While words may be spoken by one member of the Body,
if they are true words they are spoken by the whole Body.
Recently I received a letter from someone, part of which I would like to share with you because it says some things in a very articulate way which we and others may helpfully and radiantly hear.
“Someone said to me the other day something about not being a core person, and that they felt their role was more on the periphery, with outreach type of activity. I’ve come across this kind of thinking before, including in myself, and on thinking about it, I’ve decided that it’s not quite accurate. For a start, one doesn’t decide where one is going to function, one just ends up being there. Also, the outer role does not necessarily reflect the inner position, as it were. And, as has been said many times, effectiveness in what has been called outreach is dependent upon effectiveness in core function. It seems to me that regardless of my geographical position I determine my distance from the core of this ministry by the number of pet illusions I choose to maintain. These may be illusions about myself, my own importance, fulfilment, my own destiny, or they may be illusions about others, about the design, about the core.”
The Body of the Son of God is the Core.
Those who compose that Body are all members of that Core.
There are many very peculiar ideas developed by different people which ignore the available truth. There is a lot about which there is much chatter which would not be necessary at all if those concerned would pay attention to the truth. We have a base for understanding. There is no necessity ever to go off in tangential speculation. “Well I wonder about this,” a person may say. Why wonder? Don’t you know? You do, if you stop to think about it, if you acknowledge the truth that is available to you—you know about anything. There is still a good deal of speculation, even among those who should know better. Those who know the truth never need to speculate. That is wondering after the beast, isn’t it? something that is quite unnecessary.
There are undoubtedly many things that are still beyond our immediate awareness. One will not come to know what those many things might be by speculation. We always start from the known and allow the unknown to be received because we are moving with the known. There is plenty that we know. If we function on the basis of what we know, what has heretofore been unknown to us will begin to emerge into our experience. We don’t have to go scrambling around to try to find it; all we will do in such case is develop some further speculative concepts. We know ample truth to handle what is brought to us moment by moment, without speculation. When we do that, then those things which are yet unknown to us will emerge into our consciousness and experience.
We move from the known to the unknown. What is unknown to human minds and hearts, human minds and hearts cannot get hold of for their own satisfaction. What has heretofore been unknown will emerge into human minds and hearts, our own particularly, if we are attuned with the Spirit of Truth, our own truth, coming down from God out of heaven. It is said of the Spirit of Truth that it calls things to remembrance. I suppose, in doing that, one might say, “Well I had forgotten something, but now it’s called to remembrance.” Being forgotten, it was unknown; being called to remembrance, it becomes known.
There are those things of which I speak which you no doubt find do call to remembrance what was previously unknown to you, but becoming known to you, you might be inclined to say, “Oh yes, I really remember that.” It wasn’t as though it was something totally extraneous brought into your consciousness. The angel is present with all of us, ready to acquaint us in the moment with what we need to know. What we need to know in each moment is fresh, new; it is not a rehash of the past, and yet it is not unrelated to what we knew before. We are concerned to let this expansion take place.
Perhaps I could talk a little about something which is not speculation but relates to what the Spirit of Truth may call to remembrance. If the mental apparatus tries to grasp what the Spirit of Truth is calling to remembrance in order to possess it for itself it will fail and it will be confused. But we may be reminded of some things, mentally and in the feeling realm, which are at hand. It seems to me that the Spirit of Truth had a job to do in that regard: “He will show you things to come.” That is not intended to indicate that what is going to happen tomorrow will be told to you today. He will show you things which rightly should be coming into your consciousness, things which have heretofore been unknown but which are in the process of being called to your remembrance. You have had this experience all down along the way.
This morning I was speaking about the flaming sword and we saw certain symbolic representations of that flaming sword in a very immediate sense—nuclear armaments, for one thing. I also mentioned the disk of the sun, which obscures whatever may be present in the sun. Of course the scientific people have ways of probing into the innards of the sun, they think, and coming up with a certain amount of speculation as to the nature of the internal state of the sun, what is going on there. But it is all speculation, really, because there is something which prevents anyone from looking into the sun. There is a very excellent symbol of the flaming sword, and I don’t think it's really all that much of a symbol; it’s a factual reality. We can see this, anyway, as representing the flaming sword.
