This morning I read a passage from the book Hanta Yo. The initial sentence was, “I stand at the center and the light shines all around me.” That is not the complete sentence but enough for now. Only when a person does stand at the center can the light shine all around him. What it means to stand at the center is something that needs to be understood, but clearly if there is a center at which to stand, only in that position is there a complete circle around one. Anywhere else but at that point of center it will only be a partial extension of whatever light there is. That light grows dimmer the farther one is away from the center presumably, if it shines from the center. So there is less light and less area possible of illumination. You can only see all around at the peak of the mountain.
In our services together in the Chapel here I always seek to stand at the center so that the light may shine all around and there may consequently be a balanced view, a true perspective; and the invitation is implied, to all concerned, also to stand at the center. Only from that position is there adequate light and a balanced view. After the service we sometimes have what heretofore have been called comment periods, during which most of those who speak say something from the standpoint of what they had seen of what I had said. If you have half a dozen or a dozen people speaking along those lines, you will have half a dozen or a dozen different views, each one saying in effect, “This is what I saw in what you said.” We do not really share a time together in order for this sort of approach to be taken. It may be, I suppose, the initial approach, the only one that most people could make; but if one remains in that stance as an observer of what is being said or offered and then outlining one’s interpretation of it, the purpose of being together would have been lost. As I say, it may be an initial approach. Now, you know that; you know that we are here to stand at the center together. I stand at the center, you individually stand at the center, and if we do that we are all at the center and the light shines round about. We see what should be seen and we see this in a balanced way, in true perspective.
If you have something to say after a service it wouldn’t be, “Well this is what I saw in what you said.” You would rather say, if you are going to say anything along those lines, “This is what I said from my position at the center.” Only on that basis can there be agreement. I am sure we all realize this. There is no agreement in the human world, simply because no one is standing at the same place. Each individual has his own world, which he sees in his own way, but if the person who is seeing on this basis doesn’t have adequate light because he is not standing at the center, and he does not have a balanced view, then what he sees will obviously be at best distorted. It will be a very shadowy view.
An invitation is constantly extended to stand at the center where one’s own light shines round about. You cannot be at the center and depend on anyone else’s light. When you are at the center there is the light shining round about and you see what is there and understand what is there, because the only position that this is possible is at the center. Most people do not stand at the center, simply because they place other points at the center. Usually there are a multiplicity of such points. As an example in the religious sense, on the part of a Christian we will say, Jesus Christ is probably put at the center. In that individual’s religious world Jesus Christ is at the center. Well if Jesus Christ is at the center, that person is not at the center. However, it does not stop with the religious world, because there is the business world, for instance, where something else is put at the center, or there is the home where something else is put at the center. And usually in all these various worlds there are a number of things that are put at the center. I suppose if you come back to the religious world of the Christian, he has a trinity at the center: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. These are all supposed to be one, but they all cram into the center somehow.
In a general sense human beings frequently put their own security at the center. This means probably that they put money at the center. They revolve around these centers, these centers which are so chosen in the various worlds—religious, business, home, national, international, whatever world. This means that a person is revolving in numerous directions at the same time, trying to revolve around all these centers. No wonder it is a bit confusing. There is only one place where it isn’t confusing, and that is at the true center, not the centers which people set up, idols one might say. It is a civilization of idolatry because people are revolving around all these different centers, and if they are revolving around something they certainly are not in the position of a center, for the center is the still point.
The true position of anyone is at the center. That is the only position from which the world makes sense. If one has other centers around which one is revolving, the world keeps changing in one’s own view, because one is constantly in another position. It looks this way at one moment and someway else at another moment. But at the true center, upon the immovable rock one might say, one is able to view from that still point all moving things. One does not move oneself. And only from that center does the light shine. If one is in that center, the light shines because of oneself. I stand at the center and the light shines all around me. I am the light. So on that basis there is a stable point. Heaven knows that there is need for a stable point on earth.
Sometimes comment is made in a movie by some character or other probably trying to be funny: “I lie a lot.” Something had been said that just wasn’t so, and when faced with the statement and the fact, the excuse comes, “Oh, I lie a lot.” Well this is customary with human beings. They lie a lot. As the Psalmist of old said, “All men are liars.” Having said that, he thought he was being a little hasty; but I don’t really think so. A person is bound to be a liar unless he stands at the center. It is the only safe place to be. It is the only place from which the truth may be spoken. It is a great relief to be in that place and to speak the truth, because then you don’t have to try to remember all the time what you said!
