From the human standpoint government tends to be seen in terms of form. From our standpoint, of course, we see it in terms of spirit. The control that should be operative in the world of true man is that of spirit. And so, at every level of the living experience, individually and collectively, spirit is supreme. In almost any form presently observable in the world as we know it, certain spiritual values can be found. We may be a little selective of these forms, considering those where the spiritual values are most obvious. There is a vast field of form to examine. It is useful to take a look at these forms, particularly if it reminds us of where the real values are, which is in spirit. Now in any field of form, these spiritual values are there because of people. The form itself does not provide us with very much, but always there are people associated with them. There are various qualities that are exemplified by people associated with these different forms. I suppose it could be said that it is plainest where the physical approach is paramount; the mind hasn’t gotten in there so much to distort it. Of course it is doing its best to get in there, particularly in the form of politics relative to amateur sport. Science, where the intellect is very active, finds such a proliferation of detail that it covers up ever increasingly the simplicity of the truth.
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When human beings try to cast themselves simply in the role of an observer, they immediately create for themselves an imaginary state, because the fact of the matter is that human beings are more than observers. They are a part of what it is that they are attempting to observe, while at the same time proposing to exclude themselves from what it is they are observing. So they cannot see the truth, certainly, because the truth would include the person who is observing it, or observing such facts as he is able to lay his finger on. I think this is plainly illustrated by what happens when there are a group of human beings together considering something perhaps—maybe a board meeting—and I enter the room. I have always had difficulty in this regard, because I can never observe what goes on without me being present. The very moment I put in an appearance the whole situation changes. Of course it does this in any group of people when anyone shows up; it changes in some fashion. It’s somewhat different when I show up, because those concerned had, to whatever extent, forgotten the spirit which I bring when I show up. If there had been a complete acknowledgment and acceptance and expression of that spirit in what was going on, then it wouldn’t really change anything very much, would it? It would just go on the same way. So if there seems to be some sort of a rather remarkable change occurring, it is a dead giveaway that the spirit had not been there the way it should have been before and now everybody is smartening up. Of course, it may be that they are putting on their fronts too, so as to impress me. We cannot observe anything without changing it. Observation has a tendency to lead into false judgments every time: the endeavor to cast oneself simply as an observer and then judge what is seen is leaving a factor out of what it is he is observing—himself—so that any judgments that occur will be on the basis of inadequate input. It will be false judgment; it inevitably must be. People try to stand back and to be unbiased, but they are taking an essential element out of the picture when they do that.
We need to stand at a level where we are not a part of the manifest picture; and I don’t know any other level where one could stand but at the crossover point between the dimensional and the undimensional—a point with position but no magnitude. There is no magnitude there, so there is nothing to distort the picture. That is at the high point of spiritual substance in the dimensional world, the point of connection between the dimensional world and the undimensional world. Observation can be made from that point which will include an accurate perspective. Spirit is not excluded. God is not excluded—if God was excluded there would not be anything to observe. So there is an awareness of more than the field of observation, and that more is essential to the field of observation; it would not exist without it. So the only place we could observe with accuracy is this point which has position but no magnitude. The position will determine what it is we are able to observe. The fact of no magnitude indicates that we are not in the realm of form where the observation is being made. We stand at the point of the I—maybe just the dot of the i. Even being in this position we recognize it as a crossover point. Something is crossing over. There is an influence relative to what we are observing, just because of this; but we are aware of that influence as a part of our observation. We could designate this crossover point as the true point of government.
Government is not in position. Government operates on the basis of the Law. And we would not violate that operation when we are present where we belong, at this crossover point. In one sense, you could say the Law is back of us and in front of us. There are the positive and negative aspects here, in actual operation, and as individuals at that crossover point the operation occurs totally within our jurisdiction. So government is natural, because we let the Law work. I think government in the human world is unimaginable except on the basis of imposition. Of course it may be, as some have the view, that there should be as little government as possible—in other words, as little imposition as possible. But if imposition vanished altogether, in the human sense, government would vanish altogether. We see government emerging on a different basis—on the basis of spirit, and the fact that there is the means present by which spirit and form are unified. And the form that comes into evidence then is simply the effect, or the result, the reflection, of what first occurs in spirit in the sense of the undimensional realm.