Some of you may know that Chris Foster has been writing a book. The characters of his book originate in the sun and then they incarnate in different human forms on earth; they don’t need flying saucers to get to the earth. There is obviously a different level of state for anyone who might live in the sun, and so that different level of state provides the vehicle by which incarnation on earth might occur. I don’t wish to reveal to you all that is contained in Chris’s book, but it illustrates something in a rather imaginative way—a little bit of speculation in there perhaps—with respect to the fact that there is something hidden insofar as the sun is concerned, hidden from human view anyway. I don’t advise anyone to try to penetrate with human vision behind the disk of the sun; it can’t be done and the effects can be disastrous.
The disk of the sun may be seen as the flaming sword which prevents human beings from getting back into the Garden; that is one aspect of it. Another aspect of it is that this flaming sword makes possible conditions for human beings where they may survive. Obviously if the total light and heat of the sun were extinguished insofar as the earth is concerned, human beings wouldn’t last very long. But clearly enough whatever it is that radiates from the sun is stepped down somehow, so that it becomes bearable on earth and in fact is part of the necessity for life on earth.
What we know of the earth and of the sun, of the other planets of the solar system itself, is seen, humanly speaking, from the level where human beings exist. We know that that level is below the veil, so what is observable from this level of observation is very restricted, we might say; it excludes everything that is above a certain vibratory level. When the solar system is examined, the other planets are examined, those who do the examining are inclined to say, “None of the other planets are inhabited.” Really, how do they know? It looks that way from the level of observation but the level of observation is rather low, rather coarse, and so what is seen is not very inviting. There used to be idle speculation about Mars, and books were written about the people who lived on Mars. But then unfortunately a probe went to Mars and it didn't see anybody there! So that eliminated quite a bit of fiction, but it really didn’t tell anyone anything much because of the level from which the observation was being made. Now we may observe on the surface of the earth that human beings are very busy creating deserts. So this is the sort of level of observation, isn’t it? They see deserts everyplace else. Only a very limited and coarse level of observation is available to the human view. To assume that that is all there is, is in fact nonsense. It is all that human beings in their present state are capable of discerning.
If the flaming sword prevents human beings from experiencing the Garden State, they are not capable of observing anything from the perspective of the Garden State. As we have noted before, simply because human beings pushed themselves out of the garden state did not mean that the Garden State was dissolved; it is still there just as surely as it ever was. Human beings do not know it because there has been this veil in between, this flaming sword which has prevented them from getting back into the Garden with all the stuff that they have been generating in the meantime. That is very fortunate of course. But at the same time we can see the blessing that has been present by reason of the fact that even though human beings pushed themselves out of the Garden of Life they still exist on earth. So for man’s sake this rather restricted state of experience on earth has been available. But what the whole is has been unknown, because the Garden State now is totally lost to human consciousness. It is just beginning to dawn on us again, perhaps, that it is really present and that it is possible to be restored to the Garden State, under certain conditions of course.
As I say, there has been this veil between. The Garden State is present. What human beings see of what they call the solar system is a sun, whatever that may be—it’s supposed to be in the middle—and a number of planets circulating around. They would be inclined, I’m sure, to say, “Well it is a whole system, but the parts are rather separate.” There are of course the various influences that the planets have on each other. Some of these influences are capable of being noted and understood in that way. In fact Pluto was found, wasn’t it, because there was an aberration in some of the other orbits of the planets indicating that there must be a planet someplace which hadn’t been known at the time. I believe there is supposed to be another one floating around somewhere, which must be there because of the perturbations it causes in the orbits and movements of some of the planets.
