Connection—Action

Generation  of  the  Substance  of  Connection

Generation  of  the  Substance  of  Action

Martin Cecil   April 19, 1979  Sunrise Ranch — Assembly

Music is certainly a very useful tool when it is in the hands of the Lord. It is in the hands of the Lord by reason of His Angels. Through music an atmosphere may be created, a setting, and also through music there may be the generation of substance. Of course the substance is generated not by the music itself—as though you could tootle away on a flute and we could all see the substance rising up—but because of the participation in the music by the Angels of the Lord. It requires human beings for the generation of substance. It is good to be able to provide a setting, an atmosphere—but the atmosphere is really substance. You all are responsible for bringing a good quota of substance along with you and offering it into the whole so that it is available for use in developing whatever needs to develop from the standpoint of spirit. It is, after all, the medium by which spirit may find expression and take its fitting forms in the unfolding creative cycle.

This emphasizes the point that there is substance which has particular associations. Let us not think of substance just as sort of an undifferentiated fog. It's very specific, it's very detailed. We know that physical substance, when it comes into a living form, is extremely specific and exact in its nature all the way up from the cell to the organs to the systems to the body as a whole—very, very intricate. If this is so physically speaking, we may see that it is equally so at each of the other levels of substance. There is particularization. We see the purposes for this in the physical body. It's needful—we couldn't live without it. We may not see the nature of the designs contained within the other levels of substance as clearly as we do that of the physical body, but we know that the physical body is not unrelated to all the other levels of substance.

There is in fact just one substance—the Substance of Love—at different vibratory levels. And there is a smooth transition from one vibratory level to another. It's not jerky; there are not lines of demarcation. If there is intricacy in the physical body, there is intricacy in all the other levels also, which is not disassociated from the intricacies that are observable in the physical body. We may have seen this more particularly from the standpoint, for instance, of the endocrine system. This obviously has a direct relationship to all the levels of substance—all the spheres of substance that are present. There are seven seals and there are seven spheres. So there is a direct relatedness here, observable physically speaking, which is also present vibrationally speaking at the other levels in the various spheres. Heaven and earth are one.

We don't need to imagine that what is present in any particular sphere is isolated from what is present in another sphere—a peculiar formation physically speaking and a peculiar formation mentally speaking—as though the mental formation wasn't directly related to the peculiar physical formation. We realize this from the standpoint of the brain. Lots of people confuse the brain with the mind. The brain is associated with the mind but it isn't the mind. The brain is a physical sphere of things, but there is a mental sphere of things which is associated with the brain. And one could move from one sphere to another and see that there are formations in every level, which relate to formations in other levels. It's not a separate thing.

It is usual to think of a spiritual Being as having some sort of appearance like a physical being. If one were to see a vision of an angel in the usual human‑nature view of things it would look like a person, wouldn't it? Maybe a little different substance but the same sort of general appearance. Of course wings have been added—but we have shoulder blades, I suppose. The point is that it is a similar form but the nature of the substance is different. And because the substance is different it is different functionally. Because our bodies are made of physical substance there are certain restrictions relative to physical function. If we were to say the mental counterpart of the physical body was of a similar formation, form, but different substance, the same restrictions that are applicable to physical substance would not necessarily be applicable to mental substance. Obviously we can move much more freely in mental substance than we can physically speaking. We find no difficulty at all in being mentally in Europe or South Africa or Australia, whereas physically speaking we are at the moment rather tied down.

We find that there is a greater resiliency, or diminishing restrictions, as there is movement upward from one sphere to the next, until in the substance of love there is in fact no restriction. We see this as being universal. Now the mind trying to grasp all these things can't. But we can have a sensing of something here spiritually speaking—a spiritual discernment of something relative to our own formation and relative to the formation of an Assembly such as this, or relative to the formation of what we call the ministry, or relative to the formation of mankind, whatever formation we might consider. There is an awareness of this cohesiveness nature of wheels within wheels—spheres within spheres.

Considering this substance in a little different way, there is the generation of substance that is internal and the generation of substance that is external. There is the generation of substance which connects upward and there is the generation which connects downward. This could be illustrated this way (drawing on board): Here we are at the center point. There is the generation of substance which connects upwards—that is the internal substance, or substance relative to what is vibrational higher. There is also this substance necessary relative to what is vibrationally lower. Our positioning is as the connecting link between the two. There is the generation of substance upwards and downwards.

