Known To Unknown To Known
Martin Cecil April 24, 1980 Assembly
All are faced with the ministry of life and the consequent handling of the creative processes as they emerge within the range of our awareness. This is all included in what is rightly called sex. As was noted yesterday, there is no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven. The matter of marriage as we know it has been something that was produced by human beings to maintain some sort of a control in the field of human sexuality. This has very little to do with true spiritual purposes. The human approach may be, “Let’s establish laws, rules, regulations of various sorts, so that things don’t get out of hand.” And there is a sufficient government in this sense established so that we can all get on with what we want to do in the human sense without so much disruption as otherwise would be the case. But all this is in the human nature world.
So we can see that the true design, the spiritual design, is of a totally different nature. As we have come along the way we have allowed certain changes to occur in our own consciousness so that we begin to see things from a different perspective—a spiritual perspective. We see the world in a different way, and we see our own personal function in the world from a different standpoint, so that we do not anymore follow out the usual orthodox ways which have been established by society in the human world. At least we do not follow out these ways because of those ways. It may be useful to acknowledge the ways of Caesar so that we may function in a reasonable manner in the eyes of others. We are not interested in throwing up roadblocks in front of people by creating valid reasons for their reactions. But having a spiritual perspective, we recognize the reason why we do things is not the same as the reason why most people do things. For the moment we can keep it under cover, so to speak, under wraps to a certain extent, so that all concerned are not aware of what our motivations are, because that in itself would produce unnecessary reaction.
If we do keep sacred things sacred it is not because we are ashamed or afraid but because we are thoughtful of those in our worlds, for whom we carry a considerable responsibility. We do not wish to place stumbling blocks unnecessarily in the way of others. But we ourselves in increasing manner are aware of a vast difference of right action in our field of function to what may be considered as right action in the human sense. We need to know how to be right in our action without activating unnecessary offense to others, but in such a way that it brings to bear what needs to be brought to bear in our worlds, and in the consciousness of people, both in the general sense and from time to time in the specific sense, when we have to deal with this person or that person.
In order to be able to handle this situation we need to be free in ourselves, so that factors of fear and shame, which predominate in human consciousness, no longer push us around. And we are deliberate in attitude and action. That deliberation is based in the movement of the spirit of God, because we have generated at least some substance of a fine nature which causes us to be capable in this regard. We are capable in our spiritual function at whatever level we find ourselves now, and because of such spiritual substance as there is, we have a certain perspective vision, spiritually speaking.
I am sure we are all very conscious of the fact that there are finer levels of experience in this regard. We need to be aware of this so that we stay humble, amongst other things, but let us not deny the level that we now know. This is the known insofar as we are concerned. We know much in our own experience, from the standpoint of our own viewpoints, our own vision and perspective, that obviously most other people do not know. So our known is not the known in the general sense. Now again, we need to be careful that this does not cause us to feel somehow a spiritual elite. This is merely just the fact of the matter. This is the situation in which we find ourselves. Let us just leave it at that, and not try to make something out of it to boost the human ego, because if we do that, then we lose the whole thing anyway. So we stay humble.
But our point of knowing is not the same as the point of knowing present in the vast majority of people. Therefore, when we move from the known to the unknown, our movement is at an entirely different level. We need to remember this when we are dealing with other people, that their known is not our known, and if they rightly should be moving from their known into the unknown, we need to take into account what is their known, so that we do not expect them to jump from their known into our known. That would be likely, for most, too big a leap, and it needs to be done in steps, as we were recognizing before.
However, in considering this matter from our own standpoint, we are allowing something to transpire in our human consciousness which is part of our responsibility of government. It cannot happen in our human consciousness without happening in the human consciousness of mankind in general, at whatever level people may happen to be, though the experience will be different for different people. But we ourselves are responsible for allowing our human consciousness to accept what is coming down from God out of heaven, heretofore unknown to us.
