Bringing The Kingdom Into This Place
an excerpt
Martin Cecil April 13, 1980 a.m.
O Lord God Almighty, Thou only art holy. With one accord we have come into Thy sanctuary this morning in gratefulness of heart, that Thy spirit might flood this place because of us. Holy is Thy name, O Lord. Thy kingdom comes as we let Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. In this hour we proclaim the supreme blessing of Thy love and of Thy peace, in the Christ. Aum-en.
Righteousness is a word which may be used to describe the true state of man in the kingdom on earth. Righteousness cannot be known merely by thinking about it. No one can study himself into the kingdom. Only by an open and yielded heart can the state of righteousness be known. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Those who do not have a passionate longing for the experience of righteousness can never know it. Such shall not be filled with righteousness. The absence of righteousness is unrighteousness. This is the state that human beings everywhere have known in the kingdom of earth, separate in experience from the kingdom of heaven. Righteousness can alone be known by those in whom this one desire is supreme; dwarfing, even excluding, all else. Hungering and thirsting is a way of describing this passionate longing. If a person does not hunger and thirst, why not?
It has been stated, “I shall not want.” There are those who have seen this statement simply as a statement, so that the word “want” has been incorporated into the vocabulary as a no-no. We are not concerned with words as such but with the truth that is conveyed by them. I have letters from people from time to time in which statements are made—perhaps it might be said, “I know I shouldn’t want,” but a person writing that is usually just playing with words. Because the word “want”, as it is usually experienced by human beings on earth, is an indication of reversed polarity, this does not deny the necessity of hungering and thirsting after righteousness; and this experience could be described by using the word want.
Surely a righteous attitude would be, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” But what is the nature and the quality of that life? Most human beings want life that they may squander it upon their own desires. It is a matter of letting life have us. If the attempt is made to get life, to squander it on human desires, we lose life; it just drains away for no purpose. The real quality of life is of love and of truth. When love and truth take hold of us, then we live. The trouble has been that we haven’t experienced the reality of that life, principally because we have wanted to squander it upon our own desires, in the fulfilment of our own wants in the human sense. Righteousness is characterized by life, proclaiming and revealing the truth of love.
But what if we do not really hunger and thirst for righteousness? If we do not feel ourselves to be starving for lack of righteousness, why would this be the case? Obviously because our longings and our desires are in another direction; we are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness but we are hungering and thirsting after something else. There is just so much human capacity to hunger and thirst. If this is directed in the broad way of human experience on earth, then we hunger and thirst after unrighteousness. As long as we insist upon hungering and thirsting in this way we will not hunger and thirst after righteousness and we will certainly not be filled with righteousness. It is all very simple. It works the way we choose—but we choose—and where there is hungering and thirsting after unrighteousness, to that extent there is no hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Many people would like to have righteousness if it agrees somehow with their unrighteousness. But it doesn’t. We can only hunger and thirst after righteousness the way it is—only then may we be filled with the reality. Only then may we be genuine.
Righteousness—the state known in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
We are aware mentally speaking, that we should bring the kingdom into the earth. “Thy kingdom come.” Day by day, moment by moment, we find ourselves in certain places. We find ourselves in this place in this hour. When you entered into this Chapel were you conscious of bringing the kingdom into this place? There might be a more natural experience of this when coming into the Chapel—after all, we are anticipating sharing the creative expression of spirit while we are here; therefore we have the responsibility as individuals of conveying that spirit into this place. When you come through the door and behold the Dome Chapel before you, do you pause for a moment and let your peace come upon this place, let the kingdom enfold the building and all who may be present in it? The earth is the Lord’s. As His emissaries we bring His kingdom to the place where we are, and we do it deliberately and consciously. We do not just hope that someone else is going to do it. Coming into this Chapel there should be, in righteousness, a longing for the place to be filled with the blessing of the Lord, with the wonder of His kingdom, with the enfoldment of His Presence. How? Because of you as an individual, because each of us does it; and there is never the attitude taken, “Well that’s not my responsibility, someone else will do it. When Martin comes in he’ll stand behind the lectern, then he’ll do it.”
Perhaps we can see the necessity of this as it relates to the Chapel. It should be absolutely obvious here, but the fact of the matter is that there are no places on the face of the earth more holy than any other places. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof—all of it! Yet I venture to say you do not always remember that this is so, when entering into the particular locations during the course of a day. We may see this from the standpoint of any location. The place of work, for instance, is rightly, from the standpoint of righteousness, a holy place. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. How aware are you of this? What is it that you bring into the place where you happen to be? Is there a consciousness of the fact that you represent the kingdom in that place? If you go into the office, if you go into the kitchen, if you go into the barnyard—wherever you go—if you go into your own room, anywhere where you put in an appearance, you as an individual are responsible for bringing the kingdom, for allowing what is present in your state of consciousness, in what is to find expression in that location, to be righteous. Is it the bringing of the kingdom? I venture to say that even right here on Sunrise Ranch it seldom has been. There may have been a sort of dim hope that things would go well today and that so-and-so wouldn’t behave like the cad he is; but this has nothing to do with the behavior of anyone but oneself.
