Marsha Bogolin February 7, 2021 Seoul, South Korea
Last Sunday we completed our seventh Living the Word [LTW] seminar in Korea. Thirteen participants and eight others joined as staff for part or all of the time. It was a powerfully transformative time. In the fine pneumaplasm that built in our eight days together, we touched deep remembrance of our original heavenly home. On Saturday before my last presentation I awoke with a vivid message from Heaven, to help participants handle creatively the challenges they would likely face after returning to daily life. I want to consider that message further now, because I think it may help those who participated in LTW, as well as everyone else.
As I said, we shared a wonderful, heavenly time together in LTW. But, after returning home I guessed at some point each would notice things in their lives that are not so heavenly. That might stir disappointment and questioning—of oneself, of whether it’s really possible to bring heaven into our daily lives. Certainly the lifestyles of most Koreans don’t make that easy. Working late into the night, busy most of the day, leaves little space for generating finer pneumaplasm. Especially in LTW having 8 days together, participants really discovered how much difference pneumaplasm makes in our lives. Pneumaplasm opens our remembrance of who we truly are, our power, vision and freedom. It actually makes more difference in our lives than money.
This message Heaven gave me was to help our LTW friends sustain this essential pneumaplasm in daily life. I want to talk about one part of the message: We don’t have a choice of what comes to us, but we do have a choice of what we give our hearts to. Our freedom of choice is such a precious gift. But most people waste it because they direct it wrongly. They spend a lot of time trying to get good things to come to them and avoid bad things. This precious freedom of choice is not for what comes to us. It’s the freedom to choose how we respond to what comes. That is principally what we direct our feelings to: negative reaction to the challenge, or response to Heaven so it may help us handle the challenge creatively. Do we give our hearts to pain and troubles? Or to the Light from which our help comes? What we give our heart to determines where we will go. If we give our strong feelings to things of Light, we’ll move in a creative direction. If we give our strong feelings to things of darkness, pain, hopelessness, that is where we’ll go.
I’m not suggesting we won’t feel troubled feelings. But we can learn to use the troubled feelings as fuel for what we’re creating. Feelings, emotion is energy. How we use that energy determines whether it overcomes us or empowers us. In this too we have choice. That choice depends on where we stand in relation to the energies. If we stand below them, they surround and engulf us. If we stand above them, they can be a “kick that becomes a boost.” Uranda suggested we can reach a state where “Every kick becomes a boost.” The negative energies actually propel us higher. This is, I hear, one of the secrets of martial arts. Like that, we can divert negative, attacking energy to our creative purpose. Sometimes a few days before it’s my turn to speak for Sunday service, LOTS of negative energies come. Disappointing circumstances, near or far. At times I’ve wondered how I could offer something that inspires others when I myself need inspiring. Maybe you’ve already guessed the secret to this: Work through the energies to inspire yourself and that’s how you will inspire others. When you do that, you discover the gift within the challenge. Then the challenge no longer feels like a burden, but a wonderful opportunity. Like Uranda says in the Seven Steps To The Temple Of Light: “Every instant is filled with glorious adventures in Radiating Love.”
We don’t have a choice of what comes to us, but we do have a choice of how we respond to what comes. The habit of reacting to what comes runs very deep in humanity. Here’s something I’ve found very helpful from Uranda: “The human being reacts and becomes subject to that which is external to himself. He is not his own. If anyone says an ill thing, does something wrong, there is an emotional upheaval and he is subject to what someone else has said or done.”
You’ve experienced that, right? Me too. This is a habit that takes real commitment to change. Thousands of times of recommitting. The way Uranda describes this helped me change that habit. At times when I’ve thought, “I really don’t like what that person did. But I am not going to be subject to that person. I reacted emotionally, and that caught part of my heart. I’m not going to let more of my heart be caught by continuing to be subject to that.” Can you feel how realizing this stirs our true power?
Uranda emphasized the importance of Jesus’ words: “Let not your heart be troubled.” He called it a divine command, as important a commandment as the two great commandments. Uranda said: “Let not your heart be troubled.” Let not your feeling perception, the means by which you can become aware of the spirit of God, be troubled. Do not use this ability to bring things of spirit into the range of your mind to become aware of every ill thing round about you, to become subject to it, but turn the eyes of your spirit to God.
Uranda called our hearts, our feeling nature, the eyes of our spirit. “Turn the eyes of your spirit to God,” especially when we see and feel distortions and pain. Why? Because if we don’t, it rapidly takes us on a downward spiral. Even thousands of years ago, wise sages have known this. I want to read some verses from the Bhagavad-Gita. As some of you probably know, the Gita is among the most important texts of Hindus and was written about 200 BCE. Uranda loved the Gita, and thought the translation by Sir Edwin Arnold was particularly true to its original meaning. Since at least the 1950s, the Gita was one of the important booklets for Emissary spiritual education. As I mentioned in LTW, most Americans were Christian during Uranda’s lifetime. So of course he utilized Christian scriptures, like the Bible, because that was the context of most people’s understanding. But he was not limited to those. This verse from the Gita has been a guiding star for me for decades: “Who keeps the mastery of himself? If one ponders responsively the objects of the outer, there springs attraction; from attraction grows desire. Desire flames to fierce passion. Passion breeds recklessness. Then the memory—all betrayed—lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind, till purpose, mind, and man are all undone.”