We only have the whole encompassment at this crossover point between the dimensional and the undimensional. There is another crossover point, because the dimensional reflects within itself the larger picture. There is always a larger picture in which whatever one is considering is contained., and this leads into a realm of incomprehension insofar as the human mind is concerned. How could it go on forever? And if it does, how could the human mind possibly encompass it? Well the answer to that is that it couldn’t. So why try? The more it tries to fit into its thimble, the more distorted the picture becomes. Perhaps the mind has the capacity to handle vastly more than it now handles, but only what is present within the true realm of immediate responsibility. It can do that. If it trespasses beyond those bounds it gets into trouble, and its main activity so far has been trespassing. “Forgive us our trespasses.” The human mind has not reached the point of recognizing even the need for forgiveness in this field, let alone asking for it. But there is a very specific application of this statement in the Lord’s Prayer to this particular field. The human mind is always trespassing. Those of us who are gathered in this Assembly must have a recognition of the need for forgiveness personally in this area, even though we might look out into the human world and see people everywhere who we imagine need it more than us. Well, that is their business. But we need it. “Forgive us our trespasses,” because we stop trespassing. That seems unbelievable to human beings, that forgiveness would mean that one really did not function on the old basis at all. Forgiveness, in the human view, is usually just a way station, until the next trespass.
So we have this smaller pattern within the larger pattern, where there is another crossover point
between what we call the dimensional heaven and the dimensional earth.
These two crossover points—one between the undimensional and the dimensional,
and one between the dimensional heaven, the invisible heaven, and the dimensional or visible earth—are really one.
As a model, I have cut some triangles out of a piece of paper and then folded them together,
and you find that the points of the apex fit exactly, one behind the other.
So we have an actual living process here, something emerging into manifest form, which in turn emerges beyond whatever that manifest form is to other forms, and beyond, and beyond. But there is a returning cycle, which raises up that in which this creative process has been at work, and there is what we have referred to as ascension—something coming back, something rising up out of the earth through that crossover point into heaven, and out of heaven through the higher crossover point into God. And we don’t need to trespass beyond this. We may have an awareness of the fact that it is an oversimplification to just use the word God, but that is about all that is necessary for the un-trespassing human mind. We ourselves find ourselves at a point of observation and action, as well as response, when we are restored to ourselves. That experience comes at the crossover point between the dimensional and the undimensional. You could call that point the Son of God, and the point between the heaven and the earth the Son of Man. Man is at the high point of the earth, God is at the high point of the heaven; but they are one. There is a differentiation, a creative movement, the reality of life.
Now, in observing these various forms where human beings are contained presently, we may see that there is always a tendency for human beings to congeal and become the forms. This has happened throughout human history, and it is obvious enough in the world now, even though some of these congealed forms have become finally so brittle that they do not hold together anymore too well. One can see various stages of crystallization here, which is the downward movement. Something starts off by being fairly fluid, or even gaseous, and then it becomes fluid, and then it becomes solid. But eventually the crystallized structure does not have any cohesiveness left and it breaks down into component crystals. In observing these forms, we are not overly concerned with what it is that tends to produce this congealing. We know that it is there in the forms. We are interested in the people—and is it more important that they should be in one form than another? They are still people regardless of the form that they are in, and this is the thing that is important to us. The disintegration that is taking place in the world of form now, all around us, we see as being necessary—as being good—it needs to happen, because it frees up the substance.
But how about the forms into which we ourselves have crystallized?
