When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet.
Psalm 8 Verses 3-6
This is speaking of man, not of cultic man but of true man. Indication is offered in these verses that man has some significance, certainly more than has been known by human beings in their cultic state. And this significance is related to what is beyond the earth itself—the heavens, high heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars. We have some awareness of relatedness in this regard, that we're part of a whole cosmic circumstance. So the questions that are asked here are comprehensible to us because we begin to know from our own experience what man is. The scope of his operations is vast. The encompassment of his vision is immense, rightly. It is so when man is on hand.
This of course does not mean that individually speaking we have a complete rundown on everything. If that was the case there would be no need for anybody else, would there? It needs all of us to encompass what needs to be encompassed. We begin to find our areas of responsibility, so that we cease trespassing upon the areas of others. Mind you, some of these overlap, but we each have unique responsibility in our own part. We have a certain comprehension of the parts of others as those are close to our own, but we also may be aware that there are many who have other fields of responsibility of which, directly at least, we know little. We know they are there; we know they are a part of the whole of which our field is a part. And there may be times when we are introduced to such fields—on a conducted tour, shall we say?—but we don't trespass: “Forgive us our trespasses.” And I'm sure you all recognize that in the cultic state we have the inclination to trespass, to try to mind other people's business.
If we occupy positions of focus, as we do, we are aware of what is contained in our area of focus and we are aware of those who are present there, but we refrain from trespassing in that sense also. We give everybody space to handle their own spiritual affairs. Those spiritual affairs may be a part of our encompassment but we don't try to do everything ourselves. And as been noted several times, we may find that other people handle these things a lot better than we could personally. They are there to look after the details; we are not there for that purpose.
We may have in the past functioned on the basis of substitute patterns of function, but as soon as someone comes along who can handle those we are happy to give them to such a person, even if that person is going to have to learn to handle them effectively. Perhaps to start with he doesn't handle them as effectively as we were, because we had experience in the matter and this is something fresh for someone else. But pretty soon we find out that they become capable of doing it a lot better than we could. And we are quite happy to admit that; we don't try to uphold our so-called positions by putting other people down. We find ourselves actually exalted when we appreciate what others are doing.
And so in these verses of this Psalm the statement is made, “For thou hast made him”—man, that is—“a little lower than the angels.” Well, we understand this. There is man, the material aspect of the whole, and there is the angel, the spiritual aspect of the whole. And when these two are unified, are one in experience, then it may be said that there is a living soul present. A soul—that is a facility for the action of life, for the achievement of whatever it may be. As we see, we all have our individual parts to play in a whole body. “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels”—the heaven is higher than the earth, but heaven and earth are one. Heaven is is a higher vibrational state than the earth vibrational state. To put it another way, the earth state is a coarser vibrational state and the heaven is a finer vibrational state. And the heaven interpenetrates the earth. So the heaven is present with the earth, and the greatest consequent experience, the greatest range of experience then, is available. In the human state now, the cultic state, the endeavor has been to function just from the standpoint of the earth, where there was rather limited range, and whatever range there is available with the earth when it is one with heaven is not known. In other words it's restricted to the very coarsest levels, if the experience is that of the earth with scarcely any heaven at all. And this is the cultic state.
So the earth opens up considerably once there is the experience of a living soul. We do not restrict ourselves anymore to the very coarsest levels of material existence. You know this to be so in your own experience. Something opens up, and you may observe in other people that it just simply isn't there for them. They're fiddling around in some coarse level, without any consciousness whatsoever that there might be something more. And I would suggest that in our consciousness there is something more, that is restricted as yet too—there is far greater experience to come.
So the human experience is a little lower than the angel's, but it becomes the angelic experience when there is unification. And in the state of the living soul, Thou “hast crowned him with glory and honour.” Well here is the glory of life of course. Glory is a word, as we know, that provides understanding of the characteristics of life—“…and honour”—I wanted to look at this matter of honor a little. We may say that, functioning from the spiritual standpoint, we are always honorable. This may mean different things to different people, but we have a sensing, I'm sure, of the nature of what it means to be honorable.
We have noted these two aspects: spiritual and material. Now, with the material separate from the spiritual—which is cultic human experience—there are many things which seem to be dishonorable. We are accustomed—as Adam and Eve initiated the cycle—of eating of the forbidden fruit, of judging some things to be bad and some things to be good. If we recognize that man was made by God in His own image and likeness, then he is totally perfect from that viewpoint. It hasn't seemed so to him because he lives in an unreal state of mistranslation. He has mistranslated his own experience, so that it seems that his own experience is often dishonorable, or at least he has honorable phases of it, but some aspects are not so good. Now we may think of this just from the standpoint of the operation of the physical form itself. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-uranda-may-15-1952-class-there-is.html] As you are aware, Paul was inclined to get things rather mixed up, or at least those who interpreted Paul have got them mixed up—mistranslation upon mistranslation. But he said something about this in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, and he put it this way—now of course what he is saying here relates to one's own individual body, but it also may be seen in the light of the body of which we are all parts, that larger composite body—but for the moment I'm thinking of it more from the standpoint of the individual body, that we may have a base for right translation here:
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body,
as it hath pleased him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now are they many members, yet but one body.
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee:
nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much more those members of the body,
which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable,
upon these we bestow more abundant honour;
and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
Corinthians 12: 18-23
Well this is the way Paul put it, or at least the way his words were translated. But we are interested in right translation, right translation of spirit as it has taken form in our own individual bodies and as it is in the process of being revealed in the collective body of which we are a part. We, individually, in the flesh sense, are composed of many parts. Now we need to be able to see that because the body is a whole and is designed to make possible the right translation of spirit, every part of it is essential. We can't say, “Well I'm going to make right translation of spirit, therefore all I need is my brain, perhaps my spinal cord too.” We wouldn't be much if that was all there was to us. We need the whole business, don't we? Every part. Now of course it may be that some of us have lost parts at times along the way. I don't think that's going to prevent us from achieving what we need to achieve now, as long as we are capable of operating in conjunction with spirit. The ingenuity of the Lord is great, we have noted. And sometimes He achieves marvelous things by reason of the presence of physical forms that are extremely handicapped. Oh this is the way they describe it these days. Well we are not all that handicapped. We have sufficient to get on with the job or we wouldn't all be sitting here.