Doesn’t that describe exactly the downward spiral we sometimes take? It starts with just a little turning of our hearts to outer circumstances. At first it may be just a little attraction. But attraction grows. From attraction grows desire. It grows more. “Desire flames to fierce passion.” And soon “passion breeds recklessness.” Passion for outer things blinds us and we do foolish things. Then our memory of the Light fades. And we forget our noble purpose. The mind is drained (sapped) of its memory of true purpose. “Purpose, mind, and man are all undone.” We fall into despair. That’s the downward spiral. It starts with just a little tangent from the Light.
There are two ways we repeatedly make trouble for ourselves: 1. Emotional reaction to circumstances. We’ve covered that fairly well. Let’s go to the second: 2. Manipulating change versus initiating a creative cycle for change.
As I said earlier, there are things in our lives that are not so heavenly. Things that clearly need changing. Usually people don’t even think of initiating a creative cycle to bring change. Usually it’s: “I want it to change, and I want it to change right now!” So we do something in frustration. And that actually makes things worse. You’ve done that, right? I have. Actions based in frustration, or more subtle reactions like calculated manipulation. But these actually interfere with what was already in motion from Heaven to bring change. Such reactive actions actually block us from seeing what we could do to assist the change Heaven is bringing. The usual approach is: react to what needs changing, complain about it, tear it apart, and then demand change. That sounds more like a destructive cycle than a creative cycle, doesn’t it? Most of the time, we don’t have to engineer the whole change. What’s needed from us is usually just a small part to initiate change. But instead of a light touch, we get out our big hammer.
When you see things that need changing, likely that indicates a Water Cycle. What is our right action in the Water Cycle? In the first seminar, Art of Living, we learn: Listen for direction and design. In LTW, our fourth seminar, we look more deeply. We see it’s important that we respond to the Light and initiate a creative cycle. As I said, the usual approach when things happen that we don’t like is we object to what’s happening. That drags us down into the darkness. We get involved in the problem. Instead, we have to deliberately do something to increase the light. Do something that turns our attention to the Light—away from problems. When we have a problem, it can absorb all of our attention. But when we respond to the Light, we begin to see what we could do about the problem. How we see and what we see changes. We see opportunities, new starting points, larger perspective.
I think all of you have discovered how much changes when you respond to the Light. At times, it takes some muscle, spiritual muscle, to deliberately respond to the Light, the Truth. One of the processes we learned in LTW to handle heavy patterns and challenges is Attunement Prayer. It actually does just this. It turns our attention to the Light and helps us initiate a creative cycle.
“Initiate a creative cycle” does not mean that quick action is never needed. But even quick action should be based in true creative principles, and attitudes that are true to who we are. But most of the time quick action is not needed. Have you noticed that God’s creations, Nature’s creations, take time? Especially in this age of the internet and cellphones where everything is done 5 seconds, we forget that things take time. What if instead of a baby taking 9 months to develop in the womb, it took just 9 minutes? I think most mothers would not like that. Even in spring leaves and flowers don’t just pop out. They gently grow and unfold over a number of weeks. It takes patience to initiate a creative cycle for change. Patience! The first step to become the Temple of Light.
Now we clearly see the two ways we repeatedly make trouble for ourselves. What can we do instead? Instead of emotional reaction to circumstances, we realize: We do have a choice of what we give our hearts to. What should we give our hearts to? What’s the creative choice? Heaven, the Light, Truth. In a way at the mental level, this is a very simple thing. But have you noticed how easy it is to forget it? Because the habit and prevailing practice in humanity is definitely not to respond to the Light. That’s why I’m emphasizing it. It has to go in so deep that even when it’s very dark for us, we can remember, “What was that? Oh! Respond to the Light.” Because there are things that happen that actually trick us. We think we’re doing something creative, but actually it’s manipulation.
I love how the Gita describes this choice:“Whoso, shaking off the yoke of the outer, lives lord, not servant, of his life. Set free from pride, from fear, from the sin of "self," that one touches tranquility! That is the state Divine!”
So in my words, when we choose to shake off control by outer circumstances, we live as lord of our life, not victim. We start to experience tranquility, and we know the divine state. We know who we really are.
Let’s review what we can do instead of the second way we make trouble for ourselves. Instead of manipulating change, we can initiate a creative cycle for change. We begin a creative cycle by responding to the Light. Then we work with the creative principles each step of the way under Heaven’s guidance. When we give our full heart to this, heaven begins to take form through us. The things that were not so heavenly in our lives become just a little more heavenly. And step by step we experience more of heavenly home in our lives. We bring heavenly home once again to this beautiful Earth. And the key is what we give our heart to. In this we have a choice. What we give our heart to determines how much pneumaplasm we generate and sustain. And pneumaplasm makes all the difference in our lives.
