The Things of Heaven Must Pass Away

The  Things  of  Heaven  Must  Pass  Away

Uranda   June 17, 1954  Class

Wherever we consider vibrational factors we must consider rhythm and pulsation. When we begin to speak of something vibrational—the way I use the term there is in the background a recognition that everything is vibrational; in other words we may properly say that all things, including all physical things, are the manifestation of vibration at a given level, and the variations in vibration provide the patterns of form and a sense of something solid.

Vibrations of a similar nature are solid to each other; so specifically, in order to more easily comprehend the meaning of vibration or vibrational factors, we think of the vibrational field primarily, or in the forefront as those realms that do not present an immediate or direct physical form, compact pattern, which permits perception. In other words we are functioning in one vibrational level as physical human beings. To us this wood appears to be solid, and it is; and yet it is mostly space, and it is specifically vibrational. But because it is somewhat similar in structure and nature to the physical substance of our bodies it is to us a solid. To other vibrational factors it is not a solid. There are many vibrational factors which go through wood such as this, as if it were not there; so to such vibrational factors the wood is not solid.

We then, functioning in the realm of the so-called solid, which is solid to our level of creation only, have many factors which are not solid; for instance the vibrational factors of mind, or feeling, all of the aspects of spirit, the flexible or fluid factors as far as we are concerned. Now we have recognized that these flexible or fluid factors have a very definite relationship to the development of factors in the physical realm, the so-called solids. We know that below the solids there is another range of vibrational factors, which do not have an immediate sphere of meaning to us except in the sense of the forms of life in tiny organisms, bacteria, etc. But here we have a range where there is a certain degree of proportion in relationship to size, the proportion which has established man's height in relationship to trees and grass and so on, a proportion pattern with which we are familiar and which we find more or less acceptable to ourselves.

If we are going to understand these vibrational factors we must think of proportion, because as soon as we begin to violate the patterns of proportion in the vibrational realm we begin to destroy the rhythms, and anything that disturbs a true rhythm is—well anything contrary to the best interests of the creation is what we call evil. You have no doubt in time past heard the expression "the music of the spheres"—I think to most minds that expression is very ambiguous and conveys very little. All too often it may suggest to a human mind that if one gets into some sort of a mystic state and goes through some kind of a peculiar process, he will begin to hear some kind of music out here. Well now, that is not, in that sense at least, what we are talking about.

Music of the spheres is established on the basis of the rhythm in the vibrational pattern of all things. There is the specific range which we perceive as sound in this vibrational field. That range is established in relationship to our atmosphere. The perception, the ability to perceive in this given range, is important. The perception, the recognition of the vibratory fact of sound, is required to prove the fact that the sound is present—perception, understanding, wisdom, the sense of the fitness of things, an understanding realization of our pattern of relatedness to that which is, and an understanding of the various factors which are present in that which is. That which IS. Here perception tends to become sometimes a bit confused, because that which is must be seen as being produced by the consistently maintained processes in the cosmic scheme of things, so that its Isness does not disappear.

Now that which is produced by breaks or distortions in the rhythms, the discord, something which is not consistently maintained by reason of the natural processes at work in the cosmos, something that is foreign to those natural processes, produces a situation or a condition which appears for a little time. It is present while it is being maintained, but there are not permanent, natural processes to maintain it and therefore it is not that which is. Its temporary presence may be acknowledged and recognized, but anything that we call evil properly is of this nature. It is produced, or caused to be present, by reason of a break in the rhythms of being. It is not something that is consistently maintained by that which God has made, and therefore, while it has a form, in the sense of discords, just as you could hear the actuality of the discord, it still is not a part of that which is. It is something which must by its very nature pass away.

To the degree that human beings begin to have a sense of awareness, or perception, realization, of the fact of the rhythms as they are established in the vibrational realms which are not crystallized, in the sense of form in relationship to our physical forms, this more or less obscure realm of spirit, or vibrational factors as we speak of them sometimes, is something which we become identified with. The person begins to feel himself as belonging to the discord pattern. People are so out of rhythm within themselves and so out of rhythm with life in the true sense, that they need this jarring noise to give them a sense of something relating to themselves; in other words it is a projection of a state within human beings. And if a person feels a personal relatedness to that which is not—that which is not permanent—by that very fact he begins to perceive or sense, perhaps unconsciously, the fact that it must pass away; therefore he establishes in his own consciousness a conviction that "I must pass away," that "I am subject to this; I am related to this. It is inevitable that this must pass away; therefore I must pass away."

Here I am undertaking to introduce to you one of the basic secrets in relationship to the problems that confront us, not only in the correct living of life for ourselves but in helping inspire others to do so; because these vibrational factors that are not, except in the sense of discord, carry within themselves the conviction, for any consciousness attuned to them, that they must pass away. No matter how desperately they seek to maintain themselves, how they may struggle, they must pass away. They are not among those things which are classified in the realm that IS. They are in the realm of that which is becoming nothing.

