A Window Finished Above #1

A  Window  Finished  Above  #1

Martin Exeter   November 4, 1984  a.m.

Be still. The state of stillness of mind and heart is almost a lost art. It is impossible to know except as one’s mind and heart are open and yielded to spirit. When that stillness comes, then it may be said that a window is finished above. You may remember this statement as being made when the ark was being built: “A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories.” That’s an interesting construction, isn’t it? The window is finished above first, and then there may be a door to allow entry into the ark, and the second and third stories below emerge. If one takes that literally it would be rather a difficult task to build an ark, but the sequence is accurate nevertheless. There cannot be a door, so that there may be entry into the ark, until the window is finished above, until there is that spiritual or heavenly connection, not only present—it is present as long as life remains—but known.

Be still, that the window may be finished above. This seems always rather impractical to human minds and hearts which are accustomed to following out their own designs: “If you were still, you would be very vulnerable.” This is not so if the window is finished above, because the fact of spiritual expression becomes possible. We have equated spiritual expression with common sense—not so impractical after all. Only when there is spiritual expression can an invitation be extended to come into the ark. The ark, in our own consciousness now, would relate to the spiritual body of which we are aware. This spiritual body has meaning because it has a flesh form—and we are aware of this flesh body with which we are now associated. It has taken form because the window was finished above, to whatever degree this has been true, so that those who compose the ark might participate in spiritual expression, might participate in common sense.

The story of the ark in the Old Testament may have some sort of historical base, but whatever that event of the flood was, insofar as we are concerned now what was there indicated is simply an analogy for us, acquainting us with something of our present experience. Apparently it is not so easy to take present experience on trust that it is what it should be. We need a little confirmation out of some prior scripture or historical experience, which is not really necessary but may be helpful. I have used it this morning, that the present experience might be equated with something that is in the record, while obviously what is now happening is in many ways different to what occurred before. Whatever happened before may be revealing of certain principles, but it doesn’t tell us as to what exactly it is that is happening now. There was indication somewhere that the Lord would not bring up a flood again upon the earth; next time the purging would be by fire. In the consciousness of many people this has seemed to indicate the inevitability of thermonuclear war. We are not so sure ourselves that that is inevitable, to the extent that we are factually providing an alternative. If we, or somebody else, are not providing an alternative, well I suppose that might be inevitable. But we have awakened to some extent to an alternative—something else is happening besides destructiveness on earth.

Before the instructions were given for the building of the ark in days of yore, there was a recognition that the earth was filled with corruption and violence. Well we can recognize something of that sort in the world, even within the range of our own personal experience in some ways. There has been rather a violent state of affairs in India recently. One may wonder a little just how much the violence is magnified by the media. It looks like an appalling thing to have a thousand casualties, but when you consider that the Indian population is 750 million it doesn’t really amount to very much—of course it amounts to something for the casualties. But in the overall view I suspect that there is considerable media magnification. “This is news, after all,” they say. I don’t think it’s news; it’s been going on for millennia.

Corruption and violence: this brings its own reward. The reward before was a flood; at least it was described that way. We no doubt will discover what the reward is in these times. We see something of it already. The world is certainly filled with corruption and violence, and if that is all there is—no ark—then presumably there is destruction. So in that sense it looks to be somewhat inevitable. But we have an awareness of what may be describable in terms of an ark, a body which has been taking form because there has been the ingredient which is necessary to allow it to happen. The ingredient before was Noah. He may not have stood entirely alone; he had some fellow workers to build the ark presumably, besides his three sons. But there was a starting point, and we are aware that there has been a starting point insofar as our own experience is concerned. And we have allowed ourselves to be drawn into the structure of the ark of this present day. We have called it a body, a body capable of surviving whatever may happen, whatever the destruction may be by reason of the corruption and the violence. There begins to be present something that is capable of surviving; but to what end?

We ourselves have been drawn into this body, together with many others who are not present in person with us this morning, to compose whatever this body should be, because certainly it isn’t constructed according to some human design that any of our brilliant minds thought up and decided it was what the world needed. We are aware of what the world needs, but how that shall be conveyed is something to be discovered. So we associate ourselves together in this process, and for many of us we find that it is an inevitable thing—quite inexorable, in one sense, whether we like it or not, we find ourselves compelled. That compulsion relates to this window finished above.