Now this relates to what might be referred to as positive and negative factors, or male and female factors. We have noted already that relative to the individual there are male and female factors with respect to each person. The man presumably is dominantly male and the woman is dominantly female. In the mixed‑up state in the world it doesn't always seem to work out this way, but we can see the design anyway. These two aspects have a specific relatedness to the nature of the substance that is being generated—whether it is being generated upward or downward. If we view this from the standpoint of the individual there is a recognition that regardless of whether the person is male or female, there is both the generation upward and the generation downward, because the two factors are present.

Insofar as the female is concerned, the generation upward is primary. Insofar as the male is concerned, the generation downward is primary, because the creative expression of spirit in the realm of right spiritual achievement is with respect to what is going to be acted upon. I suppose you could call this substance the substance of action (referring to board), and this substance the substance of connection. As individuals we each have both types of substance. The substance of connection is essential to the substance of action. We say that there must be response if there is to be any effect from the standpoint of radiation. There can be, and has been, radiation regardless of response, but it has no meaning until there is response.

Now these areas of substance require that they be filled with what should be there, if we are to be in position to do what we are here to do as angels. While some of these things are known to the human mind in a rather limited way, we begin to open up an area here which is beyond the confines of human mentality. Here is an area of actual living, of course—of actual experience. It is not a matter of theorizing about something, nor is it a field where there can possibly be, or rightly be, any manipulation. Our concern is that there should be generation upward of the required substance of connection individually speaking, so that we are connected up to what is higher, and then there can be generation downward of what is necessary for our creative action. Those two triangles, the one above and the one below, contain the substance of connection and the substance of action. Now this generation is of substance which, from the male standpoint, is primarily for right use, and from the female standpoint, for right connection.

These two aspects are in the individual. There has to be some awareness of the operation of these two aspects individually before there could possibly be an understanding of how they might operate on the basis, for instance, of the male‑female relationship. If one has no experience of how it works within oneself there will be a blank in one's approach to how it might work with respect to one's relationship to somebody else. And this of course has been the state of affairs. There has virtually been a blank insofar as male‑female relationships are concerned, because the individuals have never discovered how these things work in their own experience as individuals. When you have that experience under your belt, then there is some basis for expanding the experience. But if one has no individual experience there is no basis for expanding it.

There has been the tendency to shy away from individual experience, in order to participate in collective experience, at least from the standpoint of the male‑female picture. And of course there has been this—as we have noted before—there has been this urge in human beings to congregate in geographical places so that we have enormous cities. But nobody knows why, really. One can have more and better facilities for human enjoyment perhaps, but also for human misery—they go together, don't they?

So it is a matter of approaching the situation individually speaking. And we need to see this from the standpoint of the fact that there is the male and female present individually speaking. And there may be a recognition, from the standpoint of the dominant aspect, as to how there may be right use made of the situation, so that one may gain the experience individually of what may subsequently be expanded to include someone else or others. As we approach these things from this standpoint we can set aside for the moment our emotional involvement with various distorted experiences that may have been known heretofore. One of the greatest difficulties, seemingly, is to be able to approach something without bringing along a whole host of factors which would make it impossible to understand what it was one was approaching. Only as one can leave behind and come with a clear slate, can one really see what is there. Otherwise it will all be interpreted according to these things which are nagging little devils on one shoulder, so to speak, saying, “Oh, it's this way, it's that way,” when it isn't at all.

Now you are well aware of the fact of the One Law—positive radiation, negative response. The operation of this Law requires what we have spoken of as focalization. Radiation must come to point, and response must come to point. Now we have a situation here in this particular Assembly in this particular moment—let's bring it to cases—of a responsibility for a point of radiation in me. Your response needs to come to point at that same point—then something can begin to happen because we are aligning ourselves with the working of the Law. In the human sense, human beings tend to ignore the Law and try to make things work the way they want them to work, and of course confusion and destructiveness results.