Be that as it may, these planetary entities are looked upon as being more or less on their own, perhaps captured by the sun in some way—they can’t get away from the solar system apparently—and this is the way that this is looked at. Obviously it is not the way it is, because the way it is would include what we have spoken of as the garden, the heavenly aspect, which is totally excluded from human awareness because of the flaming sword. What is the other side of the flaming sword? Nobody can tell. No amount of probing into the sun or into the further reaches of the universe really tells anyone what the truth is, because everything must be viewed simply from the level of observation where man is. That’s very low. There is a whole which includes vastly more of which human beings are totally ignorant, ignorant because of the flaming sword.
As I say, the disk of the sun can represent a veil to us obscuring whatever it is that is in the sun. The only observation that human beings can make of the sun is at the level where they make observations. So there could be, what? great cities and maybe parks and all this. All that human beings can think about is what they see here around on the earth, as though that was all that was possible. It isn’t of course. But this disk which obscures the sun also obscures the rest of the garden, the Garden which is right next to the earth, for instance. Well is that Garden just a special Earth Garden, all on its own? No, it is part of the Whole Garden, the whole heavenly state related to what we think of now as this solar system. But I would suggest that it isn’t a solar system. I don’t really have a name to give it— maybe you could invent one—but we could call it something which would convey an idea at least, as long as we do not define it in usual human terms, or scientific terms.
What we call the solar system is a star; it is just one thing. Human beings do not know that it is just one thing, except in solar system terms, because they do not know the fact of the garden; they do not know the fact of the heaven being present. But right next to what is thought of as being the earth, whether of this planet or any other planet, is the heaven. And it is in the heaven where life originates, isn’t it? Human beings are always looking for the origins of life on earth. They never find it. They go back and back until they come up with an amoeba, but then what about beyond the amoeba again? Well they have this cosmic soup of some kind upon which the lightning plays, and all this fairy tale, which is sometimes scientifically approved, based in the idea that one can find life or the origins of life by dissecting the earth, whether the earth of this planet or the earth of some other planet or the earth of the galaxy or of the universe.
They are always saying, “Well we’ll discover more and more about the origins of things the further we can get out”—away from the place where the truth is, because the truth is not out there somewhere, not even in the immediate environment. It is present in the Garden, in the heaven, the heaven which presently is unknown because the flaming sword is in between. But we have a sensing of the fact, through our own experience, of the closeness of the heaven. We have sensed it, we have touched it, we have known something of it in our own expression. That is the only way we know it, by the way. The thinning of the veil is not the dissipation of the pollution around the earth; it is the thinning of the veil inside oneself, in one’s own experience, where the heaven has been absent, the Garden has been unknown. Nobody will ever find it round about somewhere: heaven is in some South Sea island perhaps. No, it’s not there.
It is present with one, as long as life remains, and it is known when it is given expression. It can’t be given expression, as we have noted, if we indulge ourselves in unheavenly expression, which human beings do; that is, in judgment, condemnation, blame, all these things. That is unheavenly expression. Therefore if one is hooked, or addicted, to unheavenly expression, what sort of a world will one have? What sort of an experience will one have? Well one knows what one expresses; one will have an unheavenly experience. Sometimes that might be called a hellish experience.
The Garden is so close that we cannot in fact get out of it, and yet we don’t know it is there. We don’t know it is there because there is this veil, or I suppose it might be called a transformer, in between, which steps down the Garden Radiation to something that human beings can stand in their murky state. And it is because of this that they have continued to exist and that the potential for a return to the true state has been present. It is present because life is still in the carcass of mankind.
I suppose if one were to use one’s imagination a little one might recognize that the heaven of this earth is a city in the star. It was called the Holy City, wasn’t it, coming down from God out of heaven to take form. We may have a view of something rather vast, at least from the standpoint of human proportions: a mighty star which is composed of heaven and earth. It is all one thing. In the United States there are many cities but it is still one nation. In this star there are many cities but it is still one star, something whole. Of course that is not the end of the wholeness either, as far as that is concerned, but it is about as far as we need to go this evening I think.