So the level of perception which we can develop in relationship to this vibrational range begins to give us an opportunity of having a sense of the music of the spheres, the vibrational reality and rhythm, pulsation, in that which is. And as we begin, by the fact of perception, to perceive a relatedness with that which is, we begin to relinquish our convictions of relatedness to that which is not. We may say that that which is not, now has appearance. Yes, it has form. It has meaning in a temporary sense. It is a discord in the vibrational realm, so that it is there. But if we stop making the discord it disappears, it is gone, just as the discordant sound from the piano. Unless it is maintained it will soon die away and we will not hear it.

Now in the cosmos, in the divine order of things, there is that which produces the constant music from levels higher up, so that the beauty, the true rhythm of music, is always there if we can perceive it. We do not have to go and particularly touch the keys—as we do with the piano, which has a limited pattern. But suppose this piano were attuned to the cosmos in some fashion, so that that which is constantly at work, like the light shining from the sun, or the various invisible rays, were connected up with this piano and actually it was producing sweet, lovely, soft music all the time as long as that connection was not disturbed, and yet someone can go over there and deliberately hit the keys in some wrong fashion and inject into that a discord. That illustrates rather crudely and in a limited sense the situation in which we find ourselves as human beings.

This music of the spheres—the true rhythms of being in that which IS—is something that is here, and it is constant and it is all around us all the time. Perceiving the music of the spheres is not auditory function necessarily. We may perceive something of it through the ears, that is true; but perception with respect to the music of the spheres is not in any sense limited to what we hear. It includes what we see, what we feel, what we perceive in any and all ways. And the centering of all of these capacities of perception in relationship to that which is begins to give us a sensing, a pattern of perception, with respect to the music of the spheres; which is to say, with the rhythmic cycles in the vibratory realm of that which is; because it has a constant source which does not die away or quit. It is constant in its pattern of function, eternal.

If we see the beauty of the sunset or the loveliness of plants, or flowers, or anything, if we sense any rhythms in the patterns of life anywhere around us, anything lovely by any means available to us, that is a part of the music of the spheres, or that which is signified by that term. We do not have to necessarily use the term, but I wanted you to understand the fact that the music of the spheres is not something that you just hear. The music of the spheres is something that we see by all means at our command, and it involves the rhythm in the vibrational realm.

Now we have spoken of sound. We might note color as is seen by the eye. We know that again here we have vibrational factors. Red and yellow do not have the same vibrational factors. They are all contained in the white light, but the differentiated aspects of that light, the lower vibrational patterns, give us a sense of different colors. So we are seeing vibrational patterns which in a different level, on the basis of hearing, we perceive as sound, all of it vibrational and all of it in rhythm. And if the rhythm is disturbed with respect to the manifestation of a given color, immediately some other color is there. If you change the rhythm in the vibratory factors which make that color, as far as our perception of the eye is concerned it will immediately be some other color. It is only while it is this vibration, in this rhythm, that it is this color. You change that rhythm and you cannot say, "Well I think I can change it a little bit, and it will still be, say, yellow or blue or something else." It won't, because the moment you change that vibrational pattern it will be some other color or some other shade. It will be a light yellow perhaps, or a light blue, or a dark blue, or something else; but you cannot change that vibrational pattern one iota without changing the color.

Now we know that in sound we have the same thing. If someone is playing the violin and the fingering or the bowing is not accurate and you flat a note, make it flat or sharp, just that tiniest little bit of change and it is not the note—it is something else. If the strings are not tightened properly, it is not tuned properly, just a tiny little change and it is not the thing—it is something else. One note is different from another note, and if you establish the vibratory conditions that will produce one note and you say, "Well I'll just make that, but that ought to make this," it doesn't.

What I am leading to here is the fact that human beings are just that foolish in the living of their lives, because they tend to take the attitude, "I want to have this color or this tone, which requires certain vibratory factors. I am producing these vibratory factors, and I can't understand why I don't get that color or that sound. I don't see why I should have to change what I do. I don't see why the change in the vibratory pattern should make such a difference." Now if you apply that to some of the arguments that you have used in your own heart you might find it helpful, because it has seemed to you at times that you should be able to do thus and so and have everything all right around you, and you find that there are discords. It is not all right; it is not what it ought to be. And you say, "Well everybody else ought to fit to me," or what? You blame someone else for it, or become discouraged and blame yourself overmuch, or something of the sort. The important thing here is to realize that we have this vibrational realm where there are rhythms that are specific, and every change in the rhythm will produce a different form of manifestation in sound, in color, or in anything—not just sound and color, but in anything whatsoever—because you cannot change the rhythm in the vibratory level and expect to maintain what was.