When there is a recognition that these should be liquefied (perhaps there is a difference between being liquefied and liquidated!) then the resistance appears and an attitude of horror may be assumed. These holy forms are being called in question. Well, any form is only holy just so long as it is capable of accommodating spirit, because the form of itself isn’t anything. With respect to all these various forms, it is the people who are present in the forms, the living people, who are important; and it really makes very little difference to us, properly, as to what the nature of the form is in which these people find themselves. The important aspects are the spiritual values, and there would not be any spiritual values there, with which we would be particularly be concerned, if it was not for the people.
Obviously, there are spiritual values in the animal kingdom, and the kingdom of vegetation and the mineral kingdom, but our immediate concern of government relates to the human kingdom, because here is the place of government relating to all the other kingdoms. We cannot provide right government in these other kingdoms until it is first a fact in the human kingdom. So here is the first order of business. But the spiritual values are present because of people. And because people are in these various forms we accept them the way they are, both as individuals and relative to the forms. We don’t imagine that we cannot accept a person until he comes out of some particular form, because if we take that attitude then we are saying at the same time, “We cannot accept you while you are in that form, but we will accept you while you are in this form.” Well, we are not shuffling people from one form to another. We are offering the opportunity of freedom—freedom from subjection to forms. We cannot be free from subjection to forms unless we are free in the spirit. You cannot just be free from subjection to forms without being dead. There must be something there with which you may be unified on the right basis, according to the true working of the Law—because even when people are subject to forms, as they are, this happens by reason of the working of the Law. One might say it is reversed application, but it is still the working of the Law. And human beings find themselves in oneness with forms, and the only way that this state of oneness with forms on the wrong basis of the working of the Law can be dissolved is through death. So death is a very necessary ingredient of the picture, as long as there is this reverse application of the Law. But it would be entirely unnecessary when the Law is allowed to operate the way it should. We learn to accept things as they are. So we accept people the way they are. And if they are associated with this form or that form, that does not have all that much significance to us. The people are there, and within the people there are inherent qualities of spiritual value, spiritual character. This is true of everyone, as long as life remains. The extent of such qualities varies from person to person.
So we wish to provide the substance of connection, in which the spirit of God may work. It is the substance of connection upward for those concerned, for those who are open to be influenced by it. It is an uplifting experience that begins to bring a person into alignment with the cycles of ascension. And this happens to the extent that there is a focus point established between—first of all between the undimensional and the dimensional worlds, and then beyond that again into the realm of earthly form by reason of that crossover point, that connection between heaven and earth. This is our responsibility. And in either case, whichever point we look at, it’s a point—it has position but no magnitude, and consequently we could not fit anyone else into it. So we are not trying to get anyone into anything; but we may share collectively in providing a crossover point. This is our business here in the Assembly, with this particular configuration. There should be a unified point capable not only of generating the essential fine substance, so that it is available, but of letting it connect up with such substance as may be present in other people, wherever they are. As this connecting-up takes place in a more particular sense, we become aware of what it is that is happening in a more specific way. That is what was undertaken this morning in looking at three areas of form and acknowledging that there are people, and spiritual values consequently, present within the range of these forms.
Now the substance that we provide, we see it as connection; but those who are being connected don’t. They don’t know what it is that is happening, even though they have experiences of the happening. But they are not in position to say, “This is happening because of that.” Mind you, when the happenings become more outstanding, so that they cannot sweep them under the carpet of usual daily experience, then something may come more specifically into the picture with which they are inclined to identify the happening. The Emissaries have been used in this way by most who found themselves associated. Their experience became sufficiently specific to say, “Well, this is happening because of the Emissaries of Divine Light.” Well, that’s all right for the moment. But if that view is held too long one is merely associated with a concept of one’s own mind. And again, the connection with spirit begins to fade, the sensitivity begins to fade, the congealing goes into effect, the crystallization takes place, and it all falls apart. If one is doing that as a person, well, one just falls apart oneself. So we see the essential nature of this connecting substance—which is the substance of life itself—as the opportunity for people of quality everywhere to find themselves associated in an increasingly conscious way with the reality of life. The various ideas that may be in their minds are not of all that much importance, any more than the ideas that were in our minds were of all that much importance. We thought they were important, mind you, and we doubtless tried to lay them on other people; but they were not all that important to us, let alone to anybody else.