So we have our physical forms, which are a translation of spirit; they wouldn't exist if this was not so. From the standpoint of our own experience there has been considerable mistranslation. In other words we have had experiences, physically speaking, which could not be classified as true translations of spirit. We might take the matter of pain, for instance. Obviously if there is pain in the world—and there certainly is—suffered by human beings, ourselves included at times, this must be a false translation, a mistranslation somehow of spirit, because spirit is not the author of pain. It becomes that way when there is a mistranslation of spirit, so any sickness, disease, physical trouble that may put in an appearance, gives evidence of some sort of a mistranslation.
Now we see this, I'm sure, clearly enough individually speaking but we also recognize that we are not merely individuals. We are not isolated individuals, even though most human beings, ourselves included, particularly in times past, have made that mistranslation, saying, “Oh I'm just me. I have a right to live my own life”—one of the attitudes that springs out of this—“because I'm an isolated person; what I do is nobody else's business.” Well it is other people's business in the sense that what we do will have effect on other people. It may be that other people may interfere in our business, which they have no business doing, but we at the same time must recognize that we can't lift a finger without affecting other people. And I just lifted my finger—did you see me? I affected you! So being very conscious of this we are aware that our function must be right, and the only way it can be right is by making a true translation of spirit. We can't figure it all out with our minds and be right. We must be on hand to make a true translation of spirit.
Now man is made in the image and likeness of God, and in his true state therefore is a true translation of spirit. That's what that means, isn't it? To be made in the image and likeness of God is to be made in the image and likeness of spirit. And the only way that could happen is as there is a true translation made of it. Well of course there have been people on earth, cultic people on earth, for millennia, who have been making mistranslations, and we have all this backlog of human nature heredity, as we call it, present with us, but that not only includes such physical idiosyncrasies as we may have—the cast of our features for instance, the color of our hair, etc, the color of our eyes and all this, and sometimes tendencies toward difficulties of various sorts—all this coming out of the past of mistranslation upon mistranslation. Well we are not trying to retranslate that. Of course many people are: “I was a ninety-pound weakling; now look at me!” Well that is a retranslation of a mistranslation, but whether the retranslation is better than the mistranslation is another question. In any case it's a mistranslation also.
So we have the equipment we have and we understand why we have the equipment we have, and this is not going to be a barrier to our function based in right translation of spirit in this moment. The translation which has appeared physically speaking is likely to be much the same as it was when we begin to allow a right translation to be made in the initial stages, because our translation relates to consciousness, relates to attitudes, to feelings—the way we look at things, the way we feel. Of course this will have an effect; it will have an effect on what we call our health, or perhaps our ill health. We find when we begin to allowing a true translation to be made in our living, regardless of whatever mistranslations may have been present in our bodies, our health is affected and we become more healthy, I suppose you could say, properly speaking, by reason of the translations we are now making.
We need to see our bodies, as individuals, and our body collectively, as being essential to the creative work that we are here to do. Clearly enough we understand this in a general way, because we wouldn't be here at all to do it if we didn't have a physical body. But we need to see that it relates to every part of the body, every cell in the body, if there is to be a right translation, which allows the resurrection of the body. The resurrection we think ofas the collective body, but includes the individual body. When there is a resurrection occurring for the collective body it's also occurring for the individual body. But you can't pick yourself out and say, “Now I'm going to experience resurrection. That'll be a wonderful example for everybody else.” You would thereby be separating yourself from everybody else. But the way it is, we are all in the same boat—and we can allow some changes of attitude, some changes of outlook, some changes of understanding, with respect to everything. But now we are thinking of it with respect to the individual body, our own individual bodies, because there certainly has been a judgmental attitude with respect to the body.
Shame is an evil spirit, we say, because it's actually the central evil spirit which put in an appearance when the spirit of God no longer was being rightly translated. The first mistranslation of the spirit of God, we might say, produced shame—the sense of shame. And the sense of shame has been present in people in numberless ways, but very particularly, obviously, with respect to the physical flesh body. There are those who have a sort of a sensing of this and they think they are going to dissipate it somehow by establishing nudist colonies. Well conceivably action at this level, at this physical level, this earthly level, may loose something on earth which looses something in heaven.
The point is to loose something in heaven, and one necessarily does something on earth to let that happen: “Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” If you don't loose it on earth it won't be loosed in heaven. When it is loosed in heaven then there is something available for expression on earth, but we have to loose it on earth first. This is why I am bringing into your consciousness now the physical flesh body. It certainly is bound on earth, it's bound by earthly heredity. But it is bound also—and this is the important aspect of it—by our view of the flesh body, by our sense of shame, by our judgment, that this aspect of the body's function, for instance, is good and this aspect is bad. Well we know, theoretically at least, that every aspect of the body when it is in health is necessary—all aspects of it are necessary.
Now I'm thinking particularly at the moment of the excretive aspects of the flesh body, which we would all no doubt admit are absolutely essential to good health. And yet there is a very peculiar attitude toward these, which, I suppose, if we were using Paul's language, we would say that these processes are uncomely. But the fact of the matter is that they are part of the creative process, not just that we might have good health. It's not a self-centered thing, rightly. Because it is taken as a self-centered thing, constipation is one of the major problems in the world, of human experience, and all kinds of other troubles.
Now of course we need to recognize that there are various facilities available for excretion, some of which we don't think so badly of. We don't mind perhaps going out on the tennis court, or jogging on the road, and perspiring heavily. It's a healthy practice, and we don't swathe ourselves in a blanket in order to hide the fact that we are perspiring—we really would be then, wouldn't we? I'm not saying that all these necessary functions of what may be thought of as dispelling waste are for public display. No, there is what is fitting. But I'm not speaking of that so much as one's own personal view of the situation. And for most it's a very restricted view, a very distorted view, based in a firm mistranslation. We need to see this process as relating to creation.
Some of you may have read The Triune Ray of long ago, Uranda's work, in which something was said about the creation which was initiated at the highest and finest levels, and what was incapable of right function at that highest level automatically got pushed down into the next level. Now that's excretion, part of the creative process. And what couldn't operate at that level was pushed down to the next lower level, and so on down the line until finally there was the earth, which was the ash of everything that was left. Then provision was made by which this ash could be transformed and transmuted in the resurrecting cycle. There are two aspects of the cycle—we're aware of that. There is what is coming down from God out of heaven, that could be correlated with the excretory cycle.
Now most of us in the human state would be horrified at the thought that this was so. Why? Because we have a horrible attitude toward our own experience and we have not had any consciousness at all, virtually, of the creative nature of this part of the creative cycle that is operating in our own individual flesh bodies. It's just as important in the creative way as any other aspect of it.
