"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
"Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
"Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?"
We move forward together in the creative cycle, speaking the Word out of the whirlwind—cyclic, rhythmic, creative. As emotions no longer determine behavior the mind is released so that the spirit may reveal intelligence. Certainly the sweet influences of Pleiades can be bound for right use; the bands of Orion can be loosed for intelligent thinking in consequence. Mazzaroth can be brought forth in his seasons. No longer is experience determined by external events and influences. What is needful in living is brought forth out of heaven by the action of spirit. The action of spirit in heaven is the whirlwind—creative action, not destructive. Emotions under control, mind activated by spirit brings forth what is right and fitting in the moment. Arcturus and his sons can be guided. Radiant expression makes this possible. The creative cycle can be administered. There is an awareness of the direction of movement. No longer is there any resistance to that movement but, rather, whatever is necessary to allow that movement to be effective in our own individual creative fields is provided.
The ordinances of heaven are known and the dominion of them is set in the earth by reason of our own individual spiritual expression. Spiritual expression is power. It has already been stated many times: Never underestimate the power of spiritual expression. It is the power of fusion, bringing and holding all things together in the true design in the creative process. This is the power of the Holy Ghost: fusion—oneness, wholeness, the power that operates the universe. The unholy ghost brings forth the power of fission, the power of disintegration—nuclear weapons, for one thing. This is looked upon as a great power capable of obliterating everything on the face of the earth. Is the power of fusion any less, do you think? Is the power which operates the universe, holding all things together in oneness, less than the power released by the unholy ghost, the power inherent in what is called fission? Of course not. Such power is scarcely discernible in the universe, in the cosmos of harmony and order brought forth by the power of fusion.
Never underestimate the power of spiritual expression therefore. Here is the power back of the whole universe brought to focus through the angels of God incarnate and in expression in human form on earth. Obviously it is a power not to be played with by impure hearts and self-active minds; it isn't available to impure hearts and self-active minds. Lacking that power, of course, they have been used to develop the other power: that of fission, that of disintegration. The angels of the Lord on earth are aware of the power of spiritual expression, the power of the Holy Ghost. They are aware also of such power as has been stolen by the unholy ghost, the power of disintegration. The latter is clearly demonstrated on earth in these days; it has come right out into the open where it can be seen. It is presumably a very noisy power, very violent, generating tremendous heat and light at a certain destructive level. Light in this sense can be used destructively, as can heat also, combined with noise. The unholy ghost is very noisy; the world is full of racket, in more ways than one.
The power of the Holy Ghost is silent. Maybe you have listened for the music of the spheres but I doubt if you heard very much. There is a quietness here, a gentleness, certainly a quality of understanding; but these elements do not indicate a lack of power. If, as human beings do, they correlate power with noise, violence, excessive heat and blinding light, then something seems to be lacking. But there is light, there is heat, in quietness and in gentleness. Here is power undreamt of by self-active human minds and impure human hearts. This presumably is why they have developed the substitute, the destructive power, the power of disintegration. Do you imagine that disintegration can prevail in face of the power of the Holy Ghost, the power of spiritual expression?
Let us begin to sense more keenly in mind and heart the intensity and the quality of this creative power; for this power is in the hands of the angels of the Lord incarnate and in expression on earth. It is used only to the extent of purity of heart and clarity of mind, because only to that extent is spiritual expression possible. This power is inherent in spiritual expression. This power achieves the creative purposes of spirit. It cannot be prevented or turned aside. But it only emerges into experience as there are pure hearts and clear minds to let it happen.
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In this day there has been particular movement in a directly experienced creative cycle. It was not shut off after the service given by me this morning or after what was provided a little later by you. The continuing movement has been present and available to the experience of all concerned, to the extent of purity of heart and clarity of mind, refocalized in a specific way by those who participated in the chanting and in the words that were spoken—latterly you all shared in that chanting—that we might be together in a continuing way in this particular focus of the creative cycle which is our responsibility, the responsibility of each one. We have the opportunity of sharing it in a very specific way when we are together as we are now, but it does not evaporate when this is not the situation, although it may evaporate in the experience of those who should be participating in the continued movement of that creative cycle.
As a little aside, I have noticed that after the blessing is given at a meal there are those who very quickly revert to their conversation and their ribaldry. Perhaps very often the first sounds that put in an appearance are those of children. Something should be done about that to cause an awareness as soon as possible in the childish consciousness of moments of sacredness and reverence. But some of adult years are not far behind the children, as a rule. I take note of these things; perhaps some of you do too.
