“And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him,
may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
This is the will of God through Shekinah: that those who belong in the Body of the Son of God should be raised up at the last day. The last day is the Sixth Day of the creative cycle, upon which the creation, or the re-creation, of man occurs—the last of the six days, when man is brought forth complete and whole. At the point of re-creation on the Sixth Day the facility called MAN on earth is available for God to extend His creative works from the surface of the earth.
The Seventh Day is the day when God rested because there was a man. He had therefore a place to rest His head on earth—the union of God and man. This was the completion of the creative cycle in the sense of bringing forth all the facilities that were necessary for God's action on earth. Of course from that point the creative work for which all this had been brought forth might begin. Certainly it was not as though, having got that job done, God then said, “I will call it a day and rest eternally thereafter.” No, the real job was just getting started because there was a means to do it.
And then of course the failure came—as we know in our own present experience; this is made plain—so that the job which was to be done has not yet been done. Clearly then, the first order of business is to recreate man on earth, capable of experiencing oneness with God. All the elements of heredity, all the remaining influences of self-centeredness, all the distorted patterns in body, mind and heart, must be cleansed away so that man may become again what he was originally created to be. Coming to the last day in this recreative cycle of resurrection it is said that Shekinah will lift him up, lift him up into union with God—obviously a task incapable of being performed in human self-centeredness. The external manifestation of man, both the positive and negative triune aspects, are the creation. The creation cannot govern itself without disaster. Let it be in the hands of God so that the resurrection may occur.
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These things are clearly portrayed in this particular passage which we have considered today but also in many places throughout the Bible. It is not as though man had been left without any hint as to what was necessary. It has all been plainly set forth. We are the inheritors of all that has been offered down through the ages. Those who lived in the past didn't have quite so much. This would seem to indicate that we have less excuse for failure than those who went before us. But the truth has been offered to guide human beings in the Way if they were willing to pay attention. However, it is also true that there are definite creative cycles and one cannot ignore what is unfolding in those creative cycles. Some may say, “Why wasn't something initiated before this time? After all, it has been nineteen centuries and nothing happened!”
As we were noting in Class recently, when there is an aborted cycle it must work itself through to the point where it may rightly be reinitiated in the correct sequence of the four forces. We need to remember that nothing can be creatively accomplished from the Divine standpoint except on the basis of the working of the Law and the operation of the creative forces. We noted that when our LORD and KING was on earth He came to initiate a creative cycle, and of course He did it on the basis of the first of the four forces: water, truth; the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. “Let there be light.” He said of Himself, “I am the light of the world.” However, He made it plain that it was not necessary for the light to be extinguished if He left. Of those who desired to follow Him He said, “Ye are the light of the world.” So He initiated the creative cycle on the basis of the first force.
But there was failure, not on His part but insofar as the essential response to what He brought was concerned, so that in fact the creative cycle which He initiated was aborted; in the creative sense it never went beyond the first force. A few hundred years after He was on earth the Dark Ages ensued, clearly indicating the abortion of the cycle. However, this didn't mean that, that cycle having been aborted, one could ignore the rest of the forces and try to start another one right away. It had to work its way through the four forces, and this can be followed out in the record of history, as we noted. After the Dark Ages came the Renaissance, a spiritual renewal of vision—something to do with air, the air of the spirit—mostly related to the field of art, art particularly in religion. So here was the reaction of human beings to the air force, but because it was an aborted cycle “the LORD was not in the air.”
The Reformation followed shortly thereafter, having something to do with form, with earth. Various things worked into this earth aspect of the pattern: the industrial revolution came along. There were sundry earthquakes, “but the LORD was not in the earthquake.” And finally, while there had been many wars and rumors of wars during this time, as there have been throughout human history, the culmination came at the time of the First World War—fire. The Second World War followed after, as a postscript to the First World War, “but the LORD was not in the fire.” It wasn't until this creative cycle, which could have been included in the process by which the resurrection of the Body of the Son of God took place on earth, had been completed in its aborted condition that the world came again to the point where the water force might once more find application.
These things can't be ignored and are not ignored by God. He never tries to do the impossible; He takes things as they come. He is content to let the cycles unfold to the point where advantage may be taken again of what comes next. We see something of what comes next in relationship to that with which we are ourselves now associated, because at about the time the Second World War came to a close Sunrise Ranch was bought, and in 1946 the birth in the water cycle of the new creation, or the starting point of the cycles of resurrection occurred. Uranda was responsible for this. There had been of course prior preparation. But the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and in 1946 the initial starting point for the resurrection of the Body of the Son of God came into form right here on Sunrise Ranch—a very little thing apparently, just as small, relatively speaking, as the one cell at the point of conception in the mother's body.
