“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” The secret place of the most High could well correlate with the balance point; when we dwell there, then, we abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The shadow of the Almighty is the evidence of the presence of the Almighty. That has been referred to as Shekinah. Shekinah is the spirit of God, in combination with the fine vibrational substance of heaven. This fine vibrational substance, in combination with spirit, pours forth when the door is opened. Each one individually is the door when he or she comes to that balance point.
It is a matter of dwelling, of staying put, exactly where we belong — namely this point of balance. There is properly a steadiness known and absolute trust. That absolute trust is a natural experience at the balance point. When we get away from the balance point, out a little on either limb, we do not find it so natural to trust; that is, to trust the Lord. We then begin to trust our mental processes and we consequently become subject to the devil once more. But dwelling at the balance point, in the secret place of the most High, trust is natural; this is the point where knowing is the natural experience. Knowing and trust are really two aspects of one thing.
When we assemble for a service, as we have done this evening, we have a very special opportunity to come to this balance point together and to dwell in the secret place of the most High, finding ourselves consequently abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. The fire that burns, the light that glows, the cloud of glory, are to be experienced. This is Shekinah. The reality of the shadow of the Almighty is only known as the door is opened. The door is opened by reason of one’s own living expression. It is the expression of Shekinah that allows Shekinah to be known. It is the outpouring of the spirit that allows the spirit to be known. As long as Shekinah is locked behind the door human beings cannot know it, even though it is present. The very fact that material form is present gives evidence of the fact that Shekinah is present; but Shekinah remains unknown to human beings until the door, which they are when they come to this balance point, is opened. The opening of the door correlates with what we have called spiritual expression. When there is the fact, the reality, of spiritual expression the door is opened. The spiritual expression is the evidence of the fact that the door is opened. There is a pouring forth into the realm of the coarser levels of substance which are present here in the world.
We are approaching Christmas, which is a celebration from the Christian standpoint of the birth of Jesus. The birth of Jesus is obviously more than the birth of a baby. There has always been a desire, on the part of good Christians at least, to find additional proof of the fact that Jesus was born and existed on earth. The attitude being taken was much along the lines: “If we can find some historical artifacts going back that far, which definitely indicate that this baby was born and Jesus lived on earth for thirty-three years, then this would be a convincing argument for the validity of Christianity.” Well we are not too interested in the validity of Christianity as such. It certainly has not achieved all that it might have done. We could hardly say that the world is revealing peace and goodwill. Surely this should give pause to good Christians: If the power of God relates to Christianity, why is the world the way it is? Is there something wrong with the power of God, or could it be that there might be something wrong with Christianity? We ourselves have some awareness of the trap into which so many have fallen and it has been our concern to emerge out of that trap, honestly recognizing that Christianity as such, while it may have seemed to hold great promise, has not allowed the fulfilment of those promises. Therefore why sustain something which evidently is blocking what might occur if the truth was actually in action?
We have seen these things in some measure and have exhibited a willingness to emerge consciously — at least out of the brashest of Christian beliefs. I suspect that subconsciously there are still some elements of that pattern remaining in view of the fact that Christianity is of long standing in the world, hereditarily speaking. However we do approach what has been called Christmas, which is a Christian celebration — admittedly not at the time that Jesus was born. We have a certain awareness that there was something more than the birth of a babe involved. Here was the initiation of a particular aspect of the creative cycles. Here was the incarnation in human form of the Lord Himself. He came on earth for a particular purpose. The beginning point of this purpose insofar as human awareness was concerned came at His birth. According to the traditional stories that have come down to us about that birth there was a glorious outpouring of something in connection with it, one might almost say more glorious than anything that happened later. Here was the promise of something tremendous, a promise that has not as yet been fulfilled. The promise is summarized rather well by what the angel was supposed to have said to the shepherds.
It is interesting that shepherds were involved in this situation, for we have seen the necessity of shepherding those who are willing, away from the limbs on which they find themselves, into the point of balance. The shepherds were looking after their sheep, and where there are sheep presumably there is a need for shepherds. As someone commented, “Sheep never become shepherds.” No matter how one might train a sheep it would never be a shepherd. This perhaps illustrates somewhat the distinction between the human nature state and the state of man. It also indicates that no amount of evolution in the human nature state will produce man. If a shepherd is to appear from a sheep state it is a new creation, isn’t it? It is something altogether different. You would never mistake a sheep for a shepherd. In any case, in this story, which may indeed have some meaning insofar as we are concerned, there was an angel who put in an appearance, and he spoke to the quaking shepherds. And he said this, first of all: “Fear not.”