Who has the experience of being the angel of the Lord incarnate and in expression on earth? Whose minds and hearts are yielded and open and welcoming to that experience? And so we share it, if we will, now in this moment because we pay attention. But then minds wander and hearts become involved with a variety of emotions. The focus is lost; participation in the creative cycle ceases; the power is dissipated. How many are there on the face of the earth with the opportunity consciously to share this creative work which we have begun to understand? Shall the destructive power of fission prevail in human experience, or shall it be the creative power of fusion, the creative power that is made manifest in oneness, in an easy, natural, complementary movement of all those who are aware of these things? When that is so, the reality of spiritual expression puts in an appearance and the power of fusion is present.
What might be described as miracles, I suppose, occur, because this power is absolutely irresistible. It is, of course, irresistible in two ways. Those who fight against it discover what it means to fail; those who welcome it discover that it is irresistible and irresistibly brings them back to where they belong. Those who know the reality of spiritual expression constantly and consistently extend the welcome into the Holy Place, the Holy Place from which spiritual expression flows. In the giving of attunements it has usually been thought of in the sense of projecting something, doing something to the physical form. That may have been part of the situation heretofore, but the real attunement is to be brought home, isn't it?—for the minds and hearts, and therefore the bodies of people, to be brought again into the garden of God, into the Holy Place. To welcome someone into the holy place, naturally one must have a Holy Place to welcome them into.
It is this that is health—perhaps not healing, but health. There is a distinction here. People want to be healed so that they can continue in whatever state they were in before. Of course they may claim that if they are healed they will serve God better. That's not the point. The point is for mind and heart to be made new. The body certainly cannot be made new if mind and heart are not. The body seems to be quite willing to follow along with the mind and the heart, whether in the broad way to destruction or in the narrow way to life. The problem is not really very much with the body but in the minds and the hearts of those bodies. It will continue to exist as long as the emotions dictate behavior, for when the emotions dictate behavior the mind rationalizes that behavior. It was Adam, wasn't it, who went trotting after Eve when she ate the forbidden fruit. He's been trotting after Eve ever since. As long as emotions control, the mind is stupid; it's under the influence of dope. It's addicted to what has been called the forbidden fruit, namely judgment—the imagined ability that the mind has, to determine what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. If it thinks it has that ability it's stupid! And it's stupid because it exercises that ability, or what it thinks of as an ability.
The spirit moves in heaven, and the Word is spoken out of the whirlwind. I suppose that whirlwind could be described as an anticyclone; it's a high-pressure area. The movement of the spirit in the substance of heaven is described as the whirlwind, invisible as yet; but with an anticyclone it is a gentle zephyr. Here is the angel in heaven administering the creative cycle. The reverse of that would be a cyclone: low pressure, the devil in hell administering destruction, disintegration, fission. That would be it insofar as human beings are concerned; but because the angels are in heaven and because there are those yielded minds and hearts sufficiently clear and pure, the creative cycle can be administered within the range of human experience, designed to make all things new. But mind and heart must be made new first, for it is through mind and heart that the creative cycle may be administered on earth—but only by the angel of the Lord; it can't be self-administered by mind and heart.
So we participate in this process now in this moment as there is an actual movement with the action of the spirit, with the Word in heaven. There could not be participation in that without being in heaven. One may know for oneself the extent to which there is intelligent participation because there is a sea of glass clear as crystal. The emotions are stable and still. The mind is no longer interested in being governed by the emotions but in being governed, now, by the spirit of God, by the action of spirit in heaven. And the Word comes out of the whirlwind to make very sure that the mind has no false illusions and the emotions are no longer attempting to rule the roost. Then there may be stillness, quietness: a sea of glass clear as crystal—the purified heart, the sanctified and clarified mind waiting upon the Lord, waiting for the activation out of heaven to be experienced and administered on earth. What is done in any situation, any circumstance that arises, makes possible the setting of the dominion of the ordinances of heaven in the earth. This is not possible when emotions run rife or when the mind justifies the emotions and rationalizes its own action.
Be still, O mind; be silent, O heart.
Behold, the Spirit of Truth comes forth;
spiritual expression is made possible; the power of creation is present.
How gently, how easily, all that is present in human consciousness can be handled.
How gently, how easily, things can be made new.
It is usually the human view that to cause anything to happen in the world as it is known some sort of forceful imposition must be brought to bear. This is war, of course, at whatever level that war may put in an appearance. This is not the way of the spirit. The spirit does bring something to bear in radiation into human consciousness, something that, as I have said, is irresistible. This high pressure is easily yielded to by the minds and the hearts that are willing. In those who are not willing, resistance is engendered; but what is the point of resisting the irresistible power?