Now this doesn't really relate to birth in the ordinary sense. Our Master spoke of these things to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus was a bit confused. How would it be possible to climb back into one's mother's womb? It isn't a matter of birth in the ordinary sense, because the Body of the Son of God was already born. The very fact that mankind has persisted on earth to this very hour is an indication that the Body of the Son of God is potentially present—seemingly dead heretofore. So this concerns what may well be called rebirth. And while the cycle of rebirth does relate to the cycle of original birth, it obviously is a different process, symbolized and represented by the body of Jesus in the tomb. This cycle of rebirth, insofar as He was concerned, initiated the resurrection. There had to be a starting point in that apparently dead body. For a starting point to be there it obviously was not dead in fact, no matter what the appearance was. The same is true of the true Body of the Son of God in the world today, and in the world throughout the ages. Life has been in the carcass of mankind all down through the ages; not life which would give evidence of the Body of the Son of God, but life present nevertheless. Because of the fact of life still persisting there is a starting point in the true Body of the Son of God, and this starting point was activated as the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters specifically in 1946.
The fire cycle was complete—and it sure ended with a bang, didn't it?—so that instantly the LORD was right there to take advantage of the situation. He didn't linger or hang around and say, “Well we'd better wait for a while; it's not very propitious at the moment; it doesn't look as though many people are going to respond. We'll wait.” No, He was right on the job. In fact He had been making preparation before the point was reached, so that there was something present on earth to permit the spirit of God at this level to move upon the face of the waters. So the new creative cycle was initiated: the cycle of rebirth, which is succeeded by the cycles of resurrection, the six days of re-creation. And we have been moving together in this unfolding creative process that we might come, following out the correct sequence of the four forces, to the Sixth Day, when man is restored—restored as an adequate six-plane facility for the LORD.
Individually speaking the same principle is at work, and the Lord for the individual is the truth of his own being. The consciousness of the fulness of that truth comes when the wholeness of the facility is available for the expression of Shekinah. We know ourselves by reason of the expression of what we are. If what we are in reality is only partially expressed we can but know ourselves partially, and it will be partially expressed until all the cycles of the recreative process, the processes of resurrection, have worked out to the Sixth Day. This does not mean that we do not have a changed awareness of ourselves. It merely means that because the facility for the full expression of ourselves individually and collectively has not yet reached the Sixth Day there can be only a partial experience. So we are content with that. We know why it is that way and we do not fool ourselves into imagining that it is not that way. There are those who have caught a glimpse of the way things are but, still being caught in the self-centered trap, they have proceeded to put on a big front which was supposed to be the truth of being, saying in effect, “I am the Lord.” The LORD on earth requires the facility recreated for His expression if His identity is to be known.
So we remain humble, in an awareness that there are many hereditary factors present in the external manifestation, particularly in the subsurface levels of consciousness, which do not make possible as yet the full expression of what we are in reality. We have noted that the requirement is to remain true to the truth that we do know in surface consciousness, not allowing ourselves to be distracted by the call and the clamoring of what is symbolized by Eve, who constantly invites us to eat some more of that delicious forbidden fruit. If we do again accept the government of the results of our own actions we perpetuate the fallen state and we interrupt the creative cycle that was working out in us individually.
The cycle works out, wheels within wheels, always on the basis of the true sequence of the four forces. So if you abort the cycle somewhere, by accepting the government of externals, there will be the necessity of letting that cycle move all the way through until it can be reinitiated. I may say that in the outworking of things in this ministry we have vast experience in this regard! most of which was unrecognized by those who precipitated the abortion of the cycle, because the individual, having aborted the cycle—it only takes a moment—then says, “Let's forget about that. Let's get back on the beam again here and get going in the cycle and carry it forward.” It doesn't work that way. Once the cycle is broken it can only be initiated again when it comes around to the proper starting point.
Over the years so many of those who have been associated with the unfoldment in this ministry have been occupied with aborting cycles in relationship to themselves. But of course you can't abort a cycle in relationship to yourself without affecting everybody else. So someone, somewhere, aborts a cycle. It becomes necessary to wait, insofar as that individual is concerned, for things to work themselves through to the point where something can be reinitiated. And while this is going on someone else aborts a cycle over here, and back and forth it goes. As soon as we get something reinitiated over here someone aborts another one over there. So, seemingly the process has been slow because of these things. But the overall pattern has continued because there has gradually developed a Core in which cycles finally are not being aborted, and this immediately begins to become an increasingly potent thing, providing a stable influence which may easily hold other responding ones steady so that they do not need to let their cycles be aborted. The more adequate the Steadfast Core is the more stabilizing influence is released to all those who are beginning to share in the resurrecting process as it relates to the Body of the Son of God.
