Your Job And Mine

 Your  Job  And  Mine

Martin Cecil   February 19, 1984

Everything always comes to focus in the present moment. This is the present moment. This is the point of fulfilment when the fire from heaven is differentiated into the earth. How is it to happen now? We can think up analogies and have some ideas about it, which indeed may be helpful at times, assisting in the opening of the door by which the fire may fall and actually be known by each one in the present moment. We use words such as “fire,” even “love,” which only describe something which must actually happen in experience to be known. We do not know it merely by the use of words.

Our concern has been, in particular my concern has been over the years, to allow the creative working of spirit to bring forth a Unified Body of individuals which would be capable of letting the fire fall from heaven—one way of describing it—of participating directly and immediately in the creative process which is and always has been operating. This Body comes into alignment, rightly, with the working of that creative process so that the experience of that working can be known. As we have all realized, if we stand a little off to one side all we can have are some ideas about it. If we are fairly close they may be good ideas, I suppose, but still only imagination. Only as the alignment is absolute can the truth be known. If the light emanates from you there are no shadows to be seen. The shadows are only there when one is apart from the light, separate from it; then there are shadows all around and there is wondering about them. We let ourselves come into alignment. As I say, my principal reason for being present with you and others is to fulfil a commission or a responsibility which is mine: to permit this unified form composed of individual people to come into alignment with the creative process. Down along the way over many, many years there has been a good deal of fussing this way and that, people struggling with all kinds of things, overlooking the one purpose for which anyone is on earth. And there is still a certain amount of fussing going on, a certain amount of trying to understand and not understanding, when all that has ever been necessary has been to come into alignment, as a person individually, with the already existing and working creative process. If you do that you know it. If you don’t do it you don’t know it, and you wonder what all the talk is about.

This unified, fused Body which has been in the process of taking form over a long time—or a short time, depending what time frame you are putting it in—has been for the sole purpose of assuming responsibility for the creative process on earth. We have called it administering the creative process, which doesn’t really describe what is required, but indicates at least something. This is the responsibility of those individuals who compose this Body—not my responsibility. My responsibility is to do what I might to allow the Body to take form. That is my reason for being present on earth. Whether I have succeeded or not still remains to be seen. But that has very little to do with the responsibility which rests upon the individuals who compose the Body, for what is to happen is their responsibility—not mine. It is absolutely in the hands of each one.

I have sought to discharge my own responsibility the best I knew how over the years. I have you to show for it! There are some others as well. But I have not really done my job that well if you, individually speaking, do not assume the responsibility of alignment with the creative process. That implies that you are no longer trying to work things out yourself. To most people, not trying to work things out yourself leaves a blank. To the extent that I have done my job well it doesn't leave a blank insofar as you are concerned; it leaves you in position to do what you are here to do. But remember, it's not what I’m here to do. No use looking to me to get your job done—I’m not here to do that. I was here and have been here to do something else. I suppose if I’ve done a good job there comes a point when I am not necessary anymore. That’s all right with me; I trust it’s all right with you too. We are quite willing to let things work the way they work. But I am making this distinction this evening principally to bring a little greater intensity perhaps to your responsibility, because you can’t look to anyone else to do it—least of all me. This is not the reason for my presence on earth [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2022/03/now-or-neverfocus-of-essences.html] but it is the reason for yours, and we are not very useful unless we acknowledge the reason for our presence.

So the fire falls from heaven if you give it focus, individually speaking, in your particular creative field. That means the place where you are and with respect to the circumstances in that place, whatever they may be in a given moment, and with respect to the people who are present with you in that place. And so the creative expression of your living comes into alignment with the creative process as a whole to the extent that you actually do bring to focus what is falling from heaven in your dealings with your circumstances and with the people immediately around you. Do you have an understanding respect, for instance, for other people? This should be very easy for those who are participating in this creative process. Are you going to look at your fellow and say: “I’m participating in this more than you are”—really? How do you know? Why not have respect for yourself and for everybody else too, so that you treat others with care and with understanding?—not so much because they might have the opportunity of feeling that they are being understood, as to reveal what it means to understand, something which may be shared by anyone.

