The Tone Sounding in the Substance of Love

The  Tone  Sounding

In  The  Substance  Of  Love

Martin Cecil   April 13, 1979  Assembly

What a delight it is to share the expression of the spirit of God. No matter through whom that spirit may appear it is always delightful, and yet it is particular and unique because of the person. Even in the human nature state of affairs, how different human beings are in their appearance. It isn’t really a matter of appearance, although there are distinctions here, but of what it is that finds expression—the nature and quality of that expression. There is tremendous variety in angelic expression, just as there is tremendous variety in a garden.

What is commemorated on Good Friday was indeed an awful event: the mistrial and crucifixion of Jesus. This came about because of the religious powers and the temporal powers of that time. There were the Jews and the Romans. We have here a picture of how the true expression of Angelic Being is tried by human nature and found to be inadequate according to that judgment—perhaps even quite dangerous—so the expression is not allowed to appear. There is crucifixion on the cross of the human body and the human consciousness. What an accurate portrayal of human nature is vividly revealed in that awful event that occurred a long time ago now. And yet it is the event that occurs in virtually every human life on the face of the earth, in every generation since. There have been a lot of self-righteous people around who call themselves Christians but who participated in judgment and crucifixion of the spirit of God in expression on earth. The religious powers and the temporal powers have been responsible, in the larger picture, for the same thing. You can see this in the world in general. Here is the first heaven and the first earth, which pass away. We can see it in the process of passing away now. There certainly continue to be religious powers in the world, and also temporal powers. These look pretty strong at times, and certainly human beings are controlled in various ways by these powers, consciously at times and subconsciously always, as long as human nature remains. Just because a person consciously rejects the religious power doesn’t mean that he isn’t still controlled by it. And there are those who rebel against the temporal powers; that doesn’t mean that they are not still controlled by them.

So the first heaven and the first earth must pass away—and are passing away. “And there was no more sea.” That refers to the forms in which substance is held in human-nature consciousness. No more sea—no more human consciousness, because of the New Heaven and the New Earth. This is the true heavenly power, and the consequent true earthly power. Heaven and earth are one. These two powers are not in conflict, as they are insofar as the first heaven and the first earth are concerned—these are constantly in a battle, on the surface at least. They get together sometimes, but that isn’t very comfortable for anyone. The New Heaven and the New Earth are that to which our experience is dedicated—spiritual power, which allows for the emergence of a material power in alignment with it. In thinking of spiritual power, it is often imagined that somehow it is going to work without regard to material things; they just get arbitrarily pushed around by this invisible magic of spiritual power. But heaven and earth are one; the movement of the spiritual power is the movement at the same time of the material power. They work together in unison, in oneness. Heaven and earth are indeed one. And this is known in the coming of the New Neaven and the New Earth, so that the expression in our experience may no longer be governed, consciously or subconsciously, by the powers of the first heaven and the first earth, by religious powers and by temporal powers as human beings have known them in human nature. We cease to be governed by these things, not because we rebel and object and fight against them, but because we find ourselves participating in the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Life is then withdrawn from the old in our own experience. It is not yet withdrawn from the old in the general patterns of the world, but in our own experience it is. And that withdrawing of life force relates to the structures that are present in human consciousness, our own specifically, because regardless of what we may have thought about it consciously we are all the product of what went before subconsciously. We all therefore have a residual state which is describable in terms of religious power and temporal power.

If you examine history you will see how these things have been so strong in human experience down through the centuries. Has that all just evaporated in this generation, do you think? No. It is right here. It is present in the human nature consciousness of everyone, ourselves included. And without realizing it, everybody is moved by what is there present as strings are pulled by the devil. The human nature state of affairs activates these things in our subconscious human nature state, and we find ourselves reacting this way and that—we do not know exactly why. That is uncomfortable, so we try to explain it. And we have considerable interest in psychology and all this sort of stuff, which is trying to explain something to make it more acceptable—something that is very uncomfortable until, of course, the human mind can get in there and give it a supposedly logical explanation. But it never is logical, because the premise is wrong, and the whole pattern of human nature mental experience is irrational. Those who participate most directly in this mental activity are the ones who usually claim it is very rational, because they base it, in their own imaginations at least, upon logic. “It’s all very logical. We follow this out. We’re not ruled by emotion. We see the thing is here and here and here.” But the logical process is all based in a fanciful premise that has no reality, and so no matter what derives from that, it is going to be as fanciful as its point of origin. It is an excellent exercise at times to look at something that has been firmly established in the human nature consciousness as being irrefutable and see if you cannot find an alternative explanation.