There is another compulsion which is very prevalent in the world. We recognize the uncontrolled release of energy and violence by reason of the fact that human emotions are uncontrolled. At least that’s one way of seeing it; they are uncontrolled in the sense of spirit. They are not uncontrolled in the sense of their own state, because obviously the release of life through the conditioned consciousness of human beings produces certain effects, and the effects are controlled by the conditioned state of human consciousness. So there is a control there; it is a control which brings inevitable destruction. And so there is a larger range of truth that brings about this destruction, because human beings cannot get away with violating their integrity. The results come because things work the way they work; so everything is under control in that sense. It may not seem to be from the human standpoint at times—at times when there is rioting or when war puts in an appearance; of course there is a certain control from the standpoint of the war-makers—but all this comes about by reason of the conditioned state of human consciousness. Human beings are alive; the life force is present; as it comes out through these conditioned states then the effect will be accordingly. That effect will be corrupt and violent and it will produce destruction in consequence. It’s all very natural, the way things should be.

Things work the way they work. And we have reached a point where we are quite thankful that they work the way they work, because we can let them work in a creative way rather than in a destructive way, so that the results are creative rather than destructive. Obviously that requires that the life force doesn’t come out through the conditioned state of human consciousness. The conditioned state of human consciousness needs to be changed, and as that conditioning is allowed to dissolve then you have the second and third stories putting in an appearance—the sanctified mind and the purified heart, all contained within the ark, within the flesh body. So here we have a rather accurate picture of our own experience.

One of the things that happens is that there is a door. There is door in the side of the ark for people to come in, at the level of the second and third stories. They can’t come in through the window finished above; that is there for another purpose. We ourselves have come in through that door. We found some sort of compatibility mentally and emotionally with what was present in the forming ark; we came in at that level. We only came in at that level because there was a window finished above, and there was the outpouring in consequence of the spirit through that window into the space where the ark was to take form. And we have been willing, not always consciously willing but at least subconsciously willing, to be drawn sufficiently to allow the flesh form of this body to begin to put in an appearance—the ark is in the process of being built. But it all stems from the window finished above, and then from the second and third stories, and finally the ark itself. We begin to move physically speaking, because of the attunement of mind and heart, the extent of the stillness of mind and heart brought to pass by the spirit which is present, shining through the window above. It is all very simple. There is this body, this creative focus, by which something is to be accomplished.

When we see a situation such as has been present in India, at the same time we are aware that from the standpoint of this body there is representation there. There is a class in progress in Chandigarh where there are a number of Indian people attending, some of them Sikhs, some of them Hindus—there may be other backgrounds as well—but the class members are presumably in the process of setting those things aside, at least during the course of the class. Here is a focus, something brought to focus in that vast subcontinent, through which spirit may emerge to whatever extent depending upon all who are present in that class. For the most part I think that those who are present in classes have not realized how much depends on them, how much the human population depends on it—here is an opportunity to provide a stabilizing point of spirit, a window finished above. We recognize that this applies to all of us in relationship to the whole world body.

There is a spiritual focus to provide a stabilizing element in this uncontrolled emotional binge which is the human state. This body, which has been developing as a whole, and as specific parts, offers to maintain a certain measure of balance so that things don’t get entirely out of hand. Why wouldn’t one wish things to get entirely out of hand? If you let them get entirely out of hand then things are going to wind up very quickly! The question then is: What would be left? From your own standpoint, being honest with yourself, would you say that none of those elements that are present in the human nature of the population of the world are not also present in you? In other words it’s not clear yet; the mind is not entirely sanctified and the heart is not entirely purified. So the real reason why the balance should be maintained is to let this sanctification and purification occur; it is related to our own experience, that there may be an ark. That is looked upon in the Old Testament as a trustworthy boat—it didn’t spring a leak, because it was absolutely impervious to the external elements. Isn’t that what we are about too?—to be absolutely trustworthy—unsinkable! The leaks come when we lose that stillness.

