Feed My Sheep

Feed  My  Sheep

from   The Vibratory Turmoil, Tension and Misery

Uranda   August 20, 1953  Class

Our visit this afternoon in the city of Denver emphasized a number of things: one, the blessed privilege of peace we have here. The vibratory turmoil, the rushing to and fro, the tension and the misery, the sufferings of humanity which are so evident in untold ways—and the blessed privilege we have here of knowing a peace which is not known in the world. There are so many human beings who are subject to futility, who have reached a point of hopelessness, of not caring, and we need to have a still deeper appreciation of our privilege and responsibility, a dedication which cannot be caused to waver for even a moment, to the end that we may as effectively as possible serve. 

In our togetherness we have been considering many things with respect to service, what it means to serve and how to serve. We are here on a basis of dedication to service. You have all meditated upon it in various ways, but I was wondering if tonight we might in our togetherness gain a deeper realization of the significance and the opportunity, yes, and the means by which we may serve. Sometimes familiar things tend to take on an appearance of sameness. We tend to take them for granted, and we tend to assume that what we hear of familiar words has been heard before, and the mind and the heart seek for something new. In the pattern of change, we have been given the assurance that there is something new. The divine Word is, "Behold, I make all things new." But we have old problems with us: problems of the social order, problems of government, problems that take on a political pattern, problems of human relationship of every sort. 

Generally speaking the approach to these problems is made on the basis of trying to treat the disease, to heal an ill condition. Our approach is to seek to find something that is right, a point of health and strength in a body that has illness, so that we can increase the health and the strength in the body, that the illness may be crowded out. The same with the mind and the heart. It is easy to look for what is commonly called evil, or sin, and condemn people for it. Sometimes it is not so easy to find something that is right in other human beings and begin to encourage it, begin to give it an atmosphere in which it may grow and become strong and become a dominant factor in the life of the individual. Looking for the right things, looking for the starting points, is our business. 

This opens up a consideration in our field of spiritual psychiatry, the problem of understanding other people if we are going to serve them, the problem of how to find a means of inspiring the acceptance of an increase in that which is right. Most human beings exist on a basis of a deep conviction with respect to what is wrong, both with themselves and with others. This difference of approach is something which requires an educational program before human beings can begin to see its value.

I was particularly thinking in relationship to ourselves. We need to remember that we are a part of this world family, this world body, with all of its parts, with all of its ill conditions, with all of its suffering. We cannot consider ourselves as being separate from it, and if we are not separate from it and we think too much about all the tragedies and the sufferings and the ill conditions, the injustices, we will tend to become subject to them. We need to face the facts and then pause to consider what it means to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven at hand, right here on earth. How much does it mean to us?

When we see all of this misery in the world, when we recognize the tremendous problem before us, the human tendency is to feel that it cannot be done, that it is too big a problem, and to become fearful. And yet your body was made to let the spirit of life manifest on earth, your mind was created to let the spirit of truth have meaning on earth, and your heart was created to let the spirit of love have meaning on earth. To start with, these three aspects of yourself as the human being do not function perfectly. We cannot say with respect to any of you that the manifestation of life through you is perfect. Your body is not yet a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the spirit of life, but it is moving in that direction. Your mind is not yet a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the spirit of truth, but it is moving in that direction. Your emotional nature is not yet a perfect instrument of the manifestation of the spirit of love, but it too is moving in that direction. 

If we start looking for that which is right we may be forced to recognize that with many human beings in the world it is just too late. With many human beings there is no way to help them. We have recognized that there must be basic integrity. Sometimes it is covered up, sometimes it may be hard to find; but if there is a basic integrity, that is the first point. And the second is, the individual must be not only willing to be helped but must eagerly seek and accept help. In this pattern of dedication to service, we recognize that some people will not let you help them. Therefore as long as there are people in the world who will let you help them we must not waste time trying to help those who do not want to be helped. There are so many who are ready to be helped, looking for someone who can help them, those in whom we can inspire or uncover a spark, a starting point of integrity. If you have these two things in any human being, regardless of his problems, regardless of difficulties with habits, alcoholism or dope or anything else, if you can find or uncover these two things, you can do something. If you cannot find or uncover or inspire these two things, you cannot help that person no matter what you do. 

If you are trying to do something but are not actually doing something, can we classify that as service? We must not confuse trying to help someone with the actuality of helping, trying to serve with the actuality of service. If we see this distinction and recognize it clearly in relationship to ourselves, we can see that, regardless of intent or ability, regardless of purpose, unless we actually do serve someone in the sense of helping them, our effort is not service. 

In the world there are many service organizations, there are many people deeply interested in helping their fellows in various ways—church people, ministers and laymen, all sorts of approaches to this problem of helping others. I have seen many a minister who genuinely wanted to help someone, who was looking primarily at what he conceived to be the sins of the individual whom he sought to help, and he took a more or less condescending attitude, a perhaps halfway tolerant, halfway judging attitude, where there was no meeting point established. If the minister is as righteous as he wants to appear to be, and if he is dealing with and seeing the sins and the evil in the people whom he is trying to serve, there is no meeting point between the two. The individual feels that there is a self-righteousness; he does not feel a contact and he feels that he is not really being appreciated, just more or less condemned. If your function is of reality, you cannot have a meeting place with others on the basis of their unrealities, and unless there is a meeting point between two human beings, they are not going to really, in any direct sense, influence each other's lives. 

