This is our class period of meditation in the chapel on Sunrise Ranch for June 17th, 1954. Yesterday we gave some thought to the principle of rhythm as it manifests through pulsation. Actually, wherever we consider vibrational factors we must consider rhythm and pulsation. And one of the problems that is presented to the human mind when we begin to speak of something vibrational is to its direct or personal relationship, or to get it into a range where its comprehensible. The way I use the term there is in the background a recognition that everything is vibrational; in other words we may properly say that all things, including all physical things, are the manifestation of vibration at a given level, and the variations in vibration provide the patterns of form and a sense of something solid. Vibrations of a similar nature are solid to each other.
So, specifically, in order to more easily comprehend the meaning of vibration or vibrational factors, we think of the vibrational field primarily, or in the forefront, recognizing this broad background I just mentioned, that the vibrational factors are those realms that do not present an immediate or direct physical form contact pattern, which permits perception. In other words, we are functioning in one vibrational level as physical human beings. To us this wood appears to be solid, and it is; and yet it is mostly space, and it is specifically vibrational. And yet, because it is somewhat similar in structure and nature to the physical substance of our body it is to us a solid. To other vibrational factors it is not a solid. There are many vibrational factors which go through wood such as this, as if it were not there; so to such vibrational factors the wood is not solid.
We then, functioning in the realm of the so-called solid, which is solid to our level of creation only, we have many factors which are not solid; for instance the vibrational factors of mind, or feeling, all of the aspects of spirit—the flexible or fluid factors as far as we are concerned. Now we have recognized that these flexible or fluid factors have a very definite relationship to the development of factors in the physical realm, the so-called solids. We know that below the solid there is another range of vibrational factors, which do not have an immediate sphere of meaning to us except in the sense of the forms of life in tiny organisms, bacteria, etc. But here we have a range where there is a certain degree of proportion in relationship to size, the proportion which has established man's height in relationship to trees and grass and so on, a proportion pattern with which we are familiar and which we find more or less acceptable to ourselves. Sometimes people think they're too tall or too short or something, but it's completely a relative thing, and actually except as the human being may develop an idea with respect to it, it has no bearing, because if a person does not find his own height, tall or short, displeasing, other people round about won't find it displeasing. They find it pleasant. They accept that as a part of the individual.
Now, if we are going to understand these vibrational factors we must think of proportion, because as soon as we begin to violate the patterns of proportion in the vibrational realm we begin to destroy the rhythms, and anything that disturbs a true rhythm is—well, anything contrary to the best interests of the creation is what we call evil. Now, you have no doubt in time past heard the expression, or at least perhaps given it some thought or study, the “Music of the Spheres”—the Music of the Spheres. Now I think to most minds that expression is very ambiguous and it conveys very little. All too often it may suggest to a human mind that if one gets into some sort of a mystic state and goes through some kind of a peculiar process, then he’ll begin to hear some kind of music out here. Well now, that isn’t, in that sense at least, what we are talking about. The Music of the Spheres is established on the basis of the rhythm in the vibrational pattern of all things. If someone is playing the piano and producing harmonious vibrational factors in a range which we can hear, we call it lovely. If someone goes over there and just starts banging without respect to rhythm or vibrational relationships, we say it's noise, it's discord, it's anything but pleasant. Now there is then, the specific range which we perceive as sound in this vibrational field. That range is established in relationship to our atmosphere.
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We have known people to argue the point with respect to whether or not there is sound if there is no one present to hear it. In other words, suppose there is something out here in the mountain somewhere where there's no person around, no creature to perceive the sound, and yet say some rock falls or a tree falls or something. There is a crash. There are vibrational factors set up in the atmosphere, but there isn't any sound if it isn't heard as sound. Now, I'm not arguing this point one way or the other. You could say that the sound is there, but it isn't heard. Or you can say that it isn't sound unless you hear it. But either way, I think this illustration will help us understand something, because the perception, the ability to perceive in this given range is important. Now, we may say there's a rock over here, something that does not have the ability to hear. that is present where these vibrational patterns are set up in the atmosphere. And the fact that the rock is present doesn't mean that it would or would not be sound because the rock wouldn't have the ability to hear. In other words, the perception, the recognition of the vibratory fact of sound, is required to prove the fact that the sound is present.
Now, all of this boils down then, to a matter of perception—perception, understanding, wisdom, the sense of the fitness of things, an understanding, the realization of our pattern of relatedness to that which is, and an understanding of the various factors which are present in that which is. That which is. Here perception tends to become sometimes a bit confused, because that which is must be seen as being produced by the consistently maintained processes in the cosmic scheme of things, so that its isness does not disappear.
Now that which is produced by breaks or distortions in the rhythms, the discord, something which is not consistently maintained by reason of the natural processes at work in the cosmos, something that is foreign to those natural processes, produces a situation or a condition which appears for a little time. It is present while it is being maintained, but there are not permanent, natural processes to maintain it and therefore it is not that which is. Its temporary presence may be acknowledged and recognized, but anything that we call evil, properly, is of this nature. It is produced, or caused to be present, by reason of a break in the rhythms of being. It is not something that is consistently maintained by that which God has made, and therefore, while it has a form, in the sense of discords, just as you could hear the actuality of the discord, it still is not a part of that which is. It is something which must by its very nature pass away.
To the degree that human beings begin to have a sense of awareness, perception, realization, of the fact of the rhythms as they are established in the vibrational realms which are not, shall we say, crystallized, in the sense of form in relationship to our physical forms, this more or less obscure realm of spirit, or vibrational factors as we speak of them sometimes, is something which we become identified with. The person begins to feel himself as belonging to the discord pattern. I think that's one of the secrets behind some of the so-called music of the, well, noise-box type. People are so out of rhythm within themselves, and so out of rhythm with life, in the true sense, that they need this jarring noise, with a certain degree of—they say there's rhythm in it; I guess there is to some degree at times—to give them a sense of something relating to themselves. In other words it is a projection of a state within human beings. And if a person feels a personal relatedness to that which is not—that which is not permanent—by that very fact he begins to perceive or sense, perhaps unconsciously, the fact that it must pass away; therefore he establishes in his own consciousness a conviction that “I must pass away”—that “I am subject to this; I am related to this; it is inevitable that this must pass away; therefore I must pass away.”
And here, I am undertaking to introduce to you one of the basic secrets in relationship to the problems that confront us, not only in the correct living of life for ourselves but in helping inspire others to do so; because these vibrational factors that are not, except in the sense of discord, carry within themselves the conviction, for any consciousness attuned to them, that they must pass away. No matter how desperately they seek to maintain themselves, how they may struggle, they must pass away. They are not among those things which are classified in the realm that is. They are in the realm of that which is becoming nothing.
