The Two Aspects Of Spirit
Martin Cecil November 11, 1979
We all have some sensing of the
limitless nature, the infinite nature, of dimensionless God, and also the
immensity of dimensional God. When there is a true spiritual sensing in this
regard it does not bring with it any feeling of isolation. If the view is
merely from the mental standpoint and there is a recognition of this vastness
of God, the self that is known seems to be very small and isolated; there is
apparently little connection. There is a distinction here which indicates the
nature of the recognition that is being experienced. Mentally we feel small and
isolated: God is vast and over there. Spiritual perception causes us to feel
enfolded with the reality of God right here.
There is this spiritual awareness
because the infinite nature of dimensionless God is brought to focus in the
reality of dimensional God in our immediate experience. We may see this
facility of focus as standing at the crossover point between the undimensional
and the dimensional, and we may see this point relative to the whole world and
to all mankind to the extent that we ourselves are in position at the crossover
point between the heavenly essences and the earthly essences in the
representation of that One who provides the supreme focus at the higher
crossover point.
This whole reality of God is
brought to focus in one's own experience. We may share this collectively if it
is true individually. The essences of heaven are present with us; the essences
of earth are present with us. We are aware of the One of whom it was said that
He had been given all power in heaven and earth. We are called to represent Him
and to handle that power in the earth. It comes to us, through the heavenly
essences as we stand in place, and in radiance it extends forth through the
earthly essences of our own beings into the earthly creative field for which we
are responsible both individually and together.
There is the radiant outpouring of
spirit through the heavenly substance—the heavenly essences and the earthly
essences—and we know this as one aspect of the fulfilment of the Law in the
creative cycle. We have spoken of radiation and response. Perhaps there has
been a view that the radiation is of the spirit of God and that response comes
from somewhere else, but these are two aspects of the spirit of God. Perhaps in
other terms they might be spoken of as positive and negative—male and female.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God, male and female; therefore
the male and female are in God. These two aspects of spirit, the radiant aspect
and the responsive aspect, are both in God.
We need have no sense of
separation then between radiation and response. They are the two aspects of the
spirit of God. Radiation outpours and response rises up. Man is placed at the
point of union through which these two aspects work. These two aspects work
within the experience of each individual, whether male or female. These two
aspects work through all of us collectively. They work in rather a specific way
between male and female in the individual sense. There are many levels at which
these two aspects of spirit operate when man is in place at the point of union.
It may be seen that we all have dual responsibilities—a radiant aspect of
responsibility and a response aspect of responsibility. There is one spirit—it
might be said to flow. It pours out and rises up in return, but these are not
two separate operations. They work concurrently,
not sequentially. In fact you cannot have one aspect of the operation without
the other.
We have seen these things before
in the sense of divine radiation and human response. This is the way it has
appeared to be, but it isn't the way it actually is. Both the radiation and the
response may be said to be divine. They are two aspects of one spirit. As we
ourselves come into position at the point of union between heaven and earth
these two aspects of spirit are creatively active through the essences which
are present. We share responsibility for an outpouring. We also share
responsibility for an incoming—here is the spirit of God in the responsive
aspect rising up through the available earthly essences to be brought to us as
we stand in the crossover point, or the point of union. Of course what rises up
in this way doesn't stop with us but moves on through in the ascending cycle.
Because there is a pressure of
outpouring there is a compulsion of resurrection. The essences rise up by reason
of the action of spirit. There is a compulsion in the world in this regard. It
is of particular significance now because of the increasingly focalized nature
of the outpouring, so that the spirit rises up through the essences, the
earthly essences, bringing them along with it. We may have some awareness of
the working of this compulsion in the world simply on the basis of observation.
