Reclaim the Dream — Live the Story — Be of Service
David Karchere June 16, 2024 Edenvale, B.C. Canada
I'd like to read a poem. One of my favorites from Robert Frost
The Pasture
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
And wait to watch the water clear, I may
I shan't be gone long
You come too
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother
It's so young
It totters when she licks it with her tongue
I shan't be gone long
You come too
You come, too. That is what we're about. We're about, first of all, going someplace. Isn't that the very nature of leadership? It's going someplace. Plus, someone going with you, but nobody can go with you if you don't go. We're here to go. We're going someplace ourselves. Something is happening for us. We are on a journey, an exploration. A creative manifestation of something that's unfolding through time.
I was thinking about the nature of that. We've spoken of it historically in terms of what we've called Sacred Schools: Sacred Schools saying that things have started in this process of spiritual regeneration at a physical level in ancient times, where there were people who began to awaken, and the first order of business was what was happening at a physical level. It's not that nothing else was happening, but it was getting going there. And things moved on as things do. And things moved out of a focus at the physical level to a focus at the level of consciousness. A mental focus, you might say. We've called that the Second Sacred School. There is a way of ascension that we are walking in where the focus of what's happening is ascending up through the human experience.
When Uranda initiated this ministry that we call Emissaries of Divine Light in 1932, he called it the Third Sacred School. The Third Sacred School that had a focus in the spiritual nature of human beings. There is activity, creativity, happening through the spiritual nature, not just what was done physically, not just what was thought, not just consciousness, but the vibration, the energy field, the auric field of human beings.
So how does all this work? Did we leave the physical level behind in this way of ascension? We're just ascending on out of the physical, on out of the mental, higher and higher, leaving it all behind. As I look at the room here there are still bodies in this room. We didn't leave our physical bodies behind. It's actually something ascending, more is added to the experience; and more and more it's at a higher level where there's a focus of activity, but a focus of activity that doesn't neglect all the rest.
We suffer if we neglect our physical bodies. We suffer if we neglect our minds. And we might think we're on to the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, or Twenty-fifth Sacred School. Well, good on you if you are, but I sure do hope you're not neglecting your own physical body, what's happening there creatively, what's happening in your consciousness, and what is happening in the vibration that you're putting out in the world in which you live. That's a determinant of what happens in that world, to be neglected at our peril.
All of creation in the field in which we work, live and create is dependent on the vibrations, the energy field that is coming out from us spiritually. So, when we talk about spirituality, we're not just talking about something up there. Sometimes that's what people mean when they're talking about spirituality. They're talking about something someplace else. Well, whatever someplace else, when we're talking spirituality, we're talking right here and now. We're talking about the vibratory field that we are sharing, that we are creating together. We are talking about caring for that field so that it is of such a quality that it brings forth life. Things can grow in it.
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That's the idea of Edenvale, the idea of Sunrise Ranch, Gatehouse in South Africa, and actually that's the idea of everything we do as Emissaries of Divine Light. We're creating a vibratory field in which things can grow. We have to know what lets things grow, right? If we were growing vegetables, we'd pay attention to the water and the sun and the temperature, and who knows what else. How about this field? What is the equivalent of those things in this field? What lets things grow here?
So, we are here to “gather at the river that flows by the throne of God,” I think it says. To gather at the river, to be not only in touch with, but to be an expression of the river that flows from Source.That is what allows things to grow. That's what grows us. That's what grows this community. And that's what makes possible our service to the world.
As Keahi was pointing out, to take all this on in human strength, it's a burdensome thing. But we realize that something else is happening. Something else is happening, and we are cracking open so that larger reality can for real begin to work in and through us. There's another dimension of who we are in this way of ascension. We got up to the level of spiritual expression, our spiritual nature. If you're thinking of it from an Attunement standpoint, it relates to what's happening in the pancreas.