We have talked a lot in times past about self-centeredness. It is the human state. Is it transcended in our own experience? We come to know whether it is or not by the way we handle each other, our affairs, with love, thoughtfulness, respect. We have a base to stand on, after all. Let’s stand on it then, and stay on it, so that what needs to happen may do so. And we’ll find out what that is because there is factually spiritual expression, which is love in expression at whatever level may be fitting in the moment. Sometimes that love finds expression without any particular form. That might be called atmosphere. You have substance in which to enfold another person. Maybe that is all that is necessary. Sometimes when others seem to get a little uppity, maybe that’s all that’s necessary. You don't need to feel, “Well I’ve got to put that person in his place.” Perhaps there are occasions when one may need to do something directly, but how much can be achieved in the atmosphere of love! You don’t need to tell anyone how to behave or what to do, because you don’t know. You are in the process of finding out how you should behave and what you should do—that’s all that’s necessary. And if what finds expression through you is what it should be, that is a very effective influence with respect to other people. You don’t have to whip anyone into line—into what line?

Love one another. That has very practical meaning. We find that out when we do it, when that is our natural expression, spiritual expression—the spirit of blessing, the spirit of the single eye, the spirit of the new earth. Is that your spirit in each circumstance with respect to each person? This isn’t a sort of schedule that you get set up, so the same thing comes out of you for everybody: you deem this to be the spirit of blessing and the spirit of the single eye and the spirit of new earth. No. It is said of Solomon that he was wise. He evidently had a sense of the fitness of things, which is natural to one who has an understanding heart. One begins to discern, to perceive what is necessary without judgment, because here is something coming down from God out of heaven into the situation. You are responsible for putting it there. You are not responsible for trying to manipulate the situation to suit some idea you may have in mind. Get it out of your mind. Let your eye be single and your whole body is full of light—no shadows.

Shadows in the physical form of course relate to what human beings call illness or disease, troubles of various sorts physically speaking. Where there is a single eye one necessarily handles one’s physical form as it should be handled. You don’t let it handle you. A lot of people do. Physical form gets upset and that determines the individual's expression, the type of spirit that is going to be expressed, very often. Our behavior is not rightly determined by the way we feel, either physically or because of some emotional upset or some mental problem. We don’t need to define it as a problem, in which case it would be less troublesome at least. We have all these things that we have been accustomed to, and most people are desirous of living the way to which they are accustomed. The way people are accustomed to living—or to dying, would be a more accurate statement—is the way they behave because of their physical, mental and emotional states. These have ruled, telling everyone how to behave; “Not feeling so good today; you can’t expect me to be nice. I am going to be venomous today because something is troubling me.” That’s self-centeredness, isn’t it? I don’t suppose there is anyone sitting here now who is not aware of troublesome things at times. That is part of our business—we are supposed to be living on earth for the purpose of bringing heaven on earth and not of emphasizing the eruptions of hell. So we have our affairs, individually speaking.

And now we let the fire fall from heaven deliberately, consistently, steadily, because we are stable in the matter; and what needs to happen happens. We don’t really know what needs to happen. There is a movement toward an increasing change in the state of human affairs, in the state of human hearts. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. There are these changes coming all the time, but we can only live in the present and let what needs to happen in the present happen. What happens in the next moment is, in that sense, coming out of the future, but it happens in the moment, then it’s in the past. You can’t stop it. It’s a very wonderful, flowing movement, isn’t it? Lots of people try to stop what is moving in its tracks, particularly if there’s something they like; something they don’t like, they want to hurry it along a bit. But the flow is even. The trouble is, we are sometimes not, and we get out of sync then with the natural flow. We are quite content to let it be what it is.

The Master said something about this with respect to the true state of man on earth, where the troubles are dissolved, the veil is dissolved, everything is realized in experience as being One. That isn’t the experience now, so evidently there is creative movement leading toward that experience increasingly. We know that because we have the increasing experience ourselves. But the day and the hour is not known to anyone when this fulfilment should be. It is not even known to the incarnate angels in heaven. There is no necessity to know. After all, you could only deal with the present moment. In the larger sense it is known, in the sense that all that is present has to be brought back into a state of coordination. We are speaking about human beings here—the rest of the cosmos is quite all right—human beings being brought back into line. Of course nobody can tell, because nobody knows what it is that is required, when and how and where. All these bright ideas that people have had, ourselves included, as to what should happen now, are just so much nonsense; they don’t mean a thing. Let’s find out what is happening—certainly not what we think ought to happen but what is actually happening—and stay with it so that we are always in place and there is consequently the flow of this creative process present on earth because we are present on earth.

