The Tomb is In the Garden
Martin Cecil April 17, 1960 5:25 am
It is a beautiful Easter morning. The sun is already shining on the top of the Ridge to the west. The darkness of the night has given way to the dawn of a new day. We recall that the world of mankind is in the darkness of the tomb. That first Easter Day it was dark in the tomb, and the tomb was in the midst of a Garden. It is interesting that this earth, whether it is day or night on the surface of it, is enfolded in the radiance of the sun. The radiance of the sun reaches out far beyond the orbit of the uttermost planet. We see the light from stars shining at night from many light years away—thousands of light years away, many of them, even millions. So, on out there somewhere the light of this sun shines. It extends away out. And this little planet is quite close to the sun, enfolded constantly in the radiance of the sun. Even as the tomb was in the midst of a Garden, this earth is not a tomb of itself but the world which man has built is a tomb—and it is in the midst of the Garden. As long as it is a tomb and the stone is on the mouth of it, it does not matter which way the earth turns, the fact of the shining of the sun is unknown. As long as our Master lay in the tomb, the fact that the Garden was there was an unknown thing, but when the stone was rolled away the tomb was found to be a womb, and our Lord and King came forth into the Garden.
Human beings are called to come forth from the tomb which the world of man is, that they may find themselves in the midst of the Garden. The Garden is present, even as our Master said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Mankind remains unaware of that truth by reason of the fact that it is in the tomb. It is dark in the tomb, even though the dawn may have come. But when the stone is rolled away, then there begins to be the opportunity of coming forth. The hardness of human hearts, the fixed patterns of belief and concept of the human mind, constitute the stone upon the mouth of the tomb. Human beings are in the tomb and, for the most part, do not realize that there is anything but the tomb. They imagine there is light in there when there is not.
As we behold the sun rising to shine upon Eden Valley this morning we are aware of the the reality of light, the reality of that which symbolizes the Garden in relationship to the tomb. How good it is to know that the dawn comes, something not just in imagination, something not just remembered of an occurrence of long ago, but something which may be experienced today in this hour as, yielding to that Kingdom which is at hand, we may let the stone be rolled away from the tomb, so that the things of God may be allowed to come forth through us into manifest expression on earth. This is the resurrection to which we turn today, that we may know the truth of it in this hour and in all the hours to come—the springing forth into manifestation through ourselves of those things which come from God, the shining of the light, the dawn of a new day. “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” and we may have the privilege of knowing that it is so.
It is a beautiful morning, cool but a beautiful morning—and we behold the sun rising. What a wonderful world God created. Let us share in letting it be restored to Him. God Bless you, each one.
The Master’s Prayer Of Intercession
Uranda November 2, 1949
The Spirit of Intercession gives meaning to one of the outstanding characteristics of the Christ Expression on earth. The Spirit of Intercession made manifest through our Master when He was on earth was outstanding, and as He outlined the basis upon which the One Christ Body should be formed, by reason of which His Ministry on earth might continue, He made it plain that the Spirit of Intercession should find expression through the Branches of the One Vine, through the Members of the One Body. The world is full of those who are ready to sit in the Judgment seat; the world is full of those who are quick to bring accusation; the world is full of those who are ready to portray in word and attitude that which they conceive to be wrong with others, which they look down upon or condemn. It is not good to be an accuser of the Children of God. Nowhere do we find the Master instructing that we should be accusers one of another, setting ourselves up in judgment to condemn one another, but rather He said: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what Judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” [Matthew 7:1]
Of all the wonderful words which He spoke, there are none more touching, more illuminating, more revealing, than those which are recorded in the closing Prayer of His Ministry on earth just before the mockery of His trial and the ignoble journey to Golgotha, the “Place of the Skull.” The Prayer with which He concluded His Ministry and His instruction to those who should follow Him, whether in that day or in this, was recorded and has come down to us, and it is my thought that we should consider His Words together tonight. This Prayer is called His Prayer of Intercession, for you, for each one who turns to God, whosoever, wheresoever he may be: [Read John 17]
When we meditate upon the wonder and the glory and the beauty of these words and of what they mean to us tonight, we must recognize that there is nothing that can be added to increase the wonder of them; there is nothing that can be said to increase the beauty. There only remains the necessity that, in letting go in Love Response to God, each one shall feel and know the Illuminating Fire that burns within every word that each may let these words have true and lasting meaning in heart and mind and body and soul, for He, when He was on earth, prayed for us tonight, and for all who should believe on Him. Therefore, let us let His Prayer be answered in our lives that we may be made perfect in one, to His Glory and to the Blessing of all who will receive, IN the Christ.