So, the level of perception which we can develop in relationship to this vibrational range begins to give us an opportunity of having a sense of the Music of the Spheres, the vibrational reality and rhythm, pulsation, in that which is. And as we begin, by the fact of perception, to perceive a relatedness with that which is, we begin to relinquish our convictions of relatedness to that which is not. Now, we may say that that which is not, now has appearance. Yes, it has form. It has meaning in a temporary sense. It is a discord in the vibrational realm, so that it is there. But if we stop making the discord it disappears, it’s gone, just as the discordant sound from the piano; unless it is maintained it will soon die away and we will not hear it.
Now in the cosmos, in the Divine Order of things, there is that which produces the constant music, from levels higher up, so that the beauty, the true rhythm of music, is always there if we can perceive it. We do not have to go and particularly touch the keys, as we do with the piano, so it has a limited pattern. But suppose this piano were attuned to the cosmos in some fashion, so that that which is constantly at work, like the light shining from the sun, or the various invisible rays, were connected up with this piano and actually it was producing sweet, lovely, soft music all the time, as long as that connection wasn’t disturbed, and yet someone can go over there and deliberately hit the keys in some wrong fashion and inject into that a discord. Now that illustrates rather crudely, and in a limited sense, the situation in which we find ourselves as human beings.
This Music of the Spheres—the true rhythms of being in that which is—is something that is here, and it’s constant, and it is all around us all the time. Perceiving the Music of the Spheres is not auditory function necessarily. We may perceive something of it through the ears, that is true; but perception with respect to the Music of the Spheres is not in any sense limited to what we hear. It includes what we see, what we feel, what we perceive in any and all ways. And the centering of all of these capacities of perception in relationship to that which is, begins to give us a sensing, a pattern of perception, with respect to the Music of the Spheres; which is to say, with the rhythmic cycles in the vibratory realm of that which is; because it has a constant source which does not die away or quit. It is constant in its pattern of function—eternal.
Now, if we see the beauty of the sunset or the loveliness of plants, or flowers, or anything, if we sense any rhythms in the patterns of life anywhere around us, anything lovely, by any means available to us, that is a part of the Music of the Spheres, or that which is signified by that term. We do not have to necessarily use the term, but I wanted you to understand the fact that the Music of the Spheres is not something that you just hear. The Music of the Spheres is something that we see by all means at our command, and it involves the rhythm in the vibrational realm.
Now we have spoken of sound. We might note color as is seen by the eye. We know that again here we have vibrational factors. Red and yellow do not have the same vibrational factors. They are all contained in the white light, but the differentiated aspects of that light, the lower vibrational patterns, give us a sense of different colors. So, we are seeing vibrational patterns, which, in a different level, on the basis of hearing we perceive as sound, all of it vibrational and all of it in rhythm. And if the rhythm is disturbed with respect to the manifestation of a given color, immediately some other color is there. If you change the rhythm in the vibratory factors which make that color, as far as our perception of the eye is concerned it will immediately be some other color. It is only while it is this vibration, in this rhythm, that it is this color. You change that rhythm and you cannot say, “Well I think I can change it a little bit, and it will still be, say, yellow or blue or something else.” It won't, because the moment you change that vibrational pattern it will be some other color or some other shade. It will be a light yellow perhaps, or a light blue, or a dark blue, or something else; but you cannot change that vibrational pattern one iota without changing the color.
Now, we know that in sound we have the same thing. If someone is playing the violin, and the fingering or the bowing is not accurate, and you flat a note, make it flat or sharp, just that tiniest little bit of change and it isn’t the note—it’s something else. If the strings are not tightened properly, tuned properly, just a tiny little change and it is not the thing—it is something else. Just that tiniest little bit of change and it isn't the note, it's something else. If the strings are not tightened properly, it isn't tuned properly, just a tiny little change and it is not the thing. It is something else. Now, we may say, “I do not have to be convinced of that in the music. I certainly know that if someone's going to play the piano, it needs to be in tune”, or a violin or any other instrument needs to be in tune. One note is different from another note, and if you establish the vibratory conditions that will produce one note and you say, “Well I'll just make that, but that ought to make this,” and it doesn't.
What I am leading to here is the fact that human beings are just that foolish in the living of their lives, because they tend to take the attitude, “I want to have this color or this tone, which requires certain vibratory factors. I am producing these vibratory factors, and I can't understand why I don't get that color or that sound. I don't see why I should have to change what I do. I don't see why the change in the vibratory pattern should make such a difference.” Now if you apply that to some of the arguments that you have used in your own heart you might find it helpful, because it has seemed to you at times that you should be able to do thus and so and have everything all right around you, and you find that there are discords; it is not all right; it isn’t what it ought to be. And you say, “Well everybody else ought to fit to me,” or what? You blame someone else for it, or become discouraged and blame yourself overmuch, or something of the sort. The important thing here is to realize that we have this vibrational realm where there are rhythms that are specific, and every change in the rhythm will produce a different form of manifestation in sound, in color, or in anything—not just sound and color, but in anything whatsoever—because you cannot change the rhythm in the vibratory level and expect to maintain what was.
Now, learning to identify ourselves with the true rhythms, learning to perceive them, learning to understand something of them, having the wisdom to understand their pattern of relationships, begins to establish in us a consciousness of being a part of that which is. And as we relinquish the discord patterns, or a sense of personal relationship with them, and stop producing them, they pass away without our passing away. Any human being who becomes ill, sick, is either going to get well or he is going to die, isn't he? We can bring it down to that point. He is either going to get well or he is going to die. All right. Either the illness is going to go out of him or he is going to go out with the illness. The illness is going to go out. And if we say that it is not curable it means that man does not know how to let the disease go out of the person without the person going out with the disease—but out it will go. You see?
If we begin to bring that down close to home we will realize that that which is is not going to pass away. Anything that varies the vibrational factors from that which is, is going to pass away, because it is not going to be maintained. And if the rhythms have been broken, and the rhythms are not restored, we are going to have a condition where the instrument, or the manifestation of these rhythms, will be destroyed. In this case, we are thinking particularly of the human body, or the mind, or the human being with his equipment for living, for the revelation of being.
Now Being is Isness, isn't it? True Being is that which is. These basic factors of that which is, are subject to an infinite variety of combinations, just as we can take a violin with four strings and a bow, and someone who knows how to put them together in the sense of music, and you can play all kinds of music; there is an infinite variety. Now, that which is produced by these variations will, shall we say, pass away, not in the sense of something dying, but in the sense of something which is the ever-changing Color of Being. But those basic factors, shall we say, the four strings and the bow, the violin as a whole, and the one who plays, they continue. Now that which is Eternal is that which is, in the sense of reality, that which we are illustrating by the violin, the bow, and the one who plays the instrument. The various possible combinations within the scope of that are virtually infinite. We hear someone like Heifetz play a violin and we think, “How exquisite, how beautiful, how it penetrates into the soul.” And in that sense, its influence has been released—but that same sound does not come constantly issuing out of the violin. Sometimes the violin makes no sound, or the violinist may play some entirely different piece, and it comes issuing out.
