The Life Of The Flesh Is Essential

The  Life  Of  The  Flesh  Is  Essential

Uranda   May 15, 1952   Class

There is no point 
in all religious belief, as it is known in the Christian world, that is more
 seriously distorted than the distortions in the writings of St. Paul — Paul’s letters or epistles. There is much truth contained in Paul’s writings, and in certain passages they are definitely inspired, but I do not consider Paul’s writings a part of the Bible. Merely because they are contained between the covers of the Book as they are ordinarily presented does not mean that they are a part of the Bible. Passages from Paul’s writings could be so classified, but the Bible in the true sense is the inspired expression of Truth. Some of the manifestation of the form of distortion involved in this regard
 has evolved on the basis of possible misunderstanding or misinterpretation 
also, but there are passages in Paul’s writings which certainly give reason, if
 they be accepted, for these distortions.

I might remind you of the fact that after Paul’s more or less miraculous conversion he did not turn to the disciples, who had lived and walked with our 
Master on earth, to be instructed concerning the things of God. He went
 down into Syria for three years, and on the basis of what he considered to be his own inspiration undertook to develop a basic understanding. Our
 study of the function of the subconscious mind, and our recognition of the
 various influences which are produced by reason of the background in life,
 place us in position where we can see that when a man had been functioning
 as Paul had over this long period of time — and he had been a leader in the 
persecution of the Christians up to the point of his conversion — the mere fact that he reached a point through that conversion where a real current of the Spirit of God was released through him and he recognized the futility of
 his course of action, does not mean that there was a complete clearing of his
 consciousness which would allow the inspiration of the Spirit to manifest in
 any true sense. When we examine into the writings of Paul we find that he has very 
carefully made an adaptation of the Christian principles insofar as he 
comprehended them, an application of those principles to the pattern of
 Judaism, as contained in the Books of Moses, for instance. When I say
 Judaism I recognize the fact that at that time it was no longer the religion of 
the Children of Israel. The pattern had changed from its original Hebrew
pattern; and Judaism, in turn, was not a true expression or a true manifest 
pattern of the Hebraic religion and understanding of God. The pattern, as it was originally presented and as it was known by the Hebrews, underwent
 changes and distortions and developed into Judaism. Paul’s writings are 
fundamentally an attempt to apply or adapt the teachings of Jesus, or the 
facts of Jesus’ life, to that pattern of Judaism.

It was through Paul, primarily, that the distortion pattern with respect to blood, for instance, the 
emphasis upon blood in relationship to what developed into the so-called
 Christian religion, came about; and the application, there, is of course to
the sacrificial rites as they had been brought forward from the time of the
 Hebrews. Paul’s emphasis with respect to this particular point ignores 
entirely the pattern of teaching which our Master Himself presented; and I 
have made this introduction, not so much to make a study of what Paul 
teaches on the subject but so that you will not allow any background
 concept which originated in Paul’s own distortion of understanding to 
cloud your vision with respect to what the Master had to say — and it is what 
He said that we would consider this morning. We could use many different starting points. I think we will take the
 22nd verse of the 24th chapter of Matthew. The 24th chapter of Matthew 
contains many marvelous things which have very definite relationship to 
our subject. We cannot examine them all this morning. Here we have 
words the Master spoke: “And except those days should be shortened, 
there should no flesh be saved.” Even as far as we have gone in our study of the principles of life and 
an understanding of reality in relationship to spiritual things and spiritual 
understanding, there is still not a clear vision or recognition in this Class, let 
alone in the world, that the flesh is the important thing to God. The background of the human concepts that have evolved in relationship to Paul’s 
writings, for instance, has developed the idea that the carnal (fleshly) mind is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. It has developed 
the idea that the flesh body is to have no meaning. Paul makes the 
statement that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”
 Now, if we are very careful with our understanding or application of the 
word “inherit,” we might possibly agree with that statement on the basis of
 Truth. Flesh and blood, of itself, in its own nature, without its relationship 
to the Divine pattern or Divine design, cannot just automatically inherit the 
Kingdom of God. But flesh and blood is the means by which the Kingdom
 of God can manifest on earth.

In the beginning God created the physical
 body, of flesh and blood, to be a means by which the spiritual aspect of God
 could have body on earth. The Divine design for man, which we have been
 studying, the intricate mechanisms of the body, the principles involved in 
the expression of life, all come to point in relationship to flesh and blood, 
the physical body of man. Yet human beings have been trying for nearly 
two thousand years to make an application of the principles which Jesus
 taught and exemplified on a basis that mortifies the flesh, denies it, turns
away from it, does everything but accept the flesh as a means for the manifestation of God, constantly trying to separate the Spirit and the flesh. But 
what was it that went into the tomb when our Master was crucified? It was 
the flesh of the body of Jesus. What was it that came out of the tomb? 
Was anything else contained by the tomb? You know that even with respect 
to the current which we utilize here every day in relationship to marvellous,
 that concrete wall could not stop it. You know you could stand on the other side of that wall and I could give you attunements through that wall.
 The walls of that tomb could not stop the working of the Spirit. It was the 
flesh and the blood that was placed in the tomb; it was the flesh that came 
forth from the tomb; and it was the fact that flesh came forth from the 
tomb that gave the final manifestation of victory.