So we know what it is that happens. We, living out of heaven, are responsible for administering the creative cycle. We may observe what is happening, being unmoved by it, and we may provide whatever is fitting and possible to assist others in their yielding, in the clarifying and sanctification of human minds and in the purification of human hearts. We know what that is to the extent that it has been experienced by our own personal minds and hearts. If it hasn't been we don't know what it is, and we can be of no assistance or value to anybody else. Some people sit around hoping for something to happen. It never does, because the heart must be open and the mind yielded to the spirit, the spirit which has been so vividly portrayed and offered, extended, month after month and year after year, within the range of our experience. We can deny it, we can betray it, we can be dishonest—but why? I am sure there is a longing in every open heart for honesty and clarity, the joy of administering the creative cycles on earth. What a wonder this is, and what miracles occur!
All who will come are welcomed into the Holy Place. Nothing that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie can come in, so all that rubbish can be left outside. And within the Holy Place is wholeness: Be thou made whole. This welcome into the Holy Place is far beyond what has heretofore been called attunement, isn't it? Attunement as it has been known has been no more than a patching-up process, so that people can stick around a little longer and maybe yield their hearts and minds. But it is the yielding of the heart and mind that is the point, the coming into the Holy Place, where wholeness is. Coming into the Holy Place, that is the experience: wholeness—no need to shop around anymore to try to get fixed up. In the Holy Place whatever needs to be done to administer the creative cycle is done. This will relate also to one's own physical form. Creative expression of life, spiritual expression, is what is known.
Glory to God in the Highest, that in living, momentary living, the truth may be known because it is in expression. That expression is spiritual expression. It is the focus for the power which operates the universe to find fitting and right and creative release in human experience. We are responsible for this. What a glorious responsibility! We share it now and in all the hours and days and months and years to come. Here is peace, here is beauty, here is love.
We might consider this name for a moment, Emissaries of Divine Light. It may be that some like thisname because it provides them with a prop, so tospeak, feeling upheld byassociation with Emissaries of DivineLight. Others may feel somewhat embarrassed about thename, and this possibly springs from the factthat the person concerned knows that he has not experienced whatit means to be an Emissary of DivineLight. In either of these instances, ofcourse one's association with this name is notclear. One must be an Emissary of DivineLight to appreciate being an Emissary of Divine Light.
We were considering something with respect to the heaven this morning, the heaven where we belong, particularly at these times of unified radiation. Heaven is the place of Being. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-vibratory-modes-of-love.html] It can be said that earth is the place of achieving. We cannot achieve without first Being; therefore all achievement springs out of the heaven, where Being is the state. Mention was made this morning of happiness. Most people want to be happy. There may be some distorted ways of trying to experience this, and very often there is the expectation that someone is going to make one happy. But if we realize that happiness is a state of Being, then being happy requires that we be happy! In other words it's not coming from someplace else. One must be whatever it is, to know whatever it is, because Being and expressing are one. As was indicated, the Word and God are one. God is—the Word is consequently expressed. You can't separate Being and achieving in this sense. Our concern is to be in heaven. This is the place of Being, the place where what constitutes being may be known.
If we merely try to be on earth we'll find considerable struggle involved. For one thing we discover almost immediately that we are in the process of passing away; therefore to continue to be on earth requires considerable struggle. In one way or another we have to make a living, for instance—hard work. In one way or another we have to keep reasonably healthy to continue to be on earth. This dieting business may come into the picture. There are all kinds of things that are seemingly necessary to sustain our being on earth—and no one has ever been successful. In spite of all the effort, all the struggle, all the increase of knowledge, apparently we all end up not being on earth. This is quite understandable if we recognize that the only place of Being is heaven. If we are to experience what it means to be, to know the qualities of Being, heaven is the place.
We have had opportunity to consider this matter of heaven—talk about it. No matter what may be said, no matter what poetically descriptive words may be used, this may engender good feelings perhaps but it doesn't cause us to be in heaven. When this matter is considered by human mentalities there is a looking into another state from the earthly state. There is, therefore, obviously a consciousness of separation; the place of Being is somewhere else, apparently. We try to be on earth, not very successfully. We awaken to the fact that heaven is the place of Being, but looking toward heaven, we do so from the stance of the earth. The experience of the oneness of heaven and earth is not known to human beings, therefore separation is the order of the day. We look toward heaven, we talk about it, we consider its nature perhaps, and the qualities that are present in those who are in heaven; and all this may be very interesting, may make us feel superior in some way, that we know so much about heaven, but it doesn't give us the experience of Being in heaven. I think still there is the tendency to think of heaven as being up, up somewhere, conceivably in somewhere, but somewhere else, anyhow. In theory we know better, we know heaven and earth are one, all blended so nicely; but the experience is somewhat sketchy.