Now I think that is very good instruction, because fear tends to put in an appearance when there is a recognition of the real transformation that must occur. Because fanatical human beings who have gone out on the spiritual limb have revealed themselves all too often as being crazy, there is a fear of, I suppose, what might be referred to as spiritual craziness. If you go out on that limb too far the unbalance might become too extreme and then you would have had it, which is probably true. But we are not talking about going out on a limb. We are talking about coming back to the balance point, whether from the spiritual limb or from the material limb. And it is at the balance point, where steadiness is a reality and where absolute trust is natural, that the door may be opened and the transformation occur. The transformation occurs by reason of what passes through the door, by reason of Shekinah: the outpouring of spirit through the fine vibrational substance into the coarser vibrational substance. And that has a transforming effect upon the coarser vibrational substance, and also upon the structures in which that substance may be held presently. There is an unimaginable transformation to occur.
The words that the angel used were these: “Fear not.” Don’t be afraid for what is happening. Just stay in the point of steadiness in absolute trust. “Fear not: for, behold,” look, see, recognize, “I bring you good tidings of great joy.” Tidings is another word for news, isn’t it? Good news. Oh, that is the gospel! News, something new, something in which the experience brings great joy. The experience is this outpouring experience. Because we are living on earth in spiritual expression we ourselves are letting the kingdom come, letting this outpouring take place in our own living relative to our own immediate circumstances. We could not let it outpour anywhere else.
Whatever the circumstances, they have been brought to us so that the action of spirit, the action of Shekinah, might come to bear upon them. What we know is what we express. If we refuse to express Shekinah we don’t know it. If we refuse to express Shekinah because we assume that our circumstances are sufficient to stop it we have, ourselves, introduced the blockage. We have erected a dam, saying in effect, to the outpouring of spirit, “Thus far and no further.” Well of course thus far slams up against the barrier that we have erected, and slamming up against that barrier it starts to push the barrier back. It should be doing this to whatever is not harmonious to spirit in our circumstances, but because we have erected a barrier in ourselves it is pushing up against the barrier in ourselves and not in the circumstances. It pushes us, with our barrier, out into the circumstances and we find ourselves more deeply embedded in the circumstances, so that we are inclined to say once more, “I told you so. The circumstances prevent it.” But we ourselves have produced the whole situation.
The tidings of great joy are the tidings that we are allowing to find expression — spiritual expression — in our living in the circumstances the way they are. Those tidings will come up against the circumstance when we do it, and immediately something will begin to happen in those circumstances. There will be what proves to be harmonious to the action of spirit and there will be also what proves to be inharmonious. There will be a separation of the sheep from the goats in consequence. You have known this in theory for a long time, but why not let it be a proven fact? It is useless as long as it remains merely a theory, but we are in position to let it be a proven fact. This is what is being said here by the angel to the shepherds, and the shepherds were quaking there, not very sure of themselves or what was happening. This is why “Fear not” was the first statement made, as it indeed always is.
“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” That is quite interesting: “to all people,” something outpouring to all people and something outpouring through all people. The opportunity is there for all people. The Christian view has simply ignored all that, or looked upon it merely from the standpoint of the fact that here was a baby being born, and they have concentrated on that. The birth of that baby, that one person on earth, was supposed to be the object for all people — but that is not so. It is the outpouring of Shekinah in the expression of life that is for all people. True enough, here was one person who proved it out, but that has been rejected by everybody else. The fact of the matter is that Jesus, when He was on earth, was rejected by His contemporaries. That is the precedent that was set, and it has carried through until this day. That would be a shocking thing for Christians to hear, that they have rejected the One whom they suppose is their Savior. We presumably are sufficiently clear of our involvement with that old state so that we could come to a balance point to see these things.
“I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” The city of David was a particular town, a place, a geographical place on earth, but it refers to all geographical places on earth. “A Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Here is the acknowledgment of collective Shekinah for all people. It is only for all people if all those individuals who are the people accept that outpouring in their own living. Otherwise it is not for all people, and it has not been for all people in the experience of mankind. So we have an awareness of our own individual responsibility in this matter — but what was being initiated then is what is being initiated now, what is moving now. It never ceased to move; but there are very few on hand, if any, who would accept the responsibility of providing an open door through which it might move in actual experience.
