“This is the central focalization of the Third Sacred School on earth”
We come now to our regular Thursday evening hour of meditation on this 17th day of September 1953, the second day of a new seven-year cycle. Last evening we shared a pattern of meditation on the principles of leadership. Tonight, as we are gathered here for the purpose of being with one accord in one place, let us consider something of the principles involved in the reality of leadership, attaining the state of leadership.
To begin with, it is vitally essential that each and every one who has any awareness at all of the principles of reality should realize that the very fact of that awareness establishes the fact of leadership. If there is awareness of reality there is leadership. The question is: In what direction does such an one lead? Presumably by reason of that which is theoretically accepted with the mind there is leadership in the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven which is at hand. However whenever those principles of reality are violated in thought or word or deed the quality of leadership is moving in the wrong direction.
By what means do we attain to the state of true leadership? In the concluding portion of our meditation last evening we recognized that one of the ways in which an individual reveals himself in relationship to leadership material is in the pattern of attitude toward those things which he hears. I have known individuals in time past who heard the Word of Truth, had an opportunity to examine quite extensively the principles of reality, and then heard someone say something which was supposed to discredit this ministry, or make light of our undertaking, and the individual who had heard with dull ears the things of truth forthwith listened attentively to the words of discredit, or words which attempted to discredit, and forthwith believed them. At other times I have known persons who heard the word of truth presented here—in classes and services, for instance—and then some other person makes some positive statement, disregarding what has been presented, and forthwith the hearer accepts that which is stated by the one who speaks without authority.
Stability in centering is one of the qualities of leadership. Therefore the attitude which the individual has toward that which he hears which in some fashion violates our ideal reveals the individual's potential in leadership. The attitude toward what one hears and the attitude toward what one sees in others reveals the individual himself. For instance, in another case or type of reaction which I have seen over and over again, some person sees in another an attitude or a pattern of action, the expression of words, which the first person recognizes to be wrong. He recognizes the attitude, the action or the words to be out of harmony with reality, but he forthwith takes that ill action as an excuse for ill action on his own part. Because he sees something wrong in another, he accepts that as an excuse for the manifestation of something wrong in himself, and in such a case, what leader is the individual following?
Such a pattern of function obviously reveals that the person involved is following the lead of the person whom he saw do the wrong thing. Because so-and-so did something wrong or said something wrong, had a wrong attitude with respect to his work, he accepts that as an excuse for some pattern of wrong function in himself. Whose lead is he following? He is following the lead of the person who said or did the wrong thing, or who had the wrong attitude. A person who fluctuates readily from one point of leadership to another is obviously not good leadership material as far as we are concerned. It is good for a person to recognize the necessity of moving into some higher pattern, and if we see that we need to accept leadership into a better field, it is a point of wisdom to accept it; but when the crosscurrents that arise provide a point of leadership which the individual follows, he is not revealing stability. All of this introduces the vital point with which we begin our meditation on the question: How shall we attain to the state of true leadership?
To introduce this point we make reference to agreement. It is said of some men and women that their word is as good as their bond, signifying that their word can be trusted, and if there is an agreement, that agreement has a sound basis. With others, if there is an agreement at the moment or on the surface, according to statements, it means nothing, because the agreement will be violated the first time it appears to be a matter of convenience to do so. What is the value of your agreement? Until we recognize the fundamental, basic nature of the agreement in reality we cannot begin to understand those factors of the heart which give meaning to the agreement.
If the heart is false to the word of the lips the agreement means nothing. Therefore we come, by reasonable steps, to a recognition of the basic principles of cohesion, or centering, which is to say God's Love. And how shall we describe God's Love? And how shall we indicate a pattern of personal experience by reason of which God's Love may have meaning in us on earth? How often I have heard people say, “I wish I could learn to love God more. I don't know how to love God more than I do.” Such an expression is an interesting thing, just to analyze for a moment. “I don't know how to love God more than I do.” Generally speaking, when such a question appears, it is in an outworking following a state of violating the principles of reality, during a process of repentance, of acknowledging that one failed to love God adequately, after an outworking wherein the individual functioned in self-centeredness. “I don't know how to love God more than I do.”
In connection with this same point, I have heard people say, “It sounds all right but I just don't have any feeling about it.” One forgets that about which he has no feeling. There is a basic principle you might remember: One forgets that about which he has no feeling. If some incident causes resentment, if the feeling of resentment is not maintained the incident itself will soon pass from memory; but if the feeling of resentment is maintained the incident itself will not pass readily from memory. We have all known people of vindictive natures, who held grudges over a long period of time. They schemed and worked to try to get even with someone. The wrong, real or imaginary, may very well have been something very small, but because of the deep feeling it was not forgotten. We have known other people who have suffered some injury at the hands of another, who held no resentment, who quickly forgot because they forgave. If you forgive another you cease to have feeling with respect to that which is forgiven; therefore it is quickly forgotten.