I stand at the center.
My concern on the eve of my departure—probably the last time I will have opportunity to speak to all of you together—is that there should be those who stand at the center, here or wherever they are. The external geographical position is unimportant. One simply needs to stand at the center, in the place where one belongs, in that place where each individual human being belongs and therefore all human beings belong. This is the one stable point on earth; but for the most part it has been unoccupied because so many things have been placed at the center of human lives.
If we return again for a moment to the Christian world and those who place Jesus Christ at the center, there might be a recalling of a certain statement that has come down to us: “that where I am, there ye may be also”—at the center. This seems to have been largely forgotten insofar as those who call themselves Christians are concerned. They insist upon keeping Jesus at the center but won’t go there themselves. If anything is done in this regard it usually relates to an endeavor to have Jesus come to me: “Jesus, come into my heart.” That will really make somebody important! Jesus is presumably at the center insofar as He is concerned, but where are we? At the center too? So as I am departing I am concerned that there should be those who occupy the center regardless. My only purpose has been to offer during this period, the last few months, the opportunity to stand at the center to each individual; not to look at me and say, “You are standing at the center.” That may or may not be; that is my business. But what about you? Do you stand at the center? Does the light shine all around you so that you do not need to try to extract the light from somebody else?
We noted this morning how there is the condition of emptiness within the scope of human experience; a false experience, because the fact of the matter is there is no emptiness. The one substance of love fills all space. This of course has been forgotten. There has been a veil darkening human consciousness in this regard. Because of this it has been imagined that there was a lot of emptiness: Human beings are lonely, they are empty, they try to stuff themselves full of what they imagine will assuage this desolate feeling, the abomination of desolation, when in fact there is no need because there is no emptiness. It is a human dream, an imagination, that results from the fact that a person is not at the center. At the center there is completeness, wholeness, and an awareness of completeness and wholeness. Everything is round about. There is no lack, but that is so in the experience of a person only to the extent that he stands at the center. If he puts something else there he himself cannot be there, and this is the way that the delusion of separateness is maintained. So many idols are established, around which human beings delight apparently to revolve, and because of this the experience of wholeness, of oneness, is impossible. The fact that there is only this one true substance of love present is hidden, remains unknown.
It is interesting that in various ways now the suggestion is being made in the field of healing that a person should use his imagination to envision a perfect condition. People who are sick don’t have any trouble envisioning the imperfect condition. Their ache, their pain, whatever it is, keeps informing them of the seeming fact of the imperfect condition, and this tends to fill a person’s consciousness. It has been recognized in some measure that if you let your consciousness be filled with a perfect envisionment then that is a very potent factor in the experience of healing. Of course it is all in the realm of imagination. A person is earnestly endeavoring to maintain in his consciousness a view of the perfect part, which is sick; the part itself is telling the individual all the time that it isn’t perfect. So there is a bit of a conflict in here. If he doesn’t keep at it then the consciousness of the imperfection will prevail and the person will probably get worse. But if he can sustain this vision of perfectness, then perhaps there is a chance that the situation will change for the better, and because there will then be less yammering on the part of the imperfection to gain attention the individual will find it easier to keep his view of the perfect state clear and, lo and behold, healing comes. Well we can see some sense to this, but it isn’t really a matter of trying to imagine something; it is a matter of becoming aware of what actually is so. There is a difference. The person who is trying to imagine something is doing it against odds. If he doesn't keep right on the ball of imagination he will slip right off it and the imperfection will reassert itself with great force.
There is this universal substance, the absolute solid: love. It is so, even though human beings may not know it. The rediscovery of this is what is obviously needful. We have called it an awakening, awakening to the truth, the truth of love, the universal substance, the absolute solid out of which all other substance is differentiated, becoming in that differentiation less and less solid until, as we have seen in the flesh body, it is mostly space. Physical substance, so called, is mostly space. It has not seemed so to human beings; they rap their knuckles on the lectern and it is painful. But the fact of the matter is that anything supposedly solid is mostly space, while what was supposedly very ethereal, like love, is actually very solid. It is the one true solid out of which may be, and is, differentiated all the other levels of substance.
