I am sure we understand
all the salient points with respect to cults. Human nature certainly has a bias
toward cults. We can see, at least, where we may have established in our own
consciousness something of an Emissary cult. It is, in some ways, quite
comfortable to have a cult—everything is going to be taken care of, all
expenses paid. With respect to all these things, we again recognize
that they come from somewhere. In other words, there is a truth somewhere
related to these things. So we are not in a battle against cults, we are not in
a battle against human nature. But we do realize that there is something to be
done, by reason of our own living.
Our own living should never be
looked upon as being separate or apart from the world in which we necessarily
live. You know very well that there has been, properly, no endeavor to
segregate ourselves from the world. Maybe there has been something of a
tendency toward trying to do this, on the part of some, because they were trying to escape from
something. It has been repeatedly emphasized that we are not trying to escape
from anything. We accept the circumstances the way they are—that means we accept the world the way it is. And we are under the necessity of
living in the world the way it is. We do not anticipate that it is going to
stay this way always. But it is this way now, so what other world have we got
to live in? We are certainly not going to try to invent our own cultist world,
as though this was going to be the answer for everybody.
Perhaps we need to consider
this matter from the standpoint of education. Education is a means of
indoctrination in the world the way it is. We have a certain broader
perspective perhaps regarding the education that is necessary from the
spiritual standpoint. We have considered the matter of Sacred Schools, for
instance. We have thought of the First Sacred School as having been in
operation within recorded history; likewise with the Second, and now with the
Third. So there is some necessity with respect to education, apparently. We
think of this in terms of spiritual education. This is emphasized because the
approach must be of this nature in the Third Sacred School, which has come
within the range of our own immediate experience. We may historically be able
to remember, because of the records that are available, something with respect
to the First Sacred School and the Second Sacred School. But they passed into
oblivion, insofar as what might have been achieved by reason of their presence
on earth.
However, the First Sacred
School and the Second Sacred School are included within the Third Sacred
School. We might perhaps use the example of human worldly education the way it
is known to us. There are various stages in that education, are there not?
There is the primary stage, the secondary stage, and the university stage,
broadly speaking, university or college—three steps, three schools. The First
Sacred School was designed for the children in their earliest stages of
education. The children were called the Children of Israel on that occasion,
which I think is quite significant—they were childish. Not that the state of
affairs has changed all that much in the world since! But here was the primary
education being offered, not that that would be sufficient—the secondary
education should have followed. But of course on that particular occasion all
the children quit school after the elementary stages and just tried to hold
onto the elementary reader, so to speak, as though that was a very important
experience of education. Well it could have been. One could not move into the
secondary stage without some experience of the primary, presumably. It is
because there has tended to be a rather poor experience of the primary that the secondary stages are not all that useful; and
certainly when you come to the third stage it's pitiful.
So we can see a parallel here
perhaps, because everything that human beings do they
merely adapt from something of which there is, one could say, a faint
memory. This has all been twisted around to suit human nature. But there is the
necessity for the education of children, followed by education of older
children, and finally of the oldest children. Now in the worldly sense it is
recognized that the education is for a purpose—human purposes, mind you, but
for a purpose. In other words it is not really intended that one should stay in
the educational cycle, as it has been set up in this fashion, forever. There
are some who try to do that; they are eternal students, one might
say, and they take course after course. Well here is a rather satisfactory cult
experience for such people. They don't want to take the responsibility of what
is looked upon as the real world.
We know that the real
world is actually the unreal world. But nevertheless we are aware that
there is a real world for which we are rightly being educated in order that we
might take responsibility in it. We recognize that there is a transition,
properly, from the world the way it is to what we might call the real world; in
other words, from the present unreal world to the real world. The real world is
born out of the caterpillar of the unreal world. So we're not knocking the
unreal world as being unnecessary. It's necessary if something is to emerge
while human beings still exist on earth. If all that was necessary was to sweep
away this unreal world and civilization, what would be left? Now heretofore
there have been violent experiences in the earth's
history. There was what has been described as a flood at one time,
not the only flood that ever happened but it was a very special one seemingly.
And it swept away the state of the world as it then was. It cleansed the earth
of that world, leaving remnants here and there on the face of the planet. There
was a physical cleansing in that sense. But there had not been a cleansing of
consciousness. What remained after the flood still carried the
same impure consciousness as was present before the flood. It allowed a
starting point for the First Sacred School, the Second Sacred School and the
Third Sacred School to occur.
