In the review program as it came to a close this afternoon for this week, the subject of the ShekinahPatternofBeing had been introduced. We will be sharing much more meditation in this particular field, but in this consideration of the basic theme, I would like to draw to your attention tonight a point which has to do with the manifestation of many of the blessings which the world has known, so that we may consider the reason why those blessings appear, something of what is at work, and consequently be more effective in our own ministry. We have all heard many stories about various shrines, the shrines where one may more or less anticipate some form of healing of body or mind, or those shrines where one goes to find a particularized awareness of a spiritual experience. In the Mohammedan world, for instance, Mecca provides a basic shrine for many millions of people on the face of the earth, and we find these shrines present in many parts of the world. We all have heard about one in France, which is under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, where there have been many healings—various patterns, which we will not undertake to outline in an historical sense tonight. But a recognition of the principle of the shrine. We find these shrines present in many parts of the world—where there have been many healings—various patterns, which we will not undertake to outline in an historical sense tonight. But a recognition of the principle of the shrine.
As we recall the pattern in relationship to the story of Abraham, for instance, we remember that in many places where he stopped he built an altar unto the Lord, and when he was returning out of Egypt after the famine he went to a place where he had previously built an altar unto the Lord. An altar, a temple, a shrine of some sort, has down through the millennia provided a consciousness of a centering in relationship to spiritual experience. Why is it that at some particular shrine something of this nature tends to develop? What is happening? How does it happen and why? In the consideration of the Shekinah Pattern of Being, we took note of the fact that the spirit of God comes to a point of meeting in relationship to something in the outer physical realm. The Cloud of Glory, as it is seen, is the body of the Shekinah, which we have spoken of as being the essence of undifferentiated truth.
As a background to this approach to a consideration of Shekinah we gave attention to the principles of magic, both white and black. The use of the word “white” in relationship to magic is very often misleading. There are many philosophies or schools of thought in the world which claim to be dealing on a basis of white magic, or teaching the principles of white magic; but when we begin to check into them we find that they are all dealing with black magic, even though they call it white magic. So we want to be careful from the standpoint of terminology, because if we say “white magic” some person who has had contact with some of the schools in the world that presume to teach something about white magic may assume that we are talking about the same thing, when we are not. And this pattern of false translation of idea is something which we must very carefully watch. There are many schools of thought which claim to be teaching the principles of white magic; but when we check into them we find that they are all dealing with black magic, though they call it white magic. However, we recognize that in black magic there is the use of the principle of the shrine or the altar, a place of centering, also—and we recognize the black magic triangle.
Now if we remember the principles which we have also studied with respect to pneumaplasm, and recognize that spirit as such is something that is absolutely and forever invisible to the physical eye of man as he is so constituted, and then remember something with respect to the emanations or radiations which have been noted with respect to the body—how they extend further out from the body when there is a normal condition of health, how they withdraw into the body, and how there are the facts of various colorations—we can begin to put together some of the basic factors which are essential to our meditation this evening.
Remember the point: The spirit of God cannot be seen in its true or pure form. The human eye never sees the spirit of God. We can see the results of the spirit of God—we can see the forms through which the spirit of God operates, but we cannot with physical vision see the spirit of God. And until the pneumaplasm begins to provide a body for spirit, spirit cannot have any meaning in relationship to this world. Spirit as such does not have any relationship to this world, to any physical things, human, animal, vegetable or anything else, except through pneumaplasm.
When we begin to think about the manifestation of the power of God on earth, we recognize that there must be some means by which that power can manifest in relationship to this realm. And yet we know that millions of human beings, having something of the idea that the power of God is a reality and that it should be able to have meaning in relationship to human beings, have assumed that somehow there is just a contact, a connection, that may be made somehow that will let spirit have direct meaning in relationship to the human body or the mind or the heart. But in our studies, meditation, we have seen that such is not the case. We have also recognized that we, as human beings, have the responsibility of generating the pneumaplasm that is to be used. God does not generate the pneumaplasm from an Inner Plane standpoint. We can depend upon God to provide the ever-flowing current of His spirit, but that spirit as such has no meaning on earth until we ourselves provide the connecting link.
