Superior Index Go to the next: Chapter 18
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Continuing now with our thoughts begun last week about the Master Jesus, I wish to emphasize that the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the Lord Buddha are not incompatible, for truth is one and the way of peace which the Master Jesus epitomized and taught remains to the present hour an example for all ages to come.
The Lord Buddha taught his disciples the way of peace through detachment from the human ego. This way was mightily symbolized in the statement of John the Baptist concerning the Christ. He said "There cometh one after me whose shoelaces I am not worthy to unloose." He also said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." Of him, Jesus said, "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." This blessed one, who was the Prophet Elijah come again, did bring to mankind, as the forerunner of beloved Jesus' ministry, a more complete understanding of the way of peace through detachment and purification.
Unfortunately for mankind today, there are many who do not accept the necessity for detachment from self, of letting the self decrease that the Christ within might increase. It is often fear of loss of life, personality, or consciousness that prevents mankind from letting go of the old and familiar patterns which they have come to call their own. These patterns, many of which do bring about feelings of unhappiness and frustration, are fed by mankind's continual attention upon them. Some men honestly admit that they are their own worst enemies, but almost in a masochistic manner, they continue to flog themselves with the inconsistencies of mortal reason.
Inanities and absurdities of thought and feeling are enthroned and enshrined, whereas the mighty treasures of heaven lie untouched within the subterranean vaults of the depths of soul within man. To "mine" the treasures of heaven is to draw forth the jewels of God's perfection from the consciousness of God that is within man and then to raise them up as Jesus taught, not to be hidden under a bushel but to be a city set upon an hill that cannot be hid.
Mankind today often lift up the beggardry of their consciousness and the sinister deeds which they do in secret, thereby finding favor with the crowd which approves and applauds their every evil act. In my early years, when embodied as Saint Francis, I ran riot with many of them and found, in the surfeiting of my being with mortal desire, no satisfaction for my soul but a continual gnawing of incompleteness.
So it is with mankind today. They can never find their freedom through the intellect, through the attainment of name or fame, or through attachment to the self, for in truth, as our Master taught, "He who seeks to save his life shall lose it." The false statement of the serpent, "Thou shalt not surely die" to this day lulls many to sleep, for it proposes various excuses as to why mankind should continue in the same patterns as their fathers did of old, or as they have entered upon in this generation.
The Buddha and the Christ both taught detachment from the self, knowing that this is the way of emancipation. It is a means of placing oneself upon the altar of change whereby the Holy Spirit, as the intermediary of God's transcendent power and virtue, can purify mankind and wash his robes white in the life of God. Men have been immersed in mortal existence, in the false sense of values that have kept the soul in bondage.
But in this age, this twentieth century, when the cries mount up unto God with such depth of imploration for the freedom of man, when Christian, as well as Buddhist, when Jew as well as Gentile, are all asking themselves, "How can this civilization survive, and what will be its end?" the great need is apparent for all to awaken and to cognize that through understanding and loving care the youth of the world, as Jesus has recently pointed out, can find the assistance that is so necessary if the world is to be preserved as an ascendant civilization and is to hold that measure of progress which it deems so dear.
Precious ones, material values cannot be held if the spiritual undergirdings of any society are not maintained. To live in the outer reaches of mortal consciousness is to live in the ephemeral breath, the exhaled carbon dioxide upon the windowpane which vanishes at the first penetration of the sun's rays. The tests of life cannot be won through a service to Christ that is carried out by merely reading his words or attending some form of religious service or worship. Men must follow him in the regeneration. The present order seeks to establish generation without regeneration. Hierarchy is mindful of all the great needs of mankind; above all stands the towering image of the Christ and the need to relate this masterful image to the way of peace, for if men do not have peace with God, they can have no peace anywhere.
Only through the harmony of nature and God, only through the purification of the sacred fire, through understanding of the full measure of life's opportunity, can men take the full advantage thereof. As children, men in different parts of the earth are taught doctrines that often differ in their meaning and interpretation. The energy that men throw against one another has never been released to them by God for this purpose, but it is diverted by the sinister force through demoniac riptides of mortal confusion, spilling over from the astral world to create rifts between hearts that need not a rent garment but a mended one.
Wholeness of soul is needed by all men. Inasmuch as each pilgrim belongs unto God, men ought not to judge one another. Strange as it may seem to some of you who love our services so well, there are some who have studied our material released in the Pearls of Wisdom for years and agree mightily with it, yet, all they need is one word that seems to differ with themselves to cast it all down and say, "Take me off your list."
The lists of God require the fullness of dedication and a willingness to pursue understanding without rancor or bitterness. Personality does not enter in, stature does not enter in, wealth does not enter in, but only God and God's truth must be taken into account.
As you pursue the way of the Christ it must be through a relinquishment of self and the full faith that one day God will return the reins of authority to those who have given so willingly to him, when they shall have been more completely taught by God. The Holy Christ Self is the victor of every man. Through the mighty love ray from God's heart, men are changed and the soul is purified. The feeling that comes to a man who has achieved his victory is beyond price, beyond all telling.
My love continues without limit to all who love God.