It is our business to influence the lives of people in any way that rests within our ability on a legitimate basis—to influence the lives of people toward a constructive expression of life. But what is our meeting point? The ill conditions, the sickness? Many people like to have a pattern of relationship established on the basis of their sickness, and I have been forced at times, in order to get a toehold so to speak, to listen to some tale of woe or other about an operation, sickness, etc.—you can learn something about human beings as you listen to them—and then to say something about, "I know, I have been sick too." Just a touch. "I've been through something." Not to exaggerate it, but many human beings simply do not know how to have a meeting point with another person except on the basis of sickness, illness, operations, misfortunes, tragedy, and if we are going to find a point of relatedness with that person we may be forced to touch an acknowledgment of something of that nature, but we must not dwell on it. What is our meeting point? The righteous condemning the evil? No. If we are functioning on the basis of reality we are looking for that which is right. 

I remember a good many years ago, in the early period of the depression, I got into a very difficult circumstance, financially, etc.—now, you see, we are going to have a meeting point on the basis of a little bit of suffering—as I want to bring something out so we can see it clearly. I was persuaded by some well-meaning friends, finally—they talked several times about it—that I just ought to go down to the Welfare Department and get a little help. Everyone else was doing it, why shouldn't I? I was having difficulty feeding my family, finding enough income to, well, just barely keep alive in the physical sense. My whole soul rebelled against the idea, but I finally decided, well perhaps, for the sake of my wife and baby, I ought to: "Perhaps I'm letting pride stand in my way, perhaps I ought to." So I went down, and into an atmosphere that was so utterly repulsive. Then the cross-questioning started and the ideas were presented. They started to treat me as if I were some kind of a criminal, and if I were not some kind of a criminal, some scoundrel or ne'er-do-well, I would not be looking for any help. I stood it for a while. I got up and walked out. I never got the so-called welfare assistance; I decided I could get along without it. But there I was, under a circumstance that would put any young man's integrity to a test, feeling futile enough; difficult enough in any circumstance; and the situation in the world, you know how it was. And instead of recognizing the situation as it was with me, the whole additional load started pouring in on top of me—the very attitude that was taken, to make me appear even in my own eyes to be worse than I really was. And I rebelled about it, I rejected it. 

Another time, back in the middle twenties, there was a certain circumstance—I was ill and no one to care, in the outer sense. I had been too ill to be on the job, and when I tried to go back to work my boss told me to go back to bed. I had been in a room alone, sick, for a week and I thought I would go crazy. So I could not go to work. I didn't have any money, but I couldn't, just couldn't, go back to that rooming house. So I got on a freight train and took a little trip, and wound up in a little town down in Oklahoma. It is a mining town. I got down there and looked for work. I thought maybe I could get another job but was not successful. I had not had anything to eat for two or three days, which was probably all right for the sickness; but I had been cold and miserable. Various times in my life I had contributed as generously as I knew how to the Salvation Army, and I thought, "Well now, I have given a lot more to the Salvation Army than a meal and maybe a place to sleep tonight would cost." And I sure needed it. "If I ever needed it in my life, I need it tonight." So I went down to the Salvation Army to get some help. I needed something to eat and a place to sleep, just for one night, so I could have enough strength to go on. Of course they were having a meeting, and there were two or three other fellows apparently having the same need in some way or another. And these Salvation Army officers, whatever their proper titles were, proceeded to do some questioning, which is understandable up to a point. Then they proceeded on the basis of saving our souls. Here we were, hungry and tired, and the Salvation Army captain insisted that we get down on our knees on that hard floor. He would not even listen to us. We had to get down on our knees as the first thing, and then the prayer. He was the righteous mouthpiece of God and we were the poor, lost, sinning souls. Oh, the whole thing was made so utterly repulsive. It stirred every rebellious, independent streak in me, to think that under that circumstance, in that need, I was required to be treated as if I were, well, something or other. Actually the food that I got was nothing. It was the nearest nothing I was ever offered. And it was a cold night, there was snow on the ground, and after a long rigmarole to save our souls, finally I was taken to a room. There was a little iron cot there and a little thin cotton blanket on it, and that is all, absolutely all—a little thin cotton blanket, no cover. I got under it with my clothes on and got everything I had over me and just simply froze. I finally left the room very early in the morning and went down to a place where there was some kind of a plant or something, and managed to get warmed up a little bit. It was a terrible experience, and I would not have given a nickel for the help I had receivedy. I needed help and I was not given help on any decent basis at all. 

I am pointing out that all too often this thing that is called service, that people render to others, is not service. It is something so utterly contemptible, something that takes away any bit of dignity that there may be left, anything that allows the individual to recognize himself as having any meaning. We need to see that service, if it is to be really rendered, needs to be on the basis of that which is, and not on the basis of that which is not. If we are functioning in reality we do not have attunement with that which is wrong, with that which is sick, with that which needs to be changed. If we are functioning on the basis of reality we need to look for that which is right, the point of integrity, to inspire the willingness to be helped, to seek help. If the person is seeking help, at least on the face of it, we can take it as an honest gesture to start with. If he proves to be dishonest, then that is his tough luck, not ours. And we can remember that the body is designed to let the spirit of life have meaning on earth, that the mind was designed to let the spirit of truth have meaning on earth, and the heart to let the spirit of love have meaning on earth. In one of those three levels, surely, we can begin to find something. If we just give a person an attunement and don't say even a word for the mind, not a gesture of love for the heart what have we done? Gone through the motions of serving? We need to be able to bring these patterns into alignment. 