If a person is sick it brings a sense of lack, of emptiness; there is something absent. It may seem as though the sickness, whatever it is, is present. It gains attention, and when you pay attention to something it tends to grow. So there is this sense of emptiness in relationship to disease or sickness, and who is going to define disease or sickness? It is not only the aches and pains of the individual physical body, is it? It relates to the mind too and the emotions; it relates to the world itself, to one’s environment. There is, as we have seen, this sense of emptiness, this sense of absence. Something isn't there that really ought to be there somehow. But what ought to be there, in fact is there, the substance of love, but it has become obscured, hidden behind a veil in human consciousness. Only as that veil is drawn aside can there be an increasing awareness of what is there. If one becomes aware of what is actually there one begins to lose one’s association with a state of absence. The state of absence is a state of sickness or disease. When the substance of love, which when differentiated includes the substance of truth and the substance of life, becomes increasingly apparent, it fills what was before thought of as a state of emptiness and there is what should be there. Where did the sickness go then? It was merely an evidence of the fact that the individual was unaware of the truth, of the fact that the substance of love was there, an all-inclusive substance which provides everything for everything.
So it isn’t really a matter of desperately trying to imagine something, because that is only back in the field of mirage again, but of being at the center where the reality is, where there is a constant awareness of that reality. In terms of our morning’s consideration that would be in the oasis. When you are in the oasis you are not likely to be seeing a mirage, are you? The mirage is seen by those who are not in the oasis. Now, considering a mirage, it is usually looked upon as relating to something over the horizon. From the standpoint of our analogy it isn’t over the horizon at all. Geographically speaking it is right where the person is, but he is not at the center of where he really is; he is somewhere else, off from that positioning, and so he sees a mirage of the oasis, which in fact tells him that there is an oasis somewhere. It didn’t just manifest in the atmosphere from nowhere; it is a reflection of something. And of course that reflection will be dependent upon the atmosphere, won’t it? It is usually thought of as relating to heat, heat rising from the sand of the desert maybe. And that rises in wavy fashion; consequently anything reflected in that atmosphere will tend to be distorted. Some things will appear to be larger than life and some things smaller. So it is all out of perspective. This is the world that human beings see. They think that the source of that mirage is over the horizon. People in every generation have thought that, have looked far and wide for the source of the mirage, when the source was exactly where the individual himself was. But because he had put so many other things at center there was no room for him. We have all tended to have that experience: so many other things put at center. This means that a person has to travel here, travel there, to get closer to whatever it was that he put at his center.
When he himself comes back to the true point of center he comes back to the oasis where the reality is; and in that position, looking forth from that position, he doesn’t see any mirages. He sees what is actually there. Of course he discovers that the oasis, which first of all was thought of as being a little place—“Maybe we can find this little place by turning within ourselves, seeking the Father within,” or whatever the view might have been—turns out, when we begin to discover the reality of it, not to be a little place at all. It occupies the world all around us. There is nothing but oasis. That has something to do with the coming of the Kingdom, doesn’t it?
We have a story in the Book of Revelation by John, who used a lot of allegories, but most of what he described was what he saw. For instance, in the 21st chapter of Revelation, he saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” and he saw “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.” Here was something seen, not necessarily known. Obviously many of these things could only be seen, because they were not knowable at that point. If we consider something like the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, do we realize that that is an analogy? A lot of people have thought that it was a literal description of something that was going to happen in the physical sense. They supported this idea, of course, by the thought that later on in the same book it says you shouldn’t take anything away from what was said nor add anything to it. But you have to see what is there; otherwise you are bound to be taking away and adding. Clearly enough, in this rather obscure outline in the Book of Revelation it is virtually all allegory.
“The holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.” It doesn’t come down from God out of heaven. “Oh, but I thought it did.” No it doesn’t; it is right here now. It always has been right here now, but in seeking to convey some sort of initial point of contact for human beings to a real understanding it was couched in terms that would seem to be applicable to the human consciousness. There is apparently an absence, an emptiness, so something needs to come into it. But we suddenly realize, as we move along the way, that there really isn’t an emptiness; so how can something come into it if it isn’t there? Whatever was supposed to come into it we discover is already there. Oh we can perhaps use ways of describing these things, which are not really the truth at all. It just conveys something to human consciousness so that it might be possible for the experience of the reality, the oasis, to be known and the mirage forgotten. So we rightly stand at the center, because we haven’t put anything else there. We may acknowledge that there is an infinite reality at the center, so that finding ourselves at the center we do not find ourselves alone.