Mention was made this morning about darkness—where we all considered an article about darkness, a new way of looking at it. We are supposed to see, when we look out into the universe on a clear night, light which is reaching us from immense distances, taking a long period of time to come to us, so that we are really supposed to be looking into the past. This seems very logical to the human intellect. Light, after all, takes so much time to arrive at any given point; it travels at a certain speed, and therefore if we see stars a long way off, it must have been coming for all that time. If it came for all that time, maybe the thing we are looking at doesn’t really exist there anymore; it may have flickered out. Well, this is a supposedly scientific way of seeing things, but possibly that is not the way it is at all, because there is something there that was not taken into account—namely darkness. I might just touch on it for a few moments in order to indicate something which would allow a different way of looking at things.

Darkness is presumably the complete absence of light. Light we see dimensionally speaking—a rather peculiar thing, mind you; it shows up as what they call a “constant” in many calculations. But it is supposed to travel at 186,000 miles a second. That’s fast, from the human perspective at least. But not very fast, however, if one sees it relative to the universe—it’s kind of sluggish. It’s taking these millions and billions of years to get to us from far places. However, it gets to us somehow through the intervening darkness. Now the darkness is a factor. Darkness is zero light—at least we could describe it that way I suppose—and therefore it has zero dimension. It has zero speed. I suppose in one way it could be said that it is dimensionally speaking nothing—zero everything. Now this is a factor when we look at far-distant light objects, because it intervenes, it is in between. If you strike a match in a dark place it illuminates a little area around. Sometimes you don’t have a flashlight; you strike a match in order to see something. You have to get pretty close with your match if whatever it is is to be illuminated. So there is illumination available from light. There’s some that illuminates the earth in the daytime, and this illumination evidently extends out quite a way, because the sun is pretty powerful. In other words it’s pushing this light out—if you look at it that way—for quite a distance. The solar system is encompassed in the sun’s illumination. We can see Pluto, which is supposed to be the furthest planet. It isn’t right now as a matter of fact. I think Neptune is the furthest one out, because Pluto has a rather peculiar orbit; it comes inside Neptune at times and it’s inside right now. We see these planets—they reflect the sun’s light, so the sun must get out at least that far.

But going back to this match again. A person who is standing, we’ll say, a couple of hundred yards away can see the light of the match when you strike it, but no matter how carefully he looks at his book he won’t be able to read by the light of that match. So there are two kinds of light in this sense. There is the illuminating light, and there is the light which is seeable at a distance through darkness—in other words, the medium for the transmission of the light is darkness, and the medium by which we see the light is darkness. There is this space of darkness which is zero dimensionally, so it doesn’t take any time at all for that light to reach us. It is not in fact reaching us, any more than we are reaching it. It is there, and there is zero dimension in between. So in fact it could be said that we see the universe now, everywhere, the way it is now, because we see it through the dark—through zero dimension. There is no dimension in between; there is no speed in between. I don’t particularly want to expand that at the moment. It has many implications, incidentally, which we would recognize as relating to the truth. We know that it is now every place in the universe, regardless of what the light is doing. Even if it is taking immense periods of time to come to us, it is still now wherever it came from. But maybe it is not taking those immense periods of time to get to us.