There must be a willingness to experience obedience—something to do with the First Sacred School, isn't it?—in order to align oneself with the working of the Law. Being aligned with the working of the Law, then there is the experience of what is summarized by the word agreement. One doesn't feel that one is under some sort of imposition anymore. One agrees with the matter—this is the way it works. We know that this is the way it works. On occasion human nature may act up and want to opt out somehow, but fundamentally, angelically speaking certainly, we know that this is the way it works. And there must be the proper design of things to let it work.

In this situation I would represent the male aspect which is concerned with creative action. If I represent the male aspect then you—whether you are male or female—must represent the female aspect. We begin to find something differentiating here which enables us to understand how we participate in the creative process of generation as individuals, because obviously, while in the overall picture you, whether male or female, are part of the female pattern in this configuration, there is a distinct difference between the male and the female who are in that pattern, because insofar as the male is concerned there is the dominant male aspect and insofar as the female is concerned there is a dominant female aspect. Therefore there is a distinction here in the pattern of function.

We are to experience a oneness. I suppose you could say that insofar as the male aspect is concerned, here seems to be something which relates to what human beings have spoken of as homosexuality, because the men relate to me and the women relate to me in this configuration, but the way it is done is different. We may see this in this configuration, which provides an illustration of something, but we may also see it now because we brought it down to individual cases within this configuration—some of you are men and some of you are women. Therefore we have a picture here which we need to understand. The fact is, rightly, that the men are associated with the control and the authority which comes to focus in me. In other words, they are associated with the action aspect in their relationship with me. This is so individually, whether in this particular configuration or anywhere within the range of those who are participating in our program, the development of this body. Each man has a relatedness to me. This I have emphasized by illustrating it in the primary triangle. We provide the two points of the base, with the apex above. And this is done in order to participate in creative action.

Now from the female standpoint, the same figure might be used to illustrate the primary triangle. But the relatedness to me is to participate in the generation of substance upward, the substance of connection. Obviously there has to be the substance of connection somehow insofar as the relationship between us as men is concerned, but then we have the female aspect, you remember; it also is present. So there is generation upward as well as downward. But primarily the dominant aspect insofar as the relationship between men is concerned is that of action. It is the generation of the substance of action. Insofar as the female is concerned it is the generation of the substance of connection. Now here is the difference. Vive la difference! because both substances are necessary.

Now we can begin to bring this down more specifically to point in relationship to the matter of sex as it relates to the physical experience, remembering that what happens in the physical experience not only happens in the physical experience—that is one small sphere: one sixth, using just an arbitrary proportion, one sixth of the whole experience. The whole experience relates to the whole of the endocrine system and not just to the first seal. But it is out of what happens physically speaking that there is the generation of the substance that is required at all the other levels. Therefore there needs to be a balanced awareness and a clarity in the vibrational sense—a purity of heart—if there is to be participation in the essential generation that is to occur. When the generation does occur let us not imagine that it is simply locked into, then, its relationship to the first seal. It isn't. It rises up, relative to all the other seals, so that we don't hold it down at that level, so the whole attention is at that level.

If we are considering this matter of sex as it relates to this first point, this first seal, individually speaking there is the generation of substance, because of whatever it is that rightly occurs, primarily upward on the part of the female and primarily downward on the part of the male. This requires two different approaches, even though there is a connection, because the male is not entirely male and the female is not entirely female. It is because of this fact that there can be a relationship between male and female. If it was just male here and female there, never the twain shall meet. It isn't, because there is an area where there may be a merging, an area that is shared by each, although coming to the ends of the base of the triangle, there is the male and there is the female. But in between there is a merging, where the dominance of the male aspect becomes less as it moves toward the female and the dominance of the female aspect becomes less as it moves toward the male. It is in that area in between that there is the possibility of a merging and therefore of agreement and therefore of a line between. But we are thinking of this now, more from the standpoint of the individual. The movement of the life forces, by reason of these spheres, which allow spirit to reach all the way through to the point of the first seal, or the point of physical connection—connection with the physical form and its environment. By reason of those life forces there is a consciousness of intensification, rightly, with respect to this first seal point of connection. The more spirit that there is in one's experience, the more spiritual expression, the more natural intensification there rightly is.

