Prayer and Meditation [frontpage_prayer_meditation.jpg] Jesus and Kuthumi Dictated to the Messengers Mark and Elizabeth Prophet ****** Contents ****** I The Way of Prayer - by Jesus Christ 1 Unbroken Communion 2 Unceasing Prayer 3 Holy Prayer 4 The Light of Prayer 5 Prayer as Communication with Purpose 6 Universal Prayer 7 Continual Prayer II The Way of Meditation - by Kuthumi 8 Meditation upon the Rainbow of Light's Perfection 9 Plunging into the Ocean of God 10 A Journey into the Temple Most Holy 11 The White-Hot Heat of Meditation 12 Merging with the Impenetrable Light of the Atom 13 Universal Light Carries Man to the Altar of Transmutation 14 "How Much of God Can You Draw Down into the Chalice of Self?" ****** Part 1 The Way of Prayer - by Jesus Christ ****** ****** Chapter 1 Unbroken Communion ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 10 - Jesus Christ - March 10, 1968 Beloved Who Would Walk on the Great White Way, Unceasing communion - how laudable! how joyous! What shall I say to amplify the concept of never-ending contact? The world mind seeks to palliate through diverse and questionable measures, whereas the reality of God is best known by unbroken communion. When Adam wandered in the Garden, communion was lost; and God said unto him, "Adam, where art thou?"{1} The infinite love of the Creator for each son of his heart continues even through the span of prodigality. All of life is rendered infinitely more grand when beheld through God's eye of light. He who extends consciousness as a pure stream of everlasting hope unto God is never soiled or damaged by a release of mortally misqualified substance. My own, know that all substance is God; but as to the pure all things are pure, so to the unbelieving is nothing pure.{2} Those upon whom I am raying my love may not accept it in equal measure. The unbeliever may cast it aside, the skeptic question it, the dilettante vacillate from ecstasy to despair; but the cause of such reactions cannot be assigned unto the purity of my mind, derived as it is from the eternal Source, nor to the divine intent which heaven seeks to bring to full bloom through individual manifestation. Each monadic expression, each soul, manifests yet another facet of evolutionary progress. If evolution can be seen in the physical plane, it is even more readily discerned in the spiritual octaves and in the evolving soul where individuality draws down from heavenly heights the vestments of pure reality which remain forever unchanged. The state of the world and of man changeth from glory unto glory, and the gathering storm of karmic encompassment shelters man not with comfort.{3} Comfort is found in the progressive acceptance of universal values, and thus men must strive to throw off those disquieting attitudes of self which veil the face of the universal Christ. If there be glory, it is for all to share; and truly there are none so blind as they who will not see. Organizational loyalty, when practiced in good faith, is a divine attribute; but when sustained in bad faith, it is unjustifiable. Those who seek to save their lives may well lose them, but all who let flow of the native stream of God's own consciousness and infinite love through the aperture of self become as radiating points of light in time and space. These shed that eternal light upon the passing scene of mortal creation and find thereby their eternal home in the realities of heaven, which are our portion. Mindful of present world distress which, regardless of the causes and karmic roots, needs healing and transmutation, I AM come to blaze the light of God's undying reality unto all! The way of the Christ must be made known, and that way is total communion. Through ignorance men have sought to exclude their God while seeking happiness in the world. Through unbroken communion, the life experience of my final embodiment in Galilee and Nazareth can become the forte of every God-realized man. I seek then, in response to the heart-calls of mankind, to shatter the dream that is filled with illusions, to destroy the myth that total communion is sacrificial, and to teach the way of that communion as I know it. In this statement I have begun an effort of world service to promote out of the bonds of unbroken communion a new exaltation and fount of service that, if carried out, will speedily shorten the days of men's cup of bitterness and lower into manifestation the City of God among men. Let brotherhood increase and the light of understanding prevent hatred! For my way, the way of God, is the way of peace; and the sword of the Spirit cleaves asunder the curtain of the night and more clearly reveals that hope, eternal hope, is the nature of God. Hope can alter the unthinkable and brazen contempt of this wayward generation until the regeneration of the Son of God comes full cycle. And divine blessings in ever-increasing tempo shall magnify the light that shines behind the span of the years and the farthest reaches of space. In gratitude for the unbroken chain of communion with the eternal Father, I remain your elder brother, Jesus ****** Chapter 2 Unceasing Prayer ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 11 - Jesus Christ - March 17, 1968 Beloved Seekers for Wisdom, Think on my words, "He who seeks to save his life shall lose it."{4} When you ponder the thought of unceasing prayer, consider those who fear to turn their consciousness to God lest they should miss something going on in the world around them. These seek to save their lives by involvement in the changing outer world. Those who lose (loose) their lives for my sake, by entering into the same communion with the Father which I did, truly find their life again; for only as God can live in man who exists in very being itself, life itself, does man really possess eternal life. There is no selfishness in the Father, but only the buoyant desire to raise each lifestream into cosmic dimension. To do this before the disciple is prepared to carry the attendant responsibility could unbalance and even destroy the developing consciousness. The chalice of individuality must expand its own capacity and strength through divine grace in order that one's portion of Infinity will not overflow the banks of the chaliced cup. Blessed ones, it is unnecessary for you to strain or to struggle in order to achieve communion with God. He is not far from you; and as near as heartbeat or thought, he can flood you with a surge of his renewing strength. Each night when you enjoy restful sleep, you experience a recharging of your blessed bodies and minds with the purity of divine energy. The extroversion of human thought and its expenditure upon myriad trivia through the day take you away from the strength of your Source. Because your energy is then depleted and its levels have fallen, you do need to renovate your consciousness, which has passed through the turmoil of a busy day. How frequently I found during my own mission that by going up into the mountains to pray, getting away from the madding crowd, or curling up in one end of a ship, I was able to renew my strength and perform a greater ministry of service and healing.{5} All who would follow in my footsteps must understand that unless they are able to contact the great Source of life and continually renew their strength, their mission will not be carried forth in the manner desired by God. You cannot, as you say, "burn the candle at both ends" and expect it to last. Yet when it is needed, there is a limitless flow of divine strength that can be acquired as you learn to use the charging methods of divine prayer during the busiest time of the day. Some of you are aware of the fact that the prince of this world{6} will often create a division in your mind by arranging two or more control points which clamor for your attention at the same time. In the rapid switching back and forth of your attention, your energy level drops dangerously; and when it is extremely low, that is just when the forces of negation rush in to trigger a sudden burst of anger or discouragement.{7} This is an entirely different situation from the natural two-way flow of consciousness that can be achieved through holy communion with God right while you carry on your activities in the world. In the former case, the attention is being jockeyed back and forth between centers of interest. In the latter, your attention is moving from the world to God and from God to the world. You need have no fear or distress that unceasing communion will disturb the efficiency of your tasks. I can truly tell you from experience that even when you are involved in difficult matters, if you carry your attention upward toward the Father and fear not the flow of his attention upon you, you can actually bathe the disquieted energies in your world with the harmony of God. And when your attention returns back into the world of form, it will no longer manifest the inharmony and imperfection that it formerly did. Many people fear to take to God those distressing problems which involve their own personal guilt, whereas others, working in the opposite direction, seem to almost enjoy telling God how very unworthy they are. We would clarify for the benefit of all. Insofar as impure acts and thoughts go, bringing them to God for purification is in a very real sense bringing your iniquities to heaven for judgment ahead of time, thus removing from the karmic record, in many cases, the need for future recompense. "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after."{8} As a mother comforts a sobbing child, so God can and does quiet the restless energies that you seem unable to govern. When you keep your problems to yourself, as though they could thus be hidden from his eye, often they are only intensified and your distress increases rather than lessens. In the matter of those who tell God how unworthy they are and appear to revel in so doing, this in most cases is the overriding of a rebellious entity or discarnate which manipulates their feelings to no good end. You know, precious ones, the evil spirits that have lived in the world in the past and who are now out of the body, together with those possessing entities that attach themselves to individuals because they love darkness rather than light, enjoy performing acts which they suspect might give distress to the Creator of the universe. This attitude is difficult for many to understand; but like that psychological trait known as masochism or self-abuse, the attempt of these spirits to flagellate the Deity by acclaiming their own dire condition actually feeds their egos and is intended to make those whom they control enjoy being sinners. When the sincere disciple brings to the Father all of his energy for purification, God is truly able to wash and to regenerate with his love and attention the developing son and bring him to maturity. In cases where extreme perversions have been practiced, it will be necessary that the individual make application for forgiveness with deep sincerity and follow the injunction "Go, and sin no more."{9} Those in the latter category must of necessity strive until they have won a relative state of victory over the outer condition and understand that the demons of ego and rebellion must be put down. There is a law involved here that states that man is accountable for that which he creates. Those who have created or harbored a rebellious spirit must themselves bring it under control and then approach God with humility that they, too, may be received and their energies purified. There is never any question whatsoever concerning the will of God to receive the prodigal son back to his heart. Therefore, no one should make unworthiness an excuse for not engaging in holy prayer. The worthy need to progress and the unworthy to disentangle themselves from the enchantments of the world. More things are indeed wrought by prayer than the world dreams of.{10} Yet ordinary prayer, strenuously engaged in, that cries out for emergency help in time of need, is not to be compared with that steadfast outreach for God that understands communion as a most fortunate means to the end of personal freedom. In memory of our Father's everlasting love for all, I remain Jesus ****** Chapter 3 Holy Prayer ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 12 - Jesus Christ - March 24, 1968 To All Who Seek the Resurrection: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."{11} With these words from the Psalmist, I cast out all fear of death as an unnatural process and I demonstrated for all time to all men that the way of the resurrection is the way of God living in man. Truly, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;{12} for the way I know, and it is the way of abundant life. Fear of birth could well be more justifiable than fear of death, for the rest and surcease from pain that comes to individuals who have lived a rich and full life of service to mankind is more to be desired than the pain that accompanies one's entrance into the world of form. Nicodemus queried, "Can a man, when he is old, enter once again into his mother's womb?"{13} Indeed, the simplicity of the divine plan of renewing life, either through reembodiment or the victory of overcoming mastery culminating in the ascension, is a very marvelous answer to the problems involved in the creation of individual man. Immortal life can be retained only by the Godly. Those who acknowledge the presence of God in their lives live according to his principles, committing themselves unto God, as Daniel did in days of old, through continuous communion.