Perhaps the idea has been present that the human soul should somehow ascend into heaven. We got trapped down here in the earth and there is the need to ascend into heaven—this is going up of course. I'm sure all of you are quite well aware that it isn't a matter of getting up into heaven soul-wise but rather a matter of letting heaven come on earth. Now that's good theory, because it smacks of the truth. We are also aware of the fact that there is, in a personal sense, one who is already in heaven. This is the Angel, or the God Being, whom the soul theorizes about. But the stance is from the soul: the mind and the heart are giving consideration to this place of Being, heaven, having some sort of awareness that there is one there who supposedly one is, but presently largely unknown. How does the truth become known? Well we can answer that one, I'm sure: because the one who is in heaven comes forth into expression through mind and heart and body. We call that spiritual expression. This coming forth presumably fills mind and heart and body with whatever the truth is of one's own Being, and if mind and heart and body are filled with this, then that is known. We didn't have to go anywhere; we didn't have to ascend up into heaven; we didn't have to get to the place of Being. The place of Being is exactly where we are, because heaven is exactly where we are. The opening of mind and heart, and therefore body, to accommodate the one who is acquaints the mind and heart and body with the one who is.
Now we may look at this in a little different way, helpfully, for the moment. The soul of the human being, which is the human being, properly becomes what may well be described as the prisoner of the Lord. As human beings we are already prisoners of the world, seemingly. We're caught. We don't seem to be able to get out of it except by dying, and most are a little bit reluctant in this regard. So if we are prisoners in fact, and we acknowledge the fact, and we're honest about it, prisoners of the world, then what's so bad about becoming prisoners of the Lord? It could be looked upon as fair exchange. If we're going to be a prisoner anyway, maybe it would be more profitable to be a prisoner of the Lord. We know something about the necessity of being a servant.
Love—Radiant Love—is the nature of Being. While this word doesn't tell us what the nature of Being really is, it informs us of something of which we have a little awareness. Love is the nature of Being. Love is present, we might say, in the midst—in the midst of everything. There is nowhere where love is not present; there is nowhere where heaven is not present, therefore. Love is in the midst, and the evidence of love in the midst was described as a Garden. Here is the truth—the vibrational modes, which have also been described by using various other words: Word, for one; the Tone; perhaps the Light. In using the word Garden it is thought of usually as having form; but the Garden was planted eastward in Eden, as it is said, which is an indication of something which does not yet have form. It may be seen as coming out of the future. It may be seen as coming down from God out of heaven. Heaven is the place of Being; earth is the place of form. The Garden does not yet have form, except as one might recognize that the vibrational modes have a form of sorts. It is not yet substance standing up in form, but it is the design of the form in which the substance is to stand up. And so there is Love, there is the Truth, and there is the action which occurs to cause substance to stand up in form, revealing Life.
I'm describing something here which may be of assistance in allowing us to stand in heaven and to see with increasing heavenly perspective. We're not looking for forms in heaven to convince us that heaven exists. The way we know that heaven exists is to be in heaven, and we can't be in heaven by not being in heaven. Again, we have used the analogy of the blue part of the flame, the temperate place, where the temperature is just right. We may say cool, but we could say warm. The temperature is what it should be, in other words, as distinct from what is present in the yellow part of the flame—and I'm not saying the yellow part shouldn't be the way it is. But if there is the experience of Being, it is in what is represented by the blue part of the flame—we could say the place of stillness.
“The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
These are words which a lot of people have repeated, but they represent a state of Being. One cannot experience a state of Being merely by reading or speaking the words, but here is an indication of something. In that state of Being one is not self-centered, shall we say; in other words one is not looking at oneself, trying to figure out oneself. This is the usual stance in human experience, in the earthly experience. People are always looking at themselves, considering themselves, trying to satisfy themselves, and so on, nowadays trying to figure out who they are, which is quite impossible, because the endeavor is being carried on where the experience of Being is not. The experience of Being is in heaven, and standing in that place of Being there is the experience of looking forth at the windows, in other words of encompassing what is beyond this place of Being. Only when one is standing in the place of Being can there be the encompassment of what is beyond the place of Being, which would include the earth. One's view becomes a radiant one from the place of Being. There comes an awareness of the vibrational modes which are issuing forth from the place of Being, having creative effect in the realm of form.