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I really appreciate what you’ve each commented. WeHyun spoke about a lot of despair in the world. Those of you who watch what’s happening in America probably realize there’s quite a lot of despair there, but not only in America, many places. So all of that is like a weight on our pneumaplasm. It’s almost as if we have strings attached to humanity that can suck out our pneumaplasm. So I’m really glad for those who realize how important it is for us to turn our hearts to the Light. WeHyun also said it’s not whether we can or can’t; it’s simply a matter of choice. We can see that clearly because we have enough pneumaplasm to see it. But actually a lot of people in the world have virtually no pneumaplasm, and it is hard for them even to realize they have choice. So that’s even more reason why we need to turn our hearts to the Light regularly. I was so glad Lilac spoke about the help that comes through our Sunday services in navigating our daily lives. As we choose the Light, the pneumaplasm on earth increases because of us. That gives others a chance. Someone also said even when I’m experiencing pain and suffering, still I can choose the Light. That’s an important realization. Especially when our own bodies, minds and hearts are in pain, turn to the Light. And don’t judge that you are feeling all this. Love yourself and surround yourself with the Light of Truth. In time, it will begin to change what you feel and think also.
I want to touch one last thing before closing. I’m glad that some who attended LTW spoke and acknowledged the large challenge that was waiting when they returned home. Or as OonHwa said, “Oh, I can feel the pneumaplasm going down!” Sometimes when people have experienced heaven and power and the truth of who they are, when they are hit by a wave that knocks them unconscious, they may actually say, “I wish I never touched heaven.” Because it is painful, painful to realize the difference. The fact is you may be more aware of the difference, but the level of pain is no different. Even in that time when it feels hopeless that you could ever return to heaven, turn to the Light. You have many friends now that can help you do that. When we help any other one, we help ourselves. In a way, each one of us is like a cell in the body of mankind. Sometimes some of the cells in our body are in great pain and darkness. We surround them with Light. But that cell, that person, must make the choice to turn to the Light. That is not something we can do for anyone else. It is our freedom of choice, each one individually. But as we make that choice, we make it so much easier for others to choose that too. When we are experiencing the Light of who we are, there’s no question about which is the right choice, the joyful choice, the exciting choice. It’s only in the darkness that there’s a hypnosis that can take us down. So let’s choose to give our hearts to the Light.
Adam and Eve were hiding among the trees from the Lord. This hiding from the Lord is made evident by the fact that one hides the true expression of oneself from one's fellows. The picture of hiding from the Lord becomes very much more specific when we see it in these terms of hiding the truth of our own expression from our fellows. This is hiding amongst the trees from the Lord. The voice of the Lord comes walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, to find expression on earth because of each one of us. If we hide ourselves among the masses of the people on earth, so that we find no necessity for giving expression to the truth, then we are hiding from the Lord.
An Old Testament statement was applied to the experience of Jesus as a child, “Out of Egypt have I called my son”—out of hiding have I called my son or my daughter. Jesus was taken down into Egypt, according to the story, specifically to hide Him. We've all found ourselves hidden in human nature with all our fellows, one of four billion nowadays, lost in the crowd. As long as all of that crowd is revealing human nature, how would you really distinguish one from another? But if one among that crowd makes plain the reality of spiritual expression, how would you hide such a one? We have been offered the opportunity of coming out of hiding. Most people have very little awareness of what these words might mean; but you, certainly, begin to know. Others may only know to the extent that there are those who do come out of hiding; then this becomes evident. Jesus came out of hiding. First of all He came out of Egypt. After He had grown through childhood and youth to a point of adequate maturity, He undertook to reveal the truth of Himself before the people. And this is what we are called to do, all of us, individually.
You know, we can hide behind a concept of the body of the Son of God, so that we lose ourselves in the crowd. But there is no manifest body of the Son of God on earth except as there are individuals who take the responsibility of revealing the truth of themselves before the people. Jesus obviously did this. We speak of His public ministry. It could, and should, have gone very much further than it did—from the beginning to the end of that time of public ministry, He stood virtually alone. There were the disciples who walked along with Him across the land, but that's about all they did. They did not reach a point, with respect to most of them, where there was any particular revelation of the truth of themselves. They did not come out of hiding. They were hiding behind Jesus. They were willing to follow Him in the external sense, to listen to what He had to say, even to love Him as much as they were able, but they never really came out of hiding. This was particularly emphasized at the time when Peter denied his Lord. He was representative of the other disciples—all except John, who had actually gone with Jesus into the judgment hall. So there was no development by reason of others who were willing to come out of hiding.
There's been a somewhat different experience in what has occurred through this ministry. All this that has taken place has been consequent upon what was initiated by Jesus. He came out of hiding and presented the truth of Himself to the people. Not many saw what it was, but He did it nevertheless; and because He did it the door was opened for others to do it. It was necessary that there should be One who did it before the way would really be opened for others. Someone, somewhere, had to do it. This particular One we recognize as the LORD of All. It is a remarkable thing that He would accept the responsibility, in this travesty of a world, to come on earth, to come out of hiding, to expose Himself as He did, to suffer consequently as He did, but to carry all the way through so that the door might be opened. And the door has been open ever since. But scarcely anyone even approached it, let alone followed His example, taking responsibility to carry all the way through. There have been a few who have played a part in this regard. Because of the One who came to do it and did it, and these others since, the opportunity has been available to us.