Now of course there is the air we breathe out. There is a good deal of concern about bad breath, and various substances you are supposed to be able to rinse your mouth out with—it's probably worse than the bad breath by the time you've done it. But here is something being offered out from the body because it no longer belongs in the body. We breathe out a blessing. Now that’s easy, isn’t it? We can see that, quite obvious. After the Master’s resurrection, when He was with His disciples, He breathed upon them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” It was a blessing, obviously, a blessing offered from another level. The blessings are offered from the higher level.
Now in all the excretory functions of the human body, whether through breathing out, whether through the pores at the surface of the body, or through the eliminative tract where there is the solid waste or liquid waste—it is all part of the same thing. It is all part of allowing what is not properly capable of operating at the level where we are living to move in blessing to another level. All this has been blotted out of the consciousness of human beings, as evidenced by their problems in the world now of what is called pollution. There is no clear awareness of the possibilities, the creative possibilities, of waste. Well there is a little on the farm, for instance, where there is, as we have here, a compost heap. But think of all those eyesores where the carcasses of automobiles are stacked. Now of course they're beginning to squeeze them together and use the metal over again. But there is far more being excreted from human civilization than can be taken care of because much of the excretion in this sense is so unnatural. All kinds of substances have now been made which are not included in nature; they're not biodegradable, as they say. But no thought apparently was given, in making these substances, as to what would happen when they needed to disintegrate; no provision was made for it.
Well from the standpoint of the true translation of things, provision is made all the way. It is made during the creation—which continues, by the way—where there is that which is descending from level to level, that which is being excreted from level to level, and that which is being lifted up again. The cycle works from the standpoint of God, but obviously human beings have thrown a monkey wrench into the works.
We need to begin to allow a true awareness to be experienced in a very personal sense. It is not just a matter of having a large view and being able to expound on the principles of the thing, but of knowing the reality of it in one's own experience. And in various ways we excrete every day. “Well let’s not talk about that; let’s not even think about it,” is the inclination of the human attitude. That's saying let’s exclude a primary aspect of the creative process from our consideration. This is an honorable function. It is somewhat seen now, that what is thought of as sexual function is honorable. This is a field that, in the consciousness of vast numbers of people, particularly in the past, has been very dishonorable, something that might be described as animalistic, or beastly—in the view of many, many people.
Now, from our standpoint at least—we need to consider what our experience is—we have an awareness that it is certainly an essential part of the creative process, with which we are concerned—you can't exclude it and live. So this begins to be seen. We are more delighted about this perhaps, first of all because it seems to open up some possibilities to human nature. But it is not for opening up possibilities to human nature. It is for right use in the creative process. Well it is interesting to note that, insofar as the flesh body is concerned, that the primary creative organs are closely associated with particular aspects of the excretory experience. We may recognize at this level—we sometimes refer to this general area by using the words the first seal—that the first seal is the crossover point where the change occurs. It is the point through which what is descending moves on out and the point through which what is ascending returns. There is a very close association here. We know that physically speaking. We can’t do anything about that—there it is. Well, it is designed that way. There is nothing wrong with this, once we have a conscious awareness of the real nature of the creative process which we ourselves as living souls focalize—it comes to point in what we are as living souls. There is life and there is the soul. They are one. And the soul includes all the equipment necessary to permit participation in the real creative process.
Now we don't have physical bodies made the way they are by mistake. I don't think anyone who has any appreciation of beauty would take the attitude that the physical form of male and female is not beautiful. It seems that some, of course, have taken that attitude, but if one has an appreciation of beauty it is beautiful. We have many examples, of course, from the standpoint of art. The human body has been used as a form of beauty in art, very much so, because there is a consciousness of the fact that while this is not the whole picture, nevertheless the flesh body of human beings is rightly made in the image and likeness of God when the correct translation is there. Well the correct translation from our standpoint now is not to try to do something to the physical body—we wouldn’t know what to do—but to allow our attitude to be clear in relationship to its operation, so that we have a consciousness of blessing from the standpoint of what it is that is being offered from us in this creative cycle into our world. It is nourishment.
The carbon dioxide that we breathe out is nourishment to the plants—we know that. And in actual fact, except for the blindness of human beings in their ridiculous ways of handling things, all the other excretions that emerge from the human body have a right use. We might say, “Well you can't follow that out very far because it goes down the sewer into the aerating pond down below there and is broken down.” I think we can follow it out a little further here than you can in the city, for instance; they have treatment plants there. You can't see perhaps the end result of the blessing the way things are set up, but that does not in any way change what rightly should be our attitude in the matter, because the spirit of blessing needs to be present if there is to be a blessing—spirit and form are one. That is a living soul insofar as man is concerned. And if one has no awareness of what one is really doing in these various fields, there is no participation in any real sense with the creative cycle. And that is exactly what we're here on earth to do.
We may see this most obviously as we are gathered here in this Assembly: something needs to happen in the creative sense, a right translation, for all that is beyond us. We at the moment provide an apex point of focus, and something needs to be released because of us. Now you may not have thought of that release as excretion, but it is, once we experience an awareness, spiritually speaking, of what it is that is happening. And we can correlate our function in all its various aspects with what is actually happening, so that we don't have our bodies over here—“Well it is going to take care of things there, but I'm a spiritual being here and I'm going to radiate something out into the world.” How is it going to get there? It requires the flesh body to get there, and the actual function—not the imaginary function—of the flesh body is the way it goes.
There has been so much imagination, a living in a fanciful world, that somehow we are going to let some marvelous emanation go forth; it's going to uplift everybody—but factually what is happening? Maybe we are struggling with our digestive system, or we are not breathing properly, or we never undertake exercise to let us sweat a bit. What are we doing to see that the kidneys work as they should? They are a marvelous mechanism, if you stop to think about it. Well there are so many peculiar attitudes toward such things, that stand in the way here. And in a general sense, most people find great difficulty groping their way through these things in order to find the beautiful reality that is the other side. It has always been there. There has just been this thick veil of human ignorance in between.