Light illuminates in its immediate system, like the solar system for instance, or there is galactic light. But it does not force itself through billions of miles of nothing to get to the eye that sees it. The nothing in between is zero. So there is the light we see in that way through darkness, and there is the light which illumines the immediate system. When we strike a match it has an immediate system just around it. Get beyond that, you can’t see anything by that light. It is a different kind of light that is then perceived. So here is a very well-entrenched concept in the scientific mind, with regard to the universe and light, which perhaps is totally untrue. And we might suspect that virtually every other concept that the intellect holds is equally untrue. It is not the way it is thought to be. Things are the way they are, not the way the human mind thinks them to be, and that doesn’t make anything so. The thing is so already. The human mind has this infernal habit of trying to make everything fit into its own little thimble of consciousness, which it won’t do. Certainly the universe won’t fit in there, and it is ridiculous to try to make it. It proliferates a fanciful world of imagination, logically explained of course, but simply created by this little thimble of the mind, and has nothing to do with the way things really are. 

Now if we can see that as it has application with respect to something vast like the universe, or something very small at the other end of the spectrum, then we may possibly deduce that the same thing is true right where we are in the factors that are present in the immediate daily experience. They are not the way the mind thinks they are. And yet the mind presumes to judge everything in this field as though it knew. It doesn’t. The truth is spiritually discerned. Only the spirit is capable of encompassing what is present—very small, or medium sized, or very large—so that it is comprehensible to spirit. That comprehensibility is revealing of the way things actually are. I have pointed out on various occasions—it is particularly drawn to point in the book As Of A Trumpet—that in human nature human beings live in a dream world, one they have dreamt up themselves. It is not what is actually there. It is simply something that is parading through the little human nature consciousness of the individual while he is sleeping. As long as a person is asleep, that is the only experience he can have, the fact of a dream. The dream may be evidence that there is a reality somewhere, about which the dream is woven in the human consciousness. We are concerned with the reality, not with the dream. Because we see the dream as a dream, or begin to perhaps, does not mean we have to go out and try to convince everybody that they are dreaming. That gets you into a battle, an argument, which leads nowhere. Did you ever have a dream in which there was an argument? If you did, no matter who won the argument, or even if it was inconclusive, when you woke up it meant nothing—nothing at all. What a waste of time! Well the same thing is true in our awakening to the reality of being. The dreams simply vanish and are as though they had never been.

Of course dreams hang on sometimes in human nature consciousness, in the ordinary sense of what human beings call a dream, because they relate to factors that are hanging around in the subconscious mind of human nature. And so there may be repetition. There has been a great deal of repetition in this other area of human-nature living which is deemed to be real, simply because there has been all this stuff hanging around in the subconscious minds of human beings, and there is an endless, meaningless round of repetition. We begin to see that we have come to the point where “Thus far and no further. Wake up or else”. On every occasion when a point of climax or disaster has been reached in human affairs, so that civilizations passed away, a new civilization came out of the ashes of the old, but based upon exactly the same dream conditions as produced the old. If we impute any intelligence to God, I think we would arrive at the conclusion that sooner or later He would say, “That’s enough. That’s enough. Either come clear now or we will let the sleep become eternal.” And we find ourselves at that point, because never in the past, when these points of climax came, was there on earth a facility by which the transition into the true state, the waking state, might have occurred. Consequently there was utter disaster, and although a few human beings were left—obviously so; we are still here—all that was possible then was mere survival. As I have indicated recently, if it comes to that point of mere survival now, in what is happening, there will not be any, and it will be indication of the fact that we have failed.

The true transition, the true transformation, the true resurrection, is not a matter of survival in the old human nature state, which is what it has always been before. Something emerges out of the human nature state while the human nature state is passing away, so that when it has passed away this other state is there. It is not as though we have to cut off the human nature state, and when we’ve got rid of that we will have the divine state. How? There wouldn’t be anyone left. If the human nature state has passed away, just on that basis there is a blank insofar as human beings are concerned. We’ve gotten rid of human nature—we’ve gotten rid of everybody at the same time. And that is one way of getting rid of human nature, of course. It happens individually constantly. That’s not what we are concerned with. We are not thinking in terms of mere survival, because that will be impossible anyway. We are thinking in terms of the restoration, of the resurrection, of what it is that occurs in this tomb of darkness, this dream world of darkness, in this coma state, to permit an emergence out of it on the part of those who are willing to participate in that emergence. If no one is willing to participate, then nothing happens. We have this portrayed very beautifully in the story of the Master’s trial, crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. Clearly it was something quite different that came out of the tomb to what went into it—different in some way—and yet it was the same person, the same angel, but appearing in different form.