We see many people in many places somehow being compelled to do what they do,
and part of the doing of what they do relates to the proliferation of what
humanly are thought of as spiritual activities. There are what might be defined
as cults on every hand and there is
something moving through the people concerned in a process of rising up. It's
interpreted by the human mind in a variety of sometimes rather peculiar ways,
but nevertheless it's the same compulsion. As long as the human mind is present
in its self-willed state the interpretations will be of many sorts. We need to
see beyond the interpretations that are being made to what is happening—people
are being compelled.
Sometimes that compulsion may be
seen as a rising up; sometimes it may be seen as a going down. There are people
in the world who are being compelled into increasingly destructive ways. This
is all consequent upon the same movement of the spirit through the earthly
essences. We've used the analogy of soap on a previous occasion: when you grasp
a bar of soap and squeeze it, it'll pop up or it'll pop down. There is a
squeezing going on. We ourselves share some responsibility for this squeezing,
and we also experience some of the squeezing. If earthly essences within the
scope of our experience have been clarified in adequate measure, so that we
have an actual experience of spiritual expression rather than merely ideas
about it, then we find ourselves being squeezed up. If, on the other hand, we
merely know about it and have an inadequate experience, we are likely to find ourselves
being squeezed down. Our experience is fundamentally no different to the
experience of everybody else on the face of the earth.
We, however, have had a great
blessing, bringing us a certain understanding of what is occurring and
therefore making it easy for us to make the right choice to accept into our
living the greater experience of the outpouring of the spirit—that, in
the returning cycle, will bring the lifting up. If we don't share in the living
experience of the reality of spiritual expression—the outpouring in other words—we
cannot share in the returning cycle of lifting up—the two go together. And when
I use the words returning cycle, let's not look at it as being sequential
either. It's happening at the same time.
Those who have experience are
those who have oil in their lamps, so to speak. Those who do not as yet have
adequate experience have little or no oil in their lamps, and according to the
parable they had to go out and trade for some oil; in other words they had to go
out and gain the experience. In that particular story, by the time they had
gained the experience it was too late: the door was shut. So perhaps there is
something here we could take to heart! But in any case we are presumably
concerned with having oil in our lamps, so that we may be restored to the place
where we belong, the place of union—to enter in with the bridegroom, as it was
put. So we may see this operation occurring in the world and we are quite
willing that it should happen, if we are in place.
Our interest, primarily, is with
respect to the essences that are being lifted up by the spirit, consequently
bringing people home. Now we begin to see that it isn't really the brilliance
of the human mind or any effort that human beings may make that brings them
home. It is the substance coming home, the essences coming home, by reason of
the movement of the spirit in the creative cycle. The spirit of God is
associated with these essences, and if they are clarified sufficiently they
come along with the spirit of God—and the person in whom these essences have
been so clarified comes along too. So much for all our human efforts! But we
have responsibility, if we are in place, relative to the movement of this
creative cycle; and we see it as relating to what is happening in the larger
sphere around us, what is ultimately happening in the whole body of mankind. There
are essences rising up and people tagging along, so to speak. Those who have
some awareness and experience in true spiritual expression have a certain
sensing of these things, even if they haven't been defined yet in
consciousness.
With respect to the collective
point of union between heaven and earth for which we are responsible, we are
aware that there is a design present within the range of our own experience. We
are aware of the principle of
focalization. For many this is all that it has been, an awareness of the
principle, because there's been so much reluctance to accept the experience of
it. Too much time was being given to rebelling against the idea of it. There
has at least been some recognition of the focus point which I provide in a
personal sense, in an individual sense, relative to the collective focus point
for which we are all responsible. Now here ideas occur to the human mind with
respect to what is thought of mentally as a hierarchy. This is a mental concept. It is not the fact of the
matter; it is not the truth. The concept of hierarchy in the human mind is false,
even though it looks as though it's true to the human mind. But the human mind
looking at it has not had the experience of the reality; otherwise it wouldn't
be looking at it, it would be experiencing it.