Every aspect of the function of the human body is beautiful—beautiful—even the most seemingly uncomely ones. And we need to be so clear within ourselves that we know this to be so in our own experience. It must be in our own experience, not just thinking about it but sharing the actual operation of the creative cycle, so that we are keenly aware of the opportunity to allow a blessing to be released because something is in fact occurring. To put it in a very specific nut shell for at least one area with which you are all familiar, it is not a matter of going to the bathroom and saying, “After I've been to the bathroom then I will be in position to release a blessing.” No, right there! Is there any area so uncomely to you that it would be impossible to release a blessing through? Here we begin to see a whole free area. I'm not suggesting that there isn't something that is properly comely with respect to all these operations—there is what is fitting. I'm talking about the way we see the thing, our own attitude, and our own actual experience here. And if you have had some troubles with your eliminative processes, maybe you may recognize a key to clearing the situation—not that you are taking this attitude in order to clear the situation, but it automatically follows through. Human beings have been thoroughly self-centered in these things and inherited all kinds of ridiculous attitudes which didn't exist at all in the true state, when the true translation was being made—everything was beautiful. There is nothing that is uncomely. All is a part of the means for the expression of righteousness, after which we hunger and thirst. So I appreciate the opportunity of speaking of these things in an open manner to the extent that you have allowed me to do so.
Yesterday evening I wrote some words which I propose to read to you now. This is something I seldom do but it seems it might be fitting this morning:
“It is difficult not to be aware of the imminent and terminal danger which, like an ominous black cloud, envelops the whole human race. Many of the more honest and clear-sighted in high places on the world scene realize that virtually anything that they or anyone else may do can at best only delay the inevitable. That inevitable is too massive and too ghastly even to attempt to describe. The human perspective is overwhelmed. Well may men’s hearts fail them for fear and for looking toward what is coming upon the earth. Nothing is gained by pretending these things are not so! Yet millions blindly attempt to live as though the world continues to be as it has been. Ambition and avarice still prevail. Self-serving and self-indulgence remain the order of the day and are often equated with freedom. Woe indeed unto the inhabiters of the earth!
“Here is a factual portrayal of the human condition. It is without hope or expectation of survival. The only question might be as to how long before the end comes. Do I lay these things before you this morning to engender fear? Fear, amongst other destructive compulsions, is the cause of what is now coming to culmination. Am I suggesting that it is too late; there is nothing for us to do anymore? You know that the Word to be spoken to all with ears to hear is: Fear not! Behold, a door is opened in heaven. Come up hither. See and act from this new perspective. The former things are passing away. What value in trying to correct or change them? Let the radiance of spirit be the power of our living, that the new state may be unveiled by the passing of the old.
“Everything contained in the old state is now in the past. Is anything gained by analyzing and discussing it? Such action maintains identification with it. Let the former things pass away. Let them go or go with them! No one is exempt from the working of the creative cycle. What is the spirit to be expressed now? What is the attitude to be taken in this moment? Always for us these spring out of passion for the truth, never from reactive judgment of people and circumstances. It may be said that the day of decision is here. This is the day; this is the hour; this is the moment. Only in calm and understanding tranquility can the end of darkness come and the life, which is the light of men, rise with healing in his wings.”
There are a variety of ways in which we may look at what it is that is now occurring. The occurrence itself is happening in our own consciousness. In looking at such things, necessarily parables must be used, analogies which portray what should be seen. And this for the moment may be sufficient but, clearly, until what it is that is actually occurring is our present experience we don’t really know what it is; we simply have a theory about it, a belief perhaps. But I am sure we are all very much aware of the necessity of knowing, that there may indeed be genuine people present, not mere observers, not mere speculators. We above all people have the opportunity of knowing what it means to be genuine. Perhaps we have not always taken full advantage of that opportunity but it has been there, and we have indeed been aware that it has been there. As I say, there may be different ways of looking at things. If this is so we should never be hooked on one particular way or we will have a very flat, or one-sided, picture.
I have before used an analogy which seems to have some merit to it. This principally centers in the fact that all things of which human beings may be aware may be said to be of a vibrational nature. We have equipment as people to interpret what we observe of a vibrational nature in particular ways. We have our senses for this purpose. In these days particularly the senses have been expanded by the use of further equipment that has been created by human beings; but whether it is one’s own personal equipment or something one may purchase out of the store, it is all there to make possible an interpretation of what I have in the past spoken of as electromagnetic fields and electrical charges. I don’t particularly like using the word “electrical”because it is inclined to make people think that they know what the word means. We might call it simply vibrational fields and vibrational charges. This permeates what we are inclined to interpret as space. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/electrical-substance-and-world-i-create.html] It is everywhere and we have equipment as human beings, through our senses, to interpret this mass of vibration in certain ways. We do not have the equipment to interpret all of it. This, I think, is rather fortunate. It allows things to be more orderly and we’re not, or need not be, overwhelmed.
It is a matter of interpretation. What we may be inclined to call creation is simply the interpretation that as human beings we have given to this invisible realm of vibration by reason of the equipment which is present to do this very thing, to make the interpretation. Unfortunately this equipment, while it is capable if used correctly to make a correct interpretation, can also if used incorrectly make an incorrect interpretation. The human state testifies to the fact that an ever increasing misinterpretation has been made and is being made of this invisible vibrational field that is made visible by reason of our interpretations. The world that human beings have created in this fashion is based in misinterpretation. To struggle with the results of that misinterpretation, trying to correct them without ever having learned what it would be to interpret correctly, is a futile undertaking. But all human energy has been poured into this futile undertaking. We have masses of information based in misinterpretation, and we have many supposedly very intelligent people trying to put all this misinterpretation together so as finally to come up with an understanding of what everything is about. As I am sure we are all well aware, the world that has been thereby created is peculiar, to say the least, and for many, many people—most people—more and more uncomfortable to live in.
On the basis of the words which I just read to you it seems that everyone is faced with what would be usually misinterpreted as disaster. My description was of the world of man’s creating, based in misinterpretation. If you look at things in this way it is rather clearly evident that there is no answer as long as misinterpretation prevails. Things simply go from bad to worse. Whatever anyone does is found to be wrong, so there is apparently an increase of wrongness all around in the misinterpreted world. And all that could really be done, as I indicated, is to play a delaying role in the inevitable culmination of all this misinterpretation, unless someone happened to come along who was willing and interested in discovering what it would mean to interpret all this mass of vibrational factors correctly. Well if one is plugged up with all the elements of misinterpretation there will not be much possibility of discovering what correct interpretation would be.
There is a good deal of sense then in letting the former things pass away. This idea of course, to misinterpreters, looks as though it was inviting disaster. But on the other hand the misinterpretation is inviting disaster anyway, so why not take a chance on changing direction? The correct interpretation of this invisible vibratory mass is not possible as long as one is subject to and struggling with the misinterpretations. Because human reasoning has been based in misinterpretation it has always seemed so reasonable to keep going in the way which has become customary. It is unthinkable, to most of those who have considered the possibility of thinking, that one could relinquish all the mass of misinterpretation that has been accumulated over the millennia. Are we to burn the books? This is considered to be a retrograde step. You must preserve at all costs the misinterpretations that have been made over the ages so that we can multiply misinterpretation now. Of course it is not looked at in that way but that is the way it actually is.