Nowadays there is much talk about a planetary perspective. What’s that? Scarcely discernible, isn’t it? No, we need to at least sense that there is a totally new perspective, which comes within the range of awareness to the extent that we have allowed the dissolution of the veil in our own experience of life. It is an individual matter, but when individuals do take responsibility for letting it happen it is suddenly found that it is a collective matter. There is a Body. There is a Body that begins to put in an appearance. It was already there but it was hidden behind this veil; and now it comes forth, as the truth has come forth into expression consistently in one’s own individual living, moment by moment
And again we realize that that is based not so much in not blaming, in not criticizing, in not doing all these things which human beings do, but rather in doing what an angel in heaven does, and that is to convey the Spirit of the Living God into expression on earth. As long as one is still under the seeming necessity of fussing about not judging, one will have very little to give expression to of what one should be allowing to come forth. In the attitude of merely not judging, the individual is constantly being assailed by external events which petition judgment; they ask to be judged. Haven't you found that? There are all kinds of things in your environment which present themselves before you and say, “Now you judge me! You tell me whether I am good or bad.” And human beings plunge right in and start doing it. So we need to see that that is not heavenly expression, just the reverse: to judge. But we also need to be aware that there is heavenly expression, and when we are totally occupied with that, even the idea of judging doesn’t put in an appearance.
We dwell as angels in a Garden of vast proportions. Our particular part of the Garden does relate to what we think of now as this planet Earth. But the planet Earth which we see now we see from this very lowly positioning; we don’t really see what it is. But rising up to the level of heavenly perspective, we see a place of habitation for the Body of the Son of God, a place of habitation for the Living God. And as a place of habitation for the Living God, what do you think that might do to the realm of observation? Well it would be observed from a totally different level of perspective. I would suggest that there is a lot around that we have never seen; it is all waiting to reveal itself. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2022/10/trailing-clouds-of-glory.html] Human beings try to function with little bits and pieces. It is like a child playing with blocks, when there is a vast world awaiting revelation. Let us remember what our real proportions are as angels, so that we do not allow the restricted human view that is now current to convince us that we are petty people easily pushed around by everything that happens in the environment. That is not so, and we are beginning to discover that.
We find ourselves in a position of continuing stability as a Body. This is increasingly being recognized by others, who really know nothing of our Body, that here is something dependable, something which will be there regardless. And I think this recent departure of Bill Bahan is an excellent opportunity to reveal the fact that because one human form is no longer present, it makes absolutely no difference to the operation of the Body. There were those who thought that maybe, seeing that Bill was the Whole Health Institute, next year’s HUC, which is sponsored by the Whole Health Institute, should be withdrawn from. Why? Is the Body so puny that the absence of one person can stand as a barrier to the outpouring of the spirit of the Living God? Of course not! There are those of course who have found themselves rather shattered by the departure of this man. Some have thought that if anyone should be shattered it would be me, because wasn’t he a part of my heart? Wouldn’t it seem as though he was more important to me than to anyone?
The question always arises as to whether the concern is with the person or with the truth that that person reveals. Now those who have been somewhat shattered by Bill’s departure are having it revealed to themselves that they were dependent upon a person; the truth was a theory. They may have acknowledged the truth in Bill but they didn’t know it for themselves. If you know the truth for yourself you can never be left desolate. But if you depend upon some person, even if that person is an expression of the truth, you will be trying to live a theory. And when a person in such a situation discovers that it was a theory, there is the opportunity. If Bill had continued on and those who were centered in him as a person had remained just centered in him, and in the beautiful truth that he revealed of course, they would have continued to deceive themselves, living what was only a theory. And when it gets right down to it, a theory is a lie. A theory is never the truth. So if one lives on the basis of a theory one is living a lie. And I trust that all of us, in one way or another, will be faced with this issue. Do we place our dependence in a person or in the truth?