In speaking of these things we have to use words, allegories of various kinds, to convey at least something. But we are not interested in this mirage state, allegorical state, but in the experience of the thing itself. We can spend all our lives admiring a mirage—“What a remarkable phenomenon”—and we may see beautiful things in that mirage, very impressive; but it is very insubstantial, and that is the world that human beings know, very insubstantial. But the oasis is here and when one puts nothing at the center, but accepts the responsibility of being at the center oneself, the center of one’s own life, then things come into balance and we are in position to take care of all for which we are responsible by reason of our presence at the center. We discover what that is. You cannot discover what that is anywhere else but by being at the center. Human beings are inclined to want to know ahead of time what it would be like to be at the center: are they going to enjoy that fact? No, I don’t think so, because the person who is asking these questions is not going to be at the center. If there is the inclination to try to discover what it would be to be at the center without being at the center, he will be very disappointed. One must come to the center without knowing ahead of time what the experience would be.
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” That is an interesting statement, isn’t it?—before me. Oh! that was the word of the Lord from somewhere. Yes, the word of the Lord all right, stating the absolute truth: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. I stand at the center and the light shines all around me. I am the light. I am the way, the truth, and the life. That statement can be spoken truly by one who stands at the center. Christians claim to believe that it was spoken truly by Jesus. Why was it spoken truly by Him if it was? Because He stood at the center. Is there no opportunity for any other to stand at the center? Is it such a little dot that only one person can be there?
I stand at the center. Nobody comes to the experience of the truth of love but by me. That is looked upon as being an arrogant and blasphemous statement, even in the case of Jesus when He was on earth. Now He has been so exalted in the human consciousness that it is all right; we will let it stand for Him. But He was a person on earth, proclaiming the way, the truth and the life for anyone and everyone. Who has what it takes to accept the challenge? Do we? I stand at the center. Who has the nerve to say that and to prove it out? Most people don’t want to say it because they don’t want to prove it out. But that is what we are here to do, and there is no hope for the flowers, let alone human beings, if there are not those who stand at the center and prove it out. One cannot stand at the center and at the same time put someone else at the center.
You cannot stand at your center and put me at the center.
I stand at the center. Each one must say that, speaking truly for himself or herself. I do it. And as there are those who actually do it, here and anywhere, then the oasis is known, the Kingdom is known. In that sense it could be said the kingdom has come. Actually it didn’t come, because it was here already, but nobody was on hand to know it. Only those who stand at the center can know it. Why hesitate then from assuming that position of natural responsibility? so that no longer is there any looking toward other centers.
This was what was implied by that peculiar word I read this morning, Wakantanka. “I am that which they call great mystery. I am that which each one calls Wakantanka”; that is: the Lord, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Allah, God, as someone or something separate from oneself. That is a lie. Human beings would have no existence at all if there was in fact separation. They discover that; it is called death. When the separation is absolute there is nothing. Wakantanka could apply to any center, or any object, person, imagination, that is placed at a center for oneself so that one revolves around that idol. That is Wakantanka. What that word means I ... well you know now! Whether whoever originally wrote it knew or not is beside the point. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, because I stand at the center and the light shines all around me. I am the light. Let each one prove it out. If there is any failure, your failure is my failure and my failure is your failure, because of the fact of oneness, the truth of oneness. But by the same token your victory is my victory, and my victory is your victory. That seems to be the way to go.
and now I know that my spirit glowing makes this light.
I come into power with the sun for I am the sun.
I am my own light.
Here at the center I see the meaning of things, all things.
And now I know that I am the meaning. The whole meaning.
The four directions come together in me.
I am the center
and everything flows from me, returns to me.
I am that which they call Great Mystery.
I am that which each one calls Wakantanka before coming here,
before seeing the light.
I am here and so I know.
Here I know everything. Here I know myself.
I am thought and will. And nothing sits above my will.
I am pride and joy. And nothing sits above my joy.
I own my life. And only mine.
And so I shall appreciate my person.
And so I shall make proper use of myself.
I stand here in the light of my own presence and I recognize my power.
I am reason. And nothing sits above my choice.
I am truth. And so I live in the spirit.
And so I live forever.
I am the oneness of the whole.
And whatever happens, happens in me.