But there's another level at the heart center, here where the thymus gland is. And something has to happen there for the powers of creation, the powers of the creator, of Source to come into the spiritual field that we share together. It's absolutely vital. You can't do it with a hardened heart, right? That's somehow intuitive, something like common sense. Does somebody with a hardened heart really reverberate with powerful love into their field? That's not how this goes, right? There has to be some kind of un-structuring of the heart, so that the powerful vibrations of creation can come into the human experience, can come into this field, and so that things can grow in the field, and there can be a service to the world that's offered.
You ever feel like you've somehow fallen down on your part of all that? Maybe tripped, tripped and fell? It happens in our human experience. It happens for an individual. I am not knowing, but I rather imagine we've all had some kind of familiarity with that. And it happens for collectives of people, communities, whatever. What is the path back, the way back to the way of ascension and the way of creation, creating something beautiful in the world? There's a story that may be a bit of history, but it's also a teaching story from the Gospels. And it goes like this:
There was a disciple, Peter. Peter is known and was known for being loud and boisterous, of a big heart. I read his Epistles recently, and I didn't agree with everything he said; but nonetheless, I could feel the man's great heart and you could feel why Jesus must have loved this man. He was just so full of enthusiasm and, as I say, a big heart. But he tripped. It's spoken of as denial. So, he denied the part that he had to play. And times were tough. Jesus was being persecuted. Peter didn't want to get into trouble, I suppose. So, he was staying mum. He got asked, “Hey, do you know this guy?” And he’s like, I don't know. I've never met him.
And it happened three times, as the story goes. Like I say, it's a teaching story, whatever else it is. And at some point, thereafter, Jesus speaks to him and he says, “Peter, lovest thou me?” And you can imagine what his response might have been. He was flustered, apparently, from the story. And his answer went something like this, “Of course, you know I do, of course, of course, why are you even asking?” And Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” And then He asked again. (In a good teaching story, things happen three times!) So, He asked again, “Peter, lovest thou me? And every time Jesus asked, Peter has more and more protest. “Why are you even asking?” And He says, “Feed my sheep.” And it happened again. “Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep.” We could see it as Jesus looking to clear the pattern of his failure, of the fact that he tripped up. And there were three failures, so there were three iterations of clearing that pattern for Peter. What an opportunity!
But there's also something else I take from the story. Our way forward isn't certain. We prove our love not by protestation. We prove our love through service. We have that opportunity, each one of us. It's service to the larger reality that we're creating that is beautiful and worthy of our love and our service. And we are serving other human beings because you don't get to do the former without doing the latter. Serving other human beings, offering something of value to another human being, whatever it might be, in whatever way. We are feeding the lambs and the sheep.
It is interesting that there's that age distinction there apparently. Lambs and sheep. I come from a generation of baby boomers, hippies or ex-hippies, many of us, visionaries. That went on for a while. And for many of my generation, we got back to normal after having, you know, all that tumult in our teens and 20s. And so, the vision that had awakened us early on got left behind. I think in many cases because there wasn't a vision as to how to see it through. Yes, I have this great vision. Yes, I know the world is not like it's supposed to be. And whatever it is, love, whatever the vision was, still not enough to actually manifest a new world. And so, then it goes back to, Okay, well, I'll just fit in and make the best of it.
So, do you think it's possible for a person that if that's been their life, that there's some shame when it comes to the next generation? I used to have a dream, but I’ve kind of lost it now. Hope you do okay. I think there can be for an individual. I think there can also be generational shame. I do think my generation carries shame about the fact that we didn't fulfill the promise that we felt. And where there is that kind of shame, there's often a great reticence to feed the lambs, to offer something inspiring and nourishing to those who are coming after, because you know you've given up on your dream and you have nothing to give. Well, if that has happened for a generation, let’s find our dream, and let's give it. Let's share it. Let's know it. Let's manifest it. And let's nourish those who come after us. I think it's the height of arrogance, the height of arrogance not to care about those who come after you. And there's all kinds of reasons for it. But if there's been a trip up of whatever kind, I think Jesus' story tells us the answer.
Be of service.
Be of service.