It is clear enough that there are at least four billion human beings on earth who are not concerned in the least about bringing the kingdom into the location where they are. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/evidence-of-coming-of-kingdom.html] Are there even a dozen human beings on earth who really have a sense of deep spiritual responsibility for making very sure that when they come into a place, and while they remain in that place, the kingdom is there because they themselves have brought it? They are not depending upon anyone else to do it. It is only when there are those on earth who reveal this hungering and thirsting for righteousness that anything of creative value can happen at all. What is required is to establish the fact that the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof, and we do it as individuals. We do it wherever we are, twenty-four hours a day.
In the earth there are many kingdoms. They could be summarized as the human kingdom, inhabited by mankind; there is the animal kingdom; there is the kingdom of vegetation; and there is the mineral kingdom. We have four kingdoms here. We are associated with one another in the human kingdom to a goodly degree; we move amongst our fellows. Coming into some particular location where human beings are, it is well that we should be immediately reminded that here is the place of the Lord. That makes it a holy place, and from the standpoint of our own approach, our own attitude, the way we behave, it is going to be kept a holy place.
I was recently reading in a magazine something with respect to the preparation of food in Japan. An approach was made to the preparation of the food in the recognition of holiness. It had perhaps deteriorated somewhat in the consciousness of those concerned to a necessary ritual, a ritual that required a good deal of expertise; but the very fact that the undertaking was approached as a ritual certainly would remind those concerned that here was something of vital importance, necessarily to be done rightly. Here is an illustration of something that has come down from the distant past. On such a basis there could be a meaningful approach made to the preparation of the food.
No matter what it is we undertake, this same attitude needs to prevail. I do not suggest that we have to develop some sort of a ritualistic approach, so that whenever we move from location to location we should bow and place our palms together, although this might be a good reminder if we did it, a good reminder of what is required of us. Then we might be more hesitant about running off at the mouth, for instance.
What is it that is going to find expression, righteousness or unrighteousness? We have the responsibility of righteousness, if we have caught the true vision at all, and it is not a game. Games are played when human beings feel like it. Most of human existence reflects this sort of state—no consistency, no adequate experience of discipline. When there is true hungering and thirsting for righteousness on the part of someone, then there is a complete yielded willingness to let body, mind and heart be brought under dominion, to let the fact of true discipline be experienced at these levels. These are not rightly the levels of control; these are the levels that are brought under control. We belong at the level of control, which is not the level of the body or the mind or the heart. The level of control is higher than that. We belong there.
So it is actually not a matter of saying, “Well I need some discipline.” No you don’t! You represent the discipline. You are the dominion. Man was created to be the evidence of God’s dominion on earth. So from that standpoint we don’t need to be disciplined. Human beings only take that attitude because they are identified in unrighteousness. They are identified with the body, with the mind, with the emotions, and are controlled in this fashion. So the view is that, if control is to be experienced, “I” need discipline. It isn’t a matter of remaining identified with the body, the mind and the emotions, and trying to apply discipline somehow from that level. It doesn’t work. It’s a terrible struggle and ends in failure every time.You wouldn’t be so foolish as to expect a wild horse to break itself to be a nice saddle pony. Well the same thing is true of the human body, mind, and emotions. They’re not going to discipline themselves. Human beings try that but it doesn’t work. The discipline comes from above. It is only when your body, your mind, your emotions, hunger and thirst after righteousness that the reality of that righteousness begins to put in an appearance. And that righteousness is the dominion. That righteousness determines what shall be done and what shall not be done.
Always in the initial stages of experience in the movement into the kingdom there is essential discipline—always. Most human beings, insofar as body, mind and emotions are concerned, are completely undisciplined, as though these capacities for expression were rightly free to do their own thing. You know, theoretically, that that is nonsense; and there has been the provision, through what has been offered in this ministry, the opportunity for all concerned to let their bodies, minds and emotions come under control. How many have taken advantage of that—really? Only when there is hungering and thirsting after righteousness do we begin to know the reality of dominion on earth. Accepting the responsibility of dominion we bring the kingdom into every location of our daily living. We do it deliberately.