In our present experience,
because of the failure, as we have called it, of the First and Second Sacred
Schools in their manifestation in historical times—by the way, they must have
failed before too, if there were any, before the flood maybe—because of that
failure the only starting point we have is with respect to the Third Sacred
School. But within the scope of the Third Sacred School, the First and Second
must be included. After all, we do have a physical experience and a mental
experience. What that should be emerges out of the spiritual experience. This
is the way it is now.
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Now the process which is occurring is the purification of
consciousness, so that emerging on the other side of whatever is symbolized, by
the flood on this occasion, it will not be just an emergence from a physical
purification but an emergence which includes a mental purification, so that the
state is a state of restoration—something that obviously has not occurred
before. We accept the world the way it
is. There isn't any other world that I know of to accept. There is one to come.
Christians talk about that, don't they?—the world to come, the world to be born
out of the world that is. Now this is to happen on the basis of spiritual
education.
There must be those present who are able to accept the
responsibility of government, as we were talking about it, within the scope of
the world that is. This is not an arbitrary imposition of government—we
recognize that this is not the way it works. This is the way that human nature
thinks it works, because there are always these impositions occurring: throw
out the old, impose the new. And when the new is imposed it is found to be very
much the same as the old. Of course, because it's the same human nature. When a revolution takes over the devil has to be found
external to the particular country in order to take the attention away from the
fact that exactly the same thing prevails as prevailed before and the whole
exercise was a waste of time. Throw off the old yoke and accept the new yoke. But the old yoke was
human nature and the new yoke is human nature, so what's the difference? We see these things and we recognize that they are happening because of something else
that is occurring also, related to our field of responsibility.
We have an
educational system. The Emissary ministry has been looked upon as though it was
merely an educational system. But there is a reason for the education. The
education is necessary but is supposed to produce something which is capable of
doing something. And that aspect of the Emissary ministry has not adequately
been seen. The educational process tends to be a rather self-centered
experience—an inward-looking thing. It may be in the back of people's
minds that they're being educated for some reason. Nowadays it's hard to
prognosticate what the reason is. There is a wall-to-wall
carpet that's been laid of PhD's in the world. What's the point? Of course the
educational system as it now exists was designed to do something with respect
to a world that no longer exists. And it's not surprising then that, following
out the educational system, you emerge at the other end of the pipeline into a
world where you have no reason to fit. So people frantically try to make it
seem as though it's a world where they fit, but it isn't. The world that was
has gone—there is something else emerging already.
Now in the spiritual educational system which is the initial purpose of this ministry—I
say initial purpose—maybe I should digress for a moment, because the obvious
aim of an educational system is to produce graduates at the end who are capable
of doing whatever it is that needs to be done in the world that is there.
Presently this spiritual educational system has two aspects: one of them is
unlearning and the other is learning. Now this would not be needful if the
circumstance didn't make it necessary to unlearn anything; in other words, if
one could move right in on the right basis all the way through, there would be
nothing to be unlearned. But with things the way they are, obviously there is a very great deal to be unlearned. So that relates to the
disintegrative aspect of the educational process, which is necessary in the
cycle of education. And there also is the integrative aspect, where there is
new material being provided for right use.
So we see our educational
system related, in our consciousness perhaps—and don't think of this as merely
jargon—to the First Sacred School, the Second Sacred School and the Third
Sacred School, the First and Second now being included in the Third. It's the
only way that they could come along. And so we have this educational system. We
have classes, seminars to start with—I suppose there is a kindergarten level—and
then the cycle is initiated. If there is to be a school there must be teachers.
The teachers at the primary level and the secondary level may be found from
those who have moved through the third level, because, after all, those who are
being educated in the first and second levels are being educated for the third,
so that those who have experience in the third are capable of educating others
in the first and second.
But those who are in the third
are not capable of educating those who are in the third, because the third—university
level, we might call it—is designed to produce those who are capable of
functioning in the world, not in the educational system but in the world. Some of
those may be drained back as teachers in the first and second levels
of schooling. This is what happens in the human world now in various ways in
the educational system. Rather unfortunately, very often those who are the
professors in the university level became that by reason of the university
level, so they have nothing to offer actually which would allow something to go
beyond. In other words, there is the necessity for those who have graduated
into the world and experienced what is necessary in the world, if there is to
be provision for instruction at the university level. They come back out of the
world into the university level, having experienced what was necessary in that
field of spiritual responsibility in a direct sense.