Reclaim the dream.
Know the dream.
Live the dream.
Live your story.
We're in this story as humankind. For some, I suppose the story is over. No, we're in the middle of the story, don't you get it? We're in the middle of a climactic time for humankind. Who could doubt it? This isn't an ordinary time by any measure. Who could think that it is? By any measure, the writing is on the wall, if you will. Should I give you facts and figures? The population of the planet has pretty much tripled in my lifetime. That is evidence of an exponential something, right? That's not just bumping along. No, that's exponential. It's tripled! If you looked at it over time, it'd be like this and like this, and it goes like that. Something's happening, and you can look at it from the standpoint of global warming or whatever. There is something happening, something coming to issue.
Jesus’ great promise was, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” This ministry, Emissaries of Divine Light, has been a fulfillment of that promise. There have been people in this ministry who assisted those who came to know the truth for themselves. And I love the way he said it. He didn't say, and you shall know my truth, or you shall read my teachings, or you shall know the truth of spiritual things, or the truth of Christianity, the truth of Emissaries of Divine Light. No, that's not what he said. There was no qualification. “And ye shall know the truth.” The truth of this way that we're walking as human beings. The truth of this reality that we are knowing on this planet. The truth of our destiny. The truth of it all. The truth of yourself. The truth of your neighbor. The truth of God—not belief in God.
He said you shall know the truth. An amazing, amazing promise. Pretty much totally overlooked by Christianity, as far as I can tell. Right? You shall believe. You shall believe in Jesus Christ or whatever it is. You shall believe. You shall have faith. No, He didn't say that. He talked about belief as a step to knowing, but he talked about knowing. So, we're here to know. If we think we haven't arrived in terms of the ultimate knowledge, it's okay. Because knowing is an ongoing process of something. It's not a one and done. “Oh, I know the truth.” That's boring, right? If you meet somebody, you say, “Oh, yeah, I know the truth. See you later.” But how about, I am knowing the truth, or even, I am getting to know the truth. There's so much more that I don't know, but I am knowing it. I'm living it, I'm getting to know it more and more, every day, more and more of it, more and more of myself, more and more of you, more and more of what we're doing.
We did have a fabulous Becoming a Sun workshop. Hats off to Keahi and Oren who led a lot of it, and who are assuming responsibility for the Course going forward. It's in good hands. As a part of it, we had a chance to write our own song. So, I wrote one that I'd like to share.
“Love, always there, always present,
shining forever, never far, never lost
here for me, here for you
transcendently itself.
Wisdom, always there,
forever mine, forever yours,
never gone, never lost.
There for me, there for you,
never not there, here,
always, always there.
Our Lord always here,
always mine, always yours.
Pristine presence, stillness of being.
Filling me, filling you,
always in me, always in you,
never alone, never alone, never alone.
This glorious fullness overflowing,
flooding the world, flowing from you,
flowing from me, filling all the world,
always there, always there, always there.
Good to be together here at Edenvale. Seems like a short trip, really. Keahi's going to stay on for a time. I’m really grateful that you're doing that.So, it's worth saying that we at Sunrise Ranch are your sister community. We love you and we are about you here. We are with you and we are embarking on a program of bringing our best to you and of cycling people through to cheer you on, be part of what's being created here. So, some of that's been going on for years, of course, but in a more conscious way. So, I suppose we're the first wave here, and Berry’s here for a time. I know it's really good to have Berry here with you and the magic of what's being created. And anybody who comes here is backed up by that crew over at Sunrise Ranch and people around the world, too.
So, thanks everybody around the world, too. I know we all have our arms around the world. So, thanks everybody. I know we all have our arms around Edenvale with great love and around each other.
Love, Always There
from The Pulse Of Spirit
David Karchere Sunrise Ranch June 19, 2024
From age to age
Love’s word rings forth,
“The truth is true and all is well,
Unconquerable life prevails.”