There have been some rather
well-developed concepts of the human mind, relative to the
idea of a hierarchy in this ministry. I noticed a comment where someone said something about an order being handed down
from exalted levels in this ministry. That may be the way it is interpreted by
some human minds, but the fact of the matter is, it never happens. It never happens! because we are
concerned with an outpouring, not with concepts of the mind which are based in
human terms.
If there is something coming forth
through a point of focalization it is also coming forth through everybody else,
so that it is not being handed down from above in that sense. It may be seen
possibly as being handed down in the sense of coming down from God out of
heaven, but it's coming down through everybody at the same time. And if we just
cotton on to some interpretation we make of something that is coming through
someone who is supposed to be high in the hierarchy and follow out that, we
have absolutely no idea of what's really happening—we've invented something—because
what is happening is emerging through everybody at the same time. It emerges in
particular ways according to the particular field of responsibility of the
individual, that's all, but it's the same thing coming forth.
As long as there is a view of some
sort of a hierarchy then the concept of trying to do what someone else says you
should do prevails, and nothing can get out. One is always either laying this
on other people or insisting that it is being laid upon oneself. Well as long
as anyone has that sort of attitude nothing is happening. There is that which
comes forth through each individual in the design according to the particular
responsibility which that individual holds, and it will be different for each
one—but it will all be an emergence, an outpouring, of the same spirit. In that
sense there is no hierarchy. There are simply different positions in which
people are functioning to give expression to the same spirit which is working
through everybody. And we have something whole and cohesive, the experience of
oneness, of union, in this fashion. Even the human mind learns to enjoy that,
not trying to figure it out anymore. It's just providing a facility for the
expression of it. And that right spiritual expression occurs in coordination
with everybody else, and who could figure that one out mentally speaking? It's
impossible—why try? Just let it happen spiritually speaking. It won't happen on
the basis of mental effort. Mental effort is the thing that blocks it.
So there is within this collective
focus of union between heaven and earth a certain design; and that design
necessarily has ultimately one point
of focus, just as the design between the undimensional realms and the
dimensional realms has ultimately one point of focus. This is not to say that
there is not a collective design at that level—there is. The LORD of Lords is
the ultimate point of focus, but there are the Lords. And all carry
responsibility, and the spirit is given expression through all according to
those responsibilities. So also is it where we are, as a reflection of all that
at this level, the point of union between heaven and earth. If at this present
time I provide that point of focus, then there comes a sense of closeness,
relatedness, oneness even, with me to the extent that there is the actual experience
of spiritual expression. There will be those who more particularly begin to
sense this closeness. Why? Well let's not try to find out. All we know is that
these earthly essences are moving and individuals are moving with those earthly
essences, rising up, and consequently breaking out, so to speak, into a
conscious experience of being included in this state of oneness. As that
happens, as there is this rising up, it always comes to a point somewhere
through someone who provides the specific connection—in this instance with me.
I am just indicating the nature of
the design, because there is a great variety to the nature of the spiritual
essences that are rising up—it's not all just one thing. There is what is
rising up, for instance, through the ladies; there is what is rising up through
the men. There's a distinction there. And within the scope of the ladies and
within the scope of the men there are other areas where the quality of essence
varies, and there is a rising up in all those areas and a representation of
them. This permits the reality of a design to emerge. It emerges on the basis
of what is actually happening, not on the basis of someone's bright idea about
it, a mental concept of what the hierarchy is. It isn't a hierarchy. It's simply the natural experience by reason
of the creative working of the spirit of God outpouring and rising up.
Having some awareness of the way
it works, it can be seen as being simplicity itself. It happens so very easily
when there are those who are willing to let it happen—not to make it happen but
to let it happen, the way it will, without judging it, without trying to make
it conform to some particularly fancy concept that you may have. Let it alone. Let
it be what it is and it will work perfectly; and in that perfect working we
understand the working, because the spirit of God is moving through our mental
apparatus, for one thing. And believe it or not, we become intelligent! There is a very great deal to this matter of
essences but we do not mentally need to try to figure it out. We find out
what that great deal is through our own individual and collective experience. It's
the only way it can be known anyhow. We can't abstract it with our minds.