Let us see if we can expand our outlook a little, if we can see with a greater perspective. How quickly even those who have the opportunity of seeing with perspective revert into the myopic view of human nature. Obviously there is nothing that human beings can do to save the world. All they would be interested in doing anyway would be saving their own skins, saving human nature, which has to pass away. There is something far vaster at work relative to what is happening on the surface of this little planet than is usually supposed, particularly by Christians, who seem to imagine that the salvation of man, whatever that means, is the whole purpose of the universe. How ridiculous! There are those who have been a little concerned as to how what has been called the fall ever took place. It doesn’t seem reasonable to the human mind that it could happen. If man actually was a divine creation, how could he have messed things up so badly, contrary to the true outworking of things? We have been aware that there came a point in the experience of man on earth when the fall was a possibility. Man functioned for quite an extended period of time as divine man, as true man, and it was only relatively recently that the fall took place. Why then, if he had the experience of the wonder of the true state, would he choose to take advantage of the possibility of falling? Of course at that point he had not experienced the fallen state, so he did not know what that was. But there is something involved here which is far more, far greater, far bigger, than man.
The solar system is moving through what may be described as space. It is also part of a galaxy which is also moving through space. There are a number of movements here, besides those closer to home, namely the earth moving around the sun. Because the sun is moving through space the earth is too, and of course the earth is rotating on its own axis. We might look at other movements, but this is enough. Let us consider then the fact that the solar system is moving through space. In times past, space was looked upon as a more or less uniform vacuum. Nowadays they have discovered that it isn’t — there are variations in space. There are different vibratory states in space through which the solar system passes, both on its own hook and because the galaxy is moving too. The variations in that vibratory condition in space were what made possible the fall in the first place. It was recognized that there was a possibility here, and due warning was given in the matter. Man fell, and we find ourselves in this rather wretched condition now. This condition is incapable of being compared to what was before. It is like comparing the sheep with the shepherd.
So there was a period of time during this movement through the vibrational substance of space when it became possible for man to fall — and he fell. By the same token the solar system moves continuously, and at some point moves out of the vibrational substance of space which made possible the fall. Moving out of that vibrational substance the fallen state is no longer possible. Now this stretches the outlook a little, but it is in fact what brings to pass the restoration, at least we trust so. It certainly brings to pass the elimination of the fallen state. That is absolutely inevitable, because the fallen state cannot exist anymore in the vibrational substance of space into which the solar system is now moving, and no human beings have any control over that whatsoever.
We see the evidences of these things occurring on the surface of the earth, particularly in human experience. There is an intensification in every conceivable way. The end result of all this is the elimination of the fallen state. If all that human beings are aware of is the fallen state then presumably it is the elimination of human beings. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance — in other words exhibit a willingness to leave the fallen state behind and move with what is moving. What is moving is moving by reason of God. Nothing moves at all without God, but it is a dimensional experience relative to the solar system and consequently to the earth.
The solar system has passed through a number of changes in this vibrational sense which have produced reactions of various sorts on the part of human beings on earth, and also changes of various sorts in the solar system itself. The idea of a new age is a faint touching, a sensing, of the fact that the solar system is moving into a different consistency of vibrational substance in space. This will happen. Nobody can stop it happening. The only question that arises is: How many human beings are going to be willing to move with what is moving, are going to be willing to let the human nature state be dissolved in their own experience and allow the changing vibrational experience to bring restoration, transformation? Human beings were transformed in the downward path into something other than they were before. On the upward path they must be transformed again if they are to continue to exist. The only possibility of continued existence for human beings is in a transformed state. That transformed state is brought about by the release of Shekinah into the expression of living, regardless of the circumstances.
So there is something happening of vast proportions and we find ourselves in this situation on the surface of the earth. By reason of what has been happening we have come clear in varying degrees from the human nature state and consequently are in position, as shepherds, to behold. Now the sheep who were hanging around there with the shepherds on the hills did not know what was going on. The shepherds were the only ones who knew, and they were afraid; but by reason of the influence of the angel and of the subsequent heavenly host they moved with what was moving, and the story continues, as you know. Those who move with what is moving are the ones who make it possible for others to move with what is moving. They are the door to salvation then, and when others begin to move they in turn become the door to salvation and the way of restoration is made clear.
Now we have been looking at some things that are certainly unprovable by any human mind but nevertheless things that are knowable as there is in fact a movement with what is moving. That movement brings us to a place of balance, and in that place of balance we find ourselves to be the door of salvation to others; not that salvation is going to be handed to anyone on a silver platter, but experiencing the transformation ourselves the way is made clear for the experience of that transformation by others. It has to occur by their expression, just as it has occurred by our expression. It is not that anything can be handed from one person to another. Here is the Shekinah emerging on the basis of a willingness for that emergence to occur on the part of men and women. The way is clear: the change vibrationally speaking, from the standpoint of the movement of the solar system through space, offers the setting in which this transformation can occur. But by the same token it offers the setting by reason of which the dissolution of human nature occurs. We can take our pick!