As long as a person is not in the place of Being but trying to be in the realm of form, what is happening in the realm of form occupies the space of mind and heart; there is no room for the experience of Being. It seems impractical to someone who has this habit of being filled with earthly things to relinquish those earthly things and let them drain away, because the thought is that one would thereby become vulnerable. There may be some truth in this view, because the individual necessarily has to pass through some sort of transition between the two states, or between what may be described on the one hand as a non-state—and it proves itself out as being a non-state—and a state. The state is Being in heaven. The non-state is trying to be on earth. I suppose you could say it's a temporary state, which becomes no state at all. So, Being in heaven, the outlook, the viewpoint, extends radiantly over the vibrational modes which are present in what we have called the Word, or the Tone. This issues forth from Being; it issues forth from oneself: “Be still, and know that I am the Source, the Source of the Word to be spoken.” There is one Source, differentiated by reason of these vibrational modes. As we look into the realm of form, we look into the realm of form from the standpoint of the vibrational modes which are present in the realm of form. We look forth at the windows, in this instance the windows of heaven, and we become aware of what it is that is present of these vibrational modes in the realm of form. We don't see the realm of form merely as form; we see it from the standpoint of what is making the substance stand up in the various forms that are present.
This is a description of something which necessarily must be known, and we do know it in some measure. I'm sure that all of you have been aware at times of something happening that is impelling events. I'm thinking of events which are close to oneself. Naturally this is the first place of achievement. You can't leap over what is close. You become aware at times, I'm sure, when you're not too cluttered up with the forms of the earth, that things are under control. There is something moving and it will all work out as it should, not merely because you sit back in your easy chair and do nothing and just have faith that it's all going to work out as it should but because you are handling the vibrational elements that are present, aspects of the vibrational mode of Truth, and miraculously things happen, at least it seems miraculous to the human mind. But it doesn't seem miraculous to you. You know that it works that way. It's absolutely sure. It may be that you need to yield a little more in heart and mind so that you can have the fuller experience of the emergence of these vibrational modes into your immediate environment, causing things to happen there. The happenings will come according to the states of the forms that are present in your environment. If there are yielded forms, then things can work out very quickly. If there are resistant forms there may be a certain amount of unnecessary delay, a certain amount of destructiveness even, but you are aware that all that is happening is happening because of the vibrational modes for which you are responsible, emergent in your own expression of living.
This is all natural when the experience of Being in heaven is sufficiently present in your mind and heart, because they are no longer cluttered up with all the things of earth. There is a dilemma here for a while, supposedly, because one feels that one has to keep one's hand on all these things of earth or they'll get away from you somehow or overwhelm you or whatever, and to that extent you cling to these things of earth, you keep yourself filled up with them and there is no room for the experience of what is happening in heaven, there's no room for the experience of true Being. Obviously a person who is characterized by a clinging to earthly things is not characterized by the qualities of Being and therefore will not be in heaven. One must be characterized by the qualities of Being to experience Being in heaven. If mind and heart are so cluttered up with earthly things there is no room for that to be known. So generally, with most people, they let a little go here and they let a little go there, to see if it's all right. Sometimes they don't think it's all right, they don't give it a chance, so they grab hold again. Well we need to learn to relinquish the clutter in measured pace, shall we say, not being foolish and trying to pitch it all out in one fell swoop, because the openness of mind and heart would not be adequate at that point to receive all the qualities of Being in one fell swoop—so certainly there is a transition. But increasingly, as one operates from the standpoint of Being, one can be intelligent about it, and one can require mind and heart to relinquish what needs next to be relinquished, and there will be what is necessary to flow into the space.
There are those who have imagined that they were somehow saved. We have quite a few born-again Christians these days who imagine that they are somehow saved. But they tend to become rather foolish in their behavior, don't they? because the mature qualities of Being are not available yet. Well, they are available, but the born-again Christians are not in position to receive them into mind and heart yet. Mind and heart are still very immature. We move with measured pace. I think it's been a pretty slow measure at times, unnecessarily slow, I trust not the dead march! But we can liven the pace a little, I think. We do it easily as more of the experience of Being becomes known, and that knowing is not a fanciful thing but reveals itself because we are able to see and understand the vibrational modes that are emerging and to participate in that emergence—to administer the creative cycle, in other words, to let it happen with respect to what is happening in the world of events. We need no longer be afraid of the world of events, because we are responsible for the creative cycle out of heaven.
“The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.” Well the earth hasn't got around to that yet—still very noisy! The Temple is often thought of as the form, the human form particularly, but the human form is merely potentially a reflection of the Temple. The Temple is in heaven, the Temple is open in heaven, and the creative cycles emerge in these vibrational modes and we become increasingly aware of what they are. We don't imagine that we are going to see the vibrational modes that are operative on the larger scene of things entirely yet, but in relationship to our own immediate environment we can begin to see them, to recognize their presence, to be aware of how they are bringing into form what should be so. Substance is standing up in these forms because of the sound of the Tone, because of the creative Word that is spoken in living, and changes occur, because these forms—as I said before, are all living forms. They are brought forth by reason of Love and Truth. The evidence of this is Life, so they are living forms. And we share the responsibility in this regard, alert to recognize what is happening.