There was a time when Uranda stood alone in the initiation of this ministry, which requires that the individual come out of hiding—come out of hiding and present the truth of himself. We may be thankful indeed that there was this one who had the courage to undertake the task. In presenting the truth there were those who did respond and drew close, to varying degrees. Eventually, as it worked out, I particularly was forced into the position of coming out of hiding. Presumably, according to my highest vision at the time, I would have imagined that I had already come out of hiding, as likely most of you do now—but when you are faced with the real necessity of coming out of hiding you know the difference. When Uranda left this sphere of things the responsibility fell upon me, and I was compelled to take it. Prior to that time I had been hiding in various ways, which I discovered to be the case at that moment of truth, and subsequently.
In order to present the truth of oneself to the people there is the necessity of developing a certain expertise in spiritual expression. One may have the wish to reveal the truth of oneself, and some seem to have imagined that the wish was the revelation. But it never is; it simply points a person in the direction, that he may in season experience an increasing revelation of the truth of himself. This requires the development of expertise. One cannot develop that expertise by doing nothing. One cannot learn to live without living. One can remain in hiding and exist for a while; but to live, one must come out of hiding.
It is evident that there are various measures of hiding. This was illustrated in the experience of Jesus. There was the hiding in the land of Egypt. He came out of that hiding, but there was a further hiding with His family—all quite as it should be, because He was in the process of growing up. He ventured forth from that hiding in a particular sense at the age of twelve, when He disputed with the learned ones in the synagogue. His parents were a little distraught because of this, failing to recognize at the time that here He was coming out of hiding. It took another eighteen years after that for Him to develop sufficient expertise that there might be a revelation of the truth of Himself. He came completely out of hiding insofar as He was concerned, but He still remained in hiding insofar as most others were concerned. But the opportunity to recognize the truth was present because He Himself had come out of hiding. He presented Himself before the people for who He was. For many this wasn't a very popular move, but others heard something of the Tone that He sounded and followed Him—not adequately, but in some measure. We see illustrated, then, how a person step-by-step comes out of hiding. We may understand how it is that there is a cycle in this regard, but how useless the whole process would be if one were to take the steps while still in hiding and never take the final one.
In my own situation there was a very compelling circumstance, and such integrity as I have prevented me from turning it down. So I came out into the open, so to speak. This is not, rightly, exceptional to me; it is required of each individual who actually participates in the composition of the body of the Son of God. There is no manifest body of the Son of God, in the resurrected sense, except as there are individuals who have taken the responsibility of coming out of hiding for themselves. What does this mean? It means that we are under the necessity of revealing the truth of ourselves before the people. This may conjure up some visions of standing up in prominent places and proclaiming who we imagine we are; but if we did that it would only be imagination anyway. In my own situation I was under the necessity of presenting myself to those who composed this ministry at that time—first. I'm most thankful to God that most were willing to accept the transition. Some were not. This, I suppose, is to be expected and accepted, as it was. But that wasn't all of it, because I was under the necessity of continuing to present myself before the people—more people. I traveled back and forth across the land speaking to groups of people in many, many places, groups of people who had virtually no understanding of what it was that was being offered. So I was out front, exposed—in other words, I came out of hiding. Such an event set off a few shock waves here and there, as it will with anyone.
Coming out from behind the trees, coming out from hiding, the individual must present himself before the people. Having presented himself before the people, there will be those who respond and come closer; some who are inspired also to come out from hiding and to present themselves before the people. This has occurred in the development through this ministry, so that others are now more on the firing line than I am. This gives indication of the development of what we have called a hedge—a hedge of protection but also a hedge of unified radiation. As this natural unfoldment continues, those who first came out from hiding, presenting themselves before the people, begin to be the ones who are themselves protected by others who are coming out from hiding and presenting themselves before the people.
There is always a peripheral ring, rightly, composed of those who have come out from hiding at that particular time. These are the ones who have the responsibility of presenting themselves before the people. Those who did it before them, to allow them to come out of hiding, are then one step behind the hedge; and so there are concentric rings composing the hedge. Here is one evidence of the nature of the emerging design. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/03/spiritual-core-for-world-martin-cecil.html] There is far greater detail than this; but we can surely see how those who do come out from hiding first have the responsibility of presenting themselves before the people; and then later, as there is response to that presentation of the truth of themselves, they find themselves behind another ring composed of those who have, consequent upon their ministry, come out of hiding.
Units and groups have at times seemed to be convenient hiding places, and a certain complacency can be developed in this sort of situation, so that those concerned do not take advantage of developing the expertise which would enable them to come out of hiding and present the truth of themselves in spiritual expression before the people. This certainly does not mean that one stands on a soapbox at the corner and proclaims some doctrine or other, ramming it down other people's throats. We have spoken of living, but one can pretend to live while still remaining in hiding. You know, with the number of those who are associated with our ministry here, should they all have come out of hiding, the rest of the community wouldn't have a chance! But in various ways a facade is maintained behind which emissaries lurk, and it would seem to take great persistence and considerable effort on the part of others to penetrate that facade and discover the lurking emissary. There is perhaps a certain fear of actually coming out of hiding.
Our business is to come out of hiding
We recognize this to the extent that we have acknowledged the requirement of spiritual expression. You could not offer spiritual expression in living and still remain hidden. There are those who have complained at times of the lack of response which might seem to be apparent in certain locations. It wasn't the lack of response that was the trouble; it was the lack of spiritual expression to which there might be response, or at least reaction. And you know, insofar as our true business is concerned, it doesn't matter much which it is. We have been very cautious because presumably it was the wise thing to be. We were not interested in being immediately overwhelmed because we were not yet identified with strength; but to the extent that there is spiritual expression there is strength, and redemption is being offered. And that has an impact.