So the only begotten Son of God—Shekinah—is issuing forth from God all of the time. And in this connection, let us be certain to remember that God is to the realm of God Being exactly the same as mankind is to the realm of human being. As mankind includes all human beings, God includes all God Beings; and while there are focalizations particularized with respect to God Being—and such focalizations may, for instance in relationship to the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, be spoken of as God—when we say God, we have reference to the realm of God Being, which includes all God Beings. And when we say mankind, we do not refer just to one human being or one group of human beings; we have reference to all human beings. So mankind is to humanity, or to human beings, as God is to the realm of God Being; and from God, that is, from the realm of God Being in which all God Beings share—an individual and a collective pattern—we have the manifestation, on that level, of the spirit of God issuing forth from all God Beings.
This spirit of God is the only begotten Son of God; which is to say, it is that which issues forth from God eternally. Now this only begotten Son of God can have no meaning on earth whatsoever except as we permit it—except as we cooperate. And man has not learned how to cooperate; which is to say, man has not learned how to live. We look into the world pattern and, regardless of all the religions on earth and all the philosophies and all the beliefs, we have human beings in a miserable condition, suffering all kinds of diseases and difficulties, chaos, a lack of peace, a pattern of decay, subject to death. Man, then, has not learned the art of living, and all the various philosophies have failed to give man an understanding of the art of living. So we are interested in finding this contact, learning how to function in relationship to it and learning how to live—the magic of life, or the magic of living.
One other point we must bring to focus out of our past meditation, and that is the point of balance; how it is that the positive aspects of a given formation, such as a solar system, provide a pattern of energy, or a creative field, in which the negative aspects find a point of balance. That point of balance establishes, for instance, the orbit of this earth. The sun has a gravitational pull which is felt by all of its planets, including this earth, but there is also the centrifugal force which tends to throw the planet out from the sun. There are other energies involved, but we will not take time to study them at the moment. The important thing is that two forces, or energies, are counteracting each other, and the point where they come to balance, where they neutralize each other, establishes the orbit of the earth. From the standpoint of anything that is to have stability, we need the same pattern of principle.
There must be the positive centering; there must be the negative response. Remember, when I use the word “negative” I do not mean “destructive”. If I mean destructive I will say it. Negative things are constructive, and we must use negative things. Negative then means responsive. Responsive: yielded to a given Positive. And the point where negative response and positive radiation neutralize each other establishes a place—or a placing of form in relationship—according to the Divine Design. This point of balance must be seen if we are going to begin to understand the principles that begin to work in relationship to that which is an altar unto the Lord, a shrine, or a Temple that becomes a shrine, etc.
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There is no gainsaying the fact that many remarkable things have happened in relationship to shrines in all parts of the world, under all religions. It is not limited to the so-called Christian religions at all. It is not limited to the Mohammedan religion. It is not limited to any of them. We go back in history, or check all of the different patterns of belief on the face of the earth, and wherever there is a shrine, whether in the field of so-called white magic or so-called black magic, remarkable things have happened, interesting things, a manifestation of phenomena which carries conviction to human minds, establishes belief, faith, and consequently cooperative action. Anyone who understands even a little of the principles involved can establish a black pattern of magic, give it an appearance of white magic, make it seem to be based in God's love, emphasize God's love, establish a shrine and develop phenomena. And when the individual comes in contact with this given phenomenon, it tends to make those who see believe that here is something special, something that gives evidence of the reality of God. Actually it does, in one sense, because all energy does come from God, all life forces come from God, whether they are used according to God's Will, Plan, purpose, or not. But most of these human activities utilize a process of stealing life energy to produce a given result. However, we are particularly interested tonight in seeing something of how this works in relationship to heavenly magic, the Divine pattern of magic.
First, an altar—a place, any place. It can be a rock of peculiar formation; it can be almost anything. It can be a tree, a selected tree, that has a certain definite appeal to a number of human beings, where there is a pattern of focalization. It can be virtually any spot on the face of the earth. And in one sense we might say that here on Sunrise Ranch we are in the process of developing a shrine. So it can be here. But if we understand the principles involved we should be able to function more effectively in relationship to the development of that shrine, and the possibilities of greater blessings by reason of the shrine.
