This is our class meditation period on the 11th day of May, 1954 in the Chapel on Sunrise Ranch, and carrying forward in our cycle of meditation in the application of the basic principles which we have been considering in the field of the unfolding expression of life and Being in the individual, I have a number of points to which I would like to draw your attention this morning.
I think if each one would remember that it is a process not only of the unfolding life expression, but of the unfolding manifestation of being, it will make it easier, for the Way is easy. Very often it seems to the human mind that it is hard and difficult, but if we could always remember that when the human consciousness whispers that it is hard, or it seems in some fashion to be difficult, to let the things of God have meaning, if we would always remember that that is a lie we could the better maintain the right attitude.
The manifestation of life, the increasing expression of life, is something which in and of itself does not and cannot appear; and the human being is inclined to evaluate his own experience, determine his own progress on the basis of his own concept of the degree to which the life expression is increasing. But this can lead into many traps, devastating traps. The increased expression of life can appear only as there is the reality of increased expression or unveiling of the Reality of Being.
In this process of movement from the Land of Egypt to the Promised Land of Reality the individual goes through many cycles, many periods that we call the abyss of nothingness [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/abyss-of-nothingnesssabbath-rest.html], many steps forward, and if each one would ever remember that the darkness of the abyss of nothingness is evidence of progress, so that each could hold steady therein without all of the pushing and pulling and shoving that tends to appear, it would shorten the time that one remains in the abyss of nothingness and speed the unveiling of the Reality of Being.
This brings us to a point where we can consider a number of factors. The human mind is always inclined to forget the Master's injunction, “Judge not.” The human attempts to evaluate with inadequate understanding, inadequate vision, are constantly producing ill conditions. This is one of the things that you will be confronted with in the field, should your future rest in that area, or here or anywhere, because human beings who are making progress always come, sooner or later in one way or another, to a crisis point and that crisis point is of tremendous significance, whether in your life or in the life of another. As you pass through these crisis points—and it can be easy or hard, depending upon your attitude—it helps you to be in position to understand those whom you will serve in the days to come, when they begin to move in such cycles as will permit them to come to the crisis points or the points of the abyss of nothingness.
These cycles work physically, when a person is moving toward health. They appear mentally and emotionally, and sometimes they come at all three points all at once. These crisis points are of vital importance. There is no way by which we can emerge out of the Land of Egypt into the Promised Land without them because if it were required that you move more-or-less instantaneously from one state of Being to the other, it would be one big crisis point and it would be so overwhelming that you could not possibly be expected to make it. These crisis points which signify the steps of adjustment and change must be divided up, more for some than for others, but attitude is the big thing when we come to a crisis point, or the abyss of nothingness, because if one begins to resent and rebel and fight and struggle and twist and turn and try to get out from under the pressure, he will make that crisis point to be of no effect. He simply guarantees that he is going to have to face it again. When we learn to have the right attitude, no twisting, turning or squirming, no trying to evade, but face into it, we will find that it is possible to go through the crisis point easily, naturally, without any great suffering. But the suffering that comes at a crisis point is largely on the basis of the way the individual wiggles and twists and squirms when he is under the pressure. If he will just take it easy and relax, and let it work out, there will be no undue suffering. It may hurt a little, yes, but it is still easy. The right way is the easy way.
So there is the vital importance of learning yourself to have the right attitude so that you will be in position to help others face it effectively. And, when someone has come to a crisis point, an abyss of nothingness, if the response is centered truly, no rebelling, no fighting, no twisting, no squirming, if you are the server in the case you can he exquisitely gentle. But if under that circumstance, you begin to extend what we might call human sympathy, if you begin to function on a basis which will cause the person to think that gentleness is weakness on your part, you will have to be firm; but you have to learn how to be firm, in what way to be firm, because wrong function in that regard can be devastating. Sometimes the very nature of the case makes it necessary for you to stand afar off so-to-speak, and for those who do not understand, you may be classified as hard-hearted, cold. Under the pressure, someone may imagine that you are disinterested. But you were considering this morning on the tape recording, this primary test, and always there is a contest at these crisis points if the individual does not have the right attitude. Now if there is the right attitude, there is no contest, merely the shedding of an old skin and the process of being born into a new; and in the world as it is, there is a certain amount of labor in it, a certain amount of suffering in these steps of rebirth. But, generally speaking, there is something of that abyss, or a crisis point, just prior to the reality of birth into a new level of consciousness and function. If the individual will function correctly, relax correctly, co-operate correctly, it will be comparatively easy. But if he fights it and becomes tense, resentful and rebellious, he will suffer.