We talk about sharing the victorious life and serving others, and yet
 subconsciously this worldwide pattern with respect to spiritual things and 
the things of God tends to maintain an influence so that the attitude toward 
the flesh in oneself and in others is not what it should be. What is it that we 
are dealing with out here in the world, when we go forth as Servers into the
world? Yes, the mind, the emotional realm; but the mind and the emotional realm have absolutely no meaning except for the flesh. In this realm 
of things Truth has no meaning, God’s Love has no meaning, except for the 
flesh; and as we go forth to serve, it is to serve the responding ones by 
bringing their flesh into attunement with God and the things of God, so that 
the pattern of Truth can manifest. How? Through the flesh, so that the 
reality of the Christ Life can have meaning on earth. How? Through the 
flesh and the blood, the life of the flesh.

Wherever the term, “the flesh and 
the blood,” is used, it means that the life of the flesh is essential to the 
manifestation of anything worthwhile on earth, all the things of God—Truth, Love, Beauty. It only manifests as the flesh becomes the vehicle for 
that expression; and only as the flesh is alive, living, can it be the means of 
that manifestation. The importance of the flesh in relationship to the 
fulfilment of life has been for too long ignored. Why has it taken two 
thousand years? You can read the writings of Paul, for instance, and
 recognize that on the basis of ideas prevalent at that time, and his own
 beliefs, he expected that the change into the new world pattern, or the
 Divine estate, would come within his own lifetime. It was something that, 
according to his own statements, he confidently expected to be right at the 
door. Then we recognize the statement the Master made in the 24th chapter 
of Matthew: “And this gospel of the kingdom” — the good news of the 
Kingdom that is at hand — “shall be preached in all the world for a witness
 unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matt. 24:14)

There are many statements here which show the manner in which this 
outworking is to appear. Just to illustrate, we might take a moment. 
Beginning with the 32nd verse, the Master said, “Now learn a parable of the
 fig tree.” We remember the Master’s teaching with respect to the Vine and 
its branches, that those who should follow Him would be the branches: 
“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and
 putteth forth leaves” — there is the real manifestation of life — “ye know 
that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know 
that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation
 shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” So when the Vine, the fig tree, begins to put forth the evidences of
 Life, the green leaves, when His branch is tender, when it actually begins to 
manifest, “in that generation.”

Why are we here in this little valley? Because the tender branches of that tree are being nurtured. We are just 
beginning to see the evidence of the putting forth of the green leaves, the
 evidence of the Divine Life, the reality of Life. This statement by the 
Master gives us a clear indication. He did not say what generation it would be — whether it was to be five hundred years, two thousand or three thousand years — but in the generation when this is fulfilled, then things are
 going to start to happen and the end of the old world pattern is at hand. It
 is clearly outlined, but in connection with this we have the statement of His
 lips: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be 
saved.” His concern was that the flesh should be saved. There are many 
passages recording the Master’s words which emphasize that point. We will
 not have time to examine them all this morning, but His concern was that 
the flesh should be saved.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
(John 3:16) What perishes? The flesh. It is emphasized over and over 
again. What was the primary outer manifestation of effectiveness in relationship to the Master’s ministry? The healing of the flesh, physical healing, the manifestation of the power of God in relationship to changes in the 
flesh, so that the flesh might be the means whereby Deity could be revealed 
on earth. Human beings have imagined that somehow they had to reject 
flesh in order to have a spiritual life. We know that we cannot function self-actively; we know that we cannot be controlled by external things; we 
know that we cannot be subject to that which the flesh, as such, perceives
 externally, and live the victorious spiritual life; but this human tendency to 
try to separate the things of the Spirit from the flesh is the thing that has 
kept humanity bound for nearly two thousand years, since our Master 
revealed the Way, the Truth and the Life.

They have been concerned about
 saving some obscure soul inside, or there was the idea that the flesh would
 somehow be brought to its fulfilment a long time after the human being was
 dead, taken out of the earth, etc. There has been no recognition of the 
importance of the reality of the flesh during life, no recognition of the
 application of the laws and principles of the resurrection as they apply to 
the flesh, during life. The living flesh is the means by which the things of 
God manifest on earth, for God created man in the first place, male and 
female, so that God Himself might have a flesh body on earth. God had
 need of a flesh body on earth, and He created man, male and female, so 
that the body of mankind, as many cells in one body, could provide the 
flesh body for the manifestation of the action of God on earth in this realm
 of being in relationship to creation.