This relates to your very special, individual fields of responsibility. It relates to mine too but in a somewhat different way, because my concerns have been somewhat unique, one might say. It hasn’t been quite the same for anyone else during the time that I have had this responsibility. But the Body is taking form. There are individuals who are in position to accept responsibility for that flow, not trying to figure it out, not trying to make it into anything, but just letting it be and being aware of what it is in the moment. It has nothing to do with all the airy-fairy, fancy ideas that people have had about this and that—all kinds of things developed in human consciousness over the ages that are available to people; and they take advantage of that availability to fill themselves up with a lot of gook. Let it go, so that there is room for the creative cycle to move. One is quite happy to be ignorant and to admit: “I had a lot of stuff in my consciousness before, that I thought was useful, but I am finding out that it isn’t.” There is utterly no value whatsoever because there is need for space for the creative process. And we are here to give that space.

This relates to an attitude principally, because obviously there are those things which are useful. Our knowledge of the English language we have indicated is a useful tool, and we are not going to forget that, just yet anyway. There may come a time, mind you. And there are other things we know. In any case we are here to let things work in the creative way, and there is joy and relaxation in doing it. We don’t have to find times to relax—we learn how to relax and live because the process of living includes relaxation. Human beings try to live at high intensity, as they think of it, and they burn themselves out; but to let oneself be aligned with the creative process allows the creative process to do the work. We delight in the evidence of the work being done, and it gives a good feeling of fulfilment when we learn to let it happen. But we don’t know anything about that until we learn to let it happen. Perhaps you know something about it because you have learned to let it happen.

Life isn’t such a stressful occupation, after all. The fire falls from heaven. It is an easy process. The yoke is easy, the burden light. This is what we are all here for, but you in a particular way and a particular sense—and me in a particular way and a particular sense too, but yours is special. And it doesn't need me at all to do your job.

And it doesn’t need me at all to do your job

© emissaries of divine light

As We Near The Climax Of The History Of Man's World

As  We  Near  The  Climax

Of  The  History  Of  Man's  World

a condensed excerpt

Uranda  November 16, 1938

In the consideration of the problems of the world in relationship to God and to the Cosmic Plan, it is necessary that the approach be with clear vision, beholding all in perspective; with true Spiritual Understanding based in the Eternal Love of God, and of the Christ Love in true recognition of the Brotherhood of Mankind; with a willingness to face the facts as they are, with no emotionalism—for emotionalism has clouded issues, and distorted man's concepts throughout the greater portion of the period of recorded history. I take no sides in any matter. I am for the Truth, without respect to race or creed. As a whole, the world needs re-direction. Those who read my Word with an Eye to the Word within the word, willing to understand in Spirit and in Truth, will recognize the Open Way, and they will hear my Voice, even as they have heard my Voice in all generations. To all who shall inquire as to my authority, my answer is, “I AM THAT I AM hath sent me.”

Since the days of Abraham I have dwelt much with the Children of Israel, and the righteous have given heed to my Word which I have spoken through the centuries by commandment of the LORD OUR GOD. Since the days of the Garden of Eden I have dwelt at appointed times in all nations and with all peoples. There is no land on earth that has not heard my spoken Word, and there is no people on earth but what has been changed at the sound of my Voice. I am ageless, without beginning and without end. Those who harken unto me, find the Open Way before them, that they may know God, even as God knows them. Those who scoff at my Voice and at my Word, find that the Bottomless Pit is opened unto them, and they go into oblivion. In the Motherland my Voice called in all Love to the peoples of the earth, but the masses of mankind harkened not, but scoffed at my Word, and so it was that they perished in the Fire which engulfed the Garden of Eden. Before the flood was, I was sent of God to warn the peoples of the earth, but again they scoffed, and all of the then known peoples, save Noah and the members of his Tribe who obeyed my Word, were engulfed in the destroying waters. I was sent unto the Egyptians of old, bearing the Word of the LORD, but they harkened not, and in their rebellion they perished as a nation. Out of their failure a New Issue was born in the earth, and under my hand the Children of Israel became a great nation, though I had first made a great nation out of Egypt.