But I bring these things out and emphasize them so that from the standpoint of your surface consciousness you may recognize what happens and you may be more careful then to make very sure that you do not do anything to abort the cycle in which you are moving, to abort the cycle for which you are responsible. Now there will be opportunity to do it, just as there were those three opportunities specifically brought to focus through what are called the three temptations of Jesus. There were provided three very specific opportunities for Him—if He was interested, which He wasn't—to abort the cycle which was moving through Him. He refused to do it, and anyone may refuse to do it. But this relates to something that must become more than a mere determination to hold steady and true to one's highest vision of the truth. This is necessary, but it must become such a habitual attitude that always, in relationship to anything that comes up, the first flush of feeling will be right. To start with, as I am sure you all know from experience, the first flush of feeling tends to relate to the old hereditary patterns. One has always reacted this way, so it's natural to do it again! Consequently there is a need to hold steady, even though in the initial stages the first flush of feeling is contrary; in other words Eve's voice still rings rather loud and clear. She says, “Follow me, indulge with me in involvement with externals.” Well this habit needs to change. So there is the necessity of holding steady at the surface level of consciousness because we are faithful and true to our highest vision.
We refuse utterly to become involved with Eve. This gives a chance for Eve to change, but until Eve does change, until she agrees with the highest vision, there cannot be movement any further in the resurrection process. This business of coming into agreement relates to movement through the Second Day of creation into the Third. By holding steady, true to one's highest vision, it is possible to maintain a state of tranquility where it may be said, regardless of what is felt, “None of these things actually move me.”
We can listen to someone trying to get us to do something and hear what the person says and what influence is being brought to bear, but we do not need to do what the individual is trying to get us to do, do we? Well the same thing applies when the demand comes from our own emotional realm, from our own feelings—our own feelings which say, “Follow me. Do what I want you to do. This is the way I want to go.” “No, I am going to be true to the truth.” So, regardless of feeling, one may stay steady. And if the onslaught of feeling seems to be particularly violent, now that there is a Stable Core present it is always possible to contact someone in the external sense who will provide an additional stable point of agreement with you, someone who is not going to get involved with your feelings. If someone else doesn't need to get involved with your feelings, why do you need to get involved? Hold it steady, in agreement with those who are likewise holding it steady.
Now if you hold it steady of course you will be in agreement with them anyway; but if you feel the onslaught is too violent it may be wise and advantageous to take some deliberate action in this regard and come into the presence of someone who is trustworthy—not to try to persuade that person to become all involved in the things you are fussing about, but leaving the things you would be fussing about if you became involved with them outside the door. You come in to find agreement with the truth, to stabilize that agreement, and fundamentally you do this because of what I mentioned at the conclusion of our hour together this morning: “I love You, LORD. I love you, Lord, certainly more than I love Eve.” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/shekinah-and-sex.html]
Some people feel that this would be a way to break up marriages. It is the only way by which a true union between a man and a woman may be established, that both parties say first, “I love You, LORD.” And neither one of the two parties is making demands upon the other, saying “Love me, love me. Tell me you love me.” This is supposed to make a marriage—if husband and wife are always telling each other that they love each other, that's supposed to be the answer. That maintains an exclusive self-centered state, and self-centered states are all disintegrative. No. “I love You, LORD,” and only on the basis of this is a person capable of loving another in the right way.
The First Commandment really does come first. It isn't just a nice suggestion; it is a Command. Do it or else! That's what it amounts to. This is the Law. And when we love the LORD we love Love. And finding oneness consequently with the LORD in that love, there is unified radiation, the radiation of love. In the expression of love, the truth of love, we then know what love is. Love is experienced because we express it. But we do not try to express love according to our own idea of what love is, because that is self-centeredness. We have no real idea of what love is until we know the truth of it, and we can't know the truth of it until we love the LORD. Very often when a person is told to love the LORD he says, “Well then I am not going to be able to love anybody else.” That's right! Self-centered you is not to love anybody else, because the only way you can love anyone else is self-centeredly, and that is no good. It brings all the woes that we may observe very easily in the world. “I love You, LORD.”
And we come again to be held steady by Shekinah in the creative cycles. We are not trying to do anything else, and we do not need to try to do that even. If we love the LORD we do it. If we are genuine in our attitude, “I love You, LORD,” where is the problem? If you genuinely love, you naturally do what is necessary because of that love; you don't have to try to do it. A person who is trying to be true to his highest vision isn't being true to his highest vision. Love makes it so that one couldn't do anything else; it is actually impossible to do anything else. Of course in self-centeredness the individual is inclined to imagine that that would be some sort of slavery. “Well you have to do what is required. I thought we had freedom of choice.” Here we are free to choose to let go of the freedom of choice, that we may be governed by our Beloved. Human beings in their self-centeredness think of love in this way, don't they? Would there be anything more delightful and wonderful and fulfilling than to be one with the Beloved? Well, there's only one Beloved with whom we should be one. “I love You, LORD.”
And then we do what is natural in that love. There's no problem; there's no sweat, as they say, no more sweat of the face, just a natural movement in love. We find ourselves being gathered together unto one place. The waters under the heaven are gathered together unto one place in the Third Day of creation, to be with one accord in one place, and the dry land appears. The form of the Body of the Son of God begins to come to life; sensation begins to return to that Body—not too much to start with: the grass and the trees, the evidences of life reappearing in the creative process of resurrection. There's no great rush. Let it work out under the hand of Shekinah, certainly not what you think with your surface consciousness. And in that gathering together unto one place, under heaven, under the realm where Shekinah has control, the dry land appears, the evidences of life come increasingly in the Body of the Son of God. Certain parts of the Body begin to become conscious of themselves again—not the whole body yet, just parts, rising up in consciousness, feeling something, rejoicing in what is felt.