Gradually you have been gaining some recognition of the fact that 
your body is supposed to be the temple of God on earth, the means by
 which God manifests, or your focalization of Deity manifests. But still, as 
you meditate upon this point, you recognize that there was a great deal of
 influence remaining from out of the mass consciousness and your own past
 concepts, just as there was with Paul, for instance. We are not condemning
 him, but recognizing the facts. Some people would think it sacrilegious to 
question anything Paul wrote, but it is not. We do not question the Truth, 
but we are not afraid to question what Paul wrote. You recognize that
 there was still that tendency to somehow feel that the flesh is sinful, the 
flesh is something that is apart, that it just must be apart, from God and
 spiritual things, that if we are to have any recognition of spiritual things the 
flesh must be denied, and we have to—what? The concept begins to get
 very obscure, because, in practical application, just how are you going to let it work out?

There is this age-old false concept that the flesh cannot be the
 means by which the things of God appear on earth. As we have meditated
 upon the things the Master taught, we see that He recognized the importance of the flesh of the body, the physical body as such, and in His commission to His disciples His first instruction was to cast out the evil spirits. 
He gave them power to cast out evil spirits and to heal all manner of sickness, all manner of disease, and then to teach or preach the gospel of the 
Kingdom, the Kingdom of God that is at hand. But the very nature of that 
Divine commission revealed our Master’s recognition of the importance of
 the flesh, for without the flesh the things of God cannot manifest in this
 part of creation.

God made this creation; we all acknowledge that. He created the
 earth and all that is therein, and without the flesh of man and woman the
 things of God, the Truth of God, the reality of the Being of God, can have 
no meaning to all this creation. Self-centeredness in the flesh, wherein the 
human being devotes himself to attempting to satisfy the whims and the 
fancies of the flesh, destroys the flesh, because it separates the flesh from life. But God created man and woman on a basis whereby the flesh body
 could continue, not just threescore years and ten but any length of time — hundreds or thousands of years, whatever length of time might be right and
 proper — the birth into the world of flesh, function in the world of flesh, and
 ascension of the flesh into the invisible realms, a perfectly natural Divine
 pattern.

We must accept the reality of the things of God in the flesh and
 stop trying to make the things of God manifest, some way or other, on a
 basis where they will not be contaminated with the flesh. There is no sin in 
the flesh. The flesh in itself is not contaminated unless the patterns of distortion have been projected into the flesh through the mind and the heart 
because of wrong polarity, because the patterns of Truth have not controlled. But the flesh, as such, cannot contaminate God or the things of
 God. It is because the things of God are coming into the flesh that attunement has meaning. You are here, learning to serve through attunement; and the things of God, manifesting through your flesh, accomplish something in the flesh of the servee because that which is of God is penetrating
 the flesh of the servee, and because the flesh, even though it is in a state of
 distortion, cannot contaminate God or the things of God. The flesh cannot
 contaminate God or the things of God even though there be distortion in the 
flesh, but if that which is of God penetrates the flesh the distortions cannot
 remain.

In one sense we cannot blame the so-called Christian world for failing
 to comprehend this vital point, since the writings of Paul were accepted as if 
they were Truth. If those who have given thought to the things of God had 
looked to the Truth, had considered what the Master said, they would have 
seen that that which Paul said was not true. The very fact that Christianity, 
in nearly two thousand years, has not brought about that freedom from the
 old state of limitation, misery, suffering and sorrow proves that these 
things as contained in the so-called Christian religion are not the Truth, for 
if they had been the Truth, with all these millions of people earnestly believing, following them, trying to live them, earnestly doing their level best to 
live a Christian life according to these concepts, the world would have been
 a changed place. It is not a question of the sincerity and earnestness of all these people in past generations. They were just as earnest and sincere as 
you, and perhaps, sometimes I think, even more so, but all of that earnestness and sincerity, devotion to a cause, did not bring about the essential
 change. Why? Because they were not being governed by the Truth, but by 
concepts which were distorted. Consequently the pattern in the world
 continues to be distorted.

When you go to serve a servee you are not 
immediately concerned about all the distortions of his concepts, but you 
know they are there. You do not try, in a moment, to change all his viewpoints, ideas and attitudes. You begin to let that which is of God penetrate
 his flesh and reach into his heart and mind gradually, so that he can begin to
 know the Truth. But you begin to establish the pattern of Truth in his flesh 
so that he can feel it and know it, and then his mind begins to yield. But if 
you try to go too fast in changing the concepts of his mind and the convictions of his heart, you will lose your contact. You must maintain the 
response, and function correctly, if you are to really serve. But all of this
 clearing in heart and mind is to the end that the things of God may manifest
 in the flesh, and if there are distortion patterns in the physical body of the
 one whom you serve, you know without examining into anything that there
 are distortions in his mind and heart. That is evident, right to start with.

Our servees, in the larger sense, are the body of humanity. We look
 at the body of humanity as a whole, accepting every man, woman and child 
as a cell in that body, without regard to the divisions man has set up. And 
in this body of humanity we find serious distortions, inflamed areas, many 
serious inflammation points; we find some cancerous places. However, if we look at this world body and say, “But there are
 millions of good Christians in the world; they are earnest, sincere and honest, doing their level best to live a Christian life, etc.; it is not their beliefs 
that are at fault; they are just not able to live up to their beliefs,” we are
 wrong. The Truth has not been allowed to come into the realm of the flesh.
 We talk about dominion; we talk about the Kingdom of God on earth. 
How shall that Kingdom manifest except in and through the flesh? Where 
is it that the control of that Kingdom is needed except in the flesh? The
 meaningfulness of the development of the patterns of control in the mind
 and heart have their value only as those patterns come on into the flesh and 
establish control in the physical realm of things, in material substance 
around us.