There is a sort of graduation process, isn't there? Someone has to come out of hiding to start the ball rolling. Then, because he has come out of hiding and the ball has started rolling, others will come out of hiding too, and they share in keeping the ball rolling. But the original one finds himself within this hedge, and then those who participated with him in keeping the ball rolling, themselves find themselves within another hedge, and so it goes—another and another—gradually coming out of hiding sufficiently to take responsibility, on the periphery, for a presentation of the truth of themselves in spiritual expression. Those who played a part in originating the spiritual expression should have no demands put upon them. This is the case when there are others who are willing to come out of hiding and assume the responsibility, but nobody can do that without having developed the expertise.
It seems that most of those who do develop the expertise are the ones who are compelled, in one way or another, to get out and do it. Those who have a comparatively easy situation are inclined to be a little complacent. One can never experience the mature expression of the truth of oneself without moving through those cycles which permit it, and one of the most obvious steps to be taken in those cycles is the initial one of coming out of hiding sufficiently to present oneself to the people. There is an inclination, in the human pattern of things, to try not to be too much different. This seems like a wise course because the idea may be that you don't want to turn people off. Well how about turning people on? And if you're just the same as everybody else you're not going to turn anybody on. Spiritual expression is something startlinglydifferent. There is the evidence of the fact that one is somehow different. If there isn't this clear-cut evidence the individual is still hiding, for it is that clear-cut evidence of spiritual expression that gets the job done for which we are here on earth. We can wait in hiding too long.
The state of hiding is the state of the tomb. The body of the Son of God lies in the tomb, which this world is, because the head is at the same level as the rest of the body. That means that the whole thing is horizontal. Head and body embedded in the earth—that's the state of being in the tomb. The head belongs in heaven. The head must experience that belonging in heaven while in the tomb. This seems rather a mysterious thing to those who are in the body in its horizontal position, because there is no sign of the heaven in the tomb. The experience of heaven required by the head of the body is an internal experience. We haven't been trying to produce a heavenly state external to ourselves—at least, I hope not. Something improved may have put in an appearance; but even if that were to be swept away, it shouldn't make any difference, if the head is in heaven. It will not make any difference, if the head is in heaven! I trust that everything doesn't have to be swept away in order to prove the point, but that might be necessary too—one never knows. So the head needs to return to heaven while still in the tomb. It is because the head returns to heaven that the body may experience this heaven and rise up. It must rise up to come out of the tomb.
Have you ever wondered how the body of Jesus got out of the tomb? Did someone come along and roll the stone away and then the body emerged horizontally? That's hardly the way it works. You remember how it was for the man called Lazarus who was also in a tomb for several days. The Master commanded, “Lazarus, come forth,” and Lazarus walked out of the tomb. He may have had a little difficulty, because he was still all wrapped up in the grave-clothes, but he walked out. Nobody went in after him. The Master did it a little more neatly—He removed the grave-clothes before He came out. He had the expertise, and He was found to be in the Garden. The tomb was in the Garden all the time, and that's true of this world. It is a tomb, but the tomb is in the Garden.
The head must be restored to heaven. It is restored to heaven only by reason of spiritual expression. Spiritual expression presents the truth of a person before the people. Later that truth may not be presented so directly. We can see that in the case of Jesus. It was presented directly, and it never went further than that position, which is why things worked out the way they did. There was no hedge. We see now the beginning of the development of the reality of a hedge, which is the unified radiation from the head. The heads of the saints are usually surrounded by a halo. This is what is indicated—Unified Radiation through the Head of the Body of the Son of God, and you cannot hide that light. It cannot be hidden under a bushel. Here is the almighty power of God. It carries an impact. The effects of that impact depend, of course, upon the attitudes of those concerned who receive the impact. We would that all should respond, but we also do not fool ourselves into imagining that there are not those who will not respond; there indeed are many. But whether reaction or response, when there is spiritual expression the job gets done.
But we must come out from hiding—and we'll only dare to come out from hiding when we have begun to develop the required expertise. We will not develop the required expertise without practice, without doing something about it, without taking responsibility and letting something happen: Let the thoughts of my mind, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Let it be so. It won't happen unless you let it happen. It requires something of you—come out of hiding.
Out of hiding, the Son of God has been called. Let the fruition be experienced individually; then it will be experienced collectively. But we can't be dragged along by anybody else. I think some have felt that they would just come along because the body is coming along. But if the body is coming along it is only because there are individuals composing that body who have taken the responsibility for themselves. Those who come along simply on the basis of the fact that the body is coming along will suddenly find that they have no oil in their lamps. It's unwise just to wait for that point of discovery, because then it's too late. We have been considering something that is of vital importance this evening—more in this field of consideration has been brought into focus, but there is indeed much more not only to be considered but to be experienced.
It is good to greet you again for an hour of evening's meditation. We have had a little touch of winter in the springtime. The Lord has provided much needed moisture for the thirsty soil.