At this time of world crisis I am come unto you with the Word of the LORD. Any of the Children of Israel is a true Child of God, regardless of race or blood, only to the degree that he is true to the Spiritual Calling by which he is supposed to bring Love, and Peace, and a Realization of the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man, into the world. Any man or woman, regardless of race or color is one of the Children of Israel to the degree that he or she functions in harmony with the Cosmic Plan. I offer the Open Way to all peoples of every race—for we have no need to fight against any. Your first responsibility is to the Brotherhood of Mankind, and it is only in properly fulfilling that responsibility that you can be of True Service. As you Respond to your Lord within yourself you will be assured that it is the only Real Way. You may begin to be a true Leader by letting your own reactions be of Reality, that your Radiation of Realization into the world consciousness may begin to pull the Responding Ones into the Central Way. Meanwhile, there will be suffering by many, but if you refrain from taking advantage of this opportunity, they will suffer anyway, and you will have done nothing worthwhile. Therefore, function as One in the Brotherhood of Mankind, and refuse to withdraw into a shell of fear and hate.

Now I would unfold for you, to a small degree, a great Truth which the world's wise men have failed to see—and as they have ignored it, all their efforts are in vain. The world which man has made has brought forth after its kind by reason of the Creative Power granted unto man, which man has used in self-activity. The child of the world which man has made, and in which all the highest and lowest of man's expression is focalized, betrayed the trust God gave unto them, they became, in their self-activity, a man-made world within a man-made world—with the smaller of the two being the symbol of the greater. Israel was supposed to be a people through whom a God-made world might be released within the man-made world, that the God-made world might expand and fill the whole earth, transforming the man-made world through the Fire of Love—which Fire was symbolized by the Altar Fires of the Temple.

Within the worldly hell which man had made for himself, the Israelites were lifted up by God, under the hand of Moses, that through them all peoples of the earth might likewise be lifted up. However, instead of serving, they began to look with contempt on those whom they were supposed to bless. Therefore, the greater portion of Israel was dispersed, and caused to lose its consciousness of the estate to which it had been lifted, while the lesser portion, wherein there was the greater pride, was granted its desire to be separate from the world, and so did they fall from its high estate into a hell of its own making, thereby establishing a hell within a hell, even a man-made world within a man-made world. Thereby was man's first fall re-enacted within the scope of man's own awareness, that man might have historical knowledge of it, so that he might learn his lesson in due season, in that he refused to learn it in the Easy Way which God had made possible to him. As we near the climax of the history of man's world, it is natural that a number of conditions should come forth as evidence of man's misuse of the great opportunities granted unto him. Truly, all the Earnest Ones of all nations, and tongues and peoples are the Children of Israel, according to their response to the Most High.

Another result to be seen, is that of the soulless, misshapen monster, which has been formed in the hell within a hell, and which has been fed upon lusts of every kind: upon fear, upon hate, upon greed, and upon desire for power, so that this monster is now being released by its creators, and caused to come forth into the outer hell, that it may swallow up the world which man has made, and that through it, according to their plan, its creators may rule the whole earth. Nevertheless, though it may seem to gain the victory, and though it may strike terror to the hearts of those who begin to see it, so that they are, in turn, caused to do things most hideous in their attempts to fight against it, there is a Decree gone forth from the Most High, for thus saith the LORD God of Hosts:

This thing which man has made in his pride, and by which he thinks to set himself up in the high places of the earth, Behold, it shall return with vengeance upon those who made it, and it shall devour its creators from the face of the whole earth, and Lo, there shall be no rest for them Day nor Night until they shall all have perished; whereupon the monster shall die the death eternal, and My Kingdom shall fill the whole Earth. Behold I, the LORD Thy God, have spoken it by the mouth of My faithful Servant, that those who hear his Voice may not fear for those things which come to pass on the earth, but that all who will may abide in My Love and in My Peace. Repent, therefore, and come out of her, My People, that ye be not partakers of her sins. Come unto Me, and I will give you Rest.

In the world, without respect to nation, race or creed, there are two primary Groups, and each has a Destiny—not a destiny of fate but a destiny by choice. Every man, woman and child upon the face of the earth will harmonize with one group or the other, according to the free right of choice vested in each one. One Group will cling to the man-made world, and struggle to maintain hell on earth, and sacrifice to the foul gods of the volcano which erupts the corruptions of hell. The other Group, whose Destiny by choice is that of the Eternal Kingdom, shall be to the world in this day, that which the Children of Israel could have been in the days of old. All who Respond to Reality, and let go in Love, shall surely be uplifted into this Group of Earnest Ones, whose Destiny is controlled by God through the Third Sacred School.