In order to keep human beings from congealing too much in whatever forms they may find themselves, we are aware of the value of water. Pure water, the symbol of truth—is what was poured over Elijah’s sacrifice, so that everything was sodden; it was quite soft, capable of yielding. And so truth is a vital element here, an element that is present in our own consciousness—it must be there if we are to pour the water over the sacrifice. And we stand at the point of observation, knowing that our presence provides an ingredient in the situation that was not there before. That ingredient includes our own view and understanding of what it is that is taking place. Our view of any forms is important, because this is the way that the water is poured over the sacrifice. This is not requiring anything of anyone else; it is just our own view, our own understanding of the situation. All too many have had rather crystallized views—they had congealed to that extent—and they looked at other gatherings of human beings through this congealed vision and consequently entered into judgment in the matter: “They haven’t congealed the way they should have congealed.” The point is that they should not have congealed, if they have, and neither should we. We are not seeking to congeal people but to free them up, to let them be in a more malleable condition.
The first force was water; and the water is the truth of our own outlook, of our own awareness of what the situation really is. We are not concerned about the form except as it may be a factor which is producing some congealing of the people. But we see the people from the standpoint of their qualities of spirit, from the standpoint of the spiritual values that are present there, regardless of what level of congealing may have occurred. Our attitude is one of blessing, because those inherent qualities that are present are to be activated by the action of spirit moving through the creative cycle, which is associated with these people by reason of the substance of connection. This is all occurring at a level of which the human mind has had no awareness—thankfully, because wherever the human mind gets an awareness it always interferes, it always trespasses, or tries to. So we do not see these things in order that we can explain them to other people. The reason I am talking about them now with you is not to explain them to you but so that we may all together participate in pouring a few barrels of water over these various groupings which come within the range of our consideration, which are brought to us in one way or another.
I am sure that we are all much more aware now of the possibilities in various areas from the spiritual standpoint, and we do not just write them off and say, “Well that form is no good. That congealing condition is no good.” Well, it isn’t much use, that’s true; but there are people there, and we are not writing off the people. And the only way we can sustain a right connection, on the basis of the true working of the Law with those people, is by reason of the fact that we have the connecting substance. And by the way, the substance of connection is not the substance of judgment. So we let it simply be what it is, and we find ourselves associated with these people to the extent that we ourselves are representatives of the spiritual values that are present in them. The connection is a real connection because there is the substance here—it is not anymore just a delightful imagination.
Now this has led into the matter of government more specifically, because you can see how, with the working of the Law and the creative cycle and in the movement of spirit, what rightly can be done is caused to happen. And we do not have to go rushing frantically around the world, here, there and everywhere, trying to preach the gospel according to some human concept. We preach it in this way. We preach it by reason of our own living primarily, because we are then representing those spiritual qualities that are present in people in every formation, wherever they may be around the world. As we let this happen in ourselves these things are brought to us. Certain things are brought to this Assembly. We do not imagine that everything is going to be brought to this Assembly, but there will be those things which are ripe at this point, in relationship to all of us and with respect to all those people out there who are concerned with whatever it is that is brought to us. We let it happen. What is capable of being brought to us will be brought to us as the substance of connection is there. And so we share increasingly in the reality of spiritual government.
A very great deal of my ministry has been concerned with this matter of preventing congealing getting out of hand, because we all move together, and if Emissaries begin to congeal, I am not exempt from what is happening. Of course it is useful to become aware of the fact that there is a congealing going on, because then I know something really needs to be done about it. And consequently I have been under the necessity of doing various things to—well, pour more water on the scene, and in various ways provide what I was able to let things be loosened up. So we all need to be aware of this necessity, because those who are with us more closely as individuals will have the same tendency as everybody else to congeal. And if we go along with it, we are sunk in the molasses.