I had an experience once, something that lives in my memory. After leaving Oklahoma on that trip that I mentioned, I got to Joplin, Missouri, and I went up one side of the street asking each restaurant if I could do something, wash some dishes, for a bite to eat. No, they wouldn't even offer me a crust of bread. Going down the other side of the main street I got pretty well down; it looked like it was running out of streets and then, I wondered, what was I going to do? I was terribly hungry, and getting so weak I could hardly walk. And I went into a tiny, little hole-in-the-wall place. It specialized in a stack of wheats and a cup of coffee. And I asked this man if I could do a little work to get something to eat. He said, “No.” He didn't have anything for me to do. There was a man sitting at the counter and he looked at me and he tossed a dime, one thin dime, on the counter, and he said, "Give the kid a stack and a cup of coffee." Some of the sweetest words I ever heard in my life. My body was starving for food. "Give the kid a stack and a cup of coffee." That was a thrill. I don't know whether I managed to thank the man adequately or not. It is something that stands out in my memory. That was service, real service. I have a few such memories running back to my earlier life. 

We reach the point where we can feed the hungry—"Feed my sheep." The Master repeated it three times when He was talking to Peter. Peter denied Him three times. "Feed my lambs—Feed my sheep—Feed my sheep." Feed the body, feed the mind and feed the heart; feed the three phases of being in those whom you do serve, and be alert to ways in which you can feed them. I have seen so many starving people treated as if, well, it was their just desert to starve, and I do not mean just physically starving. People that were hungry. When we look for that which is worth feeding—not to condemn, not to find fault, not to try to treat what is wrong, but to feed the hungry, to serve—how do we do it? With ostentatious display? Or a comradely attitude, a meeting point, something that reaches into the heart, something that arouses gratitude, something that puts you on the basis of meeting the one whom you serve? I wonder. What does service mean to us? What does service mean to us? Are we alert not to force something upon someone but to feed the hungry and let the pattern work out, let the cycles clear, so that we get completely away from "what I am going to get out of it," completely clear in the true expression of service? To feed the hungry. 

It seems to me that if our peace here in this little valley, if our privilege of togetherness, is to have any meaning at all we need to meditate upon these things in relationship to a starved and hungry world, a world that is starved for God's love, a world that is starved for the water of truth, starved for the bread of life—a world that is starved. And yet how are we going to feed people? Go out and say, "Well now, here you are starving, aren't you?" and try to drag them in? No. We must see clearly enough, we must have perception enough, to see what needs to be said or done at the right time, just the word, just the gesture, just a little something that begins to create confidence, assurance, a sense of relatedness, a sense of trust, a sense of a meeting point. Build those things first, the meeting points, and the rest will follow. 

And remember: As God has been patient with us, let us be patient with others. And we will find that there are many who are eager to help us build the form of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

© emissaries of divine light

From Water To Air

From  Water  To  Air

Martin Exeter   October 27, 1985 am

In a very particular way today a line is drawn upon the face of the earth. This earthly line provides a base of connection with the earth and with all who dwell therein. Beyond this we may be with one accord in one place, one position, the position where we rightly belong, in heaven. This place of accord is a place of stillness where we rightly may all be together. Let it be so. Out of this place, this shared position, the light shines. If we are in fact in the place where the light shines we are identified with the light. Here is the place of radiation out of stillness, out of heaven. Being the light, all shadows flee away. This can be readily understood within the range of our own experience. Forms cast shadows. If one is in the position of the light the shadows are behind the forms. The forms are seen clearly for what they are because the light shines upon them. The shadows then are unseen; the shadows have fled away.

Human experience has been confined to the realm of shadows. This is indicative of the experience of what has been called the fall. Human consciousness has not been one with the light, but rather one with the shadows. The shadows are cast by forms. Those forms which cast the shadows have not been known. Being under the forms, or behind the forms, in the realm of the shadows, all that has been known has been shadows. All human activity—mental, emotional, physical—is merely related to shadows. We have ourselves spoken of this before as the realm of the unreal—but being unaware of anything but shadows, of anything but the unreal, it didn’t really mean very much, because what we were aware of was real to us even though in the larger perspective it was factually unreal. Having no larger perspective human beings have been unaware of what the fact is.

The realm of forms was described allegorically in the Bible as the Garden planted eastward in Eden. There is indication that man, as he was first created, removed himself from the Garden, and instead of being identified with the light which illuminated all the forms in the Garden he was behind the forms, experiencing the shadows consequent upon the illumination in the Garden. This has been the human state. We have had various ideas about it heretofore and have had considerable experience of it; but this is a way of portraying the state of affairs with which we may begin to have a sense of kinship. There is a way by which hearts and minds may be cleared of the shadows, rise up, participate in a process of resurrection.

Resurrection in its fulfillment brings human beings again into the light which shines forth from the midst of the Garden, so as to be one with that light. It may then be said: I am the light. And from that positioning all the forms of the Garden are seen for what they are. They cannot possibly be seen for what they are outside of the Garden in the realm of shadows, the customary realm of human experience where shadows are deemed to be the reality and there is the endeavor to manipulate shadows. This is not a very satisfactory pastime, because the shadows keep changing according to the changing forms which cast them, the forms which are present in the Garden. Outside of the Garden all that can be seen are shadows—the back of the forms, but the back of the forms are very dark. In the realm of the shadows there has been immense effort to try to make the realm of shadows into the Garden. The futility of that is surely obvious.

The process of resurrection was initiated by one man over nineteen centuries ago, one man whose experience brought him again into the Garden, into the place of light. In that place all the forms of the Garden can be clearly seen. It is a place where man belongs. He was placed in the Garden to dress it and to keep it. He could hardly dress it and keep it if he was not aware of the nature of the living forms of it. This was no mystery because, being identified with the light, the character of the forms of the Garden was obvious. Even then, beyond the Garden, there was a realm of shadows—the forms cast shadows. But this realm was of little consequence insofar as the action of man was concerned in the midst of the Garden. His concern was with the forms of the Garden, the forms which were casting the shadows.