There are some who have, in their endeavor to handle all the vicissitudes of life, sort of dampened down the fires in that regard. And usually there is relative to that some pattern of concept with respect to goods and evils in the field of sex. Generally speaking there is a background idea that somehow or other sex is evil; therefore if one had damped it down one is then good. But if a spiritual connection begins to be reasserted and spirit begins to reach through, then there tends to be an intensification again in that area, and the person becomes all disturbed because he or she had it set out in their own consciousness that they were now good because it had been sort of hidden, and now it's coming up again, the evil is putting in a new appearance. But of course that was a human concept in the first place. Obviously where there is life moving it is going to have an effect. And is life evil? How ridiculous!

In any case, there is naturally an intensification and there is the necessity of handling it rightly as angels. The Angel is present with this facility for right use—right use one way or the other: right use in the female, dominantly for generating the substance of connection; right use in the male, dominantly for generating the substance of action. This opens up the field of what is called masturbation, which, because human nature has undertaken it, is looked upon as something reprehensible by many, and so that if a person indulges in it—and I don't know who hasn't—they think of themselves as being a terrible sinner. In fact Christianity has tended to emphasize the point. Well in human nature, I don't care what you do, it's a sin! So there is something valid about feeling a sinner in that, because here is something being undertaken from the standpoint of human nature.

But what would the Angel do in that situation? The Angel incarnated into that situation in order to make use of the facilities for the divine purpose. And we begin to have a consciousness of this fact—consciousness at the level of human consciousness. In other words, the Angel begins to emerge, and we no longer look upon these things as the playthings of human nature. Of course, even human nature tries to make something very serious and meaningful about the process, in one way or another—at times, at least.

But our concern is not with any of these human‑nature approaches. We have all had them—we all have this background there. We all need to let it be put to one side if we are going to see anything. As long as we look at what we look at through these backgrounds of human nature, we don't really see what's there at all. So one aspect of this matter, when I approach these things, relates to the fact that all of you will misunderstand in some measure. I think that's obvious, isn't it? And yet because there is this possibility, does that mean that no approach should be made? Well if no approach is made we had better quit right here, because here is the substance required to do what we are here to do as Angels.

And if we don't let ourselves come into an awareness of right use in this regard, as Angels, well we are impotent as Angels. And most of human nature sex function has rendered Angels impotent, whether that human‑nature sex function was to eschew it altogether or, at the other end of the spectrum, to feel totally immersed in it. And there are all sorts of gradations in between. Well all that renders the Angel impotent to a very high degree, because while there may be occasionally some generation of right substance because of a certain experience of the Truth of Love, there is so much else involved in there and so many other human‑nature conditions present in people—fears and uncertainties and feelings of sinfulness and shame and all this—that these things are imposed into what it is that is being generated. And of course they reproduce themselves. But in reproducing themselves, then the substance is dissipated. So in one way or another the Angels incarnate on earth have been rendered virtually impotent.

We need some potent Angels around who are capable of handling things in a rational manner, not subject to all these emotionally disturbed states. So the Angel approaches the matter with a clear slate, aware of some of these distortions, of course, obviously. For instance, I'm aware of these distortions. I'm talking about them. But that doesn't mean one has to be subject to them. The only reason I would talk about them is to do what may be to clear the area, so that we have some space.

So there is the matter of masturbation. This relates in a very particular sense to those who would be called single people. Actually it relates to everybody, but I am thinking particularly at the moment of this because where there is a single man and a single woman in some communal situation, for instance, there are these single people present. And as frequently occurs both the men and the women feel frustrated in the situation unless they sort of break out of it in some way, which happens too. But if they try to be good, so to speak—according to this human‑nature concept anyway—they then feel frustrated. This is the human‑nature view. And it is very strong, of course, in those concerned, so that whichever sex it is wants some partner of the other sex. That's the way it is interpreted, when that is not the right interpretation—that's imagination. The situation is the way it is.

One is there in that situation as a single person. How are you going to handle that? What is the right way of dealing with that as an Angel? The Angel is not going to speculate or indulge in fantasizing about what could be or what should be. The Angel is concerned only with what is. And if that is the situation, learn how to function in that situation. Accept it the way it is. And if you do that as an Angel you cannot be frustrated. The frustration is there because the individual is imagining things and speculating about things, and all these things are not there, therefore the person feels he is frustrated. The question is, what is there? If you are dealing with what is there, you can't be frustrated.