“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be 
saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” In other
 words, there was an assurance that some flesh should be saved, that through 
the flesh the things of God might find fulfilment on earth. We need, in our 
function as Servers, in attunement with God, to recognize that it is the
power of God working through us — establishing dominion in the flesh of 
those who respond, which brings about that healing, that correction of patterns, that clearing of consciousness — that makes our ministry worthwhile.
 Unless the flesh is changed we do not consider our job well done. It may 
not have been our fault, but the job was not done unless the flesh was 
changed; not just the mind, not just some of the surface patterns of the
 heart, but the flesh itself. So we begin to see that we are sharing the 
responsibility of being angels of God, carrying on the work of resurrection 
in the flesh of human beings; and our own attitude toward the flesh, as such, must be the Divine attitude by which the Spirit of God may flow freely 
into the flesh.

We remember, here in this same chapter, that the Master spoke of the
 Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. 
Very often the Master used the term, “the Son of man,” in a manner which
 obviously related to the manifest focalization of Deity, the power of God — 
the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven in power and great glory.
“Man” — again, the manifestation in the flesh — “coming in the clouds of 
heaven,” manifesting through that heaven which you have begun to know.
 You have begun to know what the clouds of heaven are, and you are beginning to know what the power and the glory are; that they come from God 
and manifest in the flesh.

“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and 
they shall gather together his elect from the four winds.” Most human 
beings imagine that those angels are going to be some peculiar mystic things
 floating down from the sky and are going to go here and there doing various
 mysterious things. All of God’s action on earth is made manifest in some
way through the flesh, through physical things. “And he shall send his
 angels.” To the degree that you have begun to recognize the reality of the 
flesh of the body of God on earth, you will realize that those angels will be 
in the flesh — human beings who have so responded that their flesh, their 
minds, and their hearts are under the control of the Divine pattern of Truth,
 letting God’s Love flow forth in the reality of Life — and that those angels in the flesh will be moving in the world of man; and most human beings will
 not recognize them for what they are. They will entertain angels unawares. 
It is written: “Take heed lest ye entertain angels unawares.”

But your 
calling here is for one purpose, that you should become members of that 
company of angels going into the four corners of the earth. “And he shall
 send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.” What is the sound of that 
trumpet? Something that blasts out here and is heard by the human ear and 
people get frightened? No. What was it that sounded when the Master
 came forth from the tomb? The angels blew a trumpet. It symbolizes the 
healing power of God that reaches into the flesh of human beings and they
 hear it with their inner ear. It is the vital flowing of the current of Life. 
It is the sound of a mighty rushing wind that filled the whole house, the
 power of God at work in the bodies, minds and hearts of men; not a
trumpet heard at an outside point by the physical ear, but the great sound of 
the trumpet that is known by every human being who truly lets the Spirit of
 God work.

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with
 one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as
 of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire.” (Acts 2:1-3)
 That sound from heaven is the sound of the trumpet, and you are called to 
be members of that company of angels on earth in the flesh, going forth to 
let the power of God have meaning in the flesh of those who respond, that 
they may yield to the patterns of Truth and show forth that beauty of being
 which makes a fit abiding place for God’s Love, that all that is sordid and 
unholy, unreal, in this world may be cleansed away, and that the beauty of
 being in the holiness of God’s Love may control in the realm of the living flesh. It is to this end that we serve; it is to this end that we give attunements. When you let that have real meaning 
in your life you will be an angel in the flesh, carrying salvation, or resurrection — the resurrecting, transforming power of God — to the flesh of the
 responding ones. I thank God that you are here in the flesh, and let us learn 
to see the flesh for what it is, for what it should be, no longer rejecting the 
importance of the flesh in relationship to the things of God.

© emissaries of divine light

Opening Devotion

Opening  Devotion

from  Mercy

Uranda  April 26, 1953  Class

And so, it is good to gather with you once more and share this hour of Meditation. Let us have a moment of Devotion.

Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the assurance that as we let Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven there are many factors which begin to take form, far beyond the range of human vision. Many things begin to work which the human eye cannot immediately see. Many opportunities begin to develop which cannot from an outer sense be immediately foretold; and that as we remain steady, all of these things begin to come to focus in the Divine Pattern of Being that we may begin to so let Thy Kingdom and Power have meaning in our lives that Thy Glory may appear because of alignment and coordination established on Earth — so that opportunity, and that which is necessary to the fulfilling of opportunity, may come to point at the same time, in all spheres of Life, with respect to all those things by which the Children of Men may be blessed, and Thy Kingdom extended on Earth. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory forever. Aumn-en

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The Flesh Body

The  Flesh  Body

Loosed  on  Earth  —  Loosed  in  Heaven

Martin Cecil  July 30, 1980  Assembly

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
“For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
“Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” [The 8th Psalm, Verses 3—6]

This is speaking of man, not of cultic man but of true man. Indication is offered in these verses that man has some significance, certainly more than has been known by human beings in their cultic state. And this significance is related to what is beyond the earth itself — the heavens, high heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars. We have some awareness of relatedness in this regard, that we're part of a whole cosmic circumstance. So the questions that are asked here are comprehensible to us because we begin to know from our own experience what man is. The scope of his operations is vast. The encompassment of his vision is immense, rightly. It is so when man is on hand.