The stillness of heart and mind allows heart and mind to be filled with spirit. Spirit is active, but heart and mind are still, in order to allow for the activity of the spirit. Human beings have been conditioned to imagine that nothing gets done unless heart and mind are active. It isn’t heart and mind that need to be active; it’s spirit, occupying heart and mind, that is active. This is such a strange thing insofar as the human view is concerned that it doesn’t understand it. What is it that determines the way you feel and the way you consequently think? We have noted the conditioning of human consciousness, the conditioning which has resulted from the state of separation between human consciousness and spirit. So the conscious mind may imagine that it is quite capable of comprehending what it would be to experience spiritual expression; but it hasn’t a clue! All it knows about is the very peculiar state which has been humanly developed and which comes out on the basis of all this conditioning out of the past. Now we are concerned with stillness, the stillness of mind and heart, so that all that conditioning need no longer determine what happens in the flowing forth of spirit.

The fact that there has been this conditioning has been a denial of the truth; and what has come forth of the spirit—we think of that spirit primarily as love—has either been prevented from coming forth or it has been stopped in various degrees. Here is spirit being prevented from coming forth according to the design and the control of truth. To that extent, then, you have hate, or you have barrenness, or you have death, and all these evidences of the absence of the spirit of love at different levels of experience. We have been interested in allowing these absences to be dissolved by reason of presences, by reason of the fact that coming to know the truth we are capable then of allowing love to come forth in its natural expression at whatever the level may be. If this is complete, so that the individual is trustworthy at every level—he will never let a break come in that—the truth is in control, and love comes forth according to its true nature. But the true nature of love bears very little resemblance to the sort of definition which has been given to love in the conditioned human consciousness. It is something unexperienced. It only comes forth to the extent that the truth is absolute in the individual experience; then love begins to emerge and reveal itself in characteristics natural to each level of its coming forth.

So we share this responsibility of allowing the sanctification of the mind and the purification of the heart to occur by reason of the fact that the truth is established and the spirit of love begins to come forth. It is that coming forth which may be described in terms of fire. Insofar as we are concerned it’s not a destructive fire, it is a creative fire If a balance should rightly be maintained in the world so that things do not get entirely out of hand here, there or anywhere, or everywhere, it is so that this proce ss of sanctification and purification can occur in this body. That places quite a responsibility on us. It isn’t so as to be a blessing to other people, so they are not all going to destroy themselves immediately. It will be a blessing to other people in that sense, but the reason that it is required is to bring forth this body into an absolute state of trustworthiness so that no matter what happens, no matter what anyone else does in the body or outside the body, one is trustworthy oneself, absolutely so.

So we have been concerned to maintain a balance so that we could continue to exist as a body while this process was going on. It isn’t so that it might be a blessing to us particularly, but so that there might be this body on earth, the focus of spirit that is required to allow the clarification to occur in the whole body of mankind. When that is in place then the government is out of the hands of the impure heart and the arrogant mind, and the control of spirit is once more present so things can be brought to issue. And there will be something that remains. What remains is not for the benefit of those who may remain with it, but in order that the purpose of the creation called man might once again be fulfilled, the purpose of being, the universal purpose brought to focus. There is a universal purpose, and that won’t be disrupted by anything that human beings can do—but there was a reason for the creation of man. We have the privilege of discovering what that reason is by allowing this body to take form. We are solely concerned with allowing this actually to happen.

So here we are together, not only in this moment in this place, but consistently, that together with all others who are letting the window be opened above, that the creation of this ark may be completed. We find that to the extent that there is spiritual expression there is a door in the side of the ark. We ourselves came in through it. Others can come in through it—welcome!—but there needs to be a CORE that is absolute. Without that there is really nothing. How amenable are we, in fact, to allow that Core to be absolute? We only allow the Core to be absolute as we let that absoluteness be our own individual experience.

How good to share in an understanding of these things. The understanding hasn’t come because we analyzed the story of the flood. We had the understanding before that, but looking at the story, we can see, yes, there are the principles outlined very beautifully—but we share the present responsibility. Regardless of any prior precedents, there may be the real thing, the genuine article, the absolute experience now. When heart and mind are still, this is the experience of fulfilment for heart and mind. Heart and mind were designed to be filled with spirit. So they must reach a point of stillness, in response to the radiation of spirit that is present for each one. And in that stillness, the filling and flowing of spirit occurs; and that is ultimately fullfilment—probably partial-filment right now.

© emissaries of divine light