Somehow tonight my thoughts turn back to the days of the beginning, before the fall of man, and the significance of the passage that tells how in the evening, in the cool of the day, the Lord came walking in the Garden to commune with man, and how that blessed privilege, in its full beauty and wonder, has been lost to man for so long. But how often, with the coming of the evening, the sounds of nature preparing for a night of rest, have you felt a certain loneliness, a certain longing, a certain restlessness and perhaps you did not know what to do with yourself, perhaps you sought some form of entertainment or deliberately engendered some pattern of action which would more or less cover up that deep longing of your soul. But there is with the coming of evening that inherent yearning in the hearts of all the children of men who have not shut out the urgings of the Spirit of God, the longing for the day when the Lord shall again come walking in the Garden in the cool of the day—a time of sweet communion, a time of rest from the physical activities of the day, a time that suggests unspeakable peace, a time when the depths of one's soul yearns for the beauty and the wonder of God's Love. In connection with this I would like to meditate with you tonight on some of the points we have touched in our Class work.
We have recognized that all of the Plan, the Program, designed to bring about the salvation of man, or the restoration of the world to the Divine Estate, since the days of the fall has been carried forward by the Priesthood—the Order of Melchizedek. In the Motherland, prior to its final submersion after the fall, the Naacal Sages were the Ministering Priests, the teachers, instructors, who were members of this Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. Every forward movement, every constructive thing, every blessing made manifest on earth since that time, without respect to person or place or creed, has been made manifest by reason of the working of this Priesthood. It was under the care of this Priesthood that preparations were made for our Master's coming, and He came as the Primary Focalization of this Priesthood. He was that Focalization before He came in the realm of men, and He still is.
Regardless of what church, what group, what color, what race, what belief, regardless of what sphere, religious or spiritual, or with respect to establishing governments or working out the Divine Pattern through nations or peoples, with respect to the opening up of the fields of knowledge and the development of understanding with respect to the laws of life, with respect to the inspiration essential to great inventions, all the developments, whether they are considered to be religious or industrial or scientific, all of the progress that man has known down to and including this day, including this hour which we share tonight, it has all, without any exception whatsoever, at any time, through any person or place, been under the influence, guidance, direction, of the Priesthood established after the Order of Melchizedek.
And we have taken note in our Class work of the fact that the First Sacred School was established, authorized, initiated, by Melchizedek, King of Salem, through Abram. And it is written that Melchizedek King of Salem brought forth bread and wine; and he was the Priest of the Most High God. “And Melchizedek blessed Abram and said, “Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.” And as Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine, we are reminded of that evening hour of communication and communion that is spoken of as the Lord's last supper, when our Master used bread and wine in extending a blessing to His disciples. And all of this reminds us of that longing that is in the hearts of the children of men, that deep yearning.
If we speak of the Communion Service we are thinking of a pattern of communion that has for its basic purpose the recognition of the principles of life, the realities of being, as symbolized by the bread and the wine, and we see in this God's hand working to reestablish that which was known to Divine men and women when the Lord God came walking in the Garden in the cool of the day to commune with man. And our hearts have so often felt that yearning, that longing, that sweet, bitter loneliness — the bitter-sweet of the yearning for the restoration and the recognition of what was lost.
In this story of Abram we find many wonderful outlines which reveal the outworking of principle as it relates to us, the necessities of our lives and functions in learning to serve God. We have already meditated to some degree upon a passage which tells the story of how the Lord appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre, and Abraham sat in the tent door in the heat of the day—in the heat of the day. “And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.” And we remember too, in this connection, how our Lord washed His disciples feet. Perhaps we will not take time tonight to read the whole story, but you will remember that it was after Abraham had entertained the Lord, provided food and allowed the three men, as it is put, to rest under the tree in the shade, in the heat of the day, that the Lord told Abraham that He was going down to see what the situation was with Sodom and Gomorrah. And we remember how Abraham interceded. In this we recognize the two primary aspects of application with respect to the One Law, or the fulfilment of the two Great Commandments: First, to entertain the Lord; and secondly, to intercede for others—to love the Lord thy God with all that you are, and to love Thy neighbor as thyself.
Here in this story we have such a beautiful illustration of the fulfilment of the Law. If you wish to read it you will find it in chapter eighteen of the book of Genesis. But in this connection, tonight I wish to draw your attention to the eagerness with which Abraham welcomed the three men whom he saw, the three men representing the three phases of the human trinity as used to give release on earth, manifestation on earth, of the Divine trinity—the three phases of your own being, if you please, through which the reality of God’s Spirit is made manifest—but the eagerness with which Abraham welcomed the Lord, the diligence with which he entertained the Lord. In another place it is written that we should take heed lest ye entertain angels unawares.
Our first business, always, is to entertain the Lord. The deep yearning of our hearts—perhaps you have never understood it, perhaps you did not know why you felt that loneliness, that strange restlessness with the coming of the evening, but this is the reason; for back in the days before the fall we had the pleasure and the privilege of entertaining the Lord in the Garden, in a very real sense. And the Lord God came walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, in the evening; and there was the privilege of entertaining the Lord, the sweetest joys of heavenly days on earth. There was the process of entertaining His Spirit all through the day, tending and keeping the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden, keeping it in manifestation, not letting it go by into the past, into the west, without taking form.