In the Third Sacred School there is an understanding of the Way. No matter how wise the children of men may be, we are wiser still. No matter how cunning the works of man may be, and no matter how destructive, we will not fight against them, but we will use them in accomplishing the Will of God. No matter how much man may try to fight against us, we cannot be hurt nor disturbed, for man can find nothing to take hold of, and his every effort against us will but be turned upon his own head, and he shall destroy himself. Only those who Respond in Love will be able to see the Open Way. As far as we are concerned, there are only two Groups in the world, and these Groups I have already outlined to you. Each must make his own choice. Shortly there will be no half-way place. Rapidly it is reaching a point where you either are, or you are not, on the side of God. No ifs or buts of any kind have any weight—you can have no reservations when you come to find the Open Way. Those who come with reservations will find that their reservations await them and will carry them away into the hells which man has made. The time draws near when Great Works shall be made manifest in the earth. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-temple-of-light-is-here.html]

From within the Temple of Light, where sinful man cannot come no matter how he may try, we use all the forces which man generates in the world according to our will, which is the Will of God working through us. The great forces by which man has thought to gain his own ends, and which he has so painstakingly built with great struggle, we now take and use, and man is helpless to prevent it, no matter who, nor where, nor what he may be, nor of what world group he may be a part. Since this is true, we have nothing to fear from the world. We will receive those who receive us, but we will depart from those who receive us not, and we shall shake the dust from our feet as we go, withdrawing our peace from them, that they may quickly reap that which they have sown. No matter how lowly, or how sinful, or how limited, or how insignificant, any may be, if he will but Respond in Love we will gladly Serve him where he is, and if he shall be steadfast we shall lift him up in the Ascending Flame. However, we shall ignore these who respond not, and though they suffer the tortures of the hell which they created, we will be unmoved until they shall Respond to us. In no case will we respond to them.

Those who come within the Third Sacred School will learn what it is to obey in Love and in Joy. Those who refuse to obey, or who are not truthful in word and in deed, and who turn away in thought and in attitude, shall be quickly released, that they may go the way of their choice, and we will not cling to them, but let them go. Our Power is greater than all the power of all nations on earth, and the wealth of those who think they are rich is as nothing before us. Those who prove to be worthy, and those who are of a Pure Heart, shall know of the Way and of the Program of God, but the Way and the Program are fully hidden from all others, and they cannot be found out by the children of men.

Thrice blessed are they who come out of these two worlds, that they may dwell in the World which God has made, and which is now in the earth. Insofar as the Third Sacred School is concerned all are the children of men who need to become the Children of God. He who fights against any race or nation, fights against himself—and by his own fighting shall he be destroyed. He who hates any man, or any ruler, or any race, thereby hates himself, and hate shall devour him. He who lets the Christ Love Radiate to all alike, responding to no man, but Responding to the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, so that he functions truly in the Third Sacred School, shall find that Love shall devour him, and he shall be lifted up into Oneness with his Lord.

There is only One Way for all mankind, no matter of what race, and all must be willing to accept that Way or he shall surely be a partaker of the doom of the world. The fires of one hell are burning into the fires of the other hell, and each shall consume the other until neither shall be any more at all forever and ever. Rejoice in the LORD that it is so. In this every Earnest One of every race finds a Call to Service, that through Response he may function in the Creative Cycle by which the world movements may be stabilized, and caused to swing toward that Perfect State which is the Will of God for all people. In the Radiance of the Christ Love all Needs of all peoples will be filled, first with the vibrations of Perfection, that around the vibrations a new and Perfect Form may manifest and function. Those who Respond to Love will be used by God in performing His Wonders in the earth, but those who respond to hate and fear shall surely destroy themselves. Let Love Radiate, to all alike, that each may receive according to his or her Response. Let Love Radiate.

© emissaries of divine light

Be Now!

Be  Now!