The radiation of spirit, the light, creates its own forms, and it activates those forms because the creation is ongoing. They are living, moving, changing forms; and because they are living, moving, changing forms they cast moving, changing shadows. This has always been troublesome to human beings in the realm of the shadows because they kept changing. There was the idea that something was being well encompassed and pinned down, and then suddenly it was discovered that the shadows were changing, and so there was a rapid regrouping to try to take care of the new set of shadows, much rushing to and fro in the earth and up and down in it, much movement in the realm of shadows, much expenditure of energy, much effort, and much destructiveness.

The consciousness of human beings has been trapped in the realm of shadows. Now, because of what was initiated these nineteen centuries ago, the process of resurrection has been at work; that is resurrection where minds and hearts are sufficiently open and yielded to let the rising up process be experienced. If there is resistance to the rising up process, then it isn’t resurrection; it’s destruction. It has to be one or the other. Human beings can determine which for themselves, but there is no other choice. Either rise up or go down. This relates to human forms and the consciousness that is within those human forms, all of which have been held in the realm of shadows. The raising-up process is not something that is produced by human effort. Human beings cannot say, and make it stick, “I am now going to raise myself up.” It’s impossible. But there is the creative process at work—the rising tide—which will raise up the condition of human hearts and minds if those hearts and minds are not resistant to it. If they are they stay in limbo, in the realm of shadows, until destruction overtakes them.

This raising-up process relates to man, and man is not just one person. Man is not even just one male person or one female person. Man is both male and female and includes a number of people. The population of the earth today is not man, because it is out of the Garden. Man can only be in the Garden. So there is another creature here, a shadowy creature, existing briefly in the realm of shadows but having the opportunity to participate in the resurrection. However, as soon as the process of resurrection is set in motion, also the process of destruction is set in motion. As the resurrection takes effect and there is a raising up of a body of human beings to participate in the place of accord and stillness, to be the light, then all that is unwilling to be raised up in this way passes away. There is a particular passage in the Book of Revelation which says something about this: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. That is an interesting comment which hasn’t been readily understood.

In the symbolic sense human beings have been existing in the realm of shadows underwater. This relates to the subconscious state. Human beings have not been conscious of the true state of Man in the Garden. They have vague memories of such a state sometimes and there is an aspiring toward that state, even though it may not be seen in the terms of the Garden; but what that state would be is totally unknown. There has been the process of resurrection in effect, however, regardless of what human beings have been doing, so that some become aware of changes which allow an emergence out of the shadows to some extent.

If one is in the water—and in the depths of the water it is very dark—rising toward the surface of the water it begins to brighten and it gets quite light near the surface of the water even though one is still under water. Human existence has been at the level of the subconscious. There has been a certain consciousness of the subconscious. But in the process of resurrection there is a rising up. Using this allegory of water, we may see that under water one can only hold one’s breath so long. In factual experience this probably wouldn’t be more than two or three minutes, but if we’re looking at it from a larger perspective the capability of holding one’s breath might extend to threescore years and ten—holding one’s breath under water in the subconscious state. One may perceive what a marvelous release it would be to break surface and gulp the air once again.

This has not occurred for mankind. It just occurred for one person, who was in the business of opening the door for the rest of mankind to let the same thing happen. One cannot let the same thing happen if one denies the possibility of sharing the experience of that One; and this Christianity has done in a very effective way. They have shut the door—people have been deceived, or deceived themselves, into imagining that this was somehow efficacious, but everybody remained in the realm of shadows.

So, individually speaking, we are able to hold our breath spiritually for a human lifetime, whatever that may be, sometimes short, sometimes longer, but it has all been a condition of holding one’s breath under the water. Some have risen up in the water to a greater extent than others and become aware of light while still under the water. This is considered to be very commendable, if one began to experience something of that light while still being under the water. But it never was or could be resurrection until surface is broken into the air. The air is above the water. You have to come out through the surface of the water to come to the air. It has been so customary for human beings to hold their breath spiritually that they have suffocated, as though that was the normal and only experience possible. Generation after generation there has been that suffocation.

Breaking surface is not just an individual matter, except in the case of the One who opened the door. It is the resurrection of man. That One represented man, and the resurrection that was set in motion then relates to the body of mankind, whatever that proves to be, to be raised up out of the water of the subconscious, out of the realm of shadows where nothing is really understood, into the realm of spirit. That’s the heaven, the place where man belongs in the midst of the Garden. Then everything else around him is seen from that perspective, and it is totally different. Behold, I make all things new. They are factually the same things but seen from the standpoint of the light—the radiation which has created those things. The forms are created, the forms are seen for what they are, understood for what their purpose is, and in the midst of that man lives. That is the true state, but it certainly is unimaginable to human consciousness still in the realm of shadows. There may be a sensing that there is something, because in the process of resurrection one is moving up through the water closer to the surface so that there is light. But you don’t see much of what’s going on up there, the other side of the surface of the water. There is a mere awareness that there is light.

What is in process is the resurrection of man, collective man. There are those who have tried to experience something special for themselves, but the fact of the matter is that man is one, that all things are one. You can’t pick little pieces out and have a special dispensation for them; this has been a peculiar human doctrine in the realm of Christianity. We are all part of one thing. We can’t escape from being a part of one thing without vanishing, because there isn’t anything else. Of course human beings have been busy vanishing generation after generation, because fundamentally there was a refusal to accept the fact of oneness. The fact of oneness cannot be known below the surface of the water. It can be sensed. But only when one breaks surface, so that one comes again to the place of light, to be identified with the light, can one understand what the situation really is. We have all these philosophies, all these doctrines, all these intellectual struggles by human beings, to try to find out what the truth is while still under the water. It can’t be done. There is no perspective there, just imagination, fantasy, with respect to shadows.