But this is just the Third Day, remember?—just the beginning of the Third Day, not yet halfway even. So let us not jump to a conclusion that this is it. It is it in the sense that we are participating in the creative cycle which brings us to the conclusion where it may be said, “This is it”; but we're still on the way. So we stay humble. We stay humble but steady and centered in the truth which we know, and gradually we find that what we feel agrees with the truth that we know, so that heart and mind come together. Here is part of the gathering of the waters under the heaven being brought together under the dominion of Shekinah so that the creative process may continue.
We share these cycles as they occur in us. As we have experience of them we know what they are and we are therefore in position to know what is happening in others who are experiencing what we have known. So in turn we become the means by which others are held steady as they move through these various levels of resurrection. And while there may be some breaking from the pattern on occasion, we ourselves, recognizing the responsibility, hold the line because we're not interested, surely, in going back to square one, as it were. What a waste of time! and it's not surprising, when we do that, that we begin to feel futile. But we don't need to do it. We can be true; we can keep our integrity; and as we do this we share the resurrection in the increasing awareness of the reality of life, the life which is emerging.
How good to see these things at this level of understanding so that we may move with effectiveness forward into the levels of understanding that are yet to come, being willing to relinquish what we thought we knew in favor of the truth at every step of the way, because until we come to the Sixth Day we necessarily see things through colored glasses to some extent, through the distorted lens of remaining self-centeredness. But the way is clear. Shekinah gets the job done. It got the job done in the beginning, so I don't see any reason why it shouldn't get it done now. It's no less capable than it was then; in fact there's less to be done now than there was then, because the Body is already here; it doesn't have to be created. It is the re-creation of the consciousness of that Body. And we share in letting this happen, moving together and staying together with one accord in one place.
Because of this oneness Shekinah can move easily. But remember, that movement will have the tendency, if you are not alert, to cause a scattering again, as it did on that first occasion long ago in what has been called the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that day of Pentecost. Things felt so wonderful. “Here is the power. Isn't it great? Isn't it tremendous?” Have you ever felt that way? “We can achieve great things.” Yes, in the seasons of the LORD, not in the way you may think.
Let the increased enthusiasm hold you steady. Don't let it scatter you. If you are scattered, you are scattered out of the Body and you very quickly lose the power then, because the power of Shekinah moves through the Body, nowhere else. So remain where you belong and move forward with assurance in the Way, because we are all with one accord in one place, in our hearts saying always, “I love You, LORD.”
I love You, LORD. These words coming to focus and finding expression through this form, are the words of all who have come into agreement with me, and consequently with Thee. We abide in Thy Love, abide under Thy Shadow, the Shadow of Shekinah, because we dwell in what has been the Secret Place of the Most High, but which is now no longer secret to us, being true to what is Most High in our consciousness of the truth. Abiding under the Shadow of Shekinah, all things are made new by Shekinah in the cycles of resurrection. No self-centered human mind is necessary to get the job done; it is done when the surface consciousness at last is content to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord and no longer insists upon dwelling in the tents of wickedness, the tents of self-centeredness. O LORD, I thank Thee for all those here present and everywhere on the face of the earth whose integrity holds them steady, centered in Thee, because they love Thee, in the Christ. Aum-en.
This evening let your response be a silent one insofar as the spoken word is concerned,
as you remember those words which naturally form in your heart,
Seven-Dimensional World — Seven-Dimensional Identity
Martin Cecil August 24, 1969
In our service yesterday evening, the two men who conducted it spoke of the story about the twelve spies who were sent by Moses into the land of Canaan shortly after the children of Israel had come out of Egypt. Ten of those spies, when they returned, brought one kind of report and two brought another. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/joshua-and-caleb.html] They had all seen the same thing, but their attitudes toward what they had seen were different. Perhaps the numbers involved in the two classifications of attitude have some significance. Ten of the spies who observed the land placed particular emphasis upon the number of enemies that were the inhabitants of the land. They saw that it was a goodly land, but there were all kinds of enemies—in their view. The other two apparently hardly noticed the enemies, if there were any, recognizing the wonder, the beauty, of the land itself.
