Unprecedented Change

Unprecedented  Change

Martin Exeter   January 15, 1984

The sound of the voices, the organ and the piano fades, but there remains an atmosphere created by the music, but more particularly by the spirit present in all concerned. This atmosphere provides an enfolding setting in which there may be an intensification of the flow of that spirit. Within this atmosphere there is a sense of easy agreement and natural friendship. It would seem that a veil has been dissolved to allow this easy and natural state to be the experience.

What is that veil which has obscured this state from general human experience for so long? One might find many words to describe what it is, but there is one in particular that emphasizes itself in my consciousness this morning, and that is the word accusation. It seems as though this is a basic attitude experienced by everybody with respect to others, and with respect to the world around them. Accusation. Constantly there is a flow of accusation. Individuals, we ourselves, have participated in this attitude with respect to our fellows. It is also seen on the larger scale of course: on the international scene nation accuses nation. As long as there is accusation the reality of agreement and friendship is impossible.

There is a rather familiar passage contained in the Old Testament of the Bible which would seem to have a certain amount of immediate application to the state of affairs on earth today. Because it is written in the Bible doesn't necessarily make it so, but one may find a lot of good sense recorded in the Bible, one way or another. It only becomes good sense when we see it as it relates to ourselves here and now. This passage comes from way back. It is contained, in fact, in the 6th chapter of Genesis, the 5th verse: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

One might say, "Well there is an accusation!"—this God somewhere was accusing human beings of this. I think you recognize that the statement may have some little application in these days too. But taking it out of the religious context, what was actually being said here was that if there was a clear-seeing eye the fact would be apparent that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. I think the present tense could be put in there, but let's look at another verse a little further on here: "The earth also was corrupt before God..." This was the fact of the matter. "...and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth..." The clear-seeing eye saw the fact. "...and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." You may recall that these particular statements were made immediately before what was called the flood. In other words, by reason of the state of affairs described as wickedness in man, certain effects put in an appearance. There was a rather devastating deluge which naturally followed the state of affairs in human beings.

We find ourselves in a situation in these days where there is a momentum building toward a rather devastating experience for the human race. This is defined in the consciousness of most people as thermonuclear war, and there is clearly enough a movement in that direction. It is consequent upon the fact of what was described here as wickedness. The state of affairs in human minds and hearts was such that it would produce the result at that time of a devastating flood. Now again it builds toward a similar conclusion, perhaps not necessarily with water this time, but more likely with nuclear fire. In any case, it all stems from the state of consciousness in human beings, the state of their minds and hearts.

This is a matter that is recognized, I suppose, in a collective way at least: that the world is in the condition it is because human beings made it that way. There wasn't some malign deity somewhere who imposed all this upon human beings. We ourselves have chosen deliberately to make it this way, and we see the end result—and "end" is a pretty good word for this—in the possibility, or rather the inevitability, of thermonuclear war at some point, as long as human minds and hearts continue to function on the same old basis. This would indicate that there is rightly the necessity of what might well be called an unprecedented change. It obviously is unprecedented, because exactly the same thing was happening back here at the time indicated in the record which I read. However accurate that may be, it is an indication of something. It is a warning, shall we say. If we only see the warning now, it is a little late in the day. But because of the state of human minds and hearts there was a buildup toward something very destructive. In view of the fact that there is now again a buildup toward something very destructive, it is evident that the change required in human minds and hearts has not occurred. Therefore, if it does occur it will be quite unprecedented. There is nothing in the past to indicate what it would be, because it hasn't happened. The only way to find out what it would be is to let it happen, and the course of intelligence would seem to indicate that it might be profitable for us to let it happen.

So presumably intelligent concern, then, would be as to what is required to allow this unprecedented change in human minds and hearts to happen, that there may be the passing of what was here described as wickedness, the cause of the ultimate destruction. If the reason for the ultimate destruction is not changed the ultimate destruction will not be changed either, and this relates to human minds and hearts. "Well," I think probably most people would say, "yes, that's true. Our ancestors of course had something to do with it. They behaved in ways that have provided us with a rather horrendous heritage." But on the other hand, I don't know that we would exclude all those other people out there—particularly the bad people, whoever they are, who have been multiplying the state of wickedness, with the necessity for the end result of that.

