Good evening,
If I can
discover for myself, some law of God or some way to God, that proves
beneficial in my individual experience, I can then share whatever it
is that I have learned with someone— someone who may express an
interest in what I have discovered. And if I am successful in
imparting to them, something of the nature of what I have learned, so
that they in turn find that they have brought the presence, the power
of God into their experience, they in turn can carry the message
further, and I, by virtue of having imparted the little that I’ve
learned, immediately find that I know more than I did before.
And so
it is that, when the message of The Infinite Way became clear to me,
and I didn’t know what to do with it, except to have the book, The
Infinite Way published, three people came to me for instruction: a
mother, father, and son, and then after them, 12 people came. And
now, 17
years later, as you know, it has circled the globe. Not that it has
convinced all those on the globe, but that everywhere there are some
benefitting by this message.
Now in the
same way, if I can impart to you one or more of the specific
principles, responsible for this worldwide activity, you can bring
those principles into your individual life, and show forth some
measure of spiritual fruitage, and then go through the same routine.
Someone or other will note the change in your life and will want to
know about it, and you will begin to impart what you know, and in
imparting, even the little that you know, you’ll find that now you
know twice as much.
It is only in
this way that eventually, our united effort, “the two or more
gathered together,” are going to find that peace will be
established on Earth. It will not be merely an interval between wars;
it will not be just, putting our fleet in mothballs again until time
to call them out. If peace is brought to Earth spiritually, it will
be because a whole new area of consciousness has been opened, a whole
new principle of life has been revealed.
Let me take
this for a moment. This is…well, let me give you two of the
Scriptural passages that underlie the healing work in the message of
The Infinite Way. When I or any of our practitioners undertake
healing work, there are two basic principles that must immediately
come to light in their consciousness if they are to have any success.
The first one is: “My kingdom is not of this world,” and
the second one is: “My peace give I unto thee, but not as the
world giveth.”
Now, the
reason the practitioner must be clear on these two points is this: In
the message of the Master, the Hebrews made the mistake of believing
that the Messiah was a man, who was come to Earth, and going to free
them from Rome, and probably from the Jewish Sanhedrin as well—the
organized religion that was oppressing them, taking from them in
tithes and sacrifices and gifts, much more than it had a right to,
more especially, considering how little it was giving back.
But the Master
made it clear, “My kingdom”—yes I am a king, I
have a kingdom,—“but My kingdom is not of this world.”
And, in this other passage he exemplified it, “My peace give
I unto you, but not as the world giveth.” Now think for a
moment, when you think of world peace, you’re probably thinking in
the same old way that people have been thinking for centuries that
there’ll just be no war. And this isn’t peace, nor is it the
peace that Christ promised. The “peace” that Christ promised is a
peace that “this world” cannot give—a peace that is not merely
the product of “putting up your sword.”
So it is you
see, that if we hope to bring to the world, that which we are hoping
to bring to you or to me individually—“freedom,” we must not be
thinking in terms of: “freedom from this pain, freedom from this
lack, freedom from this sin.” Oh no! Here you have the peace that
the world can give, but now, what am I seeking through spiritual
Power, through spiritual Presence? And the answer must be: I am
seeking the peace that the world cannot give; I’m seeking the
kingdom that is not of this world. I’m not thinking in terms of
increasing my income or increasing my business or increasing my
health, or increasing my happiness. My question is: “What is this
hidden kingdom; what is this unrevealed kingdom that the Master came
to reveal; why did the Master come to Earth; or, what was the
Master’s mission on Earth? What is it that enabled him to set up a
ministry, which, although it has not been fulfilled in 2,000 years,
still dominates the thought of all mankind?”
The answer is
that even though we do not know, what “My kingdom” is, or what
“My peace” is, we know that that is the discovery we must make.
No one else has brought a religious concept to the world, that so
holds men and women. And not only men and women of the Occidental
world. You’d be surprised the tremendous hold, that the message of
the Christ has in the Oriental and the Asiatic world. Oh no, this is
the message, and this is what men and women are striving toward, even
though, they do not know what it is. There is just an inner
conviction, that “this is the message; this is the way,” and the
world is going to keep on stumbling until it finds it.