Karma Of The World Body
fromDealing With Facts Without Judgment
Martin Cecil January 13, 1980 a.m.
Whenever I come before those who are assembled in the Chapel here at 100 Mile House, or elsewhere, I am always faced with a question as to what it is that should be offered in the name of the Lord, for the purposes of God, during the hour that is to ensue. The choice, however, is not entirely my own. I always have a question to ask, too: What will those who are present be willing to let be offered? I am faced with a question; you are faced with a question. These questions may be answered as they are allowed to blend together, so that there is a clear facility present for the Lord to give what is right and fitting and necessary in the particular hour.
We are here this morning with these questions as yet unanswered. From my standpoint it is mostly a matter of finding a starting point. Obviously none of us can know ahead of time all that properly should take form in the hour. If we did I suppose it would be unnecessary for us to be here. We are here to find out. What is forthcoming at the hand of the Lord must necessarily be accepted willingly. None of us are here to determine what it is that should take form. We discover what it is as it does so, but it can only do so in an effective manner if we provide what is necessary to let it happen. If we have any restrictions, any particular wants, then immediately what would naturally come forth is frustrated in some measure.
What comes forth has to come forth either through an open door or seek to emerge around the various blockages that are present. When there is an open door everything is very easy, and incidentally very enjoyable, and in fact we are not bored; but if there is too much necessity for circumnavigating the icebergs and the shoals, then it may become a little bit tedious. But even that tedium must necessarily be accepted, because we are concerned to let come forth what may; no arbitrary imposition is going to be made. So collectively we establish the limits of what may occur. We are all responsible in this regard, so it behooves us to be present with one accord in one place, letting the door be opened wide.
All this pertains to our particular responsibility here in the Chapel, but at the same time we need to recognize that there is more going on on earth than what is occurring here in the Chapel. What is forthcoming, if we act as we should, will also be conditioned by the necessities on the wider scene. Consequently we must not only bear with the particular quality of the outpouring of the spirit that is coming forth through the open door which we provide, but have a keen awareness that it is coming forth for a particular purpose relative to what is present, in the relevant aspects of the world experience as a whole.
I mention these things because we may see how important it is that we should have no strings attached to what it is that is forthcoming in the name of the Lord. Even if it should happen that all of us here allow the door to be fully opened, this is not the only factor within the range of our field of responsibility. Certainly we are not gathered here to benefit ourselves, to have a nice and satisfying experience for an hour. We are here to allow something to find release in expression during this hour which is going to be of value in the hands of the Lord relative to His world as a whole—and who of us is to say what that would be? We don’t really need to know, and we are unlikely to find out during the hour what it is. Even though there may be some awareness of the nature of what takes form, we may not know its ultimate purpose in the specific sense. We are quite willing to trust the Lord in this regard—it’s His business, after all. We play our respective parts; we play our part as a whole, unified group, but what moves beyond is not necessarily seen or known by us. It doesn’t need to be. We are here to do our job and we may trust the Lord to do His.
So, always, at the beginning of a service there is a need to find some sort of starting point, as in some measure we have already done this morning. I may ahead of time have given consideration to some possible starting points, but what will ensue once the starting point is presented and the spirit starts to move remains to be seen. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man.” The human mind likes to have things cut and dried. It feels safer that way; more secure, it thinks. But that’s a sure way to produce boredom. How much more delightful it is to experience freedom, so that whatever may emerge is allowed to do so. It becomes exciting then, an adventure, not a repetition of platitudes.