That which issues out of the true expression of that which is, is that which provides the eternal variety, the ever-changing color, the beauty and the wonder and the glory of Being. But that which is must be activated on the basis of intelligence, which understands the difference between discord—that which is not right, which is not fitting—and that which is harmonious to the pattern, or wise, the fitness of things, in their relationships. So, if we begin to let our minds open to this particular vital factor of meditation, portion of meditation, we realize that in reality, in that which is Eternal, there is that which is basic at the level of Being, which we classify as that which is. It has certain varieties, certain arrangements, which are particularly proper for that level of creation.
Above that there is another level, and the vibrational factors of any level are real to the other vibrational factors of that level. The vibrational factors of this level are real to the other vibrational factors of this level, but to a level below, these factors seem to be unreal or vague or uncertain, just as much as the so-called heaven is vague or unreal to the human being until he learns to understand the patterns of relationships in these things. He learns how to use his perception, so that he begins to realize the practical nature of that which is in a fluid or flexible vibrational state, as distinct from the so-called solid, which in itself is not solid really, except to itself or something similar, and certainly is not solid to that which is above.
So in heaven, in the Divine State—Paradise Restored—the highest and finest and loveliest state of Being of which you are aware, there is that which is constantly passing away, and that passing away is not death. I pointed out yesterday that there would be a need for correcting in the vibrational functions of Being in any heaven to which you might ever attain, in any paradise that may ever manifest on earth. We simply reach a point where we perceive the necessity of that correction, and make it before there is a distortion. Those who have dullness of perception, or who are functioning in some contrary fashion, ignore and let the distortion appear. The fact that the distortion appears is not anything wrong, except that the correction wasn’t made, at the point where it should have been made. It gets out here so big we cannot help but see it, and then we say, “Now I must make a correction.” It would have been so easy to make it here at the start. No one would have ever seen it, because there wouldn’t have been any discord, if we had perceived it at the right point. And that is true with every ill thing on the face of the earth, every discord, every distortion, every evil thing. If it had been perceived, the tangent factor had been perceived at the right point, and corrected, there would have been no distortion.
Now if we say we are going to go to heaven, or have Paradise Restored, or something, where there are no distortions, does it mean that we go to a static place where there are no vibratory patterns working? No, it means that we are anticipating a place where those who function have sufficient perception so that they make the corrections immediately; and it never produces a distortion, because there is wisdom, a sense of the fitness of things. Each one discharges his or her responsibility harmoniously with respect to the whole—therefore no distortions, and consequently no evil. But the potentiality, the possibility, shall we say, of evil, is theoretically there in the Highest Heaven. It isn’t there, but theoretically it is there, because if anyone in those levels let the tangent factors go by without correcting them there would be evil there. The point is, those responsible don't, therefore there isn't evil there.
We are learning how to function in life—what we call the art of living—which means to say, that we are learning how to perceive and function with these various factors. Now human perception has been so confused that it has recognized that evil, that which is of the discord, must pass away. It has touched something of that which is beautiful, like a bird's song or a violin playing, something, and it is exquisite for its little time, and then it goes away; the sound ceases, and the person feels a sense of loss, perhaps. He says, “It's gone.” Instead of appreciating the influence that was there during the period of its manifestation, and letting it go, and knowing that something else beautiful will be coming forth in its proper season, the individual begins to feel that this beautiful thing is gone—gone.
And so, knowing with absolute conviction that evil things are going to pass away, and sensing that lovely things disappear—the beauty of a moment, some particular experience, and it passes away—then, instead of seeing the difference between the manner in which they pass away, the subconscious conviction that all good things are passing away is established in the individual's mind and heart and he has no foundation. He then is subject to distortion. His rhythms are broken, his pattern of relatedness with that which is, is disturbed, and he identifies himself with that which must pass away; because the expression of Being produces that which does pass away in Heaven—and if it didn’t, we’d have Heaven filled up with certain fixed color combinations and sound combinations, and so on, and it would just go on that same note forever, that same color forever, and it would just go on, and no change. And it would be utterly horrible. It would drive the Archangels crazy.
No, the thing, that which is, in the sense of Being, is maintained—just as the violinist may give his recital and then put his violin in the case and go to his hotel, we will say, and the violin is still there. It did not end; although you can't hear the sound anymore, but the minute he activates the violin, it will produce either those same sounds or some other. So, that which is must be activated, and that which is produced by reason of the activating of that which is must pass away, not because it must die, but because it is, even in Heaven, a temporary manifestation; it is something that is not going to be permanently there. I've heard instances where someone liked a particular piece inordinately, and he was going to play that record over and over again. That was pleasing to him, but others around him decided they'd like to have it changed after a while. It may have been a lovely piece, but to have the same thing over and over and over and over again, just exactly the same way wouldn't be heaven, would it? Well then, by the very nature of it, there must be that which does pass away in heaven. But it is not the Being that passes away; it is the particular combination of factors in life expression which are of the moment. But the individual doesn’t feel a sense of loss, because he knows that correctly activating of that which is, there will be forever a newness in that with which he is surrounded; because any Being is surrounded with that which is produced temporarily by reason of his being activated. But it is right and proper that that which is surrounding the Being should pass away, whether it is good or bad, in the sense of that which is produced at the moment.
Now, you wouldn't want me for the next few months to get up here and give the same lecture over and over and over again. You might find it helpful for about three times. But a month of it would be too much, wouldn't it? You'd say, “I wish he could think about something else once and not repeat himself so much.” Well, do I repeat myself so much? The point is that we need to stop fighting against the passing away of that which is expressed in life; for the minute we stop expressing that which should properly surround us, and we begin to live in memory with respect to that which has been expressed, it has passed away. We center in that which has passed away, and identify ourselves with it, and we pass away. And it does not need to be. There is something expressing through us today. But you may say, “I don't like this as well as what I had yesterday,” or “Oh I had the most beautiful experience five years ago. If I could have just kept that experience, if I could have just kept that vision, if I could have just kept something.” And do you know, if you still had it you would be bored to tears? You don’t want it. That which is, remains; the Being remains; the reality which produces the infinite variety, that gives color to life, remains. It is there. All we require is the activating of that which is, in harmony with the rhythms of being, the vibratory factors—and we have ever-changing colors, we have ever-changing sounds, etc.
Now, you may see a rainbow and say, “Oh how beautiful! It's a beautiful thing in the sky.” But how would you like to have God suddenly say, “Well now, you have admired the rainbow. It is very nice, isn't it? Now everywhere you look, for the rest of eternity, you will never see anything but a rainbow. That is all you will ever see. You admired it. There it is.” Everywhere you looked, nothing but a rainbow. “Oh I thought it was beautiful; now it's horrid. Oh I wish I could get away from those terrible colors.” It must change, and if it doesn’t change you become bored; you become disturbed; it spoils. So, whether of the unreal or the real, the expression must pass away. There is that in Heaven that is constantly passing away. And we must realize that, and begin to realize that the Center of Being is that which does not pass away; and if we are a part of that, we are constantly producing what passes away.