O LORD of Lords, I thank Thee that it is so, for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. Aum-en. The Peace of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you in the Way, that you may rest in the Lord and let the Father do the works, to the end that the Light of His Love may shine through you in Blessing to all who will receive. Peace be unto you.
© emissaries of divine light
Out of the Tomb
Martin Cecil April 16, 1960
When man first fell, in his endeavor to be as God he proceeded to use his body and his various capacities for expression to distort, to prevent and to nullify the Divine expression through himself on earth—symbolically, this is portrayed as crucifixion. That which occurred in relationship to our Master Himself was a revelation of that which man had been doing ever since he first fell. Our Master came into the world to offer human beings an opportunity to let some changes come, so that the crucifying of things Divine on earth might cease. It is evident that the opportunity was rejected. And so, that which occurred in relationship to our Master was merely the evidence, brought to focalized point, of that which had been true of mankind ever since he first fell. The expression of the only begotten Son of God had been crucified and prevented from manifesting through the children of men by reason of human self-activity. The opportunity to let the essential changes come, having been rejected, then that which had been true of mankind as a whole was brought to bear in relationship to the body of Jesus, so that there might be, amongst other things, a clear revelation of what human beings had been doing. That clear revelation has apparently not been recognized yet. Human beings have continued to do exactly the same thing as they did before our Master came—namely, distort, prevent, and nullify the expression of the only begotten Son of God through themselves on earth. If that particular event which is commemorated at Eastertime has not yet shocked human beings into a vivid recognition of their own abject failure, then I wonder what would.
Everything that is of God is eternal. It does not pass away, therefore it must be present with us in this moment. Only the things which are not of God pass away—the untrue pattern, the untrue form, those things pass away. Therefore when human beings look back to that which has been experienced in the past, when they look back to our Master's life on earth, they do not see, actually, what it was, because the Truth in relationship to our Master's life is present with us now—the Truth does not pass away. Attempting to look back and understand our Master's life and experience cannot give a true picture, because the things that are back there are the things that have passed away. It is only as there is recognition of the relatedness of that back there to this present moment that the things of God in relationship to it can be seen. This principle operates in relationship to everything, not just to our Master's life. In our consideration of that which is contained in the Bible you know very well that we look at it from the standpoint of its meaning to us now. The concepts which human beings have about our Master do not present a true picture. It is only when we see it in the light of the present moment that we can know the Truth, because our contact with the Truth is in the present moment, and the Truth does not pass away.
In the Easter season the story as it is recorded in the New Testament is recalled. Human beings consider it again, but almost entirely on the basis of looking back to something, and what they see is not a true picture; it cannot be; whether it is with respect to our Master’s life or to the concluding experiences of it. It is only as we see these things as they relate to ourselves here and now that meaning begins to appear and that we begin to gain a true vision of what it was that occurred long ago. The approach, then, is in relationship to immediate application with respect to ourselves here and now. When we begin to comprehend that, then we can begin to comprehend the situation as it was long ago. In this we can see why there are so many ideas with respect to what did happen, and none of them are true—they are all colored and distorted.
In the experience through which our Master passed—the mockery of the trial, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the abuse, and finally the crucifixion—the opportunity was offered to human beings at that time, when that was the present moment, to see in that experience what human beings as a whole had been doing to that which comes from God all down through the ages. It was brought to point for them there and then, but of course they did not see it and consequently they could not understand that which had been working out in relationship to the human race before. Because they did not see the Truth in its application to them there in that moment, they certainly did not comprehend or understand what it was that had been transpiring in relationship to the human race before that time. Because you have begun to recognize the application of Truth in relationship to your own living here and now you have gained some understanding of the Truth as it applies to the past, so that you can see something of the outworking of events, so that you can see something of the picture as it actually is in relationship to the human race. Mankind has been crucifying the Divine expression through itself for many thousands of years—distorting and nullifying the characteristics of God, preventing them from appearing through human beings on earth in the achievement of the Divine purposes. There has been, and is, an attempt to nullify God on earth.