Individually, as a
practitioner, if we were to think, when called upon for help: “How
can I reduce this fever, how can I move this sickness, how can I heal
this sin? how can I provide supply where there is none,” we would
all be lost, and no help would be received by those who call upon us.
The help that is received is in direct proportion to the realization
on the part of the practitioner that I’m not seeking to give the
peace that the world can give; I’m not seeking to increase the
temporal kingdom or temporal power. My function is to reveal
the kingdom of God; my function is to reveal “My peace,”
the spiritual peace, the Christ peace; my function is to reveal
the law of God in operation; my function is to reveal
Omnipresence.
Now, as we
abide in this, and especially if we have taken a period for
meditation, prayer, or treatment, and inwardly, our thought dwells in
that direction, and we’ve shut out “this world” and all of its
problems, and we’ve overcome our good humanhood that wants to see
that everybody has peace, and we are here within ourselves...
my function, the Christ function, is to reveal spiritual
harmony, spiritual grace—an inner kingdom. And this enables us to
relax, to feel an inner stillness, quietness, peace. And then comes
the experience, and it can only be described as “a transcendental
experience,” because, it transcends anything that you can humanly
think of, but it leaves us with a feeling of “God is on the scene”
or “all is well.”
And then,
something does happen in the experience of those who have asked for
help— something tangible on the human plane. Now I haven’t met
any of our students yet who have discovered any more than I have, how
this spiritual realization becomes tangible on the human plane—to
me it is a mystery. I have watched it for more than 30 years, and can
bear witness to the miracles that take place—when this
“transcendental peace” descends upon me: this feeling of oneness
with God; or, Omnipresence—God’s presence.
This likewise,
must be the attitude of the patient, the student—if they would
benefit, to the utmost from this message. The attitude of a patient
or student, asking for help or desiring help, whether asking a
practitioner for it or whether attempting to bring it about, with
their own understanding—the attitude must be: I am not
seeking material benefits. As a matter of fact, again, the Master’s
words: “God is Spirit and God must be worshiped, prayed to in
Spirit, and in truth.” Think for a moment, how this throws away all
of the ancient concepts of prayer. God is Spirit. Dwell with this for
a little while: God is Spirit—what am I expecting of God, except
something spiritual? If I am expecting anything other than the
spiritual, I am praying amiss. God is Spirit; God must be prayed to
spiritually—not humanly. Oh no. Humanly, I need a new automobile;
therefore, I’m trying to get it. Humanly, I’m ill and I want to
get well. But how many thousand years have gone by with that kind of
nonsensical praying?
So that we
must finally accept: God is Spirit. Therefore, I am seeking: of the
Spirit. I’m seeking of the Spirit—that which is spiritual. I am
seeking of the inner kingdom—My kingdom, the Christ kingdom. What
am I seeking?—My peace, the Christ peace, the Christ harmony.
Now, I refer
again to the fact, that the Hebrews made a terrible mistake in
believing that the Messiah was to be a man. The Messiah is not a man;
the Messiah is the Son of God, and the Son of God dwells in you—not
in time, 2,000 years ago, not in space, in the Holy Land. Oh no! Oh
sure, the Christ was there; but the Christ was also before Abraham
was, and the Christ will never leave you nor forsake you. Therefore,
the Christ is not in time or space. The Christ is the Son of God, and
the Son of God the Spirit of God, dwells in you.
You only
become the child of God when you consciously know that the Son of God
dwells in you. If this becomes clear to you, you are ready to begin
your spiritual journey. But, you cannot begin, you cannot begin your
spiritual journey seriously—until you have perceived this point:
that God is Spirit; therefore the Son of God is not a man in time or
space, but that the Son of God is a spirit that indwells all time and
all space. And not only the human world,—the animal world, the
vegetable world, the mineral world. For indeed we have recently had
more proof, that animals are not beasts, there are no beasts. Those
that we call “beasts” and who act beastly, in the animal world,
are but the products that we have set forth into expression, and
their nature changes when ours does.
We’ve had
experiences lately along this line, that really could and would shock
the world to know how what the world considers “beasts,” became
as gentle as our home pets. Merely by coming under the influence, of
one touched with this revelation.