Because all human beings are in the dream state, the waking state seems to be unreal. The dream state is so vivid and so close that this is what is considered to be the reality, and anyone who suggests differently would be usually considered to be off his rocker. Well, we are a peculiar people—we suggest differently. The way we do it, provided we do it as we should do it, it doesn’t mean that we all are going to find ourselves in an institution. We are here to let the resurrection occur. Let us make Man. Not after man has destroyed himself. How would that be possible? That would only be possible from the standpoint of the Lord God again in the unmanifest sense, in the undimensional sense. From our standpoint, and the standpoint of our responsibility, our creation is right here relative to the sleeping body of mankind, the body in a coma. It is in a coma as to its real reason for existence, unconscious of that entirely. There are certain things going on at the level of consciousness which is still present in that body, and we can see that that is, from the standpoint of the true state of man, a very low level. Human beings have fallen so that they are trying to exist, survive, at a level where they do not belong at all. As long as they stay at that level they are going to have the experiences which are natural at that level. It is the level of transmutation, transformation—hot, the furnace—and it is painful, miserable.

The human effort has been to try to transform that painful experience, rather than to recognize that he doesn’t belong where the painful experience is. There is nothing wrong with the painful experience. It is only painful insofar as human beings are concerned. It is part of the creative process otherwise—it is what we call evil, or evol. Man does not belong in that mess. He belongs at another level of experience, where these changes are not occurring. In the realm of the change, if one has brought into that realm a perceptiveness that does not belong in that realm, one will suffer the consequences, which human beings have been doing. It is only when they rise up to the level where they belong that the former things pass away. They pass away in the experience of human beings. They do not pass away from the standpoint of what is happening actually. What is actually happening human beings do not know. It has not fitted into their little thimble of the mind. They don’t understand. So they interpret it this way and that, very logically, and it doesn’t mean anything. Coming out of that state to the level where man belongs, he can observe that state, then he knows what it is. But he is not there anymore; he is not part of what is happening there. Therefore he is not part of the former things, the things of suffering and death. We need to see that we do not have to fight against what is happening at the level where man now insists upon being. What is happening there should be happening there, but man himself should not be involved with it. So our concern is to participate in the expression of what is natural and right at the level where man really belongs, and that is described as the waking state.

We took note of the fact that there is this substance of love. In our experience together we may have awakened somewhat to the reality of this substance of love. It is a common denominator with respect to all of us. It has not yet been differentiated in the individual sense, therefore it unifies us. To the extent that we have a consciousness of this Seventh-Plane substance we find ourselves One. It is only as there is emergence, by reason of the truth of the other levels of consciousness, that there begins to be particularization in our experience, until the most particular thing of which we are aware now is our own physical bodies, when we get right down to it. They are very particular, and they seem to be separated at that level. We seem to be apart from each other. We may have a feeling, well, we want to get close. People do. This is one of the reasons why everybody flocks to the cities. They say that man is a gregarious animal. I take exception to that. He isn’t an animal, in the first place. But there is a sensing, at this very coarse level where he exists now, that there should be the experience of oneness. And because he tries to function at this level of separateness, the only way he can think of having oneness is by nudging up against somebody else—everybody else. This is one of the reasons why this communal business has become popular. In the most part it is an endeavor to experience something which has been long lost insofar as human experience is concerned. This may be emphasized, particularly because there is the spirit of oneness beginning to burgeon and an awareness beginning to come of this substance of love on the part of you perhaps, and others, so that it begins to be present in a more direct sense within the range of human consciousness. So everybody cries out, “Well, let’s have a community experience.” Well, that is just a human nature interpretation of something. There is no particular value to the external experience, whatever it is, of itself—only to the extent that it is useful in angelic expression. If it is, and there is an angel present using it, then that is right-use-ness. But you cannot establish standards, as some have tried to do, with respect to their programs. As long as people are functioning at least in semi-consciousness, dreaming, nothing is accurately observed. So never try to duplicate something in external form. That is death. That is not what we are here to do, to increase death, but to bring life. And life reveals its own forms.