We see it in its extreme form today, where man places himself as being the supreme apex of everything and God is not supposed to exist. It is a foolish idea, really. By reason of this endeavor on man's part, human beings have placed themselves in a tomb. This fallen world of man is one great tomb, the valley of the shadow of death. The darkness of the world is the darkness of the tomb. As long as human beings remain under the controlling influences of that Egyptian darkness—black magic—there is a process of disintegration. Human bodies, from the moment that they are born into this world, are disintegrating. Everything that man builds is in the process of disintegrating. Blood and sweat and tears maintain what man builds for a little time but, sooner or later, down it goes! The world of man is the tomb in which disintegration and decay take place. But it can be transmuted into something else. If there was an integrating process rather than a disintegrating process, then the nature of this darkened world would change from a tomb into a womb. It is dark in the womb—in the formation of the body of the babe in the womb there is an integrating process; something is taking form; there is a design. In the womb there may be a process of building which finally comes to a point of birth.
In our Master's own personal experience the tomb was transmuted into the womb, for there was no process of disintegration; the stone was rolled away and the physical body of Jesus came forth in birth out of the womb. These things have a direct relationship to ourselves, for we find ourselves in the tomb of this fallen world, the same as everyone else. Shall we just take the attitude that it is a tomb, and that is all there is to it?—which is the general viewpoint of human beings: “Everybody dies, after all, this world is a tomb, we all disintegrate.” This is the accepted viewpoint, is it not? Anything else would be considered to be utterly fanciful, visionary and foolish. How much have human beings seen of the Truth in relationship to that which our Master revealed?
If the tomb could become a womb for Him, the tomb can become a womb for us, so that that which transpires changes from a process of disintegration to a process of integration. Our Master revealed the way for all human beings everywhere, in this present moment, not something “way back when.” We might well be reminded of some words which He spoke: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me”—if any man will share in proving that which He proved. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,” (as a human being) “and take up his cross, and follow me.” The cross has usually been looked upon as some burden, but the cross to which our Master referred certainly had nothing to do with that which was a revelation of man's failure—He was pointing to the way of victory. The way of victory does not lie in man's crucifixion of things Divine on earth. The cross relates to the facilities of man's being, body and mind and heart, the means created by God by which things Divine might cross over into the earth. Our Master did not say anything about denying ourselves “things.” He said, “Let him deny himself.” Stop trying to defend and uphold and protect that which you are as a human being. Here we have reference to the change which is necessary from a self-centered state to a God-centered state. Let him deny himself.
What did He do when He was on earth? He revealed Deity—the facilities of His being were used to that end. His capacities were filled full of Divine expression. He offered Divine leadership on earth. Human beings have been trying to follow God for a long time, and they have not made a very good job of it, because they are trying to follow something that is incomprehensible to them. No, we should not follow human beings, but human beings were created by God as a means for the Divine expression on earth—Divine expression is supposed to come through human beings. Our Master, when He was on earth, invited human beings to follow Him. Why? Because the Divine expression was appearing through Him. He was not inviting them to follow a man, a human being as such, but to follow God made manifest through Him—and He indicated that this was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is only as God is made comprehensible by reason of the expression that comes through a human being that God can be known.
The world is waiting for the Divine leadership, but where is it going to come from? Well, from God of course—it could not be Divine leadership if it did not come from God. But how is it going to appear, if not through human beings? If we deny ourselves as human beings, take up our cross and offer it to God, then we may follow our Master in that which He did. What was it He did? He revealed Deity on earth and He provided Divine leadership on earth. This is the only way by which Divine leadership can be known on earth. But the Truth is not known until the individual recognizes how it applies in relationship to himself here and now: the experience of denying himself, taking up his cross and following our Master, actually doing it—letting it be done through oneself. Most human beings claim that they are too humble. “It could not be me!” If we all say that, who is it? Why should it be any less you than anyone else, or any more someone else than you?