I am Ahbleza. I own the earth.
This particular quotation is taken from a book called Hanta Yo, by Ruth Beebe Hill. In this book she speaks of certain of the American Indians, their life, their understanding, their traditions, their history. It has been a rather controversial book, some of the Indians in this modern era objecting to her interpretations. But this particular quotation certainly finds a point of agreement with us and in our own experience. I might read it again. (Martin reread the piece.) I do not know that these words would necessarily be classified as coming from scripture, but they certainly convey the truth, the truth long forgotten, long unknown to human beings.
Nowadays it is interesting that because of the seeming energy shortage consideration is being given to solar energy—not all that much as yet but no doubt that interest will increase. There is a certain recognition of the immense apparent quantity of energy that is brought to the earth from the sun in each moment. I don’t know what the figures are but probably the energy received on this North American continent in a day would supply all human needs for a hundred years. Here is an awareness of an apparent source of energy separate from the earth, separate from human beings. All those things which may be observed, such as in this instance the sun, are symbols which may acquaint human beings with themselves. Because so much weight is given to externals the symbols have loomed as though they were something in and of themselves, rather than a beautiful evidence of a reality which partakes of the state of oneness.
In the words which I read, there was a consciousness of the fact, as it was put, “I am the sun.” The sun is looked upon as an immense source of energy, but it is simply a symbol of a source of energy of so much greater extent than is revealed by the sun. What the sun reveals springs from a source. Human beings try to explain it in terms of atomic fusion, but the source which is the sun is the same source which we are. As I say, because human beings place the greatest weight in what seems to them to be external to themselves, the sun is looked upon as the source; but the sun is merely the evidence of the source, just as human beings are, just as the earth itself is.
Because of the apparent shortage of energy, or expectation of such shortage, human beings are concerned to extract energy from somewhere else. The sun is an obvious source. It takes a little while for human consciousness to adjust to the possibility of making use of what derives from that source, but, clearly, there is an immense supply of energy apparently, from the human standpoint absolutely inexhaustible. I noticed that somebody, in commenting on the rather laggard approach to the right use of solar energy, expressed the thought that nobody can make any money out of it. Of course that is not exactly true because people must build complicated machinery in order to extract the energy, and therefore there is an economic factor involved, but the source itself cannot be sold. Nobody can get a corner on the sun.
However if we are aware that what powers the sun powers us, then why go to the sun? Of course the reason for going to the sun to get energy, or to get it out of the earth in some form or other, is so as to sustain the world which human beings have created on earth. This is considered to be an all-important project because it is inconceivable that human beings could exist without the world which they have created on earth. The popular phrase is that one might freeze in the dark. The whole exercise is based in the endeavor to save the human world. We have another viewpoint, perhaps still largely theoretical: This human world does not need to be saved. People everywhere apparently become convinced that without this human world they themselves couldn’t exist, but human beings did exist for a long time before this particular quality of human world put in an appearance. Possibly it may be true that people have become soft and have lost a great deal of the pioneering spirit and the initiative in living, so that their survival might be in question if the world as we know it didn’t continue to exist; nevertheless it might be said that the human population has been sold a bill of goods. The world that human beings have made, rightly must pass away. Ultimately no endeavors, even the most frantic, will be able to sustain it. We are well aware of the cracks in that world, extending in all directions, and the disintegration which is occurring.
If there is a relinquishing of the idea that it is important, even a matter of life and death, to save the human world, then we will have space in consciousness to consider something else. It would appear that all human beings are pretty well hypnotized, brainwashed, into the view that they must contribute all their energy to sustaining themselves and this human world in which they exist, so there is no time or inclination to look at anything else much. However it is also true that in these days there are those who are awakening, as it has been put, to the futility of the undertaking, the attempt to maintain the human world. While still much of the thought in those who so awaken is that really some aspects of this world must be maintained—the better ones presumably, whatever they are—nevertheless it is a movement occurring in human consciousness which in a sense is quite commendable because it does provide space to see something else. If the population of the world can be thoroughly convinced of the absolute necessity of pouring themselves into the sustaining of this human world, then they are ripe for all kinds of manipulation.