I would like to consider with you a wider vision, so that we may see more clearly what it is that we need to do in a personal sense. Mankind has inhabited the face of the earth for many millennia. There is of course speculation as to origins, but beyond the period of human history as it is known, human beings, much as they are today, were evidently in existence. We say that civilizations have come and gone. However mankind has remained. Mankind is still alive. There are those who talk about what they call karma, trying to make it fit relative to individual human beings. However, we may see a karma which does fit, relative to mankind as a whole. What has been sown has been reaped during the lifetime of mankind. We don’t need any reincarnation to explain it. There is just one lifetime so far, with respect to mankind, and what is sown collectively is reaped collectively. There have been ups and downs, we might say. Some of the downs have been so deep that they formed a chasm over which human vision, at this present time, doesn’t really reach. There is consequently speculation.
Individually speaking, human beings are a part of this overall body of mankind, which thus far remains living. Individual human beings come and go. There is a tendency to see themselves as isolated entities. In order to make the experience seem somehow meaningful various theories have been introduced in which many people fervently believe. One of them is of course this matter of reincarnation. We might well recall an occasion when sight was restored to a man who was born blind, and there was a certain amount of speculation on the part of the disciples as to why he was born blind in the first place. The human mind has always been interested to try to find out why apparently unjust experiences are known. There is basically a recognition in human consciousness that there must be justice somehow. The recorded words of the Master, in reply to this speculation, were these: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” That certainly, if believed, would shoot down the concept of reincarnation, working out some sort of long-term karma.
This idea of course is convenient because it apparently means that one need not accept immediate responsibility for one’s own experiences. You can blame it on the past, even on one’s own misbehavior in the past. So that looks pretty good to many people. It doesn’t involve blaming anyone else. I don’t think that any of us should anymore be looking for excuses for failing to do what we are perfectly capable of doing now. If we want to consider karma then we can look at the whole human race and see that what is in effect in the world now is not unrelated to what human beings have been doing all down through the ages. But in the personal sense, let us not try to slip out from the acceptance of the reality of our own manhood or womanhood. Let us not whine or complain about what we experience. Much of what we experience we bring upon ourselves. After all, we have been busy sowing seeds of various sorts ever since we have been born, and consequently we reap harvests which are not unrelated to our sowing. It is true that individually we are all part of the body of mankind, and we can’t escape the results of prior action on the part of that body. One of the most futile things to undertake is to complain about it. It won’t make any difference. What we can do is to acknowledge responsibility for ourselves now, and let us do it without judgment.
Judgment probably rises up most quickly when matters of injustice present themselves to us, or what seems to us to be unjust. Then we begin to judge. For instance, there may be those who experience troubles of various sorts that from our viewpoint look to be unfair to those people: it’s not fair to them; at least this could be our human viewpoint; whereas with somebody else who is doing a bit of suffering, we might say, “Well he has it coming to him.” That obviously is judgment, isn’t it? On the one hand we’re saying, “No, that’s unfair over there; that shouldn’t happen. But this here now, this person who is suffering, it’s really justified.” That's judgment! And that is the basis upon which human beings tend to function. Of course these attitudes are taken because of what is known in one’s own personal experience with respect to oneself. Most people do not like to admit that they sowed the seeds which they are now reaping, so it is much more satisfying to claim that one is being treated unfairly.
The point is not as to whether one is being treated fairly or unfairly from the standpoint of the human viewpoint. The point is as to whether one is going to judge in the matter, and whether one is therefore going to be in position or not to handle whatever the situation is correctly. No circumstance can be handled correctly unless there is a correct person on hand to handle it. That’s reasonable, isn’t it? It requires a person who is not judging for one thing, not eating of the forbidden fruit, to handle whatever it is that arises in the circumstances—which includes those within oneself in the human sense—rightly and wisely. This cannot be done if one is judging, if one is saying, “I am being treated unfairly.” That’s not the point at all. It doesn’t matter whether it’s fair or unfair—that’s completely irrelevant! Now that’s a horrible thought, isn’t it? But it is completely irrelevant! The question is, how are you going to handle that circumstance, the factual circumstance, without speculating as to its fairness or unfairness; there is the fact; what are you going to do with that? How are you going to handle it?