Somewhere, sometime, through someone, the Truth must become known if the Truth is to have any meaning on earth. Just to think about it, talk about it, read about it, may delude some people into imagining that something is being accomplished but it is not until the individual accepts the Truth for him or herself in the present moment. Might we permit the tomb of the Egyptian darkness of this world to be transformed into a womb for us? so that because we are no longer centered in the patterns of the world’s black magic, no longer governed by the spirits of this world, no longer subscribing to the ideas and beliefs, concepts of this world, but beginning to find a centering in Heavenly Magic, a centering in Life, we may permit the experience of resurrection, or rebirth, to bring us forth from the tomb of the world’s darkness into the Garden of God on earth. It is here, waiting for someone to come into it, to come out of the darkness of the tomb in the dawn of a new day into the Garden of God. This invitation is extended to you, to all people. How would it be to accept it? not letting the human mind put forward its arguments to confuse, not being governed by fear or unbelief, but sharing in the true vision which permits the tomb to become a womb. Let us rest in the womb tonight, that we may discover what the dawn of a new day shall bring. Peace be unto you.
© emissaries of divine light
The One Passion
Martin Exeter April 22, 1984
Easter is presumably the most important day of the year in the Christian world—on this day there is presumably celebrated the resurrection of Jesus, and His emergence out of the sepulcher into the Garden. This event is believed in by a great number of people; it forms the basis of the Christian doctrine. It is an event, however, that is certainly not understood by anyone. To vast numbers of people it is simply a myth. Something did happen, however, which had considerable impact, first of all upon those who were immediately aware of it. It seems to have transformed their characters considerably. Here was something that apparently happened to one man. His emergence from the tomb into the garden is what is celebrated as the resurrection. I would suggest, however, that the resurrection was not just a momentary thing. It included the whole cycle of life of this particular person, from the moment of conception all the way through. This period of time could be seen as the cycle of the resurrection. It came to climax at a certain point, but it could never have come to that climax if it wasn’t for everything that went before.
There is a record contained in the Bible which purports to outline something of the latter few years, at least, of this man’s presence on earth. No doubt the record has been doctored somewhat in order to emphasize what was subsequently included in the doctrines of Christianity. But here is the story of one man who passed through the whole cycle of resurrection, whatever that really is. During the last three years of this man’s presence on earth He drew unto Himself certain ones who were called disciples, and other people as well, thus allowing His personal, physical form to include more than His own flesh body. Those who were drawn apparently did not permit their adequate inclusion in this expanded body. I suppose the reason for this could be summarized in the words, “the hardness of human hearts.” So, while He had disciples and some followers, it is quite obvious that even those who were closest to Him had little understanding of what it was He was present on earth to do.
It may be said that He was present on earth to move through this cycle of resurrection, but it need not have been merely for Him alone. He opened the door and offered the opportunity to others, who were drawn to Him, to participate in His body and therefore to move in the cycle of resurrection. As I say, this evidently never occurred—there is a point in the record which makes that clear—so that He was left alone, just with His own physical body, to assume the total responsibility of completing the cycle of resurrection. Apparently the only way it could be completed was through the events which took shape in those last days before His body was placed in the tomb. The crucifixion was included in this. Christians have been inclined to make a big deal out of that, and certainly it was a most horrendous event—most particularly for the One who had to go through it. He chose to go through it. He didn’t object; He didn’t complain about the injustice of it all; He didn’t blame anyone. In fact He maintained the attitude of forgiveness throughout, and He moved through whatever came and completed the cycle of the resurrection.
It need not have been that way if human hearts hadn’t been as hard as they evidently were—and, I might say, are for the most part in the world today. But it was the way it was. He Himself assumed the total responsibility for completing the cycle of the resurrection, doing it alone through His one, personal body. The opportunity had been rejected to let it happen through a body of many members at that time; but it was done in any case by Him, and the door was thereby opened for the resurrection to occur, later, for the body of mankind. The initial opportunity in that regard had been rejected. There have been those who have tried to pick it up later, notably those who are included in the Christian world; but that opportunity went, and it seems to have taken nearly two thousand years for the body, His body, which might have appeared when He was on earth, to begin to take form so that He might be provided with a body on earth. “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” until all that is necessary had been done to allow a factual, living body to be made available on earth for His incarnation and for the completion of the cycle of resurrection. The cycle was only completed insofar as His particular form was concerned in those far-distant days. It has not, certainly, been completed insofar as the form of mankind is concerned.