{14} If I seem to pluck one note [that of unbroken communion], it is because that note is truly the door. To be a friend of God, you must commune with him. To love the Father, you must know him. Talking to God means that your energy goes back to the Source from whence it came, and the Source will not refuse to answer you. It is when men, full of fear and doubt and human criticism, slink back into the fading image of their own egos and in full retreat abandon the very plans that would give them immortal life that one could say, "Heaven weeps." For it is not the will of God that any should perish. As has been said of old, "My soul hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked."{15} The abundant life is the natural life; It is the life of sun and wind, Of sea and earth and sky, Of minerals and moving vitality. God speaks through nature to man And he speaks through song; He speaks through inspiration And he speaks all day long. There is no end to inspiration; It is the firing of the spark. There is no end to consecration; 'Tis light ascending in the dark. I AM the flame of resurrection, The power that frees in nature's bower; I AM the flame of resurrection, Raising consciousness each hour. To be a God (and not a clod), True faith in plan must all expand; To walk the pathway we have trod The Holy Spirit now demands. I come to give abundant life! The treasure of thy heart is where The human monad ceases strife And reaches up in holy prayer. Prayer is a ladder to God, but it is a ladder of thought that at times ceases to think and engages only in perception. The safeguards of holy prayer are love and the desire to bless, forgiveness and the will to express abundant beauty everywhere. The chaste ideas of the Christ mind are not to be discounted or compared with those of the world mind. And those who have sought to achieve true culture need never fear the expansion of divine attunement. Neither fanaticism, insanity, nor unnatural states of mind exist in the mind of the Infinite. Oppressive mental conditions are always the result of wrong thinking and identification with the dregs of the world's thoughts. Thus, in advocating holy prayer, we warn concerning the human tendency, after one has risen to great heights, to seek mortal comfort through a rapid descent to degrading lows. There is no need to plead with God in order to keep one's spirit in a state of truly listening grace. Rather, each soul should understand that the upward swing of the pendulum may seem to require balance in the opposite direction because it expands toward infinite heights which perhaps the fledgling soul cannot sustain; nevertheless, true balance need never be sought in extremes of unhappiness or involvement with the world. There are certain "stops" for which one may ask when in communion with God, certain protections of one's own spiritual momentum which can and should be sought after. Frequently, those who are not given this instruction weary of well doing; and often not only do they undo all the good that they have done, but they actually put themselves momentarily backward. Sometimes the excuse that is offered by those who lack the courage to press forward is that they do not wish to go upward, for then they will have farther to fall. There is no foundation to this theory, for those who understand the law of being are able to govern their own acts and intents even as God wishes them to do. Those at inner levels of consciousness who are for you, those who pray with you when you go up out of the mortal dimensions, are many. And if you ask them, they will help you in your descent, when for a time outer pressures may make certain demands upon your attention. But I AM come that men may have life more abundantly;{16} and the life of more abundant prayer, of more glorious attunement, is a means to a beautiful end. Cosmic cycles are spiral segments of joy that is rising. They produce not only the purification of thought, but also the imbuement of mankind with the power from on high that enables them to sustain a momentum of beautiful example among men. Mankind need the example of beautiful souls whose faith will help them to overcome through communion with God. One of the pitfalls that must be guarded against is the tendency on the part of men who do have divine experiences and do achieve attunement with God to become overly confident until they fall into the temptation of exalting themselves over their supposedly "lesser" brothers. This is why exhortation for the unworthy and those who are unprincipled in life is so often entered into by the masters of wisdom. We pray for those who despitefully use us,{17} knowing that in due course of time the law will require of them a recompense for the energy that is gainfully used to puff up the ego. Thus, by seeking to save that which is lost and raising that which has fallen, we perform the work of Christ, of the illuminator, of the divine Mediator, and of the intensifier, the Holy Spirit. Now I would like you to gaze upon the word intensifier; for it relates to the phrase "intended fire," and this is the fire that shall try every man's work. {18} It is the divine fire that falls upon the altar where transmutation and change are sought and wrought. Prayer without ceasing is the key to a release of radiant streams of God-energy that focus in the chalice of your being. The garnering of this energy will in time make the son to become one with the Father, for these energies are powerful and they are life. They are abundant, and they do perform within you that which mere mortal wishing can never do. To seek to generate mortal illusion is an unworthy act, but to seek for the regeneration of God in you is the means of overcoming the world. Again I say, pray without ceasing for your victory and for the victory of all mankind. Radiantly in the light, I AM Jesus the Christ ****** Chapter 4 The Light of Prayer ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 13 - Jesus Christ - March 31, 1968 Beloved Brethren of the Light, The light of prayer, the light of communion with our Father, surges through all things. Nature is infused, man is infused, mind is infused with this beautiful light that serves as the communicator between man and God. The chasms of shadow are nothing, for the light echoes and reechoes across the widest gap. Here metaphor is reality; for the visible things of the world fade away as the invisible becomes the visible, and man through prayer sees all things bathed in a sea of luminous light-substance. To develop this sense of all-knowing serenity is to develop the state of an untouchable being, of one who cannot be affected by outer conditions or mortal ups and downs. The light of God that never fails, beloved, awaits your call - to answer when you call and to serve your needs. The light is your obedient servant sent forth by God; for of a truth, he that would be greatest among you must be the greatest servant, and our Father is the greatest servant of all. {19} As the beloved Son, you must recognize that your mortal role is played out upon the passing scene that leads you onward to the dawn of reality in yourself. Reality is not an outer, transient thing. Reality is the wings of the Spirit that lift mankind to a sense of omnipresence and beauty where no shadow is, but only the pulsation of the great light of God's reality. How very foolish it is for men to suppose that their reality is wedded to mortal conditions, to think that the possessions of life can in any way lend more than passing enchantment to the scene! Let all understand, then, that the Son, beloved of the Father, is also he who loveth all things free. To be free is to breathe the Holy Spirit into the fountain of light within your heart that changes the very condition of the blood itself into liquid light and prepares you to exchange your outer garments for immortal vestments. There is no need to fear the death of the outer man, but that the soul may be swallowed up by the vicissitudes of natural experience to the place where the divine flame that pulsates and rises within is extinguished through neglect. {20} When a bushel of outer things surrounds mankind's consciousness and leads him astray from oneness and a sense of the nearness of his own God Presence, he finds that he can lose his way. I AM the way, and true being is the way. There is no division in true existence; therefore, there cannot be two ways. There is only one way; and that way is the indivisibility of the Spirit that has of itself created many droplets of manifestation, but all of the same Spirit. Those of you who, with me, would inherit the kingdom of God must understand, even in your outer minds, that no outer condition has any power to alter the immortal God flame blazing on the altar of your heart. Consciousness is also possessed of a heart. The question as to whether that heart is seated in the physical heart or elsewhere in your four lower bodies, in your Holy Christ Self or in the heart of your Divine Presence, is not nearly as important as the fact that you are able to tune in with the God consciousness that is in every cell of your body and the Great Central Sun Presence of yourself, your own beloved mighty I AM Presence. For the sense of being "I AM THAT I AM" is one, and there is no division whatsoever in this conception. There may be a multiplicity of manifestation and each one may have an assignment of specific wonder to externalize, but the beauty of the Eternal is not a passing condition. It is a permanent one. And the joy that fills the soul that is imbued with this concept is illimitable light. Now as the dawn of holy prayer, bridging the chasm between one point and another, radiates its precious light into the consciousness of men, it speaks of the mission that seems to be impossible to those who are wedded to mortal things. This is the mission that is fulfilled when the overriding power of the Presence takes command of an individual's world and asserts its Christ-dominion as never before. Until the door is opened that leads to eternal life, men linger without and they see not the glory that is behind the portal. And until they open that door by consciously willing themselves free to be that which God created them to be, they can never know the beauty and glory that is their own. But it was so intended, for every lifestream was given the glorious mantle of ever-present perfection as an original part of the divine plan. Lost in the descent, as man falls away from reality into the dream of mortality, perfection seems but a dim light, half alive and questionable in the main. This is a great pity, men say, and it is so; but when men understand that I AM come that they might have light, and that more abundantly, they will also see that a rose known by any other name smells just as sweet. And although men have different names for the same condition, the selfsame Spirit worketh in all to produce the miracle of communion. I cannot under any condition fail to point out to all that communion is the full measure of salvation to every living soul; for unless man have communication with the pristine First Cause, the creative fount of divine energy and will, he may indeed lose his way in the folds of shadowed substance. But we seek for all deliverance through communion and to reinforce in all a new and living concept, that in his flesh man may see his flesh as the doorway into the Eternal. ("Yet in my flesh shall I see God."){21} The blessed Spirit that animates form and provides the life-energy for each day's service cannot itself be harmed by any outer condition; but the soul, in its plasticity of recording the records of living, may have scars which are best removed by application to the immortal Spirit of divine reality. God wipes away all tears from man's eyes and serenely imposes the radiance of himself as a robe of righteousness over the dusty garments men have worn. The radiance of the light energy in those divine robes purifies the undergarment, and all things are penetrated by the radiance of the divine. Have faith, keep faith, and let it mount up; for the Brotherhood Eternal is working and serving the causes supernal. The beauty of the supernatural is actually in the natural manifestation, for the habitat of God is in the heaven of man within you right where you are. Unfold the plan! See the star of present, Ever-present opportunity Gleaming from afar So nigh, Plummeting through the sky As hope, Resurrecting faith and action, Filling space with dreams Fulfilling God's will! Lo, I come - Still, serene, Pure and clean, To be and see The victory Of all and everyone That's free! Your elder brother and gracious example, under the wings of the eternal Father, Saviour of each and all, I AM and remain Jesus the Christ ****** Chapter 5 Prayer as Communication with Purpose ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 14 - Jesus Christ - April 7, 1968 To All Who Seek to Know God: My love enfolds you all. The divine life is abundant, and prayer makes it possible of realization; but prayer must be regarded as communication, and communication with purpose. The world hungers for purity and lingers in guilt. 