Learning to identify ourselves with the true rhythms, learning to perceive them, learning to understand something of them, having the wisdom to understand their pattern of relationships, begins to establish in us a consciousness of being a part of that which IS. And as we relinquish the discord patterns, or a sense of personal relationship with them, and stop producing them, they pass away without our passing away. Any human being who becomes ill, sick, is either going to get well or he is going to die, isn't he? We can bring it down to that point. He is either going to get well or he is going to die. All right. Either the illness is going to go out of him or he is going to go out with the illness. The illness is going to go out. And if we say that it is not curable it means that man does not know how to let the disease go out of the person without the person going out with the disease—but out it will go. You see?

If we begin to bring that down close to home we will realize that that which IS is not going to pass away. Anything that varies the vibrational factors from that which IS is going to pass away, because it is not going to be maintained. And if the rhythms have been broken and they are not restored, we are going to have a condition where the instrument, or the manifestation of these rhythms, will be destroyed. In this case we are thinking particularly of the human body, or the mind, or the human being with his equipment for living, for the revelation of being.

Now Being is ISness, isn't it? True Being is that which IS. These basic factors of that which is are subject to an infinite variety of combinations, just as we can take a violin with four strings and a bow, and someone who knows how to put them together in the sense of music, and you can play all kinds of music; there is an infinite variety. Now that which is produced by these variations will, shall we say, pass away, not in the sense of something dying, but in the sense of something which is the ever-changing color of Being. But those basic factors, shall we say, the four strings and the bow, the violin as a whole and the one who plays, they continue. Now that which is eternal is that which IS, in the sense of reality, that which we are illustrating by the violin, the bow, and the one who plays the instrument. The various possible combinations within the scope of that are virtually infinite—but that same sound does not come constantly issuing out of the violin.

That which issues out of the true expression of that which IS is that which provides the eternal variety, the ever-changing color, the beauty and the wonder and the glory of Being. But that which IS must be activated on the basis of intelligence which understands the difference between discord—that which is not right, which is not fitting—and that which is harmonious to the pattern, or wise, the fitness of things in their relationships. So if we begin to let our minds open to this particular vital portion of meditation, we realize that in reality, in that which is eternal, there is that which is basic at the level of Being, which we classify as that which IS. It has certain varieties, certain arrangements, which are particularly proper for that level of creation.

Above that there is another level, and the vibrational factors of any level are real to the other vibrational factors of that level. The vibrational factors of this level are real to the other vibrational factors of this level, but to a level below, these factors seem to be unreal or vague or uncertain, just as much as the so-called heaven is vague or unreal to the human being until he learns to understand the patterns of relationships in these things. He learns how to use his perception, so that he begins to realize the practical nature of that which is in a fluid or flexible vibrational state, as distinct from the so-called solid, which in itself is not solid really, except to itself or something similar, and certainly is not solid to that which is above.

So in heaven, in the divine state, paradise restored, the highest and finest and loveliest state of Being of which you are aware, there is that which is constantly passing away, and that passing away is not death. I pointed out yesterday that there would be a need for correcting in the vibrational functions of Being in any heaven to which you might ever attain, in any paradise that may ever manifest on earth. We simply reach a point where we perceive the necessity of that correction and make it before there is a distortion. Those who have dullness of perception, or who are functioning in some contrary fashion, ignore and let the distortion appear. The fact that the distortion appears is not anything wrong, except that the correction was not made at the point where it should have been made. It gets out here so big we cannot help but see it, and then we say, "Now I must make a correction." It would have been so easy to make it here at the start. No one would have ever seen it, because there would not have been any discord if we had perceived it at the right point. And that is true with every ill thing on the face of the earth, every discord, every distortion, every evil thing. If it had been perceived, the tangent factor had been perceived at the right point and corrected, there would have been no distortion.

Now if we say we are going to go to heaven, or have paradise restored, or something, where there are no distortions, does it mean that we go to a static place where there are no vibratory patterns working? No, it means that we are anticipating a place where those who function have sufficient perception so that they make the corrections immediately; and it never produces a distortion, because there is wisdom, a sense of the fitness of things. Each one discharges his or her responsibility harmoniously with respect to the whole, therefore no distortions, and consequently no evil. But the potentiality, the possibility, shall we say, of evil, is theoretically there in the highest heaven. It is not there, but theoretically it is there, because if anyone in those levels let the tangent factors go by without correcting them there would be evil there. The point is, those responsible don't, therefore there isn't evil there.