It could be easily recognized that there are two ways to go. One could go into the tomb—and most people usually do—and not come out of it. There are those who espouse the Christian doctrine, even other doctrines, who anticipate some emergence in the future. I am not sure how intelligent people can swallow the idea that, having disintegrated in the tomb, one should be put together again and come out. Where is the dust of our forebears? Some of it is still in the tombs I suppose, but a lot of it is scattered abroad, composing other forms, even our own. Who knows where the atoms went? And if all our forebears were bent upon collecting the dust of their bodies there would be quite a scramble, wouldn’t there?— some of it in the vegetation, some of it in animals, some of it in living people. Oh my! A rather peculiar belief.
But there is some dust around, a good deal of it sitting here in Chapel, capable of providing the substance for the form of a body which could accommodate the incarnation of the One who was long ago called Jesus. If we are alive to these things and have a certain understanding and experience of them, it is surely our passion to provide the substance necessary for His body on earth—not a human organization, some sort of religious organization, but a living form drawn together, coordinated, functioning in health and strength, by reason of that spirit which He brought to focus long ago, in action now. It is in action now. Many of you know that in your own experience, not because you try to believe something but because that spirit has already wrought at least some transformation in you. Part of that transformation has presumably drawn you together to sit in the Chapel this morning. Those who are here are certainly not the only ones who have been participating in this transformation, which is part of the cycle of resurrection. What else is to come remains to be seen. Let us not speculate.
There are those who might say, “Well look what happened to Jesus in the cycle of resurrection.” He did, after all, come forth from the tomb however; that is the purpose of resurrection, surely. As I say, there are always two alternatives: We can go into the tomb and not come out, or we can go into it and come out. But we only come out of it to the extent that we participate in the cycle of resurrection. It is not a matter of looking to the day sometime, as so many Christians do. The day is now! One is either a part of the cycle of resurrection or not. And if one is not a part of that cycle what is one a part of? The cycle of disintegration presumably. And we can see quite easily that happening too in the world, in the lives of human beings everywhere; there is much disintegration.
But we are also aware, from the standpoint of our own experience, that there is a cycle of integration, or resurrection, in which we have been invited to participate. We have been invited, actually, because we are aware of it; that is the invitation. Others on earth may be quite unaware of it; therefore they have not received the invitation yet. How is the invitation going to be conveyed to them? Surely by those who have accepted the invitation, who are aware of the fact of it and have accepted it, and so they have the invitation. It’s their own experience, and because it is so, then there is an invitation to offer to others. If one has not the experience oneself one has nothing to offer to anyone else. This is one of the sad elements in human experience, isn’t it? So many people have been trying to offer something that they didn’t have.
Let this body be drawn together because human hearts now are not hardened against it. Of course it requires more than trying to soften one’s heart, because how would you do that? What sort of an effort should be made? None at all. No human being can soften his heart by self-effort. All people on earth have inherited hard hearts from their forebears, so everybody is in the same boat: starting out with a hard heart and an unwillingness to relinquish that state. It is, after all, the usual human state: Everybody is that way; it must be right. Yet we look around and complain about all the things that are wrong.
So here we are participating in the cycle of resurrection; I suppose one could say, whether we like it or not. There was a good deal of resistance in everybody’s experience heretofore, and I doubt if it’s all gone yet. Nevertheless that magnetic force, that drawing power of spirit, is present and has drawn together a body which is in the process of being coordinated to become one body, so that the Lord, who was incarnate in the body of Jesus, might say, “This is My body.” Oh a lot of Christians have been listening to these words for a long time in connection with the communion service: the bread, and the wine—“This is My blood.” Blood, the symbol of life—it is the symbol of life when the bloodstream flows where it is supposed to flow, in the body. It has been the habit of human beings to imagine that somehow, by letting the blood out of the body, that is going to produce some remarkable salvation. It is true that in the crucifixion of Jesus there was some blood spilled, shed, and flowed out of the body. But the blood belongs in the body, not out of it. I suspect that most everyone knows that. Let’s be sensible then. Let’s let it be in the body; let the lifestream flow in the body. It can’t flow in the body if there isn’t any body to flow in; so let the body come together. And it is not just a matter of trying to soften our hearts; you may have learned something along those lines. It is a matter of allowing a passion to be known for whatever is necessary to allow this body to come together for the One who incarnates in it. That is the one passion that is necessary.