If you think you have forgiven something about which you still have feeling, in the sense of resentment, so that you cannot forget it, then you have not forgiven. Forgiveness in attitude toward another causes that which has been forgiven to cease to have any meaning in the sense of feeling. You have heard the expression “Forgive and forget.” If you actually forgive, you do shortly forget, because in forgiveness feeling is gone. Feeling ceases in relationship to the matter that has been forgiven, and if feeling has not ceased then you have not forgiven, regardless of what you imagined on the point. One quickly forgets that about which he has no real feeling, and this is true also of God and the things of God. If you do not have true, deep feeling with respect to any point of truth, or with respect to God, then you will quickly forget these things; and under the pressure of circumstance you will forget God, at first at least. You may be forced to remember later. But it is that first flush of attitude, first flush of reaction, first flush of feeling, which reveals the individual's true nature.
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The quality of leadership requires stability, and in the expression of true leadership the first flush of reaction or feeling attitude is not contrary to the basic agreement in reality. When one remembers the agreement, then if there is pressure which would cause one to move in the wrong direction, say something wrong, feel something out of pattern, the question immediately arises: Under this pressure, what leadership is the individual going to follow? Will he follow the lead of the adverse vibrational patterns that are present? Or will he follow the lead of the constructive vibrational patterns that are present? Always, if there is any contest, always if there is any pressure, there are two patterns present. If only an evil pattern be present there is no pressure. If only a good pattern be present there is no pressure, in the sense of the conflict factors which we are considering at the moment.
Within the scope of reality there are methods, in harmony with reality, of producing the pressure necessary to creative activity, but that is not what we are talking about now. If there is pressure, then, in the sense of the contest, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/09/pressures-of-contest.html] there are two patterns present—never just one, for if there is only one there is no pressure. If there is pressure, in the sense of the contest, there are always two patterns present, and the question is, Which one of these two patterns will govern in the individual life? Which one will control? Which one will the individual follow? If in the first flush of reaction the individual follows the adverse pattern and then laboriously tries to become true to the right pattern, he has not yet attained to the state of true leadership. But if in any moment when pressures appear the individual always remembers there are two patterns present, if he takes time to see, to note, to examine, to be sure that he follows the right pattern, he will not, in the first flush of reaction, be subject to the wrong one.
Such stability, under pressure, begins to reveal the reality of leadership material. Such an one begins to be in the state of functional leadership on the side of reality. If, then, under pressure the agreement is remembered, the vibrational patterns of reality are remembered, it is because there is feeling with respect to these things. If the individual says or does something wrong and then says to me, “I did not think,” or “I forgot, I am sorry,” I accept, of course, the repentance, but the individual has revealed something about himself. He has revealed that he does not yet have an adequate feeling with respect to the things of reality, that his deeper feelings are with respect to the unreal patterns of the world. Such an individual cannot be trusted in the field of leadership. Now if we remember that we do remember that about which we feel keenly we should begin to see readily enough the means by which we can attain to the state of true leadership.
If you ever have been in love you had a deep feeling with respect to the person with whom you were in love, and having that deep feeling you were not under the necessity of reminding yourself all the time about that person. You have heard people say, “Well, I love such and such a person. I just cannot get him or her out of my mind.” No! There is deep feeling with respect to that person. If you love another you do not have to constantly remind yourself that the other person is in the picture. If you love another you don't have to remind yourself to remember the one whom you love. So it is in your relationship with God. If you love God you don't have to remember to remind yourself to remember God. When we love God in any real sense the fact of that love conditions every thought and word and deed. We don't have to keep reminding ourselves, “Well I love God, so thus and so.” If there is love there is feeling.
Loving God is not merely an intellectual process. The awareness and the pattern have relationship to the mind as such in love, but love is a matter of the heart. “How can I love God more than I do?” In one sense the question may be legitimate, if one is earnestly seeking to enlarge the pattern of understanding, the reality of being; but in the manner in which it is so often spoken it sounds to me to be utterly inane, utterly stupid. Why? Why should any human being who has an awareness of the reality of God feel that he must go through some mysterious effort or struggle in order to love God more than he does? If you love a certain person, then you remember that person, and in remembering the person you tend to remember some specific thing about that person, the manner of appearance perhaps, the sound of the voice, the touch of the fingertips, something that was said, some loving act performed. And with the recounting in one's heart of all these precious things about the one loved there is appreciation. One's heart leaps anew with joy at the thought of the one loved, the deed that was done, the word that was spoken.