We won't recognize it if we are all bogged down in our earthly responsibilities, as we call them. Well we have earthly responsibilities. We can handle those without being bogged down in them, because we handle them in this manner. Let the vibrational mode be present and what should happen will. If we initiate something in this regard and then forget about it of course it collapses again. So the consistency is again a very vital factor here, that there may be a measured unfoldment because we move with measured step, turning neither to the right nor the left but letting the vibrational mode be the cause of all that occurs in our fields of responsibility.
Nancy Cecil — Martin, this morning in our comment period Lillian gave thanks for the purity of your consistently representing the truth, allowing the creative pulsation to be accurately brought into form for all these years. And we would all recognize that and give heartfelt thanks for that, because what we can see on earth is present because of it. But there has been, as you pointed out in the beginning of the service, a separation: we in the earth, and what goes on in heaven separate from us, and you representing that. And to perhaps represent the transition of which you were speaking tonight, I would leave the place in the earth and move through the transition and stand with you in heaven (Nancy stepped up on the stage and went to stand beside Martin), seeing from heaven and allowing the consistency of that accommodation of what is necessary to be present with you, so that what is needed in the immediate sense can be understood and handled as it should be.
Martin Cecil — (Nancy remained standing by Martin's side.) I trust that in representation all of you are standing in this same place. (The congregation stood up.) It is sometimes good to let the substance stand up by reason of this vibrational compulsion. It may be seen as a symbol but it may also be seen as a fact, that something is done, and if the creative process is allowed to emerge so that something is done, then that has considerable significance, even though human minds might be a little skeptical as to what, for instance, is actually being done by reason of the fact that Nancy came up here and now you all have stood up. We do have an awareness, however, of this creative movement which relates directly and immediately to our own individual affairs, and we are all individually responsible in this regard. And assuming that individual responsibility, it is assumed in the collective sense, because it is the same creative movement of love that is bringing forth whatever is to be brought forth. It all coordinates, and all things do in fact work together to perfection. And we begin to discover the truth of this in our own personal experience. I praise the Lord that we may stand together.
Mention was made of power. The translation of spiritual power into essential action in the realm of form requires the equipment which we are in position to provide. It seems that many people imagine that the power of God comes thundering down out of the sky somehow, without any necessity for an intervening facility for it to happen. Even when there is a thunderstorm and lightning strikes, it wouldn't strike unless there were clouds available to permit the difference of potential electrical potential to be equalized. That's when there is lightning cloud to cloud. But then there's also lightning cloud to earth or earth to cloud. The earth has to be present obviously in the cloud. There must be a facility for this to happen. We don't often experience a flash of lightning in a clear blue sky. We are necessarily the facility for the power of God which is said to be almighty to come to focus and go to work in a creative way within the range of our field of responsibility. We are necessarily the facility for the power of God, which is said to be Almighty, to come to focus and go to work in a creative way within the range of our field of responsibility. We must be on hand for that to happen. There must be the fact of a flesh body which allows for the fact of the consciousness of that body to be present.
Obviously these are two aspects of one facility. We can look at consciousness and see it in various ways. We may recognize the element of emotion, for instance, and the ability to reason consciously. We recognize that there is the factor of memory, and there are various things that relate to this human consciousness which is on hand because of the physical body. But it is there not alone because there is a physical body—there is something that is allowing that physical body to be present. We have inert bodies from time to time that have to be disposed of because evidently there is nothing present to make the body useful or to sustain consciousness. So obviously the missing element did not derive from the physical form, but it was there clearly enough; and we have the experience right now in this minute. There is something present which activates our bodies and which generates what we call consciousness. So there is a facility here for some reason. We recognize that the consciousness aspect has tended to take over, as though it was the fount of all wisdom and capable of directing affairs and causing the physical body to do this and that. We know better, finally. There is the activating factor, and we call it spirit.
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Spirit has a connection with the physical flesh through an intervening substance which includes the experience of consciousness. That substance is present, so we have this varied experience of consciousness. One aspect of this, as I mentioned, we speak of as emotion. We talk about the heart—it’s been kind of a vague thing, I think, in the awareness of most. Some have thought that the heart was the same as spiritual expression. It is no more the same as spiritual expression than the body is, or the mental aspect of consciousness which deals with thinking and memory and so on. There is something above and beyond that. We are aware that this is so. We have some little experience of the truth of it.