Now suppose a violinist was going to give a recital and the first few notes he produced on the violin floated out here and stuck. You can still hear them. He goes on and plays some more of that piece. They are out there; you can still hear them. He keeps on playing through one piece. You can still hear every note he produced; it is all there, crystallized; it is not passing away. “I want to hear it all; I want to keep it forever.” Here it is. All right, now he starts the next one, another piece, and every note floats out here and sticks. You keep right on hearing it, right in conjunction with all the other notes. By the time he has played for half an hour, how much confusion would there be? Wouldn't it be horrible? The beauty of the note that he is producing in the moment is dependent on the fact that the sound of the note that he made a few moments ago is gone. Isn't that right? The beauty of that music, the wonder of it! You still feel the influence of that other sound, and you perceive it in its relationships; but the note that is being produced now has meaning because the other notes have faded away.
Suppose suddenly, somehow, you started hearing every word I have ever spoken, could you hear the words I am speaking now? No, you couldn't possibly. There would be such a din of sound that it wouldn’t take three seconds to absolutely ruin your mental processes. See? Even the words that I speak, the sound of them, must pass away. And I would be very hesitant to speak if they didn't. You see, in Highest Heaven there is that which is passing away, and we must not confuse that which is with that which must pass away. And it is confusion on this point, coupled with the subconscious pattern of relating oneself to the unreal, and the passing of the unreal with the passing of the real, that is produced in the sense of the beautiful music, that gets the individual all confused. And he feels, “Well I'm passing away. Everything good passes away,” because he is confusing the result of expression with that which makes possible expression. That which makes the expression possible must not be confused with that which is expressed.
The violin isn't going to pass away. The music does. And we're thankful because we wouldn't want to hear it going round and round forever. I've heard people say—I've never been bothered with this personally, but I've heard people say—"Well, I heard a certain song or something and it's been going around in my mind ever since. I can't get rid of it.” The idea that somebody can in their mind, as if they hear something that someone's played or sung or something, it's just utterly foreign to my nature. I have difficulty comprehending how that could be. And if I didn't have faith in their integrity, as far as my experience is concerned, I'd just say, “Oh, you're a liar. That can't be.” Well, I can't personally understand it from the standpoint of my experience because I never had the experience. But that doesn't mean that I say, “Well, no one else does.” And yet, if I talk about an experience that that person has difficulty understanding because he never had it, he's inclined to say, “Well, that sounds kind of fantastic. I don't know whether to believe him or not.” You see, we can't appreciate something until we've experienced it. But some people have had notes or music or something, apparently, go round and round in their heads. I don't think I'd like it, but maybe it's all right. Now I'm content the way I am in that regard, because I perceive so many other beautiful things, not to hold music in my memory. You know if you sing a piece or play it on the violin I couldn't if my life depended on it reproduce it. I absolutely couldn't. I've heard songs I don't know, how many times? If my life depended on my ability to sing “This Is My Father's World”, my favorite hymn, that I've heard hundreds of times, do you think I could give that tune? Not if my life depended on it. I couldn't. I don't know it. I hear it. I love it. But the minute it's sung, it's gone. Just like that. Well now, I'm not saying that everybody ought to be like that; but I'm like that. And I think perhaps in my position of responsibility, God was rather wise in fixing me like that, because it's my business to help you let the things that are gone be gone, isn't it? I don't hang on to them. I have to help you to let go of them.
So, if we are beginning to see the point, we realize that that which is, is not in itself that which makes Heaven a wonderful place. Now, Heaven could not be a wonderful place without it, so let us be careful of what we mean here. You see, we can't appreciate something until we've experienced it. And we might see a Stradivarius violin and say, “What a beautiful piece of workmanship. What a lovely thing.” And so on. And the owner says, “Yes, isn't it? I'm going to put it back in the case and lock it up here. It's there. You mustn't touch it.” Well, the fact that it's there of and by itself wouldn't produce anything lovely. You can look at it and say, “I admire it.” You might study it for a half an hour and think, “What a wonderful privilege I have.” And yet, would you like to just stand there and look at one of those violins forever? If you're that much interested in a violin, you want to hear a violin. You want to hear the music. So with Being. Being is that through which the music of life is expressed, but in and of itself it is not the music at its own level. It is the music for another level, that’s true; but as far as its own level is concerned it is not the music; it is the means by which the music is produced. So we learn to distinguish between Being—which of and by itself, non-activated, would be virtually meaningless—we distinguish between Being and that which is the result of activating Being.
And that which is the result of playing the violin, it must pass away. It has produced influence in the heart; you go away from the concert or the recital feeling renewed and refreshed, joyous to have had those lovely sounds penetrating to the depths of your soul. But, in season you are ready to hear more music. Just because you heard music once isn’t enough. God must have known that, when He produced the meadowlark, who makes its lovely sound; but it does not sing just once and then keep its little beak shut for the rest of its days. It will sing again and again, and that expression of Being, the way it works out, is not in any sense monotonous. That is what Heaven is like: the expressions of Being that produce the beautiful sounds and the beautiful forms in color. The environment of Being is forever changing; never monotonous, forever beautiful. But in order to have that beautiful environment in Heaven, Being must be constantly activated, because the atmosphere of Heaven is forever passing away, even in Heaven, and if they did not keep producing the atmosphere of Heaven in Heaven it would soon be hell. Now, if we say we have hell on earth, why? Because we were not adequately producing the atmosphere of Heaven. And if we produce the atmosphere of Heaven on earth we will have Heaven here. But the atmosphere of Heaven is not fixed at any level of being, in any Heaven anywhere, and there is an atmosphere of Heaven there simply because it is being constantly produced, now and forever.
In that you see the steps of harmonization that are ordained for one and all, you may now consider the Sacred Truths of Blending between those who are true affinities. The proof of true affinity-ship reveals a sacred blending in the deepest spiritual realizations of unified expression in oneness—not as two, a positive and a negative who do one thing, but “As One in the Expression of Being” wherein the positive and negative have so merged into the Oneness of Reality that the DIVINE MAN who is thereby made manifest cannot be considered, in his two primary phases, as being separate from himself at any point, although the individuality of Negative Being is always distinctly visible as a negative reality which functions in perfect coordination with the individuality of Positive Being, which manifests in the One as Positive Reality.
As you have, in the past, been accustomed to thinking of a man or a woman as being a complete being within himself or herself, you can now see that only in blended affinities can a Complete Being be known, and that the positive and negative phases of the One Being must always have distinct manifest expression in order for the Being to remain complete. For either the positive or the negative to absorb the other, so that only the one phase of being is manifest, is to prove that the two involved are not true affinities; for even though they attempt to function together, only half of a being is manifest. In a True, Complete Being, both halves are always individually manifest in a perfectly unified expression that allows the manifestation of the One in Reality.