We have a certain sensing of the truth of all this; and there has been a certain willingness also, on our parts, to rise up in the water. Ah, there’s light! Rising up in the water and being aware of some light, we begin to think we understand; but we haven’t broken surface yet. To understand, one has to come into the midst of the Garden, and you can’t come into the midst of the Garden all on your own; no one can do it. It relates to a whole whole sorting-out process in the present body of humanity. It includes everybody. So we, approaching the surface so that the light is brighter, begin to recognize some of the factors related to ourselves; the factor, for instance, that we belong in the air above the water, that we belong in heaven, we belong in the spirit. But when we say “we,” what are we referring to? We are referring to our hearts and minds and bodies, which are what we have known ourselves to be. This is the way we have known ourselves, on earth.

This process of resurrection clarifies these capacities of mind and heart so that they can accommodate more of the light. This is the experience of rising up in the water: There is more light being accommodated in one’s own heart and mind; also an awareness that if there is light there must be a Source of light. Then there is a dawning awareness that the real person is already in the light, and that it is simply one’s own heart and mind which are rising up to a level where they may break surface so that there is the experience of what is in the light, an experience in heart and mind. That is man restored, resurrected.

So we share the process. But let’s not fool ourselves into imagining that somehow we can arrive without everybody else—everybody else who is in the process of arriving, not everybody else who is in the process of being dissipated in the processes of destruction. There are those. We won’t judge between them. By the way, it’s very easy to see in this realm of shadows as to why one should not judge by the appearance. Judging by the appearance of the shadow doesn’t tell you anything. Well it tells you one thing: there is something which is casting the shadow, and there is also a light present which produces the shadow. It doesn’t take much intelligence to realize those two things, but very few people do. So we are, have been, in the realm of the shadows and there has been a process of resurrection going on, not because we decided, “Now I am going to be resurrected,” but because willy-nilly we were pushed up, or we rose up. There is no need to question why, just to realize the fact of it, that’s all.

Rising toward the surface then, we become aware that there is light and we also become aware that we belong in the light. We do not have that experience yet. We belong in the light to be one with the light. We have that experience when everybody has that experience. There may be those who rise up in the water ahead of others who are lower down, so to speak, in the whole process, but it is all one process. And it may be that there are those who break surface first, but they are not thereby separated from those who are coming up through the water. It’s all one process. It’s all one body. It’s all one thing. Man is whole, but not only is man whole, one whole composed of however many individuals, but the whole universe is whole. It’s all one thing and man is not separate from that.

There is a rather interesting little passage I came across in the Song of Solomon which says something about this. It says here: “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away”—of course they have been fleeing away for quite a long time, because the light has been there even though the day has not broken yet. And the shadows flee away always from behind the forms which cast them. If you are in the position of the light you don’t see any shadows, all you see are the forms. You have to get behind the form to find the shadow. Well you don’t belong behind the form outside the Garden. We belong in the Garden, one with the light; then everything is clear, natural and easy and understandable. It doesn’t require great stress and strain, sweat of the brow, to gain knowledge in all these things, because everything is plain. It’s only in the shadows that you need that sort of thing. If a person has expended all his life force in accumulating knowledge about shadows it may be seemingly a little difficult to let go of all that in order to associate oneself with the light which cast the shadows in the first place. The shadows don’t really mean anything. It is the forms that are casting them that mean something, but one can’t tell what those are until one is in the Garden. One can’t be in the Garden without being one with the light.

“Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” Bether is a word which apparently means division. And there are mountains of division in the earth, divisions which human beings have created amongst themselves, between themselves and the rest of what is thought of as nature, the rest of the universe. So there is a time when one necessarily has to function with ease and grace, like a roe or a young hart, on the mountains of division. All this is going on and we are very much aware of it; it’s still in the realm of shadows. We know what’s happening in the realm of shadows—we know what the shadows are doing; but we can function in that realm without becoming involved with it. With grace and ease and naturalness we can move upon the mountains of division. It doesn’t matter what they are, we need not become involved with them but reveal the fact of the light which is now known at whatever level we are in the water.

There is another verse down here which says, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.” Here we have the realm of stillness, the atmosphere of heaven, the aroma of heaven. Let’s allow that to be the fact until the day break. The day break relates to this breaking of surface. And incidentally, in the margin it says that the word “break” is the word “breathe.” Interesting, isn’t it?—until you are able to breathe air again and stop holding your breath. It’s necessary to hold your breath while you are under water to survive a little while, but how much better to share in the process of resurrection so that the surface may be broken and we may breathe once again freely in the air of the spirit.

So we participate in this resurrecting process, letting the door be opened for all who would rise up, to feel safe in rising up in the water toward the light and away from the darkest shadows. It is a very perverse thing in human consciousness, that there is usually an endeavor to remain associated with the darkest shadows. All the troubles and difficulties and terrible things that are supposed to be going on in the shadows, which are reported prolifically by the media, human beings are gluttons for. They want to stay in the dark, associated with the darkest shadows; and it seems like a betrayal of some sort to most people if they should let go of that. “Well, after all, there are terrible things happening; I’ve got to do something about it.” Yes, rise up out of it. Let it go, so that one may come to the surface. Everybody is being offered that opportunity to come to the surface but most people hang on to these weights; they insist because they’re good people—all this just increases one’s awareness of the darkness of the shadows. It produces awareness of more shadows. Let go. Rise up, that we may come again out of this appalling realm of shadows where we don’t belong, where it’s miserable and we suffer. Why not let it go and come up out of it? The way is there. The door is open. We are here to prove that that is the fact of the matter so others may become aware of the wide open door that is there. We share in coming again into the Garden where man is. Man can’t be anywhere else but in the Garden. Outside he’s something else, a shadowy creature in the shadows. Let’s become real, sharing that reality in our own experience, so that the door may be opened for everybody else.