These words from Martin Cecil’s poem Thus It Is, declare what has been transpiring on Planet Earth since the dawn of history. In fact, there has never been a time when the forces of spiritual awakening and regeneration have not been at work, right up to this very moment. When Martin was alive in human form, the forces were apparent through him. And because you could witness and feel those forces in expression, you could feel those forces resonating through your own human capacities. What a joy!
That’s how it goes whenever a person opens to the creative forces Martin references. They become immediately evident to those around that person. Not that they weren’t there all along. But it makes the fact readily apparent when someone allows those forces to work through them.
Martin Cecil died in January 1988. Does anyone imagine that the forces that bring spiritual awakening and regeneration ceased being present when he left? It is a loss when someone of Martin’s stature leaves. But after reverberating through human consciousness for millennia, love’s word still rings forth today. The truth is still true. And unconquerable life still prevails. There can be no reasonable question regarding that. The relevant question is whether we know it. If we do, then love’s word is ringing forth through us. We know the truth of who we are and of the Reality in which we have our Being. And we experience and express unconquerable life.
Like any creative process, spiritual awakening and regeneration have to start at the beginning. The story of Abraham marks that beginning for Western civilization and the world. No doubt there is far more to that beginning than what is recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible. But what is recorded there tells of a seed that sprouted and grew and eventually changed the world.
I will bless thee,
and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven,
and as the sand which is upon the sea shore …
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed …
[Genesis 22:17,18]
Reading these words, it is clear that they have yet to be fulfilled. Within the context of Emissaries of Divine Light, we have acknowledged that this beginning referenced in Genesis related most immediately to the world of physical form. It made sense that the first area of life that had to be addressed was the physical. And so, spiritual awareness and regeneration were applied to the manifest forms of life. Later, especially through the New Testament period, Jesus focused on the realm of human thought. In very simple and direct language he guided people to embrace a spiritual perspective on the mental world. Naturally, the processes of awakening and regeneration worked in an ascending pattern. That is the way the process works. In this pattern, the next sphere of human experience that is the focus of activation is the spiritual nature of humankind. This is the realm of the human spirit, human character, and the human energy field that emanates from a person. These three phases of awakening and regeneration compose the First, Second, and Third Sacred Schools.
People can fantasize about such things. The human ego can get involved, with claims by some that they are reaching higher and higher levels. It often seems like imagination and misses a realistic experience of the way of ascension in which we are engaged. Realistically, the levels of human experience aren’t invented as we go along. They are all there from the beginning, even if a certain level hasn’t been filled out in our own experience. And it is not as if we leave a certain level as we move in the way of ascension. Our physical bodies are still here. Our minds are still here. It is all in play. It is just that we are activating the human experience in an ascending pattern. But the processes of regeneration at a physical level are not meant to stop. We don’t move past an activation of the mind so that we just park it on the shelf.
So what changes? And what doesn’t? These are important questions for anyone. There are realities that don’t change. And they shouldn’t. If you read the story of Abraham, you will see that he welcomed Divine Presence. Has that gone out of style? Have we moved on to bigger and better things? As we move in the way of ascension, our path unfolds before us. Our movement becomes clear as we put one foot in front of the other. The vibrational context evolves, as do the worldly factors. But the most essential factors do not. And if you start changing what is meant to be everlasting, you will confuse yourself.
In the simplest of terms, a leader is someone who goes somewhere and invites others to go with them. In our case, we are walking in the way of ascension while knowing what is eternal. If you don’t go anyplace, you are not leading. And if you don’t invite anyone to go with you, you are just on a solo journey ... I am walking in the way of ascension. You come, too ...
In the context of Emissaries of Divine Light, we are turning around a paradigm that ignores those who come after us. We are feeding the sheep and the lambs. We are sharing what we know. We are welcoming others to walk the way of ascension with us. You come too. You have probably noticed that this doesn’t work very well if you are coming from a place of arrogance or condescension. Or if you are not having an inspired experience yourself. But if you are truly walking the way of ascension, it is easy to invite others to go with you ... continued here ... emissaries.org/love-always-there