To turn in a little different direction, we have recently reemphasized in our own consciousness the spacefulness of the human flesh body. It’s virtually all space, and very largely it has seemed to be empty space. Space is looked upon as being empty. Perhaps in these days there is more of a recognition of electromagnetic phenomena present in the larger space around us. If it is there, presumably it is in us too. But we have an awareness, perhaps largely theoretical still, of the absolute solid of the substance of love, out of which all other substance derives, and what derives out of the substance of love is not something else than love. So, present within our own flesh bodies is this absolute solid. It fills all the space. In that sense then there isn't any space. However from the standpoint of the consciousness of human beings it has seemed that there has been a lot of space—maybe not looking at it merely from the standpoint of what is present in an atom, for instance, or a molecule, almost all space apparently, but from the standpoint of what human beings experience. Nowadays they talk about being “spaced out.”
There is an immense emptiness in human experience. There are apparently so many needs, which for the most part are human wants rather than needs, but indicative of a lack, of a state of emptiness, a condition where space prevails. The very desire for the acquisition of knowledge, for instance, is indication of a sense of lack, a sense of inadequacy, a realization of empty space. So the approach is: Let’s fill it up; let’s fill this empty space up with knowledge. If not with knowledge then with “good times,” as they are sometimes called. So all of human experience tends to be governed by this apparent absence, so that one must rush here, rush there, trying to fill up the space with knowledge, with wealth, with whatever can be thought of; some go in one direction and some another but they are all trying to fill up this seemingly empty space.
But we realize it isn’t empty space at all; it is the absolute solid of love, of which human beings have been unaware. They do not know the substance which is present in what they think of as space. It’s been blotted from their understanding, from their experience—not entirely; there are little bits and pieces of love come through sometimes, and this is translated in different ways. But the reality is unknown. We have seen this relative to ourselves and the fact that we have lived in a fanciful world, which only exists in our own consciousness. If from the human standpoint it seems that there is so much space, that’s a lie; it isn’t so. The very fact that there has seemed to be so much space has been the motivating element in frantic human activity; they are going to fill it up somehow. It never gets filled on that basis. It couldn’t be because it’s already filled.
So there is a state of illusion here where it is imagined that something is so which isn’t so, and every generation that has come along has more or less taken the same attitude, having the experience of this emptiness. “Let’s fill it up”—and human beings are inventive. After all, part of the human nature is of creativeness, so they think up ways of filling up this space, nonexistent space, living in a world of illusion. They fill it up, as I say, with their pleasures, the things which they desire of various sorts, maybe alcohol or drugs or money or power, as they think of it, knowledge. Oh, there is immense variety offered for this, and most human beings are so dumb they fall for it. I suppose this can be understood with respect to young people growing up, because they haven’t yet plumbed the depths of futility; but all this endeavor to fill up what seems to be empty space is a waste of time. It is complete self-delusion. The space is already occupied by the absolute solid of love substance.
What is necessary is, of course, that there should be what has been described as an awakening to the truth of the matter, so that one stops indulging in self-delusion. But who is going to awaken? The experience of human beings everywhere is of a self, and it is assumed that this self which is the experience must somehow awaken to a different state of affairs but it’s still the same self but an awakened one now. That is not true either. In this passage that I read from the book Hanta Yo the state of separateness, which is the human experience, passes away: “I am that which they call great mystery. I am that which each one calls Wakantanka before coming here,” before coming to center, before having the experience of the truth. In other words the truth is seen as being separate from the person, and the person is going toward the truth so that he can fill himself up with the truth. This is another area in which human beings are very active these days: they are going to fill themselves up with the truth, they suppose. But it is already there. There is no need to fill anything up.
So this idea, anyway, is present in human consciousness, that they should move toward the truth, or that the truth should be allowed to move toward them. This is translated in various ways, using various terms: the idea of getting to heaven somehow. Whether heaven is in the hereafter or whether heaven is supposed to be here, it’s the same thing; let’s get there! Well where are you going? So another attitude is taken, “Well it seems we can’t get there, so we’ll let it come here.” That’s a nice idea and it may be a useful way of approach for a while, but somewhere along the way we come to the understanding that it’s here already. It doesn’t need to come.