So, yes, we can look around. We can see that human beings do behave rather foolishly and irrationally and so on. Well that's very interesting, but it doesn't change anything, does it? It doesn't change anything as long as one is oneself accusing other people of behaving in this way. "It was all the fault of my ancestors. It was all the fault of my bad childhood. It was all the fault of something or other now present in my environment. So-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so—they are the trouble. Let them change their minds and hearts. Let the unprecedented change happen in them. But not in me, please." Yet there is only one person in whom it may happen, and that is oneself. One may recognize that possibly all these other characters in our world need to change, but how are you going to bring it about? Well the answer to that is: You are not, at least not using the orthodox methods which have been the basis for the function of human beings heretofore. That is wickedness. And the attitude of accusation provides a focus point in relationship to wickedness. That is the wickedness. That is what produces the results which we see, and one can only face that in oneself.

We are well aware of having been accused by other people of this, that and the other thing. Well, people are free to make accusations, of course; they have been doing it right along. But the question is: What do we do? What do I do, specifically? If someone accuses you or me or anyone of something or other, what is the attitude? You put up your defenses. You seek some way of justifying whatever you are being accused of. That falls right into the trap, because you are accepting the attitude of accusation in somebody else, as though that was a valid attitude. It isn't! It is an attitude which brings human beings to destruction. It has been doing it regularly, in every generation. Everybody dies, after all, and the accusations that might have been emanating from that person cease. Well one may be most thankful for that; it's a good reason to die. But how about living? Is there not a reason for living? Living is impossible as long as accusation prevails, and the accusation that prevails is that which finds expression through oneself, regardless of what is happening to everybody else. If other people are accusing you of things, justifiably or unjustifiably, what are you going to do about it? Get into the posture of battle? That is usually what is done, isn't it? Everybody fights. It is interesting, isn't it, that everybody takes the attitude that it is justifiable to fight. They are fighting for good things, of course. Oh everybody fights for good things. But isn't thermonuclear war fighting? Isn't that just a sophisticated form of fighting? And that is what occurs ultimately, by reason of the wickedness that is present in everybody.

Everybody takes the attitude that they are justified in fighting, usually fighting evil. But who is fighting evil? Those in whom every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts is only evil continually. Evil is fighting evil here, busy about it, and of course ultimately I suppose it just destroys itself in a great big bang somewhere along the way. This is not merely looming over the horizon either; it's a little bit closer at hand than that. Yet everybody goes on in the same old way, in the way which has produced this horrendous situation. It is assumed—and this doesn't seem to me to be very intelligent—that by continuing in the same old way you are going to solve the problem. Function in that old way produced the problem; at least this is defined as a problem in human minds and hearts in their present state, so that they think that the problem has to be solved. We have all had that idea: "We all have our problems, after all, and we have to find a solution to them." Isn't that the general attitude? I don't think that is necessary at all. Why not just let the problem be dissolved? Why does one have to try to solve it? Trying to solve problems multiplies problems. Are there any less problems in the world now than there were a century ago? I would say there are vastly more, partly because there is a vastly greater population of people trying to solve problems. Trying to solve problems perpetuates problems.

This is the way that human beings go. They don't see any other way, apparently. In times past we hadn't seen any other way. But somewhere it began to dawn—and this wasn't because of our great brilliance; it was almost by chance, I suppose—it began to dawn that the way to go was not the way we had been going. If you continue in the way that you had been going you end up dead. You end up individually dead of course—that's to be expected; everybody accepts that as being the natural outcome—but now we see, collectively dead too. Well, in one sense I suppose, if human beings have proclaimed their unwillingness to be anything else but wicked, then it would be good riddance! Is that a harsh thing to say? Well we have a view that perhaps it is not necessary to come to that point of ultimate elimination. Something can be done about it if I do something about it. Not if the other fellow does something about it. Everybody accuses. "Get it away from myself! It's somebody over there who is producing all these problems." But it isn't! If I have a state which I imagine to be filled with problems, I am responsible.

An accusation, incidentally, that has been leveled often at Emissaries is that they are participating in a cult which has to think a certain way, according to something that is imposed upon them. You know in your own experience that that has never been so. The idea has always been to take responsibility for oneself. There is no guru somewhere who is going to tell everybody what to do. That would be a state of slavery, wouldn't it? No, we have to discover what we should do individually speaking, and we can never discover that if our minds and hearts are cluttered up with the residue of accusation. Would it be possible to live without making accusations? I would put that another way: Could one live while still making accusations? The answer to that is definitely no: one will die for sure, and one will go through all the preamble to that final experience.

