished. All that was left in any cohesive form came to focus in the Jews, who were endeavoring to maintain this body which had in fact disintegrated. And so, on this hand there was the endeavor to maintain the remains of a body, and on the other hand, from the Christian standpoint, the endeavor to make one be; and neither attempt has proven to be very successful. It certainly hasn’t achieved the salvation of man—far from it!
Now, coming back again to this point of the ascension, it is indicated that the representative body of the Son of God was received into heaven. “He was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.” We have a certain dawning awareness as to the nature of that cloud. We have spoken of the veil, something which is present in the consciousness of human beings. The description here indicates that there was an upward movement, and so human beings have been gazing steadfastly into heaven, upward, expecting something to come down. But the upward movement related to the levels of consciousness concerned. We have seen that there is indeed a veil, which has been a veil of separation between the heaven of this dimensional world and the earth of this dimensional world. We have been, to a certain extent, conscious of the earth of this dimensional world, but the heaven of this dimensional world has been hid from human awareness by the veil, by a cloud, a cloudy state of consciousness.
Human beings were functioning at a certain level of consciousness which did not permit them to be aware of the whole; all they could comprehend was what was present below the veil. So, a consciousness of the meaning of the body of the Son of God at that point vanished from the awareness of those concerned. Subsequently a concept was developed about it: It had vanished, so let’s get busy and build something that will be a substitute for what vanished. And Christianity resulted. While there have been many very sincere people, very fine people, related to the Christian experience, just as there have been many sincere and fine people related to the Judaic experience, it simply hasn’t been what should have been. It has been a substitute of such rigidity that it has blocked the experience of the real thing. Everybody was concerned that the real thing should appear on the basis of their substitutes, of their concepts about it—in the Christian world a proliferation of religious concepts. While the intent may have been of the best, we know how the road to hell is paved. So hell has been very much present in the experience of human beings on the face of the earth all down through the centuries, and it’s here today.
The indication was that for the right happening to occur—as it is put here: “… this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven”—He disappeared through the cloud, He reappears through the cloud. He reappears simply because the cloud ceases to be one of separation; there is a clarification. And it is this which provides the means by which the resurrection of the body of the Son of God may occur. We are, in a sense, working back from the point of the ascension to the experience of the resurrection; because the resurrection doesn’t take place on the basis of any manipulations that human beings may introduce to cause the body of the Son of God to be a fact on earth, either through the Christian church or through the endeavors of the Jews. It doesn’t work either way because both those ways have long since receded into the far-distant past.
The question is, what is to happen now? We have begun to share in an awareness of what rightly happens now. There is that which comes down from God out of heaven into the earth. The only basis on which this can occur is as there comes a spiritual expression plane approach. It doesn’t come by reason of an attempt either to sustain something out of the past or to build something in human strength and wisdom. What is to take form comes because of the emergence through the Cloud of the spirit of the Son of God, the Glory of the Son of God, which is the first necessity if there is to be a cause to make possible the resurrection of the body of the Son of God.
To some extent we have seen these things and have a certain experience relating to our own consciousness, to the extent of our own awareness. Now I’m not talking about theoretical ideas about something. There is something to emerge, something that is real, and it doesn’t emerge through the theoretical concepts of human beings. To the extent that there are those theoretical concepts and beliefs and ideas still held, they compose an absolute barrier to the emergence of the reality. And how many human beings there are, sincerely concerned that the reality should appear, who nevertheless insist that it should only appear through their particular brand of concept. It won’t! The concept must dissolve. It’s a lot easier to let the concepts dissolve than it is to hold on to them rigidly until they break; because if one holds on to them rigidly, when they break you break, because there’s no distinction between the concept and the person.