The main thrust of all this,
setting aside for the moment the teachers at these various levels, is to bring
people through the First, Second and Third Sacred Schools, so that they may be
in position to function in the world. I don't think this has really penetrated
into the consciousness of many of those who have called themselves Emissaries.
They have wanted to maintain some sort of an Emissary nest—an
Emissary cult—in which they could be comfortable. That is not the purpose at
all. The main purpose of this ministry, which is related to the First, Second
and Third Sacred Schools, relates to what happens in the world, what is done in
the world, what is done by those who are graduates out of this spiritual system
who move into the world. The method of moving into
the world is not necessarily the same as is seen in the human-nature state,
because we realize that the Law works and what is needful is brought.
We find
ourselves with employment. We are not projected into the world of
the unemployed. Just as something has come to you in the spiritual educational process, so something continues to come to you from
the standpoint of the world, where our primary reason for being on earth is.
Our primary reason for being on earth is not in the Third Sacred School, or the
Second or the First—it's in the world. One could say, well this
brings the Fourth Sacred School into the picture. I don't really like using
that word, because it gives the idea that we are still going to be contained in
a structured educational system, which we are not. Here is the range of freedom that the truth brings, so that we are capable of
functioning in those fields of action which are brought to us. And they will be
brought to us to the extent that we are ready to function in the fields of
action. If there are those who imagine that they have graduated from the Third
Sacred School and find themselves unemployed, they may know they have not
graduated from the Third Sacred School, because one of the evidences of such
graduation is that what is necessary is brought to the person. He finds that,
like it sometimes happens in the human-nature world, some of the larger
corporations look around the university world to find people to fill slots in
their organizations, so that when the student graduates he has a slot to fall
into—something has been brought to him. That's a very limited
illustration, but in actual fact the Lord brings to us what we are ready to
handle. And if something comes to us in this way, let us remember that we are
ready to handle it.
Now the usual view has been,
in times past, that these emerging out of Class, for instance,
are looking for somewhere to be sent. There is such a willingness to do
anything! But it isn't a matter of being sent.
It's a matter of being in position to recognize and to accept what will be
brought. And what is brought will be in exact proportion to your ability to
handle it. So if not much seems to be being brought you may know the reason
why. There are no arbitrary impositions of any kind. We make our own bed, so to
speak. No one else is responsible. One is just responsible for oneself. And
while that responsibility relates to others, and we see a collective
responsibility, we are only a part of that to the extent that we have received
what is right and fitting for the fulfilment of our commission on earth,
because the Lord didn't send us into the world to go through a creative process
of spiritual education that we might land up on the other side unemployed. He
could have saved Himself the trouble, couldn't He? No, there is no shortage of
positions of employment.
And those positions do take
external form—it's not just a sort of theory of the mind. Specific things are
brought. Now sometimes the thing that is brought, the individual looks at it:
"I don't think much of that one." But it is the thing that is
brought. Are you going to reject it? "Well perhaps I'll wait a while and there
will be some better employment somewhere else." I sometimes
think that Emissaries have such attitudes: they're waiting for something better
to come along. Let us delight in what is
brought to us and make the fullest possible right use of it, from
the standpoint of our education. We know how to handle these things. But we are
being educated in this ministry through the educational facilities that are
here, in order to graduate into the world, not to stick in the Emissary nest. And what is needful in that world into which we are to graduate
will be brought to us.
We are considering these
things in this Assembly because all of you have had some experience
beyond Class. We need to have these things in perspective.
The educational system is essential but it is not the real reason why we are
here. It may feel safer and more comfortable to wrap an Emissary cloak around
us, and we are special people. This is evidence of a sect, isn't it? We are
people who have spiritual responsibility in the world the way it is. Now there
are those who have jobs in the world the way it is—I am
speaking of those who think of themselves as Emissaries—who take
the attitude that this job that they have is a temporary expedient; in due
course they will be working full time in the Emissary ministry. Well why aren't
they working full time now?
The Emissary ministry is in
the world, not in some sequestered corner somewhere. It's in the world the way
it is. Well we need to learn to handle that, so we have an educational system.