Now we have a wonderful opportunity because there are those persons who are increasingly revealing the truth. But let us not depend upon the person; let us rather accept the truth into our own knowing because we share the expression of it. And if you are expressing the truth you will continue to be expressing the truth whether this person or that person is there or not. We may, from a human standpoint, perhaps speculate and say, “Well it would have been better if Bill had stayed around a little longer; I would have liked it if he had.” There is a like getting into the picture, isn’t it? Any of us could say that, but that is the human view, isn’t it?
If we express the truth, we know that what is essential is always present, that nothing of reality has been lost, ever. This is the fact of the matter, a fact that many people are unwilling to acknowledge because they justify their desolation on the basis of their love for a person. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God only; thou shalt love the truth only. If a person reveals that truth, well we love that person because we love the truth. We don’t love the person and then the truth, as a sort of adjunct; that is fatal. We love the truth first, and then it is found that some person who is expressing the truth can’t be separated from the truth. The truth is a spirit. We have been speaking of the Spirit of Truth calling things to remembrance. The truth is not a form. Forms come and go, obviously. They will even come and go in the perfect state of the oneness of heaven and earth, only on a little different basis. But the spirit abides. What has been lost? Nothing.
The spirit that Bill Bahan exemplified abides. In fact there are many who are discovering an increase of that spirit in their own experience. Praise the Lord! That is where it was supposed to be in the first place. Maybe if it had been as full as it begins to be now, possibly Bill Bahan might have been still around; something to think about anyway. But we tend to hold back, don’t we? The let-George-do-it syndrome. We know the truth when we express it. As long as we keep expressing the truth we can never be in a state of desolation.
We rejoice wherever that expression of truth appears. We love those who reveal that they are one with that truth because they are expressing it, but we love them because we love the truth. And we know that if that person doesn’t happen to be around anymore the truth hasn’t gone anywhere. We know it hasn’t gone anywhere because it is still being expressed by oneself. So I trust that any who have felt a little bit shattered by the departure of Bill will face up to themselves, because it is revealing of a certain failure in their own attitude. It is revealing of the fact that there was judgment, for one thing.
So we share the opportunity of a larger perspective. Come up hither, that we may see from a level of understanding that has always been available and that is now beginning to come forth increasingly as there are those who are concerned to express the truth for themselves, to be the truth in expression, not depending upon anyone else to do it.
Nick Giglio — Martin, I love the truth, so I know the truth for myself; and we do know our true stature in that way. We cannot deny that stature, because that is all there really is, that is the perspective we come to see. And we see that there is one heaven, there is One Body. We have tended to think that there had to be a lot of people first and then there would be One Body. Really it is just the reverse: there is the One Body. Now there are those who are penetrating the veil, the One Body becomes apparent, becomes truthfully present on earth. We are a part of that Body, we love that. Consequently we bring the heaven, and what has always been present begins to be seen. There is no planning needed; it is all there. And we find that the invisible becomes visible because of our love for the truth.
Martin Cecil — The truth is easily expressed in words and in living. The yoke is easy and the burden is always light. That is why we are rightly called Emissaries of Divine Light. The light shines, the heaven is known, the waters are gathered together unto one place and the dry land appears; the form appears, clothing what is present in the heaven. As the barrier of the veil is dissipated the heaven comes forth and takes form. It takes form, of course, as there are those who are willing to let it happen as individuals. The individuals discover that the form that is appearing is not primarily an individual one. It is the Body of the Son of God. We share the privilege of composing that Body to the extent that, as individuals, we express the truth. And the Body continues. Forms, individual forms, may come and go. Some have been going recently, but a lot more have been coming, in various ways; and the body continues. And the job gets done by that Body, or rather, as I indicated before, by the spirit which finds expression by reason of that Body. Praise the Lord that it is so. We certainly are, I’m sure, cognizant of the privilege that we have to be alive now.