Think for a
moment…perhaps you read in the paper, a week or so ago, about this
man in Illinois, about to be executed? An appeal was made to the
governor, and in the appeal the attorney said, “This isn’t the
man who committed the crime. This is a different man; this is a man
with a different consciousness; this is a man with a soul.” And
this man’s sentence was commuted.
Recently in
Hawaii, we had the exact same experience, with a man sentenced for
life, for murder, who came under the influence of one of our
students, and who was then brought into court, and the attorney who
prosecuted this man and brought about his conviction, turned around
and became the attorney for this man to get him off. And the
reporters at the trial stated in the newspapers, “this is not the
man who was originally in this court; this is a man reborn.” You
see, man isn’t evil, and you can take an evil man and bring him
under the influence of one who has been touched by this Sonship, and
watch the change. You can do it with the animals, the beasts, and
watch the change.
And it is for
this reason, that the moment you begin to perceive the nature of God,
the nature of prayer, and the nature of Christ, your consciousness
changes. Now you cannot change your consciousness, but the Truth
will. But you must entertain the Truth. First of all...Yes, it’s a
hard saying: “There is no such God as the world has been worshiping
these last few thousand years.”
There just is
no such God. God is Spirit; God is not a super human that is
withholding divine grace from this Earth, and if we just say the
right words or sacrifice or light candles or something else that God
will give His grace to this Earth. There is no such God.
To understand
the truth, you must understand that God is Spirit, that God is not
far off, that God is not to be worshiped in holy temples or holy
mountains, because “the kingdom of God is within you!” Until you
make this change, and be assured it is a radical one, and paying lip
service to it will not do it, or affirming it will not do it—takes
a good deal of silent meditation, a good deal of silent wrangling
with your own former beliefs, until you reach that place within your
own consciousness, where you know that God is” closer to you than
breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.” And that you can sit
there in quietness and in confidence and be assured, “the kingdom
of God is closer to me than breathing; it is where I am—omnipresence
compels God to be where I am, here within range of my own
consciousness.” This is a first step.
Then, so that
you may know that all of God isn’t limited to an individual, please
remember that God sent forth His son, in His own image and
likeness—empowered with His spiritual power, ordained to heal the
sick, to comfort, to supply, to forgive the sinner. And then
remember, that this Son of God is incarnated in you, in every “you”
throughout this globe: the pagan, the atheist, the agnostic, the
Christian, the Buddhist, the Vedantist—makes no difference. Why?
God is Spirit—indivisible, inseparable from Himself. Therefore
omnipresent in “you,” in every you. This Son of God, this
offspring of God, this spiritual Presence, which we call the Christ,
has a function: it is ordained... And by watching the ministry of
Jesus Christ, who so completely showed forth his Sonship, the sonship
that was within him and which he said was within you: “your Father
and my Father.”
One
of his great undertakings was the forgiving of sin. Now for each one
of us this is important, for in our human experience we have sinned
greatly. Most of our sins were committed ignorantly, so that we need
not rehearse them or rehash them. Let’s merely acknowledge, that as
humans, we have strayed far from our Father’s home, our Father’s
house, our Father’s conduct, our Father’s teaching, and with this
acknowledgment, we are showing sufficient humility to take the next
step, and say, “Thank you Father, that Thy son, the Christ, the
Spirit of God in me is there to forgive my sins.” I carry within me
my mediator, my mediation. I carry within my own consciousness, the
incarnated Son of God, whose function it is: when I ask for
forgiveness, to receive it.
Again, lip service won’t
do—this is just another form of daily confession. This has to be a
real confession, and a once for all confession: “Father forgive me;
I haven’t known what I’ve done; and now I know that Thy son is
incarnate within me, and one of its functions is to forgive me my
sins.” And then, go and sin no more. Watch each day, that at least
to the highest extent possible, that we do not violate the laws that
we’ve come to know. Of course there’ll be more violations, but
remember “70 times 7” is still waiting for us. Our function is at
least, to try our best, to live up to whatever spiritual law we may
now learn.