I suppose this business of misinterpretation is like building elaborate castles of sand on the seashore. Some of these castles that people do build on the seashore can be quite impressive—marvelous structures! Then of course the tide comes in and washes it all away. There may have been some seeming satisfaction to the architect and the builder of the sand castle while he was at work, and perhaps admiring his handiwork afterward, at least until the tide came in. Human beings have had a sequence of periods of castle building between tides. It would seem that the tide is coming in again; what shall remain? The intent of the tide, I suppose one might say, is to dispose of the misinterpretations. No matter how magnificent, how beautiful they may seem to be, how long according to human standards they may have existed, the tide comes in. I think from our standpoint we have recognized that it might be more profitable to be associated with the tide than with the sand castles. The tide of course, symbolically, may repre- sent the creative processes, the creative cycles that are at work regardless of human beings. These creative processes and creative cycles have been largely ignored except as the misinterpreters thought they could make use of them to their own advantage. Ultimately of course it was always found that it was really to disadvantage.
Now we ourselves are presumably concerned with the tide. What should this bring forth? The tide is not designed merely to destroy something that mankind may have painstakingly built but to make possible correct interpretation, so that what is brought forth, what is created by reason of that interpretation, may be true to the living design. Now it can be said that there are tides in the living design. We do not have, in the human state, all that much awareness, or information even, as to what those tides really might bring forth. We are aware of the tides as being somewhat creative for a while in our own experience while we are younger, but then, seemingly, they ebb and what was brought forth disintegrates. This is not an example of the way things really work. This is the evidence of misinterpretation. It seems very difficult for human beings, I suppose for us in particular, to relinquish the views that have been so firmly implanted and held, based in all this mass of misinterpretation. If we were to try to get rid of all that I don’t think any of us would live long enough to pick over the pile. So we are aware of a better way. In any case we have no basis for determining what misinterpretations might be the lesser evils and what are the really destructive ones.
We have been aware of a rather practical instruction that has been given, summarized in the two words Let go. This is a matter of awakening. As was emphasized in the tape that was played last night, you don’t have to have an extensive education to know how to wake up in the morning; it comes naturally. As was indicated, it sometimes doesn’t seem quite so natural to get out of bed but it is easy to wake up when the time comes. The time has come for mankind. We have recognized that, because the time came for us. Well we are not exceptional. We may have been more restive in our slumbers and therefore more ready to stir and open our eyes than most, but the same tide is moving for everyone. We are becoming increasingly aware of this fact by reason of the changes that are occurring in the consciousness of people generally. Most are quite unaware of what is happening. They feel anxious and uncertain, fearful perhaps—I’m speaking of those who are approaching the point of awakening—and when they open their eyes and they begin to see something different, something new (and that is a little unnerving at times), they want to find orientation somehow with respect to what it is that is happening. Do we really know what is happening?
I’ve been describing something in terms of interpretation of a vibrational field that is present for everyone, heretofore misinterpreted. And then the misinterpretations have been misinterpreted, ad nauseam. Can we not very easily see what a waste of time it is to judge, to blame, to condemn all the wrong things we think we see? I suppose you could say that there are masses of wrong things because there has been so much misinterpretation for so long. But to struggle with those wrong things, to keep looking at them, to think that somehow or other by this method or that technique we can make them over into right things, is really a quite ridiculous notion. It can’t be done. It is a waste of time. Therefore we may quit the tradition of judgment and see sense in doing so, because we know if we judge we are misinterpreting a misinterpretation. One can go on as long as one happens to last on earth doing that—most people have—but one may also cease and desist, not perhaps because immediately one is aware of what should happen, but one has no space to become aware of what should happen if one is multiplying misinterpretation. And every time one judges, consequently becomes aware of increasing numbers of wrong things to be corrected, one digs one’s grave deeper. I think it is more sensible to dispose of the shovel and stop the nonsense, that there may be space in consciousness for the dawning experience of right interpretation.
Right interpretation is describable also as re-creation. The world has been created the way it is by human beings through their misinterpretation. A genuine world can be created when there are human beings on hand to interpret the vibrational field correctly, but they can’t interpret the vibrational field correctly as long as they are reacting to people and circumstances in the world of misinterpretation. They are identified with the misinterpretation. Every time one judges, one becomes emotionally disturbed by all the wrongs that are present, seemingly—of course this is one’s own interpretation anyway, and that is a misinterpretation, to start with at least—one will be so thoroughly identified with what is passing away that there is nothing else to do but to pass away with it. Those who build sand castles on the seashore are usually intelligent enough to step back when the tide comes in. So there must be a stepping back in the sense of relinquishing these awful human habits, these addictions—the addiction to judgment being paramount.
Why do people become all disturbed and upset and distraught about what they deem to be wrong with their neighbors and with the world in general? Because they are afraid, because fear dominates and there is an endeavor to establish some sort of state of security by trying to nail down the misinterpretations so that they will stay there and one can depend on them. But nowadays what you nailed down yesterday is gone today—no security, because the security certainly isn’t in misinterpretation and it isn’t even in correct interpretation! The security is in being the one who is capable of correct interpretation.
There must be someone on hand to make the correct interpretation. There have been millions and billions of people on hand to make the misinterpretations, this is obviously so. But where is the person who is going to make the correct interpretation? I am that one! Well it is nice to say that. It may make a person feel important. The question arises as to whether one is in position to make the correct interpretation and as to whether one is consequently doing it. We can’t do it if we keep going along with the misinterpretations, repeating and repeating and repeating misinterpretations. Do you ever find the same old things come up in your experience over and over? There is something haywire in you if that happens. No, we are quite capable of acknowledging the supremacy of what may be described by the word truth, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/thed-supreme-passion.html] so that we are always passionately concerned with the truth. If we are passionately concerned with the truth, which is what makes correct interpretation possible, then we are less and less concerned with misinterpretation, and all the wrongs that are present carry less and less weight. The former things are passing away.