This evening we have participated
to some extent in the movement of the spirit through the heavenly and earthly
essences. That movement is there—not just for this hour but always. We may
discover through personal experience these two aspects, outpouring and incoming,
of the creative cycle established by spirit. Our concern with others is to
provide what is necessary to them for the incoming, so that they may rise up
with the movement of spirit, because if they do that relative to the response
aspect of the spirit it is inseparably unified with the outpouring, the radiant
aspect of the spirit, so they're both experienced. Our concern is to open the
door and keep the door open for people to come home. To do that we must be in
the place of authority in this regard; and true authority is very gentle, firm
sometimes but gentle nevertheless, and always understanding. Human beings are
not inclined to be this way when they exercise authority. Authority is usually
imposed, isn't it in the human sense: “You do what I say or else!” That's not
the sort of authority with which we are concerned, even from the standpoint of
our earthly responsibilities.
It seems as though Emissaries
sometimes think of spiritual responsibility as being over here but the earthly
responsibilities are over there, and you have to use earthly methods to ensure that
things get done properly. Using earthly methods, there is immense waste. That
immense waste is plaguing mankind now in the form of what is called pollution.
All it is is waste. I wonder how much waste there is in your experience. These
are forms, aren't they? But you can look at forms because they reflect what is
true of essences. You can find out a lot concerning the essences of your own
living by observing the forms of waste, and there are forms of waste in all
sorts of areas. Isn't the characteristic of the Western industrial world simply
waste? How much waste there is with respect to the handling of tools, for
instance, whether in construction work or in the kitchen or anywhere else. How
sacred are these things seen to be because they are a reflection of essences?
If the essences are being kept
sacred in you then that will be reflected in the fact that you are keeping
sacred the forms. All these forms are to you vessels in the temple. They are
sacred. You can't handle anything in a slipshod manner therefore. Immense care
needs to be taken, with great delicacy. Human beings are forms also, you know. So
it's not a matter just of so-called inanimate forms but of the living forms too—human
beings, animals, what have you. But think of human beings particularly. How is
your handling of them? We all have to handle human beings. No one's exempt from
that. How do you do it? With delicacy and understanding? Or do you barge in
like a bull in a china shop, wreaking havoc in every direction? Or is your
concern to find those essences which are rising up and to encourage them to
rise up?
We're not interested in putting
anything down—people put themselves down fast enough—but in letting something rise
up. Human beings are forms; therefore they are sacred to us. Perhaps a lot of
the very coarse essences that are present in human beings are not particularly
sacred to us—they can go to hell! But there is that which is rising up. Can we
discern that? Can we handle that in the right way? Can we handle that
delicately and do it in every sphere of our living, do it when we are on the
job, as it's called? We need to be on the job anyway, regardless of where we
are. Is the business world, for instance, a different world insofar as the
businessmen here are concerned? It's the same world! Is your behavior different
there than it is in Chapel?
Let us be intelligent. Let us
allow the quality of the essences of heaven to permeate the essences of our
earth, first of all our own expression, so that we may see how we may rightly
handle everything that is in our vicinity; and remember, always, that the forms
reflect what is true of essences. If you are concerned with the delicate
handling of all which comes within the range of your responsibility, you are
concerned with essences. If you are concerned with essences and the earthly
essences begin to reveal the heavenly essences, then the forms will follow
suit. And you may put a finishing touch to the form here or there, but it all
works so easily. We are here to let it work collectively because we stand where
we belong, and we never go out. We are pillars in the temple, never going forth
anymore. To the extent that this is the fact the restoration is sure. Let us be
willing to let it be the fact.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
We Are Vitally
Concerned With Essences
The Essences of God
Martin Cecil November 4, 1979
Recently we have used the word essence to describe the reality of God
within the range of human experience. The reality of God is also beyond the
range of human experience. We have spoken of undimensional God, which is a way
of describing an ultimate reality. It is only as this ultimate reality comes
into the range of experience as essence
that we may begin to have a knowing of it. We are, then, vitally concerned with
essences.