Man has not tended that Garden nor kept it. For thousands of years it has been going past, moving from out of the future, out of the east, into the past, into the west, without ever finding form in the lives of men and women. Man was instructed to tend it and to keep it; for it is in that Garden that man has the privilege of entertaining the Lord. If there is the longing in our hearts at the coming of the cool of the day, if there is that yearning, it should make us more diligent in letting that Garden take form on earth so that we may have a place, a fit place to entertain the Lord in the outer sense. But even now, we have the privilege of entertaining the Lord in the inner sense, and this process of entertaining the Lord is the center of our meditation tonight, for it is only as you do consistently entertain the Lord that you can serve others. If you are not in the habit of entertaining the Lord you cannot, in any true sense, serve anyone else. Your life cannot, in any true sense, be of any value to anyone else nor to yourself. As we learn to actually entertain the Lord we begin to find ourselves in relationship to God and the expression of life on earth.
If you were to entertain the Lord tonight, in an outer physical sense, what would you do? Would you go bustling about trying to put up some hasty decorations or sweep some dust out of a corner or demonstrate what a good conversationalist you are, or take advantage of the opportunity to convince the Lord how smart you are, how much you know, or would you let your mind and heart, your spirit, come to rest and relax in the peace of His Presence?
Would you avoid presumption and would you just wait to see what He would like to say, what He would like to do? Would you not rest in the Lord and let go and enjoy the Spirit of Heaven made manifest by His Presence? And if He spoke, if He should open His mouth and say something to you, would you not find pleasure in receiving those words into your heart and meditating upon them? Could you pass through such an experience and not have something in your heart upon which to ponder, something to think about, something to keep sweet and sacred and holy in the depths of your own being, keeping sacred things sacred, keeping holy things holy, keeping sweet things sweet, and keeping heavenly things in the Divine Pattern of Being? This is so important if we would learn to commune with the Lord, to entertain the Lord.
We noticed Abraham's attitude here, for he ran to meet them. He gave an eager welcome. He began to serve. In the story, he ran unto the herd and fetched a calf tender and good, and he told Sarah to hurry in the baking of the bread, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate, ready to serve whatever need might appear. The eagerness, the openness of heart and mind, the unselfishness, the selflessness, with which he entertained the Lord. And then there creeps into our minds, our thoughts, memories of the time when the LORD of Heaven and Earth came into the world to visit for a little season, and how few there were who took advantage of the opportunity to entertain Him.
Consider something of what might have been if instead of trying to get something from Him the people then living had been willing to give themselves to serving Him—if they had been less concerned about being served and more concerned about serving. Consider something of what the story would be if He had not been rejected, but if the people of the world had received Him and entertained Him and acknowledged Him, if they would have taken advantage of the opportunity to commune with the LORD as He came walking in the desolation of the earth in the cool of the day. We do not need to try to figure out just what would have happened but we can see that the story would have been very different. And think you that if man had so responded and received our Lord, our Lord could not have provided for man's salvation under that circumstance, that if man had received Him, He could have worked out the possibility of the restoration without the crucifixion?
To entertain the Lord. What is the pattern of meditation? If the President of the United States was coming and we were going to entertain him, I am sure that each one here would be extremely diligent in having everything as nice as we could. There would be meditation on what would be pleasing to our President, how we could make him comfortable, and make his visit here a happy, profitable one. You would meditate upon that which he represents. How much more, then, should we meditate upon those things which would make it possible for us to entertain the Lord effectively. If you would know the sweetness of a deeper communion in spirit, can you hope for that experience just waiting for it, hoping that some day something will happen to you that will make you know the beauty and the wonder, the reality of God in relationship to the children of men? Blessed Ones, it will not appear by happenstance. If these things are to come into your life in a deeper sense, a larger sense, you must do something about it, you must invite it, you must prepare for it, prepare with confidence. How do you meditate? How do you function in relationship to spiritual communion? If you ignore your opportunities for spiritual communion, to the best of your capacities, do you think that the greater experience shall come to you?
How much time have you spent today, or within the last twenty-four hours, in actual, personal, individual meditation, in a manner which opens your heart and mind to the realities of communion? What have you done? What have you felt? What have you thought which carried the pattern of entertaining the Lord, or at least His Spirit, in your heart? What have you done to establish in your own consciousness an awareness of welcome to the Lord? In twenty-four hours, twenty-four priceless, precious, wonderful hours, how much time could you spare for the reality of true meditation? Now I know that there were many things which you had to think about which had no direct bearing on entertaining the Lord. That would be, I suppose, understandable in this world. You just had to think about some other things. Did you? We suppose so. Suppose all of these other things were necessary—I rather doubt it, but suppose they were—and you used only the time you wasted—I am not talking about the time of sleep, but the time that was wasted, or did you not waste any time? Was the working of your mind, the working of your heart, the feelings within yourself, were they revealing the Divine Pattern?