People are trying to get health, for instance. So they deliver their bodies to the doctor's office and say, "You fix it," as though they had no responsibility in the matter. The doctor can't fix it. He may, if he is unwise, encourage the individual to feel that he can fix it, and that all the person has to do whenever any troubles appear is to come back to his office. Well that is good for business, I suppose, but it isn't being honest, because the one thing that a doctor can do is to encourage the individual to begin to take responsibility for himself. Each person lives more closely with his own body than anyone else. That's right, isn't it? And yet we pitch it into the doctor's office and expect him to fix it up. He's never lived with it! Surely we know, really, if we start to be honest, what it is that is required.

So there is an unprecedented change in consciousness needful. People are inclined, I have noted, to fight tooth and nail against letting it happen. Well they have the habit. It's hard to kick the habit, the habit of behavior that has been one's own for however long it may be. Yet without unprecedented change there is the expectation of obliteration. That change can come in one of two ways. It can come destructively—if we are gotten rid of, then that's fine; that particular person who indulges in accusation is then gone; you can no longer indulge in that anymore. That's good! But one may cease to accuse. One may choose to do this cold turkey. Most people don't like cold turkey (and some don't like it hot either!), but rather say, "Well yes, I'll work on this. It will take a little while, of course, because I have the habit of accusation. I always feel put down by the way other people accuse me, and I feel therefore under the necessity of justifying myself." Well that is being controlled by accusation—in such case, somebody else's accusation. But we are also controlled by our accusation of other people. And as long as accusation controls we are not in position to experience the unprecedented change that is needful. It has been common practice: everybody does it, after all, and everybody assumes that they are justified in doing it. As we see, accusation generates fighting, fighting for one's rights. What's the right? To accuse. That is the most fatal thing that anybody can do: to fight for your right to accuse other people of doing things which are destructive to oneself.

There is only one person who can destroy me, just one person—that is me. And the same thing is true of everybody else on the face of the earth. "Oh no. That can't be so. There are millions of people who are starving on earth. Are they responsible?" Let's not talk about them. We are talking about "me," oneself. Isn't this an excellent way that has been devised by devious human minds to get the issue away from oneself? If you indicate that something is to happen with respect to yourself, then whoever you say that to—and presumably I am saying it to you now—is inclined to say, "Well what about those people out there? What about all these other people?" Insofar as we are concerned in this moment, in this setting, they are a figment of fancy. They don't really exist. What exists is what is here, what is now, exactly where we are. And each individual rightly assumes responsibility for letting accusation be cast down.

I think it is said somewhere in the Bible that the devil—whoever he might be, and if you need one—is the accuser. That's his name: the accuser and the destroyer. Those two terms are synonymous. You can't accuse without destroying, and the first person you destroy is yourself. The attitude of accusing destroys yourself, because you are failing thereby to face the fact of your own wickedness, if we could define it that way. And the mere idea that people have that they fall into the "good" classification doesn't dissolve their participation in the state of wickedness. Wickedness contains both the good and the bad, both the white hats and the black hats. And it's easy to change hats. People are doing it all the time, aren't they? We do it ourselves. No, until this one thing is faced there can be no unprecedented change. And if there is no unprecedented change in human minds and hearts the result is absolutely fatal for everyone. So it seems sensible to give at least some consideration to the possibility of letting unprecedented change occur. But it will not occur until the attitude of accusation is dissolved.

I suppose, to start with, a person has to be alert. The habit is there, after all. It's like any other habit, the habit of smoking or eating chocolates or whatever it may be, drugs, whatever. The urge comes to accuse: "Well I can justify that that person is really causing me to be a victim. He is victimizing me." As we well know, no one can be a victim unless he accepts that state for himself, unless he says with respect to himself, "I am being victimized." If he says that, then he will be saying, "I accuse someone or some circumstance, something or other, for victimizing me, making me into a victim." No one can make anyone else into a victim; it must be done by the person himself—by "me." If I am going to assume the attitude that I am being victimized, I do it; that is my responsibility.