Martin Exeter   April 15, 1984

Preambles are important. We have had one here this morning in the congregational singing and in the singing of the combined choir. This preamble properly leads into a specific statement. This statement might be summarized in two words, one word of two letters and one word of three letters, all very succinct. The statement is: Be now. This is a statement that is rightly made this morning or at any service, but also to be made by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Be now. This morning we have the opportunity of sharing in letting this statement be brought to focus in our unified spiritual expression. It is not just a statement for me to make but for all of us in oneness to make. I may have the special opportunity of articulating this statement in a particular way, but all who are here present are included in the expression of this statement, in whatever way it emerges. When I speak I do not speak just for myself but include what is moving in the consciousness of all concerned in what is brought to specific focus in words. The clarity of consciousness in all concerned is therefore important if the statement is to be specific, clear and to the point. I suppose it might be possible for me to accept that responsibility just for myself, excluding everybody else. This is something that certainly was done in times past. But gradually the opportunity has been broadened, so that all who were present might share in the particular expression which should take form during a service. Each individual has a responsibility in this regard. And so it is this morning.

Be here. Be now. This is the only time we can be anyway, so we might as well be. There are many people who have considered “now” to be a nonexistent line between past and future. According to this view only the past and future are real; the “now” doesn’t exist except as this invisible line between past and future. Such a view is revealing of the reversed polarity in human consciousness. “Now” cannot be grasped by the human mind. In imagination it is possible to seem to grasp the future and the past, but it is imagination: the past, imagination based in memory of an event which probably was never experienced now. The future is speculation; again, imagination.

Factually there is only one reality and that is now, a reality incapable of being grasped or possessed by the human mind. The human mind itself is a product of being now. The future is speculative, unknown, blurred, because it is out of focus. The only positioning that is in focus is now. There is no way by which one may have clear vision and understanding except as one is present being now. The blur of the future also extends into the past. Memory is inclined to be faulty and what was experienced probably was not seen or understood because the person who was experiencing it was only minimally present now. We are concerned to be now. We have recognized that the present moment, which seems to be nonexistent—it can’t be isolated in human consciousness—is, in fact, a crossover point. What is in the future may be experienced when it reaches the point of the now. It may be known then. As long as it is in the future it is, to some extent, blurred and out of focus. Coming into the now, it may be absolutely crystal clear for anyone for whom the future and the past is in fact irrelevant.

If you stop to consider the matter, how much is your consciousness filled with expectations about the future or memories concerning the past? To the extent that the consciousness is so filled, there is no room to experience the present moment. Those whose consciousness is so filled—and that includes virtually all human beings everywhere, so filled with imagination concerning the future and the past—always seem to have the need to find someone to explain what cannot be clearly seen and understood in that condition. That condition produces a blurred view, because the endeavor is to look at something that is not in focus; and because it is not in focus it seems rather vague and incomprehensible, so someone needs to come along and explain it. Because human function is almost totally based in past and future, insofar as the mind is concerned, everything is rather uncertain. There is a condition that might be comparable to a degree of blindness. If you get far enough into the future or into the past there is complete blindness. Because a person feels at least partially blind it seems as though it is needful that a seeing-eye dog put in an appearance, someone who can lead the individual so that he need not stumble. Well I suppose this may be done for a while if there is someone around who is capable of so leading, but the leading is always to bring the person into the present moment. It is not to leave them speculating about the future and remembering the past, but to assist them to come into the present moment, so that they can forget their speculations and their memories and be now!

This is not to say that when one has the experience of being now there may not be some consideration given to the future and possibly to the past. However, insofar as the past is concerned you can’t change it Whatever it was—and you didn’t really see what it was anyway—whatever it was, you can’t change it. So why bother? There are those who say, “Well we can learn from the past.” I think probably you could almost count the number of people who have learned from the past on one hand. Do we note any repetition in human experience? Of course—because when there is a cloudy, blurred visionThe thing that is to be learned is that one shouldn’t be speculating about the future and remembering the past, as though that was going to tell you what the truth was in the present moment. It never does.

The only way that you can know the truth of the present moment is to be in the present moment, and being in the present moment there is something brought to focus. There is the clarity, because what is in the present moment is not blurred. It is not blurred to anyone who is in the present moment. The invitation that rightly is extended to all people—it was extended to us—is to be willing to come into the present moment, relinquishing speculations and memories. There are those who, particularly when they grow older, feel that their only meaning is based in what they can remember. That is a sad condition because the present moment is still here. Memories of the past, speculations with respect to the future, always blur the vision. And when the vision is blurred a person is inclined to imagine that he must have someone put in an appearance who will explain what the situation is. I receive requests in this regard myself from time to time, by people who should know better.