The reason for that educational system has been somewhat mistranslated in the
consciousness of those who have participated in it. They thought they were
going to be eternally tucked into a nice comfortable little Emissary pattern,
of course rationalizing the while that it was really a great big pattern
because of all our vibrational connections. Well we can't deny the fact that
there are vibrational connections. It is because of those vibrational
connections that when we actually do graduate from school, in this sense, there
is something brought to us. So those vibrational connections are there and need
to be developed while we are in school. Then, if we are faithful in this, if we
prove everything out, we will find that, when we graduate, here comes the particular
field of our ministry at that point. And we don't judge it, we don't look at it
suspiciously and say, "Oh, I don't think much of that; this won't include
all my wonderful talents and capacities and so on.
I noticed that one of the
things with respect to sects was that the particular abilities and talents and
educational backgrounds of the people were deliberately not
utilized. This has never been the case insofar as we are concerned. They may
not have been utilized because, to be utilized rightly, they have to be used by
someone who could use them rightly. The talents are not there to try to use
themselves, which is what happens, generally speaking, in the world. An angel
must be on hand to use them. When the angel is on hand, let's use them—that
is, if they're useful from the standpoint of whatever it is that is brought to
us. If we have brilliant training in some particular direction and something is
brought to us that doesn't relate to that training at all, are we going to say,
"Oh, this is no good, because it's not going to enable me—now I'm an
angel—to make right use of this." Well if you have that attitude there is
no angel present, at least not in expression. No, we take it as it comes. I
myself gained quite a bit of expertise in various fields along the way—cattle
ranching, for instance. I don't feel downgraded. In fact I've graduated from
cattle to people! But here is some expertise all going to waste. Occasionally
perhaps I might have opportunity to say something which could be helpful to
somebody else who has subsequently accepted similar responsibility in the field
that I used to occupy.
In the spiritual sense nothing can be handed on a
silver platter. You have to generate it yourself. Otherwise it isn't there. If
there are those who are rather lacking in substance, quality, character,
strength of character and so on, why is that so? Simply because the individual
has not yet generated what is needed. And there is nothing that anyone else can
do to cause it to be there when it isn't. Here is an attitude which is
diametrically opposed to the sect consciousness—Be responsible! Don't depend
upon me, don't depend upon a group somewhere, don't depend upon anything
external to yourself. Accept the spirit of God into the expression of your own
living. Then you are not depending on the spirit of God. The spirit of God is
simply in expression because you are there. The spirit of God in action has the
responsibility and the one who is letting it act shares it, that's all.
And so let us transcend the view that we belong in communal homes and groups and even units. We
recognize that because we have an educational system there is a need for
certain groupings, just as there is a need for the staff and the faculty and so
on in the human-nature school system. But that isn't all that's going in the
world—it's just one small part of it. It's become very dominant in the, world,
hasn't it? Education nowadays costs vast sums of money, a very large percentage
of the budget. I think this is indicative of an attitude that has tended to
prevail with Emissaries: that this system of spiritual education is
the sole reason for the existence of the Emissaries; therefore it would take a
hundred percent of the budget almost. No. It's necessary as a part of the
whole. But the world after graduation is far vaster than the world before
graduation. So let us not keep the ministry restricted in our own
consciousness to one role.
That one role is only there
because it relates to a vast variety of roles, some of which, I am quite sure,
your mind has never even thought of. What is going to be brought to us? Isn't
that an exciting thing? If we arrive at the conclusion of this Assembly and find ourselves faced with a blank, well I suppose we could say
that's the creative process too. The earth is without form and void, and
darkness is upon the face of the deep. But according to our capabilities, in
the spiritual sense, we are now opening the door for what it is that is to
come. Many of you have responsibilities in the human-nature world. Praise the
Lord! I thank God for all who do have those responsibilities. I'm not anxious
to lock all Emissaries up and take them away to some desert island somewhere so
that we will all be together. We need to be together in spirit, but we need to
be where we need to be in person. And we may be in situations where we are
alone—horrors!
Actually, of course, we
recognize the usefulness of agreement: "If two of you agree on
earth..." So it's a good idea, no matter into whatever field you may move,
that there be at least two related in some way in that field. Then here I am in
the midst of you. Here is the creative spirit of God in action through the
creative cycle. And as I have said before, while whatever the work may be
you may do it in much the same way that it was done before you arrived on the
scene, by the very fact that you are there and another is there in agreement
and the creative cycle is moving something is going to emerge—the means whereby
the Lord has His hand on earth. And He has His hand on it through the creative
cycle that is moving. It is moving when there are people who are present,
letting it move. If they are not there it won't move insofar as that situation,
at least, is concerned. And you think the Lord is going to withhold
opportunities in this regard when we are in position to take advantage of them?