But at least we have made a
wonderful beginning, if we know that Christ is not something in time
or space; Christ is the Spirit of God that indwells me, and one of
its functions is “to forgive my sins;” another function of the
Christ is to heal the sick. Shall we look outside for healing, when
we have indwelling this principle of God, this law of God, this life
of God, this Son of
God, this
indwelling Christ, who is ordained, which is ordained to heal the
sick, to comfort? Here again, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee.”
But remember,
you have now pulled Christ out of the Holy Lands. You’ve pulled
Christ out of 2,000 years ago, and you’ve established Christ
consciously, as incarnated within yourself, embodied within
yourself—“since before Abraham was, and unto the end of the
world.” No longer a search for Christ—a recognition and an
acknowledgment: the Son of God dwelleth in me, the spiritual presence
and power of God, dwelleth in me. And, “I am come, that you might
have life, and that you might have life more abundant.” This is the
function of this indwelling Spirit; this is the function of the
incarnate Christ within you: “that you might have life, that you
might have it more abundantly.” It makes no difference that you’ve
sinned! The thief on the cross sinned; the woman taken in adultery
sinned—this has nothing to do with us that we have sinned. What has
to do with us is that we have resurrected Christ from that tomb of
2,000 years ago, and have ascended him into ourselves. We have lifted
him up, and if Christ be lifted up in you, you have the secret of
harmonious life, spiritually harmonious life: a peace that passeth
understanding, a peace that the things of this world cannot give, nor
its honors nor its wealth nor its glories, nor its positions—a
peace that passeth human understanding, a harmony, an abundance, a
grace. Only, only however—if the Son of God be lifted up. Lift up
that Son of God out of Jerusalem; lift up that Son of God out of the
tomb of 2,000 years ago and raise him up in your own consciousness,
and there realize the presence of God in you, and the function: “I
am come, that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more
abundantly.” And then, in your meditations, listen, listen,
because, the Christ that is raised up in you will speak to you:
orally sometimes, in an awareness other times—always in some
practical experience.
(long pause)
Now, you see
why our program in the message of The Infinite Way, calls for so many
periods of meditation—not long periods, short ones. Just long
enough to raise up this Son of God in us, so that we have—not only
the possibility, but the constant experience of “inner communion.”
You can commune at will with the Son of God. The Son of God is not
confined to time or space, you can commune with the Son of God at
will: driving your car, doing your housework, engaged in business.
You can commune at any time that you can allow your thought to go
within: “closer than breathing.”
The one thing
that is important, and this is very important: there must be no
“idol” worship. We must not have any pictures in our mind, of God
or the Christ; nor must we have any preconceived ideas of in what way
the Christ will manifest, in our experience. Now, it is a habit of
the human mind, because it has been trained in the direction of
idolatry. From the olden days when they had amulets and charms, to
the modern days when they have crucifixes and stars—it has always
been an idea of something to hold onto. And of course, metaphysics
has just substituted thoughts for things. And so you hear the
horrible statement sometimes, “send me a good thought” or “hold
a good thought for me.” And of course that makes a thought…that
just turns God into a thought, or tries to make a thought, God.
Now, blessings
are yours in proportion as you can release yourself from thought!
“Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature, or make a
white hair black?” And if you cannot “by taking thought” do
these little things, just imagine what you can do with thought in so
far as the big ones are concerned. Now, experience has shown us so
clearly, that it isn’t thought that accomplishes the things of the
world. Certainly not your thoughts or my thoughts. But, the thoughts
that are imparted to us, within us—there is power. “The Word of
God is quick and sharp and powerful.”
And those who
develop the ability to find this inner stillness receive the Word of
God. In fact it is the Word of God that goes to make up all of the
great mystical messages that have ever been given to man. None of
these were invented by man. And all anyone has to do to prove it is
to read a dozen of these different messages in different parts of the
world, at different times— coming through people who never had the
opportunity of knowing each other. And then you will know that they
have all heard the still small voice, and all received the same
assurance: “My peace give I unto thee—My peace, My peace, not as
the world giveth, My peace.” It’s a different kind of peace.
Therefore,
when you go within, do not outline the kind of peace you want, or the
kind of kingdom you wish manifested. Always remembering, you are
seeking for a hidden kingdom, a hidden grace—known “not to man
whose breath is in his nostril.” Yet, when you attain it, the
conditions of your outer life will automatically change.