Human beings have all kinds of passions, some of them supposedly commendable, others more reprehensible. But whether they are commendable or reprehensible, that’s not the one passion that is required. There are those who generate considerable passion which is based in their human abilities. There have been some very passionate musicians, for instance, some very passionate artists. There have been some very passionate people in every field of human endeavor who have really poured themselves into it. Those sorts of passions are usually thought of as commendable passions; there is something constructive, creative, about them. It’s not true! What a shattering thing: it’s not true. Whether the passion is deemed to be commendable or reprehensible makes utterly no difference. All these are ways of avoiding the one passion that is required. The endeavor to produce a human world which will include all the beautiful things that the commendable passions produce is a false endeavor. And of course all the good people—I’m not exactly sure who they are, any more than I am sure who all the evil people are—would frown upon the reprehensible passions, which bring forth obviously destructive things. But all human passions, no matter what direction they move in, bring forth destructive things ultimately. “Oh if we only had a world filled with beautiful music! That would be perfect.” Not for everyone, would it? Some people like one kind of music, some people like another kind of music. Some people just like noise! So passionate people try to impose their particular aspect of passion upon others. And all this avoids the one thing that is necessary: the passion to allow the resurrection of the body of mankind to come again to completion. This was represented by the One called Jesus. He let it happen as one person. Christians have been inclined to feel that that was all that was necessary. He did it; that gives us excuse for not doing it presumably, for not sharing in that passion to let the body come together. That’s the one passion that is needful.
There are those who follow out their passions this way and that. In the Emissary ministry I have heard people from time to time indicate that they feel that they should move on to something else. Some do this with considerable passion; others are more reasonable, they think, and try to let it work out in a different way. But movement from place to place is movement in form, isn’t it, from geographical position to geographical position. This is always, in the initial human experience, a misinterpretation. What is coming to a person is an awareness of the need for change. And because human beings are mostly polarized in the realm of form, they give weight to that. Then the obvious interpretation is that “I should move from here to there and that will be the change.” Oh no, no change! The change is an internal one. The invitation is being extended for an internal change, not an external one. This is always the case initially. It may be that internal changes would be made easier, the individual thinks, if he were there, rather than here. But regardless of such views in the matter, the one thing that is necessary is to let the internal change come, and it doesn’t really matter where a person is. He has got his insides with him wherever he is! Once the internal changes come, so that the passion comes for the one body, so that everything that the individual does is designed to enhance the bringing together, the fusion, the oneness, of that one body, then a person is quite unconcerned as to where he may be in the external sense.
We all have our associations with people, and presumably we find ourselves being associated with those who are being drawn into this one body. I am not at the moment speaking to those who are not being drawn into the one body but to those who are, whether they are here in the Chapel or anywhere else. And so there are associations. How shall one behave to allow those associations to be what they should be? One can avoid that one passion by judgment, as we have already recognized, by looking at other people and saying, “Well they should change. So-and-so is not behaving the way he should.” What arrogance! How does anyone know? That is their business anyway, and each person will reap the harvest of his own sowing. Let it alone! But how shall one experience a natural blending with other people? This has been virtually impossible, hasn’t it, in the human world. Maybe just for a little while you can get along, but not for long. How shall this blending occur?
We need to have such a passion for the body that we are willing to let anything be done, to allow anything to happen in oneself, to do anything, to let it occur, so that there may be this one body. As there is a fusion into this one body, then there are many directions that one can go in handling the responsibilities that arise, but you can only handle the responsibilities rightly as part of that one body. No one can be whole except in that one body. Yet people in general—I’m sure most of us included, maybe all of us—have done so much to prevent the experience of blending into that one body. It’s not a body that is being foisted on anybody. It only appears as there are those who are passionately willing that it should, who are willing to—what? Lose their lives. You can’t lose life; you can only lose what is going to pass away sooner or later anyhow.
Life is in the body. The experience of life can only be known in the body. This body has been absent from the face of the earth for thousands of years and everybody has been dying. Rather than let that state of affairs change, all sorts of theories have been concocted which are supposed to provide an explanation as to what really is going to happen, when the experience of what is happening is rejected. There is one body. Let us be passionately concerned to let it take form and fuse together. How? There is a little word you have heard once or twice before: Love.