We are in position to take advantage of them because we have used the
educational system to advantage.
And you know that, from the
standpoint of spiritual education, it's not mostly book learning. It's
practical experience in a protected situation. Initially it's a protected
situation. Don't get so soft in that protected situation that you are floored
if you go out of it. I suspect that this is true of quite a number of people
who have spent long periods of time in the Unit here, or at the
"100" or wherever. The fact that we have an educational system, that
there are necessities within the scope of it, and to maintain a focus for what
it is that is working out through the whole world, we should never use that as
an excuse to become soft. There should be deliberate reaching beyond the nest,
so to speak.
There may be
what is called a great deal of pressure in some focused positions out there in
the world, as they say—let us not say that as though it was separate from
ourselves. But we can handle it if we have taken advantage of our spiritual
education, because we have used all the little circumstances that are around us
to do it. It has always horrified me to see people letting those opportunities
slipping by, just reacting in the same old way that they did ten years ago,
never growing up, just staying irrational children. There are those who have
grown up, of course, and I trust I am speaking to some of them here.
But I think from what I am
saying you will recognize that you perhaps haven't grown up as much as you
might have, because the full opportunity of the educational system has not been
taken advantage of. And it's not only classes as such. I don't think that as graduate Emissaries we will find ourselves living in communal
houses. We will find ourselves wherever we need to be in the world the way it
is. Some of us may find ourselves in magnificent mansions; others may find
themselves in hovels. What's the difference?—just so long as we are in the
place where we need to be, doing what we need to do.
And the doing that we need to
do is going to be vastly more than we have yet allowed to
come into our imagination, because the Lord needs to take hold of the world the
way it is and transform it. He's not going to sit out there on the sidelines
somewhere, radiating, and zap the world in some way. We are sent into the world to
do what is needful. You may recall that was something that Jesus did at one
point with respect to His disciples: He sent them into the world. They found
themselves rather helpless. They hadn't learned what needed to be learned in
the close-in situation. Well we can't judge them—they had very little time to
do it. We have had years and years, and if we haven't done it, shame on us.
So we share these things that
there may be a change and clarification in our own consciousness and because of
that a change and clarification in the consciousness of others. In this we play
a part in service, in ministry. We are
here to glorify God in this way and to assist in whatever spiritual boost is
necessary to cause people to wake up, get out of bed and go to work.
We all have some sensing of the
limitless nature, the infinite nature, of dimensionless God, and also the
immensity of dimensional God. When there is a true spiritual sensing in this
regard it does not bring with it any feeling of isolation. If the view is
merely from the mental standpoint and there is a recognition of this vastness
of God, the self that is known seems to be very small and isolated; there is
apparently little connection. There is a distinction here which indicates the
nature of the recognition that is being experienced. Mentally we feel small and
isolated: God is vast and over there. Spiritual perception causes us to feel
enfolded with the reality of God right here.
There is this spiritual awareness
because the infinite nature of dimensionless God is brought to focus in the
reality of dimensional God in our immediate experience. We may see this
facility of focus as standing at the crossover point between the undimensional
and the dimensional, and we may see this point relative to the whole world and
to all mankind to the extent that we ourselves are in position at the crossover
point between the heavenly essences and the earthly essences in the
representation of that One who provides the supreme focus at the higher
crossover point.
This whole reality of God is
brought to focus in one's own experience. We may share this collectively if it
is true individually. The essences of heaven are present with us; the essences
of earth are present with us. We are aware of the One of whom it was said that
He had been given all power in heaven and earth. We are called to represent Him
and to handle that power in the earth. It comes to us, through the heavenly
essences as we stand in place, and in radiance it extends forth through the
earthly essences of our own beings into the earthly creative field for which we
are responsible both individually and together.
There is the radiant outpouring of
spirit through the heavenly substance—the heavenly essences and the earthly
essences—and we know this as one aspect of the fulfilment of the Law in the
creative cycle. We have spoken of radiation and response. Perhaps there has
been a view that the radiation is of the spirit of God and that response comes
from somewhere else, but these are two aspects of the spirit of God. Perhaps in
other terms they might be spoken of as positive and negative—male and female.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God, male and female; therefore
the male and female are in God. These two aspects of spirit, the radiant aspect
and the responsive aspect, are both in God.