It seems more comfortable to human beings to stay within the bounds of what they know. The unknown looks rather fearful. As it is said sometimes, the devil that is known is safer or better than the devil that isn’t known. Obviously this is not necessarily true. It may not be the devil at all. But people feel safer to stay in a bad state, even though it is a bad state, rather than venture into something that might be worse. Clearly, what we now know is not sufficient. We may say that it is adequate for now, but it will soon become a destructive experience if what we now know persists too long. There is a constant need to relinquish what is now known if what is as yet unknown is to come within the range of knowing. And so there is much still to be relinquished, obviously.
I introduced yesterday something with respect to sex, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/spiritual-sex-and-physical-sex.html] deliberately using that word, because true knowing requires that we see what is meant by this word in a way that is presently unknown to us. We may see something with respect to this word that most people have not seen so far, and we may conceivably have felt a little self-satisfied about this, as about other aspects of our knowing, so that when what we have known needs to be relinquished we may feel somewhat threatened, because what we have known is what we have been. We know what we give expression to, which is revealing of what we are at that point.
We are all constantly expressing ourselves and revealing ourselves thereby. Presumably we express ourselves on the basis of what we factually know. We may try to express ourselves at times on the basis of what we theoretically think we know, and we reveal ourselves thereby. We may find ourselves at times talking, for instance, in a way that sounds good but in fact we don’t know what we are talking about. And if we are honest we will acknowledge that this has been the case on occasion. We do it probably because we are pretty sure that the other person doesn’t know that we don’t know what we are talking about, and therefore we’re making a good impression. But we really need to be honest in the matter.
However, obviously there are things that are known at this level and we need to proceed into what is presently unknown, which when it is known will be quite acceptable. But if we try to hang on to what we think we know, as a basis for judging the unknown, we will never be in position to accept what is presently unknown into the range of our knowing. We will always keep it out there, because it doesn’t conform with our present knowing, therefore it must be wrong.
I introduced this little consideration relative to sex from the standpoint of our responsibilities of government in this particular Assembly, so that there may be those things that are not yet known in human consciousness, our own in particular, to come within the range of knowing. That will not happen if there is either fear or shame present in our attitudes. That is what closes the door. But if we have come to the point where we consider the LORD to be adequately trustworthy, then there is a willingness to allow these changes in human consciousness to occur. We are quite willing that these should occur in our own consciousness, because it is the only one where we have responsibility. If it is going to happen anywhere, insofar as we personally are concerned it must happen in us. Even if it happens in somebody else, that will not get the job done insofar as we are concerned. It has to happen personally in our own consciousness for us to share in the knowing that is needful. We cannot leave it to somebody else to know for us.
In approaching this particular area, which is all-inclusive, we are in fact approaching all areas. If we can do it in this area, one could say that it saves quite a bit of trouble, because you don’t have to go through all the mass. You approach this one area and it opens up everything, because it is everything. We have seen that it is everything insofar as the working of the Law is concerned. The One Law is a statement of the sex principle, and there is nothing outside of the Law. So our approach to a consideration in a specific sense of this central, focused, core area makes it possible for the Gates of Heaven to be opened, so to speak. I think many people have felt this to be so, and from the human nature standpoint they have undertaken all kinds of things. But as long as it was from the human nature standpoint nothing ever really happened. All that did happen was a multiplication of sorrows and tragedy.
Our approach is the spiritual approach. This is the proper approach from the Third Sacred School—a spiritual approach, so that we see everything with spiritual perspective. And this requires a stability of attitude relative to the spiritual approach, so that we do not anymore easily revert into a human nature approach. Because the very moment we do that we are again in darkness. We stay in the light because the approach is made spiritually.
Now this perspective is non-judgmental. Human nature is characterized by the attitude of judgment, and it has its code of ethics, shall we say, which provide the means by which everything is judged. And if you have your book of rules out in this sense, and you are going to weigh everything that comes against this book of rules as though the book of rules was a sound basis for judgment, you will not receive, and certainly will not understand, what needs to be known. We have no basis of judgment. Some of the ethical and moral considerations that have been present in human experience do have a seed back of them that is of the true design, but obviously, by the time it’s got through all the rigmarole of the ages to emerge into our consciousness now, you would never be capable of tracing that back to the original seed. That would be a very laborious thing, and impossible in any case. So we will not undertake that.