It is occurring in our own experience, on the basis of emergence, without dissolving us. At any point of course a resistance may become firm enough toward what is happening to push us out of the picture, just the same as it may happen for others who do not have the opportunity that we have. Those others will have the opportunity that we have if we let it work for us; but you see a vast difference here between talking to people and telling them about something, and what is necessary — namely the actual experience of it. Maybe there is the necessity for someone to say something, but it is the actual willingness to yield to what is moving that allows for the experience of the transformation. It seems foolish that anyone would wish to buck that, but it is something that is done.
Seeing with this larger perspective, surely we may the more easily comprehend what is occurring in our own experience and what is occurring with respect to others round about us. There is something here much bigger than the whole human race, and yet the human race is offered the opportunity to participate in what is occurring. Whether they participate or not, and to what extent, will determine what happens in human experience. God is not willing that any should perish — amongst other things, I don’t suppose He is too interested in undertaking the creation of man again. Why bother? There are some around here already made, after a fashion at least, who are capable of being restored, being transformed. We are here to let it happen. But we are here to let it happen in the expression of our own living. We are not laying something on anybody else. We are opening a door for others, but what is happening is happening in our own experience, in our own flesh bodies, in all that we are, vibrationally speaking, as Shekinah comes forth, as the spirit of God proceeds in its process of re-creation. How that happens, how a sheep might be transformed into a shepherd, is something about which the human mind knows very little. It may have some ideas as to what happens when a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly. It knows that that happens. Well here is a rather greater transformation to occur, and the spirit of God is perfectly capable of doing it and will do it. The transformation will occur. It is our responsibility to see that there is something still around after it has occurred.
I don’t say these things to initiate any speculation. There is no reason to speculate, because there is no basis for the speculation. It is simply that we might have a broader perspective and not get caught up still in human nature self-centeredness, which sees human things as being big, when they are virtually nothing. Let us participate in the creative cycles which you now have the opportunity of seeing, beholding, are in operation far beyond the immediate human experience. But the immediate human experience is included in the operation; and being associated with this immediate human experience, it is wise for us to be aware of what is happening and exhibit an easy willingness to associate ourselves with what is happening.
On a number of occasions I have drawn your attention to the Milky Way, that great galaxy of which our solar system is a part — and consequently this earth, is a small part. I found an article which to me was very interesting, and I thought perhaps you would like to share tonight in a little meditation on this remarkable article entitled, The Milky Way: Mysterious Marvel, by Norman and Madelyn Carlisle.
“The astronomer sees the Milky Way as a gigantic flattened disk, so huge that to cross it from one side to the other at the speed of light — more than one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second — would take one-hundred thousand years.” Now this is just about our own galaxy, the Milky Way, that of which we are a part. With respect to our own home, our own part of the cosmos, it is pictured here as a gigantic, flattened disk, so huge that to cross it from one side to another at the speed of light — which is to say more than a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second — would take one hundred thousand years. That is quite a distance. “Inside this great wheel are those swarming hundred billion stars, some tiny ones, a fraction the size of our sun, some giants one-half billion times larger” than our sun. In other words, five hundred million suns like our own, to make the size of one of the stars or suns out of this hundred billion in our own galaxy. “There are old stars and new ones, red stars, blue stars, hot stars and cold stars, and invisible mystery stars no one has ever seen. Between them is space.” Between all these billions of stars is space.
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Now in our classwork we have been considering the fact that between the cells of the body there is space — a great deal of space within the body. “Between them is space ... so much space that … in it could readily be stored a million times as many stars” as there are, “without much chance of any of them colliding.” He figures there could be a million times more than this in the same space without much chance that any of them would collide. Now we have noted that with respect to all matter there is space between the particles which make up the body of that substance, and we see that here, whether it is the physical body with its cells or the body of — the universe, shall we say? — this galaxy, the Milky Way, with all of its hundred billion blazing suns.