In relationship to other people—and the way one handles these things with respect to other people is rather revealing of what’s going on inside oneself of course—if you are saying with respect to someone, probably because you are fond of that person, that he is being unfairly treated and suffering in consequence of that unfair treatment, all you are doing is supporting a state of judgment in yourself. This is the basis on which sympathy is offered, isn’t it? “Oh it is terrible how you are suffering. Isn’t it awful the way other people make you suffer?” Oh the individual is hurting so! Well I trust they hurt some more, so that they wake up finally to the fact that they are responsible for handling that hurt. They are not responsible for judging as to why it is there, and no one else is responsible for judging why it is there. “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.” We’re not going to place blame anywhere, because that is completely beside the point. Mind you, this attitude occupies human beings everywhere on the face of the earth: “Oh how unfair everything is.” So what? Of course it is. Human beings have been unfair to the Lord, incidentally, for a long, long time. Because of that they suffer, and the suffering emerges through this one and that one in different ways. Is there anyone on hand who is capable of functioning correctly in such a situation? And this is an individual matter. We are beginning to come back from that large picture of immense happenings in the world to our responsibility as individuals relative to those immense happenings, because what we do is important.
The immense happenings in the world come because human beings react to the creative tides of the spirit of God. We are not interested so much in human reaction to the creative tides as we are in the creative tides, to associate ourselves with those tides, so that we are in agreement with them and we are not looking around in the world and saying, “Well it’s unfair the way these tides are working.” It isn't unfair; it’s exactly the way they should be. Surely we’re not going to buck the Law. It’s not going to make any difference to the Law anyway; it’s going to work. Let it work! We may be able to provide a blessing to those who are willing to accept a blessing. We won’t find out whether they are willing to accept a blessing until we provide it. Sometimes there is a little prejudgment in this regard, isn’t there? “Oh I know that person is not going to accept the blessing anyway, so I won’t provide it.” Well it’s up to that person whether he accepts it or not, but it’s up to you whether you provide it or not.
So we are very much concerned with handling factual situations and coming out of the ridiculous imaginations that human beings have, coming out of their imaginary worlds of suffering; and as I have said before, vast numbers of human beings love to suffer. They wouldn’t admit it consciously but the proof of the pudding is in the eating—and they suffer. We all have things to handle in that sense. We’re all part of the body of mankind, which is reaping what it has sown; therefore there are those impacts which come up against us in various ways but which we need not try to explain in personal terms.
There is a great deal of suffering to be done; that’s a foregone conclusion. Do any of you imagine, in this moment, that your suffering is worse than the suffering of anyone else on the face of the earth? That’s obviously ridiculous. It isn’t that human beings are not going to suffer—and, the last word I had, we’re all human beings. So there is a certain amount of suffering to be done, the way things are, in the reaping of what has been sown. Why try to explain it any more than that? Whatever the situation is, is factual. Let us handle the situation from the standpoint of the spiritual tides which are moving in the affairs of men, including our own affairs.
We may have compassion upon others, insofar as their suffering is concerned, and we offer blessing; but the blessing is never to commiserate with people on their suffering, never! “Poor you, you’re being badly done by.” That’s agreeing with the devil. No one is being badly done by. Why are we here on earth? “That the works of God should be made manifest.” Simple. Very simple. The works of God are not made manifest when we agree with the attitude of judgment, the judgment that this suffering should not occur, for instance, as one aspect of it. How do you know? I am sure that many of you have had this awful burden of suffering to carry during the course of your lives, and you didn’t like it when it happened probably, but you have been able to look back on it and maybe you saw that it was the best thing that ever happened to you. So let’s leave it all alone, not try to explain it beyond the fact that the Law works. It works individually, it works collectively, and so there are many facts that are here which need to be handled. Who is going to handle them? Not the one who is judging and accusing and condemning and deciding what the sentence should be upon somebody else, but the one who is concerned simply that the spiritual tides of Being should be made manifest in his own attitude and his own way of handling things, even to the extent of handling his own suffering.