I read in what I wrote yesterday evening how this seems to the human view: inevitable and awful disaster. But is that so to us? Well I suppose if you think of wrongs in terms of nuclear weapons, for instance, then you are likely to be fearful, as a lot of people are. They try to do something about it by reinterpreting misinterpretations. All that needs to happen—it’s really so simple that it has confounded the worldly-wise—is to awaken to the truth and begin to understand that truth, first of all by sensing a new tone in life. We hear the cacophony so prevalent in the world, but there is a new tone of which you have become somewhat aware: something sweet, something strong; it is always present. It cannot be dissipated. One may be deaf to it, but because you don’t hear something doesn’t mean that there isn’t a sound. Incidentally that is one way we interpret this vibrational realm: in sound. But all the interpretations that human beings have made, even the best of them you might say, are misinterpretations.
The glory of true interpretation transcends anything that is present in the world of misinterpretation, no matter how beautiful it may seem in that world. Well we can only discover this as we are aligned, associated, with the truth. And one is aligned and associated only in the true way when truth is what one passionately loves. This is supreme: to speak, to live, the truth—to be oneself. Here is the point of emergence for true interpretation. You begin to see the vibrational field without the interposition of all the misinterpretations. The misinterpretations have been a veil, causing people to imagine that what they see is factual. But what is seen is restricted and distorted, restricted because much more that needs to be seen is excluded from the awareness of the misinterpreter.
To the extent that you have sensed the tone and begun to let this light your path, so to speak, you have begun to see much more than most people see. It was there to be seen but there was no ability to see it. Now there is a rising up: Come up hither, come up to a new perspective, so that what heretofore has been outside of the range of the old perspective may come into your awareness. There is a filling in and you discover that this vibrational field is far more extensive and capable of being interpreted correctly than was previously possible. It was beyond comprehension before, when all that was happening was agreement with misinterpretation. Now we begin to see more. How about what we have been sharing now? You can move with what we have been sharing according to your own awareness, your own level of wakefulness, but presumably you wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t some level of wakefulness. However you also know that there are vast numbers of people who could not move with this because it is beyond their comprehension. They are trapped in the realm of misinterpretation, and people are swayed this way and that way in the realm of misinterpretation. The media have become expert in this, but it isn’t only the media. The media couldn’t do anything unless everybody went along with it. Come up hither, not only see with a new perspective but, hearing the tone of life resounding, live accordingly—live accordingly because your passion is for the truth: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/03/passion-for-kingbe-holy-be-perfect-be.html] People mouth these words, but now you begin to know what they mean, so that the weight you may heretofore have given to misinterpretations around you is simply given no more. And when you stop misinterpreting you start recreating.
There is a new world, then, emerging because of you being unveiled, as the former things—in your own consciousness first of all—start to carry less weight, to be less meaningful, to be less worthy of your attention. And finally they pass away in favor of the true interpretation which is coming forth in your own experience, a new creation because of each individual.
We know that it is beyond each individual too, because we have something together as a body and it requires that body to have creative effect within the whole consciousness of mankind. But we see, finally I trust, that nothing can prevent the former things from passing away. They are going! The only question for us as individuals is as to whether we are going with them, or whether we are going to be on hand as genuine people, unveiled by the passing of the former things. And it is factual: “Behold, I make all things new.” Each one may say that and speak truly if each one is the truth, the one who interprets correctly. Behold, I make all things new because I interpret all things as they should be.
So this morning we have shared in part of the process of re-creation. Let us not imagine that it should stop here. The buck may stop here. It is our responsibility, but I trust we will be alive enough to move out of this room and continue to provide what is necessary of a correct interpretation by which all things are made new.
It is good to greet you again for an hour of evening's meditation. We have had a little touch of winter in the springtime. The Lord has provided much needed moisture for the thirsty soil.
Somehow tonight my thoughts turn back to the days of the beginning, before the fall of man, and the significance of the passage that tells how in the evening, in the cool of the day, the LORD came walking in the Garden to commune with man, and how that blessed privilege, in its full beauty and wonder, has been lost to man for so long. But how often, with the coming of the evening, the sounds of nature preparing for a night of rest, have you felt a certain loneliness, a certain longing, a certain restlessness and perhaps you did not know what to do with yourself, perhaps you sought some form of entertainment or deliberately engendered some pattern of action which would more or less cover up that deep longing of your soul. But there is with the coming of evening that inherent yearning in the hearts of all the children of men who have not shut out the urgings of the Spirit of God, the longing for the day when the LORD shall again come walking in the Garden in the cool of the day—a time of sweet communion, a time of rest from the physical activities of the day, a time that suggests unspeakable peace, a time when the depths of one's soul yearns for the beauty and the wonder of God's Love. In connection with this I would like to meditate with you tonight on some of the points we have touched in our Class work.
We have recognized that all of the Plan, the Program, designed to bring about the salvation of man, or the restoration of the world to the Divine Estate, since the days of the fall has been carried forward by the Priesthood—the Order of Melchizedek. In the Motherland, prior to its final submersion after the fall, the Naacal Sages were the Ministering Priests, the teachers, instructors, who were members of this Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. Every forward movement, every constructive thing, every blessing made manifest on earth since that time, without respect to person or place or creed, has been made manifest by reason of the working of this Priesthood. It was under the care of this Priesthood that preparations were made for our Master's coming, and He came as the Primary Focalization of this Priesthood. He was that Focalization before He came in the realm of men, and He still is.
Regardless of what church, what group, what color, what race, what belief, regardless of what sphere, religious or spiritual, or with respect to establishing governments or working out the Divine Pattern through nations or peoples, with respect to the opening up of the fields of knowledge and the development of understanding with respect to the laws of life, with respect to the inspiration essential to great inventions, all the developments, whether they are considered to be religious or industrial or scientific, all of the progress that man has known down to and including this day, including this hour which we share tonight, it has all, without any exception whatsoever, at any time, through any person or place, been under the influence, guidance, direction, of the Priesthood established after the Order of Melchizedek.
And we have taken note in our Class work of the fact that the First Sacred School was established, authorized, initiated, by Melchizedek, King of Salem, through Abram. And it is written that Melchizedek King of Salem brought forth bread and wine; and he was the Priest of the Most High God. “And Melchizedek blessed Abram and said, “Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.” And as Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine, we are reminded of that evening hour of communication and communion that is spoken of as the Lord's last supper, when our Master used bread and wine in extending a blessing to His disciples. And all of this reminds us of that longing that is in the hearts of the children of men, that deep yearning.
If we speak of the Communion Service we are thinking of a pattern of communion that has for its basic purpose the recognition of the principles of life, the realities of being, as symbolized by the bread and the wine, and we see in this God's hand working to reestablish that which was known to Divine men and women when the LORD God came walking in the Garden in the cool of the day to commune with man. And our hearts have so often felt that yearning, that longing, that sweet, bitter loneliness—the bitter-sweet of the yearning for the restoration and the recognition of what was lost.