“This whole system rotates endlessly around a central spot that is like the hub of a wheel. So huge is the galaxy that, though the speed of this rotation,” — of the galaxy itself, the huge wheel — “though the speed of this rotation is more than nine thousand miles a minute,” not an hour, or a day, but the speed of the rotation of the galaxy itself is more than nine thousand miles a minute. Now, our earth is revolving around our sun at a speed that requires one year to complete the circuit. But while it is revolving around the sun, and the sun is revolving around something else, this whole is contained in a wheel that is moving at a speed of nine thousand miles a minute. “Though the speed of this rotation is more than nine thousand miles a minute at the distance our sun lies from the hub,” — that is, in our area. And, though we are travelling nine thousand miles a minute at the distance our sun lies from the hub, “it takes more than two hundred million years” for this wheel “to complete a single revolution.” Two hundred million years, moving at nine thousand miles a minute, for this wheel to complete a single revolution.
Now this gives you some idea of the reason why I have drawn your attention to the Milky Way on occasion — “a single cosmic year in the life of the Milky Way” — two hundred million years. “And, as it turns, this whole stellar merry-go-round is also hurtling through space toward some nameless destination in the cosmos.” Now do you see some wheels within wheels? Our earth revolving around the sun, our sun in its own movement inside of the galaxy, the galaxy itself revolving at nine thousand miles a minute on a pattern that requires how long? Two hundred million years for a single revolution. And then this whole thing is moving at tremendous speed, in relationship to other galaxies, around another central spot, somewhere. This other central spot that forms the center of the galaxies is what I refer to as the Central Sun of Suns.
“For many years, our sun was believed to be very near the center of the Milky Way. Then astronomer Harlow Shapley, using the Mount Wilson telescope to probe the mysteries of the strange globular clusters of stars in the galaxy, made the astonishing discovery that one-third of all these clusters were packed into only four percent of the sky. What could it mean? The young astronomer and other scientists could reach only one conclusion: the spot where the clusters were massed together must be near the center of the galaxy … showing that our sun, far from being at its center is actually located near the edge of the great rotating disk. Yet other secrets of the Milky Way have yielded to a powerful tool that ‘sees’ invisible stars. It is the radio telescope, a device that collects strange radio waves from space. As its operators checked their first results, they made an historic announcement: the Milky Way is full of radio-wave sources that are totally invisible … astronomers have discovered many of these invisible stars give off radio waves … studies reveal that, if we could see them and others like them, the Milky Way would blaze forth with dazzling splendor. For these stars are incredibly big — thousands of times bigger than the visible stars.” That is interesting. The largest of the stars, in our galaxy, are invisible — thousands of times bigger than visible stars. I thought perhaps this would help you to a deeper realization of what I mean when I talk about the visible and invisible realms. It should.
I suppose that this article must surely leave you with a sense of something incomplete — one such idea is this one about populations in the galaxy with respect to visible stars [and] invisible ones. Now it occurred to me to wonder — and it is not for me, at the moment at least, to undertake to make a dissertation on this subject — but it occurred to me to wonder, could it be that the scientists are observing the evidences of the positive and negative aspects which would correlate to the male and female formation in the realm of the galaxies? I suspect something of that sort.
There is not much use of attempting to compel the mind to grasp these concepts of great distance. Distance is, as mankind thinks of it, a very misleading factor in the equation essential to understanding; for distance is a completely relative thing. Man, hampered by his own smallness, not only physically but mentally, feels that he must measure everything on the basis of his concepts of distance as he has established them with respect to the measurement of surface factors on this earth, and yet, distance is a relative thing. If we attempt to conceive of distance on the basis that man uses here we develop a completely distorted concept or picture with respect to the cosmos; for distance as man sees it is not distance as God sees it. Let us remember that all of these things are relative; and in actual fact, while I would not deny in any way the vastness of the universe nor detract one iota from its greatness, that vastness is something which is no greater to the Beings who function in relationship to it than the distances on the earth's surface are great to us. If you will bear that in mind, I think it will make it easier for you to comprehend some of the significant factors in this pattern of meditation; for the distances in the galaxy itself, which is conceived to be one hundred thousand light-years in diameter, are no greater from the standpoint of the Beings who function consciously in relationship to those distances than are the distances to us on the surface of the earth.