When we begin to consider our relationship with God, why should any human being say, “I try so hard not to forget God”? That sounds like love, doesn't it? “I try so hard not to forget God.” There is life, and that life is the gift of God's Love. The fact that we can feel, see, hear, move, speak, the fact that we can enjoy anything, association, human relationships, the beauties of nature, the wonder of music—whatever it may be; everything that we know and feel with respect to life's satisfactions—comes because we are alive, and life is a gift of God's Love. If God gives us the gift of life, then by reason of that gift we enjoy whatever it is that we enjoy. If we recount in our hearts all the things we love in the one whom we love to think about—something that was said, a look, a touch, a word, a deed—we find joy in that recounting within our own hearts. If there is love there is not an inclination to publicize, to tell someone else all about all of it. One's heart may be so full that one cannot keep completely still, especially in new-found love. A person may reach a point where he feels he will burst if he does not talk to someone. And yet, even so, it is done with a certain delicacy. Something of it is conveyed, some of the words that were said are recounted, some of the things that were done are related, but not all.
There is always a certain something in love which is not publicized, which is held sacred in the depths of one's heart, a certain something that cannot be told, a certain something that can be known only as it is shared. So it is in our relationship with God. He who loves God does not go around talking about how he loves God, although on occasion he may surely mention it. If a person is in love in the human sense there are evidences of it in relationship to one's attitude, one's words, one's conduct; there are evidences in one's bearing; it shows in the eyes, in the face, and it is there. Now if we love God we don't have to remind ourselves of God. We don't have to try to think about God. Automatically everything that comes up is seen in the light of our love.
Automatically everything that comes up is seen in the light of our love
And what is our love? This is true no matter what one loves. A person who loves the supposedly almighty dollar—you will find that everything that anyone says or does, everything that arises, is seen in the light of the individual's love for the dollar. If some person is characterized by love for himself, everything that arises will be seen in the light of his love—his love for himself. In actual fact, every day, for every person, anything that is coming into the range of perception or function, everything that arises for every person on the face of the earth, is seen in the light of his love. If there is love of position, then everything is seen in the light of that desire for position. Human beings who are in love see everything in the light of its significance in relationship to that love, regardless of anything. True all the time—whether function is right or wrong, every individual sees that which arises in the light of his love, whatever it may be, love of self or love of God. If there are problems and difficulties very often the human being reaches a point where he loves his problems and difficulties. He loves his burdens, he worships his burdens, and everything that arises he sees in the light of his love, the light of his difficulties, his burdens. If you will examine yourself and watch yourself a little, you begin to find out what you love, because everything that arises is seen in the light of your love.
God is the source of life, which makes it possible for us to enjoy the good things which He has established on earth. If we have enjoyment, satisfaction in living, the joy of attainment, what is our first love? The first flush of reaction under a given circumstance reveals your first love, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2018/01/your-first-love-martin-cecil-november.html] whether it is of self or of God. So often it is pride that governs the first flush of reaction, the first movement of attitude; and if there is human pride the individual is in love with himself and he sees everything that arises in the light of his love for himself. There are steps in love, degrees of love; there is a pattern in relationship to love—what is the first love? then there will be the second love, etc—until one begins to find orientation in the pattern of reality. Then there is the first love, and the meaning and the value of everything else depends upon its relatedness to that first love. This tends to be true in the unreal patterns also, but there is more definite division than there is in the realm of reality, for love provides a cohesive force.
It is written, “God is love.” God is love, whatever else He may be. Is it difficult for love to love love? It is because love loves love that human beings in love have satisfaction in the pattern of relatedness, have satisfaction in the presence of the one loved—because love loves love. And God is love. Actually there can be no true love except it be of God. Even self-love is a distortion of something which comes from God. It is not difficult to remember that in which one has a deep feeling of interest, and one has a deep feeling of interest in that which one loves. Love is not something which can be measured. Sometimes those who are in love try to find words to describe how much they love. They may say, “I love you so,” meaning “I love you so much.” How much is so much? It cannot be described. Sometimes people in love develop some little pet way of saying it. It is possible to say “I love you a little bit” and make it mean more than words could convey; or some little commonplace thing like “I love you a nickel's worth,” and it can convey more than talking about a trillion trillion dollars' worth. How much is much? You can't describe it. This is one of the great secrets of love. You can't describe it. You can't confine it. You can't experience it all at once.
Love is an ever new thing, an ever unfolding thing. Love never grows old. Love may die, in the sense of being killed out of the human heart, or driven out; but if in this sense love dies, it always dies young, no matter how old the individual may be. Love is something which simply never grows old. And by its very nature it reveals that it needs eternity to unveil all of itself. In love there is always something new. When two human beings love each other, as for instance husband and wife in the true pattern of marriage, husband and wife who have let the legal aspect of marriage take on the heavenly aspects of marriage, there is the word “I love you,” and though that expression has been voiced a dozen times a day for twenty years or more, the simple words “I love you” are still new, still beautiful, still welcome. They never grow old. “I love you.” Love never grows old. Insofar as the individual is concerned it may die young, but it never grows old. Then, if our first love is God, we have a basic centering. If under pressure we prove that our first love is God we begin to be dependable.