I rejoice today that we are in position to see these things sufficiently, even though we may still be holding our breath below the surface of the water to some extent. I think we do get a little sniff of the air now and again, and it revives us! We go again. But the point isn’t what happens to oneself personally; it’s what happens to man, male and female, the whole body of mankind. This is a resurrection for all. We share this to the extent that we provide that open door for all who will move through it. We rejoice to have shared in the movement of the creative forces: from water into air. This all relates to what it is that is unfolding in the larger perspective.

We rejoice to catch a breath of air now and again, that we might finally be willing to leave the water and move again into the Garden where we belong. We cannot be in the Garden except as the Light. The term emissary of divine light has a relatedness to this. These are real words. They mean something. They are not just reference to some human organization, sect or cult, or something of this sort—this is a human interpretation rather far down in the water. But coming to the surface we are aware that we are responsible for being the Light. Individually speaking we have that responsibility, but not apart from everybody else. There is One Light differentiated through us and through others, but we are identified with that Light, rightly, because we come to know the truth of man in heaven, man in the midst of the Garden, playing his creative part in the whole cosmic drama. So we rejoice to participate in this very natural process which can be so easy and so delightful as we are willing to let it be so.

© emissaries of divine light

Each Is Trusted With The Name And Life Of The King

Each  Is  Trusted

With  the  Name  and  Life  of  the  King

Martin Exeter   September 6, 1987  am

This is the first Sunday morning service since the conclusion of Central Council here on Sunrise Ranch. Those who came for this Council brought with them substance which was resonant with the radiance of the Supreme One whom we identify as the King. They also brought with them some dissonant substance, as is usual with human beings. This was brought, both resonance and dissonance, before the throne of the King, that the substance might be purified and brought into alignment with His spirit of love and of truth and life. This has occurred at Central Councils all down through the years. Presumably, as there has been continued development of this body, the substance that has been brought is more resonant than dissonant. There is nothing wrong with the dissonant substance, provided that those who bring it are willing to allow it to be clarified and re-attuned so that it becomes resonant. This always has been done, to varying degrees, on each occasion of Central Council. This was particularly so by reason of what occurred during this recent time. There is, of course, plenty of dissonant substance in the world; so that needs to be represented somehow, that a door may be opened for change. Heretofore human beings have been a little reluctant to allow this to happen.

We have all had plenty of opportunity to know about the King and His developing body. Quite a few assumed that knowing about gave the license to judge what was happening, and all too often to enter into accusation. But as dissonant substance is relinquished—it is only dissonant because human beings hold it that way—as soon as it is relinquished, it easily moves into the resonant category. As long as human beings hold onto it in their attitudes of judgment and accusation it remains dissonant. The knowing, as compared to the knowing about, is only experienced as those concerned allow the resonant substance in themselves to be dominant. Then the knowing begins to appear. The knowing about may be a step in the right direction, but if a person retains the position of an observer he can never know. He may consider himself to be wise in knowing about—he knows all about it—but he doesn't know. There is a great distinction here.

We have noted the fact that all of us, all human beings on the face of the earth, start out by being included in the classification of thieves. This is the condition of human nature in the human state. Sometimes there are those who begin to recognize that there is present, however it is viewed, a God, a Supreme One, even a King. If there is such recognition, then there is presumably also the idea that we should rather naturally trust Him. Trust comes because of love. There is another way of looking at trust. The King trusts. He trusts human beings with His Name and with His Life. It is quite obvious that, while many people have been debating as to whether they should trust the King or not, He has consistently trusted all human beings with His Name and with His Life. We are familiar with the Name, which each one of us claims as his or her own: I am. We have a certain awareness at least of the potential of life, but it has been assumed that the life that human beings know belongs to themselves to do with as they choose. In fact there has developed a belief that God, whoever He is, entrusted human beings with life in the expectation that they would use it in good ways. That is a lie. Certainly He trusted human beings with life: we still exist. But He trusted human beings to acknowledge the fact that it was His Life, so that that Life might be used the way it was designed to be used. It has not been used that way, because human beings have all claimed the life for themselves and, in doing so, of course became thieves, criminals, and have received the consequences of the criminal life—or I suppose we should call it existence, because it isn't life—and in various ways they have brought upon themselves troubles, tribulations. Actually the ultimate trouble—at least human beings think of it that way—is called death. All because of theft.

The Name has been stolen; the Life has been stolen. This is the human state as we know it. This is what most people insist on. There might be an inclination to say, “As an individual I am a free agent. I can do as I please.” That may seem to be true, but one has to accept the consequences of so doing. This most people are not inclined to do. They don't like the consequences most of the time, and certainly the usual frame of mind is one of accusation and blame directed at someone else. Ultimately of course it is directed at the King, always because the life has been stolen. “I am going to do as I please. Of course, I please to do good things!” Unfortunately the good things that one person does turn out to be bad for somebody else. Good and bad get thoroughly mixed up in this human state, because human beings were not designed to determine what is good and what is bad. This is considered to be the highest understanding of man: he can choose! He can choose to be good, or he can choose to be bad. Unfortunately, as we have seen and experienced, all too often what you think is good turns out to be bad, and perhaps what you thought was bad might have turned out to be good. It doesn't make much difference anyway, because this is the way of the thief, the thief who justifies himself in his thievery by claiming that he has been trusted with life to do with as he or she pleases.