We need have no sense of
separation then between radiation and response. They are the two aspects of the
spirit of God. Radiation outpours and response rises up. Man is placed at the
point of union through which these two aspects work. These two aspects work
within the experience of each individual, whether male or female. These two
aspects work through all of us collectively. They work in rather a specific way
between male and female in the individual sense. There are many levels at which
these two aspects of spirit operate when man is in place at the point of union.
It may be seen that we all have dual responsibilities—a radiant aspect of
responsibility and a response aspect of responsibility. There is one spirit—it
might be said to flow. It pours out and rises up in return, but these are not
two separate operations. They work concurrently,
not sequentially. In fact you cannot have one aspect of the operation without
the other.
We have seen these things before
in the sense of divine radiation and human response. This is the way it has
appeared to be, but it isn't the way it actually is. Both the radiation and the
response may be said to be divine. They are two aspects of one spirit. As we
ourselves come into position at the point of union between heaven and earth
these two aspects of spirit are creatively active through the essences which
are present. We share responsibility for an outpouring. We also share
responsibility for an incoming—here is the spirit of God in the responsive
aspect rising up through the available earthly essences to be brought to us as
we stand in the crossover point, or the point of union. Of course what rises up
in this way doesn't stop with us but moves on through in the ascending cycle.
Because there is a pressure of
outpouring there is a compulsion of resurrection. The essences rise up by reason
of the action of spirit. There is a compulsion in the world in this regard. It
is of particular significance now because of the increasingly focalized nature
of the outpouring, so that the spirit rises up through the essences, the
earthly essences, bringing them along with it. We may have some awareness of
the working of this compulsion in the world simply on the basis of observation.
We see many people in many places somehow being compelled to do what they do,
and part of the doing of what they do relates to the proliferation of what
humanly are thought of as spiritual activities. There are what might be defined
as cults on every hand and there is
something moving through the people concerned in a process of rising up. It's
interpreted by the human mind in a variety of sometimes rather peculiar ways,
but nevertheless it's the same compulsion. As long as the human mind is present
in its self-willed state the interpretations will be of many sorts. We need to
see beyond the interpretations that are being made to what is happening—people
are being compelled.
Sometimes that compulsion may be
seen as a rising up; sometimes it may be seen as a going down. There are people
in the world who are being compelled into increasingly destructive ways. This
is all consequent upon the same movement of the spirit through the earthly
essences. We've used the analogy of soap on a previous occasion: when you grasp
a bar of soap and squeeze it, it'll pop up or it'll pop down. There is a
squeezing going on. We ourselves share some responsibility for this squeezing,
and we also experience some of the squeezing. If earthly essences within the
scope of our experience have been clarified in adequate measure, so that we
have an actual experience of spiritual expression rather than merely ideas
about it, then we find ourselves being squeezed up. If, on the other hand, we
merely know about it and have an inadequate experience, we are likely to find ourselves
being squeezed down. Our experience is fundamentally no different to the
experience of everybody else on the face of the earth.
We, however, have had a great
blessing, bringing us a certain understanding of what is occurring and
therefore making it easy for us to make the right choice to accept into our
living the greater experience of the outpouring of the spirit—that, in
the returning cycle, will bring the lifting up. If we don't share in the living
experience of the reality of spiritual expression—the outpouring in other words—we
cannot share in the returning cycle of lifting up—the two go together. And when
I use the words returning cycle, let's not look at it as being sequential
either. It's happening at the same time.
Those who have experience are
those who have oil in their lamps, so to speak. Those who do not as yet have
adequate experience have little or no oil in their lamps, and according to the
parable they had to go out and trade for some oil; in other words they had to go
out and gain the experience. In that particular story, by the time they had
gained the experience it was too late: the door was shut. So perhaps there is
something here we could take to heart! But in any case we are presumably
concerned with having oil in our lamps, so that we may be restored to the place
where we belong, the place of union—to enter in with the bridegroom, as it was
put. So we may see this operation occurring in the world and we are quite
willing that it should happen, if we are in place.
Our interest, primarily, is with
respect to the essences that are being lifted up by the spirit, consequently
bringing people home. Now we begin to see that it isn't really the brilliance
of the human mind or any effort that human beings may make that brings them
home. It is the substance coming home, the essences coming home, by reason of
the movement of the spirit in the creative cycle. The spirit of God is
associated with these essences, and if they are clarified sufficiently they
come along with the spirit of God—and the person in whom these essences have
been so clarified comes along too. So much for all our human efforts! But we
have responsibility, if we are in place, relative to the movement of this
creative cycle; and we see it as relating to what is happening in the larger
sphere around us, what is ultimately happening in the whole body of mankind. There
are essences rising up and people tagging along, so to speak. Those who have
some awareness and experience in true spiritual expression have a certain
sensing of these things, even if they haven't been defined yet in
consciousness.