First, we have considered the development of pneumaplasm. And in our meditations—to bring in another point which is essential—we have recognized the principle of the hedge: the hedge about the individual, about his house, and about all that he hath on every side. This hedge, in its original or first or primary manifestations, has within it the reality of the spirit of God, but depends upon the generation of pneumaplasm and the coordinated relationship of that which is humanly generated with that which issues forth from God.
We have noted that the moment any resentment pattern, any rebellious pattern, any self-centered pattern of any sort, egotism or false belief of any kind, distorts the vibrational field to the extent that there is no true meeting between that which is generated by the human beings involved and that which is issuing forth from God—anything that disturbs that point of meeting, that point of the beginning of the blending at the point of union between heaven and earth, will disrupt and spoil the result.
In the pattern of the world—generally, where human beings have not carried forward to being pure of heart, where they have not understood what was happening—the basic result has been achieved by classifying the place as sacred; and the individual, the faithful of that particular pattern of belief, would not think of going there and displaying anything that would violate that sacredness. He may have it inside himself; but generally speaking there is a period of preparation of some sort before visiting a shrine, perhaps some fasting, perhaps some praying, perhaps something else. But the important thing is that, within the scope of the individual's consciousness and the degree of purity of heart, there is an acceptance of the idea that that place is sacred. And the faithful individual of that philosophy or religion would not under any circumstance willingly, or knowingly, desecrate that which is held to be sacred. Consequently, by this means, as much in the self-active range as is humanly possible has been eliminated from the vibrational field immediately surrounding the shrine, and the more conscientious everyone is in relationship to the idea of keeping the shrine sacred and of having proper preparation in relationship to it, the more the vibratory pattern is allowed to remain undisturbed.
It has a very definite ceiling; it does not go as high as it could or should, but it is held sacred, and there is a sense of holiness, or of that which is hallowed. At that point, therefore, the individual who comes to that point is giving the best of his or her response. Whatever its limitations may be, there is the willingness to keep the vibratory pattern at the shrine sacred and undisturbed, and at that point the individual gives the best that he knows how to give in response. Consequently a current of power begins to generate, and the shrine, if it is a rock of peculiar formation, say, or whatever it may be, the shrine becomes the symbol in the consciousness of the individuals involved, so that whatever they think of the shrine, they see or image that particular thing. It centers there in their thought and in their feeling, even though they may be far away. So, regardless of where they are, all of these individuals who have accepted the one shrine see one thing—they think of one thing. They have a mutuality of dedication that it shall be kept sacred, that it is holy, and that it is a point to which they respond for some reason; and they see in the mind's eye and in the feeling patterns of the heart the same thing, the same basic symbol. Therefore, whether they are present in person or far away, there is a centering of vibrational factors at that point.
Now the spirit of God is issuing forth constantly—the only begotten Son of God is constantly being born, flowing like a fountain. And when we consider the fact that God sends His rain on the just and the unjust, we begin to see that nowhere on the face of the earth, without respect to persons or anything else, is there a place, a point, a person, where God withholds His spirit. God's spirit is issuing forth so that it is absolutely everywhere. But we look at the world and we see that the world is not in contact with that spirit, and that even in the cases of shrines and temples or cathedrals, or what have you, whatever contact there is is far less than that which ought to be. A little manifestation of power here or there, something that occasionally appears, and it is enough to make people keep thinking, “Well maybe something will happen for me.” It keeps the individual centered but it does not provide the manifestation of the essential power.
We look into the world and we see that nowhere, with respect to any church, any philosophy, any teaching anywhere that we may see out there in the world, has that power been made manifest. Why? There are many reasons, but there has been a failure to recognize the basic principles of man's relationship to God. In our case, then, we are interested in letting the mind be filled with the truth, a recognition of the reality of the Divine Design and Divine Control. We are interested in true centering in God's love and true dedication to the reality of life, the trinity of the spirit, or the trinity of the Shekinah Pattern of Being.