This of course does not mean that individually speaking we have a complete rundown on everything. If that was the case there would be no need for anybody else, would there? It needs all of us to encompass what needs to be encompassed. We begin to find our areas of responsibility, so that we cease trespassing upon the areas of others. Mind you, some of these overlap, but we each have unique responsibility in our own part. We have a certain comprehension of the parts of others as those are close to our own, but we also may be aware that there are many who have other fields of responsibility of which, directly at least, we know little. We know they are there; we know they are a part of the whole of which our field is a part. And there may be times when we are introduced to such fields — on a conducted tour, shall we say? — but we don't trespass: “Forgive us our trespasses.” And I'm sure you all recognize that in the cultic state we have the inclination to trespass, to try to mind other people's business.

If we occupy positions of focus, as we do, we are aware of what is contained in our area of focus and we are aware of those who are present there, but we refrain from trespassing in that sense also. We give everybody space to handle their own spiritual affairs. Those spiritual affairs may be a part of our encompassment but we don't try to do everything ourselves. And as been noted several times, we may find that other people handle these things a lot better than we could personally. They are there to look after the details; we are not there for that purpose.

We may have in the past functioned on the basis of substitute patterns of function, but as soon as someone comes along who can handle those we are happy to give them to such a person, even if that person is going to have to learn to handle them effectively. Perhaps to start with he doesn't handle them as effectively as we were, because we had experience in the matter and this is something fresh for someone else. But pretty soon we find out that they become capable of doing it a lot better than we could. And we are quite happy to admit that; we don't try to uphold our so-called positions by putting other people down. We find ourselves actually exalted when we appreciate what others are doing.

And so in these verses of this Psalm the statement is made, “For thou hast made him” — man, that is — “a little lower than the angels.” Well, we understand this. There is man, the material aspect of the whole, and there is the angel, the spiritual aspect of the whole. And when these two are unified, are one in experience, then it may be said that there is a living soul present. A soul — that is a facility for the action of life, for the achievement of whatever it may be. As we see, we all have our individual parts to play in a whole body. “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels” — the heaven is higher than the earth, but heaven and earth are one. Heaven is is a higher vibrational state than the earth vibrational state. To put it another way, the earth state is a coarser vibrational state and the heaven is a finer vibrational state. And the heaven interpenetrates the earth. So the heaven is present with the earth, and the greatest consequent experience, the greatest range of experience then, is available. In the human state now, the cultic state, the endeavor has been to function just from the standpoint of the earth, where there was rather limited range, and whatever range there is available with the earth when it is one with heaven is not known. In other words it's restricted to the very coarsest levels, if the experience is that of the earth with scarcely any heaven at all. And this is the cultic state.

So the earth opens up considerably once there is the experience of a living soul. We do not restrict ourselves anymore to the very coarsest levels of material existence. You know this to be so in your own experience. Something opens up, and you may observe in other people that it just simply isn't there for them. They're fiddling around in some coarse level, without any consciousness whatsoever that there might be something more. And I would suggest that in our consciousness there is something more, that is restricted as yet too — there is far greater experience to come. So the human experience is a little lower than the angel's, but it becomes the angelic experience when there is unification. And in the state of the living soul, Thou “hast crowned him with glory and honour.” Well here is the glory of life of course. Glory is a word, as we know, that provides understanding of the characteristics of life — “and honour” — I wanted to look at this matter of honor a little. We may say that, functioning from the spiritual standpoint, we are always honorable. This may mean different things to different people, but we have a sensing, I'm sure, of the nature of what it means to be honorable.

We have noted these two aspects: spiritual and material. Now, with the material separate from the spiritual — which is cultic human experience — there are many things which seem to be dishonorable. We are accustomed — as Adam and Eve initiated the cycle — of eating of the forbidden fruit, of judging some things to be bad and some things to be good. If we recognize that man was made by God in His own image and likeness, then he is totally perfect from that viewpoint. It hasn't seemed so to him because he lives in an unreal state of mistranslation. He has mistranslated his own experience, so that it seems that his own experience is often dishonorable, or at least he has honorable phases of it, but some aspects are not so good. Now we may think of this just from the standpoint of the operation of the physical form itself. As you are aware, Paul was inclined to get things rather mixed up, or at least those who interpreted Paul have got them mixed up — mistranslation upon mistranslation. But he said something about this in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, and he put it this way — now of course what he is saying here relates to one's own individual body, but it also may be seen in the light of the body of which we are all parts, that larger composite body. But for the moment I'm thinking of it more from the standpoint of the individual body, that we may have a base for right translation here:

“But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
“And if they were all one member, where were the body?
“But now are they many members, yet but one body.
“And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
“Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
“And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.”

