This is our period of class meditation on Wednesday morning May 19th, 1954 in the chapel on Sunrise Ranch. We recall that the Master had twelve disciples, and that He Himself made the thirteen. We recall there were thirteen tribes of the children of Israel, and that this thirteen, one and twelve, are repeated in various ways through the symbolical and allegorical portrayals that we find in sacred writing. You will recall that the pattern was such that at all times, regardless of the particular arrangement—in other words the group might be seated in some such fashion as we have here this morning, scattered this way or that, and that would not change the fact that the arrangement was of a triangle in relationship to this number thirteen. There is the one, and then the two, three, four—or one, two, three, as we ordinarily think of it—depending on the starting point, which is signified by whether we talk about twelve or thirteen. Now, the outer manifestation pattern is properly of twelve, so in the ordinary pattern of consideration we begin here: one, two, three. But if we are considering the heaven and the earth, the unification of the two patterns, the visible and the invisible, then we begin at the apex as the one, relating to the invisible realm of being, and we have here the two, three, four, which would be followed either by from five to thirteen down here, or by the four to twelve, depending upon the area indicated by the particularized expression, whether we were talking about thirteen or twelve.
Now, considering it for the moment from the standpoint of twelve, we have here the one, two, three, and it is easier for us to see, for the moment at least, the basic principles that are involved here. Obviously this one, two, three, here, with the other nine at the base of the pattern—the particular arrangement there is not of too great importance, although it could be seen as four and five actually. The important point is that these three, generally spoken of as Peter, James and John, relate to the three phases of being in the body of mankind, and must not be considered merely as segregated or separate individuals. Particularized men provided the focalization, or were supposed to at least, were supposed to provide the focalization for these factors in the body of mankind. But separate the men involved from the body of mankind and conceive them to be of and by themselves that which is so symbolized, and you have a confusion in consciousness which is bound to prevent the manifestation of power, bound to prevent the outworking of purpose.
So we see here that the usual order in which they are mentioned, Peter, James and John, is one which is, shall we say, natural to the limitation patterns in human consciousness in the body of mankind—because Peter related to what? Now I do not expect you to be able to answer. I am putting it this way as a question for you to think about, to emphasize it. Peter, James and John. What would be natural here? If we do a little thinking, if we do a little meditating, what three would these be? Would we say the body, the mind, and the heart or the emotional nature? No. If we do, we are obviously taking the attitude that these nine have no purpose.
If you go into Oriental literature—as we may touch into the Bhagavad-Gita, for instance, before the conclusion of our term together here—you will find the expression there with respect to “the city which hath nine gateways.” The city which hath nine gateways—and what is it? It is the physical body of man. There are nine openings in your body, seven in the head. There are nine openings in the body. And in that consideration, then, we have the nine disciples which were supposed to represent these factors in relationship to the body of mankind: the city which hath nine gateways, either the individual human being or humanity. And remember that if these twelve disciples had any meaning, or are to have any meaning to us, we must see them in relationship to that which they focalize and not as if they themselves were the sum total of that which is signified. This particular point here, although I have emphasized it over and over again, has been one upon which there has been much stumbling in relationship to myself for instance, because having the confusion with respect to that which has been in the past, it is not surprising that the confusion should be maintained with respect to that which is in the present; and to assume that if I carry a particular focalization, then I am that in its sum total all by myself, which is not the case at all. I have never once suggested that it was, but have emphasized over and over again that, while I provide a focalization of something, that I of and by myself can achieve nothing, for only as that focalization is allowed to have meaning in relationship to the same factor in the field of others can I, as a focalization, have any significance.
So, the twelve are focalization points. The thirteenth was a focalization point focalizing for us in manifest form on earth the invisible realm, and in particular that which we speak of as Deity, God, God the Father. So, the Master, although manifest in form, was the representative on earth of God, the One who provided the particularized initial manifestation in a cycle; but He indicated clearly that His place was not here on earth but was rather in the invisible realms. “I go to my Father.”
So, it is obvious that if we are to consider heaven and earth, the invisible and the visible, the basic principles revealed all the way through from the standpoint of the One Law, that which is the One in the invisible realm is the positive aspect of that which must of necessity manifest also in the visible realm, in its negative counterpart. If that negative counterpart is not present in the outer expression, that which is of the inner positive pattern would certainly be of little or no value. It could not be contacted. There would be no focalization, and the approach to it would be scattered and largely meaningless, except in the realm of idea.
Consequently, we see here that either approach is perfectly all right, because one and one make two—one plus one equals two. And whether we consider the two as the union of heaven and earth, or simply as the sum total of the two halves of the one thing, we have the same results. If you were to consider the vibratory factors present in the name of Jesus, you would find that the sum total of those vibratory factors comes to focus in the figure 2. That which begins in the invisible or heavenly realm comes into the earth and manifests in action on earth.
You begin to realize, if you have not already done so, that every figure that we use is a symbol that may be properly seen as relating to certain very important vibrational factors of being—and when I say that, I am not in any sense talking about numerology. Let it be very clear that I have no use for numerology. I do not use it. I do not encourage it or recommend it. It is a waste of time. But we begin to see that the figures, the numerals, did not just happen but are in fact particularized focalizations of vibratory factors. That the figure in and of itself has no power. You could have a two or a three or a five or a dozen or anything else and that number, of and by itself, has absolutely no power, no meaning of any kind or shape. The figure of itself has no force or power. But the figure, or numeral, is a symbol which suggests to us certain things, and if we are in attunement with that which is symbolized, then there is meaning, there is power—not because of the figure or numeral as such, but because we recognize that which the numeral signifies and have a relationship not to the visible indication of the factors but a relationship with that which is signified. Now if that is clear and remembered we can avoid, in the days to come, a great deal of confusion.
So there would naturally have to be the One, a point of focus for the release of the factors of Deity into the earth, the point of focus for that purpose. But there would have to be a correlating point in manifestation on earth if that focalization was to have meaning, particularly if that focalization was not incarnate.
Now, during the time that the Master was incarnate that correlating focalization was not so prominent, it was not in the outer sense of great significance during that period, because the Master's own body provided, for that period of time, the reality of that particular focalization, inner and outer in one being, and we rejoice in that. But as soon as His manifest expression on earth had come to a close, and He returned to the Father, which is to say His true point of focalization in the invisible realms of being, then His body through which He had as a person been made manifest no longer provided, in any way, shape or form, that means by which the negative aspect of His own positive being could be caused to have meaning on earth. It ceased to be the body, then, of Jesus, in the sense of the man. And the Master's own statements with regard to this particular point have been grossly misunderstood, and out of it has come much confusion.
However, we begin to see here that since it is obvious that the nine disciples relate to factors that are present in the physical being as such—the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, the mouth and the other two orifices in the body—this is that which relates, then, to the body as such. And the three would relate to the mind, the emotional nature, and the spiritual nature, or the focalization on earth of the Spirit. We have, as we pause to consider it, very clear indications of what the Master recognized in these three disciples to provide the particularized focalizations essential for the accomplishment of His purpose.