We are learning how to function in life—what we call the art of living—which means to say that we are learning how to perceive and function with these various factors. Now human perception has been so confused. It has recognized that evil, that which is of the discord, must pass away. And it has touched something of that which is beautiful, like a bird's song or a violin playing, something, and it is exquisite for its little time, and then it goes away; the sound ceases and the person feels a sense of loss perhaps. He says, "It's gone." Instead of appreciating the influence that was there during the period of its manifestation and letting it go, and knowing that something else beautiful will be coming forth in its proper season, the individual begins to feel that this beautiful thing is gone. "It's gone."

And so, knowing with absolute conviction that evil things are going to pass away, and sensing that lovely things disappear—the beauty of a moment, some particular experience, and it passes away—then, instead of seeing the difference between the manner in which they pass away, the subconscious conviction that all good things are passing away is established in the individual's mind and heart and he has no foundation. He then is subject to distortion. His rhythms are broken, his pattern of relatedness with that which IS is disturbed, and he identifies himself with that which must pass away; because the expression of Being produces that which does pass away in heaven, and if it did not, we would have heaven filled up with certain fixed color combinations and sound combinations and so on, that same note forever, that same color forever, and no change. And it would be utterly horrible. It would drive the archangels crazy.

No, the thing, that which IS, in the sense of Being, is maintained—that which IS must be activated, and that which is produced by reason of the activating of that which is must pass away, not because it must die, but because it is even in heaven a temporary manifestation; it is something that is not going to be permanently there. By the very nature of it there must be that which does pass away in heaven. But it is not the Being that passes away; it is the particular combination of factors in life expression which are of the moment. But the individual does not feel a sense of loss, because he knows that by the correct activation of that which is, there will be forever a newness in that with which he is surrounded; because any Being is surrounded with that which is produced temporarily by reason of his being activated. But it is right and proper that that which is surrounding the Being should pass away, whether it is good or bad, in the sense of that which is produced at the moment.

We need to stop fighting against the passing away of that which is expressed in life; for the minute we stop expressing that which should properly surround us and we begin to live in memory with respect to that which has been expressed, it has passed away, we center in that which has passed away and identify ourselves with it and we pass away. And it does not need to be. There is something expressing through us today. But you may say, "I don't like this as well as what I had yesterday," or "Oh I had the most beautiful experience five years ago. If I could have just kept that experience, if I could have just kept that vision, if I could have just kept something." And do you know that if you still had it you would be bored to tears? You do not want it. That which IS, remains; the Being remains; the reality which produces the infinite variety, that gives color to life, remains. It is there. All we require is the activating of that which is, in harmony with the rhythms of being, the vibratory factors, and we have ever-changing colors, we have ever-changing sounds, etc.

You may see a rainbow and say, "Oh how beautiful!" It's a beautiful thing in the sky. But how would you like to have God suddenly say, "Well now, you have admired the rainbow. It is very nice, isn't it? Now everywhere you look, for the rest of eternity, you will never see anything but a rainbow. That is all you will ever see. You admired it. There it is." Everywhere you looked, nothing but a rainbow. "Oh I thought it was beautiful; now it's horrid. Oh I wish I could get away from those terrible colors." It must change, and if it does not change you become bored; you become disturbed; it spoils. So, whether of the unreal or the real, the expression must pass away. There is that in heaven that is constantly passing away. And we must realize it, and begin to realize that the center of Being is that which does not pass away; and if we are a part of that, we are constantly producing what passes away.

Now suppose a violinist was going to give a recital and the first few notes he produced on the violin floated out here and stuck. You can still hear them. He goes on and plays some more of that piece. The notes are out there; you can still hear them. He keeps on playing through one piece. You can still hear every note he produced; it is all there, crystallized; it is not passing away. "I want to hear it all; I want to keep it forever." Here it is. All right, now he starts the next one, another piece, and every note floats out here and sticks. You keep right on hearing it, right in conjunction with all the other notes. By the time he has played for half an hour, how much confusion would there be? Wouldn't it be horrible? The beauty of the note that he is producing in the moment is dependent on the fact that the sound of the note that he made a few moments ago is gone. Isn't that right? The beauty of that music, the wonder of it! You still feel the influence of that other sound and you perceive it in its relationships; but the note that is being produced now has meaning because the other notes have faded away.

Suppose suddenly, somehow, you started hearing every word I have ever spoken, could you hear the words I am speaking now? No, you couldn't possibly. There would be such a din of sound that it would not take three seconds to absolutely ruin your mental processes. See? Even the words that I speak, the sound of them, must pass away. And I would be very hesitant to speak if they didn't.

You see, in highest heaven there is that which is passing away, and we must not confuse that which IS with that which must pass away. And it is confusion on this point—the passing of the real that is produced in the sense of the beautiful music, coupled with the subconscious pattern of relating oneself to the unreal and the passing of the unreal—that gets the individual all confused. And he feels, "Well I'm passing away. Everything good passes away," because he is confusing the result of expression with that which makes possible expression. That which makes the expression possible must not be confused with that which is expressed.