We're equipped with some facilities of perception; they're usually referred to as the physical senses. Traditionally we are supposed to have five of these; and you will notice that there were ten spies, which is double five. There are two aspects to these senses with which we're equipped. First of all they bring to us in various ways vibrational impulses of different sorts. These impulses are conveyed to their respective centers in the brain and there they are interpreted, so that what is brought by the senses into the body is translated into some sort of familiar classification by the mind, and the object is clothed with this translation. For instance, to my left here you may observe something that probably all of us would call an altar. Some sort of an impact penetrated our eyes when we looked at it, and certain impulses were conveyed over the optic nerve presumably, to the part of the brain involved in the process, and we translated in our own consciousness these vibratory impulses into something that we describe by the word “altar.” Someone else, who is not familiar with altars might look at this object here and translate it in some other way. He might say that is a model of a Lemurian ship or a special type of intergalactic spacecraft.
There are two factors, then, obviously present in relationship to this function of observation. There are the vibratory elements themselves, which penetrate through the doors of our senses. Presumably these, barring any distortion in the senses, in the receptors, would be the same for all of us, but our translations of these vibratory patterns might be as many as there are people present. So something comes from the object of observation and we return something to that object of observation. The vibratory impact came from this altar into our eyes, followed through the channels, and we returned to this object the classification of “altar.” So we can see there are two aspects, which would make the double five.
However there is also a double one. There were two additional spies, you may recall, whose observation of the same thing that was seen by the other ten engendered a different attitude, a different viewpoint, a different understanding. This double one relates to our capacity for what may be called spiritual discernment. There is a statement made that “spiritual things must be spiritually discerned.” Maybe we have begun to come to the realization that there is nothing that we may observe which is not in fact spiritual. The interpretation, or the translation, we have made of what we have observed may place it in some other category. We say that something is material as opposed to spiritual, but the fact of the matter is that we have merely interpreted something which is actually spiritual to be what we call material. This is the identity we have given to the particular object. Some things we are inclined to say are definitely material, while other things we may deem to be spiritual; but fundamentally everything stems from one source and is in fact consequently of one nature. There is no real division. The division is an artificial one, created by human minds functioning on the basis of what is portrayed by the ten spies, who saw enemies everywhere.
This is the tendency of human consciousness, isn't it? Human beings see enemies everywhere. It is imagined that life is a battle. Well it couldn't be a battle if we didn't have someone to battle, so there must be enemies on every hand to maintain the battle lines. So here is a view common to mankind in general, which correlates with the attitude and viewpoint of the ten spies. They could see that it was a pretty good land all right, indeed flowing with milk and honey, as they put it; but it was a tough nut to crack! Why? Well because of all the enemies. The human approach to the world which they have made on earth is after this fashion, isn't it? Man is an aggressor. He thinks he has to be, because he sees so many enemies. He overlooks the report brought by the two spies, which provides a different awareness of what the real state of affairs is.
Here we see the dividing line between a person who functions simply from the standpoint of a false human identity and the one who functions from the standpoint of a beginning consciousness of a true, divine identity. The two spies, who represent the positive and negative aspects of Divine Being, are one. There is one true identity, which is capable of receiving the awareness of the vibratory patterns into consciousness and of translating the nature of those vibratory patterns correctly. These are the two aspects of one thing, one true identity, which is capable of functioning on this basis.
Now the five physical senses are useful simply in the conveyance of information, but the information shouldn't stop at the level of a false identity and immediately be reflected back on the basis of the false interpretation by that false identity. The information should carry through to the level represented by the two spies, who would return a translation which was true to the truth, and this would then be extended through the senses to the objects of observation so that they would be seen for what they really are. If we begin to understand the mechanics, we might say, of this process, we can see that human beings have constantly been short-circuiting the process; it never penetrates beyond the level of the physical senses. Everything is looked at as though it were three-dimensional. Now this is our common viewpoint, isn't it? If we think of the three dimensions as being length, breadth and height, this is the way we see things in our environment. If we assume that there are only three dimensions and we translate everything we see on this basis, when in fact there are more than three dimensions, we will interpret falsely. And this is exactly what human beings have been doing, because we really live in a seven-dimensional world.
I suppose we could illustrate by considering a person who had been living all his life in a room. All he knew was what was contained in that room; that was all he was capable of seeing—the walls were opaque; he couldn't see out—so his whole life would be conditioned by what he was capable of observing in the room. He might, if he was imaginative, come to the conclusion that there should be something beyond the walls of the room, but he wouldn't know what it was. So in order to satisfy his imagination he would have to build some sort of a picture, and the picture he would build of what might possibly be beyond the walls of the room would be based in his observations of what was in the room. However, we know that what is in a room, generally speaking, could hardly include an understanding of everything that is beyond or outside of that room. He might eventually discover that there is a door in the wall and how to open it, and go out of that room into the world, as we call it, out onto the surface of the earth here.
This illustration relates to all of us. We would suddenly become aware of the vast expanse outside, many things that were not contained in the room, and immediately begin to see that our translation of things on the basis of our limited viewpoint of what was in the room was a very distorted state of affairs. We didn't understand anything very much, and no matter how diligent we might have been while in the room in examining all the things that were there, developing means of deeper examination, we would still be at a loss when we came out of the room. We would, I am sure, be immediately convinced that we didn't know anything very much. And it might be that, coming out of the room and discovering this vast world round about, we would want to scurry back into the room, because we felt at home there at least, and thought we understood things, and it was safer! This has been the tendency of human beings, because the fact of the matter is that we do live in a seven-dimensional world. We must be extremely limited—our outlook, our understanding, must be extremely distorted, if we assume that three dimensions is sufficient to give us all the understanding necessary.