We remember that Peter was well known for his impulsiveness, for instance. Now that tendency toward impulsiveness was not a thing which was in itself bad; but allowed to control it became destructive. But it is something which appears on a distortion pattern out of the heart, or the emotional realm, doesn't it? Cleared to its right pattern of vibrational factors, that quality would be manifest as something else—not as impulsiveness but as an ever-readiness to yield to the working of the spirit of God as it flows forth in daily life. So, it was not the Master's intention to squelch, destroy or in some other manner limit this quality in Peter. It was His intention that it should come under controlled direction so that it should be a means by which the Spirit of God could find ready manifestation.
But what was it, and what is it, that finds manifestation when we have the pattern of impulsiveness as it is known in the world? In the pattern of impulsiveness it is not the Spirit of God which comes into manifest expression through the heart or the emotional realm; it’s something of the idea of the human mind. Impulsiveness is always a mental thing made manifest; and consequently, even though it may seem at the time to be a good idea, it turns out to be bad. So, we have Peter as the symbol of the heart, or the emotional realm. We have James as the symbol of the mind; and if you have ever read the Book of James, and recognized his particular style of expression, you will find there that which clearly reveals what the Master saw in this particular man, which could provide a focalization of this factor in relationship to the body of humanity—not that he of and by himself should be the whole thing, but that he as a single individual might provide the focalization of this factor for all men and women. That takes care of Peter and James.
YouTube Audio
John. John of necessity would have to be the remaining point of focalization; and if we examine it, and note the pattern of outworking, the Beloved Disciple. Sometimes human beings say, “Well even the Master had partiality; He loved one of His disciples more than the others.” Not in the sense of partiality, no, but in the sense of recognizing the Focalizations of Being. They could not all be with equal closeness to Him. Human beings have a confusion on this point, and they imagine that they should have the privilege of having equal closeness with all other beings, equal closeness to the LORD. But a little sense, a little consideration, a little logic, a little reason, shows that it would be highly impractical even if it were possible, which it is not. There must be focalizations which provide representation with respect to the whole, otherwise we would have nothing but confusion in heaven, as well as on earth.
So, the one point is properly the negative aspect of the inner positive, in the sense of the manifestation in visible form of that which is of the inner reality. And John, the Beloved Disciple, was that point of focalization, the one who was supposed to be the direct representative, the one who provided the initial point of manifestation, for that which was present in the One Above, in the invisible realm. And then, that was supposed to manifest next in relationship to the mind as such: the mind, the realm of logic and reason; the mind that establishes a clear, sensible channel for the manifestation of that which originates in Spirit. And next the heart, or emotional realm, the feeling realm.
Actually the correct arrangement of those names from the standpoint of that which was symbolized would be John, James and Peter. But they always put it Peter, James and John—just backwards. Peter, James and John, but it should have been recognized as John, James and Peter. And if Peter himself, and all the others involved, had been willing for him to be what he was supposed to be, there would have been no confusion. Then he could have been of value to humanity, and humanity's recognition of Peter could have been of tremendous importance, of great value. As it is, it is backwards. And attempting to establish a control pattern in the mass of humanity on the basis of a focalization in the feeling nature, making it supreme over the mind and over the particularized focalization of the Spirit, establishes a condition wherein the power cannot manifest, where every time it begins to manifest it is bound to be used in distorted patterns, tangent activities.
There hardly breathes a man or woman upon the face of the earth who has not at some time, to some degree, been a means for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, something of the Holy Spirit in its Holy Pattern. Now of course, in the broad expanse, it generally turns into an unholy manifestation. Why? Because of this very thing: the distortion pattern as was established then, and as has been maintained since—because the uncontrolled emotional pattern has been allowed to be the focalization. And this is the thing about which so many thinking people have rebelled in relationship to religion, that conflict, as it’s called, between so-called science and so-called religion; because the scientist wants to be able to use his mind, he wants to be able to see, he wants to have a sense of logic and reason. But in the religious world the statement is: “No, you don’t have to understand. You don’t have to be able to answer the questions. You just have to believe. There are many questions we do not know the answer to,” they say, “but if you just believe, just feel it, just believe, then everything will be all right.” And those who have rebelled against that have been called agnostics and atheists and so on, because they have not seen the true picture either.
So, in our consideration and attitude in life, we must be very, very careful, at all times, under all circumstances, in all contacts with others, to bear in mind the correct pattern: not eliminating the feeling nature, but relegating it to its proper position, and recognizing that the first point of visible meaningfulness comes in relationship to the mind. The first point of visible meaningfulness—idea, concept, mind, the realm of reason and logic. And it is only as we begin to have a right understanding of the relatedness of logic and reason to the working of the Spirit through man that we can emerge from the chaotic pattern which has engulfed the Christian world through the centuries.
Now even here, with this highly esteemed Class, there tends to be a resistance to a movement into this particularized pattern of recognizing the vital significance of logic and reason in relationship to spiritual function, a tendency to feel, to react, on the basis of the old idea. Now, that tends to appear even among those of you who say with your lips and mean—you’re not dissembling—that you want to understand, you want to have a clear idea, you want to use logic and reason. But this old Peter, James and John pattern has had such a terrific impact upon the world that it reaches into the subconsciousness of those who have given any attention to spiritual things—and to the others also, on a different basis.
We begin to see that we have the connecting links insofar as focalization is concerned, and it does not mean that those twelve or thirteen beings, as such, are to function on some sort of segregated basis. The One who is THE ONE at the apex in relationship to the invisible realm, is not, on the basis of segregated, personal individuality, the whole thing. He provides the focalization of something, and it is the fact of that focalization which gives meaning to Him, value to His position. And that does not detract from Him, nor is it in any sense a failure to adequately appreciate Him—although you will find that many people, when they first begin to get a hint of the idea, imagine that we are somehow detracting from our LORD, trying to make Him be less than what He is supposed to be, which is not the case. We are simply recognizing, on a basis of logic and reason, that which gives Him meaning, that which is the truth of the matter, by reason of which He is LORD and KING.
So, as He provides the focalization of Deity, out of Deity, from Deity, in relationship to this world in which we live, we can see that He does provide the positive aspect of that in most excellent manner. We have no reason to complain. It is right. However, that which He provides must be allowed to manifest through the whole, and that whole cannot receive from that focalization without itself having focalization. And human beings, with their selfish, self-centered patterns, have been inclined to say, “Well if I could be the focalization, I would not mind it too much perhaps, but I am going to have a personal relatedness.” And they imagine that the point of focalization is trying to be the whole thing of and by himself, which, in the true case at least, is never so—for that which is the point of focalization, being true, is ever conscious of that which is focalized and the purpose of the focalization, and does not at any time attempt to function merely as a segregated individual human being. So, if we call the Master the Lord of Love, it is well; but He is not the whole thing all by Himself. He provides a focalization in relationship to us, in the invisible realms of being.