'Tis guilt that decries effort and, by creating a sense of unrighteousness and unworthiness in men, causes them to seek to hide from the Eternal Face. Once the love of God is rightly understood by any man in any state whatsoever and he responds as prodigal son desiring to see and behold reality, reality cannot be denied unto him. God will come, and he will move in the mysterious ways of a spiritual being and a master of life to raise the individual soul into the ascended state. Down the centuries, Christian palliatives have reduced the effectiveness of my Palestinian mission in the world of form by robbing of their import those concepts that are most important and stressing conditions which are a part of the lesser mysteries of God. For example, the via dolorosa, the sorrowful way, has been overemphasized and the suffering which I supposedly experienced is pointed out to mankind as a thorny road which they may expect to follow to their freedom. Yet my words so clearly spoken to the weeping women of Jerusalem, "Weep not for me, ye daughters of Jerusalem, but weep for yourselves and for your children," seem to have been forgotten.{22} "The way ye know" is now the way known by the few, yet the many regard themselves as "the elect." To make your calling and election sure, you must commune with Reality; you must commune with humility and you must commune with absolute sincerity.{23} Out of the bane of uncertainty, men excuse themselves from communion and they pursue those enervating pleasures of the world which bring them to discouragement and doubt. Faith requires the fuel of fervent effort and fervent communion. Each time an individual feels the fires of reality dying down within the furnace of self, he must once again renew his covenant with God and seek to raise those fires to a place where the throb and pulsation of that inward reality can be felt and known within one's own flesh and the flesh of true identity. Men identify with themselves outwardly, with their person, and cease altogether the recognition of the heavenly image. The heavenly image is the thought God used as blueprint plan, As architectural demand upon the universe To fabricate and design A perfect man, a holy sign, Symbol of the flame encased in form, The dual Paraclete reborn. As Holy Spirit manifest in men, This is the visit of our God again To world that waits the dawn. O beloved ones, in this hour of world peril when the throb of Armageddon is heard as violence in the streets and as fear coming to many hearts, there is a need in America and in the world to renew the diligent application of prayer that burned on Quaker's hearth and in patriot's home. There, love was a glowing fire that sought itself to nourish a nation and cause this great land to expand wholesomely, teaching the young courtesy and grace and the art of loving one another. Modern methods do not surpass the old. The latter are enhanced by scientific achievement and a richer measure of technological embellishment. If such elements of progress were used for the furtherance of the kingdom of God upon earth today and to teach the law as we intend it to be taught, it would be truly to place the kingdom within the grasp of men. But in this hour when communication has become so readily possible on a larger scale, the voices of the night are heard and the voices of the day are stilled; they are lost in the blare and tumult of the film makers and commercial vested interests and in the hammer of religious dogma. Now a thrust for a purpose must be made into the world and the kingdom of God be brought very close to men! I am come again in this age to communicate with a larger body of men upon the planet than has inhabited it for many a year. Men are rich and increased with goods, but they do not understand that the passing moment they have is but an opportunity for bringing about increased good. And how essential is the increased good of imparting communication from the ageless fount of wisdom to a dying youth that with heavy heart seeks to cast away the carnal mold that he witnesses! Today, we of hierarchy, mindful of the prayers rising unto Deity for assistance to the world in her hour of need, stress that with God-speed valiant assistance must come forth to men; and the work that The Summit Lighthouse seeks to do must be implemented, for it is a service in which all can unite. Hierarchy seeks not to build through this means a mere secular tower rising unto the skies, but to teach in this day the lost art of communion with God to honor the Deity, that the family of nations may perchance avoid the awful debacle toward which it is headed. In the days of the Tower of Babel, the Great Karmic Board and heavenly hosts did cause to be issued the edict that confused the people's speech and drove them into separate bands in order that the awful contagion of unrighteousness might be stopped. Today the world has restored outer communication, but it is swiftly losing every vestige of the culture of the immortals. The Great White Brotherhood, in a desperate attempt to stop this headlong debasement of the sons of God and children of the light upon the planet, is calling to all who will hear my voice and summoning the council of the elect from the four corners of the earth to a vigil of such holy prayer as has never before been raised as sweet incense to the throne of grace. All men, then, must learn to recognize that in the span of the few short years and smothering dogmas to which they are exposed, they do not learn all of the manifold mysteries of God that are taught in the schools and archives of light. Heaven has become a nebulous name to many, and God a myth. Both are real, tangible, and powerful. Without heaven and heaven's God, life would lack purpose and meaning; for God framed the world with holy wisdom and gave to man free will in order that, like Prometheus unbound, he might create reality within himself and achieve his own Godhood. This glorious concept has been cast aside by delusion and by the contagion of error so that men today are but a shadow of their former selves and the light is nearly gone out. Yet the light lives and the light is abundant! The light is real and prayer and communication are the requirements of the day. Your beloved Saint Germain wrote in Macbeth, "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" {24} Let us then decree to "out" the darkness in all men and to radiate the light of love to one another, no matter what men may think or do! Above all, let us decree that each individual soul, expressing the greatness of the Divine Self, may learn the precious art of weaving the golden flow of the shuttle of attention between himself and his God, between the son and the Father, between darkness and light. Thus shall light inhabit darkness and dispel it and bring to all the wedding garments of eternal purpose that cause the holy spiritual Bride of the Church to say, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!"{25} For the radiant purposes of God's will in all, I remain and I AM Jesus the Christ ****** Chapter 6 Universal Prayer ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 15 - Jesus Christ - April 14, 1968 To All Who Aspire to Continual Prayer: The term "Our Father" signifies mutuality and sharing. The perfect life descending from God into the manifestation of self has been strained by mortal misqualification of its original intent and purity. But the desecrations and stains, created in ignorance, are blotted out by the effulgence of the greater light of the indwelling Christ. No pagan or sacrificial act is involved when the son of God cast in the prodigal mold seeks to be free. It is the universal Christ, the everlasting light of the eternal Father that raiseth all upon the ladder of progressive reality until the world of heaven engulfs the individual seeker for unity. Myriad doctrines, dogmas, and entrenched concepts have drained mankind of strength and made him a victim of satanic myth. The father of lies has spun many an idle dream and used it as a psychic net to divide and conquer large blocks of individuals in the religious community.{26} Often the seeker for truth is made merchandise of and the very hunger in his soul for righteousness causes him, in fanatical zeal, to disclaim his own birthright and to proclaim as truth the teachings of the synagogue of Satan.{27} The reality of the Christ is the leaven of truth that serves in the world of the individual to elevate his consciousness toward service in the light. That which would divide the body of God on earth, that which would classify certain believers as "evil," that which would deny fellowship to them as brethren and spread the poison of gossip and deceit is always of malicious intent - if not in the person of the purveyor of such teachings, then in the spirit that controls the person. Those who desire Christ-unity in the family of religious seekers understand that Antichrist has already come and is in the world.{28} My prayer "Father, make them one even as we are one" is not intended to promulgate a unity of oppositional doctrines, but to prevail upon men to behold in childlike simplicity that God is one.{29} Simply put, this means that Good is one, and that oneness is Good. Naturally, deceit and error cannot be united with goodness, but then deceit and error have no part of God or of his teaching. These are created by the powers of darkness as confusing elements which lead men astray and divide hearts from hearts. The body of Christ on earth can best be activated in universal harmony as men cease to consider the mandates of dogma as the primary requirement in determining "Who is my brother?" Rather let men see all men as brothers essentially - that is, in essence, in divine intent - and in an orderly progression toward Christly acceptance of one another as joint-heirs of the kingdom. When men accept the reality of the living Christ for themselves as individuals, they realize that the ascension in the light is a progressive achievement that they themselves will one day experience - as individuals. To be lifted out of the dregs and doldrums of mortal thought and feeling, from all sense oppression and unrighteousness, into the electronic throb of the universal heart, with its attendant restoration of man's total communicative facilities, is to receive a blessing of incomparable glory. To this great measure of God-reality, to this restoration of individuality, to communication with the Holy of Holies, we are dedicated for every man. The broad road will narrow, and the narrow road that leadeth to eternal life will expand as man passes through the portals of succeeding tests into the trackless dimensions of the Infinite. The seeker has found! No longer pinned to the blight of continuous questioning and probing, he now beholds reality, the Invisible made visible. By holy prayer all men can attain both oneness with God and the poignant reunion of souls who have long been severed from one another by the betrayal of negative karma. The breaches will be healed, the fruit of man's labors will be made tangible and real, and the kingdom of God will be seen as possible of attainment by those who have underestimated the potential of life that is within them. What a boon to universal manifestation is to be found in universal prayer! 'Tis a hymn That, humming lightly, Penetrates the air - A wave of light, Manifesting everywhere. Sun glow and sun fire, Hope's radiant desire - Manchild manifesting Spiritual Intensifier. I AM THAT I AM - so pure, Imbued with cosmic power. I shall endure All assailing, flailing Outer things, By consecration now within Expand my wings. I, too, shall win - I shall rise! No more by carnal bound, My rising soul hears The universal sound. Where God is, there I AM, And everywhere's my prayer. 'Tis fragrance's evolving spin That shapes my destiny through prayer. Communication with the One, Our Father dear, Thou radiance of the Central Sun, Appear! By light I glow, Thy word I hear: Beloved Son, through love Cast out all fear! Thy work is mine; To thee I say, "Well done!" For faith and hope And charity are one; Attainment comes as seed of God Right here within thyself. Expand and know the fullness Of the inner light that glows To teach, to counsel, to enfold! I AM the cosmic law Of elder race of old That, shining down The pathway of the years, Has sought to guide, To wipe away all human tears, To show the power of the inner light, The inner faith, the inner might, To shape and reshape the course of men, To cause the holy kingdom To be born again in men. "Come then, let us reason together," saith God: "My law of love and truth is heaven's rod. I stretch it forth in barren wilderness. I make the hopeful blossoms to confess The Lord is God." He will bestow the wonders Of communion to mankind below. He'll raise the earth And every man that's here And let the cosmic universal Christ appear. Why will ye tarry, blessed ones? Why will ye delay as you pass this way? It is a golden opportunity Restoring great sincerity And cosmic purpose old, Restoring communication With the God of old Who maketh all things new And swiftly bringeth into view The greater light. Blessed ones, join with me in the prayer of faith that all men may be one, even as God is one. Join with me in faith that true integration with Eternal Law will come to every man. In truth this is the master plan. Abundantly, in the never failing response of universal prayer by every cosmic being, your Jesus the Christ ****** Chapter 7 Continual Prayer ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 16 - Jesus Christ - April 21, 1968 To All Who Seek Greater Communion: I consider true prayer to be a cornucopia, a cylinder of abundant blessings. The showering of these blessings may require a bit of shaking of the bower, as the receiving cup of the disciple is lifted upward in holy anticipation. Between the dark and the daylight - the dark of unmanifest substance and the daylight of manifestation - there is at times a slip of needless dissipation. Excess anticipation of self-good without self-surrender drains spiritual treasure and prevents manifestation. Childlike trust should rise to become manlike sensibility where, through the process of natural development, the life of the individual is seen as an opportunity to become Godlike. The man who does for himself what others expect God to do for them, according to the best understanding he has and the limit of his personal capacities, will soon find flowing through his consciousness a unit of transcendent life which I call the abundant life. When I brake the bread before the five thousand, the one loaf easily became the many; for all substance is one and all power is one.