We need to have the spiritual approach, so that we begin to discern what that seed is now, and we can only discern it now if we have relinquished the barriers that have been in between. So this, fundamentally, gives us the basic starting point for whatever it is that needs to emerge. We have no pre-established lines of demarcation, so that we might say, “Well it must emerge this way, so as to satisfy my ethical sense, or my moral sensibilities,” or whatever it is. All these things have been built up by human nature in order to have some sort of a controllable state of affairs on earth. That is all it is. We are not interested in the human nature controllable state on earth. We are interested in the controlled state, the state of dominion, that comes by reason of the spirit of God. And so I trust that we may be in position to move on this basis in the times we spend together in the days to come. And I will not always use the word “sex.”
We are not going to violate basic spiritual integrity. We should all have sufficient confidence in our experience of the action of the spirit of God thus far to be assured that this is the case; and while it seems as though some of the very foundations are being shaken, it is necessary that they should be. Earthquakes are needed in this sense, in order to shake things up loose enough so that the true design, for which we carry the responsibility in our expression of living, may begin to fill itself out with the freed-up substance. Then it all becomes very natural and easy.
World Abyss Of Nothingness
Uranda January 25, 1945
Human beings everywhere are being tested and those who are not attuned to divine wisdom will break under it. Since the world is as it is and all these failures came into being back through the ages, we have to lead the way through the abyss of nothingness, coming up over where others have failed. It means that we ourselves will be put in places of strain. If our positions in life held no tests or strain we would be of little value in the outworking of things. We know that in the world as it now is the unreal appears to have the upper hand. Those who function wrongly seem to get by—sometimes it looks as though the evil forces have such a completely dominant hand that it does not look as though we should stand for the right.
I think it would be well to consider a little different phase of the same subject. I touched on the world abyss of nothingness. We are in the period of the crucifixion, or the world tomb. All this is implied by the use of the term abyss of nothingness, and if we consider that from the standpoint of the individual progress along the way, we will be able to see better from the world standpoint and understand our part in the world body as we move through this abyss of nothingness.
Every individual who sets forth in the way finds that wonderful experience of exhilaration that he enjoys as he first becomes aware of the beauty of the Divine, and then, when he remains on that plane for a time, begins to feel at home. He feels so much at home that the exhilaration that he experienced has gone and there is nothing strange or new about the place where he is living. Then he is liable to think that he has lost something. He does not lose anything if he knows the right direction of response. Then he comes to a point where, as it were, he feels suspended in space and feels very uncertain. He feels that no one understands, that there is no one to help, and he does not know quite where he is going to land. While a certain degree of assistance can be given, the passage through this abyss must be made basically on the foundation of what is contained within himself. No one can reach out and pull him across.
If he does not look down but looks up and holds steady, he will find his feet on solid ground. Up a little further, he experiences a new exhilaration and again, on this higher level, he begins the process of getting acquainted with his new position, and then the exhilaration goes because he gets used to it. Later on he hits a new abyss, which may last for minutes or days—some have lasted for months. But as you go along, the abyss becomes shorter, and if you remember the Law all can be passed without any qualms. However, the individual must pass that abyss; there is no other way. With each new crossing we are on higher ground, on a higher plane than before, and then sometimes, when we start being lifted up, we may get panicky.
If we grasp the principle and remember that, when we come face-to-face with problems in that period, as we all do at times, we will see that the world too is going through the same thing. This is its biggest abyss of nothingness—and it is going to last for a while. We are part of the world body, and to the degree that we hold steady it helps the world body carry through the abyss of nothingness. The average person is likely to go all to pieces unless somewhere there is a sustaining vibration. If we look from the standpoint of the outer mind, it will look hopeless. If this world gets through the abyss of nothingness it will depend upon what is in itself. In a sense—and this could be understood—the world is shut off from assistance from the Divine in an external sense. We can see that in various church activities. They think and struggle and work, and yet they know that the spirit is not in them.
Those who have a conscious understanding of what is taking place have a greater responsibility. If the world gets through this abyss of nothingness it will be because it has held steady. That is our big job for the time to come. I think we will remember that when we hit the tight spots.
© emissaries of divine light