So many people just give up when there is a little suffering on hand. We may think of this even in terms of physical suffering. Mind you, you can’t separate physical suffering from mental suffering and emotional suffering. A lot of physical suffering occurs by reason of the wrong function mentally and emotionally. Then the individual has something to show to the world: “Look what’s wrong with me; I can show you; therefore I’m suffering,” as though that was the origination of suffering. It isn’t—it’s just a peripheral effect of something else, something that’s not so apt to be brought to the surface and displayed before other people.
The question always arises as to what you do when you get sick, physically speaking. Here is a very simple situation. We say everybody gets sick, after all. Why? Is there any such necessity? Virtually all sickness is self-induced. We originate our own sicknesses—it’s not unfair—and we need to handle them, because if we don’t we'll keep on originating our sicknesses. What do you do when you get sick? Do you surrender your position of spiritual responsibility, saying to yourself, “Well I can’t be expected to handle that, because I’m so sick. When the sickness goes away I’ll pick up my responsibilities again”? Do you think we would have had any ministry now if I had taken that attitude? We can’t break the tide that is moving through us and is our responsibility to allow to take form in expression, and then pick it up again as though nothing had happened. Something has happened; something has been dissipated, it’s lost. You can’t get it back.
Did you ever hear of the first flush of feeling, the importance of that? That subject was introduced maybe forty years ago, but who has taken responsibility for that first flush of feeling? “Well it will be better next time; I’m making progress; it will be right one day.” Do you think so? Never, never on that basis. It’s now or never! There’s a saying that human beings utter from time to time, “Now or never.” Well it is, in this field, now or never. And if we get sick we still have our spiritual responsibility and the physical symptoms are entirely to one side. I see so many people sinking down supinely under their physical symptoms: “Oh, I can’t help it, I’m sick." That’s like saying, “I can’t help it, I’m human.” Just carrying that a little further you can say, “I can’t help it, I’m dead.”
Regardless of what’s happening in ourselves or anyone else, we stay where we belong. Then we are in position to let whatever happens be to the glory of God, because there is someone there to handle it as it should be handled. One of the first places where anyone needs to handle it is in relationship to his own experience, and that relates very particularly to this business of being sick. We can all be sick, but regardless of all that, we can still be in position and do what we are supposed to be doing. Does that mean that you could never rightly retire to bed? Well it might mean that you never rightly retire to bed as often as you do, but one can handle what needs to be handled even if one is in bed.
Let us assume our responsibilities spiritually, so that we move with the tides that are moving and we are not supporting other people who are complaining about the tides and the effect that they are having in their own experience. Rejoice! That's what should be happening. Thank God that it is so, so that we may keep moving with the tides of the spirit and not keep moving with the reactions of human beings. Let this be clear in our experience, and the creative power of God can work. Let us live, handling our factual experiences without indulging in vain and evil imagination which is based in judgment, usually of what is supposed to be fair or unfair. We need to reach a point where we can say, “Who cares?” The question is whether you are a man or woman enough to handle what is happening, and if we see this happening with respect to somebody else, well what’s our attitude toward them? “You need to handle this in the right way,” not “It’s too bad. If so-and-so had behaved in some other way you wouldn’t be suffering so.” How do you know? We claim our own suffering. We sometimes think of ourselves as being important because we have suffered so much. That’s not where the importance lies. The importance lies in how we handled such suffering as we may have had, and usually it wasn’t near as much as we make it out to be.
So, let us praise the Lord for the privilege of accepting responsibility, individually speaking, in our worlds with respect to ourselves and with respect to others. We don’t support the nonsensical human attitudes that are taken. We need to see the truth, and because we lay it on the line with respect to ourselves we begin to lay it on the line with respect to others. A lot of nonsense could clear up in short order on that basis. Praise the Lord!
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