Perhaps attitudes with respect to the realm of nature need to change. There are those who insist that it’s important that one should eat only food out of the kingdom of the vegetation because, for one thing, if you eat animal food you have to kill the animal to get the meat. What is the attitude here—that no animal should ever be killed? The point is not an arbitrary view that it’s all right to kill vegetation but it’s wrong to kill animals. Anyone who eats a carrot could be said to be destroying that carrot. Well it is a better thing for it if it is ingested into a human body. One might call that in question—it may have been better off as a carrot! The point is that there is a proper cycle of ascension occurring here. The point is that we need to bring the kingdom into every situation, even the situation where it may seem as though animal life is being destroyed to feed human beings. This obviously hasn’t been done. If you’ve ever been in a slaughterhouse you know that. It’s a very arbitrary thing which takes no sensibility into account at all. We have the opportunity of letting the kingdom be brought into any situation. If we were to examine living flesh more closely we might find that there are things at a more microscopic level being killed constantly without our awareness of it at all! The viewpoint of human beings is all twisted, because they are functioning at a level where they do not belong, and are afraid of death. They see death everywhere they look.
How about seeing life everywhere we look? There is life everywhere we look, and there is the true process of ascension. This true process of ascension raises substance from one level to another. Perhaps we could approach the necessity of killing a chicken, for instance, with a little more care and consideration, rather than saying, “I had better get it over with s soon as I can; I don’t like doing it too much.” Why not give a little more consideration to this form of life, offering this form of life an opportunity to ascend? There are those nowadays who have found it helpful to speak to their plants. Well it isn’t the speaking to the plant that is so important, although words may be helpful, but the attitude of the person giving consideration to plant life. Then there is plant life that is apparently going to be destroyed, presumably for the benefit of human beings: we harvest the crops. The question is, again, as to whether the plant life that is ingested by human beings is being blessed thereby. Or is it going to become a part of a human form which is governed by its own desires?—in which case nothing has been lifted up; everything is on its way down and out.
Human beings were supposed to be the final link in the upward chain so that all was to be offered to the Lord. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. Let us make sure that it is all offered to Him, and that if anything is ingested into our bodies it is being offered to Him and is not going to perpetuate a physical body with a mind and emotions that are unrighteous. Let all ascend before the throne of God because we live and because wherever we go we bring that connection. Then everything that is present in the immediate environment is given the opportunity of ascension. Clearly, everything that is present does not accept the opportunity of ascension. We would not anticipate that it will all go up, whoosh! It has been long polarized in unrighteousness. And even when the balance is restored there is a creative cycle; there is that which is ascending and there is that which is rightly descending. The human experience relates mostly to this descending process. There has been so little offered to the Lord.
But we are here. We know. We have the responsibility. We see it. And we have the opportunity in every moment, in every location, to bring the kingdom deliberately there; not because we’re imposing something on anybody but because it’s true of ourselves. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness, we find ourselves filled with righteousness. But if there isn’t that constant hungering and thirsting we’re not full of righteousness; we’re full of something else—we’re empty of righteousness and full of unrighteousness. Is it not possible for us to act intelligently, to move from here to there, to bring the kingdom deliberately with us, to offer blessing, to offer respect for what is present and willing to ascend? We seek for that. Obviously if we concentrate on all the things we have judged to be unrighteous we ourselves are unrighteous; we’re full of unrighteousness.
When you see everything as being so terrible around you, you justify yourself in that by saying, “Well it’s terrible out there.” But you’re full of unrighteousness. Full of it! Probably you can talk of little else because you’re so full of it! But it’s in you. Just as well we can be filled with righteousness when we hunger and thirst for it; but we will not hunger and thirst for it if we are still chasing after the things that are supposed to satisfy our bodies, our minds and our emotions. It’s not something that has been imposed in any way upon that person; it’s his own choice. All this flabby nonsense, which says it’s because of what other people are doing, should surely have been seen as being exactly that by now—flabby nonsense, and the flab is in the person who takes that attitude.
Come out of that state and be true to the truth, that there may be participation, whatever the environment may be, in bringing the kingdom there, that the ascension may be inspired and encouraged. When we do it of course we learn how to do it. You never learned how to do anything, even in the material sense, without doing it. You may have it all up here in your head but when you go to do whatever it is, you’re all thumbs, because you never did it. If, in this matter of righteousness, you find that you are a bit all thumbs, well that’s the way it is. Rejoice! That’s the way it is. Now you know, so you had better be doing a little more and gaining some dexterity in that field. We can all let it happen if we will.
It does happen when there is the reality of hungering and thirsting, so that nothing else at any time is more important than our own experience of righteousness in representation of the Lord in the particular location where we are. Whenever you come into any room, whenever you go outdoors, the kingdom must be brought by you into that place. If it isn’t, the kingdom doesn’t come. We can pray about it until we’re blue in the face, we can hope for it, but nothing happens. It only happens when we let it happen ourselves as individuals. And when we do it individually we do it collectively. The kingdom comes. The will of the Most High is done in earth as it is in heaven.
Most holy Lord God Almighty, we would represent Thee without equivocation. We would let it be in each moment, in each circumstance, in each place, that we may be faithful in revealing the fact and proclaiming it in our living, that the earth is Thine, and the fulness thereof. It is brought to Thee once more in manifest form as there are those who let it happen. O Lord, we would surely be counted among those who let it happen. Aum-en.
© emissaries of divine light