Initially most people don’t understand anything with respect to all this. So there is a need for leadership. But leadership can be provided only by someone who is in the position to which the person is to be led. You can’t do it standing off to one side somewhere and saying, “Well you need to go there.” There must be the factual reality in oneself of being now. Then that opens the door for anyone to come, because one is now and one may say of oneself, “I am now.” There is a place for someone to come. You have clear vision. Therefore it is possible to guide faltering steps on the part of those who do not have clear vision because they are not here now. They are still wandering in the wilderness of the past and the future.

Oh, this is a very fine point, ungraspable by the human mind.  The only place that we can know the truth is here and now. Life itself is now. It is impossible to live in the future or in the past except in imagination. Life is present now. Let it be now, because it is now! The only moment that we can ever experience what life is is now. The only time we have any contact with life is in the present moment. Be now. One of the evidences of being now is that of seeing and understanding with clarity. If anyone finds blurred vision and says, “I’m confused, I don’t understand, I’d like to talk to you—the fact that one’s vision is blurred, that one is confused, that one thinks one doesn’t understand, is simply consequent upon involvement in imagination with the future or the past. You can see that that is the case, because every time you are now, everything comes into focus. It’s clear. There is understanding. Do any of you need someone to make it possible for you to stay out of this point of focus now so that you can continue to dream, in imagination, of future and past? Would anyone be serving you, actually, by explaining to you the basis of your confusion, trying to sort things out for you so that you needn’t be confused? That’s not service. That’s not helpfulness at all, when there is an awareness that the only place where there is a clear focus is now. All right, if there isn’t a clear focus in anyone’s consciousness it is evidence that he isn’t in the now. All right, come into the now then. That’s all. No explanations needed. In the now there is clear-cut vision and understanding; things come into focus. The future is not yet, the past is gone forever, but there is always the present moment.

So there are those events which put in an appearance in the present moment emerging out of the future, and then disappearing into the past. If one stands in the present moment, then this is what is occurring in a horizontal way. The future is coming to us; we don’t know what it is until it puts in an appearance now. Then there it is! What’s to wonder about or argue about or try to understand? There it is! At the same time we have an awareness of a vertical component. There is what is describable as coming down out of heaven into the earth. That happens in the present moment. It doesn’t happen in the future or in the past. The only time that this truth can be known is now. The only person who can experience that truth is a person who is being now, so that what is coming down out of heaven into the earth may pass through the point of the present moment where one is. Ah! Now I know! If you’re not there you can’t know, and no amount of speculation or endeavor of any kind will cause anyone to know. There is only one thing to do; that is come into the present moment. It is peculiar that anyone could have the idea that being now is difficult, because the fact of the matter is that you cannot help but be present now, even though you may endeavor to get yourself out of the present moment by speculation and memory regarding the future and the past, respectively. How much time do people spend getting out of the present moment, and then complaining because the experiences are painful, are difficult, are confused? Well, one decided to have it that way. All these things are self-produced. We are constantly being assailed by interpretations about the past. The media are expert in this field, because what they are reporting obviously is out of the past; it’s already happened. And everybody concentrates their view upon something that has already moved into the past. How about coming into the present? Being present?

We are present here this morning, sharing these moments available to us now. To the extent that we are present now, what is being experienced is clear enough. We don’t have to speculate about it. We are now. “I am now” is the only true statement that anyone can make. Where are you now? Are you at this point which can be defined by the mental processes as having position but no magnitude? Where’s that? It has no dimensions. And the human mind has all its thinking based in the quality of its own state, which is a dimensional state. It can’t understand anything that is not capable of being dimensionally defined. And when you come to the present moment, for instance, which is a point with position but no magnitude, what is that? Well it must be where past and future bump together. But it’s such a momentary thing that you can never grasp it! You can never grasp it but you are always there! Why not accept the fact without trying to grasp it? Just be now.

The experience of being now is the experience of spiritual expression. This relates to something coming down from nowhere, apparently, to find expression in the earth. We’re all here, capable of giving expression to something in the earth. Of course most of us act like mirrors: what comes out of the earth bangs against us and is reflected back into the earth. We have a recognition of the natural state of being a window of heaven, so that you are not constantly reflecting what is present in the environment. That reflection comes because of what one has dragged forward—a lot of it unwittingly—out of the past. One’s heredity came out of the past; and people give a lot of weight to heredity. This is important in the view of so many, yet it is something that comes out of the nonexistent past. It’s gone forever; it cannot be changed. Let it go. Why drag it into the present? It can’t really be done. What it does is take one’s own experience into the past, so that one vacates the present moment; one isn’t present now.