Considering these three dimensions in a little different way, we speak of the Negative Triune World—this external world of which we have some awareness. We find ourselves tending to identify ourselves as a negative triune person. This is more or less automatic if we only have a consciousness of three dimensions. Of course immediately we should recognize that the fact that we may only have a consciousness of three dimensions doesn't mean that there couldn't be any more; it simply means that our consciousness is limited.
It is important, as we have recognized, to emerge out of the three-dimensional consciousness of self, so that we do not assume that all we amount to as individuals is a physical form—obviously this must somehow be a part of it; this is one dimension—nor that we are simply a mental entity of some kind, nor that we are just some sort of a spiritual-expression self; for it is true of human beings, although it may be covered up a good deal as the years roll by, that there is a sense within all of us of the reality of rightness, that somehow or other we can be something right. This relates to a spiritual-expression capacity, rather elementary in most but there as long as there is some sort of compulsion toward being what we somehow inherently know we should be. Young people are perhaps more keenly aware in this regard. The oldsters tend to give it up after a while as being imaginary. What they're doing is selling themselves out, because it isn't imaginary; it relates to a reality. So we see that as long as human beings are limited to this three-dimensional state, they don't really understand anything; they don't understand any more of the real world than the individual who has spent his life in one room would understand everything that is outside of that room, or even what is inside the room.
Most of you will recognize that I am speaking about an emergence into what we have spoken of as the Fourth Creative Day, which begins to associate the individual with a new sense of identity. Now all these things are most remarkably outlined in the Bible. As much as human beings have studied this Book, because they were trying to see everything on the basis of a three-dimensional world they didn't comprehend a great deal. They didn't really see what it was that was provided. While perhaps this Book is not the only place on earth where the provision was made, it is an outstanding one, perhaps the outstanding one. We have just taken note of something in relationship to the story concerning the children of Israel and these spies. We see that it is very pertinent to our own experience, pertinent to what is needful from the standpoint of mankind as a whole. And yet it hasn't really been seen.
Another most remarkable outline is contained in the Book of Revelation. This has been a complete mystery to most, and many have decided that it didn't really mean anything. But it does. It does when we begin to look at it from the standpoint of a seven-dimensional world. This point is very much emphasized in the Book of Revelation. There are a great number of sevens, patterns of seven, contained in the outline, which should indicate that there must be some significance to this matter of seven. We are consciously aware, to some degree, of three of these seven, but have almost totally ignored the other four. How foolish to imagine that we could understand what is actually so, when we only take three out of seven factors into account. And we don't take those three wholly into account either. Yet human beings try so manfully, as they think of it, to operate a seven-dimensional world as though it were a three-dimensional world. Nothing but confusion, chaos, could possibly result, and it has.
Recently in our meditations we were considering a passage from the First Chapter of the Book of Revelation. This passage emphasized the importance of turning to see what is behind us. This indicates that we must turn away from what is presently in front of us. When this suggestion is made to human beings they usually say, “Well how can I do that? That would be totally impractical.” It does require, actually, that the almost total attention that human beings pay to what they think of as the three-dimensional world should be withdrawn from it. Obviously, if there has been this intensity of concentration centered in a three-dimensional world when it is really a seven-dimensional world, a state of unbalance will have been produced. As long as that concentration continues in that area the unbalance must continue. So the first thing to do is to take the concentration out of that area. The relatedness that has been known with respect to the other four levels of being has been virtually nil. Therefore, in order to restore a balance, the relatedness to the three-dimensional pattern must become virtually nil too, so that we have a balanced starting point from which there may be expansion. It is this business of becoming seemingly nothing that disturbs people, because they have built themselves up in this three-dimensional world to believe that they really are something. It isn't true, but they firmly believe it and consequently there is a great reluctance to let this fiction be dissolved. Of course to them it doesn't appear as though it is a fiction.
But you have all recognized something of these principles in your own experience. It is necessary to move out of the three-dimensional experience, as human beings have known it, because that is an unbalanced, false, untrue state. So there has to be a gradual relinquishment of all this false-ego baggage which has been acquired in this endeavor to function in a three-dimensional world which doesn't really exist. The three-dimensional world doesn't exist apart from the other four dimensions. So the three-dimensional world, looked at as though it were an entity in itself, just simply isn't. It is part of a seven-dimensional world. We only begin to understand, to comprehend, what it is all about to the extent that we ourselves begin to be re-associated in identity with the seven-dimensional world. This relates to the matter of going to heaven. Human beings locked up in their little room have imagined that heaven was outside of the room and that they had to get out of the room to get to heaven, as though what was outside of the room had no relatedness to what was inside of the room. We have come to the awareness that heaven and earth are, in fact, one. It is, in fact, a seven-dimensional world, not a three-dimensional world. So we are liable to find ourselves in a complete state of futility and frustration if we insist upon trying to live in a three-dimensional world that doesn't exist. It only exists in the consciousness of human beings, not in reality.