Human nature has been concerned
with forms. There has been a certain recognition of the fact of essences
relative to those forms, but the form has been prominent in consciousness—primary
in consciousness. If there was any recognition that essences carried importance
it was presumed that those essences could be found by examining the form and
seeking to trace essences back of it. As we are well aware, this is the usual
reverse attitude which human beings assume: they stay at the bottom and
occasionally look up. They stay at the bottom because the primary interest and
concern is with forms.
Should a consideration of
spiritual things begin to assert itself in consciousness then the idea
initially is to try to seek out the essence back of the form. This is sometimes
done in the personal sense by an attempt to turn within one's own form in order
to find whatever is there, in order to make contact with the reality, the
spiritual reality. In other words here is an approach which is seeking to find
the essence back of the form but proceeding from the level of the form. However
the fact of the matter is that essences always precede form, so if we make the reverse approach we are always too
late and we never discover anything of any particular value, other than that it
may be useless to seek the essences back of the form. Apparently rather few
even arrive at that point; they earnestly spend their lives seeking essences
back of the forms, but the form is always the prominent thing, the important thing.
They just want to know a little bit more about the form, and therefore it seems
necessary to discover what the essence is back of it. But the form is the most
peripheral aspect of whatever this creative process is, which doesn't proceed
from forms—it isn't an evolutionary process in that sense; it proceeds from
essences.
It has seemed very difficult for
the human mind to grasp—impossible in fact—how the intricate mechanisms of the
human body work. Only forms are being examined and it consequently appears that
to understand one must have an immense store of knowledge about every aspect of
every detail of everything that is occurring. This would require, I think, in
these days at least, a considerable computer, and even then it could never be
done. Of course if you are making a physical approach to the situation it seems
as though there must be somebody present, perhaps designated as the
subconscious mind, who has all this tremendous knowledge about the chemistry of
the body. This is a very mysterious thing if one is making a physical approach
but a very simple thing if one is concerned with essences. If the essences are
permitted to provide what is necessary at that level then the physical
requirements automatically follow suit, and nobody has to go to an institute of
higher learning to discover all that is involved.
We see this happening relative to
the humble spider who spins his web and does it most accurately on the basis of
know-how; not because the spider has attained an engineering degree but because
what is happening is happening on the basis of essences. Simple! What heavy
weather human beings make of everything by attempting to manipulate forms, when
the right handling of essences permits the form to reveal what has been
established in the essence.
Whatever needs to be done relative
to this body of mankind is certainly not going to be done because there are
those who gain the necessary knowledge in order to program super computers
which will then explain what should be done. As I have emphasized before, the
attempt to solve problems making an external approach multiplies problems—if
you solve one problem then you find you have ten more, and there is an
exponential curve beginning to develop here.
I am sure we are all aware,
theoretically at least, that the physical approach, what has sometimes been
termed the approach of the First Sacred School, is not the one that will now achieve what is necessary. It
wouldn't really have achieved what was necessary at the time of the Israelites,
but it would have then offered a useful starting point which was acceptable and
capable of being understood at the level where people were then. Then, step by
step, changes could have been wrought so that a larger vision might have been
known, leading into the point where essences would come into the picture
insofar as human consciousness was concerned. Of course essences have always
been in the picture, whether anyone knew about them or not.