The true affinities in the world will be drawn together as rapidly as mankind lets go of all efforts at self-activity from an outer standpoint. In harmonization and function of affinities, which is to say, in the function of DIVINE MAN, every activity and expression is of the Inner Reality, and no thought, word or act is dictated by the physical Body Temple with its Outer Court, which is the mind. Such a Complete Temple has been purified, and the human concepts, ideas and desires have been cleansed away by the Water of Truth and the Fire of Love.
The One God Being, who is the unified expression of Divine Reality as made manifest in perfectly coordinated Positive and Negative Being, always maintains a Personalized Manifestation of Being in the two individual phases, no matter what Planes of Peing the One may function upon; otherwise the One would cease to be complete. So it is that the positive phase and the negative phase of the One are ever in manifestation as Poles of Being between which the cosmic activities of creation take place. This One Dual God Being is made manifest as DIVINE MAN in the dual form of man and woman, in the Planes of Negative Reality—which are what is called the Outer World, or the Earth, which shall become the New Earth.
You are interested in DIVINE MAN as He manifests in the Motherland, and you are not now expected to understand all the truths concerning the Divine One of the Inner Planes, other than to know that each of the two phases of each God Being is always maintained in distinct individuality, and that each such God Being is perfect from eternity to eternity. Also, you may know that each Dual God Being has a unified response of Negative Being to another Dual God Being, and a unified radiance of Positive Being toward still another such Dual God Being, so that this Divine Trinity of Three Dual God Beings is made manifest throughout all the Beings of the Inner Planes in establishing a focalized Oneness in Response to the LORD of the Sacred Seven, without at any point submerging the individuality of any given God Being, or of either phase of any given God Being. Rejoice that this mystery is made clear to you; for the world has been filled with false ideas in these matters.
As the Dual God Being is fully responded to by both the positive and negative phases of the Body Temple, the DIVINE MAN, who appears to the outer vision as man and woman, begins to manifest. The building of the Sacred Temple in which the Lord, who is the God Being, may truly function in cosmic creative activity requires a natural and full response of the two halves of the Temple; for so long as the Temple functions in separated parts the full radiation of reality is not possible. This Temple “not made with hands” is that which was symbolized by Solomon's Temple. The “hands” represent the outer activity and effort of the man and woman in the separated state, and all of their effort cannot build the Temple, no matter how much or how long they may try and struggle.
As men and women cease self-activity and respond fully to the LORD, the harmonization of affinities becomes an easy, natural process resulting from the outworking of the Inner Divine Action. In allowing the God Being to build the True Temple, in other words to establish DIVINE MAN in manifest expression on the earth, the blending processes which take place between the positive and negative of the One are first established as a mutual, or one-pointed, response to and recognition of the Dual God Being who is the Focal Point of Convergence for the two phases of the Temple. When the two phases of the One recognize and respond to the unified Dual God Being with a single vision, so that double vision is removed from the two phases, the single vision of DIVINE MAN becomes a perfect channel of Divine Creative Activity. With the unified vision an accomplished fact as a natural result of affinity harmonization, DIVINE MAN in His Two Phases of Being beholds the Inner Plane Reality, and the events of Eternity, both past and future, become known to the degree that such events have a direct relationship to the part in the Cosmic Plan to which that particular DIVINE MAN is ordained.
The God Being is always attuned to the Focal Point of Being which allows perfect harmonization in the natural outworking of the creative functions of the Cosmic Plan; but men and women do not begin to participate therein until they individually begin to respond to the Lord within, who will draw the two halves into a harmonization that will permit a true manifestation in Oneness as DIVINE MAN. This is the only way anyone can come into a complete Realization of Reality, but each one should be perfectly content to abide in the Christ Love in a full response to the Lord within, no matter where on the Path each one may be; for it is only in such joyous willingness to let the Father's Will be done, and to serve in the Love Radiance of the Lord wherever one may be, that the perfect manifestation of the Ultimate Plan can come forth. It is in this that the Blessed One learns that absolutely all things work together in perfection for those who love the LORD.
The creative activities of DIVINE MAN in the Motherland may not be adequately described in human language. As you have set forth on the Great Adventure, you will find that the perfect direction is provided for you at every step of the way.
You will in due season understand the mysteries of the service in the Holy Place of the Temple; for this relates to the union on the plane of the spiritual expression whereby the Eternal Fire on the Altar is cared for, and of that Fire some is taken to burn the incense in the censer in accordance with the transmutation of the body atoms in the Ascending Flame. Here is the Secret Place where the Water of Truth is made known, where the Bread of Life is found to be that which responds to the Ascending Flame, and where one finally comes to stand before the Veil which leads into the Holy of Holies.
When the harmonization in the Holy Place is complete, the two are ready to become completely One and to be initiated into the Holy of Holies, where ultimate union blends the two phases into DIVINE MAN and returns him to the Motherland. The entrance into the Holy of Holies through the Veil can take place only through full response to the God Being, and in this the physical phases are uplifted into the Most Sacred Service possible to any who dwell on earth; for it is here that the first true body-blending takes place.
Attempts at physical union through self-activity must surely bring about an attunement to the descending cycle of the Flame. Only those who have allowed the Perfect Harmonization of Reality as revealed through the spirit of these words, and have so responded to the God Being that they have found their own oneness and thereby know the secret of the injunction, “Know Thyself,” can come to stand before the Veil; and for those who are ready to enter in, in oneness, the Veil will be forever torn asunder.
Let no man attempt to force his way to or through the Veil, for all such shall surely fail. Let the one who stands before the Veil rejoice and wait upon the Lord, that passing freely through the Veil into the Holy of Holies, the Full Reality may be known. Such an one has returned to the Motherland, and as DIVINE MAN he takes his appointed place in the outworking of the Cosmic Plan.
Let each earnest one let go, abiding in the expression of the natural attributes of Love, with a full and joyous Love Response to the Lord of the Temple, and the Mysteries of the Temple shall all be fully known in due season. Hasten not. Struggle not. Abide in Love for the LORD. Give thanks always for all things. Let songs of rejoicing fill the heart. Let the eye be uplifted to the LORD. Let every expression be a perfect response to the direction of the spirit. Hesitate not. Let that which is of the Holy Place await your entrance into the Holy Place. Let that which is of the Holy of Holies await your entrance through the Veil, and as DIVINE MAN you shall eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Life in that perfect union which is final Illumination in the Yemple of Our God. Peace be unto you in the Way.