When minds and hearts are utilized by spirit for a purpose, the body goes along. The body doesn’t have much choice. It may seem to act up on occasion, and people get impatient with their bodies. But the reason the body acts up is not far to find, and it all is consequent upon whatever the content of consciousness may be which interferes with the activating factor; then the body suffers the consequences, and what caused those consequences to put in an appearance begins to judge and be impatient with the body. It is the usual human habit of looking for someone else to blame rather than examining its own state. We have done a little examination of our own state because we have awakened somewhat to the fact that there is someone present who can do that examining. The attempt on the part of the mental apparatus to examine itself is a most futile undertaking—it leads nowhere. But there is someone present who is quite capable of utilizing these facilities for the real purpose of their presence, and part of that is the generation of spiritual power.
We speak of spiritual expression—that includes power. It includes, as we well know, common sense; but it includes the factor of power, power which initially is invisible, we would say. It is somehow formless, but it does come out in various ways. We can observe its coming out. We are aware that there is a certain amount going on in the sun, for instance; and there is a radiation of something or other. We wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t that radiation from the sun; at least we wouldn’t exist on the surface of the earth. So there is power, and initially it is invisible power. The radiation includes the spectrum of visible light, but that is only a very small part of the radiation. Most of it is quite invisible, but nevertheless it is power—it has effect. One aspect of it is heat. We are thankful for that; here again it is a requisite for the continued existence of the human body on earth. There are those who tell us we are heading into an ice age, and no one would look forward to that very much. I think we have a responsibility in this regard. Today we enjoyed a mild winter day—it isn’t winter yet; it’s still fall—a mild fall day in the Cariboo. The atmosphere was acceptable to most.
But we have another sort of atmosphere that we live in—a self-generated atmosphere. No one ever imposes that atmosphere upon us. We generate it ourselves. Sometimes the atmosphere we generate ourselves doesn’t fit with the atmosphere that is generated by others in the vicinity, in which case there may be thunderstorms. But there is the matter of atmosphere which relates to the generation of power. We have noted the flashing lightning and the rolling thunder; that seems very impressive. And there are people who get struck by lightning every year; and it hits trees around here frequently, and it starts fires in the summertime. There is considerable power in a thunderstorm, more than many nuclear bombs very often; but it’s a more benign power as a rule, if we stay away from it. It doesn’t produce lethal radiation, at least. So there is this matter of power which in these instances seems to be rather haphazard.
There is haphazard power, but there is also a power that is very rhythmic. We have the rotation of the earth for some reason. I don’t know whether one should suppose that there was the finger of God which gave the earth a poke somewhere along the way and started it to spin—but, whatever the reason, it started to spin. And there are other planets which spin likewise. One planet, at least, goes the wrong way. So there is evidence of the fact of power. And here comes the earth around in its orbit, and all the other planets around in their orbits, and the sun is moving along itself. The whole solar system is in some sort of an orbit within the galaxy. And the galaxy holds together for some reason, and there is an interrelatedness of the substance of which it is composed. There is power present—invisible power. [https://greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/trailing-clouds-of-glory.html]
There has recently been some dawning awareness that there may be a considerable source of electromagnetic force at the center of the galaxy. No one quite knows what that source might be, but it evidently has an influence upon the whole galaxy; it’s something pretty powerful. There is something pretty powerful even in the solar system. Of course, there it is usually called gravity, a very grave business, but what it is nobody knows. There are those who attempt to produce equations of various sorts which will explain why it exists. We don’t need to explain it. It holds things together. We have called that power love. I think that’s a better word than gravity, actually. Love of course includes far more than that particular aspect of a seeming force of some kind which keeps us sitting in our chairs this evening rather than floating to the ceiling.
So there is power evident. How does this relate to our own personal experience as we move into alignment with the creative process? The very fact of a creative process indicates the fact of power—something happens. We are aware that many things are happening, and we can't really see what it is that makes them happen. But we begin to understand why they happen; we begin to become aware, in other words, of this invisible power which is at work; and we don’t have to somehow get it into the laboratory and examine it, to know that it is there. We couldn’t do that anyway. We just participate in the working, and it’s none of the human mind’s business to try to figure it out. The human mind has another reason for its existence, a reason that seemingly it has long forgotten.
But this power requisite to the operation of the creative process comes to focus in man, where the control should be, through what we call emotion. We can see what havoc emotions seemingly out of control produce: disasters of all kinds. Yet human beings, subject to their emotions, have not apparently considered it necessary to discover what it is that should be controlling them. Of course there is the human effort: “I have an iron will; I am going to control my emotions.” It doesn’t work, for very long anyway. Emotions are a facility for the expression of the creative power of spirit. They are useful that way. We are aware that emotions, or feelings we call them sometimes, have an additional purpose—but at the moment we are thinking of power. And you know how, as I just said, destructive emotions can be very, very powerful. They cause human beings to do all sorts of things that, without the emotional content, they would never do. So here is a power available, but evidently not moving the way it should, seeing that it produces so much disaster.