As you settle
into your inner peace, remember this: this Son of God, which you have
raised up in you, is in every individual on the face of the globe.
And when you are one with this spiritual center of your being, you
are now one with the spiritual essence of all that exists everywhere
on the face of the globe—everywhere, and spaces beyond. When you
are consciously one with the Spirit within you, you are consciously
one with the Spirit that animates everyone everywhere: human, animal,
vegetable, mineral. And be assured that includes not only this globe,
but all of the globes that are beyond this globe, because Spirit is
not limited to Earth. Spirit is the essence, the substance and law
behind all creation, everywhere. And you become one with it, only
when you become one with your own center—with this risen Christ in
you.
Lift up this
Christ in you; remove Christ from time and space, and realize it as
an activity of your consciousness, a substance, a law, a Spirit of
God within you. Then you are one with me, and you are one with all
being, and you are one with all life—life of every nature, life on
any and every planet. You are one with the inventive genius of the
world; you are one with the artistic genius of the world; you are one
with the musical genius of the world. You will not show forth, all of
these in your individual experience—very few do, but you will show
forth the one that is meant for you. And you see, the great benefit
of this is, that as you begin to experience human good, as a direct
result of your spiritual contact, you are in that same measure,
bringing that spiritual Presence to the entire world. Only in this
way, can the kingdom of God come to Earth.
You know we
pray in “The Lord’s Prayer,” “Thy will be done, on earth; Thy
will be done on earth.” Now it isn’t being done very much is it?
There isn’t a country on the globe where you can say, “The will
of God is very much in evidence.” Of course not! The will of God is
not in, the earthquake; the will of God is not in a war; the will of
God is not in death—“God has no pleasure in your dying, turn ye
and live.” God is not in disease. Ahh no, no, God is not in the
evil of this world. And because you see so much evil prevalent in the
world, you know that there is not yet too much of God’s will being
done on Earth.
Then, the
question is: when will this be: “Thy kingdom come on earth, Thy
will be done on earth?” When, when? Well first of all, demonstrate
it in some measure in your personal experience. You cannot
demonstrate it for me, or for anyone in this room until in some
measure, you have demonstrated it for yourself. The moment you have
demonstrated for yourself, some measure of the kingdom of God—you
may be assured it is not going to be long, for one or more to come to
you and ask: how, why, where, when? And then as you begin to impart,
and be sure that you impart only the tiny little bit that you have
proven. Don’t try to impart all that’s in the books—only that
part of it that you have proven. Then you will discover that in that
imparting— your own wisdom is increasing.
(long pause)
This is
difficult, but it will be even more difficult for you to demonstrate
than for me to impart, and you can see that I’m having trouble
imparting this particular point, and that is, there is no way of your
knowing God; therefore, give up the effort to think in any way at all
about what God is. Do not give any names to God. Learn to do away
with “God is Mind” or “God is Life” or “God is Love” or
“God is this.” Because all you’re doing is inventing more
names, for the same unknown God. But you’ll come closer to
experiencing God when you have overcome the habit of thinking about
God. In other words, dwell on God, but without thinking about God. I
told you it was difficult.
You see, God
is nothing objective to you! Therefore, you cannot have a thought
about God that would be God. Then the closest you come to God is when
you are having no thought about God, but can say, “Enlighten me.”
And then you’ll find that there is no God at all, that you could
think of up in your mind.
God is
subjective. No thought about God is God. The closer you come to “God
is,” the closer you come to the God experience—God is, and God is
“closer to me than breathing.” And then, from deep down within,
there wells up into you the experience of God—you might say God
announcing Himself or Itself—God revealing. You’ll say then,
“I’ve seen God face-to-face.” But only when all efforts have
been overcome to think. Because just as God cannot be made into an
image, externally, God cannot be imaged internally.
Probably you
already suspect the reason: the one creating the image is “the
creator,” therefore nothing that the creator can create would be
God. It is like saying that no truth in a book is truth, and it
isn’t. There never has been a word of truth in a book. God is
truth—you don’t imagine you could squeeze God into a book. And it
is when God is uttering Itself, that truth is being expressed. And
only God can express God, only Truth can express truth. And not even
a man can do that or a woman—that has to be from way down inside,
and, then it comes through, and it surprises the hearer, even the one
through whom it is coming. Because no man ever invented truth; no man
ever wrote truth—Truth utters Itself.