The point is, that while these distances are vast, and the Body of God is great — and all of this is a part of the Body of God — man is supposed to provide the intelligent factor, the intelligent, sharing, working factor, the directing, controlling factor of the Body of God on earth — men and women are supposed to provide the intelligent, controlling, working factor of the Body of God on earth. But once we begin to comprehend ourselves as a part of the Body of God, and begin to establish a level of consciousness that recognizes the correlating factors here, we begin to realize that the Body of God is not all head any more than you are all head. You have a great toe, you have feet, you have other parts of the body which do not particularly focalize the centering of consciousness. The same is true in the Body of God. We see these levels worked out in relationship to the surface manifestations of the earth from the standpoint of the kingdoms of the earth — man, the human kingdom, the animal kingdom, we could say the fowl or bird kingdom, the fish kingdom, the insect kingdom, the gas kingdom which includes the air, the envelope of atmosphere in which we live, and the mineral kingdom — all of these different kingdoms providing different factors in the Body of God right here. And we still could explore the realm of the mineral kingdom more extensively from the standpoint of the earth itself.
And if the earth itself is conceived to be a planet, a visible planet, we can perceive the fact that there is a larger invisible planet which relates to this particular part of the solar system; for with respect to every visible sun there is what we might call the invisible counterpart; with respect to every planet that is conceived to be visible, there is the invisible counterpart. And this is not to be confused with the idea with respect to the visible aspects in a particular level of form, and consciousness to perceive that form, where I suggested the possibility of the positive and negative aspects of form. But, in addition to this, we have the vast bodies which are invisible forms insofar as our particular ability to perceive is concerned, at this level of consciousness, with respect to what we conceive to be form; for there certainly is form beyond the range of our ability to perceive form. And yet, by instrumentation, we are, it appears, scientifically determining that there is form where man did not know there was form, in the universe, and that the invisible forms are larger, or more vast in scope and area, than the visible forms.
Well, that correlates with the basic factors which you have been considering in our School program, and our whole background of study in the Third Sacred School. And I trust that this meditation upon the scientific findings and conclusions and ideas will have value to you in relationship to the development of your ability to perceive and comprehend the factors which are at work in relationship to ourselves, from the standpoint of what we have consistently called the visible and the invisible realms of being.
Let us not waste time trying to comprehend concepts of vast distances, for the ability of the mind to comprehend is staggered by such things. It is not the vast distance, nor yet is it the cosmos itself, upon which we need to meditate; for if we begin to think of the cosmos, we at once back down, as it were, to the universe. And even here we must be careful not to be arrogant and presumptuous. We need to be careful of conclusion and to avoid meaningless imaginations. Therefore, while we note the vast splendor, and something of the principles there revealed, we back down to the solar system. And even here we need to be careful not to be arrogant and presumptuous; for who, among the children of men, can comprehend all of the mysteries of our solar system, the sister planets of our earth, and the sun around which we revolve? And while we may meditate upon some of the things which we see there, we avoid fantastic conclusions and back down to the earth upon which we live. And even here, who among us can say that he has comprehended all the mysteries of the earth itself? And while we may see and know many things, we come back to ourselves as human beings; and who can say that he comprehends all the mysteries of his own body, to say nothing of his mind and his heart? And so, we find, that there are layers of mystery, layers of wonder upon wonder.
And here, where we have a centering in consciousness, we can meet the Spirit of the One — yea, and of the Ones — who have a centering in consciousness with respect to the solar system; and those who have a centering in consciousness with respect to the universe; and through them we know we have contact with those who have a centering of consciousness in the cosmos. But rather than seeking, through vain imagination, to comprehend some supposed mystery in these vast fields of being, let us be content to trust those who provide this centering of consciousness in these vast fields, and make certain that we ourselves, in our field, provide the correct centering of consciousness at the places where we are, in relationship to the whole. So let it be, and so shall we serve to the Glory of God and to the Blessing of the children of men.
Using these words, spiritual substance, many of you would be inclined to assume that you know what they mean. Assumptions of this sort are constantly being made by people with respect to words, but the meaning of words only comes to the point of being known by reason of the experience of the truth back of them. It is a human habit to assume that the words are the truth. They never are. They may provide a door by which the truth may be known in experience. Spiritual substance is only known as a reality through one's own actual experience of it.We may find ourselves immersed in this substance because there was a personal experience, individually speaking, of that generation. It isn't something that is laid upon us by God, but something which we ourselves have, in whatever degree, been willing to allow to happen within the range of our own experience. Spiritual substance can hardly be defined in material terms. The mind may have an idea that there is such a substance, but it cannot lay hold of it. The human mind is not God Almighty and it is not capable of encompassing all things. It may be a little bit shocked to discover this fact, but we should be well aware of it to the extent that the actual generation of substance in our own living experience has provided us with an awareness of a new state of being on earth.