In this story of Abram we find many wonderful outlines which reveal the outworking of principle as it relates to us, the necessities of our lives and functions in learning to serve God. We have already meditated to some degree upon a passage which tells the story of how the Lord appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre, and Abraham sat in the tent door in the heat of the day—in the heat of the day. “And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.” And we remember too, in this connection, how our Lord washed His disciples feet. Perhaps we will not take time tonight to read the whole story, but you will remember that it was after Abraham had entertained the Lord, provided food and allowed the three men, as it is put, to rest under the tree in the shade, in the heat of the day, that the Lord told Abraham that He was going down to see what the situation was with Sodom and Gomorrah. And we remember how Abraham interceded. In this we recognize the two primary aspects of application with respect to the One Law, or the fulfilment of the Two Great Commandments: first, to entertain the Lord; and secondly, to intercede for others—to love the Lord thy God with all that you are, and to love Thy neighbor as thyself.
Here in this story we have such a beautiful illustration of the fulfilment of the Law. If you wish to read it you will find it in chapter eighteen of the book of Genesis. But in this connection, tonight I wish to draw your attention to the eagerness with which Abraham welcomed the three men whom he saw, the three men representing the three phases of the human trinity as used to give release on earth, manifestation on earth, of the Divine trinity—the three phases of your own being, if you please, through which the reality of God’s Spirit is made manifest—but the eagerness with which Abraham welcomed the Lord, the diligence with which he entertained the Lord. In another place it is written that we should take heed lest ye entertain angels unawares.
Our first business, always, is to entertain the Lord. The deep yearning of our hearts—perhaps you have never understood it, perhaps you did not know why you felt that loneliness, that strange restlessness with the coming of the evening, but this is the reason; for back in the days before the fall we had the pleasure and the privilege of entertaining the Lord in the Garden, in a very real sense. And the LORD God came walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, in the evening; and there was the privilege of entertaining the Lord, the sweetest joys of heavenly days on earth. There was the process of entertaining His Spirit all through the day, tending and keeping the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden, keeping it in manifestation, not letting it go by into the past, into the west, without taking form.
Man has not tended that Garden nor kept it. For thousands of years it has been going past, moving from out of the future, out of the east, into the past, into the west, without ever finding form in the lives of men and women. Man was instructed to tend it and to keep it; for it is in that Garden that man has the privilege of entertaining the Lord. If there is the longing in our hearts at the coming of the cool of the day, if there is that yearning, it should make us more diligent in letting that Garden take form on earth so that we may have a place, a fit place to entertain the Lord in the outer sense. But even now, we have the privilege of entertaining the Lord in the inner sense, and this process of entertaining the Lord is the center of our meditation tonight, for it is only as you do consistently entertain the Lord that you can serve others. If you are not in the habit of entertaining the Lord you cannot, in any true sense, serve anyone else. Your life cannot, in any true sense, be of any value to anyone else nor to yourself. As we learn to actually entertain the Lord we begin to find ourselves in relationship to God and the expression of life on earth.
If you were to entertain the Lord tonight, in an outer physical sense, what would you do? Would you go bustling about trying to put up some hasty decorations or sweep some dust out of a corner or demonstrate what a good conversationalist you are, or take advantage of the opportunity to convince the Lord how smart you are, how much you know, or would you let your mind and heart, your spirit, come to rest and relax in the peace of His Presence?
Would you avoid presumption and would you just wait to see what He would like to say, what He would like to do? Would you not rest in the Lord and let go and enjoy the Spirit of Heaven made manifest by His Presence? And if He spoke, if He should open His mouth and say something to you, would you not find pleasure in receiving those words into your heart and meditating upon them? Could you pass through such an experience and not have something in your heart upon which to ponder, something to think about, something to keep sweet and sacred and holy in the depths of your own being, keeping sacred things sacred, keeping holy things holy, keeping sweet things sweet, and keeping heavenly things in the Divine Pattern of Being? This is so important if we would learn to commune with the Lord, to entertain the Lord.
We noticed Abraham's attitude here, for he ran to meet them. He gave an eager welcome. He began to serve. In the story, he ran unto the herd and fetched a calf tender and good, and he told Sarah to hurry in the baking of the bread, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate, ready to serve whatever need might appear. The eagerness, the openness of heart and mind, the unselfishness, the selflessness, with which he entertained the Lord. And then there creeps into our minds, our thoughts, memories of the time when the LORD of Heaven and Earth came into the world to visit for a little season, and how few there were who took advantage of the opportunity to entertain Him.
Consider something of what might have been if instead of trying to get something from Him the people then living had been willing to give themselves to serving Him—if they had been less concerned about being served and more concerned about serving. Consider something of what the story would be if He had not been rejected, but if the people of the world had received Him and entertained Him and acknowledged Him, if they would have taken advantage of the opportunity to commune with the LORD as He came walking in the desolation of the earth in the cool of the day. We do not need to try to figure out just what would have happened but we can see that the story would have been very different. And think you that if man had so responded and received our Lord, our Lord could not have provided for man's salvation under that circumstance, that if man had received Him, He could have worked out the possibility of the restoration without the crucifixion?
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To entertain the Lord. What is the pattern of meditation? If the President of the United States was coming and we were going to entertain him, I am sure that each one here would be extremely diligent in having everything as nice as we could. There would be meditation on what would be pleasing to our President, how we could make him comfortable, and make his visit here a happy, profitable one. You would meditate upon that which he represents. How much more, then, should we meditate upon those things which would make it possible for us to entertain the Lord effectively. If you would know the sweetness of a deeper communion in spirit, can you hope for that experience just waiting for it, hoping that some day something will happen to you that will make you know the beauty and the wonder, the reality of God in relationship to the children of men? Blessed Ones, it will not appear by happenstance. If these things are to come into your life in a deeper sense, a larger sense, you must do something about it, you must invite it, you must prepare for it, prepare with confidence. How do you meditate? How do you function in relationship to spiritual communion? If you ignore your opportunities for spiritual communion, to the best of your capacities, do you think that the greater experience shall come to you?