We have some consciousness of the reality of this love substance in its pure essences. It is all-encompassing, all-enfolding. We could say that the whole universe is contained in it. But we bring it down more to specifics, to this little group of people here now in this session. And there is what might be described as a body of love substance in relationship to this little unit. To the extent that we have some sensing of this we do not want to try to make anything out of it. We don’t have to. Just let it be whatever it is. But we will have a sensing of what I have described as friendship. One has to use some words to describe something which is virtually unknown in human experience—it is unknown in the sleeping state. As we begin to stir in our slumbers and there is a semi-consciousness, then we become aware of something which is not describable in dream terms. We don’t need to describe it particularly, just to know the reality of it, and that we are all associated because of this one substance which we all share. Then it begins to be differentiated. And we all find ourselves sharing in a specific way in the substance that is first differentiated, which is womb substance, and we see individual and collective responsibility in this regard—that of enfoldment or encompassment. The primary factor in this matter of encompassment is revealing that we are centered in the right place, in God in other words, ourselves, so as to provide an example and an influence which may be acceptable to others, so that they begin to recognize the necessity of sharing this centering.

Now how is that going to be done? How is it that we share that centering? It is because we have become aware of what we have called the Tone. The Tone in its essences is present in the love substance—it is the same Tone for all of us. It has not yet differentiated into individual expression, or even into collective expression, but it is there to be sensed. And it is sensed by people to the extent that there is someone or ones present in whom it has been differentiated to the point of being sounded in living at the level where people are. So if we are to assist people into a true centering, we are assisting them into an increasing awareness of the Tone. And if there is to be any guidance given, it relates to this, not to forms—“Well you should be behaving this way”—but to spirit. And this spirit relates primarily to the Tone. It is the Tone sounding in the substance of love. It is of a particular quality which is the same for everyone. It has not yet been differentiated. It is the same for everyone. We are all One in this, in our awareness of this Tone. And so we need to know what the Tone is by reason of our own expression of it, and then we can offer a little guidance here or there to someone else, that their experience may be kept aligned with the Tone which we know. We are serving in spirit. It is not a matter of form but of spirit.

“What is fitting in expression?” is the question. Only that is fitting which is true to and harmonious with the Tone sounding in the overall love substance. And it is because we have an experience in this regard ourselves that we can encompass others in a way that assists in keeping them aligned with the Tone—spiritual service. And to the extent that there begins to be an awakening to this, it is not something you can explain in a specific sense. It isn’t as though you can say, “Well you do this, you do that, and you do the other thing, and you’ll know what the Tone is.” No, no. What you do results from the Tone. It is not the cause of the Tone. This must be sensed, and is being sensed presumably by us now, because there is a sounding of the Tone in this love substance of which we are beginning to become aware. It is our friendship that makes us aware of the Tone.

You begin to sense the Tone as it sounds in me, as it sounds in Lillian, Grace—whoever. We are sounding it. One of the reasons why we are here present is to allow you to come close into the experience of this Tone—not so that you can get it all cranked out in your minds, but so that there may be a sensing of what I called friendship, of being in the same substance. And to the extent that we are, then we may enfold others in that substance, and we may assist them to develop a sensitivity in themselves so that they become increasingly aware of that sounding of the Tone. They need to become aware of it for themselves. We cannot copy somebody else in whom the Tone is sounding and be right. The Tone must sound in oneself if one is to be right. And it is that experience of the sounding of the Tone that relates to staying centered. It is not staying centered in a concept or a pattern of belief, emissary or otherwise. It is a matter of staying centered in what is actually there, but of which most people are oblivious because they are trying to function at some level where it is excluded. We know something about why it is excluded, and we will see some more in that regard. But we are above the veil in our considerations now, so that there may be this awareness of what we share, to the glory of God. And so this morning we have participated in the Tone within the scope of our own immediate experience, as it is sounding here and now.

© emissaries of divine light