And how shall that focalization have meaning if not by reason of the Truth, which is perceived by the mind in a realm of logic and reason? And so, the Lord of Truth is the One who is the representative, or negative aspect of the ONE, providing a means by which that focalization may begin to have meaning to all. It does not mean that the Spirit of Truth is contained exclusively in the Lord of Truth. It only means that there is a focalization by reason of which the Spirit of Truth may be allowed to function effectively and with meaning through every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. It means that there is a contact point, so that the Spirit of Truth can have true meaning to you. And without a focalization, can it be so? We have the history of the world for twenty thousand years, and to what degree have all these billions of people—in their desire, sincere and earnest, to have a contact with the Spirit of Truth—to what degree have they allowed it to manifest, to what degree have their minds been correlated with the Truth in relationship to their ideas and concepts?
So, we begin to see that John and James and Peter were vital key points in relationship to that outline which the Master established, to provide a means by which there could be a release of the invisible realm into the visible. He set up that machinery, and established it so, and man thinking himself to be wiser than God changed it around. He decided he would rather follow Peter and conceive him to be the supreme focalization. Well actually, when we stop to consider it, what is the difference here? Who is supreme? Who is over another? It is a particularization of relationship. Not to say one is higher, or better, or more important than another. One without the other is meaningless in any case. So, one is not giving Peter any special credit by trying to make him be something that he was not.
And Peter failed to see these basic principles, and was himself a leader in establishing the disrupted pattern of idea. For there was a certain amount of vanity, and since he felt that he loved the LORD greatly, and since he felt that the response and attitude of the people was such that he could receive their acknowledgment on a basis of supposed humility, then he could take the reins and be the leader. But what did the Master say to him? “Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs.” And how is the feeding done? That which you are fed, how does it come? If I were to bring you a plate of food, the plate would be very, very important, wouldn't it? Or would you rather have me carry it in my hands? It has to have a container. The container for that which feeds you is that which is provided by the mind, the clearly established idea, concept, or what we think of on a limited basis as truth. But within that, there must be that which you feel, or it does not feed you. Merely an intellectual idea, which you have no feeling of personal relatedness to, does not feed you at all. In addition to giving Peter a chance to clear out of his three denials, the Master made three statements—three statements—“Feed my sheep,” clearly indicating the position at the third point there in relationship to this particular pattern, clearly indicating that that which was to feed had to come through the heart, the feeling nature, but it must be couched in the Patterns of Truth and centered in the Lord of Love. And the Patterns of Truth had to have a particularized pattern of focalization, the mental realm.
If you think of the Lord of Truth as the particularized focalization of the mental realm you are going to be confused again, because if one here is to be a representative of one there, then there must in turn be a representative here, number two, providing the manifestation from the standpoint of mental plane activity, finally correlated with the feeling nature. “Feed my lambs,” and “Feed my sheep.” And how do you feed a lamb? By beating it into a pulp? No, by the expression of love, and feeding something that you feel. And if in the words I speak, the James aspect of my expression, there is the current or centering of the Spirit which manifests in a current of feeling which you yourselves may perceive, then you have that established in focalization which has meaning to your body. But it must be the right way. It will not work in the reverse, try as you may. It will not work in reverse.
Now you may say, “The first real contact the body has in relationship to all of this is through Peter.” Oh yes, the first thing that you perceive—moving from the outer side now—the first thing that really begins to have meaning before idea is cleared, you perceive Peter. And if Peter has become a little bit arrogant, and a little bit self-active, and assumes that he is “the focalization”, one and two are never seen, and everyone assumes that Peter is the representative of God. We can see how it happens, and see how the weakness in Peter promoted it. We are not condemning Peter, or anyone else. We are examining things so that we may see the facts as they are, the Patterns of Being as they are established by God Almighty, and avoid for ourselves the tragedy of making the same mistakes. For only as we work according to the Truth can we be free. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
This day commemorates a great venture entered one hundred and seventy-seven years ago by those those who dared to dream of a land of the free and the brave. Our nation has paused to remember something of its birthright, to remember somewhat the labor pains of the birth of a nation, to remember the ideals, the hopes. I thought it might be well for us to give a moment's thought to our birthright as human beings, the birthright that is available to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, that we may remember the goal of attainment, that we may remember something of the labor pains by which, in the struggles of the world, the beginnings of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth have been brought forth.
We remember our Master and His Ministry among men, and that which He experienced at the hands of human beings. We have recognized many times that His greatest service to us was the revelation of Deity, and that revelation is possible only by reason of oneness with the Father. We have come to the point where our attention is centered in the processes of integration. How can we let this reality of integration manifest in us and through us? We recognize that if we fail to reach the goal of attainment of the oneness of Heaven and earth in ourselves, individually, we cannot be of any real service in helping to attain that goal for the whole body of humanity.
At various times we have given thought to God's Love and recognized that Love was, and is, the integrating force by which all things which are a true part of the Divine formation are held in pattern, a force by which the patterns of relationship are established, near or far. We remember the One Law, the two Great Commandments, and we see here, without question, the basic Law of Integration: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. This is the first and great Commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is indeed the Law of Integration, and it is under this Law that we have stability—in the solar system and in the atom. It is a violation of this Law, in the unstable fringe of atomic substance, which produces the violence of the atomic bomb. We recognize that we must be practical. We are living on earth, facing certain problems, and difficulties, and necessities. How can we let this Law of Integration be effective in and through us in relationship to these practical necessities of living, and how can we let the Magic of Living be a reality in and through ourselves?
I would like to draw your attention to the record, certain words our Master spoke which have a very definite and direct bearing on the answer to these questions. “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples.” Before proceeding further, let us pause to recognize the significance of the twelve disciples. We commonly hear of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and Jacob, who became Israel, had twelve sons. One of those sons, Joseph, had two sons, and there was a tribe of the Children of Israel named for each of the two sons, but there was no tribe of Joseph. There were thirteen tribes of the Children of Israel, commonly spoken of as the twelve tribes—and we recognize that the Priesthood, or the Levites, were to carry on the traditional pattern of the patriarchs, the centering or the fatherhood of the twelve tribes, to inherit the responsibility of Jacob, or Israel, and his twelve sons. Then we have the Master and His twelve disciples, the thirteen altogether in all three cases. The thirteenth, in each case, represented the invisible realm of Being. The twelve, in each case, represented the patterns of formation in life and being on earth.