The King trusted human beings with His Life, but it is still His Life. It doesn't belong to any human being. Neither has His Name, used by human beings in the state which has come to pass, been used as His Name. Each individual says, “No, it is my name. I am a person, I am important. God has given me a mind to think with, so that I can figure out what is going to be good and what is going to be bad.” These are all lies that have been well swallowed and digested in human experience, but it doesn't change them at all from being lies, because the Name and the Life are the King's.

Substance, of whatever nature, whether physical substance, mental substance, emotional substance, any kind of substance, is quite willing—it was created that way, after all—to resonate with the Life Radiance of the King and to be obedient to His Command. This is the case in actual fact, although I suppose human beings would say it can't be proven, with respect to all the substance in the universe, except the substance that has been stolen by human beings. If we see this to be so we would immediately be aware of the enormity of the crime that has been committed. It is a crime that requires the death sentence, and the death sentence has been in effect ever since the crime was committed. It has been so consistently in effect, because of the consistency of the thievery, that it is taken for granted. It is the one sure thing. Of course it is sure: if I assume an identity which is not the identity of the King I have stolen His identity, because I was trusted with His identity, with His Name, which is I am. I was trusted with that, as each one who lives on the face of the earth has been.

Anyone who is born into this world is trusted with the Name of the King, and thus far virtually everyone has betrayed that trust—denied the King and betrayed the trust, and assumed a self-preoccupied human identity, which is the identity of the thief and characterized by accusation. Human beings individually are accusers, accusers of their brethren. Is there anyone here who can deny that in relationship to his own experience? Everyone who is born into this world was born into the state of an accuser—ready, willing, delighted at times, to accuse other people. This has been the state.

But substance resonates naturally with the Radiance of the King. It does so throughout the whole universe. The only place where it is not permitted to do so is in the hearts and the minds of human beings who claim it as their own. The individual claims an identity, self-centered, self-preoccupied. Oh, there are some good people who imagine that they are somehow unselfish or selfless, but the self of human experience is a stolen self, a self-created self. Some people are proud of that: there are self-made men—women, these days, too. “I am a self-made man!” Are you? Could anyone mouth such a lie and imagine it to be true? We stole what we could of the substance which belongs to the King and used it according to our own desires and devices. That is the fact of the matter. A little honesty will reveal it to be true. Our concern, surely, has been to repent of our thievery and to return our identity and our life to the One to whom it belongs. Human beings still imagine that, on the basis of theft, they will be able to produce something satisfactory in the world, but it gets more and more unlikely even from the distorted human view. Actually it is impossible.

We are aware of our responsibility to the King. When that becomes all-consuming we may become trustworthy again. The King certainly hasn't been able to trust human beings. Look at what they have done to the planet, let alone to themselves. Yet it appears that most are determined to persist in this destruction—self-destruction and destruction of all for which they are responsible in the Name of the King. Each one carries the Name of the King: I am. Each one bears the Life of the King. We come again to the opportunity for repentance, that that Name and that Life may be restored to the King. It is restored to the King by reason of His Body. We have a certain awareness of this in our own experience. There is a Body. It is a spiritual Body, which has brought some flesh along with it, but it is His Body.

No one can possibly know for him- or herself the Name of the King as it really is, or the Life of the King as that really is, outside of His Body. The only opportunity any individual has to know the truth of identity, and of life, is present as long as one has a body—only because of that. When the body ceases to exist, the opportunity of the experience of life is gone. And there is only One Life to experience, and that is the Life of the King. There is a meaningless existence which human beings have known, trying desperately to make it have meaning when it doesn't. All kinds of ways have been devised to make it seem as though human existence has meaning, but as long as it is life stolen from the King it has no meaning and therefore must pass away. Individually it does. Life can only be known in the Body of the King, and true identity can only be known in the Body of the King. How else can it be known? Can an observer, standing outside, know what it is? No, of course not. One must have the identity oneself, one must experience the life oneself. It is the only way it could be known. You may see somebody else—we all observe each other, I suppose—but the reality of life and the reality of identity is locked up in oneself.

Only as the Body of the King takes form, because there is resonant substance available to give it form and there are human beings who are sufficiently relaxed and willing to allow the resonant substance in themselves to come into that Body, can the Body take form. It has taken form to this extent on that basis. But of course there are always the continuing factors of what one might call holdout: “I will give a certain proportion of myself, my substance of flesh, my substance of whatever, into the body; but I am going to maintain a majority interest in my own substance.” There are those who say, “Oh well, it is good to tithe, ten percent. Ten percent of the gross! Ah! That is really something.” But that means that ninety percent still belongs to me, belongs to the accuser. We come again in humility, repentant humility, to the King, acknowledging that one has been an arrogant thief. When that is done, that opens the door for the experience of the True Name and the One Life. There are not five billion separate pieces of life enshrined in human flesh. It is One Life. There isn't any other. And I am: that is the Name of the King. I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.

Because there has been present on earth, brought to a particular focus, the Spirit of the King, that radiance has been available, and substance has resonated to it—substance, for the most part and of particular concern, in human beings. There is a lot more substance beyond human beings. But human beings were created to carry the Name of the King and to reveal His Life, not to steal it in order to separate themselves from the King and claim possession of the earth. That has been done, and the earth goes to wrack and ruin because it is taken out of the true design and control of the King. Loving the King, we bring it all back to Him. We can't bring the earth back to Him without bringing ourselves. Once we bring ourselves we can bring the earth. But if we fail in this regard, as human beings have all done down through the ages, the earth is condemned, as are all human beings.