We have noted how the initial
steps toward this true spiritual experience were lost, rejected, so that there
was only one approach left. This required a
direct participation in the reality of essences. The rigmarole of trying to
discover what the essences are, back of forms, was never the way to go, even in
the First Sacred School or the Second Sacred School, but the approach which was
offered there made possible—if it had been allowed to work, which it wasn't—a
conditioning of human consciousness so that the experience of the handling of
essences might have easily come on a widespread scale. Because those
opportunities were lost, then it became obvious that the approach would
necessarily have to be made in this field of essences on a very small scale, because there would be very few human beings
whose consciousness was adequately conditioned to make this approach. Yet for
anything of value to occur there must be the right handling of essences at the
level where human beings are, even though it be but by a few. So we find
ourselves at this point, with this matter of essences being emphasized to us.
I am sure we can see that the use
of the word essence relates to the
use of the word Word. It relates
also to Spirit, but spirit is
incomprehensible to human beings in the human state until there is the
essential vibratory substance with which it may combine so that it comes within
the range of human awareness. I am not speaking necessarily at the moment of
the range of the human mind. The human mind has some definite restrictions.
There is something beyond this, obviously. We would say that God is beyond the
human mind. The human mind is a very little thing relative to the vast field of
essences. Some of those essences are at the level of the human mind, but there
is far more of essences beyond the human mind than is capable of being encompassed
by the human mind. The human mind is a capacity within which certain
vibrational levels of essence may be included, but there is much more which
cannot be included there, at least not directly.
The essences may be seen as a
combination of spirit and vibrational substance—vibrational substance from the
very finest levels to the very coarsest. The true essences are a revelation of
the spirit of God in action. In order for that action to occur dimensionally
speaking the spirit of God must be in combination with dimensional substance.
The spirit of God cannot be in combination directly with physical substance.
The flesh of the human body is not merely physical substance. We have
recognized, again theoretically I suppose, that mental substance is not separate
from physical substance. All the levels of vibrational substance are not
separate from each other. They interpenetrate each other from the top down, so
to speak. At the physical level there is an interpenetration of all the
vibrational levels of spiritual substance in this dimensional universe. We have
recognized the fact of a veil, which
excludes experience of the higher levels in the present human state. This does
not deny, however, that all the vibrational factors are present; it is just
that, because of the veil, human function ignores what is available for the
expression of the spirit in living, in other words ignores essences, or only
approaches essences from the standpoint of form.
As we have already noted, essences
always precede form. Seeing this, again we may reemphasize the simplicity of
the true creative process. The lower vibrational levels of substance are moved
by the higher vibrational levels of substance; therefore if function is from
the standpoint of the highest level of vibrational substance everything is
under control. Here is the reality of the dominion
which man was created to exercise in the name of the Lord on earth, and it
involved no sweat of the brow, just the handling of essences. On this basis,
when it was the correct handling of essences, all the other levels fell into
their natural order according to what had been established for them. Where
human beings now exist there has been a separation from the movement of spirit
in the finest levels of essences and a substitute on the part of the human mind
of an ersatz heaven which was supposed to produce a satisfactory state in form,
but it hasn't. Obviously it could not.
So we come again to essences. There begins to be a
clarification of the veil, of the impure heart, to a sufficient extent so that
there may not only be a recognition of the fact of essences—most anyone can
have that recognition if they really look at it—but an experience of the essences. A recognition of the fact doesn't
accomplish much—there must be the experience of it. So presumably our concern
has been to let a purification come in the heart so that the veil might be
dissolved sufficiently to bring a sensing of the reality of the essences. Now
we have some sensing in this regard. The essences are the quality of God.
By the way, I wonder how many felt
it wise to look up the word essence
in the dictionary. While the dictionary may be useful in providing a definition
of sorts which sometimes is more or less accurate, when applied to the reality
which we are considering, it of course only offers a concept. This is the
approach toward essences from the level of form. Making this approach, in my
dictionary the definition was as follows:
1:
that which makes something what it is; that in which the real nature of a thing
consists; intrinsic or fundamental nature. 2:
the distinctive quality or qualities of something.
It went on, but I think that's
enough.