With respect to the collective
point of union between heaven and earth for which we are responsible, we are
aware that there is a design present within the range of our own experience. We
are aware of the principle of
focalization. For many this is all that it has been, an awareness of the
principle, because there's been so much reluctance to accept the experience of
it. Too much time was being given to rebelling against the idea of it. There
has at least been some recognition of the focus point which I provide in a
personal sense, in an individual sense, relative to the collective focus point
for which we are all responsible. Now here ideas occur to the human mind with
respect to what is thought of mentally as a hierarchy. This is a mental concept. It is not the fact of the
matter; it is not the truth. The concept of hierarchy in the human mind is false,
even though it looks as though it's true to the human mind. But the human mind
looking at it has not had the experience of the reality; otherwise it wouldn't
be looking at it, it would be experiencing it.
There have been some rather
well-developed concepts of the human mind, relative to the
idea of a hierarchy in this ministry. I noticed a comment where someone said something about an order being handed down
from exalted levels in this ministry. That may be the way it is interpreted by
some human minds, but the fact of the matter is, it never happens. It never happens! because we are
concerned with an outpouring, not with concepts of the mind which are based in
human terms.
If there is something coming forth
through a point of focalization it is also coming forth through everybody else,
so that it is not being handed down from above in that sense. It may be seen
possibly as being handed down in the sense of coming down from God out of
heaven, but it's coming down through everybody at the same time. And if we just
cotton on to some interpretation we make of something that is coming through
someone who is supposed to be high in the hierarchy and follow out that, we
have absolutely no idea of what's really happening—we've invented something—because
what is happening is emerging through everybody at the same time. It emerges in
particular ways according to the particular field of responsibility of the
individual, that's all, but it's the same thing coming forth.
As long as there is a view of some
sort of a hierarchy then the concept of trying to do what someone else says you
should do prevails, and nothing can get out. One is always either laying this
on other people or insisting that it is being laid upon oneself. Well as long
as anyone has that sort of attitude nothing is happening. There is that which
comes forth through each individual in the design according to the particular
responsibility which that individual holds, and it will be different for each
one—but it will all be an emergence, an outpouring, of the same spirit. In that
sense there is no hierarchy. There are simply different positions in which
people are functioning to give expression to the same spirit which is working
through everybody. And we have something whole and cohesive, the experience of
oneness, of union, in this fashion. Even the human mind learns to enjoy that,
not trying to figure it out anymore. It's just providing a facility for the
expression of it. And that right spiritual expression occurs in coordination
with everybody else, and who could figure that one out mentally speaking? It's
impossible—why try? Just let it happen spiritually speaking. It won't happen on
the basis of mental effort. Mental effort is the thing that blocks it.
So there is within this collective
focus of union between heaven and earth a certain design; and that design
necessarily has ultimately one point
of focus, just as the design between the undimensional realms and the
dimensional realms has ultimately one point of focus. This is not to say that
there is not a collective design at that level—there is. The LORD of Lords is
the ultimate point of focus, but there are the Lords. And all carry
responsibility, and the spirit is given expression through all according to
those responsibilities. So also is it where we are, as a reflection of all that
at this level, the point of union between heaven and earth. If at this present
time I provide that point of focus, then there comes a sense of closeness,
relatedness, oneness even, with me to the extent that there is the actual experience
of spiritual expression. There will be those who more particularly begin to
sense this closeness. Why? Well let's not try to find out. All we know is that
these earthly essences are moving and individuals are moving with those earthly
essences, rising up, and consequently breaking out, so to speak, into a
conscious experience of being included in this state of oneness. As that
happens, as there is this rising up, it always comes to a point somewhere
through someone who provides the specific connection—in this instance with me.
I am just indicating the nature of
the design, because there is a great variety to the nature of the spiritual
essences that are rising up—it's not all just one thing. There is what is
rising up, for instance, through the ladies; there is what is rising up through
the men. There's a distinction there. And within the scope of the ladies and
within the scope of the men there are other areas where the quality of essence
varies, and there is a rising up in all those areas and a representation of
them. This permits the reality of a design to emerge. It emerges on the basis
of what is actually happening, not on the basis of someone's bright idea about
it, a mental concept of what the hierarchy is. It isn't a hierarchy. It's simply the natural experience by reason
of the creative working of the spirit of God outpouring and rising up.