How much time have you spent today, or within the last twenty-four hours, in actual, personal, individual meditation, in a manner which opens your heart and mind to the realities of communion? What have you done? What have you felt? What have you thought which carried the pattern of entertaining the Lord, or at least His Spirit, in your heart? What have you done to establish in your own consciousness an awareness of welcome to the Lord? In twenty-four hours, twenty-four priceless, precious, wonderful hours, how much time could you spare for the reality of true meditation? Now I know that there were many things which you had to think about which had no direct bearing on entertaining the Lord. That would be, I suppose, understandable in this world. You just had to think about some other things. Did you? We suppose so. Suppose all of these other things were necessary—I rather doubt it, but suppose they were—and you used only the time you wasted—I am not talking about the time of sleep, but the time that was wasted, or did you not waste any time? Was the working of your mind, the working of your heart, the feelings within yourself, were they revealing the Divine Pattern?
Did you work in meditation until there was not one slightest hint of resentment toward anyone or anything? Or, did you entertain resentment instead of the Spirit of the Lord? Did you work in loving meditation until no slightest hint of fear could be found in your heart or mind? Or did you spend your time entertaining the spirits of fear instead of the spirits of Love and Truth and Life? What spirits have you been entertaining, for you did entertain some? You cannot maintain consciousness and remain physically alive without entertaining spirits of some kind. What were they? Were they the spirits of heaven? Are you aware of anything in your heart which ought not to be there, or have you reached the point of being pure in heart? “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God”—the moment they are pure in heart. They do not have to wait till they are dead, until some hereafter. The moment any human being is pure in heart he sees God; in fact, if you consider the nature of your heart you will find out what your gods are, whether they are idols, whether they are things which are not worthy of your worship, or whether you have obeyed the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
How do you meditate? What is the process of meditation? Did you ever take some text—most any text will do that appeals to you; you should select your own—but did you ever take any text, any statement that you knew was divinely inspired, any statement which you knew to be true, a short text preferably that is not so long but what you could learn it easily? Did you ever look at it, read it over, think about it, wonder about it, perhaps memorize it, and then about that time say, “Well, I can't figure it out”? Of course not, you are not supposed to. If you have reached the point of having looked at it, read it, thought about it, wondered about it, and memorized it, you have only started. That is not the finish. You have not yet begun to meditate at that point. No. If you are going to meditate you will not try to understand it, you will not take the text or the inspired words and treat them like a puppy would treat a rag doll, just to wool them around. You will not take them and try to understand them and struggle with them. That is not meditation. You will look at them. You will memorize them, yes, but not just to repeat them over and over. But you look at them and keep looking, and stop trying to understand them, and let your heart blend with the spirit in them, and keep looking, and look some more, and meditate, not repeating. Once you have memorized them you do not need to repeat them. Your mind may go over them gently, caressing each word like something much loved.
Did you ever go over a passage of inspired words mentally, spiritually, caressing every word with all the love of your being, just meditating, holding each word like you would hold a little angel from heaven close to your breast? Did you ever look at each word like a loving parent looks at a baby, not trying to figure anything out, just looking? Did you not ever look at a baby and just look, not trying to dream any dream of what the child shall be, not wondering anything, just looking and enjoying the looking? Did you not? If you have never had a baby of your own to do that, any child will do. Did you not? If you have not, you have not learned how to meditate. Just to look and to love, and then to caress mentally and open your heart and enfold without any effort to understand. Do not try to understand. What is there to understand? What are you concerned about? You are supposed to be meditating, not trying to understand. If you are trying to understand you are certainly are not meditating. No. Just to enfold and to caress with your heart and your mind, and to look at it some more, and to consider—not just for an hour, not just for a day—perhaps for many days, and perhaps sooner or later you will pick up some other inspired passage. Do not try to exhaust all the potential in any passage when you meditate upon it. If you try to get everything out of it you will have nothing.
If you take any passage and try to get everything out of it you will have nothing when you get through. You will ruin it all. If you are going to entertain the spirits of God in your heart you cannot be entertaining the spirits which are in opposition to God all the time. You will have to make a choice. And if you would entertain the Lord in your heart you must entertain His Spirit first. Until His Spirit is at home in your heart do you think He would be? That loneliness, that yearning, that longing, which you have known, was it not the sweet desire for such communion, for such meditation? Was it not a recognition that when you truly love the Lord and open your heart to Him you will begin to know the true spirit of the words: The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the flowers appear on the earth, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair, one and come away.
Come away from what? Come away from those things which are dark and forbidding, unwholesome and unreal. Come away into the joys of the heavenly atmosphere which you can let appear on earth. If you are busy producing the wrong atmosphere, what think you? Could you enjoy the right atmosphere? Do you expect someone else to force it upon you, to provide it for you, to surround you with it so that you can’t get away from it? Do you think that then you would enjoy it and know it? As you meditate, you find that the next step in meditation is to let the spirit of that upon which you meditate find expression in your life.
You will not be trying to get anything—not even trying to get understanding—when you meditate. You will be finding the way to let the spirit of that on which you meditate have expression in your thoughts, in your words, in your actions—to watch your attitudes, and to see wherein they fail to reveal the spirit of your meditation; and if you find that which is contrary to your meditation you will deliberately consider it and let it changed and molded to the pattern of your heavenly meditation. There is nothing on the face of the earth in the unreal realm which can withstand the reality of heavenly meditation allowed to have expression in your life, so that you will be giving form to that which shall be provision for the LORD on earth. You will be doing what Abraham did, inviting the Lord to come to your tent, to your house, to your heart. And if you prepare no calf, tender and good—what does the calf symbolize? Your mind—your self-active mind is supposed to be tender and good for the Lord’s use. It ceases self-activity. You prepare the bread. You invite the Lord to rest under your tree, the tree of your life. And you entertain the Lord, and you prepare to receive Him. You receive His Spirit and give it expression in form, in physical function in living on earth. You begin to let the Garden of God have form in your life, in your thought and words and deeds, in your attitudes—for in meditation you are not trying to get understanding, or anything else. You are practicing the art of letting heavenly things take for because you live.
So many people practice, deliberately practice, how they can give form to something mean and ugly, how they can say something to hurt someone, how they can “get even,” as they say; how they can give body to their resentments—on all of these things they meditate. But how about that meditation wherein you give deliberate thought to giving form in your life to the things of the spirit of God, that there may ne a sweet communion in your soul, and that you may begin to keep sacred things sacred, that you may let all resentment be cast out, and that in loving God and entertaining the Lord and His Spirit on earth you may love your neighbor as yourself. And so, in the giving—in the giving of yourself—in the spirit of your meditation you shall live and be a blessing to the children of men. And only as you are a blessing can you glorify our Father in heaven.