Making the approach from the
physical standpoint, which is what the mind does, there is the production of
definitions along this line. We can see how the definitions apply. We could
take something and see if we could discover what the essences are. We won't get
very far, but we may be able to discern the fact that there are some essences
at the mental level. We could take a tree, for instance. When we use the word tree we think of a form, don't we? It
may be some particular tree. Which one shall we choose? Redwood perhaps—that's
a very impressive tree. Ah, there's an essence: impressive. It's majestic;
we might even call it exalted; and it
is enduring, at least from the
standpoint of human lifetimes. So immediately there are some essences which
relate to this form. We could take some other tree and see some different
essences.
We could take the human form and
recognize that there are some essences present there of which we have an
awareness, somewhat, with respect to ourselves, but more with respect to other
people—the character, the quality, the nature, which is made evident by the
form. That can be deceiving, can't it? It's not quite so deceiving in trees.
They don't dissemble, whereas human beings do. We might have a con man for instance. Here is the
appearance of something, of an essence, which certainly isn't the true essence.
The actual essence of that con man is his con
nature, but he covers that up as far as possible in order to sell the bill of
goods. So judge not by the appearance—first of all not by the form, but not by
the surface essences either.
How deep do you think you can
penetrate into the essences of someone else? Generally speaking human beings
don't go very deep. They are not capable of going very deep. Why not? Because
they cannot penetrate further than the level of those essences at which they
themselves function. Because of this there is usually a tendency to accuse
others of what is in oneself. Most people are not aware of this.
So there are various levels of
essences even within the scope of the human experience, and this is a very, very
small part, a distorted part, a limited part, of the total range of essences.
If we see it in terms of a seven-plane, or seven-dimensional, state, then this
would relate to the first two dimensions only, and, as we recognize, the higher
intensity vibrational substance permeates the lower and always goes beyond it.
So it is getting bigger and bigger as we go up, more and more range, more and
more scope—a vastly greater field of essences. So let us not think of essences
as squeezings! The orange juice you
drink in the morning is not really the essence of the orange. Essences are
infinitely vaster than forms.
The idea has tended to be that
essences are small, narrowing down finally to nothing; but the smallest level
of substance is the level of what we call physical substance. We can see this
to be the fact if we look at the universe; there's scarcely any physical
substance in it at all, really. We may have a star-filled sky, and see more
stars through a telescope, but relative to the amount of space there is it's
nothing—just a gossamer. The same thing is true for each one of us sitting
here: the form is the smallest part of us, and yet what a big thing human
beings try to make out of it.
Essences are the concern, and we
cannot have any real comprehension or awareness of the true essences as long as
the veil separates our consciousness from them. It isn't that we are going to
take our consciousness up to some other level. Our consciousness the way it is
doesn't belong at some other level; it belongs right where it is and it can't
really get out of that. But it is possible to let the levels which are already
present come within the range of our awareness, and this happens to the extent
that the veil is dissolved, or the heart purified. As it happens we become
aware of something vast.
At the beginning of the service I
emphasized the vastness, the majesty, the glory of God. It would be quite
impossible for these puny little human creatures here to add anything to that.
It is what it is already. However what it is can be allowed to appear in
whatever the fitting way would be at the level where human beings are. The
fitting way wouldn't be an intense blaze of glory, like a nuclear explosion,
because that would dispose of human beings, wouldn't it? The fitting way is
what is creative at the level where it appears. The fitting way is not a destructive
way. It enhances whatever is present at the level where it appears.
The intensity of the creative
expression of the finest level of essences must be stepped down, so to speak,
from level to level so that it may appear creatively at whatever level it
should appear; and for the moment the least blaze of glory would likely be the
physical level. There is quite a blaze of glory that we observe day by day
going across the sky—or apparently going across the sky—but I don't suppose
anyone is at the moment too much interested in emigrating to the sun. So there
is something which is fitting here at the present time. Let us not imagine that
what is known now on the face of the earth is supposed to be this way forever.