A Special Key
Although the foregoing Talk Beside the Sundial answers all questions relating to the harmonization of man and woman, I would give you a further key to individual function in the radiance—a key which is equally effective for male and female, for the married and the single, in all phases of union, from that experienced by an individual who enters a devotional period and feels his Lord's presence to the person who feels the creative urge physically and mentally and so enters into some form of active work in creative expression, such as writing, painting, or reading in the radiance into the world consciousness from spiritual writings, to those who feel the Ascending Fire in individualized union with the Father within, and on to those legal mates who have harmonized as affinities to a degree that carries them beyond the Veil of the Holy of Holies where the Unified Response to God Being allows the creative cycle to function perfectly in the Ascending Flame as the Dual God Being and the Dual Human Being are blended in that Sacred Union by which the Unspeakable Radiance of Heaven is allowed perfect release into the world.
Some have been attempting, by various methods which teach the self-activity of willpower, to lift the Creative Urge from the Creative Centers to a point in the head, thereby thinking to be more spiritual. God created all parts of the body, and placed them where they should be, and wise is he who lets all parts and functions abide in the place which God provided for them. This, then, is the key: the Creative Fire naturally Ascends in Radiance if you let it do so without trying of any kind. You do not need to try to lift it up. All you need to do is to begin to Radiate the Christ Love to your brother man in some form of active and constructive expression, with praise and thanksgiving unto the LORD. That which you do becomes your Channel of Radiation, and you radiate that which is your true motive. If your motive is fear of failure you will lend your life forces to increasing fear in the world. If your motive is the natural function of Love in all that is holy and pure, just letting the fulness of your being flow out as an Overshadowing Spirit which hovers over the world, blessing all who will respond to the LORD, you will thereby lend your life forces to the creative cycle by which the world is being lifted up into the Heavenly State. It is most essential that you recognize that every Creative Urge is Naturally Divine, Holy and Pure—not to be fought against or condemned—for it is in the Creative Fire that you learn to truly Radiate, and in Radiant Expression of Reality there is release. As you let go in responsive love to your Lord, His creative Love pours out through you, and your whole body becomes a creative instrument by which your Lord causes your whole environment to be impregnated with Light, Love and Life, in the Ascending Flame.
Let us note that the Feminine God-Self always incarnates as a woman, and the Masculine God-Self alwaysincarnates as a man.
And once more we gather on Sunday evening to share a period of meditation; and I thank God for that response in each and every one of you which has brought you to this time and this hour. And tonight, I would like to share with you a period of meditation on one of the most significant of The Secrets Of Being in the series which we have been considering together. The introductory pattern of our meditation of last evening and this morning will give you an opportunity to more deeply realize the vital truth to which we turn attention tonight. Let us have a moment of devotion.
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Our Gracious LORD and HOLY KING, we thank thee for the privilege of revealing by our lives, by our attitudes, by words and deeds, that Thy Name is hallowed to us; and we would in every moment of every day reveal our dedication to the Great Cause of sharing in the coming of Thy Kingdom, that its manifestation here on earth may permit Thy Will to be done on earth in exactly the same way with exactly the same results as Thy Will is done in heaven — for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory. And we deeply appreciate the Truth that it is Thy Good Pleasure to give us the Kingdom in manifestation on earth, that we may share in our daily lives the Reality of the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, now and forever. Aumen.
In our two most recent periods of meditation, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/07/rejecting-unrealaccepting-realbasis-of.html] we have recognized certain of the basic factors concerning friendship; something of what friendship signifies; something of the opportunity we have that we may be Friends to God even as God is a Friend to us. Once the qualities of friendship, the capacities of friendship, begin to develop in the individual, the relationship so established between God and us makes possible the Divinely Ordained position for which Man was first created. God created Man in the image and likeness, the same design, the same principles, the same laws, the same capacities and qualities as are found in God Himself, to the end that Man might be the means by which God could reveal Himself in action on earth, in relationship to the rest of creation.
Man was supposed to be the connecting link between Creator and creation. But when man violated the basic principles of friendship, he lost the position of being a Friend to God and became the missing link, allowing the appearance of separation between Heaven and Earth. In that Divine Position as the connecting link between Creator and creation, Man was, before the violation of Friendship, a Friend to God. God has never ceased being Man’s Friend; and with patience and love and infinite care He has sought through the generations since that day to re-establish a pattern on earth by which man might receive the Friendship of God and become a Friend to God.
In the pattern of True Friendship — not in the range of so-called fair-weather friends — in the True Pattern of Friendship there is always, without any exception, to whatever degree it may be experienced between human beings on earth, a particular quality of communion. Those who move toward the state of True Friendship — which has been in fact a very rare occurrence — began to experience a state of communion, of vibrational companionship, which though it might at times use words for the interchange of ideas, was not limited to words, for in Friendship there is understanding, and there is a Communion of Spirit which is unknown to those who have never touched the True Spirit of Friendship, a quality of comprehension of the inner play of the vibratory field of the one who is counted Friend. And this quality of communion is one of the crowning marks of Friendship.
Once we begin to see that the True State of Friendship is the True State of Heaven on Earth, the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand does not seem so vague, so uncertain. Once we begin to glimpse the reality of what Friendship means, or what it means to be a Friend to God, there is a New Vision of Heavenly Things made manifest — for we have noted that friends make no demands upon each other. God is our Friend and He does not make any demands on us. He offers us something. He invites us to share something. But God makes no demands. We can trust Him. He is not inclined to take something from us. And we learn, in the Pattern of Friendship, to make no demands upon God; for as long as man makes a demand upon God, whether he thinks it to be in prayer or some other form, he is violating the Principles of Friendship essential to the correct relationship with God. So, as we begin to comprehend the Principles of Friendship we make no demands upon God.
But we have recognized in our meditations, that where the State of Friendship is established, those who are Friends, without making any demands upon each other, at the same time exert a powerful, profound and lasting influence upon each other. Man, in the limited realm, having failed to know the truth and let the truth make him free, could well experience this profound influence from God. But you may say: “What profound and powerful influence can I exert upon God?” Friendship is based upon Qualities of Equality. That is the point! For God first created Man, male and female, in the image and likeness of God, having qualities of equality — and it was never God’s intention that Man should be in a limited, dwarfed, subservient, or weak position. It was God’s intention that Man should be made manifest on earth as the image and likeness of God. We remember the Word as it has been written: “And God said, “Let us” — plural — “Let us make man after our image, and after our likeness.” And God did so, “male and female created he them.”
There is, in the limited consciousness of man, a peculiar idea that in what is called Heaven there is a sexless state of things. Angels are supposed to be creatures of neuter gender. This idea, developed out of ignorance and prejudice, has been one of the devil’s chief weapons to keep people from drawing near to the Throne of God, for the suggestion of a sexless state suggests to man, whether he thinks it out or not, that such a state would be a realm without any particular feeling, without any particular joys of being, without any particular productiveness; a realm of virtual meaninglessness. And so the self-active mind of man has maintained a concept that here on earth we could accomplish certain things, have certain pleasures, be productive and creative in various ways, and creative; but the moment we get to Heaven there will be a static state, the thing that is supposed to be perfection, as if perfection were something already finished, having reached the ultimate degree of completeness, so that there was nothing more to do, just to float around on a cloud all day and pluck a harp. The popular concept of Heaven portrays a state that would produce boredom, that has absolutely no true appeal to man, a state that seems to man to be senseless and meaningless.