{30} When universal good is the motivating principle and selfishness is cast down through the individual's desire to serve the perfection of life, he is often granted a release of unparalleled strength - the strength of the Divine, the abundance of the Divine, the purity of God, the wisdom of God, and the love of God. The nature of the Father is within the Son. It is within ye all, now and always. When you reach up hands of seeking faith and allow the unbroken prayer of steadfast purpose to act, you are opening the door to that perfect understanding that transcends all mortal sense of limitation. Some say: "Why need I read? Why must I consider these things?" Precious ones, as above, so below. Man's sense of individuality and his perception in the world of form have been builded through the centuries as the soul, outwardly perceiving substance, fashioned its own inward sense of substance and circumstance. It is just as necessary in dealing with spiritual matters for the individual to program himself, to orient himself, to prepare himself through cosmic study to grasp universal principles as it is for him to grasp external ones. A release such as I am giving in my series on continual prayer is invaluable to the aspirant; for it conveys thought matrices calculated to develop in each one who studies an inward approval of the consciousness of the universal Creator, our heavenly Father. Most unfortunate is it that the same words of life which I speak are often spoken by laymen, ministers, and teachers who claim to be of the eternal craft of builders and are not. Through much hearing, the ears of men have waxed dull; and there is a tendency to compare the fruits of other men's labors with their words. This brings the individual to a sense of judgment where he spends too much of his time in judging the lives of others and not enough time in communion with God whereby he seeks to erase the results of negative assaults upon his own soul. Thus men often become critics whose criticism denies the fruit of progress to themselves. We seek then to show forth the fact that no matter how many spiritual words may be spoken by men in surface utterance, using ideas or expressions similar to our own, unless the Spirit lives behind the Word, the flesh is as grass and continues so to be. The conveyance which has been cited as "the laying on of hands," or the transfer of the Spirit, must be made through the universal life-principle whereby one actually contacts God.{31} God lives, the Father lives, and he lives in you. But you must evoke him by continual prayer until the strands of discord that bind you to the world are severed for all time, until the opaquing clouds of mortal densities are blown away by the wind of the Holy Spirit, until the sun shining in his strength is seen by you and drawn down into the chalice cup as the fire of life unto regeneration.{32} Unless this be done, you cannot drink of the cup of which I drink or partake of the baptism with which I am baptized;{33} for there is but one Holy Spirit, and he manifests to all the knowledge of the Father. You are baptized into one body.{34} There is but one Great White Brotherhood of light; and all souls aspiring to it, who enter into it, enter into the One. My reason for reiterating these facts in this discourse on prayer is that there has been formed down through the ages a pseudocult of religious seekers who would build a hedge around themselves, claiming a sovereign superiority in dogma, in teaching, and in possessing the things of God. This attitude forestalls the manifestation of reality and creates inharmony between peoples. Our will, as God's will, is one; it is to create from the one life the manifestation of the manifold and to create from the many the one. It is not in the mere acceptance of the pressure of socially or religiously acceptable ideas that men become wise. Progress is obtained outside of sect and order, yet to deny that it exists within sect and order is to deny that God has worked with individuals and societies down through the ages. You must learn to become the arbiter of your own destiny, not by denial and severance, not by separation in all cases, but through understanding that the advent of the Eternal moves through societies and orders, through organizations and peoples, manifesting for a season in this or that order and then, in the interest of progress, forming a new order of the ages. We must have access to men's consciousness in order to bring forth new ideas, yet it must be clear that the new ideas are also the old truths that have always lived in the universe. It is man himself who, through misunderstanding and a false, exalted sense of his own worth, has cast stones of stumbling in his brother's pathway. That these may be removed is our prayer. Yet it is too much to expect that everyone will understand our effort, our existence, and our ability to communicate with mankind in this day as in former times. I live now even as I lived then, and my life is continual, as is your own. To have and to hold this sense is to keep forever the unbroken communion with God that pushes back the clouds of unknowing and transfers into all outer conditions the joy of the Lord that he expresses in the rose, in the soul, in the child, in man, in woman, in the birds that fly, in the wind that blows, in the gentle rain, in the dew upon the grass, in the breath of life, in the consciousness of peace, in the hope of becoming, and in the triumph of victory. In all things God is. He animates all, he lives in all; yet he is unknown by many. He sings the song of the new day which comes into view as the shadow of former things passes away and all things become new. Your humble servant in the divine domain, Jesus ****** Part 2 The Way of Meditation - by Kuthumi ****** ****** Chapter 8 Meditation upon the Rainbow of Light's Perfection ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 17 - Kuthumi - April 28, 1968 Blessed Disciples of Holy Wisdom, The miracle of attunement is many-sided. Our beloved Jesus has emphasized continual prayer. I have been asked by the brothers of light of the Darjeeling Council to discourse on the subject of meditation. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight.{35} Jesus and I desire jointly that the words and deeds that men do should be Godlike. Prayer and meditation are like twins framing the pathway to holiness and delight. Just as prayer or entreaty makes contact with God, drawing down into the world of the seeker the rays of divine intercession, so, meditation lifts up the Son of man that he may be bathed in the radiance of the Eternal. Meditation is an aerating of the mind, a flushing-out of silt and misconception. Meditation is for purification. It is the thought of man about his Creator. The dust of the world must be blown away, the threshing floor of the heart of man swept clean. In prayer man makes intercession to God for assistance; in meditation he gives assistance to God by creating the nature of God within his own thoughts and feelings. Many pray from the standpoint of the sinner asking forgiveness for sin. But after forgiveness what? After forgiveness for the sin must come the re-creation of the Divine Man. As man was framed in the mortal image, so must he be formed now in the image of the Eternal. It has not been enough that the image of God, from its lofty position, has been vouchsafed to every man. The gift has not been received in manifestation. Therefore, to meditate upon the gift is to draw the attunement of the soul toward the harmony of God realization. If man has been a thief, now he becomes the giver. If he has thought evil of others, now he becomes the mediator, the intercessor, the meditator upon their perfection as well as upon his own, reaffirming by his acts the mission of the Christ. The universe is a many-stringed lute. The infinite range of its harmonies can be enjoyed by all; but newness of sight and of hearing, newness of education, the schooling of the vision to transmit lofty thoughts and to transform them that they may come within the reach of the outstretched fingers of man - all of this man must make his own. God has proposed; his laws have disposed. Man has rejected; now he must perfect. The admonishment of your beloved Hilarion, known unto many as Saint Paul, was "Think on these things."{36} To meditate, then, is to let the thoughts of God that flow into the heart rise into the head, that the Knower may also become the known. Meditation is an exchange of man's imperfect thoughts about himself and his Creator for the perfect thoughts held for him by the Creator. Identifying now with the eternal God, who is his Creator, the highest in his nature becomes the joint creator of himself. Thus, in a very real sense, as man draws the perfection of God into his world, he becomes the arbiter of his own destiny - a co-worker in the sublime - and he becomes as God is, self-created and creating. The creative power of the universe that emanates from the highest Source is given to the earth beneath in order that man may learn through the alchemy of meditation to change, as your beloved Gautama has indicated, the dust of his world into the destiny of the Eternal. The stars are your portion, as is the magnificent God flame within your heart. The miniature sun of illumination within is the golden pot at the end of the rainbow of light's extension into your world. Where light is, there God is, daubing the many colors of the pure white light into a kaleidoscope resembling Joseph's coat of many colors.{37} For of a truth, just as the seamless garment{38} of the Lord Christ Jesus was white indeed, so in his embodiment as Joseph he wore the coat of many colors. The many became the one in the Christ, and out of that Christ light can be drawn forth the many colors of universal perfection. In a like manner, those who would follow the Christ in the regeneration of the light within may meditate upon the relationship of the colors of the rainbow of light's perfection: Blue (the first ray) is the token of faith, of promise, of constancy, of power, of strength, of the earnestness of God. It flows out of vast luminous reservoirs into sea and sky. It is Tuesday's blessing to the earth. Yellow (the second ray) is the melding of the gold and the white as a golden radiance whose glimmer imparts illumination, the consecration of right knowledge, the service of right knowledge, the outshining of the Christ mind, and the establishment of the law of harmonious relations between all peoples and between God and all peoples. It is the ray of the sun sent to the earth on Sunday. The aurora of the dawn, pink (the third ray), is the symbol of divine love - a love that, as floral token, floods across the plains and graces the bowers of the imagination with a garment of trailing arbutus, the scent of a pink rose. Love is joyous, buoyant, and beautiful. Through the power of love, men learn how they may impart unto others the beauty and the compassion that they have received from God. In the giving of this charity and beauty, there is no robbery, but only the fair exchange among all souls who are ennobled by the same love that God is. Monday is imbued with this creative power. The white of purity (the fourth ray) is a stellar radiance. While composing all of the colors of the rainbow, it has its own gigantic sheath that, as a sea of liquid flame, holds before the children of men the longing to be a part of that which can never be contaminated by reason or by deceitful act. Purity - the mind of God, the nature of God, the character of God, freedom from stain, freedom from blame, the triumphant merging of the many colors into the purity of the One, whiting man toward foreverness, celebrating man's purification on the cross of white fire on Good Friday, the day of freedom when through purity man obtains his freedom from the bonds of limitation. And what of the green (the fifth ray) imbuing all life with the perfect blend of the yellow and the blue, evidencing the faith and wisdom of God in nature and speaking of eternal newness? The green, the wearing of the green, charges man with the healthful and health-giving chlorophyll of the sun - the fire of the sun and the fire of the power to create locked in a mighty omen of healing green, restoring man to the primal nature of God. Endowed and endowing, the ray of green supplies man with every lack as it penetrates the earth on Wednesday. The purple and the gold (the sixth ray) are the vestments that imbue man with the desire for cosmic service, emblems symbolical of the priesthood of true believers. The purple speaks of the illumined fire of the soul. This fire must assist every part of life to find reunion with its Source and with the golden law that God has dispensed to men. It is the ministration of the Christ to his disciples, of the servant who is greatest. This twofold action of God's body (purple) and his essence (gold) bathes the earth on Thursday. When it comes to synthesizing into action the rays of love and power, the pink and the blue, there is born the radiance of the violet flame (the seventh ray). Also called the royal purple, it shows aborning within the consciousness the sense of the mantle. God has caressed and blessed the individual. Now he must wear the mantle of diplomacy, the robe of tact and of judgment. He must mediate as best he can for lesser men, for those who have not yet advanced to his level of attainment. Whether man, angel, or master, he must serve the cause of freedom, delivering men from the bondages they themselves have created. No thanks must he expect, but only the holding in grateful heart of the feeling of gratitude for more service in order that tomorrow he may give in greater measure that which he has given in lesser measure today. Saturday - the day to pause and consider the ritual of freedom.