So, certainly there is concern to yield to what comes down from God out of heaven, what comes through the cloud in like manner to the way He disappeared. And it reappears in a very practical manner. The concept, the religious belief, with respect to the second coming of Jesus has been, to say the least, a little bit fanciful! There may be many who are trying desperately to believe such a thing, and I hear it said on occasion, “Oh, Jesus is coming soon.” He’s been coming soon for nineteen centuries!—as though His coming had nothing to do with the person who has the concept, and without any realization on the part of that person that it is his concept about it that stands in the way of the coming, the coming of the reality, emerging in the actual experience of living through human beings. Who is free enough of the past, of the earthly heredity, to be sufficiently flexible in consciousness to allow what is real to emerge, to take its own true form?
I’m sure all of you have had the experience of something stirring in you and you would love to express it, but then you trip over yourself; you don’t know how it can get out. Why is this? Because there is so much rigidity of consciousness in the person to prevent it. Yet, the only way it can come forth is through the human consciousness and, specifically with respect to each one—through one’s own consciousness. One may be inspired or influenced in some way by what occurs through the consciousness of another but it only really begins to have meaning when it occurs through your own.
We have spoken of the sounding of the Tone.
It is this sounding of the Tone that begins to emerge through the cloud,
and it is heard by those whose hearts are sufficiently open.
Advisedly I say hearts, not minds, because if a person thinks he has an open mind, what he’s saying usually is that he’s willing to receive the sounding of the Tone into his mind so that he can dress it up in his own concepts. Let the heart be open, without too much concern as to the extent of mental understanding: “And ye shall know the truth,” the truth unconditioned—unconditional truth, we might say—unconditioned by any human ideas about it. All human beings are so hung up in this long-standing habit of mental activity that they cannot imagine the real experience of life which comes in an hour when ye think not, when all this noisy racket of mental grinding stops and there is blessed silence—silence in heaven for the space of half an hour, time to become aware of the truth, which isn’t mental knowledge. It has been described as the knowledge of the Lord, but what that really means is knowing the Lord, knowing the truth, knowing it because it has taken possession of you insofar as your capacity to express it is concerned. Then your capacity to express the truth is not trying to get hold of the truth and make it conform to your personal doctrines. Whatever comes out on that basis will not be the truth.
Most human beings are possessed of the devil; they need to be possessed of the truth. “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Here is the true state of knowing. “And ye shall know the truth.” How? “If ye continue in my word.” This is the requirement. Now, that word comes forth on earth how? Instead of gazing into heaven, are we going to listen into heaven, expecting this word to resound from someplace else? If the Tone is to sound on earth it sounds because there is a facility for its sounding, and the facility created for this purpose was man. The comprehensible voice, the rational voice, is man, when man is restored or saved. God has no other voice on earth.
The Word comes on the basis of a human voice or human voices. It comes in a specific way. Just as the ascension took place in a very specific way, just as the resurrection took place in a very specific way, so does the reverse process take place by which what is the other side of the veil emerges into expression on earth. It emerges on the basis of the Word. When Jesus was on earth He was referred to as “the Word made flesh,” the Word of God. We live by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; we die otherwise. So, the Word is made flesh, takes form, finds expression, in a very specific way; and this Word is magnified through the voices of many. The Tone sounds through you when you know the Tone in your own conscious awareness. It doesn’t sound through you merely because you heard the Tone sounding through somebody else.
Those of you who are interested in music may become aware of specific notes if they are played on the piano, for instance; you hear them outside of yourself. But the real musician, while he can hear them outside of himself as well as anybody else, presumably, unless he’s deaf, hears them in his own consciousness. He knows the note within himself without sounding it. The great composers didn’t compose by hitting the notes on a piano. They composed in their own consciousness; they heard the notes there. This symbolizes quite accurately, portrays quite accurately, what must occur with respect to the music of life based in the true Tone. It is necessary, while one is developing the consciousness to discern the notes within oneself, to hear the notes externally. So, there is a means by which this sounds—the Tone must sound specifically. One of the means by which this Tone sounds specifically is a means we are using in this present moment—a human voice right here. It’s useful; it does something. It wouldn’t be very valuable if I just sat here for an hour and said nothing. It is because there is a voice and because there can sound a word, that the Tone may be heard. What is specifically said is important, but the Tone is far more than that.