So if we are beginning to see the point, we realize that that which IS is not in itself that which makes heaven a wonderful place. Now heaven could not be a wonderful place without it, so let us be careful of what we mean here. Being is that through which the music of life is expressed, but in and of itself it is not the music at its own level. It is the music for another level, that is true; but as far as its own level is concerned it is not the music; it is the means by which the music is produced.

So we learn to distinguish between Being—which of and by itself, nonactivated, would be virtually meaningless—we distinguish between Being and that which is the result of activating Being. And that which is the result of playing the violin, it must pass away. It has produced influence in the heart; you go away from the concert or the recital feeling renewed and refreshed, joyous to have had those lovely sounds penetrating to the depths of your soul. But in season you are ready to hear more music. Just because you heard music once is not enough. God must have known that, when He produced the meadowlark who makes its lovely sound. But it does not sing just once and then keep its little beak shut for the rest of its days. It will sing again and again, and that expression of Being, the way it works out, is not in any sense monotonous.That is what heaven is like: the expressions of Being that produce the beautiful sounds and the beautiful forms in color.

The environment of Being is forever changing; never monotonous, forever beautiful. But in order to have that beautiful environment in heaven, Being must be constantly activated, because the atmosphere of heaven is forever passing away, even in heaven, and if they did not keep producing the atmosphere of heaven in heaven it would soon be hell. Now if we say we have hell on earth, why? Because we were not adequately producing the atmosphere of heaven. And if we produce the atmosphere of heaven on earth we will have heaven here. But the atmosphere of heaven is not fixed at any level of being, in any heaven anywhere, and there is an atmosphere of heaven there simply because it is being constantly produced, now and forever.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Commandment Agreement Fulfilment Complement

Commandment — Agreement — Fulfilment — Complement

Martin Cecil   September 4, 1977

We are aware of the necessity for connection between various aspects of the living design in which we work and move. We speak of the importance of the connection between heaven and earth. In the experience of human beings this essential connection has been absent in their consciousness. It has seemed to them as though the earth was some sort of entity all on its own. The word "heaven" has referred principally to something imaginary, or possibly to the realm surrounding the earth in which we behold the sun during the day and the stars and the moon at night. The heaven, however, we have come to realize is not merely a realm of imagination, nor is it merely the apparent realm of the universe around us.

Our consciousness of the heaven has thus far been somewhat limited because the adequate connection has not yet been made. Although we have awakened to something more than is apparent to most, we still are inclined to place considerable weight in the earth. There our values continue to be, at least to some extent. We may be deeply concerned about what is occurring in the earth, whether in our personal environment or in the larger world, but such concern has tended to trap us, with virtually all other human beings, in an endeavor to manipulate whatever it may be that is present in the earth and capable of our manipulation; in other words we have thought that it was important to manipulate the earth.

We realize now, factually to some extent, theoretically probably to a greater extent, that the earth simply reflects whatever may be present in the heaven. The heaven insofar as human experience is concerned might be identified as the state of human consciousness. This of course is not the true heaven. It is a false heaven which human beings inhabit and out of which springs all that occurs in earthly human experience. Most people are so fascinated by what is occurring in the earth that they tend to forget that what is happening is consequent upon what may be present in the heaven or the hell of their own consciousness. If we begin to awaken to the truth of the matter then we see how vital it is that an essential connection be made so that heaven and earth may be seen as being one in the true sense.

To do this of course there must be emergence out of the false heaven, in other words the first heaven. And the first earth, which is simply a reflection of that first heaven, must rightly pass away so that there may be the experience of the true or new heaven and the new earth; but for this experience to come the connection between the heaven and the earth must be restored in human consciousness. It doesn't need to be restored in fact, because it already is a fact, but it isn't a fact to human beings because it has not been present in their own consciousness. Consequently humanly speaking there has been existence in a realm of delusion, a realm of delusion that seems very real to most people but which in fact is unreal. We have for years in this ministry talked about the unreal but scarcely anyone has had any real understanding of the nature of the unreal, because it has seemed so real. The only way that we can know the truth is based in the fact that the connection between the true heaven and consequently the true earth is restored in the consciousness of human beings, ourselves presumably in particular.