{39} Transcendence, then, is the nature of the light; and as we draw our meditations into the light, we see that there is much to contemplate. Let us aspire! Let us lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh. From Wisdom's fount may we drink. Lovingly, Kuthumi ****** Chapter 9 Plunging into the Ocean of God ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 18 - Kuthumi - May 5, 1968 May Wisdom's Flame Surround You! Throughout the world men extol meditation as a means to self-realization - to nirvana, to the triumph of the individual in his relationship with God. Meditation takes many forms, but when it takes the form of the meditator and brings him into the fiery furnace of God's love, to the crucible of God's will, to the fount of illumination that he may drink, to the mantle of service that he may give, and to the expressing of the abundance of nature in his life which he purifies through meditation and frees from desires inordinate, then and only then can the ascended masters and the cosmic hierarchy use the individual to the fullest. I speak of meditations which are like unto individuals who are afraid to get wet. They dangle their feet in the ocean and fearfully, momentarily, and always prepare to run from the inundating waves. Meditation, then, must be entered with a willingness to go where God goes. We are aware of the fact that in the world today, as always, ignorant men are quick to impute to any relatively new religion the responsibility for disturbing men's minds, for "disturbing the peace." For example, if someone who is associated with a new religion has a mental or an emotional disturbance, friends, parents, and relatives may say, "He has lost his mind because of this new religion." Every day mankind, many of whom have no religion at all, are losing their minds over matters of far less concern; and while we admit that some men have lost their minds about religion, these would probably have lost their minds about any number of things in which they might have become engaged; for the seeds of their disturbances were involved in their own karma and the record needed purification. In other cases, benign individuals have been disturbed by their own sense of struggle in searching for God. These need to learn the power of relaxation, of total commitment, and of a divine constancy that suffereth no punishing sense simply because it aspires. Aspire to the highest, if you will, in your meditations and in your thoughts; but do not be disturbed or frustrated because any particular day does not bring to you the full fruition of that which you seek. The fruit is in the very bud of aspiration; and, given time to come full cycle, Nature will bring the fruit to your feet. I do not say that exposure to the sun, to the air, and to good thoughts constantly obtained will not enhance your chances of bearing fruit; nor do I think that the time cannot be shortened, for it can. However, we do wish to point out that meditation carried on by sound minds can produce greater soundness of mind and healing than meditation that is carried on by unsound minds. For the benefit of all concerned, I would mention certain observations and requirements in the practice of the art of meditation. First, one must obtain the sense of one's self. The ancient maxim "Man, know thyself" is the key to the spiritualization of the self which must be known ere it can be transformed. Then one must quiet the vibratory conditions and waves of feeling and thought that lurk everywhere in the atmosphere seeking to disquiet the individual. After one has succeeded in quieting the turmoil of mind and feeling, thoughts about others, about self, about deeds one feels have been performed to one's hurt, after regrets are stilled and the mind is emptied of its negative content, it is ready then to begin the process of feeding upon the divine ideal. What is the character of God? What is his nature? How can his nature be known? Will the knowledge of the character of God obtained from the Universal be lacking in any bookish interpretation or scholarly rendering written by saints and sages of the past? Will the individual suffer as the result of his own meditations upon God? Will he become separated in mind and heart through whatever advancement is handed to him? Now once again the mind must be stilled; one's motive must be reexamined. Why am I meditating? I am meditating upon God that I may become Godlike. Is God aloof to the world or is he simply inaccessible? If God is aloof to the world, then of course the result of meditation would be to make the devotee also aloof, creating a spiritual snobbishness. But if God is only relatively inaccessible to the world simply because men cannot or do not reach up to him, this fact should not interfere with the orderly course of man's meditation, providing he does not try to convey to others all of the internal loftiness and spiritual gifts of knowledge imparted to him in his meditations. All that is received in one's private meditations is not intended to be copied down and made into a set of academic rules to govern the spiritual unfoldment of others. Much internal training is given to smoothen the ruffles in one's own nature in order that he may, in the eyes of the heavenly Father, do one thing and one thing alone; and that is, reflect God. That which is required of one may not be required of another; for as long as there are disturbances in his receptor mechanism or scratches on the mirrorlike surface of his mind and heart, every anomaly, every wrinkle, will make an imperfect picture. Meditation, then, is to quiet the storms that rage in the personal self, that foment maya{40} in consciousness. It is to purify and calm the atmosphere of thought that men might realize that all things less than divine are simply not divine (yet men have imbued them with their own ideas and objective realities). Now man must recognize the Spirit of the Lord that bloweth the wind. The Invisible must become visible unto him. He must deal with subtleties and cosmic innuendos. He must recognize the whisperings of the voice of God that teach him the meaning of love - "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace." Man must become an instrument for all Good (all of God) to all men; but he must perceive as God does that he cannot always do more than to radiate his attainment softly, imperceptibly into the universe. To force his opinions and discoveries upon others can put him in the position of being the target of much resentment. The disciple who meditates upon God must learn the art of graciously identifying with God, whose mounting concerns for the world are real and tangible today as they have always been. His concern shines with the sun of his constancy; yet he feels no pang of distress or pull into the maelstrom of human discontent, the depravity of men's depredations. Now the soul is with God. God is the sole reality of being, and reality is contacted by the disciple. What must he do with this great commodity which he has imported from the highest realms but which he cannot impart to any below, save to those who are ready? Is not his role to make himself a doorway for the greater light which he feels he cannot dispense? But is this wall of nondispensation all-engrossing? And is it true that he cannot dispense the greater light or impart it unto any? The power of example is the strongest bond in the world that speaks of the Most High having descended to mankind. What shall I say, then, of the avatars, of the great ones who have come as mighty lights blazing through the heavens - the Christ who came teaching and preaching the good news, the Buddha who came meditating and explaining the Eightfold Path, Mohammed who came as on a fiery steed, stirring and imparting the knowledge of the law, and of the many others who have descended to the earth to do the will of God? It is a mistake, blessed ones, to assume that one must lag behind and wait because family, friends, or neighbors do not respond to those powerful but subtle emanations of God that have always existed in the atmosphere. Meditate, then, with the idea of plunging into the ocean of God! Meditate with the idea of obtaining all that God has in store for you! Meditate with the idea of finding the Most High God if it costs all that you have and more! Go in debt for it if you must, but realize that meditation is mediation between God and man! Your thoughts must become chalices into which God can place the truth about himself; and when that truth is known within the framework of the relative, as more and more upon earth aspire toward their ascension, they will find that removing veils is a joyous experience. We do not deny that it can be difficult, for men have often identified with the veils they have created. But now through meditation these veils will be removed one by one, and the burning power of the light will show man a new archetype of himself. Onward and upward into the light in search of truth, I remain Kuthumi ****** Chapter 10 A Journey into the Temple Most Holy ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 19 - Kuthumi - May 12, 1968 Beloved Devotees of Reality, The posture of man in meditation is examined. Among those who would meditate upon God are men of action and diligence as well as men of sloth and carelessness. The men of action and diligence may prefer to meditate in the upright posture - alert, awake, and alive. Men of sloth or of waning strength may have little choice in the matter; and they, perhaps, will wish to meditate lying down. Heaven is not concerned, and therefore man should be concerned only with results. Good results are achieved while sitting up. The use of a blanket or a piece of silk in the chair of meditation will, of course, act as an insulator against intruding vibrations, if the supplicant is careful to select one of the color rays indicated in my first discourse on meditation. A stick of pleasant incense or floral fragrance may help to clear the atmosphere of undesirable odors. Music may be used or dispensed with, according to the inclination of the meditator. Prayers or decrees can be used prior to the period of meditation. The ascended masters know that for mankind, caught as they are in the snares of human feelings and thoughts, a decree session given in full voice before the meditation period will serve to insulate, to protect, and to harmonize the four lower bodies so that each lifestream can be best prepared to receive the fruits of his own meditation. It should be understood that at inner levels, according to the teachings of the Great White Brotherhood, a period of meditation is regarded as a journey into the temple. We call this temple the Temple Most Holy; and it is, in a very real sense, the laboratory of the Spirit. Man is dual. His Higher Self is created in the divine image and it abides in perfection. The lower self, with its personality complexes, its subconscious forcefield - cause, effect, record, and memory - is a maze of intricate and disturbing arrangements. Yet within this id, or "identity-density," must be anchored the bond upon which God depends for the climactic fulfillment of individual creation and the final raising of the individual into union with his Real Self. This concept may be a bit difficult for some to understand. I would suggest, rather than reject it because it does not fit a specific dogma, that each chela who cannot fully accept or understand it "put it on a shelf" (as he ought to learn to do about many things he cannot accept at first) until his understanding has improved. Thus his steps on the spiritual path will not become strewn with stones of rejection which he must eventually retrace and pick up, one by one, in order to complete his journey. Let us make clear that it is the dual nature of man that must be harmonized. Let us outline that labor in the Temple Most Holy is needed in order to prove and to improve the relationship of the individual to the Higher Self. Are men irreligious? Are they lacking in faith? Are they bored with life's experiences? Let them learn to travel the most thrilling pathway of the ascent - the ascent through meditation upon the Christ consciousness above and upon the Divine Presence above. That which is below must enter the Temple Most Holy. It must come as it is. The outer faculties must first