This may involve what is called masturbation. Now from the female standpoint, what is being undertaken is being undertaken from the standpoint of the Law. The same is true from the male standpoint—we will look at it from the female standpoint for the moment. There must be a point of centering. What is being offered is being offered to the Lord. Substance is being generated upward. Now in this particular situation I provide a point of representation which can be of value, so that what is being offered can be most specific in this regard, rather than a sort of vague thing. In other words, there must be a relation along the base of that triangle with me for the generation of the substance that is going to fill that triangle upward—essential substance—essential to the Lord, essential to me, and essential to you, essential to all of us if we are going to get the job done. In a sense, it is easier for a woman because her whole concern is upward, in this field at least. Of course women have their external responsibilities too that they have to handle, and there is need for substance in order for them to handle them correctly downward. But here the concern is for the generation of substance upward—the substance of connection.

Now isn't this vital substance ministry‑wise? We don't have a ministry unless there is the upward connection. So there must be the generation of this substance—a yielding upwards. And on this basis the intensity may intensify, there may be the increasing movement toward experience of climax in various ways, and all this is the generation of substance upward. And one will find that pleasing and satisfying, a cause for thankfulness and rejoicing, because one is offering oneself to the Lord. Now fundamentally the same thing is done even from the standpoint of the marriage situation. But we are looking at it this way because it is necessary to let these things come down to some sort of a sensible basis.

Now insofar as the male is concerned, as I said before, the association is in the realm of action. There has to be a centering point for the men. And in the overall sense I can provide that. There are, of course, other patterns besides, but this is the central one, the one that is in fact rightly supreme insofar as the development relates to what is occurring in this ministry. And we have some awareness of what the significance of this ministry is. So the relatedness between me and any man is on the basis of the base of a triangle, but related primarily to the generation of substance downward, to provide a substance of connection with the field of our action. We share agreement in our action, in other words, with respect to what needs to be achieved in the fulfilment of our responsibilities of divine purpose.

Here, it might be said that some sort of a pressure is being brought to bear. Obviously we have this connection upward. If you are in agreement with me, you have it with a point of representation of the Lord, at least, so that we may together exert a pressure into your particular field of creative responsibility. On this basis the point is not to come to some sort of a climax necessarily, because in the human‑nature state the male has almost invariably been centered in that experience. He revolves around that experience and assumes that this is the be‑all and end‑all of things insofar as sex is concerned. So he loses virtually all of the meaning of sex. And yet men are a little bit inclined to feel that they are knowledgeable, when they really know virtually nothing. Women more easily admit that they don't know too much. The climax in the male relates to what one might call a breakthrough. If there is a pressure being exerted in one's creative field, probably for the most part it will just be pushing things back, so to speak. And one may have in consciousness the various areas of one's creative field where pressure needs to be brought to bear. And there are those occasions when, under that pressure, something gives and there is a breakthrough, in which there can be a particular focus of outpouring then in the creative sense.

But here are the two aspects, male and female, relative to the function of sex. And we are thinking of it in the physical sense, but that is not divorced from what is happening in all the other spheres. And as there is function on the right basis, there begins to come an awareness of what it is that is occurring in these other spheres, and it is not just looked into some little physical experience. In any case, the whole undertaking is solely for the achievement of what we are here to achieve. It can only be achieved when there is the substance of connection and the substance of action. And when there begins to be this stable pattern here, under the hand of those who understand and know what it is that they are doing, that we have the power for achieving what we are here to do—the power of resurrection, the power of restoration. We have looked at this primarily from the physical standpoint because that is the point where we must start. Unless that is right there can't be anything else. If that is not right then there is a generation perhaps of a little something, but a lot of dissipation too. And people who indulge themselves too much in that area are sometimes spoken of as being dissipated. That's what they are.

I praise the Lord that we might approach this in a little more specific way. I'm trusting you not to indulge your misunderstandings too much, but allow the area to be cleared so that we may have a basis for allowing the creative process really to unfold as it should. It has been very largely stymied because of the human‑nature conditionings and attitudes.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The Necessities Of Correction To Maintain Balance

The  Necessities  Of  Correction  To  Maintain  Balance

Uranda   June 16, 1954  Class

There is the necessity in right function, in divine function, to constantly correct in relationship to those things which if allowed to be in control would produce evil, or tragedy, something wrong.