So the first step necessary is to withdraw our attention from the three-dimensional imaginary world. Now there may be something true about this three-dimensional world when we see it from the standpoint of the seven-dimensional world, but as long as we see it only as a three-dimensional world it has no reality. What we see is false—false partly because it is quite incomplete. A human body requires all its parts in place, all its systems working. No one would be so foolish as to imagine, looking at a foot, that that was everything there was to the body. Such a view would be ridiculous. And if we imagine that we could understand what the body was, what the purpose of the physical body on earth would be, simply by examining the foot, we would be extremely foolish. We see that this business of laboriously building things with the human intellect is a waste of time.
So there is the necessity to turn to see something, to come into the awareness of the fact that it is a seven-dimensional world. This is one of the first things that was discovered by John when he turned to see the Voice that spoke with him. He saw seven golden candlesticks. He became aware of something with respect to a seven-dimensional world—he was seeking to portray the fact that we live in a seven-dimensional world, and in the initial turning we become aware of it. Well isn't this something of which we have begun to become aware? maybe not yet in adequate experience. But first of all we need to turn to see the Voice, to begin to recognize that all our eggs shouldn't be in a three-dimensional basket.
Now this is a mystery, as the whole Book of Revelation has been a mystery, not because it needs to remain a mystery but because human beings have been so ignorant, so uncomprehending of anything, really. They build up great theories and ideas and concepts about what is contained in their little room where they live, their little three-dimensional room. And if one has an all-encompassing comprehension of what is in this little room, well one is really something in man's world. But it doesn't actually mean anything, because it's completely unrelated to what is beyond the room. And the fact of the matter is, the truth is, that all things are related, whether man has recognized it or not. Heaven and earth are one. It is a seven-dimensional world. Whether we see it as being so, whether we like it or not, or anything else, that's the way it is. So we need to become aware of the fact, to start with, even though we may not comprehend what that fact means. This is what is being portrayed in the 1st chapter of the Book of Revelation, when John turned to see the Voice that spoke with him. And being turned, he saw something: seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven, one like unto the Son of man. Here is a description of something on the basis of what was already known in the little three-dimensional world. How else could it be described by someone, and to someone, who had simply been involved in this limited pattern of the three-dimensional, unreal world?
So, turning to see the Voice, certain factors came into view relative to a seven-dimensional world, and something began to be seen as to how a control operated through this seven-dimensional world. This figure “like unto the Son of man” had seven stars in his right hand. Could that have something to do with focalization?—something that human beings object to so strenuously—a control pattern which coordinates the operation of the seven-dimensional world; not a haphazard thing, truly. If there has been something haphazard about man's experience it is simply because he has been living in this unreal three-dimensional world. If he leaves his imaginary three-dimensional world and comes into the real seven-dimensional world, then he will find that it is not haphazard. It just seems to be haphazard to man, the way things are, because of his own failure to experience a Seven-Dimensional Identity. He just has a three-dimensional identity.
There are seven dimensions, seven planes—this is the truth of the matter. Consequently there is some experience, whether it has been recognized as such by human beings or not, with respect to seven dimensions. This experience is outlined in the various messages that were given to the Angels of the Seven Churches, as they are called. Human beings, in a three-dimensional identity, trying to function in a seven-dimensional world, unconscious of the fact that it is a seven-dimensional world, obviously produce a state of unbalance, a state of distortion. The nature of the distortion is outlined somewhat in the messages to the churches. You will have noted that the message always begins by outlining something that is true—if a true identity is experienced, then it will be of this nature in relationship to this particular level of being—one of the seven.
Let me read just the beginning of one message here: “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write…” Who is the angel? The angel relates to the capacity to experience identity on this particular level indicated by the church. What is the nature of that identity? It may be either a true identity, a divine identity, or a false one. It will be a false one if the individual is functioning on the basis of a three-dimensional world. If he is functioning on the basis of a seven-dimensional world it will be a true identity, and both types of identity are here described.
“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.” Here is the nature of the true identity as related to this particular level.
Now here comes something with respect to the false identity—words of encouragement, mind you: “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.” This is an outline of human function, isn't it? Good people. “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” And what is that first love? The true identity.
Here we see outlined a picture of human beings trying to improve themselves, for one thing, doing their good works in spite of the enemy. The enemy may be characterized by a name—the devil, for instance—or by other things, which become the very devil to human beings! How good people have to struggle against all these enemies! Oh it's tough—and quite unnecessary, because it would all be dissipated if the first love were just remembered; in other words, if there were a willingness to return to the experience of a true Seven-Dimensional Identity instead of insisting upon an unreal three-dimensional identity, in relationship to which one has to struggle oh so hard—trying to bring a seven-dimensional world—the kingdom of God—into a three-dimensional world that doesn't exist. What an impossible task! Is it any wonder that people have failed? Is it any wonder that people feel so futile about it? There's no sense in trying to do the impossible.