Well this is the way Paul put it, or at least the way his words were translated. But we are interested in right translation, right translation of spirit as it has taken form in our own individual bodies and as it is in the process of being revealed in the collective body of which we are a part. We, individually, in the flesh sense, are composed of many parts. Now we need to be able to see that because the body is a whole and is designed to make possible the right translation of spirit, every part of it is essential. We can't say, “Well I'm going to make right translation of spirit, therefore all I need is my brain, perhaps my spinal cord too.” We wouldn't be much if that was all there was to us. We need the whole business, don't we? Every part. Now of course it may be that some of us have lost parts at times along the way. I don't think that's going to prevent us from achieving what we need to achieve now, as long as we are capable of operating in conjunction with spirit. The ingenuity of the Lord is great, we have noted. And sometimes He achieves marvelous things by reason of the presence of physical forms that are extremely handicapped. Oh this is the way they describe it these days. Well we are not all that handicapped. We have sufficient to get on with the job or we wouldn't all be sitting here.

So we have our physical forms, which are a translation of spirit; they wouldn't exist if this was not so. From the standpoint of our own experience there has been considerable mistranslation. In other words we have had experiences, physically speaking, which could not be classified as true translations of spirit. We might take the matter of pain, for instance. Obviously if there is pain in the world — and there certainly is — suffered by human beings, ourselves included at times, this must be a false translation, a mistranslation somehow of spirit, because spirit is not the author of pain. It becomes that way when there is a mistranslation of spirit, so any sickness, disease, physical trouble that may put in an appearance, gives evidence of some sort of a mistranslation.

Now we see this, I'm sure, clearly enough individually speaking but we also recognize that we are not merely individuals. We are not isolated individuals, even though most human beings, ourselves included, particularly in times past, have made that mistranslation, saying, “Oh I'm just me. I have a right to live my own life” — one of the attitudes that springs out of this — “because I'm an isolated person; what I do is nobody else's business.” Well it is other people's business in the sense that what we do will have effect on other people. It may be that other people may interfere in our business, which they have no business doing, but we at the same time must recognize that we can't lift a finger without affecting other people. And I just lifted my finger — did you see me? I affected you! So being very conscious of this we are aware that our function must be right, and the only way it can be right is by making a true translation of spirit. We can't figure it all out with our minds and be right. We must be on hand to make a true translation of spirit.

Now man is made in the image and likeness of God, and in his true state therefore is a true translation of spirit. That's what that means, isn't it? To be made in the image and likeness of God is to be made in the image and likeness of spirit. And the only way that could happen is as there is a true translation made of it. Well of course there have been people on earth, cultic people on earth, for millennia, who have been making mistranslations, and we have all this backlog of human nature heredity, as we call it, present with us, but that not only includes such physical idiosyncrasies as we may have—the cast of our features for instance, the color of our hair, etc, the color of our eyes and all this, and sometimes tendencies toward difficulties of various sorts — all this coming out of the past of mistranslation upon mistranslation. Well we are not trying to retranslate that. Of course many people are: “I was a ninety-pound weakling; now look at me!” Well that is a retranslation of a mistranslation, but whether the retranslation is better than the mistranslation is another question. In any case it's a mistranslation also.

So we have the equipment we have and we understand why we have the equipment we have, and this is not going to be a barrier to our function based in right translation of spirit in this moment. The translation which has appeared physically speaking is likely to be much the same as it was when we begin to allow a right translation to be made in the initial stages, because our translation relates to consciousness, relates to attitudes, to feelings — the way we look at things, the way we feel. Of course this will have an effect; it will have an effect on what we call our health, or perhaps our ill health. We find when we begin to allowing a true translation to be made in our living, regardless of whatever mistranslations may have been present in our bodies, our health is affected and we become more healthy, I suppose you could say, properly speaking, by reason of the translations we are now making.

We need to see our bodies, as individuals, and our body collectively, as being essential to the creative work that we are here to do. Clearly enough we understand this in a general way, because we wouldn't be here at all to do it if we didn't have a physical body. But we need to see that it relates to every part of the body, every cell in the body, if there is to be a right translation, which allows the resurrection of the body. The resurrection we think of as the collective body, but includes the individual body. When there is a resurrection occurring for the collective body it's also occurring for the individual body. But you can't pick yourself out and say, “Now I'm going to experience resurrection. That'll be a wonderful example for everybody else.” You would thereby be separating yourself from everybody else. But the way it is, we are all in the same boat — and we can allow some changes of attitude, some changes of outlook, some changes of understanding, with respect to everything. But now we are thinking of it with respect to the individual body, our own individual bodies, because there certainly has been a judgmental attitude with respect to the body.

Shame is an evil spirit, we say, because it's actually the central evil spirit which put in an appearance when the spirit of God no longer was being rightly translated. The first mistranslation of the spirit of God, we might say, produced shame — the sense of shame. And the sense of shame has been present in people in numberless ways, but very particularly, obviously, with respect to the physical flesh body. There are those who have a sort of a sensing of this and they think they are going to dissipate it somehow by establishing nudist colonies. Well conceivably action at this level, at this physical level, this earthly level, may loose something on earth which looses something in heaven.