The body takes form according to the design of truth. It operates under the control of truth, not any human control. Human beings want to insert their two bits’ worth all the time, try to make things work out the way they think they should, the way they want them to work out. But there is something working out anyway, that will not be set aside. It keeps on setting human beings aside; generation after generation it sets them aside because of the unwillingness to move in that creative process, in the process of the resurrection. As we begin to yield to that process because we have a passion to let it be fulfilled, then we are not following out this direction, that direction, the other direction, after all our human passions, the things we think we should be doing. There is one thing that we should be doing, that anyone should be doing, and that is letting the body take form. Just one thing!
Once we begin to experience what that actually means then we are a part of the body, and the body does whatever is to be done. It may require the individual to participate in a particular way, but what is being done is being done by the body and not by the individual. How human beings want to inflate their own egos and make themselves grand and glorious, reveal how intelligent and brilliant they are. There have been brilliant human beings in every generation, but look at the world! So we share the opportunity of participating in the cycle of the resurrection because the body comes together, unifies, blends in oneness. There have been those who have been afraid they are going to lose themselves. Are you so valuable? As a human being, are you so valuable? The fact of the matter is that only in the body can one find oneself. That’s the only place where one is, in reality. Extracted from that experience you lose yourself—sometimes quickly, sometimes more gradually. Let the body take form because there is the passion.
We are concerned, surely, with the truth of the resurrection, not with the doctrines of human beings but with the truth which emerges in one’s own experience by reason of the fact that one has a passion oneself. You can’t ride in on the passion of somebody else. Each person must have that passion, to let participation in this body, which is being drawn together anyway, be known for what it really is. Then there is the resurrection—an ultimate point somewhere, supposedly, but it is a cycle. One has to move through the whole unfoldment of the process, and the process is working through the body. If one stands to one side and says, “Oh let it work through the body,” well it may work through the body all right but not through you. And we can condemn ourselves quite easily, as generation after generation of human beings have been doing, or we can in these days come out of it and share the actual experience of the resurrection and the life—not a religious experience but an experience of being oneself, here. Religion will never produce that experience. Religion, after all, is simply an interpretation—they are many and varied, by the way—of some transcendent truth. If there has to be an interpretation it is because the person doesn’t know what the truth is. Human beings are constantly interpreting everything, simply because they don’t know what anything is, and they have piles upon piles of interpretations— they are called books!—to try to convince themselves that they know something. They don’t know anything! That’s a terrible thing to say; after all, you’ve struggled for years to accumulate all this knowledge and look at the progress that is being made! Progress where? Where is it going?
No, there is only One Way, One Truth and One Life, just One: the life of that One Body. If that is not shared, well where does life go? We find ourselves without it, because life is in the body. Only to the extent that we may be a part of the body—and for most people it is a very temporary part—is life known. Because there is life in the carcass of mankind yet, fortunately there is a chance for the resurrection yet, therefore. Let’s let it happen. Let’s let it come together in our own experience, so that we know the truth of the resurrection and the life in our momentary living. We have One Passion. I suppose passions have sometimes been called ambitions in the human world, and it is desirable, so they say, that everybody should have an ambition of some kind: you’ll never get anywhere without an ambition. You’ll never get anywhere with it, except into the tomb, without very much chance of coming out of it.
What a beautiful day this is if we just allow this inherent passion to take us in the way that it would, into the Body of the Son of God. The Body of the Son of God was called the Son of Man. The Son of God is present in His Body and He lives, but His living has no meaning unless there is a form through which it can be expressed, be revealed. We are here to let that happen, and not only at Easter, by the way, but obviously in a consistent and continuous manner, where the human ambitions, the human passions, are set aside in favor of this One Passion which brings the fulfilment for which everybody longs but which thus far everybody has rejected: the fulfilment of life, the fulfilment of the resurrection. We have this opportunity now, together with everybody else; we wouldn’t be exclusive about it. But nobody else knows anything about it unless we accept it, somebody accepts it, somehow it is allowed to appear. Then somebody who doesn’t now know may find out. So we move in this way in the resurrection and the life, in the fulfilment that is waiting to be known as the body comes together because there are those who are willing to let it be so. So it is!
© emissaries of divine light