Balance—this balance in the divine scheme of things, even in the heavenly state, is not something that is just fixed, arbitrarily maintained, as if God finally worked it out to have everything work just so and there was no necessity of correcting. In any heavenly state which you may ever enjoy, now or in centuries to come, there will be the necessity of correcting in order to maintain balance. It is a question of the intelligence and understanding we use in making those corrections, and in maintaining balance, which determines whether we have a state of hell on earth or a state of heaven on earth. It is not the removal of the conditions which require correction.

 
If we take the attitude that the mere fact that something needs to be corrected indicates that there is something wrong or evil, then we are wrong, because nothing of the sort is indicated. Any person who is going to live on the basis of intelligence and self-consciousness has a responsibility ordained of God, to function on a basis which makes the necessary corrections for the lower levels of creation, which are not gifted with self-awareness and intelligence. This balance, then, all the way from the organisms of the soil to the highest forms of life of which we are aware, is something that is absolutely essential. And it is achieved and maintained by intelligent action producing the essential corrections—and that which is necessary under the Law to attain that balance is not evil.

 
We tend, by reason of dullness of perception, to let things get way out before we realize they are getting out, and then to take corrective action, which makes a rather violent and unstable thing out of it. If we were functioning correctly, we would have the developed ability to perceive every little tangent factor and to correct for it before it produced a great distortion. But exactly the same things that produce the distortions in the world today will be present in heaven forever, and until we begin to see that we will be trying to do something that is utterly and absolutely and eternally impossible.

Exactly the same things that produce the distortions in the world today will be present in paradise forever. Why? We will never have such a static, crystallized state that we will never be under the necessity of using our intelligence to maintain balance. And if we neglect to have the intelligence, or use it in making the corrections that would maintain balance, we have that which gets out of hand and produces the distortion, and then we say it is evil. Yes it is. It is wrong. But don’t imagine that we will ever have a condition anywhere, in any level of being, where it is not necessary to use our intelligence and perception to see what we need to do to establish balance and maintain it—which means, to make the necessary corrections. Otherwise everything would be completely static. We would be no more than automatons, and there would be no use for intelligence. If we had self-awareness on that basis it would be utterly awful, terrible, miserable; it would be hell.

 
One of the things that we need to see clearly and have established deeply in consciousness and conviction is that the conditions which produce the distortions in the world today will always be present—always, for all eternity. We will never get away from them. If we got away from them we would get away from the necessity of using our heads, using intelligence, using capacity or perception. The reason for the present extremes of distortion and chaos is simply that man does not perceive the tangents, make the necessary corrections, and maintain the balance. If he did that, we would not have these chaotic conditions of misery and suffering and sorrow. But the reason for these conditions is something which is established, not in evil, but in that which is divinely ordained. A bird, to fly, must be able to correct for the varying conditions of the atmosphere through which he moves. That is the process of correction to maintain balance. The more expert we become the quicker we perceive the distortion, the more slight the correction is, and for the person who is not aware of what is going on, he does not even know that the correction has been made.

It is not the fact that we have the necessity of making the corrections that is evil, but some people seem to imagine that if we were all good enough, or if we were all spiritual enough, or if we were all something or other, there would never be any corrections. And it is absolutely a fallacy, and will be forever. That is not true, and the more quickly we realize it the better. It simply is not true. There will always be the necessity of making corrections.

 
If you think that when you start along a certain course and find yourself under the necessity of making a correction, that means that there is something wrong with you, and you start getting discouraged and condemn yourself or blame somebody else, you are wrong. There is nothing wrong with the fact that you need to correct. There is nothing wrong with the fact that you make corrections. The only thing that is wrong is if you do not perceive the necessity of correction quickly enough—and if you do not make the correction. And so it is with living—all the way through every phase and department of life without any exceptions. You must be ready to make the necessary corrections in order to maintain the balance. And without balance we have nothing.