Now there are not very many who have perhaps dared to analyze the matter, and some suppose that taking an honest look at the matter is somehow sacrilegious. But here we have one of those points that is vital if we are going to know the Truth and let the Truth make us free, for only the Truth can. And as long as the self-active mind of man can maintain in the consciousness of man this deplorable lie with respect to the Heavenly State, it can be so worked that man will think that the earthly state, as it now is, is infinitely more desirable than the Heavenly State. The idea of sitting on a cloud and plucking a harp, day after day, year after year, century after century, millennia after millennia: that is the picture of hell! —unmitigated hell, boredom in the nth degree! So, by the very nature of the situation we see that this is a lie about God, that this concept maintains a state of consciousness in man whereby he is not privileged to know God, or to know the true state of things with respect to God. It is only the ignorant mind which could assume that perfection is an ultimate thing that comes to a static state and so remains forever. That very state would not be perfection, for perfection is right function under any given circumstance.
Perfection in Heaven would require right function in the Heavenly State. And God is a creator. God never ceases creating! As long as human beings imagine that God was a creator for a few hours or a few days, and then He quit and He is going to spend the rest of eternity sitting on His Throne and enjoying the obeisance of His creatures, we show that we do not know God. God is a Creator and God could no more stop creating than you could by holding your breath stop breathing — and there is no static state in Eternity. We are in Eternity. We could not get out of it if we tried to. We are in Eternity Now, and once we begin to realize with absolute certainty that our God is a creator, that He is continually creating, and that we are made in the image and likeness of God, then we too have the capacity to let the Creative Spirit work through us.
Now let no one jump to the conclusion, as some have, that I am suggesting that man is limited to the procreative act in relationship to creativeness. I am talking about a Creative Life, so that man begins to reach a point where every thought, every word, every act is dedicated, under the control of the Spirit of God, to creating something lovely, something beautiful, to bringing into manifestation something that carries a blessing to others, or to the creation as a whole. Made in the image and likeness of God, it is our business to share the creative work of God; and God does not need us particularly in some other realm to share this creative work. God would like to have men and women on earth share the creative work, right here; to the end that Paradise may be restored, to the end that Heaven and Earth may be seen as one, which in fact they are. It is only an appearance that makes it seem to man that they are separated. Heaven and Earth are one already in fact. They have never been anything else. But man has not permitted Heaven to manifest in relationship to himself, so man has sought to get out of the Earth into Heaven, instead of recognizing the Divine Principle of letting Heaven get out of some invisible realm into the Earth through himself.
This is another of the basic falsehoods which has kept men bound down through the centuries, a false concept with respect to God, with respect to Heaven; for man has thought that he had to get out of the Earth, out of his body, into a Heaven, when God created man with a body as a means by which the invisible Heaven might be made visible in this realm of things, that man, made in the image and likeness of God should share the creative work of God, to make that invisible Heaven visible on Earth. And the fact that man stopped making Heaven visible does not change the fact that Heaven and Earth are one, and have always been. As the Master Himself put it, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” — available, within reach, available to you.
Once we begin to see that this Quality of Friendship was supposed to be on a basis of equality, the manifestation of God Himself, we begin to see the basic factor which caused the fall, which caused man to become a missing link; for man tried to be as God. Instead of being the actual revelation of God he wanted to separate himself from God and be as God. There is the difference. And as long as man continues to try to be as God and to accomplish something worthwhile in life without regard to God, man will continue to be a poor, weak, miserable creature. But the very moment any man or woman has the courage to face the Truth, and let the Truth make him free, there begins to be a recognition of the basic Truth that man was created to be a means by which God could reveal Himself, so that Man might be God in action on earth. And we begin to see that Friendship with God is possible.
Friendship requires factors of Equality
And man has imagined that God wanted him to grovel in the dust. Man has interpreted meekness as weakness, humility as a doormat attitude. Humility is necessary, but only the strong can be humble. Look at a weak person and you will never find humility. The weak person, in the first place, does not have the capacity for humility, while he is weak; and in the second place, he is afraid to be humble. He may manufacture an imitation of humility, and pass it off as humility, but it will not be the genuine article. The weak feel that they cannot afford to be humble. Only the strong ever dare to be humble. And according to the Biblical statement, Moses, one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known, was the meekest of men. Meekness does not properly suggest weakness. Humility and meekness simply suggest that man, as such, has let go of arrogance, wherein he is trying to be superior to God. He is willing, in his attitude, to accept God on the basis of the Divine Design, the Qualities of Equality; for once you begin to have the courage to face the facts, you find that man has been sustaining himself by a spirit of arrogance, which in actual fact took the attitude that God was inferior to man, at least insofar as this world is concerned.
How many millions of good, so-called Christians, are there in the world, who take the attitude that the power of God just is not available to us anymore. God gave that power to the disciples back there when, and they could let some of the Power of God manifest to heal people, but it is just a figment of imagination to imagine that God's Power could actually heal anybody in this day and age. You know, we have to have the doctors and we have to have the nurses and we have to have antibiotics and a lot of other things. Man in this world is supposed to be superior to God! Look at the facts and you cannot deny it. And it is this arrogance, on the part of man, which has kept man from beginning to know the Friendship which God extends to the children of men. Let us stop trying to be superior to God and let us begin to be willing to be what God intended us to be, and then we can begin to know the Fulfilment of Life.
Seeing these things, and getting away from this insufferable arrogance that man has in his attitude toward God, man begins to reach a point where he is willing to say in his heart, “Perhaps God could do something on Earth. Perhaps God's Power could manifest on Earth. Perhaps God could change things here on Earth, without our having to work out our own designs and carry out own purposes in life. Perhaps God does know what He's talking about. Perhaps God's promises do have some meaning on Earth, not just in some Heaven of hereafter type.” Perhaps God could do something in your own life, and you do not have to do it all in your own strength and in your own wisdom, until you are dead and go to Heaven. It is just possible, that if we begin to see humanity as it is we will see that this insufferable, contemptible arrogance has put man in a position where he denies the possiblity of the true working of the Power of God in the lives of men in relationship to daily affairs. We see the threat to world peace in the godless tyranny of Soviet Russia, and man says, “Well, we'll set aside a day of prayer, yes; but, you know, God couldn't actually do anything about this. We must of necessity build guns and bombs, and so on.” As long as man has the present state of consciousness he had better have the guns and the bombs, because even though they are a very poor substitute for the Power of God in manifest action, they are better than nothing, and the godless do give some heed to guns and bombs.