Mentally we can define what can be mentally imagined, with words. We use the word God, for instance. Other people, in other languages, use different words to describe presumably the same thing. But God isn't a thing. The word, whatever it is, describes something. We might say that God is spirit, but still we're not very much wiser. The word and the description in and of itself never acquaints us with the reality. So we can describe God as spirit without actually knowing what it means. We might describe the Word as being spirit in active expression — an interesting thought, but it still doesn't acquaint us with what it is. We might take the word bread, thinking of it at the moment as substance available for the activation of spirit. This brings us into a realm where we have some experience. Bread before it gets into our physical bodies is one thing; it's something else once it gets in.We could use the word flesh to describe activated substance. Bread: substance to be activated. Flesh: substance after it has been activated. The word flesh need not be seen merely in terms of this pudgy stuff forming the body. There are many levels of flesh, in the sense of the whole of what we are, dimensionally speaking. There is earthly flesh, but then there is also heavenly flesh. The spiritual substance of which I made mention is the heavenly flesh, in our own experience. If there has been very little generation of spiritual substance we have very little experience of the heavenly flesh. There are spiritual levels of flesh, and it is these levels, spiritual substance, which we see as offering a connection with spirit. This spiritual substance is sensitive to spirit. Earthly substance is sensitive to spiritual substance, because the fact of the matter is that the spiritual substance was generated out of the earthly substance.
I am using words. If you merely hear the words and translate them in your own minds to mean thus and so, you will not have yet had the experience of the reality back of the words, but you may imagine that you really know something now, when the fact of the matter is that you don't. You merely know some words which have been put together in a certain way. That is information, but the information hasn't told you anything really of the reality, because the reality has to be experienced to be known. And this relates to the matter of living. Many people have imagined that they could get by with beliefs, which in the general sense had very little relatedness or association with the actual experience of that person's living. The world is full of beliefs. We might set up a creed on the basis of the four words that I have just indicated:
I believe in God.
I believe that God is spirit.
I believe that the Word is spirit in active expression.
I believe that bread is unactivated substance.
I believe that flesh is activated substance.
A creed is a mental statement of a cult's party line. If it seems to people that there is need for a creed — something to believe in — it establishes a cult, when they find the creed that they can glom on to. On the basis of such statements as I've made concerning God, the Word, the bread, the flesh, we can set up a cult. We are not rightly concerned with cults and therefore with creeds. I think there are plenty of cults in the world without adding to them. If a person is after a cult, well he has a wide choice; but if he is genuinely seeking the truth, that is a different thing. He may imagine, to start with, that the truth will be found through some cult, because it always is possible that a cult will provide the door to the experience of the truth. That's the only way the truth can be known; it can't be conveyed merely in words.
Perhaps we have some awareness of the fact that by reason of this ministry a door is provided. The door, to be useful, must be opened, so that it provides a means of movement from one state of experience to another. Unfortunately, in the cultist world, which is the human world, doors are invariably worshipped. There are many, many doors, many, many cults in the world, some of them enormous, others insignificant. These cults are all doors, but some of them are so tremendously embellished, there is so much to the door, that a person could spend his lifetime examining the beautiful carving of the door in all its details. He could become very knowledgeable concerning the door, know all about it, give endless lectures about the decorations on the door, the nature of the door, what materials it's made out of, the quality of the hinges and the hardware, all these things, without ever realizing that the door maybe had some practical meaning regardless of all its architecture. If it could be opened one might even go through it. Going through it, one has experienced the reason for the door. Then forget the door! The door is a cult. There is nothing wrong with cults if we see them as doors, even though many of the doors may be found to be inoperable — they don't open; they just look like doors. So I suppose there is the necessity of finding a door that is operable. For the most part it has seemed that there has been a door of some kind acceptable to everyone. So human beings have existed on earth ringed by these doors.
EDL, Incorporated is a cult for sure; it's a door. That's all it is. There's nothing wrong with it as an operable door. If that's all a person sees it as being he's trapped by the door. It's the nature of the door that is important: whether it can be opened or not and whether, if it is open, one could go through it.Beliefs may compose some of the elements in the structure of the door but they're totally unnecessary anymore if we will go through the door. And going through the door, we turn our back on it, don't we? We don't keep it constantly in front of us all the time.