We see a lot of weak sisters around, don't we? Is that an accusation, or merely an observation of people who are inclined to say constantly, "Someone is victimizing me; poor me!"? And then, of course, if you take that attitude, you are still very childish, therefore you need mommy. And there are various mommies around that have been created by victims; the government of course is one of them. "The government will bail me out." That's childish! I am responsible for me. The government isn't, the doctor isn't; I am responsible for me. And that is true of each one if the unprecedented change begins to happen. But as long as you can find a devil, someone to accuse, you are playing the role of the devil, the accuser; and according to all accounts, the place of the devil's residence is hell. Does it prove itself out? Of course it does. Human beings find themselves in various states of hell. But it's always somebody else's fault, isn't it? You've got to accuse somebody else. "I couldn't possibly be responsible."

Some people every year get struck and killed by lightning. Could the individual who is struck and killed by lightning say, "I was responsible for that"? Of course, legally speaking, that is an act of God. It is peculiar, isn't it, that acts of God are always destructive. That's an absolute lie! If you have a hurricane or a flood or a fire or something, that's an act of God—an earthquake or whatever. It isn't at all. These things are generated by what is present in human beings. The wickedness of man is great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually, until this unprecedented change begins to happen.

Well you know how, individually speaking, there has been an inclination to object to the unprecedented change. "I don't like it." Is that a motivating factor, really? Is that a valid motivating factor?—"I don't like it." What needs to happen? What needs to happen rightly happens, regardless of human likes and dislikes. The question is: Can the facts be faced? Can we see what it is that needs to dissolve in oneself? And I don't know any other words that can put the finger on it more accurately than the attitude of accusation. The whole world functions on the basis of accusation. Accusation is not the truth of the matter; it obscures the truth of the matter. It provides a veil, so that nobody can get along with anybody else. There is no agreement, and precious little friendship of the genuine kind. And friends so quickly turn into enemies. Accusation. Stop it! That is the basic choice.

Everybody is trying to get you to accuse someone else. A friend of mine asked me the other day what I thought of Trudeau. As I recall, I said I thought he was a fine man. Oh, it's easy to find things wrong with Trudeau. Everybody is doing it, accusing him of everything under the sun. Someone may say, "Well that's the fact." All right, if it is the fact, it is the fact; but you don't need to accuse someone, that's the point. It is your own attitude that is the point, not what is the supposed fact with respect to somebody else. And there is always speculation and opinion and idea and belief—all this sort of stuff which keeps the person trapped in the state of accusation, in the state, one might say, of the devil: controlled, ruled, pushed this way and that by this habit of accusation, this arrogant view that one knows how things should be. And if they are not the way you think they ought to be you are going to accuse someone of spoiling your experience. We create our own experience, and if we assume the attitude of accusation, then the experience we create will have a goodly measure of hell in it. Of course! Cause, effect. Sow that kind of a seed, reap the harvest. That is the fact, that's what happens. That is the way things are. And it says it like it is, very often, in the Bible, I find. It said it like it is in the passage which I read.

So we share the opportunity of letting this unprecedented change occur, and we are not all that willing to be backed into some hypothetical corner in order to cause us to justify an accusation. We needn't do it. If other people like to indulge themselves in accusation, well that's their privilege, but we don't have to go along with it. Our concern is to see things the way they are and act on the basis of the way things are, not on the basis of the way that things are not—on the basis of accusation, in other words—nor on the basis of the way that human beings would like them to be.

As you well know, I have been giving services for years. Why? Oh, to entertain you. I hope not! This isn't entertainment—although we find that when we stop accusing, stop having that attitude, everything becomes very entertaining, delightful; we enjoy ourselves, we have fun! And so it goes. We rejoice in the privilege of letting this unprecedented change increasingly occur in our own experience. If others who are awakening to the same thing will share the process, we rejoice; but they have their own choices to make, everybody has. We don't, certainly, impose anything upon anybody else. Let each one make his or her own choice and receive the results of it. That's the way things are.

So I rejoice in this opportunity this morning of considering these things in a particular way, that we ourselves, as individuals, may let something happen of unprecedented change in ourselves. Then the world will change. That's the only way it will change in a way that permits a creative experience rather than a destructive one. So, surely, the creative experience is what is really needful, and regardless of accusations, it will happen by reason of those who do not align themselves with the accuser.

© emissaries of divine light