We find ourselves this morning together at this place of connection. This place of connection is one place in this present moment but it also should permit the experience of what is describable by the words "of one accord." We are here present to be of one accord. To put it in another way, we are here to experience the reality of agreement. Many of you have come to recognize that the word "agreement" relates in a very specific sense to the Second Sacred School, to what was brought on earth at the time when Jesus was present, offering a facility for the manifest expression of the Lord of heaven and earth. It might be said that the central tone of the Second Sacred School, of what was brought to focus by this particular one on earth, could be identified by the word "agreement,"—spiritual agreement. This is what He brought. There are many in the world who characterize themselves as Christians but if there ever has been a state of disagreement it has surely been exemplified in what has been called Christianity. This should give pause to anyone who thinks of what is called Christianity as being the truth.

Where the truth is actually experienced there is the fact of agreement. Therefore if agreement is not being experienced there is evidence of the fact that something untrue is the known state. Agreement between human beings is only possible when there is agreement by human beings with the spirit of God. When this is the case, when human beings do agree with the spirit of God, immediately they find themselves in agreement with each other. Agreement with the spirit of God certainly doesn't cause everybody to become the same. That would be very boring, wouldn't it? There is something uniquely different insofar as each person is concerned, rightly so, but what that unique difference is can only be known on the basis of the individual agreement with the spirit of God.

Because at the time of the ministry of Jesus on earth there was so little agreement with the spirit of God the evidence of that fact was made abundantly apparent. There was scarcely anyone who actually and factually agreed with the spirit which was brought by reason of Jesus. There were some claims of the lips with regard to agreement but it didn't prove itself out. We have recognized that the only approach that can be made at this present time is the approach of the Third Sacred School; in other words an approach at a different level to that which was made at the time of the Second Sacred School. Human beings threw away that opportunity; they obviously rejected it. As is usual with human beings after they have rejected something, they tend to look back and think oh maybe they shouldn't have been so hasty and they try to pick it up again; but once something is rejected it's gone; it can't be picked up again. There is something else which needs to be experienced, just as when the First Sacred School ended in a pattern of disintegration it was necessary to initiate the Second Sacred School in consequence. So when the Second Sacred School ended in a pattern of disintegration there was the requirement of the approach through the Third Sacred School at a different level. Jesus certainly never tried to pick up the pieces of the First Sacred School; that opportunity was gone. But He did initiate something new.

That first opportunity was based in a quality of tone which might be described by the word "obedience." The opportunity to be obedient to the spirit of God was initiated through the First Sacred School, and this came to a very particular point of focus during the time of Moses. It is clear enough that that opportunity was rejected and the reality of what it means to be obedient to the spirit of God was never adequately experienced. So the First Sacred School was characterized by a tone which could be indicated by the word "obedient"; the Second Sacred School "agreement."

In making the approach of the Third Sacred School at the spiritual expression level of the earth aspect of the total whole of heaven and earth, necessarily there would be experienced what had not been experienced in the First and Second Sacred Schools; but the approach is different. We don't start out, as they did in the First Sacred School, by setting up a whole host of rules and regulations, commandments: "Do this! Don't do that!" This was necessary at the time of the First Sacred School in order that the capacity to obey might be developed, because, obviously, unless one has a capacity to obey, one will not be in position to be obedient to the spirit of God when the spirit of God begins to be experienced. So the capacity must be there.

Now we necessarily approach the development of that capacity from a different level, the level of spiritual expression, the level of the Third Sacred School; but we have to learn obedience just the same—obedience to the spirit of God. And we will find ourselves incapable of being obedient to the spirit of God, no matter how much we may think we want to, if we do not have developed in our experience the capacity to be obedient. If we have the experience of being undisciplined we have not yet the capacity to be disciplined, and it has to be developed, deliberately developed. The longing of the heart to be obedient to the spirit of God doesn't make it so. It merely may point the individual in the right direction but he has somehow to develop the capacity to be obedient.

The expression of the spirit of God can only appear on earth because of the capacities of human beings. If those capacities are held out and fail to be properly developed then the spirit of God has no facility for expression on earth. This is the case in the world as a whole and the result is we see everywhere the absence of the spirit of God in expression through human beings, and we also see everywhere the results of the absence of the spirit of God in expression through human beings. Theoretically this is easily understood, isn't it? But how are we factually to let it change? Well obviously we are not going to let it change unless we have some facility by which we may express the spirit of God, and part of that facility relates to obedience. We have to learn to obey the spirit of God as human beings.

If you all are here present this morning on a true and sound basis you are not here present because you mentally chose to be here present. You may think you chose to be here present but if that is the fact of the matter you are not present spiritually speaking. Your body may be sitting there but still you are not present. If you are aware of the fact that you are here because you could not help but be here, that you are compelled to be here, then you may begin to be here on a true and sound basis. It may be that you in fact have been compelled to be here by the spirit of God but you may be inclined still to take the attitude that it was your mental choice, in which case obviously you would be in a state of self-delusion; you would be claiming something that was not true. Only those who have been compelled by the spirit of God to be here, so that they couldn't really be anywhere else, have experienced something of what it means to be obedient.