Having some awareness of the way
it works, it can be seen as being simplicity itself. It happens so very easily
when there are those who are willing to let it happen—not to make it happen but
to let it happen, the way it will, without judging it, without trying to make
it conform to some particularly fancy concept that you may have. Let it alone. Let
it be what it is and it will work perfectly; and in that perfect working we
understand the working, because the spirit of God is moving through our mental
apparatus, for one thing. And believe it or not, we become intelligent! There is a very great deal to this matter of
essences but we do not mentally need to try to figure it out. We find out
what that great deal is through our own individual and collective experience. It's
the only way it can be known anyhow. We can't abstract it with our minds.
This evening we have participated
to some extent in the movement of the spirit through the heavenly and earthly
essences. That movement is there—not just for this hour but always. We may
discover through personal experience these two aspects, outpouring and incoming,
of the creative cycle established by spirit. Our concern with others is to
provide what is necessary to them for the incoming, so that they may rise up
with the movement of spirit, because if they do that relative to the response
aspect of the spirit it is inseparably unified with the outpouring, the radiant
aspect of the spirit, so they're both experienced. Our concern is to open the
door and keep the door open for people to come home. To do that we must be in
the place of authority in this regard; and true authority is very gentle, firm
sometimes but gentle nevertheless, and always understanding. Human beings are
not inclined to be this way when they exercise authority. Authority is usually
imposed, isn't it in the human sense: “You do what I say or else!” That's not
the sort of authority with which we are concerned, even from the standpoint of
our earthly responsibilities.
It seems as though Emissaries
sometimes think of spiritual responsibility as being over here but the earthly
responsibilities are over there, and you have to use earthly methods to ensure that
things get done properly. Using earthly methods, there is immense waste. That
immense waste is plaguing mankind now in the form of what is called pollution.
All it is is waste. I wonder how much waste there is in your experience. These
are forms, aren't they? But you can look at forms because they reflect what is
true of essences. You can find out a lot concerning the essences of your own
living by observing the forms of waste, and there are forms of waste in all
sorts of areas. Isn't the characteristic of the Western industrial world simply
waste? How much waste there is with respect to the handling of tools, for
instance, whether in construction work or in the kitchen or anywhere else. How
sacred are these things seen to be because they are a reflection of essences?
If the essences are being kept
sacred in you then that will be reflected in the fact that you are keeping
sacred the forms. All these forms are to you vessels in the temple. They are
sacred. You can't handle anything in a slipshod manner therefore. Immense care
needs to be taken, with great delicacy. Human beings are forms also, you know. So
it's not a matter just of so-called inanimate forms but of the living forms too—human
beings, animals, what have you. But think of human beings particularly. How is
your handling of them? We all have to handle human beings. No one's exempt from
that. How do you do it? With delicacy and understanding? Or do you barge in
like a bull in a china shop, wreaking havoc in every direction? Or is your
concern to find those essences which are rising up and to encourage them to
rise up?
We're not interested in putting
anything down—people put themselves down fast enough—but in letting something rise
up. Human beings are forms; therefore they are sacred to us. Perhaps a lot of
the very coarse essences that are present in human beings are not particularly
sacred to us—they can go to hell! But there is that which is rising up. Can we
discern that? Can we handle that in the right way? Can we handle that
delicately and do it in every sphere of our living, do it when we are on the
job, as it's called? We need to be on the job anyway, regardless of where we
are. Is the business world, for instance, a different world insofar as the
businessmen here are concerned? It's the same world! Is your behavior different
there than it is in Chapel?
Let us be intelligent. Let us
allow the quality of the essences of heaven to permeate the essences of our
earth, first of all our own expression, so that we may see how we may rightly
handle everything that is in our vicinity; and remember, always, that the forms
reflect what is true of essences. If you are concerned with the delicate
handling of all which comes within the range of your responsibility, you are
concerned with essences. If you are concerned with essences and the earthly
essences begin to reveal the heavenly essences, then the forms will follow
suit. And you may put a finishing touch to the form here or there, but it all
works so easily. We are here to let it work collectively because we stand where
we belong, and we never go out. We are pillars in the temple, never going forth
anymore. To the extent that this is the fact the restoration is sure. Let us be
willing to let it be the fact.