When we reach the point of a consideration of the Book of Revelation we come to the outline of the four-and-twenty elders, and we recognize that four-and-twenty is twice twelve—recognizing the positive and negative aspects of formation in the twelve. The four-and-twenty of Revelation carries out exactly the same pattern as, for instance, with the twelve tribes, for in the tribes there were the men and the women of the tribe, the four-and-twenty again emphasizing the twelve. Carrying out the pattern, we have the twelve months of the year. We have the day of twelve hours and the night of twelve hours, the four-and-twenty, or the positive and negative aspects of the twelve. So, whether it be with the day or the year, it is still the twelve. All of these things have certainly not been made evident by chance, by coincidence. There must be significance. We could spend a great deal of time on this one subject, but I would like to draw your attention to other things. So, let it suffice to remind you that the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel were supposed to provide symbolical representation of the twelve vibratory focalizations or patterns of humanity.
Humanity as a whole, counting all men, women and children, is the creation of God—Adam and Eve. Humanity today, in its wholeness—all-inclusive, needing to be made whole—is the Adam and the Eve of this this moment. Each female is a part of Eve, and each male is a part of Adam. And the body of Adam and Eve, in their patterns of relatedness, or oneness, has continued since the dawn of the history of man. Adam and Eve is, today. I say is in order to emphasize the reality of integration—Adam and Eve in the sense of the body of humanity. It is not a wholesome, whole and beautiful body, as God first created it. There are limitations and miseries, sufferings and sorrows. The stature of Adam and the stature of Eve have greatly decreased, and I am not thinking of it so much in the physical sense as in the sense of the moral and character aspects of being. There is not the noble fulness of beauty and capacity, quality and character, that first characterized the Only Begotten Son of God.
Mankind, one body of humanity, in the beginning, insofar as this earth is concerned—not being concerned for the moment with the planets or solar systems—was the Only Begotten Son of God. The whole body of humanity is now, as far as this earth is concerned, the Only Begotten Son of God. And no man or woman on the face of the earth who lives and breathes can be excluded from that body. Even though we may say, “That human being is dead to reality,” still that human being is a part of the body as it now exists, with its limitations, its sufferings, its sorrows. And this body needs to be healed. The body has been dying, but it has not reached a point of being dead. Individual human beings have died but the body of Adam has never died, as yet—the body of Eve has never died, as yet.
Whether it be the twelve tribes or the twelve disciples, they were supposed to be symbolical focalizations, representation of the twelve aspects of the positive and negative body of man, the twelve phases of being in mankind—the twelve tribes. But if we see that this point with respect to the twelve tribes is real we must accept every man, woman and child, of every race and color and creed, as having membership in the twelve tribes; for the twelve tribes of the children of Israel were supposed to provide the beginning points by which the whole body of humanity could be integrated into a controlled body, the whole body of Adam including Eve—the Son of God. But the twelve tribes of the children of Israel conceived themselves to be the thing, rather than the symbol of the thing. Rather than representation, they developed a pattern of exclusion, deeming themselves to be set apart from the rest of humanity.
The twelve tribes, then, the twelve disciples, the twelve focalizations, however, whenever, they may appear, provide an understanding of the completed cycle in relationship to the Central Son, or the Higher Son, for the Son of God is the Only Begotten Son of God on the level of manifestation only. Every level of being has its own manifestation of the Only Begotten Son of God, and as the planets of our solar system represent one level; we have another level on earth, as such. And the higher point in relationship to the Son we even call the Sun, the Sun which centers the solar system. The Sun is the symbol of the Son, the highest point of truly viewing the Only Begotten Son of God, at the point of the third level up from our physical realm of Being. The planet earth and the forms upon it provide the first level—man, the crowning creation, to be the Son of God; the planets of the solar system provide another level, the second; and then, the Sun itself. Each level has its Son, but every Son is related to every other Son, for every Son above finds expression on the level of the Son below, and is, in each case, the revelation of that which is above. So, though we may say there is an Only Begotten Son on every level, all levels constitute the One Son, for no level by itself has any true meaning, and each level is a particularized revelation of the next highest level by which the Son of God is revealed.
Once we carry the pattern back to the Central SUN of Suns, and to the GOD of all Gods, we see that the cosmos, centered in the Central Point of Deity, is the Son of God. Whether we think of the cosmos as the Son of God, or any of the levels in between that Central Point of Being and this earth, or whether we give thought to the body of humanity, mankind, as the Son of God, we have the privilege of knowing, in all the different aspects of revelation, the reality of the One. By this means you can begin to see, at least in faint outline to glimpse, the processes of integration, from the realm where we dwell to the very center of the Cosmos; for it is integrated, it is one thing, and all its levels are revelations of the one thing. And humanity, mankind, is supposed to be a specialized revelation of the one thing, whether we think of that as the cosmos or simply as some point in the intervening levels of Cosmic Being.
You gain a deeper insight, then, into the basic truth that mankind was made in the image and likeness of God, and, being so made, was the Only Begotten Son of God. Our Master coming, revealing the essence of that which mankind was supposed to reveal, was called the Only Begotten Son of God. And if we had allowed ourselves to be integrated with Him at that time there would have been the full manifestation, the full revelation, of the Only Begotten Son of God, a cycle of revelation initiated by our Master while He walked among men on earth.
Here we have the words that came from the lips of the One who so served us on earth: “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples”—His contact points with the twelve segments of mankind, “He gave them power”; for to the degree that they—the twelve, or those who should partake of the reality of that represented by the twelve—answered the call, “He gave them power.” That representation, then, of that which was supposed to be, holds true for us now. Human beings have seen the twelve disciples as segregated from themselves. And there are those religious teachers, or leaders, or churches, that declare that the power was given to the twelve disciples only, and that they must be seen as separate and apart from the rest of us. They have failed to grasp the fact that instead of being segregated they were supposed to be the integrating points of focalization by which we might have direct contact with the Central Essence of Being, and that through them we might have an integrated body of mankind, containing the twelve segments of humanity.
“And when He had called unto Him.” When He called His twelve disciples He called you, in this generation, for you are one of the twelve—the twelve disciples representing the twelve segments of mankind. The body of Adam has continued till this day, and you are a part of one of the twelve segments; you are a part of one of the twelve disciples now, in this hour, just as much as any man in any hour when the Master Himself walked on earth. “And when He called unto Him His twelve disciples,” He called you, for the twelve negative aspects of the twelve segments are included, automatically, on the basis of Biblical symbolism, when we speak of the twelve positive aspects of the twelve segments.
He called you. In that moment He was not talking just to twelve men back there. He was talking to you, in this hour. He was talking to any human being who belonged to any of the twelve segments of the body of mankind. And there has never been a baby born on earth who did not belong in the twelve segments of mankind, even though the point of focalization in some carried out in relationship to the thirteenth, or the point of Essence of Centering, for remember that Levi was one of the original twelve, and the thirteenth was achieved by splitting one of the twelve. So, even though Levi was the thirteenth, Levi was one of the twelve. There has never been a baby born on earth, of any color, in any land, in any situation, not one, but what he or she was born with a birthright, as a member of one of the twelve segments of the body of humanity. You are one of the twelve. Whether you think of yourself as related to a tribe or a disciple makes not one whit of difference, for they both reveal exactly the same thing. And you, male or female, are one of the twelve now, whether you know it or not; whether you sell your birthright for a mess of pottage or not. Who, among the children of men, is willing to arise and claim the birthright? For every man, woman and child has that birthright, every baby that was ever born on the face of the earth, white or black, brown or yellow, it makes no difference. Regardless of the time or the circumstance, regardless of man's classification of parenthood, race or creed, regardless of anything, everything, every child that has ever been born on the face of the earth has been born with a birthright, an heritage, as a member of one of the twelve segments of the body of mankind.