Because of the conditioning of human beings in the world the way it is there is an inclination to kick against the idea that one was compelled: "Oh no, I'm really an important person. I make my own decisions. I decided to be here, so here I am!" Let us recall the words of the Master to His disciples: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." Now, we must have that experience and acknowledge it; otherwise we maintain in existence the human ego which prevents the individual from knowing the truth—he has not experienced what it means to be obedient; what it means to be compelled by the spirit. The effectiveness of what we are experiencing together now is dependent upon the extent to which all of you have been compelled to be here. It is not in the least dependent upon an assumption by anyone that he made a choice to be here with his mind. If that is the real reason why you are here, as I said before, you are not here, because we are speaking about being with one accord in one place spiritually, not merely mentally.

So we see that within the Third Sacred School there is what was brought to focus with respect to the First Sacred School. We can't get around it. There must be obedience to the spirit of God. When there is obedience to the spirit of God and the individual admits it, acknowledges it, in spite of the discomfort of his human ego, then there is a basis for agreement. If all concerned are in fact obedient to the spirit of God then they will find that they are in agreement with the spirit of God of course. They are not holding out anymore on the spirit of God, trying to make their own decisions; not only that, they will find that they are in agreement with everybody else who has done the same thing.

We have known these principles for a long time. We have known the theory but the theory is of little value until it leads to the fact, until there is the factual experience. Our spiritual agreement is based in the extent of our obedience to the spirit of God. So obedience to the spirit of God leads to agreement with the spirit of God and consequently to agreement with all those who agree with the spirit of God. We make this approach from the standpoint of the Third Sacred School: namely, from the standpoint of spiritual expression. Spiritual expression is the highest level in the earth. There is physical expression, there is mental expression, and there is a potential of spiritual expression. Spiritual expression is only possible because there is a spirit to express. So the spirit of God is an obvious prerequisite to spiritual expression.

The spirit of God must exist; otherwise we couldn't know what spiritual expression is; and we are aware of the fact that it does already exist although it has been excluded very largely from the experience of human beings in their state of disconnection with heaven in their own consciousness. We can't let that spiritual connection be restored and leave ourselves behind physically and mentally. Some have tried to do that but that leads to increasing irrationality. This is why I have emphasized the fact that when we do make a spiritual approach we are aware of the necessity of obedience to the spirit of God and agreement with the spirit of God, so that physically and mentally we may still be present. We are agreeing then with the spirit of God rather than with that peculiar and unreal entity, the human ego.

We recognize that the human ego is very closely related to what is referred to in Biblical parlance as satan, "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan." As long as we bolster the human ego by imagining that we can make our own choices and we can be free entities and all this sort of nonsense, we trap ourselves from ever knowing the truth. Of course this is what has been happening on earth for a long, long time. Freedom is not the license to do as our human egos please. Freedom is only known on the basis of obedience to the spirit of God, which is free. If we exclude the spirit of God from our experience we exclude freedom from our experience. It seems like a contradiction or a paradox to people to accept the idea that freedom comes from obedience. Most think it comes from a rejection of obedience, which is the state of human beings everywhere. Obedience has been rejected by mankind as a whole, but has freedom actually been experienced? Some seeming liberty has been known in certain very restricted areas but human beings are certainly subject to controls in their experience, which are obvious enough when anyone stops to look at it.

There are states in the human nature condition of more or less restriction. Where the restrictions are less, that is thought of as freedom; where the restrictions are more, that is thought of as tyranny; but it is all included in the spectrum of slavery. There are some slaves who are less slaves than others, and because this is the total state of course people are inclined to grab at opportunities to become less subject to slavery; but they never experience freedom on that basis, because they are polarized in the state of slavery. Freedom comes now because a spiritual approach is made to the necessities of obedience and the necessities of agreement. As we begin to yield to the compulsion of the spirit and acknowledge the fact that this is what we are doing, so that we have no choice whatsoever in the matter, then we can move toward agreement. In the experience of agreement we find ourselves in position to know an increased spiritual expression—all of us together, not merely something individual. We find ourselves in a larger space of spiritual expression, and this begins to acquaint us with a tone that may be described by the word "fulfilment." I used the word "commandment" for the First Sacred School. Commandment, agreement and now fulfilment. The fulfilment comes because we begin to permit the connection to be restored in our own consciousness between heaven and earth. This connection relates to the Fourth Sacred School.