The point is to loose something in heaven, and one necessarily does something on earth to let that happen: “Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” If you don't loose it on earth it won't be loosed in heaven. When it is loosed in heaven then there is something available for expression on earth, but we have to loose it on earth first. This is why I am bringing into your consciousness now the physical flesh body. It certainly is bound on earth, it's bound by earthly heredity. But it is bound also—and this is the important aspect of it — by our view of the flesh body, by our sense of shame, by our judgment, that this aspect of the body's function, for instance, is good and this aspect is bad. Well we know, theoretically at least, that every aspect of the body when it is in health is necessary — all aspects of it are necessary.

Now I'm thinking particularly at the moment of the excretive aspects of the flesh body, which we would all no doubt admit are absolutely essential to good health. And yet there is a very peculiar attitude toward these, which, I suppose, if we were using Paul's language, we would say that these processes are uncomely. But the fact of the matter is that they are part of the creative process, not just that we might have good health. It's not a self-centered thing, rightly. Because it is taken as a self-centered thing, constipation is one of the major problems in the world, of human experience, and all kinds of other troubles.

Now of course we need to recognize that there are various facilities available for excretion, some of which we don't think so badly of. We don't mind perhaps going out on the tennis court, or jogging on the road, and perspiring heavily. It's a healthy practice, and we don't swathe ourselves in a blanket in order to hide the fact that we are perspiring — we really would be then, wouldn't we? I'm not saying that all these necessary functions of what may be thought of as dispelling waste are for public display. No, there is what is fitting. But I'm not speaking of that so much as one's own personal view of the situation. And for most it's a very restricted view, a very distorted view, based in a firm mistranslation. We need to see this process as relating to creation.

Some of you may have read The Triune Ray, Uranda's work, in which something was said about the creation which was initiated at the highest and finest levels, and what was incapable of right function at that highest level automatically got pushed down into the next level. Now that's excretion, part of the creative process. And what couldn't operate at that level was pushed down to the next lower level, and so on down the line until finally there was the earth, which was the ash of everything that was left. Then provision was made by which this ash could be transformed and transmuted in the resurrecting cycle. There are two aspects of the cycle — we're aware of that. There is what is coming down from God out of heaven, that could be correlated with the excretory cycle. Now most of us in the human state would be horrified at the thought that this was so. Why? Because we have a horrible attitude toward our own experience and we have not had any consciousness at all, virtually, of the creative nature of this part of the creative cycle that is operating in our own individual flesh bodies. It's just as important in the creative way as any other aspect of it.

Now of course there is the air we breathe out. There is a good deal of concern about bad breath, and various substances you are supposed to be able to rinse your mouth out with — it's probably worse than the bad breath by the time you've done it. But here is something being offered out from the body because it no longer belongs in the body. We breathe out a blessing. Now that’s easy, isn’t it? We can see that, quite obvious. After the Master’s resurrection, when He was with His disciples, He breathed upon them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” It was a blessing, obviously, a blessing offered from another level. The blessings are offered from the higher level.

Now in all the excretory functions of the human body, whether through breathing out, whether through the pores at the surface of the body, or through the eliminative tract where there is the solid waste or liquid waste — it is all part of the same thing. It is all part of allowing what is not properly capable of operating at the level where we are living to move in blessing to another level. All this has been blotted out of the consciousness of human beings, as evidenced by their problems in the world now of what is called pollution. There is no clear awareness of the possibilities, the creative possibilities, of waste. Well there is a little on the farm, for instance, where there is, as we have here, a compost heap. But think of all those eyesores where the carcasses of automobiles are stacked. Now of course they're beginning to squeeze them together and use the metal over again. But there is far more being excreted from human civilization than can be taken care of because much of the excretion in this sense is so unnatural. All kinds of substances have now been made which are not included in nature; they're not biodegradable, as they say. But no thought apparently was given, in making these substances, as to what would happen when they needed to disintegrate; no provision was made for it. Well from the standpoint of the true translation of things, provision is made all the way. It is made during the creation — which continues, by the way — where there is that which is descending from level to level, that which is being excreted from level to level, and that which is being lifted up again. The cycle works from the standpoint of God, but obviously human beings have thrown a monkey wrench into the works.

We need to begin to allow a true awareness to be experienced in a very personal sense. It is not just a matter of having a large view and being able to expound on the principles of the thing, but of knowing the reality of it in one's own experience. And in various ways we excrete every day. “Well let’s not talk about that; let’s not even think about it,” is the inclination of the human attitude. That's saying let’s exclude a primary aspect of the creative process from our consideration. This is an honorable function. It is somewhat seen now, that what is thought of as sexual function is honorable. This is a field that, in the consciousness of vast numbers of people, particularly in the past, has been very dishonorable, something that might be described as animalistic, or beastly—in the view of many, many people.