So, He spoke to you, and I but re-echo His words. “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples.” Do you begin to see that this He has not yet achieved? That when still waits for the future. Those words do not apply to twelve men back there, as some may assume. The twelve apostles, the twelve disciples, the twelve tribes, the twelve elders—it makes no difference what we call them—are all the same thing, and they include you if you will let it be so. But the word is: “And when He had called.” He has been calling, but the twelve segments of humanity, either in total number or in representative form, have not been truly called in the sense of response. He has called, but they have not let themselves be called. They were too busy with something else, too many important things, to be concerned about the birthright. They were too hungry. So, like Esau, they have been selling their birthright for a mess of pottage.
“And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power.” Now, whether it be in total form or in true representation, whether it be with twelve individuals, as such, or four-and-twenty, or a hundred and forty-four thousand—which is twelve times twelve thousand, is it not? the same principle carried out—wherever there comes together a true focalization of the twelve, there they receive power. But those who represent the whole cannot expect to have the power that should manifest through the whole. There were twelve men who were called to be the twelve disciples But we recall that Judas betrayed, Peter denied, and certain ones followed afar off, so those who were called the twelve apostles were not. They undertook to classify Paul as an apostle, for instance. He was an apostle of his degree of understanding of the things of God, but in any true sense he cannot be classified as one of the twelve apostles, although he was a member of the twelve segments of humanity.
Can you find any point in recorded history when there were twelve—apostles, tribes, elders, disciples—twelve who were faithful and true? Where, in history, have there been twelve who were faithful and true? Not of the tribes of Israel, not of the sons of Jacob, not of the twelve disciples, not with respect to twelve apostles. The pattern has been projected over and over again, but not once in all the range of recorded history can you find an example of the true focalization of the twelve segments of humanity in a true and absolute sense.
If, at this point in the pattern of the Master's Ministry, the twelve had actually received what He gave they would have been twelve faithful and true representatives of the whole body of humanity. The Master would have had twelve contact points, or handles, by which to take hold of the body of mankind, by which He could have controlled that body, by which He could have caused the power to manifest. But would they let themselves be integrated as true representatives? You will find, if you study the pattern, that they had their bickerings, their differences, their directions of interest, their little feuds—those twelve men whom the Master called, who were supposed to be something, but, insofar as the twelve were concerned, never became what they were supposed to be. But suppose they had, and they had proved to be worthy of the trust—twelve good men, faithful and true. Suppose they had received what the Master gave, what a different story there would have been written upon the pages of the past nineteen centuries, for, “He gave them power.” But did they receive it? Oh, to some slight extent. But even with respect to the working of the power and to the people who might be blest by it, there was, forthwith, bickering; there was, forthwith, a loss of the power.
After they had received something of the power and had thrown it away, the Master said, “Tarry in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and when the day of the Holy Spirit is fully come, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, ye shall receive power.” He had already given power to start with. They had started to receive it and then had lost it. And He said, “After certain things are true of you, you will receive power.” Again, the hundred and twenty who waited for the day of Pentecost—one, two, twelve, multiplied by ten, the same pattern all over again. The hundred and twenty began to receive the power which He had already given, and again they went out and used it wrongly, again they lost it, again they had their differences as to how it should be used, and for whose blessing, and in what manner. So, once more it was gone. But the Central Essence of Being had already given it.
“And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples.” He has issued the call. We can respond here. And if there be twelve representatives of the segments of mankind—and they can be representatives without respect to color, or race, or creed—if there be twelve representatives, faithful and true, in this moment, here, or in any moment anywhere, twelve representatives who have truly come unto Him, centered in Him, accepting the basic Law of Integration, they will receive power because they will receive the Holy Spirit. Any twelve, anywhere, who are true representatives of the twelve segments of humanity—let them be either as twelve single individuals or any multiple of twelve that you may have, from twelve men to four-and-twenty, or on up to a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and forty-four thousand, it makes no difference—let twelve come together as true representatives of the twelve segments of humanity, and, being centered under the Law, they will receive the outpouring of the spirit and they will receive the power which the Master gave. The power He gave has never been truly received. Not by the disciples. He had given it before but it was not truly received by the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. They received only a little of it, and they lost it. The twelve children of Jacob received a little of it, but they lost it. All of the patterns of twelve that have ever been worked out with any meaning on the face of the earth began to receive something of it. But show me a pattern where they did not lose it, and throw it away, where they did not violate the reality of their birthright!
Integration under the Law
It has taken twenty thousand years for it to finally come to this point where I might appear on earth and speak to a little handful of people in a little valley in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, at the center of the United States of America, the center of a continent, if you please. And have we yet established twelve true representatives, twelve true patterns of representation for the twelve segments of humanity? Twelve who have represented humanity, yes, but have we found twelve who have represented humanity and God? To represent God to humanity, and humanity to God—that is the duty of the twelve. That was the calling of the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve disciples—to represent the twelve segments of humanity to God, and to represent God to the twelve segments of humanity. Let those twelve be found, as twelve single individuals or any multiple of twelve, in true representation, and they shall, in that moment—when they shall come together with one accord in one place—receive the Holy Spirit and power shall be given unto them.
They shall receive power, for the power has already been given. The power was given when man was first created, and God breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils and man became a living soul. In that moment the power was given and, as far as God is concerned, it has never been taken back. It was given then. It has been re-given or revealed as having been given, over and over again down to this present day. And still human beings are too busy to give heed to their birthright, too deeply enslaved to be concerned about their independence, to be involved with their busy business to be about our Father's business in the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand
“And when He had called unto Him.” Where will He succeed in having achieved that? He started to do it in many ways, at different times, but it still has not been done. When? Can we make that when be now? “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease”—diseases of the body and the mind and the heart. Power—over all the things that limit the body of Adam and the body of Eve, the things that still crucify the body of the Son of God.
If the body of Jesus, centralizing the body of the Son of God, had truly died upon the cross, then the body of the Son of God, which includes all mankind, would have been destined to die. But as the Master's body was in the tomb for a little time, and came forth from the coma into life, so do we see that, even though man failed to receive the power that was given, failed to use it aright, failed to let the twelve segments be truly focalized, there was a period of coma for the world that is called the Dark Ages, and for some centuries—which are as moments, or hours, in cosmic time—the process of resurrection has been at work in the body of the Son of God, for that body did not die. Through these centuries the resurrecting process has been going on, and you are called to have the privilege of beginning to see the reality of that resurrection, the reality of that life of the body of the Son of God which mankind is.