So there is certainly something to happen. Because it hasn’t happened in human experience no one knows how to explain it. That’s right, isn't it? People have all sorts of theories about it, but the theories are only necessary because there hasn’t been the experience; and because human beings are empty they swallow theories thick and fast, imagining that their appetite will be thereby assuaged. But you add nothing to nothing and you still have nothing; you still have the space, the awareness of the space, the awareness of the space which is consequent upon what has been described as a veil of the impure human heart. This excludes an awareness of the substance of love, the one substance of which all other substance of which human beings may be aware in some measure are aspects. But you take a little piece of something and it doesn’t tell you what the whole is, as witness the gentlemen who examined the elephant. The elephant isn’t all trunk, it isn’t all feet, it isn’t you all tail, it isn't all skin. Get it together and there’s the elephant. There is a state of wholeness consequent upon the fact of this one substance. So we have the opportunity, as it was put in this passage I read, of coming again to center. But then what’s that, because we never left it? How could we come again to it? It is simply a sufficient yielding of human minds and hearts so that what is so can be seen to be so—first of all seen to be so and then known to be so. There is a distinction here between seeing and knowing.
One can use metaphors of various sorts to open the heart and the mind of human beings. I suppose one of them is the mirage in the desert. If you are in the desert and you see a mirage but you don’t know that it is a mirage you may be convinced that just over there is the oasis with abundant water. I think that describes the attitude of human beings: “Just over there somewhere is the oasis with the abundance of everything.” But what has been looked at has been a mirage. A mirage of the oasis couldn’t exist if there was not a factual oasis, but if one mistakes the mirage for the oasis itself one is likely to perish in the desert. So it is that the world which human beings inhabit is a mirage world. It couldn’t be said not to exist, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-uranda-may31-1953-class-0-0-1-26.html] any more than a mirage could be said not to exist. It’s there all right but it isn’t the real thing. But there wouldn’t be any world at all if it were not for the fact of the real thing. Perhaps this is a way of conveying an idea to the reluctant human mind and heart, that this present world which seems to be so real and from which it is imagined one can extract all that is necessary for one’s own life and enjoyment, is in fact a mirage, as people find out sooner or later. They endeavor to extract what they may, but it never satisfies. One may fool oneself momentarily but in the long run it never satisfies and a person discovers that he is more empty than he was before, just like the one who is wandering in the desert. He is getting thirstier and thirstier, amongst other things, tireder and tireder, trying to extract something from a mirage. But it isn’t in the mirage, even though the mirage can give evidence, if the individual will awaken to it, of a factual oasis.
So there has been this dream state, a state of a hypnotic trance, shall we say, where human beings have been open to suggestibility of all kinds and they believe all sorts of things that are absolutely not true, and each succeeding generation is educated into these beliefs. Being wide open in youth it’s not difficult for them to get filled up with these beliefs. We have all had that experience. I suppose in a sense one may say it is more difficult to get rid of them because they are reinforced by ages of human experience, repeated and repeated and repeated generation after generation after generation, and it is pretty thick apparently—it’s a real good mirage now. In this state there is a self, the experience of a self, which may be described I suppose as a mirage self, like unto what it believes in. And being a mirage person, of course, sooner or later the conditions are such that the mirage cannot exist anymore and it’s gone. We call that death. But the reality was still there. The truth is true and all is well.
It is in the dissolution of the veil, so that what is so may be the actual experience, that salvation is found. It’s not a matter of going anywhere, it’s not a matter of anything coming from anywhere, because everything is right here in fact. It requires a pure heart to know the truth. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” They shall see the character of God, which is love, and they shall see the quality of love, the character of love itself, which includes truth. As the heart is purified, this seeing arises. This was spoken of by Jesus apparently as the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven. He made the statement that a man must be born again if he is to see the Kingdom. Well the rebirth is simply the process of purification in the heart. As the heart is purified a little, then you can see things. For instance we are looking at something now and we can see it, if we have pure hearts—we can’t see it if we don’t—or at least adequately pure. What we see will be conditioned by the remaining impurities of the heart, but we can see something. On the other hand a man must be born of water and of the spirit if he is to enter into the Kingdom of God, if he is to know it, if he is to know the truth rather than just see it, if he is to be in position as himself or herself. In that position there is a knowing of what always was. What wasn’t, therefore, has simply vanished. There is no more human self in that sense then. There is no longer a deluded person on hand, subject to illusions of all sorts—which is the common lot of human experience.