It is well to pause from time to time and examine what is happening in one’s experience now. Is there thought being given to things of the past? Those things of the past which are usually seen as being most vivid are those things which were experienced with an intensity of emotion. Those things you remember, and they tend to be ghosts which keep cropping up. It requires a little deliberation to set them on one side. I don’t suppose there is anyone here who hasn’t had experiences which involved intensity of emotion back along the way. You may have found that some of those things which used to recur in consciousness from time to time, triggered by something else, have dissolved. Where did they go? It would take quite an effort to remember what they were. If that is so—and I trust it is, because something has been working in all of us that was designed to dissolve such things—then that is one way we have been freed from the burdens that we were carrying around with us. But there could be those things which still tend to be ghosts out of the past; very vivid ghosts. We’re haunted by these things. Why? Because when they arise we feed them. We look them over, we pay attention to them, and we re-experience our emotions again. Do you ever do that? That is what keeps these things alive.

Virtually all human beings are haunted. We’ve lived in haunted houses, because of all these memory elements which keep reasserting themselves by reason of the intensity of emotion that was known at the time of the original experience. And because there was an intensity of emotion at that time we certainly didn’t see or understand what it was that was happening, so to try to sort it out and explain it now is a waste of time. When such things arise in consciousness there needs to be a deliberate setting aside; and if you are a little persistent in this, after a while they will just dissolve. So we come finally into the present moment where there is peace, where we are no longer plagued by all these ridiculous ghosts. Sometimes these ghosts look so serious and ghoulish that we have, almost forcefully, to put them on one side. Others of these ghosts can be easily dealt with by laughing at them. There is one thing they can’t stand and that is to be laughed at. Remember that! Concerning any devil that puts in an appearance insofar as you are concerned, laugh at the devil. Laughter, they say, is good medicine anyway. It’s certainly good for the digestion. All we need to do is come into the present moment. And in the present moment, in the actual experience of life itself, that is delightful, sometimes amusing, but always delightful, always characterized by joy.

There is no place that we can live but now; and if we are in the present moment we are here as well, wherever here is. But we may all share being present now; that brings us all together. If we’re wandering around trying to get into the future or into the past we’re all scattered abroad, we’re all following out these devious paths which relate to our past and we continually are projecting these things into the future and skipping over the present moment in the process, or it flashes by so quickly that we never notice it. But we can be now. We are here together this morning now.

I am the way, the truth and the life. That is a very plain statement. A lot of people are looking for the way; and there are those who want to know the truth; and there are certainly vast numbers of people who are anxious to live. This can only happen in the experience of anyone in the present moment, now. It’s good to be alive! We may say, “Well it was good to be alive yesterday,” or more likely to say, “I have a lot to complain about with respect to my experience yesterday; I hope it is going to be better tomorrow.” It won’t be! It won’t be if you skipped over now. Be now! All the confusion, all the misunderstanding, all the things with which human beings struggle, relate to past or future. Let such things go, that we may share, in this moment and in every moment, being now, therefore being one because we are all in the same place at the same time, this cross-over point, the crossover point that can’t be located particularly. It can’t be understood by the human mind, but it is present and may be experienced by anyone who stops listening to the mouthings of the mental processes which have become habitually involved with future and past: "What is it going to be? How shall I be able to handle what it is that is coming up?” You can’t. It’s coming up; it isn’t here yet. The only person who can handle what is coming is the person who is present when it comes up. Then it’s now, then it can be handled; but you can’t get it all set up ahead of time. We don’t need to speculate. We don’t need to try to manipulate. At least the only reason anyone would try to manipulate is to make a profit of some kind, to gain some benefit for oneself. If you try to do that you take yourself out of the now into a never-never land, that you find out sooner or later is a never-never land. No, there is an easy way.

I am the way, I am the truth, now! Not in the future, not in the past, but now! I am the life. I live now. Here is my identity in the moment. I know life because life is now. And when I am where life is I know life. We have shared a moment this morning, just one moment—no others. We know is what is right now. We share this now. Let us share it consistently and continuously, that we may know what it is to be one. For “where I am, there ye may be also.” That was said by somebody who lived many, many centuries ago. It is just as true now. It is always true now. “Where I am, there ye may be also.” Come out of the past, come out of the future, be present where I am.

© emissaries of divine light