 
As we examine into the natural processes in what we call nature we will find that this is something that is emphasized over and over again: the natural processes in relationship to all things, from the tiniest organisms up to the mammals of the ocean, the great whales. There is that which helps to establish balance, and if it begins to get out of balance in relationship to some particular pattern, sooner or later you will find other factors coming into play, which establishes the balance again. Now, more or less it goes by ebb and flow, pulsation.

If, for instance, I am flying in somewhat turbulent air, do I attempt to make the correction or get hold of that wheel and hold it so tight that I can keep the ship absolutely level all the time? No, I let the ship ride the waves of the air. If it begins to go too far I make the correction, but I don’t fling the wheel over and jerk the ship and jar everyone who happens to be riding with me. It is all an easy, natural, more or less fluid movement, something that is not jerky, something that is not trying to do the impossible. Now if I tried to move the wheel quickly enough to counteract every little current of air, to the extent that we could presumably hold the ship absolutely stable in turbulent air, I think I would be rather foolish. I have seen pilots—l have ridden with them—who when at the controls were always fighting the ship and fighting the air currents. They had hold of that thing; they were jerking it back and forth; they were going to be good pilots. Well to my mind they were not such good pilots.

If we let the natural processes, which will produce correction, take most of the load—and there is a great secret, one of the greatest secrets which I could convey to your consciousness. If there is a movement out of balance this way, you can be sure that if you function correctly you will find something working somewhere to help counteract that movement. You will not have to arbitrarily make the whole correction just by might and main. There will be something else there. If the wind tends to tip the ship this way, I will make some correction, yes, but I am going to let the waves of the air make part of that correction. It is a rhythmic thing. It is a fluid, flexible thing. This leads us to a point where we can understand something absolutely basic in this matter of the creative living of life and have a deeper vision of the pulsations, or of the rhythm of pulsation; because rhythm in pulsation is possible only when there is balance, true balance; not a balance that is static and fixed, but a balance that is rhythmic.

If you are going to walk you do not say, “Well I am not going to let my body tip this way or that. I am going to show that I can actually stand straight up and I am going to walk without letting my body swing this way or that.” That is exaggerated, yes; but if you are going to walk easily your body is moving somewhat from side to side as the balance is maintained in relationship to the earth. If you try to walk very far without letting your body move in that rhythmic fashion you are going to tire yourself very quickly. Even then, can you do it absolutely? I don’t think so—it would not be normal or natural. There is a rhythmic movement, back and forth, as you walk. Rhythm is possible only in relationship to balance, and the balance point as you walk is established as the ball of the foot touches the earth—some people make it the heel; they come down bang on their heels, and the ball of the foot touches afterwards. If you are walking correctly the ball of the foot establishes your factor of balance in the rhythm of your walking. If you are trying to do it with the heel, you are jarring yourself—tending to disturb the function of the internal organs and you are not going to have the proper balance and rhythm in your walking.

 
We can take illustrations from conditions and functions all around us, all the way from the tides of the sea to the processes of breathing. We see that if there is going to be rhythm there must be correction for that which would break the rhythm. It’s not to say that there would not be anything which would break the rhythm if we were functioning correctly. It means that we are going to have the intelligence and the perception and the understanding necessary to perceive that which would break the rhythm, and to correct for it. If you are walking and your body starts to go a little bit too far to one side or the other, muscles in your legs and back immediately come into play to resist that movement too far out; it is stopped there. But if for some reason it tends, or something tends, to force you out of that balance, your own muscular reaction tends to maintain it, and if you do not you fall.

That is what happened to man. He fell. What do we mean—he fell? He fell just exactly this way, because he did not maintain the right pattern of attunement in the rhythms of life—he broke the pattern, got out of the pulsation. And just as such a condition in your walking or running will cause you to fall, so did it cause man to fall on his face, so to speak, in relationship to God and to life. This rhythm is basic.

 
In rhythm there is pulsation, always. You have studied it somewhat in relationship to the heart, I believe. But now consider pulsation in relationship to living, or what we call radiation. If I am dealing with a problem over here of some kind, do you think I attempt to establish some kind of a hard radiation that is just maintained out there all the time, just going, going, going? Oh no, I should say not. There are times when the radiation becomes stronger, but there are times when it recedes, and on the receding pattern there are factors being drawn in closer to me, where I can see them, examine them, factors about which I am going to have to make some corrections.