The question still remains: Even though our LORD and KING has given the power, when shall it be received? That is the question which remains unanswered still; for, searching among human beings in the body of the Son of God, we have not yet found those who would let the question be answered. But God has faith that in the body of the Son of God there will be found those who will let the question be answered, the power be received, the plan fulfilled, that the Son may be restored to the House of the Father, and be a Prodigal Son no more.
Our Gracious LORD and KING, we thank Thee for the privilege we have of seeing the opportunities of resurrection under the Law of Integration, that the Son, the Prodigal Son, may return to the Father's House, whensoever he will arise and go, having tired of the husks that are fed to the swine. The Father awaits the privilege of welcoming the Son. Who shall come, and when? Who shall be the ones through whom the plan shall be fulfilled? Who shall they be? When shall they appear? Blessed shall they be, whoever they are, whenever and wherever they shall appear, to the Glory of God, and to the Blessing of the children of men, that they may reveal the reality of “the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever.” Aum-en.
Some of the saddest words to be found anywhere in all of the world's scriptures are these: “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.” This brief passage summarizes the human condition and the reason for it. Cain represents material man, the mankind that inhabits the surface of this planet at the present time. Mankind is out from the presence of the Lord. Every human being is aware of this, either consciously or subconsciously, and all have undertaken to produce some sort of substitute to help assuage the emptiness which the fact of being out from the presence of the Lord produces in human hearts. Man, symbolized by Cain, went out from the presence of the Lord after he had slain Abel, Abel representing spiritual man. Spiritual man was lost to the experience of material man. The brothers belong together. If Abel is absent there is naturally and inevitably a sense of void.
Now, human beings, as I say, have undertaken to fill that void with substitutes of various kinds, but the experience has never been satisfactory — of course not; it is make-believe. Some have felt that the void could be filled by religious means and so a religious approach was made, imagining that somehow this might resurrect Abel, but it never has. Others felt that an intellectual approach would be more profitable, the sense of emptiness perchance could be filled with the substance of knowledge; and while knowledge has certainly been multiplied, the emptiness remains. Then there were those who supposed that material means would be satisfactory, the satisfying of the physical desires in various ways: eating, drinking, sex, the development of a pleasing environment of some kind. But Abel wasn't resurrected; the veil remained thick and impenetrable, with a mysterious and possibly mythical God the other side of it somewhere — and all of this consequent upon what was summarized in that statement: “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.” He found himself in a state of isolation.
Human beings everywhere know something of this experience consciously. Each person seems like a little separate entity somehow, necessarily on the defensive. There is a feeling of insignificance and an endeavor to make some sort of significance, a feeling of lack and an endeavor to fill that lack by all these various means. But all this is, in fact, living a lie, living in an unreal condition.
In the story, as it is recorded in the Book of Genesis about Cain and Abel, it seems as though Cain was inevitably banished from any true and satisfactory experience in life, without hope of possible change, possible restoration. This is not, in fact, the case, although there are necessarily cycles which must be allowed to unfold and work out if opportunity for restoration is to come. One cannot arbitrarily expect that at the moment of repentance restoration will be the immediate experience. There is a vast backlog of failure to be cleared; but if it is ever to be cleared it can only be done as there is repentance, a recognition that by none of the methods of men — religious, intellectual, material — can the task be achieved.
It has seemed at times in the past that when a person had established a more or less stable condition, apparently, by having a balance in his own experience with respect to religion and intellectual development and physical satisfaction, here was all that could be expected in human experience. I suppose one example of this was what was current in the so-called Victorian age when the world apparently was a stable place, but underneath was corruption, no matter how good it may have looked on the surface — “full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.” This doesn't mean that in that particular time this was exceptionally the case insofar as human beings were concerned; it has always been so. The human condition is that of uncleanness and corruption: the condition of Cain, who went out from the presence of the Lord.
And human beings know not the Lord. Those who are religiously inclined have engendered within themselves a picture of something or other in which they believe, but it is, fundamentally, a state of imagination. Others who do not look upon themselves as being imaginative in that sense have a different false god, whom they worship just as earnestly, whether that god is in the realm of the human intellect or in the realm of material achievement. And all this corrupt state composes human experience. The Lord is not known; Abel has been lost, and Cain finds himself in a condition that is difficult to bear. He complained a little on that score when he went out from the presence of the Lord; he complained to the Lord that his situation was going to be more than he could bear. Well, he's borne up so far, chiefly by developing substitutes to make himself feel that he is worth more than he actually knows he is; for material man without spiritual man is a husk, and all that human beings on the face of the earth know is the husk state. Husks have something to do with swine.
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord
He forgot the Lord, except in some blind belief or imagination. Maybe that belief and imagination may have sustained him at times but it didn't acquaint him with the truth. He remained under the thick darkness of the veil, which has obscured his awareness of the reality of spiritual man. He has at times supposed that religious man was spiritual man, but that is certainly not the case; at least not as long as the veil remains. Religious man is very little different from intellectual man or material man, but spiritual man is a reality and may be resurrected into human experience when there is repentance.
So many people take the attitude that they really have nothing much to repent about. The repentance relates to the human state, the state of Cain. When there is repentance there is a starting point for something new to begin to emerge through the veil; the veil begins to thin to this extent. What emerges is the first faint awareness of the reality of spiritual man. All too often this is translated into religious terms, so that the human being gets lost again in the material state of religion, and the reality of spiritual man never has a chance of coming into the range of true experience. Spiritual man is looked upon as being religious man; therefore, “If spiritual man is emerging in my consciousness I must become related somehow to the religious state, the religious condition, within the scope of human experience.” But then there are those who have been disillusioned with respect to religion, so they are inclined to say, “Well, I don't want any of that, so to hell with spiritual man!”
But spiritual man is not religious man. Spiritual man has been, insofar as human experience is concerned, dead, unknown, gone, lost. There is the sense of the blood of Abel crying out from the ground — this longing for something, this sense of void and the endeavor to fill it by establishing relationships with other people and developing satisfying conditions in the environment, or becoming all involved in the religious field, whatever. There are hundreds of thousands of methods that human beings have used to avoid repenting, to try to satisfy themselves. Obviously, if a person tries to satisfy himself he has a sense of not being satisfied. He has a sense of emptiness, so he tries to fill it by his Cain-like methods and in the end he discovers — it may take him a lifetime but in the end he discovers — that it doesn't work. Every human being on the face of the earth has finally discovered that it didn't work — ever since Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Because there has been such a precedent of failure firmly established does not mean that success or victory is not possible. It merely means that human beings have, for whatever reason, been unwilling to repent; they want to have it their own way.