We share the responsibility because we have a certain knowing. Oh yes, we have known about all sorts of things. But there is a certain knowing present. This was very evident during the Central Council. The resonance was very full. Little pieces of dissonance put in an appearance now and then, but it was quickly recognized as to what it was and relinquished, so that the substance which had been held in a dissonant pattern could come into a resonant pattern. Everything can be cleared in this way easily, no big deal. The big deal is trying to keep it out. Then the person will inevitably go through hell one way or another.

The invitation is to come Home. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, all the substance. It might prove that the tithe that brings oneself totally is a good deal less than ten percent of what is available in that regard in humanity as a whole. I suspect that it would be very rich if ten percent of humanity were willing to bring their tithes into the storehouse—bring themselves, with all of their substance, all of it! Ten percent of humanity. The question is—Could we be included in that ten percent? It will prove itself out.

We can trust the King, even though He hasn't been able to trust us; and, trusting Him, we come into position where He can trust us. When He can, there is the tithe, the tithe of humanity. And so, restoring identity and life, held separate for so long, back to the King, the King is present and may say, in effective ways on earth because He has a body on earth, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Then all the rebelliousness, the denial, the betrayal, that has gone on over the millennia can be swept away; and all that is present, all the substance that is present in this planet, on the surface of this planet, and in all the living forms, is brought again to the King. Why? Because, individually speaking, you and I say, “I bring it. I don't expect anybody else to bring it, because I am solely responsible myself for what I bring. And I find that when I do this, others bring what they will also.”

I rejoice in this hour to take a very easy and honest look at the way things are. It is easy and honest for those who have restored, returned, themselves and their lives to the King. It doesn't make any sense to anybody else; but I suppose there is a little twilight zone in between where it makes a little sense, not all that much. All that is of no consequence whatsoever. The truth is true, and it proves itself out. I certainly am very confident of that. I have been watching it for a long time, and it has done it consistently, day in and day out. I have watched the substance coming Home, and I have watched the faithful ones who bring it Home, and I have watched those also who struggle not to bring it Home. But it will all come Home in the end, whether it brings the human being along with it or not. Let us rejoice to play the essential part in the fulfillment of the purposes of the King in His creative ways in effect now.

I would like to give the opportunity for Jim Miller in Calgary to say a word to us from that location.

Jim Miller — Martin, in this day, such as never before, we are coming to know factually the King. This, to me, is the highest honor affordable to anyone. I find, as I come closer factually, that the image of the King changes, for it is a wonderful thing. It is a love that is present in form that has not been available as it has been available to me. This brings with it the unique responsibility. I would in this moment that there would be no dissonant factors at all present, or let them yield, that resonant substance of the King may fill not only my form but make it available for all those who are here with me in this part of the kingdom. We are seeing actually that the whole process of the restoration is very easy. It is with me, it is with us.

For years, even in this body, we have tried to do good things for the King. We have tried to bring the tithes into the kingdom. But we have forgotten, actually, that the King wants us. We must bring ourselves. What we thought was so difficult is such a delight. I know that in fact being with the King has been being with you at Central Council. Words cannot describe the privilege of being there and hearing directly the message. And I heard it very clearly. So in this day we move with reverence and joy, and because we move ourselves in that, the world that we see is transformed, is changed; there is beauty everywhere. Has it always been there, or are we just seeing it now? Whatever, it is here now. I am reminded of words that perhaps go across the sky in this day: “Whose life is it, anyway?” It is the King's, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Such freeing words.

And so, Martin, I send this back to you with the love of all of us here. This is in fact a glorious day to know that the resonant substance is here with you and with the King because of that. Thank you.

Lord Exeter — The resonant substance which you bring, Jim, is received easily and naturally and shared by all who have come to know the King because they have accepted His name as their own, His life as their own. I rejoice with all those in Calgary who share your spirit, Jim. The way is easy, the burden light. I would also like to give John Gray an opportunity to say something from Glen Ivy.

John Gray — The resonant quality of Central Council is being shared by a Southwest grouping this weekend. Interestingly, this matter of resonance and dissonance was represented by the very nature, technologically speaking, of our phone connection this morning. It has been rather noisy. But despite all the hissing and roaring in the background, your voice came through very clearly, at times requiring special care to stay in attunement with it but nevertheless ever present. Here is an apt symbol, I think. The dissonant factors yet remaining may be allowed to diminish into insignificance when there is attunement with the Spirit of the King. We have loved being with you here in this hour as you have given such clear voice to His Spirit. We bring ourselves, and the worlds of our responsibility come along. They rush, in fact, where there is no more denial, no more betrayal, but simply open minds, open hearts, and open hands through which all substance returns to the Living One, our Lord and King. Thank you, Martin.

Lord Exeter — Your words, John, and the spirit of them, bring close not only you personally, but those who are with you in the Chapel at Glen Ivy. We, all together, are responsible, this morning particularly, for providing a focus of radiant expression, because of the presence of resonant substance, for the whole of the Body of our King. He has a Body on earth. There are the tithes that have been brought into this storehouse. There are also those who yet observe. The invitation, the radiant invitation, is strong, that all the substance might come home. There is indeed a magnetic attraction. I would that this substance bring along with it all those in whom it is contained. But the substance will come home.

Ever Thankful for Jill Miller

1946 — 2022

© emissaries of divine light