There are Seven Sacred Schools, seven levels, and the fourth is in the middle. It is the place of connection—the place of connection between heaven and earth—and when that connection is clear there is the experience of the fact that heaven and earth are one; that is experienced in our own consciousness. When it's experienced in our own consciousness, that is what we know; we know the truth, in other words. The fact that heaven and earth are one was true all along but we didn't know it. If we don't know that, we don't know the truth, and the only way we can know the truth is to allow this connection to be clarified, so that it is a connection rather than a division. Presumably we find ourselves, to the extent of our obedience and agreement and consequent fulfilment, aware of the reality of this point of connection that relates to what is described as a pure heart. If we use words to indicate the tone of these various levels—"commandment," "agreement," "fulfilment"—when we come to the area of connection we could use the word "complement." Complement. C-o-m-p-l-e-m-e-n-t. Something that fills up, completes or makes perfect. If we use the verb it would say: to fill out or complete. So if you complement the angel, you fill out and complete the angelic experience. This is the word that I have been using in connection with the Fourth Sacred School.

We might just look at the other word, which is c-o-m-p-l-i-m-e-n-t. It is an expression of esteem, respect, affection or admiration; and as a verb, therefore, to express esteem, respect, affection or admiration. Now that's quite different. We may have such an attitude toward the angel and that is one way perhaps of describing what our action might be. We express respect, we express thankfulness—we express all these things because we hold the angel or the Lord in high esteem. That indicates response, doesn't it? But the word "complement" with an "e" indicates that we are doing something in our expression; we are aligned with the expression of the angel. We are complementing the angel, so that the angel not only has expression in heaven but also on earth, because we have accepted the role of complement. We are aligned with the angel and the ego has been dissolved. There is no separate entity anymore, so that when we use the words "We are aligned with the angel," we would be inclined to change them to "We are the angel." We are the angel then in expression on earth because the human facility has come into place as the earthly complement to the angel. Then there is only one being—an angel in heaven incarnate on earth.

This is the true state. This is the truth for anyone, but it cannot possibly be experienced as long as the ego is preserved, and the ego is preserved as a seeming entity by the endeavor to remain separate from the truth. The existence of the human ego is only made possible by disobedience, and if you want to put a name to that you could call it, as many Christians have, original sin; but when those words are used it usually means something else in the consciousness of those concerned. But the original sin is in fact disobedience. This is why the First Sacred School was concerned with obedience on the road back to the restoration.

Now we can't make that our first order of business because our approach must be from the standpoint of spiritual expression—that's the first order of business. But making the approach from the standpoint of spiritual expression, we immediately recognize that there can't be very much spiritual expression in fact until our facilities of body and mind are obedient to the spirit so that the spirit can come on through. But if there is an ego sitting there big and fat in between and saying, "Well this is my responsibility! I'm going to determine as to what it is that comes through me, and I may consider perhaps letting a little spirit come through me on occasion,"—what a waste of time, because nothing can really come through as long as the ego exists. Part of the experience of spiritual expression is the dissolution of the ego. The human ego thinks of itself as some sort of separate entity, when it is merely an unreal entity, which proves its unreality somewhere along the way by vanishing from the scene of things. But the truth is present, the angel is present, and when we begin to allow a connection to be made in our own consciousness between heaven and earth we discover that they are one and we discover the reality of our own identity.

It could be said that there is the internal and the external identity, but they are one in fact. We only know this fact to the extent that the connection between heaven and earth is restored in our consciousness as human beings. The connection between heaven and the spirit of God has always been there; that is the angel; but we do not know that it has always been there, except in theory perhaps, until the connection between heaven and earth is restored. Then this truth becomes apparent in human consciousness. The angel then is present in human consciousness and in expression at that level. The angel has always been in expression at the heavenly level but when that expression is restored to the earthly level by reason of the expression in the heavenly level then the angel in heaven is present on earth, and the experience of that is known in what may be described as human consciousness, the consciousness at the level of the earth.

So there is the realm of connection, the realm of complement, permitting the revelation of the truth; not as though the truth were some separate state of affairs or idea of the mind, but the truth is found to be what we are. We are here present on earth to let this fact of connection be restored so that it may be known in human consciousness. Now we say that but probably a person is inclined to think of human consciousness as stretching way out there somewhere—the consciousness of mankind—but it's not separate from us, and insofar as any individual is concerned it relates to his own consciousness. Let the restoration occur there and it will inevitably occur everywhere else, but if you try to make it occur out there somewhere it will never happen, because that is the ego manipulating. The angel knows better, and that becomes quite apparent at the level where we are in human consciousness when we relinquish the concept of the human ego.

Get thee hence, satan—that's what it is; not some sort of vague floating entity who comes slipping in when we are not looking; he has been there right along—get to hell out of there, that we may have the experience of heaven and heaven may be reflected because there is an earthly complement, a means by which it may be revealed at the earthly level. This is the restoration, and it relates to what happens in our own individual states of consciousness. It doesn't relate, to start with at least, to anything out there.

© emissaries of divine light