be cleansed and charged with the vibrations of the higher so that you may enter the temple, but the transfiguration of the whole man cannot take place all at once. And so you must come as you are, with all of your errors, mistakes, misconceptions, and negative vibrations. You must come intending to correct these outer conditions, to bring them into harmony with the Divine. You must recognize that each meditation period is intended to enfold you in the character of God, and this brings us to the most important point of all. In order to avoid the awful sin of unrighteousness which can be the worst hindrance to the disciple on the Path, you must learn (1) to accept the character of the Most High God as your own, and (2) to do so without the overpowering sense of pride that lords it over those who have not thus learned to identify with God. You are among the fortunate few to whom is given the knowledge of the path of meditation and holy prayer. You are able to enter the temple of the Brotherhood where you can serve to surround yourselves with the nature of God; but you must not, you dare not, let a sense of loftiness, of an ivory tower, take hold of your consciousness. Yours is the mission of the Christ, the lowly Nazarene carpenter. Yours is the role of the humble child in the creche. You may be surrounded by adoring ministrants - the angelic hosts, cosmic beings, ascended masters, your own Holy Christ Self, the great God Presence - but your recognition among men may be so little that they may even spit upon you. You must be willing, then, to endure any suffering for Christ's sake, for God's sake, and for man's sake. Your meditation must be for one sole purpose - in order that the beauty of the Divine may come into manifestation within you, that the Higher Image may surround you, and that you may literally become that image. This is the highest teaching which God can impart to man before opening the portal of reality and Self-awareness. Know, then, that each thought that unduly lifts up the self is your worst enemy and that meditation is best accomplished by clearly understanding its purpose. The purpose of meditation, I repeat, is that God above may manifest in man below - as above, so below. If it is truly God who manifests below, there will be no room in your being for the sin of self-seeking, the desire for achievement, recognition, or competition with others among men. You will know that the strength of divine unity in the body of God upon earth is the requirement of the hour; and you will know by their fruits that those who claim to be great teachers, great leaders, great souls, gurus, and ministers of righteousness - who foster the sin of separation from mankind, who exalt themselves into positions of fame and fortune - are often in danger of having their works burned by the great transmuting fires of the law. Make no unnecessary karma in your meditations, but learn the path of humility which will make you great because you already are. This is the greatness that you share with every son of God on earth and in the universe. It is the greatness of the light itself which belongs to all. It does not weaken your joint-heirship with the Christ to share it with the mass of illumined believers. It can only strengthen it; for each son of God who attains his perfect reunion with God and his manifestation of God, fulfilling the command "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," is also enriching the borders of God's kingdom upon the planet.{41} How men individually need this, I say! How the world needs it, the Brotherhood reiterates! Meditation, then, can be a delight; but you must school yourself to understand that the Brotherhood is concerned not only with manifestations of high states of consciousness, but also with the consciousness of service. This has been dramatized in the ideal of the Bodhisattva.{42} Not all are called or elected to the same office. Each year a certain number of individuals ascend from this planet under the auspices of beloved Serapis Bey of Luxor, Egypt; yet not all candidates for the ascension are destined for Luxor this year. Each year a certain number of individuals attain to the state of nirvana. Each year a certain number of individuals are healed of dire conditions. Each year so many are raised a step in initiation, and each year so many are given their first initiation into the spiritual hierarchy. Preparation for progress is needed at all costs, and the suggestions we are making in this series on prayer and meditation are for the expansion of the soul's awareness of God. The Master Jesus said in his final embodiment, "They that be whole need not a physician." Those of you who already know all of these things and do them need not be reminded.{43} We remind that you may live the more abundant life. We teach new things from day to day; and we clothe the old mysteries in a more palatable form in the hopes that men who on this planet seek to magnify the good in life and pray that nature and nature's God may be made visible unto all will be willing to make any necessary changes in their lives and to accept any new hint from our octave. Thus it is our prayer that the universal love of God may increasingly release men from error's bane, blight, and pain and lift them to the golden sun again. True knowledge is power. Graciously, I AM Kuthumi Lal Singh ****** Chapter 11 The White-Hot Heat of Meditation ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 20 - Kuthumi - May 19, 1968 Seekers of Communion Comfort: One of the greatest desires of God is to give comfort to mankind. The eternal Spirit ever seeks to provide opportunity for a marvelous expansion of consciousness out of the very life experiences of each individual. It is well known by students of psychology, philosophy, and religion that human nature tends to vacillate; but the many factors involved in mankind's vacillations are not so well known. History cites endless cases of individuals who have changed their minds at the most crucial hour, when nations and even whole continents might have been saved by the staying power of a handful who knew better but did not do better. It is sad but true that human emotion is easily swayed by the shifting sands of mortal opinion. The great value of meditation upon the higher realms of the Spirit is that communion with the higher conveys grace to the soul and opens the heart to receive God's love. When the individual cherishes God's grace and his love, he provides the means whereby a divine stability, an inspired constancy, may be effectively established within his soul. There is no substitute, then, for the Divine Mediator, the Divine Comforter, or for those sacred moments when the individual communes with the Higher Self. Meditation is a form of satsanga{44} which conveys great and lingering blessings to the seeker. We have full compassion for the aspirant, but we know that the Lords of Karma from time to time must assist each one on the spiritual path in balancing the debts to life which he has accumulated. This he must do by the fullest use of life's opportunities - which are indeed heaven-sent - although the process may seem painful at times. Wise is the man who midst the pangs of adversity will recognize that the hand of God is everywhere, speaking through the humblest of persons or the seemingly unimportant matter which may engage his consciousness. If men and women in their meditations will hold the thought that the Most High is constantly working out the salvation of individual men and women by pointing to the beautiful behind the surface appearance of the ugly, by revealing the perfect form behind the nebulous and formless concept, they will discover the key to lasting happiness through the efficient use of the immaculate concept. Meditation is a time set apart from the mortal drift, from vacuums of thought and vapid ideas which have made unfortunate impact upon the consciousness. Meditation is a time when life can convey the highest good, the summum bonum of reality, to the communicant. Why do men and women, devotees of the greatest classical music, span with the fingers of their minds and imaginations the ritual of infinite harmonies expressing through the symphonies and fugues of earthly composers and their orchestrations? Is it not because without definition there cannot be conveyed a higher order of harmony to the consciousness? Meditation ought not to be prescribed by the meditator. He may choose a subject of the higher order upon which to reflect; but he should always permit the hand of God to lead him in thought, that the meditations of his heart and mind may be directed exclusively by his Holy Christ Self and mighty God Presence, I AM. Among the dangers in meditation which many have faced is the altogether human penchant for the psychic (because it is so readily available) and the wish to find a unique teacher in the higher realms or perhaps a "spirit guide" who will convey some exclusive concept which one can then parade before his fellowmen. If the aspirant for higher meditation will only understand that the childlike simplicity and trust of the seeker enables him to contact the reality of the living God, he will cease to be led by the curious elements of his own lower nature into the byways of ego-centered ventures that can never reward him with the spiritual bliss that his soul craves. For even as God's love flows to all in equal measure, he does convey a specific motif of exquisite and unique beauty to each monad according to his infinite purposes. Each snowflake falling from the sky manifests its own fluffy radiance of cryptographic imprint, of geometric perfection, of unique hope, and of the grace of God's beauty. How much more, then, can the soul that is receptive to the Eternal Fount, to the pressure of the flow of Cosmic Identity, remit its darkness by transmutation into pure light? No fear should enter the consciousness of the aspirant who would commune with God; for was it not spoken of old, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord"?{45} The meaning of this phrase is that in man's rising from the plains of consciousness unto the summit heights, no evil can befall him nor any plague come nigh his dwelling as long as the purity and grace of the Spirit of God and of communication with him is maintained.{46} For in the Presence of God, in his holy mountain, man enjoys total immunity from the world and the full protection of the light. The purpose of meditation, then, is to keep him centered in that Presence. Error intrudes through the ego and through the rebellion of the astral marauders, children of darkness, "wandering stars to whom is reserved the mist of darkness forever."{47} Only when men come to the light can the light give them their freedom, and the forever referred to here is as long as men remain bound by darkness. The tenure can vary from a moment to aeons in the case of some recalcitrant identities. Some men have lost their souls and become "castaways" through missed opportunities and the failure to recognize the perspective of reality for themselves.{48} We wait with bated breath the magnificent God-expression of the soul who brings himself to God in meditation, prepared to accept the enthralling but subtle beauty of God-reality which exists all around him. The consciousness must be prepared in order to meditate properly; therefore, in this series we are attempting to convey to the sincere disciple of the heavenly light some realization of the natural order of things. Meditation upon God, communion with God, is not an unnatural state; it is the naturalness of cosmic law which supersedes all lesser manifestation and remains permanent when all else expresses the quality of inherent change. The immutability of divine law and the fervor of the soul in application to express the perfection of the Deity generate a white-hot heat. This pulsation of the sacred fire waxes stronger and stronger as the soul, taking measure of its past experiences in the realm of form, contemplates for the first time, and then many times thereafter, the meaning of transcendent reality. What man is, what man has been (what he is expressing and what he has expressed in the past) is not that which man in reality is and what he will become (what he can express and what he will express in the future, namely God). Hope is given new impetus as new possibilities are brought to mind. It is not that the old order was fashioned in utter misery or with changing purpose. It is that the eternal order of universal purpose is best served by the straightforward movement that involves itself in the synthesis of the whole man. To move forward in the realm of divine capacities without making full use of conveyed graces is to deprive the soul of its most wonderful contemplative and meditative opportunities. Life is expansive. The nature of God is to heal the imperfections of mortal expression - to render them immortal - to change the fashion of the old by the outworking of the Infinite within the finite. I AM, for your greatest opportunity, your humble mentor in the infinite wisdom, Kuthumi ****** Chapter 12 Merging with the Impenetrable Light of the Atom ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 21 - Kuthumi - May 26, 1968 Lovers of Universal Calm: Be still, O my soul, and know that I AM God!