Next we recognize that the uses of the power must be according to God's Will—not according to personalized human desires, but according to God's Will. Now human beings going to these shrines imagine, according to their various philosophies, that they are perfectly willing that God's Will be done. Some of them take the attitude, “If it is God's will I will be healed; if not, I will not,” just to illustrate. And the individuals going there tend to have their personalized pattern of desire, the thing they want, the thing they are longing for. As a consequence, whatever power is actually generated is kept scattered, instead of letting it be centered to the point where there can be a true manifestation of power that will be effective in relationship to the world as a whole, and through changing the world pattern, begin to alleviate, and finally to correct, the situation with the individual. The individuals as such are so hungry, so thirsty, so desirous, that they keep making their own little contacts for their own little purposes, dissipating whatever is developed.
Now if we are going to have anything different from that which is to be found in these various places in the world, we must reach a point where the personal desires as such have no meaning. We must reach a point where we recognize the reality of the Divine Formula: The Lord is your shepherd, you shall not want. To stop wanting—not to even want healing, not to want anything; for anyone who goes to a shrine wanting something and hoping to get something, trusting it will be God's will that he as an individual will receive it, is actually desecrating the shrine, although he does not know it. And most of those who have charge of such shrines in the world do not know it, because they do not understand the principles that are at work.
Here we begin to see that God's Will is not something that functions from the standpoint of the individual, on a basis of, “Is it God's will that so-and-so should get well or should not get well?” In an overall sense we recognize that it is God's Will that all people should be well, but we also recognize that human beings must relinquish their self-active patterns, their self-centeredness, before they can be truly, effectively or permanently healed. Even if they receive a little healing they will reproduce some ill condition, because they assume that they know something which they do not know. They assume that they are living a spiritual life when they are not. So here we cease having a personalized desire, and we must encourage human beings to reach a point where they do not want healing, no matter how much they may need to be healed.
Sometimes human beings get confused on that point. They assume that if it is God's Will that all people should be healed then it is perfectly all right for them to want to be healed, and therefore they start trying to get healing, assuming that it is within the pattern of the teaching, which it is not. It is not all right for anyone to want to be healed—the very attitude of wanting to be healed separates you from your healing. It personalizes the vibrational field in relationship to yourself, without regard to the whole. Our consideration must be with respect to the whole, and if you forget the vital importance of the whole and say, “Even at the cost of the outworking for the whole I would like to have something for myself,” you prevent the fulfilment of the whole, which is absolutely essential to your fulfilment.
You cannot have a true, lasting or real fulfilment without regard to the whole. And for you as an individual human being it is utterly and absolutely impossible to have a real fulfilment, it is impossible for you to truly serve or really accomplish anything worthwhile in life—your fulfilment as an individual depends upon the whole—and at the same time your progress as an individual helps, if it is worked out properly, helps to bring about the fulfilment of the whole. When this point of balance is maintained between the individual parts of the whole and the whole, we can move forward effectively; but the minute the whole tries to progress at the expense of the individual part, spiritually or vibrationally speaking, it will defeat itself; and the minute the individual human being attempts to make progress or attain fulfilment in some fashion at the expense of the whole, then that individual will defeat himself and tend to detract from the whole. Consequently the movement forward, individually and with respect to the whole, must be on a balanced basis, and anything that violates that basis desecrates the shrine. Anything that violates that balance desecrates the shrine.
The Master recognized this principle of the shrine in an outer sense when He spoke of giving alms, which is a pattern of life expression. Alms: the doing, the living, the acting, the wholeness of what we give to others, into life; the whole thing, what we give into life. And that is the seed we are sowing, whatever it is. So, to give in secret. Of course some of our giving must be seen, known and recognized; but the giving that we give where it can be seen must be backed up by giving which is not seen by the human being, if it is to have any meaning. If the beginning of the giving is on the basis of that which is seen, you fail, because then you are acting on a self-centered basis. If that which you give that may be seen of men is simply an expression that has a background reservoir of giving that is not seen of men, then it begins to have power.