 
Now I have known people who say, “Well I think it is terrible that you have to make corrections with respect to the group.” I don’t think so. No. If I am not to make some corrections with respect to group function and activity, well then it is to say that I become immediately useless—you can see as well as I do, do as well as I do, and I can go on a vacation. But if I can help to establish those corrections which will make it easy for you to make the corrections in your places, then we can have the rhythm, the pulsation, and that is wonderful. But if you object to the correction I establish in relationship to such function, well then you are insisting that the abnormal situation be permitted to develop, which is not so good. Now if the receding factor of the pulsation in relationship to radiation, for instance, works out correctly it will bring in closer those things with which I must deal. They get closer. I can see them; I can examine them; I can let them maneuver into a position where I can deal with them. And then the outflowing, and then the receding. And radiation is something that is constantly pulsing, never just a constant, intense something.

 
Now that pulsation pattern must be seen in relationship to all phases of living. We do not just try to have a positive something going out here that just—how should we describe it? And yet human beings are all the time setting for themselves a goal that would require that, and it is impossible. I do not care how good you are, how spiritual you are, or anything else, you simply cannot do it. God did not intend that you could do it. He did not provide you with equipment to do it, because you are made in the image and likeness of Himself. There are these pulsations. If on the receding pattern these things come in close and you start saying, “Oh there is something evil. I think I’d better get discouraged,” well then you are violating your own intelligence, integrity. You are refusing to function on a basis of your own perceptions. But these things will draw in close, and if you function correctly the radiation will carry them out again, dealing with them the while, and then they will come back in. If you react to the fact that they are there to be dealt with, you are going to be upset, and then you will have to be dealt with.

Now here is a point: either you are something being acted upon or you are a means by which something else is being acted upon—for from the highest centering of Deity to the tiniest organism in the whole cosmos, everything, all the way through, is both being acted upon and acting upon.

 
What is it that acts upon you? That which is from above or that which is from below? If you permit yourself to be acted upon by that which is below you, where you should be carrying the acting upon, we have a discord, we have a break in the balance, in the rhythm, up and down the realms of Being; but if we function correctly, that rhythm comes all the way from God to the tiniest organism, being acted upon and acting upon. If I were not being acted upon I could not be of any service to you. And if I tried to act upon you without that, it would become something intolerable and of no value—you would all go away. The fact that you are acted upon by what flows through me is evidence that I am being acted upon. The question then is, what is it that is acting upon me? If it is of God, it is a blessing; if it is not, then it is a cursing. Just that way with each and every one of us.

 
If you are acted upon and you receive and accept that action upon yourself from the right source, then you begin to get into the rhythm, and then you become the means by which something else is acted upon in your realm of responsibility, in your realm of reach, whatever it may be. So we have here something absolutely basic: the rhythms and the pulsations of life with respect to which we must be constantly making corrections in order to establish and maintain balance. Without such function we are all going to develop distortions, which will throw us out of balance, and we will fall down and become something acted upon. And that which falls down to the point where it must be acted upon is in the state of refuse.

Now in what level are we going to function? As refuse? Or something higher? Rhythm, pulsation, balance, and the constant corrections which maintain that balance. If you think that in some heaven hereafter, or some paradise restored on earth, you are someday going to be able to sit down, close your eyes and twiddle your thumbs and expect everything around you to be maintained in balance, you are wrong. Living means function, function that works in relationship to the maintaining of the balance, making the corrections. We cannot go to sleep and sleep through eternity and be Beings. The reality of Being signifies a state of being awake, of living, of having awareness and perception, and the ability to make the corrections with respect to the rhythms of life.

He who is a master in any given sphere is the one who can make the necessary corrections with the least discord and bother and fuss. It does not bother him that he has to make the corrections. Let us never be bothered by the fact that we have to make corrections all the time. That is where intelligence comes in, understanding, vision. If we are going to share with God the principles of dominion and control, it means the principles of correction to maintain balance in the rhythms of life. And what greater joy is there than that?

We must find a way by which all the rhythms, and all the levels, may be coordinated and balanced, and that is mastery, that is dominion, that is control. It is living life the way God intended that it should be lived.

© Emissaries of Divine Light