We only begin to see people when the door is open and we are not comparing them with our concepts, indulging in the eating of the forbidden fruit: "The angel is good, human nature is bad, and I know the difference." Do you? Do we? What one may now imagine the reality to be may in fact be a cover-up for human nature, and what we suppose human nature to be may be a cover-up for the reality; so that if we throw out what we imagine human nature to be — "Get thee hence. I don't want anything to do with this big and broad human nature" — then we may find ourselves throwing out the reality. Recall the parable about the wheat and the tares. The harvesters wanted to go out into the fields and root out the tares. They thought they knew what were tares and what was wheat. But, as was pointed out, in rooting out the tares they'd probably root out the wheat as well. Let it alone! Don't judge. Let it alone, because the state of consciousness present in people is a mixture and, from the human standpoint, we are not capable of discerning what is which. This might be said also from the angelic standpoint. There is no reason to try to judge it. If we do judge it, well that will be human nature. If we let it alone that will be the truth in active expression, which is not judging but letting things sort themselves out. We need to have a very deep and strong conviction that we don't really know. There is nothing present to provide a yardstick in this regard.
The characteristic of the human state, the cultist state, is that of judgment: the arrogant assumption that one is in position to tell what is true and what is not, what is real and what is unreal, what is right and what is wrong. That's arrogance. That is eating of the forbidden fruit, the results of which are fatal. We're well aware that there is a mixture here and we are not called upon to get it sorted out. It's none of our business. All we are called upon to do is to provide spirit in active expression. Then the bread comes to us. The bread is a mixture. It gets itself sorted out in us on the basis of our own quality of expression. If that quality is spirit in active expression, then what is used, what is incorporated, will relate to spirit in active expression. It will permit the generation of substance capable of accommodating more spirit in active expression. If the spirit of God is not in active expression in our living but some other spirits are there, then what is incorporated into our experience will be rather miserable; it will get sorted out on that basis. As we are well aware, there is a tendency for people to blame everybody else under the sun for their troubles, when the fact of the matter is that we all lay this trip upon ourselves. Let's be honest about it, always.
When the spirit is right, then the generation will be right. When the spirit in expression because we live is the spirit of God, then our generations will be perfect — the substance will be adequate to accommodate spirit in expression — and that is a transformed experience in living. It is that increase of substance that allows an increase of the spirit in active expression. The spirit in active expression takes the available material that is brought to us in our momentary living, and activates it. The creative process is set in motion, but not on the basis of the judgment of the human mind as to what is good or what is bad, but simply on the basis of the working of the creative cycle. Let it work. It'll sort everything out. Certainly do not take the arrogant view that you know the difference. We know only what we express, and when we express the spirit of God, that's what we know, that is our experience. But the extent of that expression will be absolutely dependent upon the extent of the generation of the substance that permits it. And that substance is generated in various ways, but it's all a generation of living. The only reason for any of this is to allow the expression of spirit that is possible now to generate some more substance so that there may be greater expression of spirit. It is that expression of spirit that gets things sorted out. It gets things sorted out in our own experience and it gets things sorted out beyond us, so that we willingly accept whatever it is that is brought to us in circumstances and in the people whom we find ourselves associated with. They were brought to us; are we going to look them over and say, "Ugh! I don't like that; that's human nature. Stay away from me"? How do you know? How do you know what will be the actual fact unfolding in someone else's experience on the basis of the true creative cycle which will be in operation simply because you are there giving expression to spirit? You trust spirit, you trust the creative cycle, you trust the Law to work, you trust the whole thing to sort itself out.
In that sorting-out process you may be aware that it is fitting to speak this word, to do this other thing, to handle your affairs with effectiveness and dispatch. This gives evidence of the fact that spirit is in expression, something that allows an introduction to the Nameless Reality behind the door. There is some difficulty with names, because immediately we have a name we've tended to put whatever it is in a box. Here is nameless experience — the truth in one's own living, moment by moment by moment. You may meet someone and discern, by reason of your own spiritual expression, that here is an individual who is not far from the door and that there will be the necessity of letting the door be opened so that the individual can go through. So the door is open, but the purpose is not to join something.
You can't join the Nameless Reality. You either experience it or you don't. You can't join it. You can't pay your dues. The experience of the Nameless Reality doesn't require anything of this nature. All that is required is that one come through the door. When one comes through the door, he knows the reality. There's no question thereafter. It is well that we should understand these things, that we may be in position to serve the Lord on earth—to serve the Nameless One in our own experience of namelessness.
Grace Van Duzen — Martin, this is not, this morning, a breath of fresh air; this is the answer of the Lord out of the whirlwind, the mighty rushing of the spirit, surely the bread of heaven, the oneness of heaven and earth a reality, the glorious opening of the door, and we praise God mightily.
Martin Cecil — We have the ability to let the door be opened, or to keep it closed.