These seven messages to the angels of the seven churches relate to this distinction between human beings trying to improve themselves, so that perhaps in the far-distant future they may become perfect, according to their concept of what it would mean to be perfect—that on the one hand, and on the other hand, being perfect now on the basis of experiencing, accepting, true identity now. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” So there is the necessity of coming out of the experience that we have of identification in the three-dimensional world into a new experience of identity. Now we can go just so far in this imaginary three-dimensional world that doesn't exist in actual fact as such. But there is something real to be experienced by anyone who is willing to fulfil the requirements of that experience. The first requirement is to turn, to begin to be aware of something that hadn't been seen before in relationship to the real nature of things.
As we begin to recognize what has been the state of affairs in human experience, recognize its unreal nature, even though there obviously is something there, we may begin to be interested in finding out what it is that is there. As long as it is translated on the basis of the five senses, so that we put our interpretation right back onto the object which we have observed with the senses, we don't know what's there, because our interpretation is false; it's based on a three-dimensional world, and it isn't that.
But being willing to listen to the voice of the two spies, first of all we begin to become aware of the fact that maybe our idea of all these enemies in the land was not the fact of the matter at all. There were no enemies there until we became an enemy to something, on the basis of our translation of the idea. We make enemies. It can be interpreted in an entirely different way. We only have enemies to the extent that we impose upon people that classification. If we don't put that classification upon them they are not our enemies. From their standpoint we may seem to be their enemies, but that's their translation. Why should we accept their translation of the situation? In our translation we begin to see that there aren't any enemies—no enemies whatsoever. The instruction which our Master gave when He was on earth, “Love your enemies,” is a very practical one, because if you love an enemy he isn't an enemy. If you still classify him as an enemy and try to love him it doesn't work, does it? You can't love your enemy. He must become something else other than an enemy according to your classification of him, before you can love him.
Our world is created by us on the basis of the translations we make with respect to the things that come to us out of the world. We create the world around us constantly, and as long as we remain identified in the false three-dimensional world our translations will be false and we will think we live in a hostile world that is endeavoring to destroy us at every turn. This will be our translation of it, and on the basis of this translation we will find all kinds of things to back it up. Of course! We made it that way. But we can retranslate it—we can recreate it. We can make it into a different world, and this immediately brings it down to the individual and his responsibility. It's nobody else's responsibility. The sort of world in which a person lives is his own responsibility; he can't blame anyone else rightly. When we begin to translate on the basis of the two spies, we see the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey—not an enemy in sight!
Oh that seems impossible to the human mind. “My heavens! Look what's going on in the world.” What world? The three-dimensional world that really doesn't exist anywhere but in the human consciousness. Why pay any attention to that? So we may begin to fulfil our role, which permits all things to be made new. Nobody can do it for us. God Himself can't do it for us! We, individually and collectively, have the responsibility. When we begin to see what the state of affairs has been, and we begin to recognize something with respect to what it really is, then surely this should inspire us to move unhesitatingly into the increased experience of the way things really are. But we can't do that without relinquishing our concepts, our ideas, our beliefs, our opinions, as to the way we think things have been. Only as we let all that go and accept the outlook, the identity, the viewpoint, of the angel may we begin to find the reality of God, the reality of ourselves, the reality of the creation, which is already here.
“The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It has always been, but human beings were so immersed in their own nonsense that not only couldn't they see it but they were unwilling to see it. And while they droned on in their prayers, nobody would have anything to do with it. There was no indication of a real willingness that it should be so. No, we want our kingdom, we want our ways. We want to do what we want to do. We want to live our own lives. Ugh! What a despicable state. For heaven's sake let us be concerned with the truth—which includes the seven-dimensional world. And we may emerge into the consciousness of that seven-dimensional world as an actual experience, as we move into, or through, the Fourth Creative Day. The fourth connects three and three: the three that are above the fourth with the three that are below the fourth. It connects heaven and earth, and brings the experience of the reality of that oneness which is differentiated in the pattern of a seven-dimensional world. And we may share this experience.
Maybe the experience is like coming out of a room where one had been incarcerated all one's life, into the wide world outside it. Well just because you come out of the room doesn't mean you immediately understand the wide world around you. It may take a while to comprehend everything, possibly even eternity. So we have plenty of time. But there's not much time as long as we stay in the three-dimensional coffin. That's what it is, you know: a three-dimensional tomb. That's what it proves to be. But we may come out of it, and if we do, that proves that it wasn't a tomb; it proves that it was a womb. We may come out into the experience of the vast Cosmic Garden, in which we play our respective parts in true identity. Let us do this together.