We hope not anyway! But even the sorts of experiences that are known are
certainly not what really should be known when the essences are allowed to be
present within the range of human expression so that the dominion of God is
established on earth. Then, I suspect, things would really move. Something
would happen. We wouldn't be lolling around on the beach. The world would
change in the creative sense.
The first order of business,
however, is to find a few human beings who will allow these essences to emerge
into expression in their own living; and what emerges will be at a level that
is suitable for the occasion, for the state of affairs that is present.
Something is emerging here and now in this state of affairs. It is fitting for
this state of affairs. It wouldn't be fitting in some other state of affairs.
You can recognize that easily enough. We won't go to the beer parlor at Exeter
Arms and give a service—it wouldn't be fitting. Conceivably there is something
that would be fitting there. You might have to use your imagination! But if for
some reason you happened to be in that circumstance, then you would bring into
that circumstance what was fitting for that circumstance, and that is true
regardless of where one may be.
But there is the necessity of the
establishment of a sacred place, as
we have noted before, in which the finer essences are safe. We gather on a
Sunday morning, for instance now, to allow the borders of this sacred place to
be expanded, allow the dust and the cobwebs and the garbage that may be present
to be swept out so that it is a holy place, a fitting receptacle for the finer
essences to fill, which they will do. In fact they are doing it anyway, but not
within the range of our awareness until there is a sacred place in our
awareness; then there it is. It doesn't have to come from anywhere—there it is—it
was there already. As this is so, and that sacred place is maintained in our
living no matter where we are or what we are doing, then there is always
something being offered fittingly into the environment, into the world around
us, out of this sacred place of fine essence: the expression of God, which never appears as a destructive blaze of
glory. It appears as a blaze of glory at a level where it is creative. It doesn't
appear as a blaze of glory at a level where it would be destructive.
So we live out of this sacred
place, aware of what is fitting to find expression by reason of our living in
any particular circumstance. But we cannot know what is fitting, we certainly
cannot provide what is fitting, unless there is a holy place, and when there is
we will be living out of it. If we are not living out of it, it isn't there. So
if there is a holy place, a sacred place, we will live out of it. We will be in
it but our expression will emerge out of it into the circumstance of the moment
in whatever way may be fitting. And being aware increasingly of the reality of
essences, we see that there is much more to our expression than the thing we do
in the moment physically speaking, or even the word that we speak in the
moment, or even the thought that we think—because, after all, the thought that
we think is at the level of the mind, isn't it, and there is something vastly
greater than that. But there comes an awareness, as there is a sacred place and
the fine essences are consequently present in our experience, that we are
living at levels which we had not heretofore dreamt even existed.
If this is seen you can recognize,
obviously, that you cannot talk to people and explain all this. If there is any
understanding in you it is merely there because, in whatever measure, the veil
has been dissolving so that something of the reality can emerge into your own
consciousness. Then there it is. It's there not because I put it there somehow
by projecting something into you but because you became aware of what was
already present there. And this is the way it works, which reemphasizes the
fact that nobody is going to get anything from a leader—so why try? Why try to
get something? Or why try to project someone into an exalted position, as
though he was going to provide something that you could get?
What is necessary is what you are
going to provide, what we are all going to provide. Then the essences are
present. The essences are not divided up into chunks. The essences are whole.
Those whole essences certainly differentiate into expression through this
person and that person; but they do not thereby separate themselves from the
state of wholeness out of which they sprang, and we all share that state of
wholeness. This is the state that is present in the finest level of essences,
and as that emerges into our expression because the veil dissolves, then we
live in a way which is different obviously, different from the way most human
beings live, the way we ourselves have lived. We find something new, and
because of this expression of essences all things are in the process of being
made new, to the revelation of the glory of God in the manner that is fitting
at the level of those who are present in the environment where the expression
appears. Let us let this glory be revealed in our living.
© emissaries of divine light