Obviously, if the trouble results from the fact that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, then the trouble is resolved when Cain returns to the presence of the Lord. There has been a tendency for human beings to convince themselves that the Lord doesn't really exist, therefore there is nothing to return to. Well, it may seem that way when the veil is as thick as it has been, because nobody could see through it. Therefore, with the human kind of logic, the individual says that nothing exists, just because he can't see it. Well, that’s ridiculous on the face of it! There are lots of things we can't see, and know nothing about, that exist; they simply don't exist for us, perhaps. And Abel hasn't existed for Cain since Cain slew Abel; but insofar as Abel is concerned, he exists!
The logical requirement is that Cain should come into the presence of the Lord, and this requires repentance for those attitudes and actions which have ejected Cain from the presence of the Lord and kept him in that condition. Human beings are inclined to think that this is the natural state. If they are religiously inclined, then presumably it is divine punishment of some kind and we've got to wait around until God decides that He's done enough punishing. Human beings are very reluctant to acknowledge their own responsibility in the matter and to admit that if the state of being out from the presence of the Lord continues it is by reason of their own choice and attitude. There is nothing to stop a person from repenting at any moment and deciding that the human endeavors to satisfy oneself by whatever means — religious, intellectual, material — are not the way. There is no satisfaction on that basis, in actual fact. There may be some self-delusion, and human beings really go for self-delusion; but the true state of man requires Abel as well as Cain, and Abel is not going to be on hand unless he is resurrected — resurrected into the experience of material man, so that spiritual man is known in the experience of material man.
So, to come again into the presence of the Lord, repentance is needful, and repentance is an acknowledgment that nothing in the material state of man can bring human beings into the experience of the truth, the truth of oneself and the truth in the collective sense. No religious effort, no intellectual effort, no physical effort, can bring any true result. Any results which seem to appear are in fact unreal, phony, delusions, because the truth requires the experience of both Cain and Abel, of both material man and spiritual man. Material man cannot come into the presence of the Lord without spiritual man, and spiritual man cannot come into the experience of material man without repentance by material man, without acknowledging that the whole state of material man is corrupt. But still human beings, generation after generation, hopefully decide that it isn't corrupt and that somehow or other they're going to manipulate things religiously, intellectually, physically, to attain a satisfactory state, to experience fulfilment, as it is called. But it never has happened and it never will happen that way.
Spiritual man must be resurrected
Certainly this requires turning toward the Lord, but then the question arises as to who is the Lord? Where is He? How shall we turn in that direction? There have been various doctrines provided in the religious field which are supposed to answer this question, but they don't really. These are all material solutions, which are no solutions at all, for spiritual man is the other side of the veil.
Now, in material man's consciousness, particularly his religious consciousness, this has meant that spiritual man was beyond the grave. Material man had to die in order to come to spiritual man because, of course, material man had a sense of guilt, having slain spiritual man; therefore, spiritual man must be the other side of the grave — this is logic — therefore the only way we could come to spiritual man was to die. Then we'll find ourselves spiritual men and women, or neuter or something, in heaven, wherever that is — a satisfactory delusion to some. Spiritual man is not the other side of the grave; spiritual man is the other side of the veil, and that's quite different. Death, or what human beings see as death, is the end result of going out from the presence of the Lord. Is the end result of going out from the presence of the Lord supposed to bring one into the presence of the Lord? How ridiculous! Spiritual man is the other side of the veil; and the veil, as we have noted, is the impure human heart, which remains impure as long as there is no repentance, as long as the door isn't open so that it could be purified. There is no means of purifying the heart from below the veil.
What is higher is always capable of handling what is lower; what is lower is never capable of handling what is higher. God can handle man but man can't handle God, although he's tried very hard to do it, making demands and requiring God to do this and that through what he calls prayer. It's interesting how human beings make demands upon God. We have this reflected in the attitude of people everywhere these days: they're all making demands upon each other. The lower can't handle the higher; the higher handles the lower. If human hearts are to be purified they are purified by what is higher, not by what is lower; so no religious, intellectual or physical efforts of men can ever purify human hearts. It is the effort to do this that maintains the impurity — it is the arrogant assumption that one is in position to do what is required as the material person. The material person thinks he knows what is best, what should be done.
Spiritual man emerges within the scope of human experience to the extent that the veil thins, and the veil thins to the extent that the real quality of spiritual man is sensed and is not interpreted in religious, intellectual or physical terms, which is what human beings always do. “Well, I sense something of spiritual man; I know what that means.” We have a multiplication, for instance, of Christian denominations on this basis. Somebody senses something filtering through the veil, so to speak, and then proceeds to interpret it according to the concepts of men: “This is what it means.” All the Christian denominations have proliferated on this basis according to the various interpretations of people, which completely obscures the truth and maintains the veil. And while at the initial starting point of some particular denomination some particular person may have sensed something, very shortly it's completely obliterated, and human beings just go along with what has been established, nobody really knowing what it's all about. They swallow the orthodox meal. Some, of course, get indigestion.
Where the attitude of repentance begins to be a reality and the individual no longer thinks he knows, there may be a sensing of the reality of spiritual man. But that first sensing doesn't have any particular form yet; it's a spirit. “Oh, that's a ghost,” is the human interpretation sometimes — and human beings are afraid of ghosts, so let's get it into some sort of a structured form with which we are familiar; then we'll understand what it is. Do you really think so? Then you won't understand what it is; then you will obliterate what it is; you will try to make it into something that it isn't. You need to learn to let the spirit be what it is, and we find that it is capable of emerging. From the standpoint of those who call themselves Christians, they see that that emergence took place through the One called Jesus, but is He to be the only one? If so, it's rather a sad condition for the world. He never implied any such thing. He did provide an example of the reality of spiritual man: in other words, the fact that spiritual man is present and capable of being expressed.
We may move to allow that to occur, but spiritual man is immediately slain if we try to fit spiritual man into material forms, the already established human prejudices — that's what they are — the doctrines of men, the prestructured state of human consciousness. If you try to fit spiritual man into that, you slay spiritual man, and all you have left is a disintegrating corpse; and that is material man separate from spiritual man. We spend our lives disintegrating and we end up disintegrated.
Spiritual man is present and capable of being discerned. The way by which this occurs is not merely an individual matter. Some people try to make it an individual matter, and it certainly does require individual repentance, but the unfoldment of spiritual man in material man's experience is not merely an individual matter. It is an individual matter but not only that; it is also something which occurs collectively speaking. It must occur collectively speaking if it is to occur individually speaking, and it must occur individually speaking if it is to occur collectively speaking. We begin to discover the reality of oneness and that we are not, spiritually speaking, isolated entities; it only seems that way in material consciousness. So, as this purifying of the heart begins to happen it happens collectively speaking as well as individually speaking, and the means by which it happens is of a very specific nature. Human beings are inclined to imagine that somehow it just works on a haphazard basis: “If I pray to the Lord sufficiently He's going to purify my heart; then I'll be home safe.” That's a very self-centered approach, isn't it? That is the approach of material man unconscious of spiritual man. But spiritual man is present and cries out from the ground; there is the longing in human hearts, albeit misinterpreted generation after generation.