So we are concerned with emotion as the facility for the expression of the creative power of spirit, not as a facility for the power which is produced by reaction to external circumstances and people, and whatever else goes on in human consciousness. We are aware that there must be the control of spirit present if emotion is to come into line and to be useful in the expression of creative power. The alignment does not only include emotions. There are all the other aspects of consciousness that are present which properly come into the picture—they are part of the facility for spiritual expression. Emotion is not spiritual expression but merely the facility by which spiritual expression may put in an appearance. It seldom does in most people because they are so busy reacting emotionally to all the things that are not the spirit of God. But coming into alignment with the spirit of God, then emotions begin to be reflective of what it is that is moving spiritually.
And there are those who have been afraid of their emotions; most people are, because there certainly is an awareness in all of us how much havoc emotions out of control can produce. So there is a sort of damper kept on emotions as far as possible. There are those who are said to be extremely emotional; that means that their emotions don’t have much of a damper. But the more—I used the word this morning—phlegmatic people, are those who have somewhat of a damper on their emotions. The damper of course doesn’t eliminate what is being felt; it merely subdues it into a more subterranean realm, shall we say. It is going on down there and wreaking havoc anyway, so there is no advantage to being phlegmatic rather than emotional. There is one benefit to an emotional person: he at least gets it out for the moment—of course there is more to come later.
But all this nonsense, I suppose you could call it, of human experience simply passes from the picture when the control of spirit becomes known because that quality of spirit is in focus in our own living. Then it will be in focus with respect to what happens in our emotions. When that is the case there is something flowing of spirit and being given some sort of an expression emotionally speaking. It is not only doing that; it does it through all—it’s a Holy Spirit, after all—it does it through everything: through the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, the emotional realm. All is part of the one whole of equipment capable of accommodating the whole spirit. And one aspect of that spirit relates very particularly to power, and the aspect that relates to power relates very particularly to emotion.
And so there is something to be expressed emotionally. Now, as I say, there is more or less of a damper on emotions in human experience, as a general rule. There are those who have virtually no damper, in which case they usually end up in an institution. But the fear of letting emotions get away is very prevalent in human experience; and of course they will get away unless spirit is allowed to assume control in the emotional realm. Now for spirit to assume control in the emotional realm, the emotions must surrender completely to spirit. In other words, they must let spirit get away, to speak, with what happens in the emotional realm. Now, as I say, most people have this damper, on more or less, and they are very cautious—I suppose is wise that they should be—about letting emotions be stirred too much because who knows what disaster might befall? But if emotions are controlled by spirit they can be released utterly—abandoned to spirit.
There is something in all human beings which longs to abandon itself somehow; to some—well, to God presumably. Of course this is interpreted in various destructive ways too by the mental apparatus. The abandonment comes in this business of falling in love, for instance, and that’s all right, you can abandon yourself to that—but it’s very destructive. The abandonment is only safe when it is to spirit. For anyone to begin to be assured in this regard, seeing that the custom has always been to have the emotions somehow moved by external factors, there should be someone present who is providing that focus of spiritual control which would allow emotional abandonment to it. Now this of course opens doors of danger, I suppose you may say, because there have virtually been no stable absolute, spiritual points to which anyone could abandon themselves.
There was One on earth quite a while ago, as we know, and there were a few who began to abandon themselves to that One, in the person of Jesus, but it didn’t amount to very much. So one can see how essential it is that there should be a spiritual focus that is absolute. I am not speaking about just one person. I am speaking about what we call the Body presently, the Spiritual Body, to be absolute—at least a Core of Absoluteness, so that there may be abandonment, emotionally speaking, and it may be safe to let that happen. Now obviously there is a cycle of movement in this regard to reach a point where that would be possible: first of all establishing something absolute spiritually, and then allowing these layers of fear, which are present around the hearts of people, to be dissolved, so that finally: “Ah, at last, I can trust.” It’s all clear—abandonment may be complete. And abandonment in that way is a representative thing, because ultimately the abandonment is simply related to the focus of spirit in oneself, so that emotionally speaking there is union with the truth of oneself. And then, on that basis, emotions can be generated in any way that they should be generated and provide the power for the accomplishment of what it is that is needful throughout the body of mankind.
Now here is an element of what well may be called government—it is one aspect of the way of government. There cannot be government without a pure heart, without a heart that is stable because it is absolutely centered in what is absolute. Then there is all the power that is needed to achieve whatever it is that should be achieved, and that quickly. This is not something new, although it is introducing something in a different way perhap, which is simply an introduction.