But the point is, that if man were not so insufferably arrogant, if he would begin to be humble, and stop trying to act as if he were superior to God, he would begin to enter into the pattern of Friendship with God and he would begin to have the privilege of communion with our Friend, our LORD and KING — the privilege of Communion with our Friend. That communion does not always require words, although it may utilize words. Communion between Friends is not limited by distance or space. Man imagines that God is far, far away. He imagines that He could not possibly produce a state wherein there would be true Communion with God.
Some people try to order God about. I have heard many ministers on the pulpit do what they called praying, which in actual fact was a presumptuous, blasphemous attitude in which they were telling God what to do, and how he should do it, making all kinds of demands upon God as if the master-mind of man was necessary to direct Divine Activities in Heaven in relationship to the Earth. Such presumptions, such blasphemous attitudes, cannot be called prayer. And so man has failed to recognize what true prayer is. Millions of people do what they call praying, when in actual fact it is not prayer. It’s blasphemous presumption! And they wonder why God doesn’t answer their prayer. The simple point is they never prayed! They only thought they did. We should begin to learn how to pray — which is to say, we should reach a point of Communion with Our Friend.
When our Master was on earth, He gave some very significant words, to us. They are ours as surely as if we had heard them spoken. “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.” Now, what is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is a person who tries to be something he is not, and any man or woman who has not entered into the pattern of true relatedness to God is a hypocrite, anywhere, because he is trying to be something that he is not. Anyone who is not letting the Divine Revelation of Being manifest through himself, anyone who is not subject to God's control, anyone who is not letting the Spirit of God have meaning on earth, anyone who is not revealing the things of God in thought and word and deed, anyone who has not entered into a Spirit of Friendship with God, is a hypocrite. I do not care who he or she is, in what position on earth, what church, creed, or belief, what philosophy, what color, what sex — anyone who is not doing what God designed that person to do is a hypocrite, for that person is trying to be something which he or she is not. So let us not have the limited concept of hypocrisy which has supposedly been adequate in days gone by.
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.” Now, could it possibly be that this applies to anyone within the sound of my voice, or must we go into the next county or the next state to find a hypocrite? “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.” Verily, truly, they have their reward, and it does not come from God. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking”, or for their loud speaking. Do we have to go to Africa to find the heathen? Do we have to go to China to find heathen? Most certainly not. The Master's definition of the heathen has a strange capacity of fitting a few people right here in United States of America, just a few. I wonder how many here have the courage, the inner stamina, to dare to stop trying to apply these things to neighbor, so-called friend, acquaintance, husband, wife, someone else, and take an honest, personal look at the Truth; for as long as you avoid facing the Truth for yourself you cannot come to know the Truth, and only the Truth can make you free. You cannot make yourself free.
And remember, you cannot use the Truth. Man so often mistakes mere knowledge for Truth, and he thinks to use Truth for his own purposes, but he never succeeds. He tries to take Truth and make it his own, but he never succeeds. Did you ever stand upon the shores of the Great Pacific Ocean and watch the waves roll in, and realize that that water extended out for thousands of miles, with a few islands scattered here and there. That water extended out thousands of miles, to some far shore—the Pacific Ocean. Did you ever, standing there, imagine that you could pick that ocean up in your hands and walk off with it? No. It is just as foolish and futile for any human being to imagine that he can pick up the Truth and use it to his own ends.
Blessed Ones, if you take a handful of the ocean and try to keep it, it soon runs away or evaporates. There may be a little residue, but it’s gone. If you put some in a bottle or a jar or a cistern it won’t be of much value very long. You can no more take the Truth and use it for yourself than you can take the Pacific Ocean and use it for yourself. You may swim in the ocean but it is the ocean that is holding you up, not you holding the ocean up. Until you begin to realize that you can let the Truthhave you, you can give yourself to the Truth—but if you try to take the Truth to yourself it’ll evaporate or slip away or become stagnant and be gone, useless. You can no more take the Truth to yourself than you can take the oceans of the world to yourself.
And so, trying to use Truth leads into vain endeavor. Now anyone who is dedicated to vain endeavor, to trying to do the impossible; is, according to the Master's Word, a heathen. That is what He says here. “But ye, when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do.” All heathen are constantly using vain repetitions, not necessarily limited to the words of the lips — vain repetitions of act, trying to do something but never getting it done; trying to do the impossible in a thousand and one ways; pouring one's life-stream down the drain. Those who indulge in vain repetitions of thought or word or deed are heathen. Let’s stop these vain repetitions. Did you ever work in vain for a given goal? Did you ever set yourself to some attainment, and struggle hard but work in vain? Perhaps you did. Trying to do the impossible! There isn’t anything that is more in vain than trying to do the impossible. God does not waste His time in such endeavor; and the Master made the plain statement that anyone who wastes his time in vain endeavor is a heathen. Now, He spoke of hypocrites and heathen, neither one very gentle words — something very positive and penetrating — and how many of us dare to submit to the measure which the Master offered men?
Blessed Ones, once we submit to this measure and stop being hypocrites and heathen we can begin to show forth the Qualities of Friendship, and we can begin to receive the Friendship which God offers to us, and we can begin to extend Friendship to God. And would it not exert a profound influence upon Heaven if Heaven were no longer shut up and denied the opportunity of manifestation on Earth? Selfish, self-centered, self-active human beings have kept Heaven shut out of the Earth long enough. Would it not exert a profound influence on Heaven if we proved to be the Friends of God and let Heaven, the Atmosphere of Friendship. What is Heaven? Heaven is the Atmosphere of True Friendship — if we let Heaven appear on Earth? Yes, we can. The way is easy. There is no heavy cross to bear. It is the only easy life available to man on earth. All else is hard. And if anyone tells you that the spiritual life or the Christian life is a hard life you can set that person down as an ignoramous, one who knows absolutely nothing about spiritual things!
Until we begin to let the Friendship of God have meaning in our lives, here on Earth, so that we can let our Friendship for God have meaning in Heaven and stop making of Heaven a prison, and refusing to let God and the things of God out of Heaven into the Earth we cannot possibly know fulfilment. When we stop trying to do the impossible, and accept the simple, easy task that God has offered to us, the simple process of working with the Positive Laws of Being, the simple process of changing from dying existence to living fulfilment, the simple process of changing from the paths of defeat to the Realm of Victory, simply accepting the invitation to be on earth the Friends of God, that we may stop believing so many lies about God, stop having false attitudes toward God, and begin to be the Friends of God. This is our purpose here.
Our Father who art in Heaven. We would let Thee manifest on Earth through the body of human beings who yield to Thy Spirit, and let Heaven have form on Earth; and let Thy Power have meaning on Earth, until all the self-active efforts of men shall be brought to naught, that the Beauty of Eternal Truth may be revealed in the Divine Design established for all things whatsoever; and the control of the Kingdom established in every design the Beauty of Truth, the Wonder of Love and the Glory of Life made manifest, in and through and for each and every one who yields and sacrifices the unreal things of this world for the rich treasures of Heaven made manifest on Earth. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory for us, in the Christ.