{49} One of the most difficult things for any man to do is to become still. The very excitement of life, the activity in the world of form, like the billows of the sea, threatens to engulf the frail bark of man's identity. When man hotly pursues the Divine, he is not utterly free to storm the bastions of heaven by the fervor of constant and devoted meditation. No indeed; for with each outreach toward God, the lingering voices of the astral realm, the desires of the flesh, the failings and fears, and the old records, like gray ghosts of fallen effort, return to plague the mind and to test the devotion of the chela. The soul that is enthralled by the love of Christ must guard against invoking his love out of the desire to experience its pleasure rather than for the multi-faceted uses to which that love can be put as Cosmic Christ action in the world of form. In the divine romance, the Beloved must be seen and known as the reality of the self, and love itself must be regarded as the means of transmitting the identity of the Beloved into all-enfolding action in the formless as well as in the form world. This is the purpose of the divine romance, and the imitation of Christ is the highest love to which the chela can aspire. Too often in meditation the feeling of bliss, joy, or adoration for God becomes a trap to the aspirant which catches him up in the glamour of the divine romance. Unless he first calls forth the proper protection, this state of divine ecstasy can leave him wide open to the assault of negative forces who would like nothing better than to cause him to plummet from his lofty adventure into a certain morbid despair. The soul who beholds the wonder of God as the wonder of his True Self and finds his pleasure in enthroning the qualities of God within the chalice of his character is the truly great divine lover. When El Morya asked us, beloved Jesus and me, to discourse on these subjects, we made our entreaty to Pallas Athena, the Goddess of Truth, and we urged all of the forces of light to work within our own consciousness so as to draw the most vivid images and transmit them to the students with a view toward greater progress for all. Meditation is not intended to be entertainment, albeit we admit it can be; but the chela must be prepared to engage in the constancy of right meditation even when feelings of bliss are not present and when the enclosing forces of negativity seek to oppress the aspirant to divine contact. Let darkness surround! The dawn is coming! The dawn exists. The dawn is within. Let fear assault! Love is greater. Love is compassion, even for the seeker. Love seeks to convey itself into the nether regions of man's darkness. The Christ - the Christos - the Greater Light must burst the bonds of shadowed substance, of wrong thought and feeling. The golden lotus cup of the Buddha is raised toward the haven of universal comfort. God watches the seeker; he answers each call. He places himself within the chalice of the seeker's consciousness. God is available. Through meditation upon him there is a raising-up of the eye of the soul to behold God. The Knower, the Perceiver, becomes the known; for the fingers of the Divine reach out and touch in the darkness the upraised hands of the seeker. The communion of higher meditation can be a lightninglike experience wherein the fohatic powers of Infinite Love enfold and enslave the lover of the Divine until he can no longer extricate himself from his universal destiny. But he has placed himself in this position; he has held his faith that the purposes of God are benign, that the greatest purpose of God is the conveyance of universal reality to the self, and that this must of necessity involve total surrender. For if man would receive all that is real, he must give up all that is unreal. Serenity cannot manifest so long as the individual is surrounded by fear or vacillation. Only as man outpictures the attributes of the Divine does the immutable law express through him. The tangibility of God is the tangibility of his manifestation within. What phenomenon can exceed the manifestation of the universal Lord of life and death, as he appears within the seeking son? No mission is greater than the mission of unity with God. Contemplation and meditation set forth these goals before the mind and heart of the contemplator. He who loves God is beloved of God. The human sea is like a mist of darkness; and the falling arc of descendant reality, the mighty light that shines in the darkness of men, touches the droplets of individuality that rise into the atmosphere. Moment by moment their opacity is reduced, their translucency is transmitted into transparency; and the whole is rendered a miraculous crystalline sphere of reflected light merging with the impenetrable light that is within the heart of every atom - of every sun - of every child whom God hath made. Prayer is invocative; meditation is convocative. The Word goes forth; and the Word is the burning power of the Spirit that abides in the flesh but consumes it not, that transforms it, that raises the whole man, with his passion for reality, vibrationally, emotionally, mentally, etherically, and spiritually. For the entire being of man must be touched by the power of truth, and truth is the nature of God. The seeker for truth will find it within as he contacts the mind of God in nature, in himself, and in the disciples of all ages who have merged their consciousness into meditation upon the One. That there is no higher religion than truth must be proven by every man through the science of meditation. You cannot fellowship with darkness and find light. Scientific meditation includes the drawing-apart from worldly fellowship, from old communions of coarseness, and the setting-aside of daily periods when man, facing the dawn of his own Spiritual Self, can watch the rising sun of perfection appearing in the sky of his own consciousness. When it comes to the zenith, it performs its perfect work of flooding the whole sphere of identity with the universal light. We are made aware again and again of how individuals, in their search for God, ponder weighty intellectual tomes as though conveyance could thus be made of the Universal Mind. The Universal Mind, beloved ones, is just as strong in man when it remains undefined as it is when it takes a relatively definitive expression (for all form expressions of the Deity must be relative to the Whole). "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to bring glad tidings of good things to all people."{50} Let men understand that the universality of God wipes away the tears of separation that prevent men from seeing their place in the universal scheme. You must meditate in order to bring to God the fruits of your own unique experience. You must convey to him your joys and your sorrows. Because his nature is sublime, he will wipe away all tears from your eyes, all blindness from the heart, and crown you with the radiance of the Christed One, of the victorious Buddha, the unfolding spiritual flower. Gratefully, I AM Kuthumi ****** Chapter 13 Universal Light Carries Man to the Altar of Transmutation ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 22 - Kuthumi - June 2, 1968 To All Who Seek Him: The old phrase "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill"{51} reveals a law that, when understood, imparts great blessing. The temptation to feel bored with life, which sometimes seeks to ride in during meditation, is a sinister vibration calculated to destroy the concentration, devotion, and profit of each meditative session with God. If one is to meditate upon God, how can one be bored with such a colossal idea as life, which is God? Yet the carnal mind goes on to say that all of this "boredom" could be relieved by travel in search of God. To this I say emphatically, Is not God everywhere? Yes, the mountain can and does come to man; for the love of God, when contacted in meditation through faith and understanding of his omnipresence, will break through and fire the mind and heart with joys too numerous to mention, vistas too beautiful to describe, and stairways lost in the transcendental mist of cosmic hope. God will come to you. You have but to call, but your faith must be firm. You must be willing to transmit your cares and considerations to him. You must free yourself from your burdens. You must merge with the light. The light is real, and the Summit of every man brings him to the light. The light is universal and consummate. It binds up the total expression of the individual and carries him as he is to the altar of transmutation. Here the fiery love of God consumes the passing trivia of life and suffuses the bud of the unfolding, glowing Divine Person with pulses of light from the heart of his Creator. There is enough of God to go around. You need have no fear that you may draw too much of him, but only that you may draw too little. In him the greatest commodity in all the universe is offered to every man; yet people, submitting to ignorance and allure, look elsewhere for courage, strength, power, wisdom, and friendship. Decrying the hopeless situations they find and the alternate patterns of sunlight and shadow, the ups and downs of daily existence, men turn passionately to God in one moment and in another to the world. The great Master Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters."{52} Either this Master Presence of Life, your eternal God Presence I AM, is sufficient for the day's evils or you must let the world be your teacher.{53} If God be sufficient, if the everlasting love of the Father be enough, then let men no longer whine, but commune. Let your meditations be acceptable in the eyes of God; for they are designed to reach up unto him, to convey your aspirations and your hopes, and to form the matrices of your desires according to your highest understanding in order that God may fill them with the substance of immortal love. Do not qualify your aspirations with immortality before they are tried by the fires of God's love. If they be frail and unworthy of the fire of eternal creation, the fire will burn through the substance and melt with fervent heat the unworthy matrix.{54} Let it go into the furnace of God's love; for a new, glowing, and more beautiful form will come forth to hold a still greater measure of Infinite Love.{55} Grace conveys, grace upholds, grace magnetizes beauty. All that men do, however, must be to mold them into a vessel for the use of God. If one would pray, "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace," then he must be prepared to submit to the will of peace. The handiwork of service must be offered generously without thought of reward or personal glamour. As long as the servant or the disciple goes forth with the longing in his soul for worldly recognition, just so long will he delay his real service to God and to man. Surrender must be beyond recall. Those who hold back part of the treasure and pleasure of life, those who still desire to live exclusively for themselves, fail to understand the law of sweet surrender. Does man surrender to God? Can God do more than surrender in return? Can he fail to recognize that the soul has offered himself in the service of the King? Shall not the King, then, empower him as his representative, as his ambassador? Shall the King not fight all of his battles and, by the Spirit of absolute justice, provide him with all of his rewards? Meditation, then, is enhanced by surrender under guard. Surrender under guard means a consecrated surrender to the purity of love, to the beauty of love, to the realization of love, to the joy of love, to the strength of love, and to the tones of love. Love is a melodious, harmonious sound. It is the impulse of God's own consciousness; it impinges upon the universe and trembles the bars of eternal creativity. The turning of the universes creates the music of the spheres. The God-passion caught up in the Macrocosm evokes its responses in the microcosm of men's hearts. They cannot be kept apart from God. They cannot be kept apart from one another. The strength of righteousness and justice that exalteth a nation exalteth the individual. Compassion does not compromise evil. Compassion upholds Good, and the pinnacle of example for all is the divine life. The justice of God is revealed in the statement of Christ "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."{56} The interaction of men's deeds must be examined by the careful ones. Full of concern for each leaf in creation, these understand the passion of the Cosmic Mother. These understand the outreach of the soul into nature and into all things that contact the immediacy of one's world, together with all things that are in the far-flung worlds. Just as the "Great Computer" may be faithful in many things, so can the one who submits his consciousness to the will of God be faithful to surrender to him (to the law of perfection that God has placed within the beloved Son) the keeping or "computing" of his tranquil course to fulfillment and mastery. You were not born to be a glob of meaningless putty. Precious ones, God made you in his own image in order that you might express that image in the beauty of the here and now. He did not intend that you should wait for some far distant time to receive, through his infinite compassion for you, the highest gifts of himself. As you meditate upon him and call upon him, you open the door to all of the Good that the universe holds in abeyance for you. The world is in tumult. Men cry out for social justice. The answer of God through the great Lords of Karma shows consistently that as men give, so shall they receive. Those who are surrounded with fears as to the future would do well to understand that universal law does not err, but picks up in the silent meditations of men's hearts every fear, every doubt and frustrating sense; and the things that men fear may indeed come upon them.