So spiritual man is present to be experienced, and he emerges through the facilities of material man. And that emergence provides an example, provides inspiration, provides an open door for those who are willing to repent. This could have occurred when spiritual man was revealed through Jesus, but it didn't, because there was no willingness, really, to repent. Those concerned were always trying to interpret spiritual man into material forms. An example was that inane question that was asked just before the ascension: “Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” — an attempt to translate the truth of spiritual man into some little pocket of human doctrine. “Wilt Thou now restore the kingdom to Israel? Wilt Thou now restore the kingdom to good Christians? Wilt Thou now restore the kingdom to Roman Catholics? Wilt Thou now restore the kingdom to Jehovah's Witnesses?” No! That's the answer. No! The kingdom belongs to spiritual man, and spiritual man is not religious man, is not intellectual man, is not material man.
Spiritual man is spiritual man, something unknown; but the unknown becomes known as the unknown, exactly as it is, finds material expression without busy minds translating it this way and that, in religious terms, in intellectual terms, or in physical terms, commonly called human desires. And human beings are making demands in this field, aren't they? Oh, my! No, spiritual man is, insofar as material man is concerned, New Man, an unknown quantity, but one who emerges into experience in a very specific way which is initially based in the fact of repentance — without that, no emergence. The state of self-righeousness in human beings completely prevents any emergence of spiritual man, and religion has tended to produce that in people. “I'm a good Christian” — what a self-satisfied expression that sometimes is! Or “He’s a good Christian” — very self-righteous! But where is spiritualman? Spiritual man, when he was revealed by Jesus on earth, was very quickly rejected by religious man and by intellectual man and by material man — all ganged up together! Of course there are those who blame the Jews and others who blame the Romans and others who blame everybody else; and certainly the job was done by all these people, but it is something that has been done ever since in every generation.
Spiritual man, however, does emerge into expression through material man when material man has repented and is not trying to impose his doctrines, his concepts, his ideas, his beliefs, upon spiritual man, telling spiritual man, “Well, if you express in this fashion, then I'll accept your expression; if not I won't.” How that crystallized attitude lingers on in people, even when spiritual man begins to emerge: “So far but no further. I'll let you be free in expression to this extent but don't venture into this field; this is my area, this is my personal field of expression. Don't interfere with my thing!” That is slaying Abel.
Spiritual man may emerge when he is offered freedom to do so, and through spiritual man we become acquainted with the Lord, we become aware of the reality which is implied by that word. But for most people, when that word is used, “Lord,” a picture, a concept, an idea, a belief, takes form. “This is the Lord,” the individual says. No, it isn't; it's the human idea about Him. What's the truth? The truth comes through spiritual man. This is exactly what Jesus said on earth, isn't it? “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” by spiritual man; no one becomes aware of the truth except in this fashion. No one becomes aware of the truth by sitting under the veil in the religious pocket, or in the intellectual pocket, or in the material pocket, or in all of them put together. It's impossible. That's the state of Cain; that's the state of the murderer; that's the state of human beings in this present condition in the world; that is the state! Very often people's hackles begin to go up when they hear that. “Oh, no, not me, I'm a religious person. I believe in God,” and so the opportunity for repentance is rejected, the truth is rejected, and there are all kinds of justifications for rejecting it. Nowadays people say, “Oh, I'm only doing what's natural.” Nobody does what's natural as long as spiritual man is absent. The whole shooting match is unnatural; it's all a mess. There is a good end of the mess and there is a bad end of the mess, but it's all a mess. “Come out of her, my people!” Come out of that state, the state of self-justification. And human beings find no difficulty at all in justifying themselves in every conceivable way, when only one thing is necessary: to come again into the presence of the Lord.
The presence of the Lord is made known to the extent that spiritual man is made known. As spiritual man begins to be made known, the presence of the Lord begins to be made known. In the initial stage it is something that is simply sensed; but if a person is busy justifying all that he is doing, then there's no facility available to sense anything. “Come out of her, my people,” come again into the presence of the Lord. “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Come near unto me. Come unto me.” This is the word of the Lord, the word of spiritual man. That word is heard by a person by reason of the presence of spiritual man in relationship to him- or herself. Material man, male or female, is nothing of him- or herself. The brothers belong together — Cain and Abel— or should we rather say Abel and Cain? This is typical of human expression; it's always backwards: Cain first, then Abel. But Abel is rightly the dominant one, and Cain is also present. It's Abel and Cain, and when both are present, there is man, a living soul.
To find that state there must be love for the Lord and the experience of friendship with the Lord. Human beings are always trying to have friends. Until you know what it means to be a friend of the Lord you have no friends, whatever you may think. When the Lord is the friend, then there is a basis for friendship with those who are friends with the Lord. That's the only way friendship can be experienced. It may be slightly experienced unconsciously by people who function in a way that indicates there is a certain friendship with the Lord, and therefore one may have a sense of relatedness. All too often, however, the sense of relatedness between people is not that; it is a sense of relatedness between aspects of what is unreal, between aspects of material man isolated from the Lord, agreement with respect to disintegration. And human beings are always agreeing on this score, aren't they? Did you ever hear anyone talking about their disintegrations, all the things that have happened that are so terrible? And oh, operations, what about that? Human beings try to go one better, and they find a relatedness with each other on this basis with respect to the things that are disintegrating. They agree, and they think they are friends because of that. That's not friendship, that's enmity; each person is the other person's worst enemy, destroying each other in the name of friendship. Only when there is friendship with the Lord does integration begin to occur and can there be a basis of friendship with others which will not destroy them. Human beings are intent, in the Cain state, on destroying each other and destroying themselves, quite unwittingly most of the time. They don't hesitate to do a certain amount of backbiting; but that, of course, is not really hurting anyone very much. Isn't it? It's hurting the person who indulges in it worst of all; that's true.
So, to come again into the presence of the Lord is the only answer there is. Spiritual man. “I am the way, the truth, and the life” — that is the word of spiritual man; that is the word of Abel. That is your word in oneness with spiritual man. Let it be your word in the expression of your living.
How set and crystallized is the state of material man in the world which we know. How strongly woven is the impenetrable veil, therefore, which separates material man from spiritual man. Only as these crystallizations dissolve can there be sufficient flexibility in the consciousness of human beings to permit the unhindered expression of spiritual man on earth — unhindered, undistorted, uncolored, unchanged. But how quickly people wrap themselves around with these restricting swaddling clothes which inhibit the true expression of life, and where life is inhibited dying occurs. It is all very natural in that sense, and logical; but where life is free the creative cycle works as it should in both its ascending and descending aspects, but what human beings have thought of as death ceases to exist. It only exists in the trapped consciousness of material man. Spiritual man is alive forevermore.