Now, from our standpoint at least—we need to consider what our experience is—we have an awareness that it is certainly an essential part of the creative process, with which we are concerned—you can't exclude it and live. So this begins to be seen. We are more delighted about this perhaps, first of all because it seems to open up some possibilities to human nature. But it is not for opening up possibilities to human nature. It is for right use in the creative process. Well it is interesting to note that, insofar as the flesh body is concerned, that the primary creative organs are closely associated with particular aspects of the excretory experience. We may recognize at this level — we sometimes refer to this general area by using the words the first seal—that the first seal is the crossover point where the change occurs. It is the point through which what is descending moves on out and the point through which what is ascending returns. There is a very close association here. We know that physically speaking. We can’t do anything about that — there it is. Well, it is designed that way. There is nothing wrong with this, once we have a conscious awareness of the real nature of the creative process which we ourselves as living souls focalize — it comes to point in what we are as living souls. There is life and there is the soul. They are one. And the soul includes all the equipment necessary to permit participation in the real creative process.

Now we don't have physical bodies made the way they are by mistake. I don't think anyone who has any appreciation of beauty would take the attitude that the physical form of male and female is not beautiful. It seems that some, of course, have taken that attitude, but if one has an appreciation of beauty it is beautiful. We have many examples, of course, from the standpoint of art. The human body has been used as a form of beauty in art, very much so, because there is a consciousness of the fact that while this is not the whole picture, nevertheless the flesh body of human beings is rightly made in the image and likeness of God when the correct translation is there. Well the correct translation from our standpoint now is not to try to do something to the physical body — we wouldn’t know what to do — but to allow our attitude to be clear in relationship to its operation, so that we have a consciousness of blessing from the standpoint of what it is that is being offered from us in this creative cycle into our world. It is nourishment.

The carbon dioxide that we breathe out is nourishment to the plants—we know that. And in actual fact, except for the blindness of human beings in their ridiculous ways of handling things, all the other excretions that emerge from the human body have a right use. We might say, “Well you can't follow that out very far because it goes down the sewer into the aerating pond down below there and is broken down.” I think we can follow it out a little further here than you can in the city, for instance; they have treatment plants there. You can't see perhaps the end result of the blessing the way things are set up, but that does not in any way change what rightly should be our attitude in the matter, because the spirit of blessing needs to be present if there is to be a blessing — spirit and form are one. That is a living soul insofar as man is concerned. And if one has no awareness of what one is really doing in these various fields, there is no participation in any real sense with the creative cycle. And that is exactly what we're here on earth to do.

We may see this most obviously as we are gathered here in this Assembly: something needs to happen in the creative sense, a right translation, for all that is beyond us. We at the moment provide an apex point of focus, and something needs to be released because of us. Now you may not have thought of that release as excretion, but it is, once we experience an awareness, spiritually speaking, of what it is that is happening. And we can correlate our function in all its various aspects with what is actually happening, so that we don't have our bodies over here — “Well it is going to take care of things there, but I'm a spiritual being here and I'm going to radiate something out into the world.” How is it going to get there? It requires the flesh body to get there, and the actual function — not the imaginary function — of the flesh body is the way it goes.

There has been so much imagination, a living in a fanciful world, that somehow we are going to let some marvelous emanation go forth; it's going to uplift everybody — but factually what is happening? Maybe we are struggling with our digestive system, or we are not breathing properly, or we never undertake exercise to let us sweat a bit. What are we doing to see that the kidneys work as they should? They are a marvelous mechanism, if you stop to think about it. Well there are so many peculiar attitudes toward such things, that stand in the way here. And in a general sense, most people find great difficulty groping their way through these things in order to find the beautiful reality that is the other side. It has always been there. There has just been this thick veil of human ignorance in between.

Every aspect of the function of the human body is beautiful — beautiful — even the most seemingly uncomely ones. And we need to be so clear within ourselves that we know this to be so in our own experience. It must be in our own experience, not just thinking about it but sharing the actual operation of the creative cycle, so that we are keenly aware of the opportunity to allow a blessing to be released because something is in fact occurring. To put it in a very specific nut shell for at least one area with which you are all familiar, it is not a matter of going to the bathroom and saying, “After I've been to the bathroom then I will be in position to release a blessing.” No, right there! Is there any area so uncomely to you that it would be impossible to release a blessing through?

Here we begin to see a whole free area. I'm not suggesting that there isn't something that is properly comely with respect to all these operations—there is what is fitting. I'm talking about the way we see the thing, our own attitude, and our own actual experience here. And if you have had some troubles with your eliminative processes, maybe you may recognize a key to clearing the situation — not that you are taking this attitude in order to clear the situation, but it automatically follows through. Human beings have been thoroughly self-centered in these things and inherited all kinds of ridiculous attitudes which didn't exist at all in the true state, when the true translation was being made — everything was beautiful. There is nothing that is uncomely. All is a part of the means for the expression of righteousness, after which we hunger and thirst. So I appreciate the opportunity of speaking of these things in an open manner to the extent that you have allowed me to do so.

© Emissaries of Divine Light