Of those who are gathered here this morning, how many would be inclined to say that they know the truth, I wonder. I should be very careful about that. There may be quite a few who claim to see it but there is a vast difference when the human consciousness simply sees something as a possibility but does not know it. We may utilize the mirage again, if we want. The mirage is a reflection of the oasis; therefore you can see the oasis in this way and you may understand that it’s a mirage. You know about it. You see the palm trees, you see the water there, you see lush vegetation, and it’s lovely—but you ain’t there! The world in which you dwell is probably not quite of that nature; it’s more of the nature of the desert still; nevertheless you can see the reflection. “Well,” you can say, “I’ll know that oasis when I get there. I’ll know what it looks like because I have already seen it.” But it only becomes a useful place when you are actually there; so, seeing is obviously insufficient. As I say, there has been quite a bit of seeing in the Emissary ministry but a rather more restricted knowing, and yet it is the knowing alone that may be called salvation. One may thank God that there is water in the oasis, but if you are not in the oasis you can't drink it. So here is a totally different situation. Maybe seeing is necessary to subsequent knowing but let us never be fooled that seeing is knowing.
“I stand at the center
and the light shines all around me
and now I know that my spirit glowing makes this light.
I come into power with the sun for I am the sun.
I am my own light.”
Do you know that? Well you see it perhaps, because the same source which powers the sun powers us. But who are we? Are we the power or the powered? If we are the powered we will find ourselves, somewhere along the way, running out of energy. If we are the power, that energy is always present. That light outpouring is always there, and where the light is we can see and we are thereby given the opportunity to know, to live in an awareness that all of our space is composed of the absolute solid of love substance. And this is all that is necessary, because out of this substance come all the differentiations; and when that is where we are, where we dwell, then because we are present those differentiations put in an appearance. But if you stand over there somewhere with a sense of separation, then perhaps someone will feed you with a morsel now and again, but you will run out of steam for sure.
At the beginning of the Service titled Cone Response, and prior to Uranda's spoken words,
With power and tenderness, Jim Wellemeyer sang this hymn titled The Lost Chord,
with Lillian at the piano, in the Chapel on Sunrise Ranch
YouTube Audio
The Lost ChordbyArthur Sullivan
Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill at ease, And my fingers wandered idly Over the noisy keys. I know not what I was playing, Or what I was dreaming then; But I struck one chord of music, Like the sound of a great Amen. It flooded the crimson twilight, Like the close of an angel's psalm, And it lay on my fevered spirit With a touch of infinite calm. It quieted pain and sorrow, Like love overcoming strife; It seemed the harmonious echo From our discordant life. It linked all perplexèd meanings Into one perfect peace, And trembled away into silence As if it were loth to cease. I have sought, but I seek it vainly, That one lost chord divine, Which came from the soul of the organ, And entered into mine. It may be that life's bright angel Will speak in that chord again, It may be that only in Heav'n I shall hear that grand Amen.
Kathy Meeker
Acknowledging The Presence Of God
Uranda August 30, 1953
For our morning devotion, we have what I think is a treat. My wife is going to sing for us — Kathy Meeker sang the hymn: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good tidings."
YouTube Audio
Let us continue our meditations with a moment of devotion: Our Gracious LORD and Holy KING, we would give thanks to Thee for this beautiful morning, for the refreshing of the gentle breeze, for the privilege of resting in the Spirit of Thy Presence and acknowledging Thy Holy Name. And being gathered together with one accord, in one place, we would so yield to the working of Thy Will on earth, that the action of Thy Will may appear through us, even as Thy Will is done in Heaven, to the end that we may share in the coming of Thy Kingdom; for we know that the Kingdom invisible is being made visible, and that it is Thine; and we know that the power by which Thy Kingdom is made manifest is Thine; and we realize that the glory which appears with the manifestation of Thy Kingdom on earth is Thine. With grateful hearts we rest before Thy Throne, that we may know Thy Will and let it be done, that we may come into attunement with Thy Spirit and abide in the Secret Place of the Most High, that we may dwell under the evidence of Thy almighty Presence, now and forever. And we would thank Thee in this hour for the response of all Thy children everywhere, of every race and color and creed, that not one with yearning hearts may be overlooked, that not one who turns to Thee, whosoever, wheresoever he may be, may fail to receive the refreshing of Thy Spirit; but that each and all who yield in this hour and in the hours to come may be assured, from the depths of Thy eternal being, that all things do work together to perfection for all who truly love and serve Thee, so let it be Oh, LORD and King, so let it be, now and always. Aum-en.