I wish I could convey to all young people everywhere a certain basic truth. If the one you love does not love God more than he loves you, refuse to marry; for love for an individual first and God second will not allow love to remain. Those who were once in love, who have found distortion patterns in relationship, can, if they will be honest and fair, have that love return, if they will work mutually. How? By a mutual determination to love God first. And then, in the companionship of doing that they can find a new manifestation of their own love for each other. But here we see the basic factor of agreement, for under pressure you will reveal what it is you love, your first love—self or God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” When there is love eternity seems to be all too short to know the unfolding fulness of that love. And if we love God first we find God's Love made manifest in the one we love. You here have shown that you love me. Men and women alike, you have shown in many ways that you love me—not as the world loves, but something which is heavenly. All true love is heavenly, because God is love, and you have come to know that love which you hold for me because you have found something of God's Love being made manifest through me to you.
In true love you find God's Love made manifest through the one loved. When this is known it is not difficult to stop loving oneself. When you love yourself you do not find God's Love made manifest through the one loved. This is the exception, and it is not true love. But when you love another truly, then you find God's Love made manifest through the one loved to you. You cannot receive God's Love for yourself, to yourself, through yourself.
People say, “Oh I want to feel God's Love. I try to feel God's Love.” And you are going to receive and feel God's Love coming to you through you yourself? Oh, no, no! You say, “I want to feel God's Love.” Do you expect to feel God's Love coming through you to you? No, never! If you would know God's Love you must let it come through someone else to you, and you must let it flow through yourself to someone else. This applies, regardless of marital status. I am not talking about human love now. You can let God's Love flow through you on a noble, honorable, pure and holy basis to others; and if you do, sooner or later someone will begin to let God's Love manifest to you.
I cannot feel or know God's Love except as it comes to me through you. You may say it comes to me in a special fashion through my wife. Yes. Through my children, yes. But what I am privileged to know of God's Love is that which comes to me through you, and if I do not receive it through you, through others, I do not receive it. If you would know God's Love you must receive it through others; for you cannot receive God's Love to yourself through yourself. You can feel something of God's Love working through yourself to others, but the love of God which you receive must come to you through others. Because you love me—and why would you be here otherwise—I receive God's Love through you and I know God's Love. But why are you here? Because I first loved you, because I let you begin to feel God's Love for you as it expressed through me to you.
You cannot know God's Love in a direct sense. The idea that a human being in a personal, direct sense can know and receive God's Love is utterly false. God's Love is made manifest only as it works in relationship to human beings. You may think, or you may have thought, that you knew something of God's Love in a direct personal sense, but if you stop and analyze it you will see that either what you felt was God's Love going through you to others or it was God's Love flowing through others to you, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2019/10/from-reciprocity-uranda-july-10-1954.html] because you cannot receive God's Love to yourself for yourself. And in this Love Divine, holy, sacred, noble, we have the basis for agreement.
Young people imagine they are in love a number of times before they really are and they do not know the difference until they reach the point where they really are in love. But here is a peculiar thing: When the love begins to be real it begins to be protective. There may be infatuation, where the parties concerned are primarily concerned with what they can get. They are inclined to take advantage of each other for personal purposes. But the moment there is real love there is a protective pattern one toward the other, and no desire to take advantage of the one loved. Human beings have been trying to get God's Love, somehow or other, on a basis where they were trying to take advantage of God. Millions of human beings are trying to take advantage of God. The moment there is real love there is a protective pattern.
Does God need a protective pattern in attitude from you? Assuredly yes. God's protective attitude will be toward you as you truly receive His Love, but you have to love Him, and that provides a protective pattern for Him in you. You should protect God and the things of God here on earth. There is never, in any relationship, in friendship, or love as it manifests between male and female, or in our relationship individually and collectively with God, a manifestation of true love without the mutuality of the protective attitude; if the protective attitude is not there it is not a true cycle of love. If it is a matter of trying to get, instead of seeking to give, it is not true love. If there is true love there is this protective spirit, and where there is the protective spirit there needs to be no trying to keep the agreement. And when the agreement is kept, in our centering in God, there is leadership in the realm of reality.
I thank Thee, Heavenly Father, for those here gathered, and for all who are with us in spirit, and all who turn to Thee, whosoever, wheresoever they may be, for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever, Aum-en.
For God so loved the world that He gave the Shekinah of His Presence, that whosoever receiveth the Shekinah of His Presence might not perish but have everlasting life. God Bless you each and every one. This is Uranda speaking in the Chapel on Sunrise Ranch.