We need to begin to see that surface giving, outer giving in the ordinary fashion of things, brings about failure and desecrates the shrine. And that desecration takes place two ways: the individual who gives and the individual who tries to receive. Very often people think they are serving, undertaking to give in service, when it is not service at all; it is a desecration of the shrine pattern. On the other hand, the individual who receives on such a basis is encouraged to receive for self-centered desire, the desire to get healed or to do something else, to get something, to have position or money. Let us remember that every teaching, whether it is Unity or anything else, up and down the line, that says, “If you follow out these affirmations, if you do thus and so, if you know thus and so, you can get a job, you can get a house, you can get an automobile, you can develop security,” etc.—I don't care what they are, what the teaching—anyone that holds out that materialistic reward to appear as the result of following out some particular pattern of being is using black magic. I don't care what kind of sheep's clothing it wears, I don't care what they claim, it's all black magic, without an exception. And we need to begin to realize that these personalized desires of personalized gain, even if it seems to work on the surface—yes, up to a certain point it will; you can demonstrate various things; you can accomplish something for the moment, but you will destroy yourself. You desecrate the shrine. You spoil the pattern for yourself and everyone else.
We begin to recognize the basic principle of selflessness, so that even though we need healing, say, we do not try to get healing as such. What is the correct attitude on your part, if you are in difficulty of some sort and you seek out a server? What is the correct attitude? For you to try to get well? No. Now I have seen this pattern desecrated right here on Sunrise Ranch, over and over again. Someone goes to a server and wants an attunement, for what purpose? To get well or something, to clear a headache—to get something. Well now, those individuals have not realized that they have been desecrating the shrine, spoiling the pattern, reducing the amount of power that is made available by our overall program. What is the right attitude? We cannot immediately change this pattern of attitude out in the world, out in the public sphere where we serve. People are going to come to us looking for help with their health. It is because they are sick that they are driven at last to seek out a server, generally more or less on a desperation pattern. So do we turn them away because their attitude is wrong? Oh no we don't. We accept their response and begin to help them to come into attunement with God on a basic pattern of polarity which will allow them eventually, if they function correctly, to be healed. But if they are seeking healing they have not yet reached a place where they have a right to contact with the shrine, with the secret place. It is on the outside. If what we do, in relationship to those who respond on the only basis that human beings know or understand, is backed up by our right function inside of the shrine, inside of the secret place, then we will be able to do something. But we will not invite those people inside the shrine, the secret place. Oh, into the attunement sanctuary certainly; that is all right.
But what is the shrine? Perhaps it is in your heart. Perhaps it has an outer manifestation point in your home, a little corner where you have an altar. It could be, in its immediate pattern, almost any place or any thing. But that immediate or personalized shrine must be a part of an overall shrine if it is to have any meaning. It must have a center somewhere on earth. If you try to have a personalized shrine simply centered with God as a contact point, a place of contact with God on a personal basis without regard to the whole, you are violating laws and principles, and while it may seem to work a little bit once in a while, you will never have any real fulfilment. Why? Because you have violated the basic principle of recognizing the whole.
You as a person, you are going to contact God for blessings and benefits, or so that your service can increase, so that you can help others and so be a blessing to the whole, you say. You think so, but it will not work that way. Any shrine that is to have meaning insofar as the individual pattern of life is concerned must have a relatedness to a point of centering on earth—not somewhere in heaven; for heaven is at hand anyway; any heaven that is to have any meaning to us is on earth—but the centering of the shrine must be on earth, and the shrine must have a relationship to the whole. If it has its primary pattern of relationship to the individual as such it will not work.
Now it is possible to develop a place, say a meditation chamber or something of that nature, where people can go, and they will contact something of the spirit of God and they will say, “That was lovely, and I had a great blessing.” Or some may go up in the hills or wherever the individual thinks is best, and he can have some kind of a contact and it can be a blessing up to a point. And yet it violates the principles of the deeper shrine unless the pattern is carried out in a recognition of the Central Shrine of the Whole. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-central-shrine-of-whole.html] Whatever we have in a personal sense must have its relationship to the whole on the proper basis or we violate the principles of being and defeat ourselves.
In the Master's instruction on this vitally important point of the shrine, He went on from the point that is translated as alms, or the giving into life of what we do in relationship to others, to what is called prayer, and He spoke of entering into the closet and praying to the Father in secret. We need to realize, then, that somewhere, somehow, if we are to achieve anything, we must become members of a whole body. Our Master came on earth to establish the principles of that body—the One Christ Body, or the vine with many branches.