And any of us
can be instruments, through which it utters itself—in proportion to
our ability to be still, have no preconceived opinions, theories, and
be willing to let it utter Itself. If it takes a little time, it’s
worth it. It’s really worthwhile to learn about this My kingdom,
and My peace. It’s a realm unknown to humans, except those who have
transcended their humanness enough, to be still and hear that still
small voice. In the same way, if it weren’t for the still small
voice uttering itself, we wouldn’t know today, in the 20th century,
that Christ wasn’t a man 20 centuries ago; that Christ is a spirit
in you. It is only because it has been voiced, again and again
through the ages, and is being voiced again today that we now have
this gift of the Son—born in a manger, you bet, you bet. Born in
the manger in your humanhood and mine—as lowly a place as you’ll
ever discover. Because, only as the Christ is born in you, do you
realize how completely nothing we are without it; and what a false
sense we’re building up, and building up for a fall—when we do
not realize “that I of my own self am nothing, if I speak of myself
I bear witness to a lie.” It is this indwelling Spirit, that which
Paul called the “Christ,” that which Jesus called “the Father
within.” This it is that doeth the works.
Now, as we
remember, the function of the Son of God, and you can only know what
that is by going through the New Testament again and witnessing his
works: forgiving the sinner, healing the sick, feeding the hungry,
comforting those that mourn, thus will you discover, the function of
the Son of God in you. And it is there for that same purpose. It has
been there the same length of time “since before Abraham was;” it
will be there the same length of time “until the end of the world.”
Live with this Son of God,
commune with this Son of God. Be grateful, that out of all this world
you’ve learned, and should very soon be demonstrating that the Son
of God is alive, resurrected out of the tomb of Jerusalem, and
ascended up into your consciousness—there to be the mediator
between you and God—the point of contact, the point of communion,
the point of prayer, the point of realization.
Think of what happens now, as
you go home and ponder this, and just mentally look around you,
within your home, outside of your home, around your community, and
across the world. And remember, this same Presence indwells every one
of us, and our recognition of it, is helping to awaken it, in the
rest of mankind. Just as this student, recognizing the indwelling
Christ of this prisoner, transformed this man; just as the
metaphysical practitioner, recognizing the indwelling Christ in
themselves and in their patient and student, brings transformation
into your experience. Think of what all of us together, dwelling and
recognizing this raised up Christ in human consciousness throughout
the world—think of what a contribution this will make, to “the
peace that passeth understanding,” the real peace, because it will
be a peace that will change men’s consciousness. And this of
course, is the only blessing there is.
If you or I
had the power to release every person from their hospital bed this
night, or every man or woman in prison from their prison—do not
think we would be doing anything so very great. It is only in
proportion, as our realization of the risen Christ transforms the
consciousness of an individual, that they have something to thank us
for. We have experiences like this where beautiful healings take
place, and then some years later there’s a relapse, then we get a
letter “Why?” Well, in every such case that I’ve ever seen, the
answer is the same: they forgot to “go and sin no more.” They
went right back to the same human state of consciousness they were
originally in, and what can it bring forth?
Let us take for the next few
months, a good study of Thunder of Silence, a serious one. Perhaps
you’ve read it within the last year, and put it away—try it
again. Try to see this: we are always externalizing our own state of
consciousness. We’re not always as evil as our human life would
seem, because some of it comes through our ignorance. But oh what
control we can have over our own lives, once we know: sin, disease,
and death do not come from God—they are the externalization of
human consciousness. And if you want less of sin, disease, and death,
then your consciousness must become less human and more divine. And
that only comes about…remember you can’t do it psychologically;
that’s all utter nonsense. The only way you can do it, is raising
up the Christ in you, and letting It bring about a transformation of
your consciousness.
Remember if you have any
questions, let us have them up here on the table tomorrow night, so
that—well, I won’t be back for a long time.
486A –
Christ Ascended
No comments:
Post a Comment