I had a beautiful letter of response from somebody which I brought with me this morning, and I would like to read a portion of it:
“I find increasingly that the mailings provide the organic pulsating contact with center which is absolutely vital to my effective service here and now. Reading a mailing, or even just a short excerpt, instantly tunes me in to center … the very substance of life that I know and love and have helped to build. It is such a deep joy to relax and allow the spirit of the Word to flow through me with intensity and clarity, and in working closely with it to let the substance of my expression combine with it and let it move out into my world with impact. Something like an internal combustion occurs, and the potency of that generates the necessary energy which enables me to handle with ease whatever is placed before me, vibrationally or otherwise.
“I’m sure that, if I had to, I could function intelligently and effectively without the mailings, but I thank God from the depth of my being that this beautiful life-giving provision is available. I don’t in any way question my own centering and the spiritual authority I carry, for nothing can touch me there, but how much easier it is to carry the responsibilities I have, and increasingly will have, when in the quietness of my being I can share a service with my Lord through the Word. How quickly any heaviness that I might feel lifts and my spirit soars as I stand with you in the holy place.”
“I do not … question my own centering and … authority”—this is an indication that the one who wrote this letter hears the Tone, regardless of the external sounding of it. To the extent that a person does begin to hear clearly that Tone internally, then the value and the meaning and the purpose of what is released externally becomes apparent. And yet one can only become aware of that internal Tone with clarity by listening to it externally first. There are those who have said, “I wish Martin would give shorter services; I wish he wouldn’t be so repetitive. I wish ... I wish.” But what is the sounding of the tone? If a person is wishing along these lines he hasn’t really yet heard the Tone; he’s fooling himself. Hearing the Tone and becoming consciously aware of it within oneself, one then is a part of the Tone, and the release of the Tone in the way which coordinates, brings together and gives life to the body is experienced. It isn’t just a matter of mailings, as such. Here is something else that needs to be seen clearly with respect to oneself.
We have a legal entity in this world. But one has meaning for oneself. We are not seeking to establish any organization on earth but to allow the living manifestation of the body of the Son of God. And while we use words to describe it, let us not imagine that the use of those words tells us what it is. It doesn’t. And the very moment we begin to think we know what it means, we’re treading on dangerous ground because we’re forming a concept. What it really means is that we express life in the moment, as it should take form in the moment, on the basis of the sounding of the Tone in that moment. And what does that make us? It makes us living souls, if you want to use words to describe the condition—the true state of man. The individual doesn’t have meaning because he belongs to this nation or that nation, to this club or that club, to this church or that church. That isn’t what gives anyone meaning. The meaning is inherent in the person, and when that meaning is allowed to express, the person has meaning; the meaning is made evident. The meaning is there already; there are no restrictions, but all move, knowing the Lord, knowing the truth.
The reality of life is revealed in this way, to the Glory of God on earth. And it is this Glory, the sounding of the Tone, that is the power of salvation, the power by which the resurrection of the body of the Son of God occurs, something coming down from God out of heaven to reactivate that true living form, so that man might walk once more on earth in the image and likeness of God. Here is the significance of the present moment to those who are willing and capable of letting it happen. And we let it happen, not merely because we gaze steadfastly into heaven (we need to look up) but because we are so yielded that what is present, unknown to the human mind, may begin to emerge through the cloud into the experience of daily living. Then the evidence of what has been called the second coming, or the coming of the Messiah, or whatever way one might wish to put it, appears. But it doesn’t appear because someone had a good idea about it. It appears because someone was sufficiently humble, sufficiently open, sufficiently yielded, to let it happen. And, letting it happen, we know what the happening is. If we don’t let it happen, how could we possibly know what the happening is? We could only have theories about it, and what use are those? We are here to let it happen, because we hear the Tone and we become aware of its life-giving nature and we are willing to yield to it regardless of prior concepts, preconceptions of any kind. All things are then made new, to the Glory of God.
© emissaries of divine light