In such a case there is always a contest, and in such a case you need to be extremely alert, to put on as much pressure as the individual can stand, but not too much. And your proximity to the case, so-to-speak, the degree of nearness that you can utilize, will depend upon the individual's ability to carry through, to remember the Lord's statement that, “whom he loveth he chasteneth” rebukes, and so on. Sometimes human beings imagine that if you in a position of leadership, really love, that you will never rebuke, you will never be firm. That is not true; it is not true at all. But it is something that you learn to perceive in the current of the spirit. Now sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. You just let it work out. Other times you can seem to do something. Other times you have to do what you do without even seeming to do it. You have to be wise. So the crisis point is of great significance. And this gives us a starting point for a little consideration of this aspect of this problem of limitation factors.
I received a letter yesterday which emphasizes the point. For this particular individual, having heard something of what I have said with respect to proper function, etc., proper patterns of attitude which I was inspiring in you one toward another, undertook to judge me on the individual concept of the application of those principles. In other words, according to that viewpoint I was not living up to what I teach. Now that is one of the tricky snares that tends to appear. I have to face it all the time, and if you are going to do any leading you will have to face it. But, in a pattern such as this here, for instance, where we have a class or a group or the whole Unit on Sunrise, or anywhere else where I am under the necessity of functioning, having come into this pattern you have accepted, whether you know it or not, certain protection which I provide. In other words, as you begin to respond, I begin to modify the results of your ill action and to magnify or intensify the results of your right action, and if you are going to share with me in ministry, you will have to learn how to do that too.
We do it physically speaking through attunements, for instance, because one phase of the result of the attunement is to modify, lessen, the result of some ill function, perhaps eating wrongly or something else, some unwise action, a fall perhaps, or a thousand-and-one things. So, part of it is the modification of the results of something that is wrong or has been done incorrectly. And the other part of the attunement process applied physically, emphasizes, intensifies the corrective expression, the growing or the healing process, and we do that consistently. But that applies in every level of being in the whole life, because here, as much as response permits, I modify the ill results and intensify the current which produces the right results, as you permit it to be so.
Then, if an individual moves along for a certain period of time without taking full advantage of the opportunity so afforded, and begins to develop in consciousness the idea that he or she is justified in these repeated wrong patterns of function, he begins to forget that they bring ill results because the results have been modified and no one has been too seriously hurt, etc., and he begins to neglect the process of responding to the currents that would lift one up and over, he begins to develop habit patterns that disregard the basic factors that are involved, then I have a responsibility. It is not your responsibility one toward another. It does not alter the pattern of your pattern of relationship, but it does alter the pattern of my correct function, because then I have to utilize some point, and I generally pick one where the probabilities of someone getting seriously hurt are modified.
In other words, I generally pick on something that is comparatively little and I will avoid, if I am permitted to do so, making an issue on the comparatively big points or the serious factors. If I am forced to it, of course that is a different story. But I will start picking out some of these little points and letting that individual reap the reward as quickly as possible of the result of wrong function, and in my action in that regard, I am very often considered to be harsh, or cold, or inconsistent, or failing to live up to what I teach, which isn't the case at all, because if I fail to take that type of action when I find it necessary, I would be failing you and you would imagine you were in a state of progress and growth in which you are not, and then you would go out and try to function on a false basis, and you would fail. So, if there is some kind of a reactionary pattern that continues too long, the modification factors that I utilize are all withdrawn, and I begin to let the individual find out what it is to be down where he really is, not where he has imagined himself to be. It takes an understanding of the factors. Now I am not suggesting you try to do that, but I am pointing out that from my standpoint I have to do that or I would not be a leader.
So, with respect to something that is clearing and there is forward movement and the individual has not taken it for granted, and relaxed into sloppy habits in his growing process, I will continue the process in modification as long as it may be necessary, but when someone starts imposing on me in that regard, and starts doing it consistently so that there is a disregard of the opportunity that is afforded, I am going to start seeing to it that the results of ill actions start coming back. And generally speaking, the starting point with respect of such things comes in the range of inconsiderate function on the part of the individual involved. When human beings start to imagine that for me to live up to my own teaching, I must tolerate a lot of inconsiderate function on the part of someone, persistently maintained, well that person is due for a rude awakening, because it does not work that way.
This should help you to understand something of the patterns that are unfolding here, and it should be helpful to you at least in a realization of that which is to be required of you when you are in the point of focalization in the field or somewhere else—the wisdom, the understanding, whereby one may know when to ignore, when to tolerate, and when to positively reject something which the individual gives into expression in life. There is also the matter of simply modifying it. Sometimes we ignore it, sometimes we modify it, and sometimes we reject it positively, depending upon the circumstances, depending upon how many people are involved, and what opportunity we have to just let that individual have plenty of rope. There is the old saying, “If you give a person enough rope he will hang himself.” Well we are not interested in doing that, unless we have no choice.
So these limitation factors that are present in human beings, which spoil the pattern of individual manifestation, cloud the vision with respect to what is really working out, are often the basis upon which a human being makes an utterly false judgment and then assumes a pattern of self-righteousness which is in the range, the danger range, the range where, well, results are questionable shall we say. This matter of the limitation factors can be seen in this regard from a little different standpoint ... continued ... greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/mirage-vision.html
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