Did you work in meditation until there was not one slightest hint of resentment toward anyone or anything? Or, did you entertain resentment instead of the Spirit of the Lord? Did you work in loving meditation until no slightest hint of fear could be found in your heart or mind? Or did you spend your time entertaining the spirits of fear instead of the spirits of Love and Truth and Life? What spirits have you been entertaining, for you did entertain some? You cannot maintain consciousness and remain physically alive without entertaining spirits of some kind. What were they? Were they the spirits of heaven? Are you aware of anything in your heart which ought not to be there, or have you reached the point of being pure in heart? “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God”—the moment they are pure in heart. They do not have to wait till they are dead, until some hereafter. The moment any human being is pure in heart he sees God; in fact, if you consider the nature of your heart you will find out what your gods are, whether they are idols, whether they are things which are not worthy of your worship, or whether you have obeyed the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
How do you meditate? What is the process of meditation? Did you ever take some text—most any text will do that appeals to you; you should select your own—but did you ever take any text, any statement that you knew was divinely inspired, any statement which you knew to be true, a short text preferably that is not so long but what you could learn it easily? Did you ever look at it, read it over, think about it, wonder about it, perhaps memorize it, and then about that time say, “Well, I can't figure it out”? Of course not, you are not supposed to. If you have reached the point of having looked at it, read it, thought about it, wondered about it, and memorized it, you have only started. That is not the finish. You have not yet begun to meditate at that point. No. If you are going to meditate you will not try to understand it, you will not take the text or the inspired words and treat them like a puppy would treat a rag doll, just to wool them around. You will not take them and try to understand them and struggle with them. That is not meditation. You will look at them. You will memorize them, yes, but not just to repeat them over and over. But you look at them and keep looking, and stop trying to understand them, and let your heart blend with the spirit in them, and keep looking, and look some more, and meditate, not repeating. Once you have memorized them you do not need to repeat them. Your mind may go over them gently, caressing each word like something much loved.
Did you ever go over a passage of inspired words mentally, spiritually, caressing every word with all the love of your being, just meditating, holding each word like you would hold a little angel from heaven close to your breast? Did you ever look at each word like a loving parent looks at a baby, not trying to figure anything out, just looking? Did you not ever look at a baby and just look, not trying to dream any dream of what the child shall be, not wondering anything, just looking and enjoying the looking? Did you not? If you have never had a baby of your own to do that, any child will do. Did you not? If you have not, you have not learned how to meditate. Just to look and to love, and then to caress mentally and open your heart and enfold without any effort to understand. Do not try to understand. What is there to understand? What are you concerned about? You are supposed to be meditating, not trying to understand. If you are trying to understand you are certainly are not meditating. No. Just to enfold and to caress with your heart and your mind, and to look at it some more, and to consider—not just for an hour, not just for a day—perhaps for many days, and perhaps sooner or later you will pick up some other inspired passage. Do not try to exhaust all the potential in any passage when you meditate upon it. If you try to get everything out of it you will have nothing.
If you take any passage and try to get everything out of it you will have nothing when you get through. You will ruin it all. If you are going to entertain the spirits of God in your heart you cannot be entertaining the spirits which are in opposition to God all the time. You will have to make a choice. And if you would entertain the Lord in your heart you must entertain His Spirit first. Until His Spirit is at home in your heart do you think He would be? That loneliness, that yearning, that longing, which you have known, was it not the sweet desire for such communion, for such meditation? Was it not a recognition that when you truly love the Lord and open your heart to Him you will begin to know the true spirit of the words: The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the flowers appear on the earth, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair, one and come away.
Come away from what? Come away from those things which are dark and forbidding, unwholesome and unreal. Come away into the joys of the heavenly atmosphere which you can let appear on earth. If you are busy producing the wrong atmosphere, what think you? Could you enjoy the right atmosphere? Do you expect someone else to force it upon you, to provide it for you, to surround you with it so that you can’t get away from it? Do you think that then you would enjoy it and know it? As you meditate, you find that the next step in meditation is to let the spirit of that upon which you meditate find expression in your life.
You will not be trying to get anything—not even trying to get understanding—when you meditate. You will be finding the way to let the spirit of that on which you meditate have expression in your thoughts, in your words, in your actions—to watch your attitudes, and to see wherein they fail to reveal the spirit of your meditation; and if you find that which is contrary to your meditation you will deliberately consider it and let it changed and molded to the pattern of your heavenly meditation. There is nothing on the face of the earth in the unreal realm which can withstand the reality of heavenly meditation allowed to have expression in your life, so that you will be giving form to that which shall be provision for the LORD on earth. You will be doing what Abraham did, inviting the Lord to come to your tent, to your house, to your heart. And if you prepare no calf, tender and good—what does the calf symbolize? Your mind—your self-active mind is supposed to be tender and good for the Lord’s use. It ceases self-activity. You prepare the bread. You invite the Lord to rest under your tree, the tree of your life. And you entertain the Lord, and you prepare to receive Him. You receive His Spirit and give it expression in form, in physical function in living on earth. You begin to let the Garden of God have form in your life, in your thought and words and deeds, in your attitudes—for in meditation you are not trying to get understanding, or anything else. You are practicing the art of letting heavenly things take for because you live.
So many people practice, deliberately practice, how they can give form to something mean and ugly, how they can say something to hurt someone, how they can “get even,” as they say; how they can give body to their resentments—on all of these things they meditate. But how about that meditation wherein you give deliberate thought to giving form in your life to the things of the spirit of God, that there may ne a sweet communion in your soul, and that you may begin to keep sacred things sacred, that you may let all resentment be cast out, and that in loving God and entertaining the Lord and His Spirit on earth you may love your neighbor as yourself. And so, in the giving—in the giving of yourself—in the spirit of your meditation you shall live and be a blessing to the children of men. And only as you are a blessing can you glorify our Father in heaven.