{57} Let them understand conversely that the things that they love, the beauty that they wish to evoke, the servant of Universal Order that they wish to become, all that belongs to God is within their outreach. With the fingers of their hands, they can touch the face of God and feel in that firm and tender reality the glory that was once inscribed upon themselves. For the divine image remains in glowing fire as their own individualized God Presence, I AM. This sweet form of infinite reality, connecting them with every part of life, remains unchallenged as the Ageless Father guarding the manifestation of reality for each servant-son. When you rise in your meditations, let it not be to astral cities or to psychic episodes! But let your aspirations soar beyond the stars to the realm of universal ascended master love right where God is, for Where your treasure is, there shall your heart go;{58} Where your desire is, there do your energies flow; When you hitch your wagon to a Star, You find out who you really are. Devotedly, I AM Kuthumi ****** Chapter 14 "How Much of God Can You Draw Down into the Chalice of Self?" ****** Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 11 No. 23 - Kuthumi - June 9, 1968 To All Who Toil Not in Holy Things, but Love: As the gentle lilies grow In swampland here below, So the fashion of the soul Sheds its golden glow.{59} Meditate, levitate, precipitate! All shadows but conceal. Your heart communes, Your soul now blooms, Derived from all that's real. The fashions of meditation may vary according to the individual's previous training. The effects of outer experience and the manner in which the jumble of human thoughts and feelings is piled into the hopper of the memory determines the relevant profit which the soul may receive from its meditations. The consecrated use of the violet fire of freedom's love, the proper anointing of the being with the unguent of prayer, and the determined communion by decrees all provide a means whereby meditation can unfold and expand the boundaries of individual reality. Those who seek the summit of themselves come to us with sacks of wisdom and ignorance. The ignorance we remedy with knowledge; the wisdom we examine and correct, adding thereto from the storehouse of heaven's experience. I wish to stress to every devotee who yearns to find the happiness of divine reality that he must take into account his own past sowings. I do not say that this process should be a burden; on the contrary, through the understanding created by considering one's near and far past, individuals can avoid the pitfall of overconcern for themselves. Then they can return to the heart of cosmic purpose by determinately recognizing the fact that wherever they are, they are, and nothing will help them so quickly as to move forward in the light. Long ago in Palestine Jesus said, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first."{60} This means that many whose karmic burden is heavy but whose yearning to do God's will is great will move forward more rapidly than those whose burden may be lighter. "Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."{61} The soul that has done much good and is aware of it may complacently join the ranks of the hare, while those who have made many errors, by their very intense longing for correction, sometimes join the ranks of the tortoise and win the race ahead of time.{62} Let all express equal concern to throw off the packs of troubles that they have long carried upon their backs and to do this daily, taking care that there remains no residual re-creation of old errors and morbid feelings. Let all learn to enter into their daily meditations with a view to extending the benefits of their sessions with God not only to friends and neighbors, to relatives and loved ones, but also to a whole wide waiting world - a pool of hearts to whom in many cases the blessing of perception has not yet been given. Have you considered the fact that many good-hearted people in the world are bound in ignorance, their energies involved in self-commiseration and the longing for comfort from their fellowmen? Even if they were given all that they think they should have, many of them would not know what to do with it. Therefore, your meditation should include appeals to God for wisdom and the wisdom to interpret the directions that heaven releases in response to your calls. Your meditations are a two-way communication system to God. The darkness and opacity of tomorrow is relieved by the blazing light of truth that lives today in your consciousness. The past vanishes in a burst of service. Each day as the fires of the sun flash over the eastern horizon, God conveys his kiss of peace to you. A luminous orb of opportunity glowing in the light of today promises no dullness or ache of aging, but only a planned planting of the good seed from the Master Sower's own hand which will bear in good time the fruit of a beautiful tomorrow. Men in their vain imaginings have often said of the world and the banal things thereof, "They do not exist!" There is a certain spirit of smugness abroad in the land which causes men to justify the position of denying the existence of the material world with all of its pressing problems. Refusing to allow that either God or man has created the very conditions which they deplore, they conclude that these conditions do not exist. Going one step further in their proud logic, these individuals conclude that they are therefore not responsible for the world in which they live, for the karma they have made, or for God's energies which they have misqualified. The manifold works of imperfection which are the heritage of the race exist through misunderstanding and error. Their days shall be shortened because of the mercy and love of God. These things are passing and they will pass, but we will be changed from glory unto glory because the Spirit of Life has decreed it. Man has imprisoned the lightning of the Immortal Splendor. He alone with God must set it free. But withal, students of the light should be wise to realize that the carnal mind ever seeks a means of escape from responsibility and reality. We have observed sessions of meditation where among the communicants some peep out of one eye to see what others are doing - where the ego seeks the approval of those seated nearby. Yet in the great schools of the Brotherhood where true meditation is taught, the lesson is always given and the question asked: "How much of God can you draw down into the chalice of self? How much of his love can you send out today to relieve the distress of the world? How much can you give away because you have drawn more than you need?" "My cup runneth over" was an expression which the Psalmist learned in the inner schools of the Brotherhood.{63} When you deal with the energies of God, you are dealing with the limitless treasury of infinity. You are dealing with the Brotherhood whose energies are renewed because all that they have is given in service and in love. You are dealing with the unlimited power of cosmic kinetics. God trembles on the brink of your cup; and his trembling is the pulsation of greatest hope, greatest faith, greatest love. He wills it so and it must be done. For you join him in his meditation; you provide the avenue for the open door of his consciousness into the world. You merge your flame with the God flame that the fire upon the mountain may flow his molten lava down to the plain below, a volcano of seething action that will cut through the astral maya, the glamour, illusion, karma, and confusion of the world. Men who have repudiated the Divine Mother through the slaughter of the innocent seek to deceive, if possible, the very elect and to defy the edicts of heaven.{64} These are not worthy to unloose your shoe latchet.{65} The words of Christ before Pilate must be remembered: "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above."{66} Thus there is no power anywhere save that which is derived from God. The power of a heart of love is sufficient to sustain each man until the flame of his reality can become a coal from the altars of heaven. The ascended masters' realm is tangible and real. It is a city above the astral clouds where the face of God is seen forever. There is no room for shadow in this universal open-skyed place where I AM that ye may be also.{67} The germs of delusion, spewed out into the world and permeating the astral, provide a curtain of horror that separates man from God, that separates man, through illusion, from reality. It has been said: "From the unreal lead me to the real. From darkness lead me to light. From death lead me to immortality." Let the meditations of your heart be acceptable in the sight of God.{68} Let the compassion of your meditations refuse to be enmeshed in human sympathy. God is the portion of every man who will receive him. His fire warms the hearth of identity. His beauty, as a soft wind, releases the fragrance of a rose. His grace is as a splendid bird in flight, soaring and dipping with infinite delight. The thoughts of God in form and out of form are thoughts of light. Except ye be born again, ye cannot see the kingdom of God.{69} O God, open the eyes of men to the new birth, to the realm of the Christed ones! Open the gates of consciousness that they may behold thee! Break the chains of human bondage that they may be free! Lead them by thy light that they may see that every burden is light: It must go free!{70} Substance garlanded with hope, with spirituality, wraps its swaddling garment around the world. All that I AM, all that I hope to be, is in thy banner now unfurled, Christ-I-AM-ity. I shall bless you in your continuing meditation. Lo, I AM ever in the light, Kuthumi =============================================================================== **** Footnotes: **** {1} Gen. 3:9. {2} Titus 1:15. {3} 2 Cor. 3:18. {4} Mark 8:35. {5} Mark 1:35; 4:38; Luke 6:12; John 6:15. {6} John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. {7} The attention of your mind controls and directs the flow of God's energy in your world. {8} 1 Tim. 5:24. {9} John 8:11. {10} Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Passing of Arthur, line 414. {11} Pss. 16:10. {12} John 11:25. {13} John 3:4. {14} Dan. 6:11, 20. {15} Ezek. 33:11. {16} John 10:10. {17} Matt. 5:44. {18} 1 Cor. 3:13. {19} Matt. 23:11. {20} Matt. 10:28. {21} Job 19:26. {22} Luke 23:28. {23} 2 Pet. 1:10. {24} William Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 5, sc. 1, line 38. {25} Matt. 25:6. {26} John 8:44. {27} Rev. 2:9; 3:9. {28} 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7. {29} John 10:30; 17:20-23. {30} John 6:1-14. {31} 1 Tim. 4:14. {32} Rev. 1:16. {33} Matt. 20:22. {34} Eph. 4:4-6. {35} Pss. 19:14. {36} Phil. 4:8. {37} Gen. 37:3. {38} John 19:23. {39} Those who desire to dedicate their lives to unbroken communion may wish to amplify the light of their worlds and their service to humanity by wearing the "color of the day" and by making special invocations on that ray. The daily order of the release of the rays from the heart of the sun should not be confused with the numbers of the rays (one through seven) or with the order of the rays depicted in the causal body of man. {40} A Sanskrit term, approximately meaning illusion. All that is finite and subject to change and decay, all that is not eternal and unchangeable. Misqualified energy. {41} Matt. 5:48. {42} Bodhisattva: One who has earned his ascension but renounces reunion with God in order to bring divine illumination and understanding to his fellowmen. He may forego his ascension for thousands of years or until the last man, woman, or child on earth wins his victory. {43} Matt. 9:12. {44} From the Sanskrit, sat means "Being, Essence, Reality"; sanga means "association." The literal meaning of satsanga is "association with Being"; hence the popular interpretation "fellowship with truth" and "communion with holy men, seekers, or those of high ideals." {45} Isa. 11:9; 65:25. {46} Pss. 91:10. {47} Jude 13. {48} Matt. 16:26; 1 Cor. 9:27. {49} Pss. 46:10. {50} Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18. {51} Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, "Of Boldness." {52} Matt. 6:24. {53} Matt. 6:34. {54} 1 Cor. 3:13-15; 2 Pet. 3:10-12. This "fervent heat" shows that the action of transmutation is taking place. The process of the refinement of one's personal energies and consciousness is best accomplished through the consecrated daily use of the violet fire. As the violet fire is invoked, it causes a step-up in the vibration of the electrons whirling about the nuclei of the millions of atoms which compose the body and being of man. As these electrons whirl faster and faster in their tiny orbits, the impurities are thrown off into the violet flame, which then changes, or transmutes, their substance into the original purity of God's energy; for it was God's own energy that man misused to produce these densities (impurities) in the first place. {55} Dan. 3:24-25. {56} Luke 6:31. {57} Job 3:25. {58} Matt. 6:21. {59} Matt. 6:28-29. {60} Matt. 19:30. {61} Luke 7:47. {62} Aesop's Fables, "The Hare and the Tortoise." {63} Pss. 23:5. {64} Matt. 2:16;24:24. {65} Mark 1:7. {66} John 19:11. {67} John 14:3. {68} Pss. 19:14. {69} John 3:3. {70} Matt. 11:30.