But those who think of themselves as branches or members of that body have scattered ideas; they have never come together with one accord in one place. We have never had an actual blending to that degree right here. We have reached high levels, yes, but never the absolute blending of being with one accord in one place, right here. Sooner or later, I am hoping, I am trusting, in fact I am sure, that you here will reach a point where you are willing to relinquish all of your variations of viewpoint and thought, where you are willing to just utterly and completely trust God, where you are not concerned about variations of belief and concept, where you are not concerned about divisions with respect to our own membership—“I do not think too much of that person,” or anything else—where you are willing to reach a point of trusting God and really coming together with one accord at one point. Sooner or later it will happen. How long will it take? That depends on you. But in any case, it is that toward which we are working.
And when it happens we will begin to have, in the deeper sense about which I am speaking tonight, a real shrine, a point where individuals have forgotten themselves in true selflessness, a point where human beings have ceased all wanting; where personal desires of every sort have been left outside; where frictions, holding back, any ill attitude whatsoever toward others, has been all eliminated; where there is just one thing: responding in center to God on earth, right here, letting it work, because we have set aside all personal desires—“Thou shalt not want”; you shall not want—because we have set aside all personal desires for healing, for wisdom, for anything. There is a level where, moving along the way, you seek wisdom, etc., as an individual thing. But you must come to a point where you stop seeking wisdom, come to a point where you are not wanting anything except to let the will of God be done—to yield utterly to center—and at that point, letting all division cease, you finally demonstrate the reality of trust in God. Because as long as you are afraid that your beliefs will be violated, or think somebody over there believes thus and so and “I don't agree with that,” or “I don't think too much of that person, I don't like the other thing; I really want this,” even if you try to cover it up, “I want healing, I want something or other,” you maintain a separation factor.
If God is a reality—and He is—why take the attitude that you need to want something that is of God? To request it, to try to get it in some fashion, that attitude is one that is declaring, “I am separate from God.” And if you are separate from God you are not one with God. You cannot be separate from God and be one with God at the same time. If you want to be separate from God, that is your business. You have the privilege of doing it as long as you live, and what is left will certainly be separate from God. So that is your business. But to maintain this separation arbitrarily when there is the opportunity to let oneness manifest is really a desecration of the shrine. It is preventing the manifestation of the very thing you want. You may say, “I am justified in wanting this. God's will is that I should get well. Why shouldn't I want to get well?” What did the Master say? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” “Well,” you say, “then it is all right for me to want the Kingdom of God, is it?”
It is all right for you to want to find the Kingdom of God as long as you are convinced that you are separate from the Kingdom of God, that you do not know where it is. But you must come to a point where you do not even seek or want the Kingdom of God. Why? Because you have come to realize that the Master knew what He was talking about when He said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is here. Well, if it is here, then why keep on wanting it? Why not let it manifest? But it will not manifest if you just sit and twiddle your thumbs, or if you maintain your personalized desires or concepts or beliefs or resentments or what have you. You will be violating the shrine, until you trust God enough to say, “Whatever is true in me will not be violated; whatever is true in someone else will not be violated; whatever is not true in somebody else over there will not get in.” Why should you be so careful to resist that person getting in with that idea that you don't like, that personality that you don't like, or something? “I just don't get along well with so-and-so.” So there is friction in some degree. Maybe just a little, but it is still friction; and if it is friction it is friction, even if it is just a little.
If you are trusting God in actual fact you are not saying, “I'm afraid some false idea is going to get in.” It won't. Don't you worry, it won't. For as long as that other individual maintains the pattern of separateness, he or she will not get in. That person can be right here in the room with us and all the rest finding the centering, and that person would not experience it. That person would not even know what had happened. Maintaining the violations, the desecrations of the shrine, you cannot share the reality of the shrine. If, by the right pattern of response and letting go, we permit the generation of the pneumaplasmic substance and its centering at the point where it is supposed to be, it will be strong enough to carry the current of the spirit of God into the realm of manifestation in relationship to ourselves. What? So that we can get something? No, so that we can share God's giving into the world—not to get anything.
